Business News Holding

Tag: 3g-iphone

  • iPhone Beats Blackberry In Business Smartphone Survey


    It may lack some vital business tools – no cut-and-paste, for starters – but it seems that Apple’s 3G handset is gaining followers who see it as more than just a fun device.

    The iPhone has received the highest customer satisfaction marks in the most recent JD Power & Associates customer satisfaction survey of business smartphone users.

    Out of 1,000 possible points, Apple’s smartphone received the high score of 778, with Blackberry-maker Research in Motion and Samsung coming in second and third with scores of 703 and 701.

    The iPhone scores high marks for its design, features, and ease of use, but owners of Apple devices also paid the highest average price for their smartphones, at USD $337.

    While the survey success doesn’t mean the iPhone is suddenly going to be enterprise phone of choice, it is yet another feather in the Apple camp’s cap following a couple of other positive news items over the past few days.

    At the weekend, independent warranty provider SquareTrade released a report showing that iPhones are more reliable than either BlackBerry or Palm Treo devices.

    The report, titled "iPhone More Reliable than BlackBerry, One Year In", analyzes failure rates for more than 15,000 new cell phones covered by SquareTrade warranties.

    SquareTrade found that after one year of ownership, iPhone owners were half as likely as BlackBerry owners to have a phone failure, and one-third as likely as Treo owners.

    After 12 months, slightly over 16% of Treo owners had experienced a failure, while just less than 12% of BlackBerry owners had their smartphone die on them.

    Only 5.6% of iPhone owners had a critical failure.

    Then at the end of last week, Canalys reported that Nokia’s market share dropped down to 38.9 per cent in the third quarter; which is down from 51.4 just a year earlier.

    On the other hand, Apple jumped to 17.3 per cent, and RIM increased to 15.2 the same quarter.

    Canalys credits some of the Apple and RIM increases to new phones and new marketing strategies.

    In a statement, the firm said: "The introduction of the iPhone 3G in July and Apple’s expansion into many more countries helped propel the vendor to second place globally.”

    The researchers went on to say that “it was ‘quite feasible’ to expect RIM to take the second place from Apple in the holiday sales fuelled fourth quarter, helped by new products—Bold, Storm and clamshell Pearl 8220.”

  • iPhone Downloads Top 100m – Why Isn't Everyone Happy?


    More than 100 million applications have been downloaded from the App Store since the launch of Apple’s 3G iPhone two months ago.

    This landmark was announced today to a chorus of iPhone programmers voicing their displeasure over Apple’s unclear and seemingly arbitrary “approval” policy.

    Fraser Speirs, developer of the popular Exposure program for the iPhone, even went as far as declaring he would not make any further submissions to the App Store until sweeping changes were made.

    “I will never write another iPhone application for the App Store as currently constituted,” he said on his blog.

    He added that while he isn’t pulling Exposure from the store, he isn’t “going to invest time and money into new ideas for the iPhone until this mess is resolved”.

    Apple said today that more than 3,000 applications are currently available on the App Store, with over 90 per cent priced at less than USD $10 and more than 600 offered for free.

    However, its approval policy has already left developers of completed iPhone apps with programs they are unable to distribute after getting an official rejection letter.

    Among those refused recently is Podcaster, which despite following official guidelines fell foul of Apple because it duplicated iTunes’ functionality.

    This is despite other software – calculator and weather apps – that also duplicate Apple’s being approved.

    Another reject is Pull My Finger, which was judged to be too tasteless for customers.

    Null River has also finally received an official response from Apple about its tethering app, NetShare, which was pulled from the App Store twice.

    Apple has decided it will not be allowing any tethering applications in the AppStore.

    What is angering many developers is that even following Apple’s guidelines to the letter is no guarantee their apps will be approved.

    In Speirs’ words, “writing software is a serious investment of time and energy".

    Yet he says Apple’s “current practice of rejecting certain applications at the final hurdle – submission to the App Store – is disastrous for investor confidence”.

    “Developers are investing time and resources in the App Store marketplace and, if developers aren’t confident, they won’t invest in it.

    “If developers – and serious developers at that – don’t invest, what’s the point?” he asks.

    Speirs suggests Apple perhaps wants the App Store to be a “museum of poorly-designed nibware written by dilettante Mac OS X/iPhone OS switcher-developers and hobbyist students”.

    He adds: “That’s what will happen if companies who intend to invest serious resources in bringing an original idea to the App Store are denied a reasonable level of confidence in their expectation of profit.”

    Speirs goes on to make some suggestion for improving the current situation.

    With Apple celebrating the 100 millionth download mark it may be in no mood to appease disgruntled developers, but it would do well to pay some attention to their comments.

    Whoppee cushion apps may not be to everyone’s taste but taking an approach smacking of censorship has an equally bad smell about it.

    Please let us know your thoughts on the subject.

  • Pay-as-you-go 3G iPhone due soon

    Price announced for pre-paid iPhone but unlimited browsing and wifi included for first year

    UK customers are to be offered a pay-as-you-go 3G iPhone from later this month starting at GBP 349.99 (around US$630) for the 8GB model.

    O2 , which has the exclusive handset franchise for the UK, will also be selling the 16GB model for GBP 399.99 (around US$720).

    The phone will be available from September 16 at O2 and Apple stores, as well as at Carphone Warehouse.

    While the price is high, it doesn’t compare that unfavorably with other high-end smartphone handsets on PAYG terms.

    There are also likely to be customers happy to avoid an 18-month contract at GBP 30 (US$52) a month.

    With PAYG tariffs popular in the UK, the strategy is being seen as a means of O2 broadening its customer base.

    The telecoms company said that the price included unlimited browsing and Wi-Fi for the first 12 months after activating the Apple handset.

    The company added that users could continue to receive unlimited browsing and Wi-Fi at the end of the 12 month period for GBP 10 per month (US$18).

    The “unlimited browsing” is subject to O2’s excessive usage policy.

    Existing customers who upgrade to the 3G iPhone may be eligible for a reward, the company has said.

    The phone will get a “favorite place” tariff, meaning that for US$20-28 a month you get 500 minutes of calling to any UK landline or other O2 mobile.

    The operator said handset activation will be done through iTunes, as applies to contact customers, although some settings will need to be changed before users can access the mobile Web.

    Do the sums add up for consumers and will they go for the deal? Would PAYG appeal to other markets? Please send us your comments.

  • iPhone app developers target of VC funds

    The success of Apple’s App Store is encouraging venture capitalists to invest in smartphone software start-ups

    A  venture capitalist with a US$100m fund to invest in start-ups specializing in iPhone applications has told the New York Times he expects to tap into the success of Apple’s App Store.

    Matt Murphy, who oversees the iFund created earlier this year by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has received 2,500 business plans for potential iPhone application start-ups this year and has invested in four.

    He tells the Times that until the iPhone emerged, finding hot mobile start-ups was difficult – largely because control over what was on a cellphone was controlled by the wireless carriers, not entrepreneurs.

    That changed with the launch of the App Store, from where iPhone owners have already downloaded more than 60 million applications.

    This, and the emergence of smartphone software opportunities, such as Google’s new Android operating system, has sparked a creative boom among software developers.

    Now other investors and phonemakers are looking with increasing interest at potentially lucractive investments in innovative developers.

    The Times report says Research in Motion is expected to announce soon a fund for developers who want to create applications for the BlackBerry.

    JLA Ventures, which is based in Canada, along with RBC Venture Partners, is co-managing the US$150 million BlackBerry Partners Fund.

    Google announced a US$10 million challenge for software using its Android operating system.

    Are app developers are a good financial bet? Please send us your comments.

  • Apple sued over iPhone's 3G issues


    Tech-Ex reports in his blog that Alabama resident Jessica Alena Smith has filed a complaint against Apple.

    He says that although the lawsuit hasn’t been granted class action status yet, he believes it will, eventually.

    According to Tech-Ex, Jonathan Kudulis, an attorney with Birmingham, Alabama-based Trimmier Law Firm, representing Smith, said:
    “Apple sold these devices on the promise that they were twice as fast as the pre-existing phones and that they would function suitably, or properly, on the 3G network. But, thus far, Apple and the phone have failed to deliver on this promise.”

    The blogger explains his own experience of what he describes as an almost complete “3G outage”.

    “I work at a company that works on mobile phone software, and any of our other 3G phones work just fine, with full bars of coverage, at work, while the iPhone has one bar at best,” he said.
    “Additionally, while some try to pin the problem on AT&T, complaints from other carriers in different countries indicate it’s not a network issue.”

    Tech-Ex says he doesn’t believe Smith is looking for a rich payday. Instead, he suggests she is trying to get Apple to fix the issue, if necessary by recalling and repairing existing phones.

    He concludes by saying that after calling AT&T, they refunded him an entire month on his data plan – which seems to have satisfied him.

    What have your experiences been with your iPhone? Please let us know.

  • Smartphone demand undented by economic woes

    Global demand for mobile devices still expected to reach 1.3 billion units in 2008 despite financial uncertainties, according to ABI Research

    The fact many global economies are teetering on the brink of recession doesn’t appear to have diminished consumer demand for top-end mobile phones.

    As the recent launch of the 3G iPhone demonstrated, the public appetite for the latest, most sophisticated smartphones is strong.

    Now a report by ABI Research suggests that while handset sales in developed markets were flat, those that did purchase were willing to pay more for the newest smartphones.

    As a result of this, it estimates that the mobile device market will deliver 13 per cent growth to take 2008 annual shipments to 1.3 billion units.

    It shows that in the second quarter of 2008, Tier One handset vendors enjoyed year-over-year unit shipment growth of between 15 and 22 per cent.

    An estimated 301 million units were shipped during the quarter, according to the analysts.

    Jake Saunders, vice president of ABI Research, said: “If there is an economic slowdown, no one bothered to tell the mobile device buying public.

    “In particular, consumers in emerging markets in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America shrugged off inflation fears to sign up as mobile phone users.

    “These healthy gains in net subscriber additions are stimulating replacement and upgrade sales.
    “In developed markets handset purchases tended to be flat, but those consumers who did purchase dug deeper and paid out more for coveted higher-end handsets and smartphones.”

    In terms of market share, the report Mobile Devices Market Sizing and Share, shows that Nokia has passed the 40 per cent threshold for the first time (40.3%).

    Samsung secured second place with 15.2 per cent, while Motorola barely managed to keep ahead of LG with its 9.3 per cent versus LG’s 9.2 per cent, and both edged out Sony Ericsson (8.3 per cent).

    There is a distinct possibility that LG might overtake Motorola by the end of 3Q 2008, putting Motorola into fourth place.

    “There is admittedly turmoil in the global economy, but the mass market’s fascination with getting the latest and greatest handset shows no sign of abating,” said ABI’s research director Kevin Burden.

    However, even with the expected 1H 2008 success of Tier One handset vendors – with Apple’s latest iPhone leading the charge – Nokia’s overall market share is likely to hold.

    This is in large part down to it refreshing its portfolio in the mid-tier and high end categories and pretty much cornering the ultra-low cost handset market.

  • Verizon gets a bite of Apple's success

    iPhone credited with spurring Verizon’s smartphone sales as Q2 earnings exceed predictions

    Verizon Wireless has exceeded analysts’s predictions and posted impressive second quarter earnings of US$1.88 billion.
    A key factor in the results was increased smartphone sales, which now account for 30 per cent of the US carrier’s device sales.

    Denny Strigl, Verizon’s president and COO, even went as far as to give the build up of interest for the 3G iPhone’s launch earlier this month some of the credit for his company’s results.

    Verizon, currently the number two phone service provider, is fighting the Apple handset’s exclusive carrier, AT&T, for the market leadership slot.
    “As we saw with the initial introduction, the iPhone has actually stimulated smartphone sales,” he said.

    Verizon Wireless’s revenue for the second quarter was US$24.12 billion, up from US$23.27 billion in the first quarter and a 3.7 per cent increase compared with second quarter 2007.

    Shrugging of a sluggish economy, the company attributed strong growth in wireless services and demand for data services as the primary stimulators in the results.

    Businesses or individual smartphone users don’t appear to be switching off services, pulling back on data services or putting off handset upgrades.

    Verizon Wireless added 1.5 million subscribers in the second quarter bringing its total subscriber base to 68.7 million.
    Last week AT&T reported adding more than a million subscribers.