Tag: apple

  • New iPhone Ad Platform Extends Services—and Raises Questions

    The recent unveiling by Apple of its new iAd advertising platform extends the company’s array of inventive services for the iPhone, but also continues a distinctive collaboration-versus-competition dynamic between the giant technology trendsetter and its partner companies, according to iSuppli.

    “Thanks to the phenomenal success of the iPhone apps store and iTunes, Apple is in a unique position to partner with best-in-class companies and offer innovative services, products and apps to the market,” said Francis Sideco, principal analyst for wireless research at iSuppli.

    “The launch of one of these services, iAd, is a result of Apple’s recent purchase of Quattro Wireless and points to what appears to be an emerging modus operandi being employed by Apple – namely, a pattern of initial amicable association between Apple and its partner companies that then turns into a competitive relationship,” he said.

    In the smart phone market, Apple was the only player in the Top 5 to achieve a substantial increase and consistent gain throughout 2009, growing its share from 10 percent in the first quarter of 2009 to 16 percent in the final quarter.

    In contrast, top-ranked Nokia saw only a 3 percent increase during the period and suffered a dip in the third quarter, while the share of No. 2 RIM fell from 21 percent to 19 percent during the year. Rounding out the Top 5 were HTC with 6 percent share and Motorola with a 4 percent share.

    The iAd platform joins a host of major changes in Apple’s updated iPhone OS 4. In the case of iAd, developers will be able to embed ads into their applications, allowing iPhone users to interact with the ad without leaving the app. Apple CEO Steve Jobs says iAd not only presents additional revenue opportunities for iPhone developers but also provides users with improved advertising quality and access to ads.

    According to iSuppli, while iAd is the progeny of Apple’s acquisition of Quattro Wireless, Apple’s moves in the past have been less overt but nonetheless ended up pitting the giant against its former partners.

    “For instance, Apple partnered with Amazon.com to allow the Kindle app to run on the iPhone. Within a year or two, Apple now has launched its own iBook store for eBooks and other electronic publications. Prior to that, Apple originally partnered with Google Inc. for search and mapping capabilities on the iPhone, but Apple within two years achieved in-house capabilities for those functions and now, with iAd, is going after Google’s highly lucrative advertising business,” as the research group claims.

    As these developments illustrate, Apple is acquiring valuable domain knowledge that is allowing the company to enter into competition with some of its partners, iSuppli believes. And while Apple’s actions could be viewed as a reaction by the company to the moves of its partners, they also can set in motion possibly antagonistic relationships.

    “Should Apple continue to operate in this manner, the company might find it difficult in the future to form an association with best-in-class partners—connections in which friendly partnerships at the beginning alter and then deteriorate into aggressive rivalry,” said Sideco.

  • NPD: Android Shakes Up U.S. Smartphone Market

    The Android OS continued to shake up the U.S. mobile phone market in the Q1 of 2010, moving past Apple to take the number-two position among smartphone operating systems, according to NPD.

    NPD’s wireless market research reveals that based on unit sales to consumers last quarter the Android operating system moved into second position at 28 percent behind RIM’s OS (36 percent) and ahead of Apple’s OS (21 percent).

    “As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share,” said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD. “In order to compete with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer beyond RIM devices to now include all of their smartphones.”

    Strong sales of the Droid, Droid Eris, and Blackberry Curve via these promotions helped keep Verizon Wireless’s smartphone sales on par with AT&T in Q1. According to NPD, smartphone sales at AT&T comprised nearly a third of the entire smartphone market (32 percent), followed by Verizon Wireless (30 percent), T-Mobile (17 percent) and Sprint (15 percent).

    “Recent previews of BlackBerry 6, the recently announced acquisition of Palm by HP, and the pending release of Windows Phone 7 demonstrates the industry’s willingness to make investments to address consumer demand for smartphones and other mobile devices,” Rubin said. “Carriers continue to offer attractive pricing for devices, but will need to present other data-plan options to attract more customers in the future.”

    The report also shows that the continued popularity of messaging phones and smartphones resulted in slightly higher prices for all mobile phones, despite an overall drop in the number of mobile phones purchased in the first quarter.

    The average selling price for all mobile phones in Q1 reached $88, which is a 5 percent increase from Q1 2009. Smartphone unit prices, by comparison, averaged $151 in Q1 2010, which is a 3 percent decrease over the previous year.

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  • iPad Available Internationally on May 28

    Apple announced iPad international availability and pricing – the “magical and revolutionary device” will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK on Friday, May 28.

    Customers can pre-order all iPad models from Apple’s online store in all nine countries beginning on Monday, May 10.

    Pricing details:

    UK:
    • 16GB WiFi £429
    • 32GB WiFi £499
    • 64GB WiFi £599
    • 16GB WiFi+3G £529
    • 32GB WiFi+3G £599
    • 64GB WiFi+3G £699

    Continental Europe:
    • 16GB WiFi €479
    • 32GB WiFi €579
    • 64GB WiFi €679
    • 16GB WiFi+3G €579
    • 32GB WiFi+3G €679
    • 64GB WiFi+3G €779

    Canadian pricing is $50 (in CAD) more than US pricing.

    Apple also informed that it plans to release iPad in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore in July. The availability and local pricing and pre-order plans for these nine additional countries will be announced at a later date.

    In the US, Apple has already sold over one million iPads and customers have downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store, as well as over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore.

    Related articles
    Apple Unveiled iPhone OS 4
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  • Apple Announces Record March Quarter Revenue

    Apple reported financial results for its fiscal 2010 second quarter – its best non-holiday quarter ever. The company posted revenue of $13.50 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.07 billion ($3.33 per diluted share).

    The revenues were up 49 percent and profits were up 90 percent.

    Apple sold 2.94 million Macs during the quarter (33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter), 8.75 million iPhones (131 percent growth) and 10.89 million iPods (one percent decline).

    Gross margin was 41.7 percent, up from 39.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

    Steve Jobs said he was “thrilled” to report Apple’s best non-holiday quarter ever. He added that the company have several more “extraordinary products” in the pipeline for this year.

    Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, said that looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter of 2010, they expect revenue in the range of about $13.0 billion to $13.4 billion.

  • Apple Unveiled iPhone OS 4

    Apple previewed its iPhone OS 4 software and released a beta version of the software to iPhone Developer Program members.

    The iPhone OS 4 beta release includes an updated SDK with over 1,500 new APIs and over 100 new features that will be available to iPhone and iPod touch users this summer.

    New features include Multitasking for third party apps; Folders to better organize and access apps; improved Mail with a unified inbox, fast inbox switching and threaded messages; enhanced Enterprise support with better data protection, mobile device management and wireless app distribution.

    It also comes with a new iAd mobile advertising platform and iBooks, the new ebook reader and online bookstore recently debuted on the iPad.

    iPhone OS 4’s multitasking allows us not only to quickly move between apps but also provides developers seven new multitasking services to add multitasking features to their apps. These services include background audio, so apps like Pandora can play music in the background, and VoIP, so VoIP apps can receive a VoIP call even when the iPhone is asleep or the user is running other apps.

    “iPhone OS 4 provides multitasking to third party apps while preserving battery life and foreground app performance, which has until now proved elusive on mobile devices,” as the Apple claims.

    Folders help us better organize and quickly access the apps. We simply drag one app icon onto another, and a new folder is automatically created. The folder is automatically given a name based on the App Store category of that app, such as “Games,” which we can easily rename. We can also create and manage iPhone folders on our Mac or PC using iTunes 9.2.

    Unified Inbox allows users to see messages from all their email accounts displayed together in a single inbox. We can quickly switch between inboxes to see messages from any single account. We can also thread our messages by conversation, as well as open email attachments with compatible apps from the App Store.

    Apple says that iAd, their new mobile advertising platform, “combines the emotion of TV ads with the interactivity of web ads.” Today, when users click on mobile ads they are almost always taken out of their app to a web browser, which loads the advertiser’s webpage. Users must then navigate back to their app, and it is often difficult or impossible to return to exactly where they left.

    According to Apple, iAd solves this problem by displaying full-screen video and interactive ad content without ever leaving the app, and letting users return to their app anytime they choose. iPhone OS 4 lets developers easily embed iAd opportunities within their apps, and the ads are dynamically and wirelessly delivered to the device. Apple will sell and serve the ads, and developers will receive an “industry-standard” 60 percent of iAd revenue.

    The iPhone OS 4 beta release includes a developer preview of Game Center, which contains a set of APIs that allows developers to create apps with the ability to invite friends to play a game, start a multiplayer game through matchmaking and track achievements and compare high scores on a leader board. Apps created with GameKit APIs will work with Game Center, Apple’s new social gaming network available to iPhone and iPod touch users later this year.

    New enterprise features in iPhone OS 4 include improvements in security, scalability and compatibility. The new Mobile Device Management service can be integrated with third party servers to wirelessly configure, query and wipe or lock managed iPhones, and iPhone OS 4 enables enterprises to host and wirelessly distribute their own in-house developed apps to employees.

    The new Data Protection feature uses a user’s passcode as an encryption key to protect mail messages and attachments stored on the iPhone. New iPhone OS provides the option to set a longer and more complex passcode. It also allows IT managers to set up multiple Exchange ActiveSync accounts, is compatible with Exchange Server 2010 and includes support for forthcoming SSL VPN applications from Juniper Networks and Cisco.

    iPhone OS 4 will be available as a software update to iPhone and iPod touch users this summer. A version of iPhone OS 4 will be coming to iPad this fall.

    Unfortunately, some features may not be available on all products. For example, Multitasking requires iPhone 3GS or third generation iPod touch (late 2009 models with 32GB or 64GB).

  • HTC Disagrees With Apple’s Actions

    HTC yesterday outlined its disagreement with Apple’s legal actions. Earlier this month Apple sued HTC for infringing 20 iPhone patents.

    “HTC disagrees with Apple’s actions and will fully defend itself. HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible,” said Peter Chou, chief executive officer, HTC.

    He added that from day one, HTC has focused on creating “cutting-edge innovations that deliver unique value for people looking for a smartphone.”

    “In 1999 we started designing the XDA and T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition, our first touch-screen smartphones, and they both shipped in 2002 with more than 50 additional HTC smartphone models shipping since then,” he said.

    In 2009, HTC launched its branded user experience, HTC Sense. “HTC Sense is focused on putting people at the center by making phones work in a more simple and natural way,” says the company. According to them, this experience was fundamentally based on listening and observing how people live and communicate.

    “HTC has always taken a partnership-oriented, collaborative approach to business. This has led to long-standing strategic partnerships with the top software, Internet and wireless technology companies in the industry as well as the top U.S., European and Asian mobile operators,” said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of HTC America.

    “It is through these relationships that we have been able to deliver the world’s most diverse series of smartphones to an even more diverse group of people around the world, recognizing that customers have very different needs.”

  • iPad Available in US on April 3

    Apple today announced that iPad will be available in the US on Saturday, April 3, for Wi-Fi models and in late April for Wi-Fi + 3G models.

    Beginning a week from today, on March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.

    In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

    Steve Jobs said, "We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

    Pricing
    • 16GB WiFi – $499
    • 32GB WiFi – $599
    • 64GB WiFi – $699
    • 16GB WiFi + 3G – $629
    • 32GB WiFi + 3G – $729
    • 64GB WiFi + 3G – $829

    International pricing will be announced in April. iPad will ship in additional countries later this year.

    Apple also said the iBooks app for iPad including Apple’s iBookstore will be available as a free download from the App Store in the US on April 3, with additional countries added later this year.

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  • iSuppli: iPad Will Be a Sales Success for Apple

    The research group iSuppli says while the iPad has met its lofty expectations and is likely to be a sales success for Apple, the jury is still out as to whether the tablet will define or redefine the technology market to the same degree the other products like Apple II, the Macintosh, the iPod and the iPhone have.

    “In terms of features, product design, software and content, the iPad delivered on all its promises,” said Dale Ford, senior vice president at iSuppli.

    “And at a starting price of $499, the product even exceeded expectations. However, with the iPad straddling multiple product categories and with the usage model for the product still unproven, it likely will be a number of quarters after shipments begin before whether we know the product will have a revolutionary impact on the technology world.”

    The iPad seems to occupy a position somewhere between the smart phone, the e-reader and the netbook PC. “The question for Apple is what is the usage case for such a product?” said Dr. Jagdish Rebello, senior director and principal analyst iSuppli.

    “What does it do that other products don’t do—and what does it have that will make a large number of consumers want to buy the product?”

    According to the analysts, the killer app for the iPad appears to be delivery and presentation of content. “The iPad’s portability, built-in iPod, display, touch interface, wireless connectivity and powerful processor make it ideal for convenient viewing of all types of content, from photos, to videos, to music, to games, to e-books, to online newspapers,” they say.

    Rebello claims that what Apple is trying to do with the iPad is to try and create a new market by stimulating new user behavior and new use cases. “So while the iPad might appear to compete with many existing products in specialized markets like eBooks, tablet PCs and PMP/MP3 players, the success of the produce is intrinsically linked to its capability to change consumer behavior,” he says.

    “The iPad will be a game changer if it becomes the Trojan horse that changes the slowly dying print information business to an electronic information market,” said Egil Juliussen, principal analyst and fellow at iSuppli.

    Analysts ensure that it’s not hardware that makes an electronic product different and unique. “The ingredients of Apple’s iPhone are similar to the other 1.1 Billion phones sold in 2009. What makes the iPhone so different, prompting sales of 8.7 million last quarter, is its unique usability, convenience and content,” they say.

    “The iPad has similar traits to the iPhone—being the right enabler at the right time” said Steve Mather, principal analyst for iSuppli.

    “For investors and corporate leaders, it’s all about identifying trends early, positioning for success. To this end, we believe an area centered on usability, convenience, and emerging content on the Internet, will prove increasingly relevant in the coming years. Furthermore, we believe Apple’s iPad will prove a unique enabling device, connecting new apps and content with emerging behavior trends.”

    While many early reviews concluded the iPad is simply a bigger, faster iPhone, iSuppli believes it more closely resembles Apple’s iPod touch. The research group thinks this is because the iPad is available in a version that includes Wi-Fi as its exclusive wireless connection, the same as the iPod touch.

    Because of this similarity, the initial total available market for the iPad may be similar to that of the iPod touch. During the first four quarters after its introduction, Apple sold a total of 8.3 million iPod touch units, according to iSuppli.

    Over the longer term, the iPad will benefit from Apple’s large and loyal customer base, as the analysts claim.

    “The iPad’s success is expected to be substantial because a significant portion of the 200 million plus users of iPhones, iPods and Macintoshes will want one,” Juliussen added.

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  • iPhone and Nexus One Get a Software Update

    Two smartphone giants – iPhone and Nexus One – got a software update yesterday.

    Apple released iPhone OS 3.1.3 for iPhone and iPod touch that improves accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS, resolves issue where third-party apps would not launch in some instantes and fixes bug that may cause an app to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard.

    The update relates to security issues with:

    Recovery Mode: a person with physical access to a locked device might be able to access the user’s data. The update improves handling of the USB control message;
    WebKit: accessing a maliciously crafted FTP server could result in an unexpected application termination, information disclosure, or arbitrary code execution. The update addresses the issues through improved parsing of FTP directory listings;
    CoreAudio: playing a maliciously crafted mp4 audio file might lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. This issue is addressed through improved bounds checking;
    ImageIO: viewing a maliciously crafted TIFF image might lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. Apple fixes it also through improved bounds checking.

    The update is compatible with all iPhone and iPod touch models and is available for download from iTunes.

    Also Nexus One users began to receive an over-the-air software update on their phones yesterday. This update fixes a few problems and provides some new features, including:

    Multitouch: Nexus One will now include a new pinch-to-zoom mechanism in the phone’s Browser, Gallery and Maps applications;
    Google Goggles: this application will now be available directly on the device by launching it from All Apps menu;
    Google Maps: the Maps will be updated to a new version, Google Maps 3.4, which will include starred items synchronized with maps.google.com, search suggestions from the personal maps.google.com history as well as night mode in Google Maps Navigation that automatically changes the screen at night for easier viewing and driving.

    Google said they will also provide a general fix to help improve 3G connectivity on some Nexus One phones.

    The company also informed that this update will be rolled out gradually to phones – and most users might not receive the notification until the end of the week.

  • More and More iPhone Apps Support VoIP over 3G

    It came out of nothing. Releasing a new version of iPhone SDK last week (along with the reveal of the iPad) Apple lifted 3G VoIP restrictions on the iPhone. Since then VoIP calls are not only available over Wi-Fi but also over cellular networks. 

    VoIP on the iPhone has been the source of many debates with companies such as Google being denied access to the platform and the FCC inquiring as to the restrictions in the Apple App Store. Apple didn’t want to allow the applications offering VoIP over 3G networks to operate on the iPhone platform.

    Everything changed last Wednesday. iCall was the first to announce that its iPhone and iPod touch app now supports VoIP over 3G and the app was available to download immediately. Confirmations of the great functionality of the iCall application came from various sources.

    "I applaud Apple’s decision! This heralds a new era for VoIP applications on mobile platforms,” said iCall CEO Arlo Gilbert.

    The next day both Fring and Acrobits added the ability to make calls over 3G to their iPhone applications. Fring quickly announced first free video calls over 3G, while Acrobits proudly announced that since its Push Notification service allows to receive calls when the softphone is closed, users can receive calls anywhere they have a 3G connection.

    On Monday, Agito, the company delivering solutions in enterprise mobility, announced enterprise VoIP over 3G. Its Global Enterprise solution enables enterprise business calls and UC applications – such as IM and presence – to use a smartphone’s low-cost 3G internet data connection and WiFi, in addition to the cellular network, to reduce international cellular charges

    Agito’s product is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and some Blackberry and Nokia devices as well.

    Finally, yestarday, Media5 announced that its Media5-fone application for the iPhone/iPod touch is VoIP over 3G ready. The company has applied to Apple to activate the VoIP over 3G feature for the Media5-fone Lite Edition. The application is expected to be approved within 1-2 weeks.

    Other main VoIP developers still haven’t upgraded their iPhone apps.