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Tag: apple

  • iPhone As A Netbook?


    Predictions about Apple’s intentions for the upcoming Macworld Expo are ripe – with the latest being the launch of a netbook that works like an iPhone.

    Technology Business Research analyst Ezra Gottheil believes that as with the iPhone, users will download mobile applications for the netbook from Apple’s App Store.

    According to the analysts, Apple would benefit from allowing such a device access to its App Store, through which Apple reports iPhone users have downloaded more than 300 million apps since its launch in July.

    Gottheil claims Apple will announce its a netbook-like device at next month’s Macworld conference in San Francisco and will launch it in the middle of 2009.

    While Apple as always is giving nothing away, one thing is certain: this Macworld Expo will be Apple’s last appearance at the event.

    The company has announced that chief executive Steve Jobs will not be giving the keynote at the event that is traditionally Apple’s largest of the year.

    Instead, Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of product marketing, is to give the keynote on Tuesday January 6, 2009.

    While the move will undoubtedly reignite speculation about Jobs’ health, successor and a myriad of other issues, the only explanation from Apple came in a statement saying: "Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris."

  • Copy And Paste On The iPhone – Finally


    The lack of copy and paste on the iPhone could soon be a thing of the past if a new web service called Pastebud is as good as it appears.

    Although still to be launched Pastebud’s creators have put a demonstration of their service on YouTube showing how iPhone users can copy and paste text from Safari into Mail and between web pages.

    Based on the YouTube demo, it works through bookmarks that allow users to go between Web pages and email.

    Users are then able to highlight text and hit a button to copy, flip to the another page and hit paste.

    As a web-based service users don’t have to download software onto their iPhones – meaning it bypasses Apple’s App Store altogether.

    While Pastebud may be quite limited in copy and paste capabilities, it will definitely be gratefully received by iPhone users.

    Video below:

  • Increase Revenue Share – Or Games Developers May Exit Java


    Games publishers and developers will give up on Java unless operators follow Apple’s lead in offering more appealing revenue shares.

    That’s according to a report by analyst Windsor Holden, of Juniper Research, who warns that as well as being a lost opportunity for developers it would seriously reduce the variety of games for players.

    In his report Holden shows that the value of the global mobile games market is expected to rise from USD $5.4 billion this year to more than USD $10 billion in 2013.

    However, he says the volume of paid mobile game downloads has stagnated across North America and Western Europe.

    This is despite the positive response from mobile games publishers and developers to Apple’s iPhone.

    Developers and gamers have reacted strongly to the possibilities handsets such as Apple’s offer for sophisticated games that were previously only possible on consoles.

    Holden believes growth is being hindered by a combination of limited on-portal revenue share for publishers, causing some to leave the market, and poor marketing of games.

    The report author said that the revenue share offered by Apple to games publishers is incredibly attractive.

    “The danger is that if operators do not respond with a similar business model, publishers faced with low margins may simply exit Java completely, thereby reducing consumer choice in the longer term,” he said.

    The report also found that ad-funded downloads have become increasingly popular, but that revenues generated from that model are not likely to provide developers and operators with a sufficient primary revenue stream.

  • Nokia Remains Dominant As Smartphone Market Slows


    Growth in the global smartphone market dipped to 11.5 per cent in the third quarter year-on-year, the slowest rate of growth since it started tracking smartphone sales, according to research firm Gartner.

    Some 36.5 million smartphones were sold globally in the July-September quarter.

    Despite all vendors seeking a larger slice of the smartphone market, the growth rate is expected to continue slowing.

    Gartner also painted a fairly gloomy picture for the handset market generally, something announcements by the likes of Nokia and RIM over the past few days have done nothing to dispel.

    Not surprisingly, it blamed the current economic climate for "negatively impacting" on sales of high-end devices.

    Nokia maintained its No.1 position with 42.4 per cent market share in the third quarter of 2008, but for the first time it recorded a decline in sales of 3 per cent year-on-year.
    Gartner attributed the drop to increased competition in the consumer smartphone market.

    Sales of Research In Motion’s BlackBerry smartphones increased 81.7 per cent in the third quarter of 2008.

    Apple regained its No.3 position in the global smartphone market and improved its market share to 12.9 per cent in the third quarter of 2008.

  • G-Technology Launches Mac-friendly External Hard Drives


    Storage firm G-Technology is to offer a range of Mac-friendly external hard drives cast from aircraft grade aluminium.

    The four HDD models in the fanless G-Drive range come pre-formatted with HFS Plus – the Mac’s native file format – and support Mac OS X’s Time Machine automatic back-up system.

    The 2.5in Mini Combo G-Drive is available in 160GB, 250GB and 320GB capacity options, with USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 support.

    A second 2.5in option is the Mini Triple, which comes as either a 250GB or 320GB drive with USB and FireWire 400/800 connection capability.

    G-Tech’s two 3.5in HDD options, the Combo and the Q, are both available as 500GB or 1TB capacity drives.

    The Combo supports USB and FireWire 400, while the Q supports FireWire 800 and eSATA connections.

    Prices are from USD $170 (€125).

  • DeFi To Offer Global VoIP For iPhone


    DeFi Mobile is to make its Global Access VoIP service available to iPhone owners – possibly by the new year.

    Users will have access to unlimited global calling, roaming, and long distance for a monthly subscription fee.

    While calls will require a WiFi connection, DeFi says it has struck global partnerships that ensure an extensive network of private and commercial connections.

    The service will also offer voice-to-email, caller-ID, call-forwarding, call-hold, and call-transfer.

    Customers will be given a choice of countries from which their DeFi contact number will originate from.

    With packages starting from USD $40 per month there will also be the option to add three contact numbers from different countries for USD $10.

    DeFi claims its Global Access is superior to standard mobile VoIP solutions in several significant ways.

    Among them is the fact that calls are routed over its managed network, which is says delivers superior call quality by eliminating the “jitter” and dropped calls synonymous with other VoIP operators.

  • Threat To Gaming If Operators Don't Follow Apple's Lead


    Mobile game sales are "flatlining" across North America and Western Europe despite increased interest from consumers, according to a report from Juniper Research.

    It says that unless more operators adopt an Apple-like approach to rewarding games publishers, they will be driven away from the sector – and the number and variety of games available will decline.

    The report highlights the "universally positive" response with which mobile games publishers and developers greeted the arrival of the iPhone, but adds that the volume of paid-for mobile game downloads has nonetheless levelled off across North America and Western Europe.

    It found that although the retail value of the global mobile games market is expected to rise from USD $5.4bn in 2008 to more than $10bn in 2013, the potential for growth in many key markets is being dampened.

    This is attributed to a combination of limited on-portal revenue share for publishers – meaning that some are exiting the mobile games industry – and poor games marketing.

    According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, the revenue share offered by Apple to games publishers is incredibly attractive.

    "The danger is that if operators do not respond with a similar business model, publishers faced with low margins may simply exit Java completely, thereby reducing consumer choice in the longer term," he said.

    The report also found that while ad-funded downloads have increased markedly in popularity, the revenues accrued from advertising are unlikely to be sufficient to provide developers or operators with a primary revenue stream.

    It argued that, with cost per mille (CPM) rates likely to fall in the face of pressures on advertising budgets, advertising would be largely employed by most publishers as a means of monetising older content.

    On a more positive note, the Juniper study remained optimistic about prospects for growth in regions such as the Indian Sub Continent, Africa/Middle East and South America.

    It reports that in those regions, the combination of increased mobile adoption and low levels of penetration of both games consoles and fixed Internet means that the mobile handset has already become the de facto gaming device.

    Other findings from the Juniper report include:

    • China and the Far East will remain the largest regional market for mobile games throughout the period covered by the report.
    • Global revenues from in-game advertising will rise significantly from 2008 to 2013.
    • Operators need to reduce data charges further for out of bundle customers to encourage casual mobile Internet usage and thereby stimulate the mobile entertainment market

  • iPhone Ousts Razr As Smartphones Dominate US


    Apple’s iPhone has overtaken Motorola’s Razr to become the best-selling consumer cellphone in the US in the third quarter of 2008.

    Results from research firm NPD show the Razr, which has been the top-selling phone for the last 3 years, now sits second, with RIM’s BlackBerry Curve in third place, followed by two LG phones, which rounded out the top five.

    NPD’s report doesn’t include sales figures, but Apple’s exclusive US carrier partner AT&T said it activated 2.4 million iPhones in Q3. Motorola said it shipped more than 3 million Razrs worldwide in Q3, but didn’t specify its US sales.

    The iPhone’s success is all the more impressive considering it costs upwards of USD $199, while the RAZR has been virtually free with a signed contract for the past few years.

    It’s US achievements follow recent reports that Apple has overtaken RIM as the number two smartphone vendor globally.

    The success of smartphones – four of the top five are high-end handsets – also underlines the trend in the US market towards more powerful, full-featured devices.

    Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for NPD, said: "The displacement of the RAZR by the iPhone 3G represents a watershed shift in handset design from fashion to fashionable functionality."

    Overall domestic handset purchases by adult consumers declined 15 per cent year-over-year in Q3 to 32 million units.

    Consumer handset sales revenue fell 10 per cent to USD $2.9 billion, even as the average selling price rose 6 per cent to USD $88.

    NPD consumer cellphone ranking for 3rd Quarter 2008:

    1. Apple iPhone 3G
    2. Motorola RAZR V3 (all models)
    3. RIM Blackberry Curve (all models)
    4. LG Rumor
    5. LG enV2

  • Wow-factor Converting New Fans To Mobile Gaming


    Show most non-gamers an iPhone running the 3D fighting game Kroll and the reaction is usually some variation of "wow".

    What surprises them is that a game of such quality and with such stunning graphics is on a handheld device.

    That’s an experience Xavier Carrillo, CEO and founder of Digital Legends Entertaiment (DLE), the games and technology developers that created Kroll, is getting used to.

    He told smartphone.biz-news.com that the technology available on today’s handsets means sophisticated games previously only possible on consoles are now feasible on smartphones.

    The proof of that has been people’s reaction to Kroll ever since it was announced at the Worldwide Developer Conference by Apple earlier this year.

    "People are not aware what you can do on a mobile – what’s possible and how capable it is," he said. "It’s an eye-opener and it will attract a lot of people."

    Head-quartered in Barcelona, Spain, DLE has served as a Nokia N-Gage First Party Developer since 2004 and began publishing games for Apple’s this year.

    Kroll was specifically designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

    Content Is King


    With the latest smartphones now capable of running such advanced games, Carrillo said having excellent content was essential.

    He believes this will drive the sale of handsets as consumers seek out everything from games and music to maps.

    "People will buy a handset because of the game in much the same way as someone will buy a laptop for gaming," he said.

    In the case of the iPhone, Carrillo said the big publishers were now treating it as a console-standard gaming device.

    This means they can cross-market big movie releases – as they did with Indiana Jones – along with games for the PS3, the Xbox 360 and mobile devices.

    "We believe it’s going to be a huge opportunity," he said.

    Interestingly, smartphones have become such attractive platforms for gaming almost as a by-product of the drive to create multi-media handsets.

    The demand for more megapixels on cameras led to more RAM, the popularity of mobiles as music players required more storage capacity and the addition of TV functionality led to improved hardware accelerators.

    For gamers, Carrillo said it means someone playing a game on a smartphone on the train to work can now expect a quality similar to that on their PS3 at home.

    And while he doesn’t believe mobile gaming will replace consoles such as the PS3, it’s opening the whole gaming world up to a new market.

    "The mobile consumer audience is much wider – and it’s a different consumer," he said. "People that have never played games are discovering them now."

    The appeal to the mainstream was borne out in a recent Newsweek article.

    It compared the quality of games from Apple’s App Store more than favorably to desktop PC or console games and claimed the iPhone and iPod Touch were well on their way to becoming important forces in handheld gaming.

    Price A Factor

    That success will possibly owe a great deal to the price of games as well as their quality, according to Carrillo.

    He said experience in the PC gaming market had shown that several "micro" payments are a better pricing strategy than a higher one-off purchase price.

    Charging just a few dollars a time to download games from the Apple app store ensures people aren’t put off and make them more likely to take a chance on a game.

    Where developers can increase revenue is by offering extra content – often in the form of additional characters, weapons or scenarios – that players can buy separately.

    "People prefer games with less content that they can then add to," he said. "They can play the game and if they like it, they can pay more. If they don’t, then they don’t have to.

    "So it’s much better for them to spend a small amount several times than one large amount."

    Carrillo said mobile gaming will evolve in tandem with technological advances. So features such as touchscreens, accelerators and GPSs are being incorporated in developing location-based and community-oriented games as well as music and head-to-head games.

    But he said games developed for consoles can not just be copied over to a mobile platform.

    Aside from the hardware differences, PC games are played in very different settings to mobile games and that requires the content and controls to be adapted to that environment.

    DLE seem have got that right with the graphically-stunning Kroll – so expect to see a lot more people glued to their handsets.

  • 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.”