Business News Holding

Tag: ipod-touch

  • Smartphone.Biz-News.com Goes iPhone

    We are happy to announce that our own iPhone /iPod touch application is now available in the Apple App Store.

    Biz News app delivers a constant stream of news from our website giving you quick access to the latest news on the smartphone industry.

    Categories like Events, Market Data, Hardware, People and Jobs, to mention a few, make the app easy to navigate and search for the specific content.

    It also integrates a mini web browser for reading the news without leaving the app.

    Biz News iPhone/iPod touch app is free and you can easily download it from your device or from the iTunes.

    Download Biz News app from the App Store
     

  • Apple Reports All-Time Highest Revenue, Sold 8.7 Million iPhones in Q1 2010

    Two days before the long-awaited unveiling of the company’s “latest creation”, Apple revealed financial results for its Q1 2010 (ended December 26, 2009).

    The company posted revenue of $15.68 billion and a net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion, or $3.67 per diluted share.

    These results compare to revenue of $11.88 billion and net quarterly profit of $2.26 billion, or $2.50 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.

    International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

    Apple sold 8.7 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 100 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

    Sales went up especially in Japan (400 percent!), Australia, UK, France, and Germany. Apple’s flag device is now sold in 86 countries. 17 new carriers have added iPhone to their offerings.

    Apple COO Tim Cook said the company is moving slow in China because they are focused on building the brand there and on the quality of point of sale (there are 1500 points of sale for the iPhone in China). Earlier this month Apple activated over 200,000 units in China.

    The company also sold 3.36 million Macs during the quarter (a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter) and 21 million iPods (an eight percent decline).

    Laptop sales were up 18 percent and sales of the iPod touch went up 55 percent.

    “If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it’s surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.

    “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.”

    According to Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, Apple expects revenue in the range of about $11.0 billion to $11.4 billion and diluted earnings per share in the range of about $2.06 to $2.18 in Q2 2010.

  • Sky Takes Mobile TV to iPhone and iPod touch

    UK’s largest mobile TV service is now available for iPhone and iPod touch.

    Sky announced the availability of the Sky Mobile TV App on the App Store. The company has created a dedicated app for the service specifically for iPhone and iPod touch.

    The app allows users to stream live TV via WiFi and the channels available include all Sky Sports channels, Sky Sports News, Sky News, ESPN and At The Races.

    The app also allows to browse the Sky Mobile TV electronic programme guide for free and see what’s on over the next 24 hours. To view live TV, customers will need to subscribe to the Sky Mobile TV service for £6 a month and register for a Sky customer ID. The app is available for free.

    Sky Mobile TV was launched in 2005, and is the largest 3G mobile TV service in the UK, allowing customers to receive over 20 mobile TV channels. The service is currently available to 3G subscribers on 3, Vodafone, Orange, and T Mobile.

    Sky’s sports package already includes live matches from the Barclays Premier League, Scottish Premier League and Football League as well as European Tour Golf, Premiership Rugby and cricket.

    David Gibbs, General Manager for Mobile at Sky, said: “In less than a year we’ve already seen millions of downloads of Sky’s Apps from the App Store. Our new Sky Mobile TV App combines the demand for great live TV on the move with the high quality viewing experience offered by iPhone and iPod touch”

    “Sky Mobile TV offers more choice, control and flexibility for customers ensuring they can access the content they want, at a time that’s convenient to them, on the screen of their choosing,” he added.

    Other iPhone and iPod touch apps from Sky incluye Sky+ Remote Record, Sky News, Sky Sports Cricket Score Centre and Sky Sports Football Score Centre. According to the company, there have been 2 million downloads of Sky apps to date.

  • Vonage Goes Mobile: Wi-Fi and Cellular Networks Low Rates Calls Available

    Vonage has launched Vonage Mobile, its first mobile calling application for smartphones. This free downloadable application provides seamless, low-cost international calling while on Wi-Fi or cellular networks.

    It’s available for download on the iPhone, BlackBerry and iPod touch.

    The app works with the existing mobile plans, what lets you keep your number, mobile device, existing contacts and mobile service provider.

    Vonage Mobile does not require any access numbers. You simply enter an international number or select a contact from the existing contacts on your iPhone or Blackberry, hit send and the app does the rest.

    When you dial an international number from your mobile device, your call is routed through the Vonage network. That way, you get their international rates and only use local minutes under your regular carrier’s plan.

    Obviously the app doesn’t support SIP calls over EDGE/HSDPA. International calls you make while being out of WiFi range but still having voice service, will be redirected to a local access number in the US – you’ll be then using your existing provider’s minutes while being charged Vonage Mobile’s discounted worldwide calling rates.

    "Our new mobile app is an important step in establishing Vonage as a software technology company that enables high-quality voice and messaging across any device in any location, providing great value over any broadband network," said Marc Lefar, CEO of Vonage.

    The company assures in the fourth quarter 2009, they will enhance the app to include the Vonage World plan that was introduced for home service in August. This enhancement extends the ability to make unlimited calls to over 60 countries for one flat monthly fee (at this moment – $25).

    According to Mike Tempora, Senior Vice President of Product Management for Vonage, when developing Vonage Mobile, the company focused on creating a more convenient alternative for customers who use calling cards or Wi-Fi only applications.

  • iTunes To Be DRM-free As Song Pricing Altered


    Apple is to start selling digital songs without copy protection software from iTunes along with over-the-air download songs for the iPhone.

    Announcing the changes at the Macworld Expo trade show in San Francisco, Apple marketing exec Phil Schiller also detailed plans to roll out variable pricing on digital songs at iTunes with songs priced between USD $0.69 cents and $1.29.

    Along with the new price points, all tracks on iTunes will be digital rights management or DRM-free by April.

    DRM has proved a controversial topic with music fans and record labels alike.

    It was designed to prevent fans from illegally sharing digital downloads on file-sharing services.

    But it also prevented many fans from moving their own songs between devices and became increasingly unpopular.

    Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs, publicly called on major record labels to drop DRM in February 2007.

    In exchange, labels have been asking that iTunes agree to sell songs at variable prices. Currently, iTunes sells all individual songs at USD $0.99 cents.

    Apple also announced details to allow iPhone 3G and iPod Touch Wifi users to buy songs while on the go, over the air through its popular App Store.

    The changes mean a 30 per cent price rise for tracks from big name artists record labels – which will make more money for the record lables.

    They will also mean consumers will be able to buy older and lesser known artists’ tracks for less.

    The fact that iTunes downloads are in the AAC file format means there will still be restrictions on where they can be played despite being DRM-free.

    In what was a fairly dry keynote, Schiller also announced the new 17" MacBook Pro – priced at USD $2,799 for a glossy screen, 2.66 GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, 320GB 5400 rpm hard drive, glass trackpad and backlit keyboard.

    Expected to be Apple’s last Macworld keynote the company also showed off some software and hardware updates.

    The expected update to the Mac mini never materialised – nor did Jobs, who is treating a "hormonal imbalance".

  • Apple Devices Dominate Mobile Wi-Fi Use


    iPhone owners are the single largest source of mobile WiFi data traffic worldwide, particularly in the US and UK, according to AdMob.

    In the US, the Apple handset represents 50.6 per cent of all requests from handhelds of any kind, followed by the iPod touch, which accounts for 28 per cent of the requests.

    The best non-Apple device, Sony’s PSP, only manages 13.1 per cent of this traffic.

    Even further down the scale come the T-Mobile Dash, G1 and various BlackBerries, which each have less than one per cent of WiFi use.

    UK figures are similarly weighted and give the iPhone the lead at 46.1 per cent, followed by the iPod touch at 21.8 per cent and Nokia’s N95 at 16.7 per cent.

    The Apple device is also more than twice as likely to be used on Wi-Fi than other devices and is used 42 per cent of the time on these hotspots in the US rather than EDGE or 3G compared to no more than 10 to 20 per cent for competitors.

    In the UK, this reaches 56 per cent.

    The phone’s presence helped roughly double the use of mobile WiFi to 8 per cent in both countries between October and November.

    Increasing numbers of smartphone users are taking advantage of WiFi to make voice calls over IP networks.