Apple announced iPad, a new device with features similar to iPod touch and iPhone but with a modified interface. and enhanced capabilities. The iPad is for surfing web, reading, watching pictures and videos, email and for accessing apps such as maps, contacts and a calendar.
Windows Mobile’s share of the global smart-phone operating-system market fell to 7.9% in the third quarter from 11.1% a year earlier, research firm Gartner estimates. Also losing ground was Nokia’s Symbian. In contrast, both Apple and BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion boosted their shares, while Android grabbed 3.5% from zero a year earlier. That will likely increase given the popularity of Motorola’s new Droid phone.
Here’s an interesting illustration of how Apple and Google are competing.
Illustration via WSJ.
One of the early complaints about iPhone have been the missing multimedia messaging (MMS) feature. It took about 2 years to roll MMS out and one of the reason is said that AT&T was not ready to support that level of network traffic. Apple had to provide the software to support MMS as well. Well, now that MMS has been officially released worldwide, what does it tell the usage of MMS and the traffic tell us?
One of the interesting thing is that MMS as a general feature has been slow to take off. We discussed it here. Now that iPhone has support for MMS, there is additional info about the reasons and the problems associated with MMS. Cost and interoperability are two major factors. With AT&T, the price for messaging is included in the SMS messaging plans so its not a big deal. Interoperability and reliability of sending/receiving messages remains a concern.
Personally, I have been facing issues with sending messages on AT&T network after the MMS roll out. Even plain SMS messages have been failing and that almost never happened before. Here’s a quote from Computer World.
In 2008, MMS made up just 2.5 percent of all messages sent from phones worldwide, meaning about 97.5 percent were SMS text messages, according to ABI Research. ABI expects the MMS share to grow to just 4.5 percent by 2014.
Given the amount of data that iPhone fans are already using on AT&T’s network for Web browsing, video, e-mail and social networking, it would take quite a popularity breakthrough for MMS to drag down the infrastructure through sheer traffic, analysts said. However, the carrier’s fears in one respect may have been justified, said ABI analyst Dan Shey.
Several factors have dampened the popularity of MMS, according to analysts and industry observers. A big one is that the messages still don’t always get through.
Related articles of interest:
Well, among all the recent upgrade to iPhone software, my favorite remains cut and paste its nice to get multi media messaging – let’s see when it actually works!
The shift in power for handsets has been going on for about 2 years now and trends have strated emerging, supported by data. Here’s an interesting piece, via GigaOM
If you want to know why Nokia is in trouble, you need to look no further than its market share declines during the second quarter of 2009 in the company’s home market of Western Europe. This region accounts for a majority of its high-end phone sales. During the quarter, Nokia handset sales were down 19 percent (year-over-year), according to market research firm IDC, to about 15.3 million units. Overall handset sales for the quarter were down 6 percent and will be down a total of 10 percent for 2009, IDC says.
This data exposes Nokia’s Achilles heel. The reason why Nokia is suffering is because it doesn’t have a hit device to address the fast-growing smartphone market. Smartphone sales were up 25 percent to 8.8 million units compared to a year ago, IDC says. That’s about 1.75 million smartphones for the quarter. Guess who’s winning sales in the smartphone category? Apple, which sold about 1.4 million iPhones, and RIM, which sold 1.2 million BlackBerrys during the quarter.
Updated: I asked IDC to share shed some more light on the sales of the smartphone sector for the second quarter of 2009 and they emailed with this nugget of information:
Nokia 57.5%
Apple 15.5%
Research in Motion 13.2%
HTC 8.1%
Samsung 3.0%What we’re seeing is a complete upheaval in the handset market. We’re seeing two traditional powerhouses — Nokia and Sony Ericsson — be upended by North American and Asian competitors, some of them newcomers to the market. These two companies will continue to lose market share for a couple of reasons: Carriers like Vodafone are launching their own smartphone devices and most importantly, Google’s Android-based devices made by companies such as Motorola and HTC are about to hit the market in large numbers in 2010.
Apple says it is on the verge of launching a new iPhone operating system that will remove many of the objections and obstacles for developers. Along with the new OS there is a new toolkit which t is expected to add about 1,000 functions to help developers come up with new applications. I selected 2 examples related to health and wellness, mentioned in a WSJ article.
For some developers, the new building blocks have opened up possibilities for new health-related iPhone accessories. LifeScan Inc., of Milipitas, Calif., a Johnson & Johnson-owned company that makes glucose monitors, recently demonstrated a software program it hopes will help make it easier for diabetes patients to communicate their glucose levels to caregivers and family. The program, taking advantage of the iPhone’s new ability to connect with accessories wirelessly, reads the patient’s glucose level from the monitor, then transmits it through the phone.
Similarly, Jon Ulmer, founder of Luminant Software, the Sunnyvale, Calif., maker of the popular Pedometer iPhone application, says he is considering a wireless heart-rate monitor to work with his software program.
Apple has announced a software upgrade and a new SDK for developers with deeper access to many features and a wider set of functionality. Things like cut-and-paste and MMS which people had been demanding will be available. Then there is access to push features and the iTunes library. Main highlights:
All this was just announced today so a lot of details will be forthcoming. It still remains to be seen if the new OS will work with unlocked phones or not.
Picture via Engadget.
Jailbreaking iphone has been popular for hackers from the time iPhone was launched. Over time the combination of unauthorized software on unlocked iPhone has become a threat to Apple’s business of selling applications. Consider the popular app store and how applications have to go through a rigorous process of approval. Now renegade stores are showing up online to sell unauthorized software for the device. Unauthorized iPhone software such as PdaNet makes the device into a laptop modem.
Big money is involved in this battle.
Apple collects a 30% commission from sellers on its store. It is estimated that the site generated about $150 million in sales last year and projects total sales will grow to $800 million this year.
The developer behind some popular iPhone software on Friday plans to open a service called Cydia Store that could potentially sell hundreds of iPhone applications that are not available through Apple’s official store. Users must download special software that alters their iPhones before they can run these programs.
Another small company plans a store called Rock Your Phone for iPhone users who have not yet modified their devices to make it easier to download and buy unauthorized applications. A third start-up is building an online store that specializes in selling adult games for the iPhone.
The upstart sites can carry software programs that Apple’s official store won’t, since the company tightly controls the kinds of applications it allows. Among the programs that Apple doesn’t allow is a free one called Cycorder, which turns the iPhone into a camcorder. Another program, which costs $29, dubbed PdaNET lets people use their iPhones as laptop modems to connect to the Internet.
Jay Freeman, who created Cycorder and is behind the Cydia Store, says he decided to open the store so developers like himself have a way to make money from their efforts. Mr. Freeman, a 27-year-old computer science doctoral student in Santa Barbara, Calif., says he intends to charge developers no more than the commission Apple does for his site’s billing services.
A big hurdle the Cydia Store and others face is that the applications they offer typically only work on iPhones that have been modified, or “jailbroken,” to allow users to download unauthorized programs.
Apple maintains that jailbreaking an iPhone violates copyright laws. Mr. Freeman says software he created to modify the iPhone has been installed on about 1.7 million iPhones.
The alternative stores could cut into Apple’s revenue at a time when software has become an important way for the Cupertino, Calif., company to continue profiting from iPhones, even after consumers have shelled out $199 to buy them.
The App Store is also strategically significant, since it keeps consumers tied to using their iPhones. Already, customers have downloaded more than 500 million applications from the App Store.
But the App Store rejects some submissions, for technical and content reasons. It is also so sprawling that it can be difficult for a new developer to get programs noticed, says Adam Engst, publisher of TidBITS, a site specializing in news about Apple. “It leaves open the possibility that independent stores could do a better job.”
Telenor announced that it has signed an agreement with Apple to bring iPhone 3G to Sweden, Denmark and Norway in the coming months. More information will come later. Of course, there’s no way to tell if this agreement will extend over to other countries such as Pakistan.
As we discussed before, having an official carrier of iPhone does not matter that much in Pakistan. It is certainly a good marketing opportunity for that mobile network operator. For the consumers, it will allow them to get a brand new boxed phone (for a high price though) with proper support. Let’s see!
Recently Apple announced that 500 million apps have been downloaded from its trend-setter App Store. It has been a success story which changed how things got done in the mobile application area. The App store was a new way of selling apps to consumers (see this case study) and sharing revenues for apps developed by anyone – without the tight monopolistic control exerted by phone companies (mobile netwwork operators). Sure, Apple still has tremendous amount of control over the app certification and approval. Now Google and BlackBerry are following the path as well.
There are 10,000 apps out there for iPhone include games, corporate and professional apps like CRM, applications for photo editing, project management, and exercise routines. San Francisco’s Beejive Inc. gets $16.99 for an instant-messaging product.
Here’s a recent article from Business Week which talks about developer’s role and the future potential of the app store.
Besides Salesforce.com, Oracle (ORCL) is developing corporate software for the device. A growing number of startups are charging higher prices for software, including applications for photo editing, project management, and exercise routines. San Francisco’s Beejive Inc. gets $16.99 for a program that lets instant-messaging addicts stay in touch with friends on a variety of messaging services at the same time. Research firm Evans Data says 20% of wireless developers now create software for Apple, up from 8% six months ago. “That’s the biggest leap we’ve ever seen,” says Vice-President John F. Andrews.
Apple’s challenge in software will be to create a way for developers to make a healthy profit at the same time it does. The company has software tools that make it possible to create an application in weeks rather than several months. It also keeps just 30% of the sales price for applications instead of the 50% many wireless carriers charge. (If the application is free, Apple takes nothing.) And because the App Store is part of the iTunes online store, where 100 million people already buy music, a popular application can quickly attract millions of downloads—creating sizeable audiences that are attracting advertiser attention.
Developers are finding ways to make money while charging little or nothing for their software. Startup Tapulous has given away more than 5.5 million copies of its eponymous game, which tests music fans’ ability to tap their iPhone to the beat of their favorite songs. The popularity of the free offering has drawn advertisers and persuaded CEO Bart Decrem to start charging $4.99 for a version with more features. Decrem says the combined sales and advertising revenue allowed the 10-person startup to turn a profit in December, six months ahead of schedule.
Broker TD Ameritrade offers its stock-trading application for free and makes money from trading commissions. It didn’t have to pay anything for the software, either. A five-person outfit in Argentina called iStockTrader developed the program in exchange for a cut of any trades.
Apple’s rivals point out that these are early days. While mobile-phone giant Nokia is developing its own app store, it can also help developers get their applications pre-installed on mobile phones so consumers don’t have to download them. That can end up being more profitable for the developer than being in Apple’s App Store. “We want to make money for ourselves and our partners by maintaining the value so the price doesn’t gravitate to zero,” says Tero Ojanperä, executive vice-president of Nokia Services.
Still, Andrew Fisher, CEO of music-software maker Shazam, sees developers gravitating toward Apple because of the company’s momentum. It’s a twist on the PC market, where the best applications appeared first, and sometimes only, on PCs with Windows. This time, the one benefiting is Apple. “That’s the position Apple has established,” says Fisher. “[The more software they offer], the more justifications there are for people to buy iPhones.”
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