Apple

Nielsen: 98 percent of iPhone subscribers use mobile data

Jason Ankeny — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:52:11 -0500

Ninety-eight percent of iPhone subscribers use at least one mobile data service according to market research firm The Nielsen Company's Q3 2008 U.S. iPhone Executive Overview. Seventy percent of iPhone users listen to audio tracks on their device, with 39 percent downloading music directly to the handset--66 percent of users download software and applications, and 35 percent screen video content, which Nielsen says makes them seven times as likely as the typical mobile subscriber. Of course, if 98 percent of iPhone users have embraced mobile data services, that means 2 percent of the iPhone subscriber population does nothing more than make voice calls on the device.

Nielsen reports 43 percent of iPhone users rack up a monthly bill in excess of $100, compared to 20 percent of the total mobile subscriber population--13 percent of iPhone users look to their employers to pay their wireless bill, compared to 7 percent of all subscribers. Among consumers who purchased a new handset between January and September, 11 percent considered an iPhone, and 21 percent of them made the leap to the Apple device. As of the third quarter, 89 percent of consumers who acquired an iPhone within the previous six months were highly satisfied with their purchase, compared to an industry average of 71 percent of new handset owners.

In all there are now 3.6 million mobile subscribers ages 13 and up actively using the iPhone, Nielsen notes. Adults ages 35 to 54 make up the majority of iPhone users at 34 percent, while Hispanic subscribers represent a larger portion of the iPhone audience (21 percent) than of the total U.S. subscriber audience (13 percent). In addition, 44 percent of iPhone subscribers report a household income in excess of $100,000, compared to 22 percent of the overall subscriber population.

For more on Nielsen's iPhone subscriber metrics:
- read this release

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Over-the-air iTunes downloads coming to iPhone?

Jason Ankeny — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:44:13 -0500

The forthcoming version 2.2 iPhone software update will include an over-the-air iTunes retail application, according to a Silicon Alley Insider report. Citing leaked screenshots that depict an iPhone user downloading a podcast from iTunes via 3G connection, the report contends that Apple will activate an iTunes download application as well, arguing it makes no sense to debut a free podcast service but not a premium music service.
The timing makes sense: In September, Internet retail giant Amazon.com announced its Amazon MP3 digital music store would arrive pre-loaded on T-Mobile USA's G1, the first device powered by Google's Android mobile operating system. According to Amazon, the store offers more than 6 million DRM-free MP3 songs from all four major labels and thousands of independent labels. And, of course, the holidays are right around the corner, with both iPhones and iTunes gift cards expected to be popular gifts.

For more on the iTunes speculation:
- read this Silicon Alley Insider article

App Store poised to top 200 million downloads

Jason Ankeny — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:16:23 -0400

Apple announced its iPhone App Store will reach the 200 million download benchmark sometime Wednesday, just over 100 days after the virtual storefront opened on July 11. "The 200 millionth app! We've never seen anything like this in our careers," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs during the computing giant's fourth-quarter earnings call, adding the rate of applications submitted by developers is "incredible." Apple currently boasts App Store applications in 19 categories including Games, Navigation, and Music.

On Tuesday Apple posted fourth-quarter revenues of $7.9 billion, up from $6.22 billion in the year-ago period. According to Apple, international sales accounted for 41 percent of Q4 revenues: The firm sold 6,892,000 iPhones during the quarter, compared to 1,119,000 a year ago, and moved 11,052,000 iPods representing 8 percent unit growth and 3 percent revenue growth year-over-year. "We sold more phones than [BlackBerry maker Research In Motion]," said Jobs in a prepared statement.

For more on the App Store milestone:
- read this Macworld article

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iTunes TV downloads top 200 million milestone

Jason Ankeny — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:10:03 -0400

Apple announced users have downloaded more than 200 million premium television episodes from its iTunes digital storefront, including more than a million high-definition episodes since HD programming launched on the service last month. According to Apple, all four major U.S. broadcast networks now offer their primetime hits in HD, including series like NBC's The Office, ABC's Lost and CBS's CSI, alongside content from more than 70 cable networks like ESPN, Comedy Central, FX, MTV, HBO and Showtime.

At $1.99 per standard-definition episode and $2.99 per HD episode, Silicon Alley Insider projects that iTunes video sales total about $280 million in 36 months. Conventional wisdom suggests NBC and Disney (which owns ABC and ESPN) are the big winners here: NBC has said it accounts for the majority of video sales on iTunes, and in March, Disney head Bob Iger said The Mouse had sold "40 to 50 million" TV shows there.

For more on the iTunes TV milestone:
- read this release

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Eight percent of U.S. teens now own an iPhone

Jason Ankeny — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:00:57 -0400

Eight percent of U.S. high school students now own iPhones, up from 6 percent this spring, according to market analysis firm Piper Jaffray's 16th bi-annual survey of teen consumer patterns and preferences. In addition, 22 percent of teens surveyed expect to buy an iPhone in the next six months, and among all students expecting to purchase a mobile phone, 33 percent specifically cited the blockbuster Apple handset.

The Piper Jaffray study notes that Apple's iPod music player has not lost its cachet among teen consumers, either. iPod now dominates 84 percent of the U.S. MP3 player market, up from 82 percent in the fall of 2007. No less notable, among the 40 percent of high schoolers who legally purchase music online, 93 percent said they buy content from Apple's iTunes storefront, a 14 percent increase over fall 2007 totals.

For more on the Piper Jaffray teen study:
- read this Fortune article

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iPhone 2.2 update to feature Google Street View

Jason Ankeny — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:34:08 -0400

While the release notes accompanying Apple's most recent iPhone firmware beta listed "compatibility testing" as version 2.2's sole change, MacRumors reports that a series of hidden features are also included, most notably support for Google Street View for the Google Maps application. Street View delivers to users panoramic, street-level photographs of selected cities within Google Maps--the feature was recently demoed in T-Mobile USA's forthcoming G1, the first handset powered by Google's Android mobile operating system.

In addition, iPhone 2.2 will feature support for Japanese emoji icons--pundits have cited the absence of these emoticons and avatars a principal reason behind the device's failure to catch on with Japanese consumers. Apple also will allow users to disable the iPhone's auto-correction features with the device's Keyboard settings. The computing giant has not yet said when the iPhone 2.2 firmware will be available.

For more on the iPhone updates:
- read this MacRumors article

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Shazam surpasses 1.5M iPhone downloads

Jason Ankeny — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:17:10 -0400

Mobile music discovery service provider Shazam Entertainment announced its iPhone application has been downloaded by more than 1.5 million users in the first six weeks since its debut on Apple's App Store. The free Shazam app enables allows iPhone users to identify music from any audio source, screen related videos on YouTube and purchase identified tracks through iTunes. Users may also tag identified tracks with photos and share memories with friends. According to Shazam, users have identified 20 million tracks in the last two months. Shazam was also featured earlier this week in a FierceDeveloper web exclusive feature spotlighting five free iPhone applications you should download.

For more on the Shazam download benchmark:
- read this release

iPhone App Store tops 100 million downloads

Jason Ankeny — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:55:48 -0400

Apple announced that iPhone and iPod touch users have downloaded more than 100 million applications from the App Store since the computing giant opened the digital marketplace on July 11. According to Apple, there are now over 3,000 mobile applications available via the App Store--90 percent are priced at less than $10, and more than 600 are free.

For more on the App Store benchmark:
- read this release

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Can rivals mimic Apple when it comes to the App Store?

Sue Marek — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:34:17 -0400

Thanks to Apple's launch of its iTunes App Store in July, the wireless app store concept has suddenly gained traction. Now Google, Symbian, T-Mobile USA and Microsoft are all likely to follow suit and open online stores where developers will sell downloadable software applications. Will consumers flock to these app stores? And perhaps more importantly, will developers profit from them? Article

Microsoft poised to launch App Store rival Skymarket

Jason Ankeny — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 08:27:28 -0400

Following in the tradition of Apple's App Store and Google's forthcoming Android Market, Microsoft is poised to introduce Skymarket, a centralized virtual marketplace enabling consumers to find, purchase and download applications and content optimized for devices based on the software goliath's Windows Mobile Operating system. An online job advertisement first spotted by blogger Long Zheng suggests Microsoft will introduce Skymarket in conjunction with the debut of the Windows Mobile 7 OS. The ad, which calls for a Skymarket senior product manager, reads "This is a unique opportunity and time of rapid change in the mobile industry for a Senior Product Manager in the Mobile Communications Services team to drive the launch of a v1 marketplace service for Windows Mobile," and lists responsibilities including "Definition of the product offering, pricing, business model and policies that will make the Windows Mobile marketplace ‘the place to be' for developers wishing to distribute and monetize their Windows Mobile applications" as well as "Support business development on engagements with mobile operators and integration of the marketplace offering into broader Microsoft services offerings or discussions." In addition, the successful candidate will take charge of "preparation and driving the cross group collaboration for the initial launch of the marketplace offering to the developer community this fall."

While third-party development of Windows Mobile applications is nothing new--there are more than 18,000 WinMo apps at last count, compared to roughly 2,000 created for the iPhone platform--the notion of a centralized Microsoft mobile app repository is a different story. The nearest antecedent to Skymarket is Microsoft's Windows Mobile Catalog website, which connects users to application vendors like Handango, Pocketland and MobiHand; otherwise, WinMo apps retailers are scattered across the web.

For more on Microsoft's Skymarket:
- read this PC World article

Google takes on App Store with Android Market

Jason Ankeny — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:41:30 -0400

Google announced the pending launch of the Android Market, an App Store-like open content distribution system for consumers to find, purchase, download and install various types of content to the devices powered by the web services giant's fledgling Android mobile operating system. According to Google, Android Market will feature feedback and ratings systems similar to its YouTube user-generated video service: "We chose the term ‘market' rather than ‘store' because we feel that developers should have an open and unobstructed environment to make their content available," writes Google's Eric Chu on the Android Developers Blog in a subtle-as-a-sledgehammer jab at rival Apple. "Similar to YouTube, content can debut in the marketplace after only three simple steps: register as a merchant, upload and describe your content and publish it. We also intend to provide developers with a useful dashboard and analytics to help drive their business and ultimately improve their offerings."

Chu adds that developers can expect the first Android handsets (presumably led by the HTC Dream, expected from T-Mobile USA this fall) to arrive enabled with a beta version of Android Market. Google is still finalizing some of the details, but according to Chu developers can at the very least count on support for free applications--a subsequent update will support premium content and features like versioning, multiple device profile support and analytics.

For more on Android Market:
- read this Android Developers Blog entry

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Report: Apple to debut iTunes subscription service

Jason Ankeny — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:14:20 -0400

Apple is reportedly poised to unveil an iTunes subscription service at a September media event that will also reveal a host of upgrades to the fledgling MobileMe cloud-based service, which delivers push email, push contacts and push calendars to native iPhone, iPod touch, Mac and PC applications. According to MacDailyNews, the rumored Apple event will herald the introduction of iTunes Unlimited, a digital music subscription that will launch in the U.S. in late October--promising consumers roughly 50 percent of the total content currently available via iTunes, the service will offer one-year subscriptions for $129.99, or $179.99 combined with MobileMe access. Existing MobileMe subscribers could add iTunes Unlimited for an additional $99.99. A "buy and keep" option would enable subscribers to purchase songs a la carte, and the current iTunes store will maintain its status quo as well. Meanwhile, the reported MobileMe upgrades would allow iPhone and iPod touch users to access iDisk cloud storage, and enable one-button syncing to MobileMe.

For more on the iTunes Unlimited rumors:
- read this MacDailyNews article

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App Store downloads exceed 60 million in first month

Jason Ankeny — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:50:43 -0400

Consumers have downloaded more than 60 million iPhone applications in the month since Apple opened the App Store, the computing giant's CEO Steve Jobs revealed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. While a majority of the applications were free, Jobs said that Apple still sold an average of $1 million a day in iPhone apps, generating about $30 million in sales so far--if sales continue at their current pace, the company is poised to earn at least $360 million in new revenue from the digital storefront. "This thing's going to crest a half a billion, soon," Jobs said. "Who knows, maybe it will be a $1 billion marketplace at some point in time. I've never seen anything like this in my career for software." But Jobs said Apple stands to derive minimal direct profits from the App Store, claiming the 30 percent of application proceeds the firm retains are just enough to cover operating expenses. Jobs said iPhone application earned about $21 million during the first month, with the top 10 developers raking in roughly $9 million. He declined to update sales totals on the iPhone 3G itself.

For more on the App Store's early success:
- read this Wall Street Journal article

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Apple filing hints at remote iTunes access via iPhone

Jason Ankeny — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:03:22 -0400

A forthcoming Apple software update could enable iPhone and iPod touch users to remotely access their home computer's entire iTunes media library without traditional synchronization, according to a new filing uncovered by AppleInsider. The 24-page United States Patent and Trademark Office filing, credited to Apple employees David Heller and Thomas Mavrakakis, notes that at present, downloading media items from a computer to a media player is a time-consuming process limited by the device's storage capacity; new versions of iTunes and the iPhone Software propose to eliminate the problem by synchronizing only the metadata, not the content itself, from iTunes to the device. The metadata--which requires only a fraction of the space necessary to store the media itself--would translate on iPhones and iPods as "virtual media items" representing playlists, videos, photos and mobile games: Instead of accessing the files directly from the device, the iPhone or iPod would employ a wired, WiFi or cellular connection to remotely access and retrieve the media items from a user's Mac or PC. "As a result, the user perceives that the virtual media items may be available on the (the media player)," the Apple filing notes. "In this manner, the virtual capacity of an electronic device may be increased."

The same protocols would enable users to manage their iTunes libraries remotely, adding and deleting files while on the move. The device will constantly monitor all processes against problems or fading signals, and pause or cancel data transfers as warranted. The Apple filing adds that the software update would also enable iPhones and iPods to communicate with one another. "In the peer-to-peer environment, one mobile device can communicate with one or more other electronic devices (whether mobile or stationary) in the immediate vicinity," the filing states. "Data sharing can be performed when such communication is available."

For more on the Apple patent filing:
- read this AppleInsider article

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'Frogger' leaps onto iPhone

Jason Ankeny — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:57:49 -0400

Electronic media developer and publisher Konami Digital Entertainment announced its first title for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch platform: George Costanza's favorite video game Frogger. According to Konami, Frogger--now available via Apple's App Store--was re-designed to fully exploit the capabilities of the iPhone platform, including the device's multi-touch interface and accelerometer.

For more on Frogger:
- read this release

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iPhone, iPod sales buoy Apple revenues

Jason Ankeny — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:35:30 -0400

Apple announced fiscal third quarter revenues of $7.46 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion, beating analyst expectations on the strength of quarterly iPhone sales in excess of 700,000 (up from 270,000 in the year-ago quarter) and iPod sales of more than 11 million (a 12 percent unit growth over a year ago). Apple added that international sales accounted for 42 percent of the quarter's revenue. However, the computing giant forecast fourth quarter revenues of $7.8 billion and earnings per diluted share of $1, both below analyst expectations. CEO Steve Jobs' health is also the subject of much discussion since he appeared at Apple's recent Worldwide Developers Conference looking gaunt. "Steve's health is a private matter," said Apple COO Tim Cook during Monday's earnings call, adding that Jobs has no plans to leave the firm. On a more upbeat note, Apple said iPhone owners have now downloaded more than 25 million applications from the App Store.

For more on Apple's earnings:
- read this release

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Ten million iPhone App Store downloads in first weekend

Jason Ankeny — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:21:47 -0400

Despite myriad problems with Apple's iTunes activation server, the iPhone 3G's opening weekend looks like a success--the computing giant announced more than a million devices sold within the first three days of release, with iPhone and iPod users also downloading more than 10 million applications from the fledgling App Store, which debuted Thursday. According to Apple, there are now more than 800 native iPhone applications available via the App Store, with 200 of them offered free of charge.

For more on the App Store's debut weekend:
- read this release

Jobs: App Store launch features 500 iPhone applications

Jason Ankeny — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:28:16 -0400

As previously reported, Apple will officially launch its iPhone App Store in advance of the iPhone 3G's U.S. retail introduction Friday, opening the store today to coincide with the device's on-sale debut in New Zealand. Forbes first reported the news, citing three sources briefed on the matter. Apple has reportedly instructed developers to keep any announcements on their iPhone applications under embargo until noon EDT today.

In an interview with The New York Times, Apple CEO Steve Jobs says the App Store will initially feature more than 500 applications including educational programs, mobile commerce and business productivity tools, with games representing about a third of the first-wave apps. According to Jobs, 25 percent of the first 500 applications at the store will be free, with roughly 90 percent of the premium applications priced at $9.99 or less. Jobs insists Apple will not rely on the App Store as a source of significant revenue, in much the same way iTunes music sales have contributed little to the firm's bottom line: "We are not trying to be business partners," he said. The goal is to "sell more iPhones."

For more on the App Store launch:
- read this New York Times article

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App Store to debut in advance of iPhone 3G?

Jason Ankeny — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:47:21 -0400

While Apple's iPhone 3G doesn't officially hit retail until Friday, reports suggest the iPhone App Store could launch as early as today. According to TechCrunch, mobile application developers were instructed by Apple to submit their iPhone apps by 12:00 PM PDT Monday for consideration in the App Store launch, triggering speculation the digital storefront will open several days in advance on the iPhone 3G. "We will continue to accept applications after this time, however your application may not be available until after the launch of the App Store," the Apple e-mail notes. "Conduct final testing of your application with iPhone OS beta eight and submit your app today."

For more on the App Store rumors:
- read this TechCrunch article

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AT&T announces iPhone 3G data pricing

Jason Ankeny — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:34:54 -0400

AT&T announced iPhone 3G pricing for new and existing subscribers in advance of the hotly-anticipated Apple device's July 11 retail launch. AT&T will sell the 8GB iPhone 3G model for $199 to eligible subscribers, with the 16GB device carrying a $299 price tag--consumers who are ineligible for upgrade discounts may purchase the 8GB for $399 and the 16GB for $499. All prices are contingent on two-year contracts, although at a later date AT&T will make available a no-contract-required option for $599 (8GB) or $699 (16GB).

In addition, AT&T announced four individual AT&T Nation plans, which offer voice and unlimited data:

AT&T Nation Unlimited: Includes unlimited anytime minutes for $129.99 per month.
AT&T Nation 1350: Includes 1350 anytime minutes and unlimited nights and weekends for $109.99 per month.
AT&T Nation 900: Includes 900 anytime minutes and unlimited nights and weekends for $89.99 per month.
AT&T Nation 450: Includes 450 anytime ninutes and 5,000 nights and weekend minutes for $69.99 a month.

AT&T also will offer FamilyTalk plans with bundled voice and unlimited data starting at $129.99 a month for two iPhone 3G lines. As many as three additional iPhone lines may be added for $39.99 each. Unlimited text messaging can be added for an additional $20 ($30 for FamilyTalk plans of up to five lines), $15 (1,500 messages), or $5 (200 messages).

For more on AT&T's iPhone pricing:
- read this release

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