iPod touch Now Outselling iPhone

It’s something that was easy to miss, but in talking up the user base for the iPad, Steve Jobs indirectly revealed what many following the company suspect. If the iPod touch has not already become Apple’s best-selling iPhone OS device, it soon will be.

Much to consternation of six-figure analysts, Apple doesn’t break out iPod sales, but there are hints. At the conference call for last quarter, it was stated that iPod touch sales for the quarter were up 55 percent year over year. That helped explain how iPod revenue was up by one percent from a year ago, even though total iPod units sold were down eight percent.

However, it was a remark from WWDC ‘09 and the one from the iPad event that add up to the iPod touch now being the leading iPhone OS device.

On June 8 at WWDC ‘09, it was announced that more than 40 million iPhone OS devices had been sold, and this is where it gets a little tricky. We know that through the end of June Apple sold 26.38 million iPhones. Subtracting that number from 40 million gives us 13.62 million, which admittedly leaves out sales of the iPod touch in June.

However, we do know for that entire quarter Apple sold 10.22 million iPods. Pick a number for June iPod touch sales. One million, three million, it doesn’t really matter. Let’s say two million, or 15.62 million iPod touches, 42 million iPhone OS devices total through June, 2009.

At the iPad event, Steve Jobs announced 75 million iPhone OS devices had been sold to date, though whether that date was January 27 or January 1 is not known. It won’t matter either way, but let’s assume the latter. Through 2009, Apple sold 42.517 million iPhones. Subtract that number from 75 million iPhone OS devices and we get 32.483 million iPod touches.

If you’re still awake, here’s the bottom line: the rate of sales growth of the iPod touch is very likely greater than the table shows, as in double that of the iPhone. True, the period includes the holiday quarter, the best quarter for iPods, but it just doesn’t matter. The iPod touch, the stealth device for iPhone OS, will be the best-selling model for the platform in 2010, if it isn’t already, and it is.

 

http://theappleblog.com/2010/01/28/ipod-touch-now-outselling-iphone/

Market Share: OS X, Safari Flat; iPhone OS Slows in January

Looking at data from web metrics firm Net Applications, the first month of the new year was not big news for Apple. Both Mac OS X and Safari reached something of a plateau in market share, and the growth rate of iPhone OS slowed.

OS X peaked at 5.27 percent in October, which not coincidentally was the release month of Windows 7. Since then, OS X has more or less been stuck around 5 percent, and was 5.13 percent for January. It’s an open question whether this is stagnation or perseverance. Windows 7 upgrade churn is just one of two major factors working against OS X market share, the other being continued success of the netbook.

As for the breakdown between versions of OS X, Snow Leopard has been moving up about 4 percent a month for the last three months, and now stands at 35 percent of the OS X user base. That’s a faster upgrade rate than Leopard, and much faster than Windows 7, which just broke 10 percent.

Safari is also under continued pressure from Google’s Chrome. Last month, Chrome (4.63 percent) edged past Safari (4.46 percent). Safari has since risen to 4.51 percent, while Chrome jumped to 5.2 percent, actually taking share from both Internet Explorer and Firefox. Internally, Safari 4 now accounts for 80 percent of the user base, which is phenomenal considering Safari 4 was officially launched just eight months ago.

The iPhone OS continues to steadily gain market share, no doubt a byproduct of being so close to zero. The iPhone OS is currently at 0.58 percent of the overall OS market, which may seem small but represents some 75 million devices sold in two and a half years. The iPhone is now at .47 percent, while the iPod touch is .11 percent, with both edging upward. While the iPad won’t launch until March, looking at the growth rate according to Net Applications numbers, it’s a pretty safe bet that iPhone OS will pass Linux in market share this year.

Even with a flat month in market share, Apple platforms have never sold so well, and for the Apple consumer that means more software and better resale value of hardware.

 

http://theappleblog.com/2010/02/02/market-share-os-x-safari-flat-iphone-os-slows-in-january/

Mobile Augmented Reality: Apps That Will Change the Way We See the World

 

http://gigaom.com/2010/02/02/mobile-augmented-reality-apps-that-will-change-the-way-we-see-the-world/

Using Bump’s New API To Exchange Data Between Phones

Bump, the Y Combinator funded company that got a lot of attention last year as the Billionth App, has released an API that lets devs use Bump’s bump-to-exchange scheme for swapping data phone-to-phone in their own apps.

The API is free to use unless you are generating revenue as a direct result of a bump, have more than 10,000,000 bumps/month or more than 2,500 simultaneous users.

Integrating the API looks straightforward and uses the protocol/delegate pattern familiar to iPhone devs. Have a look at this tutorial for details.

 

API Tutorial

This tutorial provides a step-by-step howto for integrating the Bump API with an iPhone app.

Source & Installation

Let's first download a sample Xcode project that will use the Bump API: BumpFour. Next, download the Bump API. Now, open the BumpFour Xcode project that you just downloaded.

Locate the API-distro_* folder (that you downloaded), drag the file Bump.h and drop it onto the BumpFour project Classes group. A dialog will appear -- make sure "Copy items" is checked before clicking "Add".

Next, drag the Bump_Resources folder and drop it onto the BumpFour project Resources group. A dialog will appear -- make sure "Copy items" is checked before clicking "Add".

Then, drag libBump.a and drop it onto the BumpFour project Frameworks group. A dialog will appear -- make sure "Copy items" is checked before clicking "Add".

If you're integrating the Bump API with your Xcode project, make sure your project includes the CoreLocation, AudioToolbox, UIKit, Foundation, CoreGraphics frameworks. The BumpFour sample project already included these frameworks.

When you have added all the required Bump API assets, the Groups & Files will look similar to these:

Compile

At the time you register, you receive an API key. You need to insert your API key in GameBumpConnector.m here:

Press "Build and Go". If you've added (installed) everything correctly and you have a valid developer key, BumpFour should run on your simulator. Press "PLAY FRIEND". You should see this:

[Note: A demo warning message will show when you are not using a production key. To upgrade your API developer key to a production key, go here.]

Using the Bump API: Bump and exchange data

There are a few calls to make to integrate Bump with your project. These are the minimum calls you must make in order to bump and exchange data.

Let's take a look at the sample project BumpFour where the calls are made.

1. Allocate a Bump object
   bumpObject = [[Bump alloc] init]; // Bump *bumpObject;
2. Set a delegate
   [bumpObject setDelegate:self];
3. Use your API key
   [bumpObject configAPIKey:@"YOUR_API_KEY"];
4. Connect with Bump's server. You must only call this after the previous three calls.
   [bumpObject connect];
   

   BumpFour calls this when user presses a button to "Play Friend". That's one way to invoke the Bump API popup. Another way might be, for example, if your app allows your users to bump a photo, when the user selects a photo from your photo picker, you can call connect. That will immediately bring up the Bump API popup, users bump, and photo is exchanged.

5. Implement the required BumpDelegate methods
   - (void) bumpDidConnect; - (void) bumpDidDisconnect:(BumpDisconnectReason)reason; - (void) bumpConnectFailed:(BumpConnectFailedReason)reason; - (void) bumpDataReceived:(NSData *)chunk;
6. Send and receive data
   [bumpObject send:moveChunk]; // NSData *moveChunk = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:moveDict];
7. Disconnect from Bump's server
   [bumpObject disconnect];

In addition to the minimum calls above, the following are useful.

1. Send a message to the Bump feed
   [bumpObject configHistoryMessage:@"%1 just started a BumpFour match with %2!"];
2. Configure a message on the Bump API popup:
   [bumpObject configActionMessage:@"Bump with another BumpFour player to start game."];

Using the Bump API: Bump and share your app

The Bump API also has a "tell-a-friend" feature. To implement that in your app, send the connectToShareThisApp message to your Bump object. In addition, you instruct your users to bump your app into the Bump App via the configActionMessage:, doing so will take the receiver (the Bump App) to the iTunes page for your app. Let's take a look at a view controller whose sole function is to share app (we won't reference BumpFour for this example).

ShareAppViewController.h #import <UIKit/UIKit.h> #import "Bump.h" @interface ShareAppViewController : UIViewController { Bump *_bumpObject; } @end ShareAppViewController.m #import "ShareAppViewController.h" @implementation ShareAppViewController -(id)init { self = [super init]; _bumpObject = [[Bump alloc] init]; return self; } - (void)loadView { [_bumpObject configAPIKey:@"INSERT_YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"]; [_bumpObject configActionMessage:@"Share this app by bumping with a user of the Bump App"]; } -(void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated { [super viewWillAppear:animated]; [_bumpObject connectToShareThisApp]; } - (void)dealloc { [_bumpObject release]; [super dealloc]; } @end

 

http://www.mobileorchard.com/

http://bu.mp/apitutorial.html

Android Multi-Touch Pinch-To-Zoom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftKgMGnzUAc

WordPress Launches Official Android App

Do you use WordPress and want to blog from your Android phone? Doing that just got a lot easier. Wordpress for Android - an open-source app backed by WordPress.org - is now available in the Android Market. With this app, anybody who blogs on WordPress.com or a self-hosted WordPress blog can post and edit blog posts, as well as moderate and post comments. In addition, the app will display notifications whenever a reader comments on a blog post.

Features

With WordPress for Android, you can also configure and manage multiple blogs, which is a great feature for those of us who post on more than one site.

Using the app is pretty straightforward. Simply enter your blog's URL and your credentials and you are ready to go. The actual editor is a pretty basic HTML editor, though unlike WordPress' early iPhone efforts, it's easy to add links and italicize or bold text. The app also makes it very easy to select and upload photos from the phone's photo gallery to a WordPress blog. While we were testing the app, however, selecting an image on the Nexus One regularly led to a crash.

Open Source App

Just like WordPress for iPhone and WordPress for BlackBerry, the Android app is an open source effort. Indeed, a large part of the code base for Wordpress for Android is based on the popular wpToGo application, which will now be discontinued in favor of the official WordPress app. Developers who are interested in helping out can find more information here.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/wordpress_launches_official_android_app.php

Nexus One Gets Official Multitouch Support (Updated)

When Google launched the Nexus One Android phone a few weeks ago, support for multitouch gestures like pinch-to-zoom was mysteriously missing from the phone's feature set in the United States. Starting today, however, Google will begin to ship an over-the-air software update to all Nexus One phones in the U.S. that will enable multitouch pinch-and-zoom functionality in the browser, gallery and maps application. Until now, Nexus One owners had to resort to a hack to enable multitouch on their phones.

Google plans to roll this update out slowly. All Nexus One owners should receive a notification about the availability of the update for their phone by the end of the week.

Why Now?

Oddly enough, Nexus One (and Motorola Droid) users outside of the U.S. have always been able to make use of these multitouch features by default. It's not clear why Google decided to enable multitouch on the Nexus One now, but we have asked Google for a statement and will update this post once we hear from them.

Update: We just heard back from a Google spokesperson. Here is Google's official reasoning behind making this change now:

Looking around the mobile industry, from Apple to Palm to HTC and Motorola - it's clear that pinch-to-zoom technology has become a standard and popular way for users to interact with their mobile phones. Likewise, Android users can now truly benefit from this capability with the availability of Android 2.1, which powers a new class of devices with larger touchscreens and more interactive features. Unlike past devices, these phones have the processing power to deliver pinch-to-zoom, while still providing a great user experience. Based on these new capabilities and numerous requests from Android users, we decided to provide pinch-to-zoom capabilities with this new over-the-air software update for Nexus One devices.

More Updates: Google Navigation, Google Goggles, Fix for 3G Connectivity

In addition to the new multitouch functionality, this update will also bring significant new features to the Google Maps application. Starred items and search suggestions will now be synchronized with maps.google.com, for example. In addition, Google Navigation - Google's turn-by-turn GPS app - will now get a night mode that automatically changes the colors on your screen at night to make the screen easier to read.

Google will also now ship Google Goggles as a default application on the Nexus One. Google Goggles is a surprisingly useful tool that allows you to take pictures of landmarks to initiate a search, for example, or to scan business cards and automatically populate Google Contacts with this data.

Early adopters of the Nexus One often complained about issues with 3G connectivity. According to Google, this new update should improve 3G connectivity on the phone.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/nexus_one_gets_official_multitouch_support.php

Mobile App or Browser-Based Site? Report Says The Browser Will Win on Mobile

Mobile search company Taptu has released a detailed report showing that the future of the Mobile Web is likely to be dominated by cross-platform browser-based mobile web sites - rather than apps built specifically for iPhone, Android, or any other platform. Taptu calls the former "the Mobile Touch Web," which it defines as "Web sites created for mobile touchscreen devices, with finger-friendly layouts and lightweight pages that are fast to load over cellular networks."

Taptu estimates that there are 326,000 Mobile Touch Web sites worldwide, which they say compares to 148,000 iPhone apps in the App Store and 24,000 apps in the Android market. Taptu expects the browser-based mobile web market to grow much faster than the app market.

What kinds of sites are more likely to be browser-based for mobile phones? According to the report, 19% of the mobile sites measured were Shopping & Services sites; compared to 3.6% in the same category in the App Store. Content in the 'Social' category also has a higher chance of being a browser-based mobile site, rather than an app (12.9% to 1.7%).

Conversely, just 0.8% of mobile sites were gaming, compared to 18% of apps in the App Store. There is a similar discrepency in the 'Entertainment' category.

It seems then that commerce services are taking more advantage of mobile web browsers than gaming and entertainment providers. But why? Taptu says it's because "many [Commerce] products and services do not really fit into Apple's iTunes content-oriented billing system." Meanwhile, gaming and entertainment content is better delivered as an app, says Taptu, "since apps deliver a much richer, more interactive gaming experience than the casual games available on the Mobile Web."

Taptu says that the increasing sophistication of mobile browsers is one reason why browser-based mobile sites will flourish. In particular, it points to increasing support for HTML 5. See our analysis of Web vs. Native Mobile Apps if you'd like to know more about this.

According to Taptu, "it's getting easier and easier to create rich touch screen user experiences with the browser without having to create platform-specific apps." Taptu also points to increasing usage of open standard APIs, enabling Mobile Web developers to access "deeper device functions such as geolocation."

Taptu does concede that gaming content will probably continue to be delivered predominantly as download apps on iPhone and similar devices. However it claims that for "many other types of app, the economics of software development and publishing favours the Web development route."

Taptu predicts that "the Mobile Touch Web will grow vigorously over the next five years, and will approach the quality of user experience of Mobile Touch Apps across all the app categories except for games."

We should note that Taptu is mostly a browser-based service, although it does offer apps for iPhone and other platforms too. But it obviously has a big stake in the success of the "touchscreen mobile web."

What do you think, do you agree that the future of Mobile Web development will lie in browser-based mobile sites? Or do you think the pull of advanced functionality as an app (on platforms such as iPhone and Android) will draw most types of content and services over time?

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mobile_app_or_browser-based_site.php