Android Rising, Sony Poised to Join the Smartphone Fight

Yesterday Apple announced the arrival date of its much-ballyhooed tablet, the iPad. It will have a staggered release throughout April, beginning on the 3rd in the U.S. Once it does arrive, we’ll see what effect it has on the mobile landscape. But right now, Apple has other things to worry about if it wants to keep its newly minted status as a leading mobile device company.

The recent threats are at least twofold, one of immediate concern and one potentially dangerous down the road. First, there’s Android’s continued growth in terms of mobile marketshare, compared to Apple’s shrinking slice of the pie. Second, there’s Sony’s potential expansion of its mobile operations into direct competition with the iPhone.

Web analytics firm Quantcast released figures this week that show iPhone OS is still the dominant force in terms of mobile web usage, but the trend is working slowly against it. It lost 3.2 percent of its market share last month, while RIM and Google’s Android both gained ground. Over the past quarter, Android has gained a whopping 44 percent, while Apple has lost between five and 10 percent during the same period.

That’s only market share percentage, though. Apple is still showing positive growth in terms of mobile users and pageviews, but Google is just doing it that much faster. Which should be worrying to the current king of mobile web. The Nexus One may have been a relatively innocuous volley in the ongoing war, but Google is gaining steam, and quickly.

Another competitor is said to be waiting in the wings, too. According to the Wall Street Journal, Sony is gearing up to offer an iPhone competitor that could have one key advantage: the ability to play PSP and PlayStation games downloaded directly to the advice. That would be in addition to music, video and e-book content that it would also offer for sale through digital distribution.

Sony is not inexperienced in the cell phone market, and it already has a successful digital distribution framework operating as the PlayStation Network store. A PSP with smartphone features could be a very attractive proposition for young customers just entering the market.

Long story short, Apple has enjoyed a lengthy head start in the mobile web generation of smartphones, but after many, many failed attempts, a few competitors are beginning to realize exactly what it will take to catch up to Cupertino. And at this crucial point, Apple is focusing on jumpstarting a brand new market that many aren’t sure even has much potential.

The danger is that the iPhone isn’t being given sufficient attention thanks to the iPad’s imminent launch. If the next generation iPhone only gets some minor incremental updates, like the iPhone 3GS did, then I will seriously begin to question Apple’s sense of prioritization. Resting on its laurels for another year won’t help the company widen the closing gap between it and its competitors, whether or not the iPad succeeds.

 

http://theappleblog.com/2010/03/06/android-rising-sony-poised-to-join-the-smartphone-fight/

My iPad Wish List: 10 App Requests

Watching the iPad’s first television spot on the Oscars Sunday night, I got giddy all over again in anticipation of getting my hands on this hot new product. Though it’s still a few weeks away, I’m even more excited for the applications that will be coming to the platform. Here’s my top 10 list of apps that I want to see developed for the iPad.

Coda

As a graphic designer and web developer, Coda is a staple in my workflow. It features a built-in FTP system, which could be problematic to port to a mobile device, considering there isn’t a traditional file structure to store data. However, perhaps the iPad’s new file storage system will provide an adequate solution. Regardless, as someone who codes, it would be awesome to sit next to a client and modify code and push changes to a site all from my iPad while they load and test the revisions on their own desktop.

Photoshop

Before you laugh, remember that Adobe has already released Photoshop Mobile for the iPhone, and all things considered, it’s not such a bad application. A larger iPad version could allow support for opening and manipulating native Photoshop files as well as working between multiple files. CS4 introduced a new tabbed approach to viewing multiple documents at once. A similar setup could easily be implemented on the iPad.

Katamari Damacy

What’s a fun touchscreen device without a fun game? Katamari already exists as an iPhone app so it’ll scale up decently on the iPad. But given the advanced graphics of the iPad and the larger screen, a native iPad version is a must. If you’ve never played Katamari, check out this clip below.

 

iMovie

Call me crazy (it doesn’t hurt to be wishful) but the feasibility of an iMovie-like app is certainly within the realm of possibility. I would have never expected Apple to introduce video editing on the iPhone. Nevertheless, along with a video camera, the iPhone 3GS allows for simple video edits. Why couldn’t we have a larger implementation of this on the iPad, provided it gains a video camera at some point? With the larger screen, there’s plenty of room to view a larger timeline, add transitions or effects and with one tap, upload your masterpiece to YouTube.

iChat

I’m actually quite surprised this app still hasn’t made it to the iPhone yet, but as a platform that’s designed to be “the best way to experience the web, email, photos and video,” the iPad seems like the perfect device for iChat, especially if a future model gains a video camera.

Screen Sharing or Remote Desktop

There have been a number of third-party developers that have created similar apps for the iPhone, but I’m honestly shocked to see that Apple hasn’t implemented its own solution yet. With a larger screen and almost full-size keyboard, remotely accessing and interacting with other Macs on my network would be a breeze on the iPad.

Preview

While the iBooks application will open books that are in EPUB format, I’d love to see a more robust implementation of Preview available on the iPad (and iPhone). Specifically, an app that is capable of annotating PDF files and provides support for links within PDFs. Since I’m also an academic, some of the journals I read (as PDFs) contain bookmarks to other articles or chapters and currently, none of the built-in applications on the iPhone support interacting with them.

Hulu

I don’t care how it has to happen or if it involves Flash or not. Who doesn’t want Hulu on the iPad? Even if it required a small subscription, I would love to be able to access my Hulu queue on the go. Better yet, since the iPad is a closed system, the app could download and cache content so it wouldn’t necessarily have to be streamed in real time. This could be a great solution to save AT&T’s crowded bandwidth for 3G models and allow WiFi-only models to still play even if a network isn’t around. I’d pay for that; would you?

Bento/Filemaker

Now that we have iWork, how about a real implementation of Bento (or FileMaker if that’s not too much to ask)? The current iPhone version is pretty pathetic and really hard to use to manipulate larger databases. While FileMaker may be a stretch, I’d put serious money on seeing an iPad version of Bento before the year is out.

An Improved iTunes App

It looks as though the new iTunes app represents a step ahead of the current iPhone version, but there are still some missing features that would make this app a rock star on the iPad. Adding support for Internet radio, browsing my other libraries by Home Sharing or support for iTunes Extras and LPs would be amazing. Honestly, why hasn’t Apple announced support of iTunes Extras and LPs? The specs call for a viewing area of 1280×720 (the 720p high definition standard). They also call for building your iTunes Extras with what’s called a bleed graphic, or a graphic that can “fill in the extra space” if you’re viewing it at a size greater than 1280×720. Now given that as a way to compensate for a difference in aspect ratios, if you were to scale down an iTunes Extra for the 1024×768 display, wouldn’t it just make sense? Come on, if the Apple TV can do it (and we all know how excited Apple gets about that product), shouldn’t the iPad as well?

What are your thoughts on apps you’d like to see? Share your thoughts in the comments below. The great thing about Apple’s developer community is that they keep up with what’s discussed in the blogosphere. You never know; a developer might see your suggestions. So, share what you’d like to see on the iPad!

 

http://theappleblog.com/2010/03/09/my-ipad-wishlist-10-app-requests/

PANIC! Study finds that students are addicted to their iPhones!!

200 students surveyed in a Stanford study were found to be “addicted” to their iPhones. “When asked to rank their dependence on the iPhone on a scale of one to five – five being addicted and one being not at all addicted – 10 percent of the students acknowledged full addiction to the device, 34 percent ranked themselves as a four on the scale, and only 6 percent said they weren’t addicted at all.”

According to the survey:

Nearly 85 percent of the iPhone owners used the phone as their watch, and 89 percent used it as their alarm clock. In fact, 75 percent admitted to falling asleep with the iPhone in bed with them, and 69 percent said they were more likely to forget their wallet than their iPhone when leaving in the morning.

Is this really addiction? It’s not clear how many students shed other accessories — like a watch or an alarm clock — as a result of their iPhone. I suspect a lot of people are happy to ditch a stand-alone alarm clock at home in favor of using their phone for that task in order to simplify their lives. I’ve been using my phone as my alarm clock for several months now, and I’m perfectly happy with it. It goes with me when I travel, so my nighttime routine remains the same, regardless of where I am. And yes, I use my phone as my watch, since I don’t wear a wristwatch. Using a phone as a timepiece makes perfect sense, especially since the phone automatically updates as you travel around timezones.

The survey is not all doom-and-gloom, thankfully:

The survey also suggests there are benefits to having an iPhone fixation that may balance out the potential negatives. Over 70 percent of those surveyed said the iPhone made them more organized, and 54 percent said the iPhone made them more productive.

My own experiences jive with the Stanford survey. I add little reminders to my calendar all the time to keep me focused and organized.

The link above closes with the obvious observation that “the current survey didn’t cover attitudes toward other smartphone. [sic] It’s possible that other phones with similar features might be just as useful and endearing to their owners as the iPhone is to the Stanford students.” I think this is pretty obvious: I know lots of people who similarly rely on their Blackberries or Androids or Palm Pres to be organized and functional in today’s always-connected world.

I think the real question is not “are you addicted to your iPhone”, but rather “do the applications and features provided by your iPhone change your lifestyle?” After all, the iPhone itself isn’t terribly useful beyond time, scheduling, and communications. It’s all the apps — things like Evernote, for example — that I can’t live without.

 

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/03/09/panic-study-finds-that-students-are-addicted-to-their-iphones/

Android is taking iPhone’s lunch money

We told you a couple of days ago that the Apple v. HTC lawsuit is all about Android; that the lawsuit is Apple’s response to Android’s skyrocketing popularity. We now have some data to back that up, and the guys at Cupertino are rightfully worried. Quantcast – a web analytics firm – recently released some juicy statistics. Quantcast tracks mobile web consumption by OS, and they’ve noticed that Android has started taking away market share from the iPhone.

Let’s dig in, shall we? The iPhone is clearly the market leader in Web consumption with 63.7% of the market. But that might not last for long, in February the iPhone lost 3.2% of its market share while both Android and RIM gained market share. Android has been gaining ground on the iPhone for more than a year now, but the growth has accelerated considerably over the last four months. For example, Android’s market share has grown 44% over the past quarter, and has doubled over the past year. All the while, the iPhone has lost 5% from last quarter and 10% from last year.

This data certainly doesn’t look good for the iPhone. If this trend continues, Android could surpass the iPhone by Fall of this year or early 2011. That can’t be good news for the Cupertino-based company. The iPhone is Apple’s main cash cow, and any decline in iPhone sales will be truly felt throughout the company. Apple must have seen this going on for the last six months and felt like they needed to do something quickly, rather than waiting for the new iPhone that they’ll announce in the Summer. ‘Cause by then, Android’s market share might be 30% and it could be too late to turn things around. I suggest we all go grab some popcorn, it’s certainly going to be interesting to see Apple scramble to try and slow down the Android avalanche that’s headed their way.

 

http://www.droiddog.com/android-blog/2010/03/android-is-taking-iphones-lunch-money/

iPad Owners to Go Wi-Fi Only? AT&T CEO Thinks So (POLL)

When consumers rush out to purchase Apple's new handheld device, the slate-like computer called the iPad, they'll have several options to choose from. In addition to multiple storage capacities, iPad buyers will have to make an even more critical decision: Wi-Fi or 3G? Although Wi-Fi hotspots are in many places these days, from airports to coffee shops and sometimes even blanketing a city's downtown, anyone with an iPod Touch will tell you that they're far from being everywhere. That problem certainly limits some of the functionality of the iPad apps, especially those relying on real-time updates for breaking news, data downloads or other Internet-only content.

Considering that the contract-free iPad 3G plan starts at $15 per month, one would think that, given these potential issues, the 3G version would be the top choice among consumers. However, AT&T's CEO thinks otherwise. He predicts the iPad will primarily be a Wi-Fi only device. Is he right?

Too Many Subscriptions

According to a Reuters report, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson says he doesn't expect the iPad's launch to lead to very many new AT&T service subscriptions. "My expectation is that there's not going to be a lot of people out there looking for another subscription," he was quoted as saying.

He may be right. As consumers, we're starting to hit a saturation point with how many times we have to pay - again and again - for access to the same Internet. We have our broadband bill for at home, a mobile broadband bill for our laptop's "air card" and a third bill for our phone's data plan. Layer on top of that the numerous subscription services for Internet-accessible content, like Xbox LIVE, Netflix (via their "Watch Instantly" service) and premium music streaming sites like Pandora, Spotify or Last.fm, and it's clear that we've become overloaded. Will anyone out there be able to afford yet another wireless data plan? Apparently, AT&T isn't counting on it.

Will You be Missing Out?

If you plan to use the iPad mainly as an eBook reader and portable media device for streaming iTunes-purchased content, then you won't miss out too much when you go offline, which - let's face it - when you leave the house, that will be most of the time. The majority of iPhone games, all of which will work on the iPad out-of-the-box, won't be affected either. But what about when you want to read the newspaper or a magazine via the iPad? Without an Internet connection to download the latest, you'll be stuck with yesterday's news or last month's edition of Wired. And if you wanted to quickly share something you read on Facebook or Twitter, you would be out of luck, here, too.

However, many people may be willing to live with these limitations. Just as we've learned to sync our iPods and iPhones before we leave the house, we may soon need to remember to update our online newspaper and magazine apps, too. For this minor inconvenience, there's a major payoff: the monthly savings, of course, but also hundreds of dollars off the retail price of the iPad.

In any event, we wonder if AT&T's CEO has any insight into this situation or if he will be surprised by how popular the 3G iPad ends up being. Do you agree with his prediction? Lets find out! Take our poll (linked below) to tell us what iPad you'll buy. (If you're not buying an iPad, then just skip it!)

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ipad_owners_to_go_wi-fi_only_att_ceo_says_yes_poll.php

Titanium 1.0 Launches: Build Native Apps for Desktop, Mobile & iPad

Today Appcelerator is launching version 1.0 of their Titanium app-building system which allows developers to build mobile and desktop applications using standard web technologies like HTML, JavaScript and CSS. In addition to supporting desktop platforms like PC, Mac, and Linux, the new version of Titanium now supports both iPhone and Android with RIM Blackberry and Apple iPad support just around the corner.

Unlike other DIY toolkits that promise mobile apps without needing to know code, Titanium lets web developers leverage their existing skills to build native mobile applications that do anything any app built using that platform's specific technologies could, like access the phone's camera or stream video, for example.

What's New

Titanium's code base has been improved over the past few months resulting in a number of upgrades to performance. Notes the company, "load times are under 3 seconds, down from 10-20 seconds, transitions between pages are instantaneous and processing speed has improved five-fold." They've additionally added more features to offer over 100 native UI controls, native 2D/3D animation capabilities and data and media presentation capabilities. With these new improvements, developers can now build branded apps, casual games and augmented reality applications that run on any of the supported platforms.

Why Titanium?

When asked to explain what really made Titanium different than the other app-building services out there, the company's VP of Marketing, Scott Schwarzhoff explained that many of its competitors were simply offering web apps disguised as native apps as opposed to offering the real deal. Every other offering is not even close, he says. "Native user interface (over *100* native APIs)? We're the only provider. Push notifications? We're it. Native maps? Same thing. Facebook Connect? We're the only one. Application analytics? That's us. Augmented reality? Ditto. The list goes on and on."

Since June of last year, the Titanium platform has attracted over 27,000 developers thanks to what the company has dubbed their "native advantage." Described here on the company's website, this includes support for things like native controls, location-based services, social sharing, HTML5, online or on-device databases, integrated analytics, rich multimedia and more.

With the launch of the iPad only weeks away, Appcelerator is promising support for Apple's new slate device by the third week of March. Blackberry support will follow in May/June. Titanium's Community edition will be completely free while a pro version offers premium support, analytics and beta access to new versions.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/titanium_10_launches_build_native_apps_for_desktop_mobile_ipad.php

Who Wants an iPad? The Young, the Social & the Pop-Culture Addicts

Social media data company Rapleaf recently investigated the profiles of users who "fanned" the iPad on Facebook in order to get a better sense of the type of users who are interested in Apple's upcoming slate device. After analyzing the top three Facebook pages and their respective fanbases, Rapleaf discovered that there were some common themes among these users. The prospective iPad buyers on Facebook are young - much younger than the overall Facebook population, in fact.

They're also fairly social, with nearly a third of the fans having over 300 friends. And finally, iPad fans are also very interested in other pop culture activities and themes including various celebs, brands and internet memes.

To make these determinations, Rapleaf looked at the top three iPad fan pages on Facebook. At the time of their study, these were: The iPad (#1) (69,293 fans), The iPad (#2) (23,637 fans) and The iPad (#3)  (5,009 fans).

There weren't any major variations in gender differences among the iPad fans. Although the second page skewed more female and the third page skewed more male, the overall numbers balanced out to a fairly even split.

However, when Rapleaf delved into the ages of the fans, they discovered that iPad fans were a lot younger than your typical Facebook user. While 61% of the U.S. Facebook market is under 35, nearly 50% of the iPad fans were between 18 and 25. You can see the differences between the pages and Facebook in general (U.S. only) plotted on the chart here.

Apple iPad fans are also rather social, with 33% having over 300 friends on Facebook and 8% with more than 500 friends. Additionally, perhaps due to their age, a lot of the iPad fans were fans of other pop culture themes like favorite celebs, brands and memes. By analyzing the top 100 other fan pages of these users, Rapleaf discovered interests like Starbucks, Megan Fox, Coca-Cola, Michael Jackson, YouTube, Will Smith, Twilight, Lady Gaga, pizza, and other various Facebook "memes" like "Pants on the Ground," random laughter, "I need a vacation" and "I really hate slow computers," (the last being a problem the iPad hopes to solve, incidentally).

iPad for the Young?

What does this tell us about the market for Apple's new device? Mainly that it has a lot of youth appeal, apparently. While some have predicted the iPad is the sort of computer that your "mom" will use - implying that the iPad is a sort of computer for non-computer users - it appears that "mom" isn't actually a top demographic among the iPad's Facebook fans. But then again, you can't read too much into that finding - after all, "mom" (the older Facebook user) may not even know how to fan things on Facebook yet or she may simply not be interested in doing so. But the study does at least solidify that there is quite a bit of iPad interest out there among the youngest tech users, something that bodes well for the device's adoption.

 

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