Verizon Customers Want iPhone, Can’t Have It

ChangeWave Research has released a survey (PDF) of some 4,040 customers of U.S. cellular service providers that is rife with opportunity for the iPhone, if only Apple would seize it.

According to survey respondents, more than 40 percent of Sprint/Nextel and T-Mobile customers would seriously considering buying an iPhone were it available to them, as would just over a majority of Verizon customers. Unfortunately, despite strong demand for a Verizon iPhone, at least one analyst is now asserting that won’t happen until 2011.

Computerworld spoke with BroadPoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall concerning an evocative theory regarding the iPad, the iPhone, and AT&T. According to Marshall, “AT&T was able to negotiate a six-month extension on the iPhone exclusive.” This was accomplished as part of a deal whereby AT&T would offer data plans for the iPad at breakthrough pricing of $15 and $30 without any contract or commitment.

If that scenario sounds like a dubious conspiracy theory, it probably is. Marshall has previously asserted that AT&T’s exclusivity agreement would expire this June, and that it was a “certainty” that Verizon would be offering the iPad. Setting aside the rationalization of analysts, looking further into the ChangeWave Research survey makes it seem inconceivable that Apple would continue the exclusivity relationship with AT&T at any price.

Of those surveyed, AT&T customers reported the highest rate of dropped calls among the four carriers, three times that reported by customers with the best-rated provider, Verizon. Of course, AT&T disputes this data. From DailyTech, AT&T counters the ChangeWave Research survey is based upon respondent “recollection,” while “quantitative results” from research firm GWS put AT&T “within just two-tenths of a percent of the industry leader.” Even if you are Luke Wilson and accept AT&T’s explanations along with the company’s checks, there’s another problem with the iPhone being exclusive to AT&T.

The iPhone no longer generates “switchers” like it used to. Last year, the iPhone 3GS received, at best, a slight bump in bringing people to AT&T. Worse, it appears the Verizon Droid may be the new iPhone when it comes to luring customers to a different carrier. It will be interesting to see if the rumored iPhone HD can reverse that trend, but it seems unlikely, which means it’s time for Apple to switch, or at least add.

Verizon, with more than 90 million customers, more than AT&T, would mean at least an additional 10 million iPhones sold per year. Those sales would have a cascade effect on development, too. As more people bought more apps, the combination of sharply rising hardware and software sales could help turn back the surge of Android phones like the Droid.

A month from now the next iPhone will almost certainly be introduced at WWDC. Let’s hope we hear about a new U.S. carrier, too, otherwise it may be another year of listening to Apple executives talk about the “significant progress” AT&T has made with its network.

 

http://theappleblog.com/2010/05/07/verizon-customers-want-iphone-cant-have-it/

Layar Introduces Layar Stream to Help You Find Popular Nearby AR Content

Amsterdam-based mobile augmented reality developers Layar are announcing today the launch a new service that will make it easy for users to discover the most popular local AR content from their iPhones or Android devices. Layar, a mobile AR browser that serves 1.2 million augmented objects each day, will now include a feature called Layar Stream which will make finding the best needles in the augmented haystack much simpler.

Using a proprietary algorithm, Layar Stream determines the most used AR content in a given geographic location and creates a list through which users can easily browse. Once users select a place of interest, they can then hold their phones up and see where it is located in 3D space around them. While generating a "top content" list is hardly a breakthrough of technology, Layar believes it may fundamentally change the way people use their application.

Layar CEO Raimo van der Klein says Layar Stream, which the company calls an "augmented reality content discovery engine," is the "necessary building block to make Augmented Reality part of every day life. There is a whole augmented world out there that needs to be discovered."

I had the opportunity to chat briefly with van der Klein Thursday via email about Layar Stream and the future of augmented reality in general. The following are some of the key questions and answers that emerged from our conversation.

ReadWriteWeb: How do you think this will affect the way developers create AR content on the Layar platform?

van der Klein: On the short term I don't expect any change on the content creation side. I do expect that developers will start to understand our algorithm and know how to get a higher ranking in Layar Stream. Something like Stream Engine Optimization. The biggest impact for publishers on our platform is that it will drive traffic to their layers.

ReadWriteWeb: Do you think AR is still too new to most people where the awkwardness of holding your phone up is a hurdle these applications have to overcome?

van der Klein: Augmented reality is a great interface to "consume" experiences that have a relation with the physical world. It is not the best way to understand or browse through large quantities of data. Therefore we chose to focus in the discovery phase on a list interface and handover to Augmented Reality when you have found something of your interest. I guess you can compare it with a TV guide (paper) as a way to find the TV programs you would like to watch.

ReadWriteWeb: Are there any plans to let companies pay to promote their data in the stream?

van der Klein: Layar Stream is a great place of "screen real-estate" where we can offer our publishers a way to promote their layers. The coming months we will try out various solutions in specific test markets to find out how we can add these messages in a way that it actually makes sense for the user and the publisher.

ReadWriteWeb: You mention wanting to make AR more a part of everyday life. Are there any other ways Layar is trying to tackle this issue?

van der Klein: A crucial part are experiences that only work in Augmented Reality. Experiences that can not be ported to a map or a website. A great example is the Berlin Wall layer. Visitors of Berlin can now see the wall on the same spot where it used to be. The impact of such an experience cannot be transferred to a map. It is these kinds of experiences that validate this medium. Further we have learned from the web that people want to use the web to express themselves and connect to others. We now call this Social Media. We foresee that people will also use Augmented Reality for social purposes.

Layar has announced plans to expand beyond Android and iPhone onto Symbian devices in the near future. They are also currently in talks with handset manufacturers to bring their AR browser to other mobile platforms. Over 1.6 million people are already using Layar, and a community of 3,000 developers has created over 500 layers with reportedly 2,000 more currently in development.

The company also recently launched their AR content marketplace that allows developers to charge users a one-time fee to browse their content.

 

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

iPad Gets its First Spyware

A surveillance firm is now selling a spyware application for Apple's new slate computer, the iPad. With this software installed, users can secretly track activity including emails sent and received, web sites visited and contacts added to the iPad's address book. The information is surreptitiously recorded to a log file which is then uploaded to the Web whenever the iPad has an Internet connection. Afterwards, the user doing the spying can review the data from any computer connected to the Web, with no further need to gain physical access the iPad.

Jailbroken Only

Before going any further, it's important to make one thing clear: this application is not found in Apple's iTunes App Store nor can it be installed on iPads that have not been jailbroken.

Jailbreaking, the act of hacking the iPad to run unapproved third-party applications, is not something the majority of iPad owners will do. However, power users often jailbreak their Apple mobile devices, a lineup which includes iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches, because doing so allows for more features and functionality. For example, on a jailbroken iPhone, you can turn your device into a Wi-Fi hotspot. You can also enable multitasking by allowing applications to run in the background and you can completely customize the look-and-feel of the device from battery indicators to icons.

The latest software for jailbreaking the iPhone and iPad is also incredibly easy to use - perhaps the easiest to have ever been released thus far. Within minutes, the process is complete and you have full control over your device.

Mobile Spy: Kids, Employees, Spouses be Warned!

With the new spyware software, dubbed "Mobile Spy," users can track the activities of anyone who owns an iPad once the app is installed on the device where it runs in stealth mode. Although the nature of this software makes its legality sound questionable, the vendor gets around this issue by explaining that it's ideal for tracking a child's Internet behavior, just like the numerous applications for Mac and PC that do the same. (Children, it seems, don't have the right to not be spied on by their parents.)

But software like this won't just be used as a parental control mechanism, says security researcher Graham Cluley, it will likely be used for more nefarious reasons too, like checking to see if a spouse is cheating or perhaps even criminal purposes.

However, at a price point of $99.97 per year, only the most serious of stalkers will likely install it on victims' devices. For everyone else, there's still the old-fashioned method of snooping - checking the web browser's history or simply reading through someone else's email.

 

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

Augmented Driving on your iPhone 3GS - Features

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kn37kvGpHQ&NR=1

Tagwhat Social Augmented Reality Network

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNtpWm_6Dqk&feature=player_embedded

Tagwhat Leaves Read-Only Augmented Reality Browsers Behind

Tagwhat, an augmented reality creation and distribution system, publicly launched this week bringing the world of augmented reality into the realm of Web 2.0.

While other augmented realtiy browsers, such as Wikitude and Layar, provide the user with information overlays over live video, Tagwhat allows users to create these overlays.

According to the company, its mobile and web application represents a paradigm-shift in augmented reality.

Tagwhat also marks an important milestone in the evolutionary path of AR technology, representing a shift from the static Web 1.0 world of AR browsers to the participatory interaction of Web 2.0. Tagwhat is 'create-and-share' mobile AR, and is the first mobile augmented reality distribution system where anyone, not just developers, can create their own AR content and share with their friends anywhere in the world, in seconds, for free.

The app, which is currently available for Android and coming soon to the iPhone, offers integration with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and allows users to create location-based content. This content is then viewable from within a Google Maps mashup on the website as well as from the video overlay browser.

The primary difference between Tagwhat and other AR browsers is the ability to create this location-based content from within the app. Layar and Wikitude deal with external content, such as nearby tweets, Wikipedia entries and Gowalla spots.

That's not to say that Tagwhat won't also have this content. At launch, Tagwhat will include "opt-in free and premium subscription channels and 'smart' advertising", including channels for restaurants, pubs and nightlife, Wikipedia articles, and a "fully functional implementation" of Foursquare.

The addition of creation is indeed an important shift in augmented reality, but we can't wait until it can be attached to content visually, rather than solely through GPS data. This is, of course, the next difficult step that we see being used in apps like oMoby, a visual search engine application. oMoby uses your smartphone's camera to take a picture of an object and then attempts to identify it. This sort of visual search technology would make it possible to tag your specific car, for example. Then, if someone using the same application were to view that car in the browser, they would be able to see your "tag" as well. Think Robocop or Terminator and you get the gist.

So while we like what Tagwhat is doing and hope to play with it when it comes out for the iPhone (the company says it has been submitted to the app store and should be available in the near future), it really does little more than integrate standard geo-tagging technologies with AR video overlays we see in existing AR browsers. The shift from simple location tagging to visual tagging is the next big step.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/tagwhat_leaves_read-only_augmented_reality_browser.php

RWW Mobile Summit: What's Keeping Location-Based Ads from Taking Off?

A great discussion about opportunities for mobile startups kicked off in the first session of today's RWW Mobile Summit in Mountain View, California. The challenge was proposed to brainstorm possible markets for mobile that are not being served, or served well. In the small group discussion, we all agreed that location-based advertisements, for the most part, have not been able to break through into higher levels of success. So what lies in the way of a truly successful mobile location-based ad platform?

It's obvious that small businesses would love to be able to provide customers with deals right on their mobile phones, but the hurdles for startups are in other areas. Actually building an advertising platform from the ground up is a very difficult process, and companies that have considered partnerships with newspapers may not be successful either. As one attendee pointed out, it is very difficult to bring legacy media corporations around to new digital campaigns. I can attest from personal experience that things can move very slowly in the media industry.

A startup I learned about while in Boulder this week, DuckDuckDeal, is taking a "built from the ground up" approach to the localized ad sector. They are starting very small by limiting their minimum viable product to businesses in Boulder. As I mentioned earlier this week, Boulder is the perfect place for such a venture, because the small community is littered with mom and pop businesses that are more than willing to lend a hand to the local startups.

Another speed-bump in the way of breakout mobile ad success is the task of figuring out how to get the users to actively engage with the platform. This is where the debate between push and pull comes in. Pushing advertisements based on location, a lot like the ads seen in futuristic movies like Minority Report, can become an annoyance and quickly ignored. Summit attendees seem to be in agreement that the user should pull the ads on their own via a check-in on a service like Foursquare, or by manually browsing a specific advertising application.

How can startups overcome these obstacles? Let us know what you think in the comments, and be sure to catch the live stream of the Mobile Summit right now!

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/05/rww-mobile-summit-whats-keeping-location-based-ads-from-taking-off.php