Apple Q2 2010: Another Quarter, Another Record

Only Apple could make success seem banal, reporting the best ever earnings for a second fiscal quarter today.

Apple reported revenue of $13.50 billion and a net quarterly profit of $3.07 billion, or $3.33 EPS, once again beating the Wall Street consensus, and comparing quite favorably to $9.08 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.62 billion, or $1.79 EPS, a year ago. It was indeed another boringly great quarter, but if Steve Jobs is yawning with success, he didn’t show it in the press release.

“We’re thrilled to report our best non-holiday quarter ever, with revenues up 49 percent and profits up 90 percent,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve launched our revolutionary new iPad and users are loving it, and we have several more extraordinary products in the pipeline for this year.”

For those with less interest in profit and more in the magical product pipeline, Macs were solid, iPods flat, and iPhone sales bucked the cyclical decline.

Apple sold 2.943 million Macs, up 33 percent from 2.216 for the same quarter last year. While laptop sales were up 28 percent from a year ago, desktop sales jumped 40 percent. That doesn’t alter the 60/40 split between laptops and desktops, but it was still a good quarter for the iMac.

It was a good quarter for iPod sales, too, despite them being flat, at 10.89 million sold versus 11.01 million last year. While that’s technically a one percent decline in units sales, revenue was up 12 percent, likely fueled by the increasing success of the iPod touch. That’s very good news.

Also very good were iPhone sales, which tend to be cyclical, peaking with model launches and declining until the next launch. For last quarter, Apple sold 8.752 million Phones, compared to 3.793 during the same period last year, a 131 percent increase. However, Apple actually increased the number of iPhones sold from the first quarter of 2010, which saw 8.737 million sold. That’s big news as we approach the next iPhone launch, expected this summer.

While nothing was mentioned about the iPad, expect that to come up in the conference call, which will duly be reported on TheAppleBlog.

 

http://theappleblog.com/2010/04/20/apple-q2-2010-another-quarter-another-record/

10 Must-Have Board Games for the iPad

With the increased screen real estate of the iPad, it’s the perfect device for playing board games. If you haven’t had a chance to browse some of the great titles available on the App Store, here’s some of our favorite board games to get you started.

Scrabble

Such a classic, Scrabble [iTunes] is awesome on the iPad platform. Enjoy playing against friends (or a computer) on a gorgeous large game board. If you have an iPhone, download the free Scrabble Tile Rack [iTunes] and arrange your letters on your own device. When it’s your turn, simply flick them towards the game board and they’ll appear, ready for you to place and score big. Similar to the iPhone version, you can play against your friends locally or over a local network. Scrabble [iTunes] is $9.99.

Words with Friends

If there’s one app at the moment that’s popular across social networks and mobile devices, it’s Words with Friends [iTunes]. Similar to Scrabble, this game allows you to play, turn based, against friends who are playing on their iPads, iPhones or Facebook accounts. The app supports push notifications to let you know when it’s your turn, and you can chat in-game with your friends. At $2.99, this is definitely a fun board game for those who enjoy playing against friends and don’t want to take the leap to Scrabble.

Game Table

One of the first game apps on the iPad, Game Table [iTunes] provides a virtual game board for a variety of games, like checkers, chess, poker and other card games. It’s not a traditional game in the sense that you’ll have scoring or rules and stuff. Instead, it’s simply all the pieces to play games without all the fuss so you can play them any way you want. For 99 cents this app is a great value and the developers have promised that additional game pieces for Backgammon, Go and Reversi will be added soon.

UNO HD

While UNO technically is more of a card game than a board game, I decided to include it because it’s a very fun experience on the iPad. It features all of the traditional UNO rules and actions, like Draw 2, Reverse and Wild cards. It also supports multiplayer (sharing one device or multiple on a Wi-Fi network) and features challenges allowing users to unlock additional themes to give the game a fresher look. UNO HD [iTunes] is $4.99.

Strategery

Strategery [iTunes] is an engaging game originally designed for the iPhone that has been optimized for the iPad as well. This game of world domination features you as leader of a “country” (think Civilization style) and you battle against your neighbors to gain/lose territory. It supports pass-and-play style multiplayer (with up to five players) or online battles with push notifications. The iPad version allows for much larger maps and a much more engaging experience if played like a traditional board game (a group of players gathering around the iPad). At $1.99, this app is a definite must-have.

Theme Checkers

Of all board games, Checkers (or Chess) was probably the most expected to debut on the iPad. There are a variety of both available now, but my favorite is Theme Checkers HD [iTunes]. Just like a real game, the movement is very fluid and natural. This game supports one and two player modes and regularly updated themes for unique checkers experience. Users can even create and install their own custom themes as well. Theme Checkers HD [iTunes] is 99 cents, so give it a spin and see what you think.

Board Box

If you’re looking for a little more than just checkers or chess, you should check out Board Box. Similar to some of the others I’ve mentioned, it includes checkers and chess, but this app goes further by including Reversi, Tic Tac Toe, Go, Draughts and more. Not only does it include the regular version of these games, but it also includes some variants. This app doesn’t support an automated second player, so you’ll either need to suffer from having a split personality or have a friend to play against. If there’s nobody local, you can play against friends through email. The developers of Board Box have promised that there will be no in-app purchases for this app so as they continue to update and add additional game boards and variants, the updates will be free. At $3.99, Board Box [iTunes] is a great investment.

Ludo

If you’re a fan of Parcheesi, you should definitely check out Ludo [iTunes] ($3.99). Supporting up to four players (both human or computer), the game plays like real Parcheesi, except with a fresh modern interface and smooth animations and sound effects. Though there are a few other Parcheesi variants on the App Store, this one is definitely the best for the iPad. Additionally, your game state is saved so you can start and stop the game as you please.

Moonlight Mahjong

If you’re one who loves playing mahjong, check out Moonlight Mahjong [iTunes] for 99 cents. Putting a literal spin on the traditional idea of mahjong, this version is 3D, allowing you to use touch gestures to tilt and turn and zoom in and out. There’s over 90 built-in board layouts. When you get bored with those, you can create your own and share them with others. Plus, it offers for support of multiple players (even across Wi-Fi or against an automated opponent). If you’ve never given mahjong a shot, this is an excellent game to reduce stress and relax.

Honey, That’s Mine!

This is a “sweet” board game where players compete against each other to collect the most honey. If playing on the iPhone or iPod touch, the game supports pass-and-play for multiplayer, but if you’re on the iPad, the larger screen makes it easy to just place your iPad on a table and play against your friends. The idea of the game is rather simple, but the options for computer opponents and difficulty variations give this game additional replay value. Honey, That’s Mine [iTunes] is available on the App Store for $1.99.

This is just a small sampling of some of the apps available for the iPad. If you’ve tried these or found others you like, share your thoughts in the comments below. Personally I’m thrilled to find replacements of my favorite board games on the iPad. Just imagine how many little pieces I don’t have to keep up with anymore!

 

http://theappleblog.com/2010/04/21/10-board-games-for-the-ipad/

Top 10 Mobile Trends of 2010, Part 2: Apps, Apps, Apps

In preparation for the upcoming ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit, we're outlining the 10 leading trends of the Mobile Web in a 3-part series of posts. In Part 1 we explored 3 important design and development issues for the Mobile Web. Now in Part 2, we look at 4 classes of mobile applications that have become popular in 2010: geo-location, Internet of Things, Augmented Reality, and mobile social networking.

We'll explore these and other trends with you at the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit, a 1-day event we're running on Friday 7 May, in Mountain View, California. That's the day after Web 2.0 Expo (2-6 May), so we hope you'll extend your trip to the West Coast to help us define the future of mobile! To be certain of getting a ticket, we invite you to register now.

Geo-location Services

In January, RWW Co-Editor Marshall Kirkpatrick wrote that the era of Location-as-Platform has arrived. Using leading location mobile service Foursquare as an example, Marshall wrote that "the mobile location 'check-in' is fast becoming the hot new status message type online." He added that "it was only a matter of time until 'where you are' became a platform to build added value on top of just like 'who you know' has on social networking sites like Facebook."

Other posts in this series:
Top 10 Mobile Trends of 2010, Part 1: Design & Development

The use cases for location data include showing nearby restaurants and ratings, mobile advertising, local news, events, and Wikipedia data about local buildings. That's impressive enough, but imagine the possibilities when you add data from sensors. As I wrote in January, one use case that should become reality soon is receiving a real-time update of traffic conditions via sensors embedded in the road.

What else can we do using location as a platform? We'll discuss this in-depth at the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit.

Internet of Things

As well as sensor applications, there are other emerging applications for mobile that intersect with the Internet of Things trend. They include barcode scanning, using your phone as an RFID tag and reader, and using your phone as a proximity sensor.

As we explained in January, as well as your mobile phone reading and acting on sensor data from real world objects, the phone may also be used as a sensor itself. For example the iPhone has a built-in accelerometer, which is basically a motion detector. This is used for game control and also for re-sizing your iPhone display from portrait to landscape. The iPhone also has a microphone (which can be used as a noise sensor), a proximity sensor, and an ambient light sensor.

Barcode scanning and its applications is a fast growing market in the mobile world. The most popular form of 2D barcode is the QR Code (the QR stands for "Quick Response"), which became popular in Japan and is now gaining traction in the U.S. and other markets.

There are many emerging opportunities to utilize sensor and RFID data, which again we will explore at the Mobile Summit on 7 May.

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality has been one of the hottest trends in mobile for about a year now. ReadWriteWeb even created an extensive report about AR and its market and development opportunities. We think that AR offers a new marketing and product paradigm for a high impact, high value customer experience. More than 1,000 AR campaigns were kicked-off last year and we expect to see many more this year. In our report, we profiled key AR development companies, their campaigns as well as development lessons learned.

In a recent post, Chris Cameron (the author of our AR report) noted that practical application is the golden ticket of Augmented Reality. As an example he pointed to the junaio iPhone application, which competes with Layar and Wikitude in the AR browser space. junaio recently announced that its formed a partnership with BART, San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit system, to bring live train data to the app. junaio takes advantage of the API provided by BART to not only place locations of nearby stations in a user's field of vision, but also estimate arrival time of trains at each station and display that live in real-time using AR.

Mobile Social Networking

A recent study from Ruder Finn revealed that more people are using the mobile web to socialize (91%) compared to the 79% of desktop users who do the same. ReadWriteWeb's Sarah Perez concluded that "the mobile phone is actually a better platform for social networking than the PC."

The study found that during the 2.7 hours per day that people in the U.S. spend on the mobile web, 45% are posting comments on social networking sites, 43% are connecting with friends on social networking sites, 40% are sharing content with others and 38% are sharing photos. Sarah commented that it's no surprise to find that the rise of the mobile phone corresponds with the rise in Facebook's popularity, because "it has become a do-anywhere activity that captures people's attention whenever they have free time, instead of an activity that requires people make time for it."

Sarah concluded that mobile social networking is an easier activity to participate in now that it's been unchained from the PC. This of course has big implications for entrepreneurs and application developers, which we will explore at the RWW Mobile Summit.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_10_mobile_trends_of_2010_part_2_apps.php

Google Mobile Announces Search by Voice for Maps

If you want to map a locale or score some directions but want to avoid driving into a pole, you can now use your pipes. Google Maps now recognizes Search by Voice on Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 phones.

Google introduced Search by Voice in 2008 and has been rolling that functionality out into different parts of the Googlesphere since. Now Google Maps 4.1 comes with voice search.

The categories of search that Maps will now recognize vocally includes the full spectrum of search fields already enabled for mobile.

• business name
• business category
• city, state
• ZIP code
• postal address
• intersection, city, state
• airport code
• latitude longitude

Hands-free it is not, however. To start the search you still need to open Google Maps and hit "call" prior to making your search.

The install is available on qualifying phones at m.google.com/maps.

An interesting aspect of the language settings the ability to select not just your language but, if it's English, the accent you use. I wonder if this functionality will be available to Spanish-speakers or whether the different accents within Yue Chinese will eventually be recognized.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_announces_search-by-voice_for_maps.php

iPad Enters the Market Share Scene: Report

Web metrics firm Net Applications has been tracking the iPad since its launch, and after 10 days the trend is clear.

The iPad will soon account for one twentieth of one percent of the overall OS market. If that sounds infinitesimal, it is, and yet according to Net Applications the iPad now roughly equals the BlackBerry in market share.

However, it’s important to remember that Net Applications data is drawn from some 160 million visitors per month to a worldwide network of sites, rather than counting unit sales. That means it’s not market share so much as web share, which explains how the iPad caught the BlackBerry so quickly. Despite having sold tens of millions of more units, browsing the web on a BlackBerry is painful experience, while the iPad makes it sublime. Nonetheless, since the future is browsing the web on mobile devices, web share numbers today could very well be the market share of tomorrow.

For analysts and bloggers pondering what, exactly, the iPad is for, the above chart pretty much answers the question. It’s a new way to browse the web. With only 500,000 units sold, the iPad is already showing up against its rival siblings the iPod touch and iPhone, which have sold some 35 million and 50 million units respectively. Keep in mind too that both handheld devices are available worldwide, while the iPad will not see international release until May. Since Net Applications uses a worldwide network of web sites to determine market share, it’s quite possible that by the end of June the iPad may surpass the iPod touch in share.

Looking at estimated mobile device numbers for April, which tend to change very little from month to month, the iPad is indeed on par with the BlackBerry, and quickly closing on Android and moribund Windows Mobile. While that’s impressive for a new device sold only in the U.S., the combined iPhone OS share of the market is even more so. It will be around 37 percent, meaning by June at the latest expect iPhone OS to surpass the ubiquitous Java ME as the most used mobile OS, at least according to Net Applications.

Looking past the numbers, for those who purchased an iPad it appears your investment is safe. Just weeks after launch, the iPad is already solidifying its position as viable platform. For those who don’t own an iPad, expect Google and Microsoft to be scrambling to get a viable competitor in the marketplace as soon as possible. It looks like the tablet is here to stay at last.

 

http://theappleblog.com/2010/04/16/ipad-enters-the-market-share-scene-report/

Coming Soon: Multi-Tasking on the iPad with Many-Device Apps

Virtualization is a star - at least in the big stage of the iPad. Since the device launched, Citrix Receiver has been one of the top ranked business apps in the store.

Chris Fleck, mobility leader on the Citrix team shares this demonstration showing a Citrix Receiver application enabled with four applications running side by side on iPad. He goes further to show the same apps running on a host of other devices.

Born to Multitask

Citrix Receiver uses HDX, the name of the remoting technology Citrix has innovated based on the ICA Protocol (Independent Computing Architecture) the company has been developing on for over 15 years. Fleck tells us that HDX is conceptually similar to RDP/VNC but it includes significant optimizations for WAN performance, Multimedia, and user experience across multiple devices and OS's.

Here is a clip from the demonstration video showing four side-by-side apps running on iPad. Citrix Receiver is able to zoom on in each application to make it full screen, or display all four simultaneously.

Many Apps - Many Devices

The demonstration continues showing each device in this picture, from Mac to PC, iPhone to Android, all running the same applications.

At one point, Fleck goes on to demonstrate how to "flick" multiple applications on the iPhone. This demonstrates one app showing full screen and the four other applications are swipable, like photos in your photo library. This seems like a natural extension of the iPhone and really could be useful for building larger enterprise applications or portals.

This demonstration reminded us of one thing, the apps matter. When we see an iPhone application on Android, or Windows 7, it still looks pleasing to navigate. Perhaps there is room in the enterprise for a Apple's Mobile Human Interface Guidelines.

Enterprise designers, maybe it's your time to build insanely great apps for the enterprise that follow patterns of the iPhone and iPad. Whether new, or old, Citrix Receiver is breathing life into applications and iPad is getting down to business.

The company plans to release this capability with its partner SoftwareFX at the Citrix Synergy event next month.

Virtualization could become a default way to connect iPad in the enterprise - at least in year one.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2010/04/multitasking-ipad.php

Lenovo: Mobile will be 10-20% of Revenue in 5 Years

PC maker Lenovo announced today that the company expects its mobile Internet products to account for 10%-20% of revenue in five years' time. This statement comes from President and COO, Rory Read, delivered at a media briefing that coincided with the launch of the newest Lenovo "LePhone" smartphone device in China. With the phone, a handset running the Google Android mobile OS, Lenovo hopes to grab a good-sized chunk of the still-emerging Chinese smartphone market.

Interestingly enough, Lenovo had, in early 2008, sold off its mobile phone unit to focus solely on its PC business. But as the financial crisis hit, companies delayed refreshing their corporate desktops and laptops in an effort to save money, a move which heavily impacted Lenovo's bottom line. Last year, the company decided to once again diversify their offerings by bringing back the mobile unit.

In January, Lenovo launched an improved "Ophone" device at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, its first smartphone since the $200 million reacquisition of the once-discarded mobile business, returned to the company in November of last year. At the time, Lenovo execs said the phone would be central to the company's mobile strategy.

Today, they're echoing that sentiment. According to Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing, mobile Internet devices will overtake traditional PCs in the next five years. And Read reminded everyone that the smartphone market in China was only now emerging. "It's just the beginning," he said.

PC Manufacturers Focused on Mobile

Lenovo isn't the only PC manufacturer making changes in this direction, with smartphone launches laser-focused on China especially. Dell, for example, announced in November they would launch an Android-based handset called the Dell Mini 3 that would be sold only in Brazil and China to start. The company is also hard at work on an Android tablet, a colorful consumer-targeted device apparently being called the "Dell Streak."

Acer, too, has a line of smartphones running both the Windows Mobile OS and Android, available outside the U.S. in parts of Europe and Asia.

HP, although still more focused on PCs, is set to launch its first "new-wave" tablet in the form of the HP Slate, a multi-touch lightweight device running Windows 7. 

As for Lenovo's claims about the timeframe to mobile's domination over the PC? Those figures may very well have been snagged from Morgan Stanley's Internet analyst, Mary Meeker. In her latest "state of the Internet" report, she predicted that the mobile Internet market will be bigger than the desktop Internet market within five years. She also noted in particular how fast mobile Internet has grown - even faster than its desktop counterpart ever did.

For those who like to segment the phases of the Internet's growth, the current era, aka this mobile surge, represents the fifth major technology cycle, she says. Previously, we had the mainframe era of the 1950s and 60s (counts for two), the mini-computer era of the 1970s and the desktop Internet era of the 80s. The new mobile cycle is being driven by the spread of 3G technology, now reaching 20% of the world's cellular users.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/lenovo_mobile_will_be_10-20_of_revenue_in_5_years.php