The Great Debate UK
from MediaFile:
Apple and Twitter: A New Power Duo?
One big winner coming out of Apple’s developers’ conference on Monday is Twitter.
Apple announced that the Internet microblogging service will be integrated directly into future versions of the iPhone and iPad software.
That means iPhone users can quickly publish information on Twitter by tapping on a photo taken with the iPhone’s camera, or by tapping on a news article in the phone’s Web browser.
It’s the kind of front-and-center placement that any of Apple’s thousands of app-makers would kill for, and it will likely provide a nice boost to Twitter’s traffic of 140-character Tweets.
It may also represent the latest alliance in the ongoing battle of the technology titans.
The collaboration between Apple and Twitter could signal a new power duo, playing in smartphones and social networking – the two powerful forces that are re-shaping today’s computing, advertising and media markets.
How deep the Apple/Twitter partnership may be is still unclear. Twitter referred questions to Apple about whether the integration involved any financial terms, and Apple did not return a request for comment.
from Business Traveller:
Travelling through the cloud on a tablet
John McHugh, VP and Chief Marketing Officer, Brocade
As technology and business travel become ever more inextricably connected, I talk to a man whose life is a symbiosis of both worlds
John McHugh, VP and Chief Marketing Officer of networking infrastructure firm Brocade, proudly sits on both sides of the buyer-seller fence. On one hand, a WiFi-less or WiFi-jammed hotel will not be seeing his custom again in a hurry; on the other, his company offers hotels WiFi deployment.
He knows how tricky it is to design a network where, from “6am to 8.01am and 8pm to midnight” every business traveller downloads their email, watches streamed media or lets their kids use the Xbox.
“Hotels don’t want to spent a lot of money and invest in a lot of infrastructure if they don’t have to; they’re trying to get by on the absolute bare minimum so the system is normally massively oversubscribed at the very time when the user wants to use it.”
It’s a problem that McHugh deals with every day in a world where information and applications, once stored in traditional data centres, are now being distributed in a more ‘virtualised’ manner.
from MediaFile:
Will Blackberry “Torch” catch fire?
The makers of the Blackberry, Research In Motion, unveiled a new version of the smartphone with a touchscreen and slideout keyboard, which is aimed squarely at the iPhone. It runs on AT&T's network and is called "Torch" --but will it catch fire in world of popular consumer gadgets?
The event occurred as attendees and analysts also wondered how Research in Motion would respond to questions about the security of its messaging system.
Check out the live blog that we conducted during the Blackberry event -- with a little help from our friends using Twitter -- with lots of opinions and fact about the new product.
“Stuff” deconstructs the year in gadgets
-Fraser Macdonald is the editor of Stuff. The opinions expressed are his own.-
Deciding on the Cool List turns the Stuff office into a maelstrom. Our Gadget Awards, held later in the year, involves a straightforward categorised decision process.
Phone of the Year, for example, is one of the phones launched in the past year that meets all of the awards criteria. Easy.
The Cool List, on the other hand, is more subjective, because it isn’t necessarily about star ratings, or hype, or sales figures.
It’s about the gadgets that have that elusive ‘something’. What used to be known as the ‘X-factor’ before a TV programme removed all the credibility from that phrase.
As a consequence of this somewhat indefinable definition of cool, it takes us some time, and not a little in-fighting, to come up with the Cool List.
The HTC Legend, for example, made the list despite being a moderately specialised, inexpensive mobile phone. But as a foot soldier for Android, the mobile OS that is encroaching upon iPhone territory, and because of its more-Apple-than-the-iPhone styling, it makes the list.
Having today seen a builder’s navvy using a previous winner – the iPhone – I’d say that “The X Factor” sums up the concept of “cool” to a T. Just give it two years, and you’ll be calling rotating electrical connectors tacky. I promise.
Growth of mobile commerce taps touch Web users
As the mobile phone industry puts more emphasis on marketing hand-held smartphones, consumers are finding ways to dodge restrictive model-compatible applications by using Web-based programs.
Unlike single-device applications, mobile touch websites run on most mobile browsers freeing users from reliance on a specific operating system.
A recent study by Taptu suggests that the mobile touch web will play an important role in expanding mobile commerce.
The economics of software development and publishing favours Web-friendly applications, the study says, although some experts argue that certain applications benefit from being platform-specific.
The 2007 iPhone touchscreen led to an initial wave of more than 148,000 mobile-touch applications, and now there is a second wave of content for touchscreen devices derived from the Web, designed with “finger-friendly layouts” and lightweight fast-loading pages, the report says, estimating that there are more than 326,000 mobile touch websites.
CEO Steve Ives explained the findings of the study to Reuters from Taptu’s Clerkenwell office in this video clip:
Apple tablet an iPhone on steroids?
- Simon Osborne-Walker is Stuff.tv editor. The opinions expressed are his own. -
On Wednesday, Apple will change the face of computing in the same way that it put an iPhone-shaped bomb under the mobile industry.
Rumour has it that we’re going to see a tablet computer that builds on the touchscreen iPhone interface that redefined what we expect from today’s technology. An iPhone on steroids, with a 10-inch touchscreen to offer the best compromise between portability and media browsing.
But in the same way that the App Store and services such as Spotify have stolen the limelight from new hardware in recent years, we believe that the Apple tablet will be more about the intangible.
The media industry is visibly panting over the possibilities of this tablet as an e-reading device. Publishers have been furiously creating interactive e-magazines especially for Apple’s mysterious device, and iTunes is seen as being the saviour of publishing.
One thing’s for certain, Apple’s post-iPhone reputation will ensure that the tablet will be a game changer.
Are mobile networks at risk of a meltdown?
- Steve Nicholson, CEO at The Cloud. -
Five years ago the thought that we could be on the move accessing applications such as You Tube or Facebook, or watching TV or listening to music using our mobile phones was no more than a dream – today it’s a reality.
If we take a step back and assess the journey of the mobile phone over the past few years it has been nothing short of epic. It has progressed from a piece of technology for the modern business person to a must-have item.
A mobile phone is no longer just for making calls or for sending texts. Apple, Google and traditional stalwarts of the mobile industry like Nokia are increasingly adding sophistication and functionality that turns our phones into multi-media entertainment devices – capable of watching TV, listening to streamed music, downloading films and even playing high quality interactive games.
The majority of TV broadcasters are making their TV programmes available via the internet and their iPlayers – thus starting the process of enabling people to watch TV using their mobile phones.
According to both Facebook and YouTube we are viewing over one billion video clips on You Tube each day and over 2.5 billion photos via Facebook each month – with a clear and increasing trend to do so using our mobile phones.
There are many more examples that culminate in a massive surge in our collective demand for bandwidth hungry Internet services that are slowly beginning to outstrip the available capacity on traditional mobile networks.
from Breakingviews:
Apple’s iSlate overflows with expectations
What’s the iSlate worth? It’s not an easy question to answer, as Apple isn’t even confirming it’s got a tablet computer gadget in the works. But the market gives a rough guide to what Wall Street expects from the new device. Investors seem to be slapping an “iSlate premium” of some $25 billion on Apple’s value. Though Apple boss Steve Jobs’ skill at launching new products is unparalleled, meeting these hopes will be a tall order.
Since July, Apple’s market cap has jumped by $64 billion to $193 billion. The bulls have been stampeding over that time, but the tech company’s performance has been more than double that of the broader market. On that basis, Apple has added some $35 billion more value than it would have if it had paced the market.
Some of that has to be attributed to the iPhone’s success. But Apple currently trades at almost 23 times next fiscal year’s earnings while Research in Motion, the maker of Blackberry handsets, trades at 13 times even though their respective earnings are expected to grow at the same rate.
True, Apple routinely – some would argue deliberately – low-balls its own forecasts. And RIM has missed its projections multiple times. But even if Apple deserves to trade at, say, a 50 percent price-to-earnings premium, that leaves some $25 billion of value unaccounted for. Call this the iSlate premium.
While there’s clear interest in the device, growth will probably follow the path of the iPod rather than the iPhone. Handsets are close to a necessity, while content players – such as Amazon’s Kindle - are more luxuries. Still, assume Apple’s consumer halo translates into a 25 percent faster adoption rate than the iPod achieved.
That would imply sales of about 62 million tablets after five years. At Apple’s typical profit margins, the present value of these sales would be perhaps $22 billion, according to a study from Southridge Research. On that basis, Apple’s current market cap is just about warranted. But beware - this is not just a rosy assumption. IT doesn’t take into account the potential cannibalization of other Apple products.
Betting against Mr. Jobs is rarely smart. Few technology executives have a better grasp of where computing is heading and what consumers want. But should this be a rare misstep, it could leave a $25 billion lump in Apple’s investors' throats.
I love the Apple products. I’ve owned many an iPod and wish my cell carrier had the iPhone. As for now, the prices on those phones are ridiculous but as a consumer, the want sometimes out weighs the need. And I agree, Apple does need to introduce a line of devices the does what people want and not what their paid aps want US to do. When Steve figures that out, I’ll be a happy camper. But for now, I’ll sit on the sidelines and watch others with their iPhones and iSlates (or whatever) and wonder when Apple will become affordable to common Joes like me.
from The Great Debate:
The Android opportunity
-- John Gruber writes and publishes Daring Fireball, a web site for Mac, web and design enthusiasts. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and five-year-old son. This article first appeared on Daring Fireball. The views expressed are his own. -- In just the past few weeks Steven Frank, Alex Payne, and Andre Torrez all tried switching from the iPhone to Android. All three are smart, open-minded, and eloquent regarding their reasons for trying Android. All three are developers who care about the quality and design of software and hardware.
All three found Android significantly lacking.
The new G1 phone running Google's Android software. REUTERS/Jacob Silberberg
No doubt some iPhone owners look upon this with glee, much like sports fans watching a rival team flail. I look upon it with glum disappointment. I’ve said it before and will say it again, the best thing that could happen for Apple and iPhone owners would be for at least one strong rival to appear. Two would be even better. A monoculture benefits no one in the long run, because it’s competition that drives innovation.
I know there are new Android phones on the horizon. I know there have been some nice Android OS updates. But from my vantage point, the Android state-of-the-art is today further behind the iPhone state-of-the-art than it was when the G1 debuted last October.
Here are a few paragraphs of a piece I wrote 14 months ago regarding why I’m rooting for Android:
from Commentaries:
Humbled giants eye business phone market
LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Once they were warriors battling one another on the digital battlefield. Nowadays, Microsoft and Nokia are worriers, huddling together for comfort.
The world's top phone and software companies need each other to compete with Apple, Google and Blackberry-maker Research in Motion (RIM), whose products increasingly define what users expect from phones and charge premium prices in consequence.
In the market for so-called "smartphones", Deutsche Bank estimates Apple and RIM now take home more than half of all profits, despite producing less than a third of high-end mobile phones. Nokia held a 45 percent share of the smartphone market in June, according to Gartner Inc. (Table 2 in Gartner release)
The news this week that Nokia will feature Microsoft's office software -- features such as Word and Excel -- on phones aimed at business users is symbolic of what is possible rather than significant in itself. It fell short of predictions in the gadget trade press that Nokia might introduce phones running on Microsoft's own Windows Mobile software.
But that doesn't mean their collaboration should be dismissed. There's more to this budding relationship than meets the eye.
First and foremost, Microsoft and Nokia say they are taking on the Blackberry email-phone, a must have among corporate professionals. So far the they haven't done very much, for all the big talk. But they have pledged to make Microsoft Outlook work smoothly on Nokia phones.
This is crucial in overcoming Blackberry's key advantage -- the underlying software that companies rely on to securely manage corporate e-mail.
Nice article, Eric. Also in terms of what it elegantly understates – that nobody in the lucrative U.S. phone market is remotely satisfied with their phones or the cost of ancillary services the subscriber has to come up with.
There’s a lot of room for growth, if somebody would just listen to what the customer wants and deliver something like that instead of slowly bleeding users to death with costly add-ons and phony rebates instead of decent service at a fair price on a not-too ugly handheld device series.
Apple’s iPhone is a promiscuous lifestyle product unhappily married to the ogres of AT&T while flirting with the enterprise user market. Microsoft has Windows and Outhouse to contend with, tripping over its own necrotic brand software in the process of whatever they might try to do next. The Windows decal on any phone is a deterrent to buying it, at this point. I mean, what size of chip would one really need to store all the viruses and spam you’d be getting if one went down the MS route? That one hasn’t been invented yet.
At times like these, one might expect your last sentence to ring true with the makers and sellers of such devices. Hopefully, they’ll get the message soon.
