* – offensive humor may vary

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion is preparing to launch an iPad competitor in November, and it will be called the BlackPad, according to a report citing two people familiar with the company’s plans.…

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(Source The Register)

O2 UK recorded positive growth last quarter, again, with good contract additions, strong iPhone and BlackBerry sales, and market-beating churn

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(Source Mobile News CWP)

HSC to offer SIM-free BlackBerry Pearl 3G to dealers, supported by marketing package and exchange programme HSC has said it will be the first distributor to launch a SIM-free version of the BlackBerry Pearl 3G into the dealer community. The phone will be accompanied by exclusive marketing packs for dealers including point-of-sale and merchandise packs [...]

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(Source Mobile News CWP)

A crisp, bright screen makes this smartphone appealing – but Samsung’s new in-house operating system doesn’t

What is it? Samsung Wave GT-S8500 – the first device to run Samsung operating system Bada

Category: Hardware and software, given the newsworthy nature of operating systems these days..

You’d use it for… On the move, personal or business. It’s not going to intrude on BlackBerry’s ground as leading high-performance business mobile device, but the Wave sits happily as a phone suited to staying up to speed while on the move.

First impressions: what is it like to look at, to hold, to use? Perfectly good look and feel to the phone, a sturdy but slender shell encasing a fairly high-spec bit of mobile kit. It’s when you activate the screen things start to go downhill.

The home screen – quite separate from the screen of apps – has six iterations as you swipe your finger right-to-left, inching across a background of some picturesque eastern European town square.

Each of these five modules is for housing a quick access single widget – but the access isn’t so quick after four or five swipes of the finger. Navigating from the home screen to your downloaded apps directory takes another click. Granted, the software is snappy and quickly responsive, but these things all pile up in the “pointless” file.

And you can’t swipe up to the URL bar in the browser, forcing you instead to press an on-screen button. Seems needless.

What does it really do well? Mobile internet has a well-suited clean font, made all the more appealing by the crisp super AMOLED screen. Put the Wave side-by-side with an iPhone 4 and a 3G – you’ll see the difference. FYI: guardian.co.uk looks better on a Wave than a 3G.

Keyboard keys appear far too close together, but typing seems to work fine if not more usable than on the iPhone. When browsing the web, pinching zooms are clunky and not instantaneously responsive.

Video playback is impressive, on the eyes and the ears. Creating media is a good experience too, the 5MP camera shooting strong video and stills taking allowing nifty features like user-directed focus.

What’s the cost? Around £300 sim-free; a 24-month contract, free handset, will set you back between £25-£45 per month.

What’s it up against? A smartphone market with less wiggle room than the App Store. It’s a relatively ruthless market out there for high-end devices, software increasing in consumer importance at a rate of knots.

With Bada, Samsung is late to the party and forgot to invite its marketing muscle. For this reason alone, Wave falls short of the majority of recently-released Android devices – Samsung have plenty of work to do before the release of Bada-powered Wave 2.

Blind us with the tech specs, then: Quite a few headline tech specs come with the Wave: the 5MP video/still camera will draw the punters – 5x zoom for stills and 720p video recording make the feature more than adequate; the Super AMOLED screen is a turn on, but likely only to the techies.

As light as any iPhone, the Wave is slimmer but only at a stitch. At 3.3 inch, the Wave screen limits its viability as a comfortable-to-use mobile internet device. With 2GB internal memory as standard, most users will require a MicroSD card (up to 32GB capacity).

What’s it good for? Taking and sharing decent-quality stills. It would be good for accomplishing tasks quickly if there weren’t so many naggingly bad points of user experience making pretty much any task an exertion.

What are its failings? One word: Bada. A few more words: the cramped feeling while using SMS, the uneconomic use of the 3.3 inch screen made worse by the majority of the screen having a black (or very dark) background even when running apps.

Will I have to read the manual? Does anyone still read manuals? If new to Samsung, you may need to Google “Help! I’ve accidentally locked my Samsung Wave – what now?”

How long is the battery life? With its 3G signal sensor turned off, the battery will last you over 24 hours from full – more than can be said for any iPhone before 4.

What’s its USP? The Wave’s USP would have to be the Super AMOLED screen which, on this score alone, puts it near top of the class for smartphones. That said, I don’t know one single person who’s been sold a phone on screen specifications – and it’s not great marketing fodder either.

Rating out of 10: 6.5

Finally, is it worth it – yes or no? Not at the current price. There are countless devices (and countless yet to be released) doing a better job and with a better operating system. Don’t hold out for the Wave 2.

Rating: 3/5

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(Source The Guardian)

HSC to offer SIM-free BlackBerry Pearl 3G to dealers, supported by exclusive marketing package HSC has said it will be the first distributor to launch a SIM-free version of the BlackBerry Pearl 3G into the dealer community. The phone will be accompanied by exclusive marketing packs for dealers including point-of-sale and merchandise packs designed to [...]

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(Source Mobile News CWP)

Gulf of confusion

The United Arab Emirates has decided that BlackBerry handsets constitute a threat to national security, and is considering an outright ban.…

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(Source The Register)

• Quarterly figures show steep like-for-like decline
• Underlying profits also down 27%
• Sales rise 1% but handset prices are cut

Profits at Nokia have plunged over the last three months as the company continues to struggle against rivals such as Apple and RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, in the smartphone market.

The Finnish handset maker reported today that profits fell 40% in the second quarter of 2010 compared with a year ago. Underlying profits were down 27%.

Although net sales were 1% higher at just over €10bn (£8.4bn), the profitability of its handset and service division slipped as the company cut the prices of its higher-end phones to make them more attractive to consumers.

Nokia’s failure to compete better against Apple’s iPhone and the growing number of handsets running Google’s Android platform has put chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo in the firing line. The company is reportedly looking for a replacement, with analysts warning that Nokia needs to get its hands on a “European Steve Jobs” if it is to regain its dominant position in the mobile market.

Kallasvuo called for an end to speculation over his future, telling the US television station CNBC that it is damaging the company. “There has been a lot of speculation on my position, on myself, during the last couple of weeks and that is not good for Nokia and must be brought to an end one way or another,” Kallasvuo said. “At the same time, I’m not in a position here and now to really shed any more light on the topic so I guess this is a no comment. I really concentrate now on the task at hand.”

Kallasvuo also insisted today that Nokia, which makes roughly four out of every 10 phones sold worldwide, had reasons to be optimistic, although the company is only aiming to maintain its share of the mobile device market this year. “The global handset market has continued to grow at a healthy pace, led by some of the less mature markets where Nokia is strong,” he said.

Kallasvuo added that solid sales of cheaper phones to developing markets had boosted the overall performance of Nokia’s handset business.

The average selling price of a Nokia handset dropped to €61 (£52), from €62 in the previous quarter. For smartphones, average prices fell 8% quarter-on-quarter to €143, and are down 21% over the last year.

Today’s figures suggest that Nokia is having to cut smartphone prices to maintain market share at the expense of profitability. Its smartphone shipments were up by 12% quarter-on-quarter at 24m units, in line with Nokia’s estimate for the overall growth of the market.

The company is now pinning its fortunes on the new Nokia N8 smartphone, although its release has already been delayed until later in the year.

Nokia also maintained its prediction that the global handset market volume would grow by 10% this year.

Earlier this week, Apple reported its best ever quarter, partly due to strong demand for the iPhone.

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(Source The Guardian)

Reports that phone-maker Nokia has launched top-level search as it struggles with falling profits and declining market share

Nokia is reported to be searching for a new chief executive as its CEO for the past four years, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, struggles with the company’s falling profits and market share, notably in the smartphone market.

The report in the Wall Street Journal of the top-level search follows reports on Bloomberg at the end of last week that the board of the Finnish company was calling for changes after seeing the company’s value slump by $77bn (€60bn) – about 67% – in the three years since 2007, when first Apple’s iPhone and then Google’s Android platform have transformed the smartphone market.

Although Nokia is the world’s largest phone-maker, and has the largest market share in smartphones at about 41%, it has issued two profit warnings in the past three months and seen its stock fall by 25% this year alone as it was forced to delay newer smartphones.

Nokia’s last big success in the smartphone market came four years ago with the N95, which boosted profits in its smartphone division to 21%. But since then Apple, Android and RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, have eaten away at Nokia’s profitability, so that the division’s profit in its most recent figures was just 12%.

James Kelleher, an analyst at Argus Research in New York, told Bloomberg that a new chief executive is “the first order of business”. Nokia’s share price has dropped to €6.83, from €20.81 on June 29, 2007, when the iPhone went on sale.

The Android platform also poses a considerable threat to Nokia: Google announced earlier this year that it was activating 160,000 Android phones every day.

An analysis by Goldman Sachs earlier this month comparing smartphone companies’ profitability in 2007 with 2009 suggests that Apple has grabbed a growing slice of profit from the handset industry. While total profits remained static in total at about $14bn since 2007, the American company took up to $8bn in 2009, and is expected to take more than half the industry’s profits in 2010 and 2011 – despite selling far fewer handsets than its rivals.

Earlier this month the new head of Nokia’s Mobile Solutions division, Anssi Vanjoki, wrote a combative blogpost on Nokia’s “Conversations” blog in which he declared that “the fightback starts now” and said that “I am committed, perhaps even obsessed, with getting Nokia back to being number one in high-end devices. Achieving this will require performance and efforts over and above the norm.”

He also insisted that there were no plans to adopt Google’s free Android software platform; Nokia will instead remain with its own open-source Symbian and Meego mobile operating systems: “Symbian and MeeGo are the best software for our smartest devices. As such, we have no plans to use any other software. Despite rumours to the contrary, there are no plans to introduce an Android device from Nokia,” he wrote.

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(Source The Guardian)

TORONTO (Reuters) – Apple Inc appears to be deliberately distorting the issues surrounding the iPhone 4′s antenna design by asserting that Research In Motion’s BlackBerry has similar reception problems, RIM said.

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(Source Yahoo UK News)

Microsoft should abandon or entirely reboot its mobile strategy because its latest product is barely as good as the iPhone from 2007 on the present developer offer

The as-yet unreleased Windows Phone 7 is a “waste of time and money”, a “disaster” that Microsoft should kill as soon as possible. So says Galen Gruman of Infoworld, who has watched an in-depth demonstration of the new phone software at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partners Conference which has been going on all week at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Windows Phone uses a “contact-centric” approach, where rather than doing “tasks” (in the iPhone app way), you are presented generally with contacts, and informed when someone has done something (updated their Facebook/Twitter feed, called you, etc). My personal first impression of the screenshots was “that’s really not going to scale to the point where you have 300 people in your contacts book and 20 Facebook friends and 50 emails and 100 people you follow on Twitter and 30 apps”, but I thought that was just me not following the thinking behind it.

But it looks like I may have been right.

Gruman started the year being impressed with early demos of Windows Phone 7 – but that’s worn off in a big way.

“Announced to much bravado in February as the platform that would breathe life into Microsoft’s mobile ambitions, Windows Phone 7 looked based on very early previews as if it might bring something new and exciting to the table. Back then, I noted that I was impressed by what I saw — with the caveat “so far.”

“No caveats now: Windows Phone 7 is a waste of time and money. It’s a platform that no carrier, device maker, developer, or user should bother with. Microsoft should kill it before it ships and admit that it’s out of the mobile game for good. It is supposed to ship around Christmas 2010, but anyone who gets one will prefer a lump of coal. I really mean that.”

Ouch. What’s happened, Galen?

“The early demos were intriguing due to the use of the card metaphor to organize apps and information, providing a possible fluidity among apps and information that would let users swim through their business and social activities. And the distinct UI — though based on the unsuccessful Zune media player — looked as if it would stand out from the crowd of mobile devices that have largely copied the iPhone UI, such as Google’s Android, RIM’s touch-oriented BlackBerry Storm, and Palm’s WebOS.”

Hmm.

“But that was just the lipstick. Now, in Microsoft’s in-depth demo this week at the Mobile Beat conference, there’s no mistaking the big pig behind the gloss. Seeing the UI in action across several tasks, not just in a highly controlled presentation, shows how awkward and unsophisticated it is — I had the same feeling you get when you got a movie based on a great trailer, only to discover that all the good stuff was in the trailer and the rest of the movie was a mess. A pig, in fact.”

There’s plenty more; it’s worth reading in depth. Gruman says that as well as resting on old technology, Windows Phone 7 is simply outdated:

“The bottom line is this: Windows Phone 7 is a pale imitation of the 2007-era iPhone. It’s as if Microsoft decided in summer 2007 to copy the iPhone and has shut its developers in a bunker ever since, so they don’t realize that several years have passed, that the iPhone has advanced, and that competitors such as Google Android and Palm WebOS have also pushed the needle forward. Microsoft is stuck in 2007, with a smartphone OS whose feature checklist might match that era’s iPhone but whose fit and finish would look like a Pinto next to a Maserati.”

Gruman went along to a presentation at WPC (which has been generally described as “lacklustre” – and certainly seems to have been much smaller than in previous years by all accounts) and was worried by what seemed like poor responses to the handful of outside developers who had come along.

Arguably, WPC is not the place where you’re going to find the hottest WP7 developers; it’s more about geeing up the people who will resell Microsoft products. But the fact that only a few months short of the grand launch of WP7 it can’t wow even developers for the platform sounds bad. Gruman’s description of the presentation makes it sound like one of those uncomfortable events where the tumbleweed was always at risk of rolling past.

And as for the “locked in a bunker since 2007″ jibe – don’t forget the Kin, which seems to have been the victim of political infighting at Microsoft, as the incoming developer team from Danger (which Microsoft bought to produce the Kin) found themselves mired in layers of management that effectively brought them to a dead stop. Read the full horror of it at the Mini-Microsoft blog (by a disaffected Microsoft manager, but the comments are from ex-Danger staff and others).

Back to Gruman, who points to the flaws with the “tiles” method:

“… the big tiles quickly eat up screen real estate (about four fit), so you don’t get the compact access to apps that all the other major mobile operating systems provide. I bet this will depress app sales for those poor souls unlucky enough to get seduced by the Microsoft brand or the inevitable discounts at the cellular stores as the carriers try to dump these devices in January 2011 for $25 (shades of the unlamented Kin).

“Plus, Microsoft has done its usual trick of gumming up the UI, even though this one is relatively simple. There are two ways to navigate through tiles: in panorama mode and in pivot mode. In both cases, the tile continues to the right, and you swipe to see more. In panorama mode, cut-off text on the right indicates there’s more (at Mobile Beat, a developer asked if users knew what that cut-off text was for, and the Microsoft rep essentially admitted they didn’t get it was a way to say “more”). In pivot mode, each tile is self-contained, and there is an icon to indicate there is more. It’s a subtle difference: Using a panorama basically means the tile continues because it won’t fit on screen, while using a pivot means you have a series of what are essentially pages. I bet developers and users will get confused very fast.

“Visions of Vista’s litter of control panel dialog boxes, Microsoft Bob, the Office ribbon, Clippy, and Windows 3 flew through my head — not that Windows Phone 7 looks like any of these; it just shares the same flaw of being obtuse.”

And that’s only for starters. Other complaints: the browser, IE7 with a bit of IE8, doesn’t support HTML5; there’s no multitasking except for Microsoft’s own apps (Android and, now, the iPhone both support cooperative multitasking by all apps); there doesn’t seem to be interapplication communication for third-party apps; there’s no copy-and-paste (emphasis added) – even though Apple was roundly and rightly criticised for not introducing it until summer 2009, and Windows Mobile 6.1 did have it.

Gruman says there’s going to be no come-from-behind take-over-the-world for Microsoft if this doesn’t succeed: RIM (prepping BlackBerry 6), Android, Apple and Nokia will all eat its lunch and dance on its grave.

At this point, people usually begin an ad-hominem, to ask whether Gruman is biased or (sigh) in the pay of company X or Y. Judge for yourself from the Infoworld author bio and item list.

Meanwhile, if anyone else has had a hands-on with Windows Phone 7 – via the developer kit or other methods – we’d love to hear about it. Good? Bad? Indifferent? What’s it really like?

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

What we love and what we hate

Things we love

Grown-up festivals

The summer season means fun weekends. But we would much rather go to real festivals than London’s Underage one – that’s only cool when you’re 14.

BlackBerry hype

Everyone who is anyone has got one. People used to ask for your number, then your Facebook name; now it’s all about your BB pin.

Friends

The most important thing in life – they make you who you are. They love what you love, and hate who you hate.

Glee

Everyone’s addicted. It’s silly, but you’re laughing with it, rather than at it, like High School Musical. Unlikely to rush out and join a choir though

Napping

Do it most of the time. We finish something then immediately need a lie down. Nap time should be compulsory at school.

Things we hate

Celebrity relatives

Who is Pixie Geldof? We despise young people who are famous for nothing.

Teen advice

No, I’m not pregnant and yes, I know that drugs are very bad. You’re not being completely patronising at all.

txt spk

Connecting with us via txt spk. “R u ok? Nd hlp? Talk to ur doc l8r 4 free advice”. Er, no thanks.

Parents on Facebook
Their only reason for joining is to spy on us. Unlike. Let the Twitter switch-over commence.

Correcting speech

We know our constant use of the word “like” is, like, grammatically incorrect and irritating, but we don’t actually care.

Skins wannabes

No one we know is like a Skins character, and if anyone tried to invite us to a Skins party, we’d run a mile.

Teen readers – do you agree with the list? Email us at g2feedback@guardian.co.uk

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Survey finds internet listening is on the up thanks to mobile devices

Radio audience measurement body Rajar says new figures show that 20% of smart phone users have a radio app installed on their device.

Its most recent survey also shows that 31% of listeners listen to the radio online and 16% have downloaded a podcast. It appears that radio habits are adapting well the arrival of not just streaming internet but catchup services.

13% of the adults questioned have listened to radio by a mobile phone, with the majority using a specific FM preset on the app, with a only small proportion running a station-centric app.

Out of those 20% with a radio app, more than half use their apps at least once a week. On the internet radio front, 25% use time-shifted services to catch up on programmes they have missed. The vast majority said that the “listen again” services had no impact on the amount of live radio they listen to, with the average listener just the services twice a week.

The awareness of personalised online radio services has increased to 14%, with frequent users up to 11%. Personalised radio services (such as Last.fm) create a streaming radio station based on your listening habits and artists you enjoy.

Podcast listening figures are also on the up, with 15% of the adult population listen to a podcast once a week but only 25% of the users listen to the entire recording. The typical listener subscribes to less than five podcasts, mostly in the comedy and music genres. Those surveyed listen to podcasts home and on the way to work, with 36% claiming that podcasts have introduced them to new radio shows.

Have you listened on a mobile device or do you fancy the internet over the air? Check out TuneIn Radio for the iPhone, Android Online Radio or iheartradio for BlackBerry to tune into your favourite station.

Be aware that unless you are on Wi-Fi, radio stream over the air will zap up your data usage faster than you can say Radio 2.

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(Source The Guardian)

Gartner report suggests that ‘Symbian foundation is just re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic’

Despite being touted as the world’s most widely used mobile operating system, the folks over at Gartner believe the future for Symbian fans is not a happy one.

Forecasts to be published at the end of the month show Symbian is losing market share at an ever-increasing rate.

Symbian is still way ahead of the other players in terms of market share, and may be for some time to come, but the others (particularly Android) are catching up fast. (See Wikipedia’s graphic of the 2009 end-of-year share, which shows Nokia/Symbian at 44%, RIM at 19%, Apple at 15%, Android at 10% and Windows Mobile at 7%. Since then, Android has probably overtaken Apple.)

The reason behind the downward drift appears to lie in a lack of design and purpose. RIM, Apple, Google and Microsoft have all tailor-made their latest operating systems for high-end devices with large touchscreens, providing excellent user experiences.

On the other hand, Symbian software targets a much wider variety of phones, many at the lower end of the spectrum, with different interfaces and screen sizes to encounter.

User experience has never been a high point of the development for the Symbian Foundation and little seems to be changing in the future. Although it is planning to bring a fresh new look for applications, the refresh is not due until next year.

Says Gartner’s Nick Jones: “So if the weak UI [user interface] is threatening Symbian’s very survival the Foundation ought to be seriously worried, right? Wrong. I just looked on the Foundation web site and blogs at the roadmap and features for future releases. What I see is too much effort on stuff that really doesn’t matter.” Everyone would love HDMI output or an audio policy on their mobile phone but is this really necessary?

With the three big players in smart phones each attempting to up the ante with each new release, the competition in the smart phone market is still very alive. The release of iOS 4, BlackBerry 6 and Android 2 have all brought impressive overhauls to the user interface. Whether Symbian can remain competitive and relevant in this evolving market yet is to be seen.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Year end arrival?

More details are emerging about Research in Motion’s long-rumored BlackBerry tablet: it will have a seven-inch display, both back- and front-facing cameras, and will support hardware-accelerated Adobe Flash.…

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(Source The Register)

Research in Motion (RIM) has released another preview video for its
Blackberry 6 operating system.

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(Source Yahoo UK News)

RIM has unveiled BlackBerry Protect, a service that provides what the firm
claims is a quick and convenient method of backing up, restoring and locating
devices via the internet.

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(Source Yahoo UK News)

Google OS to eclipse Redmond

Android’s share of the US smartphone market surged 4 per cent between February and May, according to research outfit comScore, putting Google on the verge of overtaking Microsoft for the number three spot behind RIM BlackBerry and Apple.…

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(Source The Register)

RIM has introduced several updates to its BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES)
5 software, including support for separating business and personal content on
BlackBerry devices, a single sign-on tool and self-service security features.

Read Full Story…
(Source Yahoo UK News)

Finding a good app is sorting the wheat from the chaff. With new releases appearing all the time, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Here is a selection of genuinely useful applications to try out on your mobile.

iPhone

● LifeForceTeam Fertility (Back Door Productions, £3.99)

A unique application which provides fertility advice straight to couples, without the hassle of lengthy waiting lists. With advice from Harley Street expert Dr Lawrence Shaw, this application provides a comprehensive knowledge of everything you need to know through videos and text.

● PolyTune (TC Electronics, £5.99)

Polyphonic guitar tuning allows you to tune all your guitar strings at once, instead of plucking one at a time. Available within a pedal for a smooth £75.00, this app provides the same functionality for a fraction of the cost.

iPad

● Brushes (Steve Sprang, £4.99)

This week’s internet hit has been the artistic work of David Kassan who has created stunningly realistic portraits with an iPad and easel. Even if your skills do not match the level of his, you can certainly have fun with this easy to use painting application.

● Live Pitch (Mint Digital, free)

The best iPad apps are designed from the ground up to take advantage of the huge screen. One such example is Live Pitch – which provides real time information with from each World Cup match. A must have for any football fan, provides an entirely new way to experience football.

Blackberry

● UNO (Gameloft, $4.99)

Relive summers of the playing this classic card, number and colour game, UNO is a realistic interpretation of the original game and ideal for those morning commutes.

● Player for YouTube (Smarter Apps, free)

Simple, yet extremely useful, this handy application allows you to watch high quality videos straight from YouTube. Be sure to make sure your WiFi is turned on, or watch your data costs soar with each passing second.

Android

● Pocket IKEA (Go2mobile, free)

Ever tried to remember the name of that BILLY bookcase in the corner? Pocket IKEA allows you to browse thousands of items from everyone’s favourite do-it-yourself furniture store. Avoid the crowds and spend your time somewhere leisurely than trailing around a warehouse.

● National Rail (ATOC, £4.99)

The official application from the all the rail operators, National Rail provides the latest service updates, journey planning, fare information, platforms as well as live departures and arrivals. Essential for any commuter, and more reliable than the train services too.

Java

● iSpyCams (Warelex, free)

Fancy spotting what is happening at Abbey Road? Watch boats floating down the Seine? Check if someone is parked outside your garage? iSpyCams allows you to connect to thousands of free web cams around the world, as well as your own at home.

● UrbanDaddy (UrbanDaddy, free)

Whether you are stumbling around for some fried chicken at midnight or looking for a cocktail bar at lunch time, UrbanDaddy will help you find the best locations. Providing comprehensive guides and articles to the major cities, this is an essential companion to exploring.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

With iPhone and iPad sales responsible for the majority of Apple’s revenue, the company is losing interest in what was once its keystone product

In the technology world, the name Mary Meeker is one to conjure with. Her official job title is managing director at the investment bank Morgan Stanley. Unofficially, her title (granted by Barron’s, a specialist financial publication) is “Queen of the Net”. This is mainly because her regular research reports on “internet trends” have become required reading for anyone interested in understanding what’s going on in the networked economy.

But it also has something to do with the fact that she’s been around a long time. In August 1995, for example, her employer was the lead manager on the Netscape IPO which triggered the first internet boom, and she was the firm’s leading research analyst. In August 2004, Morgan Stanley also led on the Google IPO – and guess who was their leading analyst then too. Given the seven to one ratio between internet and calendar years, this means that Ms Meeker has been watching the industry for about 105 internet “years”.

Her latest “internet trends” presentation is a powerpoint essay so overloaded with data it would cause Edward Tufte, the celebrated expert on data visualisation, to faint. For me, two charts in particular stood out. The first shows sales of smartphones and PCs on the same timescale. It suggests that, sometime in 2012, sales of the phones will exceed those of PCs. The second chart contains two pie-charts which capture the distribution of Apple’s revenues in 2007 and 2010. The differences are striking.

In the second quarter of 2007, for example, 47% of Apple’s revenues came from its Macintosh range of computers. The iPod accounted for 29% of revenues and iTunes for 11%, while “Others” accounted for the remaining 11%. The iPhone brought in 0% for the simple reason that it didn’t go on sale until that summer.

Spool forward to the first quarter of 2010 and, according to Meeker, the iPhone now brings in 40% of Apple’s revenues, while the iPod and iTunes together account for 24%. Sales of Macintosh computers are now responsible for only 28% of the company’s sales. These are the numbers which underpin Steve Jobs’s recent assertion that Apple had become a “mobile devices” company.

He followed up with a new metaphor, likening PCs to “trucks” – ie things that companies need to have but which few individuals own. This kind of talk prompted journalists to wonder whether his long-term strategy was to get out of the computer business altogether. In a nicely ironic touch, a blogger wrote a “Dear John” letter from Steve to the Mac (you know the genre: “It’s been lovely knowing you but I feel that the time has come for us to realise our individual potentials separately…”). This triggered a terse, irritable response from Jobs. Suggestions that Apple was thinking of dropping the Mac were, he emailed, “completely wrong. Just wait”.

Well, we’re waiting. Some seasoned Mac users are beginning to get impatient. Dan Gillmor, the prominent Silicon Valley observer and evangelist for “citizen journalism”, has been a Mac user for many years, but recently announced that he’s moving to Linux running on the beautiful new ThinkPad laptops emerging from Lenovo. Other Mac users are beginning to mutter about whether Apple has essentially lost interest in what was once its keystone product. Sure, the company continues to make incremental improvements in the MacBook, Mac mini and iMac lines, but somehow the fire has gone out.

In a way, that’s not surprising. Companies go where the commercial opportunities are. The inescapable conclusion to be drawn from Apple’s recent history is that the spectacular growth opportunities are in mobile devices, not deskbound computers or even laptops. The iPad is selling at a rate of a million a month. More than 1.4 million of the new iPhones were sold in the first four days. And the pace seems to be increasing. It took the first iPhone 74 days to reach its first million. The iPad got there in 28. Only things like the Nintendo Wii (13 days) shift faster. Then there’s the small matter of the 40% contribution the iPhone now makes to Apple’s bottom line. In those circumstances, if you were Steve Jobs, what would you focus on?

For the rest of us, the thing to focus on is the way smartphones are overtaking PCs as the gateway that most people will use to access the internet. There are now only three players in that game – Apple, Google (via the Android operating system) and RIM (makers of the BlackBerry). Until recently, I would have said that the (open, permissive) Google/Android system would win out over the (closed, tightly controlled) Apple device. But sales of the new iPhone lead one to wonder if it will be Apple, and not Google, which replaces Microsoft as the company we love to hate.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)