Category Archives: Mobile phones

Schmidt finally ends conflict of interest. War now starts in earnest.

Posted on by

From BBC NEWS.

The resignation of Google’s Eric Schmidt as a director of Apple’s board has failed to halt a government inquiry into possible antitrust violations.

Mr Schmidt stepped down because the search giant’s business increasingly competes with Apple’s.

The Google CEO recused himself when Apple’s board discussed the iPhone.

In a statement the Federal Trades Commission said “we will continue to investigate remaining interlocking directorates between the companies”.

And the NYT reminds us that Google and Apple still have one other Board member in common — Arthur Levinson, the chairman of Genentech.

So now instead of having Google+Apple vs. Microsoft we will have Google vs. Apple vs. Microsoft+Yahoo.

There ought to be a board game in this somewhere.

The iPhone and the Kama Sutra

Posted on by

This morning’s Observer column.

The big news at the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference last week was that Steve Jobs is apparently still away on sick leave. So the limelight fell on subordinates. They announced a new version of the iPhone, drastic price reductions on the old model, a new operating system for old and new iPhones and the next version of the company’s OS X operating system.

But widely-touted expectations that the company would launch a ‘tablet’ computer were not realised. Which makes sense, really: a tablet would represent a major change in direction for Apple and it’s hard to imagine Jobs leaving such an announcement to a mere underling. As far as unveiling tablets is concerned, Steve’s only peer is Moses…

UPDATE: Bill Thompson wondered if Apple were just trying to protect us from badly-scanned versions of the Kama Sutra.

The iPhone and telephone-number profits

Posted on by

This morning’s Observer column.

The significance of the iPhone – as regular readers know – lies in its operating system. It's really a powerful Unix computer that fits into the palm of your hand. That means it can run very sophisticated software – such as a browser that actually makes it feasible to read web pages and even books on a small screen. Add to this the fact that it is also permanently connected to the internet and you have what the rest of the industry is starting to recognise as a game changer.

Actually, the PC business is also beginning to wake up to the threat of the iPhone. How come? Well it turns out that iPhone users make less use of their laptops and desktop computers. The reason is obvious when you think about it: much of what we do on the net is pretty routine – checking email, accessing websites, Googling, accessing Facebook or Twitter. If you can do all that without booting up a computer, why bother?

The iPhone is also transforming the market for software…

The new market for software

Posted on by

Fascinating Ars Technica piece on hos the market for software is changing as the iPhone consolidates its strangelhold on the smartphone market.

In addition to giving away some nice swag to celebrate the countdown to one billion App Store downloads, Apple also created a list of top 20 paid and and top 20 free applications. The list gave us a good idea of what iPhone users like and what they are willing to pay for en masse (the lists appear to be region specific, so many of you will be looking at the US list).

To make the list a bit more interesting, however, MacRumors has collected sales numbers for some of the apps from a variety of different sources. While none of the numbers are 100 percent up to date, they are a reasonable approximation.

Since not all developers are open with their sales numbers, the article only talks about four of the top 20 applications numbers. The number-two application, Koi Pond by the Blimp Pilots, has made an estimated $623,000 (after Apple’s cut) from about 900,000 downloads. Number three, Pangea’s Enigmo, is harder to pinpoint because it has fluctuated in price over its App Store lifespan. With an estimated 810,000 copies sold, however, Pangea has made at least $561,330 on the one application alone. PocketGod, number 12 on the list, has earned an impressive $350,000 since its release in January with somewhere around 500,000 sales. The last application with any numbers is iShoot, which at number 19 on Apple’s list has reportedly made the author $800,000 in just five months.

While the numbers are in no way indicative of the whole, it makes it quite clear that it is possible to make a comfortable living developing solely for the iPhone. Even with mildly popular applications, we would estimate that a developer could squeak out a living if they were any good…

LATER: Nice email from a reader with a link to an Irish Times story about one of his students, Steven Troughton-Smith, who “has emerged as Ireland’s most successful software developer for Apple’s iPhone, generating revenues of up to $1,000 a day.”

Zittrain unpacked

Posted on by

Every so often, a group of my Open University colleagues gathers to discuss a book that one of us regards as important or interesting. Last week it was my turn to talk about Jonathan Zittrain’s The Future of the Internet — and how to stop it. The mp3 of the talk is here. The sound quality is variable, I’m afraid, and I only had one microphone, so it’s not Radio 4 quality. It runs for about an hour and includes a delicious excerpt from James Boyle’s recent RSA lecture.

If you’re listening to it, you might find the slide below helpful.

Alternatively, you might find it a cure for insomnia.

And if you’re podcast-averse, Doug Clow did an excellent live blog of the talk, for which many thanks to him.

The sound of serious money

Posted on by

This morning’s Observer column.

At this point, those of us who have been watching Mr Jobs strut his stuff for decades began to yawn. Then something happened that made your columnist sit up. On to the stage strode John Doerr, the driving force behind Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers of 2750 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California – the world’s premier venture capital firm. Mr Doerr said that he was so taken by this apps store idea that he was setting up a $100m fund to invest in people who were interested in developing software for the iPhone.

In retrospect, it may have been a pivotal moment in the history of the computing industry. Doerr, you see, has great judgment and a long history of spotting winners before anyone else. Companies he backed in their early days, for example, include Amazon, Compaq, Electronic Arts, Google, Lotus, Macromedia and Sun Microsystems. So if he thought there was something in the apps store idea then perhaps Jobs’s hyperbole might be justified.

And so it has proved…

BlackBerry Storm: Stephen Fry was right

Posted on by

Confirmation in WSJ.com, that the BlackBerry Storm wasn’t ready for prime-time when it was launched.

Verizon and RIM, determined to release the Storm in time for the holidays, rushed the device to market despite glitches in the stability of the phone’s operating system, according to people close to the launch.

RIM co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie said the companies made the crucial Black Friday deadline “by the skin of their teeth”, after missing a planned October debut. Mr. Balsillie said such scrambles — and the subsequent software glitches that need to be fixed — are part of the “new reality” of making complex cellphones in large volumes.

I like that bit about the “new reality” of releasing products you know aren’t working properly.