According to Gartner figures, worldwide mobile phone sales totalled 286.1 million units in Q209, a 6.1 percent decline over the year earlier quarter, but smartphone sales rose 27 percent over the same period, surpassing 40 million units for the first time (40.96 million).

Apple saw the largest rise in its share of the global smartphone market in 2Q09, rising from a 2.8 percent share in 2Q08 to 13.3 percent. With 5.4 million iPhones units in the quarter (a 51 percent growth), Apple retained the number three position in the smartphone market, which it has held since 3Q08. Nokia continued to lead the smartphone market but saw its share decline from 47.4 percent to 45 percent despite an uplift in unit sales.

RIM and Apple grew their shares year-on-year. It noted that Google’s Android platform, which accounted for just under 2 percent of the market in 2Q09, will intensify competition in the smartphone platform market when further Android-based devices come to market later this year, which could put pressure on Symbian and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile.

Thanks to the release of the iPhone 3GS, AT&T added nearly 840,000 new iPhone customers last quarter, which accounted for about 60% of the carrier’s new subscriber adds, reports Information Week. But the iPhone won’t be exclusive forever, and traditional voice revenues are also on a downward trend, so the carrier said it will branch out to offer multiple devices that use mobile data plans in order to generate new revenues.

Ralph de la Vega, head of AT&T’s wireless unit, told Bloomberg. “There’s a plethora of those things that are just beginning to get to market that I think will dramatically change the industry.”

AT&T, based in Dallas, announced a deal with Plastic Logic last month to roll out an electronic reader in 2010 that will compete with Amazon’s Kindle. Worldwide shipments of e-books are expected to grow from almost 1 million units in 2008 to close to 30 million units in 2013, according to market research company In-Stat.

There are as many as 2 million gadgets such as e-books, security devices and utility meters connected to wireless networks in the U.S., said Roger Entner, an analyst at Nielsen Co. in Boston. The market, which generates less than $100 million in annual revenue today, will grow as much as 100 percent a year, he said.

Gartner says smartphones accounted for 12 per cent of all mobile handset sales in Q4 2008, compared to 11 per cent in Q4 2007 while U.S. smartphone sales, according to another survey by NPD, account for 23% of all handset sales in Q4 (up from 12% last year). Frost & Sullivan estimates that smartphone downloads from all app stores will reach $6.67 billion by 2014. Shipments of Open-Source smartphones may hit 223M by 2014, says Jupiter Research. Source: www.dailywireless.org

But the major reason iTune 9 has so many people talking is because it may feature some form of social networking platform.

As a result of such speculation, many bloggers and Apple enthusiasts are wondering if the company will actually push through an updated software package that will take the next generation iTunes into the realm of social media.

If the development actually manifests, how will it work?

For now, it is believed that the iTunes social networking platform will be an app (presumably for the iPhone as well as desktops) that will enable users to share personal information in real time about the music they are listening to. We may also see “musical status updates” so friends and followers can see what
you’ve downloaded, uploaded, or recently jammed to.

Will it work? Will it even happen?

It looks like we’ll find out soon one way or another.

Share This

]]> http://www.profileprofit.com/apple%e2%80%99s-itunes-9-to-feature-social-networking/feed 0 http://www.profileprofit.com/a-tale-of-one-phone http://www.profileprofit.com/a-tale-of-one-phone#comments Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:10:25 +0000 ADMIN http://www.profileprofit.com/a-tale-of-one-phone I had a quick post-3GS look at the Flickr Camera stats and the results are telling. The iPhone beats every other device hands down. Even YouTube has taken notice of the iPhone since it got video recording. I get real tired of all the Nokia apologists saying that the iPhone is just a hyped fashion phone and that developers should actually target Nokia devices in order to reach the greatest number of users. I will willingly oblige when I see the metrics that support this view but until then our focus is on the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android.

29th June

13th May

Source: http://www.paxmodept.com/telesto/blogitem.htm?id=788

Welcome to Mercer house, Mr. Kelso. — Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski, in the FCC’s first major inquiry since Genachowski took over the agency on June 29, has launched an inquiry into AT&T and Apple over the rejection of Google’s voice application for the Apple iPhone.

On Friday, the FCC sent letters to executives at Apple, Google and AT&T, saying it was “interested in a more complete understanding of this situation.”

“AT&T does not manage or approve applications for the App Store,” the company said in a statement. “We have received the letter and will, of course, respond to it.”

The FCC wants to know the process behind the company’s rejection of Google Voice apps.

It also wants to know whether Apple acted alone or consulted with AT&T. Network neutrality appears to be a priority in the new FCC.

Google wants the mobile Web to be as open as the Internet, to enable them to use their apps and services on most any platform. Apple is not about being open. Every app on the iPhone (all 50,000 of them) must be approved. The first proceeding on open access dates back to 2007 when Skype requested that cell phone carriers open up their networks to all applications (see Skype’s petition here). Like Google Voice, Skype helps consumers bypass the carriers.

Apple approved the Major League Baseball streaming application which provides 15 three-hour baseball games live every single day of the week, and AT&T is apparently okay with that, too. But the carrier has restricted Sling’s SlingPlayer Mobile application to Wi-Fi only.

Mobile carriers don’t want to become “dumb” pipes. But public sentiment is moving towards an “open” platform that doesn’t close off competing applications or services.

The future of the wireless Web may be at stake, says Business Week. It’s Carterphone all over again. Meanwhile, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from Apple’s board.

Last week, Representatives Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009 (pdf).

This legislation would protect Net Neutrality under the Communications Act, says Savetheinternet.com, and safeguard the future of the open Internet, and protect Internet users from discrimination by network owners that increasingly seek to control the free-flowing Web. Timothy Karr of Free Press lists seven reasons why net neutrality is needed. Source: http://www.dailywireless.org/2009/08/03/fcc-its-midnight-in-the-apps-store-garden/

Of course this remote doesn’t ship with the set top box. The remote requires a smartphone, something more and more people are carrying; for AppleTV of course, an iPhone or iPod Touch are required. We are delighted to see a mobile device embraced this way in a living room context, but don’t look to Apple to make an Android/Symbian/Palm/WinMo/ version any time soon. Source: http://idlemode.com/

To create your own ringtone from the audio of your choice, simply use Voice Notes to capture your soundbyte. The sky’s the limit, but you’ll need to keep the duration to 40 seconds or less. Use the share function to email yourself the file. You’ll notice the file will be saved as an .m4a, a format Apple has popularized as a flavor of Mpeg-4. But I digress.

Converting an .m4a into a ringtone that iPhone recognizes is dead simple. Simply change the filename extension to .m4r and drag it into iTunes. Next time you connect your iPhone, clicking the Ringtones tab in iTunes will give you the ability to sync your new ringtones to the phone.  Have fun!  Source: www.idlemode.com

We asked staffers to identify 2-3 non-default, non-game applications that they actively use and wouldn’t want to live without. We urged respondents to think of the apps that all their friends DON’T have yet. The overall goal was to expose some new apps that we think are actually worth having.

Some of these you have no doubt heard about recently (Brushes, which was used to create a New Yorker cover, for example, and Shazam is pretty well-known too) but many you may not know. Have a look, and comment to let us know what we’ve missed.

iPhone

Peter

Zenbe Lists ($2.99) – Checklists for everything. It’s how I resolve my non-multitasking male brain issues.

Kineo ($4.99) – flipbook animation with hand drawn imagery – fun timekiller when I am waiting for the BART (not a game, but maybe not useful enough). I made a stylus (Wrigley’s wrapper around a pen lid) to aid drawing with this. I also hear good things about FlipBook (Lite version FREE, full version $9.99) for the same purpose, but haven’t tried it.

WordPress (FREE) – Create wordpress blog posts from the phone in a pinch. Comes in handy for quick blogging and awkward deadlines.

Bonus: Pocket Guitar ($0.99)- turns my iphone screen into a simple guitar. For when I don’t have a real instrument, but feel like playing something or just hearing a few guitar notes (for tuning or some other purpose).

Gabe

Byline ($4.99) -  Google Reader cached on your phone in a non-web UI. BART friendly.

Fring (FREE) -  Designed for voice calling (which I don’t use), but has the best free IM client out there I’ve seen.

Inquisitor – Mobile search, actually designed good. Craps all over Google’s app.

Molly

Pano ($2.99)- makes awesome panoramic photos with your iphone camera

SomaFM ($3.99) – listen to SomaFM’s internet radio stations on the go, and bookmark interesting songs to look up later on itunes

iFitness ($1.99) – has a list of exercises and routines with detailed instructions, and lets you create your own workouts that you can track and graph over time.

Andy

Mint.com app (FREE) – syncs with my mint online account, that aggregates all of my financial transactions. can see my net worth, checking, savings accounts. I check it often to see if checks have cleared, and check balances of accounts. the app could be WAY better, but its valuable to me because of the data it pulls in.

FTP Pic Up ($1.99) – allows me to increase the resolution of the iphone camera, and take pictures that automatically upload to my webserver. It also can auto create thumbnails at various sizes. I use this in place of the native camera app. It adds the photos to my iphone photo library as well as uploading them via ftp to a server of my choice.

Routesy SF ($0.99 through June 12th, then more) – real time predictions for muni and bart. automatically gets my location and shows me the closest stops and the arrival times. Allows me to bookmark my most visited routes and stops for super quick access to real time predictions. (I designed this one so i can talk at length about it if you want!)

Nate

TwitterFon (FREE) – Best free Twitter app. Also available in Pro version ($4.99)

Wikipanion (FREE)- For settling disputes quickly. Also available in Plus version ($4.99)

Evernote (FREE) – Because the default Notes app is stunningly terrible

Shazam (FREE) – Now music everywhere comes with metadata

Justin

Air Mouse Pro ($5.99) – connect over wireless network to your cpu and your iPhone touch screen becomes your computers touch pad complete with multi-touch functionality, media and browser control interfaces, and the iPhone keyboard. If you watch a lot of TV via your cpu this is great.

PowerSearch (FREE) – search for any business/service and get a list organized by proximity to your current location.

Sportacular (FREE) – live sports updates and live game tracker stats featuring player photos and play by play. You can even talk trash via commenting with other users.

Zara

Brushes ($4.99) -  This app is really quite cool. $4.99, but worth it. Become an amazing painter in minutes! See this article on the New Yorker cover using this app: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2009/may/new-yorker-cover-created-on-iphone

iEmoji ($0.99) -  Adds alternate keyboard to your communication apps. These keyboards contains iconography, such as trains, martini glasses and fingernail polish.

P Tracker ($1.99) – For women. Nuff said.

CameraBag -  Make your pictures 10x more awesome with filters that mimic lenses and camera types (Lomo, Holga, polaroid, etc…)

FWIX (FREE) – Social media and news aggregator based on location. I can see what is happening in SF based on multiple news sources, twitter, or anything else tagged with SF geo-data. Alternate views include aerial heat-maps representing this activity.

Other Devices – Android/T-Mobile G1

Antigone:

SkyMap – I love SkyMap. It shows you exactly what constellations, planets, and Messier objects are visible in that particular night sky, as well as where the horizon is. If you have a favorite star or constellation and are having difficulty finding it  you can do a search. Very cool.

Inspection Scores – I also love Inspection Scores which lists the inspection score for all the restaurants in SF. If it’s less than 100 they list all the areas where points were lost. Some examples are: vermin, food in poor condition, food contact surfaces not cleaned/sanitized,  wiping cloths not clean etc…It also lists the degree of risk (low, moderate, high), and the date of discovery, date abated, date of inspection etc.

Bubble – I also like Bubble. It’s a built-in level. It’s actually come in handy a couple times. Yes, I’m a big dork.

Source: http://idlemode.com