Steve Job Anti-Android Rant

Google Android OS Has Momentum

Among consumers planning to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days, 37 percent say they prefer to have the Android OS on their new phone. That is a seven percentage point jump since the previous survey and a new all-time high for the Google operating system.

Over a year, preference for Android has grown about 600 percent.

While the Apple iOS remains the number one OS preference for future buyers, it dropped as expected in the aftermath of the huge spike we saw during June’s iPhone 4 release.

ChangeWave Consumer Smartphone Survey - Google Android OS Momentum

Apple's segmentation strategy

Apple is different. Most people sort of intuitively understand that. Some might suggest that the iPad "has" to cannibalize low-end MacBook sales.

The alternative view is that Apple is cannibalizing low-end Windows machines, instead.

The iPad targets a set of applications and use casesthat are not dependent upon keyboards and mice. But there are plenty of jobs for which a tablet is an unsatisfying replacement for a traditional computer, and so the segmentation is pretty clear.

Apple also makes sure it doesn't make low-end MacBooks for which an iPad would represent a practical alternative. Beyond that, every product in the Apple line has a fairly easy to understand role in a user's life, with different form factors and input methods that make each product suitable for different use cases.

Apple's segmentation strategy

Why Apple And iPhone Have Already Won The Mobile Payment War

In a survey of 982 iPhone users, 756 users spent between $6 and $25 a month on apps, while 89 users spent over $26 a month on apps – which is the equivalent to buying one $0.99 app a day.

Close to 77 percent of all participants purchased content.

Why Apple And iPhone Have Already Won The Mobile Payment War

Android Overtakes iPhone OS Globally

Google’s Android Operating System has overtaken Apple’s iPhone OS and become the world’s third most popular OS.

Android had 17 percent market share during the second quarter.

Android also is on track to overtake RIM’s BlackBerry OS and become the world’s second biggest platform behind Nokia’s Symbian OS, Gartner says.

According to Gartner, the Android OS has already overtaken the BlackBerry OS in the US.

Android Overtakes iPhone OS

Signs of Trouble in the Mobile Handset Business?

Trouble might be brewing in the mobile handset business, if one looks at profits in the industry. Apple is the outstanding winner, and Research in Motion isn't immediately troubled, either.

But Apple's growth seems to have come at the expense of other providers, and doesn't seem to have grown the market.

Industry profits dipped to a bit under $4 billion at the trough of the recession, and have recovered to nearly $6 billion in the holiday quarter last year. But the aggregate data hides a stunning shift of market share.

Motorola and Sony Ericsson had been losing money and only recently have reached breakeven status. LG turned negative in the second quarter of 2010.

Samsung has been consistently profitable and has gained market share.

But Apple and RIM now ern about 65 percent of all profits in the business.

asymco

Google's Failures are a Good Thing

Many management consultants would say that the typical company learns faster when it tries new things faster, accelerating the rate at which it can sort the good ideas from the bad.

Few firms actually practice what the consultants preach very well. Failure still gets punished, and the bigger the failure the bigger the punishment. Google is among the firms that fail fast and frequently, and that is a good thing. The faster it sorts through initiatives that don't work, the faster it will stumble upon the good ideas.

Though people tend to remember the successes and forget the failures, given a sufficient passage of time, both Apple and Google have failed at some initiatives, in Google's case many initiatives.

That's a good thing, not a bad thing. Google is set up so that failure is not dangerous to the company's core business. That isn't always the case at other firms.

Some will defend a slower pace of trial and error precisely for that reason: some firms cannot handle a major failure as they experiment. That is one reason why it is good to have a platform that allows frequent innovations to be tested, at low or reasonable cost.

In a business where good ideas have to be discovered, there is almost no way around experimentation and failure. Companies simply need to improve their prototyping and testing processes, with the caveat that some companies (software firms, especially) have inherent advantages in that regard, and always will. That's why much, perhaps most, meaningful innovation now comes in businesses that are driven by software.

Google doesn't so much fail as experiment faster, and more frequently, than most companies can.

Did The iPad Preemptively Kill The US Tablet Market Like The Kindle & Nook Killed Other Ebook Readers?

The U.S. market for ebook readers is basically a choice between the Kindle or the Nook.

Can you can blame the Apple iPad for that state of affairs? Or is it the business arrangements? Ebook readers, after all, are only as valuable as the selection of available content, pricing and delivery of that content.

It might be more difficult than most of us realize to get all those elements, plus an attractive user interface and device pricing, into alignment.

Did The iPad Preemptively Kill The US Tablet Market Like The Kindle & Nook Killed Other Ebook Readers?

Who Ever Thought Verizon Would Not Need the iPhone?

Make no mistake, Apple's iPhone has been a huge success for AT&T. Other carriers, and the most often mentioned candidate, Verizon Wireless, would likely not spurn the chance to sell the iPhone.

But it is just possible that Android devices now are getting enough traction that Verizon Wireless, though it might want to sell the iPhone, does not actually need to sell the iPhone.

That is a big shift. Android's growth, fueled by Verizon exclusives such as the Droid X and Droid Incredible, might finally be reaching the point where the issue no longer is so critical.

The Android-powered HTC devices might be reaching such critical mass that going too far out of the way to get an iPhone deal is less important. Apple has a carefully-cultivated and faithful following. But most people are not Apple addicts. If the Android can demonstrate it is as easy to use, supports the same apps, costs the same and works the same, most people are likely to give it a look.

Right now HTC seems to have captured most of those qualities.

What Android's Impressive Growth Means for You

Apple Claims Droid X Suffers From Signal Fade When Held

Apple claims the new Droid X also suffers from signal attenuation when held in the hand.

watch the video

RIM Execs Deny Apple Test Data on Signal Fade

The Research in Motion "BlackBerry Bold" device, as tested by Apple, appears to show the same signal fade issues as the Apple iPhone 4 when held in certain ways. RIM executives deny they have a signal reception problem.

watch the demo: signal fades

"Apple's claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public's understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple's difficult situation," say Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, RIM Co-CEOs. They don't specifically refute the Apple test data, though, which is odd.

They simply say "RIM is a global leader in antenna design" and say RIM "has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage."

Again, that doesn't specifically address the Apple test data.

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Apple Won't Issue a Recall of iPhone 4

Nobody outside the top ranks of Apple knows precisely what the company plans to do July 16 when it addresses the iPhone 4 signal reception issue. The Wall Street Journal reports that a product recall, however, will not be among the options.


Despite the embarassement, the company doesn't need to do that. There is no safety or product defect here, and Apple engineers knew of the potential issues "as early as a year ago," the Wall Street Journal reports.

Perhaps Apple will offer free "bumpers" to buyers, which aside from protecting the phone will fix the signal fade problem. It just isn't the "crisis" that crisis management professionals insist it is.

Apple's brand will survive intact, and people will not stop buying iPhones, period.

BlackBerry Satisfaction Plummets, Changewave Finds

Though end user satisfaction with the iPhone has remained fairly constant over the last year, Research in Motion BlackBerry devices seem to have suffered a dramatic decline in satisfaction, dropping from a high of about 55 percent in January 2008 to June 2010, Changewave Research reports.

A reasonable observer would suggest this portends some trouble for RIM, the reception issues with the new iPhone 4 notwithstanding.

Apple Makes More Profit Than All the Rest of the Handset Industry

Since getting into the mobile handset business with its iPhone, Apple has blown away the whole rest of the handset industry in earnings (before interest and taxes), according to a new  analysis by Goldman Sachs analysts.

The other angle is that the rest of the suppliers have lost earnings momentum  precisely as Apple has grown.

At the moment, Apple likely accounts for about 58 percent of the mobile handset industry's annual earnings.

That's shocking, and a measure of Apple's new stature.

PR Experts: iPhone 4 Hardware Recall Is “Inevitable”

Some now believe Apple will be forced to recall the iPhone 4 because of hardware defects related to its antenna design.

“Apple will be forced to do a recall of this product,” said Professor Matthew Seeger, an expert in crisis communication. "This is potentially devastating.”

That seems a bit of hyperbole. Every smartphone I can think of has some issues. Sure, users might have to adjust the way they hold their devices, or add a bumper. Users of other devices need to make adjustments to account for battery life, presence or absence of a keyboard, the size of their fingers and lots of other small adjustments. Some people use the speakerphone function whenever possible, or simply limit the number or length of calls to limit brain exposure to emitted radio frequency energy.

The iPhone 4 reception issue is not hazardous to health. The device does not fall apart. It is not perfect, but what device actually is "perfect" on every measure? As the Eagles song goes: "Get over it."

PR Experts: iPhone 4 Hardware Recall Is “Inevitable” | Cult of Mac

How Apple Hopes to Dominate its Rivals

Apple Study: 8 easy steps to beat Microsoft (and Google)

View more presentations from Ouriel Ohayon.

Deja Vu All Over Again?

Some might argue that Apple's invention of an amazing new product will prove to be "deja vu all over again."

Though any such analysis has to account for the intervening success of the iPod, which completely dominates market share in the MP3 player market, what happened in the PC business could happen in the tablet PC market, some will argue.

Namely, Apple could wind up a niche supplier of high-end devices, rather than the dominant provider in the segment, because of its insistence on a "closed" model.

This Android Chart Should Scare The Bejesus Out Of Apple

Apple Appears to Permit Google Ads Inside iPad and iPhone Apps

Apple Inc. doesn't appear to have barred Google Inc. and others from selling targeted ads inside iPhone and iPad applications, after implying several weeks ago that it might do so, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Software developers say their new and updated applications are getting approved by Apple, even though the apps are enabled to serve ads by third-party ad networks such as Google's Mobile Adsense and AdMob.

Every smaller firm that finds it has become a dominant firm, or is perceived as potentially dominant, will incure antitrust and other regulatory scrutiny. It might be that Apple and Google both must move more cautiously now that each is seen as reaching the threshold of dominance in existing markets that might be leveraged to attain dominance in new markets.

If the pattern continues, it will be good for advertisers, content owners and software developers, as they will have more freedom to pick their partners and keep more business leverage.

Is Apple an Annuity Business?

Is Apple in the annuity business? You might draw that conclusion from the results of a survey of Apple iPhone 4 buyers, given that 77 percent already were iPhone uses, and 84 percent already were on the AT&T network. The caveat is that anybody buying a new device on the first couple of days is a "fan," almost by definition.

77% of iPhone 4 Buyers Are Upgrading from Earlier Models

A survey by Piper Jaffray suggests that most early iPhone 4 buyers were upgrading from previous iPhones and that very few were switching to AT&T from other carriers. About 77 percent of iPhone 4 buyers polled in three cities (San Francisco, New York, and Minneapolis) were upgrading from old iPhones.

That's up from 56 percent last year and 38 percent in 2008, and represents brand loyalty that is likely unmatched in the mobile industry.

About 16 percent of buyers were switching to AT&T from other carriers, down from 28 percent last year.

Some 54 percent purchased the $299 32 GB model, up from 43 percent who bought the 32 GB iPhone 3GS last year.

About 28 percent of iPhone 4 buyers owned an iPad, which confirms that the people waiting in line were the most serious of the Apple fanatics. Of the 72 percent who did not own an iPad, 39 percent said they would probably buy one within the next year, while 61 percent said they would not.

About 65 percent were Mac owners, down from 75 percent at the first iPhone launch in 2007.

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