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.

Apple's IPad Getting Enterprise Traction

Despite its launch as a consumer device, the iPad, like the iPhone before it, is getting workplace adoption. That doesn't mean Apple is especially anxious to create enterprise products, but simply that the same attributes that appeal to consumers also appeal to business users.

Research in Motion and Microsoft are the two companies which have to worry about such trends, since those two companies tend to dominate corporate demand for smartphones and PCs.

Apple's IPad Wins Corporate Converts at Wells Fargo, SAP - Bloomberg

Easy to Use Web Browser Impact

By now it is abundantly clear that smartphones with easy-to-use browsers encourage people to use the web when mobile.

To the extent that Symbian and Research in Motion devices have been harder to use, their web usage shows the impact of the barrier, while Apple and Android devices indicate what happens when the barrier is removed.

Some will say this poses a potential problem for mobile service providers. But there is one problem worse than dramatically increased data demand: insufficient demand.

BlackBerry To Introduce First Touchscreen Devices to Rival iPhone

I loved my BlackBerry when I first began using one years ago. Over time, my business reasons for using a smartphone have changed, with the biggest change being that email is no longer mission critical, but web apps are way more important. As much as I have loved composing text messages on a BlackBerry, the web experience has simply gotten to be painful.

Maybe RIM's new line will fix that. I'm not saying I'd go back, as I am more intrigued by Android devices. I do miss my keyboard, though.

RIM Readying Tablet PC, New BlackBerry OS

Research In Motion Ltd. is  testing a touch-screen smartphone with a slide-out keyboard, the Wall Street Journal reports. The phone runs on a new version of the BlackBerry operating system and works much like an iPhone, letting users swipe through screens and expand images with their fingers. It also has a universal search bar that lets users scour all the phone's data and some data online as well.

RIM is also is reported to be experimenting with a tablet device to serve as a larger-screen companion to its BlackBerry phone. That device, which is in an early stage of development, will connect to cellular networks when tethered to a BlackBerry phone.

The new offerings come as RIM faces increased competition from devices built by Apple and those that run on the Android operating system from Google Inc.

RIM still sells more smartphones globally than any company besides Nokia Corp., and last year grabbed 19 percent of the world market for smartphones, according to  Strategy Analytics. But RIM's share of the North American market is slipping.

RIM's share of the North American smartphone market by shipments dropped to 38 percent in the March 2010 quarter from 54 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

Apple's share climbed from 18 percent to 23 percent over the same period.

The new slate device comes with four gigabytes of storage space and a five megapixel camera, the Wall Street Journal reports.

RIM is also readying a new Internet browser that renders Web pages much faster than the current browser, and allows users to access more than one Web page at a time, people familiar with the device said.

Smartphones Have Outsize Impact on Mobility Business

Despite the fact that smartphones have only about 19 percent share of the U.S. handset market, they have outsize importance simply because smartphone use is growing so fast, implies growth of mobile broadband revenue and is key to the hopes new suppliers have for cracking the handset market.

Browsers were used by 29.4 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 2.4 percentage points), while subscribers who used downloaded applications made up 27.5 percent (up 1.8 percentage points).

Some 18 percent used social networking sites or blogs, up 2.9 percentage points to 18 percent of mobile subscribers. About 13 percent report they listened to music on a mobile device. About 22 percent say they played games on their mobiles., up about half a percentage point.

Some 234 million Americans age 13 and older were mobile subscribers, while 45.4 million people owned smartphones in an average month during the December to February period, up 21 percent from the three months ending November 2009.

In an average month during the December through February 2010 time period, 64 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 1.9 percentage points from November 2009 levels, says comScore.

Those differences also are reflected in market share of feature and smartphones. In the broader feature phone market, Motorola has 22 percent share, LG 22 percent, Samsung 21 percent, Nokia nine percent and Research in Motion eight percent.

In the smartphone market RIM has 42 percent share, Apple 25 percent, Microsoft 15 percent, Google nine percent and Palm five percent. Google grew the most over the quarter ending in February, gaining five share points. Apple's share was flat and Microsoft lost five points.

RIM, Apple, Google Grow in Smartphones, Microsoft and Palm Drop

Over the last three months, Research in Motion, Apple and Google have gained smartphone market share, while Microsoft and Palm have lost share, comScore says.

42.7 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones in an average month during the November 2009 to January 2010 period, up 18 percent from the August through October period.

RIM was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 43percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, rising 1.7 percentage points versus three months earlier. Apple ranked second with 25.1 percent share (up 0.3 percentage points), followed by Microsoft at 15.7 percent, Google at 7.1 percent (up 4.3 percentage points), and Palm at 5.7 percent.

Google’s Android platform continues to see rapid gains in market share.

In an average month during the November through January 2010 time period, 63.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 1.5 percentage points versus three months prior.
Browsers were used by 28.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 1.8 percentage points), while subscribers who played games made up 21.7 percent (up 0.4 percentage points). Access of social networking sites or blogs experienced strong gains in the past three months, growing 3.3 percentage points to 17.1 percent of mobile subscribers.

Social networking now is more popular than listening ot music, at least where it comes to mobile device activities.

Native Twitter App for BlackBerry Coming

Historically, the ability to make and receive telephone calls from a device in your pocket or purse, anytime, has been the killer application for mobile phones. Recently, other killer apps have emerged. For many smartphone users, the killer app was email in the pocket or purse.

Recently, access to the mobile Web, or perhaps the App Store could be seen as the key driver of iPhone adoption, while now social networking has emerged as the first consumer killer app for smartphones.

You could get a debate about whether users prefer to have a discrete application to get to their social networking sites, or are just as happy using their mobile browsers. But lots of people, and lots of suppliers, might vote for the application approach.

Now BlackBerry seems to be close to getting its own RIM-supplied Twitter app. There are other Twitter apps available for Blackberries. UberTwitter and TwitterBerry, SocialScope and Tweetcaster, are examples.

But the BlackBerry blog "CrackBerry" says an official RIM Twitter app is under development as well.

Apparently the RIM versiion will be integrated with other core BlackBerry applications and be tied in to the address book, browser and device setup wizard.

If one wanted to know why an official RIM version might get traction, as opposed to any other app, it likely is the degree of integration with other BlackBerry apps. We'll know soon enough.

Apple and RIM Are Winners in Handset Market, Profit-Wise

The Apple iPhone might not be the only reason the mobile handset market has changed over the past several years, but it is a major influence, according to a new analysis by analysts at Deutsche Bank.

In 2006, before the iPhone was available, Nokia had nearly half--47 percent--of industry profits. By the end of 2010, it will have 25 percent.

In 2006, Sony Ericsson had 11 percent share. By the end of 2010 it will have a negative one percent operating profit.

Motorola had 18 percent share in 2006 and will have declined to about a negative one percent by the end of 2010.

By the end of 2010 Apple will have an estimated 37 percent share, while Research in Motion, which had four percent share in 2006, will have grown to 16 percent.

Most of the other suppliers will have remained about where they were in 2006, except for Lucky Goldstar, which will have grown from one percent to six percent.

Keep in mind, these figures reflect profits, not handset share.

Android Downloads Explode, Apple Continues High Growth, BlackBerry Leads

Visits to Myxer’s mobile site from users on the Android operating system grew 350 percent in 2009, compared to iPhone, which grew 170 percent, Myxer says.. In total, Myxer delivered seven times more downloads to Android devices than iPhone devices in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Keep in mind that Android starts from zero share, so extremely-high rates of growth are not unexpected. The bigger news would have been Android downloads failing to gain traction.

The analysis was made on Myxer’s 30 million members and their behavior relating to mobile entertainment downloads.

In part, Android growth is driven by the increasing number of Android devices now available, as well as a huge marketing push by Verizon Wireless to support its Droid introduction.

In December 2008 only one handset, the HTC Dream/G1, was operating on Google’s open source Android operating system. By December 2009, Myxer had seen nine different handsets running the Android OS.

• The HTC Dream/G1 remained the leader throughout 2009 garnering 35 percent of the unique users completing downloads on Android handsets. That makes sense, as the Verizon Droid launch did not happen until December 2009. It would be shocking if the Droid did not appear at the top of lists by the end of 2010.

“While we’ve seen the Android OS emerge as a serious competitor in the operating system landscape, RIM’s operating system still dominates the smartphone market on Myxer’s mobile site, growing from 51 percent in 2008 to 67 percent in 2009,” saysMyk Willis, Myxer CEO.

According to research conducted in the fourth quarter of 2009, Android users download seven times as many ringtones, wallpapers, videos, applications, and games as iPhone users.

Still, Apple iPhone downloads also grew 170 percent.

On the other hand, it is worth noting that RIM’s Blackberry Curve remains the number one phone on Myxer’s mobile site for the second year in a row, garnering close to 10 percent of visits in both 2008 and 2009. The Blackberry Curve is just one of the 1,500 different handsets that Myxer delivered content to in 2009.

Windows Mobile and Palm both lost ground in 2009, combining to relinquish 24 percent of the smartphone traffic on Myxer’s mobile site and giving ground to the Android, iPhone, and RIM.

Apple iPhone and Android Top OS Satisfaction Ratings

When it comes to satisfaction levels, the Apple iPhone continues to lead all other major cell phone manufacturers, with 74 percent of owners reporting they're "very satisfied" with their iPhone, according to ChangeWave Research.

But 72 percent of Android users also say they are "very satisfied." There's a big gap to the number-three OS, where 41 percent of Research in Motion users say they are very satisfied with the operating system.

It is worth noting that the "very satisfied" rankings for the Palm OS primarily reflect experience with the older OS, not the new  Web OS (Pre, for example). About 58 percent of Pre users say they are very satisfied, while for smart phones using the older Palm OS it was just 29 percent.

Apple, RM Battle Shapes Up

Apple took 28 percent share of the fast growing U.S. converged device (smart phone) market in the fourth quarter of 2007, behind Research in Motion’s 41percent, but a long way ahead of third placed Palm at nine percent, say Canalys researchers.

Apple also finished ahead of all Windows Mobile device vendors combined, whose share was 21 percent in the quarter.

Globally, converged device shipments rose 60 percent to hit 115 million in 2007. U.S. sales doubled.

Nokia remained the global market leader, shipping 60.5 million smart phones, while RIM shipments grew 112 percent to 12.2 million.
Globally, Symbian operating system devices had 67 percent share, followed by Microsoft on 13 percent and RIM with 10 percent.

Apple claims that nearly 70 percent of all mobile Internet traffic is generated by iPhone users. Executives at Google, meanwhile, have confirmed the basis thesis: iPhone users surf the Web way beyond anything seen up to this point.

On the other hand, RIM points out that nearly two thirds of its 12 million BlackBerry subscribers in December 2007 were government or corporate customers.

The observation is that as the smart phone market continues to grow rapidly, the dynamics of the U.S. market--as distinct from the global markets--are shaping up, in part, as Apple going "up market" to enterprises and RIM going "down market" to consumers. That's not to dismiss Microsoft-powered or Nokia devices, but simply to illustrate a dynamic.

We have a market likely to take new shape as devices and users expand beyond the original base of "mobile email" addicts. The iPhone has shown there is a new class of user who uses mobile email but also surfs the Web and uses the mobile Internet in ways we haven't seen before. That's going to get designers moving in different directions as the various segments start to emerge. For some users the current iPhone or BlackBerry interfaces still will work. For others, something else might emerge.

Personally, I like the ability to swap SIMs between devices, which iPhone doesn't want me to do. I like to be able to change my own batteries, which iPhone doesn't want me to do. Small things, of course, but real barriers to me getting rid of my BlackBerry. Other choices will have to be made by music or video afficianados.

iPhone 2nd Best Selling Smart phone in Q4

Smart mobile device shipments hit 118 million in 2007, up 53 percent over 2006, reports Canalys. In the fourth quarter, newcomer Apple shipped the third most devices globally. Nokia remained the global market leader, shipping 60.5 million smart phones.

Research in Motion shipments grew 112 percent year-over-year to 12.2 million, to take second place.

Symbian remains the operating system leader, with 67 percent share, followed by Microsoft with 13 percent, with RIM on 10 percent. Apple garnered seven percent while Linux had five percent share.

High-end devices represented around 10 percent of the global mobile phone market by units in 2007, with annual growth of 60 percent.

Apple’s entry into this market in 2007 with the iPhone sparked a lot of media attention and speculation about how much it could disrupt the status quo and take share away from companies such as Nokia, RIM, Palm and Motorola. “When you consider that it launched part way through the year, with limited operator and country coverage, and essentially just one product, Apple has shown very clearly that it can make a difference and has sent a wakeup call to the market leaders,” said Pete Cunningham, Canalys senior analyst. “What it must demonstrate now is that it can build a sustainable business in the converged device space, expanding its coverage and product portfolio. It will also need to ensure that the exclusive relationships that got it so far so quickly do not prove to be a limit on what it can achieve. Apple’s innovation in its mobile phone user interface has prompted a lot of design activity among competitors. We saw the beginnings of that in 2007, but we will see a lot more in 2008 as other smart phone vendors try to catch up and then get back in front. Experience shows that a vendor with only one smart phone design, no matter how good that design is, will soon struggle. A broad, continually refreshed portfolio is needed to retain and grow share in this dynamic market. This race is a marathon, but you pretty much have to sprint every lap.”

Canalys estimates that Apple took 28% share of the fast growing US converged device market in Q4 2007, behind RIM’s 41%, but a long way ahead of third placed Palm on 9%. This was also enough to put Apple ahead of all Windows Mobile device vendors combined, whose share was 21% in the quarter according to Canalys figures. In EMEA, where the iPhone officially launched part way through the quarter in only three countries, Apple took fifth spot behind Nokia, RIM, HTC and Motorola, but ahead of several established smart phone providers such as Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Palm.

For the full year 2007, as in 2006, the Asia Pacific region was the biggest in volume terms for converged device shipments. Apple has of course not yet launched the iPhone in the region, and many vendors who are successful in other parts of the world, such as RIM and Palm, have also made relatively little impact there so far. Nokia continues to lead in the region, with more than 50% share in converged devices, ahead of Japanese smart phone vendors Sharp and Fujitsu. Motorola, despite enjoying fourth place, has seen its Linux-based smart phone shipments in the region fall 28% from their high in 2006.

Symbian led in the Asia-Pacific (85 percent) and Europe-Middle East-Africa regions (80 percent) while in North America RIM was the clear leader on 42 percent smart phone share, ahead of Apple at 27 percent and Microsoft at 21 percent.

Slow Email? BlackBerry Outage

Research In Motion Ltd. says an outage left users in North America without access to their BlackBerry email service on Monday, beginning about 3:30 p.m. Eastern Standard time and lasting about three hours.

RIM says no messages were lost during the incident, which caused intermittent delivery delays. No explanation for the outage has been given.

Outages of this sort are the reason many of us are giving more thought to backup and redundancy strategies. On a recent business trip, for the first time in my life, I accidentally left my laptop at home, and was going to be gone for 14 days. True, I had the BlackBerry and another mobile as well.

But in my line of work access to the Web is arguably more important than either of those two sorts of devices, as important as they are. Because of Google Documents & Spreadsheets and Google Broswer Sync, I was able to keep working using public terminals and loaned machines, with access to Microsoft Office.

I also learned to live without access to Outlook for a bit. The BlackBerry helped, of course. The lasting change so far is that I have kept using Google Documents more than I have in the past. That's why sampling is so important. Behavior can change.

Does iPhone Hurt BlackBerry?

If Changewave Alliance members are an accurate reflection of broader market trends, sales of Apple iPhones do not hurt sales of Research in Motion BlackBerries, Curves and Pearls. Since January 2007, it appears the percentages of new phone buyers who plan to buy either an iPhone or RIM device have increased fairly steadily, with Apple retaining a slight edge in buying intention.

Of course, things could change once poll respondents actually go to the retail outlet to buy. But the poll suggests that the iPhone is not hurting RIM's handset sales. Instead, sales of smart phones seem to get a boost. Among brands, it most likely it is Motorola devices that are taking a hit.

BlackBerry Consumer Push

Research In Motion's move into the retail consumer market, including lifestyle features such as television, music players, cameras and Facebook social-networking software, is a good thing for consumers. That that includes a goodly number of professionals and workers who use email a lot for work.

Obviously a consumer device has to be priced lower than a "business class" device. But one thing I do notice, as a "business" BlackBerry user, is that the keyboards being supplied on devices such as the Pearl and Curve have a distinctly unpleasant feel. RIM might be doing this on purpose, but the feel of the keyboard is as important to this user as the keyboard is on a PC.

Every other element of the experience is outweighed by this one fact. Again, RIM might be doing that on purpose, to differentiate the market segments each device appeals to. If so, it's working. The 8800 class of devices are the only ones with a tactile experience I can tolerate. That's one way to create differentiation of user experience, I will say.

The omission of cameras and so forth also are design features intended to make the 8800 appeal to enterprises. But sometimes it comes down to other simple features. Like the feel of a keyboard.

Easier BlackBerry Use

It's going to be easier to read and respond to text, attachments and image-formatted documents on Research in Motion BlackBerries sometime later this year. RIM says it will upgrade its software so users can edit documents directly from the device and to view messages in their original formatting. That sort of functionality is obvious on Windows Mobile devices, so RIM has to keep pace. Apple's growing presence and market share also might be an issue, as the "easy to use, the whole Web" philosophy has got to be changing user expectations about what they ought to be able to do, and how, on their smart phones.

In the third quarter of 2007, Apple captured 20 percent of all U.S. smart phone shipments, Gartner Inc. says. RIM got 39 percent.

Raketu Launches VoIP over BlackBerry

Raketu has launched a new peer-to-peer VoIP application designed to run on Research in Motion Blackberries. The app furthermore is intended to be used by enterprise, small and mid-sized business users.

Raketu does not require a client download and is accessed from the BlackBerry's Web browser at www.BlackBerry.raketu.com.

The application obviously will make most sense for business users who need to send and receive text messages from international locations, as well as users who need voice communications in a global context.

BlackBerry with Touch Screen?

Ray Sharma, GMP Securities analyst, says the next generation of BlackBerry devices will target two markets: the touchscreen and feature phone segment.

"We believe that the screen will possibly include a tactile response mechanism akin to the Nintendo Wii controller," says Sharma. "We also believe that the device will have differing hard key positions as well as programmable keys."

"We believe that the new touchscreen BlackBerry will be positioned at the high end of devices with a C$450-C$500 carrier per unit price."

"The device will feature a half VGA (roughly equivalent to an iPhone) that will be written on a new generation operating system," Sharma says.

Windows Vs. BlackBerry in Enterprise?

A recent poll of enterprise wireless subscribers found 84 percent of respondents who do use smart phones, use a BlackBerry, according to InfoTech. Palm Treo and HTC devices trail and Microsoft OS devices, though growing fast, appear to fare no better than fourth.

But Windows Mobile finally is making inroads. "As such, the world essentially will come down to RIM vs. Microsoft in the enterprise market," says InfoTech.

More than 70 percent of respondents say email is the most important function of a smartphone, followed by Internet Wi-Fi access at 12 percent, the survey found.

More than 80 percent of respondents indicated they also use text messaging.

About 49 percent of survey respondents across all enterprise sizes said they were using wireless data card, with nearly 38 percent reporting a preference for the Verizon Wireless network.

Sprint the second-largest base at 24 percent. And speed apparently matters. Some 81 percent of respondents would switch operators to get faster speeds.