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iOS, News/Rumors April 23, 2012

Android in trouble. New rise for iOS?

Android has been chuckling over success in 2011 but it seems that this year things have gotten out of control. The most recent issue that the Android platform is facing is the fact that Facebook has bought Instagram for $1 billion, meaning that a successful product does not need to use a platform like Android for working and making its way known into the world.

Statistics highlight the fact that developers tend to lose their interest in Android, meaning that it won’t take long for consumers to start acting the same. A graphic from Business Insider shows that in the last 3 months, 43% of the people in the US that have bought smartphones bought iPhones. The Android platform has gone flat giving the iPhone a chance to rise. Apple’s success is due to Verizon and Sprint, providing consumers’ smartphones more accessible. For example the 3GS could be purchased for free with a contract and for just $100, one could take possession of the iPhone 4.

Android is also falling apart due to its failure in the tablet market. With great expectations, Android thought it would revolutionize the world of tablets, taking the iPad’s place. Studies show that Apple has managed to sell 3 million new iPads in 4 days, defeating Android (there were 12 million Android tablets on the market, Apple managing to sell that many in just three months). The Kindle Fire can be considered quite close to Apple’s success, selling 3 million units on the holiday period.

Last but not least, Android’s new platform has been left apart. Consumers don’t play that much attention and tend to ignore Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) that is run by 2.9% of Android devices. It seems that 63.2% are on Gingerbread (Android 2.3), followed by Froyo (Android 2.2) at 23.1%.

Apple seems to be back on the rise while Android is losing ground as days pass by.

Source: Business Insider

iPad April 3, 2012

The new iPad owners’ reaction over their device: Very Satisfied

In spite of the rough comments that blamed the new iPad for having some vital issues, the iPad owners are highly satisfied with their new Apple tablet, as a survey from ChangeWave showed.

ChangeWave Research specified in a detailed way what this study is all about:

“A March 22-28 survey of 200 new owners looked at their impressions of the new Apple iPad, including overall satisfaction with the device, key likes and dislikes, and the impact of the heat issue.”

It turned out that 98% of the new iPad owners are pleased with their device, out of which 82% are Very Satisfied and 16% are Somewhat Satisfied. There are also few users, namely 2% of them, who found the new iPad’s issues Somewhat Unsatisfied.

I wonder what gave to the 16% of the customers an uncertain reaction over their device. Luckily, ChangeWave also queried the 200 users about the features of their new tablet and discovered what they like best and what they dislike most. As expected, the Retina Display was the new iPad’s milestone feature, followed by the long battery life, the 4G LTE, and the iSight Camera, while the price of Apple’s new tablet and also of Wireless data plan irked the owners most.

Contrary to all the infrared tests that proved that the new iPad runs hotter than specified, customers were little displeased with the excessive heat; only 7% of them considered the heat that comes from the tablet to be an issue. In fact, ChangeWave took a closer look at the Heat polemic and discovered that, in fact, 89% of the new iPad owners haven’t experienced any problem at all with the heat.

Let’s just leave aside all the mean rumors about the new iPad’s issues and consider 2012 The New iPad’s Year, just as the previous one was the iPad 2 Year, but with 74% of very satisfied owners.

Source: ChangeWave Research

Apple April 2, 2012

Apple’s Hardware Improvements in the Life Sciences Industry

The research firm IDC Health Insights surveyed 100 of the most popular life science companies to contrive its Q1 Leading Indicators in Life Science IT Spending Survey and reached to the following conclusion: Apple’s hardware is placed second on the top of the life science companies preferences for 2012.

Apple moves into the second place for the first time and scores the greatest improvement in the hardware category. More than 30 percent of the participant companies are planning to purchase their hardware from Apple.

Meanwhile, Dell is proudly holding the lead as the most preferred hardware vendor; 45 percent of life science companies chose Dell as their hardware provider. This way, the company comes into the first place for the 6^th year in a row.

In this top of preferences, Apple is followed by Cisco, HP, Intel, EMC and IBM.

Apple experienced considerable improvements also in the software area, along with SAP and SAS. It did not reach the first place, as Oracle is the leader on the software market, with more than 25 percent of the life science companies planning to spend money on Oracle in 2012.

Source: TNW via IDC

Apple March 28, 2012

iPad owners spend altogether $70K a day on Newsstand content

Apple released the Newsstand 6 months ago, once with the release of iOS 5. This area of the App Store gathers in a single folder all newspaper and magazine apps installed by a user.

Due to the fact that since the release of its first iPad Apple managed to sell 50 million tablets, Distimo Publication explored the depth of this fresh App Store area; the research company reached to the conclusion that more than 70K USD per day got spend by iPad users on Newsstand content.

The report also revealed that 10% of all iPad apps feature in-app purchases, while among the iPhone apps only 6% feature in-app purchases. So far, Apple’s App Store is the only one that integrates such purchases, meaning that one can get a free app and then pay for an upgrade.

It seems that the Newsstand category generates substantial revenues to Apple; 7% of the top 200 grossing apps are accounted from news apps, reaching to the top of the iPad apps. The daily $70K USD is made by the top 100 grossing Newsstand magazines, most downloaded being The Daily, NYTimes for iPad, The New Yorker Magazine, National Geographic Magazine and Cosmopolitan Magazine.

Also, another surprisingly finding was that China became the leading Apple App Store for iPad judging after the app downloads. No wonder the winner of the 25 Billion App promotion was Chinese.

Distimo’s report was achieved after an accurate analysis of the Apple App Store for iPad in the United States in February 2012. After only 6 months, the Newsstand proves to be a great shot not only for Apple but also for developers.

Source: Business Insider

News/Rumors March 15, 2012

Larger displays are more on trend than the narrow ones, reveals Strategy Analytics

According to a Strategy Analytics study, people from US and UK prefer a smartphone with a wider display, the wide spot being somewhere around 4.0 and 4.5 inch range.

The research, released March 14, on Business Wire, the leader in press release distribution, revealed that 90 percent of the existing smartphone owners surveyed, demand wider device screens but provided that the device is also thin.

Paul Brown, Director in the Strategy Analytics User Experience Practice, remarked that

“Almost 90 percent of existing smartphone owners surveyed chose a prototype smartphone with a display larger than their current device. This trend is driven by increased mobile web browsing capability, as well as engaging video and gaming experiences.”

While Kevin Nolan, Vice-President for the User Experience Practice at Strategy Analytics, added that

“In order for smartphone owners to adopt larger devices, it is important for handset manufacturers to ensure that mobile devices are not too heavy and that the devices remain thin enough for purses and pockets.”

However, there are some differences concerning the size preferences. It seems that Android owners prefer most the larger thin devices with wider screens, while iPhone owners are pleased with the actual screen of the smartphone and not that eager to replace it with a larger one.

Source: MarketWatch via Strategy Analytics

News/Rumors March 14, 2012

Mobile App at SXSW revealed how Android and iPhone got sloshed

The live infographic from 100proof.me discovered the droll side of the smartphone frenzy. Beside the sharp competition between Android and iPhone users on technical capabilities and on the higher standards of their devices, there is also a drinking comparison. And I wonder who will brag most with the ‘bigger drinker’ status.

The live infographic is in fact an entertaining app developed by 100Plus.com for SXSW (South by Southwest), a company from Austin, Texas that organizes various events, to track one’s drinking and partying ways. The app is running for 3 days and so far, it revealed that the iPhone users are bigger drinkers; Android users consume 4.3 drinks per day, while the iPhone owners get a little more sloshed, consuming 5.7 drinks.

The infographic also revealed that drinkers at SXSW are with only 10 percent more men than women and that people aged 20 are the biggest drinkers.

The 100proof.me analysis is not as certain as expected because is in fact a catchy trick that directs one to the Booze App, a fun little app that can help people improve their health and adopt healthy behaviors. It works like a quiz and at the end of it you get funny answers about what physical exercises are required to recover days of your life, lost after a night of drinking, such as digging a ditch or boxing like kangaroos.

Source: Bloomberg

News/Rumors March 2, 2012

Tech giants in their battle for the “world’s most admired company” title

Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, contrived a top 50 of the most admired companies. Few weeks ago, Harris Poll RQ offered a similar research and it turned out that the results were similar too. Only the topics and the people categories were different.

For this corporate reputation survey to be accomplished 3,855 executives, directors, and securities analysts from the business sector were asked to vote for 10 companies they admire most, out of a total of 698 companies from 32 countries. The members had to rate companies from any business area on nine criteria, including investment value and social responsibility.

The management consulting firm arrived at some results similar to those from the past years. The first three positions of the top were resided by the tech giants Apple, Google and Amazon. Only Amazon joins the top for the first time, advancing from the seventh place till the third one, while Apple and Google are maintaining the first and the second place for the fifth and respectively the third year in a row.

The success of these companies is due to their tech business sector that it seems to attract everybody like never before in spite of the economic issues and that’s not surprising at all. People enjoy a large variety of gadgets, so the competition is sharp. Apple is fighting Google on the smartphone market with its NEXUS generation while Amazon seems to threat the Cupertino Company with its Kindle models.

But Apple continuously searches for solutions, such as releasing a cheaper 8GB iPad 2, and continues to be the most admired company in the world, the most accurate proof being this years’ iPhone selling success.

Anyway, it seems that the tech sector was not Samsung’s trump this year. The electronics company resided hardly on the 34^th place. On the list accomplished by Hay Group, Amazon was followed by Coca Cola, IBM and FedEx.

Source: CNN Money

iPad 3, News/Rumors February 27, 2012

Curiosities about the iPad 3 highlighted by AYTM’s infographic

Only few days separate the U.S. customers from the moment when the much rumored device will be unfold. And the curiosities are many! Besides the expected A5 chip, the 4G LTE and the retina display, people are eager to see with what design Apple came this time and what other surprises the new tablet brings.

AYTM (ask your target market) revealed in an infographic how many of the curious are willing to get a new tablet and what actually could make one buy the new iPad 3. For this research to be achieved, AYTM used its online consumer panel and survey tool and queried 500 iPad owners and other 2,000 citizens who don’t own one.

In the rough, it turned out that people that already have an iPad are more likely to purchase the new model than people that don’t have one. iPad 3G owners could upgrade to iPad3 if the tablet have some of the following features: 4G network, a faster CPU, a better battery, and a better camera. It seems that Siri’s possible presence is not an important decision factor.

The survey discovered also for what activities iPads are mostly used and in what locations, what apps the iPad owners prefer and what’s the most-missed feature on this tablet. For a more detailed and a more colorful approach let us take a glance over the AYTM’s infographic.

Source: AYTM Research

Apple, iPad, iPhone, Mac, News/Rumors February 20, 2012

iPhone sales in 2011 exceeded the number of Macs sold in 28 years

Asymco quotes Tim Cook in the attempt of revealing the success of Apple iOS devices:

To put it in context, it took us 22 years to sell 55 million Macs. It took us about 5 years to sell 22 million iPods, and it took us about 3 years to sell that many iPhones. And so, this thing is, as you said, it’s on a trajectory that’s off the charts.

According to the research chart, the iPhone chuckles over success and remains first on top in people’s choice when it comes to Apple gadgets. iPhones, iPads and iPods touch, all gathered have reached 316 million at the end of 2011. Although the iPhone was launched 4 years ago, it managed to sell that many devices that outrun the number of all the Macs ever sold.