Android or iPhone? What would you get? Mobile Pundits choose Google.

Courtsy of  John Cook TechTalk on Wednesday, September 8, 2010, 6:09pm PDT

Google. Apple. RIM. Microsoft. Nokia. Who is in the best position to control the mobile ecosystem of the future? That was one of the recurring discussion points today as leaders from wireless companies both big and small converged on Seattle for the Mobile Future Forward conference, a one-day confab led by industry guru Chetan Sharma.

The opportunity in front of all of these companies was spelled out clearly by Mike Sievert, chief commercial officer at Kirkland-based Clearwire.

“Mobile broadband brings together the two biggest trends, in some sense, in the history of technology,” Sievert said. “And I don’t think it is an exaggeration to assert that. To think that the two biggest trends in the history of technology probably are the Internet — broadband Internet in particular –and the whole idea of mobility. And they have lived in separate worlds up until now.”

There was no consensus on who would come out on top of what is shaping up to be an epic technology battle. But industry leaders certainly voiced their opinions throughout the day, with most of the nods going to Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone platforms.

That’s definitely the safe bet at the moment, even though Android currently ranks third in mobile market share and Apple iOS ranks fourth behind Symbian and RIM’s BlackBerry OS.

But as RealNetworks Chairman Rob Glaser pointed out, the “superphones” created by Google and Apple have helped the U.S. reclaim the innovation title in mobile development. “The U.S. has gone, in many ways, from being a follower of global trends to a leader of global trends,” said Glaser, who recently joined Accel Partners as a venture partner. “That’s a tremendous opportunity to develop models here and to do what we did in the PC Internet space which is globalize and leverage our early learning in the U.S. market.”

In his view, Nokia and RIM’s BlackBerry will have a hard time competing in a world which is increasingly being driven by mobile application platforms popularized by Apple and Android.

“The thing that is especially powerful about the superphones is the energy that’s behind these app platforms,” said Glaser. “That’s what we saw in the PC industry with the ascent of Windows in the 90s — it was because it had all of the application momentum…. The tidal wave of application energy and all of that entrepreneurial creativity that’s going on behind Android and iPhone apps will be a wave that washes around the world.”

Glaser said he wouldn’t write off either Nokia or BlackBerry — both of which could “generate excitement for developers.” But he added that neither really have the tradition of building businesses which would lead to a standard application environment.

“It is a totally different world and if they don’t respond to the differences, then the tidal wave of all of the applications will wash over them,” Glaser said. Ironically, he added that Microsoft — which rode the application developer model to success on PCs — faces a similar challenge in mobile.

Clearwire’s Sievert

Sievert also expressed optimism about Android, though he pointed out his bias in mobile operating systems given that Google is a major shareholder in Clearwire. Nonetheless, he said smartphone adoption is surging, driven largely by the iPhone and Android.

“From our view, it is clear that Android and iOS are here to stay and on track to be the two big ones,” said Sievert. “Given the diverse ecosystem, it is looking to us like Android will overtake iOS and then stay there. We are making a bet on Android.”

Sievert also expressed optimism about Windows Phone 7, though he once again pointed out a bias given that he used to work at Microsoft.

“I think they will back,” said Sievert, though likely behind Apple and Android in the U.S.

Subba Rao, CEO of Tata DoCoMo, also suggested strength in Android going forward. “Open platforms tend to be more powerful than anything that is closed for the simple reason that it brings in more partnerships and there’s a lot more money to be shared,” he said. “The pie expands the many more people who make money there. So, I think Android will definitely be the largest in every way of speaking.”

Interestingly, AT&T’s Fred Devereux also expressed optimism about Android even though his company has ridden to success on the back of the iPhone. “I think the headline is that Android has strong momentum and people really like it,” said Devereux, president of AT&T’s west region. “And my competitors did a great job making Android matter like we did … making 3G and iPhone matter. And now it is certainly more than a two horse race, but it is not just about the iPhone anymore. So, we like that we can offer all of them.”

Eyejot founder and conference attendee David Geller wondered if those comments signaled a time in the near future when AT&T would no longer have an exclusive agreement with Apple for the iPhone. Devereux, of course, didn’t mention that possibility in today’s remarks. However, it’s been widely speculated that the iPhone will be arriving on Verizon some time in 2011.

Superphones (smartphones on steroids) to reach 100 million by 2015!

Ok first off, what the heck is a superphone? Keep reading…

Boston — According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global superphone shipments will grow 550 percent to reach 100 million units by 2015. The high-growth superphone category is being driven by major brands in developed markets, such as Samsung, HTC, Android and Texas Instruments.

Alex Spektor, Analyst at Strategy Analytics, said, “We define a superphone as a high-end smartphone with a supersized display above 4 inches and a superfast processor greater than 1GHz. We forecast global superphone shipments to grow 550 percent from 15 million units in 2010 to 100 million by 2015. Major brands, such as Samsung, HTC, Android, Nvidia and Texas Instruments, are driving the high-growth superphone category in developed markets.”

Neil Mawston, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Superphones are at the forefront of computerizing the handset market. Superphone models, such as the Samsung Galaxy S and HTC Evo 4G, are driving more PC-like features into the hands of mobile consumers. Operators can launch advanced Internet services with superphones to lift their data revenues, while component makers can design cutting-edge products with higher profit margins such as dual-core application processors or 512MB RAM memory.”

The full report, Superphones to Reach 100 Million Units by 2015, is published by the Strategy Analytics Wireless Device Strategies (WDS) service, details of which can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/36833kv.

"To Be or Not To Be" – Mobile Apps or Mobile Sites

Mobile commerce is growing.

In fact in the US next year, it’s expected that 1% of all transactions will occur from a mobile phone. So many retailers are looking at growing their mobile commerce strategies and are not sure whether they should build a mobile optimized website or whether in fact they should build dedicated apps for the different devices like iPhone and Blackberry and Android.

There are pros and cons to both.

On the mobile website side, it is guaranteed that they can be used across all different phones. Any phone with a browser can view a mobile optimized website. But even then, some retailers are finding they need to build two versions of their mobile optimized website: one for the high end devices, and one lower fidelity version for the lower end devices. This creates a lot of constraints on your development capabilities, and the experience differs depending on what device one’s using.

On the other side, mobile apps like iPhone apps, Blackberry apps and Android apps have to be created for each of the different devices, but they’re dedicated for each device. They’re guaranteed to work and they can leverage some of the rich hardware features of the phone like the GPS, the camera and the maps.

So think carefully whether a mobile app or a mobile optimized website is right for you. Know what your customers are using or what devices they own. If all your customers are business users and are all using Blackberries, then think seriously about building a dedicated Blackberry rather than just a mobile optimized website.

Google Rumored to Open Online Music Store…

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Google is in talks with music labels on plans for a download store and a digital song locker that would allow its mobile users to play songs wherever they are as it steps up its rivalry with Apple, according to people familiar with the matter.

Google’s Andy Rubin, the brains behind Google’s Android mobile operating system, has been leading conversations with the labels about what a new Google music service would look like, according to these sources.

Rubin, Google’s vice president of engineering, hopes to have the service up and running by Christmas, two of these people said.

The music industry hopes to benefit from a battle for control of the mobile phone and computer desktop between Apple and Google as both technology giants go head-to-head in a wide range of media and consumer technology areas including online TV and movies, mobile phones, software and even advertising.

Music is the latest area they are likely to compete in even though Apple had a major head-start on Google, with its 7-year dominance through iTunes Music Store, which accounts for 70 percent of all U.S. digital music sales.

Google has yet to sign any licensing deals with major labels, these people say, but it hasn’t stopped the labels getting excited about the prospect of its entry to the business and what competition with iTunes could mean for the industry.

“Finally here’s an entity with the reach, resources and wherewithal to take on iTunes as a formidable competitor by tying it into search and Android mobile platform,” said a label executive who asked not to be identified. “What you’ll have is a very powerful player in the market that’s good for the music business.”

Continue reading …
Sales of Android-based phones have rocketed in recent months to 200,000 a day, according to Google, matching the hugely popular iPhones and iPads from Apple which are based on its iOS technology.

“There’s no dearth of music available on a computer right now, but Google can still have an impact on the cellphone or any connected device,” said Larry Kenswil, a former Universal Music executive who is a counsel at Loeb & Loeb.

The labels have been grateful to Apple for helping to kick-start digital music sales with iTunes in 2003, but they have been become increasingly concerned with the control the Cupertino, California company exerts over everything from song pricing to digital formats.

Music executives have long believed having other competing powerful digital music retailers could help expand the market.

While digital album sales are up 13 percent year-to-date from the year-ago period, sales of individual songs have held steady, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

“Google has a wealth of data, from YouTube, as well as from search, that can inform on what people are consuming and looking for music wise,” said Simon Wheeler, head of digital at London-based independent music company Beggars Banquet.

Read the rest of this article »

Google Mobile Ad Units Real Time Targeting Through GPS

Google continues to work hard in trying to bring a rich mobile search experience to its users, and new ad-units rolling out today are a perfect example of the evolution.
Back in July, Google introduced expandable ad-units that incorporate maps for click-to-call and other rich functionality. While it was a great first step towards driving calls and foot traffic to physical locations, the targeting of the ads were still attributed to IP addresses. While it works, it’s certainly not ideal. With today’s introduction, the same functionality is now available within Google Maps for mobile, bringing with it the enhanced targeting capabilities found in the mapping application — such as GPS and triangulation.
Google announced the new addition using Sprint stores as an example. A user initiates a search for “Sprint” and sees sponsored icons on the map, for instance. Clicking on the banner or any of the location icons sends you to a Google Place Page for Sprint, which then gives you the ability to call a store or get directions. It also integrates seamlessly with Google navigation. The ad can literally take users “from search to store.” For the retailer, Google won’t charge for the click on the map icon or banner, only for calls or clicks on a URL.

$199 is the magic number for most Smartphones..

A hot new smartphone can be Incredible, Vibrant, Epic or just “eh,” but no matter how it stacks up, it’s a safe bet that it will start selling at $199.

On the four major wireless networks — Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ – News), AT&T (NYSE: T – News), Sprint (NYSE: S – News) and T-Mobile — there are 13 smartphones priced at $199 with a two-year contract. There are no phone models with a higher starting price (add-ons like more memory can increase the price tag), and there are more smartphones selling at $199 than at any other single price point.

But spending $199 doesn’t guarantee you a top-of-the-line phone. On AT&T’s network, $199 will buy an iPhone 4, the best-selling smartphone of all time. But you’ll need to fork over the same amount for a BlackBerry Bold 9700, a nine-month-old phone that lacks a touch screen.

It will also cost you $199 to get an HTC Tilt 2, which runs Windows Mobile 6.5 — an operating system so out of date that Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT – News) is set to completely abandon it in the next few months.

So what’s so special about $199?

“The obvious answer is that $199 is a magic price point for smartphone volume,” said George Appling, partner at consulting firm Booz & Co. “The not-so-obvious reason is that carriers are not charging customers what they pay.”

In other words, wireless carriers pay significantly more for smartphones than you do. In exchange for your signature on an expensive two-year contract, they’ll offer you the smartphone for less than it costs them but as much as they think you’ll pay for it — and right now, that’s $199 across the board. Buy an unsubsidized iPhone 4 straight from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL – News) and you’ll pay $599 for the 16 GB phone that AT&T sells for $199 with a two-year contract.

Read the rest of this article »

60% Of Android Apps Are Free Vs. 29% Of iOS Apps, Prices Continue To Rise

Courtesy of Mobile Marketing Watch-Posted on 02 September 2010

Distimo, a startup focused on providing app store analytics, has published its latest report detailing the mobile app ecosystem across the Apple App Store for iPad and iPhone, BlackBerry’s App World, the Android Market, Nokia’s Ovi Store, Palm’s App Catalog and the Windows Marketplace for Mobile for July 2010 in the United States.
Similar to previous reports, Distimo primarily looked at pricing characteristics across all major app stores to determine the proportion of free vs. paid apps and the average cost of which, which continue to rise. The Android Market continues to have the largest share of free apps compared to the others, with 60% of the total, compared to just 29% for Apple’s App Store for iPhone and 26% for the iPad App Store. Android has more than double the amount of free apps than any of the other six App Stores in the report.
In terms of pricing, the report states the average price of the 100 most popular apps in the Android Market and Palm’s App Catalog is higher than the average price of the entire catalogue of applications. While the average price of all apps is only 16% higher in the App Store for iPad over the App Store for iPhone, the average price of the 100 most popular applications is nearly three times as high for iPad apps. Over 60% of apps are priced below or equal to $2 in the App Store for iPhone, Android Market, Nokia’s Ovi Store and Palm’s App Catalog, while the proportion of apps priced below or equal to $2 is much lower in the App Store for iPad and Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

Agency houses are pondering where mobile ad units live?

Courtsy of BY KIT EATONMon Aug 16, 2010 Fastcompany.com

There’s an interesting report today that advertising agencies are having a tricky time working out where, structurally speaking, their nascent Mobile Ad units belong inside the company. And if you think about it, it makes sense: Agencies’ existing businesses are aligned with ad markets, and have specialties and expertise that match the differing needs of print, TV and, recently, Net advertising. But mobile ads, particularly if they incorporate a high degree of smarts (like location-based gaming, interactivity like iAd, or digital coupon-reward schemes), really are a different hybrid beast, something between the digital advert world and more creative traditional advertising. The big question seems to be do you bolt-on a mobile ad unit as a separate ad-hoc, internally-resourced entity, or outsource it completely, on a contract-by-contract nature?
One solution that seems to be developing is a type of sub-contract ad agency that lines up the platform developers (without whom any of the more clever mobile ad efforts would never work) with bigger advertising agencies, whose clients are looking to launch an interactive ad. According to one firm, Omnicon Group, the answer is to house the mobile ad unit under a “media shop,” in this case a new e-marketing consultancy called Airwave, which is now part of media agency OMD.

Ding Ding Ding, On this corner Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen and the other corner Apple, Google, AOL, Facebook, Yahoo, Ebay- Let's fight fair!

SILICON VALLEY SCANDAL? Paul Allen Sues Google, Apple, AOL, Facebook, Yahoo, Ebay, Others For Patent Infringement

The lawsuit was filed today in Seattle’s U.S. District Court. The Microsoft co-founder has always been mercurial, to say the least, but this is like a bolt out of the blue. The implications are staggering — especially considering that the lawsuit, according to news reports, says Allen’s Interval Licensing LLC provided initial research funding for Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, which “resulted in Google”. According to the complaint as described by news reports, Interval alleges that Google, Google’s YouTube unit, Apple, AOL, Facebook, Yahoo, eBay, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, and Staples all violated four of Interval’s patents issued between the years 2000 and 2004 related to Internet browser technology and the display of information for shopping, news, video and other online content. Interval Licensing was founded in 1992 by Allen and venture capitalist David Liddle. Interval Licensing asks for unspecified damages, and an injunction preventing the defendants from further infringement or “a royalty for post-judgment infringement”.

Thoughts?

Facebook Mobile Rising

On the heels of announcing a major mobile push with “Places,” Facebook announced today usage numbers for its various mobile apps — namely iOS, Android and Blackberry.
A big reason Facebook Places was such a big deal in the LBS world was Facebook’s massive installed mobile user base. To give a glimpse of that user base, Facebook indicates there are nearly 105 million active monthly iPhone users. This is truly impressive given the fact that Apple themselves said only a few months ago that they were approaching 100 million total iOS users. If this is true, it could indicate nearly every iPhone user is using the Facebook app, though that’s doubtful and some obvious variables exist in the figures.
While its iOS app is by far the most widely used, BlackBerry comes in second with 60M total active users using the Facebook application, which is impressive as well. On the Android front, Facebook indicates an installed user base of roughly 12 million, which seems low, but remember the Facebook app for Android has always left a lot to be desired when compared to its iOS brethren. With these figures, it’s no wonder why Places is only natively available in the iPhone app, though the others are coming.