More than 20 percent of US wireless subscribers use smartphones

According to a recent ComScore survey, 49.1 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in May, up 8.1 percent from the corresponding February period. This is equivalent to 20.1 percent of total users. A previous survey from December showed 17 percent penetration.

In a previous article I pointed out that more than 1 million Americans are switching to smart phones every month. This number is now 1.2 million per month. The number of non-smart devices in use is 185 million and at current rates smartphone users will outnumber non-smart users in 4.5 years. With a very small acceleration I reckon less than 4, or by 2014.

(posting from my iPad)

Nokia says the fightback starts now. Oh Really?

2010.Realization that iPhone is a threat from new dimensions (user experience). Planning begins on reshaping the software base as a market-driven (not technology-driven) asset (5 year cycle). Apple begins to be evaluated as a competitor in devices and services, although still not compliant with current market definitions.

via asymco | Assessing Nokia’s Competitive Response.

I wrote these words a year ago based on observations made three years ago.  My expectation was and still is that Nokia does not quite understand what they are competing for and what the competition actually consists of.

On Friday Anssi Vanjoki wrote that “The fightback starts now.” He seems to contradict my timeline which has the “fightback” starting in 2014.

How do we settle this?  Let’s turn to the claims:

In the article he says they sell 2 in 5 smartphones on the planet, yet, he turns around and says that Nokia is now the challenger in that space.  He says Symbian is the way forward on smartphones, yet he says MeeGo is the way forward on ‘connected devices’. He writes that he is obsessed with getting Nokia to being number one in high-end devices (presumably by volume or sales or profit) but a recent survey by third-party tool developer Appcelerator shows 90 percent of developers surveyed said they were interested in the iPhone while 81 percent expressed interest in Android; for Symbian and MeeGo, the related figures were only 15 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

I’m not ready to revise my timeline. The fightback begins in 2014.

Open always wins, unless it's Symbian or LiMo or Openmoko or Qt

In June 2008, Nokia made its first big move to turn around the platform, and announced that it was acquiring Symbian, with the intent of turning the OS into an open source project.

Two years later, the move to open source has proved to be a miscalculation that is slowing down Symbian’s development. It would be better for Nokia to take full control of the OS, according to Wood. A lack of support from other vendors means Nokia has to do most of the work itself, while the open nature of the platform allows competitors to keep a close eye on its progress.

via Nokia on long comeback trail after smartphone misses – Digital Lifestyle – Macworld UK.

Then there’s LiMo foundation open source mobile Linux. Maemo is/was open source, Openmoko and Qt Extended and PalmSource/Access moving to open source and there was the Motorola Linux OS that launched years ago. If Open always wins, whatever it wins, it’s not market share.

Apple's supply problem

With the iPad still unavailable three months after its launch and with only 1.7 million iPhones available for purchase in the first three days, Apple’s inability to meet demand is surfacing as its most immediate and glaring problem. This problem merits the deployment of some of the cash Apple is hoarding.

As I wrote in May, Apple’s next billion users are in waiting. However, to serve them in a timely manner requires a new approach to product launch and ramps.

Apple has imposed upon itself a yearly product cycle for the iPhone and the iPod [and, probably for the iPad].  This is a brilliant move because it keeps the product fresh without having it seem disposable.  It also keeps competitors within its turning radius. However, the challenge is that the distribution network has to be filled rapidly and drained rapidly to maximize availability. This gets harder and harder as the volume grows. Imagine having to manufacture and ship into the channel a billion devices in less than a quarter.

This year’s iPhone 4 launch was heavily over-subscribed.  If Apple had enough supply, launch sales could have gone as high as 2.5 million, one analyst believes. Apple admitted mis-diagnosing demand and problems arose during the reservation process. There were insufficient units for pre-order, never mind for users walking into stores.  The shocking thing is that three months on, the iPad is still unavailable to impulse buyers who might want to pick one up with their iPhone.  This despite the fact that most of the world does not have any purchase option.

Now I ask what will happen next year?  Supply may balance with demand by October and strains will show again around Christmas.  Then what?  The iPhone 5 will be getting prepared with another 50% to 100% growth in demand.  How will June 2011 and June 2012 look?  Will Apple have 4x the supply of iPhones and iPads needed to maintain growth?

There are various solutions possible, but if Apple wants to maintain the product cycle, the event marketing and the “reveal” that builds brand value, it needs to change the way it manufactures.  By investing in automation, locating plants near to buyers and by integrating suppliers into production, it can get the quantum leap in supply it needs.  These are capital-intensive solutions, but Apple’s capital is underemployed.  I see no better use for the rapidly-building cash pile.

Kin(dling)

Verizon slashes Microsoft Kin phone prices • The Register.

My guess is that Microsoft’s business model for the Kin was always to share revenues for Kin data plans.  Trouble is that users won’t pay high monthly fees for data without a significantly more flexible device.  Thus even making the Kin free won’t get a large user base.

iPad still sold out three months post-launch

With the recent iPhone 4 launch the media spotlight has faded on the iPad.  However, the iPad is still missing in action at many (most? all?) Apple stores.  I called four stores in the Boston area and they are only available by reservation.  The waiting time varies but I’ve been told to expect one week wait at one store and an indeterminate wait at the others.

The online store shows 7 to 10 business days waiting time for all models.

Asymco estimates for Apple's third fiscal quarter

The third fiscal quarter is at an end and it’s time to estimate performance.  Andy Zaky has kicked off earnings season with his detailed accounting of what could be a $63.5 billion year for Apple.

I put forward below my estimates side-by-side with Zaky.  I come in at $62.6b for the year, differing by just under $1b or 1.6%.

His numbers are certainly within what I would consider a margin of error of mine.

My estimate for iPhones this quarter are lower due to possible slowing of sales before the iPhone 4 launch.  My Mac numbers are higher based on some early estimates of industry pick-up. I concede that my FQ4:10 iPad estimates are low, but sticking with them for now.

Android is a BlackBerry killer

Much has been made of the potential for Android to reduce the growth of iPhone. The iPhone seems to be doing very well and continuing to be supply rather than demand constrained.

RIM however seems to be under significant pressure.  A Goldman Sachs analyst first pointed this out in her last report and placed a “Sell” on RIMM.  The fact is that most of RIM’s sales are in the US on the carriers other than AT&T.  In those very same carriers, Android is being pushed hard as a customer retention strategy, so iPhone is pressuring RIM only indirectly through Android.

The evidence is also in survey data.  In the graph below, we see how iPhone buyers are considering Android as the most credible alternative to the iPhone whereas they considered BlackBerry the best alternative a year ago.  In terms of vendors, what RIM lost HTC gained.

One can only wonder what will happen when the iPhone enters unrestricted distribution in the US.  The results in other markets speak for themselves.

AppleInsider | Apple’s recurring revenue stream: 77% of iPhone 4 sales were upgrades.

Microsoft's 7 Mobile Operating Systems

Adding this all up, Microsoft has several mobile OS products in various stages of production, including

  1. Windows Mobile 6.5
  2. Windows Phone 7
  3. KIN
  4. Windows Embedded Handheld
  5. Windows Embedded Handheld 7
  6. Windows Embedded Standard 7
  7. Windows Embedded Compact 7.

As ZD blogger Mary Jo Foley noted recently, this fact is somewhat amusing in the wake of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s criticism of Google for having two different mobile OSes (Chrome OS and Android.)

via Microsoft’s Mobile Strategy Isn’t A Strategy. It’s A Mess.

That’s not version 7 of an OS, that’s 7 different OS’s in the market at the same time.

RIMM near 52 week low

RIMM shares dropped more than 5% after hours after company reported “light” units and a 20% rise in profit with a 24% rise in revenue.

RIMM sold 11.2 million units (of which 4.9 million were new subscribers and the rest replacement units–a deterioration in replacement rate). This represents 43% growth. The unit growth is nearly double the revenue rise implying a lower ASP ($300–half the iPhone) and margin (45.4%).

RIM passed another milestone: 100 millionth BlackBerry was sold during the quarter. We’ve noted before that Apple will also pass its 100 millionth iOS device this month. RIM sold 20 million units as of October 2007, right on the heels of the iPhone launch. That means that iOS grew 100 million to BlackBerry OS growing 80 million in the same time frame.

So why are shares at a P/E of 13? 20% EPS growth would be respectable numbers, but the smartphone market is growing faster than that. The implication is that RIMM is losing share and everyone is expecting that loss to accelerate.

Simona Jankowski from Goldman Sachs repeats her Sell rating. “RIM has now missed top-line expectations for three of the last four quarters, in our view demonstrating the building competitive pressures on its business from the iPhone and more recently from Android,” she writes. “We estimate that net subscriber additions in North America declined on a sequential basis, which we attribute primarily to the success of Android-based phones, such as the Motorola Droid and the HTC Incredible at Verizon.”

Research In Motion Limited (USA): NASDAQ:RIMM quotes & news – Google Finance.

Asymco

Asymmetric Competition

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