Search Results for: ios

The controversy of playing it safe: What's IDC's Smartphone Market Message?

IDC released a new forecast for the worldwide smartphone market which included a long range forecast–all the way to 2015. Most people fixated on the share data in 2015. Not hard to do since whoever wrote the press release highlighted this flashy headline. Putting aside the three significant digits of accuracy on every data point … Continue reading “The controversy of playing it safe: What's IDC's Smartphone Market Message?”

Predicting iPhone sales for dummies

Apple’s second fiscal quarter has just ended. Time for analysts to put forward their predictions for the quarter’s report (due in about 3 weeks.) If history is a guide, the estimates will range quite widely and accuracy will be determined mostly by the ability of an analyst to predict iOS device sales (and iPhone most … Continue reading “Predicting iPhone sales for dummies”

Analysts: Apple's growth next year to drop to half of what it could obtain during the recession

Apple is having difficulty meeting demand for the iPhone and the iPad. It is growing both businesses at more than 100% and they make up about 65% of revenues, and 71% of profits. The Mac business is also growing at 2x to 3x the PC industry. Being supply constrained makes it therefore a great challenge … Continue reading “Analysts: Apple's growth next year to drop to half of what it could obtain during the recession”

The American Wireless Galapagos Syndrome: How the industry set itself up for a rout

AT&T’s intent to acquire T-Mobile USA is subject to regulatory approval. Will regulators look at the deal through the lenses of sustaining the traditional industry’s profit allocation or through the lenses of device-led disruption? In theory, regulators are to make a determination on whether the deal will reduce customer choice. But the question is really … Continue reading “The American Wireless Galapagos Syndrome: How the industry set itself up for a rout”

Which mobile users will platforms harvest first?

When tallying up the race to a billion users, I noted that both iOS and Android seem to have the potential to reach that size of user base. However, that raises the question of where those users will come from. We have to note the fact that there aren’t a billion users to be captured … Continue reading “Which mobile users will platforms harvest first?”

Who's knifing what?

Microsoft just declared the Zune end of life. This makes it a good time to look back to some notable episodes in the evolution of digital media distribution. First, an episode from 1997: During two days on the stand, Tevanian accused Microsoft of seeking to divide the multimedia market and then “sabotaging” QuickTime’s ability to … Continue reading “Who's knifing what?”

The Race to a Billion

I last looked at the race to a billion in September 2010. I’ve now added a few more data points to the tracked platforms and also added points for the major console game platforms and Symbian. The chart shows the cumulative number of users (approximated by units sold) for 11 platforms indexed to the same … Continue reading “The Race to a Billion”

The platform as a promise

In a recent answer on quora, I wrote that I did not believe developers are tempted primarily by economic incentives when choosing which platforms to work on. I suggested that they hire platforms because of their star-making potential and that star-making value is not a something that money can buy. Using Hollywood as an example … Continue reading “The platform as a promise”

Google and Apple as mobile co-belligerents

The relationship between Google and Apple is an interesting one. It’s enticing to declare them “at war” with one another, but that type of relationship does not account for the collaboration and partnerships they enjoy. To wit: Google pays Apple for default Search placement on Safari. This means that Google treats Apple as a distributor. … Continue reading “Google and Apple as mobile co-belligerents”