There was a time when Apple was almost at the verge of closing its shop due to financial difficulties and pathetic market response towards its products. Now, after one and a half decade the same company has reached to the hype and height where its profit alone is bigger than the search giant Google.
The big business of Apple is clearly dominating over many business units ad market across the globe. Apple’s revenue and its profit is just soaring with each passing month and management is finding it difficult to handle $100 billion cash pile preserved with the company. There are many startling facts about Apple which are enough to surprise you from core:
Apple has made $20 billion as profit in just last six month.
Apple’s profit is just about $7 million each hour.
Recently, Barnes & Noble sponsored an event to discuss about the launch of its Tablet in non-US markets. Previously, I have described why the company should not launch its Tablet in the non-US market. The reason is quite obvious that digital bookseller are not as matured in apps and cloud era as Apple is. Now, users are being more attracted by numbers of apps, cloud storage, and integrated services. However, the company has decided to slice the price of its Nook Tablet from $279 to $199 in order to lure a vast numbers of folks worldwide.
Indeed, the digital bookseller needs a support to launch its Nook Tablet in non-US markets. Today, the company has taken an incredible step and has decided to team-up with Microsoft in order to hold up its conventional digital book-selling business.
Microsoft has decided to invest $300 million, which will bring 17% stake to the company in newly formed business, valued $1.7 billion. While Barnes & Noble will own approximately 82.4% stake in the amalgamation.
CEO of Barnes & Noble– William Lynch—said, “The formation of [this new subsidiary] and our relationship with Microsoft are important parts of our strategy to capitalize on the rapid growth of the Nook business, and to solidify our position as a leader in the exploding market for digital content in the consumer and education segments. Microsoft’s investment in Newco, and our exciting collaboration to bring world-class digital reading technologies and content to the Windows platform and its hundreds of millions of users, will allow us to significantly expand the business.”
In term of partnership, I think, Microsoft is targeting to make its sturdy penetration in the Tablet segment. However, the company is going to release its Windows 8 OS (which bridges between Tablet and PC devices) later this year. Presently, the company is teaming-up with Nokia in Smartphone segment, which has stimulated the company to grow its market share across the world.
However, Nook has also proven itself in the market that it’s no way vulnerable than Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Presently, Nook is being powered by Android 2.3 OS, and Microsoft will definitely try to break down the relationship between Barnes & Noble and Google on the issues of fragmentation of Android OS, security vulnerability and release of Google Nexus Tablet later this year. Anyway, Microsoft is big fish, has recently announced its Q3 earnings report ending March this year, generated $17.41 billion revenue, up 6% from same quarter of the prior year.
There has always been a question in my mind that whether Amazon is selling Kindle Fire at the rationale price or not? Kindle Fire has created an intense competition in the market since its advent in Q4 (calendar) last year. Most of analyst has revealed that the Tablet manufacturer is selling the device at minimal price in order to squash iPad market share. Last year, marketers were even considering that the manufacturer came in the market to create an unfair competition. Are these rumors trust-worthy? Is Amazon really selling the device lower than its actual hardware cost? If the company is doing so, then what is its benefit? There are lots of similar questions which poke into everyone’s mind, and they are really eager to know the answers of these questions. First, I have endeavored to know what is the actual price of the all the hardware components involve in the Kindle Fire.
Clearly, from the above chart, after aggregating the cost of all these components, the device expenses $209.63. It’s clear that Amazon is selling the device almost $10 lower than its actual cost. However, some marketers are saying that the company is using cheap hardware components which cost lesser or almost $199. Then, there is still a question that why Amazon is selling the device just on the actual (estimated by marketers) or less than the actual (as per estimated price in the chart)?
Is Amazon Targeting To Set iPad Off From The Growth
Amazon is not selling Kindle Fire just to get a benefit from its hardware component or integrated digital media contents such as books and Music, which are being provided by the device manufacturer . The company is emphasizing to stimulate sales of physical goods–which is the foundation of the company. Really, the online retail giant generates its profit from sales of shoes and other types of physical products as Walmart and others retailers are generating offline. Amazon has created the device in order to attract a large numbers of people towards its money making items.
Amazon has tried to make a co-ordination between its digital content and more conventional retails environment. It has indirectly built a very impressive convincing ecosystem by deploying the contents to shoppers’ door. These shoppers are ultimately lured by the retail giant and then selling all sorts of good to them.
Undoubtedly, it’s the unique endeavor of Amazon and really no other Tablet manufacturer or e-book readers are operating such a broad retail service so far.
Astoundingly, everyone is just comparing Kindle Fire with iPad 2, or even iPad 3, in respect of user experiences or hardware specifications. It’s pretty clear that Amazon’s Kindle Fire has clinched majority of iPad market share worldwide. And it’s true, Amazon sold 6 million Kindle Fire Tablets in the Q4 last year. But the dent is not only for Apple; Google Android is facing equal heat from the growth of Amazon Kindle Fire market as it has grabbed over half of the Android market share worldwide.
However, It’s not fair to compare Kindle Fire with iPad 2 which some analysts always use to do. In this aspect, my perception is somewhat different, because Amazon is not focusing to create a quality product and brand like Apple. However, comparisons between Kindle Fire and iPad 2 have been provided for you to clearly understand all sorts of specifications.
It’s quite clear from above chart that Apple’s iPad 2 is venerable than Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Despite of all these, Kindle Fire has become one of the demanded Tablets across the world, and a large numbers of users are still willing to buy the Tablet this year.
One thing is apparently clear that Kindle Fire has suppressed other Tablet manufacturers to lower down the price of their device. In March of this year, Apple also slashed down the price of its iPad 2 to $399 in order to contend Kindle Fire, besides, the success of ‘the 7-inch Tablet’ has also compelled the company to work on its iPad Mini project.
After subtle investigation, I am seeing that Amazon is winning in every aspect. The company has not yet targeted its hardware sections, but, it has craved an intense competition in the market –even genuine manufactures are also being threatened by the online retail giant. Google has also planned to launch its own Android Tablet for $149 this year and number of players like Samsung, RIM, Barnes & Noble and more have also lowered the price of their Tablet.
Despite of this, users are more relying on Amazon for e-books reading and integrated services. If you think calmly, you might find that Amazon has set up a long term goal, and indeed, it will jeopardize the future for all giants whether they belong to online retail segment or Tablet manufacturing or digital media contents or something else. Kindle Fire are continuously making its penetration in the market and the time will come when its hardware will also worth for the company.
It’s really a shocking hearsay that the creator of electronic ink (E Ink) has reportedly stated its first loss in 10 successive quarters. Indeed, the advent of Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook in the last year has threatened the business of electronics ink’s creator. The company has reportedly stated that a net loss of NT$787 million in the last quarter ending March of this year, a 63% slump in revenue in the quarter compare to the previous quarter ending December 2011. According to the company, the loss was due to “off season effects and inventory adjustment at the client”.
Undoubtedly, a net sales of e-readers has quite declined in the quarter ending March of this year compare to the same quarter a year back. A strong wind from innovative competitors has blown the sail of the electronics ink creator.
The war was embarked by Amazon’s Kindle Fire last year, when the company released a full-fledged Tablet at the nominal price of $199 in Q4 (calendar). Users are more likely to play games, social networking sites, emailing and more along with e-reading on the full color LCD screen. Due to a distinct quality and integrated services, Amazon’s Kindle Fire is currently dominating over half of Android Tablet market alone.
On comparing e-reading on e-Ink and Kindle Fire, e-Ink enthusiasts are still more relying on electronics ink creator. According to most of e-Ink fanatics, e-ink experiences them a real feeling of ink, real paper, along with high contrast and smooth edges. On the contrary, Kindle Fire’s aficionados are believing that e-Ink is really better than Kindle Fire or even iPad 3 in the display but the question is all about convenience. Kindle Fire has long battery wake-up, light in weight and small in size. One who regularly reading book on Kindle Fire says that the reading on Kindle Fire is more practical than the original printed book and more convenient. In context of iPad 3, it has high resolution LCD screen, and reading texts on its screen is flawless. In addition to these, numbers of other players are yet to come in the market later this year. Indeed, their arrival will somewhat affect to e-Ink business in upcoming quarters.
It depends upon users whether they will choose a Tablet, which will cost only few dollars more than e-Ink . Really, you would like to browse Facebook or play Angry Bird on your device, not just to stick with e-books.
Last week, Apple released its Q2 earnings of 2012, generated $39.2 billion revenue in the quarter ending March of this year, up $14.2 billion from the prior year in the same quarter. Samsung has also reportedly stated its Q1 earning ending March of 2012, but performance of its chip unit was not impressive. After Apple’s Q2, 2012 earnings report, numbers of speculations are brewing in the market. Recently, Forbes has stated that Apple could release its iPhone 5 in September or October of this year. Reminiscing the earlier report, Apple’s CEO stated that Apple was working on products which could blow our mind. Previously, I have mentioned about the Apple’s mind-blowing products such as iPhone 5 and iTV. In addition to these, Apple might launch “iPad Mini” in October this year due to intense competitions from Amazon’s Kindle Fire and others.
Earlier, I explained that Apple’s new iphone 5 would be thinner than iPhone 4S, but how much, I was not sure at that moment. But, Jefferies analyst “Peter Misek” has stated that the iPhone 5 will be 20% thinner than the iPhone 4S and expected to have 4-inch screen. But, from our previous report, it was 4.6-inch, as described by display supplier for the new iPhone. However, I am agree with Peter Misek on the aspect that iPhone 5 will have better DPI (Dot per inches).
Jefferies analyst has said that iPhone 5 might come in October of this year, but, I think, it might not be possible. It’s expected that Apple might release its iPad Mini in October of this year and the company will not release its two innovative products in the same month. However, previous rumors were speculating that Apple could launch its iPhone 5 in September of this year, but it’s also possible to release the new Smartphone little bit before the holiday season.
Foremost paraphernalia is that number of shipments of iPhone 5 is expected to be 40 million in Q3 of fiscal 2012 , whereas, it might increase to 50 million in Q4 of this year, up 10 million a quarter. Besides, the company will have over 175 million iPhone users across the world in beginning of September this year. There is also a strong possibility that the company could launch iOS6 and iCloud upgrade at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June of this year.
At the end of February this year, we have discussed that Apple could released its reinvigorated iTV later this year. Hitherto, two Canadian carriers have tested Apple’s upcoming HDTV in their lab. Lots of rumors are speculating that Apple’s iTV would be controlled by voice command or making the gestures in the air, and also will be powered by iOS operating system.
Anyway, Apple is going to launch numbers of products this years, and undoubtedly, folks will have opportunities to hold such innovative products on their hands.
Have you ever wondered what Google does for a living?If you haven’t now might be the right time to do so. Google is a giant and yet everything they sell is free, in essence, they don’t sell anything at all, each and every single one of their products are free of cost. Let’s have a cursory glance at some of Google’s products.
Gmail – Your favourite e-mail service, is free until you exceed usage limits, which isn’t likely to happen under normal circumstances unless you are a Spammer and for some strange reason decide to spam your own inbox.
Android – That famous open source operating system, which is available to me and you for free. If you know how to play around the Linux kernel and little programming, you can tweak the Android OS to your convenience and Google wouldn’t sue you for doing so.
Google Chrome– Google’s market leading web browser needs no introduction, its free and always will be.
Google Docs – Well not quite Microsoft Office, but still a pretty darn good office suite though slightly under cooked, but still for free.
Here’s How it works for Google.
Google+, Google Wallet, Google Analytics, Google Checkout, Orkut, Google Code, App Engine, Blogspot, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Earth, I can go on and on, all Google products are without doubt free, including their most famous product, the revolutionary Google Search.
How in God’s name does Google make money then? and it’s not just petty cash, Google is among the top players in the IT world. Why am I telling you all this? Some of you are saying, we know how they make money, they make money through Advertising. And you are right, but still so wrong. Very likely they make money off your intellectual property rights. Read on and judge for yourself.
Googolopoly : The world can not afford a Google Monopoly.
Google’s Advertising model has Math roots, what they have are algorithms. That’s it, that’s their business model. But it’s the way they use (or rather manipulate) their algorithms to target their adverts to their customers is what separates them from their competition. Google’s main source of revenue is a product called Google AdWords. It uses pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, cost-per-thousand (CPM) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for text, banner, and rich-media ads.
Google is a dangerous monopoly. More than Microsoft ever was. — Joe Wilcox
Every product that Google makes is aimed at achieving these two things, getting to know – you and your consumption behaviour. Every service Google offers collects or analyses your data/information and then uses this data/information to target ads at you. Frankly, if nobody ever clicked on a Google ad, Google is likely to be bankrupt quicker than you can say Google Buzz (our view not theirs).
Among all forms of advertising they have used, Google AdWords clients rate Google at the top — Source: Google AdWords Customer Satisfaction Survey:12/03-01/04, – U.S./Canadian advertisers.
And so very often Google tweaks their products/services in a way that amuses the rest of the world, but what they eventually do is tweak it in a way that suits their advertising empire. Take for instance their recent privacy changes. The much awaited Google Drive has finally been officially launched. Many Google users have received e-mails to join in the fun on the eagerly awaited cloud storage service. But very strategically Google had released its new privacy rules, which says the following:
When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content
Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? So you now have this great cloud storage service at your disposal which you would love to use and so would I, but one look at the above privacy rules and it leaves you wondering what Google is up to? Soon after its official launch, the blogosphere and Twitter have been buzzing with concerns over Google’s intellectual property rights on the content stored in Google Drive.
Now Microsoft offers similar services in SkyDrive and Dropbox, and I have been a SkyDrive user for over 2 years and I have never had any privacy concerns because Microsoft leaves the intellectual rights to the owners of the content. According to Fox News, Dropbox mentions that:
“information, files, and folders that you submit” are collectively the stuffs of users and “you retain full ownership to your stuff. We don’t claim any ownership to any of it.”
Google makes crazy amounts of money off us – The People, Their Customers
The case of Google Drive and Google’s privacy changes are once again pointers to what Google wants to achieve, they want to know everything about you and then target ads at you, make money off you.
Am I being paranoid here? Because making money isn’t a crime, is it? After all, Google is a business. Maybe I am, but my paranoia stems from reason. It’s our personal information that is at stake here, I wouldn’t like my girlfriend’s picture posted on Google+ wearing a set of sparkling diamonds to be used without our permission to convince buyers in Australia to bid for similar ornaments. And this applies to everyone who uses at least one Google service.
Google is launching more interesting products, Google Glasses being the latest hot topic these days, and you can be sure, Google will find a way to make the business off it, other than selling the glasses that is.
If Google does end up being a monopoly we will just end up being happy, unassuming victims of the greatest business model in Internet history. Take a bow Google, you are one smart search engine.
On Tuesday, Apple has reportedly released its earnings report of Q2, 2012 report. According to the report, the company sold over 35 million iPhones in the last quarter ending March of this year. Recently, Nokia has also reportedly promulgated to sell 11.9 million Smartphone in its last quarter. Previously, I have elaborated how Apple beats Nokia in its own game. It’s pretty clear that Nokia’s Smartphones are not as impressive as Apple’s iPhone 4S, however, Lumia 900 model has initially got some appreciations in the U.S., hence, we might expect more numbers of sell of this model.
Yesterday, Samsung has also released its Q1 earning report of fiscal 2012. The company has not given any information about how much profit does it make from its mobile division in the Q1, 2012 and also did not report anything about number of Smartphone shipments in its last quarter ending March of this year.
According to a research analysis firm “strategic Analytics”, Samsung has shipped 44.5 million Smartphones in the last quarter ending March of this year. If the report is right, undoubtedly, Samsung will lead Apple with great margin.
However, another source “iSuppli” states that Samsung shipped 32 million Smartphone in the last quarter ending March of this year, few million lower than Apple’s total iPhone shipments. For getting some idea about the shipment of Samsung’s Smartphone, we will have to rely on market research firms. Anyway, both the firms are agreed with Samsung that it has surpassed Nokia in mobile handset shipments worldwide–and also leading in number of mobile handsets– ,but, by how much, there’s still a discrepancy in the reckons.
Strategic Analytic has estimated that Samsung has shipped 93.5 million handsets in the last quarter ending March, while Nokia has shipped 82.7 million. On the contrary, iSuppli provides stats which reveals that Samsung has shipped 92 million of mobile handsets in the quarter ending March of this year. Anyway, Samsung has outburst in the Smartphone shipments in Q1 of fiscal 2012, and leading from Nokia.
In the U.S, three out of five adults own Smartphone till February of this year. Previously, a report stated that the U.S. tablets owners are more likely to pay for media contents in Q4 of the last year in the U.S. They are very passionate about mobile apps downloads, movies videos , and eBooks contents on their Tablet devices. According to the report, 62% of the Tablet owners across the country paid music contents on their devices, while the percentage was very low in the other countries such as Italy, the U.K and Germany. But, a recent report from an analysis firm “Parks Associates” has stated that two-third of the U.S users are not willing to spend more than $50 per month for mobile data plan on their devices. Almost 50% of Smartphone users in the country even do not know how much mobile data they use each month on their device for the purposes.
Director, Mobile Research, Parks Associates–Harry Wang–said, “Operators need to create new value propositions for their data services. U.S. consumers are accustomed to unlimited data use for one fixed price. They are reluctantly embracing the capped data plan tiers, but they have high price sensitivity and will rebel against byte-tracking. Operators need to shift consumers’ perception away from raw data to the experience created by their data services.”
The research analysis firm has also said that 90% of Smartphone users in the U.S. have downloaded average two apps per month since the purchase of the product. According to the firm, consumers are expected to spend over $14 billion on Smartphone apps downloads worldwide in 2012.
Presently, consumers are demanding more numbers of services at the nominal price. These can only be promoted if operators will offer popular apps and services including TV, Music, books, newspaper and social activities at the nominal charges across the country. Indeed, it’s the time for operators to understand users requisites rather than to charge for per megabyte of downloading. However, operators need to improve their strategy to generate revenues. It’s really very difficult for moving mobile users to used offered plans.
Apple’s products have undoubtedly revolutionized the world, and now, everyone wants to hold its products in their hand. In the last couple of years, iPad has attracted a large numbers of folks in the U.S. and 25% of them have told the device is their first-ever purchase of any Apple product. According to a recent data from NPD, just 33% of the U.S. households having Apple products, however, the number is substantially increasing and has surpassed to 37 million households (owing Apple products), appreciating to Apple iPad, which has lured majority of households in the last couple of years.
The report has also stated that iPad is growing in this market as much higher than other Apple products. Presently, one out of five Apple owners have Mac computers and 67% household are currently owing iPod–among 82% of iPod owners said that the media player was their first Apple product purchase.
The survey was conducted by NPD over 3,000 consumers in the U.S. in February of this year. The surveyed revealed that over 70% of long standing Apple owners started their relationship with the company after iPod purchase, however, the number has been declined to just 57% in the last two years–among those entered to Apple franchise. Now, newcomers (coming to the brand franchise) are more preferring to buy the iPhone and iPad as their Apple device rather iPod.
According to the report, average home in the U.S. are owing 2.4 Apple devices. It does not mean that Apple products are dominating in the country, still, six in the ten homes with Mac are owning Windows PC.
Previously, a report revealed that over 55 million households in the U.S. are having at least one Apple device such as iPhone, iPod, iPad or Mac computer. According to this report, male, college-educated and younger folks were more willing to own Apple’s devices. Besides, income also played a vital role in the purchase of Apple products in the country, just 28% of folks, whose income less than $30,000, had at least one Apple device during the survey period, while, the number was 77% for folks having income more than $75,000.
An augmenting mobile broadband penetration worldwide has enforced social networking sites to more concentrate on the this platform. Recently, Facebook promulgated to release its updates for mobile device in order to provide a better user experience. However, Facebook’s mobile app does not have any ad tags, that’s why, the company is endeavoring to develop an advanced mobile app which could support ad tags along with a better user experiences. Now, another social networking site is in the queue, Twitter also declared updates for iPhone and Android devices yesterday.
Twitter fanatic can download these updates for iPhone and Android devices through App Store and Google Play respectively. The social media site has claimed that these updates will provide more user experiences than predecessors.
The ‘Discover’ tab in the updated Twitter app will let users to find interesting and real time contents. Besides these, user can also enjoy latest ‘Activity’ on Twitter. Activity has been created below the redesigned stories in ‘Discover’ with unique appearance.
According to Twitter blog, searching on the updated apps are quite simpler for both iPhone and Android devices. Anyone can easily find people on these updates app. Just type the first name or last name or username to whom you are searching for, and you will get a list of searched folks soon.
In addition to these, some recent improvements have also been entertained in the updated app such as ‘Search Box’ in ‘Discover’ and users can also see most recent queries. The social networking site has added push notifications for interactions in its updated apps, so that, users can immediately know about their tweets–which are being retweeted or favorited by others or even somebody new follows their account.
See the video (below) for accessing Twitter on iPhone and Android devices:
There’s no discrepancy in the thoughts that digital lifestyle is changing every day and now, users are more preferring Tablet device instead of bulky PC devices. The days went off when we were seeking to a bulky PC devices for larger data storage, but the induction of cloud services have swallowed the dependency on large internal hard disk. Now, users are more relying on cloud storage to access their content on Tablet devices across the world rather than their PCs. According to a recent report from Forrester, the burgeoning market are going to suppress personal computing devices and OS markets. Indeed, these burgeoning cloud services offer users to choose first service, and thereafter, folks decide which devices are most suitable for these services–which has threatened the personal content storage devices across the world. For understanding, if you more prefer to have wide range of apps, music and videos (offered by icloud), then you will definitely select Apple’s iPad for experiencing such privileges. On the other hand, if you are more interested to read online books (offered by Amazon) on your devices, there is a better probability that you will purchase Amazon’s Kindle Fire to fulfill you requisites.
The burgeoning cloud services have compelled folks to shift from personal computers to Tablets devices. Now, the internal memory of devices are no more center of attraction for folks due to advent of cloud services. This is the main reason why iPad has become conduit between consumers’ digital devices such as Smartphone and the cloud storage contents.
Principal analyst on Forrester’s business technology futures team– Frank Gillette –wrote, “Over the next four years, tablets will gain new sensors, processing power, and better wireless capabilities for connecting with nearby devices. This will enable full voice control and dictation, increased gesture control, more situational context, better accessory integration, and software that anticipate a user’s needs.”
There are some other aspects on that basis we might bifurcate PC devices and Tablets for cloud services. Undoubtedly, the form factor and mobility of devices are two of them–give Tablet a clear edge over PCs. And these are the reasons why user are more relying cloud storage services on Tablet devices.
Clearly, I have described that the cloud services has become a determining factor for the selections of the devices, and that’s why, Apple has hold its prominence in the market even after of tight competitions. Google is no way vulnerable in cloud services compare to Apple, but it is expected to suffer due its fragmented ecosystem. However, we might expect something from Windows 8–Microsoft has experimented to bring PC as well Tablet on the same ecosystem.
We can not ignore from the benefits of cloud services because it has fixed the issue of internal memory in devices. In addition to these, the services are quite impressive due to lower initial investment, easier to manage, more storage spaces and device independence. And one thing more, for the accessibility of cloud services, one needs not have a strong knowledge of technology.
Tablets are highly portable and can be brought anywhere and the benefits of cloud services are that these are device independent, which can be accessed on any device from anywhere. Anyway, Tablet and cloud services are continuously shrinking PC devices worldwide.
Who largely enjoys the biggest pie of Android market share? Generally, the answer would be either Samsung or HTC. But you would be surprised to know that it’s Amazon who has secured the biggest size Android market share by controlling more than half of the market through its Kindle Fire.
There’s a fierce competition between Tablet manufactures across the world. However, the Tablet space is globally dominated by Apple’s iPad. Apple brought its new iPad in the market in March of this year, and sold over 3 million units within three-days of its launch. In the third-quarter of fiscal 2011, the market share of iPad was 61.5%, but it declined to 54.7% in Q4 of the same year. The reason is quite obvious, Android-powered Kindle Fire swiped iPad’s market share in Q4 (calender) of the last year after its (Kindle Fire) advent in November same year.
According to a recent report On Android market share from ComScore, Kindle fire has alone dominated more than half of the Android market in February of this year. The report has also revealed that the Kindle Fire had 54.4% of the market share in February of this year, up from 29.4 % in December last year. On the contrary, Android market share of some other big player such as Samsung, Motorola, Acer, Sony and Dell have been continuously declining since December last year.
Now, there is a big question; why Android OS is far behind compare to Apple’s iOS in the Tablet space? I have described numbers of reasons earlier, however, Kindle Fire is only Android-powered device which gave a little competition to iPad in Q4 of the last year. Undoubtedly, Kindle Fire had proven itself as a phenomenal Tablet in the market till the end of the last year.
The Android market share of Samsung Galaxy Tab, Motorola Xoom, Acer Picasso, Dell Streak and Sony Tablet S were 23.8%, 11.8%, 6%, 2.2% and 0.9% in December 2011, down to 15.4%, 7.0%, 4.3%, 1.3% and 0.7% in February of this year respectively.
Although Apple is currently working on its “iPad Mini” project, but, the penetration of 10-inch tablet is still high in the market. The report states that 10-inch tablet has 39% and 58% higher consumption rate than 7-inch and 5-inch Tablets respectively.
However, numbers of factors such as demographics, connections speed, ease of portability and content availability are also somewhat making its influence on the consumption levels of Tablets. Presently, marketers are more emphasizing on smaller-sized Tablets. But, advertisers and marketers should understand that these small-sized devices might limit the opportunity for advertising compared to the larger-screen counterparts.
Here, you might little bit startled with the information that one side the increasing demand of 7-inch Amazon’s Kindle Fire has compelled Apple to work on a 7-inch device, while another side market penetration of 10-inch Tablet is still higher than 7-inch Tablets. Indeed, Apple’s iPad had 61.5% market share in Q3 last year, declined to 54.7% in Q4 in the same year, but sold 15.4 units, which were quite higher than Amazon’s Kindle Fire, reportedly sold 6 million in the same quarter. Apple also sold, 11.8 million Tablets in Q2 of its fiscal 2012, and we might expect even more in its next quarter.
Anyway, thanks to Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which has somewhat endeavored to maintain the dignity of Android OS in the Tablet era worldwide. If we think as per marketers and advertisers perspectives then undoubtedly 10-inch tablet is quite suitable for them. If the growth of Amazon Kindle Fire continues in the same fashion, it would be difficult for Google to have significant control over Android market share which would surely lead to a complex situation in mobile OS market in future.
There are some rumors doing the rounds about Apple Inc.’s plans to release a new app in the Mac App Store. The rumors come from Apple Weetjes, a dutch website, which claimed through its anonymous sources that Apple might release the app titled iPhoto ’12 for the Mac App Store this summer. The website also claimed that this new photo editing app will be inspired by the newly released iPhoto for iOS.
Can iPhoto conquer Instagram's success?
If these rumors are indeed true then the timing of the app’s release will raise a few eye brows. Apple we know is a company that prides itself on having built an entire ecosystem of hardware and software, they build everything from scratch and often end up being trend setters while at the same time establishing bench marks for others to follow. Another thing they pride themselves on are their market dominating software products. So when they launch a new product it sparks interests and speculation all around. But this could be different.
By now everyone who has surfed the internet in the past 1 month is likely to be aware of the Instagram story. Perhaps the most popular free photo app in the world today, Instagram started its journey on the iOS back in October 2010, and notched up 1 million users by December that year, it then surpassed 10 million users the following September and recently after it launched on Android it picked up 5 million users in the first six days of launch taking its total tally past 40 million users which is about 5 percent of Facebook’s total active user base, no wonder Facebook scooped it up. But what this success story did was that it left Apple red faced, the app which was recently an Apple-only-app served as a testament to Apple’s success in the app arena. But when they went to the rival camp, the Facebook acquisition and all the hype around it, helped it gather a lot of early momentum on Android and thus it was an instant success on the Android platform.
So introducing a new iPhoto ’12 app when there already exists a more than useful iPhoto app sounds interesting. Let’s consider a couple of scenarios –
Is Apple trying to send a quite yet strong message across to Kevin Systrom and company?
or are they simply doing what they do best, innovate and add more quality and value to the way its users interact with Apple products?
Apple always looking to innovate.
In either case if the rumors about what the new iPhoto ’12 app will offer are true, it will be interesting to note whether this new launch can actually have an adverse effect on Instagram’s growing popularity. Here’s what Apple’s iPhoto app recently introduced for the iPad offers –
Smart browsing, brushes, wireless photo beaming, and photo journals.
iPhoto for iPad will also support up to 19-megapixel photos, while the new app adds the following to the iPhoto capabilities,
it will allow users to edit photos with multi-touch gestures and utilize professional-quality effects.
it will also allow users to create a photo album and share it via iCloud. This would replace the MobileMe gallery function currently found in iPhoto.
Randy Ubillos, chief architect of photo and video apps at Apple, called it a “reinvention” of iPhoto. According to the dutch website’s sources the iPhoto ’12 app will be available for both the iPhone as well as the iPad. Their report said that the new version will be available on Apple’s OS X 10.7 Lion or OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, but excludes support for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
Whether it’s their never ending desire to keep themselves ahead of their competition or whether it is a need to suppress their competition, nobody does it better than Apple. And if the new app does see the light of the day, the only one’s to benefit will be Apple’s users, since they will now have a great alternative to their favorite Instagram app.
The difference between a company which makes its own products (Apple) and another (Google) which lets its product (Android) be manipulated by a plethora of manufacturers comes across quite clearly here. Apple can make an iPhoto app and reap the benefits through its own app store on its own iPhones and iPads (both of which run on iOS) but Google (more specifically Android) still has to rely on third parties (for example Instagram) when it comes to providing once-in-a-generation apps for their Google Play store.
Undoubtedly, Apple’s iPhone 4S has revolutionized the world, despite of this, it has failed to make its penetration in Indian market. The reason is quite obvious that the device is too expensive in the country and majority of folks cannot afford to buy the device. In earlier, it was expected that iPhone 4S’ Siri –a voice recognition app— was not suitable for India’s 3G networks, however, the device was declared to be launched across the country after subtle investigation.
In addition to these, the device faced numbers of serious challenges such as folks complaint that the device was unable to understand the Indian ascent and drainage of battery another issue. However, there are some other drawbacks of the device– which I have mentioned earlier. Anyway, the induction of Siri in the market started a new chapter for marketers to work on voice intelligence apps, and consequently, numbers of projects haves been identified worldwide on this–including “Assistant” ( a voice recognition project by Google) and Voice Answer.
Today, Micromax’s “Hepsibah Rozario” said to Dazeinfo Inc that the world’s 12th largest mobile handset manufacturer has planned to launch A50 Ninja–which comes with an Artificial Intelligence Speech Handset Assistant, “AISHA”.
The device is priced for just RS 4,999/- by keeping an average middle class of India in mind, and definitely, it will come in budget of majority of Smartphone enthusiasts across the country. Micromax has finally deputed A50 as successor of its Superfone portfolio. The latest handsets will be powered by Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread) version with a processor speed of 650 MHz. The device will have 7.9 cms multi-touch capacitive screen for providing seamless experiences to users. The device will also have dual SIM with 3G compatibility, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPRS connectivity. In addition to these, the device will support 32 GB expandable memory storage, however, device has just 2 MP rear camera.
Foremost important paraphernalia is here that the Micromax is offering a new innovation to users in the form of AISHA—as a voice recognition tool. Users can access Google search, know phone status, movie reviews, view stock market details, know horoscope, read news of desired locations, make languages translation and more numbers of recipes through AISHA. Besides, AISHA will also let you to inquire date and time, missed calls, weather conditions and send messages.
Like Siri, AISHA is a voice recognition interactive application which is potentially viable to interpret the word into the action at the real time. For an intelligent and immediate response as well as smooth functioning of AISHA, Micromax has tied-up with numbers of Indian portals such as Timesjob.com, simplymarry.com and more.
Micromax has endeavored to create an innovative product in order to contend upcoming products and existing products, which are being created by different manufacturers, in the market. Presently, the Indian market is dominated by Nokia mobile handsets, followed by Samsung and Micromax. However, Micromax is currently at the number third position in Indian market, but a continuous decline of Nokia’s market share across the world is boding a good future for the Indian mobile handset giant. In India, Apple is still seeking for the market, which has been squashed by cheap Android Smartphone.
In India, over 11 million Smartphones were shipped in the entire last year, and marketers are expecting more this year. Presently, numbers of players such as RIM, Google, Nokia, Samsung, HTC, LG and more are more focusing on the Indian market. In India, one thing is quite clear that users are more sensitive towards low-priced smartphone (with maximum features) what Micromax is offering now.
I think, Micromax’s A50 could dominate over Apple’s iPhone in two aspects; first, the price of A50 is economical, on the contrary, the price of iphone 4S is quite high–even more than the yearly income of majority of folks. Secondly, the big issue is with Indian ascent, and I think, Indian manufacturer could understand it very well than Apple. However, Micromax is teaming –up with numbers of players in the market in order to provide a better users experience.
In addition to these, Micromax has currently a strong penetration in the rural as well as in the Urban areas of the country, but Apple has confined to only metropolitan cities. At present, none of the manufacturers are offering such voice recognition apps in their devices except Apple in the Indian market.
Apple’s iPhone 4S was most preferred Smartphone in the last holidays season across the world due to its integrated voice recognition app. Presently, users are more interested to interact with voice recognition app which Micromax is offering at the nominal price. The company has properly equipped the device with numbers of features, which are really outstanding. Indeed, Micromax seems aggressive this time and wants to clinch majority portion of the Indian market.
Despite of a strong penetration of mobile handsets, the telephone subscriber base is still growing in India. According to a recent report, the total telephone subscriber base was 926.5 million till the end of December last year, up 19.5 million from 907 million at the end of September in the same year. The report also stated that the telephone subscriber base grew by 17.69% during July-September quarter of the last year over the same quarter a year before, while quarter-over-quarter (during October-December 2011) growth was 2.16%. The telephone subscriber base had grown 2.36% in quarter ending September last year compare to the same quarter in the prior year.
According to a market research agency “Gartner”, India has just 51% mobile penetration, which is quite low compare to 75% tele-density, estimated by TRAI. Gartner has also reported that only 9% mobile users grew in India last year, reached to 638 million (63.8 crore) till the end of last year. However, TRAI promulgated 903.72 million mobile subscribers in January this year.
Clearly, there is huge discrepancy in the mobile subscribers’ base–provided by TRAI and Gartner. However, the data reported by TRAI depends on the subscribers declarations made by the mobile operators across the country, whereas, Gartner has independently gathered all these stats.
According to a recent report from GSMA, 3G connections in India are expected to grow more than 100 million by 2014, and also, it will be second largest global mobile broadband market by 2016. In addition to these, India wil be the largest HSPA connection market worldwide by 2012, followed by China, Japan and the U.S.
It’s pretty clear that India is going to be bullish in the coming years in the era of mobile subscriber base, mobile broadband consumption and telephone connections. Besides, the penetration of Smartphone is also augmenting with galloping swift in India year-over-year, 11 million new Smartphones connections in India last year. Thanks to cheap Android powered Smartphones and low-priced Tablets like Aakash, which have outburst the data consumption on mobile devices in India.
