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Apple has Sold 55 Million iPads

February 15, 2012 by

Company believes that they will soon outpace PC sales
The pace at which new technology gets adopted seems to be faster than ever, or it might be more accurate to say that once it is popularized it gets adopted faster than ever, as Apple showed when it revealed the sales numbers of its popular iPad tablets.

The iPad is not the first, or even the second tablet to hit the market, attempts have been ongoing for more than a few decades including Alan Kay’s Dynabook computer concept, Motion Computing’s Tablet PCs, and the Microsoft PC Tablet to name just a few.

There are a number of failed attempts over the past years, in part because the technology was just not there in terms of enabling developers to create fully functional devices that were lightweight, tough and yet could rival a computer.

However that issue is a thing of the past and tablet sales have been growing at a tremendous rate- according to a recent report from market analyst firm BI Intelligence, tablet sales are expected to hit 500 million units a year by 2015. The firm estimates that tablets will be a $100 billion market and surpass PC sales by a good percentage- it believes PC sales will be approximately 360 million units. No wonder Intel is working so hard to enter this space.

So how is Apple doing in this space you wonder? Well according to Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO the number is around 55 million units. He revealed the number during a presentation at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference.

He attributed the healthy ecosystem for the iPad platform as being very important for the growth and said that there were 170,000 apps that have been optimized for the platform as well as peoples previous experience with the iPhone.

He said that since its introduction he and others at Apple have believed that in the long run tablets would outsell PCs. As a user he said that he now spends between 80-90% of his time on an iPad. He said that it is cannibalizing Mac sales but if someone is going to do that he prefers it be Apple.

To put the sales figures in prospective with other Apple products Slashgear points out that it took Apple three years to sell that many iPhones and 22 years to sell that many Macintosh computers.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, iPad, iPhone, Microsoft, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , , ,

Motorola/Google Deal Gets OK-With a Warning

February 15, 2012 by

The deal gets approval but EU said it is watching

As expected both the EU and the United States Department of Justice have given Google’s $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility the go-ahead. At the same time the US approved the purchase of Nortel wireless patents by an Apple-Microsoft led consortium.

From the outside it looks like this sets up a battle royal in the patent space as both now are armed with a host of additional patents and the players on both sides have shown a very ready willingness to go to court to enforce them.

Apple has been strongly going after a number of Android smartphone developers, in particular Samsung, HTC and Motorola. Motorola has been returning fire at Apple, with Google’s approval, while https://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2012/jan12/01-12LGPR.mspx has been quietly but efficiently getting developers’ to pay it for select patents.

However hopefully we will not see a yearlong battle in this space, something that could temporarily blunt the strong growth of smartphones and tablets. No one wants what happened in the last years of dial up modems when conflicting technologies made for incompatibility.

According to a careful analysis of the agreements published in Foss Patents, Florian Mueller said that the approvals are not without caveats. The EU said specifically that it will be looking at future and past enforcement of patents by Google and that it is ready, willing, and able to step in if it believes they are being abused.

He said that the end result of these deals will be business as usual, which currently means a series of lawsuits working their way through court. At the same time he notes that just because no action has been taken to date does not mean that none is forthcoming.

From the European Commission’s press release announcing approval is this important paragraph. “Today’s decision does not mean that the merger clearance blesses all actions by Motorola in the past or all future action by Google with regard to the use of these standard essential patents. Our decision today is without prejudice to the legality under EU antitrust law of Motorola’s past and Google’s future actions. However, the question whether Motorola’s or Google’s conduct is compliant with EU antitrust law cannot be dealt with in the context of the merger procedure.”

So while it may be business as usual in the short run, the court cases could result in the addition of another player, and one that has a lot more clout than any of the individual players involved, or all of the players for that matter.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Motorola, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Mobile World Congress is Coming!

February 13, 2012 by

LG is touting a new phone that it will debut at the Mobile World Congress as a “revolutionary smartphone.” According to Pocketnow there should be some very interesting features in the phone starting with the LG X3 which will be its flagship Android smartphone.

Another offering expected at the show from LG is the LG CX2, a follow-up product to its Optimus 3D. This phone is expected to feature a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, NOVA autostereoscopic display for glasses-free 3D, 8GB storage standard as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities.

Acer preps CloudMobile for show
Acer is showing its CloudMobile smartphone in advance of the MWC trade show in Barcelona at the end of the month. The company is being very clever in its leak, giving base information but not enough details so that when it officially shows the phone for the first time the public will not already know the details, according to Pocket-lint.

What is expected is a smartphone that features a 4.3-inch HD display, Dolby sound and will be running Android 4.0 when it ships in the second half of this year. A key attribute of the phone will be the integration with AcerCloud technology that offers, among other things, unlimited web-based storage.

The Motorola/Google deal expected to get EU approval
Following on last week’s rumors that the $12.5B acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google was going to get the thumbs up from the U.S. Justice Department comes word that it is expected to get the OK from EU authorities as well.

According to sources the deal should go through with little or no alterations despite the fact that there were a number of objections filed, including one by a US-based consumer protection group.

Can Google Wallet be picked?
Unfortunately the answer looks to be yes. While hacking the wallet is not easy it can be done according to researchers, who have outlined how to do it for those so inclined. What is frightening is that simultaneously with the researchers posting their findings another blog reported a much easier manner to get access.

The part that should make users nervous is that to hack the wallet might not require extra software, root access, or pretty much any deep-seated hacking skills. Head over to Cnet to see why you might need to be more than a tad concerned.
The Patent Wars

Apple tries new angle in latest suit
Apple has filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent Motorola Mobility from asserting patents against Apple in a lawsuit being heard in Germany. Apple claims that Motorola’s efforts violate its patent licensing agreement with Qualcomm.

The gist of the suit, reported by Reuters, is that Apple believes that as a Qualcomm customer it is a beneficiary of the third party agreement between Motorola and Qualcomm and that under that agreement Motorola cannot assert these patents against Apple.

Apple vs Samsung-The latest Round
Apple continues to go after Samsung and has now filed another injunction to halt sales of a Samsung product. The latest product to be targeted by Apple is Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone, as reported by PC Advisor.

In the suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Apple is seeking a preliminary injunction that bans the sales of the phone in the US while its case that Samsung is violating four of Apple’s patents is heading through the court system.

Apple claims that “”The smartphone market is at a critical juncture, as the overwhelming majority of consumers move to smartphones, and the consumers’ long-term preferences and purchases may be determined to a great extent by the operating system on their first smartphone.”

This and that

Electronista is reporting that a leaked presentation from USA Todaybreaks down mobile downloads by platform and that iPad users dominate at a 7x rate over Android and other users. Apple’s download lead in smartphones is significantly smaller.

Kindle Fire to burn larger?
A report is now coming out that says to expect a 9-inch Kindle Fire by mid-year, a move that could drive sales from an estimated 12.7 million in 2012 to 14.9 million, according to the analyst.

Samsung and Apple own smartphone profits
Wealth management firm Canaccord Genuity has reported that between Apple and Samsung they garner 95% of all of the profits in the smartphone space with Apple owning a lion’s share of 80%.

New iPad in first week of March
A variety of sources have narrowed down the release date for the forthcoming Apple iPad 3 to the first week in March — we will see I guess.

The Air Force about to make one tablet maker very happy
US Air Force’s Air Mobility Command is planning on purchasing somewhere between 63 and 18,000 tablets of as of now unknown manufacturing origins. They are seeking to replace the pilot and navigator bags that can weigh as much as 40 pounds. Currently it looks as if the iPad 2 is in the lead for the deal.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Kindle, Motorola, Samsung, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Microsoft talks Windows 8 Tablet

February 10, 2012 by

The top Windows exec at Microsoft, Steve Sinofsky, has published a huge blog entry that details Microsoft’s plans for Windows 8 on low-powered platforms driven by processors built around the ARM processor technology.

Since that is the primary chip technology driving most tablets, this blog entry shows how the company sees the space and what it believes it can bring to the market that its rivals cannot, or are not doing well.

A few of the key talking points are that versions of Windows for ARM platforms will carry a Windows for ARM branding; there will be a special version of Office for this platform and there will be a major effort to have the hardware and software tightly integrated, much like Apple does with the various iOS products.

Phoenix Suns latest to grab tablets as in-game tool
If you happen to watch closely the next time you are viewing a Phoenix Suns game expect to see branded products from Samsung and Verizon Wireless on the sidelines in place of the old school chalkboards.

The team has signed a deal that will provide the players, scouts and coaches with Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tab tablets and Verizon 4G wireless service. The team plans to use them for a winde variety of tasks including in-game play calling by head coach Alvin Gentry.

While the NFL and Major League Baseball have been very aggressive in developing and deploying tablets as part of a training regime the NBA has lagged behind. This is probably going to be watched very closely and probably imitated by a number of other teams in the off season.

Asus admits bug in Transformer Prime
Asus has released a firmware update that will fix the random boot problem that has plagued some but not all owners of its Eee Pad Transformer Prime Tablets. The move comes after a flow of negative comments on line and at least one retailer, UK’s Clove to cease selling the product.

The tablet has had several flaws since it was debuted last year including simple lack of product available and a GPS accuracy issue. In the past the company has denied that there was a reboot issue but has now finally admitted it.

Patent Wars
Apple continues to battle and seems to be losing ground at a slow and steady rate. Its latest setback was a German court ruling that Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, called the Galaxy Tab10.1N in the German market does not appear to be a copycat version of the iPad.

Apple had won an initial ruling preventing Samsung from selling n the German market last September and the 10.1N is a work around that has been found acceptable by the court, reopening the market to the Apple rival.

Apple has been particularly aggressive pursuing Samsung in both the iPad but also iPhone space claiming that it carefully copied its devices. So far its success has been lackluster in courts but that does not seem to have changed Apple’s determined drive in the patent space.

Google’s bid for Motorola Mobility likely to be approved next week
Multiple sources are reporting that the $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility by Google will get antitrust approval from the United States Justice Department sometime next week. Among other assets that Google will acquire is a patent portfolio that is 17,000 strong in the mobile phone area.

This patent portfolio is likely to be used for both offensive and defensive purposes by the company. It is aggressively seeking huge payments from Apple over all iPhone and other iOS devices, but will likely also be used to simply be leverage in cross patent licensing agreements.

At the same time the Justice Department is likely to approve of the purchase of Nortel by a consortium of Apple, Microsoft Sony, Research in Motion, EMC, and Ericsson AB. This deal will include 6,000 wireless patents.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Amazon, Android, Apple, Google, iPhone, Microsoft, Motorola, NBA, NFL, Samsung, Smartphone, Sony, Tablets, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Smartphones Outsell PCs, Tablets

February 6, 2012 by

There was a battle of opinions last week between Symantec and Lookout Security in regards to a bit of code that is attached to a select number of apps as to if it was malware or not. Symantec said that the code, called Android.Counterclink was malicious software and warned users off a number of apps that contained the offending code.

Meanwhile a rebuke came from Lookout Security which said that it was simply an aggressive pierce of adware and that while it could be annoying, was not really bad enough to be termed malware.

Well apparently Symantec has come over to its rival’s side of thinking and agreed that its original diagnosis was incorrect and that the code in question is just annoying. In case you are wondering what Google is doing about malware go over to iTWire to see.

Smartphones outsell PCs
According to market research firm Canalys, smartphone sales in 2011 outpaced that of all PCs. It showed that there was 487.7 million smartphones sold in the year compared to 414.6 million PCs of all stripes from desktops to tablets.

The pace of sales for smartphones appears to be increasing with 158.8 million sold in the 4th quarter of 2011, a 57% increase over the 101.2 million sold the same quarter a year before. Contrast that with PC sales that grew 15% for the year, in part buoyed by a 274% increase in tablet sales.

Of course comparing sales in a mature market to sales in a emerging one is comparing apples to oranges but it is interesting to see how mobile computing, both smartphones and tablets are soaring.

Apple sees the light on iBook licenses
Apple has reversed its position regarding who owns the rights to text books that are written for ts iBook textbook effort. The company has changed the End User License Agreement so that it no longer reflects a claim that Apple owns the rights to works developed with iBook Author software.

As reported by SlashGear the new EULA states that books developed using the .ibooks format may only be distributed by Apple but that they can be distributed in other formats by the author.

Windows 8 details leaked
A leaked video is showing a great deal of the details that customers and developers can expect with the forthcoming Windows Phone 8 released according to any number of sites. Shown first at PocketNow.com the video was reportedly made for Microsoft partner Nokia, a company that has been an aggressive partner in the phone space.

Included in the release, which it said was code-named Apollo, are support for multicore processors, a total of four screen resolution options for developers, and a removable microSD card for additional storage.

With digital payments from mobile devices becoming increasingly important Microsoft looks to be positioning the phones to be a prime platform for what it calls the ‘wallet experience’ and the OS will allow carriers to brand and control the payment features. Drop over to see what else was discovered about the forthcoming phone. Also head out to Wired to see how Android, iOS and Windows 8 compare and contrast.

The Apple/Motorola patent battle continues to range in Germany.
Motorola managed to get some Apple products banned in Germany, but Apple has countered and won a suspension from an appeals court at the last minute. Apple is claiming that Motorola is not playing fair “Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago.”

According to Foss Patents, Motorola is asking for 2.25% of Apple’s sales in return for the license, which it is presumed would cover a range of Motorola patents and not just the one in question. However Apple is countering that it has a license due to its cross licensing agreement with Qualcomm, who in turn has one with Motorola.

This sound a lot like the licensing issues that Intel and Advanced Micro Devices fought over more than a decade ago. That battle was estimated to have cost more than $1 billion to the players involved and was settled with a cross licensing agreement.

Mobile football in the offseason
Now that the Super Bowl is done and finished and it is some time prior to the NFL deraft there are still a few options for the sports fans. An example is this promo that started Super Bowl Sunday and not clear when it will end-EA Sports slashes price of Madden 12 for Android to 99 cents, down from $4.99 for a limited time.

However there are a range of additional options for playing games on a smartphone and luckily for you Cnet has gone to the trouble and created a list for Android and iOS users. Sorry no listings for BlackBerry.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, BlackBerry, Microsoft, Research in Morion, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Does Facebook make no Money on Mobile?

February 3, 2012 by


Is a patent war in Google’s future?

No not the one with Apple that it appears to be fighting by proxy but rather one where it uses the patents it will acquire in its Motorola Mobility acquisition. The Guardian puts forward a well reasoned piece that strongly suggests that this is the only way that the company can recoup its $12.5bn investment.

The most recent financial statement from Motorola shows that it will have a negative effect on Google’s results, possibly dropping earnings per share by as much as one third. Google has long stated that one of its goals in the purchase will be the patents, and it seems that since it is already using Motorola as a tool in its on going war with Apple over patents, it now will take it to a new level.

But it is also likely that it will be more aggressive in using the patents overall, possibly to exert more control over Android handset makers and their software. The one company that could be harmed by this approach might be Amazon whose Kindle uses a basic version of Android but with all of the other Google features such as Gmail stripped out so that a user would barely know what OS it is running.


Amazon’s Kindle sales triple in last quarter
Amazon’s revenue grew 35% in its just concluded fourth quarter, reaching $17.4 billion and said that the sales of its Kindle eReaders tripled in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, 2011, but did not disclose the exact number sold.

However the sales growth did not meet analysts’ expectations and the company said that net income dropped significantly, down to $177 million, a 57% decline from the same period a year before. Part of the issue was a huge investment into expanding its sales fulfillment centers, a move it said will help grow the business in the long run.

For the current quarter it is predicting sales of between $12 billion to $13.4 billion and that it could post an operating loss of as much as $200 million to a profit of $100 million

Turner Broadcasting System and Intel Capital invest in iStreamPlanet’s Series A
iStreamPlanet has closed its Series A funding round with both Intel Capital and Turner Broadcasting Systems participating in the round. The amount of funding was not disclosed. iStreamPlanet develops automated video workflow technology.

Turner has already worked with iStreamPlanet in the past on a variety of live sports broadcasts going as far back as the 2010 NASCAR Coca Cola 400 at Daytona Speedway. Other events that iStreamPlanet has helped broadcast include the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, NBC Sports’ Sunday Night Football and the Championships at Wimbledon, along with the US Open Golf, Notre Dame College Football, Ryder Cup and the Kentucky Derby.

Aside from automated video workflow technology the company also has multi-screen technology as well as cross platform ad insertion capabilities.

Will BCS move games to campuses in 2014?
That is what is being reported as a possibility by Brett McMurphy over at CBSSports. He said that at least on athletic director has proposed moving many Bowl games onto school’s campuses rater than at the neutral sites where they are played today.

The new cycle of BCS begins in 2014 which is the earliest that the change could most likely occur. One of the driving forces behind the idea is the poor attendance that many of these Bowls and would call for on-campus games after the top 16 games are filled. Also under consideration would be requiring a minimum of seven wins to be bowl eligible.

Facebook revenue absent in the mobile space
As Facebook opens its books in advance of its $5 billion IPO a number of interesting facts have emerged about the company. It has obviously seen very strong growth since its inception and now has $3.7 billion in revenue.

Oddly enough none of this revenue, zero, comes from the mobile users of the social media. With 425 million of its 845 million users accessing the site via a mobile device this is astounding. However it shows that there is huge room for revenue growth for the company.

As reported at Forbes, Facebook said that it is devoting substantial resources to expanding its platform in the mobile space and seeks to create engaging mobile products. The company said that it anticipates mobile users’ rate growth to outpace its overall growth rate.

Feds keep pressure on illegal Super Bowl streamers
For the second year in a row the US Government has cracked down on a number of sites that provide sports streaming and has taken control of their domain names. Users heading to those sites will get a redirect notice from the DOJ/ICE.

Among the sites included are Firstrowsports.tv, Firstrowsports.com and Soccertvlive.net. and as reported by Torrent Freak this is the second time around for the Feds to shut down sports streaming sites just prior to the Super Bowl, although some sites are already back up under slightly different incarnations.

The shutdown struck at least 307 domain names and the effort was called ‘Operation Fake Sweep’ with the bulk of the sites charged with selling fake NFL merchandise and only 16 for illegally streaming sports video.

AMD to enter tablet and Ultrabook space
AMD introduced analysts at its annual meeting to its newest processor roadmap that will include a pair of low powered chips that will target the tablet space and showed an Ultrabook design that looks to undercut Intel’s offerings in hat space.

According to EETimes coverage of the event AMD has added Hondo, a 40 nm processor for tablets due this year and plans to follow up with Temash, a 28 nm chip next year. The company has been slow to enter this space but its rivals here are more from ARM-based chips and the OMAP processors from Texas Instruments, Intel has been slow to make headway in this area as well.

AMD showed an Ultrabook that was developed by Taiwanese company Compal using AMD’s Trinity chip in a thin an ultrabook reference design made by Taiwan’s Compal. It said that the computer could have a $599 price tag, possibly starting a price war with developers using Intel’s developers ultrabooks.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, BCS, Intel Capital, Kindle, Motorola, Super Bowl, Tablets, Turner Sports Tagged With: , , , , ,
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