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Apple has Record Quarter, iPhones, iPad Sales Soar

January 25, 2012 by 2 Comments

Apple continues to see strong sales for its mobile products as iPhones and iPads witnessed record sales, as did its Macintosh computers, in its fiscal first quarter that ended December 31, 2011. The company had quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and a quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion.

It is interesting to note that in its product lineup Apple’s computers come in a far third place in terms of unit sales with only its iPod platform showing a decline, most likely because its iPhones, with their large storage capacity can easily double as a dedicated music player.

The company sold 15.43 million iPads during the quarter, a 111 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 5.2 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Those figures are all time highs for the company. It only sold 15.4 million iPods, a 21 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

Another fact that stands out from the results is that Apple admitted that its tablets are cannibalizing sales of its Macintosh computers, even when it has a record setting quarter for the computer.

It will be interesting to see how this phenomenon carries over to the Intel-based PC space. Will the ultrabooks stave off declining sales? If not Intel had better ramp up its push to establish its Atom processor in the tablet and smartphone space.

Apple also reported that it did not believe that the Kindle Fire, and other smaller form factor ebook readers that also had very strong holiday sales, had any material impact on its iPad sales.

While analysts had expected a strong quarter from the company some admitted that they were staggered by the results and predict that the company will be able to maintain its momentum going forward, at least in the near term, as it has just started to expand into the Chinese market. It is also expected to release at least one new generation of iPads as well as a new iPhone later this year, moves that should also help see a surge in demand for its products.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Barnes & Noble, iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

iBike Delivers Powerhouse Fitness Plans

January 11, 2012 by 4 Comments

Velocamp has expanded its iBike platform to help transform it into a tool that everyone from the most casual of riders to ones with dreams of possibly participating in the Tour de France can take advantage of to improve themselves.

The latest from the company that has delivered a variety of cycling performance tools is called iBike Powerhouse Fitness plan, and it comes with four different plans each targeted at a different customer profile so that it does not try to shoehorn a wide variety of riders into one program and then disappoint them when it does not meet their needs.

John Hamann, Velocomp’s chief executive officer said that while there are lots of expensive tools for professions that enable them to track progress and work on better results, the more casual types are really left out.

The Powerhouse Fitness Plan uses a 5 minute ride along with monitoring equipment to measure your current physical state and then creates a custom plan within a basic framework. The framework is designed to achieve specific goals and track your usage and can modify plans if you fall behind or are advancing faster than expected.

The hardware required for the system includes the user owning an iPhone or iPod Touch, software, sensors that mount on the bike to measure power and other factors. There is a mount for the front of the handlebars where a waterproof case is attached so that the information is fed real time into the iPhone or iPod Touch.

The Plans

The plans were developed by Hunter Allen, one of the top cycling endurance instructors with specific expertise in using power meters. There is a basic program that allows you to develop a program and then track and display your results as well as provide feedback and changes to the program.

The package with the basic plan has a MSRP of $269. There are a set of six additional plans that can be downloaded for $9.99 each. Among the additional programs is one called iSlim, a program designed to help the user lose weight. Then there is ExpressFit designed for quick results; Weekend Warrior is for those that really only have two days to try and get fit each week. Then there is Brazilian Butt, designed to shape your lower body. Other programs include Heart Healthy and Kid Fit.

The Trouble with Android

iBike, as could be guessed by its name, is an Apple house and currently only supports a pair of products for its computer, Apple’s iPhone and its iPod Touch. It is not that the company wants to miss out on the hundreds of millions of users of Android and other platforms, Hamann said.

Apple has a consistent form factor while the Android form factors, including connectors and overall device sizes vary all over the map. By just supporting Apple it simplifies stocking for both the company and its retail outlets, but he does not rule out moving to new platforms in the future.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Cycling, iBike, iPad, iPhone, Tour de France Tagged With: , , ,

Xfinity Develops TV Sports Remote for iPhone

December 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Have you ever been channel surfing and wished that you could simplify the process and just have a set of buttons that take you to live sports or scoreboard updates? Well if you are a subscriber to Xfinity, and use Apple’s iOS mobile devices there is an application that will meet your needs.

Called the Xfinity TV Sports Remote, it is a free, downloadable app available from Apple’s iTunes store that can turn your iPhone or iPad into a remote control for your TV that enables you to just move between sporting events.

It currently is designed to work with a large number of major sports and includes NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA, NCAA Football, and NCAA men’s basketball and the company said that it is working on expanding the app to support additional broadcast sports.

It serves as a remote control and not as a technology that converts the iOS device into a viewing platform but rather makes it a focused remote control that you can program to meet your sports viewing needs.

It is easy to use but does require that you know your Comcast ID or e-mail address, which I did not initially and had to look it up which was not as easy as I would have thought. Once logged-in it checks what cable box you have, what channels you have access to and then takes you to the initial set-up page.

Enables Fans to select Favorites

This page has lists of sports events being broadcast today in your area. You need to temper your enjoyment by realizing that you may not subscribe to all of those that are displayed. It shows the channels that they will be broadcast on, and that should be the clue.

You can select a league by simply tapping on its icon and that will give you a list of games, so for the NFL it will list the Thursday, Sunday and Monday games, and then on the right had side show the channel for the ones that will be broadcast in your area. Unless the NFL uses it’s flex programming of course. In each of the leagues sections, just visiting will give you current scores for teams that are playing.

It is also very simple to add favorites although one step stumped me initially. You just click the small + by a team and it’s a favorite the first time you go to the favorites section. The second time you need to go to edit to add or subtract a team, otherwise it just tells you the status of any games your favorites are playing on that day.

The favorites section will show you the time and channel that your favorite teams are playing on the current day, if they are playing that is and if it is broadcast The only limit to favorites is the number of teams available, you can favor them all if you wanted to.

Other features include the ability to select which TV you are watching and the ability to record sports on DVRs. A caution on this feature, it will preempt any other recording setting so you might delete someone else in the houses setting to record a non sports event, hard as that might be to believe.

The program will show the sports packages available in your area but you need to directly call to sign up for one- no on-line option available.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, Baseball, Comcast, iPad, iPhone, Live Sports Video Consumption, Major League Baseball, NBA, NCAA Football, NCAA Hoops, NFL, NHL, Tablets, Xfinity Tagged With: , ,

Need to see if your team is Bowl Bound? There is an App for that.

November 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

ESPN updates Bowl tracking App

ESPN has updated its ESPN Bowl Bound application, and the 2011 edition sports new features as well as the established features such as providing news, video and the ever important tweets about favorite teams.

One key new feature, which works with users of the Watch ESPN mobile app, gives fans the option to stream live games on their mobile devices. Some of the new features are simply tweaking the program such as adding refresh to the scoreboard and being able to set up video alerts to key games.

A key feature for fans that looks to really appeal to a range of fans, particularly those that do not live near the teams they root for is the Bowl Bound Team Clubhouse. The Clubhouse is a customizable feature that allows fans to add their favorite team as well as its logo and colors. It includes team Twitter feeds specifically tailored for the fans school and has a Conversation feature that enables a user to chat with similar fans and trash talk rivals.
The Clubhouse includes 240 FBS and FCS team clubhouses and has a host of information about the teams including rosters, schedules, stats and a flow of news and video t keep fans up to date.

The program has a host of other features, some also available in other ESPN programs. Weekly schedules and scores for instance. Other features include weekly projections for all 35 bowl games, aggregated Twitter feed from ESPN’s college football people, weekly team rankings and poll results.

In addition you can follow ESPN’s Bowl news at @ESPN_BowlBound on Twitter. Currently the app is only available of the iOS 4.0 or later environment, or to the uninitiated Apple’s iPad, iPod touch and iPhone.

Filed Under: ESPN, iPad, iPhone, NCAA Football, Twitter Tagged With: , , , ,

Verizon: MNF a ‘Big Draw’ for NFL Mobile App

November 7, 2011 by 6 Comments

The ability to watch Monday Night Football on your phone — like tonight’s game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Chicago Bears — has drawn a lot of new fans to Verizon Wireless’s NFL Mobile app, according to a company executive in charge of the service.

“The NFL Mobile app is very popular, and we continue to see growth [in user numbers],” said Mitch Dornich, Verizon Wireless marketing director for entertainment and sponsorships, in a phone interview. Though Dornich would not disclose updated subscriber numbers, last year Verizon reportedly had at least 4.5 million of its wireless customers using the NFL Mobile app — a number that has almost certainly grown thanks to the addition of live Monday Night Football games to the app’s premium-service tier this season.

“Last year, we had Thursday night games, Sunday night games, the NFL Network shows and the RedZone,” said Dornich. “This year we added Monday Night Football and it’s been a big lift. RedZone as a companion device during other broadcasts and Monday Night Football seem to be our biggest draws.”

Audio Broadcasts Also Popular

Though Verizon’s promotions of the NFL Mobile app center around live video and the company’s new, fast 4G LTE network, it is good old audio broadcasts that account for another big chunk of NFL Mobile use.

“Audio consumption is very high, probably because it’s the perfect companion if you’re doing something like driving, where you can’t watch the screen,” Dornich said. With both home and away audio broadcast choices NFL Mobile can satisfy fans of either side of any NFL contest, and couples the live audio with instantly updated text play-by-play.

According to Dornich, many Verizon wireless customers may start out with the basic free version of the NFL Mobile app, which supports features like the audio broadcasts and play-by-play, and then upgrade to the premium version after getting a taste of the video choices available. Verizon added some video-on-demand features, like in-game highlights, to the basic package this season and Dornich guessed the appetizer has enticed many fans to upgrade for the full meal deal.

For Verizon customers with 3G phones that support video (like the iPhone 4 or the iPhone 4s) the premium NFL Mobile package requires a $10 per month “Verizon Video” fee in addition to any other data plan.

“This year we put the VOD into the basic package so people could see the value,” Dornich said. Verizon is also waiving the $10 monthly fee for the rest of the 2011-12 season for customers who purchase 4G LTE phones. In and of itself, the NFL Mobile app is a bit of a promotional tool for the 4G LTE network, Dornich said.

“It’s really good for us, because [the NFL Mobile app] helps us differentiate our network from the competition,” Dornich said. “It shows customers what the network is capable of.”

Technical Challenges: Getting Good Video to Handsets

One of the biggest challenges for Verizon is optimizing the video streams to the many different handsets that are supported, which include Android smartphones as well as a long list of BlackBerry devices. “It’s not just about delivering the highest bit rate, since you may deliver something that a handset processor could choke on,” Dornich said. “The challenge for us is how to optimize the stream, so it’s right-sized for a particular handset.”

Though the NFL Mobile app is not yet supported on what is fast becoming the couch potato’s favorite companion device — the Apple iPad and its tablet imitators — Dornich said to “stay tuned” for news about iPad and NFL Mobile.

Verizon also takes care to alert potential NFL Mobile heavy users that watching a lot of video on your phone may be hazardous to the health of your monthly data plan. “We are always pretty clear up front that high usage [of NFL Mobile video] may impact your data plan,” Dornich said. One way fans can keep data consumption under control is to seek out Wi-Fi hotspots when they know they are going to watch a lot of video, Dornich said.

Verizon Wireless, which also has mobile apps for fans of the National Hockey League and IndyCar auto racing, said it is happy with the results of its $720 million deal with the NFL, which gives Verizon exclusive rights to cellphone viewing (though fans with other paid packages, like DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket or the Slingbox can also watch their services via a mobile connection).

“We’re very happy with the agreement,” Dornich said. “Our expectations have been validated.”

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apps, iPad, iPhone, NFL, Sling Media, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

CBS: 214,560 Online Viewers for LSU-Bama Sets New Record

November 6, 2011 by 9 Comments

Turns out we weren’t the only ones sampling CBS Sports’ free online broadcast of the LSU-Alabama game Saturday night: According to the network, the No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown attracted what it believes to be the biggest-ever online audience for a college football game, with a total of 214,560 unique viewers through both website and mobile-device application interaction.

“CBSSports.com continues to set the pace in terms of streaming major sports event on multiple platforms,” said Jason Kint, Senior Vice President and General Manager, CBSSports.com, in a press release Sunday. “Extending the audience by nearly a quarter of a million viewers during primetime on a Saturday night is quite an accomplishment and the perfect compliment to the CBS Sports broadcast.”

According to CBS, there were 171,648 viewers who watched the game via the CBSSports.com website, and another 42,912 viewers who viewed the game via CBS Sports mobile using an app for Apple iOS devices (either an iPad, an iPhone or an iPod Touch). According to CBS, “this number of unique viewers for the LSU/Alabama game is believed to be the largest audience ever to watch a football game through digital platforms.” Though Mobile Sports Report can’t immediately confirm that claim it’s more than likely true given the limited number of big-time events ever being available for free online.

Though Saturday’s event isn’t close to being the biggest online experience for CBS — according to the press release CBS hosted 1,153,981 online viewers of an NCAA men’s basketball tournament game in 2010 (a first-round game between BYU and Florida) — it also helped prove that online viewers don’t necessarily take away from a regular-broadcast audience, since the TV part of the broadcast earned the network’s second-highest rating since September of 1987. According to CBS the game had an 11.9/21 Nielsen rating.

And while the game might not have lived up to its No. 1 vs. No. 2 hype the expected online audience certainly did, and should mean that we may see more such events toward the end of the year and into college bowl season. Bookmark Mobile Sports Report to stay informed about any future online NCAA football broadcasts.

Filed Under: Apps, CBS Sports, NCAA Football, Nielsen Ratings, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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