FaceTime and Why Apple’s Massive Integration Advantage is Just Beginning

TechCrunch ^ | Jul 3, 2010 | Steve Cheney

[driftdiver]

“You’re making no sense. You attempted to needle us with an intimation that Apple had cut prices for reasons of weakness in the marketplace. We called you on it. You were wrong and should be man enough to admit it.”

Are you bi-polar or something? I posted a link proving you wrong and you still keep the lies going. Doesn’t that hate and jealousy eat a hole in your stomach eventually?

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"only apples website."

Prove it. Link, or dry up.

"Unsurprisingly apple has code installed to prevent malware."

Sigh. That canard again. What you refer to is a mechanism which prevents the user from approvingly installing software, such as cracked versions of commercial packages, containing hidden functionality (that is, trojan horse functionality). That says nothing more or less about the OS' security than being frisked before entry to a sensitive military installation-- in fact, that's an exactly parallel analogy. Would you prefer an OS allow installation of known bad stuff? Would you prefer the government allow folks known to associate with terrorists to walk right into the White House? ...um, maybe that's a bad example...

"You just couldn’t hold it back could you, all that hate filling you up."

I do not hate you, but I'm getting mighty tired of wild accusations with no backup and impugning fine products out of some sort of twisted personal agenda. I commented on another thread of this sort that it's as though Steve Jobs ran over someone's puppy. Now look: Sitting within cat-swinging distance of me right now is this Mac, four PCs running various flavors of Windows, another Mac, two more PCs running Linux, and a Sun Ultra2 SparcStation running Solaris, plus a gaggle of virtual machines of various configurations and OSes. All support my day to day work. So I have something you seem to lack: perspective, and an open mind. And I'm here to tell you that for most users there is no better, more economical or safer choice for a personal computer than the Mac (though I find myself recommending the iPad to more and more folks for personal computing purposes), and there's no smartphone that will make most people happier than the iPhone. They're marvelous products, the baseless yapping and whinging of the fact-challenged aside. While I'm at it: Windows 7 is much improved, but in my experience folks will have fewer frustrations (and many fewer hidden costs) with the Mac or iPad; Windows XP needs to die fast; Linux is fun for geeks like me but not for Jane or Joe Average; Android is promising but too chaotic, poorly-policed and dangerous for me to recommend at this time.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"I posted a link proving you wrong"

I responded with information which illuminated where you had things incorrect, such as (and this is called an example, you should try it some time) when you claimed the iPhone 4 was reduced in price vs. the previous model, the iPhone 3GS, and then you implied that this somehow was an act of weakness on Apple's part. You seem to have also muddied the water by comparing unsubsidized vs. subsidized pricing. Come to think of it, we've yet to see a single unequivocal fact from you that wasn't similarly twisted or debased or pulled straight out of your ...ahem, pulled out of thin air.

[driftdiver]

Apple provided a link. read your email

begone troll

[Swordmaker]

Wait a minute, I thought you guys were all railing at me about how it was just the last version that was included in the pricing.

YOU were the one who claimed the iPhone 4 was half the price of the "previous version," not us... we have merely corrected your lie. Then you danced around trying to make your statement true so long as any previous iPhone sold for more, no matter which version or how long ago. And you wonder why we don't like trolling liars like you.

[Swordmaker]

Plus you guys rail at Microsoft everytime a patch is released to fix an issue, regardless of whether a hack has been done using that vulnerability.

Please show us, where "we guys" "rail at Microsoft everytime a patch is released to fix an issue, regardless whether a hack has been done using that vulnerability." SHOW US. You keep claiming this, but you continually fail to show it.

[driftdiver]

no sword, your revision doesn’t work. even in your subsequent posts you referred to the plural until the other poster tried the deflection.

troll

[Swordmaker]

no sword, your revision doesn’t work. even in your subsequent posts you referred to the plural until the other poster tried the deflection.

IDIOT. It is plural... but not all inclusive.There IS no deflection. You, Driftdiver, specified a singular previous version... which is the one immediately preceding the release of the $199 priced iPhone 4, not the three release back, iPhone price reduced original iPhone. I repeat, you are a dishonest, sniveling, cowardly liar who cannot admit you are wrong.

iPhone Release Sale Prices

Month/Year Released	iPhone Version	Carrier Subsidized Sales Price *	Non-Subsidized Price**
06/2010	iPhone 4	$199	$599
06/2009	iPhone 3Gs	$199	$599
06/2008	iPhone 3G	$199	$599
09/2007	iPhone Original (discount)	N/A	$399
06/2007	iPhone Original	N/A	$599

* price subsidized by Service Provider with 2 year service contract.
** Price without service contract.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Apple provided a link. read your email"

Maybe you could be more cryptic if you really tried. Did you mean freepmail? Nothing there. I even checked my personal email in case you'd somehow gotten ahold of it (in which case I'd need to have a word with JimRob). Nothing there either, to my relief. If there's a link why not post it here?

Clearly you can't provide a link. Ah, well, one can only conclude your charge is baseless, then. Which only makes sense, considering the recognized and proven security of OS X in the real world.

[antiRepublicrat]

you have to pay Apple a license to use it. Skype and Nokia use open CODECs and video formats that are free to use.

Skype uses the On2 VP7 codec, quite proprietary. A while back the International Telecommunication Union came out with a set of compression standards, H.264, and that's what Apple uses. H.264 is very standard, but developers have to pay license fees to the MPEG LA to use it, just like Skype pays a license to On2 (now Google).

Since Google bought On2 they've decided to open the VP8 codec. Unfortunately that is sitting under the patent cloud of H.264.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

" Hmmm, Symbian - NOKIA - has 44% of the entire SMARTPHONE market, about 3 times what Apple has."

Came across the following article and thought it might be of interest here. It rather underscores my point from the other day that "Nokia is nowhere in smartphones," your somewhat-obsolete table aside. Enjoy.

http://www.macworld.com/article/152484/2010/07/nokia.html?lsrc=rss_main

Nokia on long comeback trail after smartphone misses

Posted on Jul 2, 2010 10:30 am by Mikael Ricknäs, IDG-News-Service:Stockholm-Bureau

Nokia still sells more phones than Samsung, LG and Research in Motion (RIM) put together, but its inability to produce high-margin, high-end smartphones that can compete head-to-head with Apple’s iPhone and Android-based smartphones is causing it major problems.

Since April 22, when Nokia announced its first quarter results and the delayed launch of its first competitive smartphone in over three years—following that up in June with a lowered outlook for the second quarter—the company’s share price has almost been cut in half on the New York Stock Exchange.

The company’s status stands in stark contrast to the end of 2006, when Nokia dominated the market—even though it was criticized for a lack of slim phones—and was gearing up to ship its most iconic product yet, the N95. However, 2007 was a year that would shake the mobile phone market to its core. In January, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone and in August Google announced Android.

Nokia was getting complacent and its first mistake was not taking the iPhone and Android seriously early on, according to Nick Jones, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

Nokia completely underestimated the impact that the iPhone was going to have on the market, according to Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight. So did most of the telecom industry, but matters were made worse for Nokia when it took too long to realize that the Symbian OS, with its lack of a user interface for touchscreens, was a big problem, Wood said.

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

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

On Thursday, Nokia’s latest reorganization went into effect. It divides the company structure into three units: Mobile Solutions, Mobile Phones and Markets, and aims to accelerate the development of new phones and services.

Nokia is now working hard at getting the N8 handset—which is based on Symbian 3, the first version of the OS that has been developed for smartphones with touchscreens—ready for its third quarter launch date.

Originally, the N8 was supposed to show up in stores during the second quarter. Nokia delayed the release to get the quality right, it said in April, but the delay gave Nokia a lot of negative attention and tanked its stock price. On the other hand, to rush the N8 out—and have a repeat of the fiasco of the N97, slammed for bad performance and subpar software—would be the worst possible thing to do, according to Wood.

“Nokia has to get the N8 out there, and prove to the world that it can make a good quality, high-end phone … and restore some faith in the company,” said Wood.

Symbian 3 is a step in the right direction, but it will not fix all user experience problems, and isn’t as radical as it should be, according to Jones. That will more likely happen with Symbian 4, and smartphones based on that version won’t arrive until 2011, he said.

Nokia is still bullish about its prospects in the high-end smartphone sector. Company officials were not available to comment for this article. But company veteran Anssi Vanjoki — who took the helm of Nokia’s Mobile Solutions group as part of the reorganization — is committed, perhaps even obsessed, with getting Nokia back to being number one in high-end devices, he said in a Friday blog post labeled “The fightback starts now”.

Vanjoki has been testing the N8 and believes it is going to surprise a lot of people with its power and speed. The camera and HD-quality video and deep integration with the company’s Ovi services will make it “an entertainment powerhouse,” he said.

Symbian is Nokia’s platform of choice for Nokia smartphones, and it has no plans to come out with an Android device, according to Vanjoki.Some of the recent criticism directed at Symbian has been fair, some not, he said.

In addition to Symbian-based smartphones, Nokia is also working on products based on MeeGo, an OS that was born in February when Nokia and Intel announced they would merge the Maemo and Moblin OSes.

MeeGo will be used on everything from advanced smartphones to netbooks, connected TVs and tablet computers, the two companies said. Nokia still hasn’t announced its first MeeGo-based product, but it will be delivered this year, according to Vanjoki.

Vanjoki also addressed recent reports that Nokia would use MeeGo on all future members of the N series. The N8 will be Nokia’s only Symbian 3-based smartphone, according to Vanjoki. However, a Symbian 4-based N series is a very strong possibility, he said.

The problem for Nokia is that while all of this is happening, the competition is taking great strides in securing more of the high-end smartphone market, according to Wood. Also, Android is increasingly showing up on cheaper, low-end smartphones, sales of which have helped boost Nokia’s smartphone market share.

Nokia’s problems don’t end with OSes and high-end smartphones. Apple didn’t just change what users have come to expect from their phones. Developers and the applications they have provided have also played a big role in the iPhone’s success.

Nokia’s developer program, Forum Nokia, had been around for 10 years when Apple launched the App Store. But again, Nokia was getting complacent, according to Jones.

“Nokia has always had an exceptionally good developer support program at a technical level, but I think were it has slipped up recently is that it hasn’t articulated the opportunity for developers to become rich and famous with Nokia,” said Jones.

Nokia knows that it has slipped up with developers, but it will take time to correct, according to Jones. Nokia only just released the Qt SDK 1.0, and is starting to get to the point where developers can easily create applications, he said.

To attract more developers Nokia will also have to fix its application store, Ovi Store. The launch of Ovi Store — criticized for having poor search capabilities, slow provisioning of new applications and a cumbersome interface — will go down in history as one of Nokia’s biggest missteps, according to Wood. Although the store has been upgraded to fix early problems and now serves 1.7 million downloads a day, it is still an area where Nokia is lagging its competitors, he said.

Fixing the developer experience isn’t just about getting Nokia’s own parts in place. Third-party tools are becoming an increasingly important part of the mobile application developer ecosystem, and today the vendors of these tools don’t care about Symbian, according to Jones.

A recent survey by third-party tool developer Appcelerator shows the challenge Nokia faces. Ninety percent of developers surveyed said they were interested in the iPhone while 81 percent expressed interest in Android; for Symbian and MeeGo, the related figures were only 15 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

Nokia’s global reach is its most attractive asset for developers, according to the survey.

Fixing all of its problems at the same time will be a tall order for Nokia, but to compete with the iPhone and Android, it has to fix the user experience on its phones, revamp its high-end smartphone portfolio and get developers behind Ovi.

“Basically I think Nokia’s problems are still fixable but the window is closing. I am not optimistic that they will be fixed in 2010 because there isn’t much time left, and If they aren’t fixed in 2011, Nokia will be in big trouble,” said Jones.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

It rather underscores my point from the other day that "Nokia is nowhere in smartphones," your somewhat-obsolete table aside. Enjoy.

Do you have data more up-to-date than May 2010 (about 6 weeks old)? Because as of May 19th, 2010 the Gartner Group survey says that Symbian has 44% of the Smartphone market.

Facts usually trump "what if" articles for most people...

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Facts usually trump 'what if' articles for most people..."

And panicked, massive corporate reorganizations mean nothing, I suppose?

I'm idly looking for updated global share info for smartphones, which is what we're talking about, but one can probably bracket the situation with these two following articles, showing the iPhone in 2nd place in smartphones in both Taiwan and Nokia's home turf of Europe:

==1==

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/07/02/nokia.confirmed.losing.share/

IDC: Nokia's European share collapsing

updated 10:15 am EDT, Fri July 2, 2010

Nokia confirmed losing share.

Nokia's share of the total Western European phone market is plunging fast, IDC found today. The company fell from 39 percent in early 2009 to just 32.8 percent this year with 14 million phones. Its drop was severe enough that Samsung could overtake it in the near future, as its own share grew from 26.8 percent a year ago to 29.3 percent now.

Apple was the fastest riser, however, and grew more than twice as large to jump from just 2.3 percent at the start of 2009 to take exactly seven percent, with an estimated three million iPhones reaching Europe. LG (9.6 percent) and BlackBerry creator RIM (5.6 percent) also saw growth, while Sony Ericsson's new emphasis on smartphones saw it drop from 14.9 percent to 8.7 percent.

Nokia's situation only appeared worse when comparing just the smartphone market. Its share tumbled from 57.1 percent to 40.8 percent, where Apple is now the second-strongest smartphone producer and jumped from 11.7 percent to exactly 25 percent. RIM has slipped to third place even as it grew from 14.3 percent to 20 percent. Android helped HTC and Motorola grow to 7.5 and 1.7 percent each, but Samsung here was ultimately on the decline as it share was cut by more than half to 2.5 percent. Sony Ericsson didn't rank in the top shares.

The fall of Nokia is steeper than estimated by comScore and, if fully representative, would now make the company's rekindled smartphone efforts more important than ever. It expects disappointing sales for the just-ended spring quarter just as Apple may have record results.

==2==

http://9to5mac.com/htc_android_apple?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+9To5Mac-MacAllDay+%289+to+5+Mac+-+Apple+Intelligence%29

HTC guns for Apple iPhone with Android as Asia-Pacific smartphone wars begin

Apple is Taiwan’s second-largest smartphone vendor, behind Nokia, with 27 percent of the local market, research from GfK reveals -- even as local manufacturer, HTC, reveals its plan to take on Apple more directly. In the first quarter of 2010, Apple and HTC's shares of the smartphone market worldwide were 15.9% and 5.1%, respectively, according to research firm Canalys as cited by Digitimes. HTC is aiming to shift 24 million smartphones in 2010, aiming to capture 10 percent of the global market, the story goes. Apple meanwhile shipped 40 million iPhones last year. HTC is hoping that its multiple models at multiple prices strategy will help it seize share around Apple, it also believes carriers will find its products more profitable. There’s also HTC’s championing of Android to consider, Jack Tong, vice-president of HTC Asia, said that in many Asia-Pacific countries, HTC and Apple's market shares are about the same. He’s hoping his company’s offer of Android-based smartphones may clinch some sales.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Let's face it, the numbers are all over the map. Here's a case in point, see boldfaced portion:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/08/comscore-android-continues-to-gain-smartphone-market-share/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

comScore: Android Continues To Gain Smartphone Market Share
Jul 8, 2010

ComScore just released its smartphone market share numbers for March through May, and unsurprisingly the trend continues from previous months. Android phone saw the most significant growth in market share in May, up 4.0 percentage points to capture 13.0 percent of smartphone subscribers. Of course, despite Android’s gain, RIM and Apple dominated, with RIM taking 41.7 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Apple with 24.4 percent share. Microsoft saw a 13.2 percent share and Palm rounded the top five out with a 4.8 percent share. In total, 49.1 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in May, up 8.1 percent from the corresponding February period.

In terms of manufacturer share, the report found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 22.4 percent market share. LG ranked second with 21.5 percent share, followed by Motorola (21.2 percent share), RIM (8.7 percent share, up 0.5 percentage point) and Nokia (8.1 percent share).

For the three month period from March to May, comScore reports that 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. Across the board, comScore’s numbers show mobile phone users in the U.S. are interacting more with their phones. In terms of actions, 65.2 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device in May, up 1.4 percent versus the prior three month period. Mobile browsing also increased to 31.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 2.3 percentage points). Subscribers who used downloaded applications comprised 30.0 percent of the mobile audience, representing an increase of 2.1 percentage points from the previous period. Accessing of social networking sites or blogs also saw growth, increasing 2.6 percentage points to 20.8 percent of mobile subscribers.

While Android smartphones were the only type of phone to see a gain in market share for the three month period, the platform is still way behind Apple’s mobile user base. Android still has a ways to go in terms of market share before it can be seen as a major competitor to Apple, but it is nice to see that the platform is slowly gaining a larger user base.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

If you want to talk US only, then yes I’d wholeheartedly agree that Nokia is way back in the pack. But it’s a global market, and sales are all over the world. And when you look at that, Nokia simply dominates.

They know they are stagnant now, and need to get it rolling, but they have a MASSIVE lead right now, and even if it takes a year or two to get something going, they can afford it.

Consider this: Apple has sold about 50 million iPhones, ever. Over 3.5 years of sales. Nokia does that in about 2 weeks. They have a HUGE lead in market share, and that affords them the luxury of reacting slow. Not every time, and I’d say say these articles are a bit hysterical, but they do need to get the MeeGo platform going in the next 18-24 months if they want to maintain their serious lead in the market.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"But it’s a global market, and sales are all over the world. And when you look at that, Nokia simply dominates."

Apparently no longer in Taiwan, the US or Europe, if the very recent articles I just posted are any guide.

Where, then? If, as you concede, Nokia's has performed a swan-dive in the US, but this is somehow not representative of its true global might, then what regions sustain it, if Taiwan the Asian powerhouse and Europe the Nokia back-yard are fading fast for it?

I wonder, are we still talking smartphones? ...I only ask because I'm having real trouble reconciling your contentions with reality. Why the panicked reorganization, then? Why the decimation of their stock price? Might you be the only cheerleader they have left?

Seems to me you're clinging to that one table from May, in the face of several data points that suggest something different, at least for smartphones people actually pay for.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

Nokia’s been the leader in Smartphones for years. Do you have ANY actual data to the contrary, other than articles about people warning that Nokia may LOSE the lead in the future?

Right now, they simply dominate sales of Smartphones worldwide; every sales survey says so. So until you can come up with a sales report/market share that shows otherwise, the May 19 Gartner report (which is consistent with previous Gartner reports for the last several years) still stands, and my statement is 100% correct: Nokia dominates the Smartphone market.

Facts trump prognostication.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Do you have ANY actual data to the contrary, other than articles about people warning that Nokia may LOSE the lead in the future?"

Did you even read what I posted this evening? Nokia remains the volume leader, I do not dispute that, but according to the facts in the three articles I posted, it is not just losing that lead in the critical smartphone category, it has already lost much of it in key markets such as Taiwan, Europe and (as you admitted) the U.S., due to the simplest of reasons: the pace of innovation passing it by. I've asked you where it maintains this mythical dominance you speak of, but you've successfully danced around that question so far. So I'll ask again: Zimbabwe? Brazil? Jamaica, maybe? Bottom line: Its momentum is worrisome, and I'm not the only one to think so: hence, its frantic reorganizations and the loss of fully half its stock's value in recent months.



I understand there's comfort of sticking one's fingers in one's ears and humming, but do you need to be so obvious about it? Jeez Louise.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

So your answer is “NO”. You try to pull together anecdotal data, but have no evidence.

Gartner’s data is solid; Nokia has 44% of the Smartphone market. RIM has 19%. Apple has 15%.

Anything to the contrary, anything at all?

I’ve not admitted that Nokia trails in Taiwan and Europe, only in the US. They’re big overseas.

So, come back with some facts, not anecdotal data. It shows you for the Mac Fanatic that you are...

[Cyropaedia]

Way to take it out of context. Another brilliant example of honesty and integrity from a macbot, NOT!

That was the proper context.

If I asked someone what was *the* year previous to 2010, they would obviously say, "2009", not "2007".