Apple joins the OTT mini-bundlers

Apple has divulged some details on the new Apple TV service that it will offer next fall.  Like the recently initiated Sling-TV, the plan is to offer a small bundle of streaming channels to consumers with Apple TV OTT boxes (actually, and iOS device).  One big difference from Sling-TV is that the Apple plan will be anchored by live streams of most of the broadcast networks (NBC is not currently listed, allegedly because of a longstanding feud between Apple and Comcast).  Apple's bundle will likely be more expensive than Sling's as a result.  Like Sling-TV, Apple's bundle will include access to a Video-on-Demand library - there's talk that Apple wants to extend VOD access to other iTunes content, if it can get licensing deals in place.

For more on the Web/OTT bundling issue, see this earlier post.

Source: Apple Plans Web TV Service in Fall, Wall Street Journal

Milepost: 500,000,000 iPhones

Apple sold its 500 millionth iPhone recently.

When introduced in 2007, Steve Jobs predicted sales of 10 million by the end of 2008, and one senior financial analysts forecast that Apple would have "a difficult time" making it, pointing out that at that time, Nokia was selling more cellphones a week than Apple had sold iPhones.  And thereby joining the gallery of famously bad predictions.  In fact, Apple sold 13.8 million iPhones in 2008, and is currently selling a million iPhones a month, just in China.

While Apple is losing market share to Android in terms of mobile operating systems, their history of build quality, integration of components, and innovation suggests that iPhone's future remains positive.  At the current rate, they should hit a billion units sold sometime in the next three-four years.

Source -  Without Much Fanfare, Apple Has Sold Its 500 Millionth iPhone, Forbes

Oops - Apple TV update pulled after crashes

Apple released its major update to the Apple TV OS Friday, following up on the fanfare promised in the latest round of product releases.  But it seems the fanfare turned nasty, as many Apple TV users reported that their Apple TV units became inoperable after having the 6.0 update installed.  In response, Apple pulled the update, advised those with problems on how to do a factory reset, and said it would try again once they'd fixed the problems. 
The update was designed to fix a number of security bugs, bring the new iRadio service to Apple TV, and shift several old networked services to iCloud.

Source - Apple TV Update Withrawn After Complaints, InformationWeek Mobility

Announcing the iBeetle

I'm not sure how to think about this - whether its a neat device (cool toy), and example of extreme convergence, or just great branding.

Apple and Volkswagen are collaborating on the creation of the iBeetle, a new model line that will debut at the Shanghai Auto Show this week.  Offered in both classic coupe and convertible models, the car will use a iOS-based interface and incorporate an iPhone docking station on the dashboard.

Once the iPhone is attached, drivers can access a special iBeetle application that bundles a number of specialized apps.  Among those announced are Spotify, Reader (text-to-voice for social media), Expert (taps into the car's diagnostics), Trainer (tracks driving times, distances, and gas mileage) and Postcard (sends location to selected contacts).
  The iBeetle will also use iPhone color schemes.  It's scheduled to go on sale in 2014.

This isn't Apple's first foray into auto operating systems.  Last year GM licensed Apple's Siri voice assistant system for the Chevrolet MyLink in-car information system.

Source - Apple, Volkswagen team on iOS-integrated iBeetle,  FierceMobileContent

Report: Apple's iOS and Google's Android to split mobile market

Research from Global Equities Research suggest that the Apple and Android operating systems are likely to increase their dominance of the mobile marketplace, eventually coming to share 98% of the market.  After talking with app developers, they concluded that

"98 percent of [the mobile market] will be shared by Google Android and Apple iOS. There will not be any third spot left. Nokia, Microsoft and RIM will struggle in the remaining 2 percent of the market."

  There's numbers backing that conclusion.  Apple's sold more than 400 million iOS devices, and the number of people who have set up one-click-billing accounts has doubled in the last year (reaching 435 million accounts - last year there were 180 million).  Google's Android is also doing well, with more than 1.2 million device activations a day.  And there is cross-over as well - the recent Google YouTube iOS app was downloaded a million times in the first 24 hours.
  In contrast, analysts were cautiously mixed in their predictions about the heavily hyped Nokia Lumia 920/Windows Phone 8 product launch.  Some even called the product pair "poor industrial design" and "dead on arrival."  (In large part because the screen is too large for easy one-handed operation).  While the Nokia just launched, the new RIM - Blackberry product launch has been pushed back to January.
  In the meantime, Apple recently launched the iPhone 5, and analysts expect an iPad Mini to be available next month.  On the Android side, Kindle just launched a new family of Kindle Fire tablets, and October should see the new Android OS (Jelly Bean), some 30 new Google apps, and at least 15 new Android-running smartphones.

"The innovation rivalry between Apple and Google will not leave any third slot in the mobile space," concluded report author Trip Chowdhry. He added, "Innovation velocity of both Apple and Google far exceeds that of its peers."

  The analysts see one potential ray of hope for a challenger OS - the fact that Apple and Android dominance (and their competition) have forced wireless operators to heavily subsidize many of the newest products.  Some financial analysts have warned that the iPhone 5 launch would likely result in a significant hit on wireless operator profits.  The various wireless operators could help a third OS challenger by pushing a third platform; but this is only likely to help if that third platform could offer highly capable, competitive, smartphones at low price points.  Microsoft has the funds to subsidize product lines if it wants to, and has been very innovative in the past.  Its had a problem, though, getting many of those innovations adopted by consumers.

Source -  Android, Apple Dominance Leaves No Room for Third Platform: Report,  CIO Insight Mobile & Wireless.

Apple joins Music Streaming market

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is planning to offer a digital music streaming service to compete with Pandora and other online streaming services.  The service is said to include customized listening and on-demand options.
  At this point, Apple is still negotiating terms for digital music streaming rights directly with music publishers.  Pandora recently broke off negotiations with publishers, falling back on the default licensing rates determined by the Feds.  Apple seems to be counting on its long relationships with publishers established with the introduction and growth of iTunes music market to negotiate a wider set of streaming rights that could allow Apple's proposed service more options in terms of how listeners could interact with the service and use the music.  Such a move would likely increase royalties payments, but being able to offer a wider range of listening options than other streamers could also give Apple a competitive advantage - something that a late entrant into the market needs.
  The WSJ article was unclear on what kind of business model Apple hopes to use, or even if the service was developed primarily as a separate profit center, or as a means to expand Apple-branded apps for their mobile devices.  What is clear is that the digital audio streaming market is expanding rapidly - Pandora has 150 million registered users, Spotify reports 33+ million users, and Clear Channel's iHeartRadio pulls in some 45 million listeners a month.  If Apple does develop a pre-installed audio streaming app (especially as part of an OS upgrade), it will very quickly have access to millions of potential listeners - and if it offers better, or more, listening options, Apple could quickly become a major player in this growing market.

Source -  Apple Plans Digital Radio Service,  Online Media Daily

Winning News on the Apple Front

First off, congratulations to Apple for becoming the sort of richest company on Earth, sort of.  When Apple set a new high stock price on the morning of Aug. 20, it surpassed the market cap of Microsoft before the dot.com bubble burst - making it the most valuable company ever (using that metric).  However, if you adjust Microsoft's previous high cap evaluation in 1999 for inflation, it still comes out on top.
  And if Apple's not yet on top, many analysts think it will soon be.  There are predictions that the iPhone 5 release will be the "biggest handset launch in history" (see below) - and with a new iPad Mini rumored to be in production, and predictions of iTV, a smart TV with gesture controls and content deals with AT&T and Verizon.  And then there's the Apple-Samsung patent fight over smartphone features and services.

The other big win of the day was in US Court, where Apple won its patent infringement suit against Samsung over various "look & feel" patents for smartphones.  The jury found that Samsung had infringed on four design patents and three utility ("use") patents held by Apple, and rejected Samsung's counterclaim that Apple had infringed on five patents owned by Samsung.  Apple was awarded $1.05 billion in damages - but had been seeking between $2.5 and $2.75 billion.

"This is a resounding victory, not for only Apple and its intellectual property portfolio, but also designers and design rights in general. This verdict strengthens strengthens Apple's design identity, which has arguably has been watered down as each new Apple-like device hit the market," said attorney Christopher Carani, chairman of the American Bar Association's design rights committee.
Rather than face the prospect of another Apple suit, rival phone makers will give the iPhone design a wide berth--yielding more space around its design elements than perhaps necessary, Carani predicted.

The case considered a total of 24 smartphone models from Samsung - and only three models escaped some or all of the infringement claims (the Galaxy Ace, the Intercept, and the Replenish).  The hot-selling Galaxy S models were found to have infringed the most, and Apple is said to be asking the court for an injunction that would prevent Samsung from selling infringing models in the U.S.  With Samsung a leader in the booming Android-OS smartphone marketplace, the case is expected to significantly impact on smartphone markets in the near term.

In the meantime, the IT rumor mills have been flourishing with talk of the iPhone 5 (expected to be released next month) and how it would stack up against the Samsung Galaxy S III.  With the patent case settled, the point may be moot - that is, there may be no Galaxy S III to compete with in the U.S.
   Anyway, various analysts expect the next iPhone to have:  a thinner, larger, screen - reportedly a 4 inch screen instead of the current 3.5 inch; a different docking pin (thinner and narrower); support for LTE (4G variant) networks on AT&T, and later Sprint (who's just now building out their LTE network); possible extension to T-Mobile networks; and NFC (near field communications) - which allows for services like digital wallets and sharing files between nearby iPhones or other devices.

Sources -   Apple becomes most valuable company in history - sort of,  SNL Marketweek
Apple Wins $1.05 Billion in Samsung Patent Case,  Information Week Mobile.
The top 5 iPhone 5 rumours: From plausible to outlandish,  FierceWireless

Apple's TV interest in Cable Rebuffed

A couple of weeks ago, it was reported that Apple was approaching several large cable MSOs about the possibility of providing set-top boxes that would integrate Apple TV interfaces and services.  It's become fairly clear that cable operators have not exactly embraced the idea.  The Wall Street Journal has a good story on the cable industry's reaction, suggesting that Apple's seems to be focused more on delivering its software and services than providing hardware.
  Moreover, a new report from Bernstein Research suggests that there are meaningful differences between the mobile world, where Apple has been quite successful, and the market for multichannel TV services.

Not only does the cable TV market, unlike mobile, feature network distributors that also own content, it does not subsidize end user devices, and it is heavily involved in determining the capabilities of those end user set-top box. That final point, in particular, is something that service providers in the mobile market pretty much ceded to Apple.

  Bernstein's report suggests that Apple might find the differences difficult to overcome.  More critically, the primary focus of multichannel has been to provide the widest range of choices to subscribers, and Apple has been insistent on providing what's called a "walled garden" - a limited set of services that conform to Apple's standards.  I think that that's going to stand in the way of their move into TV, if they  continue to insist on that approach.

Sources - Apple: High Hurdles to Working with Cable Guys,  Bernstein Says, Barron's
Apple's New Front in Battle for TV, Wall Street Journal

Planned Obsolescene at Apple?

There's a serious marketing decision when implementing innovations - do you try to maintain backwards compatibility with earlier versions, or do focus on maximizing the new, at the cost of limiting compatibility.  There are advantages in just moving forward - it can open up new opportunities, and allow for maximizing the impact of the innovation, and usually helps to keep the direct costs of innovation low.  On the other hand, abandoning backwards compatibility means that all of the ancillary devices or products designed for the earlier systems are no longer usable with the new.  This can impose additional costs for innovation, as shifting to the new version also means that you need to replace some or all of the related products that are no longer compatible with the new version.  And that can also backfire somewhat on the innovator, as making adoption more costly will slow adoption. 
  More problematic is when the innovator purposely makes the new version of the technology incompatible with existing standards, or with their prior standards.  Then you have something called planned obsolesence.
  Apple has a long history of choosing to push their own standards rather than adopting more general industry standards.  As an equipment manufacturer, they've designed hardware that requires Apple operating systems to operate, and major upgrades in their operating systems are often incompatible with earlier versions of software (and in some cases hardware).  Sometimes, when Apple is an early and dominant innovator in the field, they can establish their standard as an industry standard - for example, the iPod/iPhone/iPad docking connector.  That's become a default component of associated hardware and accessories like speaker systems.  One of the aspects of Apple's success in that market is that myriad Apple mobile devices (and latter upgrades) all used the same connector, making the purchase of related equipment or upgraded devices relatively simple - consumers knew that they would also work with prior accessories.
  However, several recent announcements by Apple suggest that the company is planning for some major obsolesence.
  First came the announcement that Apple was closing its MobileMe webhosting service, in favor of its new iCloud service.  One of the main values of MobileMe was its ability to backup and synchronize contact and calendar files across multiple user devices.  Those same features will work in iCloud - but only if you have the newer Apple OS, and the new OS won't work on many older devices, so you might also have to buy new hardware if you want to continue keeping your contacts list and calendar in the iCloud.
  Then came the news that the newest iPhone5 (to be introduced later this year) will abandon the old 30-pin connector and replace it with a new 19-pin version.  For Apple, the stated concern is that as they seek to make smaller and sleeker devices, the old connector just takes up too much space.  Anyway, the consequence is that the iPhone5 won't be able to directly dock with any current accessory or power source that uses the 30-pin dock, and it's quite likely that the same change in docking connectors will likely occur with subsequent major upgrades in other mobile devices.  And that means that newer accessories are likely to start including the new docking connector as well, and most will replace the older with the new rather than try to engineer multiple docking options - meaning that newer accessories won't work with older devices.  Making things worse, or at least more expensive, are the reports that the new docking connector will include a proprietary chip that will prevent its use with unlicensed accessories.
  Some analysts wonder if this is the time to make such a move - raising the costs of switching to the newer devices just as Android OS based smartphones are becoming increasingly competitive (some arguably better and cheaper than the current iPhone).  If you're going to have to replace all accessories anyway, consumers might chose to shift to an Android-based device rather than stick with Apple.  As one analyst concluded:

You feel that, Apple? Those are the winds of change. It may be temporarily profitable for you to force your customers into spending on upgrades, but a little thing that we call customer lifetime value means that it's stupid to annoy your customers in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Sources -  iPhone5: Every iPhone Accessory You Own Just Became Obsolete,  Forbes
Apple's Planned Obsolescence: Customer Revolt Brews,  InformationWeek
 

Netflix overtakes Apple in Online Movie Market

Apple has dominated online movie business for years, at least in terms of revenue generation.  A new study by market intelligence firm IHS iSuppli suggests that Netflix has overtaken Apple to be market leader.

“2011 marked a sea change in the online movies business that saw the balance of consumer spending shift from a DVD-like transactional model to more TV-like subscription approach,” said Dan Cryan, research director for digital media at IHS. “The online movie business more than doubled in 2011 to reach $992 million and it is expected to double this year as well.”

Netflix saw its share of (U.S.) domestic online movie market grow from less than 1% in 2010, to earning more than 44% of the market in 2011, while Apple's share fell from 60.8% to 32.2%.  Amazon accounted for most of the rest of market revenues.

Source - Apple Overtaken By Netflix in Online Movie Revenue, MediaPostNews

Milestones and Stats

Here's some recent reported numbers -

• Three quarters of marketers say they see online video as complement to traditional TV, not a replacement for it.  Check infographic for other headline results.
    Source - 2012 State of  the Online Video Industry Report, Adap.tv
• AT&T U-verse subscribership passes 4 million, 6 million for combined U-verse and Internet subscriptions.  The also reported U-verse revenues up 38%, compared to Q1 2011.
  Source - AT&T cracks 6M U-verse subscribers in Q1 2012,  Fierce Cable
• Netflix added a net of 1.7 million subscribers in the last quarter, bringing the number of streaming subscribers to 23.4 million.  Netflix predicted that subscribers will hit 29 million around the end of the year - that's 30% of the US homes with some kind of pay subscription.
  Source - Subscribers Jump At 'TV Network' Netflix,  MediaDailyNews
• ComScore is reporting that use of newspaper websites increased about 4.4% over the last year.  There was a big jump in terms of the number of daily unique visitors (up 10%), and the total time spent on newspaper websites (up 6.9%), although total reach was steady at just under 64% of US adult internet users.  The shift online are most meaningful for the 18-34 age group, where 48% reported only reading digital newspapers, 34% read both digital and print newspapers, but only 24% read only print versions.
  Source - Newspaper Site Traffic, Times Up,  MediaDailyNews
• A study by Strategy Analytics predicts that global advertiser spending on mobile media will grow 85% this year, reaching a total of $22.6 billion for 2012.  U.S. mobile ad spending is projected to grow from an estimated $1.6 billion in 2011, to more than $4.2 billion in 2012.  Spending on mobile apps in the U.S.  is projected to grow by 30%, totaling $6.7 billion for 2012.
  Source -  U.S. Mobile Ad Spend to Double in 2012,  Online Media Daily
• Apple's App Store boasts hosting more than 600,000 apps, and over 25 billion downloads..  Apple reported selling more than 35 million iPhones and 11.8 million iPads in the last quarter, for a total of 365 million active iOS devices around the world (including 67 million iPads).  Revenues for the quarter were reported at $39.2 billion, up almost 60% from the same quarter last year.
  Source -  Apple's App Store passes 600k apps, iTunes revenues top $1.9B in Q2,  Fierce Mobile Content
• The Asia-Pacific region is now the world's largest TV market, with a projected one billion TV homes by the end of the year.  It's also become the largest payTV market (394 million subs), although generating only a fifth of the revenues of the U.S. payTV market.
  Source - Asia Pacific now largest TV market,  Digital TV Europe
• One analyst is predicting that by 2017, Facebook will get 25% of the U.S. display ad market (it's currently at 12%), earning $12.6 billion in ad revenues.  At that point, ad revenues will account for about 70% of total Facebook earnings.
  Source -  Facebook Ad Revs Expected to Hit $4.2 billion, Online Media Daily
• Most communication industries are doing well, according to the recent VSS Forecast Mid-Term Update.  Total spending across communication industries is showing a 5.7% Compound Annual Growth Rate.  The gains are lead by targeted media (8.1% CAGR), with Entertainment & Leisure Media growing at 5.7% and Traditional Consumer Advertising Media trailing at 2.7%.  Print fared poorly, with growth estimates downgraded for Consumer Book Publishing and Newspaper Publishing.
  Source - Communications Industry Exceeding Expectations,  Research Brief, MediaPost blog
  

Ideas for iPhone 5?

Post contributed by Michael Culpepper -

  While we have all experienced the fact that concept designs for new technology rarely are incorporated in that specific generation, Apple has announced some interesting features about the new IPhone that we may want to keep an eye on. What they are proposing is an interactive holographic keyboard and display. All of the information come from a video created by a San Francisco-based 3D animation and digital content shop called Aatma Studio, which imagines the integration of Pico projection for holographic keyboards and displays on future iPhones.  
   During the video, the virtual keyboard is shown projected onto a surface by swiping it off the screen. The projected keyboard can then be scaled to a more comfortable size using a pinch-to-zoom gesture directly on the surface of the projection. This is very similar to the track-pad function of their Macbook series. It appears that sensors are able to detect your key strokes as a combination of light and shadows
  Slashgear.com then reports, “But Aatma takes this idea further to show a holographic display. While Apple has filed patents for pico projection systems for their iPhones and iPads, as well as a feature that can read and react to the silhouettes of gestures in front of the projections, the concept shown in the video projects an image in mid-air.”
   While admittingly, this technology probably won’t make it to the IPhone 5, it is something to really consider. We are now opening the doors to a much more interactive version of entertainment. We may not be too far off from things like the Microsoft Kennect being able to be utilized on an Android phone. Not only that but it now offers the availability of multiple people using programs on the same phone without having to crowd around each other.

If you would like to see the video of the concept, you can find it here.

(BJB - A bit off format, but I've got a backload to push out)

Apple's News - iPad, AppleTV

There was a lot of chatter in the run-up to Apple's presser this week, mostly that there wasn't likely to be anything big, but rather important though incremental improvements.  And that's pretty much what happened, although I think that some of the AppleTV improvements may turn out to have a big impact on the TV-watching experience.

  Apple announced a better screen and faster processor for the iPad. and an upgrade to 4G cellular connectivity.  The processor and 4G will both have a noticeable impact on speed in some applications, but don't bring anything new to the tablet.  Apple improved the rear camera to the point where it's capable of recording 1080p video.  The potentially innovative feature was to add the voice-recognition component of Siri, in the form of a "voice dictation" option on the virtual keyboard; if that works well, it will make using iPads for writing easier.
  On the TV front, Apple announced an upgrade of the AppleTV box to be able to deliver 1080p content to your TV, a modest improvement needed to remain competitive with Roku and other net-video boxes and access points.  Apple also announced a software revision that they hope will offer an improved user experience, and announced plans to try to integrate the AppleTV more fully into the iCloud, which should provide users with better access to their content in the Cloud and on other devices.  The Apple TV, however, remains more of a "walled garden" than its competitors, in restricting connectivity to a very limited range of options, which is likely to continue to limit its overall impact.  Still the upgrade to full 1080p does make it more of a full competitor for HD viewing options, and will support the growing use of online video for entertainment-oriented TV viewing.

Source -  New iPad Revealed,  Canoe.ca

Mobile Also Continues Growth

Nielsen is reporting that as of last month, 48( of American adults owned smartphones.  Younger adults were most likely to own the devices (two-thirds of 24-34 age group, and 62% of 18-24 year olds).  Nielsen's numbers also show an income effect at work.

And for a related "WOW!!" statistic, Apple reported global sales of 156 million iOS devices (iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches) in 2011 - which happens to be more than all of the Macs sold over the last 28 years (122 million).  And the pace is continuing, with Apple reporting sales of 37 million additional iPhones in the first quarter of 2012 - although  Apple was a bit disappointed.  Apple CEO Tim Cook was reported as commenting:

Yes, 37 million is a big number. It was a decent quarter... (Still, in terms of the smartphone market) there's three out of four people that bought something else. And it represented less than 9% of the handset market, so 9 out of 10 people are buying something else... up against (that), the numbers don't seem so large anymore.

So I guess there's still room for further growth

Sources -  Nielsen: Smartphone Penetration Reaches 48%,  OnlineMediaDaily
Survey: New U.S. Smartphone Growth by Age and Income,  NielsenWire
Apple iOS Devices Sold in 2011 Outnumber All Macs Ever Sold,  CIO Insight

How to brand like Apple

Post contributed by Lauren Loy -

It only takes walking into an Apple store to realize that the successful company has created a loyal community around their products that sometimes seems a little overwhelming and possibly even creepy. The obsession that Apple-lovers have with their Apple products appears to be a simple addiciton to a brand, but does that mean that said brand can get away with more blunders?
  A 2011 Forbes magazine article seems to think this is the case. The article mentions the recent problem that was draining the life of the new Apple IPhone 4S, which was not acknowledged by Apple for several weeks. This was accompanied by many other problems with the new iOS 5 operating system. All these problems are now fixed, but that is not the point. The point is the apparent totally understanding and forgiving nature of Apple customers when it comes to their favorite brand. No matter how many mistakes Apple makes, customers are still willing and eager to buy the company's newest products and publicize their love of the brand.
  The reason for this almost ridiculous branding obsession is mostly thanks to the late Steve Jobs. Customers feel a personal connection to Jobs through the products he spent his life constructing, promoting, and updating. Jobs used a rather unique marketing technique by creating an emotional connection with his customers, such that has never really been done in the realm of technology, which is usually an impersonal business. The Forbes article gives some helpful tips for other companies that want to create loyal followings:

1. Build relationships with customers. Be transparent and embrace social media and networking like Twitter, Facebook, and blogs.
2. Carry out some movement marketing. You must stop focusing on what you make, and instead, tell people what you believe in. In Jobs's case, he told the world he believed in "innovative, high-quality products." Think of a mission statement that touches a nerve with your audience and run with it.
3. Make sure your mission statement resonates throughout every part of your operation. Do not say you believe in going green if you waste a lot of paper in the making of your products.
4. Start a movement you believe in and the rest will follow!

Source - Is Brand Loyalty the Core to Apple's Success?  Forbes.com

They're dreaming of an iChristmas

Post contributed by Alex Aubuchon -

Anyone wondering about Apple's dominance in the tablet computer and phone markets needs to look no further than Nielsen's latest market research into the Christmas wish lists of children aged 6 to 12.
  Apple products took the top 3 spots for popularity – 44% of children surveyed wanted an iPad (compared to 25% who wanted a non-iPad tablet computer), 30% wanted an iPod Touch (with no data reported on a percentage that wanted another mp3 player; assumed to be less than 10%), and 27% wanted an iPhone (compared to 19% who wanted a non-iPhone smartphone and 12% who wanted a basic mobile phone).

  I believe this ubiquity of Apple products on childrens' wish lists is mainly due to Apple's incredibly effective branding and marketing strategies. People just KNOW what an iPad is, what it does, what to expect from it, whereas consumers have to read and carefully compare between other tablet PCs such as the Blackberry Playbook, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and the dozens of other Android-powered tablets all competing for a share of the tablet market. Because of the wide variety of models for a similar product, no one tablet has been able to market even half as effectively as the iPad (although it should be noted that the Samsung Galaxy Tab was the only Android-powered tablet I could name, due to its aggressive marketing strategy in recent months).
  Nielsen's research also yields some more interesting revelations for holiday shoppers this year – Nintendo's 3DS will likely prove to be a more popular device than initially predicted, with 30% of children adding them to their wish lists. And older Nintendo models still hold lots of clout with the children's market, with older DS models beating out the Playstation Portable 22% to 10%.
  And in the world of motion-based gaming, the Kinect for Xbox 360 is the clear leader, with 23% appearance compared to 11% for the Nintendo Wii and just 10% for the Playstation Move. Due to the lackluster interest in the Move and the vast improvement of the current state of PC gaming hardware compared to the hardware in the current generation of game consoles, I believe a new iteration of the Sony Playstation could be coming sooner than many expect.

Source:  US Kids Looking Forward to 'iHoliday' 2011, Nielsenwire blog

Update - In table format -
Source -  The Apple of Their Eye,  Media Post Research Brief

Interest in Buying in Next 6 Months (% of Respondents by Age Group) Product % of Ages 6-12 Interested in Buying % Ages 13+ Interest in Buying iPad 44% 18% iPad Touch 30 11 iPhone 27 13 Computer 25 20 Tablet computer 25 na Nintendo 3DS 25 6 Kinect for Xbox 360 23 8 Nintendo DS/DSI/DS Lite 22 8 Television set 20 18 Smartphone (non iPhone) 19 19 Sony Play Station3/PS3 Slim 17 13 Blu-Ray player 17 17 E-Reader 17 15 Microsoft X-Box 360 16 9 Other mobile phone 12 10 Nintendo Wii 11 15 PlayStation Move 10 9 PlayStation Portable 10 5 Source: Nielsen, October/November 2011

Abandonment Issues

The last week has seen some significant moves by major players abandoning efforts in the mobile / connected media markets.
The most recent is Logitech's announcement that it is pulling out of its deal manufacturing its Google TV set-top box.  CEO Guerrino De Luca called it's near year-long effort to sell the Revue set-top box based on Google-TV software a "mistake of implementation of a giant nature."  Issues with the implementation of Google TV limited demand, and a price drop from $250 to $99 per unit didn't help.  Logitech reportedly lost $100 million on its Revue player in the last year.
The Logitech withdrawal leaves Sony as the sole remaining hardware firm incorporating Google TV.  The Google TV software is included in some of its connected TVs.

Earlier in the week, Adobe announced that it was abandoning future development and support for Adobe Flash players for mobile devices.  While not giving a lot of details behind the move, there were hints that some of the elements of HTML 5 provided player opportunities surpassing Flash in mobile uses, and Adobe did stress its commitment to contributing to HTML 5 development efforts.  They also indicated that abandoning further mobile Flash development would free Adobe to pursue work on mobile apps.  One apparent advantage in the move is that Adobe can work on a single code platform (HTML 5), or on developing apps for a small number of mobile operating systems (primarily Apple's iOS and Android), rather than having to develop plug-ins for a wide range of hardware chip and operating system implementations.  The move may have a short-term impact on Google's YouTube, which has relied heavily on Flash as a video platform and format.  The move may limit mobile access via Android and Windows-Mobile based mobile devices, at least until new YouTube player apps can be developed, or YouTube can convert the millions of Flash videos it hosts into alternative formats.  Apple already has a YouTube app that translates Flash into alternative formats for viewing.
In a separate announcement, Adobe announced that it was abandoning further development of Flash Mobile Player for connected TV systems and other digital home devices.  This was also a blow for Google TV, which had relied heavily on Flash players for its video content.  In the announcement, Adobe explained the move - "we believe the right approach to deliver content on televisions is through applications, not a web browsing experience, and we will continue to encourage the device and content publishing community down that path." 

Overall, it's not been a good week for Google on the mobile video and connected video fronts.

Sources:  Logitech CEO - Google TV was a 'gigantic' mistake,  Fierce Cable
Adobe to abandon Flash plug-ins for mobile,  TechRadar.com
Adobe to abandon Flash on Connected TVs, too,  Mashable

No iPhone 5 - So is the iPhone 4S a Dud?

From Molly McCurdy -

  The much-anticipated Apple press conference regarding the iPhone 4S release has some Apple enthusiast feeling let down from the latest invention from the technology powerhouse.
   Bloggers have been speculating what the next generation iPhone would entail since the iPhone 4 was released in June 2010. Apple is infamous for not only creating cutting edge technology before their competitors, but each new iPhone released has externally looked more advanced then the last model.    According to CNN.com, the rumor mill said the iPhone 4S would have a bigger screen and a “teardrop” shaped back, but no such luck. The iPhone 4S in fact uses the same shell as the iPhone4 and the innovations on the iPhone 4S are essentially invisible: A faster processor, better camera and a "humble virtual assistant" called Siri that operates on voice commands.
   However not everyone agrees with this; notorious tech blog, Boy Genious, says ”The design of the original iPhone 4 is not only an engineering feat but a design masterpiece, and there’s no reason why we should expect a brand new case for every phone Apple releases.” (BGR.com )
   Another point of contention for Apple lovers was the “lame” delivery from Apple’s new CEO, Tim Cook, who took over for the previous CEO Steve Jobs on August 24th of this year. This was the first time Cook has given a presentation and he did not have the same charismatic and enthusiastic demeanor that Jobs was famous for. The company dragged out the presentation leaving the announcement about the iPhone 4S for the end, causing some to speculate that they had nothing of substance to announce.
CNN.com reported, "There's nothing wrong with a company coming out with an incremental improvement, but with a big news conference comes the expectation of something big," Jeff Kagan, a technology analyst, told CNNMoney's David Goldman. "This wasn't big."      

Sources -

Five reasons people are calling the iPhone 4S a dud, CNNTech
The iPhone 5 Failboard: How Everyone Got It Wrong, Gawker
Apple's Rise to Greatness,  BGR.com

Apple adds streaming to iTunes cloud

After reaching a deal with the music industry for extended rights, Apple has added streaming functionality to its proposed iTunes Match service, further differentiating their services from Amazon's and Google's.  What Amazon and Google offer is essentially a digital music storage platform, albeit one that exists in the cloud and is accessible everywhere.  Their services stored the digital music you bought through their online store, and allowed users to also upload legally acquired digital music from other sources.  When Apple first announced their iTunes cloud service, iTunes in the Cloud, it did the basic storage idea one better - instead of storing your music, the service would store a list of the songs you bought from iTunes, and allow you to download from the iTunes archive a high-resolution and DRM-free version of that song or album, regardless of whether or not your original purchase was in that format.  The free iTunes in the Cloud service would also automatically access and synchronize iTunes music files across all of a user's Apple iOS web-connected devices.  At the time, they also announced iTunes Match, which would allow you to list music files downloaded from other sources (up to 25,000 songs), which they would match with the newer high-res versions in the iTunes archive, and permit you to access those versions for download.
With licensing now in place, Apple's announced an additional major service addition - instead of just allowing downloads for later replay, iTunes Match will now allow users to "stream" songs from their digital Cloud library, again to a registered user's Apple iOS web-connected devices. (One report indicates this is not true streaming, but as it uses a cache on the device - still it offers instant replay rather than download and play.) The current beta being tested also allows "streaming" of TV shows bought through iTunes, but this has yet to be formally acknowledged as a feature of the consumer service. In this more recent announcement, Apple gave the price of the service as $24.95 a year.
With this move, the new iTunes Match service gives Apple a significant competitive advantage over Amazon and Google in functionality.  The announced price for iTunes Match also significantly undercuts music streamer Spotify.us subscriber rates ($4.99/mo for low res feeds to computers, $9.99/mo for higher res feeds to computers and mobile devices).  If the new service (now being tested in beta) works well and reliably after its introduction this fall, look for Apple's competitors to scramble to match features and prices.

Update - As I was putting this up, it's been reported that the streaming feature has been dropped from the most recent beta version of the software (iOS 5 beta 7).  So maybe, maybe not.

Sources -Apple's iCloud to bring iTunes streaming music service, FierceMobileContent
Apple to Add Music and TV Streaming to iCloud, StreamingMedia.com

(edit - added Source and some new details on service)
(Update - see above.  Source - Streaming disappears from iTunes Match Beta, Music Ally

Rumors on iPad 3 - Gotta wait til 2012

Just to pass along, a couple of stories today indicating that Apple's started to test some of the components likely to appear in the next generation of iPads.  Expectations are that the iPad3 will feature a higher-resolution screen, with wider viewing angle and better visibility in sunlight, and a new processing chip.  With testing just beginning, the pundits don't expect the iPad3 to be available for public sale before the second quarter of 2012.

Sources: "Apple nears trial production of high-res iPad 3 coming in early 2012", Apple Insider
"Apple preps iPad 3 for 2012 launch", Fierce Cable