General Discussion - iPhone 4 Downplayed the Threat from Android jalcod - Fri Jun 11, 2010 11:57 pm Post subject: iPhone 4 Downplayed the Threat from Android
Apple is counting on iPhone 4 to fend off mounting competition from Android. The iPhone is evolving fast enough to keep competitors at bay, even if the new version lacked major surprises, said William Kreher, an analyst at Edward Jones in St. Louis.
"They remain the technology innovation leader,” Kreher said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “While nothing was really revolutionary in terms of the new features, I think that Apple took a nice step forward.”
Jobs, who unveiled the phone at Apple’s developer conference in San Francisco, downplayed the threat from Android. The iPhone was the No. 2 smartphone in the U.S. in the first quarter, with a 28% share, he said, citing Nielsen Co. data. Research In Motion Ltd. ranked first, with a 35% share, while Android-based devices accounted for 9%.
Though many of the iPhone 4’s enhancements were expected -- a prototype of the iPhone was dissected and photographed by technology blog Gizmodo.com in April -- the upgrade provides Apple with a unique package of capabilities, analysts said.
Even so, the new abilities come with caveats. The video- calling program, called FaceTime, will be limited to Wi-Fi networks for now. That means customers won’t be able to make video calls using AT&T Inc., the exclusive U.S. wireless carrier for the iPhone. And while the phone can tap upgraded networks, that technology won’t be available across AT&T’s system until the middle of next year.
In a reminder that some of Apple’s features are dependent on the reliability of wireless networks, Jobs struggled to use some of the new tools during his presentation. The trouble stemmed from a poor Wi-Fi connection, rather than AT&T’s service. Jobs asked attendees to shut off the wireless connections on their computers and mobile hot spots because of interference.
“Apple and its competitors are steadily bringing better and better technology and software to go with it to the market,” said Charles Golvin, an analyst at Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Forrester Research Inc. “In that environment, it’s difficult to leapfrog the competition in the same way the iPhone did when it was first introduced.”
There are now more than 225,000 iPhone and iPad apps available. The company has paid out more than $1 billion to developers. Android developers, meanwhile, have only created about 50,000 apps.
The iPhone 4 adds a camera for capturing high-definition video, as well as software that makes video chatting possible. Its so-called retina display packs four times as many pixels in the 3.5-inch screen, delivering higher-resolution text, photos and videos. New iPhone operating-system software, called iOS 4, supports features such as multitasking.
The iPhone 4 is about 24 percent thinner than its predecessor, the iPhone 3GS. A 16-gigabyte model will cost $199, and a 32-gigabyte version will sell for $299.
A mobile advertising system called iAd will be built into the new iPhone software, giving app creators a new way to make money. Software developers will get a 60 percent cut of revenue from ads placed by Apple within their programs. After eight weeks of taking orders, Apple said it has commitments for $60 million in advertising for the second half of the year.
With iAd, Apple is less concerned about making money from the ads, Kreher said. It’s more about making its software and mobile devices more attractive for developers -- and creating one more way to distinguish itself from Android.
Resource from http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aRhxuTqeKcWwSaqibImran - Sat Jun 12, 2010 10:32 am Post subject:
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