Here is good news for RIM so regularly criticized by Apple: advertisers of mobile devices didn’t forget about the platform and are currently taking a second look on it, which results in rising of dumb phone advertising, stated an advertising network Millennial Media this Wednesday.
This surprising comeback has expressed in 6 percent grew of mobile ads on RIM devices in May, while "feature phones" make up 17 percent of Feature Phone, Smartphone and Connected Devices mix in May, as estimated by Millennial Media. The key to these surprising figures may be in the BlackBerry Curve and BlackBerry Bold 2 taking a place among top five mobile phones using served ads. Read the rest of this entry »
As you may know, in March Deutsche Telekom reported its intention to acquire the rival carrier, T-Mobile, for AT&T, its subsidiary company. The estimated price of the deal amounts $39 billion. The fact has recently attracted attention of federal regulators, as in case of successful transaction AT&T will become the leader in the field of wireless carriers, and the number of its customers will reach about 130 million people.
The FCC is eager to find out "how AT&T's wireless spectrum is being used, the nature of its overall network and why it believed it needed T-Mobile's spectrum to meet its goals for 4G", reported MacNN this Friday. Officials also investigate whether AT&T considered solutions alternative to acquiring T-Mobile, and what is the scope of those solutions. Read the rest of this entry »
According to CNN, Apple is currently negotiating with different record labels to improve the quality of songs available in the iTunes Music Store.
Current songs can be downloaded in 16-bit format, and Apple wants to increase the quality of downloads to 24-bit high-fidelity format. This is a format in which studio recordings are being originally captured. Then they usually get downgraded to 16-bit format and delivered to CDs and iTunes. Read the rest of this entry »
According to MacNN, yesterday The Ministry of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages announced that it had granted formal approval of the iBookstore. Its Minister James Moore positively commented this decision:
"Our Government is committed to strengthening Canada's economy through all its sectors, especially arts and culture. Apple has demonstrated how iBookstore Canada represents new opportunities for Canadian authors and publishers, and I have determined that this investment will be of net benefit to Canada."
According to MacNN report, another yesterday granted patent application reveals that Apple devises new radial pop-up menus which will be an alternative to currently used drop-down menus. Peter Warner, who is listed as a "Designer at Apple" in his LinkedIn profile, is the inventor of this patent.
The application assures that radial menus can be more efficient than the current model of moving 'to menubar to select standard features', which is used in almost every major operational system. An order for both menus can be static and prioritized, when higher priority items are being displayed more prominently. Read the rest of this entry »
Nicholas Kimball, who is a spokesperson at Transportation Security Administration, told this week CNN that recently presented 11-inch MacBook Airs are small enough that they don't need to be removed from your bag if you're going through an X-ray machine at airport security. MacBook Pro though is still big enough and needs to be researched for the internal components.
It is unknown yet whether 13-inch MacBook Air will also get such a decision, so currently it needs to be taken out at airport security. But it may also be allowed not to be removed as 13-inch model doesn't have an optical and traditional hard drive ещщ. Read the rest of this entry »
According to CNNMoney Walmart will sell 16 Gb version of iPhone 3GS starting today only for $97. The price reduction refers to a Memorial Day weekend. But such a deal requires a two-year contract with AT&T.
New price for iPhone 3Gs is more than $100 lower than Apple's one. Senior category director in Walmart Mehrdad Akbar explained it:
"It is our commitment to always lead on price".
The price reduction may be explained by iPhone 4G presentation that will expectedly be held on June 7. Last year Apple lowered the price for 8GB-version of iPhone 3G to $99 because of iPhone 3GS release.
Media research firm Nielsen released its lists of top U.S. mobile phones, sites, and brands for the first ten months of 2009. The iPhone 3G took the top spot among mobile phones with 4.0% of the market. The iPhone placed slightly ahead of Research in Motion's BlackBerry 8300 series at 3.7%, and well ahead of the remainder of the pack, which was led by Motorola's RAZR V3 series at 2.3%.
Apple also made an appearance on Nielsen's list of top ten brands accessed via mobile networks for the January-September 2009 timeframe, taking tenth place on a list topped by Yahoo! and Google.
MacWorld has listed their 20 favorite apps of the year for the iPhone and iPod touch. With over 100,000 apps in the App Store, MacWorld focused on 20 categories and narrowed it down to the best performer in each category.
Phil Shiller, Apple Senior Vice President of Marketing, was asked what his favorite iPhone Apps were, and here’s what he said:
Shazam [Free - iTunes link]: “There’s just something so amazing about being anywhere, and some music starts playing and you just hold up your phone and can find out what it is,” Mr. Schiller said. “You never again have to say ‘That’s a great song! Who is it by?”
CNN News [$1.99 - iTunes link]: “It’s really cool having the news in your pocket.”
Fortune recently posted their annual ranking of the world's largest corporations, where Apple got 253th place (+84 comparing to last year). According to Fortune Apple got more than $32 billion of revenue and $4.8 billion of profit.