9to5 Staff

Forbes has put together (via setteB.IT) a list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies and Apple ranked fifth. Salesforce.com leads the pack, followed by Amazon (#2), Intuitive Surgical (#3) and Tencent Holdings (#4). Interestingly, Google is seventh most-innovative company in the world on the publication’s list. Other worthy mentions: Nintendo (#20), Activision Blizzard (#22), Starbucks (#19), PepsiCo (#50). The usual suspects don’t fare well, however. Adobe is ranked 54th (little wonder, with their confused CEO) and Apple’s court friend HTC is 56th. Steve Jobs best friend’s company Oracle is 77th and Microsoft is far down on the list, ranked 86th. The full list is available here. But wait, how do you measure innovation? Read on…

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The argument involving mobile gaming versus dedicated consoles is heating up, with no sign of dying down. First CEO John Riccitiello praised iPad as Electronic Arts’ fastest-growing platform, then founder Trip Hawkins bashed Apple, saying the company is up for a decline on the grounds of irreplaceability of Steve Jobs, and yesterday Epic Games president Mike Capps challenged the purpose of next-generation console hardware with all the momentum and credibility Apple’s iOS gadgets have been accumulating in the gaming space. He told IndustryGamers (via CNET)

Before the problem was between the consoles and PC where they had very different levels. The power of your PC could be 100 times the power of somebody else’s PC. This time the problem could be mobile. If you look at the ridiculous acceleration of iPhone hardware and technology, trying to find a sweet spot for tech to make your mobile game… I mean, what would your mobile game look like in 2015? Who knows how fast that’s going to operate, but you can bet it’s going to be faster than an Xbox 360.

And then this about iPhone 8 (not a typo):

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Call it a mobile platform heat map of sorts, but we love it. Mobile ad firm Jumptap is out with their July 2011 report analyzing ad-tracking data of about 83 million users on its ad network. The above info graphic immediately captured our attention (via GigaOM) because it tells the story of the iOS vs. Android war in an electoral manner that evening newscasters had trained us to get. As you can see, iOS is doing pretty well in the Northeast and Midweast states, while Android leads in the South and Southweast parts (no, we ain’t making any conclusions here).

Also, Hawaii is a state that falls in the iOS camp, and Alaska over-indexes for both Android and iOS. One word of warning: That pretty chart is sourced from a limited selection of people on Jumptap’s ad network rather then actual sales numbers so the usual caveats apply. One other surprising factoid:

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Bloomberg points at an RBC Daily story which claims that Apple could begin selling iPhone 5 in Russia this November, “almost immediately” after sales begin in the US. The Russian newspaper’s story is sourced from unnamed handset retailers. Bloomberg notes:

Russian cellphone operators are in talks with Apple about speeding up deliveries, as previous iPhone versions were introduced in Russia much later than in the U.S., causing a large volume of unauthorized sales, the newspaper said.

So, the Russians likely won’t be getting their hands on iPhone 5 the same day as their American counterparts. On a brighter note, it took the country three months last time to get iPhone 4 so this would be an improvement (Hope Russian President gets his iPhone unlocked this time) It is interesting that Apple is allegedly prepping to open its first Russian store inside the trade gallery of the reconstructed Hotel Moskva, near Kremlin, in late 2011.

A coincidence?

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Some interesting quotes from RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky who sat down with Apple’s two top dogs to discuss business, chief of operations Timothy Cook and finance wizard Peter Oppenheimer. According to Barron’s, when the analyst cornered the two men about that cheap iPhone we’ve been hearing about a lot, they said Apple wouldn’t launch such a device unless it was an “innovative, category-killer experience” type of product. This is the first time we hear Apple’s top execs comment on the rumored inexpensive iPhone. Their comment jives with Apple’s broader approach to the marketplace (they play in markets where they can differentiate in a big way) and Cook previously teased that “we don’t want to be just for the rich”.

Whatever the “category-killer experience” for the mass market iPhone is supposed to imply is anyone’s guess, but we have a few ideas of our own. An affordable iPhone would no doubt be a big hit in low income and emerging markets and help tackle slow down Android’s growth. The executives made it known they expect “explosion of low-priced Android smartphones”, but are ready for it citing Apple’s “sustained advantages”. They also told the analyst that come this Fall, the iCloud service will be ready for “significant scale”. RBC Capital Markets in their July note estimated apple could sing up around 150 million users to iCloud. More tidbits after the break.

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We’ve covered numerous noteworthy Cydia tweaks over time and most of them tackle the iPhone’s user interface, letting you customize your iOS gadget to death. Interestingly, only a handful of tweaks mess with the stock Maps app in iOS, which is strange considering that the iOS mapping experience, although great, in many areas pales in comparison to Android. The Speed for Maps tweak (via Funky Space Money), as the name suggests, adds a cool speedometer icon to the Maps app that feels as if it were integral to the experience. You can even pick you speed unit in settings (MPH, KPH, FPS and Knots). It won’t replace a pedometer in your iPod nano, but you no longer need a dedicated GPS app (the better ones don’t come cheap) just to be able to read your velocity while in Maps. This is one of the little things Apple should have thought of.

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Eying a quadricopter? Parrot’s AR.Drone may be the best consumer quadricopter you’ll ever want, but at nearly $300 it isn’t for everyone. Not to worry, Keyword Shopping has you covered. The creators of MicroSIMCutter.com just launched the iHelicopter, an RC helicopter that can be navigated using a free controller app on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.

It’s real simple, you just plug the included transmitter into the audio jack of your device, crank up the volume to the max and fly your iHelicopter around by tilting your device in any direction. Both the the transmitter and the iHelicopter are charged via USB. One note: You won’t be spying on your neighbors with this thing as it doesn’t have on board cameras that feed live video to your iOS gadget. Four different iHelicopter models are offered at iHelicopters.net, each at $60 a pop, which includes free shipping to any destination in the world. More features right below the fold…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orcCF4lq52s]

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A Digitimes Research survey of tablet shipment expectations for 2011 indicates that Apple will retain its lead by a large margin, but also signals the Cupertino, California firm’s share of the tablet market dropping as Android vendors have begun flooding the marketplace with non-Apple tablets in various forms, shapes, sizes and price points. The report says shipments are expected to surpass 65 million this year, up more than 200 percent from 2010. “While Apple remains the dominant player with its iPad line, other major vendors have looking to gain traction in this booming market”, the report notes.

Some 40 million tablets should be sold between June and December, with Apple growing 76 percent compared to H2 2010 and clearing 25.5 million units in H2 2011. This compares to 15.65 million non-Apple tablets predicted in the second half of 2011, a 65 percent increase versus the first half of 2011. This puts Apple’s H2 2011 share of the tablet market at 61 percent versus 39 percent for all other vendors combined. This isn’t bad at all, but it’s worth noting that Apple’s choke hold grip on the tablet market is easing as consumers face tablet choices other than iPad. Research firm Strategy Analytics pegged Apple’s share of the tablet market in the June quarter at 61.3 percent, while Android tablets have gone from 2.9 percent market share in June 2010 to 30.1 percent in June 2011. Also…

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KmfXupi9cg]

T-Mobile USA, the nation’s fourth-largest wireless operator which hosts over a million unlocked iPhones on its network, reported its June quarter earnings today. The results don’t bode well for the Deutsche Telekom-owned company: They lost 50,000 subscribers in the quarter, a continuation of the losing streak that saw them report 99,000 customer losses in the March quarter and 93,000 lost subscribers in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly revenue came in $5.1 billion compared to $5.4 billion in the year-ago quarter. Net income was $212 million, down 48 percent from the $404 million reported in the second quarter of 2010.

Contract churn continues to be high, 2.4 percent, consistent with the previous quarter but up from 2.2 percent in the year-ago period. Blended churn that encompasses prepaid and contract customers declined sequentially to 3.3 percent.  The carrier cited “competitive pressures” for high churn and loss of customers. Their 3G/4G smartphone customers now account for 29 percent of total customers, up 27 percent sequentially and 19 percent annually. The company will continue expanding HSPA+ 42 coverage that encompassed 170 million people in the quarter. Nothing new to report on the proposed merger with AT&T which is pending approval and is expected to be completed in the first half of next year. Full release below the fold.
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Patently Apple this morning discovered a new patent application in the United States Patent & Trademark Office’s database which describes inductive charging system for iOS devices akin to the Touchstone wireless charging dock available for HP’s webOS-driven devices. Apple’s patent application outlines an inductive charging tower of sorts that has you wrap your earphone cables around it “and place a new conductive metal mesh earphone on the media device to begin the charging process”.

The oddly shaped charging tower taps the transformer unit to convert the voltage of the A/C power received from the wall socket, using the resulting voltage to drive the transmitting coil which is wrapped around a ferromagnetic core. This setup creates a varying magnetic flux in the ferromagnetic core. That magnetic flux could also propagate through air, meaning that (at least on paper) the charging station might function without a ferromagnetic core, opening door to wireless charging of iOS devices.

Apple also describes an alternative charging system where you slip your earphone into a recess in an acoustic charger to charge the portable device that is attached to the headphones, as seen in the below drawing…

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According to Giz-China, Apple has reached a landmark agreement with China’s and world’s biggest and most valuable wireless operator, China Mobile, that will see the two companies join forces on bringing a next-generation iPhone to China Mobile’s fourth-generation TD-LTE network:

China Mobile claims that it has reached an agreement with Apple to bring to bring its 4th generation TD-LTE mobile data connection to the next generation iPhone. The claim isn’t exactly new news as it was originally reported back in May, and doesn’t specify which model of iPhone it will be in, but could hint at the next generation iPhone actually being an iPhone 4S type device, with updated 4G capabilities, rather than a totally new iPhone 5 design.

The official confirmation seems to support an earlier report alleging that the two companies were working on such a deal, further corroborated by the image of Tim Cook visiting China Mobile’s headquarters in June. Guardian suggested that Apple’s carrier partners are receiving iPhone units for field-testing, which 9to5Mac reported back in June. As with all leaks and rumors coming these days, especially from Asia, indicating that Apple is prepping for a Fall launch of the next iPhone, you’re advised to take this report with healthy dose of skepticism. It would be nice, however, if Apple brings the next iPhone to China Mobile’s 600 million subscribers. Apple has hinted during the last earnings call that China is becoming the key growth driver for them, growing sixfold from $630 million in revenues in the second quarter of 2010 to $3.8 billion in the June quarter of this year, representing a 13.3 percent of Apple’s total business by revenue. Bucking the trend, Apple is set to open new stores in the country this year and is working with manufacturing partner Foxconn which will spend $1.6 billion on its own stores in China that will sell Apple products.

A report from Sohu.com via AllthingsD goes further saying a two tiered model could have a $70B-$200B upside:

China Telecom will offer two types of iPhone that include the iPhone 5 and a ‘simplified iPhone 4,’” says White. “Essentially, this potential ‘simplified iPhone 4′ would be a more economical version of iPhone to target a broader customer base in developing countries such as China, allowing for an expanded market opportunity.”
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China is many things, not just the United States’ biggest creditor and the home to cheap child labor that assembles your iPhone in sweatshops. One thing we can all agree on, though: In China, the government is pretty much in control of many things, including what you read, listen to and consume on the web (hint: The Great Firewall of China). The same could apply to mobile software if it weren’t for one slight problem: China doesn’t get to control the App Store where hundreds of thousands of apps are vying for users’ attention.

So when the Ministry of National Defense of the People’s Republic of China decided to release their official app called PLA Daily, basically a glorified news reader, one of their top priorities was to bypass Apple’s mobile bazaar, the environment they cannot control. Instead, the app’s target audience – mostly members of the People’s Liberation Army of China’s (PLA) – are expected to jailbreak their devices in order to install the unsanctioned app.

iSmashPhone.com has the story:

The app isn’t going to be an official App Store app. Not here or in China. Users must jailbreak (install software that allows for use of the iPhone that was not intended by Apple) their iPhone if they want to read up on what the PLA is doing. They will receive news and updates direct from the PLA’s Daily. It’s interesting that the iPhone must be jailbroken in order to use the app. Usually, jailbreak apps are made by single independent users who want to add a certain functionalities not included in their iPhone. Larger, public organizations have always stuck to official app store releases.

Of course, it’s also possible Apple rejected the app so the powers that be reckoned to give Apple a taste of their own medicine. Either way, Chinese armed forces have gotten their free publicity.

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Well, talk about a FTW moment. First Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello lavishes praise on Apple and paints iPad their fastest-growing platform as gaming on traditional consoles is on a decline and today the super publisher’s founder Trip Hawkins tells IndustryGamers that Apple is heading towards decline:

If you look at any institution in history – look at the Roman Empire – anything in history, and what it looks like when it’s peaking. Look at Apple, and how can you say it’s not peaking? The CEO is still alive, let’s start there. They invented this tablet thing that’s going to be really big. They’ve done really well by reinventing the phone. They breathed new life into the Mac. They’ve got this super-high marketing. All these things are about as good as they ever can be – how much better can it really get? The thing is, it may take another year or two before it starts to decline, but it has to – everything does. Everything revolves so much around Steve, and no matter how good his lieutenants are, they’re not Steve. None of us is going to live forever, though I hope he lives for a really long time.

He then launches into the obsolete Flash argument:

They’ve created this outlet and they had to have an excuse to keep you there, so they’re like, ‘Oh it’s nothing against Flash; we just prefer HTML5’. Well, Flash can actually make a really good game, and with HTML5 you can’t do that. But give HTML5 another few years to mature, and that could solve the problem. Or Apple could be more generous about deciding to support more de facto standards like Flash, or at least let it run its course.

Creative Strategies analyst Tim Bajarin was recently told that Steve Jobs, on a medical leave since January, “calls in regularly” but is no longer micro-managing the company. Hawkins may have read too much into that report or he thought his company’s CEO had been out of line boasting about iPad. After all, Electronic Arts still depends on sales of entertainment titles distributed traditionally, on physical media. Either way, Riccitiello is up for a reality check because it is no secret that Steve Jobs has been gradually phasing himself out of the view. Plus, there’s just one slight problem with the “Apple to decline” thing…

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According to a new study of 2,012 developers by Appcelerator, a mobile solutions provider, and research firm IDC, app developers are seeing Apple’s new iCloud service as a major growth opportunity, in addition to – surprise – Google+. More precisely, 22 percent of respondents deem iCloud integration their top priority while one in four sees Google’s new social thing as a major opportunity. IDC analyst Scott Ellison told eWeek:

Google and Apple are pushing mobile competition beyond OS platforms into the cloud and into social integration This means even broader battles with major players like Amazon and Facebook, creating new competitive complexities and opportunities going forward for everyone in the mobile ecosystem.

The comparison may not be a good one because Google+ is (for now) another take on social networking, while iCloud is a comprehensive suite of online services involving cloud storage, information syncing and integration with iOS apps. However, it is evident that both services want to become cloud-based platforms as well. That said, iCloud is about to cause “a major disruption” in the cloud computing space, the study finds:

Developers are attracted to Apple’s new entry nearly as much as they are incumbent Amazon. Notably, iCloud beats Windows Azure over 2:1 in interest despite Microsoft’s “all-in” cloud campaign. iOS 5 recognizes the overall shift in the mobile industry toward more engaging, real-time, connected applications. It is also interesting to note that as Apple continues to drive more and more value into applications, this causes an ever-increasing separation in the industry between mobile app and web experiences.

There’s no denying that iCloud will be a major new boon for the iOS ecosystem, especially when the service opens up for public consumption this Fall, alongside the iOS 5 and iPhone 5 launches and developers update their apps with iCloud support.

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So, you’re excited about iPad 3 with Retina Display? Hold your horses, panel makers may not be on the same page with Apple. Per this analysis compiled by DigiTimes, display and touch panel providers are actually struggling to keep up with Apple’s ever growing appetite:

As iPad and iPhone have aroused demand for displays and touch panels with higher performance standards, makers are under pressure to upgrade specifications in their road maps, according to industry sources.

As seen in the publication’s chart, 10.1-inch panels are unlikely to hit the full HD resolution before the second half of next year. Sure, some quantities will be available to buyers, but it will likely be a far cry from the current run-rate of nearly 40 million iPad units. On a brighter note, planned upgrades of 10.1-inch panels include thickness going down from from 2.8mm to 2.3mm, power consumption reducing from 3.6W to 2.7W and further to 2.2W by the end of 2012 and multitouch response advancing from 2-10 fingers to more than ten fingers simultaneously (definitely a good news for a rumored Amazon tablet).

Click for larger

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Asian trade publication DigiTimes reports this morning that next-gen notebooks built around Intel’s Ultrabook platform “may suffer defeat if not less expensive than MacBook Air”. The entry-level MacBook Air lowers the price barrier to just $999, which gets you up to an 11-inch screen, a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 chip and 64GB of flash storage in a beautifully designed package that turns heads. Market sources reason:

The sources pointed out that Intel’s ultrabook concept is not a brand new innovation, but a design to allow first-tier notebook players to quickly catch up with Apple’s advances in the ultra-thin segment and help the notebook industry recover from the impact of tablet PCs. The sources pointed out that the new MacBook Airs are priced at about US$999-1,599 with rather strong demand in the US; however, designing an ultrabook based on Intel’s technical suggestions will still be unable to reduce the machine’s price level to lower than the MacBook Air’s unless Intel is willing to reduce its prices, which already account for one-third of the total cost. If Intel does reduce its prices there is a chance for vendors to provide pricing below US$1,000.

This is despite Ultrabooks cutting down on features like the optical drive and the designs calling for flash chips soldered onto the motherboard and sealed batteries, just like the Air. Apple’s experience engineering really small devices just keeps on building and there are few – if at all – companies able to challenge the Cupertino, California consumer electronics powerhouse with the old pricing argument. Of course, seasoned watchers are anything but surprised…

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Samsung today issued the following statement announcing its planned Galaxy Tab 10.1 launch event in Australia has been postponed, citing legal spat with Apple (via Gizmodo):

In light of the current legal proceedings by Apple Inc. against Samsung Electronics Australia, Samsung regrets to announce it will be postponing its media launch event, scheduled for 11th August 2011, for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

The company will announce a new date for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 media launch event “as soon as practicable”. It’s another PR blow for Samsung Mobile which has thus far confused the press with inconsistent messages about the Australia situation…

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It all started with the original iPhone, the phone that changed it all due (to a large part) to a modified OS X version which didn’t even have a name of its own back in January of 2007. Four years later we have Mac App Store, Apple’s online bazaar for Mac software, and Lion, the latest Mac operating system with iPad-like gestures, full screen apps and instant-on performance. What happens next year is Apple merges OS X and iOS into a single operating system, Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek tells Barron’s:

We believe Apple is looking to merge iOS (iPhones/iPads) with OS X (Macs) into a single platform for apps and cloud services starting in 2012-13.

Misek says Apple will kickstart the transition with a 2012-2013 MacBook Air, and complete the switch by 2016 with the Mac Pro and iMac family. He is speculating that a next-generation MacBook Air will run Apple’s quad-core A6 chip, turning the company into “the first such multi-device platform capable of PC-like strength”. Of course, we’ve head rumors about Apple testing an ARM-based MacBook Air and other analysts have called for ARM-based Macs in 2012. Misek’s thoughts also correspond with Jean-Louis Gassée’s interesting observation that Apple-designed chips based on ARM blueprints and ultra-thin MacBook Air designs are the future of Macs. But what are the benefits of merging OS X and iOS into a unified operating system?

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IHS iSuppli has done a mega tear-down analysis of eight major tablets, including Apple’s iPad and iPad 2, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, Motorola’s Xoom, Hewlett-Packard’s TouchPad and Asus’s Eee Pad. As nearly all non-Apple tablets sport beefier innards, how come the lower-specc’d iPad is still ruling the tablet space nearly eighteen months after Steve Jobs announced the original model back in January of last year? It’s because Apple controls the whole widget, IHS senior analyst Wayne Lam explains:

Since Apple controls both the operating system and hardware design of the iPad, it is able to attain design efficiencies that other tablet manufacturers cannot. These efficiencies become obvious in areas like the memory and the battery, where Apple maintains advantages in cost, space savings and performance compared with every competitor in the business.

He also tells CNET that the biggest drawback for the Android camp is the lack of critical mass and explains why rivals are wrong to focus on speeds and feeds:

It’s a post-PC use case. You’re not bounded by performance. You’re bounded by user interaction. I don’t think a user can distinguish a performance difference or get a sense of the speed of the hardware by using it. It’s a different metric. The iPad’s efficient memory usage stems from the fundamental difference in the architecture of the operating system Apple’s iOS handles multitasking differently than other tablet operating systems, allowing it to reduce the amount of memory required to support the microprocessor.

And because Apple owns the user experience by making its own operating system, user interface and hardware designs down to the selection of individual parts, it is able to provide experiences half-baked Android tablets simply cannot touch. So, when will the Android tablets catch up?

All of the major [Android tablet] makers spent this past year directing all of their efforts toward finding the right mix of components. They really didn’t pay attention to software. They thought, Google is doing something, we’ll take whatever they have. And that’s pretty much what happened. But it’s still not cohesive.

Then, there’s this little problem related to manufacturing costs…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyEpaPEbjzI]

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AppAdvice claims that Apple is on the verge of launching a new service called iTunes Replay, which the rumor-mill has been calling for over the past two years:

AppAdvice has been told and was able to confirm independently that Apple is on the edge of finally launching a full-fledged re-downloading and possibly streaming service named iTunes Replay. As Apple secures the remaining rights, TV Shows as well as Movies in iTunes will be given little arrow indicating whether they’re “iTunes Replay eligible”, that is, available to be downloaded subsequent times. Note that some content will unfortunately only be available to download five times and we don’t know how streaming will count towards that limit. The feature will be giving users access to movies they bought as far as back as January 1st 2009, and all of this will be available to stream on the Apple TV, and probably iOS as well. It’s not clear however what Apple has planned for the desktop in this regard.

Mind you, it’s not a stretch. When you think about it, Apple has lately been expanding the re-download feature on its content stores, including apps, as well as e-books, music and television shows in the mix. For example, the company on Monday rolled out a software update for its set-top box dubbed Apple TV which now lets users buy and stream television shows (previously, you could only rent TV shows for on-demand streaming). That same day, Apple flipped the switch in iTunes allowing users to re-download any television show they purchased in the past, effectively creating a cloud-based locker for television shows.

In addition, analyst Peter Misek at Jefferies reports in a note this morning that Apple already has secret deals in place and “might be ready to roll out its own video subscription service similar to Amazon and Netflix”. The analyst wrote in the note that “as part of Apple’s roll-out of cloud video services (and eventually an iTV), we believe Apple has unannounced deals with all/most of the studios/TV networks that are similar to the subscription streaming deal between Amazon and CBS”. Is this the “neat stuff” Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer in the June earnings call said was coming for iTunes movies and TV content?

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One of the teething problems in Lion is that the operating system does not work well with some third-party network attached storage (NAS) solutions. As we await OS X 10.7.1 update to fix those problems, manufacturers like Western Digital are taking this matter into their own hands. Western Digital, for example, yesterday released a firmware update for the My Book Live series, making it compatible with OS X Lion and Time Machine.

Western Digital uses Netatalk, an open source AFP fileserver. When Apple made changes to AFP function in Lion, it caused major woes as Netatalk had to be updated. According to release notes (PDF document), the software can be downloaded manually or automatically, by accessing the drive via Bonjour or using the WD QuickView app on your Mac.

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