iPhone Market Share Almost Flat From October Through January

Mar 15

Posted by John Hawkes in Android, Apple Inc | No Comments

The iPhone’s market share of smartphones sold in the US creeped up a measly 0.3% from October 2009 through the end of January 2010, according to numbers released by comScore.

That doesn’t mean Apple didn’t sell more iPhones than ever before, of course. The total number of consumers switching to smartphones continued to increase, which is good for all smartphone makers in general. According to comScore, the smartphone market grew by 18% from the prior 3-month period (Aug-Sept 09).

But the numbers indicate that, at least for now, Apple can’t expect to dominate the smartphone market the way they did the mp3-player market with the iPod.

The Android platform captured 7.1% of the market, up from 2.8% of the prior three-month period. Google’s surprising growth may be part of the fuel for Steve Jobs growing antagonism against the company. Losing market share were Microsoft and Plam.

Survey Discovers High Rate of iPhone Addiction Among Students

Mar 15

Posted by John Hawkes in News | No Comments

A survey of college students by Stanford University discovered that self-admitted iPhone addiction is prevalent on US campuses.

When asked to rank their dependence on the iPhone on a scale of one to five – five being addicted and one being not at all addicted – 10 percent of the students acknowledged full addiction to the device, 34 percent ranked themselves as a four on the scale, and only 6 percent said they weren’t addicted at all.

And among those who didn’t consider themselves completely addicted, 32 percent expressed worry that they would become addicted someday.

How long until a pharmaceutical company comes up with an iPhone pill?

Also of interest from the survey was how integrated the iPhone had become in students’ lives.

Nearly 85 percent of the iPhone owners used the phone as their watch, and 89 percent used it as their alarm clock. In fact, 75 percent admitted to falling asleep with the iPhone in bed with them, and 69 percent said they were more likely to forget their wallet than their iPhone when leaving in the morning.

….Furthermore, 15 percent of those surveyed said the iPhone was turning them into a media addict; 30 percent called it a “doorway into the world”; 25 percent found the phone “dangerously alluring” and 41 percent said losing their iPhone would be “a tragedy.”

But iPhone addiction may not be a bad thing overall. There may even be some benefits.

The survey also suggests there are benefits to having an iPhone fixation that may balance out the potential negatives. Over 70 percent of those surveyed said the iPhone made them more organized, and 54 percent said the iPhone made them more productive.

Link: Live Science “iPhone Addictive, Survey Reveals”

Is This the Next iPhone? (Video)

Mar 15

Posted by John Hawkes in iPhone 4.0, iPhone 4G | 1 Comment

We really like the shape of this iPhone, which gets its obvious inspiration from Apple’s Magic Mouse. And a front-facing camera for two-way video conferencing? Yes, please.

What do you think? Should the next iPhone look like this?

Google’s Tim Bray: iPhone Is a “Sterile Disney-fied Walled Garden Surrounded by Sharp-Toothed Lawyers”

Mar 15

Posted by John Hawkes in Android, Apple Inc, News | No Comments

Tim Bray, co-inventor of the XML document encoding language, has joined Google’s Android team and had a few choice things to say about Apple’s iPhone on his blog while announcing his hiring:

Compete With Apple, You Say? As of now, they’re selling around 90K iPhones per day compared to around 60K Android handsets. It’s a horse race!

The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It’s a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord’s pleasure and fear his anger.

I hate it.

I hate it even though the iPhone hardware and software are great, because freedom’s not just another word for anything, nor is it an optional ingredient.

The big thing about the Web isn’t the technology, it’s that it’s the first-ever platform without a vendor (credit for first pointing this out goes to Dave Winer). From that follows almost everything that matters, and it matters a lot now, to a huge number of people. It’s the only kind of platform I want to help build.

Apple apparently thinks you can have the benefits of the Internet while at the same time controlling what programs can be run and what parts of the stack can be accessed and what developers can say to each other.

I think they’re wrong and see this job as a chance to help prove it.

The tragedy is that Apple builds some great open platforms; I’ve been a happy buyer of their computing systems for some years now and, despite my current irritation, will probably go on using them.

This is turning into an interesting war of philosophies. But how will be judge the winner? By handsets sold or by the best phone? For the latter, my money is on Apple.

Chevy Volt Getting Its Own iPhone App

Mar 14

Posted by John Hawkes in iPhone Apps, iPhone Car Apps | No Comments

CNET recently had access to a Chevy Volt, and a GM rep showed off an iPhone app called Chevrolet Connect being developed for the Volt. The app will send push notifications when the car is fully charged, allow you to start the car remotely and turn on the car’s heating system (awesome for cold weather), and lock and unlock the doors.

The app will debut along with the car, hopefully this winter. Versions for the Blackberry Storm and Android will also be available.

Link: CNET “Behind the Wheel of a Chevy Volt”

Recommended: Sudoku! Free for a Limited Time

Mar 14

Posted by Alan in Free iPhone Games | No Comments

Don’t let the bland graphics fool you, Sudoku! (link) is a legit, full-featured sudoku game that is free for a limited time (was $0.99). The game features excellent game design, with smooth controls and over 20,000 sudoku puzzles to solve ranging across 5 difficulty levels. It currently averages 4.5 stars in the App Store.

The game’s features includes notes, undo, redo, save, resume, and hints. There are also sound effects and pleasant background music. A good deal if you’re looking for a sudoku game for your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Sudoku! is a free download for a limited time from the App Store.

Galcon Getting an iPad Version

Mar 14

Posted by John Hawkes in iPad Games, iPhone Games | No Comments

An updated version of Galcon is coming to the iPad, with more planets and more swarming triangles. The folks over at App Advice had a chance to speak with the developer, Phil Hassey, who says the iPad version will be available pretty close to the April 2 launch.

Galcon Lite (link) is one of our favorite free games for the iPhone. A desktop version for the PC/Mac, Galcon Fusion, will be soon be available as well.

Steve Jobs’ Animosity Toward Google Is Real and Personal (NYTimes)

Mar 13

Posted by Alan in Android, Apple Inc, Google, News | 1 Comment

An article today by the New York Times delves deeper into the recent fallout between Apple and Google, with the article painting most of the dispute’s animosity as coming from Steve Jobs.

At the heart of their dispute is a sense of betrayal: Mr. Jobs believes that Google violated the alliance between the companies by producing cellphones that physically, technologically and spiritually resembled the iPhone. In short, he feels that his former friends at Google picked his pocket.”

Early versions of Google’s Android operating system had more in common with Windows Mobile and RIM phones than the iPhone, as seen in the photo of an early prototype from December 2007, shown below:

But as Google slowly morphed the Android platform to more closely resemble the iPhone, Steve Jobs began to openly confront Google’s executives over the matter.

Many of those meetings turned confrontational, according to people familiar with the discussions, with Mr. Jobs often accusing Google of stealing iPhone features. Google executives said that Android’s features were based on longstanding ideas already circulating in the industry and that some Android prototypes predated the iPhone.

At one particularly heated meeting in 2008 on Google’s campus, Mr. Jobs angrily told Google executives that if they deployed a version of multitouch — the popular iPhone feature that allows users to control their devices with flicks of their fingers — he would sue. Two people briefed on the meeting described it as “fierce” and “heated.”

The dispute has recently culminated in an Apple lawsuit against HTC, maker of many Android phones including Google’s Nexus One, for infringing on 20 patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture, and hardware. In a press release accompanying the lawsuit, Steve Jobs drew a proverbial line in the sand:

We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it.”

Apparently, Jobs’ vitriol has recently extended into Apple’s corporate culture, with current employees noting a rise in anti-Google sentiment.

I’ve never seen anything quite like it in my life,” one Apple employee says. “I’m in so many meetings where so many potshots are taken. It feels weird.”

Link: New York Times “A Battle for the Future Is Getting Personal”

Missile Command Is the iPad Game We Want to Play (Too Bad It’s Gone)

Mar 13

Posted by John Hawkes in iPad Games | No Comments

We reviewed Missile Command for the iPhone way back in 2008 and liked it. The gameplay is perfect for multitouch, the only flaw being the iPhone’s screen was too small. We even commented in the review that we’d love to see it on a “MacTablet.”

But alas, the game has been pulled from the App Store along with the rest of Atari’s games. Maybe they’ll bring it back in time for the iWall:

We’ve got a feeling the same type of games that work for the iPhone will work for the iPad. Meaning puzzle games and games that don’t include douchey simulated d-pads and buttons.

iPhone Battery Tips From the New York Times

Mar 12

Posted by John Hawkes in iPhone Tips | No Comments

The New York Times has thrown its hat in the ring for battery saving tips for the iPhone. I’ve read a million of these articles, which all basically say the same thing: turn off features (WiFi, Bluetooth, and 3G) and generally don’t use the iPhone too much. Duh.

Conserving the battery is obvious, but we feel the real question is, how can I keep the iPhone charged? The iPhone is meant to be used after all. We covered the topic before, but a car charger, a battery case, and an extra wall plug and USB cord will do the trick.