WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- While AT&T Inc. executives talk confidently about gaining market share in the wireless business after the iPhone is released, skeptical rivals have reserved their fire.Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. all say they are prepared for the iPhone, but none has offered a clear strategy to combat the introduction of the highly anticipated device. "I'm not sure it is wise to pick on a particular product and say: 'This is the product that we want to compete head-to-head with,'" Denny Strigl, Verizon's chief operating officer, said last week. "It does not make a lot of sense to me." Apple Inc. (AAPL : Apple IncNews , chart , profile , moreLast: 120.38+0.19+0.16%
12:15am 06/13/2007
Delayed quote dataAdd to portfolioAnalyst Create alertInsiderDiscussFinancials Sponsored by:AAPL120.38, +0.19, +0.2%) has designated June 29 for the debut of the wireless device, which will work only on AT&T's network. The iPhone is a first-of-its-kind mobile handset based entirely on a touch-screen design but will sport a high price tag of $500 for the cheapest model. AT&T (T : AT&T IncNews , chart , profile , moreLast: 39.08-1.04-2.59%
12:07am 06/13/2007
Delayed quote dataAdd to portfolioAnalyst Create alertInsiderDiscussFinancials Sponsored by:T39.08, -1.04, -2.6%) has repeatedly called the iPhone a "game changer," saying more than 1 million potential customers have made inquiries about the device. Many of them have declined to re-sign annual commitments with their current providers so they'll have a chance to check out the iPhone, AT&T executives say. "We believe the big shift that will occur is it's going to be an opportunity to take share," John Stankey, AT&T's group president for operations, told investors Tuesday at a Bear Stearns conference. Looking for an edgeCertainly AT&T could use a big winner. Although it is the largest mobile operator in the U.S. with 62.2 million subscribers, Verizon Wireless has been gaining fast. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ : verizon communications comNews , chart , profile , moreLast: 43.08-0.43-0.99%
12:07am 06/13/2007
Delayed quote dataAdd to portfolioAnalyst Create alertInsiderDiscussFinancials Sponsored by:VZ43.08, -0.43, -1.0%) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD : vodafone group plc new spons adr newNews , chart , profile , moreLast: 31.18-0.11-0.35%
12:07am 06/13/2007
Delayed quote dataAdd to portfolioAnalyst Create alertInsiderDiscussFinancials Sponsored by:VOD31.18, -0.11, -0.4%) , has out-gained AT&T by an average of 220,000 customers each quarter since the beginning of 2006. Verizon now has 60.7 million mobile customers. Verizon also generates higher total revenue from its wireless business than AT&T and the company's customers spend more -- $50.73 per Verizon user compared with $49.21 for AT&T, according to data from company reports. Because the iPhone is a data-intensive device -- Web surfing and music playing are two of its most crucial features -- AT&T expects customers who choose the device will spend more each month. Data plans are priced significantly higher than voice-only service. AT&T executives also figure that iPhone users will prove more loyal, helping the company to cut its current churn rate of 1.7%. Churn, a key measure in the wireless business, reflects the percentage of customers who cancel service. Verizon also leads in that category with a 1.08% churn rate. Sizing up AppleRival executives know Apple and its iPhone pose a serious threat. They've even put a positive spin on the device's introduction, saying awareness of the iPhone could create broader consumer demand for handsets that play music or offer speedy connections to the Internet. "We've been anticipating, as the industry has, the coming of the iPhone," Sprint Chief Executive Gary Forsee acknowledged. Added Strigl: "I think they will have a good product. So I don't deny them that." Nonetheless, rival operators and handset makers have expressed skepticism about whether the iPhone will truly shake up a wireless market in which the vast majority of consumers pay less than $100 for the handsets they own. They point to the iPhone's $500 starting price tag and note that consumers would also have to sign up for more costly monthly plans. "It's an expensive device," Forsee said. "If the customer is buying that for music, then we're going to be able to provide very significant alternatives to that at a much cheaper price point." Effect on rivalsIf Forsee's skepticism is misplaced, Sprint (S : Sprint Nextel CorporationNews , chart , profile , moreLast: 21.60-0.40-1.82%
12:07am 06/13/2007
Delayed quote dataAdd to portfolioAnalyst Create alertInsiderDiscussFinancials Sponsored by:S21.60, -0.40, -1.8%) has the most to lose. The company has lost thousands of its best customers over the past year to AT&T and Verizon and its churn rate remains stubbornly high. Since the start of 2006, Sprint has added just 3.56 million net customers, most of whom signed up through less profitable wholesale channels or subscribed to its cheaper prepaid service. In the last three quarters alone, Sprint has lost more than 700,000 highly valued postpaid subscribers -- those on yearly plans who pay their bills at the end of each month. By contrast, Verizon has added 9.4 million net customers during the same period, almost all of them postpaid subscribers signed up directly by the company. AT&T added 8.3 million net customers. Even T-Mobile, the fourth biggest wireless operator in the U.S., has outpaced Sprint by adding 4.3 million net customers over the past five quarters. Verizon is not immune either, but the company's relatively high consumer-satisfaction rating and the perception that it operates a superior network could mitigate losses over the iPhone. But just in case the iPhone proves to be a huge hit, Verizon executives are plotting out their response. "You will see you will see more products from us by year-end, so stay tuned," Strigl said.
2007年6月12日星期二
That iPhone Has a Keyboard, but It’s Not Mechanical
SAN FRANCISCO, June 12 — If there is a billion-dollar gamble underlying Apple’s iPhone, it lies in what this smart cellphone does not have: a mechanical keyboard.
Skip to next paragraph MultimediaGraphic Compare the iPhone RelatedTimes Topics: iPhoneTimes Topics: Steven P. JobsAs the clearest expression yet of the Apple chief executive’s spartan design aesthetic, the iPhone sports only one mechanical button, to return a user to the home screen. It echoes Steven P. Jobs’s decree two decades ago that a computer mouse should have a single button. (Most computer mice these days have two.) His argument was that one button ensured that it would be impossible to push the wrong button.
The keyboard is built into other phones, those designed for businesspeople as well as those for teenagers. But the lack of a keyboard could be seen as a clever industrial design solution. It has permitted the iPhone to have a 3.5-inch screen. A big screen makes the phone attractive for alternative uses like watching movies and that could open up new revenue streams for Apple and its partner, AT&T.
The downside is that typing is done by pecking on the screen with thumbs or fingers, something hardly anyone outside of Apple has experienced yet. “The tactile feedback of a mechanical keyboard is a pretty important aspect of human interaction,” said Bill Moggeridge, a founder of Ideo, an industrial design company in Palo Alto, Calif. “If you take that away you tend to be very insecure.”
Mr. Jobs and other Apple executives argue that the keyboard that pops up onscreen will be a painless compromise. The iPhone’s onscreen keyboard has a dictionary-lookup feature that tries to predict the word being typed, catching errors as they are made.
That, of course, requires users to learn the new system, a task that Apple executives acknowledge may require several days. Last month at an industry conference, Mr. Jobs dismissed doubts about the decision to rely on a virtual keyboard, saying that users only had to learn to trust the keyboard, “and then you will fly.”
Yet in the days before the phone is scheduled to go on sale at Apple and AT&T stores around the country, designers and marketers of electronic devices centers are having a spirited debate about whether consumers will have the patience to overcome the hurdle that will be required to type without the familiar tactile feedback offered by conventional keyboards.
Apple is making other compromises. The AT&T Edge cellular network transmits data more slowly than those of rivals, but the iPhone will still be equipped with Wi-Fi for Web access. The phone will not accept memory cards.
The keyboard, however, is the biggest worry. At worst, customers will return the products. Currently AT&T gives customers 30 days to return handsets, but it is not clear whether it will maintain that policy for the iPhone. Any significant number of returns of the iPhone could conceivably undermine what until now has been a remarkable promotional blitzkrieg that culminates in the phone’s release June 29.
“There has never been a massively successful consumer device based solely on a touch screen,” warned Sky Dayton, chief executive of Helio, a cellular network service that has recently introduced an innovative handset that integrates Google maps with a G.P.S. system and another feature that physically locates friends using Helio phones.
Palm was successful, he noted, despite requiring the Palm Pilot’s users to enter text with a stylus using its own writing system called Graffiti. But the company eventually retreated and put a mechanical keyboard on its Treo smartphones.
“Texting” is central to an entire generation of people, Mr. Dayton argued, and Apple is taking a risk in not making that a central design feature. “There is a generation of users who are always online and who don’t communicate the way their parents did,” he said. “They’re e-mailing; they’re texting; they’re I.M.-ing.”
To be sure, Apple has had its share of product design hits and misses both under Mr. Jobs’s command and while he was in exile from the computer maker from 1985 to 1997. The Apple III was a well-designed computer, but was undermined by shoddy manufacturing. Several years later, the Lisa, the first commercial PC with a graphical user interface, and an infamously poorly designed “Twiggy” floppy disk drive, generated excitement but failed commercially. More recently, the Apple Cube, which was perhaps Mr. Jobs’s most daring design statement, drew critical praise and few sales.
But the comparison that could haunt the iPhone most comes from the specter of a former Apple chief executive, John Sculley, and his Newton. Billed as the original “personal digital assistant,” the Newton relied on a stylus for entering text. When users fumbled with its character recognition system, the machine went from hype to humiliation.
Although a small team of dedicated Apple engineers ultimately improved the technology, it was too late to save the Newton as a product.
Few industrial designers believe that the iPhone will suffer the Newton’s fate. Indeed, many leading designers argue that even before the iPhone has reached the market, it has changed consumer electronics industry standards irrevocably. Dispensing with a physical keyboard has given software an increased importance over hardware in product design, said Mark Rolston, senior vice president at Frog Design, an industrial design consulting firm.
A result, he said, has been a richer conversation between Frog’s designers and customers because the software presents a much wider range of options for features. “This is great for us because the carriers weren’t listening,” Mr. Rolston said. “They were slightly adjusting the soft-keys.”
Overnight that has changed and that has resulted in significant new business for design companies like Frog. “We’re being engaged by many more customers with more aggressive ideas about what to do,” he said.
Mr. Rolston believes that Mr. Jobs will get away with his gamble. “They took a risk and it’s a bold step for the industry,” he said. “This is a worthwhile risk.”
Indeed, the handful of users outside Apple who have been able to play with the hand-held device report that the quirky company has made an important step forward in the art of controlling computer systems. It may teach a new generation of technology users to use their fingers rather than a mouse — a four-decade-old technology — as a pointing and command device.
Apple’s multitouch technology — which permits control gestures with one or more fingers or thumbs — and which is now also being explored by a variety of other companies, including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and others, is a much more direct way to interact with a computer. Software designers have injected virtual “physics” into the user’s experience. For example, sliding a finger along the screen in a directory will cause the index to slide as if it were a piece of paper on a flat surface.
Mr. Jobs’s new phone may resonate with a new kind of mobile user, said Donald A. Norman, a product designer who is co-director of the Segal Design Institute at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
“Apple says, ‘We’re not selling to the person who lives on his BlackBerry, we’re selling to the person who listens to music and surfs the Web,’ ” he said.
And even Mr. Jobs’s competitors are rooting for him to win.
“When I first saw iPhone I was very excited,” said Benjamin Bederson, co-founder and vice president for client technologies at ZenZui, a Seattle-based mobile phone software company, which is commercializing technologies that were developed at Microsoft’s research labs. “It will raise the expectations. I think that consumers have had the central assumption that cellphone experiences are terrible and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Skip to next paragraph MultimediaGraphic Compare the iPhone RelatedTimes Topics: iPhoneTimes Topics: Steven P. JobsAs the clearest expression yet of the Apple chief executive’s spartan design aesthetic, the iPhone sports only one mechanical button, to return a user to the home screen. It echoes Steven P. Jobs’s decree two decades ago that a computer mouse should have a single button. (Most computer mice these days have two.) His argument was that one button ensured that it would be impossible to push the wrong button.
The keyboard is built into other phones, those designed for businesspeople as well as those for teenagers. But the lack of a keyboard could be seen as a clever industrial design solution. It has permitted the iPhone to have a 3.5-inch screen. A big screen makes the phone attractive for alternative uses like watching movies and that could open up new revenue streams for Apple and its partner, AT&T.
The downside is that typing is done by pecking on the screen with thumbs or fingers, something hardly anyone outside of Apple has experienced yet. “The tactile feedback of a mechanical keyboard is a pretty important aspect of human interaction,” said Bill Moggeridge, a founder of Ideo, an industrial design company in Palo Alto, Calif. “If you take that away you tend to be very insecure.”
Mr. Jobs and other Apple executives argue that the keyboard that pops up onscreen will be a painless compromise. The iPhone’s onscreen keyboard has a dictionary-lookup feature that tries to predict the word being typed, catching errors as they are made.
That, of course, requires users to learn the new system, a task that Apple executives acknowledge may require several days. Last month at an industry conference, Mr. Jobs dismissed doubts about the decision to rely on a virtual keyboard, saying that users only had to learn to trust the keyboard, “and then you will fly.”
Yet in the days before the phone is scheduled to go on sale at Apple and AT&T stores around the country, designers and marketers of electronic devices centers are having a spirited debate about whether consumers will have the patience to overcome the hurdle that will be required to type without the familiar tactile feedback offered by conventional keyboards.
Apple is making other compromises. The AT&T Edge cellular network transmits data more slowly than those of rivals, but the iPhone will still be equipped with Wi-Fi for Web access. The phone will not accept memory cards.
The keyboard, however, is the biggest worry. At worst, customers will return the products. Currently AT&T gives customers 30 days to return handsets, but it is not clear whether it will maintain that policy for the iPhone. Any significant number of returns of the iPhone could conceivably undermine what until now has been a remarkable promotional blitzkrieg that culminates in the phone’s release June 29.
“There has never been a massively successful consumer device based solely on a touch screen,” warned Sky Dayton, chief executive of Helio, a cellular network service that has recently introduced an innovative handset that integrates Google maps with a G.P.S. system and another feature that physically locates friends using Helio phones.
Palm was successful, he noted, despite requiring the Palm Pilot’s users to enter text with a stylus using its own writing system called Graffiti. But the company eventually retreated and put a mechanical keyboard on its Treo smartphones.
“Texting” is central to an entire generation of people, Mr. Dayton argued, and Apple is taking a risk in not making that a central design feature. “There is a generation of users who are always online and who don’t communicate the way their parents did,” he said. “They’re e-mailing; they’re texting; they’re I.M.-ing.”
To be sure, Apple has had its share of product design hits and misses both under Mr. Jobs’s command and while he was in exile from the computer maker from 1985 to 1997. The Apple III was a well-designed computer, but was undermined by shoddy manufacturing. Several years later, the Lisa, the first commercial PC with a graphical user interface, and an infamously poorly designed “Twiggy” floppy disk drive, generated excitement but failed commercially. More recently, the Apple Cube, which was perhaps Mr. Jobs’s most daring design statement, drew critical praise and few sales.
But the comparison that could haunt the iPhone most comes from the specter of a former Apple chief executive, John Sculley, and his Newton. Billed as the original “personal digital assistant,” the Newton relied on a stylus for entering text. When users fumbled with its character recognition system, the machine went from hype to humiliation.
Although a small team of dedicated Apple engineers ultimately improved the technology, it was too late to save the Newton as a product.
Few industrial designers believe that the iPhone will suffer the Newton’s fate. Indeed, many leading designers argue that even before the iPhone has reached the market, it has changed consumer electronics industry standards irrevocably. Dispensing with a physical keyboard has given software an increased importance over hardware in product design, said Mark Rolston, senior vice president at Frog Design, an industrial design consulting firm.
A result, he said, has been a richer conversation between Frog’s designers and customers because the software presents a much wider range of options for features. “This is great for us because the carriers weren’t listening,” Mr. Rolston said. “They were slightly adjusting the soft-keys.”
Overnight that has changed and that has resulted in significant new business for design companies like Frog. “We’re being engaged by many more customers with more aggressive ideas about what to do,” he said.
Mr. Rolston believes that Mr. Jobs will get away with his gamble. “They took a risk and it’s a bold step for the industry,” he said. “This is a worthwhile risk.”
Indeed, the handful of users outside Apple who have been able to play with the hand-held device report that the quirky company has made an important step forward in the art of controlling computer systems. It may teach a new generation of technology users to use their fingers rather than a mouse — a four-decade-old technology — as a pointing and command device.
Apple’s multitouch technology — which permits control gestures with one or more fingers or thumbs — and which is now also being explored by a variety of other companies, including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and others, is a much more direct way to interact with a computer. Software designers have injected virtual “physics” into the user’s experience. For example, sliding a finger along the screen in a directory will cause the index to slide as if it were a piece of paper on a flat surface.
Mr. Jobs’s new phone may resonate with a new kind of mobile user, said Donald A. Norman, a product designer who is co-director of the Segal Design Institute at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
“Apple says, ‘We’re not selling to the person who lives on his BlackBerry, we’re selling to the person who listens to music and surfs the Web,’ ” he said.
And even Mr. Jobs’s competitors are rooting for him to win.
“When I first saw iPhone I was very excited,” said Benjamin Bederson, co-founder and vice president for client technologies at ZenZui, a Seattle-based mobile phone software company, which is commercializing technologies that were developed at Microsoft’s research labs. “It will raise the expectations. I think that consumers have had the central assumption that cellphone experiences are terrible and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
2007年6月6日星期三
Apple iPhone Accessories by BoxWave Corporation Shipping Before iPhone Release
BELLEVUE, Wash., June 6 /PRNewswire/ -- BoxWave(R) Corporation announces the immediate availability of its Apple iPhone accessories. Ready with a complete line of iPhone accessories before the iPhone is available for public retail sale on June 29, 2007, BoxWave continues its trend of "Bringing You Tomorrow's Products Today."
BoxWave is one of the first major handheld accessories manufacturers and online retailers to produce and release a complete line of iPhone accessories. With a proven track record for creating high quality accessories, BoxWave is fast gaining attention for bringing premium iPhone accessories to market quickly. BoxWave's iPhone accessories have been available for ordering since April 2007 and the company has been fulfilling orders of iPhone ClearTouch(R) screen protectors, iPhone chargers, and iPhone cases for customers who want to protect and enhance their several hundred dollar Apple iPhone investment.
BoxWave is one of the first major handheld accessories manufacturers and online retailers to produce and release a complete line of iPhone accessories. With a proven track record for creating high quality accessories, BoxWave is fast gaining attention for bringing premium iPhone accessories to market quickly. BoxWave's iPhone accessories have been available for ordering since April 2007 and the company has been fulfilling orders of iPhone ClearTouch(R) screen protectors, iPhone chargers, and iPhone cases for customers who want to protect and enhance their several hundred dollar Apple iPhone investment.
iPhone Will Promote All Smartphones, Exec Says
The iPhone is about to do for smartphones what the iPod did for digital music players: put one in everyone's pocket.
That's the message Warren East, CEO of ARM Holdings PLC, brought to Computex Wednesday in a talk about the future of mobile computing.
The idea of putting computing power into a small device has been around for years. Apple Inc. put out the Newton personal digital assistant (PDA) in the early 1990s, followed by U.S. Robotics with its Pilot (which later became the Palm). Adding computing functions to mobile phones, to create smartphones, happened soon after. Now, demand for Internet access while on the move is making small computing devices even more popular. Even the computer industry has taken up the challenge, with its ultramobile PC.
"This has been an emerging market for a long time," East said in an interview. And the hype surrounding the iPhone will put smartphones in the lead as demand for Internet access at all times takes off, he said.
In fact, he believes that smartphone sales could double this year if the iPhone proves to be the hit that some people expect. Sales will end up close to 200 million units, or double last year's figure, if the iPhone is a hit, East said, because smartphone demand overall will take off. "Within the next few years, smartphones will make up half the mobile phone market," he said.
East stands to gain from such a prediction, of course. ARM processing cores are in around 95 percent of all smartphones, so his company will be a direct beneficiary of the growing market. They are also in certain iPods, leading to speculation that several of its chip designs will end up in iPhones. East declined to comment on the matter, saying Apple prefers to keep such details secret.
Another key to the success of smartphones and other small devices is software. A lot of computing software that works well on a PC has trouble on portable gadgets because of the smaller screen size. Mobile web browsers, for example, don't shrink all Web sites very well. ARM is working with software makers on rewriting their applications to better fit smaller devices, East said.
The ultramobile PC is also an area that East doesn't mind competition from, since ARM processing cores go into them, too. The new product category is also boosting interest in devices such as smartphones, he said. Besides, the mobile industry has an advantage over the computer industry's ultramobile PC: its expertise in power consumption.
Mobile phone makers have worked for years to ensure users have plenty of battery power on their handsets. Companies focused on the ultramobile PC come from a far different background, where power consumption has not been a big issue until recently. That gives the mobile phone industry an advantage, East said.
It won't take long to see if East's predictions are correct. The iPhone will be out in the U.S. around the end of this month. It may end up creating a smartphone craze, as the iPod did for digital music players. At the very least, the much hyped product should spur interest in small computing devices.
"Apple's iPhone... is clearly the most widely anticipated product the industry has seen for years, potentially ever," said Michael Ounjian, a research analyst at Credit Suisse, in a recent report.
That's the message Warren East, CEO of ARM Holdings PLC, brought to Computex Wednesday in a talk about the future of mobile computing.
The idea of putting computing power into a small device has been around for years. Apple Inc. put out the Newton personal digital assistant (PDA) in the early 1990s, followed by U.S. Robotics with its Pilot (which later became the Palm). Adding computing functions to mobile phones, to create smartphones, happened soon after. Now, demand for Internet access while on the move is making small computing devices even more popular. Even the computer industry has taken up the challenge, with its ultramobile PC.
"This has been an emerging market for a long time," East said in an interview. And the hype surrounding the iPhone will put smartphones in the lead as demand for Internet access at all times takes off, he said.
In fact, he believes that smartphone sales could double this year if the iPhone proves to be the hit that some people expect. Sales will end up close to 200 million units, or double last year's figure, if the iPhone is a hit, East said, because smartphone demand overall will take off. "Within the next few years, smartphones will make up half the mobile phone market," he said.
East stands to gain from such a prediction, of course. ARM processing cores are in around 95 percent of all smartphones, so his company will be a direct beneficiary of the growing market. They are also in certain iPods, leading to speculation that several of its chip designs will end up in iPhones. East declined to comment on the matter, saying Apple prefers to keep such details secret.
Another key to the success of smartphones and other small devices is software. A lot of computing software that works well on a PC has trouble on portable gadgets because of the smaller screen size. Mobile web browsers, for example, don't shrink all Web sites very well. ARM is working with software makers on rewriting their applications to better fit smaller devices, East said.
The ultramobile PC is also an area that East doesn't mind competition from, since ARM processing cores go into them, too. The new product category is also boosting interest in devices such as smartphones, he said. Besides, the mobile industry has an advantage over the computer industry's ultramobile PC: its expertise in power consumption.
Mobile phone makers have worked for years to ensure users have plenty of battery power on their handsets. Companies focused on the ultramobile PC come from a far different background, where power consumption has not been a big issue until recently. That gives the mobile phone industry an advantage, East said.
It won't take long to see if East's predictions are correct. The iPhone will be out in the U.S. around the end of this month. It may end up creating a smartphone craze, as the iPod did for digital music players. At the very least, the much hyped product should spur interest in small computing devices.
"Apple's iPhone... is clearly the most widely anticipated product the industry has seen for years, potentially ever," said Michael Ounjian, a research analyst at Credit Suisse, in a recent report.
2007年6月4日星期一
Developers see possibilities in iPhone apps
Users eager to get their hands on an iPhone may have June 29 circled on their calendars to mark the mobile device’s announced ship date. But for software developers, the most significant date in the build-up to the iPhone’s release was easily May 30. That’s the day Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage at the D: All Things Digital Conference near San Diego and announced that his company is working to make its eagerly anticipated mobile phone open to outside developers, reversing months of skeptical statements about third-party involvement.
For software makers, the latest pronouncement by Jobs, though lacking specifics, couldn’t be more welcome. It indicates that they’ll have a chance to create versions of their apps—or come up with entirely new programs—that will run on what potentially could be the most popular mobile device since Apple’s iPod.
“Overall, I think this is a great decision on Apple’s part,” Austin Sarner, the developer of AppZapper and Disco said. “Apple really excels at creating a solid foundation for a community of users and developers, and the iPhone seems no different.”
Jobs’ encouraging words to developers came during a Q-and-A session at the D: All Things Digital conference, an annual gathering of tech industry heavy hitters sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. Asked by an audience member about the possibility of third-party companies creating iPhone apps, Jobs suggested that was a distinct possibility in the months following the device’s June launch.
“We’re working through a way [to support third-party development],” Jobs said. “We’ve got some pretty good ideas that we’re working through, and I think sometime later this year we will find a way to let third parties write apps and still preserve security.”
Apple’s position evolves
That’s a decided shift from Apple’s previous—and scanty—public pronouncements on the subject. Shortly after unveiling the phone in January, Jobs told the New York Times that Apple intended to closely control what went on the iPhone. “We define everything that is on the phone,” Jobs told the Times. “You don’t want your phone to be like a PC. The last thing you want is to have loaded three apps on your phone and then you go to make a call and it doesn’t work anymore.”
Many interpreted that comment to mean that Apple would keep the iPhone closed to third-party development. But on May 10, at Apple’s annual shareholders meeting, Jobs’s tone toward such development changed. The CEO said that Apple was “wrestling” with a way to support third-party development on the iPhone. And Jobs’s comments at last week’s D conference suggest that Apple is open to third-party iPhone apps—once the security and stability of the phone can be established.
“Nobody’s perfect, but we sure don’t want our phone to crash,” Jobs told D attendees. “We would like to solve this problem, if you could be just a little more patient with us, I think everyone can get what they want.”
That’s a stance developers can appreciate. “I can understand their concern where they don’t want after-market apps taking down the whole phone network,” said iClip developer John Casasanta, who called last week’s comments by Jobs “fantastic.” “I’m sure it’s doable to have a good balance between safety and development freedom.”
If Apple is able to balance security and stability concerns with the demand for third-party software, one analyst expects a big payoff for both Apple and its developers.
“This opens up new opportunities and new revenue streams for Apple and the developers,” said Ross Rubin, director of analysis at NPD Group. “This makes it a more appealing prospect for customers who will have more options and be able to customize the iPhone to fit their needs.”
Indeed, in the months following the iPhone’s unveiling, many mobile-device industry analysts pointed out that a closed system would put the iPhone at a disadvantage. Competing devices have that capability, those analysts argued, meaning users would expect a certain degree of customization from the iPhone.
Whither Widgets?
As with many specifics about the iPhone, the details on just when and how developers will be able to create programs for the mobile device are still up in the air. Chief among the questions: Will Apple release a developers’ kit for the iPhone? Next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco figures to shed some light on that issue, with the New York Times reporting that Apple “intends to announce that it will make it possible for developers of small programs written for the SEARCH Macintosh to easily convert them to run on the iPhone.”
What the Times’s source refers to as “small programs” is still in question, but it’s possible that this refers to Mac OS X’s Dashboard technology, in which small “widgets” written largely in the JavaScript scripting language grab basic data from the Internet and display it in an attractive interface.
But beyond simple software such as widgets, the question remains: what kinds of full-blown apps would be appropriate for the iPhone? One of the post-interview questions during Jobs’ appearance at the D: All things Digital conference last week was posed by Blake Krikorian, the CEO of Sling Media, makers of the Slingbox video-streaming product. Sling has created remote SlingPlayer applications for cell phones running the Windows Mobile and Palm operating systems.
While the company hasn’t announced any specific interest in creating a version of SlingPlayer for the iPhone, Krikorian’s question to Jobs complained about the limited bandwidth on the iPhone’s built-in EDGE cellular data network. (Jobs responded by praising the speed of EDGE and pointing out that when an iPhone senses a Wi-Fi network, it attempts to join that network and use it for data transmission instead.)
A phone is not a desktop
Even at this early stage, Mac developers are realistic that much of their existing programs and user-interface designs may not make it over to a new platform—even if it is based on Mac OS X.
“In general I think it’s an interesting idea, but I think it’s important to remember that even though it may run Mac OS X, a phone is not a desktop platform, so the considerations for both developers and customers are very different from Mac OS X on the desktop,” said Rich Siegel, president of Bare Bones Software, echoing Jobs’s own statements on the need for a different user interface for iPhone-based software.
Having said that, Siegel did not rule out bringing his existing products over to the iPhone at some point. “I think that certain products in our line could be expressed very nicely on the iPhone,” he added.
Developer Sarner finds himself in a similar situation with his popular uninstall utility AppZapper. “If a strong enough community develops with a good amount of third-party apps and the technology is similar enough, AppZapper could definitely be ported,” he said.
iClip develop Casasanta doesn’t see his app as a good match for the iPhone—“I just don’t see [porting iClip] making sense,” he said—he has some other ideas for projects that might appeal to iPhone users. “Atmosphere, an app that we’re working on at My Dream App that puts a beautiful image of the current weather on your desktop, is a prime candidate,” Casasanta said. “With a bit of adapting, we should be able to make a version of it that’s at home on the iPhone.”
NPD analyst Rubin sees iTunes as being one possible vehicle for delivering applications to the iPhone. Besides giving users a familiar interface, it will also give Apple the chance to certify applications for the device.
For example, Apple tightly controls all development of software for the iPod. All games developed for the iPod are distributed by Apple via the iTunes Store, rather than being made available for individual download on developers’ web sites. It’s a situation that’s left some Mac game developers disappointed.
In any event, Mac developers see the iPhone potentially being a catalyst for having even more Apple-based developers in the future, which could in turn, mean more developers on the Mac platform as well.
“Developer tools like XCode and Interface Builder are absolutely phenomenal,” Sarner said. “With the release of Tiger, the Widget development scene exploded and there are an insane number of widgets being created and used every day. I’ve got no reason to believe the iPhone would be any less important, and with the raw cool factor the device has going for it, I’d say we could see the iPhone dev scene rising up quite quickly.”
For software makers, the latest pronouncement by Jobs, though lacking specifics, couldn’t be more welcome. It indicates that they’ll have a chance to create versions of their apps—or come up with entirely new programs—that will run on what potentially could be the most popular mobile device since Apple’s iPod.
“Overall, I think this is a great decision on Apple’s part,” Austin Sarner, the developer of AppZapper and Disco said. “Apple really excels at creating a solid foundation for a community of users and developers, and the iPhone seems no different.”
Jobs’ encouraging words to developers came during a Q-and-A session at the D: All Things Digital conference, an annual gathering of tech industry heavy hitters sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. Asked by an audience member about the possibility of third-party companies creating iPhone apps, Jobs suggested that was a distinct possibility in the months following the device’s June launch.
“We’re working through a way [to support third-party development],” Jobs said. “We’ve got some pretty good ideas that we’re working through, and I think sometime later this year we will find a way to let third parties write apps and still preserve security.”
Apple’s position evolves
That’s a decided shift from Apple’s previous—and scanty—public pronouncements on the subject. Shortly after unveiling the phone in January, Jobs told the New York Times that Apple intended to closely control what went on the iPhone. “We define everything that is on the phone,” Jobs told the Times. “You don’t want your phone to be like a PC. The last thing you want is to have loaded three apps on your phone and then you go to make a call and it doesn’t work anymore.”
Many interpreted that comment to mean that Apple would keep the iPhone closed to third-party development. But on May 10, at Apple’s annual shareholders meeting, Jobs’s tone toward such development changed. The CEO said that Apple was “wrestling” with a way to support third-party development on the iPhone. And Jobs’s comments at last week’s D conference suggest that Apple is open to third-party iPhone apps—once the security and stability of the phone can be established.
“Nobody’s perfect, but we sure don’t want our phone to crash,” Jobs told D attendees. “We would like to solve this problem, if you could be just a little more patient with us, I think everyone can get what they want.”
That’s a stance developers can appreciate. “I can understand their concern where they don’t want after-market apps taking down the whole phone network,” said iClip developer John Casasanta, who called last week’s comments by Jobs “fantastic.” “I’m sure it’s doable to have a good balance between safety and development freedom.”
If Apple is able to balance security and stability concerns with the demand for third-party software, one analyst expects a big payoff for both Apple and its developers.
“This opens up new opportunities and new revenue streams for Apple and the developers,” said Ross Rubin, director of analysis at NPD Group. “This makes it a more appealing prospect for customers who will have more options and be able to customize the iPhone to fit their needs.”
Indeed, in the months following the iPhone’s unveiling, many mobile-device industry analysts pointed out that a closed system would put the iPhone at a disadvantage. Competing devices have that capability, those analysts argued, meaning users would expect a certain degree of customization from the iPhone.
Whither Widgets?
As with many specifics about the iPhone, the details on just when and how developers will be able to create programs for the mobile device are still up in the air. Chief among the questions: Will Apple release a developers’ kit for the iPhone? Next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco figures to shed some light on that issue, with the New York Times reporting that Apple “intends to announce that it will make it possible for developers of small programs written for the SEARCH Macintosh to easily convert them to run on the iPhone.”
What the Times’s source refers to as “small programs” is still in question, but it’s possible that this refers to Mac OS X’s Dashboard technology, in which small “widgets” written largely in the JavaScript scripting language grab basic data from the Internet and display it in an attractive interface.
But beyond simple software such as widgets, the question remains: what kinds of full-blown apps would be appropriate for the iPhone? One of the post-interview questions during Jobs’ appearance at the D: All things Digital conference last week was posed by Blake Krikorian, the CEO of Sling Media, makers of the Slingbox video-streaming product. Sling has created remote SlingPlayer applications for cell phones running the Windows Mobile and Palm operating systems.
While the company hasn’t announced any specific interest in creating a version of SlingPlayer for the iPhone, Krikorian’s question to Jobs complained about the limited bandwidth on the iPhone’s built-in EDGE cellular data network. (Jobs responded by praising the speed of EDGE and pointing out that when an iPhone senses a Wi-Fi network, it attempts to join that network and use it for data transmission instead.)
A phone is not a desktop
Even at this early stage, Mac developers are realistic that much of their existing programs and user-interface designs may not make it over to a new platform—even if it is based on Mac OS X.
“In general I think it’s an interesting idea, but I think it’s important to remember that even though it may run Mac OS X, a phone is not a desktop platform, so the considerations for both developers and customers are very different from Mac OS X on the desktop,” said Rich Siegel, president of Bare Bones Software, echoing Jobs’s own statements on the need for a different user interface for iPhone-based software.
Having said that, Siegel did not rule out bringing his existing products over to the iPhone at some point. “I think that certain products in our line could be expressed very nicely on the iPhone,” he added.
Developer Sarner finds himself in a similar situation with his popular uninstall utility AppZapper. “If a strong enough community develops with a good amount of third-party apps and the technology is similar enough, AppZapper could definitely be ported,” he said.
iClip develop Casasanta doesn’t see his app as a good match for the iPhone—“I just don’t see [porting iClip] making sense,” he said—he has some other ideas for projects that might appeal to iPhone users. “Atmosphere, an app that we’re working on at My Dream App that puts a beautiful image of the current weather on your desktop, is a prime candidate,” Casasanta said. “With a bit of adapting, we should be able to make a version of it that’s at home on the iPhone.”
NPD analyst Rubin sees iTunes as being one possible vehicle for delivering applications to the iPhone. Besides giving users a familiar interface, it will also give Apple the chance to certify applications for the device.
For example, Apple tightly controls all development of software for the iPod. All games developed for the iPod are distributed by Apple via the iTunes Store, rather than being made available for individual download on developers’ web sites. It’s a situation that’s left some Mac game developers disappointed.
In any event, Mac developers see the iPhone potentially being a catalyst for having even more Apple-based developers in the future, which could in turn, mean more developers on the Mac platform as well.
“Developer tools like XCode and Interface Builder are absolutely phenomenal,” Sarner said. “With the release of Tiger, the Widget development scene exploded and there are an insane number of widgets being created and used every day. I’ve got no reason to believe the iPhone would be any less important, and with the raw cool factor the device has going for it, I’d say we could see the iPhone dev scene rising up quite quickly.”
2007年6月3日星期日
The combination cell phone, media player and wireless Web-surfing device will retail for $499 and $599, depending on configuration. It will be offered
The incoming CEO of AT&T said Wednesday that expectations are "too low" for Apple Inc.'s iPhone, which his company will start selling next month.
"The iPhone is going to be a game changer," Randall Stephenson said at an investor conference in New York. "I don't know what your expectations are for the iPhone, but I would tell you they're probably too low at this point."The iPhone, which blends a mobile phone with the iPod music player, has attracted interest from more than 1 million customers, he said. Apple expects to sell 10 million iPhones next year, and AT&T won exclusive rights to distribute the product in the U.S.
AT&T's cell phone unit, formerly known as Cingular Wireless, plans to use the iPhone to recruit subscribers. San Antonio-based AT&T has 62.2 million wireless customers, the most in the nation.
Stephenson, chief operating officer of AT&T, will replace Edward Whitacre on Sunday as CEO.
Verizon Wireless reportedly plans to introduce a device this summer to compete with the iPhone. Last month Sprint did the same when it introduced its Upstage.
(c) 2007 Tulsa World. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: Tulsa World
"The iPhone is going to be a game changer," Randall Stephenson said at an investor conference in New York. "I don't know what your expectations are for the iPhone, but I would tell you they're probably too low at this point."The iPhone, which blends a mobile phone with the iPod music player, has attracted interest from more than 1 million customers, he said. Apple expects to sell 10 million iPhones next year, and AT&T won exclusive rights to distribute the product in the U.S.
AT&T's cell phone unit, formerly known as Cingular Wireless, plans to use the iPhone to recruit subscribers. San Antonio-based AT&T has 62.2 million wireless customers, the most in the nation.
Stephenson, chief operating officer of AT&T, will replace Edward Whitacre on Sunday as CEO.
Verizon Wireless reportedly plans to introduce a device this summer to compete with the iPhone. Last month Sprint did the same when it introduced its Upstage.
(c) 2007 Tulsa World. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: Tulsa World
Ads confirm Apple iPhone 6/29 sale date
NEW YORK - Apple Inc.'s highly anticipated iPhone will be available June 29, according to TV commercials broadcast Sunday night and posted on the company's Web site.
The combination cell phone, media player and wireless Web-surfing device will retail for $499 and $599, depending on configuration. It will be offered exclusively by AT&T Inc.'s wireless division, formerly known as Cingular.
The iPhone, which sports no keypad but instead a touch-sensitive screen, was unveiled with great fanfare in early January by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. He said it would appear in stores in June but gave no specific date.
Sunday night's ads showed off several of the gadget's features and ended with the pronouncement that the phone will be available "Only on the new AT&T" and "Coming June 29." One aired on the CW network before a 7 p.m. broadcast of "7th Heaven."
Apple and AT&T spokespeople did not immediately return phone calls.
In recent months, the company's stock has been served by speculation and excitement over the iPhone. Shares of Apple's stock rose May 25 after a media report said that the iPhone would go on sale June 20. Neither AT&T nor Apple would confirm or deny that date at the time.
The combination cell phone, media player and wireless Web-surfing device will retail for $499 and $599, depending on configuration. It will be offered exclusively by AT&T Inc.'s wireless division, formerly known as Cingular.
The iPhone, which sports no keypad but instead a touch-sensitive screen, was unveiled with great fanfare in early January by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. He said it would appear in stores in June but gave no specific date.
Sunday night's ads showed off several of the gadget's features and ended with the pronouncement that the phone will be available "Only on the new AT&T" and "Coming June 29." One aired on the CW network before a 7 p.m. broadcast of "7th Heaven."
Apple and AT&T spokespeople did not immediately return phone calls.
In recent months, the company's stock has been served by speculation and excitement over the iPhone. Shares of Apple's stock rose May 25 after a media report said that the iPhone would go on sale June 20. Neither AT&T nor Apple would confirm or deny that date at the time.
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