A mobile workforce survey found that the majority of Blackberry-carrying employees would trade their devices in for an iPhone, if only their companies supported it. Likewise, nearly two-thirds of those surveyed employees said they would prefer to be issued a smartphone instead of a notebook computer.
Apple COO Tim Cook answered a round of questions during the annual Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference Tuesday and ended up discussing various aspects of Apple’s business. A major thread throughout Cook’s talk was the fact that Apple thinks of itself as a “mobile devices company,” echoing Steve Jobs’ comments at the recent iPad introduction that Apple competes with the likes of Nokia and Sony when it comes to revenue.
» via ars technica
Apple responsible for 99.4% of mobile app sales in 2009
Apple first opened the App Store in July 2008, along with the launch of the iPhone 3G and the release of iPhone OS 2.0. Sales were brisk, with 300 million apps sold by December. After the holidays, that number had jumped to 500 million. Earlier this month, Apple announced that sales had topped 3 billion; that means iPhone users downloaded 2.5 billion apps in 2009 alone. Gartner’s figures show another 16 million apps that could come from other platform’s recently opened app stores, giving Apple at least 99.4 percent of all mobile apps sold for the year.
» via ars technica
The growing popularity of smartphones and high-speed wireless broadband networks are proving to be two major catalysts for the wireless industry. As a result, expect its revenues to barrel past the $1 trillion-mark by 2013, says Informa Telecom’s & Media, a London-based market research group. That compares to revenues of $208 billion in 2008 and $330 billion in 2009. By 2014, global mobile penetration will hit 92 percent with about 6.7 billion subscribers, the firm predicts.
» via GigaOM
Google’s “Near Me Now” Tries to Kill Location-Based Smartphone Apps
Google’s just made its “near me now” facility live on iPhones and Android smartphones, with the aim of helping you find out about services near where you’re standing. Clever stuff, but a lot of location-based App Makers will be furious.
According to Google’s blog posting on the system, it’s specifically designed to tackle two user problems: Firstly to make it easy to find out about a service—like a restaurant—that’s either right in front of you or not far away. The idea is you bring up the system on Google and find out stuff like reviews made by previous customers.
The second problem Google identified was to “make searching for popular categories of nearby places really simple.” That’s a very broad aim, so the blog post gives the example of you emerging from the subway and suddenly having a thirst for coffee: A quick near me now search will reveal coffee shops within a short range, and you can even browse on to similar services in the “browse more categories” option.
» via Fast Company
Study: More Cellular-only Homes as Americans Expand Mobile Media Usage
The latest Nielsen Convergence Audit – an annual survey on voice, video and data products – shows a rise in households who have “cut the cord” by trading their traditional landlines for wireless cellular services and an increase in mobile media device usage among a diverse set of households. The survey collects more than 32,000 U.S. online and mail respondents.
While an overwhelming majority, 88%, of U.S. households have a wireless phone in 2009, most still maintain a traditional landline at home. However, this is changing. In the second quarter of 2009, over one in five households reported they are wireless cellular only—an increase of 16% from the past year. This increase comes from the two-thirds of households who have dropped their landlines as well as from young adults that started new households with just a wireless phone service.
» via nielsenwire
Smartphones will capture 37 percent of the worldwide cell phone market by 2014, a leap from 16 percent in 2009, predicts a new report from Pyramid Research.
The report, released late last week, sees much of the growth coming from outside the U.S., notably in emerging markets. Across the globe, China is likely to outpace the U.S. as the largest smartphone market next year. Latin America will be the fastest-growing region over the next five years, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48 percent for smartphone sales, forecasts Pyramid.
» via CNET news
How the iPhone Could Reboot Education
How do you educate a generation of students eternally distracted by the internet, cellphones and video games? Easy. You enable them by handing out free iPhones — and then integrating the gadget into your curriculum.
That’s the idea Abilene Christian University has to refresh classroom learning. Located in Texas, the private university just finished its first year of a pilot program, in which 1,000 freshman students had the choice between a free iPhone or an iPod Touch.
The initiative’s goal was to explore how the always-connected iPhone might revolutionize the classroom experience with a dash of digital interactivity. Think web apps to turn in homework, look up campus maps, watch lecture podcasts and check class schedules and grades. For classroom participation, there’s even polling software for Abilene students to digitally raise their hand.
The verdict? It’s working quite well. 2,100 Abilene students, or 48 percent of the population, are now equipped with a free iPhone. Fully 97 percent of the faculty population has iPhones, too. The iPhone is aiding Abilene in giving students the information they need — when they want it, wherever they want it, said Bill Rankin, a professor of medieval studies who helped plan the initiative.
“It’s kind of the TiVoing of education,” Rankin said in a phone interview. “I watch it when I need it and in ways that I need it. And that makes a huge difference.”
» via Wired
Scholarly Communications must be Mobile
Mobile computing is also the future of education. Students are acculturated to and equipped with mobile phone technology beginning in grade school, and the rise of digitally mediated pedagogy will naturally lead to using cell phones to pipe in Open Educational Resources, recorded lectures, podcasts, and of course electronic versions of textbooks. The mobile phone/computer will not only serve up teaching media, but will enable constructive interactivity and superior teaching and learning environments by connecting students (locally or at a distance) and by supplying productive feedback loops for instructors (A good example of this can be found at Abilene Christian University, whose mobile learning initiative includes “Nano tools” that enable in-class feedback for teachers to assess comprehension and adjust instruction on the fly). Of course there is the digital divide, there will be format wars and many adjustments and issues, but mobile computing and education will be as inevitable as teens texting under the table.
» via Academic Evolution
Original Content — Copyright © 2010
Christopher D. Barth.
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