Is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce corrupt? And why it matters
It’s been a remarkable few days for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the 3 million-member business federation that says it spends more money on lobbying than any other organization in the U.S.
When the Chamber recently took a strong stance against federal policy and other legislative proposals that will regulate greenhouse emissions, it forced several companies to quit the Chamber in protest. These companies, including large California utility PG&E and Apple, argue the Chamber’s stance is… Continue Reading
MeetMe iPhone app solves pesky problem of finding a meeting point
Finding an appropriate and convenient place to meet a business partner, friend or stranger can get pretty time-consuming. Ann Arbor-based iPhone application publisher Basara is trying to solve that problem with Meetme. It’s a fairly simple solution: the app combines Google Maps with Yelp recommendations to suggest a handful of meeting points between two locations.
Suppose you’re trying to meet a business partner between San Francisco and Palo Alto, Calif., and you have a hankering for… Continue Reading
Apple and RIM to share more than half of cellphone industry profits this year
Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s Blackberry are on track to make up more than half of the mobile phone industry’s profits this year, according to Deutsche Bank.
The two companies may contribute 58 percent of the industry’s operating profits this year even though their handsets only account for 5 percent of the market, predicted Deutsche analyst Brian Modoff in The Wall Street Journal.
Last year the two companies captured 3 percent of the market, but accounted… Continue Reading
MobileBeat2009: Learn about Chrome OS from the horse’s mouth
In case you haven’t heard yet, Google has just surprised the business world by announcing a new operating system called Chrome OS, designed to kill what Google thinks is an outmoded but dominant operating system: Windows.
Google’s Chrome OS is bound to spark significant debate at MobileBeat2009, our mobile industry conference next week (July 16) in San Francisco. At 8:45am, I’ll be opening with a fireside chat that includes Google Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra… Continue Reading
iPoop developers dare Apple to flush their app
Yes, of course iPoop is a marketing ploy for its creators, the small Portland, Oregon design and marketing firm Quango. But I’m sure the 99-cent app will get plenty of downloads from iPhone users more poop-oriented than me.
A press release from Quanto says they “developed the application to test the boundaries of acceptability in the App Store.” iPoop probably won’t tweak the noses of iPhone users who’ve seen it all on the Internet. But if… Continue Reading
Mobile app developers fire back: Nokia sucks!
Yesterday I wrote about Ewan MacLeod’s claims that Silicon Valley developers are missing out on potentially lucrative markets by ignoring Nokia’s Ovi Store. I titled the post “iPhone devotion blinds Silicon Valley app developers,” and a number of developers took offense. Most notably, well-known blogger and mobile developer Mike Rowehl. Since then, we’ve seen developers list the panoply of challenges they face when designing for platforms other than the iPhone.
Here’s a sampling of their responses:
“I… Continue Reading
iPhone devotion blinds Silicon Valley app developers
The rush to develop iPhone applications is blinding Silicon Valley software developers to other platforms with potentially wide global audiences, most notably Nokia’s Ovi Store. So said Ewan MacLeod, a U.K.-based mobile entrepreneur and blogger at an AdMob-sponsored event in San Mateo, Calif. this week.
MacLeod asked a panel of developers if they’re focused on the Ovi Store, which is projected to reach 400 million supported handsets by the end of 2010. (By comparison, Apple has… Continue Reading
Google ally T-Mobile looks poised to compete with Apple’s App Store
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs recently said he thinks “the phone of the future will be differentiated by software.” And after looking on as 60 million applications go downloaded from the Apple App Store, Apple’s competitors clearly agree and seem eager to jump on the bandwagon.
T-Mobile, member of Google’s Open Handset Alliance (OHA) will be the first carrier to copy Apple’s App Store approach and abandon the traditional on-deck model, Moconews’ Tricia Duryee reported last… Continue Reading
Early iPhone App Store metrics: Free iPhone apps get better reviews than paid ones
Medialets, a startup focused solely on providing ads for applications running on the iPhone, is publishing some early metrics about Apple’s recently launched App Store. Some key findings:
Average Prices for Apps Are Falling
Tracking both the number of apps and their average price, the team found that as more competitors move into the App Store, prices for applications are dropping. On Friday, the average price for an app was $4.65, but by Sunday (after nearly a… Continue Reading
iSkoot promises carrier-friendly VOIP
Mobile operators can no longer avoid the free voice calling that comes with voice-on-the-Internet (VOIP) protocol. They might as well embrace it. And the start-up iSkoot says it has a version of mobile VOIP service that could even make wireless carriers some money.
Mark Jacobstein, CEO of iSkoot, told the audience at the eComm conference last week that mobile VOIP is here to stay. That topic will continue to be in the news this week at… Continue Reading
eComm: Google sheds more light on Android progress
Rich Miner, Google’s general manager of wireless platforms, spoke about the company’s approach to the cell phone market and about progress the company has made in developing its Android open platform for smart phones.
Miner opened the second day of the eComm conference at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. During Q&A, he noted that he has seen prototypes from every mobile phone partner in the platform, which was announced in November. Instead of… Continue Reading
Universal to remove anti-piracy technology
The Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music label, plans to sell a significant portion of its catalog without copy protection software for at least the next few months, according to the New York Times.
It’s one more sign that the industry’s united stance behind digital-rights management anti-piracy technology may be falling apart.
Universal will offer the rights-free music through retail services like RealNetworks, Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, Google, and other sites, the Times said, but won’t be offered… Continue Reading