It doesn’t matter if Apple isn’t making a lot of money with the App Store

Posted by Bhavishya Kanjhan on May 15, 2009 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Lightspeed Venture partners is reporting Apple may have only made around $20-45 million from the 1 billion applications downloaded in the 9 months. Taking the paid to free ratio to be in the range of 1:15 to 1:40 and the mean price to be $2.65, they arrive to a revenue of $70-160 million, 30% of which is the magic number they have come up with.

Clearly the App Store is far from a cash cow for Apple, especially when compared to the money its hardware lineup brings in. SDKs and development platforms in general have been around for a long time now but it is the distribution of these apps which had been a source of frustration for developers. By making them all available at one place, Apple has simplified the distribution chain and in turn generated  an additional source of revenue for it, no matter how small it may be.

The greatest source of pride, however, for Apple will be that the App Store is (or was) a source of competitive advantage for them and has converted potential buyers into buying consumers. Take a look at an iPhone running 1.x version of the OS and it looks practically naked when compared to a fairly used 2.x one. At the end of it all, even if Apple was breaking even with the App Store it wouldn’t matter because it’s served as a major pull factor enticing buyers.

Android will be the Winner!

Posted by Bhavishya Kanjhan on Jan 5, 2009 in Uncategorized | 1 comment

I was watching the live stream of the last TWiT which featured Robert Scoble, John Dvorak and Dwight Silverman as guests along with host Leo Laporte. They were discussing mobile phones and platforms and Scoble said he didn’t see Android being #1 in the future.

I think he’s wrong. A huge reason for the iPhone’s success has been it’s application platform development. The applications available on the App Store have resulted in a multi fold increase in the utility of the device, both for productivity as well as entertainment. A pre 2.0 iPhone looks practically naked now. But this is just one device.

Google’s Android platform is available to , and will be used on many devices. The G1 is only the beginning. With Samsung, Lenovo, Sprint and AT&T poised to bring Android devices in this and next year, Android’s reach is going to spready increasingly. Soon enough a user won’t be stuck with one form factor. Devices with QWERTY keyboards, Numeric keyboards, No Keyboards, Large Screens, Small screens, slide devices, flip devices etc will be available in Android flavour. All this choice will result in increased adoption among users.

This increased adoption of Android will make development for Android increasingly lucrative as developers will now have access to a much much wider consumer base which in turn will result in an increase in the number of applications and attract even more consumers. It’s a cycle right there.

Android’s greatest strength lies in the openness of the platform. Wonderful things will be done with it in the future. One needs to remember the first device was launched only 3 months ago and Android’s is still in the infancy stage. 2010 is going to be a huge year for Android. You can quote me on that.

Vista’s weakest link: Apple

Posted by Bhavishya Kanjhan on Aug 20, 2008 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

Microsoft has had ‘mixed’ success with Windows Vista. I say mixed because even though the newest operating system in the Windows family is the best so far, the company has fallen well short of reaching its target. The ‘credit’ for a large part of this can be given to Apple’s marketing team whose relentless bashing through the Windows v/s Mac ads have been tremendously successful in instilling fear, uncertainty and doubt in the minds of the average consumer. Websites like PCWorld with their less than neutral coverage of Windows Vista haven’t made things any better. I’m in Mumbai at the moment and I happened to speak to a cousin of mine – whose geekometer clocks just a tad bit higher than the average consumer – and we got talking about Windows Vista and XP. He told me he didn’t really like Vista and preferred XP as an operating system. I asked him why this was the case and he told me he had “heard from someone” that Vista had a lot of problems. I immediately questioned him on whether he had used the OS himself before making the judgement to which he defensively reacted he had, however for less than a day. He had seen a demo machine somewhere and spent a while tinkering with it. His biggest complaint was that he didn’t quite understand it. I told him him to come speak to me when he had given Vista a real chance.

I’ve personally been using Windows Vista since RTM and the number of crashes I’ve had since are less than the number of fingers on my hands, literally. While some early adopters may have been plagued with instability issues – mainly caused because of immature drivers – I have been considerably luckier. And with the arrival of the first Service Pack the system has become as solid as a rock. I keep my laptop on for days altogether and the uptime counter only stops increasing when I restart the machine myself to complete an installation or something of that sort. Add to that many of the simple improvements in user experience – breadcrumb navigation and search to name a few – and you have a brilliant operating system on its hands.

Microsoft has made attempts to lift Vista’s image with the Mojave Experiment which is part of the 300 million dollar budget it has allocated to promotion and advertisement. In my opinion this move is long overdue especially if it has to compete with a company whose strongest asset is its brilliant marketing and PR team. Should Microsoft be able to formulate a marketing strategy / campaign that does indeed cleanup the undeserved Vista mess, it can most certainly see itself winning back the market share it may have lost.

Tags: apple, microsoft, vista
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Apple Surprise!

Posted by Bhavishya Kanjhan on Jun 1, 2008 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

It is all but confirmed Apple is launching the 3G iPhone on the 9th of June. What is expected is 3G(obviously), GPS, and possibly a bigger or a higher resolution screen. However Apple has known to surprise, which is why I have a feeling we might be seeing something more than just an iPhone launch.

I have a feeling Apple might deliver a new product to the market. To extend it`s development along the iPhone-esque lines with touch included would be quite possible. One could speculate Apple might release a UMPC of it`s own but that is highly unlikely as Apple usually enters a given market extremely late. While rumors of a rebranded .Mac service surface – with MacRumors providing the latest scoop – I can`t help but wonder what Mr Turtleneck’s new trump card will be.

Macbook Air processor mystery almost solved.

Posted by Bhavishya Kanjhan on Jan 19, 2008 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Anand at anandtech.com has given an explanation of the mystery that surrounds the processor being used in the new Macbook Air notebooks. I was certain that Apple wasn’t using the smaller, faster Penryn (Santa Rosa Refresh) processors which come out this year and Anand confirms it. He goes on to tell that Apple is indeed using the existing Santa Rosa Merom processors running at Low Voltage, and here is the kicker, these aren’t the traditional LV (Low Voltage) processors provided by Intel. For those unfamiliar with Intel’s mobile processor technology, it comes in forms of Standard Mobile Processors, Low Voltage (LV) and Ultra Low Voltage (ULV). But instead Paul Otellini, CEO Intel and Jobs’ newest Lapdog has got his engineering team to produce the chips running at lower than Standard Mobile Processors in a package designed for the Penryn platform.

This is neither a good or a bad thing, but just shows Apple has managed to walk its own path here. The real concern here is of heat dispensing. Even at a lower voltage, the body of the laptop is really small and will require extensive engineering to remain cool over longer periods. Judging from Apple’s previous shortcomings, I wouldn’t really be surprised if more thighs are burnt. Gel packs anyone ?