MacRumors

In the first of a three-part series on Apple's App Store, the Financial Times reports that the phenomenal success of the iPhone application marketplace has topped even the initial expectations of those within Apple.

Already, the app eruption has superseded all the sober predictions of Apple executives and outside champions like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital firm that created the first investment fund aimed solely at backing iPhone app developers.

"We had no idea there would be 2bn downloads by October," says Kleiner Perkins partner Matt Murphy, manager of the then $100m fund. "Most people within Apple, if you had told them it would be a fifth of that by now, they would have been pretty happy."

Part one of the series primarily serves as an introduction to the App Store, detailing its evolution as an an outgrowth of iTunes, which had already helped remake the music industry and provided an entry point into the larger community of Windows users. Beyond that, the report points to Apple CEO Steve Jobs' ability to negotiate eye-popping iPhone subsidies from wireless carriers and the rights to distribute application content to iPhone users as setting the stage for the Apple's tremendous success in the industry.

He argued that the iPhone was a computer, not a phone, and that consumers expected to be able to do many things with computers.

History had shown that this kind of freedom was what drove the more profitable "ecosystems" of computers - where sales of hardware were dependent on a wide variety of useable software.

The conclusion of the report, however, hints at some of the pitfalls of the App Store set to be discussed in the second installment tomorrow, citing the "gold rush mentality" that has made it increasingly difficult for developers to create hit applications that stand out from the crowd.

Reuters reports on iPhone developer Tapulous, the team behind the popular Tap Tap Revenge applications, noting that the small company is reportedly bringing in nearly $1 million per month in revenue. The success of Tapulous, which boasts only 20 employees, illustrates the ability of small development firms dedicated to the iPhone to carve out profitable niches for themselves in the App Store.

Tapulous -- with a mere 20 employees -- said its "Tap Tap Revenge" game series has now been installed more than 20 million times, with more than 600 million total games played.

Earlier this year, research group comScore said the game had been installed by one-third of Apple app users.

Tapulous' business model relies on a combination of revenue sources: paid application downloads, ads, and paid downloadable song content within applications.

The report notes that Tapulous has raised $2.8 million from investors and is now profitable. While the vast majority of iPhone applications come from small developers lacking the support of outside investors, a number of companies, including Smule and Ngmoco, have been able to capture the imaginations of angel and venture capital investors. With the backing of these investors, these developers have been able to create well-financed startup development houses looking to develop dedicated iPhone application pipelines and sustainable business models.

A tweet and article (and forum post) have pointed out that Moscone's summer schedule has blocked out June 28th-July 2nd as the likely dates for Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2010.

The schedule lists a "Corporate Event" occupying Moscone West during those dates. For the past two years this "Corporate Event" placeholder has accurately predicted the dates for WWDC (2008, 2009). Apple tends not to announce the official dates of WWDC until well into the new year.

WWDC has become of increasing importance to Apple as it now represents the only regularly scheduled launch event for the company. In the past, Macworld San Francisco anchored the January date as a second regular launch venue, but Apple will no longer be attending Macworld. Apple has launched a new iPhone model during the past two WWDC keynotes, and Phil Schiller even defined the iPhone's annual product cycle as a June revision.

Yesterday, we reported on a story quoting a Psystar attorney claiming that the unauthorized Mac clone manufacturer was in the process of winding down its business in the wake of a permanent injunction issued against it by a federal court judge earlier this month.

A new report from Computerworld, however, suggests that the company is not yet finished.

However, Camara told Computerworld by e-mail today, "Regrettably, Mr. Action was misquoted in an early story that seems to have been picked up elsewhere. Psystar does not intend to shut down permanently."

The earlier report had noted the Psystar was planning to file an appeal of the judgment against it, although at the time it appeared that the company would be shutting down entirely until the appeal was heard at a minimum.

Psystar has several legal moves left to make, Camara said today. "Psystar will proceed to litigate the legality of Rebel EFI through the motion process described in Judge Alsup's order," Camara said. "Psystar will also proceed with its antitrust case in Miami."

Psystar's web site, which was down for nearly two days, has been restored. The company's online store currently offers only its Rebel EFI and has eliminated all mention of hardware sales, although even the Rebel EFI software is currently listed as "out of stock".

Rendering of Unreleased Notion Ink Tablet

Details of Notion Ink's "Smartpad" tablet was released by Slashgear today and carries an impressive spec sheet. The 10.1" sized device also is one of the first to use Pixel Qi's 3qi screen we detailed as a possible candidate for the Apple tablet. The specs for the unreleased device can give you an idea of what might be possible in an upcoming Apple tablet:

- 6.3 x 9.7 x 0.6 inches
- 1.7 lbs
- WiFi b/g, Bluetooth, UMTS/HSDPA (3G)
- Digital Compass, Accelerometer, Proximity, Ambient light, Water sensors
- USB, HDMI, 3-megapixel autofocus camera, Video Recording
- 32GB SSD, SD Slot
- Android OS with Gesture Support.
- 1024x600 Pixel Qi display
- 48 hrs standby battery, 8 hrs HD video playback, 16 hrs internet surfing over WiFi

No price was given, and the system appears to be based on the NVIDIA Tegra T20 chipset. The Pixel Qi display which we detailed in the past is said to offer significant power savings to these portable devices as well as clear viewing in sunlight.

Apple is rumored to be bringing a tablet of roughly the same size to market later in 2010. Apple's version is expected to be based on the iPhone operating system.

A BusinessWeek report from last night has received significant attention today for its focus on Verizon's claimed readiness should the company and Apple strike a deal to bring the iPhone to the largest U.S. wireless carrier next year.

Verizon Wireless has even made upgrades that would make its network more capable of handling extra traffic that would be generated by the iPhone, Verizon Wireless Chief Technology Officer Anthony Melone says in an interview.

"We have put things in place already," Melone tells Bloomberg BusinessWeek. "We are prepared to support that traffic."

Verizon has been seen by many customers disgruntled with AT&T's network performance as a likely partner for Apple once the iPhone maker's exclusivity agreement with AT&T expires.

The report notes that the iPhone has placed tremendous stress on AT&T's network, causing data traffic to explode by 5,000% over the past few years. Consequently, many have wondered whether any other U.S. mobile provider would have been able to meet the iPhone demand had they been able to offer the device. The BusinessWeek report points to a vague comment from Melone stating that Verizon has similarly seen growth of 1,000% per year, although recent comments from Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg have pegged the growth at substantially closer to 100% per year. Still, Verizon remains confident that it will be able to provide a quality customer experience for iPhone users should the opportunity arise.

Dow Jones Newswires reports that unauthorized Mac clone maker Psystar has begun the process of winding down its business ahead of a December 31st deadline set by a federal court judge in granting Apple a permanent injunction preventing Psystar from selling hardware with Mac OS X preinstalled or enabling others to infringe on Apple's copyrights.

The Doral, Fla.-based computer maker, which made machines that run Apple's popular Macintosh operating system, intends to fire its eight employees, company attorney Eugene Action told Dow Jones Newswires on Thursday.

Psystar President Rudy Pedraza will then be "shutting things down immediately, " Action said. "They will not be in business."

To that end, Psystar's web site, which serves as its primary sales channel, became inaccessible yesterday and it appears doubtful that it will be revived.

In the permanent injunction granted earlier this week, federal court judge William Alsup declined to grant Psystar's request to exclude from the injunction its Rebel EFI software, which enables consumers and other third parties to install Mac OS X on non-Apple computers. Alsup noted, however, that Psystar could bring a separate case to address the legality of Rebel EFI, which was not subject to full disclosure in the trial, although the company could be held in contempt if it continued selling the software before its legality had been addressed.

Given Psystar's bold history of business and legal moves, it did not appear out of the question that its management might decide to press the issue of Rebel EFI's legality, but it does now seem that Psystar has finally conceded and will be shutting down its operations in the very near future.

AdMob has released its November 2009 Mobile Metrics Report, offering a featured look at the iPhone and iPod touch's international growth during 2009 as seen by data collected through its ad network. The data shows that, while the U.S. has seen strong growth with a doubling of the number of iPhone and iPod touch devices appearing on AdMob's network, international growth has been even more substantial. Led by Japan's nearly 350% increase and France and Australia claiming 250-300% growth, AdMob's network saw overall worldwide growth of 150% during the course of the year.

MobileCrunch details a research report [Google translation] released last week by Japanese market research firm Impress R&D showing that the iPhone commands 46.1% of the smartphone market there.

For this year, Impress sees the 3G commanding 24.6% in this segment, while the 3GS contributes another 21.5%. The 3G was introduced in Japan in summer 2008 (the 3GS followed earlier this year). Sources in Japan say that the iPhone user base in Japan now stands at 3 million, which is an impressive 10% of the global userbase.

MobileCrunch points to very aggressive advertising, including widespread print and TV ads and competitive pricing, by wireless carrier SoftBank as being key to the iPhone's success in the market.

The Impress report also reveals unsurprisingly high data usage for iPhone customers, with 66.8% of iPhone 3G and 77.3% of iPhone 3GS users spending more than 30 minutes per day on data communications, well ahead of the 55.3% figure for the entire smartphone market.

Intel held a brief press conference today previewing some of the chips that they will be release at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. Intel will release the first 32-nm chips across the Core i3, i5 and i7 brands.

The Arrandale and Grantdale processors are all shipping now and will begin appearing in new computers in early 2010. Intel has invested more than $7 billion in the United States in 2009 on four factories used to build the 32-nm products.

The mobile version of these chips have been commonly referred to as Arrandale and have been expected to be used in future MacBook Pro updates. Previous leaks have indicated that the new processors will run as high as 2.66GHz, though Intel did not officially confirm any of those details today.

Intel did demo the chips in several systems showing off the graphics capabilities of the chip as well as boasting about the new Hyper Threading and Turbo Boost features. While there had been some unconfirmed rumors about Apple skipping this set of processors, most continue to expect that Apple will adopt these processors in the next MacBook Pro.

CES kicks off on January 7th, and for the first time in many years, CES will not be competing for headlines with Macworld Expo. Macworld has been moved to February 9th-13th this year and is struggling to find its place after Apple's decision to stop attending the event.

AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega, who received significant attention for his comments last week suggesting that the company is looking at tiered pricing for data plans to rein in high-use customers, appears to now be downplaying that suggestion, according to a Wall Street Journal report (subscription required).

A senior AT&T Inc. executive dismissed speculation that the telecommunications carrier is planning to change the way it prices data plans for its wireless customers, but said it will give customers incentives to limit their use of its wireless network for surfing the Internet or downloading mobile applications.

"We have not made any decision to implement tiered pricing," AT&T Mobility Chief Executive Ralph de la Vega said Wednesday, referring to plans that would charge based on how much data a customer uses rather than the unlimited plans that are popular today.

While de la Vega's statement certainly doesn't appear to take tiered pricing options off the table for the long-term, as the earlier report suggested such a move would be anyway, it does emphasize AT&T's current strategy of using "incentives" and other strategies for shifting traffic off of its network instead of changing the pricing structure of its wireless plans.

In particular, de la Vega reportedly cited the possibility of increasing free access to Wi-Fi hotspots for AT&T customers, helping to shift traffic off of the cellular network while also providing users with faster connections. He also pointed to AT&T's 3G MicroCell program, which customers can connect to their home networks to seamlessly shift wireless calls to the Internet. The 3G MicroCell is designed to provide greater signal strength indoors and offers users the choice of using their own cellular minutes for calls or purchasing an unlimited calling plan for wireless calls routed through the device.

FierceDeveloper reports on data from research firm comScore showing that Apple's iPhone has finally surpassed Windows Mobile in share of the U.S. smartphone market usage. The data is based on monthly user surveys averaged on a quarterly basis, and thus reflects actual handsets in use rather than sales of new devices.

Apple had been calculated to have surpassed Windows Mobile in U.S. sales market share as long ago as the fourth quarter of 2007, but Windows Mobile's head start in the smartphone market enabled it to maintain its advantage over the iPhone among active users for a considerable length of time. Its stagnated user base amid a rapidly growing market, however, has shrunk its share of the market to approximately 20%.

For example, the Godfather I & II bundle [iTunes Store] is offered at $14.99, while the films are available individually for $9.99 each. Some bundles carry even steeper discounts, with the Dirty Dancing bundle [iTunes Store] and several other two-packs priced at $9.99, essentially offering buy-one-get-one-free pricing.

The movie bundles are not limited to two-packs, however, with offerings available up to quad-packs, such as X-Men Quadrilogy [iTunes Store], which is priced at $29.99, a 33% discount over individual pricing.

Finally, Apple has included a pair of HD download bundles in the new offerings in W. / Religulous [iTunes Store, $27.99 HD/$14.99 SD] and a Jason Statham "Action Pack: [iTunes Store, $34.99 HD/$24.99 SD] including Crank 2, Transporter 3, and The Bank Job.

iTunes Movie Bundles currently appear to be limited to the U.S. and Canadian stores, with approximately 30-40 bundles currently available in each store.

A notice posted earlier this month in the forums of VideoLAN, the open-source team behind the popular VLC media player, reveals that a lack of Mac volunteer developers for the software has forced the project organizers to consider new plans for the Mac version of VLC going forward. The forum post, which has since been replaced with a static page, explains that the lack of manpower on the Mac front has resulted in lagging development, primarily on the user interface.

Indeed we have a kind of lack of manpower on the Mac interface of VLC.

The VLC core (in C) and most other plugins work pretty fine, just not the OS X GUI (1% of the code of VLC) in Objective-C.

That explains the issues you have seen in latest version of VLC 1.0.x on mac, and the drop of 64bits version in 1.0.3

VideoLAN hints at a couple of tactics for addressing the problem, including a possible shift to the use of an alternative Qt interface. The organizers interestingly note, however, that Apple has apparently been uncooperative in relation to the VLC project, offering roadblocks to the application's development. Aside from VLC's competition with Apple's QuickTime Player, it remains unclear exactly what Apple's objections are.