Tag Archives: iPhone

Tech Trends: Time-Management Apps

Posted on by in Strategy | 872 Comments

 time-travel2-photo-courtesy-of-junussyndicate-on-deviantART

Is it in your hand to control your time?  Time.is passing so quickly, life is busy and at the end of the day you come up with lots of to-do lists.  Lift, a free iPhone app with Web and Android versions due out this year, lets you set daily goals and track your progress. Lift was a big help. But I worried that manually checking off my activities would grow tiresome. That’s where Chronos comes in. The free iPhone app uses your phone’s accelerometer, GPS, and other location services to track your activities for you

 

 

The Teacher’s Apple

Posted on by in Marketing | 380 Comments

A decade ago, electronics and cell phones in the classroom were considered little more than a distraction. Today, new devices such as tablet computers and smartphones are changing this perception. Educators are finding innovative ways to supplement their lectures with the newest technology, and students are beginning to see their devices as essential components of their college experience.

Naturally, major device manufacturers are now battling for dominance in the field. Below, we explore how Apple is winning the battle for education technology and what gives them the edge over the sizable competition in the market.

Facebook Mobile Hits 543 Million Users [Infographic]

Posted on by in Social Media | 442 Comments

According to Socialbakers’s report, in May, the Facebook Mobile application for mobile devices had 488 million users. Four months later, Facebook demonstrates the power of mobile by hitting 543 million monthly active users out of their 955 million strong Facebook community, resulting in a 57% penetration!

North America continues to be the strongest Facebook Mobile continent with over 161 million monthly active users and South Africa, Nigeria and Japan still rule the ranking of the countries with the highest Facebook Mobile penetration.

Facebook for Android has grown the most in absolute numbers (22.5 million new users) and iPad increased its mobile Facebook base by 45%! Now that Timeline is available for iPad, it will be interesting to see how the numbers grow. Let’s check more Socialbakers’s exclusive infographics!

Mobile and Facebook: Don’t Get Ready, BE Ready

Posted on by in Social Media | 71 Comments

On February 29th, Facebook revealed big plans for the mobile platform, including that the new Timeline format for brands will also be available on the mobile platform. The game changing updates mean that for users of other social media marketing platforms, the message for 2012 will be: we need to get ready for mobile.

Let’s recap the announcements Facebook made and what they mean for your brand:
Timeline for brands will also be functional in the mobile platform (but will be made available at an unspecified date in 2012)

Implications for brands: Where brands can currently launch mobile-optimized marketing campaigns that users can access from their smart devices, soon users will be able to experience the same exact workflow on their desktop as on their smart phone. The new Timeline format for brands, once available on the mobile network, will enable page managers to curate an identical experience for all users, regardless of how they’re accessing branded content on Facebook. This means a big impact on your brand’s reach, especially as we consider that nearly half of the active Facebook user population interacts with the network from their mobile device.
Sponsored Stories now appear in the mobile feed as well

Implications for brands: To date, there has been no advertising reach to any Facebook users on mobile devices. In light of the fact that approximately 450 million Facebook users interact with the network using a mobile device, this was an enormous opportunity lost to marketers— until now. Sponsored Story ad units are the only ones being released to mobile Timelines— this means that promoting these “organic word of mouth” advertising units will become a major part of every marketers mission.

In a sense, it’s a bit silly to call 2012 the Year of Mobile because every year since the release of Apple’s ill-fated Newton has been the Year of Mobile. We have always been moving toward computing devices that are smaller, faster, and cheaper. According to research by Morgan Stanley, the number of people who access the Internet primarily from mobile devices will surpass desktop users sometime in 2013.

Blackberry of iPhone: A competition from Twitter usage

Posted on by in Marketing | 42 Comments

In US mobile market, more than half of BlackBerry users intend to switch to the iconic iPhone as Wall Street experts pull the plug on RIM’s recovery plans. While I was reading some researched which compared iPhone and Blackberry  user habits, I came up a question in my mind. I wonder my blog reader choose which mobile device when they tweet ?

An example from my country ( Turkey) % 59 of twitter users prefer mobile devices to tweet.  When it comes to device selection, Turkish users prefer BB with a percentage of % 45 , on the other hand only % 27 iphone users prefer to tweet via their devices. Ok, I agree to type with qwerty keyboard, but is it enough for RIM company to survive in smartphone competition. I am looking forward your comments. Which smartphone do you prefer to tweet ? BB or iPhone ?

 

Nokia Rip Piss Out Of Apple’s iPhone With New Campaign

Posted on by in Marketing | 47 Comments

Since the introduction of the iPhone, Nokia has been taken a bit of a kicking when it comes to selling smartphones. And after years of losing the battle, it looks like it is coming out fighting with their latest series of adverts which poke fun at the iPhone.

In a move which is very similar to the campaign Samsung launched earlier this year, it’s Apple who the focus of some very subtle jokes in this series of ads that are getting a lot of attention online today. They feature a pixelated phone which is clearly meant to be the iPhone, and some “behind the scenes” shots of people talking with their faces blurred out.

These are clearly meant to be portrayed as Apple executives and they are seen dismissing the consumer as stupid and not caring about the fact that the product is flawed. I remain to be convinced that this sort of negative advertising actually works (no mention of any of the nice new Nokia phones here), but then when taking on a beast like Apple, you do get pushed in to a corner at times. At least Nokia seem to be back out fighting again.

 

Instagram Finally Rolled Out To Android Smartphones

Posted on by in Technology | 50 Comments

Less than two weeks ago, Instagram tweeted a link to a page where Android users could sign up for the service and be notified the moment it’s made available. Well that wait wasn’t as long as people had anticipated as the popular photo sharing app has made available to download for Android devices.

With over 30 million iPhone owners using the service, Instagram has a massive user base to build from and it’s set to increase that number exponentially as it’s opened up to Android.

Time will tell whether the app will be as big a hit on Android as it is on iOS, but you can certainly bet that the app will gain a couple of million new users worldwide. Now all Instagram has to do is figure out a viable business model that takes advantage of this growing user base and they’ll be set. Android users can download the app on Google Play or head over to Instagram’s site.

Microsoft Paying Developers Up To $600,000 To Make Windows Phone Apps

Posted on by in Technology | 8 Comments

If hardware is the backbone to any good smartphone, then apps have become the lifeblood with many consumers judging a device on what they’re able to download for it. Microsoft know this and because it’s playing catchup with its competitors, iPhone and Android, it’s turned towards funding developers to ensure apps are created for them.

The New York Times reports that Microsoft is financing the development of well known apps, costing anything between $60,000 to $600,000 depending on the complexity of the app. Developers are reluctant to dedicate time and money into a platform that is both small and unproven so Microsoft is adapting different methods to incentivise developers. Alongside funding their app’s development, the company also provides developers with free phones and the promise of prime spots in its app stores and in Windows Phone advertising

Microsoft only has an estimated 70,000 apps for its Windows Phone platform. Comparing that the iPhone has roughly more than 600,000 apps in its store and Android has almost 400,000 apps, the company is very much trying to bridge the gap between themselves and speed up the process. Their other initiative is teaming up with Nokia to open up an AppCampus in Finland, where over €18 million will be invested into the project over three years, but the company has a lot of work ahead of them if they seriously want to be in a position to challenge the big two.

Even Canadians Aren't Buying BlackBerrys Anymore

Posted on by in Technology | 47 Comments

Once upon a time RIM was the shining star of Canada. Hailing from the Great White North, BlackBerry phones were the country’s dominant smartphone. But times have changed and RIM has not changed with them. That’s a recipe for failure and it seems that based on data compiled by IDC and Bloomberg, Apple shipped more phones in Canada last year than RIM.

Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM shipped just 2.08 million BlackBerry smartphones last year in Canada, where Apple shipped 2.85 million units. This changing of the guard is a long time coming. As Bloomberg notes, in 2010 RIM bested Apple by half a million units and outsold Apple five to one in 2008.

RIM is seeing sales declines worldwide. BlackBerrys are still popular in the Middle East and Indian markets but Android, led mostly by Samsung phones, is quickly becoming the dominant player. Canada, where the company is based, was one of RIM’s last strongholds.

Canadian sales dropped 23 percent in the third quarter. Even though RIM introduced seven new handsets in 2011, Canadian consumers turned their backs on their hometown team. Now, in 2012, with a new CEO in place, the company is betting that its QNX-powered BlackBerry 10 handsets will stop the bleeding.

RIM’s glory days are behind it. Sheer arrogance led the company down its current path of misery. All is not necessarily lost, however. As long as RIM can produce BB 10 handsets on schedule, it might still be able to save the lucrative enterprise market from defecting to iOS or Android. But “on schedule” is not a phrase associated with RIM lately.