Apple recently filed a patent for “Advertisement in Operating System.” The patent date was October 22 and the abstract of the patent is as follows:
“Among other disclosures, an operating system presents one or more advertisements to a user and disables one or more functions while the advertisement is being presented. At the end of the advertisement, the operating system again enables the function(s). The advertisement can be visual or audible. The presentation of the advertisement(s) can be made as part of an approach where the user obtains a good or service, such as the operating system, for free or at reduced cost.”
Apple has $34 billion in cash and the company has been doing very well financially. However their operating system market share is not very large when compared to Microsoft Windows. And Google is expected to launch an open source operating system in the near future. Apple is also competing with the Ubuntu operating system as it continues to spread on netbook devices. It may be in Apple’s interest to make their devices and operating systems more affordable given that the operating market is starting to get saturated and consumers are getting more options.
This patent indicates that Apple is interested in selling computers with a low cost operating system sometime in the future. The user may be forced to watch an advertisement before continuing an operation. Apple products have carried a premium price for a very long time. Perhaps it is time to for them to make more money from those who were not willing to buy Apple’s products based on today’s prices.
The inventors of the patent include CEO Steve Jobs, Freddy Anzures, Mike Matas, Gregory Christie, and Patrick Coffman.
“The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone,” stated Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a press release. “The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it.”
Apple has announced today that over 2 billion applications have been downloaded from the App Store. The App Store is currently the largest applications store in the world. There are about 85,000 applications available for download as of today and there are about 50 million iPhone and iPod Touch customers around the world. In the Apple iPhone Developer program, there are 125,000 (registered) developers.
As Peter Kafka points out, in the last 76 days Apple sold 500 million applications. On average, that is about 6.6 million downloads per day in the last 76 days. Between the 85,000 applications, it is estimated that Apple is making roughly $200 million per month. Since Apple keeps 30%, that means the company would be making $720 million per year just from the applications business.
This morning in California, Steve Jobs appeared on stage at the Apple Rock and Roll event that was scheduled for today to discuss what some of the new Apple products coming up are.
Steve Jobs talked about how he received a liver transplant from a mid-20’s person that passed away in a car crash and that he wouldn’t be here without such generosity. He said that he hopes everyone can be generous and donate organs too. Jobs thanked the community for support, the Apple exec team, and Tim Cook.
Apple has sold over 30 million iPhones. There are over 75,000 applications in the App Store which have over 1.8 billion downloaded. That download count does not include updates. iTunes 9 will also have improved application management.
Jobs also announced a new iPhone operating system: version 3.1. In the App Store, there is now a Genius function too. iPhone OS 3.1 will be free and is available today.
Over 30,000 ringtones have been added. Ringtones will cost $1.29. These ringtones are from all four major labels.
iTunes: #1 music retailer in the country and available in 23 countries. iTunes 9 will be available today. Over 8.5 billion songs sold. Over 100 million accounts now on iTunes with valid credit cards.
Over 27 million libraries submitted for Genius features on iTunes. The Genius database is becoming smarter this way. Genius is being applied to create a new service called Genius Mixes. Genius Mixes is like a DJ that plays an endless mix of songs from your library that sound good together.
iTunes now has improved syncing. You can sync individual genres, artists, playlists, etc. Through iTunes 9, you can arrange the icons and applications of your iPhone or iPod Touch home screen and sync it the way you want it.
Home Sharing: You can sync songs, TV shows, etc. with up to 5 computers in your house.
The iTunes store has been cleaned up too. iTunes LP has been launched too. You can hear the music, photography, liner notes, essays, etc. that were available back in the day when LPs were popular.
In the music section there is an arrow that appears next to “buy.” In the buy section you can send wish lists to Twitter or Facebook. Jeff Robbins gave a demo of the new iTunes and iTunes Extras. iTunes Extras offers more interactive stuff for DVDs.
Steve Jobs introduced Phil Schiller who will discuss iPod sales. Over 220 million iPod sales thus far. The iPod controls 73.8% of the total portable music player market. Microsoft has 1.1%, Sandisk has 7.2%, and other has 17.9%. About 20 million iPod Touch devices have been sold.
Schiller pointed out that consumers really like to use iPod Touch devices like a pocket computer that actually fits in your computer. Then he showed a picture of a person trying to shove a netbook in their pocket, ripping it in the process.
Schiller also jabbed at the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS or not having an App Store or an iPod built in. The games for those consoles are expensive and there is no multi-touch user interface either. Schiller pointed out Xbox games are $30-$30 and DS games are $25-$35.
Some game developers will be called on stage. Ubisoft is the first. Ben Mattes, a producer of Assassin’s Creed is showed off the sequel of the game. In the sequel, you can put your own picture on a wanted poster using the iPhone camera.
Next on stage is Bart Decrem of Tapulous. Tapulous is introducing a new game called Riddim Ribbon. One of the songs in the game is Boom Boom Pow from The Black Eyed Peas.
Mark Hickey of Gameloft came on stage after Decrem and said that Gameloft received about 20 million downloads. Gameloft has about 35 games in the App Store. Hickey is giving a demo of their latest game called Nova. Nova looks intense. The frame rate looks to be as good as if you were playing Halo on the Xbox. While playing Nova, you can listen to your iPod music and the game even has multiplayer through WiFi and Bluetooth.
Travis Boatman of Electronic Arts is took the stage next. Boatman is showing off Madden NFL 2010. In the demo, Boatman had the 49ers playing the Steelers. After Boatman finished the demo, Schiller came back to the stage.
Schiller said that the iPod Touch is affordable at $229 and doesn’t require monthly fees. Now Apple is dropping that price from $229 of the iPod Touch to $199 for an 8GB. The 32GB will cost $299 and the 64GB will cost $399. The 64GB will also have OpenGL|ES support.
The iPod Classic price will cost $249 for a 160GB. The price of the 120GB used to be the same price. The iPod Shuffle will NOT be phased out. New Beats by Dr. Dre headphones will be released to control the iPod Shuffle. The thin-sized iPod Shuffle which does not have a screen will now have a voice that will tell you when the battery is full and when the airlock will be closed.
New colors for the iPod Shuffle will include pink, blue, silver, black, green. These will cost $59 for a 2GB and $79 for a 4GB.
“One More Thing” says Steve Jobs. An Apple Video camera called Flip.A 4GB Flip video camera will cost $149… wait scratch that. Every iPod Nano will have a speaker and a video camera built in. Flip video cameras are 10.9 cubic inches and the iPod Nano is 1.1 cubic inches points out Jobs. Jobs then showed off some of the video capabilities of the video camera built in to the Nano.
The new iPod Nano devices have a built in camera with 2.2″ display, colors available in glossy pink, purple, yellow, blue, green, red, and orange. 8GB will cost $149, 16GB for $179. iPods are “green” too and environmental-friendly too. Each iPod has Arsenic-free glass, BFR-free, mercury-free, PVC-free, and highly recyclable.
Norah Jones came on stage after Jobs to perform a song or two.
In June 2008, Eric Schmidt mentioned that the intensity of rivalry between Google and Apple is heating up. Schmidt said that the rivalry might cause him to be dethroned. Around May 2009 Schmidt said that he was not planning to step down from Apple’s Board, but today he has stepped down.
The reason why Schmidt stepped down was because he said he had to recuse himself from big portions of Apple Board meetings to avoid conflicts of interest. “Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board,” stated Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Schmidt had joined the Apple Board of Directors in August 2006.
This resignation took place at a time when the Federal Trade Commission decided to investigate whether Google’s ties with Apple may discourage competition. Google is the default search engine and YouTube is a default application on the Apple iPhone.
Google has the following competing products with Apple. Google is developing a Chrome operating system which will end up competing with the Mac OS. Phones powered by the Google Android operating system compete with the iPhone. Google Android Marketplace competes with the iTunes App Store. The Google Chrome browser competes with Apple Safari and they both use Webkit. Apple iWork software competes with Google Docs.
Apple announced today that about 1.5 billion applications were downloaded within one year of the App Store launch. There are about 100,000 developers and 65,000 applications on the iTunes App Store today.
“The App Store is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality,” stated Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a press release. “With 1.5 billion apps downloaded, it is going to be very hard for others to catch up.”
Applications are available for users to download in 77 countries and works with the original iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S, and iPod Touch. Over 40 million of those four devices have been shipped thus far.
When the iPhone 3GS phone launched about a week ago, over one million units were sold in the opening weekend. At one point, the iPhone 3GS was sold out in Apple retail stores across 44 of the U.S. states. When the device starts to sell out, Apple places a widget on their website. This same widget appeared on Apple’s website when the iPhone 3G started selling.
This year the widget is directly connected to Apple’s point-of-sale computers which updates the inventory availability once every hour, giving the widget higher accuracy. The white 16GB iPhone 3GS appears to be the most popular. In Apple’s 45 stores across California, about 28 of the stores are currently out of the white 16GB iPhone 3GS phones. The sales of the 3GS in the opening weekend was supposedly the biggest Apple has seen. It took 74 days to sell one million first generation iPhone devices when it launched a few years ago. And it took less than three days to reach over one million 3G S sales.
Recently a hospital in Tennessee admitted that they had performed a liver transplant on Apple CEO Steve Jobs. About 6,500 Americans are fortunate to receive such an operation every year while 16,000 others are still on a waiting list. Paying for a transplant is illegal so Jobs did not do that. The reason why he received the transplant is because the hospital said that he was the sickest patient waiting for a liver when it had become available.
The operation took place at the Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute. Jobs suffered from pancreatic cancer in 2004 which lead to the liver transplant need. Back in January Jobs claimed that his malnourished appearance was due to a hormone imbalance. According to Dr. Anthony D’Alessandro, liver transplant chief at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, anyone is able to go to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients website and find out how long the average wait times and the success rates are for every transplant program in the nation. Jobs was able to get on the shorter waiting list in Tennessee.
To get accepted into a liver transplant program, the patient must go to the facility and be evaluated by the staff. Several tests are taken to ensure that there is a medical need for a transplant. Once a patient is accepted, they must get to the facility within seven or eight hours of being noticed. People can be added to as many waiting lists as they want as long as they are able to get to the facility in time and meet other conditions.
After the transplant was complete, Methodist University transplant chief Dr. James Eason said that Jobs has an “excellent prognosis,” meaning Jobs is on the way to recovery. Eason was right because Jobs was spotted returning to work earlier this week.
Late last month I wrote about how the city council in California is reviewing Steve Jobs’ petition to have 84 year old mansion Jackling House torn down to be replaced by a smaller house. The 17,250 sq. ft. Spanish Colonial style mansion was named after copper millionaire Daniel Jackling, who passed away in 1956. The architect was George Washington Smith.
Jobs bought the Jackling House mansion in 1984 when the first Mac was released. He lived there for 10 years before moving to Palo Alto. The Woodside town council approved a demolition permit for Jobs to have the mansion taken down in 2004, but it was blocked by an ad-hoc organization called Uphold Our Heritage. Uphold Our Heritage viewed Jackling House as a national treasure, but Jobs called it “one of the biggest abominations of a house I’ve ever seen.”
The town council of Woodside, California voted a 6 to 1 approval for the teardown. Mayor Peter Mason, who is also a licensed architect was the one person that voted against the teardown.
Tomorrow a city council in California will review Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ petition to have an 84 year old mansion torn down to replaced with a smaller house that he prefers to live in. The mansion is 17,250 square feet and is a Spanish Colonial style. The mansion is called Jackling House because it is named after Daniel Jackling, a copper millionaire that passed away in 1956. The house was designed by architect George Washington Smith.
Steve Jobs bought the mansion in 1984, the same year that the first Mac was released. The mansion has 30 rooms and he lived there for the most of the 80’s before buying another place in Palo Alto. Jobs even called it “one of the biggest abominations of a house I’ve ever seen.”
Earlier this month I wrote about how executives at AT&T are working very hard to keep the iPhone gold mine exclusive on their network. USA Today has it that Verizon just might be able to convince Apple to add the phones to their network too. AT&T and Verizon will most likely be playing a game of tug of war with Apple until 2010.
For those of you that are concerned about Steve Jobs’ health, you will be glad to hear the Apple CEO has been very involved with the negotiations when they began several months ago.
If Apple accepts Verizon’s terms, AT&T would take a big hit. It would be good for consumers because they would have more choice. A lot of my friends are on Verizon, but a lot of my family is on AT&T. Personally I would be able to find out which carrier would be more worth choosing based on how much I talk to each person.
If the iPhone switches to Verizon, would you switch from AT&T? Leave a comment.
“For us, it’s about doing great products. When I look at netbooks, I see cracked keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, very small screens. It’s just not a good consumer experience and not something we would put the Mac brand on. It’s a segment we would not choose to play in.”
Tim Cook made the above statement during Apple’s earnings call yesterday. Clearly Apple has a whole isn’t very fond of the whole netbook market. But they may very well be working on a tablet computer.
On the earnings call an analyst asked about the return of Steve Jobs. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said that Jobs will be back in June as planned. The company has made about $8.16 billion in their last quarter and is sitting on $28.9 billion in cash. The company has also just hit 1 billion in application downloads.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has joined the Fortune 100 list for the first time since 1994. Not only did they join the top 100, but it was at the respectable rank of #71. Last year the company was ranked 103 so they had jumped 32 spots.
The Fortune 500 magazine ranks the U.S. based corporations based on highest revenues adjusted after taxes. In 1994, Apple made it to the Fortune 100 when they were building computers that had PowerPC processors and was shipping out Mac OS System 7. Steve Jobs was no longer with the company and would join 5 years later.
Today the company announced their 2nd quarter fiscal quarter results and they were astonishing. Apple recorded $8.16 billion in revenue for the quarter ending March 28. This is up from $7.5 billion the year before. The company sold 2.22 million Mac computers, 11 million iPods, and 3.79 million iPhones.
“We are extremely pleased to report the best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in our history,” stated Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer.
Steve Jobs may be on medical leave from Apple right now, but he is very much involved with major company decisions. According to The Wall Street Journal, a source says that even though Tim Cook runs the day-to-day operations at the company, Jobs works from home to review strategies and products. Jobs was also involved in the user interface of the new iPhone operating system that was revealed last month. Thus far, all we know is that Jobs still plans on returning to the company in June.
The Shuffle keeps getting smaller and smaller. SNL made a skit in 2005 that made fun of that fact starring Tiny Fey and Amy Poehler. Perhaps next we’ll see the Micro, the Picenyo and the Invisa join the Shuffle line. BTW, the first few seconds of the video is blurry, but it gets better.
Today there was a shareholder meeting for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Even though the company has been hush-hush about the matter of Steve Jobs’ health over the last 9 months, Tim Cook assures that he will be back. There will be no changes to the announcement that they made earlier. Jobs will return in June.
“He is deeply involved in all strategic matters and has delegated day-to-day authority to Tim Cook and his team,” stated a co-lead director of Apple and the CEO Genentech Inc. Arthur Levinson, “That’s where it stands.”
Apple general counsel Daniel Cooperman refused to answer a question about how Apple handled the investigation by security regulators regarding the disclosure of Jobs’ health. “I was disappointed by the fact that the board was not more transparent about the health of Mr. Jobs in addition to a succession plan,” stated Brandon Rees, representative of the AFL CIO Reserve Fund.
Cook also gave an update regarding the shareholder voting of Apple’s eight member board of directors. Jobs, Al Gore, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt were re-elected. Steve Jobs turned 54 this week.
