Showing posts with label iPhone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iPhone. Show all posts

Friday, November 18, 2011

AT&T: churn unaffected after rivals got the iPhone - MarketWatch

AT&T customers, apparently including many of those who use iPhones and might have complained at some point about inconsistent service, seem not to have defected to either Verizon or Sprint, AT&T says.


There is no question that iPhone exclusivity seemed to help AT&T reduce its churn rate. But many expected churn to increase once Verizon got rights to sell the iPhone. 


"Churn has not moved at all," said Glen Lurie, president of emerging devices for AT&T. Of course, aggregate or "net" churn might not entirely tell the story.


It is theoretically possible that more customers left, but even more customers signed up, producing no adverse effect on overall churn. AT&T churn unaffected after rivals got the iPhone

Technically, it appears AT&T churn has been inching upwards, but by an amount small enough that the overall trend is "flat."



Thursday, October 27, 2011

Apple iPhone 50% More Bandwidth Efficient than Android?

Sprint thinks iPhone is 50% More Bandwidth Efficient
"There is a misperception that our launch of the iPhone will increase the load on Sprint 3G network and require us to spend more 3G capital," says Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. "The reverse is true."

"IPhone users are expected to use significantly less data than the typical user of a dual-mode, 3G-4G device," he says. Apple iPhone might help Sprint on bandwidth


"Even adjusting for more total new customers being added to the network, we believe it will put less load on our 3G network than they would have if we did not carry the iPhone."

Some of that difference might be due to user behavior, but some is undoubtedly related to signaling overhead, something AT&T worked on with Apple, and which is being addressed in the latest update to the Android operating system as well. Signaling overhead a big issue


As it turns out, mobile applications and handsets can be tweaked to reduce signaling load on mobile radios, something that alleviates network congestion. Signaling can cause congestion




Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Sprint says iPhone 4S Isn't Congesting the Network

Fastest Mobile Networks: National
Sprint says reports that the Apple iPhone 4S is causing congestion on Sprint's network are in error.

"As always, Sprint is carefully monitoring the performance of the 3G network," Sprint said. "We are looking into a small number of reports of slow data speeds when using the iPhone 4S."

All speed tests are subject to handset performance, time of day and physical location and obstructions. And some tests have suggested that Sprint's 3G network, which supports iPhone devices, is not the fastest.

Bearish View of The Smart Phone Business

1Here's a bearish view about the smart phone business. Microsoft and Apple are extracting royalty payments from Google Android suppliers, squeezing their margins.

Apple missed targets for iPhone sales and sales of Research In Motion’s BlackBerry have "collapsed," not to mention the recent multi-day global outage.

Analysts may argue that the rise of products like powerful tablets have hurt smart phone sales. Some of us think that is partly true. Tablet sales have grown much faster than did sales of Apple iPhones or iPods.

4So attention now has been diverted to tablets, to some extent. But Mary Meeker, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers partner doesn't appear to share the pessimism.

But lower-cost smart phones now are about to pour onto the market, and the high penetration of mobiles means there still is a huge replacement market.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Sprint confirms unlimited 3G data plans for iPhone

Sprint confirms unlimited 3G data plans for iPhoneSprint confirmed on Wednesday that it still plans to offer unlimited data on the iPhone 4 and 4S when they launch on the network the week of Oct. 10, 2011.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

There is an iPad Market, "Tablet Market" Has to be Created

So far, one might argue there is not an actual "tablet" market, but only an "iPad" market.

RBC Capital's Mike Abramsky sponsored a survey conducted by ChangeWave that found 85 percent of all tablet buyers plan to buy the iPad.

That doesn't mean an actual "tablet market" will fail to develop, just that it hasn't really emerged, so far. That isn't the case in the smart phone market, where Apple is a major contestant, but not the only significant competitor in a broader "smartphone market."

RBC Capital's Mike Abramsky has raised his fourth quarter iPhone and iPad estimates based on the results of a survey of 2,200 potential buyers. The survey, conducted in August by ChangeWave research, showed what Abramsky called "unprecedented iPhone 5 demand and strong back-to-school iPad buying intentions."

Abramsky says 31 percent of those surveyed said they were "very or somewhat likely" to buy the iPhone 5, significantly exceeding pre-launch iPhone 4 demand (25 percent).

With the iPhone 4 nearly 15 months old, 66 percent of existing iPhone users are very likely or somewhat likely to buy the iPhone 5.

About 54 percent of surveyed Sprint subscribers and 53 percent of surveyed T-Mobile subscribers say they are "significantly likely" or "somewhat more likely" to buy the iPhone, if available.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

"We'll give you the phone and service, it's the data we want"

Some of the more-important revenue streams communications service providers have uncovered and discovered have been of the accidental sort. Some enhanced services, such as caller identification (caller ID) were essentially a byproduct of a conversion from analog to digital switching. The switches needed that information to work, but new features were possible as a consequence.

Many consumers considered "push button" phones to be a premium device when the transition to digital happened. Engineers would simply have said that using DTMF tones was simply a better way of inputting number information to switches that now were digital, in fact computers rather than electrical appliances.

There now seems a glimmer of understanding that among the next great wave of value provided by mobile networks, sensor data might prove an unexpected boon. There already is talk of the growing value of "machine to machine" networks, of course, where remote sensors such as meters and gauges of various sorts communicate with servers located elsewhere.

But there is something of potentially equally-interesting value growing, and like M2M, will be a business-to-business value, with potential revenue streams that match. "At Northeastern University in Boston, network physicists discovered just how predictable people could be by studying the travel routines of 100,000 European mobile-phone users," the Wall Street Journal reports. "The scientists said that, with enough information about past movements, they could forecast someone's future whereabouts with 93.6 percent accuracy."

That, of course, requires the permission of the users tracked, as the data is personally identifiable, so there is an opt-in requirement.

In other cases, anonymous data might be equally useful, even when anonymous. Researchers are studying user data, in aggregate, to understand social effects, influence, the spread of ideas and trends.

Of immediate value to mobile service providers themselves are the business-relevant social effects uncovered in one study. By mining their calling records for social relationships among customers, several European telephone companies discovered that customers were five times more likely to switch carriers if a friend had already switched. The companies now selectively target people for special advertising based on friendships with people who dropped the service. That's a practical illustration of applying knowledge about social influence for a very concrete business problem.

Marketers try to use knowledge about social influence to reach people who, their social graphs indicate, can persuade others in their social networks, and who have bigger social networks. It takes little to imagine that firms will be eager to strike deals giving them access to opt-in data from mobile service providers that help them identify and reach such people.

All of which suggests that data mining for patterns could develop into quite a value driver and revenue stream. Perhaps it always will be a stretch to imagine a time when such data is so valuable that a service provider can afford to give away devices and services in exchange for opt-in rights to track and sell such information. But it isn't hard to see that it could become a major revenue stream, either.

Privacy issues have come to the fore in recent days as researchers discovered that Apple iPhones and Android devices track user location. There are obvious privacy issues, though it is likely the data actually is most useful for Apple and Google only on an anonymous basis, to build better databases about signal strength, network coverage, data usage, locations and times, all of which historically have helped engineers plan facility upgrades, for example.

The fear is that such data could be stolen, a genuine concern, or that personally-identifiable information already is being shared with third parties, a concern that might strike some of us as far fetched, though the danger continues to exist.

But if researchers are correct, mobile phones will have immense new value as sensors. The data the sensors monitor will have value for marketing, sales and promotion, as well as many non-profit endeavors. You can say its one application of M2M, or you might argue it is related but separate. Either way, mobile sensor data looks like a huge potential deal.

The Really Smart Phone - WSJ.com (subscription required)

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Apple Earns Half its Revenue from iPhones

Apple now earns half its revenue from selling iPhones. Half. listen to the quarterly earnings call here.

That's why "Apple" isn't "Apple Computer" anymore.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Another Take on Augmented Reality

I don't know about you, but my first thought was "how do they do that?"

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Apple iPhone: 2 better than 1

Apple says "Two is better than one." Better for Apple; better for consumers; better for all the suppliers of iPhone components; better for mobile app providers working in the Apple ecosystem; arguably better for Verizon Wireless; not good for AT&T; still bad for Sprint and T-Mobile USA.

That sort of illustrates the conundrum mobile service providers now face, and that fixed-line providers have faced for some time, notably that value in both ecosystems has shifted in the direction of devices and apps.

That isn't to say "access" lacks definite value. Spending time someplace with no broadband access, or with poor access, will quickly illustrate the point. Of course, contestants in the apps and devices parts of the ecosystem would say they face significant competitive pressure as well.

But the fact remains: people might "love" their apps and devices. They rarely have any emotional attachment to their "access." Of course, it is much harder to develop a true brand preference for an intangible product, compared to something tangible such as a device or a favored application.

From Apple's point of view, two is better than one. But the ad indirectly points out yet again where value is shifting in the communications business.

Friday, January 21, 2011

No Need to Depict iPhone, Verizon Wireless Believes

Some might wonder, in this Verizon Wireless ad for the iPhone, where the iPhone is. Of course, some might ask who in the potential audience does not know what an iPhone is, or what it looks like, or what it can do. In that case, there isn't so much value showing the device, is there?

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

In the US Market, iPhone Outperforms Other Mobile Platforms in User Loyalty by a Wide Margin, Android is Second, Blackberry Fourth

The Apple iPhone scores 84 percent higher in loyalty ratings than the nearest competitor, Google Android. Among non-iPhone users, the number one preference for the next smartphone is iPhone.

The benchmark results by Zokem also show that older Windows Mobile devices and Nokia’s Symbian devices have already lost the game in the United States.

Both Microsoft and Nokia are, however, coming back with new offerings and trying to challenge the top three platforms – iPhone, Android and Blackberry – when measured by user loyalty.

During 2010 Android emerged as the single best selling mobile platform in the United States.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Verizon Wireless iPhone Upgrades?

Verizon Wireless Offers $200 Trade-In for an iPhone

Current Verizon customers who purchased and activated new smartphones, feature phones or certified pre-owned phones between Nov. 26, 2010, and Jan. 10, 2011, are eligible to receive up to a $200 Visa debit card when they purchase an iPhone 4 at full retail price by Feb. 28, 2011 and return their existing phone.

This offer is only available on consumer accounts with five lines or less, who are purchasing iPhone 4 through Verizon Wireless retail stores, telesales, or through verizonwireless.com.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Projecting iPhone's Effect on Verizon's 2011 Wireless Revenues - Seeking Alpha

By one survey conducted by Compete, about 8.7 percent of Verizon Wireless customers are waiting for a specific phone model before upgrading to a smartphone, and most assume that means the Apple iPhone.

According to Verizon’s third-quarter 2010 financial statement, only 23 percent of Verizon’s 82 million post-paid subscribers currently had a smartphone. This means that there is a potential pool of some 63 million post-paid cellphone owners that Verizon can convert to the iPhone, without stealing away a single new net add.

If the 8.7 percent of existing Verizon's customers who are waiting for a specific phone choose to upgrade to an iPhone, Verizon could enjoy a spike of more than 5.4 million new iPhone customers in 2011.

Even if just three million existing non-smartphone Verizon Wireless subscribers upgrade to the iPhone, Verizon Wireless could earn more than a billion dollars in additional data revenue over a two-year period, assuming new monthly data plan revenues of $15 a month and two-year contract lengths.

That does not even account for net customer gains Verizon might pick up as customers from AT&T and other service providers move over to Verizon Wireless to use the iPhone on the Verizon network.

Will Verizon iPhone Sales Change iPhone Demographics?

Irrespective of the ultimate changes in the smartphone and broader U.S. mobile business that might ultimately result from the new Verizon Wireless deal with Apple giving it the right to sell the iPhone, the iPhone user base looks like it will continue to be a choice target for brands looking to advertise.

Though change is likely as the iPhone user base moves from early adopter to mainstream users, the early demographics have been attractive for brands. Up to this point. iPhone users heavily over-index in some of the most attractive advertising segments, including 25 to 34 year olds (index of 175), 18 to 24 year olds (index of 141) and 35 to 44 year olds (index of 129) and are 22 percent more likely than an average mobile subscriber to be male.

Up to this point, iPhone users often also have represented higher income brackets, with 81 percent of users having a household income of at least $50,000 and 47 percent of users reporting a household income of at least $100,000. That demographic pattern, of course, will become less prominent as the iPhone continues to diffuse throughout the general population.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Jon Stewart on Verizon Getting iPhone

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-11-2011/verizon-iphone-announcement

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

How Will AT&T Respond to Verizon iPhone?

Verizon Launches iPhone: Video

"Speed" Not an Issue for Verizon Wireless iPhone

"Tokens" are the New "FLOPS," "MIPS" or "Gbps"

Modern computing has some virtually-universal reference metrics. For Gemini 1.5 and other large language models, tokens are a basic measure...