Archives: June 2007

Engadget, the popular gadget blog, has so much iPhone coverage that they’ve created an iPhone at Engadget page, for “up to the minute iPhone coverage.” There are so many posts up there just from today alone, that we’re having trouble choosing one. By visiting the link, you’ll find:

- A new Apple Finger Tips Walkthrough video;
- An iPhone multi-city “lineblog,” where “nerds from coast to coast line up at their local Apple and AT&T stores;”
- …

Bah. We’ll just give you the entire link. Enjoy, and try not to eat too much at once; you might choke.

iPhone At Engadget [Engadget]

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“Eager buyers are lining up at Apple stores on both coasts, playing Scrabble, eating pizza, and waiting patiently to be among first to own one of the highly-anticipated phones.”

So goes CNN Money’s deck in an article about how Apple fans are lining up coast to coast to be one of the first to fork over $500 or $600 for Apple’s latest, and potentially revolutionary, concoction.

It all makes for some story. We don’t think it beats the brain-eating zombie mob infiltrating an Apple Store last month, but the iPhone launch saga comes close.

iPhone mania hits flagship stores [CNN Money]

The iPhone, iPod, and stellar success of the iTunes Store are worrying music executives, who fear that all of this is giving Apple too much power over the music industry.

Reuters reports that sales of CDs, still the dominant music format, have dropped more than 20 percent in 2007 from a year ago, according to Nielsen Soundscan. Digital music sales are gradually claiming a greater portion of the business, but the transition has been slow, according to Reuters.

The arrival of the iPhone is only adding fuel to the flames. The story notes that music executives fear the most obvious contender may give too much clout to Apple Inc., in shaping the future of the fledgling mobile music market. “It is going to change the way people think about their mobile from being a fringe portable entertainment device to everyone recognizing that this is a really desirable mainstream device,” said Barney Wragg, global head of digital for EMI Group’s recorded music unit, the world’s third-largest record company.

It’s a little late to be worrying about this sort of thing, we think.

Music Industry Hopes for, Yet Fears, iPhone Effect [Reuters via eWEEK]

Nielsen continues to build its portfolio of tracking tools for mobile media.

Since we last reported on Nielsen, they’ve now purchased Telephia, a private firm that is one of the most respected sources of data about cellphone use, according to the New York Times – tracking consumers’ phone calling, mobile Web surfing, video viewership, and so on.

“We follow content wherever it goes across all platforms, and this is a really significant step forward in measuring content across mobile platforms,” said Susan D. Whiting, executive vice president of Nielsen, in the article.

Other updates noted in the story: “Nielsen created a new service called Nielsen Wireless last October that has been developing tools to track cellphone use. This month, it announced its first mobile product, Mobile Vector, which will begin releasing information next month about cellphone users. The data will be linked to information from the families in Nielsen’s national People Meter television panel.”

These tools will continue to build confidence in mobile media, and will give advertisers and content developers a solid point of reference, something that’s sorely lacking today.

Nielsen Adds to Cellphone Tracking

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This is it, the last day of waiting for the Jesus Phone. Apple finally has tons of information up on their home page, including the following:

- A detailed Questions and Answers page;

- an Activation and Sync video;

- A “Get Ready” overview page;

- That 20-minute Guided Tour video we told you about last week.

If you’re sick of all the coverage, there’s always columnist John Dvorak’s humorous rant, Shut Up About the iPhone Already!”

See you on the other side.

Shut Up About the iPhone, Already! [PC Mag]

According to iSuppli Corp, worldwide mobile content revenues are expected to surpass $44 billion in 2011, more than double the expected $20 billion in revenues generated this year. The growth will be driven largely by the demand for mobile video.

Not only that, but mobile media continues to be a lone bright spot for carriers. As Mark Kirstein, VP at the company, put it, “data and content revenues are the life preservers to which wireless operators are clinging, as voice average revenue per user declines accelerated during the quarter” for the 20 key operators tracked by iSuppli.

The company also found that Universal Music Group continues to hold the largest share of mobile music content revenue among the major record labels.

Mobile content to hit $44B by 2011 [RCR Wireless News]

MySpace or Facebook – there are no alternatives for MySpace because MySpace is big, MySpace is huge, MySpace is Lord of social networking.

MySpaceTV vs YouTube – 12 things that MySpace got from YouTube

Read more

The iPhone isn’t perfect, and worries about the so-so network (AT&T) and funky on-screen keyboard might keep some buyers away, according to this article from Reuters.

That, and there’s the little matter of the phone’s $500 to $600 initial cost. Assuming it reaches any kind of sales success whatsoever, there’s bound to be a second, more improved version. Lots of people also feel it’s best to wait until that second version appears, preferring not to be the first one to buy brand new, and possibly glitchy, technology.

That said, we don’t see the fervor dissipating anytime soon.

Some waiting on iPhone improvements before buying [Reuters]

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