They predicted. They estimated. Many of them failed, some of them got the facts right. Being an analyst predicting numbers about a fast moving company such as Apple is not easy, but these guys get paid for this, right?
So here’s a chart for you to see who did well, who miserably failed at estimating Apple’s sales, and who to keep an eye on in the future. Read more
Good catch on The Atlantic: basing on the numbers provided by Apple at its Q4 earnings call, Apple’s retail stores worldwide got almost 4 times the visitors of, say, Disney World in 2009.
On Apple’s earnings call, you probably didn’t catch that Apple set a new retail foot traffic record last quarter, what with all the iPad supply fears and Steve Jobs ranting. But they did: more than 74.5 million people went to one of the 317 Apple stores across the world.
Only a small percentage of them actually bought anything, but that’s the point. Apple has managed to transform *hanging out in their stores* into entertainment.
The cultural shift Apple started is here to stay, and it’s going to be one hell of an effort for any competitor to catch up, or get even close. [via Brooks Review]
Sonos, makers of wirelessly connected audio systems, announced they’re about to launch an advertising campaign on Apple’s iAd network.
As for all the other companies that launched iAd companies, this is a big bet: iAd campaigns start at $1 million minimum orders, so you have to make sure you have a great and stunning ad experience to bring to iOS devices. Otherwise, you’re wasting money.
Sonos’ iAd looks impressive, with videos, user interactions, menus, stuff to do. This is what an iAd should be about: providing useful information on a product and engage a user at a personal level. Check out the video below. Read more
Great observations by Turley Muller about blockbuster iPhone sales and drop in gross margin:
With more units sold come more expenses. If you add that the iPhone 4 required a complete change in the manufacturing process, well you get the idea. About the iPad:
I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple adopted this strategy once again. They let others think it’s a very niche product, then they blow the competition out of the water by constantly iterating. The question is: can they really play this game with almost 8 million units sold in 6 months?
Two interesting updates for two popular OS X applications: Acorn image editor and Cyberduck FTP client got lots of new features and bug fixes worth mentioning.
The latest Acorn beta added support for Google’s WebP image format, meaning that you can now open WebP images inside the app and export them using the Web Export menu. Acorn beta also introduces Quartz Composer compositions as filters, and the very popular tilt-shift effect.
As for Cyberduck, it gets the ability to upload files with a temporary name and rename them after transfer is complete, import Transmit favorites (nice) and the possibility to copy files between browser windows in different sessions.
If you’re willing to know everything about these two new releases, check out the full changelogs below. Read more
A few weeks ago I reviewed Captio, which is a neat and simple application for iPhone to email yourself a note, or a picture, with one tap. How many times have you wished there was a way to easily save an idea for later? For many, quickly emailing yourself a note is the best way to save it.
For many others, though, getting additional stuff in the inbox can become a nightmare. Not only the inbox is already overloaded, but getting notes in there as well? No way. I’ve set up a nice filtering and tagging system in Gmail to handle Captio notes, but I understand some of you guys just don’t want notes to be turned into emails.
Meet JotAgent: a new app for iPhone and iPad which can be described as “Captio for Dropbox”. Read more
When Ken Yarmosh contacted me asking to take a look at an early version of his upcoming book about iOS app development, I didn’t really know what to do. I read a couple of iOS-related publications before, but I wasn’t really huge on them. I used to think the most important and useful information about development, marketing and sale techniques could be found on the internet - why would I need a book to learn about the App Store?
Then I took my time to read Ken’s book. It’s not easy for me to go into books these days, as I spend most of time writing and catching up on blog posts. But it was a read well worth it: if you’re looking to get started with iOS development, have already released a few apps or are simply curious about how “stuff actually happens” behind the scenes, go buy App Savvy right now. Read more
4.19 million units sold in the last quarter and 7.46 million iPads already sold since the release date in April. These are the numbers Apple’s tablet is making, but analysts expect it to sell an awful more next year. And it wouldn’t be a surprise, considering that a new model will come out sometime during Spring with a front facing camera, a better screen and god knows what else Steve is thinking.
According to the latest iSuppli forecasts, Apple will ship 43.7 million iPads in 2011. The forecast has been increased from the previous one of 36.5 million units. Read more
We thought it would be released on Sunday, but it didn’t happen. The latest version of PwnageTool, long rumored to be able to jailbreak a variety of iOS devices including the iPad and the new Apple TV, is still nowhere to be downloaded, but screenshots are starting to pop up. Read more
