1 Billion Downloads on the Apple App Store in Nine Months

Apple just delivered its 1 Billionth (that is 1 000 000 000) application download from the App Store, which currently features over 25,000 apps built by thousands of developers. Amazing!

Mobile Broadband is the Next Internet.


Learn more on TechCrunch.

Sparkle Brings Second Life to the iPhone and iPod Touch

Genkii has launched a new iPhone application in the App Store called Sparkle IM. It is a Second Life client that runs on the iPhone or iPod Touch that allows sending and receiving IMs directly on the mobile device.



Sparkle IM is just the first virtual world app by Genkii. It is expected that the updated full Sparkle Second Life iPhone client will support 3D presence, too. Stay tuned!

Virtual Worlds could be rendered on the server side as demonstrated earlier by Vollee and Liveplace.

FUJIFILM FinePix Real 3D Camera and Imaging System

FUJIFILM has finally announced on Photokina 2008 a radical departure from current imaging systems with the development of the Real 3D System that marks a complete break from previous attempts to introduce 3D technology to the consumer camera world.

The Real 3D System consists of

• Dual CCD 3D digital camera with ‘RP (Real Photo) Processor 3D’ chip
• 3D photo frame: 8.4-inch “FinePix Real 3D Photo Frame” with over 920,000 pixels
• High Resolution 3D printing system

One major benefit of the FinePix Real 3D Photo and Movie Camera technology is that for digital camera LCD playback, display and print, the consumer can enjoy the image just as it was originally seen with the naked eye. No need for special glasses! Check out the articles on the Real 3D System on Wired and DPReview!

Welcome to the world of 3D Imaging! The next step is to use 3D desktop, mobile devices and ultimately the 3D Internet!

When will Apple deliver the iPhone 3D with 3D Camera and 3D Display? Until then check out the wonderful animations of stereoscopic images made by Joshua Heineman of Cursive Buildings.

iPhone Roadmap Possibilities Until 2012

The future Apple iPhone generations will generate huge waves of innovations. Tomi T Ahonen argues that June 2007 marks a watershed moment in time. He is certain that the mobile telecoms world will count its time in two Eras. The Era BI: time Before the iPhone, and the ERA AI: time After the iPhone.

What are the possibilities in the Era AI?

2007 iPhone

• Samsung ARM SoC 620 MHz 1176 running at 412 Mhz + PowerVR MBX 3D GPU
• Trustzone security for sandboxing
• Advanced Power management
  
• 128MB RAM
• 8 or 16GB Flash storage
• 320×480 3.5” 163 DPI display with multitouch input
• 100 Hz Accelerometers
  
• 2 Megapixel camera with Micron CMOS
  
• Quad band GSM + EDGE
• WiFi 802.11 b/g
• BlueTooth 2.0 EDR
• Web applications
  

2008 iPhone 2.0

• 3G/UMTS
• Wireless USB
  
• Open SDK
• Cocoa Touch
  
• OpenGL ES 3D graphics
• OpenAL 3D surround audio
  
• Applications like
  
• Google Earth
• Facebook
• Ebay
• Twitter
• Home automation / remote control
  
• Games like
  
• Spore
• The Sims
  
• Second Life
  

2009 iPhone and iCar

• Next generation 45 nm SoC with advanced processing and multimedia
• 512MB RAM
• 64GB flash memory
• GPS
• 5 Megapixel camera with Image Stabilizer
  
• iCar integration
  
• HDMI TV/video interface to work as a personal AppleTV or videopod
  
• Next generation LCD with embedded scanner functionality
• NFC radio interface for contactless applications like
• Access
• Payment
• Ticketing
  
• Personal 3D display as iPhone accessory
• Games
• Social, Location Based and MMORP Games
  
• Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality applications
• EveryScape

2010 3D iPhone

• HSPA 3.5G
• Autostereoscopic 3D LCD display
• High resolution stereo camera
  

2011 iPhone, iPhone Mini or iWatch

• WiMax/LTE 4G wireless networking
• Alternative iPhone Mini or iWatch form factor
• Embedded pico projector
  

2012 iWow

• Terabyte iPod or iPhone aka the teraPod
• What else do you need in an ultimate iGadget?
  

If you like this post check out this fun iPhone roadmap forcast until 2010 in The Red Ferret Journal.

Disclaimer: based on my own ideas and research - and not Apple information

Copyright Geekr 2008

Management 2.0: Business Model Innovation

Innovation is core to internet startups. What kind of innovation?

• Business Model Innovation
• Product & Service Innovation
• Process Innovation
• Technology Innovation

It is usually the business model and not the technology that creates unique competitive advantage. Alexander Osterwalder of Arvetica examines the role of business model design and innovation in the age of management 2.0.

Alex examines and visualizes the innovative business models of Zopa, Google, Grameen Phone, Apple iTunes & iPod, Amazon S3, Skype, Netflix and others. It is an excellent and very informative presentation on strategy and innovation.

The slides include valuable tools such as

• Business Model Framework
• Business Model Template
• Big Picture on Business Model
  

iPhone 2.0 SDK Applications to Lead Mobile Internet Innovations

What it takes to have the Internet in your pockets? Apple understands the needs and delivers. The recent announcement of the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) and the iPhone 2.0 marks the start of the revolution of mobile computing:

"What we saw today was the spark. The explosion will continue for twenty years. We will all feel the warmth. Watch the Steve Jobs video from today and you will understand how Apple will dominate the smartphone market for the next 25 years. Wow. What Microsoft and Windows was to the desktop, Apple and Touch will be to mobile. "

Until now the internet experience required a PC or a Mac with a browser, e-mail client and several other applications or clients like Google Earth or Second Life. To deliver this multimedia experience it takes a powerful device and a full featured operating systems like Mac OS X. The Apple iPhone is a unique device that makes true mobile internet experience a reality for the first time.


What makes the Apple iPhone uniquely powerful? Kontra has found 10 reasons in his blog post on Who can beat iPhone 2.0?

1. Design - Apple’s industrial design and highly polished multi-touch interface have no peers
2. Stores - The promise of the iTunes Store-like App Store is genuinely outstanding
3. Pricing - Apple can now leverage its high-volume iPod/Mac businesses to get favorable component prices
4. Games - high-resolution 3.5" screen, Core Animation, H.264 video, SQLite, OpenGL ES, 3-D OpenAL sound, accelerometer and multi-touch makes the iPhone 2.0 the most capable mobile game platform. Have you seen Spore on iPhone?
   
5. WebKit - the Web shines on the iPhone with its multi-touch gestures and big screen
6. Depth - multi-touch patent portfolio and gesture library bridges PCs and mobile devices. Economies of scale, core design competencies and cross-device integration opportunities will give Apple an huge advantage in product design in the post-PC era
7. SDK - Cocoa Touch, the marriage of OS X and multi-touch UI, gives developers access to the hardware, multi-touch controls and events, accelerometer, camera, etc., in the top of the line XCode IDE with built in emulator
8. Enterprise - The mobile space enables Apple to openly court businesses large and small. The enterprise world is a new and significant market for the company.
9. Ecosystem - Apple has already created the biggest-ever ecosystem around a consumer electronics product line with the iPod. No other player has comparable experience in growing a billion dollar plus ecosystem
10. Curatorship - Apple has proven with Mac OS X and the iPod that it can anticipate user needs, trade features for enhanced user experience and carefully distill choices to create coherent and desirable products.

User satisfaction surveys consistently prove actual users love their iPhones at rates far above rival devices. Safari on the iPhone has already captured 71% of the mobile browser market in less than a year.

The new iPhone SDK will start a new wave of innovations in mobile computing with applications such as:

• Reality Tagging
• People Tagging
• Reality Recognition
• Physical Social Networks
• Personalized Travel Guides
• Digital and Physical Treasure Hunt
• Distributed Mobile Games
• Credit Card and Biometrics as Software
• Paperless Receipts & Digital Business Cards
• Medical records as Software
• Physical Browsing & Digital Shopping
• Location/time-based deals

Will Apple Dominate Next Gen Computing? It is hard to tell. But the iPhone value proposition looks great for developers and users alike. A revolutionary new platform is a rare and prized opportunity for entrepreneurs as well. So much so that Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has created a $100 million fund to fuel this innovation. KPCB’s iFund™ is a $100M investment initiative that will fund market-changing ideas and products that extend the revolutionary new iPhone and iPod touch platform.

Developers are indeed interested. Apple has announced more than 100,000 SDK downloads in just the first 4 days.

It is certainly a challenge for Google Android, Microsoft and Nokia/Symbian (to catch up?). What do you think?

The War for the Next Generation of Mobile Consumers

Mobile broadband services will revolutionize our life and create opportunities for companies like Apple and Nokia. Who will win the mobile consumers?

The landscape is changing quickly as companies prepare for this war. The moves so far:

• Apple launched the iPhone in collaboration with AT&T
• change the business model for operators and handset vendors
• revenue share agreement with an operators
• European operators O2 and others follows
  

• Nokia made strategic acquisitions
• buying companies such as Intellisync, Sega, Gate 5, Navteq, Enpocket and Loudeye
• introduced Ovi - its music and web services platform
• Vodafone and Telefonica have both plan to offer Ovi services
  

• SonyEricsson
• introduced its own Internet music portal: PlayNow
• Ericsson acquired Tandberg TV, Redback, Marconi and LHS (billing) to build the next generation services network
• Sony builds on its Walkman, Cybershot and Playstation brands to leverage with consumers
  

• Google phone turns out to be an open software initiative
• Android is Google’s open mobile operating system initiative. Check out the demo here and the architecture overview here.
  
• acquisitions for location based services, mobile advertising, chat, search, and others set Google up on a collision with the others. But it is a collision with partnerships.
• the Open Handset Alliance is betting on the revolution of the mobile phone industry. The alliance includes handset manufacturers such as Motorola, HTC, Samsung and LG, mobile operators such as Sprint, T-Mobile, KDDI, NTT DoCoMo, Telecom Italia and Telefonica, other companies such as Broadcom, Intel, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, eBay, and PacketVideo
• but Android will not appear in phones for about a year
  

• Microsoft is going Live
  
• betting its mobile future on Windows Live Hotmail, Messenger, Live Contacts and Live Spaces and bringing together a total end-user experience
• acquired companies to extend its offerings and plans to acquire about 20 companies—from $50 million to $1 billion—every year for the next five years

Stay-tuned for the coming battle of the internet and mobile giants. On the other hand media and entertainment companies will create new services and experiences on these platforms and devices. Consumers will have many choices as this brand new mobile broadband world unfolds.

Tonight is the Premiere of the iPhone

Friday, June 29 6pm - the ultimate gadget goes on sale - the Apple iPhone.

The iPhone is the most hyped device of 2007. Announced by Steve Jobs on 9 January it already has a detailed iPhone Wikipedia entry. Contrary to its name the iPhone is not a phone. It is rather a personal companion or a mobile communications and entertainment device. E-mail, instant messaging, full web browsing, iPod, YouTube, camera, google maps and more - one device to rule them all.

The expectations are high but the reviews and the scorecard shows that the iPhone "Matches Most of its Hype". The Apple brand has an iconic status. Can it take over Nokia, SonyEricsson, LG and Samsung? The iPhone is not really about a phone. iPhone is a lifestyle which will not go head-to-head with other handsets.

Apple has made smart decisions based on user requirements. The battery life is more important than broadband everywhere. Therefore the iPhone does not support 3G which would quickly drain its batteries.

It is extremely simple and intuitive to use unlike most cellphones. iPhone is what smart-phones could have been were they designed with the user in mind!

This is my last Innowave blog post before my summer holiday in a far away country where wireless broadband internet is still decades away. See you later!

iPhone shipping with YouTube

Users will soon enjoy YouTube on their iPhones when they begin shipping on June 29. The Apple-designed YouTube application will wirelessly stream content in the advanced H.264 format to iPhone over Wi-Fi or EDGE networks and play it on its stunning 3.5 inch display.

Apple excels in mobility with long battery life of the iPhone: it will feature up to 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback or 24 hours of audio playback and up to 250 hours of standby time. Great news for heavy mobile internet and multimedia consumers!

Next Generation Personal Displays

The user interface revolution is not limited to surface computing. The emergence of portable video players and video-enabled mobile phones generates demand for a new generation of personal displays.

The challenge is to make it compact and provide high quality image. The Lumus series of eyeglass displays offer this with a nice natural look.


With the Lumus Binocular displays you can use virtual reality applications or play a 3D game anywhere on a large virtual screen in true color and VGA (640x480) resolution.

iPod users might consider the award winning myvu personal video player for $300.