Socialight. Contact Us. iPhone Application 2.0 - First Look Blog - NYTimes.com. Infomedia Inc - The Business of Ideas. McKinsey: Get Ready For Sensor-Driven Business Models. Consulting firm McKinsey has just released a report on the Internet of Things, one of ReadWriteWeb’s top 5 trends of last year. The report, available for free if you sign up as a member of McKinsey Quarterly, focuses on the “new sensor-driven business models” that Internet of Things brings. McKinsey sees two categories for emerging applications: “information and analysis” and “automation and control.”
Many of the applications listed are for large companies or specialized industries (for example automobile manufacturers). But consumers should take note too, because there will be a lot more data about us flowing onto the Internet. McKinsey defines Internet of Things as “sensors and actuators embedded in physical objects […] linked through wired and wireless networks, often using the same Internet Protocol (IP) that connects the Internet.”
In the “information and analysis” category, McKinsey firstly lists tracking behavior. App for the iPhone. The Washington Post - AppStoreHQ. iPhone apps compared – how do news publishers shape up? | Journa. The news industry buzzword of the year so far is just three letters long: “app”. Newspapers, magazines and broadcasters are falling over themselves to grab a slice of the burgeoning mobile app economy, led to a huge degree by Apple’s iPhone. But how developed is the news and publishing app market in the UK what features are now standard? To find out we examined 36 leading apps on the Apple App Store in detail. The apps are varied in style, origin and purpose, but all present information, news and data to the palm of readers’ hands.
Here’s the spreadsheet in full: (You can download it here…) And here are some key findings: Price: 24 of the apps we researched – or two thirds – were free. Multimedia: seven apps have a dedicated photo channel, 13 have a video feed and six have a dedicated audio stream. What does this show? But though that app is priced at £2.39 and has had more than 100,000 downloads and counting, it has no advertising and currently no video. Washington Post gauging readers’ willingness on paid content, bo. The Washington Post caused a bit of a stir yesterday when it announced a $1.99-a-year iPhone app. The choice was interesting both because it offered time-limited access to content and because of the low price point — at a time when other newspaper execs are apparently debating prices more than 100 times greater.
As our friend Mac Slocum put it: “$1.99 for 12 months of Washington Post content — is that *too* reasonable?” This morning I spoke with Goli Sheikholeslami, the vice president and general manager of digital operations for The Washington Post. She said that the Post isn’t thinking about the $1.99 a year as a moneymaker in itself. “It’s not really so much about this from the point of view of a large revenue stream, but trying to gauge how our readers react to paying for content,” she explained. “It really provides us with a platform for experimentation.” Why $1.99? “That model does sound like a sound one,” Sheikholeslami said. What about online? Gartner: Touchscreen Mobile Device Sales will Grow 97% in 2010. According to Gartner, the worldwide market for mobile devices with touchscreens will grow over 97% this year. Last year, consumers bought 184 million devices with touchscreens. Gartner predicts that this market will surpass 362 million units this year.
By 2013, Gartner predicts, touchscreen mobile devices will account for 80% of all sales in North America and Europe. Once the domain of high-end devices, touchscreen are now finding their ways into midrange phones and a growing number of consumers now expects all of their screens to be touch-enabled. As Gartner analyst CK Lu notes, a touchscreen alone won’t be enough to convince users to buy a specific phone, however. The mobile web, according to a new report from mobile search engine Taptu, is currently all about shopping and services. According to Taptu, mobile shopping and services sites make up close to 25% of all mobile-friendly sites in the company’s index, followed by sites in the “photo and design” category (17.7%). Mobiles move from cannibal to creator | Technology | guardian.co. The march of the mobile goes on and on but it is now taking off in a new direction with goodness knows what consequences.
Until recently, the mobile phone's distinguishing feature was its ability to gobble up competing products in a way that no other consumer product ever has. I used to keep a tally of all the products that could have been sold separately but which have been cannibalised by the mobile: cameras, calculators, books, video cameras, music players, satellite navigation and so on.
When the list reached 60, I gave up, because the arrival of the iPhone and iPod Touch made the list of extra products grow exponentially. Now the mobile is moving into new terrain. Having satiated its ravenous appetite for existing products, it is creating services that only exist because of its unique technology. Notice I have been writing about apps for once without much mention of the iPhone. Why? Finger Fail: Why Most Touchscreens Miss the Point | Gadget Lab | You’re not crazy, and neither are we: The touchscreen on the Apple iPhone really is more responsive than the screens on the BlackBerry Storm, the Motorola Droid, the Nexus One and many other phones, even though all of these devices use essentially the same touch-sensing hardware. Though handset makers buy their touchscreens as components from the same select pool of suppliers, a good touchscreen experience requires more than just hardware. It requires a bit of design alchemy blending software, engineering and calibration for the perfect feel.
Few smartphone makers have managed to get that balance right, say experts. “If you think that no other touchscreen out there is as good as the iPhone, its not all in your head,” says Chris Verplaetse, vice president of the Moto Development Group, a product design and development firm. “It’s like asking what makes a Mercedes door close like a Mercedes door and a Hyundai door close like one though they use the same steel. It’s Not Just About Hardware.