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Pre Play Sports Scores Subway Sponsor Deal for Super Bowl

January 31, 2012 by

Screen grab of a typical Pre Play app, where you predict the play before it happens.

In a field that’s going to become extremely competitive, predictive-gaming startup PrePlay announced a sponsorship deal with sandwich giant Subway, just in time for this Sunday’s Super Bowl.

If you’re not familiar with predictive gaming, don’t feel alone. It’s a new category of apps that allow smartphone or tablet users to challenge each other in trying to predict play-by-play outcomes of sporting events as they are happening live. MSR identified several of the players in the space last year, but with Subway sponsor dollars in its pocket Pre Play has clearly done something to attract attention. Even so, the company is using the Subway deal to “re-launch” its app, usually a sign that the initial iteration didn’t quite catch on.

The iOS-only Pre Play app can be freely downloaded from iTunes. Then you assemble a group of friends or family members with Apple devices and can compete to see who can better predict plays before they happen, earning points in the process for correct calls.

To perhaps better explain how it all works, here’s a Pre Play demo video. Maybe this is better than me screaming “FAKE! FAKE!” at the TV screen on every field-goal attempt. At least my neighbors might be happier.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, iPad, iPhone, NFL, Super Bowl Tagged With: , , , ,

Apple has Record Quarter, iPhones, iPad Sales Soar

January 25, 2012 by

Apple continues to see strong sales for its mobile products as iPhones and iPads witnessed record sales, as did its Macintosh computers, in its fiscal first quarter that ended December 31, 2011. The company had quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and a quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion.

It is interesting to note that in its product lineup Apple’s computers come in a far third place in terms of unit sales with only its iPod platform showing a decline, most likely because its iPhones, with their large storage capacity can easily double as a dedicated music player.

The company sold 15.43 million iPads during the quarter, a 111 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 5.2 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Those figures are all time highs for the company. It only sold 15.4 million iPods, a 21 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

Another fact that stands out from the results is that Apple admitted that its tablets are cannibalizing sales of its Macintosh computers, even when it has a record setting quarter for the computer.

It will be interesting to see how this phenomenon carries over to the Intel-based PC space. Will the ultrabooks stave off declining sales? If not Intel had better ramp up its push to establish its Atom processor in the tablet and smartphone space.

Apple also reported that it did not believe that the Kindle Fire, and other smaller form factor ebook readers that also had very strong holiday sales, had any material impact on its iPad sales.

While analysts had expected a strong quarter from the company some admitted that they were staggered by the results and predict that the company will be able to maintain its momentum going forward, at least in the near term, as it has just started to expand into the Chinese market. It is also expected to release at least one new generation of iPads as well as a new iPhone later this year, moves that should also help see a surge in demand for its products.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Barnes & Noble, iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Apple to Own iBook Rights?

January 23, 2012 by

Has Google lost control of Android? A piece in the Guardian is suggesting that the OS has gotten beyond the company’s control and that fragmentation will continue to loosen its grip — but it is not going so far as to say that this will harm its widespread adoption due to an uneven user experience.

The post makes some interesting observations about the difference between the Android space and Apple’s iOS market, noting that since Apple has always been fanatical about control it has a relatively minor problem in this space.

It claims that Android is suffering fragmentation in 5 specific areas: user interface, device, operating system, market place and service, and that the fragmentation is severe. However Google, not surprisingly, takes a very different view.


Does Apple own book rights to iBook creations?

That is the position that Ed Bott over at ZDNet, among others, is taking after doing what almost everyone fails to do on a regular basis — read the license agreement that appears at the bottom of the page that you must click prior to using the software.

According to his post Apple’s iBooks Author program’s End User License Agreement (EULA) gives Apple not only the usual rights to the software, but also to the output that has been created by the software, in other words all of the text books that are created using the program!

The document says that you can give a work created with the software for free but that Apple has the right to accept a book or reject any book for sale and that the author must enter an agreement with the company prior to publishing. If you go look at the blog entry, and I recommend that you do, read the responses as well.

Mobile Apps vs. Web Usage — Times are changing

Web analytic company Flurry Analytics’ latest blog post shows some very interesting changes in how people access the Internet, how much time they spend, on average, browsing, and how this relates to mobile app usage.

Using data from the last 18 months there is a growing trend to using mobile apps and away from browsing on both mobile and desktop devices. At the start of the period the average user spent an average of 64 minutes a day browsing and 43 minutes a day using apps on their devices.

Both activities have seen a strong increase, with browsing growing to 72 minutes a day, although that is down from 74 minutes just six months ago. Use of smartphones and tablet mobile apps has jumped to 94 minutes a day, with the six month ago numbers logging in at 81 minutes. I want to know how people keep their average numbers so low!

Are Windows Phones poised for huge growth?

Despite a market share that is currently miniscule at the moment, a market research firm is claiming that phones based on Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS will see huge growth and over take Apple’s iPhones by 2015.

Computerworld has a good piece using research from iSuppli that shows the analyst firm expects Microsoft’s share to grow from 1.9% of the market in 2011 to 16.7% in 2015, a share that will be good enough to bump iOS to third while both will trail the huge Android market that will encompass 58.1% of the market.

The growth will be primarily driven by new devices such as the Nokia Lumina 900, Nokia’s first 4G device and one that will sold by both AT&T and possibly more importantly, by Microsoft’s extensive sales channel.

Apple vs Motorola Patent update

A judge has narrowed the number of patents that are in dispute between Motorola and Apple. He invalidated two and said that a third was not infringed upon. He did say that five patents had issues the required a trial.

Apple has already lost a US ruling where it had accused Motorola of infringing on three of Apple’s patents and the company has suits against Motorola and others ongoing elsewhere around the globe.

Chevrolet wants you to use a tablet during the Super Bowl

General Motor’s Chevrolet division is one of many advertisers that has purchased multimillion dollar spots that will air during the upcoming Super Bowl broadcast on Feb. 5th, but plans a more interactive effort than any have done in the past.

The division is releasing an app for use with Android and iOS devices and available at their respective stores as well as at chevy.com/gametime it will have a wide range of activities including trivia contests that will enable users to win prizes.

The company said that there will be thousands of prizes, from both Chevy but also from as Bridgestone, Motorola, the NFL and NFLShop.com, Papa John’s Pizza and Sirius XM Radio. This is certainly an interesting method designed to maximize the millions the company will have spent to advertise during the game.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Google, iPad, iPhone, Microsoft, Motorola, Tablets

Friday Grab Bag: People buy Kindles to read Books, Who Knew?

January 20, 2012 by

How do people use Kindle- let me count the ways
With all of the great sales news for Amazon’s Kindle platform in recent weeks one might wonder what all of these customers are using the tablets for. Well wonder no more as a survey by RBC Capital, as reported in Business Insider, comes away with a number of details on users needs

Not a huge surprise is that its primary use is as an ebook reader. That seems to show that it is hitting its target market, and by doing so will help Amazon, which reportedly is losing money on actual Kindle sales, make a net profit due to app, ebook and other add-on sales.

The second is that it is not used too much to surf the web. Many reports have shown that rival products such as the iPad are used to surf the web, often while watching television.

Panorama Sports viewing coming to a TV near you-hopefully
Every time I watch an NFL game, or for that matter many different sporting events, I often want to see something that is not in the camera-it could be following a specific receiver run their route or how the defense is lined up.

Well a company named Technicolor is working hard to rectify this issue with a technology it calls Personalized Content Rendering that it publicly showed at CES.

Using a system of six cameras at the sporting venue it can create a moving panorama view of the stadium that enables a user to personalize their viewing experience.

The company has a software program that combines the video feed from all six cameras that when used in conjunction with something like a Microsoft Kinect sensor for the Xbox 360 tracking your eyes and head movement to allow you to look around the field and even zoom in on specific spots. However it is still some time before we see a commercial offering from the company.

ZTE set to focus on US and China markets to grow smartphone sales
ZTE, one of the top handset makers in the world is looking at two of the largest markets for smartphones, the United States and China, as key targets in its efforts to continue its growth as a premium phone provider.

The company has been evolving in the consumer electronics market and this looks like the latest step as it said it will increase its sales efforts to establish its smartphone models such as the Blade and the Skate in these countries.

With a stated goal of doubling sales in 2012 it could lead to an interesting price war if the company bears down and gets serious. It is estimated that ZTE shipped 12 million smartphones last year.

Kupa breaks out its Windows Tablet
Kupa has unveiled the Kupa X11 Lux Tablet, a dual input device that can use either touch or a stylus as its primary input device. It runs Windows 7 OS and is capable of operating for 10 hours on batter power. It comes in two models, one with a 64GB solid state drive (SSD) and the other with a 128GB SSD.

Using its Pen + Touch technology with pen is sensitive to to different pressure levels which can result in different outcomes. It features Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, USB and mini HDMI connectivity, and has a 2MP front camera and a 3MP rear facing camera.

Recon adds two new partners to lineup
Recon Instruments has expanded its partnerships for its Micro Optics Display (MOD) technology with the addition of official partnerships with Smith Optics and SCOTT Sports.

The two are the latest that have signed with the company to develop ski goggles that incorporate OD technology or are MOD compatible. MOD provides a variety of projected video feedback information for skiers including GPS and an altimeter. MOD Live boasts additional smartphone connectivity and advanced onboard apps.

Apple’s iOS to have integrated Facebook feature?
Reports are starting to surface that when Apple releases the iPad 3, expected in March, it will have an integrated version of Facebook as part of its core feature set according to iMore. The site reported that in iOS 5.1 beta release 3 that there is references to Facebook, but notes that this has happened in the past but apparently the two companies could not come to an agreement to include it.

Windows 8 tablets to have minimum hardware requirements
If you are planning on building a tablet that will run Microsoft’s Windows 9 operating system you will be required to meet some minimum standards for hardware, according to a report from eWeek. Not terrible breaking news since developers of Windows Phones also have to meet minimum requirements.

The reasoning behind this is to ensure that all of the hardware is there for the OS to operate properly. Microsoft wants to avoid an issue that has arisen in the Android space where a user might have very different experiences, and the devices different capabilities, even when running the same operating system.

Among the features that will be required to be included are a both Bluetooth 4.0 and Long Term Evolution (LTE), 10GB of storage, a minimum 1,366 x 768 resolution display and a 720p camera.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Barnes & Noble, iPad, Kindle, Microsoft, Tablets

Apple Makes Big iPad Education Push — Sports, Social Media, Hardware Developers to Benefit

January 19, 2012 by

Apple is returning to its roots with its new education push announced today, only this time there will be no floppy drive or large beige computers on students desks with a tangle of wires connecting everything, but rather tablets and wireless communications.

While this will most likely mean great news for education content developers as well as students, it will also be a boon for other markets as well, ranging from Wi-Fi equipment manufacturers and the entire world of sports and sport content development.

The news

Apple is back in the space, but this time as a supplier of educational material, primarily books. It has unveiled iBooks 2 for iPad, and claims that it will lead to a new type of textbook for students.

The key to iBooks 2, which is available in its own section at the iTune store, is that it will enable the creation of materials that will feature interactive animations, diagrams, photos, videos and will provide an easy to use navigational system.

The company has already enlisted several educational publishers including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson. Also teachers can create their own books for class using the iBooks Author tool.

For students the advantages are obvious, lighter backpacks since all of their text books can be carried in one small device. The cost, which Apple said will be in the $15 range for many books, will help with their expenses and they can be updated in real time to reflect current events or current ideas on a theme.

In addition to the iBooks 2 Apple has also released the iTunes U app that makes available a huge catalog of free educational materials, 20,000 educational apps as well as a wide variety of books that are used in school curriculum.

This is just the latest step from Apple in its effort to reestablish itself as one of the premier hardware and software players in the education market. It has been courting educators since it released the iPad. Apple has already seen a growing adoption of the iPad as a teaching tool in other areas including the NFL.

If Apple continues to gain share in the education field, as seems very likely at this point due to the poor showing by most of its rivals in the tablet business, this success will have far reaching implications for other companies as well.

Benefits for others

First and foremost it is most likely that the huge bulk of these iPads will only use Wi-Fi, since having two cellular bills is probably a bit much for the average student. I do not believe that most schools are prepared for a huge increase in the number of Wi-Fi users this will represent, as well as the huge increase in volume.

So hardware providers in a number of technologies from Wi-Fi hot spots to backhaul equipment providers will all see increased demand for their products

Secondly students will not just dedicate their time with the tablets to work. Aside from social media sports plays a huge role in many students’ lives. With ESPN, CBS Sports and others now streaming games a student can now be n the library and still watch the game.

The huge amount of options made available by the Australian Open for interaction with remote fans looks to be the wave of the future. Athletic, as well as theater and any other group on campus can now make interactive pitches to students as well as make video of past performances and streaming video of current games available on line.

This should lead to a demand for app and content developers to create interesting and informative programs that will grab and keep students attention. I expect that Amazon and Barnes & Noble to quickly follow suit since no one wants to leave such a huge and potentially lucrative market to Apple.

It will also spur the other Android tablet developers such as Samsung and Motorola to also develop solutions to get a piece of the pie. For customers this is great news because it will likely lead to price competition and a lowering of prices in an effort to grab market share.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, BCS, CBS Sports, ESPN, iPad, Live sports via mobile, Motorola, NFL, Samsung, Tablets Tagged With: ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Samsung’s Note a Tablet-Smartphone Hybrid

January 16, 2012 by

Microsoft Windows will soon have an app that enables Skype, hardly a stunner since Microsoft purchased the company last year. Still this will be good news for users of the popular VoIP technology, even if it is a bit later than originally promised, according to the Verge.

According to the report the first version will not be deeply integrated with the rest of the Windows Phone software but that future releases of the Skype app will be more tuned with future releases of the Windows Phone OS.

Huawei venture into high end smartphones
One of the more interesting corporate pushes at CES came from Huawei, with a range of products and technologies across the show. One of the products that caught my eye was its high end smartphone, the Ascend P1 S.

Touted as being the slimmest smartphone available and with a very clear and precise screen, if and when available it could be the next hot buy. While I only got a very brief demonstration of the device there are a number of good hands on pieces available to get a good evaluation of the product.

Tablet News

Samsung’s Galaxy Note-a bit of everything mobile?
Samsung introduced its Galaxy Note at the CES show and it’s kind of a tweener product, not clearly a phone for some and not clearly a tablet for others. The device has the largest display for a phone at 5.3-inches, or is I one of the smallest displays for a tablet?

It serves as a full smartphone, includes a camera and comes with a stylus for input but also has full touch capabilities. It has a memo app that allows for the taking of notes as in a paper and pen scenario but also has the capabilities to allow a user to annotate any image or screen capture.

Not sure yet how I feel about the product. It has a range of features that separate it from the everyday smartphone including advanced security programs but is its size going to be detrimental? Also if I use my tablet as an e-reader a great deal, is this a step down due to the smaller screen? A lot of unanswered questions and what segments of the market adopt it will be very interesting.

E-Readers spur book sales
Have you written the Great American Novel and yet no one has the vision to publish? A growing coterie of writers is going it alone, and some are finding a good deal of success. The Guardian has a nice piece on some who are doing quite well pushing books using tools from Kindle and other platforms.

It is not all tremendous reviews and instant fortune and the amount that you ear could be nothing or a very small sum, but it does show the impact the e-readers are having on the book business from two sides, publishing and consumption.

More iPad 3 rumors…
The latest rumors about the forthcoming iPad 3 is that it will have a quad core chip that should provide it with a nice performance boost as well as being compatible with LTE a wireless standard called long-term evolution that is just now starting to see widespread deployment by cellular carriers.

The resolution on the screen is expected to match that of the current generation of iPhones and that combined with the new processor is expected to ensure that videos and images are razor sharp. Rumors still have the expected delivery date sometime in March.

The usual legal issues…

Oracle vs Google spat sees trial delay
Ars Technica is reported that the case, originally expected to go to trial by March will now see another delay. The judge, William Alsup, has decided to wait until Oracle can propose a reasonable methodology for measuring damages.

As usual the fight is over patents; in this case one’s that Oracle claims it owns related to Java that is incorporated in the Android operating system’s custom Java runtime environment and compiler

The judge has been impatient with both parties as they have worked to deliver what he views as an appropriate methodology for the damage assessment and seems to have been very critical of Oracle’s most recent efforts. I bet this trial gets another delay.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, iPad, iPhone
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