Five iPad Apps The Entrepreneur Can’t Live Without

November 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Apple’s iPad continues to serve as a valuable business tool, and the recently released iPad Air has raised the bar. You can even use the slick, lightweight device to manage your business remotely and efficiently. The iPad Air’s high-tech retina display, 64-bit A7 chip, 1.2-MP front-facing FaceTime camera and stereo speakers make it a reliant business companion. The on-the-go, fast-paced business pro can improve productivity and enhance business operations with the following iPad apps.

Instapaper

No longer make gathering information and staying updated on current event headlines a chaotic experience. Instapaper perfectly formats, saves and stores articles and Web pages for organized reading at a later time. CIO.com features the app for its simplicity and cleanliness. Read online articles optimized for your iPad and uncluttered reading. During a layover or lunch break, catch up on CNN.com or read Entrepreneur’s latest feature as text only with Instapaper.

(£2.00 ish/$3.99, Instapaper)

Evernote

For a business maven who responds to emails and runs conference calls anywhere, anytime – from her Apple MacBook Pro to her Tmobile Nexus 5 –organization can become a casualty of multiple device warfare. The New York Times’ “Top 10 Must-Have App” winner, Evernote syncs data across all your devices. Audio and text notes, photos, files, to-do lists, and emails are searchable and shareable. Optimal organization and easy access improves productivity and ensures ideas aren’t lost.

(Free, Evernote)

iWork

Identified as the “trio for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations” by CIO, iWork’s Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps are top tools for mobile productivity. Use iWork for iCloud beta for complex-free collaboration and continually updated documents. By working in your browser on the Web, you can share documents, edit, format, analyze spreadsheets and create presentations with multiple people in real time. Recently, Apple updated iWork for iCloud with new collaboration features, such as seeing who’s currently editing a document as well as reformatting and moving images, explains Tech Crunch.

(Free, iWork)

Clear+

Prioritize tasks and maximize your to-do list with Clear+, a task-listing tool praised for its simplicity and flexibility. Exclusive iPad features include List Peek for sidebar previewing, easy task-moving among lists and easy-to-navigate settings. Clear can serve as your digital assistant for efficient personal and professional management. The Verge’s Ellie Hambuger highlights the app’s “iCloud support for syncing lists, emailing lists and twee chime sounds” once a task’s completed.

(£2.99 /$4.99, Clear+)

Fuze for iPad

Meet and collaborate with others whether you’re at your home office or in a hotel in Singapore. Fuze for iPad is a hosting and management app for online meetings and HD video streaming. The iTunes Preview lists the following features:

  • Meetings for up to 25 participants
  • 12 HD video feeds
  • Unlimited VOIP
  • 1GB of cloud storage

During a Fuze meeting, you can gaze at your iPad to run a sales meeting and share a PowerPoint presentation. Invite attendees from your iPad contacts, engage audiences with iPoint™ technology, and share content from the Fuze content library.

(Free, Fuze for iPad)

Other noteworthy business apps include Citrix Go To My PC (free) for remotely controlling your computer, Dragon Dictation (free) for voice transcription and message sharing via email, and Dropbox for iPad (free) for file syncing.

To whet your appetite here’s Apples Air ad!

Guest post from Drew Fleming via SocialMonsters.org

 

Filed Under: Apple, Tablets

iPhone Sales to be over 50 million in Q4?

November 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Virtually everyone seems to agree that over ¼ of a  billion smartphones were shipped last quarter and that android has an overall share of more than 80% of the market. There have been some rather interesting stats produced in connection with some of these estimates.

Our header graphic is from TrendForce and forecasts quarter 4 iPhone shipments of 46 million which would be nearly 2 million down on the same quarter last year. We think in fact they may exceed  last year and could  just top the 50 million level. We don’t recognise TrendForces quarter 3 figure of 36 million as Apple reported 33.8 and TrendForce also quote this in theircommentary. Probably just a typo.

It’s the product mix which is fascinating with them predicting that in Q4 it will be:

  • iPhone 5    –    6%
  • iPhone 5C  -  24%
  • iPhone 5S  -  70%

Whilst the 5C might disappoint some, the 5C will likely please many with its higher average selling price (asp).

Which sort of brings us to IDC’s nice little graph from our favourite chartists showing the relative asp’s by operating system.

Saving you some hover time shows the following:

Smartphone Average Selling Prices (asp) by Operating System ($)
2012 2013
Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3
iOS 688 675 676 660 627 635
Blackberry 340 324 322 367 425 386
Windows Phone 374 310 379 353 304 287
Android 333 313 300 285 289 268
Other 254 236 204 194 135 125
Compilation: I.co.uk
Source: IDC November 2013

Whilst again we can’t directly correlate the iOS asps to Apples declared results (the IDC figures are 5% -10% higher & we guess this likely is because of certain negatives/reserves  taken by Apple) the Android trend is interesting in that it now is at its recent lowest at 42.2% of the iOS comparative. We wonder when (if ever) it will level out!

Filed Under: Apple, Mobile, Phones

UK Top Tech Customer Experience Brands

November 8, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Click to enlarge

Nunwood  have just published the fourth edition of their league table which assesses the quality of customer experiences as provided by UK companies.

We, using our very wide definition of technology companies/brands have extracted these from their top 100. They also rank the top 10 in seven different categories (their 6 pillars plus the rising stars) so we have included the Tech mentions in each of these.

First direct wins overall on the tech front closely pursued by Amazon (who they refer to as amazon.com but we’re pretty sure it will be ranked on the performance of amazon.co.uk).

In the up and coming class are Megabus.com and ontheBeach.co.uk which not be familiar to you all.

We think ocado is an interesting one well worth watching as it expands taking on Morrison’s online activities next year. We shall see.

The overall winner was John Lewis, QVC at #2 with Virgin Atlantic completing the top 5

Nunwood methodology / analysis:

The overall scoring mechanism they use is based on  a weighting of their “six pillars” resulting in an overall CEE metric/index.   

“During October 7,500 customers were asked to rate their experiences with over 250 brands and to explain the rationale behind their scores. The resulting league table is based on an index that reflects the performance of these brands across multiple experience dimensions and then the influence these scores have on future behavioural intentions e.g. advocacy and re-purchase loyalty.”

Top 20 (overall) analysis

Filed Under: Amazon, Apple, Brands, Technology

Tablet sales this quarter to be 70-80 million

October 31, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The first couple of estimates from IDC and Witsview (the display research division of TrendForce) for Q3 tablet shipments have been produced over the last couple of days.

No real surprises and whilst growth continues the market, compared to some of its previous frenzies, has been relatively subdued. In fact IDC’s first 3 quarters of the year show global shipments all within the 40-50 million range with Q1 being the highest so far.

IDC are somewhat critical of some of the white box products (in total they account for over 20% of the market according to Witsview).  “These low cost Android-based products make tablets available to a wider market of consumers, which is good. However, many use cheap parts and non Google-approved versions of Android that can result in an unsatisfactory customer experience, limited usage, and very little engagement with the ecosystem. Android’s growth in tablets has been stunning to watch, but shipments alone won’t guarantee long-term success. For that you need a sustainable hardware business model, a healthy ecosystem for developers, and happy end users.” said Tom Mainelli, Research Director, Tablets at IDC. We couldn’t disagree with that.

Click to enlarge

That of course is all about to change. Traditionally ie over the last 2 years Q4 shipments have been something like 50% up on Q3 with for example Amazon selling 5-6 million Kindle Fires against a rest of the year runrate of something like a million a quarter. Certainly here in the UK Tesco and Argos have come up with seasonal offerings and new products abound from, , Amazon Apple Google Microsoft and Samsung to name but a few!

We previously had thought annual shipments might reach 250 million but although NPD DisplaySearch reckon they could reach 255 million this is likely a minority view.

At the other end of the scale Witsview are talking about 186.7 million.

If, and it is of course a biggish if, the quarter produces 75 million tablets then using  IDC’s historic figures we could reach over 215 million in the year.

We are pretty confident there will be several surprises along the way!

Filed Under: Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Tablets

A billion smartphones to ship in 2013

October 29, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Again rapidly out of the blocks are Strategy Analytics with their quarter 3 estimate of global smartphone shipments which are over quarter of a billion for the first time.

Backing off to their previous estimates we reckon year to date shipments come to 690.5 million and are on a year to date basis 42.9% above 2012. Last year they estimated 217 million shipments in Q4 which was 31% of the years total.

So 42.9% of an increase in Q4 would get us to 310 million. A grand total for the year  of  almost exactly 1 billion.

We shall see.

Filed Under: Apple, Mobile, Samsung

Apple revenues to drop for first time since 2002? – Nope!

October 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Apple results, for their Q4 2013 (13 weeks ending September 28) should be released around 8.30 pm GMT followed fairly rapidly by their Conference Call at 9pm GMT (2pm PST) which you can listen to live.

ROUNDUP am October 29

 From Apple:

From elsewhere:

Instant analyst opinions/headlines:

 Our view

We sort of go with the WSJ in that maybe even with the flatlining in revenues margins are stabilising and IF new product categories are introduced in 2014 (iWatch & iScreen (a “real” TV) then the growth could pick up again.

Whilst Samsung now have over a 1/3 of the global market for smartphones  this is already near a billion annually so there should be room there for a healthy number of significant competitors! 

UPDATE  October 28 – 8.35pm GMT – Results announced:

  • Revenues $37.5 bn
  • EPS $8.26
  • Share price after hours initially down to $505 then recovering to $530 ish during, but back to $518 after, the conference call (Formal close was at $529.88)
  • Unit sales Macs  4.6mn, iPods 3.5mn iPhones 33.8mn, iPads 14.1mn
  • Guidance Q1 2014 –  Revenues $55bn – $58bn  Gross margin 36.5% -37.5%

Press Release

SEC Filing

Conference call

  • Tim Cook thanks all long term shareholders – Mr Icahn may not appreciate that one!
  • He also reckons ” … it’s going to be an iPad Christmas.”
  • Apple share of tablets in education is 94%! WOW

We’ll do a full wrap up tomorrow with transcripts and instant reactions.

UPDATED SCHEDULE

Click to enlarge

The, sort of, headline figures to look out for we think are:

  • If their revenues are less than $35 bn this quarter it will be the first year on year quarterly decrease we think since Q4 of 2002!
  • Quarter 4 results consensus (Professionals/The Street) Revenues / Earnings per share – $37 bn / $7.96
  • Quarter 1 mid guidance  consensus Revenues / Earnings per share – $55.65 bn / $13.86
  • The share price recovery continues and it closed Friday at $527.55 about $175  down from its peak of just over $700 in mid September last year. We think Carl Icahn makes a compelling argument simply on the numbers front for an increased buy back programme, although it always strike us as a rather negative use of generated profits.

The source of much of our information is Philip Elmer-Dewitt editor of Apple 2.0 to whom we, and likely many others are indebted.

Our normal graphic uses his info for the Professionals and Independents figures and the mid guidance information from Apple. We also add our guesses. We’re going a bit low on some of our guesses  

We will in particular to see if our revenue flatlining prediction continues or whether like Google Microsoft and Amazon they can give the market a pleasant surprise!

We will report back later after the results are released and the Conference call has taken place. Usually the Q & A session adds value. We shall see, or rather hear, if this continues to be the case!

Filed Under: Apple

Has Apple’s new iPad mini missed the ship?

October 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment

A resounding yes is the view of IHS iSuppli as they are predicting a possible demand of over 9 million units in Q4, of which on a time basis nearly 30% has already gone, versus an availability, based on supply  data, of perhaps 3-4 million.

This is apparently due to limited production of the new retina display. They report that whilst production is ramping up limited yields are being encountered.

They comment on the rather woolly intro date mentioned by Apple at their media event and their press release on availability simply says “iPad mini with Retina display will be available later in November.”

On the pricing front IHS iSuppli’s view is that ”Apple has dropped the price point on the original mini to $299 … but that price point still sits well above the market average for 7-inch products with similar performance.”

Our view is that the iPad Air may save the day and whilst $299 is more expensive than most you do have to remember that Apple undoubtedly has the best ecosystem. We will be surprised if total iPad shipments are less than 20 million in Q4 and they could be off this chart! We shall see!

Without a doubt the android bunch will welcome these shipment delays and attempt to capitalise on these teething problems during the spendfest season.

Which sort of brings us round to Amazon who announced their latest quarterly results yesterday which showed an expectation beating increase in Net sales of 23.8% at $17 billion ish which will push their shares up significantly later today. On the not quite such good, but somewhat predictable, news their Total operating expenses were up 23.7% so they still had losses around the $½ billion level!

Apple‘s results are due on Monday so will see if IHS iSuppli’s estimate of around the 15 million total iPad shipments in Q3 is there or thereabouts.. Financial resultswise they will need to impress to keep up with Google, Microsoft and Amazon!

Filed Under: Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft

80% of the Global Top Ten Innovators are Techs

October 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Booze&co. on Tuesday published their 2013 Global Innovation 1000 Study with the subheader/byline : Navigating the Digital Future. We think it could equally have used the present tense as (again using our broad definition) the top 5 and 8 out of the top ten qualify. (The logo you may not recognise is Tesla Motors)

Click to enlarge

One, to us striking, increase is yet again the rise & rise of Amazon. It’s on an even steeper ascendancy than Samsung!

As far as we understand it Biooz&co. get together the highest R & D spend for 1,000 global quoted companies using published information through June of this year. They then survey 400 industrialists to quantify the ranking of the innovators.

Simply in R& D spend amongst the top 5 innovators they reckon their spend, its overall ranking and % spend of revenue is:

.

  • Apple $3.4bn / (42) / 2.2%
  • Google $6.8bn /  (12) / 13.5%
  • Samsung $12.4 / (2)  / 5.8%
  • Amazon $4.6bn / (30)  / 7.5%
  • 3M $1.6bn / (85) / 5.5%

Looking at it another way the top 1,000 they record as spending a total of $638bn so Samsung managed nearly 2% of this and Google just over1%. That’s a lot!

Using their definition Software & Internet companies had the highest increase in R& D spending this year increasing by 22.1%. This would include Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM and Facebook. Computing  & Electronics which includes Apple and Samsung grew a mere 2.%. They classify 3M in Industrials which had a 5.4% increase in the year.

Booz&co. highlight the use of digital enablers within R & D spend and have a rather clever interactive tool you can play with  which shows many of their features.

Their words say:

“Overall, companies spend an average of 8.1% of their R&D budget on digital enablers; the Software & Internet, Aerospace & Defense, and Health industries spend the highest proportions

These tools fall into two categories: “Productivity Enablers“ and “Market and Customer Insight Enablers”

  • Productivity Enablers are commonly used, must-have enablers to establish baseline productivity
  • Market and Customer Insight Enablers are emerging enablers focused on understanding market and customer needs”

We’ll leave you with their Digital Enablers video, which includes we thought some rather impressive graphics.

Filed Under: Amazon, Apple, Digital, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Technology

What’s to be uncovered!

October 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment

PRESS RELEASES:

VIDEO OF THE ANNOUNCEMENTS

UPDATE

  • OS X Mavericks – Free available now
  • MacBook Air – 2 new models available today
  • MacBook Pro – with retina display 2 new models available today
  • Mac Pro – New model available before the end of the year
  • iLife iWork apps updates – free with hardware available today
  • iPad Air – 9.7″ Lighter (1lb), thinner, faster, etc, etc starts @ $499 Ships November 1 in about 35 countries including China
  • iPad Mini – with retina ships later in November starts @ $399

That’s all folks …

A few stats we rather liked:

  1. 170th million iPad was sold earlier this month
  2. 475,000 apps available
  3. 60 billion apps downloaded from  the app store

Shares sort of flatlined during the event but dropped back a little as it finished 7.35pm BST – $6 ish @ $515

Thanks to Macstories  for the final definitive prepping photographs delivered we understand by Nicola Zaghen. Well worth a look

It all kicks off at 10am PDT which is of course 6pm BST.

Looks as though many of you will be able to watch a live stream as it’s up on their events page:

They say:

“Live Streaming video requires Safari 4 or later on OS X v10.6 or later; Safari on iOS 4.2 or later. Streaming via Apple TV requires second- or third-generation Apple TV with software 5.0.2 or later”

On you Apple TV it’s on the Apple special event channel!

Live blogging by many which include:

We shall report back after the event.

Filed Under: Apple, Tablets

Prepping for Apples October event

October 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Click to enlarge

Apple sent out the invites earlier this week for what is widely thought to be their seasonal iPad unveiling +.

Also updates to its set top streamer Apple TV are now envisaged. For a comprehensive rumour runover MacRumors is a good read

We couldn’t locate a full invitation this go round so we have sort of borrowed the words from a Fox video!

The now famous Yerba Buena (literally “good herb”)  Center for the Arts Theater is being festooned almost as we blog with lots of coloured leaves – we will update as it finalises. These initial preppers are via 9to5Mac.

Nathan Ingraham of the Verge has clicked the almost finished article. (@NateIngraham)

In other Apple / UK news:

  • The current CEO of Burberry  Angela Ahrendts is to take on Apple’s  retail side next spring. In a rather fascinating move she will look after both on & off line retail. Following the great success of Ron Johnson (who subsequently couldn’t make a go of JC Penney) and the arrival and then departure of Dixons John Browett Apple are certainly moving up market.
  • The “spaceship” in Cupertino designed by our very own Sir Norman Foster got the green light recently and the final planning decision should be ratified early in November. A suitable tribute to Steve Jobs

In other tablet news:

Disclosure: We have affiliate marketing arrangements with Amazon

Filed Under: Amazon, Apple, Tablets
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