So how are things going over on the Mac App Store? What are developers noticing when their apps first go on sale there?
Marzban Cooper, one of the team behind zen word processor OmmWriter, spoke to Cult of Mac today with some interesting observations about the transition to the Store, and its effect on sales.
His only wish? That there was a similar store for Windows, so he could do the same with the forthcoming Windows version of the application.
Remember the heady days of music sales, when Apple beat the stuffing out of traditional music labels, even besting retail giant Wal-Mart as the No. 1 seller of music? Well, the Cupertino, Calif. company still leads, but the growth of music is slowing and appears to be giving way to video.
Revenue from digital music sales for the last three months of 2010 were up just 1.6 percent for Apple, falling 5 percent from the previous quarter, according to a Tuesday report. Although Apple’s digital music sales are slowing, Warner Music Group appears even further along the S-Curve; the publisher’s last quarter sales fell 14 percent, the company announced. For Apple, the next thing is digital video, where one research firm says the tech giant controls almost 65 percent of the sales.
It’s a rough world when it comes to couples who mix computer choices: one partner spends a lot of time trying to “convert” the other, most of the time unsuccessfully.
Mostly Mac users, who just can’t let this PC-using habit alone: a micro-survey found that 80% of Mac fans tried to convince their significant other to switch, but only 60% successfully “converted” them.
These are the water-cooler takeaways from a poll about Macs and PC couples, timed of course for that most noxious of holidays, St. Valentine’s Day. Poll organizers Parallels, who ran the survey to promote their solution for running Windows applications on Macs, said they had some 30 respondents.
The reactions poll respondents had when discovering their potential partners were PCs are pretty funny – you could almost insert owning a PC with some other undesirable habit (smoking?)
“I knew he could be changed.”
“I feared there may be more ‘tech support’ than ‘love support’ desired.”
We had a couple of questions for each other having met on-line on our first brunch date. She said she was currently a Windows users, but she had used a Mac in college for Desktop Publishing, there was hope…”
What do you think – does this bear out your PC/Mac relationship experience? “
Or perhaps this digital divide is a valid reason to sign up for Apple-dating service Cupidtino, which only matches up people who love Macs with other Mac lovers.
Via Parallels
In just four months, Instagram has already pooled together a user base of over two million daguerro-hipsters, who are now responsible for uploading up to 300,000 photos a day. That’s a success by anyone’s measure, so it’s no surprise that Instagram is looking to keep their momentum going by expanding in interesting ways.
In a blog post, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom explains how the company intends to grow: by opening up the site to other developers and let them hook into the Instagram ecosystem thanks to a new API.
Reading between the lines of Reggie Fils-Aime’s most recent criticism of the App Store, Nintendo is deeply afraid of Apple’s influence on the video games industry: the president of Nintendo of America says that the price levels of the App Store have created a consumer “mentality” that portable games should only cost a few dollars.
Fils-Aime’s comments come even as Nintendo prepares to launch its new handheld console, the Nintendo 3DS, in March.
There’s a flurry of conflicting reports today on when the next iPad will debut – we have heard that the next iteration of the magical device will be unveiled in March or June at the WWDC.
Make your guess in the comments, along with the reason you think why Apple would choose that date.
Five correct answers, randomly chosen (though we admit some bias for the funny ones), will win promo codes for cool iPhone or iPad apps.
We start another week with deals for the iMac, iPad and iPod. First up is an iMac bundle. This Core i3 desktop machine runs at 3.06GHz and includes a 22-inch screen and 16GB of RAM. Also part of the bundle is a three-year AppleCare contract — all for just $1,497. Next is a pink faux leather iPad case with screen protector, magnetic closure and more. We wrap up today’s deal spotlight with 83 percent off on select iPod touch cases.
Along the way, we also take a look at other cases for the iPhone, as well as software for your Mac. As usual, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
When the iPad was first unveiled, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson explained his company’s decision to offer a month-by-month, committment-free data plan for the tablet by saying that he saw the iPad as a “Wi-Fi driven product.” That prediction seems to be accurate: while Apple sold seven million iPads last quarter, AT&T only activated 442,000 3G accounts for it.
Never the less, the latest rumor suggests that Apple is planning on making a big push for 3G in the iPad 2, with a good sixty percent of the first production run devoted to manufacturing 3G models.
Motorola’s Super Bowl ad for its Xoom tablet — one of the first serious iPad contenders — is replete with Apple references: 1984, Lemmings, white earbuds. But where Apple’s TV ads for the iPad are practical and concrete, Motorola’s is cryptic and confused.
Reminds me of Palm’s weird, ethereal ads for the Pre, which bombed. It’s not good sign.
Plus, the device will reportedly cost $800 with a $20 per month data plan. There’s no WiFi-only model. From our hands-on at CES, the hardware looks OK, but we couldn’t test the software: Moto was showing an unfinished unit..
Apple’s upcoming iOS 4.3 update will have wireless syncing, Photobooth, and a Sports Training program.
It may also get QuickLook from OS X — the ability to quickly peek at a file or email attachment without launching any programs.
The new capabilities were discovered by programmer Chris Galzerano, who has been digging around in the iOS 4.3 SDK and firmware beta.
Here are the details:
UPDATE: Mark Gurman from 9to5Mac is skeptical about this information. PhotoBooth is right, he says, but has been known for weeks. QuickLook is for opening attachments in email; the Sports Trainer frameworks have been in iOS forever, and likely refer to Nike+; and the Wireless Syncing frameworks are likely part of regular MobileMe syncing.
