Daily Marauder

WIRELESS by Marauder

WIRELESS

Tucked away on the iPhone 2.0 version of Apple’s Application Store is a counter for the number of times that each application has been purchased . When this information is combined with an application’s price, and the uniform 30% that Apple pockets on each download, it is possible to know how much Apple is making from the App Store. As of 4PM (PST), that number hovers around $55,000. This is pretty incredible given that the iPhone 2.0 software is not officially available and App Store does not officially open till tomorrow, that bloggers have only been able to access the Apps Store for less than 18 hours, and that the 3G iPhone, with the App store built in out of the box, is not even on sale yet in the United States. If sales of applications stay at the current pace, which they won’t, because they are going to speed up dramatically, the Application Store would still provide Apple with an additional twenty million dollars of revenue per year. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/10/before-the-app-store-%E2%80%9Copens%E2%80%9D-it-has-already-made-apple-55000 7/10)

As of now (about noon California time) the iPhone 2.0 software update hasn’t officially launched yet, but everyone who cares knows that for the last five hours they could download v.2.0 anyway and access the App Store. Early download stats are coming in on the most popular apps. We’ve divided these into two lists, one for paid apps and one for free apps (there’s a big difference in download numbers). We’ll update for comparison purposes in 24 hours or so. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/10/iphone-app-store-the-early-list-of-top-downloads 7/10)

All of us iPhone fanatics are just getting our hands on the new apps, but I’ve already found one that I’m sure to consider indispensable within the next few months: Facebook’s new app. Why is it so compelling? Because it almost eliminates the need to maintain a separate contacts list on my phone. While Facebook’s web app for the iPhone was cool enough, the native app basically transforms Facebook into a mobile directory with rich information about your friends. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/10/facebooks-iphone-app-almost-replaces-my-contacts-list 7/10)

While I agree with this in principle, I can’t in practice.  While sharing information with my iPhone is a pleasurable experience, sharing information with Facebook especially when it comes to a mobile number seems more questionable given Facebook’s access to that data for whatever purposes they see fit.

With iPhone lovers paying people as much as $100 to wait in line for them in Washington, D.C., a half-mile queue forming at stores in Tokyo and the first iPhone 3G customer waiting for 55 hours in New Zealand, questions over the demand for the new iPhone have been answered. Consumers who were interviewed said they view the iPhone 3G — which went on sale around the world this morning — as more of a portable PC than a smartphone. (ClipSyndicate/Bloomberg 7/11,  The Washington Post 7/11, Bloomberg 7/11, Yahoo!/Associated Press 7/11)

iPhone relevant data points, courtesy of Nielsen Mobile:
Demographics:

67% of US iPhone users are male (compared to 48% of all mobile subs)

55% of iPhone owners are under 35 (compared to 34% of all mobile subs)

63% of iPhone users earn above $75k (compared to 38% of all mobile subscribers)

24% of iPhone owners are Hispanic

9.7% of streaming video users and 4.9% of mobile internet users own an iPhone

Popular Features/Media Consumption Habits:

75% use the phones MP3 player

68% use the Wi-Fi functionality of the phone

76% send e-mails over their phone

37% of iPhone users watch video on their phone (10X more than ave. mobile sub)

82% access the internet (5X more than ave. mobile sub)

17% stream music over their phone (7X more than ave. mobile sub)

20% play online games on their phone (9X more than ave. mobile sub)

Smartphone Market Share:
HTC                         25.2%
Research in Motion    23.4%
Palm                        19.3%
Apple                       11.6%
Source: Nielsen Mobile (Cynopsis 7/11)

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