iPhone SDK evidence Apple has learned from past mistakes
The iPhone software developers kit (SDK) introduced by Apple on Thursday is proof the company is determined not to replicate mistakes made during the onset of its Mac platform, investment bank Piper Jaffray said Friday.
In research note released to clients, analyst Gene Munster said the announcements represent a substantial investment in creating a robust developer community aimed at producing a feature-rich mobile software platform, for which the iPhone and iPod touch are the first beneficiaries.
"Whereas Apple lacked a full developer community for the Mac in the 1980s, the company is taking precautions not to let limited developer support hinder the iPhone platform," he wrote. "The platform with the most active developer community will likely win the battle in the mobile computing arena."
In addition, Munster said the proliferation of third-party applications is a critical step in the future of the iPod, which has been met with its first signs of demand softness over the past several quarters. He believes the advent of "this feature-rich Internet-connected platform," coupled with lower pricing, will inevitably spark a new chapter of growth for the devices which have recently shown signs of flirting with their saturation point in the market.
However, some challenges to this approach remain, according to the analyst, such as cost reduction. For example, a tear-down analysis of the iPhone and iPod touch suggests that Apple pays $15 for the Wi-Fi module in the devices and roughly $30 for the touch-screen.
"For a $99 or $149 iPod, these costs apply margin pressure that will force Apple to innovate around the idea of an Internet connected iPod, which requires a larger screen than current iPod nanos, and an improved user input interface (like multi-touch technology)," Munster wrote. "We believe Apple is developing such solutions that will enable the company to deliver lower cost, Wi-Fi connected iPods in the near future."
The analyst also advised clients that the company has licensed Microsoft's ActiveSync technology, and thus plans to include support for enterprise-grade "push" email as part of a June software update to the iPhone. Nevertheless, he said, Apple still faces an uphill battle against Blackberry maker Research in Motion (RIM), whose approach towards push email funnels messages through Network Operations Center (NOC) in Canada, which is less taxing on its handset's battery life and thus results in an excellent user experience.
"So, the new iPhone features put the device on equal footing with Windows Mobile devices, but RIM offers a unique solution for enterprise customers," Munster explained. "Additionally, most businesses using the Blackberry platform have also purchased specialized hardware, which represents a significant hurdle for widespread iPhone adoption in business environments. Apple's move enables the iPhone to begin competing with Blackberry and Windows Mobile, but some hurdles to adoption remain, like the cost of the iPhone."
In a research note to his own clients, American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu shared a similar view on the matter.
"From the demo and our checks with beta testers, Apple's implementation of ActiveSync appears superior to existing ActiveSync implementations by other vendors," he wrote. "[However,] we continue to believe it is difficult to replicate Blackberry's robust push e-mail, but iPhone has improved their product and is preaching the benefits of a simpler architecture [...]. While this is an improvement, Apple has a long road ahead in making inroads in Enterprise."
Both Munster and Wu maintained their Buy rating on shares of Apple, making no changes to their model. However, both said Thursday's announcements reinforce their convictions that Cupertino-based company is well on its way to surpassing its goal of selling 10 million iPhones in calendar year 2008.
In research note released to clients, analyst Gene Munster said the announcements represent a substantial investment in creating a robust developer community aimed at producing a feature-rich mobile software platform, for which the iPhone and iPod touch are the first beneficiaries.
"Whereas Apple lacked a full developer community for the Mac in the 1980s, the company is taking precautions not to let limited developer support hinder the iPhone platform," he wrote. "The platform with the most active developer community will likely win the battle in the mobile computing arena."
In addition, Munster said the proliferation of third-party applications is a critical step in the future of the iPod, which has been met with its first signs of demand softness over the past several quarters. He believes the advent of "this feature-rich Internet-connected platform," coupled with lower pricing, will inevitably spark a new chapter of growth for the devices which have recently shown signs of flirting with their saturation point in the market.
However, some challenges to this approach remain, according to the analyst, such as cost reduction. For example, a tear-down analysis of the iPhone and iPod touch suggests that Apple pays $15 for the Wi-Fi module in the devices and roughly $30 for the touch-screen.
"For a $99 or $149 iPod, these costs apply margin pressure that will force Apple to innovate around the idea of an Internet connected iPod, which requires a larger screen than current iPod nanos, and an improved user input interface (like multi-touch technology)," Munster wrote. "We believe Apple is developing such solutions that will enable the company to deliver lower cost, Wi-Fi connected iPods in the near future."
The analyst also advised clients that the company has licensed Microsoft's ActiveSync technology, and thus plans to include support for enterprise-grade "push" email as part of a June software update to the iPhone. Nevertheless, he said, Apple still faces an uphill battle against Blackberry maker Research in Motion (RIM), whose approach towards push email funnels messages through Network Operations Center (NOC) in Canada, which is less taxing on its handset's battery life and thus results in an excellent user experience.
"So, the new iPhone features put the device on equal footing with Windows Mobile devices, but RIM offers a unique solution for enterprise customers," Munster explained. "Additionally, most businesses using the Blackberry platform have also purchased specialized hardware, which represents a significant hurdle for widespread iPhone adoption in business environments. Apple's move enables the iPhone to begin competing with Blackberry and Windows Mobile, but some hurdles to adoption remain, like the cost of the iPhone."
In a research note to his own clients, American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu shared a similar view on the matter.
"From the demo and our checks with beta testers, Apple's implementation of ActiveSync appears superior to existing ActiveSync implementations by other vendors," he wrote. "[However,] we continue to believe it is difficult to replicate Blackberry's robust push e-mail, but iPhone has improved their product and is preaching the benefits of a simpler architecture [...]. While this is an improvement, Apple has a long road ahead in making inroads in Enterprise."
Both Munster and Wu maintained their Buy rating on shares of Apple, making no changes to their model. However, both said Thursday's announcements reinforce their convictions that Cupertino-based company is well on its way to surpassing its goal of selling 10 million iPhones in calendar year 2008.
Comments
Apple still faces an uphill battle against Blackberry maker Research in Motion (RIM), whose approach towards push email funnels messages through Network Operations Center (NOC) in Canada, which is less taxing on its handset's battery life and thus results in an excellent user experience.
Can someone explain what this means? What is NOC and how does it help the battery life of a phone?
some hurdles to adoption remain, like the cost of the iPhone
I dunno. At $399 the iPhone seems pretty competitive. The main cost seems to be the flash RAM, and that should be falling steadily in the future. And anyway, the real cost is the subscription, which around $60 a month adds up to around $1500 over 2 years. That's very competitive. So what exactly are these guys complaining about?
Can someone explain what this means? What is NOC and how does it help the battery life of a phone?
Someone with real knowledge of the matter will likely give a lot better answer, but I think the basic idea is: with an NOC, if your device is asleep (or out of range), the message gets cached on a server, and when your device is in back on, it can then get its messages gracefully. Without an NOC, the device has to keep a little more power going to some of its chips, continually listening for messages.
I think that's what they're talking about. Anybody out there, feel free to obviate this explanation with a better one
Can someone explain what this means? What is NOC and how does it help the battery life of a phone?
The best way to understand this is to watch the streaming presentation Apple made.
It's available on their website.
Whereas Apple lacked a full developer community for the Mac in the 1980s
I don't agree with this. I was a novice programmer at the time and I felt that Apple and others provided plenty of info to develop applications for the Mac. I've had more trouble learning Cocoa now than I did back in the 1980's. I wish I had held onto the Phonebook though (this was a phonebook looking thing that had all of the system routines).
AND, so can any of a number of any size mobile devices.....iTablet for example.
All that is missing is Ink implementation as input mode. SInce it is OS X Ink is already there.
I dunno. At $399 the iPhone seems pretty competitive. The main cost seems to be the flash RAM, and that should be falling steadily in the future. And anyway, the real cost is the subscription, which around $60 a month adds up to around $1500 over 2 years. That's very competitive. So what exactly are these guys complaining about?
I watched the Quicktime video from yesterday. Up until then, I naively thought that the "iPhone isn't Enterprise-ready" crowd wasn't appreciating the full power of the iPhone. But after seeing that list of features they're gonna add to the 2.0 iPhone OS, I became convinced that I simply don't know anything about that world. OMG that's a lot of stuff you need to have a business-friendly phone! I decided at that point that I just needed to hear what the analysts say about business needs and not pass judgment. One of two things will happen. First, it might be like the iPod, where the criticism demonstrated short-sightedness on the part of the analysts, and it turned out that there was sufficient value in the product after all to warrant sales. Or second, it might be that the analysts are right and Apple will have to bend somewhere. I suspect it's gonna be #1. I take it from your post that you're of a like mind. But if we're wrong, Apple will adjust. (There's a third option that I think is very unlikely: the price is wrong, and Apple lets the product die because they can't admit it. That might have happened 10-15 years ago, but this is a different company
The iPhone SDK is NOT limited to an iPhone. The iPod Touch can use it.
++
It's really surprising how many people have asked the "what about iPod Touch" question. For those of you with a Touch, be at your ease. You'll be playing Super Monkey Ball too
The analyst also advised clients that the company has licensed Microsoft's ActiveSync technology, and thus plans to include support for enterprise-grade "push" email as part of a June software update to the iPhone. Nevertheless, he said, Apple still faces an uphill battle against Blackberry maker Research in Motion (RIM), whose approach towards push email funnels messages through Network Operations Center (NOC) in Canada, which is less taxing on its handset's battery life and thus results in an excellent user experience.
...results in an excellent user experience? Yeah, I guess. Unless the NOC goes down (like it has numerous times over the last year), leaving users unable to get to their email for hours at a time (and in a couple of cases, days).
Yeah, that's an excellent user experience.
Sorry, having a single point of failure like RIM has with their system is not an excellent user experience. If Apple's implementation is as smooth as they showed yesterday, RIM's last advantage will be only to those who don't like the touchscreen keyboard and prefer the tactile Blackberry keyboard.
...results in an excellent user experience? Yeah, I guess. Unless the NOC goes down (like it has numerous times over the last year), leaving users unable to get to their email for hours at a time (and in a couple of cases, days).
Yeah, that's an excellent user experience.
Sorry, having a single point of failure like RIM has with their system is not an excellent user experience. If Apple's implementation is as smooth as they showed yesterday, RIM's last advantage will be only to those who don't like the touchscreen keyboard and prefer the tactile Blackberry keyboard.
So that was a dig at RiM, I thought so but wasn't sure.
Nice to see that analysts can occasionally lead (than always follow) with their views on a company.
We had Win98 in our organization for years... transitioned slowly to XP. IT didn't one day say "every computer will now have XP!" Since the iPhone has zero infrastructure cost there is no barrier to phasing it in... to trying it and see how a few execs/sales people like it.
Now of course there is support overhead for the iPhone so there is added time for the IT department. But they won't have the order big expensive servers.
The other thing I keep coming back to: unless I'm missing something on this junk BB device I have sitting in a drawer, I can't access legitimate web apps (or useful third party apps) on it. I truly foresee the iPhone as a 75% replacement for a laptop while on the road once I have CISCO VPN and Exchange support on it in addition to the true web functionality it has. The ads right now say "internet in your pocket" but it should say "computer in your pocket".
The iPhone SDK is NOT limited to an iPhone. The iPod Touch can use it.
AND, so can any of a number of any size mobile devices.....iTablet for example.
All that is missing is Ink implementation as input mode. SInce it is OS X Ink is already there.
I've noticed on various blogs that many people were unsure whether the SDK was also available for the iPod Touch. Just to make it clear, right at the end of the Quicktime video presentation yesterday, Jobs confirmed that the same SDK will be available for the Touch, but at a small fee due to Apple's accounting idiosyncracies!
I have to say that the Quicktime Video presentation was amazing, and should definitely be viewed.
I've been waiting for this SDK to come out so I could buy one for my wife, but I've read that the volume is very poor. Can anyone confirm this, please? Thanks for any info on this....
my favorite part...
...results in an excellent user experience?
Try setting your iphone to check email every 5 minutes and compare the battery life to manual email check. It's a huge difference. I'm guessing this is what they are referring to as a longer battery life does lead to an improved user experience. Server outages are temporary annoyances. Short battery life is a permanent annoyance. We will have to wait and see how the battery is affected by push email on the iPhone.
I've noticed on various blogs that many people were unsure whether the SDK was also available for the iPod Touch. Just to make it clear, right at the end of the Quicktime video presentation yesterday, Jobs confirmed that the same SDK will be available for the Touch, but at a small fee due to Apple's accounting idiosyncracies!
I have to say that the Quicktime Video presentation was amazing, and should definitely be viewed.
I've been waiting for this SDK to come out so I could buy one for my wife, but I've read that the volume is very poor. Can anyone confirm this, please? Thanks for any info on this....
The SDK is not something you buy for your wife or somebody else. First of all, it is free. Second, it is only for people who want to write applications for the Touch/iPhone. In June, you will gain the ability to add such applications to your Touch or iPhone. Until then, some people will be able to test their applications on the devices if they have the proper authorization - all others must test theirs using the simulator included with the SDK.
In short, this is probably not for you. Wait till June, when you will pay a small fee and get iPod Touch Software version 2.0 for a small price.
The SDK is not something you buy for your wife or somebody else.
I took his post to be saying that he was waiting for the SDK to come out before buying his wife an iPhone. This is supported by his concern about the volume on the iPhone at the end.
Now, why this poster would be waiting for an SDK (and not the actual applications) before purchasing for a third party is an open question. Maybe he just wanted to be sure Apple was serious about 3rd party support before he bought...
Any info in the iPhone volume anyone?
Try setting your iphone to check email every 5 minutes and compare the battery life to manual email check. It's a huge difference. I'm guessing this is what they are referring to as a longer battery life does lead to an improved user experience. Server outages are temporary annoyances. Short battery life is a permanent annoyance. We will have to wait and see how the battery is affected by push email on the iPhone.
That doesn't make sense to me. We have "push phone calls" (the phone rings when you get a call you don't check every minutes to see if somone is calling) and that's not a huge battery drain.