iPhone SDK rumors; Apple a Top 10 handset vendor; more...

[AppleInsider]

While Apple appears to be ready to unleash its iPhone SDK to developers, the version that arrives next week may be far from final. Meanwhile, the company last quarter crept its way onto the list of the world's Top 10 handset vendors. And it appears as if the iTunes operator will fall short of meeting claims to have 1000 movies available for rent by month's end.

SDK still in beta?

It's possible that Apple will introduce a version of the iPhone software developers kit (SDK) next week which is far from complete, according to claims by SetteB.IT.

Citing their own sources, the overseas publication said it believes only a beta version of the SDK will be made available to prospective iPhone and iPod touch developers at March 6th iPhone software roadmap event in Cupertino.

A finalized version is reportedly targeted for a release during the second week of June, when Apple is expected to hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Apple a Top 10 handset vendor

Meanwhile, new data released by Market research firm Gartner on Wednesday list Apple amongst the world's Top 10 handset vendors for the first time, with less than one percent of the global market.

Blackberry maker Research in Motion also joined the elite ranks for the first time, while Motorola's fall from grace continued with its slice of the market sliding from 21.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 to 14.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Nokia continued to lead the field with a 37.8 percent of the market, up from 34.8 in the same period of 2006.

Overall, Gartner said that worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users surpassed 1.15 billion units in 2007, a 16 per cent increase from 2006 sales of 990.9 million.

iPhone satisfaction outshines Blackberry in enterprise

ChangeWave on Thursday said that while Apple still has a relatively small share of the corporate smartphone market (5 percent), the company’s iPhone continues to grab sky-high satisfaction ratings. Nearly three-in-five (59 percent) of Apple’s business customers say their company is Very Satisfied with the Apple iPhone.

RIM Blackberry ranked second with a Very Satisfied rating of 47 percent, though the survey notes this represents an unusually large 8 point decline from the previous measure.

Palm receives its lowest corporate satisfaction rating yet, according to the firm, with only 10 percent of corporate users saying their company is Very Satisfied with the Palm Treo.

Apple short of 1000 movie goal

One AppleInsider tipster notes that Apple has approximately 36 hours to add over 600 more iTunes movie rentals to its iTunes store before it falls short of chief executive Steve Jobs' claim to have 1000 flicks available by the end of the month.

As of Thursday morning, the iTunes store listed just over 350 movies available for rent.

Up to $600 in MacBook, MacBook Pro rebates

Finally, it should be noted that Apple authorized reseller Mac Mall on Wednesday incorrectly listed rebates on Apple's new line of Penryn-based MacBook Pros at $75. Mac Mall has since updated its website and is now offering $150 rebates on all three of the new models.

Similarly, the retailer continues to list $75-$100 rebates on the Penryn-based MacBook. And AppleInsider reader, Rob, notes that J & R Computer World is also having its own MacBook and MacBook Pro rebate extravaganza -- only on previous generation models where its offering instant savings of between $100 and $600.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[YodaMac]

When you mention 798 movies for rent in iTunes, are you neglecting to include the HD movies available for rent through AppleTV.

There are actually several "discrepancies" between what is available through iTunes and what is available through AppleTV interface. I'm chalking it up to AppleTV "growing pains".

I regularly visit the site AppleTVJunkie.com, as they are attempting to keep track of all the HD movies offered (and some SD content as well) and help clear up some of the confusion between iTunes and AppleTV.

[sausage&Onion]

It's as we feared. I was sure that the SDK was going to be further delayed. I hope that this rumor is merely THAT, although this roadmap nonsense stinks of disappointment. I'm starting to worry that there may be hardware differences in the rumored 3G iPhone that will be necessary for independent apps.

[FreeState]

Im not sure where AI is getting its numbers, but according to iTunes they are wrong.

There are 741 movies avaible to buy or rent - however in iTunes you can go to the power search and find only those for rent.

G rated rentals: 32
PG rated rentals: 69
PG-13 rated rentals: 104
R rated rentals: 148
Total: 353

There are only 353 titles available for rent according to iTunes.

Total movies

G rated: 93
PG rated: 149
PG-13 rated: 197
R rated: 302
total: 741

There are 741 titles available to buy and/or rent according to iTunes.

[razorpit]

Originally Posted by sausage&Onion

It's as we feared. I was sure that the SDK was going to be further delayed. I hope that this rumor is merely THAT, although this roadmap nonsense stinks of disappointment.

I'm not really fearing anything, it's software devolpement. Sometimes you hit your target date sometimes you don't. At any rate there is progress being made and I'm sure once it's complete it will be completely worth the wait. Relax, take a pill, it will be here sooner than you realize.

[fraklinc]

itunes has 798 movies in total, but only about 1/2 are rentals.

[fraklinc]

Originally Posted by FreeState

Im not sure where AI is getting its numbers, but according to iTunes they are wrong.

There are 741 movies avaible to buy or rent - however in iTunes you can go to the power search and find only 3 for rent.

G rated rentals: 32
PG rated rentals: 69
PG-13 rated rentals: 104
R rated rentals: 148
Total: 353

There are only 353 titles available for rent according to iTunes.

Total movies

G rated: 93
PG rated: 149
PG-13 rated: 197
R rated: 302
total: 741

There are 741 titles available to buy or rent according to iTunes.

if you click on all rentals, itunes will show 381 littles, but it looks like some of them have not index properly yet cause for example, Austin powers & harry potter although they are available for rent they're not on the list if of rentals. if you look at the all rentals pages they are 19 pages with 21 tittles per page, except for page 19 that only holds 3 tittles

[Hattig]

Originally Posted by fraklinc

itunes has 798 movies in total, but only about 1/2 are rentals.

At least you won't have the dilemma of choice problem ...

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by YodaMac

When you mention 798 movies for rent in iTunes, are you neglecting to include the HD movies available for rent through AppleTV.

Are the movies available in HD not available at all in iTunes outside of AppleTV? Unless that's the case, there's nothing to add. Making it available in HD does not make it another movie.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by FreeState

Im not sure where AI is getting its numbers, but according to iTunes they are wrong.

There are 741 movies avaible to buy or rent - however in iTunes you can go to the power search and find only those for rent.

G rated rentals: 32
PG rated rentals: 69
PG-13 rated rentals: 104
R rated rentals: 148
Total: 353

There are only 353 titles available for rent according to iTunes.

Total movies

G rated: 93
PG rated: 149
PG-13 rated: 197
R rated: 302
total: 741

There are 741 titles available to buy or rent according to iTunes.

There are 353 titles that are only for Rent and 741 that are for rent or sale? That is 1094. What about titles that are only for purchase?

Or do you mean "buy and/or rent"?

[GQB]

Originally Posted by sausage&Onion

It's as we feared. I was sure that the SDK was going to be further delayed. I hope that this rumor is merely THAT, although this roadmap nonsense stinks of disappointment. I'm starting to worry that there may be hardware differences in the rumored 3G iPhone that will be necessary for independent apps.

Right... Apple is going to release an SDK totally for hardware that doesn't exist yet, and orphan 6-month old technology. Can we be a little more paranoid?

[FreeState]

Originally Posted by solipsism

There are 353 titles that are only for Rent and 741 that are for rent or sale? That is 1094. What about titles that are only for purchase?

Or do you mean "buy and/or rent"?

Buy and/or rent - sorry for the confusion. There are only 741 according to the power search on iTUnens.

[solipsism]

I just checked iTunes. (Home => Movies = All Movies)
There are 38 pages with 21 titles on each page and 3 titles on the 39th page. (38 x 21 + 3 = 801)

• Did Jobs state "movies" or "rental movies" during the keynote?
• Are there movies available on the AppleTV that aren't available via iTunes? For instance, HD movies or movies that the studios didn't want available on a proper computer for fear of pirating?

Originally Posted by FreeState

Buy and/or rent - sorry for the confusion. There are only 741 according to the power search on iTUnens.

Thanks. I was being a dumbass; I should have figured that out.

[FreeState]

Originally Posted by solipsism

I just checked iTunes. (Home => Movies = All Movies)
There are 37 pages with 21 titles on each page and 3 titles on the 38th page. (38 x 21 + 3 = 801)

• Did Jobs state "movies" or "rental movies" during the keynote?
• Are there movies available on the AppleTV that aren't available via iTunes? For instance, HD movies or movies that the studios didn't want available on a proper computer for fear of pirating?




Thanks. I was being a dumbass; I should have figured that out.

No problem

I think Apple is having some iTunes Database problems - you would think the Power Search would bring everything up. Im wondering if there are titles on those 19 pages that are no longer available (there are some titles that are being reported as unavailable when you click rent - sorry no example but there are several posts about it on Apples forums - also the movie 300 and a couple others have totally disappeared from iTunes for some reason).

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by FreeState

I think Apple is having some iTunes Database problems - you would think the Power Search would bring everything up. Im wondering if there are titles on those 19 pages that are no longer available (there are some titles that are being reported as unavailable when you click rent - sorry no example but there are several posts about it on Apples forums - also the movie 300 and a couple others have totally disappeared from iTunes for some reason).

300 was a title that was showing up but wouldn't let me rent it for a couple days. They certainly seem to be having some issues. Despite this, with Apple's experience in delivering online media I wonder if other companies would have a much more difficult getting it to function as smoothly as Apple has.

[Ronbo]

Originally Posted by sausage&Onion

It's as we feared. I was sure that the SDK was going to be further delayed. I hope that this rumor is merely THAT, although this roadmap nonsense stinks of disappointment. I'm starting to worry that there may be hardware differences in the rumored 3G iPhone that will be necessary for independent apps.

Well, if they can release a 3G iPhone without there being any hardware differences, that'll be pretty impressive. But I understand what you mean. OS X does a great job of abstracting the nitty and the gritty of hardware details. There are a variety of problems that have to be overcome in order to make this SDK. And in the scheme of things, I imagine that 2G hardware vs 3G hardware is waaaay low on the list.

Originally Posted by GQB

Right... Apple is going to release an SDK totally for hardware that doesn't exist yet, and orphan 6-month old technology. Can we be a little more paranoid?

Yes. Yes, we can.

Seriously though, razorpit, GQB, and the late great Douglas Adams are right: Don't Panic. This is a complicated project. This is an entirely new platform being created here -- OS X or not. OS X will help abstract the hardware layer so that the impact of changes are minimized. But there are entirely new paradigms of how to interact with fingers on a small screen being worked out. They're treading new ground. It'll happen. Don't ask for it sooner than it's ready.

[FreeState]

Originally Posted by solipsism

• Did Jobs state "movies" or "rental movies" during the keynote?
• Are there movies available on the AppleTV that aren't available via iTunes? For instance, HD movies or movies that the studios didn't want available on a proper computer for fear of pirating?

Missed those first two on the first reply LOL:

Apple said rentals:

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/01/15itunes.html

"iTunes Movie Rentals launches today and will offer over 1,000 titles by the end of February, including over 100 titles in stunning high definition video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound which users can rent directly from their widescreen TV using Apple TV."

I dont know about the HD question - I suspect that if they are in HD its almost 100% likely its in SD too - but thats just a guess.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Apple a Top 10 handset vendor

Apples unit is very nice, but saying it's in the top ten makers isn't necessarily saying much.

[nevenmrgan]

Originally Posted by Ronbo

This is a complicated project. This is an entirely new platform being created here -- OS X or not. OS X will help abstract the hardware layer so that the impact of changes are minimized. But there are entirely new paradigms of how to interact with fingers on a small screen being worked out. They're treading new ground. It'll happen. Don't ask for it sooner than it's ready.

I, for one, don't particularly need any additional app - I'm happy with my iPhone as it is. That said, if Apple delays the functioning SDK until June or so - and a beta which can't produce working, installable apps doesn't count - this is surely slightly worrying.

If you're an investor, expect the stock to get slapped a little (unless the corporate features are amazing).

If you're a developer, you don't get to ship any apps for months. I know a number of people who are committed to the February deadline, expecting to have early apps out in March. Telling them to chill after Apple committed to February is disingenuous.

Finally, if you're an iPhone user in need of a professional app of some sort, this is clearly frustrating, and it will encourage further jailbreakings.

The point is not that I want a half-baked SDK earlier rather than a good one later; the point is that Apple said they would deliver it at a certain time, and even that date was set too late according to many.

I'm prepared to be wrong on all these points on the 6th. I sure hope I will be.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by solipsism

I just checked iTunes. (Home => Movies = All Movies)
There are 38 pages with 21 titles on each page and 3 titles on the 39th page. (38 x 21 + 3 = 801)

Doing the same search again there are now only 37 pages x 21 per page = 777 titles.

WTH is going on?

[melgross]

Originally Posted by solipsism

Doing the same search again there are now only 37 pages x 21 per page = 777 titles.

WTH is going on?

Heh! It's pretty simple, If a movie is being rented a lot, Apple runs out of it.