KEY POINTS:
It's been a good year for Apple, buoyed on the success of the iPhone and rising laptop sales. So that's all good for 2008, and soon we'll have a better idea of how 2009 looks for the Californian computer, device and digital lifestyle company.
The iPhone's progress has been stellar. According to Changewave's figures, the smartphone market is now dominated by Apple and Research In Motion (RIM makes the Blackberry). While Nokia was shaping up to be a real contender a few months ago, the Finnish cellphone maker seems to have dissipated as a contender, at least for the time being.
According to Changewave's survey, Apple's iPhone still trails the BlackBerry in terms of overall market share, but the iPhone has experienced strong growth since its inception. iPhone growth became 'explosive' with the release of the 3G model in July 2008.
RIM has just had a slew of new product launches and definitely appears capable of giving Apple a run for its money in 2009. But how satisfied are consumers with their new smartphones?
In the Changewave survey, it was found the brand new BlackBerry Storm's satisfaction was 'middle-of-the-road' - that means it's lagging behind the average rating for other RIM BlackBerry models. This may be because it's a new model with a few glitches, so perceived satisfaction may yet rebound. But Changewave drafts initial consumer satisfaction for the iPhone as dramatic.
Another indication of market strength is that the iPhone has been the most popular camera phone on Flickr for a while now, beating out even rival products toting five-megapixel cameras - the iPhone has only two megapixels. The iPhone is now far and away the leader.
Weirdly, the iPhone is starting to rival pictures taken by 'real' cameras, according to 9to5Mac. The iPhone's huge advantage is not resolution, then, but that it's an absolute cinch to immediately email a photo - to somebody, or to that Flickr account you have.
At the same time, the iPhone appears to be giving the Kindle a run for its money. The Kindle is a dedicated eBook reader sold by Amazon. Up until now, it's main rival has been the Sony E-Reader, now in its second generation.
The Kindle has an eInk screen that is 600 by 800 pixels. That's six inches diagonally, with a resolution at 167 ppi, 4-level gray scale. The iPhone's screen is much smaller at 3.5-inches. That represents 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 ppi. But while the iPhone's touchscreen is smaller and has slightly less resolution, it's capable of displaying colour. However, you buy a Kindle just to read books - for your money, an iPhone does one hell of a lot more than a Kindle.
But to me the big advantage of the Kindle is that the screen is matte - it doesn't emit light. It's like a piece of paper, if you will, upon which text appears. This makes it really easy to read, and is the way we've been used to reading for - well, a few hundred years, anyway.
Despite that, the iPhone is picking up in the device book-reader stakes. ScrollMotion, a New York mobile app developer, has concluded deals with a number of major publishing houses and is in talks with several others. It will produce newly released and best-selling eBooks as applications for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Publishers now on board include Houghton Mifflin, Simon & Schuster, Random House, Hachette and Penguin Group USA.
Wired magazine reckons these big names represent a big step forward for Apple's iTunes player-browser-online store application (Mac and PC), meaning it's becoming an eBook vendor, while the iPhone is becoming a legitimate eBook reader and competitor to products like the Kindle and the Sony E-Reader.
The first official books on ScrollMotion are already available and include titles such as Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass and titles by Christopher Paolini, Brad Meltzer and Scott Westerfeld.
There are already several eBook readers in the iTunes App Store (Stanza is a goody, especially for classics), but ScrollMotion's product is unique because stand-alone and newer in-copyright titles and best-selling novels will be available. Each ScrollMotion book is a separate application using Scroll Motion's new Iceberg reader technology. It's wrapped in the FairPlay iTunes DRM, putting Apple directly into the eBook business by allowing the firm to pick up a certain percentage of each sale.
To me, though, I still don't particularly like reading a little screen, especially when it's beaming light into my eyes while I squint at it.
If you feel the same way, a brand new Mac software app called Textcast 1 turns any text you have electronically into a spoken audio file. Then you can play it in iTunes and put it onto any iPod or iPhone to listen to when you feel like it. You can read more about Textcast 1 here, or just listen to the text in an online demo (scroll to the bottom of this page for that) ... it costs US$25 (about NZ$44) but you can try it free for seven days.
Here's listening at you.
- Mark Webster, mac.nz
