asymco

I think it’s a certainty that Apple will introduce an ad serving platform for the iPhone (and any tablet) in 2010. This will amount to a checkbox that developers will check when submitting their app to the store. Doing so will allow Apple to place ads on the app in return for a check in [...]

The common thread among the Android fans is that Google is the agent of disruption of a hated operator business model. Since disruption is well understood (though not by many) it is fairly easy to evaluate this hypothesis. The problem with disrupting network operators is that disruption can only happen when the underlying service/product they [...]

More than half of the 3.5 million smartphones shipping to France this year should be iPhone variant, while Apple should account for about 20 percent of the entire cellphone market’s revenue. The company’s popularity will have helped smartphones as a whole more than double their share of France from 7 percent in 2008 to 16 [...]

A Google spokesperson confirmed for eWEEK that there are 16,000 Android free and paid apps, not 20,000 as others previously reported. (iTunes App store is around 120k now with over 130k apps having been “seen”). A few more data points re. Android: There are 5 Android instantiations of varying distribution through the first two weeks [...]

One observer has posted that WMM (Microsoft’s answer to iTunes App Store) has 520 apps in it now. The store launched in Nov 1 with 281 apps. That means there will be about 300 apps added in the first two months. The growth rate is therefore about 150/mo. This has to be the slowest growing [...]

My bet is we’ll see the same thing in Korea. In both Japan and Korea the incumbents mounted campaigns against the iPhone and mustered means at their disposal (including major newspapers, TV and government agencies) to hinder Apple’s entry. The reality however is that captive customers in those economies have always yearned for better products. [...]

This is active users in the US only. iPhone now tops WinMo and is second only to RIM. The only line that is going down is the dumbphone category which lost 10 million users. Those users were mostly switched to RIM and Apple. RIM gained about 4.3 million users and Apple gained about 3.5 million. [...]

In other news: Nokia shutters flagship Regent Street store in face of Apple retail’s domination – December 08, 2009 Nokia sees flat market share as Apple gains – December 02, 2009 Nokia Chief Strategist: Apple will remain a niche player in smartphones, just like in computers – November 30, 2009 Nokia to cut another 330 [...]

With a headline like that I can reduce this article to a single word: No. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/can-nokia-take-on-apple-iphone-and-rim-blackberry/article1392583/

As I mentioned, I expect the green line to extend above 100 million in 3 to 4 quarters from where it currently ends.