Apple | Internet Marketing Blog

Is the press treating Apple differently without Steve Jobs?

Apple isn't the same company without Steve Jobs at the helm, but that's easy to forget when looking at the company's financial performance since its co-founder and chief visionary passed last year.

Despite questions about Apple's ability to thrive long-term without Jobs, consumers continue to snap up the company's latest and greatest products at remarkable, record-breaking rates.

by Patricio Robles 02 May 2012 16:09pm 1 comment

Microsoft News Roundup: Binging on the Nook

Following Microsoft’s acquisitions and “partnership,” palm greasing is getting more exciting by the hour.

The headlines have been coming fast since the end of Q3 11: $8.5b Skype acquisition. $250m quarterly infusion to Nokia. $24m in subsidies for Windows Mobile app developers. $1b Aol patent grab – now flipped to Facebook for $500m. Vague, behind the scenes dealing with Comcast. And now this: a $300m investment in Barnes & Nobles’ Nook division.

Something is up.

by Sam Dwyer 02 May 2012 15:32pm 2 comments

Kindle Fire now represents over half of Android tablets: report

Thanks to testimony in the Oracle-Google lawsuit over the use of Java in Android, we now know just how high Google's hopes for Android were in 2011.

According to Google VP Andy Rubin, the search giant was looking for Android tablets to account for 33% of the tablet market last year. The good news for Google was that the launch of Amazon's Kindle Fire may have brought Google within striking distance of that figure.

by Patricio Robles 27 April 2012 17:45pm 0 comments

Why do people love Instagram? Looking at GM and Apple in order to understand the appeal of altered photos

Apple’s products contrast sharply with the mid-century General Motors cars that brought the jet-age into people’s garages.

And yet, beginning in the 1920s, GM was able to snatch market dominance away from Ford by better catering to people’s fantasies – much in the same way that Apple has been able to poach market share from Microsoft and others.

2012 isn’t 1952, and cars and computers are not the same, but being able to sense and articulate a vision is still the job of marketers. What’s our vision for our own future, today? And why do so many people want to use their minimalist iPhones to take altered pictures of their friends?

by Sam Dwyer 13 April 2012 19:03pm 1 comment

Court: Apple can be involved in Lodsys patent suit

Last year, a company called Lodsys began contacting developers of iPhone and iPad apps utilizing in-app purchases, alleging that their use of in-app purchases, functionality provided for by Apple, violated a patent it owned.

Patent trolling has become so common that this wouldn't be surprising, but there was a wrinkle in Lodsys' case: Apple itself was already a licensee of the Lodsys patent in question.

by Patricio Robles 13 April 2012 16:01pm 0 comments

US sues Apple, book publishers over ebook pricing

In a move widely anticipated, the United States Justice Department today filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and some of the largest book publishers over allegations that they colluded to raise ebook prices.

The publishers named in the lawsuit are Simon & Schuster, Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin and Macmillan.

by Patricio Robles 11 April 2012 18:15pm 0 comments

Google releases better Android emulator

Ask mobile developers who work with both iOS and Android, and you'll probably hear from more than a few of them that the Android emulator is lacking. From poor performance to inconsistencies, there have been no shortage of complaints about the tool developers are provided with to test their Android apps prior to testing them on a real device.

So Google is doing what you'd expect it to do and trying to improve its emulator.

by Patricio Robles 10 April 2012 15:28pm 3 comments

What the Lumia 900 means for Nokia and Microsoft, and how they're bringing it to market

Nokia and Microsoft’s sharp-looking new phone, the Lumia 900, is coming out today, and while there are no visible signs of panic, both companies desperately need a winner.

Nokia has been struggling for years now to compete in the rapidly changing mobile market, and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 OS has achieved only 2% penetration. Both companies are in danger of being locked out entirely, and need a smash hit.

So far, the results of their labors look pretty good. But will that be good enough? Nokia lost $1.4b in 2011, which includes a fourth quarter cash payment of $250m made by Microsoft. If the Lumia isn’t a breakout, is Microsoft willing to keep Nokia afloat?

by Sam Dwyer 06 April 2012 14:59pm 4 comments

In-app purchases, subscriptions coming to Amazon's Appstore

Google may have plenty of reasons to be proud of its Android operating system, but when it comes to the Android ecosystem, another company may actually be having more success selling Android apps than Google is.

That company is Amazon, which last year launched its own Android app store, dubbed Amazon Appstore.

by Patricio Robles 03 April 2012 22:10pm 0 comments

Gingerbread still tastier to Android users than Ice Cream Sandwich

Regardless of how much money Android has generated (or, more accurately, hasn't generated) for Google, there can be little doubt that Google is pleased with the fact that it owns the second most popular mobile OS in the world.

But the popularity of Android isn't without its problems. Fragmentation, for instance, has always been an area of concern for developers and handset manufacturers, if not for Google.

by Patricio Robles 03 April 2012 21:38pm 15 comments