iPhone browsing marketshare closes in on .1%

Net Applications came out with its quarterly browser marketshare report this weekend. More surprising than the solid market share gains that the Mac platform made, was iPhone's phenomenal showing.
Edit: A second survey by Canalys is also showing huge market share for iPhone.
.09 percent may seem like an extremely small marketshare but when you consider that the iPhone has only been selling for 5 months and for most of that time was in one – albeit large – market (the U.S.), that share is amazing.

Add another .01% for the iPod touch and Apple mobile platform is one out of every thousand pageviews across the Internet. The WindowsCE platform - all of the Windows mobile platform devices put together - only managed 66% of iPhones market share. How many WinCE devices are out there? According to Gartner, MS and its partners shipped over three million Windows Mobile devices in Q1 2007. They've been selling WindowsCE devices since 1996 - over 10 years.
In under two quarters, Apple's handheld platform has passed Microsoft's over a decade-old mobile platform in terms of browser use.
Obviously this doesn't translate to handset marketshare. We know there are much more than 20 million Windows Mobile devices out there. The reason that Apple's browser marketshare is higher while its unit sales are much lower is explained easily by the oft-touted Mobile Safari browser and unlimited AT&T data plan. No guilt, pleasurable, full-browser surfing.
It's not just just Windows Mobile that is getting killed by iPhone. PSP, Playstation and WebTV combined don't even come close. The Sidekick, also, only has 1/5 of the browser marketshare. Symbian? About 1/10th.
And it doesn't stop there. Desktop platforms are starting to come into the iPhone's blast radius. Windows 95 has less than a quarter of the marketshare of the iPhone. And all of the Linux variants combined, just over five times (.57%) the market. Broken out over Red Hat, Novel, Ubuntu, etc, someone is losing to the iPhone right now. At this rate, the iPhone/iPod platform should be the third largest computing platform by the end of next year. Remember, the iPod touch is only three months old. Oh, and it is Christmas.Not a bad first five months for Apple's new handheld OSX devices.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/iphone_browsing_marketshare_closes_in_on_1

BlackBerry security exec warns of smartphone DDoS attacks

CIO - BlackBerry and smartphone security in general hasn't garnered much attention or concern over the past few year, at least from a consumer, or user, perspective. Enterprises have been invested in mobile device security since the advent of the PDA.
But that's going to have to change, thanks largely to the vast number of consumers embracing new, flashy smartphones like Apple's iPhone, Motorola's Droid and Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry Bold 9700.
This plethora of new smartphone users means the potential for gain by hackers or other online baddies looking to crack smartphone security measures is drastically increasing. The more smartphone users, the more devices that could potentially be commandeered and used in various attacks. That means smartphone users are going to have to smarten up when it comes to mobile security awareness and be more vigilant in spotting and stopping potential problems before they happen.
Scott Totzke, RIM's vice president of BlackBerry security, agrees, and he recently spoke with Reuters on the subject. Totzke told Reuters that he's concerned compromised or "rogue" smartphones could be used in the future to target and bring down wireless carrier's cellular networks via distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
Traditional DDoS attacks occur when hackers take control of large groups of computers and then order them to all access one Web site or service at the same time, overloading servers and eventually crashing or disabling the site.
Popular microblogging service Twitter was hit with a high-profile DDoS attack last August that brought the site down for hours.
RIM's Totzke warned that DDoS attacks could also be perpetrated on smartphone users, with wireless data packets being used to overload and disable carriers' wireless networks.
Reuters also spoke with Flexilis, a maker of mobile security software. The company's CTO suggests that such an attack could start with users carelessly installing infected or tainted mobile applications.
BlackBerry smartphones feature safeguards that prompt users after downloading new applications to determine whether owners want to grant the apps "Trusted Application status." And most applications require users to grant certain permissions before the software can access potentially sensitive information like location- or voice-data. But because serious smartphone-related security threats are few and far between at this point, most users simply click on through the warnings without considering the implications of downloading and installing what should be considered "untrusted" apps.
Flexilis told Reuters that it has already identified "virus-tainted" versions of well-known, and generally trusted, applications like Google's Google Maps for mobile, so avoiding dangerous apps may not be as simple as only installing applications that seem to come from reputable sources.
RIM's Totzke says the most effective way to protect yourself from BlackBerry viruses and other security threats is to aggressively monitor RIM's site for security patches and then promptly install them whenever new fixes become available.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9141107/BlackBerry_security_exec_warns_of_smartphone_DDoS_attacks

Are viruses coming to a smartphone near you?

Ever since 2004, when the first mobile virus occurred, I have been accused of scare mongering whenever I wrote anything about the potential of mobile-phone viruses to unleash denial of service attacks on mobile networks, rendering phones useless or dangerous when vital information is involved.
That's because at the time smartphones made up such a small part of the overall mobile device market and the fragmentation of operating systems didn't make it worthwhile for nefarious folks to create viruses--aside from just making them to prove they could. And besides, the only folks sounding the alarm were anti-virus companies that had a vested interest in selling products.
This week, however, Research In Motion's security chief called smartphone viruses an "area of concern," in an interview with Reuters. Scott Totzke, RIM's vice-president of BlackBerry security, gave a scenario where hackers could use smartphones to target wireless carriers with a distributed denial of service, or a DDoS attack. Totzke added that a technique involving data packets could be used to take down a mobile network and that hackers could do so using a relatively small number of smartphones.
Indeed, things are changing. Smartphones are becoming mini computers, allowing users to download virus-ridden software on their devices. Despite the fact that the smartphone OS space is highly fragmented, platforms such as the iPhone, BlackBerry and Symbian are now standouts, and smartphones have become vital business tools.
"In a way, we've already seen more serious vulnerabilities in the iPhone in a year and a half than we've seen in the whole life of Symbian and Windows mobile OSs," F-Secure chief security adviser Patrik Runald said in an article in Network World. "It shows the difficulty of squeezing these operating systems into small phones and making sure you only have the necessary parts that are required for the phone to work."
Last week, some Georgia Tech researchers got their hands on a $450,000 NSF grant to increase security on iPhones, BlackBerrys and other smartphones along with the mobile networks they run on. They also want to find ways they can help mobile operators detect malware on devices and clean them up remotely before they do significant damage. "While a single user might realize that a phone is behaving differently, that person probably won't know why," said Patrick Traynor, assistant professor at Georgia Tech's School of Computer Science, in a statement. "But a cell phone provider may see a thousand devices behaving in the same way and have the ability to do something about it."
Right now, RIM's Totzke said the best method for protecting against attacks is by regularly applying security patches released by smartphone manufacturers as they discover security problems. Few devices today have anti-virus software.
The question is: Will 2010 become the year of the mobile virus? It seems like a perfect storm is finally brewing, and it's another headache IT managers will soon have to deal with as more workers rely on smartphones to perform critical functions.--Lynnette

Read more: http://www.fiercemobileit.com/story/are-viruses-coming-smartphone-near-you/2009-11-18#ixzz0ZMFXX9OU

iPhone, Android Eye the Enterprise as the Future Grows Cloudy

As far as the enterprise is concerned, Apple's iPhone and Android-based devices are for the most part on the outside looking in. They will have plenty of opportunities in the near future, however, since the relationship between enterprises and mobility is on the verge of significant change.Despite the many headlines of 2008 and the public's infatuation with Apple's devices, BlackBerry still is firmly in charge of the enterprise. It is well ensconced due to its stellar reputation and the formidable BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), which delivers e-mail and other goodies to end-user devices using a variety of operating systems. Windows Mobile is second banana, with Symbian a strong player outside the United States, according to Forrester analyst Michele Pelino.The year ahead likely will see more emphasis put on enterprise development for the iPhone and Android. iPhone 2.0 and iPhone 3G link to the Microsoft Exchange Server, which is seen as a major step toward satisfying business users. Still to be worked through is the distribution of iPhone applications. The current model of selling apps through the App Store — alongside Ludacris tunes and Super Monkey Ball — will never gain favor with CIOs. Though it is at an even earlier stage, the introduction of several Android-based devices this year makes it a virtual certainty that the lucrative enterprise market will be targeted.Enterprises move slowly, however. Pelino says that they now are starting to ask questions about iPhone deployment. Part of the reason is that that is what the people want. "We see the enterprise taking off with the mobile 'wannabe' segment," she says. "As we look to the future, we see consumers increasingly bringing devices into the work environment. They may not be traditional mobile workers, but they still are exerting pressure from the level below. They would like to get e-mail on the devices, check calendars, file expense reports and things like that."She says that the "wannabe" segment — which is driven by younger tech-savvy people entering the workforce — is more pronounced in verticals such as health care, manufacturing and transportation. She adds that it may represent 6 percent of the work force in the next 18 months and grow into to the mid-20 percent level in five years.
Mobility, the Cloud and Great Change
Right now, writing apps for consumers "is almost the same" as doing so for enterprises, says Michael Schneider, a developer and technology transaction attorney at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati P.C., a Seattle law firm. He says the major difference is that apps aimed at the enterprise include easy ways to tap into corporate databases. "Most consumer applications don't require server interaction," he says.The status quo is changing, however, as mobilization more fully meets the cloud. The trend is toward less self-contained applications that call on processing power and stored data not located within the device.The biggest factor is that the concept of cloud computing, through the popularity of software-as-a-service and related initiatives, has moved from niche and academic to accepted and common. At the same time, 3G cellular networks have made it possible to reach mobile devices with enough data to make such networked approaches viable. The arrival of 4G — WiMax now and Long Term Evolution in the relatively near future — will push download speeds still higher and thus extend the concept. A third factor is that the revolution in user interfaces makes running complex applications on mobile devices possible for non-techies.The change will be evident in both business and consumer apps, but will be especially significant in enterprise applications, which must reach deep into corporate databases, share data more ubiquitously, and collaborate on a more regular basis with other users.The revolution in user interfaces started by the iPhone is a key. Developers, says Rob Woodbridge, the president and CEO of management software maker Rove, "have to put much more emphasis on the backend as on the client. The client is basically a presentation layer. Web 2.0 — with the browser as a way to display Web-based apps — is a perfect analogy to the mobile space. The browser is the display agent, the backend is for the processing."This already is happening. Citrix's XenApp infrastructure delivers data to any device — mobile or desktop — regardless of the operating system, says Chris Fleck, the company's vice president of Solutions Development and Community Evangelism. Higher-level functions now carried out by the operating system running on the device can migrate to XenApp servers. The advantages of this approach are that it allows the standardization across many different operating systems and that it is highly secure. "Only pixels are delivered to the device," he says.Another example of how mobile devices are reaching out is Soonr, which was introduced in early January 2009. Song Huang, the company's co-founder and chief evangelist, sees a world in which the mobile device is one of three elements vital to the execution of specific tasks. The other two, he says, are users' PCs — where users' unique data is entered and stored — and the cloud. Soonr, which is an app for the iPhone, automatically backs up PC data to the cloud, where it is indexed. Thumbnails of requested content are downloaded. At that point, the user decides if he or she wants a full download. Clearly, there is significant enterprise potential for such an approach.The structure of the mobilized environment will change during the next several years. Frank Gillett, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, says that the enterprises and independent software vendors must strike a balance between what is done on the local device and what is done in the more powerful data center, wherever in the cloud it is located. "The reality is that we are going to need some of each," he says. "They must take advantage of each where each is appropriate."The transition in the environment is tied to the increasing mobility of the populace. "The way this ties together is that as people become more mobile and rely more on smartphones, the PC and the laptop are not going away, they are just staying home more," says Citrix's Fleck. "Apps are installed on PCs. That's what is going to be moved to the cloud."

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/features/articles/blog/iphone-android-eye-the-enterprise-as-the-future-grows-cloudy/?cs=23238

iPod Touch Seen as Building Base of Future iPhone Users

Mobile analytics firm Flurry yesterday released a report promoting an interesting take on Apple's iPod touch market, one that sees its strong performance among young consumers as building a base that will naturally migrate to the iPhone as they mature.
As all industry eyes look to the iPhone, the iPod Touch is quietly building a loyal base among the next generation of iPhone users, positioning Apple to corner the smartphone market not only today, but also tomorrow. In terms of Life Stage Marketing, the practice of appealing to different age-based segments, Apple is using the iPod Touch to build loyalty with pre-teens and teens, even before they have their own phones (think: McDonalds' Happy Meal marketing strategy). When today's young iPod Touch users age by five years, they will already have iTunes accounts, saved personal contacts to their iPod Touch devices, purchased hundreds of apps and songs, and mastered the iPhone OS user interface. This translates into loyalty and switching costs, allowing Apple to seamlessly "graduate" young users from the iPod Touch to the iPhone.As part of its metrics report, Flurry reveals an iPod touch market that is growing faster than the iPhone market in terms of "user sessions", with the iPod touch increasing its session share by four percentage points over that past five months while the iPhone's share has slipped by seven percentage points.
A major factor in the growth of the iPod touch has come from games, where the iPod touch has overtaken the iPhone (49% to 46%) in the number of user sessions. The usage pattern falls in line with Apple's emphasis on promoting the iPod touch as a gaming device, a market positioning that Apple took some time to come around to.
While the iPod touch's tremendous performance, growing 100% year-over-year, has propped up lagging sales of Apple's traditional iPods, the iPhone has quickly grown to surpass the iPod division in revenue. Consequently, Apple's strategy of fostering the next generation of iPhone users via the iPod touch bodes well for the company's continued growth in the mobile market.

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/12/07/ipod-touch-seen-as-building-base-of-future-iphone-users/

IPhone Maeil Business News Service Best among S. Korean Contents

With KT iPhone taking the smart-phone market by storm at an early stage amid soaring subscribers that have already outnumbered 70,000, the newly released “Maeil Business News” service by Maeil Business Newspaper is gaining steady popularity on the App Store content market. According to Dream Wiz (Touch Connect), a developer of Maeil Business Newspaper App Store, on December 1, Maeil Business News is recording over 30,000 downloads per day, maintaining third place in the news application area. Maeil Business Newspaper earlier became the first local media to register a free new content service on the Apple App Store in October last year before iPhone was launched. In the past, readers were able to access the Maeil Business Newspaper App Store only via iPod. However, with iPhone sales began on the market from December 1, a more number of users are expected to download the Maeil Business News program via iPhone. The market is highly evaluating Maeil Business Newspaper’s sole technology which enables users to return to a previous article by clicking an upper side of an article as well as read the next article by clicking a lower side of an article. Also, users are able to send individually chosen articles to acquaintances through book mark and e-mail functions. As safety as well as marketability of Mail Business News service via the Apple iPhone, the Maeil Business Group seeks to offer other news contents including news-only channel MBN and Maekyung Economy through iPhone. The media group also plans to upgrade iPhone news application by developing a technology allowing users to check news on social network services such as Twitter and Facebook and sending breaking news.

http://news.mk.co.kr/outside/view.php?year=2009&no=620286

IPhone Has Samsung, LG Sweating

Samsung Electronics and Apple are about to duke it out in Korea's emerging ``smart'' phone market, and it looks like local Internet company, Daum (www.daum.net), will have a role in settling the bragging rights.Daum, which operates the eponymous Web portal that trails only Naver (www.naver.com) in online traffic, is having all of its 1,000 employees choose between the newly released Apple iPhone and Samsung's flagship smart phone, T-Omnia II, in the company's free phone program. Daum is desperate to get ahead in mobile Internet services, and by providing data-enabled handsets to employees for free and paying for their data expenses for the first two years, the company is looking to source innovation in-house.It remains to be seen which between the iPhone and T-Omnia II end up as the phone of choice for Daum employees, and Samsung seems eager to advise them on their happy headache.According to Daum officials, Samsung sent sales personnel to Daum's Seoul headquarters to convince the company's employees that T-Omnia II represents the better device.The iPhone is released by KT, the country's second-biggest mobile operator, while T-Omnia II is pitched by SK Telecom, the top wireless carrier that has a 50-percent-plus market share. ``We thought we were getting iPhones at first, but with T-Omnia II later becoming an option, there are more things to think about,'' said a Daum employee. ``In the past few years, we have been putting much emphasis on delivering mobile Internet services and Apple's mobile Internet devices, such as the iPhone and iPod Touch, were greatly considered when we developed new applications. So there has been a buzz in anticipation of an iPhone release among us for years, but you would have to say that T-Omnia II is an impressive device in its own right.'' Although it would be over-the-top to call the event the ``Judgment of Daum,'' it is easy to understand why the normally unflappable Samsung is touchy about the results. Less than a week after its release, iPhones are flying off Korean shelves and showing promise to shake the hierarchy of the local handset market where Samsung and its bitter industry rival, LG Electronics, have been enjoying a near-duopoly. According to latest industry figures, Samsung sold 720,000 handsets in the local market in November, accounting for 50 percent of the 1.45 million phones sold, which represented a 5.8 percent monthly increase. However, Samsung's performance represented a drop from its October numbers, when it controlled 56 percent of the handset market with 770,000 units sold. Industry watchers believe that Samsung's softer numbers are a direct result of the recent iPhone release. Samsung had controlled more than 70 percent of the country's sales of high-end handsets with full-touch screens, but with KT releasing the iPhone last Saturday, Korean wireless users were offered an intriguing alternative. Although KT isn't releasing exact figures, it is estimated that around 60,000 to 70,000 iPhones have been sold through Nov. 30, meaning that Apple's do-it-all smart phone needed just three days to gain a 5 percent market share and cement itself as the country's most popular imported premium phone. LG's 22.1 percent market share in November also represented a slight monthly drop, and the company has to be concerned that the iPhone craze might erode its demand for its new smart phone, ``Chocolate II.'' ``The presence of the iPhone is clearly reflected in the November sales figures and the numbers show that Apple has already caught up with Motorola as the fourth-largest vendor here,'' said a mobile industry official. IPhone vs T-Omnia II Although LG would like to suggest differently, the local smart phone wars seems to be bubbling down to a dual between the iPhone and T-Omnia II. Although the iPhone is generating more buzz, T-Omnia II is a hot item in its own right, despite its hefty price tag. SK Telecom currently has sold around 20,000 T-Omnia phones since its release last month, and the numbers are expected to rise by a sharper trajectory with the carrier providing larger handset subsidies to compete with the iPhone. Samsung claims that its flagship smart phone represents the superior hardware. T-Omnia II features a 3.7-inch active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) screen, which enables brighter and sharper images, and is also equipped with a 5-megapixel built-in camera, Wi-Fi, GPS and download speeds of 7.2 megabytes per second on third-generation (3G) high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) networks.Samsung's handset is powered by an 800 megahertz (MHz) microprocessor that is stronger than the 640 MHz CPU of the iPhone 3GS. Another advantage of T-Omnia II is that it has a digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) television tuner, while the iPhone doesn't support mobile television. The iPhone backers, on the other hand, fight back on the hardware arguments, claiming that the Apple's phone has the better display, despite all the talk from Samsung about AMOLED and its glamorous colors.The iPhone uses a capacitive touch screen, which relies on a layer of capacitive materials to hold an electronic charge and control the amount of charge on the specific point of contact. This allows quicker and more accurate movement than is capable on Samsung's touch-screen phones, which take the pressure-sensitive approach, experts say. The iPhone's screen also allows multi-touch functions, which Samsung has yet to support. The biggest advantage of the iPhone over Samsung's, and of any other smart phone for that matter, lies in the wealth of software, thanks to the success of Apple's App Store, its online applications store. Samsung has been gaining in its market share in the global mobile phone market, rising as the No. 2 handset vendor behind Nokia. However, the company has a smaller presence in the smart phone segment ruled by the iPhones and Blackberries of the world. Improvement in software is considered critical for Samsung to strengthen its presence in smart phones, which provide larger margins than conventional handsets. Samsung recently opened its own online applications store and is currently developing its own smart-phone operating system.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2009/12/123_56574.html

Cisco Unveils A New Advance Security App For iPhone

Networking giant Cisco has come up with a new security application for iPhone users which is designed to receive information on new security threats and provide tips for virus-free web browsing.The new app called SIO To Go iPhone, will also be uploaded on the Apple Itunes store for a free download on Friday. The application is capable of providing information about new malware signatures, bulletins for how to mitigate against threats, ways to see if particular Web sites are compromised, as well as links to podcasts and videos.It has been disclosed that the application gets its information from the company's Security Intelligence Operations (SIO) system which gathers constantly updated information from 700,000 sensors located at customer sites, ISPs, and other sites around the world. The data from different sources allows Cisco engineers to do threat correlation to detect Internet attacks and spam campaigns. SIO To Go application also lets the user check a website’s email and web reputation by just entering the IP address or domain name.Read more:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2009/11/21/cisco-unveils-new-advance-security-app-iphone/#ixzz0ZH5su4V0

5 More Things Apple's iPhone 4G May Bring In 2010

With only a few weeks left before 2010 kicks in, we're rounding up the latest things we expect to find out in the iPhone 4G (as in fourth generation).
You might want to read our previous article (5 Things the iPhone 4G Will Bring In 2010) which provides with the initial five features we expect the next iPhone to have.Apple should bring multi-tasking with the forthcoming iPhone iteration. Although most of its users have already get used to the idea of doing one thing at a time, it would make sense for the iPhone to adopt it simply because Apple is lagging behind the competition in this particular respect. It has nothing to do with the phone's hardware, more with a limitation of the OS.Another significant drawback of using the iPhone is the lack of Flash. Apple could overnight decide to support Flash and Adobe has already developed Flash-based tools for the iPhone. All the competition is already running Flash without hiccups, why can't Apple do the same?Amongst the raft of suggestions brought to our attention by our readers is Face Up/Face Down recognition which could rely on the iPhone's built in accelerometer (and compass in 3GS). In a nutshell, the phone would adopt different schemes when laid down on a flat surface (e.g. on a table during a meeting) or when held up during when talking.
One of the most requested features is native email push on the iPhone for all systems. Currently, the iPhone only provides push email if your account is on a Microsoft Exchange server or Yahoo, not if you are on POP, iMAP, AOL or Gmail. This is an essential add-on in the iPhone 4G should Apple ever want to compete effectively with RIM's Blackberry range.The App store has been one of the main reasons why the iPhone is so popular. Without it, Apple's phone would simply be just another mobile phone builder locked in a race for better hardware.
But with great success comes a management nightmare. With more than 100,000 apps currently on the market, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find the apps you want.
Either use the frustratingly slow iPhone interface or iTunes - which is equally slow. Maybe Apple should try to get Safari to do the job or think of a better way to offer access to the App Store.Reducing the time needed to search and install an App will encourage iPhone users to install more apps. By doing so, it not only increases the average number of apps installed per device but also significantly increases the chance of getting these users to buy the Apps (and bring in even more revenue).And our last bonus expectation for the iPhone in 2010 is to get a change in the form factor. Hence, we hope that Apple will launch the mythical iPhone Nano with a lower price tag; until now, the Cupertino-based company has always pushed its older versions down the pecking order when new ones were introduced, rather than refresh its whole range.

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2009/11/27/5-more-things-apples-iphone-4g-may-bring-2010/showall/#ixzz0ZH4Ma9Mm

Study: Americans consume 34 gigabytes of information per day

There’s a pretty interesting report that was just published today entitled “How much information?” It was put together by the Global Information Industry of the University of California at San Diego. It looks at the year 2008 and tries to quantify how much information the average American consumes across all forms of media: TV, newspaper, Web sites, radio, you name it. When you crunch all the numbers, it looks like the average American consumes 34 gigabytes of data every single day. (That’s 3.6 zettabytes in total.) That’s a lot, yes.
The report says that Americans consume information for an average of 12 hours per day. And this may be a dagger through some of your hearts, but “old media” (TV and radio) make up 60 percent of all consumed hours.
The word “Twitter” does not appear in the report at all. Call your congressman.
Americans consume 100,000 words per day on average. That includes all words read, all words heard, etc.
Americans are also on the computer for an average of two hours per day. It’s safe to say that everyone here at TC/CG isn’t “average” in that respect.
In other words, Americans consume a tremendous amount of information every day.

Reference : http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/12/09/study-americans-consume-34-gigabytes-of-information-per-day/

Appeal To Steve Jobs Leads To The Approval For An iPhone App

Brian Meehan, a developer working at Pointy Heads Software has apparently got his company’s Knocking Live Video iPhone app approved by Apple after writing a compassionate letter to Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs. The application had earlier been rejected by Apple. The software, Knocking Live Video allows iPhone users to stream live videos that are being shot by them to several iPhones at the same time via 3G or Wi-Fi network provided that they have the app on all of the iPhones. However, the app will not be able to transmit sound and it doesn’t allow the video viewers to record the video. According to ArsTechnica, the app got rejected because it was using the same API which Apple uses to develop its internal projects. However, the rejection of this perfectly legit app is the direct result of the faulty automatic application scan that was started by Apple to screen the apps that were sent for its approval by the developers. Recently Apple had been facing criticism from the app developer community for rejecting most of the apps that were sent its way for approval. The developers had accused Apple for having a very strict screening process for the apps.

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2009/12/2/appeal-steve-jobs-leads-approval-iphone-app/#ixzz0ZGvGXDdD

300,000 iPhone Apps By 2010 Reckons IDC...

Online marketplace already seems to be inundated with an umpteen number of apps, but if forecasts from the researchers at IDC are to be believed then we have just been exposed to a prelude of what could be referred to as "app avalanche" in the next year.
The analyst firm has come up with a list of predictions for the year 2010, out of which one portrays 2010 as the year which will see the introduction of a wide range of apps.
Announcing the predictions, the company said: “It will be a watershed year in the ascension of mobile devices as strategic platforms for commercial and enterprise developers as over one billion access the Internet, iPhone apps triple, Android apps quintuple, and Apple's "iPad" arrives.
Furthermore, the analysts were apparently very much enthused by the exploding growth that Apple App Store has showed in the recent past, as they forecast the number of iPhone and iPod to reach a whopping 300,000 by the end of the next year. The company further predicted an incredible annual growth rate of around 900 percent.

However such a mammoth figure may create problems for the users, as they wouldn’t only need to deal with more than 300,000 apps, but would also have to spend significantly more time to find out which ones to download.
The research figures appear to be overly amplified, as in order to reach this figure Apple would have to be more than lenient in its apps approval process - something, which seems unimaginable right now.

Our CommentsThere are significantly more apps available on the Windows platform and yet no one complains. Natural selection will make sure that only the best ones remain. IDC has not reported on the growth of other platforms such as Android or Windows Mobile.

Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2009/12/4/300000-iphone-apps-2010-reckons-idc/#ixzz0ZGruM6WE

Samsung Officially Launches Bada Mobile Platform

Nearly a month after it first announced it, Korean giant Samsung has officially released Bada, its Linux-based, open source mobile platform that's set to take on rival operating systems such as Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android, all of which are already sold by Samsung.
Bada, which means Ocean in Korean, is currently a platform only with the first phones expected to be available before the end of H1 2010. A developer SDK is already available on Samsung's website and Bada is set to use Samsung's mature TouchWiz user interface.
More than 50 countries will see the rollout of the platform and it seems that ultimately, Bada is only an evolution of the Samsung's current operating system with the added spice of Linux.
It is likely that during the course of 2010, Bada goodness will trickle down from high end smartphones to entry level models converting all dumb mobile phones into smartphones.
Bada will use a Flash-based UI and will be compatible with C++ plus will include a number of features such as profile and buddy management, face recognition, location triggering and programmable vibration.
More significantly, Samsung is quietly putting up an ecosystem that will allow it (and its partners) to derive significant revenues from smartphones; this includes Capcom - who will produce and port games for the platform.

Samsung is also going to provide Bada with significant backend support through dedicated Bada servers. The problem now is that Samsung wants to become like Apple and the iPhone but whether it can succeed without angering networks like Vodafone (which already has the 360) remains to be seen.Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2009/12/8/samsung-officially-launches-bada-mobile-platform/2/#ixzz0ZBBI4vVw

Mobile operators moving to boost Wi-Fi services

The recent launch of the iPhone is spurring demand for wireless Internet service on mobile devices, prompting Korea’s mobile operators to boost their Wi-Fi investments.KT, Korea’s biggest telecom company, said that next year they plan to increase the number of Nespot zones in the nation. Nespot zones are public areas that provide free wireless Internet connections to anyone within the vicinity through Wi-Fi “access points.” At present, there are around 13,000 Nespot zones nationwide but the company plans to increase that to 50,000 to 60,000 by the end of next year. After 2005, the company stopped expanding the number of Nespot zones in the country as subscriber numbers dropped from 500,000 to 300,000.SK Telecom, which had also stopped investing in Wi-Fi zones, is considering investing in the wireless Internet service again, according to industry sources yesterday. “We are not currently at the stage where we can reveal the scale of our investment [in Wi-Fi], but we are looking into reinvesting in Wi-Fi networks,” said an SK Telecom official. LG’s telecom subsidiaries, which are in the process of merging, are also reportedly seeking to expand their Wi-Fi investments next year, under a plan to introduce a “fixed mobile convergence” service, which would offer subscribers both mobile and Internet phone services at a reduced price. According to JiWire, a U.S. mobile ad company, Korea is the seventh largest Wi-Fi provider globally, with 12,814 Wi-Fi hot spots. The U.S. was in first place with 67,420 zones, followed by China with 28,678. In Korea, most Wi-Fi hot spots are KT Nespot zones and more than half of them are located in universities. Last month, KT announced that it will launch Nespot services this month in 75 McDonald’s branches in and around Seoul under a deal with Hyundai Card. In the deal, Hyundai Card ads will pop up when customers log on in the designated Nespot zones. Meanwhile, KT also said that they will automatically register iPhone customers for their Nespot service. To access KT’s Nespot service in the past, customers had to go to a KT store to get an ID and password and then they had to go to KT’s home page and register. The company officially apologized for delayed shipments of iPhones to some customers and said that these customers will be provided with 500 megabits of free 3G wireless data service until February next year.

By Cho Jae-eun [jainnie@joongang.co.kr]

아이폰으로 인터넷TV ‘아프리카’ 본다

아이폰으로 인터넷TV를 볼 수 있는 서비스가 나왔다. DMB 기능이 없는 아이폰에 TV를 보완하는 실시간 콘텐츠가 추가된 것이다.나우콤(대표 문용식)은 7일, 아프리카TV(www.afreeca.com)의 실시간 개인 방송을 볼 수 있는 아이폰 애플리케이션이 애플 앱스토어(AppStore)에 등록됐다고 밝혔다. 이 애플리케이션은 아프리카TV의 가장 인기 있는 개인 방송 500여 개를 아이폰에서 시청할 수 있는 서비스. 크게 음악방송, 게임방송, 스타 여성 BJ의 방송 등으로 구성돼 있다. 또 방송 검색하기, 정렬하기, 즐겨찾기 등 다양한 편의 기능이 포함됐다. 다음의 ‘TV팟’이 웹에 저장된 동영상을 아이폰에서 재생한다면, 아프리카TV는 현재 인터넷에서 실시간으로 생방송되고 있는 콘텐츠를 아이폰으로 동시 시청하는 방식이다.김진석 아프리카 사업부 이사는 “게임·음악·위젯 등 아이폰 애플리케이션이 다양하지만, 실시간 인터넷TV 애플리케이션 개발은 국내에서는 나우콤의 아프리카TV가 처음”이라며, “앞으로 윈도 모바일과 안드로이드 등으로 OS를 확장해 유선 인터넷에서 확보한 인터넷TV의 확고한 시장지배력을 모바일 인터넷까지 확장하겠다”고 말했다.나우콤은 앞으로 방송 제작·송출 기능도 추가할 예정이다.김진석 이사는 “이번 애플리케이션에서는 아프리카TV의 ‘방송하기’ 기능이 기술의 제약 때문에 빠진 상태”라며, “앞으로 ‘방송하기’ 기능이 추가된다면 트위터보다 더 빠르게 생생하게 사건·사고 현장을 아이폰으로 실시간 생중계할 수 있을 것”이라고 전망했다.한편, 아프리카TV의 아이폰 애플리케이션은 애플 아이튠스(iTunes)의 앱스토어(AppStore) 메뉴에서 누구나 무료로 내려받을 수 있다.

'아이폰' DMB는 없어도 '스트리밍'…관련 서비스

'아이폰' 광풍에 콘텐츠전송네트워크(CDN) 업체들이 몸을 싣고 있다. DMB 서비스가 없는 '아이폰'에 무선네트워크를 활용한 스트리밍 서비스들을 잇달아 내 놓고 있는 것.씨디네트웍스(대표 고사무열 www.cdnetworks.com)는 7일 '아이폰' 전용 스트리밍 서비스를 제공한다고 발표했다.씨디네트웍스는 CDN 기술력과 서비스 노하우를 집약한 '아이폰 스트리밍' 및 '아이폰 라이브 스트리밍' 서비스를 선보인다. '아이폰' 사용자들은 고품질 영상 콘텐츠를 즐길 수 있게 될 전망이다.씨디네트웍스는 아이폰 전용 서비스를 위해 캐싱 플랫폼을 적용했다. 라이브 어답티브 스트리밍과 라이브 리플레이 서비스를 지원하는 것이 장점이다.라이브 어답티브 스트리밍은 사용자 대역폭을 자동 감지해 사용자 환경에 가장 적합한 비트레이트로 스트리밍 하는 것이 특징이다. 이 방식을 사용할 경우 일반적인 라이브 스트리밍 방식에 비해 버퍼링을 대폭 감소시킬 수 있다.무선 네트워크 환경에서도 안정적으로 서비스가 가능하다. 라이브 리플레이 서비스는 라이브 영상을 자동으로 저장하는 기능을 제공해 다시 보기 등의 서비스에 활용 가능하다.씨디네트웍스는 아이폰 전용 서비스서 인증과 암호화 전송 등을 통해 보안 문제를 해결하는 등 아이폰 전용 인코더와의 전송 정합성도 맞춰 최상의 품질 제공에 나섰다.이에 앞서 솔루션박스(대표 박태하 www.solbox.com)도 애플 아이폰의 멀티미디어 서비스를 지원하는 'SB 아이폰 스트리밍'을 출시했다.솔루션박스의 'SB 아이폰 스트리밍'은 아이폰 사용자의 무선 네트워크 환경을 분석해 전송률을 최적화하는 어댑티브 스트리밍 기능을 기반으로 사용자 네트워크 환경 수준에 상관없이 지연이나 버퍼링 없는 쾌적한 동영상 스트리밍 서비스를 보장한다.'SB 아이폰 스트리밍'은 애플이 아이폰 운영체제(OS) 3.0 버전에서 지원하는 라이브 스트리밍 기술을 지원한다. 콘텐츠 불법 복제를 방지하는 한편 AES-128 데이터 암호화 기법을 사용해 보안을 한층 강화했다.솔루션박스는 'SB 아이폰 스트리밍'을 통해 e러닝, 방송사, UCC, 엔터테인먼트 업체 등 다양한 서비스 사업자들을 대상으로 아이폰 환경에 맞는 동영상 스트리밍 서비스를 제공한다.

http://itnews.inews24.com/php/news_view.php?g_menu=020800&g_serial=462116

Smartphone OS market share

3rd gen iPod touch gets torn down, 802.11n and possible camera slot found...

There's no denying that Apple let the entire world (yes, even the native Easter Islanders) down by not shoving a camera of some sort into its iPod touch, but if a delicate teardown completed by the screwdriver-wielding fiends over at iFixit is any indication, a seasoned modder could certainly add one. A 6- x 6- x 3-millimeter space was spotted between a Broadcom chip and the wireless antenna, which is reportedly not enough room for an iPhone-esque sensor, but just enough space for the video camera module found in the 5G iPod nano. In potentially more interesting news, the aforesaid Broadcom BCM4329 chip actually supports 802.11n. For the nerds in attendance, you'll recognize that even the iPhone 3GS can't handle those high-speed airwaves. Furthermore, the chip supports FM transmission, so at least theoretically, the device could stream tunes to your old school stereo through an open FM station. Eager for more? Tap that read link, buster.

By Darren Murph

As for the 802.11n

KT '무선랜' 6배 이상 빨라진다

KT가 통신사업자 무선 정책의 한 축으로 부상한 무선랜(WI-FI) 경쟁력 확보에 나섰다. 기존 제품보다 6배 이상 빠른 IEEE 802.11n 제품을 도입, 상대적으로 뒤져 있는 무선랜 경쟁력을 일거에 만회할 계획이다.6일 KT 등 관련 업계에 따르면 KT는 최근 802.11n 무선랜 장비 도입을 위한 ‘홈허브 액세스포인트(AP)장비’ 구매 작업에 착수했다. 최근 관련 장비업체를 대상으로 정보제안요청서(RFI)를 접수했다.

일반 기업에서 802.11n 장비를 도입한 기업들은 많지만 통신사업자가 802.11n 무선랜 장비 도입을 추진하는 것은 KT가 처음이다. KT는 이 장비를 통해 유무선통합(FMC) 전략의 완성도를 한층 높이게 될 전망이다.특히 인터넷 등 다양한 유선 서비스의 사용자 접점을 모두 무선화할 수 있다는 점에서 다양한 FMC 전략 구사가 가능하다. 또 향상된 성능을 기반으로 홈네트워크, IPTV 등 대용량 데이터 전송이 필요한 사업과도 연계할 수 있다.

이 같은 KT의 최신 무선랜 도입은 다른 통신사업자의 전략에도 영향을 미칠 전망이다.
“벨킨 아이폰 액세서리, 매장 인터넷전화(VoIP) 사업을 통해 160만대 이상의 AP를 확보한 LG데이콤 등 통신사업자들이 기존에 보급한 무선랜은 최대 54Mbps의 속도를 낼 수 있는 802.11g 표준 장비다. 최대 54Mbps의 속도를 이야기하지만, 유효 속도와 사용자 간 나눠써야 하는 점을 고려하면 실제 성능은 더 떨어진다. 음성 위주의 현재 서비스 수준에는 부족함이 없지만, 급증하는 데이터 용량과 향후 전개될 다양한 FMC 전략을 감안할 때 한계가 있다. KT가 통신사업자 중에서는 가장 먼저 802.11n 도입에 관심을 갖는 이유다.KT 관계자는 “일단 기존 장비를 업그레이드하는 차원에서 접근하고 있다”며 “향후 IPTV나 홈네트워크 등 다양한 사업 추진에도 도움이 될 것으로 생각한다”고 밝혔다.

한편 IEEE 802.11n 무선랜은 지난 9월 표준이 완성된 차세대 제품이다. 현재 최대 전송속도는 300Mbps, 유효속도는 180Mbps다. 기존 802.11g 장비의 최대속도 54Mbps보다 이론상 6배 빠르다. 주파수 간섭이 심한 2.4㎓ 대역에서도 기존 802.11g 장비보다 2배 이상의 성능을 낼 수 있다.

홍기범기자 kbhong@etnews.co.kr