IDC released their quarterly report on worldwide smartphone market share by operating system today, and the chart looks more or less as you'd expect: Android has kept ballooning (59% market share), while iOS maintained a respectable second place (23%), while Symbian (6.8%) and BlackBerry (6.4%) continued their downward spirals. Windows Phone growth saw decent 26.9% growth since last year, but that still only amounts to 2.2% market share. All in all, 152.3 million smartphones were shipped in Q1 2012, which is 49.9% more than the same quarter in 2011.

With these trends continuing, it won't be long before BlackBerry and Symbian barely even show up on the radar and the smartphone game becomes a two-horse race - some would argue it already is. Between Apple and Google's operating systems, 80% of the world's smartphones are accounted for. I'm really curious to see if Windows Phone can manage to claw enough mindshare to become a viable third option, but it seems more likely that it will be a bit player just like RIM. It's interesting to see that even after a year of Nokia announcing its retirement Symbian it's still commanding the market share that it is. Despite the nosedive, BlackBerry hasn't managed to squeak up over Symbian market share, and at the going rate, they probably won't be able to swing it next quarter either. IDC actually had some advice for those lower on the food chain.

In order for operating system challengers to gain share, their creators and hardware partners need to secure developer loyalty. This is true because developer intentions or enthusiasm for a particular operating system is typically a leading indicator of hardware sales success.

Source: IDC

The annual Millward Brown BrandZ survey was released recently, with Apple holding fast to its number one spot. Apple's brand worth for 2012 actually grew 19% since last year to $183 billion, followed by IBM with $116 billion brand worth, and Google which dropped a down a rank. It's worth noting that telecom and tech brands claimed about 44% of the top 100 chart's value, compared to a third in 2006. Among the carriers, AT&T still claimed a higher brand value than Verizon, but Verizon has a lot more forward momentum. The Brandz survey spanned over 380 categories, and was generated after over 65,000 different brand measurements in 41 countries.

It's not a huge surprise to see Apple's brand value so high, and one would expect the trend to continue well into next year. In fact, the effectiveness of Apple's branding has gotten to the point where competitors can't help but attack the cult-ish mindset in courts. Apple has created an iconic brand with no small help from their marketing efforts, retail locations, and not to mention world-class products. In fact, at this point it's hard to imagine many other companies being able to command the same clout among the masses as Apple has. Seriously, what could other manufacturers even do to  recreate the same kind of mystique as Apple without just looking like a copycat?

Brand value has real tangible returns, and isn't just an indicator of how good Apple is at marketing itself; UBS Research showed not long ago that iPhone users are overwhelmingly the most likely to stick with Apple for their next device out of every smartphone manufacturer. That's part and parcel of having a strong brand.

You can download the full BrandZ 2012 report here, which is actually really, really detailed. Included are a bunch of interesting editorials on marketing across a variety of industries and regional trends.

Source: Reuters

Mobile game developer and publisher MocoSpace recently polled 10,000 players to find out "Y U Play?", and the most striking data showed that a whooping 31% if respondents were playing games in the middle of class.  Just about as many respondents were playing mobile games because they were bored as those who played because they actually enjoy the games. Those two categories combined made up two thirds of the top reasons. 10% were looking for competition, 9% were trying to meet new people, 6% were just trying something new 3% were looking for somewhere to flirt(!), 3% played because they were always on the go, 2% played to connect with friends, and 1% to connect with family.

I could only imagine that it's an uphill battle for educators to keep the attention of younger generations that were pretty much born with these gadgets in their hands. Higher learning institutes are certainly doing their best to engage through mobile tech, but games are always going to be a temptation, especially with so many great free ones available. I know I would have had a hard time staying focused in class if smartphones were a big thing when I was in school.

It was also a little disconcerting to see that many people weren't actually that engaged with the games and were just looking to kill time. It's not surprising considering the rise of casual games, but it does mean that developers face an uphill battle against fickle end-users. It's more funny than anything that flirtation is a significant enough reason to play games to even show up on the chart, nevermind that it's a bigger pull than being a way to connect with friends.

I play smartphone games because they're fun, plain and simple. Meeting new people and competing aren't particularly high on my list, but what about you guys? What impulse drives you to bust out Angry Birds?

Source: CultofMac

Just in case we needed any more convincing that people love their iPhones, the American Customer Satisfaction Index has found through recent surveys that Apple's smartphones are leaving customers the happiest. The iPhone scored 83 on their system, compared to to Nokia, LG and HTC who are all tied at 75, Motorola at 73, Samsung at 71, and RIM at a sad 69. The ACSI also looked at U.S. service providers. Topping the list were regional carriers like U.S. Cellular with 76, then Sprint with 71, followed by Verizon with 70, and AT&T and T-Mobile tied at 69.

Lots of other studies have consistently backed up customer satisfaction for the iPhone, but it's always interesting to see just how much of a lead Apple has on the competition. The fact that the competition is nearly ten points suggests it will take a whole lot of work to bring Android and the other platforms up to snuff with iOS.

Do these rankings stack up with the sentiment you see among friends? Is Sprint really ahead of the other three major U.S. carriers?

Source: ACSI via Wired

Samsung has snagged the top smartphone vendor spot from Apple, a throne Apple had just claimed in Q4 2011. Apple's Q1 2012 smartphone market share sat at 24.2%, while Samsung enjoyed a slight lead with 29.1% of all smartphone sales worldwide. The quarter also marked Samsung's leap over Nokia as the top mobile phone vendor globally, which is a huge competitive and symbolic victory. The overall market has shipped 144.9 million smartphones in the quarter, which is a 42.5% increase over last year. IDC's senior research analyst, Ramon Llamas, said of the battle between Apple and Samsung:

The race between Apple and Samsung remained tight during the quarter, even as both companies posted growth in key areas. Apple launched its popular iPhone 4S in additional key markets, most notably in China, and Samsung experienced continued success from its Galaxy Note smartphone/tablet and other Galaxy smartphones. With other companies in the midst of major strategic transitions, the contest between Apple and Samsung will bear close observation as hotly-anticipated new models are launched.

Apple and Samsung have been butting heads in the courtrooms, despite plans to talk about settling on their patent dispute; some might even say the neck-and-neck race between the two giants is what's propelling their legal squabbles forward. As the leading manufacturer, Samsung also embodies the Android threat that Steve Jobs pledged to go to thermonuclear war against. There's more than just patents and market share at stake here - there are big egos and a lot of pride on both sides of the fence. It will be interesting to see who wins which battles, but this is shaping up to be a feud that won't be concluding any time soon.

Have you swapped out an iPhone for a Samsung device? Or, conversely, made the leap from a Samsung Android smartphone to iOS? How are you finding the switch?

Source: IDC

The loyalty of Apple customers is well-documented, but according to the latest research data from NPD, iOS devices are doing a good job of raking in new customers, too. For over one in four iPad owners, the tablet is their very first Apple product. 33% of U.S. homes have an Apple product nestled inside somewhere, and of them, one in five houses an iPad - just about as many as those that own Mac computers. The trend marks a decline in iPod as the primary gateway to the wonderful world of Apple for many consumers; within the last two years, 57% reported the iPod as their first Apple gadget, versus 70% historically. One particularly interesting statistic uncovered by NPD is that almost 30% of Apple fans have a smartphone that isn't an iPhone.

One of the hallmarks of Apple products is their simplicity, which means a nice, low barrier for entry when it comes to late adopters. Android, by comparison, tends to be overwhelming for the less technologically-inclined. The fact that the iPad is appealing just as much to first-timers as Mac computers adds at least a bit of credence to Apple's supposed "post-PC" era, but those that are late to the game with gadgets likely have modest computing demands, and for them, the iPad is all the computer they need. I would be curious to hear about how many of those new iPad owners move on to get a Mac of any kind. Also, how many of these first-time Apple owners are hardened PC or Android users migrating to iOS or OS X?

Was the iPad your first Apple product? Did you manage to convince any friends to switch to Apple with the new iPad? I could imagine it's getting harder and harder to say no to Apple products these days, regardless of which part of the computing world you're coming from...

Source: NPD

Apple Stores gross more than 16 times the U.S. average revenue per square foot of retail space per year, according to new research by RetailSails. $300 per square foot annually is considered respectable, while the U.S. average in malls is around $341. Jewelers average around $600, while the median of the top 20 U.S. retailers sat at $787 per square foot. And what does Apple make? $5,626. Yowza. They're also leading by growth, boasting 49.1% year-over-year increase, which is way ahead of lulemon's second place with 24.2%.

Apple's retail experience is unparalleled, despite being a relatively new venture. Other stores have definitely borrowed a few ideas from Apple Stores, including the recently-launched TELUS Next Generation store. With Apple intent on setting up shop in Wal-Mart stores, one can only expect their retail performance to increase in the forseeable future.

How much do you guys figure you've spent in an Apple store over the last year or so? Do you find it's worth the travel to get to an Apple store, even if another retailer is closer?

Source: RetailSails via Asymco

Apple now has 13.5% of the U.S. mobile market (i.e. not just smartphones), according to recent survey data. Combined with Motorola's drop to 12.8% market share, that puts iPhone in third place behind LG (with 19.4%) and Samsung (25.6%). comScore's data was gathered from 30,000 American mobile customers in the three months leading up to February, and also examined smartphone operating system market share. Of course Android is ruling the roost with 50.1%, which climbed 3.2% since November, while iOS sits at 30.2%, which only grew 1.5% in the same time frame. Meanwhile, BlackBerry and Windows Phone saw drops of 3.2% and 1.3%, respectively.

Beating out Motorola, which has been fairly well-entrenched since the dumbphone days, is a big symbolic win for Apple. Motorola is basically the figurehead for Android OEMs since Google plans to acquire them. Although the mass of smartphone manufacturers can gang up on Apple to push down iOS market share, few (if any) have a shot at duking it out one-on-one with the iPhone. It's also a testament to the iPhone's popularity that, despite having only one form factor, and despite being beat on price (i.e. total cost of ownership) by feature phones, Apple's still able to climb the ranks. The only other manufacturer in the position of exclusively making smartphones in these rankings is HTC, and they aren't making a lot of progress.

Anyone taking bets on how long it'll take for Apple to take the number 2 spot from LG?

Source: comScore

A recent survey of 5,600 U.S. high school students found an impressive 34% used the iPhone. Another 34% owned a tablet, and of them 70% were using an iPad. 86% intend on buying a smartphone, with 51% opting for iOS, versus 22% of those who are interested in Android. 40% of those surveyed were planning on buying a new iPhone within the next six months. Expected iPad purchases are even higher; 19% of teenagers are going to get a tablet in the next six months, and of them, 80% will be buying an iPad. The survey was conducted by analyst firm Piper Jaffray.

Obviously, the kids still love Apple products, and odds are good that if they're being hooked young, they'll stick with iOS as the grow up. Apparently a big driver among this segment was the price drop of the iPhone 3GS  when the 4S was released. Even though the vast majority of shoppers are siding with the iPhone 4S, production of the 3GS was still strong through late 2011.

Any high school kids reading able to vouch for the popularity of the iPhone among the young whippersnappers? Parents, which phones do your kids drift towards?

Source: BusinessWire

IDC has recently published projections reaching out to 2016, when they forecast iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad will snag a 17.3% share of all connected devices -- that includes computers, media tablets (yes, they're still using that term), and smartphones. By IDC's count, iOS had claimed 14% in 2011, during which time the whole market had shipped 916 million units and made over $489 billion in revenue. By comparison, Android is predicted to grab 31.1% in 2016, though that doesn't necessarily mean Android will be winning.

"Android's growth is tied directly to the propagation of lower-priced devices," said Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices. "So, while we expect dozens of hardware vendors to own some share in the Android market, many will find profitability difficult to sustain. Similarly, we expect a large percentage of application developers to continue to focus their efforts on iOS, despite the platform's smaller overall market share, because iOS end users have proven more willing to pay for high-quality apps."

Projections are sometimes as accurate as random number generators, but the interesting thing here isn't the market shares being discussed -- it's the idea of how, in the near future, so many of our devices will be connected. Sure, smartphones and tablets are obvious, as are PCs. What about TVs, which by all accounts are becoming connected devices with their own app ecosystems? Seeing as Apple wasn't shy about pitting the new iPad head-to-head with high-definition televisions, I would be really curious to see how it stacks up in a market share comparison. (And then there are those persistent rumors of an Apple iTV/television that just won't quit.

We already have connected health and fitness devices like the Fitbit or the Withings scale to Nexia home automation systems to Samsung SmartWindows to cars like the Ford Focus Electric. One day soon, very few household appliances that don't count as "connected devices". Fridges, washers, coffee makers, electric razors -- it's going to be a big market and a huge ecosystem, and it will be very interesting to see just how much of it Apple chooses to enter, and will be able to claim.

Source: IDC

Nielsen has wrapped up their latest market research data, and in the three months leading up to February, 43% of U.S. smartphone buyers got an iPhone. By comparison, 48% bought an Android phone, and 5% picked up a BlackBerry. Nielsen has also concluded that smartphone penetration in the U.S. has reached 49.7%, nearly overtaking feature phones. At the same time last year, smartphone penetration was still at 36%. Woo, progress.

I would be curious to see these kinds of figures for other major international markets. I can only imagine that feature phones are still huge in India, and most Japanese "feature" phones have specs comparable to our smartphones. At least for Android handsets, cost is becoming less of a barrier in emerging markets, but I have a hard time imagining Apple offering an affordable entry-level iPhone to displace feature phone usage.

Quick show of hands - how many of you still have friends with feature phones? Have you tried convincing them to upgrade? Why are they holding out? And then, just for fun, jump into our forums and let us know what phone you had before making the switch to iPhone.

Source: Nielsen

A recent survey of 482 iPhone 4S owners found that 87% used Siri monthly, while a third used it daily to make calls, send SMS messages, and make web searches. 26% dictate e-mails to their iPhone 4S daily, but another 30% have never used Siri to send an e-mail. The most popular uses overall, according to Parks Associates, was making phone calls and sending SMS messages, but a whole 32% said they had never used Siri to schedule meetings, and 35% had never used it to schedule a meeting; even those who did did so with the lowest daily frequency out of any group. Satisfaction rate with Siri sat at 55%, while 9% were dissatisfied, and everyone else was somewhere in between. While the study indicates that most users aren't bothering with Siri's other notable features, like geofenced reminders, audio e-mail playback, and setting alarms, 37% said they would like to see some voice-activated TV remote control action (though that was counter-acted by another 20% against it).

Siri is still technically in beta so Apple can collect enough voice data to improve the service, so it's reasonable to expect the satisfaction rate to climb over time. Although that also means we might see additional features coming down the pipe, will anyone actually use them?

Let's face it, Siri is definitely cool, but for a lot of people, talking to your phone as if it were a real person, even if Apple has gone out of their way to give it a Pixar personality, is still a fairly foreign idea, and it's hard not to feel a bit of a crazy when using Siri in public.

If you're new to Apple's virtual personal assistant, here are a bunch of Siri tips to help get you started. If you've been using Siri for a while, how often do you use it? Are there any feature additions in particular that you'd like to see?

Source: WSJ

Strategy Analytics has just wrapped up a survey of smartphone owners in the U.S. and U.K. which concluded that 90% wanted a phone with a bigger display. The iPhone's current 3.5-inch screen seems downright diminutive compared to the 4-inch monsters that we've seen in the Android world for the last year or so, nevermind the crazy 5-inch devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note.

Should surveys like this be a hint to Apple that their next phone should by a little bit bigger, at least, say, 3.7 inches? Or are you guys happy with the current size of the iPhone display?

Source: AllThingsD, pic (from novelty iPad app)

ChangeWave recently surveyed 1,604 IT personnel with buying power in their company, and of those planning on getting tablets in the next quarter, 84% are siding with the iPad. To properly set the context, however, only 22% of the surveyed companies said that they were in the market to buy tablets for their employees. We already knew that businesses were big on iOS tablets, but that figure is actually up from 77% in November - clearly the new iPad is spiking interest in businesses as well as consumers. Even BlackBerry, the traditional leader in enterprise, only demanded 3% of corporate tablet demand. Samsung's took second place, albeit far behind apple with 8% demand.

Is anyone really surprised by results like this? Although it continues to highlight Apple's vice grip on the tablet market, there's still plenty of room for the tablet market itself to grow. An IT folks out there on the verge of rolling out iPads to the workforce? Have any of y'all already pulled the trigger?

Source: ChangeWave

If you've wondered why Apple would devote an entire event to iPad and textbooks in education but give the new version of Mac software, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion little more than a press release and a web page, here's a a blurb Tim Cook let slip in his talk this week at the Goldman Tech Conference:

"This 55 is something no one would have guessed. Including us. To put it in context, it took us 22 years to sell 55 million Macs. It took us about 5 years to sell 22 million iPods, and it took us about 3 years to sell that many iPhones. And so, this thing is, as you said, it’s on a trajectory that’s off the charts."

The fine folks at Asymco unpacked that a little further and looked at how many Macs Apple has sold over the last 28 years or so. 122 million Macs have been sold to date, while the iOS platform has reached a staggering 316 million units since launch. iOS outpaced OS X after the first four years, but if that's not enough, iOS could have done it in the last year alone with 156 million supporting products sold in 2011. This graph puts those sales into stark visual comparison.

Even with the iPhone alone, the growth is insane, but you can see how the iPad is showing a similar rate of adoption.  Every day, it feels like we are finding new and exciting ways to illustrate precisely how much ass Apple is kicking. If the Mountain Lion preview didn't make it obvious, this graph should show just how easy it will be for iOS to become Apple's primary operating system for tablets, phones, and computers in the long haul.

Source: Asymco

The iPad's share of the tablet market shrank from 87% in 2010 to 62% in 2011, but after tallying up shipment data from late last year, iSuppli found that, though Amazon's Kindle Fire is the top tablet behind the iPad, it's not what's taking the biggest chunk out of the iOS tablet's market share. Apparently, the iPhone 4S is to blame.

iSuppli's senior manager for tablet research said of their research results:

"Shipments of the iPad line fell short of IHS estimates in the fourth quarter as many loyal Apple customers devoted their dollars to shiny new alternatives. However, the primary alternative wasn’t the Kindle Fire — which debuted to solid sales in the fourth quarter — but Apple’s own iPhone 4S smartphone. The rollout of the iPhone 4S in October generated intense competition for Apple purchasers’ disposable income, doing more to limit iPad shipment growth than competition from the Kindle Fire and other media tablets."

I certainly understand that people only have so much money to spend on gadgets, and they're more likely to upgrade their phone (which is more of a necessity than a toy), and considering the shared software lineage, it's no surprise that people worry about redundant purchases. There are obvious use cases where a tablet is a better pick than a smartphone and vice versa, but unless you have the disposable income for such a fine differentiation, maybe you'd rather a devices that straddle the line, like the Samsung Galaxy Note or the Dell Streak.

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently said that Apple doesn't believe price is a primary consideration for customers, and that people buying cheaper products don't end up with enjoyable experiences. However, if the Kindle Fire has proven anything, it's that for some customers, budget is a big deal.

If you can get a tablet that does the majority of what you want for half the price of an iPad, why wouldn't you consider it? That said, would you be interested in a lower-end, more affordable iPad? Maybe first-gen iPad specs with a smaller screen in the 7-inch range, and a pricetag around $250? Sure, it's not Apple's style, but it would help get folks hooked on two Apple products rather than just one.

Source: iSuppli

Strategy Analytics has crunched most of the fourth quarter results announced this week (including Apple's), and figures the iPhone maker is now the top smartphone manufacturer, but only by a sliver. In Q4 2011, Apple claimed 23.9% of global smartphone market share, and Samsung trailed only slightly, with 23.5%. That's just counting Q4, too; for the whole year, Samsung beat out Apple by a single percentage point.

Beyond smartphones, in the world of mobiles at large, Apple was relatively far behind. iPhones constituted 8.3% of the world's handsets, while Nokia still clung the top spot with 25.5%, followed by Samsung with 21.3% global market share. Although that shows the iPhone still has a long ways to go, it did boast the best growth out of the three; during the same quarter last year, Apple only constituted 4.0% of the global market.

The folks at Strategy Analytics stepped in for a few comments. Associate Director Alex Spektor said "Apple’s growth was fueled by intense demand for its refreshed iPhone 4S, as well as the availability of three generations of iPhones at a variety of price points at operators like AT&T in the United States," but there's a lot of promise internationally, too. Tom Kang, another director, said "China is becoming a key market for Apple this year, and we expect Apple’s share to grow rapidly in 2012, despite countless copycat rivals.” Nokia's having a rough time holding onto their top spot, despite generally positive reviews of their first Windows Phones. According to Executive Director Neil Mawston,  “Nokia’s global handset shipments declined 8 percent annually to 113.5 million units in Q4 2011. Volumes were buoyed by the sales of Nokia’s low-end dual-SIM models in emerging markets like Southeast Asia, but were a little soft overall, as initial shipments of Microsoft Lumia phones could not offset declining Symbian sales."

It's rarely a surprise to see Apple doing well in terms of sales, but they'll have to keep working hard in order to stay ahead of Samsung. We're seeing lots of different Android phones coming out of Samsung to address different price points, and though Spektor's right that there are older iPhones still on the market, they lack the forward-compatibility of many Android handsets.

It's worth noting that according to Strategy Analytics, the overall smartphone market grew 63.1% in 2011, versus 71.4% growth in 2010. Do you guys think smartphone momentum is starting to plateau, or is this just a slight bump in the road?

Source: Strategy Analytics via Apple Insider

Many big-name companies are switching to the iPhone, and though BlackBerry is the biggest competition in the enterprise arena, iOS is doing a great job of cutting Android out of the picture. According to the latest data from Good Technology,  the iPhone 4S was just as popular new device among businesses as it was among consumers in the last quarter, commanding 31% of enterprise activations. The iPhone 4 has had a bit of a head start, but even then, only accounted for 17.6%, followed by the iPad 2 with 14.9% share. The top Android phone was the Samsung Galaxy S II, which only accounted for 1.7% of Good's business customers. The data spanned October 1 through to December 31, and included thousands of companies that had at least 5 activated devices.

The Good data also broke down smartphone activity by sector, which showed that 35% of all mobile activations in the last quarter were in financial services, followed by business and professional services at 16.2%. The iPhone 4S specifically managed to be fairly popular in the business and professional services market, snagging 25.7% of all corporate iPhone 4S activations. Unfortunately, Good didn't have any metrics on BlackBerry activations, but seeing as they're essentially the alternative to RIM's enterprise server software, I would wager their BlackBerry activation data would be lower than average anyway.

While Android smartphones were still pulling in more interest than iPads, it was a pretty close race, and combined with the massive popularity of iPhone activations, iOS is firmly planting itself in businesses. I'd love to see some more large-scale studies comparing iOS penetration in enterprise compared to BlackBerry, especially internationally, since RIM claims much of their popularity abroad. Data from November (PDF) suggests iPhone is leading BlackBerry in businesses, but there haven't been a lot of other studies backing up that research.

How many iPhones are you guys seeing around the office? Is it a common sight, or does BlackBerry still reign supreme? Maybe Android has started to make some inroads...?

Source: Good

As you might expect, anyone in the market for an iPhone is leaning towards the latest and greatest. A recent survey conducted by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners shows that 89% of U.S. consumers who bought an iPhone between October 14 (the day the iPhone 4S launched) and December went with the 4S, while 7% picked up an iPhone 4, and 4% bought a 3GS. Of the iPhone 4S buyers, 21% bought the 64 GB model, 34% went with 32 GB, and 45% bought the 16 GB version. The CIRP co-founder, Mike Levin, provided some additional context to the study.

"An amazing 19 percent of all iPhone buyers upgraded from the iPhone 4, a phone barely a year old at the time of the launch. Forty-two percent of iPhone buyers broke existing carrier contracts to get the new iPhone 4S. And 19 percent of these iPhone 4S buyers sold their old iPhone in the secondary market. Early upgrades, broken contracts, and selling used phones — all allow buyers to purchase the new iPhone 4S, when conventional wisdom suggests that these users would follow the two-year contract cycle, or at least purchase the cheaper models."

Quick show of hands - how many of you upgraded from the iPhone 4 to the 4S? Know any friends who did? Any regrets? Other surveys show iPhone 4S satisfaction is through the roof, so I doubt it.

Source: AllThingsD

Distimo released an interesting report today that examined the overall effects of different app promotions across the iPhone and iPad App Store, as well as the Android Market. One of the most striking stats from the report was that "44% of the iPhone applications that have been on sale lost revenue during the sale, and 23% saw a decline in revenue by more than 20%".

Distimo factored in how much of a price cut each app received, and put it into the above graph. As you might expect, the sharper the price cut, the greater the revenue. The graph shows that, among those that cut their price by 80%,  just as many apps lost 20% or more revenue as gained more than 100% revenue.  On the whole, putting apps on sale is still a good thing, though; the average iPhone app increased revenue by 22%, iPad apps increased by 19%, and Android app revenue went up by 29%. As you might expect, all three categories see a significant spike on the first day.

The report also examined the effects of having apps being featured. As it turns out, Android apps see a much higher boost in rank from being feature than on the iPhone or iPad. On average, an iPhone app has its rank bumped up 15 spots in the first three days of being featured, while iPad apps go up 27. Android apps? They climb 42 spots, on average. Only 11% of featured iPhone apps climbed more than 50 ranks, compared to 26% of featured Android apps.

Any app developers in the house reconsidering putting their app on sale now? I'm definitely more inclined to do my app shopping when cuts are down at the $0.99 range, but what about you guys?

Source: Distimo

HP CEO Meg Whitman admitted in a recent interview that if you count tablets, Apple may very well bust past them in PC sales after holiday sales are tallied up. A bunch of analyst estimates suggest Apple could break 20 million combined iPad and Mac unit sales over the holidays. That would put it over the   14.7 million that HP had churned out last quarter, and well ahead of other manufacturers like Acer, Dell, and Lenovo. Of course, if you don't count the iPad, and only Mac sales, Apple falls well behind the whole lot.  Over the holidays, it's estimated Apple cleared little over 5 million Mac units.

I'm still a little dubious about counting the current breed of tablets as full-blown PCs, despite being great computing devices. There's no lack of Macbook Air owners that aren't inclined to also carry around an iPad, and Windows 8 is showing that other big-boy laptops will soon be able to slim down to the size of tablets borne of smartphone operating systems.

These are interesting estimates to consider, but we won't know for sure how well Apple's Mac and iPad sales did until they announce their quarterly results on January 24. What do you guys think - is it fair to lump in the iPad with Mac sales when talking about the PC market?

Source: TechCrunch via Asymco

Late last night, Casey posted about the the fire Apple's Cupertino campus. Now, more information is becoming available. According to Apple Insider:

The building [where the fire broke out], also known as Valley Green Six, is one of the most famous buildings on the Apple campus, as it is known to house a number of hardware-based research and development projects that are underway at the company.

Not good news, but now that everyone is out, safely and soundly, perhaps I can overact with: Merciful Buddha, I hope they got the iPhone 4G (and 5G?) out in time!

As to the cause, while MobileMe jokes and quips about someone trying to boot up one of the secret new quad-core MacBook Air's, turns out:

Hal Rooney, deputy chief for Santa Clara County Fire, said the fire may have started under an air conditioning unit on the second floor. Local television station KNTV reported that maintenance crews had been working on the air conditioning systems in the building earlier in the day.

Again, everyone here wishes well all the Apple employees, their families, and loved ones, and speedy recovery for the Apple R&D team and their continually universe-denting R&D team.