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Instapaper Developer Explains Why Free Version Is “Taking A Vacation”→

Instapaper Developer Explains Why Free Version Is “Taking A Vacation”

In an Apple store, it’s nearly impossible to spend less than $30 on anything. Apple’s stance is clear: “This is how much our stuff costs. If you don’t like our prices, that’s fine. We don’t need everyone to buy our stuff.”

That’s roughly the stance I’ve chosen to take. My app costs $5. I understand that not everyone will like my price, and that’s fine. I don’t need every iOS-device owner to buy my app — I’d do quite well even if only 1% of them did.

Instapaper developer Marco Arment has published an interesting article explaining why he removed the free version of Instapaper for iPhone from the App Store, and he’s not planning on making it available again anytime soon. There are thousands of free applications in the App Store: most of them are games from huge companies backed by multi-million investments and funding rounds, some of them are “lite” versions of less popular apps with limited functionalities. For an indie developer like Marco – remember, he left his position at Tumblr to focus on Instapaper – choosing to offer different versions of the same app is a difficult decision: what are the features that need to be exclusive to the paid app? And what’s a customer supposed to think when he only sees the limited feature set of the lite / free version? More importantly, how many App Store users are going to choose the paid app as the first option when a free counterpart is available?

These are risks only developers who truly believe in their work are willing to take. Marco does, and he’s decided to bet on his $5 piece of software because he knows it’s a great product that doesn’t deserve to be crippled by a free version with less features and ads. Go read the full article here.

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Amazon.com tries to toss Apple ‘app store’ trademark suit→

Amazon.com tries to toss Apple ‘app store’ trademark suit, cites Steve Jobs in its own defense

Amazon.com today responded in court to Apple’s lawsuit over the name of its Android Appstore — calling the iPhone maker’s claim to the “App Store” trademark baseless, and pointing to a statement from Apple CEO Steve Jobs as one piece of evidence in its favor.

“So there will be at least four app stores on Android, which customers must search among to find the app they want and developers will need to work with to distribute their apps and get paid. This is going to be a mess for both users and developers. Contrast this with Apple’s integrated App Store, which offers users the easiest-to-use largest app store in the world, preloaded on every iPhone.”

Amazon’s argument is if App Store is specific to Apple, why did Steve Jobs generically refer to the Android Marketplace as an “app store?” The argument is that he voided his own definition of what he considers the App Store to really be. If you ask me, I’d say Apple probably won’t secure the App Store branding as it is too generic. You can get away with specifically calling it the iOS App Store, the Mac App Store, and the iTunes Store, but calling it the App Store as one inclusive generic entity is a stretch don’t you think? As with everything else, Apple may have been better off appending an “i” in front of the name and calling it day. Amazon’s Appstore stands a fair chance of keeping its name, no matter Apple’s requests to speed up the process.

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No Revenue? No Problem. Apple Could Survive On Cash Reserves ‘Til 2018→

No Revenue? No Problem. Apple Could Survive On Cash Reserves ‘Til 2018

At the Q2 2011 earnings call, Apple announced its cash stockpile had increased by $6.1 billion, totaling $65.8 billion by the end of the March quarter. Asymco’s Horace Dediu decided to take a look at these numbers to put things in perspective, and came out with some interesting facts about Apple’s current cash. For instance, if Apple’s revenue stopped completely, its cash would keep operations going for at least 7 years until mid-2018 – that is, if Apple suddenly stopped generating any kind of revenue. If you consider, though, that Apple will keep selling millions of products in the next months, and that the cash pile will continue growing bigger, you get an idea of how cash allows the company to invest in pre-payment deals, or research & development for new breakthrough devices like the iPad. Other tidbits from Asymco’s research:

The funds are big enough to place Apple’s CFO office in the top 100 largest fund managers in the world and larger than any hedge fund manager.

Current cash is worth more than Nokia, RIM and Motorola Mobility’s market caps, put together.

Apple’s cash is worth half of Google’s enterprise value.

With the release of the white iPhone 4, more iPad 2 shipments and rumored iMac and MacBook Air updates on their way, we wonder what the chart above will look like after Apple’s Q3 2011 results. [via GigaOM]

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Apple vs. RIM: Who sells more smartphones?→

Apple vs. RIM: Who sells more smartphones?

For the year, RIM shipped 52.4 million devices. Apple topped them by shipping 57.39 iPhones. That’s about 5 million more iPhones sold than RIM shipped BlackBerrys.

Jim Dalrymple from The Loop offers insight into just how Apple sales figures are trending against RIM’s BlackBerry. Steadily since Apple’s fourth quarter in 2010, they’ve been selling more iPhones than RIM has reported shipping. Combine this with Apple’s reported figure that 88% of Fortune 500 companies are testing or deploying the iPhone today, and the outlook doesn’t look good for RIM. Don’t forget about the PlayBook.

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A market for iPads, not for tablets→

A market for iPads, not for tablets

Apple seems to have captured something with the iPad that is far more than just a tablet-shaped computer. They hit upon some “X factor” in the combination of the pleasing physical design of the iPad, and the simple, intuitive and pleasing look-and-feel of a user interface.

This X-factor, whatever it is, will be very hard to duplicate by companies that aren’t Apple. Other companies will build products to compete with it, but they’ll never manage to build anything that comes close to what consumers see as the real thing. In fact, I’m not sure that tablets will ever be a space where numerous brands with strong product offerings will constantly fight it out for market share. The “front-runner and also-rans” dynamic will always exist.

I wouldn’t be surprised if many critics would argue (with a fair bit of snark) that the x-factor is the Apple logo alone. However, people who’ve gotten their hands on the iPad and have explored the App Store ecosystem know the iPad is much more than just good looks wrapped around a mediocre OS. Apple gets both hardware and software right: whatever you think of their multitasking solution or lack of openness, the “limited” features critics bash it for work a hundred times better than the “real deal” competitors are supposed to be offering. Everything on the iPad is fluid, simply just works, and for the “lack of features,” no one seems to be complaining about missing anything once they’ve set up their iPad. Apple is smart to know that they’re going to implement features and make that experience perfect before shipping lots of features that are half baked. This is what puts Apple above the competition.

Not to pick on the Xoom as there are other competitors, but I’ll be blunt when I say it’s a joke. Honeycomb is jittery as you scroll and navigate apps, Adobe still can’t get Flash to run buttery smooth on something that’s dual-core (Flash being an advertised feature that’s supposed to just work), and Motorola shipped the Xoom without 4G and an unusable SD card slot. Apple would never ship a product like this, which is why the delay has been so great on the white iPhone (presumably an issue revolving around light sensitivity with the proximity and camera sensors). If Apple does have a software bug in their product, they promptly fix it with an update via iTunes. Aren’t those 3G Honeycomb tablets at the mercy of the carriers? Android feels messy - this is why the masses don’t want to buy these tablets.

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Fast Switching Between Multiple iTunes Accounts→

Fast Switching Between Multiple iTunes Accounts

Redditor TinyLebowski shares an AppleScript that, once configured and run, will allow you to switch to another iTunes account in 2 seconds, without typing anything. This is particularly useful for people like me who own several iTunes accounts (especially for App Store and iTunes movie releases) and think iTunes should have an option to “fast switch” between accounts – even on different international Stores. This AppleScript works as advertised and, if you are switching to an international store, you’ll just have to hit the Ok button. If the Store is the same, you won’t have to hit anything and the login process will be automatic.

Beware, though: your Apple ID and password are stored in plain text inside the script. Of course this is meant to be saved on your local machine, assuming only you have access to that. However, saving the script as an “application” bundle might provide an additional security measure (that is, someone will have to “show package contents” and navigate through folders to see the main script).

I love it. Check out the full AppleScript here.

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The Problems with a Retina Display on the Mac→

The Problems with a Retina Display on the Mac

If Apple were to do something like the above, the biggest question I would have is whether or not they’d put something into place for users who genuinely do want much smaller UI elements and much more screen real estate. That is, if Apple were to double their UI, and then use the 2×1080p resolution for the 27-inch iMac, there’s a sense in which current 27-inch iMac users would feel like they were actually losing screen real estate from their current 2560 × 1440 displays. But that’s why Apple’s Apple and I’m a guy writing about them: if and when Retina Displays do come to the Mac, they will have thought that issue through and either solved it, or decided that the set of users who would be upset by it isn’t a large enough group to hold other users back.

Tim Ricchuiti at The Elaborated makes a great case for the issues Apple would have to overcome in implementing higher resolution displays (let’s just call them Retina Displays for the sake of the argument) on Macs: at 3200 x 2000 pixels (that’s the resolution of the default wallpaper image found in the Lion betas, and no Mac or Apple-branded screen currently ships with such pixel density), UI elements on a MacBook Pro 15” would look small, unless Apple comes out with a solution to offer same-size graphics, on a higher-res screen. On the iPhone 4, for example, they allowed developers to create “2x” graphics that, with double the pixels on the iPhone 4, look the same size of iPhone 3GS graphics. But how would you do that on a Mac, where users can decide to install apps both from the web and the Mac App Store, thus preventing Apple from enforcing a 2x standard? Plus, how could Apple offer a way to switch between bigger and smaller UI elements? A desktop ecosystem like OS X with computers featuring much bigger displays than iOS devices raises more questions over the implementation and usage of Retina Display.

Make sure to check out Tim’s full article here. Whilst “HiDPI display modes” were previously rumored to be finding their way to new Mac screens relatively soon, we think Apple will have to find a solution to the problems with a Retina Display on the iPad first. [via Daring Fireball]

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Full Analysis Of Apple’s Lawsuit Against Samsung→

Full Analysis Of Apple’s Lawsuit Against Samsung

As we saw in the article about iPod touch, iPad and iPhone sales, Nilay Patel’s rundown of the Apple / Samsung lawsuit is an interesting read full of details. I’d like, however, to link back with a dedicated post – you really shouldn’t miss Patel’s detailed analysis of the lawsuit.

So now that Apple’s made its case, what does it want the court to do? Simple — it wants Samsung to pay up for the infringements in the past and stop infringing in the future. Specifically, Apple’s asking the court to permanently forbid Samsung and its various divisions and suppliers from ever infringing Apple’s claimed IP again, as well as triple damages for patent infringement, any wrongful profits Samsung might have gained from using Apple’s IP, some punitive damages, money for corrective advertising, and the cost of Apple’s attorney’s fees. That’s all pretty standard stuff, but it’s all very dependent on the claims themselves — and by the time a judge or jury is deciding on damages, the claims will have been argued into something very different. That’s years from now.

Much has been said about Samsung’s intention to “copy” the iOS style with is TouchWiz UI, and it’s pretty clear from the lawsuit that, even if Samsung is a key partner in Apple’s supply chain for iOS devices, Apple will do everything necessary to protect its intellectual properties and patents. The PDF of the document filed in the Northern District of California is available here.

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Apple Poaches Microsoft’s Datacenter GM→

Apple Poaches Microsoft’s Datacenter GM

Timmons left Microsoft this week and the company has confirmed his departure, though it declined to say why he left or where he was headed. But sources in position to know confirm he’s hired on with Apple.

When Microsoft hired Timmons in 2009, his responsibilities were briefly detailed by Technet:

In addition to bringing Kevin on board, we’ve recently restructured our Infrastructure Services team within GFS. In mid May we aligned the organization around five teams: Shared Infrastructure, Programmable Infrastructure, Platform Hardware and Standards, Global Network Services, and the Data Center Services team that Kevin now heads up.

Data Center Knowledge reports that Timmons was incredibly efficient at building scalable data center solutions on a budget, saving Microsoft $250 million in an initially estimated 500 million dollar project as Microsoft constructed a new data facility in Chicago (and later Dublin) in 2009.

At Microsoft, Timmons oversaw the deployment of massive new data centers in Dublin and Chicago shortly after his arrival in mid-2009, but then moved to streamline the company’s data center design and cost structure. Timmons said his goal is for Microsoft’s data center network to be “incredibly scalable at awesome cost effectiveness,” and said his team was on target to slash data center costs by 50 percent.

Some of Microsoft’s innovations during Timmons’ tenure are on display in its latest data center in Quincy, Washington, which is the culmination of years of design work at Microsoft Global Foundation Services, and offers dramatic reductions in cost and resources.

Apple has reportedly ordered up to 12 petabytes of storage from Isilon Systems, with Instor and Electrostak providing custom mounting, cooling, and power equipment to host the new influx of new blades Apple will deploy in their data center. Ideally, if Apple was going to build a rumored parallel data center in North Carolina, Timmons could oversee the remainder of the work and efficiently scale to deploy new services (whether it be for media or not).

[via Macgasm]

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