The Apple TV product is doing actually very well. In last fiscal year that ended in September, we sold a bit above 2.8 million units. And just in the past quarter, the December quarter, we set a new quarterly record for Apple TV at over 1.4 million. But in the scheme of things, if you dollarize this in revenue that — we still classify this as a hobby. However, we continue to add things to it and if you’re using the latest one, I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t live without it. And so I think it’s a fantastic product. And we continue to pull the string to see where it takes us. But other than that, I don’t have any comments.
Meet the saviour of RIM. Sell.
Windows Phone
An idle observation: Windows Phone has an embedded Facebook client that forms part of the address book, home page and half the screens in the OS. Microsoft tries very hard to get you to enable it when you turn on your new phone.
According to Facebook, there are now 1.3m active users of this client: see here (yes, this is the integrated one, not the one you can download yourself)
This number has gone up by 300k since mid-November. I would suggest that this means it is very unlikely that more than, say, 3-400k Nokia Windows Phones have been sold in the last two months. Certainly, this data point would be impossible to reconcile with the rumours of of several million units that are floating around.
We might or might not find out whether I’m right on Thursday, when Nokia reports Q4 2011 results: it will be interesting to see if they disclose that data point.
UPDATE
Well, Nokia sold ‘well over 1m Lumias’. How interesting. Either the Facebook data is wrong (unlikely), or a very high proportion of people buying the devices don’t set up the built-in Facebook integration, despite that being a major selling point. Interesting.
Airplay is one of those unsung Apple features that makes the lock-in that much more compelling. No reasons this isn’t an open industry standard, except that Apple just did it.
Source: beoplay.com
They built Microsoft TV, they demoed it for us, they asked for rate cards but then said ‘ooh ah, that’s expensive’
Source: reuters.com
The Joy of Books
Nokia Lumia 900: the same as the 800 but for the USA: LTE, bigger battery and a better camera. Sensible, but will still need a LOT of marketing (oh, and one of those ecosystem things)
Source: conversations.nokia.com
Interview: Samsung’s David Steel on Apple, the future of TVs, and what’s next (The Verge)
Upgrade paths
“Samsung Smart TV will evolve every year w/out having to buy a new TV. You’ll never be left behind”
Meanwhile:
The Galaxy S was the flagship Samsung Android smartphone, on sale well into 2011.
So, Samsung’s smartphones, which are supposed to be an open platform, do not get OS upgrades. The TVs, which are conventionally thought of as ‘dumb’, get new features pushed out. Guess which product lines runs a platform that Samsung controls, and which runs someone else’s platform?
‘Couch commerce’: eBay mobile VP Steve Yankovich eBay shows Scoble a new app for iPad that lets you see things you can buy on eBay that is associated with TV shows. Lots of innovation in this area.
