Study: iPhone Dominant as Motorola Falls
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New research claims consumers are searching out more advanced phones -- with Apple's iPhone and RIM's Blackberry leading the trend.
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On the Seeking Alpha blog, Paul Carton (ChangeWave Alliance) waxes bullish about the forthcoming iPhone. âItâs not often that we say âit rocksâ when analyzing a consumer device trend. But the findings of our latest ChangeWave cell phone survey invite extremes to describe the startling impact the Apple iPhone is having on the cellular industry.â One reason for the excitement: in a recent member survey, ânearly one-in-10 respondents (9%) say they are likely to buy the new iPhone once it becomes available in June.â
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Blog: A quantitative estimate of Apple's weekend iPhone sales has been released, surpassing some of the more optimistic analysts last week.
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Although it is new to the market, Apple was the second-leading vendor of smart phones in the fourth quarter of last year, passing Motorola and devices based on the Windows Mobile platform.
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Apple phone grabbed 1.8 percent of the U.S. mobile-handset market during the month, iSuppli consumer survey finds.
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Motorola executives said demand for the companyâs cellphones had slowed and the company was losing market share.
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(InfoWorld) - Motorola has a strategy for improving its struggling cell phone business: Be boring. That's what CFO Tom Meredith said on Wednesday during the Citi Investment Research Global Technology Conference. "I believe we can right our ship by being boringly consistent," he said during a webcast of the conference. Motorola's history as a cell-phone developer is anything but boring, littered with iconic phones from the StarTac clamshell 10 years ago to the recent hit with the Razr. But you'd be hard pressed to name an iconic product from market leader Nokia or Sony Ericsson, Meredith noted. "Yet, when you look at their profitability and successes, you see they have a portfolio that was complete and ran the gauntlet from mass market to feature to enterprise, and they effectively competed more effectively than we did," he said. Taking a cue from competitors, Motorola will focus going forward on developing a broad portfolio of phones that will be attractive to a wide range of users rather than looking for the next Razr, he said. Combined with a couple of other new strategies, Motorola should be able to regain lost market share, he said. For instance, Motorola hopes to do better in developing markets like India and China. While Meredith didn't describe how, he did point to ways that the company has stumbled there recently. He said that Motorola missed an opportunity with its Moto phone, which was designed to be a low-end handset for developing markets. That phone failed because it didn't have a color screen and neglected to recognize how important texting is in its target markets, he said. Motorola should also benefit from some developments Apple's iPhone has spurred. Operators have historically resisted including Wi-Fi capabilities in phones, he said. But because the iPhone includes Wi-Fi, the operators are starting to come around and recognize that it's inevitable, Meredith said. "I think Steve [Jobs] and Apple did companies like Motorola a favor in that regard," he said. The iPhone may also have generated interest in the touchscreen concept. Motorola has sold 12 million phones with touchscreens, primarily in China, but hasn't targeted them to North America. The company is still watching the market and listening to carriers, but it may introduce touchscreen phones in North America, he said. Motorola recently reported that slow sales of mobile phones contributed to a second quarter loss of $28 million.Â It also cut 3,500 jobsÂ in the first half of the year and is in the process ofÂ laying off another 4,000. The struggles have put company CEO Ed Zander in the spotlight, but the board has not had a "no confidence" vote in their leader, Meredith said, in response to a question from the audience.
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Motorola Inc.  on Thursday posted a quarterly loss as revenue fell amid weak phone sales, as it loses market share.
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(InfoWorld) - When Apple launches the iPhone on Friday, it is set to get a jump on its competitors and spark a flurry of new phone designs, regardless of how well the device actually sells. By introducing a combined smartphone, mobile e-mail platform, and MP3 music player with a touchscreen interface, Apple has sent other hardware vendors running back to their drawing boards. And the company has enjoyed positive press coverage since CEO Steve Jobs announced the iPhone in January, analysts said. Apple is feeding the fire with strong advertising in its retail stores. On Monday, staffers at the Apple store in the Cambridgeside Galleria mall in Cambridge, Massachusetts, wore black T-shirts with the logo "the wait is almost over," printed above an image of a calendar page for Friday, June 29. iPhone anticipation has already created a "halo effect" of increased sales for Apple's notebook and desktop PCs, an impact that is likely to increase after the launch, according to a report from ChangeWave Research. Apple posted a strong profit for the last period despite struggling with a U.S. federal investigation into executives backdating their stock options. In April,Â Apple beat Wall Street expectations by posting a profit of $770 million for the second quarter, an 88 percent rise from that period last year. Because the company has already garnered media attention and a sales boost from iPhone demand, Apple will suffer little damage even if the device is a flop in retail sales, one analyst said. "No way Apple will seriously impact Nokia or Motorola or Samsung, who combined sell over a billion phones a year. But if Apple manages to sell several million, then that is probably pretty good for their overall business," said analyst Jack Gold, founder of the research firm J. Gold Associates. "I think the potential gold mine is in the services, not the phone hardware." The iPhone will bring new subscribers to Apple's iTunes online music store, and Apple could make more money if it decides to launch future wireless mobile products like navigation, location-based services, VoIP telephony, and video streaming, Gold said. In the meantime, Apple has already given a headache to competitors scurrying to catch up, such as Motorola, Samsung, and LG Electronics. Even vendors with comparable products -- like Nokia's N Series and High Tech Computer's HTC Touch phones -- lack Apple's cachet and will have trouble competing on store shelves, he said. In fact, some experts are warning that iPhone sales could fall short of Apple's high expectations. Their criticism includes potential user confusion about Apple's "virtual keyboard," a battery that may fade too fast and is not user-replaceable, andÂ resistance by some corporate IT departmentsÂ to the added expense and security risk of supporting mobile e-mail networks in addition to the servers they use to support Research in Motion's BlackBerry device. Those drawbacks could limit the iPhone's success in the business market, said Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research. Still, the iPhone will be popular with those who tend to use smartphones more by scrolling through menus than typing long messages and who have made Apple's iPod music player a huge hit despite similar concerns about its battery, Wu said. Likewise, consumers will likely shrug off corporate security concerns and use mobile e-mail systems from GoogleÂ and Yahoo. In the long run, Apple will use the iPhone to beat its competitors in creating an end-to-end channel for digital media, spanning from Mac PCs to the mobile iPod music player, iTunes online store, and Apple TV set-top box for sharing Internet and television video content. The only thing Apple could do to spread that net even wider would be to offer iPhone models at less than the current $499 for a 4GB version and $599 for the 8GB, Wu said.
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CHICAGO, Jan. 31 -- Struggling cellphone maker Motorola said Thursday that it was considering separating the handset unit from its other businesses in an effort to snap a deep slump since its meteoric success with the Razr.
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Less than a year after its introduction, itâs clear âthe iPhone has had a profound impact on the mobile phone business and likely will keep on influencing it for years to come,â Troy Wolverton  reports. âWith its large, full-screen display, its notable lack of a keypad and its simple black-on-silver color scheme, the iPhone instantly became an iconâand a model for the rest of the industry.â
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Motorola Inc. , the No. 2  cellphone maker, on Wednesday posted second-quarter earnings  and revenue that beat Wall Street expectations due to strong  demand for its phones, including the Razr.
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The telephone company solidly beat Wall Streetâs forecasts as wireless data use soared, but its initial report on iPhone signups sent Appleâs shares down sharply.
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By Keiko Morris, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.  Sep. 20--Motorola Inc.
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(InfoWorld) - Gartner is known for its comprehensive market research, but Wednesday, the firm produced two separate reports that could leave IT managers scratching their heads over whether to support Apple's iPhone. On the one hand, two Gartner analysts issued a research note to their clients that clearly says the iPhone is "not yet an enterprise device" and urges businesses to "resist general requests from users to admit Apple's iPhone into their corporate environment." On the other hand, Gartner issued a separate press release that advises in a headline, "Companies Must Embrace Consumer Technologies as Additional Opportunities to Innovate." The release quotes a third Gartner analyst, Jackie Fenn, about the value of "embracing and leveraging employee experimentation and experience with consumer technologies." The two points of view may seem contradictory, but they have been a discussion point at Gartner and other analyst firms for several years and have been voiced over iPhone specifically by IT managers recently. For example, at media giant ABC last week, one IT manager said he was sure a few top ABC executives would demand iPhone connectivity to corporate e-mail to be able to experiment with the device and learn its value in communications, even though the official policy was not to support the iPhone. The research note, co-authored by analyst Ken Dulaney, seems to recognize the plight faced by ABC and other companies with the title of its research note, "How to Plan for User Interest in the Apple iPhone." But it nonetheless urges that "general requests to support iPhone should not be fulfilled on the basis that the device cannot be fully secured and managed" to levels Gartner has described for smart phones. "IT organizations should refuse to support the iPhone at this time," the research note continues. "If for political reasons this is not an option, then the iPhone should be placed under the concierge support level ... meaning that support will be granted as an exception, with the associated costs for support covered by a monthly billing to pay for the dedicated support staff uniquely trained for this device." The note adds that the resulting total cost of ownership will be double the cost of a normally supported device, such as a Research In Motion BlackBerry or a Palm Treo. But the note also urges IT staffers to familiarize themselves with the iPhone because "broad employee adoption" is expected to occur outside the workplace. The research note lists several obstacles to adoption inside businesses: Lack of support of the iPhone from major mobile management and mobile security software programs; lack of support from major business e-mail systems; an operating system not licensed to alternative hardware suppliers, resulting in no backup hardware suppliers; feature deficiencies that increase support costs, such as no removeable battery; current availability from only one U.S. operator, AT&T; and a high price of $500 when compared with other smartphones on the market. In addition, the note adds that the iPhone is "unproven ... from a vendor that has never built an enterprise-class mobile device" and is seen by Apple as focused on the consumer audience, not the enterprise business. The note further urges IT organizations to request mobile operators supporting the iPhone to remove the requirement that individuals obtain an iTunes account because the agreement should be with the business and not the individual. Some IT managers have expressed concerns that multiple iTunes accounts could flood storage resources and pose questions about whether songs have been properly procured. Dulaney acknowledged that the research note had undergone many drafts in recent days as Apple released more information on the device. "Most of what Apple has for the enterprise is rudimentary," Dulaney said. "It is clear they have not focused on this and are only hoping to have enough [in the technology] so that some enterprises will permit their users to employ the device without being disturbed by IT. I am sure that third parties will fix some of these things, but most of what they hope to do is via rudimentary VPN technology and through Web browsing. There is a huge difference between what RIM does and what Apple will provide." Despite Dulaney's cautionary words, the prevailing view by Gartner and many analysts seemed to be summarized by one of Fenn's comments in the Gartner press release: "The flood of consumer-led technologies into the enterprise is not going to subside," Fenn said. "To fully realize the benefits, IT must embrace these technologies as an ongoing strategy rather than on a case-by-case basis." In a later e-mail, Dulaney took note of Fenn's comments and emphasized that he had urged IT to begin testing the technology. "We have concluded that no IT organization can stop the invasion of consumer technologies," he said. "But IT gets hurt when they get caught off guard. So they should investigate it. Something as powerful as the iPhone will probably make its way into the enterprise. But for now, we recommend that only specialized support be given."
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Apple's iPhone became the biggest selling smartphone in the U.S. in July, according to iSuppli.
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Woes continue Despite a new CEO, there are no signs yet of a turnaround for Motorola. The company's mobile phone division recorded a shocking quarter, with the unit's revenues down 38 per cent year-on-year, losing $388m along the way. Motorola's mobile division recorded a $1.2bn loss in 2007.â¦