Comments on: Palm Pre: What Will It Mean for Users (and Developers)?

By: Brian Prows

Brian Prows — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 05:25:13 +0000

Let’s update the numbers and situation from last year.

In the past twelve months, Android OS smartphones have now surpassed the iPhone in mobile advertising click-through rates (See Smaato’s June, 2010 report) and average number of video minutes consumed per user (See my interview post with Tricia Higgins of MobiTV on MobileBeyond).

Available iPhone apps have passed 200,000, while the Android market exceeded 50,000 apps by April, 2010 and is growing quickly.

The iPhone 4, while selling more units than the 3GS is now competing with HTC, Samsung and Motorola, which continue releasing Android OS devices through Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T

After courting by Apple and RIM, HP purchased Palm and is developing a tablet computer based on WebOS, while AT&T’s iPad sales total 3.5 million units.

On June 12, 2010, 5 billion mobile phones were active on the planet with an additional 5 billion wireless devices forecast for release by 2011 (tablets, e-readers and M2M devices such as smart meters).

Global smartphone and non-smartphone mobile Web usage in 2009 was fairly close: 9.4 terabytes to 7.2 terabytes. Despite the adoption of the iPhone in the U.S. and internationally, its total Internet usage was a drop in the bucket. (See Cisco’s global report 2009-2014: http://tinyurl.com/b9berc)

By: Mike Boland

Mike Boland — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:04:38 +0000

Thanks for your comments, Brian. I agree that it’s not an iPhone killer. Features aside, having to switch to Sprint will be a deterrent — especially for the core attractive set of users who already have iPhones (heavy data consumers and early adopters). AT&T makes it hard to switch with two-year contracts, given new iPhones coming out every year.

You’re also right that vast majority of phones are non-smartphones but in terms of the mobile Web, most usage happens on smartphones (and most of that usage comes from iPhones). Within the discussion of content delivery on the mobile device, that’s the more important number to pay attention to in my opinion.

By: Brian Prows

Brian Prows — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:45:55 +0000

The Palm Pre is not an “iphone killer.” Despite its touch screen and similar functionality to the iPhone, the Pre represents another advanced smartphone competing in a small but growing market. Droves of dedicated iPhone users will not ditch their iPhones because of the Pre or other competitive mobile devices with the exception of mobile geeks, who are continually dissatisfied with mobile technology.

Of the 4 billion active mobile phones on the planet, the vast majority are simple handsets primarily used for phone calls. As Eric Hansen of SiteSpect pointed out in a recent podcast (http://tinyurl.com/qtxe8f), 50% of all global handsets don’t even run Javascript. In India, for example, only 40 to 50 million of the 400 million mobile handsets have data or Internet functionality at all.

Mobile applications certainly drive smartphone sales. However, most smartphone users, including iPhone, Pre and others, will never want nor need 40,000 applications. While Mossberg’s comments about his initial poor experience downloading Palm Pre apps is of interest, Palm is experiencing the same challenges Apple and RIM faced when launching their app stores.

Meanwhile, the Earth continues spinning and at least 3.99 billion cell phone uses are not reading TechCrunch or Engadget. Thankfully, there is life beyond the smartphone.

Brian Prows, MobileBeyond