There are rumors circulating that there may be a controller coming for the iPad and iPhone for gaming. AnandTech?s site had stated that they knew of an internal Apple project that is supposed to bring a physical controller to market and whether or not it will ever even see the light of day remains to actually be seen. Even though this is not they of Apple, I mean they have never had any type of device such as a stylus or what have you to interact with your Apple touch products. So this would be a major change for Apple but is a nice good attachment to sell with Apple products and should have some solid sales from them. So the big thought on this controller would be how would it connect to the devices and most look like it might be Bluetooth, since the keyboard used for the iPad have been Bluetooth for years. Also with being able to put your iPad on your Apple TV for a bigger screen would also make you want to game on it and a controller would be a nice touch. I think this is a no brainer for Apple but whether they will truly follow up is the key.
It looks like the Apple iPhone dominance continues to grow. Mike Walkley, a Canaccord Genuity analyst reported that in March the iPhone continued to gain market share and that the iPhones are outselling all other smartphones combined at Sprint and AT&T and is actually selling close to the equal volume to all the Android smartphones sold at Verizon. That is a very impressive stat with all of the smarthphones out there. Although there is a close second to Apple and believe it or not it is the Samsung Galaxy phones. The Galaxy S II is selling very well at AT&T and Sprint and the Galaxy Nexus that is at Verizon is also selling well. So could Samsung be true rival to the iPhone. So far sales are saying yes.
So the cofounder and president of LivingSocial, Eddie Frederick has actually stepped down from the board that was actually sent out in an email from the CEO tim O?shaughnessy.? If you didn?t know LivingSocial is a direct competitor to Groupon which is now a publicly traded company as of late last year.? Now LivingSocial is also looking into getting into the public domain.? Now one has to wonder if the fact they are going public could of weighted into the decision of the president of LivingSocial decided to step down.? Although I obtained the letter sent from Tim O?Shaughnessy on this major change in the top brass of LivingSocial.? So take what you will from this email he sent out after being informed of Frederick?s departure from the company.
LivingSocialites,
Every so often you have to write one of those emails that you just hate to write. One of those emails that?s on your to-do list all day but you keep procrastinating until finally it?s the end of the day and you can procrastinate no more. Well, it?s the end of the day.
Today I?m writing with a little sadness and a lot of gratitude to let you know that Eddie Frederick will be stepping down from his current position on our leadership team and our board and moving on to new challenges and adventures (and if you know Eddie, you have no doubt that there will be plenty of new ?adventures?). As friends and colleagues, we wish him the best.
A big reason for the success and vision of LivingSocial has been the leadership and passion of one of our founders. Eddie has seen it all at LivingSocial ? his work has ranged from leading our user acquisition efforts to A/B testing button colors for Facebook Apps to pushing to launch Me + 3 and countless other contributions. Importantly, he?s also been a partner and driving force in always pushing us into new business opportunities and scaling existing businesses even further. His ?negative space? view has provided a unique voice as we?ve grown. On every decision, Eddie framed it with a binary question: Does this help us win? And he usually helped us get the right answer.
Please join me in thanking Eddie in helping us become the company we are today, and helping position us for the company we?ll become in the future.
Back to October the Blackberry phones stopped working for about 4 days.? Now this wasn?t an all-out fail, as a matter of fact you could make calls and text message but no data would work.? So BlackBerry makers RIM had to tell investors a few days ago that this outage cost them around $54 million dollars.? This is yet another big hit to RIM who is falling further and further down in the phone and tablet market.? After this outage it actually was reported that RIM?s market share actually did decrease another 2.9% which brought it down to 16%.? From September 2011 to December of 2011.? I personally in one point in my life did own a Blackberry.? I purchased a Storm when it first came out and let?s just say a year later I got a droid.? I felt back then that Blackberry didn?t have the power to keep up with this market and it looks like I was right.? It is just a matter of time before they get out of the business altogether, go bankrupt or get bought out.
The hardware business can be a very tough place to play in.? As you know Google for a very long time now has been creating the Android operating systems for phones and tablets for companies like Motorola, LG, and more.? Well Google is interested in capturing the lighting Apple has struck with its OS and devices.? Google is looking to sell co-branded tablets directly to consumers through an online store such as Apple and even Amazon.? Obviously with the purchase of Motorola in the works this had to be no surprise to anyone that they would soon be getting into the market of making their own branded tablets.? The question now will be what type of hardware will they use and how strong will they be against the links of Apple and Amazon in these ongoing tablet battles.
Reports have come out that the Nokia Lumia 900 that is exclusive to AT&T will be released on April 8th for a price just $100.? This phone will need a two year contract to get the great price but also the phone will be 4G.? This price point is no surprise to me.? With the phone market getting stronger and more congested it is a strong move to make a phone that is cheap but still has the windows mobile platform.? However it is the Windows platform that is the problem in the first place, as there has been problems with developers making popular games for the platform such as the strong Angry Birds franchise.? Many wonder if this platform can stay in the game with Apple and Android.? I guess that all depends on how much money Microsoft wants to throw at this project.? Although putting a cheap phone out there could give them a strong idea of where the marketplace could be for the Windows Mobile products.? Most people feel it was doomed to begin with others are willing to give the Windows mobile a shot.? I personally think that the market is too strong for the Windows phone to make strong penetration in the market especially with developers having issues developing for the Windows mobile platform.? Selling the phones dirt cheap maybe the only way to get this platform off the ground.
