Apple Smart TV: Analyst reveals the next big product from the company

On March 25, 2011, in a note to investors, Morgan Stanley analyst, Katy Huberty, said that Apple is working on a Smart TV. She reached the conclusion after the firm talked with different people in Asia but could not provide any further details.

Huberty speculates that Smart TV is the next rational step for it will help the company to bring together "TV/Video content, gaming, DVR, as well as other features like apps and FaceTime into one product."

Huberty predicts that a Smart TV from Apple would generate approximately $4 billion with 1 percent TV market share captured by 2013.

As Internet based TVs are becoming the latest craze, Apple can take this advantage and Huberty is not alone to make such a prediction. Piper Jaffray analyst, Gene Munster also believe that Apple is going to launch a “connected television” in near future.

Related article:

Apple Insider

Apple, RIM vs. Kodak: ITC will announce its decision today

On March 25, 2011, the International Trade Commission (ITC) will announce if it will review the earlier ruling of an ITC judge who ruled in favor of Apple and RIM.

This is a serious issue for Kodak as the company is losing its business to mobile phone makers. In an interview on March 24, 2011, Antonio Perez, CEO, Kodak, said that his company “deserves to win.” If it wins the ITC ruling, it would receive $1 billion from Apple and Research in Motion.

Kodak filed a complaint against Apple and RIM over patent infringement in January 2010 in the U.S. District Court for the West District of New York. It claimed that iPhone and BlackBerry phones are using technologies developed by Kodak. In February, ITC announced that it would look into Kodak’s allegation.

Apple and RIM also sued Kodak over patent infringement. In January 2011, an ITC judge ruled in favor of Apple and RIM.

Using the same patent infringement claim with the ITC, Kodak gained $550 million from Samsung and $414 million from LG.

Related article:

Bloomberg

Apple revenue will surpass IBM and HP in the next two years

Forrester CEO, George Colony, predicted that Apple will have great sales in the next two years eventually surpassing IBM and HP in terms of revenue. He said that the company will earn $200 billion in revenues and “post sales growth” will exceed 50 percent in the next two years fueled by higher demand of the iPad tablet PC.

He also warned that Jobs’ departure will affect the company’s future because after every two years, they would have to come up with new products. Steve Jobs is the final decision maker in Apple. Whatever comes out of the company, he gives the final decision. Such practice is not seen anywhere in the technology industry. Bloomberg reports:

Hewlett-Packard had sales of $126 billion in the year that ended in October and IBM’s revenue was $99.9 billion last year, making them the largest technology companies, respectively, by sales. Apple ranks No. 1 by market capitalization.

In a survey conducted on analysts by Bloomberg it has been revealed that Apple sales would increase by 54 percent to $100.3 billion in the current fiscal year ending in September. Growth would slow down to 18 percent the following year.

Jonathan Ive: The star Apple designer

Daily Mail, on March 20, 2011, published a long article on Jonathan Ive, the chief designer of Apple, who designed the top-selling products of Apple and turned it into one of the most profitable technology companies in the world.

Ive was born in Essex and graduated from Newcastle Polytechnic. The British born was hired by Apple in 1997. It was a very bad time for Apple. He spent his first three years in basement developing various products that never went into the market. His luck changed when Steve Jobs became CEO of Apple.

The story of Jonathan Ive, shows once again that in life success does not come easy. You have to work really hard. It is a very inspiring story and you should check it out.

Related article:

Mail Online

Apple filed complaint to stop Amazon from using App Store trademark

Apple sued Amazon over using its “App Store” trademark without consent. Apple filed a complaint on March 18, 2011 in California. The company is going to prevent Amazon from using the “App Store” trademark and win damages.

The complaint reads, “Amazon has begun improperly using Apple’s App Store mark in connection with Amazon’s mobile software developer program.”

Apple started its “App Store” in 2008 and within April 2009, the store observed one billionth download. It is now the most successful “App Store” in the world.

Amazon was reported to be opening the Amazon Android app store on March 22, 2011. Developers are required to pay $99 to register the program and will have a revenue split of 70:30. It will be also be curated just like the Apple App store.

Related article:

The Register

Foxconn backup plan for Apple

Apple and Foxconn have enough inventories to continue producing latest iPad 2 tablet PCs for at least 2-3 weeks before they stop production.

Taiwanese electronics giant, Foxconn, said that it would not face any component shortage in the short term and already prepared its backup suppliers to ensure continuous supply of electronic components.

An anonymous Foxconn representative told Digitimes that the company’s capability of “securing supply resources is still much better than its competitors.”

Foxconn which combines Apple products such as iPhone and iPad in China, is looking into its subsidiaries and partners and reporting back to Apple and other clients. At the same time, it is activating its backup plan.

On the other hand, Redebomdia of Brazil, reported that Foxconn is preparing to open up a new manufacturing plant in Jundiai, Sao Palo, Brazil. The plant will manufacture Apple products. At present, Foxconn has plants for HP and Sony in Jundiai and is going to open a third plant by 2013.

Related article:

Ubergizmo

9 to 5 Mac

Revamped MobileMe of Apple is rumored to be coming in April

Rumor is out that Apple will be launching an upgraded version of its MobileMe service in April. The new service will be free. It would act like a digital storage for customers where they can store their music, movies and other items purchased from iTunes.

The new MobileMe service will be completely free unlike its current version which requires users to pay a yearly subscription of $99.

It has been reported that Apple currently testing the service with a university where it offered students a 60-day trial version of the new service.

On February 24, 2011, Apple removed the current MobileMe product from its online stores and notified resellers about the discontinuation.

Apple will support the existing subscribers till next year for they have already paid for a full year’s service.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that Apple will offer a smaller and cheaper phone that will come with MobileMe service.

This new development coincides with the speculation of PC Mag.com’s Tim Bajarin who claimed that cloud-based services will be the next major trend of Apple and it would release products related to its cloud-based service.

Related article:

Apple Insider

Ideas Apple should steal from others

Over the years, Apple has become the company, whose ideas have been stolen by other companies. Apple should also try this approach. Yes, stealing idea is not a crime. For example, Apple introduced the multi-touch iPhone and over the years, other handset makers took the idea. Cult of Mac has come up with some ideas that Apple should steal from other companies.

Apple can introduce a “multi-player gaming and communication system” like that of the Xbox live. It will enable players to play games with other players from a long distance. They can play and chat with each other.

Apple can introduce gesture based control to its Apple TV remote to make people’s lives a bit easier.

Now that Apple iPad tablet PC is the top selling tablet PC in the world. It should now include a pen input.

Apple iTunes for Windows is of very poor quality but Windows Media Center on the contrary is a very well written and well-planned app and Apple should take the interface.

Apple should also adopt the idea of Microsoft Surface the MPG (multi-touch, physics and gestures) technology to make its iOS devices more magical.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs email to help Apple Japan employees

Earlier, we told you about the heroic deeds of Apple Store employees in Tokyo during the recent 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that took place in Japan on March 11, 2011.

Last week, Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, sent out an email to all Apple employees in Japan. Chihouban.com published the email. It goes like this:

To Our Team in Japan,

We have all been following the unfolding disaster in Japan. Our hearts go out to you and your families, as well as all of your countrymen who have been touched by this tragedy.

If you need time or resources to visit or care for your families, please see HR and we will help you. If you are aware of any supplies that are needed, please also tell HR and we will do what we can to arrange delivery.

Again, our hearts go out to you during this unimaginable crisis.

Please stay safe.

Steve and the entire Executive Team

Apple also set up a donation system that allows its iTunes customers to donate money to Red Cross.

Apple also announced that it will delay the launch of its latest tablet PC, iPad 2 in Japan.

Related article:

PC Mag.com

Western Digital My Book Studio Edition II is coming for Mac users

Western Digital announced a new hard drive called My Book Studio Edition II for Mac users. The hard drive comes with dual-drive storage system and offers 6TB storage capacity.

If you are among those people who frequently work with HD video files and photos then My Book Studio Edition II is the ideal storage device for you. It has a built-in eSATA and FireWire 800 ports allowing users to transfer files at a high speed. It also comes with USB 2.0 port and FireWire-800-to-400 adapter making it compatible with a wide range of devices.

The new hard drive is compatible with Apple’s Time Machine and can be reformatted for Windows PCs. My Book Studio Edition II with 2TB and 4TB hard drives cost $449 and the 6B version costs $549. Western Digital is offering five-year limited warranty.

Related article:

The Mac Observer

Apple tops J.D. Power satisfaction ranking: Motorola second and HTC third

Once again, the Apple iPhone took the number one spot in J.D. Power satisfaction ranking. Out of 1000, Apple iPhone Apple iPhone 4 scored 795 in the customer satisfactory survey. This is however lower to Apple’s September score of but this time Apple won over Motorola and HTC by a higher margin.

Motorola scored 763 and HTC 762. Last year, Motorola had 9 point difference while HTC had 19 point difference with Apple but this time it is 22 and 23 points.

The industry average score for smartphone satisfaction is 761. Both Motorola and HTC sells Android based smartphones Droid and Droid X are the best-selling phones of Motorolla while HTC EVO 4G is the best selling phone of HTC.

Related article:

Computer World

Chris Espinosa Looks Back on His 34 Years with Steve Jobs

If there is one person who turned around the fate of Apple, he is none other than Steve Jobs. Mr. Jobs has created history since becoming Apple CEO in 2000. So, his name comes to our mind when we think about Apple and it is pretty much clear that he has already become a legend.

Chris Espinosa may not come in any comparison with Steve Jobs, but this person has already spent 34 years at Apple and is now the longest-serving employee of the company. He has even served Apple for longer period than Mr. Jobs.

After falling out with company’s shareholders, Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985 and built a company named ‘NeXT’ which Apple acquired in 1997.

Chris Espinosa has been with Apple since January 1977 when he was in highs school. He is the no. 8 employee in the history of Apple. Initially, he was a part-time employee, and testing the Apple II BASIC operating system was his first task as Apple employee. Currently, Mr. Espinosa is involved with Apple's developer tool Xcode as the manager.

Tokyo Apple Store employees’ heroic deeds during the biggest earthquake

I do not know if Apple had made any donations for the disaster struck people of Japan by the Tokyo Apple store employees made a heroic effort to help the people during the 8.9 magnitude earth quake. An Apple manager, working at the Tokyo Apple store, sent an email describing how the Apple store employees helped people during the earthquake.

The Apple store was open as usual when the earthquake hit Japan. The entire building swayed but Apple employees were calm and they led people from the fifth floor to the first floor where the customers took shelter under strong wooden tables that are used to display Apple products.

The building survived 118 aftershocks following the initial earthquake. The store remain opened till 10 a.m. at night and welcomed people. After the quake, many people got stuck in the Tokyo shopping district. There was not electricity and the mobile networks were down but the Apple store Wi-Fi network was active. Many people used the network to contact with their families and loved ones via Twitter, Facebook, FaceTime and email.

Even after the store was shut down, employees remained outside fixing phones and helping other people.

Last but not least, the store also offered food and shelters to its employees and the best thing was the store had ample supplies of food and drink as Apple filled the refrigerator when the earthquake hit. The store even allowed family members of the employees to stay at the store.

Related article:

Into Mobile

Google will Launch Music Store to Compete with Apple’s iTunes

It seems that the rivalry between the two top companies, Google and Apple, will be increased sooner. Both Google and Apple are known as arch rivals, and it is expected to increase their rivalry soon as Internet giant, Google Inc, is planning to take on Apple’s dominance developing a competitive online music store.

With a 70% market share, Apple’s iTunes is still in the dominant form in terms of downloading digital music. However, Google is looking forward to take on Apple in this market.

Google’s online music store will allow users to listen to songs wherever they go. According to various media reports, Google is in talks with music lables on the plan for a download store and a digital song locker. Industry executives are hopeful about Google entering the market to compete with iTunes 10, which comes with social networking feature Ping.

It has not yet confirmed about what a new Google music service would look like. Sources close to Google said that Andy Rubin has been leading conversations about it. It is expected to launch by December 2010.

In 2003, Apple started the sales of digital music through the launch of iTunes. Since its journey, it has been dominating the music industry.

It is thought that Google can shine in the market and make a big competition as it can use large data from YouTube and from search engine. May be for the first time, Apple is going to face a strong competitor.

U.S regulators declared jailbreaking and unlocking iPhone legal

On July 26, 2010, U.S. Government declared that jailbreaking of iPhone is legal.

The regulators said that there is no reason to allow Apple to use the copyright law to protect its business model.

This is a big win for app producers who develop softwares for jailbreaking iPhones or provide jailbreaking software for iPhone users. Earlier, such app producers had to live under constant fear of being sued by Apple.

Though Apple could also sue iPhone users or force users not to jailbreak iPhone for it breaches the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) it never sued anyone till date.

This exemption would severely hurt Apple and other handset makers who use their proprietary software. It is a big loss for Apple for it heavily depends on its closed business system.

On the consumers’ side, jailbreaking an iPhone would violate Apple the contract signed by the user. Which means, by jailbreaking, the iPhone user would lose his/her warranty. Another most important thing is if you are not a tech savvy person, you should not try jailbreak iPhone because it would affect the OS and would eventually render your phone useless and Apple would not repair your phone for you breached the contract.

The regulator now also allowed users to unlock their iPhones. Other exemptions that have been passed by the regulators are- allow the cracking of the digital rights management controls of video games to look for security flaws, allowing the breaking of DVD encryption by educators, students and documentary movie makers to use clips for educational purpose and commentary, allow visually-challenged people to circumvent locks on e-books to enable read-aloud features and bypass “broken or irreplaceable dongles.”

Will Apple bring in its iPod users to use iPhone?

(This entry was originally posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009)

Apple is preparing with its next generation iPhone and people are thinking that with its next generation iPhone, Apple might try to shift its iPod users to iPhone. Analysts and business people are saying that Apple would address its iPhone market just like its iPod market. The company would provide iPhones that are smaller and comes with different sets of functions.

Tony Sacconaghi, an analyst said in his research note that the market of portable music system is shrinking because people are not finding the device very charming as there are smart phones around the corner that can fulfill the need of listening to music. Currently, the smart phone market is very limited and Apple is ruling the roster. The current Apple iPhone comes with an expensive “voice and data service plan.” Under this system, the users would have to pay more than $70 per month to use the phone. This has barred many interested buyers from buying this device. If the new iPhone comes without any data plan then Apple would be able to attract a large amount of buyers. Sacconaghi believes that with the new model iPhone, Apple not only become the top company in the smart phone industry but it will also add $7 billion revenue plus $4 billion “gross profits” per year.

Sacconaghi believes that there would be two versions of this low priced Apple iPhone- the iPhone Nano which will have a larger multi-touch screen and the iPhone Touch would be more like the iPod Touch.

Related articles:

Washington Post

All Things Digital

BlackBerry Storm vs Apple iPhone: Who will be the Winner?

iPhone arrived almost one and a half year ago in the market and it really took the world by storm. Until now, no mobile phone handset could also are any serious challenge to the popularity of iPhone. Now, BlackBerry has the goal of storming the world with its BlackBerry Storm. The battle is going to be fought in the UK. It seems that many people are already entirely waiting for BlackBerry Storm. So, I am eager to see if any serious battle starts between BlackBerry and Apple during the holiday season.

Times Online wrote:

More than 100,000 British customers have pre-ordered the BlackBerry Storm, which is seen as the first genuine rival to Apple’s iconic device thanks to its innovative clickable touchscreen. This can be pressed down like a button on a keyboard, unlike other touchscreen handsets on which users tap the unresponsive glass.

The handset is due to get a royal seal of approval today when the Queen visits the headquarters of Vodafone, which has an exclusive deal with RIM, the maker of the BlackBerry, to sell the device. A Vodafone spokesman said the Queen would be able to try out the Storm during her tour of the complex.

Well, you up to that meet that iPhone is still the market leader and I don’t thing that BlackBerry Storm can offer a serious challenge. It is call and even I like to design and the color but still it has some catching up to two in order to kill iPhone. BlackBerry developers did their best but still it is thicker than iPhone.

Omnifone's MusicStation vs Apple’s iPhone

iPhone is now the biggest buzz in the tech world and iPhone is going to remain in the media headlines for the next few months at least. Apple is hoping that iPhone will become very popular very quickly and most probably many people will be interested to buy iPhone in the coming weeks. Some companies have targeted iPhone and yesterday I wrote about HTC’s mobile phone that has been termed as a rival of iPhone.

Today, I found a lot of news items about Omnifone's MusicStation. It seems that many Omnifone's MusicStation may become a rival of Apple’s iPhone. Actually, it will become a rival of iTune. Of course, iPhone is strongly related to iTune as all the iPhone owners will have to open an iTune account.

Washington Post reported:

Omnifone Ltd. launched on Thursday its MusicStation service that allows mobile phone users to download as many music tracks as they want for ,2.99 (US$3.97) per week. The company previewed MusicStation in February at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona.

The Swedish mobile phone subsidiary of Norwegian telco Telenor ASA is the first to offer the MusicStation service. More than 30 operators in Europe, Asia and South Africa have signed up to offer the service.

I found a news in the website of Omnifone. I am giving the news here:

Omnifone, the UK based mobile music company announces MusicStation, the revolutionary all-you-can-eat (AYCE) full-track mobile music service, goes live today, allowing mobile phone users to gain unlimited access to full music tracks

on industry-standard mobiles for a small weekly fee.

"MusicStation’s launch today heralds the beginning of the next generation of mobile music. Hundreds of millions of mobile phone subscribers worldwide will soon gain the ultimate music freedom - the ability to download and play unlimited amounts of music, wherever they are, through a fantastic easy-to-use digital music experience, which works on almost any phone," said Rob Lewis, CEO of Omnifone.

He added, “Consumers will have the ability to legally access, download and enjoy an unlimited amount of music, from an international and localised music catalogue, supported by the whole music industry, all for a small weekly fee. MusicStation users can download music, wherever they are, at any time and with no charge for data."

MusicStation goes live

The first MusicStation handsets arrived in stores today with Scandinavian operator Telenor becoming the first of many operators to make MusicStation available to its subscribers. Following this first launch in Sweden, an extensive series of additional rollouts in Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa are imminent and due for announcement in the coming days and weeks. In each case, Omnifone will announce the launch only on the day handsets arrive in retail outlets.

As well as Sweden, Omnifone confirms it has now entered into partnerships with 30 mobile operators with networks in the following territories: Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK.

Telenor CEO Johan Lindgren, said, “We are proud to win the race to be the first operator in the world to rollout MusicStation to our subscribers. Telenor has always focused on delivering cutting edge services to its subscribers and with MusicStation we can deliver a truly next generation music experience, giving our consumers the freedom to download an unlimited amount of music, wherever they are, for a small weekly fee.”

International MusicStation licensing arrangements announced with Universal Music Group, SONY BMG, EMI Music, Warner Music International and many major independent labels such as Beggars Group, Vital:PIAS Digital and leading global mobile distributor VidZone Digital Media

Omnifone today announces signed international licensing deals with all four major music labels; Universal Music Group, SONY BMG, EMI Music and Warner Music International, who are making their international and local digital music catalogues available to MusicStation users.

Rob Wells, Senior Vice President, Digital, Universal Music Group International, said, “It’s hard to imagine a more compelling music experience on mobile than MusicStation. It works on almost any phone, giving consumers the freedom to choose whatever device they want. It allows downloads wherever those consumers are, providing the freedom to access music whenever they want. And it gives users unlimited access to our and other labels’ catalogues, all for a fixed weekly fee that includes data. We welcome its rollout today and look forward to the other rollouts that are due.”

Matthew Crosswaite, Vice President of Business Development at EMI Music said, "We want to make sure that fans can always access music by EMI's artists quickly and easily, wherever they happen to be. The MusicStation subscription service gives consumers a new way of doing that, and we are very pleased to be working with Omnifone to reach millions of subscribers around the world through their mobile phone."

Pete Downton, Vice President, Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, Warner Music International, said, "As we monetise our content across the myriad of ever-developing ways that people enjoy music, mobile technology continues to present us with important opportunities. MusicStation's easy-to-use subscription service will offer consumers a compelling way to discover and explore our artists' music anytime, anywhere. Beginning with its launch in Sweden, this service is an exciting, innovative development."

Omnifone confirms it has also secured a wide selection of independent and localised content in many key territories from independent labels and distributors including Beggars Group, Vital:PIAS Digital and VidZone Digital Media.

Simon Wheeler, Director of Digital, Beggars Group stated, “We are delighted MusicStation sees the importance of securing a vast catalogue of local and independent content, to ensure that users have the widest possible selection available, at the touch of a button, wherever they are.”

“Providing our Vital:PIAS Digital’s catalogue of high quality independent music, regionalised for each MusicStation rollout, means that we can provide millions of mobile users with the tracks they want, whatever the genre,” said Adrian Pope, Head of Vital:PIAS Digital. “MusicStation provides a new and exciting way for consumers to legally access, discover and enjoy music.“

Omnifone has partnered with Musiwave to quickly bring MusicStation to market and onto music mobiles across the world. “Musiwave is proud to collaborate with Omnifone in bringing music to MusicStation mobiles world-wide,” said Guillaume Decugis, Vice President and General Manager, Musiwave. “MusicStation complements our existing music services with a differentiated mobile music subscription service that works over the air and links with our music platform.”

Omnifone today announces further consumer launches imminent in Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa

Omnifone confirms further rollouts throughout Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa will be announced in the next few weeks as MusicStation devices appear in retail outlets across all three regions.

Rob Lewis, CEO of Omnifone said, “We expect to be able to offer MusicStation to one hundred million phone subscribers this year. We believe that by providing consumers with the ultimate music freedom of unlimited access to music, wherever a user is, on whatever phone they buy, MusicStation is delivering the most compelling consumer proposition in digital music today.”

Robin Bloor, international IT analyst with Bloor Research stated, after reviewing the MusicStation product, "By focusing on Europe and Asia, and the key operators in these territories, Omnifone is staying focused on the markets which are expected to be the largest for digital music in the next few years.”

*Subscribers will pay a small weekly fee of 2.99 euros (or the localised equivalent) to access a comprehensive global catalogue of music drawn from all the major record labels and independents, fully localised to the local market. The price point in Sweden will be 25SEK per week.

HTC Touch vs Apple iPhone

High Tech Computer Corp (HTC) is a Taiwanese company. It is not exactly a high profile name in the cell phone industry but it surely can produce nice mobile phones. It also can produce portable devices. It works with big companies like Dell and Microsoft. Now HTC officials are becoming serious about fighting with Apple iPhone. They feel that they have already something to compete against iPhone. They call it HTC Touch.

Reuters reported:

Taiwan smartphone maker High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) (2498.TW: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it will launch one of its own-brand touch-screen phones in the United States by the end of the year, as it seeks to compete with Apple's (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) iPhone.

The company's second-half U.S. launch for its newly released HTC Touch phone follows a recent release for the model in Britain, said Chief Executive Officer Peter Chou.

The model, a so-called smartphone with cellphone and personal digital assistant (PDA) capabilities, will use touch-screen technology similar to that of the iPhone, set for release in the United States later this month.

I did some research about HTC Touch and found that Wikipedia actually has an entry about HTC Touch but the page contains nothing more than 2-3 sentences. Therefore, I went to the official website of HTC Touch. The website has some good information about HTC Touch. You can visit the product page and read the specifications.

I don’t think that HTC Touch will give Apple iPhone a run for its money simply because hardly anyone knows about HTC Touch. On the other hand, Apple iPhone is now the most widely talked about gadget in Internet.

Will iPhone Ignite a New Browser War?

iPhone is expected to become a popular mobile phone set right away and Apple is expecting that millions of iPhones will be sold in the next one year. In fact, Apple is expecting that they would be able to sell 10 million iPhones annually. I will not be surprised if Apple can do so.

As you already know that the browser of iPhone will be Safari, the browser developed by Apple. So, in the mobile –phone segment, Safari will be able to grow its user base significantly overnight. A radical shift in the mobile phone industry is going these days. More and more users are getting connected to Internet with their mobile phones. So, the market is getting larger. So, many users who never used or even saw Safari will get familiar with the browser.

Apple has recently introduced Safari for users of Windows Operating system. Thus, many iPhone users will first get familiar with Safari in their mobile phone and some of them may actually use Safari in their desktop computers too. This can help Apple to increase its market share in the browser market.

IT News wrote:

According to Jobs, there are 18 million Safari users. Safari accounts for a 5 per cent share of the browser market while Internet Explorer has 78 per cent, Firefox has 15 per cent, and other browsers like Opera and The Omni Group's OmniWeb compose the remaining 2 per cent.

Ethan Schoonover, a conference attendee and developer who blogs at kinkless.com, said he expected that the addition of Windows support would help Safari make inroads in enterprise environments where many IT managers remain wary of open source projects like Firefox.

But it seems likely that sales of iPhones will boost Safari's adoption more than the browser's newfound corporate appeal. If Apple sells 10 million iPhones in a year as projected, Safari's installed base will rise by over 50%, not including Windows users who decide to install it on their PCs.

However, not everyone shares the enthusiasm of Steve Jobs. Mitch Wagner feels that Windows Users Don't Care About Safari. He feels that most Windows users are happy with IE, Firefox and Opera and they would not want to even try Safari unless Safari provides something extraordinary for the users.

He wrote:

Moreover, Apple boasts that Safari renders Web pages significantly faster than either IE7 or Firefox 2.

But still: The features Apple brags about with Safari, or very similar features, are available either standard or with browser extensions in Firefox.

And, as for performance ... I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it just doesn't matter much. We're not living in the days when a 28.8-Kbps modem was standard; most of us have high-speed Internet connections at home and in the office. I don't really care about page-rendering speed, and I don't hear about other people caring either. (People do care about throughput for multimedia files, of course, but that's a whole different matter.)

I'm not predicting a rush for people to adopt Safari on Windows.

I agree with Mitch Wagner partially. There are many news users in Internet all the time. If they hear good things about Safari from others then some of them will try Safari anyway. If Safari can give good speed in surfing then many people like me will surely go for it. Right now, I use Opera as it is faster than IE and Firefox (at least, I have seen this matter in my own surfing experience). If I find that Safari is faster than even Opera, I would not mind using it.

So, let us go back to the original question- Will iPHones ignite a browser war? I think it will. Until now, Safari was totally limited to Mac users. Now, Safari is going spread among Windows users and iPhone users. It will increase the market share of Safari and on the other hand, it will make Safari more familiar to us.

iphone