Patient (or impatient) iPhone
aficionados will not have to wait much longer for that highly
anticipated iPhone 5: Apple on Tuesday began mailing out invitations to
journalists for an iPhone event on October 4, to be held at its headquarters in
Cupertino, Calif. Apple often drops hints in the graphic elements accompanying
the invites about what's coming. The not-so-cryptic message: One iPhone will be
coming, contradicting weeks of rumors about two -- the other being the
so-called 4S.
It's not clear why Apple chose to have its event on-campus this time versus
its typical launch venue, the Yerba Buena Center
for the Arts. The YBCA is showing no events for that day. In any case,
Apple may be leaning towards a more intimate setting, hoping to maximize press
coverage for the device by only inviting the most highly-read news outlets to
the event itself.
The invitation is simply titled "Let's Talk iPhone," with an image showing
the iOS icons for its calendar, showing the date of Tuesday the 4th, the clock,
(showing the time of the event), the Map icon showing a pin where Apple's
campus is located, and the phone icon.
If the visual clues extend to the phone icon, this may be the most important
part of the whole invite. Notice that the "1" badge is on this image. For
several months now, we've waffled between Apple releasing either one or two
phones. In true Apple style, the company may have hidden its answer in the
invitation itself. Those sneaky devils.
What is still unclear regardless of the number of phones Apple debuts next
Tuesday is the release date. Using the iPhone 4 as a baseline for speculation,
the announcement came on June 7, 2010, followed by preorders on June 16
(Wednesday) and in-store sales on June 24 (Thursday).
By that reckoning, presales would start October 12 and the phone would be in
stores on October 21. But a more ambitious schedule would better rumors of
October 15. In that scenario, Apple would begin presales on October 5 and have
iPhone 5 in stores on the 13th.
The rumours that the next-generation iPhone will be launched a week today,
on October 4th, have been officially confirmed.
The invites to the Cupertino campus, where the event will be held, have been
sent out. They simply said: “Let’s talk iPhone.”
Traditionally, major Apple launches are held at the Yerba Buena Centre for
the Arts in San Francisco, but the company has plumped for the smaller venue
this time.
This could be because the arts centre was booked up, although whatever the
reason, it means that new CEO Tim Cook will get to handle his first big iGadget
launch in a smaller venue.
Whether that’ll make it easier to deal with – or harder because the Apple
fans won’t be quite so massed and vocal with their cheering – we’re not
sure.
Anyway, in almost exactly a week’s time – the event will begin at 6pm our
time – we’ll finally discover whether there’ll be an iPhone 5, an iPhone 4S, or
both.
The theory with the latter being that the iPhone 5 will be launched as
normal, and the 4S as a somewhat cheaper more budget conscious alternative to
help expand Apple’s market share to the lower reaches of the smartphone world
(where Android reigns supreme).
The only certainty is that the new (top) model will definitely boast a
faster processor and an improved 8 megapixel camera. It’s also likely to have a
redesigned, slimmer body, certainly if you put any stock in leaked shots of
cases for the device.
Apple has made big brouhaha about its multi-touch user interface on iOS
products like iPhone, and has for almost four years been attempting to
trademark the term here in the United States. That effort is now for naught as
a filing made public on Friday shows that the company's application was
denied.
Apple originally applied for the trademark back on January 9, 2007, the same
day the first iPhone was introduced at that year's Macworld Expo. Its
application was initially denied by a US Patent and Trademark Office attorney
on the basis that it was "merely descriptive of the applicants goods," but
Apple pressed on.
In a resubmitted application, Apple attempted to prove "acquired
distinctiveness," but the USPTO was not persuaded and denied it a second time.
Running out of options, the decision was then appealed to the full board, which
held a hearing in April and handed its decision down last week, again affirming
its attorney's opinion on the matter.
The decision seems to reflect the opinion of the USPTO that multi-touch now
has become a generic term to describe the interface between the user and most
touchscreen devices. Since that is the case, it becomes much more difficult, if
not impossible, to trademark the term.
"Simply because the applied-for term has been used in association with a
highly successful product does not mean the term has acquired distinctiveness,"
the USPTO said in conclusion.
Apple has released Final Cut Pro X on the Mac App
Store.
The latest 64-bit incarnation of the video editing package “reinvents” the
film editing process, according to Apple, utilising a so-called magnetic
timeline that allows for fluid editing on a trackless canvas, with clips that
“magnetically” close up to eliminate gaps.
Clip connections allow the user to link primary clips to elements such as
titles and sound effects, so when you shift them around, they stay in sync.
Other features include content auto-analysis, which analyses and
automatically categorises your source material (by shot type, media, number of
people involved and so on) in the background while you’re busy editing.
There’s some pretty clever new stuff in here. Academy Award winning editor
Angus Wall (of The Social Network fame) enthused about the product: “Final Cut
Pro X is incredibly modern and fast, but most importantly it lets you focus on
telling your story in the most creative way, while it actively manages all of
the technical details.”
The package is available now on the Mac App Store with a price tag of
£180.
Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, is to return from medical leave today to
announce the company’s iCloud when delivering the keynote at the Worldwide
Developers Conference.
All eyes are on the cloud-based service, which will offer storage and
streaming of music, and likely for free given Amazon and Google’s already
gratis based cloud services.
Analysts are expecting big waves to be made by the iCloud, with Apple having apparently secured deals with four
major record companies – Sony, EMI, Universal and Warner Music – which has
taken some considerable time and negotiating.
We’ll have the juicy details of the service later on today, as well as iOS 5
which Jobs will also be introducing, and the eighth release of Mac OS X.
A big day for the Cupertino mob, certainly, with the details unusually
spilled to the press before the actual event. Maybe there’ll be a surprise in
there, too (and we don’t mean Jobs will spring out of an iCloud themed
cake).
A New York based designer, Andrew Schneider, has invented something new in
the bikini world for those who like to listen to music while they’re lazing on
the beach.
His swimsuit is made up of thin solar panels which are stitched together
with conductive thread, and it can be used to power your iPod – or any device
with a USB connection – while you’re out in the sun.
A clever little idea and it doesn’t perhaps cost as much as you’d expect,
with a price tag of £120.
Those who might be worried about water coming into contact with this
charging outfit need fret not, as it’s perfectly safe to take a swim wearing
the bikini, apparently.
However, you need to dry off afterwards before hooking up your device to the
swimsuit. Not that any shock would be detectable anyway, according to the
designer.
A New York based designer, Andrew Schneider, has invented something new in
the bikini world for those who like to listen to music while they’re lazing on
the beach.
His swimsuit is made up of thin solar panels which are stitched together
with conductive thread, and it can be used to power your iPod – or any device
with a USB connection – while you’re out in the sun.
A clever little idea and it doesn’t perhaps cost as much as you’d expect,
with a price tag of £120.
Those who might be worried about water coming into contact with this
charging outfit need fret not, as it’s perfectly safe to take a swim wearing
the bikini, apparently.
However, you need to dry off afterwards before hooking up your device to the
swimsuit. Not that any shock would be detectable anyway, according to the
designer.
Orange has launched a “connected” contract deal whereby a customer can pick
up both the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 on the same monthly tariff.
The two year deal secures you a smartphone and tablet with 600 minutes,
unlimited texts and 2GB of data allowance across both devices.
And the cost? For a 16GB iPhone 4 and 16GB 3G iPad 2, there’s an up-front
fee of £149, with a monthly fee of £65. The total outlay comes in at £1709
which, as you’d hope, is cheaper than getting them on separate contracts with
Orange.
If you want more storage on your devices, then the up-front cost rises to
£349 for a 32GB smartphone and 64GB tablet. Existing Orange customers do get a slight price cut,
though, and can knock £50 off the initial fee.
While this is a network first, we’re not sure that the spectre of £65 per
month – on top of a considerable initial outlay – is going to tempt too many
people. We may well be wrong, however.
It’ll be interesting to see if other operators follow suit with their own
perhaps more competitive bundles. Or if the concept gets expanded from Apple to
the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S II and Tab.
Of course, you could always just wait for an Asus PadFone contract, the
slate which comes with a smartphone tucked away on board.
Orange has launched a “connected” contract deal whereby a customer can pick
up both the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 on the same monthly tariff.
The two year deal secures you a smartphone and tablet with 600 minutes,
unlimited texts and 2GB of data allowance across both devices.
And the cost? For a 16GB iPhone 4 and 16GB 3G iPad 2, there’s an up-front
fee of £149, with a monthly fee of £65. The total outlay comes in at £1709
which, as you’d hope, is cheaper than getting them on separate contracts with
Orange.
If you want more storage on your devices, then the up-front cost rises to
£349 for a 32GB smartphone and 64GB tablet. Existing Orange customers do get a
slight price cut, though, and can knock £50 off the initial fee.
While this is a network first, we’re not sure that the spectre of £65 per
month – on top of a considerable initial outlay – is going to tempt too many
people. We may well be wrong, however.
It’ll be interesting to see if other operators follow suit with their own
perhaps more competitive bundles. Or if the concept gets expanded from Apple to
the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S II and Tab.
Of course, you could always just wait for an Asus PadFone contract, the
slate which comes with a smartphone tucked away on board.
Analyst company Distimo has produced a new piece of research which throws
some light on the workings of Apple’s App Store compared to rival Android
Market (and others).
The report notes that there are 96 apps which have been downloaded more than
5 million times on the Android Market. Google Maps is top of the tree of
popular apps with 50 million downloads.
However, Distimo notes that the report data shows that the Apple App Store
is actually a more lucrative vehicle for developers, as when it comes to the
monetization of apps using a one-off fee, only two paid-for apps have been
downloaded more than 500,000 times on the Android Market.
However, when it came to Apple‘s app downloads, six paid-for apps for
the iPhone managed to achieve that half a million figure in just two months,
and in America only.
80% of all the paid-for apps in Google’s app store have been downloaded less
than a hundred times globally. That compares to 20% of free apps.
Turning its attention to games, Distimo noted that five Android games have
achieved 250,000 plus downloads globally, whereas Apple managed double that
with ten games – and again, that was just in the US, in a period of two
months.
Distimo notes that the reason many apps have been downloaded so few times
for Google may be linked to the lack of churn in the top Android app charts.
The top ranked apps change little over time due to the way Google establishes
the rankings, and takes more long-term performance into account.
Apple had the most distinct applications in its top 10 and 300 app charts,
with Nokia’s Ovi Store coming second in churn, and even Windows Phone 7
outpacing Android which was in fourth place for distinct charted apps.
Des rumeurs affirment qu’Apple envisagerait de racheter ARM pour 8 milliards
de dollars, ce qui bouleverserait complètement le marché des processeurs ARM
ainsi que l’écosystème qui s’est construit autour de ces puces.
Spéculation
C’est un article du London Evening Star qui a mis le feu aux poudres en
affirmant qu’« Apple est le plus gros client d’ARM et selon les
spéculations, le fabricant de l’iPad veut prendre en charge le design des puces
en interne ».
Quoiqu’il arrive, et même si ces rumeurs se révèlent être fausses, ARM en aura
profité pour voir son action grimper de 3,2 % et Apple attire un peu plus les
regards sur ses résultats financiers excellents (cf. « Les résultats d'Apple
explosent »). Reste maintenant à savoir si cette hypothèse est plausible et
notre réponse est affirmative.
Considérons tout d’abord qu’Apple est une des sociétés à l’origine d’ARM
avec Acorn et VLSI. Fondé en 1990, ARM représentait la volonté d'Apple
d’adapter le processeur RISC d’Acron pour l’utiliser dans sa plateforme mobile
Newton. Le succès ne fut néanmoins pas au rendez-vous et Steve Jobs vendit une
partie des parts d’ARM que possédait Apple (2 millions d’actions). C’était en
1999, Cupertino allait mal et c’était un moyen de regonfler le chiffre
d’affaires. La firme a ainsi pu récupérer 59 millions de dollars. Le père du
Mac n’est pas néanmoins resté loin d’ARM très longtemps puisqu’il revint en
2001 avec ses iPod et a continué d’utiliser les processeurs de la firme dans
ses baladeurs, ses routeurs, ses téléphones et sa toute nouvelle
tablette.
On sait qu’Apple cherche à se démarquer de la concurrence en dessinant ses
propres puces, comme en témoigne le processeur A4 intégrant l’iPad et
l'acquisition en 2008 de P.A Semi (cf. « Apple va
concevoir son processeur ARM »). Un rachat d’Acorn RISC Machine (ARM)
rentrerait donc dans cette logique.
Considérations économiques
Reste maintenant la question de savoir si Apple peut se payer une telle
société et s’il est indéniable que ce rachat serait largement plus important
que ses dernières acquisitions, Cupertino est en grande forme financière. Avec
41 milliards de dollars en cash et en garantie à court et long termes, les 8
milliards de dollars nécessaires pour ce rachat, selon les analyses, sont dans
les moyens d’Apple. De plus, vu le nombre de partenaires et de licences ARM
dans la nature, le retour sur investissement serait plutôt rapide et sans grand
risque. Les fabricants de smartphones ou de MID ne changeront pas de plateforme
du jour au lendemain. Apple serait aussi exempt de royalties, ce qui
diminuerait le coût de fabrication de ses produits ARM.
Enfin, en rachetant ARM, Apple pourrait prendre une belle longueur d’avance sur
Google qui a clairement montré son désir de suivre Cupertino sur le terrain des
processeurs ARM en rachetant Agnilux (cf. « Google
veut-il son processeur ARM ? ») et sur Microsoft qui dépend de
l’architecture ARM pour Windows Phone.
Considérations légales
Un rachat d’ARM serait donc un bon choix financier et stratégique. Cela ne
veut pas néanmoins dire qu’il se concrétisera et que des sociétés comme Samsung
ou Intel ne se rebelleront pas. Le PDG d'ARM n'a pas démenti les rumeurs, mais
a affirmé qu'aucune compagnie n'avait besoin de racheter sa société pour
accéder à ses technologies et que le modèle économique actuel était un
excellent moyen de faciliter l'accès de ses brevets à tous. Ce dernier point
est d'ailleurs intéressant. Si Apple peut racheter ARM, il n'est pas sûr que
les autorités de régulation de la concurrence approuvent une acquisition qui
pourrait complètement bloquer le marché des CPU ARM.
Qualcomm's mobile broadcast television service called FLO TV existed for
about five years under different wireless carrier brand names: Sprint TV,
Verizon V Cast TV, and AT&T MediaFLO TV. But the carriers didn't
push it very hard, so it did not break through into the public's
consciousness.
But then Qualcomm began advertising FLO TV on its own, with its own
smartphone-sized pocket TVs made by HTC, and it looks like it is finally
beginning to stick.
At CES 2010,
Qualcomm announced it had partnered with Mophie on an external battery pack
that contains a FLO TV chip so iPhone users could tune into FLO TV without the
need for a cumbersome dock, external antenna or anything other than what they
have shown an interest in already.
The juicepack TV receiver slips onto the iPhone like any other mophie
battery pack, and works in conjunction with a FLO TV app to let users tune into
their FLO TV subscriptions. It has not yet been released, but is expected
to hit
the market soon (first half of 2010.)
I got a hands-on experience with the juicepack TV at CTIA 2010, and while
the experience is great, there is one aspect to the system that is absolutely
brilliant. The 30-pin connector inside of the JPTV unit does not have to be
connected to the iPhone for signals to come through.
All of FLO TV's signals are streamed to the iPhone via a Wi-Fi connection,
and the 30-pin connector is used to supply the additional battery power.
Since a physical connection between the JPTV and the handheld device is not
necessary, this means users could conceivably connect an iPod Touch or an iPad
to the juicepack if they have an active FLO TV account and the iPhone OS-based
app. A source close to both companies confirmed that iPod and iPad
compatibility does exist, but did not say whether the functionality will be
restricted when juicepack TV is released later this year.
By 2013 users will be downloading a massive 8.6bn Apple-type speciality
applications each year. This is up 230% on today’s numbers. TV is also driving
interest, says Screen Digest in a new report.
It seems like only yesterday (July 2008) that Apple opened up its Apps Store
to all-comers. Last year users downloaded about 250,000,000 ‘paid-for’
applications, and 2.33bn ‘free’ items, and Screen Digest says this will grow to
some 670,000,000 ‘paid-for’ apps in 2013, and 6.7bn free downloads in 2013.
While it is no longer just Apple that offers downloadable ‘apps’ (Palm,
Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Maemo, Limo and Android-equipped devices all offer
similar variations on a theme), but Screen Digest says the humble TV set is
doing its best to drive traffic. It quotes BSkyB’s ‘remote control’ application
which saw 300,000 downloads within 3 weeks of it being offered, and “quickly
overtook its PC counterpart in terms of usage”.
Sky has followed this with similar apps for news (free, and generating 1m a
month), sports news and mobile TV (£6/month for subscribers). Good as these
numbers are they are nothing compared to the US where NBC Universal has (as at
January) 29 apps available. Same with Disney (ABC and ESPN), CBS and Fox. Canal
Plus is doing much the same with its full portfolio of channels (but at €20 a
month). The BBC, NHK-World, and Al Jazeera all have similar services available
to iPhone users.
The conclusion is that “TV-branded apps intrinsically suggest that video
plays an important part of the offering,” says Screen Digest.
BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobile World Congress -- FluxDVD,
the leading secure platform-independent video solution, now supports secure
video downloads and playback on Apple iPhone and iPod touch devices. The
optionally DRM-protected files can be downloaded directly on the iPhone or may
be transferred from a PC without requiring iTunes. Once the content and license
is stored on the iPhone, the content can be used as defined in the DRM and does
not require any Internet connection.
"Supporting DRM-protected video on the iPhone/iPod touch is an extremely
important step for supporting all major mobile platforms. It opens up a variety
of new possibilities for our customers, such as Deutsche Telekom, in making
their video services available in as many ways as possible. Although the Apple
approval process took about four months, we believe, the result is definitely
worth the wait," says Volkmar Breitfeld, CEO of ACE GmbH, the company behind
FluxDVD.
"Adding the iPhone as a video distribution platform is one of the top
requested features of our clients. We work with many creative people who often
use the iPhone themselves and so this was always one of our top priorities. But
that this is now possible based on our existing solution without the need to
re-encode content is something I didn't think possible," says Michael Schmidt,
VP Marketing at
http://www.flickrocket.com, a site offering integrated DVD download web
shops for third party web sites.
Support for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch has been added through the
custom "My Movies" app, which is available free of charge in the Apple app
store.
FluxDVD supports Windows, regular DVD players, portable media players,
navigation systems, Windows Mobile phones, Blackberry, Android, feature phones,
PlayStation and iPhone/iPod touch. Solutions for Mac OS X and Android are
planned to be released in the near future. Encoding and distribution tools are
available at no cost from
http://www.fluxdvd.com.
Comment peut-on lutter contre l’App Store, la boutique d’application mobile
d’Apple ? Si Google a choisi de créer sa propre plateforme concurrente, trois
grands fabricants asiatiques et de nombreux opérateurs mobiles ont opté pour
l’alliance. Samsung, LG Electronics et Sony Ericsson ont ainsi annoncé ce
matin à Barcelone un partenariat avec les géants Vodafone, AT&T, Orange,
China Mobile, MTN, Orascom Telecom, Telefonica, NTT DoCoMo et Bharti Airtel et
15 autres opérateurs de plus petite taille.
Bharti Airtel vous est certainement inconnu, mais sachez qu’il est le premier
opérateur en Inde. Quant à MTN, il s’agit du n°1 en Afrique. Des rumeurs ont
d’ailleurs laissé entendre que l’Indien aimerait bien croquer l’Africain. Mais
avec plus de 100 millions de clients, MTN n’est pas aisé à acquérir.
Ces opérateurs représentent tout de même plus de trois milliards de clients
dans le monde. Le partenariat entre ces 24 opérateurs et les trois
constructeurs asiatiques n’est cependant pas encore effectif, mais les
opérateurs se sont engagés à soutenir l'initiative selon la GSMA,
l’alliance représentant de nombreux acteurs du marché à travers le monde.
Reste à savoir si les développeurs vont suivre, quel sera le business-model de
la plateforme, sur quels mobiles elle sera accessible, etc.
Perhaps yesterday’s tweet by Google CEO Eric
Schmidt put it best. Hell has indeed frozen over. Google has run its first
major television ad, during the Super Bowl, no less. Below, the ad, how it has
been received, how it compares to other search engine commercials from rivals
and some questions about why market leader Google felt it needed to make such a
dramatic move to promote its best known product that has no real marketing
problems.
The rumor
that Google would run a commercial during today’s Super Bowl 2010 proved true.
Google aired a spot from its online video Search Stories series, called
Parisian Love:
The company also has a blog post up about it here,
saying:
If you watched the Super Bowl this evening you’ll have seen a video from
Google called “Parisian
Love“. In fact you might have watched it before, because it’s been on
YouTube for over three months. We didn’t set out to do a Super Bowl ad, or even
a TV ad for search. Our goal was simply to create a series of short online videos
about our products and our users, and how they interact. But we liked this
video so much, and it’s had such a positive reaction on YouTube, that we
decided to share it with a wider audience.
The commercial, by the way, had 1.2 million views before the ad. It’ll be
interesting to see how it changes now. Google’s taken out its own ad on Google
for google tv ad
that links over to an area with the ad — good cross-promotion:
Someone also tweeted to me that Google’s also taken out ads for actual
searches that are demonstrated in the commercial. I took a quick look myself.
That’s true for some queries but not all of them.
The queries in the ad are shown below, along with whether Google was showing
an ad for its Superbowl commercial in relation to these searches and whether
the listing selected by the searcher in the ad is still in the top results:
Of those sites selected, one
of them already doing something special for visitors who might be coming to it
because of the Super Bowl publicity:
The ad was also posted to the YouTube AdBlitz channel, where all Super Bowl ads have
been posted
immediately after airing.
Google & Past Traditional Consumer Advertising
Over the past years, Google — which is somewhat
notorious for not advertising itself to consumers, has actually been
ramping up that outreach. Consider:
Newspapers: Google’s done newspaper ads on the odd
occasion, such as a campaign in 2005
to target college students and entice them to its web applications.
Despite these traditional advertising moves, nothing matches the giant leap
that the Superbowl ad represents. Google has never felt the need to put across
its core product — search — to so many people at once.
Indeed, when Microsoft undertook a major television campaign last year to
promote its new Bing search engine, Google’s Schmidt suggested
they would be of little use for acquire customers:
You don’t just buy it with ads. You earn it, and you earn it customer by
customer, search by search , answer by answer. And we believe that today we
beat our competitors because we’re so focused on comprehensiveness, speed,
freshness and having the depth that people really care about.
At that time, Schmidt also said:
We are spending all of our time on exactly what we’ve always done, which is
innovation. I don’t think Bing’s arrival has changed what we’re doing. We are
about search, we’re about making things enormously successful by virtue of
innovation.
Such a major flip from that to a Superbowl ad in less than a year suggests
that Google is feeling pressure to reach consumers, something I suspected might
happen back
when Bing launched:
Google’s never really had to market itself to consumers, to trot its stuff.
The recently held “Searchology”
event didn’t cover anywhere near the range of what Google offers. But if the
praise for Bing keeps largely rolling in — if people keep discovering features
that aren’t necessarily unique to Bing — Google may find it has to step up.
Just a week after Bing’s launch, Google showed the first sign of outward
pressure by pushing out a new “Explore Google Search” page that was advertised
on its home page. It was to counter the idea that it was somehow missing
features that Bing was getting noticed for (see
Google Fires Back At Bing, Launches “Explore Google Search”).
Now we have the Super Bowl ad– a TV ad no less intrusive than those Google
once
said it hoped to change through its own Google TV Ads program
for advertisers.
We also have it during the same Super Bowl where long-time advertiser
Pepsi skipped the Super Bowl. What a strange, unexpected flip-flop.
Postscript: Like that simple focus on search results in
Google’s ad? As I’ve been watching reaction on Twitter, plenty seem to:
Of course, the Google ad has a common theme that evolves in the spot, a
blossoming love affair told in searches, whereas the Ask ad just focuses
quietly on Ask’s features. Still, having watched reactions to search engine ads
over the years, I can recall that the Ask ad seemed effective to those I talked
with about it. The Google ad may have struck the same chord.
In contrast, the Bing TV ads
that have been running perhaps have been too overloaded focusing on the idea
there is “search overload” rather than the simplicity of the results
themselves. Here’s one:
Meanwhile, here’s a look back to 1998, which was a heyday for search engines
to be advertising themselves on TV. This montage starts off with a Yahoo ad
that always makes me laugh, just a boy, looking for some hair:
We’ve also got a parody of the Google ad, though this was made before the ad
aired during the Super Bowl (that’s possible because the Google ad has aired
online for several months). Spotted via Twitter, check out
this Tiger
Woods-themed ad:
Media Reactions
We’ll see how reactions to the Google ad continue to go. Some media
reactions to how Google’s spot compared to other Superbowl commercials that
I’ve survey are giving the company kudos:
CNET: It
was a breath of fresh air in a Super Bowl where the ads were dominated by
dude-oriented spots
Ledger-Enquirer:
What did impress was the Google ad, which was smart, got the message across
fast and tugged at the heart strings.
Kansas City Star: It
it was a winner — far more satisfying than the mostly sophomoric commercials
from the beer makers, job-search companies, fast-food restaurants, soft drink
makers and other usual Super Bowl advertisers
Wall St. Journal: “Could be my favorite,” DiGo’s Mr. DiMassimo said of the
Google spot.
Wall St. Journal 2: A lot of typing into the search engine from a guy or
girl going to France, trying to impress a girl. As Butthead said, “If I wanted
to read, I would have stayed in school.”
AP: “‘That
was one of the few strong ads this year,” said Laura Ries, president of
marketing consulting firm Ries&Ries outside Atlanta.
Buffalo News: “It’s simple, charming and very real, down to the
misspellings.”
CNN Money:
“It was the least expensive ad and the best ad so far,” said McKee. “It was
basically a product demo on the Super Bowl.”
Reuters:
“The spot, well-received by experts, told the story of a
transAtlantic romance though search queries and results.”
Sporting News: Look at you, Google. You spent about ten bucks to
create your multi-million dollar ad, and it really got the point across.
Consider my heartstrings tugged.
That’s impressive when you consider just how much goes into the creative for
Super Bowl ads. Google’s is self-produced, to my knowledge. The ad, if deemed a
Super Bowl hit, gives Google the ability to back up what it tells large brands
and others in terms about speaking to consumers in ads. The purchase itself
also positions Google as finally spending in the medium where it seeks to
attract big advertisers from — even specifically with
its push to get Super Bowl advertisers.
Super Bowl Commercial Ratings
Various places provide ratings of Super Bowl commercials. Here’s a rundown
on some places I’ve spotted:
USA Today: The long-standing Super Bowl
Ad Meter tracks a panel of viewers to see how they reacted to Super Bowl
commercials. Out of 63 ads, Google ranked in the bottom half, at 43.
AOL’s NFL Fanhouse: Based on user ratings, Google’s a
winner, currently
ranked fourth of all ads.
Elsewhere, professors at Michigan State University rated Google’s ad the best.
So did students at the Kellogg School Of Management at Northwestern
University.
Over at Forbes, the Google ad
didn’t appear to be either a best or worse pick by Forbes judges. Forbes
also has public ratings, but Google’s
not listed — perhaps because it wasn’t known Google would be running an ad
in advance. The same is
true for voting at the Wall Street Journal. So downside to Google’s big
mystery spot? It might have missed out on being counted among the best by being
late. Google’s YouTube is also hosting a contest, with voting through the middle of
this month. So’s Hulu, with results announced later this week.
SF Weekly
also reports that Innerscope & Wired conducted a survey that measured
emotional responses through
electrodes attached to the skin. So far, Google’s ad beat the US Census ad.
More results are still coming in.
Why Advertise Your Best Known Product?
It also remains odd to me that Google spent so much money to advertise
itself in an area where it leads by so much, especially when Bing’s
advertisements have made little real impact with consumers. And when Google,
when asked about pushing its Nexus One phone,
suggested that TV wasn’t a way to go over pushing through its online
channels.
Compared to Google itself, practically no one uses the Nexus One. If any
product needed some TV ads, you’d think that was it. I suppose that it’s
difficult for Google to advertise Google itself to a “new” audience on Google’s
own network. So, the Super Bowl ad does get it out to a broad audience. But was
there anyone in that audience that didn’t already know Google? Were there
seriously that many people who were thinking of not using it over Bing?
The Google ad to me comes off as a giant waste of money, something Google
seems to have done to satisfy its own internal concerns that Bing is making a
splash even if that splash hasn’t tipped market share at all. No doubt it is
and will continue to generate buzz, of course. But was the buzz worth the cost?
Not just the financial cost, but the cost of signaling to your chief competitor
and those who closely track you in the search space that Bing makes you very,
very nervous.
Netflix is not immediately interested in Apple's iPad as
a device to stream its service, according to company CEO Reed Hastings. "It's
not a huge priority for us because we're so focused on the larger screens," he
says. "[When] we get our TV ubiquity and our Blu-ray ubiquity ... we would next
turn to the small screen. It's something we will get around to, but it's not in
the near term."
Patient (or impatient) iPhone
aficionados will not have to wait much longer for that highly
anticipated iPhone 5: Apple on Tuesday began mailing out invitations to
journalists for an iPhone event on October 4, to be held at its headquarters in
Cupertino, Calif. Apple often drops hints in the graphic elements accompanying
the invites about what's coming. The not-so-cryptic message: One iPhone will be
coming, contradicting weeks of rumors about two -- the other being the
so-called 4S.
Samsung, LG Electronics et Sony Ericsson ont ainsi annoncé ce
matin à Barcelone un partenariat avec les géants Vodafone, AT&T, Orange,
China Mobile, MTN, Orascom Telecom, Telefonica, NTT DoCoMo et Bharti Airtel et
15 autres opérateurs de plus petite taille.
