Apple's iTV will change the business model for companies
The world has gone mad about apps – so much so in January 2011, the American Dialect Society named “app” the word of the year for 2010. The word app is a noun, short for application, which is in other words a software program. The mobile applications market is reshaping the world, which is accelerating at enormous speeds thanks to the increased availability of smartphones and much faster wireless speeds. Like it or hate it this is the future, and consumers love it.
Apple currently offers nearly 375,000 applications with more than 10 billion downloads to date that are only compatible with Android, Blackberry, Windows and Nokia devices. From news and information to books, weather, travel, health, fitness, communication and real estate, the list of apps goes on and on and on. Reviews are currently written: Top 100 apps – the definitive guide are all the go with these online downloads, where consumers constantly browse the device manufacturers via the top three: Apple’s App Store, Blackberry’s App World and Nokia’s Ovi.
The very first app store was created in 2001 although the technology was well ahead of the market. It was not until July 2008 when Apple permitted third-party developers to create apps for the iPhone that we really saw this technology take off. By 2009, combined platform revenues were $4.2 billion, and today analysts are predicting these revenues will climb to $30.5 billion by the end of 2013.
In March 2011 Apple launched its iPad 2 when it was revealed by the late Steve Jobs that Apple had sold 100 million iPhones, users had downloaded 100 million eBooks and it just surpassed $2 billion paid to app developers through its Apps Store. Jobs also announced that Apple had just passed 200 million Apple ID accounts across its three stores: iTunes, iBooks and App Store. The share of adult mobile users who have downloaded an app to their phones nearly doubled in the past two years.
A recent paper, Australian Children Online, identified that Australian children between nine and 16 are frequent users (96%) and access the internet through mobile devices (60%), more so than children in most other countries. They go online almost daily (76%) both at home and school. Even more amazing is that children are not being taught about mobile devices at school, they are being self-taught.
Cyberspace is ruling the world where consumers prefer to browse through the web in the comfort of wherever they are at any given time. I have no doubt that Apple continues to lead the market (by a country mile or should that be a country stratosphere?).
Apple has now released to the world the iPod, iPad, iPhone, so get ready for the iCloud, which had 20 million users in less than a week when it was announced on October 12, 2011. The cloud-based system allows users to store music, photos, applications, documents, bookmarks, iBooks, etc. This is where it gets interesting, given in the middle of 2012 Apple will release iTV – which has already sent television makers into a deep sweat when it was announced.
So now the Apple junkies find themselves second guessing what this release is all about and what part it will play in our day-to-day lives. Will it take off just like the iPad, iPhone and iPod? Yes it will, I believe, given businesses will have the ability (never seen before) to have their very own apps viewed by consumers within the comfort of their homes on their television.
The Apple website boasts: “Apple TV – Everything you need to be entertained.” Apple TV gives you access to everything you want to see and hear – blockbuster movies, your music and photos, even live sports – right there on your widescreen TV.
Business2 founder Peter Ricci filed this insightful explanation on what he believes iTV will deliver –it’s fascinating, scary and most importantly exciting. The reality that your business app can be viewed on a television in the lounge room is invigorating and frightening for traditional business models. Should such predictions come to fruition this clearly identifies that businesses across the planet will have to concentrate entirely on their electronic consumer platforms?
Walter Isaacson has recently released his book titled Steve Jobs . ‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,” Jobs told Isaacson. “It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.” No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. “It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.”
Once upon a time we were told “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Today it’s a case of an Apple every day presents our world in a totally different way.
Robert Simeon is a director of Richardson Wrench Mosman and Neutral Bay and has been selling residential real estate in Sydney since 1985. He has also been writing real-estate blog Virtual Realty News since 2000. The RWM real estate model has sold in excess of $1 billion in database sales globally.