Apple is developing a new line of less-expensive iPhones, along with an overhaul of its MobileMe online storage service, according to a new report in the Wall Street Journal. The new devices would be half the size of the iPhone 4, and retail for about half of the current price. As for MobileMe, it would be redesigned as a free service - it now costs about $99 - in which users would use to store data and synchronize their calendars and contacts along with such content as photos, music and videos. It would also be a focal point for Apple’s online music initiative and its social media efforts, the Journal said.
The immediate consequence of such a development for mobile marketers is obvious: more eyeballs for ads running on the iAd - on top of the significant boost the platform is already getting with the addition of Verizon Wireless as a carrier.
Other developments marketers can expect:
The Apple iOS pushes ahead in the smartphone wars. It has been a neck-and-neck race for the most part, but recent data suggests Android is taking the lead. Canalys, for example, has found that Google Android is the leading global smartphone platform, with shipments of reaching 32.9 million (32.6% share) in Q4, 2010, while devices running Nokia’s Symbian platform trailed almost 6% at 31 million (30.6% share) worldwide and Apple iPhone coming in a distant third with 16.2 million devices.
Media cloud storage gets very competitive. Apple's moves to establish a presence in the cloud have been no match for Google, with Gmail and its Google Calendar and Google Docs. But Google doesn’t offer integrated media storage as Apple would with an enhanced MobileMe. Google is, however, working on a cloud music and video service, according to CNET, which could be ready to launch with the next few months.
With MobileMe, Apple pushes past Google in social networking, geo-location services. It wouldn't take much to best Google's social networking services, but apparently Apple hasn’t been able to assemble the necessary pieces to do so. The revamp of MobileMe - if the Journal's portrayal is accurate - could change that. Furthermore, if MobileMe also becomes the focal point of a geo-locational play by Apple, it could become a formidable offering. There have been a few signs that Apple is prepping for a location-based, friend-finding service similar to services offered by Loopt and Google Latitude. The just-released iOS 4.3 shows settings for a feature called "Find My Friends," Mac Rumors reports.
In March 2010 Patently Apple unearthed a patent Apple filed for what appeared to be a social networking app using geo-locational capabilities that will work on the iPhone and likely work with MobileMe - which coincidentally the Find My Friends setting on iOS 4.3 also uses. It also appeared that Apple's MobileMe service will provide some sort of "virtual GPS" capability to a user that doesn't have GPS capability so he or she could be aware of the locations of others in the group, Patently Apple further said.
