This post was written by Mary Joseff
Apple Inc.’s bet on cellphone software appears to be paying off. In the month since Apple opened an online software clearinghouse called the App Store, users have downloaded more than 60 million programs for the iPhone, Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in an interview at Apple’s headquarters. While most of those applications were free, Apple sold an average of $1 million a day in applications for a total of about $30 million in sales over the month, Mr. Jobs said.
If sales stay at the current pace, Apple stands to reap at least $360 million a year in new revenue from the App Store, Mr. Jobs said. “This thing’s going to crest a half a billion, soon,” he added. “Who knows, maybe it will be a $1 billion marketplace at some point in time…I’ve never seen anything like this in my career for software.”
Apple has hit a few speed bumps along the way, in part because it has set itself up as a powerful intermediary for the distribution of software to iPhones. For instance, it has frustrated some software developers by removing their programs from its App Store without explanation. Some iPhone users also have complained of technical problems with various iPhone applications, which software makers have attempted to correct with frequent patches.
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Following Apple Inc.’s CFO Peter Oppenheimer comment that its gross margins would continue to be affected by a planned “product transition” throughout fiscal 2009, there has been continuous speculation regarding the high-profile product transitions. The rumor mills suggest that Apple is preparing to launch brand new versions of its highly popular MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops. With a widely proffered release date of as early as this coming September, a number of ardent Apple watchers believe the new hardware offerings will be revamped in several ways.
mindSHIFT Technologies Inc., a leading provider of premier IT infrastructure and software services for small and medium-sized organizations, has announced plans to support Apple Inc.’s recently released iPhone, as well as Mac laptops and desktops. This strategic move by mindSHIFT extends the company’s comprehensive suite of premier managed IT services, enabling customers to more easily take advantage of the benefits of innovative new technology with the confidence that their IT infrastructure will be expertly managed by a fully-staffed team of experienced IT professionals. As mindSHIFT’s newest supported mobile device, the iPhone provides mobile users with enterprise-class remote access any time, anywhere.
During its quarterly call, Apple Inc. provided a teaser on something big that might come up in the later half of the current year. While explaining an expected drop in the company’s gross profit margins in the next quarter, Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s chief financial officer, stated that it was due to “a future product transition, which I can’t discuss today.” Apple executives hinted that this new product would offer price points that will beat the competition. It is widely speculated to be a web tablet of sorts, a product with the touch interface of an iPhone, but with a larger form factor approaching that of a laptop.
Following Apple Inc.’s deal with Best Buy, the company is likely to sell more than the estimated 12 million iPhones by the end of the current year, according to the Lehman Brothers analyst Ben Reitzes. Reitzes also thinks that his estimate of the sale of 24 million iPhones in 2009 is conservative. Apple’s expanding Best Buy presence will create an additional iPhone halo effect, Reitzes believes.