Three bits of news seconds from each other got my attention today. You figure out what this means in light of these three Innovation Strategies:
1. Design based innovation – being focused on design and ecosystem based offerings
2. Open collaborative innovation – using information and the participative customers to entice the economic customer
3. Innovate though protective barriers – use legal systems and threat based tactics to protect your market
From ZDNet Tech Update:
Apple beats estimates; credits iPhone sales
“Apple beats estimates; credits iPhone sales Sam Diaz: It’s not the past performance that investors want to know about, it’s the future. What are companies doing to ride the economic storm? Yesterday, Apple reported fiscal fourth quarter earnings of $1.14 billion, on revenue of $7.9 billion. The company credited the strong quarter partly to iPhone sales. “We sold more phones than RIM,” CEO Steve Jobs said.
Other highlights from the quarter:
* The company sold 6.9 million iPhones, taking the company passed its goal of 10 million sold for 2008 – with two months left in the year. The company said iPhone is now 39 percent of the total business.
* Apple shipped 2.61 million Mac computers, a 21 percent increase over the year-ago quarter. It set a company record for a single quarter.
* More than 11 million iPods were sold, up eight percent from a year ago. The company said it was record for a non-holiday quarter. It’s market share for portable music players remained above the 70 percent mark.
* The iTunes store has more than 65 million active accounts and a catalog of 8.5 million titles. It has just added more television shows, renewed its content deal with NBC and added high-def programming.
* The company has $25 billion in cash and zero debt. In a call with analysts, Jobs hinted that the financial position gives the company the “ability to invest our way through this downturn.”
* The iPhone App store expects to see its 200 millionth application downloaded by tomorrow, 102 days since the July launch.”
From CNET Reviews:
The Android is here
If you managed to miss the hype, here’s some news: T-Mobile’s G1 phone, which runs Google’s Android mobile platform, is here. The phone might not be perfect, but Google’s Android platform has the potential to make smartphones more personal and powerful. We’ve got full coverage, including a full review of the G1 phone itself, the latest news on Google Android, and a speed test that pits the G1 against the iPhone 3G. Dig in!
* Coders get 70 percent of Android Market revenue
Google officially opened its Android Market Wednesday and promised that beginning next year, programmers will get the lion’s share of revenue from applications sold on the download site for the company’s mobile phone operating system. The first incarnation of the Android Market has more than 50 applications available
From DailyEdge:
Microsoft Flexes for Global Anti-Piracy Day
The selection of October 21 as Global Anti-Piracy Day may have been random, but Microsoft is tying its renewed emphasis on reducing the use of unlicensed and otherwise illegal software to the larger economic fears that businesses and end users alike are dealing with right now.
Anti-piracy numbers:
48: number of countries in which Microsoft is launching or relaunching anti-piracy education and enforcement actions today
5: number of continents on which those 48 countries can be found
20: number of resellers against which Microsoft announced legal action today, for allegedly selling pirated software
1/3: number of PCs globally, at minimum, that contain pirated, unlicensed or counterfeit software, according to Microsoft
$50 billion: Cost to businesses, globally, of pirated or unlicensed software in 2007
800-785-3448: telephone number customers can call to give Microsoft hot anti-piracy tips
120000: the number of open source projects actively working on solving this problem, Google is one of those companies with a few projects…