Apple

06
Jul
2015

Apple Music, Facebook Video Ads, Airline Co-branding, and Man United Marketing

First impressions of Apple Music look pretty positive

The launch of Apple Music on 30th June was the undoubted tech / media story of the week, and first impressions seemed quite positive across the board. Despite some minor gripes about it being a bloated service with a questionable user interface, people seem to like it. Whether it will be enough to persuade the legion of dedicated Spotify users to switch allegiances, or more importantly, to convince a chunk of the 800 million iTunes users to start paying a monthly subscription fee, only time will tell. Streaming music will likely become somewhat of a commodity product over the next few years, and the fact that Apple Music is baked into every iOS device will likely be their ace-in-the-hole when it comes to whether they come out on top or not.

Facebook is starting to ramp up it’s video ad revenue generation service for publishers

It’s been clear for the last couple of years that video is becoming an increasingly popular medium and that Facebook are keen on stopping YouTube from hogging all the action. Over the last few weeks it seems that they have begun testing in-line autoplay ads on ‘suggested videos’ and in doing so, making it more rewarding for content publishers to push video directly on the platform. YouTube has traditionally been a more valuable platform for content publishers as they can earn money from the ads served before their videos start. While this is harder for Facebook to deliver because the vast majority of video views come from directly in the timeline (i.e. users will likely keep scrolling if an ad plays before a random video in their timeline), playing ads before ‘suggested videos’ that users actively pursue (and might be willing to suffer through an ad for) gives them a way of getting in on the action.

What global brands can learn from Manchester United’s marketing playbook

This is an interesting piece from AdWeek’s current Sports Issue detailing the multiple different ways that Manchester United have blazed a trail when it comes to creating a truly global brand. From being one of the first teams to embark on regular international pre-season tours all over the world, to launching their own television channel (MUTV), bringing out branded credit cards, signing multiple region-specific partnership deals as opposed to finding broad global sponsors, and generally being one of the first global sports teams to truly embrace unique digital content, there’s plenty of lessons to learn for brands in general and not just sports teams.

Co-branding opportunities in the premium airline / travel market

Another great post from Skift, this time discussing the different ways that airlines might be able to add value through premium co-branding initiatives. Air travel is becoming a much contested space, especially at the premium end of the market with the likes of Emirates, Etihad etc. constantly trying to out-do each other in offering the most outlandish experiences in the air (Emirates introduced on-board showers and cocktail bars to their A380s in 2008. Not to be outdone, Etihad answered back with their first class apartment suites last year). With such an onus on airlines wanting to position themselves as premium brands, why is there not more collaboration between airlines and other premium brands that compliment each-other? Bulgari already makes the first-class amenity kits for Emirates, but that is only the tip of the iceberg – “there could be Louis Vuitton First Class suites, … Millennial-focused rows at the back offering free connectivity and music streaming, courtesy of Apple. There could be Happy Meals in the Family cabin for the kiddies. Starbucks could offer everything from Lattes to Teavana, from scones to healthy sandwich options, to those Gen-TREP passengers in a dedicated Connected cabin. Beautyrest could sponsor special bedding and more comfortable seat cushions for a Rest Zone cabin.”

Posted by Rob in Apple, Branding, Facebook, Links of the Week
03
Jan
2015

Over half of all the phones sold over Christmas were Apple

The results are in, and it’s very good news for Apple. Over the Christmas period, more than half of all new mobile activations worldwide were Apple devices. This is huge when you consider the fact that Apple typically accounts for around 12% of  total worldwide smartphone sales during any particular quarter. Surprise, surprise – we’re all less price sensitive at Christmas, and this year people seem to be falling over themselves to gift the new iPhone 6.

What’s striking about these figures though is how far ahead of the competition they are when it comes to cold hard numbers.  Samsung devices only make up 17% of new mobile sales over this period, three times less than Apple (Samsung will face a tough 2015 as I mentioned before) and Nokia accounted for less than 6%. Out of all the other competing smartphone manufacturers, only Sony and LG managed to make up over 1% of sales. It looks like it’s going to be a good year for Apple.

Xmas Device Activations

Posted by Rob in Apple, Mobile
24
Sep
2014

What to expect from the U2-inspired iTunes/Beats mashup

OK I admit it, I have a bit of a soft spot for U2. It’s become somewhat of a guilty pleasure over the last few years with the band firmly moving into the ‘dad rock’ category but there you go. Despite this however, I wasn’t overly interested in all the fuss surrounding the recent U2 / Apple album launch. While I think it was great exposure for U2 (unprecedented reach and guaranteed headlines), I think it could have been handled better by Apple (apparently, music lovers are touchy about having their privately curated music collections violated). Nevertheless, all that talk of the band selling out and people moaning about being spammed on social media bored me.

What I’m more interested about though are the statements made by Bono after the launch that revealed that the band was working with Apple on developing a new music platform that aims to give listeners a richer experience and ultimately get them back paying for music and not solely using buffet-style monthly subscriptions. As people’s music consumption behaviour has slowly moved away from downloading towards steaming, Apple’s approach of selling music downloads has become marginalised. I’m sure the irony of Apple being on the wrong side of being disrupted this time is not lost on them.

Despite owning the Beats Music streaming service since their acquisition of Beats Electronics in May (along with the services of music mogul Jimmy Iovine), there is still quite a gap between the download and streaming offerings available to consumers, not just within iTunes, but across the board. It looks like this is the next target on Apple’s hit-list and it seems like they are intent on taking artist feedback seriously by collaborating with one of the most experienced acts in the world in bringing this project to light.

What form this will take remains to be seen, although it will likely involve an assimilation of the Beats Music service into iTunes and a general revamp of the overall offering, possibly with a basic streaming package as well as a richer, premium experience that could be charged extra for. Here are a few more ideas.

The value of music in today’s connected world

Many in the music industry blasted U2 for giving their new album away for free. Critics of the move claimed that, while an act of U2’s size can afford to make little or nothing from music sales due to their lucrative live tours, this step towards devaluing music was damaging to less established acts. U2 stress the fact that they were paid by Apple, who then gave the album away for free to their users, and maintain that they are firm believers that artists should be paid for their work. So much so, that they feel compelled to do something about it.

“Songwriters aren’t touring people. Cole Porter wouldn’t have sold T-shirts. Cole Porter wasn’t coming to a stadium near you” – Bono

Bono told Time Magazine that the band hopes that this new collaboration with Apple will prove “so irresistibly exciting to music fans that it will tempt them again into buying music – whole albums as well as individual tracks”. Details on the platform were sketchy but he gave a bit of an insight into it on Dave Fanning’s 2fm radio show on Sunday morning.

Click here for the link to the iTunes podcast of the show (21st Sept). Talk of the new music platform runs from 25:20 – 31:50.

What next for ‘iTunes’?

Straight from the horses mouth, it seems like this approach will be based around giving listeners a more visual and interactive experience, adding value on top of the music itself. Bono gave examples of giving more prominence to album artwork, lyrics and behind the scenes content that would complement the music and give listeners a richer experience. It seems that it’s all about adding value to the overall package and making it something that users would be willing to pay extra for. It’s clear that Bono is not a fan of the way digital music is currently presented to users, either via streaming or downloads.

“I said to Steve Jobs, how is it, for a person who cares about the way things look and feel more than anyone else in the world, that iTunes looks like a spreadsheet?” – Bono.

As well as this, the platform aims to offer more value to the artists themselves, giving them better analytics on how and where users listen to their music (this could impact touring arrangements for example), and making their earnings more transparent so they know how much money their record company is creaming off the top (a major cause for complaint in the early Spotify days).

While all this is commendable, making the experience more interactive is fine for home listening, but with more and more people consuming music solely on their smartphones, is there enough of a user base there who want these types of extra features, or will it end up being a niche product, appealing only to die-hard audiophiles and superfans? Once again, they have a job on their hands trying to change consumer habits, but like with the new Apple Pay mobile payment platform, if anyone is big enough and bold enough to do it, it’s probably Apple.

Streaming is certainly not going to go away, but as music becomes more and more of a commodity, anything that differentiates the offering and adds value to the experience is to be welcomed. Using Bono’s projections, if they can convert even 10% of an expected 1 Billion iTunes accounts over the next couple of years to a $10 a month subscription, that’s a $12 Billion a year business — more than the entire current music industry combined. It’s worth a bash I suppose.

Posted by Rob in Apple
12
Sep
2014

15 things you should know about Apple Pay

So the internet came to a standstill on Tuesday night (literally for some) as Apple’s yearly Autumn product launch predictably took over everyone’s newsfeeds for a few hours. But, despite the hype over a bigger phone and the launch of a smart-watch, the most far reaching element of the announcements might turn out to be something a bit more practical.

The concept of smartphone payments has been on the precipice for the last few years in most of the developed world, looking for a catalyst to kick it into the mainstream, and with Apple’s weight behind it, we could be about to see some serious movement in this space. So forget about the new phone and smart-watch for a minute, and get up to speed on the ins and outs of Apple Pay. Here’s what you need to know.

  1. Apple Pay will let users pay for items at retailers that accept contactless payments by authenticating the transaction with just their fingerprint.
  2. This is facilitated through an NFC (Near Field Communication) chip which Apple has finally gotten around to adding to the iPhone.
  3. Apple Pay will only work with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus as only those models include both the fingerprint scanner and the NFC chip. However, users will be able to use the service via the iPhone 5, 5S and 5C when paired with the NFC-ready Apple Watch.
  4. Credit cards are stored in the Passbook app. Card information is stored on the device, not in the cloud. This might allay some of the fears that users have after last week’s celebrity nude photo leaks.
  5. If you lose your iPhone, you won’t have to cancel your cards. You can use Find My iPhone to suspend payments just for that device.
  6. Individual transaction numbers are created for each purchase so no actual credit card numbers are used for enhanced security.
  7. Also, Apple won’t know what you bought, where you bought it and the retailer won’t get to see your name or card number at the point of sale like with a credit card.
  8. It will work with the three major payment networks: MasterCard, Visa and American Express. The end users’ bank will need to support Apple Pay as we’ll as the payment processor.
  9. It will be accepted in 220,000 retail locations on launch. These are retailers that already accept contactless payments.
  10. Merchants in the US will have to upgrade their POS hardware this year anyway with the launch of Chip & PIN cards in the States. These new POS terminals also accept NFC payments too which should further facilitate adoption.
  11. Retailers that will accept Apple Pay on launch include McDonalds, Starbucks and Disney World. Plus, users will be able to pay for things like Uber rides without creating an account.
  12. The credit cards that you already have on iTunes will automatically be added to Passbook. You can also add cards by taking a picture of them with your camera.
  13. Apple won’t charge users, merchants or developers to use Apple Pay for payments. They will collect fees from banks for any payments they facilitate.
  14. Irish-founded online-payment company stripe are integrated into Apple Pay to facilitate one-touch payments in iOS apps (their second big partnership announcement this month after the launch of the Twitter ‘Buy Now’ button).
  15. It will only be available in the US initially from October. No word yet on the international roll-out

If anyone is able to finally drag mobile payments into the mainstream it’s Apple. It’s both about persuading physical retail stores to facilitate mobile payments and encouraging consumers to start using it. Apple have serious form in bringing industries and end users together in new spaces so if anyone can do it, it’s them. Although, if you run out of battery, you better have some cash or a card handy!

Posted by Rob in Apple, Mobile Payments
12
Jul
2014

Android has 80% user share, but only 25% of iOS’ revenue

The below graph might be shocking to some but it’s not a trick of the eye, Android have an almost 80% share of the world’s smartphone unit sales, and this is expected to grow for the next couple of years at least. It may come as a surprise considering Apple’s success in the market and the idea of the smartphone war as a close two horse race between Apple and Google, but the facts don’t lie, when it comes to operating system user share, Google’s Android is the clear winner. Apple’s iOS only accounts for roughly 15% of all global smartphone sales.

Android’s rise has been staggering over the last four years, with their share of the user base almost doubling each year, the result of smartphones becoming more readily available in emerging markets which are targeted by producers of devices on the cheaper end of the scale that run Android.

But while stats like this might suggest that Apple could face serious trouble maintaining their position in the market over the coming years, the graph doesn’t necessarily paint a complete picture of the state of play. Android may have over 1bn monthly active users (not including those in China or on Kindle devices) compared to Apple’s 470m, but figures from Google’s IO event last month seem to confirm that Android users spend a significant amount less on apps for their device than their Apple counterparts.

Estimates from tech analyst Benedict Evans last week suggest that Apple earn, on average, more than four times the amount per user from apps than Google. Apple paid out an estimated $10bn to developers for sales of iOS apps over the last 12 months compared to Google’s $5bn to developers of Android apps. Taking into account their respective user bases this leaves Apple’s ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) at $21 compared to Android’s ARPU of $5.

This puts an entirely different spin on the shape of the smartphone industry. When you take into account the massive profits that Apple makes from the sales of it’s hardware this becomes even more stark. Android might be eating the market, but Apple have got the customers that matters, at least when it comes to cold hard cash.

android_vs_ios

Posted by Rob in Android, Apple, Apps, iOS