Is the iPad a revolution?

"In advance of the expected new iPhone launch taking place on September 12th, app analytics firm App Annie has taken a look at some of the traction Apple's Newsstand is seeing in terms of both revenue and downloads."

Analytics firm AppAnnie published a very interesting study on the iOS NewsStand. Though it doesn't give absolute figures and we don't know whether it's big yet, apparently the model has traction. Unsurprisingly, more on the iPad than on the iPhone. 

Sarah Perez of techcrunch summarized the key figures in this techcrunch article. Original study here:

This is Andrew Chen's response to his own post on why the App model is broken for startups. 

If you're skeptical about the App model for iOS or are considering an iPad App, I encourage you to read it and make your own opinion.

Reading this, I still feel that while some have obviously been doing damage control, Apps are not an easy win. Still skeptical...

"Stop the madness The long cycle times for developing mobile apps have led to startup failures that look more like 1999."

Brilliant post by Andrew Chen which reflects everything that frustrates me about the AppStore and the drive for super high quality design in v1's when these should be Minimum Viable Product. 

If you followed our story, you'll see why this post touches a nerve. When we pivoted to Scoop.it, we moved away (temporarily) form mobile just partly because of that.

The App Store model is a hit or miss while historically, the positive development about the Web has been one of decreasing cost to launch, lean startup theory and pivots. SEO, referall traffic, social also played a role in a lot of "overnight successes that took months to build" like for instance Pinterest's. And none of these exist yet in the iOS world.

Study based on 2,242 readers of Business Insider. 

The Study has a bias given the recruitment method but it's nevertheless interesting, particularly to observe trends compared to previous ones. 

Key take-aways:

- Web Browsing is still the iPad killer App, much ahead of App and growing, making the iPad the #1 Browsing device ahead of laptops, desktops and smartphones.

- News Consumptions is strong on the iPad but it primarily is done through the browser - not the Apps. 

- The browser's dominance over Apps is increasing. Time to pivot, Flipboard? 

- Reading electronic books became natural to iPad users.

"With new tablets coming from Google and Microsoft, and rumors of one from Amazon, Apple’s response may be to introduce a smaller, less expensive version of its popular iPad."

Competition seems to be heating up on the tablet market. But is focusing on screen size the real way to differentiate? It seems to me that there are other criteria that are much more important: Apps availability, content and real independance from PC among others.

Apple released an impressive figure at the iPad mini keynote on 10/23. 91% of Web traffic on tablets would be coming from the iPad.

But later on this week, Strategy Analytics firm released some data based on Apple's earning calls showing that the iPad market share fell from 65% a year ago to 57% in Q3 '12 - Android now being an impressive 41% (and Microsoft close to non-existant if you want to know).

So the obvious conclusion (and Tim Cook's point) would be that Android tablets are not that good and not being used that much. Or would that be that they are used in a more offline manner? I could see an argument being made around that with book reading on the Kindle Fire.

One way or another, we don't quite live in a monopolistic market anymore.

"Amazon will make a number of hardware and software announcements Thursday all with the same goal in mind: to convince consumers and the media that its Kindle Fire tablet is only cheap in price..."

Interesting review of what the Kindle Fire lacks compared to the iPad. Mostly hardware-focused. But I wonder whether the perception that the App catalog isn't as great is not also a major factor.

"After using the Next Issue magazine app for iPad for almost a month, we render our verdict. Is it time to renew our monthly subscription, or say goodbye to it forever?"

An interesting review on Next Issue, the Netflix-like model service that launched last month on the iPad. Can this type of model be a winner for magazine publisher as it was for movies with Netflix or for music like it seems to be with Spotify?