All about Microsoft's "Lauren"
Her hair is red, her eyes dark brown, her physique slim. She stands 5'2" in her stocking feet and weighs 113 lbs. in her birthday suit.
Her name is Lauren De Long, and she set a million geek hearts aflutter with her spunky performance in the now famous "you find it, you keep it" PC ad, in which she chose an HP (HPQ) Pavilion running Microsoft (MSFT) Windows Vista Home Edition over any computer in the Apple (AAPL) store.
She also set off Apple 2.0's hottest flame war — 402 comments and counting — with the line "I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person." (See How Microsoft put Apple owners on the defensive.)
She was supposed to be an ordinary American who answered a Craigslist ad for a market-and-research job and to her surprise found herself starring in a multi-million dollar Microsoft advertising campaign.
But a little inspired sleuthing by the wife of a Seattle-based investigative reporter turned up her film and television credits, her Now Casting bio and resume, her IMDB listing, her MySpace photo gallery and her official website.
Before donning dorky glasses and a green scarf to go laptop shopping with Steve Ballmer's money, De Long played a feed store clerk in a 2001 TV movie called The Retrievers, Darla in a 2003 film called American Grace, Grace in The Answer Yes (2006), head nurse in This Hollow Sacrament (2006), Samantha in 99 Pieces (2007), jacuzzi girl in 7eventy 5ive (2007), Molly in Ladybugs (2007) and Emmy Kyle in Hatched (2008).
She "provides the terror hottie mojo" in 99 Pieces, according to TerrorHotties.com. (link)
Her next gig, according to Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog, is a 7-Eleven ad. "This is the perfect shoot for me," she says, "because I LOVE junk food."
She has also been booked to play Jessica in Humdrummer, a feature film. And in Zig Zag, a short pitched for the film festivals, she plays Amy, a "sexy and passionate criminal who's double-crossing ways backfire on her."
A few more things about Lauren: She loves to eat. She has a puppy named Bruce. She enjoys dark chocolate and a good glass of port. She loves the winter because she gets to stay inside by a fire. She prefers walking to running. She loves the lake and laying out in the sun. One of her favorite things to do is host a great party. She is awesome at the BBQ. She enjoys deep conversations and good debates. She is stubborn as hell but quick to apologize if she is wrong. She is a romantic. She hopes that someday she will be as accomplished as her mom. She has six brothers and no sisters. She still sleeps with her Teddy Bear. And holding a baby always tears her up. (link)
For more headshots and stills, click here.
Below the fold: the 60-second ad that made her Internet famous.
Photo © 2009 Greg Nystrom. Posted with permission.
[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @ philiped]
Wired's guide to iPhone piracy
For iPhone owners who get sticker shock from a 99-cent application, Wired.com's Brian X. Chen has posted a round-up that points readers to a variety of websites where users can download thousands of apps for free.
According to Chen, Apple's (AAPL) iTunes App Store is becoming an increasingly juicy target for software pirates. He cites an estimate by the research firm Medialets that 20% of the store's titles have already been pirated. There are dozens of apps, according to Medialets, that have pirated-to-paid ratios as high as a 100-to-1.
What Chen doesn't tell readers is that following the links he provides will lead them into a world of BitTorrent downloads and underground websites that offer easy access to the software but not necessarily to the codes needed to authorize their use.
Given that most applications for the iPhone and iPod touch cost less than a dollar, it's little wonder that the software developers Chen contacted didn't seem overly concerned.
"Like any piracy scheme, it's just a matter of time until hackers find their way around," said Pangea's Brian Greenstone, developer of the $3.99 game Enigmo, an App Store bestseller. During the first week of Enigmo's launch, according to Greenstone, only 5% of downloaded copies were pirated versions. In subsequent weeks, piracy dropped to nearly 0%.
"There are things we can do as developers," he told Chen. "But since the piracy rate is so low, my thought is 'Who cares? It's not even worth the trouble.'" (link)
Not every developer is so sanguine. Kai Yu, president of BeeJive, thinks the problem is more widespread than most developers realize. When he installed analytics software on his $16 BeeJive instant messaging app, he discovered that 60% of the activity originated from pirated copies. He's now offering the software for the sale price of $9.99.
For more information about App Store piracy, click here.
[Illustration courtesy of Wired.com.]
Skype by the numbers – Update
Skype, the world's most popular program for making free overseas phone calls over the Internet, was released as a free download to Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and iPod touch on Monday. You can get it here.
This could be big. How big? Let's look at the numbers.
- In 2008, Skype users spent 33 billion minutes talking to people in other countries, representing 8% of all international voice traffic, according to TeleGeography Research. (link)
- That makes it the world's No. 1 provider of cross-border voice communications, according to the same report. By comparison, Verizon (V), iBasis (IBAS), and Tata (TCL), each provide about 20 billion to 30 billion minutes of international traffic each year. (link)
- Skype ended 2008 with 405 million user accounts, a 47% increase from 2007. (link)
- Skype is adding new users at the rate of 35 million subscribers per quarter. (link to pdf)
- Skype usage hit an all-time peak on March 23, 2009, when more than 17 million users were online at the same time. (link)
Despite all this, Skype is said to be a disappointment for EBay (EBAY), which acquired the Luxembourg-based company in 2005 for $2.6 billion. EBay had hoped that buyers and sellers on its online auction site would use Skype to chat about their purchases. When that service didn't click with users, EBay had to write off nearly $1 billion of its Skype investment, according to Businessweek. (link)
Adding to EBay's disappointment is the fact that revenue from Skype users isn't growing as fast as its user base. As Businessweek points out, its 2008 Q4 sales of $145 million were up just 1.3% sequentially, even though registered users increased 10% in the same period. (link)
So now Skype is making a big push into what's expected to be the real engine for future growth: VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) calls made over cell phones, a field Google (GOOG) is also exploring.
In January, Skype became available on phones that run Google's Android operating system, including T-Mobile's (DT) G1. In February Skype announced that Nokia (NOK) will be selling smartphones with a Skype client pre-installed.
Late Monday, shortly before midnight, Skype came to the iPhone and iPod touch — an installed base of 30 million users. In May the company plans to release a client for selected models of the Research in Motion (RIMM) BlackBerry.
There are already several VOIP clients available on the iPhone, including Fring, Truphone and Nimbuzz, but none has the name recognition of Skype.
iPhone calls between Skype accounts are free, but in deference to AT&T (T), its U.S. partner, Apple will allow them only to be made over Wi-Fi connections, not over AT&T's cell phone network. [UPDATE: 9to5Mac reports that when run on a beta version of iPhone 3.0, the Skype app allows calls to be made over AT&T's 3G network.]
Skype calls to landlines and cell phones not running the Skype client are charged a fee. These are usually considerably lower than overseas rates, but higher than charges made for calls within networks.
How Microsoft put Apple owners on the defensive
Her name is "Lauren" and she's making the Apple (AAPL) guys nuts.
She's the young, hip, Volkswagen-driving redhead who stars in the latest Microsoft's (MSFT) TV campaign. Told that if she can find a 17-inch laptop for under $1,000 she can keep it, Lauren ends up — to the Mac aficionados' dismay — with an HP (HPQ) running Windows Vista.
"I would have to double my budget, which isn't feasible," Lauren says as she drives away from an Apple Store, where 17-inch notebooks start at $2,799. Then she sighs and delivers the ad's coup de grace: "I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person."
Ouch.
The ad first aired Thursday night, and the Apple press has been taking pot shots at it ever since. Among the complaints:
- "Lauren" is an actress, not the ordinary American shopper the ad claims
- The Apple Store scene was faked; before-and-after photos suggest that she never actually went into the store to try the computers
- The $699 HP Pavilion dv7 she chose over a $999 MacBook is a mess. "It is the epitome of what people dislike about PCs," writes Computerworld's Seth Weintraub. "It runs Vista Home on a slow AMD mobile processor … its screen is abysmal … its networking is five years old … it is loaded with crapware and trial antivirus software that will have to be purchased or wiped off the machine." (link)
One Gizmodo reader even offered to give Lauren his old 17-inch Powerbook so she could do a comparison without worrying about cost. "I do believe," writes Mitch Gewirtz, "everyone on this planet is 'cool enough to be a Mac person'." (link)
Crispin Porter + Boguksy, the agency that produced the ad, has clearly hit a nerve. The campaign goes directly at what may be Apple' biggest vulnerability: the growing differential between Macs, which have largely held their prices throughout the recession, and PCs running Windows, which have been engaged in a brutal price war that forced the industry's ASP (average selling price) down more than 13% in the last quarter of 2008 alone. (See here.)
"Apple, right now, is a fine-tuned machine that targets specific audiences," writes VentureBeat's MG Siegler. "It doesn’t care about selling a 17-inch laptop for under $1,000, because those machines have nowhere near the profit margins of the machines it does sell." (link)
Perhaps most thoughtful analysis of what makes the ad so effective — and so infuriating to Mac users — was provided by Fox News' Clayton Morris, who devoted nearly 9 minutes of air time to a discussion of the spot by a panel that included SquareSpace's Anthony Casalena and Engadget's Joshua Topolsky.
Topolsky is especially trenchant. "This is almost a red-state-blue-state ad," he says. Not only does it hammer home the issue of cost, but it embeds that message in a subtle bit of Apple bashing. "'I'm not cool enough' is so pejorative, says Topolsky. "This is the stigma of the Mac user as a pompous jerk." (link)
The ad is on heavy prime-time rotation, but in case you missed it, we've pasted the YouTube version below the fold: More
Has Apple begun clearing iPhone 3G inventory?
Staffers at Apple's (AAPL) flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York City confirm that as of Thursday at 8 a.m., customers are now permitted to buy unlimited quantities of iPhones without an AT&T contract — the very thing the company was working so hard to prevent in late 2007 when the devices were being snapped up in large quantities to be unlocked and re-sold in overseas markets. (See here.)
The new policy — which applies to all U.S. Apple stores — is similar to AT&T's (T) "no commit" pricing plan, revealed last week, whereby customers can buy iPhones without a contract at the full non-subsidized price of $599 for a 8G iPhone and $699 for a 16G model (compared with $199 and $299 with a contract).
AT&T's policy applies only to existing customers and limits them to one unsubsidized phone. Apple is imposing neither of those restrictions, leading some to speculate that the company has plenty of iPhones in stock and may be trying to clear inventory in advance of new models.
"Apple's change in sales policy," writes AppleInsider's Prince McLean, "comes as the company is working to sell off remaining inventory to prepare for the upcoming launch of the new 2009 iPhone, expected to be released around the middle of June, possibly at the company's similarly-timed Worldwide Developer Conference." (link)
The situation is reminiscent of spring 2008, when Apple began gearing up to produce the iPhone 3G. By April 1, there were spot shortages of first generation iPhones in Apple and AT&T stores across the country. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster called 20 Apple stores that week and found no iPhones for sale at any of them. See Where did all the iPhones go?
Selling iPhones for more than double their usual price is an interesting way to clear inventory — and may be preferable to unloading them for, say, $99 each. It's not clear how many customers will be interested, however. The phones are still locked to AT&T, and would have to be unlocked to work with any other carrier's service. The demand for unlocked iPhones was fierce before Apple began signing contracts with overseas carriers, but may not be as strong today.
These transitions are tricky for Apple. After selling 2.32 million iPhones in its first fiscal quarter of 2008 and 1.7 million the second, it sold fewer than 720,000 in the quarter that ended in June 2008. Sales took off with the release of the iPhone 3G, however. In fiscal Q4 2008, Apple sold 6.89 million iPhones.
See also:
Major Apple event set for June 8-12
Apple (AAPL) mailed out invitations on Thursday for its 2009 World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) — the premier event for anyone working on software for the Mac, iPhone or iPod touch.
It's scheduled for June 8 – 12 in San Francisco's Moscone Center — neatly filling the mysterious "Corporate Meeting" slot reserved for those days on the Moscone Center site — and it promises to be a big one.
Among the events Apple watchers have been anticipating for WWDC 2009:
- The release of OS X Snow Leopard, the latest major update of the Macintosh operating system (see here)
- A first look at the next iPhone, widely expected to be released in late June or early July (link)
- The return of Steve Jobs, whose medical leave is scheduled to end in June (see here)
The e-mail from Apple mentions none of those things, however. Instead, it reads as follows:
Turn your ideas into groundbreaking apps at WWDC 2009. Don't miss your chance to join over 1000 Apple engineers and 5000 of your peers for an exciting five days of hands-on learning, in-depth technical presentations, and one-to-one code-level assistance. Whether you're developing, deploying, or integrating with Apple technologies, WWDC 2009 will provide the insight and inspiration you need to take your work to the next level.
Tickets for last year's WWDC, it reminds developers, were sold out. They will sell for $1,295 through April 24th, after which Apple plans to raise the price by $300. For more details, click here.
iPhone App Store: 30,000 apps, but slowing?
Shortly before 4 p.m. EDT on Thursday, eight months after it opened with 500 applications for the iPhone and iPod touch, Apple's (AAPL) App Store passed the 30,000 mark, according to the count maintained by 148Apps, which updates its list automatically.
That's up from 28,000 apps nine days ago and considerably higher than the official figure of 25,000 that Apple has been using.
But the flood of new titles seems to have slowed, and there are signs that the App Store's infrastructure is straining to keep up with what it already has in hand. Complaints from developers — always a contentious lot (see here and here) — have increased in recent days. Among their latest grievances:
- Delays in approval. Although Apple claims that 96% of apps submitted in February were approved — 98% within seven days — reports persist of apps languishing in the queue for months.
- Delayed payments. The waits for monthly payments have grown longer this year, on occasion violating the contract that says they must be paid within 45 days of the end of the month. See here.
- A punitive refund policy. As Techcrunch's Leena Rao reports, developers get only 70% of each sale, but if a user demands a refund within 90 days, Apple makes the developer return 100% of the sale price.
- Failure to police the App Store. Several developers (three that we know of) are loudly complaining that clones of their original apps have been approved by Apple and are now being sold by copycats on the App Store. See here and here.
The slowdown in App Store growth is relatively small and quite recent. In early March, the store was adding new titles at the rate of 250 a day. Over the last nine days, the rate of growth has slowed to less than 223 per day. You can see change in the curve of the line in the fever chart below:
It's not clear how significant this might be. It's more likely to be a temporary blip in the data, caused perhaps by developers shifting their attention to the new SDK (software development kit) released last week, than a sign that the App Store has reached saturation levels. But it is the first slowdown we've seen since the store was launched last summer.
UPDATE: Reader Michael Cawthon, who has been keeping even closer taps on 148Apps data than I, disputes the assertion that the store's growth is slowing. He points out that March is not over yet and that submissions tend to pick up at the end of each month. He's got the data to show it. His analysis is posted in full below the fold.
Meanwhile, see also:
Is wave-to-pay coming to the iPhone?
Almost as curious as the fact that China Unicom has started advertising Apple's (AAPL) iPhone on its Shanghai website — even though no agreement to sell the device in China has been announced — are some of the advanced features Unicom is promoting.
As Dan Butterfield reported early Wednesday on his iPhonAsia website, these include several functions that aren't officially available on current model iPhones, including:
- Wave-to-pay
- Mobile TV
- Tethering (connecting a laptop to a cell phone's wireless network)
- Video conferencing
The first item — wave-to-pay — is of particular interest to Chinese customers, according to Butterfield. Visa Inc. (V) offers similar service in the United States, called Paywave, whereby cardholders can make purchases at some 32,000 retailers by waving their Visa card in front of special point-of-sale cardreaders. In Japan, half of cell phone owners — about 50 million users — carry phones that have so-called near field communications capability built-in. (link)
Will the next-generation iPhone — expected to arrive in July — also have it?
China Unicom seems to think so. Here's how the capability is described on its Shanghai website (translation provided by iPhonAsia):
"Near-Field-Communication (NFC) swipe card handset a.k.a. "wave-to-pay," offers convenience for those who use public transportation. It's possible to use a handset swipe card to buy a ticket. This wave-to-pay has replaced the former public transportation IC card. Using the swipe card handset for shopping eliminates the [need to carry] cash. Using wave-to-pay also makes it easy to pay in the ferry terminal. Through the swipe card, the handset (phone) can purchase your passage and avoid the worry of lining up to purchase tickets. Not only does this technology eliminate the need to carry a public transportation IC card, you don't even need a bankcard. All you need is the wave-to-pay handset (phone), to buy a ticket and do your shopping. One machine in the hand, opens access, and gives you control. Wave-to-pay makes life more convenient." (link)
See also:
Is wave-to-pay coming to the iPhone?
Almost as curious as the fact that China Unicom has started advertising Apple's (AAPL) iPhone on its Shanghai website — even though no agreement to sell the device in China has been announced — are some of the advanced features Unicom is promoting.
As Dan Butterfield reported early Wednesday on his iPhonAsia website, these include several functions that aren't officially available on current model iPhones, including:
- Wave-to-pay
- Mobile TV
- Tethering (connecting a laptop to a cell phone's wireless network)
- Video conferencing
The first item — wave-to-pay — is of particular interest to Chinese customers, according to Butterfield. Visa Inc. (V) offers similar service in the United States, called Paywave, whereby cardholders can make purchases at some 32,000 retailers by waving their Visa card in front of special point-of-sale cardreaders. In Japan, half of cell phone owners — about 50 million users — carry phones that have so-called near field communications capability built-in. (link)
Will the next-generation iPhone — expected to arrive in July — also have it?
China Unicom seems to think so. Here's how the capability is described on its Shanghai website (translation provided by iPhonAsia):
"Near-Field-Communication (NFC) swipe card handset a.k.a. "wave-to-pay," offers convenience for those who use public transportation. It's possible to use a handset swipe card to buy a ticket. This wave-to-pay has replaced the former public transportation IC card. Using the swipe card handset for shopping eliminates the [need to carry] cash. Using wave-to-pay also makes it easy to pay in the ferry terminal. Through the swipe card, the handset (phone) can purchase your passage and avoid the worry of lining up to purchase tickets. Not only does this technology eliminate the need to carry a public transportation IC card, you don't even need a bankcard. All you need is the wave-to-pay handset (phone), to buy a ticket and do your shopping. One machine in the hand, opens access, and gives you control. Wave-to-pay makes life more convenient." (link)
See also:
China Unicom posts ad for iPhone
Although no deal has been announced, China Unicom posted ads for Apple's (AAPL) iPhone – including specifications for the model now on sale in nearly 80 countries – on an official China Unicom website.
The move follows reports last week of a breakthrough in the long running negotiations that have pitted China Unicom against its rival, China Mobile — the world's largest cell phone carrier — for exclusive rights to sell the iPhone in China.
NetworkWorld, which spotted the ads, points out that the information appeared only on the site of Unicom's Shanghai branch, and did not whether the phone would be offered in China.
Dan Butterfield, who has been following the negotiations on his iPhonAsia blog, notes that China Unicom's regional units tend to be somewhat independent. But posting specs before a formal announcement is made, he says, could cause someone to get their wrist slapped.
"China Unicom wants to entice existing iPhone 3G owners (at least 500,000 in China) to come on board when their new WCDMA 3G network is up and running in May in Shanghai," Butterfield writes in a post on Investor Village's AAPL Sanity board (subscription required). "This may be part of the motive for posting current iPhone 3G info and specs. Yet to post iPhone specs on an official Unicom website prior to a deal announcement is a surprise to me … I suspect China Unicom's regional Shanghai branch may be getting ahead of themselves."
See also:
