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The science of language, community, and MMORPGs
Back in August, Massively wrote a little post about Swedish research on MMOs and language learning. That article provoked me, a gamer and teacher of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), to hunt down the original research and talk directly to the researchers, Dr. Liss Kerstin Sylvén from the University of Gothenburg and Dr. Pia Sundqvist from Karlstad University, to better understand their research and findings. Note that we'll be talking here about games and language learning specifically, not other forms of game-related education. Also, Sylvén and Sundqvist don't consider themselves "gamers." Sundqvist remembers Pac-Man as her first game, both admit to playing Angry Birds on their cell phones, and Sundqvist is "allowed" to sometimes watch her 17-year-old son play League of Legends. I find this interesting because they are non-gamers who seriously consider games capable of being educational without specifically being developed to do so. This isn't a simple merger of a hobby with work; this is work in a field of interest that's still being explored.
With BlackBerry floundering, iPad is there to pick up the enterprise pieces
Historically, Apple has never been, nor has it ever wanted to be, an enterprise driven company. Indeed, Steve Jobs never preoccupied himself with selling to the enterprise, and stories abound regarding his distaste for CIOs. Nonetheless, both Apple's iPhone and iPad have made tremendous inroads into the enterprise world over the past few years. Looking ahead, this trend is likely to become even more pronounced now that BlackBerry, despite all attempts to revive the once great company, appears to be circling the drain. As it stands now, nearly 94% of Fortune 500 companies are either using or testing iPads. AllThingsD reports: For a product so young, that's impressive enterprise penetration. And it should become more so in the year ahead. This according to Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair, who said he has seen big gains for the iPad in business over the last few months. The reasons? BlackBerry's collapse and Android's failure to gain meaningful traction in the enterprise space. Blair theorizes that BlackBerry's ill-starred attempt to sell itself inflamed concerns about the future viability of the company's platform, and gave corporations good reason to migrate their employees to other devices. That opened up a significant opportunity for Apple - particularly since Android continues to struggle for gains in enterprise. Blair explains that while Android may be more popular than iOS on a marketshare basis, IT managers are, by and large, still more likely to choose iOS. Blair also adds that he has seen "tremendous momentum for iPad in the enterprise over the last few months." On a related note, and in yet another example illustrating this changing of the enterprise guard, we recently reported that Pfizer's 90,000-strong workforce will soon be transitioning away from BlackBerry in favor of iOS and Android devices.
Apple is 19th on Global 500 list
Fortune today released its annual list of the world's largest companies, and Apple this year checks in at number 19 on the list. The companies rounding out the top five spots include Royal Dutch Shell, Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil, Sinopec Group and China National Petroleum. Those companies generate considerably more revenue than Apple, but when it comes to sheer profits, Apple is second only to Exxon. Last year, Apple ranked 55 on the global list and the year before, it came in at 111.
Apple soars into Fortune 500's top 10
Despite the media's best attempts to make it appear that Apple is in dire financial straits, Fortune today reported that the company has made it into the top 10 of the Fortune 500 list. Apple arrives in the top 10 in the number six spot, replacing HP (now No. 15) as the leading tech company. Here's the amazing thing -- just last year, Apple was listed as No. 17 in the Fortune 500. Two years ago Apple was a distant No. 35, the spot now occupied by Microsoft. The ranking of the Fortune 500 is based on revenues, with Wal-Mart Stores at the top of the list with 2012 revenues of US$469.2 billion. Three US oil companies -- Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Phillips 66 -- made up the second through fourth positions respectively on the list, with Warren Buffett's investment firm Berkshire Hathaway just ahead of Apple in the No. 5 spot. Apple's revenues for 2012 were $156.5 billion with profits of $41.7 billion. That profit figure was exceeded only by Exxon Mobil, which, as of today, has a market capitalization of "only" $406 billion compared to Apple's $433 billion.
Daily Update for May 6, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
New iPad owners increasingly interested in business use
A recent research report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) suggests more people are buying the iPad to use at work, according to AllThingsD which had access to the report. A survey of 1000 customers who purchased iPads between December 2011 and April 2012 shows that 21 percent will use the device for business purposes. This is an 8 percent jump from the previous survey. AllThingsD attributed the jump to a friendlier corporate attitude towards the iPad and an increase in the number businesses that have "bring your own device" policies. In a BYOD setup, employees are free to choose an iPad (or any other tablet) for mobile use and in many cases the company will grant it secure access to the corporate network -- or, at a minimum, provide baseline assistance for setting up email and calendaring on the device. It's not just journalists and market analysis companies noticing this trend. Speaking during the iPad unveiling earlier this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the tablet device is being used in 92 percent of the Fortune 500 companies. This is up from the 65 to 80 percent figure tossed around in early 2011. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Switched On: Cisco's hard-luck hardware
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. When you think about companies that dominate specific technology markets, alongside names such as Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Intel. SAP and Oracle, you would no doubt include Cisco Systems. Founded in 1984, the networking giant, which has grown largely via acquisition over the years, earned $43 billion of revenue in 2011. That placed it at #64 on the 2011 Fortune 500. Cisco has a current market value of about $113 billion. Linksys, acquired in 2003, has remained among the top-selling home networking brands, and Cisco recently moved to bolster its TV service provider business -- formerly known as Scientific Atlanta -- with the acquisition of NDS. But for all the success that Cisco has had building connections among network endpoints, the company has had a tough road when it's come to selling end-user devices directly to end-users over the last few years.
DevJuice: Promotion from the Trenches
TUAW Dev Juice talks with Mac developer Lyle Andrews, who agreed to discuss his real-world experience launching applications. He'll be sharing tips and hints about practical app promotion skills. I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to me and to TUAW readers. The reason I asked you here was because I think you have a really compelling story to tell and tips to share. You're a small developer who's achieved some exciting success in Apple's App Stores, yes? Can you tell us about your background and your products? Yes, I've been coding since I was 12, have been through 14 languages, have a degree in philosophy, and am a veteran of the dot.com wars where I ran over 60 projects including a dot.com startup and a Fortune 500 web deployment. My project history can be seen here. I've been moving into consumer software development and have two large projects in the works, Ynnis Myrddin, an interactive film about Merlin, and MetaView, a 3D market vizualizer. When the Mac App Store started operations I decided to write a few small apps to learn its dynamics: Tempest - a video lightning screensaver, Fireworks HD, another screensaver, and Network Logger, an active network monitor. Network Logger is currently selling in the top 6%, Fireworks HD in the top 2.5% and Tempest! in the top 2% of their categories on the US store. I first came across your work when I reviewed your Fireworks app just before New Years. Can you share how that process of pitching and reviewing worked from your end and talk about how the TUAW review affected your sales? Getting Fireworks HD reviewed by Apple was straightforward compared to getting the first screensaver on the store, since the App Store doesn't sell screensavers directly. I tried numerous ways around this restriction, including zipping up the saver and storing it in a shell app's bundle or having the app download the saver. After half a dozen rejection cycles one of the Apple reviewers took pity on me and suggested adding a download link that the user could click on in the app. This puts the onus of responsibility on the user, gives them control, and with that approach I was able to get approved and onto the store. Being very much a developer I have the classic indie tendency to just keep coding and sit around wishing that someone was promoting my apps full time. This does make the exposure the App Store affords very attractive. I do occasionally send out press releases and hold free promotions on the store. For Fireworks HD, I knew getting some exposure for New Year's Eve was important so I emailed an editor at TUAW about the possibility of a review right after Christmas. I saw that as a win/win since that was the app on the store most appropriate for New Years' Eve at the time. Fireworks HD was named Mac App of the Day on Dec 27, 2011 and the sales rank responded immediately and dramatically, moving from around rank #100 up to #4 in Top Paid Entertainment within a day. On New Year's Eve itself Fireworks HD was on the Top 10 Entertainment charts of 13 countries. Over the next few weeks Fireworks HD trended down as expected but happily ended in a higher average range which has persisted for five months to date. Can you tell me about some of the strategies you've used in-store for helping your apps stand out from the competition? I know you mentioned something about icons when I first started talking to you about doing this interview. What other suggestions do you have? I anticipated your question, so here is a very long list of suggestions. Pop out. Your icon has to pop out. Look at the primary category you will be listed in, imagine you are in the top 200, what similarities or appearance trends can you find in the app icons, and how can you break them in a way that draws attention and invites a click. A number of people have told me that they clicked on Network Logger just because of the icon. Something about it just makes you want to click it whatever it leads to. Keep it short. This indicates that you are confident that the customer is going to like your product if they are interested in general. It shows you feel like you don't have to say that much to make the sale. This is true with new clients as well as products. A long description starts to feel like an apology after awhile. However, some things are complex and merit a longer description. Conciseness is the actual metric. How can you say the most with the least words? Keep it Plain. Plain descriptions with minimal self-praise and adjectives are trusted more by App Store customers than overinflated rhetoric. Focus on Strength. Best in class in some way? Definitely say so. If nothing is the best, should you be aiming higher? This is true for Fireworks HD, it is in some ways a silly app I built to test out the store, but if you need beautiful 100% realistic HD fireworks for your event that don't repeat in sequence and work when no network connection is available, there is nothing better available for Mac than Fireworks HD. Be a master of the obvious. While there are many great naming strategies, if you can name a product after its product category, you have a home field advantage. With "Network Logger" for instance, the genus is instantly obvious, the customer just needs to know the species. They click, they are coming to see you, you are the category, the sale is yours to lose. Don't sweat bad reviews. They are going to happen, if an app has merit it will tend to sell anyway and time will equalize things. Tempest has been in the top 10 in Spain in Paid Entertainment for many weeks despite having only two reviews there, both 1 star. Follow or lead the market, either way know which you are doing. Leading the market is much more challenging, and can be much more rewarding. Can you come up with a way of systematizing a part of the raw unordered universe and create a new class of human activities? If you succeed your glories will be sung in Valhalla. Following the market can be safer and is often more lucrative. Can you rethink a better way to handle a common human activity? Use resonance awareness. There are some things you just know are going to resonate with a particular audience, fireworks, lightning, beaches, white rounded kitchen appliances...resonance awareness is really a diverse skill set it pays to hone. We know Steve Jobs actively developed this skill set throughout his life. Understand need. You need their need. What fundamental emotions are driving the user as they use your software? A desire for order? Curiosity? Love? A desire to conquer? Every activity has a number of emotions that are commonly associated with it. Knowing what your audience is experiencing and wants to experience emotionally is the foundation of an evolving relationship. It's not just woven into the advertising, the product is built around it. In conclusion, these things are all simple in theory, but if the execution sounds simple, think again. The student sees the simple and thinks it simple, the master sees the simple and thinks it profound. I hope one day to be such a master myself. There's been a lot of negative talk over the last few years about the App Stores being too saturated, that small guys can't make a living at it, that there's no room to break in. What would you say to that? I would say that oversaturation is bound to happen given the gold rush mentality, but overall the App Stores have been really empowering to smaller developers and that virtue will be recognized if one persists. The bar is higher now and development and marketing effort have to reflect that. The App Store gets far more traffic than my own web sites and provides more than just sales exposure; the review system has sort of opened up a dialog between me and my customers that wasn't there before. There are a lot of nasty reviews on the US App Store but internationally they are much more measured; they all make you tougher (better at taking criticism), and your app better. Being able to say you have apps on the store also has a certain social cachet these days that's valuable in personal and professional situations and that opens up new opportunities. Lyle, thank you so much for taking the time to talk today. I'm hoping that your experience and your insights will help inspire other developers, especially those just getting started. And if you're still reading this post and you like this kind of developer-centric coverage, please let our editorial team know. Drop a note and tell TUAW that you care about dev topics.
Daily Update for May 8, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Apple climbs to 17 on Fortune 500 list
Fortune released the Fortune 500 list for 2012, and Apple is now in the top 20 of the list of the largest U.S. corporations in the #17 spot. That's a vast improvement from last year's ranking at 35. Apple has a way to go to get into the top five, which is populated by such famous names as Exxon Mobil, Wal-mart Stores, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and General Motors. HP was the top tech business in the list at #10, while perennial Fortune 500 place sitter IBM came in behind Apple in the #19 spot. Somewhere, Steve Jobs must be smiling... In Fortune's industry grouping for "Computers, Office Equipment", HP took the top spot, Apple the second place, and Dell, Xerox, NCR and Pitney Bowes followed the leaders. In case you're wondering where old arch-rivals Microsoft and Dell showed up, they were at spots 37 and 44 respectively. Intel was out of the top 50 in spot number 51, and Google followed the pack in the #73 spot.
Apple now ranks #35 in Fortune 500
Apple climbed its way into the elite Top 50 of the Fortune 500 list for this year. The Cupertino company climbed 21 spots to claim the #35 position between Medco Health solutions and Boeing. Apple was propelled upwards by sales of the iPad, the iPhone and content from the iOS App Store. Combined with its iTunes and Mac hardware sales, the company netted US$14 billion in profits in 2010 and is counted among the 20 most profitable companies in the world. Apple leads both the tablet and smartphone market and its computer sales are growing. When looking at revenue for the Computer and Office equipment category, Apple settled in second place behind market leader HP and edged out Dell which dropped down to third place. Apple's forecast for 2011 remains strong -- the company continues to expand into new markets with its iOS devices and its Mac hardware line continues to be updated with the latest generation hardware.
EA joins the Fortune 500
There are two kinds of corporations in the US: those who count themselves amongst the top 500 companies, according to Fortune magazine, and those who can't afford Fortune magazine. And now Electronic Arts has managed to break its way into the august ranks of the Fortune 500, CNN reports, at number 494, to be exact. Despite emerging from a period of bad morale, layoffs and studio closures, it would seem things are looking up for ol' EA. Uh, not that we care or anything. EA is totally evil, right? [Via @CNNMoney]
Apple #56 in Fortune 500 rankings
Apple has moved up 15 spots in Fortune's annual Fortune 500 rankings to be the 56th largest company in the world by revenues. Apple had 2009 revenues of US$36.5 billion in 2009, up 12.5% from 2008. Despite the massive revenues, Apple still ranks third, behind HP (ranked 10th overall) and Dell (ranked 38th overall), in Fortune's "Computers, Office Equipment" industry rankings. Apple's share price total return to investors was a whopping 149%. Many believe that that's just the tip of the iceberg with Apple analyst Gene Munster predicting a year end target price of $299 a share. As of the time of this writing, Apple's share price sits above $248. The top three companies in Fortune 500's 2009 rankings were Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobile, and Chevron. In the Internet Services and Retailing industry, Amazon came in first (ranked 100 overall), Google second (ranked 102 overall), and Liberty Media third (ranked 227 overall).
Apple makes a nice jump on the Fortune 500
Apple's headed straight to the top with a bullet -- they went from 159 to 121 in last year's Fortune 500 ranking, and this year, they've pushed their way up to 103. On the list of the "20 most profitable tech companies," they are solidly at number eight -- Fortune says that the introduction of the iPhone and "record sales of Mac computers" have Apple on a rocket trajectory.Of course, Google's sitting upstairs at number 7, and you-know-who (not the Harry Potter villain, but close) is up at number one.But yes, there's no question that Apple has really been hitting it out of the park lately, and considering the future (the fruits of the SDK, another possible iPhone iteration, and whatever else they're brewing up in Cupertino), the trends will continue.
Apple jumps in Fortune 500 ranking
Apple made a big leap in their Fortune 500 ranking for 2006 when the list was released earlier this week. Previously, they were at number 159. Now, they've jumped 38 spots to number 121. By the end of March 2007 the company's market value was 80.602 billion dollars (put your pinky to the corner of your mouth when you say that). Other tech companies in the top 20 included HP (number 14) and Verizon (number 13). The number one spot went to the monolithic Wal-Mart.[Via MacDailyNews]
