the elevator pitch

In an interesting article published by the New York Times, it seems as though Apple has finally decided to do something about the adult content floating around in their App Store. Although the App Store was created for the public to create and share their own personal applications, some individuals have taken advantage of the freedom. The iPhone, iPod and all hand held devices that use iTunes as a store for applications is and always will be marketed to all ages, but with the considerable amount of SPAM and promotional applications, Apple has decided to filter out all of the adult oriented content.

The story became extremely hot when Sports Illustrated released an app of their own to accompany their annual swimsuit issue. Parents started to voice their concerns and Apple’s head of worldwide marketing Phillip Schiller responded with,

It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see.

In the wake of Schiller’s response, Apple began removing all adult content from their app store. But the question remains, was this the right move for a company that pushes creativity, the sharing of ideas and online developmental freedom? We’ll have to wait and see.

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Last week saw Apple invade the UK in a very big way. Although UK cell phone companies Orange, O2 and Tesco had already been carrying the iPhone, the big push was always going to be when Vodafone became a provider. The mostly European cell phone provider managed to sell 50,000 iPhones in a 24 hour period surpassing Google’s weekly sales numbers for the Nexus One. What does this mean? Not a whole lot of surprises as Vodaphone was always expected to carry the iPhone, but the astonshing 24 hour numbers says something about Steve Jobs and Apple. It seems as though cell phone users in UK were simply waiting for Vodaphone to pick it up instead of switching providers a few years ago.

The official release was for January 14th of this year and after the numbers came through on the first day, it seems as though UK cell phone users came through. In selling 50,000 iPhones in just 24 hours, Vodafone instantly became one of the most powerful iPhone providers in the world.

Source: Mashable

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Apple currently dominates the micro-transaction space for digital media with the App Store and iTunes. Users are currently able to download music, TV and movies with a simple click of a mouse. Apple has also enabled users to take this media with them everywhere they go with the iPod, iPhone and MobileMe. So what’s left for Apple to dominate? Books of course – and why not?

Next year Apple will launch the Apple iPad Tablet and with it, an enhanced version of iTunes that will start to include books and comics. The Apple Tablet will allow readers to simply download, read and store. So what makes the Apple Tablet any different than downloading a e-book today? The Tablet lays flat and can be held like a book. With the touch enabled interface, users will have the ability to flip pages, zoom in and out and experience a sort of hybrid between reading a book and watching a video.

Earlier this year Apple released a motion comic book from Marvel. Although the sales weren’t through the roof, they are setting the stage for a much larger scale release of content when the Tablet is released. Users can then purchase books and comics in the exact same way they currently purchase songs and shows; straight from iTunes.

Publishers can look at this in a couple of different ways. With the cutbacks in print media happening all over the world, this could be seen as a way for publishers to stay afloat. But at the same time, it would mean conforming to the digital era in a sense. These are all simply predictions as to what could happen to print media when the Apple Tablet is released, but one this is for sure, Apple is expanding again.

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Apple usually likes to play things really close to the chest when it comes to news about their latest products, but for the September release they have been quite open about some of the latest iPod technology. According Wired.com, iPod and iPod Nano fans can expect the latest versions of the tiny music player to include cameras and microphones. Inching ever so close to the technology driving the iPhone, iPod users will be able to gather media and upload with the WIFI connection. This may not sound like a big step in terms of what Apple has released in the past, but the ability for iPods to capture media is going to be quite large.

No longer are people handcuffed by the iPhone for capturing video and audio media and at a cost efficient price (not yet released, but one can assume it will be less than an iPhone) Apple enthusiasts should be flocking to the stores for this one quite soon.

In other Apple news, this month should see the release of iTunes 9 which is rumored to include Facebook integration.

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The New York Times reported a few days ago that Japanese Manga sales are on a surprising upswing in the last little while because of the steady purchasing of cell phone content. Manga is a form of Japanese comic that is traditionally sold in book form. Over the past decade manga sales had actually been down in comparison to previous years, but overall sales of the stories took a huge hike in 2008. Although many Japanese manga publishers are uncertain of the reason behind the hike, they are still giving credit to mobile devices.

Traveling content is becoming a big consumer attraction these days with the capabilities of mobile devices. iPhones, Blackberrys other smart phones and PDA’s are quickly becoming a mainstay in society and as people continue to be on the go more and more, mobile content is becoming a major part of the day. Many people already rely on their mobile devices to deliver them news while traveling and things like games, chatting and now manga are making a big push. Although mobile versions of books and comics aren’t new, the major increase in manga sales is definitely a sign of things to come. Micro-transactions just seem more convenient these days, especially when it comes directly to your device.

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