Vatican Nixxes “Pope in a Phone” Ap

The real Pope...Not Pope Jobs!

Dang! And here I thought the Vatican was joining the 21st Century by using the power of the Internet…

Thought this was fairly cool for “Sinners on the go.” Can you imagine if the Corleone Family had this in the Godfather!

“Yo! Pope Jobs – Sorry about that dead horse in the bed thing…”

Can’t wait for the AT&T versus Verizon TV ad on this one. “Only our network allows you to lie to your significant other… And be absolved at the same time! There’s an ap for that!”

Vatican: You Cannot Confess by iPhone

So much for instant absolution: The Vatican today emphatically stressed that Catholics cannot confess by iPhone, one day after news of the “Confession: A Roman Catholic App” emerged, reports the AFP. “It is essential to understand that the rites of penance require a personal dialogue between penitents and their confessor. It cannot be replaced by a computer application,” said a Vatican spokesman. Should that not be clear enough: “I must stress to avoid all ambiguity, under no circumstance is it possible to ‘confess by iPhone’.”

It’s worth noting, however, that the company that created it did explain that the app—approved for use by Catholics by an Indiana bishop—walks users through the process of confessing and offers a “personalized examination of conscience,” but did not say that it replaced the confessing-to-a-priest part.

 

 

 

Smart Phone Demographics

Turns out different ethic groups have different affinities in terms of the Cell Phone purchasing habits. This may be a reflection of network cost, usage type, or affinity…

For Phone Manufacturers this is both good and bad news. Asians purchase iPhones as a larger percentage of any group, Black folks purchase RIM Blackberrys. However, recent purchasing trends indicate a strong movement by both Black folks and Hispanics to Android platform phones – which is bad news for RIM.

Android, BlackBerry & iOS Tied for U.S. Market Share [STATS]

Thirty-one percent of mobile consumers in the U.S. now own a smartphone, according to a the Nielson Company’s December 2010 U.S. smartphone market survey released Tuesday…

The report indicates that 45% of mobile Hispanic users in the U.S. have a smartphone. Likewise, 45% of Asian/Pacific Islanders also have a smartphone. Nielsen estimates that 33% of African-American mobile phone users have a smartphone. In contrast, only 27% of white/non-Hispanic mobile users have a smartphone.

The differences in ownership percentages may have to do with age. Nielsen notes that Asian, Hispanic and African-American populations tend to skew younger.

I think it has to do with economics, as poorer folks only have the budget for one Internet Access methodology. Coughing up $100-200 a month for a Smart Phone, and an additional $100-200 a month for home internet access strains the budget. So the choices typically are a cheap “dumb phone” (prepaid), and home internet the family can share, or for more mobile or single folks – a Smartphone as the only connectivity to the Internet.

When it comes to future market share predictors, however, Android is the big winner. Nielsen estimates that 43% of users who purchased a smartphone in the past six months chose an Android device. In comparison, 26% of new purchasers chose an iOS device and 20% chose a BlackBerry.

From a demographic perspective, Hispanic users seem evenly split across the three smartphone OS platforms, whereas 36% of Asian smartphone owners have an iPhone. The BlackBerry is the most popular smartphone amongst African-Americans, at least according to this study.

It is going to be interesting to see after the initial euphoria, if Verizon offering the iPhone is going to drive market share significantly.  The one thing Apple has going for it is consistency of use across platforms. If you have an iPhone, you can pick up and use an iPad in seconds. The iPad is essentially an iPhone with a screen big enough so someone over 20 can read it.  A lot of the features also transition over to their PC line. That is where the “IBM/Microsoft” platforms have historically failed – and one of the reasons a lot of technophiles wouldn’t buy a Windows based phone. I don’t want to wake up tomorrow to find my phone has downloaded the newest operating system, which has changed where every button and feature on the phone is, charged my account $100 for the upgrade…

And moved the “call” button to somewhere ergonomically impossible to reach for someone without 3 hands. And furthermore, I will need to buy a memory upgrade for $150 just to make all the new “features” no human outside of the Microsoft development center will ever use but are “required” to make the new OS work. Which is what they (Microsoft) do constantly with Operating Systems and Office Products.

It will be interesting to see if Android manufacturers copy that “look and feel” which tends to tie users to their product lines due to familiarity. It worked for RIM, and their loyal Blackberry following…

 

Of Used Car Salesmen and Cell Phone Companies

Cell Phone companies are definitely the used car salesmen of the modern age. If it weren’t for banks, they would be the least trusted business in America. It is hard to find anyone, who at some time hasn’t had a billing “surprise” or an issue with their Cell Phone company over billing.

So it isn’t really a surprise that the big carriers get sued. What is unusual is when the litigant has the resources to make a case.

Lawsuit claims AT&T cheats iPhone, iPad owners on data

AT&T has “systematically” overcharged iPhone and iPad owners with capped data plans by inflating the amount of data they download and adding “phantom traffic,” a lawsuit claimed last week.

AT&T said it would “vigorously” fight the suit.

The complaint, filed by Patrick Hendricks in federal court in California, claims that a “significant portion” of AT&T’s $1.1 billion of wireless revenue gains last quarter came from the bogus charges and overbilling.

Hendricks’ lawyers asked a judge to grant the lawsuit class-action status, which if approved, would open up the case to millions of iPhone and iPadowners in the U.S.

Citing evidence obtained by a consulting firm hired by Henricks’ attorneys, the lawsuit said that AT&T regularly overstates incoming data between 7% and 14%, and in some cases by as much as 300%.

 

Lawsuit Goes After Apple, AT&T iPhony Contracts

At Last! Someone has needed to take on the abusive cell phone “contracts”. and this just may be the vehicle.

Antitrust Suit Against Apple, AT&T OKed

Bought iPhone with a 2-year plan? You’re in on class action lawsuit

A federal judge says a monopoly abuse lawsuit against Apple and AT&T’s mobile phone unit can move forward as a class action. The lawsuit consolidates several filed by iPhone buyers starting in late 2007, a few months after the first generation of Apple’s smart phone went on sale, and takes issue with Apple’s practice of “locking” iPhones so they can only be used on AT&T’s network, and its absolute control over what applications can be installed on the phone.

The lawsuit also says Apple secretly made AT&T its exclusive US partner for five years. Consumers agreed to two-year contracts with the Dallas-based wireless carrier when they purchased their phones, but were in effect locked into a five-year relationship with AT&T, the lawsuit argues. The class includes anyone who bought an iPhone with a two-year AT&T agreement since the device first went on sale in June 2007. While the judge OKed antitrust portions of the suit, he dismissed other charges, including complaints about the OS update that “bricked” many phones.

 

iPod…iPhone…iPad… iKill…

Sweatshop by Sol Robbins

10th Suicide Strikes Apple Plant

On the same day that Apple, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard promised to look into working conditions at China’s Foxconn plant, a 10th worker committed suicide, PC World reports. The death of the 19-year-old male worker also came just after the company’s billionaire founder took the media on a tour of the sprawling complex in response to accusations from labor groups that workers toiled in sweatshop-like conditions.

The company has brought psychiatrists and Buddhists monks to the factory complex to support workers, and now plays soothing music along production lines, adds theIndependent. It plans to install 10-foot-tall fences to stop workers jumping from buildings and may give workers a 20% pay rise, though a Foxconn rep maintains the increase would not be a response to the suicides, but is being considered because business has been good.

Yeah, 20% of nothing…

Is nothing.

Apple surpassed Microsoft in the past few months as the “world’s most valuable tech company”.

Robber Barrons…

Indeed.

 

Really Cheaper to Keep Her!

It seems that the cell phone companies have hired the same customer relations and marketing people as the Banks. Recently Verizon announced it was raising its early termination fees to $350.

Google and T-Mobile Collect Early Termination Fees from a Dissatisfied Customer as Verizon gives tips

Not wanting to be outdone, Google in announcing their new IPhone “Killer” the Nexus I, announced that consumers who cancelled would not only subject to T-Mobile’s outrageous $200 early termination fee – they would have to pay Google $350 for the privilege of trying out their phone…

And finding it didn’t work as advertised.

Considering the early reviews of Google’s phone are pretty bad – that amounts to crime and punishment…