An Ignoble Experiment

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It's no secret that Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone has failed to catch on with smartphone buyers. Despite positive media reviews and signature features like Live Tiles, consumers have largely ignored the platform: Windows Phone 8 devices accounted for just 4.6 percent of all smartphones sold in the United States during the three-month period ending in May 2013, miles behind Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android at 52 percent and Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS at 41.9 percent, according to a recent report issued by research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Windows Phone 8 has eclipsed the fading BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) platform and is "growing faster than anyone else right now," Windows Phone Senior Product Manager Larry Lieberman told The Verge late last month.

"We think we're solidly the third ecosystem right now," Lieberman said during an interview at Microsoft's Build developers conference. "That's a huge announcement in some respects."

Microsoft has made few formal announcements about Windows Phone's future, however. Insiders say the company is working on the so-called Windows Phone Blue update, expected in early 2014--rumors say the major upgrade will bring a notification center, enhanced multitasking and improvements to built-in applications, among other improvements. But that's still months away. In the here and now, Microsoft is rolling out minor upgrades like Windows Phone 8 General Distribution Release 2, issued last week. GDR2 is highlighted by the restoration of FM radio support--a longtime Windows Phone OS feature dropped with the late 2012 launch of WP8--as well as Xbox Music improvements to provide more accurate metadata, a Data Sense app tracking service, and stability improvements to services like Internet Explorer and Skype.

That isn't nearly enough for some Microsoft loyalists, however. This weekend, user Tùng Hà turned to the company's Feature Suggestions for Windows Phone forum to submit a post headlined "We need Microsoft to listen to our ideas and DO something."...Continued

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Today's Top News

1. Best Buy confirms new Nexus 7, Android 4.3 launch ahead of Google event

By Jason Ankeny

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2. Apple trumpets record iTunes billings of $4.3B in earnings report

Big-box retailer Best Buy has posted product listings for the new Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Nexus 7 tablet hours prior to a media event where the search giant is expected to unveil the device. The Best Buy listing also confirms the device will run Android version 4.3, which Google is also expected to officially announce.

According to Best Buy's online store listings, Google is poised to roll out two versions of the Nexus 7: A 16GB option priced at $229.99 and a 32GB version offered at $269.99. Both tablets will run Android 4.3, which will retain the same Jelly Bean nickname applied to Android 4.1 and 4.2.

Android 4.3 has been identified in previous leaked screenshots. Rumored features include Bluetooth LE support, Wi-Fi improvements and notifications bar enhancements. Google is widely expected to announce both Android 4.3 and the Nexus 7 at today's event, headlined by Google Senior Vice President Suchar Pichai and taking place in San Francisco at 9:00 a.m. PT today. Check back with FierceMobileContent later today for complete coverage of the event.

While some onlookers held out hope that Google might announce Android 5.0 instead of another incremental 4.x update, insiders recently told The Wall Street Journal that Google is still working on Android 5.0, expected for release this fall and reportedly nicknamed "Key Lime Pie." Android 5.0 is expected to push the Google platform into laptops, wearables and appliances, giving manufacturing partners greater flexibility to customize the OS for use in devices beyond smartphones and tablets. Sources add that Google is also tweaking the OS to run more efficiently across low-cost Android smartphones targeting the emerging markets segment.

Google released the current Android 4.2 in November 2012, introducing a host of new features as well as a smoother, more responsive user experience. The company was widely expected to unveil its next major Android update during its annual I/O developer conference in May, but no announcement materialized.

Android powered 74.4 percent of all smartphones sold worldwide during the first quarter of 2013, up from 56.9 percent a year earlier, research firm Gartner reports. Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS ranks a distant second at 18.2 percent, down from 22.5 percent in the year-ago period.

For more:
- read this Verge article

Read more about: Google, Best Buy
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By Jason Ankeny

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3. Electronic Arts mobile revenues surge to $90M, Apple now largest retail partner

Record iTunes billings and iPhone sales helped Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) post fiscal third-quarter revenues of $35.3 billion, up slightly from $35 billion in the year-ago quarter. Net profits fell to $6.9 billion from $8.8 billion in the year-earlier period.

Click here for Apple's quarterly iPhone and iPad sales since 2007.

"We continue to be very pleased with the growth and the strength of the Apple ecosystem," Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said during the company's quarterly earnings call, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. "With the broadest geographic reach and depth of content in the industry, our iTunes Stores generated record billings of $4.3 billion in the June quarter culminating in our best months and best week ever for App Store billings at the very end of the quarter. The quarter's iTunes billings translated to quarterly revenue of $2.4 billion, up 29 percent from the year-ago quarter with strong growth in revenue in both content and apps. The continued strong iTunes sales combined with other software and service revenue resulted in total quarterly revenue of $4 billion from iTunes software and services."

Oppenheimer noted that cumulative iOS app downloads recently eclipsed the 50 billion mark. Third-party developers have raked in more than $11 billion through App Store sales, with half of that total earned during the past four quarters. "Our vibrant ecosystem continues to drive tremendous user engagement with our devices and services," Oppenheimer continued. "We now have over 320 million iPod accounts and 240 million Game Center accounts, and our customers have sent almost 900 billion iMessages, uploaded over a 125 billion photos and received over 8 trillion push notifications."

Beyond the iOS platform, iTunes users have downloaded more than 1 billion TV episodes and 390 million movies to date, and continue purchasing roughly 800,000 TV episodes and over 350,000 movies per day. Those numbers will continue to grow in tandem with iOS device purchases: Apple sold 31.2 million iPhones, a record for the June quarter, compared with 26 million in the year-ago period. It also sold 14.6 million iPad tablets, down from 17 million in the year-ago quarter.

Apple is turning to the massive Chinese market to fuel the next phase of iOS ecosystem growth. "We continue to attract a lot of developers from China," Apple CEO Tim Cook said. "We now have about [500,000] developers in China that are working on iOS apps and that's up almost 70 percent year-over-year. We're obviously paying the developers quite a bit and so that's furthering advancement of the ecosystem of developers. We're continuing to invest in distribution, we're going to double the number of retail stores there for the next two years and we're continuing to lift iPhone point of sales and iPad sales, both of which are currently lower than where we would them or need them today but we're doing that very cautiously… China is a huge opportunity for Apple."

For more:
- read this release
- see this FierceWireless article
- read this Seeking Alpha transcript

Special Report: Wireless in the second quarter of 2013

Read more about: Apple, iOS
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By Jason Ankeny

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4. Sprint extends Wireless CapTel caption calling app to iOS

Electronic Arts beat earnings expectations during its fiscal first quarter, narrowing its losses to $121 million compared to $130 million in the year-ago quarter and increasing revenues to $495 million, well above guidance of $450 million.

EA's mobile and handheld digital revenue leaped 30 percent year-over-year to $103 million, with smartphones and tablets accounting for $90 million of that total, up 73 percent year-over-year. "In Q1, 76 percent of our non-GAAP revenue was digital, driven by the online services of blockbuster franchises like Battlefield and FIFA, as well as our strong mobile portfolio," EA Executive Chairman Lawrence Probst said on the company's quarterly earnings call, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. For the first time ever, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) ranks as EA's biggest retail partner measured by sales, added President and Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore.

EA credited its mobile surge to titles like The Simpsons: Tapped Out, which enjoyed its highest revenue quarter since launching in August 2012. "In June, we released the 'Waterfront' update, which drove daily active users to 5.9 million in the quarter and established the game as the No. 5 top-grossing app on both iPhone and iPad in the U.S.," Moore said. "The 'Krustyland' update is scheduled to release at the end of this month, and we're developing more updates to keep Simpsons fans engaged."

EA's blockbuster Real Racing 3 also has generated more than 45 million downloads, averaging more than 2 million daily active users since going live in March. This month, EA introduced an update adding new courses and features like time trials as well as cars from Mercedes-Benz and Bentley.

EA will debut the much-anticipated freemium title Plants vs. Zombies 2 on Apple's iOS at the end of the current quarter, said Frank Gibeau, president of the EA Labels. "It will have a curve that is typical of a free-to-play game, but what you notice in mobile is what takes several years to unfold in a console business happens in a few months in mobile," Gibeau said.

EA continues its efforts to replace former CEO John Riccitiello, who resigned in March after the company lowered its outlook several times. The publisher said its board is interviewing both internal and external candidates.

For more:
- read this release
- read this Seeking Alpha transcript
- read this CNBC article

Special Report: Wireless in the second quarter of 2013

Read more about: Apple, Electronic Arts
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By Jason Ankeny

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5. Report: Apple's iPhone leads all connected devices on content sharing

Sprint (NYSE:S) is expanding its Wireless CapTel caption calling application to Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS. The operator previously rolled out the app in late 2011 to select devices running Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android.

Powered by communications software developer Raketu, Wireless CapTel enables Sprint subscribers with hearing loss to read voice conversations as real-time, word-for-word captions. Users place calls by dialing the recipient's phone number, and Wireless CapTel automatically routes the call to the captioning service, which recounts what the other person is saying via the iPhone display screen. For incoming calls, hard-of-hearing users give contacts their specialized Wireless CapTel phone number to receive captioning service.

Wireless CapTel is available as a free download from Apple's App Store. It is offered in conjunction with Sprint's Telecommunications Relay Service, which provides communications solutions optimized for customers who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, deaf-blind or have a speech disability.

Sprint earlier introduced the Relay ID pack, which bundles Android apps supporting video relay services for sign-language users, voice mail transcripts, visual and vibrating alerts, and readable captions. Sprint Relay ID joins other Sprint ID bundles tailored to specific interests, business needs and favorite brands.

For more:
- read this release

Read more about: Raketu, Mobile Messaging
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By Jason Ankeny

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SPOTLIGHT ON... Groupon revamps Breadcrumb POS app with vertical-specific features

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone owners are significantly more likely to share digital content across social networks than consumers across other connected devices, according to a new study released by social media services firm ShareThis.

After analyzing 4.9 billion social signals across the desktop Web and 1.2 billion signals across the mobile Web, ShareThis found that users are three times more likely to share content via iPhone compared to the desktop and 1.5 times more likely to share on an iPhone compared to all other mobile devices. Consumers are nearly twice as likely to click and share content on social networks through mobile devices as opposed to the desktop, the firm adds.

Platforms like Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Pinterest dominate social sharing on mobile devices, ShareThis notes. Facebook accounts for 60.3 percent of all mobile content sharing, compared to 56.5 percent on the desktop, while Pinterest activity drives 18.9 percent of mobile sharing, far ahead of the desktop at 5 percent. Twitter is next at 13.6 percent on mobile and 6 percent on the desktop. At the same time, email makes up 9.6 percent of desktop sharing but email activity is basically negligible on mobile devices.

Content sharing behaviors also differ between smartphones and tablets. Consumers share to Facebook 66.4 percent of the time on iPhones compared to other channels, while Pinterest dominates iPads with 48.2 percent of social activity. The top shared content categories on Facebook for iPhone include Family & Parenting, Arts & Entertainment, Health, Technology and Government, ShareThis states; the top shared content categories on Pinterest for iPad include Food & Drink, Family & Parenting, Fashion & Beauty, Home & Garden, and Health & Fitness.

"What is interesting from the comparison is that the screen size of the device suggests a material impact on the types of content people are likely to consume and share," said Yan Qu, ShareThis vice president of data science and chief scientist. "In the case of iPads, people browse and share a lot of recipes, fashion, and home and garden subject matter, content that includes more graphics, and they use the highly visual Pinterest more. On iPhones, people socialize with their friends, listen to music and read news updates; there they rely on Facebook more."

For more:
- read this ShareThis blog post

Read more about: iPhone, Mobile Social Networking
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Groupon is expanding its iPad-based Breadcrumb point-of-sale platform, adding pre-built, customizable experiences adapted to specific merchant verticals like retailers, quick-service restaurants and bars, salons and spas.

The new Breadcrumb POS 1.2 enables merchants to use pre-loaded menus and inventory lists, process offline transactions, scan and redeem Groupon vouchers, track deal performance, add custom item modifiers and more. The app also features seven preloaded menus and inventory lists for the most popular types of local businesses, expanded customer billing options and transaction storage in the event the iPad's Wi-Fi connection is disrupted.

Groupon first launched Breadcrumb in fall 2012. The app enables merchants to merge or split checks, add or adjust menu items, specify guest notes and modifiers, set employee access levels, manage time clocks and view real-time sales and labor reports. Users additionally can rearrange tables with a swipe of their finger. Breadcrumb is also fully integrated with the GrouponPayments mobile transaction system introduced last month, which allows any U.S. merchant that runs a Groupon deal to accept credit and debit payments by swiping the customer's card through a small dongle that plugs into their iOS device's audio jack. Release

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Yankee Group: Mobile PoS is the new 'must have' for retailers

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