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Verizon iPhone launch post mortem: Three lessons and some humble pie

Publié: février 11, 2011, 10:26pm CET par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

No matter what sales numbers Apple or Verizon eventually boasts about, iPhone 4's launch on the carrier cannot be called a resounding success -- at least compared to others. Launch day got off with short customer lines, something Apple simply isn't accustomed to or was prepared for. The Apple fan club of bloggers and journalists fed the frenzy, raising expectations about Day 1 on Verizon. There was fizzle instead of pop yesterday.
In doing a post mortem, I see three things the Verizon iPhone launch reveals about Apple.
1. Apple botched launch preparations. Apple stores opened early, with loads of staff inside and lots of food and drinks ready for customers waiting in line. Except there were no big crowds. The company clearly overestimated in-store demand for the Verizon phone, something also indicated by customers receiving preorders early and actual orders starting a day earlier than planned. Sure, Verizon sold out preorders in just a couple of hours but never said how many. It's possible to view orders and delivery as Apple's well-oiled distribution channel working efficiently. Based on the lack of crowds, early demand is as likely, if not more likely, to have been considerably less than Apple anticipated.
2. Bloggers and journalists are overly obsessed with Apple -- to a fault. There is clearly pro-Apple bias, which I previously wrote about -- twice in March 2010 (here and here). Verizon iPhone Day 1 shows how bad is the problem, by how hype worked against Apple. Apple's handset has been called the "Jesus phone," for its popularity. Overly positive posts about the Verizon iPhone -- many making outrageous sales projections and switcher predictions -- essentially proclaimed the Second Coming of the Jesus phone on Jan. 10, 2011. The Apple fan club overly raised expectations, and even Apple executives may have been taken in by the hype when planning for launch day.
3. Apple's stock is nowhere as safe as Wall Street analysts lead investors to believe, and there is a whole lot of denial going about the rocky Verizon iPhone launch. Apple shares plunged suddenly yesterday, in what Apple 2.0 blogger Philip Elmer-DeWitt described as a "flash crash." He writes: "Except for the surprisingly short iPhone lines at Verizon stores Thursday, there didn't seem to be any news behind the sell off." What? Short lines wasn't reason enough in context of big sales expectations?
The big wave of news stories about the short lines started to crest between Noon and 1 p.m. ET, yesterday. For example, CNET posted images of short lines at 12:14 p.m. ET. Then right around 1 p.m. came several stories based on a Piper Jaffray quickie survey of 40 customers at Apple and Verizon stores: Only 8 percent of buyers were switching from AT&T. But the Apple fan club of bloggers had been writing about churn of 26 percent or more. The flash crash came soon after the 8-percent figure was reported. It's not rocket science to see a connection.
I've been complaining for more than 18 months that too much of Apple's share performance is about perception -- something the biased blog posts and news stories feed. Sure, there are good reasons to invest in Apple and believe in its future, that is based on performance. But there are clear indications that hype and rumors overly influence the share price. If the hype turns bad, then what of Apple shares?
Something else: How much can investors trust Wall Street analysts when they are infected by Apple hype and live in denial when expectations fall short of reality? For example, yesterday at Pioneer Press/TwinCities.com, Julio Ojeda-Zapata wrote about experiences at an "Apple Store with short lines." He wasn't alone: "Piper Jaffrey analyst Gene Munster was with me at the megamall, and he speculated that the Verizon-iPhone preorders may have had a great deal to [do] with the lack of queuing. Also, he said, it is a work day (past Apple-product launches have often occurred on a weekend)." Oh yeah? Apple offered preorders for iPhone 4 last summer and there were still massive lines. The other US iPhone launches occurred on weekdays. I hear denial talking. Do you?
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
10 Things you need to know about today's deal between Microsoft and Nokia

Publié: février 11, 2011, 10:12pm CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

The mobile world's biggest hardware maker will be pairing with the computer world's bigest software maker to start making Nokia Windows Phones. Here are ten things about the pairing that you need to know before the partnership begins releasing any products.
1. It will take two years before Windows Phone even makes up half of Nokia's product mix
Nokia plans to gradually introduce Windows Phone into its product lineup while phasing out Symbian and slightly decreasing the amount of feature phones it produces. Eventually, Nokia expects to make Windows Phone-powered devices its largest product segment, but the company has said that will take two years or more, and its "Smart Devices" will make up a different business unit from its "Mobile Phones."
2. Nokia Maps is becoming part of Bing
American consumers are largely unaware of the Nokia Maps experience, which is somewhat interesting, since it has always been powered by Chicago-based company Navteq, which Nokia acquired in 2007 for $8.1 billion.
With the inclusion of Navteq's map data, Bing Maps will have access to high quality traffic information, mapping data, and 3D geospatial imagery.
3. Windows Marketplace and the Ovi Store will combine
In the joint announcement from Microsoft and Nokia today, the companies said Nokia's content and application store will be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace. Naturally, this doesn't mean much at first since the two stores offer content on two different platforms, however Matt Bencke wrote in the Windows team blog today that there will be "more details to share about the marketplace strategy in the future, but our intent is to build upon the best of what both companies offer today."
4. App Developers: Carrier billing for Windows Phone apps will expand by magnitudes
Nokia's 6-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission today highlighted an important part about this deal; that Nokia's operator billing agreements in more than 190 markets will make it easier for customers to purchase Windows Phone apps in countries with low credit card use. So not only will windows phones become more widely available globally, but they'll also be more accommodating to regional buying habits.
5. Nokia gets a strong U.S. marketing force
Microsoft spends a lot of money on U.S. advertising, and frequently manages to approve some very memorable campaigns. But Nokia has not, and the company is fully aware of the repercussions of this.
Indeed, in Nokia's 2010 20F SEC filing, the company said, "Insufficient investments in marketing and brand building could also erode the value of the Nokia brand. Any...failure to optimize the Nokia brand in the marketing of our mobile devices could have a material adverse effect on our capacity to retain our current customers and consumers and attract new customers and consumers and on our business, sales and results of operations."
With Microsoft's help, there will be a big increase in Nokia's U.S. presence.
6. Windows Phones will begin to vary in specs, especially in the camera department
Microsoft's strategy with the first generation of Windows Phones was to have very strict guidelines for hardware manufacturers. Indeed, every one of the first 10 WP7 devices had nearly identical specs, with a 1GHz processor and 5 megapixel image sensor.
But Nokia has one of the highest resolution image sensors on the market, and is eager to utilize it with Windows Phone.
7. Microsoft's adCenter audience will explode
According to comScore data from November 2010, Microsoft's adCenter reaches 23% of the U.S. online market, and in 2009 adCenter scored a deal to provide Bing and mobile advertisements to Verizon Wireless customers. But these are both tiny in comparison to today's deal with Nokia. adCenter will provide search ads for the totality of Nokia's devices and services, giving it an estimated 38% of the world's mobile audience.
8. Nokia's Research and Development arm could shrink significantly
Nokia has scaled back its domestic workforce several times in the last three years, and Finnish Minister for Economic Affairs Mauri Pekkarinen expects this shift in software development to be "far and away the biggest structural change that Finland has ever seen in the new technology sector," that could result in thousands being laid off. While this would be a bad thing for the Finnish economy in the near term, it would greatly reduce Nokia's operating expenses and ultimately cause a reorganization in the company's employment opportunities.
9. Windows Phone 7 development will accelerate
With the addition of the world's leading handset manufacturer as an exclusive hardware partner, Windows Phone 7 will be given greater exposure in markets where it has not yet taken root. Furthermore, the companies haven't yet established what sort of devices Nokia will be making, and there could be significant opportunities in language expansion and localization for WP7 developers using Visual Studio 2010, Expression 4, Silverlight and the XNA framework.
10. This is mutually beneficial for Nokia and Microsoft
My colleague Joe Wilcox believes that Microsoft was the main beneficiary of this deal, and that Nokia could be signing its own death warrant by signing up to license Windows, but both companies have tremendous resources behind them that are actually quite complementary. The main challenge for both will be in bringing a product to market with the necessary expedience.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Apple working on cheaper, carrier agnostic iPhones

Publié: février 11, 2011, 7:49pm CET par Ed Oswald

By Ed Oswald, Betanews

In what can be viewed as a acknowledgment of its weakening position in the smartphone market, Apple is working on lower cost and smaller versions of its iPhone. Sources told Bloomberg that the company is also working on technology that would allow the device to work across multiple networks.
One device would apparently be a smaller version of the current iPhone from those that have seen it, at about two-thirds the size of the iPhone 4, and without a home button. The device would be sold for about $200 without the need for a contract. It is not clear however whether the device would come unlocked making it capable to be used across any network.
Another version would be dual mode, meaning it would work on both GSM and CDMA networks. Such a device would especially be beneficial to those on the Verizon network: the carrier's use of CDMA limits the device's use outside of the US, where by and large the standard is GSM.
Also in the works is universal SIM technology, where the iPhone user would not need to change the SIM itself in order to switch from one GSM network to another. If true, that development may be an indication that Apple may be willing to loosen its tight controls on what networks its phones appear on.
Evidence on such an effort may be found in a patent application first publicized by Apple enthusiast site AppleInsider on Wednesday. The patent calls for a system within iTunes where carriers would essentially bid through iTunes to provide cellular service to iPhone users.
CEO Steve Jobs appears to be fully involved in the project, even though he has been on medical leave since last month. Original plans apparently had the device releasing mid-year -- likely around the time Apple has historically updated the iPhone -- but Bloomberg seemed to indicate that those plans had either been delayed or scrapped.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Microsoft is the plague: Nokia stock drops 14% as 1,000 employees walk out

Publié: février 11, 2011, 7:28pm CET par Joe Wilcox
By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

First Tunisia. Then Egypt. Now Nokia. The twittersphere is again afire with buzz about massive protests. They're not political this time, but the outcome could be just the same. Can Nokia CEO Stephen Elop survive the revolution?
Nokia employees aren't responding well to today's sweeping deal with Microsoft. They're mad, as they should be. A few hours ago I called the agreement, which swaps Symbian for Windows Phone as Nokia's primary mobile platform, a "silent takeover...If I were a Nokia employee or investor, I'd stage a revolt." Apparently employees and shareholders are doing just that.
Investors punished Nokia shares with a 14-percent decline. Meanwhile, about 1,000 employees walked off the job, using flexible work-hour plans to do so, apparently protesting Nokia's deal with Microsoft. There is plenty of Twitter buzz, unfortunately too much of it in Finnish (Hey, my second language was Latin, and I'm rusty at that). But the reaction I can read is absolutely chilling.
Nebil: "#Nokia RIP. #Microsoft will leach you out of your existence. Nokia bends to pick up the soap."
Turcu Ciprian: "I think #nokia did a big mistake. No offense #microsoft but Android would of been a better way to go if they wanted a slice of the cheese."
Rajinder Yadav: "#Nokia just added fuel to their man on a burning raft. They just killed the QT developer ecosystem today for MS and .NET"
Justine Devine: "I should start writing a case study now about how #Nokia put themselves out of business."
Tom Reestman: "I wonder if Elop thinks his 'relationship' w/ #Microsoft will keep him from getting screwed by them down the road?"
Dale Wilson: "Did #Microsoft send #Elop to #Nokia to stage a coup? Hmmm ... What do you think?"
Nick Robinson: "Has any other company ever scrapped the OS with the largest market share in favour of one with the smallest?"
Steven Frank: "A 20 year regime comes to an end after populist revolt."
Helge Reikeras: "#Nokia you are officially dead to me now."
Purnateja: "Why Did Stephen Elop decide to Elope with Microsoft?"
The questions now to ask:
- Has Elop gone too far to survive the wrath of Nokia employees, investors, customers, developers and partners?
- Does he still own Microsoft stock (I haven't had time to yet check), which could raise reasonable questions about conflict of interest?
- Was this all along a plan between Elop and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to gut Nokia's platform in exchange for Windows Phone?
Remember, Elop only went to Nokia in September, surprisingly giving up his cozy position as president of Microsoft's Business division. He's not only new chief executive but a foreigner -- a Canadian, giving an American company huge influence of one of Europe's oldest industrialists. These are all marks against Elop when tallying up the benefits (none that I see) from today's Microsoft deal.
Elop may have thought he was starting a revolution, by making so much dramatic change to Nokia. In the end, he may be the victim of a counter-revolution staged by Nokia employees, investors and loyalists. At the least there should be some official investigation into the ties that bind Nokia and Microsoft: A major Microsoft executive becoming Nokia CEO and then cutting a deal six months later that is hugely beneficial to his old company. Something stinks in Finland and also Washington state.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Nokia swaps one 'burning platform' for another in Microsoft's silent takeover of the Finnish phone maker

Publié: février 11, 2011, 4:51pm CET par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Well, folks, we now know why Stephen Elop so suddenly left Microsoft last year and without even giving two week's notice. He was Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's emissary to Nokia. Today, the world's largest handset maker announced a sweeping deal with the world's largest software developer. Nokia is essentially going to swap out Symbian for Windows Phone as its primary mobile operating system.
The deal is a merger without the red tape, without billions paid out or without the whiles and wherefores of nasty, debilitating integration. Microsoft won't own Nokia, technically, but it's a takeover in principle. A former top Microsoft executive now runs Nokia and he just cut a sweet deal that's all white meat and gravy for Microsoft and gristle and bone for Nokia. If I were a Nokia employee or investor, I'd stage a revolt. Microsoft will be the worst thing to happen to Nokia in years. It's Happy Friday for Microsoft and Nokia rivals.
In an internal memo leaked earlier in the week, Elop wrote to Nokia employees about the company's burning platform: "We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven't been delivering innovation fast enough. We're not collaborating internally. Nokia, our platform is burning." Elop's solution is to swap out one burning platform for another? Someone should hold him accountable before it's too late.
Ballmer and Elop laid out the broad terms of the deal in an "open letter." According to the document, "Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy"; "Nokia will help drive and define the future of Windows Phone"; Nokia and Microsoft will closely collaborate on development, joint marketing initiatives"; "Bing will power Nokia's search services across Nokia devices and services"; "Nokia Maps will be a core part of Microsoft's mapping services"; "Microsoft development tools will be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones"; "Nokia's content and application store will be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace."
By just about every measure, the major benefits go to Microsoft in this silent takeover of Nokia. Meanwhile, the Finnish phone maker assumes most of the risk. On February 4 I asked: "Does a Microsoft-Nokia mashup make sense, or are its supporters just nuts?" Elop is the crazy one here; Ballmer just cut one hell of a shrewd deal.
The low points for Nokia:
1. Nokia will lose customers and market share. It's the inevitable consequence of such a massive operating system switch. Timing is terrible. Android OS sales increased 888.8 percent year over year in 2010, according to Gartner, propelling the Symbian rival to second place in global smartphone operating system share. Meanwhile, Apple is building iOS into a formidable mobile platform across three devices, including hot-selling iPad. A mobile OS transition of this magnitude will take years. Nokia doesn't have the time.
There's no question Nokia is declining, but that's from a position of still remarkable strength. As measured by device sales, Nokia's market share dropped from 36.4 percent to 28.9 percent year over year in 2010, according to Gartner. Similarly, Nokia's Symbian lost smartphone OS share, falling to 37.6 percent from 46.9 percent. Nokia sold 461 million handsets. Nokia and its licensees sold 111.6 million Symbian smartphones. Symbian is ailing but by no means even close to death, so why euthanize it? Windows Mobile/Phone is all weakness. Microsoft's mobile operating(s) clung to fifth place, with its market share falling to 4.2 percent smartphone OS share from 8.7 percent. It's simply not sensible to swap a market leading platform for an also-ran.
2. Nokia has too much invested in Symbian, particularly from its developer channel, that would be lost in an operating system transition. Today's loyal developers, particularly those thinking of switching major resources to Android or iOS, would have even fewer reasons not to jump platforms. Make no mistake, a large part of Symbian's appeal is open-source availability. Windows Phone isn't open source and likely will never be. How will Nokia developers react to being compelled to use Microsoft development tools? Now there's a question for you to answer in comments.
3. Nokia is giving up control of its destiny to Microsoft. Right now, Nokia controls the hardware, software and services stack, like Apple and Research in Motion. It's an enviable position of strength. Nokia should invest in remodeling the house it owns rather than giving control to a landlord -- some Microsoft critics might say slumlord -- and renting back the space. Elop is wrong to call Nokia's platform burning without trying to save it.
The high points for Microsoft:
1. The world's largest handset maker, which sold 461 million of the 1.6 billion cell phones in 2010, will distribute Microsoft's ailing mobile operating system. No matter how much Nokia declines during the transition, Windows Phone will pick up desperately needed market share.
2. Microsoft essentially becomes a handset manufacturer without the risk or expense, despite how many hundreds of millions might be paid to Nokia as part of the arrangement. Microsoft's biggest problem developing a mobile operating system is licensing it and in doing so losing control over hardware integration. The Nokia deal gives Microsoft the closest thing to Apple's vertical integrated hardware, software and services approach without making a phone. By letting Nokia take some responsibility for Windows Phone development, Microsoft can assure that at least one handset manufacturer's devices will tightly integrate with its software and services.
3. The future of search is mobile, and Bing will rapidly gain share Microsoft couldn't get organically without the Nokia deal. Given Google's global reach, Nokia should have cut a different deal. The upside belongs to Bing.
4. Ovi services aren't that good, but Nokia still has millions of customers using them. Surely Nokia's giving up its applications store to Windows Phone Market place is but a first step. In any services integration, Microsoft will pick up these customers during the transition -- those that don't flee somewhere else. Given the cloud's importance in the post-PC era, Nokia is ceding control of strategically valuable services to Microsoft. Again, it's just one more way in which the deal is like a silent takeover of Nokia.
5. Microsoft's mapping service is good, but Google's and Nokia's are better. Nokia already had broad reach and appeal of its mapping service, such that it will gain little from Microsoft.
The upsides for Microsoft are obvious. Nokia's benefits are harder to measure, which is why I assert the deal is a silent takeover without the expense or responsibility by Microsoft. In their letter, Ballmer and Elop boasted: "There are other mobile ecosystems. We will disrupt them. There will be challenges. We will overcome them. Success requires speed. We will be swift. Together, we see the opportunity, and we have the will, the resources and the drive to succeed."
Microsoft's and Nokia's responses to the changing mobile market, where Android and iOS became important operating systems in less than three years, is appalling. It's simply outrageous to assert they will cause disruption and act with speed now, given the enormous challenges a major platform switch will entail. Two burning platforms don't make one that's right.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Five things that excite me about developing for Internet Explorer 9

Publié: février 11, 2011, 2:49am CET

By Robert Johnson

I gave up on Internet Explorer way back at IE7. As a user interface developer, the CSS and JavaScript workarounds created way too much unnecessary work. So I turned my attention to the next best thing at that time, which was FireFox. It was the most standards-compliant browser on the market at that time. Its plugins (e.g., FireBug) made my work easier and much more enjoyable. So as I spent more time with it as a developer guess what happened? I also became a regular user.
The IE9 Release Candidate, which Microsoft posted today, may change all that again. IE9 is the first Microsoft browser in years that has me excited about UI development. Finally, I can see a future void of the many CSS hacks necessary to get a page to play nice with IE. There are five features in this release candidate I am excited about as a UI developer.
Five Things
1. CSS 3. CSS 3 comes with loads of new features that will help make web-based apps feel and function more like desktop based apps. From a pure visual perspective, rounded corners comes to IE for the first time. At this time Safari 5 and IE9 are the only ones to implement it without special browser markup.
2. HTML5. With IE9 more developers can jump on the HTML5 bandwagon. Including myself. Support for canvas and video will go a long way towards making online video a ton easier to develop.
3. Hardware Acceleration. This one is huge. Not only does it bring with it significant speed increase, but it also results in fantastic looking graphics and text. No UI designer wants to design a great-looking site only to have it look terrible to most of the people who will see it. I'm a huge fan of TypeKit, and IE9 does an awesome job of displaying type from this service. In my opinion type looks better on the Mac, but most people don't view the web on Macs. Most are on Windows PCs. And when it comes to IE9 vs. Chrome or Firefox, my sites (and hopefully yours too) look way better in IE9. Not only that, they load faster.
4. Jump Lists. I am particularly excited about this one. With IE9 sites can be saved onto the toolbar and launched just like any other application. With Windows 7 any icon on the toolbar has a jump list. IE9 allows developers to customize the jump list. For instance, if you run a sports site, you can store different sports categories in the list so that when a user clicks the NCAA Football link it will take them to that page. This feature is definitely blurring the line between desktop and web-based applications.
5. Developer! Developer! Developer Tools! I never really cared much for the developer tools in IE. In IE9 improvements were made and I think these tools are a lot easier to use now than before. While they won't convert me from FireBug, I have to give Microsoft some credit here: the new Networking and CSS tab enhancements are welcome. The CSS tab organizes CSS files a lot nicer and will make debugging CSS issues a lot easier.
The new network profiler is another welcomed addition to the developer tools. The summary view will tell you the original URL requested, all resources requested by HTML and CSS, and all requests made through JavaScript. I no longer have to download add-ons when I need to quickly find out what's slowing my UI down.
Final Thoughts
I love the new IE9 and it will become one of the browsers I use on a regular basis. I definitely will start taking Internet Explorer more seriously from a developer perspective. The tools are nice. The hardware acceleration and CSS 3/HTML 5 compliancy were a long time coming.
But there is one thing that really concerns me as a developer: updates. Microsoft usually has taken a long time to develop new versions of Internet Explorer, while Chrome is updated on a more frequent cadence sometimes adding new support for CSS 3 or HTML 5. I hope that Microsoft does not intend to wait another 2 years to update IE. If it does, we will probably find ourselves back where we started: where every browser supports modern standards, except for IE.
Robert Johnson is a user interface developer specializing in the user experience (UX) of .NET-based web applications. He has been working in some form of web development and graphic design for 14 years. He loves technology in general, particularly that of Apple, Google and Microsoft. He is a Betanews reader.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Sparrow takes flight for Gmail

Publié: février 11, 2011, 12:42am CET

By Nick Peers

Sparrow, the minimalist mail application for Mac, has left beta and been officially released through the Mac App Store for an introductory price of $9.99. It offers a streamlined user interface through a window that pops up from the program's Dock icon, cutting out the clutter and delivering an unfussed experience to collecting, reading and sending mail.
Version 1.0 currently only supports Gmail accounts -- support for other mobile providers, including Mobile Me, AOL and Yahoo!, along with general IMAP accounts is promised for version 1.1, which is about to undergo private beta testing.
Sparrow boasts several features: support for multiple accounts, labels, threads and inline attachments, plus features a quick reply box that appears in the same window as the original message, a good example of Sparrow's intentions to keep things as simple as possible.
A free version of the main app, Sparrow Lite, is currently awaiting approval from the Mac App Store. Sparrow Lite will be ad-supported, and work with only one account.
Sparrow 1.0 requires Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) or later, and the beta will need to be manually uninstalled before downloading and installing version 1.0 from the Mac AppStore -- full details are on the program's FAQ.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
BBC iPlayer comes to iPad, but for UK only

Publié: février 11, 2011, 12:35am CET

By Mark Wilson

After much anticipation, the BBC has released a dedicated app for accessing its iPlayer service. A dedicated app has been promised for some time and the iPad version closely resembles the desktop version of the software. Using the BBC iPlayer app it is possible to access live television and radio broadcasts as well as programs from the last seven days.
Video quality is very high, and it is perhaps for this reason that BBC iPlayer can only be used over a WiFi connection. The lack of 3G support may also be down to the fact that there is not an iPhone version of the app available, but bearing in mind the file sizes involved, the connectivity issue may be a good thing for anyone using a limit data tariff.
Travelers will undoubtedly be disappointed to discover that the app cannot be used to download programs for offline viewing -- it would have been a nice touch if a couple of episodes could be scheduled for download overnight ready for viewing on the train to work.
Navigating iPlayer with the iPad's touch screen is an absolute breeze. Swipes can be used to move between screens, and drag and drop can be used to add programs you would like to be able to access easily to a list of favorites. The program schedule is beautifully laid out making it easy to select what you would like to watch or listen to, and the overall experience is a vast improvement on the web interface.
International users will be disappointed to discover that the app is only available in the UK app store, and even UK residents will find that they will not be able to access iPlayer content when they are out of the country. A subscription based US version of the app is planned for the summer, so it remains to be seen how this will affect international program availability.
Find out more and download a copy of the app by paying a visit to the BBC iPlayer review page.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010