Healthcare

HTML5 vs. Apple’s App Store, iPhone vs. Android (and other burning questions)

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster played 12 questions with Apple’s future and touched on a few key issues ranging from apps vs. HTML5, the enterprise plan and future smartphone competition.

We’re not going into all 12 questions—Munster is upbeat on Apple’s business; there are plenty of iPhone and iPad components and the campus extension is progressing well—but here are a few of the more notable items addressed.

What’s the impact on Apple’s iPhone launch on Verizon? Munster said that Apple’s move to Verizon will give Android significant competition. In other words, Munster argues that we’ll see what Android is made of. Munster said:

Currently, Android phones outsell iPhones in the US, but we believe when Verizon gets the iPhone that trend could be reversed. As an example, in countries where the iPhone is available on multiple carriers and competes with Android, we see the iPhone outselling Android. The greatest factor in the success of Android has been Verizon. Customers are loyal to their carrier, and once Verizon gets the iPhone, we believe Android’s success in the US will be tested.

My take: Munster is on target here. Android has benefited from all of Verizon’s marketing attention. As a result, Android and iPhone have walked on two different sides of the wireless street. When the iPhone hits Verizon there will be pent up demand.

Will HTML5 hurt the App Store? Munster said:

While HTML5 and other rich internet technologies will continue to improve, we do not expect web apps to approach the usability of native apps for several years. And by the time web apps are equal in function to native apps, this early stage of the smartphone wars in which the app catalog is essential, will be over. In other words, we do not see web apps as a threat to Apple’s competitive advantage in smartphones: its App Store.

My take: It’s far too early to declare the HTML5 vs. app fight. I’d argue that apps are the product of poor browsers and wireless bandwidth constraints. As 4G ramps and browsers improve, Web apps will look better.

Will Apple play the cloud game? Munster argued that consumers will want to access their content on any device without syncing. That’s a potential opportunity for Apple. “We expect that Apple will roll out some sort of cloud-bases content storage service, perhaps connected to its MobileMe service, by the end of 2011,” said Munster.

My take: This projection is a no brainer.

How enterprise focused is Apple? Apple is facing a massive tablet market—44.2 million tablets in calendar 2011 and 70.7 million in 2012—and business will tag along. Apple has positioned itself to “to fully go after the enterprise opportunity in the mobile space.” Munster said:

We expect the iPad, for example, to be widely deployed in the sales, hospitality, health care, banking, and manufacturing segments over the next several years. Moreover, we believe Apple is expanding its enterprise sales force to help generate and meet rising demand in the enterprise space.

My take: The iPad and iPhone are quickly becoming enterprise juggernauts. All Apple has to do is become a little more serious about it. The wild card is whether iPad and iPhone will pull the Mac into the enterprise.

Nielsen at Advertising Week: Fact Sheet and Video Presentations

For Advertising Week, The Nielsen Company provided a snapshot of ad spending in the U.S., including a comparison of ad dollars in 2009 vs. the first half of 2010. While some sectors like Automotive and Auto Insurance are up in 2010, the majority of ad categories are down relative to the same time period in 2009.

Ad Spending Overview

  • $117B was spent on all U.S. advertising in 2009. 57% of all ad spending in 2009 went into Television, making it the largest medium for advertisers. Print media earned approximately 28% of ad dollars, while Internet earned 7% of all ad dollars.
  • The top spending product category for national TV was Automotive with $3.4B spent in 2009. The most significant growth by any one category among the top 20 was mobile phones, with national TV spend growing almost 200% to $587M in 2009.
  • Ad dollars spent in primetime in national television account for about 50% of total TV ad dollars.
  • The 30-second commercial remains the television advertising standard in primetime, accounting for 54% of all commercials (2009). However, the number of 30-second commercials has decreased 5% in primetime, while the number of 15-second commercials has increased 6%.
  • For more, including ad effectiveness data, download Nielsen Advertising Fact Sheet.

Event Video

On Monday, Steve Hasker, President of Media Services, The Neislen Company, announced a “major step forward” in online advertising measurement, Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings.

Research: 500M Consumers Projected To Use Mobile Health Apps On Smartphones By 2015

Research2guidance, a mobile research firm specializing in mobile healthcare, recently published a comprehensive research report entitled “Global Mobile Health Market Report 2010-2015,” which covers three key market dimensions: the smartphone market, the current state of the mHealth smartphone applications market and the mHealth outlook for 2015.

According to the report, smartphone applications will be the key to “finally realizing mHealth benefits and making it a major sector within healthcare,” with the reasoning behind it being twofold — because of smartphone penetration, and because of the technology’s capabilities, which allow physicians and patients to receive healthcare services from anywhere.  As such, the research firm predicts that by 2015 there will be 500 million people using mobile health applications on their smartphones.

“Our findings indicate that the long-expected mobile revolution in healthcare is set to happen,” said Ralf-Gordon Jahns, head of research at research2guidance.  ”Both healthcare providers and consumers are embracing smartphones as a means to improving healthcare.”  Currently there are 17,000 mHealth applications in major app stores, with 74 percent of them adhering to the paid business model. With more and more traditional healthcare providers joining the mobile applications market, the business models will broaden to include healthcare services, sensor, advertising and drug sales revenues, the report says.

Not only are consumers taking advantage of smartphones to manage and improve their own health, a significant number (43 percent) of mHealth applications are primarily designed for healthcare professionals.  These include CME (Continued Medical Education), remote monitoring and healthcare management applications, among others.  ”With the growing sophistication level of mHealth applications, only 14 percent of the total market revenue in the next five years will come from application download revenue,” said Egle Mikalajunaite, senior research analyst. “Seventy-six percent of total mHealth application market revenue will come from related services and products such as sensors.”