• Read more about Takeaways from Microsoft IPC’s Bitcoin Breakfast

By: Malena Lopez - Project Manager

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak at Microsoft's Innovation and Policy Center on Bitcoin and the potential for banking the unbanked with some awesome people - Brian Forde from MIT's Media Lab, Brian Hoffman from OpenBazaar, and Jerry Brito from coincenter. While I consider myself a Bitcoin novice, I have quickly noticed the equalizer this digital currency can be in the financial landscape. It's truly a breath of fresh air as long as we keep the conversation inclusive and diverse.

That said, Bitcoin and the Blockchain are changing the way we think about currency, digital assets, and identity. During the panel, all speakers touched on thought-provoking and telling points.

1. Bitcoin is freedom for currency.
In a place where regulation is second nature, freedom brings us home to the realization that we can take control of our currency with its decentralization and permission-less trade.

2. Bitcoin can bank the unbanked -- using mobile.
McKinsey estimates that worldwide “2.5 billion of the world’s adults don’t use formal banks.” Let’s compare that with mobile penetration worldwide. At the end of 2014, there were a “total of 3.6 billion unique mobile subscribers.” That’s over 50% for mobile Bitcoin potential.

3. Bitcoin has a future.
Think about the Internet - It eliminated the middle man to access and put out information. You no longer had to be a doctor to learn about heart disease; you could do it yourself. Today, we depend on this decentralized model. Bitcoin finds its future in this same way.

• Read more about Why Apple's New FaceTime Video Chat is Game-Changing

Apple, Inc., loves to be a game-changer, and the new Apple iPhone 4, announced yesterday, will be one both for some of the hardware aspects as well as for the video chatting feature, FaceTime. In fact, FaceTime might have even more of a social impact than people realize, given that it's intended to be an an open standard. This is a brilliant move by Apple. Why? Well first let's look at the current situation.

Current Usage Situation

When the 4th-generation iPhone becomes available in the first round of countries on Jun 24th (preorders online in those countries starting Jun 15th), FaceTime will work only over WiFi, between two 4th-gen iPhones, only. There are consumers who will get the iPhone 4 for that reason alone. That's a very limited usage scenario and not necessarily enough to win over sales of iPhone 4.

What's Coming

However, there are some other parameters to the usage equation that are not yet taken into account.

1. Cellular networks: Availability over 3G or higher cellular networks. FaceTime over 3G has already been promised by Apple. I honestly don't care about this given AT&T's change in data plan pricing. So unless Apple gives AT&T a stern talking to about the data plans, or gives other U.S. carriers the iPhone, I don't see this as a big deal.
2. Other phones: Usage over any other handset makers' smartphones that are capable of replicating a similar experience.
3. Other mobile devices: Usage over any other mobile device with a front-facing camera, such as an iPad of the future, say in early 2011.

Apple is great a creating market demand where it didn't even exist. Look at the iPod. Did we need iPods, given there were other mobile audio players? Of course we didn't. But they created what became a classic consumer electronics device, and the technology behind the iPod seems to have helped fuel the development on the iPhone/ iPod Touch and iPad mobile devices.

History of Video Calling

FaceTime is not hardware, of course, but video calling has been something that at least North Americans have been promised for decades, and which seems to have stayed in the realm of science fiction, at least for the masses. Until now. We really do need one calling protocol to make it work, with the least technical difficulties, and by being first, Apple has the advantage.

Okay, Apple's not first with video calling. A number of VoIP desktop applications -- e.g., Skype -- have had it for several years now. Also, video calling has been available for conferencing systems -- but such systems are costly and definitely not for the mass market. Apple's not even first with video on calling on smartphones, since a couple of devices were announced within the past few weeks. However, Apple will be perceived as first because of the open standard offering.

Mass Market Video Calling

I have no doubt that Apple can get most or all of the big players such as Microsoft and Google on board to support the FaceTime standard, and in doing so, they stand to further the company's brand. Even if they don't immediately convert non-Apple device FaceTime users to hardware purchasers. How could they get them to convert? By offering additional FaceTime features available only on the iPhone. By offering enterprise integration for FaceTime on the iPad (a future model, with a front-facing camera). By constantly reminding non-Apple app developers and users that 3rd-party apps get access to FaceTime features only with the Apple iPhone SDK.

However, Apple creates the market demand for FaceTime, I'm very certain they'll do it, and video calling will likely be integrated into iPhone OS apps very quickly. Imagine gaming, social network, healthcare, distance education, tech support, service calls and many other niches having next-generation mobile apps with video calling integrated. Even social interaction will be forever changed. (For example, imagine families spread across the globe who will now be able to see each other during those long periods when they cannot meet in person.)

If Apple can convince the right players to join in, FaceTime is going to have a huge impact on mobile application usage and on the way humans interact.

Want to discuss a mobile app with video calling features for your business or projects? Feel free to contact us to discuss your app or mobile campaign needs.

• Read more about Reviewing Apple's Increased Mobile Device Market Share

Since the launch of both the WiFi-only and 3G models of the iPad, Apple has sold about 2M units in less than 2 months, and they're sold out at many of their Apple retail stores - proving that there is a market for tablet devices and thus a need for more apps. But will these sales levels be sustained past the current hype? Retrevo did a Pulse Report study [via Mashable] of over 1,000 respondents about consumer attitudes towards tablet computers and e-readers and over 50% said they're not interested in making such a purchase. Of non-iPad owners surveyed, over half said that they don't need one.

Let's look at some other stats. At an average of 1M units/month, they can easily top 8M units this year, beating out estimates of 5-7M units for 2010. The overall market for web-enabled tablet computing devices is estimated to hit over $8B by 2015, despite Retrevo's study. Such contradictions often exist, and sometimes it's a matter of creating the need or at least the desire. Apple managed it with iPods -- I remember being part of a group of people that held out. I in fact never bought an iPod but both won a Shuffle and was given an iPod as a gift. The latter ceased to function after a year of heavy use; I'd fallen in love with it. Can Apple repeat their iPod success and make people fall in love with iPads, even when they don't need them? (I believe so.)

Apple is already leading Android with  mobile devices in general. According to AdMob (which Google just purchased), iPhone OS-based devices are leading Android OS-based devices in the U.S. by more than a 2 to 1 ratio. Worldwide, the ratio is 3.5 to 1 in favor of iPhone OS. (With market advantages like this, is it any wonder that Apple stock price predictions for 2010 -- made in Dec 2009 - Jan 2010 -- suggest a $250-300 range?)

Whether Apple is maintaining any lead in the tablet market is hard to say without actually figures, given that tablet computer have existed for a while. Where Apple is lagging is with iPad-specific apps compared to iPhone-specific apps. Developers had to work with only a software simulator for the first round of apps accepted by Apple for the Apr 3, 2010, launch of the iPad. That probably hindered development significantly, and my own observation is that many such iPad-specific apps crash on occasion.

So if Apple can reboot the tablet computer market and create a demand, there'll be room for loads more iPad-specific apps and maybe even 3rd-party peripheral devices. Whether or not that means the possibility of Windows-based tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 or Silverlight Web application plug-in for developing iPad/ iPhone apps remains to be seen. For now it seems it's not the case, even with suggestions for Apple to be more open.

• Read more about Mobomo Mobisphere Roundup -- May 29, 2010

The mobile tech rumor mill suggests that Apple might open up iPhone/ iPad development to tools on the Windows PC environment, and for that reason, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer will appear at Apple's WWDC keynote next week. But Microsoft's officially Twitter channel says it's not true. What might be true, on the other hand, is that Microsoft's Bing search engine could become the default one for the iPhone OS.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Justice Dept probe is looking at how Apple does business with non-music media businesses. Apple's market capitalization just passed Microsoft's this week, and a recent complaint from Adobe has already triggered an anti-competitive practices probe.

Probes take time and in the meantime, it's pretty clear that Apple will be announcing a new iPhone some time in June -- an iPhone that'll be leaps and bounds, technologically, ahead of the last generation, in order to support all the new features that appear in iPhone OS 4.x.

Digitimes Research has a Q&A with senior analyst Ming-Chi Kuo about some of the iPhone rumors, but the existence of a new phone is not a rumor. In fact, BGR says in two-line post that AT&T has already confirmed to their employees that there is a new iPhone in June.

Unfortunately for consumers, AT&T seems to be upping the cost of ownership. While the new phone itself is possible going to cost only $18 to upgrade to from an older iPhone, AT&T's ETF (early termination fee) for all smartphones has increased from $175 to $325.

BGR also says that AT&T is launching a new iPhone insurance plan that costs a ridiculous $13.99 and launches in June. That's nearly half the cost of the data plan. There's also a deductible fee to be paid, for some claims. Are they expecting an increase in thefts and planning to capitalize? Or are they losing exclusivity and trying to come up with new revenue streams?  Or maybe both? Considering that AT&T claims that 40% of iPhone sales are to business users, businesses might in fact approve the insurance rates and write them off against profits.

Oddly enough, this insurance is supposed to be available in the Apple App Store, but you have to sign up within 30 days of purchasing or upgrading to a new iPhone. In case you don't feel like doing the math, that's nearly $170/year in premiums.