Om Malik

Four 'Om Malik' stories March 2012 - February 2013

Apple settles in-app purchasing class action, agrees to pay $5 iTunes credit or cash refund

Jordan Kahn Feb 25 2013 - 4:01 pm PT

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Last time we checked in on the in-app purchase class-action lawsuit against Apple, courts refused Apple’s request to throw out the case brought on by parents arguing the iOS freemium model, i.e. in-app purchases, allowed children to easily rack up hundreds or thousands of dollars. Today, Law360 (via GigaOM) reported Apple has agreed to pay a settlement and will be contacting 23 million iTunes users that “made a Game Currency purchase in one or more Qualified Apps.”

According to the report, Apple will pay $5 in iTunes credit to those who claim in-app content was purchased by a minor without their permission. For purchases above $30, users will be able to request a full refund. However, credits will likely not get to users until early 2014 when the settlement meets regulatory approval:
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Apple SVP Phil Schiller on iPod Touch ambient light sensor omission: It is too thin

Jake Smith Oct 16 2012 - 10:00 am PT

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GigaOm found yesterday that the new fifth-generation iPod touch is without a light sensor, prohibiting the device from auto-setting the brightness. Raghid Harake, a curious customer turned concerned, emailed Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller (via iDownloadBlog) to find out why. Schiller, known for responding to emails, allegedly said the device is “too thin” at .24-inches. Just how thin:

Image via <a href="http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/apple-ipod-touch-5th/4505-6490_7-35453100.html" target="_blank">Cnet</a>

The thickest point on the fifth-generation iPod touch is 6.13mm, while the fourh-generation is 7.12mm at its thickest point.

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Apptrace launches in beta, company claims 400K iOS apps get no downloads

Jordan Kahn Jul 31 2012 - 6:58 am PT

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App analytics firm Adeven is launching its new Apptrace tool today that provides statistics on iOS apps including the number of countries an app is available in, its global ranking, overall ratings, and daily rankings for specific markets. Also, the ability to compare apps to one another is coming in a future update to the free tool. Speaking with GigaOm, the company shared some pretty interesting stats about the App Store—approximately 400,000 apps have no downloads or rankings:

“The reality is there are only a couple of thousand apps that really make some kind of downloads,” Christian Henschel, Adeven CEO, told me. “This is based on Apple’s closed system — it’s tough to discover those kinds of apps. You don’t have proper search, so the only way to discover new apps is through the top listing.”

“If you’re not on those lists, it’s not sure that you’re being discovered by anyone else. The top 25 tend to be the same companies who spend millions of dollars to get to the top of those lists. If you’re an independent, small app publisher, then it’s really tough to be discovered.”

CBS CEO Leslie Moonves again says he denied Steve Jobs access to TV programming for fear of disrupting revenue streams

Seth Weintraub Mar 11 2012 - 10:12 pm PT

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Way back in November, CBS Chief Executive Officer Les Moonves told investors on an earnings call:

..the media company turned down a partnership with Apple for a streaming deal on the Apple TV. Moonves says that the deal was turned down because of the ad-split revenue that Apple was trying to reach an agreement over.

Fast forward to this weekend when the Hollywood Reporter caught up to Moonves at a FUCLA conference:

CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said Saturday that he was approached about a year ago by Steve Jobs to provide content for Apple’s long-rumored television service but he declined to participate.

Moonves told a conference audience that he met with Jobs, the late Apple CEO, and heard a pitch for what was billed as a subscription content service, but ultimately he said he wasn’t interested in providing CBS shows or films to the venture.

“I told Steve, ‘You know more than me about 99 percent of things but I know more about the television business,’ ” Moonves said, citing his concerns about providing content to a service that could disrupt CBS’ existing revenue streams. Moonves said Jobs, in characteristic fashion, strongly disagreed with his assessment.

Yeah, that is not much new, but the point is that CBS still is not going to be partnering with Apple any time soon.

However, streaming is pretty much dead anyway except for live TV, news, weather, and sports. Everything else worth watching is downloadable or already in a Hulu/Netflix/Amazon Cloud.

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