iPhone 5 Could Have Big Future As Camera

Apple created an ideal electronic solution with the 2007 release of the iPhone. Is it possible, however, that for Apple the product’s greatest value is in the smart phone’s camera?  A report from Barclays PLC studies the power of the company’s most iconic device in the imaging market, and the effects that might have on pricing.


The theory is that the more devices the iPhone 5 can replace, the higher the utility of the device to consumers is, and the higher price they will pay. The iPhone 5 currently works as a phone, and for most customers as an mp3 player. It also serves to delay some of the time spent on personal computers for certain segments of the market.

Apple has seen its share plummet in recent days after a poorly received earnings report. The company deserves another look according to the report from Barclays PLC , which deals with more than just the digital camera part of iPhone 5 appeal.

A second benefit of the all-in-one model is that when consumers seek to update one function of their device, i.e. their camera, they have to replace the entire product, at full cost. The market model is a great one for Apple , but the iPhone 5 has yet to replace cameras.


For a certain segment of the market, the iPhone 5 has managed to replace point-and-shoot digital cameras, but it hasn’t made enough headway into the market to be considered a stalwart force in the segment. A Barclays report studies usage patterns on the social networking site Flickr, which is owned by Yahoo! Inc. .

The study finds that the iPhone 5 is being increasingly used as a digital camera, and is taking market share from traditional point and shoots. The iPhone 4s is the most valuable camera on Flickr currently, with more than 5200 daily users as of January 28th, the iPhone 4 is in second place with a shade over 4000 average daily users.

The iPhone 5 meanwhile, maintain more than 2300 average users, a good number for a device which is less than 6 months old. The iPhone 5 trounces usage by Samsung users. The Galaxy S II and S III have 676 and 620 users respectively. The usage of the iPhone 5 on photo sharing services like Flickr means more than cannibalization of point and shoots, it also means higher data usage.

A device, like the iPhone 5, is more valuable to wireless carriers if it causes them to use more wireless data, making up for the subsidies the carriers have to pay to put the smart phones on the market. The massive advantage of the iPhone 5 over the models offered by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) means that carriers may be more willing to continue offering subsidies to Apple, even if they choose to limit them to other carriers.

According to the Barclays PLC  the iPhone, and the iPhone 5, are becoming the digital camera for the younger market. That, along with the enhanced data usage from iPhone 5 users, means that Apple Inc. has an advantage over its competitors, and still has room to grow, despite the current impressions of the markets.

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Black-Eyed BlackBerry

Here's what I think of the new BlackBerry RIM.It's a phone.

Nobody is going to camp out in front of a store, like some rock-band groupie, to buy it.

Nobody is going to win a happy-hour debate over which phone is better: the BlackBerry Z10, the Apple iPhone 5, the Galaxy S III by Samsung, the Lumia 920 by Nokia, or even the Nexus 4, which runs Google's  Android operating system.

They are all cool. They all have apps and features most people will never use.

Smartphone technology has swiftly reached the point where most future improvements will be incremental. This means that from now on launches of new smartphones will be about as exciting as the latest operating system from Microsoft  . This means the primary reason to buy a new smartphone is because you just dropped yours in the toilet.

I have long hoped someone would come out with a smartphone with a built-in Taser. If some long-unemployed thug tries to rob you because he needs to eat, too, you reach for your cellphone, because you can still afford to sign a wireless contract, and zap him. This is my answer to gun control. Unfortunately, it's a bit flawed since most consumers would probably pick up the phone when it rang and tase themselves in the head.

Research In Motion—perhaps in one of its last dying gasps—unveiled two new smartphones last week, the Z10 and the Q10, which run on its BB10 operating system. For the most part, tech-savvy reviewers say these are pretty cool phones. For the most part, market-savvy analysts say they are too late to market.

"Expect a muted consumer response due to [RIM's] damaged brand image," wrote analysts at Evercore Partners  .

RIM stock slid 12% on Wednesday, the day of its big launch, and continued to soften through the week.

The company's plans to change its name to BlackBerry drew a collective yawn. What's a BlackBerry, again? Apple had nearly driven the BlackBerry to extinction, so this was like renaming the company Betamax.

What really soured the market was the announcement that the new BlackBerrys would not be available in the U.S. until March. Typically, technology is obsolete the second you buy it off the shelf. March?

Unlike most analysts and market observers, though, I would like to applaud RIM for at least trying to stage a comeback. Lesser companies would have rolled over and died by now. Still, I think they would have had a better shot if their new products were available in the next few days following the Super Bowl.

SquareTrade, a cellphone protection-plan provider based in San Francisco, released a study last week showing that 23 million Americans have damaged cellphones or tablets while watching sports.

This is mostly due to fumbles, which break down like this: The standard drop from the hand, 33%; liquid drops, including toilets, sweat and water spills, 18%; beer drops, 13%; passion drops, or devices thrown in anger or excitement, 12%; bar drops, or devices falling from bars or tables, 8%.

Ravens fans are most at risk for a fumble. The study said they are 14% clumsier than 49ers fans. It said 27% of Ravens fans have had a cellphone accident in the past 12 months versus 23% for 49ers fans.

This is a huge market opportunity. BlackBerry just missed it.

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'Warm Bodies': A Heartfelt Zombie Love Story

Sure, the premise is creepy, but Nicholas Hoult brings real life to an undead role.

In the centuries since young Romeo and Juliet first discovered their stars were crossed, Shakespeare's tale of woe has been recounted beyond counting on stage and page, in ditties and ballads (You and me, babe, how about it?), and on screens both large and small. Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film (itself following in the footsteps of more than a dozen cinematic predecessors) upped the ante with a controversial bit of nudity; a 1996 variant, Tromeo and Juliet, went all in with a giant mutant penis. For the arithmetically inclined, there have been both a Romeo + Juliet and a Romeo x Juliet. (Given the plot, it's odd that no one has yet resorted to subtraction or division signs.) The Bard's story has been told by way of feuding pizzeria owners in Verona, New Jersey, and, across the river, feuding caterers in the Bronx. There have famously been Sharks and Jets, and, less famously, cold warriors, robots, seals, pornographers, and garden gnomes. A few years back, the Royal Shakespeare Company actually tweeted the tale under the all too apt title Such Tweet Sorrow. If there were one play in the English language you'd imagine was fully played out by now, this would be it—but no, here comes Julian Fellowes taking time off Downton to pen his own adaptation, due out later this year.


How to make it all fresh again? Here's a thought: Have Juliet and Romeo meet cute when she stabs him in the heart with a knife after he's just killed and eaten her boyfriend. Stick with me here: you see, this time out she's a human being and he's a zombie. Not a glamorous vampire, fangs glinting priapically. No, an honest to goodness animated corpse, complete with all the shambling and grunting and (occasional) brain-eating.
This is hardly the most promising premise for a romantic comedy, but damned if Warm Bodies—directed by Jonathan Levine and adapted from the novel by Isaac Marion—doesn't somehow bring it to life. Nicholas Hoult stars as "R," the remaining letters of his name having been lost in the psychic fog of zombiedom. He and his ashen masses of fellow undead (notable among them Rob Corddry's "M"—no relation to the spymaster) make their home at the airport, as if waiting for a flight delayed indefinitely.

Blonde, pinkly alive Julie (Teresa Palmer), meanwhile, lives in a high-walled urban fortress with the remaining human survivors of an undisclosed apocalypse. When she and a team venture outside the wall in search of medical supplies, they encounter R and his own posse, out looking for a bite—and, whoosh, tucked in there amid the automatic-weapon fire and arterial spray, Cupid's arrow strikes. Her human companions dead, Julie returns with R to the airport, where he has a jetliner all to himself, like some cadaverous Ron Burkle. He plays her some LPs, she teaches him to drive, and pump by tentative pump—oh, get your mind out of the gutter, it's PG-13—his heart slowly begins to beat again.

There are hurdles to overcome, of course: Julie's disapproving father (John Malkovich, phoning it in a bit), R's habit of nibbling leftover bits of her boyfriend's brain, the violent attentions of a more degenerate species of skeletal zombie, and so on. But despite all these—and with the aid of an inevitable balcony scene—R eventually wins Julie's love.


And why shouldn't he? Hoult, who was a chubby-cheeked cherub in About a Boy and a seductive seraph in A Single Man, sets a new bar for post-mortem adorability as R. Though his mind is nimble in (very witty) voiceover, out loud he can only express himself in a series of groans and grumbles—as touching a metaphor for love-struck adolescence as we may see at the movies this year. "Stop staring," his internal monologue warns him at one point. "You're acting weird again." Julie can see it too: "It must be hard, being stuck in there." (Speaking from experience: Yes, it was.)
Palmer is an eminently likable presence—a bit like a less-pouty Kristen Stewart, if such a thing can be imagined—and Corddry demonstrates that no one delivers deadpan better than the undead. Jonathan Levine (The Wackness, 50/50) continues his strong run, with direction that is deft, funny, and (given the subject matter) surprisingly tender. The soundtrack is a particular kick, making crafty use of songs ranging from "Sitting Here in Limbo" to "Missing You" to "Pretty Woman."

Is the premise of Warm Bodies a touch creepy? Yes it is, and it is probably safest not to subject the movie to much scrutiny, moral or physiological. But in contrast to the generic rom-com fluff we're typically offered in the run-up to Valentine's Day, this is a movie with a genuine heartbeat.

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