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Apple's iPhone Is Made Better With Google
Even when vying for industry dominance, sometimes a company’s competitors are also its best friends. This is definitely true of Apple and Google when it comes to the cloud. I took inventory of the apps on my iPhone and found no less than twenty apps from first- and third-party sources that tapped into various Google web-based services. By contrast, only Apple’s own various MobileMe apps plugged into its cloud offerings. Here’s a rundown of just how dependent Apple’s smartphone is on the services of its current biggest rival.

Google Services via Apps From Google

Seven of the apps I’ve installed to access Google’s cloud-based services come directly from Google itself. When Apple relaxed some of its App Store restrictions (and perhaps thanks to a little help from the FCC), Google brought Google Voice to iOS devices. More recently, Google introduced its official Latitude app, which also took the long way round to the App Store. Lets not forget Google’s new e-book challenger, Google Books, which debuted this month as well. Rounding out the list are Google Mobile, Google Authenticate, Google Earth and Panoramio, which adds up to a considerable direct investment in the iOS platform.

Built-In Google Services Integration

Let’s not forget that the iPhone (and iPad) supports Google right out of the box. Apple has integrated support for many Google cloud-based services. With Mail, Maps, YouTube, Calendar, Contacts and Notes, you can get up and running quickly using your Google credentials. While with Maps, YouTube and Mail, things are fairly straightforward, integrating Contacts, Calendars and Notes is a little more difficult, but the fact remains that support for Google services exists in all of these apps.

Google Services from Everybody Else

Even with all the integration provided by Google and Apple, there’s still plenty of room for third-party developers, too. For access to Google’s Reader service, many have found Reeder to be the best of breed across all iOS devices. If instant messaging is your thing, and you’re looking to use Google Talk, then there’s IM+ Pro and Beejive, among others. For integration with Google Docs, DocsToGo is about as good as it gets. There are even solutions to integrate with your Picasa photo library online (Web Albums), keep the world up to date by posting to your Blogger account (BlogPress), and remind yourself about what needs do be done with Google Tasks (GeoTaskLite).

Granted, Google has more than twenty cloud-based services available today, and has been active in the space for far longer than Apple. One can only hope that Google will continue its commitment to the iOS platform, and not make its services an exclusive platform advantage for Android. At the end of the day, it’s all about revenue, which for Google means search and ad-based revenue, so the company probably isn’t about to ignore what is arguably the most desired and top smartphone platform. But does that excuse Apple dragging its heels on providing competing, better-integrated services of its own available to all its iPhone customers (and not just MobileMe subscribers)? I’m not so sure.

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Apple's iPhone Gross Profit Double That of Motorola, RIM
Apple’s gross profits on the iPhone add up to more than double those of Motorola and RIM combined, according to a new report by stock market analysis firm Trefis. The report’s estimates put Apple’s total iPhone-based gross profit at $14.8 billion for 2010. RIM’s mobile phone gross profit across all its models of BlackBerry devices was $5.1 billion, and Motorola took in only $2.2 billion.

The estimates made by Trefis are based on the gross profit margins for the mobile phone divisions of each company. They don’t take into account research and development or promotional costs that went into developing the handsets sold by each company. It’s entirely possible that Apple spends more on iPhone R&D than the other two phone makers spend on their devices, but it’s unlikely the discrepancy would be considerable enough to make much difference to the final picture.

How does Apple manage to stay so far ahead of the competition in terms of profit margins? According to the report, it hinges on how much more Apple can charge for its products, compared to the competition. Trefis estimates the average price paid for an iPhone to be around $606, while Motorola handsets only command around $214 on average, and BlackBerry devices take in roughly $305 per unit.

While market share gets a lot of attention when it comes to the smartphone industry, Apple’s commanding lead in terms of gross profits is a much better indicator of success from an investment perspective. Apple’s growth over the past few years is impressive, but what’s even more impressive is that even as it reaches a broader audience, it’s still able to ask consumers to pay more for its products than they would for the competition.

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Infographic: The Apple App Store by the Numbers
iPhone and iPad app discovery website App of the Day spent some time analyzing App Store data and came up with some interesting findings, which they compiled in the infographic you see below. The average price of apps per category is particularly illuminating, revealing a considerable price discrepancy among different types of apps. Also, check out the unique distinction earned by the Facebook app at the bottom of the graphic.

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What iOS Apps Should Be in the Mac App Store?
Now that the Mac App Store has a definite release date not too far off, I started browsing through my large collection of iOS applications with one question on my mind: Which of these would also make great Mac apps? Some, of course, already have OS X equivalents, but there are many more that don’t. Here’s a short list of the ones I’d most like to see make the jump.

Instapaper

This is possibly a strange request, since Instapaper works pretty well as a browser-based application, but I’d still love to see it. The Instapaper and Reeder apps provide the best reading experiences on the iPhone and iPad, in my opinion, and Reeder for Mac already proved that kind of experience can translate successfully to the desktop. A similar Instapaper iOS app with a full-screen reading mode would completely satisfy my Mac reading needs.

Angry Birds

It may be ideally suited to a touchscreen interface, but I still think Angry Birds could work on the Mac. Especially now Apple’s Magic Trackpad allows all Macs to use touch-based input. It won’t be as satisfying as slinging those avian tools of destruction just by touching them, but it will likely still provide many hours of distraction.

Facebook

Considering the social network hasn’t even released an iPad app yet, this is probably asking for a lot, but I would love a native OS X Facebook client. The web is great, but I actually prefer using the iPhone app most of the time, because I find it less distracting and easier to navigate. The best part is that it strips out all the third-party applications, which is probably also the reason an OS X Facebook app will never happen.

WhatsApp/Kik/Viber

I like having a messenger system that replaces texting on the iPhone, and I’d love to see it be able to reach the desktop as well. Having either of these would help make other IM clients obsolete, and keep me truly connected everywhere without having to actually be signed in to a service (so long as they worked persistently in the background the way they do on the iPhone). In the same vein, an app like Viber could work well for providing a dedicated iPhone-to-Mac voice calling solution.

I could go on and on about other apps and games I’d enjoy using on the Mac, but my point is made: There’s huge crossover potential for successful iOS apps in the Mac App Store.

What iOS apps do you think would work best on OS X?

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