TechCrunch
Apple's iPhone 5s And iPhone 5c Sell 9M Units Over Opening Weekend, Topping 5M For iPhone 5 Last Year
Apple has just issued a press release revealing it sold 9M iPhones during the launch weekend of its iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s. As is typical for the company with new hardware, it hasn’t broken out individual model sales, but other signals point to a stronger debut weekend for the higher-end iPhone 5s than for the 5c. Apple blew away its previous record for first weekend iPhone sales, which was 5 million for the iPhone 5 last year.
The iPhone 5s was reportedly sold out in retail locations quickly around the globe, and shipping times at online Apple Store websites also slipped quickly into vague October time frames. The 5c, however, remains in stock and ready to ship within 24 hours at most, if not all international Apple online stores. Analysts had predicted between 5 and 8 million launch weekend sales across both devices, with KGI’s Ming-Chi Kuo predicting a higher percentage going to the iPhone 5c. Stock constraints could mean that Kuo is still correct, despite the sell-out of the 5s models, but data from Localytics suggests otherwise.
If Apple stays true to its history, it probably won’t break out individual model sales of iPhone 5s and 5c, as it has never broken out iPad mini sales, for instance. Analysts and market researchers will be plugging away at retail and other sources to try to determine the split, however, so it’s possible we could eventually see some sort of consensus estimate emerge as a best possible guess.
Apple also announced that 200 million devices are now running iOS 7, the update it released for its mobile platform last week. That makes it the “fastest software upgrade in history,” which is in keeping with the early numbers we saw reported from developers and analytics firms.
Another factor to consider with respect to these device numbers is that Apple’s iPhone 5 launched in just 9 markets around the world, while the iPhone 5s and 5c debuted in 11 total, including China, where launch demand appeared strong. China accounted for two million sales of the iPhone 5 during its launch weekend last year alone, so that likely has added considerably to the total this time around for the 5s and 5c.
Visualead Raises $1.6M For QR Codes That (Kind Of) Blend In
QR codes (you know, those square images that can be scanned by your phone and point you to mobile websites) have never quite taken off with a mass audience, but some startups aren’t giving up the technology. For example, there’s Tel Aviv-based Visualead, which just raised $1.6 million in Series A funding.
The idea of QR codes is appealing because the codes promise to connect physical, printed objects (such as business cards, fliers, and posters) to the digital world. The problem? They’re also confusing and downright ugly — unless you like random square dots printed on a square grid.
Visualead tackles the problem by incorporating QR codes into existing images. In fact, it says it can “seamlessly blend” those codes with any image or design. This doesn’t make the QR code invisible, exactly, but it does make the code look less like a message from an inscrutable alien intelligence and more like a piece of promotional art. You can see one example in the image above, and others at the Visualead website.
The company first launched in January, offering a self-serve platform for small and medium businesses. It says the platform is now used by 200,000 SMBs, who create 30,000 campaigns every month.
“We like to measure ourselves by amounts of Visual QR Codes out there,” added founder and CEO Neo Alva by email. “Within the next 6 months we are going to reach creation of 1M Visual QR Codes a month.”
Visualead also licenses its technology to large brands and enterprises — Alva told me that even though the SMB side of the business has been growing more quickly, he sees the company’s biggest opportunity at the enterprise level.
The new round was led by Kaedan Capital and Entrée Capital. Visualead has now raised a total of $2.35 million.
Snaps Lets You Mashup And Share Branded Photos, Raises $2.3M From S2K, And Google And Vevo Execs
Instagram has yet to make a formal push into using its platform for paid advertising and marketing purposes (although its co-founder is certainly putting out some signals for what it might do when it goes there). But in the meantime, Snaps — a startup, platform and app based around a photo network for spreading viral brand messages by way of photo mash-ups — is building out a standalone business targeting this very area. Today, the New York-based company is announcing an angel investment of $2.25 million, with a notable group of investors backing it.
They include Steve Kantor of S2K (Kantor is possibly most recently known for heading up Cantor Fitzgerald’s ill-fated move into investment banking); Ben Barokas, the co-founder of Admeld (acquired by Google for $400 million) who is now GM of marketplace development for Google; and Jonathan Carson, Vevo’s chief revenue officer. Carson is now also Snaps’ chairman of the board, along with another new appointment, Andy Levitt as president.
Other illustrious investors in this round include Michael Kassan of MediaLink; Mike Katz (ex-Yahoo); Leo Hindery Jr. (ex-AT&T); Bill Lohse (ex-Ziff Davis Publishing); Digital Capital Advisors; Dolgen Ventures; and Lucas Point Ventures. Prior to today, Snaps raised $1.1 million in April 2011 under its previous name, GoldRun, from investors including Jeremy Zimmer of United Talent Agency and Ed Matthias of the Carlyle Group.
While Instagram has built out an informal — and almost accidental, if you hear co-founder Kevin Systrom describe it — marketing network on its social, mobile photo-sharing platform, Snaps has been using its service to do much of the same, except with the express purpose of getting brands to pay for the privilege.
“Brands have realized that ‘communicating with images’ is the primary activity of consumers when they use social networks,” Vivian Rosenthal, CEO and founder, tells me. Some of those paying customers include Kate Spade, Deloitte, Lifetime, Travel Channel, Wendy’s, Nestle and Showtime. These brands pay Snaps through an SaaS model, she says, charged on a monthly basis.
You can see one of the fruits of one of those campaigns in the image here, of a baby — presumably the charge of a Kate Spade fan — donning a pair of her shades. Yes, cute, but also a little iffy (hello, Honey Boo Boo), and overall almost certainly viral in its whole positioning.
“Through our content management system we track all of the content and provide clients with the data and analytics around the branded photos as well as the photos themselves,” she notes.
Right now, Snaps users can share posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and by email. Noticeably absent are other networks like Pinterest and Google+ (although the latter may see an integration with the addition of a Googler to the list of investors.)
“We are adding more channels with each product release and prioritizing them based on user demand,” Rosenthal says. “Facebook and Instagram are the most popular,” she adds. She declined to give out specifics on how big its audience is today, except to note that Snaps is “seeing 100%+ monthly growth in downloads and active users since launching [in 2011.]“
Snaps says that the investment today will be used for two main areas: ad tech (that is, it’s expanding the engineering team to meet a demand from brands and agencies to better measure the effects of the social media sharing that Snaps enables); and new services to create more interesting features for luring users into sharing more in general. (I wouldn’t be surprised to see things like video and specifically GIFs make their way in here, for example.) The prize is a tempting one: the projectsion are for some $7.3 billion in mobile ad revenues worldwide in 2013.
Yet, as with so many other services that piggy back on other social networks that will also be looking to ad-based models to generate revenue, it will be interesting to see how companies like Snaps will evolve when those ecosystem partners become competitors:
“While Snaps is the pioneer in providing brands with a platform to engage with consumers in the visual Web, we are excited for others, like Instagram, to get into the game and help us to create this market,” Rosenthal says diplomatically.
Indeed, although sites like Instagram already offer some room or viral marketing, a lot of that goes uncaptured, pointing to an opportunity for those who can pick it up and harness that more effectively. “There are hundreds of millions of images shared via mobile device each day, yet many photo-based platforms are struggling to realize revenue from these efforts. Snaps monetizes photos through a new type of engagement: real consumers creating authentic photo-based advertising that moves beyond the more passive Like, Comment or Heart,” said Carson in a statement.
This is what interests other investors, too. “As everyone is looking beyond the banner these days, Snaps is seeing very real traction with brands, entertainers, and sports teams,” noted Katz in a statement. “Driving genuine engagement as well as ROI on mobile is far from trivial and Snaps is one of the few companies I have seen that is really getting it right.”
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