Apple Tablets sighted (electronically anyways), geared for gaming & entertainment

In a Sunday evening post on their corporate blog, Flurry Inc. (a maker of analytical tools for mobile software developers) announced that they have identified approximately 50 devices matching the characteristics of the rumored Apple Tablet device. All 50ish devices were located on Apple’s Cupertino campus, and were observed to be testing various iPhone/iPod applications – predominantly in the gaming and entertainment categories.

Flurry provides mobile application developers with a software agent that can be embedded in any application. That agent then tracks anonymous performance and usage data for the application, which is then relayed back to the software developer. Developers can use this information to improve their apps. Apparently a number of popular iPhone applications utilize the Flurry agent, and through that connection Flurry was able to discern that these apps were running on Apple Tablet prototypes. The new devices run iPhone OS 3.20 which has not yet been released (current iPhones run 3.1.2). Apparently the frequency with which these devices appeared has increased dramatically in January, indicating that Apple may be ramping up testing in preparation for an impending release.

The devices were observed to be running a variety of iPhone software applications, mainly focusing on consumer-friendly gaming and entertainment titles. Flurry has provided a graph showing the tested applications by category. It remains to be seen whether the new Apple device utilizes the same user interface as the iPhone, or runs a new one optimized for a larger format screen.

Update:

I was curious as to whether or not these devices might just be new iPhones being tested as the original blog post was vague on details. The question was asked in a comment on Flurry’s blog, and here is their response:

This is a fair question. We feel confident that we are looking at the tablet device for two main reasons, that I can share with you. Also note that, as a company, we have experience tracking new Apple hardware devices in the past.

1) If this were an iPhone we were looking at, the hardware would tell us when we ask it (via the software). So we can rule out that this is an iPhone. Also, we already see verified iPhone devices testing OS 4.0 and these leave (Apple’s Cupertino, CA) campus, whereas this device does not. This makes sense given the secrecy around the new tablet device as the launch event nears.
2) The apps being tested match up to what the devices is supposed to feature (e.g., news, books, etc.). We cannot share further detail here due to Terms of Service agreements we have with customers that use our service, but feel that if you were able to see the data we see, at the level of granularity, it would be clear to you as well.

Of course the truth will be revealed on Wednesday, but we wouldn’t publish such a report without a high level of confidence.

Flurry is not interested in building a business on rumor, but rather authority, credibility and accuracy.

Thanks,

Peter Farago
VP Marketing
Flurry, Inc.

Posted @ Sunday, January 24, 2010 10:23 PM by Peter Farago