Posts Tagged “Apples”
Firm offers free covers to owners and new buyers after signal problems sparked demands for recall
Apple’s iPhone 4 conference – as it happened
Apple is offering a free rubber “bumper” to owners of the iPhone 4 to head off criticism over problems with its signal reception but dismissed suggestions that the device should be recalled.
Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, said the problems had affected only “a small batch” of phones, and that it was due to an “inherent problem” with smartphones. “We’re not perfect,” he said at a press conference at Apple’s HQ in Cupertino, California. “We haven’t figured out a way around the laws of physics yet.”
Nevertheless Apple will offer the “bumpers”, which cover the sides of the phone, around the exposed metal antenna which receives the mobile signal. When users have held the phones by the bottom and left sides it has led to a loss of signal. People who have already bought a case are entitled to a free cash refund.
Jobs headed off the suggestion that Apple would have to recall the phone, following a media storm which had seen some compare the problems to those faced by Toyota, whose cars suffered problems with the accelerators and brakes. However the iPhone has not met any of the usual criteria for a product recall, such as spontaneously combusting or causing harm through heat or emission.
Jobs revealed that Apple has sold 3m of the iPhone 4 since its launch on 24 June. That indicates that the rate of sales has slowed dramatically, after 1.7m were sold in the first three days. But he insisted customer satisfaction was higher than with previous versions: the return rate was just 1.7%, he said, compared to 6% for the previous model, the iPhone 3GS released last summer.
The company said it cannot make enough bumpers to satisfy demand, but will keep the offer of the free case open until September.
Jobs admitted that there had been complaints about the phone losing signal when held by the left and bottom sides – but said that they were natural for any phone. He acknowledged they were not perfect but insisted that every phone manufacturer had problems with antenna design and interaction with the body’s tendency to absorb the phone signal. Apple’s stock rebounded as Jobs began speaking at 6pm UK time last night.
Apple’s share price fell by 4% overnight on Tuesday, knocking $9.9bn (£6.5bn) off the company’s $230bn value, as speculation grew that the phone might have to be recalled.
Since the iPhone 4′s launch, there have been many complaints about the way that the signal appears to drop off dramatically when it is held with a hand wrapped around its left and bottom sides (a problem dubbed the “iPhone Death Grip”).
Apple this week said that it had made a “simple and surprising” error in the software that displayed the strength of the signal, and on Thursday night issued a software update which changes how many bars are displayed when the signal becomes weaker.
The iPhone problems now feature in dozens of jokes. Earlier this week Kevin Turner, the chief operating officer of Microsoft, spoke at a conference about its Windows Phone 7 software.
“One of the things that I want to make sure that you know today,” he said, “is that you’re going to be able to use the Windows Phone 7 and not have to worry about how you’re holding it to make a call.”
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(Source The Guardian)
Tags: 10, 3, 3gs, all, apple, apple iphone, Apples, compare, compared, free, iphone, iphone 3gs, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, new, phone, phones, released, sim, sol, storm, three, uk, update
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It’s crunch day for Apple and iPhone 4 – what can we expect? Stay with us for coverage throughout the day
11.45am: BBC News: users are reporting new issues with 3GS devices.
As the iOS 4.0.1 update has fixed the methods of displaying signal strength in some iPhone 4 devices, it appears that a past update is causing older models to drop calls mysteriously:
“At the same time some owners of the iPhone 3GS are reporting that an earlier update to the handset’s operating system made their phone far more likely to drop calls. The dropped calls occur when the phone suddenly reboots during a conversation”.
The report doesn’t make clear which software update caused this problem or whether it affects 3G or 4 devices. Plugging one hole as another appears? Have you updated? Let us know below…
11.30am: The clamour for a bigger software update/’iDuct’ tape/anything just cranked up a notch: US Democratic senator Charles E. Schumer has written an open letter to Apple chief Steve Jobs, saying:
“I write to express concern regarding the reception problem with the Apple iPhone 4. While I commend Apple’s innovative approach to mobile technology and appreciate its service to millions of iPhone users nationwide, I believe it is incumbent upon Apple to address this flaw in a transparent manner.
“[...] The solutions offered to date by Apple for dealing with the so-called ‘death grip’ malfunction—such as holding the device differently, or buying a cover for it—seem to be insufficient. These proposed solutions would unfairly place the burden on consumers for resolving a problem they were not aware of when they purchased their phones.
“I also encourage Apple to keep its promise to provide free software updates so that bars displayed accurately reflect signal strength; I further urge Apple to issue a written explanation of the formula it uses to calculate bar strength, so that consumers can once again trust the product that they have invested in.”
Who’s your UK political tip for jumping in? Tom Watson MP? Peter Mandelson?
11.20am: So we had a smart pre-emptive move from Apple late last night with the quiet release of the iOS4.0.1 software upgrade. But did it do the trick for you?
For some, it appears to have solved the fundamental signalling problem:
But for others, the problem remains:
10.48am: It must have been quite the week at Apple’s Cupertino, California base. iPhone 4 woes have continued, the technology company set to explain all at today’s crunch press conference.
The much-maligned device has suffered fundamental problems with its mobile reception – growing uncertainty surrounding a potential recall leading to a dip in Apple’s share price and prompting more speculation over the future of the device.
While experts look for a recall of devices, customers clamour for a simple fix. We expect to see one or the other at today’s impromptu press conference. Seeking to gain the initiative, Apple last night released iOS 4.0.1 – a simple fix we’ve all being waiting for? All this and more remains to be seen.
Stay with us for comprehensive coverage throughout the day ahead of the embattled technology company’s 6pm summit. Got news? Tip us off.
Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)
Tags: 10, 3, 3gs, all, apple, apple iphone, Apples, bbc, consumer, deal, free, iphone, iphone 3gs, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, new, phone, phones, released, sam, service, sim, sol, uk, update
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Apples iOS4 update has received a mixed reaction from V3.co.uk readers, with 3G iPhone owners reporting that it has made their phones sluggish.
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(Source Yahoo UK News)
Tags: 3, apple, Apples, iphone, new, phone, phones, uk, update
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Owners of Apple’s latest phone are resorting to a bit of duct tape or a dab of nail polish to solve its reception problems
Want to know the must-have item for owners of the new iPhone 4? A bit of duct tape – or a dab of nail polish.
The reason: despite Steve Jobs’s describing the positioning of the antennae which pick up the mobile signal on the outside of the phone, rather than the inside, as “brilliant engineering”, a number of users have discovered that if it is held from the bottom, the signal strength drops off dramatically – because their skin changes the electrical properties of the antennae.
Now, Jobs has informally – and Apple formally – acknowledged the issue: in email replies to owners of the new phones complaining about the problem, Jobs gave a simple response. “Don’t hold it that way,” he told one.
Apple’s slightly longer statement notes that: “Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance with certain places being worse than others … this is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.”
Some users have found tape or nail polish on the corner is a solution.
With the iPhone 4 having been a sellout in many stores – and Vodafone emailing customers whom it promised supplies to tell them that it cannot satisfy them – the problems are an embarrassment for Apple, which had to overcome early problems with wireless reception on its tablet-style computer, the iPad, when that was launched in May.
Dozens of people have posted videos on YouTube showing how the signal reception for 3G voice and data networks falls off when it is held so that the hand touches the antenna parts on the bottom of the phone. Companies selling silicone casing for the iPhone 4 report that they have already been busier, as word of the problem has spread, than they were for last year’s release of the iPhone 3GS.
Professor Joe McGeehan, head of the Centre for Communications Research at the University of Bristol, and an expert in mobile antenna technology, said: “The hand does have a de-tuning effect on the antenna of any mobile phone: it changes the frequency that it responds to due to capacitative effects. How much it affects it depends on the materials surrounding it. If previous iPhones didn’t have this problem, then you have to ask: what’s changed, and might that be causing it?”
Antenna expert Spencer Webb said all mobile phones house the antenna in the bottom of the phone, to minimise the radio output near the head so that the phone will pass safety testing by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). “The iPhone 4 has two symmetrical slots in the stainless frame,” Webb wrote. “If you short these slots, or cover them with your hand, the antenna performance will suffer. There is no way around this, it’s a design compromise that is forced by the requirements of the FCC, AT&T, Apple’s marketing department and Apple’s industrial designers, to name a few.” He said he had upgraded to the new iPhone, despite the concerns. “I voted with my dollars,” he said. “Sometimes an antenna that’s not great, but good enough, is good enough.”
Apple offers a solution: “bumpers” which fits around the edge of the phone. But at £29, they are too pricey for many to consider – and have not pleased people who think their phone should work correctly out of the box.
Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)
Tags: 10, 3, 3gs, all, apple, Apples, email, gadget, iphone, iphone 3gs, latest, marketing, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, networks, new, phone, phones, sim, sol, test, Touch, uk, vodafone
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British graphics chip designer
Imagination
Technologies , which designs chips used in Apples iPhone, has more than
doubled its profits year on year, as smartphone sales continue to soar.
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(Source Yahoo UK News)
Tags: apple, Apples, iphone, new, phone, uk
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Apples much anticipated iPhone 4 has hit the shops today and V3.co.uk
was at the Regent Street store this morning
covering the launch .
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(Source Yahoo UK News)
Tags: 3, apple, Apples, iphone, new, phone, uk
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Major problems with both AT&T and Apples online commerce operations have
been showing up as people rush to register for the new iPhone.
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(Source Yahoo UK News)
Tags: 10, 12, 3, apple, Apples, compare, comparemobiles.com, iphone, line, mobile, Mobile News, mobiles, new, phone, sol, uk
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The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has
announced it is set to investigate allegations made by Taiwanese handset manufacturer HTC
that Apples iPhone technology infringes some of its patents.
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(Source Yahoo UK News)
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Apple’s ’4G’ device is out this month. Will Steve Jobs also cut the price of the current model and challenge Nokia head-on?
Steve Jobs will appear before the Apple faithful tomorrow to reveal the latest version of the Californian technology group’s mobile phone. Nicknamed the iPhone “4G” – on the basis that the last one was the 3GS, with the “S” standing for speed – it will be the summer’s must-have gadget, hitting the UK this month. But it is also seen as being in the vanguard of an all-out assault on the mobile market.
In the three years since it launched its first handset, Apple has grabbed the headlines and, more importantly, snatched a lucrative share of the more mature mobile phone markets of the US and Europe, where consumers are willing to pay upwards of £30 a month to get an iPhone. Now, speculation is rising that the company is approaching a so-called “iPod moment” in mobiles: the point at which it will decide that it can capture a much larger slice of the market by producing more than one device.
The success of the App Store, which has seen iPhone users download billions of applications, coupled with the pressure to have a wide market to attract advertisers to its embryonic iAd platform, is pushing Apple towards diversifying, just as it did with the iPod six years ago when it introduced the iPod mini. There is also increasing competition from Google’s Android platform. After two and a half years, handset manufacturers are finally producing compelling Android phones – such as the HTC Desire – and more are slated for release this year, including the mass-market HTC Wildfire.
But rather than unveil a new, cheaper version of the iPhone, Apple is expected to position the iPhone 4G at the top of the smartphone market and reorganise the existing range. The company is likely to halt production of the iPhone 3G – which cannot cope with Apple’s new multi-tasking software – and scrap both existing versions of the iPhone 3GS, which have 16GB and 32GB of memory. It will replace them with a new 8GB version of the 3GS, which is expected to be aimed at the wider market.
The iPhone 4G – according to mobile industry insiders who have seen one and confirmed widespread web leaks – will be available in two versions: 32GB and 64GB. These will put “clear blue water” between it and the mass-market 3GS, as one industry executive puts it. The 4G is slightly smaller and slimmer than the current 3GS. It has an improved 5-megapixel camera with flash and uses micro-sim cards, as seen in the iPad. It also has a glass back, which greatly assists phone reception. In the UK, it is expected to be sold by the same mobile phone networks that have the current iPhone: O2, Orange and Vodafone. It is unclear whether Tesco Mobile will have the 4G when it is launched in the last week of this month.
The parallels between Apple’s current position in the mobile phone market and the place it held in the digital music market when it introduced the iPod mini are revealing. The first iPod appeared in late 2001, but it was not until 2003 that Apple launched the iTunes store. One million tracks were sold in the first five days and 70m in the first year. That showed Apple there was a real mass market for digital music and was a spur for the creation of the first variant of the iPod line, the iPod mini, the following year.
At the time, Apple was lodged firmly in the high end of the market for digital music players. The iPod was the benchmark by which all others were measured and Apple had a share of about 30%. The iPod mini – replaced at the end of 2005 by the Nano – was designed to grab a large part of the next third down. In similar fashion, the iPhone has become the handset by which other mobiles are measured, and in markets including the UK it has made Apple the third-largest mobile phone manufacturer after Nokia and Samsung. It is now a question of how much of the rest of the market – chock full of me-too touchscreen devices from the likes of Nokia, LG and Samsung – Apple wants.
“I would argue that they may already have reached the tipping point,” Ben Wood at CCS Insight – a long-time follower of the mobile market – says. “The iPhone has become a ubiquitous product in the markets where its pricing is acceptable.”
He believes that a real driver behind Apple’s growth will be the iAd platform, which Jobs announced this year alongside the new version of the iPhone software – which is also in the iPad. The new mobile advertising platform is designed to allow iPhone app developers to create in-app advertising. Currently, anyone who clicks on an advert in a downloadable app is bounced out of it and on to the advertiser’s webpage. As a result, many users are put off clicking on adverts. In contrast, iAd will allow full-screen video and interactive advertising content to be served within an application. Crucially, Apple will sell and serve the adverts, and developers will receive 60% of their iAd revenue.
“With iAd, which could be as significant to Apple as the iPod franchise itself, Apple has a tremendous opportunity. It will provide a further chance to lock in their leading position in application development,” Wood says. “If iAd becomes the kind of phenomenon that Apple appears to be able to create, and becomes as big as it could, then potentially Apple could really disrupt the market by subsidising the iPhone from their iAd revenues.”
But whether iAd means that Apple needs to go all the way into the low end of the market is doubtful.
“IPhone users are a segment of the population that has affinity with technology and disposable income, and that is a marketeer’s dream already,” Wood says.
And Carolina Milanesi, research vice-president at rival analysts Gartner, is not convinced that this is the right time for Apple to go mass market, citing price constraints on the iPhone’s most important feature – its large touchscreen.
“On the iPod touch and the iPhone, the screen is very important,” she says. “Music is easier [to do in a mass-market device] because it is just [data] storage, and with the price of storage coming down you can experiment with design. But when you have applications running on the device, how much dumber can your device become before it is useless? And that is where they are going to struggle. What else do you cut?”
Apple could cut its own profits, but it has shown little desire to do that in the past: the switch from the 3G to the 3GS actually reduced the manufacturing cost of the phone, analysts reckon.
“Yes, of course, they can expand their addressable market so much quicker, but do they want that?” says Milanesi. “Just as Jobs says Apple does not want to be the Dell of the PC market, [so] Apple does not want to be the Nokia of the mobile market.” How true that is will be revealed tomorrow.
Focus on Apple’s factory
While Apple fans will drool over the new iPhone this week, tragic events in China have thrown a spotlight on the human cost of the west’s obsession with shiny toys. A spate of suicides at the massive Chinese plant run by Taiwanese contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn has called into question working conditions at one of Apple’s largest suppliers.
The Californian company has dispatched a team of investigators to discover why 10 people have killed themselves so far this year. Management at the Shenzhen facility, which stretches across three square kilometers and employs more than 250,000 people, are trying to solve the problem by hiring counsellors, playing soothing music on production lines, increasing wages and asking new recruits to sign a ‘”no-suicide” contract. They are also taking more direct action, installing netting around outdoor stairwells of the dormitory buildings, where workers sleep eight to a room.
Speaking last week, Steve Jobs said Apple was “diligent” when it came to understanding the working conditions in the supply chain, auditing its direct suppliers as well as tertiary suppliers.
“We are over there trying to understand what is happening and more importantly trying to understand how we can help because it is a difficult situation,” he told the D8 conference organised by All Things Digital. He said many young workers came from poor rural areas and were away from home for the first time.
“They are probably less prepared to leave home than your typical High School student going to college in this country. I think there are some real issues there,” he said.
But he stressed: “Foxconn is not a sweatshop. They have got restaurants and movie theatres and hospitals and swimming pools. For a factory, it is a pretty nice factory.”
Some of Foxconn’s workers disagree, complaining the monotonous workload causes depression. “I do the same thing every day,” Xiao Qi, a college graduate who works at Foxconn in product development told Bloomberg Businessweek. “I have no future.”
Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)
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Devices running Google’s operating system were more popular in the US market during the first quarter than Apple’s iPhone OS
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(Source ZDNet UK)
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The two kinds of Apple iPad look relatively the identical and both include Wi-Fi, but the 3G version of the device has a few other physical differences
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(Source ZDNet UK)
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Photo by CDXNetwork on Flickr. Some rights reserved
Is this the next generation iPhone? Mischievous gadget blog Gizmodo knew the frenzy that would follow the publication of these photos, but the fun is now officially over. Gizmodo says it has now received a letter from Apple‘s senior vice president and general counsel Bruce Sewell:
“It has come to our attention that Gizmodo is currently in possession of a device that belongs to Apple. This letter constitutes a formal request that you return the device to Apple. Please let us know where to pick up the unit.”
Gizmodo says the iPhone 4G/iPhone HD – take your pick – was left in a German beer garden (we like those details) called Gourmet Haus Staudt in Redwood. Speculate what you will about this: how convenient this kind of intense interest is for Apple, whether this is a fake, the various ways in which infamously secretive Apple might retaliate against the hapless prototype phone-loser Gray Powell – or, as the well-connected John Gruber says, that Gizmodo paid $5,000 for the phone which was stolen from Apple.
“It is my understanding that Apple considers this unit stolen, not lost. And as for the ‘someone(s)’ who ‘found’ it, I believe it is disingenuous for Gizmodo to play coy, as though they don’t know who the someones are.”
As Charles asked, is Gizmodo guilty of handling stolen goods?
Whether this is the next iPhone due for release is not clear – it may be just one in a series of prototypes. It has a slightly smaller screen, fractionally thinner and 3G lighter, with a front-facing camera and larger battery. Gizmodo had also said it was in case that disguised it as one of the current iPhones, and that they had established it was running the latest OS before someone at Apple remotely triggered the kill switch, wiping all data from the device.
iPhone loser Gray Powell. Photo by Project Cambio on Flickr. Some rights reserved
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(Source The Guardian)
Tags: 10, 12, 3, all, apple, Apples, blog, compare, comparemobiles.com, gadget, HD, iphone, latest, line, mobile, Mobile News, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, new, phone, phones, sol, test, twitter, uk
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Nokia is looking to rival
Apples iPad with its own tablet
computer, which could be in stores later this year.
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(Source Yahoo UK News)
Tags: 10, 12, 3, apple, Apples, compare, comparemobiles.com, mobile, Mobile News, mobiles, new, nokia, sol, uk
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Apple has traditionally previewed its latest iPhone operating software in the spring, followed by a new generation handset in the summer, and there’s no reason to believe this year will be any different.
Software for the iPhone 4.0 will be revealed on Thursday, and will update the estimated 40m iPhones, 20m iPod Touch and, in all likelihood, the 300,000 iPads running the iPhone operating system. (Note: Thursday’s announcement is just that – an announcement. The new OS will probably reach the masses in around three months’ time.)
Photograph: Gonzalo Baeza Hernández/Flickr/Some rights reserved
Likely improvements include support for higher resolution screens, a front-facing camera, muilti-tasking between apps and better voice-to-text features.
• Multitasking is certainly the most in-demand feature. Users can currently email while listening to music, but the inability to use multiple apps at once – despite the implications for battery time – is a frequent gripe. That becomes even more important for iPad users, who will expect improved functionality for their more expensive apps and their altogether more expensive device.
• Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber, who has a reputation for predicting such things, also mentioned the new double resultion display of 960 x 640 pixels for the iPhone and a second camera on the phone front for apps like video chat.
• AppleInsider expects a global inbox that integrates mail accounts, plus ‘speed links’ to favourite contacts that can be added to the home screen as an icon.
• Kevin Tofel on GigaOM as well as some kind of cloud-based music service, though that might just be wishful thinking:
“if Apple doesn’t offer iTunes streaming over the web, others like Amazon could easily jump in the game. Consumers don’t mind carrying their music around, but storing content in the cloud offers nearly limitless capacity to hold media. And if Apple decides this isn’t a feature for the iPhone OS, I’ll just keep doing what I do today – store and stream my music with a cloud storage service like SugarSync or another provider.”
• A better voice-to-text solution might also improve the options for voice-guided GPS navigation, but improvements to the native Maps app are likely following Apple’s acquisition of the Placebase company and recruitment of a dedicated engineer last year, according to PC World.
• And other probably-won’t-be-solved problems include the lack of email attachments, contact groups and rotation lock that is a feature on the iPad.
Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)
Tags: 10, 12, 3, all, apple, Apples, blog, compare, comparemobiles.com, consumer, email, global, iphone, latest, mobile, Mobile News, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, months, new, phone, phones, review, service, sol, test, three, Touch, uk, update, world
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When Apple decided to sue Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC, it was hard to see it as anything other than a broadside at Google. After all, HTC makes Nexus One handset, and Steve Jobs has previously told staff that he’s angry because “We did not enter the search business… they entered the phone business”.
The ever-growing conflict between the two is something I mentioned on Monday, and plenty of people have weighed in on the subject, including former Sun Microsystems boss Jonathan Schwartz, who said that any company launching a software patent lawsuit was basically undertaking an “act of desperation”.
But most of the action so far has been from Apple’s side – the accusations about its rivals (including Nokia, which has in turn accused the iPhone maker of “legal alchemy”); the offended and aggrieved statements by Jobs and so on.
So where’s Google in this fight? Is it just staying quiet? Step forward Tim Bray, the Canadian technologist best known for his work on XML. Bray – who has written eloquently on software patents before and who left Sun himself last month – announced over the weekend that he was joining Google’s Android team.
Oh yeah, then he immediately poured fuel onto the fire with an extremely strong broadside about why he dislikes Apple’s approach:
The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It’s a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord’s pleasure and fear his anger.
I hate it.
I hate it even though the iPhone hardware and software are great, because freedom’s not just another word for anything, nor is it an optional ingredient.
Strong words, and proof that Googlers are prepared to fire back from time to time. It will be interesting to see how long Bray is allowed to speak his mind like this (staff commenting, even obliquely, on lawsuits is something most corporate lawyers dislike intensely) but it’s refreshing to see somebody on either side speaking openly and on the record.
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(Source The Guardian)
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Apple says it will not reveal UK pricing for iPad until its launch at the end of March
Apple has surprised would-be buyers of its new iPad touchscreen computer, saying it will not announce UK prices before it launches at the end of March.
Although it announced US prices for all six versions of the touchscreen “tablet” device with and without 3G connectivity at the launch on Wednesday night by Apple’s chief executive Steve Jobs, the UK office said today that there will be no UK prices offered until the launch, expected in 60 days’ time – or 90 days for the 3G versions.
However, the MacWorld magazine website takes an “educated guess” at UK pricing for the iPad, which it predicts will range from £388 to £591 for the Wi-Fi model, and £490 to £693 for the Wi-FI and 3G model.
The iPad is a 9.7in tablet computer with a virtual keyboard which can surf the web, do email, display ebooks and play video. US prices start at $499 for a basic version with Wi-Fi wireless networking but no 3G connectivity, rising to $829 for a 3G version with 64 gigabytes of storage. However iPad users in the US will have to pay separately for 3G data plans being sold separately by Apple’s exclusive mobile partner there, AT&T, which already supplies the iPhone there.
Mobile phone companies in the UK – O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone – are looking to strike similar deals in Europe ahead of a launch later in the year. The Guardian understands from multiple source that no choice has been made.
Apple initially sold the iPhone through exclusive partners in the US, UK, France and Germany, but for the iPad the British mobile phone networks are not expecting Apple to offer exclusivity. None was willing to comment on the iPad.
Andrew Harrison, UK chief executive of the Carphone Warehouse, Europe’s largest independent mobile phone retailer, commented: “To me, the really interesting thing is what we are seeing is devices designed with how the consumer uses the internet very much in mind, rather than just a computer that was made for business use trying to fit the consumer.”
Bloggers and commentators had mixed reactions to the device. It cannot run Adobe’s Flash software, used by many advertisers and games companies online to create eye-catching motion on web pages, which some see as essential to web browsing. Many women were dismayed by the name: the San Francisco Examiner pointed out that “for North American women the word ‘pad’ means but one thing, a sanitary napkin”. But Nick Carr, author of The Big Switch, about the move towards cloud computing, described the launch as “the day the PC died”, saying that Apple “wants to deliver the killer device for the cloud era, a machine that will define computing’s new age in the way that the Windows PC defined the old age.”
Without a price ahead of the launch it may be difficult for retailers to judge the public’s interest – and so whether the device will sell in large or small numbers. Amazon’s Kindle, which includes mobile networking in the price, only launched recently in the UK, and Amazon has never disclosed sales numbers, though it is reckoned to have sold only about 500,000 to the end of last year.
The decision to keep the UK price under wraps is unusual for Apple, which usually announces UK pricing simultaneously with any launch, and could either indicate concern about exchange rate fluctuations, or a desire to keep people intrigued about the device, or that non-US networks are seeking to sell it with some sort of subsidy.
Already several UK mobile phone companies subsidise the cost of laptops to persuade customers to sign up for long-term mobile broadband contracts. Anyone signing up to a two-year mobile broadband deal with T-Mobile at £40 a month, for instance, gets a free Sony Vaio laptop worth £499.
However, Apple has forced AT&T to give up persuading customers to sign long-term contracts in order to subsidise the iPad; instead, it will effectively be available on what in Europe would be seen as a 30-day rolling Sim-only contract such as those offered by O2 and Vodafone.
“It does not look as though it has the traditional subsidy model,” said Harrison. “If you put Wi-Fi and 3G in it, it is actually more expensive not less expensive.”
In a note relating AT&T’s financial prospects following the news, Jonathan Schildkraut, analyst at Jefferies & Co investment bank said the tariffs are “in line with the current data add-on options available with voice packages, and well below the roughly $60 plans currently offered by wireless carriers for a laptop card. The prepaid plan can be activated directly from the iPad and, because there is no contract, can be canceled at anytime.”
Meanwhile anyone who already has a wireless broadband “dongle” under a long-term contract and is thinking about installing its SIM card into an iPad will be disappointed. The iPad is the first mass-market mobile device to use micro-Sim cards, which are smaller than the current range of Sim cards and were designed for small consumer gadgets such as Birmingham-based Lok8u’s range of wireless-enabled wrist watches.
The iPad is also likely to prove a major headache for makers of similar devices, especially Taiwan’s Asus which recently announced plans for its own tablet, and Nokia which last year unveiled a “booklet” computer with built-in 3G. There are also understood to be several tablet computers running Google’s Android software in the works, with France’s Archos rumoured to be planning to release one in March.
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(Source The Guardian)
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With Apple having neatly stolen some of the thunder with the carefully-leaked-to-the-Wall-Street-Journal story (we’ll explain why later) on Monday about the upcoming “iTablet” (suggest a better name, please), more details seem to be dribbling out about the device Apple is expected to launch on Wednesday 27 January.
First, Scott Moritz at TheStreet has a story saying that the …device won’t be powered by an Intel processor. Shock! Horror? Well, no, because as Jack Schofield pointed out, nor are the iPod or iPod Touch or iPhone: they all have ARM processors inside.
Except that Moritz, quoting Ashok Kumar, an analyst with Northeast Securities, says it will be powered by a PA Semi chip. Who? PA Semi is the company that Apple bought two years ago – which we wrote about in August 2008: the PA Semi team has ARM experience and Apple has an ARM compatibility licence that would let it create ARM-alike chips but with its own power consumption and other tweaks. So it could be that the device will show off the benefits of the PA Semi acquisition.
Next: Apple has acquired Quattro Wireless, a mobile advertising specialist:
“We have built our business by enabling advertisers to reach the right consumers across the mobile web and in applications. We remain focused on delivering more engaging, relevant and useful ads to mobile devices, and improving the measurement and execution of digital campaigns. Together with Apple, we look forward to developing exciting new opportunities in the future that will benefit our customers. “
Make of that what you will.
Throwaway link: John Brownlee at Cult of Mac reporting someone saying they overheard someone who works for Apple saying the device has a “steep learning curve”. Well, maybe a 3D interface would fit the bill?
Finally, John Martellaro, a former Apple insider, explains about how Apple does leaks.
He explains:
“Often Apple has a need to let information out, unofficially. The company has been doing that for years, and it helps preserve Apple’s consistent, official reputation for never talking about unreleased products. I know, because when I was a Senior Marketing Manager at Apple, I was instructed to do some controlled leaks.
“The way it works is that a senior exec will come in and say, ‘We need to release this specific information. John, do you have a trusted friend at a major outlet? If so, call him/her and have a conversation. Idly mention this information and suggest that if it were published, that would be nice. No e-mails!’
“The communication is always done in person or on the phone. Never via e-mail. That’s so that if there’s ever any dispute about what transpired, there’s no paper trail to contradict either party’s version of the story. Both sides can maintain plausible deniability and simply claim a misunderstanding. That protects Apple and the publication.
“In the case of yesterday’s story, Walt Mossberg was bypassed so that Mr. Mossberg would remain above the fray, above reproach. Also, two journalists at the WSJ were involved. That way, each one could point the finger at the other and claim, ‘I thought he told me to run with this story! Sorry.’”
It’s been pointed out that the last time one of the journalists in the Monday leak story wrote about Apple, it was with the surprisingly accurate – yet totally without named sources – story about Steve Jobs having had a liver transplant. Which was later, of course, completely confirmed as correct.
And why might Apple have wanted to leak those sort-of details about the iTablet? Martellaro suggests:
* “to light a fire under a recalcitrant partner”
* “to float the idea of the US$1,000 price point and gauge reaction”
* “to panic/confuse a potential competitor about whom Apple had some knowledge”
* “to whet analyst and observer expectations to make sure the right kind and number of people show up at the (presumed) January 26 event. Apple hates empty seats and demands SRO at these events.”
I don’t know what SRO is in the last one. But on point three, note that Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer was being rumoured to announce, or at least suggest, a tablet/slate with HP in his CES opening speech tonight. Consider that spiked, Steve.
Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)
Tags: 10, 12, 3, all, apple, Apples, blog, compare, comparemobiles.com, consumer, iphone, latest, marketing, mobile, Mobile News, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, new, phone, phones, released, sim, sol, test, three, Touch, uk
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A rise in reseller phone leasing scams is giving the legitimate telecoms
channel a bad name among end users and leasing firms.
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(Source Yahoo UK News)
Tags: 12, 3, apple, Apples, compare, comparemobiles.com, mobile, Mobile News, mobiles, new, phone, sol, uk
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Shall we start a betting pool on how long it takes Apple to pull the first iPhone app featuring nudity?
Want to see a topless babe? There’s an app for that.
For £1.19, the Hottest Girls iPhone application promises you “2200+ images of topless, sexy babes and nude models”.
With the amount of money that the mobile phone industry makes on porn, this wouldn’t be a story except Apple, which can say yay or nay to any app on the iPhone, has been criticised for staying well on the prudish side of the family-friendly line. Apple got a lot of bad press for initially rejecting the Eucalyptus e-book reader just because one of 20,000 books on offer was the Indian erotic classic the Kama Sutra.
Mobile carriers in the North America have come under pressure from religious groups to keep porn off of mobile phones, but in the rest of the world, mobile porn is a booming business. Juniper Research estimates that the global mobile porn market will reach $3.5bn in 2010.
Of course, not everyone thinks that Apple has had a change of heart and will quickly pull the app after this flood of publicity. Some people have suggested that developer Allen Leung has tried to pull a fast one on the iPhone purity police. Until recently, the application only featured suggestive pictures and women in bikinis and lingerie, but Leung is now touting it as the first application that features nudity.
A slightly less cynical explanation is that Apple might be less squeamish about adult content on the iPhone as the newest version of the software allows for age rating, forcing you to click a pop-up confirming that you’re over 17.
Even if it does get taken down, blogger Dr Macinstein highlighted the hypocrisy of getting upset some naked pictures on the iPhone:
Of course, along with nudity comes a “stiff” 17+ rating, so all you innocent young teens will have to get your porn the old fashioned way. Free, from millions of sites all over the web.
UPDATE: By the time I got home last night, the app was already unavailable. It didn’t take Apple long to take it down.
Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)
Tags: 10, 12, 3, all, apple, Apples, blog, compare, comparemobiles.com, free, gadget, global, iphone, line, mobile, Mobile News, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, new, phone, phones, test, uk, update, world
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 Mobile application marketplace users could pass 100 million in five years, says In-Stat
Users of Apple’s App Store and other online application marketplaces could pass the 100 million mark in five years time, creating a host of new marketing opportunities along the way, according to new research from market intelligence firm In-Stat.
The report, The App Store Is Born: Smartphones Enable New Marketing and Advertising Opportunities Worldwide predicts that mobile advertisers will have a new platform through which to tout their wares.
Known as “application marketing”, the new category will provide exciting new opportunities for marketers and advertisers, although In-Stat said that currently not all the right factors are in place.
“The Apple iPhone caused dramatic changes in the mobile market not only with its hardware but also with ‘real web’ browsing and its application store. Those two factors have changed the way people user their phones and opened several new opportunities for marketers,” said the report.
“The unique capabilities of smartphones along with their new usage models represent a rapidly growing market for mobile advertising and marketing.”
Apple’s App Store blazed the trail for online marketplaces by recording over 800 million downloads in the first few months alone.
Since then, Google has launched its own Android Market for applications built on the Android platform, Research in Motion has a BlackBerry Application StoreFront on the way and Nokia has announced the Ovi Store.
Even Microsoft has got in on the act, launching its own Windows Marketplace for Mobile a few weeks ago.
Source Vnunet
Tags: 10, 3, all, android, App Store, apple, apple iphone, Apples, Blackberry, compare, compare mobile deals, compare mobile prices, compare mobiles, comparemobiles.com, drive, google, growth, iphone, line, marketing, mobile, Mobile News, mobiles, months, new, nokia, phone, phones, world
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