Archive for September 22nd, 2011

Keeping to the Apple’s schedule, the company opens six more stores on this weekend. It starts with the Nanjing East store in China opening tomorrow (Friday, September 23) and then the IFC (Hong Kong), Hornsby (Australia), Centro Sicilia (Italy), New Haven (Connecticut) and Metrotownn (Canada) Apple Stores will open on Saturday. The Nanjing East store (shown above) is the third Apple in Shanghai. IFC store is the first store that locates in Hong Kong. ifoApple Store notes that this store features a unique design:

The rear wall of both levels are glass windows looking out towards the city. On the inside, the lower level has two wide stainless steel walls, with a visitor entrance in the middle. The walls include back-lit display cases promoting Apple’s products. The upper level has an all-glass front window visible from the mall hallway.

BGR claims that Apple will introduce only one new iPhone model, the so-called "iPhone 4S", at its October 4th media event. It sounds reasonable because we still have not seen any sights of a redesigned iPhone 5 coming through supply chain. More specifically, there is a complete lack of such new iPhone 5 parts, suggesting that Apple may be planning to launch only the iPhone 4S as its next-generation iPhone model.

“We expect the focus of the new iPhone will be iOS 5, a speedier A5 processor and a higher resolution 8 MP camera with a small possibility of a larger 4 inch screen. We believe the casing will be largely similar to the iPhone with some particular modifications to the antennae [sic]. We don’t expect a second, dramatically different iPhone to accompany this as we don’t think Apple needs to have 3 models in the market to address the high end, mid-tier and low end since the iPhone 4 (with memory lowered to 8 GB) will drop to $99 and effectively attack those markets.”

Reuters reports that eight French publishers, including sports daily L’Equipe and newspaper Le Figaro, teamed up to strengthen their bargaining power in negotiations with Apple over digital content distributions. The publishers are dissatisfies with Apple’s too high commission of 30% and tight control over magazines and newspapers on iPad.

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Apple will reportedly hold its iPhone 5 media event on October 4th.

While Apple could certainly change its plans anytime, sources said that the October 4 date has been selected by the company to showcase the iPhone 5. Sources added that the plan is now to make the new device available for purchase within a few weeks after the announcement.

Of course, new Apple’s CEO Tim Cook will play a prominent role while the event, although it will be a team presentation. Other executives such as Phil Schiller, Scott Forstall, and Eddy Cue will participate in the keynote. Everybody waits Steve Jobs appearance, but it is still unclear whether he  will appear in the event. During this media event Apple may also announce new iPod touch with minor changes.