News from category ‘rumors’

We already reported that in the second quarter of 2011 Apple had passed Nokia as the world's largest smartphone vendor as measured by shipments. But Nokia still excelled Apple in sales to end user. Digitimes Research now projects that Apple will be a top smartphone vendor of 2011 with nearly 19% of the market at 86.4 million units.

Apple is expected to overtake Nokia as the top ranking vendor in terms of shipment volume in 2011, while Huawei Technologies will enjoy robust growth in shipments enabling the China-based company to close its gap with Sony Ericsson and Motorola.

Apple's smartphone shipments are projected to top 86.4 million units in 2011, up 82% from 47.5 million units in 2010. In contrast, Nokia's smartphone shipments in 2011 will decline to 74.4 million units from over 100 million in 2010, said Luke Lin, analyst for Digitimes Research.

Apple’s sales in China are up sixfold and reached $3.8 billion in second quarter revenues. Chinese market remains largely untapped and Apple could increase iPhone sales there by reaching agreements with additional Chinese carriers. However until now Apple hasn’t succeeded in reaching the agreement with the largest wireless operator China Mobile, and the sole Apple’s carrier in this country remains China Unicom. Moreover, according to DigiTimes, Apple’s iconic smartphone will compete with devices from both carriers:

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Engadget Chinese has confirmed that the first Apple’s retail store in Hong Kong will be open on September 24. Apple does not confirm the date, noting they "don't have further information to share." Construction of the store began in June, but now the two-story store front is covered and promised to be opened in the 4th quarter of 2011. Apple reportedly spent about $20 million on construction alone. Apple will employ more that 300 employees for that store that will serve approximately 40,000 customers each day. An average U.S. Apple store serves four times less flow of customers. This store will obviously thwart a grey market for Apple devices that are extremely popular in Hong Kong.

Several sources have claimed that GameStop will soon sell the full lineup of popular iOS devices such as iPods, iPads and iPhones at its stores. The company announced it to dealers at this week’s trade show in Las Vegas. Besides, this week GameStop began offering trade-ins of iOS device for in-store credits.

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Today Deutsche Telekom has begun offering first-served reservations for the iPhone 5 whenever it debuts. The company confirmed that the program is now in effect.

Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) will allow customers to reserve the next generation of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone as of today in anticipation of supply bottlenecks for the device, spokesman Alexander von Schmettow said by phone. The operator will hand out coupons to people who expressly request the successor model to the iPhone 4, without providing the name or release details of the device, he said.

Apple typically keeps its carrier partners in the dark about its release plans until it is ready to make a public release. So Deutsche Telecom seems to work on the ground of rumors rather than official information. Hints have been multiplying since last week that Apple could be close to unveiling a fifth-generation iPhone. Apple store employees have received their iOS 5 and iCloud training materia and internal Best Buy documents have pointed to a Sprint iPhone 5 launch in the first week of October.

We’ve heard that Apple has begun iOS 5 and iCloud training with retail store employees through a new section of the company’s recently released internal RetailMe application. Such fact might be an indication of a forthcoming release of the iPhone 5 as Apple typically introduces major iOS updates in the days surrounding new iPhone launches. Apple Store employees have begun receiving detailed information on Apple’s upcoming iCloud service and iOS 5. Apple originally said iCloud would be launching alongside iOS 5.  This iOS 5 and iCloud training news helps support rumors about  late September iPhone 5 pre-orders and an early October launch.

First evidences anticipating radical redesign of the iPhone 4 appeared in April. The co-called iPhone 4S/iPhone 5 was expected to adopt new larger form factor. Late in July a design document for the iPhone 5 was surfaced. According to this document, we assumed that the iPhone 5 design should have had dimensions of 4.33" x 2.36", suggesting a shorter but only slightly wider design. In comparison, the iPhone 4 dimensions are 4.5" x 2.31". Soon after appearing of that document, different third-party case manufacturers began producing cases for the rumored iPhone 5.

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Best Buy expects that the iPhone 5 will be available for pre-order during the first week of October. BGR points to an internal memo:

Thanks to a leaked document from a Best Buy source, we have discovered that Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores are anticipating taking preorders for the iPhone 5 starting in the first week of October. What’s a tad bit more interesting, however, is the mention (and further anticipation) that Sprint will be carrying the iPhone 5 at launch.

Of course, the dates may be changed. Noteworthy to say that the Wall Street Journal is also anticipating Sprint will be carrying the iPhone 5. Meanwhile, Best Buy is also expecting a new "Apple Fixture Installation" on Friday, October 21st.

To be clear, this isn’t a run-of-the-mill installation for the big box — our tipster tells us that the request that a manager be on-hand at 6AM is out of the ordinary (they usually show up at 7AM for inventory), and that a similar arrangement was scheduled for the iPhone 4 launch.

Recently 9to5Mac and AppleInsider have published new evidences showing Apple’s work on a "Find My Friends" service that was originally discovered in iOS 4.3. "Find My Friends" is a location-based friend-finding service like Loopt and Google Latitude. The strings (embedded above) seem to confirm those suspicions:

It includes references to standard social networking functions, like a list of people a user is "following," as well as "pending" and "accepted" follower requests. The code also mentions user statuses, updates, blocking of users and removing followers.

"Find My Friends" will allow you to find your friends who near you in real time by leveraging your mobile phone's GPS signal and using constant updates. This service will also allow you to "follow" or be followed by others.

Today San Francisco Police Department spokesman Lt. Troy Dangerfield has confirmed that four officers “assisted” two Apple investigators in searching the house and car of Sergio Calderòn, who was claimed to have found the prototype of the iPhone 5.

Dangerfield says that, after conferring with Apple and the captain of the Ingleside police station, he has learned that plainclothes SFPD officers went with private Apple detectives to the home of Sergio Calderón, a 22-year-old resident of Bernal Heights. According to Dangerfield, the officers “did not go inside the house,” but stood outside while the Apple employees scoured Calderón’s home, car, and computer files for any trace of the lost iPhone 5. The phone was not found, and Calderón denies that he ever possessed it.

Apple found out through GPS signal that the lost phone was in Calderón’s house. Calderón told that one of six men, who came in his house in order to find the iPhone 5 prototype, gave him his phone number. Later this man was identified as an investigator employed by Apple.

The visitors also allegedly threatened him and his family, asking questions about their immigration status. “One of the officers is like, ‘Is everyone in this house an American citizen?’ They said we were all going to get into trouble,” Calderón said.

The next iPhone that is codenamed "N94" has gained FCC ID "BCG-E2430A". This information was found in the latest iOS 5 Beta 7 release, from a file named "RegulatoryInfo-N94AP@2x~iphone.png" as related to the General > About > Regulatory section of the device’s Settings app.

This provides more proof that Apple is moving closer towards releasing much rumored iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S. The actual FCC filing is yet not found in the equipment authorization database, since Apple products typically don't show up in the data FCC's database until the same day the products are unveiled. This FCC IDs for iPhone 4 GSM and iPhone 4 CDMA are "BCG-E2380A" and "BCG-E2422A".

Whether this is an next-gen iPhone 5 or the much rumored iPhone 4S, we'll most likely have to wait till the fall to find out.

According to DigiTimes, Foxconn, a manufacturer of Apple gadgets, is expected to produce 20 million iPad 2s in the third quarter. This order more than doubles the 9.25 million iPads that Apple sold during the second quarter. DigiTimes reports:

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Apple is reportedly still exploring idea of integration of USB 3.0 into its future computers.  The USB 3.0 is up to 10 times faster than USB 2.

A lot of people have been disappointed over Apple's lack of interest in the USB 3.0 standard, but thanks to a little bird, VR-Zone has heard that the company is still looking at USB 3.0 as a potential feature to add on future products. As to when and how this might happen is not something we know, but from our understanding it'll happen before Intel integrates USB 3.0 support into its chipsets.

USB 3.0 was not built in the current line of Apple’s computers, due to lack of Intel support in their motherboards. Though, Intel will be provide support for both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt in its 2012 platform known as 'Ivy Bridge', Apple may implement USB 3.0 before Intel’s adoption. But Apple is unlikely to update its iMac, Mac mini and MacBook Pro until the first half of 2012.

An interesting icon had been found in the latest beta of Apple's Photo Stream. It obviously reveals the look of iPhone 5 and shows that the new device sports an extended screen and wider home button.

9to5mac managed to render and compare the appearance of iPhone 5 with its precedessor.

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CNET reported that Apple once again have lost another unreleased iPhone model in Sun Francisco. As CNET claims, the device was lost in July.

Apple representatives contacted San Francisco police, saying the device was priceless and the company was desperate to secure its safe return, the source said. Still unclear are details about the device, what version of the iOS operating system it was running, and what it looks like, the source said.

Rumors claim that Apple managed to electronically trace the phone and found it in a single-family home in San Francisco. Apples representatives and local police visited the house and spoke with a man in his twenties who was in Cava 22 then the device was lost. The police searched the house but didn’t find anything. Whether or not, Apple did not file a police report about the missing phone.

You probably remember that last year Apple lost a prototype of iPhone 4 at a bar near the company's headquarters. This device was sold to Gizmodo. Apple initiated legal action that ended just couples of days ago.