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Apple earned $1 out of every $5 US consumers spent on electronics this holiday
NPD's Retail and Consumer tracking Services and Mobile Phone Track found that Apple accounted for 19 percent, or nearly one in five, of all U.S. consumer dollars spent on electronics, during the busy holiday shopping season. Apple, consequently, remained the largest consumer electronics brand for the second year in a row.
All of the other top five brands beyond Apple actually saw a year over year decrease in revenue in 2011. HP's sales dropped by 3 percent, third-place while Samsung dipped 6 percent, fourth-place Sony slid 21 percent, and Dell, in fifth, lost 17 percent.
Leave a commentApple Forces Pegatron Into Ceasing Production of ASUS Zenbooks
Digitimes, one of the major Apple’s manufacturing partners Pegatron has ceased production of ASUS’ over pressure from Apple. Digitimes notes that Apple is displeased with similarities in design between MacBook Air and Zenbooks and asked Pegatron to stop production of these notebooks or it will lose orders for manufacturing of iOS devices.
ITV Warns Apple (Again) Not to Use Their Name
As rumors of an Apple television set continue to swirl, The Telegraph reports that the UK TV network ITV has written a letter to Apple to warn it against using the name "iTV" for its future television product. Though, ITV said that there has been "no communication" between it and Apple. The "iTV" name was previously rumored to be used for Apple's revamped iOS powered Apple TV in 2010, which was said to have made network executives "furious."
Apple anticipated television has been called the "iTV" by some pundits, following the same branding as Apple's other popular products like the iPhone and iPad. ITV, short for Independent Television, has been on the air since 1955, and is the broadcaster of the popular show "Downton Abbey." The network has also spawned three sister channels using its same name: ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4.
Apple reportedly assured the ITV network in 2010 that Apple would not use the "iTV" name. But the death of Steve Jobs is said to raise a serious concern of the network. ITV executives are said to be concerned that Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook could take a different stance from his predecessor.
Chinese Authorities and Retailers Removing iPads from Sale Over Trademark Issues
Last week, Apple was said to be facing a potential fine of approximately $38 million as a result of a trademark dispute in China between Apple and Proview Technology, which claims to have held ownership of the "iPad" trademark there since 2000. Noteworthy, Proview is seeking as much as $1.6 billion in damages. Apple believed that it had acquired the rights to the iPad trademark in China in an earlier $55,000 deal with Proview's parent company that also included European rights. But the Chinese arm of the company now claims that the Chinese rights could not have been part of the deal because those rights were not controlled by the parent company.
Now DigiCha and China.com. report that China authorities have begun taken steps related to the trademark issue, confiscating iPads from retailers' shops. DigiCha reports:
Fair Labor Association Begins Inspecting Foxconn Facilites At Apple’s Request
Last month it was reported that Apple and Fair Labor Association (FLA) reached an agreement that would see FLA inspecting working conditions in companies within Apple’s supply chain and providing independent estimate to ensure compliance with standards set by the FLA and by Apple. Apple’s decision to join the FLA and become the first technology company in that organization was driven by the increasing criticism of Foxconn’s working conditions and treatment of its employees.
Steve Jobs wins posthumous Grammy
On Saturday, Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs was awarded a Grammy Trustees Award to his significant contributions to music and music industry, and his part in creating the iPod and iTunes music store, and the effect that both had on a whole music industry. That Jobs was awarded the Grammy was first announced in December, but the statue was not officially handed over until Saturday. A formal acknowledgement was made during the Grammy Awards telecast Sunday evening. The award is the second Grammy given to Jobs. Apple won a technical Grammy award in 2002.
Apple senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue, accepted the award on his behalf.
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs did serve on White House council in '90s
The U.S. Commerce Department has confirmed a FBI agent report who claiming that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs served on former President George H.W. Bush's Export Council during the 1990s. He was considered for appointment to the council in 1991.
The Export Council consists of unpaid members who meet a minimum of twice a year to advise the president on trade policy. Given that the Commerce Department said Jobs served during the first Bush administration, it would appear that he was on the council from 1991 to 1993.
US Air Force may buy 18,000 Apple iPads for cargo aircraft
According to Nextgov, the U.S. Air Force's Air Mobility Command recently put out a notice that it plans to buy as many as 18,000 of Apple's iPad for use on cargo aircraft. Such order could be the largest single federal order for the iPad 2. The Air Mobility Command revealed on Federal Business Opportunities that it plans to buy a "minimum of 63 and a maximum of 18,000 iPad 2" units or "equal devices."
Though the iPad was the only tablet named specifically in the listing, Glen Roberts, AMC public affairs director, said the command seeks "a tablet device" but "not necessarily an iPad." The Air Force seeks proposals from tablet makers and seeks to obtain them at the lowest possible fixed price. A move to tablets, iPad or otherwise, would allow the Air Mobility Command to adopt an electronic flight publication system to save time and money, as well as boost efficiency.
First iPad was brought to the U.S. Air Force by the Federal Aviation Administration which started using Apple's touchscreen tablet as an electronic flight bag last July. Previously, commercial and charter airlines relied on cumbersome 40-pound paper manuals.
Apple Sues Motorola Over Breach Of Licensing Agrement With Qualcomm
According to Reuters' , Apple has filed a suit against Motorola alleging that the company has breached terms of the licensing contract with Qualcomm in its efforts to block sales of several Apple’s iOS devices in Germany. Following Motorola's vicrory in a German court in December, Apple last week removed all 3G-enabled devices except for the iPhone 4S from its online store in Germany. However, these devices were restored within several hours after the court suspended the injunction.
Apple Offers Stripped-Down 13" MacBook Air Package To Educational Institutions
Apple has begun to offer a cheaper 13-inch MacBook Air to educational institutions buying in bulk, replacing the two-year offering of white plastic MacBooks, which was recently discontinued. The sales of white MacBook were discontinued by the company back in July of 2011.
Apple to Introduce iPad 3 in First Week of March
Citing unnamed sources, AllThingsD reported on Thursday that Apple's so-called "iPad 3" will debut at a special event to be held the first week in March in San Francisco.
Sources say the company has chosen the first week in March to debut the successor to the iPad 2, and will do so at one of its trademark special events. The event will be held in San Francisco, presumably at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Apple’s preferred location for big announcements like these. No word yet on a street date for the iPad 3 (assuming that’s what it’s called), though my guess is retail availability will follow roughly the same schedule as that of the iPad 2: Available for purchase a week or so after the event.
Foxconn's Servers Hacked, Exposing Vendor Usernames and Passwords
Swagg Security hacking group announced this week that they managed to hack Foxconn servers that expose usernames and passwords for clients and employees. Such information could be used to place fraudulent orders for companies like Apple and Microsoft.
Swagg Security alleged that it had bypassed Foxconn's firewall "almost flawlessly." Using several hacking techniques and a couple of days time, the hackers reportedly dumped "most of everything of significance," including usernames and passwords. According to the group, the leaked passwords "could allow individuals to make fraudulent orders under big companies like Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Intel, and Dell."
Photo of iPad 3 Rear Shell Suggests Minor Physical Changes, Larger Battery
RepairLabs reports that it has managed to obtain a photo of what is claimed to be the rear shell of the iPad 3 and compared the part with the corresponding version of the iPad 2. Based on the photo, the site concluded that the iPad 3 version demonstrates a few minor changes with a narrower logic board that could make room for an expanded battery.
In a side-by-side comparison of the new component with the iPad 2 back panel, the repair site found four key differences:
- The alleged third-generation iPad back panel has "very different" mounts for the logic board, implying that the shape of the logic board in the next iPad will also be a major change.
- This would allow for a larger battery within the iPad 3, because the width of where the logic board sits is much smaller on the new component.
- The component also reveals that the camera on the new iPad will be "different," though any changes from the current iPad 2 cannot be deciphered from the panel.
- Finally, the site also declared that the LCD display will also be "different" than the current iPad 2, based on different mounting in the new back panel. Apple is rumored to utilize a new, high-resolution Retina Display for its next iPad.
The photo does not show the backside of the rear shell that would be visible on the assembled device, nor does it show an edge view that would allow for a thickness comparison to the iPad 2.
Siri Support for Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Russian Languages Coming Next Month
Tech in Asia reports that Apple is preparing to bring support for Chinese, Japanese and Russian to Siri on the iPhone 4S next month. Chinese support will only include Mandarin, with Cantonese and other dialects being left out for the time being.
The Chinese tech site DoNews claims to have heard from an Apple engineer who’s working on the Chinese-language version of Siri, the clever voice assistant on the iPhone 4S. From this source it claims that Siri will launch in Chinese next month, and is already undergoing internal testing this month. [...]
iTunes Match Creates Money ‘Out Of Thin Air’ For Copyright Owners
The president of TuneCore Jeff Price a blog post praising iTunes Match service for generating money "out of thin air" for owners of copyrights. Apple’s iTunes Match launched in partnership with all major recording studios, but some small studios refused to cooperate over concerns that the iTunes Match was legitimizing music piracy. He says: