News tagged ‘China’

According to a research note released by the investment bank Morgan Stanley on Wednesday, a lower-priced iPhone could generate a nearly three-fold increase in demand for Apple in China. The bank conducted research among Chinese customers who hesitate to but the iPhone. 85 percent of them called price as a key factor that prevents them from buying Apple’s smartphones. The right price point could increase demand for iPhone in three times in China.

The maximum price that Chinese customers are ready to pay is $425. But those who said that they were not going to buy an iPhone could afford to pay $344. Nearly 80% of those who took part in the research marked Apple as the leading brand in China. But in last quarter company's share of mobile phone purchases in the region fell from 12% to 7%.

In the third quarter of 2011, China area became the company's second largest market, behind only the U.S. China is "the fastest growing region by far."  China sales of iPhone were $4.5 billion in the September quarter, 16 percent of Apple’s total revenue, comparing with $3.8 billion Apple earned in the June quarter. Meanwhile, one analyst believes that the mobile market in China poses as much as a $70 billion opportunity for Apple.

In the third quarter of 2011 Samsung gained the lead and China’s ZTE became the fourth-largest cell phone manufacturer moving Apple to fifth place. Cupertino-based company for the first time fell short of expectations and shipped 17.07 million iPhones in the third quarter, a 16 percent quarterly decrease in sales. As you remember, in June quarter Apple sold 20.34 million iPhones, which allowed the company to beat Samsung and Nokia and become the leading smartphone manufacturer in the world.

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Giga.de has produced a physical prototype mockup of the future iPhone 5. They made it look like in the latest rumors. Everything is done from a solid block of aluminum.

A 3D computer model was created based on leaked CAD designs, hardware components, several leaked hints, cases and other believable mockups. This model was then used to build a very detailed, true prototype iPhone 5, that you can actually hold and feel in your hands.

This prototype width and height are 59.94 mm and 109.98 mm, compared to 115.2 mm x 58.6 mm dimentions of iPhone 4. The prototype is also a bit thinner than its predecessor. Teardrop style with a thickness of 6.86 mm at the top and only 5.33 mm at the bottom.

Here are photos of iPhone 5 Design Prototype compared to iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4:

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According to Reuters, five persons were arrested in Shanghai for manufacturing and selling fake iPhones. As police said, these people were from an organized gang that assembled iPhone from genuine components for the Apple’s smartphones. Police found about 200 fake Apple’s smartphones during the raid.

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M.I.C. Gadget is reporting that iPhone 5 prototype device was lost by Foxconn or possibly stolen. That is why there are lots of iPhone 5 cases in China today. The design could really be the final one since case manufacturers must be very certain to have shipped "thousands" of cases already. Producing a mold for silicone case costs tens of thousands of RMB (thousands of USD) and a mold for hard plastic cases costs even more.

A case supplier told that a device had gone missing from the Foxconn factory in the Shenzhen Futian district. The prototype was disguised in a case to make it look like the current device. It was apparently a test model with a finalized iPhone 5 teardrop chassis but only had slightly modified iPhone 4 internals.

The person who had access to the prototype wiped the phone's software, thus disabling the GPS hardware needed to track it down. It was then allegedly sold to one of the iPhone case manufacturers for RMB ¥20,000 (about $3,100). We were told that Foxconn was aware of the loss and had penalized internal management for the incident. We also heard from another source that the person who "lost" it was paid to do so.

We are very sure that one or more of these case manufacturers have access to what is believed to be the prototype of the iPhone 5 with the finalized design. It is not simply getting tipped on the dimensions and shapes of the next iPhone to make the molds.

By looking at iPhone 5 case photos one can say that the future iPhone 5 has teardrop desing. It is much thinner (33%) than iPhone 4, but a bit larger in height and width. The height of the case is 4.84 inches (12.3 cm), width - 2.72 inches (6.9 см). The dimensions of iPhone 4 are 4.5 x 2.31 x 0.37 inches (115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm).

Take a look at the video, where this new iPhone 5 teardrop design case is compared to iPhone 4 and iPod Touch:

Here are the photos:

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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.

As FinancialPost reports, J.P. Morgan’s analyst Mark Morkowitz suggests that Apple will release two models of iPhone in September. The first is the redesigned iPhone 4 -expected iPhone 5 – and the second is a cheap mass market handset with a tentative name “iPhone 4-plus” or “iPhone 4S”.

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According to BGR, citing “trusted source”, Apple is goint to release iOS 5 8 Beta to developers this Friday. A golden master version should be expected " in a week around September 23rd.

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This week Apple continues to carry out its plan for opening over 30 new stores by the end of September. Tomorrow Apple will open a new Stratford City store (image above) in Westfield Stratford City mall located in the northeastern part of London. The unusual mid-week opening coincides with the opening of the shopping center itself, the facility covering nearly 2 million square foot, which will be the largest urban mall in Europe and will be one of the key components in hosting next year’s London Summer Olympics.

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Recently in an interview on State of the Union of CNN channel, Jim Hoffa, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union President, claimed that Apple is unpatriotic as it outsources manufacturing in other countries.

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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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