News tagged ‘Apple’

Because of Apple and Google success on a mobile device market Microsoft is going to conduct "major organizational changes" in its Entertainment and Devices Division that is currently responsible for Xbox, Zune and Windows Phone. It looks like first step has been already taken - the work on the dual-screen tablet named Courier had been canned. This allegedly caused its main developer J Allard to leave the company. Further changes will affect on the team that develops Windows Phone 7 mobile OS. The latter must be introduced this fall.

Nick Wingfield from the Wall Street Journal wrote Microsoft lose its positions mainly because of its Windows Mobile OS that had been criticized much for years.

Microsoft's division of Entertainment and Devices also develops portable media players named Zune. The latest Zune HD received many positive reviews but couldn't rival with tremendously popular iPod touch.

Yesterday The New York Times had posted a Brad Stone's report that reveals interesting information on the online music market investigation started recently by US Department of Justice.

The story started two months ago, when Amazon began to seek music labels that would allow company to sell their new songs day earlier than everyone else in exchange for exclusive "MP3 Daily Deal" promotion on the Amazon's site (according to BillBoard). In answer to that Apple asked labels to refuse Amazon or the company will not provide marketing support to those of songs that appeared in Amazon first. Such negotiating tactics attracted the attention of DoJ and now, as the NYT reports, it started inquiries with different music labels to confirm the information.

Currently Apple has 69% of online music market, while Amazon holds second place with its 8% share.  Since 2003 Apple sold more than 10 billion songs and thus provided significant revenue for the music industry.

Yesterday Apple officially presented its new back-to-school promotion. This is an annual sale, when school faculty and students can purchase a Mac and get a 8GB iPod touch for free. Apple claims on its website:

"Take a free 8GB iPod touch to school. Along with tons of other great features, iPod touch has built-in Wi-Fi for downloading thousands of games, movies, songs, apps, and amazing, free educational content from iTunes U."

If you have an education discount, along with acquiring new iPod touch you can save $50 on a low-end MacBook, $100 on a MacBook Air and iMac desktop and $200 on a MacBook Pro. Such educational discounts are available to staff and faculty of K-12 schools, and to students, professors and staff of any college.

The deal applies between May 25 and Sept. 7, 2010. Those who doesn't want to get free iPod touch can receive a $199 discount for purchasing 160GB iPod classic or a higher-capacity iPod touch, a $179 discount for a 16GB iPod nano, $149 discount for a 8GB iPod nano, $99 discount for a stainless steel 4Gb iPod shuffle, and $79 discount for a regular 4GB iPod shuffle.

Customers can use their educational discounts in an Apple online store, retail stores, authorized campus stores or call 1-800-MY-APPLE.

Scoopertino.com had recently posted another "unreal news" report, where it is revealed that Apple made a Flash-compatible version of iPad. It's called iPad XL and made with a support of Honda. Just insert your iPad into the XL's side-mounted pocket and that will make it possible "to run the flashiest and most tasteless Flash sites on earth” as quite as never before - only at 96 decibel.

Full story can be found here.

Popular TV-channel G4tv had recently aired an episode of "Attack Of The Show" where the jailbreak for iPad is discussed. Looks like jailbreak goes mainstream!

Today Apple started sending emails to its customers telling Apple Retail Stores will open for iPad at 8am on Friday. Currently we know that Italy and UK customers have already received these letters, where it is said:

"The Apple Retail Store is the best place to experience the iPad. Have one of our Specialists show you all the amazing things it can do. If you buy one, we’ll even help you get set up and running."

Also it is known that in the UK Dixion Group has a 60-day exclusive deal with Apple to sell iPads at its own stores PC World and Currys.

Few minutes ago we also received information that one of the Italian users of iPadevice.com named Ricky have already received his iPad. He posted a video of unboxing it (under the cut), where you can note the European plug. Macstories.net assumed Ricky ordered the device using UPS Saver, which provides faster shipment than the American one.

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According to Engadget, new Apple's commercials will be shot by Sam Mendes, who is an Academy Award Winning director that is widely known for his work on "American Beauty".  Website's editor Joshua Topolsky says the ad will show new video chat abilities of iPhone:

"A trusted source has confirmed to us that the ads will feature at least one spot where a mother and daughter are having a video chat conversation using the new front-facing camera that's been spied on the face of that iPhone floating around Vietnam and Northern California".

Engadget also found people in Twitter who will perform in Apple's commercials. One actress is from New York, and another actor is from California (his tweet can be seen above).

According to CNNMoney Walmart will sell 16 Gb version of iPhone 3GS starting today only for $97. The price reduction refers to a Memorial Day weekend. But such a deal requires a two-year contract with AT&T.

New price for iPhone 3Gs is more than $100 lower than Apple's one. Senior category director in Walmart  Mehrdad Akbar explained it:

"It is our commitment to always lead on price".

The price reduction may be explained by iPhone 4G presentation that will expectedly be held on June 7. Last year Apple lowered the price for 8GB-version of iPhone 3G to $99 because of iPhone 3GS release.

Today Katy Huberty, who is an analyst at Morgan Stanley, revealed a survey for investors that found out interesting forecasts about Apple. It is said that 58$ of all iPhone customers are going to upgrade their mobile device in 2011. In 2008 there were only 18% of them. That means that Apple will sell 18 million more iPhones in 2011. Such a big demand in turn can cause a 50$ drop in prices or $20 in case of service plans costs.

Morgan Stanley also predicted that Apple stock will rise to $310 and even to $400 if Apple is going to be more aggressive in its pricing policy.

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The Taiwanese Internet resource Apple.pro has posted pictures of black and white next-gen iPhones that are very similar to those prototypes that have been leaked. As you see the color took up both the front panel and the recessed home button. Some time earlier the same site posted the photo of the white panel separately, so we can assume it was simply put on top of the rest iPhone just to show how it can look like.

Today Apple announced that its annual WWDC conference will start with a keynote from Steve Jobs on Monday, June 7 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. It is rumored that Apple CEO will finally introduce iPhone 4G.

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This week Apple revealed new patent application that describes its new superior advertisement technique. The document entitled "System and method for providing contextual l advertisements according to a dynamic pricing scheme."

Its main idea is that the effectiveness of the modern mobile advertisements can be improved with using unique pricing scheme (when advertiser pays variable price that based "on the likelihood of influencing user behaviour") and special marketing factors that can determine the effectiveness of the ad.

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Recently Billboard published a report that reveals new information on Apple's share on music sales market. When the first generation iPhone was presented, iTunes had only 12,7% of American music market. In 2008 Apple almost doubled it and made 21,4%. 2009 reveals five percentage points increase - now iTunes has 26,7% of music sales.

Such mobile providers as AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless on the contrary lose their positions, downing from 6,6% to 4,9% in 2009. Partly it is explained by lower priced ringtones in iTunes and its free tools for making custom ringtones. Both of these factors eventually attracted more people.

Physical media music in turn loses its popularity from year to year. Numbers reveal its share fell from 57,5% in 2008 to 49,3% in 2009. That means that iTunes actually makes a half of all digital music downloads overall.

iTunes' closest rival Amazon also increased its sales. But in digital MP3 sales the company's share grew from 0,8% in 2008 to 1,3% in 2009, which is not even close to Apple's 26,7% share. Such results, according to Billboard, were "still well short of where major labels had hoped Amazon's download store would be by now, dimming earlier expectations that it will be able to significantly reduce the labels' heavy dependence on iTunes for digital sales."

It is interesting to look forward for Google which recently acquired Simplify Media to expectedly turn it into iTunes rival for Android users. But for now the company's subsidiary AdMob reveals the amount of media bought or even downloaded by Android users is still so small that it cannot be compared with iTunes success.

iSpazio has put together some renderings of white iPhone 4G (iPhone HD). Here's how the future Apple iPhone will probably look like:

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Apple’s iBookstore is beginning to open internationally. It is accessible only on iPads via iBookstore app. Some day the service will be extended to iPhones and iPods.

Several international sites report that Apple's iBookstore is avaliable in several new countries. For the time being, international iBookstore offerings appear limited to free Project Gutenberg titles. Apple is doing its best to sign-up publishers in other markets, while local regulatory and business concerns are slowing the effort in some countries (like the UK).