News tagged ‘Europe’

The Telegraph reports that European carriers forced Apple to abandon their plans to introduce integrated SIM-cards in future iPhone handsets. Well it looks like Apple got a little worried over the European carrier’s threats. Carriers recently accused Apple in trying to gain control of carriers’ relationship with their mobile customers, because such built-in SIM card allows customers to switch between operators easily, sign up for mobile service on Apple’s website without having to call a carrier or visit a store. Obviously, nothing has been confirmed, and, doubtfully, will be. Perhaps, Apple will announce their avoidance of implementing an integrated SIM in future iPhone handsets or may be they won’t.

As reported, Apple is developing a built-in SIM card for the Phone. Such embedded SIM card allows users to activate their devices with a broad array of carriers. Moreover, with such card, customers could insist on shorter-term contracts, using the ability to easily switch between carriers as leverage. So, some European carriers (Vodafone in the UK, France Telecom and Telefónica in Spain) are threatening Apple to withhold their iPhone subsidies if the company deploys the technology on the iPhone. Apple was accused in gain control of carriers’ relationship with their mobile customers. This technology allows customers to sign up for mobile service directly on Apple's website. It could allow customers to switch more easily from one to another and even lead to a "war" between operators and Apple. As estimated, Apple’s global iPhone sales could take a 12 percent hit if European carriers carried out their threats.

Here is a chart that shows where Apple's iPhone is selling. Nowadays Apple sells its device in 79 countries. Of course, Apple is expanding to other countries. It is coming soon in other 25 countries. Note that 18 of them are in Africa, a fast-growing market for smartphones. On the chart above you may see that the most important market for Apple is America. But Europe has become also rather important and Asia - mostly China – is very quickly catching up.

This morning Apple dropped the price of the Mac mini in international markets. In Europe the price was cut down on €100. It is now available for just €709 and €999 from most European stores. In the United Kingdom the Mac mini price dropped on £50 (from £649 to £599). This is probably in response to the dollar's continuing decline relative to other currencies. Prices in the U.S. remain unchanged at $699 and $999 for the two Mac mini models.

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The Web is full of reports that the iPhone alarms (for all models of device) going off an hour later than usual when switched between Daylight Savings Time and Standard Time. Later, we reported that firstly this problem was found out in Australia, now Europe faces with the same. So even though the iOS clock changed correctly over the weekend, the alarm is still locked to Daylight Savings Time. Apple acknowledged the bug with a promise to fix it with a software update.

Apple partnered with Gemalto (digital security firm) to create a custom SIM card. Such card will be integrated into the iPhone as a built-in chip, which will contain subscriber identification information for carriers and allow users to activate their devices with a broad array of carriers. The new device will be of most use in Europe, where there are many competitive carriers operating on similar technologies.

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In a recent interview to Forbes the president of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aime shared his thoughts on Apple. He said that iPod and iPhone are perceived as devices for casual games in most cases and that Apple is a serious threat for his company.

“Do I think that in the near term they can hurt us more than Microsoft? Absolutely.”

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For those who have no time or desire to read the entire transcript of Steve Jobs’ Apple Q4 Earnings Call, here are the most interesting facts he revealed during the speech.

• Apple has sold 14.1 million iPhones, 3.89 million Macs (2,6 million notebooks and 1,29 million desktops) and 4.19 million iPads for the last quarter.
• The total profit in fourth fiscal period is $4,46 billion.

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Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse was finally unveiled for the whole world. It is a sexy mouse designed by Microsoft, whose concept is very similar to the latest generation of Microsoft’s Arc Mouse, except that it has a touch-sensitive surface, and you can straighten it and curl up as you wish! Isn’t it a curious idea to combine Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad? Isn’t it quite interesting?

Of course, it has not yet been officially introduced by Microsoft. We took these photos from a German online store, which reports that it will be available on October 13.

You can buy Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse at € 69,99 in Europe or $ 69.95 in the USA.

This Thursday Larry Page and Eric Shmidt (one of Google founders and its current CEO respectively) gave an interesting interview at the Allen & Co. conference.

According to Reuters, Page said that Jobs' opinion about animosity between Apple and Google that was caused by the latter (because it was Google that decided to compete with the iPhone by creating Android mobile platform) is "a little bit of rewriting history".

"We had been working on Android a very long time, with the notion of producing phones that are Internet enabled and have good browsers and all that, because that did not exist in the market place. I think that characterization of us entering after is not really reasonable."

Shmidt also added there are no "zero-sum games, which are battles to death", as the market is large enough for Google and Apple to thrive. Besides, Google still remains to be an important strategic partner for Apple by being the default search provider and powering Maps and Youtube application on all iOS devices.

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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Apple had recently announced that the iPad will be shipped to Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Switzerland and the United Kingdom on Friday, May 28. The delay for approximately a month was caused by a strong demand for the iPad in the United States. Preorders will begin on Monday, May 10, for both Wi-Fi and 3G models.

Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Mexico, Singapore and New Zealand will receive iPads in July. Precise date will be announced by Apple later.

International prices for iPad:

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWpuHGUP26o

Microsoft has finally revealed its two new mobile devices named Kin One and Kin Two. They work on Windows Phone 7 OS and have a capacitive display with multi-touch support, custom browser (based on Zune version and has no Flash and Silverlight) and no third-party apps support.

Kin One that was earlier known as "Turtle" is a square slider with a QVGA display, 5 MP camera , LED flash, 4GB storage drive and QWERTY keyboard. Kin Two, more known as "Pure", differs by its landscape form factor, HVGA display, 8 MP camera and 8GB storage. But the experience in both of the products is almost the same. Kin One and Kin Two have 3G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

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TomTom is discounting their navigation apps. For example, US and US+Canada are down to $50 and $70 respectively, Western Europe is $90. They've done this before, so it's not unprecedented. However $10 discount is a good deal if you're looking for an iPhone Navigation.

Here is a link to AppStore.

According to a (now deleted) tweet by major German electronics retailer Media Markt, the Apple iPad will go on sale March 1st at a price of 499 Euros (~$700) with T-Mobile contract or 899 Euros (~$1200) without. In the US prices would likely be around $500-$600 with contract and $999 without. These numbers were calculated comparing Apple items sold in Euros and USD (Mac Mini: 549 Euros / $599 USD, MacBook 899 Euros / $999 USD).

The company, however, quickly deleted the tweet but not before it was retweeted a number of times.