News tagged ‘price’

We have already seen Siri competitors making their way to the Android and Windows Phone Markets. Evi is another Siri counterpart that might actually become its true alternative for non-iPhone 4S iOS and Android users.

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Yesterday Apple released an easy to use tool called iBooks Author, which allows anyone (publishers and users) to create interactive iBooks with text, video, images and more. iBook Author can export projects in a number of different formats, including iBook format, PDF and text.

The iBooks (version 2) format is an improved format created by Apple based on ePub 3. At present, this iBook format will only work with Apple's iOS devices. Even so, Apple has restricted sales of any iBook formatted documents coming from iBooks Author to the App Store.

The reason probably is that Apple may simply not want to feed content to competing bookstores such as Amazon or Google.

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Today, during the education-focused media event Apple announced iBooks 2, an updated version of its e-book program for iOS devices. This update is a part of Apple’s move into sphere of interactive digital textbooks, performed in cooperation with several major publishers.

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AllThingsD reports on a survey made by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) which analyzes the impact of the market for iPhones that are given away or resold when users buy the latest models. The survey looked at users upgrading to new iPhones beginning with the launch of iPhone 4S in October and found that 53% of those customers had returned their used iPhones to the secondary market.

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DigiTimes reports, citing its sources, that Apple has decreased shipments of iPad 2 displays from 16 million panels in the third quarter to 10 million panels in the fourth quarter of 2011 and to 7-8 million panels in the first quarter of this year. This means that by the end of this year the production of Retina displays for iPads 3 with resolution of 2048x1536 pixels will surpass that of panels for iPads 2.

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Japanese website Macotakara reported today that Apple is planning to hold an earlier-than-expected special event to unveil a so-called "iPad 3" along with iOS 5.1 in early February. Despite a rumored early February introduction, the report claims that the new iPad would still launch in early March, much like the iPad 2 in 2011. Last year, the iPad 2 was unveiled in a media event held on March 2 and was released on March 11. Apple seems to want its customers to wait little bit longer for the next-generation iPad.  The delay might be caused by the fact that Chinese factories will be shut down to celebrate that country's New Year. This year's festival is earlier than usual, and runs from Jan. 23 through 28.

Recent reports have suggested that Foxconn and Pegatron will begin shipping the first "iPad 3" units in early March. Rumors leading up to the anticipated iPad unveiling have generally pointed toward a March launch of the device, but a month long wait time between the unveiling and sale of a new iPad would be a change from Apple's approach in 2011.

Different sources have generally agreed that the next iPad will support a new high-resolution "Retina Display"  and that Apple will continue to sell the current-generation iPad 2 at a reduced price.

Research group Gartner released preliminary PC shipment results for the fourth quarter of 2011, showing that Apple climbed to third place among U.S. PC vendors as the rest of the top five vendors saw shipments decline year over year. Apple saw 20.7 percent growth of Mac sales in the U.S. market from the year ago quarter, and took the No. 3 spot behind HP and Dell.

However, customers shied away from the world's largest PC maker in the fourth quarter, causing a 26.1 percent decline year over year. Shipments fell from 5.6 million in the last quarter of 2010 to 4.1 million. Dell had a 4.5 percent decline in shipments from 4.2 million in the year ago quarter to 4.0 million in the most recent quarter.

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According to DigiTimes sources, Apple sold 1.2 million of its thin-and-light MacBook Air over the holiday buying season. These numbers are 200,000 more than Apple achieved in the September quarter. Thanks to MacBook Air sales, Apple became the only vendor that managed to maintain its total notebook shipments from the third quarter to the fourth of calendar 2011.

DigiTimes also claims that another strong performance for the MacBook Air comes as Apple is expected to refresh the ultraportable notebook line in the coming months with Intel's next-generation Ivy Bridge processors. Apple PC competitors are doing their best to replicate MacBook Air success, and going to launch their own notebooks based on the "Ultrabook" specification from Intel. Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba reportedly plan to price comparable models $50 to $100 below Apple's MacBook Air pricing.

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Citing component makers in Taiwan, DigiTimes reported on Friday that the so-called "iPad 3" will launch in March with a high-resolution Retina Display, while an "iPad 4" will arrive in October of this year to counter a rumored Google-branded tablet as well as touchscreen devices running Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system.

Apple will ship the so-called "iPad 3" with a full HD display in March and then "iPad 4" - named so by its component suppliers - with killer applications in October, according to industry sources in Taiwan. [...]

But a true battle for market share will arrive in the second half of the year when Apple ships its iPad 4 in October, about the time when Microsoft releases its Window 8 and Intel unveils its Clover Trail-W platform, the sources commented.

The 9.7-inch iPad 4 is expected to come with much upgraded hardware specifications and integrated applications so as to compete with an array of Android-, Wintel- or WoA (Windows on ARM)-based tablet PCs to be released in the fourth quarter, said the sources.

Finally, Digitimes suggests that Apple will continue to sell the current iPad 2, but will drop its price to $399, much like Apple currently does with older iPhone models, to counter lower priced tablets that are available, such as the Kindle Fire for $199.

iLounge offers a new portion of information from a source about Apple's plans for the iPad 3. The source claims that the next-generation iPad will carry significantly improved cameras on the front and back, moving to a FaceTime HD camera on the front and a higher-resolution iPhone-like camera on the rear. The same source also confirms iLounge's earlier claim that the next-generation iPad will be slightly thicker than the iPad 2.

) A few next-gen iPad notes, ahead of the show. Both cameras are getting upgrades. Front goes HD, rear becomes iPhone 4/4S-like (bigger).

2) Body of the next iPad is, as we previously reported, getting just a little thicker to accommodate new parts - little = 1mm give or take.

3) Curve radiuses on the body will change only a little to accommodate the added thickness, not dramatically. Think iPad 2 Pro, not a redesign.

iLounge's source also suggests that Apple will continue to offer the iPad 2 alongside the iPad 3, but the company is expected to drop the price of the current model to compete with lower-priced rivals such as Amazon's Kindle Fire. The iPad 3 is said to be released in March.

Bloomberg reports that Adobe executive Todd Teresi was hired by Apple to head up its mobile advertising unit iAd. Detailed information on the employment will be forthcoming.

Teresi has worked as VP of Media Solutions division in Adobe for the past nine months and previously worked in Yahoo, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Quantcast.

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According to the Daily Mail report, Apple wants to bid for rigts to stream English Premier League (PM) games. English Premier League is the England’s top football league and one of the most popular football leagues worldwide and it is expected that bidding for the rights to stream its content will generate billions of dollars for the league and the teams. The league will consider bids for the next football season after the rights to stream games expire at the end of the current season.
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Sources in Apple's supply chain told DigiTimes that Apple has begun reducing orders for the iPad 2 ahead of the unveiling of an anticipated third-generation iPad. While iPad 2 orders are being reduced, orders for the next iPad, reportedly set to launch in March of 2012, remain steady. It's not yet known whether Apple will keep the iPad 2 around at a discounted price. There are some rumors claiming that Apple would remain it available at a discounted price in order to take on Amazon's $199 Kindle Fire. It is known that Apple has gained great success in continuing to sell older iPhone models at discounted prices. The iPhone 3GS is still remaining the number 2 smartphone in the United States.

Various reports have suggested that Apple will continue to sell the iPad 2 at a discounted price after it launches a third-generation iPad. Apple already employs that strategy in offering the iPhone 3GS, first released in 2009, as an entry-level handset, in addition to the iPhone 4, released in 2010, and iPhone 4S, which just launched in October.

There are also lots of rumors suggesting that in 2012 Apple plans to introduce new models of the iPad with different features at a number of price points. Many analysts believe that Apple indeed will launch the next-generation iPad with a high-resolution Retina Display.

According to Bloomberg, Apple’s ongoing patent war with the manufacturers of Android-based devices has mixed results. Bloomberg wrote that Apple could cut its losses and earn 10$ per Android-based device sold if the company would reach settlements with its competitors.

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Early this month the rumors suggested that Intel’s next-generation Ivy Bridge processors would launch in May. Theses mobile processors are expected to be used in Mac mini, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines.

Now DigiTimes reports that new Ivy Bridge processors may debut in early April, with both desktop and mobile processors launching around the same time.

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