AT&T has officially announced that they have processed 200,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4S. It looks like new Apple smartphone is the most successfully launched iPhone yet. These 200,000 orders only come during the first 12 hours of sales
AT&T has seen extraordinary demand for iPhone 4S with more than 200,000 preorders in the first 12 hours alone, the most successful iPhone launch we’ve ever had. It’s obvious customers like AT&T’s 4G network, which is the only one that lets their iPhone download twice as fast and talk and surf simultaneously.
These numbers don't include Apple's own online pre-orders or the orders through Verizon Wireless and Sprint.
The iPhone 4S officially launches on Friday, October 14th.
As Apple promised, pre-orders of expected iPhone 4S is become available. Now it is possible to pre-order new iPhone through Apple’s website in Australia, Germany, France, Canada, the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom. Besides, pre-ordering is also available through the websites of carriers in these countries.
Implementing its plans to ban sales of Apple’s new iPhone over infringement of intellectual property, Samsung today has said that it is going to file requests with the courts in Italy and France for preliminary injunction of new smartphones.
“Samsung Electronics will file separate preliminary injunction motions in Paris, France and Milano, Italy on October 5 local time requesting the courts block the sale of Apple’s iPhone 4S in the respective markets”.
Samsung’s requests in Italy and France will refer to patent infringements connected with wireless telecommunications technology for 3G mobile devices. Also Samsung said that it plans to file the same requests in other countries after it reviews the situations.
Today’s statement from Samsung does not refer to the specific patents which iPhone 4S infringes, but it is possible that they are the same patents that already used by Samsung in a Dutch suit seeking the sales ban of iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad and iPad 2.
Apple has claimed that patents cited by Samsung are essential for 3G wireless technologies and should be licensed under FRAND terms. Apple argued that Samsung has not offered it licensing under reasonable terms, and two companies has been unable to arrive at agreement on licensing of those patents.
Today in a Sydney court Apple rejected Samsung’s proposal to remove several Galaxy Tab 10.1 features in exchange for tablet release in Australia. Reportedly, Samsung agreed to remove the capability that recognizes and ignores accidental touches on the home screen. However, it appears that Apple wants to hear a final decision of the court on a temporary injunction of Galaxy Tab 10.1, which should be made this week.
As Wall Street Journal reports, Samsung has offered Apple a deal, which would allow Samsung to put its Galaxy Tab 10.1 on the Australian market. If the agreement will be accepted the Samsung tablet could be released in October. The terms of the agreement were not revealed to the court. But Stephen Burley, Apple's attorney, said that this agreement had some potential benefit for the company.
According to Reuters, the $12 billion deal between Brazil and Foxconn to produce Apple’s iPad in a new Brazil-based Foxconn factory is now in doubt. It seems that negotiations between Brazilian government and the iPad-manufacturer have temporarily stalled. The main reasons are high taxes and lack of skilled workers that meet Faxconn expectations.
"We’re dealing with a lot of issues, like the (Taiwanese) trying to figure out how to do business in Brazil … and Brazil figuring out how to produce these complicated products,” a second government official told Reuters. Maybe we will end up starting with something smaller.
Start of production was already put off twice. We see that it still unclear whether the company will manufacture any Apple tablets in this country. As far as we know, Foxconn would like to build a new industrial complex with its own energy system, roads and infrastructure outside Sao Paolo. But the situation is complicated by the fact that the Brazilian government is now engaged in building more profitable $1 trillion projects related to the World Cup and the Summer Olympics the country will host in 2014 and 2016. The other problem includes lack of companies to partner with Foxconn in order to share costs in Brazil.
It’s a requirement to have Brazilian partners, (but) in the technology area the partners we have do not have the financial muscle for investments near that value.
According to TUAW, Apple is about discontinuing the iPod classic and iPod shuffle as a part of “product transition” this year.
It seems that the "product transition" Apple mentioned on the last earnings call could very well be within the iPod line. Specifically, if you want to buy an iPod shuffle or iPod classic from Apple, you should do it sooner rather than later. We've heard those two iPods are getting the axe this year.
The iPods now only make up for 8% of Apple’s total revenue. As the below graph shows, iPod sales have been falling over the last few quarters and although Apple doesn’t break these figures down model by model, its believed the iPod touch is what has held iPod sales up. The iPod nano also appears to be safe for the time being. The last official word about the iPod Classic came from Steve Jobs over a year ago. He said that they had no plans on discontinuing the iPod Classic at that time. Now, it seems they have changed their plans.
Research firm Gartner has published sales forecasts for the tablet market, stating that a lack of momentum from competitors will allow iPad to be absolute leader during the holiday shopping season. Looking further ahead, Gartner predicts that Apple will maintain more than 50 percent share of this market segment through 2014 even as Research in Motion’s QNX and Microsoft's Windows 8 platforms are expected to build up some momentum. Research vice president at Gartner Carolina Milanesi explains:
“This is because Apple delivers a superior and unified user experience across its hardware, software and services. Unless competitors can respond with a similar approach, challenges to Apple’s position will be minimal. Apple had the foresight to create this market and in doing that planned for it as far as component supplies such as memory and screen”.
Gartner has lowered its estimates for sales of Android tablets in 2011 by 28% over second quarter’s projections, noting very weak adoption due to its interface issues, high prices and limited app availability.
The company expects that Android will see growth as Google releases its next-generation Android’s "Ice Cream Sandwich" and addresses fragmentation across the Android ecosystem. However, according to Gartner's sales forecasts, Android tablets will not catch up the iPad by the end of projection period of 2015.
Reuters reports that eight French publishers, including sports daily L’Equipe and newspaper Le Figaro, teamed up to strengthen their bargaining power in negotiations with Apple over digital content distributions. The publishers are dissatisfies with Apple’s too high commission of 30% and tight control over magazines and newspapers on iPad.
On Monday, The Korea Times reported that Samsung had asked a ban on the iPhone 5 sales in Korea. Now Reuters claims that the company has gone further and asked an injunction against the iPhone 5 in Europe. The source that is familiar with the matter reports:
Samsung Electronics Co is considering legal action to ban sales of Apple’s new iPhone, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, in what could be its strongest step to defend against claims by the U.S. firm that the South Korean firm had copied its product designs. The source declined to elaborate further on where Samsung planned to take legal actions and the Maeil Business Newspaper reported that the South Korean firm may seek injunction request on Apple’s new iPhone in Europe.
It seems that the Apple’s accusations that Samsung thoroughly copied their iOS mobile devices with the Galaxy smartphone and tablets, initiated a long-lasting confrontation between the companies. And this change in Samsung’s defense only proves that suggestion.
Popular games Asphalt 6: Adrenaline and Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD developed by Gameloft are now available for free for a limited time. Regular price is $4.99 for iPhone version and $6.99 for iPad version. The lowest price on sale was $0.99, it's never been fully free. Now it is, so go ahead and download.
Asphalt 6 is a arcade racing game with superb enviorments and fast-paced racing, there's over 55 events, across 11 leagues. Drive cars such as Astion Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini and even Ducati's. The single player campaign is quite long for being on the iOS, but that's not all, there's also multiplayer support via the Game Center.
According to data from market research firm NPD (via BusinessInsider), Apple’s Mac sales in U.S. are up 22% year-on-year for two month of the third quarter of this year, leading the company to a new record for quarterly sales of Macs. Gene Munster, analyst from research firm Piper Jaffray, attributed so high sales to launch of new Mac mini and MacBook Air line in July, which is expected to account for 10 to 20 percent of total sales of Macs over the third quarter.
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.