News tagged ‘sale’

According to Nielsen Soundscan report, US music sales have increased by 1.6% over the course of this year. The report gives the credit for the rise, unsurprisingly, to digital music sales, which in terms of albums was up 16.8% and in terms of individual tracks was up 9.6%. As for physical media, CDs were down by 8.8%, but Vinyl increased by 37%, although they only account for 1.2% of sales. Nielsen interestingly suggests the arrival of the Beatles on iTunes as a key reason, pointing to a dramatic increase  starting from when it was released on iTunes. As for the most popular genre’s, Rock had the greatest market share in album sales whilst Pop was the most popular for digital tracks.

The iPad’s cannibalization of the PC market may have slowed. New purchasers of the iPad are less likely to have foregone purchasing a PC. It found that of those who had purchased the iPad over the holiday season, 12% would have decided against a PC purchase when they bought an iPad. This is a 2% drop from the 14% of those decided against a PC amongst those who had owned their iPad for 6 months or more. Netbooks were saved the most, with iPad cannibalization falling by 50%, which actually led the netbook market to grow by 21% between September 2010 and March 2011. The report contradicts what analysts were calling the “iPad effect” in the first quarter of 2011 when US PC sales fell 10.7%.

The University of Delaware has confirmed that, as part of new campus construction plans, an Apple Store will be located next to the new Bookstore, Starbucks, and other facilities. It’s not clear whether the “store” will be a full-feature retail location, a “mini store”, an authorized reseller, or something else specifically tailored to students. Indeed, several rumors in the past years suggested Apple was planning campus-specific Apple Stores, but the plans were never finalized.

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By now everyone seems to know that Microsoft has acquired online communication giant Skype for a huge 8.5 billion dollars. Mac and iOS users immediately questioned the acquisition as a way for Microsoft to turn Skype into an exclusive service for Windows Live-connected devices and other Microsoft products such as the Xbox, Windows 7 and the new Windows Phone 7 OS. Steve Ballmer, however, was quick to reassure everyone that Skype will continue working on the Mac, iOS and all the other platforms it currently runs on (including RIM’s BlackBerry and Symbian). Microsoft, of course, takes Apple as one of the major rivals, though it has a full version of Office 2011 available for Macs, and many apps for iPhones and iPads. The question, however, is whether Skype will ever release a native iPad app as promised last year, and if the new owner will also bring some welcome interface changes to the Mac app.

Apple continues to hold second place among the world's top smartphone manufacturers with 18.7% market behind Nokia, with unit sales up 114% year-over-year. Although market-leader Nokia's smartphone share declines, Apple’s share is rising by three percentage from the year-ago quarter.

Apple reached a new record shipment volume in a single quarter, and inched closer to market leader Nokia with fewer than six million units separating the two companies. The company posted market-beating year-over-year growth and recorded triple-digit growth in two key markets: the United States, with the release of its CDMA-enabled iPhone, and Greater China. Additionally, the company enlisted South Korean Telecom and Saudi Telecom as carrier providers of the iPhone.

Today MacRumors reported that Apple won't release the next-gen iPhone this summer. Here is what they've heard from anonymous AT&T customer care representatives:

"Apple has informed us that they do not plan to release the iPhone in the June to July timeframe, though there will be a newer version in the future. Unfortunately, we have not been given a release time for the new phone. We will release this information on our website when it is available to us."

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Yesterday, on May 3 Needham & Co analyst Charlie Wolf sent a note to his clients, where he reveals that Apple retail stores made only 12.9% of worldwide revenues for the company in March. Due to the increased number of distribution points, such as big-box retailers and international carrier stores the revenue has declined since the second quarter of 2008, when the revenue share from retail stores was 21.6%.

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Recently Apple has made changes to its app policy and focused on making the iOS App Store the most attractive rather than simply the biggest.

Lately the company has banned the idea of "incentivized app installs", which was used by certain game developers to prompt players to install other apps if they want to continue playing. Because of the incentives some apps become artificially popular and don’t reflect the actual situation in top games chart, for instance.

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To celebrate the big wedding, Goldgenie brings to you the Royal Wedding iPhone collection. The 32GB Royal iPhone is available in three versions – Platinum, 18 Ct. Gold and Rose Gold and includes a solid a Platinum rear with VS1 8.50 ct. diamond and stunning sapphire bezel and embellished Apple logo. According to Goldgenie, the bezel is set with quality sapphire and diamonds similar to the late Princes Diana’s wedding ring. Only 50 pieces will be offered for sale. The Royal iPhone Platinum, Gold and Rose gold are priced at £23,050 ($38,400), £20,050 ($34,150) and £20,100 ($33,500) respectively.

Six months ago Apple’s quarterly revenue for the first time in approximately 15 years was higher than the Microsoft’s one. But Microsoft was unbeatable with its high profit margins that the company achieved thanks to its software sales. The situation changed in the past fiscal quarter.   Today Microsoft has announced net profit of $5.23 billion for the first calendar quarter (third fiscal quarter) of 2011. Apple last week reported profits of $5.99 billion over the same period, which corresponded to the company's second fiscal quarter of 2011. It seems that Apple finally surpassed its longtime rival in almost all position. Moreover Apple’s market cap is now nearly $100 billion higher than Microsoft's.

Brian White, an analyst at Ticonderoga, believes the delay in the white iPhone’s release and its “mystique and scarcity value” could drive sales to 1-1.5 million units per quarter. White said:

The purchase of consumer electronic devices is not always a completely rational decision, and people buy Apple products for many different reasons, including status, aesthetics, functionality, quality and the ‘cool factor.’ In our view, this delay has created a certain mystique and scarcity value around the white iPhone 4 that we believe could drive incremental iPhone 4 purchases in the range of 1 million to 1.5 million units per quarter until the iPhone 5 potentially comes to market in September.

We still don’t know whether Apple realizes or not the iPhone 5 until September or early fall.  But we’ve tried to sum up all possible reasons why Apple might officially launch the iPhone 5 this fall. First of all, Apple announced Verizon iPhone only in February and the white iPhone’ has stared selling today. An October shipping date of new iPhone would give Verizon and the white iPhones time to enjoy their purchases without temptation from the next model of Apple’s smartphone. The second reason is that Apple typically updates the iPod line in late summer/early fall. This encourages back-to-school sales and jump-starts the all-important Holiday shopping season. By bringing the iPhone into line with its iPod refresh cycle, Apple could better position new iPhone sales so that giving an iPhone for Christmas doesn't feel like you're committing to last year's technology. And the last reason is firmware update. The iPhone 5 and iOS 5 may be presented simultaneously showing us more revolutionary than evolutionary changes.

Apple has finally begun selling the rumored white iPhone 4 after a 10-month delay since the original unveiling at the WWDC 2010. Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller told in an interview to Mobilized’s Ina Fried that the white iPhone was really “challenging” to make because of “unexpected interactions” of the white color with several internal components. Moreover, the white model of iPhone 4 indeed has a different proximity sensor than the black one.

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This week Morgan Stanley analyst Kate Huberty released "10-Q Tidbits", conclusions based on Apple's 10-Q form filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Kate found that Apple is going to spend $11 billion on components and other purchases in the March quarter, which is a record $3,1 billion (39%) increase in comparison to the end of 2010.

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Today AppleInsider reported that Apple retail stores based in the US will receive the white iPhone 4s "within the next week". People familiar with the matter told some stores have already received shipment notifications for the devices and been instructed to hide those shipments until further notice. Most indications show the official announcement is planned to be held on Wednesday, April 27th.

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