In spite of the problems with ordering and receiving, the iPhone 4 has enjoyed a really successful launch across the world. The first place for the iPhone 4 to go on sale was Japan, with more than 300 people lining up at the main store for Softbank, the mobile carrier for the iPhone 4 in Japan. By early afternoon all the devices in stock had been sold.
The next countries to launch the new device were Germany, France and the UK, with the U.S. East coast following them shortly afterwards. At most of the places the lines were incredibly long – actually the longest for any iPhone release.
According to yesterday’s announcement, Apple have sold three million iPads during the first 80 days on the market since the device was launched in the US on the 3rd of April with Wi-Fi only models. To sell 2 million, it took approximately 60 days, so it can be said with certainty that the sales of the iPad are accelerating.
Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs says that people are loving iPads and it’s becoming part of their lives. The company is working hard to allow more and more people to use this wonderful device, and next month the iPad will be available in 9 more countries: Singapore, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Mexico, Luxembourg, Ireland, Hong Kong, Belgium and Austria. The information on the prices and pre-order for these countries is expected to be revealed soon.
According to the press release, more than 11,000 iPad-specific applications are now available in the App Store.
If your iPhone 4 is pre-ordered – congratulations to you! You will be probably getting it very very soon. However, if you didn’t preorder, you’ll have to wait 6 more days, till June 29, to buy your iPhone at AT&T.
It’s no wonder that the date has been delayed, what with the mess the pre-ordering system was in and the fact that all the devices were sold out in less than one day. The pre-order sales of the iPhone 4 began on June 15 and they were 10 times as high as those for the iPhone 3GS last year on its first day. The company reports that they are happy to see the excitement around the new device and they are trying to help as many buyers as quickly as possible. As it was announced last week, the priority is to fulfill the pre-orders first.
AT&T is now in the middle of delivering iPhone 4 to those who preordered it on June 15. Here are some guidelines for the buyers getting iPhone 4 from AT&T:
Yesterday AT&T suddenly entirely stopped accepting iPhone 4 preorders. The company said that it was the busiest online sales day in its history.
Meanwhile AT&T's site started to show old information on iPhone 3GS prices, that was actual before iPhone 4 was announced. Some people also claimed they were shown info that wasn't theirs on AT&T's and Apple's site (the latter sometimes pulls information from AT&T's site to verify shipping address). Read the rest of this entry »
After yesterday's introduction of iPhone 4 most of the Wall Street analytics expressed their opinions about new device. Everybody is satisfied and certain about new handset's upcoming popularity and that it will boost sales for Apple again. Here are the words of people to whom we are referring frequently. Read the rest of this entry »
This Tuesday Adobe revealed its new digital viewer technology for creating e-magazines that can be viewable on touchscreen devices like Apple's iPad.
The technology was first demonstrated when the iPad version of Wired magazine was introduced. We wrote that Adobe had to rewrite the software in Objective-C for Apple to approve it. Since the release iPad Wired edition stays near the top of the App Store sales chart with its price $4,99.
Here's what the vice president of Creative Solutions at Adobe David Burkett said about new technology:
"We aim to make our digital viewer software available to all publishers soon and plan to deliver versions that work across multiple hardware platforms. It's safe to say that if you are already working in InDesign CS5, you'll be well on your way to producing a beautiful digital version of your publication."
Judging by the Wired iPad edition, new digital viewer technology can offer integrating videos, 360-degree rotatable images, slide shows and more directly into the magazine.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky believes that approximately 600-700 thousands of iPads will be sold in June overseas. If he's right then the iPad will definitely become more popular that Mac as only 500,000 Macs will be reportedly sold in June. Read the rest of this entry »
Recently AdMob revealed a new metrics report that studied the numbers of iPhone OS and Adroid devices throughout the world. The company emphasized it was looking only at the devices that were at least once connected to the AdMob network:
"These unique device numbers are from the AdMob network only and reflect the adoption of our products and business operation. We don’t know what percentage of the total universe of iPhone and Android devices AdMob reaches. However we believe the data is useful on a relative basis given the large sample size of devices in our network."
Gene Munster, who is an analyst at Piper Jaffray, told yesterday that Steve Jobs won't allegedly make a surprise with presentation of the next generation iPhone at the WorldWide Developer Conference 2010. Because of numerous prototype leaks everybody expects the iPhone 4G to have thinner design, front-facing camera, improved battery and 5MP rear camera. But Gene claimed people should not expect that a Verizon-compatible model will be presented.
"We believe that it is unlikely that the next generation iPhone will be available at Verizon (or Sprint) at launch; rather, it is more likely that it remains exclusively available at AT&T in the U.S. at launch".
He also said Apple may start selling iPhone 3GS for $99 instead of iPhone 3G and provide a "limited demo" of new version of Mac OS X (10.7), that has all chances to support multi-touch technology as a key feature. But as we wrote before it looks like WWDC2010 will focus mainly on iPhone OS 4.0 so the preview of Mac OS X 10.7 will not allegedly happen.
Gene is assured that the presentation of iPhone 4G will have a positive influence on Apple's stock.
"...the new iPhone will likely drive unit sales beyond Street expectations, providing a positive catalyst for shares of AAPL in the coming months."
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 $79 discount for a regular 4GB iPod shuffle.
Customers can use their educational discounts in an Apple online store, retail stores, authorized campus stores or call 1-800-MY-APPLE.
Today Katy Huberty, who is an analyst at Morgan Stanley, revealed a survey for investors that found out interesting forecasts about Apple. It is said that 58$ 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. Read the rest of this entry »
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.
Some time ago one of the TV-channels in San Francisco, California, broadcasted a news report that highlighted a woman who wanted to purchase an iPad with cash but was denied by Apple representatives in her request. Diane Campbell, who lives on a fixed income and was just saving money for an iPad, became a victim of the company's policy that ensures the device is properly distributed.
Now we received information that Apple had changed its policy and presented her the device for free. The company's senior vice president of retail Ron Johnson told the newscast Apple will stop following credit-only policy.
"It came to our attention that Diane, through your story was very interested in buying an iPad with cash. And we made a decision today to change that."
Two Apple employees came personally to Diane's home to deliver her an iPad for free. Later she talked to the ABC station with an iPad in her hands and said: