News tagged ‘смартфон’

The Paradox iPod nano watch kit

Nick Bilton from The New York Times, who in October wrote that large parts of rumoured Apple’s television sets appeared in the company's supple chain, now reports that Apple may be researching and even prototyping new wearable devices.

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Yesterday Russia had finally got official iPhone 4S.

iPhone 4S in Russia is sold unlocked. The prices vary from $1100-$1220 for 16G model up to $1350-$1450 for top 64G model. Interesting fact is that black models are $100 cheaper than white ones.

This is quite expensive compared to the US, where unlocked models without contract cost from $649 (16G) to $849 (64G) plus taxes.

Today market research company Strategy Analytics reported on its research which covers «connected TV players», such as Ruku and Apple TV. The report shows that Apple is expected to reach sales of 4 million Apple TV boxes for 2011, leading the growing market with a 32 percent share.

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UBS (Investment Firm) analyst Maynard Um now believes Apple will sell as many as 30 million iPhones in the December quarter, up from a previous estimate of 28 million. The firm changed its expectations for the iPhone sales because of AT&T's announcement that it expects its best smartphone quarter ever thanks to the iPhone 4S.

The firm didn’t change its predictions for the iPad. It still expects that Apple will sell 12 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012 and may achieve 13 million iPads because of seasonal boost during the holidays. UBS numbers are quite conservative due to its belief that "there might be a slight shift in consumer preference to the company's Macbook computers." Um said customers may not be able to buy multiple Apple products simultaneously and could instead elect to purchase larger ticket items with more functionality.

In light of the expected iPhone upside, UBS raised its revenue estimates to $38.5 billion, up from $37.2 billion. The firm now expects earnings per share to reach $9.90, compared to a previous projection of $9.47. For fiscal 2012, Um sees Apple bringing in $142.7 billion in revenue and $35.83 EPS.

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Early today, we have reported that the U.S. judge declined to issue a preliminary injunction barring Samsung from selling several of its Galaxy smartphone and tablet devices in the United States. We have also mentioned the court order that had been redacted and which revealed that Apple had licensed one specific iOS interface patent to both Nokia and IBM. Now Reuters reports how this court order came to light.

In her 65-page ruling denying Apple's request for a preliminary injunction against Samsung, Koh attempted to redact nearly two dozen sentences or short fragments. But because of a formatting characteristic in the prior electronic version, the redacted material can be viewed by copying text from the PDF and pasting it into another document.

In the court order Koh cites as part of her rationale Apple's admission that Samsung is more likely to take market share from other Android manufacturers than it is from Apple.

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Late last week, a U.S. judge Lucy Koh declined to award a preliminary injunction over Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets in the United States. The Judge admitted that Samsung infringed some of Apple's patents, but she declined to issue a ban, because of a lack of evidences.

In her ruling, Koh wrote that for some of the smartphones, "Apple has established a likelihood of success on the merits at trial."

Koh added that Apple would likely prove Samsung infringed one of its tablet patents. However, Apple had not shown that it was likely to overcome Samsung's challenges to the patent's validity, Koh wrote.

Apple must demonstrate both infringement and validity to succeed in its lawsuit.

Interestingly, Apple has licensed to third parties one key iOS patent covering the "scrollback" feature displaying the linen texture when elastically scrolling beyond the end of a document or webpage. Licenses for the patent were obtained by Nokia and IBM, and Apple offered a license to Samsung.

Apple asserted this patent against Samsung as part of its failed attempt to get an injunction against Galaxy devices, and the court order denying the injunction includes general discussion of how past licensing behavior affects the decision of whether or not to grant an injunction. The discussion is nestled among two redacted statements shown to The Verge that confirm the '381 patent was licensed to IBM and Nokia, and that Apple offered a license to Samsung in November of 2010 as part of settlement negotiations.

The fact that Apple has been willing to gain profit from a license offered to other companies undermines its argument that it is being irreparably harmed by Samsung's alleged infringement.

Comparison of iPad and Galaxy Tab profiles

The Verge reports that Apple offered an alterative design for Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in its July court case seeking a sales ban of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Apple gave Samsung a list of tweaks that would allow the company to differentiate the two tablets (iPad and Galaxy Tab) and start selling Samsung’s Galaxy Tab not violating Apple’s patents.

The Korean electronics company argued that the patents Apple is using against the Galaxy Tab were based on functionality, and are thus required by all smartphones and tablet computers as part of a basic utilitarian design that is why Samsung had to use the design elements in question. But Apple believes that Samsung could use other options and that the Korean company purposely violated standing patents. To prove its point, Apple generated a list of possible alternatives that included:

• A front surface that is not black.
• A shape that is not rectangular.
• No rounded corners.
• A front surface that is not flat.
• Varying Bezel size.
• A device that is not thin.
• A cluttered appearance.

In response, Samsung slightly changes design of its tablet and rebranded it the Galaxy Tab 10.1. However, Apple did not find these changes sufficient to warrant the lifting of the injunction.

This month Apple is continuing its global rollout of its new iPhone model and while the company has not issued any statements about its future launch schedule, retailers and carrier partners in some countries have announced availability of the device for December 16th. This round of rollout will include two of the most populous countries: Russian and Brazil.

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Research firm ChangeWave released on Thursday results of an early November survey of iPhone 4S owners that shows that 77 percent of respondents indicated they are "very satisfied" with their iPhone 4S, another 19 percent said they are "somewhat satisfied," while j 2 percent fell into the "unsatisfied" category. After launch of the iPhone 4, 72 percent of Apple customers were "very satisfied" with their purchase, and 21 percent were "somewhat satisfied."

ChangeWave also asked customers what their favorite specific features of the iPhone 4S are. Siri topped the list of most-liked features on the iPhone 4S, with nearly half of survey respondents citing it. Second place was ease of use with 39 percent, and the new 8-megapixel camera took third with 33 percent. Faster Web browsing was the fourth most popular feature at 24 percent, the high-resolution Retina Display took fifth with 23 percent, and iCloud service was in sixth with 19 percent.

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Nikkei Business reports that Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo has reached a basic agreement with Apple on releasing an LTE-capable (able to connect to long-term evolution 4G high-speed data networks) iPad in the summer of 2012 with an LTE iPhone to follow in the fall.

Earlier this month it was reported that executives with the wireless carrier were said to have visited the U.S. in mid-November to talk with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, but DoCoMo was hesitant to agree to Apple's demands on unit volume and its refusal to allow the carrier to add its own applications to the device.

Nevertheless, NTT DoCoMo has denied the report in a press release, stating there is "no basic agreement" in place with Apple.

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According to findings released on Tuesday by Nielsen, Apple remained the largest smartphone manufacture in the Unites States in the third quarter. While smartphones sales continue to grow in the U.S., accounting for 56 percent of all cellphone sales in the prior quarter, Apple’s market share has reached 30%. Apple's third quarter performance was followed by HTC with a 20.3% share.

As for mobile platforms, Android and iOS dominate with a 71.1% share, holding 42.8% and 28.3% respectively. About a half of all mobile users in the United States owns a smartphone. During the prior quarter 56% of all handsets purchases were smartphones. The third place still belongs to RIM's BlackBerry platform with 17.8% that was followed by Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform, HP's Palm/webOS, Symbian and the fledgling Windows Phone.

App downloads in the third quarter saw that Google and Apple have the largest share. 83% of all downloads were made through Android and iOS devices. But Google has recently expressed dissatisfaction by the situation with app downloads, and hinted at upcoming changes that would bring its online store more in line with Apple's.

Fortune has analyzed two reports and suggests now that Apple may be experiencing some supply constrains on the iPhone 4S throughout this holiday quarter. The company, no doubt, works hard to stock-pile necessary number of the iPhone 4S that will allow Apple to meet customer demand for its newest smartphone, as well as shipping estimates of iPhone carrier partners during this quarter, but Apple may be having some trouble meeting its own production goals for the device that will result in supply constrains.

The first report, from Rodman and Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar, alerted the company’s clients about the iPhone 4S production constrains, citing that shortages of an unidentified "key component" for the iPhone 4S that is holding back production. Kumar says that Apple has four million iPhone 4S not sold in the prior quarter. Taking into account there numbers, he suggests that Apple may sell 30 million iPhones during this quarter, though the company won’t be able to completely satisfy consumer demand.

The second note comes from Susquehanna Financial's Jeff Fidacaro. He also says that the main problem for Apple in this quarter is "supply constraints". As a result, we see reduction in quarterly iPhone sales of about three million units, moving from 26-28 million units to 23-25 million units.

Regional Express (REX), Australian largest independent regional airline, had to extinguish a glowing iPhone 4, emitting “dense smoke” while a flight from Lismore to Sydney. A flight attendant extinguished the smoking smartphone and no one was injured during the incident. The situation, obviously, has sparked concerns over the handset's battery. The defected device was the GSM version of the iPhone 4, according to the model number of the device.

This issue, probably, caused by battery overheating wasn’t a unique one for Apple's devices. As far as we know, the company recently initiated a replacement program for the first-generation iPod nano due to potential battery overheating issues earlier this month, although Apple notes that the problem is very rare, but the likelihood of overheating does increase over time.

One of the biggest consumer electronic battery scares in recent years occurred in 2006. Microscopic metal particles were found in 9.6 million lithium-ion Sony batteries that the company had to recall. Such batteries were also used in Apple’s iBook and PowerBook G4 and Apple recalled 1.8 million batteries.

According to research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, demand for Apple’s iPhone 4S helped the company to push it market share in the UK to nearly 43% in October. Apple's U.K. market share increased 2.8 percent to 27.8 percent year-to-year and it is the first time since late 2010 when Apple’s sales beat Android-based handset sales in the region.

"Apple took a whopping 42.8 percent share of all smartphone sales, giving it a significant lead over Android - a feat many thought was impossible," said Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at the firm.

About 75 percent of British customers who purchased an iPhone 4S in October already own a previous version of the device, with 14 percent upgrading from last year's iPhone 4. Sunnebo claims that the main driver for the sales of the iPhone 4S in the U.K. was the existing iPhone users. The second driver is rather long period between the launches of the iPhone 4 and 4S.

Analyst Chris Whitmore with Deutsche Bank and his team of analysts checked more than 200 stores on Black Friday to assess demand for Apple products, including the iPhone, iPad and Mac lineup and found out that Apple's Black Friday sales were more than successful.

75 percent of Apple’s retail stores sold out of the iPhone 4S on Black Friday while on Saturday just 30 percent of Apple's stores remained sold out of the iPhone 4S. At AT&T stores, Whitmore found that about 50 percent were sold out over the weekend.

Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray also polled Apple's retail stores on Black Friday, and discovered that iPad sales per hour were 68 percent higher than they were a year ago that means an average of 14.8 iPads per hour, comparing with the 8.8 iPads sold per hour year-over-year. Mac sales were 10.1 units per hour, up 23 percent from Black Friday 2010.

Whitmore also found strong iPad and Mac sales, noting that the 11.6-inch MacBook Air was the most popular option in the MacBook Air lineup on Black Friday. As for the iPad, he revealed that the most popular version was the 32GB model.