Amid array of challenges, Apple unveils new products

Apple CEO Tim Cook strode through a slickly produced video Tuesday to launch a new iPhone, with few hints of the exceptional string of troubles facing his company including policy reversals, a spyware attack and legal fights.

Cook, from an empty, darkened auditorium, raved over upgraded cameras, brighter screens and new features for some of the Silicon Valley giant's other devices such as the iPad.

"These are the best iPhones we've ever created," Cook said, noting Apple's work to design the "very best products and services to enrich people's lives."

Yet a head-spinning series of problems have occupied the recent public discussion of one the world's most valuable companies. 

Due to a long and loud fight over its online app marketplace, a judge ordered Apple last week to allow developers to sidestep its hefty commission on purchases.

It delayed a plan to scan its customers' devices as part of a child abuse prevention move, after privacy advocates howled over the risk of opening a backdoor for government surveillance.

And then Monday it was forced to roll out an urgent fix after cybersecurity researchers found a weakness that allowed Pegasus spyware to infect Apple devices without users so much as clicking a malicious message.

That said, Apple still possesses massive reach in the digital world and beyond, and manages to be worth over $2 trillion.

Its fans cheered the release of the updated products Tuesday, including analyst Daniel Ives who noted "the supercycle for Cupertino," referring to the California city that is home to Apple's headquarters.

"Apple remains in the midst of its strongest overall product cycle in roughly a decade," he added.

- Array of challenges - 

It is true the company has racked up massive profits driven by the demand for its devices as much of the world hunkered down at home due to the pandemic. 

At the same time legal battles, new laws and the scrutiny of regulators around the world has added up to a series of challenges against the company. 

As Cook expounded on iPhone developments, a group fighting to loosen Apple's control over its App Store tweeted its verdict on the new handset.

"Today's rollout of the iPhone 13 only tells us one thing: new iPhone, same bad App Store," wrote Coalition for App Fairness. 

"It's time for @Apple to #OpenTheAppStore and level the playing field for app developers and innovators."

Apple has started to cede ground on its App Store dominance, including in an agreement with Japanese regulators.

It also faces the legislation adopted by South Korean lawmakers, which banned Apple and Google from forcing app developers to use the tech giants' payment systems. 

Yet when the verdict came in a California court Friday, Apple barely complained about the ruling ordering it to ease control over its App Store.

Instead it heaved a public sigh of relief the judge had not found it to be an illegal monopoly, which could have opened doors for regulators and prosecutors to go after the tech giant. 

"We consider this a huge win for Apple," it told reporters. 

Agence France-Presse

Apple unveils two new iPhones, Watch

SAN FRANCISCO, California — Apple on Wednesday unveiled two upgraded versions of its iPhone and a new waterproof smartwatch, seeking to reignite growth for the iconic technology maker.

The iPhone 7 and larger iPhone 7 Plus, with new camera technology, 50-meter water resistance and other features, were the highlight of an Apple media event in San Francisco.

The new devices come with Apple seeking to reverse declines in sales of the iPhone in an increasingly saturated global market, and boost its Apple Watch — in a slump since the enthusiasm of last year’s release wore off.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook said the new smartphones take advantage of the latest iPhone software, iOS 10.

“We are about to launch iOS 10, our biggest iOS release ever. It is jam-packed with new features,” Cook said.

“Now of course the world’s most advanced mobile operating system deserves the most advanced smartphone, and here it is.”

The flagship devices will be sold at around the same price as the models they replace, starting at $649 for the iPhone 7 for US customers, with deliveries in 25 countries beginning September 16.

One new iPhone feature — which may ruffle some feathers — is the removal of the headphone jack, requiring audio to be delivered via Apple’s proprietary “lightning” connector or by wireless.

“From the start we designed lightning to be a great audio connector,” Apple vice president Phil Schiller told the unveiling event.

“We are taking the headphones in iPhone 7 and 7 Plus to lightning, and including them in the box with the device.”

Apple will also include an adaptor to allow consumers to use existing headphones with the iPhone.

The iPhone 7 Plus, Apple’s version of a “phablet,” includes dual cameras to improve optical performance and photo quality, the company said.

While Apple has touted total iPhone sales of one billion, the number sold in the quarter ending June 25 fell 15 percent from a year earlier, highlighting concerns over growth for the key profit driver.


Super Mario Run

Apple had saved a further surprise for its launch event, announcing jointly with Nintendo that “Super Mario Run” — featuring the iconic game character and developed specifically for mobile — will hit the App Store this year.

Apple, Nintendo and game maker Niantic announced the wildly popular Pokemon Go would be available for Apple Watch users later this month.

On the wearables front, its new Apple Watch Series 2 will also feature GPS — allowing people to gather fitness data during an outdoor workout without need to take along a smartphone.

“We started shipping Apple Watch just 18 months ago, and already people all over the world are using it in many aspects of their daily lives,” Cook said.

“But we are just getting started.”

Sales figures for the smartwatch are not disclosed by Apple, but surveys show enthusiasm has faded since last year’s release.

Apple saw a 56.7 percent year-over-year drop in sales of the device in the past quarter, research firm IDC said.

source: interaksyon.com

Apple TV aims to capture ‘cord cutters’

SAN FRANCICO — The new Apple TV unveiled this week has the potential to do for television what iPhone did to mobile phones, while claiming a starring role in home entertainment.

Updated Apple TV hardware set for release in late October wasn’t expected to revolutionize the television industry, but it could strike a blow to cable companies that have been in a power seat when it comes to delivering shows and other content.

“It turns out fears surrounding the long-term prospects of the cable industry were well warranted,” said Yahoo senior vice president Simon Khalaf, whose mobile analytics company Flurry was bought last year by the Internet pioneer.

“We believe that the industry is facing a perfect storm: apps, app stores and Apple.”

While the unveiling of a new Apple TV on Wednesday did not come with word of deals to stream shows or films from networks or studios, it will have a version of the App Store that has been a hit on iPhones.

“We believe the future of television is apps,” chief executive Tim Cook said.

Apple released a software kit for outside developers, and showed off early versions of Apple TV applications being crafted by streaming services Netflix, Hulu, and HBO.

Siri searches shows

The product launch “sent a warning shot at the cable industry in particular and the media industry in general,” Khalaf said in a blog post.

“Now rather than having dozens of channels to watch, US consumers will have thousands of apps to enjoy on their flat panel TVs ranging from games, to e-sport apps, to live entertainment apps, and to whatever these developers will cook up over the next year.”

Siri virtual assistant software built in Apple TV allowed for natural language searches for shows, such as asking for something funny or a certain actor by name.

Analysts keyed in on the fact that Siri will search across applications on Apple TV, meaning that where shows or films come from should be unimportant to viewers.

People should also be able to see what they want on-demand instead of being at the mercy of cable broadcast schedules.

These options can spur a trend of “cord cutting” or ending the subscription “bundles” offered by cable and satellite TV firms.

Apps trump TV

A Flurry report found that for the first time ever, people in the US in the second quarter of this year spent more each day using mobile applications than they did watching television: a daily average of 198 minutes versus 168 minutes

“Just as they did on the iPhone and iPads, consumers will download these apps and spend plenty of time on them, leaving the dozen or so cable channels lost in a sea of apps,” Khalaf said.

By letting media companies keep control of their content in apps, Apple could find new money-making models while sidestepping worries studios might have about distribution rights.

Since games consistently rank as the most popular apps on mobile devices, the genre is expected to be thrive on Apple TV.

An Apple TV remote control features a touchpad along with sensors that allow it to act as a motion controller similar to those that transformed video game play as part of the original Nintendo Wii console.

Apple TV lacked the kind of computing power and storage capacity found in hard-core video game consoles but was fine for the kinds of “casual” game apps that have rocketed to success on mobile devices, according to analysts.

“I think Apple TV will usher in an era of casual games in the living room,” said Gartner analyst Brian Blau.

The new Apple TV will launch in late October at a starting price of $149.

Apple TV has lagged rivals with similar devices. According to the research firm Parks Associates: Roku leads the US market with a 37 percent market share, to 19 percent for Google Chromecast and 17 percent for Apple TV. Amazon’s Fire TV devices have 14 percent.

Apple shares rebounded a day after a lukewarm market reaction to the US tech giant’s launch of upgraded iPhones and other devices.

Shares rallied 2.2 percent to end at $112.57.

Analysts say Apple is seeking to diversify its product line amid a competitive global smartphone market, and that its new iPad Pro, Apple TV streaming device and Apple Watch may help.

“The new offerings are welcomed additions to the portfolio that will strengthen not only the competitiveness of each product category, but also the wider ecosystem and the increasing developer effort behind this platform,” said analyst Kulbinder Garcha at Credit Suisse in a note to clients.

Jan Dawson of Jackdaw Research said that while the iPhone accounts for most Apple revenue, the upgraded Apple TV device “one of the biggest and most important things announced” and “should drive significant new revenue for Apple and for developers.”

source: interaksyon.com

BMW, Apple in courtship with an eye on car collaboration

FRANKFURT/SAN FRANCISCO — BMW and Apple may rekindle a courtship put on hold after an exploratory visit by executives of the world’s top maker of electronic gadgets to the headquarters of the word’s biggest seller of premium cars.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook went to BMW’s headquarters last year and senior Apple executives toured the carmaker’s Leipzig factory to learn how it manufactures the i3 electric car, two sources familiar with the talks told Reuters.

The dialogue ended without conclusion because Apple appears to want to explore developing a passenger car on its own, one of the sources said.

Also, BMW is being cautious about sharing its manufacturing know-how because it wants to avoid becoming a mere supplier to a software or internet giant.

During the visit, Apple executives asked BMW board members detailed questions about tooling and production and BMW executives signaled readiness to license parts, one of the sources said. News of the Leipzig visit first emerged in Germany’s Manager-Magazin last week.

“Apple executives were impressed with the fact that we abandoned traditional approaches to car making and started afresh. It chimed with the way they do things too,” a senior BMW source said.

The carmaker says there are currently no talks with Apple about jointly developing a passenger car and Apple declined to comment. However, one of the sources said exploratory talks between senior managers may be revived at a later stage.

It is too early to say whether this will be a replay of Silicon Valley’s Prometheus moment: The day in 1979 when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs visited Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center where the first mouse-driven graphical user interface and bit-mapped graphics were created, and walked out with crucial ideas to launch the Macintosh computer five years later.

BMW has realized next-generation vehicles cannot be built without more input from telecoms and software experts, and Apple has been studying how to make a self-driving electric car as it seeks new market opportunities beyond phones.

Staff changes

Since the visit, there has been a reshuffle at the top of BMW, with Harald Krueger, appointed BMW Chief Executive in May, in favor of establishing his own team and his plans for BMW by year end, before engaging in new projects, a person familiar with his thinking told Reuters.

A further complication was the departure of BMW’s board member for development Herbert Diess, who played a leading role in initial discussions with Apple. He defected to Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) in December.

Diess, who declined to comment for this piece, oversaw the development of BMW’s “i” vehicles which are built using light weight carbon fiber, using a radical approach to design and manufacturing.

Car technology has become a prime area of interest for Silicon Valley companies ranging from Google Inc (GOOGL.O), which has built a prototype self-driving car, to electric car-maker Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA.O).

Diess has said the German auto industry needs to undergo radical change because consumers are demanding more intelligent cars and anti-pollution rules mean the next generation vehicles will increasingly be low emission electric and hybrid variants.

In 2030, only two generations of new cars away in auto manufacturing time scales, only a third of vehicles will be powered by a conventional combustion engine alone, experts predict.

“It means that in two cycles we will shut down two thirds of our engine manufacturing,” Diess told a panel discussion in July last year, adding that the value chain for new electric cars is already shifting, with vehicle batteries made mainly in Asia.

“The second part is that the car will become intelligent, part of the Internet,” Diess continued. “And the strong players in this area are in the United States, in the software development area. We will surely need to find alliances in this field.”

Germany has two years to prove that it can hold its own against new entrants when it comes to shaping the future of luxury vehicles, Diess said.

Them and us

Carmakers including BMW have already developed next generation self-driving cars, vehicles which need permanent software updates in the form of high-definition maps allowing a car to recalculate a route if it learns about an accident ahead. The technology is moving ahead faster than the legal and regulatory rules which would allow large-scale commercial availability.

Earlier this year, BMW’s new R&D chief Klaus Froehlich said his company and Apple had much in common, including a focus on premium branding, an emphasis on evolving products and a sense of aesthetically pleasing design.

Asked, in general terms, whether a deeper collaboration beyond integration of products like the iPhone would make sense, Froehlich initially said BMW would not consider any deal that forces it to open up its core know-how to outsiders.

“We do not collaborate to open our eco systems but we find ways, because we respect each other,” Froehlich told Reuters.

BMW will keep in mind the needs of the customer, and what the company’s core strengths are, when it considers the merits of entering any strategic collaboration, Froehlich added.

Peter Schwarzenbauer, BMW’s management board member in charge of the Mini brand as well as digital services declined to comment on possible talks with Apple in an interview earlier this year.

But he said: “Two worlds are colliding here. Our world, focused on hardware and our experience in making complex products, and the world of information technology which is intruding more and more into our life.”

The winners will be those companies that understand how to build intelligent hardware, he said, adding it made sense for carmakers and tech firms to cooperate more closely.

“We need to get away from the idea that it will be either us or them … We cannot offer clients the perfect experience without help from one of these technology companies,” Schwarzenbauer said. That dialogue is well underway, he stressed.

With $202.8 billion in cash, Apple has the resources to enter the automotive market on its own, said Eric Noble, president of the Car Lab, a consulting firm in Orange, Calif.

The tech giant would have an edge on the dashboard, its CarPlay infotainment system connecting iPhones to cars, but would be at square one with the rest of the car, Noble said.

If Apple decided to sell a car it could make sense to find a partner to help with industrial scale production, retail and repair, since demand for such a vehicle could be high.

There are no estimates for potential Apple car sales but the brand and its products command a loyal following. So if only 1 percent of Apple’s annual iPhone customers decided to order a car, it would need to make 1.69 million vehicles.

That’s more than the 434,311 vehicles Jaguar and Land Rover produced last year. Even BMW Group, which made just over 2 million cars last year, would struggle to free up capacity.

source: interaksyon.com

Apple debuts $17,000 watch, some waiting for killer app

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple Inc launched its long-awaited watch on Monday, including yellow or rose gold models with sapphire faces costing up to $17,000, but some investors questioned whether Chief Executive Tim Cook’s first product would be a breakaway hit.

Apple’s first new device since Cook became CEO will be available for order on April 10 and in stores on April 24, including chic boutiques in Paris, London and Tokyo.

In a nod to both fashion and technology, Cook shared the stage with model Christy Turlington Burns, who used it to train for a marathon, and Apple engineers who showed how to send drawings, pictures and even heartbeats with the watch.

Apple shares barely budged, however. Investors and analysts agreed that Apple would sell millions to fans but questioned whether it had a “killer app” that would engage a broader audience. Apple in September gave a sneak peek of the watch which included many features shown on Monday.

“I think there’s a niche market for these kind of Apple tech people who love Apple and will buy anything they come out with. But I just don’t know if it’s going to be the power product that everyone’s looking for,” said Daniel Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Company in Atlanta, Georgia, who described Wall Street as “scratching its head”.

Members of the style establishment, in Paris for shows from the glittering likes of Chanel, Givenchy and Hermes mostly said they saw the watch as a gadget, not this season’s must-have accessory.

The Edition price tag which is inexpensive compared with a Patek Philippe Nautilus at just over $42,000 on 11main.com, inspired plenty of jibes on social media, including many who questioned whether it would become outdated and compared the price to a car’s. “Wonder what kind of gas mileage it gets,” asked Twitter user Christopher Caruso.

Nevertheless many made clear they wanted it. “My birthday is gonna rock this year… :-) #applewatch,” wrote Jay Runquist.

The Apple Watch sport will start at $349 for the smaller, 38-mm model. The standard version of the watch will start at $549 and the high-end “Edition” watch will be priced from $10,000, said Cook, who loved the Dick Tracy ability to hold phone calls by watch.

“I have been wanting to do this since I was five years old,” said Cook.

The different models reflect different materials. A $17,000 Edition in the smaller, 38-mm size, has a case made from a customised version of 18-karat rose gold, which is especially hard, along with a sapphire display. It comes with a magnetic charging case.

A $349 Sport model the same size has an aluminium case, a ‘sport band’ and a magnetic charging cable, and no case.

All the watches share digital faces that can look like traditional time pieces, show the heart beat of a friend, and display photos and interfaces for apps.

“Apple’s been very good at personalizing its products,” said Angelo Zino, an analyst at S&P Capital IQ, who said the “intimacy” of the watch was appealing. He saw 10 million in sales this year.

In the presentation, Cook described the watch handling many functions currently associated with the iPhone, which tethers wirelessly to the watch and connects it to the Internet.

The watch will track exercise and remind wearers of events with a tap on the wrist.

Cook also laid out other product successes and launched a new MacBook notebook computer that starts at $1,299 and weighs as little as 2 pounds.

Every major car brand had committed to delivering Apple’s CarPlay entertainment system, and the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have 99 percent customer satisfaction rates, he said. The Apple Pay payment system is now accepted at 700,000 locations, and Time Warner Inc’s HBO in April will debut its streaming HBO NOW service on Apple TV.

Apple also is offering researchers new development tools, called ResearchKit, to help medical researchers design apps for clinical trials, the company said.

No “wow” factor?

source: interaksyon.com

Apple unveils ApplePay mobile wallet

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple unveiled a new mobile wallet on Tuesday aimed at allowing consumers to use iPhones linked to credit cards for more secure, convenient payments.

Apple chief Tim Cook said the ApplePay system would replace an “antiquated payment process” with “an entirely new payment system” that allows consumers to touch their phones to retail terminals.

The new payment system will be built into the new iPhones and Apple’s operating system which were also unveiled Thursday.

Cook said that each day in the United States alone “that’s 200 million times that we scramble through our credit cards and go through what is a fairly antiquated payment process.”

He said other efforts have failed because the companies introducing mobile wallets were working on the basis of “their self-interest” instead of the user experience.

Cook showed a video of a consumer tapping a phone on a payment terminal, commenting, “it’s so cool.”

source: interaksyon.com

Apple unveils two big-screen iPhones, smartwatch‎

Apple unveiled on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) two new versions of the iPhone, boosting the screen size of the iconic smartphone to 4.7 and 5.5 inches.

Unveiling the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Apple chief Tim Cook said the company was launching “the biggest advancement in the history of iPhones.”

Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller, speaking in Cupertino, California, said the new iPhones were “simply stunning” with polarized glass displays and bodies that are “thinner than ever before.”

“These are the best phones ever made,” Schiller said, as he described the new devices at a major set-piece event streamed live online.

The new iPhone 6 will start at the same price of existing iPhones at $199 for US customers while the iPhone 6 Plus will be at $299 with a two-year contract.

Schiller said the devices would be available in at least 115 countries by the end of the year.

Apple will cut the price of existing iPhone 5S and 5C with the launch.

Apple’s move, expanding the latest iPhone with a four-inch screen, comes as consumers are switching to handsets with bigger displays to watch videos and browse the Internet.

Observers say the timing is right for Apple to introduce a generation of iPhone 6 models with screen sizes stretched to tap into users’ love for “phablets” that combine the features of smartphones and tablets.

Apple chief Tim Cook said, “it’s the best iPhone ever.”

Apple straps computing to wrist with Watch

Apple also unveiled a smartwatch dubbed simply “Watch.”

“Apple Watch is the most personal device we have ever created,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook said while announcing the hotly-anticipated move into wearable computing.

The watch comes in two sizes and an array of choices of interchangeable, fashionable bands. Cook introduced Apple Watch with the “one more thing” introduction that was a trademark of iconic Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

“It is the next chapter in Apple’s story,” Cook said of the first new product category to be entered by the company since the death of Jobs in 2011.

“We invented intimate ways to connect and communicate directly from your wrist; it works seamlessly with iPhone and it is also a comprehensive health and fitness device.”

Apple has been working on Watch for a long time, and didn’t just shrink the iPhone and strap it to the wrist, Cook told a rapt audience in a performing arts center in Silicon Valley where Jobs introduced the Macintosh computer 30 years ago.

While Apple Watch has touch-screen capabilities, many controls were designed into a “digital crown” button to avoid fingers from blocking screens.

Sensors on the Watch can detect a wearer’s pulse, and the devices tap into motion sensing features in iPhones to provide a “comprehensive picture of activity” and get help working toward fitness goals, according to Apple senior vice president of design Jonathan Ive.

Applications for Watch including map software that guides people to destinations with gentle “taps” on the wrist.

source: interaksyon.com

Apple offers free OS upgrades for life

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple Inc on Tuesday offered free upgrades for life on its operating system and business software, and unveiled thinner iPads and faster Mac computers ahead of a competitive holiday shopping season.

The debut of the one-pound iPad Air and MacBook Pro with sharper ‘retina’ display repeats a pattern of recent launches with improvements in existing lines rather than totally new products, and Apple shares fell 0.3 percent for the day.







Apple said upgrades to its Mac operating system and iWork software suite, which compete with Microsoft Corp’s Excel, Word and other applications, will now be offered for all MacBooks and Mac computers.

That brings Apple’s model of free system software upgrades on phones and tablets to the computer market, where Apple is still the underdog to Microsoft’s Windows.

Apple may be trying to safeguard its grip on mobile software as Microsoft revs up its Windows-powered Surface Pro, which runs applications, such as Word or Excel, that are the standard for business customers, analysts said.

“We are turning the industry on its ear, but this is not why we’re doing it,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook told media and technology executives at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center.

“We want our customers to have our latest software.”

The market is awash in inexpensive tablets running Google Inc’s Android software, but the company may be focused on fending off a threat from the high end.

“In the tablet PC market, they do think Microsoft is a bigger threat than Android,” said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. “The iPad Air will compete with Surface Pro, not some rinky-dink Android tablet.”

Gartner estimates that Apple’s share of the global tablet market will slip to 47.2 percent in 2014, with Android-based tablets just overtaking Apple’s this year. The IT research outfit expects Microsoft tablets to grab 3.4 percent of the market this year, double the 1.7 percent forecast for 2013.



Pressure

Microsoft gets 65 percent of its Windows revenue, which totaled $19.2 billion last fiscal year, from PC manufacturers which put the system on its machines, and 35 percent from other sources, chiefly people and businesses buying its software separately to install themselves.

The latest version of Windows, when bought separately to install on an old computer, starts at $120 for a home version and goes up to $200 for the full ‘Pro’ version. The latest Windows 8.1 upgrade was free for customers running Windows 8.

Apple’s product launches on Tuesday were evolutionary, with the new iPads equipped with faster processors and better screens. Cook, at an industry conference in May, had hinted at “several more game changers” from Apple which could include wearable computers, but had not given a time frame.

“As always with Apple, expectations on systematic breakthrough hardware innovations are irrational,” said Forrester analyst Thomas Husson said. “Apple is good at inventing new products and at maximizing profitability of its product range over time through software innovations and clever marketing.”

Apple’s new iPad Air – its full-size tablet – is about 20 percent thinner than the previous generation of tablets, weighs one pound and starts at $499. It will go on sale on November 1.

The iPad mini now has a “retina” high-resolution screen and starts at $399, compared with $329 for the previous mini model. The two new tablets would face stiff competition, with Microsoft, Nokia and Amazon.com Inc all plugging rival devices in coming months.

Apple also showed off a new Mac Pro, a premium and high-powered cylindrical desktop computer that will be assembled in United States. It had shown the computer at a previously event.

For the first, Apple will launch the new iPads simultaneously in the United States and China, its biggest market, which is also a key growth region.

Apple, which jumpstarted the tablet computing market in 2010 with the first iPad, has already come under increasing pressure from cheaper devices ranging from Amazon’s Kindle Fire to Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s Note.

But while Apple is ceding market share to rivals, its superior library of apps and content should safeguard its lead for years to come, analysts say.

Longer term however, investors hope to see real device innovation from a company that has not unveiled a new breakthrough product in years.

Cook on Tuesday dismissed the competition as directionless.

“Our competition is different: they’re confused,” he said. “Now they’re trying to make PCs into tablets and tablets into PCs. Who knows what they’ll do next?”

“We have a very clear direction and a very ambitious goal. We still believe deeply in this category and we’re not slowing down on our innovation.”

source: interaksyon.com

Apple unveils two new iPhones

CUPERTINO, California — Apple on Tuesday unveiled two new iPhones, fielding a slick new top-end model along with one aimed at budget-conscious smartphone shoppers around the world.

“The business has become so large that this year we are going to replace the iPhone 5 and we are going to replace it with two new designs,” Apple chief Tim Cook announced at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters.

Apple will begin taking orders on Friday, and on September 20 the two devices will go on sale in the United States, Australia, Britain, China, France, Germany, Japan and Singapore.

The iPhone 5C is part of Apple’s bid to counter the flood of low-cost smartphones from rivals, most of which use the Google Android operating system.

Apple designer Jony Ive said that despite the lower cost, the polycarbonate iPhone 5C with a steel frame “is beautiful.”

The iPhone 5C with 16 gigabytes of memory will start at $99 with a two-year US carrier contract and $549 without a contract — $100 less than previous iPhone base models.

“The 5C is a no-compromise device,” Gartner analyst Van Baker told AFP after trying out Apple’s new phones. “It is just in a plastic case instead of a metal case, and they basically reduce the price by the cost of materials.”

But Baker said it was an “open question” whether the price cut for the iPhone 5C would be enough to attract customers in emerging markets.

“Anyone expecting Apple to come truly down-market with the iPhone 5C was fooling themselves,” said Ovum analyst Tony Cripps.

“The day that happens is the day the company signals that it has run out of headroom for expansion.”

Apple would not name its China telecom launch partners, who might step in with subsidies to help push down iPhone prices there. Apple planned a separate press event in China on Wednesday.

The top-line iPhone 5S, which starts at $199 with a contract for US buyers and $649 without one, “is the most forward thinking phone we have ever created,” said Apple vice president Phil Schiller.

“It is the gold standard in smartphones.”

Schiller said the 5S model includes a speedier chip which puts computing performance on par with desktop machines.

“It has over a billion transistors in it,” he said, adding that the device will be a mobile game lover’s delight with blazing smooth, rich graphics.





The 5S will also have some 10 hours of talk time, or 40 hours of music listening, Schiller added.

Apple introduced a fingerprint sensor for the iPhone 5S as a new security measure in place of passwords.

“You can just press the home button to unlock your phone,” Schiller said. “You can use it to authenticate iTunes purchases.”

Schiller added: “We have so much of our personal data on these devices, and they are with us almost everyplace we go, so we have to protect them.”

Reticle Research principle analyst Ross Rubin described Touch ID as a “show stealer” that addresses “a necessary annoyance that many consumers have to deal with many times a day.”

Apple also broadened its color palette, announcing the low-cost phone in blue, white, pink, yellow and green, and the top-line model in silver, gold and a new “space gray.”

Apple said its iOS 7 software will debut September 18. It includes a free iTunes Radio Service featuring more than 200 stations “and an incredible catalog of music from the iTunes Store.”

The two new handsets keep the four-inch screen of current iPhones, despite some speculation Apple would boost the size to compete with larger phones from rivals like Samsung.

The smartphone market is now dominated by Android devices, with roughly three-fourths of all handsets, but a forecast by research firm IDC suggested Apple will increase its share this year to 17.9 percent from 16.9 percent.

IDC analyst Ramon Llamas said that with the 5C, “Apple is staking out its space in the lower-cost smartphone category.”

Llamas said Apple is seeking to fend off lower-priced rivals while “it enjoys bigger profit margins and still maintains the aura of being an aspirational brand.”

The event was a disappointment to some who were looking for a fresh device from Apple, such as a smartwatch or TV service.

“I think there was an expectation for that ‘one more thing,’” said Roger Kay at Endpoint Technologies. “People were looking for some pizzazz and they didn’t get it.”

Apple announced separately a deal with Japan’s biggest mobile phone carrier NTT DoCoMo to bring the two new iPhones to that country.

source: interaksyon.com

Apple, Beats discuss new music service

SAN FRANCISCO/LOS ANGELES — Apple Inc has held talks with Beats Electronics LLC, the audio technology firm co-founded by influential hip-hop producer Dr Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine, on a potential partnership involving Beats’ planned music-streaming service, three people familiar with the situation told Reuters.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook met with Beats CEO Jimmy Iovine during a visit to Los Angeles in late February to find out more about Beats’ “Project Daisy”, a music subscription service the company announced in January but with scant detail, the sources said.

Apple’s Internet products chief Eddy Cue, a key player in setting up its iTunes Music Store, also joined the meeting, at which Cook expressed interest in Daisy’s business model and its rollout plans, although the two did not discuss specifics of a deal, the sources said.

The meeting between Cook and Iovine, who is also chairman of music company Interscope-Geffen-A&M, was “informational” and covered a broad range of music-related topics, the sources said.

Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr and Beats declined to comment.

The iPhone maker has been widely reported to be considering a music-streaming service to complement iTunes, the largest repository of music for sale. Beats, known for its stylistic, distinctive headphones, has a partnership with Taiwanese handset maker HTC Corp, an Apple rival.

Beats reportedly named the project “Daisy” in honor of what it called the first digital, computerized song. At the time, it said in a press release that the service would “bring an emotional connection back to the act of music discovery,” referring to the process through which users find, buy and consume music.

Hungry for growth

The music recording industry has languished through more than a decade of declining revenues and sputtering growth. Industry sources say many of the largest companies are beginning to warm to the idea of collecting fees on music streamed over the Internet, as the use of smartphones and tablets explodes around the world.

But it remains a nascent market, dwarfed by music sales via outlets such as iTunes.

The meeting between Apple and Iovine was set up in January, immediately after Beats announced Daisy without explaining the upcoming project’s business model or how it plans to differentiate itself from existing services such as Spotify and Pandora, one of the sources said.

Other players reportedly looking at expanding into music-streaming — whether fee-based or by paid subscription — include Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc.

Iovine, a music producer and “mentor” to contestants on Fox’s “American Idol” show, has a long association with Apple and was one of the first music industry executives to sign onto what was then Apple’s nascent iTunes initiative, announced in 2001.

In a January interview with technology website AllThingsD, Iovine said he subsequently pitched a subscription service to Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs in 2003, but the mercurial Silicon Valley icon was not keen on it right away.

Iovine said Jobs didn’t want to pay the record companies enough, and thought the price would come down eventually.

source: interaksyon.com

Google, Apple CEOs in secret patent talks

SAN FRANCISCO — Google Inc Chief Executive Larry Page and Apple CEO Tim Cook have been conducting behind-the-scenes talks about a range of intellectual property matters, including the mobile patent disputes between the companies, people familiar with the matter said.

The two executives had a phone conversation last week, the sources said. Discussions involving lower-level officials of the two companies are also ongoing.

Page and Cook are expected to talk again in the coming weeks, though no firm date has been set, the sources said on Thursday. One of the sources told Reuters that a meeting had been scheduled for this Friday, but had been delayed for reasons that were unclear.

The two companies are keeping lines of communication open at a high level against the backdrop of Apple’s legal victory in a patent infringement case against Samsung, which uses Google’s Android software.

Last Friday, a jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages and set the stage for a possible ban on sales of some Samsung products in a case that has been widely viewed as a “proxy war” between Apple and Google.

One possible scenario under consideration could be a truce involving disputes over basic features and functions in Google’s Android mobile software, one source said. But it was unclear whether Page and Cook were discussing a broad settlement of the various disputes between the two companies, most of which involve the burgeoning mobile computing area, or are focused on a more limited set of issues.

Competition between Google and Apple has heated up in recent years with the shift from PCs to mobile devices. Google’s Android software, which Apple’s late founder Steve Jobs denounced as a “stolen product,” has become the world’s No.1 smartphone operating system. The popularity of the software has been in tandem with patent infringement lawsuits involving various hardware vendors who use it, including Samsung and HTC.

The latest complaint was filed by Motorola Mobility, now a unit of Google, against Apple at the U.S. International Trade Commission claiming some features of Apple’s devices infringe on its patents. A previous lawsuit between the two in a Chicago court was thrown out by a federal judge, who said neither side could prove damages.

Apple in recent months has moved to lessen its reliance on Google’s products. Apple recently unveiled its own mobile mapping software, replacing the Google product used in the iPhone, and said it would no longer offer Google’s YouTube as a pre-loaded app in future versions of its iPhone.

Cook took the helm at Apple a year ago, and Page stepped into the top job at Google a few months before that.

The conversation between Page and Cook last week did not result in any formal agreement, but the two executives agreed to continue talking, according to one source.

Google’s Larry Page, who sat out several public speaking engagements earlier this summer because of an unspecified medical condition affecting his voice, has continued to run Google’s business.

Apple and Google declined to comment on any discussions.

source: interaksyon.com