Rush for iPhone 6 Plus likely to outstrip supply

The worst fears of Apple well-wishers have been confirmed as the initial rush for the new iPhone 6 series has led to the shipment delay of the larger 6 Plus model. While the pre-order rush should bode well for Apple in terms of the sales forecast, the bigger issue at hand is having enough units to sell in countries where the phablet phenomenon is well and truly settled in.

According to a Reuters report, Customers may have to wait three to four weeks to get their hands on Apple Inc’s iPhone 6 Plus, after a record number of orders for the company’s latest smartphones strained available supply.   The report adds, while the larger 5.5-inch “Plus” models now display a wait time of up to a month, the 4.7-inch version remains available for delivery on 19 September, Apple’s website showed.

Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint Corp, also showed shipment delays of up to six weeks on their respective websites. Apple said the pace of orders has so far outstripped any of its previous iPhones.   Two of the biggest such markets, China and India, have been left in dodgy territory by Apple in terms of the iPhone 6.

While a release date for China has not been revealed, in India, the company’s website has removed the earlier launch date of October 17. The change was reflected a day before the iPhone 6 series went on pre-order in the US.

These sort of delays are not new when it comes to Apple and the iPhone, and has been seen every time there’s a major redesign for the iPhone. The latest iPhones of course have become a problem due to the larger screens, which some analysts had anticipated way before the actual launch. Now, the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus models in the US display a wait time of up to a month, with the 4.7-inch version available for delivery.

While we expect the shortage to be taken care of by Apple within the next few weeks as all supply chain players align themselves for the major push later in the holiday season, this delay, albeit short, plays directly into the hands of Samsung, the company’s biggest rival in the US and the world smartphone market.   Samsung released three new phones in anticipation of the new iPhones, in the form of the premium Galaxy Alpha, Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge.

The Galaxy Alpha nearly mirrors the specs of the iPhone 6, while the Note 4 sizes up well against the iPhone 6 Plus, which is the first phablet from Apple.

The Galaxy Alpha which has already released in some markets has been welcome with glowing reviews about its metal design, functionality and fears about its battery life have been put to rest by test numbers, so it’s shaping up to a great Android alternative to the iPhone 6.

Meanwhile the Galaxy Note 4 is yet to launch and will likely make an appearance in India early next month in keeping with the Indian holiday season launches.

The current delay with the iPhone 6 Plus gives Samsung a lot of leeway to play around with the pricing and launch offers of the Note 4 series to sweeten the deal for potential consumers. As it is the high-end smartphone segment has hit the ceiling in terms of growth potential and is largely considered a saturated segment.

With Samsung being able to ship Note 4 in large numbers, Apple loses out on potential buyers in the high-end segment.

This is especially true for those buyers currently on the fence as to which platform to go for. Both Android and iOS are equally capable OSes which have a great selection of apps and games, and their unique set of advantages, so for those on-the-fence buyers, the Note 4 might well be coming at the right time.

While Apple’s hopes of stealing some Android users away also receives a dent with news of the phablet’s delayed production.   It wouldn’t be wrong to say that some sheen from Apple’s big launch has been robbed by the delay. It remains to be seen whether the company’s rivals can capitalise on this.

Source:

tech.firstpost.com

Posted by Editorial Team on 1:10 AM in Apple, iPhone 6, outstrip, Plus, Plus model, Rush, supply, US display, website, wireless

Facebook is 69% male and mostly white

Like many of its Silicon Valley peers, Facebook's workforce and management team is overwhelmingly white and male, according to the social media giant's first diversity report.

Released on Wednesday, the report is the latest in a flurry of voluntary diversity disclosures by high-profile tech firms.

The facts show that 69% of Facebook's global staffers are male. A full 85% of the company's tech workers, and 77% of its management team, are also men.

The company's U.S. workforce is 57% white, 34% Asian, 4% Hispanic and 2% black.

"As these numbers show, we have more work to do -- a lot more," Maxine Williams, Facebook's global head of diversity, said in a statement.

The report shows that while Facebook has women including "Lean In" author Sheryl Sandberg in prominent positions, diversity at the company is roughly in line with rivals including Google, Yahoo and LinkedIn.

There has been renewed focus on the lack of diversity at companies in Silicon Valley in recent months. Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson has appeared at several annual meetings of tech companies this spring, including Google and Facebook, to urge them to do more to recruit African American and Hispanic workers.

The true scale of the industry's diversity problem is difficult to determine, largely because most major tech companies have closely guarded their data.

Starting in 2011, CNNMoney probed 20 of the most influential U.S. tech firms. Almost all refused to provide numbers on workplace diversity.

When Freedom of Information Act requests were filed by CNNMoney, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Google, IBM and Microsoft all successfully petitioned the Department of Labor to exclude their data.

Data collected on five companies -- Cisco, Intel, Dell, eBay and Ingram Micro -- showed a significant gender imbalance in officer and management positions.

At the end of May, Google released a diversity report that showed 70% of its staff is male and 61% is white, while 30% is Asian. Linkedin has also released a diversity report which showed 61% of its staff is male, while 53% is white and 38% is Asian.

Yahoo, one of the most prominent Silicon Valley companies with a female CEO, has a U.S. workforce that is 50% white and 39% Asian. Only 6% are either black or Hispanic.

Williams said that a new "strategic diversity team" launched at Facebook last year has improved hiring and retention for underrepresented groups.

Source:

www.hartfordbusiness.com

Posted by Editorial Team on 6:59 AM in 69% male, Apple, CNNMoney, Google, Hewlett-Packard, LinkedIn, mostly white, overwhelmingly, Silicon Valley peers, Yahoo

Microsoft, Apple, and device discontinuity

Microsoft argues that the Surface will save you from having to buy a MacBook and an iPad, but its integrated tablet comes at the price of a disjointed user experience.

A major theme at Microsoft's introduction of Surface Pro 3 was a refinement of a message that the company has been pushing for third-party hybrid portable computers since the release of Windows 8. Why deal with the hassle of deciding between a MacBook and iPad or the expense of buying both when you could have the intimacy of a tablet experience and the productivity of a laptop experience in Surface Pro?

The answer to that rhetorical question is influenced by Apple's history and justified by its philosophy. But it also raises challenges to Apple about working with both a MacBook and iPad.

Let's start with why the MacBook and iPad are separate devices and why they remain so. Steve Jobs once confirmed at an industry conference that Apple had begun work on what would become the iPad before it developed the iPhone. After the iPhone had been released, though, and the company looked toward the tablet, it faced a choice. It could have pursued the path it did by scaling up the iPhone's software or brought forward the legacy of Mac apps with some touch APIs.

One might chalk up the choice it made to a fundamental difference between Apple's and Microsoft's historical business models. Apple makes money from devices, after all, and benefits from customers purchasing two (or three in the case of an iPhone) rather than one. However, the company could have created (and still could create) a Yoga-like hinge and a touch screen on the MacBook Air or made the screen detachable and added a bunch of touch APIs to preserve and carry forward legacy Mac applications. It could have called this the MacBook Touch and charged a high premium for it the way it did for the first Retina MacBook.

Casting aside the debate about the touch-screen ergonomics on a notebook, such a device might not have had to contend with the dual personality of Windows' Modern/desktop dichotomy. Windows apps such as Office and the forthcoming version of Photoshop that was shown at the Surface Pro 3 launch have a degree of touch-enablement. However, they are not touch-optimized. Microsoft essentially concedes it's not enough, which is why it is working on a Modern version of Office for Windows. (Indeed, if an app is not "modern" -- and certainly isn't futuristic -- isn't it by default "dated"?)

In other words, Apple surely considered an approach similar to Microsoft's -- a touch-enabled but backward-compatible Mac versus a touch-optimized iPad would have involved a compromised experience, one that Microsoft is working to improve gradually through its own improvements to Windows and -- more importantly -- by encouraging third parties to develop apps that perhaps one day will provide a virtually completely "Modern" experience.

Instead, Apple drew a line in the sand and said the iPad is where we will break compatibility and focus on a new class of apps. This is similar to how it started over from the very successful Apple II with the Lisa and then Mac with the exception that the company was able to reuse much more of the underlying OS foundation.

But despite it heralding the "post-PC era," Apple will continue to have one foot planted in the PC era, and that's the Mac. As it continues to develop it along with its portable iOS products like the iPad, its customers must content with some friction in working with multiple devices in comparison to one in the Surface. I'll dive into those challenges and some things Apple might do to alleviate them in my next column.

Source:

www.cnet.com

Posted by Editorial Team on 11:01 PM in Apple, device discontinuity, laptop experience, MacBook, Microsoft, Microsoft's introduction, not touch-optimized, separate devices, Surface Pro 3, touch-enablement, Windows 8

Senate passes ‘kill switch’ law for smartphones sold in California

On Thursday, the state Senate approved a bill requiring cellphones sold in California to have “kill switches” that can make them inoperable if stolen.

Charlie Beck, LAPD Chief, and other law enforcement authorities supported Senate Bill 962 as a means to respond to increasing smartphone theft incidents.

In the past, the legislation had failed a Senate vote, but Senator Mark Leno agreed making amendments such as leaving out electronic tablets and delaying the date kill switches will be mandatory in new phones, from January to July 2015. This resulted to Microsoft and Apple dropping their opposition of the said bill. Moreover, five Democrats changed their votes to back the bill.

Charlie Beck, LAPD Chief, and other law enforcement authorities supported Senate Bill 962 as a means to respond to increasing smartphone theft incidents.

In the past, the legislation had failed a Senate vote, but Senator Mark Leno agreed making amendments such as leaving out electronic tablets and delaying the date kill switches will be mandatory in new phones, from January to July 2015. This resulted to Microsoft and Apple dropping their opposition of the said bill. Moreover, five Democrats changed their votes to back the bill.

Source:

www.techsonia.com

Posted by Editorial Team on 3:04 AM in Apple, California, Charlie Beck, electronic tablets, enator Mark Leno, LAPD Chief, Microsoft, new phones, Senate passes, smartphones sold

Apple Vs. Samsung Why Did Samsung Ask for Reduced Amount of Damages? -

Samsung Electronics has lowered the total amount of its damage claim after filing a counter-suit against Apple for patent violations. 

Samsung announced on April 22 (local time) that it withdrew its patent claim on Apple’s iPad in the current patent infringement case against Apple in the Northern District of California. The aggregate amount of the Korean tech giant’s damage claim has therefore decreased from US$6.94 million (7.2 billion won) to US$6.23 million (6.46 billion won). 

Previously, the largest Android phone maker demanded US$6.78 million, claiming that Apple’s FaceTime feature infringes on its video call patent. The amount was then lowered to US$6.07 million. However, the Korean firm’s US$158,400 patent claim related to the management of cameras and file folders remains the same. 

In response, Apple has decided to let expert witnesses testify that it did not infringe on the patents of its rival company. When a second patent infringement lawsuit started early in April, the US tech firm demanded that Samsung pay US$2.19 billion (2.27 trillion won) for the alleged infringements by the Korean company. 

The videotaped testimony of Google patent attorney James Maccoun that describes terms of the search engine company’s “Mobile Application Distribution Agreement” with Samsung and e-mail discussions was played for jurors on April 22. 

Under the agreement, the world’s largest smartphone vendor is required to install Google’s applications in Samsung phones, and the Internet giant is also obligated to defend and indemnify the Korean firm against claims pertaining to Samsung’s use of technology for Google’s Android operating system. According to e-mail discussions, the search engine giant may need to pay some of costs in the case. In the event that Samsung loses the case, Google may have to shoulder some of Samsung’s burden in damages. 

In general, these kinds of defense and indemnity clauses are concluded in the software license agreement. 

The jury is expected to deliberate the case after witness examinations on April 22 and 25, and closing arguments are finalized on April 28. Hence, the jury is likely to reach a verdict in the final week of April.

Source:
www.businesskorea.co.kr

Posted by Editorial Team on 12:48 AM in Apple, California, Damages, FaceTime, Korean, largest Android, Northern, patent violations, Samsung, withdrew

Apple planning to make Emoji characters more diverse and other news from March 25, 2014

If you take a look at iOS's built-in Emjoi set, you may have noticed that most of the people depicted are Caucasian. Curious as to why this was the case,MTV's Act blog sent an email to Tim Cook asking if Apple had any plans to diversify its Emoji icon lineup.

A few days later, Apple VP of worldwide corporate communications Katie Cotton responded.

Tim forwarded your email to me. We agree with you. Our emoji characters are based on the Unicode standard, which is necessary for them to be displayed properly across many platforms. There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set, and we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard.

This of course wouldn't mark the first time Apple took efforts to make its Emoji set more inclusive. With iOS 6, Apple introduced Emojis featuring same-sex couples.

Lastly, note that Apple is a full member of The Unicode Consortium, along with Adobe, IBM, Google, Microsoft and others.

via AppleInsider

Other news from Tuesday afternoon includes:

• The Wall Street Journal has posted its interview with one of the original iPhone engineers, Greg Christie. The interview, which is behind a pay wall, discusses the development of the phone and Steve Jobs' expectations for it.
• The iTunes Movie Trailers app has been updated, and it allows you to add a movie to a favorites list. This will alert you when the move debuts in theaters or is available for sale in the iTunes Store. The release also integrates Rotten Tomatoes reviews and sharing links via AirDrop.
• 9to5Mac noticed a couple more Apple hires, including Bob Kupbens as the head of Online Retail.
• BlackBerry has filed a lawsuit to prevent one of its executives from leaving after he agrees to become Vice President of Core OS for Apple.

Source:

www.tuaw.com

Posted by Editorial Team on 1:39 AM in Adobe, Apple, Apple planning, AppleInsider, Emoji characters, IBM Google, iOS's, Microsoft, MTV's Act blog, Unicode

Apple launches cheaper 8GB iPhone 5c

Hot on the heels of leaked pictures purporting to show an 8GB version of the iPhone 5c, Apple has put the device up for sale.

Just like the 16GB and 32GB memory versions of the iPhone 5c launched last year, the 8GB model comes with a four-inch Retina display, A6 chip, eight-megapixel camera, and 1080p video recording.

The device is now up for purchase on Apple's UK website, at a cost of £429 —£40 under the 16GB and £120 below the 32GB — or from its various European equivalents for around €550, around €50 less than the 16GB and €150 less than the 32GB. At the time of going to press, it wasn't showing on the US site.

UK mobile operator O2 also started selling the device today for £100 ($166) less than the 16GB model.

Would-be buyers can get the device for free with a £43 a month two-year contract with 8GB of data and unlimited calls a month, or pay a larger upfront cost for a cheaper monthly deal. The most expensive upfront cost comes with a £13 a month two-year plan, which gives the user 500MB of data a month and 500 call minutes. On that plan, customers will have to pay £409.99 for the device.

The 8GB iPhone 5c is showing as 'in stock' on the O2 website, in five colours. The phone is not available for outright an purchase price yet, and the device is just listed as 'coming soon' for pay as you go on the O2 website.

8GB iPhone 5c arrives. Image: O2

On O2, the 16GB iPhone 5c is available on two-year plans with the highest upfront cost set at £509, while the outright purchase price is £469 for pay-as-you-go. The respective prices for the 32GB iPhone 5c is £620 and £549.

The difference between outright and contract prices suggest the 8GB model will cost less than £400 off contract — which is £40 more than the 8GB iPhone 4S and £80 below Samsung's 32GB Galaxy S4, which is soon to be replaced by Samsung's new flagship, the Galaxy S5.

The launch of the new lower priced iPhone 5C follows lengthy speculation over the sales of the device relative to its better specced and more expensive sibling, the iPhone 5s.

Apple has never broken out sales of the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s separately, however some analysts have estimated the iPhone 5c accounts for about a third of Apple's first quarter iPhone sales of 51 million. In the UK, market research firm Kantar World Panel ComTech estimated iPhone 5s sales were outstripping iPhone 5c sales by three to one in the middle of last year.

O2 UK's launch of the 8GB iPhone 5C followed reports yesterday of O2 Germany planning to launch a device that was around €60 cheaper than the 16GB model. The carrier has a blank placeholder for a third device on its iPhone 5c sales page.

We've asked Apple when the 8GB iPhone 5c will be released in other markets, and we'll update this story if the company responds.

Source: www.zdnet.com

Posted by Editorial Team on 4:04 AM in 1080p video, 5c, 8GB iPhone, 8GB version, Apple, five colours, Galaxy S4, market research, Samsung's 32GB, UK mobile

Apple brings CarPlay to iPhone and iPad with iOS 7.1

Apple has begun offering its latest iOS update to iPad and iPhone owners, bringing support for its newly announced motoring project CarPlay

Apple has begun offering its latest iOS update to iPad and iPhone owners, bringing support for its newly announced motoring project CarPlay.

The system allows an iOS device to be controlled by a compatible car’s “touchscreen, knobs and buttons”. Users can safely push a button placed in an easily accessible spot to launch Siri, then make calls, use maps, listen to music and access messages hands-free. A screen built-in to the dashboard can show turn-by-turn directions.

Vehicles from Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo have CarPlay as an option for customers, while manufacturers such as BMW, Ford and Jaguar will all launch the feature in the future. The latest version of iOS – 7.1 – adds the support necessary to make the system work with existing phones and tablets.

Other software tweaks include the ability to display events in the month view in the Calendar app, a fix for the bug which could “occasionally cause a Home screen crash” and improved Touch ID fingerprint recognition.

Siri has been adjusted so that you can hold the Home button down while talking and release it when you have finished, rather than letting it decide when your command has ended. The update also adds a “more natural-sounding” voice for the UK English setting.

Those with extremely bad inbox-checking habits will be pleased to note that a glitch which affected unread mail numbers greater than 10,000 on the Mail badge has also been fixed.

News Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Posted by Editorial Team on 7:07 AM in Apple, BMW, CarPlay, Ferrari, Ford, iOS 7.1, iPhone, Jaguar, Mercedes, Touch ID

Apple and Google Dominate the Mobile World According to ComScore

Apple and Google currently dominate the mobile phone world. (Photo : Wikimedia Commons)

Apple and Google dominate the mobile space, according to a new data report by ComScore.

ComScore is a leader in measuring the digital world, and today released data from its Mobilens and Mobile Metrix, reporting important trends in the U.S. smartphone industry for January 2014.

Apple lead as No.1 smartphone manufacturer, with its iPhones capturing 41.6% of the US market this year so far, and Samsung came second with 26.7%.

On the operating system side however, Apple was unable to compete with Google. Android led the market with 51.7% share while iOS had 41.6%. Trailing behind them was windows phone at 3.2% and Blackberry OS at 3.1%.

There is no surprise about the popularity that the iPhone and Android share. It's worth noting however that while Apple saw its manufacturer market share jump over the last 3 months, Samsung is also picking up momentum.

In addition to their report on smartphones supremacy and operating systems, ComScore also reported on the top destinations for mobile browsers. Google's sites were visited by almost 90% of the American mobile users, and Facebook took second place with 87 percent. Yahoo and amazon came next with 86.2% and 69%, respectively.

Google's sites ranked in the report as the top "web property," reaching 89.4% of the mobile media crowd. Included in this statistic was also web browsing and app usage.

Another cool number: Facebook was the most popular mobile app in the US last quarter, and was employed by 78% of its users.

ComScore, a digital measurement and analytics company, also reported Friday that 7 percent more people owned smartphones in January over last October, with a total of 159.8 million Americans possessing the tech. That's a 66.8 percent mobile market reach.

Mobile Metrix and Mobilens, the tools used to measure the information, are intelligent censuss-based measurement methods and online surveys on smartphones and tablets. 

News Source: www.designntrend.com

Posted by Editorial Team on 6:55 AM in Android, Apple, ComScore, Google, Google's sites, iPhone, Mobile, Mobile Metrix, smartphone, supremacy

CFO of Apple Inc. Peter Oppenheimer announced retirement

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Apple Inc Peter Oppenheimer announced his retirement on 4 March 2014. He planned to retire at the end of September 2014.

Corporate controller Luca Maestri will succeed him. 

Oppenheimer joined Apple in 1996 and has served as its CFO since 2004. Since then, Apple’s annual revenue has grown from 8 billion dollar to 171 billion dollar.

Luka Maestri is currently working as Apple’s Senior Vice President of Finance and Corporate Controller. He had previously served as CFO of Nokia Siemens Networks and Xerox (XRX). He began his career with General Motors (GM), working in finance and operating roles at the automaker for 20 years.

About Apple 

Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Cupertino, California. Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on 1 April 1976 to develop and sell personal computers.

Its best-known hardware products are the Mac line of computers, the iPod media player, the iPhone Smartphone, and the iPad tablet computer. Its consumer software includes the OS X and iOS operating systems, the iTunes media browser, the Safari web browser, and the iLife and iWork creativity and productivity suites.

If you have any Question/Point on the above information, please ask/discuss it in the Current Affairs Group.

News Source: www.jagranjosh.com

Posted by Editorial Team on 2:39 AM in 171 billion, Apple, iLife, iPod, iTunes, multinational, Nokia, retirement, vice president, Xerox