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Posts tagged with "apple"

NPD: US Mac Sales Up 20%, Apple Set To Sell 3.6 Million Macs This Quarter

New US sales data from the NPD Group show that Apple’s Mac sales have increased 20 percent year over year, which is inline with what is required to meet analyst expectations of 3.6 million Mac sales in the March quarter.

The growth is slightly below the 22 percent growth that was predicted but analyst Gene Munster did note that Apple had seen increased international growth of the Mac platform. Furthermore the now near inevitable launch of updated MacBook’s this week will likely give the Mac sales a boost for the final month in the March quarter.

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Apple To Unveil “Joint Venture” Service at Retail Meeting This Weekend

Earlier today a report from AppleInsider suggested Apple might hold a “secret”, all-hands meeting with Apple Store employees this weekend, most specifically on Sunday right after the stores’ regular closing time. Speculation among blogs and publications were quick to indicate that the meeting could be about the new MacBook Pros (although we don’t know why, considering they’re rumored to come out on Thursday), the next iPad or an upcoming Apple event.

While it appears that both the iPad 2 and an Apple event are happening next week, BGR reports that the meeting will focus on a new retail service called “Joint Venture”. The service, aimed at small businesses and “prosumers”, sounds like a new kind of technical support provided by Apple’s Geniuses:

Joint Venture is an extension of Apple’s current Genius Bar services that is aimed at small businesses and prosumers. Subscribers of the new service will be able to speak with a store-based Apple technician — lovingly referred to as Geniuses — over the phone for one-on-one consultation and troubleshooting, or they can request an on-site visit.

The interesting part is that, currently, Apple Geniuses can’t provide phone and on-site support. Apple is expanding its support policy which, if you ask us, is just a great thing. Employees will be briefed about this new service on Sunday. On a side note, TUAW reported yesterday Apple is changing the way the Consultants Network handles requests.

Update: Stephen Hackett at ForkBombr (former Apple Genius) shares his thoughts on Apple’s plan to include on-site and phone support in the Genius Bar offerings:

On-site support and time for one-to-one care are two things that have set Apple-Authorized Service Providers and members of the Apple Consultants Network apart from Apple retail. Apple has been ramping up its in-store business sales teams over the last 18 months or so, and so far, that has paid off for third-party Apple shops in the form of numerous small business installs and support gigs.

If Apple store employees do venture out into the world, it could spell bad news for small Apple shops (like the one I used to manage). If given a choice, many may choose an “official” Apple support route over a third-party. That would cripple many small companies.

iPad 2: The Rumor Timeline

With the iPad 2 announcement reportedly scheduled for a media event next week in San Francisco, it’s time to take a step back and re-analyze rumors posted in past months about the next-generation device. If rumors are of any indication and sources to be trusted, this little trip down the memory lane should give us a quick recap of the details we think we know about the iPad 2.

So read along after the break, and let’s see what the Apple rumor mill offered so far about the new tablet. Read more

iPad 2 Event on March 2?

All Things Digital reports Apple will unveil the iPad 2 next week, at a media event on March 2:

To those who intensely cares about this kind of stuff–which would be pretty much everyone in the tech ecosystem–Apple will hold its much-anticipated event on March 2, where the tech giant seems poised to unveil a new version of its hugely successful iPad.

It’s not clear when Apple will begin sending out its famous invites for gathering, but I am guessing soon, in order to get the Apple faithful to the proper level of froth.

Invitations for the event haven’t been sent out to bloggers and journalists yet, and if the date is real this time, we suspect it may happen as early as tonight or tomorrow morning. Note that March 2nd is a Wednesday, a day that fits Apple’s typical patterns for media events. It is also unclear whether Apple will hold a smaller event for the announcement in Cupertino, or at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Steve Jobs won’t likely announce the product on stage, leaving the presentation to Tim Cook and Phil Schiller – like in 2009 for the iPhone 3GS media event (when Jobs was on a medical leave of absence). The Yerba Buena Center calendar indeed shows there are no available programs on March 2. Read more

Apple Joins Silicon Valley Companies To Build $2 Billion Hospital

Apple is joining HP, eBay, Intel, Oracle and other Silicon Valley companies to build a $2 billion hospital in Stanford, with $550 million of the initial cost being donated and raised by the corporate partners program that Apple has joined as member. Steve Jobs and Vice President of Retail Ron Johnson are quoted in the press release and video of the upcoming hospital, which will feature technological advancements to “change the way people interface with the hospital” with ideas contributed by the companies mentioned above.

AppleInsider reports:

More than just contributing resources, the partners will work with New Stanford Hospital planners to develop innovative new approaches to providing patient access, information, education and navigation, a program that “has the ability to change the face of health care,” according to Stanford Hospital president and chief executive Amir Dan Rubin.

The project balances new technical innovations with the goal of creating a healing environment “responsive to the emotional, social and psychological needs of patients, families, visitors, medical professionals and staff,” said a report by the hospital.

Steve Jobs, quoted on the project’s website:

All of us are very fortunate to have Stanford’s world-class medical center right here in Silicon Valley. We are very excited about the development of their new hospital and really want to support their plans.

Full press release is available here, check out the video below featuring Apple’s Ron Johnson below. Read more

Apple’s “Greedy and Unjustifiable” In-App Purchase Rules→

Apple’s “Greedy and Unjustifiable” In-App Purchase Rules

Finally someone who gets the problems with Apple’s recently announced subscription / in-app purchase policy. Instapaper developer Marco Arment nails it:

But one argument that Apple should care about: this policy will prevent many potentially great apps, from many large and small publishers, from being created on iOS at all.

A broad, vague, inconsistently applied, greedy, and unjustifiable rule doesn’t make developers want to embrace the platform.

Android’s installed base is now large enough that a huge, compelling new service could launch exclusively on it. (It wouldn’t be easy, but it’s possible.) What if the developer of the next mobile killer app decides, for political or economic reasons like this, to release it only on Android?

A few curious paradoxes:

And what about a situation like Amazon’s Kindle app that will presumably be targeted for not selling Kindle books via IAP, even though Amazon’s catalog is so large that it surpasses Apple’s own limits on how many IAP items an app can register?

There are a lot of first- and third-party apps that access Salesforce, LinkedIn, and 37signals’ services, all of which have paid service tiers. Will all of these be removed from the App Store if they don’t build in IAP?

As Arnold Kim puts it, Apple’s policy is as clear as mud. I’ve said this earlier today in regards of the Readability rejection, and I’m going to say it again: it’s ridiculous to enforce IAP for “software as a service”. Not that Apple can’t: they have all the rights to do what they want with their platform. But it doesn’t make sense.

Apple needs to clarify many points of In-App Purchases for developers and content publishers, and quickly.

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Readability Is The First Victim Of Apple’s New Subscriptions

Three weeks ago, web service Readability launched a completely revamped version of its “read later” platform including support for Instapaper (Marco Arment is an advisor to Arc90, the company behind Readability) and a new subscription system that allows publishers of content consumed through Readability to get 70% of the fees paid by subscribers.

It works like this: you sign up to Readability as a reader paying a $5 monthly fee, but you can decide to pay even more if you’re willing to support the project. Once you’re ready to use the service, you install a bookmarklet in your browser that will save articles for later in an uncluttered view that’s perfect for late-night reading sessions and mobile devices. Yes, it really is similar to Marco Arment’s Instapaper. In fact, the developers announced that the first official Readability iOS app would be heavily based on Instapaper – which also happens to have introduced support for sending logs to Readability a few days ago. Instapaper and Readability thus have become two integrated platforms for reading content and sharing it with your friends – but Readability’s unique twist allows publishers (like MacStories, or any other weblog) to get a kickback for every article saved for later. It’s a genius approach no one ever tried before. Read more

You Too Can Have Steve Jobs’ Poker Face with Official Apple Cards

Are you a die-hard Apple fan that wants to get some rare memorabilia? Well you had better check out this listing on eBay where an official Apple-branded pack of cards is on auction!

The pack of cards feature OS 7 icons of bombs, clocks, Mac face and trash cans instead of the traditional clubs, hearts, diamonds and spades as you can see above. The pack was purchased at the Apple campus store in 1997 which was one piece of merchandise that was Apple branded and sold only to Apple employees. In other words, these cards are rare and will be undoubtedly worth quite a bit!

The listing is open for another six days and as of writing was at a bid of £28.00, but that’s likely to rocket as Apple fans across the world discover this quirky gem and bid to get their hands on it.

[Via The Next Web]

Apple’s Subscriptions and Consumers→

Apple’s Subscriptions and Consumers

This piece by David Carr at The New York Times gets to the main point of subscriptions as seen by Apple, not publishers:

Publishers say their objections are less about the steep revenue split than the lack of data. But publishers who sit out Apple subscriptions will be bypassing a huge embedded base of not only iPad users, but also the very people who have already shown a willingness to pay for content. It’s worth pointing out that publishers are already in the business of selling products to consumers they have no data on: it’s called the newsstand. Cosmopolitan and People know nothing about the millions who buy their magazines at retail stores, and that doesn’t stop their respective publishers from making a ton of money there.

Apple knows many publishers already have digital subscriptions in place on their websites, but they also know many readers would like to jump to digital versions altogether if only the subscription system was simple, integrated in a single place or device. So looking at Apple’s subscriptions from a consumer perspective, here’s what we get:

Keep in mind that consumers could not care less about revenue splits. In pushing through a plan that publishers are unhappy with, Apple is able to position itself as an advocate for consumers, enabling one-touch transactions while keeping their data private from a host of media providers.

Publishers have every right in the world to guard their business model, but it won’t please their potential audiences.

Publishers may pass on this new Apple plan, but consumers will be disappointed to know they can’t have Condè Nast’s publications available through this fancy iTunes payment thing. By playing the “advocate” role, Apple has cleverly implemented a way to rewrite the rules and keep their cut at the same time. Consumers, in the very end, want content and they don’t care about publishers’ issues. They’re just going to say “why can’t I subscribe to Wired here?”.

And if this strategy doesn’t work, you can stay assured Apple will change.

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