Posts tagged with "apple"

The Great Disparity in Global iTunes Prices

Over the weekend I curiously started investigating whether Australians had been getting a progressively worse deal for their iTunes purchases as the Australian dollar rose from USD$0.60 to parity whilst iTunes prices stayed constant. The answer is most definitely a yes but it doesn’t just apply to Australians, and the extent of the price disparity is larger than I had thought.

Whilst Apple is entitled to have different prices for different regions, it doesn’t really need to. Furthermore the extent to which there is price disparity is very extensive for the music section of the store and this article aims to bring the inequity to light. Apple has previously been under similar pressure but the exchange rates reverted back, I would hope Apple again reconsiders their iTunes pricing system now when exchange rates have pushed the disparity to a very high level.

This turned into a bigger article than I had expected so here are the key things I cover and keep reading after the break for a full run down with tables, graphs and more.

  • iTunes uses fixed prices (i.e. $0.99, $1.29 etc.) and for stores outside the US these price levels were converted using a very conservative prediction of the future value of a particular currency
  • The price levels in non-US stores seem not to have been updated in a long time, yet the value of the non-US currencies have mostly appreciated since then. As a result people purchasing from most of the non-US iTunes Stores are now paying more than US customers and Apple is earning more from those customers
  • The conversion rate is different for the App Store and Music store (and likely the other stores too), the App store conversion rates are much more appropriate and the price disparity is less extreme.

Updated on April 27 2011 - see end of article for revised figures and comment.

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Xserve Third Party Replacement, ActiveSAN Revealed

ActiveSAN, the product that was being teased over the past few days has finally been announced as third party replacement for Apple’s Xserve which was discontinued in January.

The product, called ActiveSAN is rack-mountable unit, runs on the Linux operating system with metadata controllers and the ‘Quantum StorNext SAN file system’. It’s hardware uses the Active Storage product design, runs on the Intel Nehalem server platform and is Xsan compatible.

No definite word on whether it is officially endorsed by Apple yet.

Jump the break for a video introduction by the company and additional details as they come.

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Netgear CEO Makes A Few Predictions on Apple, Steve Jobs→

Netgear CEO Makes A Few Predictions on Apple, Steve Jobs

Netgear CEO Patrick Lo doesn’t get it:

At a lunch in Sydney today, Patrick Lo said Apple’s success was centred on closed and proprietary products that would soon be overtaken by open platforms like Google’s Android.

Lunch was not the main point. Here it is:

Lo said Apple’s closed model only worked because, in many product categories like MP3 players, “they own the market”.

“Once Steve Jobs goes away, which is probably not far away, then Apple will have to make a strategic decision on whether to open up the platform,” said Lo.

This is a common mistake: thinking that Apple’s integrated model is somehow linked to Steve Jobs’ personality or physical presence at Apple. But there’s more:

Right now the closed platform has been successful for Apple because they’ve been so far ahead as thought leaders because of Steve Jobs,” said Lo.

Wrong again. They have been successful because they predicted what consumers wanted, not because of Jobs’ personal tastes.

Eventually they’ve got to find a way to open up iTunes without giving too much away on their revenue generation model.

What does this mean, exactly? This is business lingo. I think he wants Apple to accept any kind of app. The real gem is about Flash:

What’s the reason for him to trash Flash? There’s no reason other than ego,” he said.

Or maybe – but you know, I’m just guessing here –  it was a business decision.

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The iPad As A Company, Apple’s Products As A Platform→

The iPad As A Company, Apple’s Products As A Platform

From a piece about Apple’s platform strategy on The New York Times:

Hit products like the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad are fueling Apple’s logic-defying growth. The latest entry — the iPad, introduced in April — is on track to deliver $15 billion to $20 billion in revenue in its first full year of sales, estimates A. M. Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.

At that size, if the iPad were a stand-alone company, it would rank within the top third of the Fortune 500.

Think about it: for any company on the planet, having a product like the iPad in its line-up would be the greatest success. Yet the iPad is one of the products in Apple’s chain, and like others is deeply integrated with software, MobileMe, the App Store. This platform strategy creates the following win-win situation:

The more people buy iPhones and iPads, the more software developers and media companies want to write applications for them, as various as games and digital magazines. And consumers are more likely to buy iPhones and iPads when more entertainment and information applications are available on them.

So the value of Apple’s products doesn’t lie in the products themselves, but in the platform that supports them all. This extends to internet services, App Stores, media management, support, accessories.

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Ask Different: Apple Stack Exchange Out Of Beta

The Apple specific question forum as a part of the Stack Exchange community has gone live this afternoon, harboring a community of experts willing to share knowledge on all things iPad, Mac, and iOS development. The collaborate question and answer site has implemented a lovely interface fit for any MacBook or iMac you may be visiting the exchange from, and you can visit Stack Exchange’s most recent launch at apple.stackexchange.com.

The Mac App Store and “Half-Available” Updates

Panic, the developers of popular software for the Mac like Coda, Transmit and Candybar, wrapped up a critical update to their FTP client / file manager / all-in-one solution Transmit 4 on January 6th to fix “important bugs” and correct issues with the Transmit Disk feature and Amazon S3 connection. As they explain in a post on the company’s blog, their original plan was to submit the update to Apple and release it on their website as well once the Mac App Store version got approved.

Apple didn’t approve the update after two weeks, so Panic went ahead and posted the update on the application’s website so that users who didn’t buy the app through the Mac App Store didn’t have to wait any longer to have the bugs fixed. In their own words, Transmit 4.1.5 is now “half-available” as the app in still “in review” for Mac App Store approval. Read more

New Apple Distributor in Greater China To Open 500 Licensed Stores

As if Apple wasn’t having enough of a success in Greater China (the area that includes China, Hong Kong and Taiwan), Digitimes is now reporting that Cybermart International, a major Chinese retail chain which is part of Foxconn, has gained the status of “first-grade distributor” for Apple’s products. The plan? Open 500 new licensed stores.

Cybermart plans to set up 500 Apple licensed retail shops in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, according to company chairman Steve Chang. The first store will be opened in Tianjin on April 1, 2011.

This is an impressive number that will sure help increasing the popularity and visibility of Apple’s computers and mobile devices in the area. At the Q1 earnings call on January 18, Apple announced revenue in Greater China was $2.6 billion, up 4 times from the year-ago quarter. Four stores in China reported the highest traffic and highest revenue.

While authorized resellers don’t offer the same experience of an Apple Store, they sure help bringing products to the attention of consumers that live in areas where Apple Store are nowhere to be seen. And for Greater China, 500 new licensed stores sound like a good move.

iTunes 10.1.2 Now Available, Adds CDMA iPhone Compatibility

A few minutes ago Apple released iTunes 10.1.2 to the public. It’s available now in Software Update or on Apple’s website. The changelog mentions “a number of important stability and performance improvements” – we’re not really sure what they are, but I would guess on Verizon iPhone compatibility looking forward to February 10.

iTunes 10.1.2 for Windows is available here.

Update: the latest iTunes does indeed add CDMA iPhone compatibility. From the release notes in the download:

iTunes 10.1.2 syncs music, movies, and more with iPhone 4 (CDMA model) and provides a number of important stability and performance improvements.

iPad Now Available in India→

iPad Now Available in India

A year after the official announcement, the iPad is now finally available in India, although I guess people who really wanted one in 2010 didn’t wait for Apple to make up its mind and release it. About pricing: a 16 GB standard WiFi model will cost you Rs 27,900, which is around $610, including taxes.  It’s curious that today Samsung slashed the price of the Galaxy Tab in India, too.

Product page available here. What’s up with the website? [via Smoking Apples]

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