Posts tagged with "apple"

Ahead of 10 Billion Downloads, Apple Updates “All-Time Top Apps” Page

The clock’s ticking on the 10 billion app downloads countdown, and Apple has updated its “All-Time Top Apps” page to reflect the changes that have occurred in the App Store in the past 12 months. The iTunes pages that showcase “All-Time Top Paid iPhone Apps” and “All-Time Free iPhone Apps” are available here and here, respectively.

Unsurprisingly, games are among the top paid apps. And by games, we mean Doodle Jump, Angry Birds, Pocket God and Flight Control. Actual “apps” in the top paid list include SoundHound (the music scanning / discovery tool), I Am T-Pain from Smule, Air Sharing from Avatron and Awesome Note. The list is huge as it basically sorts any iPhone app ever released by popularity and sales in the App Store. It is nice, however, to see gems like 1Password, Convertbot and Hipstamatic in the first page.

As for free apps, the usual Facebook, Pandora, Google and Shazam are the most downloaded apps of all time. Paper Toss, Bump, Skype and AroundMe are in there, too, together with dozens of other games in the first page.

These charts give us an idea of the trends in the App Store, and the kinds of apps that people want to buy or download for free. Where by “apps” we mean games. [via iSpazio]

More Alleged iPad 2 Cases Appear, Hint at Mini DisplayPort

Rumors and leaks surrounding the forthcoming second generation iPad continue to spread like wildfire across the blogosphere with the latest coming from AppleInsider and MIC Gadget. Both received photos of iPad 2 cases that had openings that would suggest the addition of a rear facing camera, larger speaker, possible SD card slot and most intriguingly a small port at the top of the device that could be for a Mini DisplayPort receptacle.

The two tech blogs received photo’s of cases from China that whilst different had virtually identical port openings and further back up reports by Engadget that the second generation iPad would have an SD card slot and rear facing camera. The larger opening on cases around the speaker is also a recurring feature of such leaked iPad 2 cases and seems to be a likely improvement on the iPad 2.

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Analysts and Bloggers Share Q1 2011 Predictions

With Apple’s financial results for Q1 2011 only a few hours away, Fortune has posted its usual chart of predictions from professional and amateur analysts regarding Apple’s sales for the last quarter. To give it a bit of context, in the last quarter (pre-holiday season) Apple sold 3.89 million Macs, 14.1 million iPhones, 4.19 million iPads, 9.05 million iPods. The company posted record revenue of $20.34 billion and net quarterly profit of $4.31 billion.

Looking at Fortune’s chart, it appears that most analysts are predicting revenue between $23 and $27 billion, 14 to 16 million iPhones sold and 6 to 7 million iPads sold. Horace Dediu from Asymco, for instance, is predicting $25.50 billion revenue, 16.16 million iPhones sold, 18.87 million iPods, 4.30 million Macs and 6 million iPads.

Official numbers will be provided by Apple later today. An audio-only webcast of the conference call will be available here.

Reminder: Apple Q1 Financial Results Today – 5 PM ET

Later today starting at 5:00 PM ET (2:00 PM PT) Apple will hold the Q1 2011 earnings call to announce their financial results, shortly after the markets close. An audio-only live streaming will be available at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq111/. We will offer a breakdown of the results and have a post in the homepage with continually updating notes from the earnings call.

Apple is expected to post blockbuster sales from the holiday season, with iPads and iPhones to lead and the new MacBook Airs to follow. In the last quarter, Apple posted record iPhone and Mac sales with 14.1 million iPhone sold, 3.89 million Macs and 4.19 million iPads.The company posted record revenue of $20.34 billion and net quarterly profit of $4.31 billion.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced yesterday that he’s taking another medical leave of absence to focus on his health.

Bump Data Suggests 90% of iOS Devices Running 4.x

David Lieb, founder and CEO of iPhone app Bump yesterday posted some data on Quora to a question about what percentage of users of iOS devices were on 4.x, his answer revealed that 89.7% of Bump users were on the latest major iteration of iOS, 4.x.

Although Lieb didn’t note how big the sample size is, the latest known figure of Bump downloads was 15 million back from August last year. That’s a large sample size and one that includes users of iPhones, iPod Touch’s and iPads, a sample that would suggest the ~90% is a close approximation to the real percentage of iOS device users on the latest major iteration of iOS, version 4.

Ian Peters-Campbell of Loopt, another iOS app backed up Lieb’s data but said for his users take-up was even a little higher. Anyway you cut it such a high take up rate in about six months is impressive. It also highlights concerns over how fragmented Android is compared to iOS which back in December 2010 when Froyo (2.2) was the latest Android OS only had 43.4% take up, let alone Gingerbread (2.3) which as of today ReadWriteWeb says only has 0.4% take-up.

Lieb of Bump, posted a full breakdown of iterations and percentages of users, which is posted after the break. The key data is that 53% of users are on the very latest software update of 4.2.1.

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During Steve’s Absence, Apple Will Be Just Fine

News broke earlier today that Steve Jobs is taking another medical leave of absence to focus on his health. And just like the last time, he has appointed Apple COO Tim Cook as the head of day-to-day operations. This time around, though, Steve Jobs will maintain the CEO position. Long story short: Steve Jobs has to focus on his health and personal life, something you would expect from a man who beat cancer in the past and successfully underwent a liver transplant. Apple employees will have get used to not seeing Jobs on campus or in his office for a few months. But I don’t want to speculate on Jobs’ conditions, habits and role at Cupertino. Instead, I would like to point out how out of this complex and much-talked story Apple as a company will be doing just fine. Read more

Singaporean Schools add iPad to Teaching Resources

As a test pilot, a portion of the total population of Nanyang Girls High School in Singapore will use 150 iPads that the school has purchased at a cost of around US$100,000, the pilot including 140 students and 10 teachers aims to complement the schools more traditional teaching methods and textbooks.

The iPad will enable the students to connect to the internet with its vast array of educational resources, download books and course material while also allowing note taking or word processing. Chloe Chen, one of the lucky students to be a part of the pilot program said “It’s much more convenient, teachers can just tell us to go to a website, and we can immediately go and do our work.”

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Steve Jobs To Take “Medical Leave of Absence”

According to a press release that just went out, Apple’s board has granted Steve Jobs a medical leave of absence. He will stay as CEO and Tim Cook will handle day to day operations. In the letter to the Apple team, Jobs says he wants to focus on his health and will still be “involved in major strategic decisions”. He is confident Tim Cook and the executive management team will manage to accomplish the goals set for 2011.

It is unclear at this point what the reason for this medical leave is; Jobs underwent a liver transplant in 2009 and, similarly to today’s news, Tim Cook took over day to day operations at Apple. In 2004, Jobs contracted Pancreatic Cancer, which he beat.

All we can say is – get well soon, Steve.

Press release below. Read more

Apple Asking Federal Government To Fight iPhone Jailbreak?

In spite of the Digital Copyright Millenium Act marking the iPhone “jailbreak” procedure as legal, it appears that Apple is still going after hackers and jailbreakers who modify its mobile OS to install unapproved apps and use the handset on unsupported carriers, the NBC reports. By definition, “jailbreak” refers to a set of tools and hacks used to run software and third-party apps Apple doesn’t want in the App Store, whilst “unlock” is a term to indicate the hacks that allow users to let the iPhone work on carriers that don’t support the device, like T-Mobile in the US or other carriers worldwide. Unlock tools and various jailbreak techniques have existed since the original iPhone came out. Most notably, unlock app Ultrasn0w and jailbreak software like PwnageTool, Spirit, Blackra1n and Limera1n. Read more