Apple has just issued a brief press release to announce that the new iPad will finally launch in China on Friday, July 20th. The recommended retail prices of the new iPad in China will match the current US prices at $499, $599 and $699 for the WiFi version (16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB respectively) and $629, $729 and $829 for the WiFi + Cellular models (16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB respectively). Meanwhile, from today the iPad 2 is available for $399.

Customers will be able to purchase the new iPad in China from the Apple Online Store, select Apple Authorized Resellers and by reservation from Apple retail stores. The reservation process will run daily between 9am and 12pm and begin on Thursday, July 19 and allows a customer to reserve an iPad for pick up the following day.

Apple® today announced the new iPad®, the third generation of its category defining mobile device, will arrive in China on Friday, July 20. The new iPad features a stunning new Retina™ display, Apple’s new A5X chip with quad-core graphics and a 5 megapixel iSight® camera with advanced optics for capturing amazing photos and 1080p HD video. The new iPad still delivers the same all-day 10 hour battery life* while remaining amazingly thin and light.

Apple just sent out a press release announcing that the company expect Apple TV sales to top one million units later this week. It also announced that iTunes users are now “renting and purchasing over 400,000 TV episodes and over 150,000 movies per day”.

The best part? The Apple TV is not a hobby anymore, but is described by Apple PR as “the perfect iOS accessory”, thanks to AirPlay. That’s quite an evolution.

Press release below. (more…)

With the release of iOS 4.2 beta today to iPhone and iPad developers, Apple issued a press release confirming that AirPrint, the technology that will allow wireless printing on iOS, will be out in November – and HP’s ePrint-enabled printers will be the first to support it.

This is pretty confusing: will HP’s printers the only ones to support AirPrint, or will they just be the first ones to officially support it? Check out the press release after the break. (more…)

Back in July, when Steve Jobs announced the free-for-all iPhone Case Program, he said that the expiration date was set to September 30th. Apple needed more time to think about the iPhone 4 antenna issues and a possible new solution.

Now, according to Mexican website CanalMX, Telcel’s (carrier) Director of Value Added Services Marco Quatorze stated that Apple is about to released a revised iPhone 4 by the end of September.

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Earlier this morning Apple announced that iTunes U downloads have topped 300 million in over 3 years. More than 800 universities have iTunes U accounts, half of these institutions distribute content through the iTunes Store.

A very good result, and the prove that iTunes is growing large of great content. I just wonder how long Apple will allow iTunes to contain all this content, before moving to other solutions. Cloud distribution, anyone?

Check out the press release after the break.

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Last night Apple removed all the antenna performance videos from apple.com/antenna. You know, the videos that showcased signal attenuation issues on other handsets such as Blackberry, Droid and Samsung devices. The videos are still available on Apple’s official Youtube channel, just folllow this link to find the videos.

People are speculating that Apple received complaints from cellphone makers and was forced to pull the videos. I don’t think so. I think that, 2 weeks after the July 16th Antenna press event, they’re just reducing attention around this “issue” and start focusing on what they do best: making great products.

Such as new iPods in 5 weeks or so.

Richard S. Levick, reporting for Forbes:

“In any event, we don’t often see a corporate kingpin deliver such a multifaceted message about a product, his company and himself. Even without the triumphant earnings report, two fundamental truths came through, and they both ultimately bode well for Apple and its stakeholders.

The first is that when you’ve used your peacetime effectively, by building support among vital stakeholders and fanning the warm fires of their impassioned loyalty, you can survive big mistakes. The failed leadership decried in the Washington Post and other venues might have been fatal for most leaders other than Steve Jobs. We saw another example of the salutary effect of longtime trust and brand equity with consumers who might otherwise have deserted in droves when Toyota faced all its product quality woes in the past year.

The second lesson is that the right fix in a crisis can seem almost miraculous. Assuming the iPhone 4 case giveaway works and customers are kept satisfied, Apple will reinforce its brand more emphatically than if the crisis had never happened. Apple will have delighted the crowd, all the more so because the crowd held its breath to see if Houdini would escape the trap. If the fix works, Jobs’ demeanor at the press conference only reinforces the zeal of his loyalists, and it likely wins new adherents to the cult, too.”

Now go ahead, and start saying that this was all planned.

P.S.

If so, what a plan.

Apple has just posted the official financial results for its fiscal 2010 third quarter, and once again they broke records established just a few months earlier in the first quarter.

Skimming through the press release this caught my attention:

“It was a phenomenal quarter that exceeded our expectations all around, including the most successful product launch in Apple’s history with iPhone 4,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPad is off to a terrific start, more people are buying Macs than ever before, and we have amazing new products still to come this year.”

Of course they have new products coming this year. He’s stating the obvious, but let me make a few considerations about it. The iPod Touch is set to go under a major overhaul in September, perhaps with the addition of a camera and FaceTime capabilities. We can pretty much bet on it.

What intrigues me is thinking about new Apple TVs and new Macbooks for the holiday season. Apple TV has been marked as a hobby many times in the past, but judging from Apple’s press releases and conferences, they keep on mentioning the device as if they’re teasing us. And what about Macs, which had the most successful quarter ever? What about rumors of Mac OS X 10.7 approaching advanced development stages?

My best guess is, Apple will roll out new Apple TVs (perhaps with Magic Trackpads) later this year, together with new Macbooks by the holiday season and new iPod Touches in September.

The Mac isn’t dead. The iPad 2 won’t be released until next year. Steve, surprise us.

Today’s press release carried the news Apple sold 1.7 million iPhone 4 units in just three days. Impressive. But together with that, and for the real geeks among you, a change in the press release “standard” footer, too.

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