Posts in news

Forbes: Rapid Retail Sales Growth In China Could Propel Apple Shares Skyward

According to Eric Jackson at Forbes, an expected boom in Apple’s business in China could be a driving force that propels Apple’s shares (AAPL) to $547 per share by next January. That’s an expectation of shares increasing by around $200 on yesterdays close of trade price of $348.51 and in just nine months.

Jackson bases his expectations on the expansion of Apple’s retail stores, which currently bring in US$1.3 billion per year per store in China, with four currently in existence. Numbers floating around suggest that up to 25 stores could be opened up by Apple in China, where Jackson says consumers are going “gaga for Apple”, and rake in an extra US$32 billion. Such projected figures don’t even take into account third-party sales of Apple products from carrier stores or Cybermart – which is the largest third-party retailer of Apple products in the world.

Jackson and others thus consequently believe that it is well within possibility that Apple could see 50% sales growth in 2011, driven by the growth in China, and reach revenue of around $114 billion and “assuming the same trailing 20x P/E” Apple shares would be reach a value of $547 per share.

MacStories.net does not provide investment advice; consult an expert before buying or selling equities.

[Via Forbes]

 

Happy 35th Birthday Apple!

Today, 35 years ago on April 1st 1976, Apple Computer was established by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne so that they could later sell their Apple I computer kit. Interestingly Wozniak, who hand built the Apple I decided to permanently leave  the company in 1987 – but is still technically an employee and receives a paycheck.

The other, more unfamiliar founder, Ronald Wayne, assisted Jobs and Wozniak in drawing the first Apple logo (seen above), writing the manual for the Apple I and writing the original partnership agreement. He however decided to leave the partnership just two weeks later and declined Jobs’ attempts to recruit him back years later.

It’s been a truly fascinating 35 years for the company and over the past decade in particular it has transformed the technology industry with the iPod, OS X, exceptional design in all its hardware and of course the iPhone and iPad. Here at MacStories we can’t wait to see what the next year will see Apple bring, let alone the next 35 years. As always Wikipedia provides some great reading about the early years about Apple that I thoroughly recommend if you’re curious and what to read more about those early days of Apple.

[Via MacJournals]

 

Want Lion’s Scrolling on Snow Leopard? This Free App Enables It

One of the most discussed features of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is the “backward scrolling” that, in an attempt to resemble the behavior of iOS devices, is enabled by default in System Preferences. In the Lion Developer Preview (both 1 and 2), if you move your fingers down the screen scrolls up, and vice versa. This is activated by default to make iOS users feel comfortable when using the new desktop OS, but has annoyed several long-time OS X users as the preference is automatically enabled and is buried deep down into the Trackpad settings as a checkbox.

If you believe, however, that changing the scrolling system is actually a great idea and you want to practice before Lion is released to the public, free app Scroll Reverser lets you do just that – on Snow Leopard (and 10.5, too). Once downloaded, it’ll sit in the menubar waiting for you to choose whether you want reversed scrolling or the normal one. A click on the dropdown menu allows you to make the change in seconds, and revert back again. The app can start at login, and has no additional preferences.

Download here. [via Lifehacker]

GarageBand ‘11 For Mac Updated to 6.0.2

GarageBand ‘11 is getting an update this evening to 6.0.2, which now supports imported projects from GarageBand for the iPad alongside bug fixes and improved stability. The update is around 47 MB in size, and you can check Software Update or directly download the update from the support page listed below.

GarageBand 6.0.2: DL1345

Kickstarter Project - GoPano micro: A Panoramic Lens for iPhone

There are lots of Kickstarter projects aimed toward the iPad and iPhone but this is the first optics one I have seen. It’s called the GoPano micro; it’s a lense for the iPhone 4 that takes 360 degree panoramic videos. You attach the device to your iPhone and record from the free 360 video app.

The GoPano Micro will record everything all at one time. After recording, you can review the video and choose to view any perspective simply by swiping the screen, and view any angle at any point (pan and zooming too). With the app you can also upload your video on a web platform (not yet finished) and share your videos as well. You can also view other videos uploaded by anyone via the web too.

Video after the break. Read more

Apple Online Store Running Out of iPad 1s

Planning to get your hands on the original iPad? Perhaps at a nice discounted price directly from the Apple online store? It might be too late, at least if you’re looking for cheap, WiFi-only models. When Apple announced the iPad 2 on March 2, we noted the company was getting rid of stock in its Clearance webpage; the original iPad was sold at $399 – $100 off, not a bad deal if you didn’t care about the new features of the iPad 2.

Now the Apple online store is selling the last units available, and they are WiFi + 3G 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB models. The most expensive ones, and likely the most difficult ones to get rid of in a few weeks. Still, if you really want to get a 3G iPad 1 that runs on AT&T’s network, head over here and click the Buy button. [via Macgasm]

More Than 75,000 iPad Apps Are Now Available

Back in December, we ran a story about the incredible rise of native iPad software in the App Store: in nearly 260 days since the release of the original iPad in April 2010, third-party developers created more than 50,000 apps specifically for the device. As the iPad was a relatively new device in 2010, that was quite an accomplishment. Especially considering that the iPad App Store had “only” 20,000 apps in August, and 10,000 in June. By the end of 2010, Apple closed with roughly 60,000 native apps available for iPad owners.

In the past months, however, many interesting things happened in the tablet market: Apple announced and released a successor to the iPad after much speculation, Google unveiled a version of its Android OS meant for tablets, Android Honeycomb. Motorola was first to release a Honeycomb-based tablet, the Xoom, which is capable of running Android apps built from scratch for the tablet form factor – rather than blown up versions of smartphone apps. On the other hand, RIM will release its BlackBerry PlayBook onto the market in a few weeks – this one is also capable of running Android apps alongside native BlackBerry apps. Other manufacturers will follow throughout 2011 with their own vision for “the tablet”.

Back to the initial point, anyway. If there’s one segment (let’s just forget about tech specs for a minute) where Apple has a huge advantage over its competitors, that would be the App Store. Since our report from December, the iPad App Store has grown to accomodate over 75,000 native apps – even more than the ones mentioned in Apple’s press releases. Compared to 20 apps available for the Xoom, I think we can all agree that’s a huge advantage for Apple. And even if geeks can say “most of those 75,000 apps suck”, the numbers still hold true: 75,000 apps are available, the 100,000 milestone will be reached in a couple of months. And Apple will make a strong remark about that figure at their next public event. Perhaps at the WWDC itself where, and everything falls into the place, a new version of iOS will likely be announced and demoed.

75,000 apps for the iPad doesn’t come as a surprise if we consider Apple’s powerful marketing machine and the iTunes Store infrastructure. But to think the iPad came out 365 days ago and now we can choose from a selection of 75,000 different apps – I believe that says something about the current status of the tablet market.

Rolando Comes Back with iOS 4 Support and Retina Graphics

Back in 2009, Rolando was one of my favorite games on the iPhone. The game featured fancy colored graphics and the whole gameplay revolved around these cute tiny creatures called, indeed, “rolandos” that you had to control with your fingers to avoid enemies, and complete levels. The game became an instant hit in the App Store, with game publications posting raving reviews about it and Apple featuring it for weeks in the App Store. The success was well-deserved: top-notch graphics and a great gameplay had been implemented into a multitouch experience that, back then, was an example of true excellence for the platform.

Then the iPhone 4 and iPad came along, iOS 4 was released, Retina Displays pushed into the market and, like many other 2008-2009 games, Rolando disappeared from the charts due to lack of updates from the developers. Finally, this is changing today with the release of new versions of Rolando 1 and Rolando 2 for iPhone that support the latest iOS 4.x and the Retina Display, and also fix an issue with corrupted saved games. I’ve just installed the apps on my iPhone (again), and they really shine on the Retina Display. The gameplay is still the same as this is just a “technical” release aimed at enhancing OS compatibility and graphics, but it’s enough to let me play Rolando all over again.

If you’ve never tried Rolando and you need a new game in your collection, here’s your chance. Both Rolando 1 and Rolando 2 are currently available at $0.99 in the App Store.

Boxcar Beta for Mac Now Available

Popular notification service Boxcar is taking a huge step forward in delivering a continuous stream of updates and notifications to millions of users with the release of a desktop client, specifically built for the Mac. As reported by MG Siegler at TechCrunch, the Mac version of Boxcar follows the steps of the iOS and web apps: once logged in with your Boxcar account and configured the online services you’d like to keep an eye on, the app will sit in the background and “listen” for changes that interest you happening across Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, your Gmail account and more. As new things happen while you’re busy working or browsing the web on your computer, Boxcar will “push” a notification to your desktop alerting you of what’s new.

The Mac app sits in the menubar and has support for Growl, a customizable notification service Mac users know and love. One of the biggest advantages of Boxcar over its iOS competitors is the unified dashboard that gives you instant access to your favorite services with just a few taps; the iOS interface got lost in the transition to the Mac, with the developers adopting a cleaner and simpler list of notifications you can scroll with your trackpad. Of course, there are buttons to open notifications in the browser, but it’d be nice to have deeper integration with other native Mac apps such as the official Twitter one. This is a first beta anyway, so I guess more updates will come soon with features and enhancements. The Mac app has also an option to “mute” notifications.

The Boxcar beta for Mac is available as a free download here. More screenshots below. Read more