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Posts tagged with "apple"

iPad Cannibalization Of PC Market Slows

The iPad’s cannibalization of the PC market may have slowed if the latest NPD market research report is any sign of things to come. The report found that new purchasers of the iPad are less likely to have foregone purchasing a PC than the early adopters of the iPad. It found that of those who had purchased the iPad over the holiday season, 12% would have decided against a PC purchase when they bought an iPad. This is a 2% drop from the 14% of those decided against a PC amongst those who had owned their iPad for 6 months or more.

Netbooks were saved the most, with iPad cannibalization falling by 50%, which actually led the netbook market to grow by 21% between September 2010 and March 2011. NPD also believes that the slowing of PC sales over the past couple of months has more to do with Windows 7 than the iPad:

The explosion of computer sales when Windows 7 launched, as well as the huge increase in netbook sales at that time, are much more to blame for weak consumer PC sales growth than the iPad

The report contradicts what analysts were calling the “iPad effect” in the first quarter of 2011 when US PC sales fell 10.7%. In fact at least one analyst, including Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley, revised her 2011 PC shipments down after predicting a tablet cannibalization rate of 29% - which is nearly 3 times what this NPD report says was the rate when it surveyed customers in March.

[Via AppleInsider]

Apple Patents Keyboard with Air Feedback Technology

A new patent entitled “Input Devices and Methods of Operation” uncovered today by AppleInsider reveals Apple has been experimenting with a new kind of desktop keyboard that, following the ongoing trend of reducing the size of keyboards to make them more compact and portable, allows users to receive tactile feedback upon pressing keys through an “air pressure” technology. As the patent notes, keyboards have become thinner and more compact over time, reducing the space between keys and the actual keyboard case design, thus preventing, in many cases, users from having proper feedback upon hitting keys with their fingers. The proposed keyboard design would use proximity sensor below each key to recognize the distance between a user’s finger and the key, allowing a built-in air system to apply a certain resistance or pressure, providing a way to receive tactile feedback on a slim and compact design.

The patent filing describes a system that would “flow air from the input device,” perhaps through openings in the surface of an individual key on a keyboard. This would provide tactile feedback to the user before they make physical contact with the key surface.

This air pressure could be used to apply air pressure against a user’s fingertips, giving tactile feedback even though the key may not move as much as a key on a more traditional keyboard.

Whilst this technology sounds like something Apple may not implement until 10 years from now (Apple, like many other companies, usually patents innovative designs and concepts that most of the times never find their way in actual products), it’s worth noting that a patent discovered earlier this year outlined a new type of keyboard capable of receiving multitouch input from the user thanks to cameras placed around the perimeter of the accessory. If Apple’s trying to reinvent the keyboard, these patents are certainly a starting point to keep in mind for the future.

Digital Downloads Drive A Music Industry Recovery

Well it looks as though things may be looking up for the music industry again, after its decade long slide in sales. A Nielsen Soundscan report yesterday said that US music sales (by unit) have increased by 1.6% over the course of this year.

The report gives the credit for the rise, unsurprisingly, to digital music sales, which in terms of albums was up 16.8% and in terms of individual tracks was up 9.6%. As for physical media, CDs were down by 8.8%, but Vinyl increased by 37%, although they only account for 1.2% of sales.

No one is exactly sure why digital is up dramatically this year, although Nielsen interestingly suggests the arrival of the Beatles on iTunes as a key reason, pointing to a dramatic increase starting from when it was released on iTunes (see graph above) – although this seems a bit of a stretch. That said, catalogue music sales have been on the rise by 5.4%, whilst current music is down 7%. As for the most popular genre’s, Rock had the greatest market share in album sales whilst Pop was the most popular for digital tracks.

[Via AllThingsD]

Component Supply Chain To Face Shortages In Coming Months After Japan Crisis

Two reports out of DigiTimes today reveal that there will likely be component shortages in the next two months as a result of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami from earlier this year. Since the devastating crisis, many PC and mobile device makers have been downplaying the impact the crisis would have on component supply and prices, but DigiTimes reports that this was largely to try and quell any increase in component prices by the suppliers. In reality, many key players from Asus, HTC, Motorola and Apple have been aggressively acting to secure various components such as PCBs and glass touch panels.

Japan’s earthquake as well as the power brownout policy have already created strong pressure on the global IT supply chain, especially for PC players and in addition to component shortages, the labor shortage issue in China has also grown to become another menace to the IT industry.

The strong pressures on the component supply chain will likely result in shortages beginning next month with supply still hampered from the impact of the Japanese crisis. Prices too will inevitably rise for many of the key components such as touch panels in the face of inadequate supply. It may also bring the unfortunate consequence of more defective components being used as manufacturers become desperate to maintain production to keep up with demand.

DigiTimes also reported today that Foxconn, which is a key manufacturer for Apple products, is facing not only a shortage of components but also labor. The double knock on supply may be enough to impact on shipments of iPad 2 and iPhone 4 orders in the second quarter. Foxconn, in responding to the suggestion, said that the company has extensive experience in dealing with “arranging manpower to assist clients in reaching their goals” and that it will do all it can to keep up with client demands.

[Via DigiTimes (1) (2), Image via iFixIt]

Apple’s Eddy Cue Confirms Half of iPad Subscriber Base Shares Personal Info

Publishers whom haven’t yet submitted their magazine or news publication to the App Store fear that consumers will simply opt-out of sharing personal information if given the choice. While only names, email addresses, and zip codes can be gathered by publishers, the possible road block via a simple pop-up notification was enough to scare off the likes of Time, Inc. The New York Times, Conde Nast, and others have given the App Store a shot despite the limitation to easily retrieve customer data, and Forbes’ Jeff Bercovici has confirmed that people aren’t that uncomfortable giving that information away.

Read more

Apple Reaches 100th iAd Campaign

The Loop reports Apple has successfully launched its 100th iAd campaign in late March with real estate company Coldwell Banker:

Apple on Wednesday said it had launched the 100th iAd campaign with real estate company Coldwell Banker.

The iAd allows iPhone and iPod touch users to search for their dream home, scrolling through visually driven search features to find specific homes matching their criteria. You can search by price, zip code, and include images of the homes.

So far, the campaign is bringing “glowing results” with 11 pages on average viewed per visit, engagement time above one minute and conversion rates four times higher than standard search ads. Apple’s iAd is currently live in 7 countries across America and Europe, with a minimum buy of $500,000, lowered from $1 million to allow smaller companies to launch campaigns to display on iOS devices. iPhones, iPod touches and iPads are supported, but a recent email from a member of the iAd team suggested Apple, following a request from advertisers, has shifted its targeting focus to hide advertisements from some kids-oriented apps.

Labels Hoping Apple’s Music Service Will Launch at WWDC

According to a new report by Cnet, multiple “music industry sources” have told the publication the four major music labels in the US (Warner Music Group, EMI, Sony, Universal) are hoping Apple’s rumored cloud music service will launch next month during the WWDC. The labels, Cnet reports, are counting on Apple to provide a full-featured music service with iTunes Store integration that would force competitors like Amazon and Google to start paying licensing fees for their “music locker” services, which allow users to upload songs to the cloud, but have in no way official support or backing from the labels. The labels are seemingly unhappy with Amazon and Google services as users might be able to upload songs they illegally downloaded from the Internet, and it also appears that Google transcodes some uploads to a new format (making a copy), thus raising some questions on copyright issues as well.

Apple is in a strong position to deliver a cloud service that allows for both uploading and streaming of songs thanks to deals negotiated with the labels. Last month, it was indeed reported that Apple had inked a deal with the Warner Music Group, with more labels to follow soon or already signed according to other rumors.

But the services offered by Amazon and Google are not all that they can be because those companies had to tippy-toe around copyright issues. Since neither company was either able or willing to obtain licenses from the four major labels, neither of them could deliver the same range of options that Apple will be able to offer with its upcoming cloud service, according to multiple music industry sources.

Lots of people at the four major labels, however, now hope the service launch at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference on June 7. The risk for the record labels is that the services from Amazon and Google could prove good enough for most music consumers and that the companies don’t feel compelled to upgrade.

The WWDC ‘11 kicks off on June 6 in San Francisco, and previous speculation suggested it would be a software-focused event with on-stage demoes of iOS 5 and OS X Lion. iOS 5 has been in the middle of a debate recently, mainly as to whether Apple will really showcase its new cloud offerings revolving around a revamped MobileMe or other functionalities such as voice recognition, postponing the launch of all cloud services to this Fall. Reuters reported a few weeks ago that work on Apple’s new music service had been finalized on the technical side, and Apple was simply completing the process of signing deals with music labels to offer both upload features and streaming of songs you don’t own, likely through a subscription system. Google launched its new “Music Beta” service yesterday and, similarly to Amazon’s Cloud Player, it allows users to upload songs and albums to an online locker, but doesn’t provide any sort of subscription à la Spotify to enable users to listen to music without uploading it first.

Report: Buyers Go With Either The Most Expensive Or Cheapest iPad

Apple offers quite a number of variations on the iPad 2, you can get it in white or black, with 3G or just WiFi, and in sizes of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. Well it turns out that the most popular model, according to research firm Context, is the 64GB 3G iPad.

The research was done by Context in Western Europe and it found that more than half of all iPad buyers would choose either the 64GB 3G model (also the most expensive), which accounted for roughly 33% of sales, or the 16GB Wi-Fi-only model (curiously the least expensive model), which received 22% of sales. On that evidence, as TheAppleBlog points out, consumers are going “all or nothing” – and many more seem to be saying “all”.

The report also discovered that the iPad represented 80% of tablets sold during the first quarter of 2011 – in line with a Nielsen report from last week. Yet this is a 5% drop from the previous quarter, a consequence of some take up of Android tablets. Curiously, one of the analysts from Context noted that it is likely that less publicised Android tablets such as the Acer Iconia will do better than the Xoom or Galaxy Tab. Nonetheless, Context has no doubts that at least by the end of this year, Apple will still hold top spot for tablet market share.

 

Apple’s In-App Purchase Policy Forces iFlowReader to Shut Down

BeamItDown Software, developers of iFlowReader, today announced that they will be forced to cease their operations at the end of this month. The move comes after Apple decided to enforce rule 11.13 of the ‘App Store Review Guidelines for iOS Apps’ – with Apple set to begin removing apps that do not conform to this rule by June 30. This means iFlowReader, which sold eBooks through an online store, would have to offer the same books within the app through In App Purchases – consequently meaning Apple gets its 30% cut of every sale made through the app.

In a statement on its website, BeamItDown Software makes it clear how if they went ahead and followed Apple’s guidelines, they would have to take a loss on every e-book sold – clearly not a sustainable business model. They explain that this occurs because the largest publishers (which account for more than 90% of the e-books they sell) have adopted an “agency model” in which means resellers, such as BeamItDown, receive a margin of less than 30% after paying the publisher. They say that the big publishers adopted this agency model after Apple negotiated with them over the iBooks deal. Prior to the agency model, resellers would typically receive a 50% discount on e-books.

The end result of BeamItDown Software and their iFlowReader, which had become quite a popular iOS e-reader with over six million downloads, is that it has, in essence, been shoved out of the iOS e-book market by the power Apple has over developers who rely on the iOS platform.

“We bet everything on Apple and iOS and then Apple killed us by changing the rules in the middle of the game.”

If you are a user of the app and its service, the short story is you will still be able to read your e-books, but you will have to jump through some hoops to ensure this. You will have until May 31st this year (the end of this month!) to do a few things related to back-up and downloading all your e-books from the site, which is shutting down. Jump to their statement for the details on this.

It was back in February when it was reported that Apple was tightening its hold on the iOS walled garden after it was revealed that Sony’s e-reader app was rejected for re-directing users to an online store for e-book purchases. Apple responded shortly after saying;

We have not changed our developer terms or guidelines,” Apple spokesperson, Trudy Muller, told The Loop. “We are now requiring that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app with in-app purchase.

The impending shutdown of BeamItDown does raise the question over whether Apple is using monopolistic behavior to force out other e-book services. In their statement they highlight that with one swift change in policy application, Apple will be able to sell e-books at a cheaper rate than every other service on iOS and likely force a number of services, like iFlow Reader to completely shut down because they cannot afford that 30% cut.

What sounds like a reasonable demand when packaged by Apple’s extraordinary public relations department is essentially an eviction notice to all e-book sellers on iOS…They want all e-book business on iOS and since they have the unilateral power to get it, we are out of business and the iFlow Reader is dead.

In the face of such questions, many will argue that Apple deserves to have complete control over its own App ecosystem, and that Android and the Kindle offer strong competition to Apple and iBooks. However, at least in my mind, I get the sense that Apple, with it’s large user base, may have unfairly forced this company out of the e-book market to advance the use of iBooks.

Section 11.13 of App Store Review Guidelines for iOS Apps

Apps can read or play approved content (magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, video) that is sold outside of the app, for which Apple will not receive any portion of the revenues, provided that the same content is also offered in the app using IAP at the same price or less than it is offered outside the app. This applies to both purchased content and subscriptions.