As Apple’s retail operations approach its 10th anniversary, one analyst points to the iPad as the latest product to spike visits to 323 stores worldwide. Despite its heavy presence online, the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant in March reported a higher percentage of revenue growth from retail sales compared to overall figures.
Apple retail sales hit $3.19 billion during the March quarter – a 90 percent increase – compared to 86 percent overall, according to Needham & Co. analyst Charlie Wolf.
We convene this session of Daily Deals on the heels of Apple announcing refreshed iMacs. To keep readers up-to-date, we have a deal on the new units, including a Core i5 Quad 2.5GHz machine with 22-inch screen for $1,199. If yesterday’s iMacs are fine, there is a deal on a Core i3 desktop running at 3.06GHz for $929. Finally, to ensure you don’t sleep through Apple’s next hardware reboot, we have an FM alarm clock radio for your iPod or iPhone.
Along the way, we also check out a battery charger for your iPhone or iPod, a case for your iPhone 4 and software for your Mac to keep the clones at bay. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
Two aging tech powerhouses came together Tuesday in Orlando, Fla. Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer, speaking at Research in Motion’s BlackBerry World conference, announced his company will “invest uniquely” in RIM. In addition, Microsoft announced its Bing search engine and mapping will be integrated into BlackBerry phones at the OS level.
“Bing on BlackBerry tastes more like Windows Phone 7 than BlackBerry” tweeted NPD analyst Ross Rubin. The announcement comes just days after analysts blasted RIM for retreating on its quarterly financial forecast
With less than 5 percent of the overall handset market share, Apple has managed to claim 50 percent of the industry profit, one analyst writes Tuesday. Additionally, the Cupertino, Calif. company did it with a handset less than five years old, stealing market share from two cell phone veterans – Nokia and RIM.
“We anticipate Apple will continue to gain share from Nokia and RIM during their smartphone transitions,” Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley told investors. He believes RIM will lose market share for the “next several years”, while Nokia likely will shed handset share “over the next several quarters.”
For some time, Apple’s iPad has been the foil of the Amazon Kindle e-reader. First, the pokes at reading in bright sunlight, then the geeks versus average person ad. Most recently, however, the Seattle-based online retailer has created an App Store – but for Android. All that was missing was an actual tablet. Now it appears the two companies will compete head-to-head amid a report Amazon is building a tablet PC.
Amazon has placed orders with Taiwan-based notebook manufacturer Quanta Computer, which now makes tablets for RIM and Sony, to supply around 700,000 to 800,000 tablets per month as soon as the second half of this year, according to a Tuesday report. Taking a page from Apple, Amazon also plans to buy a touch screen manufacturer’s full capacity.
We start the first week in May with ways to protect and preserve your favorite Apple device. First up is the Superleggera PRO Dual Layer case from Acase for your iPhone 4. Next is a two-pack of screen protectors for your iPod touch. We round out things with the EZ-Carry case that both protects and props-up your tablet.
Along the way, we also check out several other items, including storage. As always, details on these and many other bargains can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
With netbooks and Windows-based laptops fading into a landscape increasingly dominated by tablets and smartphones, chip giant Intel would be wise to become Apple’s go-to for custom chips, one analyst reasoned Monday. “A partnership between the two companies would drive dominance in tablets similar to Wintel’s dominance in PCs,” Piper Jaffray chip expert Gus Richard tells investors.
Noting “Intel has no market share in the next wave of computing,” Richard also sees an opportunity for the chipmaker. Citing “a number of inputs” the analyst believes Apple is moving away from its contentious arrangement with Samsung (which has both sued and competes with the Cupertino, Calif. company) toward Intel, Toshiba and Micron, among others.
Could the usually inflexible Apple be showing some wiggle room on the troublesome issue of iPad-based magazine subscriptions? Time Inc. – which publishes Fortune, Time and Sports Illustrated – has worked out a deal to provide a free iPad app to its print subscribers. Until now, Apple has required both subscribers and non-subscribers to pay separately for the iPad version.
The deal follows a number of meetings between Time’s lawyers and Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet services, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The deal “is a sign the two sides are moving closer,” the Journal writes.
Amid the poor revues and analyst concerns, Research in Motion’s PlayBook tablet has at least one vocal supporter, electronics retail giant Best Buy. Without offering any hard numbers, the retail chain announced its sales of the tablet “far exceeded” its expectations.
“We’re finding that customers are even more interested in purchasing once they’ve tested the PlayBook in the store,” BestBuy said in a statement. The positive statement from an important big-box retailer comes as RIM tries to rally the troops at its annual BlackBerry World Conference this week.
We wrap-up another week of deals with two iPod touch bargains and a zip-up leather iPad case. First is a number of iPod touch units (3rd- and 4th-generation), starting at $149 for the 8GB model. Next is a 64GB iPod touch for $270. Finally, we spotlight a deal on the Sena ZipBook leather case for the iPad.
Along the way, we also check out the TabletMac ModBook from AxioTron and the SizeUp windows re-sizing software for the Mac. As usual, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
More signs today that the pad may be overtaking paper as the preferred way readers get their literary fix. According to a survey by iSuppli, e-books will grow at an annual rate of more than 40 percent between 2010 and 2014. That’s a marked difference over printed books, which the survey predicts will fall five percent during the same timespan.
Traditional readers of print books may find the results “frightening,” says analyst Steve Mather. Total book revenue by U.S. publishers “will fall to $22.7 billion in 2014, down from $25 billion in 2010,” according to the survey.
An aging line of smartphones coupled with shaken credibility led to Research in Motion shares falling 13 percent Friday morning. The slide was prompted by RIM Thursday cutting its shipment and sales forecast amid heated competition by Apple and Google’s Android.
“This further damages already low credibility, making them the ‘poster boy’ for a show-men story from here,” RBC Capital Markets’ analyst Mike Abramsky tells Bloomberg. RIM announced BlackBerry shipments would likely reach the low side of its previously-forecasted 13.5 million to 14.5 million units. Likewise, quarterly sales would be “slightly below” its earlier projection of $5.2 billion to $5.6 billion.
Woe be the PC maker. That seems to be the message coming from a number of analysts, slashing expectations in the face of growing tablet demand. The latest to adopt shrinking expectations is Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty. Huberty cut her PC growth estimates for 2011 to two percent, down from seven percent. Tablets will cut 29 percent of PC demand, she estimates.
Acer, maker of many low-cost netbook PCs, could be the hardest hit. According to IDC, the PC maker’s first quarter 2011 U.S. shipments fell 42 percent, compared to the same period in 2010. Dell, who Huberty says faces the “greatest risk” due to falling commercial demand and rising supply costs, saw first-quarter growth fall 11.8 percent.
We start the day with two MacBooks and the latest iPod nano. First up is a 1.4GHz MacBook Air laptop with a 12-inch screen for $879. Next is an 8GB current-generation iPod nano for $109. Finally, ExperCom offers a 2.4GHz MacBook Pro with 13-inch screen for $1,049.
Along the way, we also check out a quad-core i7-based MacBook Pro bundled with AppleCare, plus screen protectors for your iPhone 4 or iPad, as well as iLife software for your Mac. As usual, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
While Google’s Android Marketplace in the past often elicited giggles and guffaws when compared to Apple’s App Store, the Android app alternative needs to be taken more seriously. The Android Marketplace will catch up with Apple’s 350,000 iOS applications in July.
“Approximately five months from now Google’s Android Market will be the largest store in terms of number of applications followed by the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad,” market research firm Distimo announced Thursday. The researchers based their assumption on the past three months of app store activity and warned volume “could easily accelerate or slow down.”
Remember all the excitement leading up to Apple introducing the iPhone 4 for CDMA networks, such as Verizon? Well, just as Christmas Eve tension leads to Boxing Day blahs, so goes demand for the CDMA iPhone. A new report suggests the Cupertino, Calif. company has cut in half its orders for the CDMA iPhone 4 this year.
Pegatron, which was expected to ship 10 million CDMA iPhone 4s in 2011, now may only make half that number. “Volume is estimated to drop to only five million units,” a Taiwan-based industry publication wrote Thursday, citing “upstream component makers.”
If the PC industry was waiting for a reason to embrace the tablet, they need only talk to the folks at Canalys. The research firm – the first to view tablets as PCs – said Thursday PC sales experienced 187.9 percent year-over-year growth when the iPad was lumped in with sales.
Apple was displaced by Dell from the No. 3 spot it held during the last quarter of 2010 by just a measly 1.5 million units. However, the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant shipped 74 percent of the 6.4 million tablets sold during the first quarter, the research firm announced.
We start the day with two MacBooks in the spotlight, along with several cases for the iPad. First up is a number of MacBook Air laptops from the Apple Store, starting at $849 for a 64GB SSD model. Next is a crystal silicone case for the iPad, just one of many listed today. We wrap up the spotlight with a number of MacBook Pro units, starting at $929 for a 2.4GHz model from the Apple Store.
Along the way, we check out a deal on an 8Gn iPod nano, as well as software for your Mac. As always, details on these and many other bargains can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
Apple Wednesday said it will release a free update to its iOS software which the Cupertino, Calif. company claims will secure location data stored on the iPhone and iPad. The update will “reduce the size of the database file, encrypt the file, and ensure it is deleted if users disable location services on their iPhone or 3G-connected iPad,” Apple announced in a press release.
Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported the tracking feature continues even when users disable location services. The growing concerns, which now goes by “Locationgate,” has prompted class-action lawsuits and government investigations.
Embattled cell phone giant Nokia Wednesday announced it will cut 7,000 jobs as a result of its Microsoft Windows Phone agreement and outsourcing its Symbian handset software. The cuts represent 12 percent of the company’s handset employees and could save Nokia $1.46 billion.
“The competitive environment has changed rapidly,” explained Nokia CEO Stephen Elop. The cuts including 4,000 layoffs and 3,000 jobs shifted to Accenture are just the latest move by Nokia. It recently inked a deal supporting Microsoft’s Windows Phone software instead of Symbian. Additionally, Apple recently was pegged as the largest mobile phone company, in terms of revenue, causing Nokia to be the largest handset maker in only volume. The former Microsoft executive Elop was hired about a year ago in a bid to make the Finnish company more competitive with Apple’s iPhone.
We start off with the iPhone 3G. This handset is unlocked and loaded with 16GB for just $328. Next is a 27-inch Apple LED Cinema Display for $849. We close out the day’s spotlight with a humorous-appearing GOgroove 2.1-Channel BoomBUDDY Music dock.
Along the way, we also check out various accessories, such as FM transmitters and iPad cases. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
Motorola’s Xoom, powered by Google’s Android 3.0 ‘Honeycomb’ OS fine-tuned for tablets, was supposed to be Apple’s worst nightmare and a reawakening for the venerable handset manufacturer. Instead, one Wall Street analyst estimates Motorola Mobility has sold between 25,000 and 120,000 Xooms, recalling Microsoft’s jab at Apple as ‘just a rounding error.’ What’s the solution for Motorola?
Sue ’em. Global Equities analyst Trip Chowdry thinks Motorola Mobility would earn more by suing Google for what he termed the “dead on arrival” Honeycomb tablet software.
Google’s Android smartphone OS now has a double-digit lead on Apple, according to a new survey released Tuesday morning. Android is used by 37 percent of smartphone users, compared to the iPhone, owned by 27 percent of smartphone users, found a March survey by measurement firm Nielsen.
The findings illustrate a dramatic change in consumer attitudes since October 2010. In that survey, the iPhone lead with 27.9 percent of smartphone owners, just edging out the BlackBerry’s 27.4 percent. Android was No. 3 with 22.7 percent. Now, Android is No. 1, Apple No. 2 and BlackBerry is No. 3, with 22 percent of the market.
We start the last week of April with three new deals. First up is an 8GB version of Apple’s current iPod nano for just $130. Next is the i.Sound Twin Charging dock for the iPod and iPhone. We wrap-up today’s spotlight with an anti-glare screen protector for your iPad 2.
Along the way, we also check out a discount on select iPad cases, as well as software for your Mac. As usual, details on these and many more items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
Apple has increased its supply commitments by more than a third to $11 billion – a record – during the March quarter, according to an SEC filing. The jump from $7.9 billion usually spent in that three-month period indicates the Cupertino, Calif. company is pulling out all stops to ensure it meets demand for the iPad 2 and expected iPhone 5.
“We believe the increase is attributable to procurement ahead of a tight supply environment and expected shipment increases in June (iPad) and September (iPad + iPhone),” Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty told investors.
