Ed Sutherland - page 28

Researchers at Gartner did everything but point at Steve Jobs as the reason for a decline in demand for PCs. “With the launch of the iPad 2 in February, more consumers either switched to buying an alternative device, or simply held back from buying PCs,” one expert announced Wednesday afternoon.

Worldwide demand for PCs during the first quarter of 2011 fell 1.1 percent to 84.3 million units, figures Gartner said “indicate potential sluggishness, not just a normal seasonal slowdown.”

We start off the day with two MacBook Pro laptops and an iPad. First up is a Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz MacBook Pro with a 13″ screen for $1,049 from Expercom. Next is a MacBook Pro with a 2.8GHz chip and a 15″ screen for $1,439 from the Apple Store. Finally, we have a 16GB Wi-Fi iPad for $349 from the Apple Store.

Along the way, we check out a blast from the past – a 1.33GHz iBook G4 for $215. There is a leather case for your iPad, as well as several software packages – including Microsoft Office 2011 for the Mac. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Although Apple’s quarterly earnings report won’t be out until next week, two analysts already predict the tech giant will announce “conservative guidance.” The tech giant, which usually tries to game the process by announcing low guidance in order to beat the Street’s expectations, may truly be hurt by the repercussions following the Japanese earthquake.

Goldman lowered its revenue for the June quarter to $22.66bn, down from $22.67bn. Barclays told investors Wednesday it sees the timing of the iPhone 5, iPad 2 availability and the ipact of Japan as “key factors” in the upcoming second-quarter report.

The swarm of speculation, once surrounding when Apple would release a CDMA iPhone has a new target: HDTV. Wednesday, a Wall Street analyst provided a bit more fuel, telling investors he expects the Cupertino, Calif. tech giant to unveil a “Smart TV” by the end of 2011.

Brian White of Ticonderoga Securities writes a trip to a China tradeshow prompted his belief. White says the new device won’t be another revamp of Apple TV. The Smart TV would “provide a full-blown TV product for consumers,” according to the analyst. Understanding we’ve heard this all before, the analyst assures us Apple is moving “at a faster pace than the market expected.”

We start off with three hardware deals, one for the desktop, one for the laptop and one for the on-the-go. First up is a Core i3 iMac running at 3.06GHz with a 22-inch screen. Next is a 1.4GHz MacBook Air, along with several other Airs from the Apple Store. We wrap the spotlight up with a deal on a 32GB iPod touch with FaceTime for $232.

Along the way, we also check out other hardware and add-ons, ranging from the Xserve to a 27-inch Cinema Display. As usual, details on these and many other items can be found at the CoM “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Although Apple is yet to officially announce its sales for the fiscal second quarter, one analyst already has high expectations. The quick take-away: more record iPhone sales and overwhelming demand for the iPad 2 versus the original Apple tablet. In terms of sales numbers, expect 7 million for the iPad and 17 million for the iPhone.

RBC Capital Markets’ analyst Mike Abramsky told investors Tuesday he believes Apple will have sold 2 million to 3 million iPad 2 units, higher than the Wall Street consensus. In a survey RBC conducted in March, 28 percent of the people asked said they plan to buy an iPad 2 – 40 percent higher than an earlier survey gauging the consumer intentions toward the first-generation iPad.

Apple’s long-awaited CDMA iPhone should pay off handsomely, to the tune of $9 billion in 2012, one analyst estimates. The Cupertino, Calif. tech giant should garner $6 billion in the U.S. and half that in markets such as China, India and Japan.

JP Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz told investors Tuesday Apple has a “multi-billion dollar revenue opportunity” capable of keeping the company at above-market growth for up to the next two years. Moskowitz expects Verizon will sell 10 million CDMA iPhones next year, a near mirror of the carrier’s own projected 11 million units sold for 2011. The CDMA iPhone was Verizon’s best-selling handset in history.

Intel, watching the torch pass from laptops to tablets, is determined to make 2011 “about becoming relevant,” as its marketing manager told one reporter Monday. The chip maker is taking another whack at finding an answer to the iPad, launching the Oak Trail chip designed specifically for tablets.

Although Intel doesn’t plan to launch its new 45nm Atom chip until May, the company says 35 tablets are set to use the component. However, some question whether the Santa Clara, Calif.-based firm can make a dent in the existing tablet marketplace. While Intel CEO Paul Otellini told employees he is “very optimistic about our opportunities in tablets,” Gartner’s research head Michael Gartenberg warned tablet users “seem to be quite happy with the Arm architecture.”

We start another week of deals with a number of Mac Pro Xeon workstations. The units from the Apple Store start at $2,039 for a Quad Core Xeon 2.66GHz. Next is a leather flip stand for the iPad. (We also include several other iPad cases.) Finally, there is a deal on Apple’s Final Cut Studio 3, which bundles Final Cut Pro 7, Motion 4, Soundtrack Pro 3, Compressor 3.5, DVD Studio 4, and Color 1.5 — all for $709.

Along the way, we all take a peek at several software titles, ranging from Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 to the backup and synchronization tool Sync Pro 6.

As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

We close out another week with three hardware deals. First up are nine iMacs from the Apple Store, starting at $1,019 for an i3 powered iMac running at 3.06GHz. The desktop machine also has a 22-inch screen. Next is a luxury iPad convertible flip case. The final spotlight item is a USB turntable from Numark which converts your vinyl to MP3 and then ships them to your iPod with a built-in dock.

Along the way, we also check out other deals on iPad cases, as well as software and accessory bargains. As always, details on these and many other products can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

You may have read Thursday a report Apple has purchased equipment to store 12 petabytes (around 12,000 terabytes) of data, prompting some to suggest the deal targets the Cupertino, Calif. company’s expected cloud-based services. Friday, one Wall Street analyst said such huge amounts of data “dovetail nicely” with a ‘Cloud Tunes,’ an online version of Apple’s popular iTunes.

“We believe that Apple will release a new cloud strategy by the fall, likely integrating its MobileMe services and taking advantage of its significant investments in its North Carolina data center,” writes Ben Reitzes of Barclays Capital.

Here’s a shocker: Apple is playing its cards close to the vest about a product launch. That’s the opinion of one analyst who tells investors Friday he is “suspicious” of all the talk the Cupertino, Calif. company may delay the iPhone 5 until later this year.

“We are increasingly becoming suspicious around continued reports of a delayed iPhone 5 launch into September/October versus the typical June/July time frame,” writes Brian White of Ticonderoga Securities. Why the suspicion?

Motorola’s Xoom is fast becoming a retailing slug. The slowness to catch-on with consumers (the Xoom sold only a fifth as many units during its first week compared to Apple) may not be totally the fault of the Android-based tablet, but partly retailers. A Friday report suggests big box tech giants and others are lumping the Xoom into the me-too iPad alternative category.

Best Buy, for instance, tells consumers they offer tablets, showing an iPad, then a Xoom under the generic “Tablet” label. At some Verizon Wireless stores, the iPad and iPad 2 are highlighted, with Samsung the obvious alternative. Meanwhile, the $599 Xoom is beside the $199 Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Another day, another deal. Today we have deals for the iPad, iPhone and Mac. First up is another batch of iPads, starting at $529 for a 64GB Wi-Fi and 3G tablet from AT&T.Next is a carbon skin for the iPhone 4. We wrap-up the spotlight with the ModBook, a modified 2.13GHz MacBook with 13.3-inch widescreen to behave like a tablet – just 1,949.

Along the way, we also take a look at music and digital editing 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.

When’s the iPhone 5 arriving? How is the iPad selling? What about the iPod? These are all immaterial questions, one Wall Street expert argues Thursday. Forget about the products and keep your eye on the platform. “Products last maybe a year, ‘platforms’ last decades,” he tells investors.

“We believe the single biggest change in Apple over the past few years is that it has moved from being something of a ‘hit product’ movie studio dependent on each new release back to being a better-than-ever ‘platform’ company, where its iOS plus hardware plus apps ecosystem … are what truly matters and drive longevity,” writes Caris & Co. analyst Robert Cihra.

Android-based smartphones will become the most popular option by the end of 2011, with the Google-powered handsets accounting for 49 percent of the world market by 2012. That’s the word from one research firm, which also announced Thursday Apple’s iOS platform will remain No. 2 because the Cupertino, Calif. firm prefers margin over market share.

Although Android devices will push the average smartphone price to $300 or less, “Apple will be interested in maintaining margins rather than pursuing market share by changing its pricing strategy,” Gartner said. Apple’s iOS will peak in 2011 with growth in the U.S. and Western Europe. Sales to emerging markets will be limited, the researcher predicts.

Apple reportedly is putting the final touches on a deal that would open a retail location near the Kremlin in Moscow. The 16,000-square-foot site would be in a historic Red Square hotel alongside an international restaurant and gallery.

Although no contract has been signed, two executives from the Cupertino, Calif. company visited Moscow in March to review the two-story space in Hotel Moskva and a decision is expected soon, according to a news site which tracks Apple’s retail moves. If a deal is inked, the location would be the first Apple Store in any of the former Soviet Union republics.

We start off with three hardware deals: one desktop and two MacBook Pros. The desktop is an iMac with a 2.93GHz i7 processor, 27-inch screen, 16GB memory and more for $2,439. Next is a MacBook Pro powered by quad 7 processors running at 2GHz. The laptop has a 15-inch screen and is bundled with three years of AppleCare for $2,099. We wrap up the spotlight with a 2.8GHz MacBook Pro for $1,439.

Along the way, we also check out a 16GB iPhone 3G, more iPad cases and software for Mac downloading. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Was there insider trading involved in Monday’s sell-off of Apple stock just prior to news that NASDAQ would rebalance several tech stocks, including Apple? That’s the concern of some investors trying to understand why $4.2 (1.2 percent) was shaved off the high-flying Cupertino, Calif. company.

“Doesn’t it feel as if someone got a call regarding the Apple re-weighting at 2pm on Friday afternoon, when the stock was trading at $348 and change?” Fortune quotes one investor. Monday’s sell-off of Apple shares happened on a “day when the Dow was up and a couple analysts had just raised their Apple target prices,” the magazine adds.

Could another flash memory crunch be on the horizon? The growing introduction of cloud-based services and talk of a high-capacity iPhone 5 later this year will catch NAND memory makers flat-footed if an iPad 3 is unveiled in the next six months. That’s the concern of one analyst who watches the memory sector.

Although memory manufacturing facilities were built with an eye toward greater use in cell phones, there was no “accounting for any potential detrimental impact from streaming services,” according to Matthew Bryson of Avian Securities. Both Apple and Google will join the push, with the Cupertino, Calif. company “leading the hardware/OS/cloud charge with a completely integrated product built around post-PC devices like the iPhone5 and iPad3,” he tells investors Wednesday.

Although any official hint at how many iPad 2 tablets Apple has sold likely won’t come until later this month, when the Cupertino, Calif. company makes a financial announcement, there are plenty of leaks. If ‘follow the money’ is the mantra in Washington, for the Silicon Valley press corps, the equivalent is ‘follow the supply.’ A new report suggests Apple sold 2.4 million to 2.6 million iPad 2 units in March.

According to chatter heard by DigiTimes, between 4 million and 4.5 million iPads are being shipped monthly for 12 million during the three-month second quarter of 2011. The report, based on touchscreen suppliers, indicates the next-generation iPad 2 is selling at a much faster rate than the original tablet. The first iPad took 28 days before selling the first million units.

Teens are increasingly purchasing or interested in owning an iPhone. That’s the word from one research firm that reports 17 percent of U.S. teens now own the Apple handset with more than a third expecting to buy one in the next six months.

Although that those expectant iPhone owners are sometimes overlooked, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster suggests this year’s survey finding of 37 percent suggests certain sales for Apple are on the horizon. “Historical data shows that the intent to buy translates into share gains,” he told investors Tuesday. In a spring 2010 survey of teens, Munster found 33 percent of U.S. teens planned to buy an iPhone, which translated to a three-point rise in Spring 2011 ownership.

We start out with a number of deals on the MacBook Air, including an $849 model with a 1.4GHz processor and 64GB SSD. Next is a roundup of iPad accessories from Verizon Wireless, ranging from stylus pens to covers. Finally, there is a deal on a 27-inch LED Cinema Display for just $849.

Along the way, we check out iPhone 4 cases, iPad cases, warranties and software. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

More indications that the iPad is cutting into PC sales, as well as their suppliers. Tuesday, one analyst put a “hold” recommendation on Intel’s stock, telling investors the iPad 2 could eat into notebook demand.

Canaccord Genuity analyst Bobby Burleson also lowered his price target on Intel shares to $19 from $22. Intel reportedly could announce disappointing second-quarter sales due partly to the supply disruption from Japan, along with Apple’s impact on notebook sales. He cut Intel 2011 revenue expectations to $48.75 billion, down from a previous $50.5 billion projection.

A new survey is out attempting to measure the satisfaction of iPhone 4 users with the two U.S. carriers now offering the Apple handset. If you bypass the statistical dead-heat on the level of overall satisfaction, twice as many iPhone 4 owners report dropped calls on AT&T as compared to Verizon Wireless.

An average of 4.8 percent of people surveyed by ChangeWave said they had dropped iPhone 4 calls on AT&T, versus an average of 1.8 percent of Verizon customers surveyed. The percentages closely align with a survey of general cell phone customers which found 4.6 percent of AT&T subscribers and 1.4 percent of Verizon customers reported dropped calls.