Ed Sutherland - page 76

It appears Apple’s iPod touch-based point-of-sale system is drawing interest from retailers looking to use the current proprietary hardware and software for selling more than Macs and iPhones. The Cupertino, Calif. company is considering commercializing the system following massive interest.

“Since the debut of the iPod POS, inquiries have been coming from all directions, including from end-user small businesses, larger chains and system integrators,” according to ifoAppleStore. The iPod maker has instructed Apple Store salespeople to collect contact information from people expressing interest “apparently to create a database of potential customers,” the report said.

Yet another analyst Thursday joined the chorus of voices singing Apple’s praises in a sluggish PC market. Mac sales will grow 26 percent in 2010, far outstripping PCs forecast to grow just 16 percent year over year.

Looking forward, Robert Cichra, analyst with Caris & Company, predicted Apple will have 4 percent of the market share for 2010, providing what the analyst termed “considerable headroom” for more growth.

Apple’s App Store next year will reach the 300,000 mark, tripling the number of applications available for the iPhone and iPod touch, according to one analyst’s preview of 2010. The continued growth of the App Store is at the leading-edge of what analyst firm IDC sees as a ‘platform shift’ to mobile devices and away from the PC.

“We predict at least 300,000 iPhone applications by the end of 2010,” wrote analyst Frank Gens. Many of the new apps will come from businesses as consumers and companies pick the iPhone for their most commonly-used applications.

Whether you’re looking for a MacBook Pro laptop or an iPod touch, there’s a deal for you. PC Connection is selling 2.26GHz 13-inch Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro laptops for $850. A 64GB version of Apple’s popular iPod touch is $340 from Mac Connection. Whether you have an iPhone or an iPod, an 80 percent-off discount sale on iPhone cases from HandheldItems.com might prove interesting. Along the way, we check out other Mac-related hardware, including Altec Lansing’s inMotion MIX iMT800 boombox for iPod or iPhone.

As always, for details on these bargains or many others, check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

We start December off with a couple deals on MacBook Pro laptops, including an Apple Store offer from $999. Next we have some price drops on a number of App Store applications for your iPhone or iPod touch. We round out our top trio of deals with Apple iWork ’09 for $55. Along the way, we take a look at Belkin’s iPod start kit and several software deals.

For details on these and many other Apple-related bargains, check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the break.

Japan carrier Softbank Tuesday introduced a new wrinkle in its attempt to tempt that country’s cell phone-hungry citizens into adopting Apple’s iPhone. The company said it will give a 16GB iPhone 3GS to anyone willing to sign-up for two years. A 32GB iPhone 3GS is priced at about $6 per month.

The announcement is part of “iPhone for all of Softbank,” a new campaign to launch Friday, Dec. 4. The offer of a free 16GB iPhone 3GS may be a response to a scarcity of iPhone 3G handsets in Japan. Softbank may become one of the first carriers to stop offering the iPhone 3G, reports said Tuesday.

The iPhone has joined the iPod in their ‘halo effect’ promoting Apple’s Mac. Mac global sales in September rose 16.4 percent, far ahead of a 2.3 percent year-over-year sales increase for PCs, one analyst told investors Tuesday.

“We believe that the halo effect emanating from the iPhone should be even stronger than that surrounding the iPod,” wrote Needham and Co. analyst Charlie Wolf.

Florida-based Psystar and Apple will submit Tuesday a partial court settlement to the long-running Mac copyright-infringement legal battle, according to a report. Psystar, which had sold Mac clones based on Intel hardware with Apple’s Mac OS X operating system pre-installed, will pay unspecified damages.

The Cupertino, Calif. Apple has agreed to drop most of its legal challenge to Psystar, say reports citing documents filed Monday with a San Francisco court. The computer company also agreed to not pursue the damage award until all appeals are concluded.

We end the month of November with a number of ways to get your Christmas shopping (remember, just 25 days left) off to a good start. iMacs and MacBooks were big sellers on Black Friday and we have them both. First up, 22-inch Core 2 Duo iMacs running at 3.06 GHz. The desktop computers come with 8GB RAM and AppleCare for $1,407. Next is a 13-inch MacBook laptop, running 2.26 GHz with 4GB RAM and 500GB HD for $1,149. Along the way we check out a third-generation iPod touch for $170, Apple’s 2TB Time Capsule for $449 and a new batch of App Store Freebies.

As always, details on these and many other bargains are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump. Good hunting!

Has Apple manipulated flash memory supply and demand, causing prices to fluctuate? An unnamed memory industry official tells a South Korean newspaper the Cupertino, Calif. company “should certainly be blamed for deteriorating the supply and demand cycle in the global NAND flash market.”

The comments are just the latest pointing a finger at Apple for changes in how much NAND, or flash memory, is purchased by the company and the effect on Korea’s memory makers, such as Samsung and Hynix. Anonymous sources told The Korea Times Apple will often order, then buy less than expected, creating an excess inventory and lower flash memory prices. The supposed tactic is being attacked, given Apple’s record profits amidst lean times for chipmakers.

Analysts predict lower Black Friday sales at Apple’s brick-and-mortar retail locations may be offset by a double-digit increase in online electronic purchases. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said Mac sales were down compared to 2008, but warned investors it may be too early to predict Apple sales on the all-important after Thanksgiving shopping spree.

Munster said the analyst firm noticed 8.3 Macs sold each hour, a drop from 13 per hour last year. A team from Piper Jaffray counted Mac sales for nine hours in three retail stores Nov. 27.

Clues of a possible successor to the iPhone 3GS have been detected by an application used by San Francisco public transportation. The hints were found in logs of iBart, a guide to the California city’s subway, according to a report Monday. The logs identified as “iPhone 3,1” a device used to connect to the transportation guide. The iPhone 3GS identifies itself as “iPhone 2,1” – a signal the mysterious handset could include major upgrades to Apple’s popular touchscreen phone.

The report by MacRumors cites PinchMedia which created the iBart software for San Francisco. In early 2009, the publication reported the “iPhone 2,1” string was detected followed by Apple’s June release of the current iPhone. The Cupertino, Calif. company uses the first number in the string to signify a major change.

Are you looking for an Apple bargain, slashed prices on iPhone or iPod gear, or a refurbished 16GB or 32GB iPhones from AT&T? Well, catch your breath from all of the Black Friday scrambling and check out our latest daily deals. Also on tap: new App Store freebies to fill up that iPhone or iPod touch, a new deal on 160GB AppleTVs and a travel charger for your device.

As always, get details on these and many more Apple-related bargains at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

The iPhone is not yet selling in South Korea, but already tremors are being felt from its upcoming introduction. KT Corp., which will begin selling the smartphone Saturday, says it’s received 53,000 advance orders since Nov. 22. A rival carrier pointed to the iPhone as one of the reasons it will cut in half the price of its Samsung Omnia II smartphone.

Although Samsung and LG have between 80 percent and 90 percent of the 47 million handsets sold in South Korea, the recent approval of iPhone sales by South Korean Communications Commission provides Apple entry into a potentially lucrative market. South Koreans pay the world’s highest prices for cell phones, with Samsung and LG phones sold in the nation costing twice that elsewhere. Almost half of the country’s cell phones owners reportedly buy new handsets every two years.

While you wait for the bird, the pies and the Thanksgiving Day football, check out some of the deals for your iPhone, iPod and Mac. Nothing goes better with gorging yourself on apple pie than yet another freebie from iTunes. This time we have Royce da 5’9″ “Something to Ride.” Next up is a number of classic games from Electronic Arts, including Tetris, SimCity and Madden. Finally, if you have a Mac but work with Windows files, get the best of both worlds with a deal on Parallels 5.0 for $40.

For details on all of these details and more (like a skin for the Nike+ iPod sensor), check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

iPhone owners are more willing to pay for digital content than the wider online audience, two new UK surveys find. The results may support publishers looking to the iPhone to boost sales of digital magazines, video and other material. The introduction of the App Store, where iPhone owners purchase software from their handsets, has developed a class of consumers less resistant to digital purchases.

“It seems to be that people get used to paying for content, such as an application on the iPhone because it is so easy and the idea of paying for something suddenly becomes much less of a barrier that it is online,” said Peter Enser, partner with Olswang which creates the annual Olswang Convergence Study.

More men currently profess loyalty to Motorola than iPhone-maker Apple, according to a brand survey. The figures are the first clear indication of the impact of the Motorola-made iPhone rival Droid and the ad bashing between AT&T and Verizon.

After peaking at 48.1 for the month of November, Apple dropped to 22 last week, according to brand research firm YouGov. Motorola, which peaked at 32.3 this month, finished last week with a 29.3 score in the company’s BrandIndex. Study results range from -100 to 100 based on weekday interviews with 5,000 people.

When you go to the grocery store, pick me up a loaf of bread, some milk and an iPhone. That could soon be the refrain of UK shoppers as a deal between Apple and Tesco was announced Wednesday. The arrangement would put the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in around 100 Tesco Phone Shops throughout the UK.

The agreement with Tesco Mobile, a virtual network operator, and carrier O2 would provide the Apple handsets as pay-as-you-go phones.

How often do you find a 1TB networked hard drive that stores and pumps out 1080p high-def video wrapped in a black monolith-like enclosure – plus it costs only $250? That’s the word on LaCinema Classic HD from the hard drive folks over at LaCie.

The LaCinema Classic HD will stream 1080p videos, music or photos from your Mac (or PC) to your HD television. You can either use the included HDMI cable or the optional Wi-Fi 802.11n USB adapter for wireless media transmission to your network. A remote control is included.

Before the iPhone beget the iPhone case, speakers were probably the most-often added accessory for computer systems. But the MacBook has stereo speakers – they just need a bit more bass in the form of a subwoofer. BassJump from Charleston, SC-based Twelve South provides that extra audio oomph, but in a definitely Mac way.

Are you looking for an Apple laptop for under $1,000? The Apple Store has a 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro starting at $999. Do you want to keep that brand-new iPhone shiny and secure? There is a 90 percent discount on select iPhone cases. Finally, yes, there is an app for that – and it may be among those with lower prices. Check out the App Store listings below for specific titles.

As always, for details on these or other bargains, check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

A group of more than 50 publishers, led by Time Inc., are in the final stages of creating a consortium for selling digital versions of their magazines through the iPhone, Apple’s rumored iTablet, Amazon’s Kindle and other e-readers, according to a Tuesday report.

The company, including Time Inc., Conde Nast and Hearst, would offer The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Time, People, Sports Illustrated and other magazines using an iTunes-like “any way you want” store for content, sources told The New York Observer. The deal could be “announced within weeks,” according to the newspaper.

Apple Monday joined AT&T in its attempt to counter Verizon’s attack on both the iPhone and the handset’s exclusive carrier. In a series of prime-time ads, the Cupertino, Calif. company asked viewers: “can your phone and network do that?”

The two ads show the iPhone checking e-mail and movie listings while on a phone call. AT&T’s 3G GSM network is capable of multiple voice and data connections, an ability apparently lacking from Verizon’s CDMA network.

Do you know a lucky Mac cultist who will get Apple’s fastest and largest iMac under the tree this year? Before you wrap one of the new 27-inch iMacs with Intel’s Core i7 processor, you might want to test the machine. A number of customers of the quad-core custom-built iMacs are reporting damaged screens or computers that show up dead on arrival.

Owners on Apple’s support discussion boards report Core i7 iMacs arriving either with a crack in the bottom left corner of the computer’s screen or the desktop computer won’t boot. Some customers report a two-week waiting period for a replacement.

We start the week out with a trio of items designed for Black Friday followers, App Store browsers and big screen fans. First up, Apple confirms it will have a Black Friday “event,” but provides no details. Last week, a blog posted what it thought was a leaked Apple Store Online flyer, mentioning 25 percent and 30 percent discounts. The “leak” was later discounted, itself. Next up: for all those iPhones and iPod touches that will likely be purchased over the holidays, Apple’s App Store has unveiled a new batch of free applications. Finally, the U.S. Thanksgiving and Christmas begs for widescreen TVs dripping in all their HDTV glory. We have several to pick from.

As always, for details on these and other bargains, check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page.