All Articles Tagged Apple

Oh boy. My hands are already sweating…

“With the iPhone days away from being launched Nintendo has apparently begun working with Apple, licensing a limited amount of content for the new phone,” Noheat.com reports. Noheat reports, “These exclusive games will be released on the iTunes Store at a $29.00 price point a few months after the iPhone launches. No word on whether Nintendo will be distributing iPod versions of these games.”

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Saabira Chaudhuri of Fast Company believes iPhone doesn’t have the chutzpah to capture the same success achieved by its cousin, the iPod.

The iPod set an impossibly high bar, one that the iPhone will not match or even come close to. But the new device could still be very successful, particularly in the long term. By combining a phone, a music player and an Internet device all in one, while coupling them with the most user friendly interface it could conceive of, Apple aims to embody one of the most fundamental ideals that underlies modern day consumerism: convenience.

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That zany analyst Shaw Wu (woo woo) from American Tech Research speculates that Apple is developing a low-cost mass market iPhone for the RAZR crowd, or so he says. Mr. Wu (can I call you Mr. Wu?) is basing his reasoning on Apple’s iPod strategy which began with the introduction of pricey high end models, eventually branching off into an assortment of models in different price tiers.

In other news, researchers have discovered the sky is blue. Video at 11:00.

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The press release published today by Apple sent the company stock price trending upwards more than $3 a share. Frightening how even the most trivial news can effect stocks. In other news, I sat on my car keys this morning, sending me upwards more than three feet in the air. Sadly this had no effect on my portfolio.

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There’s a great article at UPenn that delves into the study of marketing and hype, geared directly towards gadget release. The you-know-what is the main thing under their microscope, as it goes into detail as to why it was pre-announced by 6 months. They cover how some companies really have their way with marketing and pre-releases and hype, and some others, well, how does one actually come out and say it, not have way.

In the words of a gum chewing George C. Scott in Dr. Strangelove, “Mr. President…I smell a big fat Commie rat!”. iPhone’s disclosed talk time seems suspiciously robust for a full screened touch device, which leads me to wonder if someone at Cupertino isn’t blowing smoke in our faces. Apple could have sacrificed any number of features to achieve this “impressive” feat in battery life. For example the biggest consumer of power in a handset of this class is the LCD. One way around the problem is to throttle down screen brightness, and limiting its highest setting. I’ve seen numberous manufacturers play this card in the past, so I wouldn’t be bowled over to see Apple follow the same path, though I’m not claiming that’s what happened here.

So what’s going on here? Are these genuine tweats or feature retardation? We’ll know in just two more weeks.

Among the interesting factoids to come out of today’s press release is the revelation that iPhone’s touch display is fabricated from Glass rather than typical plastic found on competing smartphones. This is at once interesting and troubling. The durability of glass in a destructable device is questionable. Will the iPhone survive sudden drops to the floor? Will it crack inside your pants pocket if too much flexing or tensile stress is exerted on it? looks around worried

Ok kiddies, Apple just sent out a press release announcing iPhone’s talk time. Which is…wait for it…wait for it… 8 hours.

Read the PR here… Read the rest of this entry »

I’m sure this is fantastic news for Apple customers with busy schedules who made appointments for that day. Pushed aside for a phone? Yeah, that’s going to go over well.

Much to my chagrin, I received a telephone call from the manager of my local Apple Store yesterday to “reschedule” my appointment for 29 June. No reason was given… If you’ve made a Personal Shopping appointment for the 29th in hopes of securing an iPhone you should call your Apple Store to confirm it. Word is that the decision to cancel the appointments for the 29th was made on a corporate level.

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CrunchGear’s Seth Porges muses on Apple’s strategy of planned obsolescence in product development. iPhone falls into this category, much like its musical cousin – iPod. This is the primary reason why you won’t see user replaceable batteries in either product. Apple doesn’t want you upgrading your device, they want you to upgrade to a NEW device. This strategy was widely used by auto makers in the 1950’s and 60’s. Each year the big three would roll out new models designed to make last years model look obsolete, fueling consumer buying. It may have worked with iPod, but I doubt this will work for iPhone due to the inherent entanglements of wireless carrier red tape.

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