HTC Corp. (2498), Asia’s second-largest smartphone maker, posted its lowest profit in eight years as a lack of new models prompted a loss of market share.
Fourth-quarter net income was NT$1 billion ($34 million), the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company said in a statement today. That’s the lowest since 2004 and less than the NT$10.9 billion it posted a year earlier, while being higher than the NT$764 million average of 20 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Being frank, Bloomberg is being kind here. Even if they had released new device models, I doubt HTC would have been profitable in the last quarter. Its marketshare has halved in a year.
According to California-based Net Applications, OS X 10.8, better known as Mountain Lion, accounted for 32%, or nearly a third, of all Macs that went online during December. That was an increase of nearly three percentage points from November, when Mountain Lion powered just over 29% of all Macs.
Eventually, Apple will sell OS X upgrades for free and eliminate this problem entirely.
But I keep coming back to the same argument I’ve always had about the Surface in particular, which I’ll now make for all touch-based Windows 8 PCs/devices as well. They are too expensive.
And we’re reaching the point, given the actual sales data, where this too isn’t so much opinion as fact. Consumers are voting with their wallets, and the Windows PCs they’re buying today are cheap and non-touch-based. And the reason is that the touch-based machines are too expensive.
Is it just an issue of price? The iPad is sold at a minimum price of $500 and sells extremely well. I don’t see the logic that, for Windows 8 devices to succeed, their prices need to fall.
No doubt, lower prices would cause an increase in sales but I don’t think budget prices are required for anyone but Apple to succeed. I just think companies need to offer better products that can justify ‘premium’ price tags. Windows 8 has an ecosystem problem that it needs to solve. Android has usability problems.
The answer to “selling more” is not always price. I hate to see the market develop as it is currently, with Apple being the “premier” offering and everyone else battling at the budget level.
it has been reported that Waze was holding out for $750 million, multiple sources have told us that the company was valued around $200 million in its last funding round, and current investors were aiming for a higher price, somewhere nearing $1 billion.
Waze politely declined the offer, and the deal is definitely off — at least for now.
Our sources also tell us that Waze has received more than one acquisition offer in the last year, but has declined them all, as it looks to build something big and not look for a quick exit.
Isn’t The Next Web’s article a bit contradictory? At the start of the quoted excerpt, above, it says that Waze was open to accepting offers of $750 million but then ends by saying that Waze isn’t looking for a “quick exit”.
Regardless, Waze’s decision can only be described as brave; it must take extreme nerve to turn down a buyout offer from the most valuable company in the world. Good luck to them.
As to the Apple side of this story, I wonder why Apple wanted Waze in the first place. Or, more precisely, why do they suddenly want Waze now? If they have technology or information that Apple can benefit from, why did they not attempt an acquisition before Maps was released, at the time when they were more than happy to scoop up Placebase and C3 Technologies …
What changed to make Apple admit they need more outside talent to help with maps?
Currently under development, traces of Apple’s new iPhone and iOS software have begun surfacing in app usage logs. Developers have contacted The Next Web to share references to a new iPhone identifier and the next big operating system update for the smartphone and tablet devices: iOS 7.
Do you reckon iOS 7 will show the impact of Ive’s input? Or will it be a slower, more gradual transition that takes longer … There are big developer implications for radical changes to UIKit that need to be considered.
If iOS 7 is a true rethinking of iOS interaction paradigms, I would expect an iOS event in March, to give developers time to start redesigning their applications. For example, a major change to how notifications are displayed on screen (dynamic resizing of the forefront app, for instance) require meaningful developer input. Whereas, if April comes and no preview event, my odds on a major UI change to iOS coming this year will drop dramatically.
I sincerely hope that the latter scenario isn’t the case, though. 2012 was a great year for Apple’s hardware (the Retina MacBook Pro is awesome) but a relatively lacklustre software showing.
The European commission’s competition arm, run by Joaquin Almunia, issued a formal statement of objections last Friday.
The potential fines can run to 10% of a company’s worldwide turnover, which in Samsung’s case would amount to nearly $15bn (£9.3bn), based on its 2011 revenues of $148.9bn. The commission opened its investigation into Samsung in January.
FRAND patents have to be licensed to all parties who want to use them; that is the law. Apple wanted to license for a “reasonable royalty”, but Samsung refused and instead tried to use these patents to enforce a ban on the iPhone. This is why they are facing these potential fines.
Juxtapose this to Apple’s patent policy. To date, Apple has not used standard-essential patents in an offensive manner.
Based on Apple’s change we can make POP the way we had promised and the project is back on. We will not be processing refunds and are going full speed ahead to produce and deliver the product to you ASAP.
Good to see, because Apple’s original stance was stupid and stopped cool accessories like POP from being made for no good reason.
The assumption of Walmart just paying for that discount is unrealistic. There’s a partnership with Apple. Price will go down elsewhere, too.
In another tweet, Mueller says that “there is a demand problem”, with the implication that Apple is forgoing profitability to sustain iPhone sales.
This is not true. There is a relationship between Apple and Walmart to enable the sizeable price cuts ($50 off an iPhone 5, for instance), but Apple isn’t sacrificing its margins.
The only agreement in place is that Apple has allowed Walmart to sell the iPhone at a discounted price. The reduction comes at the expense of Walmart’s margins, however. Walmart is the one who is losing money. Apple continues to sell the iPhone to Walmart at the same price as anyone else; their ASP is unaffected by this arrangement and remains as stable as ever.
In an exclusive interview with Brian Williams airing tonight at 10pm/9c on NBC’s Rock Center, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced one of the existing Mac lines will be manufactured exclusively in the United States next year. Mac fans will have to wait to see which Mac line it will be because Apple, widely known for its secrecy, left it vague.
I expect it will be the new Mac Pro. It’s a low-volume, low-profile product with high cost and exacting design standards. In essence, a good test for a radically different production process.
… Siri stands as a monumental opportunity both for Apple as a transactional money machine and for its users as a new paradigm of discovery and task completion more approachable than any we’ve seen to date. In the end, Siri is Apple’s game to lose.
Definitely read the full article for a fictitious ride around the “I-wish-Siri-was-the-best-thing-ever” train.
Kontra says that “Siri is Apple’s game’s game to lose”. This may be true, but I worry that Siri will never be “top of the list”, that Apple will always have more immediate concerns, which means that Siri will be gradually sidelined as only a novelty and become abandonware by iOS 8.
With that in mind, return to that fantasy land in Kontra’s piece, and imagine how great it would be to ask Siri for a ‘place to eat’ and get back answers which are customised to your budget and palette.
Despite the fact that I’ve been using Windows 8 for the past three weeks, I somehow managed to overlook a rather stark feature in the OS: ads. No, we’re not talking about ads cluttering up the desktop or login screen (thankfully), but rather ads that can be found inside of some Modern UI apps that Windows ships with. That includes Finance, Weather, Travel, News and so forth. Is it a problem?
Firstly, there are ads not “in Windows 8”, as many have been reporting, but in certain server-powered preinstalled apps. So the equivalent on the iPhone would be having iAds appear in the Weather app, for instance.
Is it an issue? It doesn’t look good aesthetically, and it is sorta cheeky seeing as Windows 8 isn’t free … but it isn’t a deal breaker. It isn’t “adgate”.
Some people will be see them and promptly ignore them, or use ad-free substitute apps that serve the same role. Some people will never notice them; it’s just how their brains work: there is already so much on the screen that is bamboozling their attention.
Most, though, will notice and be non-plussed. Boring but that’s the truth. They simply wouldn’t care about it; the thought of caring will never cross their mind. They have much more important priorities than to ponder the existence of Bing ads in their news app. Tech snobs would call these people ignorant; I call them normal people.
So while the U.K. court did not find Samsung guilty of infringement, other courts have recognized that in the course of creating its Galaxy tablet, Samsung willfully copied Apple’s far more popular iPad.
Firstly, I knew this statement was linked on the homepage, but it still took me a good few seconds to actually find it. I doubt the number of people who will read this statement is anything but negligible. This is a link to a screenshot of the homepage, so you can see what I mean.
But for anyone who does find it, it is a hilarious read. Apple buries the main point of the statement (that Samsung was found not to infringe) in between a propaganda campaign for their uniqueness … the “not as cool” quote is included as well as a reference to the overwhelming Samsung defeat in the US court. It is fantastic, if 100% biased, PR spin.
Cook’s statement essentially admits there is an issue, but understandably puts little context on the impact to users. That’s why this set of data from Snappli comes in handy to get some quantification of how widespread Apple’s Map issue is on its user base. Snappli offers a mobile app for both Android and iOS devices that compresses data over mobile broadband to help folks use less of their 3G or 4G monthly allowance. By looking at the following data from 5,000 Snappli users on iOS, the following information puts some perspective around iPhone owners and Maps in iOS 6:
64% of Snappli users have migrated to iOS 6 within the last few weeks (UK and US)
Before the upgrade to iOS 6, 25% of Snappli users were viewing Google Maps at least once a day
Once they moved to iOS 6, that immediately went to 35% of users using Apple Maps
However, over the next 5 days that drops down to 4%
Summary: before iOS 6 1 in 4 people were using Google maps at least once a day. After iOS 6: 1 in 25 using Apple maps and falling.
This study is completely wrong and false.
iOS 5 Maps used JPEGs for every map tile to render. In comparison, iOS 6 Maps uses vector data (essentially small text files) to create the tiles on the device. Only requesting satellite imagery (for “Satellite” and “Hybrid” modes) requires the same heavy file downloads as the older app. By design, iOS 6 Maps data usage has a many magnitudes smaller impact on network traffic than its predecessor.
Thus, relying on network traffic analysis to measure usage is 100% unreliable as, quite clearly, the different mechanics of the app distort the proportions dramatically. Ignore this report.
These ads, thankfully, could not look less like the Genius ads. They are back in “App For That” territory: the generic hand, the phone itself and a white backdrop.
“Thumbs” is meant to show off the 4 inch display of the iPhone, but I actually think “Physics” does a better job at doing this, as it demonstrates 16:9 video playback. I just think it doesn’t do a stellar job at telling people about the larger screen. Note that despite new iOS 6 features such as Passbook or Do Not Disturb, Apple sticks to demoing sending email and browsing Safari. They show what ordinary people actually do with their phones.
My least favourite is “Cheese”. The voice acting is a bit, well, cheesy. The intake of breath is clearly forced and it makes the ad feel a bit cheap. Ignoring the audio, the screenplay is fantastic. Without doubt, people watching this ad will get that the iPhone can take panoramas, really simply.
The “Ears” spot is probably not going to be aired as frequently as the others, but the message it portrays is brilliant. The time they take to explain the shape of ears is a parallel to the care and attention that Apple gives to all of its products. Unlike the others, it is more of a brand ad, reinforcing (what Apple wants people to think as) their values, and rounds off the campaign well.
