COMPUTERWORLD: Super-fast and really easy to navigate, the Mac App Store is going to generate huge wads of cash for everyone involved, Apple and its partners — but I do worry that app navigation and developer access to the Mac platform may suffer.
Psst: Professional photographer? Keen amateur? It really doesn’t matter — head over to the Mac App Store now and you’ll be able to purchase Aperture for a fraction of its normal $199 price — it’ll cost you just $80 —that’s even cheaper than Amazon!! Here in the UK it costs £44.99 — that’s a whole lot cheaper than the £173 retail store price.
I’m willing to bet someone at Adobe just started sobbing.
Apple has confounded industry watchers who expected the rumored noon launch time and the Mac App Store is available immediately, with over 1,000 apps available to download. Fire up Software Update and go grab it, people…(and read this while you wait). Update: No iWork 11, but you can get the individual apps and Aperture here. Press Release after the break.
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COMPUTERWORLD: We’ll see the reality in a few hours, but there’s already some insight into what to expect from Apple’s new Mac App Store when it opens at 12 (noon) Eastern today. Critically, it’s likely we’ll see iOS developers port their apps at App Store prices, while existing Mac developers attempt to maintain classic pricing levels. (Image above is the holding page, thx to RFly.)
We’ve been hoping Light Peak might make an appearance in new Macs since the technology first made an appearance working with a lab demo Mac Pro in 2009. We’ve been excited for the super-fast and super-flexible connectivity standard ever since — now it seems there’s a way to go before its ready to hit the market, according to Intel.
COMPUTERWORLD: This is not the year the iPad meets its match. Analyst Michael Gartenberg doesn’t see anything to threaten Apple, even as AAPL moves beyond dominance of the tablet market — as its mind-share grows, iPad is making like the iPod and defining the tablet market.
Interesting: it seems the first big deal component Apple may manufacture with its newly-licensed LiquidMetal alloys (beyond that SIM card remover shipped with iPhone before) isn’t the body or the antenna — it’s the battery!
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The iPad is taking a lesson from the iPod and beginning to seize a place in US schools, some of which are beginning trials to test the efficacy of providing the Apple tablets to kids, even while New York City orders thousands of iPads for its schools.
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It had to happen — Intel introduced its Sandy Bridge processor this week and already intrepid Mac OS X hackers have managed to install Apple’s operating system on Intel’s new chip.
That’s the conclusion from Forrester Research in their latest research which predicts US tablet sales will double this year.
They now anticipate tablet sales last year of (a deeply conservative) 10.3 million units, thanks to stronger than expected iPad sales. And they think iPad will take the ‘lion’s share’ of a market they expect will double in size (to 24.1 million units) this year, despite all those new CES-introduced ‘competitors’.
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COMPUTERWORLD: Smart investors are paying attention to Apple’s [AAPL] rapidly expanding iOS value chain, taking strategic holdings in Apple’s component supply partners, and this last few days has seen markets whisper one name, Skyworks Solutions [SWKS] — will that company drive LTE support to iPhone and iPad 2.0?
Apple’s dreams to offer enhanced cloud-based services will have to negotiate a dizzyingly irritating range of repressive national governments, with Saudi Arabia now revealed as the latest nation state to have blocked access to MobileMe accounts.
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Apple’s battle with Android continues with the latest Nielsen market share data revealing iOS remains the dominant smartphone OS, at least right now.
Android is picking up users: according to November data from The Nielsen Company, the popularity of the Android OS among those who purchased a smartphone in the last six months (40%) makes it the leading OS among recent acquirers.
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Perhaps you’ve been wondering if Apple will feel much impact once those Android and Chrome-powered tablets ship in 2011 — now a pair of reports suggest the magical iPad is set to maintain dominance for some time yet.
Report one tells us LG Display shipped 1.5 million iPad panels in November, while Samsung delivered 1.2 million units, suggesting Apple might have sold nearly three million iPads this month.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGjKrEHRsFM&w=670&h=401]
Concerned about net neutrality and hold a little inner fear that one day access to the Web will involve tiered access with the ‘real’ Web almost impossible to get to?
Then be glad Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has taken time to tell an FCC net neutrality hearing to do the right thing and enact net neutrality rules that favor the people.
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Yet more fascinating action in the smartphone space with an unholy rumored combination between Nokia and Microsoft set to potentially change the structure of the market.
What’s happening?
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We haven’t put the two head to head (been on Parallels exclusively for about a year personally), but the folks over at MacTech had a chance to run the latest versions of VMWare for Mac against Parallels 6 which was released just a few months ago (VMware Fusion 3.1.1 and Parallels Desktop 6.0.11828.615184)Â Â It appears that Parallels is the winner in both general and 3D tests.
Parallels 6 is available in Box form ($63) or for immediate download.
Full results will be posted in MacTech magazine next month. Â More below:
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COMPUTERWORLD: As per usual, Apple seems set to dominate CES once again next year, even though it won’t actually attend the show. And that’s despite a keynote speech from Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer. Here’s why Apple’s taking over.
In case you’ve any doubt left, you can forget the notion of AMOLED screens in the next-generation iPad, there simply aren’t enough components to go round — indeed, Apple competitors who made the leap to the tech are already facing steep component shortages.
There’s an inevitability about all this. Even as Apple competitors attempt to leapfrog iOS devices by fielding more advanced technologies in their gadgets, they forget the need to serve mass market products up in reliable quantity.
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COMPUTERWORLD: Apple is making Macs more touch-friendly when touch makes sense. Magic Trackpad is the touch interface for desktops, but how long will it be until we see the Mac keyboard replaced by a touch-sensitive, intelligent device? What would it do?
COMPUTERWORLD: If you thought Apple had a busy year in 2010, expect even more in 2011, when at least one analyst is expecting significant acquisitions, a move into 3D, the introduction of its connected TV set and the emergence of multi-core processors in the iPhone and other mobile devices.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olHpaFESFkk&fs=1&hl=en_GB]
Apple owns 9.3 percent of Imagination Technologies and uses its PowerVR SGX graphics chip inside its iPad — now the smaller firm has seen profits climb 131 percent and also made a critical $27 million investment in 3D technology for mobile devices.
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COMPUTERWORLD: Apple is already evolving a unified user experience. In future, there will be ever less difference when controlling an Apple device, whether it be a phone, a tablet or a Mac. The experience will feel the same.
COMPUTERWORLD: In a few years time Apple [AAPL] will face a handful of competitors as fierce competition within the smartphone industry drives a wave of consolidation between handset manufacturers, platform developers, carriers and app store providers.
