Apple Inc

Back in August, U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh threw out a class action lawsuit against Apple from former iPhone users complaining that text messages were no longer delivered when they ported their number to an Android phone. The lawsuit alleged that Apple was guilty of “interference” with their messages.

That wasn’t quite the end of it, however. Three of the plaintiffs persisted in individual claims against Apple, alleging that the company was in breach of the Federal Wire Tap Act by ‘intercepting’ their messages. The court has now dismissed these claims – with, it turns out, very good reason …

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Following Apple’s decision to almost halve the price of the iPhone 5s in India, the Times of India states that the company has followed this by a more modest price-cut for the iPhone 6s/Plus. The move was reportedly made in response to a sales slump.

Apple cut prices of its latest iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus […] just two months after their launch in India to boost flagging sales in what is historically its most crucial quarter as demand for the flagship devices nosedived from a Diwali high […]

The average difference in prices of all iPhone 6s and 6s Plus devices between launch time and now is about 15 per cent …

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Apple is already facing one class action lawsuit alleging that customers were unknowingly using up substantial amounts of mobile data, and it now faces a second.

The issue at stake in this new suit is that the iPhone 5/5s could silently switch from Wi-Fi to LTE under some circumstances, resulting in mobile data usage even when the phone was on Wi-Fi. This was fixed for Verizon users back in September 2012, but law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP claims that Apple didn’t fix it for AT&T users until more than two years later.

According to the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose, Apple knew about the defect “almost immediately,” yet failed to fix it for AT&T wireless subscribers for years, and did not even disclose the defect. The defect affected all versions of iOS 6 and 7 and was only resolved with the release of iOS 8.1 in October 2014.

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If you’re one of those people who likes to leave your holiday gift shopping until the last minute, Apple has you covered. Apple notes on its website that you can order products online right up to 2pm on 23rd December and the company will deliver them overnight free of charge. This replaces the normal two-day shipping.

Still not cutting things fine enough for you? No problem …

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Market intelligence firm IDC is forecasting that annual Apple Watch sales will increase from an estimated 13M units this year to 45.2M units in 2019, representing a compound annual growth rate of 36.5%.

The firm predicts that although Android Wear smartwatches will experience even stronger growth of 80.5%, Apple’s much stronger starting point will see it remain the market leader throughout the four year period. By 2019, IDC says, Apple will have a 51.1% market share, with Android Wear next at 38.8% and smaller platforms making up the difference.

The Apple Watch is described as “the measuring stick against which other smartwatches and platforms are compared,” and is said to have two key advantages over other platforms …

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A well-known music industry analyst is estimating that Apple Music will hit 8M paid subscribers by the end of the year, and will reach 20M by the end of 2016, reports Music Business Worldwide. The prediction was made by Mark Mulligan, co-founder of digital content specialists Midia Consulting, who previously held senior research positions with Forrester and Jupiter.

In raw numbers terms, that would put it just behind market leader Spotify by the end of next year, but that may not quite present the true picture …

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The enterprise apps partnership between Apple and IBM has reached the goal the two companies set of bringing 100+ MobileFirst apps to the business and professional sectors. Many enterprise customers of course use these in conjunction with existing consumer apps.

IBM today announced it has delivered more than 100 IBM MobileFirst for iOS apps, as part of its partnership with Apple, to transform work across 14 industries and 65 individual professions, from wealth advisors to flight attendants, first responders, nurses and retail buyers. Additionally, the companies are expanding the portfolio to new markets including consumer products, automotive, aging and chemicals and petroleum. 

The companies plan to make future apps even more powerful …

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Google has once more posted its annual Year in Search video, covering topics as diverse as the refugee crisis, the blue/gold dress, Cecil the lion, female engineers, the discovery of water on Mars, gay marriage, Star Wars and more. It also posted the top ten search terms for a range of categories, with Apple taking three out of the top four slots in consumer tech …

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Despite the $548M settlement reached earlier this month, Samsung has now asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal of its patent battle with Apple, reports the WSJ. The company is arguing that lower courts misapplied the law concerning Apple’s design patents.

Specifically, Samsung is asking the court to review rulings concerning “design patents” that cover the look and feel of a product. At trial, Apple convinced the jury that basic design elements of certain Samsung smartphones—essentially a rectangle with rounded corners and a touch-screen grid made up of smaller icons—borrowed too closely from Apple’s iPhone design.

Samsung argues that lower courts made two mistakes …

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Update: Fortune reports that in a conference call, Huberty said her forecast was in part based on an estimated 10% drop in component orders. She noted that this could be due to robust inventories rather than weak demand, and that the numbers in the note were a ‘worst-case’ scenario. Huberty emphasized that she remains upbeat on Apple, citing a strong brand, loyal customers, R&D investment and other revenue streams compensating for weaker predicted iPhone sales.

[tweet https://twitter.com/philiped/status/676410189852078080 align=’center’]

The brand is strong. Customers are loyal. Gross margins are stable. R&D is going full tilt. And revenue streams from new products (Watch, Apple TV), apps, and media could start to make up for slowing iPhone growth.

An investment note by Morgan Stanley Katy Huberty predicts that Apple will see its iPhone sales fall by 5.7% in Apple’s 2016 financial year, reports Business Insider. The prediction is significant for two reasons: if realised, it would be the first time since the launch of the iPhone that sales have fallen year-on-year – and the forecast is made by a noted Apple bull.

Morgan Stanley thinks that Financial Year 2016 iPhones sales will be 218 million – a 5.7% drop — while Calendar Year 2016 sales will be 224,000 — a 2.9% drop. These predictions are significantly below Huberty’s previous estimates, of 247 million for FY2016 and 252 CY2016.

One of the reasons given isn’t new – high smartphone penetration in developed markets – but Huberty says there is a second reason …

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With Apple’s ambitious expansion program in China well underway, the company now appears to be seeking to boost its market share in the next growth market, India. CNET reports that Apple has almost halved the price of the iPhone 5s from 44,500 Rupees ($665) to 25,000 Rupees ($370).

The price cut appears to be a move by the Californian company to increase its penetration in India, the world’s third largest smartphone market after China and the USA, where the bulk of phones sold are sub-$300. As of quarter 3 of 2015, Apple is not even among the top 5 smartphone vendors in India, a market that IDC Research predicts will overtake the US by 2017.

Although India is a huge market for smartphones, it is currently quite a different market to China, suggesting that Apple needs a significantly different approach …

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A memo from Mercedes-Benz USA to its dealer network has revealed the car company’s plans for supporting CarPlay. The memo was leaked to C450 AMG and contains a mix of good news and bad.

The good news is that it will be available for quite a range of models, starting from those produced this month, and will be automatically included at no extra cost for many models equipped with the company’s COMAND Navigation system. The bad news is that it will be an extra cost option for CLA, GLA and B-Class models; the necessary COMAND packages on other models aren’t cheap; and – very disappointingly – it won’t play nicely with COMAND.

The customer will not be able to use the Mercedes-Benz headunit functions at the same time as CarPlay. For example, use of the Spotify app cannot be done simultaneously with COMAND Navigation.

Details of the deals for the full range of supported models can be found below …

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You have to smile at the idea of a conference devoted to discussing the ‘the business of Apple Watch‘ when there’s only one company which knows the real numbers, and that company isn’t telling. But that doesn’t, of course, stop people guessing.

Fortune‘s Philip Elmer-DeWitt helpfully rounded up some of the numbers presented at the Glance conference. Asymco’s Horace Dediu has projected that Apple will hit 21M sales in the first 12 months. Assuming the numbers skew heavily toward the Apple Sport, that gives the company somewhere around $8B in revenue – or more if they don’t. Creative Strategies’ Ben Bajarin believes sales will hit a staggering 100M by 2017.

Some estimated percentages were also presented …

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Following Monday’s report that Apple is planning to launch Apple Pay in China in February of next year, Bloomberg reports that it has reached a preliminary agreement with UnionPay to use its card-processing terminals. The agreement was an essential step along the way as UnionPay has a monopoly on card-processing in China.

The agreement is provisional, as it still requires the individual banks to agree. They have reportedly been reluctant to agree to the 0.15% cut Apple takes of each transaction. Given the transaction volumes involved, that soon adds up to a significant chunk of the tiny percentage banks charge retailers.

That isn’t the only hurdle Apple needs to overcome … 
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Developers of pro apps have long complained that Apple’s App Store policies are a barrier to them creating iOS versions of popular Mac apps. The launch of the iPad Pro has brought the issue front and center, with a number of developers sharing their thoughts with The Verge.

There are two key issues, they say. First, pro apps are expensive, and users want to satisfy themselves that they are worth the money before they pay. Free trials are the usual way to achieve this with desktop apps, but the App Store doesn’t allow them to offer the same option for iOS apps … 
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The variously-reliable Digitimes reports supply-chain sources as saying that Apple is likely to ship more than 10M Apple Watches by the end of the year, noting that the company is currently seeking a second supplier.

Apple has placed orders for four million Apple Watches for the fourth quarter, targeting mainly demand from the year-end holidays. Sales of Apple Watch are expected to surpass 10 million units in 2015 […]

Apple is to seek another manufacturer aside from Quanta Computer, according to a Chinese-language Apple Daily report … 

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