In case you missed Apple’s fight with the FBI this week, the launch of Apple in China, or any of the other big Apple stories we’ve covered, below we’ve rounded up this week’s top stories and recommended reading to get you up to date over the weekend. Enjoy.
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The Apple Watch isn’t shipping by Valentine’s Day— a date that many speculated could make an ideal launch date– and there won’t be an event this month showcasing Apple’s new device ahead of preorders, but that’s not stopping anyone from using the Apple Watch as prime marketing material.
European department store chain Cora has chosen Apple Watch to grace the cover of its latest flyer this month hyping a February 14th date “subject to availability,” even though the Watch is on track to be released sometime in April, according to the latest from Apple CEO Tim Cook.
While we’ll have to wait and see who is more in the know on this matter (joking!), the September unveiling of the Apple Watch has spawned a new market of cheap knock offs and even promised competition from legacy watch industry insiders.
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As part of Apple’s earnings releases, Apple has announced an extension to its buyback plans. The company will now buyback an additional $30 billion of Apple stock, totalling $90 billion, significantly accelerating its original plans.
Apple® today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized another significant increase to the Company’s program to return capital to shareholders. The Company expects to utilize a total of over $130 billion of cash under the expanded program by the end of calendar 2015.
The board has also announced a seven-for-one stock split beginning June 2nd 2014. Apple last split its stock in 2005, nine years ago. Apple will also increase the dividend by about 8 percent to $3.29 per common share. This will begin on May 15th. Apple plans to increase its dividend every year. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Cook said that the buyback will “show you how much confidence we have in the future of the company”.
After teasing the store last month, Apple has confirmed on its website (as noted by MacMagazine) that the store will launch on the 15th of February, in just over a week. The store will launch at 11am local time (ATZ) in the luxurious Rio de Janeiro VillageMall, marking Apple’s debut entrance into the country.
Research firm comScore is out with its usual monthly report that ranks the top smartphone OEMs and platforms for the three-month period ending in February. Apple continues to grow its lead this month as top OEM in the U.S., jumping 3.9-percent from November to 38.9-percent of the market and increasing its lead on the second biggest OEM by subscribers, Samsung:
Samsung ranked second with 21.3 percent market share (up 1 percentage point), followed by HTC with 9.3 percent share, Motorola with 8.4 percent and LG with 6.8 percent.
It’s important to point out that the shipped vs. sold argument doesn’t apply to comScore’s results, as its data comes from surveys tracking smartphone subscribers and usage and not sales or units shipped. Google grabs the spot as top smartphone platform at the end of February, but Apple continues to close the gap capturing 38.9-percent of the market (up from 35 percent) compared to Google’s 51.7-percent (down from 53.7-percent):
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From 9to5toys.com (Twitter, Feed, Facebook), today:
Amazon is holding a “Farewell to February” sale on much of its digital game downloads for Mac and PC that includes over 850 games up to 75 percent off. Amazon is also offering an extra 25 percent off one item per customer with the checkout code “CAGROCKS”. While it might take you a while to flip through the hundreds of games Amazon has on sale, we decided to put together a list of some of the more notable Mac titles on sale today. Enjoy!
–Bioshock 2 | $9.99 (was $24.99)
–Call of Duty: Black Ops | $17.49 (was $49.99)
–Rezurrection DLC- $7.49 (was $14.99)
–Annihilation & Escalation DLC – $11.99 (was $24.99)
–Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare | $9.99 (was $39.99)
–Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood | $7.49 (was $29.99)
–Assassin’s Creed II | $4.99 (was $19.99)
–Borderlands 2 | $29.99 (was $59.99)
–Driver San Francisco Deluxe Edition | $12.49 (was $24.99)
–Sid Meier’s Civilization V | $7.49 (was $29.99)
–Duke Nukem Forever | $4.99 ($19.99)
–RAGE: Campaign Edition | $4.99 (was $29.99)
–Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition | $5.99 (was $29.99)
–Prince of Persia (2009) | $4.99 (was $49.99)
–Dragon Age 2 | $14.77 (was $19.99)
You can check out all Mac games that are 70 percent off or more on Amazon.
From 9to5Toys.com:
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Best Buy takes 20% off select iTunes eGift Cards, as listed below. At up to $20 off, each is tied with our mention from early February and at or near the lowest price we’ve ever seen. Note that international US iTunes users are eligible to purchase because the gift cards will be emailed for redemption. iTunes gift cards are good for Mac Apps, iOS Apps, iTunes Music, Videos, iBooks and more.
The deals:
Bonus: Get a $10 Amazon gift card for $5 at Amazon.
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Last week we told you about a new online lottery system for reservations that Apple setup for iPhone 4S sales through its Hong Kong stores to combat scalpers after it was forced to suspend sales of the device in various locations throughout Mainland China. Unfortunately, until this week, Apple’s online store for China has been out of stock since the overwhelming launch.
After implementing the new reservation policies on Tuesday, and in Beijing on Wednesday, Apple has now resumed online sales of the device with shipments arriving to customers no later than March 2, reported ChinaDaily. Apple’s online store for Mainland China now lists the iPhone 4S with an expected delivery time of “February.” Customers are limited to two devices with all three models currently available in both black and white. An Apple employee confirmed the March 2 date to ChinaDaily:
Digitimes tonight reports that next generation iPads are expected to be available in the next 3-4 months as manufacturers in the supply chain have started delivering parts and components for the new tablets to OEM contractors while reducing those prepared for iPad 2. The report follows a Citi Analyst last week who said that “several sources” have confirmed the next-gen iPad will launch in February saying, “there do not appear to be any significant technical hurdles remaining”.
Current production of iPad 2 will reportedly remain high at 14-15 million units in Q4 2011 but tail to 4-5 million units in the first quarter of 2012 as anticipation for the next iPad grows and inventory is cleared out.
Meanwhile, Foxconn Electronics will begin to produce the next-generation iPads in January and to ramp up the production volume starting February, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report, which quoted Kevin Chang, an analyst of Citigroup Global Markets, as indicating.
Production of the new iPads is expected to reach 9.5-9.8 million units in the first quarter of 2012, estimated sources in the supply chain. Sales of iPad products totaled 25.06 million in the first three quarters of 2011 and are likely to reach 40 million units for all of 2011, the sources estimated.
The next generation iPad is expected to have a Retina display, a faster A6 processor – possible Quad Core, and be slightly thicker than the current model…
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