Apple’s VP of enterprise and government sales leaves company
A short two years after being hired, Reuters is reporting that John Solomon has left his position as Apple’s executive for corporate and government sales.
Say hello to the first of the 12-inch MacBook clones: HP’s 12.5-inch fanless Core M EliteBook Folio
Apple’s 12-inch MacBook broke new ground when it opted for a fanless Core M processor in a form-factor that was all about creating the sleekest, most portable laptop around – and it was only a matter of time before Windows machines followed suit.
Like the MacBook, the HP EliteBook Folio strips back the ports to just USB-C and a headphone socket – though HP has opted for two rather than one USB-C ports. It weighs a touch more than the MacBook, but is marginally thinner. Design-wise, well, judge for yourself.
HP has gone further than Apple on the display, however. While the MacBook’s Retina display hits 226ppi, HP has squeezed in a 4K display to the top-of-the-range model, giving it a pixel density of 352ppi.
The EliteBook Folio goes on sale in March, with pricing starting at $999 – but that’s with the entry-level 1080p display rather than the 4K one.
Via and image credit Engadget
Apple hires former HP exec to boost corporate sales
Adding to its list of recent hires, Apple has tapped a former Hewlett-Packard executive to tackle sales of its products to corporations. According to Re/code, John Solomon left his former leadership role at HP to start his new position at Apple and may be involved with international sales of the upcoming Apple Watch in the future.
Solomon’s LinkedIn profile points to a long career with HP, most recently serving as SVP of Printing & Personal Systems then General Manager of HP’s Consumer Printing Global Business Unit, departing the company in December 2014 and joining a “to be announced” company this month. Re/code reports that Apple has confirmed the hire, but not his specific role or title.
Earlier this week, 9to5Mac reported several key biomedical and fashion industry hires targeted for work around the Apple Watch. As we have reported, Apple has hired several experts from the fitness and health field leading up to the reveal of the Apple Watch in addition to hires from the fashion industry.
While Solomon is reported to be heading sales to corporations and governments, Apple announced a partnership with IBM last year intended to boost adoption of its products, specifically the iPhone and iPad, by various enterprise industries. Apple revealed part of the fruit of that partnership last month when it unveiled apps made with IBM for key enterprise industries including transportation, communication, and government.
iPhone 5s, Samsung Galaxy S5 and Nexus 5 hacked at Pwn2Own
HP’s annual two-day Mobile Pwn2Own competition came to a close this afternoon, with a group of veteran security researchers and other competitors able to compromise several flagship smartphones across the top-three mobile operating systems: Android, iOS and Windows Phone. The devices that were exploited include the iPhone 5s, Samsung Galaxy S5, Nexus 5, Amazon Fire Phone and Nokia Lumia 1520.
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Details on Apple’s enterprise push with IBM emerge as company courts app developers & clients
A new report from Reuters citing sources at Apple familiar with the company’s plans for future corporate offerings has unveiled new details on the Cupertino corporation’s efforts to recruit business clients and software developers. According to these sources, Apple is currently courting companies such as Citigroup, ServiceMax, and PlanGrid (among others) to augment its current IBM enterprise agreement.
The exact nature of the proposed partnerships between these companies hasn’t been confirmed yet, but the general idea is similar to the IBM arrangement. ServiceMax, a company that creates solutions for managing field technicians, and PlanGrid, which allows construction workers to share blueprints with each other, will both agree to roll out Apple hardware with custom software to their clients.
HP and designer Michael Bastian team up to produce an iOS-compatible smartwatch with a traditional look
The great smartwatch boom is starting to consume electronic makers and HP is not exempt. The company is partnering with designer Michael Bastian to produce its own next-gen timepiece. Hewlett-Packard’s timekeeper won’t be dedicated to a single mobile platform and will instead serve as a companion device for Android and iOS smartphones similar to how Pebble watches work.
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HP planning ‘aggressive line-up’ of new Beats Audio products through 2015 as Beats’ design firm replaced by Apple
With Apple officially announcing its plans to acquire Beats Electronics for $3 billion, HP’s partnership with Beats will soon expire and new products with the Beats Audio technology and branding will become a thing of the past. HP tells CNET that it will continue to sell hardware marketed with Beats Audio through the end of next year and it has the rights to make new Beats Audio products this year:
9to5Toys Last Call: Yamaha 4K A/V receiver $200, HP 27″ IPS monitor $209, iPad mini Retina $50 off, iOS apps, more
Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and subscribe to the new Safari push notifications feature.
Today’s can’t miss deals:
Yamaha RX-V375 5.1 Channel 3D A/V Home 4K Theater Receivers: $200 shipped
HP Pavilion 27″ IPS HDMI LED Backlight LCD Monitor $209 shipped (Reg. $360)
Save $50 on all iPad mini w/ Retina display models, deals start at $350 shipped
Game/App Deals: Line Birds: FREE, 50% off Sonic Racing & Badland, Plex: $2, Final Fantasy 14: $15, iOS freebies, more
Get a FREE $1 Amazon MP3 Credit http://t.co/s7i56yPcz4
— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) February 10, 2014
Other great deals from today:
- New! Daily Deals Roundup: JAMBOX $59, LG Blu-Ray player $50, WD 1TB portable HD $60, much more
- New! Get a free $50 Amazon gift card w/ the purchase of Beats Mixr Headphones for $250
- New! Polk Audio CS2 Center Channel Speaker $70 shipped (Reg. $130)
- New! PNY Attache 128GB USB Flash Drive: $42 shipped
- New! $500 OfficeMax gift card for $425 shipped (15% savings)
- New! Logitech LS21 2.1 Speaker System $18 shipped
- New! SkyDock In-Vehicle Satellite Radio for iPhone and iPod touch $7
- New! HP Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard in Black $25 shipped (half-off)
- New! Kindle Paperwhite e-reader w/ high resolution display and built-in light $100 shipped (Reg. $119)
More great deals still alive:
- Walmart rolls back price on iPad 2 in Black or White to $299 ($100 off)
- ZAGG PROfolio Bluetooth Keyboard for iPad 2/3/4 $40 shipped (Reg. $60)
- Netgear Centria WNDR4700 Wireless Router/NAS $80 shipped (Reg. $200)
- Creative T30 wireless Bluetooth speakers: $100 shipped (Reg. $130)
- New Trent Airbender Mini Bluetooth iPad Mini Keyboard case $39 shipped (Reg. $50)
- Belkin Thunderstorm iPad home theater speaker case 30-pin/Lightning: $130 shipped (Reg. $170/$200)
- Get a FREE $50 Best Buy gift card with the purchase of a new cell phone in 2014
- Get a $50 Amazon credit w/ the purchase of any Sonos PLAY:3 or PLAY:5 wireless speaker
- LifeProof Fre case for iPhone 5 (black): $30 shipped (Reg. $80)
- Apple TV 3rd gen. 1080p streaming media player $84 shipped (Reg. $99)
New products:
- Just Released: Bose SoundLink Bluetooth Speaker III: $299
HP expands Mac-cloning design approach across all of its latest notebooks
Photo: The Verge
HP appears to be taking its If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em design philosophy to something of an extreme with the new HP Envy notebook. A gallery posted by The Verge shows just how closely HP has copied Apple’s MacBook Air designs in almost every respect, from the wedge profile through the chicklet keyboard, trackpad and colors …
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Apple to blow past HP and become top personal computer vendor on strong holiday sales of Macs, iPhones and iPads
Counting tablet PCs as personal computers, Apple is about to overtake Hewlett-Packard and become the world’s top personal computer vendor. All should be known soon when Apple reveals holiday quarter earnings in a conference call with analysts scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 24.
HP CEO Meg Whitman was first to admit that such a turn of event neither would nor be entirely unsurprising given Apple’s lead in the post-PC world. Whitman said back in November, “It’s possible if you integrate tablets.” Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt wrote that, based on a poll of 42 analysts, iPad sales could hit the 14 million mark, a notable increase over the 11.12 million iPads sold during the September quarter.
Fortune’s estimates range from 11.7 million (Hendi Susanto of Gabelli & Co) to 19.47 million iPads (Alexis Cabot of the Apple Finance Board). According to research firm Gartner, HP shipped 14.7 million PCs in the last quarter, down 16 percent from a year ago.
Now, Apple in this last quarter cleared 4.89 million Macs, and its holiday sales are estimated to exceed 5 million units. Combined, iPad and Mac will have sold over 20 million units during the holiday quarter, enough to give the Cupertino, Calif.-based technology powerhouse a few million units lead over HP, the world’s leading computer vendor.
Estimated unit sales translate into a 17.6-percent market share for Apple versus 13 percent for HP, representing a landmark achievement by any measure. Again, that’s assuming tablets are counted as personal computers. As noted by Asymco’s Horace Dediu, Apple has never held the top spot. Its Apple II system peaked at 15.8 -percent share in 1984 and the Mac peaked at 12 percent in 1992. Interesting that Lenovo CEO praised Apple last week, saying about Android on tablets that “We still need to learn something, we still need to improve something”.
Apple releases Thunderbolt, printer drivers and Aperture updates
Apple has today updated Thunderbolt (again), printer drivers, and Aperture.
- Thunderbolt has been updated to 1.1 providing a slue of bug fixes for OS X Lion users.
- HP Printer Drivers v.2.8 and Epson Printer Drivers v.2.9 bring the latest printing and scanning to OS X users.
- Aperture has been updated to 3.2.1 fixing force closing and cropping issues.
Today’s updates come after yesterday’s MacBook Pro EFI update firmware 2.3.
Apple takes top spot from HP for “Mobile PC Market Share” (including iPads)
According to analytics firm DisplaySearch, Apple has officially passed HP (by nearly 4 million units) to become the top PC manufacturer worldwide with a 21.1% share. However, these numbers are somewhat controversial given the fact it includes iPad sales in the stats, a device that makes up 80% of Apple’s total PC shipments in Q2.
The research notes tablet shipments are up almost “70% Q/Q and over 400% Y/Y”, while notebook shipments were down 2% Q/Q. This just reinforces the fact that the iPad shipments greatly inflate Apple’s market lead in the “Mobile PC Market”. Even with incredible growth in the tablet market (thanks to the iPad), the 48 million notebook PCs shipped in Q2 2011 still greatly outweigh tablet shipments of 16.4 million. If you take tablets (iPads) out of the equation, Apple’s frenemy Samsung still tops the list for growth, up 44% for shipments Y/Y.
Apple shipped 3.9 million units more than HP’s 9.7 million units, making for a total of approximately 13.6 million MacBooks and iPads. The report also notes that PC shipment worldwide growth is on the rise even without Apple, noting “non-Apple tablets reached over 5.6 million units for the quarter” putting Y/Y tablet shipments up 25%.
From the report:
“Preliminary results show a second consecutive quarter of Y/Y shipment growth rate decline,” said Richard Shim, Senior Analyst for DisplaySearch. “While part of the Y/Y decline can be attributed to a strong first half of 2010, the rising tablet PC shipment growth rate begins to point to notebook PC shipment cannibalization.”
Apple to take global “portable computers” share for the remainder of 2011
The eye-popping chart above (via Fortune) shows Apple is on course to take control of global market share for portable computers (laptops, notebooks, and tablets) in the second quarter of 2011 – but that’s only as some analysts switch to accounting iPads as computers. Deutshe Bank’s Chris Whitmore, author of the chart, describes his findings:
Within the computing market, we see significant opportunity for Apple to take meaningful share in the second half as the Microsoft / PC ecosystem is relatively stagnant, lacking meaningful new offerings.
Many will be quick to point out the spike is due to taking iPad sales into consideration, a device that many analysts debate shouldn’t be considered as a competitor to notebooks and other portable PCs. However, Apple is steadily gaining ground on Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft even without the iPad. Whitmore explains:
On the other hand, Apple will be competing with an upgraded Mac OS, new MacBook Airs (and other forthcoming Macs) and a new iPad iOS. Within the Tablet market, the iPad remains the Gold Standard as competitors struggle for mindshare and traction (note HP’s price cuts on the TouchPad). Meanwhile, competing PC manufacturers have suggested Ultrabooks won’t ramp in material volumes until 2012 due to challenges driving price points meaningfully below Apple’s Air. As such, Apple appears particularly well positioned for more share gains heading into the back-to- school and holiday selling season.
Russell Brand slangs HP TouchPads
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGbeakalXa4]
These bits are amusing but even after a few watches I’m not left with any desire to pick one of these up.
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