Tech Industry

O2 boss Matthew Key says the 3G iPhone will be unveiled “in the coming weeks”.

Key made the comment when speaking to press and analysts after the announcement of the network’s first-quarter results this morning. He’s the Chairman and Chief Exec of O2 owner, Telefónica Europe, and he said his company would be making an announcement with Apple in the “coming weeks”.

Key declined to say exactly when the announcement would take place, saying, “that’s more of a question for Apple,” while promising a joint announcement. He also confirmed the network to hold a multi-year exclusive agreement with Apple for selling the iPhone in the UK and Ireland.

While O2 declined comment on how many iPhones have been sold so far, the network did add 206,000 new contract customers in the first three months of this year, according to its own financial report, which states: “This was driven by iPhone and strong “traditional handset” connections and excludes connections to O2 UK’s mobile broadband offer, launched in April.”

The company also outperformed the UK market again in the qurter, posting revenue growth of 12.6% for the quarter and  adding 206,000 net contract customers, 2.5 times the figure for the first quarter last year. “Despite a slowdown on the high street, we are currently seeing no evidence of significant change in our customers spend or usage, but continue to monitor behaviour,” O2 added.

Key also commented on the revenue-sharing deal it has with Apple. It has been suggested the deal makes more sense for Apple than for the telco. Declining to enumerate the exact terms of the deal (which some industry insiders say isn’t as good as the deal reached between Apple and Vodafone), Key said: "Clearly I don’t know the economic deals they have done, and I would reiterate we are very happy with deals we have done, which clearly they don’t know the details of either."

iPhone is out of stock across Apple. There’s also limited availability in the UK where only the 16GB model is intermittently available from O2 – and this isn’t an inventory problem, but deliberate execution.

I’m not saying I know this for sure, but it makes sense that with a new model iPhone on the way, Apple is clearing its supply chain to make way for the device. But its a deeper strategy. I suspect (personal opinion, speculation, alert) Apple management have deliberately decided to make the device more or less unavailable in the weeks preceeding the release of the new model.

This makes sense for two reasons: 

First, Apple is stimulating demand for the new device when it ships by making it hard to get hold of the current edition. That move should help ensure “stellar sales” of iPhone v.2 3G within the first few weeks.

Second, Apple’s September 5 2007 decision to slash $200 off the cost of the first generation device saw the company hit with a storm of criticism as angry customers complained they felt ripped-off. These complaints reached such intensity Apple CEO Steve Jobs approved a $100 rebate to iPhone customers to keep the peace.

In an open letter on the matter, he said: “There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cut-off date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever. This is life in the technology lane. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you’ll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon.”

Well, we don’t know about the expense (though AT&T reportedly plans to offer the next-gen iPhone at a $200 subsidised discount); but we do know the keenly-anticipated ‘phone’s going to be “something better”.

Apple doesn’t want to upset hundreds of customers when it launches the new device, nor does it want to swap out/replace thousands of iPhones purchased in the week or two before the launch.

As such, I think the current lack of availability is deliberately designed to minimize complaints and maximize demand.

Initial reports of iPhone going out of stock emerged early this month. This suggests Apple’s preparing a launch window for June. Given the WWDC keynote’s admitted focus on development for OS X and iPhone,  smart speculation now favours the idea that Apple will introduce the 3G iPhone in late June, along with the iPhone Software 2.0 release in late June. That’s assuming it doesn’t announce the new model in early June, for shipment later that month. 

Apple today confirmed Steve Jobs will lead the WWDC keynote on June 9 in San Francisco.

Jobs will lead a team of Apple execs in the keynote speech, which is still widely expected to be the launch point for the next-generation iPhone.

The company is promising 150 in-depth sessions and labs on Mac and iPhone development, fully exploring the capabilities of the iPhone SDK and the App Store.

Developers can look forward to sessions exploring all the iPhone features, with the company admitting “geographical location technology” to be one of the session segments.

The Multi-Touch interface, Core OS, Service and Media and Cocoa Touch technologies will also be explored at the event.

Mac developer sessions will explore every level of the system, including interface design and implementation, application frameworks, security, localization and networking.

 That Apple’s preparing a global iPhone roll-out and moving away from its present exclusive network strategy looks even clearer this morning, with news of new network deals and the disappearance of preceding iPhone models from the US and UK Apple Store.

Mobile network Singtel this morning made its own iPhone announcement, saying: “SingTel, Bharti Airtel, Globe and Optus today announced that they have signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Singapore, India, the Philippines and Australia later this year.”

This news follows Vodafone’s announcement last week that it will introduce iPhone in India and Australia, along with eight other countries.

Singtel kept it brief, promising, “more information will be released at a later date.”

While by no means conclusive evidence of GPS capabilities in the iPhone camera software, the latest builds of the SDK are littered with GPS references.  Whether these are just templates (you can see other camera manufactures included as well) or needed by the 3G iPhone camera software is unknown. 

GPS camera software is used to put location (landmark) metadata into the photo files.  Applications like Flickr, and Google earth use this data to arrange photographs (and videos) spatially based on this information.  For instance, if you snapped a picture in Paris, you could later organize you pictures – perhaps in iPhoto? – by Country/city.  Cool!

We’ll leave the speculation to you.  More screengrabs below.    One month to go…

 Apple’s looking pretty serious at extending its reach in the world’s expanding markets, planning a retail store in Beijing, China and continuing to expand its relationships in India, putting its force behind the launch of an array of 60 ‘iStores’ with Reliance Retail in India.

Reliance Retail today told India’s Economic Times that it plans to launch 60 Apple Premium Reseller stores across the country by 2011.

The company this week launched its fourth iStore in Jaipur. CEO Ajay Baijal said the shop is going to stock the entire range of Apple products for both the professional and consumer segments.

Indian consumers can also look forward to the launch of “up to” 150 ‘Reliance Digital’ mega-stores, offering consumer electronics products, across India in the next two years.

Consumer electronics? Oh yes; As we reported in April, Vodafone will introduce iPhone in India later this year (we suspect September, after current key markets have been served up with the device, and in line with previous reports emanating from the sub-continent). Vodafone confirmed it plans to launch iPhone (v.2.0?) in India this year in a widely reported announcement that emerged this week.

Making a mark on the sub-continent makes pretty good business sense at this stage. India’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to achieve around 7.6% growth between 2008/09 and 2012/13. IT sales and services are expected to boom in the country, which has a population of 1,147,995,898. Shamefully, when considering the quantity of cheap consumer goods produced in the country, per capita income works out at $2,700 per capita.

(Oh, and it’s regional…if you think back to last week, when US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson introduced another Apple partnership, this time in Lahore, Pakistan. According to a press release, the Ambassador said: “The partnership between Apple and Raffles Systems, representing our two countries, will promote growth and prosperity in Pakistan”. 

 Apple and Google are testing a way to link YouTube with the iTunes Store, offering links to video available for sale on iTunes beside selected YouTube clips.

Apple has been experimenting with strategies to link iTunes up with social networking websites, and offers a referral scheme to those who want to link their sites up with the service.

Early reports suggest the new system’s in testing right now, as the iTunes links are appearing beside only a handful of YouTube clips (such as one from Kanye West), and the move is only visible to US users at this time.

That Google seeks to make revenue from YouTube is well-known, the company admitted as much during its financial results announcement last week. It’s possible the company hopes to generate a little cash by sending sales across to iTunes, under an affiliates agreement. 

 The iPhone has revolutionised the mobile web, senior mobile executives agree, and heightened activity in terms of WiMax deployment may offer even more opportunities for Apple ahead.

Peter Cannistra, VP-strategic partnerships for WiMax, Sprint, Nextel, told Digital Hollywood that the iPhone is ““a great first mover; it’ll be improved on and imitated and really will be the catalyst for a lot of devices in the future.”

Cannistra was speaking as part of an experts panel at Digital Hollywood. He shared his space with Michael Ball, account lead, Interpublic Emerging Media Lab; David Shim, Sybase 365 VP-product management and strategy; Larry Berkin, senior director; Access Systems; Brian Johnson, executive chairman, mBlox; and Lee Hancock, CEO, go2.

Others on the panel agreed the iPhone would generate a wave of copy-cat phones, but suggested the future of mobiles will include larger touch screens and the evolution of a truly mobile internet, with iPhone imitators embracing Google’s Android platform for future evolutions.

Mobility requires appropriate networks, and Cannistra is in a top pole position in the new combined Sprint Nextel and Clearwire $12 billion WiMax venture. Nextel and Clearwire are preparing to launch a nationwide WiMax network across the US, offering both traditional voice services as well wireless broadband access using WiMax.

ABI Research analyst Nadine Manjaro said the deal “would be really huge for WiMax”. Why? Because it means enormous capital investment in deploying a US-wide platform for the standard, promising broadband-like internet access speeds even in relatively depopulated areas.

The news is just the latest in a string of recent WiMax-related announcements, as deployments of the standard begin to emerge internationally. Northern Italy, Fiji, Russia, Ireland, and countries across Asia already have major deployments planned, with WiMax networks expected to reach 25 per cent of the population of Malaysia by year’s end.

Sure, but you know what we’re thinking: We know it’s a long shot at this stage of deployment, but with huge investments being made WiMax network deployments across the globe, it’s clear the network ops behind these deployments are eager to find a killer app or device to propel consumer and enterprise users to embrace the new standard. Does Apple have a part to play?

A news service just about iPhones?  No, but if you like to read your news on the iPhone, you now have another option (besides Fox News*).   The Mobile content format isn’t just for the iPhone (and iPod Touch).  It will be available as a format for other portable web browsers, though it is hard to imagine the format will look as good on regular smartphones.

AP had announced the Mobile News Network at its annual meeting April 14 in Washington. AP’s president and chief executive, Tom Curley, said then that six newspaper companies were working to help develop the new service.

Paul Caluori, director of client content services for AP, said the service now has 107 newspapers participating, up from 18 at the time of the announcement. The papers include The Miami Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle and the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press.

Companies that help connect advertisers with networks of Web sites will be among the sellers of ads for the new service and will share revenues with the news providers.
The service will deliver local news from participating member newspapers and national and international news from AP. The reports will be organized by ZIP code.

Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and others also offer news services tailored for mobile devices, but Jeffrey Litvack, global product development director for AP, said the Mobile News Network would offer easier access to local news stories.

Apple offered guidance on how to best tailor the service to the iPhone but has no formal role with the product, Litvack said.

Go there on your iPhone now: http://www.apnews.com/

More information confirms O2 has ramped up operations for the release of the next-generation iPhone – the company has extended its 3G network to 80 per cent of the UK.

This news was confirmed by UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, this morning. The move follows Ofcom’s notice to O2 in February that it would shorten its license by four months if it did not comply with its rollout obligation by June 30 2008.

The rollout obligation required each of the five holders of a 3G license to roll out their networks to enable the provision of 3G services to at least 80 per cent of the population from 31 December 2007

O2 acquired its 3G license in 2000 for £4,030m. Ofcom estimated that a reduction of the license term by four months would have been equivalent to a significant financial sanction of at least £40 million.

Until now, O2 has been slow to build its own high-speed network, lagging behind the other 3G license holders, T-Mobile, 3, Orange and Vodafone.

Since introducing iPhone O2 has worked to extend its Edge network system, now – as recent price cuts and the subsequent sell-out of the iPhone in the UK suggest – it seems the network has put infrastructure in place to support the new generation, 3G iPhone.

 Apple kept it close to its chest during its financial results conference last week, but it seems the company has yet another singular success on its hands with the MacBook Air, which the company’s Form 10Q SEC filing today says was the primary driver of increased Mac net and unit sales in the quarter.

In black and white, the note (on page 26 of the report) reads: “The increases in Mac net sales and unit sales were driven primarily by sales of the new MacBook Air, introduced in January 2008, and higher sales of the iMac and other Mac portable systems.”

The report notes Mac unit growth of 51 per cent and 48 per cent in the second quarter of Q2 and first six months of 2008 respectively, observing the rate of growth strongly exceeds the industry average.

Apple’s laptop sales climbed 61 per cent, with 2.29 million Macs sold in Q2, 1.433 million of Macs sold were laptops.

While its interesting that Apple seems to have nailed the lighweight laptop category with the MacBook Air, this may be scant comfort to some early adopters of the first generation machine, with numerous complaints noting some (but not all) of these have a tendency to overheat during normal use. 

The report also notes iPod sales climbed, albeit slightly, but observes strong sales of the iPod touch, with consumers favouring that device above the purchase of the iPod shuffle.

The report also confirms research-&-development spending climbed 49 per cent, or $90 million to $273 million in Q2 08, compared to Q2 07. “The Company continues to believe that focused investments in R&D are critical to its future growth and competitive position in the marketplace and are directly related to timely development of new and enhanced products that are central to the Company’s core business strategy,” the report also explains.

 Apple’s iPhone plans continue to leak, or so it seems as the pre-June rumour mill continues to drive through the gears – now a new report claims we’re going to see not one, not two but three different models of the device.

These reports confirm our earlier “Apple plots iPhone diversity roadmap” story, which claimed Apple plans to diversify its iPhone product range in order to widen its reach in the mobile phone market.

The latest leak comes from the Taiwan Economic News, which claims three models of the iPhone may appear. The first will be a smaller, lighter handset with a plastic rather than aluminium magnesium case.

This device will weigh just 110-120g, less than the 135g weight of the current model. It will also offer a 2.8-inch screen, rather than the 3.5-inch screen currently offered on the iPhone.

The smaller model won’t offer 3G support. Instead, Apple intends selling a higher-specified iPhone equipped with such support. This handset will also offer GPS and will have a larger case, presumably more or less the same dimensions as the existing handset.

Finally, Apple plans to maintain its current generation iPhone as a third middle option.

“Components suppliers in Asia pointed out that Apple has asked them to ready materials for the new phones by the end of next month. They are asked to deliver components enough for 300,000 phones in the initial stage and components enough for three million phones in June,” reports the Taiwan Economic News.

Multiple rumours meanwhile suggest Apple will also mark June’s introduction of the new generation iPhones – and the next version of the software that runs all iPhones – with a widespread launch of the device to multiple companies, perhaps on a carrier-agnostic sales model.

Australia, South America, Canada, India, Russia, many European states, Korea and more all seem set to see the product launch, perhaps as part of an overweaning push to help Apple secure the level of sales it requires in order to meet its ten million sales target by the end of the financial year.

UPDATE TO ADD: That Apple will diversify its iPhone range isn’t really the question, at present the discussion should focus on when. The analysts at Piper Jaffray this morning also observed Apple to be likely to diversify the range in a note to clients (as reported by Apple Insider): "We continue to expect Apple to offer a family of iPhones (2-3 separate models) in the first half of 2009, including lower priced ($200-$300) models. Just as the company slowly diversified the iPod lineup and entered lower price points with every new version of the iPod, we expect Apple to launch new models of the iPhone at lower price points in CY09. This expectation, along with the expectation for lower price points, and world wide availability of the phone, is critical to our CY09 iPhone estimate of 45m units," the analysts explained.

Cnet ‘stralia gets the inside information.  Optus is getting the 3G iPhone.  But we know Telstra is getting it too.  Everybody is getting it it seems – maybe even 3 and Virgin. 

Perhaps that story a month ago about all of Australia’s resellers getting the iPhone was true as well.  Timetable: …wait for it..Late June, just like everyone else. 

Also, Australia…Sorry for the picture, we know how much Paul Hogan is revered as a representative of your proud nation…

Apple’s expected to introduce the much-anticipated 3G iPhone next month – but what if the company’s planning a little more than simple support for the 3G standard?

Enter InterDigital. In March, that company revealed it has signed-up Apple (and RIM) as a licensee for its 3G technologies. “As to our market share for 3G, while we did not achieve the 50% target, we did add some very high-quality licensees including Apple, Giant, and RIM…,” the company explained.

This news generated sparks of speculation that InterDigital’s SlimChip architecture might be deployed in products from Apple. InterDigital is currently suing Nokia on grounds that company contravenes the former’s held patents on 3G technologies. Apple’s agreement to license these forms some kind of evidence of 3G inclusion in the iPhone – but we think Apple may plan a far bigger step. We suspect – and we have to say this is only speculation on our part – that Apple may plan to move from behind the cutting edge of mobile technologies (by not including 3G support in the first place) right to the forefront of what’s possible. And in order to achieve that, we think there’s a chance Apple may introduce support for the little-known 802.21 wireless standard. 

802.21 is soon to be an official standard that converges various types of fixed and mobile technologies: in the case of an 802.21 handset, deployment of the standard could theoretically allow the device to seamlessly switch between various connectivity options, including Wi-FI, 3G and (drum roll please), WiMax.

Now, as Computerworld recently noted, “as is normally the case with new standards, this standard will need a good deal of marketing to really get rolling and it also will need to get the best of competing convergence efforts.”

Apple’s success in bringing new technologies to market was made most clear when it single-handedly popularised WiFi technology (AirPort) when it introduced the iBook in 1999. WiFi’s fairly popular nowadays. InterDigital’s move to join the WiFi Alliance this year, followed by its move to license its 3G modem technology to a shadowy (unnamed) Asian fabless semiconductor company also passed under the radar.

Intel’s WiMax technology has been a promise on a whisper for some time now. Implementation of the technology has faced some resistance, not least from mobile phone networks, scared to cede their control of wireless networks. While that resistance is common in developed telephony markets, it’s less visible in some emerging markets.

Take Russia, for example. December 2007 saw local mobile telco Comstar and Intel announce their intention to build a nationwide WiMax network to launch in Moscow this year (cost, $20/month). Comstar (under its Stream brand) is already Moscow’s leading broadband provider.

Why does a WiMax network make sense for Russia? The secret’s in the existing infrastructure. Russia has 147.3 million mobile subscriptions but just 40.1 million standard telephones. The majority of the existing Russian mobile phone infrastructure is based on 2.5G technologies, though this is changing following the April 2007 granting of 3G licenses to Megafon, MTS and VympelCom (which trades as Beeline). As such, 3G services are set to launch in major Russian cities in late spring/summer. However, Russia is a vast country, and WiMax could provide an alternative route to bring more of the country into the digital decade. 

The US is seeing WiMax deployments, albeit slowly and subject to much delay. Zyxtel is shipping XHOM WiMax high speed routers to Sprint that will be used in its nationwide WiMAX rollout, perhaps later this year. And AT&T’s unlikely to take its eye off the importance of its network products segment – it won’t let Sprint take home all the gravy. 

WiMAX is also being rolled out in Germany and Japan, two of Apple’s bigger markets, with active trials underway and early 2008 mass rollouts planned.

So, let’s consider the evidence at this point: We know Apple has a licensing deal with InterDigital; we are fairly confident Apple will introduce a 3G iPhone soon; we know Apple has aggressive sales targets for this device, and that the company plans to introduce iPhones into more territories this year; we know that some of those target countries, Russia, for example, are moving to adopt WiMax; and we know InterDigital is deeply involved in developing a convergence standard to facilitate use of mixed network standards through a single device.

We also know Apple likes to amaze, and is in a close relationship with Intel, which is looking for a WiMax champion (and is building WiMax support into many of its chips). With WiMax network roll-out set to gather steam this year, Apple has the opportunity to leapfrog all debate regarding 3G support and initiate a new age of wide area network computing. 

All these signs and portents don’t constitute anything other than speculation. After all – WiMax isn’t yet widely deployed, and Apple may choose to wait until it is before it initiates such a move. But when (or if) it does, it already has the key relationships – and products – it needs to hustle users into a new connected age.  Remember, Apple was the first to bring its customers to Wifi – with its Airport products introduced at MacWorld New York City in 1999.

 Apple’s laptop sales are booming, up 61 per cent in the second quarter, and the good news is impacting the company’s notebook OEM, Quanta, which announced an 18 per cent increase in profit this morning, on strength of Mac sales.

Apple last week confirmed 2.29 million Mac sales in its second quarter. Mac sales overall climbed 51 per cent, year-on-year, a rate of growth an astonishing 3.5 times that of the overall PC market. Desktop sales climbed 37 per cent, also faster than PC market averages,

The company’s portable sales were driven by continued strong demand for Macbook, Macbook Pros and the MacBook Air. This steady demand meant Quanta Computer saw profits climb 18 per cent to book NT$4 billion for the quarter. The OEM observed strong demand for notebooks, predicting demand would climb 25 per cent in the current quarter.

Apple’s no niche player, the company explained, with management and analysts agreeing the Apple-driven laptop sales explosion seems set to continue, despite the downturn. Apple accounts for 25 per cent of Quanta revenue.

"Notebook growth is coming in faster than we expected," said Quanta Vice Chairman C.C. Leung. "There’s some slowdown from the U.S., but Asia and emerging markets are still seeing growth. So far things look positive for overall notebook demand."

The consumer move to favour laptops is posing an interesting new challenge for Apple’s notebook maker – the company has confirmed components for laptops, principally those used to make laptop enclosures, are running in short supply. Quanta management said this would be unlikely to affect Apple and other larger brands, but would definitely impact the smaller notebook brands.

The surge in Mac sales isn’t simply a fashion, but could become a tipping point, as Apple CEO Steve Jobs said last October: “The question is, are we headed for a tipping point, it sometimes feels like that."

NPD recognises significant gains in Mac notebook sales, which the researchers claim rose 64 per cent in units and 67 per cent in revenues year over year.

Apple seems set to continue to expand its marketshare – and Quanta’s profits – on strength of strong notebook sales. According to IDC, some 23.5 million computers were sold in the first quarter of 2008 in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, which is equivalent to 19 per cent sales growth over Q1 2007. Market growth is the result of the growing popularity of notebooks. While sales of desktop PCs fell by 1.7 per cent to approximately 10.5 million items, sales of notebooks grew by 43 per cent to 13 million items, IDC said. Apple’s overall Mac sales in Europe climbed 45 per cent in the March quarter, the company’s financial results confirm, with 627,000 Macs sold (both desktop and laptops).

News out of the Hackintosh forums continues to flow in on throwing Leopard on PCs.  Today’s news is that some enterprising hackers got OSX Leopard working on an OQO – one of the smallest full PCs out there.  Nevermind that it takes two minutes to start up and not all of the wireless networking components work.  It is still a very compelling setup.  

The last few weeks were about Psystar selling Hackintosh PC’s.  Apple’s lawyers usually swoop in within seconds to stop EULA ‘violations’ like this.  On Psystar, they are eerily quiet.  Psystar is shipping clones and customers are receiving them. 

What does all of this mean? 

Perhaps Apple is considering licensing the Leopard OS out to PC vendors.  Maybe they’ll sell it as a virtual machine?  Or perhaps a paired down version for Web browsing, and iTunes?  Most likely not but it is kinda weird all of this Leopard on PC stuff.  It seems a little too easy.

According to Barron’s and B. Riley analyst Salomon Kamalodine, STEC will be making the Solid State Drives (SSD) in future Apple products – most notebly, the MacBook Air.  The 64Gb SSD’s on current MacBooks are manufactured by Samsung.  High end MacBook Air owners were upset recently when their SSD Hard drives showed little performance increase and battery life over 1.8" hard drive equipped macbooks.  

Hopefully STEC can up the performance and lower the cost of entry to this technology.  They currently offer SSDs in capacities ranging from 73-512GB however the most likely candidate for the MacBook Air – the Mach8 line –  ‘only’ scales to 128Gb.  Will this be the next MacBook Air go to 128Gb in SSD size?  Will the prices remain the same?  Are we going to see a revision 2 MacBook soon?

More from Barrons:

Kamalodine writes in a research note that the finding is based on “discussions with industry sources.”
He says the Apple business could lead to an incremental $25 million to $30 million in revenue in 2009. Kamalodine raised his 2008 and 2009 revenue estimates to levels well ahead of the Street consensus. He sees $237.8 million this year and $302.9 million next year; the Street has been looking for $217.6 million and $273.1 million.
STEC today is up 79 cents, or 9.7%, to $8.96.

digg_url = ‘http://9to5mac.com/STEC-Samsung-macbook-air-hds’;

Apple today upgraded its iMac selection to include faster (and more efficient) Penryn (or Montevina QX9770!?) processors – topping out at over 3 GHz.  The iMacs can be configured with much burlier graphics cards (NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS) as well.  Unsurprisingly, Apple didn’t include Blu Ray as an option…perhaps next time?

“The iMac’s gorgeous aluminum and glass all-in-one design has been an incredible hit with our customers and is just one of the reasons Mac sales are growing three and a half times faster than PC sales,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With the latest Intel processors, a faster new graphics option and more memory, customers now have even more reasons to love the iMac.”

Also Apple touts the new iMac’s green credentials:

The iMac furthers Apple’s commitment to environmental progress with highly recyclable and durable materials including scratch-resistant glass and professional grade aluminum. Every model in the iMac line is rated EPEAT Silver and the power-efficient iMac also meets the stringent Energy Star 4.0 requirements for power consumption. Customers who purchase any qualifying Apple computer can recycle their old PC or Mac® for free via the Apple Recycling Program.

The new iMacs are on sale immediately and start at $1200 in the US.

20", 2.4GHz, 1GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive, ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT 128MB. $1199
20", 2.6GHz, 2GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive, ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO 256MB, $1499
24", 2.8GHz, 2GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive, ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO 256MB, $1799
24", 3.06GHz, 2GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS 512MB, $2199

 Apple’s seems incredibly interested in expanding its reach in the professional and enterprise space, posting a job opportunity which calls for a ‘Hardware Design Manager’ for Apple’s, “new Pro Servers and Towers teams”.

There’s several key statements there – it seems to imply Apple has more than one strategy for servers, with multiple teams involved in their development.

Anyway, if you’re interested in taking the job, it’s a full-time position at Apple’s Cupertino campus. Rather than indulge in our own speculation (though we’d welcome yours in the comments below), here’s detail from the job advert:

“In this critical design manager position for the new Pro Servers and Towers teams, the selected candidate will manage a team that determines design approaches and parameters, analyzes equipment to establish operating data, conducts experimental tests and evaluates results.

“Candidate will lead others in selecting components and equipment based on analysis of specifications and reliability. Candidate may also review vendor capability to support product development. Involves heavy schematic design as well as strong lab skills and system integration skills. Strong Unix skills preferred with light programming skills required. Domestic and international travel required.”

 Apple has aggressive sales targets for its next-generation 3G iPhone, anticipating 20-25 million units of the new device to be sold within the product’s lifecycle.

This news leaked from the Far East this morning, where long-time Apple partner, Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), has once again been named as being contracted to manufacture the new device, according to the Chinese-language Commercial Times. Foxconn also manufactures the current iteration of the iPhone.

Component suppliers are on scramble now to ship their parts by the end of May, with shipments of the device expected to exceed three million units in June. This would assume to reach well into 2009 (assuming 1 year product cycles that Apple seems to have on iPods and iPhones).

The news once again reinforces expectation the new breed of the device will ship in June.

 Security researchers have identified a fresh vulnerability in QuickTime for Windows, which they claim can allow hackers to take control of infected machines.

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