Tech Industry

Ugh.  We’re as sick as anyone else about hearing "the Beatles are coming to iTunes!"  It seems like at least once a month the rumor pops up.  This month is no different.  Reportedly, there is a $800 million dollar deal in the works (this isn’t how iTunes works is it?)  The London-based Telegraph (a great source of information) is this month’s source saying,

Sir Paul McCartney is expected to release the Beatles back catalogue for download on the internet in a deal which could be worth up to £300 million.

Former hits from albums such as Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the White Album and Help will be available on the popular iTunes website and are expected to top the download charts for several months on release.

Although the exact value of the records are not known, some estimates have placed it at £300 million and Sir Paul, Ringo Starr and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison would all receive large sums of money as part of the contract.

Sir Paul, 65, is currently involved in a divorce settlement with his estranged wife Lady McCartney and the final hearing, expected in 10 days time, could see him paying her up to £30 million in a cash settlement.

A spokesman for Apple Corps, the Beatles record label, would not confirm when the records would be available online and said: "The date has not yet been set."

Release of the Beatles’ songs over the internet has earlier been prevented as the surviving band members were involved in legal disputes with their record label EMI and Apple Corps and the American company Apple Computers, who own iTunes. (more)

Beatles music appeals to new music lovers every day, but we have to believe that if you are a Beatles fan and a iPod lover, you’ve already ripped your Beatles music from CD (or otherwise). 

For those of you too young to remember, the G5 Powerbook was a similar monthy rumor a few years back that obviously never came to fruition.  We’ll see how this one does.

Research In Motion (RIM) isn’t taking Apple’s move into the enterprise market it dominates without a fight. The company has confirmed plans to push back with the introduction of social networking and entertainment features.

Right.

As part of the push, RIM has reached a deal with Black Eyed Peas’ artist, Will.i.am, to make that artist’s content and online community Dipdive available on the BlackBerry. (Will.i.am was also behind Barack Obama’s successful “Yes We Can” video.) The company introduced Facebook software for its smartphones last autumn.

RIM’s in a fix. Apple’s introduction of Exchange support means core Blackberry customers have a choice of devices, and with the iPhone offering extra value in terms of screen real estate, iPod and other sexy features, the Blackberry maker must struggle to preserve its market.

Two-thirds of RIM’s 12 million Blackberry users are government or corporate clients. In order to widen its business and resist the Apple-driven iPhone assault, RIM has little choice but to extend its product’s versatility.

RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie told Reuters, "The two hottest trends in wireless are social networking and multimedia, which is principally portable music."

While the company continues to insist iPhone poses no competition, with economic downturn threatening sales in its key business sectors and the debut of iPhone, which threatens to clean up in the consumer market, things appear grim.

Apple has already seized the number two slot in the US smartphone market, grabbing 28 percent share. Blackberry continues to dominate this sector with 41 percent, Canalsys claimed last month.

In the consumer markets, a January ChangeWave survey showed a move toward smartphones, with iPhone and Blackberry competing for dominance. That survey of 4,182 consumers declared the iPhone to be the leading choice, with 17 percent of consumers planning to buy a smartphone planning an iPhone. That compares with 15 percent planning to pick Blackberry.

Customer satisfaction may be key to victory. 72 percent of those surveyed who already own an iPhone said they were "very satisfied" with the product, while just 55 percent were equally satisfied with their Blackberry.

The game’s afoot. Apple, which sells iPhone in just four countries and has confirmed four million sales of the device so far already holds 0.6 percent of the world’s cell phone market, according toGartner.

This compares to RIM’s 1.2 percent.

With Apple planning to sell 10 million iPhones this year, its overall market share seems set for steep growth, pushing ahead of RIM.

Investors are watching closely. Apple shares seem to have begun reclaiming a little lost ground on strength of last night’s iPhone SDK announcements (up a few pennies to $121.36). Beleaguered RIM has lost $1.72 per share to hit $96.20 on pre-market trading this morning.

Battle, it seems, is joined.

We’re just hours away from Apple’s bells-and-whistles meeting where it will reveal the real deal on iPhone application development, and new information’s beginning to trickle through.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s chief financial officer, last night told those at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference that the company will talk about the iPhone in the enterprise.

Oppenheimer also noted that the frequency of iPhone unlocking reflects demand for the device, and echoed chief operating officer Tim Cook’s comments last week in which Apple revealed it isn’t "wedded" to its existing revenue-sharing deal with mobile operators.

"We’re off to a great start, but we’re learning and we’re not wedded to any one particular way to go to market. Our objective is to drive scale and take market share," said Oppenheimer.

MacRumors warns that the iPhone SDK will be available for Mac OS X only and that the software will be made available as an extension of the capabilities of the Xcode development tools shipped with Mac OS X 10.5. This makes sense on account of the OS X system that runs iPhone.

Analysts are beginning to get categorical, too, with many now anticipating Apple will announce support for Microsoft’s Active Synch technologies for the iPhone, meaning Entourage support, and the long-expected support for Lotus Notes, may appear.

Finally, whispers reaching 9to5 Mac from various closely-connected sources suggest iPhone users can look forward to "a few more" applications for their devices, perhaps as soon as today, but no word yet on what these may be.

That’s despite recent conjecture claiming the iPhone SDK announced will be available as beta software only.

King of Prussia based InterDigital this week posted its earnings call to the web and had some semi-interesting things to say about Apple and 3G technologies.

Remember InterDigital signed a 7 year, $56 million agreement to supply technology licenses to Apple in September.

"The deal covers various 2G and 3G cellular technologies encompassing bandwidth allocation, roaming and power efficiency controls, and most likely also includes some type of packet data coding and delivery,"

InterDigital stated for the first time, though widely speculated, that they were licensing 3G technology to Apple (and RIM)…

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….

RIM is a very strong IPR company and same thing with Apple. And so, the fact that those companies take licenses with us reflects very well, I think, on the portfolio of the company.

It is widely thought that InterDigital’s SlimChip architecture might see its way into future versions of Apple products.

As Apple prepares for its iPhone announcement this week, the company appears close to inking deals to introduce its product across many additional European territories.

iPhone is presently only available in the UK, France and Germany; now the company is nearing deals to offer it in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Ireland (done), Italy and Spain – even the Nordics might get some love.  Lithuania and Denmark? sure!

Fresh reports claim the iPhone will launch in Switzerland on April 4. The Apple device will be made available exclusively from Swisscom.  Keep in mind, Hardmac had a very similar (actually much better) fake last time.

Benoit Scheen, chief of Belgian’s second-largest mobile network Mobistar, last month said he hoped to reach a distribution deal with Apple for iPhone distribution this year. Next door in the Netherlands, KPN has recently been identified as Apple’s likely network partner.

iPhone is expected to be made available through T-Mobile in Austria and O2 in Ireland, with the Irish launch scheduled for March 14. Italy (with Telecom Italia) and Spain (with Telefonica) are reportedly also close to launch.

Apple has also been in talks with DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank and Softbank to agree a Japanese launch of the product, though it remains unclear which of the three operators has won the prize.

The company’s chief operating office Tim Cook last week said Apple “is not wedded” to an exclusive arrangement in order to launch the product in every territory it wants to penetrate.

Apple continues to experiment with its business model. France’s LeFigaro claims electronics retailer FNAC is in discussion to distribute the iPhone through its network of French shops. That’s similar to Apple’s UK deal with Carphone Warehouse to widen availability of the device..

All these tidbits may go some way to explaining Apple CEO Steve Jobs’s seeming public absence since Macworld Expo. He’s instrumental to any final deal with mobile phone networks.

(yes we know the image is faaake – even more fake than their last one!!)

Silicon allley is reporting that that Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner went to Taiwan and got the scoop on the 3G iPhones and their delivery date.  Nevermind that iPhones are assembled in the mainland … he works for a bank people!

Even so, we think he is right.  I’ve been saying 3G iPhone in May since 1983.

Remember when we reported on Myspace doing a deal with Amazon in the music area and you were like SFW?  Well, the two more elite brands in music (iTunes)  and social networking (Facebook) have now paired off for a new joint venture.  We know, SFW.

FWIW…According to Facebook, 100 artists have already set-up up profiles  These types of economies of scales deals are usually pretty good for everyone’s bottom line.  Hopefully Apple can slang some more iTunes and Facebook can keep people from defecting. 

Update: Looks like Myspace is building a iPhone Native app with the SDK so the lines are a bit blurry.

Meh.

According to the site:

Music is now on Facebook.

Join thousands of bands and music artists all over the world who are using Facebook to connect with fans and spread their music.

If you are a musician or in a band, create your own free Page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Products:   

A Facebook Page is a free, flexible, easy-to-build presence that lets your band interact with our users in new ways:
– Send updates about tours and concerts
– Showcase new releases and post your discography
– Add Facebook Music Player to stream your music and post buy links
– Sell tickets and merchandise
– Engage fans with rich media and streaming video
-Import photos from concerts anywhere in the world
– Let your content spread virally through user interactions with your Page, and be discovered

Become a fan of this Page and get updates about all the new features we’re adding to Music on Facebook.

Apple’s next generation iMacs might not just be Penryn updates as speculated earlier.  If they are one of the first  computers to recieve the  Intel Eaglelake motherboard (which support Penryns), they could also have some Blu Ray configurations as well.  Some of the specs of this board, set to be released Q2 of 2008:

• Yorkfield & Wolfdale Support
• FSB 1333
• DDR3 1333 or DDR2 800
• Intel® Clear Video technology
• HD-DVD/Blu-Ray support
• Integrated HDMI/DVI /DisplayPort
• ICH10 Family

When will we see these possible iMac udates?  Eaglelake is expected in Q2 2008.  Apple, however is known to get some Intel technology before it is widely deployed.

Apple’s iMac hasn’t been updated since the Aluminum enclosure made its debut on August 7th 2007.

Hidden in among Apple’s chief operating officer Tim Cook’s speech to the Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium was a critical barometer of Apple’s success – Apple beat Dell in laptop sales in the US higher education market.
While most reports focused on Cook’s optimism as regards iPhone sales this year, the executive also told analysts: "We just received word on Monday that Apple surpassed Dell as the number one supplier of portables to US higher education for 2007," Cook claimed.

"The ceiling for the Macs is nowhere in sight. Even if the market itself isn’t growing, for us, switching Windows users is an enormous opportunity," Cook also added.

This is a critical metric for Apple, which once dominated computing on college campuses.

In October 2007, analyst Toni Sacconaghi Jr. of Bernstein Research noted Apple to hold 29 per cent of the US market for notebooks in the most expensive fifth of the market, up from 8 per cent three years before that. In education, Apple took 46 per cent in the top tier slice of the market, the analyst explained.

In Europe, Apple seized the top spot in the education market in 2006, grabbing 15.2 per cent market share (desktop and laptop sales). In the last third quarter of 2007, Apple’s director of EMEA education markets, Herve Marchet, confirmed it took 19.6 per cent marketshare in Europe’s education sector.

Cook’s claims remain anecdotal at this point, as neither Garner nor IDC have yet publically released figures detailing Apple’s slice of the US education market, but it’s unlikely the Apple executive would deliberately mislead Goldman Sachs.

Is Apple going to upgrade the processors and hard drives on the Aluminum iMac in the coming weeks? 

Clues:

• Apple is currently offereing up to $400 off of the refurbished Aluminum iMacs.  
• MacNotes.de, a German site thinks it will be this week
• Intel is trying to phase out the Merom procssors that the current iMacs have (see MacBook Updates) for Penryns
• iMacs use the same class of processors as the MacBook/Pros.
• Apple is on an update tear lately with something, howver small, every week.  The SDK might be next weeks goodie but how long can they go without throwing a processor update at the iMac?

So if you can wait a bit (and resist the $400 off refurb) on purchasing an iMac, you might be rewarded with some better specs.

Changewave’s latest report gives some very interesting numbers for the iPhone in the business market:

1. Apple is the number two manufacturer in the planned purchases category (ahead of Nokia (this must be US-centric), Palm, Samsung and Motorola) and already has 5% of the business market. 
2. Apple leads (59%) the very satisfied category in their survey by double digit numbers and kills Palm and Windows Mobile devices (10-30% very satisfied).
3. While RIM currently is the market leader by huge numbers, its recent outages and declining satisfaction ratings are leaving a big question mark in the business landscape – one that Apple is hoping to exploit.

All of this makes the March 6th event, which promises some enterprise announcements, all that more exciting for Apple and its (future?) customers.

Amazon.com is giving away free memory cards with purchase of their top-selling digital cameras. No digital SLRs, but some really nice point & shoots if you’re in the market.

The timing seems right for more iPhone countries to be announced at the iPhone SDK event next week.  Earlier we reported on Italy, Spain and Switzerland getting on board around the time of the SDK launch.  Recent rumors have also included Rogers in Canada, O2 in Ireland and Tmobile in Austria and possibly in the Netherlands.

Update: Ireland (O2) and Austria (Tmobile) by extension are officially on.

Adding fuel to the fire, Morgan Stanley is reporting that El Jobso has been getting some serious private jet time in over the past quarter – indicating he’s been doing some global traveling and possibly sealing some deals.

Interestingly, Tim Cook, COO of Apple, mentioned yesterday that Apple was open to exploring other models of iPhone distribution – rather than stick to their locked model.  This could lead the way to selling the iPhone unlocked in markets like China and India where the device has already proved itself popular amongst the 2+ billion consumers in those countries – even with out 3G.   He also mentiond the best way to fight unlockd iPhones is to opn up in the markets whre they are being unlocked.

It is turning out to be a very exciting week for th iPhone/iPod Touch platform…even without all of the new applications expectd to be announced.

Oh, and one last thing…it would be really nice to see Apple drop the prices on those iPhones and iPods right about now.  The price reduction – which would reflect the plummeting prices of Flash storage would really spur on device sales.

(Thanks to Roughly Drafted for the Photo)

AnandTech has taken a close look at the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros both inside and outside.  Their conclusion?  Not much to talk about.  The internals are almost exactly the same.  Same motherboards, same hardware save for new video chips and trackpad on the MacBook Pros and Penryns and RAM/HD configurations on both.

Alltogether kind of a small update from Apple.  In fact, the MacBook Pros haven’t been touched much over the past two years.  We expect much more from Apple at the WWDC 2008.  Perhaps even a *gasp* redesign. 

Table recreated below…

Apple finally updated the MacBook and MacBook Pro line.  Although, the upgrades are significant, they didn’t include the larger trackpads  that many, including us, had expected.  The Pro line does have multi-touch now, however – though it lacks the new flat-key keyboard design that the MacBooks and Air employ.

The case designs for both lines are also the same.

The processors, video cards and hard drive specs are the only updates – which were expected.  Grab all  the details from Apple.

If you feel stupid for hitting refresh over and over on the Apple store, read this…

While everyone has been expecting new MacBook Pros since Macworld, yesterday all of the major rumors sites got word from retail shops that new MacBook priced models were coming as well.  What does this mean? 

If Apple releases MacBooks and not Pro models, it will mean either something is seriously wrong with the upcoming Pro pipeline (they are way overdue) or that Apple is waiting for an event to launch them because of a design overhaul- most likely alongside the iPhone SDK.

Something else to consider… perhaps Apple is making an aluminum MacBook and essentially merging the product lines – like when the 12 inch Powerbook existed.  Maybe we’ll see a cross the board update? 

Or maybe we’ll see nothing in the MacBook/Pro arena and have to wait even longer :(

MacBook Pros are due for an update, we know this.  If not this Tuesday, then likely at the mid-March event.  By the way, if Apple releases the MacBook Pros before the event, you’ll know they are mostly just a processor/keyboard/trackpad update.  If Apple waits until the event, we are likely to see a full overhaul of the design.  We hope we have to wait.

But those Penryn chips that are going into the MacBook Pros are also the same class of processors that Apple puts in the iMacs.  Could the iMac be the benefactor of new processor (and front side bus) upgrades?  We’d say it is pretty likely.

Also, why are Apple’s laptops the only benefactor of the multi-touch trackpads?  Can we get a multi-touch trackpad for iMacs, Minis and Pros?  External, USB, and about $79?   Sold!

Sorry Wacom :(

It looks like the Apple event originally scheduled for February 26th has been postponed until mid-Marchish.  Apple would have made the decision last week because they usually allow a journalists a week to arrange travel to the event.  The reason for the delay is likely that the SDK isn’t ready for primetime and the developer apps aren’t polished enough to be shown.

Apple has introduced something on just about every Tuesday in 2008 so far so we still are likely to see a new release of some sort – MacBook Pros seem like the most likely candidates.  There are still lots of things that could be released at any moment including:

• More European Apple stores (Munich, Swiss)
• More iPhone areas (Italy, Austria, Spain)
• New MacBook Pros
• A tablet
• 3G iPhone
• iPod/touch price drops
• iMac Processor upgrades
• Something we haven’t thought of?

Apple will likely announce the delay with a Tuesday press release at the same time as announcing the new product…just like the AppleTV Take 2 delay.

Digitimes reports that Zyxtel is shipping the XHOM WiMAX high speed routers to Sprint that will be used in its nationawide WiMAX rollout.  These will be used at Sprint’s customer’s homes and should start hitting the streets very soon.

Many people have been very eager to try out the WiMAX service offered by Sprint Nextel only to be put off by delay after delay.

Sprint’s WiMAX 4G service will compete against existing 3G services from AT&T, Verizon and T-mobile and upcoming next generation  standards.  For more on WiMAX, check the video after the break

The Wall Street Journal is postulating on a behind the scenes Apple – Adobe skirmish about putting Flash in the iPhone.  I think the argument can be summed up with a sentence:

Who will control video on the mobile web?

Need evidence?  If Apple were planning on releasing Flash on the iPhone, why would Youtube be converting their library to H.264?  Yes, the Quicktime quality is better – but not that much better than Flash on a 480×320 inch screen.  What is more important is that every Youtube video put on the web is effectively a interface for a Flash interfaced mobile video platform.

Furthermore, (although likely a red herring) even the lighter versions of Flash tax the processor and by extention the battery life of a device – which provide a convenient excuse for Apple to say it wants to stay off of Flash.

Also, a big part of iTunes movie rentals is moving the data to the iPhone/iPod touch.  At some point in the near future, the Mobile iTunes store will likely have the ability to buy TV shows and movies.  Cool!  But less cool if those things are also availble on the web in Flash players.  For instance, TV shows like Lost.

The Journal speculates that Apple might be working on its own player. 

Frankly, Quicktime is already is the player and playing content from it is already being done.  It can even play flat SWF files.

I think Apple is purposely delaying the release of the Flash in much the same way that they are delaying iChat.  Business reasons rather than technology.

Will Flash ever happen on the iPhone/iPod touch?  Perhaps, and maybe it will happen in the coming weeks…but Apple will certainly be aprehensive about it. 

Mr. Daring Fireball, John Gruber postulates more..