Tech Industry

If you’ve been expecting a massive rush to leave AT&T for Verizon, then think again — customers on Apple’s formerly exclusive iPhone network may not be completely satisfied, but they are pretty much locked-in — at least, 90 percent of them are.
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Apple’s iPhone is driving the mobile industry forward. Where Apple steps, competitors very soon follow. A decision by Apple to adopt a specific technology inside a product soon translates into a rush to secure that specific component. From SSD flash storage to touchscreens we’ve seen the followers take their place. And it seems the same for gyroscopes, movement sensors and other microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices, where Apple’s decision to put these inside its products has driven a fast market expansion.

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The iPod classic could see capacity climb 60GB to 220GB following Toshiba’s introduction this week of a new 1.8-inch drive capable of offering that much capacity. That’s enough for 55,000 songs, 275 hours of video or over 34,000 photos.
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DVt15KD3Xk&fs=1&hl=en_US]

I’ve heard this from a seperate source, but buried deep within the Bloomberg Businessweek cover is this little tidbit:

[Google VP]Gundotra has also sparred with Apple behind the scenes. As Android became a threat to Apple in 2008, Apple began resisting Google’s claim to valuable location data gathered whenever an iPhone owner used Google Maps. His negotiations with Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller grew so heated that Schmidt and Steve Jobs had to intervene to settle the matter, according to two people familiar with the incident. (Apple announced earlier this year that it had developed its own location-monitoring system. Gundotra and Schiller both declined to comment on the incident.)

The other turning point was the release of the G1 which “looked nothing like the prototypes that Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall were shown by Google’s leadership”.  Android’s success didn’t help matters.  The rest is history.
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COMPUTERWORLD: Apple’s iPhone marketshare gains are slowing down in the face of increased competition from Android handsets, Strategy Analytics claims in its quarterly market analysis. “Apple’s marketshare gains slowed considerably last year due to tougher competition from Android players such as Samsung, Motorola and HTC,” the analysts wrote, but with iPhone 5 looming, can Apple grow its growth curve?

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AT&T reported earnings today with a modest 2.1% year over year gain in revenue but declining profits, which did slightly beat analyst’s expectations.  In Apple land, they noted the activation of 4.1 million iPhones..

Continued Strength in Integrated Device Sales. AT&T continued to grow its base of integrated device subscribers. More than 7.4 million postpaid integrated devices were sold in the fourth quarter, including the second-largest quarterly number of upgrades in the company’s history. Integrated device sales included 4.1 million iPhone activations. More than 80 percent of postpaid sales were integrated devices. (Integrated devices are handsets with QWERTY or virtual keyboards in addition to voice functionality and are a key driver of wireless data usage.)

AT&T also said it sold 442,000 iPads and Android-based tablets combined bringing their total over the past three quarters to 1.5 million.  We’re going to go ahead an wager that most of those are iPads.
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Nokia is feeling the heat with rumors the company will enable support for Android apps on future devices. Company CEO, ex-Microsoft Stephen Elop described “significant challenges” fighting Apple’s iPhone and the Google OS in the market. Shares fell 8.7 percent in reponse.

“Nokia faces some significant challenges in our competitiveness and our execution,” Elop said in the company’s earnings statement today. “The industry changed and now it’s time for Nokia to change faster.”

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Here’s an interesting infographic from Onswipe telling us all about the first year of the iPad — Happy Birthday iPad (introduced this day last year). Hit read more to see the whole thing…
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http://www.viddler.com/simple/9a7f4fb8/

Engadget reviews the Playstation phone. I have to say, this feels like a typical Android phone with a physical keyboard but with fewer, bigger keys.  I guess the goodness must be in the Playstation software, which technically could run on iOS as well.

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COMPUTERWORLD: Apps sales are exploding while the distinction between mobile and desktop Apps will shrink when Apple gives Lion a healthy iOS habit. Developers are on a gravy train, even teenagers are making cash using skills many don’t have time to learn. “If only getting started in App development were as simple as making a WordPress Website,” some might cry. Cry no more. Red Foundry promises to make it so.

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Including iPad sales, Apple is the world’s third-largest PC maker, according to the latest Canalsys figures, published today. The PC industry saw general gowth of 19 percent — clearly boosted by Apple’s strong performance.

I’ve said this before — the iPad is a PC, limited only by the power and utility of the Apps you run on the device. Canalsys agrees that iPad sales should be counted as PC sales, with the analysts latest figures confirming that Apple’s PC shipments climbed an astonishing 241 percent in Q4 2010 (including the iPad).
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Davos, Switzerland: We finally have it on good authority Apple is developing an LTE iPhone, with China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou confirming the news at the Davos Economic Forum this week.

“Apple has made it clear they will support TD-LTE,” Wang said
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Proving good products do their own marketing Apple’s taken a giant thumbs-up from its growing enterprise market with no less than Deutsche Bank declaring there’s “no going back” to BlackBerry after an “overwhelmingly positive” iPhone trial.

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Getting kinda cocky with our network are we now Verizon?  The Wall St. Journal reports their conversation with Lowell McAdam the incoming Verizon CEO:

“I’m not going to shoot myself in the foot,” he said. Not offering an unlimited plan would put up a barrier for customers who might otherwise switch from AT&T, he said. The country’s No. 2 carrier still has millions of subscribers grandfathered into unlimited plans they signed up for before AT&T switched to tiered pricing last summer.

Verizon has been having some blips with its network over the past month in anticipation of the iPhone.  Looking at this chart, they could be in for a huge data tidal wave.  It will be interesting to see if they can hold up.  Verizon is also charging $50 more for the iPhone off plan than AT&T, something its current customers might have to deal with.

Update: But you’d better act fast. Speaking later Tuesday morning, Mr. McAdam said the iPhone unlimited plan will be a temporary offer and that the carrier will follow AT&T’s move to tiered pricing in the not too distant future.

Also of note: Subscriber growth slowed on Verizon in anticipation of the iPhone (at least that is what is implied).  
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COMPUTERWORLD: Apple is already placing orders for components and final manufacturing for its forthcoming NFC-savvy iPad 2.0 and iPhone 5 devices, bringing new manufacturers into the supply line and plotting for March and June ship dates (respectively) for the two devices, the latest reports suggest.

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Microsoft is attempting to galvanize its remaining troops in its attempt to create a little relevance for itself in the iPad industry, introducing a range of marketing products to help them remind any customers who care to listen that its Slate PCs could be contenders in the tablet space too. Even while the iPad 2.0 looms closer each day.

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Eastman Kodak Company has lost a critical part of its ITC case against Apple and RIM, in which the company which claims invention of the first ever digital camera back in 1975 has been trying to win royalty payments on a common image-preview feature used in phones.
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If some of these HP/Palm Topaz specs look familiar, that’s because they pretty much line up point for point with Apple’s iPad.

Oh, you noticed a camera and micro USB port?  We’ve heard things.  The Topaz will have double the current RAM and a faster GHz processor but we’re expecting the iPad 2 to have at least 512MB of RAM, if not 1GB and a new CPU as well.

Also, check below.  Even side buttons seem to be ‘strategically aligned’.

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COMPUTERWORLD: We love music. We play it on our Macs, PCs, iPhones, iPads and iPods. iTunes sold its 10 billionth song in February 2010. What’s wrong? You should check your digital music is insured, as many insurers don’t offer coverage for your digital music collections within their standard policy — and Apple won’t help you get your music back if it gets lost or stolen — even though it could.

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Here it comes — the much-delayed white iPhone 4 has appeared within AT&T’s ordering systems, one week since the device popped up inside Best Buy’s inventory system.
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Apple is working on an iPad with a super-high 2,048-x-1,536 resolution display and some component makers are already beginning to invest in processes to product such screens — but they aren’t set to appear until iPad 3.0.  D’oh!
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