Apple CEO Steve Jobs has announced a new period of medical leave from Apple. Reaction to his news has already begun, with Apple shares traded on the Frankfurt exchange falling by 7.5 percent by 14:38 GMT. US futures also seem destined for a hit, with 0.3 percent falling off of the S&P 500 and 0.9 percent down on the Nasdaq.
Meanwhile speculation as to Apple’s succession plans is inevitably set to increase, particularly in light of a board recommendation shareholders reject a plan to formalise such preparations that is being advanced at the AAPL AGM in February. Expand Expanding Close
News is breaking this hour that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been forced to take another round of medical leave from the firm he co-founded.
Apple has published the following note from Jobs, in which he expresses his utmost confidence in COO, Tim Cook, and asks for “respect” for the privacy of himself and his family.
“Apple CEO Steve Jobs today sent the following email to all Apple employees:
Team,
At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.
I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.
I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.
Mr. Jobs suffers from immune system issues common with people who have received liver transplants and, as a result, his health suffers from frequent “ups and downs,” according to a person with knowledge of the situation, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it.
In recent weeks, Mr. Jobs began a down cycle and slowed his activities at Apple, the person said. Mr. Jobs has been coming to the office about two days a week, and appeared increasingly emaciated, the person said. He frequently lunched in his office, rather than in the company cafeteria, the person said.
With all that new graphics power tucked-away inside the next-generation iOS devices, here’s a huge dose of speculation to brighten up your day — that Apple’s next iPod touch will be boast a glasses-free 3D screen. And that’s got to be something to worry Nintendo, who will introduce its Nintendo 3DS this week. Expand Expanding Close
I’ve been wondering what you’d find out if you took the number of iOS devices sold and then divided the number of App sales so far by that figure — and guess what — the answer’s sixty. Expand Expanding Close
Nvidia is coming clean with Dell, HP and Apple owners who purchased some of the Laptops with discrete GPU “bumps” that sometimes caused failure. Apple went to extraordinary lengths (far beyond Dell or HP), covering Macbook Pros affected with these issues for up to three years and issuing refunds to those who paid for repairs.
If you purchased a MacBook Pro from May 2007 – September 2008, you are likely covered by the settlement.
To view the sample Reimbursement Claim Form formatted as a PDF file for an Apple notebook computer, click here. To view the sample Replacement Claim Form formatted as a PDF file for an Apple notebook computer, click here. Expand Expanding Close
If you are getting hyped about Rupert Murdoch’s new (delayed) iPad magazine called the Daily, you might want to start following @daily on Twitter. The account was just created and is verified by Twitter. Also the account is following one media exec, Greg Clayman.
Clayman’s Twitter bio says: Co-founder of Upoc, former head of mobile & digital distribution at MTV Networks, currently working on something awesome.
COMPUTERWORLD: Blink and you may have missed it (only joking, the yards of coverage gave it away) but Apple has begun beta-testing a feature-packed iPhone/iPad software update, iOS 4.3. With iOS features set to prowl over to Mac OS X Lion, what do these new mobile features suggest may be coming to the Mac?
Apple has confirmed it will hold its FY 11 Q1 financial results conference on January 18, making the session available for playback online in QuickTime format. The event takes place Tuesday, January 18, 2011, 2:00 p.m. PST/5:00 p.m. EST/10:00 p.m. GMT. Apple’s live audio streaming of the event will be available for replay here for approximately two weeks.
Even as it prerpares for an imminent introduction of the iPad 2.0, Apple has begun sourcing components for iPhone 5, choosing Qualcomm for the baseband chip and a faster ARM chip for the processor.
Kinsus Interconnect Technology seems set to enter Apple’s supply chain for iPhone 5, as the new smartphone will adopt Qualcomm’s baseband chipsets, which use Kinsus IC substrates, according to a Chinese language Apple Daily report. Expand Expanding Close
The rush to build tablet devices to compete with Apple’s iPad is posing unexpected strain on component suppliers, a report explains, challenging those in the value chain to focus production away from existing products to meet expectations of non-iPad tablet sales which insider sources report may turn out to be “unrealistic”. Expand Expanding Close
Changewave looks at how a Verizon iPhone affects the carrier landscape – if iPhone users will exit en mass to Verizon.
Only 4% of Verizon’s customers plan to switch in the next 90 days. In comparison, 10% of Sprint/Nextel’s customers say they plan to switch, as do 15% of both T-Mobile’s and AT&T’s. While there is some indication that AT&T has a contingent of customers with itchy feet, it doesn’t appear that there will be a mass migration.
But, as the following chart shows, AT&T’s churn rate is its worst ever in a ChangeWave survey. Expand Expanding Close
Sure but it is only a question of time. Preliminary PC numbers in the U.S. showed Apple (AAPL) jumped from 7.4% of total shipments a year earlier to 9.7% in Q4, a 24% rise, the largest unit shipment increase of any vendor. HP lost 6%, Dell lost 6.1%, Acer lost 30% in the U.S. market, and Toshiba gained 14.4%. At 10.3%, Toshiba is just slightly ahead of Apple in fourth place. (Barron’s and Gartner). There’s a poll after the break:
It is the iPad who dunnit. “Overall, holiday PC sales were weak in many key regions due to the intensifying competition in consumer spending. Media tablets, such as the iPad, as well as other consumer electronic (CE) devices, such as game consoles, all competed against PCs,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. Expand Expanding Close
As expected, Apple intends making a version of its CDMA iPhone available for sale in Japan, South Korea, China, India and other countries, leaks from within its supply chain have confirmed. Apple also expects to sell several million of these new devices in the first quarter 2011. Expand Expanding Close
COMPUTERWORLD: Google and Apple continue their war, with the search giant overnight announcing plans to drop support for H.264 from Chrome, even while it continues to develop its very own tablet software to compete with the iPad. Does its code-name — ‘Honeycomb’ — suggest Google plans to turn to distributed computing in an attempt to unseat Apple’s iTunes empire? And how can Apple fight back?
Have no doubt, for any supplier lucky enough to achieve it, landing a component supply order within the Apple product value chain is big, big business — now Apple’s iPad and iPhone screen supplier, Wintek, is making a $13 million investment in new land to build new touch panel production facilities. Expand Expanding Close
Microsoft is taking on Apple, protesting at the latter firm’s claim to a trademark on the name ‘App Store’. Ballmer’s boys are arguing that the term is generic and competitors should be able to use it.
Apple applied for the trademark in 2008. It is to be applied in goods and services, including those for computer software solve via the Internet. The App Store is now available for iOS and OS X devices. Expand Expanding Close
Google has decided that future versions of its Chrome Web browser will not support H.264, citing the ‘proprietary’ nature of the Apple-preferred standard. Proprietary, non-open, buggy Flash, of course, will be supported. Expand Expanding Close
Well it has been announced and isn’t on sale yet but, oh look, the US FCC has published its approval of the new CDMA iPhone 4 for Verizon, there’s even a letter which provesAAPL asked nicely if publication could be made following the event. Expand Expanding Close
COMPUTERWORLD: As expected the iPhone 4 is coming to Verizon following (it was revealed) a two-year strategic consultation between the firms, and there’s good — and bad — news in this reality. iOS developers meanwhile should get ready to party as the iPhone economy is about to go “boom” all over again.
Time to move onto the next hot rumor, iPad 2.0 — and here is the best fake iPad 2.0 video we’ve seen today. Though we’d like to let the protagonists know they need to work a little on their fonts and apps icons, m’kay?
