The parties are ordered to get together between themselves for “royalty” mediation settlement for future use of the technologies in dispute or the judge has stated that he will make a ruling if not reached within 45 days.
Patent troll, East Texas kangaroo court, lawyers making a lot of money over ideas that seem obvious (transparent VPN and DNS). AAPL is down slightly in pre-trading this morning.
After improving to “3-5 days” shipping time in most major markets late last month, the iPad mini is today listed as in stock for all models in at least the United States, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, and Canada. Some other stores, such as the United Kingdom’s online store, is still quoting an estimated shipping time of “1-3 business days”, but Apple’s listing of the device as in stock in the U.S. likely means the company is starting to catch up with demand. At Apple’s earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that the iPad mini remains constrained and high in demand. He also noted that Apple would significantly increase the supply but wasn’t sure if it would reach a supply/demand balance on iPad mini during the current quarter.
“we sold 23 million iPads, we obviously could have sold more than this because we could not build enough iPad minis to come into a demand balance… Im sure there was some cannibalization of Macs there.”
Google is launching retail stores by the end of the year to sell its own products, we’re reporting over at 9to5Google. Will Google try to squeeze into the local Mall between the new Microsoft store and the existing Apple store? Will it be able to supplant some of Apple’s MacBook sales with its $249 Chromebooks? iPhones with Nexuses? Find out more. Expand Expanding Close
Tesla Model S: Users over on the Tesla forums noticed last night that the official Tesla Model S iPhone app has now made its way onto the App Store, at least in the US. The app will let Tesla Model S owners check, stop and start charging progress in real time, turn on heating and cooling, locate their vehicle, lock and unlock the car, and more.
– Check charging progress in real time and start or stop charge
– Heat or cool Model S before driving — even if it’s in a garage
– Locate Model S with directions or track its movement across a map
– Flash lights or honk the horn to find Model S when parked
– Vent or close the panoramic roof
– Lock or unlock from afar
Updates:
Tweetbot for Twitter (iPhone) version 2.7: One of the more popular Twitter iOS clients gets an update today that adds the ability to open links in Chrome and 1Password, as well as support for inline images from Vine and Flickr and a number of other new features.
– Added the ability to open links in Chrome and 1Password
– Added inline image support for Flickr
– Added inline image support for Vine
– Better support for muting Tweets with URLs
– Various bug fixes
– Still no jokes in the release notes
Skype for iPad version 4.5: Skype iPad app was updated today with a few welcomed new features. First, users in United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, France, and Estonia will now be able to add money to their Skype account directly from the app. The release notes also said the app now “automatically reconnects a dropped call when your wifi or mobile network reception is poor.” More new features and fixes below: Expand Expanding Close
App Annie is out today with its January 2013 index that covers revenue from mobile app sales in the App Store and on Google Play. While Apple was able to hit record revenues in December, increasing revenue by one-third during the month and growing by one-fifth from Q3 to Q4, Android posted even stronger growth by doubling revenue quarter-over-quarter. Despite stronger growth for Android, according to the report, the App Store earned 3.5 times as much revenue as Google Play during December 2012. Bloomberg noted that App Annie doesn’t provide exact figures for revenue, as it currently sells that data, but the report provided a break down of revenue by country and publisher. Apple has previously said the App Store brought in around $333 million per month between June and December.
iOS App Store revenue grew by about one-fifth from Q3 to Q4. In particular, it achieved record revenues in December, as monthly revenue increased by about one-third from November to December 2012; this gain surpassed even the standout revenue increase from November to December last year. As highly-desired holiday gifts in many countries, new iPhones and iPads (including the recently launched iPad Mini) typically lead to a jump in app downloads, and consequently, app revenue.
When it comes to revenue by country, App Annie said that United States, Japan, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada continued to account for 60 percent of App Store revenue in Q4. However, China experienced significant growth during the quarter: Expand Expanding Close
First, the good news. The legal shield for jailbreaking and rooting your phone remains up – it’ll protect us at least through 2015. The shield for unlocking your phone is down, but carriers probably aren’t going to start suing customers en masse, RIAA-style. And the Copyright Office’s decision, contrary to what some sensational headlines have said, doesn’t necessarily make unlocking illegal.
Carrier unlocking is murky, but it appears that phones bought before last weekend are fair game for unlocking. Go nuts!
But, new phones? It sounds like the risk is on the “unlockers” or the people who do the unlocking.
More likely, wireless carriers, or even federal prosecutors, will be emboldened to sue not individuals, but rather businesses that unlock and resell phones. If a court rules in favor of the carriers, penalties can be stiff – up to $2,500 per unlocked phone in a civil suit, and $500,000 or five years in prison in a criminal case where the unlocking is done for “commercial advantage.” And this could happen even for phones that are no longer under contract. So we’re really not free to do as we want with devices that we own.
What’s interesting is a cottage industry has formed around unlocking done by actually getting the carriers to unlock your phone. For instance, friend of the site, ChronicUnlocks is still in operation in the United States, and we’re hearing nothing but good things from readers who’ve bought unlocks. The site says:
Fremont may sound familiar, because we recorded more than a few of the new iMacs originated from Fremont after the November launch. These iMacs were delivered via FedEx and had the ‘Assembled in the USA’ moniker not only on the package but also on the actual machines. It now appears that Apple is confirming these products are indeed being assembled in Fremont.
Quanta, it should be noted, has U.S. assembly plants in both California and Tennessee. Previous package slips and Origin labels below.
Here’s a nice gig for Apple’s senior vice president, general counsel, and lifelong skier Bruce Sewell: Announced today, he will join Vail Resorts’—”the leading mountain resort operator in the United States”—board of directors:
Vail Resorts (NYSE:MTN) today announced the appointment of Bruce Sewell, senior vice president and general counsel of Apple, to the Company’s Board of Directors effective immediately… Mr. Sewell is a lifelong skier. Between college and law school, he toured the country skiing in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, and worked as a professional ski patroller at Windham and Hunter Mountains in New York… The Company’s subsidiaries operate the mountain resorts of Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone in Colorado; Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada; Afton Alps in Minnesota and Mt. Brighton in Michigan; and the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Company’s subsidiary, RockResorts, a luxury resort hotel company, manages casually elegant properties
After the yacht Steve Jobs commissioned was impounded in Amsterdam over a payment dispute with designer Phillipe Starck earlier this month, it has been released today. AFP reported that Steve Jobs’ estate paid the designer to release it, but no specific amount was detailed.
Starck originally sought an unpaid 3 million euro of the 9 million euro that he claimed he was entitled to for his work. He was holding the ship, named “Venus”, until the money was received, but it’s not clear if it was the full $3 million euros. The dispute occurred because Jobs and Starck had no formal contract to detail how much would be paid, as the two had a mutual trust between each other.
The 105 million euro ship was designed by Steve Jobms and set sail after his death. It is currently ported in Amsterdam and awaiting a voyage to the United States, so Laurene Powell Jobs and her family can enjoy it. In the “Steve Jobs” biography by Walter Isaacson, he called the ship “sleek and minimalist” with a control panel made up of non-other than seven iMacs.
Update, Nov 2o: RIA Novosti reported today, citing sources familiar with Apple’s product plans in Russia, that iTunes music in the country could be “delayed indefinitely” as Apple runs into issues getting necessary licensing from artists. Another report from Vedomosti claimed iTunes senior executive Eddy Cue and iTunes Europe Director Ben King went to Russia for the launch originally scheduled for November 20. The newspaper also cited sources close to Apple as saying the launch is now scheduled for the first week of December, possibly to coincide with the launch of iPhone 5 in the country.
In September, a report from Russian language publication vedomosti.ru cited industry sources and noted Apple was preparing to launch iTunes music in Russia by the end of year. The report also noted that songs would be sold for less than their 99-cent U.S. counterparts, somewhere between 11- to 20 rubles each (roughly 35- to 65 cents USD). It appears Apple is getting ready to launch the service today, with several Russian readers reporting music is now searchable on the App Store in the country. The search provides users with a link to “Continue search in Store…”, and Twitter seems to confirm that many Russians can access music using this method.
Interestingly, as noted in previous reports, iPhones.ru confirmed songs are indeed listed for less than the U.S. store, with most songs currently selling for 15 rubbles (roughly 50 cents USD). We expect Apple to roll out full access the store in Russia shortly.
Strategic Analytics released its latest report today that depicted global smartphone shipments growing to 162 million in Q3 2012, and Apple managed to grab second place with 16.6-percent global share.
“(Apple) shipped 26.9 million smartphones worldwide for 17 percent market share, up from 14 percent recorded a year earlier,” said Strategy Analytics Executive Director Neil Mawston in a press release. “Apple had a solid quarter in the important United States market and this helped to strengthen its global performance.”
Samsung led the charge, however, with a record 35 percent global share. The report mentioned Samsung successfully delivered “numerous hit models,” such as the Galaxy and Galaxy Note, despite competition in stores and courtrooms. Meanwhile, the remaining handset manufacturers, such as Nokia, fell into the “Others” category at 48 percent.
“Samsung shipped 56.9 million smartphones worldwide and captured a record 35 percent market share in the third quarter of 2012. This was the largest number of units ever shipped by a smartphone vendor in a single quarter,” Mawston added.
Samsung and Apple essentially shipped over half of all the smartphones worldwide in Q3—up from roughly one-third just a year ago. Strategy Analytic Senior Analyst Neil Shah therefore noted shipping volumes have “polarized” around the two brands.
Verizon has reported its Q3 2012 earnings this morning with “a third consecutive quarter of double-digit percentage growth.” The nation’s second-largest carrier claims it experienced $29 billion in total operating revenue (3.9-percent gain over last year) and sold 6.8 million smartphones in total for the third quarter. Of the 6.8 million, Verizon reported selling 3.1 million iPhones. Just over one-fifth (or roughly 651,000) of those were the iPhone 5 that saw supply constraints. To compare, during Q2, Verizon sold 2.7 million iPhones.
The carrier also shed more light on its aggressive LTE rollout across the country. Its LTE service is now available to 250 million people in 419 markets across the United States. Furthermore, on the company’s earnings call, CFO Fran Shammo reiterated that its new Share Everything data plan has been “successful and well-received.”
We know Apple has had a lot of success pushing iPads in education, and during Apple’s Q3 conference call, CEO Tim Cook said the company would continue to be “very aggressive”. Apple’s iPad 2 sales in the K-12 market doubled y-o-y in Q3 thanks to a price drop to $399. In Q2, Apple said it sold about a million iPad units to the United States education market. With Apple’s upcoming iPad mini announcement possibly bringing an even lower price point for iPads in education, Amazon is announcing its plans today to get Kindle tablets into schools.
Reuters reported today that Amazon is launching a service, called “Whispercast”, aimed at allowing schools to easily deploy and manage multiple kindle devices:
One of the last questions in the debate concerned how to bring Apple’s manufacturing jobs ‘back’ to the United States.
Mitt Romney went first and said China is stealing intellectual property, designs, cheating on currency, hacking into computers, and isn’t playing fair to U.S. workers: “We can compete with anyone in the world as long as the playing field is level.”
Obama went second and said the U.S. doesn’t necessarily want the low-skill, low-wage jobs and education and skills will bring higher-paying jobs home: “There are some jobs that are not going to come back. […] I want high-wage, high-skill jobs. That’s why we have to invest in advanced manufacturing […] make sure that we have the best science and research in the world.”
And the President should know: Steve Jobs told Obama in February 2011, according to Walter Isaacson, “If you could educate these [30,000] engineers, we could move more manufacturing plants here.”
Softbank and Sprint have reached a deal under which Softbank will pay $20 billion for a 70 percent stake in the wireless telecom operator, according to people close to the situation.
Softbank will buy $8 billion worth of shares directly from Sprint and tender for another $12 billion worth of the shares from existing holders.
The deal will allow Sprint to purchase the half of Clearwire that it does not already own, according to the report. Softbank expects to take use of its expertise in LTE networks to bolster Sprints position in the market.
AT&T is now the sole remaining U.S. carrier not under foreign control. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture with Vodafone, while T-Mobile is obviously German.
Sprint and Softbank both carry Apple’s iPhone. Softbank was the original Japanese carrier while Sprint was the third U.S. carrier to adopt the iconic phone.
The deal is expected to close in roughly six months.
Apple just landed the No. 2 spot on LinkedIn’s fresh list of most “inDemand” employers from around the world.
The occupation-aimed social network pinpointed the most attractive companies for job seekers, and it subsequently broadcasted the list, along with its new Most InDemand Employers website, at the Talent Connect event in Las Vegas this afternoon. LinkedIn further detailed a few insights regarding the results, including: tech/software as the most represented on the list, consumer brands ranked highly, and 50-percent of the top 100 companies had under 7,000 employees.
Apple also earned third-place in the United States, just behind Walt Disney, and students and recent graduates perceive it as the second-best possible employer after Google.
Check out more details in the infographic below, or read LinkedIn’s blog post to learn more about the list’s ranking metrics.
U.S. Judge Lucy Koh granted Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone in June, and the decision resulted in the temporary removal of the device from Google Play pending a software fix with Android 4.1. Today, Reuters reported that Apple’s U.S. injunction on the Galaxy Nexus has been reversed. TheNextWeb got its hands on the official order:
Samsung argued, somewhat humiliatingly, that the sales of the Galaxy Nexus were so poor that they didn’t pose a threat to Apple’s iPhone and that the unified search feature was not essential to the success of its device. The appeals court apparently agrees, as it states in its official order:
…it may very well be that the accused product would sell almost as well without incorporating the patented feature. And in that case, even if the competitive injury that results from selling the accused device is substantial, the harm that flows from the alleged infringement (the only harm that should count) is not.
According to Reuters, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled the court “abused its discretion in entering an injunction” and will send the case back to the California court for consideration. Expand Expanding Close
A few apps updated, went on sale, or made announcements recently, and 9to5Mac gathered the most noteworthy ones in our regular round up below. Today’s selection includes app accessory news from Tim Cook’s second favorite company, Nike, a few tweaks to an official Walking Dead game in celebration of the show’s upcoming season three premiere, a fresh app for creating Passbook passes, two alternative Maps app updates, and a price drop. Per usual, we will continue to update this list throughout the day.
Apple posted a user guide for the fifth-generation iPod touch to iBooks early this morning, indicating a retail launch for the device is coming sooner rather than later. Apple promised an October timeframe for preorders of the device shipping from its Online Store, but today we get word from readers that Apple is now shipping orders of the fifth-generation iPod touch, as well as the new iPod nano, with delivery expected early next week. The shipment notice above comes from a user in the United States with an expected delivery date of Oct. 15, but international users have reported receiving notices as well. The image below shows an expected delivery date of Oct. 15 from an Australian reader, while the new iPod nano is still listed as preparing for shipment. Yesterday, Apple started shipping orders for the 30-pin to Lightning adapter. Thanks, Penpal1278!
It also appears that Apple started to sell the new iPod touch and iPod nano in at least some of its retail locations:
[tweet https://twitter.com/richardlai/statuses/255638557606162432] Expand Expanding Close
Internet analytics company ComScore just revealed record-breaking numbers and carrier sales data for the iPhone 5.
The noteworthy tidbits:
U.S. online pre-orders for the iPhone 5 took just three days to hit 96 percent of the iPhone 4S’ numbers during its entire first month. ComScore disclosed 24 more million Americans owned a smartphone in July 2012, however, compared to October 2011, which likely affected the record sales. It also claimed a “substantial group of consumers held out for the iPhone 5.”
The iPhone 5 is also the fastest-selling iPhone ever offered through AT&T, as the carrier boasted 68 percent of total U.S. online sales for first three days of the iPhone 5’s release (including Apple.com carrier sales). ComScore noted AT&T was an exclusive iPhone carrier for a long time, though, so it made a “safe assumption” that AT&T is “home to the highest share of iPhone enthusiasts.” ComScore also mentioned iPhone 4 owners on AT&T are now eligible for upgrades, where as the iPhone 4 debuted on Verizon in February 2011, for instance, so those consumers are not eligible yet.
The iPhone 5 unveiled Sept. 12 and over 3 million people in the U.S. immediately searched the term “iPhone 5″. The Web experienced 6.3 million searches for term, with 4 million more queries following in the days after.
While getting its graphics’ proportions right this time around, research firm Nielsen revealed July 2012 findings today and announced 55.5-percent of mobile subscribers in the United States now own smartphones with young adults and teenagers leading the charge.
As mobile manufacturers announce new phones in advance of the holidays, Nielsen took a snapshot look at the mobile market in the U.S. Smartphone penetration continued to grow in July 2012, with 55.5 percent of mobile subscribers in the U.S. now owning smartphones. This is a significant increase compared to July 2011 when only 41 percent of mobile subscribers owned smartphones.
Overall, young adults are leading the growth in smartphone ownership in the U.S., with 74 percent of 25-34 year-olds now owning smartphones, up from 59 percent in July 2011. Interestingly, teenagers between 13 and17 years old demonstrated the most dramatic increases in smartphone adoption, with the majority of American teens (58%) owning a smartphone, compared to roughly a third (36%) of teens saying they owned a smartphone just a year ago.
Android still dominates the smartphone OS market in terms of owners and recent acquirers, but iOS maintains second place with 34 percent of smartphone owners and 33 percent of recent acquirers.
Nielsen’s monthly survey is conducted across 20,000 mobile subscribers from the ages of 13 and up in the U.S.
T-Mobile announced a huge new “unlimited and unlocked iPhone” initiative today that will launch Sept. 12—a date that should ring a bell. The nation’s fourth-largest carrier does not and will not officially carry the iPhone, but its parent company carries the iPhone all over Europe and was even the original carrier in its home Germany. The biggest issue with T-Mobile USA and the iPhone is that T-Mobile’s 3G/4G bands are incompatible with Apple’s iPhone hardware. Therefore, a million plus iPhone users are kept to EDGE 2.5G speeds, which seemed to work O.K. for the original iPhone, but five years have passed since it first launched and expectations have largely risen.
Today’s announcement is a big one for T-Mobile and will be accompanied by a large marketing push. T-Mobile claims —and the math seems to work— that it will save users $50 a month over similar AT&T plans. The total savings amount equals $1,200 over the life of a two-year contract.
T-Mobile will have a store-within-a-store for iPhone users who want to make the hop. Trained T-Mobile salespeople will be able to instruct users on unlocking, but they will not physically open the devices. This is an unprecedented move…especially for a device that T-Mobile does not officially carry.
Getting your hands on an unlocked device is pretty easy and will probably get a lot easier over the next weeks as the new iPhone is announced. Apple has offered the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S unlocked almost since it released last year and you can currently snap up a new one at eBay for about $580.
T-Mobile has some more good news for prospective iPhone customers today: Remember the iPhone-compatible 1900MHz network it demo’ed at WWDC? That same 1900MHz 4G network is rolling out in Seattle, Las Vegas, Washington, DC, and the New York metro area currently (readers? sightings?).
Even better: T-Mobile’s tests of unlocked iPhone 4S devices running over 4G (HSPA+) on its 1900 band have recorded 70 percent faster average download speeds than iPhone 4S on AT&T’s network. We will wait for neutral parties to review before judging and, obviously, LTE is coming for the iPhone 5, which T-Mobile expects will run on its network.
However, the best part might be the company behind the network. T-Mobile allows its customers to make and receive calls over Wi-Fi when there is no network on their smartphones. The iPhone is no exception. T-Mobile has the Bobsled app for iPhone for making calls. This is fantastic not only when in low -service areas but also when travelling abroad. T-Mobile will release other apps soon for things like live TV, account management and visual voicemail.
For those thinking about making the jump, remember that T-Mobile is not an official carrier and things like the following may apply:
Also, AT&T offers customers a chance to request a device unlock for their iPhone. The main requirements are that the device is an AT&T iPhone and all contract and term commitments are satisfied before submitting a request. The carrier can take up to a week to process a request, and it “reserves the right to deny any unlock request that it concludes would result in an abuse of this policy or is part of an effort to defraud AT&T or its customers.” AT&T further said it could “alter this unlocking policy at its discretion without advance notice.”
Mobile analytics firm Flurry published a new report today asserting iOS and Android handsets have experienced adoption at such a supersonic speed that their growth rate has now eclipsed all consumer technology in history.
The rate of iOS and Android device adoption has surpassed that of any consumer technology in history. Compared to recent technologies, smart device adoption is being adopted 10X faster than that of the 80s PC revolution, 2X faster than that of 90s Internet Boom and 3X faster than that of recent social network adoption. Five years into the smart device growth curve, expansion of this new technology is rapidly expanding beyond early adopter markets such as such as North America and Western Europe, creating a true worldwide addressable market. Overall, Flurry estimates that there were over 640 million iOS and Android devices in use during the month of July 2012.
Smartphones making headway as they spread worldwide is nothing new, but their history-making adoption rate is certainly notable. The report illustrated countries with the greatest number of device activations as well as the fasting growing markets. The results indicated the United States sits at No. 1 with 165 million iOS and Android handset activations for July, but China experienced a leading 401 percent activation growth during the same period.
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Tesla Model S:
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Here’s a nice gig for Apple’s senior vice president, general counsel, and lifelong skier Bruce Sewell: 
Apple posted a user guide
