Is This the Slimmest iPhone Case Ever?

Though iPhones may be beautiful just the way they are, you'll still need a case to protect them. But how minimalist can an iPhone case get?

[More from Mashable: Which Blends Better: iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy SIII? [VIDEO]]

Enter Slimline. Stanley Prato and Gaetan Policard are Miami-based entrepreneurs wanted to create a case that would simplify protection. Slimline was their answer. Raising your iPhone just enough off the any surface to keep it protected are two flexible polyurethane strips. The shell of the case is made of polycarbonate.

[More from Mashable: Watch SNL Hilariously Spoof iPhone 5 Critics, Factory Workers]

With the iPhone 5 being the slimmest and lightest iphone yet, the Slimline was designed to seamlessly protect your phone without looking like an ad-on.

Production is set for the end of the year, a deadline the two friends hope to meet with their Kickstarter fund. They have received $12,280 of the pledged $25,000 goal.

1. Case Zero 5

At just 0.5 mm, the Zero 5 is seriously slim. Made of durable "TR90" material, it comes in a clear matte, clear gloss or a range of colors. For: iPhone 4/4S, iPhone 5, Cost: $19.90

Click here to view this gallery.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

11.36 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tech CEOs trade barbs, warm up for holiday tablet wars

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The biggest names in consumer technology, stung by a string of disappointing quarterly results this month, are suiting up for what's shaping to be the fiercest holiday battle in years.

Investors and consumers have already largely written off flaccid quarterly numbers from tech behemoths like Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon. What counts is the next 60 days, when the biggest names in technology do battle at a near-unprecedented scale and pace.

Just on Thursday, Amazon compared its Kindle Fire with Apple's new iPad mini, point by point, in its earnings release, an unusual forum to name rivals. Apple CEO Tim Cook compared Microsoft's Surface tablet to an over-engineered car that can fly and float. And Microsoft went for the iPad, saying its Surface boasted twice its storage.

All three tablets will vie for the shrinking consumer dollar these holidays. By tech standards, it's getting ugly.

"The tablet space is where the growth is. That's why they are all fighting over it. PC shipments are down and some tablet buyers may never buy another PC," said Michael Allenson, strategic consulting director in the Technology and Telecom Research Group at Maritz Research.

"Last holiday season, we saw a lot of buying of tablets in the $200 to $300 price range. This year, the iPad mini and Amazon's Kindle Fires are targeted as large gifts. They are trying to ride that wave and win as much as they can."

The impending clash is far from decided.

Odds-on favorite Apple has lost some of its aura of invincibility, with Google's Android and Samsung making inroads into its reign in smartphones, Microsoft's quickening marketing blitz, and Amazon's Kindle nipping at its heels as the No. 2 tablet in the United States market.

That competition has weighed on Apple's share price, which is at three-month lows after it reported a second straight quarter of disappointing results, sullying its reputation for blowing away Wall Street estimates.

Google is struggling to figure out the dollars and cents of the mobile market and Microsoft is facing witheringly unimpressed reviews for its new Windows 8 platform and Surface tablet.

Meanwhile, Amazon's outlook for the holiday season is being taken as a disappointment, and Best Buy warned late Wednesday that sales and margins are falling.

CLAWS COME OUT

Tech companies hope lackluster calendar third-quarter results mean consumers have held off from buying gadgets so they can save up for something new and shiny this Christmas -- from the lowest-end Fire at $159 to a Surface around $499 or the biggest, fastest, newest iPad at $829.

The technology industry is grappling with a fundamental shift from deskbound computers or heavy laptops to sleek mobile devices like tablets, which are upending the traditional PC model and prompting companies like Google and Microsoft to invest deeply in hardware manufacturing.

Their entry however is raising the competitive stakes. Companies like Apple usually spend most of their time talking about how great their own products are, but with the competition more intense than ever, Apple CEO Cook spared a not-so-kind thought for Microsoft on Thursday.

"I haven't personally played with the Surface yet, but what we're reading about it, is that it's a fairly compromised, confusing product," he said, later adding "I suppose you could design a car that flies and floats, but I don't think it would do all of those things very well."

Cook may have been going for levity, but the Twitterati booed his joke, since after all most gadget-heads would be very content with a flying, floating car.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, for his part, was pretty impressed with the company's handiwork, notwithstanding reviews that used words like "disappointing" and "undercooked."

"We have a device that's uniquely good at being a tablet and a PC (with) no compromise on either one," Ballmer told Reuters Television ahead of the Windows 8 launch event in New York on Thursday. "Work. Play. Tablet. PC. Boom! One product."

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, in a talk this month, took a shot at Apple, which has faced a barrage of complaints about glitches in its mapping software since dumping Google's service from its iPhone.

"What Apple has learned is that maps are really hard. They really are hard," he said. "Apple should have kept with our maps."

Not to be outdone in the sniping, Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos took a subtle swipe at Apple's high prices in the Internet retailer's quarterly results statement Thursday, saying "our approach is to work hard to charge less."

Right below those comments, Amazon listed head-to-head comparisons between its $299 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD tablet, its $199 7-inch Kindle Fire HD device and Apple's iPad mini, which was unveiled on Tuesday.

Analysts were taken aback by how brazen Amazon was being in taking shots at peers.

"I have never seen them directly compare products in a results release like this, and in so much detail clearly calling out their competitors," said RJ Hottovy, an equity analyst at Morningstar. "This shows they are taking the tablet wars very seriously."

(Additional reporting by Bill Rigby in Seattle; Writing by Ben Berkowitz; editing by Edwin Chan and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

11.36 | 0 komentar | Read More

Apple iPad sales disappoint, Street eyes the holidays

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc delivered a second straight quarter of disappointing results and iPad sales fell well short of Wall Street's targets, marring its record of consistently blowing past investors' expectations.

Shares in the world's most valuable technology company briefly dipped to levels not seen since the start of August, after it delivered a 27 percent rise in revenue for its fourth quarter while earnings rose 24 percent.

The numbers, while in line with expectations, lacked the positive surprises that investors had grown used to and came after Apple undershot revenue targets in the previous quarter. Its shares bounced back, however, after CEO Tim Cook told analysts on a conference call that the latest iPhone 5 was heavily backlogged but the company had mostly worked out kinks in its iPhone supply chain.

Apple shipped 26.9 million iPhones in the last quarter, somewhat higher than the 25 million to 26 million that Wall Street analysts had predicted. But sales of the iPad came in at 14 million, well below lowered forecasts for the tablet as the economy remained weak and consumers awaited the iPad mini, which will hit store shelves next month.

Analysts say the real test for the company will come during the crucial holiday shopping season, when competition will reach fever-pitch with Apple, Amazon.com Inc, Google Inc and Microsoft Corp all fielding new gadgets.

"Going into earnings we were wondering if the slowing economy will catch up with Wall Street and it has," said Channing Smith, co-manager of the Capital Advisors Growth Fund.

"Apple is very well-positioned with the iPad and now the iPad mini. It has a great smartphone and we expect the iPhone 5 to sell very well. The outlook is conservative but that's not surprising. Err on the side of caution is a proven formula."

Just hours after Apple's results, its main smartphone rival Samsung Electronics Co reported a near doubling in quarterly earnings, and while it did not detail smartphone shipments, they are estimated to have surged to 58 million.

Apple heads into the current quarter after refreshing almost all of its product lines, including introducing an upgraded, fourth-generation full-sized iPad. The December quarter will show how well consumers respond to Apple's latest gamble - the iPad mini that will go on sale on November 2.

CAR THAT FLIES AND FLOATS

For the December quarter, Apple forecast revenue of $52 billion, below the average estimate of $55 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. It is expecting margins to come in at 36 percent, far lower than analysts' expected 43 percent.

Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer mostly attributed the lower margin and conservative guidance to a combination of a stronger dollar, higher costs associated with new products, and the fact that Apple's next fiscal quarter has one less week than the same period a year ago.

Apple's stock was holding steady at $609.40 in extended trade after flirting with the $600 level. The shares had ended regular trade at $609.54.

Supply constraints holding up sales of the iPad and iPhone dominated discussions between analysts and Apple executives during the post-results conference call. Apple had struggled to deliver large quantities of the iPhone 5 since its launch in late September, with the waitlist for the device at one point stretching to three weeks in some regions.

"Our supply output is significantly higher than it was earlier in October," Cook said, referring to the iPhone 5. "And I'm confident that we'll be able to supply quite a few during the quarter."

Cook also opined on Microsoft's new Windows 8-based Surface tablet that will hit stores in the wee hours of Friday.

"I haven't personally played with the Surface yet, but what we're reading about it, is that it's a fairly compromised, confusing product," he said. "I suppose you could design a car that flies and floats, but I don't think it would do all of those things very well."

Despite the lackluster fourth quarter, Apple put up big numbers for the year. It ended its fiscal 2012 with a 45 percent increase in revenue to $156.5 billion, while net income was up 61 percent at $41.7 billion.

For the final fiscal quarter, it posted net income of $8.2 billion or $8.67 a diluted share in the fiscal fourth quarter on revenue of $35.96 billion, versus $6.6 billion or $7.05 a share a year earlier. Analysts had expected on average that Apple would earn $8.75 per share.

Apple ended the quarter with $121.3 billion in cash and securities, of which $83 billion was offshore.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Richard Chang and Edmund Klamann)

11.36 | 0 komentar | Read More

Samsung says to book patent provisions after U.S. ruling

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd will book patent-related provisions once a U.S. court makes a ruling on its over $1 billion litigation with Apple Inc, it said on Friday.

"The amount of provisioning will be fixed according to U.S. court ruling, and the costs will be set aside this quarter only if there's a ruling within the current quarter," Robert Yi, head of Samsung investor relations, told analysts.

A U.S. federal jury said in late August that Samsung had copied key features of Apple's iPhone, and awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages.

Apple has since asked for additional damages of $707 million, and the California court is set to rule on the case in early December.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

11.36 | 0 komentar | Read More

U.S. ITC judge says Samsung infringed Apple patents

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - South Korea's Samsung Electronics, the world's top maker of smartphones, infringed Apple patents to make its smartphones and tablets, a U.S. trade panel judge said in a preliminary decision issued on Wednesday.

Apple had filed a complaint in mid-2011, accusing Samsung of infringing its patents in making its Captivate, Transform and Fascinate smartphones, as well as the Galaxy Tablet.

Judge Thomas Pender said that Samsung infringed four Apple patents but did not violate two others listed in the complaint. There had been seven listed initially, but one was dropped during litigation.

The full International Trade Commission will decide in February whether to uphold or reject the judge's decision.

Samsung was found to infringe an Apple patent that helps the touchscreen interpret whether the user wants, for example, to scroll up and down or switch between applications. It was also found to have infringed a patent that allows the device to show an image on a screen with a second, translucent image over it.

Apple is waging war on several fronts against Google, whose Android software powers many of Samsung's devices. The battles between Apple and Samsung have taken place in some 10 countries as they vie for market share in the booming mobile industry.

Apple has asked a federal court in California and the ITC to permanently ban Samsung products that infringe Apple patents. Neither the judge nor the ITC has ruled on the issue.

Earlier on Wednesday, a Dutch court ruled that Samsung did not infringe Apple patents by using certain multi-touch techniques on some of the Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablet computers.

Apple scored a sweeping legal victory over Samsung in August when a U.S. jury found Samsung had copied critical features of the hugely popular iPhone and iPad and awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages. Samsung has appealed that verdict.

Google's Android software, which Apple's late founder Steve Jobs denounced as a "stolen product," has become the world's No.1 smartphone operating system. Apple's legal battle against it has dragged in hardware vendors who use it, including Samsung and HTC.

Samsung is also a parts supplier to Apple, producing micro processors, flat screens and memory chips - both dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips and NAND memory chips - for the iPhone, iPad and iPod. Apple has reduced orders from Samsung for chips and screens.

The case at the International Trade Commission is No. 337-796.

(Reporting By Diane Bartz; Editing by Tim Dobbyn and Dan Grebler)

11.36 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tech focus now on Microsoft Windows 8, Surface tablet

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Firm sales numbers for Microsoft Corp's Windows 8 and its new Surface tablet will not be available for three months, but it may be clear long before then if it has a hit on its hands.

"We can definitely gauge it by chatter," said Emily Chan, an analyst at Bernstein Research. "There is a slight learning curve, so I don't think we will see that big pop that iPad saw."

Microsoft is desperate for the new-look, touch-friendly Windows 8 to grip customers' imaginations, as it looks to regain ground lost to Apple Inc and Google Inc in mobile computing and shake up the moribund PC market.

Perhaps more important is its new own-brand tablet called the Surface, available only through its own stores and website, which will challenge Apple's iPad head on.

"I'd want to know the sales - and return rate - of the Surface," said Sarah Rotman Epps at tech research firm Forrester. "But those numbers will be hard to get since Microsoft is the only retailer."

Early reviews of the Surface have been mixed, generally praising the slick hardware, but faulting battery life and the limited software and applications available.

Some worry that the first Surface model, which runs on a stripped-down version of Windows 8 called RT that is not compatible with old Windows programs, will cause some confusion and dissatisfaction among customers.

The three models for sale on Microsoft's U.S. website are already on back order, suggesting strong demand, but it is not known how many Surfaces Microsoft has manufactured.

"The fact it's back ordered is indicative that there's consumer interest," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at tech research firm Gartner. "How Microsoft introduces it, evangelizes it and explains it will determine long term success."

BALLMER NOISE

Microsoft has not said if it will reveal sales figures for Windows 8 or of the Surface before its next scheduled earnings on January 24. The company tends to trumpet good news and stay silent otherwise.

After the launch of Windows 7 three years ago, CEO Steve Ballmer waited only a month to announce strong sales. A year later, he waited only 10 days to report record-breaking sales of the Kinect, the motion-sensing add-on for the Xbox. But Microsoft has never shared the sales of Windows-powered phones, which have a lowly 3 percent of the market.

If Ballmer stays silent about Windows 8 sales, it might indicate a less than stellar performance.

"I would definitely take it a sign that it's not super, super strong, but I won't take it as something negative," said Chan at Bernstein, who is expecting 8.3 million Surface sales by the middle of next year.

That averages out at about 1 million a month, a third the rate of the iPad, which notched up its first million sales in 28 days and has now sold more than 100 million units, averaging about 3.2 million a month.

Gartner forecasts that Surface and other tablets running Windows RT will sell about 2.3 million units this year and 9.3 million next year, grabbing about 2 percent and 5 percent of the worldwide tablet market, respectively.

DOOR-BUSTERS

Retail activity will be closely watched. Microsoft will have more than 60 brick and mortar stores open for the release of Windows 8 on Friday, half of them 'pop-up' stores that will stay open for the holiday shopping season.

Third-party retailers are cautiously optimistic.

"We have seen pretty good response to our pre-orders for Windows 8," said Best Buy Co Inc spokesman Jeff Haydock. "Quite honestly, I don't know what to expect from Friday. I don't know if there will be lines or not. My sense is it will take some time for people to kind of come into the stores and check it out."

Best Buy may give some color on how PC sales are going when it reports earnings on November 20.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the No. 1 U.S. retailer, said U.S. pre-orders for Windows 8 PCs "have been better than expected."

Online retailers Amazon.com Inc, Newegg Inc and TigerDirect Inc have been silent on Windows 8 pre-orders.

The full impact of PC sales on retailers will not be evident until chains report same-store sales for November.

QUICK REACTION

One early indicator of Windows 8's success will be the contents of the online Windows Store. Microsoft has had a harder time drumming up interest among developers for Windows 8, given the risk that there will be fewer users than competing platforms.

Microsoft will not disclose numbers, but there are expected to be 5,000 or so third-party apps available to U.S. users, in comparison with the iPad's 275,000. Some big names such as Facebook Inc will be missing.

In social media, the tenor of comments on the Twitter hashtags #Windows8 and #Surface will give an indication of their reception after Ballmer unveils them both on Thursday.

Many users likely will be shocked by the new design, which dispenses with the Start button and features square tiles for apps.

"Public reaction to the new UI will depend how well Microsoft explains why 'different' is better and teaches how the new experience works," said Gartenberg. "That all starts on Thursday."

BY THE NUMBERS

The ultimate test for Windows 8 will be PC sales.

Industry trackers are expecting a bump for PC sales in the last two months of the year, but not enough to rescue the whole year, which is forecast to dip for the first time since 2001.

Some analysts had expected an uptick in production of laptops ahead of the Windows 8 launch, but PC makers facing an uncertain global economy have been wary about committing.

Chip maker Intel Corp, which is a good gauge of future PC demand due to its position early in the production process, expects the PC business to grow at only half the normal seasonal rate in the fourth quarter.

Chief Executive Paul Otellini recently told analysts he expects to have a better understanding of the success of Windows 8 in 90 days.

Stephen Baker, an analyst at retail research firm NPD Group, is expecting a 10 percent jump in PC sales for November and December over last year, but said comparisons will be difficult given a profusion of new devices and the volatility of year-ago data.

Fourth-quarter PC shipment numbers from research firms Gartner and IDC will not be published until early January, although analysts say PC makers might start to drop hints about demand before then.

"There will likely be many milestones, but very few will ultimately be decisive. The key point is will PC sales continue to shrink or will they experience a boost," said Al Hilwa at research firm IDC. "We can probably begin to properly judge that with some ambiguity in January."

(Additional reporting By Dhanya Skariachan in New York, Jessica Wohl in Chicago and Noel Randewich in San Francisco. Editing by Andre Grenon)

11.36 | 0 komentar | Read More

The Philosophy Behind Windows 8, From One of Its Creators

Microsoft will officially release Windows 8 to the public on Friday, and although company executives would never say so, they must be at least a little bit nervous about it. After all, the user interface (formerly known as Metro) is the most radical redesign of the operating system since Windows 95.

[More from Mashable: The History of Windows in Startup Sounds]

The risk, of course, is that customers will respond with confusion, or worse: outright terror. The new Start screen looks entirely different from the traditional desktop (though that interface still exists), with floating, blocky tiles instead of files and folders. And it's almost entirely chrome-less -- even basic things like the battery indicator and clock are hidden from view until you touch a button or the screen.

Believe it or not, Microsoft doesn't delight in freaking out its customers, and there is a reason it went with an interface that's so different and mind-bogglingly Spartan. This is Windows designed for the connected user, from the ground up.

[More from Mashable: Surface Is a Tablet Windows Users Will Love [REVIEW]]

"We started looking at big trends in the industry and asked, 'How does Windows fit in?'" says Sam Moreau, director of design and research for Windows. "Most of the Windows metaphors -- the desktop, the taskbar, the control panels, the start menu -- all those things were invented in the Windows 95 era. Windows 95 didn't even have a browser."

As computing evolved over the last two decades, the Internet and shared media played a larger and larger role, elevating the browser from a mere app to the centerpiece of the connected experience. However, the system it was running on stayed stubbornly the same.

"All the things since then that you care about -- like a browser, like an MP3 file, the PC as a communications device --- none of those things were native to the UI of windows," Moreau points out. "An application created a file, and you could put a file in a folder. That was basically what the operating system did."

Microsoft set out to modernize the PC experience with Windows 8. Instead of static icons, apps now have animated "live tiles" on the Start screen that serve up fresh information at regular intervals. It's a far cry from when the only thing connected to the Internet in a dynamic way was the browser.

"There's tons of stuff on the Internet," says Moreau, "And your PC basically has this little straw -- Internet Explorer -- to see all this. We didn't think that should be the case. The whole PC should be about that. Part of what the Start screen is really about is making all this activity -- these people that you care about, and all this information -- sort of explode so you're immersed in it."

That immersion comes at a cost, however, and there are few clear signposts on how to do things, such as how to call up your tabs, change your PC setting, or just shut the darn thing off. Moreau explains why Microsoft would choose to leave new users with few visual clues about the capabilities of the UI.

"We have a design philosophy, and one of the aspects of it is putting the information that you care about at your fingertips. Everything else we want to recede. It should be the best presentation of the thing the person cares about. It's their photos -- it's not wrapping it in big buttons that say it's a photo. You don't need that," he says.

"[Visual cues] are good for one-time discoverability. But then that's always there -- it's kind of always barking at you, in your periphery, that [the UI] can do these things."

What do you think of user interface design in Windows 8, and the philosophy behind it? Share your thoughts in the comments.

New Start Screen

The Windows 8 Release Preview has many more dynamic live tiles, with new apps like News, Sports and Travel adding images and headlines to the mix.

Click here to view this gallery.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

11.36 | 0 komentar | Read More

Apple's Mac flies in under the radar

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amid the fanfare accompanying the noisy launch of the iPad mini this week, Apple Inc also took the wraps off new Mac computers.

The facelift may help revitalize an important lineup that -- while seeing growth tail off in the early part of 2012 -- yields 14 percent of revenue and still racks up sales growth numbers that are the envy of a flagging PC world.

On Tuesday, Apple took the lid off a slimmed-down iMac and a 13-inch laptop with a vastly improved screen, setting the stage for a potential revival in sales even as Hewlett-Packard and Dell Inc struggle just to stay level.

Earlier this year, Apple had also launched an updated MacBook Air - a product analysts say spawned over 20 touch-enabled designs from rivals called "Ultrabooks," which run Microsoft Corp's upcoming Windows 8 software.

Apple remains No. 3 in U.S. market share behind HP and Dell. But the Mac's premium pricing, at $1,000 and above, and its subsequent outsized margins mean a spike in revenue growth can give its bottom line a significant boost.

"The pricing and feature set of the refreshed iMac present an attractive combination, and I would not be surprised to see the new iMac stimulate desktop sales in the December quarter and beyond," Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes said.

The decades-old Macintosh line that helped set a stumbling computer company back on its feet -- today overshadowed in both revenue and media appeal by the popular iPhone and iPad -- saw growth drop to single-digit percentages in the first two quarters of 2012 for the first time since 2009.

Yet sales outgrew the PC market, overall, by more than seven times over the 12 months to June, according to CEO Tim Cook, and has outpaced PC growth over the last six years.

Apple reports fiscal fourth quarter results on Thursday. The company will likely have sold 5.1 million Macs in the October quarter, up just 5 percent, Piper Jaffray & Co analyst Gene Munster estimates.

HALO EFFECT

On Tuesday, Apple Marketing Chief Phil Schiller called the Mac "what began it all," and he claimed the Mac was America's No. 1 laptop and desktop among individual models. Research houses Gartner and IDC figures place Apple third in the United States with a market share of about 13 percent.

Regardless where it places, at prices starting at $1,000 for its MacBook Air and going all the way close to $4,000 and growth -- while well off the 30-percent range of 2010 -- still defying the market, the Mac has proven a consistent money-spinner for the company even during troubled times for the traditional PC.

Intel Corp, HP and other stalwarts of the PC industry are now fighting to sustain growth as tablet computers eat into their PC-related businesses.

While the Mac line has not completely side-stepped PC market trends, it has held up better partly because it is targeted at a higher-spending clientele that values its consistency, vis-a-vis the often fragmented PC, where multiple vendors supply different components that don't always work seamlessly.

But it also owes its success in large part to a so-called halo effect stemming from consumers' experiences with the iPhone and iPad, said Loren Loverde, analyst with research firm IDC.

"They are on the positive end of halo effect both in terms of traffic and brand image," Loverde said, adding that Apple also has yet to fully realize the international growth opportunities for Mac, and expects the new products to see good demand during the holiday quarter.

Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs introduced the Macintosh in 1984, and it became the first successful computer to feature a mouse and a graphical user interface -- a model that has stayed intact through the succeeding decades. The desktop Mac itself stuck to that interface but has radically shifted in design over the years, to today's slim, all-in-one form.

Analysts say the redesigned Macs may give Apple's December quarter an extra lift, but the quarter will hinge mostly on how many consumers bought iPads and iPhones, which combined accounts for 72 percent of the company's revenue.

Cook and other executives are likely to be questioned on the smartphone's supply issues and the ramp-up of the new "iPad mini," available in stores on November 2.

"The bigger question is likely the company's ability to ramp supply to meet the strong demand," Baird Equity Research analyst William Power said. Recent investor concerns regarding Apple have included "perceived slowing iPhone innovation, the lack of a strong developing market strategy for iPhone and current iPhone supply constraints."

Apple's stock has reflected some of those concerns. While the stock is up 52 percent this year, it is down 12 percent from its record high of $705 on September 21. Despite the pullback, Apple is trading at 11.6 times next year's estimated earnings, same as the S&P 500 and far lower than some rivals like Amazon.com Inc, which trades at 100 times estimated 2013 earnings.

Investors will focus initially on the headline shipment numbers during the fiscal third quarter on Thursday. It is estimated to have sold between 24 million and 26 million iPhones in the July-September period.

And Apple said on Tuesday that it sold its 100 millionth iPad two weeks ago, which means that the company sold under 16 million last quarter. This is below the 17 million to 18 million some analysts had forecast.

Longer term, Apple could also face margin pressure as smartphones pass the 50 penetration rate in major developed markets, said BGC analyst Colin Gillis.

"The next stage of smart phone growth could be more focused on mid-to-lower priced offerings," Gillis said. "Apple may find it difficult to maintain margin while growing massive scale, particularly as the overall market for smartphones slows."

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

11.36 | 0 komentar | Read More

Apple Tablets an Important Part of the Education Puzzle

When the iPad first debuted in 2010, it very quickly made it's way into schools as an educational tool. It was less expensive than a traditional laptop and turned out to be a powerful learning device. Just this summer during Apple's third quarter earnings call, CEO Tim Cook announced Apple sold twice as many iPads as Macs for use in educational environments. Cook said the company sold 1 million iPads for educational purposes, and that interest in the iPad2 in grades K-12 was strong.

[More from Mashable: Take a Peek at the iPad Mini [VIDEO]]

With Tuesday's introduction of the new iPad mini, coupled with the announcement of a new version of iBooks, Apple is hoping to capitalize on that interest.

Many school systems now regularly use tablets in the classroom, and with budgets being slashed, the iPad mini, with a lower entry price that the larger iPad, seemed like it would be a welcome addition to the digital tools available. However, Vineet Madan, Senior Vice President of New Ventures for McGraw-Hill, which publishes textbooks through the iBookstore, says the price of $329 is surprising. He points out it's only $70 cheaper than the iPad 2, plus you now need to buy adapters and cables for use with the new lightning connector.

[More from Mashable: Burned By Apple: This iPad 3 Owner Is Incensed]

He says for middle schools, the iPad 2 remains a very attractive device for education. He expects elementary schools, however, will likely be looking at the new mini. "Elementary school is where children are smaller and having something lighter in weight will work quite well," he tells Mashable. He says the difference in weight can make a big difference for them in terms of portability.

Tim Cook said there are 2,500 classrooms using iBooks textbooks right now, which Madan says is still a relatively small number. He does expect, however, for that to increase in the coming years. As schools allocate money to set up computer labs with limited funds, many find they can do it for less with iPads. The 'computer lab' has become the "iPad lab" and the lower price of the iPad mini helps even more.

There are added costs to think about, as with any new technology. Not only do you need to buy iBooks and apps, you need to train teachers, he says. There are anecdotal tales of some schools with closets full of iPads but no teachers qualified to teach on them, or no curriculum designed for the new technology.

Still, Madan says, 'It's the applications and experiences you can deliver that have the potential to transform learning' when using a tablet, no matter the size. And transforming learning is exactly what tablet use is doing, bringing in that personalized learning experience. Madan says "I don't think there's ever been a better time to be a student."

In addition to the iBooks partners, software companies have introduced the interactive learning experience on the tablet. Osman Rashid is founder and CEO of Kno, a digital textbook startup that makes interactive textbooks for college students, and has just expanded to K-12 students. Kno lets you rent an interactive searchable textbook for the year, for under $10.

He tells Mashable the tablet is the best form factor for learning, a great tool for education. He believes screen resolution makes a big difference though, as higher resolution allows for more content on the screen. The iPad mini does not have a retina display, rather it has the same display as the iPad 2; 1,024 x 768.

Still, Rashid says he's glad Apple is innovating, and believes this move propels education forward.

Whether or not iPad mini's start showing up in classrooms in record numbers remains to be seen, but it does show Apple's commitment to education. Aside from a renewed push into digital textbooks, the cost of the hardware is coming down, making it a tad easier for schools to justify purchasing an Apple tablet and all the apps and textbooks that come along with it.

What do you think of tablets being used for education in this way? Is it a good use of a school's funding? Let us know in the comments.

Click here to view this gallery.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

11.36 | 0 komentar | Read More

Apple unwraps mini-iPad to take on Amazon, Google

SAN JOSE (Reuters) - Apple Inc will begin to sell an 8-inch version of the iPad on Friday to compete with Amazon.com Inc's Kindle and other smaller tablets, but it set a higher-than-expected price tag of $329 that Wall Street fears could curb demand.

The 7.9 inch "iPad mini" marks the iPhone-maker's first foray into the smaller-tablet segment. Apple hopes to beat back incursions onto its home turf of consumer electronics hardware, while safeguarding its lead in a larger tablet space - one that even deep-pocketed rivals like Samsung Electronics have found tough to penetrate.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and marketing chief Phil Schiller took the wraps off the new tablet, which essentially has most of the functions and features of the full-size iPad but in a smaller package.

Priced at $329 for a wi-fi only model, the iPad mini is a little costlier than some predicted, but some analysts see that as a bid to retain premium pricing levels. Others fear the gadget will lure buyers away from Apple's $499 flagship 10-inch iPad, while proving ineffective in combating the threat of Amazon's $199 Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus 7, both of which are sold at or near cost.

"Apple has always been a premium hardware manufacturer. It's basically a hardware company and they don't have Google advertising or Amazon's online store to fall back on," said Destination Wealth Management CEO Michael Yoshikami.

"But people are happy to pay a premium because it's quality hardware, and the ecosystem (of content and apps) cannot be underestimated."

JMP Securities analyst Alex Gauna said, however, "It's coming in the range that most were grumbling about and that, quite frankly, we're a little bit concerned about."

"It's a little confusing at this juncture to try and figure out how it fits into the line-up. Is it going to cannibalize the more expensive iPad?" he said.

"It is worth noting that there are zero-margin products out there competing with them now ... and that is presenting some challenges to Apple."

Frank Gillett, an analyst with Forrester who attended the event, said he was impressed with the lightness of the iPad mini, which he got a chance to play with following the event.

"Apple went for the high end of what people have been thinking of," Gillett said, adding that Amazon and Google may have to adjust their product lineups to compete with the iPad mini.

The focus on growing competition was evident as Schiller - at the iPad mini's launch event, held in San Jose's California Theatre - compared the iPad mini with Google's popular 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet, citing feature by feature why the new Apple device was superior. It is unusual for Apple to single out a specific competitor in its product launches.

"Theirs is made of plastic," Schiller said, referring to the Android tablet. "The entire Android product is thicker and heavier."

Schiller later defended Apple's pricing of the iPad mini, telling reporters he expects consumers to recognize quality and be willing to pay for it.

FASTER AND SLIMMER

In a surprise move, Apple also announced a fourth-generation full-sized iPad just six months after unveiling a third generation device to much fanfare. The latest tablet, which again sells for $499, is faster and slimmer and comes just days before Microsoft is due to show off its own "Surface" tablet.

Apple also unveiled thinner MacBook Pro laptops, including a 13-inch Retina display.

SIGHTS ON AMAZON

The iPad was launched in 2010 by late Apple visionary Steve Jobs and since then it has taken a big chunk out of PC sales, upending the industry and reinventing mobile computing with its apps-based model, often called an ecosystem.

A smaller tablet is the first device to be added to Apple's compact portfolio under Cook, who took over from Jobs just before his death a year ago.

"It's very cool," Cook said of the iPad mini. "We told you earlier this year you would see some incredible innovation from Apple across the year. We think we kept our promise."

In a rarity for a company that tightly controls events, Apple live-streamed its invitation-only presentation to Apple devices such as the iPad and Macintosh computers.

The Kindle and Nexus 7 have grabbed a chunk of the lower end of the tablet market and proved demand for a pocket-sized slate exists. Those companies' tablets - the most successful other than Apple's - have forced Apple into a space it has avoided and at times derided, analysts say.

Amazon's 7-inch Kindle Fire released last year for $199 was one of the hottest-selling holiday gadgets. It pressured Amazon's margins but potentially garnered millions of new high-spending customers for the online retailer.

Amazon sold more than a million Kindles a week during December, paving the way for Google to try out a similarly sized small tablet.

Amazon has now launched its second-generation Kindle Fire HD, which it says is the "best-selling product across all of Amazon worldwide," based on undisclosed U.S. sales figures and international preorders.

Google's Nexus 7 tablet, built by Asian manufacturer Asustek, won top marks from reviewers and quickly ran out of stock after its July launch.

All three companies will be vying to get their devices on shopping lists during the U.S. holiday season, which traditionally starts next month.

Surveys conducted ahead of Tuesday's news suggested some consumers had hoped for a more affordable Apple mini tablet.

The "starting sweet spot" for the tablet would be in the $249-$299 range, according to a survey of more than a thousand consumers by Baird Equity Research.

PRICE IS KEY

Jobs famously derided the 7-inch screen, saying such a device should come with sandpaper so users can file down their fingers. But an internal email revealed during a patent trial showed he turned more favorable to the idea by early 2011.

Apple has sold 100 million iPads so far, with the device accounting for 26 percent of Apple's fiscal third-quarter revenue.

But analysts are concerned now about erosion of Apple's industry leading margins as it takes on the Kindle Fire. It earned gross margins of 23 percent to 32 percent on U.S. iPad sales between October 2010 and the end of March 2012, according to a July court filing by Apple.

Amazon's first Kindle Fire just about breaks even after manufacturing costs, according to IHS iSuppli estimates, and Google has said its Nexus 7 is being sold at cost.

"The pricing may limit sales. From a profitability perspective though, I think at $330 Apple is still getting adequate gross margins on the sales," said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello. "But at that price point it may limit adoption and unit volumes."

Apple's shares ended regular trading down 3.2 percent at $613.36, after gaining 4 percent on Monday in the run-up to the event.

(Additional reporting by Alistair Barr and Alexei Oreskovic, Editing by Edwin Chan, Richard Pullin, Andrew Hay and Steve Orlofsky)

11.36 | 0 komentar | Read More