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Friday 31 December 2010

Report: iPad will grow 250% in 2011 at the expense of PCs

A new report claims tablet sales will more than triple next year, but says Apple will hold on to its dominate position with the iPad, jumping from 14 million units in 2010 to 36 million next year.

The 
report, cited by John Paczkowski of the Wall Street Journal Digital Daily blog, was prepared by Caris & Co. analyst Robert Cihra.

"We model Apple’s iPad continuing to dominate […] in 2011,” Cihra wrote. "iPad not only launched with phenomenal early uptake but effectively sent all wannabes back to the drawing board, delaying most competitive tablet launches well into CY11.

"Yet we now already look forward to the first iPad 2 refresh in March (i.e., establishing annual cadence for iPads in March, iPhone each June and iPods in Sept). An enormous multi-year opportunity, we continue to view iPads less about the ‘product’ but rather igniting an explosion toward ‘thin-client’ Access computing.”

Android licensees, including Acer, Motorola and possibly HTC, are expected to demo new tablets at CES, but those devices won't be ready until Google finishes Android OS 3.0 Honeycomb, which isn't expected for release until March 2011. RIM is still struggling to put its PlayBook technologies together, while HP prepares its first webOS tablet, expected to be named PalmPad. Microsoft is also believed to be attempting a second shot at launching tablets running Windows 7 at CES.

A large number of new competing mobile platforms will make it easier for Apple's iPad to stand up as an established product, with thousands of apps and mature enterprise support, in a sea of incompatible tablet designs attempting to deliver a wide range of screen sizes and other feature packages.
Tablets to expand at the expense of conventional PCs

Cihra estimates global tablet sales at 54 million in 2011, with Apple taking 67 percent market share with its iPad. That growth, he said, would come at the expense of PCs.

"We see cannibalization from ‘thin-client’ iPads/tablets, particularly vs. netbooks and in multi-PC homes, already growing to 1/7th the size of the overall PC market in 2011 and shaving 5 percentage points off what PC growth might otherwise have been,” Cihra wrote. PC growth, excluding tablets, is expected to drop from 14 percent this year to just 9 percent in 2011.

However, if tablets are defined as a new PC form factor they would turn the situation around, as Cihra presented graphically in the report (below).

Defining the iPad as a PC, which Microsoft's chief executive Steve Ballmer did earlier this year, also more than doubles Apple's market share and establishes the company as the largest mobile PC maker in the US and the third largest worldwide, behind only HP and Acer, and just ahead of Dell.

While the iPad is devastating growth among low end notebooks and netbooks, they haven't had a discernible impact upon Apple's MacBook sales, which have been bolstered by the recent release of the MacBook Air. Apple doesn't sell any PCs on the extreme low end, isolating it from the cannibalization other PC makers are experiencing in the wake of the iPad's release. Instead, the iPad has bolstered Apple's earnings while appearing to only offer a halo effect that supports Mac sales and growth.
iPad growth Caris

Information retrieved from: http://www.appleinsider.com

(C) 2010 Daniel Eran Dilger

Apple to expand CPU design group beyond iPad A4

Apple is seeking to hire engineers to design a new CPU micro-architecture, expanding upon its acquisitions of two fabless chip design companies and the release of its new A4 application processor used in the iPad and iPhone 4. 

The company has posted a job description for engineers to "design microarchitecture and […] meet the functionality requirements, performance goals, and physical constraints such as power, area, and timing," indicating the work will focus on producing chips for mobile devices. 

The position seeks candidates who will "work with performance modeling engineers to develop design options and select the most suitable one for design," suggesting that the company is aiming to create original works, not just overseeing the production of existing chip technology. 

Apple's recent chip history 

In the spring of 2008, Apple acquired PA Semi, which at the time was building very fast and efficient PowerPC processors know as PWRficient. That purchased sparked some speculation that the company might be seeking to return back to PowerPC CPUs in its Macs, just two years after its Intel transition. 

Instead, Apple was motivated to design its own custom mobile processors for future iOS devices based on the ARM Architecture. The company had been evaluating Intel's Atom line, then known as Silverthorne, and found it to not be competitive with the ARM processors it had been using in the iPhone and the company's iPods before it. 

Apple had originally worked with Acorn Computer in the late 80s to develop a mobile ARM processor suitable for use in the Newton Message Pad. Throughout the 90s, ARM greatly expanded, licensing its technology to other firms that created unique designs around it, including DEC's StrongARM used in the last Newton models. ARM is now by far the world's largest and most successful mobile processor design.

Core beats PowerPC, ARM beats Atom 

Apple stopped using ARM processors when it discontinued the Newton in 1998, spending most of the 90s working to migrate its Mac line to PowerPC chips. However, ARM was the logical choice to use in the iPod in 2001, when Apple got back into producing mobile devices. 

Intel had acquired DEC's StrongARM operation in 1997, and invested billions building it into Intel XScale line of ARM CPUs before selling it off at a huge loss to partner Marvell in 2006. Since then, Intel has focused on selling its new Atom-branded x86-compatible mobile chips, but has had a hard time matching the performance and efficiency of ARM.

Meanwhile, Apple had worked with PowerPC licensee Exponential in the mid 90s to develop a blazing fast version of the chip for use in its Mac line. That effort failed, leaving Apple tied to PowerPC partners Motorola and IBM, who were both focusing on embedded and server applications. By 2005, Apple decided to shift its Macs to use Intel's new Core CPUs. 

Apple continued to use ARM processors in its iPods and AirPort base stations as well as the new iPhone in 2007. However, the company used a low power Intel chip to run the original Apple TV, and began evaluating Intel's Atom for its upcoming tablet and smartphones. However, Intel's inability to perform as well as ARM designs in mobile applications sent Apple back to the drawing board.

Apple builds its own drawing board 

After acquiring PA Semi expressly to develop new chips for iPods and iPhones, Apple also began working with Intrinsity, a firm that had grown up from the ashes of the old Exponential a decade earlier. Intrinsity had been working with Samsung to greatly accelerate the performance of its ARM chip, known as Hummingbird.

Apple developed its own version of a high speed ARM processor with Intrinsity, and then acquired the company this April, releasing the new chip as the Apple-branded A4. The company uses the new A4 chip in the iPad (shown below), iPhone 4, the new iPod touch, and also built the revised Apple TV around it, erasing much hope that company would return to Intel for its low power chip designs.

Going forward, the company's efforts to recruit additional engineers to "lead the microarchitecture design of a CPU," strongly indicates that Apple will continue to design optimized ARM processors for future iOS devices itself using custom application processors.


iPad A4

Information retrieved from: http://www.appleinsider.com

(C) 2010 Daniel Eran Dilger

Last day for holiday discount pricing on Apple's entire family of Macs

With 2010 rapidly coming to an end, so are a handful of holiday sales from Apple's authorized resellers who are offering deep discounts of up to $250 on Mac notebooks and desktops through midnight.

In particular, the websites of leading Apple resellers MacMall and MacConnection both indicate that their holiday sales on Macs will expire this evening at 11:59 pacific time.

The two have offered the most aggressive discounts on new systems since the weeks leading up to Black Friday, but both have historically pared back such pricing with the start of each new year.

As it stands, MacConnection continues to offer the lowest prices across Apple's MacBook, MacBook Pro and iMac families, while MacMall retains the lowest prices on the company's new fleet of MacBook Airs through exclusive discount coupons available only to AppleInsider readers.

Those coupons and other discounts are embedded within the links in AppleInsider's Mac Pricing Guide (also below), meaning buyers do not have to enter any codes manually at checkout.
Product
Apple
Amazon
MacMall
MacConnection
B&H
On Sale
J&R
Education
Discount
MacBook
2.4GHz 13" MacBook (white)$999.00$949.00$948.99$849.99$949.00$969.99$999.00$949.00$149.01
MacBook Pro
2.4GHz 13" MacBook Pro$1,199.00$1,128.99$1,106.41*$1,049.00$1,129.00$1,169.99$1,199.00$1,099.00$150.00
2.66GHz 13" MacBook Pro$1,499.00$1,429.00$1,400.42*$1,299.00$1,429.00$1,459.99$1,449.00$1,399.00$200.00
2.4GHz 15" MacBook Pro$1,799.00$1,669.56$1,671.72*$1,599.00$1,706.95$1,754.99$1,719.88$1,699.00$200.00
2.53GHz 15" MacBook Pro$1,999.00$1,849.00$1,812.02*$1,759.00$1,799.99$1,879.99$1,898.88$1,849.00$240.00
2.66GHz 15" MacBook Pro$2,199.00$2,015.96$1,998.22*$1,979.00$2,015.96$2,059.99$2,099.00$1,999.00$220.00
2.53GHz 17" MacBook Pro$2,299.00$2,109.00$2,075.60*$2,149.00$2,119.62$2,149.99$2,119.88$2,099.00$223.4
MacBook Air
1.40GHz 11" MacBook Air 64GB$999.00$959.98$940.78*$948.00$959.00$980.99$979.00$949.00$58.22
1.40GHz 11" MacBook Air 128GB$1,199.00$1,149.00$1,126.02*$1,139.00$1,139.00$1,169.00$1,199.00$1,149.00$72.98
1.86GHz 13" MacBook Air 128GB$1,299.00$1,252.16$1,227.12*$1,239.00$1,298.95$1,275.99$1,299.00$1,249.00$71.88
1.86GHz 13" MacBook Air 256GB$1,599.00$1,539.00$1,508.22*$1,529.00$1,529.00$1,574.99$1,599.00$1,549.00$90.78
MacBook Air (with 4GB RAM)
1.40GHz 11" MacBook Air 64GB$1,099.00$1,094.00$1,057.42*$1,099.00N/A$1,094.00N/A$1,039.00$41.58
1.40GHz 11" MacBook Air 128GB$1,299.00$1,294.00$1,243.62*$1,299.00$1,298.95$1,294.00N/A$1,239.00$55.38
1.86GHz 13" MacBook Air 128GB$1,399.00$1,394.00$1,331.82*$1,399.00$1,398.95$1,394.00N/A$1,339.00$67.18
1.86GHz 13" MacBook Air 256GB$1,699.00$1,694.00$1,625.82*$1,699.00$1,698.95$1,694.00N/A$1,639.00$73.18
MacBook Air (with Max RAM and Processor)
1.60GHz 11" MacBook Air 128GB$1,399.00$1,394.00$1,341.62*$1,399.00$1,369.00$1,394.00$1,399.00$1,329.00$57.38
2.13GHz 13" MacBook Air 256GB$1,799.00$1,794.00$1,714.02*$1,799.00$1,749.00$1,794.00N/A$1,729.00$71.91
iMac
3.06GHz 21.5" iMac$1,199.00$1,150.99$1,150.99$1,049.00$1,151.74$1,164.99$1,169.88$1,149.00$150.00
3.20GHz 21.5" iMac$1,499.00$1,445.99$1,445.99$1,349.00$1,446.20$1,443.99$1,449.88$1,399.00$150.00
3.20GHz 27.0" iMac$1,699.00$1,649.00$1,649.00$1,529.00$1,625.00$1,669.99$1,699.99$1,599.00$170.00
2.80GHz 27.0" iMac (QC)$1,999.00$1,939.00$1,939.00$1,819.00$1,928.74$1,939.99$1,939.88$1,899.00$180.00
Mac mini
2.40GHz Mac mini$699.00$674.21$674.21$674.99$669.00$699.00$689.88$649.00$30.01
2.66GHz Mac mini Server$999.00$964.00$964.00$959.99$954.00$982.99$959.88$949.00$45.01
Mac Pro
2.80GHz 4-Core Mac Pro$2,499.00$2,348.99$2,348.99$2,399.00$2,349.88$2,364.99$2,364.99$2,299.00$149.13
2.40GHz 8-Core Mac Pro$3,499.00$3,297.99$3,297.99$3,299.00$3,298.95$3,314.99$3,249.00$3,199.00$250.00
2.66GHz 12-Core Mac Pro$4,999.00$4,769.99$4,748.99$4,999.00$4,749.00$4,769.99N/A$4,549.00$250.01
Apple Cinema Display
27-inch Apple LED Cinema Display$999.00$979.99$979.98$979.00$979.00$952.62$979.88$949.00$46.38
* + or • : Net prices after rebates and AppleInsider's exclsuive 2% discount. The 2% discount coupon is automatically embedded in the links above. It will show up as"Instant Discount(s)" during checkout, only affter you've added the Mac to your shopping cart. Full details via AppleInsider's complete Mac Price Guide.


A small portion of the proceeds from each Mac sale made online through the Mac Pricing Guide go towards helping support AppleInsider.


Information retrieved from: http://www.appleinsider.com


(C) 2010 AppleInsider Staff

Apple execs, officers donate over $3 million to charity for the holidays

A handful of Apple executives and officers recently combined to donate more than $3 million worth of company shares to charitable causes.

According regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (1, 2, 3, 4), two members of Apple's executive team, as well as two of its directors, teamed up to donate nearly 10,000 shares of Apple stock between December 10th and 17th. At their current valuation, those shares are valued at roughly $3.2 million.

The most generous was Apple board member and J. Crew chief executive Millard Drexler, who gave away 6,800 shares on December 14th worth $2.17 million. Apple's Senior Vice President of Mac Hardware Engineering Bob Mansfield had four days earlier gifted 1,562 of his shares, worth just over half a million.

Also making donations were Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer and Apple board member Arthur D. Levinson, who on December 17th gave 1,320 and 277 of their shares, worth approximately $423,000 and $89,000, respectively. 

None of the filings specify the recipient of the gifts, stating only that the transactions "represent a charitable donation."


Information retrieved from: http://www.appleinsider.com


(C) 2010 Katie Marsal

HTC files for "Scribe" iPad competitor tablet trademark

A newly filed trademark from Taiwan-based smartphone maker HTC revealed the company may be working on a tablet computer named the "HTC Scribe," in hopes of challenging Apple's wildly successful iPad.

The Dec. 26 filing from HTC describes "a handheld wireless device, namely, a tablet computer," Bloomberg reports. Though a trademark filing is far from a definite indication that the mobile phone maker will release the trademarked product, a tablet device from HTC, the world's largest maker of phones running Google's Android mobile operating system, is seen by many as inevitable.

According to the report, HTC Chief Financial Officer Cheng Hui-Ming said in October that the company is "studying the market." HTC, which revealed that sales of its mobile phones had more than doubled last quarter year-over-year, has seen impressive success with its Android phones. Investor confidence in HTC has risen as well, with shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange rising by more than 100 percent this year.

The HTC Scribe would "provide an alternative to the iPad,” IDC program director Will Stofega told Bloomberg. “This will compete on pricing, and could be as good or better.” 

In a Dec. 13 report, KGI Research analyst Richard Ko predicted that HTC will launch a tablet at the Consumer Electronics Show next week or during the Mobile World Congress in February.

The HTC Scribe would likely run Android 3.0, dubbed Honeycomb, which will be optimized for tablet use. Earlier this month, journalist Walt Mossberg asked Android chief Andy Rubin whether Honeycomb is a version that "happens to work on tablets" or a version for tablets. Rubin hedged that "it's a bit of both."

Motorola is readying its own Android tablet, which was demoed by Rubin at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference. In a teaser video tracing the "evolution" of tablets, Motorola called the iPad a "giant iPhone" and insulted the Samsung Galaxy Tab as running "Android OS…for a phone." Motorola called its future tablet "the next chapter in evolution," and is expected to be unveiled at CES.

Earlier this year, Apple sued HTC, accusing the company of infringing on 20 patents related to the iPhone's interface.

In a press release announcing the lawsuit, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said, "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it," said Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

HTC responded in kind with a countersuit of its own, alleging that Apple had violated five of its patents.

"As the innovator of the original Windows Mobile PocketPC Phone Edition in 2002 and the first Android smartphone in 2008, HTC believes the industry should be driven by healthy competition and innovation that offer consumers the best, most accessible mobile experiences possible," said HTC vice president Jason Mackenzie. "We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones."

Apple's lawsuit against HTC was largely viewed as the first move in a legal confrontation over Android-based phones, as the lawsuit contains a specific section for "Accused HTC Android Products." In October, Motorola sued Apple over alleged infringement of a range of wireless technologies. Apple quickly countersued, eventually adding to the case 11 of the patents included in Apple's suit against HTC.


Information retrieved from: http://www.appleinsider.com


(C) 2010 Josh Ong

Windows Phone 7 hits 5,000 apps in 2 months, equaling Palm's webOS

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform now has more than 5,000 applications written for it, well behind the 300,000 for Apple's iOS, but matching the total number of programs for Palm's webOS in just over two months.

As noted by CNNMoney.com, the new Windows Phone 7 platform topped 5,000 applications in its mobile download store this week. That's already as many apps as HP's 18-month-old Palm webOS platform, as well as a third as many applications available from BlackBerry App World.

The report noted that almost all of the most-downloaded applications available for Windows Phone 7 are also available on the iPhone and Android, though there are major omissions like the game "Angry Birds." But Microsoft does have some advantages, such as Netflix's streaming application, which Android does not have.

Applications alone, of course, are not an indicator of sales of Windows Phone 7 devices, but the milestone does suggest that Microsoft has retained strong developer support for its fledgling platform. The numbers could be used to counter other developers who, in November, expressed concern over writing software for Microsoft's new mobile operating system.

But early reviews of Windows Phone 7 after its debut in October found the new platform lacking. And earlier this month, Microsoft announced sales of 1.5 million phonesrunning its new operating system, but those sales were only to channel inventories and not end consumers.

For an app comparison, Apple revealed that there were more than 25,000 applications on the App Store 7 months after it debuted in July of 2008. Since then, the creation of software has only accelerated, reaching 65,000 applications in the store's first year alone.

The App Store has also expanded to a new device, the iPad, which now boasts more than 50,000 applications of its own. In all, the App Store is home to more than 300,000 applications written for iOS devices.


Information retrieved from: http://www.appleinsider.com


(C) 2010 Sam Oliver