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It Has Happened, the iPhone Comes to Verizon

It’s happened. The one thing everybody has been waiting for and the one thing AT&T has been dreading, the iPhone 4 is now available on, in my opinion, the best network available, Verizon. There were a lot of naysayers out there that kept touting their babble about how the iPhone would never...

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Apple Able to Keep Up with Demand for iPhone 5

Posted by Zack | Posted in Consumer Electronics | Posted on 20-11-2012

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Apple iPhone 5 whiteDespite the fact that the Samsung Galaxy is the world’s best selling smartphone, demand for the iPhone 4SXL, I mean iPhone 5, is still through the roof. Demand was so high, as a matter of fact, that Apple’s production plants, specifically Foxconn, were unable to keep up with the demand, severely angering Apple. Thankfully (for Foxconn employees at least) it only took about two months for Apple to almost catch up with iPhone 5 demand.

One of the top Apple analysts for Piper Jaffray, Gene Munster, has been tracking iPhone 5 availability at 100 Apple Stores around the United States for the past month. In that time, Munster has reported that there have been significant improvements in the past 10 days.

As of Tuesday, iPhone 5 smartphones running on AT&T were in stock at 82% of Apple stores with 72% of Verizon stores having the device in stock and 92% of Sprint stores having the newest Apple handset. In addition to that, shipping times for customers ordering online have decreased to about two weeks after having been stuck at three to four weeks since the phone launched on September 21.

According to Munster, Apple is “nearing full availability” for the iPhone 5 just in time for the holidays. The iPhone 5 debuted exactly two months ago to much fanfare, despite it essentially being the iPhone 4S with a larger screen and 4G LTE connectivity.

However, opening weekend sales were lower than expected due to supply constraints. Since then, Apple’s stock of the phone has been hit by concerns that the company’s manufacturing partners are unable to produce the latest iPhone fast enough to keep up with consumer demand.

The biggest question that Apple is facing now is whether or not the increased availability of the iPhone is due to an increased productivity from Apple’s manufacturing plants or a decreased demand for the phone which, to be honest, wasn’t as revolutionary as people expected it to be.

Source: Mashable – Apple is Finally Catching Up to iPhone 5 Demand

 

Fourth-generation iPad, Worth the Upgrade?

Posted by rbeagle | Posted in Consumer Electronics | Posted on 09-11-2012

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If you were to line up the iPad 4 next to the iPad 3 and try to compare their differences merely aesthetically, you would hardly notice the slightest difference. In fact, the iPad 4 still comes with the same Retina display as the iPad 3. The only noticeable difference, at first glance would be the new 8-pin Lightening dock, which is about 80 percent smaller than Apple’s original 30-pin connection port.

Though they look quite similar, even identical, don’t judge the iPad 4 by its cover, judge it by its performance.

With the new A6X processor, a dual-core chip with quad-core graphics, the iPad 4 clocks 1.4GHz, a 40 percent increase over the iPad 3 with 1GHz. Apple markets the device as putting out “twice the speed” and “twice the graphics performance” of the A5X, which proves to be pretty accurate. However, the iPad 4 did get beaten by half a second in webpage loading by the iPad mini.

As with the previous model, the fourth-generation iPad has Bluetooth 4.0 and supports 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. Additionally Apple brags that the new Wi-Fi is twice as fast as the previous version, due to the addition of channel bonding.

Apple also upgraded its LTE chip in the fourth-gen iPad, providing support for more LTE frequencies globally. The LTE model, unlike the Wi-Fi model, also supports assisted GPS and GLONASS, which provide more accurate location services.

Perhaps one of the greatest upgrades to the iPad was its camera. The third-generation iPad came with a camera with a mere 0.3 megapixels, standard definition. The iPad 4 rocks a 1.2 megapixel high-definition camera, making full use of its Retina display.

Though the fourth-generation iPad comes with multiple performance upgrades, the bottom line is there is no good reason to upgrade from the iPad 3, released just six months before the 4, due to the subtleties in their differences.

Source: ComputerWorld

Samsung Galaxy S3 Tops iPhone as World’s Best Selling Smartphone

Posted by rbeagle | Posted in Consumer Electronics | Posted on 08-11-2012

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Samsung’s Galaxy S III has overtaken Apple’s iPhone as the world’s most popular smartphone for the third quarter of 2012, according to Strategy Analytics.

Running a larger display, burst-shooting camera, S voice, and the highly customizable Android operating system are among the features that have propelled the S3 to the top sales for Q3.

The Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone is currently on top of the global smartphone market, holding 10.7 percent of the share. However, the iPhone 4S was a close second place with 9.7 percent of the market after being on top for two years. Furthermore the iPhone 5 held 3.6 percent of the global share after being released in September, the end of the quarter.

Samsung’s Galaxy S3 is selling at a much faster rate than the previous S2, which sold 3 million handsets in just 37 days.

Apple shipped 6 million iPhone 5 handsets during the third quarter, and sold 5 million in the first week alone. With the third quarter ending on September 30, iPhone 5 sales didn’t have enough time to outsell the Galaxy S3.

With that being said, the Galaxy S3’s position as world’s best-selling smartphone is likely to be short-lived and is expected to be out-shipped by the iPhone 5 in the coming fourth quarter of 2012.

Still, Research Firm IDC ranks Samsung, the South Korean firm, as the world’s top smartphone seller in the last three quarters. In the latest quarter, July-September, Samsung sold 56.3 million smartphones over Apple’s 26.9 million.

Sources: MarketWatch, CNET

Even After Increased Competition, iPad Is Still King

Posted by jdkenny | Posted in Consumer Electronics | Posted on 06-11-2012

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While the tablet world has rapidly expanded over the past year with many new companies and manufacturers jumping into the game, one thing is clear, the iPad is still king. Apple announced Monday that they sold 3 million new iPad and iPad mini models in the first three days of release. The sales figures were record numbers for Apple, who in March sold 1.5 million iPads in the first three days.

The first of the two new iPad models is the “traditional” iPad. While Apple released a new, retina display iPad just a few months ago in March, they decided to release a new and improved retina display iPad just a few months later. The new(er) iPad contains some modest hardware improvements such as a new A6X chip that makes performance twice as fast, has expanded LTE coverage,  faster wi-fi, and the new lightning dock connector. The display remains the same, however, on the new(er) iPad, as it is identical to the “Retina” display on the 3rd generation iPad. The price point is also unchanged as the starting price for a wi-fi only model is $499.

The other, and quite honestly bigger, news is the release of an all new product, the iPad mini. The iPad mini is essentially Apple’s response to new tablets such as Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire. It is a 7.9 inch tablet, which is bigger than all the other “7-inch class” tablets. While it costs considerably more than the other tablets in its class, with a starting price of $329, it offers quite a few features. Some include a large 7.9-inch screen, a very fast A5 chip for processing power, a 5 Mega-pixel camera, and LTE model options. While it does not have a “Retina” display like its bigger brother, the iPad mini does have the same resolution display as the iPad 2. While this may disappoint some consumers, the fact that it is the same number of pixels on a smaller screen means it has a higher resolution.

While the iPad mini comes in at a higher price point than other tablets in its category, it is undoubtedly the best. While there are great 7-inch tablets such as the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire that are in fact cheaper, the iPad mini is truly a step above. A few key features that set it apart are the larger screen, optional LTE connectivity, and the over 250,000 tablet exclusive apps available in the App Store. While early sales figures indicate a good future for the iPad mini, it remains to be seen how the higher price tag will affect the sales over the holiday season. If early sales figures continue, however, Apple will have a very, merry Christmas.

 

Source: LA Times – http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-ipad-sales-20121105,0,1843110.story

 

Foxconn Unable to Keep Up with iPhone 5 Demand, Apple Gets Angry

Posted by Zack | Posted in Consumer Electronics | Posted on 06-11-2012

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Apple iPhone 5 whiteFoxconn, Apple’s controversial manufacturer of almost all things with the prefix “i” isn’t producing as many iPhones as Apple wants, nor are they producing them fast enough according to the company’s chairman. Foxconn is arguably the biggest supplier of parts and construction for Apple’s iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc…

According to Foxconn Chief Terry Gou in a recent interview with Reuters, “It’s not easy to make the iPhones. We are falling short of meeting the huge demand.” In addition to that, Gou was unable to say which iPhones are actually difficult to produce as Apple is still currently selling three different models: the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5.

Despite not revealing the product, it is presumed that Gou was referring to the latest iPhone 5. An unidentified Foxconn official told The Wall Street Journal last month that producing the iPhone 5 is “very complicated”, causing supply issues. The official went on to say that the smartphone is “the most difficult device that Foxconn has ever assembled.”

Apple’s iPhone 5 is thinner and taller than its predecessors and also comes with a few improvements over the 4S, including 4G LTE support and a new, smaller Lightning port. That means that Foxconn’s workers are putting a lot of components into an increasingly smaller shell.

Apple is definitely displeased. The iPhone 5 is scheduled to ship in three to four weeks for people who order it now with customers who are actually going to the store to buy one facing similar wait times. Apple is all about getting its technology into as many hands as possible as fast as possible, so set backs like this are almost inexcusable, especially with other smartphones on the market, like the Galaxy S III, being highly favorable replacements to the iPhone.

Source: CNET – Foxconn chief: We can’t keep up with iPhone demand