Edible Apple

Well this is sort of an odd story.

So remember how Sprint, in an effort to save the company, bet the farm on the iPhone by agreeing to purchase $15 worth of iPhones over the course of a few years? That is to say, Sprint committed to purchasing x amount of iPhones regardless of whether or not they were selling. It was a bold move, but ultimately one that the company arguably had to make, especially as consumers were leaving in greater numbers for the likes of Verizon and AT&T.

And so far, it appears that Sprint’s gamble is paying off. You might remember that when the iPhone 4S launched last October, the device became Sprint’s hottest selling device in history – in just 12 hours. What’s more, the company last quarter reported sales of 1.5 million iPhones – not too shabby for the March quarter. Even more reassuring that of those sales, 44% were sold to new customers.

Still, the Sprint’s iPhone gambit is a long term play and Sprint put up a lot of money upfront to carry the iPhone, prompting some Sprint shareholders to voice displeasure in the wake of disappointing earnings. After all, while those new iPhone customers are great, it’s going to take Sprint a few months to recoup the price of their subsidies.

That said, and here’s where things get odd, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse recently said that his 2012 salary will take a $3.25 million hit.

These voluntary actions regarding my personal compensation, which total $3,250,830, will eliminate any benefit for me to the discretionary adjustment the compensation committee made earlier this year.

I suppose shareholders aren’t happy that the price Sprint pays for the iPhone is about $200 higher than what it does for other Android handsets. Seems like spurious reasoning to me since the iPhone commands higher pricing because even Hesse has said that iPhone’s are more data efficient than Android smartphones and that iPhone customers tend to be more loyal than Android users.

via Reuters

A few days ago, CNN ran a story detailing how Verizon sales representatives are aggressively marketing Android smartphones instead of the iPhone.

David Goldman writes:

Here’s what I found: Next time you walk into a Verizon store looking to buy a smartphone, expect the hard sell on a 4G Android device.
In each of the 10 discussions, representatives steered me toward either the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx, the Droid Razr, or the LG Lucid — all 4G-capable phones running Google’s Android software. When I asked if those devices were better than the iPhone, they responded that the iPhone was an inferior alternative because it only runs on the company’s slower 3G network.

One Verizon rep reportedly went so far as to call the iPhone outdated because it runs on 3G.

So what gives? Is Verizon aligning itself with Android at the expense of Apple?

Hardly.

Verizon gave some typical corporate boilerplate comments on the story, but the underlying reasons behind the 4G Android push is pretty cut and dry – Verizon wants LTE subscribers and the iPhone right now is 3G only. That, however, may change when the iPhone 5 comes out.

PC Mag writes:

Verizon has spent millions of dollars rolling out its massive LTE network to cover 200 million people so far. You could call it billions, if you include the $5 billion spent on the C Block 700-Mhz spectrum licenses. But according to its first-quarter earnings presentation it’s only been able to convert 9.1 percent of its 93 million users to LTE.

So there Verizon lies, with a massive 4G network running at breakneck speed and plenty of room for users that are currently clogging things up on Verizon’s 3G network.

From Verizon’s position, the solution looks simple: move heavy data users in crowded urban areas from 3G to 4G as fast as possible. That would help everyone. The new 4G users get much faster connections, and the 3G users would see better speeds and network quality, too, as that network becomes less crowded.

Easier said than done, however. Remember that the iPhone is Verizon’s most popular smartphone and accounted for more than half of all the smartphones Verizon sold in the last quarter.

John Gruber also has an insightful take on things, writing: “I can see where Verizon is coming from, of course. They’re a carrier, not a handset maker, so they want to emphasize the importance of the network over the device.

A few weeks ago, a report surfaced claiming that Apple’s next-gen iPhone will make use of liquid metal alloys as a means to create a device that’s thinner, lighter, and more robust than previous models. If your recall, Apple back in 2010 signed a deal with Liquidmetal Technologies for the exclusive right to the company’s intellectual property for use in consumer electronic gadgets. As it stands now, the extent of Apple’s use of liquid metal is the SIM card ejector pin on the iPhone.

In a recent interview with Business Insider, Atakan Peker, one of the inventors of the extremely durable metal, sat down and discussed all things liquid metal, including why a liquid metal MacBook won’t be hitting the market anytime soon.

“This is a technology that has yet to be matured and perfected both in manufacturing process and application development,” Peker explained. “I should note that this is a completely new and different metal technology. Therefore, there is no suitable manufacturing infrastructure yet to take full advantage of this alloy technology.” Peker adds, “For example, I estimate that Apple will likely spend on the order of $300 million to $500 million — and three to five years — to mature the technology before it can used in large scale.”

Interesting stuff.

The most intriguing part of the interview, though, occurs when Peker is asked about how he anticipates liquid metal being used by Apple in the future.

I expect Liquidmetal application in two ways: First evolutionary substitution of current materials and secondly, and more importantly, in a breakthrough product made only possible by Liquidmetal technology. Apple’s exclusively licensing a new material technology (specifically for casing and enclosures) is a first in the industry.

This is very exciting. Therefore, I expect Apple to use this technology in a breakthrough product. Such product will likely bring an innovative user interface and industrial design together, and will also be very difficult to copy or duplicate with other material technologies.

Exciting indeed.

The iPhone is currently available on two of the top 3 carriers in China. The lone holdout is China Mobile which just so happens to be the biggest carrier in the world, featuring over 655 million subscribers as of January 2012.  To put that into perspective, that’s about six times as many subscribers as Verizon, the largest carrier in the US.

That said, Apple has repeatedly stressed the potential for iPhone growth in China, with Tim Cook stating not too long ago that the company had barely scratched the surface of what promises to be a tremendous market for new iPhone users.

Coloring the growing importance of China to Apple, and indeed to all handset manufacturers, new data from canalys reveals that China recently overtook the US as the largest smartphone market in the world. Specifically, smartphone shipments in Q1 2012 in China represented 22% of global shipments while US shipments represnted 16% of the global market. What’s more, the report adds, “Of the top 10 countries for smart phones, half are now in the Asia Pacific region.” Further, smartphone growth in China year over year came in at 81% as compared to just 5% in the US.

This tidbit is also interesting:

Two-thirds of the smart phones shipping in China in the first quarter were based on Android, and more than a quarter of all Android smart phone shipments globally are in China. A multitude of international and local vendors are using Android to address the Chinese market, offering an array of devices at a wide range of price points. Canalys notes that the dynamics of app stores are very different on these devices compared to other parts of the globe.

Those stats may soon be changing, however.

It’s looking more and more likely that the iPhone 5 will be the first iPhone to run on China Mobile which may allow Apple to deliver even more impressive iPhone sales results.

via Canalys

Oh Apple, you sneaky devil. Word on the street is that when Apple released the new iPad and dropped the price of the iPad 2, they upgraded the processor from a 45nm A5 to a 32nm A5. The result, noticeably better battery life on the new iPad 2 (iPad 2,4 below) compared to the original.

Interestingly, throughout a series of tests, the iPad 2,4 delivered better battery life than any other iPad model, including the recently released third-generation iPad. That Retina Display sure requires a lot of power!

One area in particular where the iPad 2,4 shines is in regards to video playback.

The iPad 2 holds a 19% advantage over the 3rd generation iPad (once again for obvious reasons), however the iPad 2,4 absolutely dominates with an 18% increase in battery life. At 15.7 hours this is an insane amount of battery life from a single charge. Granted end users will see lower numbers if you watch at higher brightness settings (200 nits on our test panel was around 40% brightness), but the advantage from the new iPad should still remain just as significant.

In any event, head on over to Anandtech where they have a boatload of information and test results that you’re likely to find pretty interesting.

Bloomberg reports that the FTC may slap Google with fines that may reach into the tens of millions of dollars as a result of its efforts to circumvent a privacy restriction on Apple’s Safari browser.

The FTC is preparing to allege that Mountain View, California-based Google deceived consumers and violated terms of a consent decree signed with the commission last year when it planted so-called cookies on Safari, bypassing Apple software’s privacy settings, the person said.

“We will of course cooperate with any officials who have questions,” Chris Gaither, a Google spokesman, said in an e- mail, declining to comment further.

iLounge, which has provided remarkably accurate iPhone rumors in the past, is back with some more goodies this Thursday morning.

Forget about the teardrop mockups and prototypes we saw last Summer, Jason Horwitz writes that the next-gen iPhone will, as previously rumored, sport a larger 4-inch screen that will be accomplished by implementing a longer screen while essentially maintaining the current width of the iPhone 4S. The result will be a new aspect ratio for the iPhone.

What we’ve learned: the new iPhone will indeed be longer and thinner than the iPhone 4 and 4S. Approximate measurements are 125mm by 58.5mm by 7.4mm—a 10mm jump in height, nearly 2mm reduction in thickness, and virtually identical width. According to our source, Apple will make one major change to the rear casing, adding a metal panel to the central back of the new iPhone. This panel will be flat, not curved, and metal, not ceramic. Our artist’s rendition provides a rough idea of what this change will look like; it echoes the current-generation iMac design, to be sure.

Interesting rendition, but why wouldn’t Apple make the entirety of the back metal?

And speaking to the thinness of the device, Horwitz notes that the next-gen iPhone make use of Gorilla Glass 2, a material which provides as much strength as the Gorilla Glass with a thinner form factor.

The report also notes that Apple’s next iPhone will introduce a new and smaller dock connector.

Apple will also introduce its new Dock Connector on the new iPhone. The new port will be a little larger than the bottom speaker or microphone hole on the iPhone 4/4S. It’s believed to have fewer pins than the prior 30-pin Dock Connector, perhaps only 16, and the shape of the hole is apparently closer to a pill shape than the prior rounded rectangle. It will be used on all upcoming devices, including an update to the iPod touch that’s expected this year, and will almost certainly feature a similarly updated screen and CPU.

It’s also believed the iPhone 5 will support 4G LTE, and with that battery hungry feature on board, a bigger battery is necessary. As such, a smaller dock connector would free up some space for a device where every millimeter counters.

New data from IDC indicates that Apple’s iPad continues to best the competition, with its market share rising from 54.7% in the last quarter to 68% in the current quarter. And as Apple’s iPad continues to surge, Android tablet sales are trending downward with the Kindle Fire in particular seeing a drop in shipments from 4.8 million units in the holiday quarter of 2011 to just about 750,000 units in the Q1 of 2012.

Now if only Amazon was confident enough to release official Kindle Fire sales we could have a better grasp on things.

IDC reports:

“Apple reasserted its dominance in the market this quarter, driving huge shipment totals at a time when all but a few Android vendors saw their numbers drop precipitously after posting big gains during the holiday buying season,” said Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices at IDC. “Apple’s move to position the iPad as an all-purpose tablet, instead of just a content consumption device, is resonating with consumers as well as educational and commercial buyers. And its decision to keep a lower-priced iPad 2 in the market after it launched the new iPad in March seems to be paying off as well.”

Notably, there have been rumblings that Apple has plans to release a 7.85-inch tablet to compete with the Kindle Fire, or at the very least, stunt its momentum. Perhaps the market took care of that on its own. The most recent reports point to a release in third quarter of this year in a price range of $249 to $299 and an initial supply of 6 million units.

Also, remember that John Gruber not too long ago confirmed in a podcast that Apple was tinkering with a smaller version of the iPad.

What I do know is that they have one in the lab…a 7.85 inch iPad that runs at 1024×768… it’s just like the 9.7″ iPad shrunk down a little bit. Apps wouldn’t need to be recompiled or redesigned to work optimally on it. It’s just the iPad smaller.

via IDC

With Apple’s share price in the lower $600 range, Apple’s Scott Forstall decided to cash out on 95% of his Apple shares this past Friday by selling 64,151 shares for a net take of $38.7 million according to a filed SEC Form 4.

According to Phillip Elmer-DeWitt, Forstall’s holdings were the result of a bonus of 120,000 shares originally granted in 2008 and which vested last month. So for all the pundits ready to scream that the sky is falling, note that Forstall wasn’t able to sell his shares up until recently.

Although the sale represented 95% of Forstall’s current Apple holdings, that doesn’t mean he’s getting ready to leave the company. He has two more retention bonuses in the wings:

100,000 restricted stock units (RSUs) that were granted in 2010 and vest in 2014
150,000 RSUs granted in 2011 that vest in equal parts in 2013 and 2016, provided he stays with the company

And this, of course, is in addition to Forstall’s annual salary which checks in at $700,000 a year.

A typical and hollow hit piece on Apple from the good folks over at Business Insider who do some “leg work” to determine all of the jobs Apple has destroyed by creating products that have left companies struggling to keep up, thereby creating layoffs across multiple industries.

But what about the competitors Apple has bumped off in its relentless move to the top? What about the once-profitable markets, products, and companies it has destroyed? What happened to those jobs?

Business Insider analyzed data on Bloomberg, went through dozens of 10-Ks, and read through layoff announcements to see how Apple’s peers have done.

What we found:

Apple has destroyed nearly as many jobs as it helped create, eliminating some 490,570 positions.

What a non-scientific hoot.

The Hollywood Reporter reports:

Aftermath Records, a division of Universal Music Group, is about to go to trial in a case that will determine what money is owed over digital music to producers of many hit Eminem records. Meanwhile, in another case — a class action against UMG brought by many musicians including Rob Zombie, the estate of Rick James, and others — the plaintiffs are demanding to see trial exhibits, expert reports, depositions and other documents from the Eminem case. The discovery request has brought a strong objection from Apple Inc., which is trying to shield these documents from coming out. Among the evidence being sought is a deposition of Steve Jobs, which when it was first produced, led to the extraordinary move by the judge of ordering most everyone out of the courtroom, including UMG’s employees.

Will this new feature help save the BlackBerry? Not likely, but it’s an interesting concept, for sure.