Edible Apple

As previously rumored, and subsequently confirmed by a Stapes executive in a tweet last week, the office supply retailer has begun selling Apple accessories.

On Tuesday, Staples updates its website to include products like the Magic Mouse, Apple TV, EarPods, and a slew of other Apple branded accessories.

The Staples website divides up Apple’s accessories into four categories – accessories for iPads, iPhones, Macs and iPods.

As one would expect, the pricepoints at Staples are the same as you would find at a local Apple Retail store.

Thus far, it seems that Apple’s foray into Staples will focus exclusively on accessories. It will be interesting to see, though, if the partnership soon extends to include hardware as well.

It’s also interesting that Apple is reappearing in a store like Staples because one of the motivations for Apple to develop its own retail stores was that computer and office supply stores like CompUSA and Office Depot often showcased Apple products in less than stellar conditions. Further, reps at many of these stores were not qualified or interested in touting the advantages of the Mac. And now, many years later, Apple is back in full effect.

Well, sort of. Even at Best Buy, where Apple hardware is available, Apple’s products are showcased within an Apple store within a store concept, allowing Apple to maintain complete control over its brand.

Ken Segall, the former TBWA/Chiat Day creative lead, believes that Apple is losing its ad war against Samsung. Whereas Samsung’s ads are funny and edgy, Apple’s ads, while decent, are traditional and don’t offer up anything new and exciting.

While you can still argue that Macs and i-devices have a ton of appeal, you can’t argue that Apple is still untouchable when it comes to advertising.

The fact is, it is being touched — often and effectively — by none other than Samsung.

Samsung has made remarkable inroads in a very short time, for two big reasons.

First, it is spending a fortune to run its ads. According to this report, Samsung spends more than Apple, more than HP and Dell, and even more than Coca-Cola to get its message out. In marketing, as in political advertising, the bigger the budget, the bigger the chance of success. Assuming, of course, that the message is a potent one.

The big surprise is that Samsung’s message has proven to be tremendously potent. The company continues to bash away at Apple, delivering ads that are well produced, well written and seem to be striking a nerve.

via Ken Segall via Network World

Wired reports:

But with this enormous success comes a whole new set of computing problems, and James Hamilton is one of the key thinkers charged with solving such problems, striving to rethink the data center for the age of cloud computing. Much like two other cloud computing giants — Google and Microsoft — Amazon says very little about the particulars of its data center work, viewing this as the most important of trade secrets, but Hamilton is held in such high regard, he’s one of the few Amazon employees permitted to blog about his big ideas, and the fifty-something Canadian has developed a reputation across the industry as a guru of distributing systems — the kind of massive online operations that Amazon builds to support thousands of companies across the globe.

“He’s really sharp,” says Adrian Cockcroft, the director of cloud architecture at Netflix, Amazon’s most high-profile customer. “He’s been around a long time, built a lot of interesting stuff.”

In an effort to drive business in emerging markets like China and India, Apple will reportedly offer a more affordable iPhone this Summer, this according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

“We believe a lower priced iPhone will be a positive for AAPL shares for two reasons,” Munster explained. “First, despite its lower margin, it should accelerate gross profit growth given the size of the low-end market (we estimate $135B in 2013); second, investors have historically bought into AAPL ahead of major new product releases.”

Of course, this isn’t the first we’ve heard of Apple release a more economical iPhone model. And as for concerns regarding gross margin, the more economical may be cheaper, but it will also be comprised of cheaper materials. The takeaway is that Apple’s gross margins may not be affected as greatly as some have been speculating.

By taking available pricing in six international markets — Germany, UK, France, China, Brazil and India — Munster was able to come up with a snapshot of the low-cost segment. He notes that the lowest priced iPhone, the iPhone 4, is still 133 percent more expensive than the global average for a low-end smartphone, suggesting Apple is only skimming the top of the market.

As for Apple’s other handset models, the iPhone 5 is 19 percent more expensive than comparable flagship handsets from rival manufacturers, while the iPhone 4S is 48 percent more than mid-range devices. This means that Apple’s biggest gap in pricing is between seen in the low-end segment.

The real prize in Apple’s efforts to maintain its unprecedented growth is China, and securing a deal with China Mobile, the world’s largest cell phone carrier with upwards of 700 million subscribers. Many China Mobile subscribers, however, aren’t well-to-do which is why Apple is likely exploring a low-cost iPhone model in the first place.

Munster anticipates Apple will release a $199 iPhone this Fall and that they may sell upwards of 37 million units by the end of 2013. Looking ahead to 2014 and 2015, those estimates jump to 96 million and 170 million units respectively.

via AppleInsider

A recent report from Digitimes relays that Apple’s next iteration of the iPad Mini may sport a screen resolution of 2,048×1536, giving it a Retina Display but also increasing the cost production by approximately $12 per unit. As it stands now, the base model $329 iPad Mini has a bill of materials of $188, a figure which may soon rise to $200 if the Digitimes report proves accurate.

AppleBitch adds:

 The report further suggests that with the extra costs associated with putting a Retina Display into the iPad mini, including increased backlighting and LEDs, the total cost of the Retina Display iPad mini could increase by around 30%. Interestingly, the mention of LEDs in this report is strange in the context of recent statements by Tim Cook, CEO of Apple who suggested that OLED displays were inferior in color saturation compared to the Retina Displays.

Either way, don’t expect Apple to adjust the price of the iPad Mini upwards of downwards. Margins on the device are already lower than what Apple already enjoys across the entirety of its product line and it’s hard to imagine Apple would tolerate even lower margins.

Apple yesterday releaesd two brand new iPad ads.

First, we have “Alive”.

And next we have  “Together”.

Well this should certainly get speculation going regarding Apple’s plans for the living room. Regardless of whether or not Apple chooses to go the HDTV route or perhaps simply enhance the Apple TV, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Apple is looking at the TV space quite seriously.

A recent job posting indicates that Apple is looking for a senior manager to help bring the Apple experience to the living room.

The Apple TV team is looking for an experienced engineering manager to help deliver the next generation features for Apple TV. Bring your creative energy and engineering discipline, and help us bring the Apple experience to the Living Room…Work closely with cross functional teams, representing Apple TV across Apple.

What’s more, the project is described as being one of high priority.

via 9to5Mac

Remember the report that surfaced a few months ago detailing how Apple will sometimes put employees on fake projects in an effort to determine their honesty?

Well, it turns out that there isn’t much evidence to substantiate such claims.

Ars Techncia did some legwork and touched based with various Apple employees and discovered that no one had really even ever heard second hand of an employee’s time being wasted on projects that were merely hollow.

“Apple always seemed to be a no-bullshit kind of place when it comes to the seriousness of your work and what you get done,” one former engineer told me when I asked him about fake projects. “I find it suspect that they’d ever waste their own and the employee’s time on something that didn’t directly contribute to their bottom line somehow.”

I spoke to Apple employees from various areas of the company at differing levels, some who are still at Apple and others who have moved on, but all expressed the same sentiment. No one reported any direct experience of being put on a fake project at Apple, and no one knew a friend or colleague at the company who had. A single former employee acknowledged having heard about fake projects—but only from a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend, and the employee was quick to acknowledge that the rumor should be treated with a skeptical eye.

Given that Apple is busying itself with trying to change the world, I sincerely doubt it would put talented engineers to work on products and initiatives without a clear endgoal in sight.

Amazing how quickly the times change. AppleInsider reports:

In the winter quarter (Apple’s fiscal Q1), the company reported “iTunes Software and Services” revenues of $3.69 billion and accessory sales of $1.83 billion. Those figures represented year over year growth of 22 and 25 percent over the year ago quarter (despite that previous quarter having an extra week). That growth matched the net revenue growth of the company’s blockbuster year-over-year iPad performance.

On a quarterly basis, Apple’s $5.5 billion in combined software and accessory revenues amounted to more than twice what the company made from selling iPods in the holiday quarter. That revenue was also about equal to the company’s quarterly revenues from selling Macs (although Mac sales were down significantly due to the late introduction of new iMac models).

And to really contextualize things, the money Apple earned last quarter via iTunes and accessory sales were about on par with the revenues Microsoft generated from its Windows division and “more than a billion dollars greater than Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division (which sells the Xbox, Windows Phone and related products and accessories).”

9to5 Mac reports:

Web analytics firm StatCounter is out today with updated stats for the month of January 2013. When it comes to Internet usage, iPhone users this month held the No. 1 spot as Nokia experienced a significant decline during 2012. With Nokia’s share of mobile internet usage down 15.52-percent from 37.67-percent last January to just 22.15-percent this year, Apple was able to move into the No. 1 position for the first time despite experiencing a decline of 2.81-percent. Apple took 25.86-percent of mobile Internet usage in January, down from 28.67-percent last year. Nokia was also bumped to third position with Samsung gaining 7.85-percent to move into the No. 2 spot. However, it’s important to point out that StatCounter didn’t include iPads in its definition of mobile devices.

The Turkish blog Ima Dergisi is reporting that Apple executive John Couch is meeting with Turkish bigwigs to discuss the potential for the country to pony up $4.5 billion to purchase 15 million iPads for use in the country’s school system.

AppleInsider adds:

Worth some $4.5 billion, the tablet program has Apple pushing for a contract, but a deal has yet to be reached as the parties negotiate further. While not the main topic of discussion, the layout of the Turkish “F-keyboard,” which has a number of keys set in the wrong position, was also mentioned.

MacRumors points us to a new job listing from Apple which seeks out a Manufacturing Design Engineer with expertise in advanced plastic tooling.

The job description reads:

Identify, develop and launch new tooling and process capabilities in support of new Apple product developments. Areas of focus will be “non-traditional” Apple plastic processing such as thermoforming, foam molding, blow molding, etc., and their application to new Apple products. The successful candidate will have demonstrated history of bringing new process and tooling technologies through a full development cycle and launch into high volume production.

…

•Identify and develop new plastic tooling and process techniques in support of new Apple products.

•Collaborate with supply management, product design, industrial design, and manufacturing engineering groups on material selection, design feasibility and aesthetics on parts using these new technologies

•Insure seamless transfer of knowledge of new process to supplier and Apple tooling engineers.

•Train engineers at supplier plants in Asia to utilize new tooling materials and fabrication techniques.

via MacRumors