Seth

Palm's Pre Goes a Step Further Than the iPhone

Ken - Editors occasionally adjust headlines as they deem necessary. The vast majority of the time they nail it. Sometimes, as with anyone's efforts, the mark can be missed a little in the effort.

Here, you're correct. No question. The original headline when published on Metue.com was "CES 2009: Palm Pre Gets the Spotlight." The reworked version on SA suggests the Pre is better, or will beat, the iPhone. As you noted, that's not the take of the article.

My take - to restate it in a sentence or two - The Pre and WebOS have some impressive, and well thought out, features. The phone is a slick device. first look, it impresses. Will it help Palm? probably. Will it be enough to grab "real" market share or take away from the iPhone or other devices out there (RIM, Apple, Nokia, etc)...that's much harder to say.

The products all have their strengths and weaknesses and will win raves or critisms depending on the needs of the reviewer.

Palm's facing a lot of challenges. They've made a nice device, and with it, now the company's story is sure to be a lot more interesting. iPhone killer? no. interesting competitor or addition to the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Nokia smartphone world - looks like it.

How Will the Market React to Apple's New Macbooks?

It'll be interesting to see how the market reacts to whatever is revealed. There's definitely a lot of concern about the holiday quarter and how corporate/consumer spending patterns will impact it.

Apple Reveals New Nanos, Touches in Fall Event

Correction: price of the smallest iPod Touch (8gb) is going to be $229, not $199.

Stalky- the graphic does show the vertical first and second generation Nano followed by the squat 3rd, and then the new, again tall, fourth edition that was just revealed. The scale for each picture is staggered to suggest 'evolution.' Maybe that scaling, or the dates, which correspond to the day each model was announced, confused?

How Much Will the App Store Contribute to Apple’s Bottom Line?

To the second comment – if you apply the formula as you’re suggesting it effectively assumes that the revenue sharing distributions (iTunes and App Store) are incorporated into the 14% Net Margin, that is, it reflects Apple’s earnings after sharing revenue and trimming off expenses. We can argue that is flawed:

14% is a number derived from company-wide results and the bulk of Apple’s revenue is generated from product sales that don’t have a comparable rev-share component. It’s not like they’re sharing 60% of MacBook or iPod product revenue with partners.

I chose to apply the margin rate to just Apple’s share (30% of Net Sales) because it yields a more conservative result which takes the revenue sharing component explicitly into account. Is it right? Maybe, maybe not. It’s acknowledged in the article that “using a Net Margin percentage taken as an average from the entire business can’t possibly reflect the differences in the different divisions. 14% works for the sake of putting something together but it’s a guess that could be off in either direction.”

As for the value of including the iTunes calculations - the original title of the article on my own site was “Modeling iTunes AND App Store EPS potential.”

Strongest June Quarter in Apple History Doesn't Satisfy the Street

Andy - you're absolutely right. And so are the echos. Yesterday, the Associated Press' widespread earnings coverage talked about Steve's absence. As you point out though - that's normal. Instead of spotting the mistake, I made one of my own and gave it more air time.

iPhone 3G Plans Around the Globe

RE CANADA: The news about Canada is still unfolding. It now appears to be confirmed that Apple won't sell the phone at their own stores there. They may also be diverting some shipments previously meant for Rogers to Europe (unconfirmed).

I've updated my original article on Metue to cover these changes and will continue to report on it as it unfolds. The update can be found here: metue.com/07-07-2008/i.../

Inside the iPhone: Who's Making What

Absolutely true, gskiii. To have been completely accurate, I should have said "storage capacity" instead of "hard drive"....

Inside the iPhone: Who's Making What

UPDATE: In addition to the above Apple rumors, a little more has hit the airwaves since this was original written. Notably, perspective on Apple's profit margin. We've got that info updated in the article at Metue.com (Link: metue.com/06-19-2008/a.../)

For the quick summary here: there are reports Apple's cost structure for hardware may be as low as $100. There are also reports of exactly what AT&T will pay to Apple. Combined, if accurate, the iPhone 3G could be among the most profitable, per product, in Apple's portfolio. More in the link.

iPhone “By the Numbers”: Apple’s Sweeping Tide Across the Globe

Yep, so much for the rumors Ultradodgy. Unfortunately, that news broke a couple days after the original article. The version on my own site, Metue.com, has been updated to account for it.

Softbank has only about 18.8m subscribers (14.5m on 3G) to DoCoMo's 50+ million so its a smaller land grab. Apple was probably able to negotiate better terms.

Is Apple Making Way for the New iPhone?

Anan, I replied to your comment on my own site, but for those here: As a disclaimer I'm not an engineer but I believe Watt Hours are calculated by voltage by MAH and then dividing down. In the case of the iphone, it's a 3.7V 1400 MAh battery (confirmed by the early product take aparts published in June). That yields 5180 MVah or 5.18 Watt Hours.

Regarding Infineon - The leaks from the Asian manufacturing industry have a spotty track record. Still, the buzz is they do have it.

Regarding the games - that sure looks to be the case. When the SDK was released a number of games were featured in the press show. They included a mobile version of EA's title Spore. And another game built around flying Star Wars spaceships. That model used the accelerometer in the phone to make it function similar to a Wii control..eg/ motion activated. (More on the SDK release can be found in part 2 of this article from Metue for those curious: metue.com/03-06-2008/a.../)

As for the camera - as a factor of battery life and storage, your guess makes sense. There's also been some talk about both a front and rear mounted lens (one to support video conferencing). If that turns out to be true, it would back you up even more.

A final comment - June definitely has the grapevine as the whisper date. On the other hand, an earlier announcement has gotten some rumor mill time too. At this point, the time line is a guess worthy of a betting pool all its own.

Is Apple Making Way for the New iPhone?

Sami, there's been definitely been some speculation that opting for EDGE over 3G might have hampered global sales on the first run of the phone. It's certainly possible but its equally possible that the reception of the first phone just wet the markets appetite for version 2.

Looking back over this past years adoption, I'd ask two questions: "how large a group of the phone's potential buyers were aware of the distinctions between EDGE and 3G and would stake their buying decisions on it?" Additionally, "how much, and how effectively, were those concerns handled by marketing materials and in store sales staff?"

Given the initial emphasis on the US market for the first generation, my expectation is the lack of 3G was far less significant than you suggest.


Unfortunately, there's no proof. As far as I know, not even the retail tracking firms have run a survey to ask if EDGE, or lack of 3G, was a factor in buying decisions. Lacking that, or actually sales data that can support either argument - the only way to measure is to see how the next phone sells when its released.

As that happens, I would expect that European/Global marketing becomes more of an emphasis than it was on the first generation. I'd also expect that to have an impact in some markets.

As for phone components and how the next model is bundled, we're all guessing. But regarding a camera, the chipsets I mentioned above (and that are thought to be top candidates for the phone) can support 5 mpix cameras. There's even the prospect of video teleconferencing with a front mounted lens (which has also been speculated about). Whether Apple chooses to add a full function GPS component is another debate.

It's a "wait and see" game but I'd strongly disagree with the idea of "too little too late" as you mentioned in your comment.

Armed with DRM-Free Music, Yahoo Would Be a Digital Music Force

Jon, As a clarifier, NBC Universal and Universal Music are different companies. Since 2004, the film and movie business (NBC/U) is owned by GE. The music business is owned by Vivendi

MacBook Air: In a Word, Impressive

To dynein: "Come June" was actually meant to be "By June"....not a reference to when the product ships, but how it's performed after a few months of sales.