It’s about time: Apple to expand DRM free music offerings
Apple has negotiated deals that will finally enable iTunes to offer songs free of copy protection software from the three largest music labels, according to sources and reports from people close to the negotiations. In exchange, Apple has agreed to become more flexible on pricing as well (about time for this too). Yes! No more arcane protection schemes. And it’s about time.
Under the terms of the deal, song prices will be divided into 3 different types: older songs, midline songs (newer songs that aren’t really big hits), and current big hits. This new deal will expand iTunes’ DRM-free library to include songs from all three major labels (Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner Music). The best news: a price drop for most songs to 79 cents, which will make buying music more affordable for more people, something I can always support.
It’s a huge development for a platform that has been somewhat dissed by many users for its DRM practices (and it’s why I rarely used iTunes myself personally). Once I buy a song, I should be able to do what I want with it (assuming i’m not a pirate with zero conscience making 100 copies for my friends, which I don’t).
Wal-Mart will put the iPhone at the top of the heap
As the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart commands a significant amount of respect and power. In fact, I think the company is the most important retailer to any company in any industry, let alone Apple and the tech industry.
But Friday’s news that the iPhone will be coming to Wal-Mart store shelves on Sunday has changed the face of the cell phone industry completely. In effect, it means that Apple, one of the most important hardware companies in the cell industry, will see its popular mobile phone be made available to millions more customers. It also means that Blackberry and every other company in the market that’s trying desperately to compete with Apple simply won’t be able to do it, given its already strong buzz and market strength around the world.
Will its introduction at Wal-Mart win it the smartphone war? Yes. Sound strange? Perhaps. But when you consider Wal-Mart’s size and importance, along with its decision to ignore devices from every Apple competitor, I think it’s abundantly clear that the opportunities for success for RIM and Android went down quite a bit with this development.
Plans and Maneuverings: Apple grabs a stake in mobile graphics chip company
Apple has taken a small stake in a British chip designer, more or less revealing how the company plans to power the graphics in future iPhones and iPod touch models.
Imagination announced Thursday that Apple has acquired a 3.6 percent stake in the company, which will only cost Apple around $5 million (for them, a drop in the bucket).
Imagination designs chips for a variety of applications, but its most prominent designs are its PowerVR models for graphics in mobile phones. Apple no doubt plans on leveraging the technology for their future phones.
Earlier this year Imagination announced that a “international electronic systems company” had acquired a license for the PowerVR graphics cores, and in Thursday’s press release, Imagination said Apple was also a licensee as well. The plot thickens.
The PowerVR cores will likely sit alongside the ARM-based processor core designs that another team is already developing. Imagination has also signed a license deal with iPhone processor maker Samsung, probably a sign that Apple will continue to use Samsung as a partner once the ARM designs are complete.
The wheels at Apple are definitely turning.
iPhone 2.2 Firmware Update may be out on the 21st of November?
It appears an important update for the iPhone is nearing release, much sooner than many had predicted.
While the iPhone OS 2.1 software update is still settling in among a few users, and had made significant improvements for many users, there’s a rumor flying around now that the next firmware version update might be coming a little quicker than most thought. Testing is going well, and according to an inside tester, the iPhone OS v2.2 will be released into the market on Nov. 21st, 2008.
That’s about 10 days from now. But though it brings quite a number of new features (full support for Google Maps, downloadable podcasts among the big ones), it still lacks copy/paste and a number of other things iPhone people have been clamoring for since the beginning. There’s always time later on, but I can guess a number of iPhone users may be growing impatient already.
This date is really just a rumor, so take it with a grain of salt.
Two Apple iPod chief execs to leave the company - for their family?
Yes, you heard correctly. Putting family over work. A rarity in today’s society, indeed.
Apple on Tuesday confirmed rumors circulating yesterday that Tony Fadell, a longtime executive in charge of the company’s iPod division and regarded as mainly responsible for its mainstream success, is stepping down.
Fadell will be replaced by Mark Papermaster (greatest company exec name ever), a vice president at IBM, who will join Apple as senior vice president of devices (the devices being mainly the iPod line), which is a nice grab for Apple.
Fadell will remain at Apple as an adviser to CEO Steve Jobs, the company said. Apple also announced that Fadell’s wife, Danielle Lambert, plans to step down from her position as vice president of human resources at the end of the year, after a successor is found. She will leave the company, Apple said.
Both stated their reasons were for spending more time with their growing family. I say, good for them. We’ll see if this impacts the iPod or its strategies going forward in any way, though.
Intel and Apple: Apologies, Self-Promotion and Corrections
Intel released a statement of ”correction” Thursday regarding comments one of its big wigs made earlier this week attacking the iPhone as incapable of working with the Internet “correctly”. It’s a rare move for the company, so someone in higher power was none too pleased by the comments.
This is in response to comments made by Intel’s Shane Wall and Pankaj Kedia (follow the link for what they said) at the company’s Developer Forum in Taipei. Among other things, the executives resurrected Intel’s lame argument against ARM that it can’t handle the internet and singled out the iPhone as an example of a smartphone that could be really great…if it only used one of Intel’s low-power x86 architecture processors, or Atom. Nothing like a little slamming of the competition, and in the same breath telling people it could be worth using if it used internals from your own company.
More gory details here: Link
AT&T: If it wasn’t for Wireless/iPhone, their headquarters might be a parking lot
And that title isn’t a huge exaggeration when you look at the numbers. AT&T’s net profits were up slightly in the third quarter thanks mostly to the popularity of the iPhone 3G and their wireless division.
The largest phone company in the US announced Wednesday a 5.5 percent jump in profits for the third quarter. Total net income for the company increased to $3.2 billion on sales of $31.2 billion, which were up about 4 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago (in a time where most companies bottom lines are shrinking at an alarming rate, aside from Apple of course).
Wireless, which accounts for about 40 percent of AT&T’s total revenue, once again saved the day for AT&T, proving that it continues to be a big earner even as the economy takes a dive. Profits for wireless services surged 21 percent on revenue that was up 15 percent on the quarter.
In other words, net profit would have been a lot lower had it not been for their wireless and the popularity of the iPhone. AT&T reported it activated 2.4 million iPhones during the third quarter with about 40 percent of those going to new subscribers, the lifeblood of any company like AT&T.
Delve into the numbers here: Link
200 million TV episodes sold in iTunes - but does it really matter?
Apple said Thursday that it has sold 200 million TV episodes on iTunes. This is significant, but only a drop in the bucket in the overall scheme of things, and networks probably will only see a small amount from these sales.
The company also announced that iTunes would offer HD TV shows from all four of the major broadcast networks–CBS, Fox, ABC, and NBC–and that it had sold over a million HDTV episodes since last month. Again, very solid, but will it replace conventional ways of accessing this type of media? Probably not.
To put this into perspective, Apple sold the 200 million episodes over a three year period. If each show sold for the standard $1.99 iTunes price and the networks took a 70 percent cut then they would have made about $280 million. That means that $93 million a year would be left.
Regardless, the truth is that even in a best-case scenario for iTunes sales the numbers are a trickle compared to regular network numbers. The Television Bureau of Advertising reported for August that total broadcast ad revenue was just over $11 billion for the second quarter.
That’s worth repeating: $11 billion for the second quarter. Alone.
But does this mean iTunes won’t be a significant video distributor in coming years? Not likely. The numbers show that a lot of people are willing to pay for mobile content, the same content they can watch for free via broadcast or at Web sites like Hulu, which may sound odd, but convenience is a big motivator for many customers apparently.
Nvidia challenges Intel in the integrated graphics arena with the 9400M
Nvidia has introduced its GeForce 9400M graphics chip on Wednesday, a direct challenge to Intel’s integrated graphic ship crown (won mostly by default, since few others have entered the fray to provide such a solution).
Apple’s choice of the 9400M for its redone MacBook line heralds a new trumpet call of competition in the market for mobile integrated graphics - a typically very low cost solution that is built into mostly Intel chipsets. Many of the top notebook vendors have usually defaulted to Intel graphics in low-end models and ultraportables, despite reports of lackluster performance even in faster systems. Apple used Intel graphic chipsets for previous versions of the MacBook and MacBook Air.
It didn’t happen this time around though. Apple did some research and even pointed to the 9400M as a reason for stronger performance in the new MacBooks. Which you can bet will trigger other PC makers to look at the 9400M a lot more closely. In fact, Nvidia stated that many OEM’s have designs using their new chipset “in the works”.
Some important 9400M features include 16 streaming processors that are designed to boost the performance of games and a technology called Hybrid SLI, which allows Nvidia’s integrated silicon to be combined with an external graphics card for even more steam.
From a PR perspective, Nvidia also made it clear Wednesday that the 9400M will not have the previous issues their chips have had, such as weak die and flimsy packaging materials. They’ve stated updating all of their materials they use to produce chips.
This could shape up to be quite a war between the two companies, for a piece of a pretty big pie. Intel (you would assume) will have to respond at some point with a new design of their own, or risk losing a pretty decent chunk of change to Nvidia.
In Tech Related News: At least the technology sector isn’t dead yet
The Dow Jones Industrial Index, which has been on a heck of a roller coaster lately, ran back up above 9,000 in its largest single-day point gain ever Monday, while Apple, Microsoft, Dell, and other tech companies grabbed double-digit gains. It’s a sign that the tech sector still has a lot of life in it, despite the completely crappy economy.
After taking investors on a soul-sinking decline last week, Wall Street didn’t disappoint predictions of a better week with the Dow jumping 936.42 points to close at 9,9387.61, which was a welcome sight given the eight straight days of losses previously. And tech stocks were a big part of that.
Big gains included Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, Cisco, Dell, and Research in Motion (the Blackberry people). All these stocks were among the most actively traded on Nasdaq as well. So the outlook is pretty rosy for tech at the moment, a good thing for those who read this blog and prize the inner nerd in themselves.
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