Samsung trying to beat Apple to market with ‘iWatch’ rival?

“Screenshots alleged to be of a forthcoming Samsung smartwatch have been posted on the Korean message board Ruliweb (via SlashGear), suggesting possible competition for the rumored Apple ‘iWatch,’” Ben Lovejoy reports for MacRumors.

“It is unclear whether the watch will be a self-contained product, or rely on a Bluetooth connection to a smartphone,” Lovejoy reports. “The watch screenshots indicate that the device is running software called AltiusOS beta2, and an app navigation screen bears a resemblance to the tiles seen on Windows Phone.”

Lovejoy reports, “SlashGear notes that the screenshots are 500×500 pixels, and suggests that this may be the resolution of the screen.”

Read more and see the screenshots in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Not on Tim Cook’s iWatch.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Dan K.” and “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]

Apple’s iTunes Store passes 25 billion songs sold milestone

Apple today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded more than 25 billion songs from the iTunes Store, the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store. The 25 billionth song, “Monkey Drums” (Goksel Vancin Remix) by Chase Buch, was purchased by Phillip L pke from Germany. As the downloader of the 25 billionth song, Phillip will receive a 10,000 iTunes Gift Card.

“We are grateful to our users whose passion for music over the past 10 years has made iTunes the number one music retailer in the world,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, in the press release. “Averaging over 15,000 songs downloaded per minute, the iTunes Store connects music fans with their favorite artists, including global sensations like Adele and Coldplay and new artists like The Lumineers, on a scale we never imagined possible.”

“In a lot of ways, iTunes has leveled the playing field for musicians. Whether you’re unsigned, indie, major, whatever-it’s the place most people go to buy digital music,” said Wesley Schultz, guitarist and lead vocalist of The Lumineers, in the release. “iTunes doesn’t exclude any musicians simply because they’re not yet established or popular.”

The iTunes Store is the world’s most popular music store with a catalog of over 26 million songs and over 25 billion songs downloaded, and is available in 119 countries. The iTunes Store is the best way for iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music online. All music on the iTunes Store comes in iTunes Plus, Apple’s DRM-free format with high-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings. iTunes in the Cloud lets you download your previously purchased iTunes music to your devices at no additional cost, and new music purchases can be downloaded automatically to your iOS devices.

Source: Apple Inc.

MacDailyNews Take: 25 billion in under 10 years! Congrats, Apple!

The Apple iTunes Store Milestones:
February 6, 2013: 25 billion songs sold.
February 24, 2010: 10 billion songs sold.
June 19, 2008: 5 billion songs sold.
February 26, 2008: 4 billion songs sold.
July 31, 2007: 3 billion songs sold.
April 09, 2007: 2.5 billion songs sold.
January 09, 2007: 2 billion songs sold.
February 23, 2006: 1 billion songs sold.
February 7, 2006: 950 million songs sold.
January 9, 2006: 850 million songs sold.
October 25, 2005: Available in Australia.
August 4, 2005: Available in Japan.
July 17, 2005: 500 million songs sold.
May 10, 2005: 400 million songs sold. Available in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.
January 24, 2005: 250 million songs sold.
December 16, 2004: 200 million songs sold.
December 2, 2004: Available in Canada.
October 26, 2004: Available in the European Union.
October 14, 2004: 150 million songs sold.
July 12, 2004: 100 million songs sold.
June 15, 2004: Available in UK, France, and Germany.
April 28, 2004: 70 million songs sold.
March 15, 2004: 50 million songs sold.
December 15, 2003: 25 million songs sold.
October 16, 2003: Available for windows. 13 million songs sold.
September 8, 2003: 10 million songs sold.
June 23, 2003: 5 million songs sold.
May 14, 2003: 2 million songs sold.
May 5, 2003: One million songs sold.
April 28, 2003: Launched in United States.

Apple’s critics focus on wrong kind of ‘cool’

“Has Apple lost its cool?” Matt Creamer writes for AdAge.

“It’s a question that’s been asked since Apple rose from the ashes in 2001, a time during which the company has become nothing less than the most valuable in the world,” Creamer writes. “Nevertheless, journalists, analysts and just about everyone else have been champing at the bit to pinpoint the exact moment when the company will lose its imagined Svengali-like grip on the minds of American consumers and Appleapocalypse is upon us.”

Creamer writes, “Ricocheting around the web last week was a Wall Street Journal article headlined: ‘Has Apple Lost Its Cool to Samsung?’ CNBC asked ‘Is Samsung Cooler Than Apple?’ … For a marketing world that has been hanging on every Apple move for decades, these are huge questions that seem to herald some sort of new brand order. They also might be the wrong ones entirely. After all, it’s been a long time since Apple has had to worry about issues of cool — it’s a ubiquitous cultural force with little of the underdog feel it had when it was the hip alternative to IBM or Microsoft.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “TheloniousMac” for the heads up.]

Apple products: So much for a lack of demand

“So the story is still playing out. Starting in December, there was an unproven claim that demand for the iPhone 5 had taken a nosedive. Why? Because of one unconfirmed report claiming that Apple had cut back on orders for the latest iPhone’s displays,” Gene Steinberg writes for TechNightOwl. “Apple’s stock price took a dip, but things got real bad in January when no less than the Wall Street Journal published a similar report evidently based on the same unproven claim.”

“Even though Apple reported record sales for the December quarter, which lasted a week less than the December quarter for 2011, Apple couldn’t catch a break. Profits were flat, even though, after introducing so many new products in the previous few months, you’d expect exactly that result. And don’t forget Apple did caution against lower profits for the quarter,” Steinberg writes. “Despite the flat profits, they still totaled over 50% more than Samsung, and many times more than Amazon, which seldom reports much of a profit. The stock market responded by tanking Apple’s stock price, but keeping Amazon relatively high. Does that make sense? Well, I suppose it does if profits aren’t important.”

Steinberg writes, “Consider, also, that Apple managed to sell 47.8 million iPhones, despite the fact that the newest model was in short supply for much of the quarter. And, once again, it was a 13 week quarter, compared to 14 weeks last year. Had there been another week, assuming the same sales rate for that extra seven days, Apple would have sold nearly 3.68 million more iPhones, a total that would have comfortably exceeded analyst estimates. And don’t forget the impact to profit margins.”

Much more in the full article here.

Can Apple reach this level by April?

“Apple may have become less exciting as a company and more range bound as a stock, but the current valuation suggests that its diminished prospects are fully priced in, Weeden & Co analyst Michael Purves said,” Aabha Rathee reports for Wall St. Cheat Sheet.

“In short, the company’s share price, which has succumbed to gravity over the past few months, was on it way up,” Rathee reports. “Purves suggested a 14 percent move up to $520 by April 20.”

Rathee reports, “[Purves said that] Apple’s forward P/E ratio was at six-year lows and adjusted for its sizeable cash balance, the stock was trading less than seven times 2013 earnings. In this scenario and at the current level, it would soon start attracting value investors. Apple closed on Wednesday at $456.83.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “David E.” for the heads up.]

Apple gains; tech stocks pare back losses on speculation of potential fiscal cliff deal

“Technology stocks benefitted from a late-day recovery on Thursday, as word spread of a meeting planned for the U.S. House of Representatives on Sunday that could include a break in the impasse over the so-called fiscal cliff,” Dan Gallagher reports for MarketWatch.

“The turn came on reports that Congress will meet over the weekend – raising hopes that lawmakers and President Obama may hammer out a deal to avert the fiscal cliff, which refers to a mix of large tax hikes and spending cuts that could materialize if a budget deal is not settled before the new year,” Gallagher reports. “Apple was among the most notable beneficiaries of the recovery. The consumer electronics maker closed up 0.4% to $515.06. The stock had been on pace earlier to close at its lowest level since mid-February.”

Gallagher reports, “Large-cap tech stocks with large exposure to federal spending still saw notable declines for the session. Cisco Systems closed down 1.4% while Oracle shed about 1%.”

Read more in the full article here.

Kodak agrees to sell patent portfolio for $525 million

“Eastman Kodak Co agreed to sell its digital imaging patents for about $525 million, a key step to bringing the photography pioneer out of bankruptcy in the first half of 2013,” Tom Halss reports for Reuters. “The deal for the 1,100 patents allows Kodak to fulfill a condition for securing $830 million in financing.”

“The patent deal was reached with a consortium led by Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corp, and which includes some of the world’s biggest technology companies, which will license or acquire the patents,” Halss reports. “Those companies are Adobe Systems Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc, Facebook Inc, Fujifilm, Google Inc, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, HTC Corp, Microsoft Corp, Research In Motion Ltd, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Shutterfly Inc, according to court documents.”

Halss reports, “Kodak traces its roots to the 19th century and invented the handheld camera. But it has been unable to successfully shift to digital imaging. It will likely be a different company when it exits bankruptcy, out of the consumer business and focused instead on providing products and services to the commercial imaging market. The patent sale is subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Rainy Day” for the heads up.]

Below the Surface lies Microsoft’s impending doom

“Early data shows that the PC market has not experienced a ‘pop’ from Windows 8,” Horace Dediu writes for Asymco. “If we combine the traditional PC and tablet markets – what I refer to as ‘large and medium screen PCs’ – there has been growth. However the growth is all due to the tablets.”

“Microsoft’s problem is not that it has difficulty offering an operating system for tablets. The problem is that the economics of both systems and application software on tablets is destructive to its margins,” Dediu writes. “Apple charges $9.99 each for iOS versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote which can be installed on several devices. The economics of tablets imply a ‘”commoditization’ of system and application software. So what’s Microsoft to do?”

Dediu writes, “The answer is Surface where the software margin is captured in hardware. This explains the pricing of Surface. The price isn’t significantly below what Apple charges because Microsoft wants to capture a comparable (30%+) margin.. Device economics offer the explanation for an otherwise perplexing Surface strategy. The question remains how many Surface units could Microsoft possibly sell to maintain its revenues.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Not anywhere near enough.

Apple commoditized Microsoft’s main product (software). OS X costs $19.99. Pages, Numbers, and Keynote cost $9.99 each.

This is how Apple is killing Microsoft: They’re starving them to death.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]

Nasdaq slumps as Apple stock price hits 10-month low

“The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.62% to 2,973.68 at 3:00 p.m. EST today as Apple stock fell to a 10-month low,” Jonah Loeb reports for Minyanville.

“The tech giant saw its stock price plummet 3.87% to just $509.20 after consumer pressure forced it to bring Google Maps services back to iOS,” Loeb reports.

MacDailyNews Take: No. Apple removed Google’s data from iOS Maps and, due to this newfound competition, Google was forced to up their game. They wrote a new Maps app and submitted it to Apple’s App Store for approval. Having followed Apple’s guidelines, the app was approved.

Loeb reports, “Facebook also hit a skid today, falling 3.90% to $27.14 as its fourth lockup period expired, opening up another 156 million shares of the company to public trading.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: We find it highly doubtful that Apple’s iPhone cementing it’s position as the undisputed best smartphone for mobile maps caused the stock to swoon. Perhaps other factors are weighing on the stock?

Apple, Microsoft v. Google’s Motorola Mobility trials raise concerns over courtroom secrecy

“Two weeks before a high-stakes trial pitting Google’s Motorola Mobility unit against Microsoft, Google made what has become a common request for a technology company fighting for billions of dollars: A public court proceeding, conducted largely in secret,” Dan Levine reports for Reuters.

“Google and Microsoft, like rivals embroiled in smartphone patent wars, are eager to keep sensitive business information under wraps – in this case, the royalty deals they cut with other companies on patented technology,” Levine reports. “Microsoft asked for similar protections in a court filing late on Thursday. Such royalty rates, though, are the central issue in this trial, which begins November 13 in Seattle.”

Levine reports, “Legal experts are increasingly troubled by the level of secrecy that has become commonplace in intellectual property cases where overburdened judges often pay scant attention to the issue. Widespread sealing of documents infringes on the basic American legal principle that court should be public, says law professor, Dennis Crouch, and encourages companies to use a costly, tax-payer funded resource to resolve their disputes.”

“Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp have been litigating in courts around the world against Google Inc and partners like Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, which use the Android operating system on their mobile devices,” Levine reports. “Apple contends that Android is basically a copy of its iOS smartphone software, and Microsoft holds patents that it contends cover a number of Android features.”

Levine reports, “Robart will decide how big a royalty Motorola deserves from Microsoft for a license on some Motorola wireless and video patents. Apple, for its part, is set to square off against Motorola on Monday in Madison, Wisconsin, in a case that involves many of the same issues.”

Read more in the full article here.