Acer is clearly and closely aligned with Windows, but there’s one part of Microsoft’s strategy it’s not buying into just yet. At an event on Friday in New York — in the middle of a sea of newly-announced Windows products — company President Jim Wong told PCWorld that Acer won’t build a Windows RT tablet until Windows RT 8.1 comes out. “To be honest, there’s no value doing the current version of RT,” he said. We may not have to wait long, though: Wong also alluded to Windows RT 8.1 coming in the second half of this year.
Acer has a fairly turbulent history with Windows RT, but has repeatedly said it’s committed to building products with Microsoft’s low-powered OS. And with Windows RT 8.1, which promises to bring a number of…
Apple CEO Tim Cook responded to questions about the issue of potential cannibalization of Mac sales by iPad devices on today’s earnings call, a question made more timely by the fact that Mac sales were down considerably on the quarter. He reiterated that supply constraints are leading to fewer sales, but also tackled cannibalization as a broad topic, noting that there is opportunity there for the iPad in a couple of important ways.
Cook reiterated that Apple “never fear[s] cannibalization,” since it’s always better to cannibalize your own products rather than have someone else do it to you. But then he went on to address the larger picture, talking about the PC market in general. ”On iPad in particular we have the mother of all opportunities here, because the Windows market is much larger than the Mac market,” he said. “I’ve said in the past that I believe the tablet market would be larger than the PC market at some point and I still believe that.”
Another point he made sure to bring up was the so-called “halo effect” that the iPhone has been shown to have, whereby first-time buyers of Apple devices who pick one up tend to then purchase other products. The iPad, too, has plenty of potential to trigger that phenomenon.
“If someone buys an iPad mini or an iPad and it’s their first Apple product, we have great experience over the years knowing that there’s a great percentage they’ll buy another iPad product,” he said. “We’re very confident that that will happen and we’re seeing some evidence of that on the iPad as well, so I see cannibalization as a huge opportunity.”
Cannibalization is something Apple has always embraced, but that’s because the products that replace it always tend to rack up way more sales than the ones they’re pushing to the periphery. The Mac may be on the decline, but as long as the iPad continues to shine, it’s true that that’s likely of limited concern to Apple and its top brass.
Microblogging site Sina Weibo, China‘s answer to Twitter, reported a pretty dazzling statistic in its third quarter results: it now boasts over 400 million registered users. We can’t be sure how many are active, of course, but it’s still a vast number considering appeal is localized to the People’s Republic. It also means Sina is winning the popularity contest with social media competitor Tencent, although it humbly acknowledges their services are somewhat different. The company’s platform is still evolving, and it’s only recently seen mobile usage exceed computers, so is shifting product focus accordingly. Sina’s obviously doing something right, and that suits us just fine — keep those news bites and juicy leaks coming.
Filed under: Internet
Sina Weibo exceeds 400 million users, sees increasing mobile traffic originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Clearwire’s figures show that the network it isn’t cool to love will be making placating faces at its bank manager for yet another quarter. It pulled in revenues of $ 313.9 million for the three month period, but with business costs (and depreciation) clocking in at $ 646.7 million, the company posted an operating loss of $ 332 million and a net loss of $ 41.3 million. If that wasn’t bad enough, it’s also hacked back a target to add TD-LTE to 5,000 sites before mid-2013 to just 2,000. A similar problem has occurred over at newly-minted majority owner Sprint, which has found itself a quarter behind its own LTE timetable thanks to parts shortages — so let’s hope the folks over at Softbank can help both companies improve their estimating skills.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Sprint
Clearwire sees wholesale revenues dip, LTE delays as it posts a $ 41.3 million net loss in Q3 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Oct 2012 07:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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NextWorth, one of many websites that specialize in giving upgrade-hungry consumers a check for their used gadgets, said today that it experienced an over 1,000 percent increase in the volume of trade-ins across all iPad devices in the wake of Tuesday’s Apple event. The bottom line is that people look to be interested in getting the latest hardware, and are divesting themselves of older models to make that happen.
Of the new trade-in volume since Tuesday, the latest, third-generation iPad accounted for 66 percent, while the iPad 2 was responsible for 28 percent of newly swapped devices, and the original iPad came in at just 6 percent. It’s interesting that the iPad 3 is leading the pack: this means a good chunk of people who just bought a new iPad last spring or sometime since are interested in getting a newer version.
Whether those buyers are looking for the iPad mini, or the beefed up fourth-generation iPad is hard to tell from these numbers alone, but we’ll see how initial sales progress during the holiday quarter to find out. I have to say, I’m tempted to swap out my third-generation iPad for the new Lightning-capable hotness myself, if only just to minimize my cable clutter. Anyone else making the switch?
The release of a new version of Windows always brings about a major upgrade cycle for the PC industry, transforming it in its wake. But Windows 8 looks set to bring about even more dramatic change than usual: a new touch-centric user interface, a deluge of new device sizes and shapes, and, for the first time ever, support for ARM processors make the newest Windows the most revolutionary update that Microsoft has ever attempted. This, says AMD’s Leslie Sobon, can only be a good thing for underdogs like her company.
Describing the recent history of the PC processor market as “a juggernaut situation” — where Intel’s sheer size and scale allow it to maintain an unassailable lead every year — AMD’s Corporate VP for the Desktop Product…
For a particular set of phone geeks, the problem with owning a popular flagship device is that plenty of other people will end up with the exact same thing. After all, it’s a proven fact — your phone isn’t cool if everyone else has one too.
That’s where carrier-exclusive color options come in, and both AT&T and Sprint have chosen today to spill the beans on their newest chromatically-tweaked handsets — AT&T’s red Galaxy S III and Sprint’s white EVO 4G LTE.
AT&T hasn’t had much to say about their new, exclusive red Galaxy S III since their original announcement, but now they’ve let loose with some new details. According to the carrier, the 16 GB version of the garnet red device will be available for pre-order starting on July 15 (read: this Sunday, alongside the pink Lumia 900) for the usual $ 199.
Sadly, there’s no word yet on whether or not AT&T plans to release a 32GB model like everyone else has done, but that’s nothing some cheapo microSD cards can’t fix.
Sprint’s announcement is a little more surprising, at least in that they didn’t go advertising its existence right from the get-go. Longtime readers may recall that I’m something of a sucker for white handsets, but it seems as though this new variant sports some redesigned trim to boot — instead of the red band and kickstand aligned horizontally along the Evo’s back, Sprint and HTC have opted for a more staid silver instead. Unlike AT&T’s chromatically-curated choice though, the white Evo 4G LTE will be available through all sales channels on July 15 — no pre-orders required.
If there’s one thing Sony got right with its NXT line, it’s that design-distinctive, transparent element. Problem is, aside from color matching with your photo collection, that incognito antenna doesn’t do much — well, not with the company’s official blessing anyway. Users that take a quick trip to the Google Play store can download a third-party app dubbed, rather self-evidently, Illumination Bar Notification. And it does just what it claims to do, letting Xperia U users set myriad notification hues (P and S owners will have to make do with white only) and blinking speeds for texts and calls. It’s free to download, so if you’re looking to make that handset sit and look even prettier, you’d be well advised to hit up the source below.
Sony’s NXT trio sees the light, gets transparent bar notifications via third-party app originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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While we wait to hear Kaz Hirai’s new plan for Sony, the news is getting worse before it gets better. The company just announced it has more than doubled the net loss it projected for the fiscal year 2011 back in February to the tune of $ 6.4 billion. The reason? According to Reuters, it’s additional tax expenses that are causing the pain, as Sony says it’s “due to the establishment of valuation allowances against certain deferred tax assets, predominantly in the U.S.”
…developing
Sony revises projections, sees $ 6.4 billion net loss for 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Apr 2012 03:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Fresh off the publication of its latest tablet report, Strategy Analytics has come out with a new batch of statistics on the global mobile market. In a report published yesterday, the research firm crowned Apple as the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume, on the strength of the 37 million iPhones it shipped during Q4 2011 — good for 23.9 percent of the market. Samsung wasn’t too far behind, though, with 36.5 million smartphones shipped during the quarter, comprising 23.5 percent of the market. Nokia finished in third place, with 19.6 million smartphones and a 12.6 percent market share, though it fared notably better among handset makers on a global (i.e., smartphone and feature phone) level. According to Strategy Analytics, the Finnish manufacturer shipped 417.1 million handsets for the full year, 113.5 million of which were shipped during the fourth quarter of last year. For the year, Nokia accounted for 26.9 percent of the market, followed by Samsung, which shipped 327.4 million units shipped during 2011 and finished with a 23.1 percent market share. As for Apple, it accounted for 8.3 percent of the market in Q4 (its best showing, according to Strategy’s metrics), with 37 million quarterly shipments. You can find more details in the pair of press releases after the break, or at the source link below.
Continue reading Strategy Analytics: Nokia tops global handset shipments, Apple sees quarterly surge
Strategy Analytics: Nokia tops global handset shipments, Apple sees quarterly surge originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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