Showing posts with label Ipad. Show all posts

Tuesday, 18 November 2014

Nokia revives the brand with launch of iPad lookalike

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Finland's Nokia (NOK1V.HE) launched a new brand-licensed tablet computer on Tuesday which is designed to rival Apple's(AAPL.O) iPad Mini, just six months after the company sold its ailing phones and devices business to Microsoft (MSFT.O) for over $7 billion.

Nokia, a name which was once synonymous with mobile phones until first Apple and then Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) eclipsed the Finnish company with the advent of smart phones, said the manufacturing, distribution and sales of the new N1 tablet, will be handled under license by Taiwan's Foxconn (2354.TW).

The aluminum-cased N1, which runs on Google's (GOOGL.O) Android Lollipop operating software but features Nokia's new Z Launcher intelligent home screen interface, is due to be in stores in China in the first quarter of next year for an estimated price of $249 before taxes, with sales to other markets to follow.

Sebastian Nystrom, the head of products at Nokia's Technologies unit, said the company was looking to follow up with more devices and will also look into eventually returning to the smartphones business by brand-licensing.

"With the agreement with Microsoft, as is customary, we have this transition and we can't do smartphones ... We have a time limit. In 2016 we can again enter that business," Nystrom told Reuters.

"It would be crazy not to look at that opportunity. Of course we will look at it."

Microsoft last week dropped the Nokia name on its latest Lumia 535 smartphone, which runs on its Windows Phone 8 operating system, but still uses the brand for more basic phones.

After the Microsoft sale Nokia was left with its core network equipment and services business plus its smaller HERE mapping and navigation unit and Nokia Technologies, which manages the licensing of its portfolio of patents and develops new products such as the N1 and the Z Launcher.

Asked about rumors that Nokia was looking to re-enter the handset market, Chief Executive Rajeev Suri said last week he was looking into ways to bring the brand back into the consumer market through licensing deals.

REUTERS

Friday, 17 October 2014

Apple's new iPads sport modest upgrades but short on 'wow'

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(Reuters) - Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) faster, slimmer iPads come with modest improvements, such as a fingerprint sensor, but some analysts say it offers few other features to wow consumers ahead of a holiday shopping season expected to be swamped by mobile devices.

At a launch event on Thursday, Chief Executive Tim Cook called Apple's new line-up, which includes a new iMac computer with a "5K retina" or high-end display, the company's best ever. But analysts say Apple may struggle to arouse the same passion for its tablets as in past years among consumers faced with an abundance of hand-held, touch-screen devices.

"I've got to be honest and say, the only impressive thing was the 5K retina display on the iMac," said Gartner analyst Van Baker, who attended the show at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California. "The other things we saw (included) just iterative improvements on the iPad."

Marketing chief Phil Schiller called the larger tablet the world's slimmest and described several new features such as an anti-reflective screen. He also confirmed the inclusion of the "Touch ID" sensor, already available on the latest iPhones.

Pre-orders start Friday for the larger iPad Air 2, priced at $499 and up, with shipping beginning next week. The smaller iPad mini 3 will be about $100 cheaper.

The new iMac, which sports the new "Yosemite" operating system, will go for $2,499.

Tablet sales are set to rise only 11 percent this year, according to tech research firm Gartner, compared to 55 percent last year, even as smartphone sales continue to soar and personal computer sales are waning.

DEFINING MOMENT

Tablet sales for Apple, which defined the category with the iPad just four years ago, have fallen for two straight quarters. Investors remain focused on the iPhone, Apple's main revenue generator, but a prolonged downturn in iPad sales would threaten about 15 percent of the company's revenue.

The new iPads will go up against recently introduced tablets from Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and Google Inc (GOOG.O) in coming months. Shares of Apple slid 1 percent to $96.57 shortly before the close.

Apple also said it will launch its new electronic payments service on Monday, after the iPhone maker signed up another 500 banks to support a feature that competes with eBay Inc's (EBAY.O) PayPal and other online systems.

Cook said developers were beginning to design apps for its upcoming Watch.

Apple last month introduced the Watch, its first new device since the iPad in 2010. The company's entry into the rapidly expanding wearable computing arena will be available only from 2015, but Cook said software development kits for the device will be available from November.

Missing on Thursday was a larger, 12-inch-plus iPad, the subject of industry speculation ahead of Apple's event.

"It is disappointing, particularly to enterprise buyers, that there wasn't a 12.9 inch iPad model," said Forrester Research analyst J.P. Gownder. "To return iPad to high growth, form factor innovation will be required. We'll have to wait until 2015 to see if Apple addresses this issue."

Saturday, 4 October 2014

Apple Will Announce Its New iPads at an Event on Oct. 16

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Apple’s product announcements ain’t over until someone other than Bono sings.

The company plans to hold a “special event” Thursday, Oct. 16, in California, according to a report by Re/code’s John Paczkowski, who correctly predicted the timing of Apple’s Sept. 9 event, and who is thought to have terrific sources within Apple.

(Update: After Paczkowski’s piece was published, the Wall Street Journal came out with its own report that confirmed the event’s date.)

The announcement is rumored to concentrate on a new line of improved iPads. Blogs have been whispering that, like the latest iPhone, the new iPad could ship with a bigger screen and also come equipped with fingerprint scanning Touch ID sensors. There may also be a gold option for the new iPad.

Additionally, Apple may announce a new line of Retina iMacs, per a report from 9to5Mac last week.

This should also be the moment executives can finally announce the availability of the long-awaited OS X Yosemite, the new operating system for Mac computers, which was first announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June.