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iPad Expected To Dominate Until 2013
September 1, 2011 by admin
Filed under Consumer Electronics
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Apple’s iPad will maintain its dominance of the tablet market through at least 2013, research firm IHS iSuppli said today.
El Segundo, Calif.-based iSuppli bumped up its iPad sales forecast for 2011 from an earlier estimate of 43.7 million to 44.2 million, citing Apple’s ability to solve its supply issues and the blunders by rivals, including Hewlett-Packard.
“Apple has resolved the iPad supply issues,” said Rhoda Alexander, senior manager of tablet and monitor research in an interview today. “It was never a demand problem.”
Earlier this year, Apple struggled to produce enough iPad 2 tablets to meet a surging demand for the new device. Those problems have been addressed, and Alexander said that Apple is in the cat bird’s seat for the second half of the year.
“All the momentum in the media tablet market is with Apple right now,” she said. “The competition can’t seem to field a product with the right combination of hardware, marketing, applications and content to match the iPad.”
iSuppli also boosted its forecast for overall tablet sales this year from 58.9 million to 60 million units, meaning the iPad will account for nearly three-fourths of all tablets sold in 2011.
That dominance will continue through 2013, said Alexander, noting that iSuppli previously expected Apple to fall under the 50% share mark in 2012.
“They’ve taken every lesson they’ve learned with previous products and applied them to the iPad,” said Alexander. “Their whole production process is a marvel to watch.”
An Apple/Hulu Hookup In The Works?
Apple Inc is in very preliminary talks to join the bidding for Hulu, the online video site that Walt Disney Co, News Corp and its other owners have put up for sale, Bloomberg cited two anonymous sources as saying.
Apple has begun initial discussions that may eventually lead to an acquisition, Bloomberg reported without providing any more details.
An Apple spokesman declined to comment on the rumor.
Jobs Returns To Announce Apple’s New Product
June 8, 2011 by admin
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Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs returns on Monday to the stage at San Francisco’s Moscone center to unveil what investors hope will be the next source of growth for the world’s most valuable technology company.
Jobs, who has been on medical leave for several months and last took the stage in March to present the iPad 2, will announce the iCloud, a Web-based service that lets consumers stream music they bought to any Apple device, pitting it against rivals Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc.
That expansion into cloud computing is seen as necessary if the company is to stay competitive with increasingly popular open-sourced software, such as Google’s Android operating system, according to analysts and investors.
The iCloud has the potential to make Apple’s iTunes even more powerful, making it tougher for rivals to keep up, Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said.
“It looks like Apple will likely offer some base service for free,” Wu said. “Competitors, including RIM, Google, Amazon and Microsoft already have a hard time competing with iTunes as it is, but we believe will likely find it even tougher with iCloud enhancements.”
AOL Launches Professional Division
May 19, 2011 by admin
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AOL Inc is launching a professional division called AOL Industry on Monday geared towards capturing the government, energy and defense executives attention.
The idea is to bring the use of social media, video and design from consumer-oriented sites and apply it to media for business professionals.
“(Trade media) hasn’t done as good a job at innovating as consumer media,” said Jay Kirsch, vice president and general manager of AOL Industry, who pitched the idea to AOL at the end of last summer.
“If you look at most of the innovations that have really changed media most of them have been consumer facing and not business-to-business.”
AOL Energy rolled out first and will be followed by AOL Government and AOL Defense in June. AOL Industry is not charging a subscription for access and will not have a print component.
Seagate To Acquire Samsung’s HD Unit
April 20, 2011 by admin
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Seagate Technology is to acquire Samsung Electronics loss-plagued hard disk drive (HDD) business for $1.4 billion as it looks to battle rival Western Digital Corp and curb price wars that continue to damage the industry.
The deal comes a month after Western Digital sought to buy Hitachi Ltd’s hard disk drive division for $4.3 billion, to create a global leader with deep resources.
It is yet to be seen whether Western Digital trump Seagate as the world’s largest hard drive maker after the deals conclude. In 2010, Seagate’s sales was $11.4 billion while Western Digital posted revenue of $9.85 billion.
Toshiba Corp and Fujitsu are the other smaller players in the hard-drive space.
The sale of the HDD business will see Samsung leave the cut-rate industry and focus on its bread-and-butter memory-chip business.
The sector is already battling persistent sales-growth declines and now faces a longer-term threat from wireless tablet devices using more power-efficient flash drives, or solid-state drives (SSD).
Google Launches Online Magazine
March 27, 2011 by admin
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Google has decided to launch its own quarterly online magazine, Think Quarterly, out of its centers in the U.K. and Ireland, saying that “in a world of accelerating change, we all need to take time to reflect.”
The first issue of Think Quarterly is already freely available online and is focuses on data, including data obesity, data impotence, data overload and open data.
“Think Quarterly is a unique communications tool that brings together some of the world’s leading minds to discuss the big issues facing businesses today,” the magazine says on its Twitter bio.
The magazine’s Twitter feed says it launched on March 21, though there is no mention of the magazine on Google’s blog, Twitter feed, Facebook page or newsroom.
In a note on the magazine’s website, the managing director of Google’s U.K. & Ireland Operations, Matt Brittin, said, “Think Quarterly is a breathing space in a busy world. It’s a place to take time out and consider what’s happening and why it matters.”
Microsoft Eyeing More Software For The iPad
February 2, 2011 by admin
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The current rumor on the street is that Microsoft might be looking beyond the recently released OneNote for iPad. Insiders are saying Microsoft is closely monitoring the number of downloads of OneNote for iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch to perhaps gauge the possible interest in adding more productivity software for Apple iOS suite of products. Read More…..