- Posts tagged iPhone
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Doesn't China Have Some Part In This?
But Foxconn doesn’t exist solely to produce electronics for Apple. All of the largest Android OEM’s also contract Foxconn to produce their devices in factories in China, Brazil, Mexico, Poland and the Czech Republic.
HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola, ASUS, Acer, Lenovo and others contract Foxconn to manufacture products for them in the same complex where iPhones are made. Their devices are made by the same over worked, under paid, under age workers, yet none are mentioned in the Business Insider article. None. Not one. Not even Samsung, the sometimes largest smartphone vendor in the world. Just Apple.
The quoted article (and headline) is in response to Henry Blodget's piece at Business Insider.
HTC Acting President Wishes iPhones Were Less Cool
I brought my daughter back to college — she’s down in Portland at Reed — and I talked to a few of the kids on her floor. And none of them has an iPhone because they told me: ‘My dad has an iPhone.’ There’s an interesting thing that’s going on in the market. The iPhone becomes a little less cool than it was.
Did I say "wishes"? My mistake. Here we have a scientific study of a large population by an unbiased source that proves it.
Steve Jobs reveals some of iCloud to a D8 conference attendee a year ago
In light of the recent iCloud announcement, it's especially interesting to review this exchange between Steve Jobs and a D8 conference attendee during the Q&A session at the end of Jobs' interview.
What's surprising is how candid Jobs was about a future offering. Not only was he specific about what the problem was, he even tipped his hand at iTunes Match scanning non-iTunes content by using the phrase "or somehow otherwise acquired", which neither McAskill or Mossberg mentioned. He then states that they're working on it.
In retrospect it was an unusual reveal for Jobs to make, given his standard response of not talking about future products
The exchange begins at 1:20:45 in the video here, and I've transcribed it below (emphasis is Jobs'):
Don McAskill: Hey, Steve, Don McAskill from SmugMug. You may remember a couple years ago we talked about this, but I think it's even more pressing. I love my iPad, my two year old daughter loves my iPad, and I buy the truck vs. car analogy, but it seems like there's a sort of a gaping hole in that analogy right now. You have great syncing of contacts and mail and calendar. I can buy my apps and update them over the air, but I still have to tether to get what is arguably the birth of this platform, which is music and videos on my devices…
Steve Jobs (interrupting): That's not exactly true. You can buy music and get it on your device over the air and you can buy video and get it on your device over the air. iTunes store is on all those devices and it does flow over the air.
McAskill: But I have a large iTunes library that I've built up thanks to you over the last eight years…
Jobs (interrupting): No what you'd like to do is share your library of media amongst your various devices. It's not buying it…
Walt Mossberg (interrupting): Without a wire.
Jobs: Yeah, without a wire. It's not buying it on that device, because you could buy it all on that device.
McAskill: It's the tethering…
Mossberg: Syncing.
Jobs: It's the sharing. You want to share your content that you've bought or somehow otherwise acquired amongst you're various devices.
McAskill: Yeah.
Mossberg: And you can't do that today, right, with iTunes?
Jobs: You can do that today with a wire, you cannot do that today without a wire. We need to work harder on that.
Mossberg: You do.
Jobs: We do.
(audience laughing)
McAskill: Thank you.
Mossberg: You really can't even do it with a wire because it'll blow away, it'll say if you're gonna sync with this PC or this Mac…
Jobs (interrupting): No no but if it's your content you can do it all real easy, it just takes a wire.
Mossberg: So you're gonna do better?
Jobs: We need to do better.
Mossberg: OK, any time soon?
Jobs: We're working on it.
iPhone average selling price is increasing
What's interesting to note about Apple's stellar Q2 results isn't just record iPhone sales, but that those sales continue to come with higher ASPs.
Reviewing the data sheet reveals an ASP of $622 a year ago, $645 in Q1, and $660 for the quarter just ended. So it isn't just about Apple selling 2.4M more iPhones than the previous quarter, it's that each one was $15 more.
Maybe Verizon plays a role. This could be indicative of the deal Apple cut with them for a CDMA phone, but the consensus was Verizon got better terms than AT&T because there was no exclusivity.
It seems equally possible that iPhone users simply aren't buying cheap. Apple didn't get over 2M more buyers last quarter because AT&T sold the 3GS for $49. Consumers are buying high-end, perhaps opting more for the 32GB model.
Something else worth noting is that while RIM and Android drive sales figures upwards on the backs of "Buy One Get One" deals, rebates, or cheap phones, Apple doesn't need any of that.
Developers don't rush to new platforms
The problem is that hardware manufacturers and tech journalists assume that the hardware just needs to exist, and developers will flock to it because it’s possible to write software for it. But that’s not why we’re making iPhone and iPad software
Great post by Marco Arment on what developers really need to compel them to develop for a new platform.
Warranty firm annoyed that Apple won't let them make easy money
On one hand, the near doubling in the screen damage claim rate makes sense, said [SquareTrade's VP of Marketing] Tseng, since the iPhone 4 boasts double the amount of glass surface. But the data is disappointing, nonetheless.
Disappointing because people are making claims against the warranty you sold them? Hmm, yes, I can see that would be a bummer for you. The nerve of those people, expecting to get what they paid for.
And it's clearly Apple's fault, since if the iPhone never had a problem no one would make a claim and you'd be raking in cash.
So what have we learned? If you want an extended iPhone warranty get AppleCare (I do), and avoid SquareTrade. Perhaps the latter will get annoyed enough to stop servicing clients completely.
I'm Dreaming of a White iPhone
I'm dreaming of a white iPhone
Just like what Apple said we'd get.
Though the black ones shimmer, our tempers simmer
Because we don't have white yet.
I'm dreaming of a white iPhone.
I sometimes doubt it will arrive,
But I keep all my hopes alive
We'll see an albino iPhone 5.
Tom_R
(Apologies to Irving Berlin)
