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After buying the mobile application discovery engine Chomp earlier this year, Apple has dropped its support for Google's Android mobile oper ...
Keeping you in the loop on a few of the things happening around Apple this week.
By the numbers. Apple reports third-quarter results next week and analysts are mixed about whether the report will be received favorably. On the one hand, they predict that iPhone sales will be better than expected, with good activation numbers by Verizon this week supporting their thinking. That’s important since the iPhone accounts for more than half of sales. But there’s some debate about whether Mac and iPad sales will carry the day, with top-ranked computer analyst Toni Sacconaghi saying today there’s a “reasonable probability that Apple will miss consensus revenue expectations due to macroeconomic weakness in China and Europe, a product cycle lull in the iPhone, a later than expected introduction of the new iPad into China, and the late quarter introduction of new Mac notebooks.” Ouch. For the record, analysts are expecting sales of $37.3 billion and profit of $10.38 a share. One area where analysts are in agreement is that Apple will give a forecast for the fourth quarter that’s more conservative than usual (they historically beat their guidance). That’s based on the fact that iPhone sales will dip as customers paus hold off buying one in anticipation of the rumored iPhone 5 (slimmer, larger screen) that is expected to be announced in October. So what do a miss in sales and profit, and a lower-than-expected forecast mean to investors? For most companies, it usually means a sell off in the shares. For Apple: buying opportunity.
Thermonuclear war verboten Apple succeeded in having the disparaging comments made by former CEO Steve Jobs about Google’s Android mobile operating system excluded from a patent trial between Apple and Samsung. Recap: Apple and Samsung are suing each other — Apple said Samsung copied its designs for the iPhone and iPad, and Samsung has countersued. Samsung (which uses Android on its smartphones and tablets) wanted to use the comments Jobs made to biographer Walter Isaacson about Google — Jobs said Google ripped off Apple with its mobile OS and that he would spend all of Apple’s cash if he needed to to fight against the theft. He also said he would “go to thermonuclear war on this” to “destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product.” Samsung lawyers said the quote “speaks to Apple’s bias, improper motives and its lack of belief in its own claims in that they are a means to an end, namely the destruction of Android.” Apple said the quotes are an “inadmissible distraction.” The U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh sided with Apple: “”I really don’t think this is a trial about Steve Jobs.” The trial starts July 30. Expect more drama.
In other Samsung-related news, Apple was ordered by a British judge to publish notices in the papers there and on its UK corporate website saying that Samsung’s Galaxy tablets don’t infringe on the iPad. Judge Colin Briss in London ruled against Apple in the they-copied-us-case, saying that not one could confuse Samsung’s products with Apple’s because they aren’t “as cool.” Apple, which would have to run the notice on its website for six-months, said it will appeal the decision. No kidding.
Hello. Your order is ready. After Apple closed down its store for about six hours one morning this week, the Mac sites scoured the site to figure out what had changed. It wasn’t the typical shut-down ahead of new products — though you can expect that sometime soon since Apple has promised to deliver the new Mac OS, Mountain Lion, this month. What did they find? A new text-based notification service that lets you know when you’re order has shipped or is available for pick-up from an Apple store. Can there be such a thing as too much customer service? If you think so, don’t sign up — or if you do, all you have to is reply STOP to the text message and Apple will stop sending them.
Ive on Early iPad Prototypes. Kudos to Network World for digging through the depositions in the Samsung case and finding part of a transcript of a video deposition made by Apple’s top designer Jonathan Ive in Dec. 2011. In it, Ive talks about seeing early prototypes of the iPad tablet sometime between 2002 and 2004 (the iPad was introduced in 2010). Asked about a mockup for a tablet, Ive says, “I remember seeing this and perhaps models similar to this when we were first exploring tablet designs that ultimately became the iPad.” You can check out images of the design — which show a thicker tablet without a home button — here. They do, however, have an Apple logo prominently displayed.