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Opinion: How soon is too soon for an Apple Watch 2?

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Apple’s<a href="http://9to5mac.com/2015/03/29/apple-store-revamp-for-apple-watch-revealed-magical-tables-demo-loops-sales-process/" target="_blank"> upcoming retail overhaul</a> for displaying the Watch

A lot of my techie friends are saying that the entry priced-Apple Watch Sport will be their pick next month, and not because of the exterior look. The theory is that Sport is the cheapest way to experience Apple’s new product category in 2015, and since the second-gen Apple Watch will inevitably be upgraded, why pay a premium this year for nicer materials such as stainless steel and sapphire glass?

Despite the Apple Watch’s desire to marry jewelry with technology, it hasn’t lost the baggage gadgets carry, namely the reality that they’ll be outdated and replaced in a relatively short period of time. If the Apple Watch evolves anything like the original iPad did when it became the iPad 2, the differences could be dramatic.

Personally, when I think about getting more perceived value out of a higher-priced stainless steel Apple Watch rather than testing the waters with the cheaper aluminum model, I’m more concerned with how soon the Apple Watch 2 will be announced rather than how much more functional the newer device could be. No matter what happens with the first-generation model, an Apple Watch 2 will come to market. How will Apple balance keeping the Apple Watch evolutionary momentum going with keeping the first-generation model “modern” for enough time to satisfy early adopters?


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Apple launches iPhone and iPad trade-in program in China Apple Stores

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Apple today officially launched a version of its Apple Store iPhone trade-in program for China, as noted on the individual store pages for China’s Apple Retail Stores.

As is the case in the United States and several other countries with Apple Stores, the program allows a user to bring in an older iPhone model and trade in that device for gift card credit toward the purchase of a new iPhone; the program will most likely not allow a customer to trade in an iPhone toward the purchase of an Apple Watch. But as contrasted with the U.S., France, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Italy, the new China program is limited to iPhones and iPads, and will not support non-Apple smartphones.


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How will AAPL stock price react to iPhone 5S/5C launch? Let’s look at history

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A chart posted by Fortune showing what happened to Apple’s stock price for 12 months before and after each new iPhone launch shows that it rose after four of the six launches.

Conventional wisdom says that Apple traders buy the rumor and sell the news, but the series of stock charts Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore shared with clients Monday suggest the opposite.

The brief piece explains the exceptions by observing that the 3G launched just before a major recession and the iPhone 5 when the stock was already at an all-time high, but we wouldn’t suggest investing any money on the basis of those six squiggly lines …

Update: BTIG’s Waltyer Piecyk has posted some more short-term historical data, suggesting that the separation of iPhone announcements from WWDC ended the ‘sell on the news’ phenomenon:

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Apple’s iPhone ‘Reuse and Recycle’ trade-in program detailed, begins rolling out August 30th

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Yesterday, we reported that Apple is gearing up to launch its iPhone trade-in program in September. The program will allow an iPhone user to exchange an older iPhone model for a new iPhone at a discounted price. Today, we’ve learned several new details about the program, including how it works, the official name, and information about the launch.

The trade-in program will be marketed as the “iPhone Reuse and Recycle Program.” It will begin rolling out in select Apple Stores this upcoming Friday, August 30th. Like we previously reported, a larger-scale rollout will occur during the month of September.

The program is applicable to both standard customers and business customers that want to purchase a new iPhone.

Here’s how it will work:


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T-Mobile 1900MHz crowdsourced maps will tell you where you will see fast iPhone speeds

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Since T-Mobile is being cagey (likely for regulatory reasons) about the locations of its re-farmed, iPhone-compatible HSPA+ network, a group at Airportal.de has filled us in. The 3G/4G locales are submitted by iPhone 3G and newer owners (or non-AWS 4G phone users) who are seeing 3G/4G on T-Mobile. T-Mobile claims its HSPA+ network shows speeds up to 70 percent higher than AT&T’s network.

The map appears to be filling out and goes way beyond T-Mobile’s stated Las Vegas, Seattle, Washington, DC, and New York metro area rollouts. We first discovered T-Mobile’s 1900MHz network at Moscone center in San Francisco ahead of WWDC this year.

[tweet https://twitter.com/milanmilanovic/status/253543640134197248]
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Analyst: iPhone 3GS life may still go on in pre-paid markets, iPhone shipments to be at 30M in Q3

Most would assume that the currently free on-contract iPhone 3GS will discontinue with the introduction of the sixth-generation iPhone later this year, but one analyst claimed its life would go on. According to Jefferies analyst Peter Misek in a note released last night (via Fortune), Apple signed an agreement “with a major global distributor” that will bring the iPhone 3GS to pre-paid carriers and developing countries for an even cheaper price. Misek said the 3GS would be priced between the $200 to $250 range, which is cheaper than the $375 price point that it is now priced at wholesale. The analyst further estimated iPhone shipments for the June quarter.


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Apple is turning out millions of iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 CDMAs ahead of the holidays

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Digitimes’ latest report puts some numbers on the low end iPhones coming out of China.  The 2.5 year old iPhone 3GS has continued to sell briskly with the volume likely to reach two million units in the fourth quarter of 2011 and 1.4-1.6 million units in the first quarter of 2012, according to “industry sources”.

Think about that for a second.  In a world where a new, free Android flagship phone comes out every week or so and dying out a few months later, Apple is selling 2 million/quarter of a device that was introduced two and a half years ago.  This is the phone the original Droid went up against — in fact.

Verizon and conceivably other CDMA carriers in the world have also continued to sell the iPhone 4 CDMA version at an impressive clip.

Meanwhile, the production of the CDMA version of iPhone 4 is expected to top 800,000 to one million units in the fourth quarter of 2011 and 500,000-600,000 units in the following quarter, estimated the sources.

Launch delay hurt industry, but not Apple: The older the iPhone, the better the margin

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A delayed launch of Apple’s iPhone, which had been pushed back from the usual summer time frame to mid-October, affected slightly Apple’s earnings, but the effects were felt in the entire smartphone industry which experienced a lower-than-expected growth in the third quarter, research firm IDC reported yesterday. Vendors shipped 118.1 million smartphones during the September quarter, a 42.6 percent growth from the  82.8 million units a year ago. However, IDC’s forecast for the quarter was 49.1 percent and they attribute the difference to the iPhone launch delay:

Smartphone growth came in lower than expected due to the delayed launch of the updated Apple iPhone. In previous years, the introduction of a new iPhone resulted in a spike in shipment volumes during the third quarter. Western Europe and the United States, two key regions for the iPhone launch each year, still posted sizable year-over-year gains, but lower than anticipated.

“Broad and deep product portfolio” and “a welcome reception” of Bada-branded smartphones helped Samsung overtake Apple as the world’s leading smartphone maker in the third quarter, IDC said. But i’s bound to be a short-lived victory as “Apple’s fourth quarter launch of the iPhone 4S and lower pricing of older models will certainly boost volumes”, the research firm explained. But it’s when you drill Apple’s biz deeper when it really starts to come together. Read on…
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Samsung claims Apple doctored Galaxy phone images in Netherlands court

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According to a report from Dutch publication Webwereld (via Computerworld)Apple has once again submitted doctored evidence related to their claims of design patent-related infringement by Samsung, this time to a court in Netherlands. This further supports claims by Bas Berghuis of Simmons and Simmons (Samsung’s lawyer) that Apple has been “manipulating visual evidence, making Samsung’s devices appear more similar to Apple’s.”

“It surprises me that for the second time incorrect presentations of a Samsung product emerge in photographic evidence filed in litigation,” said Mark Krul, lawyer and IP law specialist at Dutch firm WiseMen. “This is not appropriate and undermines Apple’s credibility both inside and outside the court room.”

If you aren’t up to speed with the legal disputes between Apple and Samsung in Europe… a court in Germany already granted a preliminary injunction halting sales of Samsung’s Galaxy tab 10.1 tablet in the EU (which has been since lifted pending an appeal). We already heard about Apple manipulating images in that case related to the iPad and Galaxy tab. This time, however, the report claims Apple doctored images of the Samsung Galaxy S smartphone in comparison to the iPhone 3G.

Apparently the changes made the Galaxy S appear smaller than it actually is to closer resemble the dimensions of the 3G, which is odd given the fact Computerworld reports Apple has confirmed the Galaxy S does include “some non-identical elements, such as the slightly larger dimensions.” This supports the idea that Apple isn’t trying to secretly submit this evidence to the courts. Many have noted a German court’s decision to grant Apple with the original preliminary injunction on the Galaxy tab didn’t take the doctored images into account. In fact, patent expert Florian Mueller noted “the court’s decision was based on both Apple’s motion and Samsung’s pre-emptive opposition pleading” and also stated “Samsung is in a legally weak position against Apple. If Samsung wants to inspire confidence, it has to understand that half the truth is sometimes tantamount to a whole lie.”

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That 64GB iPhone is real, and could be a sign of what's to come

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MIC Gadget got some hands-on time with that 64GB iPhone we told you about earlier. You’ll notice the camera doesn’t have a silver ring around the edge like the infamous “lost in a bar” phone.

Perhaps most interesting is that we’ve been hearing that Apple does limited runs of these things (and had done them in the past as well) but the guy who got them from Foxconn said:

According to the owner, he believes that the next iPhone will bring 64GB storage capacity to users.

Bring it Apple!
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Android 2.3 Gingerbread now runs on an iPhone 3G

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Hackers have finally managed to get Android 2.3 Gingerbread working on a jailbroken iPhone 3G — based on the iDroid project, you should be able to keep both iOS and Android in dual-boot configuration on your iPhone. more on this and a video (Flash, so we didn’t embed it here) over at Redmond Pie.

(Sony and Dell’s Android phones are still running Android 1.6!)
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