Maccast 04.22.2013 - Show #441
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V Opening
V Opening Music
* Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
* Mandaandthemarbles.com
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V News
V Continued iPhone 5-next speculation
* A site called Tactus claimed to have images of the low cost iPhone back shell
* The one they show was white, but the site claims Apple's suppliers are working on black, white, blue, red, and yellow versions
* If the part is real the new low cost iPhone would be slightly shorter, but wider and thicker than the current iPhone 5. The actual dimentions reported are 4.72 in (120mm) tall, 2.44 in. (62mm) to 2.56 in. (65mm) wide, and 0.35 in (9mm) thick.
V The site claims to have other specs on the new device that tend to make me doubt it's validity
* A 32nm A5 processor, that could be possible to save cost, although an A6 seems more likely
* 3.5-inch Retina display, not likely as Apple is requiring all Apps and app updates to support 4 in. retina displays starting May 1st (doesn't mean they can also support 3.5" screens, but I think Apple would want top standardize on one display size moving forward).
* 5-megapixel camera, very likely. Again to keep cost down.
* The site also claimed the new iPhone 5S would have an A7 processor, but I don't think that compenent will be ready. TSMC, who will likley be the supplier in my opinion, said they don't expect 20-nm volume production to be ready until the first quarter of 2014.
* At this point it's looking more and m,ore like the next iPhone's wont be here until the fall, probably October.
* The pricing on the low-cost iPhone is expected to be in the range of about $300 USD for an unlocked device.
V More speculation on next gen iPad
* KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is at it again, this time offering sepculation on Apple's next 9.7" iPad
V He claims the next version of Apple's full sized tablet will be 15% thinner and 25% lighter. Not only that it will charge faster too thanks to a smaller 8,500-9,000mAh battery.
* I assume with more efficient display technology and processors that Apple would keep the iPads battery life consistent with the current 4th gen iPad
* It's my understanding that Kuo gets most of his intel from pretty good connections within Apple's supply chaain and he has a fairly good track record on accuracy.
V But here is the thing. In this latest rumor he claims the next iPad will run on a quad-core A7X processor
* He thinks it will be a 28-nanometer design still produced by Samsung
* So the whole rumor gets weird, because some think we might see the new iPad by WWDC in June.
V If a WWDC announcement happens, that means we could see a new iPad with an Apple A7X processor before we see an iPhone with an A7.
* Kuo actuall predicts the iPad releasing in August or September, but that would still put an A7X chip out before the A7.
* Backwards from what we are used to but, as Cult of Mac points out, it may not be that strange since really the main difference between the X and non-X variants of Apple's A-series chips is the graphics cores with the AX chips having more to support the larger iPad retina displays.
* The new iPad is also expected to be thinner and sport iPad mini like materials and design cues.
V Are iOS device sales dropping rapidly?
* Lots of signs this week that many claim show iPhone sales are dropping fast
* The first came when Cirrus Logic, who supplies audio chips for the iPhone, gave guidence that it had to take an inventory charge for the March quarter because of a decreased forecast for a high volume product for a customer who is migrating to one of Cirrus Logic's newer components.
* Translation by analysts: Apple didn't need as many chips for iPhone's in March a sign that sales might be down.
V The DigiTimes reports that iPad mini shipments will decline 20-30 percent in the current quarter.
* This comes from checks with suppliers like LG.
* The report claiams that LGs iPad/iPad mini parts deliveries will only be around 3.5 million unitis in the current quarter vs. 5 million units in March
* They also say May and June shippments will drop down to 3 million units
* This could just mean that Apple has caught up with demand and progressing into a stasis in the cycle before moving to ramp up next gen components for a iPad mini update in the Fall.
V Not long after the DigiTimes report LG Display announced a 74% drop in quarterly earnings. Since 30 percent of the companies profits come from Apple display orders it's assumed that at least a portion of that profit loss is due to decreaced orders from Apple.
* Analyst translation: iPhone and iPad sales are declining.
V All of this has lead to the belief that when Apple announces Quarterly earnings on Tuesday April 23rd that net income may be down for the first time in a decade.
* Reuters predicts revenue of $42.49 billion with earnings per share of $10.07. That would actually be about an 8% rise in revenue, but a 18% decline in net income vs. a year ago.
* The reason? Assumption is it's due to new products with lower profit margins and a slowing demand for the iPhone.
* Even despite the revenue decline iPad and iPhone sales are predicted to have hit record numbers.
V Apple sells less, but makes more
* All the focus on unit numbers and market share continues to baffle me.
* I guess I'll never quite understand it, but what I do understand is this, companies who make more profit tend to stay around longer that ones that don't.
* By that metric, at least for now, we should not have to fear too much for Apple not having the most in unit sales or Market share.
V Examples?
* Asymco: Apple has 5 percent of the world-wide PC market, but earns 45% of the profits
* Asymco: Apple has a 72 percent share of all mobile phone profits, but Apple has only approximately 7 percent of the mobile phone market share according to recent numbers from Gartner
V Verizion reported that 55 percent of their 1st quarter smartphone activations were iPhones and about 50% of those were iPhone 5S models.
* This number actually might be bad news for Apple's current quarter iPhone 5S sales and seem to support the idea of Apple doing a lower cost iPhone model
* App Annie's Market Report Q1 2013: Apple's App store generated 2.6 times more revenue than the Google Play Store on roughly similar download volume. On the Google Pplay side they did see a yearly increase in revenue of 90% which is a significant uptick worth noting.
* Canalys: Apple has about 40% of App downloads, but gets 74% of the App revenue.
* Opera Mediaworks: iOS products make up 44.53 percent of all mobile ad traffic, and 49.23 percent of ad revenue.
V And don't forget usage
* NetMarketShare's latest numbers show 61% of browsing happening on iOS devices for March
* Stat Counter though has Andorid with the advantage 37.2% vs. iOS at 27.1%, also fro March 2013
* Chitika: iPads now account for 81.9 percent of U.S. and Canadian tablet web traffic
V Apple keeps Siri data for 2 years
* Apple has told Wired that it keeps the data you send into Siri for up to 2 years
* These are the recorded vocal interactions you have with Siri
* It's important to note though that the data is "anonomized"
* How? When it's captured the data is assigned to a random number generated just for your Siri interactions. It's not associated with or connected to your Apple ID, name, email, or any other personally identifying information.
* The anonomous data could be tracked back to you, but would require a complex forensic analysis to do so.
* That data with it's random number is stored for 6-months after that the data is disassociated from even that number before being stored for another 18-months.
* Apple says they keep and use the data for analysis and for improving the Siri system.
* After two years the data is deleted.
V If this troubles you or freaks you out all you need do is turn off Siri
* When you do the random identifier and it's associated data is deleted immediately according to Apple.
* If you turn Siri back on it would start collecting again, but you can toggle Siri in and off as often as you like.
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V Feedback, Comments and Commentary
V Interview: Mark Salata of Werkz Publishing
* Many people see the future of learning moving from traditional textbooks to eBooks and devices like the iPad
* Apple believed in it enough in January 2012 to hold a special event with major textbook publishers.
* They also gave us iBooks Author as a tool to help create the future of textbooks and learning
* Since then there has been some changes, but not quite a "revolution".
* Through my iOS group I recently had a chance to meet Mark Salata from Werkz Publishing and he gave a very compelling talk to us on why he too belives in teh future of digital learning.
V So I invited Mark on to share some of the insights on this future with us.
* We talked about the slow move from traditional textbooks to digital learning
* Why eBooks and tools like Apple's iBooks Author are a good start
* And more importantly about why digital learning products need to go a bit further and how he and Werkz publishing are working to go beyond a simple eBook to help drive the digital learning future.
V Closing
V Podcast Marketplace
V Thanks to my sponsors
* Circus Ponies
* Smile
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