Friday, June 17, 2011

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

Can a 3G iPhone 5 Compete With a Rumored Nexus 4G?

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 12:39 PM PDT


apple versus google iphone 5

Persistent rumors have diminished the prospect of the iPhone 5 being 4G. But new rumors have emerged that Google may be readying a “Nexus 4G” to take on the iPhone 5 directly in the Fall. How would a 3G iPhone 5 stack up against a 4G Nexus? And is that even a fair contest?

A fresh rumor surfaced today that Google is preparing a new iteration of the Nexus smartphone to take on directly a late-Summer or Fall-released iPhone 5. A litany of reputable news sources are reporting a largely uncorroborated rumor that the next Nexus will be the “Nexus 4G,” and indeed will feature a 4G LTE radio.

Among other reported features, the Nexus 4G will purportedly have, according to IBTimes, a “. . . light speed dual core CPU and paralleling that with Android 4.0 OS Ice Cream Sandwich. The dual core 1.2 or 1.5 GHz Snapdragon processor and 1GB of RAM may make this Google’s future flagship smartphone . . .  a front camera with 1 megapixel capability and a rear 5 megapixel camera. The cameras will include upgraded technology for superior image quality by capturing better photos in low light environments. The front and rear cameras enable online video conferencing, though it was unclear whether that feature can be run through 4G or only by WiFi . . . A ‘monster sized’ screen with 720p will accompany the ability of 1080p HD video capture and playback. The phone will be presented as a thin and slim sized package with possible carriers being AT&T, as the phone is expected to utilize its 4G LTE radio, though that is not confirmed.”

It sounds the spitting image of  what many have pictured the iPhone 5 to be, except with the addition of 4G capabilities.

You can read a hand-picked selection of the best reports related to this story at our iPhone 5 News Ticker site.

Bear in mind that these reports are pure rumors, and need to be taken with a salt shaker’s worth of salt. However, while the name “Nexus 4G” and its capabilities are speculative, the idea of Google crafting the next Nexus as a direct challenge to the iPhone 5 is not speculative, since Google themselves boldly stated that this has been their intention all along.

The iPhone 5 News Blog reported in May that “A New Android Nexus Phone Will Take On The iPhone 5,” with Android head Andy Rubin explaining that, “I think the Nexus has been the thing we use to set the bar," and that "the cycles are holidays and the summer time" in terms of the Nexus' release schedule.”

Unlike technology executives in Dubai, who seem to be at liberty to say whatever they like about the iPhone 5 and 4G technology, executives for large U.S. companies like Google know that what they say in public counts. We can rest assured that the 2011 Nexus will indeed be an answer to the iPhone 5.

3G iPhone 5 Versus 4G Nexus — Is That Even a Fair Fight?

If this new rumor comes to pass as 100% true, is it even fair for tech critics and users alike to judge a 3G iPhone 5 and 4G Nexus against one another? Certainly, Google would think so, and all of the marketing content would be focused on “speed,” versatility,” and the considerable benefits of 4G over 3G. At present, however, it does not seem apparent that smartphone users are breaking sharply towards devices that are 4G (or claim to be, for that matter).

In the U.S., 4G technology has yet to see mainstream adoption, and the vast majority of smartphones being sold day after day are 3G. While mobile carriers like AT&T and Verizon are beginning to ramp up marketing campaigns to bolster their own investments into the 4G network, 4G still has yet to prove itself as a prime selling feature for smartphones.

If it did, then you could rest assured that Apple would be making the iPhone 5 4G.

Instead, it can be argued that, if the Nexus turns out to be the “Nexus 4G,” the lesser-tested 4G smartphone experience could prove actually to be a millstone around Google’s neck, should there prove to be any difficulties with 4G from a performance standpoint. Nexus, after all, has seen its share of abortive technologies; it can be argued that the brand in and of itself has yet to “break even” in being seen as a successful brand — especially when compared with the iPhone franchise.

To be sure, it is certainly possible that the next Nexus could beat the iPhone 5 to the punch on a host of other comparable features, from its screen and cameras to its operating system. But in terms of a 3G/4G showdown between the two, the iPhone 5 not being 4G shouldn’t really be that much of a deal-breaker of iPhone users as a whole.

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iOS 5 And iPhone 5 Delays Notwithstanding, Major Apple Competitor BlackBerry (RIM) Already Feeling The Pain

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 07:31 AM PDT


Apple may be slow out of the gate getting an iPhone 5 to market, but that hasn’t inhibited its putting the boots to one of the company’s most prominent and established competitors in the smartphone market.

Waterloo, Ontario based Research In Motion (RIM), which pretty much invented the smartphone category with its once-iconic BlackBerry phone, is feeling the pain these days, largely due to competitive pressure from Apple’s iPhone in its traditional market, and failure to make much of an impression in the hot tablet computer sector with its putative iPad-challenger BlackBerry Playbook. Apple’s announcement last week of its forthcoming iMessage service as part of iCloud will essentially eliminate the most significant remaining advantage BlackBerry had over the iPhone. As Cult of Mac’s John Brownlee observed yesterday, RIM is being “punched to death” by iPhone, iPad And iMessages.

The Globe and Mail’s Tim Kiladze is reporting this morning that the company’s stock (RIMM) prices plunged more than 15 percent in overnight pre-market trading, and cites analyst Philip Huang at UBS Securities commenting in a note to clients that the “two main pillars” of RIM’s erstwhile success, which are the enterprise and international growth markets, “are increasingly under attack from the onslaught of Android and iOS devices and we are yet to be convinced RIMM can successfully fend off this competition convincingly.”

Kiladze also notes that RIM’s U.S. year-over-year sales growth fell 36 percent in the last quarter from the same period in 2010, and any potential turnaround from a 'super phone' lineup based on the company’s new QNX operating system won’t be released until sometime in 2012 (although an update of the present BlackBerry OS is expected in “late summer” this year) — not encouraging news for RIMM stockholders with Apple’s major iOS 5 upgrade, iCloud, and probably an iPhone 5 all coming down the chute before the fall pre-Christmas buying season, and stiff competition from Android as well.

That said, RIM is far from completely down and out yet, reporting a net income of $695 million or $1.33 per share for its first 2011 fiscal quarter, which is not catastrophically lower than its earnings of $769 million, or $1.38 per share in the same quarter last year, and a strong balance sheet with cash holdings of almost $3 billion. RIM also reports that it shipped (although no necessarily sold) some 13.2 million BlackBerrys and 500,000 PlayBooks in the recent quarter, which fell within analysts’ projections, but that hasn’t been enough to prevent RIM from announcing major layoffs this week as it struggles to get its new generation of products on stream and to stay competitive with Apple and Android.

The Canadian Press reports that RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie conceded to analysts on Thursday that “The challenges in the United States, in particular, are making near-term earnings growth difficult,” noting that RIM has been selling fewer phones in the United States, where smartphone buyers have been increasingly turning to iPhone and Android handsets instead of BlackBerrys. The report also says that RIM’s other co-CEO Mike Lazaridis also unexpectedly spoke on the conference call, putting on a brave face in an effort to assure analysts that RIM is on track with the new products in its development pipeline, and attributing part of the holdup as being that it’s taken longer than expected for wireless carriers around the world to test and certify the new BlackBerrys, as opposed to being “vaporized by Apple” as Cult of Mac’s Brownlee delicately put it.

Not good enough for National Bank Financial Analyst Kris Thompson, who lowered his RIMM target price to $25, and is quoted by the Globe’s Kiladze commenting “We believe the smart phone sector is moving into a new paradigm of lower margin pricing as Android handsets attack the high, mid and low-end market segments. We do not expect the company's gross margins to rebound," adding "We'd avoid this stock until there is some evidence that a sustainable turnaround is achievable.” RIMM stock continued to fall to a five-year-low in early trading Friday, down 18 percent, prompting J.P. Morgan to downgrade its rating for the stock

If Apple can deliver on its scheduled “fall” rollout of iOS 5 and iCloud, and perhaps fulfill the hopes of iPhone 5 aspirants before the end of the year as well, a late summer BlackBerry OS update can hardly be expected to stanch the bleeding for RIM.