Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

Should Apple Respond To Google/Moto Deal With RIM Buyout?

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 10:31 AM PDT


Google Inc. announced on Monday its purchase of mobile communications hardware maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. for US$12.5 billion, paying $40 per share which represents a hefty 63 percent premium over last Friday’s closing price.

Motorola had spun the Mobility division, which holds various electronics patents, from the rest of the company in January. Google and Motorola jointly announced that the deal has been approved by both companies’ boards. The acquisition will get Google into the smartphone hardware manufacturing fray, allowing it to apply the vertical integration and seamless control of mobile hardware and operating system software development that has proved an elegantly winning formula for Apple.

Motorola Mobility currently manufactures smartphones that run on Google’s Android OS platform. Another aspect of the deal is that Motorola, a pioneer in the mobile-phone business, holds more than 17,000 patents on mobile phone technology, which should help inoculate Google and Android against the rash of recent patent lawsuits sweeping the industry.

Interestingly, the Google/Motorola deal also lifted stocks of Blackberry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) and longtime cellphone stalwart Nokia — both now considered ripe takeover targets after having their share prices beaten down due to perceived competitive shortcomings in competition with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android. RIM shares had dropped 53 percent this year before yesterday, when its stock rose $2.55, or 10 per cent, to $27.11 on the Nasdaq, while Nokia shares had risen almost 11 percent in pre-session trading.

There’s been speculation that Microsoft Corp. might buy either RIM or Nokia to boost its profile in the smartphone game. In that light, it’s arguable that Apple should consider preemptively purchasing one or the other or both. Buying RIM would enhance Apple’s iPhone profile in the lucrative enterprise and institutional sectors, and secure the proprietary and popular BlackBerry messenger service (BBM) which offers a free alternative to texting (SMS), as well as preempting Microsoft (or Samsung) from acquiring the company. RIM reportedly also holds at least 2,033 patents (Evercore Partners analyst Alkesh Shah says it’s more like 10,000 to 15,000), covering a spectrum from mobile security to advanced wireless technology to enterprise mobility to email.

RIM’s market cap is now under $15 Billion, which would likely be more like $20 billion+ with a takeover premium factored in, but still pocket-change for Apple with its $70-odd billion hoard of cash. And despite recent setbacks, the Canadian company still reportedly controls eight percent of the mobile handset hardware market, and 25 percent of the smartphone market.

On the other hand, Apple is also believed to be a multiple Nokia technology licensee, and with Nokia estimated to be holding at least 50 essential 4G patents, and possibly in excess of 100 essential 3G patents, Apple could unencumber itself from paying a lot of royalty fees ad infinitum by picking up Nokia as well, although a complicating factor there might be that Nokia uses uses Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS in its smartphones.

Sounds like these would be sensible strategic moves to me to me, especially in light of the Google/Moto deal, but what do I know?

Double-Teamed: GS2 Joins Nexus Prime To Take On iPhone 5

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 07:26 AM PDT


Samsung’s Galaxy S 2 is due to be released in the U.S., and analysts anticipate it will compete against the iPhone 5. But Google has also tapped the Nexus Prime to be the natural competitor to the iPhone. Can the iPhone 5 out-perform both the GS2 and the Nexus Prime?

There is nothing coincidental about the iPhone 5 and Samsung’s Galaxy S 2 ostensibly being released in close proximity to one another. As we reported yesterday, the GS2 is designed to be an iPhone 5 killer, and the fact that Samsung is seeking to release it in front of the eventual iPhone 5 release is a stark reminder that the iPhone will continue to have tenacious competition from Android smartphones, regardless of how lofty iPhone 5 sales predictions may become.

All of this discussion about the SG2, however, has shifted the focus away from the Android smartphone that Google themselves have boldly proclaimed to be the anointed competitor to the iPhone: the Nexus “Prime.”

We reported back in May on a Google press conference wherein Android head Andy Rubin explained 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.” This is no insignificant insight into Google’s thinking on the Nexus series of smartphones, and although the Nexus has been a bit of a flop since its inception, Google still has a great deal of faith in its flagship Android smartphone.

Even as far back as May, they were imagining the Nexus to be part of a new “Android ecosystem” that sounds a lot like the new iCloud-inspired ecosystem that Apple unveiled at the WWDC in June. At the time of the press conference, TechCrunch wondered “a Nexus running Ice Cream Sandwich (the next version of Android that will unify the tablet Honeycomb OS with Android phones)? Perhaps."

And like the Samsung Galaxy S 2, the next Nexus promises to be a similarly-designed smartphone. We reported back in June that the Nexus will most likely be 4G-ready, like the GS2, and offer similar performance features, such as a dual core 1.2 or 1.5 GHz Snapdragon processor, 1GB of RAM, and monster-sized HD screen. Considering that both the Gs2 and Nexus Prime could sport these coveted features, the fresh rumors of a 4G iPhone 5 begins to make sense from a marketing standpoint for Apple, who will have to keep pace with not one, but two formidable smartphones.



As Google Swallows Motorola, Where Does the Nexus Stand?

While Google may imagine the Nexus to be the natural competitor to the iPhone 5 — and to all future iPhone iterations as well — one has to wonder where Motorola will fit into the equation, now that Google will own their own smartphone designer and manufacturer. To be sure, HTC has not lived up to Google’s expectations in making the Nexus smartphones into a worthy adversary to the iPhone — they have been fraught with quality and performance issues. It very well may be that Google’s move to acquire Motorola was a hedge against yet another poor showing by the next Nexus, ensuring that Google can begin to shape and craft its own smartphones and have a more hands-on role in the finished product.

That being said, it should not be assumed that Google will be able to match Apple’s smartphone market cap and production prowess simply by purchasing Motorola — they are, after all, newcomers to the business of building smartphones. And for all of Google’s brilliance in some areas, they have still managed to fail to penetrate other market segments with new ventures (such as social networking). Even if they decide to keep Motorola’s executive team intact and let them do the heavy lifting on running the smartphone operati0on, Motorola is no Apple when it comes to making smartphones.

In fact, Wall Street sees Google’s purchasing of Motorola more as a stopgap in a losing battle against Apple than a strategic win for the company. From Apple Insider: “Chris Whitmore [of Deutsche Bank] said he remains “confident” in Apple’s position following the Google-Motorola deal. He noted that Google paid a 60 percent premium in buying Motorola, suggesting that the search giant is threatened in its current position. He also believes the deal will create confusion within the Android developer community, and could alienate other Android device makers like HTC and Samsung.”

So, for all of the competition that Apple has to contend with in the GS2 and Nexus Prime — as well as whatever may come of the Google-Motorola union — the bold forecasts for impressive iPhone 5 sales still remain intact.
By

Apple Orders 56 Million+ iPhones For 2H ’11 – Nearly Half iPhone 5 – Report

Posted: 15 Aug 2011 10:31 PM PDT


If you’re trying to figure out what is coming in the IT space, casting your gaze East often provides some of the most likely information, which stands to reason since that’s where most high-tech products come from these days.

Yenting Chen and Adam Hwang of the Taipei-based IT industry-watcher journal Digitimes report that Apple has just increased its total order volume for iPhones,including iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4 CDMA and — ta-daaaa! iPhone 5, for the second half of 2011 by 12-13%, from the 50 million units originally estimated at the end of the second calendar quarter to in exces of 56 million units. And readers of this blog will be delighted to know that Chen and Hwang say the iPhone 5 will account for nearly half of those orders — some 25.5-26 million units, according to sources at Taiwan-based supply chain makers.



However, the report also notes that iPhone 5 orders for the third quarter have actually been reduced from a previously estimated seven million units to 5.5-6 million units, indicating that production will ramp up more slowly than had been anticipated for delivery after the iPhone 5 is announced. The positive news in that context is that fourth-quarter iPhone 5 orders have been increased from 14 million units to more than 20 million units, which would hopefully avoid a protracted demand-supply imbalance lasting several months like the one experienced with the iPad 2 last spring and into the summer. Based on the reported metrics, Apple is also evidently anticipating robust pre-Christmas sales.

Total orders for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4 CDMA meanwhile are slated to still exceed 20 million units in the third quarter, but fourth-quarter orders have been adjusted down to eight million units, Digitimes’ sources indicated.

It’s interesting that the 3GS is still included in the production mix, possibly an indication that it may be destined to become the rumored “low-cost” iPhone option for at least the near term rather than the iPhone 4 being demoted to that role as has been suggested.