Thursday, August 18, 2011

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

If China Mobile Gets the iPhone 5, It Will Get It After U.S. Release

Posted: 18 Aug 2011 12:45 PM PDT


Throughout the summer, reports of an imminent deal between Apple and China Mobile for the iPhone have persisted. But at this late hour in the iPhone 5′s production cycle and no official deal between the two companies, it is doubtful that Apple could have the iPhone 5 ready for China Mobile anytime soon.

Anytime people discuss the iPhone these days, China invariably enters into the conversation. Whether considering where 25 million projected sales of the iPhone 5 in the last quarter of 2011 will come from, or if Apple will produce a stripped-down iPhone for developing nations, China — and more specifically China Mobile, which is the world’s largest mobile phone operator with over 600 million subscribers — is always being discussed as a realistic new carrier for the iPhone 5.

Heck, it was even rumored that China Mobile would get a 4G version of the iPhone 5 while the rest of the world would have to settle for a 3G iPhone 5.

While that outcome may be far-fetched, even today’s rumors that China Mobile is due to get the iPhone 5 is still a bit of a stretch. Multiple sources today confirm that Steve Jobs personally teleconferenced with China Mobile executives about forging a deal that would put an iPhone 5 into production for their network. From Reuters: “has met with Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs several times on introducing an iPhone based on its network standard.”

But at this late hour, when the iPhone 5 is clearly in production and ready to be announced sometime in the very near future, it is highly unlikely that China Mobile will have enough time to solidify a deal with Apple and put iPhone 5′s into production for their network. In spite of the perception that a deal between the two companies is imminent, the fact remains that there is no formal agreement between Apple and China Mobile at this time.



Moreover, there is a technological hurtle that makes adopting the iPhone 5 to China Mobilee’s network a bit complex. Unlike China Telecom, which uses the same CDMA network standard that Verizon and Sprint use, China Mobile utiziles the one-of-a-kind TD-SCDMA standard. Given the fact that the iPhone 5 is not expected to work on GSM, CDMA, and TD-SCDMA, this would mean that Apple would have to craft a separate TD-SCDMA version of the new iPhone just for China Mobile.

And while there is no doubt that Apple would be happy to do so in order to tap into China Mobile’s 600 million-strong subscribership, there is no way that Cupertino has risked putting any resources into preparing production model iPhone 5′s for China Mobile without a deal in place.

There seems to be a tendency in the iPhone 5 rumor mill to believe that Apple will usurp the U.S. and European consumer markets this time around and focus its attention moreso on China, with the rationale that the slumping consumer confidence and weak economic forecast will prompt Apple to look for sales elsewhere. However, tech analysts continue to believe that the iPhone 5 will be Apple’s best-selling iPhone iteration yet, with some suggesting that nearly 35% of all consumers may own an iPhone 5 in a year’s time.

Therefore, reports that China Mobile will get the iPhone 5 in time for a simultaneous release with the U.S. — or that the iPhone 5 will launch in China before the U.S. — is highly unlikely.

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HTC Patent Lawsuit Spurs Late iPhone 5 Delay Rumor

Posted: 18 Aug 2011 07:37 AM PDT


The long, meandering line of smartphone legal battles winds on: Could the later-than-usual release of the iPhone 5 be a result of an aggressive patent lawsuit levied by HTC against Apple? 

There is probably nothing more boring to read about in the iPhone 5 rumor mill minutia than about lawsuits over technology patents. And yet, the issue over lawsuits and patent infringement continues to enter into the conversation — especially as it pertains to the iPhone 5 and its delayed release.

News today indicates that the late iPhone 5 release could have something to do with a weighty patent lawsuit filed by competitor HTC. As ITProPortal reports, “the autumn months could come and go without seeing an iPhone launch. The reason? HTC has filed a patent-related complaint with the International Trade Commission against the Cupertino-based company, which could see the iPhone release being delayed.”

This new perspective on the iPhone 5 delay comes after some analysts have surmised that Apple is also looking to position the release of the iPhone 5 after preemptive strikes by Samsung’s GS2 and the rumored Nexus Prime in a bid to wield the precedent set by a powerful patent victory of their own for touch screen and gesture control technology.

But as you can now imagine, all of these smartphone makers could be in for a series of compounded patent litigation battles in the last quarter of 2011.

2011: The Year of the Patent Lawsuit

2011 has been marked by a series of lawsuits that involve all of the major players in the smartphone market: Apple, Nokia, Samsung, and HTC to name a few. Back in mid June, when Nokia won a decisive victory in the courts that forced Apple to make royalty payments to them on all iPhone sales, Nokia went so far to say that patent litigation was fast becoming a primary focus for them for competing in the smartphone sector, boasting that “"This settlement demonstrates Nokia's industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market."

Now,With Google’s recent move to acquire of Motorola, they now hope to jump into the legal fray by wielding all of the patents that Motorola holds in mobile technology.

The problem with all of these patent battles is that it ultimately comes to hurt the consumer, as the both the wins and losses are costly — and those costs invariably get tricked down to the consumer. PopHerald is reporting today that the iPhone 5 may hold the same price as the iPhone 4, employing a similar approach to Apple’s same price strategy with the iPad 2. But given the royalty that Apple will have to pay Nokia on its iPhone sales, it would stand to reason that the loss in net revenues from that royalty will be made up out of the pockets of consumers.


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New Round of iPhone Sales Herald iPhone 5 Announcement

Posted: 18 Aug 2011 07:03 AM PDT


More anecdotal reports from consumers indicate that top retailers worldwide are slashing prices of the iPhone 3Gs and 4 in a bid to clear out old stock for the launch of the iPhone 5.

It is a common practice is retail: out with the old, in with the new. That seems to be exactly what’s happening at major retail outlets worldwide that peddle the iPhone.

Recent anecdotal reports indicate that Target is slashing prices of the AT&T iPhone 3Gs and iPhone 4, with the 3GS priced at just $19.99, 16GB
iPhone 4 at $169.99 and 32GB at $249.99. Target has cut prices similarly on Verizon’s iPhone 4 models as well.

Another anecdotal report from Canada indicates that retailers are slashing prices on legacy iPhone models as well. An iPhone 5 News Blog reader reported that he visited the “Telus Mobility site here in Canada and have noticed that the 16GB iphone 4 units are on sale for $99 until September 7th on a 3 year contract! (3Gs is free on a 3 yr contact as well).”

This rash of recent anecdotal reports joins a steady stream of reports that have shown a consistent trend in cutting prices on the iPhone 3Gs, ostensibly to make way for the current iPhone 4 to become the “value priced” iPhone, and the iPhone 5 to assume its place as the premium-priced iPhone option. Back in mid July, we reported on the iPhone 5 News Ticker how AT&T has begun offering refurbished iPhone 3Gs units for just $9.00. Then, in late July, we reported on how U.S. tech retailer Radio Shack would be joining Target in the price drop on iPhones.

As we’ve stated here on the Blog before, fire sales like this is a very strong sign that a new product announcement/release is imminent. Retailers usually give themselves a window of 4 to 6 weeks to offer soon-to-be-obsolete products at clearance prices in the lead-up to a new announcement. The difference with Apple and the iPhone is that retailers are not apt to stick a “Clearance” tag on such a premium, high-priced item — which is why you’re still seeing Apple promoting the iPhone 4 heavily in television commercials, even as the iPhone 5′s announcement in September is imminent.


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iPhone Category Page Goes Screwy – iPhone 5 Coming To Apple.com?

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 04:18 PM PDT


It is well established that the tech community watches for changes on Apple.com like hawks. Today, there was a time where Apple’s online store was down, which sent many people into a tizzy over whether or not the store being offline was the result of Apple adding the iPhone 5 onto it. That, of course, turned out to be a short-lived dream, as Gizmodo quickly pointed out that it was just a server snafu.

This, however, would not be the result of a server malfunction:

iphone 5 on apple.com

Jumbled text on the iPhone category page at Apple.com. Interesting?

What you’re looking at is a current screen shot of the iPhone category or “landing page,” at http://www.apple.com/iphone/. It remains to be seen if the page will remain this way, as I’m sure the Apple.com webmasters will catch it. But as you can see, there are several layers of text overlapping one another. The only selectable layer reads: “Only iPhone gives you one-tap access to the world's largest collection of mobile apps.” Underneath the text layer, other fragments can be seen, such as “retina,” ostensibly from the usual slide that rotates on the iPhone page.

I took the screen shot around 7:00 pm EST.

It may be nothing more than some sort of error, but to me, it points to proof positive that Apple is working on the iPhone portion of the website, since this is precisely where the new iPhone 5 information and graphics will go. This is exactly the kind of blunder that occurs when web designers are working on pages — moving things around. To me, it is quite clear that someone at Apple was working on the iPhone page today.

 


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