Monthly Archives: July 2010

The blow-by-blow on Apple’s blowout quarter

July 20, 2010 10:17 am by Richard Waters

After the distractions of Antennagate it was back to business as usual as Apple reported its latest earnings on Tuesday.

iPhone sales in the company’s latest quarter jumped to 8.4m, belying concerns that inventory changes surrounding the switch to the latest model would hit sales. Profit margins also held up better than expected, pushing earnings well ahead of forecasts.

Those were the headlines as Apple released earnings for the period to the end of June, its third fiscal quarter. The numbers:

Revenue rose 61 per cent to $15.7bn, ahead of Wall Street forecasts of $14.74bn.
Earnings climbed to $3.51, above the consensus estimate of $3.10.

Our live blogging of Apple’s conference call to discuss the state of its business is after the jump. Read more

From beyondbrics July 19, 2010

For sale in China: iPhone 4G for $2,000

From the FT’s beyondbrics blog

If you thought the new iPhone 4G was expensive in London, try buying one in China. The phone has yet to be released there – but unlocked handsets are being sold on the grey market for as much as $2,000, according to MIC Gadget, a China-related gadget blog.The blog (citing a report in the Oriental Morning Post) says that most of the phones being sold are UK handsets – presumably bought from the Apple store on Regent Street or online, and then shipped over to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Read more

Tags: apple
Posted in Asia, Mobile | Permalink

Livescribe Echo writes new smartpen chapter

July 19, 2010 6:37 am by Chris Nuttall

Livescribe, the company whose pen combines paper note-taking with digital recordings, is launching its next-generation product and new ways of sharing pages and audio.

The Echo pen has a number of improvements from looks, to capacity and new standard interfaces that open up fresh uses for a signature product among digital pens. Read more

Tags: Livescribe
Posted in Gadgets, Personal technology | Permalink

Apple in an iPhone fix offers free cases

July 16, 2010 6:10 pm by Financial Times

Steve Jobs, Apple chief executive, has offered iPhone owners free cases to try to resolve complaints about the antenna on the iPhone 4.

Mr Jobs made the announcement at a news conference called at its Silicon Valley headquarters to discuss criticism of the iPhone 4. After the jump, read live coverage of the news from our Apple correspondent Joe Menn at the event. Read more

Tags: apple, iphone 4
Posted in Telecoms | Permalink

All-in-one is one for all

July 16, 2010 5:26 am by Paul Taylor

All-in-one computers, which combine monitor and PC components in a single unit, are getting added appeal with multi-touch screens.

In this week’s Personal Technology column in the FT’s Business Life section, we look at options from Acer, Apple and Sony. Read more

Tags: Acer, apple, Sony
Posted in Personal technology | Permalink

Xbox sales up 88 per cent, software slumps

July 16, 2010 2:14 am by Chris Nuttall

A new, slimmer Xbox boosted sales of the Microsoft console by 88 per cent in June, but video game software sales slumped 15 per cent.

The latest figures from the NPD research group on Thursday continued a disappointing trend for the industry in 2010, with overall sales down 9 per cent so far this year compared to 2009. Read more

Tags: PS3, Take Two, Wii, xbox 360
Posted in Games | Permalink

AMD sees server splurge, graphics gains

July 16, 2010 1:17 am by Chris Nuttall

The splurge in server sales, which Intel highlighted on Tuesday as a revival of corporate hardware spending, is also benefiting its rival AMD.

On its second-quarter earnings call on Thursday, the Silicon Valley neighbour said shipments of its new Opteron 6000 server chips nearly quadrupled compared to the first quarter “ramping late in the quarter as our largest customers transitioned the bulk of their AMD-based offering to the new platform.” Read more

Tags: AMD, intel, Llano, Sandy Bridge
Posted in Hardware | Permalink

Searching for balance

July 15, 2010 5:16 pm by Richard Waters

Back in the dark, distant days when newspapers ruled the earth – make that the early 1970s – getting into print often made the difference between getting your issue heard and being invisible.

That’s why a candidate running for office in Florida sued the Miami Herald in 1972, demanding a right to have his opinion carried in the newspaper. The courts would have none of it, holding that the Herald had a right to make its editorial judgments.

Why is this relevant? Because Google is the new power in the land, and there are plenty of people who would like to get a better showing in its results pages. Besides the complaints to regulators and lawsuits, this has touched off a wider debate about “search neutrality” that Google’s Marissa Mayer (pictured) addresses in a comment piece in Thursday’s FT. Read more

Tags: google, Marissa Mayer, search neutrality
Posted in Internet, Tech | Permalink

From FT Alphaville July 13, 2010

Goldman really likes its new iPad

Apple’s stock took a beating on Tuesday, after reports that the iPhone 4’s ‘death grip‘ issue is a hardware problem sparked pressure for a product recall:

Unlucky timing then for what was a frankly ecstatic note on the same day from Goldman on the stock market implications of the iPad. Read more

Posted in Consumer Electronics | Permalink

Apple to address iPhone 4 reception complaints

July 15, 2010 3:31 am by Joseph Menn

Apple just called to invite the FT to a press conference “about iPhone 4″ to be held at its Cupertino headquarters on Friday morning at 10 a.m.

The company wouldn’t say anything else, but given the events of the past week, it’s hard to imagine that Apple would be having such a rare audience to announce, say, an upgrade to the FaceTime video calling feature.

No, in the present climate, “about the iPhone 4″ means that Apple finally has something more concrete to say about the reception issues that have been frustrating many buyers of Apple’s latest mobile phone. Read more