Apple unveils smaller, cheaper iPhone SE aimed at mid-market

CALIFORNIA - Apple Inc. on Monday (early Tuesday morning, Manila time) unveiled a smaller, cheaper iPhone aimed at new buyers, especially in emerging markets and China, as the technology company looks to reverse a decline in worldwide sales of its most important product.

The new device, called the iPhone SE, has a 4-inch (10-cm) screen and starts at $399. It represents Apple's second bid for the crowded mid-tier market after an unsuccessful foray three years ago. Orders start on Thursday, and the phone will be available next week.

The $399 starting price is well below the $649 for the current top iPhone model without a contract, which is beyond the reach of many. The new phone, with Apple's vaunted A9 chip, is much faster than Apple's previous attempt at an entry-level phone, launched in 2013. It also runs Apple Pay and comes in the wildly popular rose gold color.

Analysts had said before the event that a phone priced below $450 could be competitive with other mid-tier rivals, mostly running Google's Android system, and make an impact in emerging markets and China, the world's biggest buyer of smartphones.

Apple is hoping the cheaper model will stimulate overall iPhone sales, which it expects to decline this quarter for the first time since it essentially created the smartphone market nine years ago.

"There are people who want that smaller screen size," said Bob O'Donnell of TECHnalysis Research, but he warned that it may not be a sure-fire hit.

"It's a more attractive price point, but I don't think it moves the needle in emerging markets," he said. "You do a price cut when you need to drive the market a bit more."

Apple shares fell in the afternoon and were down about $0.15 at $105.77. The stock is down 20 percent from its all-time high closing price of $133 in February 2015, as Wall Street worries that the company does not have any blockbuster products in the pipeline.

The company showed off new wristbands for the Apple Watch and a new iPad Pro tablet at Monday's event, but it generated little excitement among investors.

“Apple is so big now that nothing seems to be earth-shaking anymore, and the strategy seems to be turning to offering complementary products like watch bands so they can maintain their sales momentum,” said Skip Aylesworth, portfolio manager of the Hennessy Technology Fund.

The more compact phone design comes after it expanded the size of the screens in its high-end iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus phones in 2014 to as large as 5.5 inches. That was broadly seen as an attempt to match rival Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) with its large-screen Galaxy phones.

Before the launch at Apple's leafy Cupertino, California headquarters, Chief Executive Tim Cook defended the company's refusal to comply with a U.S. court order to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the shooters in a December attack in San Bernardino, California.

Apple has a responsibility to protect customers' data and privacy, Cook said, adding that Apple "will not shrink from that responsibility." His statement was greeted by applause from the audience.

The tech company's dispute with the U.S. government has become a lightning rod for a broader debate on data privacy in the United States. The company is set to square off against the U.S. government at a court hearing on Tuesday, likely the first round in a long legal fight to avoid being forced to decrypt the iPhone.

Apple also announced a new scheme it called 'Liam' to take apart old iPhones and reuse the materials.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Apple loses patent lawsuit, faces hefty damages

NEW YORK - Apple Inc. could be facing up to $862 million in damages after a US jury on Tuesday found the iPhone maker used technology owned by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's licensing arm without permission in chips found in many of its most popular devices.

The jury in Madison, Wisconsin also said the patent, which improves processor efficiency, was valid. The trial will now move on to determine how much Apple owes in damages.

Representatives for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and Apple could not immediately be reached for comment.

WARF sued Apple in January 2014 alleging infringement of its 1998 patent for improving chip efficiency.

The jury was considering whether Apple's A7, A8 and A8X processors, found in the iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 Plus, as well as several versions of the iPad, violate the patent.

Cupertino, California-based Apple denied any infringement and argued the patent is invalid, according to court papers. Apple previously tried to convince the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to review the patent's validity, but in April the agency rejected the bid.

According to a recent ruling by U.S. District Judge William Conley, who is presiding over the case, Apple could be liable for up to $862.4 million in damages.

He scheduled the trial to proceed in three phases: liability, damages, and finally, whether Apple infringed the patent willfully, which could lead to enhanced penalties.

WARF used the patent to sue Intel Corp in 2008, but the case was settled the following year on the eve of trial.

Last month, WARF launched a second lawsuit against Apple, this time targeting the company's newest chips, the A9 and A9X, used in the just-released iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, as well as the iPad Pro.

The case is Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation v. Apple Inc in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, No. 14-cv-62.

source: www.abs-cbnnewws.com

Apple removes some apps from online store over security concerns

Apple Inc. said on Thursday that it had removed "a few" applications from its App Store, expressing its concern that the security of some users' personal data could be compromised in certain circumstances.

The company said the apps threatened users' security by installing certificates that can expose data to monitoring by third parties. The company did not specify the precise number of apps at issue.

"Apple is deeply committed to protecting customer privacy and security," an Apple spokeswoman said in a statement. "We are working closely with these developers to quickly get their apps back on the App Store, while ensuring customer privacy and security is not at risk."

Apps with so-called root certificates route user data to servers where it can be analyzed. That opens the door for network providers to view encrypted traffic, leaving users vulnerable to data breaches.

Among the apps removed was Been Choice, which has attracted attention for its ability to block advertising in apps.

An Apple spokeswoman said the company would release a support page to help users remove the apps in question from their devices.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Apple faces hurdles as it positions iPad Pro for business use

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc. faces significant challenges selling its larger and more powerful iPad Pro to businesses because companies are reluctant to switch software vendors and use an expensive device that lacks specialized business apps, analysts said.

"They've tried to ... focus on the enterprise but over the last two years it has really not been successful," said Daniel Ives, a senior analyst at FBR Capital Markets. The enterprise market, which is how Apple refers to its business customers, represents 10 percent of its $183 billion annual revenue, he said.

Apple has at least one client so far: General Electric has given some of its 305,000 employees the option to use Apple devices at work, with 20,000 iPads and 60,000 iPhones now available in their offices. It is not clear how much this is worth for Apple, nor how it generates about $18 billion a year from the enterprise market.

Apple officials declined to comment on plans to market iPads to business customers, referring queries to a product announcement event that happened Sept. 9. At that event, Phil Schiller, Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said the iPad Pro was faster than 80 percent of portable PCs, signaling that Apple may think the device could replace workplace laptops from companies like Dell and HP. Schiller called the iPad Pro "ideal for professional productivity."

Selling tablets to corporate buyers is an attractive option for Apple amid slowing global iPad sales, which have fallen for two quarters. Research firm Forrester projects that sales to businesses will represent as much as 20 percent of the overall tablet market by 2018, compared to 14 percent this year, as the market grows from 218 million units to 250 million units.

"The iPad Pro is important for Apple because they're beginning to saturate the personal device space and it's a logical step for the company if they wish to expand their market share," said Michael Yoshikami, head of Destination Wealth Management, which has $1.5 billion under management and owns Apple shares.

The price of its products is one obstacle Apple faces as it tries to move deeper into the enterprise market.

The iPad Pro starts at $799 but costs more than $1,000 if buyers also want a keyboard and an optional stylus. That's more than Apple's existing tablets as well as devices made by Microsoft Corp and other PC makers like Lenovo. It's about the same price as Apple's own MacBook Air, a laptop.

The iPad Pro's biggest competitor is likely Microsoft's 12-inch Surface Pro 3, also geared towards the business market. While the Surface has the same starting price as the iPad Pro, Apple charges extra for a keyboard and stylus.

In July, Microsoft said its Surface line of tablets brought in $888 million in the most recent quarter, up 117 percent from the same time last year, boosted in largest part by the Surface Pro 3 and the launch of Surface 3.

"The most formidable opposition to adoption is price ... The iPad Pro has a lot of utility and technology that Apple brought to bear but unfortunately the price never goes away as a challenge," said Keith Bachman, a senior analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

It's also not clear how Apple is going to expand their sales to businesses, as only a few companies like GE have made any significant investment to switch to Apple devices, said J.P. Gownder, a Forrester principal analyst.

At GE, which gives employees the option of using Apple devices at work, just 10,000 of its 170,000 office workers using computers on a regular basis use a Mac.

In the meantime, Apple has entered into partnerships with IBM and Cisco, aimed at creating more enterprise-friendly software to run on iOS, the Apple operating system, but little is known about these partnerships.

The iPad Pro is "going to be a real accelerator for our partnership and Apple as well," said Katharyn White, IBM's vice president of strategy and markets for the company and Apple's partnership. "Clients that have seen it and are thinking about it are really excited about it."

A Forrester survey last year of more than 4,000 office workers found that they still rely heavily on laptops at the workplace and estimated that global information workers are three times more likely to use them for longer than four hours per day than tablets.

Finally, analysts say that the vast majority of companies use custom-built applications and databases that are still not compatible with Apple's iOS and are unlikely to switch to Mac devices.

GE has an internal group dedicated to developing applications that can run on Apple's mobile devices, and IBM and Apple are developing a number of iOS applications for enterprise clients in industries ranging from banking to healthcare.

But for most companies, Gownder said, "You still can't run all your business-critical applications through Apple."

Gownder wrote in a report on Thursday that technology decision-makers currently favor Windows over iOS for ease of support by 42 percent to 16 percent.

"Enterprises have spent billions on applications that are unique to their business and having 40 apps from IBM doesn't change that fact overnight," he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Apple faces another suit from victorious patent firm

Fresh off a $532.9 million jury win against Apple Inc, a Texas company is again suing the tech giant, this time over the same patents' use in devices introduced after the original case was underway.

Smartflash LLC aims to make Apple pay for using the patent licensing firm's technology without permission in devices not be included in the previous case, such as the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and the iPad Air 2. The trial covered older Apple devices.

On Tuesday, a jury in federal court in Tyler, Texas found that Apple willfully violated three Smartflash patents with devices that use its iTunes software. The patents relate to accessing and storing downloaded songs, videos and games.

The new complaint was filed on Wednesday night in the same court in Tyler, where Smartflash is also based and which over the past decade has become a focus for patent litigation. Smartflash licenses its patents but does not make products itself.

"Smartflash filed the complaint to address products that came out too far into the last proceedings to have been included," Smartflash's attorney, Brad Caldwell, told Reuters on Thursday. "Apple cannot claim they don’t know about these patents or understand that they are infringing. A diligent jury has already rejected those arguments."

A representative from Apple could not immediately be reached for comment.

Apple said after Tuesday's verdict it would appeal and that the outcome was another reason reform was needed in the patent system to curb litigation by companies that make money off patent royalties instead of products.

The latest suit alleges Apple infringes the same patents at issue in the trial, and names four others. Three of those additional patents were part of its older complaint against Apple, which was later narrowed.

Both Smartflash lawuits say that around 2000, the co-inventor of its patents, Patrick Racz, met with executives of what is now European SIM card maker Gemalto SA, including Augustin Farrugia, who is now a senior director at Apple.

Smartflash has also filed patent infringement lawsuits against Samsung Electronics Co Ltd , Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc over the same patents.

The case is Smartflash LLC et al v. Apple Inc, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, No. 15-cv-145.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

'Grand Theft' game comes to Apple screens

SAN FRANCISCO, California - The maker of the popular "Grand Theft Auto" videogames said Thursday that a version of the game was being offered for users of Apple's iPhone and iPad devices.

Rockstar Games said "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City 10th Anniversary Edition" was available for download.

It is the successor to Grand Theft Auto III and "is everything we loved about the 80s packed into a sprawling open world action game," said Sam Houser, founder of Rockstar Games.

"We're thrilled to let mobile and tablet players experience everything Vice City has to offer."

The franchise has sold more than 114 million copies since its debut in 1997.

Rockstar is coming out with "GTA V" for Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 videogame consoles or personal computers sometime between March and July.

The videogame franchise has won legions of fans and cadres of critics with game play in which triumph depends on acts such as carjacking, gambling and killing.

Play in Grand Theft Auto games has included simulated sex with prostitutes and drunken driving.

The franchise's appeal is fueled by captivating story lines and an open-world format that lets players go wherever they wish in game worlds.

source: abs-cbnnews.com