Apple expected to polish lineup with new iPhone

Apple on Wednesday is expected to introduce a new iPhone and perhaps a second-generation smartwatch as it polishes its lineup of devices to shine during the year-end shopping season.

The rumor mill has been grinding away with talk of iPhone 7 models that will boast faster chips, more sophisticated cameras, and improved software while doing away with jacks for plugging in wired headphones.

To assuage users accustomed to wired headphones, Apple could roll out accessories that include an adaptor that plugs into a remaining port.

The event would also be a chance to showcase wireless headphones, perhaps some from Beats, which Apple bought two years ago in a deal valued at $3 billion.

"Though not a completely redesigned smartphone, I do expect Apple to announce enough innovation to the new iPhone 7 devices to maintain its leadership," said Forrester analyst Thomas Husson.

"In particular, the timing would be ideal for Apple to leverage its Beats acquisition and deliver new headphones -- bundling voice-based services from Siri with an Apple Music subscription offering."

In Apple's usual enigmatic style, it provided little more that the date, time and place to the invitation-only gathering.

Apple has maintained a rhythm of introducing updated iPhone models on an annual basis, timing introductions to coincide with the year-end holiday shopping season.

In July, the company announced the sale of its billionth iPhone, a milestone for the company as it seeks to keep momentum in a competitive smartphone market.

"We see a large opportunity for the iPhone 7 when we consider the potential number of upgraders coming from the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus," said Kantar Worldwide ComTech consumer insight director Lauren Guenveur.

"Virtually all of those who intend to upgrade have told us they will remain loyal to Apple, making the iPhone 7 an obvious choice."

Apple reported a drop in iPhone sales in the second quarter of this year, a second straight drop after uninterrupted growth since its introduction in 2007.

- Apple Watch time? -

California-based Apple could also use the event to showcase updates to other products, such as its smartwatch and laptop computers.

Speculation regarding an Apple Watch 2 was fueled in part by the fact that the original hardware has not been updated since it debuted in April of last year.

A new-generation smartwatch could play well into Apple's "ecosystem" of smartphones, apps, services and more but likely "won't be the disruptive new product that Apple needs," said analyst Husson.

Improved iPhone and smartwatch models would be arriving just as Apple is set to roll out a new version of the mobile operating system.

The event will come as Apple squares off with the European Union over a demand that the iPhone maker pay a record 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in back taxes in Ireland.

Apple has vowed to fight the tax bill.

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's rivals hope its Watch will boost their own wearable tech

BARCELONA - Apple's rivals want to benefit from its magic, hoping that its long awaited new smartwatch will finally conjure demand for wearable technology that has so far generated more buzz about its potential than actual sales.

Gizmos that users wear on their bodies have yet to live up to the hype as the next big thing in technology. But experts say the arrival of Apple's new Watch - expected to be launched at an event announced next week - could finally get consumers excited.

"If Apple is successful, it'll create a rising tide that will lift the whole market," said Ben Wood, a top gadget reviewer at technology market research firm CCS Insight.

His company predicts Apple will sell 20 million of its new smart watches this year, helping spur 150 percent growth in the wearable technology sector to 75 million gadgets, rising to 350 million by 2018. Strategy Analytics, a second research firm, estimates Apple is likely to sell 15 million watches this year.

Making novelty products is one thing. Getting people to wear them is entirely another. Just ask Nike or Google.

Sportswear maker Nike halted work on its line of sports fitness wristband products a year ago. By far the most high profile failure to date has been the futurist Google Glass, which the Internet giant quit producing in January.

The gangly glasses with a computer screen fascinated the world and drew legions of celebrities, fashion models and even Prince Charles to try on a pair, but the sometimes vertigo-inducing product prototype found few regular wearers.

Vendors must get over the "technology first" attitude and think in terms of specific benefits to consumers before they will buy anything so visible and intimate as wearables, according to a recent report by research firm Juniper Research.

"Consumers are still unsure about the use case for many wearable devices, including watches and glasses. In particular, consumers are hesitant to adopt wearable companion devices" that function much like smartphones, the report said.

Now, here comes Apple, with its track record of turbo-charging whole new categories, from music players to tablets, with products that win wide appeal. The company was as ever absent from the world's largest annual gathering of the mobile industry this week, but it nonetheless stole the show by announcing a mysterious event next Monday, where it is widely expected to launch its much-anticipated but pricey new watch.

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, dozens of electronics makers were seeking attention for their own watches, fitness trackers and other wearable electronics accessories.

STYLE

To take their products into the mainstream, many manufacturers of smartwatches are focusing on style, trying to make them look less like futuristic gadgets with oversized rectangular screens, and more like classic watches.

This year saw several companies follow the lead of Motorola, now owned by China's Lenovo, which won kudos last year by showing off a style-conscious device with a round screen. Both China's Huawei and South Korea's LG Electronics showed off round smartwatches this year.

"It looks like a real watch!" Huawei's head of consumer business Richard Yu boasted of his company's offering, which sports a choice of 40 round screen "faces", including replicas of classical Swiss watches.

While makers of conventional watches have so far mostly resisted the move to smartwatches, there are signs that brands better known for style than technology are testing the market. American brand Guess launched what it described as the first fashion-branded smartwatch.

Nike may have postponed its entry, but its U.S. sportswear rival Under Armour stepped in, launching a co-branded fitness device with Taiwanese phone maker HTC.

Still, for now wearable smart devices mostly work by linking to a smartphone, and consumers do not seem to be lining up to buy a watch that acts mainly as an expensive remote control for a phone they have to carry in their pockets anyway.

Some experts say the technology will only really take off when the wearables can be used independently.

Forrester analyst Thomas Husson said "smartwatches will complement, not replace smartphones" for at least the next two to three years.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com