Apple retail stores held staff meetings this weekend to unveil a major new policy. 9to5Mac reports that Apple will be eliminating restocking fees at their Apple Retail stores.
Typically, when you return an opened product to an Apple Store you will be charged a 10% restocking fee. Well, come Tuesday, this will all be in the past as Apple is cutting restocking fees from their retail chain.
Meanwhile Apple will also begin offering personal Mac setup.
When you purchase a Mac at an Apple Retail store an employee will help you setup your e-mail accounts, walk you through the Mac App Store, setup an iTunes account for you, and show you the basic pointers of owning a Mac. Some stores will even have dedicated Mac setup stations.
Apple has previously offered personal setup for iOS devices, but is now extending this service for Macs, as well.
Both changes should help streamline purchasing and setup for new Mac owners. Apple has previously been charging a 10% restocking fee for Mac products. The changes are expected to kick on starting on Tuesday, January 11th.
As we approach the Tuesday Verizon press conference, a few more details about the Verizon iPhone have been leaking. Reuters reported that the expected ship date for the Verizon iPhone.
Verizon Wireless, the top U.S. mobile provider, plans on Tuesday to unveil a version of the Apple Inc iPhone for its service and will kick off sales of the device a few weeks later, a source told Reuters.
Reuters says the iPhone will be offered under Verizon's existing service plans.
The Wall Street Journal clarifies and says that Verizon will be offering unlimited data plans:
Verizon Wireless will offer unlimited data plans when it starts selling the iPhone, a person familiar with the matter said, providing a key means of distinguishing its service from rival AT&T Inc.
Such a move would make Verizon's offering more appealing than AT&T's who recently capped their data plans for iPhone users. AT&T's present offerings include 200MB and 2GB capped plans with additional charges for overages. The unlimited data plan is no longer an option for new AT&T customers. Verizon has also been an advocate of moving from Unlimited to tiered data plans, but it seems for now they will be using the unlimited plan as a competitive advantage.
Verizon is hosting a media even on Tuesday, January 11th and is widely expected to introduce a Verizon-compatible iPhone.
A number of accessories for Apple products were on display at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show this week. Among them were a few unique products, with the iCADE by ION Audio as one of the most notable items among these. The iCADE is a miniature arcade game controller accessory for the iPad.
The iCADE was first conceptualized by Thinkgeek and unveiled on April Fool's day last year and ION partnered with the retailer to develop and bring the product to market. The iCADE provides an analog interface for gameplay through a joystick and buttons, connecting to the iPad via Bluetooth.
iCADE has also partnered with game developer Atari to offer several games, including Asteroids, along with the iCADE. ION has announced that the iCADE will be available in the spring and will be priced at $99.
Magic Charger
On the more practical end of the spectrum, Mobee Technology was on hand to showcase its Magic Charger, an inductive charging accessory for Apple's Magic Mouse. The Magic Charger is comprised of a replacement battery pack and bottom plate for the Magic Mouse and a charging base. Once installed, the Magic Charger's battery pack allows the Magic Mouse to be charged by simply placing it on the included charging base.
The Magic Charger is priced at $49 and can be ordered directly from Mobee and is expected to be available at Apple retail stores soon.
Digg founder Kevin Rose today noted that he has received information from a reliable source indicating that Apple will announce the second-generation iPad within the next 3-4 weeks, possibly on February 1st.
I have it on good authority that Apple will be announcing the iPad 2 in the next "3-4 weeks", possibly Tuesday February 1st. The iPad 2 will feature a retina display and front/back cameras.
In an update to the post, however, Rose notes that another source has indicated that while the display on the second-generation iPad will be of higher resolution than on the current models, it will not be a "Retina" display of the resolution seen on the iPhone 4 and fourth-generation iPod touch. A number of observers have noted that an iPad display at "Retina" pixel densities would be extremely difficult to achieve given the horsepower necessary to drive a display in the range of 2560 x 1920 pixels as would be required.
Rose has offered some accurate information over the years, most notably pinpointing a number of details of Apple's September 2008 iPod refresh. He has missed on several other predictions, however, suggesting that some caution should be taken with his most recent claims.
Rumors of a new iPad announcement come as Verizon is reportedly set to announce next Tuesday that it will begin offering the iPhone, with several reports pointing to an early February date for availability. It is unknown when the second-generation iPad would become available under the scenario of a February 1st introduction, although many observers assume it will be close to the late March-early April timeframe of the original iPad.
The largest U.S. wireless carrier will say Tuesday that Apple Inc.'s iPhone will be available to its subscribers, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Wall Street Journal offers no additional details about when the Verizon iPhone will become available to the public.
Meanwhile, Gizmodo notes that they have not been invited to the event, despite having a good relationship with Verizon.
Here's what's key: We're great friends with Verizon. (Hi guys!) We've worked with them for years, and we've been to like every event they've had over the last three years. We haven't gotten an invite. Which is weird. We've reached out to Verizon to see why, exactly, we weren't invited, but we've gotten no comment yet. (Update: Verizon's official response is a big ol' no comment.)
Due to the iPhone 4 leak, Gizmodo has been blacklisted from Apple's media events, further suggesting that this is a joint Apple-Verizon event.
Update: All Things Digital reports that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is likely to be present at Tuesday's media event.
While the appearance isn't 100 percent assured, sources in position to know tell me that, barring any unforseen circumstances, Jobs will likely join McAdam onstage in New York when he announces the addition of the iPhone to its handset line-up.
The Loop reports that Verizon has just issued invitations for a media event set to be held in New York City next Tuesday, January 11th. The topic of the event is unknown, but speculation of course centers around a possible introduction of the iPhone on the carrier, although most observers have been expecting that such an introduction would be made at an Apple media event given the company's penchant for secrecy.
Verizon Wireless on Friday sent an invitation to select press to attend a special event on January 11, 2011.
The Verizon event will be held in New York and while it doesn't mention anything about Apple this could be the Verizon iPhone. Typically, Apple's special events are held on the company's campus in Cupertino, Calif.
The January 11th date for the Verizon media event matches a report from yesterday about a Verizon iPhone introduction, although that report indicated that it would be an Apple event.
A separate report today claims that evidence is pointing to a February 3rd launch date for a major new Apple product, presumed to be the Verizon iPhone. Given Apple's history of product releases, an official introduction would be expected in the very near future in order to meet that launch date.
No details on its focus, but sources close to the company tell me this will indeed prove to be the long-rumored Verizon iPhone announcement. Question now is will Apple CEO Steve Jobs join Verizon president and COO Lowell McAdam onstage to make it.
Update 2: Gizmodo has been conspicuously not invited to the event, offering further proof that this is an Apple-backed event.
Beyond Apple's announcement this morning revealing total downloads of over one million on the Mac App Store's first day of business, we've been curious about the performance of individual applications debuting with the store's launch and have followed up with a couple of developers to get a sense of how things are going.
At the high end of the scale, we spoke with David Frampton of Majic Jungle Software, the developer responsible for Chopper 2, which currently ranks #2 on the "Top Paid" chart behind Angry Birds. Chopper 2 is currently priced at $0.99, 80% off of its planned stable pricing, in order to make a splash with the Mac App Store's debut.
Riding the momentum of discounted pricing and an established fan base from the original Chopper for Mac and successful Chopper and Chopper 2 games for iOS, Frampton tells us that Chopper 2 for Mac saw nearly 30,000 copies purchased through the Mac App Store yesterday. Accounting for Apple's 30% cut of Mac App Store revenue means that Majic Jungle Software brought in a little over $20,000 yesterday.
Chopper 2's performance is obviously not the norm for most developers, however, so we took a look at a few apps from other developers lower down on the charts, as documented in a thread in the Unity forums. Out of approximately 220 paid games currently available on the Mac App Store, here are some first day sales units and revenues, as well as ranks on Apple's "Top Grossing" list for games:
- 4x4 Offroad Racing ($3.99): 93 units sold for a total of $371, ranked #76 - Bubble Bang ($2.99): 17 units sold for a total of $51, ranked #150 - Light Quest ($9.99): 3 units sold for a total of $30, ranked #173 - Bubblez ($2.99): 7 units sold for a total of $21, unranked (not in top 180)
As we noted yesterday, we've been curious about whether the Mac App Store will experience a similar "race to the bottom" in pricing as seen on the iOS App Store. And in the store's second day of business, we're already seeing developers cut prices on some of these low-performing applications in an attempt to stimulate sales, as Chimp Studios reports that it has slashed the price of Light Quest from $9.99 to $4.99 in hopes of generating interest as the market begins to take shape.
In considering the performance of the Mac App Store, it is important to keep in mind that Apple maintains a Mac OS X installed base of about 50 million, with not all machines running Mac OS Snow Leopard and even many Snow Leopard users undoubtedly yet to install the Mac OS X 10.6.6 update required for Mac App Store compatibility. In contrast, Apple's iOS App Store is well-entrenched with a two-and-a-half year history and over 125 million devices sold.
Boy Genius Report claims to have heard that the vacation blackout being imposed on Apple's retail store employees has been narrowed down to February 3rd-6th in several regions of the United Sates, suggesting that a major launch is scheduled for that weekend.
BGR has confirmed with a source close to Apple that the company has blacked out employee vacation requests between February 3rd and February 6th - Thursday through Sunday. The four-day vacation freeze has been confirmed to be in effect in several regions in the United States. A recent report suggested the vacation black-out would cover a period of three weeks beginning in late January and extending into February, which still could be true in some regions.
The report's source has not confirmed that the Verizon iPhone is in fact the device apparently being launched in that timeframe, although it certainly seems to be the most likely candidate at this time, and the apparent Thursday debut at the front of that window is a common day of the week for Verizon product launches.
In addition to Apple's vacation blackout, we've received a couple of tips claiming that Verizon is also imposing a vacation blackout in early February, although those claims remain unconfirmed.
Apple today announced that the Mac App Store saw over one million downloads in its first day of business yesterday, marking a successful debut for the marketplace that currently offers over 1,000 free and paid applications for Mac OS X Snow Leopard users.
Apple today announced that over one million apps have been downloaded from the Mac App Store in the first day. With more than 1,000 free and paid apps, the Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to the Mac, so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes account, download and install them in just one step.
"We're amazed at the incredible response the Mac App Store is getting," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Developers have done a great job bringing apps to the store and users are loving how easy and fun the Mac App Store is."
In its press release, Apple also invites other developers to join the Mac App Store, laying out the store's terms that see developers receiving 70% of revenue for apps sold through the store, with no hosting fees and no fees for free applications. More information on Apple's Mac Developer Program is available through Apple's dedicated developer site.
Boxee, the start-up company that develops media center software for multiple platforms, provided a sneak peek at its upcoming iPad app at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show this week. The iPad app will allow users to view videos on the go and send content to a Boxee device. Also, it allows users to stream a video directly from their Mac or PC in a variety of formats including those that aren't natively supported on the iPad. It accomplishes this through Boxee media server software running on the computer that automatically transcodes video to the iPad.
Boxee's CEO and co-founder, Avner Ronen, describes the app in the company's blog:
[The Boxee iPad app] enables you to access videos from your Watch Later list as well as from your Feed (stuff shared from Facebook / Twitter), and staying true to Boxee roots also enables you to stream videos directly to the iPad from your PC/Mac (without requiring you to sync).
Cult of Macrecorded a demo of an early version of the app in action:
Boxee's first foray into the App Store was in early 2009 when the company released a remote control app [App Store] for the iPhone and iPod touch that can control the Boxee application on a computer via Wi-Fi.
A release date for the iPad app has not yet been announced though the company hopes to release it by the spring. The App will be free, and Boxee reports on its blog that the company will be exploring an iPhone and iPod touch version in the future.
Tw.Apple.Pro has published some design drawings which they believe to be for the next generation iPhone. The drawings aren't particularly revealing but they draw comparisons to the leaked iPhone parts video that was posted earlier this week.
That video was removed from YouTube at the demand of Apple, suggesting the contents were legitimate. The video showed that the break points in the frame between the two antennas have been moved to different locations, indicating that the antenna design has been tweaked despite a very similar overall appearance for the new iPhone.
iLounge spotted another physical iPad 2 model being used to demonstrate a docking system at CES 2011.
The shell, which has been marked by developer Gopod Mobile with iPad 2 and 128GB logos that would not appear on the actual device, is being shown paired with an iPad 2-specific foldable rechargeable battery pack developed by the company, and depicts the revised devices redesigned curves, ports, and cameras; it is said by Gopod to represent the actual appearance of the as-yet-unreleased thinner and slightly smaller iPad.
The iPad 2 model is complete with front-sided camera hole, enlarged speaker grill and a backside camera. It also follows the tapered edges with flat-back that has been depicted in numerous case designs.
Apple is expected to launch the iPad 2 in the first quarter of 2011 with some expecting an announcement within the next few weeks.
Orbotix was at CES showing prototypes of their robotic ball that is controllable through your iPhone or iPod Touch. The product is called Sphero and is still about 6 months away from market. The baseball-sized device connects to your iPhone via Bluetooth with a free downloadable app. On the CES show floor they had an area set up to test out the early models.
Orbotix sees Sphero as a development platform and expects that 3rd party developers will be able to create interesting new games and apps around the system. The company is working on an API to open up to developers for both iPhone and iOS. Developers could come up with games for use with one or more Spheros. Examples include soccer, bowling, or a king of the hill game. The Sphero controls took some getting used to, and also includes a short "boost" mode that gives an extra burst of speed (at the expense of controllability).
Sphero is expected to hit the market in late 2011 for a price under $100. A few free games are likely to be available for the device at launch, while 3rd party game pricing will depend on those developers.
Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer (left) and Blackstone CFO Laurence Tosi (right)
Bloomberg reports that it has learned from three separate sources that Apple has approached Laurence Tosi of investment firm Blackstone Group about taking on the role of Apple's Chief Financial Officer. Tosi would replace Peter Oppenheimer, who has served as Apple's CFO since 2004.
Tosi has reportedly indicated to Blackstone management that he intends to remain with the investment firm, suggesting that Apple may have to continue searching for a new executive. But in addressing the claims, Apple has gone as far as to state that Oppenheimer is very happy with the company and that Apple is not conducting a search for a new CFO, leading to questions about exactly what is happening behind closed doors.
Tosi told Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman that he plans to stay, rather than join Apple, said two of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks were private. Steve Dowling, a spokesman for Apple, said the company is "not conducting a CFO search." Current CFO Peter Oppenheimer "loves the company and is extremely happy in his role," Dowling said.
Oppenheimer, a fixture on Apple's quarterly earnings conference calls, has helped guide Apple to tremendous financial success over the past six and a half years, with Apple currently sitting on over $50 billion in cash and investments and registering as the world's second-largest publicly-traded company with a market capitalization of over $300 billion.
One of the major questions with the Mac App Store has been whether the same "race to the bottom" effect on pricing seen in the iOS App Store will carry over into the new Mac App Store. The pricing dynamic is even more interesting for the Mac App Store because it reflects a new distribution method for many long-standing Mac developers while also inviting over many developers who have experienced significant success with relatively low-price titles on the iOS side of things.
TUAW has taken a look at the Mac App Store's offerings in the UK, finding 959 unique applications appearing a total of 2,004 times, as some applications are tagged to appear in multiple categories. Today's press release announcing the launch of the Mac App Store cited over 1,000 applications, suggesting that the U.S. store may include a somewhat greater number of applications than in other countries.
TUAW's analysis of pricing in the Mac App Store does in fact reveal a disparity, with two general groups: a low-priced group ranging from free to $5 that carries a heavy emphasis on iOS titles ported to the Mac platform and a higher-priced group operating primarily in a range of $10-$50 and weighted toward existing Mac applications taking advantage of the new distribution method.
As you can see, apps broadly fall into a few pricing categories. Almost half of the apps in the Mac App Store are in the cheap-and-free sub-$5 bracket; an informal survey reveals a lot of ports of iOS games falling into this area. There's then a bit of a no-mans-land between $5-10; then huge numbers of apps in the $10-50 brackets. Again, informally surveying the store, these appear to be mostly traditional Mac software packages that have been ported over to the store and broadly maintained their price points.
Finally, we have a small -- but significant -- number of apps above the $50 mark -- price points almost unheard of in the iOS App Store. It will be very interesting indeed to see how sales of these apps go, assuming any of the developers are willing to share that data.
With developers having for the most part set their initial prices without knowledge of what their competitors are doing, it will be interesting to see how the pricing dynamic plays out over time, particularly as the worlds of iOS developers and Mac developers become increasingly enmeshed.
Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg on-stage at CES 2011 (Source: Engadget)
In what should not be regarded as a surprise, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg and other presenters during his keynote address at CES 2011 this morning made no mention of the possibility of the iPhone coming to Verizon. Seidenberg's role as the primary keynote speaker for the event had sparked speculation that the forum could be used to introduce a Verizon iPhone, although most observers have long thought that such an introduction would take place at an Apple-controlled event headed by Steve Jobs.
Seidenberg's presentation instead focused on Verizon's LTE and FiOS networks from the perspective of an integrated data access environment, and included the appearance of executives from Time Warner, Motorola, and Google to demonstrate such concepts as "TV Everywhere" that would allow customers to view their video content on a variety of devices over a number of different connections, as well as next-generation mobile devices and software that can take advantage of Verizon's LTE network speeds.
A CDMA version of the iPhone compatible with Verizon's network is still widely expected to make its debut early this year, possibly within the next few weeks, but we have yet to hear word of any Apple media event that would presumably accompany the introduction.
On a separate note, with Apple's iPad experiencing great success in 2010, tablets are unsurprisingly a major focus of this year's CES. Among the developments on the tablet front:
- Android 3.0 / Motorola Xoom: Google has released an intro video for its upcoming Android 3.0 software, "Honeycomb", an updated version of the company's smartphone operating system now said to be optimized for tablets. Meanwhile, Motorola has followed up on its "Tablet Evolution" teaser video with the introduction of the Motorola Xoom. A brief hands-on, however, reveals that the Xoom is still to be in the early stages of development.
While this sleek little device is still running a very early build of Honeycomb, we were able to sneak some peeks at the stuff Google and Motorola don't actually want you to see just yet. The device was looping demo videos of the Honeycomb UI, but a little investigation on our part revealed a bare bones homescreen.
Xoom is expected to launch Q1 2011.
- RIM BlackBerry Playbook: The BlackBerry PlayBook has been highly touted as Research in Motion's answer to the Apple iPad, and early impressions have been very positive.
The BlackBerry PlayBook is surprisingly polished and responsive at this stage, even though RIM says it has a lot of work to still left to do.
With the initial PlayBook model set to launch early this year, a 4G (WiMAX) PlayBook has also been announced for a summer debut on Sprint.
With the Mac App Store having gone live earlier today, users have now had a chance to play around with the store's features and offerings. And while the Mac App Store is fairly straightforward and very reminiscent of the iOS App Store, there are a few items of note that are worth mentioning.
Gizmodo offers a brief walkthrough of the Mac App Store purchasing process and some of the accompanying changes in Mac OS X 10.6.6, which include the use of existing iTunes Store accounts (and thus any corresponding gift card balances) for Mac App Store purchases and the previously-noted unknown filetype search integration in Mac OS X. Other interesting notes:
- Applications installed outside the Mac App Store: The Mac App Store automatically recognizes when a user already has Apple apps such as iLife '11 and iWork '09 installed on his or her system, showing an "installed" note in place of the purchase button in the store. The same does not appear to be true for third-party applications, however, as our previously-installed copy of TextWrangler was not picked up by the Mac App Store.
- Discounts on Apple software: The three components of Apple's iWork productivity suite are offered individually through the Mac App Store for $19.99 apiece, for a total of $59.97. In addition to offering the flexibility of purchasing only select portions of the iWork suite, the overall Mac App Store price is considerably below Apple's $79.00 price for iWork on physical media. In addition, Mac App Store purchases can be used on multiple machines controlled by the user, making the Mac App Store version more like the $99 iWork family pack.
Even bigger discounts can be had on a couple of other Apple software products. Most notably, Apple is offering Aperture 3 through the Mac App Store for only $79.99, a tremendous savings off of the $199 price for the version shipping on physical media. Apple is also offering its Apple Remote Desktop software through the Mac App Store for $79.99, a format that might be more appealing to some consumers than the company's standard offerings of a 10-system license for $299 or an unlimited license for $499.
iLife '11, however, is a slightly different story which sees the individual iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand components priced at $14.99 in the Mac App Store, for a total of $44.97. Apple sells iLife '11 on physical media for $49.00, a package that also includes iWeb and iDVD. But considering that all new Macs ship with the full iLife suite and that iWeb and iDVD were not updated with iLife '11, most users should already be essentially up-to-date on those applications.
Update: Users are reporting varying levels of success with the Mac App Store recognizing previously-installed third-party software as already being on their systems, with applications such as Coda, Transmit, and Things being recognized. Other users are also noting difficulties with the Mac App Store picking up iWork as being installed. One potential solution has been to log out and close the Mac App Store application, or even logging out of the user's Mac OS X account entirely.
AT&T today announced that, effective tomorrow, it will lower the price of the 8 GB iPhone 3GS to $49 from the current $99 price point. The press release suggests that the pricing could also be available through Apple sales channels, although a footnote states that pricing is determined by Apple.
AT&T today announced a new price for the popular iPhone 3GS - $49.00 - available beginning tomorrow, Friday, January 7, for both new and upgrade-eligible existing AT&T customers. The offer will be available online at www.att.com/iphone, across more than 2,200 AT&T retail locations nationwide and through AT&T business channels, as well as Apple channels.
While several vendors offered the iPhone 3GS at discounted prices (including as low as "free") in limited promotions before the holidays, AT&T's offer sets a new bar for standard pricing.
