MacRumors

Earlier this month, reports surfaced reviving claims that Google is in the process of developing its own smart phone based on its Android operating system. Gizmodo today follows up with new claims of Google phone prototypes running a new version of Android beginning to appear on Google's campus. The existence of the device is called a "certainty" by the report's source.

Over the next few weeks, Google Phones (most probably in early, prototype form) will flood the Mountain View campus. They'll don large LCDs while running a new version of Android -- either Flan or the version of Android beyond it -- which our source spotted running on Google's handset as well as a laptop. (Whatever the software was, it most certainly wasn't Chrome OS, we were assured.)

In another interesting tidbit, the "trusted source" claims that the Android operating system seen so far in such devices as the original T-Mobile G1 through to the new Motorola Droid is not the "real" Android. Exactly what, however, the "real" Android offers is unknown at this time.

In a report posted yesterday, TechCrunch points to a Twitter posting from Mike Pinkerton of the Chrome for Mac team noting that there were only eight bugs remaining to be addressed before the Mac beta of Chrome is ready for its launch expected for some time in the next month.

"8 remaining M4 Mac beta blockers! Go team! #chrome"

This means that there are only 8 things standing in the way of Chrome for Mac going beta. "M4" stands for "milestone 4," which is how they phrase "version 4," which the Mac beta build of Chrome will be (the current dev channel version is 4.0.249.12, for example).

Speculation on the eight bugs noted by Pinkerton centers on this list, which is already down to four outstanding issues.

In a follow-up article, TechCrunch looks at the features for Chrome that will not be included in the initial beta release and have been pushed out to the next beta version in order to allow Google to meet its goal of releasing the initial beta before the end of the year.

- Bookmark Manager
- App Mode (allows Chrome to run Web apps in their own simplified windows)
- Task Manager
- Gears (offline support for Web apps; apparently being scrapped entirely in favor of HTML5)
- Bookmark syncing
- Multi-touch gestures
- 64-bit support
- Full support for extensions
- Full screen mode (possibly)

Developer builds of Chrome for Mac have been available for several months, but the move to a beta version suggests that users can expect to see a fairly stable browser with a number of significant features included. Work will continue on Chrome with additional Developer Preview releases occurring on a regular basis. Refined versions will then periodically be released as new additions to Chrome's Beta channel. Releases will eventually make their way to Chrome's "Stable" channel, which will offer "rock solid" performance without the inclusion of features still under development and testing.

The Korea Times reports on growing complaints within the flash memory industry that Apple, which holds a dominant position due to its extensive use of flash in the iPhone and iPods, is using its increasing leverage to inappropriately manipulate the market to its advantage.

The summary of the arguments goes as this -- Apple is contributing to the suppression in flash memory prices by ordering more chips from semiconductor makers than the amount it actually buys from them.

Apple's strategy reportedly involves requesting that memory manufacturers produce a certain amount of flash memory, but ultimately purchases a lesser amount than that requested. The reduction in purchase amount relative to industry projections based on Apple's supply requests creates an oversupply of the flash chips, driving prices down and allowing Apple to lock in its orders at a lower price as suppliers compete to unload their chips.

"Apple should certainly be blamed for deteriorating the supply and demand cycle in the global NAND flash market," a senior industry official told The Korea Times, refusing to be named.

"Apple has asked Korean semiconductor makers to produce a certain amount of chips for its digital products, only to actually purchase a smaller volume eventually. The company doesn't make immediate purchases, but waits until chip prices to fall to the level the company has internally targeted."

The report notes that there is little that leading flash memory manufacturers Samsung and Hynix, who provide the chips to Apple, can directly do for the moment to combat Apple's strategy. Apple's tactics, however, are likely to erode relationships with the third-party suppliers it relies on for its devices, suggesting that it may not be a viable long-term strategy and may be an attempt by Apple to boost its ability to offer price-competitive devices in the short-term ahead of continued expansion of offerings from other platforms such as Android.

Here are a number of news items that have been circulating over the holiday weekend:

- One story that made headlines was a report that implied that Microsoft had Silverlight working on the iPhone. Silverlight is Microsoft's Flash-competitor. The headline, however, was a bit misleading as the technology demonstrated simply involved Microsoft converting Silverlight video realtime into a format already supported by the iPhone. No actual on-iPhone software actually supported Silverlight.
- Handbrake 0.9.4 - A major update to a popular Mac video encoding application was released. The latest version of Handbrake delivered improvements to H.264 encoding as well as 64-bit support. Detailed discussion of the latest build has been talking place in our forums.
- ComScore released results from Black Friday's online sales and found that online spending was up 11% over the previous year with an estimated $595 Million spent. Apple.com was singled out as one of the top 5 online retailers. Apple reportedly saw traffic growth of 39% year-over-year.
- CyberMonday sales have kicked in and remain summarized in our sales chart. There are still significant discounts on Macs available for today.

A couple of years ago, a company called Axiotron announced an aftermarket modification for the MacBook that converted the Apple laptop into a tablet. The modification remains for sale at $699 and takes a stock MacBook, removes the keyboard and screen, and adds a Wacom pen-based screen to give the device a tablet form factor.

Axiotron originally began marketing the devices as a "TabletMac" as referenced in this 2007 press release and filed a trademark for the term. Sometime in the past year, however, the trademark was transferred from Axiotron to Apple, and Apple is now listed as the owner of the trademark.

Transfer of ownership may not mean Apple has plans on using the term. Apple may have simply contested the trademark due to the potential for confusion between "TabletMac" and their own trademarks. But now Apple could potentially release a product called the TabletMac, and given the overwhelming number of reports of an Apple-branded tablet device, it certainly raises that question.

Still, we're not so sure Apple would really use this term for the rumored device, as the most recent reports have suggested that Apple's rumored tablet will be running a version of iPhone OS rather than Mac OS. It also seems likely that Apple would choose a platform agnostic name if the device was targeted at the broad consumer market.

HardMac reports that Polish website PCLab prematurely leaked performance numbers on Intel's upcoming Xeon Gulftown (Core i9). The results have since been pulled but is summarized by HardMac:

First figures indicate that this CPU is very promising. At equivalent clock speed, it is 50% faster than the corresponding quad core Xeon for parallel tasks. Despite having 50% more transistors, the CPU strongly benefits from 32-nm engraving as it drains 50% less power in idle mode and 10% less in full loading mode.

According to their sources, Apple is planning on using the Gulftown processor in a future Mac Pro revision due in early 2010. When placed in a dual-processor configuration, this would give the Mac Pro 12 physical and 24 logical cores. Such massively multi-core designs have been expected for some time with under-the-hood changes in Snow Leopard specifically preparing for such a possibility.

The use of the high-end Gulftown processor in the Mac Pros make more sense now that we've seen Apple using the Core i7 processors in the iMacs. Benchmarks have shown that the performance of these high-end iMac rivals that of the entry level Mac Pros which cost considerably more. The use of Gulftown would presumably reestablish a larger performance gap between Apple's consumer and professional desktop computers.

iPhone developer Pandav has informed MacRumors that they have spotted usage records for an unreleased iPhone in their app's analytics. The app used was iBART [Free / Paid], a public transportation guide for the San Francisco train system.

PinchMedia who provides the analytics for the application breaks down customer usage including what specific devices are being used. This list of devices is reported to developers using internal device identification numbers assigned by Apple. In this case, "iPhone3,1" was first spotted in Pandav's usage logs in November. This "iPhone3,1" identifier does not match up with any shipping iPhones. The last iPhone released to the public was the iPhone 3GS which carries the identification string "iPhone2,1".

References to "iPhone3,1" was first discovered in the iPhone firmware files back in August, but this seems to be the first time that it has been spotted "in the wild". Apple similarly began testing the iPhone 3GS (iPhone2,1) back in October of 2008 about 8 months ahead of its launch. At the time, the usage was similarly focused in the San Francisco Bay Area where Apple is located.

There have been few details about what the next generation iPhone might include, though early rumors had pegged a multi-core processor that could enhance performance significantly. There have also been rumors of Verizon compatibility as early as mid 2010.

MacRumors has found a new Apple job listing seeking an iPhone Software Engineer to join the iPhone and iPod Touch Maps team with the goal of taking the iPhone's built-in Maps App to "the next level":

We want to take Maps to the next level, rethink how users use Maps and change the way people find things. We want to do this in a seamless, highly interactive and enjoyable way. We've only just started.

The specificity of the job description is somewhat unusual for Apple, and particularly interesting given recent events.

Apple and Google have increasingly become competitors in the mobile space while Google's mapping data remains an integral part of the iPhone's Maps application. Google has recently stepped up even further with the introduction of many new features for their Android mapping application. This included advanced features such as plain english search, voice search and more. Although Apple and Google are said to be working on bringing the same technology to the iPhone, there's been evidence that Apple is working on their own mapping technology.

Apple recently acquired a mapping company called Placebase which had been known for differentiating itself from Google's offerings. The former CEO of Placebase is now part of the "Geo Team" at Apple, which has led to speculation that Apple is looking to separate itself from their dependence on Google maps.

An AP story indicates that the lead up to the iPhone launch in South Korea on Saturday is a much bigger event than the China launch. KT Corp. reported 53,000 iPhone pre-orders prior to the Korean launch day.

These numbers suggest that the iPhone will be sizable competition for local companies such as Samsung and LG. The current smartphone market in South Korea is estimated to be about 400,000 users as of the end of the 3rd quarter, with the full size of the mobile phone market estimated at 47 million units.

The iPhone does have the disadvantage of not supporting some of the localized features that Korean customers have come to expect. Specifically, the ability to watch live local television is said to be a popular feature on existing Korean phones.

While Apple's Black Friday sales are over, 3rd party sales remain in effect throughout the weekend. See Chart below.

---

Apple has officially unveiled their U.S. Black Friday sales for their online and retail stores. The discounts are in line with past year events, ranging from 4-10% depending on the product.

- MacBook Pro ($101 Discount, 4-8%)
- iMac ($101 Discount, 5-8%)
- iPod Nano ($11 Discount, 6-7%)
- iPod Touch ($21-$41 Discount, 10%)
- Apple TV ($21 Discount, 9%)

Other Mac Discounts: Black Friday through Cyber Monday

For more substantial discounts, readers can turn to 3rd party retailers. This year, MacConnection appears to have the most substantial discounts for the majority of Macs by combining instant and rebate discounts. In particular, MacBook Pros are seeing as high as $300 (13%) discounts, with the recently updated iMacs also discounted up to 13%. However, while Amazon may not have the best prices across the board, all the discounts are applied instantly and no mail-in rebate is required.

Prices for MacMall, MacConnection and Amazon have been included, with the best price in bold.

App Store Discounts

iPhone developers are discounting their iPhone apps again this holiday season. A full list of discounts can be found at AppShopper, and major publishers like EA and Gameloft already in on the action. Meanwhile, a list of other iPhone game sales have been compiled at TouchArcade.com

Software / Other

- Parallels 5 is discounted to $69 (normally $79) this weekend
- VMWare 3 is discounted to $63.99 (normally $79) this weekend - use Promo Code "dsktp20sale" at checkout.
- Microsoft Office 2008 (Home and Student) for $89.99 (normally $149.95)
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 for $64.99 after rebate (normally $99.99).
- Amazon has a special page for their Black Friday sales.

Several of the vendors listed are affiliate partners with MacRumors and sales benefit the site financially

Apple has launched its "Black Friday" one-day sales in Australia and New Zealand, with other countries set to follow at the appropriate times. As expected, Apple is offering only modest discounts compared to the deals offered by many other retailers for the traditional kickoff of the holiday shopping season.

The only Macs seeing discounts in Apple's sales are the iMac and MacBook Pro, with discounts corresponding to about US$120 on all models, equaling about 8% on low-end models down to about 4-5% on high-end models. The iPod touch is seeing discounts of approximately 9-10% across all models, and the iPod nano is being offered at approximately a US$10 discount (6% off on 8GB model and 4.5% off 16 GB model). Also featured is the Apple TV with a discount of approximately 8%.

Other items included in the one-day sale are Time Capsule and AirPort products, Nike+ hardware, iWork, and Apple's In-Ear Headphones, Magic Mouse, and Wireless Keyboard. Finally, a wide range of third-party accessories and software are also included.

We'll be posting again later today with a full roundup of Black Friday sales as they go live.

Update: AppShopper.com tracks all the App Store sales in two lists: Popular sales and All sales.

Update 2: See updated sales chart

Betanews reports (via The Loop) on data from market research firm NPD showing that Apple garnered 48% of the U.S. PC industry's retail revenue last month.

In October, Mac US retail desktop computer revenue share was 47.71, percent up from 33.44 percent a year earlier, according to NPD. It's a stunning number, given just how many Windows PC companies combined command so much more market share, while competing for the same revenue share.

While NPD's Stephen Baker points to a confluence of events, including Apple's refresh of its iMac line during the month and a decline of PC sales ahead of the launch of Windows 7, as being responsible for Apple's performance during the month, he also notes that the trend is not likely to continue. Data from previous months, however, shows that Apple had been performing quite well even back in April of this year, when it captured 45% of the desktop retail revenue.

NPD notes that Apple's strong revenue performance is a direct result of its average selling prices, which are nearly three times that of Windows PCs. That difference has enabled Apple to claim high revenues despite significantly lower unit market share than top Windows-based PC vendors.

One factor helping Apple is average selling price. The Mac maker has largely chosen not to compete with Windows PC manufacturers below $1,000. While price wars continue at the low end among Windows PC manufacturers, Apple's entry-level iMac starts at $1,199. True, Apple offers the Mac mini for $599 or $799, but the ASP is considerably higher than comparably priced Windows PCs. Low-cost Windows PCs typically come with monitor, keyboard and mouse, which are all extra-cost items for Mac mini unless the buyer uses existing gear.

Apple's performance isn't as strong in the notebook segment, where it commands only a 34% share of the industry revenue, although that number still ranks Apple as a major player in the notebook field.

InformationWeek reports (via 9 to 5 Mac) that Apple has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against an Anaheim, California company selling "knock-off" power adapters for Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro models. Apple claims that the company sells third-party power adapters that infringe upon an Apple patent filed in 2001 and granted in 2003 for the design of Apple's laptop power supplies.

Apple's complaint charges that Media Solutions Holdings, through the Web sites www.laptopsforless.com, www.laptopacadapter.com and www.ereplacements.com, sells "various consumer electronic accessories at retail, including knock-off power adapters for use with genuine Apple portable computers."

"Through various Web sites and otherwise, the Defendants market these knock-off power adapters for use with Apple portable computers, such as the MacBook," the complaint states.

The power adapters apparently in question remain listed on the company's websites, but the specific product pages and ordering functionality appear to have been removed.

BBC News reports that supermarket and retail chain Tesco, the UK's largest retailer, will begin offering the iPhone 3G and 3GS through its Tesco Mobile arm, a joint venture with wireless provider O2.

A spokesperson for the firm said that it hoped to offer the phone "in time for Christmas".

Although Tesco has not revealed tariffs, the spokesperson said that its prices were "competitive".

Tesco has also posted an information page to provide details on its iPhone offerings as they become available.

O2 had held an exclusive agreement with Apple to distribute the iPhone in the UK since its introduction in November 2007, but other companies have recently gained the right to sell the iPhone there, with Orange beginning sales earlier this month and Vodafone set to follow early next year.