November 21, 2024

Author: Kelly Hodgkins

News

Apple Looks to Boost AppleCare+ Membership With New 60-Day Purchase Window

applecare_plus_iconApple today revised its AppleCare+ support service, lengthening the time new iPhone and iPad owners have to purchase the protection plan from the previous 30-day window to an extended 60-days. The new 60-day AppleCare+ option is available both in store and online in all AppleCare+ regions, with the exception of Japan which still offers the original 30-day window, reports 9to5Mac.

AppleCare+ is a premium warranty service for iPhone and iPad owners, providing warranty support and accidental damage coverage for two years from the date of device purchase. The plan costs $99 and includes two accidental damage replacements that cost $49 per incident for the iPad and $79 for the iPhone.

Apple also is discontinuing the previous AppleCare option that extends warranty service for the iPad and iPhone, but does not provide accidental damage coverage. Going forward, Apple will only offer the standard 90-days of free support that is included with every iPhone or iPad purchase as well as the option to upgrade to two-years of AppleCare+ for $99. This change goes into effect today in the United States, Canada, and Japan.

Apple hopes these changes as well other other future improvements will boost the adoption rate of AppleCare+. To compete with carrier and insurance options, Apple may improve its insurance plans for the iPhone as well as expand AppleCare+ internationally beyond its current coverage regions. The international service now has approximately 30 million subscribers and has brought in more than $2b in revenue since its introduction three years ago.



News

Apple Rolls Out New 16 GB iPod Touch Internationally

Apple last week refreshed its iPod touch lineup with a new 16GB model that offers a camera and color options to replace the stripped-down model it introduced last year. After debuting in the US, the new iPod touch today became available internationally, landing in the UK, Germany, Italy and other countries worldwide.

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As revealed by iFixit, the new 16GB iPod touch is a lower capacity model of Apple’s existing fifth generation iPod touch lineup that was introduced in 2012. The model features a 4-inch display, Apple’s A5 processor, a 5-megapixel iSight camera and color choices that include yellow, blue, pink and more. The new 16GB version lowers the entry-level price point to $199, down from $229 for the now-discontinued silver-only model.

Apple traditionally refreshed its iPod lineup during its annual September press event, which often focused on iTunes and music. Apple de-emphasized music in 2013, opting to unveil the iPhone 5s. The Cupertino company is expected to continue this trend in 2014 with the possible unveiling of the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhone 6. The future of the iPod line remains unclear as sales of the units continue to slide quarterly.



News

Apple Projected to Beat Wall Street Estimates with 39 Million Quarterly iPhones Shipped

Apple’s quarterly iPhone sales may beat Wall Street estimates, based on new data from Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty. According to the firm’s AlphaWise Smartphone Tracker, Apple could sell as many as 39 million iPhones in the second calendar quarter of the year, beating Wall Street’s predicted 35 million and topping the 31.2 million sold in the same quarter last year.

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Huberty believes iPhone sales will get a boost this quarter due to deep discounts on iPhone upgrades that entice consumers to buy a new iPhone, despite the upcoming rumored launch of the iPhone 6. Apple recently launched a promotion that encourages customers to trade-in their old iPhone and receive credit towards an iPhone 5s or 5c. Apple is offering iPhone 4 users up to $99, while iPhone 4s owners can get up to $199 as a store credit, making an upgrade to a subsidized iPhone 5s virtually free.

Carriers and third-party retailers also have discounted the iPhone in recent weeks, with Best Buy last month offering up to $200 trade-in value for customers who bring in an older iPhone and upgrade to an iPhone 5s or 5c. To maintain this sales momentum, Apple also may start selling the iPhone along with contract-free calling and data plans for T-Mobile and AT&T.

Morgan Stanley’s “AlphaWise” smartphone tracker compiles sales data using Google Trends data and historically is more accurate at forecasting iPhone sales than Wall Street consensus estimates, although Huberty may still tweak her numbers in the closing weeks of the quarter.



News

Beats Acquisition Boosting Apple’s ‘Coolness’ Factor Among Young Consumers

beatsbydreLast week, Apple confirmed its plans to acquire Beats Electronics and Beats Music in a $3 billion deal that would bring a successful headphone business and a fledgling streaming music service under Apple’s umbrella. While many have pointed to Jimmy Iovine as the acquisition target, Apple may also be using the deal to boost its “coolness” factor among younger users, as suggested in a survey by education technology company Chegg (via Re/code).

Chegg asked 10,000 students about their experience with Beats and their knowledge of the Apple-Beats merger. While most of the students surveyed were familiar with the Beats brand, only 15 percent had purchased Beats products and a mere three percent had subscribed to the Beats Music service. More than half of the students (60 percent) were aware of the deal with one quarter claiming the deal will make Apple more “cool” and fifty percent believing the acquisition will increase Apple’s popularity among students.

This is largely good, albeit unsurprising, news for Apple, which has long dominated the college market. In most college lecture halls across the country, you’ll see rows and rows of MacBooks — many of which were purchased using Apple’s educational discount or in Apple-affiliated campus stores. Still, more and more young people are streaming music using services other than iTunes. Spotify has more than 40 million subscribers, and 40 percent of its American users are between the ages of 18-24.

Beats is often criticized as being a bass-heavy fashion accessory and not a true audiophile product, but sales figures reveal that the typically younger consumers who buy Beats are more interested in appearance than audio quality. According to marketing research company NPD, Beats accounts for 27 percent of the $1.8 billion headphone market and more than half (57 percent) of the premium market for headphones with a starting price tag of $100 or more.



News

Sprint Bundles Spotify Premium Into New ‘Framily’ Plans [iOS Blog]

sprint_logo-250x124Sprint today announced that it will start bundling Spotify Premium with its new Framily plans, offering a discount on the service for customers with multiple lines. The music streaming service is part of the company’s new Sprint Sound Sessions program and will be available starting May 9th.

Under the new program, all new and existing postpaid customers on a Framily plan are eligible for a free, six-month trial of Spotify Premium that is followed by an 18-month discount on the premium service when the free trial is over. Framily customers will pay $7.99 per month for the paid service or $4.99 monthly if the Framily plan has more than six members. After 24 months, customers will pay the standard price for Spotify Premium, which is currently $9.99 per month.

Subscribers outside the Framily plan will receive a 3-month free trial and incur charges of $9.99 monthly when the free trial ends. All charges for the service will be added to a customer’s monthly bill.

“With Spotify, people literally have all of the world’s music in their pockets,” said Daniel Ek, Spotify founder and CEO. “Spotify and Sprint share a passion for music and technology that makes this partnership a natural fit for both companies — and the best music deal ever for Sprint customers.”

Spotify’s Premium tier allows users to listen to Spotify’s entire 20 million song library with support for unlimited on-demand listening and custom playlists. The service recently extended its free tier to iPhone users, allowing them to listen to pre-compiled playlists and shuffled music based on a specific artist or song.

This new Sprint partnership is not the first carrier tie-up for the Swedish-based music service. Spotify also bundles its Premium service with cellular plans from Vodafone throughout Europe. As a result, Spotify’s growth has been accelerating, and the streaming service may soon eclipse Apple’s iTunes downloads as Europe’s biggest digital music service in terms of revenue.



News

CNBC Recognizes Steve Jobs as Most Influential Business Leader in the Past 25 Years

To commemorate its launch in 1989, CNBC today ranked the most influential business and financial leaders from the past 25 years. Topping the list in the number one spot is Apple’s own “iVisionary” Steve Jobs.

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Steve Jobs was recognized by CNBC not only for his work at Apple, but also for his influence on the wider culture both in business and in people’s personal lives.

His creative genius revolutionized not just his industry and its products, but also everything from music and movies to smartphones. He provided a platform for others to create and distribute apps, bringing innovation and change to an even wider sphere. Apple’s co-founder tops our anniversary list of the 25 most transformative leaders, icons and rebels of the past-quarter century. More than any other member of our group of extraordinary entrepreneurs and executives—all outstanding leaders—his vision spurred changes far beyond his industry and put an indelible stamp on the wider culture.

When assembling the list, the editorial board at CNBC focused on business, eliminating politicians and government leaders from its top 25. They considered only those business men and women who were transformative both in their own field and beyond. Though most are well-known billionaires, the list was not based on personal financial success or popularity.

We made the decision early on to eliminate heads of government and state from our deliberations. This is a list, after all, about business people, not politicians. It’s about the men and women who, for better or worse, have had the most transformative effect on commerce, finance, markets, human behavior and global culture over the past 25 years. So out went Bill Clinton, Angela Merkel, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, Lee Kuan Yew and Vladimir Putin. In came Oprah.

Also included on the list are other notable technology leaders including Microsoft’s Bill Gates at number two, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos at number five, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg at number eight and Google’s trio of Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, who collectively share the number four spot.



News

Fleksy Keyboard for iOS Overhauled with New Design, Improved Help System [iOS Blog]

Earlier this year, Fleksy updated the Android version of its keyboard alternative to version 2.0 with a new badge system and cloud syncing features. Today, the company followed up that release with a major overhaul to its iOS App.

The newest version of Fleksy for iOS offers a significant redesign that brings a new user interface, six new themes and a few new features to the universal iOS app. The biggest addition is an in-app tutorial and FAQ guide to help new users start using the alternative keyboard.

Fleksy is known for its predictive text engine that compensates for your sloppy typing with accurate word replacement. It also supports gestures that make it easy to enter punctuation, add returns and more.

Though Apple’s restriction on keyboards prevents Fleksy from replacing the default iOS keyboard systemwide, the company offers a workaround that allows developers to integrate Fleksy on an app-by-app basis. This iOS software development kit was made available to all iOS developers earlier this year.

Fleksy is popular among consumers with the keyboard software reaching the one million total cross-platform downloads. Despite its limitations on iOS, demand for the keyboard is strong.

“We get about half our downloads from iOS, a platform our competitors have publicly criticized as doomed for failure for third party keyboards. Our success shows that iOS is a genuine opportunity for really innovative keyboard technologies, and today’s major update is the first step of us doubling down our efforts on this platform,” said Ioannis Verdelis, Founder and COO of Fleksy.

Fleksy is free for users to install and for developers to integrate into their apps. iPhone and iPad owners can download Fleksy [iTunes] from the iOS App Store, while developers can visit Fleksy’s website for SDK information.