MacRumors

Following today's report from Jefferies analyst Peter Misek claiming that Apple will be holding a television-related product event in March, perhaps to introduce developer tools for the Apple TV and a future television set lineup, The Loop's Jim Dalyrmple has weighed in with one of his typical one-word answers to refute the claim: "Nope."

Dalrymple has impeccable accuracy with such comments, so it appears certain that there is no such event planned by Apple.

Earlier this month, we highlighted some comments from Valve founder Gabe Newell noting his view that Apple had the potential to take over the traditional gaming market by leveraging its existing ecosystem to deliver a "dumbed down living room platform" more quickly and efficiently than others can transition from the console to streaming via PC as Newell believes is the future.

Nat Brown, one of the first engineers to join the Xbox project back in 1999, has now published a blog post offering similar thoughts in noting the Microsoft is missing out on a major opportunity by not opening up that platform to small developers, an issue that Apple could easily exploit to gain tremendous momentum in the home gaming market.

Why can’t I write a game for xBox tomorrow using $100 worth of tools and my existing Windows laptop and test it on my home xBox or at my friends’ houses? Why can’t I then distribute it digitally in a decent online store, give up a 30% cut and strike it rich if it’s a great game, like I can for Android, for iPhone, or for iPad?

Brown notes that the terms of the Xbox developer program are so onerous that it is essentially impossible for an independent developer to succeed on the platform.

Brown also believes that the user experience on the Xbox platform leaves much to be desired, with Apple's emphasis on simplicity giving it an advantage with users.

Apple, if it chooses to do so, will simply kill Playstation, Wii-U and xBox by introducing an open 30%-cut app/game ecosystem for Apple-TV. I already make a lot of money on iOS – I will be the first to write apps for Apple-TV when I can, and I know I’ll make money. I would for xBox if I could and I knew I would make money. Maybe a “console-capable” Apple-TV isn’t $99, maybe it’s $199, and add another $79 for a controller. The current numbers already say a lot, even with Apple-TV not already an open console: 5.3M sold units in 2012, 90% year-over-year growth — vs. xBox 360 — about 9M units in 2012, 60% YoY decline.

Just today, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek claimed that Apple will be holding a TV-related special event next month, speculating that the company could announce developer tools for the Apple TV platform to set the stage for a full television set product later this year.

The iFixit team today tore apart the Microsoft Surface Pro, which began showing up in stores last week, to reveal what's inside of the PC/tablet hybrid. Microsoft has touted the Surface Pro's power and compact design, which has come at the cost of easy consumer access to the device.

As it turns out, the Surface Pro is sealed with what iFixit termed "a metric duckload" of adhesive, which took more than an hour to overcome.

We tried every method we could think of to free the display, including cutting the adhesive — to no avail. This Pro required a pro method, and thankfully we had the required heat gun and guitar picks ready.

The black glue we found around the perimeter looks like tar, and is unbelievably close in function, appearance, and smell to its road-paving cousin.

Because of the adhesive, which holds both the battery and the display in place, and the more than 90 screws that hold the Surface Pro together, the tablet earned itself a repairability rating of 1/10. As TechCrunch notes, that is even less than Apple's iPad, which scored a 2/10 in repairability.

The battery is not soldered to the tablet so it is technically removable, but iFixit warns that removing the battery or upgrading the SSD might kill the tablet because of the proximity of several cables. Other highlights of the teardown include:

The removable Micron RealSSD C400 we found inside is responsible for the 64 GB of storage capacity. The tiny 1.8″ form factor SSD can read at 500MB/s and write at 95 MB/s. Digging a little deeper, we found that a Marvell 88SS9174 SSD processor keeps all those Micron flash ICs running smoothly.

This Surface Pro is all party in the front, business in the back — cooling business that is. Two small fans help this Pro keep its cool.

Microsoft spared no expense when it came to keeping the Surface Pro going. They sourced the Cadillac of batteries from LG: an Escalade 42 Wh unit. The battery is rated for 7.4 V and 5676 mAh. Impressive specs? Note that the iPad 4 has a 43 Wh battery, albeit at 3.7 V. Even with all this battery juice, the reported battery life of the Surface Pro is less than 5 hours.

iFixit declared some of Microsoft's choices, like the glued-in battery "completely unnecessary." Apple's products have been similarly criticized by the site in the past, such as the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro, which also received a repairability score of 1 out of 10.

Amid circulating rumors of a larger display for the iPhone, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek today reported that he does not see the device launching until mid-2014. Misek argues that problems with display yield and substantial other changes for the iPhone 6 will make a 2013 launch unlikely. Some rumors had suggested that Apple might be able to launch an iPhone 5S and a lower-cost iPhone in mid-2013 and follow with a larger iPhone as soon as late this year.

We see three possible bottlenecks for the iPhone that could contribute to lower yields (and hence higher costs) and/or a delayed launch.

- App processor production at 20nm. Apple’s current iPhone app processor is on 32nm. For the iPhone 6 we think Apple will likely skip over 28nm and go to 20nm to facilitate adding more cores (4 or even 8). While TSMC is targeting a 2014 ramp in its 20nm production we think that issues like double patterning could make it a more complicated transition than the 28nm ramp, which had its own substantial ramp and yield issues.

- Display shifting from in-cell LCD to on-cell OLED or IGZO. We think in- cell is having difficulty ramping to 4.8”, which is making Apple look at switching to on-cell (a different integrated touchscreen technology) and OLED (despite Apple’s suppliers being well behind Samsung in their OLED capabilities) or IGZO.

- Revamped OS. We think Apple plans to re-architect iOS to utilize more cores and better compete with Samsung. Also, we believe the way iOS interoperates with iCloud, gestures controls, and advertising will be substantially upgraded.

Misek first noted the existence of 4.8-inch iPhone prototypes in December, but last month indicated that he was seeing no further signs of the device. The larger iPhone appears to have now returned to his radar but with a longer time horizon than originally thought.

Overall, Misek sees his claimed television product event coming next month with the iPhone 5S and lower-cost iPhone following in the June/July timeframe. He does not see any iPad updates until the fall, when both the full-size iPad and the iPad mini would be updated around the same time as the launch of the Apple television set.

Misek's track record is, however, rather mixed with previous claims of an Apple competitor to Netflix not panning out and only being half correct about the iPhone coming to Sprint and T-Mobile in 2011.

Citing "channel checks", Jefferies analyst Peter Misek today reported in a research note that Apple appears to be preparing for a television-related product event next month. While Misek does not believe that Apple's rumored television set will be making an appearance at the event, he does suggest that Apple might begin setting the stage for the future product by launching developer tools that would presumably also allow the current Apple TV set-top box to gain third-party apps.

Channel checks indicate Apple has a product event in March that is Apple-TV related (possibly an iTV SDK introduction). We think a Sep/Oct iTV launch is being targeted.

Misek anticipates that Apple will launch its television set in the 42"-55" size range with prices starting around $1500.

Rumors about Apple's television set plans have slowed down in recent months after a flurry of reports at the end of 2012, but just today fresh rumors of a potential Apple acquisition of German television maker Loewe have brought renewed focus.

Apple has also gained regulatory approval for a tweaked Apple TV box, although the company claims that the update incorporates only minor internal changes and will be invisible to users.

With the Apple TV software being based on iOS, Steve Jobs noted at the time of the launch of the revamped box in late 2010 that an App Store for Apple TV could launch when the time is right, indicating that the company has indeed been looking at opening up the platform to third-party developers.

Update: The Loop's Jim Dalrymple has refuted Misek's claim of an event scheduled for next month.

Reuters reports that shares of German television set maker Loewe jumped 43% today as rumors of a possible acquisition by Apple resurfaced. A trader was quoted as saying that Apple is looking to bid 4 euros per share for Loewe, but a company spokesman claimed that Loewe was not aware of any such offer.

Rumors of an Apple acquisition of Loewe first emerged in May of last year, dying when Loewe said there was "absolutely nothing to it". It is not known what has led to the renewed speculation today.

While Loewe's luxury TV designs are very much in line with what might be expected from the long-anticipated Apple television set, given that design is one of Apple's core strengths it is not immediately clear what unique contributions Loewe might bring to the table. The German manufacturer is 28% owned by Sharp, 13% by the company's management, 11% by storage company Lacie, and the rest freely traded.

As of the time of writing, Loewe shares were up 33% to 3.63 euros ($4.89), valuing the company at 53 million euros.

Gartner's quarterly Market Share Analysis: Mobile Phones, Worldwide report shows that Samsung and Apple continue to dominate the smartphone market, with more than 52% of the market between them, but that Android's market share grew dramatically year-on-year while iOS saw a decline.

Samsung's Q4 2012 smartphone sales totalled 64.5 million handsets, up 85.3% on the previous year, while Apple's sales reached 43.5 million, a 22.6% increase. However, with featurephones included in the picture, Apple lays in third place behind Samsung and Nokia, with a 9.2% market share.

The dominance of Android meant that overall iOS market share fell from 23.6% in Q4 2011 to 20.9% a year later. Android increased its market share in the same period from 51.3% to a commanding 69.7%. The bulk of this growth was at the expense of Symbian and RIM, but some of it was from iOS.

The figures are likely to fuel debate about Apple's pace of innovation, with iOS having changed far less dramatically than Android since the launch of each platform. While the Android platform is split across a range of manufacturers, giving it the benefit of being marketed by multiple companies, Samsung alone is responsible for 42.5% of Android sales.

With Samsung commanding over 42.5 percent of the Android market globally, and the next vendor at just 6 percent share, the Android brand is being overshadowed by Samsung’s brand with the Galaxy name nearly a synonym for Android phones in consumers’ mind share.

The report suggests that Apple's continued success may be more due to the halo effect of the brand, rather than the strength of the iOS platform itself.

The success of Apple and Samsung is based on the strength of their brands as much as their actual products. Their direct competitors, including those with comparable products, struggle to achieve the same brand appreciation among consumers, who, in a tough economic environment, go for cheaper products over brand.

Total worldwide mobile phone sales last year fell 1.7% to 1.75 billion, with the economy undoubtedly leading people to delay upgrades.

Apple today announced that it has updated its Retina MacBook Pro lineup with new processors, also moving to lower pricing across the board on the 13-inch models.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display now starts at $1,499 for 128GB of flash, and $1,699 for a new 2.6 GHz processor and 256GB of flash. The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display now features a faster 2.4 GHz quad-core processor, and the top-of-the-line 15-inch notebook comes with a new 2.7 GHz quad-core processor and 16GB of memory.

The high-end 15-inch stock configuration now has the twice the amount of RAM that it had previously and the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro prices are $200 and $300 cheaper than their predecessor models, respectively. Apple has also lowered pricing on SSD upgrades across the Retina MacBook Pro lineup, with the bump from 256 GB to 512 GB now costing $300 instead of $500 and the additional bump to 768 GB costing $400 instead of $500.

In addition to the Retina MacBook Pro updates, Apple has also lowered the price of the 256 GB 13-inch MacBook Air by $100, now starting at $1399.

Update: Apple has also eliminated the high-end stock configuration of the non-Retina 15-inch MacBook Pro, leaving only the base model starting at $1799. Customers can still configure the low-end model with all available options, meaning that the previous high-end configuration is still available, but it is no longer being promoted separately as a stock machine.

President Barack Obama tonight mentioned Apple during his State of the Union speech to Congress, mentioning the fact that Apple will again be building Macs in the United States in 2013. CEO Tim Cook disclosed that plan back in December.

Though he didn't mention which line of computers would be made in the U.S., rumors said Apple would begin manufacturing of the Mac mini there, bringing some 200 jobs to the country.

From President Obama's yearly State of the Union speech:

Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing.

After shedding jobs for more than 10 years, our manufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs over the past three. Caterpillar is bringing jobs back from Japan. Ford is bringing jobs back from Mexico. After locating plants in other countries like China, Intel is opening its most advanced plant right here at home. And this year, Apple will start making Macs in America again.

Tim Cook attended the State of the Union, sitting in the First Lady's box -- a frequent location for guests who are mentioned in the President's speech. He sat behind and to the side of the First Lady, just behind the Second Lady, Dr. Jill Biden.

Note: Due to the off-topic comments, the discussion thread has been closed.

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple has a team of about 100 product designers working on a wristwatch computer, according to "two people familiar with the company's plans." The New York Times previously reported that Apple had been "experimenting" with a curved glass smart watch, but Bloomberg believes that Apple's smart watch plans have moved beyond the experimental phase.

The team, which has grown in the past year, includes managers, members of the marketing group and software and hardware engineers who previously worked on the iPhone and iPad, said the people, who asked not to be named because the plans are private. The team’s size suggests Apple is beyond the experimentation phase in its development, said the people.

Apple's senior director of engineering, James Foster, is said to be one of the managers working on the project, which happens to involve challenges like creating a smart watch that doesn't have to be charged every day. The smart watch, known colloquially by some as the "iWatch," would be able to do some of the same tasks as the iPad and iPhone.

Bloomberg also mentions that Apple had been planning a wearable fitness tracking device, much like Nike FuelBand or Jawbone Up, but that Apple had decided not to bring them to market. Apple CEO Tim Cook is a Nike board member and spoke about his own Nike FuelBand at the D10 Conference last year, also saying that wearable devices were an "interesting area" but that "the book hasn't been written on that one yet."

At this morning's Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke about a number of topics including vaguely addressing rumors of a possible future iPhone with a larger screen.

Cook focused his comments on the user experience, saying that was more important than specifications. Answering a question about larger screen sizes, Cook had this to say (transcript from Macworld):

I don't want to say what we will do or won't do [regarding a larger screen for the iPhone], and so don't interpret anything I say along those lines. Let me go back and compare it to the PC industry for a minute. The PC industry over the years, the way that companies competed were two things: specs and price. And so people would want to say, "I've got the largest drive," or, "I've got the fastest processor," or in the camera business people began to say, "I've got the most megapixels."

The truth is, customers want a great experience, and they want quality. They want that "Aha!" moment each time that they use the product. And that's rarely a function of any of those things. These are things that technology companies invent because they can't have a great experience, and so they talk about the spec of something.

Cook went on to talk about smartphone displays, saying that "some people are focused on size." He explained that some things are more important than simply size, citing the poor color saturation and brightness on OLED displays.

And so I only bring these points up to say there are many attributes of a display, and what Apple does is sweat every detail. We care about all of them, and we want the best display. And I think we've got it. I feel great about it.

I'm not going to comment about what we're going to do in the future, because that releases our magic, and I'm not going to do that. But, you know, the customer experience is always broader than that which can be defined by a simple number.

Going back to language that he has used before, Cook said that Apple will "never … make a crappy product." He said that for new products, Apple must design "something great, something bold, something ambitious."

One thing he didn't mention was Apple's frequent assertion that the iPhone's screen is the perfect size for "your thumb" -- the ability to hold and use the phone in one hand -- a fact that was mentioned in one of the first television ads for the iPhone 5.

Both Monoprice and Amazon are now offering low cost Lightning cables, priced at $11.77 and $14.99, respectively, for a standard 3-foot cable.

That’s a significant savings over Apple’s official Lightning cables that are sold online and at retail stores for $19.99.

Monoprice is known for offering high quality generic cables at a deep discount. In addition to the standard 3ft cable, Monoprice is also selling a 6ft cable for $12.56 and a Slimfit cable for $12.73. The cables are all MFi certified Lightning to USB charge/sync cables, made to work with the iPad, iPhone, and iPod. The Slimfit cable from Monoprice is set to ship out in the beginning of March, with the other two cables following later in the month.

Amazon is only offering a 3ft MFi Certified cable at this time, but it is available to ship immediately.

While there are cheaper lightning cables available, the offerings from Amazon and Monoprice are MFi (Made for iPad/iPhone/iPod) Certified, which means they have been approved by Apple. Other low cost Lighting cable options are unofficial, which has introduced concerns about quality and compatibility.

Apple has been maintaining strict control over the Lightning connector and accessories that utilize the technology, insisting that Lightning-related accessories are manufactured in Apple-approved facilities. As a result, the introduction of lower-cost licensed Lightning cables has been slow.