MacRumors

Back in January, reliable KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo laid out a thorough roadmap of his expectations for Apple's product launches in 2013, pointing to a very busy third quarter for the company with launches for updated iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Mac notebook lines. As recently as last month, Kuo was targeting a June/July launch for the new iPhone models, with a version specific to China Mobile arriving a bit later in September.

Kuo has released a new report today indicating that a number of challenges appear to be pushing back the release of the new iPhone and iPad mini models relative to his previous predictions and general market consensus. As a result, Kuo believes that Apple's third quarter may see much smaller shipment growth than previously expected. Apple of course has not announced its launch plans, so any "delays" are relative to these market expectations and not necessarily Apple's internal plans.

Earlier we estimated that shipments of the new iPhone would begin in July (FDD version) and September (TDD version), while iPad mini 2 would hit the market in August. Currently, market consensus for shipments of iPhone 5S, low-cost iPhone and iPad mini 2 is July, July, and August, respectively. But in light of publicly available information and our knowledge of technological trends, we now think all three products will begin shipments later than our previous expectation and market consensus.

Kuo does not provide a new specific target date for the launches of the updated models, instead laying out a series of three scenarios modeling how Apple's shipments could be affected based on August/September, September/October, and October/November timeframes.

As for details on the challenges facing Apple, Kuo lays out the following issues:

- Fingerprint sensor for iPhone 5S. Work on finding the right color coatings in order to prevent interference with the sensor offers a technical challenge for Apple, and software integration in iOS 7 will also require additional work.

- Color coatings for lower-cost iPhone. Apple's lower-cost iPhone has been rumored to be arriving with a plastic shell in a number of different colors, and Apple's efforts to keep the shell as thin as possible will likely lead to production ramping issues for coatings and surface treatments.

- iPad mini Retina display. Kuo expects the second-generation iPad mini to adopt a Retina display, and technical challenges related to its design and manufacture are likely to slow Apple's release timetable.

As a result of later-than-expected launches, Kuo currently predicts that Apple will see only single-digit growth of total iPhone/iPad shipments year-over-year for the third quarter of 2013, far below current market expectations of 30-40% growth.

Kuo's report comes as Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty has released her own report projecting new iPhone launches for September following an iOS 7 preview at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) expected in June. Huberty projects that Apple will show off a new "killer app" such as mobile wallet at WWDC, with the new iPhone and iPad hardware following several months later.

Bloomberg reports on comments from a U.S. District Court judge in Miami chastising Apple and Google for engaging in patent lawsuits as part of a broader business strategy rather than focusing on resolution of the disputes. The judge is currently overseeing a legal dispute that began with an initial complaint by Motorola Mobility in late 2010 and was expanded in January 2012 with the approval of Google, which had agreed to acquire Motorola several months earlier.

“The parties have no interest in efficiently and expeditiously resolving this dispute; they instead are using this and similar litigation worldwide as a business strategy that appears to have no end,” U.S. District Judge Robert Scola in Miami said in an order dated yesterday. “That is not a proper use of this court.”

Scola went on to blast the companies' "obstreperous and cantankerous conduct" in refusing to streamline the 12 patents and over 180 claims currently involved in the lawsuit.

“Without a hint of irony, the parties now ask the court to mop up a mess they made by holding a hearing to reduce the size and complexity of the case,” he wrote. “The court declines this invitation.”

Scola has given Apple and Google four months in which to streamline the case on their own before he puts the case on hold.

Several weeks ago, photos of a pair of parts alleged to be from the iPhone 5S surfaced through a Japanese parts vendor. The parts included a flex cable for the device's home button and a second flex cable housing the vibrator and volume/mute controls.

Another Japanese parts vendor, iLab Factory, has now posted a new set of photos showing not only those two parts but also a third flex cable that appears to house the device's front camera. iLab Factory points out that these parts may be from the iPhone 5S but could alternatively be from Apple's rumored lower-cost iPhone.

One interesting item of note that we neglected to point out in our previous report relates to the vibrator/volume control flex cable. The part contains a strip of three buttons to run along the edge of the device, corresponding to the locations of the two volume buttons and the mute switch on previous iPhone models. But on this part, all three features appear to be buttons, suggesting that this upcoming iPhone may see the mute switch become a push button.

iLab Factory also notes that the vibrator in this part uses a dual-head design, which is distinct from the iPhone 5 vibrator design, although it is unclear what may have prompted the change.

The other two parts shared by iLab Factory reveal little information, with the home button flex cable appearing essentially identical to the previously seen part except for a part number change from 821-1684-01 to 821-1684-02. These parts do, however, contain a significantly longer cable than seen on the corresponding iPhone 5 part.

The layout of the front camera flex cable is nearly identical to the corresponding iPhone 5 part, although this leaked part is missing the microphone and other sensors seen on the iPhone 5 part offered by iFixit.

Research firm IDC today released its preliminary calculations of PC shipments for the first quarter of 2013, finding the worst year-over-year performance in the nearly 20-year history of its tracking studies. According to IDC's numbers, the worldwide PC market declined nearly 14% compared to the first quarter of 2012, with the U.S. market declining by nearly 13%.

Despite some mild improvement in the economic environment and some new PC models offering Windows 8, PC shipments were down significantly across all regions compared to a year ago. Fading Mini Notebook shipments have taken a big chunk out of the low-end market while tablets and smartphones continue to divert consumer spending. PC industry efforts to offer touch capabilities and ultraslim systems have been hampered by traditional barriers of price and component supply, as well as a weak reception for Windows 8. The PC industry is struggling to identify innovations that differentiate PCs from other products and inspire consumers to buy, and instead is meeting significant resistance to changes perceived as cumbersome or costly.

While Apple's performance was far from stellar, the company did outperform the market by showing only a 7.5% decline in shipments in the United States. Apple's performance allowed it increase its third-place share of the U.S. market from 9.4% to 10.0% as leaders HP and Dell saw significant declines, but a smaller decline from Toshiba and strong growth from Lenovo placed those vendors close behind Apple.

Apple does not rank on IDC's list of top five vendors on a worldwide basis, with Asus holding down the bottom spot at 5.7% of the market. Lenovo was, however, the only one of the top five worldwide vendors to avoid major declines in PC shipments, managing to hold steady amid the declining market.

Update: Gartner has released its own data showing a similar picture for the PC market as a whole, estimating an 11.2% year-over-year decline for the worldwide market and a 9.6% decline in the United States.

Gartner's numbers for Apple in the United States, however, show a completely different story, with Apple's shipments estimated to have risen by 7.4% compared to IDC's estimate of a 7.5% decline.

A job listing posted by Apple earlier this month indicates the company is indeed looking at using flexible displays in future products, along with high optical efficiency LCD and AMOLED units. The listing was first noticed by 9to5Mac.

The listing, for a Senior Optical Engineer, asks for someone with experience in the design, development and technical investigation of display technologies, along with a Ph.D or M.S. in physics, optics, material science or electrical engineering.

Recent rumors have suggested Apple is looking at curved glass displays for products like the iWatch, where a flexible display could make sense -- though Apple has applied for patents relating to curved glass screens on the iPhone as well. The presence of a job listing is no indication of future products, however, and Apple's research and development labs are always investigating future products.

Corning, which makes the Gorilla Glass that is used as the front glass for the iPhone suggests flexible 'Willow Glass' displays are unlikely to appear for at least three years.

Update: The job listing seeking a Senior Optical Engineer has been removed by Apple.

ZDNet has shared a roadmap it received from a source who claims it is the timetable for Microsoft's plans for both the Mac and iOS versions of Office.

The map says a new version of Office for Mac will arrive in April 2014, while the long rumored Microsoft Office for iOS and Android will arrive next Autumn, in October 2014.

I do not know how old this purported roadmap is, but my contact indicated it was likely current as of the start of 2013. I asked Microsoft Office officials for comment on the alleged roadmap, but they declined to do so.

The most recent report, from this past December, suggested that Apple and Microsoft were in negotiations over revenue share as part of Microsoft's Office 365 subscription service that launched in January. Apple wants the standard 70/30 split in revenue that is part of its developer license agreement for every developer.

Microsoft itself has leaked references to Office Mobile for iPhone, Excel for iPad, and PowerPoint for iPad, making clear that Microsoft does have iOS versions in the works.

The new SimCity will ship for the Mac on June 11, EA reported today. Gamers will be able to purchase SimCity for Mac as a $60 digital download via Origin, EA's Steam-like digital store that launched earlier this year, as well as other digital retailers. Owners of the PC version of SimCity will receive the Mac version for free, and vice versa.

EA is emphasizing that this is not simply a Mac "port" of the Windows version, but instead is a native version of the game designed specifically for the Mac. The software renderer has been rewritten for OpenGL, but the Mac version will use the same servers as the PC edition so gamers can play together regardless of what platform they are using.

"SimCity is coming to Mac on June 11 and one purchase will give you both the Mac and PC versions. You only need to buy SimCity once to play together across the same servers, regardless of which version you’re playing," said Lucy Bradshaw, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA’s Maxis Label. "We didn’t want to make any compromises when it came to the Mac so we created a native version that is optimized for the hardware and OSX."

SimCity's launch was more than a little rocky, largely because the game can only be played online. EA requires that the game be connected to its servers at all times to facilitate region play where multiple cities are connected to share utilities and citizenry.

At launch, SimCity's servers were overwhelmed with traffic and the gameplay experience was extremely poor. Today, EA seems to have ironed out the bugs and users are playing the game as intended. The company recently turned the 'Cheetah' speed mode back on after disabling it to reduce load on the servers after SimCity's initial release.

EA originally said SimCity would come to the Mac in February of this year, but pushed that ship date back.

Less than a week after a report from Bloomberg Businessweek outlined how Steve Jobs' strict requirements for "fit and finish" at the company's upcoming Norman Foster-designed Apple Campus 2 in Cupertino have seen the cost of the massive project balloon to $5 billion, Marketing reports [via Pocket-lint] that Foster's firm has been tapped to work on retail store projects for Apple.

Sources close to the project said Foster + Partners, which has designed buildings including the McLaren Technology Centre and Hearst Tower in New York, is helping Apple on the retail store design brief. [...]

A Foster + Partners spokeswoman said: "Any project for Apple is confidential and therefore we are unable to comment."

Apple has long worked with design firm 8 Inc on its retail stores, dating back to store-within-a-store concepts that preceded Apple's own retail locations. The retail partnership between 8 Inc and Apple built upon a previous arrangement that saw 8 Inc assisting with the design of Apple's displays at Macworld trade shows.

While 8 Inc has long served as Apple's design partner for the company's retail stores, architectural expertise for many of Apple's high-profile locations has been provided by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson.

It currently remains unclear how extensive the relationship between Apple and Foster + Partners will be for retail stores, including whether 8 Inc and/or Bohlin Cywinski Jackson are being entirely replaced.

The Korea Times reports that Samsung has been excluded from Apple's plans for its next-generation A7 system-on-a-chip expected to be released next year to power upcoming iOS devices. According to the report, Apple is moving forward with plans to shift production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

"Apple is sharing confidential data for its next A7 system-on-chip (SoC) with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). TSMC has begun ordering its contractors to supply equipment to produce Apple's next processors using a finer 20-nanometer level processing technology," said an executive at one of Samsung's local partners in Korea by telephone, Wednesday.

Other sources report that Samsung is hoping its own handsets can fill the gap to be left by Apple, as the firm has made significant investments in its processor production facilities, but that some lines may have to be shut down. Samsung is also seeking to increase its work producing graphics chips for NVIDIA.

The report follows similar claims from Taiwanese media last week, which indicated that Apple and TSMC were pushing forward on a 20-nm A7 design for launch early next year. Last month it was reported that Apple and TSMC had taped out a design for the A7, although considerable work remains before the chip will enter production.

With Apple's 20-nm A7 not expected until next year, it appears that the company's 2013 iOS device lineup will have to make use of other alternatives such as a die shrink of the current A6 chip from 32-nm to 28-nm or a more substantially reworked A6 chip. Apple could conceivably also have a new "A7" chip ready to go at 28-nm ahead of the move to the smaller and more efficient 20-nm process node next year.

For the past several days, we've been following the story of Apple's removal of AppGratis from the App Store. AppGratis offers a popular app discovery service with the main feature being a hand-picked app offered free each day.

Apple acknowledged that it had pulled the app for violating two App Store rules related to offering apps in a manner which might be "similar to or confusing with the App Store" and using push notifications to send out promotions. AppGratis CEO Simon Dawlat responded yesterday to note that Apple had approved the app a number of times, including an iPad version just a week ago, before a new reviewer stepped in and quickly pulled the app after being unable to contact Dawlat, who was on an airplane at the time.

AllThingsD now reports that Apple's removal of AppGratis is just the first step in a broader crackdown on such apps, with more app discovery services soon to be pulled as well.

I’m told Apple feels these apps threaten the legitimacy of the App Store charts by providing a way for developers to spend their way to a high ranking. Apple did something similar in 2011, when it rejected a number of applications running incentivized app installs within their apps.

The company also worries that such apps undermine the integrity of the App Store by cluttering it with alternative storefronts. As one source described it to me, some of these discovery apps create a scenario
that’s similar to walking into Nordstrom and seeing a Walmart inside.

AppGratis notes that it is "far from finished" and that its 12 million existing users will be able to continue to use the app while the company explores its alternatives, but AllThingsD makes clear that the removal of AppGratis was not simply an error on the part of a reviewer and that AppGratis is "almost certainly finished as an iOS app — in its current incarnation, anyway".