MacRumors

Apple vice president of retail Jerry McDougal, a key player in Apple's retail development over the past 12 years, has departed the company to spend more time with his family, reports IFOAppleStore.

McDougal was Ron Johnson's right hand man when he was still with the company and was considered a possible replacement for Johnson when he moved on to head JC Penney.

A key player in the birth of Apple’s retail chain and a potential candidate to lead the retail stores has left the company. Jerry McDougal, Vice-President of Retail, said goodbye to his colleagues last Friday, sources say. His departure was explained as not work-related, but rather so he could spend more time with his family. Apple notoriously requires an enormous commitment of time from its employees, especially at the headquarters level. That commitment increased even more for retail executives after last year’s departure of Ron Johnson.

McDougal was also considered as a possible replacement for John Browett after he was fired earlier this year.

IFOAppleStore notes that McDougal was responsible for Apple's retail marketing, product merchandising, store operations, loss prevention and customer loyalty programs.

Update: McDougal has been replaced by Jim Bean, Apple's VP of Finance, according to a report by AllThingsD. He will retain his VP title:

"Retail has an incredibly strong network of leaders at the store and regional level, and they will continue the excellent work they’ve done over the past decade to revolutionize retailing with unique, innovative services and a focus on the customer that is second to none," Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said. "Jim Bean is moving to Retail to help support our store teams. Jim has been at Apple for 15 years and is a great leader who understands our culture and focus on customer service."

Apple is once again being targeted for its AppleCare policies in Europe, this time by Belgian consumer group Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats.

The organization filed a complaint against Apple yesterday with the Commercial Court of Brussels (via TechCrunch), claiming that the Cupertino-based company has not followed local consumer protection laws and has withheld information from consumers.

While electronics in the United States typically come with a one year warranty, the same products are also subject to a mandated two year coverage policy in European Union member states, although there are substantial differences between warranty coverage issued by Apple and the longer consumer protection coverage issued under EU directives.

According to the organization, Apple has failed to adequately disclose the details of the law to consumers, instead choosing to push its AppleCare Protection Plan extended warranty.

Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats was originally one of 10 European organizations that teamed up to reprimand Apple for its AppleCare practices, but the consumer group decided to move on with an official suit because Apple has "remained deaf" to demands.

Apple faced a similar lawsuit in Italy, which was resolved just last month. Apple was forced to pay more than $1.4 million in fines, in addition to modifying its website and ceasing the sale of AppleCare in Italian Apple Stores.

Following up on his report from last month, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek has released a new research report indicating that Apple's iPhone 5S is still in line for a launch in June or July of this year, with production beginning to ramp up in March.

Our checks indicate that preliminary builds for the iPhone 5S will start in March for a launch in June/July. As word of the earlier production schedule starts to spread, we believe we could see a slight slowing of demand CQ1 in anticipation of the new product launch and Apple will likely start curtailing channel inventory.

Misek notes that he has been seeing signs of two iPhone 5S prototypes currently in testing, although one could be the cheaper iPhone that has been the subject of a number of rumors in recent weeks. On the topic of that cheaper iPhone, Misek says that the device "looks close to being greenlit or may already have been" and offers some "likely specs" in order to help bring Apple's costs down:

Similar to the iPad mini, we expect a concentrated low-cost iPhone rather than a "cheap" one. Likely specs: polycarbonite case with 4" non-Retina display and no LTE. We believe a new low-cost iPhone would increase Apple's share, decrease [gross margins], but have little impact on [earnings per share].

Misek also directly addresses the iPhone with a 4.8-inch display mentioned in his earlier report, now saying that he is seeing no further signs of the device. He suggests that the form factor is for the iPhone 6 further down the road, but we remain skeptical about the likelihood of Apple making yet another change to the iPhone's resolution even two generations removed from the iPhone 5.

Finally, Misek comments on recent reports that Apple has slashed component orders for the iPhone 5 nearly in half in the first quarter due to "weaker-than-expected demand". Like a number of analysts, Misek casts significant doubt on the reasons for the dire claims, suggesting that lowered component orders are largely driven by an assembly bottleneck that has resulted in oversupply of components and projected ramping down of production leading into the iPhone 5S.

The original reports from Nikkei and The Wall Street Journal drew suspicion for their claims that Apple was planning to build 65 million iPhones this quarter before slashing its orders, an unrealistically high number considering expectations for sales in the range of 50 million units in the holiday quarter that coincided with the device's launch in most markets. The Wall Street Journal quickly removed the specific 65-million figure from its report, but uncertainty about the sourcing and accuracy of the associated claims persists.

BrightWire reports on an article from Chinese web portal Tencent claiming that Apple CEO Tim Cook discussed during his visit to China last week the company's plans to establish a research and development center in Beijing. The report includes several other items of information pointing to Apple's continued efforts to strengthen its presence in the rapidly growing Chinese market.

- At a meeting with Beijing's acting mayor Wang Anshun on January 8, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company plans to set up an R&D center in Beijing, an unnamed insider source told Tencent Tech today.

- Cook also noted that Apple will move a certain amount of its servers for App Store and iTunes to China in order to improve the downloading speed for users in China.

The report also cites "IT insiders" claiming that Apple is likely to set up its Chinese data center in either Zhangjiakou to the northwest of Beijing or in Inner Mongolia.

Tim Cook shared some of his thoughts on the Chinese market during his visit to the country, noting that Apple has plans to build more than 25 retail stores in the Greater China region and that it is working hard to speed up the regulatory approval process for its products so that they can launch closer to the first wave of debuts.

Apple has been looking to open research and development centers outside of the United States, seeking to draw upon international expertise for some of its technological advances. The company has already moved forward on a center in Israel, and there had previously been claims that Apple was exploring the possibility of a research center in Russia, although those talks do not appear to have yielded any commitments.

Last July, Ars Technica took a look at the state of the Thunderbolt standard developed by Apple and Intel, noting that adoption remained slow amid high pricing some eighteen months after the standard's introduction. The report did, however, suggest that pricing could begin to improve in 2013 as the next generation of Thunderbolt chips hit the market.

Ars Technica has now published a follow-up report looking at how things have changed over the past six months, pointing to a number of improvements such as slightly lower pricing on Thunderbolt cables from Apple, the introduction of the first wave of optical cables supporting the standard, and the launch of new docking stations and other peripherals taking advantage of Thunderbolt.

The report indicates that the biggest holdup to wider adoption of Thunderbolt appears to be Intel's licensing and certification process, with the company dedicating only limited resources to helping third-party vendors bring their Thunderbolt products to market.

Several vendors we have spoke to over the past year have claimed that Intel was holding up the process, cherry picking which vendors it worked with.

Though Intel had effectively denied this characterization in the past, the company explained the situation a bit differently when we spoke at CES last week. Jason Ziller, Director of Thunderbolt Marketing & Planning at Intel, told Ars that Intel has "worked closely" with vendors it felt could "offer the best products" and could meet its stringent "certification requirements." The subtext seemed to be that Intel had limited resources to support and certify new products, and so it gave priority to devices that were perhaps more novel than those proposed by other makers.

Ziller indicated that Intel would be broadening its efforts this year, suggesting that more Thunderbolt products may be able to make their way into consumers' hands. Combining those efforts with continued cost drops and the first moves into Windows machines, Apple and Intel are undoubtedly hoping that 2013 will finally see Thunderbolt turn the corner.

Digitimes provides more details about the rumored cheaper iPhone that has been circulating. According to their supply chain sources, this new entry-level iPhone is said to adopt plastic for its chassis rather than the glass and aluminum that has been used on their current models.

They also cite other circulating rumors that suggest that the cheaper iPhone will alternatively offer a "chassis mixed with plastic and metal, with the internal metal parts being able to be seen from outside through special design".

The publication also reports that the components for the low-cost iPhone are going through validation and the final product may come to market in the second half of 2013.

Digitimes reignited the long-running rumors of a low-cost iPhone last week. The report was quickly followed by a Wall Street Journal and Reuters report claiming the same, and offering a target price of $99-$149. Subsequent comments by Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller seemed to suggest that Apple was dismissive of that possibility, but that article was later retracted by the original publication.

Apple today announced that the WiFi + Cellular iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad will launch in China this Friday. The release in China adds to the over 100 countries where the iPad mini and new iPad are already available.

Apple today announced the Wi-Fi + Cellular versions of iPad® mini and the new fourth generation iPad with Retina display will be available in China on Friday, January 18. iPad mini and the fourth generation iPad are currently available in more than 100 countries worldwide including the US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan and the UK.

The iPad and iPad mini models will be available in China through Apple retail stores, Apple.com and authorized retailers. Just last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook traveled to China to meet with partners and government officials, and where he announced that the cellular iPad and iPad mini models would be launching before the end of the month. Apple's focus on China has continued throughout the past several years, with the company having almost doubled its retail presence in Greater China since his last visit to the country just ten months ago.

AppleInsider notes that inventories of the Apple Thunderbolt Display have begun running short at third-party resellers such as Amazon and MacMall, perhaps providing the first hints of an upcoming redesign. The display remains in stock at the company's online stores, but shortages tend to show up at third-party retailers first as Apple prioritizes shrinking supplies for its own outlets.

One of the most significant changes likely to make an appearance in a redesigned Apple Thunderbolt Display is the adoption of the thinner profile and new display assembly process seen in the company's latest iMac. The current Apple Thunderbolt Display borrows heavily from the previous generations of the 27-inch iMac, and thus it seems reasonable to assume that some of the iMac design changes such as new lamination procedures to make the display thinner and more vibrant will make their way to the standalone display.

But with that lamination process leading to shortages of the 27-inch displays used in the iMacs, an issue expected to persist until next month, Apple may hold off on introducing a new standalone display for the time being in order to prioritize the iMac.

Other changes likely to appear in an updated display are a move to USB 3.0 ports, which have become standard on Mac products, and the inclusion of a MagSafe 2 port for charging Mac notebooks. The current Apple Thunderbolt Display still uses the original MagSafe design for power passthrough, with Apple bundling a MagSafe to MagSafe 2 Converter to provide compatibility for owners of newer Mac notebooks.

Research firm Gartner today released its preliminary personal computer shipment data for the fourth quarter of 2012, showing a mixed market for manufacturers. Overall, Gartner saw a 2.1% year-over-year decline in PC sales in the United States, compared to a 4.9% decline on a global basis.

In the United States, Apple maintained its third-place ranking with 12.3% of the market on a unit sales increase of 5.4% over the year-ago quarter. Apple's growth was outpaced by leader HP at 12.6% and fourth-place Lenovo at 9.7%, but Lenovo remains well behind Apple at 8.4% of the U.S. market. Apple and the other gainers were, however, more than offset by steep losses at Dell and Acer, leading to overall contraction of the PC market in the U.S.

As usual, Gartner did not cover Apple's worldwide market share for the quarter, as the company does not rank among the top five vendors on a worldwide basis.

IDC has also released its estimates of PC sales for the quarter, offering an even bleaker view of the market with its calculations of 6.4% contraction in the global market and a 4.5% decline in the United States. Apple in particular took a hit in IDC's estimates relative to Gartner's numbers, with IDC projecting that Apple's sales actually shrank by 0.2% year-over-year. Still, given the overall market decline in the U.S., IDC saw Apple's share of the market rise from 10.9% to 11.4%.

On Friday, we noted that Apple had taken the rare step of using its anti-malware tools in OS X to disable existing installations of the Java 7 browser plug-in due to a major security vulnerability that was being actively exploited in the wild. Apple's anti-malware system is capable of enforcing minimum version numbers for plug-ins such as Java and Flash, and Apple simply updated its blacklist information to require that machines be running a higher version of the Java 7 plug-in than was publicly available.

Oracle has now released Java 7 Update 11, and the release notes indicate that it does indeed address the vulnerability. The new release registers with a version string of 1.7.0_11-b21, satisfying Apple's requirement for a minimum version number of 1.7.0_10-b19.

In addition to the fix for the vulnerability, Java 7 Update 11 also sees a change in the default security level setting from "Medium" to "High". Under the new setting, users will be warned before the Java plug-in runs any unsigned application.

The default security level for Java applets and web start applications has been increased from "Medium" to "High". This affects the conditions under which unsigned (sandboxed) Java web applications can run. Previously, as long as you had the latest secure Java release installed applets and web start applications would continue to run as always. With the "High" setting the user is always warned before any unsigned application is run to prevent silent exploitation.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has slashed component orders for the iPhone 5 this quarter, responding to weaker-than-expected demand.

Apple's orders for iPhone 5 screens for the January-March quarter, for example, have dropped to roughly half of what the company had previously planned to order, two of the people said.

The Cupertino, Calif., company has also cut orders for components other than screens, according to one of the people.

Apple notified the suppliers of the order cut last month, the people said.

There have been reports that Apple is looking to launch its next-generation iPhone in the middle of this year as part of a broader effort to shorten its product update cycles. Apple is reportedly also toying with other changes such as a cheaper version of the iPhone in order to help the company slow the momentum of Android and its leading manufacturers Samsung.

It is not unusual for demand, and thus Apple's component orders, to wane in the lead-up to hardware updates, but the iPhone 5 is just four months old, and the slashing of production at this stage of the device's lifecycle is sure to cause concern for the company, its investors, and others closely watching Apple's performance.

As noted by ZDNet, a major security vulnerability in Java 7 has been discovered, with the vulnerability currently being exploited in the wild by malicious parties. In response to threat, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has recommended that users disable the Java 7 browser plug-in entirely until a patch is made available by Oracle.

Hackers have discovered a weakness in Java 7 security that could allow the installation of malicious software and malware on machines that could increase the chance of identity theft, or the unauthorized participation in a botnet that could bring down networks or be used to carry out denial-of-service attacks against Web sites.

"We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem," said the DHS' Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) in a post on its Web site on Thursday evening. "This vulnerability is being attacked in the wild, and is reported to be incorporated into exploit kits. Exploit code for this vulnerability is also publicly available."

Apple has, however, apparently already moved quickly to address the issue, disabling the Java 7 plug-in on Macs where it is already installed. Apple has achieved this by updating its "Xprotect.plist" blacklist to require a minimum of an as-yet unreleased 1.7.0_10-b19 version of Java 7. With the current publicly-available version of Java 7 being 1.7.0_10-b18, all systems running Java 7 are failing to pass the check initiated through the anti-malware system built into OS X.

Apple historically provided its own support for Java on OS X, but in October 2010 began pushing support for Java back to Oracle, with Steve Jobs noting that the previous arrangement resulted in Apple's Java always being a version behind that available to other platforms through Oracle. Consequently, Jobs acknowledged that having Apple responsible for Java "may not be the best way to do it."

It wasn't until last August that the transition was essentially complete, with Oracle officially launching Java 7 for OS X. Java 7 does not ship by default on Mac systems, meaning that many users are not affected this latest issue or other recent ones, but those users who have manually installed Java 7 may be experiencing issues with their systems.

There is no word yet on when an updated version of Java addressing the issue will be made available by Oracle.

Update: As detailed in the National Vulnerability Database, the issue affects not only the Java 7 plug-in, but at least some versions of Java 4 through 7.

Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White today released a new report highlighting some of his observations from this week's CES in Las Vegas, noting that "checks" at the show suggest that Apple is looking to launch the next-generation versions of the iPad and iPad mini in March.

Our checks at CES indicate Apple will release the iPad 5 and the second-generation iPad mini this March. The iPad 5 is expected to be lighter and thinner than the iPad 4 that was released in October, while the form factor of the iPad mini should be similar to the first generation iPad mini that debuted in October.

White's comments are in line with a previous report from Japanese blog Mac Otakara which claimed that a thinner and lighter fifth-generation iPad will be launching in March. RBC analyst Doug Freedman had also claimed that Apple was accelerating its plans for the second-generation iPad mini.

Apple has historically stuck to roughly year-long update cycles for its iOS devices, but the company surprised many observers by launching the fourth-generation iPad in October, just seven months after the debut of the third-generation model. It is unclear whether that shorter interval is the start of a trend for Apple, as it may simply have been a one-time event due to Apple's move to the new Lightning connector.

There have, however, been growing rumors of shorter update cycles being part of a new strategy for Apple as it seeks to remain competitive in the fast-moving mobile device market and smooth out its sales somewhat throughout the year.

Yesterday, a report from the Shanghai Evening News including comments made by Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller about Apple's refusal to build "cheap" devices was widely re-reported throughout both the Apple-focused rumor scene and in mainstream media.

Schiller's comments were viewed by some as a direct rebuttal to recent rumors from The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg that Apple is working on a less expensive iPhone for launch as soon as later this year, although he actually appeared to simply be noting that any product Apple releases would not sacrifice quality in order to grab market share at lower price points.

Reuters has now issued a brief statement retracting its re-reporting of the Shanghai Evening News piece, citing "substantial changes" to the source article. Reuters will not be publishing an amended version of its story.

It is unclear exactly what changes Reuters is referring to, as the online version [Google translation] of the Shanghai Evening News piece appears to be essentially the same as when it was first covered by English-language media.

Still, the retraction by Reuters casts significant uncertainty on the original report and raises questions about whether Schiller's comments were mistranslated or misinterpreted.

Update 12:30 PM: Reuters has now published an explanation for its retraction, citing the changes made to the original Shanghai Evening News article.

[I]n a new version of the story published after the original, the Shanghai Evening News removed all references to cheaper smartphones, except for a mention of a "cheaper, low-end product." It also amended its original headline from "Apple will not push a cheaper smartphone for the sake of market share," to "Apple wants to provide the best products, will not blindly pursue market share."

Apple confirmed the interview had taken place and that it had contacted the Chinese newspaper about amending its original article, but had no further comment and declined to provide a transcript of the interview.