MacRumors

Research firm IDC today released the results of its study of worldwide tablet and eReader shipments for the second quarter of 2011, and while the tablet market has changed dramatically in the nearly three months since the quarter ended, the data still offers an interesting look at Apple's performance in the market. According to the study, Apple rode the strength of the iPad 2 launch to capture over 68% of total worldwide tablet shipments for the quarter, up from 65% in the previous quarter.

Worldwide media tablet shipments in the second quarter were driven by continued robust demand for Apple's iPad 2, which saw shipments reach 9.3 million units, representing a 68.3% share of the worldwide market (up from 65.7% the previous quarter). Research in Motion entered the media tablet market in 2Q11 with its PlayBook product, grabbing a 4.9% share of the market. Apple's strength and RIM's entrance meant bad news for Android-based media tablets, which saw its collective share slip to 26.8%, down from 34.0% the previous quarter.

IDC predicts that Android's share will continue to shrink during the third quarter due to continued iPad strength and a flood of $99 sales of HP's discontinued TouchPad, but that Android will begin to regain share during the fourth quarter of the year as new models come to market.

"Apple's iOS share will continue to lead by more than 40 percentage points over Google's Android for the remainder of the year, but we expect Apple's share to fall closer to 50% by the end of the forecast period as manufacturers bring new tablets to market," said Jennifer Song, research analyst, Worldwide Trackers.

It is important to note that IDC's studies track shipments from manufacturers into their distribution channels, and by most accounts Apple's lead is even stronger when looking at sales to end users. Whereas Apple has repeatedly said that it is selling essentially every iPad it can make, a number of other vendors have seen their shipments into the channel languish amid low consumer demand.

Still, IDC is impressed by the total tablet shipments seen for the second quarter, which saw 88.9% growth over the previous quarter and 303% year-over-year growth. As a result, IDC has boosted its estimates for 2011 from 53.5 million units to 62.5 million units overall.

Virtualization firm VMware today announced the launch of its new Fusion 4 software to allow Mac users to run Windows and other operating systems virtualized alongside their native OS X operating systems. Optimized for OS X Lion, VMware Fusion 4 offers more than 90 new features, including the ability to run OS X Lion in a virtual machine as is now permitted by Apple's licensing.

With more than 90 new features and now optimized for today’s multi-core Macs and OS X Lion, key features in VMware Fusion 4 include:

- Built for OS X Lion – VMware Fusion 4 is designed to provide the best Windows experience on OS X Lion. Add Windows programs to Launchpad, experience them in Mission Control, view them in full screen or switch between them using Mac gestures.

- Better Performance and Faster Graphics – VMware Fusion 4 has been engineered to run Windows and Mac applications side-by-side with incredible speed and reliability. As a 64-bit Cocoa application, it is optimized for today’s multi-core Macs and delivers 3D graphics up to 2.5-times faster than previous versions of Fusion.

- Even More "Mac-like" Experience – VMware Fusion 4 enhances the way Windows programs run on a Mac. From the brand new settings menu to the redesigned virtual machine library and snapshot menu, users have even more Mac-like experiences when running Windows programs.

- Lion Squared – VMware Fusion 4 now supports OS X Lion in a virtual machine, allowing users to get more from their Mac by running OS X Lion, OS X Lion Server, Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server and Mac OS X Leopard Server in virtual machines.

VMware Fusion 4 is being offered at a promotional price of $49.99 until the the end of the year, after which time pricing will be set at $79.99. Users who purchased Fusion 3 on or after July 20th are eligible for a free upgrade to Fusion 4.

VMware's primary competitor in the virtualization market is Parallels, which released its own Lion-optimized version two weeks ago.

China Telecom is reportedly gearing up for the launch of the iPhone 5, training staff members and even beginning advertising as it prepares to begin taking orders as soon as the end of this month.

China Telecom has instructed some of its provincial branches to begin preparations for the sales of the iPhone 5, including conducting staff training, and the operator will accept orders for the phone at the earliest at end September, reports Southern Metropolis Daily, citing a company insider.

According to the report, a LED screen at the Changan Road branch of China Telecom had started advertising the forthcoming debut of the iPhone 5.

The carrier is expecting to begin pre-sales of the iPhone 5 later this month, with official sales beginning next month. China Telecom is also said to be dedicating a massive 1.5 billion yuan ($234.5 million) to marketing for the device under an initiative known as the "Dragon Plan".

China is a booming market for Apple, but Apple has so far partnered only with China Unicom as an official carrier for the iPhone. China's other two major carriers, China Mobile and China Telecom, have been pushing hard for the iPhone, and it now appears that at least China Telecom is lined up to begin offering the device with the launch of the iPhone 5.

News of this week's Apple retail store openings has been trickling out day-by-day so far, and it seems that Apple has added one more opening to the schedule for this Saturday.

On Monday, we noted the unusual mid-week opening for the Stratford City store in London scheduled for the following day, with the new Jungfernstieg store in Hamburg, Germany following suit on Saturday. Yesterday, we reported that Apple had added two more opening for Saturday: Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, Texas and Via Rizzoli in Bologna, Italy.

Apple last night added a fifth opening to this week's schedule with the debut of the Braehead store in Glasgow, Scotland. The store joins the existing Buchanan Street location to become the second in Glasgow, and will be Apple's 33rd store in the United Kingdom.

During a BUILD 2011 presentation, Microsoft told Windows 8 developers to plan their artwork for High DPI (dot per inch) monitors with varying artwork sizes. In particular, they mentioned Retina-class desktop and laptop monitors. @Stroughtonsmith tweeted from the talk which is not yet online:

We'd previously reported that Apple had also been planning for ultra high resolution Retina displays in Mac OS X Lion. These ultra-high resolution displays would increase the number of pixels per inch found on both laptop and desktop displays.

There's been some doubts about when such displays will become commercially available, but it seems both Apple and Microsoft have built in support for it in their latest operating systems. Microsoft seems to indicate that they will be available within the next couple of years.

AppleInsider claims that Apple may be bumping the processors of the MacBook Pros before the end of this year, but will make no other changes to the notebooks.

According to people with proven insight into Apple's future product plans, the late-2011 MacBook Pro refresh will deliver marginal speed bumps to the notebooks' Core i-Series of Sandy Bridge processors but will otherwise introduce no material changes over the existing models.

Intel recently introduced 16 new Sandy Bridge processors, some of which could be used in the current generation MacBook Pros.

Last year, Apple quietly added a high end 2.8GHz Core i7 option to the MacBook Pros in late October. So, the move is not without precedent, though last year it was offered only as a built-to-order option and not an across the board upgrade.

Intel today previewed its future "Haswell" family of low-power processors at its Intel Developer Forum, showing how the line of chips planned for a 2013 debut will be able to dramatically increase power efficiency to increase battery life on its so-called "Ultrabook" systems.

[Intel CEO Paul] Otellini also described the new class of platform power management in development for the 2013 "Haswell" products for Ultrabooks. The advances in silicon technology and platform engineering are expected to reduce idle platform power by more than 20 times over current designs without compromising computing performance. Otellini said he expects that this design change, combined with industry collaboration, will lead to more than 10 days of connected standby battery life by 2013. The advancements will aid in delivery of always-on-always-connected computing where Ultrabooks stay connected when in standby mode, keeping the e-mail, social media and digital content up-to-date.

Intel demonstrated the low-power nature of the Haswell platform by rigging up a prototype Haswell system running off a solar cell powered by light bulbs and other ambient light. Full systems based on Haswell will obviously contain many other components that will increase the power draw, but it is clear that Intel is taking power consumption seriously as it seeks to facilitate thinner and longer-running notebook systems running on a platform that can compete head-to-head with the efficiency of the ARM chips used in many smartphones and tablets today.

AnandTech reports that Intel has announced that its next-generation processor code-named Ivy Bridge will offer lower-power quad-core chips than the current generation of Sandy Bridge chips. In particular, Intel has revealed that it will introduce a 35-watt quad-core Core i7 processor.

Next year Ivy Bridge will expand the range to include a 35W quad-core Core i7 SKU. Shaving off 10W off the TDP should enable somewhat smaller notebooks to enjoy the benefits of a quad-core CPU.

As AnandTech notes, this development means that Apple could offer quad-core processors in its smallest 13" MacBook Pros.

The current 13" MacBook Pro design is limited to processors with a 35W thermal design power (TDP). The larger 15" and 17" MacBook Pro models are capable of handling higher-power processors with TDPs up to 45W. As a result, the 15" and 17" MacBook Pros are the only models that presently offer quad-core processors.

This news of lower power targets for Intel's mobile processors should come as no surprise, as Intel has admitted that it has been slow to respond to the low-power trends and has redoubled its efforts to lower the power requirements of its future CPUs. Apple may even have helped prompt the shift by threatening Intel with the potential loss of Apple's business.

While fitting a quad-core processor into the current 13" MacBook Pro will be possible with the new CPUs, Apple may take a different approach. We've long heard that Apple will be introducing a new case design for the next MacBook Pro, with many expecting it to take on thinner, more MacBook Air-like design. While Apple may choose to slim down the MacBook Pro by making the optical drive an external option and moving toward integrated solid-state storage, the company may also opt to utilize processors with lower heat requirements to design a thinner/sleeker machine rather than simply trying to boost the raw power of its low-end model.

Ever since Apple introduced its new Apple Thunderbolt Display, which should begin shipping in the very near future, users have been hoping for a product that offers the same docking station capabilities without the integrated monitor and $999 price tag.

Belkin may soon have an answer for those users, as DailyTech notes that the company is using this week's Intel Developer Forum to show off a new docking station offering essentially the exact same connectivity as found on the back of Apple's new display.

The Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock features three USB ports, a Thunderbolt port for daisy chaining, a Firewire port, and a GbE port. This is basically the same port setup that’s found on the new 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display.

For Apple users looking for expanded port offerings via the Thunderbolt port and don’t want to pay $999 for the functionality, the Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock will come in handy.

Unfortunately, there is no word yet on pricing or a launch date for the docking station, so users will have to wait for Belkin to release more details.

Microsoft today officially unveiled its next-generation Windows 8 operating system, detailing how the company has "reimagined" the software to allow a single operating system to run on a variety of systems from tablets to desktops and Intel to ARM. The company's new "Metro" user interface emphasizes touch-centered input and full-screen apps much like the iPad, but also supports full mouse and keyboard input with the familiar underpinnings of earlier Windows versions.

Perhaps most notable for Apple observers is Microsoft's tablet effort with Windows 8, marking yet another significant effort to unseat Apple's iPad from its dominating position atop the tablet market. This is my next offers a hands-on look at Windows 8 running on a prototype Intel-powered tablet device from Samsung, sharing a number of details about the functionality of the operating system. But while Microsoft acknowledges that Windows 8 is a work in progress, the current tablet implementation appears to be a somewhat rough integration of the Metro touch experience with more traditional desktop computing. The report summarizes Windows 8 for tablets as follows:

There’s a lot to digest here, and we’ve barely scraped the surface of Windows 8, so we’re sure our impressions will change over time… much as the OS will hopefully congeal later in the development cycle. If we’re going to be totally honest though, we’d describe Windows 8 right now as incoherent and contradictory. Touch response in the Metro UI is stellar, Contracts sound seriously useful, and snapping apps can make you more productive on a tablet, but whenever you want to get down and dirty with a traditional program, it’s back to the traditional desktop interface. There are two Control Panels, two versions of IE, and core apps are nowhere to be found (i.e. Mail, a camera app, etc.) Meanwhile, if you want to do anything with the desktop interface (save things you’ve actually planted on your desktop) you’ll probably find yourself thrown back to Metro since the traditional Start menu is gone. The whole user experience feels schizophrenic, with users having to jump back and forth between the two paradigms, each of which seem like they might be better off on their own. Still, as the title of the Microsoft show suggests, this is very much a work in progress and the apps and the tools are, well, still being built.

Questions also remain about architecture support, with the Intel-powered tablet running Windows 8 serving as a capable device but missing the benefits of ARM-based systems such as power efficiency. Microsoft promises that ARM support is an important component to the Windows 8 strategy, but the company is not yet able to offer hands-on time with such devices.

Powered by a 1.6GHz Core i5-2467M processor and a 64GB solid state drive, the system is absolutely no slouch on performance — everything from scrolling in the browser to the Start screen is extremely speedy and the system boots incredibly quickly. However, fan noise is very noticeable, as is the heat coming out of the top vent, and a fast boot doesn’t excuse the slow wake-up times compared to ARM-based cellphones and tablets.

It’s for these reasons we were pretty disappointed to see the tablet running on x86 architecture, with only a token gesture to ARM during our session, but VP of Windows Planning Mike Angiulo assured us that the progress on ARM is coming along quite nicely. He maintains they wanted developers to have top-notch hardware that was capable of running multiple instances, and thus went with the Core i5 hardware.

A developer preview version of Windows 8 will be available for download later today.

A source connected to Apple's AppleCare customer service call centers has reportedly indicated to AppleInsider that the company is expecting a large influx of iOS-related support calls beginning Monday, October 10th, potentially signaling a release of iOS 5 to current users on that date.

For instance, one person familiar with the matter said his local AppleCare call center has been told to expect an eightfold increase in customer calls on that day, and that staff are being advised ahead of time for the increased traffic.

The person could not say with any certainty what will be released on that Monday, but noted that the increase in call volume is related to iOS. This led them to speculate that Apple could release iOS 5 and iCloud on Oct. 10.

Apple has in the past released iOS major updates a few days ahead of the new hardware running the operating system, spreading out demand for support services.

- 2008: iPhone OS 2.0 and iPhone 3G both released on July 11th
- 2009: iPhone OS 3.0 released on June 17th, iPhone 3GS released on June 19th
- 2010: iOS 4.0 released on June 21st, iPhone 4 released on June 24th

A planned October 10th debut of iOS 5 for existing hardware lines up nicely with current rumors of Apple shooting for October 5th for final carrier certification of the new operating system and a "mid-October" release of the new hardware, perhaps at the end of that week.