MacRumors

With Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Steve Jobs set for release next Monday, tidbits from the book have been surfacing from time to time. But the most significant revelations to become public ahead of the book's launch will come on Sunday, when an interview with Isaacson airs on the CBS show 60 Minutes. CBS is offering a brief preview of the segment, which will reveal that Jobs regretted an early decision to delay surgery for his pancreatic cancer back in 2004.

"I've asked [Jobs why he didn't get an operation then] and he said, 'I didn't want my body to be opened...I didn't want to be violated in that way,'" Isaacson recalls. So he waited nine months, while his wife and others urged him to do it, before getting the operation, reveals Isaacson. Asked by [60 Minutes correspondent Steve] Kroft how such an intelligent man could make such a seemingly stupid decision, Isaacson replies, "I think that he kind of felt that if you ignore something, if you don't want something to exist, you can have magical thinking...we talked about this a lot," he tells Kroft. "He wanted to talk about it, how he regretted it....I think he felt he should have been operated on sooner."

Isaacson goes on to note that Jobs continued to receive cancer treatments after his surgery, even as he was playing down the seriousness of the issue and telling people that he had been cured. By the time of his surgery, the cancer had already spread beyond his pancreas to the surrounding tissues, suggesting that earlier surgery that could have caught the cancer before it spread might have given Jobs a much better chance.

Isaacson's interview, which will air on the 60 Minutes episode beginning at 7:00 PM Eastern Time Sunday on CBS, offers a number of other tidbits from Jobs' life, including his views on death and the effect of extreme wealth on some of Apple's early employees, a perspective that shaped how he dealt with his own wealth.

Setting aside the claim of analysts that Apple "missed" earnings last quarter, Apple sold record numbers of Macs (4.9 million) and iPads (11.1 million). During a conference call with analysts earlier this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked about "cannibalization" -- the thought that increased sales of one type of product will impact sales of another. In this case, will iPad sales negatively affect Macintosh sales?

I do believe that we're seeing cannibalization. I think that it's showing up in 2 ways. I think that some people are electing to buy an iPad rather than a Mac. However, I believe a materially larger number of people are electing to buy an iPad instead of a Windows-based PC. And so I think we are overwhelmingly coming out very, very well in that cannibalization question. And I would point out that despite that, the Mac had its best quarter by far ever last quarter. And so even with having the best quarter on iPad with some cannibalizations in Mac, the Mac has its best quarter ever, which is almost unbelievable. And so with cannibalization like this, I hope it continues.*

Cook believes that the iPad is cannibalizing the PC market, and to a limited extent, the Macintosh as well. However, with both iPad and Mac breaking sales records, things are good so far as Apple is concerned.

There is no doubt that the Macintosh is a premium computer offering, with the most inexpensive full-featured Mac being the $999 11" MacBook Air (the Mac Mini does start at $599 but needs an additional keyboard, mouse and display to work). For the first three calendar quarters of 2011, the average selling price (ASP) of all Macs, both notebook and desktop, was $1297.75. This is more than double the ASP of a generic Windows PC. For that same time period, January through September of this year, the average selling price of a Windows PC at U.S. retail was $491, according to NPD's Retail Tracking Service**.

In October 2008, long before the iPad made its debut, then Apple CEO Steve Jobs said this:

There are some customers which we chose not to serve. We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that. But we can continue to deliver greater and greater value to those customers that we choose to serve. And there’s a lot of them. We’ve seen great success by focusing on certain segments of the market and not trying to be everything to everybody. So I think you can expect us to stick with that winning strategy and continue to try to add more and more value to those products in those customer bases we choose to serve.

But these days, Apple does make a $500 computer -- the iPad. The least expensive iPad is $499, precisely the price point Jobs claimed Apple couldn't make a computer that wasn't "a piece of junk." In fact, the iPad ASP for the first three calendar quarters of 2011 was $628, more than $130 higher than the average Windows PC. Perhaps even more incredible is that Apple's smartphone offering, the iPhone, had an ASP of $653 over the same period.

All three of Apple's most profitable product categories -- the Mac, the iPhone, and the iPad -- have average selling prices significantly higher than a generic Windows PC.

Analysts and other computer industry watchers typically compare Apple's computer sales with Windows PC's, assuming that comparing computers-to-computers is an apples-to-apples comparison. However, given that the ASP of the typical Windows PC in the US is less than ASP of all Apple's major products, perhaps a better comparison -- from a financial perspective -- is to add the sales numbers for iPhone, iPad, and Mac together.

The combined average selling price of the Mac and iPad -- Apple's most "computeresque" offerings -- is $852 for the first 9 months of 2011. When the iPhone is added to that, the combined ASP of Apple's three most popular products is $733, nearly 50 percent higher than average selling price of a Windows PC sold at U.S. retail.

In just 9 months, Apple sold 12.6 million Macs, 25.1 million iPads, and 56.1 million iPhones -- 93.7 million units for total sales of $68.7 billion dollars.

*Tim Cook quote via Seeking Alpha transcript

**The average selling price for a Windows PC sold at U.S. retail (for the first three quarters of 2011) was $491 based on NPD's Retail Tracking Service. The Apple ASPs used in this article are calculated from Apple's earnings reports, which are not broken out by country. This should be considered when comparing NPD's U.S. Retail numbers to Apple's worldwide numbers.

As noted by Tom's Hardware, Intel announced during its earnings conference call this week that its Ivy Bridge platform has entered volume production, with the company expecting to begin deliveries to computer manufacturers by the second half of this quarter. It will, however, take some time for Ivy Bridge to make its way into shipping products, with Intel's partners shooting for a Spring 2012 debut.

CEO Paul Otellini confirmed that Ivy Bridge 22 nm processor volume production has already begun, which is a rather significant achievement as there have been apparently no major hiccups in the implementation of its 3D transistor technology. There has always been the question how Intel defines "volume", but vice president Mooly Eden told me years ago that Intel would only consider a production process volume production if it affects "millions" of processors.

Intel had previously outlined its Ivy Bridge roadmap as targeting a launch for the first half of 2012, and so the latest news confirming that the company is on track with its new 3-D transistor technology bodes well for an on-time launch.

Ivy Bridge will offer a number of benefits for Apple's notebook lines, opening up the door to quad-core processors in the 13-inch MacBook Pro and bringing significantly faster graphics and new OpenCL capabilities to the MacBook Air. Ivy Bridge will also support ultra high resolution displays and Intel has committed to Thunderbolt support alongside USB 3.0 in the platform.

A minor refresh to Apple's MacBook Pro line is expected any time now, with the update set to carry the line through until Ivy Bridge is ready.

Just one quarter after it took the title of world's largest smartphone manufacturer, Apple has apparently been dethroned by Samsung, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Samsung Electronics Co. shipped more than 20 million smartphones in the quarter ended Sept. 30, a person familiar with the situation said Thursday, beating market leader Apple Inc. as well as Nokia Corp., the world's biggest cellphone maker by volume.

The South Korean company benefited from a push into the high end; demand is robust for phones that consumers can use to watch videos, download movies and send email. The company is also taking advantage of the popularity of Google Inc.'s Android operating system, while also stepping up production in Europe of phones using its own software and software from Microsoft Corp.

The comparison is a bit fuzzy as Samsung earlier this year halted public disclosure of its smartphone sales numbers, forcing observers to rely on unofficial sources and industry analysis.

Several observers have also noted that Samsung's number refers to shipments while Apple's refers to sales, although those metrics may not be vastly different. Apple's "sales" numbers actually refer to sales into the distribution channel rather than end users, and Apple noted during its earnings conference call that channel inventory had declined by 180,000 units quarter-to-quarter. That decline meant that actually sold approximately 17.25 million units to end users, compared to 17.07 million units delivered into the channel.

With Samsung apparently pushing over 20 million units into the channel last quarter, the company would have had to have significantly increased its channel inventory of devices still on store shelves in order to have not surpassed Apple even in sales to end users. Unlike the tablet market where Apple's competitors have flooded the market with shipments that have not been sold to end users, the smartphone market is established enough that channel inventories should be relatively stable and sell-through numbers should be relatively close to sell-in numbers.

AllThingsD reports on IHS iSuppli's teardown analysis of the iPhone 4S, with an eye toward estimating the cost of components included in the device. Based on iSuppli's analysis, the 16 GB iPhone 4S carries a bill of materials cost of about $188, in line with that of the GSM iPhone 4 at launch.

In the case of the iPhone 4S, [IHS iSuppli analyst Andrew] Rassweiler estimates that the BOM cost ranges from $188 for the 16 gigabyte version of the iPhone 4S to $207 for the 32GB version and $245 for the 64GB version. Apple and its carrier partners sell the phones for $199, $299 and $399 respectively, typically with a two-year contract for wireless service that carriers use to subsidize the cost they pay Apple.

While we've already seen a couple of iPhone 4S teardowns from iFixit and Chipworks, IHS iSuppli highlights a few new items of note.

- A noise cancellation chip from Audience that had been included in the iPhone 4 is not found in the iPhone 4S, suggesting that the noise cancellation functions may have been incorporated directly into the main A5 system-on-a-chip. IHS iSuppli estimates that the A5 chip, which continues to be manufactured by Samsung, costs Apple about $15.

- While iFixit found Toshiba flash memory in its iPhone 4S unit, IHS iSuppli expressed some surprise at finding Hynix memory in its unit. Apple has, however, sourced flash memory for various devices from Hynix for many years, although the company's products have apparently not been seen in recent iPhone models. But with flash memory being a relative commodity in the hardware market, Apple typically sources the chips from a variety of vendors based on pricing and volume requirements.

- IHS iSuppli was unable to determine the manufacturer of the iPhone 4S camera module, as the part contained no identifying information printed on it. Chipworks had determined in its teardown that the camera sensor was made by Sony, but it is unclear if Sony is splitting sensor production loads with Apple's longtime partner OmniVision. Regardless, IHS iSuppli estimates the cost of the camera module at $17.60.

Component costs for Apple's entry-level iPhones have typically come in between $170 and $190, offering the company a hefty margin when the $199 purchase price and extensive carrier subsidies are accounted for. But it is important to note that bill of materials cost estimates account only for the cost of the individual hardware components used in the device. The estimates do not include other costs involved in product development, manufacturing, and sales, such as research and development, software, patent licenses, marketing, and distribution expenditures.

AT&T today announced that it has surpassed one million iPhone 4S activations since the device launched last Friday, the most successful iPhone launch in the carrier's history despite the device also being available on Verizon and Sprint for the first time at launch.

AT&T touts its network speed as one of the primary reasons customers are choosing the carrier over Verizon and Sprint.

AT&T was the first carrier in the world to launch iPhone in 2007 and is the only U.S. carrier to support iPhone 4S with 4G speeds.

“It’s no surprise that customers are clamoring for iPhone 4S and they want it to run on a network that lets them download twice as fast as competitors’,” said Ralph de la Vega, President and CEO, AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets.

Apple announced earlier this week that iPhone 4S sales had topped four million units over the opening weekend across all carriers in its seven launch countries. The iPhone 4S is scheduled to come to 22 more countries at the end of next week.

As we noted earlier today, Apple updated its Steve Jobs memorial site with remembrances of the company co-founder and CEO ahead of today's private celebration of Jobs' life held on Apple's campus in Cupertino, California. While the private event is closed to the media and the public, those in attendance have been sharing some details on the event and their thoughts, with many expressing the feeling that they are finally feeling a sense of closure with the event.

Twitter seems to be the medium of choice for attendees to share their experiences, and we've collected a few of the comments we've spotted there.

@tylerstone:

Wonderful speech by Tim. Wonderful speech by Bill Campbell. Wonderful performance by Norah Jones. This really helps bring closure.

@xtian666:

An incredible and fitting celebration. Tears, laughter and some closure. #stevejobs

@larley:

That was a really moving ceremony. Norah Jones, Coldplay, Al Gore... Got choked up when they played Steve reading "Here's to the Crazy Ones"

While Apple launched iOS 5 and iCloud last week, the company pushed back the debut of its paid iTunes Match service in the United States until the "end of October". While iTunes Match had been in beta testing with iTunes 10.5 developer releases, the feature was removed from the public release and instead folded into an iTunes 10.5.1 beta that will presumably debut alongside the service.

Apple appears to be moving closer to a launch of iTunes Match in the United States, as the Music section of the Settings app in iOS 5 has now gained a toggle for turning iTunes Match on and off. That toggle had been present for developers testing the service, but had disappeared in recent days for many developers. The toggle now appears to have returned for developers and is visible to the general public as well.

Non-developers turning on iTunes Match on their devices will not yet be able to sign up for the $24.99/year service, as iOS 5 pops up an alert instructing users to sign up through iTunes.

With iTunes 10.5.1 not yet available to the general public, signups for iTunes Match are similarly not yet functional. Apple is, however, advertising the service as "coming soon" on the front page of the iTunes Store. Interestingly, iTunes Match is reportedly only launching in the United States by the end of the month with other countries set to come later, but Apple is optimistic enough about the service's international timeline that the "coming soon" flag is showing for users in a number of other countries. So far today we have received reports of the "coming soon" flag from users in Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

iTunes Match will allow users to have their music libraries matched to Apple's database of over 20 million tracks in the iTunes Store, making those songs available for use on any iCloud-enabled device associated with the user's accounts. Songs not available in the iTunes Store can be uploaded to Apple's servers and also made available across devices.

PCMag.com points to comments from Masayoshi Son, CEO of Japanese carrier Softbank, revealing that Steve Jobs continued to work on Apple's "next product" at least up until the day before he died earlier this month. According to Son, Tim Cook cut short a meeting with Son following the iPhone 4S media event on October 4th to take a phone call from Jobs.

Son said, "I visited Apple for the announcement of the iPhone 4S [at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California]. When I was having a meeting with Tim Cook, he said, 'Oh Masa, sorry I have to quit our meeting.' I said, 'Where are you going?' He said, 'My boss is calling me.' That was the day of the announcement of the iPhone 4S. He said that Steve is calling me because he wants to talk about their next product. And the next day, he died."

Son, speaking in a public interview with U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos last weekend, went on to express admiration for Jobs, citing his dedication until the end as evidence for his incredible spirit and passion.

Son did not disclose what product it was that Jobs and Cook talked about, although he had previously mentioned that Jobs was intimately involved in plans for the next-generation iPhone that Apple is already working on. Jobs would obviously also have had input into other devices such as the iPad 3 that will make an appearance before the next iPhone, and he is said to have left Apple's pipeline with four years' worth of products that the company will use to plot its future.

Last month, we noted as part of a report on an update to the anti-malware tools in OS X that a new trojan horse threat known as Flashback.A had surfaced, with the malware masquerading as a Flash Player installer. While Apple has continued to update its XProtect.plist to detect Flashback.A, security firm F-Secure now reports (via ZDNet) that a revised version of the trojan which disables the auto-updating feature of Apple's anti-malware tools has appeared.

There's something new brewing in Mac malware development (again).

Recent analysis has revealed to us that Trojan-Downloader:OSX/Flashback.C disables the automatic updater component of XProtect, Apple's built-in OS X anti-malware application.

The report walks through how the modified trojan overwrites XProtectUpdater files, preventing infected systems from performing their daily check for updated malware definitions and thus keeping the door open for future attacks.

The Flashback.C trojan is capable of connecting to a remote host in order to download and execute further code, but it is unclear what the exploit is being used for at this time. Users are of course advised to download Flash Player and other software from trusted sources so as to avoid infecting their systems with trojans such as Flashback.C.

Update: MacRumors has heard and Sophos has confirmed that Apple had already updated its XProtect.plist entries to detect Flashback.C by the time news of it broke to the public. Consequently, users encountering the malware on Mac OS X Snow Leopard or OS X Lion should be automatically warned of the threat prior to mounting the package.

Apple yesterday quietly updated its iPhone 4S tech specs page to note that the device offers not only Assisted GPS but also GLONASS, the Russian version of GPS.

Just two weeks ago, Russia launched the last of 24 satellites required for global location coverage, setting the stage to restore GLONASS to its full operational status that had been lost amid economic turmoil in the country during the late 1990s.

Far from being a Russia-only service, some current global positioning hardware and software is capable of utilizing both GPS and GLONASS satellite information to provide more accurate geolocation information with faster acquisition times. We have reached out to Apple for comment on whether the iPhone 4S can in fact take advantage of satellites from both systems on a worldwide basis, as it is unclear from the tech specs whether this is the case, but have yet to receive a response.

Notably, only the tech specs page on the U.S. site has been updated to mention GLONASS capabilities, with the corresponding page in other iPhone 4S launch countries still listing only Assisted GPS as the device's satellite location service.

(Thanks, Jesse Perry!)

While Sprint made waves in becoming the third U.S. carrier to offer the iPhone with the launch of the iPhone 4S, it appears that Apple will be broadening distribution even further to include smaller carriers as well. Regional carrier C Spire Wireless, formerly known as Cellular South, today announced that it will begin offering the iPhone 4S in the coming weeks.

C Spire Wireless announced today that it will launch iPhone 4S, the most amazing iPhone yet, in the U.S. in the coming weeks.

For further information or to register interest, please visit www.cspire.com/iphone. For more information on iPhone 4S, please visit www.apple.com/iphone.

C Spire, which operates a CDMA cellular network like Verizon and Sprint, is the largest private wireless telecommunications provider in the United States with approximately 875,000 customers. While C Spire's subscriber base pales in comparison to those of AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, the carrier's offering of the iPhone 4S signals a distinct shift by Apple to open up the iPhone to even more customers by reaching agreements with smaller carriers.

C Spire Wireless is based in Ridgeland, Mississippi and focuses its service on Mississippi, parts of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, and the Memphis, Tennessee and Rome, Georgia areas.

Amid an ever-increasing intellectual property dispute involving Apple's mobile devices and Samsung's Android-based hardware products, rumors have claimed that Apple has been seeking to reduce its reliance on Samsung as the major component supplier for iOS devices. But even if Apple does switch to new suppliers for some components, such as TSMC for future A-series chips, Samsung will almost certainly continue to play a role in Apple's mobile hardware designs.

As reported by Yonhap News, Apple and Samsung are indeed exploring long-term component supply relationships, plans advanced in part by discussions earlier this week between Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung Chief Operating Officer Lee Jae-yong.

Lee Jae-yong, chief operating officer (COO) of Samsung Electronics said Wednesday he had discussed long-term parts cooperation arrangements with Apple Inc.'s chief Tim Cook.

The meeting took place Monday after Lee attended a memorial service for Steve Jobs, Apple's late co-founder, and as Samsung and Apple remain locked in fierce legal disputes to control the global smartphone and tablet computer markets.

Lee noted that Samsung and Apple are locked into supply agreements for 2012 and are exploring how to push technology forward through the 2013–2014 timeframe.

Upon arriving at a Seoul airport, Lee, the only son of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee and heir apparent to South Korea's largest family-owned business group, told reporters his company will continue to sell parts to Apple until 2012. Apple is one of Samsung's most important buyers and single largest semiconductor customer.

"For the 2013-2014 period, we discussed how best to supply even better parts," he said, adding that during the more than two-hour meeting, the businessmen touched on past challenges and how to promote good relations in the future.

Apple has been keen to lock in long-term supply commitments with component suppliers, sometimes prepaying billions of dollars in advance to secure massive supplies looking over several years. Apple's strategy gives it leverage in supply negotiations, helps fend off competitors seeking to source components for their own devices, and results in partnerships to push technology forward.

Lee declined to specifically discuss whether any progress was made Monday on patching up the relationship between the two companies, which are both in the tenuous position of relying on the other in component contracts even as they wage fierce battles in courts around the world. Samsung noted last month that it had been relatively "passive" in the legal dispute out of respect for the company's supply relationship with Apple, but that it would be stepping up its attacks on Apple for "free riding" on Samsung's intellectual property.

Apple has updated their Steve Jobs page on their site to reflect many memories, thoughts and feelings that people have submitted about Steve Jobs since his passing.

Over a million people from all over the world have shared their memories, thoughts, and feelings about Steve. One thing they all have in common — from personal friends to colleagues to owners of Apple products — is how they’ve been touched by his passion and creativity. You can view some of these messages below.

And share your own at rememberingsteve@apple.com

Apple reports that over a million people have already shared their thoughts. The company is still soliciting thoughts by email.

Steve Jobs has seen an outpouring of support and tributes since his passing on October 5th. Apple Stores around the world have turned into makeshift memorials as fans have left flowers and notes in his memory.

Jobs was 56 years old, and had been struggling with complications related to pancreatic cancer over the past several years. Apple will be holding a privatecompany wide celebration of Steve Jobs' life on Wednesday, October 19th. The event will take place on Apple's campus in Cupertino. Apple Retail stores will be closed for several hours during the event so that employees may view a live webcast of the service.

It's a frequent parlor game amongst Apple analysts and watchers to guess and suggest and hypothesize what Apple should do with its huge and growing cash reserves. As of September 24, 2011, Apple is sitting on $81.57 billion in cash. Apple added $5.4 billion to its cash reserves in the last 3 months, and that would have been significantly higher if, as Horace Dediu points out, not for the more than 6,000 Nortel patents Apple purchased the rights to.

To be more precise, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer oversees $9.815 billion in cash and cash equivalents, $16.137 billion in short-term marketable securities, and $55.618 billion in long-term marketable securities. In the earnings call with analysts this afternoon, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the cash wasn't "burning a hole in our pocket" and that the company invested very conservatively and didn't want to do "silly things" with the money.

Cook noted that in recent months Apple had acquired several companies, acquired intellectual property, invested in the supply chain, and invested in new stores. In his first comments as CEO about the cash pile Cook said he wasn't "religious about holding or not holding cash," but Apple would continually ask ourselves what is in Apple's best interest and act accordingly.

"It's a topic for the board on an ongoing basis and we will continue to discuss it," Cook said in response to an analyst question. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer jumped in after Cook was finished answering the question, to point out that more than two-thirds of Apple's $81 billion cash pile was sitting offshore.

The question of offshore cash is an important one, as explained by Reuters:

The U.S. government taxes U.S. businesses on income earned worldwide, but allows them to defer taxes on the money until it is brought back to the United States. As a result, American corporations like to keep the money abroad, particularly as they increase investment overseas.

A number of companies, led by Apple, Google and Cisco have been pushing for a tax holiday on overseas cash holdings to allow the companies to repatriate the money to the United States tax-free.