MacRumors

Just as it did last quarter, Apple appears to have once again demonstrated year-over-year Mac sales growth for the first quarter of 2011 while the rest of the industry has been mired in a slump reportedly due in no small part to a shift in consumer interest to new media tablets dominated by Apple's iPad. The data comes from research firms Gartner and IDC.

According to Gartner's report, Apple once again checked in in fifth place in the U.S. market, grabbing a 9.3% share that marks a significant rise from a 7.3% share in the prior-year quarter. The number is down slightly, however, from a 9.7% share in the previous quarter and marks the second consecutive decline in Mac sales share, although Apple's market share does tend toward cyclical fluctuations that have led the company's share to still be significantly higher than it was in the first quarter of 2010.

"Weak demand for consumer PCs was the biggest inhibitor of growth," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "Low prices for consumer PCs, which had long stimulated growth, no longer attracted buyers. Instead, consumers turned their attention to media tablets and other consumer electronics. With the launch of the iPad 2 in February, more consumers either switched to buying an alternative device, or simply held back from buying PCs. We're investigating whether this trend is likely to have a long-term effect on the PC market."

Gartner's report pegged Apple's year-over-year unit growth in the United States at 18.9%, outpacing fourth-place Toshiba's 10.9% growth as all other top manufacturers saw declines that led to an overall decline of 6.1% in the U.S. PC market.

IDC's report tells a somewhat similar story, although that firm pegs Apple's year-over-year unit growth in the U.S. at only 9.6%, behind that of Toshiba at 10.4%. But IDC also sees a much steeper drop-off for Acer than Gartner sees, with IDC showing a 42% drop in unit sales that bumps Acer down from third place to fifth place and allows Apple to rise to fourth place with 8.5% of the market.

As usual, neither Gartner nor IDC covered Apple's worldwide performance for the quarter, as the company does not rank in the top five by global shipments. Both reports did, however, record year-over-year declines in the worldwide market similar to those seen for the United States, with Gartner seeing a 1.1% decline in sales while IDC tracked a 3.2% drop.

Panic developer Cabel Sasser noticed a strange bug in the iTunes App Store this evening. As part of the hardware requirements on several new apps, a placeholder name "ix.Mac.MarketingName" has appeared on several apps' iTunes listings.

The listing appears on Panic's new universal SSH client for iOS called Prompt [App Store] which appeared in the App Store this evening as well as many other Universal apps in the App Store.

It's clearly a glitch that will be corrected quickly, but it's led some to speculate that it's a placeholder for another unknown device.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has added a "do-not-track" privacy tool to the latest test version of their web browser Safari found in Mac OS X Lion.

The tool is included within the latest test release of Lion, a version of Apple's Mac OS X operating system that is currently available only to developers. The final version of the operating system is scheduled to be released to the public this summer. Mentions of the do-not-track feature in Apple's Safari browser began to appear recently in online discussion forums and on Twitter.

Mac OS X Lion is currently in private developer seeding and is due to the public later this summer.

This "do-not-track" feature was originally proposed by the FTC and is a voluntary system in which web browsers broadcast this "do-not-track" preference but its up to advertising companies to actually comply with the request.

Do-not-track tools in browsers automatically send out messages to websites and online-advertising networks requesting that users' movements around the Web not be tracked. The system will only work if Web companies agree to respect peoples' tracking preferences.

According to the WSJ, major online ad networks have yet to agree on how to honor the system.

Apple's Safari is the 3rd major browser to support this initiative, following Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox. Google's Chrome has yet to commit support to the feature.

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple will finally deliver the white iPhone 4 by the end of April after a 10 month wait.

The new version will be available from AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless by the end of April, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren't public. The release was stalled as Apple resolved manufacturing challenges, including paint that peeled under heat, one person said.

Bloomberg's sources reveal that the issue that had caused the delay involved the white paint peeling under heat. After the initial delays, Apple had said the white iPhone would ship by Spring 2011. The new model may help boost sales of the iPhone 4 which has been on the market since June of 2010. Bloomberg also confirms previous reports that Apple is not planning on introducing a new iPhone at WWDC, possibly waiting until later this year to introduce the iPhone 5.

Update: Reuters offers a similar update, claiming that the Apple has begun production on a white iPhone that will be released "within a month".

Suppliers to Apple Inc have begun production of white iPhones after a delay of almost 10 months, pointing to a launch date of within a month, two people familiar with the situation said on Thursday.

Update 2: According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple has confirmed that the white iPhone delays are nearly over and reiterates its previous position that the device will be launched this spring.

Apple Inc. said Thursday that delays keeping the white iPhone from store shelves are nearly ended and that the device is on track for spring release, reiterating the projection that the company made in October.

Apple declined to comment about which carrier would initially carry the white iPhone 4.

While unofficial video of yesterday's Final Cut Pro X sneak peek has already surfaced, prominent trainer and consultant Larry Jordan has also posted an excellent overview, entitled "The Sound of 1,700 Jaws Dropping", describing the overhaul for Apple's professional-level video editing package.

The new Final Cut Pro is a bold move - a totally redesigned interface, 64-bit memory addressing, multi-processor support, tight integration of metadata in the project file with metadata stored in the clip not just in the project, heavy use of automation to simplify tedious tasks, and a rethinking of the entire concept of what it means to edit.

I can't think of any other company that could so totally redefine what a non-linear video editor is than Apple. Since the release of Final Cut Pro 1, each version of FCP has contained incremental improvements. This is a complete restatement at every possible level.

As Phil Schiller, senior VP for world-wide marketing for Apple told me after the presentation, "This is a total rethinking of how we tell stories visually."

Apple has yet to update its website with any information on the new Final Cut Pro, and may not do so for some time yet given that the event was an early demo of the software and not an official launch, but many of the features detailed in the demo have already been noted in our coverage of the event.

Jordan reports, however, that the Final Cut Pro X build used in the demo was in fact an old one that had been used in February for a small invitation-only preview on Apple's campus and that many more improvements have been made since that time.

While the slide show was identical to the February meeting, the demo was not. Randy Ubillos, who did the demo, added more features and additional explanations on effects (see the screen shot above). However, I was told later that the build that was demoed was the same build that was shown in February - and that the application has moved significantly forward since that time.

In other words, what we saw tonight was nowhere near the final form of the application.

And just as we noted Apple's comments to The Loop last night suggesting that Apple will share more information on the other components of Final Cut Studio in due time, Jordan reports that despite drawing heavily on many of those components for Final Cut Pro X itself, Apple indeed says that there is more to come.

After the presentation, I spoke with Richard Townhill, Director of Pro Video Product Marketing for Apple (who served as the host for Apple's presentation) who told me that "the purpose of today is to focus exclusively on Final Cut Pro, highlight some of the new features, and give people a chance to see and comment on the new interface. We will have much more to say about both Final Cut and our other applications in the future."

Final Cut has been rewritten from the ground up and borrows a lot from other siblings in the suite. The audio cleanup and processing borrows heavily from Soundtrack Pro, primary and secondary color correction tools are taken from Color (see the screen shot below), and some of the motion effects techniques are taken from Motion.

However, this does not mean these other applications are dead - simply that Apple is not talking about them... yet.

Final Cut Pro X is set to launch in June and will be priced at $299.

As relayed by AppleInsider, Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White has issued a new research note discussing the possibility of Apple releasing a "Smart TV" as soon as later this year. White's speculation comes from "data points" picked up at a Chinese electronics trade show being held this week.

"Our research suggests this Smart TV would go well beyond the miniature $99 second-generation Apple TV that the company released last fall and provide a full-blown TV product for consumers," White said.

He went on to say that although Apple has long been projected by company watchers to enter the HDTV market, the Mac maker now appears to be "moving down this pace at a faster pace than the market expected."

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has been the most vocal proponent of the idea of an Apple-branded television set integrating iTunes-focused video subscription services, but even Munster has typically seen such a release happening a bit further down the road than pegged in White's new claims.

Apple executives have said in the past that the company has no interest in the television market given slim profit margins and an already-crowded field, but Munster has remained steadfast in his belief that Apple does have plans for this market, and White now appears to be joining him.

As noted in our forums, YouTube user machineurs has posted a pair of videos (1, 2) showing most of yesterday's Final Cut Pro X sneak peek. The introduction took place at the Final Cut Pro User Group Network SuperMeet held in conjunction with the National Association of Broadcasters' NAB Show 2011 in Las Vegas.

While the videos are not the professionally-produced broadcasts created by Apple for its higher-profile media events, they are of fairly high quality with consistent views of the slides and action on stage and solid audio quality.

Final Cut Pro X is set to launch in June and will be available through the Mac App Store for $299. Information on new versions of the other applications in the Final Cut Studio suite will be released in the future.

DigiTimes reports that touch panel suppliers for Apple's iPhone continue to dedicate their capacity to the existing iPhone 4 with no timeline for shifting production to a fifth-generation model, lending credence to claims that Apple will not introduce a new iPhone at its Worldwide Developers Conference in early June but still leaving open the question of when users can expect such a debut.

Apple has not yet released a production roadmap for iPhone 5 as shipment volumes of iPhone 4 have continued to mount and related suppliers are not yet ready to shift their production lines for new products, according to sources at Taiwan-based touch panel makers. … While acknowledging there should be a roadmap for each generation of products, the sources insisted that touch panel shipments for iPhone 4 have remained steady, and that they have not seen a timetable to stop current production in preparation for the next-generation of iPhone.

Increasing numbers of claims are pointing to a new iPhone roughly in the September timeframe, with recent speculation citing Apple's annual September media event traditionally focused on iPods for a potential iPhone introduction.

IDG News reports that Intel has announced that it will release developer kits for Thunderbolt, its new high-speed data connection standard, sometime this quarter, accelerating deployment of the standard that so far has been limited to Apple's new MacBook Pro and a small handful of peripherals companies.

Intel is already working with some partners to develop products as it tries to build out an ecosystem around the interconnect. LaCie and Western Digital have already demonstrated portable storage products, but are not yet selling devices. Companies including Canon have announced support for Thunderbolt, and products from AJA, BlackMagic, Matrox and Sonnet are being shown at the NAB trade show, which is going on in Las Vegas through April 14.

According to the report, Sony is also firmly behind the standard but has yet to announce plans for bringing it to its products. Other computer manufacturers such as HP are continuing to evaluate Thunderbolt before committing to it.

High-speed data transfer protocols such as Thunderbolt are of course key for moving large files quickly, meaning that the standard will likely play an integral role as power users gear up with the latest hardware and look to deploy such cutting edge software as Apple's forthcoming Final Cut Pro X.

The rumors were true. Apple did take over the on-stage portion of this year's Final Cut Pro User Group SuperMeet and used the venue to present the next version of Final Cut Pro. The new version of Final Cut Pro has been renamed to "Final Cut Pro X" and is described as a complete rewrite of the original application.

For a detailed list of new changes see our keynote coverage or see PhotographyBay for their play-by-play.

Final Cut Pro X will be a 64-bit application with Grand Central Dispatch support, allowing it to scale and use all available cores for background rendering. Comments from those who watched the demos indicated that background rendering was a big feature (no more waiting) and lots of real time effects and high performance. Final Cut Pro X will be available for $299 on the App Store in June. There was no mention of Final Cut Express or the rest of the Final Cut Studio.

Update: An Apple rep told LoopInsight to stay tuned for news on the rest of the suite:

"Today was just a sneak peak of Final Cut Pro, stay tuned"

Loop Insight also managed to get a few screenshots.

The Final Cut Pro User Group Supermeet is about to kick off, and everyone seems to expect that Apple will be presenting the new version of Final Cut Pro. The event kicks off at 10pm Eastern, 7pm Pacific and has been rumored to include Apple as the main stage presenter. There has been no official confirmation of this, so hopefully everyone won't be disappointed. We'll provide updates here as we get them.

Updates

- Event started. Confirmed: Next version of Final Cut Pro to be unveiled. "Something as revolutionary as the first version of FCP when introduced in 1999." - PhotographyBay
- Current version of Final Cut Pro has an ecosystem around it. Two million users, 94% happy.
- New version will be called Final Cut X. Full rebuild from stratch. 64bit. (via @fcpsupermeet)
- Scales with core animation from a MacBook to Mac Pro. (via robimbs)

- Dynamically handle massive quantities of media, resolution independent playback. full color managed based on ColorSync. Grand Central Dispatch, using all cores and background rendering (via @reximilian, and @robimbs)
- Allows you to edit as you are importing, you don't have to wait to ingest. (via robimbs)
- Background rendering is built in. No more "writing video" dialog box (via @dbax)
- Content auto analysis, meaning it can auto detect most media and when it imports can auto image stabilize. On import it can: People Detection, Shot Detection, Auto Color Balance, Audio Cleanup (via @rexmilian)
- Automatic audio clean up on the way. Options to rid hum, rumble, etc. on the way in. Range-based keywording. You can select ranges inside your clip and apply keywords to those ranges instead of just keywording the clip. No subclipping necessary. Smart collections: Categorizes things like media types (audio, stills), how many people are in shots and how those shots are framed. Smart collections looks very iMovie-ish. (via PhotographyBay)
- Clip Connections: Audio and Video and be locked together and be one clip on a timeline (no longer a V1 and A1 A2 track). Can lock audio clips with specific video clip, so if moved on timeline they stay synched (via @reximilian)
- "Compound Clips": collapse chunks of media into a single clip on the timeline. How nesting always should have worked. (via @fcpsupermeet)

- Inline Precision Editor: click on an edit and it shows unused footage on both clips of the edit to help you trim (@rexmilian)
- the Auto Analyze will make Search Folders that know what has people in it, or CloseUps or Wide Shots.
- Tagging clips let's you tag only specific parts of the clip to tage with keyword or favorite
- Timeline Index: list of every clip on your timeline in order and let's you search by name or tag (via @reximilian)
- Automatically analysis audio and can sync audio with similar audio. Simple audio keyframing, tweaking the audio is much easier. Trimming clips, the Magnetic Timeline makes complicated edits easier.
- Instant render in the background all the time, does not at all effect editing. (@robimbs)
- Built in color matching. Match clip colors from two different cams very fast. That got BIG applause. (@comebackshane)
- @dbax)
- Shipping in June on App Store. $299.
- No mention of Final Cut Studio or Final Cut Express.

Special thanks to @reximilian, @robimbs, @dbax and @fcpsupermeet for their coverage.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky today issued a new report sharing his expectation that Apple will handily beat market expectations for its quarterly earnings report set for next week. Citing strong sales of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, as well as very strong iPad sales, Abramsky expects Apple to post revenue of $24 billion and earnings per share of $5.75 for the quarter.

The research note also included the results of a proprietary survey of over 2000 respondents in the United States conducted March 14-23, interestingly revealing 40% higher demand for the iPad 2 than in a similar survey conducted for the first-generation models in May 2010. According to the survey, 28% of respondents are either "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to purchase an iPad 2, up from 20% for the first-generation iPad last May.

The survey also demonstrates a shift in the "sweet spot" for customer demand when it comes to Wi-Fi-only models. A February 2010 survey ahead of the launch of the original iPad saw the low-end 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad registering as most popular among those planning to purchase an iPad, with the 32 GB model in second place and the 64 GB model in third place. The new survey for the iPad 2 shows that customers are finding the greatest affinity for the mid-range 32 GB model among the Wi-Fi options, followed by the 16 GB model and finally the 64 GB model. 3G-capable models follow the same trend seen in last year's survey, with those customers looking most frequently to the top-end 64 GB model.

With Apple now offering both GSM (AT&T) and CDMA (Verizon) 3G models of the iPad 2, it is also interesting to look at the balance in customer demand between the carriers. According to the new RBC survey, 46% of 3G iPad 2 customers plan to use a Verizon iPad while only 30% of customers plan to utilize AT&T's service.

As expected, Microsoft has just released Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 1. The update, which weighs in at 246.2 MB, addresses a number of bugs and security issues while also bringing several new features including a number of enhancements to Outlook.

Security updates with bug fixes also appear to be on the way for Office 2008 (12.2.9) and Office 2004 (11.6.3).

Availability of the software updates is currently sporadic, with download pages properly loading on an intermittent basis and the updates not yet showing in the AutoUpdate tool packaged with Office.

There have been some rumblings in recent weeks about Apple and manufacturing partner Foxconn making investments in Brazil to manufacture devices there in an effort at least in part designed to boost sales there by circumventing high import taxes currently assessed on the devices coming in from overseas, but according to a new report from Reuters, things seem to be firming up with Foxconn considering investing up to $12 billion in manufacturing facilities in the country.

The Brazilian government is studying Foxconn's investment plan, President Dilma Rousseff told reporters during a visit to Beijing, where she is meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

"You've got an ample range of investments that go from $300 to $400 million to $12 billion over 5 to 6 years in the case of Foxconn," Rousseff said, speaking of discussions Brazil's government is having with various technology companies.

"They're proposing a partnership. They came to us and said we want to invest in Brazil."

Aloizio Mercadente, Brazil's science and technology minister, notes that discussions with Foxconn have been in progress for three months and while they are still in progress, he is "confident" that a deal will be reached. Mercadente also reported that Foxconn is preparing to begin manufacturing the iPad in Brazil by the end of November.

Separately, Mercadente also told reporters that Foxconn is planning to begin assembling Apple's iPad tablet PC at its plants in the South American country by end-November.

Foxconn is Apple's chief manufacturing partner for its mobile devices, as well as for many of its computers. The Taiwanese company has primarily hosted its manufacturing plants in mainland China, tapping into that country's vast workforce for high-volume production of electronics. The company has, however, in recent months begun instituting plans to expand beyond its massive base in Shenzhen, China to other regions of the country and even internationally.

A number of websites have begun offering customers the ability to have their iPhones unlocked remotely for use on any network without requiring that the devices be jailbroken. As noted by prominent iPhone hacker MuscleNerd, the procedure seems to involve accessing Apple's database to directly add IMEI device identifiers for unlocking.

they're not using a hack. They're using actual access to the Apple database (which is why the unlock happens through iTunes)

Cut Your Sim was the first to gain attention for the service, charging $169.99 for a device unlock. The site does, however, appear to be working through a third party to perform the unlocking rather than performing it directly themselves. Several other sites (1, 2, 3) are offering similar services priced in the $170-$180 range. It is unclear, however, whether they are operating independently or if they are all working with the same party that has decided to offer the service to various storefronts while remaining silent behind the scenes.

Adding a device's IMEI to Apple's database for unlocked iPhones should in theory permanently unlock the device, although the company could conceivably find a way to identify those entries that had been made improperly and remove them, rendering those devices re-locked once they again sync with iTunes. Consequently, most of the sites offering unlocking services are failing to guarantee that the unlock will be permanent, although they are advertising it as such.

It goes without saying that users interested in having their iPhones unlocked without jailbreaking should be wary of small sites claiming to offer such services and should investigate the legitimacy of any offerings they are considering purchasing.

Speculation about Apple's plans for its massive new data center in North Carolina has been running rampant for quite some time, and we're always hesitant to place too much emphasis on claims of research analysts, but one report from Jefferies analyst Peter Misek is gaining some attention today for its claim that Apple may be preparing to take on Netflix in the streaming video subscription market.

Apple is on the cusp of launching a "a new far reaching cloud-based service" focused on video, writes Jefferies analyst Peter Misek in a big report this morning.

Misek says Apple will use its new massive data center in North Carolina to offer an advanced web-based video subscription product that rivals Netflix.

Last week, a report surfaced claiming that Apple had locked in as much as 12 petabytes of storage purportedly set to support video download content. While Apple has been said to be preparing to roll out a cloud-based MobileMe revamp that would allow users to store video, music, and photos on Apple's servers, Misek argues that Apple will further use the capacity to launch a Netflix-like service that would serve to further drive sales of Apple hardware.

Misek sees Apple's plans to potentially double the size of its new data center in the future as the first step towards a massive expansion of its server capacity that could see the company rolling out multiple such sites around the world in the years to come in order to support massive storage and streaming capabilities for such services.