MacRumors

Reports of tightening supplies for Apple's MacBook Pro models continue today, with one reader letting us know that he was just informed by Apple that a replacement for his faulty machine will likely not be available for 4-6 weeks, and possibly as long as 8 weeks.

The long lead time was reportedly cited for a replacement on a custom-configured MacBook Pro carrying the top-of-the-line 2.8 GHz Core i7 processor, and models with both traditional hard drives and solid state drives have been said to be subject to the same shipping timeframes.

Considering the long wait times, Apple offered the customer the option of waiting for replacement model to come available, a full refund, or a replacement with a standard configuration that would be more readily available.

Despite some hints that a MacBook Pro refresh may occur in the near future, questions have been raised about whether a design error with the chips expected to be used in the updated models would delay a potential launch. But just yesterday Intel announced that it will begin shipping the dual-core Sandy Bridge chips that would presumably appear in the MacBook Pro on February 20th, meaning that Apple could release updated machines relatively soon after.

Late last month, we noted that Toshiba had introduced new 1.8-inch hard drives topping out at 220 GB and carrying the same form factor used in the existing iPod classic. With Apple's iPod classic currently coming in at 160 GB, the capacity bump would be a substantial one if Apple elected to adopt the new drives.

With that information floating around, observers have been keeping their eyes on stock levels for the iPod classic, hoping to see some indication of a change in availability. AppleBitch has found just that information, seeing shipping estimates from Apple and other vendors slipping in recent days, primarily for the silver model.

The Apple Store shows that the silver iPod Classic now ships in 1-3 days, down from 24 hours last week. In addition, Best Buy has updated their website to say that the device is backordered for 1-2 weeks (last week it was shipped in 1 day) and Target also has it backordered for 2-4 weeks. Currently the shortage only seems to be affecting the silver colored model, the dark colored version appears relatively unaffected.

Questions remain, of course, about what this information might mean. Apple's product availability does tend to ebb and flow as the company manages its finely-tuned inventory channels, although such delays are sometimes indicative of upcoming changes to Apple's product lines.

And even if the tightening supplies do indicate a forthcoming change, it is unknown whether that change might be refreshed models carrying the new larger-capacity drives or if Apple may simply finally be discontinuing the iPod classic. The iPod classic has not been updated in nearly 18 months, and Apple CEO Jobs notably reported at the company's September 2010 iPod-focused event that Apple was introducing an "all-new" iPod lineup. That statement came even as the iPod classic remained untouched, suggesting that Apple might simply be relegating the iPod classic to the back burner and potentially phasing it out.

A pair of reports from The New York Observer and ifoAppleStore indicate that Apple is looking to open a new retail store, its fifth in Manhattan, at the landmark Grand Central Terminal. The store would reportedly be located inside the busy transportation and tourist hub and would sit less than a mile from the company's flagship Fifth Avenue store.

Apple has begun a super-secret quest for a store in historic Grand Central Terminal, potentially creating a hive of buzzing techies in the glamorous Beaux Arts landmark.

Reliable sources tell The Observer that the maker of ubiquitous iGadgets - from computers to cell phones - hopes to open a store in the transportation and retail hub, though it has yet to begin the long approval process necessary for opening in a city landmark.

ifoAppleStore notes that Apple is keen to open the store not only for its location in the historic and highly-trafficked building, but also to relieve pressure on the busy Fifth Avenue store that, despite its relatively small size, outsells the company's other three Manhattan stores combined.

Today, the terminal hosts 700,000 visitors a day, most hurrying to trains and the city's busiest subway stop. But another 250,000 visitors a day pass through the expansive Vanderbilt Hall, the station's original waiting room that is now rented out for special events.

The 134,000 square-feet of retail space includes 68 shops and 35 restaurants, some on the main concourse level surrounding Vanderbilt Hall, and others on the balcony level just below. Current major tenants include Banana Republic, Kenneth Cole and a Michael Jordan Steakhouse in about 6,000 square-feet of space each, and many other tenants in less than 1,000 square-feet. The historic Oyster Bar restaurant in on the lower level, along with a fresh food market.

Negotiations appear to still be in the early stages and will likely take quite some time to complete, but the location could provide an interesting opportunity for Apple to fit its brand into one of the most iconic transportation hubs in the world.

Market research firm IHS iSuppli yesterday released data on U.S. online movie downloads and streams for 2010, revealing that Apple continues to dominate the market with a 64.5% share of total spending. That share is down, however, from 74.4% in 2009 in the face of growth of other services such as Microsoft's Zune Video.

"The iTunes online store showed remarkable competitive resilience last year in the U.S. EST/iVOD movie business, staving off a growing field of tough challengers while keeping pace with an dramatic expansion for the overall market," said Arash Amel, research director, digital media, for IHS. "Apple faced serious competition from Microsoft's Zune Video and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation Store, as well as from Amazon and - most significantly - Wal-Mart. However, iTunes managed to grow because of the introductions of the iPad and the second-generation Apple TV, which have spurred the company's movie rental offerings and have invigorated the iTunes multi-screen ecosystem. We expect that in the United States, Apple's strong performance in iVOD will allow it to continue to bypass the video on demand services offered by many major cable operators."

iSuppli reports that the overall market grew 60% in 2010, with Microsoft riding the popularity of its Kinect controller for the Xbox 360 to late-year gains with its Zune Video offerings and Wal-Mart making significant gains with its Vudu service.

The report appears to limit data to services offering individual purchases and rentals of downloadable and on-demand streaming content, omitting subscription-based services such as Netflix that offer unlimited streaming for a flat fee.

Intel is planning on shipping the Dual-Core Sandy Bridge chips for laptops starting on February 20th, 2011.

The first Sandy Bridge processors to ship were quad-core chips, mainly for high-end laptops. The dual-core chips will likely go into end-user and ultraportable laptops, many of which were shown at last month's Consumer Electronics Show. Fujitsu said it plans to use dual-core Core i7 chips in its high-end ultraportable laptops.

The Dual-Core chips are likely upgrades for the existing MacBook Pro line which is due for updates. The Sandy-Bridge CPUs were described as the next generation replacement CPU with significantly improved integrated graphics performance and better performance/power ratios.

The remaining question is how the "design flaw" found in some of the early Sandy Bridge controllers will ultimately affect the production and availability of these new chips. The issue didn't directly affect the CPUs, but affected SATA-II connectors found on the chipsets. Like other computer manufacturers, Apple uses Intel's chipsets to interconnect their CPUs to the rest of the computer. Intel has announced that they would begin shipping fixed chipsets by mid-February.

Repair firm iFixyouri has started taking apart the Verizon iPhone and 9 to 5 Mac notes that the device carries a Qualcomm "Gobi" MDM6600 wireless chip inside it, technically offering "world-mode" compatibility with both CDMA and GSM networks. iFixit is also performing one of its usual high-quality teardowns of the Verizon iPhone and has seen the same chip.

The MDM6600 supports HSPA+ data rates of up to 14.4 Mbps, as well as CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev. A/Rev. B. Apple of course has not included a SIM-card slot in the Verizon iPhone, and thus the device can not actually be used on GSM networks.

The use of the dual-mode chip in the Verizon iPhone does, however, increase the likelihood that Apple will use a similar solution in the fifth-generation iPhone and could thus offer a single model supporting both GSM and CDMA networks.

Update: iFixit's Kyle Wiens speculates that keeping separate CDMA and GSM devices for the time being may have made it easier for Apple when it comes to antenna design given the number of frequencies involved across the standards. The Motorola Droid Pro currently uses the same Qualcomm chip to offer both CDMA and GSM compatibility.

iFixit also notes that the vibrator on the Verizon iPhone has been redesigned and moved, yielding a "quieter, softer feel" with a less-jarring noise when the device is lying on a table.

Late last month, we reported that we had received word of tightening MacBook Pro supplies, suggesting that an update to Apple's popular notebook line might be coming in the near future.

Information has continued to flow in regarding tightening supplies, with Japanese blog Mac Otakara reporting today that supplies in Japan are now pushing out to 2-3 week shipping estimates. The site also reports that the following Sandy Bridge configurations are likely for update MacBook Pros:

Core i7-2620M(2.70GHz)
Core i5-2540M(2.60GHz)
Core i5-2520M(2.50GHz)
Core i5-2410M(2.30GHz)
Core i3-2310M(2.10GHz)

Also getting attention today is a Best Buy inventory screen pointing to a March 11th in-stock date for what may be a revised version of the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro. We received word of the same database entry about ten days ago, but have little faith in its accuracy, as the company did the exact same thing in early 2010, guessing at a March 14th date for new models. The update didn't actually occur until a month after the proposed date.

The other wildcard in the MacBook Pro update situation is Intel's "design error" that has forced the company to fix its manufacturing process for one of the chips in the chipset being used the Sandy Bridge processors presumably destined for the next-generation MacBook Pros and iMacs. A delay in availability of Sandy Bridge chipsets could easily push back MacBook Pro updates from Apple's original target date and result in an extended period of tight supplies of the current models.

Research firm IDC has released the results of its survey of worldwide smartphone sales for the fourth quarter of 2010, finding Apple holding onto the same second-place ranking it earned last quarter as the top manufacturers see their shares decline slightly as small vendors ride the Android wave to greater sales.

According to the results, Apple's 16.1% share of the smartphone market in the fourth quarter trailed only Nokia's 28.0% share and came in solidly ahead of Research in Motion and its 14.5% share. Apple's share dipped slightly from the 17.4% share it held in the previous quarter, and came in on par with the same 16.1% share the company held in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Apple's iPhone gained more ground in the worldwide smartphone market, with shipment volume growth coming from Asia/Pacific and Japan. In addition, Apple made further inroads into the enterprise market, with more companies adding Apple to their approved smartphone list and increased development of corporate-centered applications. Rumors of an iPhone 5 have begun to heat up the blogosphere, with many expecting a new design and perhaps a mobile wallet.

Consequently, Apple's 86.2% year-over-year growth essentially mirrored the smartphone industry's overall growth rate of 87.2%, with major players Nokia and Research in Motion checking in at only 36% growth while Android-focused manufacturers such as Samsung (438.9%) and HTC (258.3%) saw tremendous growth in market share, but not enough to overtake the three leaders. Total smartphone sales topped 100 million in the quarter for the first time in history.

In looking at full-year results for 2010, Research in Motion edged out Apple by a margin of 16.1% to 15.7%, although the gap was much smaller than the 5.4 percentage point difference seen in 2009.

While it appears that at least one lucky customer was able to obtain his Verizon iPhone over the weekend, the initial wave of pre-orders for existing Verizon customers is now making its way to their doorsteps in significant quantities.

BGR has already received its order and has put together a small gallery of photos showing the device, packaging, and included materials from Verizon.

Obviously the Verizon iPhone is extremely similar to the GSM iPhone used on AT&T and other carriers around the world, and some of the minor differences between the two versions have been covered in the early reviews, but we'll be keeping our eyes out for any significant observations about the new CDMA-based iPhone as more users begin to get their hands on it.

The Verizon iPhone marked the fastest debut in the carrier's history, despite launching in the middle of the night and being limited to existing Verizon customers. The carrier sold through its initial allotment of iPhones within 17 hours and stopped taking pre-orders at that point. Customers still looking to obtain a Verizon iPhone will need to wait until this Thursday, although Apple has announced that it will begin taking orders and reservations on Wednesday.

With the success of the iTunes App Store and the launch of the Mac App Store, it seems clear that the long term future of software sales is going to be digital distribution. Based on what we've heard from our sources, however, Apple is planning on making the move to all digital sooner than expected at their retail stores. Apple is working towards eliminating boxed software and presumably focusing sales through the Mac App Store.

Apple's recent plans to start offering Personal Setup for Mac seems to be in line with that goal.

When you purchase a Mac at an Apple Retail store an employee will help you setup your e-mail accounts, walk you through the Mac App Store, setup an iTunes account for you, and show you the basic pointers of owning a Mac. Some stores will even have dedicated Mac setup stations.

New Mac customers will be walked through how to use their Mac and also how to obtain new software through the Mac App store.

Boxed software also takes up retail space that could be used for higher profit items such as iPad or iPhone accessories. It's not clear how Apple will deal with prominent titles such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop which aren't yet available through the Mac App Store.

While the Mac App Store has been launched for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, it is also one of the key new components in Mac OS X Lion due out this summer. We expect to hear more about Lion during this year's Worldwide Developer's Conference.

Originally spotted by AppleBitch.com, the possible dates for WWDC this year appear to fall between June 5th and 9th. The Moscone events page shows a "Corporate Meeting" in Moscone West occupying those dates. In the past, such listings have predicted Apple's WWDC event, but not with complete accuracy. Last year, Apple's actual WWDC dates did not fall on the predicted dates.

What is interesting is that the dates do correspond with tentative leaked dates from a San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau PDF. Those dates included:

Tentative WWDC Dates:
2011: June 5th - June 10th
2012: June 10th - June 15th
2013: June 9th - June 14th
2014: June 1st - June 6th
2015: June 7th - June 12th

With the rise of iOS and Apple's withdrawal from Macworld Expo, WWDC has become a major event for Apple each year. This year, Apple is expected to feature Mac OS X Lion prominently.

It seems the first Verizon iPhone has been delivered to its customer. The video shows an individual picking up his iPhone 4 from a UPS center on Saturday. Meanwhile, many of our readers who have ordered expect their deliveries on Monday, February 7th.

Those with preorders are organizing in the shipping discussion thread and in our iPhone forums.

New customers looking to purchase a Verizon iPhone 4 will have to wait until February 9th for online orders and February 10th for in-store purchasing.

Mac Otakara claims that Apple is planning to conduct a short media event at the end of February to launch the next generation iPad. The site offers few other details, though seems to think the actual availability of the iPad 2 will be in March.

We're not sure about the accuracy of the information, but the timing seems reasonable. Apple is widely known to be prepping the next generation iPad. There have been reports of iPad 2 prototypes being spotted and there was also an unconfirmed tip that a television commercial for the iPad 2 had already been shot in LA last week.

AT&T released their first iPhone ad directly targeting the Verizon iPhone. It's appropriately titled "Answer" and shows a husband having forgotten to make dinner reservations for their anniversary. The man does a search for "fine dining" while on the phone with his wife. The commercial concludes with:

Only AT&T's network lets your iPhone talk and surf at the same time

Simultaneous voice and data is one of the differentiators between AT&T's GSM and Verizon's CDMA networks. On Verizon, 3G data service is not usable while you are on a voice call, though, of course, local Wi-Fi networking would still work.

iLounge reports that it has received a handful of details about what may be in store for the second-generation iPad. According to the report, the information comes from a source that has proven reliable in the past but that has cautioned that this information is preliminary and thus some caution should be exercised.

First, the source indicates that Apple is indeed building near field communications (NFC) capabilities into the next-generation iPad and that the company is working to develop accessories that can interface with the NFC/RFID chips included in the device.

In the most basic implementation, an accessory could announce its presence and potential functions to an iPad or iPhone without the need for a Bluetooth or similar connection; our source suggests that an otherwise simple case could include a radio chip so that an inserted iPhone or iPad could go into power-saving hibernation mode automatically. More complex accessories will go far beyond that.

Second, Apple may be shifting from the current aluminum shell for the iPad to one made of carbon fiber in order to reduce the weight of the device. While carbon fiber iPad shells have reportedly been spotted, it is unclear whether they will make their way into final production models.

Finally, iLounge's source indicates that Apple has not yet abandoned the idea of a smaller iPad carrying a 7-inch display, despite Steve Jobs having criticized similar tablets as "dead on arrival" due to what Apple feels is an inability to offer a satisfactory tablet experience with the smaller screen real estate. According to the source, one of Apple's suppliers has been asked to manufacture a component that would be used in a 7-inch iPad, but it is unknown whether Apple plans to bring the device to market.

MacStories reports that it has heard from a "reliable source" that Apple is planning to release iOS 4.3 to the public on February 14th at its typical iOS software update time of 10:00 AM Pacific Time / 1:00 PM Eastern Time.

According to several reports surfaced earlier this week, Apple is targeting a release of the next major iOS update, version 4.3, in two weeks. We just got word from a reliable source that iOS 4.3 should be available on February 14th at 10 AM PST.

A growing list of rumors and speculation have suggested that the iOS 4.3 launch, and possibly an introduction of the next-generation iPad, could occur within the next two weeks. Among the pieces of evidence are AT&T rolling out support for personal hotspot service with modified data plans for tethering as of February 13th and free access to The Daily running out in the middle of that week. iOS 4.3 includes support for personal hotspot functionality and the in-app subscriptions that will be required for The Daily once the free access period ends.

Apple vice president Eddy Cue noted during the introduction of The Daily earlier this week that Apple will make an announcement soon about bringing in-app subscriptions to other publishers. It would obviously be appropriate to make such an announcement right around the time of the iOS 4.3 launch given that those capabilities are included in the update. But it is unclear whether Apple will hold a dedicated media event to show off the new in-app subscriptions (and possibly offer a preview of the second-generation iPad) or simply issue a press release coinciding with the software release.

Apple made several tweaks to the iPad interface for the iOS App Store yesterday, enhancing users' abilities to filter app searches and to determine which apps they have already purchased but may not have installed on their devices.

As noted by MacStories, the new search filters appear as a toolbar at the top of search results pages. The filters allow users to limit their searches by category, release date, customer rating, price, and device compatibility. With the number of iOS applications now exceeding 300,000 and iPad-specific apps pushing past 60,000, users should find the new filters handy for weeding through listings.

The second change, also noted by MacStories, involves a tweak to the way previously-purchased applications are displayed in App Store searches on the iPad. Typically, results have been displayed with a button showing the price of the app, and the user simply taps the button to purchase and install the app. Results for apps already installed on the device have been displayed with an inactive button simply saying "installed".

But what was less than ideal was the handling of apps that had been previously purchased but not currently installed on the user's device. Apple allows such apps to be downloaded free of charge, but search results simply displayed the normal button with the purchase price displayed. Users were required to attempt the purchase the application before discovering that they were entitled to download it free of charge to their devices. With the new tweaks, these search results now display an active "install" button indicating to users that they may install the previously-purchased apps without being charged a second time. The feature applies to the iTunes Store account that the user is signed into on the iPad App Store at the time of searching.