Yesterday, we noted a change to the App Store's developer terms and options allowing developers to offer their applications at a 50% discount for bulk purchases made by educational institutions. Apple has now posted information on the program disclosing how institutions can take advantage of the discounted pricing.
The Volume Purchase Program makes it easy for educational institutions to purchase iOS apps in volume and distribute those apps to users. The Volume Purchase Program also allows app developers to offer special pricing for purchases of 20 apps or more.
Volume purchasing is accomplished via vouchers available through the Apple Store for Education in $100, $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 denominations. The vouchers can be purchased by authorized educational purchasing representatives and are sent by regular mail. Vouchers can then be distributed to "Program Facilitators" for redemption in the App Store.
Full information on the program is available in an FAQ, with the company also offering a direct Volume Purchase Program portal to allow authorized educational users to log in and redeem their vouchers.
Microsoft today released several updates for users of its Office for Mac productivity suite, bringing security and performance fixes to Office 2008 and 2004, as well as a pair of ancillary updates.
The New York Times reports on the recent forced resignation of HP CEO Mark Hurd following claims of sexual harassment and improper expense reports, quoting Oracle CEO Larry Ellison as comparing Hurd's ouster to that of Steve Jobs' departure from Apple in 1985.
"The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago," Mr. Ellison wrote. "That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn't come back and saved them."
Hurd had received strong reviews from investors over his five-year tenure as HP's CEO, where he led the company past Dell to become the world's largest computer vendor and boosted company performance in a number of areas. Hurd was less well-liked by HP employees, who disapproved of his cost-cutting and job-cutting moves even as his own compensation package soared.
Hurd's departure came after a relationship between Hurd and company contractor Jodie Fisher failed to pan out, resulting in allegations of sexual harassment by Fisher. In investigating the situation, HP's board discovered irregularities in Hurd's expense reports related to Fisher's work with the company. Taking the advice of a public relations firm, HP disclosed the full details of the situation and reached an agreement for Hurd's resignation, for which he is expected to receive up to $50 million in severance.
While the circumstances of Hurd's departure are significantly different from those of Jobs' ouster, which was the result of an internal power struggle with CEO John Sculley, Ellison's argument compares Hurd's performance and leadership ability to that of Jobs by noting the similarity in talented leaders being chased away from their companies for reasons that could be considered unwarranted.
Following Jobs' departure, Apple struggled as Microsoft-powered PCs dominated the late 1980s and 1990s. Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 with the company's acquisition of NeXT, which had been started by Jobs after he left Apple. Then-CEO Gil Amelio was ousted by the Apple Board of Directors a few months after the NeXT acquisition, and Jobs was installed as interim CEO, eventually dropping the "interim" title.
The New York Post reports that the European Commission has taken an interest in Apple's long-standing exclusion of Adobe's Flash from its iOS devices, as well as its ban on Adobe's Flash-to-iPhone compiler and similar tools designed to allow non-native applications to be recompiled for the iOS platform. The paper was the first to report back in May that U.S. regulators were considering an inquiry into the situation.
In June, the FTC opened an investigation into Apple's decision to ban developers from using other companies' tools to develop software for its mobile devices. Apple also shut out Adobe's Flash video technology from its iPhone and iPad.
According to a source, the European Commission recently joined the FTC probe into whether Apple's business practices harm competition.
The investigation could last another four to six months, the source said.
Meanwhile, a number of people have been working to unofficially bring Flash to the iOS platform, with "Frash" making its first appearance for jailbroken iPhone 4s earlier this week. Frash remains a very early-stage conversion of Adobe's Flash 10.1 technology, however, and is thus not yet capable of displaying much of the content, such as video, that many consumers are looking for.
In a rather open acknowledgement of Apple's recent gains in both marketshare and mindshare, Microsoft has posted a PC vs. Mac section on their Windows 7 website.
PCs are designed for work and play, with features you need to get things done on the job or at school and have fun at home or on the go. From easily sharing Microsoft Office documents to watching HDTV and Blu-ray movies, PCs help you do it all.
This isn't the first time that Microsoft has acknowledged Apple's directly in their marketing materials. Microsoft also kicked off a $300 million ad campaign in 2008 centered around the phrase "I'm a PC" in direct response to Apple's "Get a Mac" ads.
Earlier today we reported that Apple was the most popular notebook brand amongst U.S. college students.
Over the weekend, Fortune reported on data collected by research firm Student Monitor showing Apple holding down the #1 spot among notebook computer manufacturers favored by U.S. college students. In its most recent survey of 1,200 students, the firm found that 27% of student-owned notebooks were Macs, compared to 24% for second-place Dell. Apple also fares well looking ahead to the future, with 47% of those students planning to purchase a new notebook intending to buy a Mac.
Here, according to managing partner Eric Weil, are the facts:
- 95% of college students interviewed this spring owned at least one computer (83% owned a laptop, 24% a desktop, 15% both) - Among the laptop owners, 27% owned Macs - Among the desktop owners, 45% owned a Dell (DELL) or HP (HPQ) and 14% a Mac - Among those who planned to purchase a new computer, 87% planned to buy a laptop. And among those students 47% planned to buy a Mac.
Fortune positions the data as a debunking of a report from analyst Trip Chowdhry last week claiming that 70% of incoming college freshmen were opting for Macs. Chowdhry claimed to have obtained his data from a survey of five universities, but did not disclose the names of the schools or the number of students surveyed.
While Apple's leadership position in the notebooks category is notable even if not at the 70% level previously claimed, perhaps even more striking is the shift in student purchasing plans over just the last few years, with Apple's 47% share of planned purchases in 2010 dominating Dell and HP's shares in the 11-12% range and a complete flip from as recently as 2005, when Dell commanded 47% of the planned purchases and Apple sat at only 14%.
One example of a university where the popularity of Macs has taken off is the University of Virginia, where over 43% of incoming freshmen in 2009 owned Macs, up from 37% in 2008 and quickly closing the gap on Microsoft's long-standing dominant position. The University of Virginia's survey also showed the utter dominance of notebooks over desktops among its students, with over 99% of computers owned by incoming freshmen being notebooks.
As noted by Mac|Life, a change to Apple's App Store developer agreement today reveals that the company has rolled out a new discount program to allow developers to offer their applications to educational institutions at a 50% discount when multiple copies of an app are purchased at the same time.
Developers logging into their iTunes Connect accounts today are being met with a disclosure of the revised terms and an easy radio button selection to allow all of their existing apps to be offered under the new program. Alternatively, developers can manually manage which apps are available at the discounted bulk purchasing price.
Further details on how the program will work from the purchasing side are not yet known.
As noted by Macworld, Apple has launched a new day pass program offering access to the company's Developer Compatibility Labs for Mac OS X developers. The new day passes, priced at $99, offer users access to Apple's facilities in either Cupertino, California or Tokyo, Japan to test their software or hardware products with a wide range of Apple products to ensure compatibility.
The Single Lab Day Pass, as its name suggests, offers developers access to one of the labs - located in Cupertino and Tokyo - for one day, between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. There are three separate labs at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, containing a truly enormous amount of Mac hardware, from recent versions of many models to older Power Macs, PowerBooks, and iBooks - they even have G4 cubes. Apple says it has more than 500 configurations on hand for compatibility testing, along with plenty of accessories and networking hardware.
A single pass is valid for up to ten attendees, all of whom must be registered Mac developers. Participants are of course also responsible for their own travel and lodging costs.
Access to the compatibility labs was previously restricted to members of the company's ADC Select and Premier developer programs, but with Apple simplifying the developer program and lowering the cost of entry earlier this year, the company has rolled out the new day pass program to allow a broader array of developers access to the facilities.
AT&T today announced the launch of its revamped and renamed U-verse Mobile application [App Store], bringing customers of the company's U-verse television service the ability to not only schedule DVR recordings remotely but also to download selected TV content for viewing on their iOS devices.
U-verse Mobile replaces the popular Mobile Remote Access for iPhone app and incorporates the ability to browse the U-verse TV program guide, view program descriptions, schedule and manage your DVR recordings, while adding the ability to download available episodes over any Wi-Fi connection, and watch them in full-screen mode on your iPhone from anywhere. U-verse TV customers already enjoy the flexibility of remote DVR management. More than 100,000 U-verse TV customers use the Web and Mobile Remote Access apps every month.
"We're making it possible for you to watch TV shows on your iPhone at no extra charge. It's just one more valuable and innovative feature available on U-verse TV," said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "Our U-verse multi-screen promise is now a reality for millions of U-verse TV customers, with content available on U-verse TV, U-verse Online, and today, U-verse Mobile. No cable provider comes close to matching the cross-platform experience we're delivering today, and we'll continue to add unique features that further integrate these screens."
The new download service is available to customers subscribing to AT&T's U300 package or higher. Content is currently available from "several popular networks" with more networks to be added over time.
AT&T's U-verse application launched a little over a year ago and offered remote DVR scheduling. The company had been rumored to be working on a more substantial integration of U-verse with the iPhone. But even now, users are restricted to downloading content from AT&T's mobile library of shows rather than direct live integration with the customer's DVR.
The Baltimore Sun reports that Apple has signed an exclusive agreement with California-based company Liquidmetal Technologies for the firm's advanced "amorphous" metal alloys. The news comes as part of a filing made by Liquidmetal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in which the company reveals that Apple has obtained the right to use essentially all of its intellectual property in the consumer electronics field while Liquidmetal retains usage rights in other fields.
On August 5, 2010, Liquidmetal Technologies, Inc., a Delaware corporation ("Liquidmetal"), entered into a Master Transaction Agreement with Apple Inc., a California corporation ("Apple"), pursuant to which (i) Liquidmetal contributed substantially all of its intellectual property assets to a newly organized special-purpose, wholly-owned subsidiary (the "IP Company"), (ii) the IP Company granted to Apple a perpetual, worldwide, fully-paid, exclusive license to commercialize such intellectual property in the field of consumer electronic products in exchange for a license fee, and (iii) the IP Company granted back to Liquidmetal a perpetual, worldwide, fully-paid, exclusive license to commercialize such intellectual property in all other fields of use (together with all ancillary agreements, the "Master Transaction Agreement").
According to Liquidmetal's description of its technology, the company has developed new metal alloys exhibiting an "amorphous" molecular structure differing from the crystalline structures of traditional metals.
This amorphous atomic structure leads to a unique set of characteristic properties for the family of Liquidmetal alloys.
These characteristic properties are:
- High Yield Strength - High Hardness - Superior Strength/Weight Ratio - Superior Elastic Limit - High Corrosion Resistance - High Wear-Resistance - Unique Acoustical Properties
The company also points to the advantages of using Liquidmetal alloys in consumer electronics, citing its ability to deliver stronger and harder device casings while also offering thinner designs of excellent durability and corrosion resistance. The relatively low melting temperature and other characteristics of Liquidmetal alloys also permit them to be easily cast into a variety of forms while retaining their strength and durability.
It is unknown exactly what Apple plans to do with Liquidmetal's technology, but Apple's focus on industrial design with extensive use of metal in its device casings suggests a number of opportunities for the technology to make its way into the company's products.
DigiTimes today offers a number of claims related to Apple's iOS platform, agreeing with other recent reports that the Verizon iPhone will launch in January, with new 9.7" and 7" iPads and iOS-based Apple TV also set for introduction early next year.
- iPad: DigiTimes claims that Apple will refresh its iPad in the first quarter of 2011, moving to a processor based on ARM's Cortex-A9 design, up from the current Apple A4 chip leveraging the Cortex-A8 design. The report also claims that the new iPad will carry the same 512 MB of RAM as the iPhone 4, up from the 256 MB found in the current iPad.
According to the report, the iPad will be available in both the existing 9.7-inch screen size and a smaller 7-inch size. The smaller version is, however, said to carry the same 1024x768 resolution of the existing iPad, resulting in an increase in pixel density to 183 ppi from 132 ppi. While not offering the same high resolution as the iPhone 4's Retina display at 326 ppi, content on the smaller iPad would appear a bit sharper than on the larger version.
DigiTimespreviously claimed that Apple was planning both 5.6" and 7" iPad models using OLED display technology, although even it cast doubt on its own sources' OLED claims. And just last week, another report claimed that a 7" iPad is on its way by early next year.
- CDMA iPhone: As previously reported, Pegatron is claimed to begin production of a CDMA-based iPhone in December for an introduction at CES in January and shipping during that same month. The report also claims that the CDMA-based iPhone, which will be targeted to Verizon in the U.S. and China Telecom in that country, will carry a metal back instead of the glass back found on the iPhone 4. DigiTimes also references an "integrated antenna" that will be part of the back plate, a seemingly significant redesign from the iPhone 4's antennas built into the edges of the device.
- Apple TV: Finally, the report claims that Apple is preparing to introduce a new Apple TV based on AMD's Fusion platform. The new device, which has been rumored for several months, is said to lack a hard drive and run an interface similar to, and presumably based on, iOS. Support for "social networking websites, network multimedia and the App Store" is said to be included. Mass production of the new Apple TV is reportedly set for December, with an introduction presumably planned for early 2011.
When Apple announced the new 2010 Mac Pros, they finally added support for two new ATI Radeon HD graphics cards for the Mac Pro. The new Mac Pros can be configured with either the ATI Radeon HD 5770 or 5870 cards. Existing Mac Pro owners had been hopeful that they would be able to easily upgrade their existing Mac Pros to these same cards.
Apple has finally started listing the standalone graphics card upgrade kits on their website, but it doesn't appear to offer existing Mac Pro users many new options.
The 5770 part is essentially a replacement part for the newly shipping Mac Pros and apparently does not officially offer an upgrade path to existing Mac Pro owners. Meanwhile, the 5870 card (which isn't shipping yet) does offer an upgrade path, but only for 2009 Mac Pro owners.
Apple still offers the ATI Radeon HD 4870 as an upgrade option for both 2009 and 2008 Mac Pros. The 4870, however, remains priced at $349 but is said to offer similar performance as the 5770 card.
As announced in July, Apple has started accepting orders for the new 12-core Mac Pros. The Mac Pro configurations now come in 3 different base configurations:
$2499 - (Quad Core) One 2.8GHz Quad-Core Nehalem Processor $3499 - (8-Core) Two 2.4GHz Quad Core Westmere Processors $4999 - (12-Core) Two 2.66GHz 6-Core Westmere Processors
Each configuration can be further customized with faster processors, SSD drive options and upgraded ATI Radeon graphics cards. All the changes were previously detailed in the press release of the announcement:
At the heart of the new Mac Pros performance are next generation quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors running at speeds up to 3.33 GHz. These multi-core processors use a single die design so each core can share up to 12MB L3 cache to improve efficiency while increasing processing speed. These systems feature an integrated memory controller for faster memory bandwidth and reduced memory latency; Turbo Boost to dynamically boost processor speeds up to 3.6 GHz; and Hyper-Threading to create up to 24 virtual cores. The Mac Pro now comes with the ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics processor with 1GB of memory and customers can configure-to-order the even faster ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of memory.
The Wall Street Journal provides some additional color on the departure of Apple's iPhone hardware engineering chief Mark Papermaster, citing "broader cultural incompatibility" rather than a direct link to the iPhone 4's antenna issues as reason for his exit.
Exactly how much the problems with the iPhone 4 played in Mr. Papermaster's exit is unclear. The iPhone 4, a key device for Apple, has been beset by issues such as antenna reception and delayed production of a white version of the gadget. Several people familiar with Mr. Papermaster's situation said his departure was driven by a broader cultural incompatibility.
Mr. Papermaster had lost the confidence of Mr. Jobs months ago and hasn't been part of the decision-making process for some time, these people said. They added that Mr. Papermaster didn't appear to have the type of creative thinking expected at Apple and wasn't used to Apple's corporate culture, where even senior executives are expected to keep on top of the smallest details of their areas of responsibility and often have to handle many tasks directly, as opposed to delegating them.
One of these people also said Mr. Papermaster had difficulty maneuvering Apple's internal politics.
Neither Papermaster nor Apple have yet offered any details on the circumstances behind his departure.
The report notes that it was Jobs who pressed forward with the iPhone 4's antenna design despite questions about its performance, suggesting that perhaps Papermaster does not bear as much blame as many have thought. In addition, Apple has claimed that the antenna design was in testing for two years prior to the launch of the iPhone 4, meaning that it had been designed and subjected to significant testing even before Papermaster officially joined the company in April 2009.
Yes, it's the subject that's been beaten to death: a Verizon iPhone. The ongoing rumors have been stoked in recent weeks by a claim from Bloomberg that the device will launch in January, with this week's announcement that Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg will offer the keynote address at CES 2011 sparking speculation that an iPhone introduction could occur there.
TechCrunch weighs in today with new claims that Apple has placed a large order for Qualcomm CDMA chips to be deployed in an iPhone production run scheduled for December. The claims come from a source reportedly familiar with the supply chain logistics for the CDMA-based chips that would be required for a Verizon iPhone.
Sources with knowledge of this entire situation have assured me that Apple has submitted orders for millions of units of Qualcomm CDMA chipsets for a Verizon iPhone run due in December. This production run would likely be for a January launch, and I'd bet the phone is nearly 100% consistent with the current iPhone 4 (with a fixed internal insulator on the antenna).
As the report notes, the evidence does not guarantee a Verizon iPhone launch in January, "but all of the signals point that way", adding another claim to the growing chorus of reports suggesting that a launch is coming early next year.
AT&T has already moved to downplay the risk to its bottom line posed by the loss of its exclusivity for the iPhone in the U.S., noting in its latest quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it expects no "material negative impact" from the expiration of its exclusive handset distribution agreements.
"We do not expect any such terminations to have a material negative impact on our wireless segment income, consolidated operating margin or our cash from operations," AT&T said in the filing with regulators on Friday.
AT&T also reiterated its position that AT&T customers will not defect to rival carriers in large numbers once the iPhone goes non-exclusive, claiming that 80% of customers are on family or business plans that make it difficult for them to switch.
The New York Times reports that Mark Papermaster, Apple's Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering, has left the company. Papermaster has been heading up Apple's iPhone and iPod engineering teams since he began work with the company in April 2009.
Mark Papermaster, the Apple executive in charge of hardware for the company's flagship iPhone, has left the company in the wake of widely reported problems with the antenna of the recently introduced iPhone 4.
It is not clear if Mr. Papermaster was ousted or left on his own accord.
Papermaster has been replaced by Bob Mansfield, who is an existing member of Apple's senior executive team in his role as Senior Vice President of Mac Hardware Engineering.
In retrospect, today's news explains what should have been seen as a curious aspect of Apple's iPhone 4 press conference last month. The Q&A portion of the press conference was conducted by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, and Mansfield. Papermaster, whose division designed the iPhone 4, was to our knowledge not in attendance at the event.
In fact, even Apple's promotional video for the iPhone 4 released at the device's introduction in early June and featuring a number of Apple executives talking about it does not include Papermaster. Mansfield is, however, featured with the job title of Senior Vice President of Hardware, dropping the "Mac" qualifier that had been part of his official job at that time. According to The New York Times, Mansfield was involved in the design of several aspects of the iPhone 4, including its A4 chip and Retina display.
Papermaster's curious invisibility in all aspects of iPhone 4 publicity suggests that he may even have been on his way out even before the iPhone 4 was released, but whether his departure is due to iPhone antenna design issues that might have been discovered prior to its launch or to other factors is unknown.
Papermaster was initially recruited to Apple from IBM in late 2008 to replace departing iPhone/iPod executive Tony Fadell, but IBM filed suit, claiming that Papermaster had violated his employment agreement with IBM by taking a position with a competing firm. Papermaster very briefly began work at Apple in early November 2008 before a judge ordered him to stop working until the IBM lawsuit was settled. In January 2009, Apple announced that the litigation had been settled and that Papermaster would officially begin work at Apple on April 24th of that year.
Reuters reports that Apple has been ordered by a Japanese regulatory agency to provide customers with information on receiving replacement batteries for their first-generation iPod nanos, citing fire risk from overheating batteries.
The ministry ordered Apple to publish an "easy to understand" statement online explaining how users of the devices -- responsible for four cases of minor burns in Japan -- can receive replacement batteries and obtain advice, a spokesman for the ministry said on Friday.
The Japanese government began pressing Apple on the issue last week, and the company has reportedly claimed that the issue has been traced to a single battery supplier.
The company said on Friday that safety is the highest priority.
"We've worked closely with METI to make sure first-generation iPod nano customers who are concerned with their battery have the latest information," said Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr.
Japanese officials first issued a warning about possible overheating in the first-generation iPod nanos nearly two years ago, but regulators have continued to receive from consumers reports of "fire-related" incidents, prompting the further investigation. The company has long maintained a support document informing users of how to have their concerns address, but the Japanese order goes a step further in making the information more visible and easily understandable.
The Wall Street Journal reports that China Unicom will begin selling Wi-Fi enabled iPhone models in that country beginning next week. The news comes a government regulatory body approved the device's frequency ranges in early May, but at the time the company was still waiting to receive a network access license in order to begin sales.
China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. plans to start selling a version of Apple Inc.'s iPhone with Wi-Fi capability in China next week, a China Unicom official familiar with the situation said Thursday.
The iPhones that Unicom has offered in China so far have come with the wireless function disabled to comply with previous government regulations, but the missing function has made the phones less attractive to buyers.
The Associated Press confirms the report, adding that the Wi-Fi capable device will be Apple's new 8 GB iPhone 3GS and it will go on sale on Monday.
Unicom will sell eight-gigabyte iPhones with third-generation service and Wi-Fi throughout China starting Monday, a company spokesman, Wen Baoqiu, said Friday.
Apple and China Unicom have been rumored to be finalizing a deal to bring the iPhone 4 and iPad to China, but no official announcements have been made.
