Thursday September 06, 2007
- Toshiba Unveils its 160GB 1.8" HD - Lionel - 13:59:32
Most likely to allow Steve jobs to announce the new revision of the iPod, Toshiba only announces today its new 1.8" HD series. Composed of two models featuring either 80GB (MK8022GAA) or 160GB (MK1626GCB) of storage space, they are particularly thin (5mm for 80GB and 8mm for 160GB).
The MK1626GCB sports a new interface, named CE-ATA, which is smaller in size, allowing integrators to save space, and for Apple to most likely install a larger battery for offering a longer lifetime for the new high-end iPod.
[translation by Linathael]
- New Lightscribe Driver for Mac OS X - Lionel - 13:50:41
For those of us having a CD/DVD burner supporting the Lightscribe function, a new driver is available from http://www.lightscribe.com/downloadsection/mac/index.aspx?id=813
The LightScribe System Software is required for proper operation of your LightScribe system. Updates are released regularly to support new hardware or recently introduced LightScribe CDs and DVDs, and will ensure optimal and reliable operation of your LightScribe Labeling system.
[translation by Linathael]
- iPhone Price Cut: Double Edged Effect - Eric - 13:33:00
Steve Jobs surprised everybody when announcing the aggressive cut in the price of the iPhone: shifting the high-end the 8-gigabyte iPhone model to US$399 from US$599. Of course, iPhone owners might feel upset, considering that their 2 months old mobile phone lost US$200 of its value within couple of minutes; while Apple announced to be on track to ship its millionth iPhone by the end of September, a quite amazing achievement.
Some analysts consider such announcement as expected in order to further increase the number of potential customers, and AT&T id also seeing it as a good move considering that 25% of iPhone owners are new AT&T customers. Of course, Apple shares immediately lost 5%, as some share holders were expecting premium prices to generate record benefits irrespectively of the goal to achieve a long-term success for the iPhone as expected by Steve Jobs and Apple management.
When one want to look behind the scene for identifying the reason of such price cut, we could come up with many hypothesis in addition to those mentioned already yesterday. Hereafter are some thoughts originating from our analysis and from readers comments:
- Even though the company said it is on track to sell 1 million units by the end of the month, iPhones sale are not growing as fast as Steve would like. If this price could then be expected to further increase the potential market, the magnitude of the discount is impressive: more than 30%.
- Apple decided to press further Smartphone competitors
- Apple cut prices to be prepared for the launch of the rumored Google phone which is reported to be as cheap as US$100 due to ads
- Apple wants to quickly become a major player in mobile Smartphone business by offering a feature-rich model, and combine it with the corresponding offers from the iTunes Store.
- Apple cut the price of the 8GB iPhone model, as it will launch a 16GB model which will be available when the iPhone is launched in Europe (US$499). To fit with the European and Asian mobile phone network, Apple will also launch a 3G+ iPhone, becoming the facto, the new high-end model and price US$599.
- Apple decided to align the price of the iPhone in USA with the one which will be applied in Europe and later on in Asia, in order to avoid the grey market to explode, and drive the interest for third-parties SIM unlocking applications.
Please comment in our forum: here
- Refurb Store: Before MacBook Revision? - Lionel - 11:46:22
The Refurb Store is once more offering many hardware models, and as usual some are excellent deals:
- Mac mini Core Duo 1.66GHz: 459€
- MacBook Core 2 Duo 2.00GHz: 889€
- MacBook Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz: 1059€
- MacBook Pro Core Duo 1.83GHz: 1349€...
iPods are not that much interesting anymore after yesterday's announcement, one would expect larger discount.
The relative large number of MacBook models available on the Refurb Store let us think that the expected revision of the popular Apple notebook is around the corner, maybe even before the Apple Expo in Paris in 3 weeks.
[translation by Linathael]
- Apple Special Event Video Available - Lionel - 11:41:00
Apple released the video of yesterday's Special Event Keynote. If you think you missed something, then here is the link: http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/
[translation by Linathael]
- Say Bye to iPod Hi-Fi - Lionel - 11:37:13
Not so much surprising for us, after yesterday's announcements, Apple quietly removed the iPod Hi-Fi from the Store, leaving the market for iPod peripheral entirely to third-party manufacturers which keep releasing interesting and innovative products at a higher rate than Apple could do.
Apple will only focus on iPods and iPhone, and probably extend the music offer towards a more massive video offer on iTunes Store as now all display-based iPod/iPhone can play movies or TV shows.
[translation by Linathael]
- iTunes 7.4 Available - Lionel - 11:32:36
Following yesterday's announcement, iTunes 7.4 is now available for download, via the software update panel or from (http://www.apple.com/itunes/download//)
With iTunes 7.4, sync your favorite music and more with the new iPod nano (third generation), iPod classic, and iPod touch, plus create custom ringtones exclusively for iPhone with many of your favorite songs purchased from the iTunes Store. You can now also play purchased videos with closed captioning (when available), easily rate your favorite albums from one to five stars, and watch videos at a larger size inside the iTunes window.Is this new version released prior the release of movie and TV show offers in non-English iTunes Store countries?
[translation by Linathael]
