News for Tuesday, 15 May 2007

We might have missed the key updated product today! It was the iPod Shuffle, now available for 79€ from the Apple Stores. The price of the iPod Shuffle was only lowered on the European Apple Stores, probably to reflect the current rate US$/€ as well as the highest competition in Europe for small flash memory-based digital music players.

This could really well be the most important news from Cupertino today, as MacBook update did not really convince us. So today Apple announced that Paul McCartney’s new album, "Memory Almost Full" is available for pre-order today exclusively on the iTunes Store.

iTunes customers pre-ordering the 13 track album in the US will receive the "Dance Tonight" music video when the album is delivered and the single “Ever Present Past”, immediately upon pre-ordering the new album. Additionally, Paul McCartney's full catalog of 25 solo albums will be available for the first time digitally on iTunes later this month.

We would have preferred to have a nice MacBook upgrade with Santa Rosa on the entire notebook offer, even with price going slightly up, but it seems that Apple is back to its bad habit with cheap update trying to compete with Dell's US$1000 notebook. I would have personally preferred a GMA3100-based MacBook than having Paul McCartney on iTunes (as I already have it).

A press release indicates that Apple updated its notebook models while Apple Stores are still closed.
Do not get excited, this a minor update, really minor, no Santa Rosa, a bit higher clocked Core 2 Duo and more HD space storage...
- MacBook 2.0 GHz, bus 667 MHz, 1 GB RAM, 80GB HD, Combo Drive: 1049€
- MacBook 2.16 GHz, bus 667 MHz, 1 GB RAM, 120GB HD, Superdrive: 1249€
- MacBook 2.16 GHz, Black bus 667 MHz, 1 GB RAM, 160GB HD, Superdrive: 1449€
So nothing good for MacBook, maybe Santa Rosa is too expensive for entry-level notebook models, and will be reserved for MacBook Pro.
So MacBook remains with the GMA950 for the time being...
The Apple Store is still closed, and remained opened for couple of minutes.

This will revive all possible speculations about new iMac and MacBook/MacBook Pro based on Intel Santa Rosa. All European Apple Stores are now closed!

Announced today by Fujitsu, and expected this summer in our favorite shops, the new 2.5" HD with its 250GB storage space might become a very interesting component for Apple. Indeed, it is based on the slim 9.5mm-thin profile making it compatible with all MacBook models.

In addition to its storage space, this HD has two additional features that might make it a new reference for notebook HDs. First, its acoustic noise level is as low as 24dB, and second, its power consumption is reported to top at 1.9W or less when reading or writing data!
Unfortunately, such noise and power performance might be directly linked to missing information in the press release: rotation speed. We suspect it only spins at 4200rpm, making its data transfer speed level lower than competitors. But consumers will probably have to make a choice, or a compromise, between large storage space and high performance level.

While most movie studio decided not to choose, and offer their HD video contents in both format, HD-DVD and BD; Disney decided to go Blu-ray only.
In a recent interview, Disney's CEO Bob Iger, explained this choice and confirmed that the company does not plan to change anything. He is of course supported by the recent results concerning HD video content sales, showing that BD-based HD video are outpacing HD-DVD version, for movies available in both formats. But Disney is not the only studio following this strategy, as Fox, Lionsgate and Sony Pictures exclusively supports the Blu-ray Disc format for the delivery of high-definition movies.
Will this indicate that Apple could also choose to go Blu-ray only when introducing HD video support in our Mac? It could well be, knowing the relation between Apple and Disney.
On the other side, one should not forget that manufacturers of HD video players might play a key role is this war by promoting dual format players. such compatibility is a major marketing point for them, and it will also attract consumers not willing to invest exclusively in one format.
A similar war already took place couple of years ago between DVD-R and DVD+R , and it ended up with no winner as both format are still available, and burners able to deal with both formats.

According to a well-known market research firm, Forrester, the future of online video shops, such as MovieLink, CinemaNow and Apple iTS, with their paid video downloads is not going to be as successful as companies expect it. According to Forrester, it will remain a niche market for media junkies, as consumers might not be willing to pay for acquiring the digital version of a movie or a TV show whereas they can watch it on TV, record it or simply go to cinema. Forrester expects to see the online movie shops moving from pay-per-view model to ad-supported streams supported by Television and cable networks; while movie studio will push for a subscription model.
While one should always be careful with analysts and their expectations, especially when it is related to Apple, we should also mention that Forrester did not work too hard to reach such conclusions as it reflects the current situation in Europe. In many EU countries, internet providers offers a set-top box managing high-speed internet connection, as well as VoIP and TV, providing access to dozen of channels and programs. They have already implemented a video-on-demand service with a relatively mild success. The success of ISP set-top boxes in Europe might explain the poor sale rate of recently released Apple TV on this side of the Atlantic.

In a press release, Coca-Cola announced that it is teaming with iTunes to deliver the Europe's biggest music promotion ever, spanning over 17 European countries and running from May until the end of August. Concerts will take place in: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.
Chris R. Burggraeve, group marketing director for the European Union coca cola Group talks about this event as a Coke+iTunes event, something similar to the Nike+iPod campaign in a different consumer-oriented field.

As part of the promotion, Coke and iTunes will give away songs from the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) in over 2 billion promotional packs of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero this summer. The on-pack promotion will also offer customers the chance to win free iPods and attend some of the 100-plus Coke and iTunes sponsored summer concerts across Europe. The promotion will be launched at the Cannes Film Festival with a special live performance from Faithless, who have recorded an exclusive track for Coke and iTunes and collaborated with designers Paranoid on a limited-edition, aluminium Coke bottle...
The Coke and iTunes summer concerts will see big name headline acts playing with newer acts from Coca-Cola's grassroots program that allows undiscovered artists to upload their music on Coke's website( www.coke.com/music) . All of the concerts will be recorded and made available as downloads and podcasts exclusively on iTunes. Previous co-branded concerts have included Elisa (Italy), The Fratellis (Denmark), The Rapture (Ireland) and Deichkind (Germany).

So in September we should know which company really benefit from this partnership, or if it was a good deal for both.