Tuesday May 06, 2008

- The iPhone 3G to Reach Europe in August? - Lionel - 20:28:57

According to the New York Times, quoting information provided person close to the situation, the launch if the iPhone 3G in Europe should be in August. This information came as part of today's announcement of Apple-Vodafone partnership to distribute this popular device in 10 additional countries.

The goal could be to offer the new device right before the most important holiday period, giving future customers the possibility to be connected while being on the move.

This rumor makes sense with Vodafone agreement too, as the UK carrier was repetitively commenting that a non-3G iPhone would not offer all capabilities allowed by 3G. In addition 3G-linked services might also be a way for carriers to offer more financially interesting services such as the rumored Orange unified video-on-demand service which would give you the ability to watch a video or a show in the appropriate format depending if you log on from a TV, computer or a mobile device such as the iPhone; encoding and format being automatically identified .

[translation by Linathael]

- Get your Badge for the Apple Expo 2008 - Lionel - 20:15:18

One can now obtain a badge for the Apple Expo 2008 which will take place in Paris from September 17th to 20th.
For additional information, please visit the official website: http://www.apple-expo.com

[translation by Linathael]

- VoD on the iTS in France in May? - Kalomir - 16:14:40

Thanks to an in-depth source, the French high-tech blog Electronlibre announced already two weeks ago that the "video-on-demand" service will be available in France on the iTS (It might also be the case for other European countries in addition to the already existing one in Germany).

This information has been "confirmed" by the French reference in term of TV programs and analysis, Télérama, in its today's newsletter. without predicting the success or not of such offer on the iTS, (Télérama offers in addition a review of all VoD services available in France), one can clearly understand that thank to its last week agreement with leading Hollywood Studios, Apple might have bypassed most of local/national and historical distribution channels in Europe. Indeed, among the studios now partnering with Apple, there is "EuropaCorp", Luc Besson's production agency. So at least some non-US studios have been signing with Apple too, even if it was not publicly advertised...

In addition, located in Luxembourg, the European iTS could offer VoD in EU without requiring authorization from national distribution channels as defined by the EU laws related to online services (including VAT regulation for such service!)

So, we could see soon the new Apple TV, featuring larger storage capacities, as well as some hardware improvements to fit with larger worldwide consumers. So, if such online video offer over EU arrives soon, it will for sure create a new local earthquake, after having modified the way we listen/purchase music, Apple and its partners might adapt the way we watch/purchase movies/video online.

[translation by Linathael]

- Vodaphone Will Distribute the iPhone in 10 Countries - Lionel - 11:18:43

In a press release, Vodafone announce to have reached an agreement with Apple to exclusively distribute the iPhone in 10 countries:

Vodafone today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the globe. Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network.

This is a real success for Vodafone, and might illustrate the potential of the iPhone, as initially Vodafone refused to start a partnership with Apple for the UK market, and O2 was then the winner. This is a huge market of potential users for Vodafone, and the carrier will have to develop the corresponding infrastructures to offer a complete "iPhone experience" for the users.

[translation by Linathael]

- Supertalent Claims to Offer "Cheap" SSDs - Lionel - 10:46:10

Source : Dailytech

Supertalent is very active in promoting its SSD models, and today announces the future availability of "cheap" SSDs dedicated to the "mass market. Three models will be available and their corresponding "Low" price:

- 30 GB for 299 USD
- 60 GB for 449 USD
- 120 GB for 649 USD

Of course with such "low" price, those SSDs are based on slower MLC chips, and Supertalent claims 120 MB/s in reading mode, and "only" 40 MB/s in writing mode. Such drive will only be available in 2.5" SATA format.

[translation by Linathael]

- Millions USD for Couples of MB - Lionel - 09:10:47

Source : Engadget

A class action was initiated in USA against Creative music players as their true storage capacities around 7% lower than claimed. The legal procedure ended yesterday, and couple of MB will cost millions USD to Creative. Indeed, the company will have to offer a compensation for all US-resident consumers who purchased a Creative-branded product from May 5th 2001 till April 30th 2008. Consumers will have the choice between a 50% discount on a 1GB Creative music player, or 20% of the value on purchasing coupons for the Creative online store.
Seagate is already forced to pay back around 5% of the value to compensate the difference between the marketing and true MB, in other words 1000 KB vs. 1024 KB. Other companies, leaders in consumer’s electronics featuring storage capacities, including Apple, might have already thinking of escape and/or agreement plan as the result of those legal actions will serve all consumers complaining about discrepancy between marketing MB and true MB.

[translation by Linathael]

- Dumping-type Offers on the iTunes Store? - Lionel - 09:10:14

Source : http://www.news.com

Last week, the announcement of a large partnership between Apple and the leading Hollywood studios created a lot of buzz. Indeed, the iTunes Store in USA will offer movies on the same day they come out to DVD. The price for such movie download from the iTunes Store will be around 14.99 USD for new movies and only 9.99 USD for movies already available as DVDs. But the price of 14.99 USD is reported to be already lower than the price paid by distributors to the studio for DVD-based version, as it is rumored to be around 15.5 to 16 USD.

So, it seems that Apple is ready to cut its margins or even lose money in order to make its online video store launch and business model a success as it already happened with the online music store. Despite investment and agreements, numbers of movie downloads did not really rocket up on the iTS, and beside some price consideration, the overall low broadband internet access for consumers in USA might well be the true limiting factors, and apple should rather quickly expand such online video offers on the iTS to countries where average internet speed ranges from 15 to 60 Mb/s.

Such low prices might also illustrate the current strategy of the Hollywood Studios willing to collaborate with Apple, without repeating the same mistake than Music majors: do not underestimate Apple.

[translation by Linathael]