Category: Apple
Apple delays Leopard; iPhone on schedule
From cnn.com
TweetNEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Apple Inc. said Thursday it pushed back the release of its new operating system, Leopard, until October from its target date of June.
The company said the delay occurred because critical software and resources were needed to complete Apple’s iPhone, which has passed several tests and is still on schedule to be released in late June.
Shares of Apple (Charts) tumbled 2.6 percent in after-hours trading on Nasdaq.
A near final version of Leopard will be shown at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, where developers will be given a copy to perform final testing, the company said.
“We think it will be well worth the wait,” Apple said in a statement. “Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we’re sure we’ve made the right ones.”
Tim Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies in San Jose, California, said the delay in Leopard could slow the pop in sales that normally comes from die-hard Apple computer fans, who will now likely wait to buy new computers.
“I actually think the effect is going to be somewhat negligible,” Bajarin said.
Leopard is expected to boast new features including a file backup feature called “Time Machine” and improvements to its e-mail and instant messaging software. Another feature allows users to move from their standard desktop view to an archival view showing every change made to a particular file.
Apple changes its iTune?
From cnnmoney.com:
Since Apple (AAPL) launched its wildly successful iTunes music store back in 2003, CEO Steve Jobs has adamantly refused to offer a monthly subscription service. If you want to buy music from iTunes, you do it either by the single or the album, that’s it. But that could soon change.
Les Ottolenghi, CEO of INTENT MediaWorks, a digital distribution system that works with peer-to-peer networks, said he’s had meetings with people from Apple and he believes the company will announce a subscription service for iTunes within the next six months. “I think Apple is seriously considering a subscription offering right now even though they will probably tell you otherwise,†he said. Spokespeople for Apple were not immediately available for comment.
So far though, it appears that Apple has made the right decision to spurn the subscription model. Rival online music stores, such as Napster (NAPS), RealNetworks’ (RNWK) Rhapsody and Yahoo’s (YHOO) Y! Music Unlimited, that offer monthly subscriptions have failed to attract a lot of interest. In fact, I wrote yesterday about how teens widely prefer iTunes to subscription-based music stores.
But Ottolenghi said that even though music subscription services have struggled against iTunes so far, he doesn’t think consumers are necessarily averse to paying monthly subscriptions. He argues that because Apple doesn’t offer a subscription product, that’s why music fans haven’t embraced the model.
I would love to see a suscription based service. Depending on the price, it’ll be a great way to test out music. 99% of the music I buy on iTunes is Disney related. That being said, I wouldn’t go suscription on them, I would continue to buy the Disney albums. However, for ‘popular’ music, I would love to download as much as I want a month to see what’s new, and if I like it enough, I’ll buy the album. It’s a great way to check out albums and artists you may otherwise never give a chance. Although I’ll only have 8 gigs on my iPhone…..(ugh).
TweetAward-Winning MGM Films Now on the iTunes Store.
From apple.com:
LOS ANGELES and CUPERTINO, California—April 11, 2007—Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. MGM and Apple® today announced that MGM is now offering titles from its prestigious catalog of feature films for purchase and download on the iTunes® Store www.itunes.com. Beginning today, iTunes customers will be able to purchase legendary films such as “Dances With Wolves,†“Mad Max,†“The Great Train Robbery†and “Rocky,†with other titles to be added in the coming weeks. MGM has the largest modern film library in the world and has received 208 Academy Awards in its history, making it one of the biggest award winning collections of films in the world.
“It’s exciting to be bringing so many amazing films from our catalog to iTunes,†said Douglas A. Lee, MGM’s executive vice president of Worldwide Digital Media. “We have an unrivaled movie library and are looking forward to adding even more films in the future so users can take their favorite movies with them wherever they go.â€
“More than two million movies have now been downloaded from the iTunes Store making it the world’s most popular online movie store,†said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We’re absolutely thrilled so many legendary MGM films are joining an iTunes film catalog that now has over 500 movies.â€
Good news for those who buy iTunes movies. I personally never even thought about buying one because I rather have a DVD in very good quality.
I can see the iTunes music store get better if they add movies that are very hard to find on DVD currently, just like what they’re doing with these MGM movies which are all old “classics”. If they keep taking this road of getting classics that are difficult to find, I can see sales going up.
TweetApple Releases Their New 8-core Xeon Mac Pro’s
These past few days, Apple had there online store offline for a couple of hours, and many wondered why. It turns out that out of the blue, Apple released their new Mac Pro 8-Core Xeon towers. Along with that, they lowered the prices on their screens. The new 8-core Mac Pro is a huge breakthrough in technology as it is the first ever personal computer to have such state-of-the-art processors in it. The starting price has not changed for this computer, at $2,499.00. As Apple would say, this is the most powerful Mac and personal computer in the world to date. Hook yourself up with, Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors and a kickpowered video card and you can call it a day with this computer.
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