The local government said the explosion occurred around 19: 20, on May 20, Beijing Time, at a manufacturing location, which was set up to manufacture Apple's iPad tablet computer. The plant is located in a large high-technology zone west of Chengdu.
In a statement, Foxconn official said they are are working with medical officials to provide treatment to the injured employees and working with government and law enforcement officials to contact the families of all employees affected by this tragedy.
The local police department said the causes are unknown, but Preliminary estimation indicated the tragedy was not made by human.
There is full of billowing smoke and pungent smell. The official, who organized people to evacuate, said the secondary explosion may occur.
In 2010, a series of suicides at mega-plants of Foxconn in China caused intense scrutiny about its employment practices, and prompted Foxconn and Apple to treat workers well.
Read more: http://hken.ibtimes.com/articles/149290/20110520/explosion-kills-2-at-foxconn-s-ipad-manufacturing-plant-in-china-video.htm#ixzz1MvITcfbe
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Apple lifts lid on 4G iPad, keeps prices
Wed, Mar 07 16:41 PM EST
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By Poornima Gupta and Alexei Oreskovic
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc took the wraps off a faster 4G-equipped iPad starting at $629, hoping the latest version of its tablet can safeguard its dominance over rivals ranging from Amazon.com Inc to Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.
Chief Executive Tim Cook, presiding over his second major product launch after debuting with 2011's voice-enabled iPhone 4S, introduced the highly anticipated third iteration of the tablet, which is available for pre-orders from Wednesday and will hit store shelves March 16.
The high-end model of Apple's latest iPad will be capable of operating on a high-speed 4G "LTE," or Long-Term Evolution, network. At speeds roughly 10 times faster than current 3G technology, that may help banish the sometimes shaky video quality of older devices.
Wall Street had anticipated many of the features Cook showed off on Wednesday, including a higher-definition "retina display" screen - containing several times as many pixels within the same area - and a better camera.
Shares of Apple closed barely higher, up 43 cents at $530.69. They hovered around $530 throughout the unveiling event, which was attended by Marc Benioff, CEO of enterprise cloud computing company Salesforce.com Inc; Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO of online business review site Yelp Inc; and influential venture-capitalist John Doerr, among other industry luminaries.
Some had held out hope of a positive Apple surprise, recalling late CEO Steve Jobs and his now-iconic "one more thing" unveils at the very end of the such announcements. Others said the upgrades and tweaks to the iPad could only go so far in fending off hard-charging competition.
"While the hardware is notably enhanced, with an impressive retina display, better camera and faster processor, there are still some areas of improvement that Apple needs to work on, in order to stay ahead of its encroaching competitors," said Fred Huet, managing partner at Greenwich Consulting.
"As tablets are increasingly being used for personal media consumption, it is promising to see a better screen resolution. But will this be enough to ensure Apple's competitive lead in the marketplace? No."
Others say Apple is betting a 4G-equipped iPad will tempt more U.S. consumers to pay for higher-quality video on the go. That, in turn, should give Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc a revenue boost, analysts say.
Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, and AT&T will host and sell 4G wireless plans to 4G iPad users.
Until now, buyers have been reluctant to shell out extra cash even for iPads with slower 3G connections. The cheaper WiFi-only model, with much more limited Web access, is by far Apple's top-selling one today.
An updated version of the WiFi-only model remains at $499. The most expensive 4G model, with 64 gigabytes of storage, will go for $829. The previous iPad2 with 3G also sold for $629 to $829. The cheapest model of the previous-generation iPad 2 now retails at $399.
"The iPhone 4S showed us that Apple doesn't need to out-do itself with new product designs to continue extending its domination of a category," said CCS Insight analyst John Jackson.
"THE LATEST IPAD"
In an apparent departure from naming conventions, Apple's third-generation tablet will not be called the iPad 3, but simply referred to as the latest iPad, a small point that several analysts and executives noticed and pointed out.
Regardless of the name, the company is counting on a warm reception to its latest tablet to fend off an increasingly aggressive challenge from tablets
powered by Google Inc's Android technology, with Microsoft Corp software-driven devices slated to come soon.
"Everyone's been wondering who will come out with a product that's more amazing than the iPad 2," Cook said.
"Stop wondering: We are."
Earlier in the proceedings, Cook again held forth on what he called a "post-PC world," in which users move increasingly away from traditional desktop and laptop computing and toward an array of portable devices, including tablets.
Smartphones and tablets are starting to eat into PC sales as mobile technology gets more advanced and available content expands.
Some experts believe mobile devices, as they get more powerful, will eventually displace PCs in many markets, hurting business for the likes of Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc.
The global tablet user base reached 67 million in 2011, according to researcher Strategy Analytics. Analysts expect double-digit growth in tablet sales in coming years.
Cook also announced that the company's new $99 Apple TV set-top box, a concept that late CEO Steve Jobs had called a "hobby," now supports high-definition 1080p screen technology.
"Last year alone we sold 172 million post-PC devices," Cook told the audience at the Yerba Buena Center in downtown San Francisco, Apple's preferred venue for product unveilings.
"And this made up 76 percent of our revenues. This is incredible."
Cook's performance was again the subject of scrutiny. The CEO replaced famed showman Jobs after the co-founder's October death, and has since drawn several comparisons in terms of onstage charisma.
Some in Wednesday's audience found the event wanting.
"This iPad 3 launch is horribly boring. Steve, I miss you terribly," Salesforce's Benioff tweeted at the end of the proceedings. "Tim Cook didn't thank or remember Steve Jobs at iPad3 launch. There would be no iPad 3 without Steve Jobs."
(Additional reporting Noel Randewich in San Francisco, Nicola Leske and Sinead Carew in New York, and Bill Rigby in Seattle, Writing by Edwin Chan; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Tim Dobbyn)
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Apple's 4G iPad debuts in Australia; stock soars
Thu, Mar 15 13:04 PM EDT
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By Lincoln Feast and Narayanan Somasundaram
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Apple Inc's new iPad went on sale in Australia early on Friday, greeted by throngs of fans hungry to get hold of the U.S. consumer giant's latest 4G-ready tablet computer.
While numbers were down compared with launches of earlier iPads, the still-solid turnout reflects demand for Apple products, even though analysts say the new version is a collection of incremental improvements rather than a major technological innovation.
Apple shares breached the $600 mark for the first time on Thursday on the Nasdaq, but gave up some of the gains in morning trading. The stock is up 47 percent for the year and nearly 10 percent for the month.
A single Apple share now costs more than the Wi-Fi-only iPad, which is priced at $499.
The initial rush for the first new third-generation iPads sold globally was not at one of Apple's gleaming glass and polished wooden stores in Sydney, but across the road at Australian phone company Telstra. Telstra opened two stores just after midnight local time to begin selling the iPad, stealing an eight-hour march on Apple.
David Tarasenko, a 34-year-old construction manager, who was the first to pick up the iPad, said ever since Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook revealed the tablet's third iteration, he couldn't wait to get one.
"When Tim Cook announced it, it sounded like such a magical tool. I just got hyped into it, I guess," he said.
The third-generation iPad from Apple -- which sports a high-definition "retina" display and comes with a better camera -- is capable of operating on high-speed 4G "LTE," or Long-Term Evolution network. But this version is not compatible with Telstra's 4G network in Australia.
Influential reviewers Walt Mossberg and David Pogue raved about the iPad's new retina display screen. Mossberg said "using the new display is like getting a new eyeglasses prescription," while Pogue said it made text look "freakishly sharp."
But both Mossberg and Pogue noted the new iPad was not a total overhaul, but had enough technical improvements to maintain its lead in the market.
"Apple hasn't totally revamped the iPad or added loads of new features," Mossberg said, "but it has improved it significantly, at the same price."
WAITING IT OUT
"The (lack of 4G access) is not a game-breaker. They've upgraded the 3G technology, which I've tried and it's pretty snappy," said Cameron Ing, a data storage administrator.
The new iPad is going on sale on Friday in 10 countries, including the United States, Canada, Singapore, France and Britain.
Among those lined up outside Sydney's flagship Apple Store was Stephen Parkes, who was paid A$950 ($990) to wait in line for four days by the founder of an odd jobs website.
"I get a high waiting in the line and picking up one of the first products being retailed," said Ryan Han, a student at the University of New South Wales, who had also queued for hours.
"I did that for iPad 1, 2 and will do it for 4 as well," said Han, who was hoping to buy two iPads, for himself and a friend.
Such is the demand for new Apple products that middlemen often pay "mules" to buy the latest versions and transport them to markets scheduled for later releases.
A middle-aged Asian man outside the Apple store, flanked by two blue suitcases, said he was hoping to buy several new iPads, ideally more than 10. He declined to reveal his name, nationality or for whom he was buying the tablets.
Apple's market capitalization now exceeds $500 billion and Wall Street thinks it can expand further should fan-demand persist.
Early signs hint at a strong 2012 for the device, which competes with Samsung Electronic's Galaxy, among others. Despite soggy weather, small crowds had already gathered outside the downtown San Francisco Apple store ahead of the launch in the United States.
Apple began accepting orders for the device on March 7, but wait times for shipping it are now two to three weeks in the United States.
Wall Street expects a strong start for the latest iPad and some analysts even expect sales of the current model to overtake the iPad 2. Apple will continue to sell the iPad 2 but dropped its price by $100 to start at $399.
Apple may sell 65.6 million iPads, according to an estimate by Canaccord Genuity analysts who also raised their target price on Apple stock to $710 from $665.
So far, the company has sold 55 million iPads since it was launched in 2010.
Tablet sales are expected to increase to 326 million buy 2015 with Apple largely dominating the market, according to research firm Gartner.
($1 = 0.9574 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Lincoln Feast and Narayanan Somasundaram and in Sydney and Poornima Gupta in San Francisco; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Maureen Bavdek)
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Chinese writers' group sues Apple: state media
Sun, Mar 18 10:41 AM EDT
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BEIJING (Reuters) - A group of 22 Chinese authors have filed a claim against U.S. technology group Apple, alleging its App Store sells unlicensed copies of their books, Chinese state media reported on Sunday.
The group, the Writers Rights Alliance, petitioned Apple last year to stop electronic distribution of the writers' books and had earlier persuaded Baidu, China's largest search engine, to stop publishing their material on its Baidu Library product.
The writers are seeking 50 million yuan ($8 million) compensation from Apple, saying it was selling pirated versions of 95 books via its online store, Xinhua reported, without stating where the claim had been filed.
"As an IP holder ourselves, we understand the importance of protecting intellectual property, and when we receive complaints we respond promptly and appropriately," Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu said.
The Writers Rights Alliance could not be reached for comment. Foreign companies have complained for years about lax enforcement of intellectual property rules by China, and a growing number of Chinese copyright holders are now also pressing for better protection.
The lawsuit adds to Apple's list of problems in China.
The world's most valuable technology company has been embroiled in a long-running lawsuit with Chinese firm Proview Technology, which is fighting for control of the iPad trademark in China.
The unit of near-bankrupt Proview International Holdings has asked Chinese distributors to stop selling the iPad after Apple launched the latest version.
Apple is also battling allegations of poor working conditions among its army of low-cost suppliers in China.
Three workers at Foxconn Technology died in a blast last year when dust from polishing iPads ignited, and labor rights groups have said 18 workers at Foxconn sites killed themselves, or tried to, in 2010.
Apple has commissioned the non-profit Fair Labor Association to interview 35,000 workers at three of Foxconn's sprawling factories and prepare a report on working conditions. {ID:nL4E8E54NL]
(Reporting by Don Durfee; Editing by Dan Lalor)
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Apple finally shares $98 billion cash hoard
Mon, Mar 19 11:17 AM EDT
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By Poornima Gupta
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook, moving swiftly after taking over from the late Silicon Valley icon Steve Jobs, fulfilled a longstanding desire of investors by initiating a quarterly dividend and share buyback that will pay out $45 billion over three years.
The world's most valuable technology company will start paying its first dividends since 1995 -- a regular quarterly payout of $2.65 a share -- in July, and buy back up to $10 billion of its stock beginning in the next fiscal year.
The $10 billion annual dividend program, which Cook said will be reviewed periodically, ranks among the largest current U.S. corporate cash payouts.
But he told analysts on Monday that "making great products" remained Apple's top priority, echoing the sentiments of his former boss, who died in October after a years-long battle with cancer.
Jobs' former lieutenant has impressed Wall Street since taking the helm. He has made his mark by revealing Apple's production partners and initiating investigations into allegations of labor abuse in its supply chain, among other things.
Now, the man once hailed as an able deputy and supply chain guru is reaching out to Wall Street.
"We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure," Cook said. "You'll see more of all of these in the future."
"Innovation is the most important objective at Apple and we will not lose sight of that."
When Cook was announced as CEO, many on Wall Street worried he lacked Jobs' vision for devising groundbreaking consumer electronics. But Apple's shares have gained more than 50 percent since Jobs' death and set a record above $600 last week as investors noted the assurance with which Cook has taken the reins.
Cook oversaw the rollout of the iPhone 4S last year and presided over what he said on Monday was a "record weekend" of sales for the new, 4G-enabled iPad.
But many investors are still waiting to see an Apple TV or something similar: a gadget that will transform the industry the way the iPod and iPhone did. On a conference call, one of the first questions that cropped up regarded the company's product pipeline. Cook declined to comment.
Apple shares were up 1.3 percent at $593.34 in morning trade on the Nasdaq.
FINALLY
Apple expects the share buyback program to run over three years, with the primary objective to offset the impact of employee stock options and equity grants.
Its annual dividend yield will come in around 1.8 percent. That ranks above Oracle Corp and International Business Machines Corp but falls just short of the average of around 2.4 percent for companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index, analysts say.
"The best thing about it is that we can go back to focusing on what Apple does best," said Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst.
The company will still maintain a "war chest" for other strategic opportunities, Cook said. "These decisions will not close any doors for us."
The maker of the iPhone, iPad and iPod has $98 billion in cash and securities, equal to about $104 a share, according to ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall.
The company said it anticipated using about $45 billion of domestic cash in the first three years of its buyback and dividend programs.
Asked about Apple's substantial cash parked overseas, Chief Financial Official Peter Oppenheimer said the company had no plans to repatriate it at this time.
"The current tax laws provide a considerable economic disincentive to U.S. companies that might otherwise repatriate the substantial amount of foreign cash that they have," he said. "That's our view. And we've expressed it. "
Apple last paid a dividend in 1995, according to Thomson Reuters data. In 1996, the company posted a net loss of $816 million. "Apple is an overcapitalized company, and it's probably better to have the cash in the shareholders' pockets than in Apple's pockets," said John Strand, CEO of Copenhagen-based Strand Consulting.
(Additional reporting by Yinka Adegoke, Sinead Carew and Nicola Leske in New York and Tarmo Virki in Helsinki, Writing by Edwin Chan; editing by John Wallace)
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Apple CEO visits Foxconn's iPhone plant in China
Thu, Mar 29 02:05 AM EDT
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SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Apple Inc's Tim Cook, on his first trip to China as the chief executive officer, has visited an iPhone production plant run by the Foxconn Technology Group, which is being accused of improper labor practices.
China is the world's largest mobile market and already Apple's second-biggest market overall, but its growth there is clouded by issues ranging from a contested iPad trademark to treatment of local labor.
Picture handouts dated March 28 and e-mailed to Reuters show Cook seen smiling and meeting workers in the newly built Foxconn ZhengzhouTechnology Park in the north central province of Hebei. The facility employs 120,000 people, the handouts said.
Foxconn is a major part of Apple's global supply chain, assembling most of its iPhones and iPads, but has been hit by a string of worker suicides in recent years that activist groups blame on tough working conditions.
The group is the Taiwan parent of Hong Kong-listed Foxconn International Holdings and Taiwan-listed Hon Hai Precision.
Cook took the reins at Apple in August after the death of the firm's visionary founder, Steve Jobs. His closely guarded itinerary has included talks with Vice Premier Li Keqiang, Beijing's mayor and a visit to one of Apple's two stores in the capital.
On Wednesday, state media reported that China's vice premier promised Cook the country would boost intellectual property protection.
"To be more open to the outside is a condition for China to transform its economic development, expand domestic demands and conduct technological innovation," the official Xinhua news agency cited Vice Premier Li Keqiang as saying.
Apple has tie-ups with China Telecom and China Unicom to sell its iPhone, with the only other Chinese carrier, China Mobile, the country's biggest mobile operator, also looking to clinch a deal.
Apple is embroiled in a long-running dispute with Proview - a financially weak technology company that claims to have registered the iPad trademark - that is making its way through Chinese courts and threatens to disrupt iPad sales.
(Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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Apple, Foxconn set new standard for Chinese workers
Fri, Mar 30 06:18 AM EDT
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By Poornima Gupta and Edwin Chan
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc and its main contract manufacturing Foxconn agreed to tackle violations of conditions among the 1.2 million workers assembling iPhones and iPads in a landmark decision that could change the way Western companies do business in China.
Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, whose subsidiary Hon Hai Precision Industry assembles Apple devices in factories in China, will hire tens of thousands of new workers, eliminate illegal overtime, improve safety protocols and upgrade workers' housing and other amenities.
It is a response to one of the largest investigations ever conducted of a U.S. company's operations outside of America. Apple had agreed to the probe by the independent Fair Labor Association (FLA) to stem a crescendo of criticism that its products were built on the backs of mistreated Chinese workers.
The association, in disclosing its findings from a survey of three Foxconn plants and over 35,000 workers, said it had unearthed multiple violations of labor law, including extreme hours and unpaid overtime.
FLA President Auret van Heerden expects the agreement between Apple, the world's most valuable listed company, and Foxconn, which supplies 50 percent of the world's consumer electronics, to have far reaching affects.
"Apple and Foxconn are obviously the two biggest players in this sector," he said in an interview. "Since they're teaming up to drive this change, I really do think they set the bar for the rest of the sector."
That could affect brand names that have contracts with the Taiwanese company, including Dell Inc, Hewlett-Packard, Amazon.com Inc, Motorola Mobility Holdings, Nokia Oyj and Sony Corp.
The agreement is a sign of the increasing power of Chinese workers to command higher wages given increasing prices in China, and an ageing workforce that has led to labor shortages.
"Foxconn is proposing this better deal," said van Heerden. "Their competitors will be obliged to offer a similar package just in order to get enough workers."
Working conditions at many Chinese factories supplying Western brands are considerably inferior to those at Foxconn, experts say.
Still, labor costs are a fraction of the total cost of most high-tech devices, so consumers might not see higher prices.
"If Foxconn's labor cost goes up ... that will be an industry-wide phenomenon and then we have to decide how much do we pass on to our customers versus how much cost do we absorb," HP Chief Executive Meg Whitman told Reuters in February.
Under the agreement, Foxconn said it will reduce working hours to 49 per week, including overtime, while keeping total compensation for workers at its current level. The FLA audit found workers in the three factories put in more than 60 hours per week on average during peak production periods.
To keep up with demand, Foxconn will hire tens of thousands of additional workers and build more housing and canteens.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, who took over from the late co-founder Steve Jobs last year, has shown a willingness to tackle the criticism head-on.
"We fully support their recommendations," an Apple spokesman said. "We share the FLA's goal of improving lives and raising the bar for manufacturing companies everywhere."
But New York-based labor advocacy group China Labor Watch said the report failed to address the workers' primary concerns.
"Until Apple shares a larger proportion of its profits with its supplier factories, workers will receive the same pittance for a salary while working around the clock," Li Qiang, the director of China Labor Watch, said in an emailed statement.
The agreement has not gone down well with some Foxconn workers, either.
Chen Yamei, 25, who has worked at a Foxconn factory at Longhua in southern Guangdong province for four years, complained that her salary will drop to just over 2,000 yuan a month ($317) from over 4,000 yuan.
"We are here to work and not to play," she said. "Our income is very important." Another worker was less concerned.
"Working here is just so-so. Working conditions and the pay are all right," said Li Wei, a 20-year-old who has worked at the Foxconn factory for about a year.
"However there are around 100,000 people in there, so sometimes the feeling can be oppressive," Li said, who works eight hours, or a maximum 10 hours, a day.
FIRST PHASE
Hon Hai shares fell on Friday around 1.3 percent, underperforming a rising market. Apple shares, which hit a record high on Wednesday, dropped 1.3 percent on Thursday.
The report marks the first phase of a probe into Apple's contract manufacturers across the world's most populous nation.
Foreign firms have long grappled with working conditions in China, dubbed the world's factory because of its low wages and efficient coastal transport and shipping infrastructure.
Global protests against Apple swelled after reports spread in 2010 of a string or suicides at Foxconn's plants in southern China, blamed on inhumane working conditions and the alienation that migrant laborers, often from impoverished provinces, face in a bustling metropolis like Shenzhen, where two of the three factories the FLA inspected are located.
In months past, protesters have shown up at Apple events - the rollout of the new iPad, the iPhone 4GS and its annual shareholders' meeting - holding up placards urging the $500 billion corporation to make "ethical" devices.
Some have also criticized the FLA for its close alignment with corporations.
The actor Mike Daisey also did much to raise awareness of the issue through his one man show in the United States, "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs". His credibility was damaged though when it emerged parts of his monologue were fabricated.
NEW DORMS
The FLA in its report sought measures that will reduce working hours while ensuring that migrant laborers - often willing to pile up the overtime to make ends meet back home - do not forego much-needed income.
Foxconn committed to building new housing to ease situations where multiple workers were squeezed into rooms that seemed inhumane by Western standards. It agreed to improve accident reporting and help workers enroll for social welfare and increase their participation in committees and other union structures.
The FLA will conduct onsite verification visits to make sure the agreement is implemented, van Heerden said.
Apple is not the first U.S. consumer brand to respond to criticism of working conditions at factories abroad making its products.
Nike Inc implemented wide-ranging changes to improve safety and working conditions after it was rocked by reports in the 1990s that its contractors in China and elsewhere forced employees to work in slave-like conditions for a pittance.
Yet even Nike stopped short of Apple's and Foxconn's hiring and income-boosting spree. Last month, Foxconn said it was raising salaries by 16 to 25 percent, and was advertising a basic monthly wage, not including overtime, of 1,800 yuan ($290) in the southern city of Shenzhen, Guangdong province - where the monthly minimum wage is 1,500 yuan.
Future forays by the FLA over coming months will encompass Apple contractors Quanta Computer Inc, Pegatron Corp, Wintek Corp and other suppliers, all notoriously tight-lipped about their operations.
(Additional reporting by Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing, Tan Ee-lyn in Hong Kong Editing by Gary Hill, Tim Dobbyn and Mark Bendeich)
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Apple's iPad tops Consumer Reports' list despite heat issue
Mon, Apr 02 20:19 PM EDT
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By Poornima Gupta
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's new iPad topped Consumer Reports' list of tablets despite the influential watchdog's having earlier stoked doubts about the latest iteration of the best-selling tablet by saying it threw off more heat when used heavily.
The widely followed group that reviews a broad range of services and products -- including electronics and cars -- said on Monday it conducted additional tests on a number of tablets running Google Android software, including Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, and found higher temperatures common and not a cause for concern.
Consumer Reports also confirmed the iPad's battery slowly discharged when "Infinity Blade II" -- an intense video game -- ran at full screen brightness, even when plugged in. It cited the higher power-demands of a faster graphics processor as well as a high-end "Retina" display.
"The problem was limited to times when the device was playing a demanding game with the screen fully bright," it said.
Consumer Reports triggered widespread debate across the Internet two weeks ago after publishing initial test results that suggested the new iPad, which comes with 4G capability, threw off much more heat than its predecessors.
The non-profit group initially found the new iPad reached temperatures of 116 degrees Fahrenheit (47 Celsius) after 45 minutes of running an intense action game. That meant it was hotter by up to 13 degrees Fahrenheit than the previous model under similar conditions.
But in a later round of tests, the results of which were released later on Monday afternoon, the group said that, at maximum brightness on a 90-degree day, the iPad topped out at 122 degrees Fahrenheit at its hottest spot after running an intense action game for 45 minutes. That compared with 112 degrees for the iPad 2 under similar conditions.
That was also comparable with rivals. The Galaxy reached 121 degrees in the same test, while the Asus Transformer Prime hit 117 degrees, Consumer Reports said in a supplemental report.
REMEMBER ANTENNAGATE
The third iteration of the iPad is off to a strong start with sales of more than 3 million units since it hit store shelves last month. But competition is fierce and experts expect Google devices to encroach on its market share.
In its full report on Monday, the influential review organization recommended Apple's tablet along with several others, such as Toshiba's ultra-light, one-pound Excite 10LE, and the reading-friendly Sony Tablet P.
Consumer Reports generated headlines in 2010 when it said it could not recommend the iPhone 4 to buyers due to signal reception issues.
Apple's co-founder, the late Steve Jobs, called a press conference to address the issues laid out by the publication and then gave consumers free bumpers, a frame-like cover, with the phone as the nonprofit group had said the case fixed the reception problem.
Reviews for the new iPad have generally been good. The latest version from Apple is not a complete redesign of the iPad 2, but takes advantage of faster 4G wireless technology and has a sharper display.
The iPad's "retina" display impressed Consumer Reports, which said the tablet had "achieved the highest score we've ever recorded for color accuracy in a tablet."
U.S. wireless carrier Verizon Communications Inc also drew praise for its 4G network, which the group said was fast and dependable.
"Our findings suggest that if you're a serious gamer, you might want to manage how you use the new iPad by reducing screen brightness when possible," Consumer Reports' Paul Reynolds said in the supplemental report, released a few hours after its Monday report recommending the tablet.
"Other consumers should find little of concern in our extended tests, on either the heat or recharging issues."
(Reporting By Poornima Gupta; Editing by Matt Driskill)
=============== Microsoft tackles iPad with Surface tablet Tue, Jun 19 00:46 AM EDT image 1 of 11 By Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp introduced its own line of tablet computers on Monday at a much-hyped press event in Los Angeles, marking a major strategic shift for the software giant as it struggles to compete with Apple Inc and re-invent its aging Windows franchise. The new tablet line, named Surface, includes a consumer device aimed directly at the Apple iPad, and another, larger machine designed to compete with lightweight laptops. Both include a keyboard that doubles as a cover, and both will be powered by versions of the new Windows 8 operating system. The move breaks with Microsoft's operating model of the past 37 years, which has relied on computer manufacturers to make and market machines running Windows. It could throw the world's largest software company into direct competition with its closest hardware partners such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Hewlett-Packard Co. However, the success of Apple in recent years has underscored the benefits of an integrated approach to hardware and software, and Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Monday that the company "didn't want to leave anything uncovered" as it rolled out Windows 8. The new software is the biggest overhaul of Windows in years, and features a new touch-friendly interface dubbed "Metro". It is scheduled to be available for the Christmas shopping season. The lighter, thinner version of the Surface tablet, built on an Nvidia Corp chip designed by ARM Holdings, will be the first to market at the same time as the general release of Windows 8, and will feature Microsoft's popular Office suite of applications. It is comparable to Apple's new iPad, heavier but slightly thinner. It has a 10.6 inch screen and comes in 32GB and 64GB memory sizes. A second, heavier tablet aimed at the new generation of lightweight laptops called "ultrabooks", running on traditional Intel Corp chips, will come in 64GB and 128GB models. That will be available about three months after the ARM version, Microsoft said. The company gave no details on pricing, except that they would be competitive with comparable ARM tablets and Intel-powered Ultrabooks. They will be on sale online and in Microsoft's new brick-and-mortar stores in the United States. Microsoft shares rose 0.8 percent in after-hours trading, making up for a 0.6 percent drop to $29.84 in the regular Nasdaq session. Industry watchers were generally impressed by the devices' specifications, but doubted they were a sure-fire hit. "I don't see this as an iPad killer, but it has a lot of potential," said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at tech research firm Forrester. "This raises more questions than answers. The story that Microsoft told today was incomplete. They focused on the hardware innovation but didn't talk about the services, the unique Microsoft assets that could make this product amazing." Contrary to expectations, Microsoft made no mention of integrating content and features from its top-selling Xbox game console, the Skype video calling service it bought last year, or Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader, its new partner in the electronic books market. FOLLOWING APPLE Sales of tablets are expected to triple in the next two years, topping 180 million a year in 2013, easily outpacing growth in traditional PCs. Apple has sold 67 million iPads in two years since launch. Apple, which makes both hardware and software for greater control over the performance of the final product, has revolutionized mobile markets with its smooth, seamless phones and tablets. Rival Google Inc may experiment with a similar approach after buying phone maker Motorola Mobility this year. Making its own hardware for such an important product is a departure for Microsoft, which based its success on licensing its software to other manufacturers, stressing the importance of "partners" and the Windows "ecosystem." "The question is why is Microsoft doing it?," said Michael Silver, an analyst at tech research firm Gartner. "Lack of faith in the OEMs (computer makers)? There's definite risk here as Microsoft increasingly competes with its customers." Microsoft stressed that "OEMs will have cost and feature parity on Windows 8 and Windows RT," meaning that it would not hold back any features from other hardware makers' Windows tablets. When it has ventured into hardware, the Redmond, Washington-based company has had a mixed record. Apart from keyboards and mice, the Xbox game console was its first foray into major manufacturing. That is now a successful business, but only after billions of dollars of investment and overcoming problems with high rates of faulty units - a problem which was nicknamed the "red ring of death" by gamers. The company's Microsoft-branded Zune music player, a late rival to Apple's iPod, was not a success and its unpopular Kin phone was taken off the market shortly after introduction. The company killed off a two-screen, slate-style prototype of a tablet device called Courier later that year, saying the technology might emerge in another form later on. (Reporting By Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles, Writing by Bill Rigby in Seattle; Editing by Bernard Orr and Richard Pullin) === iPhone, but will uPhone? Apple's iPhone valuation calls for scepticism 26 June 2007 | By Robert Cyran If there's one company that can capture the tech zeitgeist, it's Apple. But will the group's new handset, the iPhone, capture the market after its release Friday? Investors certainly think so. Since the device was unveiled in January, $34bn has been tacked onto the group's market capitalisation. A bit of scepticism is called for. Apple hopes to sell 10m of the devices by the end of next year. Yet the cheaper version of the iPhone will cost a hefty $499 - about eight times what a US customer pays for a typical handset and 2.5 times the cost of a high-end one. It will only be sold by one of the big mobile operators, AT&T. And users may also be turned off by the device's touch-screen keyboard. On the other hand, Apple is known for low-balling its estimates, and there certainly is high initial demand. So let's assume the company's estimates are correct. In contrast, cell phone giant Nokia should sell about 550m phones in the same period. The Finnish group's market cap is $108bn. So even though it will sell 55-times as many phones, investors think the business is only worth three times as much as Apple's. Or look at it this way. Apple and Nokia both had operating margins of 13% last year. If Apple sells 7m phones next year, and earns similar margins, operating profit for the phone business would be around $350m. So the phone business is valued at close to 100 times estimated 2008 operating profits. Nokia trades at 10 times. This looks a bit excessive even if one assumes the iPhone snatches some of Nokia's market share. The conclusion: either Nokia is dirt cheap or Apple is extremely overvalued. Of course, betting against Steve Jobs has never been a profitable activity - an iPhone may yet appear in every pocket now housing an iPod or phone. But if it merely becomes an accessory of rich hipsters, Apple's stock would have a long way to fall. == Apple settles China iPad trademark dispute for $60 mln * Posner ruling makes smartphone patent war economically irrational * An Austrian clone, made in China SHANGHAI, July 2 | Sun Jul 1, 2012 11:33pm EDT SHANGHAI, July 2 (Reuters) - Apple Inc has paid $60 million to China's Proview Technology (Shenzhen) to settle a dispute over the iPad trademark, a Chinese provincial court said on Monday. The announcement of the court-mediated settlement was made on the website of the Higher People's Court of Guangdong province. ==================== Apple's Jobs was open to making a smaller iPad: executive Fri, Aug 03 21:28 PM EDT By Poornima Gupta SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - Steve Jobs was receptive to Apple Inc making a smaller tablet, a senior executive said in a 2011 email revealed on Friday, fanning speculation it plans to make a mini-iPad to take on cheaper gadgets from Google Inc and Amazon. An Apple mini-version of the market-dominating 10-inch iPad could counter increasing inroads made by tablets such as the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7. But the company has never confirmed the intensifying talk of such a launch. Vice President Eddy Cue urged then-chief operating officer Tim Cook in January 2011 to build a 7-inch tablet, according to an email from Cue that Samsung Electronics presented as evidence in a U.S. patent trial. In an email addressed also to software chief Scott Forstall and marketing head Phil Schiller, Cue said he believed there was a market for a 7-inch tablet and that "we should do one." Cue's brief email was introduced on Friday as part of a high-wattage trial that will play out in a San Jose courtroom this summer and is expected to transfix the technology industry. "There will be a 7-inch market and we should do one. I expressed this to Steve several times since Thanksgiving and he seemed very receptive the last time," the executive wrote in the email. "I found email, books, Facebook, and video very compelling on a 7-inch. Web browsing is definitely the weakest point, but still usable." Cue had previously forwarded an article entitled "Why I just dumped the iPad (hint: size matters)". He wrote: "Having used a Samsung Galaxy, I tend to agree with many of the comments below (except actually moving off the iPad)." Apple and Samsung are going toe-to-toe in a patents dispute mirroring a struggle for industry supremacy between two rivals that control more than half of worldwide smartphone sales. The U.S. company accuses Samsung of copying the design and some features of its iPad and iPhone, and is asking for billions of dollars in damages and a sales ban. The Korean firm, which is trying to expand in the U.S. market, says Apple infringed some of its key wireless technology patents. Cue, who rose to prominence overseeing the iTunes and Apps stores, became the company's senior vice president of Internet software and services in September. His email was introduced by Samsung during a cross-examination of Forstall on Friday. In the email dated January 24, 2011, Cue said he had broached the idea of a smaller tablet to Jobs several times since Thanksgiving, and the co-founder was receptive "the last time." That appeared to run counter to Jobs' famous dislike of smaller tablets. In 2010, Jobs told analysts on a conference call that 7-inch tablets should come with sandpaper, so users could file their fingers down to a quarter of their size. "There are clear limits of how close you can physically place elements on a touch screen before users cannot reliably tap, flick, or pinch them," Jobs, who died in October after a years-long battle with cancer, said at the time. "This is one of the key reasons we think the 10-inch screen size is the minimum size required to create great tablet Apps." Apple still dominates the global tablet market, but rivals are closing in. Google unveiled the Nexus 7 in July to strong reviews. And Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet, with a price tag about half the iPad's, has encroached on Apple's market share. Analysts say smaller, cheaper tablets entice cost-conscious buyers unwilling to spend $500 or more for an iPad. COURT FIREWORKS The trial began this week and has already granted Silicon Valley an unprecedented peek behind the curtain of Apple's famously secretive design and marketing machine. Forstall described the early days of the iPhone's top-secret inception. The smartphone that went on to revolutionize the mobile industry was developed in a building engineers nicknamed the "purple dorm." Security was so tight employees sometimes had to swipe their badges four times just to get in, he said. Earlier on Friday, Schiller told a packed courtroom that Apple's strategy in maintaining its market momentum is to "make the product the biggest and clearest thing in advertising." The 15-year Apple veteran told the jury the company has spent about $647 million on advertising for the iPhone, launched in 2007, and over $457 million for the two-year-old iPad. Dressed in a dark suit and yellow tie, Schiller -- who favors blue jeans and is among a handful of executives reporting directly to CEO Cook -- said Samsung's copying of Apple's designs has hurt its sales and disrupted its marketing. "I was pretty shocked at the appearance of the Galaxy S phone and the extent it appeared to copy Apple products," he told the jury, adding that he was even more shocked when he saw the Galaxy tab. "I thought they've done it again, they're just going to copy our whole product line." Justin Denison, Chief Strategy Officer for Samsung Telecommunications America, took the stand after Forstall, stressing that the world's largest technology company by sales was also no slouch when it came to design and marketing. Denison told the court Samsung spent $1 billion on U.S. product marketing in 2011 and employs over 1,200 designers. Before Schiller took the stand, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh rejected Apple's request for severe sanctions against Samsung over the conduct of one of the Korean firm's attorneys, though she said such conduct risked tainting the jury. A Samsung statement this week contained links to documents Koh ruled could not be admitted at trial. Attorney John Quinn, of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, acknowledged he authorized the statement but said it was not designed to sway the jury. Apple had asked Koh to punish Samsung by ruling that Apple's phone design patents were valid, and had been infringed. Koh rejected that request but said there may be a post-trial investigation. "I will not let any theatrics or any sideshows distract us from what we are here to do," Koh said. The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, No. 11-1846. (Writing by Edwin Chan; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Bernard Orr, Gary Hill) =========================== Google bolsters voice search app for iPhone Wed, Aug 08 15:15 PM EDT By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc showed off enhancements to its voice-based search technology for Apple Inc's iPhone and said it was testing a new service that will combine its Web-based email with its search engine. The new version of Google's search app for the iPhone and iPad, expected to be available within a few days, will let users find information about everything from the weather to nearby movie showings by speaking into the devices, matching some of the capabilities offered by Apple's own Siri technology. Google's new app recites answers to search results in a human sounding voice, similar to Apple's Siri, which some analysts and technology observers believe could make iPhone users less reliant on Google's search service. The news comes as the relationship between the two companies grows increasingly competitive. On Monday Apple said it would no longer offer Google's YouTube app as a pre-loaded app in future versions of its iPhone. Google, which unveiled a version of the voice-based search app for its Android software earlier this year, showcased the version for Apple devices at a press event at its San Francisco offices on Wednesday. The company also announced a test version of a new service that will integrate users' personal emails into searches on the Google website. The service, which Google said will initially be available to 1 million users, aims to make it easier for consumers to access information such as flight schedules or shipping orders. A truly universal search will "have all the information that humanity has put on the Web and information that's your information," Amit Singhal, senior vice president of Google Search. The initial "field trial" will work with Google's Gmail, but Singhal said the company was open to working with other email providers. (Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Richard Chang) ==== 14 Sep, 2012, 04.40AM IST, HITESH RAJ BHAGAT ,ET Bureau iPhone 5: Critics not impressed with Apple's new model NEW DELHI: So Apple has announced the new iPhone, the taller, uber-sleek iPhone 5 with a faster processor. As has come to be a given, there was a great deal of speculation and anticipation prior to the event. Plenty of those who got a chance to use the iPhone 5 seem to have been touched by a bit of the famed Apple magic. So nothing has changed really. Or has it? For years, Apple events were the fountainheads of disruptions that shaped the industry. Rivals scrambled to catch up. The touch screen, the retina display, Siri, a form factor that kept getting better, the iTunes store, the app store with more and better apps than any other platform. But tech gurus around the world are saying something else now: that Apple's innovative disruptor status, guaranteed after every iPhone launch, is being challenged. Full Coverage on Apple's new iPhone "Although the 4S sold wonderfully for Apple and brought some interesting additions, few would argue against the suggestion that it opened the door for competitors," Patrick Goss wrote in Tech Radar. "Is the iPhone 5 going to sell like hot cakes? Of course. Will it send shock waves shuddering through the tech world and turn competitors back to their drawing boards? No." Samsung enjoys a 32.6% share of the global smartphone market, up from 17% last year, according to research firm IDC. The Galaxy S3 alone has sold 20 million units in under three months. Apple's smartphone market share slipped from 18.8% last year to 16.9%. After years of struggling to put out a credible competitor, Nokia last week unveiled the Lumia 920, a device with wireless charging, NFC (near-field communication) capabilities and a camera that was assessed by some tech watchers as even superior to rivals' offerings. That was the sentiment - the iPhone 5 not having features some of its competitors have - that informed Jessica Vascellaro's review in the Wall Street Journal, asking whether the new iPhone 5 is "boring". She added that "few heralded the new device as a great leap forward. What's more, the iPhone 5 doesn't have several features that are becoming standard across other smartphones, such as ways to pay with your phone or bigger screens". Some well-known tech gurus have other complaints. David Pogue in the New York Times made a point about the new Lightning connector on the new Apple devices, including the iPhone 5. "I'll grudgingly admit the Lightning connector is a great design...Still, think of all those charging cables, docks, chargers, car adapters, hotel-room alarm clocks, speakers and accessories - hundreds of millions of gadgets that will no longer fit the iPhone." "There is nothing here that leaves the Galaxy S3, the HTC One X or the Nokia Lumia 920 looking dated or out of touch," Shane Richmond wrote in London's The Telegraph. ====================== Apple iPhone 5 fever rages despite grumbling over maps Fri, Sep 21 21:18 PM EDT 1 of 13 By Poornima Gupta and Peter Schwartzstein SAN FRANCISCO/LONDON (Reuters) - Apple Inc fans queued around city blocks worldwide on Friday to get their hands on the new iPhone 5, pointing to a strong holiday season for the consumer device maker despite grumblings about the mapping app in the new smartphone. The iPhone 5 -- thinner, lighter and with a 4-inch screen -- went on sale in stores across the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia, with mobile carriers reporting record demand that looked likely to stretch Apple's supply capacity. "The line for the iPhone 5 was 70 percent greater than the line for the iPhone 4S despite Apple taking two (times) as many online pre-orders," said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. He expects Apple to sell 8 million of the new smartphones over the weekend. The long lines of excited buyers prompted optimism on Wall Street. Deutsche Bank raised its target on Apple stock to $850 from $775, saying "demand indicators are tracking very strongly." The iPhone is Apple's highest-margin product and accounts for half of the company's annual revenue. Apple shares were up 0.5 percent to $702 in afternoon trading in New York. JPMorgan estimates the phone could provide a $3.2 billion boost to the U.S. economy in the fourth quarter - a boost almost equal to the whole economy of Fiji. Apple's rival and component supplier, Samsung Electronics Co, tried to spoil the party, saying it plans to add the iPhone 5 to its existing patent lawsuits against Apple. Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPhone 5 last Friday and booked more than 2 million orders in the first 24 hours - double the first-day sales of the previous iPhone, the 4S. Shipping time for online orders is three to four weeks. Prices for the iPhone 5 start at $199 for a 16 GB model and range as high as $399 for a 64 GB model. As Apple began delivering the new phone, struggling competitor Research in Motion, which makes the BlackBerry, had to admit that it was once again having service problems in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The iPhone 5 supports faster 4G mobile networks and also comes with a number of software updates, including Apple's new in-house maps feature, which is based on Dutch navigation equipment and digital map maker TomTom's map data. But not everyone was impressed. Some users criticized the maps feature for a number of geographical errors, missing information, and a lack of features. And not everyone was thrilled with Apple's success. Hundreds of French iPhone fans lining up at Apple's main store in Paris got an earful from disgruntled store employees and others protesting against Apple policies. Marching in front of the Paris store were about 20 former staffers of independent Apple distributors that closed after struggling to compete with Apple's own stores. Joining them were three Apple store employees striking to protest Apple's refusal to offer staffers meal vouchers and a yearly bonus of an extra month's pay - perks that are standard for many French workers. In San Francisco, Apple store worker Cory Moll, who is seeking to start a union and is the founder of the Apple Workers Retail Union initiative, stood outside the main downtown store with a placard showing his support for the French workers and those who assemble Apple products in Asia. The line of buyers at the store wound around several blocks. A FLINTSTONE PHONE The launch drew crowds of customers at Apple stores worldwide. Hundreds of people lined up around the block at Apple's store on New York City's swanky Fifth Avenue. Kadijah Perez, 26, a Bronx resident, had not heard about the map issues. She said she wanted to use the phone for navigation, adding, "Hopefully, they'll just fix it." In Annapolis, Maryland, customers settled in lawn chairs waiting for the Apple store in Westfield Annapolis Mall to open. A man walking by quipped: "I'm beginning to believe (Mitt) Romney. The economy is bad. People are starving." Waiting in line for anything was a first for Annapolis resident Robert Delarosa, 37, who skipped buying the iPhone 4 due to bad reviews but is now tired of his iPhone 3GS. "I'm stuck with this old 3GS, a Flintstone phone," he said. In London's central Regent Street, about 1,300 people lined up to buy the iPhone 5, nearly twice as many as showed up for the previous iPhone. The iPhone 5 "is both the fastest and biggest selling iPhone to date on our network. Pre-order sales are up more than 50 percent compared to the iPhone 4S," a Vodafone UK spokesman said. In Germany, 19-year-old musician Okan Yasin had waited since lunchtime on Thursday to be at the front of the queue at the Frankfurt Apple shop. Proudly holding a sign saying "Ich bin Nummer 1" (I am Number 1), he said: "I just need to have it. I know that the new iPhone from a new features perspective hardly has anything extra to offer. But I just needed to be here. It's the hype, man!" In Australia, about 600 people queued around the block at the Apple store in Sydney, the first in the world to hand over an iPhone 5 to a buyer. Customers were limited to buying a maximum of two phones. In Tokyo, the lines stretched several blocks. "It's thin and light. I've used Samsung before, but the operation, the feeling, of the iPhone is better," said Wataru Saito, a semiconductor engineer who had been queuing in Tokyo since mid-afternoon on Thursday - with his suitcase, as he had a flight to catch on Friday. In Hong Kong, people carrying rucksacks filled with cash waited outside the city's main Apple store, hoping to snap up phones for resale. Staff there chanted "iPhone 5, iPhone 5." Most of those waiting were fans already hooked on Apple's earlier iPhones and best-selling iPad tablet computers. "I feel like if I leave it at home, I go a bit crazy," said James Vohradsky, a 20-year-old student who queued for 17 hours with his sister. "I can't do my normal day without it." Vohradsky said the iPhone 5's lack of a mobile payment chip was "a bit of a letdown." Apple did not embed Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, used to turn cellphones into mobile wallets, into the new smartphone. RUNNING OUT There was concern that not enough new phones were available to meet demand. Softbank and Singtel, Singapore's biggest mobile phone operator, said demand had exceeded previous offerings from Apple and there was worry the company would not be able to keep up. Japanese carrier KDDI Corp said it had already run out of the new phone, and Australia's Telstra Corp Ltd reported online orders sold out in a record 18 hours. Telstra said it was discussing bi-weekly restocking with Apple. Apple plans to sell the new phone in 100 countries by the end of the year, ramping up competition in a smartphone market that has already reached fever pitch. Apple is up against phones that run on Google Inc's Android software, which has become the most-used mobile operating system in the world, while Samsung has taken the lead in smartphone sales. (Additional reporting by Thuy Ong in Sydney, Venus Wu and Stefanie McIntyre in Hong Kong, Kevin Lim in Singapore, Harro Ten Wolde in Frankfurt, Gwenaelle Barzic in Paris and Kate Holton in London, Sinead Carew in New York, Tim Kelly in Tokyo and Medina Roshan in Annapolis.; Editing by Angus MacSwan and John Wallace) ===================================== Samsung allowed to sell Galaxy Tab in U.S. as court lifts ban Mon, Oct 01 23:33 PM EDT (Reuters) - A U.S. court removed a temporary sales ban against Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy Tab 10.1 won by Apple Inc in a patent dispute, allowing the South Korean company to sell the product in the United States. While the Galaxy 10.1 is an older model, the lifting of the ban could still help Samsung in the run-up to the pivotal holiday shopping season.
"We are pleased with the court's action today, which vindicates our position that there was no infringement of Apple's design patent and that an injunction was not called for," Samsung said in a statement. "The court does not agree with Apple that Samsung's motion for dissolution of the June 26 preliminary injunction cannot be fairly decided without resolving Apple's post-trial motions," Judge Lucy Koh said in her ruling.Separately, Samsung filed a motion against Apple saying the iPhone 5 had infringed on some of the company's patents. The world's top two smartphone makers are locked in patent disputes in 10 countries as they vie to dominate the lucrative market. The legal fight began last year when Apple sued Samsung in multiple countries, and Samsung countersued. The injunction on the Galaxy tablet had been put in place ahead of a month-long trial that pitted the iPhone maker against Samsung in a closely watched legal battle that ended in August with a victory for Apple on many of its patent violation claims. However, the jury found that Samsung had not violated the patent that was the basis for the tablet injunction and Samsung argued the sales ban should be lifted. The sole basis for the preliminary injunction no longer exists since the jury found that Samsung's Galaxy Tab had not violated Apple's D'889 patent. Apple could not immediately be reached for comment outside regular U.S. business hours. The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, No. 11-1846. (Reporting by Sakthi Prasad; additional reporting by Miyoung Kim in Seoul and Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bangalore; Editing by Chris Gallagher and Ryan Woo) ============ Insight: Apple and Samsung, frenemies for life Sun, Feb 10 14:52 PM EST By Poornima Gupta and Miyoung Kim and Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO/SEOUL (Reuters) - It was the late Steve Jobs' worst nightmare. A powerful Asian manufacturer, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, uses Google Inc's Android software to create smartphones and tablets that closely resemble the iPhone and the iPad. Samsung starts gaining market share, hurting Apple Inc's margins and stock price and threatening its reign as the king of cool in consumer electronics. Jobs, of course, had an answer to all this: a "thermo-nuclear" legal war that would keep clones off the market. Yet nearly two years after Apple first filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Samsung, and six months after it won a huge legal victory over its South Korean rival, Apple's chances of blocking the sale of Samsung products are growing dimmer by the day. Indeed, a series of recent court rulings suggests that the smartphone patent wars are now grinding toward a stalemate, with Apple unable to show that its sales have been seriously damaged when rivals, notably Samsung, imitated its products. That, in turn, may usher in a new phase in the complex relationship between the two dominant companies in the growing mobile computing business. Tim Cook, Jobs' successor as Apple chief executive, was opposed to suing Samsung in the first place, according to people with knowledge of the matter, largely because of that company's critical role as a supplier of components for the iPhone and the iPad. Apple bought some $8 billion worth of parts from Samsung last year, analysts estimate. Samsung, meanwhile, has benefited immensely from the market insight it gained from the Apple relationship, and from producing smartphones and tablets that closely resemble Apple's. While the two companies compete fiercely in the high-end smartphone business - where together they control half the sales and virtually all of the profits - their strengths and weaknesses are in many ways complementary. Apple's operations chief, Jeff Williams, told Reuters last month that Samsung was an important partner and they had a strong relationship on the supply side, but declined to elaborate. As their legal war winds down, it is increasingly clear that Apple and Samsung have plenty of common interests as they work to beat back other potential challengers, such as BlackBerry or Microsoft. The contrast with other historic tech industry rivalries is stark. When Apple accused Microsoft in the 1980s of ripping off the Macintosh to create the Windows operating system, Apple's very existence was at stake. Apple lost, the Mac became a niche product, and the company came close to extinction before Jobs returned to Apple in late 1996 and saved it with the iPod and the iPhone. Jobs died in October 2011. Similarly, the Internet browser wars of the late 1990s that pitted Microsoft against Netscape ended with Netscape being sold for scrap and its flagship product abandoned. Apple and Samsung, on the other hand, are not engaged in a corporate death match so much as a multi-layered rivalry that is by turns both friendly and hard-edged. For competitors like Nokia, BlackBerry, Sony, HTC and even Google - whose Motorola unit is expected to launch new smartphones later this year - they are a formidable duo. THE WAY THEY WERE The partnership piece of the Apple-Samsung relationship dates to 2005, when the Cupertino, California-based giant was looking for a stable supplier of flash memory. Apple had decided to jettison the hard disc drive in creating the iPod shuffle, iPod nano and then-upcoming iPhone, and it needed huge volumes of flash memory chips to provide storage for the devices. The memory market in 2005 was extremely unstable, and Apple wanted to lock in a supplier that was rock-solid financially, people familiar with the relationship said. Samsung held about 50 percent of the NAND flash memory market at that time. "Whoever controls flash is going to control this space in consumer electronics," Jobs said at the time, according to a source familiar with the discussions. The success of that deal led to Samsung supplying the crucial application processors for the iPhone and iPad. Initially, the two companies jointly developed the processors based on a design from ARM Holdings Plc, but Apple gradually took full control over development of the chip. Now Samsung merely builds the components at a Texas factory. The companies built a close relationship that extended to the very top: in 2005, Jay Y. Lee, whose grandfather founded the Samsung Group, visited Jobs' home in Palo Alto, California, after the two signed the flash memory deal. The partnership gave Apple and Samsung insight into each other's strategies and operations. In particular, Samsung's position as the sole supplier of iPhone processors gave it valuable data on just how big Apple thought the smartphone market was going to be.
"Having a relationship with Apple as a supplier, I am sure, helped the whole group see where the puck was going," said Horace Dediu, a former analyst at Nokia who now works as a consultant and runs an influential blog. "It's a very important advantage in this business if you know where to commit capital."Samsung declined to comment on its relationship with a specific customer. As for Apple, it reaped the benefit of Samsung's heavy investments in research and development, tooling equipment and production facilities. Samsung spent $21 billion (23 trillion won) on capital expenditures in 2012 alone, and plans to spend a similar amount this year. By comparison, Intel Corp spent around $11 billion in 2012, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) expects to spend $9 billion in 2013. But component expertise, cash and good market intelligence did not assure success when Samsung launched its own foray into the smartphone market. The Omnia, a Windows-based product introduced in 2009, was so reviled that some customers hammered it to bits in public displays of dissatisfaction. Meanwhile, Samsung publicly dismissed the iPhone's success. "The popularity of iPhone is a mere result of excitement caused by some (Apple) fanatics," Samsung's then-president, G.S. Choi, told reporters in January 2010. Privately, though, Samsung had other plans. "The iPhone's emergence means the time we have to change our methods has arrived," Samsung mobile business head J.K. Shin told his staff in early 2010, according to an internal email filed in U.S. court. Later that year, Samsung launched the Galaxy S, which sported the Android operating system and a look and feel very similar to the iPhone. STANDOFF Jobs and Cook complained to top Samsung executives when they were visiting Cupertino. Apple expected, incorrectly, that Samsung would modify its design in response to the concerns, people familiar with the situation said. Apple's worst fears were confirmed with the early 2011 release of the Galaxy Tab, which Jobs and others regarded as a clear rip-off of the iPad. Cook, worried about the critical supplier relationship, was opposed to suing Samsung. But Jobs had run out of patience, suspecting that Samsung was counting on the supplier relationship to shield it from retribution. Apple filed suit in April 2011, and the conflagration(large destructive fire.) soon spread to courts in Europe, Asia and Australia. When Apple won its blockbuster billion-dollar jury verdict against Samsung last August, it appeared that it might be able to achieve an outright ban on the offending products - which would have dramatically altered the smartphone competition. But Apple has failed to convince U.S. judges to uphold those crucial sales bans - in large part because the extraordinary profitability and market power of the iPhone made it all but impossible for Apple to show it was suffering irreparable harm. "Samsung may have cut into Apple's customer base somewhat, but there is no suggestion that Samsung will wipe out Apple's customer base, or force Apple out of the business of making smartphones," U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh wrote. "The present case involves lost sales - not a lost ability to be a viable market participant." Samsung, meanwhile, came under pressure from antitrust regulators and pulled back on its effort to shut down Apple sales in Europe over a related patent dispute. A U.S. appeals court recently rejected Apple's bid to fast-track its case, meaning its hopes for a sales ban are now stuck in months-long appeals, during which time Samsung may very well release the next version of its hot-selling Galaxy phone. THE WORLD IS OURS The legal battles have been less poisonous to the relationship than some of the rhetoric suggests. "People play this stuff up because it shows a kind of drama, but the business reality is that the temperature isn't that high," said one attorney who has observed executives from both companies. Still, the hostilities appear to have put some dents in the partnership. Apple is likely to switch to TSMC for the building of application processors, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs, Sanford Bernstein and other firms. But analysts at Korea Investment & Securities and HMC Securities point out that Apple will not be able to eliminate Samsung as a flash supplier because it remains the dominant producer of the crucial chips. Apple declined to comment on the details of its relationships with any one supplier. Meanwhile, both companies are deploying strategies out of the other's playbook as they seek to maintain and extend their lead over the pack. Samsung has developed a cheeky, memorable TV ad that mocks Apple customers, and dramatically ramped up spending on marketing and advertising, a cornerstone of Apple's success. U.S. ad spending on the Galaxy alone leaped to nearly $202 million in the first nine months of 2012, from $66.6 million in 2011, according to Kantar Media. For its part, Apple is investing in manufacturing by helping its suppliers procure the machinery needed to build large-scale plants devoted exclusively to the company. Apple spent about $10 billion in fiscal 2012 on capital expenditures, and it expects to spend a further $10 billion this year. By contrast, the company spent only $4.6 billion in fiscal 2011 and $2.6 billion in fiscal 2010. But Apple and Samsung retain very different strategies. Apple has just one smartphone and only four product lines in total, and tries to keep variations to a bare minimum while focusing on the high end of the market. Samsung, by contrast, has 37 phone products that are tweaked for regional tastes and run the gamut(A complete range or extent) from very cheap to very expensive, according to Mirae Asset Securities. The company also makes chips, TVs, appliances and a host of other products (and its brethren in the Samsung Group sell everything from ships to insurance policies). Apple devices are hugely popular in the United States; Samsung enjoys supremacy in developing countries like India and China. Apple keeps its core staff lean - it has only 60,000 employees worldwide - and relies on partners for manufacturing and other functions. Samsung Electronics, part of a sprawling "chaebol," or conglomerate, that includes some 80 companies employing 369,000 people worldwide, is far more vertically integrated. It is those differences, combined with the formidable strengths that both companies bring to the market, that may render quiet cooperation a better strategy than all-out war for some time to come.
Said Brad Silverberg, a former Microsoft executive who was involved in the Mac vs. Windows wars, "Apple had learnt a lot of lessons from those days."(Reporting by Dan Levine and Poornima Gupta in San Francisco, and Miyoung Kim in Seoul; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Tiffany Wu and Peter Cooney) ===========================
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