Apple iPhone 4S release: live

The launch of the iPhone 4S last week was overshadowed by two things. Foremost was the death of Apple's co-founder and charismatic leader, Steve Jobs.
Jobs' failing health had been the only cloud on Apple's horizon in recent years. His death was not

unexpected - yet its abruptness was still a shock, as Jobs only stepped down as Apple CEO in August.
The other shadow to fall on the iPhone 4S was the sense of disappointment felt by some. This was not at all surprising: the hype around Apple product launches is now so great, and the level of - mostly uttterly incorrect - speculations so furious, that anti-climax is inevitable.
Frankly, if Apple were to announce it had created a perpetual motion machine and also harnessed nuclear fusion to produce limitless energy - unboxing the Holy Grail as its 'one more thing' - the event would still be greeted by seismic rumblings of discontent.
No surprise then that the iPhone 4S launch was dubbed "disappointing" and a "damp squib". Cupertino's shares even dipped on the revelation that Apple had not, as expected by scores of tech watchers, brought forth the fabled iPhone 5 after all.
The tech press' collective 'meh' was almost audible, not least because the gadget hounds have spent the past year predicting the arrival of the iPhone 5. And now their iPhone 5 vigil begins anew: another year of waiting, hyping and writing another thousand iPhone 5 stories. Little wonder they are blue.
But don't be deceived by this spectre of anti-climax. There's nothing shabby about the iPhone 4S. On the contrary, it's a very respectable update to a very popular smartphone.
Early indications suggest mobile consumers aren't fazed by the lack of the iPhone 5. Apple has racked up record pre-orders for its latest iPhone iteration. On Monday it announced iPhone 4S pre-orders had exceeded one million in the first 24 hours since the device was made available. This compares to 600,000 day-one pre-orders for last year's model, the iPhone 4.
If the iPhone 4S is disappointing there are an awful lot of technology companies that can only dream of being so dismal.
But let's play devil's advocate and ask exactly what features gadget hounds were hoping the mythical iPhone 5 would usher in? Earlier this year, silicon.com's sister site CNET News.com made a fine list of the top 20 most-wanted iPhone 5 features.
Top of this wish list was 4G support - a next-generation network technology that hasn't even been rolled out in the UK, since the spectrum required to underpin it hasn't gone under the hammer yet. So does the whole world - that is, not just the US where 4G has been rolled out - need a 4G iPhone? No, not yet.
Another coveted feature according to the list was near-field communications (NFC) - a technology that enables contactless payments and content sharing between NFC-enabled devices. Again, the infrastructure required to render NFC useful to the masses, rather than an innovative gimmick for the techie few, is not yet in place. In the UK, for instance, around 40,000 retailers accept contactless payments - so that's an awful lot of shops that don't.
On the NFC content-sharing front, RIM has just announced it will incorporate a 'tap to share' system called BlackBerry Tag into the next update of its smartphone OS. There's no firm launch date on this - and RIM's handset portfolio currently includes just two NFC handsets - so finding another NFC-owning BlackBerry user to contactlessly share content with is going to take considerably longer than contactlessly sharing the content itself.
Technology features in and of themselves are meaningless. What matters is whether they contribute something positive to the user experience. Which is why saying no to emerging technologies such as NFC is the right decision for Apple at this time.
It's also why, when Apple upgraded the iPhone's camera to eight megapixels, rather than cramming more megapixels atop the same sensor, it included a larger sensor to ensure better quality pictures - not just a spec sheet bump. Unlike other companies that play spec sheet top trumps - often in a misguided attempt to leapfrog Apple - Apple prioritises the user experience. That's not a bug, it's a feature - arguably Apple's defining feature.

AT&T Airs "4G" New BlackBerries With BlackBerry 7 OS; Launch in August(Photos)

"4G"-ready Torch is the first model to be revealed

According to Canalys Principal Analyst Chris Jones, Canadian phonemaker Research In Motion Ltd. (TSE:RIM) desperately needs to "continue to innovative and recapture lost momentum."  Today RIM made

the first step towards that goal, but the question will inevitably whether it will be enough to right the ship. 

RIM's partner carrier AT&T, Inc. (T) today pulled the wraps [press release] over RIM's next generation BlackBerry 7 OS series, to launch this August.  The first model revealed might look a bit familiar -- it's the BlackBerry Torch with a slight hardware refresh.

The previous Torch -- the BlackBerry Torch 9800 -- came out approximately a year ago, in Aug. 2010 and was the first BlackBerry 6 OS device to launch.  Despite falling a bit short of expectations, the Torch saw decent sales and placed sixth in IBTimes's 2010 list of top smart phones.

The new Torch -- the "4G" BlackBerry Torch 9810 -- adds a 3.5G HSPA+ modem (which AT&T rebrands as "4G"), for faster data traffic.  It also significantly bumps the processor trading the slow 624 MHz Marvell Tavor PXA940 for an 1.2 GHz model from an undisclosed manufacturer.  The NAND flash memory capacity is doubled from 4 GB to 8 GB.  

The camera sticks at 5 MP, but it appears to have some sort of improvements as it can now take 720p video, versus the previous model which could only record at up to 480p.  The display looks identical to the previous model at 3.2-inches.

AT&T describes RIM's new BlackBerry 7 OS, writing:

BlackBerry 7 OS delivers speed, efficiency and UI enhancements and enables new hardware capabilities, including HD video recording, more fluid and responsive graphics, digital compass, and augmented reality. Browsing with the new BlackBerry 7 based smartphones is up to 40% faster than BlackBerry® 6 based smartphones and up to 100% faster than BlackBerry® 5 based smartphones.

Intriguing, AT&T also announces a coming Torch-branded smart phone that's all touch screen.  Hopefully RIM can pull this one off and deliver a solid all-touch phone this time around.  Its only full-touch effort to date has been the problem-plagued Storm, which became the bunt of many a joke, even among RIM supporters. (To be fair, the second generation Storm did offer some modest improvements.)  The new phone is branded the "4G" BlackBerry Torch 9860.

AT&T also announced a coming refresh of the popular "Bold" series.  The new model will be branded the "4G'" BlackBerry Bold 9900.  AT&T did not reveal any hardware details about the Bold 9900 or Torch 9860.

According to a preview in Engadget, the Bold 9900 will feature very similar specs to the new Torch, with a larger 2.8-inch display, a 1.2 GHz processor, a 720p-ready 5 MP camera, and a 10.5 mm thin case (on par with the iPhone 4).

Android Hits 39% Smartphone Share, iOS at 28%: Nielsen

Apple's iOS-based iPhone is still in second place, but rose to 28 percent from 27 percent in May and 26 percent in April.

While Android leads by dint of massive exposure across multiple OEMs selling handsets in the United States

and all over the world, Apple remains the top smartphone maker in the United States with that 28 percent share.

HTC is No. 2 with 20 percent in the United States, including 14 percent of Android phones and 6 percent of Windows Mobile/Windows Phone 7 gadgets.

Motorola is No. 3 with 11 percent of all Android phones. Samsung follows at a total of 10 percent U.S. share, with 8 percent of Android phone sales and 2 percent of Windows Mobile/WP7 sales.

In other Nielsen smartphone market share updates, Research In Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry continued to lose share for June, accounting for 20 percent share. That's down from 21 percent in May and 23 percent in April.

Smartphones based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7 accounted for 9 percent of the U.S. market as the company continues its gradual transition of replacing Windows Mobile in favor of WP7.

The company just shipped its WP7 "Mango" version, which is well regarded by reviewers, to manufacturing. Mango phones will hit the market en masse this fall.

For now, though, the smartphone market features two faster horses at the top: Android and iOS. There are two forthcoming events that could shape the future market share of both platforms this fall.

First, Samsung is expected to launch its well-regarded Galaxy S II smartphones, which sold 5 million units in a few countries, through AT&T and Verizon Wireless in the United States this August.

Second, Apple is expected to launch its iPhone 5 in September or October. The device should be faster, feature better cameras and could feature a virtual assistant and facial recognition perks.

Samsung needs to have a good U.S. launch in order for Android to continue its momentum; Apple's iPhone must do the same for iOS.  

UPDATE 1-RIM nears 2-year low after recalling some Playbooks

* RIM recalls 1,000 PlayBook tablets on flawed OS

* Shares near lowest since March 2009

(Adds share move, RIM statement, analyst quote)

TORONTO, May 16 (Reuters) - Research In Motion

(RIM.TO)(RIMM.O) shares neared a two-year low on Monday after

the BlackBerry maker said it had recalled about 1,000 of its

Playbook tablet computers due to an operating system flaw.

The Canadian company has been dogged by troubles in recent

months, disappointing investors by slashing sales and earnings

forecasts soon after revealing a weak earnings outlook.

[ID:nL3E7FT284]

RIM said the batch of 16 GB devices were shipped with "an

OS build that may result in the devices being unable to

properly load software upon initial set-up."

The PlayBook runs a QNX platform RIM bought last year and

plans to migrate into its new smartphones starting in 2012.

"It probably doesn't move the needle financially but it's

just another blemish from an execution standpoint," Avian

Securities analyst Matthew Thornton said of the recall.

Most of the affected devices were still in distribution and

had not reached customers, RIM said in an emailed statement.

The faulty batch was sent to office supply chain Staples

Inc (SPLS.O), technology blog Engadget reported on Saturday.

Staples did not respond to requests for comment.

RIM's Nasdaq-listed shares fell as low as $42.61, just 9

cents above an August 2010 trough. A fall below $42.52 would be

the lowest price since March 2009 and give the company a market

capitalization of $22.2 billion.

The shares have lost a quarter of their value this year.

RIM hoped the launch of the long-awaited PlayBook tablet

could revive its fortunes, but the product garnered poor

reviews and complaints it had been rushed out before it was

ready. [ID:nN19146402]

Its aging BlackBerry smartphone lineup has steadily lost

market share, especially in the hyper-competitive U.S. market,

to snazzier devices such as Apple's (AAPL.O) iPhone and a slew

of devices running Google's (GOOG.O) Android software.

RIM is expected to ship some 3 million PlayBooks this year,

far fewer than the 15 million iPads rival Apple shipped in a

similar period last year to single-handedly create a market for

touchscreen devices halfway between a smartphone and a laptop.

In April, RIM cut its first-quarter earnings outlook citing

fewer smartphone shipments, particularly in the United States

and Latin America, formerly a strong growth market for RIM as

it expanded globally. [ID:nN28282063]

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp in Toronto and Renju Jose in

Bangalore; Editing by Frank McGurty)

RIM Longtime Bulls Turn Bearish Saying Slide Could Hit 38%

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM)’s cut to its profit forecast has prompted some longtime bulls to lower their ratings on the shares and slash their price targets to as much as 38 percent below the stock’s close before the warning.

At least five analysts dropped their ratings for the stock after RIM said earnings would be lower than what it had forecast a month before. Mike Abramsky, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto, who has had an “outperform” or “top pick” on RIM since January 2009, cut his rating to “sector perform” and his price target to $55 from $90.

“We were wrong,” Abramsky said in a research note yesterday. Coming four weeks after providing guidance, “this warning raises questions about RIM’s visibility into its own business.”

Peter Misek, an analyst at Jefferies & Co., cut his rating on the stock to “underperform” after recommending investors “buy” or “hold” the shares since at least 2005. RIM’s reduced forecast suggests the company may have delays in getting phones it introduces at an annual trade show next week into stores, which will only turn off carriers and consumers, he said.

“RIM’s falling mindshare and its continued execution- related delays is souring its relationships with carriers,” Misek, who is based in New York, wrote in a note. He cut his price target from $80 to $35, or 38 percent lower than the stock’s closing price on April 28.

RIM fell $7.94, or 14 percent, to $48.65 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market trading, for the biggest drop since September 2009. The stock has lost 16 percent this year.

Apple and Google

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company is struggling to compete against Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOG) in the smartphone market. RIM’s share of global smartphone sales fell to 14 percent in the fourth quarter from 20 percent a year earlier, according to the British research firm Canalys. The share for devices that run Google’s Android operating system more than tripled to 33 percent, and Apple was unchanged at 16 percent.

RIM, which will hold an investor day alongside the BlackBerry World event in Orlando, Florida, next week, must convince investors it has come up with products that can compete with Apple’s iPhone and Android devices, said Paul Taylor, chief investment officer at BMO Harris Private Banking in Toronto.

“Management needs to deliver on the product side,” said Taylor, who manages about $14.5 billion, including RIM and Apple shares. “That includes competitive next-generation smartphones and building out the app library.”

‘Aging’ BlackBerrys

Apple offers more than 350,000 software applications, or apps, and Google’s Android Market has more than 150,000, compared with more than 25,000 in BlackBerry App World.

Co-Chief Executive Officer Jim Balsillie told analysts on a conference call on April 28 that he wished the new products would come sooner to replace current BlackBerry devices.

“The issue is an aging that happens in your higher-end products and it affects margin,” Balsillie said. “All things being equal we would love to have these products earlier and not be having this call. Because it’s such a big upgrade, it takes longer.”

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company said April 28 that profit will be $1.30 to $1.37 a share this quarter, instead of $1.47 to $1.55. RIM said BlackBerry shipments will be at the lower end of the range of 13.5 million to 14.5 million it projected last month, and the mix of devices will shift toward cheaper models.

The company said full-year earnings will be about $7.50 a share, after projecting earnings in excess of $7.50 last month.

‘Lost Confidence’

“The investment community was already skeptical about the full-year guidance of $7.50 and this gives them reason to be more skeptical,” said Michael Walkley, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity Ltd., who has a “hold” rating on the stock.

Cormark Securities Inc.’s Richard Tse, who has had an “outperform” or “sector perform” rating since at least October 2008, cut his recommendation to “reduce.” Gleacher & Co. Securities’ Stephen Patel and National Bank Financial’s Kris Thompson also reduced their ratings on RIM.

“We’ve lost confidence in RIM and don’t see this as a one- time miss,” said Thompson.

Sameet Kanade, an analyst at Northern Securities Inc. in Toronto, suggested the company should consider adopting Android for its consumer devices to stay competitive. He also said RIM should scrap its two-CEO structure.

“It is apparent that this dual structure is not working at RIM,” he wrote in a note. “We contend that a change in management structure is required and believe the vote is clearly in favor of Mr. Mihalis ‘Mike’ Lazaridis, who is the technical brains behind the company.”

iPhones and Android phones building vast databases for Google and Apple

Apple and Google are using smartphones running their software to build gigantic databases for location-based services, according to new research following the Guardian's revelations that iPhones and devices running Android collect location data about owners' movements.

iPhones and Android smartphones swap data – which does not contain information directly identifying the user or the phone – back and forth with their respective companies if the user agrees to use "location services".

The news has led some European governments to announce investigations into whether Apple is breaking privacy laws.

Samy Kamkar, a hacker and researcher, has shown that Android phones, which run on software written by Google, collect the location data every few seconds and store it in a local file, but also transmit it to Google several times an hour.

This functionality is almost certainly used in any phone that provides mapping services, meaning that similar files will exist in some form on all smartphones, including those from Nokia and BlackBerry-maker RIM. It is not known whether these models synchronise data from the phone to the companies' servers as well as storing it locally on the handset.

Sources familiar with Google's systems said the location data was used to help the phones orient themselves by identifying nearby mobile phone masts and wi-fi sources and comparing them with Google's own database, with which they are synchronised continually. The file is also updated so that if the mobile signal is interrupted – for example when the user is on a train and goes into a tunnel – it will be able to re-establish contact more quickly by knowing which towers are in the vicinity.

Apple and Google are collecting the data, which amounts to an international map of the locations and unique identities of cell towers and wi-fi networks, to improve targeting of their adverts based around mobile phones.

In a letter to the US congress last July, Apple confirmed it collected the data and said that, in order to be useful, "the databases [of tower and network locations] must be updated continuously".

The value of location-based services, which feature advertising, is reckoned to be $2.9bn (£1.75bn) already and forecast by the research group Gartner to grow to $8.3bn by 2014.

In 2009, Google itself pointed to the value for users of having Android phones upload real-time location data to its servers, suggesting it could give "a pretty good picture of live traffic conditions". It said: "We continuously combine this data and send it back to you for free in the Google Maps traffic layers. It takes almost zero effort on your part – just turn on Google Maps for mobile before starting your car."

A Google spokesman said Android phones explicitly asked to collect anonymous location data when users turned them on.

Apple iPhones and iPads also ask whether users want to have "location services" turned on, and the iPhone licence has a passage that says Apple "and its partners and licensees" may transmit, collect, maintain, process and use location data, including the real-time geographic location of the iPhone, though it points out that this is anonymised and can be disabled by turning off the "location services" feature.

However, even if users disable location services, the iPhone and Android phones are believed to continue storing locations of cell towers and wi-fi networks in what is known as a "neighbour list".

Google's list is limited to the most recent 50 cell masts and 200 wi-fi networks, while Apple's list is retained for up to a year. Sources close to Apple have suggested the long-term retention may be an error which it will correct in a future software update.

Privacy advocates fear that although the data is anonymised, the Apple data is not encrypted and could be misused by law enforcement or others who wanted to capture information about someone's movements.

One security researcher, Alex Levinson of Katana Forensics, said on Thursday that US law enforcement had already made use of the location data recorded by the iPhone in investigations.

Some police forces, such as those in Michigan, already carry readers that can copy all the files from a smartphone even if it is protected with a password, and that it has been used on motorists stopped for minor traffic violations. The American Civil Liberties Union says such examination amounts to an "unreasonable search", which would be illegal in the US.

In Germany, the Bavarian Agency for the Supervision of Data Protection said it would examine whether and why Apple's devices were capturing the information, and that it had asked Apple for more information.

"If it is true that this information is being collected... without the approval and knowledge of the users, then it is definitely a violation of German privacy law," Thomas Kranig, the agency's director, told the New York Times.

Italy and France are expected to do the same. France's data protection authority suggested that a major source of concern would be over whether Apple transferred any of the data to any commercial partners. "If the information is marketed without the knowledge of the consumer, it is much more serious," Yann Padova of France's CNIL said.

• This article was amended on 22 April 2011. The previous version stated that some European governments had announced investigations into whether both companies are breaking privacy laws

BlackBerry to Match Apple on the Price of Its Tablet (Photos)

OTTAWA — Research In Motion challenged Apple on Tuesday by announcing that its BlackBerry PlayBook would be sold at the same price as the iPad 2.

But the success or failure of the BlackBerry tablet, which will have a base price of $499, is unlikely to be determined in the aisles of Best Buy, Staples, RadioShack or the other retailers that will begin offering it on April 19. Many analysts believe that the PlayBook’s main customer base, like that of the original BlackBerry smartphone, will be corporations and government buying in bulk at a discounted price.

“Maybe ‘PlayBook’ is a misnomer,” said Tony Cripps, an analyst with Ovum, a unit of Datamonitor, who is based in London. “R.I.M. would be crazy not to maximize its advantages in the enterprise market.”

The PlayBook will be the first tablet that is directly price-competitive with Apple’s offering. By comparison, both the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy Tab cost more than the iPad 2. Hewlett-Packard, which is also expected to sell its TouchPad tablet to corporations, has not yet announced the price of its device.

While Best Buy began accepting advance orders for the PlayBook on its Web site on Tuesday, the primary buyers of the PlayBook are unlikely to be paying retail. From the first days of the BlackBerry hand-held, R.I.M. carefully cultivated relationships with the information technology departments within corporations and governments. Its products have long included security and control features that are of more interest to people who run computer systems than to the employees using the BlackBerrys.

Jeff Orr, an analyst with ABI Research, said that R.I.M. had been consulting with its large customers about the PlayBook for several months. “They’re playing to a market where they definitely have a closer relationship than Apple,” Mr. Orr said.

That has produced some initial corporate interest. Sun Life Financial, a large insurance and financial services company in Toronto, has agreed to buy about 1,000 PlayBooks and said that it had already developed an application for the devices.

But beyond the identical prices, R.I.M. and Apple have taken several different approaches to their tablets. The PlayBook, for example, has a 7-inch screen compared to the iPad 2’s 9.7-inch display. But unlike the iPad 2, the PlayBook can display Web pages that use Adobe Flash software. and it has a much higher resolution camera for video and still photography.

At first, the PlayBook will be available only in a version that connects to the Internet through Wi-Fi. R.I.M. has said that more advanced, and costly, models for use on wireless carriers’ networks will be available from Sprint this summer. Following Apple’s lead, R.I.M. said that in addition to the base model with 16 gigabytes of memory, the PlayBook will be offered as a 32-gigabyte version for $599 and a 64-gigabyte model for $699.

Despite the embrace of the iPad by consumers, the demand from businesses and governments for tablets remains, at best, unclear. “It’s still very, very early stages,” said Mike Abramsky, an equity analyst with RBC Capital Market, a unit of the Royal Bank of Canada, who said that small businesses currently accounted for most nonpersonal use of tablets.

Still, Mr. Abramsky expects that sales to corporations and governments will account for about 30 to 40 percent of all tablet sales by the end of 2012.

Mr. Abramsky said that many corporations would probably prefer the PlayBook because of their history with the BlackBerry smartphone. But at the same time, he said he also expected that companies would find ways to integrate iPads and tablets based on Google’s Android operating system, if for no other reason than to accommodate employees who bring their personal devices to work.