It may be Monday, but so it was eventful one, with Apple surprising everyone with the release of iTunes 10.5.1 with iTunes Match after a two-week delay. Demand for the service was apparently so strong that the company started dialing down new subscriptions, so if you’re one of those affected, spend a few of those moments getting caught up on the rest of the news for this Monday, November 14, 2011.
South Korea may be the home turf of Apple patent foe Samsung, but the company decided at the last minute not to pursue seeking an injunction to prevent Cupertino from offering the new iPhone 4S there, which went on sale last Friday. “We concluded that we should engage in legal battles with Apple only in the global market,” a spokesperson for Samsung explained, “but not in order to gain more market share in Korea.” According to AppleInsider, Samsung was concerned about public relations issues in its own backyard, but apparently has no such concerns abroad, having previously filed injunctions in both Italy and France to block the iPhone 4S there.
Before iCloud, there was Pogoplug, a company who produced hardware that essentially created your own personal cloud storage. While the company continues to release updated hardware, today they announced Pogoplug Cloud, a mobile-centric service which offers 5GB of free storage just for signing up from your mobile device or web browser. The service will soon be offered in 50GB and 100GB Premium services as well, for $9.95 or $19.95 per month, respectively. With a new update released today for the company’s iOS and Android mobile apps, you can even simulate Apple’s iCloud-based Photo Stream by automatically uploading new Camera Roll photos and videos to your Pogoplug Cloud account for immediate sharing by loved ones everywhere.
Now how’s this for a kick in the pants: According to a new report from market researcher The NPD Group, the top five best-selling smartphones for the third quarter of this year were none other than the iPhone 4 at number one and the iPhone 3GS at number two, followed by the HTC EVO 4G, Motorola Droid 3 and Samsung Intensity II. The company’s research claims 64 percent of U.S. consumers who “considered purchasing phones in the $200 to $250 price range” wound up spending less than $200, and suggests that retailers can “improve revenue numbers by focusing marketing efforts on selling more accessories.” The average selling price for a smartphone declined in Q3 to only $135.
According to The Next Web, India will be the next target country for Apple’s new iPhone 4S, which will launch there on Friday, November 25 through local carrier Aircel. The news comes from a report in The Times of India, with a second official iPhone carrier, Bharti Airtel, also cited as holding the launch. For their part, “Airtel stores across the country will be open overnight to celebrate the arrival of the phone and it will go on sale as soon as the clock strikes twelve at midnight on the launch day.” Sounds fun, if not exhausting.
AppleInsider is reporting that Apple appears to be headed for “another blockbuster quarter” with the Mac this holiday season. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is sharing data that shows Mac sales up 19 percent year over year in October, and estimates that as Christmas approaches, Apple could sell between 5.1 million and 5.3 million computers -- something like 23 to 28 percent year over year growth, and 18 percent of Apple’s overall revenue. Wall Street is looking for 5.2 million for the quarter, so the new data from The NPD Group certainly looks like everyone will have something to be joyful about this holiday season.
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