So much for a slow news week on the Apple beat! There’s plenty to report about everyone’s favorite tech company today, between antitrust fines in Italy, new iPhone 5 rumors, activations for both iOS and Android on Christmas Day and even the debut of the iPhone 4S in mainland China. Ready to soak it all in? Read on for all the news that’s fit to print for Tuesday, December 27, 2011.
Reuters is reporting that Italian regulators have fined Apple and its subsidiaries there with a fine of 900,000 EU “for failing to adequately inform customers about their rights to product guarantees and assistance.” That amounts to about $1.2 million, which is a slap on the wrist for Apple, who allegedly failed to properly disclose that its products came with a two-year warranty under Italian law, instead pushing their customers to purchase AppleCare at additional cost, which just so happened to overlap with the required warranty period. Apple Sales International, Apple Italia and Apple Retail Italia were all targeted in the antitrust complaint.
It’s not even the end of the year yet, and already the crazy train has left the station with rumors about next year’s iPhone. According to BGR, “a close source” is revealing that Apple plans to stick to its new autumn release schedule for the iPhone 5, which is said to “use a rubber or plastic material -- similar to the material used in the company’s bumper cases -- that will be built into the new iPhone case.” The assumption here is this material “will be used as a bezel surround the front edge of the phone,” serving two purposes: First, to join the glass screen to a new aluminum back, and also to “cover a redesigned antenna system that surrounds the device.” The back case is said to echo the look of the company’s iPad 2, and also sticks with recent rumors that the display size will increase to “around four inches.” We’re just happy to hear there won’t be another new iPhone come June… whew!
It’s not much of a surprise to learn that the App Store gets a huge spike in sales on Christmas Day, as new iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users unwrap their gifts and get down to cashing in the gift cards that likely came with them. So how many new devices were activated? According to Flurry, both iOS and Android appear to have had a record-breaking Christmas Day this year, with 6.8 million devices activated on December 25, compared to an average of 1.5 million each day between December 1 and 20. That’s a 353 percent increase -- a huge spike compared to last year’s Christmas Day activations of 2.8 million devices and a 140 percent increase year over year. Flurry Analytics are used in more than 140,000 apps, which are said to detect roughly 100 percent of all new iOS and Android devices activated each day.
AppleInsider is reporting that all systems are go for Apple to debut the iPhone 4S in mainland China sometime before Monday, January 23, 2012 -- which is ironically the start of the Chinese New Year. According to China’s People Daily, Apple received “China Compulsory Certification” for the handset from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on December 22, the last piece of the logistics puzzle prior to a launch of the device “at the beginning of January, 2012” -- which undoubtedly means the Chinese New Year, rather than the one we’ll be enjoying this weekend. The iPhone 4S already made its debut in Hong Kong back in early November where it sold out immediately, so mainland China looks to be the next major coup for Cupertino.
The government may have rebuffed AT&T’s attempts to absorb rival T-Mobile, but it had no problem landing some additional spectrum from Qualcomm this week. According to Engadget, AT&T has completed its acquisition of a big chunk of the 700MHz spectrum which once powered the ill-fated FLO TV. AT&T paid out a cool $1.9 billion to Qualcomm and plans to repurpose those radio waves for their fledgling LTE network, a mere five days after being granted approval of the deal. It may not be as sexy or exciting as gobbling up T-Mo, but those data-hungry LTE lovers among you might still have something to be excited about.
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(Image courtesy Flurry Analytics)
