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iTablet Goes OLED, Bumped Into Late 2010?

J.R. Bookwalter — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:36:35 -0600

ZDNet’s Jason D. O’Grady has some further details on the rumors coming out of China this week regarding Apple’s mysterious “iTablet.”

Following up on the DigiTimes report that the tablet has been delayed from March, 2010 to the second half of the year, component makers have claimed that the delay is the result of Apple’s decision to offer a 9.7” OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) version with a panel from LG Display.

OLED offers a number of compelling benefits over traditional TFT (Thin Film Transistor) displays, among them a greater range of colors, gamut, brightness, contrast and viewing angle. OLED pixels directly emit light, unlike LCD displays, which use a backlight and are incapable of showing true black. OLED is also more energy-saving — when the elements are off, they produce no light and consume no power, where LCDs require polarizers filter out about half of the light emitted by the backlight.

All this OLED magic isn’t cheap. DigiTimes estimates that with 9.7” panels currently tagged about $500, Apple’s OLED tablet will cost between $1,500 and $1,700 — and that’s just the cost to manufacture! The retail price will be upwards of $2,000, even factoring in the likelihood that component costs will drop next year.

But as O’Grady concludes, “The good news is that the 10.6” TFT-based version should retail for a much more manageable $800 - $1,000 as has been rumored for quite awhile.”

Uh-Oh: Apple Suppliers Violating Company’s Conduct Codes

J.R. Bookwalter — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:50:07 -0600

Like any large corporation with a lot of wheels in motion all over the world, Apple Inc. spends a considerable amount of time, energy and hard-earned dollars making sure its manufacturing partners are enforcing their strict codes of conduct. But a recent report finds that the company may have a long way to go.

According to 9to5Mac.com, factory workers in consumer electronics manufacturing overseas already have a tough go of it when compared to their U.S. counterparts. Most of them make less than a dollar an hour in wages, can be let go without any reason (or even a warning), work in sweatshop-like conditions and have few rights to challenge their conditions.

As such, Apple and other high-profile tech companies devote a lot of time to making sure their contracted suppliers follow established codes of conduct, regularly conducting audits of those factories to catch abuse.

“Our audits are done across all our suppliers,” explains Apple spokesperson Jill Tan. “It’s a pretty rigorous process, and we take corrective actions as and when required. We audit aggressively, and post all results on our website.”

But according to Apple’s supplier responsibility update in February, 2009, the company’s own findings indicate that nearly 60% of the suppliers are actually violating their code of conduct, both on work hours and days off.

Among the violations are underpayment for overtime and deducting salary as punishment, but Apple also discovered that some factories were falsifying records, employing underage workers and hiring laborers who had paid “recruitment fees” exceeding the legal limit.

The update doesn’t establish which steps are being taken to rectify the current situation, but a five-part special report coming from GlobalPost, including interviews with workers in Taiwan, the Phillippines and southern China, is expected to shed more light on the situation soon enough. Stay tuned.

Chinese App Store Rapidly Expanding

J.R. Bookwalter — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:30:48 -0600

Against all odds, the iPhone’s recent launch in China is proving to have modest success in at least one area, according to The Wall Street Journal — the App Store.

Apple has faced a number of challenges launching its ubiquitous handset in the Chinese market, faced with having to remove Wi-Fi from official iPhones and a large installed black market for unlocked and jailbroken devices already in use there. Worst among these are reports of slow launch sales of the official iPhone, but despite this, the Chinese App Store is still holding its own.

“The market for legitimate Chinese iPhone apps is small but surging,” the report claims. “[Chinese mobile application company 9thQ] estimates about $1 million worth of legitimate iPhone apps have been sold so far this year, though the market could reach $6 million by next year. By comparison, mobile advertising firm AdMob says about $200 million in apps are sold overall through Apple’s store each month.”

Games are proving to be among the most popular apps for China, which is no surprise given their universal appeal. “We have to consider what kinds of games are appealing to users from the West and the East,” said Mao Guangcan, chief executive of Beijing-based Colome Info Tech Co. “Sometimes, games we developed for Western users turn out to be bestsellers in app stores in China.” Their English-language prospecting game, Gold Miner, is generating nearly $59,000 per month in App Store sales.

Chinese iPhone owners are required to have a credit card issued by a Chinese bank if they want to purchase App Store content, which creates another challenge for Apple since few Chinese actually have such cards in everyday use. At present, most apps are in English, with prices in U.S. dollars instead of Chinese yuan.

“Once Wi-Fi is allowed on future 3G iPhone and the price of handsets falls due to product life cycle, more subsidies or economies of scale, we will see the iPhone market in China go mainstream,” summarizes Frank Yu, chief operating officer of app designer Shouji Mobile.

Apple Engineer Visiting China More. Wonder Why?

J Keirn-Swanson — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:30:19 -0500

I guess if I were working for a company manufacturing some kind of long-awaited killer new product, and if I were an engineer, I'd probably be on a lot of plane flights to where the manufacturers are.

Hmmm...now where are Apple products made again?

Source: Gizmodo

Oh, that's right. All the manufacturers mentioned in conjunction with the mythical (possible/likely?) Apple tablet are all based in Asia. And according to Alaska Miller at The Business Insider, a source tells them that a friend of his working for Apple as a system integration engineer keeps making all these trips to China.

What's more, apparently, this friend doesn't even get to count on the Christmas holiday season without a vacation to the Pacific rim for a couple of weeks. That does sound important, now doesn't it?

If this is legit, it sounds like Apple's got something close to completion they'd like to roll out relatively early in the new year. Why am I somehow doubting it's a retooled line of iMacs?

China to Get Two iPhone Carriers?

Cory Bohon — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:42:25 -0500

While Apple has reportedly already made deals with China Unicom to carry the iPhone starting in the fourth quarter, a new report has the fruity company eyeing China Mobile as a second carrier for the huge country.

PCWorld is reporting that a spokesperson for China Mobile has stated that Apple and the company are currently in talks to carry the iPhone. The plan wouldn't be without two hitches though. China Mobile's demands to have their own App Store and the use of their non-standard, domestically used 3G network could pose problems. China Mobile does support the GPRS standards of the first-gen iPhone.

PCWorld via AppleInsider

iPhone Negotiations in China

JC Domingo — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:50:07 -0500

The iPhone continues to attract new, and veteran, smartphone consumers everyday. Too bad the country that produces many of the parts of the extremely popular smartphone doesn't even sell it. Fortunately for the Chinese market, they may have a shot of obtaining an official iPhone soon. Apple Executives are allegedly in China negotiating an iPhone deal with Unicom. A Chinese source for Sina.com, a Chinese tech website, said;

"[Apple Execs'] visit aims to visit senior officials of China Unicom and discuss with them how iPhone should enter [the] Chinese market."

The source adds that they will meet with seniors of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), who is responsible for the regulation and development of technology of the People's Republic of China. AppleInsider says that the new iPhone can operate on the GSM/WCDMA networks, working onthe 900MHZ, 1700MHz and 1900MHz bands.

Greg Joswiak, vice president of iPod and iPhone product marketing, is expected to lead the meeting in China. Last time, Li Gang, the vice president of China Unicom visited the US to try to work out a negotiation. The International Business Times say that the deal is obvious, given that Apple reported in March that 13.7 million iPhones have been sold in 80 countries. Further evidence shows the iPhone going through the entry-net test, according to China Telecommunication Technology Labs (CTTL).

Apple's sales numbers could skyrocket with China Unicom on board. The carrier is 170-percent larger than AT&T, but is only the second largest in China, according to AppleInsider.

Unicom Making Deals For iPhones In China?

Danny Estrada — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:57:30 -0500

CNN's Fortune has whipped up reports of Unicom's negotiations with Apple to bring the iPhone to China, a 3 year exclusive contract to be a little bit more exact. But, another report out of China is claiming that Unicom has made no such deal, and is still in negotiations with Apple. Just like the mythical beast the Unicorn, this story is getting harder to believe. Fortune has been pointing fingers at Shanghai Security News that made claims that Unicom has in fact reached a deal.

AFP and Reuters reported what China Unicom's spokesperson told them: that the two companies were still in negotiations and no agreement had been reached (something, by the way, any company dealing with Apple will say before Cupertino has had a chance to break the news itself).

iPhoneAsia has also gone on to challenge the claim that no deal has be made, and provides details on the alleged agreement and gives a launch date of sometime in September. iPhone Asia reports:

- The Apple and China Unicom deal will be a 3-year exclusive.*
- The iPhone will be customized for the China market (e.g. Chinese language and preloaded with "for China" apps).
- China Unicom will pay Apple 3,000 CNY ($439 USD) per unit.
- China Unicom will subsidize iPhone by pricing the iPhone below the 3,000 CNY paid to Apple. This would take the official iPhone price below the grey-market price for smuggled iPhones.
- China Unicom has promised to sell a minimum 1 million units per year with significantly higher sales targets.
- The iPhone for China will make use of Apple's China App Store.

*There is no mention of the terms of exclusivity, such as whether this will be for all iPhones or just 3G models. (leaving the door open for an unlocked 2G model in 2010/11 for all carriers).

At this rate, until an official release from Unicom is announced, the possibility of China getting the iPhone is as real to us as our neighbor claiming to have seen BigFoot, which we all know exists. We just haven't seen him in person because he's shy.

Via MacRumors

Unlocked iPhone 3GS Sold Online in Hong Kong

JC Domingo — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:32:21 -0500

The iPhone 3GS is now available in the Online Apple Hong Kong Store, requiring only the right SIM card of any GSM carrier. The 16GB version is available at HK$5,388 ($695), the 32GB version at HK$6,288 ($811)--both offered in black or white.

Hong Kong currently is the only city in China to carry iPhones, including unlocked iPhone 3G models since 2008. The remainder of the country should begin receiving them by the end of the year, according to MacNN.