Posted by iPad Watcher Staff in News
on Jul 23rd, 2010
During a conference call LG’s CEO Kwon Young-Soo stated that his company is having trouble keeping up with the demand for iPad displays, despite the fact that its factories are working at full capacity. It seems that Apple was not the only company taken by surprise by the high demand that met the iPad’s release.
According to LG the supply of iPad displays will continue to be tight until early 2011. Back in March news came out that Apple had contracted with Samsung for 3 million LCD panels for the iPad in addition to 10 million that had been ordered from LG. It is possible that Apple...
Posted by iPad Watcher Staff in News
on Jul 23rd, 2010
In both Singapore and Hong Kong the demand for the iPad was very strong as it went on sale this Friday. In New Zealand initial demand seems to have been weaker as there was no clear information available on where the device would be available.
In Hong Kong many people coming into stores to try to get a shiny new iPad were disappointed in finding that the best they could do was to put their names into multi-page waiting lists. It seems that Apple’s Hong Kong resellers have no issues with people who want to buy large quantities of iPads, as they don’t seem to have problems in dispatching...
Posted by iPad Watcher Staff in Apps, General
on Jul 22nd, 2010
About two days ago people started talking about Flipboard. Really talking a lot. So much so that many people, including me, have found it very hard to try it out. Just last night I noticed a tweet from the other side of the planet in which the editor of readwriteweb.com commented that he too couldn’t try it because Flipboard was over capacity.
This problem should give you an indication of just how interesting a concept Flipboard really is. In short, Flipboard collects information from your Twitter and Facebook (other Social Networks may be supported) feeds and uses it to bring all the...
Posted by iPad Watcher Staff in General
on Jul 21st, 2010
In a conference call yesterday, discussing the company’s quarterly results, Apple executives confirmed that the iPad is still selling just as fast as they manage to manufacture it.
Apple has been making efforts to increase the production of iPads, but as the device becomes available in new markets the general availability remains constraint. At most locations, it is very difficult to find the exact model you are looking for, as the lower cost models sell just as soon as they arrive, with stores making lists of interested customers to be notified on availability.
Apple’s results also...
Posted by iPad Watcher Staff in News
on Jul 19th, 2010
Apple has confirmed that the iPad will be made available in nine more regions this week. If you have been waiting to get an iPad you might finally get the chance, if you live in one of the following places: Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore.
Of course, if sales do as well as in these areas as elsewhere you might have to be alert to catch an iPad on the store shelves. At many locations it is still hard to just walk into an Apple store and find the exact model you are looking for. At several locations only the most expensive 64GB 3g...
Posted by iPad Watcher Staff in News
on Jul 15th, 2010
Apple has made available an update to the iPad’s operating system. With this update the version of the operating system goes from 3.2 to 3.2.1, but its name changes to iOS to match how it was already being called in version 4. iOS 4 for the iPhone has also been updated to 4.0.1.
The iPad update includes updates to wireless connectivity, a fix for a problem that could cause video playback to freeze and other small fixes. This update also adds Bing as a search option in Safari.
Posted by iPad Watcher Staff in General, Rumors
on Jul 15th, 2010
A post on Boy Genius Report has got an immensely blown up picture of what the configuration screen of FaceTime should like on the iPod Touch. Earlier today the habitual rumors about the presence of a camera on the next generation iPod Touch were circulating and this seems to tie in rather nicely with the configuration screen which is supposedly from the developer seed of iOS 4.1 which shows that FaceTime will use and email to identify the user for the purpose of placing video calls.
It is not recent news that Apple has experimented with adding a camera to the iPod Touch in the past. A couple of...
Posted by iPad Watcher Staff in General
on Jul 14th, 2010
I stumbled on this interesting article on CrunchGear that lists a series of iPad would be competitors that either never made it to the market or simply didn’t live up to the expectations. Going over the list I was reminded of a post that I wrote several months ago and which called for a reality check on the iPad competitors.
Companies that think they can just graft a touch screen onto a netbook and consider it a tablet are living in a land of fantasy. Any initiatives in this direction can only lead to ultimate failure and a lot of money poured down the drain.
CrunchGear’s list includes...
Posted by iPad Watcher Staff in General
on Jul 14th, 2010
Scott Forstall, Apple’s VP for iOS, has created a Twitter account. So what?!
Apple, as a matter of policy, discourages its employees from blogging or engaging in other forms of public communication due to its secretive approach to new products. While I don’t expect the company to move away from that secretive posture that has become one of its most distinctive characteristics, but it might signal that the company will open another line of communication with the community, other than press-releases.
Any additional information coming out of Cupertino will be welcome, but right now...
Posted by iPad Watcher Staff in General
on Jul 8th, 2010
With the new iPhone 4 Apple introduced a new video conferencing application that allows users to place video calls directly from their phones, through WiFi networks. While people have been able to do video conferencing through several other means for quite a while, this is the first time that it has been made so easy on a device which not only is very portable, but is already in the hands of millions of people within a few weeks of its introduction.
This widespread availability of the FaceTime application may have huge implications for future versions of the iPad and competing devices. Recently...
Posted by iPad Watcher Staff in General, Rumors
on Jul 6th, 2010
It seems that several analysts decided to publish new guesses about how Apple’s sales did last quarter. Among these guesses was one which was a presented by more than one analyst and which suggested that Apple may have increased production of iPads to 2 million units a month.
Apple is scheduled to introduce the iPad in nine new countries this month and it would seem only prudent to continue increasing production as there is no sign that demand is slacking off in the countries where the device is already available and it is more likely than not to face high demand in the new markets.
Just today...
Posted by iPad Watcher Staff in General, News
on Jul 1st, 2010
The first iAds from Apple are here. Today is the first day of actual operations of Apples new mobile advertisement network and a video of how one of the first ads created work has been posted to YouTube. I’ve embedded the ad video below so that you can check it out. This ad is for the Nissan Leaf, a 100% electric car.
iAd has an impressive concept, but we still have to see if users will engage with the ads as much as Apple expects them to.
I look forward to seeing the first numbers on the effectiveness of these ads. This one is certainly very...
Posted by iPad Watcher Staff in General
on Jul 1st, 2010
With the numbers for May out it is clear that the iPad is the best device around for Web browsing as it managed to blaze past Android’s usage share in just 3 months. The iPad single handedly beat all Android devices combined. This is certainly a reflection of the fact that there are not real competitors to the iPad that are running Andorid, yet. This should change in a few months as some other manufacturer manages to get their act together and produce a decent Tablet computer equipped with Google’s mobile OS.
At that point the iPad should start to see real competition but until...
Posted by iPad Watcher Staff in News
on Jul 1st, 2010
This week Hulu announced a new service called Hulu Plus which will allow users to watch full seasons of TV Series and movies on their iPads, iPhones and iPods. This new service will not be free, carrying a monthly fee of $9.99. This service will also be accessible from other devices such as Sony’s PS3, laptops and even LCD TVs.
This service is a change in business models for Hulu who had been relying solely on advertising in shows it made freely to registered users to generate revenue. With this change the company introduces a premium service which offers access to more content but the...
Posted by iPad Watcher Staff in General, Rumors
on Jun 30th, 2010
A lot of people are complaining about reception issues with the iPhone 4, while a lot of other people say they have had no issues at all. I won’t take sides here to say that there are issues or not, but I will presume for the sake of argument that they do in fact exist.
How could such a serious issue such as this go undetected to the point where the phone has not only gone into production but actually sold millions of units? Let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that Apple hasn’t sold millions of the iPhone 4. Their original sales announcement stated that they had sold over 1.7...