Apple sets-up online Store in China to Boost Sales

Apple has launched a new online store for China in the company’s latest move to reach users in the Chinese market. The store features free shipping for its products. The Chinese-language site allows users to buy a range of Apple products, including the iPhone 4, which sold out across stores in China last month. Third-party products are also available on the store.

The company has also started to offer its popular App Store in simplified Chinese Mandarin, the written language predominately used in mainland China.

The world’s biggest technology company by market value last month started selling the iPad and the latest version of the iPhone in China, and added two stores in Beijing and Shanghai. Competition in the Chinese consumer electronics market is increasing as China’s Lenovo Group Ltd. and Huawei Technologies Co. offer rival smartphones.

According to research firm Analysys International, in China, shipments of iPhones followed those of smartphones running on Nokia Oyj’s Symbian operating system, and handsets equipped with Google Inc.’s Android software in the first half.

Lenovo, China’s biggest personal-computer maker, started selling its LePhone handset this year and Huawei, the country’s largest producer of phone equipment, rolled out its Ideos device. Both products run on the Android operating system.

19% of All Mobile Phones Shipped in 2Q Were Smartphones

Smartphones have become the first choice for the new generation people. ­According to a research by ABI, smartphones made up 19% of all handsets shipped in the second quarter; that represents a 12% increase over the first quarter, and a 50% jump compared to the same quarter in 2009.

According to senior analyst Michael Morgan, these remarkable growth rates are being driven by falling (often heavily subsidized) handset prices. Cost is no longer much of an obstacle: One of the key remaining barriers to smartphone adoption in subsidized markets is now the cost of the data plan rather than the cost of the handset. 10% would normally be considered very good QoQ growth, but in the smartphone segment that would now be considered lackluster. The battle for supremacy is now escalating at a feverish pitch. The market is exploding but there are so many players and so many operating systems that the question becomes, Can this market structure be sustained? Most observers say no: it needs to boil down to three or perhaps four key operating systems.

Additionally, the huge numbers of smartphones now connected in the US – especially iOS and Android models – are creating network capacity concerns that are sucking the value out of the mobile ecosystem.

Apple shipped about 8.4 million iPhones in Q2, of which about 3 million were iPhone 4 models that only launched a couple of weeks before the end of the quarter. Q3 results were even more impressive, posting a 68% quarter-over-quarter growth.

HTC also did very well, with shipments growing from 3.3 million to 5.3 million units the by the start of the third quarter, and its improvement continued through Q3.

As per Morgan, RIM recently launched its latest OS but, RIM hasn’t seen the full benefit of its OS launch yet, with QoQ growth moving only from 10.5 to 11.2 million shipments.

iPhone 4 Contract Pay Cheap With O2 And Vodafone

iPhone 4 Contract are latest available with the O2 mobile phone network in which the monthly minutes that you can have are 100 with any of the service provider and Unlimited text with 1GB of Internet allowances. The Contract period is of 24 months with this tariff. At the monthly cost of £25.00 and you can buy the iPhone 4 at £323.00. The Orange mobile phone network is there with the tariff in which you can have the maximum monthly minutes up to 3000 with any of the service provider and can also have 500 monthly texts with this. And Internet allowances up to 750MB with free iPhone. The monthly cost that you have to pay for this is little bit more its, £75.00.

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The T-Mobile phone network is with 100 monthly minutes with any of the service provider and can have Unlimited monthly text also with 500 MB of Internet allowances. The mobile phone cost is £329.00 with this tariff and the monthly cost will be £25.00.The Three mobile phone network is with the tariff in which the monthly cost you have to pay will be  £45.00 with 2000 monthly minutes with any of the service provider. The 5000 monthly text is there with this tariff and 1.00 GB of Internet allowances. With the simple and sober tariffs you can avail some of the very attractive and audacious plans like you can also have the instant cash back offer .
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Sony Ericsson records Q3 profit on smartphone sales

As per the recent reports, Sony Ericsson recorded high net profit in the third quarter, owing to the success of its smartphones as well as new product launches and cost cuts.

Lower sales volumes, however, disappointed market watchers who had hoped for a rise. The L.M. Ericsson and Sony Corp. joint venture shipped 10.4 million units in the July-September period, down 26%year-on-year and 5 % from the quarter before.

Shares in Ericsson dropped 1.6% to US$10.81 in early Stockholm trading.

Sony Ericsson recorded the profit of $70 million higher than last year, Revenues fell slightly to euro1.6 billion from euro1.62 billion, as a 34%  jump in the average selling price to euro154 could not make up for the lower shipping volumes. Selling prices were down 4% compared with the second quarter.

According to CEO Bert Nordberg, company’s overall performance is stabilizing. The company’s strategy to focus on the smartphone segment is succeeding and smartphones now comprise more than 50% of the total sales. The company had launched its Android-based Xperia models in new markets, including both China and the U.S. in the quarter. It is the company’s ambition to become the global number one handset provider on the Android platform.

According to Sony Ericsson, its unit base market share remained flat compared with the second quarter — at around four percent — while the value market share is at around 6%.

The group also kept unchanged its forecast for units in the global handset market for 2010, saying it expects slight growth.

According to Helena Nordman-Knutson, an analyst with Ohman Fondkommision in Stockholm, the report was worse-than-expected, with the volumes being the main disappointment. The competition out there is extremely tough right now and you have to have new phones all the time, pointing to launches by Samsung as well as Apple Inc.’s new iPhone 4.

Apple releases iOS 4.2 beta 3 for Developers

Apple has released its latest version of its iOS 4 operating system for developers, the iOS 4.2 beta 3. The new application is added with new features highlighting customizable tones designed to alert users when text messages arrive.
Additional updates include new iPhone 4 wallpapers and enhanced restrictions settings for the Game Center multi-player gaming platform, like expanded controls for adding friends. Apple supposedly immobilized its new AirPlay wireless media streaming solution for applications including YouTube, Photos and Videos.
Game Center restrictions have also been added to iOS 4.2. The users have the option to customize their friend-list. The new update will be compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and looks set to be available from next month.

Vodafone, O2 to sell iPhone 4 in Germany

O2 and Vodafone have decided to offer the iPhone 4 to their customers in Germany. The announcements signal the end of exclusivity for Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile unit, which has been the sole German iPhone carrier since its launch in the country in 2007.

According to reports, O2 and Vodafone will begin sales of the iPhone within the next two weeks, widening the retail-distribution base for the handset ahead of the holiday shopping season.

Neither O2 nor Vodafone have yet provided details on their iPhone tariffs; however, T-Mobile said that it will soon terminate a rate plan designed for iPhone users, and will instead offer all smartphone users in Germany lower rates or more value for the money.

The new pricing structure, which will come into action on 3 November, will apply to all the customers who have ordered an iPhone and will receive it after that date. However, existing iPhone customers will have to wait for the end of their contract before they can take advantage of the new prices.

iPhone shipments fall as Android persists to gain

According to the research conducted by iSuppli, iPhone shipments plunged by 4% during the second quarter as handset makers offering Android-powered smartphones continue to enjoy the fastest growth.

As per the Figures available reveals that Apple shipped 8.4 million handsets worldwide during Q2 as compares to 8.8 million in the previous quarter.

If compared with HTC, its shipments increase 63.1% consecutively to 4.9 million from 3.0 million in Q1, which shows its market share increased from 5.3% to 8%.

According to Tina Teng, senior analyst for wireless communications at iSuppli, in a research note, every brand that has put effort into designing smartphones using Google’s mobile operating system is riding the Android wave. From the spectacular growth of HTC and Samsung, to the steady advances of Motorola, Android is the secret sauce for smartphone growth for many companies in 2010.

In fact, Samsung’s smartphone shipments increased 55.6% during the Q2, increased from 1.8 million in the first three months of 2010.

According to iSuppli, Apple’s decline in the second quarter was because of the transition from the iPhone 3GS to the iPhone 4. The iPhone 3GS was reaching the end of its life, causing sales to drop off, meanwhile, Apple had trouble keeping up with iPhone 4 demand, resulting in the small decline in shipments. Nokia maintained its number one position in the smartphone rankings, shipping 24 million units in the second quarter, up from 21.5 million in Q1. The Finnish handset giant’s market share grew sequentially to 39.7% from 38.5%.

AT&T Increases Smartphone Early Upgrade fees (USA)

If you are an AT&T customer and planning to upgrade your AT&T smartphone before your two-year contract be ready to pay extra as the company has increased upgrade pricing options. The carrier has increased its early upgrade fee from US$75 to US$200.

According to reports, AT&T has raised its smartphone early upgrade fee to US$200 on top of the new two-year contract price. Before October 3, when the new policy went into effect, it was US$75 to upgrade your smartphone before the 18-month mark in a two-year contract.

According to the company, the change will not be applicable to Apple’s iPhone or basic and quick-messaging phones. When Apple released the iPhone 4, the existing users who are using their phones for less than 12 months will have to pay US$100 more to get the upgraded smartphone. But according to Apple chief Steve Jobs, AT&T would subsidize iPhone customers upgrading to the iPhone 4 up to six months earlier than their current upgrade date.

An AT&T spokeswoman confirmed that the notice posted on BGR was legitimate.

AT&T pointed to the BlackBerry Torch, which costs US$199.99 with a two-year contract, is now available at US$399.99 for customers who agree to early upgrades. The no-commitment price is US$499.99, so a customer will save US$100 providing they don’t mind adding more time onto their contract.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will appear at the Center for American Progress in D.C. on Oct. 13 to discuss the steps the commission is taking to avoid bill shock and unveil the findings of a new white paper on the topic.

Vodafone launches iPhone 4 in Malta

Vodafone has launched the iPhone 4 in Malta today. Vodafone will propose customers in Malta a range of tariff plans customized specially for iPhone customers.

According to the company, the iPhone 4 features FaceTime, which makes video-calling a reality, and Apple’s new Retina display, the highest resolution display ever built into a phone, resulting in super crisp text, images and video. It also features 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, HD video recording, Apple’s A4 processor, a 3-axis gyro and up to 40% longer talk time, in a beautiful all-new design of glass and stainless steel that is the thinnest smartphone in the world.

The iPhone 4 also includes  iOS 4, the newest version of the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, which covers over 100 new features.

iPhone 4 Hardware Configuration Leaked by Foxconn?

Chinese technology sites have published what seems to be the hardware configuration of Apple’s newest version of the iPhone. Some people are also calling it the iPhone HD.

According to the sites that revealed the news, the new iPhone will have a new generation of touch display, a professional IPS / FSS LCD screen with a resolution of 960 x 640 pixels (the actual iPhone models have a resolution of 320—480 pixels) that will be much thinner (about 33% thinner), allowing a much longer battery life, and a much more improved screen display that will improve the user experience.

Battery life will also be improved by the 19% larger battery that will be included in the new version of iPhone. Also, the device’s performance will be improved by the 512 megabytes of Samsung memory used in order to make the device work smoother.

Other sources say that the new iPhone 4 will have a new camera with HD recording capability and flash (not Adobe Flash), a frontal camera that will allow video conferencing and probably over 32Gb of storage space.

The source at Foxconn said that the company is going to manufacture 24 million units of the next generation iPhone. The hardware configuration is not confirmed how could it be only hours before Steve Jobs’ keynote at the WWDC 2010.

Editor’s note: Please wait for final confirmations until later this evening.