The Joy of Tech: iPhone’s on First?
Nitrozac and Snaggy have this hilarious take on Apple’s iPhone product lineup over at The Joy of Tech.
For the uninitiated, this is a reference to the Abbott and Costello sketch, Who’s on First.
Apple Watch Gets a Price Cut in India
Alongside the announcement of iPhone SE and 9.7-inch iPad Pro at the Special Event held yesterday at the company’s Town Hall in Cupertino, Apple also announced a new Space Black Milanese Loop and a new range of Woven Nylon bands for Apple Watch. During the presentation, Tim Cook also announced that the Apple Watch pricing now starts at just $299. This price change only affects the Sport models, with the 38mm version now priced at $299 (previously $349) whereas the 42mm version is now priced at $349 (previously $399). Both versions get a price cut of $50 each, which is about INR 3350.
Thanks to this, the Apple Watch pricing in India has been reduced as well. The Apple Watch was officially launched in India back in November, with the price starting at Rs. 30,900 for the 38mm Sport version and Rs. 34,900 for the 42mm Sport version.
After yesterday’s price cut announcement, Apple has confirmed that the 38mm Apple Watch Sport is now priced at Rs. 25,900 in India, while the 42mm version is now priced at Rs. 29,900. That’s a reduction of Rs. 5000 ($75) on the previous MRP.
It’ll take a while for this new pricing to be reflected across Apple’s retail presence in the country. The pricing of the Steel models as well as Apple Watch Edition remains unchanged.
Apple is Hiring a Country Manager for App Store, Apple Music & iTunes Stores for India
I have a habit of keeping an eye on Apple’s job listings for India, hoping to come across something relevant that I can apply for. Over the last few months, it seems Apple has been on a hiring spree as I’ve seen all kinds of roles being listed, especially for Apple’s new tech development centre coming up in Hyderabad. All of the roles listed for Hyderabad are related to the Maps team, while other cities have had roles ranging from Sales, Marketing, PR, Business Strategy and even Big Data Frameworks.
Today, I came across a certain listing that really caught my attention. Apple is hiring a Country Manager, India — App Store, Apple Music, iTunes.
Apple is seeking a dynamic business leader with an impeccable track record in the entertainment and technology industries to drive its growth in India.
The role is interesting to me due to a lot of factors, most notably because the role is based in Dubai. Apple says,
The candidate will be responsible for the App Store, Apple Music and iTunes business, personnel and strategy implementation for this key market, as well as fortifying exceptional relations with the developer, music, movies, technology and media sectors in the region. The candidate will have strong and established relationships within the Indian technology, music, movies, entertainment and media industries in India, and will be able to lead Apple’s relationships with the Bollywood and regional movie studios, record labels and artistic talent communities.
The mandate is to deliver high revenue growth from premium content services as the Indian population connects to faster and cheaper data connections. He or she will also help to build a strategy for the distribution of Indian apps and content globally.
Apple’s recent hires have indicated that the company is pushing for a stronger focus towards the Indian market and this role only strengthens that belief.
Some other interesting roles Apple has listed in the past include Affordability Program Manager, Thermal Architect and Business Manager — Online Channel. As of this writing, Apple has 34 open positions listed on its job site.
The 2015 Panic Report
Panic‘s Cabel Sasser has a wonderful rundown of how the year 2015 was for them as a team and for their apps, as well as what 2016 is poised to be like.
In 2015, we watched our processes and systems improve dramatically as our talented team took ownership of parts of our puzzle that suited them best. We got an all-in crash-course on the business and creative challenges of developing a cross-platform video game, something we’ve always wanted to attempt. We saw some experimental notions get put on hold, while others expanded. And we shipped a couple of great new apps and stretched our creativity. It was, all told, a great year.
Coda 2 for iOS and Status Board 2 were incredible updates to the already stellar apps and it’s quite interested to read about how much effort was put into their apps, including QnA.
This might bake your noodle: we shipped 35 updates across all six Mac and iOS apps by the end of 2015.
However, this following bit was really disheartening to read:
iOS Revenue. I brought this up last year and we still haven’t licked it. We had a change of heart — well, an experimental change of heart — and reduced the price of our iOS apps in 2015 to normalize them at $9.99 or less, thinking that was the upper limit and/or sweet spot for iOS app pricing. But it didn’t have a meaningful impact on sales.
More and more I’m beginning to think we simply made the wrong type of apps for iOS — we made professional tools that aren’t really “in demand” on that platform — and that price isn’t our problem, but interest is.
I’m a big fan of their apps. Panic’s apps are “pro” apps that help you get serious work done. Coda for iOS was $10 at launch, but I’d have gladly paid upwards of $50 for it, simply because it helps me earn and/or save far more than that. The unfortunate thing about it is that there are very few people like me out there — essentially the demand isn’t as much as Panic would like.
Apple Seeks Approval to Open Own Stores in India
ETtech this morning is reporting that Apple is seeking DIPP nod to open own stores in India.
Apple India has filed an application to open its own Apple branded stores in India with the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Confirming the development, DIPP Secretary Amitabh Kant said, “We have just received Apple’s proposal. We are examining it.”
Back in November 2015, I had reported how Apple Stores in India may soon be possible after the Government of India had issued a press release announcing FDI reforms across 15 sectors, following which the DIPP had considered making exceptions in “certain high technology segments”.
Seems like Apple’s going for the kill.
Samsung to Pay Apple $548 Million in Patent Dispute
Katie Benner on The New York Times:
In a joint statement filed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on Thursday, the two companies said that Samsung had agreed to make the payment in accordance with a partial judgment in Apple’s favor handed down in September.
Apple in Talks to Offer Money Transfer System
Dawn Chmielewski and Jason Del Rey reporting for Re/code:
The Cupertino, Calif.-based technology giant is in talks with several big U.S. banks to develop a digital payments system that would let people send money to each other via their phones, similar to services offered by PayPal and its subsidiary Venmo, according to multiple people familiar with the talks.
Federico Viticci’s iPad Pro Review
Federico Viticci’s mammoth review of iPad Pro is now available on MacStories. Viticci has some great insights on using it as your primary device, so make sure you settle down before you start reading it.
The iPad Pro is positioned as a more productive take on the iPad for those who need to get work done on it. My recommendation couldn’t be more straightforward: if iOS is your main computing platform, or if you plan to turn an iPad into your primary computer, you’ll want an iPad Pro. Its powerful hardware, multitasking interface, and extensible nature are superior to every other iPad. I don’t see myself using a Mac as my primary computer ever again.