Apple Being Probed Over iPhone Planned Obsolescence in France

Natasha Lomas, writing for TechCrunch:

Programmed obsolescence is illegal in France under a 2015 law which prohibits “the use of techniques by which the person responsible for the marketing of a product aims to deliberately reduce the duration to increase the replacement rate “.

The law carries a penalty of a maximum sentence of two years in prison and up to 5 per cent of a company’s annual turnover.

AFP cites a judicial source stating that the Paris prosecutor’s office of the Directorate General of Competition, Consumption and Repression of Frauds opened a preliminary investigation against Apple on January 5, for “programmed obsolescence” and “deception”.

This whole thing is getting pretty nasty for Apple now.

January 9, 2018 ✚ Permalink

Official India Pricing for iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, Apple TV 4K and Apple Watch Series 3

Apple today announced a new generation of iPhone models at its annual keynote event in Cupertino. This year, the company held its iPhone launch event at the newly constructed Steve Jobs Theater in its swanky new HQ — the Apple Park. From what I’ve seen in the photos and heard from friends who were lucky enough to attend the event, the Steve Jobs Theater looks every bit as stunning as you’d imagine.

Unlike the keynote event WWDC 2017 which was jam-packed, today’s keynote event felt purposefully natural and deliberate. Tim Cook and other Apple executives seemed in no hurry to finish a demo or move on to the next slide. It was also quite a bit weird to see them stutter when delivering the lines, which leads me to believe that the keynote either wasn’t rehearsed that well or they just didn’t find the time to.

Apple announced the following products today:

  • iPhone X
  • iPhone 8
  • iPhone 8 Plus
  • Apple TV 4K
  • Apple Watch Series 3

I’m still going through the material made available after today’s announcements and will be posting my thoughts, comments, and observations here very soon. In the mean time, here is the official pricing of all the products announced today.

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September 13, 2017 ✚ Permalink

My Journey Towards My First iPhone

It was exactly 10 years ago today, on June 29th, 2007, that the original iPhone went on sale. Although it was first introduced and demoed on stage by Steve Jobs back in January 2009, it didn’t actually go on sale till June that year. Today, irrespective of which mobile platform you primarily use, there’s no denying that the iPhone has completely revolutionized the mobile phone industry.

On its 10th anniversary, I decided to take a look back at some of my original tweets about the iPhone from 2007-2008.

I joined Twitter on 15th August, 2007, a couple of months after the iPhone went on sale in the US. Back then, I had just purchased a new Mac — the old white Mac mini, and was getting used to the joy and delight of using Max OS X Tiger. Coming from Windows, this was a fascinating new world for me, and I was hooked.

On the other hand, the iPhone didn’t catch my attention till the end of 2007. Sure, I had read about its launch and its featured, but back then, India as a country was nowhere on Apple’s radar and there was no chance that Apple would start selling the iPhone here (They didn’t).

My first tweet about the iPhone was congratulating someone on her purchase of an iPhone:

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June 29, 2017 ✚ Permalink

Tim Cook on India during Apple’s Q1 2017 Earnings Call

Apple had their quarterly earnings call yesterday where they announced record first quarter results. The company posted all-time record quarterly revenue of $78.4 billion (compared to $75.9 billion in Q1 2016) and all-time record quarterly earnings per diluted share of $3.36 (compared to $3.28 in Q1 2016).

iPhone and Mac sales and revenue are up, whereas iPad sales and revenue is down compared to the year-ago quarter. Revenue from Apple’s Services business and from Other Products (includes Apple Watch and Apple TV) are also up.

During the earnings call, Brian White from Drexel asked,

I didn’t hear much mentioned about India. How did India perform with the iPhone, and how should we think about it for 2017, especially with the 4G network going up?

Tim answered,

That’s a really good question. Despite the de-monetization move in India that created lots of economic pressure there last quarter, despite that, we had all-time record revenue results. And so we were very happy about that. The de-monetization impact has not worked its way through yet; it’s still definitely having some overhang, but I think in the longer term, it’s a great move. I feel really good about how we’re doing there. We are in discussions on a number of things, including retail stores and fully intend to invest significantly in the country and believe it’s a great place to be.

[Via iMore]

February 1, 2017 ✚ Permalink

Federico Viticci’s Two Weeks with the iPhone 7

Federico Viticci from MacStories has published his thoughts about the iPhone 7 after spending two weeks exclusively using the new iPhone 7. It’s interesting that Apple chose to send him the Gold iPhone 7 model for review, considering he’s been using the Plus models for the last 2 years.

I started testing the iPhone 7 thinking that a small phone could no longer fit in my daily life, and I’m still going to upgrade to an iPhone 7 Plus. But using the iPhone 7 also made me appreciate the meaning of changes that will reshape the iPhone platform going forward – something that’s more significant than endlessly debating what we left behind.

The iPhone 7 is a bold step towards a future we can start understanding today.

My journey with the iPhone began with the very first iPhone, after which I jumped to the iPhone 3GS, then iPhone 4, followed by iPhone 5, and presently have an iPhone 6. The obvious upgrade would be the iPhone 7, but this year, I’ve been considering going for the Plus model, specifically the iPhone 7 Plus 128GB in Black. Too bad it’s currently out-of-stock at most retailers, online and offline.

October 10, 2016 ✚ Permalink

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.

March 23, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Gruber’s iPhone 6s Review

Of all the reviews that I’ve read so far, John Gruber has the best take on it over at Daring Fireball.

This part was particularly interesting:

I have only two bad things to say about 3D Touch. First, Apple missed an opportunity to borrow a great feature from Apple Watch. On Apple Watch, you can force touch in the notification list and you get an option to Clear All. 3D Touch has no effect in iOS 9’s notification list, and there remains no way to clear all notifications at once.

Downright lunacy there, Apple. Come on!

September 23, 2015 ✚ Permalink

Samsung’s Profit Sinks 39%, Hit by Bigger iPhones

Samsung Electronics Co. said its first quarter net profit plunged 39 per cent as consumers switched to bigger iPhones, squeezing earnings from its mobile business to less than half what they were a year earlier.

The company reported Wednesday that its January-March net profit was 4.63 trillion won ($4.35 billion), compared with 7.49 trillion won a year earlier.

Ouch!

April 29, 2015 ✚ Permalink