BlackBerrys ripe for the picking as Apple falls far from the tree

Week in Tech And next-gen transport gets Hyperlooped

  

If we had to sum up this week in sounds, wed choose two. One would be a sad clown playing an out of tune piano being thrown down a stairwell, and the other would be a high-pitched whooshing sound.
The sad clown noise comes from Blackberry, the once-proud smartphone giant thats just put itself up for sale.
The official phrase is that a special committee will "explore strategic alternatives to enhance value and increase scale", but realistically Blackberry is standing on the high street offering three pairs of socks for a pound.
How did it come to this? Gareth Beavis knows: "If you dont move with the times, youll be overtaken and consumed by technological vultures feasting on the juciest bits of your once-cutting-edge carcass." We know, we know, thats pretty dark. You should have seen the stories he wrote in primary school.
Its easy to blame the iPhone for Blackberrys demise, but the problems go back further: the 2002 Quark combined calling and email, and while it was "the future" it was "also the companys downfall".
"The mantra if it aint broke, dont fix it must have been emblazoned on the walls," says Beavis: RIM (as it was then known) "eschewed 3G, took ages to add cameras or Wi-Fi to its devices and even managed to mess up the touchscreen when it finally tried to rival the iPhone with the Blackberry Storm."
Blackberry is a company packed with talent, but all too often its timing sucks.

Going steady or falling apart?

Its not that Apple is in trouble, its that the world is impatient

Guess who else is supposedly in trouble? Thats right: Apple, because nothing says "disaster" like being the most valuable technology company in the world. But there is trouble in paradise.
The board is getting jittery and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison reckons history will repeat - "we saw Apple with Steve Jobs, we saw Apple without Steve Jobs," he says. But billionaire investor Carl Icahn says Apple is "extremely undervalued."
Who to believe? Kate Solomon agrees that "Jobs is a tough act to follow," but Tim Cook should ignore calls to do something fast. "No," Solomon counsels. "Do something great." Its not that Apple is in trouble, its that the world is impatient.
"Like you, I want magic," Solomon says. "At any tech launch, Im hoping for something that will cause my eyes to widen and an involuntary "Oh wow!" to slip out. I want it to do something useful, I want it to work perfectly, I want it to look gorgeous and I want it to be awesome. And hey, thats going to take a bit of time."
Something else thats taken a bit of time is Windows 8.1, but its nearly done now and youll be able to get it in October. The cunningly named Windows 8.1 will hit Windows Update in October, and Microsoft hopes itll boost interest in Windows 8 systems.
We hope so too: Windows 8 hasnt been the stimulus the PC industry hoped for, and news stories about Windows RT increasingly sound like broadcasts from the deck of the Titanic.

Down the tubes

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Apple China Mobile launch could start costly subsidy war for iPhone sales

Apple Inc is finally launching its iPhone on China Mobile Ltds vast network on Friday, opening the door to the worlds largest carriers 763 million subscribers and giving its China sales a short-term jolt.

Underlining how much the launch means for Apple, Chief Executive Tim Cook was on hand as the carriers flagship store opened in Beijings financial district. With China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua alongside, Cook gifted signed iPhones to a handful of customers and posed for pictures.

The long-awaited deal could trigger a limited turnaround for Apple, whose fortunes have wavered in China in the face of stiff competition from market-leader Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and up-and-coming local rival Xiaomi Tech.

Samsung had a 21 percent share of Chinas smartphone market in the third quarter of 2013, with Apple trailing in fifth place with just 6 percent, according to research firm Canalys.

But the arrival of the iPhone could be a double-edged sword for China Mobile, with some analysts predicting a costly subsidy war as rival carriers compete to lure customers.

"I dont see a price war coming where Apple is engaged in the war, but I do think youre going to see a subsidy war coming," said Michael Clendenin, managing director of Shanghai-based RedTech Advisors.

"China Mobile, if theyre not making their targets on sales for these phones, theyre going to increase the subsidies... Its like airlines: the other guys will fall like dominoes, so China Unicom will do it and China Telecom will do it."

China Mobiles iPhone sales are expected to reach 12 million in its 2014 fiscal year, but its subsidies will leap 57 percent to 42.4 billion yuan, up from 27 billion yuan in its fiscal year 2013, wrote Cynthia Meng, a Jefferies analyst, in a December note.

For the basic 16GB iPhone 5s, with no subscriber contract, China Mobile is charging 5,288 yuan, the same as on Apples China website. The carrier is charging 4,488 yuan for a basic iPhone 5c, again the same price as on Apples China site.

China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd and China Telecom Corp Ltd slashed their iPhone prices by as much as 1,288 yuan following the announcement that a deal had been struck between Apple and China Mobile. The pair have also offered a range of cut-price deals on contracts.

These offerings and the launch of the iPhone on China Mobile come in the weeks running up to Chinese New Year, when people traditionally exchange gifts of money in red envelopes and retail sales jump.

SALES CANNIBALISATION

After taking years to hammer out a deal with China Mobile, Apples sales in China should get a short, sharp boost as subscribers make the most of the double-whammy of the iPhones arrival and the rollout of high-speed 4G mobile networks.

Reservations for iPhones had already hit 1.3 million on Wednesday, according to a China Mobile spokeswoman, although Reuters checks showed that there were multiple registrations using fake ID numbers.

But the rewards are expected to be short-lived for the Cupertino, California-based company, which faces a deeper problem in China of having fallen out of favour with consumers who are increasingly opting for domestic offerings.

Another issue is the thriving grey market for iPhones, where users can buy handsets typically smuggled from Hong Kong and then sign up for a China Mobile contract. China Mobile already has 45 million iPhone users in China, according to a company spokeswoman.

"You need to consider the cannibalisation for sales to China Unicom, China Telecom and the grey market, so even though theres an addition from China Mobile it will also impact sales from other channels as well," said CK Lu, a Taiwan-based analyst with Gartner.

"If we really want to see the expansion of sales well have to wait for the next version of the iPhone. If China Mobile gets first launch and their subsidies are attractive people will probably rush to the iPhone that China Mobile can provide."

© Thomson Reuters 2014

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Top 5 Alternatives to Apple iPad Mini

1.Google Nexus 7

The Google Nexus 7 is without a doubt the leader among the best alternatives to the iPad Mini. With 1280 x 800 pixels is the resolution of the 7-inch display much higher than Apple, and thanks to the quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is the performance really good. Yet there is the tablet with both 8GB and 16GB memory. These versions are expected to be replaced by 16GB and 32GB memory, which then cost 199 and 249 euros. Furthermore, it may soon be a version of the Nexus 7 with 3G.

2.Amazon Kindle Fire HD

In second place is the Amazon Kindle Fire HD . For people who are not familiar with technology as good and easy to consume only movies, books or music, and some want to surf the Internet, probably the Kindle Fire HD occupy perhaps the first place. On the 7-inch tablet runs Android 4.0 but Ice Cream Sandwich, however, the surface Amazon simplified. The Kindle Fire HD should therefore one of the simplest gadgets out there, thats still pretty good. In the tablet lies a 1.2 GHz dual core processor and 16GB or 32GB depending on the version store. Here, too, solves the display with 1280 × 800 pixels.

3.Acer Iconia Tab A110

The Acer Iconia Tab A110 is very similar to the Google Nexus 7th In the 7 inch tablet from Acer puts the same NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip and here is Android 4.1 Jelly Bean preinstalled. Unlike the Nexus 7 There is also a microSD card slot and an HDMI output. Therefore the resolution of 1024 × 600 pixels is much lower - the price is the same for 199 euros.

4.Amazon Kindle Fire

Who wants a very simple tablet may be the slightly revised version of the first Kindle Fires access Amazon. Here, the same operating system as the Kindle Fire HD is installed, only the hardware is not quite as good. Instead of a dual-core chip is only a 1.2 GHz single-core processor fitted with 8GB memory and the display has only to 1024 × 600 pixels. For this, the Kindle Fire with 159 euros is also much cheaper.

5.Toshiba AT270

The Toshiba AT270 combines the positive aspects of the Google Nexus 7 and the Acer Iconia Tab A110. Here we have the quad core NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip, 1GB RAM, 32GB memory and a 7.7 inch display with 1280 × 800 pixels. In addition, a microSD card reader is integrated, there is a 5 megapixel rear camera and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich pre-installed - sorry, no jelly bean. The housing is made ​​of aluminum and the processing is impressive very well. One of the few negative points is the price. With just over 500 euros, the Toshiba AT270 is way too expensive, at least you can get for less than half have a Nexus 7th.

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