With Apple virtually certain to announce a release date for the next-generation iPhone next week, lots of current iPhone owners (always an excitable bunch) are no doubt counting down the minutes — and wondering what to do with their current phones.

While some retailers offer discounts for a trade-in (Radio Shack was offering $100 for some previous models when the iPhone 4 was released), Apple stores and their designated carriers generally don’t give back as much cash, or credit, as an owner might earn outside the store.

But a growing online resell market has emerged to give folks another option.

Between now and Monday, the day before Apple has scheduled an iPhone-related event, one of those sites, Nextworth, is offering $250 for 16GB and 32GB iPhone 4s that are in good shape.

The company, which also has trade-in programs at some retail stores, bills itself as a way to get value out of your aging electronics while keeping the products out of landfills, where they can cause environmental problems.

The services wipe all data from your phone as soon as they get it, they say.

Nextworth, and others like them, refurbish used electronics and resell them. In the case of items like the iPhone, they sell them in countries where the items are typically unavailable, presumably bringing a healthier price.

Gazelle.com is offering $250 for a 32GB iPhone 4 in “flawless” condition and $169 for one in good condition. Got a busted model? It’ll give you $85 for one even if it won’t turn on or is physically damaged.

Of course, there are always the direct-sale sites like eBay and Craigslist.

You might earn more in exchange for the hassle of posting, selling and delivering the phone yourself. Folks were selling 32GB iPhone 4s on eBay on Friday for prices ranging from $245 to $634. In Atlanta, people had listed 32GB iPhone 4s for prices ranging from $290 to $450.

(We’re using prices on that model because it’s the top of the line. Older phones, like the 3GS, and 16GB and 8GB models obviously have a market as well, generally at lower prices).

Of course, the low-effort way to deal with a phone upgrade is to buy the new one at full price and just hold on to your current model. Even retired, your current phone can be a music player or Internet-surfing device when you have a Wi-Fi connection.

[Thanks: http://edition.cnn.com]

Apple’s iPhone lost share among U.S. consumers who bought a mobile phone in the last three months, while the share for devices running Google’s Android climbed, Nielsen said Monday.

In August, 28% of those who had purchased a smartphone in the preceding 90 days said that they picked an iPhone, down from 31% who said the same three months earlier.

Android’s share of recent smartphone buyers jumped from 49% in May to 56% in August, according to Nielsen’s data.

However, more of Android’s gains came at the expense of Research in Motion’s BlackBerry than from Apple’s iPhone: RIM’s share of recent smartphone purchases fell from 16% in May to 9% in August, a seven-point decline that was more than double that of Apple’s.

“There’s always flux in numbers like these,” said Jack Gold, a telecommunications analyst at J. Gold Associates. “You can’t expect consistency month to month.”

The fall of RIM was even clearer when Nielsen’s total share numbers — all users, not just those who bought a smartphone in the last three months — were compared.

In August, Android and Apple accounted for 43% and 28% of all U.S. smartphones in use, said Nielsen, a five- and one-point increase, respectively, over May. RIM meanwhile, fell three points in August to 18%.

The biggest factor in Android’s rise in recent purchase share, said Gold, was the sheer number of new smartphones that have been released.

“I think we need to be careful how we take these numbers,” said Gold. “They’re not saying that there’s decreased sales or interest in the iPhone. But they do show that Android is overwhelming the market with devices.”

Naturally, people want the latest — and theoretically greatest — smartphone when they shop, argued Gold, and with the flood of new models powered by Android, it’s no surprise that Google’s operating system overpowers Apple’s in the numbers game.

“That trend will only continue, which is why Android is taking so much market share,” said Gold.

Don Kellogg, Nielsen’s director of telecom research, agreed.

“Android is available from any U.S. carrier,” said Kellogg, “and although Apple launched the iPhone on Verizon earlier this year, they haven’t had a new model for some time.”

Essentially, it’s a battle waged between the many — all the smartphone makers that produce Android devices and the carriers that support it — and the few, represented by Apple and its two U.S. partners, AT&T and Verizon.

“It’s Windows all over again,” said Gold. “In Windows vs. Apple, why did Windows win? It was because Microsoft had a lot of people on their side.”

Gold expects the same trend in smartphones. “I don’t see how, longer term, unless Google messes up, Android loses the battle of creating more market share.”

[Thanks: http://www.computerworld.com]

Some of the panels supplied by Wintek have been found to suffer “delayed bubble” problems, DigiTimes reports, where bubbles of gas are trapped in-between the multi-layer films used. There’s no word on exactly what proportion of Wintek’s touch panels are believed to be affected.

Wintek is providing up to a quarter of the iPhone 5 touch panels, the sources claim, with Apple supposedly aiming to ship as many as 26m units of the fifth-gen smartphone in Q4 2011. The company has only publicly said that all of its products are being delivered “on schedule” and has not commented on specific orders or customers.

With the application process of the iPhone 5 touch panels being identical to that of those in the iPhone 4, industry insiders don’t envisage that Wintek will experience any significant delays in rectifying the problem. Exactly how many of the panels it has already supplied will need to be replaced is unclear.

Apple is believed to be readying two new versions of the iPhone, the iPhone 4S with almost identical aesthetics to the current iPhone 4 and targeted at the more affordable end of the market, and the iPhone 5 which is tipped to have a larger display among other changes. Cases for the iPhone 4S were caught in the wild yesterday seemingly confirming that Apple is indeed close to launching at least one of the new handsets.

[Thanks: http://www.slashgear.com]

Former US Vice President Al Gore has taken time out from saving the world, and getting conned out of elections, to suggest there may be more than one new iPhone coming next month.

Global warming activist Gore, who is also an Apple board member, confirmed that new iPhones will be coming in October. That’s plural, not singular.

The Next Web site is reporting that Gore told a leadership conference in South Africa: “Not to mention the new iPhones coming out next month. That was a plug.”

It remains unclear whether Gore meant that there would be multiple models or many of the same new model. The source, Stuff Magazine South Africa’s Editor Toby Shapshak, says Gore did not clarify.
Clearly plural

Later on Twitter, Shapshak followed up by saying “I clearly heard “iPhones”. I recorded it. Double checked. Clearly plural but could be millions of one model.”

Speculation has been rife that Apple is targeting the pre-pay market with a scaled-back iPhone 4S model, which may launch alongside the long-awaited iPhone 5.

Regardless of how many iPhones will be launched, Gore’s slip of the tongue is the first public confirmation from anyone connected with Apple that the company will launch new devices in October.

Earlier today we reported on leaks that point to an October 4th launch event with Tim Cook taking the stage in San Francisco.

[Thanks: http://www.techradar.com]

Apple needs to be much more cautious over the specifications of the iPhone 5 as several Android smartphones are threatening the next iteration with breathtaking features. The notable ones include Samsung Galaxy S2 and Motorola Droid Bionic. Both smartphones feature the latest version of Android Gingerbread OS with screen size of at least 4 inches.

In addition, the recent breed of Android phones such as HTC Holiday, HTC Thunderbolt and Motorola Photon found expression in 4.3-inch displays. The trend seems to highlight that the next barrage of Android phones will follow the 4.5-inch form factor.

As a result, if Apple seeks to pose a strong competition against Android it may have to increase its screen size especially when it is prepping for a bigger iPhone market in the second half of this year.

Apple is also rumored to be boosting the screen size of the iPhone 5 to compete with Android rivals, probably going for a 3.7 to 4-inch screen. But if the latest findings from a Wall Street analyst are to be believed, then Apple would not increase the screen-size of iPhone 5.

“iPhone 5 component orders increased for FQ4 (Sept.) and FQ1 (Dec.); timing of orders continues to suggest an October launch. FQ4 orders for iPhone 5 increased ~700k; timing continues to suggest an Oct. launch. iPhone 5 screen size likely to be same as iPhone 4,” Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andy Hargreaves wrote in a note to clients.

iPhone 4 has a 3.5-inch screen featuring the LED backlit liquid crystal display with a 960×640 pixel resolution and is marketed as the “Retina Display.”

[Thanks: http://www.ibtimes.com]

A Best Buy source released a document to BGR.com, which shows that the store is anticipating the pre-sales and also that Sprint will be carrying the iPhone 5 at the launch of the new device.

Meanwhile, the next iteration of the iPhone is expected to boast of significant hardware and software upgrades, along with an 8-megapixel dual-LED flash camera and A5 dual-core processor found in the iPad 2 to give stiff competition to other dual-core smartphones found in the market today.

Apple is rumored to increase the screen size of iPhone 5 to compete with Android smartphones, probably going for a bigger edge-to-edge 4-inch curved glass screen, compared to the current iPhone 4 screen of 3.5-inch with multi-touch display.

Apple may boost the speed of its A5 chip in the range of 1.2 or 1.5 GHz with 1GB RAM. The iPhone 5 would feature iCloud that will store photos, apps, calendars and documents instead of the phone’s memory storage.

Apple is expected to release the iPhone 5 as a “World Phone” - both GSM and CDMA compatible. Another rumor suggested that the iPhone 5 will feature a SIM card slot for other countries except the U.S, allowing users to insert any SIM card when traveling abroad.

Meanwhile, here’s a look at the top Android smartphones features that will be missed in iPhone 5.

Near Field Communication (NFC) Facility:

Previously, a rumor that Apple will prepare its next iPhone with NFC had gained impetus when Google released Google Wallet, its NFC-based mobile payment feature, in May.

NFC technology can transform the device into a convenient way for payment and device communication. NFC has potential for more than just money transaction. The technology could offer features that allow multiple mobile devices to sync for speedier information exchange and gaming.

It was also said that Apple had disclosed in some of the meetings that it won’t feature NFC on the next iPhone. The Independent said that Apple will sacrifice NFC in its next iPhone due to lack of industry standards about the technology.

Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi cited that Apple will not adopt the NFC-based mobile payment feature in the upcoming iPhone 5 until Apple is convinced that the technology’s chicken-and-egg-problem is solved, as the NFC requires widespread consumer adoption and critical mass with merchants.

4G LTE:

Any phone coming with 4G technology has to bear the highest component costs than any other smartphone coming without it. The iPhone 5 has very little chance of being 4G LTE compatible. In fact, 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless chips required for the faster speeds in Thunderbolt cost an extra $39.75, according to industry researcher IHS.

Also, given the size of the LTE chip, Apple iPhone’s minuscule printed circuit board (PCB) will have to grow in size in order to support the first-generation LTE base-band processor as well as all the supporting chipset, which is in clear contrast against Apple’s plans to deliver a lighter and thinner smartphone.

So most likely, iPhone 5 will not be featuring 4G LTE support. Never a day passes without consumers using their smartphones for online searches, banking, bill payment and for booking tickets online. 3G doesn’t offer the cutting edge and the demand for more speed has become a necessity now.

Peter Misek, analyst at Jefferies & Co. had stated that Apple will not release a 4G LTE in iPhone 5 this year as Qualcomm’s LTE chipset, which Apple would have used, were not reaching the yields that Apple expects for its iPhone 5.

Keith Bachman, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, also stated that Apple won’t release a fourth generation phone data transfer on 4G network that will severely impact iPhone’s battery life.

Operating System:

As Apple unveiled iOS 5 at the WWDC 2011, rumors about changes and improvements in iOS 5 are constantly surfacing.

The iOS 5 will now be arriving with iPhone 5, and analysts are saying that Android operating system features are copied by iOS 5. They added that Apple has borrowed a few features from Android, most notably: cloud synchronization, notification center, over-the-air updates, photo sharing and Twitter.

Entire Android OS is an open-source system. The open-source movement has inspired increased transparency and liberty. It also constitutes an example of user innovation. Being made publicly available enables anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the source code without paying royalties or fees.

This is also a double-edged sword, in the sense, it allows those with less-than-ideal intentions to discover any weakness of the phone. But that can be seen as an indirect plus because when weaknesses are found in the open source community, they are quickly fixed. There is hardly any cap on how much you can tweak your Android experience. The same thing cannot be expected in iPhone 5.

Display Size:

With a 4-inch display screen considered ideal for a smartphone, the possibility of Apple featuring a bigger screen seems remote. Apple previously moved its base of operations from Japan to Taiwan in the hope of finding “more cost-effective sources,” and Apple is unlikely to spend so much just to increase the screen size. But on the other hand, most of the smartphones that has Android OS will come with a 4.3-inch screen.

3D Display:

There are couple of 3D display smartphones in the market. However, it doesn’t seem to be featured in Apple’s next iPhone. For the most part, 3D functionality works best on larger screen sizes. Therefore, 3D would make sense on the iPad, but not for iPhone 5.

Flash Integration:

Apple’s unwillingness to include Flash has taken away the experience of accessing full Flash Web sites, watching Flash videos, or playing Flash games. Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to Web pages. A previous estimation suggested that 95 percent of PCs have it. Adobe, however, claims that 98 percent of U.S. Web users and 99.3 percent of all the Internet desktop users have installed the Flash Player. Flash, recently, has been positioned as a tool for Rich Internet Applications.

Battery:

Although the iPhone 4 has an amazing battery life, it is still limited. The batteries are also not replaceable. Like every battery ever made, it’s going to lose the ability to hold a charge over time. The fact that previous versions of iPhone did not feature a removable battery means even the iPhone 5 will not have it.

App Integration:

Application integration allows users to send messages and files back and forth between systems, transforming the messages and automating the process. The process also provides end-to-end and real-time connectivity between internal applications, existing Web-based applications and other software products. The true benefit of internal application integration is that it allows businesses to computerize and manage end-to-end business processes that involve both human and electronic operations. Apple is yet to showcase anything like this.

If Google Voice is considered, it is available in iPhone as well as in Android phones. It’s altogether a different experience in Android and iPhone. Other iPhone apps always direct you to the default dialer and visual voicemail apps, so even if you want to use Google Voice full time, you have to manually navigate it to yourself, but that’s not the case with Android. In Android, Google Voice integrates directly with the operating system. That means, when you try to make calls with Google Voice, as you click on a phone number in your browser or in Google Maps, it goes through Google Voice instead of sending you to wrong dialer.

Computer-Smartphone Adaptability:

One of the major features of Android smartphones is that there are a few apps that can be controlled from the computer. The iPhone 4, however, has to be Jailbroken to allow the same. But, anyway, it is not the same as using a separate app that accesses its base functions, similar to the ones used in Android.

Over-The-Air (OTA) Updates:

OTA has become an increasingly important feature for new updates and services come on stream as mobile phones accumulate new applications and become more advanced every day. The updates are sent out by the carrier and the Internet is needed to receive them. Apple, however, may not introduce such a feature now. Currently, Android devices are updated via OTA method.

Expandable Memory:

Over the years the iPhone has offered impressive internal storage (from 8GB to 32GB), however, some iPhone users are unhappy over the lack of a memory card slot, which can expand the handset’s storage capabilities and provide a quick and easy way to back up data. On the other hand, almost all the Android smartphones have an external memory card slot.

[Thanks: http://www.ibtimes.com]

In simple terms, retina display creates a pixel density so tight that the human eye is unable to make out the pixels. In even simpler terms, retina display makes reading on a screen as good as (if not better than) the resolution that the human eye captures when it reads the printed word. Yes, the line between resolution quality of print and screen has happened. On the iPhone 4, everything not only looks crisp at every size, but the resolution quality is as good as print.

While many are still lamenting Steve Jobs’s decision to resign from Apple last week and what effect that will have on the company, one of the most valued in the world, it’s clear its product development roadmap and life cycle is primed for another major disruption of an already established media industry. Beyond personal computers, mobile devices and the music and film industries, it seems clear that television could be the next entertainment industry that Apple looks to reinvent and own.

If retina display is ready for prime time on the iPad 3, the bigger breakthrough will be if it can deliver retina display to any screen size. If so, how difficult will it be for Apple to create a screen that actually looks (and acts) like a very, very large iPad? Much of the initial dissent about the value of Apple’s iPad when it first launched was that it was simply a large version of the iPhone without the phone. Apple proved that there was a huge market for this type of tablet device and you can imagine what a 64-inch version might look like (push that further and imagine using your iPad or iPhone as the remote control to flick content onto the screen). As an interim concept, take a look at the recently updated iMac computers the next time you’re strolling by an Apple store - it’s an impressive and beautiful sight to behold.

I wish I could lay claim to being the first person to talk about the possibility of Apple entering the TV fray, but this has become a burgeoning topic of conversation by technology journalists and media pundits alike. VentureBeat’s news item, “Apple is working on a television for 2012, sources say,” published on Aug. 26 points to multiple indicators that this concept is more than likely already something Apple is tinkering away with in its labs. Pointing to more than five different sources, the article says: “Venture capitalist Stewart Alsop, of Alsop Louie ventures, lent credence to the ‘iTelevision’ theory in an interview with VentureBeat. Alsop sits on the boards of TiVo and Sonos, follows the hardware industry closely, and says he has heard from multiple sources throughout Silicon Valley that the Apple television project is under way.”

Apple has already had Apple TV in the market since 2006, but the second generation (which came out in September 2010) began the true fusion of online content with our television screens. Along with being able to rent or own the latest television shows and movies (although, last week Apple stopped allowing consumers to rent TV episodes), Apple TV - along with competitors like Boxee and even Xbox 360 - also lets consumers watch YouTube on their TVs and stream movies from Netflix. To date, the success of Apple TV has been minor when compared with the computer, iPhone and iPad market, but just imagine a world in which Apple is able to perfect a new kind of television screen and integrate that with the content of Apple TV. If you’re having a hard time with that image, take a look at what the iPod combined with iTunes did to the music industry.

Is TV the future for Apple? It seems like one of many obvious paths, especially when you consider the appetite we all still have for watching content and the lack of true innovation from within the television and broadcasting industry. In looking closer at the technical ability to stream digital content in HD anywhere, the likelihood seems even more obvious. The challenge will be in how Apple deals with both the cable and mobile operators and how those operators change consumers for bandwidth - the issue of both cost and throttling access is already a hot debate.

Stay tuned.

[Thanks: http://www.montrealgazette.com]

Apple is prepping for a bigger iPhone market in this second half of the year analysts say, ramping up the orders of its current iPhones and also stepping up production of the anticipated iPhone 5.

However, the technology giant is expected to face tough competition from Android smartphones, particularly from HTC that has planned to introduce its biggest smartphone known as the HTC Holiday.

Let’s see how the HTC Holiday would fare with the iPhone 5:

iPhone 5:

The iPhone 5 is expected to run on an upgraded operating system, iOS 5, and is supported by a strong ecosystem including iCloud. iCloud will store photos, apps, calendars and documents without storing them onto the phone’s memory storage.

Apple may fit a near-field communication chip in the iPhone 5 as some high-end Android devices are expected to sport the NFC chip. NFC allows for simplified transactions, data exchange, and connections with a touch. A smartphone or tablet with an NFC chip could make a credit card payment or serve as keycard or ID card.

Apple is rumored to increase the screen size of iPhone 5 to compete with Android smartphones, probably going for a 4-inch screen. The iPhone 4 has a 3.5-inch screen.

Apple is expected to release the iPhone 5 as a “World Phone” - both GSM and CDMA compatible. It is conjectured that the phone will have a SIM-less design with 3-4 antennas. Another rumor suggested that the iPhone 5 will feature a SIM card slot for other countries except the U.S. This will allow users to insert any SIM card in the iPhone when traveling abroad.

Apple has made improvements in the camera department by fitting a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash. Apple’s iPhone 5 is expected to sport an 8-megapixel camera.

There is also near-unanimity in gadget circles that Apple will bring its A5 chip on to the iPhone 5. The A5 processor is the same one that Apple rolled out to power its iPad 2. Apple may boost the speed of its A5 chip in the range of 1.2 or 1.5 GHz as several Android smartphones are coming with 1.2 GHz processor.

HTC Holiday

The Holiday is rumored to boast a 4.5-inch display, supposedly the first of a new wave across the Android landscape with 4.5-inch displays.

The recent breed of Android phones, like Samsung Galaxy S2, HTC Thunderbolt and Motorola Photon, found expression in 4.3-inch displays. The trend seems to highlight that the next barrage of Android phones will follow the 4.5-inch form factor.

HTC Holiday is expected to run on the latest version of Google Inc.’s smartphone operating system, Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread OS.

The Holiday will sport an 8MP dual-LED flash rear-facing camera with 1080p video playback and a 1.3MP front-facing camera for video chat. The device is expected to have a 4.5-inch qHD display with 960×540 screen resolution.

The Holiday will be powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with 1GB RAM.

The Holiday is expected to have HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) 21 Mbps and HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) 5.76 Mbps support. In addition, the smartphone would have Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot support along with advanced Bluetooth version 4.0 with A2DP and EDR

There is no word about internal storage details of the HTC Holiday yet, but it is expected to have an external storage via a microSD card slot of up to 32 GB.

On the pricing front, Apple’s iPhone 5 has been rumored to be priced at $600, while iPhone 4 is listed on AT&T at $299 for 32GB version with a 2-year contract. The Holiday is expected to be priced at $199 to $249 at AT&T.

However, Apple certainly knows how to surprise and already has a few things in place like iCloud which can steal the thunder from Android devices. Apple’s iPhone features are extensively varied from HTC Holiday, which means the loyal Apple fan base remains the same. And for Apple, there is no reason to fear a potential loss with respect to buyers.

[Thanks: http://www.ibtimes.com]

Apple Inc’s newly minted CEO needs a revolutionary product to prove he has the chops to succeed Steve Jobs, and that may be a full-on assault on the living room by as early as 2013, analysts and industry experts say.

Jobs has called Apple TV — a 4-inch-square box launched in 2006 that connects your plasma or LCD TV to the Web — a hobby, but it is also one of the rare missteps in the course of Apple’s meteoric ascendance.

If Cook can succeed where Jobs has failed, he would put to rest questions over whether he has the vision to lead Apple, in addition to widely respected operational skills.

“The TV is the obvious gap in Apple’s product line up,” CCS Insight’s John Jackson said. “There’s pressure to constantly innovate, (but) there’s more than sufficient momentum at Apple right now that they don’t need to reinvent the movie screen the TV, the car or the horse and buggy in the immediate term.”

Getting Internet programing off computers and onto television sets has long been viewed as the next big thing for consumer technology companies, but none has succeeded so far with a product that has gained wide appeal.

Cook and the $350 billion company he now leads would be jumping into a field crowded with Microsoft, Google , Sony and Samsung.

“The Holy Grail is the living room,” said David Rolfe at Wedgewood Partners, which devotes 9.5 percent or about $1 billion of its portfolio to Apple. “They wuld get into it, only if they can make a significantly better product than what currently exists.”

OBSTACLES

It remains far from clear what Jobs — and now Cook — intends on the TV front. There are persistent rumors that Apple may produce an actual television to go along with content in an iTV, as part of the ongoing debate over whether the beleaguered television industry is ripe for an Apple-style shake-up.

The current market offers a confusing array of options — from video streaming through game consoles like Microsoft’s Xbox to Google-powered TV sets from Sony, Samsung and others.

Apple has “been the early follower in the iPad-tablet space, been the early follower in the music space, the early follower in the smartphone space,” said independent digital media strategist Mark Mulligan. “They wait for a market to get primed, learn from the mistakes and then go and do everything better than anybody has done before.”

Analysts estimate Apple takes roughly five years to develop a wholly new product, so either Jobs has already started down the TV road or Cook needs to start thinking now.

Chief among the obstacles would be concerns in the entertainment industry about potentially aggressive video licensing terms that Apple would seek — and has gotten in the past for music and video licenses on iTunes. Executives say Apple had asked for 30 percent of rental fees for iTunes, which is blamed for smothering the music recording industry.

THE ROLE OF CHARISMA

Jobs’ charisma and negotiating power were crucial to the launch of iTunes in 2003 and the then-unprecedented sale of songs rather than albums on the Web. Cook remains untested on this front, despite his deft hand dealing with the supply chain partners that make Macs, iPhones and iPads.

“It was Steve’s rock-star status that convinced these guys, they were in awe of him,” said a former major recording label executive involved in the negotiations before iTunes was launched. “Without him Apple would never have been able to pull off that deal.”

There’s some evidence that Cook can be as tough at the negotiating table. Peter Misek at Jefferies cites Cook’s command of the iPad 2 rollout, and his firm stance this year when the Japan earthquake and tsunami threatened to turn off one of the world’s largest semiconductor-component spigots.

“Cook was able to double or sometimes triple source component suppliers,” Misek said. “To date, no competitor has been able to gain meaningful share in the tablet market and … Cook’s leadership during the introduction was critical to this.”

Now, the former Compaq executive needs to prove that he can not only execute his boss’s vision and keep Apple’s fabled product pipeline alive, but that he can also make that intuitive leap to tell consumers what they want.

Wall Street will be watching.

“The market and the organization needs to see that Tim has the judgment to pick a winner,” said Jane Stevenson, vice chairman of Board and CEO Services at Korn/Ferry International.

“The market will need to see a continued stream of innovation that has his fingerprints on it,” ranging from launching new products to turning around products that haven’t much success, like Apple TV.

[Thanks: http://ca.reuters.com]

We all want to know

Though highly speculative, there’s little new in this morning’s claims, in brief: Digitimes now says the iPhone 5 won’t possess a 4.2-inch screen. (iPhones have never had such a screen). The iPhone 5 will boast a metal back with a 3.5-3.7 inch screen with a thinner bezel for a larger-looking screen.

The new claims do render some interesting gleanings: “The rumored specifications of iPhone 5 include a 4- to 4.2-inch HD touch panel, 8-megapixel camera, Full HD video recording, A5 dual-core processor and new ultra-thin industrial design; however, the sources believe that the leaked specifications are rather the market’s expectations for iPhone 5.”

This is interesting because a second rumor this morning claims that the introduction of Apple’s A6 processor may not take place until the second-half of next year, which suggests a late 2012 launch for post iPhone 5 models and any significant A6-powered iPad upgrade.

A6 for late 2012?

Analysts at the Linley Group say that the A6 processor “may not arrive until later in 2012″. That’s no great surprise — particularly since Apple seems far more amenable to remaining flexible in its product release schedules these days, presumably to keep competitors guessing.

However, any perceived delay in the introduction of any predicted (or imagined) Apple product in the coming months will likely be seized on by a traffic-greedy media as evidence the company under new CEO, Tim Cook, is losing its grip.(Which it isn’t).

Such reports will hopefully be taken by the majority of the Apple faithful as the shoddy wish-fulfillment fantasies that they will eventually emerge to be.

Returning to the Linley Group, analysts there warn the A6 processor won’t likely hit market until the second half of next year.

This is interesting because it could imply the iPad 3 will host an A5 processor, fully souped-up to deliver the more advanced ‘pro’ features many expect this imagined configuration may deliver. It could also suggest the A6-powered iPad 4 will make its own blushing debut at a later-than-anticipated juncture.

Apple ditches Intel?

Linley analyst Kevin Krewell explains: “This pace would make the A6 one of the first 28nm mobile processors (along with Qualcomm’s MSM8960) to enter production.”

The move to 28nm process is likely to be a tough one for Apple’s suppliers, but will offer the company some serious possibilities when it comes to the development of new, ultra-powerful but low power mobile devices, perhaps equipped with multiple multi-processors.

That’s well-timed as Apple continues to apply pressure to chip giant and current Mac processor supplier, Intel, to deliver ever-faster, ever-more-low-power processors to feed its busier than ever production lines.

Meanwhile, Apple’s moves to replace Samsung as supplier continue while the company’s litigation against its old ally seem to support Cupertino’s claims against it. Samsung is not winning the legal arguments in any territory, and faces real danger of its seemingly Apple-inspired Galaxy products being banned in key markets.

[Thanks: http://blogs.computerworld.com]