iPhone Security Vulnerability

Numerous Mac news sites are reporting a vulnerability in the iPhone software that could give unscrupulous types access to much of the data on your iPhone. TUAW shows how it works and how to work around it. Long story short, if you set your Home button to bring up iPod (Settings>General>Home Button) you should be okay. Check out the TUAW story for more info.

Joe

New Nano and iTunes 8.0 Coming Soon

Kevin Rose of Digg is claiming to have information on significant, soon to be released Apple products including the iPod Nano and iTunes 8.0. Rose claims the Nano will undergo a fairly radical form factor change and included a larger elongated screen. See a picture of the new Nano over at MacRumors.

As for iTunes 8.0, Rose says its a major update and includes new features. Could one of those new features be the rumored iTunes Unlimited subscription service? Although he doesn't go into detail Rose says the update is worthy of a full point. Sounds good to me but I have to say I have no interest in s subscription service.

Joe Henry

Business Week Talks Apple's iPhone Rollout

Peter Burrows, writing for Business Week, reports on Apple’s rollout of the iPhone to more and more countries. Prior to today, the iPhone was offered in 22 countries which, according to this MacDailyNews article, put it in front of 320 million potential subscribers. Today, Apple expanded that number by 21 more countries and another 290 million potential subscribers.

According to Burrows’ article a person familiar with Apple’s production plans has stated that Apple is planning on manufacturing 40-45 million iPhones through August of 2009. This represents a 52% increase over the estimates of Gene Munster, analyst for Piper Jaffray. Given that Munster’s predictions are significantly more optimistic than most analysts, Apple is indeed planning an ambitious rollout.

Burrows’ goes on to say that Apple’s success with its ambitious expansion plans hinges on :

1 Apple’s and AT&T’s ability to speed up in-store activations.
2 Apple’s ability to address usability problems, the most significant of which is the problems some users are experiencing with the 3G network.
3 Apple’s ability to address component supply issues.

There are signs that all of these constraints are being addressed and Burrows concludes that even if Apple can’t meet its own lofty goals, it is likely to meet the average of most estimates.

The article is a good read and you can read it in its entirety here.

Joe Henry

Firmware Update 2.0.2 Targeted To Fix 3G Problems

Jim Dalrymple writing for MacWorld is reporting the iPhone 2.0.2 firmware update was targeting communication problems with 3G iPhones. There has been quite a surge in the number of people claiming to experience dropped calls, spotty service and constant switching back and fourth between the 3G and Edge networks.

According to the AP Apple Spokesperson Jennifer Bowcock confirmed that the update “Improved communication with 3G networks”. Bowcock gave little else in terms of details.

We’ve been watching the wire here a AYAAW and haven’t seen or heard anything that might indicate that the update did in fact fix some of these issues.

In other iPhone related news, and in response to iPhone users experiencing problems with apps freezing their phones, halting the boot process and failing to start altogether, Uncle Steve, in a briefly worded response to a customer email, stated that “This is a known bug that is being fixed in the next software update in September”. Perhaps there will be a little more 3G goodness included in this package as well.

Stay tuned kiddies.

Joe Henry

Analyst Says Apple Shipping "Massive" quantities of Macs

AppleInsider's Sam Oliver is reporting that Royal Bank of Canada analyst Mike Abramsky is predicting a record smashing quarter for Apple and for Mac shipments to be well above predictions. The record setting pace would put Apple inline to show a 44% year-over-year growth and 3.04 million Macs shipped in the quarter ending in September.

Specifically, Abramsky pointed to "unprecedented intentions" on the part of consumers during what has historically been only Apple's second strongest Mac quarter. His firm's study found that 34 percent of respondents intend to purchase a Mac notebook in the next 90 days, while another 30 percent plan to buy a Mac desktop."We forecast Apple's global PC share to rise to 4.2 percent [in 2009], from 2.9 percent [in 2007]," he said, adding that every 25 basis points of market share gain will equate to $1 billion in incremental revenue and $0.15 in per share earnings

The report sites two probable causes for the growth: Apples back to school promotion that offers a $299 rebate for a free iPod Touch to qualified educational customers purchasing qualified Mac system, and the so called "iPhone Halo Effect".

Oliver reports that of the analysts AppleInsider tracks, Abramsky is one of the most accurate. For more details read the full AppleInsider article.

Joe Henry

Retail Channels Getting Ready For September iPod Refresh

If you're considering the purchase of a swanky new iPod Touch or Nano you might want to wait a month. AppleInsider has information from some of its retail sources that current iPod Touch and Nano's are going from an in-stock inventory status to discontinued. AI's sources also claim to be in possession of iPod point-of-sale merchandising materials hinting at price cuts and possibly a redesign of the Nano.

Check out the original AppleInsider story for more details.

Hey, you can wait a month can't you?

Joe Henry

Apple "Surges" In Customer Satisfaction

In a new report authored by ASCI and the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business (report opens as a pdf once you click on the link in the right hand column of the page), Apple is surging ahead of all competitors in customer satisfaction. The report states:

The personal computer industry suffers a second consecutive drop in satisfaction, falling 1% to 74 and losing all gains made since 2005. Apple defies the industry by moving in the opposite direction and posting its largest gain ever to 85, a new all-time high for the industry. The 8% leap puts 10 points between Apple and its nearest rival, one of the largest gaps between first and second in any industry measured by ACSI. As Apple’s satisfaction improves, so too have its sales, market share, net income, and stock price. “It’s hard not to be impressed with Apple,” said Prof. Fornell. “This is product extension at its best where the new products, iPod and iPhone, are helping bring new customers to existing computer products. The fact that Apple is not dependent on the Windows Vista operating system hasn’t hurt either.” The industry aggregate decline is largely for Windows-based machines –Hewlett-Packard (73), Gateway (72), and Compaq (70) each sink 4%. The exception is Dell – up 1% to 75.

This shouldn't be news to anyone but with Windows users switching in droves it is worth taking note. I do love the last par there about how the industry aggregate decline is due to Windows. That makes me smile.

:) :)

Joe Henry