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Tag: phil schiller

  • Apple Will Allow ‘Reader’ Apps to Have In-App Links to Their Websites

    Apple Will Allow ‘Reader’ Apps to Have In-App Links to Their Websites

    Apple is further loosing its App Store restrictions, allowing “reader” apps to have in-app links to a website for alternative payment methods.

    Apple has traditionally maintained an iron grip on the App Store, forcing developers to use its payment system, netting it 30% of all transactions. The company, along with Google, is facing increased pressure over the approach and is slowing making changes.

    Last week, Apple settled a class action lawsuit with developers, allowing them to use external means — such as email — to inform customers of alternative payment methods. Developers could not, however, use any in-app notification. Developers and critics accused Apple of not doing enough, and said the concession was too little, too late.

    Apple is now making another concession as part of an effort to head off an investigation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC). The company will now allow “reader” apps — Netflix, Spotify and the like — to include an in-app notification, allowing users to go to their websites to sign up. This would have the effect of cutting Apple out of their 30% commission on any subscriptions.

    “Trust on the App Store is everything to us. The focus of the App Store is always to create a safe and secure experience for users, while helping them find and use great apps on the devices they love,” said Phil Schiller, Apple Fellow who oversees the App Store. “We have great respect for the Japan Fair Trade Commission and appreciate the work we’ve done together, which will help developers of reader apps make it easier for users to set up and manage their apps and services, while protecting their privacy and maintaining their trust.” 

    The move is being welcomed as a more substantive step than the previous one, although it still is a relatively minor step. Many individuals already sign up for Netflix, and similar services, outside of the app, and simply use the app to access their existing subscription. As a result, this change will likely have little real impact on Apple.

    Even so, small progress is still progress.

  • Apple Releases iPhone SE With New A13 Bionic Chip

    Apple Releases iPhone SE With New A13 Bionic Chip

    Apple has released a new iPhone model, incorporating its newest, fastest chip.

    The new iPhone SE sports a 4.7-inch screen. Apple describes the SE as packing “our most powerful chip into our most popular size at our most affordable price. It’s just what you’ve been waiting for.” The chip in question, the A13 Bionic is the same chip powering the larger iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models.

    The new models come in 64, 128 and 256GB configurations. Notably, especially for those not sold on Face ID, the iPhone SE has Touch ID instead. The phone also includes a 12MP camera, with a 7MP front-facing camera.

    “The first iPhone SE was a hit with many customers who loved its unique combination of small size, high-end performance and affordable price; the new second-generation iPhone SE builds on that great idea and improves on it in every way — including our best-ever single-camera system for great photos and videos — while still being very affordable,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iPhone SE features the industry-leading performance of A13 Bionic that enables great battery life, takes stunning Portrait mode and Smart HDR photos, shoots amazing videos with stereo audio, is great for games and super fast web surfing, and is built with the same industry-leading security features our customers expect. We can’t wait to get iPhone SE into customers’ hands.”

    Overall, the iPhone SE is a solid phone at a reasonable price. Give the uncertain economic times, it represents a good option for individuals who need to upgrade but don’t want to pay the price of the iPhone 11 or 11 Pro. Starting at $399, the SE gives people the features they need and want the most, in the most pocketable size available.

    Image Credit: Apple

  • Apple Unveils New iPad Pro As Full Laptop Replacement

    Apple Unveils New iPad Pro As Full Laptop Replacement

    Apple has announced a new iPad Pro that is clearly aimed at the laptop market, with a slew of powerful new features.

    The new iPad Pro is powered by the A12Z Bionic chip and an eight-core GPU, allowing the tablet to outperform most PC laptops on the market today, according to Apple. Given that the 2018 iPad Pro was touted as being faster than 92% of notebooks on the market at that time, Apple’s claim about the new model is probably pretty accurate.

    iPad Pro Cameras - Image Credit: Apple
    iPad Pro Cameras – Image Credit: Apple

    The camera on the new model is equally impressive. The iPad Pro includes a 12MP Wide camera, as well as a 10MP Ultra Wide camera. There are also “studio-quality mics and a breakthrough LiDAR Scanner that delivers cutting-edge depth-sensing capabilities, opening up more pro workflows and supporting pro photo and video apps. The LiDAR Scanner, along with pro cameras, motion sensors, pro performance, pro audio, the stunning Liquid Retina display and powerful apps, extends the lead of iPad Pro as the world’s best device for augmented reality (AR).”

     

     

     

    iPad Trackpad Support - Image Credit: Apple
    iPad Trackpad Support – Image Credit: Apple

    The feature that will catch most users’ attention is full trackpad support. iPadOS 13.4 brings trackpad support to the iPad, and the feature particularly shines when paired with the upcoming Magic Keyboard. The new keyboard is designed to offer a laptop-style experience, suspending the iPad magnetically and giving 130 degrees of viewing angle—far better than the older Smart Keyboard. The Magic Keyboard also features pass-through USB-C charging, leaving the USB-C port on the iPad free for peripherals.

    “The new iPad Pro introduces advanced technologies never before available in mobile computing,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Combining the most advanced mobile display with powerful performance, pro cameras, pro audio, the breakthrough LiDAR Scanner and new Magic Keyboard with Trackpad, this is another huge leap forward for iPad. There’s no other device in the world like the new iPad Pro and we think our customers are going to love it.”

    “We’re making iPad even more capable and versatile by bringing trackpad support to iPadOS,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “We carefully considered the best way to integrate trackpad use into a touch-first environment while retaining everything our customers know and love about iPad. We’re thrilled to bring this new way of interacting with iPad to the millions of people using iPadOS today.”

    iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard - Image Credit: Apple
    iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard – Image Credit: Apple

    For years, the iPad has been a beautiful and powerful piece of hardware held back by the OS. Similarly, users have been clamoring for trackpad support to help with more tedious tasks. With today’s announcement, Apple goes a long way toward addressing those issues, making the iPad a much stronger laptop replacement than it has ever been.

  • Coronavirus: Apple’s WDDC Goes Online Only

    Coronavirus: Apple’s WDDC Goes Online Only

    Apple has just announced that its biggest event of the year, WWDC, will be online-only as a result of the coronavirus.

    WWDC is Apple’s developers conference where the latest changes to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS are previewed, giving developers insight into what to expect in the coming year. It’s not uncommon for major hardware releases to make an appearance as well. In view of the coronavirus, however, this year’s event will be an online-only event.

    “We are delivering WWDC 2020 this June in an innovative way to millions of developers around the world, bringing the entire developer community together with a new experience,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The current health situation has required that we create a new WWDC 2020 format that delivers a full program with an online keynote and sessions, offering a great learning experience for our entire developer community, all around the world. We will be sharing all of the details in the weeks ahead.”

    “With all of the new products and technologies we’ve been working on, WWDC 2020 is going to be big,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “I look forward to our developers getting their hands on the new code and interacting in entirely new ways with the Apple engineers building the technologies and frameworks that will shape the future across all Apple platforms.”

    Apple is also committing $1 million to San Jose organizations to help compensate for revenue they would normally earn as a result of the venue bringing additional business to town.

  • Phil Schiller Says That Rumored Cheap iPhone Isn’t Happening

    Earlier this week, a rumor emerged saying that Apple was planning on introducing a cheaper iPhone into emerging markets. How cheap? Another rumor speculated that it could be as cheap as $99. The phone would obviously be intended for emerging markets where cheap smartphones are much more popular, but would Apple really go against years of creating expensive, luxury devices? Apple’s Phil Schiller gives a resounding no.

    During an interview with Chinese newspaper Shanghai Evening News, Schiller said that Apple has no plans in regards to a cheaper iPhone. He admits that “cheap smartphones are more popular” in China than the once popular “non-smartphones,” but says that “will never be the future of Apple’s products.” He goes on to say that the company’s position in China is quite comfy because they own 75 percent of the profit despite only owning 20 percent of the smartphone market.

    So, what’s up with all the rumors of a cheap iPhone then? Not only is Digitimes reporting on the device, but Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal both received reports from those close to Apple who confirmed the device as being real. Could they all be wrong? Of course they could, but these kinds of rumors have a way of at least being partially true.

    Regardless, Apple needs to focus on these emerging markets. They may own 75 percent of the profit in China, but I would wager those are only hardware sales. Software sales count in the long run, and Apple needs to capture more of the market share to tap into this lucrative revenue stream. It doesn’t necessarily have to be $99, but how can Apple hope to penetrate emerging markets, like Brazil, when its flagship product costs the equivalent of $1,145.

    [h/t: The Next Web]

  • iPad Mini Too Expensive? Apple’s Phil Schiller Says No Way

    If you watched yesterday’s iPad Mini launch event, you probably remember the time Phil Schiller took to compare the new device to various other tablets on the market (mostly targeting Google Android tablets). Aluminum, not plastic; bigger screen but also thinner and lighter, etc. Now, he’s pushing the Apple quality argument to defend something that some have pointed to as a mistake from Apple.

    That $329 price tag.

    The base iPad Mini, with 16GB of memory and Wi-Fi only will run customers about $80 more than the Google Nexus 7 and $130 more than the Kindle Fire HD, its two biggest competitors. After the event, Apple share prices dropped 3.26%, a shift that some analysts blamed on the iPad Mini price being too high. One such analyst said that he “had hoped Apple would step on the throats of Amazon and Google with its pricing,” but they failed.

    Apple’s Phil Schiller defended the $329 price point to Reuters, basically employing the “they’ve paid for iPads that were more expensive in the past, why not this time?” argument.

    Here’s what he had to say:

    “The iPad is far and away the most successful product in its category. The most affordable product we’ve made so far was $399 and people were choosing that over those devices. And now you can get a device that’s even more affordable at $329 in this great new form, and I think a lot of customers are going to be very excited about that.”

    Fair point, I guess. Plenty of people have paid more for iPads when there were cheaper tablets on the market in the past, what’s to think Apple’s venture into 7-inch tablets will be any different? Schiller obviously thinks that the Apple quality argument is plenty enough to justify the higher-than-expected price point.

    Despite some backlash about the price, some analysts believe that customers will in fact pay the “premium price” for the new Apple tablet. Reuters quotes an FBN Securities analyst who says:

    “In spite of concerns about the price…we would be buyers of the stock even in front of earnings this Thursday as we do believe that customers will pay a premium for an Apple tablet.”

    What do you think about the price? Is $329 too high?