Apple Inc.

[CityFarmer]

Apple Unveils Two iPhones
Company Continues to Fight Rivals in Smartphone Market; the 5C, in Five Colors, Is Priced at $99

Apple’s “cheap” iPhone 5C will cost $735 in China

US price of $99, is with a mobile subscription plan. Price without contract starts with $848. The China's price of $735 might be conditional.

No "wow" factor in this launch, imo

Reference: http://www.todayonline.com/tech/gadgets/...-singapore

[CityFarmer]

Want an iWatch? It might be a long wait

LONDON — For months rumours and reports have indicated that Apple has been in the process of producing a smartwatch of its own. The iWatch, as recent trademark filings name it, was to put information pulled from your smartphone at a glance on a screen on your wrist. However, Apple’s entry into the burgeoning smart wearables category failed to materialise. So where is Apple’s iWatch?

Samsung launched its own take on the smartwatch with the Galaxy Gear – a wearable device that puts a touchscreen on your wrist and connects to the company’s Galaxy Note 3 and Note 10.1 Android devices. Using the touchscreen you can read text messages, get alerts and even answer calls in a Dick Tracy-style, talking directly into the watch. Navigation around the device is achieved by swiping through a simplified pictorial interface on the touchscreen, with bespoke apps available from a special Samsung Gear app store including services such as Pocket, Path and SnapChat.

Qualcomm also launched its own take on the smartwatch with the Toq, which performs similar duties to Samsung’s Galaxy Gear. Sony recently updated its own wearable device with the SmartWatch 2, while the Pebble smartwatch, which was successfully crowd-funded last year, showed that there is a market for the intelligent wrist device.

Apple may be biding its time, or its smartwatch may just not be ready for prime-time yet. Given that smartwatches from various other manufacturers have met with a lukewarm reception at best, it has caused some in the media to speculate that the smartwatch technology isn’t ready for the mass market.

Current implementations of the smartwatch “form factor” have been hampered by bulky designs and limited use cases, strongly lacking killer functionality to justify the relatively high cost of the devices. Rumours from China suggested Apple’s iWatch could have a curved display and tight integration with the iPhone and iPad, as well as some standalone functionality, but there’s still no sign of such a move by Apple, yet. THE GUARDIAN
http://www.todayonline.com/tech/gadgets/...heir-wrist

[happyharvest]

Some catalysts to boost the share price..


http://money.cnn.com/2013/09/11/technolo...one-china/

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/09/1...ng-sept-18

[CityFarmer]

Some catalysts to boost the share price..


http://money.cnn.com/2013/09/11/technolo...one-china/

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/09/1...ng-sept-18

I doubt on Apple's success in China. First of all, is on the pricing. Next is the competition from Xiaomi on mobile and Internet TV businesses.

Xiaomi's mobile already pretty popular in China, with similar branding as Apple, but with cheaper price.

Xiaomi TV was launched recently, which is a direct competitor of Apple TV.

(not vested)

[CityFarmer]

It shows the disappointment of shareholders...

Apple shares fall as new iPhones fail to dazzle

NEW YORK — Apple’s new iPhones got panned by Wall Street yesterday (Sept 11) as investors decried one model for being too costly for emerging markets such as China, and dismissed the other model as lacking enough game-changing features.

The world’s most valuable technology company missed an opportunity to introduce a low-end smartphone to drive sales in Asia, where Samsung Electronics and China’s Huawei have a wide lead over Apple, analysts say.

The plastic iPhone 5C unveiled on Tuesday will sell for 4,488 yuan (S$930) in China, Apple said. That is more than the average monthly urban income in China, and about double the cost of mid-tier devices from Samsung and other vendors. The cheapest phones in China, made by the likes of Xiaomi, go for about US$100 (S$127) apiece.

“Investors were put off that Apple’s price point didn’t go low enough to attract a new market. It doesn’t have the same range in price that Apple’s competitors have,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia, which manages about US$58 billion in assets.

The high-end iPhone 5S disappointed Wall Street and revived fears that Apple’s most innovative days may be behind it. The phone has a fingerprint scanner to improve security, but analysts said that was not likely to be enough to make the iPhone 5S a sure win in the crowded smartphone market.

“There was nothing transformational announced. It has the fingerprint scan and new colors, but bigger features, like different screen sizes, don’t seem to be at the ready. This was less than expected from a company that has a reputation for surprising with a killer product or strategy,” said Luschini.

Shares of Apple slid 5.4 per cent to close at a month low of US$467.71 on the Nasdaq after at least three brokerages downgraded their rating on the stock. Still, Apple remains up 18 per cent since the start of July, when anticipation about the phones began building.

Apple executives — and the company’s many fans in the industry — maintain both iPhones are best-in-class. While the corporation itself has not addressed the uproar over its iPhone 5C’s price tag, some analysts say it’s a good move to preserve margins while leaving room for future reductions.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/tech/apple-sh...ail-dazzle

[Big Toe]

Apple needs to innovate to stay ahead, right now it's not happening.
They're still generating free cash and have a huge cash horde and that's to their advantage but they seem to be losing their mojo.
There are plenty of things they could do, go into In car entertainment business/ or be involved in the flight entertainment or something.
Plenty to do but all they can come up with is a gold Iphone....com'on lah.

---

While it's ok for coke to do nothing and people will still drink it.
The smart phone/tablet business is moving at an incredible pace.
Matter of time before someone catches up and overtake and consumers will switch.
That's what happened to Nokia.

[sgd]

no improvement and yet plenty money means they will start buying up companies and do like HP and Samsung sugarcane juice sellers, buy companies squeeze them, gain access to their technology, market share reserves then buy some more companies and repeat

buying company allows new ceo's to get more time from shareholders to deliver results, need time to merge and integrate mah ... if after a several quarters still no improvement time to go, setup themselves nicely with generous package and exit.

[CityFarmer]

Apple needs to innovate to stay ahead, right now it's not happening.
They're still generating free cash and have a huge cash horde and that's to their advantage but they seem to be losing their mojo.
There are plenty of things they could do, go into In car entertainment business/ or be involved in the flight entertainment or something.
Plenty to do but all they can come up with is a gold Iphone....com'on lah.

---

While it's ok for coke to do nothing and people will still drink it.
The smart phone/tablet business is moving at an incredible pace.
Matter of time before someone catches up and overtake and consumers will switch.
That's what happened to Nokia.

Generally I agree with your view. The fate of Apple depends on innovation, time-to-innovate, and "stickiness", imo

By observation, it seems that Apple's products are quite sticky. Window shopping on accessory, and comparing Apple's vs other competitors' revealed that Apple still quite popular, at least in SG. It has given Apple more time...

(not vested, but observing...)

[specuvestor]

The market segmentation of 5S and 5C is a disaster... as per my previous posts, operations Cook cannot fill the shoes of visionary Job

Singapore is interesting because all the other countires launching on 20 Sept are G9 countries

[CityFarmer]

The market segmentation of 5S and 5C is a disaster... as per my previous posts, operations Cook cannot fill the shoes of visionary Job

Singapore is interesting because all the other countires launching on 20 Sept are G9 countries

Yes, a price difference of just S$140, from premium product, for "low-cost" market, is ridiculous, especially so if it is for emerging markets.

Ref: http://www.todayonline.com/tech/gadgets/...-singapore