Apple's next iPhone crop must fight off more pests

Apple's next iPhone crop must fight off more pests
By JESSICA MINTZ



When Apple Inc. launched an updated iPhone at its annual gathering of software developers last June, its biggest competitor was the iPhone that Apple had introduced the year before.

That won't be the case at this year's conference, which opens Monday. Now the next version of Apple's touch-screen phone has to outdo a slew of rival gadgets — including one that comes out this weekend — that emulate or improve on some of the iPhone's best features.

Much is riding on Apple's ability to appear well ahead of its competitors. Apple's shares have jumped 73 percent since March — even in the absence of revered CEO Steve Jobs, who is on medical leave — largely because of high expectations for the iPhone. Just two years after entering the fray, Apple enjoys a 19.5 percent share of the smart phone market, according to IDC, and investors are betting on a continued run of success.

"Apple, from a practical standpoint, has consistently tried to stay one to two years ahead of the competition on both the hardware and software levels," said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies and longtime Apple analyst.

Apple, in keeping with its usual secrecy, isn't saying what will be unveiled at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Usually the event is the company's stage to demonstrate computer software changes that aren't widely relevant until programmers use them to build neat new applications. Last year, though, Apple used the conference to announce the iPhone 3G, and many Apple-watchers expect the Cupertino, Calif.-based company to produce another version this time, and to reveal more about the new iPhone operating software it previewed in March.

Since last year's developers conference, rival phone makers galvanized by Apple's challenge have responded with formidable touch-screen devices of their own, including Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry Storm and T-Mobile USA's G1, which runs Google Inc.'s Android software. Palm Inc. is coming out with its new Pre on Saturday and promises to follow with similar devices using its flexible webOS operating system.

For now, RIM is still by far the top seller of feature-packed smart phones, with 55.3 percent share, according to IDC. Palm has 3.9 percent.

The Palm Pre wowed many reviewers with its slide-out keyboard and ability to run more than one program at a time, which the iPhone cannot do. So how can Apple keep the edge in mojo? Some wished-for features include a faster processor, more data storage, video recording and an auto-focus camera.

Smart-phone competitors are not the only ones crowding Apple. Over the past year, another category of small wireless computers has blossomed: "netbooks," which are light little laptops designed for checking e-mail and surfing the Web on the go. Some cost as little as $100 with a cellular data plan, which beats the starting $200 price of an iPhone. Apple has said it isn't interested in making a sub-$500 notebook computer with a small screen and keyboard, but that could change.

Apple also will give the 5,000 developers expected at the conference a closer look at Snow Leopard, the forthcoming update to its Mac OS X operating system, just as the PC industry is gearing up for the Oct. 22 release of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 7.

Microsoft tried to give Windows 7 a more attractive user interface, an area where Apple has long been seen as the leader. After years of stinging Apple ads that pit a hipster Mac character against a hopelessly dorky PC guy, the Redmond, Wash.-based software maker also has bitten back at Apple with a series of TV commercials showing people saving money by choosing Windows PCs over expensive Macs.

"Apple has had a real holiday here while Microsoft has gotten all tangled up in its underwear," said Roger Kay, president of technology research firm Endpoint Technology Associates, referring to Microsoft's epic problems getting the previous system, Vista, out the door and into homes and businesses. "Windows 7 is going to be a lot more respectable competitor."

Questions remain not only around what will be unveiled in San Francisco but who will do the unveiling. Apple's top marketing executive, Philip Schiller, is scheduled to deliver the opening keynote, but a cameo from the CEO wouldn't be out of character for Apple, which thrives on showmanship.

Jobs attended last year's event but isn't officially on the calendar this time. The 54-year-old survivor of pancreatic cancer went on leave in January to deal with a severe weight-loss problem that left him looking wan. Since then, Apple has repeatedly said he is expected back in his day-to-day duties at the end of June.

Bajarin, the analyst, doesn't expect Jobs to appear next week. Then again, he doesn't expect Apple to announce a new iPhone on Monday, either.

"A lot of the rumor mill is based on wishes," he said. "People are wishing for Steve Jobs to show up. They're wishing for the next tablet (PC) from Apple. They're wishing for an iPhone."



Source :The Associated Press

New iPhone could be unveiled as early as Monday

New iPhone could be unveiled as early as Monday
By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY



Is there a new iPhone in your future?

Apple on Monday opens its annual Worldwide Developer's Conference in San Francisco, where tech analysts expect the company to tout its new iPhone 3.0 software, and a new iPhone. It will also preview the next version of its operating system for Mac computers, OS X Snow Leopard.

Apple is facing renewed competition from rival Palm, which starts selling its brand new — and well-received — Palm Pre smartphone over the weekend with exclusive partner Sprint.

"They had to come out with a new iPhone now, to one-up the Pre," says Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray. Munster expects mid-July availability for any new iPhone.

He also expects tiered pricing, with an entry level model available for $149 (down from the current $199) and a premium phone with a video camera and higher capacity storage for $299.
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Apple, typically mum, declined comment.

The software upgrade is even more important than a new iPhone handset, says Charles Wolf, an analyst with Needham and Co.

The center of gravity in the smart phone market has shifted from hardware to software, Wolf says. "And there Apple has an enormous lead."

The latest iPhone software, to be introduced this summer as a free upgrade (or $9.95 for folks who own Apple's iPod Touch media player) offers such enhancements as the ability to cut and paste web pages, and send MMS text messages with photos.

Apple uses its developer's conference to show off its wares and encourage software designers to make programs for its products. Those efforts have paid off greatly when it comes to the iPhone and Touch, which combined have sold 37 million units.

The company has sold more than 1 billion applications for the iPhone and Touch, from games and productivity tools to elegant entertainment apps like the Ocarina, which lets you play the phone as a flute. There are 40,000 offerings at Apple's App Store.

Beyond product announcements on Monday, tech analysts and bloggers are abuzz over whether Apple CEO Steve Jobs might make an appearance at the event.

Jobs took a health-related leave of absence earlier this year and is supposed to to return work at the end of the month.

Munster, for one, is not counting on an early showing. "There's a 20% chance he comes out," says Munster. "And 95% chance he's back at the end of the month, like Apple says."

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling says "we look forward to Steve's return at the end of June."

At the conference, which is sold out, some 5,000 developers will get a final preview release of Snow Leopard, Apple says. The company, however, hasn't given a release date for the software.

Rival Microsoft is introducing a new version of its Windows computer operating system — Windows 7 — in October.

Source :http://www.usatoday.com

Preview: IPhone 3.0 Hopes From an IT Pro

Preview: IPhone 3.0 Hopes From an IT Pro
John C. Welch, Macworld.com



As we are in the final run-up to the 2009 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), it is again time to take a look at what IT managers and developers can expect from next week's event.

My colleague Dan Moren recently noted the public features in iPhone 3.0 OS, and that reminded me that there were quite a few items in the Apple special event for the iPhone 3.0 OS that were presented near the end.

Since quite a few of these are near and dear to IT's heart, I thought this would be a good time to talk about a few of them. It's worth noting that each of these items was on that slide I mentioned, but I'm not sure at this point how Apple plans to implement them, so this is where I use my imagination a bit.

LDAP

LDAP is support is important for anyone in an LDAP environment, (Apple's Open Directory, Microsoft's Active Directory, OpenLDAP, Novell's eDirectory, etc.), as it allows iPhone users to access contact info that is stored in the company directory, rather than relying on their own contacts. This would allow iPhone users to not have to use third party software, (like LDAPeople) or have to copy a company's global address list to their iPhone to have things like email addresses and phone numbers for coworkers on the device.

EAS Policies

EAS, or Exchange ActiveSync policy support could make using an iPhone in a corporate environment much easier. EAS policies help system administrators better handle remote wiping of devices and adding password protection to the device. It can also help IT manage polices like disabling the phone, disabling Wi-Fi/Bluetooth access and other functions. If you're someone who works in IT for a company that deals with sensitive data -- medical and financial records, for example -- you have to be able to lock down devices. EAS policies are a great way to do this.

VPN on Demand

This can mean a lot of things, so my presmption is that Apple will introduce a method to connect your iPhone to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) that you wouldn't normally connect to. This way you don't have manually configure VPN settings -- that the VPN connection will happen automatically when you want to bring up a protected site or server. If Apple has a way to do this, it'll make a lot of IT people happy.

Create Meeting Invites

You know, some days, I wonder about Apple. Like this one: they introduce networked calendaring via EAS in the iPhone OS 2.0, but then they don't give you the ability to create meetings. That's annoying. So in the iPhone 3.0 OS, you can now create meetings. I guess they had to do this, since they're introducing CalDAV support as well. Support for multiple networked calendaring protocols and the inability to create meetings from the iPhone would be astoundingly dumb. So, I'm glad to see Apple avoided that. Finally. The only question is, what took so long?

Call Logs

Another thing that is pretty much a business-only need. For anyone in a profession where phone calls are billable hours, call logs are critical to your life, and (again, assuming that my interpretation of two words are correct) the addition of call logging in the iPhone will make it a lot more useful to those folks who need them, especially the legal world.

OTA/Encrypted Profiles

While Apple's iPhone Configuration Utility is a decent first start, it has issues. For example, while I can e-mail the configuration file to a device, there is still a significant amount of work to be done on the device to enable that profile, and once installed, the profile info is not protected terribly well. Let's assume for the moment that this update allows a sysadmin to push profile data out over the air without any kind of e-mail intermediary, and then encrypts that data on the iPhone. System administrators who have to provision hundreds or even thousands of devices will be able to take another look at the iPhone if this comes to pass.

Other

Quite frankly, if I'm right about these six, I'll be a happy scooter. I love my iPhone, I use it constantly, but there are aspects of managing them, and using them in a corporate/business environment that make me want to throw the thing into traffic at times. If Apple can make improvements on the back end like with iPhone Configuration Utility, then a lot of places that couldn't use iPhones, or were reluctant to, will have solid reason to re-evaluate their stances.

[John C. Welch is a senior systems administrator for The Zimmerman Agency, and a long-time Mac IT pundit.]


Source :http://www.pcworld.com/