iPhone 4S breaks pre-order records with 1m on first day October 10, 2011 THE iPhone 4S has broken Apple’s previous records for pre-orders, clocking up more than 1m in a single day. The handset, which received a muted reaction on its launch last week, surpassed its previous one-day record of 600,000 sales for last year’s iPhone 4. One company alone – AT&T – sold 200,000 contracts for the [...]
Samsung upbeat on profits as smartphone sales fly October 7, 2011 Samsung Electronics said its quarterly profits should top the most bullish market forecasts, with smartphones becoming its main profit engine despite intense competition from bigger rival Apple. Indeed, analysts expect Samsung to report record profit from handset sales in the third quarter and overtake Apple as the world’s biggest smartphone vendor in unit terms. The [...]
A talismanic leader who leaves the world a richer place October 6, 2011 IT’S OFTEN said that Steve Jobs didn’t give a fig about maximising shareholder value. Considering how good he was at it, it scarcely matters. When he rejoined Apple in 1997, its stock was worth $5-a-share while its market cap – mostly accounted for by cash and other tangibles – was a whisker under $5bn. Now [...]
New iPhone gives rivals a shred of hope October 5, 2011 THE TELECOMS world was yesterday digesting the implications of Apple’s latest product launch, with manufacturers hoping to capitalise on the initial lack of enthusiasm. Nokia was trading almost five per cent up yesterday, with its new line of phones running Windows Mango expected to put it in direct competition with other high end handset makers. [...]
Phones beyond Apple: our pick of the new crop October 5, 2011 HOORAY, the not-quite-iPhone 5 has arrived. Yes, it has this fancy voice-recognition software, which might well solve the perennial iPhone typing problem and has finally caught up with the majority of the market with its 8 megapixel camera. But whether this latest model is enough of a change to warrant ditching your current phone or [...]
HARDER, BETTER, FASTER, STRONGER | WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE NEW IPHONE October 3, 2011 Tim Cook (pictured right) will today make his inaugural speech as full-time chief executive of the world’s biggest technology company, writes Steve Dinneen. He will unveil the iPhone 5, the latest version of the handset that has reinvented the smartphone. Apple is notoriously tight-lipped about its upcoming releases. So what can we expect? FASTER Chances [...]
Autonomy boss in spat with US rival September 29, 2011 MIKE Lynch, chief executive of soon-to-be-sold Autonomy, has been drawn into a bitter war of words with rival technology boss Larry Ellison. The Oracle chief accused Lynch of having a “very poor memory or lying” about a personal visit he allegedly made to Oracle’s headquarters to try to pitch Autonomy as a takeover target. Lynch [...]
Nokia to axe 3,500 jobs as cost cuts bite September 29, 2011 EMBATTLED phonemaker Nokia yesterday announced it will slash 3,500 more jobs, including the closure of a major factory in Romania. The cuts are on top of at least 4,000 job losses announced earlier this year. Chief executive Stephen Elop is desperately trying to spin the wheel of the Titanic in the face of falling profits and [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 25, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES US TAX AUTHORITIES TARGET BANK DEALS US tax authorities are targeting cross-border finance deals worth billions of dollars between leading US and UK banks as they step up efforts to clamp down on abusive tax avoidance, a joint investigation by the Financial Times and ProPublica has found. Four US banks – BB&T, Bank [...]
The robotic killers that could take over Blue Peter September 25, 2011 Animals aren’t high-tech enough. They don’t have screens. You can’t easily upgrade them. Last night I spent six hours trying to control a fox with my iPhone, with limited success. Don’t take my word for it – ask the makers of Blue Peter. They have decided not to relocate the show’s famous menagerie in the [...]