Ed Sutherland

Analyst predicts the iPad mini will kill off the iPod touch

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated June 5, 2018

Is Apple getting ready to discontinue the iPod touch, now that the Cupertino, California firm has a bevy of low-priced alternatives, including the just-announced iPad mini? That's the opinion of one analyst who has correctly predicted the demise of other Apple products. The iPod touch "has entered the final stage of its product life cycle," according to Ming-Chi Kuo, analyst with KGI Securities. He also believes Apple "will not invest significantly in developing future models"...

Report: Apple’s $329 iPad mini is an ‘absolute home run’

Ed Sutherland ∙ October 24, 2012

Analysts are fawning over Apple's new iPad mini, one describing the smaller tablet as "an absolute home run." Although investors concerned over the $329 price tag briefly sent shares of the Cupertino, Calif. firm down, Wall Street dismissed the worries.

"Due to the high quality of the hardware, we expect the device will be very well received by consumers once they have an opportunity to test it," Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore said.

Although Whitmore described the iPad mini as "a modest disappointment," he said the new iPad includes features "richer than we anticipated."

IHS iSuppli predicts off the sales for the iPad mini in 2013

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated June 13, 2018

Just as Apple revived a dormant tablet industry, the iPad maker is expected to double the market for seven-inch tablets. Thanks to its incoming smaller iPad, demand for tablets in the seven-inch range will grow to a third of the overall market by 2013, a market research firm announced Tuesday.

"Just as Apple has dominated the market for 9.7-inch tablets with its iPad, iPad 2 and new iPad models, the company is poised to rule the market for 7.x-inch products", said Rhoda Alexander, director of tablet and monitor research for IHS iSuppli. Indeed, the market for such tablets will increase 100 percent this year and next, according to the research firm...

Apple fires Korean chief ahead of the iPhone 5 launch

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Just days before the iPhone 5 is scheduled to launch in South Korea, Apple fired the chief of its business unit there. According to a report, Dominique Oh, hired only 17 months ago, was canned after supposedly sluggish sales. South Korea is important for Apple, as the Asian nation is home to its chief rival Samsung. Apple confirmed Oh's contract was terminated, but said it could not address speculation on the reasoning behind the company's decision...

Apple leaks: increasingly they are made in China

Ed Sutherland ∙ October 22, 2012

If there is one word that is often used to describe Apple it is "secretive." The Cupertino, California firm is legendary for its corporate tight lips. Increasingly, however, there are few secrets left when it comes to Apple products. A number of insiders are blaming Apple's extensive supply chain and companies outside the US.

"Apple's security practices are targeted at making sure U.S. employees don't leak stuff, but everything comes out of China now," an unnamed employee of the iPhone maker told Ars Technica Monday. This inability to ensure suppliers outside the U.S. share the same regard for product secrecy has led Apple to tighten the screws on employees at home - sometimes with questionable results.

NPD: Low-cost smartphone market to double through 2016

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

It's ironic, but the Asian-Pacific region, where many iPhone parts are produced, is a hotbed for an explosion of smartphones priced at less than $150. In a new report, shipments of low-cost smartphones are expected to climb to 311 million units by 2016, up from just 4.5 million now. What's more, by 2016, low-cost smartphones will account for 29 percent of all smartphone sales, according to NPD DisplaySearch. Android - not Apple - is leading the charge with its open-source operating system...

Samsung said to end LCD sales to Apple

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

More fallout from Apple's patent lawsuit win against Samsung: the South Korean company's LCD arm will stop selling displays to the Cupertino, California iPhone maker. The reason? Samsung Display no longer sees Apple as "a cash-generator due to the iPhone maker's stiffer supply-chain management structure," a South Korean newspaper reports.

"We are unable to supply our flat-screens to Apple with huge price discounts," a senior Samsung source was quoted Monday. To make up for the lost business, both Samsung's own handset unit and Amazon are upping their orders from Samsung Display, the source said...

Analyst thinks the iPad mini will be the priciest seven-incher

Ed Sutherland ∙ October 22, 2012

Is Apple's upcoming iPad mini aimed at consumers looking for an inexpensive tablet or folks seeking an Apple tablet that can be popped into a jacket pocket?

That's the real question facing observers as the Cupertino, California company prepares to introduce its 7.8-inch product tomorrow. The answer, of course, will tell us just who Apple thinks its rivals are in this space...

Smaller iPad may be competition’s worst nightmare, analysts agree

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Analysts are almost busting their buttons to tell investors just how big a deal they expect is a smaller iPad, widely thought to be up for an introduction next Tuesday. One well-known Apple watcher foresees huge headaches from rival seven-inch tablet makers, describing the so-called iPad mini as "competition's worst nightmare."

Shaw Wu of Sterne Agee writes the iPad mini will come on the scene as Apple's competitors are already running hard just to keep up with the larger iPad 2.

The Cupertino, Caliornia gadget designer may even phase-out the $399 iPad 2 in order to focus attention even more strongly on the leading brand. Add a 7.85-inch iPad mini expected to sell for under $300 - and rival tablet manufacturers lose both the size advantage as well as the lower price tag...

Apple could phase out the iPad 2 for the iPad mini

Ed Sutherland ∙ October 19, 2012

Apple will discontinue the iPad 2 in order to simplify product choices ahead of next Tuesday's introduction of a smaller tablet, one analyst predicts. Friday, Rob Cihra, analyst with Evercore Partners, told investors the move would be part of Apple's goal of providing "clearer product tiers."

The Cupertino, California-based company uses its engineering prowess in both hardware and software to overcome an otherwise soft technology market. The iPhone maker has increased its revenue by thirty percent this year at a time when demand for PCs has dropped by four percent...

Apple patents Airplay mirroring for touchscreens, putting Siri in context

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Apple's patent attorneys are busy again. The Cupertino, California company has filed two patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, related to extending AirPlay mirroring to iPads and iPhones, as well as describing how Siri scans through databases to match searches.

In the first application, entitled "Gesture Visualization and Sharing Between Electronic Devices and Remote Displays," Apple talks of protecting technology allowing a touch screen device to share its screen with a second, larger display. Because the patent application mentions a touch interface, reports suggest the patent is limited to the iPhone and iPad...

Analysts estimate the iPad mini could cannibalize one-fifth of current iPad sales

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

The rumored iPad mini, expected to be introduced by Apple next Tuesday, could eat into up to twenty percent of sales of regular-sized iPads, analysts said Thursday. Such cannibalization caused one high-profile Wall Street Apple watcher to trim one million units from his sales projection for the December quarter.

"We believe that the smaller iPad could cannibalize one million regular iPad units in December or a rate of cannibalization at twenty percent", Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told investors. In other words, for every five million iPad minis sold, deduct one million sales of the original iPad...