By Brandon Teoh
During the Apple Special Event on Oct 23 2012, Apple announced new product offerings for all of its computer hardware products.
In a nutshell …
| iPhone5 – 5th Generation | Announced on Sep 5 2012.
It is by far the thinnest phone ever; 7.6mm thick. It is also world’s thinnest; 112 grams — 20% lighter than 4S. iPhone 5 also supports 44% more color saturation than iPhone 4S. Ultra Fast Wireless Technology,New A6 Chip for 2x faster, Longer Battery Life,iSight – Camera US $199 for 16GB, US $299 for 32GB and US $399 for 64GB for pre-order by Sept. 14th in the US, official released date for shipping will be on Sept. 21st. |
| iPod Touch, iPod Nano – 4th Generation | Announced on Sep 5 2012.
iOS6. iPod touch features 4-inch Retina™ display; a 5 megapixel iSight® camera with 1080p HD video recording; Apple’s A5 chip; Siri®, the intelligent assistant; and iOS 6, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system. Gorgeous new ultra-thin and light anodized aluminum design, and for the first time ever, iPod touch comes in five vibrant colors. iPod nano features a 2.5-inch Multi-Touch™ display; convenient navigation buttons; built-in Bluetooth for wireless listening; and the new iPod nano comes in seven gorgeous new colors. iPod touch is available in black and white for US $199 in a 16GB model and US $249 in a 32GB model. iPod nano available in yellow, blue, green, purple, silver and slate for US $149 in a 16GB model |
| 13″ Macbook Pro | The number 1 selling notebook for Apple and for the whole industry – 13” Macbook Pro is industry champion.
3.57 lbs, almost pound lighter – lightest macbook pro ever. Retina display – 13.3inch diagonal. 2560 x 1600 pixels – the world’s 2nd highest resolution notebook in the world. Enables surfing the web is like a fine print magazine 2.5Ghz dual-core i5, 8GB RAM, 128 GB Flash, for US $1,699 |
| Mac Mini | Smallest and most affordable mac- the world’s most energy-efficient desktop.
People tend to make use of Mac mini as a server for hosting applications. 2.5Ghz dual-core ir, 4GB ram, 500 GB HDD, US $599 |
| iMac – 8th Generation | Manufactured using friction stir welding technique which makes it super strong.
Plasma deposition process for 75% less reflection. Each unit of iMac are individually calibrated. Fusion Drive (made up of flash and HDD). 128GB Flash storage and 1TB or 3TB HDD fused into a single volume to enable faster reads and writes. 21.5-inch iMac, 2.7GHz quad-core i5, 8GB RAM,GeForece GT 640 M, 1 TB HDD for US $ 1,299. |
| iPad – 4th generation | New A6X chip – 2 times the performance (CPU & Graphics) as compared to A5X
Comes with a separate image signal processor for image processing. Supports 10-hour battery life. Facetime HD. Expanded LTE. 2x faster Wi-Fi. Retina display. Black or white. 16GB, WiFi for US$499. With cellular support for US $699. |
| iPad Mini | The iPad Mini is entirely a new design.
Incredily thin and light. It is 7.2 mm, 23% thiner that iPad 4 – as think as a pencil and weights 0.68 lbs – 53% lighter – as light as a pad of paper Black or white. 7.9 inch diagonal allows it to support 1024 x 168 pixels; same pixels as iPad so that it can readily run all application built for iPad. Facetime camera. 5MP iSight camera. LTE ultrafast wireless. Supports 10-hour battery life. It is every inch an iPad but smaller – able to whole it with one hand. 16 GB WiFi for US $329. |
Summary
- 2x faster – all new offerings are made for with two times faster performance for CPU and graphics.
- Longer battery life – the iPhone5, iPad and iPad mini all support 10 hours battery life.
- iOS6 – all new offerings run on the latest iOS platform. It is reported that 200 million devices are running iOS6 since its release, making it the fastest upgrade rate in history.
- Retina display – at 220 pixels-per-inch, the Retina display’s pixel density is so high the human eye cannot distinguish individual pixels from a normal viewing distance, so text and graphics look incredibly sharp. The Retina display uses IPS technology for a 178-degree wide viewing angle, and has 75 percent less reflection and 29 percent higher contrast than the previous generation.
- Price – same price offerings as previous releases and some even cheaper
- Availability – all of these products are not yet in Malaysia – iPhone5 is expected to be available by Christmas 2012.
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iPhone5 was sold out in the first weekend globally on Sep 2012. |
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The internal of 13 inch Macbook Pro, world’s no.1 selling notebook |
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The internal of Mac Mini – world’s no.1 selling desktop computer |
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7 generations of iMacs, the first generation was developed in year 1998 which marked the beginning of a new revolution for desktop computer, the returning of Steve Jobs and the dawn of new frontier for Apple computer. |
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The news iMac – 8th generation with stealth design |
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iPad mini, the size of a palm, is every inch an iPad |
Still the most popular smartphone
The iPhone5 was sold out in the first weekend – 5 million units grabbed on the spot.
On Sep 28, 2012, CEO Tim Cook announced availability of updates of self-developed mapping application – Apple Maps. It comes with features for turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, flyover and vector-based maps something which Google Maps didn’t offer.
Tim Cook wrote that there are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps and urged more adoptions, supports and even patience from customers in order to make it better.
He also stated that for iOS users to make use of other mapping applications such as Google Maps, Bing, MapQuest and Waze is a good thing for the whole ecosystem. Ultimately, Apple is committed to deliver the best products for its customers.
More about iPhone5.
AppStore
It was reported that the AppStore currently hosts 700,000 iPhone apps and 275,000 customized designed for iPad alone. Up to date 35 billion apps have been downloaded.
It is the biggest marketplace for software developers with over US $6.5 billion have been paid out to developers.
In terms of iBook, there are currently 1.5 million books available and up to date, 400 million books have been downloaded.
Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results
Apple® announced financial results for its fiscal 2012 fourth quarter ended September 29, 2012. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $36.0 billion and quarterly net profit of $8.2 billion, or $8.67 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $28.3 billion and net profit of $6.6 billion, or $7.05 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.0 percent compared to 40.3 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 60 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
The Company sold 26.9 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 58 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 14.0 million iPads during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4.9 million Macs during the quarter, a 1 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 5.3 million iPods, a 19 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.
Apple’s Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $2.65 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on November 15, 2012, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 12, 2012.
“We’re very proud to end a fantastic fiscal year with record September quarter results,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re entering this holiday season with the best iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod products ever, and we remain very confident in our new product pipeline.”
“We’re pleased to have generated over $41 billion in net income and over $50 billion in operating cash flow in fiscal 2012,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2013, we expect revenue of about $52 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $11.75.”
