Would-be iPhone 4S buyers in Beijing last month. Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images

“We’ve been very, very focused on China,” Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook told the audience at last week’s Goldman Sachs technology conference.

One result of that focus became clear on Monday, when China Telecom (CHA), China’s No. 3 mobile carrier and No. 1 Wi-Fi and fixed-line provider (total subscribers: 216 million), announced that it will begin taking iPhone 4S preorders next week for sales starting March 9.

How big a deal is this? To put it in perspective, ATT (T) sold 7.4 million iPhones last quarter — Apple’s biggest ever — Verizon (VZ) sold 4.2 million and Sprint (S) 1.8 million.

Click to enlarge.

As of January, China Telecom had 38.7 million 3G subscribers, roughly 15 million of whom, according to a recent Morgan Stanley report, are so-called high-end users who could easily afford — and are eager to buy — an iPhone. (See charts.)

China Unicom (CHU), the country’s No. 2 carrier, has more 3G subscribers (43 million), but roughly the same number of high-end subscribers as China Telecom. According to Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty, 20% of China Unicom’s users have already bought iPhones, a share she expects to eventually grow to more than 60%.

The big prize for Apple in China is still out of reach, however. China Mobile (CHL), the world’s largest carrier with more than 600 million subscribers, has been in discussions with Apple for years, and millions of its customers are already using jailbroken iPhones on its older 2G network. But sales won’t begin in earnest until Apple offers a 4G version of the iPhone that can run on China Mobile’s broadband network.

Huberty estimates that once that happens — perhaps as early as this fall — iPhone sales in China could quickly grow to 40 million a year.

Article source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/fortunebrainstormtech/~3/MTuIp_mXxB0/

Weir at Foxconn. Source: ABC

Four years ago, when I first starting writing about Foxconn, it was almost impossible to get a photo of the factory workers who assemble 40% of the world’s electronic devices.

Now, 18 suicides, two fatal explosions, an off-Broadway show and a New York Times exposé later, Foxconn has opened the factory where Apple’s (AAPL) iPads are made to a senior ABC correspondent and a Nightline camera crew.

The result — a TV special called “iFactory: Inside Apple” — will air well past prime-time Tuesday night. But on Monday ABC’s Bill Weir posted a long write-up of his findings that, knowing the exigencies of commercial television, may well offer more detail than the edited video.

Despite fears that any report by ABC, whose Disney (DIS) chairman sits on Apple’s board, would be a whitewash, Weir is pretty blunt about what he found: work of “soul-crushing boredom and deep fatigue” and crowded living conditions few Americans would put up with.

Click to enlarge. Photo: Karson Yiu/ABC News

He also makes it clear that Foxconn’s sudden openness is no accident. Among the details in his reporter’s notebook:

• The Fair Labor Association had been trying to get Apple to let it inspect the factories for five years. Apple finally joined the FLA on Jan. 16, eight days before the New York Times ran its series on Foxconn’s labor practices.
• When Apple first called ABC, Weir assumed the FLA audit he was going to film would include a surprise inspection. “But Foxconn,” he writes, “has known for days that we were coming and in fact helped us get Chinese visas.”
• A Foxconn executives tells Weir what by now is quite obvious: ”Nightline probably wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the deadly explosions and suicides.”

Weir adds that Apple may be Foxconn’s most famous customer, but its Chinese factories also churns out products for Sony (SNE), Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), I.B.M. (IBM), Motorola (MMI), Toshiba and other major brands, “keeping the details of each production line wrapped in total secrecy.”

Below: ABC’s video teaser. The Nightline special is scheduled to air Tuesday night at 11:35 p.m. ET and PT.

Posted in: Apple, Bill Weir, Dell, Fair Labor Association, Foxconn, HP, IBM, Motorola, New York Times, Nightline, Sony, Tablets, Toshiba

Article source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/fortunebrainstormtech/~3/mSxLtPn-5AY/

For example, Apple touts the fact that the MD313LL/A uses unitized body construction – it uses one aluminum block as the body mold – enabling the MacBook Pro to remain thin, but it is still too heavy to be a netbook. The 4.5-pound weight puts it into laptop category, but it is still small enough to be seen as a netbook. It is conveniently sized and less than an-inch thick by 13 inches wide and about 9 inches deep.

Let’s just assume that Apple is really aiming at the laptop market with this mini-sized laptop. Once one does that one knows that Apple a solid product on its hands with cutting-edge features. For example, it offers a technology it terms “Thunderbolt” which offers data pass through at up to 20 Gbps. Requiring a special Apple adapter, this technology can be used for data, audio or video.

“Thunderbolt” combines Apple’s PCI Express and DisplayPort technologies to enable high-speed transfers through a single port. In the data mode, one can zap data through at speeds of up to 20 Gbps. Coincidentally, the same port, with the proper mini DisplayPort adapter lets one speed high-definition data output to a video device such as a DVI or HDMI system. The display is surprisingly crisp, although it is limited to 13 inches, hardly the stuff of full-screen, full-featured games. Yet, the video chipset used is game-class, the flexible Intel 3000 chipset that offers full high-definition resolution of 1280 by 800. The display is backlit and offers a rich array of color ability plus very rich blacks and a wide range of contrast.

Interestingly, the video chipset shares part of the 384 onboard memory caching second generation Intel Core II 5 processor offers. The same memory is also shared with the CPU and the DVD player so it is bound to have an impact on ultimate performance the memory available. One can see times when the MacBook Pro could become processor-bound because its cache is at maximum. One should know that one is also locked into Apple’s proprietary Lion operating system (OS 10).

The MacBook Pro is fully network-centric, offering both hard-wired and WiFi service. It will automatically recognize and offer WiFi services at 801.11/A/B/G/N speeds to up to 20 users as a WiFi hotspot. One can also see I/O binding because there’s only so much bandwidth and memory available for the 20 users so performance may slow.

The laptop offers a host of features including an 8-spin SuperDrive that offers the following modes DVD+R DL, DVD+-RW and CD-RW. Plus, the MacBook Pro offers a forward-facing high-definition webcam for video calls and conferencing. Bluetooth compatibility is also available so you can sync up to a dozen Bluetooth devices to your MacBook.

One would think that since this is built around Intel’s processor and video chipset that one would have access to a wide range of offerings, but this isn’t the case. As with all things Apple, you must buy Apple peripherals to complete the package. It is true that some of the peripherals are unique such as the “Time Capsule,” a WiFi 801.11/N disk that works with Apple’s OS 10 (Leopard or later) which lets one automatically back up the laptop’s hard disk via WiFi. The “Time” can hold up to 2 to 3 TB of data, depending on your choice. It can also be configured as WiFi hotspots in themselves.

To take full advantage of the MacBook Pro one would likely want a larger display for HD content and Apple offers you a larger “Thunderbolt Display.” Apple also offers an AirPort Extreme Base Station for home, school or business use. In this mode, the MacBook will support up to 50 users. Apple also offers a wireless keyboard for the MacBook Pro.

Special mention should be made of its keypad which is buttonless. Instead, it relies on a relatively large glass keypad that you can tap, swipe, use two or three or four fingers to access and use, instead. It is a feature that could require some getting used to.

The MacBook Pro is an excellent upgrade to an already great Apple laptop. Yes, it is a little on the small side and all its key peripherals are made by Apple, but if you are willing to use this technology, you won’t go wrong. You also won’t go wrong if you remember that this is not a netbook but it is really a full-featured laptop, just downsized a bit.

Article source: http://www.articletrader.com/computers/hardware/apple-macbook-pro-md313ll-a-13.3-inch-laptop.html

“Apple Speeds Mac ‘Mountain Lion’ to Take On Windows 8″ Bloomberg Businessweek

“Steve Jobs is gone, Windows 8 is coming and Apple panics” betanews

As predicted, the tech press spent much of the rest of the week trying to make sense of last Tuesday’s news that the latest version of the Mac operating system, Mountain Lion, is due out before the end of summer.

Most of the speculation had to do with the way Apple (AAPL) handled the announcement, privileging some reporters with previews and not others. (Why MG Siegler, who doesn’t usually write reviews? Why not Andy Ihnatko, who does?)

Many wrote it off as Apple’s way of keeping the press firmly under its thumb. “Access isn’t an entitlement,” Ihnatko tweeted philosophically. “I’ve gotten things early, I’ve not gotten things early. I can only do my job, day to day.”

Some, as the headlines quoted above suggest, smelled something even more Machiavellian in the annoucement — the first time in memory that the press got to test a Mac OS before Apple developers could. According to betanews’ Robert Johnson:

“Apple more typically announces a new OS version months before it’s made available to anyone, typically during their Worldwide Developer Conference. But with 10.8 things are different. The timing allowed Apple to preempt the release of Windows 8 Consumer Preview, which Microsoft announced in January would be the end of this month.”

Was Mountain Lion announced prematurely to take the wind out of Microsoft’s (MSFT) sails?

Click to enlarge. Data: Wikipedia. Chart: PED

“Prematurely” doesn’t seem right, given that even if Mountain Lion’s release doesn’t happen until the last day of summer, developers will have less time to prepare for it than for any OS X since Panther in 2003.

And as John Gruber and John Siracusa pointed out in Friday’s The Talk Show podcast, the new features being added to OS X — messaging, notifications, app synching, etc. — are all about integrating the Mac more tightly with iCloud.

Google (GOOG) is the master of cloud-based computing, not Microsoft. And it’s Google that Apple seems to have in its sights with the release of 10.8.

Posted in: Andy Ihnatko, Apple, Bloomberg Businessweek, Google, iCloud, Mac, Microsoft, Mountain Lion, OS X, PCs, Windows 8

Article source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/fortunebrainstormtech/~3/lLTkGoFJz5w/

In the case of the NB505, there’s little doubt that it is a smaller, much more conveniently sized version of its fuller sized cousins in the laptop world such as the Satellite L755-S5349. In looking at each unit closely, Toshiba is right, the NB505 with slower on all counts from its 1.66 GHz Intel Atom processor to its 667 MHz front-side bus. It is also much more limited in the amount of memory with which a user can upgrade the NB505, 1 GB versus 8 GB. The NB505 uses Level 2 cache while the Satellite uses Level 3 for more processing power, though both PCs do share their cache with their high-performance Intel video chipsets.

The key dimensions are in the size and weight department. Where the Satellite is 15-inches wide by about 9 inches deep and about nearly 2 inches inches thick, the NB505 is 10.3 by 7.5 by 1.4 inches and it weighs in at a mere 2.9 pounds.

The size alone makes it more convenient as you can easily toss it in your tote or briefcase and take it with you to a meeting or luncheon where you must take notes. You can then easily network the NB505 through its WiFi networking capability or through your office’s hard-wired Internet and sync and update your laptop or desktop with the information stored on the NB505′s 250 GB hard drive.

Indeed, the NB505 has a 5,400-spin SATA drive available in its small size, as well as a full keyboard and a host of built-in business applications that allow you to access your mail, edit and upload a document via WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n networking. About the only item that the Satellite has that the NB505 lacks is a multi-spin DVD/CD player, however, the ability to upload graphics to standard SDHC memory cards or upload or download sensitive documents to SDXC cards, takes away some of the sting of not having the DVD/CD drive (to be truthful in the three years I’ve owned my dual-core full-sized laptop, I have used the DVD/CD maybe 10 times in total, while I appreciated the boost the upgrade from 2 GB to 4GB of memory that was provided.

Indeed, the NB505 only offers 512 MB of memory available as standard and one would think that you would take advantage of the ability to upgrade to 1 GB which the NB505 offers.

The real key to the NB505 has to be its size. Yes, its display is rather tiny at 10.1-inches, however, it is a high-resolution backlit color display that offers rich, full high-definition video potential. Thanks to the Intel chipset, one has access to full 32-bit color potential. The Intel graphics chipset produces sparkling color, as well as very deep blacks and shade of contrast that are easy to view. Also, in using this as a word-processing machine or an email device, you will see sharp clean letters. Toshiba and Intel have done their homework on this netbook.

It seems that beyond Apple there are few netbook machines available that offer the features you find in the NB505 for a reasonable price. That’s why this machine is definitely worth a look, if you need something you can tote along all day and which only needs one charge for 8 hours of lithium-ion battery power.

Article source: http://www.articletrader.com/computers/hardware/toshiba-nb505-n508bl-10-inch-netbook.html

Zabitsky on CNBC

I applaud my CNNMoney colleague Hibah Yousuf for trying to pin down which hedge funds have been dumping their Apple (AAPL) shares lately, but I’m not sure I would have used ACI Research’s Edward Zabitsky as a source for a piece entitled Not everyone loves Apple’s stock.

To call Zabitsky’s most recent note — published Jan. 25 — an outlier is an understatement. He set a $270 price target on a day when the stock was trading over $450 and advised investors to “sell short” just before a run that would take Apple to over $526.

The following Monday CNBC did something it rarely does. It invited Zabitsky to appear on its Halftime Report and grilled him mercilessly — and quite skeptically — for six long minutes. See here.

Long before then, however, Zabitsky was famous among Apple investors for his “sky is falling” Apple soundbites. AAPLInvestors Terry Gregory has been collecting them on his iPhone Death Watch for years:

• “When the iPhone came out, it was so far beyond what was out there on the market, pretty much up until now, but with what’s coming out from competitors, that advantage is going away. For the first time, Apple’s going to be faced with a serious growth challenge.” 22 April 2009
• “The iPhone is a bandwidth hog and is not profitable for carriers. Rivals are entering the mobile browser space to compete with Apple. Although Apple’s gadgets are trendy, their hardware will eventually become irrelevant.” 29 December 2009
• “Apple has raised the bar on what’s normal, but other phones are easily narrowing the difference because web technology is easier to program.” 7 May 2010
• “If a price war breaks out in Android phones, Samsung wins hands down.” 15 Feb 2012

To which we can add, from Zabitsky’s Jan. 25 note:

• “Content is king again. It is available everywhere – not just from Apple. If we learn one thing from Netflix’s fall from grace, it is that aggregating content is no longer a viable business model.”
• “Speaking of open ecosystems, what will Apple do when carriers introduce network-based video calling?”
• “We maintain our Sell Short rating on Apple. The internet is the great equalizer. It saved Apple during the rise of the wired broadband internet. It will level the playing field for other vendors with the rise of the true mobile broadband internet.”

We asked Zabitsky if he was serious about his $270 price target and his “sell short” rating, and he was kind enough to reply:

“To be clear,” he wrote, “shorting is for professionals. Individuals should just be asking themselves if Apple is as invincible as they think.

“My targets are based upon my expectations for the business over a two year time frame. They are not based upon the current share price. In 2007, my targets were all well below the share prices, in late February 2009, my targets were all far above the share prices.

“The difference between me and my competitors is that I had a successful buy-side career. I have also had 20 years of experience talking to high tech people who are far smarter than I am. Futhermore, I do not have a trading desk breathing down my neck.”

Article source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/fortunebrainstormtech/~3/L8qtpsI-Zuo/

* The Wall Street Journal reports that Google (GOOG) and other ad companies were getting around millions of Apple (AAPL) users’ privacy settings, in particular those who used Apple’s Safari Web browser on their iPhones and computers. (The Wall Street Journal)

* Foxconn, maker of Apple iPhones and iPads, raised its worker wages by between 16% and 25%, the third such raise since 2010. (Reuters)

* The story behind the Olympus scandal. (Bloomberg Businessweek)

* Netflix reintroduced DVD-only rentals. (Gizmodo)

* Is Megaload’s founder, Kim Dotcom, a criminal mastermind or entertaining scapegoat? (Bloomberg Businessweek)

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Article source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/fortunebrainstormtech/~3/Z920gKhcwxU/

For example, the Zenbook is 12.9 inches by 8.9 inches by .78 inches and it weighs in at less than three pounds. No, it is not as light as a tablet and it is not as heavy as a laptop, but it offers attributes of each. For example, the Zenbook, as noted is a lightweight and, like a tablet, it is network-centric, capable of supporting WiFi 802.11 b/g/n standards at up to 2.4 GHz. This is the type versatility one expects from a tablet. However, finding it in a machine that is very little larger than a tablet and which also offers Windows 7 Professional, as well as up to 4 GB of built-in memory for system and program initiation, while, at the same time offering a full-sized chicklet-style key keyboard is somewhat unusual.

And, when you combine this with the Zenbook’s ability to support not only slower speed USB2.0 and high-speed USB3.0 ports, you find that this is quite a machine. Yes, it is true that the display is only 13.3 inches diagonal, but when you look at the resolution 1600 by 900 Hz, you can see why this device is also considered high-definition-ready by many in the computer business. Indeed, it is something to think about seriously if you are considering the Zenbook. The kicker that should lock this up for you, though, is not only its serious video display with deep, rich blacks and great contrast, but its 256 SATA “hard disk” drive.

Oh, did you notice the words “hard disk” drive, just used? Well, how about thinking of the “hard disk” as nothing more than chips and circuity. That’s right, ASUS, which offers the longest full-featured warranty in the business – a year on all parts and labor and replacement, if needed, as well as a year guarantee if one pushes it off a table accidentally – also offers an sATA hard drive made up of flash memory. In other words, instead of using a whirring mass of stainless steel with several heads diving back and forth to put memories into order, the Zenbook spends seconds doing the same thing on its high-speed flash drive which can be backed up in, literally, the blink of an eye. It’s a breakthrough and the first that we have heard of this type of use of flash memory. Oh, it certainly does keep the weight down because most hard drives, even tiny ones, still can add a pound of more to the overall weight of an Ultrabook.

The next area where the Zenbook shines is in its sound. The sound system from its tiny laptop-style speaker system is excellent. Called Sonic Master Technology the sound was developed with sound pioneer Bang and Olufsen, makers of some of the finest speakers on the market. Their speaker technology and the software to make this work are almost worth the price of admission to this Ultrabook, right there. One must hear the sound to believe it.

The Zenbook is no slouch in the processing or video departments, either, as it employs Intel’s latest and greatest high-end Quad-Core CPU, the I7 2667M. In standard mode, this CPU runs at 1.86 MHz, however, in burst mode, another feature the Zenbook offers, this Ultrabook operates at nearly 3 GHz, which is quite good and something to which even the best tablet cannot hold a candle.

Yes, the Zenbook does come with a number of productivity software programs installed and it is up to you to figure out which ones you need and which ones can go, but that’s the least of your thinking with the ASUS Zenbook. What should be in the front of your thinking is just how many uses you can use this laptop for.

Article source: http://www.articletrader.com/computers/hardware/asus-zenbook-ux31e-dh72-13.3-inch-thin-and-light-ultrabook.html

Click to enlarge.

The institutions that hold 70% of Apple’s (AAPL) shares lobbied Steve Jobs for years to put some of his company’s rapidly growing cash hoard in their hands.

Now that his successor is talking openly about the company’s discussions to do just that, the sell-side analysts have started to calculate how big their share might be.

The latest to weigh in is Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty, who pointed out in a note to clients Wednesday that in addition to the $34 billion in cash and marketable securities Apple has in the U.S. and the $64 billion it holds overseas, it will generate at least $18 billion in free cash flow this year in the U.S. alone.

If the company distributes 50% to 100% of that cash to shareholders, that works out (at a $500 share price) to a 1.9% to 3.8% dividend. This is important, says Huberty, for three reasons:

• Apple can support a dividend with above-market yield using only US free cash flow… This range compares favorably to the SP 500 average yield of 2.2% and IT sector average of 1.2% in 2011
• A dividend could boost long-term stock performance. Since 2002 (post the tech bubble), the top one-third of tech stocks ranked by dividend yield have outperformed the bottom third by 14%
• In the near-term, investors are also showing a preference for dividends. Tech dividend payers’ traded at a P/E multiple that represented a 28% premium vs. non-payers last year.

Given the new products (iPad, iPhone, etc.) coming online, Huberty believes the prospect of a dividend could drive Apple’s share price past her current target of $515 to her “bull case” of $600 per share.

Article source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/fortunebrainstormtech/~3/yzCAIZcWuLo/

All these positive views are because of the high performances of their laptops. One of the highlights of this brand is that they manufacturer category wise laptops for different types of users. For business purpose there is a Dell Vostro series. They have perfect blend of style and performance. These Dell Vostro laptops are designed to help you in growing your business by making you stay connected even on the move. One of the business oriented laptops which we are going to discuss in the following paragraph is the new Dell Vostro 1540.

It is another high performing laptop from Dell which helps the consumers to run their business smoothly with the sturdy, budget friendly and in reliable manner. It is build in a manner which makes it ready with an anti-smudge cover and roomy chiclet keyboard for comfortable typing. It offers essential mobility, brisk processing power along with important security and IT support options.

The Dell Vostro 1540 is assembled with a set of reliable features which gives responsive performance for everyday office needs. It comes bundled with Intel Core processors and Genuine Windows 7 Professional. It is equipped with up to 320 GB SATA hard drive and up to 2GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333 MHz. This Dell laptop lets you create dynamics presentations and watch videos in high definition with Intel built in HD graphics. All these are displayed on the 15.6 inch HD WLED Anti-Glare display with 1366 X 768 pixels resolution.

The Dell Vostro 1540 comes kitted with a 1.3 MP Webcam and built in microphone to do videoconferencing with the clients through the Internet. For wireless connectivity it has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0. It is mounted with a couple of ports and slots. Among them, some mains one are a Network Connector RJ45, VGA port, HDMI slot, 3 USB 2.0 ports, a headphone jack, a microphone jack and a 3-in-1 card reader. The Dell Vostro 1540 price in India is one of the best in this segment. The Dell Vostro 1540 price in India is very cheap and would definitely attract the target audience.

To check out the list of android phones visit to the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Review and gather all the updates of new technology.

Article source: http://www.articletrader.com/computers/hardware/dell-vostro-1540-laptop.html