Apple's new iPhone will use bigger 4.6-inch display: report

SEOUL | Wed Mar 21, 2012 8:57pm EDT

(Reuters) - Apple Inc's new iPhone will have a sharper and bigger 4.6-inch "retina" display and is set to be launched around the second quarter, a South Korean media reported on Thursday.

Sales of the iPhone, first introduced in 2007 with the touch screen template now adopted by its rivals, account for around half Apple's total sales.

Apple has decided on the bigger 4.6-inch display for its next iPhone and started placing orders to its suppliers, the Maeil Business Newspaper said, quoting an unnamed industry source.

Its major display suppliers LG Display and Samsung Electronics Co declined to comment.

Samsung, which is also the biggest challenger to Apple in smartphones, uses 4.6-inch OLED display for its flagship Galaxy S II smartphone, introduced in April last year.

The high-definition "retina" display--containing several times as many pixels within the same area-- is used in the latest iPad released earlier this month.

The latest iPhone 4S was introduced in October last year.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Michael Perry)

Chrome wins weekend browser battle with IE: report

By Tarmo Virki

HELSINKI | Wed Mar 21, 2012 9:21am EDT

(Reuters) - Google Inc's Chrome web browser overtook Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer (IE) to become market leader globally for the first time last Sunday, web analytics firm StatCounter said on Wednesday.

"While it is only one day, this is a milestone," said Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter's chief executive.

"At weekends, when people are free to choose what browser to use, many of them are selecting Chrome in preference to IE."

On March 18, Chrome was used for 32.7 percent of all browsing, while Explorer had 32.5 percent share. When people returned to their offices on Monday, the IE share rose to 35 percent and Chrome's share slipped to 30 percent.

"Whether Chrome can take the lead in the browser wars in the long term remains to be seen, however the trend towards Chrome usage at weekends is undeniable," Cullen said.

On a monthly basis, Chrome's market share has surged to 31 percent so far in March from 17 percent a year ago, while Explorer has slipped to 35 percent from 45 percent a year earlier.

The market share of Firefox -- which is popular in Europe -- is globally around 25 percent.

Apple Inc's Safari is a distant number four with a 7 percent share of all browsing, with Opera at number five on 2 percent.

StatCounter statistics are based on aggregate data from more than 3 million websites with a sample of more than 15 billion page views per month.

(Editing by David Cowell)

HP to merge printer, PC businesses

Wed Mar 21, 2012 9:31am EDT

MARCH 21 - Hewlett Packard Co said it was merging its printer and PC business in a major reorganization to save costs and boost growth.

The unit will be headed by HP PC chief Todd Bradley, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

Reuters had reported on the plans on Tuesday.

"Ensuring we have the right organizational structure in place is a critical first step in driving improved execution, and increasing effectiveness and efficiency," Chief Executive Meg Whitman said.

"The result will be a faster, more streamlined, performance-driven HP that is customer focused and poised to capitalize on rapidly shifting industry trends," she added.

The company is also planning to unify other functions such as marketing across the business to promote a stronger brand and improve efficiency.

HP, the largest U.S. technology company by revenue, is struggling to keep its core personal computing business in the black as mobile devices from tablets to smartphones eat into sales. The company is trying to reinvent itself as a major enterprise computing provider.

The decades-old corporation, often mentioned in accounts of the founding of Silicon Valley, has been through its share of turmoil in past years.

HP considered for months last year a proposal to sell or spin off its PC arm, known as the personal systems group. That emerged as the company announced it would get out of the business of making tablets with the failure of its TouchPad.

But after Whitman's predecessor and former CEO Leo Apotheker was ousted in September for failing to revive a moribund stock, the company abandoned the idea and deemed personal computers core to its overall strategy.

HP's moves evoked a mixed response from analysts. While they felt Whitman was moving at an impressive speed to fix issues at the company and jumpstart growth, the advantages of the integration were unclear.

"It's too early to tell what this is going to do," Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said. "The risk I think is that both (divisions) have very different business models."

(Reporting by Nicola Leske and Poornima Gupta; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Mark Porter)

Olympus foreign shareholders renew call for "independent" chairman

TOKYO | Wed Mar 21, 2012 3:35am EDT


(Reuters) - A group of foreign shareholders in scandal-hit Olympus Corp, including Southeastern Asset Management and Indus Capital, on Wednesday blasted the company's choice of chairman and renewed their call for someone more independent.


The statement came after Olympus last month nominated a former banker from Olympus' main lender Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp as chairman, raising ire among foreign shareholders who want a board free from the influence of the company's creditors.


"The proposed Chairman's and certain other proposed board members' close connection with Olympus' main banks gives rise to a potential conflict of interest," the shareholders said in an emailed statement on Wednesday.


(Reporting by Chris Gallagher; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

Apple's iPad throws off much more heat: tests

By Poornima Gupta and Edwin Chan
SAN FRANCISCO | Tue Mar 20, 2012 4:31pm EDT


(Reuters) - Apple Inc's new iPad throws off a lot more heat than the previous version, lending weight to complaints on Internet forums that the hot-selling tablet computer could get uncomfortably warm after heavy use, an influential consumer watchdog found after running tests.


Consumer Reports, a widely followed group that reviews everything from electronics to cars, found that Apple's new tablet racked up temperatures of 116 degrees Fahrenheit (47 Celsius) after 45 minutes of running an intense action game, up to 13 degrees F hotter than the previous model under similar conditions.


Using a thermal imaging camera, it ascertained that the front and rear of the tablet could run 12 to 13 degrees F hotter than the iPad 2 after running Infinity Blade II, depending on whether it was plugged in, Consumer Reports said.


The group, which can be instrumental in the success or failure of consumer products, has not reached a final decision on whether to recommend the latest model of Apple's tablet. A spokesman urged caution on the part of consumers but added the heat issue in itself did not appear serious enough to void its recommendation.


Consumer Reports plans to release a final review on the new iPad - which has sold more than 3 million units since it hit store shelves in more than 10 countries on Friday - in about five days.


"During our tests, I held the new iPad in my hands. When it was at its hottest, it felt very warm but not especially uncomfortable if held for a brief period," reviewer Donna Tapellini said in the report.


The third iteration of the iPad, which hit markets in 2010, set a record for first-weekend sales when it launched Friday.


Hundreds of comments posted on an Apple support website, here#17879177, centered on how the new iPad -- which sports a larger battery than its predecessor to power a sharper "retina" display screen and other bells and whistles -- could get uncomfortably warm.


"My new iPad ... definitely got significantly warm, almost too warm to hold warm, when running on LTE," rawwave commented on Friday. "Not even doing a lot of downloads (just browsing Twitter) but having the LTE radio on seemed to cause it to get noticeably hot."


BIGGER BATTERY


An Apple spokeswoman said the iPad was "within our thermal specifications." The company's website lists the normal operating range for the new iPad as between 32 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit, or 0 to 35 degrees Celsius. It is designed to power down should that range be breached.


The company's shares were up 0.8 percent at above $605 in afternoon trade.


The new iPad's battery is 70 percent bigger than the one in the previous version, said Kyle Wiens, chief executive of iFixit, a prominent Apple repair and parts supplier.


"It still has the same battery life," he said. "So it will run hotter."


The iPad 2 had a 25 watt-hour battery while the new iPad's battery has a capacity of 42.5 watt-hours, according to a tear-down analysis by iFixit.


Reviews have generally been good for a gadget that experts say falls short of being revolutionary, focusing on the iPad's ability to take advantage of faster 4G wireless technology as well as a sharper display.


On Friday, before comments about excessive heat began circulating online, Consumer Reports said in its preliminary review that the iPad was "shaping up as the best tablet yet."


(Reporting by Edwin Chan and Poornima Gupta; Editing by Andre Grenon, Gerald E. McCormick and Tim Dobbyn)

Adobe revenue slows ahead of upgrades, shares fall

BOSTON | Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:05pm EDT
(Reuters) - Adobe Systems Inc, maker of Photoshop and Acrobat software, said revenue growth slowed as sales of its widely used Creative Suite software fell, missing its forecasts, ahead of widely anticipated product launches this quarter.


Revenue rose 1.7 percent to $1.045 billion in its fiscal first quarter ended March 2, slightly below the $1.054 billion average forecast of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.


Sales at the digital media unit, which produces Adobe's widely used Creative Suite, fell 4 percent from a year earlier to $730 million. Creative Suite includes popular design titles Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash and Dreamweaver.


Chief Financial Officer Mark Garrett said on a conference call that Creative Suite revenue lagged the company's expectations because customers are waiting to buy two new versions set to be introduced at the end of the current quarter: Creative Suite 6 and a Web-based version of the suite that will be sold via subscription.


Analysts are increasingly concerned the Web-based subscription service, known as Creative Cloud, will hurt Adobe's financial growth over at least the short term.


"I think there are going to be some surprises along the way. These things tend to take longer and be tougher than managements expect," said JMP Securities Analyst Pat Walravens.


Adobe's sales typically surge after a Creative Suite upgrade, but analysts have said the revenue upswing might be smaller than in the past because customers who switch to the new service will not buy their software up front. Instead they will enter into subscription agreements to rent the software, making much lower initial payments. They will get extra features such as document storage at Adobe data centers and frequent updates.


Global equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry said it could take several quarters for revenue and profit growth to return to normal after the launch of the new products.


"I think the stock goes sideways for another couple of quarters," he said.


Company executives said during an analyst conference call they intend to promote the subscription service as the superior offering. They said it could take a while to persuade a significant percentage of its corporate customers to move to the new service, but did not specify just how long that might be.


"People are going to want to see the product; understand what we can offer," Garrett said in response to one of several questions about the new service during the analyst call. "It's going to take a little bit of time."


The software maker also reported a first-quarter profit, excluding one-time items, of 57 cents per share, matching the average analyst forecast.


Adobe expects to post second-quarter revenue of $1.090 billion to $1.140 billion, compared with the average analyst forecast of $1.1 billion.


It forecast second-quarter profit, excluding items, of 57 to 61 cents per share, compared with the Street view of 60 cents.


Adobe shares closed at $34.51 on Nasdaq and fell 4.5 percent to $32.96 in extended trading.


(Reporting By Jim Finkle; editing by Richard Chang and Andre Grenon)

Foxconn not off hook after radio retraction, critics say

TAIPEI | Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:18pm EDT

(Reuters) - Foxconn Technology Group, the top maker of Apple Inc's iPhones and iPads, is not off the hook after a U.S. radio show retracted a program critical of working conditions at one of its Chinese factories.

The Hong-Kong based China Labor Bulletin said Foxconn still employed harsh working conditions, while a fund manager with shares in Foxconn's parent said investors were watching how the company treats workers.


"The retraction has somewhat cleared Foxconn's name, but not all the way. The press and stock investors will continue to watch how Foxconn treats its workers going forward," said Simon Liu, fund manager and deputy investment officer at Polaris Financial Group's fund unit in Taipei. The unit owns share's in Foxconn's parent company, Hon Hai Precision.


"Obviously, Apple is starting to take serious step asking Foxconn to properly treats its China workers," Liu said.


The radio program "This American Life" last week retracted the episode, saying it had contained "numerous fabrications".


Foxconn said on Monday it had no plans to take legal action although the program had hurt its reputation.


"Our corporate image has been totally ruined. The point is whatever media that cited the program should not have reported it without confirming (with us)," said Simon Hsing, Foxconn's spokesman.


"We have no plans to take legal action... We hope nothing similar will happen again."


Rights groups have criticized Foxconn for several years for what they describe as harsh working conditions.


Working practices at Foxconn's huge plants in China, which combined employ a million people, came under intense scrutiny in 2010 after a series of suicides among young workers. Last June three workers died in an explosion at a Foxconn plant in Chengdu, western China.


Geoffrey Crothall, a spokesman for workers' rights group China Labour Bulletin, said workers at Foxconn were still subject to a list of poor working conditions, including long working hours, strict management that sometimes borders on abusive practice, and unsafe work practices in some factories.


"All those things are very much in place. I don't think there's been any alleviation (of these problems) in the past few months. I don't think Foxconn's done anything, really," Crothall said.


The retracted episode, broadcast on January 6, was based heavily on a one-man theatrical show by actor Mike Daisey: "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs."


Daisey's play and its attendant publicity, including the radio segment, played a big role in pressuring Apple to allow outside inspectors at its contract manufacturing facilities in China, mostly owned by Foxconn Technology.


The executive producer of "This American Life" said in a broadcast last week that most of the retracted program's content was true and corroborated by independent investigation.


The inaccuracies were linked to the actors' account of his trip to China. For example, Daisey said guards at a Foxconn factory had guns, but the program said only the military and police are permitted to carry guns in China.


Apple, criticized over working conditions at its chain of suppliers in China, said last week that a U.S. non-profit labor group had begun an "unprecedented" inspection of working conditions at its main contract manufacturers.


Last month the New York Times published an investigation into working practices at Apple supplier's plants in China that documented poor health and safety conditions and long working hours.


Hon Hai Precision fell 0.48 percent on Monday, slightly underperforming a 0.14 percent fall in the main Taiwan stock index.


(Additional reporting by Sisi Tang in Hong Kong; Reporting by Faith Hung; Editing by Neil Fullick)

With Linux merge, expect Android flowers to bloom

by Stephen Shankland March 22, 2012 8:16 AM PDT

Developers outside Google who want to build on the mobile OS's foundation should be able to stretch out and blossom. That should pay dividends for building a better Android.

Ordinary folks may not notice much right away from the fact that Google's Android programmers are bringing their work back into the Linux kernel fold. 

But it's an entirely different situation for a smaller but important group: the programmers who like to experiment with Google's open-source mobile operating system. 

So predicts Tim Bird, the Sony programmer who's centrally involved in the merge of Google's Android Linux work with the "mainline" Linux kernel project. That cooperation took a big step Sunday when Linux leader Linus Torvalds released version 3.3 of the heart of Linux with some fruits of the cooperation.

Android is open-source software, though the months of delays bringing Ice Cream Sandwich-based phones and tablets to market show how difficult it is to adopt that source code once Google is done building a new version behind closed doors. Android has plenty of higher-level components such as the Dalvik virtual machine for running apps and Google's own collection of apps. But down below all that is a Linux kernel that Google has forked from the mainline kernel Torvalds publishes at the Kernel.org Web site. 

Google is working to develop at least some of its features along with the mainline kernel now, though, and that should pay dividends for programmers wanting to see what Android offers and how it can be improved.

In Bird's words:

This makes it easier for developers to do 2 things: 1) use Android features in non-Android systems, and 2) experiment with Android user space with a vanilla [mainline] kernel. The first of these is useful to analyze how the Android-specific features might integrate with or leverage other related features in the kernel. There have already been some good discussions on the kernel mailing list and on the Android mainline mailing list with ideas about moving forward.

Google hasn't tried to work in complete isolation, but some attempts to merge Android's Linux code with the mainline kernel didn't' work out well. 

"A few previous attempts by Android developers to submit code to mainline resulted in stalemates--disagreements over how to proceed," Bird said. "A few general features (some of them high-profile, like wakelocks) ran into roadblocks and were delayed indefinitely. Some features were never seriously submitted to mainline for consideration."

Wakelocks are a mechanism an app can use to keep a computing device from going into a low-power idle or sleep state.

Bird noted that a lot of Android work for board support--in other words, the software necessary to use various central and supporting processors--has arrived in the mainline kernel already. And there's a good deal more to come after what made it into version 3.3 of the kernel, he said, including power management:

There is a large amount of customization work (particularly in the areas of graphics performance and power management) that is still needed on top of a mainline kernel, to ship a commercial-grade Android product. So people shouldn't assume that what is in 3.3 is sufficient for that. But it's a great start, and having a base that works in mainline makes it much easier to initiate a project with the Linux kernel and Android.

Bird already has seen programmers demonstrating the higher-level AOSP components running unmodified atop a mainline kernel with "a very small number of patches" to get it working. That bodes well for those trying to see what Android can do without clinging to Google's skirts.

In particular, it should be useful for those working on other Linux-based mobile devices.

And given that Google's browser programmers also have been working more closely with the WebKit browser engine project from which Google Chrome got its start, perhaps the company is convinced it's now missing out on benefits to sharing its code more constructively.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

CLSA Analyst Estimates Facebook Is Worth $100B-$130B

Eric Savitz, Forbes Staff

CIO NETWORK

3/19/2012

8:25PM

First!

CLSA Asia Pacific Markets analyst James Lee appears to be the first Wall Street analyst to weigh in with a report on Facebook, which is now in registration for a $5 billion initial public offering.

Lee’s take: the company is worth between $100 billion and $130 billion.

“Facebook is becoming the connective tissue of the Web, linking people’s social, interest and knowledge graphs,” he writes in his 56-page reports on the company. “We expect it to continue to increase its user base and time spent on the site, especially in international markets, creating an enormous opportunity for advertisers to deliver personalized marketing on a global scale. We expect Facebook to outperform other digital-media platforms and enjoy a 40% earnings [growth rate].”

Lee adds that from a monetization standpoint, he sees the company following the path of search – from organic to paid. “We saw the transition to paid search as a key inflection point for Google and are starting to see the tip of the iceberg for Facebook’s monetization,” he writes. “By 2015, we expect the company to triple its advertising revenue to nearly US$10 billion, yet still command only 6.5% of the total global online-advertising market share.”

The analyst adds that growth opportunities – including international expansion, mobile ads, new transaction businesses, ad network and content syndication should boost the company’s addressable market by $145 billion. “We see optionality value in yet- to-be-announced businesses such as ad network and content syndication,” he writes.

Here’s the basics of his financial forecast:

2012: Revenue $5.602 billion, adjusted profits 66 cents a share.

2013: Revenue $8.182 billion, adjusted profits 87 cents a share.

2014: Revenue $11.002 billion, adjusted profits 97 cents a share.

2015: Revenue $14.159 billion, adjusted profits $1.19 a share.

Microsoft Gives Office a Metro Makeover

By Rachelle Dragani

TechNewsWorld 

03/19/12 11:54 AM PT

Officially, Microsoft's Office 15 is in a hush-hush preview stage, available only to select testers sworn to secrecy. But at least one reviewer claims to have gotten hold of a copy, and he's reported that the next version of Microsoft's Office suite carries some obvious nods to tablet users and makes significant use of Windows 8's Metro interface.

Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) next version of its office suite, Office 15, is currently available as a private preview for beta testers. However, a reviewer not bound by Microsoft's non-disclosure agreement claims to have used a copy, and he says the new version has a Metro look and feel to it that ties in Office to the minimalist aesthetics of Windows 8.

The changes to Office make it seem as though the product received a revamp to be a Metro app, even though it was designed for the desktop, according to Paul Thurrott in a review on his Supersite for Windows. He tested a desktop app of the product running in the consumer preview of Windows 8, which is an open preview available to everyone.

Microsoft Word in particular underwent a few changes. The Ribbon, or the command strip atop the document, is still there, but it is minimized by default to create the cleaner design pattern resembling Windows 8 and Metro.

Microsoft Word is also now available in touch mode. That option, as well as the full-screen mode for documents, is what Thurrott categorize as a nod to tablet computers.

Cloud Priority

There is also an emphasis on cloud integration throughout the newest Office line. When a user signs in, they are automatically signed in with a Microsoft ID and can access and manage connected services. For example, Thurrott reported that he was connected to Flickr, My Office, SkyDrive, Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger.

The program that's being tested right now is only available to a select group of beta testers under a non-disclosure agreement. Microsoft didn't officially divulge much information about the product to the public, but it's called Office 15 its most ambitious undertaking yet in the Office line. It's also promised a more complete product will be made available for the public this summer.

The company didn't return our requests for further comment.

Taking on Competitors

Office 2010 has the ability to integrate via the cloud, but the upcoming product will represent the first time that all Microsoft's cloud services, servers and clients from mobile and PC, Office 365, SharePoint, Lync, Project and Visio will be simultaneously updated in the cloud.

The company made this a central point in Office 15 by adding icons for Microsoft's SkyDrive and other Web locations when a user is saving files and by making it possible to connect to other services via the Office products.

"If there's a problem Microsoft has, it's relevancy, and it's losing relevancy," Larry Walsh, president of the 2112 Group, told TechNewsWorld.

Some of its competitors, such as Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Docs, offer no-cost or lower-cost options to file, share and store documents. Microsoft has to remind users that it's still the leader in office-related services, said Michael Silver, research vice president and analyst at Gartner (NYSE: IT).

"It's hard to say on the office front that they're losing a ton of customers, but they have lost a lot of business to competitors, and there are definitely threats out there," he told TechNewsWorld. "The biggest one is probably Google."

In addition to relying on changes to cloud integration, one way for Microsoft to keep itself relevant is to get a piece of the app market now, said Silver.

"There are a few apps out there from smaller players, but without full compatibility," he explained. "Microsoft showing up could be a significant change to that market and a way to keep embedding themselves in users lives."