Published: 06:30 PM EST
A simple reference in the beta of Apple's latest firmware could hint at a significant remake of the iPod touch. Also, Microsoft has posted the controversial "blind taste test" videos that promote an improved Vista, and a Wyoming county's schools will receive 3,000 MacBooks.
New iPod touch referenced in iPhone 2.1 firmware
Although the mention is short, a text string in the
iPhone 2.1 beta firmware could have a significant impact on the iPod touch, according to a
discovery made by iPhone Atlas.
While Apple has used "iPod 1,1" to describe the current iPod touch as the first OS X-based iPod and the only minor revision, multiple files now contain references to "iPod 2,1" -- a number change which, for past Macs, has referenced a major revision instead of a minor tweak..
For contrast, the iPhone 3G is simply listed as "iPhone 1,2" despite its new features and indicates that the design underneath is largely identical.
The company has in recent years reserved either August or September to start updating its iPods and this year launched a back-to-school promotion that gave away
free iPod touch players to students buying a Mac at the same time, triggering a shortage that has helped Apple keep its touchscreen iPod supply in check.
Microsoft kicks off Vista first-hand experience videos
Microsoft's promised campaign to
restore Windows Vista's reputation has begun in earnest through a special promo website.
Now nicknamed the "
Mojave Experiment," the promo campaign hosts videos of Windows XP owners who Microsoft says had a very negative perception of Vista but were shown the current version of the operating system under the fake "Mojave" name to gauge their reactions without media- and friend-made preconceptions in the way.
According to Microsoft, over 90 percent of these users came out with a complete changed, positive outlook on the operating system now that its initial kinks have purportedly been resolved a year and a half after its debut.
The company doesn't, however, say what customers were allowed to try during the test. While performance has been improved with recent patches, other complaints have centered around backwards compatibility with hardware and software.
Wyoming school district to get 3,000 MacBooks
One of Apple's larger, more recent educational deals for Macs will roll out in the least populated state in the US, says a
local report by the Casper Star-Tribune.
Over 3,000 MacBooks are being distributed to K-12 schools in Natrona County. Casper's Kelly Walsh High School gets the lion's share with 1,400 of the notebooks, while the remaining number will be divided largely equally between older students at CY Middle School and Dean Morgan Junior High as well as younger ones at Ft. Caspar Academy, Manor Heights Elementary and Park. Teachers also receive their own units.
The schools plan to launch a one-to-one program where each of the older students has access to a personal system that will help them learn, including through Internet materials.
Natrona County's deal also gives the teachers some education: each of those at Kelly Walsh has gone through a one-week learning process to help those who might still be unfamiliar with how to use online information in a classroom, including keeping students honest with online assignments.
A new generation of personal computers on the way from Apple Inc. may sport some of the most significant architectural changes since the Mac maker made the jump from PowerPC processors to those manufactured by Intel Corp., AppleInsider has learned.
As part of
its move to Intel chips in early 2006, the Cupertino-based company largely abandoned its practice of using custom motherboard chipsets to support the primary CPU in its Macs. Instead, it began to rely on slightly tweaked versions of industry-standard chipsets offered by Intel to the broad range of PC manufacturers that develop Intel-powered systems.
For instance, while Apple's existing line of MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks are unique in that they run the Mac OS X operating system, they're architecturally based on the same run-of-the-mill processors and chipsets from Intel's
Santa Rosa mobile platform also employed by Windows-supporting rivals, such as Dell and HP.
However, with Apple striving to maintain Mac sales growth of more than
two times the industry average, it's again looking to differentiate the architecture of its personal computer systems through alternative technology that will afford it an advantage beyond the reach of its competition.
As such, people familiar with these plans say an upcoming generation of Macs, lead by a
trio of redesigned notebooks, won't adopt the Montevina chipset announced as part of Intel's Centrino 2 mobile platform earlier this month. What's more, those same people suggest the chipset employed by the new wave of Macs may have little or nothing to do with Intel at all. (This should not be confused with the primary CPU, which will continue to come from Intel.)
Exactly what alternative Apple has chosen remains unclear. However it's believed that Intel, which declined to comment for this story, would need to have established a licensing agreement with the firm responsible for manufacturing an Intel-compatible chipset, be it Apple or one of the company's third party suppliers.
Assuming the chipsets in the new Macs are not based on Intel technology, that would leave Apple with only a handful of viable options. The company could return to a practice common during the years of PowerPC-based Macs in which it developed proprietary chipsets to support the primary processors in its systems.
Another option is that Apple could forge a relationship with one of the other established third party chipset manufacturers, such as NVidia, AMD or Via, in a move that would allow the company to build its next-generation systems using technology cherry-picked from the best of both worlds.
A move by Apple away from Intel chipsets may also be tied to concerns over the power-hungry nature of the chipmaker's more recent mobile chipsets. The Mac maker has been working to
reduce the size and weight of its notebook offerings while simultaneously extending battery life and introducing new features not accessible to its rivals.
During a recent quarterly conference call, Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer uncharacteristically
made references to ongoing investments in
new product technologies that would pressure the company's profit margins but leave competitors scrambling by the side of the road.
"We have some investments in front of us that I can�t discuss with you today where we�re going to be delivering state of the art new products that our competitors just aren�t going to be able to match," he said, "and as a result, I would see gross margins being about 30 percent and that�s � that�s all I can tell you at this point."
Since Apple's new Mac notebooks aren't necessarily following the same rollout schedule as competitive offerings based purely on standard Centrino 2 components, people familiar with the next-generation systems say it will be at least another 6 to 8 weeks before the company makes an official announcement.
An authentic photo of Apple's next-gen MacBook Pro casing.
Apple recently de-committed on notebook inventories for a two-week period to retail partners such as Best Buy, which spurred speculation of imminent upgrades. The move, however, is believed to be a result of orders related to the ongoing educational buying season, which typically puts a strain on Mac supply for a period of several weeks each year beginning in mid July.
Published: 06:45 PM EST
Open-source campaigners are planning a flood campaign against Apple retail they believe will pressure the iPhone maker to open up its devices. Verizon, meanwhile, only believes the iPhone 3G has had slight impact on its sales, and Doom's creator wants to create an exclusive iPhone game.
DRM opponents hope to overwhelm Apple retail
In a symbolic gesture, the Free Software Foundation plans a new campaign, nicknamed the
Apple Challenge, that it thinks will pressure Apple into opening its software code.
The organization is asking supporters to book a Genius Bar appointment at an Apple retail store on Friday or Saturday and ask the technicians questions about the company's broader corporate policy regarding iPhone 3G and its software under the belief that any copy-protected hardware or software is "defective."
Among the questions several few technicians would be likely to answer, including those asking why Apple doesn't allow iPhone developers to publish source code, why Apple continues to sell protected iTunes music, and why the company doesn't support open media formats like FLAC, Ogg Theora, and Ogg Vorbis.
The questionnaire goes so far as to suggest that closed-source software for GPS would allow Apple to track customers' locations without their knowledge.
Although Apple currently uses and promotes some open-source software through Mac OS X, the company has more often refrained from a similar policy with its portable devices. Chief executive Steve Jobs, however, has
endorsed cross-platform formats but has only mentioned AAC and MP3, which still require licensing and are patented in a way that makes open-source modification impossible.
Verizon downplays iPhone 3G's effects
iPhone 3G's rollout has had just a "minimally short-term impact" on Verizon's sales, if the company's
statements during its quarterly results call prove true.
Though it stops short of handing out any statistics, the cellular service provider alludes to the Apple phone making a small dent in Verizon sales in the days following its launch but that it was "disproportionately less" than the company's market share, which is smaller than that of exclusive iPhone provider AT&T.
The company also fires a direct jab at AT&T, noting that its wireless strategy doesn't depend on "any one device" and claims the iPhone actually spurred a rush of smartphone sales at Verizon.
id Software's Carmack eager to develop iPhone exclusive
John Carmack, the co-founder of game development house id Software, says his company is planning to develop an
iPhone-exclusive title that would show off the abilities of the platform, Forbes says.
While it's too early to reveal details, the game would be based on an existing storyline from the company such as Doom, Quake, or Wolfenstein but would be a "graphical tour de force" that shows off the
visual prowess of the iPhone and iPod touch's PowerVR hardware.
"The iPhone, as a device, is in the same generation power-wise as the PS2 or Xbox," Carmack says. "The graphics are a little lower but the RAM is a lot higher."
Apple's handhelds also have considerably more storage than the cellphones id Software has developed for so far, with many games coming in over 10MB while a typical mobile game is often 300KB.
At present, his only immediate lament is not having time to create a launch game. "I really regret not having something at launch," he says.
Published: 11:40 AM EST
In a rare discussion of his personal health, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has privately revealed to a journalist exactly what conditions led to his overly thin appearance at the Worldwide Developer Conference this year.
After receiving multiple statements from Apple's press relations that simply echoed the company's official position that Jobs' health "
is a private matter," the New York Times' Joe Nocera received a
personal phone call from Steve Jobs that appears to have settled some of the doubts about his physical condition.
The company luminary insists that the precise details be kept off the record, but according to Nocera has virtually confirmed earlier reporting by the Times' John Markoff that claims Jobs had
new surgery earlier this year to address a nutritional problem causing weight loss.
The particular issue is a "good deal more" substantial than the "
common bug" Apple spokespeople have used as their most detailed explanation, but is described as far less disastrous than perceived by some shareholders, who triggered a stock sell-off this past week.
The circumstances "weren�t life-threatening and [Jobs] doesn�t have a recurrence of cancer," Nocera says.
Nonetheless, the journalist also questions why it requires a direct yet unspecific intervention from Jobs to settle concerns rather than more official channels. Reiterating the claims both of Markoff and of analysts, Nocera maintains that companies have a responsibility to disclose key executives' illnesses when they will clearly influence the day-to-day operations of the company, even if they believe health is normally something to be kept from the public.
This is seen as especially crucial for an electronics maker like Apple. As much of the company's success in recent years has been attributed to Jobs' direct management of many facets of the business, a sudden resignation or worse would be immediately damaging to share value, even if the company reveals a succession plan.
For Nocera, the notion that Jobs would rather settle a score with a journalist (one who was initially labeled a "slime bucket" making factual errors) than make an official statement to defend his company is baffling. If anything, the writer believes, one would expect Jobs to do what it took to have shareholders hold on to their investments in the company.
"You would think he�d want them to know before me," Nocera says. "But apparently not."
Published: 12:00 PM EST
All of Apple's US retail outlets are now in a permanent launch mode and will open as much as two hours earlier each day to accommodate the unprecedented demand for the new iPhone. Also, at least some locations are now giving customers rainchecks for the day's iPhone 3G stock.
The company's availability
page now tells customers that stores that normally open at 10 A.M. will now open at the new time and are adding new employees to their ranks to process customers at a faster rate.
"To accommodate demand for iPhone 3G, all Apple Retail Stores will now open at 8:00 a.m. every day but Sunday," Apple says. "We're also adding staff to help you get up and running as quickly as possible."
While the change will do little to alleviate queues at the company's flagship stores -- many of which already open earlier -- the move gives Apple more time to clear queues for iPhone 3G at its locations that often continue to last for hours even two weeks after the official launch.
Additionally, AppleInsider has confirmed first-hand that at least some stores are changing their approach to selling iPhone 3G.
While Apple until now has only promised iPhones to customers as long as they stay in queue at the store, the company is now pre-qualifying customers who line up at the store and will set aside an iPhone 3G to be picked up later, when it's more convenient for them to do so. In many cases these buyers have until 6 P.M. to collect their purchases.
The method should stagger the appearance of iPhone customers throughout the day and head off potential disappointment from customers who may have to quit the line early due to other commitments.
Published: 10:15 PM EST
Apple is already providing developers with a new iPhone firmware beta with enhanced location-finding that could lead to true navigation as well as the roots for background push services.
Those with
hands-on access to the beta 2.1 code at Gear Live note that Core Location can now recognize the cardinal direction of an iPhone with GPS as well as its velocity, both of which are ingredients necessary to providing turn-by-turn directions.
The additions confirm statements recently by Apple's Greg Joswiak, who rejected earlier claims that iPhone 3G's GPS antenna wasn't powerful enough to handle navigation and in turn explained that "
complicated issues" are holding the device back from serving as a true navigation unit.
Separately, AppleInsider has also confirmed that Apple is implementing a rough version of its
background push notification service in the 2.1 firmware.
Announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference, the feature lets third-party native programs receive data such as alerts or new messages without actively running. The measure saves processing power without interrupting some apps that depend on constant access to the Internet.
The inclusion of this early version of the code alludes to the 2.1 update becoming public at the same time as the push notification service itself, which is tentatively due for September. In the meantime, Apple and its US partner AT&T are known to be testing
iPhone 2.0.1, a maintenance release that likely fixes some of the
outstanding bugs with the initial 2.0 release.
More information about 2.1 is expected to appear soon, though developers committed to shipping production apps are being warned to hold off testing the new release and its accompanying SDK as it will prevent them from submitting programs to the App Store.
Investment bank Piper Jaffray is assuring Apple investors Friday that the company's leadership would be required to disclose in a timely fashion any changes that would prevent Steve Jobs from maintaining his role as chief executive.
"We believe Steve Jobs commands attention from investors given his high profile as founder of the company and his hands-on approach to Apple's products," wrote analyst Gene Munster. "As such, we believe that Apple's board has a responsibility to disclose any changes that may impede him to continue to serve."
Specifically, Munster cited the nature of Jobs' public appearances and his active participation in the development of products like Macs and iPhones as some of the more noteworthy qualities that make him material to the company.
Similarly, the analyst said, one of the company's most competitive advantages is its executive team as a whole, who "share a collective track record of consistently outpacing their competitors in terms of hardware and software innovation coupled with robust product marketing and financial discipline."
Given his level of involvement and the fact that he is a cancer survivor, Apple shareholders have remained focused on Jobs' capacity to continue to serve as the company's leader.
During Apple's quarterly conference call Monday, chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer was asked to comment on status of Jobs' health given a news report by the New York Post that renewed focus on the matter. He
refused to do so, however, citing the co-founder's right to privacy, which in turn
weighed on Apple shares.
Since then, however, the New York Times has reported that Jobs is actively
reassuring some of his closest associates that rumors of his health are greatly exaggerated.
Given the due responsibility of Apple's board and the fact that no announcements have been made to date, Munster told clients there is "no reason to believe that Steve Jobs will not continue to serve as Apple's CEO."
As such, the analyst maintained his Buy rating and $250 price target on shares of the Cupertino-based company.
One developer burning the midnight oil has stumbled upon references to copy and paste in the frameworks of Apple's first beta of iPhone Software 2.1, potentially offering new hope for one of the most requested and conspicuously absent features of the company's mobile software.
The findings, contained within the English-language 'Localizable.strings' file located in 'System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/WebKit.framework' are also accompanied by references to the Spotlight search, text-to-speech, file uploads, and the Finder.
Therefore, it's unclear whether those references represent the groundwork for upcoming iPhone features or simply exists as carryovers from the WebKit frameworks used to develop applications for the Mac and Windows PCs.
Other findings by the same developer include preferences to an Apple MobileRadio application, which has also yet to surface.
When asked earlier this month about the absence of copy and paste functionality in the iPhone software, Apple vice president of product marketing Greg Woswiak said the feature was not a priority and that engineers simply
hadn't gotten around to it yet.
Published: 09:40 PM EST
Yahoo did its best to stage a rival to Apple Inc.'s iTunes, but after three years of lagging results, the Internet icon is putting its Yahoo! Music service to rest and leaving subscribers with copy-protected music libraries that can't be transfered to new computers.
After trying everything to attract customers from rock bottom pricing and all-you-can-eat subscription specials to news and original programming, Yahoo in an email to customers
warned that it would close its Yahoo! Music online store permanently as of September 30th.
While any such store closing is unfortunate for those who shop regularly at the store, the news is proving to be especially damaging for customers of the company's Yahoo! Music Unlimited service, which offers both an all-you-can-eat subscription as well as the option of paying extra for permanent downlods. Yahoo at the end of September will shut down the servers that grant licenses for the digital rights management (DRM) that protects the music files, allowing playback of these longer-lasting songs and barring unauthorized copying.
Although this music will continue to play after the store shutdown, the lack of a license server after that date effectively creates a time bomb for customers: reinstalling the operating system or making other changes that erase the licenses on the computer will render the songs unplayable regardless of the user's backup copies. Yahoo is aware of this and is pushing many of its customers to burn pure audio CDs and remove the restrictions before it's too late.
"We highly recommend that you back up the purchased tracks to an audio CD before the closing of the Store," Yahoo says. "Backing up your music to an audio CD will allow you to copy the music back to your computer again if the license keys for your original music files cannot be retrieved."
The experience underscores the potential risk behind DRM, which by its nature is dependent on a company's willingness to maintain an Internet server ready to authorize access. For customers of Microsoft's long defunct MSN Music service, the experience is already a familiar one: many of its purchasers were threatened with losing their collections a month ahead of Yahoo until public pressure forced Microsoft to keep its DRM servers running until 2011.
It's this danger that prompted two of Yahoo! Music's chiefs to clamor for unprotect music before their departures, though the hesitance of major labels to offer freely copyable music at the time contributed to their departure.
Apple's iTunes Store is unlikely to face the same situation in the future given its relative success in music sales, but its own FairPlay-protected songs hold a similar danger for users who restore or replace their Macs and PCs. The company also has no provision to automatically restore missing songs and usually only grants a one-time exception for those who lose their music without a backup in place.
Still, pressure from Apple and other online providers are making it increasingly unlikely that stores as fragile as MSN Music or Yahoo! Music will reappear. The iPod maker's chief executive, Steve Jobs, has said in an
open letter that removing DRM was essential to offering interoperability in music that would eliminate these restrictions and promptly followed suit with unguarded iTunes Plus songs, which now make up a large portion of Apple's catalog. Amazon MP3 and a slew of other stores have taken the same direction and offer some or all of their music DRM-free.
Canadians will get their first taste of a high-profile Apple retail store this weekend when the iPhone maker takes the wraps off a spacious, double-decker flagship shop in downtown Montreal. The company will also open its first store in South Carolina and its fifth in Arizona.
Apple Store Sainte-Catherine
In a little under a year, Apple has transformed a gloomy, tree obscured MENS fashion retail outlet at 1321 Ste-Catherine Ouest into a bright and airy two-story flagship shop aimed at luring shoppers passing through the heart of Montreal.
Massive glass panels framed by grey limestone serve as a giant window into the store, offering wall-to-wall street views of its interior. Inside, the store is clad in stainless steel and shoppers will find all the amenities of a typical Apple flagship shop, including a glass staircase and sprawling second-floor Genius Bar.
Apple is believed to have signed a $1.2 million annual lease on the 9,300-square-foot property, which sits just blocks from McGill University and within striking distance of Montreal's 3.6 million other residents.
However, alternations noted in AppleInsider's breaking reports (
1,
2) on the flagship shop last summer suggest usable retail space will come in around 8,000 square feet when store finally
opens for business on Friday at 5:00 p.m. Among those alterations were spaces cordoned off for offices, a back-end stock room, and bathroom facilities.
Apple also raised the ground floor slightly, relocated a couple of structural columns near the store's entrance, and threw down a new roof. Photos comparing the space before and after the renovations can be seen after the glamour shot, below.
Apple Store Sainte-Catherine will open in Montreal this Friday at 5:00 p.m.
Apple Store Sainte-Catherine before (left) and after (right).
Apple Store King Street & Apple Store Arrowhead
Separately, Apple will open both Apple Store King Street -- South Carolina's first -- and Apple Store Arrowhead -- Arizona's fifth -- on Saturday, July 26 at 10:00 a.m. local time.
Two weeks after it launched on July 11, the iPhone 3G is still hard to find in the US. Many Apple retail stores have no supplies at all, leaving buyers to track down the stores that do have remaining stock and wait in slow moving lines that stretched out for five hours.
The
3G iPhone Availability web page, run by Chris Barnes using updates from Apple's retail store availability feed, indicates that less than half of the US Apple retail stores are currently reporting units in stock. Of 188 US stores, 51% had inventories of the white 16 GB model, 44% had some 8 GB units, and only 40% had the black 16 GB version.
Apple only reports whether each store will have some units available the next day, not how many each store has or will be receiving; supplies can run out quickly, and sometimes the availability report isn't even accurate, as some stores have indicated that they had supplies when they did not. Flagship locations such as the landmark store on New York's Fifth Avenue and the Union Square San Francisco store appear to receive more stock, but also sell out quickly due to high foot traffic.
On Wednesday, only one of the three Apple retail stores in San Francisco had any units in stock by late morning; the Chestnut and Union Square stores were completely sold out, leaving hopeful customers the only option of standing in line waiting for an estimated "three to five" hours at Stonestown Galleria. AT&T's retail stores also reported being completely sold out in the City.
The line at the Apple Store in the Stonestown mall, located deep in the southwest residential corner of San Francisco and far from any tourist attractions, appeared to only be fifteen people deep at the door (below top), but the line continued outside the mall on the sidewalk (below bottom), with Apple store employees shuttling in waiting users a half dozen at a time as space allowed inside.
One enterprising young man standing toward the front of the line was trying to sell his spot for $400, but said if he'd known from the start that he'd have to wait five hours to get there, he wouldn't have waited. A food court fortune cookie suggested that the wait would be worth it: "Your labors will bear sweet fruit."
Delayed by activation issues
While supplies of the iPhone 3G are constrained worldwide due to strong demand, The primary reason for the long lines has been the added requirement for in-store activation. Unlike the original iPhone, the new model must be set up with a contract in the store. Last year, some users ran into problems with Apple's novel home activation process through iTunes, but the process was quite smooth for most buyers. Those who had problems didn't delay those who didn't. This year, problematic activations are holding up everyone.
The downside to home activation with the original iPhone was that it allowed users to buy iPhones and unlock them for use with other carriers, either T-Mobile in the US or any other GSM provider worldwide. Apple received a mobile service revenue share from iPhone sales, but only those activated with AT&T or its official partners in Europe. Pundits complained that Apple could potentially eventually "lose" a billion dollars in mobile service revenue from unlocked phones, but the company's own executives downplayed the problem, noting that they only viewed unlocked phones as evidence of strong demand overseas.
The iPhone 3G requirement for in store activation removes the unlocking issue, but the real reason for binding a mobile contract sale to the phone purchase is that Apple is now selling the iPhone with a traditional mobile provider subsidy, which allows the company to advertise a much lower price, either $199 for the 8 GB version or $299 for the 16 GB model. The end result is that the few users who run into activation problems delay everyone else buying the iPhone 3G.
Some customers fail credit checks or arrive without identification or their social security number or lacking a credit card in their name. Some existing AT&T users have a phone contract on a business account or family plan, which can pose a problem if they are not the primary account holder. Others have a discount mobile plan related to their employer, which must be removed prior to signing up for an iPhone account.
AT&T customers who have already received a subsidized price for new phone within the last several months may have to pay a higher price to migrate over the iPhone 3G, although existing iPhone users do not face any penalty.
Mobile launch crisis
However, the biggest problems related to new iPhone 3G activations have plagued users from other carriers hoping to move their existing number to a new AT&T plan. Mobile providers in the US are supposed to offer number portability on demand, but many customers don't realize they'll need their existing mobile account number, resulting in a prolonged, in-store telephone transaction in order to set up their new plan.
The activation situation isn't any different for other mobile phones, but the iPhone 3G launch has been particularly plagued with delays because there is far higher demand for it compared other phones, and most competing units are available from a wider selection of stores. Further, the simpler initial launch of the first iPhone last year makes the 3G model's introduction appear to be a catastrophe in comparison.
In Europe, the iPhone 3G launch has been at least as clumsy if not more so, as sales are being handled primarily by mobile partners rather than in Apple's own stores. In Switzerland, Swisscom representatives at multiple stores were refusing to sell iPhones to users who had existing contracts with the company, telling them to return in a few months when their existing contract was up. That's not the official policy of the provider, but rather an issue with sales training.
In the US, Apple has exerted more control over the launch and the training of its salespeople, down to the subtle details. While European sales agents ripped open iPhone 3G boxes to set up the units during activation, Apple Store employees followed a careful transaction script that involved handing the new box to the customer to open. Stress related to the activation complications and high demand have taken a toll on Apple's retail representatives, resulting in at least two employees being fired for walking off the job at San Francisco's downtown store.
Undaunted iPhone 3G interest
The activation complications have resulted in an average wait of 15 minutes or more per person. Even with five retail employees servicing new iPhone 3G buyers in the store non-stop, each store is limited to setting around 20 units per hour in ideal conditions. The extremely long waits and complicated transactions associated with the iPhone 3G haven't scared away customers however.
In San Francisco, around 40 people were waiting in line Wednesday afternoon at Stonestown Mall. The line included a wide spectrum of buyers, from businessmen in suits talking about corporate support for the iPhone to college students upgrading from the iPod touch. Some were current iPhone users, but most of those waiting were new to the iPhone. Apple employees frequently serviced the line, asking for information from current AT&T customers to ensure that they were eligible for the "incentive" price advertised for the iPhone 3G, and reminding users of what they'd need to complete their contract activation before making it to the front of the line.
New supply shipments should help accommodate demand in the coming weeks. Some of those waiting in line suggested ordering the iPhone 3G from AT everyone in line prior to that had waited at least five hours to receive their phone.
A few interested buyers left the line after being informed by Apple employees that their existing plan had complications they'd need to resolve with their employer before making the purchase. Others were no doubt turned away by the prospect of spending most of the afternoon waiting in line. The iPhone 3G line even left a number of store visitors confused about whether they could enter the store to make other purchases.
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer on Wednesday issued a company-wide memo outlining his battle plan for the new fiscal year in which he singled out the Apple experience as a benchmark for future success.
"In the competition between PCs and Macs, we outsell Apple 30-to-1. But there is no doubt that Apple is thriving," Ballmer wrote in the email,
a copy of which was obtained by the Wall Street Journal. "Why? Because they are good at providing an experience that is narrow but complete, while our commitment to choice often comes with some compromises to the end-to-end experience."
Going forward,
Ballmer said Microsoft will be changing the way it works with hardware vendors to mimic the experience offered by the Mac maker in which there will be "absolutely no compromises." His plan calls for a similar approach in the mobile phone arena, where he hopes the company can create "great end-to-end experiences" akin to that afforded by Apple's closed ecosystem, where it maintains tight control of nearly every aspect of a product's design.
