HP's Touchpad Fire Sale Provides Two Key Lessons

Did you manage to buy a Touchpad for $99?  If you did, I truly envy you.  I really do.  It says quite a bit about you.  Okay, you're smart.  Brilliant, really.

I'm sure the mobile device makers already know that.  Some bloggers do too but most generally assume that you aren't too savy when it comes to tech.

And the fire sale of the Touchpad provided two very valuable lessons for those who would try to convince to buy their tablet.  For some like RIM and Motorola, it could already be too late with their current offerings.  They'll make another effort.  But for some just getting ready, like Amazon, learn from this.

iPhone Coming To Sprint!

According to WSJ, the iPhone will be coming to Sprint this fall, the third major US wireless network to join AT&T and Verizon.

For years, AT&T was the exclusive iPhone carrier until Verizon Wireless offered the CDMA version of the iPhone 4 this Feburary. 

Sprint will begin to offer the iPhone 5 in mid-October.  The article also suggests that the iPhone will not be offered at the same time as AT&T and Verizon.  Weird, no?

Also, it said that Sprint should get the iPhone 4 along with the next iPhone, presumably the iPhone 5.  No word on T-Mobile's chances.  

Source:  Macrumors via WSJ.

13" Macbook Air - Demand Very High, You May Need To Play A Premium

We knew that the iPhone and iPad are very popular devices and generally sell out for weeks or months. That’s what we are used to.  But a special model of Macbook selling out? That’s really something special.


The 13” Macbook Air is difficult to find at resellers.  And the situation has gotten so bad that some retailers have added a premium on top of the retail price.

However, Apple seems to be okay with as far as their own supplies are concerned.  I am not surprised by this.  A company favoring its own retail chains?  Shocker.

No matter how you see it, it’s fantastic news for Apple and Mac fans.

Source:  TUAW.

Reuters: Apple to Release Two iPhones At End Of Sept

Apple will release two models of iPhones.  Reuters along with other news organizations have been getting into the Apple product speculation game, WSJ, Fox, Associated Press, and it looks like they just might have something more meaty than we can expect from a news organization.

Obviously, we need to take them with a grain of salt until Apple does what it does and we find out if Reuters is correct.

The gist is that Apple will release two models of iPhones.

iPhone With Dual CDMA And GSM Modes Detected

According to MacNN, an iPhone with both CDMA and GSM modes have been detected.  According the original link, Techcrunch, an iPhone was detected using both AT&T and Verizon networks.  However, this isn't surprising given the rumors for months that the next iPhone will be able to work on both more networks using one iPhone model - both GSM and CDMA.

Although that was expected, it seems a bit late in the cycle for just such an iPhone to appear.  Considering, this should be have seen a while back.

However, such an iPhone does mean that it will most certainly not support LTE.  You can't have it both way, apparently.

Source:  Techcrunch via MacNN.

Mac Sales Outpaces PC; iPad Foot Still On Netbook's Neck

Lion has blurred the line a bit between the iPad and the Macs.  And judging by the news via Macdailynews that the Mac sales continue to rocket, Apple's OS X changes may be a hit.

First, Apple's mobile strategy is a bunch of moving pieces.  It's complication and Apple's ability to wield it so effortlessly is probably why PC guys are very afraid of where things are going.

So, 6.5X Mac growth over PC growth can be very scary.  And while the iPad cannot replace a laptop yet, it is cannibalizing netbook sales.  And aren't netbooks just smaller and underpowered PC laptops?

Tablet: Is the $499 the New $999?

Apple has no Mac for sale below the $999 price.  Previously, it was the white polycarbonate Macbook and now it's the 11.6" Macbook Air.  And during the short lived era of the netbooks, analysts and a few a pundits argued that Apple has to sell some netbook like device below the $999 price.  Apple responded that they could not make a $500 laptop that was no a piece of junk. That was a couple of years ago.

Fast forward to today.  the iPad and other Android tablets like the Xoom and Galaxy Tab start around $500 when they went on sale.  However, as Apple went from the iPad to iPad 2, some tablets have begun to be priced lower.  Let's forget about the Touchpad.  Xoom (currently $489 at Buy.com) is sometimes be yours for $400.  The Asus Transformer is consistently at $386 at Buy.com and had gone down to around $350 at times.

I also figure that by Black Friday, many tablets could drop as low as $300 on a consistent basis - especially as competition among Android tablets heat up.  Furthermore, the 10" versions will also feel pricing pressure from their 7" brethren starting out around $300 from Chinese makers.

With Apple probably holding the iPad starting at $500, I wonder if $300 to $350 for tablets will be the equivalent of $500 is for PC laptops.