Daily News Courier

BloombergBusinessweek Technology has an excellent interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook, which took place to mark Cook?s first 16 months in charge at Apple following the death of Steve Jobs. The interview covers a number of topics, starting with Jobs? advice to Cook when he knew he didn?t have long to live: ?He goes, ?I never want you to ask what I would have done, just do what?s right.? He was very clear.? Cook also talked about how his life had changed since taking on a more high-profile role within Apple, noting that the main change is that people recognise him. Cook also talked about his working relationship with Jony Ive, addressed the various personnel changes that have just taken place at Apple, detailed some of Apple?s brainstorming processes in meetings, in fact all sorts of good stuff that you don?t normally hear first hand from the higher-ups at Apple! Cook also talked about the iPad?s dominance of the tablet market, saying, ?A great product doesn?t mean an expensive product. It means a fair price. The iPad mini is all the way down to $329. This isn?t an expensive product.?

It really is a great read and well worth checking out for all of us who are fascinated by the inner workings of Apple.

Source: Tim Cook’s Freshman Year: The Apple CEO Speaks – Businessweek

AppleInsider reports today that Canaccord Genuity?s Michael Walkley is forecasting that Apple will sell 101.6 million iPads and 193.9 iPhones in the next calendar year. The iPad sales in particular would see Apple claiming 58.4% of the tablet market as a whole. He thinks that Amazon will only sell 10.7 million tablets and Samsung will only sell 8.4 million. As far as the smartphone market is concerned, Walkley says that Apple and Samsung will be the two dominant parties, with Samsung shifting a whopping 303.6 million phones. Together, he expects Apple and Samsung to have more than 50% of the market. Walkley also says that Apple and Samsung together had 106% of the handset industry profits in the third quarter of 2012. And it doesn?t look like the dominance of these two giant rivals will be broken any time soon, as the nearest competitor is Huawei, with just 47.9 million smartphone sales forecast for next year.

Source: Apple forecast to sell 102M iPads, 194M iPhones in 2013

According to fresh data coming from HIS iSupply Apple is expected to remain the world?s largest chip buyer and is estimated to spend a total of $28 billion on them this year alone. Due to increasing demand on Apple products, the company will have to stock up on semiconductors in order to ensure lower prices and fast shipping.

The Cupertino group experienced a surge in chip orders in 2011, beefing up demand with 34.6%. Apple?s chip spending shares are now situated at 5.7%, while Samsung?s and HP?s are at 5.5%.

"It?s well known that Apple has already conquered the smartphone and tablet segments?but behind the scenes the company is engaging in another kind of conquest: the dominance of the electronics supply chain," stated Myson Robles-Bruce, HIS senior analyst for semiconductor spending and design activity.

The demand for iPhones, Mac and especially iPads has been growing tremendously in the past year. And of course with the upcoming releases of the next generation iPhone, iPad mini and the entire host of Retina Display MacBooks, Apple is going to have its hands full. Cupertino just reported that it sold over 17 million iPads in the quarter that just ended and experienced a massive growth of 84% compared to the year 2011.

Nokia turned out to be one of the losers in the chip affairs for 2011. Their chip spending dropped to 20.1% thus becoming the 5th chip client.

By Radu

Source: Apple

The Telegraph reports that Google is set to launch its own Nexus tablet in California today. According to the report, the 7-inch Google-branded Nexus will cost $199, and, says the Telegraph, shows that Google is admitting that it has failed to dent the iPad?s popularity, and the same goes for Microsoft with its Surface tablet, with the Telegraph saying that both companies have decided that the only way that they can even attempt to compete with Apple?s dominance is to try and have successful tablets of their own. They want people to see and use their tablet operating systems, so they have resorted to making their own devices in order to show them off, as they know that the other tablets that have been using them (or will be using them, in the case of Windows 8, which isn?t out yet) haven?t been able to come close to the sort of user stats that Apple has for its iOS with the iPad.

Update: The Nexus 7 has been confirmed by Google, The Next Web reports that it will be a 7-inch device running Android 4.1, with a Tegra 3 quad-core chip. The Next Web says that it is more likely to be in competition with the Kindle Fire than the iPad.

Source: Google tablet: an admission of failure against the Apple iPad – Telegraph

Google Announces Nexus 7 tablet, 7″, quad-core, Android 4.1, $199 available today – The Next Web