Apple gets new EU extension, iPhone dock, 7.6 percent Mac share

[AppleInsider]

Apple Inc. has received a second but only partial lifeline in its European iTunes antitrust affair. Meanwhile, Apple's addition of YouTube has slipped out a few other updates, and the Mac may be reaching its highest marketshare level in years.

Second extension granted in iTunes dust-up

The creator of iTunes will have at least one more extension of the deadline in the antitrust complaint that accuses Apple's iTunes Store and major music labels of locking customers into unfair music prices depending on their home country.

Universal Music is the source of the delay and has asked for a "short extension" to let it respond to its share of the complaints, according to a European Commission spokesman. The new deadline was not mentioned but will give Universal enough time to issue its own response to the allegations, which accuse the label of setting out music licensing terms that prevent fairer Europe-wide deals.

Two unnamed companies involved have already asked for an extension until June 29th, while the one remaining firm's response is still pending.

Whether or not Apple itself has asked for a delay is unknown, though the company earlier this month has already asked for its own extension that postponed its response until today.

iPhone site hints at Internet contact sync, dock, charts

In the process of updating its iPhone website to reflect new YouTube features, Apple on Wednesday also added passing references on its site to features mentioned only fleetingly in the past.

The iPhone maker's Phone category for the device currently touts that the cellphone syncs contacts from a "PC, Mac, or Internet service" -- the latter of which has never been fully explained. A widely circulated official e-mail has mentioned Yahoo! Address Book, which may be the only candidate for the feature, but made no mention of general services.

A potentially significant addition may be the inclusion of an embedded bar chart graphic in an e-mail that appears to have been drawn from one of Apple's two iWork programs. Both programs can export projects as images, but there is no direct way to transfer files created from the Mac office suite to iPhoto or iTunes. The e-mail client for iPhone is so far only known to render standard image files.



Apple's docking cradle for the iPhone has also reappeared more than five months after Apple CEO Steve Jobs' introductory keynote in mid-January, showing no visible changes to its design.

Apple at 7.6 percent home share?

The Mac may have achieved a breakthrough in US marketshare, according to a study conducted by USA Today.

The national newspaper claims that Apple's percentage of the American "home market" for May stood at 7.6 percent, well above its 5 percent for the first quarter of the year and more than double the 3.2 percent held by the Mac designer in May 2004.

Worldwide figures for Apple weren't collected by the publication, which used the statistic to reinforce the upward trend in Apple's fortunes leading up to the introduction of the iPhone.

Canada's iPhone placed on hold

Those that hoped the iPhone would appear North of the US shortly after its June 29th release date will be disappointed, Canadian cell provider Rogers Wireless has said at a recent conference.

As the only carrier that would be technically capable of hosting the cellphone on its networks, Rogers has confirmed that it is in talks with Apple to negotiate a deal but that very little progress has been made while the California electronics firm gears up for an introduction at home.

"The truth is we aren't very far with Apple," Rogers CFO Bill Linton says. "They're concentrating on this launch and the U.S., and when they decide to turn their mind to other markets, we'll be in line."

Apple has only confirmed that it would release the iPhone in Europe in the fourth calendar quarter of 2007, and in Asian countries by 2008.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[EruIthildur]

But I want a black dock!

[digitalclips]

That 7.6% is the best news here by far

[iPeon]

Originally Posted by digitalclips

That 7.6% is the best news here by far

Agreed. That's great to see.

[Robin Huber]

"The iPhone maker's Phone category for the device currently touts that the cellphone syncs contacts from a "PC, Mac, or Internet service" -- the latter of which has never been fully explained. "

Wouldn't .Mac be the most obvious object of this reference?

[jstaggie]

Originally Posted by Robin Huber

"The iPhone maker's Phone category for the device currently touts that the cellphone syncs contacts from a "PC, Mac, or Internet service" -- the latter of which has never been fully explained. "

Wouldn't .Mac be the most obvious object of this reference?

The Apple site explicitly states that it will import your Yahoo mail contacts, if desired. It can also import from address book or Entourage on Mac and Outlook or Outlook Express on PC. No mention of .Mac.

What I'm more curious about is whether I'll be able to sync the calendar with both iCal on my Mac and Outlook on my work machine.

[shagghie]

Originally Posted by Robin Huber

"The iPhone maker's Phone category for the device currently touts that the cellphone syncs contacts from a "PC, Mac, or Internet service" -- the latter of which has never been fully explained. "

Wouldn't .Mac be the most obvious object of this reference?

Numbers wise, though...wouldn't it be GMAIL? If they've already got Gmail going on in the java/WM5.0 world, would be an easy port to the safari/devkit world for them, yeah?

[K.C.]

"Meanwhile, Apple's addition of YouTube has slipped out a few other updates..."

Huh ?

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by digitalclips

That 7.6% is the best news here by far

Yes. Astounding.

[BRussell]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

A potentially significant addition may be the inclusion of an embedded bar chart graphic in an e-mail that appears to have been drawn from one of Apple's two iWork programs. Both programs can export projects as images, but there is no direct way to transfer files created from the Mac office suite to iPhoto or iTunes. The e-mail client for iPhone is so far only known to render standard image files.

It looks like it is a received email though, rather than a sent one. No syncing is necessary to get an email.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Apple at 7.6 percent home share?

The Mac may have achieved a breakthrough in US marketshare, according to a study conducted by USA Today.

The national newspaper claims that Apple's percentage of the American "home market" for May stood at 7.6 percent, well above its 5 percent for the first quarter of the year and more than double the 3.2 percent held by the Mac designer in May 2004.

I haven't heard of this "home market" or "home share" metric being used before. I would have expected it to be a little higher than that given that's where Macs are strongest, and this isn't diluted with business computers which seem to be almost exclusively Windows-centric.

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by JeffDM

I haven't heard of this "home market" or "home share" metric being used before. I would have expected it to be a little higher than that given that's where Macs are strongest, and this isn't diluted with business computers which seem to be almost exclusively Windows-centric.

Yup. Good point. And, note it's only US homes.

I doubt that the aggregate share (of all computers sold worldwide) is anywhere near 7.6%. Probably more like 3% - 4%.

[ecking]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Canada's iPhone placed on hold

Those that hoped the iPhone would appear North of the US shortly after its June 29th release date will be disappointed, Canadian cell provider Rogers Wireless has said at a recent conference.

As the only carrier that would be technically capable of hosting the cellphone on its networks, Rogers has confirmed that it is in talks with Apple to negotiate a deal but that very little progress has been made while the California electronics firm gears up for an introduction at home.

"The truth is we aren't very far with Apple," Rogers CFO Bill Linton says. "They're concentrating on this launch and the U.S., and when they decide to turn their mind to other markets, we'll be in line."

Rogers is full of it as always. Apple f**k em' sell the phone unlocked in Canada for 100 bucks more than you would through a provider and it'll still sell out. In fact I'd prefer to buy it that way. Obviously that'll never happen but a man can dream.

[Buck]

I just noticed how in the phone demo when they have three participants, they are on different channels - one is on the left while the other is on the right. Nice touch and useful if you use the headphones.

[gareth2210]

The way I read it the phrase "home market" means the total market in the US, i.e. the "domestic market"? Otherwise the Mac share is even smaller than we have feared? And 5% for the earlier month seems to suggest domestic market (admittedly at the top end) rather than just 'in homes'?

Whatever, it's going up.

And think of all those people going into AppleStores to lust over the iPhone and meeting (perhaps for the first time) all the other luverly Apple kit. Could be a good day for MacBook sales as well I think.

[Blah64]

Originally Posted by shagghie

Numbers wise, though...wouldn't it be GMAIL? If they've already got Gmail going on in the java/WM5.0 world, would be an easy port to the safari/devkit world for them, yeah?

Uh, -numbers-wise-, gmail is a small-fry. Yahoo web mail is anywhere from 5x to 13x bigger than gmail, depending on the type of statistical analysis you want to do.

See: http://www.email-marketing-reports.c...statistics.htm

(among plenty other sources)

Now, from a strategic standpoint, they might choose to work with gmail, but that's another story....

[apple32]

I learned over the weekend that at&t stores are only going to sell iPhones to consumers that are willing to sign a 2 year agreement. So if you already have a Cingular or at&t account you can't purchase an iPhone at an at&t store. You will be directed to go the closest Apple store instead. Someone at at&t or Apple should make this public, so consumers don't wait in line for nothing.

[ChevalierMalFet]

Originally Posted by digitalclips

That 7.6% is the best news here by far

Not so much news. Market share figures include corporate computer purchases, which are very predominately PC. What USA today is measuring is Home PC use, in which case I'm somewhat surprised they only arrived at a 7.6% figure.

This number doesn't indicate an increase unless they've polled these numbers before and got a lower figure; I'm guessing they haven't but are relying on a bit of misdirection to spin the numbers.

[IHateRegistering]

Originally Posted by Blah64

Uh, -numbers-wise-, gmail is a small-fry. Yahoo web mail is anywhere from 5x to 13x bigger than gmail, depending on the type of statistical analysis you want to do.

See: http://www.email-marketing-reports.c...statistics.htm

(among plenty other sources)

Now, from a strategic standpoint, they might choose to work with gmail, but that's another story....

I bet over 75% of all Yahoo email accounts are bots and spam.