Apple, Best Buy partner in China; NPD on iPods; PayPal clarifies

[AppleInsider]

Apple and speciality electronics retailer Best Buy have extended their partnership to the Far East. Meanwhile, the latest data from NPD suggests second-quarter iPod sales remained relatively flat. And PayPal now says that it does not intend to block Safari users from its ecommerce service.

Apple, Best Buy partner in China

Apple's first store within a store boutique in mainland China has cropped up at the Best Buy store in Shanghai's Xuhui area, ChinaTechNews.com is reporting.

Zeng Yaozu, marketing director of Best Buy China, told the online publication that the Xuhui store was the retailer that sold the most Apple products in China in 2007, and thus Apple's decision to form a closer bond.

The embedded Apple store is said to span about 50 square meters, displaying over 60 kinds of Apple computers and branded accessories. Apple will also send two technical consultants to staff the store and provide sales support, according to the report.

The move is the latest extension of a multi-year relationship between Apple and Best Buy that has since led to plans for approximately 600 store-within-a-store Apple boutiques within US-based Best Buy locations.

iPod units remain flat

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster on Monday analyzed all three months of NPD data for Apple's recently-ended March quarter and found that it now suggests total iPod units of 10 million to 10.5 million, slightly below Wall Street consensus estimates of 10.6 million units.

Munster said that should Apple hit the mid-point of the 10 - 10.5 million figure when it reports earnings on Wednesday, it would represent just a 3 percent yearly decline in sales.

"We see this data point as a slight positive, given recent Street chatter of a very weak iPod number for the quarter and we note that our new range is up slightly from a month ago, likely due to the iPod shuffle price cut on 2/19, leading to a more back-end-loaded quarter for iPod units," he wrote.

PayPal: No plans to block Safari

A representative for PayPal on Friday said the ecommerce firm is developing features to block customers from logging into PayPal when using obsolete browsers on outdated or unsupported operating systems, but has no intention of blocking Safari as a company white paper seemed to imply.

"An example of such a browser/OS combination might be, for example, Internet Explorer 4 running on Windows 98," said spokesperson Michael Oldenburg. "In doing so, we better protect our customers from viewing a phishing site through their browser. We have absolutely no intention of blocking current versions of any browsers, including Apple’s Safari, from our website."

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[nagromme]

PayPal's statements never DID imply blocking Safari.

Various non-Mac press sources blatantly misconstrued PayPal's staments, and focused on Safari for whatever reason--maybe it made a nicer headline. Then Mac-centric sites picked up the story, which is the part that surprised me.

The articles in question quoted PayPal's own words, and PayPal clearly said all along just what they are saying now: they plan to block really old browsers. Then OUTSIDE of PayPal's quotes, the authors went off on anti-Safari tangents of their own interpretation. Nothing new there, except for Mac sites picking up on it without much question.

[alansky]

"Various non-Mac press sources blatantly misconstrued PayPal's staments, and focused on Safari for whatever reason..." --nagromme

Lots of people, many of them morons masquerading as tech journalists, are out to get Apple and jump at every opportunity to put Apple down. Apple's computers aren't secure enough (even though no one has ever actually broken into one without assistance), Apple's hardware isn't green enough, Apple's Steve Jobs isn't humble enough...

To the lot of them, I say: Go do something you're actually qualified for, like selling shoes!

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by alansky

"Various non-Mac press sources blatantly misconstrued PayPal's staments, and focused on Safari for whatever reason..." --nagromme

Lots of people, many of them morons masquerading as tech journalists, are out to get Apple and jump at every opportunity to put Apple down. Apple's computers aren't secure enough (even though no one has ever actually broken into one without assistance), Apple's hardware isn't green enough, Apple's Steve Jobs isn't humble enough...

To the lot of them, I say: Go do something you're actually qualified for, like selling shoes!

Is it a hatred for Apple or that using Apple or it's related products in their article will generate more page hits. I think it's the latter.

[BMWintoxication]

I've gone to the BestBuy here in Shanghai, they do have a lot of apple products present already.

[Magicite]

Yeah, I went to it (BestBuy in Shanghai) during its opening (January 2007). They had lots of apple products. How is this new setup different? Just a more official partnership?

[trevorlsciact]

thats too bad, would have been nice to get the anti-phishing feature back in safari.

[xsmi]

So China gets macs before Toledo... How sad.

[tonton]

Originally Posted by xsmi

So China gets macs before Toledo... How sad.

Why is that sad?

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by solipsism

Is it a hatred for Apple or that using Apple or it's related products in their article will generate more page hits. I think it's the latter.

I would agree with that. I know Apple fans do tend to interpret malice into it, but the basic fact is that Apple stories attract attention, meaning page hits. The Apple-based media such as AI do seem to read Apple into stories whenever they can though, even if it has nothing to do with Apple, because they're generally desperate for news stories.

[niplij]

Originally Posted by alansky

Lots of people, many of them morons masquerading as tech journalists, are out to get Apple and jump at every opportunity to put Apple down.

The BBC no less.

Paypal said it supported the use of Extended Validation SSL Certificates. Browsers which support the technology highlight the address bar in green when users are on a site that has been deemed legitimate.
The latest version of Internet Explorer support EV SSL certificates, while Firefox 2 supports it with an add-on but Apple's Safari browser for Mac and PCs does not.

The title of the article was PayPal To Block 'Unsafe Browsers'. It may not say that PayPal are to block Safari but when reading the whole article it certainly makes you think they will.

[xsmi]

Originally Posted by tonton

Why is that sad?

Because we have 3 best buys in and around the area and NONE of them have Apple products. If we want full access to Apple products we have to drive to Ann Arbor.

[kpetree10]

Originally Posted by xsmi

Because we have 3 best buys in and around the area and NONE of them have Apple products. If we want full access to Apple products we have to drive to Ann Arbor.

Well, we have the MacCafe. Plus just recently the BestBuy on Monroe St. added an Apple Shop. Hopefully Apple will see the success of the Best Buy and MacCafe and bring an Apple Store our way!