Below is the live coverage on how he communicated this message during the iPhone 4 press conference call:-

So, apart from this key message that Apple CEO Steve Jobs would like to convey to the new purchasers of the iPhone 4, what else did he cover during the iPhone 4 press conference? Below are the summary:-

• Steve Jobs apologized to the purchasers of iPhone 4 and admits that Apple is not perfect
• iOS4.0.1 software update is out which fixes the wrong formula that Apple uses to calculate how many bars to put up for a given signal strength as well the Exchange bug
• Next iOS update will fix the proximity sensor issue
• Apple sold 3 million iPhone 4 in 3 weeks
• The iPhone 4 has the highest customer satisfaction rating of any smartphone
• The iPhone 4 to be available for sale on 30th July in 17 countries i.e. Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. ~Damn~ Malaysia is not in there….  :-(
• Antennagate issue does not only happen on iPhone 4. Other smartphones like Blackberry, Nokia, Motorola and HTC also drop bars if held in a certain way.
• The iPhone 4 drops one more call per hundred than the iPhone 3GS
• Only 0.55% of all iPhone 4 owners called Apple to complain about the antenna
• Apple invested $100 Million in antenna test facilities
• The White iPhone 4 will start shipping at the end of July
• Steve Jobs was on vacation in Hawaii and came back for the conference
• Someone has made a cool song out of this iPhone 4 antenna issue

Before we sign off, below is the cool song about the iPhone 4 antenna issue. This is a cool way to get free publicity….  :-)

With the strong sales recorded for the iPhone 4, Apple has better address this issue well. Otherwise, they may be pissing off some of their most loyal and die-hard fans. Apple has recorded 1.7 Million units sale in the first 3 days of launch. This is another record in the Apple history. In 2008 and 2009, Apple has sold 1 million each of the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS respectively in their initial weekend of sales.

Apple has initially claimed that the antenna issue was merely a software problem that the onscreen signal strength display is over-stating the actual signal strength. Consumer Reports and some other sources have conducted a laboratory test which proves that the iPhone 4 does suffer from higher signal attenuation compared to other devices and that a software fix will not be able to solve the problem. With this report going into mainstream news, Apple is once again in the hot seat.

Below is the video by Consumer Reports about the iPhone 4 antenna issue.

So, what will Apple be announcing this coming Friday?

Below are some of the guesses from other major news/blogs/forums:-

1.  Apple to recall the iPhone 4

2.  Apple to issue a free upgrade of the phone when the problem is fixed

3.  Apple to continue to deny the issue

4. Apple to issue a bumper cover to all iPhone 4 purchasers  - quick fix and cheaper option

Below is a video on how the bumper option works to fix the Apple iPhone 4’s antenna issue.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed on this and not speculate too much until we hear it from Apple.  :-)

]]> http://www.iphonemalaysiablog.com/news/apple-to-hold-a-press-conference-about-the-iphone-4/feed 0 http://www.iphonemalaysiablog.com/news/apple-to-hold-a-press-conference-about-the-iphone-4 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/iphonemalaysiablog/rLvO/~3/u-XxUZW-Rss/iphone-4-launch-madness http://www.iphonemalaysiablog.com/news/iphone-4-launch-madness#comments Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:40:14 +0000 admin http://www.iphonemalaysiablog.com/?p=493 iPhone 4 is finally launched in the US, UK, Germany, France and Japan. The pre-orders for iPhone 4 has exceeded 600,000 and is giving AT&T servers some problems last week. The iPhone 4 launch is probably going to be another big hit and may yet set another record for the Apple launches.

In June 2010, apart from the “Waka Waka” style World Cup Kickoff in South Africa which is gaining a huge following, i suppose the iPhone 4 launch is also not to be left out.

Below are some of the pictures captured before the launches at various places above. The below pictures are courtesy of Engadget.com and Wired.com.

Well, the champion among all of these is still a guy in Dallas who has has waited patiently despite the hot summer heat for 1 week just to get to be the first to get his hands on the iPhone 4 in Dallas. Below is the picture of Justin Wagoner who camped outside the Apple Retail Store 1 week before the launch of Apple iPhone 4.

Below is the explanation of why he did it as found in the MacRumour forum:-

Let’s see what the actual sales figures will come out to be in the first week of launch. i am sure there are a lot of Malaysians out there who are eagerly awaiting for the launch of iPhone 4 in Malaysia as well. Let’s see if there will be a queue of this sort in Malaysia…..

]]> http://www.iphonemalaysiablog.com/news/news-video-of-iphone-4-presentation-by-steve-jobs-during-the-world-wide-developer-conference-in-san-francisco/feed 0 http://www.iphonemalaysiablog.com/news/news-video-of-iphone-4-presentation-by-steve-jobs-during-the-world-wide-developer-conference-in-san-francisco http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/iphonemalaysiablog/rLvO/~3/WWnI5JL3Nlo/news-iphone-4-to-be-available-in-the-us-on-24th-june-2010 http://www.iphonemalaysiablog.com/news/news-iphone-4-to-be-available-in-the-us-on-24th-june-2010#comments Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:40:27 +0000 admin http://www.iphonemalaysiablog.com/?p=447 One of the most anticipated news at the WWDC today has to be the announcement about the 4th generation iPhone. Without much surprise, Steve Jobs has finally officially announced the new 4th Generation iPhone which is called the iPhone 4. Thanks to Gizmodo for unveiling lost iPhone prototype which has now turned into somewhat of a legal battle(between Apple and them), we have more or less anticipated how the new iPhone looks like a few months ago. Anyway, we now have confirmation on what the “real” thing looks like and what specifications and features it comes with.

So what is new with the iPhone 4:-

• Retina Display: 960 by 640 backlit LCD with a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch. This is 4 times the previous iPhone’s pixel density giving much better resolution
• Engineered glass, chemically strengthened to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic. More scratch resistent than the previous models
• Stainless steel band – 5 times stronger than standard steel provides rigidity to the phone and acts as an antenna
• Powered by the A4 chip (same chip used in iPads)
• Gyro plus Accelerometer – built in 3 axis gyroscope paired with accelerometer producing great motion sensing which translate to greater gaming experience on the iPhone 4
• Larger battery means 7 hours of talk time, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music and 300 hours of standby
• Video calling via Facetime app – currently only works with other iPhone 4 and within Wifi networks only.
• 5Megapixels Primary (back) camera giving better resolution photo shoots
• Dual microphone system – one for voice and video calls located at the bottom of the iPhone 4 and the other at the top for noise cancellation giving better voice call quality

Below is a comparison table of the specification/features in the iPhone 4 vs the iPhone 3GS:-

Below are some pictures from the WWDC:-

The iPhone 4 will be on sale in 5 countries(US, UK, Germany, France and Japan) on the 24th June. 24 more countries will get it in July and 88 more countries in September. Not too sure when this will be launched in Malaysia…..

Below is the Youtube video on iPhone 4 posted by Geekwood…..

Apple is currently selling about 200,000  iPads every week. It achieved its first million iPad sales after only 28 days. This is even better than the successful launch of its big brother iPhone which managed to achieve the 1,000,000 unit sales in 74 days. Below is an image of the people waiting outside the retail store to get in to purchase the iPad when it was launched internationally.

With this feat, it comes as no surprise that Apple has now officially become the largest market capitalized technology stock in the US. As of today, the market capitalization of Apple share is about USD232Billion. The next largest capitalized technology stock is Microsoft with a market capitalization of USD225.5Billion. Below is the comparison chart of how the Apple stock fared compared to Microsoft and Google.

No wonder Steve Jobs has been named as CEO of the decade by Fortune sometime end of last year. To achieve such a feat is indeed no simple task.  :-)

So. how did it all started?

Well, it all started when a software engineer was celebrating his 27th birthday in a German pub in Redwood City, California. It was just simple, honest mistake that anyone could have done in the midst of a celebration. The iPhone 4G prototype was left in the pub and was later picked up by someone who sold it to Gizmodo for US$5,000. Not bad for a prototype phone who is not even working well. Since then, Gizmodo has dissected the lost iPhone and published an article with some photos of it on its website. Gizmodo has got many hits on its website when this leaked iPhone story was published. So, i guess spending US$5,000 to pull this publicity stunt is still very worth it after all.

So. how does the next generation iPhone looked like?

Below are some of the photos courtesy of Gizmodo:-

Above is the youtube video on what potentially happen(of course with lots of humour and exaggerations!). Please watch it before it is taken down.  :-)

He has once again revolutionize the tablet PC. As you know, the tabled PC has been quite a failure for many companies. Not for Apple though. It sold more than 300,000 iPads on the first day of launch and is expected to touch half a million within the weekend.

On the 8th April 2010, Steve Jobs gave a big presentation on what’s coming in the next version of the iPhone operating system.

He said there will be 1,500 new APIs for developers. Of that, he highlighted 7 big new features that most of us iPhone users will be eagerly looking forward to in the new(yet to be released) iPhone OS 4 :-

1.  Multitasking

This is the biggest news of the day from a user’s perspective. Apple is adding multitasking to the iPhone. With Apple’s multitasking, you’ll hit your home button twice. A tray will pop up with the apps you have running in the background.

It is 100% true multitasking though, rather an advanced form of app switching. Apple wants to preserve battery life, while still allowing some background processing. So, the specific functions listed below can run in the background:

• Background audio for an app like Pandora.
• VoIP so you can get Skype calls at any time.
• Push notifications
• Local notifications
• Task completion
• Fast app switching

2.  Folders to organize apps

Apple is adding a way to organize all apps into folders. With your current OS, you can probably store up to only about 9 pages of apps on your iPhone. With the new iPhone OS 4.0, you will be able to store over 2,000 apps on your iPhone. You can make a new folder, label it, then throw apps into it. Click on it, and you can see all the apps in there. So, in future, you will not need to delete apps if you wanted to add more apps.  :-)

3.  A unified inbox

With the iPhone OS4.0, you can get all the inbox in one place. In addition to that, you will also be able to have multiple exchange accounts.

4.  iBooks

Apple is confirmed bringing its iBooks application to the iPhone. Previously, it was for iPads only. Well, for a smart person like Steve, why would he want to limit his sales of the iBooks to iPad users only? If he enable it for the iPhone users as well, he will be able to multiply his earnings. i foresee this is going to be a big revenue earner for Apple in the future. With ebooks priced much cheaper than the hardcopy editions, and the ease of reading an ebook using the iPad or iPhone, this new app should do well.

5.  Enterprise enhancements

Apple’s fifth big announcement for the day was more for enterprise. Apple would like to see more Enterprise users for this neat device and give BlackBerry a run for their money. The below features will be added to enhance the Enterprise iPhone offering:-

(a) Even better data protection

(b) Mobile Device Management

(c) Wireless app distribution

(d) Multiple exchange accounts

(e) Exchange Server 2010

(f) SSL VPN support

6.  Social network for gaming

One of the key reasons why many people loves the iPhone and iPad is because of their super solid apps especially their gaming experience. To make the experience even better, Apple is adding a social network for gaming called the Game Center. In a press release, Apple says it will allow “developers to create apps with the ability to invite friends to play a game, start a multiplayer game through matchmaking and track achievements and compare high scores on a leader board.” This is gonna be a good addition for the gamers out there.

7.  iAd

Mobile ads suck says Steve Jobs, so he’s introducing the iAd. With the iAd, Apple is hoping to help developers that give away apps for free make some money. Developers get 60% of the ad sales revenue, Apple gets the rest. During his presentation Steve Jobs took a swipe at Google saying the search doesn’t work on mobile like it does on desktop. Apple wants iAds to be more interactive, and keep people in the applications. This is a genius enhancement(not so much for the users of iPhones, though) for Apple to make more money from advertisements as well as to encourage more developers to develop free Apps that could benefit the iPhone community. This is what a win-win-win is all about. Win for the developer who develops free apps. Win for iPhone users who will see more free apps offered because of the first win to the developer. And a big win for Apple who shares in the ad revenues as well as more devices sold.

Below is the video of what Steve Jobs shared with the developers recently on the new features of OS4.0 which is coming mid of 2010:-

iDigi Rate Plan table

Digi’s iDigi plan is very similar to Maxis’ iValue plans in the sense that both offers bundled voice, sms and data. Digi’s iDigi88 planoffers 200 minutes voice, 200 sms, 20 MMS and 1GB data vs Maxis iValue1 plan which offers 333 minutes, 100 sms, 10MMS and 500MB data. At a glance, Digi’s plan seems more attractive because it offers double the sms, MMS and data compared to Maxis’ iValue1 plan and at a cheaper price of RM88 vs RM100. Maxis’ higher bundled voice of 133 minutes is equivalent to RM19.95(based on call rates of 15sen/min. The purchase price of the iPhone 3GS 16GB(based on 24 months contract plans) for Digi is RM1590 compared to Maxis which is RM1390(additional RM200 off). This is based on Maxis’ iPhone Anniversary promotion. So, although the Digi’s monthly price is RM12 lower, the purchase price is RM200 more for the same iPhone 3GS 16GB.

Next, let’s take a look at the payment plans.

Digi’s plan offers 3 different types of payment arrangements:-

• Cash/Credit Card Up front
  Pay the subsidised iPhone price in full according to subscribed iDiGi plan with 6 months iDiGi plan. So, total amount to be paid is RM2,144(RM88+5%tax + RM1590). Let’s compare this with Maxis iValue1 plan. The total amount to be paid is RM400(advanced payment) + RM1390 which is equivalent to RM1,790. This is RM354 higher than Maxis’ iValue1 plan.
• (EPP 24) 24 months iDigi plan subscription(inclusive of 5% tax) + iPhone over 24 months
  Pay the subsidised iPhone and 24 months iDigi subscription(inclusive of 5% tax) over 24 months at 0% Interest by Credit Card. So, total amount to be paid monthly(using example of iDigi88 and iPhone 3GS 16GB) is RM159/month for 24 months. Let’s compare this to Maxis’ iValue1 plan. If you are on the iValue1 plan, you will be paying RM105(inclusive of 5% tax) + RM58(with RM200 iPhone anniversary Promotion) which is equivalent to RM163/month.
• (EPP 24+12) 24 months iDigi subscription + iPhone over 36 months
  This is the lowest monthly ownership but you’re actually paying for only 2 years usage for 3 years. So, using the same example of iDigi88 and iPhone 3GS 16GB, the monthly charges will be RM106 per month for 3 years. On month 25, you will need to sign on another data plan as you are only paying for 2 years usage over 3 years. Maxis does not offer such a plan, so there is no comparison here.

Other information and considerations:-

1.  Digi’s plans have a minimum contract period of 24 months. Maxis does have a 12 months contract plan although the subsidy is lower. Maxis also offers the iData plans on top of their existing ValuePlus Voice plans. The iData plan with ValuePlus Plans are more practical for users who roams and calls IDD frequently.

2.  Maxis should have a much wider 3G/3.5G coverage compared to Digi. In terms of speed, there is a recent 3rd party broadband speedtest conducted by Mobile World which can be viewed at the website http://bit.ly/mwspeedtest . The test showed that Maxis has the fastest speed overall for broadband.

3.  Based on a reliable source, the average data usage on an iPhone is ~300 to 400 MB per month. As a heavy user of the iPhone myself, i am personally using about 300MB data per month only.

4.  Maxis has 1 year headstart in the iPhone in terms of experience, customer service, support etc.

Conclusion:-

i believe most Malaysians will welcome Digi’s entry into the iPhone as this will finally create the competition to allow price war and competitive pressures to enable the entry price of the iPhone to be reduced further.

i must admit that i was a little disappointed as i was expecting a little more aggressive iPhone plans from Digi since they are 1 year late as compared to Maxis. Unfortunately, the plans offered are pretty much the same and i really do not see much savings in the plans.

For someone that makes more calls, the Maxis plans seems more attractive. For those who uses more internet on the iPhone, the Digi plans may be the plan to go for. So, i guess both telcos will have their own target group of customers.

Hopefully, we will see more competitive pricing coming in the future with 2 telcos vying for the same iPhone pie now in Malaysia!

For my existing profile of use, i must say that the Maxis plan is still the better choice for me.

Jointly Organised by

Apple iPhone Platform: Overview & Application Development

By  Percy Chen

25th March 2010 (Thursday)

2:00pm – 5:30pm

Dewan Persidangan University (DPU), USM Main Campus, Penang

Abstract:

Biography: