Apple now represents about a fifth of all technology sales in the US, new NPD data showed Monday. By the end of 2011, 19 percent of revenue in the US was related to an Apple product. The company was now the top company selling technology in the US, topping HP, Samsung, Sony, and Dell even when the others could include their sales from all categories.
Canadians have been hit by up to 24 known cases of iPad 2s being sold substituted with clay at major retailers in Vancouver, including Future Shop, Best Buy, Walmart, and London Drugs. According to CTV News, customers were sold boxes that looked like new. However, while perfectly sealed, they were given weight by clay, where in at least one instance, a charger was also replaced with clay.
Walmart and T-Mobile have just added unlimited data to Walmart's Family Mobile plans. They already include unlimited talk and text, and retain the same monthly price points of $45 for the first line and $35 for additional lines. Previously, the family plans included just 250MB of shared web access.
Walmart has bought out Small Society, a mobile app developer currently based in Portland, Oregon, reports say. While mostly unknown to the public, the developer is responsible for a number of high-profile apps. A partial resume includes Amazon, Starbucks, Zipcar, Live Nation, Whole Foods, and the 2008 Obama election campaign.
Shoppers who are stuck for a very last-minute Christmas gift at a discount price can opt for Wal-Mart's ongoing offer of $50 in iTunes credit via a "virtual card" that is delivered via e-mail for just $40. Shoppers report the credit can be obtained after purchase in as little as 15 minutes, once users verify their e-mail address and use a special PIN number in the confirmation e-mail to redeem their purchase. The "eCard" can be sent as a gift to another e-mail address.
Early holiday shopping helped push Apple past some of the largest stores online for visitors, comScore said Thursday. Apple's website and iTunes combined got over 79.2 million unique visitors in November, large enough to push it past eBay (72.1 million) and even retail giant Walmart (58.5 million). Other major shopping sites it eclipsed included Best Buy (36.5 million) and Sears (31 million).
Sonos has quietly put out an update for its Play and Bridge devices last week that unusually strips out features. The 3.6 update pulls support for copy-protected Windows Media files, leaving Zune Pass users and those still tied to mostly inactive PlaysForSure DRM stores without a way to stream their music to Sonos boxes. The company hasn't given an explanation for the switch but has been asked for a comment.
Certain local Target and Walmart stores have at least temporarily been selling the Amazon Kindle Fire for $123.38. Images have surfaced showing the Fire, as a limited time special in a Trumbull, Connecticut Target store for 35 percent off the normal selling price of $199. Photos of Walmart matching that price have also appeared on the web.
New analyst data may back up claims that Apple did extremely well on Black Friday. Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore says his firm checked with over 200 locations, divided between about 100 Apple Stores and 100 AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Best Buy, Walmart, and Target outlets. Roughly 75 percent of Apple Stores were sold out of the iPhone 4S by the end of Friday, although by Saturday that number had dropped to 30 percent.
A federal judge in California has dismissed a class action suit against Netflix on Tuesday. The plaintiffs had sought up to $654 million in damages, claiming that movie rental and streaming giant had entered into an illegal "market allocation" agreement with Walmart. The judge summarily dismissed the case, which was filed in January, 2009, after finding that the plaintiffs hadn't shown any collusive agreement.
Walmart's flyer for its Black Friday sale [Flash needed] has revealed that it will have an extremely rare blue edition of the Nintendo Wii. The Limited Edition Blue Console bundle has what looks to be the cheaper Wii, minus GameCube support, in the same light blue as Nintendo had previously been using just for an add-on remote. Accordingly, the remote is color-matched to the console; the included Nunchuk controller hasn't been shown, but likely matches as well.
Vudu broke out of its streaming-first mode on Thursday with Vudu-To-Go. The service now lets those who have bought a movie or a TV show download it to a Mac or Windows PC to watch without needing an Internet connection. The videos run through an Adobe AIR app that keeps the videos protected.
Walmart has updated its iPhone shopping app, and simultaneously introduced a separate iPad title. Both apps let users browse and order products, as well as get directions to nearby outlets. Other functions include checking local store stock, creating item lists, and browsing sales.
Square, maker of the hardware and software required for vendors to take credit card payments, has recently landed Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Group fame as one of its investors. This is the third piece of positive news for the company, which recently received $100 million in funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. Branson's investment amount isn't being specified, however.
T-Mobile USA on Wednesday became one of the first carriers to pick up the Galaxy W. Rebadged as the Exhibit II 4G, it targets mid-range users with a 3.7-inch LCD and a single-core, 1GHz Snapdragon chip. Most of its cost-savings come through three-megapixel back and front VGA (0.3-megapixel) cameras, although it supports 14.4Mbps data.
Microsoft over the weekend provided a more definitive answer on the end of the Zune after repeatedconfusion as the Zune HD exited stock in earnest. Best Buy, the Microsoft Store, and Walmart all now show the MP3 player as out of stock. Microsoft had pulled the Zune HD from its Originals plan but, until now, still had supply in other stores.
Intellectual Ventures swung back into its patent lawsuit campaign by targeting Motorola Mobility, with the company now filing a patent infringement complaint (PDF) in the US District Court of Delaware. According to the company's Chief Litigation Counsel Melissa Finocchio said Intellectual Ventures and Motorola Mobility weren't able to reach a licensing agreement after lengthy negotiations. It thus has a responsibility to its current customers and investors to defend its intellectual property rights, the company claimed.
Miramax chief Mike Lang explained to those at the MIPCOM media conference Wednesday night that his studio was trying to prevent Apple from repeating its effect in music on the movie industry. He saw the iTunes operator as having walked in on a digital music business with poor competition and taking a control that persists to this day. With so much influence, he said, labels couldn't set the agenda and showed what could happen if movie studios didn't act faster.
T-Mobile started off the week by launching a new phone plan targeted at an audience much more focused on messaging than calls. A $30 prepaid plan will have just 100 minutes of voice but 'unlimited' data and unlimited text. It will support full HSPA+ speeds for the first 5GB and will cost 10 cents for every US minute over the included 100.
In a sign of a less busy holiday shopping season, Best Buy announced it will hire about half of the temporary workers it did in 2010 in the US. The exact numbers are 15,000 compared to 29,000 from 2010, according to a Tuesday report. It's not alone either, with a quarter of the retailers surveyed by the Hay Group stating they are hiring less seasonal workers.
Cricket made a big push to get prominence as a US cell carrier Thursday by unveiling a new Android smartphone as part of a larger push. The ZTE Score fits in the current entry level with a 3.5-inch, 320x480 capacitive touchscreen, a 600MHz processor, and a 3.2-megapixel camera. It carries a partly customized Android 2.3 but claims Cricket's Muve Music as its real advantage, with unlimited song and ringtone downloads when using the $55 combined data, text, and voice smartphone plan.
Walmart is in negotiations to carry the UltraViolet cloud-video platform, CNET learned from sources. UV is a number of standards and specifications that will allow movies and TV shows to play on many devices. Customers would purchase a UV movie, for example, and have access to it from servers and view them on multiple UV-licensed devices.
Apple has leaped ahead in rank to become the second most valuable brand in the world, an interim 2011 Brand Finance study claims. Although the worth of a brand is difficult to quantify, Brand Finance's latest metrics put Apple up 33 percent to $39.3 billion. Leading the list is Google, which rose 9 percent to just under $48.3 billion.
Sharp appears to be expanding its launch plans for the FX Plus handset, a budget Android offering that takes inspiration from the company's Sidekick messaging phone. Walmart was the first retailer to sell the device, however it is now set to arrive at many of AT&T's other outlets.
Apple ranks 34th in the US in terms of retail revenue, according to a Chain Store Age Magazine survey. During 2010 Apple managed $9.82 billion through its retail stream, allowing it to leapfrog out of 57th place. A separate analysis by RetailSails recently placed Apple first in the US in terms of sales per square foot.
Walmart will be adding the Samsung Galaxy Precedent to its cellphone line up. Straight Talk, the retailer's prepaid wireless service, has begun pre-marketing the smartphone as a web exclusive on a special website. The company offers no details on the phone itself, but encourages viewers to sign up to receive emails with more information in the future.
iTunes movie sales have managed a turnaround in US marketshare, according to research firm IHS. During the first half of 2011, Apple's portion of electronic sellthrough and video-on-demand spending grew to 65.8 percent, versus 64.9 percent in the first half of 2010. In an equivalent gap between 2009 and 2010, Apple dropped by 11.9 percent. IHS remarks that Apple's last rise in share was during 2009.
HP may be having serious trouble selling the TouchPad at Best Buy. New leaks from internal HP reports claim that Best Buy has taken 270,000 of the webOS tablets so far but has sold only 25,000 so far, just 9.3 percent of its stock. The retail chain hasn't independently confirmed it, but corroborating AllThingsD sources claimed that the result was not only logical but might even be "charitable" as it omits refunds.
Nintendo's significant price drop of its 3DS console that's scheduled to go live tomorrow is being pre-empted by some retailers. This includes retail Walmart and Target stores in the US, though the web pages for the portable games console do not yet reflect the change. In Canada, Best Buy and Costco have already dropped the price to $170 from $250, which is a 30 percent price drop.
Vudu on Wednesday began offering its streaming movie service on the iPad over the web. The strategy uses HTTP Live Streaming to push the movie while adapting the bitrate to match the connection. Video is limited to standard definition when seen on the iPad, but only due to "restrictions by content providers," Vudu said.
Walmart said Tuesday that it would close its MP3 store on August 29. The discount retailer said it had made a "business decision" to get out of MP3 downloads and would wind down in just under three weeks. No reason was given for the closure.
Walmart has spoiled some of AT&T's plans by pre-announcing the Sharp FX Plus. The Android phone owes a clear debt to the Sidekick that Sharp once made and has the same concept of a slider where the display, not the body, slides out to reveal a QWERTY keyboard. Sharp keeps it simpler than the Sidekick 4G with a 3.2-inch display, a three-megapixel camera, and a mix of 512MB of internal storage with a bundled 2GB microSD card.
Vudu has announced that it has established a presence on Walmart's website. The portal serves as a direct link to Vudu's range of on-demand rental content. The site includes featured categories, including top new releases, a $0.99 "movie of the day," $2 rentals that are good for two days, and lists of titles that will soon be available to rent.
T-Mobile silenced rumors Thursday afternoon by detailing its version of the HTC Wildfire S. Its adaptation of the starter Android 2.3 phone is largely stock other than a distinctive white-and-chrome hue as an option alongside a more sober black. The edition's customizations are light and mostly cling to HTC's own Sense 3.0 layout.
Acer Germany told an inquisitive Facebook fan this week that the Iconia Tab A100 was shipping in September. The seven-inch Android 3 tablet was to have been available as soon as the spring but now won't be available for a few months more. The company didn't explain the delay.
Intellectual Ventures late Monday continued a string of lawsuits against technology firms with a new lawsuit (below) claiming companies violate five patents for system memory. The complaint hits direct memory part suppliers such as Adata, Elpida, Hynix, and Kingston but also some of their customers, such as Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Logitech. Even Best Buy and Walmart, stores merely selling the products, are included in the Seattle-based suit.
Gaikai is reportedly collaborating with Walmart to bring live game streaming to the retailer's website. The Game Center section of Walmart.com will allows visitors to play select games directly from a browser, without requiring users to download any files, sign up for subscription services, or wait for data-heavy content to load.
Just one month after Acer admitted that its Android-based Iconia Tab A100 tablet would be arriving later than initially promised, the device appears to have appeared in Walmart's inventory system. A snapshot of the price tag, which was posted on Engadget, confirms several features including a dual-core 1GHz processor, two-megapixel front-facing camera, five-megapixel primary sensor, and 1024x600 resolution for the seven-inch display.
A Walmart inventory finding on Friday has narrowed down the release timing for the Vizio Via tablet. The "Vizio 8" Tablet" has surfaced in the system alongside other tablets with a "week 26" ship date. The Engadget notice would have it arriving in about six weeks, or in late July.
Vudu has launched a new digital movie card service through its parent Walmart. Customers can purchase the card for a desired movie in-store, and then use the provided code at home to stream it and watch it on their computer or other Vudu-enabled electronic device, including an HDTV, Blu-ray player, or a PlayStation 3. The first movie to be offered is Sony's Battle: Los Angeles.
The HTC Sensation 4G has arrived early at some Walmart locations, and at a lower than expected price. The Sensation 4G was scheduled for launch June 12 at Walmart and June 15 at T-Mobile. News of an earlier release was leaked last week, suggesting that the Android 2.3 smartphone would be available on June 8.
During the course of today's WWDC 2011 keynote, Apple executives elaborated on a number of business milestones the company has achieved. The Mac App Store, for instance, is now claimed to be main channel for buying computer software, ahead of Best Buy, Walmart and Office Depot. The ranking does not reflect the actual popularity of Mac software versus Windows titles, the latter of which are often bought directly from publishers and developers, or through services like Steam.
Just hours ahead of the kickoff of WWDC 2011, Wal-Mart representatives have sent an email announcing a sale on the iPhone 4 until the end of June. The $50 price reduction brings the cost of a new iPhone 4 to $147 with a two year contract with either AT&T or Verizon. It is unclear whether the sale is merely intended to stimulate demand for the iPhone 4 or an indication that the iPhone 5 launch is near.
A pair of leaks on Monday may have given out HP's plans to launch the TouchPad. A QuickSpecs sheet for the webOS tablet is dated June 12, suggesting that it's at least when the tablet will be announced, if not when it ships. The sheet is designed for corporate buyers and likely needed at the same time, PreCentral said.
HP's 10.1-inch TouchPad tablet has reportedly surfaced in Walmart's inventory, with the 32GB Wi-Fi variant paired with a $599 price tag. Screenshots from the retailer's internal computer systems, which were posted on PreCentral, suggest the device will arrive on the market with a price structure that matches Apple's iPad.
Amazon has announced that its third-generation Kindle will now be available at over 3200 Walmart stores nationally. Amazon says that most stores will have a Kindle on display so customers can “check out all the features” before buying the device. Walmart will be selling both the Kindle 3G and the Kindle with Special Offers and will join a growing list of retailers selling the Kindle in bricks and mortar stores.
Vudu chose Tuesday to throw itself into more direct competition with iTunes and Netflix by carrying TV shows. The deal gives it access to shows from ABC, AMC, Fox, HDNet, Palm, Showtime, Sony, Starz, and The CW, such as Weeds and The Walking Dead. As a paid service, its episodes will show a day after the air date rather than weeks or months like on Netflix.
Gaming PC maker iBuyPower has entered into a deal with Walmart that will let users build custom PCs from the superstore chain's online store. While there are just five processor choices and five cases on offer, the choice of three hard drives and three RAM options as well as eight different graphics cards means there are more than 10,000 system permutations available. The two Intel chips include a 3.3GHz Core i5 and 3.4GHz Core i7, while AMD's offerings include a 3.1GHz Athlon or either a 3.2GHz or 3.0GHz Phenom II.
One more source on Monday night has helped back suspicions that the white iPhone 4 would reach Best Buy on April 27. The inventory system shows both AT&T and Verizon models in either capacity by using placeholder names such as "BBY63LD" but putting them in the "iPhone hardware" category. BGR lacked pricing, though it's broadly assumed the color won't change the pricing.
The Samsung Infuse 4G was just spotted in a Walmart flyer, thanks to AndroidCentral. The ad reveals a ship date of May along with a retail price of $179 on AT&T with a two-year contract. Neither AT&T nor Samsung has committed to an official launch so far.
