iPad to hit stores Saturday as consumer test begins

(Reuters) - After months of hype, speculation and secrecy, Apple Inc will finally put the iPad tablet to the test that truly matters: the buying public.


IPad sales are widely expected to rocket out of the gate this Saturday, helped by the scores of core Apple fans who are expected to line up hours before U.S. stores open at 9 a.m. on the East Coast, to be among the first to play with the new gadget, which costs a minimum of $499.

Although those who preordered the iPad will be able to pick it up on April 3, those placing online orders more recently have been told that their device may not ship until April 12.

But putting the launch hype aside, what is less certain is whether the iPad can attract a mainstream following beyond the first few months of excitement and into next year, defining a new category of devices that bridges the gap between a smartphone and notebook computer.

Apple's shares have soared to record highs as analysts add the iPad to their earnings estimates and amid reports of brisk preorders. But forecasts for first-year sales vary widely -- from 2 million to 5 million units -- reflecting the difficulty in predicting the size of a yet-to-be-proven market.

Never lacking for ambition, Apple is offering the iPad as a new type of media device that fuses the mobility and simplicity of a smartphone with the speed and screen-size of a laptop.

"It's high-risk, high-reward because given the narrowness of Apple's portfolio, if you bring out a product that falls on its face, it does damage to you," said Gartner analyst Van Baker, who expects the iPad to be a hit.

The iPad resembles a large iPhone, with a 9.7-inch touch screen, and can run most of the 100,000-plus applications, games and entertainment that have made the iPhone so popular.

It is a typically sleek Apple creation at a half-inch thick and 1.5 pounds, with WiFi and 10 hours of battery life. Wireless-compatible 3G versions will come later in April, with the most expensive model topping out at $829.

Technology enthusiasts have praised the iPad's beautiful screen and fast Web browser, but also noted flaws: it does not have a camera for video chat, it cannot run more than one app at a time, and it cannot view popular video sites such asHulu.com, which use Adobe's Flash software.

These early reviews were based on brief tests after Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad in January. Influential columnists such as Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal and David Pogue of The New York Times have yet to weigh in -- and they could help sway iPad sales for those outside the tech cognoscenti.

MEDIA DEALS

Another factor that will affect sales is how many media companies Apple is able to eventually bring on board. Companies such as Sports Illustrated publisher Time Warner Inc and Wall Street Journal publisher News Corp are planning digital editions for the iPad, although Apple's talks with some others have reportedly been bogged down by pricing.

Apple is also launching its own digital book business to compete with the Kindle from Amazon.com Inc and other e-readers and e-books.

If the iPad is successful, it could set the standard for a wave of tablets later this year from rival vendors including Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc, and provide a bridge for print media to a digital future.

Given Apple's track record in making category-defining products, the bar is set high for early iPad sales. IPhone sales passed the 1 million mark 74 days after it launched in 2007, and it sold more than 2 million in the holiday quarter that year after a big price cut in September 2007.

Apple has sold more than 40 million iPhones in the less than three years it has been on the market.

Barclays Capital analyst Ben Reitzes estimates 1.2 million iPad sales in the June quarter, and Broadpoint Amtech analyst Brian Marshall is predicting 850,000 units. Both noted that their estimates could prove to be conservative.

"I think we need Joe Six-Pack in the retail stores touching the iPad to understand the true importance of it. Then a light bulb will go off and he'll say 'a-ha!,'" Marshall said.

He expects the iPad to quickly become a new growth line for Apple, adding $2.4 billion in sales this calendar year and 65 cents to earnings per share. For the fiscal year ending in September, Wall Street expects $54.1 billion revenue and EPS of $11.68.

Marshall estimated the iPad's gross margin at 50 percent, less profitable than the iPhone's 60-percent plus, but far more lucrative than iPods and Macs at roughly 30 percent.

Since hitting a three-month low in January, Apple shares have risen more than 20 percent to about $233. More than a dozen analysts have lifted their price targets since the iPad unveiling, and the median target now sits at about $260.

Research group ComScore recently released a survey showing 15 percent of respondents were "seriously" considering buying an iPad in the next three months.

"Steve Jobs has a very good feeling for what makes sense for the consumer," said Tim Bajarin, president of consulting company Creative Strategies. "He's not going after the tech crowd with the iPad, he's going after the mainstream consumer.

"The first six to nine months, it will come out of the block fast, but the measure of success will be how it's doing after its first full year," he added.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway, editing by Tiffany Wu and Maureen Bavdek)

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Verizon Wireless to open app store March 29

(Reuters) - Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile operator, said it would open its own mobile phone applications store on March 29.

The venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc said that consumers buying applications from the store would be able to pay for apps through their cellphone bill, making it easier than other app stores where a separate account is needed.


Verizon Wireless is entering a well established market where device makers such as Blackberry maker Research in Motion and companies such as Apple Inc and Google Inc already operate rival app stores for users of Apple's iPhone and phones based on Google's Android software.

Verizon itself sells phones based on Android such as Droid from Motorola Inc. It announced the launch date at the CTIA annual wireless trade show.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

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Google Nexus One sales lag Apple, Motorola: Flurry

(Reuters) - Google Inc's initial sales of its Nexus One smartphone have significantly lagged the pace of Apple Inc's iPhone and Motorola Inc's Droid sales coming out of the starting gate, an analytics firm said on Tuesday.
















According to a report by Flurry, Google sold roughly 135,000 of its new Nexus One phones in its first 74 days on the market. By contrast, Apple sold 1 million of the original iPhones in the first 74 days, while Motorola sold 1.05 million Droid phones -- which are based on Google's Android software -- during the same timeframe.

The sales estimates, which Flurry said it based on software applications featuring its analytics technology that have been downloaded to most of the phones, suggests a less than stellar start to Google's plan to play a larger role in the mobile phone business.

Google launched the Nexus One phone, which it developed with handset manufacturer HTC Corp of Taiwan, in January, marking the first time the giant Internet search company had sold a hardware device directly to consumers.

But the Nexus One, unlike the iPhone or the Droid, can only be purchased on the Web and is not available at retail stores. Google has also advertised the phone exclusively online, foregoing the high-profile television ad campaigns of the iPhone and the Droid.

Kaufman Brothers analyst Aaron Kessler said he would have assumed that Google would sell more than 135,000 units.

"Clearly Google is not spending a lot of money marketing it. It doesn't seem like Google has huge expectations on this one," said Kessler.

But he noted that Google's broader mobile strategy is to grow the overall base of devices from various manufacturers that use Google's Android smartphone software.

According to a recent report by comScore, the market share of Android-based smartphones in the U.S. grew to 7.1 percent in January from 2.8 percent in October 2009.

By contrast, Apple's share grew at a slower pace, reaching 25.1 percent in January compared with 24.8 percent in October.

Google said in an emailed statement that the company was pleased with its sales volume and by how the Nexus One has been received by customers. Google's partners are shipping more than 60,000 Android based handsets each day, compared to 30,000 just three months ago, Google said.

The Nexus One is currently available for $179 with a two-year contract from Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA, or $529 without a service plan.

Google announced separately on Tuesday that a new version of the Nexus One is now available that works on AT&T Inc's 3G wireless network. Previously, the Nexus One was only compatible with AT&T's lower speed 2G or EDGE network.

Google has said that the phone will be available with Verizon Wireless, the largest wireless carrier in the U.S., sometime in the spring. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc.

Flurry said it used the first 74 days of sales as a benchmark, since that was the timeframe that Apple initially announced it took to sell the first million iPhones in 2007. Since March 19 will mark the first 74 days of Nexus One sales, Flurry said it forecasted results for the last few days of the period.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Carol Bishopric)

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Panasonic ties with Best Buy for 3D TV promotion

(Reuters) - Panasonic Corp will launch its 3D televisions in the United States on Wednesday, and work with top U.S. electronics retailer Best Buy Co to promote the products, the Japanese electronics maker said.













The maker of Viera flat-panel TVs said it expects a 50-inch model to retail for $2,500, and aims to sell 500,000 3D TVs in the United States in the first year of their launch, half its annual global sales target.

Under the joint promotion, Best Buy will set up special sections at its retail outlets, where prospective customers can try out Panasonic's 3D TVs.

Panasonic, the world's No.4 flat TV maker behind Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, LG Electronics Inc and Sony Corp, holds high hopes for 3D TVs as it aims to turn its TV business profitable in the year starting April.

The sci-fi blockbuster "Avatar" and other recent titles have sparked massive interest in 3D movies, raising TV makers' hopes for a strong debut of 3D models.

Shares in Panasonic closed up 2.8 percent at 1,307 yen on Monday, outperforming the Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index, which gained 2.1 percent.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Rupert Winchester)

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" apple Ipad Demo" Apple - iPad - Introducing the iPad

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ITC to investigate Apple complaint vs Nokia

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. International Trade Commission said on Friday it has agreed to investigate Apple Inc's patent infringement complaint against Nokia Oyj, as the legal battle between the two technology heavyweights continues to play out.

The companies have been locked in a legal tussle since last October, when Nokia sued Apple and said the iPhone maker was using its patented technologies without paying for them.

Apple countersued Nokia, and both companies have turned to the ITC, filing complaints with the trade body.

Apple is asking the ITC to block Nokia from selling some mobile devices in the U.S. Apple contends the products infringe upon nine of its patents.

The case will be assigned to one of the ITC's six administrative law judges, who will hold an hearing on the evidence. The trade body will set a target date for completing its probe with 45 days after beginning the investigation.

The ITC agreed last month to investigate Nokia's complaint against Apple. Nokia alleges Apple infringed seven of its patents.

The legal dispute between Nokia and Apple potentially involves hundreds of millions of dollars in annual royalties.

Nokia is the world's largest mobile phone maker but has had trouble in the fast-growing smartphone market. Apple entered the smartphone market in 2007 but has seen huge success with the iPhone.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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Google CEO woos suspicious mobile industry

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Google's Chief Executive Eric Schmidt urged the mobile industry to embrace the mobile Web instead of seeing Google as the enemy, in his first speech to the world's biggest wireless industry fair.


Schmidt said the industry stood at an historic moment when the computing power of mobile phones, attractive services and networks that could handle them had come together, and said Google was driving network traffic to the benefit of operators.


"It's like magic. All of a sudden there are things that you can do that didn't really occur to you... because of this convergence point," he told a packed auditorium at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

"That time is upon us -- right now, right here, for this year and at least the next many years," he told the audience of operators, telecoms gear vendors, and observers of an industry that generally views Google with suspicion.

Google has recently made overtures to other industries who consider it a threat, including newspaper and book publishers, and advertising agencies.

In telecoms, Google has raised hackles by launching a free smartphone platform, Android, selling its own-branded phone directly to consumers without the mediation of carriers, and announcing plans to build a super-fast broadband network.

It has also been seen as a problem by some operators, who are having to invest to upgrade their networks to meet the huge demand for data services required by users who are spending more and more time on the mobile Web on sites from Google and others.

Google announced two new features: one that translates images of text in foreign languages captured by a camera, such as restaurant menus, and the addition of German as the fourth language supported by Google's voice-recognition technology.

YES, NOT NO

Schmidt's remarks were met with skepticism and some hostility from an audience already worried about economic recession and the prospect of becoming "dumb pipes" that merely carry valuable content, including free Internet calls.

"I'm talking about Google stealing operators' talk minutes," said one questioner, when asked by Schmidt to clarify his concerns. Schmidt shot back: "It's not our objective to steal your minutes."

Later, in a roundtable with journalists, Schmidt explained why he believed the two industries needed one another.

"We need them to go ahead and invest these enormous amounts of money at great risk and, in return, they need us to continue to build powerful new reasons to upgrade the connections and get a new phone," he said.

"Find a way to say yes, not no, is our thesis."

Google's core business is in helping online businesses to attract vast audiences to which it can sell advertising.

"We want to have a little bit of Google in everybody's transaction with the Internet," Schmidt said.

He added that, eventually, other means of making money than advertising, like selling software to large enterprises, would become significant. Google has email, document-management and other subscription services for business users.

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan and Kate Holton; Editing by Andre Grenon and Tim Dobbyn)

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