Around all the excitement over the
public ripping apart of the iPhone, analysis of the components has thrown up interesting information about the gross profit margin that Apple is making on every iPhone sold.
55%.
Yes, for every iPhone purchased - and estimates for weekend sales hover around the half a million mark - Apple is making a profit of 55% of the retail price.
If you add up the price of all the component parts then technology-research firm iSuppli found that producing the device costs Apple about $266 for the hardware.
The $599 price tag for the 8GB version means a markup of $333.
Of course, Apple has to recoup all of its development and marketing costs first, but as Joey from Friends would say “These babies sell themselves” so that shouldn’t take too long.
The 55% profit margin is higher than that estimated for both the iPhone and iTV.
Source: SmartPhone Reviewer
July 4th, 2007
Palm’s thunder has been stolen recently by the BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone, but they have come back with an attempted bang. The new Palm Foleo is billed as a smartphone companion, but actually resembles a tiny laptop.
It boasts a full size keyboard, but only has a 10inch screen, which in some ways is a throwback to notebooks of ten years ago.
The Foleo is designed to let users manage and edit their e-mails and other documents by communicating with their smartphones through a wireless Bluetooth connection. However, it has received a lukewarm reception from many critics who say that it adds nothing to an already exiting smartphone sector.
Running the Linux OS, Foleo doesn’t actually have a hard drive, but instead can synchronise with a smartphone via a Bluetooth or wireless connection. In fact, it is getting a slightly warmer reception from the Linux community than from those in the cellphone arena. “This could become the first commercially viable portable Linux system,” said Tim Bajarin, an industry analyst at Creative Strategies.
Palm Foleo will be available in the summer at a suggested price of $599 before an introductory rebate of $100.
May 31st, 2007
Creating High Definition (HD) home movies is now super-simple with the introduction of the HR10 High Definition Camcorder from Canon U.S.A., Inc. This Canon HD camcorder calls on the Company’s optical heritage, proprietary CMOS image sensor and HD expertise to help users effortlessly create and share High Definition movies on convenient DVD discs.Consumers who are looking for the ideal camcorder to interface with the ever-expanding home entertainment environment and provide more High Definition content, need to look no further. The Canon HR10 HD Camcorder offers the benefits of top-notch broadcast quality lenses and photographic heritage by providing users with a Genuine Canon 10x optical zoom lens, a Full HD 1920 x 1080 CMOS image sensor and the AVCHD video format. The HR10 HD Camcorder also helps users obtain the sharpest High Definition video possible, with the assistance of Canon’s exclusive Instant AF focus system and Super Range Optical Image Stabilization to help provide “rock solid” images at any focal length. (more…)
May 7th, 2007
Research In Motion today introduced the BlackBerry CurveT smartphone - the smallest and lightest full QWERTY BlackBerry smartphone. With its smooth and friendly design encompassing a large display, easy-to-use keyboard and intuitive trackball navigation system, this powerful new smartphone makes it easy to stay connected to the people and information that matter most.
“The BlackBerry Curve offers a unique blend of communications, multimedia and web features to provide people with an exceptional mobile companion for both work and leisure,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at RIM. “The BlackBerry Curve delivers RIM’s industry leading email and messaging capabilities in a highly approachable smartphone design that is packed with consumer-friendly features including a 2 megapixel camera, enhanced media player and high-performance browser.”
(more…)
May 5th, 2007
Sony is bolstering its lead in the high-definition camcorder arena with the introduction of AVCHD™ technology-based models.The new Handycam HDR-CX7 model is the world’s smallest and lightest AVCHD high-definition camcorder. It can record nearly three hours of full HD 1080 video on an 8-GB Memory Stick PRO Duo™ media card (LP mode). Weighing just 15 ounces with the supplied battery, it provides ultra-portability as well as a virtually crash-proof recording system, instant archiving to Memory Stick PRO Duo™ media (sold separately), and effortless connection to a PC via USB for editing and back-up.
(more…)
April 30th, 2007
WiFi Radio is a term that has been buzzing around the fringes of consumer awareness for a couple of years now. A few manufacturers have attempted to put WiFi connectivity into a device resembling a DAB digital radio (often AS WELL AS a DAB digital radio) and then use it to stream internet radio broadcasts, but until now, this was a very, very niche market.
Suddenly, in the last few months a tidal wave - well, a mild swell - of WiFi Radios has hit the market and they are, to a device, blessed with stunning looks as well.
The publishers of TechSmec.com are rowing out to meet this tidal wave with the launch of our sister site Wifi Radio Review. We’ll be bringing you news and reviews about this rapidly growing market on a regular basis. If it moves in the world of WiFi Radio, we’ll be covering it.
February 17th, 2007
Steve Jobs confirmed the worst kept secret in the technology world when he confirmed the existence of the iPhone, a revolutionary mobile device that combines telephone technology, PDA functionality and all the well-known features of the iPod.
The iPhone is essentially just a single screen. There are no keys or buttons, and indeed Apple is making much of its patented touchscreen technology. In fact, patents are a bit of a feature of the device with Apple protecting its baby with over 200 of the things.
Users are able to navigate the iPhone by using a virtual keyboard that’s smart enough to know when accidental tapping occurs. The screen also takes in gestures such as scrolling, pinching and stretching motions. Most impressive of all, well to TechSmec.com at any rate, is the smart screen which knows when the user is holding the iPhone in landscape or portrait and adjust the interface accordingly.
The iPhone, which starts at $499, will “reinvent” the telecommunications sector and “leapfrog” past the current generation of hard-to-use smart phones, Jobs said.
“Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything,” he said during his keynote address at the annual Macworld Conference and Expo. “It’s very fortunate if you can work on just one of these in your career. … Apple’s been very fortunate in that it’s introduced a few of these.”
Apple, now renamed Apple Inc. from Apple Computer Inc., shares jumped more than 6 percent on the announcement.
Even TechSmec.com, weary of many over-hyped Apple revelations over the years, has to admit that the iPhone is a device worth salivating over.
January 9th, 2007
Hitachi has announced the imminent release of the world’s first one terabyte hard drive. The Deskstar 7K1000 will retail for only $399 which weighs in at just 40 cents per gigabyte.
Seagate had earlier announced their own terabyte drive, but failed to provide a release date or a price, and in our book that makes them the loser.
“The industry’s first one-terabyte hard drive represents a milestone that is 50 years in the making, and it reasserts the hard drive’s leadership as the highest-capacity, lowest-cost storage technology,” said Shinjiro Iwata, chief marketing officer, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. “In the 51 st year, Hitachi is leading a new era for hard drives — not only providing large amounts of affordable storage, but also customizing and optimizing hard drives to deliver products that are smarter, more durable and more useful to the consumer.”
Interestingly for those who own, or are thinking of buying, a PVR, Hitachi also announced the Deskstar’s cousin, Cinemastar, aimed squarely at the home electronics market. Like Deskstar, Cinemastar has a one terabyte capacity.
January 6th, 2007
SanDisk has introduced a 32-gigabyte, 1.8-inch solid state drive (SSD) as a drop-in replacement for the standard mechanical hard disk drive. Initially aimed at enterprise users as the first step toward mass consumer adoption, SanDisk SSD offers field-proven durability to keep mobile PCs working in the toughest of conditions and improves the overall user experience.
Previously, large capacity flash-based drives had been used primarily by the military, aerospace and telecom industries, which demanded high performance and reliability under challenging environmental conditions. But now the declining cost of NAND flash memory has made SSD a viable and economically attractive alternative to existing technologies in a wider variety of applications, including mobile PCs aimed at enterprise and consumer users. (more…)
January 6th, 2007
The internet is alight with reports that one of the encryption methods used by HD-DVD and Blu-Ray - AACS - has been cracked.However, the reports seem likely to be exaggerated, with those delving more deeply into the reports suggesting that the ‘crack’ is actually just a method of obtaining the encryption key for a small number of pre-recorded discs.The hacker claiming the crack, muslix64, revealed that his application “BackupHDDVD” would strip encryption from HD-DVD discs. A video hosted on YouTube seems to suggest that he has obtained a small number of encryption keys for pre-recorded discs and can then use these keys to circumvent the copy-protection on HD-DVD.
As a result, the crack is extremely limited in its potential use and only discs for whom the key is known can be copied. However, some commentators are suggesting that the news will give HD-DVD a boost over Blu-Ray, as the latter uses an extra level of protection.
(more…)
December 29th, 2006
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