Volgens geruchten op het internet komt nu ook Amazon met een eigen tablet-pc. Het hebbeding, waarvan de naam nog onbekend is, zou waarschijnlijk in de herfst in de VS uitkomen. Over een releasedatum in Europa is nog niets geweten. Amazon hoopt op een piekverkoop van zo'n 800.000 exemplaren per maand.

Achter de praktische kant zitten twee stevige blokken: Het Taiwanese Qanta, dat de tablets zou vervaardigen, werkt nu al voor o.a. Blackberry en maakt Sony's tablets. Het LCD-scherm zou dan weer gemaakt worden door E Ink Holding, dat Amazon al goed kent van de schermen van Kindle.

To Google or not to Google?

De geruchten circuleren al sinds Amazon in maart een AppStore voor Android lanceerde. Om die reden gokken de meeste kenners er ook op dat Amazon het operating system van Google zal gebruiken op de nieuwe tablet. Het zou wel kunnen dat Amazon gaat kiezen voor een eigen versie, waarin geen plaats is voor een aantal Google-applicaties, zoals GMail of Google Voice. Daarvoor is immers een nieuwe deal nodig met de informaticareus, en het is niet zeker of Amazon het verlies van die functionaliteiten belangrijker vindt dan de meerkost daarvan.

Over verdere details is echter nog niets geweten, behalve dan dat de webshops van Amazon diepgaand geïntegreerd zullen worden. Zo hoopt de Amerikaanse webretailer een succesvolle aanval uit te voeren op Apple, dat met zijn iPad2/iTunes-integratie de tabletmarkt beheerst. Het hoeft geen betoog dat Apple daar niet echt blij mee is, zo heeft het onlangs nog een rechtszaak ingespannen tegen Amazon met als inzet het gebruik van de term “App store”. Volgens Apple is dat immers een beschermd handelsmerk.

Amsterdam alderman Boudewijn Oranje is to open the seventh iAm store in the Netherlands this midnight. The new store in Amsterdam will be the biggest Apple reseller in the Dutch capital. After the opening, the store will remain open for 24 hours straight.

iAm is the new format that emerged from the recent MacHouse and HTR Nederland merger; the new store in Amsterdam is a former MacHouse store. There are no official Apple Stores in the Netherlands, but several small chains compete for market share in the lucrative market of Apple products with bigger general electronics sellers.

As expected for a while – but still a surprise when it finally became true – Steve Jobs has resigned as Apple CEO, probably because of medical reasons. Steve Jobs was immediately replaced by current COO Tim Cook, while the Apple board appointed him to the newly created position of Chairman. 

The largest company in the world

Steve Jobs, 56 since February, expanded the company from a home-based enterprise to the most valuable company in the world – according to share prices. Since 1997, start of his second life at Apple after a twelve year absence due to internal differences, Apple changed from a lowly computer manufacturer to an empire of many kinds of electronic devices ranging from music players over mobile phones to tablets. 

Shares rose from 5 to 376 dollar (4 to 260 euro) under his second reign – driven by the immense popularity of products like iPhone, iPod and iPad. Still, some critics claim he is a visionary but a failure as a manager, being “unattractive and oldfashioned” (as Harvard professor William C. Taylor once said). 

Probably (but not officially) for health reasons

Jobs had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, but recovered later... only to find out that the cancer had spread to his liver. He had already been on medical leave since January this year. Some financial analysts expect that without its leader in charge, Apple's stock will crash down. However, others point to the fact that Cook's reign in 2009 oversaw a 60% share rise in six months. Cook sometimes is very outspoken, once famously stating that the iPhone is becoming way too expensive.

Full original letter

Steve Jobs's resignation letter only consisted of eight sentences:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

Ondanks de lauwe reacties van fans en specialisten bij de voorstelling, verpulvert de nieuwe iPhone 4S van Apple alle records. Op de eerste dag kreeg de elektronicagigant al meteen ruim één miljoen voorbestellingen binnen, of bijna het dubbele van de 600.000 waar de oorspronkelijke iPhone 4 het mee moest doen.

Daarmee is deze voorverkoop meteen de meest succesvolle ooit uit de Apple-geschiedenis. Apple zelf zegt “overweldigd” te zijn door de respons, terwijl ze in hoofdkwartier Cupertino intussen toch al een en ander gewoon zijn…

Uitstel voor België en Nederland

Daags voor het overlijden van topman Steve Jobs stelde Apple de nieuwste smartphone voor. De buitenwereld reageerde echter teleurgesteld toen het niet om de iPhone 5 bleek te gaan, maar slechts om een upgrade van het huidige model.

Vanaf 14 oktober ligt het kleinood in de Amerikaanse rekken. Op 28 oktober verschijnt de nieuwe iPhone in nog eens 22 landen, waaronder België en Nederland.

Apple's vice-president for retail Ron Johnson will leave the company in August. He will succeed Mike Ullman, who has been chairman of American department store chain JC Penney since 2004.

Genius Bar

Ron Johnson was the inventor of Apple's “Genius Bar”, where customers can get tech support for free. He has been responsible for Apple's Stores since the first one opened in 2001 – overseeing over 320 later store openings in 11 different countries. Since then, they have attracted over a billion people.

52 year old Johnson will face a serious challenge at 1100 store chain JC Penney, where sales have been dropping for the last three years as consumers left the chain for cheaper discounters like Target – the chain where Johnson, in a strange twist of fate, worked for 15 years before moving to Apple.

JC Penney claims Johnson will buy Penney shares for 50 million dollars to show “his faith in the long term potential of the group”. The news overjoyed investors and the share prise soared to +17%.
 
 

Much to nobody's surprise, Apple has again surmounted expectations quite significantly. Even without any significant new release, Apple's revenue grew 82% in the last quarter, to 22.2 billion euro – analysts had expected 'only' 17.6 billion.

Chinese sales explode

Most of Apple's growth comes from its China region – controversially also including Hong Kong and Taiwan – where sales boomed from $3 billion in 2010 to $8.8 billion in 2011 so far. Tim Cook, Apple's COO, mentions that sales in the Asia-Pacific reason have “quadrupled year-on-year” and announces that Apple will adapt its Chinese strategies in other growth markets, like the Middle East and Brazil. Still, the US is Apple's major market with a €7.16 billion turnover. 

Most of the growth was accounted for by iPhones and iPads, with 20.3 million and 9.25 million items sold respectively. Expectations are that the introduction of the iPhone 5 will obliterate this record – inspiring Apple to open 30 more Apple stores before the end of this quarter, most of them in Asia. 

Apple Stores and iLove

These Apple Stores are doing very well: attracting 73.7 million visitors, they have an average turnover of 7.6 million euro, or 2.47 billion euro in total. Apple Stores added 585.5 million euro to the company's total profit of 5.16 billion. These own stores, and the hype surrounding the brand (which has been dubbed iLove) cause Apple to claim that the company's presence at important technology fairs is superfluous. 

Each year, Stores Magazine publishes their top 100 of US-based retailers, ranked on annual sales in their home market. This year, Amazon and Apple are the two fastest growing companies by a large margin, but Wal-Mart's lead seems unbridgeable. 

Amazon and Apple grow fastest

Amazon, the world's main online retailer, witnessed a sales growth of 46.2% last year – to 18.5 billion dollar (13 billion euro). Jeff Bezos's company jumps forward seven places, from 26th to 19th, mainly because of the huge success of e-reader Kindle. Amazon now sells more e-books than  hard copies. 

Apple Store – Steve Jobs's retail concept – grew from 6.7 to 18 billion dollars, which according to Stores is a growth of 32.3%. Any miscalculations put aside, the iPhone, iPod and iPad are phenomenal successes. 

Wal-Mart crushes the rest

As fast as these companies may grow, nobody comes near market leader Wal-Mart, whose sales are as high as those of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 combined. Their 307 billion dollar (216 billion euro) sales are just 0.6% higher than last year's, owing to the success of their smaller 'Express' stores in rural areas. There are no changes in the rest of the top 10 either, the only change is that numbers 9 and 10 swap places. 

"Not easy to stay at the top"

Susan Reda of Stores Magazine congratulates the top companies: “Remaining at the top of one of the most competitive business in the US is not easy. The biggest retailers have to keep up and invent new initiatives, in order to remain relevant – while on the other hand dealing with an ever growing competition with other companies, both from the US and abroad.”

The complete top 100 can be found at  www.stores.org/stores-magazine-july-2010/top-100-retailers
 

Following arch rival Apple's exuberant sales figures, Microsoft also published impressive growth statistics. Eclipsing analysts' expectations of 9%, Microsoft's 4.07 billion euro profits is a 30% rise compared to the year before.

While profits grew fast, the pseudo-monopolist's turnover grew 'only' 8% to a total of 12.2 billion euro. After a period of crisis and – therefore – IT cost reductions, many companies have invested in new software packages during the last year. 

Microsoft Stores to counter Apple?

Microsoft also announced to start applying an aggressive retail strategy, opening 75 new Microsoft Stores in the US alone in the next two years.  The IT giant will also open stores outside its home market, directly challenging Apple's hen with the golden eggs – the Apple Stores. 

This move comes as a surprise as the 11 existing stores have not yet generated any profit. Microsoft, being a software firm, can only display very few fancy products – which is exactly where its arch rival gets its buzz from. Another threat to Microsoft stores is that their products are also being offered by many other distributors.

E-retail giant Amazon.com announced excellent quarterly results yesterday, confirming its global dominance in the internet retail market. While profits went down 8% compared to last year, sales went up a staggering 51% tot $9.91 billion (almost €7 billion). 

Huge sales growth leads to investment, not profit

“Low prices, expanding selection, fast delivery and innovation are driving the fastest growth we’ve seen in over a decade,” said Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, in a statement.

Amazon paid a high price for its expansions though, as operational costs soared with 63% - causing net profits to drop to 191 million dollar (133 million euro). More employees, acquisitions of other companies and logistic and technological renovations cut a huge part of Amazon's income. 

Amazon's new tablet

Amazon still had no sales figures for the Kindle, its successful e-reader, but announced that the “Worldwide Electronics and Other General Merchandise” (including the Kindle) saw its quarterly sales increase by 69% 

The only disappointed noises came from tech followers, who had expected that Amazon would introduce its own tablet computer, competing with rival Apple's iPad. The e-retail giants however made no such move.

Afgelopen vrijdag oordeelde een Duitse rechter dat Apple twee gsm-patenten van Motorola schond, maar nog steeds weet niemand echt wat juist de gevolgen zullen zijn. Motorola vindt dat het gelijk heeft gekregen en dat Apple geen gsm's meer mag verkopen in Duitsland, maar Apple noemt de kwestie "louter symbolisch" en ontkent het verbod.

Apple: "niets aan de hand"

Apple verklaarde intussen dat "de beslissing ons op dit moment niet verhindert producten te verkopen in Duitsland" en dat het om een louter procedurele kwestie gaat. Daar is de stelling dat ze enkel ongelijk hebben gekregen "omdat ze niet aanwezig waren op de rechtzaak" en blijft dan ook iPhones verkopen in de grootste gsm-markt van Europa.

Daarnaast heeft, volgens Apple, Motorola zich van 'vijand' vergist: in de bewuste rechtszaak had Motorola het Amerikaanse moederbedrijf Apple Inc. gedagvaard en niet Apple Deutschland GmbH. Eerstgenoemde levert enkel toestellen aan de Apple stores en de Apple webshop, terwijl de Duitse tak levert aan Premium Resellers en grotere ketens als Media Markt en Saturn. Desondanks prijken de gewraakte producten nog altijd in volle ornaat op de Duitse onlinestore.

Motorola: "een belangrijke veldslag gewonnen"

Motorola voelt zich echter in het gelijk gesteld en zegt dat het vonnis de deur open zet voor klachten tegen andere ondernemingen, en daar zouden volgens het doorgaans goed geïnformeerde Heise Online Europese Apple-dochters bij zijn. Welke precies, wou de woordvoerder van de rechtbank van Mannheim niet kwijt. De eerstkomende zaken zouden al voorkomen op 18 november en 2 december, en dit keer gaan analisten ervan uit dat Apple wél op de afspraak zal zijn.

Koekje van eigen deeg

Intussen lachen de Android-fans alvast in hun vuistje. Samsung, die andere grote concurrent uit de Android-stal, vecht namelijk al ettelijke maanden in meerdere landen een robbertje uit met Apple. Drie maanden geleden verbood een Duitse rechter de verkoop van de Galaxy Tab op de Duitse markt, omdat dat toestel te veel gelijkenissen vertoonde met de succesvolle iPad van Apple. De uitspraak van vrijdag zien ze dan ook als een "koekje van eigen deeg". Pikant detail: zowel Android als Motorola zijn eigendom van Google.