Sales

Bloomberg: Apple planning iPhone trade-in program to boost sales

According to a new report this morning, Apple is looking to begin its own iPhone trade-in program this summer. Of course, it already accepts trade-ins through its Reuse and Recycle program, but this would be the first time the company has made trade-in offers first hand.

The move is believed to be an attempt to increase handset sales, by encouraging users with older iPhones to trade them in toward the purchase of a newer model...

Analog for Mac gains Analog Camera’s filters, now half price

I recently reviewed Realmac Software's Analog Camera for the iPhone and iPod touch. With its minimalistic user interface, this app from the makers of the Clear to-do app  is probably the fastest and easiest way to take and process images on your iPhone.

Although it crops images for the square format, Analog Camera ships with eight Instagram-like filters and quick sharing options, which is ideal for impulse sharers.

Keeping true to its promise, Realmac today updated its Analog for Mac app with Analog Camera filters. And to celebrate the move, they've shaved 50 percent off its asking price in a time-limited promotion...

Galaxy S4 not hurting ‘resilient’ US iPhone sales

Listening to much of the tech press, you might get the impression Samsung's new Galaxy S4 would further erode Apple's share of the smartphone market. One Wall Street firm ended the week on a contrary note, telling investors iPhone sales in North America "remain resilient" and Samsung's Galaxy S4 is only selling slightly better than its predecessor.

The analyst firm Detwiler Fenton expects Apple will sell a cool thirty million iPhones during the June quarter amid expectation the nine-month-old handset would lose market share to its South Korean rival...

iPad has grown three times faster than iPhone

It's easy to get caught in the trap of assuming the iPhone is Apple's fastest-growing product. Although the iPhone sold more units than the iPad - after all, it's been available since 2007 whereas the iPad debuted three years later - the Apple tablet is growing three times faster than the iPhone.

This is just one of the many interesting factoids from Internet Trends, an annual report on the state of the Internet, mobile and social by Mary Meeker, one of the world's top Internet analysts. Read on for more tidbits...

Apple confirms 100M cumulative iPod touch sales

Apple surprisingly confirmed today that it has sold over a hundred million iPod touch units since the device's inception in 2007. The media player colloquially known as iTouch was released on September 14, 2007, following the launch of the first-generation iPhone. Five years later, a fifth-generation model launched with a four-inch Retina display, thin 6.1mm enclosure, Lightning I/O and the A5 chip.

In an interesting move yesterday, Apple has removed the less-pricey fourth-generation iPod touch model from its online store. At the same time, the company has quietly introduced a new fifth-generation SKU that includes sixteen gigabytes of storage, but lacks the iSight camera and the lanyard hook.

The entry-level device retails for $229. The streamlining means that Apple now offers only the latest fifth-generation iPod touch in 16/32/64GB flavors, priced at $229/$299/$399...

EU advances probe of iPhone sales tactics

The New York Times back in March reported that a group of unnamed European wireless carriers complained to the European Commission about Apple's strict volume and marketing commitments in regard to iPhone sales. Today, the Financial Times claims to have seen documents proving that Brussels is moving a probe into iPhone sales tactics to the next stage.

The news couldn't have come at a worst time for Apple, which earlier this month faced U.S. Senators who grilled CEO Tim Cook along with two other high-ranked executives over Apple's tax avoidance tricks and refusal to repatriate revenue from sales made overseas...

ZAGG offers blow-out prices on all accessories today and tomorrow

Every year, ZAGG has a huge memorial day sale. This year's sale goes all day today and tomorrow and everything in the store is discounted. All keyboards are marked down by 20 percent. While everything else will be on sale for 50 percent off.

That includes all invisibleSHIELD screen protectors for the iPad, iPad mini, iPod touch, and iPhone. As well as protectors for a huge selection of Android and Windows 8 phones.

Best Buy taking $50 off every iPhone in 4-week promo beginning this Sunday

U.S. retailer Best Buy is set to shave $50 off every iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 sold with a two-year contract with Verizon, AT&T or Sprint in a four-week promotion that kicks off on Sunday, reports AllThingsD. The retailer has previously discounted Apple's iPhone 5 a few times in time-limited promotions, along with other retailers such as Walmart which last December discounted the device to as low as $127...

German online Apple Store now accepts PayPal

Although Apple has long offered PayPal as a payment option in the United States for both digital consumer sales on iTunes and volume software purchases by education customers, the firm never instituted paying for online store purchases using PayPal.

That's ostensibly changing now as users in Germany now report being able to complete purchases on their localized online Apple Store using their PayPal account.

It remains unclear why exactly Apple enabled the feature in Germany (could be part of the broader Apple Store changes), but the move could signal a staggered worldwide roll-out...

SEGA’s weekend App Store sale includes Crazy Taxi and more

SEGA has been known to put its iOS apps on sale every once in a while, and this weekend is one such occasion, with three of the Japanese company's games having a couple of dollars slashed from their App Store price.

The three available games have been around for a while, but if you've not picked them up yet, or have perhaps been on the fence about picking them up at their normal price, then now's the time to bite the bullet and get the credit card out.

So which games are included in the sale? Well, if you're into some of SEGA's classics, then you're going to love the games Sega has included in its promotion...

Pegatron CEO: Bloomberg is lying about ‘falling iPad mini demand’

The credulous Bloomberg yesterday covered Pegatron's investor conference where the contract manufacturer announced a whopping 80 percent year-over-year growth in first-quarter profits.

Pegatron also cautioned investors that second-quarter revenue may drop between 20 and 30 percent amid the broader decline in consumer electronics demand.

However, writer Tim Culpan decided the story wasn't newsworthy enough in and of itself. And in his quest for pageviews, the reporter reckoned he better run the piece under the more Apple's doomsday headline, "Falling iPad mini demand to push Pegatron electronics sales down."

Well, guess what? 24 hours later, Pegatron CEO steps forward and tells the media that Culpan put those words in his mouth and completely fabricated the 'falling iPad mini demand' part. And there goes Bloomberg's credibility right down the drain...

Apple v Samsung fight for mobile profits intensifies

For some time, whenever Android proponents argued for the platform's dominance based on handsets shipped, Apple fans would counter by pointing out the iPhone was tops in profits.

Indeed, a new report shows Apple had more than half of all mobile profits during the first quarter of 2013, leading Android handset rival Samsung.

According to Canaccord Genuity, the iPhone maker came away from this year's first period with 57 percent of mobile phone profits, despite having just eight percent of the worldwide handset market share.

By contrast, South Korea's Samsung - which leads in market share - earned just 43 percent of the share of profits. However, the two companies could soon switch positions. The analyst firm claims iPhone sales will be weak in the upcoming June quarter, overshadowed by profits fueled by Samsung's new Galaxy S4...