Apple ad man Ken Segall takes issue with Apple’s iPhone naming scheme (TUAW)
While serving as the creative lead of TBWA/Chiat Day, Ken Segall oversaw the creative direction of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s marketing efforts. Credited as the man who put the ‘i’ in iMac, Segall worked very closely with Steve Jobs and helped oversee a number of memorable Apple ad campaigns, including the award-winning Think Different campaign. Suffice it to say, when Segall has something to say about Apple’s advertising efforts, it’s typically worth paying attention to.
Chinese authorities vow to watch Apple despite apology (Macworld)
The company’s apology showed “initial achievement” in reforming its policies, China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) said on its website on Sunday. But despite the apology, SAIC is adopting a “watch and see” policy toward Apple, and will not let up on its oversight of the company.
On April 2, a catchy headline splashed across the pages of major Chinese newspapers, ending a breathless three-week assault that the Chinese media launched at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), which it accused of discriminating against Chinese customers in its warranty policies. Meanwhile, the discussion unfolding on Weibo, China’s popular social media platform, behind the top trending hashtag “Apple Apologized” took on a very different focus. Under Tim Cook’s apology letter, reposted from the Chinese version of the Apple website, several commentators rejoiced over the victory Chinese media scored in forcing Apple to “bow its arrogant head,” as one user put it. The majority of the commentators, however, were in no mood to celebrate.
You Voted! BlackBerry Crushed Apple (CNBC)
A “David and Goliath” story played out in the finals of our “Squawk Box Money Madness” stock tournament. Little, beaten up Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)—market cap $7 billion—topped the $400 billion behemoth Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Struggling to stay relevant, BlackBerry won in a landslide, with 63 percent of the nearly 16,000 votes cast on CNBC’s Facebook page and our Squawk.CNBC.com show page. Apple’s recent slump made it a No. 4 seed on its side of our bracket, while BlackBerry’s gains so far this year earned it a top seed on its side. Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) beat Nokia, International Business Machines, and Facebook to reach the final. Apple beat Netflix, General Electric, and Bank of America.
Apple’s US-based chip development expanding in Florida, could be related to fingerprint tech (AppleInsider)
Analyst Ming-chi Kuo of KGI securities, who has a strong track record in predicting Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s future product plans, first reported in January that Apple plans to launch a so-called “iPhone 5S” this year with a fingerprint sensor featuring AuthenTec’s technology. According to Kuo, the sensor will be located under the home button on the handset, and it will allow users to bypass password entry and potentially authenticate e-wallet transactions. Apple’s new Software Engineer vacancy in Melbourne seeks a candidate that will write low-level control firmware for “sensor ICs” built at the Melbourne Design Center.
Confirmed: Apple Kicks AppGratis Out of the Store for Being Too Pushy (AllThingsD)
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has ousted a popular app-discovery application from its iTunes App Store, claiming the app circumvented App Store rules preventing applications promoting other apps and direct marketing. On Sunday, AppGratis, which promotes paid apps by offering one for free everyday, abruptly vanished from the App Store without explanation or comment from Apple.
When strange ads appear on Apple.com, without Apple knowing (CNET)
Would you, for example, want to see a banner ad from H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE:HRB) besmirching the pristine pages of Apple.com? This is allegedly what happened to computer science Ph.D. student Zack Henkel. As Ars Technica reports, Zenkel was bathing in the specs of a Mac Mini on Apple.com when strange things began to occur. Henkel describes on his own blog that he was suddenly faced with “a bright neon green banner advertisement proclaiming: ‘File For Free Online, H&R Block.’ I quickly deduced that either Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) had entered in to the worst cross-promotional deal ever, or my computer was infected with some type of malware. Unfortunately, I would soon discover there was…
…a third possibility, something much worse.”
Somersby’s cider takes a bite of Apple (Financial Times)
Cider is made of apples so it seems fitting that Somersby, the cider brand produced by Danish brewer Carlsberg, taps up the tech company Apple for an ad that is delighting viewers on YouTube. In a play on the queues of Apple fanboys that form outside the tech company’s stores, the ad shows lines of more homely types piling into an austere, Apple-style store.
German court says nein to Apple’s slide-to-unlock patent (The Register)
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s slide-to-unlock patent has been ruled invalid by a German court because it’s not really a “technological innovation” in the eyes of European patent law. The Bundespatentgericht (federal patent court) in Munich ruled that the famous patent is invalid because European law doesn’t allow for the patenting of software that doesn’t represent a “technical solution to a technical problem”, the Frankfurter Allgemeine (translated with the help of Google) reported.
Apple IPhone Estimate Raised at Canaccord on Old Model Sales (Bloomberg)
Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone sales topped some estimates in the fiscal second quarter amid strong demand for older models, according to Canaccord Genuity Inc., which raised its projection by 7.2 percent to 37 million units. For the fiscal third quarter, which ends in June, Apple will probably sell 27 million iPhones, up from a prior projection of 25 million, Michael Walkley, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity, wrote in a research report.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) and 10 Tech Stocks Analysts are Recommending (Insider Monkey)
We discussed how the widest gap between the mean target price per analyst consensus and actual stock price was at 44% for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), which was more than the gap for technology giants like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) or Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), for example. Well, things haven’t changed much since then and, in spite of a weaker undertone, Apple is still one of the most widely covered stocks on Wall Street, who are still giving exuberant target prices for the company.With targets between $360 and $888, the average target price comes to $591.19, which is still about 40% higher than its present market price.
Apple Rakes in the Most Mobile App Revenue: Study (CNBC)
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone may not be the most dominant smartphone worldwide, but the tech giant is killing its competitors when it comes to mobile app revenue, according to a recent study. In the first quarter, the iPhone maker accounted for 74 percent of the total revenue generated by the four leading app stores—which also include Google Play store, Microsoft’s Windows Phone store and BlackBerry World, according to the study by the analyst firm Canalys.
