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Showing posts with label 2014 at 09:21PM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2014 at 09:21PM. Show all posts
The first Beats product to be released under Apple's guidance has been unveiled in documents recently submitted to the FCC, suggesting Apple will soon be releasing a pair of Beats Solo2 headphones that include wireless Bluetooth functionality.



As seen in diagrams, the design of the new wireless Solo2 headphones is nearly identical to Beats' existing Solo2 line. The Solo2 headphones are the company's newest product, released in May, just a day after Apple's Beats acquisition became official.



beatssolo2wirelessdocuments

The Beats Solo2 headphones will contain Bluetooth and BLE radios, allowing them to function wirelessly. Beats currently offers a wireless version of its more expensive Studio headphones, but its Solo2 line is somewhat more affordable. The company's current non-wireless Studio headphones retail for $300 while the wireless version retails for $379, suggesting Solo2 wireless headphones could sell for approximately $279 if it uses the same markup.



At $3 billion, Apple's Beats acquisition is its largest in history, and Beats' line of successful headphones was said to be one of the driving factors behind the purchase. Beats' aggressive marketing tactics and clever advertising campaigns have skyrocketed its headphones to popularity, and they are very popular with athletes and the younger demographic. A survey released shortly after the acquisition was finalized suggested that a large percentage of students believed Beats would make Apple more "cool."



The new Solo2 wireless headphones remain under FCC review for the time being and a potential release date is unknown.


















itunes.jpgDuring its financial results call covering the fourth fiscal quarter (third calendar quarter of 2014), Apple shared details on the success of its iTunes Store, which has become an increasingly important revenue source for the company in recent years, mainly due to the ever-growing popularity of the App Store.



$4.6 billion in revenue marks Apple's most successful iTunes quarter ever, up $2 billion from last year, and its $18 billion in revenue for 2014 is $2b higher than last year's $16 billion in total iTunes revenue.



According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple hit an all time high in App Store revenue, with growth of 36 percent compared to Q4 2013. Apple has seen cumulative app downloads of 85 billion, up 10 billion since July. Along with "tremendous" growth in the App Store, the iTunes Store saw all-time record billings, up 22 percent year over year.



Overall, Apple posted revenue of $42.1 billion and a net quarterly profit of $8.5 billion, or $1.42 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $37.5 billion and net quarterly profit of $7.5 billion ($1.01 per diluted share) in the year-ago quarter.


















Verizon Unlimited Data Throttling

Verizon Wireless on Wednesday announced that it is cancelling plans to throttle subscribers with grandfathered unlimited data plans. Back in July, the nation's top carrier had said it would being slowing data speeds for the top 5% of data users in congested areas, and the new policy was set to go into effect on October 1st. According to a statement released on Wednesday afternoon — the same day throttling was set to begin — Verizon will no longer take any measures to limit data speeds.


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BlackBerry CEO Chen Interim

Here's some very good news for BlackBerry: John Chen is now locked in as the company's long-term CEO. The New York Times reports that BlackBerry has removed the "interim" tag from Chen's title and has now made him its official CEO. This means that the company is no longer actively looking for another CEO as a BlackBerry representative tells the Times that Chen has pledged to stay with BlackBerry "until the company is back on solid financial footing." Trying to turn around BlackBerry will certainly be a full-time job that will require someone fully committed to seeing it through. Chen has pledged to refocus the company's efforts on making enterprise-centric devices and services while letting manufacturer Foxconn handle production of consumer handsets that will be targeted at emerging markets.


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