Apple Is in India for Next Thousand Years: Tim Cook

“I am looking at India holistically and we are here for the next thousand years,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said on Friday, adding that he instantly feels like he belongs here in India.

 

In an interview given to the news channel NDTV, Cook said: “India is much more strategic. We are thinking about a really long innings in the country. We are here for next thousand years. We are not making the most but the best. We will never make a product that we are not proud of.”

“Apple has a bright future for retail in India. We will sell pre-owned phones with new warranty,” he added.

When asked about China, Cook said: “India is different than China,” adding that the announcement about Apps development facility in Bengaluru and Maps Development Centre in Hyderabad were just the beginning.

Speaking on the importance of 4G, he said that “you will see a reliable signal quality after 4G which is critical for India’s progress”.

“We are planning to bring Apple Pay to India,” he added. Apple Pay is a mobile payment and digital wallet service that lets users make payments through Apple devices.

“There is nothing like having customers telling neighbours you should buy Apple products. Word of mouth is the best marketing,” Cook observed.

Earlier, Cook who arrived in New Delhi after watching an Indian Premier League (IPL) match in Kanpur on Thursday, began the Delhi leg of his four-day India visit with a call at his corporate office where he was greeted by Apple India employees.

Defying the scorching heat, Cook later on Friday afternoon visited an Apple store situated at DLF Galleria, Gurgaon.

“I went to one store in the morning and I was very happy what I had seen there,” he told NDTV.

Cook watched the IPL match between Gujarat Lions and Kolkata Knight Riders at Kanpur on Thursday. He arrived at the Green Park stadium on the invitation of IPL chairman and Congress leader Rajeev Shukla.

The atmosphere at the IPL match, Cook said, was “exciting”.

“It’s tough to watch in this heat. But it’s exciting to watch cricket,” he told IPL’s official broadcaster Sony Six channel during an interview at the ground.

Talking about his overall experience being in India, Cook said: “It’s hugely important and the talent here is incredible. It’s unbelievable being here.”

Cook is slated to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi this weekend.

 

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

China Ban on Apple Services Is a Challenge for Key Growth Area

The blocking of Apple mobile entertainment services in China poses fresh challenges for the tech company as it prepares to report its first-ever drop in iPhone sales.

 

The news on Thursday that Apple Inc’s online book and film services had gone dark in China came at a vulnerable moment for the company. Apple executives have said that iPhone sales will fall for the first time in the company’s second quarter, and the results for that quarter will be released on Tuesday. Investors are sensitive to any signs of trouble in Greater China, the company’s second-largest market by revenue.

Apple executives have flagged the growing services business as a potential source of revenue as sales of the company’s flagship devices level off, upping the stakes for success in China, said analyst Bob O’Donnell of TECHnalysis Research.

“It raises questions in an area that we know long-term is going to be very strategically important to Apple,” he said.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that a state regulator demanded Apple halt the service. The move came after Beijing introduced regulations in March imposing strict curbs on online publishing, particularly for foreign firms.

Still, the outage is only troubling if it persists, O’Donnell said. Apple said in a statement on Thursday that it hopes to make the services available to customers in China as soon as possible.

Apple has a strong track record of working with officials in China, where it has launched a series of services including mobile payment Apple Pay, but some analysts questioned whether the company may receive a chillier reception in the future.

“Is this the beginning of more pressure on Apple by the Chinese government?” asked analyst of Frank Gillett of research firm Forrester. “It’s a symbolic turn, and the question is to what extent is it a harbinger.”

The company released its book and movie services in China only late last year, leaving Chinese consumers little time to form a habit.

“People who are buying iPhones in China aren’t buying them for iTunes,” said O’Donnell. “They are buying it for the status and the cachet of owning an Apple product, and that is really more about the hardware.”

Chinese consumers’ appetite for the phones themselves will be critical to quarterly earnings. Apple is expected to post its first-ever quarterly drop in iPhone sales, to about 50 million units, reflecting a saturated global market.

Wall Street expects adjusted earnings per share to drop 14 percent to $2.00 and revenue to drop 10 percent to $52.0 billion (roughly Rs. 3,46,634 crores), according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

 
Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

Mark Zuckerberg Makes Surprise Appearance at Samsung Galaxy S7 Launch

Smartphone rivals Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and LG Electronics Inc unveiled their latest flagship devices on Sunday, seeking to revive sales momentum and buck slowing industry growth.

Phone makers face another tough year in 2016 as subdued global growth and persisting currency weakness in key emerging markets sap consumers’ spending power. A push by Chinese manufacturers to expand overseas amid slowing growth in their domestic market may also undercut margins further.

In a bid to recapture market share, Samsung launched two new versions of its Galaxy S smartphones and brought in Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg for a surprise appearance to tout the potential of virtual reality, prompting hundreds of people to rush to the stage to record the moment.

LG, which lost money from its mobile business last year as its flagship products struggled, introduced a modular design to its new G5 smartphones that allows users to replace or upgrade functions such as camera and audio independently.

It also launched a virtual reality headset and accessories including a drone controller to pair with the G5.

Analysts and investors cheered LG’s features, which they said were different enough to possibly revive sales, but were lukewarm about Samsung’s offerings, saying they only featured incremental upgrades.

“I think it’s possible for LG’s mobile business to recover on its new product launch, since they delivered significant changes with the G5,” said Seoul-based HDC Asset Management fund manager Park Jung-hoon.

“The Galaxy S7, however, doesn’t seem to be creating as much buzz,” Park said.

Samsung shares were down 1.3 percent as of 2:12am GMT, underperforming a 0.2 percent fall for the broader market, while LG shares were up 3 percent.

Revamps could prove key to smartphone makers as 2016 shapes up to be another tough year: researcher TrendForce expects the smartphone market growth to slow to 8.1 percent from 10.3 percent a year earlier.

Margin pressures are also expected to intensify for the industry as Chinese manufacturers seek to expand overseas to counter slowing domestic demand.

Samsung on Saturday said its mobile payments service, Samsung Pay, will launch in China in March, a month after Apple launched its Apple Pay service in the world’s biggest smartphone market.

The company fell out of the top five in the world’s top smartphone market last year but hopes that its easy-to-use payments service will help it regain sales momentum.

“The challenge you have got in the smartphone market is breaking through all that sameness. From a design and functionality perspective, everything looks and feels the same,” said Bob O’Donnell, president of Technalysis Research.

“So the challenge is finding things that stick out.”

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

Samsung to Expand Mobile Payments to New Countries, Smartwatches

South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Wednesday it will launch its mobile payments service in three additional countries, as well as introducing the system on its Gear S2 smartwatches.

Samsung, through an official Twitter account, said Samsung Pay is “coming soon” to Australia, Brazil and Singapore. The service launched last year in South Korea and the United States with plans to enter other markets including China, Spain and Britain.

Samsung is hoping the payments service will set its phones apart from competing devices, helping the firm protect market share against rivals including Apple Inc and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and compel users to pay a bit more for the convenience.

In a separate statement Samsung said its Gear S2 smartwatches will start supporting Samsung Pay in South Korea and the United States in early 2016. The watches will soon be compatible with Apple devices, the firm said without elaborating.

Samsung has reported a strong response to Samsung Pay in its home country and the United States, though the service does not generate revenue on its own for Samsung. An early advantage for Samsung Pay is its compatibility with magnetic stripe card readers already in wide use among retailers.

In comparison, Apple’s competing service – Apple Pay – requires retailers to install new equipment supporting near-field communication technology.

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

Samsung Pay to Support Online Shopping, Wider Range of Devices in 2016

Samsung Electronics Co plans to expand its fledgling mobile payment service in the United States next year, allowing users to shop online and with more smartphones that support the electronic wallet.

Lower-priced Samsung phones will likely start offering the mobile wallet “within the next year,” Thomas Ko, global co-general manager of Samsung Pay, said in an interview. The service debuted in South Korea on just a handful of high-end Samsung phones, including the Galaxy Note 5, the Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6, and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus.

Wider “handset availability of Samsung Pay as well as online payment support is coming soon,” he said late last week.

He did not comment on which other countries Samsung Pay would expand to.

Samsung Pay has already scored a lead over its major rivals Apple and Android, by launching its US service on September 28 with technology that is widely used at most stores. Apple Pay and Alphabet Inc’s Android Pay require retailers to install new equipment.

By accepting payments online, Samsung Pay will compete with established rival PayPal Holdings Inc, as well as newcomers such as Visa Inc’s Visa Checkout.

Mobile wallets have struggled to find favor in the United States, which has also been slower than Europe and Asia to adopt technologies such as credit cards embedded with microchips.

Samsung Pay is already the most widely accepted mobile wallet in the United States because it is compatible with new and older credit card terminals and do not require any special arrangements with retailers, Ko said. For instance, shoppers at Wal-Mart Stores Inc or Target Corp can pay by just waving their smartphones with the app.

By contrast, Apple Pay, launched in September 2014, requires retailers to install new equipment that supports near-field communication (NFC) compatible with its service, which has hindered wider acceptance, consultants said.

“For Samsung, moving online could be a smart move,” James Wester, research director, global payments, at IDC Financial Insights, said. “It will help them build customer habit and they can benefit from that when US consumers transact in stores.”

While Samsung Pay is the most widely accepted mobile wallet, customer adoption remains a hurdle because many shoppers find it is not worth the trouble to use the service when swiping a credit card is just as easy, he noted.

Samsung Pay had an average of eight transactions per US user within the first four weeks of its launch, the company said in October.

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

After Apple Pay, Samsung Pay Joins China’s UnionPay: Report

South Korea’s top tech firm Samsung Electronics Co. on Friday joined China’s credit card operator UnionPay Co. to promote mobile payment system in the Chinese market.

Under the deal, the two firms will aim to release Samsung Pay in the first half of 2016, Yonhap news agency reported.

Samsung Pay supports magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology that works on traditional credit card machines.

Like rivals Apple Pay and Android Pay, it also supports near field communication (NFC) technology that requires a separate transaction device.

(Also see: Apple Pay to Launch in China in Early 2016)

The company plans to commence the service as soon as the Chinese government finishes its certification processes.

In July, Samsung Pay also clinched a deal with MasterCard Inc. to pave the way for the platform to be used in all European countries.

Samsung Electronics currently plans to secure 170 million users of Samsung Pay by 2020.

In line with the efforts, Samsung released the new Galaxy A budget smartphones this month that supported Samsung Pay. Previously, the services were available for only high-end models.

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

Apple Pay Growth Slows a Year After Launch: Report

Apple Inc’s mobile wallet Apple Pay is winning over more US households a year after its launch, but growth has slowed, research released on Monday showed.

Fourteen percent of US households with credit cards had signed up for the payment option by the end of September, up from 11 percent in February, Phoenix Marketing International said at a payments conference in Las Vegas.

“A very rapid initial threshold was achieved by Apple Pay and it is still growing but the growth rate has slowed down,” said Greg Weed, director of card performance research at Phoenix.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment, but noted that a company statement in early October cited “double digit monthly growth in Apple Pay transactions” since its launch.

About 48 percent of Gen Xers, in their mid-30s to mid-50s, use Apple Pay, compared with 42 percent of millennials, aged 21 to 34, Phoenix said.

Among Apple Pay users, 86 percent have linked their credit cards to make a purchase, 49 percent consumers use their debit cards and 22 percent use different types of prepaid cards, the report showed.

Phoenix said it has been researching Apple Pay since its launch in October 2014, with a group of 15,000 consumers.

In June, two-thirds of the top 100 US retailers told Reuters they did not plan to accept Apple Pay this year.

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

Apple Pay Faces Consumer Indifference in First Year

Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has called 2015 the “year of Apple Pay.” So far it’s been underwhelming.

The mobile-payments system, which marks its one-year anniversary this month, has failed to catch on with consumers, accounting for only 1 percent of all retail transactions in the United States, according to researcher Aite Group. The service which allows users to pay for purchases by tapping their iPhone or Apple Watch on a device at cash registers has suffered from a lack of promotion and limited number of terminals available in stores. Plus Apple Pay is only available on newer iPhones.

“People don’t know why it is they’d use Apple Pay,” said Jared Schrieber, CEO of InfoScout, a shopper-research firm. “They are satisfied with the current methods and they don’t know how Apple Pay works.”

Apple, which relies on new products to sustain growth, entered a nascent market when it introduced its mobile-payments system last year. A similar feature had been available in Google’s smartphones through Wallet since 2011, yet adoption was anemic, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Like most things Apple, expectations were high for the payment service, which was seen as a potential rival to PayPal.

In January, Cook spoke of “momentum” for Apple Pay, which, he said, was “off to a very strong start” and being implemented by banks, credit unions and numerous merchants.

Competitors have followed Samsung Pay and Google’s Android Pay were both introduced this year but the consumer hasn’t yet. Merchants who adopted the system say that demand has been tepid.

Take Panera Bread, one of the retail locations where Apple Pay debuted last October. The service accounts for “low single digits” of the restaurant chain’s in-store transactions, said Blaine Hurst, Panera’s chief transformation and growth officer. It represents about 20 percent of transactions on Panera’s iOS app, which lets patrons place orders right from their phones, Hurst said. Customers can use certain iPhones and iPads to pay in apps.

At the Firehouse Subs chain, which introduced Apple Pay in January, the service makes up about 2 percent of all transactions, said Vince Burchianti, chief financial officer of Firehouse of America.

“Apple is just not even pushing it out,” Burchianti said.

Several surveys back up the anecdotal evidence. More than 75 percent of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users hadn’t tried the service as of April, according to a Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. In June, 13 percent of 1,500 people surveyedby InfoScout and Pymnts.com said they tried Apple Pay.

A more recent, smaller survey of 500 iPhone users published in July by Auriemma Consulting Group did find that 42 percent of the respondents used it for in-app and in-store purchases.

“We’re off to a great start and we are seeing continued, double-digit monthly growth in Apple Pay transactions since launch,” Apple said in an emailed statement.

There are indeed signs that demand will pick up in the next few years as Apple and rivals like Samsung ramp up advertising campaigns for their mobile-payment services.

More people will own the iPhones that enable Apple Pay the 6, 6 Plus introduced a year ago and their recent upgrades. Apple Pay is also the most popular mobile-payments service available to iPhone users, so once consumers become more comfortable making purchases with a swipe of their smartphone, Apple will have a large and captive audience.

“It’s going to grow reasonably slowly for the next three to five years, and then we are going to see a ‘hockey stick,'” a sudden surge, said Thad Peterson, an analyst at Boston-based Aite.

Apple will get some help this fall as more retail stores install terminals that accept Apple Pay. Credit-card networks have set an October deadline for most merchants to upgrade their systems to comply with a chip-based smart card standard known as EMV for Europay-MasterCard-Visa. Those terminals, right now installed in less than a quarter of U.S. stores, also accept mobile-payment systems like Apple Pay.

The switch to chip-based cards from magnetic-stripe cards in the U.S. may also accelerate Apple Pay’s adoption. Because the EMV chip cards must stay inserted in in-store payment terminals for the duration of each transaction, instead of being swiped, checkout times may be longer and the process more cumbersome. It could push consumers to embrace mobile payments and Apple Pay.

“The inconvenience will drive more adoption,” said Hurst, the Panera executive.

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

iOS 9 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch to Release on September 16

Apple at its Wednesday event announced the new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus smartphones alongside the new iPad Pro and iPad mini 4. The company revealed the much-anticipated new Apple TV with refreshed features and the new Hermes collection of Apple Watch.

During the keynote, Apple also announced the availability date for iOS 9, the latest mobile operating system powering its iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices, which will be available for users to download and install from September 16. The iOS 9 update will be available to iPhone 4s and later, iPod touch fifth generation and later, iPad 2 and later, and iPad mini and later. The Cupertino-based giant also stated that some features of the new OS may not be available in all regions or in all languages.

Some of the major highlights of the new iOS 9 are the intelligent and proactive search apart from the improved Siri features. The new update finally brings the much-awaited split-screen multitasking to the iPad.

iOS 9 learns from your habits and routines and will suggest actions, apps and other bits of information based on them. Apple at WWDC had detailed that the new proactive assistance will offer users the most relevant information at a given time of day and will suggest actions at that particular moment based on the apps used frequently.

The voice-based virtual assistant Siri has received an all-new design, contextual reminders based on time and location, and new ways to search photos and videos. Siri will be able to process granular contextual cues as well. Spotlight is now proactive, with a full-screen interface that shows suggested contacts (again based on patterns), apps that users likely require, localised news snippets, and places of interest nearby.

iOS 9, according to Apple, will improve the overall iPad experience for users. The Split View multitasking feature has been designed specifically for iPad and comes with a new app switcher interface that lets iPad uses run two apps side by side. The new Slide Over feature lets users simultaneously work on a second app without leaving the one being used currently and easily switch between apps. The new Picture-in-Picture feature lets users continue a video or FaceTime call while using an app.

iOS 9 brings many built-in apps including the redesigned Notes app, which will allows users to draw sketches with their fingers, create checklists, and even save important items in the Notes app; an all-new News app comes with a new design of a print magazine that can learn users’ interests and suggest relevant content; Apple Pay in the meanwhile has received new capabilities including support to discover, merchant rewards programs and shoppers will now be able to manage their cards in the new Wallet app, and support for transit in Maps, which now shows metropolitan transit systems and schedules

Commenting on the announcement, Craig Federighi, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, said, “iOS 9 is packed with intelligence that makes every experience with iPhone and iPad even more powerful – Siri can do more than ever and new proactive assistance helps you get more done before you ask, all while protecting users’ privacy. With iOS 9 we focused on strengthening the foundation of iOS with a deep focus on quality, and with the help of more than one million users who participated in our first ever public beta program, we’re excited to release the best version of iOS yet.”

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

Apple Pay Set to Be Introduced in Britain This Summer: Report

Apple is planning to introduce its mobile payment system, Apple Pay, to Britain this summer, The Telegraph reported on Saturday, citing industry sources.
Apple is expected to make the announcement on Monday in San Francisco at its annual conference for developers, WWDC, the paper said.

It quoted the sources as saying the company had been in talks with banks and retailers about the project since last year.

A spokeswoman at Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Telegraph said the iPhone already contains a wireless microchip similar to those found in contactless payment cards, which will allow Apple Pay users to pay by waving the handset over a terminal to pay.

Transport for London, the paper said, was already accepting Apple Pay from American tourists.

Apple at WWDC is also expected to announce enhancements to Apple Pay, including adding the ability to track rewards program information.

Reuters recently surveyed 100 US retailers. Eighty-five supplied detailed responses, and 11 others supplied information only about whether or not they accept Apple Pay. Two did not respond.

While some of the country’s top merchants said they use and like the mobile payment system, fewer than a quarter of the retailers said they currently accept Apple Pay, and nearly two-thirds of the chains said categorically they would not be accepting it this year. Only four companies said they have plans to join the program in the next year.

The top reasons retailers cited for not accepting Apple Pay were insufficient customer demand, a lack of access to data generated in Apple Pay transactions and the cost of technology to facilitate the payments. Some merchants said they were holding out because they plan to participate in a new mobile payment system to be launched by a coalition of retailers later this year.

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)