iPod

Apple is ready to start a new chapter in the history of the iPod with a new leader for that group.

The company's selection of Mark Papermaster as the new head of iPod and iPhone hardware engineering points the way toward a more sophisticated future for Apple's mobile computers, as Apple has been hinting for over a year. The veteran chip and system designer will be tasked with overseeing the transformation of the iPod lineup from relatively simple music players to complex and powerful mobile devices, with the iPod Touch as the first example.

Longtime Apple executive Tony Fadell … Read more

Update 7:25 a.m. PST: Apple confirmed Tuesday morning that Fadell is stepping down, but says he plans to remain with the company as an adviser to CEO Steve Jobs.

One of the fathers of the iPod, Tony Fadell, is leaving Apple after seven years spent inside the division that changed the company's fortunes.

Fadell is to be replaced by former IBM executive Mark Papermaster, according to a report Monday night by The Wall Street Journal. CNET News first reported last week that Papermaster was set to leave IBM for a prominent position at Apple, although the nature … Read more

Last week some family members suffered a corrupted hard drive on their only PC. They had no backup. They're relatively light computer users--no online banking, no important business documents--but the lesson still hurts. Their e-mail contacts weren't too hard to recover--they simply called everybody they had regular e-mail contact with and told them to send an e-mail. Their digital photos are gone forever, unless emergency tech support courtesy of their son-in-law produces a miracle. And their music library?

That's one nice thing about having a large-capacity MP3 player: if you're lazy about backup, at least you … Read more

Updated at 9:33 a.m. PDT to correct navigation details. Updated at 1:29 p.m. PDT with screenshots.

Google Earth for iPhone isn't the only geographically significant news Monday for Apple phone users. It appears that the second beta version of the iPhone 2.2 firmware is out, and it includes not just Google's Street View, but also navigation instructions to give people step-by-step directions when walking or on the bus.

According to screenshots posted at iPhoneYap.com, the navigational instructions work for driving, walking, and the bus. Given Google's recent Google Maps improvements, I … Read more

Apple's fourth-quarter earnings conference call was made a bit more lively due to its unusual guest star: CEO Steve Jobs.

It's not unprecedented for Jobs to sit in on one of Apple's earnings calls, usually handled by COO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer, but it certainly is very rare. Jobs said he jumped on the call to help explain Apple's decision to shed a little more light on the contribution the iPhone makes to his company's finances, although there's probably more than one reason why he chose Tuesday to make his appearance.

The … Read more

A brief follow-up to my last post on the iPhone replacing the iPod as Apple's main vehicle for innovation. Look at the quarterly sales figures released Tuesday.

Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones in the quarter, well ahead of most estimates. (These guys were just about right.)

To try to get an idea what this means, I looked at last few quarterly earnings calls as reported on iLounge. Here are the iPhones sold each quarter since their introduction:

June 2007: 270,000 (It was only on sale for two days in this quarter.) September 2007: 1.1 million December 2007: … Read more

Updated throughout at 3:15 p.m. PT after Apple's conference call.

Apple's fourth-quarter profit soared past expectations on extremely strong sales of the iPhone, but revenue was a little light, and the company left itself a lot of wiggle room heading into what it called a "challenging" environment.

For the company's fourth fiscal quarter, or the period ended September 27, Apple reported revenue of $7.9 billion, compared with revenue of $6.2 billion in the same quarter last year. Net income was $1.14 billion, or earnings per share of $1.26. Analysts … Read more

Apple's fourth quarter should have survived the economic chaos currently rounding the globe, but what Wall Street will care about Tuesday afternoon is its outlook on the future.

Despite a few more product glitches than usual, it's been business as usual at Apple during the past three months: strong Mac growth and steady iPod sales, with the added bonus of soaring iPhone sales this time around. But the company finds itself in a much different economic environment than last time Apple held an earnings conference call in July.

Will consumers who just watched the value of their retirement … Read more

Apple continues to do well among some of the most fickle and influential consumers of technology: teenagers.

Piper Jaffray does a biannual survey on the purchasing habits of 769 teenagers as they related to devices like cell phones and music players, and released the results of the latest survey Tuesday. Not surprisingly, the market leader in portable digital music players is the market leader among high school students: 84 percent of those surveyed own an iPod, up from 82 percent last year.

The iPhone is also gaining ground, perhaps as a result of the new $199 entry fee to iPhoneland this year. … Read more