Apple introduces slimmer iPad, 'Pay' launch on Monday

Apple Inc's faster, slimmer iPads come with modest improvements, such as a fingerprint sensor, but some analysts say it offers few other features to wow consumers ahead of a holiday shopping season expected to be swamped by mobile devices.

At a launch event on Thursday, Chief Executive Tim Cook called Apple's new line-up, which includes a new iMac computer with a "5K retina" or high-end display, the company's best ever.

But analysts say Apple may struggle to arouse the same passion for its tablets as in past years among consumers faced with an abundance of hand-held, touch-screen devices.

"I've got to be honest and say, the only impressive thing was the 5K retina display on the iMac," said Gartner analyst Van Baker, who attended the show at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California.

"The other things we saw (included) just iterative improvements on the iPad."

Marketing chief Phil Schiller called the larger tablet the world's slimmest and described several new features such as an anti-reflective screen.

He also confirmed the inclusion of the "Touch ID" sensor, already available on the latest iPhones.

Pre-orders start Friday for the larger iPad Air 2, priced at $499 and up, with shipping beginning next week.

The smaller iPad mini 3 will be about $100 cheaper.

The new iMac, which sports the new "Yosemite" operating system, will go for $2,499.

Tablet sales are set to rise only 11 percent this year, according to tech research firm Gartner, compared to 55 percent last year, even as smartphone sales continue to soar and personal computer sales are waning.

Defining moment

Tablet sales for Apple, which defined the category with the iPad just four years ago, have fallen for two straight quarters.

Investors remain focused on the iPhone, Apple's main revenue generator, but a prolonged downturn in iPad sales would threaten about 15 percent of the company's revenue.

The new iPads will go up against recently introduced tablets from Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc in coming months.

Shares of Apple slid 1 percent to $96.57 shortly before the close.

Apple also said it will launch its new electronic payments service on Monday, after the iPhone maker signed up another 500 banks to support a feature that competes with eBay Inc's PayPal and other online systems.

Cook said developers were beginning to design apps for its upcoming Watch.

Apple last month introduced the Watch, its first new device since the iPad in 2010.

The company's entry into the rapidly expanding wearable computing arena will be available only from 2015, but Cook said software development kits for the device will be available from November.

Missing on Thursday was a larger, 12-inch-plus iPad, the subject of industry speculation ahead of Apple's event.

"It is disappointing, particularly to enterprise buyers, that there wasn't a 12.9 inch iPad model," said Forrester Research analyst JP Gownder.

"To return iPad to high growth, form factor innovation will be required. We'll have to wait until 2015 to see if Apple addresses this issue."

Apple's iPhone sales beat Street but iPad volumes slide

Apple Inc forecast a strong holiday quarter after a better-than-expected 16 percent jump in iPhone sales, and the strongest growth in Mac computer shipments in years helped the company surpass Wall Street's targets.

The company on Monday projected stronger-than-expected revenue of $63.5 billion to $66.5 billion in the December quarter, when new iPads and iPhones vie with rival devices from Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc for consumers' holiday outlays.

Shares of Apple rose 1.3 percent to about $101.10 in after-hours trade.

But sales of the iPad, which helped launch the mainstream tablet market in 2010, slid for the third straight quarter. A gradual decline in tablet demand worldwide has worried investors already concerned with Apple's slowing growth, who are awaiting a new device that can energize its expansion.

Sales of Apple's tablet slid more than 7 percent from the previous quarter to 12.3 million units, and were down 13 percent from the year-ago period.

Some investors hope that Apple's recently forged alliance with International Business Machines Corp, intended to drive tablet and phone sales to corporate customers, may help reverse a decline in sales of the tablet device.

Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said in an interview that the pair of tech giants had already signed on 50 "foundational" or initial clients, and the two intend to introduce their first jointly designed software apps next month.

"The level of interest from the corporate world has been incredible," Maestri said.

WAX AND WANE

Apple's fortunes, however, still largely hinge on the iPhone, which accounts for half its business, and the company's ability to again re-define markets with new technology gadgets. The Apple Watch, the company's entry in the nascent wearables category, will not hit store shelves till 2015.

Orders for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus began in September, helping Apple chalk up a 12.2 percent jump in revenue last quarter to $42.12 billion. That exceeded the roughly $39.9 billion that Wall Street analysts had predicted, on average.

The new iPhone, which comes in larger sizes and a heftier price tag, marks Apple's best product launch on record. That helped push overall smartphone sales to 39.27 million in the September quarter, beating the roughly 38 million some on Wall Street had anticipated.

Maestri said in an interview that the new iPhones, which went on sale just last week in China, had already surpassed the previous-generation model in terms of volume.

The company also posted the strongest percentage growth in Mac sales, of 21 percent to 5.5 million units, since the December quarter of 2011.

New app for word lovers

Dictionary.com has consolidated all its premium dictionaries into one app for book lovers.

The service, which was originally launched in 1995, is celebrating Dictionary Day this year by giving the app a massive overhaul, technology website CNET reported.

"We are adding some of our most popular content to the premium Dictionary.com app which already includes two million entries in its standard dictionary," Michele Turner, CEO of Dictionary.com, was quoted as saying.

Previously, the Dictionary.com app offered a range of specialist dictionaries - slang, medical, science and rhyming dictionaries.

The services also include example sentences, a translator with over 20 languages, grammar and tips, idioms and phrases and an encyclopaedia.

The app can be downloaded free from Apple stores.

Facebook has no near-term plan to monetise WhatsApp: CEO

Facebook Inc, which closed its acquisition of mobile messaging service WhatsApp on Monday, has no near-term plan to make money from the service, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday.

Zuckerberg, who is visiting India to participate in an event to boost Internet usage, did not give details.

Facebook's final WhatsApp acquisition price tag has risen an additional $3 billion to roughly $22 billion because of the increased value of Facebook's stock in recent months.

WhatsApp works across different types of phones, across borders, and without advertising.

The app only charges a 99 cent annual subscription fee, which is waived for the first year.

BlackBerry set to launch Passport as turnaround enters critical phase

BlackBerry is set to launch an unconventional new smartphone dubbed the Passport on Wednesday, as it embarks on potentially the most critical phase of its long turnaround.

The one-time smartphone industry pioneer recently concluded a three-year long restructuring process and has largely halted the bleed, but it is now up to Chief Executive John Chen to prove that the company's new devices and services are capable of generating sustainable new streams of revenue and returning it to profitability.

"BlackBerry is still fighting for survival. They still need to turn around and develop a viable ongoing business model," said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello.

"Their products are certainly pointing toward that and the new strategy makes sense, but there is still a lot of execution risk at this point in a very competitive market."

BlackBerry is set to launch the Passport early on Wednesday in Toronto, with simultaneous events also being held in London and Dubai.

The launch of the Passport, which boasts a big square screen and a unique touch-sensitive tactile keyboard, will kick off a frenzied spell for Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry.

The company is set to report fiscal second-quarter results on Friday and within a couple of months it is also expected to launch the long-awaited BlackBerry Classic, which bears similarities to its once wildly popular Bold smartphone.

"BlackBerry just needs one hit phone for now," Colello said. "It doesn't quite matter whether it is the Passport, the Classic or anything else, but they do need one device to jump-start the hardware business again. The big question really is whether any of these devices will kick-start it."

The company is hoping the Classic and the launch of its new mobile device management system -BlackBerry Enterprise Service 12 (BES12) - will help it claw back ground ceded to rivals in both the hardware and services market.

The BES 12 platform will allow IT managers at large firms and government agencies to not only manage and secure BlackBerry devices, but also all Android, iOS and Windows-based devices on one platform.

Chen, a well-regarded turnaround expert in the tech sector, intends to remain a competitor in the smartphone arena, but is focused on reshaping the company to build on its core strengths in areas like mobile data security and mobile device management.

BlackBerry is betting that the enhanced security features on its BES 12 platform, coupled with a range of value-added services, will help revive revenue growth and stem its slide.

"BES12 is the most important product launch, as it is needed to stem the service revenue decline," Scotiabank analyst Daniel Chan said in a note to clients on Tuesday.

Apple delays production of larger iPad: WSJ

Apple Inc suppliers have delayed the production of a larger iPad to early next year, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The suppliers had planned to start producing the larger screen tablet in mass volume beginning in December, but have been struggling to produce enough new iPhones to keep up with demand, the WSJ said.

Foxconn Technology Co Ltd, which assembles iPhones and iPads, has 200,000 workers in China already putting together new iPhones and making items such as metal casings, the Journal said.

Apple is expected to launch the new iPads at an event on Oct 16.

Asian suppliers expect Apple's larger tablet to have a 12.9-inch liquid-crystal-display screen with a resolution similar to the iPad Air launched in October last year, the WSJ said.

Data research firm IDC said in August that it expected tablet sales to slow globally in 2014.

Apple was not immediately available for comment.

The company said it sold more than 10 million of its new iPhones in the first weekend they were available in September.

Google to launch own mobile chat app: Economic Times

Software giant Google Inc plans to launch a mobile messaging app it is likely to test in India and other emerging markets, the Economic Times newspaper reported on Friday, citing sources.

The daily said Google was in the early stages of development of the app, which will not make it mandatory to use a Google login.

If launched, the mobile app will compete in the mobile chat space with the likes of WhatsApp, Line and Hike.

The Mountain View, California-based company is also looking at localisation, by adding Indian language support and voice-to-text messaging, the newspaper said.

A Google spokeswoman said the company did not comment on speculation.