Macworld Expo host IDG still expects Apple chief Steve Jobs to keynote 2009's San Francisco show despite unusual silence on the matter. Apple, meanwhile, now has little to fear from Amazon's music store a year later. NPD also data shows Mac sales continuing to grow.
Although Macs and iPhones were seen as Apple's ticket to a healthy holiday quarter, the electronics maker has reportedly been struck by surprising demand for iPods and is now scurrying to restock some of its reseller channels.
While Apple on Friday announced modest price cuts on a handful of Macs for its 24 hour sale, several of the company's authorized resellers have stepped up to offer much steeper discounts, including OnSale.com and ClubMac, which have cut $200 off some unibody MacBooks and $300 off some unibody MacBook Pros. Our pricing matrix (below) highlights the best deals on each of the 16 current Mac models.
In addition to its 66% off sale on Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, Amazon has slashed prices on a range of digital cameras and HD camcorders, GPS navigators, hard drives, flash drives, blu-ray players, LCD displays, and movies.
A handful of Mac software developers are offering special savings for Black Friday, including Parallels, Intuit, and Adobe. The deepest discount comes from Microsoft, which has cut the price of Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition by $330, bringing the cost down to $169.99.
Apple is in talks with three of the "big four" record labels about offering music tracks through iTunes that would be made available in MP3 AAC format without copy protection measures, a move that could further distance the digital download service from its rivals.
Years-old rumors that Apple will roll out a line of Internet-connected displays have resurfaced in reports that suggest the company will bundle its Apple TV product within a new line of HDTVs.
Yahoo did its best to stage a rival to Apple Inc.'s iTunes, but after three years of lagging results, the Internet icon is putting its Yahoo! Music service to rest and leaving subscribers with copy-protected music libraries that can't be transfered to new computers.
Industry heavyweights Amazon and Sony are aligning to take on the combination of Apple's iTunes and Apple TV set-top-box with a new Amazon-powered video on demand service that will see embedded support on all future Sony Bravia HDTV sets.
In a direct challenge to Apple's dominant iTunes Store, music subscription service provider Napster on Tuesday launched a new a la carte download service filled with DRM-free tracks that are compatible with both the iPod and iPhone.
Much of Amazon's early success in digital music sales has come by way of customers who have never tried Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store, a sign of broader growth potential within the music download business.
Planned purchases of Macs should buck a drop in computer spending created by a poor economy, according to a new study. Meanwhile, Digg's chief now claims to have additional evidence of a 3G iPhone, Amazon's music store is catching up to iTunes, ASUS' Eee PC has gained multi-touch, and Apple has updated a security fix for Aperture users.
The most obvious new feature of Apple TV is its ability to rent iTunes movies, including a new selection of HD flicks that turned up on the iTunes Store in the last 48 hours. Here's a look at how Apple's rental solution prices out against rival services in terms of prolonged cost, as well as a comparison of picture quality of Apple's HD downloads when viewed side-by-side against other high-def content sources such as HD Cable and Blu-ray.
In a bid to bolster its status as a premier distributor of digital content, online mega-retailer Amazon.com said Thursday it has reached an agreement to acquire spoken content provider and Apple iTunes partner Audible.com.
Apple is once again hinting of a surprise in store for its Macworld San Francisco keynote. Also, Netflix's new unlimited movie streams may take on Apple movie rentals, and Pepsi aims to repeat its Superbowl 2004 music giveaway in 2008 — but with Amazon, not Apple.
Landing what may be one of the most significant blows yet against Apple's iTunes, Amazon on Thursday said it would carry Sony BMG's music — providing the download service with unprotected music from all four major music labels while Apple claims only one.
Record labels are remaining on the offensive when it comes to battling iPod maker Apple Inc. for revenue share in the digital music business, with word spreading that Sony BMG will soon join the ranks of other major labels in offering its catalog through some online retailers stripped of copy protection measures.
Warner Music Group dealt Apple Inc. a symbolic blow on Thursday by announcing it would sell its first unprotected music through Amazon MP3 instead of iTunes. However, one financial group is more positive and expects Apple stock at $600 in 18 months.
Apple is the only portable media player maker left unscathed by a drop in sales during this year's holidays, according to an NPD study. Also, the MacBook is crowning Amazon's bestselling computer charts as Christmas approaches.
Amazon's new Kindle ebook reader is billed as the iPod for digital reading. Will it inspire a new era of mainstream electronic reading, just service a dedicated niche of hard core readers, or simply fizzle out into failure? We put the new device through its paces to find out.
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Aidan Malley
Katie Marsal
AppleInsider Staff
Sam Oliver
Prince McLean
Daniel Eran Dilger
