12/26/2013 Apple will soon struggle to attract new iPhone buyers.

          An interesting new report from Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi suggests that Apple might be on the cusp of seeing a drop in new iPhone buyers.

The news doesn't suggest a drop in the popularity of the iPhone. Rather, many people already have one, so Apple will soon be selling more devices to upgraders rather than new iPhone customers. According to Sacconaghi, the percentage of "net new iPhone customers" is set to shrink approximately 13 per cent between 2012 and 2013, dropping from 62 per cent to just around 54 per cent.

Going forward, those numbers will drop to 37 per cent in 2014 and a mere 28 per cent in 2015. Concurrently, iPhone "replacement" purchases will jump up to nearly three quarters of everything Apple's selling by 2015.

"Barring a signed contract with China Mobile (CHL) or an iPhone priced to sell to the developing world, there is a slim margin of error that Apple will attract sufficient first-time iPhone buyers going forward to meet consensus forecasts for [fiscal year 2014 and 2015]," Sacconaghi wrote, according to ZDNet.

So, what's the problem? It's not that Apple's suddenly going to go belly up with its iPhone sales; that's not the issue at stake. However, the raw figures do paint a pretty simple picture. According to Sacconaghi, around 1.25 billion people can afford a smartphone like an iPhone sans carrier subsidies; of these, around 800 million already own a smartphone.

     "It is imperative that Apple look to address the lower end of the smartphone market, where we see five times the number of first-time smartphone buyers over the next two years. Even though there may be 100 million to 150 million new high-end smartphone users annually over the next two years, there will be about 500 million new low-end smartphone users annually over the next two years, or about four times the new user total addressable market,"Sacconaghi wrote, according to Forbes.

The iPhone 5C was supposed to be Apple's low-cost device for emerging markets, but it ended up being a colorful replacement for the iPhone 5, and not exactly affordable.

Meanwhile, when the number of new iPhone users stagnates, the content on the iTunes Store also suffers. Once a pretty significant majority of iPhone users are up and running with their typical shopping habits, a smaller number of new iPhone users won't be able to add that much activity with their app, music, and video purchases. In other words, the iTunes Store begins to plateau; content sales start to slow down a bit.

Things could improve if Apple can officially tap into China Mobile's 700 million or so customers, but so far, there have been rumors but no official announcements.

Source : ITProPotal

6/11/2011 Cell phones - Hackers Next Target!

Cell phones - Hackers Next Target!

It was bound to happen - they have hacked just about everything else. Now it's the cell phones. Cellphone hacking has just recently surfaced and been made public ever since some one did some cellular phone hacking on Paris Hilton's cell phone.

This article will give you some information about what is going on out there and what you can do to better protect your cell phone information.

What Does It Involve

The fact of someone hacking cell phone became public knowledge when Paris Hilton's cell phone, along with her information was recently hacked. Unfortunately for her, all her celebrity friends and their phone numbers were also placed on the Internet - resulting in a barrage of calls to each of them.

Cell phone hackers have apparently found a glitch in the way the chips are manufactured. The good news, though, is that it only applies to the first generation models of cell phones that use the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM). Another requirement is that the hacker must have physical access to the cell phone for at least three minutes - which is a real good reason not to let it out of your sight. Currently, although the problem has been remedied (at least for now) in the second and third generation phones, it seems that about 70% of existing cell phones fall within the first generation category.

Another way that mobile phone hacking can take place is for a hacker to walk around an area with people that have cell phones and a laptop that has cellphone hacker programs on it. Through an antenna, and a little patience, his computer can literally pick up your cell phone data - if it is turned on. This is more applicable to cell phones that use Bluetooth technology.

What Can A Hacker Do?

Surprisingly, there are quite a number of things that can be accomplished by the hacker. Depending on their intent here are a few of them.

• Steal Your Number

  Your phone number can be accessed and obtained by cellphone hacking. This allows them to make calls and have it charged to your account.

• Take Your Information

  Mobile hacking allows a hacker to contact your cell phone, without your knowledge, and to download your addresses and other information you might have on your phone. Many hackers are not content to only get your information. Some will even change all your phone numbers! Be sure to keep a backup of your information somewhere. This particular technique is called Bluesnarfing.