Consumer demand for TVs has been softer than expected in 2011, but showing signs of improvement late in the year. But things are expected to get better this year, which could bode Apple if, as rumored, Apple decides to release its own HDTV (dubbed by many the “iTV”).
Read MoreDon’t count 3D TV out yet — or dismiss a 3D “iTV” at some point in the future. While the 3D TV industry is truly global, regional differences are increasing.
For 3D, the most enthusiastic regions are Western Europe and China, while the mix of 3D in North America actually declined in the third quarter of 2011 (Q3’11), according to a new study by NPD DisplaySearch.
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Apple’s laptop line — particularly the MacBook Air — gets most of the computer PR love from the company these days, but the iMac is quietly winning its market.
In the the all-in-one (AIO) market the stalwart of Apple’s desktop line has about one-third of the computer industry market. The AIO market grew 39% to 14.5 million units worldwide in 2012, according to DisplaySearch (http://www.displaysearch.com). The iMac accounted for 32.9% of shipments in the third quarter, the research firm estimates.
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Apple has been granted eight patents by the US Patent & Trademark Office, involving, among other things, audio data storage (most likely involving iCloud), channel state logic and more.
Patent number 8095375 involves an universal container for audio data. Per the patent, storing audio data encoded in any of a plurality of different audio encoding formats is enabled by parametrically defining the underlying format in which the audio data is encoded, in audio format and packet table chunks.
Read MoreAccording to the latest research from Strategy Analytics (http://www.strategyanalytis.com), worldwide HTML5 phone sales will surge from 336 million units in 2011 to 1 billion units in 2013. Call it a belated victory for the late Steve Jobs, who much preferred HTML5 over Flash.
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