It seems like poor Apple just can't get a break -- despite record revenues almost every quarter and the iPhone/iPad powerhouse dominating most of the markets where they're sold, Cupertino keeps taking it on the chin. In today's recap, we'll look at Leap's lower than expected iPhone sales and HTC's efforts to get users to switch to its Android devices… of course, at Apple's expense...
BGR is reporting that Leap Wireless owner Cricket may only wind up selling half of its iPhone commitment for the first year, claiming that sales have fallen short of expectations. The company debuted the iPhone last June, which means they have three or four months to unload the rest -- a goal they seem unlikely to reach without a new handset to buoy sales. According to BTIG Research, Leap may wind up being on the hook for $100 million in additional iPhone purchases this year, which could balloon to $450 million over its three-year contract with Apple if things don't turn around.
The Verge reported Wednesday that developer Tapbots added a special surprise to its iOS apps in an effort to shame users who are pirating their popular Tweetbot and Netbot apps (for Twitter and App.net respectively). Apparently, pirated copies of the apps automatically insert the phrase "I've been demoing a pirated copy of @tweetbot and really like it so I'm going to buy a copy!" into the compose field -- and it seems many of the pirates don't even bother to delete the text before it's sent. The report notes that many of these users appear to be non-English speakers, so it's possible they have no idea what they're actually tweeting. While it's rather amusing that Tapbots has added this little "gotcha," there's certainly nothing funny about these pirates sucking up valuable Twitter API tokens, meaning they'll be a few less paid users...
MacRumors is reporting that iTunes in the Cloud has finally arrived in 11 more European countries on Wednesday. Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden are all enjoying the spoils of being able to download purchased content again, and France appears to also receiving some cloud love for TV shows as well -- only the fifth country to get it after the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia.
AllThingsD has published an interesting editorial from BeFunky CEO Tekin Tatar on how digital point-and-shoot cameras are struggling to stay relevant in a market full of smartphones and compact digital SLRs. While more photos are being shared than ever before, consumers appear to increasingly want to have their camera connected to the internet to make it easier to do. As a result, sales for compact cameras fell by as much as 30 percent in 2011, and is expected to fall another four percent this year. "Camera parts are not only becoming higher quality, they are also becoming smaller," Tatar writes. "This is why high-quality cameras in phones are becoming the industry standard. In addition to having great cameras on their smartphones, the photography apps available today make it easier than ever for consumers to create beautiful, professional-looking photos, which is the root of the major changes in the camera marketplace."
Samsung has no shame when it comes to copying Apple, but their mutual Taiwanese rival HTC has decided to try another tactic instead. According to MacRumors, the upcoming HTC One will use a new version of the company's Sync Manager software to not only import music from iTunes, but also extract data from an iPhone's backup files -- including automatic transfer of photos, videos, calendar entries and text messages. For anyone on the fence about switching from the iPhone to Android, such a move could certainly remove a pretty substantial barrier to doing so, and there's probably not a whole lot Apple can do at this point to curb it.
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