iPhone 4, Nexus S--rivals with a common core

iPhone 4, Nexus S--rivals with a common core
Google makes no bones about what's inside its slick Samsung-manufactured Nexus S: a 1GHz "Hummingbird" processor.That's a close cousin of--if not identical in many respects to--the processor inside of Apple's A4 system-on-a-chip, as a TechInsights analysis (PDF) revealed earlier this year. "It's common in the electronics industry for competitors to get chips from the same source," said Joe Byrne, an analyst The Linley Group."But it is somewhat of an odd situation for Samsung to develop chips and make their own systems (products).It does put them in a weird position," he said. Byrne continued."The Samsung-Apple deal is odd in that a system company (Apple) is doing a custom chip with a semiconductor supplier--that is, Samsung--that also has a system business.There's a potential triangle there."The plot thickens when the new Samsung Galaxy Tab is added to the mix.That tablet has emerged as the principal competitor--with 1 million units sold in about two months--to Apple's iPad.Samsung's Galaxy Tab uses the same--or similar--Samsung-made processor as the iPhone 4 and Nexus S.Samsung is obviously a large company with different arms that have competing interests.And, in that sense, it's not unlike Intel.Samsung is doing, however, what Intel, on principal, has avoided: making branded consumer systems and supplying chips to companies that compete with those systems.

iPhone 4 at Wal-Mart on June 24

iPhone 4 at Wal-Mart on June 24
If you'd rather avoid the lines at Apple and AT&T stores on iPhone 4 launch day, you have options this year.Wal-Mart said Friday that it will be one of several retail outlets that will have the iPhone 4 on June 24, its first day of availability anywhere. While Wal-Mart has carried previous versions of the iPhone, this is a first that it will be for sale in its stores on the device's official launch day.Wal-Mart is not the only alternative to Apple and AT&T, however. It's rumored that Best Buy will have the device on launch day, and Radio Shack employees have begun telling customers they have also been selected to carry the device starting June 24.It could be a sign of Apple's growing relationship with fellow electronics retailers that it is sharing the launch day spoils. Or, it could be the realization that demand for the iPhone is strong and it wants to offload at least some of the typical crush of peoplegoing to stores to buy it the first day.Apple said on Monday that pre-orders for iPhone 4 will start on June 15. Wal-Mart will be not be offering the same pre-order option.This post was updated at 10:08 a.m. PDT with Walmart's confirmation that it will not be doing preorders.

iPad, MacBook torpedoing ultrabook sales, says analyst

iPad, MacBook torpedoing ultrabook sales, says analyst
Analysts are not kind to ultrabooks. Add Tim Bajarin to that long list.Though the Creative Strategies president offers plenty of reasons for ultrabooks' woes, one of the more intriguing is that Apple products are boxing ultrabooks into a pricing dead zone. The mid-range, between $799 and $899 -- where an increasing number of ultrabooks are priced-- "may be going away," Bajarin wrote in a recent post.That's the upper end of the pricing range of Apple's very popular iPad.And above that, it's a MacBook market -- which Bajarin says consumers will pay more for because they assign more value to a MacBook. That doesn't leave a lot of breathing room for the ultrabook. And what about the low-end? Well, unless WinTel (the Microsoft-Intel camp of PC makers) comes up with a really appealing $499 ultrabook, that market will be left to purveyors of cheap plastic laptops. "Consumers have a threshold of $599. It's like clockwork, they're not going to spend more than that," said Bajarin in a phone interview. Not all is lost, though.Corporations still buy plenty of pricier Wintel laptops and they'll pay for high-end ultrabooks because they tend to buy more expensive configurations that can last three years or longer, he said.