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Quoted – Icahn Turns His Powers of Persuasion on Tim Cook – ECommerce Times

October 28, 2013 by 5 Comments
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Despite Carl Icahn‘s declarations that he’s interested only in what’s best for Apple’s investors, the self-proclaimed champion of “real corporate democracy” has his doubters.

Why add to Apple’s debt to pay for the buyback when it’s sitting on so much cash?

“A lot of the cash is overseas, and if you brought it back to the United States for a buyback, it would get taxed at a very high rate,” business professor Scott Testa told MacNewsWorld.

“Since it’s so cheap to borrow money, it makes no sense to bring the money back into the United States and get killed from a tax perspective,” he added.

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/Icahn-Turns-His-Powers-of-Persuasion-on-Tim-Cook-79268.html

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Quoted – Icahn Scoops Up Apple Stock Post Product Launch Plummet

September 29, 2013 by 2 Comments
Image representing Apple as depicted in CrunchBase

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Another short-term shock to Apple’s share price has been its inability to hammer out a deal for wider distribution of the iPhone in China.

“The No. 1 disappointment was there was no China Mobile deal, although I think that deal is coming,” business professor Scott Testa told MacNewsWorld.

The longer it takes for that deal to come, however, the more Apple’s share price may suffer.

5c No Cannibal

Wall Street was also disappointed with the price point for Apple’s developing world phone, the 5c, Testa noted. “It feels the handset business is a commoditized area that Apple should be super aggressive in and go after the low-end Android phones.”

http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/78952.html

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Apple Rolls Out Installment Payment Plan in China – Quoted – Forbes

January 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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Apple Rolls Out Installment Payment Plan in China

Scott Testa spent a good part of 2011 and 2012 visiting universities and high schools in Zhenghou, China on behalf of China Hope Project. His mission was to act as evangelist for U.S. education and technology.

In that role Testa couldn’t help but notice what type of mobile devices the students sported – invariably they would be handsets made by Asian manufacturers. Once in a blue moon, he tells me, he saw an iPhone. It’s not that students didn’t like Apple products, Testa says—they just couldn’t afford them.

(As a completely unrelated but very interesting side note, Zhenghou is also home to the Foxconn manufacturing facility that makes Apple iPhone 5 devices, a factory that experienced a lot of labor unrest in recent years. In other words, Zhenghou residents can make the devices but apparently can’t afford them).

“My experience was that Apple was viewed as a highly desired brand by Chinese students but it was out of reach for a lot of them,” Testa says.

Apple is trying to remedy that with a new installment payment plan it has introduced in China for buyers of iPhones and MacBook laptops, Bloomberg‘s BusinessWeek reports. It is offering such terms as $48 monthly payments spread out over two years in order to better compete with low-cost devices on the market.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikamorphy/2013/01/16/apple-rolls-out-installment-payment-plan-in-china/

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Quoted – Apple’s Leaky Vietnamese Connection

May 31, 2010 by 3 Comments
Apple bling iPhone wallpaper
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Why so many Apple leaks from Vietnam? Once again, the Vietnamese blog Tinhte has revealed what could be a real-deal upcoming Apple product. The blog recently showed a new MacBook days before Apple announced it, as well as an iPhone prototype that looks very much like the 4th-gen device Gizmodo obtained last month. This time, Tinthe has shown an iPod touch with a 2MP camera.

Since tight control over new product information is an important part of Apple’s success strategy in its markets, this latest rash of leaks — multiple fourth-generation iPhones, information on MacBooks and now this supposed iPod — must be disturbing to the company. However, it shouldn’t be surprising, according to Scott Testa, a professor of business administration at Cabrini College in Philadelphia.

“If you’re a large company, and you’re outsourcing R&D and manufacturing, you’re going to have leaks,” he told MacNewsWorld. “That stuff is going to happen.”

While the Tinhte leaks may have minimal impact on Apple’s marketing strategy, Cabrini contended, that’s not the case with another lapse in the company’s information control: the obtaining of an iPhone prototype by the gadget website Gizmodo.

“Apple gains a lot marketing firepower from the secrecy of their products,” he asserted. “The loss of the prototype did much more damage than the other [leaks].”

While the Tinhte leaks may have minimal impact on Apple’s marketing strategy, Cabrini contended, that’s not the case with another lapse in the company’s information control: the obtaining of an iPhone prototype by the gadget website Gizmodo.

“Apple gains a lot marketing firepower from the secrecy of their products,” he asserted. “The loss of the prototype did much more damage than the other [leaks].”

http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/Apples-Leaky-Vietnamese-Connection-70042.html

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Quoted – Amazon’s Kindle May Crash at the iPad

March 23, 2010 by 5 Comments
Barnes & Noble nook (ebook reader device)
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Amazon’s Kindle May Crash at the iPad

Amazon is developing an app that will let iPad owners have the Kindle e-book reader experience — including access to the Kindle bookstore, of course. It’s not a given that Apple will approve it, but Cabrini College marketing professor Scott Testa believes it’s likely. “That FTC investigation over Google Voice really spooked Apple,” he said.

mazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) has announced it is readying an app to read Kindle e-books onApple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad, as well as on other tablet computer devices. There are alreadyKindle apps for the Mac, PC, iPhone and BlackBerry.

The Kindle app for the iPad will aim to marry the best of both offerings. Users will be able to read their books on the bigger form factor of the iPad while taking advantage of Kindle’s whispersynch technology to download content.

The app will have the same features found on the Kindle e-book reader, such as the ability to create bookmarks, make notes and highlight text.

Amazon is not the only e-reader manufacturer developing an app for the iPad. Barnes & Noble(NYSE: BKS), which rolled out the Nook e-book reader at the end of last year, is also developing an app for the iPad.

A number of publishers have announced iPad apps in the works as well, including The Associated Press, Conde Nast and The Wall Street Journal. The Journal reportedly was supplied with a rare prototype of the device — kept under lock and key — for development of its app.

The FTC Looms

Apple probably would reject the Amazon app for the iPad — and the Barnes & Noble app as well — “but that FTC investigation over Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Voice really spooked Apple,”Cabrini College marketing Learn how SugarCRM will improve your business. Free Trial. Click here. professor Scott Testa told MacNewsWorld. “For that reason, I think these apps are going to be approved.”

Apple also doesn’t want to deal with the barrage of criticism it would get from the public if it kept the Kindle off the iPad, he added.

Enemy Territory

Amazon’s motives in developing an app for enemy territory are equally compelling, Testa added. “Basically, it is a book seller. They may make money off of the hardware, but they also do selling the content. They have a vested interest in making their platform as open as possible to keep their customers — who may well want to own more than one e-reader device — as happy as possible.”

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/Amazons-Kindle-May-Crash-at-the-iPad-69602.html?wlc=1269364240

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