iPhone 5 ship time drops to two to four days

iPhone 5 buyers aiming to order the phone online through Apple now face a wait time of only two to four days.

That's a hefty improvement over the three to four weeks originally estimated when the phone was first available through preorders in September. Supply finally started to catch up with demand around mid-November, when the estimate fell to two to three weeks. Since then, the ship time has continued to fall.

Of course, iPhone 5 buyers not far from a physical Apple Store may prefer to shop in person.

Recent analyst surveys of several Apple Stores show no wait time, … Read more

iPhone 5 snags 100,000 preorders through China Unicom

The iPhone 5 is off to a strong start at its latest carrier.

After kicking off preorders for the new phone early yesterday, China Unicom took in more than 100,000 online reservations by 4 p.m. local time, Chinese news site Sina Tech said today.

China's second-largest carrier will officially launch the iPhone 5 on December 14, following a promise that it would offer the device to its subscribers by year's end.

Some of the early buyers liked the simple reservation process as well as the phone, Sina Tech reported. Customers are asked to fill in their … Read more

Cunning fox grabs smartphone, sends text

The text message may be celebrating its 20th birthday today, but as far as we know, only one SMS has been sent by a fox in all those years. (And by fox, of course, we mean the mammal belonging to the Canidae family, not the mammal belonging to the hot-humans-with-phones family).

The text reads like so: "jlv l øi\a0ab 34348tu åaugjoi zølbmosdji jsøg ijio sjiw," which, as the multilingual among you may have already ascertained, is Norwegian fox speak. … Read more

iPhone 5 pushes Apple to No. 2 spot among U.S. phone makers

The new iPhone has given Apple a slight lead over LG in U.S. mobile market share, according to new data from ComScore.

For the three months ending in October, Apple stole second place from LG by grabbing a 17.8 percent share of the entire U.S. cell phone market, up from 16.3 percent in the prior three months. LG trailed with 17.6 percent, a drop from 18.5 percent.

Released at the end of September, the iPhone 5 undoubtedly gave Apple the boost it needed to rise up the mobile phone charts. Over the past year, … Read more

iPhone 5 sales even better than earlier thought, Canaccord says

The iPhone 5 is selling at a brisk pace, analysts at investment bank Canaccord Genuity say, and supply for Apple's newest smartphone has "dramatically improved."

Based on channel checks in November, the company has found "very strong sales" of the iPhone 5 at AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, as well as in international markets. Given the checks, as well as Apple's strong plans for an iPhone 5 ramp to 240 carriers in 100 countries by year's end, including China, Canaccord has slightly increased its estimates for iPhone sales in the December quarter.… Read more

Intel inside the iPad? Maybe, if it builds iPhone chips, RBC says

RBC Capital Markets has a new twist to the frequent Apple-Intel relationship rumors, and this time, it could actually be good news for Intel.

According to RBC analyst Doug Freedman, Apple may be contemplating a new relationship where Intel would build Apple's self-designed ARM-based smartphone chips in exchange for Apple using Intel's X86 processors in certain new devices, like the next-generation iPad.

While it may seem illogical for Apple to use different processors in its mobile devices, that could be one way for it to secure enough capacity and use chips on the leading edge of technology. After … Read more

iPhone 5 gets 4G LTE when Apple says so, not carriers

Apple will be the judge of whether a network's 4G LTE offering is worthy of supporting the iPhone 5, not the other way around.

That's the apparent revelation in a report today from industry site Telecoms.com. A spokesperson from Swisscom confirmed Apple's 4G approval protocol to the site this week, claiming that "Apple only enables 4G access after testing their device on an operator's live network."

In other words, Apple has managed to put 4G behind its fabled walled garden in a way, wrestling a significant measure of control away from the network carriers. Once Apple has determined that a 4G network has met its internal performance standards, it pushes out a software update enabling the step-up from 3G (or -- gulp -- something else) to LTE on that network.… Read more

Unlocked iPhone 5 could arrive in Apple's Web store tonight

Apple will begin selling an unlocked version of the iPhone 5 tonight through its online store in the U.S., according to a new report.

Citing retail sources, 9to5Mac says Apple will quietly kick off sales of the unlocked device on its online store this evening, later doing the same at its retail stores.

The news comes as supply of the iPhone 5 is easing, with new orders from Apple's online site shipping in one week, down from the nearly month-long delay shortly after the product's launch in September.

By selling it unlocked, it means that users can … Read more

iPad Mini cannibalizing sales of iPad 4, says analyst

Apple's new 7-inch tablet should be nicknamed Mini the Cannibal as it eats up sales from its bigger brother.

A poll of 50 Apple stores conducted by Citi this week found limited stock of the iPad Mini but wide availability of the iPad 4.

Among the stores called, 80 percent indicated that some version of the Mini was on the shelves. But 96 percent said that overall availability was limited based on the amount, storage options, and colors that consumers were seeking. Among the various models, the 32GB iPad Mini showed the greatest availability.

In contrast, 100 percent of … Read more

iPhone 5 now in stock at Apple stores; online ship time drops

Consumers eyeing an iPhone 5 for the holidays now stand a much better chance of snagging one.

A poll of 20 U.S. Apple Stores conducted by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster found the iPhone 5 readily available for customers.

"We believe the iPhone 5 has finally reached a point where consumers can walk into an Apple Store and walk out with a phone," Munster said today in a note to investors that was sent to CNET.

The 20 stores polled also uncovered Verizon iPhone 5 handsets in stock, the model that has been in the shortest supply … Read more