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Apple expected to report lowest iPhone sales in history

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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Apple Inc is expected to report iPhone sales increased slightly more than 1 per cent in the holiday quarter when it announces earnings on Tuesday, its slowest growth ever and far from the double-digit growth investors have come to expect.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, which boasted record weekend sales when they launched in September, are now facing weak demand, according to analysts, because they have fewer distinguishing features than their popular predecessors.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The new iPhones also face tough comparisons with the strong sales of their older siblings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Apple tapped into a crucial market when it unveiled its bigger-screen 6 and 6 Plus phones in 2014, grabbing the attention of Asian customers, who had previously lapped up phablets from players such as Samsung Electronics.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Apple has become a victim of their own success as the blockbuster iPhone 6 product cycle was hard to replicate as many customers are either buying an older, cheaper iPhone 6 or waiting for the iPhone 7," FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">China, the company's fastest-growing market, may also have weighed on first-quarter results, as a slowdown in the country's economy forced consumers to tighten their purse strings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Analysts estimate Apple sold 75.5 million iPhones in the October-December quarter, a 1.3 per cent increase from a year earlier, according to research firm FactSet StreetAccount.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This compares with a nearly 46 per cent year-over-year jump in iPhone sales in the first quarter of 2015. The slowest growth in quarterly iPhone sales so far has been 6.8 per cent, in the second quarter of fiscal 2013, according to data from Statista.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To make matters worse, Apple is expected to forecast a drop in iPhone sales for the March quarter – the first time that sales will fall since the iPhone was launched in 2007.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This was foreshadowed by disappointing March-quarter forecasts from the company's Asian suppliers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Largan Precision Co Ltd.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Apple is expected to sell 54.6 million iPhones in the March 2016 quarter, according to FactSet. The company sold 61.2 million iPhones between January and March, 2015 - a 40 per cent year-over-year increase.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Analysts said the company will have to wait until the launch of the iPhone 7, expected later this year, to return to growth, as buyers upgrade to the latest version.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Analysts, technology blogs and company watchers say the iPhone 7 could include waterproofing, wireless headphones and use its new force touch technology to kill off the home button.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Apple shares closed down 1.98 per cent at $99.41 on Monday. They have fallen nearly 10 per cent since the start of October, steeper than a 2.2 per cent decline in the S&P 500 index.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Out of the 50 brokerages that cover Apple, 43 have a "buy" or higher rating on the stock. Their median 12-month price target is $141.50.</span><br />
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Apple expected to report lowest iPhone sales in history

Apple Inc is expected to report iPhone sales increased slightly more than 1 per cent in the holiday quarter when it announces earnings ...

Samsung launches Gear S2 smartwatch at Rs 24,300; Gear VR headset at Rs 8,200 in India

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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">South Korean electronic giant Samsung on Thursday launched Samsung Gear 2 -- a sleek and smart wearable and Gear virtual reality (VR) headset -- for the Indian consumers that will enable them augment and personalise their entertainment experience like never before.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Boasting a smart circular design, the Gear 2 device is available in two different variants -- the Gear S2 - priced at Rs 24,300- and the Gear S2 Classic - priced at Rs 25,800.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Samsung Gear 2 is a true testimony to our commitment to provide breakthrough technology to make lives of our cunsumers better," Manu Sharma, director, marketing IT & Mobile at Samsung India, said during a media interaction here.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Apart from the the Gear 2, Samsung also launched its mobile VR headset -- Samsung Gear VR -- to provide "next level" mobile entertainment experience to consumers. The virtual reality headset carries a price tag of Rs 8,200.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"The Gear VR presents the unique opportunity for consumers to get an immersive, interactive Virtual Reality experience. Samsung will be at the forefront of this exciting revolution to create furthur 'wow' moments in our consumers' lives," Sharma added.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The device is compatible with Galaxy smartphones, including Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge+, S6 and S6 edge.</span></span></div>

Samsung launches Gear S2 smartwatch at Rs 24,300; Gear VR headset at Rs 8,200 in India

South Korean electronic giant Samsung on Thursday launched Samsung Gear 2 -- a sleek and smart wearable and Gear virtual reality (VR) h...

Why WhatsApp is doing away with the $1 subscription fee and how it plans to make money now

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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">WhatsApp, the world's most popular messaging service, has announced that it is dropping its token $1 fee still levied on some users. Because WhatsApp doesn't have any other ostensible source of revenue, it has left many wondering about how the company intends to keep on going.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The primary reason why WhatsApp is doing away with its subscription fee for using WhatsApp after the first year is that making customers pay even small amounts remains difficult in many countries where access to credit cards and bank accounts for making online payments remains complicated. Much of WhatsApp's about a billion users are from the developing world where online payment is still catching up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">WhatsApp has also been lax in enforcing its subscription fees. For example, it hasn't been actively charging its users in India any fee even after the multiple years of usage. The company says that it doesn't want it users to fear about losing access to friends and family in case they are unable pay for the subscription.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This change is expected to happen over the next few weeks across different versions of the WhatsApp app.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the moment, revenue isn't really a big worry for the company that was acquired by Facebook for $22 billion in 2014, but questions arise about how the service seeks to remain financially viable. Does this mean that WhatsApp will introduce ads, similar to that we see on Facebook?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">WhatsApp is quite clear about what it thinks of advertising. "Advertising isn't just the disruption of aesthetics, the insults to your intelligence and the interruption of your train of thought," the company had stated its position on the matter in a blog post from June 2012.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Because advertising is user data driven and WhatsApp's stated principle is not to mine user data and therefore it wants to "avoid ads." WhatsApp says it has no plans to introduce ads to offset the loss of fees.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Instead, the seven-year-old company is seeking to bank upon businesses which are very actively using the service to reach out to and hear from customers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">They say they will start testing tools this year to let customers communicate with businesses. WhatsApp could make restaurants, airlines and credit card firms pay to contact consumers seeking to replace text messages and phone calls, but they aren't providing details.</span></div>
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Why WhatsApp is doing away with the $1 subscription fee and how it plans to make money now

WhatsApp, the world's most popular messaging service, has announced that it is dropping its token $1 fee still levied on some users...

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Apple expected to report lowest iPhone sales in history

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Samsung launches Gear S2 smartwatch at Rs 24,300; Gear VR headset at Rs 8,200 in India

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Why WhatsApp is doing away with the $1 subscription fee and how it plans to make money now

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