Did Deutsche Telekom Reveal the iPhone 6’s Release Date?

Will the iPhone 6 be out in September? One German wireless company certainly thinks so. The iPhone 6 has yet to be announced, but a German wireless company, Deutsche Telekom, is telling its call center support staff to tell customers that the device will be on September 19 of this year. 

The advice is meant to be used to entice customers into staying with the company reports AppleInsider, who got the tip from a German language Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) News site. Other media outlets are reporting that the date may be a potential leak on the part of the German wireless company. 

Whether Deutsche Telekom is telling its employees this based on actual information from Apple or if its an educated guess based on the release dates of past iPhone models is unclear. The reason why the company has been telling its staff to inform its customers of this date was to encourage customers to keep the company as their wireless provider and renew their contracts with the company. 

It was a tactic also employed by wireless carriers in the United States, especially during the period when AT&T (NYSE:T) was the exclusive wireless carrier for the iPhone. Today it can also be used with Verizon (NYSE:VZ), Sprint (NYSE:S), and T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom’s American subsidiary, as wireless carriers. In the pre-iPhone days, similar tactics were used for the trendy cell phone of the moment. (MOTOROLA’S (NYSE:MSI) RZVR, anyone?)
  
However, this news could be good news for anyone in the market for an iPhone 6 this fall. Germany is among the European countries where the iPhone is released on the same day as its premiere in the United States and Canada. This date would fit into Apple’s recent pattern of releasing its phones around that week in mid-September. Phone releases going back to the iPhone 4S fit this pattern. 

Apple is staying mum about the iPhone 6. In typical style, no comments are made on future products until the company makes the official announcement. New iPhones are usually announced in early September, mere weeks before they are released to the public, allowing the buzz to build up in the silence leading up the pre-order period, which usually starts the same day as the announcement. 

It’s about time for a new iPhone to be released. The iPhone 5 came out in fall 2012. The following fall, the iPhone 5S and 5C, came out. Since then the iPhone 5 has been taken off the market. While the iPhone 5S and 5C had their success, interest in both is waning, especially in light of the Samsung Galaxy’s S5 recent release and swirling rumors of an upcoming iPhone 6 release date. However, we won’t know if Deutsche Telekom is right or not until the official word comes from Apple.

The Calm Before 2014's Tech Storm: Apple Will Bring the Rain

There's a lot on Apple's plate that should make for big, wild 2014 that will settle the innovation question. The iPhone will get a bigger screen, possibly made of sapphire glass. The iWatch likely will hit, possibly overrunning the competition in the category. OS X will be due for a refresh, as will the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and the iPad. And Apple TV may finally come into its own. 

There's a lot shaping up for Apple this year, and it's going to be wild. In fact, there's so much going on at Infinite Loop in Cupertino these days that it makes me believe that 2014 will be the first post-Steve Jobs year when Apple -- in the eyes of the broader tech world -- stops dancing around and finally brings the rain.

For starters, the profit-generating juggernaut that goes by the name of "iPhone" will ship in a new form factor with a bigger screen. This will hit just when a huge number of Apple-loving consumers are shifting the bulk of their Internet activity to their mobile device, which means they'll upgrade in droves.
Apple doesn't even have to entice big-screen Android users to make iPhone 6 the fastest and best-selling mobile device ever.

Apple can pump up iPhone sales in the U.S. next year by 30 percent with a bigger iPhone, suggested Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, and this is if 80 percent of iPhones sold go to upgrading customers.

It gets better. The sapphire glass manufacturer in Arizona appears to be shipping product to China, which means the displays of the big new iPhone 6 really could be made of sapphire glass. If sapphire is as scratch-resistant as they say -- better than Gorilla Glass -- this is a big leap forward over the competition. Huge, in fact.

This is important for a couple of key reasons: First, Apple invested heavily in GT Advanced Technologies, reportedly footing the bill for hundreds of sapphire furnaces capable of churning out screens. Second, Apple has snapped up sapphire glass supplies. Unless the competition is actively investing in sapphire production, Apple might build a significant lead. Either way, you can bet that we'll be seeing some sort of cool promotional video at iPhone 6 launch time. 

While we're at it, here's something I haven't heard anywhere else: When the iPhone 6 ships with a bigger, easier-to-use screen, it'll give Apple's App Store and iTunes ecosystem another boost, too -- simply through a better customer experience.

So the Apple Money Machine -- the iPhone -- will rev up to the red line this year and coast through 2015 ... that's it?

No way.

Enter the iWatch
 While everyone has been talking up the mythical iWatch as competitors deliver new smartwatches and exercise bands, Apple has remained behind closed doors. Instead of getting here first, Apple has quietly been hiring medical, exercise and engineering talent, as well as patenting potential innovations that could be applied to an iWatch.

Will Apple actually deliver a wrist-worn device this year? It's hard to imagine that it will sit out 2014. Apple CEO Tim Cook has hinted at new product categories, and an iWatch seems to be a slam dunk.
There's more, though. Longtime fitness partner Nike just dropped Fuelband manufacturing in favor of working on software only. This is a big signal that Nike knows the iWatch is on the way this year and is making a business adjustment for it.

The New Mac Experience This Fall 
 The PC-decline-defying MacBook Air just got a teeny processor update. That's not a big deal now -- it just makes room for a more expensive MacBook Air with Retina Display to have a profitable spot come fall.

More to the point, the MacBook Pro is ready for an update, too, but the key action will likely center around the redesign of Mac OS X. While iOS got its refresh last year, OS X 10.10 is ready for 2014.
One report now suggests that OS X 10.10 will take center stage at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

September is the traditional time of year that Apple releases new iPads. Bare minimum, we can expect an A8 generation of Apple's own processors, which should bring better performance and battery life. I would not be surprised if Apple finally came up with a new keyboard or keyboard/case option, both because there is an industry demand for it and because there've been multiple rumblings about it.

Meanwhile, while Microsoft Research has posted a video of an augmented mechanical keyboard that can sense gestures both on and above the device, AppleInsider found an AppleU.S. patent application for a multifunctional keyboard assembly, too.

Will the keyboard tech show up in Macs this year? In a keyboard available for pairing with an iPad? If so, this is like extra frosting on a cake.

What About the Apple TV? 
 While rumors of a full-size Apple-created HDTV have faded away, pretty much everyone expects a major Apple TV set-top box update. Not only did Cook publicly remove the Apple TV from "hobby" status this year in a quarterly financial report, but Apple also threw down the gauntlet with its own Amazon Fire TV unit. 

The Fire TV lets you search for content with your voice, and the remote control is smart enough to let you play Android-based games on your HDTV. Plus, Amazon is actively building its own ecosystem of content and games, even going so far to develop a game and create a dedicated console-style game controller. 

Will Apple sit on its hands here? Doesn't seem likely. 
 Apple can jump out ahead with a wicked-fast new processor, Siri integration, and by opening up the Apple TV to developers for new apps. If Apple delivers on its own gaming controller specifications -- with or without third-party controllers -- then the company can make a stronger move to capture game time in the living room.

All of these moves are totally doable for Apple this year. Might we get a taste at WWDC in June? I hope so, but rumors are trending toward an OS X fixation. A new Apple TV world in time for fall programming and holiday sales could technically work better anyway. Wild card? Some sort of broadcast or cable-TV content deal.

Apple Is 'On the Prowl' 
 As revealed at Apple's quarterly conference call with investors last month, Apple bought 24 companies in 18 months -- several of which are secret, and therefore important to new products or services.
"Obviously," Cook noted, "We're on the prowl."

What might these new companies offer Apple? If it is attempting to keep their identities a secret, it's for a good reason -- one that usually leads to a new product or service.

Speaking of financial reports -- until now, Apple has weathered months of getting beat up by Wall Street analysts for a slowing rate of growth in both its iPhone and iPad sales. It has started to manage Wall Street expectations more proactively by doing things like increasing its dividend payments and buying back much of its own stock. 

Plus, Apple will issue a 7-for-1 stock split that should drop the price of a single share to under US$100, making it more accessible to a broader range of buyers -- and potentially get Apple added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. 

The point? 
 As Apple starts releasing a large batch of products and upgrades this year -- and as relatively new ones like CarPlay start hitting the streets -- public perception will rocket even higher. What might that stock split mean then? I don't play on Wall Street, but I have some guesses. 

Any way I look at it -- and this is even if Apple does not release any new game changer product category that is off the radar -- Apple seems to be orchestrating a huge 2014.

Apple vs. Samsung trial round two: Samsung infringed three patents, owes Apple $119.6 million

Here we go again. 2012's patent trial of the century -- which was all about whether certain Samsung devices were utilizing Apple technology without paying for it -- resulted in abillion dollar win for Apple. Yet, at the time we knew a second case, involving different patents and devices, was brewing on the horizon. The trial for that other case is finally over (almost), and the jury has rendered a verdict -- though there's still a damages issue regarding the Galaxy S II set to be decided on Monday, which could change the final damages tally. In general terms, the verdict's not a complete win for either party, as Apple owes Samsung $158,400 and Samsung will have to cut Apple a check for $119,625,000, a far cry from the $6.2 million and $2.2 billion the parties asked for, respectively. Why? Apple devices infringed one of two asserted Samsung patents, while Samsung phones and tablets infringed three of Apple's five asserted patents.

Apple got a complete victory on patent number 5,946,647, as the jury found that all ten Samsung devices at issue infringed -- for the uninitiated, that list includes the Admire, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S II, Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S II Skyrocket, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 and Stratosphere. That patent's for a technology that enables links clicked in one application to open other applications (like an address in an email opening up in a maps app). Apple was also successful with its famed slide-to-unlock patent (no. 8,046,721), but to a lesser degree: only some Samsung devices were found to have used it. Cupertino came up empty with two of its other patents: 6,847,959(for universal search), 7,761,414 (for background sync). Patent number 8,074,172 (for word recommendation/autocomplete technology), was also at issue in the case, but presiding Judge Lucy Koh already found that Samsung devices infringed that patent on summary judgement back in January.

Samsung, meanwhile, went one for two. Apparently, a (very small) number of Apple devices infringe patent number 6,226,449, for camera and photo organization technology, but Samsung was unsuccessful in proving Apple infringed Samsung's patent number5,579,239 that covers some video transmission tech.

As with the conclusion of most every courtroom battle, we can expect there to be appeals filed on both sides, so the case isn't fully closed. However, this latest result has to have the folks in Seoul and Mountain View feeling pretty good. $120 million is just another line item in Samsung's mobile business budget, and the two patents Google agreed to indemnify Samsung against played no part in Apple's victory. Speaking of, while Apple certainly came out ahead on the monetary score card, it only received a fraction of the money it asked for, so it's safe to say that Tim Cook's probably not real thrilled with the outcome.