http://www.appstorechronicle.com/

Apple Destroys $15 million, 45 Employee Business

If ever there was a more obvious example of when a corporation has too much control, I can’t think of one more than this. One low-level employee at Apple has put 45 lives and multiple millions of dollars at risk.

In a post on the company’s blog, appgratis CEO Simon Dawlat recounted the nightmare that his company experienced early this April.

A few hours before starting to write this, I landed in São Paulo, Brazil on a visit to our local office here. I turned on my iPhone after an exhausting 12-hour redeye from Paris, only to receive notifications for over 75 missed calls, and a seemingly infinite flow of unread text messages.

I almost fainted.

These things only happen when a relative or a friend dies, or gets caught in a terrible accident. I immediately thought that someone in my family had passed away during my flight and couldn’t touch my phone for a few minutes. Scared. Paralyzed. Trying to imagine what the terrible news could be.

But by now Apple has issued an official statement, and the Wall Street Journal has published it. And as you’ve guessed, my friends and relatives are fine. They’re just worried for me now.

The company had just raised $13.5 million in their first round of funding. With 12 million active users of their app-discovery service, they were ramping up content, growing their selection, and improving their apps. They’d built up a team of 45 employees. Times were good. In addition to the new funding, they’d just released a new unified version of their app, and their iPad app had been approved for the app store just days earlier.

 

And then they were banned, the victim of vague, anti-competition (seemingly antitrust) policies, which they had worked so hard with representatives of Apple to stay in line with. According to Dawlat, two employees of Apple’s App Approval department “guid[ed] us through the necessary changes we needed to bring AppGratis into the App Store”. A new employee decided he disagreed, and booted AppGratis entirely from the app store. And just like that, the future of 45 people was uncertain. Despite several frantic phone calls, this employee wouldn’t relent, or acknowledge that he was ruining lives.

The apps are still not back on the app store, but AppGratis isn’t giving up yet. In the interim, they’ve launched their platform for Android, bringing app discovery to a whole new platform, and they’ve made progress towards expanding their platform, and planning for the future. Still, thanks to Apple their future is uncertain. Read Dawlat’s more detailed post on the subject, to see exactly how horrible this is.

Should Corporations possess this much power, to build and destroy entire businesses?

Breaking: Amazon Opens Affiliate/Associate Program Up To Connecticut Residents

Good news if you live in the state of Connecticut. The ban that’s been in place on Connecticut Amazon affiliates has finally been lifted, and Amazon is now accepting CT-based associates. Other banned states (Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, or Rhode Island) are still closed to affiliates. So what changed?

Amazon hasn’t allowed affiliate from these states, because these states would consider these people Amazon employees, and tax Amazon as if they were located in the state. To avoid these taxes, Amazon has steered clear of CT (and the other listed states) for several years.

Amazon recently decided to build a multi-million dollar fulfillment center in Connecticut. Therefore, they’re already going to be paying Connecticut taxes, and affiliates pose no problem. Recently, they slyly updated their terms and conditions to allow CT affiliates, and applications from the state are already being approved.

Amazon has no plans to reopen Affiliate ties in any of the other banned states right now.

Exclusive: Apple Reveals New Products Coming By June

In this week’s earnings call on Q2 of 2013, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer explained his prediction of decreased margins by “a different product mix” in June, confirming multiple changes to Apple’s existing line of hardware.

Other hints were dropped by Apple’s CEO Tim Cook on the call, who mentioned “new hardware and software services”, “exciting new product categories”- maybe Television, and a lot more surprises through 2013, as Apple continues its’ focus on the long term. Cook elaborated that he was “very excited…[about] these potential new categories”.

It’s also going to be a nice fall, with Cook clarifying also, that “we’ve got some really exciting stuff coming through the fall and all of 2013″.

 

For a more specific offering of what to expect, check out our  full predictions for Apple 2013.

Apple Rumors 2013: What’s Coming?

There’s a lot on the block for Apple 2013…at least according to the rumor gods. So what can we expect? Here are nine things we expect out of Cupertino in 2013.

  1. Retina Macbook Air: Likelihood: 60-70%. Lately, Cupertino has been rapping everything in a retina display, their super-high-definition, high density displays. The full-sized iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, and Macbook Pro line all have retina displays. Until this year, the retina display was simply too expensive to implement in a cheaper (though not close to cheap) computer like the macbook Air. Now though, with new technology and increased order size, Cupertino can likely get the parts cost down to a price where they can sell such a computer. Expect a delivery date of June, at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference at the earliest.
  2. Retina iPad Mini: Likelihood: 50%. While we’ll definately be seeing a retina iPad mini sometime soon, we can’t be sure it will be this year. Apple’s margins on the current Mini are already to0 low for their liking, so unless they can drastically reduce the price of components, plus Retina displays, it may take an extra year. No guess as to a release date.
  3. Retina iMac: Likelihood: 30%. ipad miniHow awesome would that be? A beautifully crisp 27 inch display the thickness of a pencil. The iMac already went through a brilliant overhaul last year, shedding serious bulk, so the challenge is fitting a retina display in without major size changes. Apple doesn’t normally do major computer releases two years in a row for the same line, so any retina iMac isn’t likely until at least mid-2014. Still, it has a chance because of the current proliferation of retina devices (see above.
  4. iPhone 5S: Likelihood: 95%. We have no idea what the next iPhone will hold, but based on Apple’s past releases, we can expect it to be called the iPhone 5S, and we can expect it to have an identical exterior design to the iPhone 5, with internal enhancements. It will see the newer, faster dual band Wifi, a new processor, a better camera, and a few other minor features to bring it in line with competitors like Samsung’s Galaxy SIII.
  5. Apple TV (actual TV): Likelihood:49%. The late Steve Jobs really wanted to reinvent television, and evidence shows that Apple has been working on such a device, but there’s not enough convincing evidence that they’re ready to roll out such a device this year. This was Apple’s first attempt at a real TV.
  6. iWatch: Likelihood: 5%. It was painful for me to give this even a 5% chance. A lot of rumors have stirred around the idea of such a device, but I don’t EVER see Apple developing a watch, and especially without proof-of-concept and longevity by the first wave of smart watches, like the Pebble.
  7. Touchscreen Mac: Likelihood: 10%. On the one hand, Steve Jobs denied that Apple would ever make a touchscreen mac, but on the other hand, he said the same thing about tablets before Apple took over the tablet market with the iPad. I don’t see it happening because the iPad pretty much serves that roll, but it isn’t outside of the realm of possibility. Not this year.
  8. iMac Pro. Likelihood 55%. Ever since Apple updated every line but the Mac Pro, pro users have been worried as to the future of the Mac Pro, a creative industry standard. Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed an entirely new pro product on the way in 2013. Whether this takes the form of a more configurable and High end iMac is unknown, but a Mac Pro in some form is 100%.
  9. Stock Dividend. This is a product of Apple in a different form, pleasing a different crowd. Analysts have indicated to me that Apple will likely have a dividend for shareholders this year to spread the benefit of their ridiculous cash flow.

And that’s pretty much Apple’s year in 2013. Anything else is a mystery. Let’s compare notes on New Years, and see how we did.  Answer this in the comments: What Apple product are you most looking forward to in 2013?

Update: Apple Hints At New Products in 2013 Earnings Call

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