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Major Chinese supplier halts rare earths production in attempt to boost prices
With prices sliding and uncertainty rising, China's biggest producer of rare earth minerals has suddenly decided to suspend all operations, in a move that could strain already tense relations with the West. Baotou Steel, a miner, refiner and vendor located in Inner Mongolia, announced the decision in a statement today, explaining that it's simply looking to "balance supply and demand" in response to a prolonged price slump within China. Since June, in fact, prices of neodymium oxide and europium oxide have declined by 34 and 35 percent, respectively, with many analysts attributing the drop to mounting economic uncertainty in the US and Europe. Earlier this year, the Chinese government announced plans to merge or close some 35 rare earths producers within the mineral-rich northern region of Inner Mongolia, effectively crowning Baotou Steel as the industry's epicenter. Now, of course, that's all changed, though the shutdown will only last for one month. It's also worth noting that China still exerts rather considerable influence upon the market, accounting for roughly 97 percent of all production of rare earths -- a group of 17 minerals used to manufacture gadgets like cellphones, flat-screen TVs and EV batteries, among others. And while new deposits and market projections may point to a transforming landscape, it's unlikely that Chinese influence will wane anytime soon -- much to the chagrin of Western free trade advocates.
International iPhone 4S shipping dates already showing delays
That didn't take long. Just hours after preordering for the new iPhone 4S began, Electronista is reporting that international orders for the new phone are already showing ship dates of one to two weeks. For some TUAW readers and bloggers, the order process went slowly this morning, indicating that servers were probably being slammed. Checking the Australian, Canadian, and several European stores shows orders taking one to two weeks for shipping. Other online stores, like the Japanese site, aren't taking online orders, so it's difficult to know what demand is like in those countries. The US Apple Online Store is still showing an October 14th delivery date for all three American carriers. Electronista noted that Apple generally provides more stock to the US. While the worldwide delays don't appear to show a sellout situation, it does point out some strain on Apple's production and supply capabilities. We'll know for sure on October 14th if the iPhone 4S is another hit for Apple, or if the lack of delays in the US are an indication of lesser demand for the new phone.
Vodafone Germany lists "iPhone 4S" at 16GB, 32GB, 64GB
Tomorrow is Apple's big press event and, as expected, rumors about the upcoming iPhone models are beginning to escalate. In the past several days, the iPhone 4S has been spotted at Cincinnati Bell's website and Apple's inventory system and the iPhone 5 has surfaced at Radio Shack. Today, we can add another entry to this list - Vodafone Germany. The above placeholder for the iPhone 4S was spotted in listings for various iPhone accessories on the mobile carrier's website. The listing includes both white and black models of the iPhone 4S in 16, 32, and 64 GB capacities. These sizes and colors match perfectly with one expectation for the next generation iPhone model. Fortunately, we only have to wait until Tuesday to find out whether Apple is releasing either the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 5 or both.
Gold Capped: Upcoming Volatile Fire shortages
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen and Fox Van Allen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Volatile Fire is quite cheap now but will not remain so after patch 4.3. Volatiles are a cornerstone of the crafting and economic design of WoW, as each one has several types of items that require it for production. When the prices of Volatiles increase, crafted goods go up in price and raw materials go down in price. Very few people farm exclusively for Volatiles, as they're usually given a small chance to drop off things that are worth considerably more than the Volatiles themselves (like ore veins and elementals). That's part of why the Volatiles market is exceptionally susceptible to changes that change the way a lot of people play and loot. In this case for Volatile Fire, right now a ton of Fires are coming from people continuing to do Fireland dailies. Patch 4.3 is around the corner and will likely have something cooler for people do with their time than grind for entry level raiding and PVP gear. What can you do to protect yourself and profit from these changes?
iPhone 4S appears in Apple's inventory
We really don't know for sure what kind of new iPhone Apple will announce next week, but here's another vote for a revision of the iPhone 4 rather than an all-new iPhone 5. 9to5Mac is reporting that the iPhone 4S has popped up as an entry in Apple's own inventory systems, which seems (if true) like a pretty good indication that Apple will indeed offer a tweaked version of the current iPhone 4. Perhaps most interesting, the information reportedly found in Apple's inventory is linked up to the Chinese label for an iPhone 4S above. That label appeared a little while ago and has some info on it that might now actually be legit. The IMEI and MEID indications on the label also hint that a 4S would be compatible with the CDMA and GSM networks, which is a rumor that has been around for quite a while as well. None of this is confirmed, obviously, and even if there is an iPhone 4S, that still doesn't mean Apple isn't also planning to release an iPhone 5. While somewhat unlikely that Apple would split the lines up, there's certainly demand for both phones, and a smaller price on one of them could make the audience even bigger. As usual, we'll have to wait and see what Apple reveals for us next week.
Battlefield 3 preorders over 1.25 million already, beating Bad Company 2
EA's CFO Eric Brown announced at the Citi 2011 Tech Conference today that Battlefield 3 has already racked up 1.25 million pre-orders, putting it "well ahead" of the previous Battlefield title, Bad Company 2, at the same time leading up to launch. Over ten times more, in fact. That game sold 2.3 million copies in the first month of release, and has sold over 9 million copies according to the most recent financial reports. Presumably, Battlefield 3 is on track to do even better than that. Brown said that EA expects to make full use of "the advantage of a two-and-a-half week early launch window versus our competitor," Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Brown also spoke about pre-orders for EA's other big release this fall, Star Wars: The Old Republic, though declined to provide actual numbers. Star Wars: The Old Republic will have a smaller marketing budget than Battlefield 3 at launch, and EA expects to support it over a longer length of time. Brown said that SW:TOR would have "a different spend curve," -- so far, that demand "is tracking consistent with our expectations."
LG Display cuts spending targets for 2012, amid sagging LCD demand
LG Display has decided to drastically cut its expenditure target for 2012, in yet another sign that the LCD market is going through some tough times. Today, the manufacturer announced that it will spend only three trillion won (about $2.8 billion) on its production facilities next year -- a 33 percent decrease from its previously revised budget and LG Display's lowest expenditure target since 2009. The company also said that it has no plans to build a new LCD plants in 2012, suggesting that it may already be facing excess panel supply. Analysts are predicting that demand will remain subdued throughout the end of 2011, though LG Display CFO James Jeong had previously said he expects things to pick up by the beginning of next year.
Gold Capped: Inventory balancing in TradeSkillMaster
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! TradeSkillMaster is the most powerful addon used to automate crafting and batch posting, and today, we'll be learning how to fine-tune the number of items created based on your selling history. Generally, when you started using TSM, you set up a default number of items for each trade skill group that you wanted it to keep in stock. For example, I told it to: Always craft enough scrolls that I had two on the auction house when they were profitable. Always craft enough of each meta-gem cut to ensure that I always had three on the AH when they were profitable. Now when I hit the Restock Queue button in enchanting or jewelcrafting, it queues up enough stock to bring my inventory levels to two scrolls or three gems. What if I invested in some recipe I sell a lot more of, though?
iPhone growth moving towards Android in US
Things are looking wonderful for Apple's iPhone these days, according to a study of US smartphone buyers by ChangeWave. The study results show that of Americans expecting to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days, 46 percent are planning to get an iPhone while only 32 percent are thinking about an Android phone. This shows that the demand for iPhones is highest ever for a non-launch period, second only to the launch of the iPhone 4 last year when a full 50 percent said they'd go with an Apple product. ChangeWave speculates that the introduction of the Verizon iPhone is what caused the change. At the end of 2010, demand for Android and iPhone was about even; once the Verizon iPhone hit the market, interest in Motorola's Droid phones waned. Other fun facts from the ChangeWave study show that iCloud has the attention of both existing Apple owners and others; that about 70 percent of iPhone owners are very satisfied with their device, compared to a dismal 26 percent for RIM/BlackBerry owners; and that Windows Phone 7 is showing remarkably good satisfaction levels (about 57 percent). The results of the ChangeWave study could be a foretaste of tomorrow's Apple financial call, which will probably divulge spectacular numbers for iPhone and iPad sales for the last quarter.
Report: Touchscreen demand to grow by 90-percent, led by mobile, tablet markets
This just in: people really like touchscreens, and their tastes aren't going to change anytime soon. That's the takeaway from a new report from market research firm DisplaySearch, which predicts that revenue from touch panel sales will hit the $13.4 billion mark by the end of this year, before soaring to nearly $24 billion by 2017. Shipments of capacitive touch displays, in particular, are expected to increase by 100-percent over last year, accounting for a full 70-percent of all tactile revenues. The mobile market still accounts for most of this industry-wide growth, but demand for touch-based tablets is accelerating considerably, with more than 72 million panels expected to ship this year, and 100 million projected in 2012. Jonesing for more numbers? Better gallop past the break to get your hands on the full PR.
iPad 2 shipping times all under one week
All of you who have been waiting since March to buy an iPad 2 can now pull out your credit card and make your order. For the first time since the wildly successful tablet began shipping, supply is meeting demand, and shipping times are now under one week. During the first month of sales, shipping times for the iPad 2 were often in the 4 to 5 week range. A quick tour of the major online Apple Stores for most of the countries in the world showed the same 3 to 5 day shipping times. Improvements in prime contractor Foxconn's ability to build the difficult-to-make device are part of the reason, but Digitimes might have another answer. The electronics manufacturing website thinks that the long shipping times may have caused some would-be buyers to switch to other tablets, claiming in an article yesterday that the iPad 2's market share in Taiwan dropped to 50% due to supply shortages. That is, of course, just one small market -- and not a representative sampling of the worldwide market for tablets. Foxconn now says that they'll be delivering between 14 to 15 million iPad 2 units to Apple over the next three months, which should make for easy availability both through Apple Stores and secondary channels.
Gold Capped: Firelands panic sell-off
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Patch 4.2 and the Firelands raid have arrived, bringing with them an entire new tier of gear, all of which will need to be properly enchanted and gemmed. There are BOP raid drops, BOE crafted gear, BOE trash drops, and of course, tons of valor point and PVP gear. If, like me, you speculated that all this activity would result in a massive increase in demand for enchants, gems, and item enhancements, chances are you stockpiled. So, have you sold everything you bought? I didn't. On my realm, the prices for all types of goods have fallen back to their pre-4.2 stockpiling levels. There has been a noticeable bump in certain markets like cut gems and volatiles; however, some of that may be due to a distinct reduction in miner activity over the last few months. The days of 20g Elementium Ore stacks are over, for now. What happened to all the demand projected for patch 4.2? Should you panic sell your stock before it goes any lower?
Samsung's new AMOLED production line should help ease smartphone display shortages
AMOLED displays may be in relatively short supply nowadays, but Samsung is doing its best to bridge the gap. Today, the company's Mobile Display unit announced that its 5.5th-generation AMOLED production line is now open, some two months ahead of schedule. The line uses glass substrates that are substantially larger than those found in its existing factories, allowing Samsung to increase output, while lowering costs. This increase in production comes in response to growing demand for the Galaxy S II and an AMOLED market that, according to DisplaySearch, should triple in value this year to $4.26 billion. For now, the production line is focusing on smartphone displays, since that's where demand is growing fastest, but will eventually turn its attention to tablet PC displays, as well. The new factory assembling the displays can currently churn out about three million screens per month, but is capable of ramping that up to 30 million, at full capacity. No word yet on when it will achieve this rate, but if SMD continues to boost its output, we may even see that market surplus we've been hearing about.
Korean carriers suspend iPad 2 online sales
Korean mobile carriers SK Telecom and KT Corp have suspended online sales of the iPad 2 only a week after the product was launched. According to a report this morning, tight supplies of the tablet were responsible for the suspension. Reuters noted that the SK Telecom website is showing an apologetic message stating that "our iPad 2 inventory has been depleted and we apologize for failing to provide enough supplies due to the product's global supply shortages." While Apple is still showing wait times of only 1-2 weeks for most of the Apple online stores (including the South Korean store), it's apparent that supplies of the iPad 2 are insufficient to meet the demand from Apple and the two telecom companies. Both of the carriers are counting on tablet and smartphone sales to make up for dismal growth in voice traffic revenues.
Gold Capped: Buy low, sell high
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Everyone who gets into the auction house to make tons of gold immediately assumes that it's done by buying low and selling high. Seems simple enough, and it's one of those chestnuts that we've all heard Wall Street types talking about. Brokerage takes no trade skills, no addons, and it feels like making money from nothing. A lot of what I've written about for this column has focused on how to use trade skills for profit, but the truth is that brokerage really can be a profitable use of your time. It's not as easy as it sounds, but assuming you have a solid understanding of what you're doing, you can use it to good effect.
Rumor: Apple lowering CDMA iPhone 4 orders, even though survey says Apple is #3 US smartphone vendor
It appears that after robust sales in the first few months of the iPhone 4's life on the Verizon network, demand might be slowing down for the CDMA device. That's despite new NPD data showing a major impact from the Verizon iPhone, including a hit to Sprint's results. In a report discussing first quarter 2011 losses at iPhone supplier Pegatron, Digitimes noted that "market watchers are turning conservative about CDMA iPhone 4 shipments in the future as volumes may not be as strong as expected." Pegatron was expected to ship about 10 million iPhone 4s in 2011, but recent estimates are in the range of 5 million units. There are several hypotheses about the slowdown in production of the CDMA-only device. First, demand for the Verizon iPhone may have cooled off when widely publicized reports noted that the carrier's 3G network was noticeably slower than rival AT&T's, or when would-be switchers were hit with a barrage of "no simultaneous voice and data" warnings. Next, it could be that Apple has a true GSM/CDMA "world phone" in the works for later in 2011 and is just clearing the channel for the new model. Finally, many Verizon customers may realize that the iPhone 4 will soon be replaced by a newer model and are just waiting for the next-generation device before switching. Meanwhile, 9to5 points to the latest NPD report showing Apple holding an astonishing 14 percent of the US smartphone market, behind only LG and Samsung. The Verizon iPhone launch certainly helped push that number, along with AT&T and Apple's aggressive discounting of the iPhone 3GS after the iPhone 4 hit the market. Since NPD is looking at historical sales data while Digitimes is looking ahead to supplier and component forecasts, it is possible that both stories are right: the Verizon iPhone had a killer launch, but it may not have legs through the summer if the iPhone 5 is coming along.
iPad 2 production shortfall cause: LCD and speaker issues
IHS iSuppli cut its forecast for yearly iPad sales following Apple's earnings conference call on April 20. iSuppli predicts the Cupertino company will ship 39.7 million iPads in 2010, a 9.1 percent reduction from its earlier forecast of 43.7 million. Apple confirmed during its earnings conference call that iPad 2 demand significantly outpaced supply. The iPad 2 flew off the shelves in Q2, and Apple sold every tablet it manufactured. According to iSuppli, Apple's manufacturing is constrained by a shortage of the new speaker that graces the iPad 2. Unknown quality concerns with the LCD display may have also played a role in this less than optimal rate of manufacturing. Demand for the iPad is expected to be strong for the rest of the year with a continuing production shortfall limiting the total yearly sales. During the Q&A session after the earnings call, Apple would not comment on when the supply of the iPad 2 would catch up with demand. Fingers crossed it happens soon so that prospective iPad owners no longer have to camp out early at their local Apple Store each day. [Via MacRumors]
Long iPad lines continue at some Apple Stores, many go home empty-handed
As midnight approaches on the East Coast of the US, long lines for the iPad 2 remain at some Apple Stores. The image above shows the line at the 5th Avenue store in New York City just before 11 PM local time, with dozens of people still waiting outside the store well after nightfall. Meanwhile, on the West Coast, 9 to 5 Mac reports severe supply constraints in certain models of iPad 2, with many line waiters either having to pick a model other than the one they originally sought, or worse, going home empty-handed altogether. Mark Gurman reports that Apple doesn't seem to be limiting device per person purchases, with one customer walking out with six AT&T-model iPad 2s. Demand for the iPad 2 was widely expected to be high, and the quick slipping of online orders' shipping dates from 3-5 days down to 2-3 weeks seems to have been an early harbinger of Apple's supply being unable to keep up with that demand. Apple Stores nationwide are selling out of virtually all models of iPad 2 on launch day, with no early word yet on when new supply shipments will arrive. Considering the intense demand for the device in the US, would-be international iPad 2 buyers must be looking at March 25 with a wary eye. If Apple's supply of the iPad 2 continues to be constrained, it's likely that the multi-country international launch will see extremely limited numbers of units available.
RIFT's head-start is standing room only
To almost no one's surprise, Trion's RIFT head-start was an exercise in multitasking for many would-be players. MMO launch-day veterans are probably familiar with the one-eye-on-the-queue and one-eye-on-something-more-productive routine by now, but for everyone else, the fact that a good portion of the day was spent not playing RIFT was a bit frustrating. In some cases, estimated wait times approached 15 hours (though in fairness to the folks at Trion, the counters did fluctuate quite a bit). Demand was so great that a whopping 13 additional servers were added around noon, with 10 more going up as the day wore on. Tell us about your head-start horror stories in the comments (if you're not too busy playing, that is).
Nissan ramping up Leaf production, trying to meet demand
After doing its best to lower expectations among those with Leaf pre-orders, Nissan is now doing all it can to ramp up production of the things. Just 3,000 cars total have been produced since October at the company's factory outside of Tokyo, but by the end of March Nissan pledges to be pumping out that many each and every month. In 2012 a plant in Tennessee will come online and, in 2013, another new plant, this one in Sunderland, England. That means that if the company is going to meet its pledge of 25,000 Leafs (Leaves?) on the roads by the end of 2012 almost all will have to come from Japan -- probably on one or more boats.
