How to play next week's iPod event

Image: Apple Inc.

Apple (AAPL) special events -- like the one next week at which the company is expected to unveil a new line of iPods -- are tricky for speculators.

Conventional wisdom has it that Apple shares lose value whenever the company announces a new product, no matter how cool it is, and a 2007 study of eight events -- from the 2004 Paris Expo to Macworld '07 -- by MORE

Munster on $10 iPhones, $30 TV subscriptions, moving beyond AT&T

Gene Munster. Photo: Piper Jaffray

No cheap, mass-market iPhone -- ever. A deal with Verizon or T-Mobile next summer. And a $30 - $40 subscription TV service on iTunes that could compete with cable TV within the next year.

Those are some of the predictions offered by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster in a note to clients Monday that addressed 14 "unanswered questions" about Apple (AAPL). The exercise has become an MORE

No wonder the major record labels are in trouble

A look at music promotions exposes inefficiencies in the business

By Cliff Hunt, chairman, Yangaroo

Hunt: labels aren't embracing digital. Photo: Yangaroo

Does anyone really understand how the record industry promotes new music to the public? If you knew, perhaps it would help you understand why the major record labels are in the trouble they are today.

A watermarked compact disc (the file is embedded with the individual's identification) is delivered from MORE

Innovation: Getting beyond the breakthrough

Corporations need to stop looking for the silver bullet --and to start listening to outsiders.

Hagel: U.S. executives may need to shift their mindsets. Photo: Deloitte

New research by the Deloitte Center for the Edge, part of tax and consulting firm Deloitte, paints an ominous picture: The return on assets for U.S. firms has fallen to almost a quarter of 1965 levels despite continued improvements in labor productivity. 

And according to MORE

Mac vs. PC: Inside the ad wars

Image: Apple Inc.

Every Wednesday, Lee Clow, creative director of Apple's ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day, flies from Los Angeles to Cupertino to meet with Steve Jobs, a weekly get-together that's been going on for years.

Meanwhile, in Redmond, Wash., Steve Ballmer barges into the office of Mich Mathews, head of Microsoft's central marketing group, giving her high fives and shouting again and again "I'm a PC!"

Those are two of the scenes Devin MORE

How many iPhones will Apple sell in China?

Graphic: iPhonAsia

It's tempting to multiply China's 700 million mobile phone users by a percentage pulled out of a hat, and now that China Unicom has announced its deal with Apple (AAPL), everybody seems to be doing it.

Result: Published estimates of how many iPhones Apple will sell in China next year that range from a low of 1 million to a high of 14 million. Here are the numbers we've MORE

Bandwidth hogs - iPhone and other smartphones

The way consumers use Apple's mobile phone (i.e., constantly) means big headaches for carrier AT&T. And more smartphones are on the way.

Randall Stephenson, chairman, CEO, and president of AT&T, holds up his Apple iPhone

At the South by Southwest music, film, and interactive fest in Texas earlier this year, the iPhone was all the rage -- and not in a good way.

The device proved so popular with Internet-addicted attendees MORE

Snow Leopard's low-key launch

Apple's Fifth Ave. store

As of 8 a.m., there was no queue of eager customers lining up outside Apple's (AAPL) flagship Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan to buy the sixth major update of the Macintosh operating system, Snow Leopard, which went on sale Friday morning.

The relatively low-key launch was in striking contrast to the Oct. 26, 2007 unveiling of its predecessor, Leopard, which drew crowds that began at the store's MORE

China Unicom signs iPhone deal

China Unicom announced Friday that it had struck a deal with Apple (AAPL) to bring the iPhone to the world's largest cellphone market.

The announcement ends months of speculation and represents a coup for China Unicom, the country's No. 2 carrier with more than 140 million subscribers. Apple's negotiations with giant China Mobile (nearly 500 million subscribers) broke down earlier this year.

"We believe China Unicom's high-speed mobile broadband network, coupled with MORE

The natural order of things (…and how to save your global business)

Woodward: Global logistics need not be nightmarish. Photo: E2open

Globalization is complex, but it doesn't have to be complicated.

By Mark Woodward, president and CEO, E2open

"It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity." – Kofi Annan

In today's world, we can resist globalization about as readily as we can resist the downward pull of gravity. We may try—with our Icarian wings MORE