iPhone 5 hits China as Apple market share slips

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The China release of its iPhone 5 on Friday should win Apple Inc some respite from a recent slide in its share of what is likely already the world’s biggest smartphone market, but its longer-term hopes may depend on new technology being tested by China‘s top telecoms carrier.

Cupertino, California-based Apple has been in talks about a tie-up with China Mobile for four years. A deal with China’s biggest carrier is seen as crucial to improve Apple’s distribution in a market of 290 million users – which is forecast to double this year.

China is Apple’s second-largest and fastest-growing market – it brings in around 15 percent of total revenue – but the company’s failure to strike a deal with China Mobile means it is missing out on a large number of phone users. As the China pie grows, Apple’s sales increase, but without China Mobile, it’s losing ground at a faster rate compared to other brands.

“In absolute terms, this (iPhone 5) launch will certainly result in strong sales for Apple in China. However, in relative terms, I don’t believe it will move the needle enough in market share,” said Shiv Putcha, a Mumbai-based analyst at Ovum, a global technology consultant.

China Mobile and Apple initially said they were separated only by a technical issue – as the Chinese carrier runs a different 3G network from most of the world – but that has evolved into a broader and more complex issue of revenue-sharing.

“China Mobile and Apple still have to solve many issues, such as the business model, articles of cooperation and revenue division, but I believe we will reach an agreement eventually,” China Mobile CEO Li Yue was reported by Chinese media as saying in Guangzhou last week.

Apple China declined to comment. China Mobile said it had no update to the Apple discussions.

STRONG PRE-ORDERS

Apple’s ranking in China’s smartphone market slipped to sixth in July-September, according to research firm IDC, [ID:nL4N09G1QK] but investors, primed to look to China product launches for an uptick in Apple’s quarterly sales, have good headline numbers to digest – more than 300,000 iPhones pre-ordered on one carrier alone. But it’s the lack of a deal with the No.1 carrier that prevents those numbers being stronger.

The iPhone is currently sold through Apple’s seven stores, resellers and through China Unicom and China Telecom – which together have fewer than half the mobile subscribers of bigger rival China Mobile.

“Apple’s market share declined because of the transition between the iPhone 4S and 5. Their market share will recover (with the iPhone 5), but if you don’t have China Mobile, the significant market share gains will be very difficult,” said Huang Leping, an analyst at Nomura in Hong Kong.

TD-LTE: STILL DISTANT

Cutting a deal with a Chinese state-owned carrier may be less optimal than the deals Apple is used to in other markets, and analysts note that China Mobile wouldn’t necessarily open the flood gates for Apple.

Ovum’s Putcha believes Apple and China Mobile will eventually strike a deal – though this would be for an iPhone running on China Mobile’s next-generation network rather than its current 3G network.

Of China Mobile’s 704 million subscribers, only 79 million are on its 3G network, and Apple has been reluctant to sign up to China Mobile’s under-utilized, homegrown TD-SCDMA technology. “Apple likely doesn’t see the return-on-investment in extending themselves for TD-SCDMA,” Putcha said.

China Mobile is currently trialling its next-generation network, TD-LTE, which could be of more interest to Apple, but full-scale commercial use – and an iPhone tie-up – could still be years away.

ANDROID THREAT

Meanwhile, rivals are circling, eating away at Apple’s smartphone market share. Samsung Electronics, Lenovo Group and little-known Chinese brand Coolpad held the top three slots in the third quarter, according to IDC.

All three have relationships with China Mobile and offer smartphone models at different price points. Apple competes exclusively at the high-end, and even there, rivals are rolling out models with China Mobile. Last week, Nokia said it planned to release its latest Lumia smartphone with China’s top carrier, which is also expected to launch Research in Motion’s new Blackberry 10, analysts predict.

“The threat will still come more from the Android camp where they have many vendors already working with China Mobile and offering high-end phones,” said TZ Wong, a Singapore-based IDC analyst.

While these smartphones don’t generate the buzz of a new iPhone, Chinese buyers are not known for their brand loyalty, and this could siphon away users considering an Apple upgrade.

“I’ve used a Blackberry, Android and iOS and, personally, I want to try the Windows 8,” said Andy Huang, a 37-year-old fund manager, who owns most iPad models, an iPhone 4 and a 4S. “I think the Windows 8 is very innovative.”

With a China Mobile deal looking some way off, Apple could always boost market share by offering cheaper models – the basic iPhone 5 will cost 5288 yuan ($ 850) without a contract – though this appears an unlikely route for a high-end brand.

“If they want to expand market share, probably the only way to do it here dramatically would be to put out a lower cost phone,” said Michael Clendenin, managing director at RedTech Advisors. “It’s really uncertain if they’d decide to go that route … Apple’s a mystery in that regard.”

($ 1 = 6.2518 Chinese yuan)

(Additional reporting by the Shanghai Newsroom and Jane Lee; Editing by Kazunori Takada and Ian Geoghegan)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Hugh Jackman Gets Star on Walk of Fame

Good news just keeps coming for Hugh Jackman. Fresh off the heels of his SAG and Golden Globe Awards nominations his presence was required to accept his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

RELATED: 2013 Golden Globe Nominees

ET's Christina McLarty congratulated Jackman for today's early-morning announcement, naming him as a Golden Globe nominee for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.

"We got in at about two o'clock in the morning from New York, so I had kind of just gotten off to sleep but it's probably the best way to be woken up ever," said the Les Miserables star, who was also nominated for a SAG Award on Wednesday.

Jackman was "humbled" by the appearance of big names such as Anne Hathaway and Jay Leno, who showed up to support him outside of Madame Tussauds on Hollywood Blvd., but it was his family's presence that touched him the most.

"I do genuinely have the coolest wife, the coolest kids," said Jackman. "It's the greatest thing in my life. They've always been a priority for me, and all of this is all the more meaningful because of them."

You can see Jackman in Les Miserables starting Christmas Day.

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Gambino crime family associate known as 'Seven-Second Bandit' cried when he was busted: defense

This mobster turned rat has one heck of a sob story.

Known as the “Seven-Second Bandit,” Gambino crime family associate and speedy serial bank heists Jack Mannino had 24 New York bank stick-ups under his belt — enough to earn him life behind bars — when the FBI caught up to him.

But the feds had no idea the wannabe wiseguy was also a crybaby.

“The day you were arrested by agents, you actually started to cry. Is that right?” defense attorney Elizabeth Macedonio asked the broad-shouldered ex-con.

“Yes,” the mob associate answered.

Mannino was on the witness stand in Brooklyn federal court today testifying as a government witness against his alleged accomplice in his final bank robbery — the one that got both of them arrested earlier this year.

Handout Photo

Jack Mannino

A serial bank robber who was in continual debt to loansharks, Mannino admitted that he decided to flip after his arrest and became a government witness.

Yesterday he gave the jury a detailed account of the Bensonhurst bank robbery and said he planned and executed it with the man standing truial — reputed mob associate Gary Fama.

Despite careful planning by the two experienced stick-up men, unexpected events marred their efforts.

A dye pack exploded inside the bag of money they had stolen from the bank, and the transmission blew out of their getaway Lexus as they tried to speed away when the sound of sirens grew louder.

Just three months after the robbery, Mannino said was holed up in a hideaway on Staten Island, broke and running low on food.

FBI agents eventually tracked him down with the help of belongings he abandoned in the ailing getaway car — including his wallet filled with ID and credit cards and cellphone.

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Lennar to borrow $1.7 billion from Chinese bank

Miami-based Lennar Corp. has gotten approval on $1.7 billion in loans from China Development Bank to fund the development and construction of two major projects in San Francisco, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

The contract, set to close by Dec. 31 subject to various conditions, would mark the first U.S. loan by the big state-owned Chinese bank. One condition — tagged the “Chinese component”— is that China Railway Construction Corp. be included as a general contracting partner in the project, the person said.

Closing by year’s end is crucial because of new tax rules set to take effect, the person added.

The agreement, first reported in The Wall Street Journal, would provide funding for the first six years of what is envisioned to be a 20-year project.

The loan agreement, reached Dec. 7 after Lennar officials met in China with bank officials, provides for $1 billion in financing to a partnership led by Lennar to redevelop Hunters Point Shipyard-Candlestick Point, a site in southeast San Francisco spanning more than 700 acres, the person said. Plans for the mixed-use community call for nearly 12,000 residential units on the site. Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2013.

Under the pact, the Chinese bank would provide another $700 million to a partnership of Lennar, Stockbridge Capital Group and Wilson Meany, a real estate investment and development firm, to redevelop Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Islands in San Francisco Bay. Some 8,000 units of housing are planned for the mixed-use project on 535 acres. The U.S. Navy is set to turn over the first parcel of land to the development company in late 2013.

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State investigates foster father in Jackson South case

State child welfare administrators are investigating a Miami foster parent who may be implicated in an alleged scheme to abduct a newborn child from the nursery at Jackson South Community Hospital.

The foster father, who has not been identified, brought his family to the Jackson nursery and visited with a baby that had been taken into state care by the Department of Children & Families, said Esther Jacobo, DCF’s top Miami administrator, on Wednesday.

An unidentified Jackson employee had told the foster father the baby was available for adoption, and the foster father could pick up the child.

The incident, which occurred in October, ended up with Jackson announcing on Tuesday the termination of two Jackson South managers, the chief nursing officer and maternity ward director. Jackson spokesman Edwin O’Dell said they were offered the opportunity to resign and they did so. Jackson did not identify the employees.

DCF sheltered the baby after the agency received a call to the state’s child abuse hotline and investigated the child’s welfare, Jacobo said. The agency placed a hold on the baby, meaning the child could not be released back to his or her birth mother. DCF was called back to the hospital within a day or two amid rumors that “people were selling a baby.”

An investigation showed that a high-level Jackson employee was friendly with the foster father, who was seeking to foster or adopt another child. He allowed the foster father, Jacobo said, to bring his family to visit with the newborn.

On the day the newborn was to be discharged, the foster father appeared and tried to take the baby with him, Jacobo said. A Jackson nurse stopped him before he was able to leave the hospital with the infant. The nurse said that, without a valid DCF identification badge, the father could not take custody of the baby.

A source told The Herald the father currently has only one child in his custody.

In the wake of the incident, Jacobo said, DCF agreed to perform a series of training sessions at Jackson involving dependent children.

“We are not placing any other children” in the home of the foster father, Jacobo said. “We are in the legal process of figuring out what to do with his licensure.”

Jacobo said the agency is looking at all its options, including attempting to pull the foster father’s license.

O’Dell said Jackson executives first learned about the problem about Oct. 9. They started an investigation, which led to the resignations on Oct. 15, but Jackson Chief Executive Carlos Migoya did not notify county leaders and board members until he released a memo on Tuesday — shortly before WTVJ-NBC 6 reported the problem at Jackson South.

In the memo, Migoya wrote: “While no patients were harmed as a result of this incident, we concluded that Jackson policies were indeed violated. Consistent with our culture of accountability, employees were terminated or otherwise disciplined. Appropriate reports were made to regulatory agencies.”

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Justin Bieber Rep Reacts to Murder Plot

Following news that two New Mexico men have been suspected of plotting to murder pop sensation Justin Bieber, a rep for the singer has released an official statement to ET.

RELATED: N.M. Men Plotted to Kill Justin Bieber

"We take every precaution to protect and ensure the safety of Justin and his fans," says the rep.

According to a police report obtained by ET, a New Mexico prisoner named Dana Martin, serving out two life sentences for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl, enlisted the help of former fellow inmate Mark Staake and his nephew Tanner Ruane to carry out four murders. Two of the reported targets were Justin Bieber and his bodyguard.

The papers then state that what ultimately foiled the plot was Martin himself inexplicably turning in his co-conspirators. Staake was reportedly arrested in Vermont on outstanding warrants, while his nephew made it to New York, where police reports allege he was arrested with "murder tools and pruning shears."

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2-year-old Bronx toddler saved by Good Samaritan after wandering into traffic

An adorable 2-year-old Bronx girl dodged death today after wandering alone out of her home and walking into a traffic-heavy street — where she was scooped up by a quick-thinking Good Samaritan.

“As a father, this is nuts!” fumed Pepsi deliveryman Martin Rodriguez, 32, who spotted Samira Dawson teetering barefoot across busy White Plains Road in Parkchester wearing just a onesie and diaper. “I have a little girl the same age and it crushed me to see this.”

At 9:10 a.m. today, Samira somehow escaped her family’s apartment on Guerlain Street undetected, walked outside and strolled across White Plains Road.

“She was at the double line in the middle of the street!” Rodriguez said.

“She dropped her little bookbag in the middle of the street, and that’s all she was worried about.”

Then, “A lady grabbed her,” Rodriguez said. The unidentified woman gave Samira to a Parkchester public safety sergeant, who called cops.

“She appeared like a bubbly child,” said Police Officer Harry Kwan, who draped his coat around Samira. “She appeared nervous but obviously enjoyed being held.”

Samira’s worried-looking brother, Davante Valentine, 20, showed up at the scene at 9:39 a.m.

“I don’t know what happened,” Valentine told The Post. “All I know is I was sleeping and my [18-year-old brother] was supposed to be watching her and he left the house without telling me.”

His and Samira’s mom Ingrid Dawson — who told cops she had gone to the pharmacy that morning — showed up just before 10 a.m. and yelled, “Oh my God!” after seeing her daughter.

“You were supposed to be watching her!” Dawson, 38, snapped at Valentine.

Both police and child-protective services workers are probing the incident. No charges had been filed as of last night.

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Tips for managing workplace stress

There are end of the year deals to close, budgets to meet, gifts to buy, and just thinking about it has your stress level rising. But when does stress turn into distress and at what point should your employer intervene?

For American workers, coping with workplace stress is a year-round concern that employers are beginning to see as partly their responsibility. Three-fourths of employees believe that workers have more on-the-job stress than a generation ago and nearly half say they need help in learning how to manage it, an Attitudes in the American workplace study by the American Institute of Stress shows.

Most of us harried workers struggle with the daily pressure of time demands, but some cross over into the danger zone. The telltale sign that a breakdown is near is a complete lack of work-life balance.

“Often these are the people working 14 hours a day and expecting others to do it, too,” said Charles Nemeroff, chairman of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “I’ll ask them when is the last time you had fun and they look at me like are you kidding?”

Service professionals such as lawyers, financial advisors, accountants and doctors particularly are susceptible with increased client demands and technology making it more difficult to shut off job stress. Often they push themselves harder and harder to achieve.

Attorney Harley Tropin, a shareholder at Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton, just doesn’t see that formula leading to a long career. He wants to help his lawyers strive for balance and change the way their brains and bodies react to stressors. Last month, he brought in medical experts to help them identify stressors and learn coping skills such as breathing and meditation. “It’s important to deal with stress the right way, to make a conscious effort to do something about it and not assume it will take care of itself,” Tropin says.

Tropin personally defuses the stress of arguing in court, by practicing Mindful Meditation, a widely adopted form of meditation that has become increasingly popular with business leaders. It involves focusing on your mind on the present and becoming aware of your breathing.

Alan Gold, a federal judge for the Southern District of Florida, also practices mindfulness meditation and has become a proponent of teaching practices for stress reduction to attorneys. Gold has advocated for the creation of a task force on the mindful practice of law with the Dade County Bar Association and the local Federal Bar Association.

Gold says he regularly sees attorneys shuffle into his courtroom on the brink of a breakdown. He links erosion in the degree of civility in the profession with lawyers’ inability to cope with extreme stresses.

They may lash out in anger at a co-worker, assistant, client — or even a judge.

“If you recognize you’re in this situation, the next step is to get out of it. The quickest and simplest way is to slow down and take time to focus on your breathing. This is not something that comes naturally for lawyers. It’s counterproductive to their bottom line way of doing business,” he says.

Outside of meditation, some employers are turning to on-site yoga, or just simply workload management to help employees better manage stress. At Kane & Company, a South Florida CPA firm, employees recently learned from a psychologist how to become more effective controlling their job-related stress. Suggestions included breathing exercises, exercise in general and focusing on relaxation techniques. Monte Kane, the firm’s managing director, says the workshops help his staff with everyday stress, but he makes it his responsibility to know when they have entered the burnout zone.

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Jamie Foxx Dishes on Leonardo DiCaprio

It's an ET exclusive!

On Wednesday Oscar-winner and Django Unchained star Jamie Foxx sits down with Nancy O'Dell to talk about his new film and open up about his interesting on-set relationship with co-star Leonardo DiCaprio.

Video: Oscars Flashback '05: Jamie Foxx Wins for 'Ray'

Also tomorrow, Anne Hathaway's style evolution and an update on Kate Middleton's health. Plus, we unveil a mystery Hollywood bride ready to walk down the aisle.

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Supporter of Orthodox Jewish sex abuse victim attacked in Brooklyn

A staunch supporter of an Orthodox Jewish sex abuse victim was attacked on a Brooklyn street today by the bleach-throwing son of a man he’d accused of being a pedophile.

Anti-sex abuse activist Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg, 62, was ambushed as he walked down Roebling Street across from Schnitzler’s Famous Fish market around noon, he and witnesses told The Post.

“He comes up to me and he taps me on the shoulder,” the still-shaken Rosenberg recounted after being treated for ocular burns at Woodhull Medical Center.

“It is Mr. Schnitzler, who owns the fish store,” Rosenberg said.

Paul Martinka

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg attacked In Williamsburg this morning.

“He walk up hard to me. He looks me in the face. I saw him holding a glass. I thought it was coffee or something and he throws it in my face.”

Rosenberg runs an information hotline and blog for sex abuse victims and was a nearly daily presence at the trial of powerful Hasidic leader Nechemya Weberman.

The attack was in retaliation for his support of Weberman’s now 18-year-old victim, as well as for his claims that his alleged attacker’s father, Monsey rabbi Shalom Schniztler, “is a pedophile,” Rosenberg said.

On Monday — as Weberman was convicted Monday on 59 counts of abusing of a Brooklyn schoolgirl — Rosenberg posted on his blog, accusing rabbi Schnitzler of abusing young boys.

“I said Mr. Shalom Schnitzler should pack up his bags and join Mr. Weberman in jail,” Rosenberg recalled.

The activist also posted on Twitter after Weberman’s conviction.

“Burech hashem!! (Praise God!!),” he tweeted. “Chazer (Pig) Weberman Is Arrested After All 60 Charges Was Totally True! Rabunim & Chazerim (Rabbis & Pigs) Are All The Same Garbage.”

“Two days later, this is what happens,” Rosenberg said, referring to the attack.

According to Rosenberg, his attacker is a relative of Rabbi Baruch Lebovitz, whose 2010 child sex abuse conviction was reversed and is slated to be retried in February.

Police had not charged anyone late yesterday in the alleged assault.

Rosenberg — who left the medical center in a hospital gown after police took his bleach-stained clothes as evidence — was enroute to the 90th Precinct to try and identify his attacker in a lineup.

Witnesses said the bleach-tossing thug fled the street after dousing Rosenberg.

Primo Santiago, who manages a liquor store on the same block as the fish market, was just opening up shop when the attack occured.

“It happened so fast,” he said. “Out of the corner of my eye I saw [Rosenberg] walking down the street, and the other guy ran from the fish store and threw the bleach.”

“He didn’t say anything,” Santiago said of the attacker. “He just ran toward the guy.”

After the attack, Primo saw Rosenberg staggering and making a phone call, and told the wounded man to rinse out his eyes in a nearby phone store.

“He said I think I got bleach on my face, that’s all he said,” Primo recalled.

Sources said Hatzolah, the Jewish ambulance corps, refused to pick Rosenberg up, so he waited for EMS to take him to the hospital.

Rosenberg said he’d been on his way to pay bills at a corner store when he was accosted.

He said it wasn’t his first encounter with the fish store owner, who has spit at him before.

Rosenberg said his outspokeness has made him the target of threats for years.

“I am the activist in the community that opened up the can of worms,” he noted. “In our community we have so much molesting going on — from teachers, from ordained rabbis, from any kind of religious people.

“And we have ritual baths called the mikvah and there is so much molestation going on. Children who are three- and four-year-old, they go there with naked old people and I kept on saying, ‘this has to stop.’”

“So they ostracized me,” Rosenberg said. “they threw me out, and since then there is not a peaceful day in my life.”

The latest attack has him fearing for his life.

“I am very much afraid,” Rosenberg said. I’m thinking of going out of town for a week or two.”

Additional reporting by Josh Saul and Kirstan Conley

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