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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Apple Inc (AAPL), AT and T (T), iPhone

About 1 million people may have illegally hacked into their Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhones so that they no longer are required to use AT&T Inc.’s (NYSE: T) network, according to an estimate by a well-regarded Wall Street analyst.

The estimate by Sanford Bernstein’s Toni Sacconaghi is amazing taking into account that there were 3.75 million iPhones sold last year, according to a summary of his report on Bloomberg News. For those of you doing the math, that equals 27% of all of the so-called Jesus phones. Another analyst, Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, pegs the figure at 838,000.

But as Bloomberg notes, Sacconaghi believes the situation is serious since, “for each 1 million unlocked iPhones, Apple loses $300 million to $400 million in future revenue and profit, and may also find it more difficult to sign deals with new carriers.”

So far, Apple has been unable to thwart the hackers and the problem is only going to get worse. Gadget freaks, like the rest of the world, are becoming increasingly worried about the economy. The iPhone that looked like the best thing since sliced bread last year may have become a drain on their wallets this year. The end result is that they will look for the cheapest way to operate their gizmo.

This is an issue Apple cannot afford to ignore.

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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Apple Inc (AAPL), AT and T (T), iPhone

About 1 million people might have illegally hacked into their Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhones so that they no longer are required to use AT&T Inc.’s (NYSE: T) network, according to an estimate by a well-regarded Wall Street analyst.

The estimate by Sanford Bernstein’s Toni Sacconaghi is astonishing taking into account that there were 3.75 million iPhones sold last year, according to a summary of his report on Bloomberg News. For those of you doing the math, that equals 27% of all of the so-called Jesus phones. Another analyst, Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, pegs the figure at 838,000.

But as Bloomberg notes, Sacconaghi believes the situation is serious since, “for each 1 million unlocked iPhones, Apple loses $300 million to $400 million in future revenue and profit, and might also find it more difficult to sign deals with new carriers.”

So far, Apple has been unable to thwart the hackers and the problem is only going to get worse. Gadget freaks, like the rest of the world, are becoming increasingly worried about the economy. The iPhone that looked like the best thing since sliced bread last year might have become a drain on their wallets this year. The end result is that they will look for the cheapest way to operate their gizmo.

This is an issue Apple cannot afford to ignore.

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Filed under: International markets, Earnings reports, Rumors, Products and services, Competitive strategy, McDonald’s (MCD), Recession

Shares of fast food giant McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) traded in the red all day in the wake of disappointing U.S. sales figures for its fourth quarter. The company reported its fourth quarter numbers this morning, and despite beating analyst estimates for its earnings, the stock has been selling off all day.

Going into this mornings earnings announcement, analysts had been anticipating to see the company show earnings of 71 cents per share, and the company actually boasted earnings of 73 cents, but earnings were overshadowed by the fact that the company had flat same stores sales growth during December, raising concerns of the impact of slowing U.S. economy.

While December’s same store sales have sparked investor concerns, the company is estimating that January’s same store sales in its U.S. stores will grow by about 1.5%. European same store sales are estimated to grow at least 8%.

In an attempt to fend off worries about 2008, McDonald’s tried to calm investors by stating that the main reason for the weak December sales figures was uncommon cold weather across the nation during the month, but Wall Street does not seem to be buying it. Shares shut the day down 5.6% to $51.07, down $3.03.

Wall Street will continue to worry about the company’s outlook at least until we see the final number for January same store sales. Until then, we’ll still have to question whether December numbers were a result of wintry weather, or if we’re seeing signs of deeper troubles for the fast food giant.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor’s Observer

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Filed under: Bad news, Products and services, Industry

The Associated Press last week reported that the record industry is fighting a major losing battle against illegal downloading, which outpaces legal downloading alternatives 20-to-1, causing losses in the billions of dollars. Meanwhile, revenue from digital music sales has not made any inroads toward recovering money lost by the dying CD, rising just 40% to $2.9 billion during 2007 after doubling in 2005 and tripling in 2006. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry also told the AP, “CD sales fell 11 percent between 2005 and 2006 and were likely to drop further in 2007,” and digital revenue “is also showing signs of slowing.”

The IFPI also said that “digital downloads have grown in five years to account for 15 % of the world’s music sales, with more than 500 legally licensed music sites selling around 6 million tracks of music.” The industry’s fight against piracy has received huge support in France, where the government of President Nicholas Sarkozy has proposed to have Internet service providers there “automatically disconnect customers involved in piracy.” Japan leads digital downloads, both illegal and legal, with sales and piracy mostly working through consumers’ phones.

Although this devastating report indicates that the record industry is still in a dire situation, the developments in legal downloading throughout the last few months in 2007 and the first month of 2008 seem to set a more optimistic tone. Whether the disabling of anti-piracy technology from all music labels will grant growth this year, is obviously yet to be seen, but the benefits of the music available now would seem to outpace the availability of media available illegally. The problem of paying for products still remains for those consumers, but the quality of new MP3 tracks is finally at an acceptable level for those that look for the difference.

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Filed under: International markets, Earnings reports, Rumors, Products and services, Competitive strategy, McDonald’s (MCD), Recession

Shares of fast food giant McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) traded in the red all day in the wake of disappointing U.S. sales figures for its fourth quarter. The company reported its fourth quarter numbers this morning, and despite beating analyst estimates for its earnings, the stock has been selling off all day.

Going into this mornings earnings announcement, analysts had been anticipating to see the company show earnings of 71 cents per share, and the company actually boasted earnings of 73 cents, but earnings were overshadowed by the fact that the company had flat same stores sales growth during December, raising concerns of the impact of slowing U.S. economy.

While December’s same store sales have sparked investor concerns, the company is estimating that January’s same store sales in its U.S. stores will grow by about 1.5%. European same store sales are estimated to grow at least 8%.

In an attempt to fend off worries about 2008, McDonald’s tried to calm investors by stating that the main reason for the weak December sales figures was unusual cold weather across the nation during the month, but Wall Street does not seem to be buying it. Shares closed the day down 5.6% to $51.07, down $3.03.

Wall Street will continue to worry about the company’s outlook at least until we see the final number for January same store sales. Until then, we will still have to question whether December numbers were a result of wintry weather, or if we’re seeing signs of deeper troubles for the fast food giant.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor’s Observer

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Filed under: Bad news, Products and services, Industry

The Associated Press last week reported that the record industry is fighting a major losing battle against illegal downloading, which outpaces legal downloading alternatives 20-to-1, causing losses in the billions of dollars. Meanwhile, revenue from digital music sales has not made any inroads toward recovering money lost by the dying CD, rising just 40% to $2.9 billion during 2007 after doubling in 2005 and tripling in 2006. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry also told the AP, “CD sales fell 11 percent between 2005 and 2006 and were prone to drop further in 2007,” and digital revenue “is also showing signs of slowing.”

The IFPI also said that “digital downloads have grown in five years to account for 15 % of the world’s music sales, with more than 500 legally licensed music sites selling around 6 million tracks of music.” The industry’s fight against piracy has received large support in France, where the government of President Nicholas Sarkozy has proposed to have Internet service providers there “automatically disconnect customers involved in piracy.” Japan leads digital downloads, both illegal and legal, with sales and piracy mostly working through consumers’ phones.

Although this devastating report indicates that the record industry is still in a dire situation, the developments in legal downloading throughout the last few months in 2007 and the first month of 2008 seem to set a more optimistic tone. Whether the disabling of anti-piracy technology from all music labels will allow growth this year, is obviously yet to be seen, but the benefits of the music available now would seem to outpace the availability of media available illegally. The problem of paying for products still remains for those consumers, but the quality of new MP3 tracks is finally at an acceptable level for those that look for the difference.

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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Best Purchase (BBY)

In another slap to the sloppiness of vendor quality control, an entire line of Insignia-brand digital photo frames might be shipping with a computer virus installed from the factory. What a nice gift for those who may have received the offending frames as a current holiday gift, eh?

Insignia, which is an outsourced private-label brand of Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY), produces a 10.4-inch digital photo frame (model: NS-DPF-10A) that might have shipped in volume with a virus on-board due to infected manufacturing workstations used to test the frames before shipment to Best Purchase distribution centers.

The problem was uncovered by multiple customers who couldn’t figure out why their PCs became infected with a virus after connecting the digital photo frames to download digital photos. Insignia probably made quite a first impression on those customers…

The retailer has known about the problem since early January, and is providing a hotline for concerned customers to call, but it isn’t recalling the specific Insignia model. However, remaining models have been pulled from store shelves and production discontinued. For those customers owning the Insignia NS-DPF-10A, superior check your Computer if you’ve connected the photo frame to it to download pics.

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Filed under: Products and services, Marketing and advertising, Hershey Co (HSY)

The relationship between Hershey Co. (NYSE: HSY) and Wall Street has been sour for a while. Shares of the chocolate maker have plunged more than 30% over the past year amid concerns about rising commodity prices and the growth of healthier eating habits. Now, the confectioner is raising wholesale prices by an average of 13% on one-third of its domestic product line effective immediately [subscription required].

Chocoholics are paying the price for higher costs for raw materials, fuel, utilities, and transportation.

The move comes less than a week after the Pennsylvania company reported lousy fourth quarter results and gave investors disappointing guidance. In addition, the No. 1 candy maker recently bowed to pressure from law enforcement officials and said it would stop making Ice Breakers Pacs mints after some complaints that the candy might be mistaken for heroin or cocaine.

Yet another reason for people to eat healthy.

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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Best Purchase (BBY)

In another slap to the sloppiness of vendor quality control, an entire line of Insignia-brand digital photo frames may be shipping with a personal virus installed from the factory. What a nice gift for those who might have received the offending frames as a recent holiday gift, eh?

Insignia, which is an outsourced private-label brand of Ideal Purchase, Inc. (NYSE: BBY), produces a 10.4-inch digital photo frame (model: NS-DPF-10A) that may have shipped in volume with a virus on-board due to infected manufacturing workstations used to test the frames before shipment to Ideal Purchase distribution centers.

The problem was uncovered by multiple customers who couldn’t figure out why their Computers became infected with a virus after connecting the digital photo frames to download digital photos. Insignia probably made quite a first impression on those customers…

The retailer has known about the problem since early January, and is providing a hotline for concerned customers to call, but it is not recalling the specific Insignia model. However, remaining models have been pulled from store shelves and production discontinued. For those customers owning the Insignia NS-DPF-10A, superior check your Computer if you’ve connected the photo frame to it to download photos.

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