Mar 22, 2015

Ragbag Headliners

Apple Plans $30 Cable TV to Smash Rivals

Apple is in talks to offer a collection of about 25 television networks to owners of Apple TVs, iPhones, and iPads this fall, sources close to the deal told The Wall Street Journal. Apple is working with CBS, Fox, and Walt Disney Co., the owner of ABC, to create a “skinny” bundle that includes ESPN and FX, according to the report. Apple is planning to formally announce the online television service in June and launch in September, with prices between $30 and $40 a month, according to some media executives. Notably absent from the deals is NBC because of Apple’s failed talks with NBCUniversal’s parent company, Comcast Corp., over working together on a streaming television platform. –Source: The Daily Beast


Apple Will Open iPhone Trade-In Program To Android, BlackBerry

Soon you’ll be able to trade in your old Android or BlackBerry handset for credit toward a new iPhone.

Android users looking to make the jump to iPhone will soon have one more incentive to do so: the chance to trade in their old device for Apple Store credit toward an iPhone.

Sources familiar with Apple’s plans told BuzzFeed News that the company plans to expand its iPhone Reuse and Recycling Program to include non-iOS handsets. That program, which debuted in 2013, currently offers customers up to $175 store credit toward a new iPhone for used iPhones that meet the company’s trade-in criteria.

The updated program, first reported by 9to5Mac, will make a similar offer to consumers who use Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone handsets. It’s expected to go live in a matter of weeks, sources said. It’s not yet clear how much store credit Apple intends to offer for non-iOS handsets, and sources would not say by what criteria it will evaluate them.

Apple has long been pushing to increase the number of iPhone sales made through the company’s own stores. Extending its iPhone trade-in program to non-iOS handsets is a smart way of doing that, enticing upgrade-ineligible consumers on almost any mobile platform into its stores with the promise of credit toward a new iPhone. And because iPhone buyers who purchased their device at the Apple Store typically own and buy more Apple products relative to iPhone buyers at other outlets, it’s a particularly smart move ahead of the forthcoming launch of Apple Watch.

Apple declined to comment. –Source: Buzz Feed

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