* Customers spoken to in Japan, Australia, Europe, U.S.By Kate Holton and Poornima GuptaLONDON/SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Apple Inc’s latest iPhone looks set to become its bestselling
device ever, and one reason appears to be disenchantment with
rival smartphones.Nearly one in four people who thronged Apple stores from
Tokyo to San Francisco told Reuters on Friday they were
ditching BlackBerries, discarding Nokias or even
giving up Google Android-based phones, hoping for
something better.The majority of the 127 iPhone 4S buyers polled informally
by Reuters in the United States, Japan, Australia, France,
Germany and Britain were Apple diehards upgrading their
devices.But 28 claimed they were making a switch, with some saying
they were disillusioned by Research in Motion after
this week’s global BlackBerry outage that enraged millions.”I was with Nokia before, but I guess they’ve sort of lost
their way in terms of the interface and everything. Plus, most
of my friends use Apple,” Myles Geissler, 25, said while
shopping for an iPhone in Sydney.Apple had already pre-sold over a million during the first
day it went live on the Internet — a week before it hit stores
selves in seven countries on Friday.RIM’s BlackBerry and smartphones by manufacturers such as
Nokia — which abandoned Symbian and will this year unveil
devices based on Microsoft software — have been
losing ground to the iPhone, which is facing a serious threat
only from Android phones.The new phone looks similar to the previous iPhone 4 but
has a faster processor, better camera and a voice-activated
software dubbed “Siri”, which lets users ask the phone
questions and helps in logging calendar items.”I am going into fashion and it’s like the official phone
of the industry. Also, I am tired of the Blackberry issues,
like stuff going down every six months,” said fashion publicist
Adam at the Times Square store.RIM’s share of the global smartphone market fell to 11.7
percent in the second quarter, from 13.0 percent in the first,
according to Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney. Android’s share rose
to 43.4 percent from 36.4 percent, and Apple’s rose to 18.2
percent from 16.9 percent.Sprint reported record single days in the United
States for any device — by 1 p.m.”We are seeing a nice mix of people who are first-time
smartphone purchasers as well as those who are switching from
competitors,” said Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney.Away from the notoriously fickle consumer-gadget
marketplace, Apple also appears to be making strides.Apple appears to be a winner when workers get to pick their
own phones, in a trend known as the consumerization of IT.
Companies can save money when they let employees buy their own
phones and pay their own monthly bills.An Aite Group poll of 402 wealth managers conducted before
the outage found that 45 percent would choose an iPhone or
iPad, compared with 14 percent for a BlackBerry.”Siri is pretty amazing. With Android, you have to memorize
commands. I don’t understand why it can’t be on all (Apple)
phones,” said James Thompson, who had braved the six-hour drive
from Los Angeles to San Francisco just to get in line —
overnight — with his brother.
The European Commission said in a statement the deal would
not raise any competition concerns.”Autobar and Colomer have limited market shares on their
respective markets concerned and their products are not key
drivers of consumer demand in health and fitness centres,” the
EU executive said.CVC controls vending machine operator Autobar and cosmetics
supplier Colomer, which operates in Virgin’s fitness centres.Virgin Active has 254 clubs with 1.1 million members in
Britain, South Africa, Italy, Iberia and Australia.
At Germany’s flagship airline, passenger traffic, measured
in revenue seat kilometres, rose 4.6 percent in september, while
the amount of freight and mail transported by Lufthansa group
companies fell 4.1 percent.Lufthansa, which warned on profit last month and said it
would offer fewer seats than planned this winter after bookings
weakened, said on Wednesday passenger growth was mostly driven
by routes to the Americas and Asia-Pacific.The numbers come a day after Lufthansa Cargo received a
setback when a court unexpectedly put a temporary halt on night
flights from its Frankfurt hub.Equinet analyst Jochen Rothenbacher said the decision could
wipe out fourth-quarter operating profit at the unit, which he
had forecast at 36 million euros ($49 million).
($1 = 0.733 euro)
* US earnings eyed for growth impact from euro debt crisisBy Chikako MogiTOKYO, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Asian shares fell on Wednesday on
signs that Europe’s debt crisis has hurt confidence in the
global economy and is starting to weigh on corporate earnings,
while the Slovak parliament’s rejection of a plan to expand the
euro zone rescue fund added to uncertainty.Slovakia is the only euro zone country yet to approve a plan
to boost the funds available to the bailout vehicle, which is
seen as crucial to containing Europe’s debt crisis, and a
re-vote was expected later this week.While the main opposition party was set to support the
measure now the government has resigned, the twist has added to
market nervousness just as European authorities were striving to
come up with concrete steps to avoid a systemic contagion.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan
fell 0.4 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei average
opened down 0.6 percent.Global stocks, as measured by MSCI’s All-Country World index
, gained 0.4 percent on Tuesday, but eased after
New York close as Alcoa Inc , the largest U.S. aluminium
producer, said slowing economic growth knocked prices for the
metal lower, denting its third-quarter profit and sending its
shares down in after-hours trading.”Alcoa wasn’t all that bad, so we won’t see an ‘Alcoa shock’
today, but investors took it as bad news that the company
clearly felt the impact of slowing growth,” said Kenichi Hirano,
operating officer at Tachibana Securities in Tokyo.”Those who were looking for reassurance about the U.S.
earnings season didn’t find it,” he said.The euro’s recent rally stalled after the Slovak vote, and
was trading down around 0.1 percent on Wednesday at $1.3620.Oil prices fell, with Brent crude futures down 0.4
percent and U.S. crude futures down 0.9 percent.Market sentiment had improved this week, after a weekend
pledge by German and French leaders to come up with a plan to
tackle the debt crisis. In Asia, China stepped in to shore up
banking shares.European officials continued to seek ways to restore the
region’s banking sector after the banks’ weakening financial
strength due to sovereign debt problems prompted a fresh round
of credit rating downgrades.Banking and regulatory sources said on Tuesday that Europe’s
banks would have to achieve a significantly stronger capital
position under a quick-fire regulatory health check and may need
to raise some 100 billion euros ($137 billion).Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Union’s
executive European Commission, said he would propose a bank
recapitalisation plan on Wednesday, even though there is no
agreement yet on where the money will come from.Rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings
downgraded Spanish and Italian banks on Tuesday, underscoring
concerns about the impact of the escalating debt crisis on the
sector.Investors eyed developments on the euro zone debt crisis
ahead of an EU summit on Oct. 23, as well as minutes of the U.S.
Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting due later on Wednesday For
clues on the state of the U.S. economy.
