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GT Advanced accuses Apple of exploiting under ‘bait-and-switch’

Pulling its “bait and switch” move, tech giant Apple Inc has imposed force upon GT Advanced Technologies into a money-losing deal in order to supply the smartphone maker with sapphire, an affidavit filed by a senior executive of the company has revealed.

The documents were unfolded by a US Bankruptcy Court in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Friday.

In the document, Daniel Squiller, GT Advanced Chief Operating Officer, said that the tech giant offered it with an impressive deal.

As per the document, Apple offered the largest sale ever for GT Advanced and later changed the terms and conditions of the agreement after it was too late for the minor firm to pursue other opportunities.

GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT), the sapphire screen supplier for Apple’s mobile devices, filed for Chapter 11 protection in a bankruptcy court last month pleading to free it from all the contracts with the Cupertino-based company, calling it “oppressive and burdensome”.

“GTAT believes that it has many claims against Apple arising out of its business relationship. The agreements imposed oppressive and burdensome terms and obligations on GTAT,” the lawyers for the US-based screen manufacturer had said in the paperwork which was filed in the US Bankruptcy Court.

The two firms, however, later reached an agreement to part ways and allowed the smaller company to proceed with its bankruptcy. But Judge Henry Boroff turned down the requests by the firms to keep some of the documents in the case undisclosed.

In an agreement that was struck last year, GT Advanced outfitted a plant that was owned by Apple in Mesa, Arizona with sapphire furnaces that it would use to make scratch-resistant materials exclusively for Apple devices.

In a post, Squiller wrote: “With a classic bait-and-switch strategy, Apple presented GTAT with an onerous and massively one-sided deal in the fall of 2013.”

Meanwhile, unsealing another document on Friday, Apple termed the accusations made by GT Advanced as “scandalous and defamatory”.

According to Squiller, in the beginning of the negotiation, Apple has offered to purchase 2,600 sapphire growing furnaces from GT Advanced.

“In hindsight, it is unclear whether Apple even intended to purchase any sapphire furnaces from GTAT,” Squiller wrote.

Following months of hard negotiations, Apple finally offered a deal under which it would shift away the economic risk by lending the smaller company with the money to build the furnaces for production of the sapphire. These products were meant for exclusively sale to Apple for less than market value, Squiller wrote.

It was worse on the part of GT Advanced as it was forced to enter into the unfair deal in October 2013 as its elaborate negotiations with Apple had left it in solitary, restricting it to pursue deals with other smartphone making companies, he said.

In a separate filing, Apple said, “These statements are intended to vilify Apple and portray Apple as a coercive bully.”

The filing said that the GT Advanced was eagerly trying for the deal, while highlighting towards the more than 20 percent surge in the shares of GT Advanced after the agreement was unveiled.

In November of last year, GT Advanced Chief Executive Officer Tom Gutierrez told analysts on a quarterly conference call the company was “very pleased” to have made the agreement to supply sapphire to Apple.

iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Release Date in China on October 17 at a price tag of $860.16

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Tech giant Apple’s most anticipated iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have cleared all software security concerns and are now ready to meet the demands of its Chinese fans as the company has finally decided to launch its newly introduced larger smartphones in the world’s largest smartphone market this October.

Apple on Tuesday announced the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus on October 17 on all three of wireless carriers of China.

Notably, China has always remained the most important market for the US smartphone maker. Hence, a good and timely launch is expected to boost the business opportunities for the Apple in China. The release date of iPhone 6 in China was unfortunately delayed for some government approval issues.

The company officials said that the date of launch in China was finalized after addressing the concerns of software security raised by regulators that led to the delay of their introduction in the Chinese market beyond the September 19 of several other nations.

If sources are to be believed, the iPhone 6’s cheapest model with 16GB of storage is likely to come up with a suggested retail price of 5,288 yuan ($860.16) in China, while the most expensive i.e. the iPhone 6 Plus having 128GB of storage is expected to come with a price tag of a 7,799 yuan ($1,266.82).

According to the company, its supply chain is all set to deal with any kind of surge in demand of the iPhone 6 following its launch in the Chinese market.

Apple’s suppliers also said that the delay in launch has not affected the production of the devices and they are confident of keeping up with the huge expectations of the Apple fans when the larger iPhone models hit the Chinese smartphone market.

Market analysts predict good business opportunities for the new iPhone range in China as they are expecting a good response from the country’s 1.27 billion mobile subscribers for the bigger and smarter iPhones.

According to the projections by research firm Gartner, Apple is likely to sell 10 million units of iPhone 6 per quarter in the Asian country.

But a Japanese supplier expressed less optimism about the fortunes of iPhone 6 in China. According to the supplier, it expects the Chinese carriers to be less interested as compared to their Japanese counterparts to sell the iPhone as they may show greater affinity towards the domestically produced models.

iPhone 6 and 6 plus handsets had grabbed enough attention soon after their launch in early September after they broke the record of iPhone 5S and 5C models after hitting a record of 10 million sales in the first weekend to become the largest selling iPhones.

US security agencies concerned over Apple iPhone 6’s encryption technology

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Apple’s new iPhone range that is coming with an encryption technology is all set to create hurdles for the government agencies in accessing of its information.

According to a New York Times report, the user data related to emails, address book, images, passwords, bank account numbers and many more highly confidential data will be encrypted in the iPhone up to an extent that the National Security Agency (NSA) and other law enforcement agencies will struggle badly while accessing those information.

Technology experts say even if Apple opens up user information before the authorities, the new algorithm used in the iPhone 6 will only allow access to essentially nonsense user info until the security agencies spend quality time trying to decrypt it.

The Cupertino-based company has also claimed that it will not retain the unique algorithm that can help in breaking the code for each specific phone.

While criticizing the Apple’s encryption algorithm during a press conference, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director James Comey had said that such kind of technology will allow people “hold themselves beyond the law.”

According to Comey, such elevated technology for privacy protections could badly hinder investigations related to serious crimes including kidnappings, robbery, murder and many more.

The new Apple smartphone will allow the users to download security applications to protect their information from being seen to the third party. In such a scenario, the security agencies including the FBI, NSA and others are concerned that such a high level of protections will lead to many bads than doing goods for the users. Besides, such technology will make the job of security agencies very difficult by hindering their probe badly.

Apple iWatch may come with $400 USD price tag

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Tech giant Apple is expected to unveil the first product in its wearable segment, a smartwatch, which may be called ‘iWatch’, on September 9.

The California-based tech company has recently issued official invitation to the media houses for a big event on September 9 and since then speculations escalated over the probable products in the Apple’s launch list.

In its email to the media bigwigs, the company has neither disclosed about its event’s agenda nor said anything about its product launches and only summed up saying “Wish we could say more”.

Since then the rumour mongers started spreading the names of iWatch and iPhone 6 with larger screens as the main products that may see the launches on September 9.

With the highly anticipated arrival of the Apple iWatch, tech analysts are now busy in guessing the price of the wearable device. If reports are to be believed, the iWatch may cost USD 400.

With the smartwatch, Apple will make its foray into the wearable device. It may be slight behind its rivals including Samsung, LG and Nike, who have already released their wearable products, but Apple believes in “being the best one rather than being the first one”.

According to the analysts, Apple’s reported USD 400 price tag may not bring customers as both the competitors Samsung and LG charge USD 200 for their devices, just half of the Apple’s offer price.

Mark Sue of RBC Capital Markets says, “Consumers may be unwilling to pay a premium as these devices often duplicate what smartphones already do.”

According to Sue, the idea of smartwatch itself will not work as it has limited usage. It may help you check the time or go through your texts without scrolling down your mobile phones. But these benefits hardly make it a revolutionary breakthrough.

An RBC survey found that 67 percent of consumers were not in favour of paying more than USD 200 for a smartwatch, owing to their very limited use.

The analysts, however, feel that this may be the initial feedback and huge possibility of changes in the users’ approach prevails, once the iWatch is launched in the market.

Apple has organized the tech event on September 9 in the Silicon Valley venue with the auditorium located about 5km from its headquarters in Cupertino. The auditorium has the seating capacity of 2300. Hence, an outstanding representation of the audience is expected to witness the Apple event.

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