Weekend sales top 5 million for Apple iPhone 5

Worlds Hot Topics Blog

Weekend sales top 5 million for Apple iPhone 5 

Apple on Monday said first weekend sales of the iPhone 5 topped five million, beating the opening weekend for the iPhone 4S nearly a year ago by 1 million units.

Demand has been "incredible," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. He also confirmed that the company sold out completely of its initial shipment. "We are working hard to get an iPhone 5 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible," he said.

While the phone is hard to come by, many early shoppers found a few things to complain about -- and a hidden feature that wowed many.

Apple's Map app. Corporate warfare had Apple replace Google Maps with its own maps feature, and many users said the new Maps is inferior. Chief complaints: wrong directions and the lack of local transit information. Twitter hashtags (used to help in searches) started popping up this weekend: #Mapsgate, #Mapocalypse and #Thanksapple as folks talked about their bad experiences online. Apple says it's "just getting started" with Maps and that the app will improve as more people use it.

A hidden surprise. The iPhone is offered for sale with three carriers -- AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint -- and isn't supposed to be interchangeable among their separate networks. But the Verizon version of the iPhone 5 works on AT&T's network, as well, the Associated Press discovered. The AP found that a Verizon iPhone 5 accepts an AT&T "SIM card" -- a chip that identifies a phone to a network. The phone can then be active on AT&T's network. That is, if you can find an iPhone5 for sale.

Calls to stores in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Orlando, Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio, reported sell-outs for Verizon and AT&T iPhones. A handful of iPhones with Sprint service were available on Sunday. One Apple store in Philadelphia had a handful of Sprint phones with 64 gigabytes of storage available. That device sells for $399 with a two-year contract, up from the entry-level $199 with 16 GB of storage and a two-year contract.

AT&T phones were the first to sell out, in part because the carrier was the first to sell the original iPhone when it launched in 2007. Verizon began selling the iPhone 4 in February 2011, and Sprint joined in with the iPhone 4S in October 2011, so AT&T customers were the most likely to be ready for a contract upgrade.

"The reality is, because of the supply, they could have sold more," says PiperJaffray analyst Gene Munster. If supply were not a constraint "the launch weekend number would have been closer to 7-8 million."

Munster says he believes that the majority of consumers looking to buy an iPhone 5 on Saturday and Sunday "were likely turned away."

On Monday, Apple said only that "stores continue to receive iPhone 5 shipments regularly and customers can continue to order online and receive an estimated delivery date."

"We appreciate everyone's patience," Cook said in Apple's press release.

Stores contacted on Sunday said they expected more shipments Monday. But Munster says it will be "weeks" before customers can walk into a store and find an iPhone 5 on the shelf.

Apple's website promises shipments delivered in 3-4 weeks. The carriers -- AT&T, Verizon and Sprint -- offer similar shipment dates on their websites: 21 to 28 business days.

Apple first made the new iPhone 5 available for pre-order more than a week ago but quickly sold out the initial shipment. The company reported early pre-order sales of 2 million.

Apple iPhone 4S 16GB Black - FACTORY UNLOCKED

This Worlds Hot Topics Blog is Originally from here :

Apple Weekend sales top 5 million for iPhone 5

http:// www .usatoday.com/tech/story/2012/09/24/first-week-of-iphone-5-sales/57834504/1

6M US uninsured people will have Tax penalty - Worlds Hot Topics Blog

Worlds Hot Topics Blog

6M US uninsured people will have Tax penalty  

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 6 million Americans — significantly more than first estimated— will face a tax penalty under President Barack Obama's health overhaul for not getting insurance, congressional analysts said Wednesday. Most would be in the middle class.

The new estimate amounts to an inconvenient fact for the administration, a reminder of what critics see as broken promises.

The numbers from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office are 50 percent higher than a previous projection by the same office in 2010, shortly after the law passed. The earlier estimate found 4 million people would be affected in 2016, when the penalty is fully in effect.

That's still only a sliver of the population, given that more than 150 million people currently are covered by employer plans. Nonetheless, in his first campaign for the White House, Obama pledged not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 a year and couples making less than $250,000.

And the budget office analysis found that nearly 80 percent of those who'll face the penalty would be making up to or less than five times the federal poverty level. Currently that would work out to $55,850 or less for an individual and $115,250 or less for a family of four.

Average penalty: about $1,200 in 2016.
"The bad news and broken promises from Obamacare just keep piling up," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who wants to repeal the law.

Starting in 2014, virtually every legal resident of the U.S. will be required to carry health insurance or face a tax penalty, with exemptions for financial hardship, religious objections and certain other circumstances. Most people will not have to worry about the requirement since they already have coverage through employers, government programs like Medicare or by buying their own policies.

A spokeswoman for the Obama administration said 98 percent of Americans will not be affected by the tax penalty — and suggested that those who will be should face up to their civic responsibilities.

"This (analysis) doesn't change the basic fact that the individual responsibility policy will only affect people who can afford health care but choose not to buy it," said Erin Shields Britt of the Health and Human Services Department. "We're no longer going to subsidize the care of those who can afford to buy insurance but make a choice not to buy it."

The budget office said most of the increase in its estimate is due to changes in underlying projections about the economy, incorporating the effects of new federal legislation, as well as higher unemployment and lower wages.

The Supreme Court upheld Obama's law as constitutional in a 5-4 decision this summer, finding that the insurance mandate and the tax penalty enforcing it fall within the power of Congress to impose taxes. The penalty will be collected by the IRS, just like taxes.

The budget office said the penalty will raise $6.9 billion in 2016.
The new law will also provide government aid to help middle-class and low-income households afford coverage, the financial carrot that balances out the penalty.

Nonetheless, some people might still decide to remain uninsured because they object to government mandates or because they feel they would come out ahead financially even if they have to pay the penalty. Health insurance is expensive, with employer-provided family coverage averaging nearly $15,800 a year for a family and $4,300 for a single plan. Indeed, insurance industry experts say the federal penalty may be too low.

The Supreme Court also allowed individual states to opt out of a major Medicaid expansion under the law. The Obama administration says it will exempt low-income people in states that opt out from having to comply with the insurance requirement.

Many Republicans still regard the insurance mandate as unconstitutional and rue the day the Supreme Court upheld it.

However, the idea for an individual insurance requirement comes from Republican health care plans in the 1990s.

It's also a central element of the 2006 Massachusetts health care law signed by then-GOP Gov. Mitt Romney, now running against Obama and promising to repeal the federal law.

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said Wednesday the new report is more evidence that Obama's law is a "costly disaster."

"Even more of the middle-class families who President Obama promised would see no tax increase will in fact see a massive tax increase thanks to Obamacare," she said.

Romney says insurance mandates should be up to each state. The approach seems to have worked well in Massachusetts, with virtually all residents covered and dwindling numbers opting to pay the penalty instead.

This Worlds Hot Topics Blog is Originally from here :

Tax penalty to hit nearly 6M uninsured people

http:// news.yahoo.com/tax-penalty-hit-nearly-6m-uninsured-people-194442599.html