In Singapore, IT fairs are like the indicators that mark the changing of the seasons: IT show in March (Spring), PC Show in June (Summer), Comex in September (Autumn) and Sitex in November (Winter). Days before each show, pamphlets from various shops and brands can be seen collated at sites displaying all their sales and promotions. To those who don’t shop around, those promo bubbles which shouts out discounts and product bundles might seem like a heavenly deal. But to season IT shoppers, most will tell you with a shrug, that these are similar to deals available at stores.

So it was a surprise to see Straits Time publishing this article No more juice Apple deals at major IT fairs on the front page of the Home section.

In the article, Apple Australia has informed re-sellers here to sell Apple products only in their approved stores, instead of promoting them at such IT fairs, citing concerns over diluting image of the brand. As Apple products are price-controlled, re-sellers can only bundle in goodies in the form of memory upgrades, software installation or throwing in a printer or other Apple products. At the same time, not to discriminate customers visiting either the IT store or their own stores, they will have the same promotion at both locations.

End of the day, what Apple did is no big deal. You still get the same juicy deals whether you put yourself through the pain and hassle of squeezing with thousands of people and get your feet run over by mini trolleys carrying big ass monitors and printers, or walk leisurely to the multiple Apple Shops or Premium Re-sellers all over the island. Or better still, open your browser and go to Apple’s Online Store and get it delivered to your doorstep.

If any of the Re-Sellers have any promotions, feel free to contact us and we will be glad to post them out here.

In the west, you get Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales. In Singapore, we get the Chinese New Year Sale! Apple Singapore is having a Chinese New Year Sale on their Online Store this coming Friday, 14 January.

We are not privy to what items are on sale or how much, but from their promotion page

Get back to the Apple Online Store this Friday for a special one-day-only New Year shopping event. You’ll find dozens of iPad, iPod, and Mac gifts for everyone on your list.

So remember, 14 January, this coming Friday at the Apple SG Online Store.

The glorious glass tower that stands out at the IFC Mall, Pudong Shanghai is Apple’s second retail store in China, the first being in Beijing. This new store’s glass tower can definitely match the glass cube at the Fifth Avenue store in New York.
Read more →

2010 could be a very exciting year for Apple. Towards the end of last year, Jimmy and I were discussing what would be the top 10 things we’d like to see from Apple this year and here it is. Some of these we know will happen, some others will be like praying for rain in the middle of the desert. Who knows, miracles might happen right? Read more →

Let’s put things into perspective. If you sat down and counted from 1 to 1 billion, you would take about 95 years to complete. And if you were to find a fishbowl big enough to fit 1 billion goldfishes, you would need a stadium to fit them all. Now double that.

Apple announced last Monday that the app store has surpassed 2 billion downloads from 50 million iPhone and iPod Touch users worldwide. That’s an average of 40 apps per device and according to Steve Jobs, half a billion was downloaded in this quarter alone. The calculators here in iHeartApple don’t have enough room to display enough zeros, so while we buy new ones, AppleInsider has kindly done all the maths for us. In the last 80 days alone, 6.3 million apps were downloaded per day, up from 4.1 million per day in the first 365 days of the app store launch.

That’s a staggering amount considering Singapore’s population barely tipped 4.99 million, as of June 2009.

What does this all mean for us? Well, I think a mobile device is only as useful as what it can do for you. With 85,000 apps to choose from, your iPhone and iPod Touch will give you far better mileage than other mobile devices currently in the market, all packed in a sleek and intuitive user interface Apple is famous for.

This 2 billion downloads is only the beginning. With numbers like this, Apple’s app store is by far the best solution for developers who are looking for a robust distribution infrastructure and this only means we will soon see more and more apps come through as software makers choose this app store over others.

So if you already own an iPhone or iPod Touch, I think we’re on the right boat with this one. If not, you can pick up a new iPod Touch from Apple SG Store and an iPhone from SingTel.

Just a filler before we get back to hopefully more-regular postings…

This was self-written and recorded live in the NYC Apple Store by Ray William Johnson of Fatty Spins. Not the first and definitely not the last to record stuff in those funky Apple Stores in the US. Have a look at the raw footage if you thought it was green-screened.

Doubt you can try it here in town as most only provide restricted access to the Macs on display in Apple resellers.