Apple Peel

Hi again all,

This is my post again for my e-business assignment. This week my lecturer, told me to give an idea of a mobile phone feature that not exist yet in Indonesia, but will booming in Indonesia. This is a quite challenge for me to write a blog about this, since I am not a gadget freak or technology freak. Anyway, I will make a try to write my best in this assignment.

Regarding this mobile phone feature, I choose “apple peel/AP” as the latest mobile phone feature for iPod Touch, which has not been launched in Indonesia. “Apple peel/AP” is from China, and not from Apple, USA. The latest AP version is AP 520 from china. Currently AP also starts to sell in USA, but not getting in Indonesia. Apple Peel 520, the magical case which transforms your old iPod touch into an iPhone. The creator, Yosion Technology, promised the customers that this wonderful gadget will be launched sooner or later in Indonesia I guess. In addition, it’s officially available now in limited stocks in Singapore! 

The Apple Peel 520 may be called the greatest accessory for an iPod touch. It turns your iPod touch into a device fully capable of making / receiving calls as well as texts. This incredible slip-on case first showed up in August, we did a review on it, and it seems like the whole world of iPod touch owners got amazed by the cheeky hack. Although it first appeared as a dull black silicon case with a few technical glitches, the latest retail version we have here is fully remixed, with bugs fixed and features a durable hard shell. Here’s the official price: 520 yuan (about $77). AP is available in eight brilliant colors.

Here is the picture of AP 520:

AP520 also has 1200mAh battery, which provides 5 hours of call time or 120 hours of standby juice. Pretty impressive.

There is also a reset button, the battery connector and the SIM card slot.

 this is the comparison between the AP520 and the iPod touch

In Conclusion

This Apple Peel 520 retail version is not perfect yet. According to PConline, the cellular signal of the device is unstable and Yosion is currently solving this issue. For voice calling, the incoming caller name and number cannot be displayed, a software update for the Yosion app could fix the problem. It’s maybe a sad thing to see that ringtones and SMS tones are not customizable, the device will only give you a vibration and a normal ringtone. The call volume is impossible to adjust and screen does not light up with incoming call. As for the text messaging function, the name of the sender will not appear in new message notification and the app does not allow you to type message in landscape mode. Looking at all these disadvantages, we think these bad stuff could be fixed through software updates for the Yosion and YsSMS apps.

Speaking of overall, it’s definitely a must-have item for old generations iPod touch. It only supports GSM and Edge networks, no 3G. Jailbreak is needed for the Yosion apps to work, any firmware above 3.0 is supported. It may support the new iPod touch in the future, since Yosion needs to wait for the new jailbreak for iOS 4.1 first. 

however, i believe this Apple Peel can be very booming if enter Indonesia market in the future. looking at the market interest in gadgets, especially iPhone, Apple Peel has a great opportunity. It will be also profitable to be the distributor of Apple Peel in Indonesia :)