Apple

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple's new iPad model, with a sharper screen and a faster processor, will go on sale in the U.S. and six other countries next Friday, the company confirmed Wednesday.

Last week, a New York Port Authority officer's relative posted that a plane arrived at JFK with secret cargo from Apple. No one was allowed near it -- only the U.S. president commands higher security, her brother-in-law said.

Then Best Buy dropped the price of Apple's iPad 2 by $50.

And finally, email invitations arrived for Apple's iPad 3 media event to be held this Wednesday, March 7. Of course, the invitation didn't actually say that the new generation iPad would be unveiled, but the cover photo showed a corner of an iPad and referred to "something you really have to see and touch."

We won't really know anything about the iPad 3 until after the event. And there still could be some surprises once the device reaches the hands of buyers

Companies tend to focus too much on their product or service, forgetting to listen to what customers are telling them. This often results in declining revenue and profit.

The goal of any business is to make money, but that objective is easier to reach when we listen to customers and know and understand their needs. The best way to do this is by listening to what they tell us. More often than not, in the course of a conversation, a customer will divulge information that is vital to our overall success.

Consider three areas related to customers:

In a tally of this year's biggest winners and losers, Apple was a clear consumer favorite with the continued dominance of the iPhone and the iPad. Google posted several wins, while BlackBerry and pay-TV providers suffered big losses. Here are the numbers to know and how they'll shape consumer electronics in 2012.

Google's Chrome

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Apple Inc.'s newest smartphone, the iPhone 4S, topped sales of 4 million in its first three days of release, more than doubling the debut of its predecessor and setting a record for a mobile phone, according to the company.

CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Steve Jobs, the Apple founder and former CEO who invented and masterfully marketed ever-sleeker gadgets that transformed everyday technology, from the personal computer to the iPod and iPhone, has died. He was 56.

SEOUL, South Korea — A group of some 27,000 South Koreans is suing Apple for $26 million for what they claim are privacy violations from the collection of iPhone user location information.