The iPad doesn't make as much money as the iPhone. And, no iWatch, iTelevision, iEspresso maker, or any other consumer electronics product is going to either.
Yet article after article, analyst after analyst insists Apple simply must release their "next big thing" and now or, doomed. 60 days to release an iWatch or doomed. Has to sell 65m units a year or doomed. Haunted. Doomed. Sensible. The smartphone has been the fastest-adopted technology ever* (data for the wheel not available).]]>
"Most of our 1.34 million 4G users are using an iPhone," said China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua. "It's just been getting started for one or two months. So far it's hard to tell how that will affect our business," he said.]]>
With many features dubbed "iPhone compete", WM7 is all about effective uses of the touch screen, finger gestures, and additional motion gestures. Microsoft's put a lot of thought into how to make the mobile phone interface more intuitive and easier to use, even more so than Apple's iPhone. Apple has never had a product, or a year, when it hasn't been "doomed to failure".]]>
“Customers can begin to preorder for our new 4G services from Dec. 12 through the company’s website and some dedicated branches in Shanghai. But we will only start providing commercial 4G services after Dec. 18,” the customer services operator said.
China Mobile is preparing a pricing plan for new iPhones but the company hasn’t informed the customer services team of the details yet, the representative said.]]>
September month sales are very important to shape the holiday season demand trajectory, a decisive moment distinguishing which phones are going to be top-sellers. Galaxy S4 sales might – pick up again with special holiday pricing though we expect the flagship model to sell 80% more than its predecessor the Galaxy S3 from launch till year end, instead of our previous view of 100% more. SGS4 sell-through (ie bought by end users) was 5m in August, it says; it counts the iPhone 516GB as a different phone from the iPhone 5 32GB, which seems odd.]]>
We got our hands on one and you can read our in-depth review here, but in this review I look at how it stacks up against the current most popular model in our household – at least with my two-year-old daughter Alice – the Peppa Pig phone.]]>
So not only is the 5s outselling the 5c, it’s outselling it more than two to one.
Welcome news for Apple, since cannibalization of the 5s by the 5c was a potential commercial risk for this iPhone cycle. CIRP’s data suggests that the company has so far avoided it — though that’s hardly surprising at this early stage. After all, the iPhone 5c was intended as a mainstream smartphone, the iPhone 5s as an enthusiast one — a “forward-thinking” device for forward-thinking folks. And enthusiasts are often early adopters. In fact, the sales split seems to have been almost exactly the same as the 5/4S split a year ago - except the 5c is doing slightly better (though probably within the margin of sampling error). ]]>
My new Nokia telephone model is called the E 51. Unfortunately the phone has not been designed in so that just anybody could learn to use it easily.
On the contrary, I think that it has been designed as if its most important mission would be to advertise itself to people who are interested in telephone technology. All kinds of amazing functions are offered on the display, but as I do not understand what they mean, I guess that I will never use them. But keep reading to find out about the Nokia executive who visited the author of the letter, and what he said.]]>
Shrinking OS X and building a multitouch screen, while innovative and difficult, were at least within the skills Apple had already mastered as a corporation. No one was better equipped to rethink OS X’s design. Apple knew LCD manufacturers because it put an LCD in every laptop and iPod. Mobile-phone physics was an entirely new field, however, and it took those working on the iPhone into 2006 to realize how little they knew. Save some time and read it all.]]>
The build price difference between this and the 16GB iPhone 5s is less than $20, and yet Apple charges consumers a whopping $200 for the extra 48GB of storage.]]>
Here the operating system component of a VM is tailored to the application it is hosting – minimising the attack surface of each secure partition. Combined with a fingerprint sensor to identify users, Apple has the tools it needs to deliver biometric access control, allowing devices to support multiple users, with files and apps for one user hidden from another using hardware encryption.
While iOS doesn't support this approach currently, it's a logical extension of the current iOS security model, which uses selectively encrypted sections of the file system to secure application-specific data. It's also an approach that would allow apps written for an older version of iOS to continue to run, in their own dedicated partition, without the security features that newer apps, in their individual partitions, could use. That way there'd be backward compatibility, allowing Apple to deliver a more secure, enterprise-friendly, iOS without destroying its existing ecosystem. With smartphones (and tablets - surelu a future iPad have the A7) Apple seems serious about the enterprise. This might be important.]]>
“It’s definitely troublesome for any developer looking to support NFC that it is not in the iPhone,” said Jordan McKee, an analyst with researcher Yankee Group. “It’s not going to reach massive scale without Apple adopting NFC.”
Though nearly every other major smartphone maker has models with NFC capability, a recent Yankee Group survey found that just 18% of US consumers have such handsets, said McKee.
NFC has been slow to catch on in part because it isn’t any easier than a credit-card swipe, and because not enough stores accept the technology. According to Gartner analyst Mark Hung, fewer than 100,000 NFC-enabled readers are in use in the US, which compares with near-ubiquity for traditional credit-card readers.
Meanwhile, early NFC adopters like BlackBerry and Nokia have seen their handset sales decline. An effort by Google to create a digital wallet linked to NFC chips in some Sprint phones has slowed as other carriers favour their own NFC joint venture called Isis, which is only available in two US cities.
In a year's time, the US might see more commerce via fingerprint and Bluetooth than NFC. (That 18% for NFC-enabled handsets seems low.)]]>
While BBM has been in review for 2 weeks, Apple tells developers that it has been approving 99% of submitted apps within 5 business days: Puzzling. And where's the Android version?]]>
Apple sells phones running CDMA or code division multiple access technology through other channels in India. Of India’s 867.80m wireless users, only 73.18m were on CDMA networks at end-March, data from the telecom regulator showed. (Thanks #rquick for the link.)]]>
Speed will also apply to the camera, in both stills and video. The stills camera will be incredibly fast at taking photos but the big features will be that the iPhone 5S will record high speed videos. These will play back nicely on the new iPhone and will also have the added benefit of being able to slow videos down to give a slow motion effect. Where by 120fps he means on both the OS screen compositing and the camera. Fascinating prediction.]]>
I'm on holiday in a remote corner of Wales, cut off from mobile connectivity and therefore unable to check the important things going on in the outside world. Football transfer rumours for example.
I've also little idea what's going on in the mobile space, which makes it tricky for me to comment on the week's big news.
So instead, I quizzed three youngsters about their phone habits. They are Lois (16), Marnie (14) and Lucy (12). Really fascinating interview. (Not very comforting for BlackBerry though.) Be interesting to see a version interviewing boys.]]>
Look at where all the leaks about new products come from: it’s always the supply chain that produces all these components. This should give you an idea of how many partners are involved.
Basically, Apple creates a pipeline that produces devices at an amazing rate. And it’s a finely tuned machine with a lot of inertia. You don’t just walk in and say, “Hey, let’s change the screen!” Doing so would throw that machine out of balance: a new screen means that some of the components (like the headphone jack) don’t change, while others would (the case, for example.) What you see released was planned two years ago, in general.]]>
Settings → Privacy → Location Services → System Services (at the bottom) → Frequent Locations
It kept track of my complete movement profile (location and time tracking) without me knowing anything.
There are 2 kinds of fingerprint capture methods: touchless and touch-based fingerprint capture. I pioneered the first category. You pioneered it? Suddenly a lot more interested, Mr Parziale. A very useful primer even if Apple doesn't do anything of the sort.]]>
These changes would pave the way not for an iPhone Plus with bigger pixels, but one with a new screen resolution at current Retina iPhone DPI levels that can display more content on screen. And once resolution independence is established, who knows what other larger or smaller devices it would pave the way for?]]>
I predicted that Samsung would announce 20 million GS4 sales in mid-June. That didn’t happen. Then I thought they’d announce the 20m sales figures on their event in London on June 20th, but that didn’t happen either.
When the GS4 hit 10 million units sold, it was at a growth rate of 2x the GS3. With this new figure, it’s more like 1.6x, which is still impressive, but not as impressive as analysts are expecting.
See also
Apple cannot have the bulk of its customers trade down to the budget phone from more expensive devices. It must make the entry-level model look so vulgar and cheap that most iPhone users will stick to the main line models, even if they have to pay a $200 to $400 premium. The budget phones have to look tackier than the new iPhone 5S, but that is not enough — they must also be less desirable than the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S… yet still appear more desirable than low-end Android phones. If it's cheap, it should look cheap. Seems a strong argument.]]>
These customers have less money to spend and less reason to splurge when cheaper products are available. In addition, European phone carriers are much less generous when it comes to subsidizing customers’ phones. IPhones don’t seem much more expensive than other smartphones in the US, but the difference can be significant for those who are paying for them out of pocket. Logically, either Apple will see smaller market share (but, possibly, higher sales) or it will offer cheaper ones and maintain (or grow) its market.]]>
Such a low fair share profit index may indicate that Android manufacturers are:
– Having difficulty differentiating their product;
– Sacrificing profits in order to buy market share (the “race to the bottom”);
– Unable to reach economies of scale in the manufacturing process.
Kirk's point is that people who talk about low-cost iPhones are overlooking price elasticity. Although might he be overlooking the fact that the sector of the market which is price inelastic has been almost exhausted?]]>
Samsung Electronics co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun told reporters at an industry forum in Seoul that he is confident shipments of the Galaxy S4 will top 10m next week - four weeks after the device went on sale in 60 countries, including Korea, China, India and the US.
"That would make the mobile device the fastest-selling selling smartphone in Samsung's history," the Korea Times reported - a line echoed in the U.S. press.
That kind of coverage must drive Tim Cook crazy.
Because when Apple (AAPL) reported last September that it sold 5m iPhone 5 units in three days, analysts expressed "disappointment" and Business Insider ran this headline:
IPHONE 5 OPENING WEEKEND SALES COME IN WORSE THAN EXPECTED
And what was its headline Friday?
Samsung's S4 Starts Strong: 10 Million Units In Less Than A Month]]>
Apple has announced fewer than a dozen new wireless-service providers to sell the device since September 2011, leaving the total at about 240. Holdouts represent billions of would-be subscribers in countries such as China, Japan, India and Russia, said Horace Dediu, a market analyst who runs Asymco.com. Samsung Electronics, Apple’s biggest smartphone rival, sells devices through almost all of the world’s 800 carriers, Asymco said.]]>
• The Samsung Galaxy S 4 is twice as fast as the Samsung Galaxy S 3. Given that the Samsung Galaxy S 3 is less than a year old, that's a remarkable achievement. I am amazed at how quickly smartphone technology is improving.
• The Samsung Galaxy S 4 is also twice as fast as the Apple iPhone 5. Apple has improved performance dramatically in the past (there was 2.5x increase in performance from the iPhone 4S to the iPhone 5). Will they be able to make a similar improvement for the next iPhone? (Via @room13)]]>
The new phone — one of its code names is N97 — would be available to carriers at about half the price of the main iPhones. That would allow carriers to subsidize most or all of the retail price, putting the iPhone in the same mass-market price range as rival smartphones, the person said. Apple currently sells iPhones to carriers for $625 each on average. With carrier subsidies, consumers can buy iPhones for as little as $199 with a two-year contract. So this is a meme that has been around quite a while. One has to feel that either these are some rubbish sources, or that the timetable for this was rather longer than the writer expected. Also, what does "half the size of the iPhone 4" mean? Half the length? Half the width? Half the thickness?]]>
Second, there's near-zero seasonality in Android phone sales. People decide they want a phone and go out and buy whatever's in the shop at the time that looks good. Launches of 'hero' Android phones appear to have no impact at all - they may take share from other Androids, but not from iPhone and they don't increase overall sales.
Third, there seems to be a complete disconnect between Android and iPhone purchasing. One can understand iPhone sales per se going up in a launch quarter, but why don't Android sales go down in those quarters? It looks like a new iPhone launch doesn't tempt in Android buyers at all.]]>
CJ Takeaway #1: As Apple AAPL -1.83% extends its lead in mobile advertising app developers should prioritize new features and applications on iOS over Android. Note that Android tablets account for less than 1% of all mobile ad spend.
CJ Takeaway #2: It could become more difficult for other platforms such as Windows and BlackBerry to gain traction with app developers. The iPhone accounts for just over half of all mobile ad spend through MoPub.]]>
Now, Apple pessimism is even stronger. No matter what they release and no matter how well it sells, they won’t win over the press, the pundits, the stock market, or the rhetoric. Not this year. They could release a revolutionary 60-inch 4K TV for $99 with built-in nanobots to assemble and dispense free smartwatches, and people would complain that it should cost $49 and the nanobots aren’t open enough.]]>
"After our meeting with a tech-supply chain company, we walked away with the view that Apple will release the iPhone 5S in at least two screen sizes this summer and possibly three," says White. He's on the seventh day of a tour of technology suppliers in China and Taiwan.
Apple has been criticized for not making the iPhone's screen bigger. It made it taller last year, expanding the screen to 4in, up from 3.5in, but it's not enough. Compared to Samsung and HTC which make phones with 5in, and 4.7in screens, the iPhone feels pretty tiny.
For some people, that's great. For other people, it would be nice to have a big iPhone. Apple already makes the iPhone in two screen sizes. Or does he mean three sizes?]]>
Based in Israel, has been working on a technology for smartphones and tablets to track eye and head movements using a device’s front-facing camera. It said on Tuesday that very soon it would offer a software tool kit to apply its technology to applications.]]>