While Google passed the 40% smartphone share (Microsoft must be happy!) in the US threshold, Apple continues to outpace the industry as a whole posting modest 1 point gains in the US smartphone category according to comScore. Apple moved up from 25.5% in March to 26.6% in June on the year old iPhone 4 model which also saw its US debut on Verizon.
Apple also moved up in the hardware category, below:
Update: AT&T has officially verified this information.
A new change for AT&T Wireless’ Unlimited Data subscribers will soon be taking place. Rumored to be starting in the first week of October, we’ve heard that AT&T will start throttling the data speeds of the network’s top data hogs. As Verizon (PDF) and Virgin have recently done, AT&T will be adopting a similar plan to try to curb the problem of data congestion and overall network issues that have hurt its 3G network’s performance since the onset of the iPhone.
AT&T will also be releasing its first LTE devices later this year.
We’ve heard that AT&T will rejigger its insurance structure that week as well, which makes us think a certain high profile device may be launching on or around that time.
The throttling plan will work like the others’. The heaviest users will see significant speed decreases for one billing cycle once they go over a threshold of data (we’re guessing 2-4GB?). These heavy users will still be able to access the network, but at a much slower speed. At the start of the next billing cycle, their speeds will return to normal. We don’t have numbers for AT&T’s throttle speeds but Virgin takes you down to 256Kb/s once you’ve reached their 2.5GB limit (not too bad actually – sometimes we’re happy to get 256kbs). Interestingly, Virgin’s throttle also will also be implemented in the first week of October which may indicate that they’ll be carrying a certain high profile mobile device as well.
Frankly, throttling isn’t so bad if done fairly. It is a good way to penalize heavy users but without them having to worry about overage charges. For high end users, however, it wold make sense for AT&T to add the ability to buy more regular speed data like they do now… Read more
As Apple prepares for its official iOS 5 launch in the fall (likely in September), the company has unleashed their latest iOS beta as on over-the-air update. This over the air process will only work for those running iOS 5 beta 3. Apple warns that doing an OTA update will delete your photos and will require a physical re-sync:
NEW: If you are doing a OTA software update from beta 3 to beta 4, you will need to re-sync your photos with iTunes.
iOS 5 also includes all new notifications with Notification Center, iMessages, Newsstand, and more. OTA updates will come over 3G, as we revealed a few weeks ago.
Update: As expected, it works over 3G (on Verizon!!!) Video below:
There is a new Facetime ad as well, below: Read more
Analytics company Localytics today published a report on the rise of the Verizon iPhone. In the July month, it accounted for 32% of all iPhone 4s purchased (AT&T is still selling iPhone3GS, and has the US exclusive on the $49 iPhone). That’s with AT&T’s 8-month head start.
It’s not all gravy for Verizon. Localytics surmises that the biggest selling point to US users was the ‘unlimited’ data plans…which end today.
Why the recent uptick in Verizon adoption? One reason may be Verizon’s unlimited data plan, which they are scheduled to do away with on July 7th. AT&T officially discontinued its unlimited data plan in mid-2010, although existing customers were allowed to keep their plan as long as they remained AT&T customers. We’ll continue tracking the shift in iPhone 4 market share to see if Verizon loses momentum post-unlimited-data.
It will be interesting to see the split on iPhone 5 when all carriers (including Sprint T-Mobile and others?) are equally pitted against each other. Read more
COMPUTERWORLD: After a CES no-show, Verizon is teasing us with an iPhone-generated Tweet today on the eve of its press event where it is expected Verizon will at last introduce the iPhone, meaning US customers will now enjoy some choice of which network carries their iPhone. The move should also boost Apple in its battle with Android. So, what do we know?
