iOS devices refer to any of Apple’s hardware that runs the iOS mobile operating system which include iPhones, iPads, and iPods. Historically, Apple releases a new iOS version once a year, the current version is iOS 10. Here is the complete list of iOS 10 compatible devices.
Gartner today revised their tablet numbers in the face of iPad’s dominance and weakening competition. Of the 63.6 million media tablets projected to ship this year, Gartner expects Apple’s iPad to account for nearly three-quarters of the global market, of 73.4 percent. The figure is based on an estimated 47 million iPads this year, a 9.6 percentage points drop from the 83 percent market share in 2010.
Apple is totally killing it and the company is seen retaining its 50+ percent market share lead until 2014. Why? Apple’s legendary ease of use, Gartner explains:
Apple delivers a superior and unified user experience across its hardware, software and services. Unless competitors can respond with a similar approach, challenges to Apple’s position will be minimal. Apple had the foresight to create this market and in doing that planned for it as far as component supplies such as memory and screen. This allowed Apple to bring the iPad out at a very competitive price and no compromise in experience among the different models that offer storage and connectivity options.
Wow, some nice words there – and from a research firm, too! As for Android, about eleven million Android tablets should ship in the calendar year 2011 for a 17.3 percent market share. And check out this quote on Google’s software:
Gartner has pared back its estimates for Android tablet sales in 2011 by 28% over last quarter’s projections, identifying extremely weak adoption due to high prices, user interface issues, and limited app offerings. Only some success in low-cost Asian markets and strong expectations for Amazon’s forthcoming tablet kept Gartner from slashing projected Android device sales even further.
At the same time, notebook players tellDIGITIMES, an Asian trade publication, they aren’t being so sure that Google’s upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich software will move the needle for Android tablets. Of course, as with any research – take this one with a grain of salt.
You may recall that Strategy Analytics measured Android’s share of the tablet market at nearly one-third back in July. A lot has happened since, including the downfall of HP’s TouchPad and lackluster sales of Research In Motion’s PlayBook tablet which shipped only 200,000 units in the last quarter. We’re also hearing that the seven-inch Android tablet from Amazon will have a hard time selling in the millions, per latest checks from Asia. One note about the MeeGo numbers…
Besides iOS and Android, no other platform in Gartner’s table has more than five percent share of the tablet market in 2011.
According to a Nikkei Business report (English), another iPhone carrier exclusive country has fallen. Softbank (in blue, above) in Japan has had a monopoly on the iPhone for the past three years in the world’s third largest economy. However, with the release of next iPhone, KDDI/au will carry the device. Both carriers still trail behind the leader NTT, as you can see in the un-translated image above.
According to the report, the iPhone will hit HDDI/au shops in November, a little later than the US expects to see them. If I’m not mistaken, KDDI operates a CDMA network, which is thought to be built into the upcoming worldphone iPhones.
As part of the Senate Judiciary hearings today, former FTC official (and new Google employee) Susan Creighton, testified under oath today that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! all bid to become the default search engine on iOS’s Mobile Safari Web Browser. As we know, Google won, and as we can infer, Apple gets some revenue from Google for making it its default search engine. As we know from Apple being Apple, the quality of the search results was probably as big a part of the decision as the relatively small bits of revenue.
But as part of the testimony, Creighton said briefly (before she was cut off) that 2/3rds of mobile search comes from Apple iOS devices. That’s pretty interesting considering the share of Android devices in the market. But not altogether surprising considering the web browser market share which includes those millions and millions of iPads.
Video at 2:24.00 (during very interesting testimony around Apple picking Google as default search)
As apps become more lucrative than music, no wonder iTunes is projected to rake in a cool $6 billion in the combined 2011 music and app revenues. Be that as it may, Apple’s content store has seen little success in digital publishing due to a conflict of interests which is causing significant friction between Apple and publishers. In fact, Apple is under heightened pressure to loosen up its tight control over digital newspapers and magazines on iPad. Reutersreports:
Apple’s tight control over media content on its iPad is about to fall foul of some of France’s most powerful newspapers and magazines, which hope that by teaming up they can stop the technology giant from dictating the terms of their distribution. The bid by eight publications, including newspaper Le Figaro and sports daily L’Equipe, is the latest sign of growing disillusionment among some global publishers over what they consider Apple’s rigid terms and high commission of 30 percent.
Without “key concessions”, these publishers will not sell their digital magazines and newspapers on the Newsstand, Apple’s upcoming digital kiosk launching soon with iOS 5. Moreover, the French publications have a digital newsstand of their own which they will use to push digital editions, subscriptions and bundled offers to iPad owners. This comment from Le Figaro executive Pascale Pouquet caught our attention:
We’ll have to be ready to accept to lose some sales if we cannot come to terms with Apple,” he said. “But sometimes it’s better to cut off a finger than to sever the whole arm.
So publishers would rather “lose some sales” than make some money on iTunes? That’s a weird strategy. Print people should know better and remember that Apple generally does not budge to pressure. Pouquet’s school of thought brings to mind the following Steve Jobs comment on monetizing news made at last year’s D8 conference at Rancho Palos Verdes, California:
I can tell you as one of the largest sellers of content on the internet to date – price it aggressively and go for volume.
Granter, the uniform, low price approach did work in music, but it’s not striking chord with print die-hards, most of whom are stuck in the old ways. In any case, a growing disconnect between the print folks and Apple will test the company’s practice to impose its thirty percent cut on all items its content partners sell in iTunes. Now, some people warn Apple is at a disadvantage because media mogul Jobs personally cut crucial media deals with content owners. While that may have been the case, there’s now a new guy at Apple to talk to content industries…
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Autodesk’s SketchBook Mobile is just a fad which ranks down below on the App Store earnings chart. I mean, how popular a pro-grade paint and drawing software costing two bucks a pop can become in this freemium economy? You will probably be surprised to learn it amassed a cool seven million paid downloads on the App Store thus far. This would mean revenues in the range of fourteen million dollars for the company, or about $9.8 million after Apple’s customary thirty percent cut. Bloomberghas the story:
Autodesk Inc. spent almost 30 years selling engineering and design software to accumulate 12 million customers. It took a single iPhone app – and less than two years – to attract 7 million more. Autodesk’s SketchBook application, which also works with the iPad and Android devices, has boosted the company’s user base and drawn new kinds of customers, Chief Executive Officer Carl Bass said today.
The San Rafael, California company benefited in ways more than just direct revenue from paid downloads…
On Monday, The Korea Timeswrote Samsung would seek “a complete ban” on iPhone 5 sales right after the handset goes on sale in Korea. Today, Reuterschimed in with new pieces of information asserting Samsung’s retaliatory moves could include an injunction against iPhone 5 in Europe. The story, based on “a source familiar with the matter”, goes like this:
Samsung Electronics Co is considering legal action to ban sales of Apple’s new iPhone, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, in what could be its strongest step to defend against claims by the U.S. firm that the South Korean firm had copied its product designs. The source declined to elaborate further on where Samsung planned to take legal actions and the Maeil Business Newspaper reported that the South Korean firm may seek injunction request on Apple’s new iPhone in Europe.
Recent developments have brought new twists, marking a change in Samsung’s otherwise defensive handling of its ongoing legal spat with Apple, its biggest buyer of electronic components. The case now involves 23 lawsuits in multiple countries such as France, Japan, Germany, Korea and the United States. In fact…
Security firm SuperEVR posts a video of their exploit which always makes it more real/scary.
I found that Skype also improperly defines the URI scheme used by the built-in webkit browser for Skype. Usually you will see the scheme set to something like, “about:blank” or “skype-randomtoken”, but in this case it is actually set to “file://”. This gives an attacker access to the users file system, and an attacker can access any file that the application itself would be able to access.
File system access is partially mitigated by the iOS Application sandbox that Apple has implemented, preventing an attacker from accessing certain sensitive files. However, every iOS application has access to the users AddressBook, and Skype is no exception.
Skype says it is aware of the security issue, and had issued the following statement:
“We are working hard to fix this reported issue in our next planned release which we hope to roll out imminently. In the meantime we always recommend people exercise caution in only accepting friend requests from people they know and practice common sense internet security as always.”
The non-patronizing first sentence would have been sufficient, Skype.
Skype is on a #Winning streak since it got bought by Microsoft earlier this year.
Among a bunch of Google+ improvements announced today, Google said it would bring Hangouts to mobile phones including iPhone (and iPad 2 and 4G iPod likely). We’re big fans of Google Hangouts and having it on mobile is going to be really great. They are also offering Hangout broadcasts which might be fun ways to broadcast a keynote for instance :D
Google announced a bunch of other big Google Plus stuff including open invitations today. Check full coverage on 9to5Google.com Expand Expanding Close
An Apple spokesperson has confirmed to WSJ they will begin selling the 3G version of their iPad 2 in China through Apple Retail Stores, the Apple online store, and authorized resellers starting Wednesday. This will add to China’s growing tablet market, roughly 75% of which is already dominated by the iPad.
The Wi-Fi-only iPad 2 is already available in mainland China. Up until now, only Hong Kong has officially had access to the 3G iPad 2 model, but as the report notes, some 3G iPads have made their way into the region on the grey market. Of course China Unicom would be the obvious choice of carriers, but at this point they’ve declined to comment.
Apple has once again been on a retail blitz in China opening up a number of grandiose retail spaces in recent months and a couple due this week.
Today Canon announced AirPrint support for their PIXMA series of Wireless Photo All-In-One inkjet printers, enabling wireless printing from iOS devices to the PIXMA MG8220, MG6220 and MG5320.
A few months back HP also pushed out an update enabling AirPrint support for thirteen printers in their LaserJet series. Epson did the same a few weeks ago.
We’ve been rambling on about white iPod touches for awhile now. Back in June we postulated that Apple would create a white iPod touch after successive launches of white iPhone and iPad and launched a survey (over 80% of you wanted that guy above).
Today, MacRumors has joined in with their own information:
MacRumors has received information indicating that the next iPod touch revision will be a very minor change, with the primary addition being the introduction of a new white model. Only minor changes are expected for the existing hardware, with the addition of an oleophobic coating for the display and a revised ambient light sensor seemingly being the main differences. Otherwise, we expect the models to be nearly identical to the current fourth-generation iPod touch model.
Could we put in a request for a better backside camera? Just give us 2-3 megapixels and auto-focus like an early iPhone and we’ll shut up.
Last week, code strings were found in iChat’s framework in Lion indicating Apple could be at work developing a cross-platform support for the iMessage protocol in iChat. Today, Fusiblepoints to a set of three trademarks (1, 2 and 3) which surfaced in the United States Trademark & Patent Office’s database. All three are related to iMessage. As you know, iMessage is Apple’s new messaging protocol allowing iOS 5 devices to exchange instant messages and rich media between themselves (think BlackBerry Messenger for the iPhone). It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out it makes a lot of sense to eventually integrate FaceTime, iMessage and iChat into a unified messaging solution on both the Mac and iOS 5 devices. Switching between iChat and FaceTime for Mac is unwieldy and there is no reason we shouldn’t be able to send iMessages from iOS devices to our Mac peers and vice versa.
Qantas Airlines is beginning a six week trial program, offering passengers an iPad 2 for the duration of the flight to stream movies over in-flight Wi-Fi, reportsAUSBT. Passengers will use a preloaded ‘Q Streaming’ app to view movies, streaming from one of five Wi-Fi access points available on the flight. The current six week trial will be taking place on one single Boeing 767-300, which carries up to 254 passengers. That’s a lot of iPads and interestingly, a whole Class C subnet. If everyone is streaming, will the 5 Wi-Fi hotspots be able to handle the traffic?
As the six week trial comes to an end, Qantas will begin offering the ‘Q Streaming’ app to passengers so they can download it on their own iOS device. If the six week trial is successful the airline will install iPad brackets in the seats, presumably across their whole fleet.
The admittedly stylish (for having a solar panel strapped to it, that is) case packs in an 1800 mAh rechargeable lithium ion battery, high-efficiency monocrystal solar panel, and micro USB to charge the battery on cloudy days and nights. Other features include LED charge indicator lights and a stand by switch to turn off direct power transfer. In other words, hitting the stand by switch will let you to collect power without using it, allowing you to control when the case is actually powering your iPhone.
As you can see from the chart below, Etón estimates approximately 1 hour of solar charge will provide you with up to an additional 25 minutes talk time, 20 minutes of data usage (3G), 35 minutes of video playback, or 145 minutes of audio playback. In comparison, a fully charged case will provide you with an additional 5 hours talk time, 8 hours data usage and video playback, and 32 hours audio playback.
MacPost..posts..another image of today’s earlier ‘iPhone leak’ which shows much more of the front of the device. In the time since our original post this morning the iPhone 4 repair experts at iFixyouri have chimed in to note that the grill on the white iPhone front plate is a non-OEM version which likely indicates that this isn’t from Apple.
Apple removed the grated grill during the white iPhone redesign to help with the proximity sensor issues.
Perhaps this one is built from parts floating around Asia, but it isn’t one that Apple would have put together itself – recently anyway.
Remember that cool iHub USB device that was briefly selling on M.I.C. Gadget, but then was pulled by Apple’s lawyers? It is back, and at a place you’ll probably feel a bit more familiar with: Amazon. Amazon has a few sellers selling that iHub again for prices (white, black) as low as $12.40. Interestingly, Amazon is fulfilling these orders (free shipping) which indicates that they might be complicit.
Not, “put this on my iPhone now” good but “wow, that’s interesting and must’ve taken a lot of hard work” good. Lifehackerexplains:
You can now grab the theme via an app on Theme Outlet. Here’s how. (And make sure you have Dreamboard installed, as this is a Dreamboard theme and requires it.)
Open Cydia
Tap Manage Sources
Tap Edit, then Add, then add source fnetdesigns.com/cydia/repo
Go to the Changes section and install Theme Outlet
Close Cydia, go to your home screen, and open Theme Outlet
Browse for OS X Ultimatum and download it from there
Open up Dreamboard, browse for the OS X Lion Ultimatum theme, and install it.
Analysts expect the current iPhone 4 to subsume 3GS as the entry-level offering.
Piggy-backing on a 9to5Macstory from July about two different iPhones in September, FinancialPostreports on a research note from J.P. Morgan which – surprise, surprise – suggests Apple releasing two iPhone models in the coming weeks. One is a major redesign of the current iPhone 4 – the anticipated iPhone 5 – and the other is an inexpensive handset for the masses tentatively named “iPhone 4-plus” (or iPhone 4S, depending on whom you ask).
The latter will re-use most of the components found in today’s iPhone 4, replacing the $99 iPhone 3GS as the entry-level iPhone. Sporting “minor improvements”, iPhone4-plus is said to cater to low-income markets, specifically China whose 1.33 billion population represents an untapped potential for the Cupertino, California firm. J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz:
A device targeting China could add to Apple’s super growth rates recently exhibited in the region.
Of iPhone 5, Moskowitz wrote:
The new iPhone 5 stands to be based on the iPad 2’s A5 processor or a newer A6 version. We also expect 1GB of RAM to increase memory access times. Other improvements are increased battery life due to advancement in battery technologies, the printed circuit board (PCB), the touch screen, and LCD power consumption metrics.
The device should basically be a thinner, lighter worldphone (GSM+CDMA) sans the fourth-generation LTE radio technology (which, it increasingly appears, will debut with iPhone 6). The note also backs up reports of an eight-megapixel camera with LED flash on iPhone 5 and a larger screen compared to the iPhone 4’s 3.5-inch Retina Display.
An iPhone 5 case from a Chinese maker that got it right on the iPhone 4 launch. Thanks, SulfoDK!
The Korea Timesreports that Samsung “is seeking a complete ban” on the iPhone 5 sales in Korea – even before the handset is even released, let alone officially announced. Local carriers KT and SK Telecom have so far sold about 3.1 million iPhones in the country. The paper quotes an unnamed Samsung senior executive:
Just after the arrival of the iPhone 5 here, Samsung plans to take Apple to court here for its violation of Samsung’s wireless technology related patents. For as long as Apple does not drop mobile telecommunications functions, it would be impossible for it to sell its i-branded products without using our patents. We will stick to a strong stance against Apple during the lingering legal fights.
Another Samsung executive is “quite confident” about “a big breakthrough” provided Samsung wins in Germany, adding that “so will other envisioned efforts against such products as the iPhone 5”. The report goes on to mention that iPhone sports an LG Display-made screen, LG Innotek’s eight-megapixel camera, Samsung-made NAND flash and A5 chip and an NFC chip for wireless payment.
The twist in this case, of course, is the fact that Apple is Samsung’s biggest customer, buying displays, NAND flash memory and custom-built A4 and A5 chips for its products. It has been reported that Samsung may soon lose its iOS device processor contract as Apple turns to rival TSMC.
The manufacturing relationship means Samsung gets information about the innards of Apple’s non-released devices months before the actual manufacturing ramp up. This early access to Apple’s designs could have led Samsung to move with the iPhone 5 ban in Korea ahead of Apple’s official launch. On the other hand, Apple did not accuse Samsung yet of abusing its manufacturing contract to rip off Apple’s upcoming devices with its own products.
According to a posting on the Apple Developer boards this afternoon, Apple will be resetting iCloud Backup data on Thursday, September 22nd. We believe Apple is performing this reset for the release of iOS 5 GM, which will be released around the same time of the reset. iOS 5 GM will be the last release before iOS 5’s official debut in early October, like we previously reported. This reset doesn’t include data from mail, contacts, calendars, reminders, or bookmarks.
On Thursday, September 22, the iCloud Backup data will be reset. Backing up to iCloud or restoring from an iCloud backup will be unavailable from 9 AM PDT – 5 PM PDT. If you attempt a backup or restore during this time, you will receive an alert that the backup or restore was not successful. After this reset, you will be unable to restore from any backup created prior to September 22. A full backup will happen automatically the next time your device backs up to iCloud.
Along with iOS 5, we are hearing two new iPhones will be accompanying it, and will be announced in late September and available for purchase October 7th-ish. Check out last week’s post for all the details.
Engadget says that a white “iPhone 4s” – note the lowercase status of the “s” – has appeared in an internal AT&T system. “4s” is of course close to the “iPhone 4S” nomenclature we coined within our story about Apple seeding A5-equipped iPhones – with iPhone 4 designs – to developers earlier this year. The system that Engadget is calling an “inventory system” is not actually the one used in stores, and based on the accompanying text fields, that system looks to actually have to do with customer care. Additionally, the iPhone 3GS appears with a capital S in AT&T’s inventory systems.
Verizon posted a “Data Disclosure” page today revealing the company’s “throttling” plans for high bandwidth customers which is currently defined as:
As of August 2011, the top 5% of data users were using 2 GB or more of data each month.
We found it particularly interesting because it is likely to affect Verizon iPhone customers who purchased their 3G iPhone 4 unlimited plan at launch. The policy went into place on September 15th.
Will I be affected by Network Optimization? Only a small percent of customers will be affected. To be affected, you must be:
A data customer on an unlimited data plan;
Have a 3G Verizon Wireless device (if you have a 4G LTE device you will not be impacted); and
Among the top 5% of data users in a given month.
Then, you will only be affected:
When you are on the 3G network; and
When you are connected to a congested cell site.
If Verizon has 50 million data subscribers (guess:>50% of 95 million subs), that is 2.5 million subscribers.
Interestingly, Verizon is telling customers who are affected to upgrade to a 4G phone. Apple obviously doesn’t (yet?) offer a 4G iPhone so they will be steering iPhone users to other devices.
Reps are being told to offer these as solutions to customers who want to avoid throttling:
Upgrade to a 4G LTE smartphone
Migrate to a usage-based (tiered) data plan
Use WiFi more often
Verizon says this isn’t officially throttling because it is only put in place on congested cell sites. However, those who want truly unlimited plans in the US might want to consider a Sprint iPhone which is highly likely to come in a month or so.
The concept video above shows off the Mercedes-Benz’ vision for the “future of multimedia online systems” using smartphones as a media hub, most of which seems to resemble the description of their newly announced “iPhone Interface Plus” concept.
Mercedes is showing off some pretty impressive iPhone integration at this year’s IAA Motor Show in Frankfurt. In what we assume is a major evolution of their Media Interface Plus accessory unveiled last year, the company is set to introduce an “iPhone Interface Plus” concept, available as a retrofit on every Mercedes Benz starting summer 2012.
Working together with a free app from the App Store, an iPhone will be concealed in the “glove compartment and fully integrated into the vehicle electronics”. You can then use hardware controls and the a larger display on the vehicle’s dashboard to control and view content with as little distraction as possible while driving.
“Is 2011 going to be the year of copycats?”, Apple’s then chief executive rhetorically asked at the March iPad 2 introduction in San Francisco. Really, the title of this article couldn’t be more true. iPad is now stealing market share from Android, climbing from 65.7 percent share to 68.3 percent globally as Android slipped from 34.0 percent to 26.8 percent. HP exited the game, having retired its TouchPad and today lackluster sales of RIM’s PlayBook tablet made the news.
Apple decimated competition so thoroughly that analysts are saying the company can take its time releasing a third-generation iPad. According to J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz, Apple should be in “no rush” with iPad 3:
Our latest research continues to indicate that there is no such device slated for production this year. In our view, Apple should be in no rush. The other tablet entrants have stumbled so far, and that trend-line could persist deep into 2012.
He also wasn’t impressed by Sony’s tablet which “lacks the refined, sleek feel of the iPad and its bezel-like back is not user-friendly”. And Research In Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet? On a downward spiral and probably due for life support. Per RIM’s quarterly filing, they shipped only 200,000 PlayBooks in the quarter, a paltry number compared to Wall Street expectations of 700,000 units. RIM refused to reveal actual sell-through as it is no doubt significantly lower than the sell-in. Ticonderoga analyst Brian White weighs in:
We believe the PlayBook is poised to follow HP’s TouchPad as the next casualty of iPad’s tablet dominance
To put PlayBook sales into perspective, RIM shipped one PlayBook to every 46 iPads. With just 200,000 units, PlayBook may very well be heading to the technology graveyard. BlackBerry phones are also shrinking due to “lower than expected sales for older models”. One fifth of RIM’s stock valuation was wiped out today as a result of poor tablet and smartphone performance. By the way, RIM’s global market share is now dropping to single digits. Did the Waterloo, Ontario company learn a valuable lesson?
Many watchers have written off the PlayBook, but RIM has bigger worries on its mind: Its smartphone business is declining and global market share dropping to single digits. Chart courtesy of Asymco.
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