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.
According toGiz-China, Apple has reached a landmark agreement with China’s and world’s biggest and most valuable wireless operator, China Mobile, that will see the two companies join forces on bringing a next-generation iPhone to China Mobile’s fourth-generation TD-LTE network:
China Mobile claims that it has reached an agreement with Apple to bring to bring its 4th generation TD-LTE mobile data connection to the next generation iPhone. The claim isn’t exactly new news as it was originally reported back in May, and doesn’t specify which model of iPhone it will be in, but could hint at the next generation iPhone actually being an iPhone 4S type device, with updated 4G capabilities, rather than a totally new iPhone 5 design.
The official confirmation seems to support an earlier report alleging that the two companies were working on such a deal, further corroborated by the image of Tim Cook visiting China Mobile’s headquarters in June. Guardiansuggested that Apple’s carrier partners are receiving iPhone units for field-testing, which 9to5Macreported back in June. As with all leaks and rumors coming these days, especially from Asia, indicating that Apple is prepping for a Fall launch of the next iPhone, you’re advised to take this report with healthy dose of skepticism. It would be nice, however, if Apple brings the next iPhone to China Mobile’s 600 million subscribers. Apple has hinted during the last earnings call that China is becoming the key growth driver for them, growing sixfold from $630 million in revenues in the second quarter of 2010 to $3.8 billion in the June quarter of this year, representing a 13.3 percent of Apple’s total business by revenue. Bucking the trend, Apple is set to open new stores in the country this year and is working with manufacturing partner Foxconn which will spend $1.6 billion on its own stores in China that will sell Apple products.
A report from Sohu.com via AllthingsD goes further saying a two tiered model could have a $70B-$200B upside:
China Telecom will offer two types of iPhone that include the iPhone 5 and a ‘simplified iPhone 4,’” says White. “Essentially, this potential ‘simplified iPhone 4′ would be a more economical version of iPhone to target a broader customer base in developing countries such as China, allowing for an expanded market opportunity.” Expand Expanding Close
Vonage has released a new application for the App Store called Time to Call. The application is free to download and offers low-cost international calling to users. Vonage is currently offering free 15 minutes of calling to early adopters of the application but after those 15 minutes the cost of calling is still very cheap. Vonage says a user can talk for 15 minutes with a person in one of 100 countries and will only be charged up to $1.99 for those 15 minutes.
• Pay per call and talk for up to 15 minutes to 100 countries for $1.99 or less (excluding applicable taxes)
• For an additional 90+ countries, talk up to 15-minutes for $2.99 to $9.99 (excluding applicable taxes)
• Bill directly to your iTunes account
• Works on Wi-Fi® worldwide
• Also for use on high quality 3G networks in the U.S. and Canada
• Special bonus! For a limited time, unused minutes can be used for additional calls
• No need to be a Vonage home customer
Additionally, a separate set of 90 countries costs from $2.99-$9.99 for those same 15 minutes. Vonage offers a web-based tool to find prices for you’re calling needs. The application is open to anyone with an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad – users do not have to have a Vonage home account already setup. Finally, and perhaps most important, the aforementioned costs will be billed through iTunes.
Yep. Apple gets 30% and is now in the telecommunications market officially.
Check out more screenshots of the application running on an iPhone after the break.
Google Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond has written an open letter to Apple and others (namely Microsoft) for the latest trend of going after smartphone patents by buying up others companies patents. Drummond notes that Apple and Microsoft “have always been at each other’s throats” and “when they get into bed together you have to start wondering what’s going on.” Google’s Drummond is referring to the two technology heavyweights “banding” together to win the Novell and Nortel’s old smartphone related patents. As revealed just a few weeks ago, a Consortium of Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle payed $4.5 billion for the aforementioned Nortell patents.
Drummond outright calls this “a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents.” Drummond also says that the approach to acquire patents and file patent lawsuits is Apple’s (and others’) way of showing that they “want to make it harder for manufacturers to sell Android devices.” He also says that Apple and others are going after these patents and filing complaints “instead of competing by building new features or devices.”
Drummond also says that Google feels that Apple and Microsoft’s take over of the Nortel patents is unlawful:
Fortunately, the law frowns on the accumulation of dubious patents for anti-competitive means — which means these deals are likely to draw regulatory scrutiny, and this patent bubble will pop.
Drummond ends by saying that Apple and Microsoft’s moves could potentially hurt Android and they are obviously looking into ways to stop this.
Unless we act, consumers could face rising costs for Android devices — and fewer choices for their next phone.
Following iCloud.com’s opening in beta for developers earlier this week, Apple has hit the on switch for their revamped Find my iPhone page within iCloud. The new Find my iPhone web application is only live for developers until the official iCloud launch this fall and offers the same Find my iPhone features that users are accustomed to in the MobileMe version. The main change in the iCloud version is an all new user interface that features an old-style map and iOS-like popover menus.
China is many things, not just the United States’ biggest creditor and the home to cheap child labor that assembles your iPhone in sweatshops. One thing we can all agree on, though: In China, the government is pretty much in control of many things, including what you read, listen to and consume on the web (hint: The Great Firewall of China). The same could apply to mobile software if it weren’t for one slight problem: China doesn’t get to control the App Store where hundreds of thousands of apps are vying for users’ attention.
So when the Ministry of National Defense of the People’s Republic of China decided to release their official app called PLA Daily, basically a glorified news reader, one of their top priorities was to bypass Apple’s mobile bazaar, the environment they cannot control. Instead, the app’s target audience – mostly members of the People’s Liberation Army of China’s (PLA) – are expected to jailbreak their devices in order to install the unsanctioned app.
The app isn’t going to be an official App Store app. Not here or in China. Users must jailbreak (install software that allows for use of the iPhone that was not intended by Apple) their iPhone if they want to read up on what the PLA is doing. They will receive news and updates direct from the PLA’s Daily. It’s interesting that the iPhone must be jailbroken in order to use the app. Usually, jailbreak apps are made by single independent users who want to add a certain functionalities not included in their iPhone. Larger, public organizations have always stuck to official app store releases.
Of course, it’s also possible Apple rejected the app so the powers that be reckoned to give Apple a taste of their own medicine. Either way, Chinese armed forces have gotten their free publicity. Expand Expanding Close
So, you’re excited about iPad 3 with Retina Display? Hold your horses, panel makers may not be on the same page with Apple. Per this analysis compiled by DigiTimes, display and touch panel providers are actually struggling to keep up with Apple’s ever growing appetite:
As iPad and iPhone have aroused demand for displays and touch panels with higher performance standards, makers are under pressure to upgrade specifications in their road maps, according to industry sources.
As seen in the publication’s chart, 10.1-inch panels are unlikely to hit the full HD resolution before the second half of next year. Sure, some quantities will be available to buyers, but it will likely be a far cry from the current run-rate of nearly 40 million iPad units. On a brighter note, planned upgrades of 10.1-inch panels include thickness going down from from 2.8mm to 2.3mm, power consumption reducing from 3.6W to 2.7W and further to 2.2W by the end of 2012 and multitouch response advancing from 2-10 fingers to more than ten fingers simultaneously (definitely a good news for a rumored Amazon tablet).
IHS iSuppli has done a mega tear-down analysis of eight major tablets, including Apple’s iPad and iPad 2, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, Motorola’s Xoom, Hewlett-Packard’s TouchPad and Asus’s Eee Pad. As nearly all non-Apple tablets sport beefier innards, how come the lower-specc’d iPad is still ruling the tablet space nearly eighteen months after Steve Jobs announced the original model back in January of last year? It’s because Apple controls the whole widget, IHS senior analyst Wayne Lam explains:
Since Apple controls both the operating system and hardware design of the iPad, it is able to attain design efficiencies that other tablet manufacturers cannot. These efficiencies become obvious in areas like the memory and the battery, where Apple maintains advantages in cost, space savings and performance compared with every competitor in the business.
He also tellsCNET that the biggest drawback for the Android camp is the lack of critical mass and explains why rivals are wrong to focus on speeds and feeds:
It’s a post-PC use case. You’re not bounded by performance. You’re bounded by user interaction. I don’t think a user can distinguish a performance difference or get a sense of the speed of the hardware by using it. It’s a different metric. The iPad’s efficient memory usage stems from the fundamental difference in the architecture of the operating system Apple’s iOS handles multitasking differently than other tablet operating systems, allowing it to reduce the amount of memory required to support the microprocessor.
And because Apple owns the user experience by making its own operating system, user interface and hardware designs down to the selection of individual parts, it is able to provide experiences half-baked Android tablets simply cannot touch. So, when will the Android tablets catch up?
All of the major [Android tablet] makers spent this past year directing all of their efforts toward finding the right mix of components. They really didn’t pay attention to software. They thought, Google is doing something, we’ll take whatever they have. And that’s pretty much what happened. But it’s still not cohesive.
Then, there’s this little problem related to manufacturing costs…
As pointed out by TechCrunch, Twitter is rolling out a new Twitter.com interface for the iPad. Up until now, the iPad browser has utilized the full version of Twitter.com (user option) that is typically displayed on Macs and PCs or an upscaled mobile variant.
This new HTML5 interface is more touch friendly and resembles Twitter’s fairly new web interface for the iPhone and iPod touch. According to Twitter’s official profile, the rollout of the new interface begins today and should complete over the next week or so.
In case you haven’t noticed, a rumored Fall release of iPhone 5 is being preceded by the usual media brouhaha. Is Apple going to release its next handset in September? How about October? Maybe they’ll gradually bring the device to market over the course of both months? Has the company already field-tested the gizmo in June? And if the phone is already in production, how come carriers are only now getting prototypes in sealed boxes? Do case leaks mean a ringer switch has been repositioned to the opposite side? And what’s with those iPhone 4 price cuts at Target and Radioshack and AT&T vacation blackouts?
Disregarding all of the above for a second, what exactly about Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone is going to blow our socks off the most? If you ask Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu, it’s the large display combined with an even thinner profile than iPhone 4:
It turns out that we are picking up that this interim iPhone refresh in the Fall timeframe could be a bigger upgrade than we expected. We believe this makes sense to improve the iPhone experience without making it too bulky as we have seen with models from competitors.
But what exactly is ‘bulky’ these days? Are we talking a few millimeters larger display or ‘Android superphone bulky’? Italian-language MelaBlog.it did a cool side-by-side comparison of the current-generation iPhone 4’s 3.5-inch display and the rumored iPhone 5 at various display dimensions. An iPhone 5 with a 4.3-inch display would require a frame wider and taller ten millimeters than that of the iPhone 4, while keeping the same 9.3 millimeter profile. Reducing the display edges “to a minimum” – that’s an edge-to-edge display for you – could allow Apple to engineer a monstrous 4.7-inch device, as depicted in the above drawing. There’s just one problem, though (plus, a cool reader mockup below the fold)…
The Next Webpoints at a Guardianonline article which states that a next-generation iPhone has been delivered to carriers for field-testing. Without going into much detail as to when exactly Apple might launch iPhone 5 beyond crystal ball peering, author Charles Arthuer writes on the paper’s blog that “my carrier sources tell me that the boxes in which the new iPhone hardware is encased have been transported to carriers for testing”.
The article is referring to the cases Apple (and other manufacturers) use to enclose prototypes so they don’t raise suspicious in field-testing. Remember Gray Powell, an Apple engineer who famously left an iPhone 4 prototype on a bar stool in California? That prototype had been enclosed in an iPhone 3GS-like case and Apple later argued it made discovering the antenna issue that much harder. Of course, Guardian’s article is really a non-discovery as 9to5Macdiscovered that the next iPhone hit final testing with Apple in June.
Nuance, which is said to power speech-to-text features in iOS 5, released today a new cloud-based service and iOS app which makes it easy to organize, access and share any document from any desktop or mobile device. The Nuance PaperPort Anywhere service gives you one gigabyte of free cloud-based, searchable storage for your documents with permission-based file sharing via email.
Paid upgrades are also available: $10 a month for 10GB and $25 a month for 50 gigabytes of storage. Nuance’s price tiers actually fare pretty favorably compared to iCloud, Dropbox and SugarSync. Cloud scanning is enabled through their PaperPort scanning and document management application for Windows PC which was also updated today. All of this is augmented by a free app for iPhone and iPad that lets you access and send documents from PaperPort Anywhere. You may remember Nuance in July released a free Siri-like Dragon Go for iOS app. More features of their latest offering and a video tour right below:
Skype has finally released their native application for the Apple iPad. The application brings everything you love from the iPhone version to the iPad’s larger display. This includes instant messaging, audio chatting, and video conferencing. Just like the iPhone version, everything works over both WiFi and 3G cellular data networks.
• Join Skype on your iPad in a few moments or just sign straight in to your account.
• If you already have a Skype account, your Skype contacts will automatically be there on your iPad.
• We’ve made adding new Skype contacts really easy.
• Once they’re in your Contact list, call, video or instant message them in one touch.
• Flick through recent calls and instant messages in your Skype for iPad history.
• Skype for iPad works over Wi-Fi or 3G (operator data charges may apply). Call Skype contacts on their iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, PC, Mac and even Skype enabled TVs.
Users won’t find the new version as a free update to the iPhone and iPod touch download, but instead will find a brand new application called ‘Skype for iPad’ on the iTunes App Store. This application is, of course, free. The app seems to be available worldwide as of right now.
Update: Skype for iPad, for reasons unspecified, has been removed from the iOS App Store until further notice.
Updated 2: Skype is back up as of 8am EST.
Screenshots and release notes are after the break…
Apple has just opened up the iCloud.com web interface for developers. The website is in beta and features all new web apps for Mail, Calendar, Contacts, and more. In addition, it appears that iCloud.com will offer a portal for users to view their iWork documents that are stored in the cloud via iCloud. On top of all of this Find my iPhone is an integrated web application. As you will see, the interface for the website is very iPad and iOS-like. We also have a video walkthrough after the break.
Although Chrome controls one-fifth of the global web browsing market and has overtaken Firefox as the second most-used browser in the UK, Google’s browser has been growing slower in absolute terms than Apple’s Safari in the month of July. In July, Chrome added .34 percentage points of market share for a 13.45 percent web usage share. In the same period, Safari grew .57 percentage points for a 8.05 percent web usage share in July, per latest Net Applications metrics. Apple’s and Google’s browser were the only ones growing (with the exception of the Other category), while Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox ceded market share and had 52.81 and 21.48 percent web usage share.
A big factor: Apple just revamped its consumer MacBook Airs and Mac Minis as well as refreshing the Mac OS with Lion.
Of course, the numbers are not representative of the whole market because Net Applications derives stats from some 40,000 participating web sites, but they’re a good and fairly accurate indication of market trends.
Some iOS developers have reportedly taken matter into their own hands, teaming up to create a joint opposition to serious legal threats coming from patent troll Lodsys which has been seeking to extract royalty fees from iOS developers small and big alike, including the likes of Atari, Rovio and Electronic Arts, the world’s biggest publisher of entertainment software on any platform. As you know, Lodsys is asserting its license to use patented in-app purchasing technology covers store owners Apple, Google and Microsoft, but not third-party developers that put their digital warez for sale on those stores. Per ArsTechnicastory:
On Monday, renowned iOS developer Mike Lee announced the Appsterdam Legal Defense Team, which will be made up of indie developers fighting patent trolls as a single unit and funded by contributions from participating companies. The goal, aside from the obvious one of being free from frivolous patent lawsuits, is to become “the ants of East Texas, minding their business until someone invades their anthill.”
FOSS Patents, the intellectual property blog, reported last week that Lodsys opposed Apple’s motion for intervention. Apple’s response to Lodsys’s intimidations has been mild, to say the least. Apple filed a motion with the Eastern District of Texas to intervene as the defendant in a lawsuit from Lodsys in June. The company ambiguously asserting it might step up in defense of third-party developers targeted by the patent troll firm. Apple’s deafening silence had even prompted EFF to issue call to arms, demanding that Apple protects its developers.
File this one under the ‘freaky’ category. Publisher Hearst is promoting its first iPad-only magazine titled Cosmo for Guys (no jokes, please) with the “iPad Head Girl”. The campaign employs a modern take on the sandwich man, thanks to creative concept by viral marketing agency Thinkmodo which calls for a custom-designed head gear, fabricated by MTV Movie Awards makers Clockwork Apple. The Next Webexplains that the head gear is comprised of four iPads “shaped into a cube projecting video playback of each side of her head”.
The stunt is an attempted analogy of a guy “getting inside a girl’s head”. And how is the girl able to tell her way with the head gear on? She’s wearing a pair of video glasses inside the head gear which display live video feed captured bya camera hidden inside her purse. Gotta love how New Yorkers give her a strange look as she strolls down a park. A couple of screenies of the mag right below…
In a surprising turn of events to anyone following the ongoing Apple vs. Samsung spat, Bloombergreported this morning that Samsung has agreed to temporarily cease sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet until their legal dispute with Apple is settled or they win court approval:
Apple Inc. escalated a patent dispute against Samsung Electronics Co. and won an agreement that the South Korean company won’t sell the newest version of its tablet computer in Australia until a lawsuit is resolved. Samsung, based in Suwon, South Korea, agreed to stop advertising the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia and not to sell the device until it wins court approval or the lawsuit is resolved.
It’s interesting because Samsung was advertising the Galaxy Tab 10.1 launch in the country since July 20. Still, carriers Vodafone and Optus both hinted at plans to offer the device to their Australian customers “soon”. Samsung’s decision came as a lawyer for Apple sought an injunction before Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett in Sydney, claiming Samsung’s tablet infringes ten Apple patents. With that in mind, Samsung’s clearly on the defensive here. Apple also wants wants to “stop Samsung from selling the tablet in other countries” and Samsung’s conceding to Apple may have set an important precedence for other countries. Of course…
Add-on lenses for iPhone 4 are all the rage and photography aficionados are especially drawn to niche products that let your iPhone 4 capture 360-degree images or footage, such as this cool Kickstarter project we reported on back in April. The latest adapter lens comes from Pixeet (viaSlashgear) and takes panorama concept even further by providing a case to slip your iPhone into and then attach the fisheye lens onto the case magnetically. Unlike the Kickstarter kit that captures 360-degree shots with four cameras, Pixeet’s device has only one camera so you must rotate around and capture multiple shots.
When you have your four shots ready, fire up a free iPhone or iPad app which stitches them all together to form a nice-looking 360-degree panorama images. Examples and a video tour right below. The product will set you back $49, which includes the case and lens. Pixeet also provides a version of the product for the iPhone 3G or 3GS. The company also says they will release a version of the iOS panorama creation app for Android in September.
John Packowski writes for The Wall Street Journal’s blog AllThingsD that, alas, iPhone 5 will be launching in October, not in September as the rumor mill has been buzzing over the past few weeks. This information apparently comes from an unnamed source close to Apple. The blog has been right about many things Apple in the past so it’s worth mentioning here:
So those rumors claiming the iPhone 5 will debut in late September? They’re wrong. Instead, it’s going to be an October surprise — the month in which Apple will be launching its next generation iPhone.
So when can we expect the company to uncrate the iPhone 5? “October,” the source said, while declining to offer a hard-launch date. Other sources said it will be later in the month, rather than earlier.
Others have reported that AT&T has blacked out employee vacations in the September’s last two weeks, which is usually a sign of a major product launch which may or may not be related to a new phone from Apple. This unconfirmed piece of the puzzle was apparently provided toGizmodo by an AT&T employee this past Friday who noted that “historically the only time they’ve done this was for an iPhone release”, adding that “we’re looking at the last two weeks of September”. BGR said that it was the first two weeks of September. Not so says AllThingsD:
“I don’t know why AT&T’s calling for all hands on deck those weeks, but it’s not for an iPhone launch,” a source familiar with Apple’s plans said.
Although it seems likely that Apple will soon discontinue its legacy iPhone 3GS, some reports have said that Apple will retain the device as its cost-effective pre-paid option. Others, including us, have reported that Apple is preparing two next-generation iPhones for this fall: one as the successor to the iPhone 4 and one as a cheaper, possibly pre-paid model.
According to several sources in different countries, stock of Apple’s iPhone 3GS is quickly tightening with hardly – or even any – shipments coming through to certain regions. In addition, according to a source at one popular international carrier, the iPhone 3GS has disappeared from the stock database.
We have heard from reliable sources at a major European iPhone carrier that stock of the iPhone 3GS is unusually low, with little stock coming through for the next few weeks. An accurate source at a major U.S. based iPhone reseller also reported to us that stock of the iPhone 3GS is significantly lower than usual. In addition, this source says, similarly to what our European carriers sources reported, that no iPhone 3GS shipments are coming through to several districts in the United States. On top of all of this, an accurate source with a hand in Apple’s global channel shipping operations reports that shipments of the 3GS are rapidly decreasing with a little amount of units remaining in the channel.
Apple gradually tightens its shipments and production of products ahead of its upgrade or discontinuation. This minimizes already-replaced product inventory from the company’s product lineup (which Apple often just moves to “refurbished”). This iPhone 3GS situation is a prime example of this process.
It is also possible that Apple is preparing an upgrade to the iPhone 3GS. Perhaps they will bump the screen or change something internally (A4?). It is also entirely possible that Apple is decreasing iPhone 3GS supplies in anticipation of more people buying the next-generation iPhone.
Following our post with images of a purported iPhone 5 case, other sources like TechCrunch andOnlinelpnprogram.net have followed up with us with their own cases. This time we not only have a silicone case, but a hard case, too. The image above shows a top view of both of our cases. They both show a ringer switch on the opposite side of the volume keys, which is a shift from previous models of the iPhone. In addition, the bottom of these cases have holes for a separate speaker, main microphone, and USB dock connector. You may have noticed this on our iPhone 5 case post earlier this week, but today comes the more important information.
Our images were admittedly not very clear about the case’s thinness or if there was a “tear drop” as previously described by This is my next. Our new images are clear and there are appears to be a slight – not major – tear drop in the design. The case goes thick to thin from top to bottom. In addition, the sources who provided us with these two new cases have shared some dimensions. According to them, the case is 5 inches tall and 2.8 inches wide. These are tight cases so the iPhone 5 dimensions should only be a few millimeters smaller than those numbers. For comparison, the iPhone 4 is 4.5 inches tall and 2.31 inches wide. This likely will leave room for the rumored bigger screen, as reported by the WSJ, Bloomberg, and This is my next.
Although we are not able to absolutely confirm that these cases will fit the fifth-generation iPhone, the sources of these cases stress that the information used for design and manufacturing came from their own proven industry sources…Sources like the ones that provided amazingly accurate iPad 2 information and dimensions to case manufactures months before the product’s March debut. These cases are also just appearing weeks ahead of the iPhone 5’s debut. With the iPhone 5 most certainly in production, it is prime time for insider leaks to occur in Asia.
The new icons are bigger so you can filter search results without sanding down your finger.
Google last month announced a bunch of enhancements to its search engine and today they confirmed via a blog post an overhauled layout on iPad and other (read: Android) tablets, just two days after the blog Digital Inspirationsleaked the new UI. From now , running a query by visiting www.google.com in your iPad’s browser produces an iPad-optimized layout in search results.
Gone is the left-hand column that had ridiculously tiny search controls, making room for bigger buttons and more white space which is definitely a lot easier on the eyes. It’s surprising how long it has taken Google to optimize web search experience on tablets, really. Now you can finally hit the controls on smaller tablets without having to sand down your finger first.
Our favorite: The big buttons right below the search box for quick access to specific search silos, such as Web, Images, News and so forth. Also noteworthy, image results are now way more attractive due to larger previews and they continuous scroll – just reach the bottom of the page and a new batch of images will load automatically. The new layout will be available on iPad and Android Honeycomb 3.1 tablets and in 36 languages “in the coming days”, everyone’s favorite search monster noted. Another pretty screenshot right below. Expand Expanding Close
Carl Ellis-Coward. The iFixYouri iPhone repair shop and 9to5Mac will be fixing your iPhone for free! For those who didn’t win this time around, we will be picking another winner next Friday! Here are the rules:
In order to enter the contest, retweet this post on Twitter with hashtag #HelpiFixYouri and a picture of your broken iDevice for a chance to win. If the story about your broken device requires more than what a tweet can share, send an email off to support@iFixYouri.com or like and share it on their Facebook page.
A winning contestant will be randomly selected each week. You are only allowed to enter once and a winner can only win one time. If it is determined that your device is irreparable (and doesn’t start in Blend-Tec condition), iFixYouri iPhone repair and 9to5mac will replace the device with a good working equivalent! (also no iPod shuffles or nanos are eligible)
You will also need to follow both iFixYouri and 9to5Mac on Twitter so we can DM you in case you win. Just a hint, send in high-quality pictures of your device.
Global operating profit from the sale of mobile phones among eight major players, by Asymco
In case you missed it, the big news today is that Apple is king of the hill in smartphones and is now chasing LG for the third place in global cell phone sales. Samsung, which reported its second-quarter earnings today, ranks as the world’s second-largest smartphone maker in units, but the company said it will cease reporting phone and tablet sales citing competition from Apple. If that didn’t impress you, this data point will blow your mind: More than six out of ten dollars of profit in the mobile phone business go to Apple’s pockets, or 66.3 percent. This is interesting because it shows Apple steadily improving its profitability in the cell phone space at the expense of its rivals, Asmyco’s Horace Dediu explains:
This share is up from 57% in Q1 and 50% in Q3 and Q4. Samsung’s share went to 15%, though that’s not a peak level historically. In Q1 2008 the company was at 21%. RIM was at 11%, a level in a range that has been unchanged for three years. Finally, HTC captured 7.4%, a new high and an increase from 6% since last quarter.
And guess who controlled the industry’s profits four years ago, when the iPhone debuted? That’s right, Nokia, which in the second quarter of 2007 enjoyed 55 percent of global operating profit from the sale of mobile phones. Back then, Apple, Research In Motion and HTC collectively captured 11 percent of the profits and now they together control 84 percent of the profits. And another somewhat related tidbit: Apple now has more cash than the world’s largest sovereign government.
