iPhone

An analyst note today from Barclays’ Mark Moskowitz and company predicts that Samsung is in position to take more of the premium smartphone market share with the launch of its Galaxy Note 8. They are also concerned that less than 1 in 5 potential iPhone buyers will spend $1,000 or more on a new iPhone.

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Virgin Mobile really loves iPhone users … After going iPhone-only back in June, and offering a really sweet deal to those buying a new phone, it has now extended the offer to existing iPhone owners switching to the carrier.

The carrier says that any iPhone owner who ports their number to Virgin will be able to get the same ‘all you can eat’ $1 deal for a full 12 months …

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Update: A source tells us that the former explanation applies – Apple is rotating out less popular colors.

It appears that Apple is quietly discontinuing some color options for its own iPhone cases and other official accessories around the world.

Japanese site Macotakara noticed a whole range of options have disappeared from both Japanese retail stores and the local online store. For example, in silicone cases for the iPhone 7, Pebble and Stone are no more; in leather, Berry and Sapphire have disappeared …

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A total solar eclipse – the entire sun blocked by the passage of the moon – is one of the most awe-inspiring natural events you can experience. I travelled to Germany to view one in 1999, and I remember it vividly today. The light getting gradually dimmer and dimmer, a deep twilight and then the sudden and dramatic transition into total darkness.

Monday will see America’s first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in almost a century. You need to be in quite a narrow band of the U.S. to experience the totality (see map below), but you can experience a partial eclipse from anywhere in the country …

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Apple is expected to introduce three new iPhones as soon as September: 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch LCD models we call iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus, and a 5.8-inch OLED model we call iPhone 8. While the iPhone 8 will feature an all-new bezel-less design, the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus are expected to look much like the current flagship iPhones.

One change for the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones expected next month is a material return from aluminum backs to glass, and now a new rumor claims that shift will result in a slightly thicker casing.

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Update: Reuters reports that the Wisconsin Assembly’s jobs and economy committee voted 8-5, along party lines, to recommend the deal. The Wisconsin State Assembly will vote next, followed by Wisconsin State Senate and by the joint finance committee, before going to the governor for final approval.

While previous reports on Foxconn’s U.S. display factory have described it as making large panels for use in TVs and monitors, a WSJ post today claims that it will be making LCD screens for iPhones.

The facility, which would build liquid-crystal display technology, or LCD, screens used for Apple Inc.’s iPhone, would be the first of its kind in North America.

It’s unclear whether the WSJ has new information, or has made what appears to be a common error of conflating Foxconn with iPhone production.

The wisdom of Wisconsin proving a $3B tax subsidy – amounting to a full 30% of Foxconn’s investment – is again being questioned after a state fiscal analysis calculated that taxpayers wouldn’t recoup their investment until the 2042-2043 fiscal year …

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Apple saw its share of the U.S. smartphone market hit 34% in the three months ending in May, reports Kantar – up 4.7 points on the same quarter last year.

However, Apple was knocked out of the #1 slot by Samsung, which saw its own market share rise from 32.9% to 36.2% quarterly, though still down year-on-year …

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An Apple patent granted today describes how the front-facing camera, light sensor and proximity sensor found in existing iPhones could be used for health measurements.

The electronic device uses one or more of the camera and the proximity sensor to emit light into a body part of a user touching a surface of the electronic device and one or more of the camera, the ambient light sensor, and the proximity sensor to receive at least part of the emitted light reflected by the body part of the user. The electronic device computes health data of the user based upon sensor data regarding the received light.

It also considers using additional sensors mounted in the same area for further health measurements …

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Over the weekend, there were a couple interesting stories about the upcoming iPhone 8 originating from Weibo. A Foxconn vice president posted to his public social feed that the iPhone 8 will not be cheap, as yields of the OLED display are low (40% failure rate) due to the ‘special design’ (the custom top notch).

Separately, photos of a new iPhone 8 rear case color appeared online although the validity of the image is not clear. In addition to the usual black and white, the photos depict an OLED iPhone in a copper gold color. More photos after the break …

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San Diego State University professor of psychology and author Jean Twenge has claimed that smartphone usage is having a radical impact on both the behavior and mental health of U.S. teenagers.

The arrival of the smartphone has radically changed every aspect of teenagers’ lives, from the nature of their social interactions to their mental health […] Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011. It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones.

Far from being the usual generalized complaint about teens spending too much time staring at their screens, Dr Twenge has plenty of hard data to support her contentions – made in The Atlantic, the magazine in which Laurene Powell Jobs recently bought a majority stake …

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Earlier this week Apple announced that it sold 41 million iPhones during the last quarter, and today CIRP is out with new analysis on the overall iPhone install base in the United States plus a breakdown by install base.

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Former Google senior vice president of Social, Vic Gundotra, has said that Android phones are literally years behind the iPhone when it comes to photography – and it’s Android’s fault.

Gundotra started by praising the quality of the iPhone 7 Plus camera in a Facebook post.

The end of the DSLR for most people has already arrived. I left my professional camera at home and took these shots at dinner with my iPhone 7 using computational photography (portrait mode as Apple calls it). Hard not to call these results (in a restaurant, taken on a mobile phone with no flash) stunning. Great job Apple.

But he went further …

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As we’ve reported in the past, Samsung looks to be the sole supplier of OLED displays for the iPhone 8, but a new report from reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities says LG will soon join the fray and supply Apple with said panels…

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It was reported earlier this month that Apple was close to striking a deal where it would make a large upfront investment in LG’s OLED production lines in return for output being exclusively devoted to iPhone screens.

A fresh report today supports this, and claims to have more detailed information on the as-yet-unannounced arrangement …

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The latest Consumer Intelligence Research Partners data for the April to June quarter showed that Apple was attracting more Android switchers than at any time in the past 12 months.

The good news for Apple is that relative to earlier quarters, they attracted a higher percentage of iPhone buyers from Android phones. In the past three quarters before the June 2017 quarter, Android owners had represented 14% to 17% of iPhone buyers. With lengthening upgrade cycles and a growing percentage of owners with the most recently released models, continued platform switching will be important to the success of the next iPhones …

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