According to a report this evening from Tech Insider, Jawbone, the company once famous for its Bluetooth headsets and more recently known for its Jambox speakers and fitness wearables, has stopped making the UP line of fitness trackers. This includes three devices that the company has reportedly struggled to sell: the UP2, UP3, and UP4. Another report says that a clinical-grade wearable is coming soon…
According to a report out of The Information today, Facebook has begun preparing several new features for Facebook Messenger, including a new service that allows users to pay for items to be picked up in person, a new “secret” chat feature, and more. If nothing else, these features could be insight into how the company plans to monetize its messaging platform…
The iPhone 6s launched just two months ago, but rumors surrounding its successor are already circulating. Earlier rumors have claimed that the device will feature a waterproof and dustproof design, as well as a new casing material. Now, G For Games reports that Apple is currently in the process of testing five different iPhone 7 models, all with distinct differences.
Amid falling sales of the device, The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is working with more than 40 tech companies to make the iPad a more appealing work tool. Apple is reportedly working with officials from professionals in the business app market to train its own specialists to better sell towards workforces, which will lead to
According to a new report from BuzzFeed News, Apple is currently planning to unveil its refreshed Apple TV in September. The company had originally planned to unveil the device at WWDC this summer, but scrapped it from the event at the last minute. A September unveil has seemingly been expected since the announcement was pulled from WWDC.
A report from Clammr collected data on podcast listening habits shows that iOS dominates Android on mobile usage. Despite Android having a larger install base of smartphone devices than iOS, the iPhone is responsible for the vast majority of podcast listening. According to the study, 82% of smartphone podcasting listening takes place on an iPhone with the iTunes Store podcast directory being a significant reason for uptake.
In addition, despite the vast array of third-party podcast apps available for the iPhone, the report says that over three-quarters of users listen to podcasts on the iPhone with Apple’s built-in native Podcasts app.
The Korea Times today reports that Apple is in negotiations with Samsung to have the company supply the flash memory for the next-gen iPhone models. Currently, the flash storage is provided by Toshiba, SK hynix and SanDisk. The report also notes that Apple is looking to increase the storage capacity of its iPhone models.
Bloomberg is reporting that Apple has started early production of the next-generation iPhone with Force Touch. We initially reported back in May that the next-generation iPhone will include a design similar to the current lineup of devices, but include support for Force Touch. Expand Expanding Close
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has today published its rankings of technology companies regarding how they handle user data. Apple this year has received praise from the EFF for how transparent it is when it comes to handling requests form government agencies and standing up for user rights and privacy.
Earlier today, investor Carl Icahn published an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook in which he predicted that Apple would enter the television market with 55-inch and 65-inch UHD TVs. This evening, however, The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple currently has no plans to enter the highly competitive TV market.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the limited initial roll out of the Apple Watch was slowed by supply manufacturing issues concerning the Taptic Engine. The report claims that after mass production of the device began in February, reliability testing showed that some of the Taptic Engines supplied by AAC Technologies Holdings began to break down after use.
Apple often acquires small startup companiesvery quietly and without any formal announcement to bolster its own services, and a new report from TechCrunch claims that the company acquired Ottocat in late-2013. Ottocat was a startup that focused on developing a system to organize and discover apps based on increasingly specific subcategories. Apple currently uses this technology to power the “Explore” tab in the App Store, as seen above.
Bloomberg reports that Samsung has signed on to provide A9 chips to Apple for the next-generation iPhone. Apple moved to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in 2013 for its processors, looking to reduce its reliance on Samsung, who is a major competitor in the smartphone space and a legal foe. With that said, it was reported last September that Samsung was still supplying 40 percent of the A8 chips found in the iPhone 6 despite Apple’s attempt to part ways.
Gartner today published its third quarter numbers, showing overall growth in the smartphone market and a strong quarter for Apple. Mobile devices overall saw as many as 456 million sold with smartphones taking a 301 million slice of that pie, which comes out to a solid 66% (up 20% from last year). This shift in the market seems to be hurting Samsung and Nokia the most, because while the Korean giant is still leading the pack, this year smaller companies with slimmer margins seem to be taking some of its foothold.
Following Apple CEO Tim Cook’s announcement last month that the company would soon begin providing diversity data, today the company is releasing its first report. While disclosing numbers on the gender and ethnicity of its employees, CEO Tim Cook has also published a letter alongside the report on the company’s website (full version below).
In the letter, Cook highlights some of the progress the company has made in recent years, but also notes that he’s “not satisfied with the numbers” and that Apple plans to do more to improve them. Expand Expanding Close
While analysts are expecting Apple to announce sales of iPhones as high as 40 million units for the quarter representing a 15% increase from last year, CIRP gives us some insight into how iPhone and iPad models sold relative to flagship models last year. It’s also an interesting look at how Apple’s two model iPhone approach is working while continuing to sell previous generations. The iPhone 5s, according to CIRP’s research, accounted for 62% of iPhone sales vs 52% for the iPhone 5 at the same time last year. The data shows Apple is selling more of its most expensive, high-end flagship models as a percentage of its over all sales for compared to last year:
“Once again, Apple’s premium iPhone 5S sold well in the quarter,” said Josh Lowitz, CIRP Partner and Co-Founder. “It appears that in the US, Apple sells the 5S model at the expense of the iPhone 5C, which continues to sell much slower than the similarly- priced iPhone 4S in the same quarter last year. The entry-level ‘free’ or subsidized price point maintains its 16-18% of iPhone sales.”
As for iPad sales, the report notes the iPad Air captured a much higher percentage of Apple’s tablet sales relative to its flagship models last year. “The comparable flagship tablet last year, the iPad with Retina, accounted for less than a third of sales, while the iPad Air has over half. The small format iPads held their own at more than a third of sales, adding the higher-priced iPad Mini with Retina to the product mix. The $399 full size iPad with Retina seems to be stuck in the middle, at only 10% of sales.”
The report covers data for Apple’s fiscal Q3 that includes the three month period ended June 30. Apple’s conference call to announce its Q3 financial results is scheduled for tomorrow at 2PM PT/5PM ET.
At this point, we’ve seen just above every rumored schematic, mockup, and render of Apple’s upcoming iPhone 6. Rumors suggest that Apple will launch its next generation flagship smartphone in 4.7-inch and possibly 5.5-inch variations later this year.
According to the Industrial and Commercial Times (via Macotakara), Apple’s supplier Pegatron has recently received 15 percent of the orders to manufacture the 4.7-inch iPhone 6. The report goes on to note that in total, Pegatron has plans to produce 50 million iPhones throughout the year. This contradicts an equally-sketchy rumor from January, which claimed Pegatron was set to handle half of the production for the iPhone 6. Expand Expanding Close
Apple’s next two iPhone models will be named iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, according to a report from Japan-based Macotakara. With repeated reports and rumors of the next-generation iPhone retaining the same design as the iPhone 5, the “iPhone 5S” name has long been claimed and regarded as the name of the new flagship iPhone. Apple’s iPhone 4S and iPhone 3GS retained the designs of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3G, respectively.
However, because of Apple’s surprise naming scheme for the third-generation iPad (The new iPad), an outright claim of the name “iPhone 5S” may be important to some interested in the upcoming device.
As for the “iPhone 5C,” this name gained attention when purported packaging materials for the upcoming, lower-cost, plastic iPhone surfaced in photos online. It is unclear what the “C” in “5C” could stand for, but speculation and logic points to the “C” standing for “color.” Like recent iPod touch models, this plastic iPhone is rumored to come in a series of colors…
In a new report, the hit-or-miss Digitimes shares some very unsurprising details about the next full-sized iPad: a slimmer bezel design and a single LED light tube to power the display. Back in January, we posted photos of shells for the next full-sized iPad, making claims of a slimmer, iPad-mini like bezel unsurprising.
As for a single LED light tube, the current fourth-generation iPad uses two tubes, and this makes the device slightly thicker overall than the preceding iPad design found in the iPad 2. It seems somewhat obvious that Apple would need to reduce the amount of lighting internals in order to reach a thinner form-factor.
While Digitimes shares some unsurprising tidbits, the site also shares some unrealistic claims: the new report says the fifth-generation iPad will include a larger viewing area and better battery life. In terms of a larger viewing area, we feel that it is unlikely that the iPad’s screen size will grow in this new fifth-generation model. If Apple were to ever make a larger iPad, it seems probable that this would be an entirely new model. It also seems likely that the Digitimes report is referring to the ratio of the 9.7-inch screen size to the overall face of the product due to the slimmer bezel. In that regard, yes, the iPad 5 will feature a larger viewing area than previous iPads with thicker front faces.
As for improved battery life, Digitimes, in the past, has mixed up new battery chemistry with end-results. For instance, the third and fourth generation iPads need much larger and versatile battery systems in order to power the high-resolution Retina display. Digitimes, before the third-generation iPad launched, correctly indicated that the new iPad would sport improved batteries. However, the iPad still gets 10 hours as the bigger batteries balance out with the new pixels. Perhaps a similar situation will occur with this next-generation iPad.
Nontheless, the site says the next iPad is on for September with production inching closer:
Although suppliers have not yet received a firm mass production schedule from Apple and are mainly shipping products for pilot production, the sources pointed out that pilot production is already able to satisfy demand for the initial launch. Therefore, the sources expect Apple to give its shipment estimates at the end of July or early August.
However, the iPad mini’s features seem a bit less certain:
According to an alleged insider at SK Telecom, the South Korean carrier is in talks with Apple to release an iPhone with LTE-Advanced data speeds, with it most likely being the “upcoming iPhone 5S.” The carrier official said that SK Telecom approached Apple about the idea, rather than vice versa, but that the company still seems interested and the two are “in the middle of negotiations.” The Korea Times notes that Apple would most likely use a Qualcomm modem to take advantage of the technology.
In theory, LTE-Advanced could double the download speeds of normal LTE thanks to new carrier aggregation technology that allows downloads over multiple radio channels simultaneously. Expand Expanding Close
Research firm comScore is out with its usual monthly report that ranks the top smartphone OEMs and platforms for the three-month period ending in February. Apple continues to grow its lead this month as top OEM in the U.S., jumping 3.9-percent from November to 38.9-percent of the market and increasing its lead on the second biggest OEM by subscribers, Samsung:
Samsung ranked second with 21.3 percent market share (up 1 percentage point), followed by HTC with 9.3 percent share, Motorola with 8.4 percent and LG with 6.8 percent.
It’s important to point out that the shipped vs. sold argument doesn’t apply to comScore’s results, as its data comes from surveys tracking smartphone subscribers and usage and not sales or units shipped. Google grabs the spot as top smartphone platform at the end of February, but Apple continues to close the gap capturing 38.9-percent of the market (up from 35 percent) compared to Google’s 51.7-percent (down from 53.7-percent): Expand Expanding Close
We’ve seen predictions for an Apple HDTV and a revamped Apple TV experience come and go over the last couple of years. Analysts have predicted several times since as far back as 2011 that we’d see Apple introduce its own full-fledged TV set by the end of the year, and the most vocal analyst, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, was still calling for a full HDTV by the end of the year with an innovative new remote control last we checked in. Today, in a note that sounds like it should have been scheduled for an April 1 release, another analyst has backed Munster’s claims that Apple will launch a full TV set (not a set-top box) in the second half of 2013.
Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White issued a note to clients today, following checks with supply chain sources in Asia (via BGR), claiming Apple’s “iTV” project will launch this year in 50- to 60-inch variants and come with a ring-shaped motion controller dubbed, get this, “iRing”:
The “iTV” ecosystem represents a major innovation for the $100 billion LCD TV industry that will revolutionize the TV experience forever, in our view. First of all, we believe “iTV” will be 60-inches in size (but could also include 50-55 inch options). Secondly, we believe Apple will release a miniature device called “iRing” that will be placed on a user’s finger and act as a navigation pointer for “iTV”, enhancing the motion detection experience and negating some of the functionality found in a remote.
White continued by saying Apple will include a “mini iTV” with iTV that will allow users to have a second-screen experience on a smaller, iPad-sized display: Expand Expanding Close
Research firm IDC is out today with its latest report on the smart-connected device market, and it includes worldwide shipments of desktop PCs, notebook PCs, smartphones, and tablets. IDC predicted the market in total grew 29.1-percent year over year in 2012, crossing 1 billion units shipped and hitting a total value of $576.9 billion. According to the report, Apple significantly closed the gap on Samsung during the last quarter of the year. It jumped from 15.1-percent in Q3 to 20.3-percent of unit shipments in Q4 2012. That brings the company up right behind market leader Samsung, which dropped slightly from 21.8-percent to 21.2-percent in the fourth quarter:
Looking specifically at the results for the fourth quarter of 2012 (4Q12), combined shipments of desktop PCs, notebook PCs, tablets, and smartphones was nearly 378 million and revenues were more than $168 billion. In terms of market share, Apple significantly closed the gap with market leader Samsung in the quarter, as the combination of Apple’s iPhone 5 and iPad Mini brought Apple up to 20.3% unit shipment share versus 21.2% for Samsung.
Not surprisingly, Apple dominated Samsung when it came to revenue share. It took in 30.7-percent of the market compared to just 20.4-percent for Samsung by revenue:
On a revenue basis for the fourth quarter, Apple continued to dominate with 30.7% share versus 20.4% share for Samsung.
Apple’s increase is likely thanks to strong iPad and iPad mini sales, as growth in the market was “largely driven by 78.4-percent year-over-year growth in tablet shipments.” IDC expected tablet shipments to outgrow desktop PCs by the end of this year, while the tablet market could surpass the portable PC market in 2014 and provide Apple with even more opportunity to outgrow Samsung for total connected smart device shipments this year and next: Expand Expanding Close
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