Image Credit: Maurice Tsai / Bloomberg
According to a report out of Bloomberg, Apple has opened a secret production laboratory in northern Tawain to focus on developing new display technologies. The report claims that the lab, located in Longtan, has at least 50 engineers and various other employees working to develop iPhone and iPad displays.
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Apple Watch benefits from deeper blacks and greater energy efficiency thanks to OLED technology
Apple is expected to begin shifting iPhones from LCD displays to improved OLED screens starting in 2018, according to Nikkei Asian Review. Currently the display technology is only used by Apple to produce Apple Watch displays while iPhones and iPads use older LCD technology. OLED benefits from greater contrast levels and much deeper blacks as the display only illuminates to present color. This offers energy efficiency that leads to improved battery life compared lighting up the entire display each time.
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Canaccord Genuity estimated back in July that Apple was taking home 92% of the profits in the entire smartphone industry, and now says the figure climbed even higher last quarter, hitting 94%. Samsung was the only other company to make a profit, says the report, with 11% – the somewhat odd math explained by the fact that everyone else is losing money.
Investors Business Daily quotes analyst Michael Walkley predicting continued strong performance by Apple.
“Apple dominated the premium-tier global smartphone market during calendar Q3, with record share of industry profits,” Walkley said in the report. “We believe the iPhone 6 and 6S products should continue to post strong sales and high-end smartphone market share gains.
“With only 31% of the iPhone installed base having upgraded to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus devices by Apple’s fiscal Q4 2015 (ended Sept. 26), we anticipate continued strong replacement sales through calendar 2016 and beyond.”
Tim Cook said last month that Apple was expecting big things from the holiday quarter.
We are heading into the holidays with our strongest product lineup yet, including iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Apple Watch with an expanded lineup of cases and bands, the new iPad Pro and the all-new Apple TV.
The company reported record earnings in its fiscal 2015 year, which ended in September.
Photo: Ryan Emberley/Invision for Apple/AP Images.
Two separate market share reports show that Apple increased its share of the global smartphone market year-on-year, with Samsung’s share declining. Strategy Analytics estimates that Apple grew its market share from 12.2% in Q3 2014 to 13.6% in Q3 2015, while Counterpoint has the numbers at 11.9% to 13.1% …
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The iPhone 6s/Plus seems pretty popular already in Samsung’s home market of Korea, despite only going on sale today. All three major carriers earlier reported that they quickly sold out when the new iPhones were made available for pre-order on Monday. Now Patently Apple notes queues of hundreds of people at retail stores, with some having waited in line for 24 hours …
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Korea might be home base for Samsung (and LG), Apple’s biggest competitor in the smartphone world, but the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus have been well received in the country as local reports indicate all major carriers have sold out of both models after officially launching in the country earlier today..
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Today we’re getting into the ultimate camera battle between Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5 and Apple’s iPhone 6s Plus. These are without a doubt packing the best camera sensors in mobile right now, but which one will take the throne as 2015’s best smartphone camera? We’ll be taking a look at pictures and video from both devices to find out…
The WSJ reports that Foxconn and the world’s largest chip assembler, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), are fighting for control of the number three company in the chip assembly business, SPIL. ASE assembles chips used in the Apple Watch, while SPIL last year started supplying chips for iPhones.
ASE had planned to take a controlling interest in SPIL in order to protect its market-leading position and remain one jump ahead of competitors. Key iPhone assembly company Foxconn, however, persuaded the company that it would do better by collaborating with the Chinese firm in order to win more of Apple’s business.
SPIL shareholders will vote on the proposed deal with Foxconn tomorrow. Although ASE had already bought some shares in the company, it did so too late to qualify for vote, so has instead sent a letter to other SPIL shareholders urging them to vote against the motion.
All three companies are competing for system-in-package (SiP) orders from Apple, which analysts say will be worth billions of dollars.
There is huge competition for Apple’s business among chip manufacturers and assemblers, with Apple reportedly playing off Samsung and TSMC against each other in order to squeeze out last-minute price cuts for the A9 chip. Samsung’s recent return to profit was attributed to the chips it supplies to Apple.
Samsung is already eying the iPhone 6s’s most significant new feature, 3D Touch, for its next-generation Galaxy phones. A report on Weibo suggests that the Korean company will be adding pressure-sensitive screens next year following Apple’s lead.
Samsung will apparently be using screen technology from Synaptic, called ClearForce, which we reported on last week. Although right now pressure-sensitive screens are effectively exclusive to iPhone, the availability of Synaptic hardware to OEMs is seemingly allowing Samsung (as well as other manufacturers, not yet disclosed) to jump on board in the near future.
With the recent revelation that Apple had (not unexpectedly) sourced the A9 processor in the iPhone 6s from two different suppliers came the discovery that the model manufactured by Samsung is 10% smaller than the one built by TSMC.
Along with the size difference comes a difference in the power efficiency of each model, with many reports indicating—and Apple eventually confirming—that phones with the Samsung chip will likely see 2-3% lower battery life.
Today Ars Technica has published its own findings based on the results of a set of battery tests on each processor, showing that the TSMC hardware outpaces Samsung’s in most test categories, but not all.
iPhone 6s <a href="http://9to5mac.com/2015/09/24/iphone-6s-teardown/" target="_blank">iFixit</a> teardown
After some debate over whether the difference between iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models made with Samsung or TSMC chips may impact battery life, Apple has offered its own take on the matter:
Our testing and customer data show the actual battery life of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, even taking into account variable component differences, vary within just 2-3% of each other.”
That 2-3% difference may be greater than some suspected, myself included, considering how tight battery life on iPhones can be with moderate to heavy usage. Apple’s full statement (via Ars Technica) actually addresses the type of battery tests many testers reference when measuring performance as being unrealistic:
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We’ve heard and read a lot about Apple going with two different manufacturers for the A9 chip in its iPhone 6s. Some models ship with a processor made by TSMC while others come with a Samsung-made component. While you’d expect that Apple would ensure both are built to offer comparable performance, it appears that may not be the case. It’s already been revealed by Chipworks that the Sammy model is 10% smaller, but if a couple of videos recently published are anything to go by, you might be better off with a TSMC model…
Samsung has today forecast a reversal of its seven-quarter decline in profits, suggesting an impressive year-on-year hike of almost 80%. But while the company itself hasn’t released any details on where the profit is coming from, analysts cited by the WSJ and elsewhere put it down to strong growth in sales of chips and displays – not phone sales.
This suggests that Samsung is making its money by helping other manufacturers sell their phones – with Apple’s record-breaking iPhone 6s sales doubtless playing a significant role. Apple split its A9 chip orders between Samsung and TSMC.
While the mobile-phone business isn’t likely to see a significant rebound as growth in global demand for smartphones cool amid saturated markets, Samsung’s earnings are being powered by strong growth in its chip business due to tight supply and firm pricing, analysts say. Samsung’s chip unit likely accounted for about half of the company’s profit in the third quarter, analysts said, while strong sales of displays to Chinese smartphone makers also contributed to its bottom line.
Samsung is estimating that its Q3 profits rose to 7.3 trillion Korean won ($6.3B), its first year-on-year growth since the same quarter in 2013.
According to Chipworks, there are actually two different sized A9 processors floating around in the iPhone 6s and 6s plus released last week. That’s not really a surprise because Apple likes to have redundancy, especially when one of the manufacturers is Samsung. We’d heard that both Samsung and TSMC would be producing A9 processors destined for the iPhone 6s.
However, there appears to be a difference in size of the two A9s which might play a role in how the iPhone performs…
So, you’re Samsung. You want to try to sell some phones. You need to find some potential customers. You draw up lists of potential targets, and right at the bottom, in billionth place, are Apple fans so dedicated that they’ve queued up outside an Apple Store to buy the shiny new iPhone 6s. So where does Samsung go? Yep, to the Apple Store in London’s Regent Street, complete with backpack-mounted banners, reports The Enquirer. And it gets worse …
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Shortly after Apple launched its iPhone Upgrade Program, Forbes reports that Samsung is planning to launch a similar finance plan for its Galaxy smartphones.
Samsung may be launching this leasing program in the next several months, although that timeline may accelerate, the executive said.
Carriers have been moving away from so-called subsidized contracts, where the cost of a new smartphone is hidden in the monthly service plan fee and the cost of a new device appeared to be anything from free to $200. With true purchase costs now much more visible, manufacturers have a strong incentive to offer attractive financing in order to encourage regular upgrades.
Samsung, though, has a stronger motivation than Apple. While Apple has been enjoying record iPhone sales, Samsung has been struggling to compete with both Apple and Chinese Android handsets – its smartphone business seeing a 37.5% drop in operating income in Q2 and the company reportedly planning to lay off 10% of its workforce.
While the terms of Samsung’s financing are not known, it’s likely the company will adopt a similar approach to Apple, where you pay off the cost of the phone over two years but can upgrade to a new model every year. Apple’s plans start at $32/month.
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Popular music streaming service Rdio is today announcing an expansion of its support for connected speaker systems and smart TVs, including Google’s new Google Cast for Audio platform introduced earlier this year.
In addition to supporting speakers that integrate Google’s Cast for audio platform, the music service is now available on Harman/Kardon, Denon, and the DTS Play-Fi Whole-Home Wireless ecosystem featuring leading brands such as Definitive Technology, Phorus, Polk Audio and Wren. The company also noted that it’s now available on Samsung smart TVs and arriving soon on smart TVs from LG and Hisense.
Previously Rdio was only available on Sonos speakers and setup boxes like the Apple TV and Google Chromecast.
Rdio is available free with ads or as an ad-free service for $9.99/month unlimited or on certain devices for $3.99/month with a limited number of on demand songs per day.
Samsung is actively looking in to bringing iOS support to its latest smartwatch, the Gear S2, according to a report from Digital Spy. The UK-based site spoke with one of the company’s spokespeople who confirmed that it was “positively looking into opening it up.”
Samsung’s latest Gear S2 smartwatch is about to go up against one of the top tier smartwatches in the game. Today we’re doing a brief comparison between the Gear S2 and Apple Watch to find out which one you should buy…
SmartThings, Samsung’s answer to Apple’s HomeKit, got some valuable stage time at IFA in Berlin this morning, with the announcement of a brand new SmartThings Hub.
The hardware has been revamped, and no longer needs a connection to the cloud in order to work. What’s more, it’s got a built in backup battery capable of giving you 10 hours use in the event that you have a power cut. The new Hub is available to order today and was launched alongside a handful of complimentary sensors for tracking water leaks and motion among other things.
Whether you have two smart devices or 200, all you need is one Hub to create a smart home. Like a live-in translator, the Hub communicates with all of your different connected products—regardless of their wireless protocol—so that you can easily monitor and control them from the SmartThings app.
Samsung’s new SmartThings hub has a more powerful processor enabling it to handle video streaming and sensor monitoring tasks without the cloud. With this feature in mind, Sammy also introduced its new Smart Home Monitor which lets users access a continuous vide live-stream and can trigger video recording when something unexpected happens. Only important video is saved for viewing, and early detection enables it to capture the footage before the event.
[vimeo 138101882 w=500 h=281]
As well as new hardware, Samsung has released a new app for iPhone today, with an Apple Watch app expected in the near future. You can organize and control your connected devices by room, view live streaming from cameras and manage the routines right from the app. It’s probably worth noting that although the hub itself has a built-in battery capable of keeping it active during power outages, there’s little point to that feature if all the connected products also require power from the mains.
SmartThings is compatible with nearly 200 products, including the Amazon Echo, and devices from manufacturers like Bose, D-Link and Honeywell. It’s unlikely that many Apple owners will be tempted, but just in case there are, the SmartThings hub is available to buy from today for $99 from SmartThings.com or Amazon, with sensors priced between $30-$55.
Xiaomi – a Chinese company noted for cloning Apple’s product designs, iOS look-and-feel and even keynotes – is once more rumored to be going after the MacBook Air with its own premium-look laptop.
Rumors first surfaced at the end of last year, with an apparently Photoshopped image very reminiscent of the MBA design. Xiaomi at the time denied that the image was its work, and said that it was actually a clone known as the Kaka i5. But Bloomberg reports that the company is indeed considering launching an ultra-light laptop in the first quarter of 2016.
Xiaomi Corp. is considering the introduction of its first laptop early next year, people with direct knowledge of the matter said, opening a new front in its battle against Apple Inc. and Lenovo Group Ltd. Xiaomi’s notebook may go on sale in the first quarter.
The company is said to have held talks with Samsung to discuss the supply of memory chips and displays for the un-named laptop. Both Xiaomi and Samsung declined to comment.
A rough date has been set for round five of the battle over Samsung’s infringements of Apple patents in five of its products. The Recorder reports that U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh has said that the revised damages will be determined by a jury trial in March or April 2016.
In case you need a refresher, the story so far is this. In round 1, the first jury trial, Apple was awarded $1B in damages. In round 2, Judge Koh vacated $450M of that award and ordered a retrial to determine a revised sum. Round 3 was that jury trial, with Apple awarded a lower sum of $290M – making a revised total of $930M. In round 4, the US appeals court ruled that while Samsung did indeed copy iOS features, it should not have been penalised for copying the general look of the iPhone, and therefore the damages should be reduced. The new trial, to revise those damages, will be round 5.
Unless, that is, the Supreme Court intervenes …
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