A billion smartphones were sold in 2013, according to IDC data, the first time the milestone has been hit. The number represents one smartphone sale for every seventh man, woman and child on the planet.
IDC says that price has been the main driver for growth, putting yesterday’s market share stats into perspective.
Markets like China and India are quickly moving toward a point where sub-$150 smartphones are the majority of shipments
TrendForce is predicting that total worldwide smartphone sales will fall by around five percent in the first quarter of this year. If so, this will be the first fall in two years.
It doesn’t mean demand for smartphones is actually dropping, but rather than the upward trend has slowed to the point that the seasonal effect – people buying smartphones as holiday gifts – is now bigger than the overall growth rate.
Apple and Samsung of course maintain their lead, though Sony saw significant growth in its home territory of Japan, and LG’s share grew 57 percent year-on-year to a 4.2 percent market share thanks largely to sales of the Nexus handsets it makes for Google.
Castro is a brand new podcasting app for the iPhone (available in the App Store for $2.99). It’s not an update to an existing podcast client. It’s a new app. It doesn’t have any legacy to anchor it down because it really is a fresh start.
Brian and Kari from Pad and Quill have sent me a few of their drop dead gorgeous iPhone and iPad cases over the past few months. These are hand-made with natural leather and wood materials with high-quality stitching throughout. The ‘Little Pocket Book’ above is a great wallet case for the iPhone 5/5s. You can just feel the quality of the materials and craftsmanship here. People stop and ask me where I got my iPhone case and if it was hand made.
This week, Pad and Quill launched the Satchel Bag, Messenger Bag and Field Bag (videos below). Again, incredible looking product for any Apple user that wants to differentiate from the every day stuff. If the quality is anything like the iPhone and iPad cases, these will be around for a long time. Expand Expanding Close
A WSJ piece on Foxconn ramping up production of the iPhone 5s to meet demand provided an interesting glimpse at some of the numbers involved.
Foxconn operates 100 production lines, which are now operating at maximum capacity 24/7 to turn out 500,000 iPhones 5s handsets per day according to the report. Each iPhone represents the combined work of around 600 people. The unnamed Foxconn source said that this amounted to 100 people more than for the iPhone 5c due to the increased complexity of the high-end phone … Expand Expanding Close
Earlier this month, we highlighted that Apple is touting the iPhone 5s’s Touch ID fingerprint scanner and gold color option on the back of certain magazine covers. Now, we’ve spotted a new magazine ad for the iPhone 5s. This one, instead, highlight’s the device’s 64-bit A7 processor. “64-bit” is complex technical jargon, but Apple simplifies it to mean that the iPhone is powerful and offers all-day battery life.
KGI’s Mingchi Kuo, an analyst with a solid track-record, and the man who came closest (almost) to calling opening weekend sales of the iPhone, now believes Apple shipped ‘just’ 11.4M iPhone 5c handsets in September, rather than the 17M he had earlier forecast, reports Business Insider.
Kuo is now estimating Apple shipped 11.4 million 5Cs in the September quarter, a 33% drop from his original estimate. He also says he expects 5C sales to be just 10.4 million units for the December quarter, a 10% sequential drop.
Whenever a new phone comes out, there are always a bunch of drop-test videos, keen to see how the handset fares when dropped onto various surfaces. Rated RR‘s tests are a little more … extreme. Generally involving a 50-cal rifle.
So when they wanted to see how the iPhone 5s 120fps slo-mo performs, what else would they do to find out but shoot a defenceless iPhone 5c? It may not be quite as pretty as some demos, but it’s certainly impressive.
You’ve long been able to get wireless sports sensors that transmit data to your iPhone: heart-rate, cadence and so on. Zepp Labs has now taken the concept one step further with a small, lightweight sensor that captures data on your baseball, golf or tennis swing, providing an instant analysis and data-logging.
The 17g 6g sensor, which attaches to a glove, contains 2 accelerometers, a gyroscope and compass. The rechargeable battery allows five hours of continuous use. The Zepp Multi-Sport Training System is expected to be available next month for $150.
Sensors definitely appear to be the new black. The iPhone 5s features the M7 chip, which captures sensor data while the main A7 chip takes a nap, and the long-awaited iWatch is widely expected to major on sensors, Apple recently hiring a key Nike Fuel Band designer to work on wearable products.
The M7 chip could do all this right now, but you’d have to duct-tape it to your glove … It’s our bet that the iWatch will offer the same functionality, it’s just a question of how long we might have to wait for that.
If you’re still hoping to pick up an iPhone 5s from your local Apple retail store, developer Mordy Tikotzky has put together a web app to help.
Just go to the iPhone Check website, put in your ZIP code (it’s US-only at present), select your desired color and carrier and hit the Submit button. The web app carries out the search for you, screen-scrapes the results from apple.com and then presents a neat, color-coded table of results.
Apple briefly introduced an in-store pickup option, pulled it after one day and restored it a few days ago. The tool is a very handy way to check availability, but if my quick tests are anything to go by, you’re still not going to have much luck finding a gold one (other solutions are available …).
While the iPhone was available from the four main U.S. carriers from 20th September, those who want to stick with smaller regional carriers have so far had to wait. 1st October is now known to be the magic date for nine carriers, with others expected to announce shortly.
The nine companies who have so far announced that they will have both the iPhone 5s and 5c available from that date (via MacRumors) are:
There have been a number of demonstrations of the new 120fps slow-motion video capabilities of the iPhone 5s, but this one is the most beautiful I’ve seen.
Normal video is shot at 30 frames per second, a rate fast enough that the action looks smooth to the human eye. By filming at 120fps, four times faster than normal, the footage still looks beautifully smooth when slowed down by the same amount.
The effect was used in footage shot at the Burberry London fashion show, shot entirely with the iPhone 5s.
With Australia, alongside other countries in Asia included in the initial September 20 iPhone launch, the first to get their hands on the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, a repair company in the country has just posted the first teardown of the two new iPhones. The iExperts Team out of Australia has taken apart both devices, revealing new components but not yet giving us a look at what we expect will be a Samsung made A7 chip.
The first thing noticed in the teardown was a new connector for the TouchID fingerprint sensor assembly. Lining up with leaks leading up to the launch of the iPhones, it also found a 5.92Whr battery in the 5s (up from 5.45Whr in the iPhone 5), and a 5.73Whr battery in the iPhone 5c. Internal layouts for the two new iPhones also seem to line up with part leaks we seen in recent months. Interestingly, the site notes that the batteries are stamped with “Apple Japan.”
Many of the teardown shots below also include an iPhone 5 next to the 5s and 5c for comparison.
iExperts notes that Apple has fixed an issue from previous generation devices by adding an extra coating to switches “that should help hold them together to prevent the failures prevalent in the other models.”
We don’t learn much more from the teardown, which is likely still in progress as the site analyzes new internal components, but we’ll be learning a lot more as others pry into their new iPhones in the hours ahead. The teardown also gives us a good look at Apple’s new home button/fingerprint assembly: Expand Expanding Close
While everyone was expecting Apple to introduce its new colourful iPhone 5c as a “lower-cost” option, Nokia today announced a truly low-cost device with its new $29 Nokia 108.
The silicone rubber case is lined with microfiber on the inside, and includes Sleep/Wake and volume button protection. It’s quite light, with the empty space left by a 5 x 7 grid of 5/16″ holes helping to keep the weight down, while also oddly exposing only portions of the iPhone 5c’s rear labeling.
Nokia’s camera phone does calls, text, video capture, and also includes an up to 32GB of memory, an MP3 player, FM radio, Snake the game, and battery life up to 31 days on standby. It also has colourful red, white, black, yellow and cyan back plates that can be removed and swapped for other colors.
I like my gadgets, and generally consider myself an early adopter. When my friends are looking at buying a new piece of technology, I’m the one they ask as they know I’ll either own it or have tried it.
So you might be surprised to learn that my phone is an iPhone 4S and that after yesterday’s unveiling of the 5s (no, I don’t know why it suddenly became lower-case either), I’m planning to wait for the iPhone 6 before upgrading.
It’s not that the 5s isn’t impressive from a purely technological viewpoint. It is. A 64-bit phone? That’s a pretty incredible achievement. Delegating sensor functions to a separate chip to enable constant use without the usual battery-drain? Brilliant. A truly state-of-the-art fingerprint sensor? Fantastic. A larger phone sensor with lower pixel-density? Exactly the right approach, and I was delighted to see Apple refusing to join in the stupid megapixel race.
But I’m still not going to buy one, and the reason for that is two-fold. Before I get to that, one piece of context. In the U.S., upgrading can be a no-brainer as you end up on the same tariff either way. In the UK, it’s better value long-term to buy the phone outright at full retail (around $1120 for the 64Gb 5s), so you have to balance incremental benefit over other gadgets you could buy with the same money – like a new iPad. So, back to those two reasons … Expand Expanding Close
It wouldn’t be hard to put a little red plastic around the edges of an iPhone 5 and do the same thing here, but it is getting some play so we’re posting it for discussion. A little more proof would simply be flipping the iPhone over to see the backside which suspiciously isn’t done.
This could also be an iPhone 5 with the now common iPhone 5C plastic shell slapped on the back.
@9to5mac I'd guess they would put Red on a white front, not a black one. This is probably just an iPod touch dx
Today only, Virgin Mobile is offering prepaid iPhones at up to 20% off. These are some of the best price we’ve seen and the lowest price from this carrier by as much as $110. You can pick up the 16GB iPhone 5 starting at just $440. The 8GB iPhone 4 is available for $280 and the 16GB 4S is $360 right now as well. This discounted prices will appear once the item is added to your cart. Also you must be transferring from another carrier.
Apple iPhone 5 16GB: $439.99 (Reg. $550) Apple iPhone 5 32GB: $519.99 (Reg. $650) Apple iPhone 5 64GB: $599.99 (Reg. $750)
A new video has made its way online today showing what is allegedly the rear casing of the much rumored plastic-backed, lower-cost iPhone 5C that many expect Apple to officially unveil early next month. The report from Taiwan’s Apple Daily claims to provide some precise measurements for the lower-cost iPhone. Coming in at 24.55mm x 59.13mm x 8.98mm, the iPhone 5C appears to be slightly larger than the iPhone 5 due to the plastic back. The site also put the back shells through a number of scratch resistant tests in the video above and noted that its sources claim the device will include a reinforced material that will protect from everyday wear and tear. The roughly translated report also seems to claim that the iPhone 5S, in addition to the new dual LED flash and gold color option that we previously reported, will come in 3 colors. However, it isn’t clear if it’s referring to just the White/Black and Gold, or additional colors. We’re assuming the shot of the blue iPhone 5S in the video above is for illustration purposes only. Probably. Expand Expanding Close
We’re about three and a half weeks from Apple’s September 10th iPhone event and that means folks are mocking up what they think Apple will present. The most popular subject? The iPhone 5C, which we first mocked up in April. While we don’t necessarily believe some of these mockups below from Martin Hajek represent what Apple will release, they do present interesting fodder for discussion.
Definitely head over to Martinhajek.com for many more and full-sized galleries.
T-Mobile US’s customer base jumped by 1.1 million in its financial Q2, with the iPhone – offered by the carrier for the first time back in April – accounting for 29 percent of sales.
The company had lost over 200,000 customers in the same quarter the previous year. The company’s turnaround is being attributed to a combination of its new approaches to contracts – Uncarrier (whose introduction was not without controversy) and Jump – and the decision to add the iPhone 5 to its handset range. Earlier research by CIRP had suggested that 300-400,000 customers would have left the carrier if it hadn’t introduced the iPhone … Expand Expanding Close
This upcoming Friday and Saturday, Best Buy will hold an iPad trade-in-program, the company told AllThingsD. The promotion will give at least a $200 gift card in exchange for iPad 2s and third-generation iPads. The iPad-focused promotion is reportedly in response to the successful iPhone version that occurred last month.
Update (6/26): A US-optimized version of Contra: Evolution has been re-released this morning on the App Store and is available for download now. This re-issued version of Contra also includes new levels, an improved control system and in-game weapon shop.
Update (6/3): We have been told that the release of ‘Contra Evolution’ on the US App Store was a mistake. Konami is currently developing a US version of this game that will be released later this year. Please stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.
Today Konami released a brand new iteration in the Contra series, although it should look pretty familiar. Contra Evolution is basically a remix of the original Contra most gamers fell in love with a long time ago in a classic arcade. At first glance, this title appears to include enough familiarity to embrace nostalgia, while mixing in some new features and characters to keep the gameplay fresh.
Gamers can choose to play as all the original characters plus two brand new female players. Konami boasts that the updated HD graphics and weapon system “will provide a whole new experience in the world of Contra!”
If you’re feeling nostalgic for some traditional Run n’ Gun gameplay, it’s safe to say Contra Evolution won’t disappoint. Available as an iPhone or iPad download for $.99 each.
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