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Perspective: iPad Pro blew past Microsoft Surface as soon as Apple could make enough of them, IDC says

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IDC is out with its latest report on worldwide tablet shipments following Apple’s Q1 2016 earnings and in the report shares a nugget about iPad Pro sales.

It may not surprise you, but Apple’s new 12.9-inch iPad, which many would have you believe is the company’s first to compete directly with detachable and hybrid tablets/laptops, outsold Microsoft Surface and other detachable tablets, according to the report:
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Google takes a jab at iPhone 6s camera as it unveils new Nexus lineup, next-gen Chromecast, Pixel tablet & more

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Google is hosting its big fall event today with the company officially taking the wraps off a new lineup of Nexus smartphones from various manufacturing partners, its new second-gen Chromecast that we revealed previously, a revamped Google Photos experience, and much, much more.
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Apple adds more powerful iPad mini 4 to lineup, lowers iPad mini 2 price

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iPad mini barely got a mention on stage last year as Apple only added Touch ID and a gold option plus 128GB models to what was in every other respect the same 7.9-inch tablet that it released in 2013. iPad mini with Retina display was renamed iPad mini 2 while the new iPad mini 3 model kept the same exact chip and specs aside from the finger print sensor. Nearly a year later the smaller tablet form factor is back with the more powerful version.

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IDC lowers tablet forecast as it anticipates a larger iPad Pro & more 2-in-1 hybrids

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IDC today published an updated forecast for worldwide tablet shipments this year, predicting the segment will experience a “notable slowdown” with both iOS and Android expected to record a year over year decline in growth. While IDC notes that the majority of the 212 million tablets it expects to ship this year will be “pure slate tablets”, it does anticipate growth in the 2-in-1 hybrid tablet/laptop category, of which it’s apparently including the larger 12-inch+ iPad that Apple is expected to introduce later this year:
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Survey: 11% of teens plan to purchase Apple Watch, iPhone & iPad still most popular smartphone & tablet

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According to the latest data from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, interest in the Apple Watch among teens remains low. An October 2014 survey showed that only 16 percent of teenagers planned to purchase an Apple Watch, and now, a more recent survey shows that interest has dropped to 11 percent among the age group.


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KGI: Apple likely to sell stylus accessory alongside 12-inch ‘iPad Pro’

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According to a new report by KGI, Apple will soon introduce a stylus accessory for its iPad products, targeted at the expected (but still officially unconfirmed) larger-screened ~12 inch iPad Pro. Both products are quoted for release sometime this year, with KGI most recently quoting a Q2 launch window. The stylus would apparently charge using a Lightning cable.

Although KGI reports tend to be based off of supply-chain sources, which have proven very reliable in the past, Ming-Chi Kuo does not allude to any such indicators for the stylus prediction report. Instead, he highlights a number of patent filings in recent years by Apple on tablet styli and a need to differentiate the upcoming more premium iPad aside from screen size.


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IDC: iPad’s first year of decline expected as worldwide tablet growth significantly slows

ipadThe latest numbers from market research company IDC reveal that worldwide tablet growth is expected to have significantly declined in 2014, with just 7.2% year-over-year growth compared to 52.5% in 2013. A contributing factor will likely be the iPad’s first year of decline as the tablet’s market share continues to fall because of a growing number of cheaper alternatives.
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Ralph Lauren introduces iPhone-connected ‘Polo Tech’ fitness tracking shirt

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Ralph Lauren has announced it’s about to introduce a new iPhone-connected, sensor-filled Polo shirt capable of tracking and sending biometric data directly to your smartphone.

The Ralph Lauren Polo Tech shirt features sensors knitted into the core of the product to read biological and physiological information. With Ralph Lauren’s leadership in the design community, the compression shirt also has a sleek look in black with a signature yellow Polo Player logo. The second-skin fit enhances comfort and agility.

The company described a bit about how the technology it’s using from Canadian company OMsignal works:

With OMsignal, the data collected by the shirt is stored by a “black box,” which includes an accelerometer and gyroscope, which capture movement and direction. That ”black box” transmits the data into the cloud, where it is plugged into a number of algorithms that gauge important performance-oriented biometrics, including heartbeat and respiration, as well as some psychometrics, such as stress level and energy output.

While you can’t buy one yet, the product will be making its debut on ball boys and players during the US Open where Ralph Lauren is an official outfitter for the event. There’s no word on when exactly you’ll be able to get one for yourself, but Ralph Lauren is taking sign-ups for those interested in learning more when it officially launches next year.

Modbook announces $4k 15-inch pen-based OS X tablet built w/ new Retina MacBooks

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Following up the last Modbook Pro tablet the company is currently selling made from a converted mid-2012 MacBook Pro, today Modbook is back with the announcement of a 15-inch ModBook tablet that uses the new Retina MacBooks Apple just refreshed this week as its guts. For those of you unfamiliar with the company, it first started making OS X based tablets by converting Apple laptops and adding pen input capabilities as far back as 2007. 
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Apple maintains lead over Samsung as top tablet vendor in Q2 as both lose share to others

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With Apple’s Q3 earnings call this week revealing iPad sales of 13.3 million units for the quarter and Tim Cook making a point of defending the category, today we get a look at how Apple is doing overall with IDC’s latest numbers for worldwide tablet shipments.

While noting that tablet shipments worldwide grew 11% year-over-year, IDC’s numbers show that Apple was able to maintain its lead over Samsung with 26.9% of the market (down from 33% last year) compared to Samsung at 17.2% down from 18.8% the year before. Both lose share to other companies as the category reportedly experienced a lot of growth among smaller companies like Lenovo and Acer while the “others” category grew from 37% to 44% marketshare:
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Los Angeles school district revisits failed plan to give students iPads, this time without the iPads

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The school district that attempted to rollout iPads to its students last year—only to scrap the entire plan when the students proved too smart for the technical limits placed on the devices—will once again try to place technology in the lives of its students. This time, however, the iPad won’t be an option.

Officials said that many of the students weren’t comfortable on the Apple tablet, citing the screen size difficulty the students had doing all of their typing on the touch screen as one of the factors. This year’s lineup of tech tools includes a number of Windows-based laptops from various manufacturers, and the Microsoft Surface tablet, which sports a detachable keyboard.

The program will cost the district no more than $40 million and will operate in 27 different high schools. The contract has not yet been finalized but is expected to be very soon. Once it is, students and educators will test five different laptops (and the Surface tablet) to determine which ones should be used in the future.

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Microsoft’s new cheaper 365 subscription gets you Office on one Mac & iPad for $69/year

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Microsoft is launching a cheaper ‘Personal’ Office 365 subscription today that will give you access to the cloud services and mobile apps for $69/year or $6.99/month opposed to the $99/year Home subscription. The new Personal subscription only provides access for one Mac (or PC) and iPad (or tablet) instead of the 5 PC or Macs and 5 tablets you get with a Home subscription.

You might want to hold off on the new subscription, however, as Amazon is currently selling the full Home subscription for just $63 (37% off). That’s cheaper than the new $69 Personal plan, but it’s possible Microsoft could soon end that discount and change prices on Amazon now that the new Personal subscription is launching.

The Office 365 subscription gives you access to full editing features in Microsoft’s recently released suite of Office apps for iPad, but also access to desktop and online versions of Microsoft’s Office apps, 7GB of cloud storage, and 60 minutes of Skype credit a month.

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iPad Air conquers all in tablet battery test with 11-13 hour showing

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Apple boasted about maintaining its 10-hour iPad battery-life in the new iPad Air despite an overall thinner and faster design, but how does it compare to other tablets? Most reviews had good things to say about battery life (many even experiencing more than 10 hours), but it’s interesting to see how the device stacks up against the rest of the tablet market. While battery life largely depends on how you’re using your iPad, an extensive test from Which? shows that iPad Air comes out on top in just about any case and significantly beats out much of the competition.
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Using your own iPhone at work? Watch that it doesn’t get wiped when you leave …

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Employees who use their own electronic devices at work under a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) arrangement may have unwittingly authorised their employer to remotely wipe their device when they leave the company, reports the WSJ.

In early October, Michael Irvin stood up to leave a New York City restaurant when he glanced at his iPhone and noticed it was powering off. When he turned it back on again, all of his information—email programs, contacts, family photos, apps and music he had downloaded—had vanished […]

It wasn’t a malfunction. The device had been wiped clean by AlphaCare of New York, the client he had been working for full-time since April. Mr. Irvin received an email from his AlphaCare address that day confirming the phone had been remotely erased.

A survey found that 21 percent of companies perform a remote wipe of employee-owned devices registered on the company network, with employees ostensibly agreeing to this when they connect to the company network.

Many employers have a pro forma user agreement that pops up when employees connect to an email or network server via a personal device, he added. But even if these documents explicitly state that the company may perform remote wipes, workers often don’t take the time to read it before clicking the “I agree” button.

The legality of the practice has reportedly not yet been tested in court.

In principle, an iCloud or iTunes backup should allow wiped iPhones to be restored, but you may want to pay a little more attention to the small-print next time one of those corporate messages pops up on your screen, to find out what it is you’ve been agreeing to …

Update: Several readers have pointed out that the remote wipe would be performed via the company’s Exchange servers, so removing the Exchange account the day before you leave would be a good precaution.

Yahoo Weather goes universal, brings same award-winning design to the iPad

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At WWDC, Yahoo received an Apple Design Award for Yahoo Weather. This coincided with the unveiling of iOS 7 and its Weather app, which displayed striking similarities to Yahoo’s effort.

With the latest update to the app, Yahoo has brought the same award-winning design to the iPad. The full-bleed imagery from Flickr really shines on a larger display. The layout for iPad is largely a port of the iPhone design with upgraded icons and assets but refinements have been made for the iPad where necessary. For example, forecast information can be much larger because of the additional real-estate.


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Microsoft offering up $200 discounts on Surface with iPad trade-in

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Microsoft has recently kicked off a new campaign that offers iPad users a $200 Microsoft Store gift card to trade-in their Apple tablet. While the gift card is applicable to any item inside of Microsoft’s stores, the company is positioning the offer as push for sales of the Surface tablet. The deal ends on October 27, 2013.

This campaign is just one aspect of Microsoft’s attempts at trumping Apple’s iPad. Over the past several months, Microsoft has been running TV ads that position Windows 8 for tablets the Microsoft Surface against the iPad. These ads have highlighted the multitasking capabilities of Windows 8, and have panned the iPad for the lack of a kickstand and USB ports. 

As for the Surface, the tablet has essentially been a flop, leading the company to take a $900 million write-off on the device. Nonetheless, the company will be upgrading the more-than-year-old tablet later this month. Apple, for its part, is expected to unleash its new iPads about a month later.


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Apple drops to 32% tablet market share in Q2 amidst strong YoY Android growth

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IDC is out today with its latest report tracking worldwide tablet shipments, reporting that total shipments have experienced a sequential decline during Q2 at the expense of Apple and the iPad. Apple already announced that it had sold 14.6 million iPads during the quarter, a significant drop from the 17 million it sold in the year ago quarter, but today IDC gives us some insight into where that puts Apple in its lead over Samsung as the top tablet vendor.

Apple was able to pick up 32.4% of the market during Q2, continuing its lead as the top tablet manufacturer, but dropping from the 60.3% of the market it had in Q2 last year. While Apple’s tablet shipments are clearly suffering from lack of new product announcements this year, it’s also losing share to Samsung and others. IDC reports 277% year over year growth for Samsung, giving it 18% of the market with 8.1 million units shipped during Q2. All of the top 3 vendors– Apple, Samsung, and ASUS– experienced a drop compared to Q1 2013, but the Android tablet makers have experienced significant growth compared to Apple since last year.
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‘AT&T Next’: Buy new smartphone/tablet yearly, pay over 12 months ($0 down)

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Following major announcements from T-Mobile and Sprint (and rumors about big device upgrade changes at Verizon Wireless), AT&T has made its “network related” announcement that it teased last week. The company has introduced a new program named “AT&T Next.” Similar to T-Mobile’s new “Un-carrier” offering, AT&T Next allows users to upgrade their smartphone or tablet device each year (T-Mobile, though, allows this to happen twice a year).

“With AT&T Next, customers can get the newest smartphone or tablet every year with no down payment. That’s hard to beat, and it’s an incredible value for customers who want the latest and greatest every year,” said Ralph de la Vega, president and chief executive officer of AT&T Mobility.

In a change from the typical ways of purchasing a phone upfront with no contract or at a subsidy with a contract, AT&T Next allows a customer to purchase a smartphone or tablet with $0 down payment and pay for the device with a monthly cost. For example, according to AT&T, a customer who wants a Samsung Galaxy S4 can purchase the device with no down payment and pay an extra $32 per month (on top of their standard monthly service bill). More details below:


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Similar to T-Mobile’s new plans, Verizon to launch ‘Edge’ upgrade service Aug. 25

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In a move that follow’s T-Mobile’s recently launched “un-carrier” initiatives, Verizon Wireless plans to debut a new “VZ Edge” program aimed at retaining its customer base, according to a leaked presentation slide posted by Droid-Life.

Specific details on the new approach are currently slim, but, based on the slide, it seems that the essence of Verizon’s plan is to merge T-Mobile’s new JUMP and pay-for-a-device-overtime programs. T-Mobile’s JUMP program, with a $10 monthly fee, allows users to upgrade to a new handset twice a year.

Marketed as a plan to “stay on the leaning edge of technology,” this new Edge program seems to be similar. T-Mobile also allows customers to put a down payment on a phone and then pay the cost overtime, and Edge seems to provide a similar solution.

Edge will also allow customers to upgrade to a new phone once the device if 50% paid off, and this seems to be similar to T-Mobile requiring users of the JUMP plan to have already paid 6 months of service for their current device.

AT&T, tonight, has launched a similar program called Next.

Cross posted on 9to5Google.com

Apple’s U.S. PC shipments decline more than overall market if you don’t count iPads but do count Windows tablets

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Gartner is today out with a report detailing its estimates for Q2 2013 global and U.S. PC shipments. Globally, the industry average for shipments is down 10.9%. This is the fifth consecutive decline for this specific metric.

“We are seeing the PC market reduction directly tied to the shrinking installed base of PCs, as inexpensive tablets displace the low-end machines used primarily for consumption in mature and developed markets,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “In emerging markets, inexpensive tablets have become the first computing device for many people, who at best are deferring the purchase of a PC. This is also accounting for the collapse of the mini notebook market.”


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UPS finally releases iPad app for tracking & scheduling deliveries

UPS announced today that it is finally rolling out a native iPad app that brings the ability to track and schedule deliveries as well as access to features of UPS My Choice® and enhanced mapping features. These features were previously available to users in the free UPS Mobile app for iPhone, but today they come to iPads through the UPS for iPad app available on the App Store now. 

Some of the features below will require enrollment in the UPS My Choice program:

Without logging in, you can: 
– Track packages and freight shipments
– Save up to 5 tracking numbers in your tracking list
– See the current location of your package on a map
– Find UPS service locations via GPS

When you log in, you can also: 
– Sync your recent tracks from ups.com
– Nickname tracked shipments
– Enroll in UPS My Choice
– Use UPS My Choice to take action on your incoming deliveries
– Set your delivery preferences

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Report: Apple loses share to Android in Q1 but maintains lead in tablet market

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Research firm Canalys is out today with its latest report tracking worldwide smart mobile device shipments for Q1 with Android accounting for almost 60% of smart mobile devices shipped by OS. That’s compared to a 19.3% share for Apple and approximately 18.1% for Microsoft. Keep in mind Canalys’s report also includes notebooks, in addition to tablets and smartphones, which account for the majority of Microsoft’s share. When looking at tablets alone, Apple continued its lead with 46.4% share in the quarter, although Canalys warned Apple “lost share to its Android-based rivals for the third consecutive quarter.”

Though Apple continues to lead in the tablet space with a 46.4% share, it lost share to its Android-based rivals for the third consecutive quarter. ‘Spearheaded by Google and Amazon, the commoditization of the tablet market has happened far quicker than that of the wider PC market,’ said Canalys Senior Analyst, Tim Coulling. ‘Profit margins are being squeezed and vendors without a low cost structure will find it hard to compete. A solid range of must-have accessories and a software and services strategy are vital as vendors will increasingly need to make revenue around their devices.’

When it comes to smartphones, the report has Android at roughly 75.6% of shipments with around 32% of those shipments coming from Samsung. We know Apple sold around 37 million iPhones in the quarter but, as always, we warn that the stats from Canalys don’t include shipped vs sold data. 
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IDC: iPad drops below Android with 40% share of worldwide tablet market, Apple still top vendor

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Research firm IDC is out today with preliminary data from its quarterly study tracking worldwide tablet market share putting Apple at 40% market share compared to Android’s 56.5% of the market in Q1 2013. In the year ago quarter, Apple held 58.1% of the market surpassing Android’s 39.4%. IDC says Android shipments were increased thanks to strong growth of Samsung’s smaller sized tablets, while ASUS moved into the number 3 spot with 350.0% year over year growth due to strong demand for the Nexus 7:

ASUS managed to move into the number 3 vendor spot as it continued to see decent tablet shipment demand from the highly marketed Nexus 7 device. But, with Google’s I/O conference right around the corner and expectations of an imminent device refresh, the company will need to find a way to sustain its momentum. Amazon fell to the number 4 position, once again the victim of a highly seasonal product cycle.

Despite Apple taking number two behind Android for tablet shipments by operating system, it remains the top vendor by OEM taking a 39.6% share of the market vs Samsung’s 17.9% and 5.5% for ASUS. IDC notes that Apple actually exceeded expectations for Q1, where it typically experiences a drop off in shipments, by selling 19.5 million units compared to a forecast of 18.7 million:
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