Tag Archives: Apple

Apple hits three-year low in smartphone marketshare, shipment figures reveal

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Apple hits three-year low in smartphone marketshare, shipment figures reveal.

Fresh reports during Q2 2013 have shown smartphones have outsold their less-intelligent feature phones for the second quarter in a row. Strategy Analytics says shipments hit a record-breaking 237.9 million. According to IDC, Samsung managed to ship a total of 72.4 million smartphones during Q2 – a 43.9% boost year over year – with help of the Galaxy S 4 and price cuts to the GS3. To put that in perspective, that’s more than double the 31.2 million iPhones Apple managed to ship, and Strategy Analytics claims this marks a three-year low in Apple’s marketshare. While LG and ZTE each occupy third and fifth place, respectively, Lenovo pushed Huawei out of the number four slot by sending out 11.3 million handsets.

However, I do expect Apple to bounce back with it’s new products and iOS refresh.

Apple’s iOS is still top for ad revenue

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Despite Apple losing the crown for the world’s top phone manufacturer to Samsung, it still retains the undisputed crown for what really counts and that is mobile ad revenue.

The Next Web reported that Opera’s latest figures show that iOS devices generate almost half of all mobile ad revenue across its network,  Android devices 28% , BlackBerry generates 5.4%, Symbian 1.6% and behind Symbian Windows Phone generates a 0.3% of revenues. The iPad is  dominant in the mobile advertising, but when removed from the figures, the iPhone still generates 36.5% of all mobile ad revenues, which is more than Android’s total market share for both phones and tablets.

Impressive stats.

Apple testing larger size iPad and iPhone screen sizes

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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is testing a 12.9 inch iPad screen size and an iPhone in 4.7 and 5.7 inches. None of this is a surprise really, as I’m sure Apple test many different variety of sizes in the course of time.

What might be interesting is whilst a larger iPad screen size of 12.9 inches seems a big jump from 9.7 inches, with the every reducing bezels, the overall profile of a larger screen size may not be significantly larger than the current offering. My only thought though is 12.9 inch screen size is totally overkill for an iPad or tablet and too big for general lap use. People prefer the iPad Mini size as this is far more pocketable and user friendly.

What is more believable is Apple responding to market trends towards larger screened phones and phablets. What we might see from Apple is a 4.3 or 4.5 screen iPhone but in the same size profile of the current iPhone 5, but with no bezel. This would then allow Apple to release a new device somewhere in between the iPad Mini and iPhone. Lets hope we don’t have to wait too long as I really would love to see a larger screened iPhone.

Show some love to Russia – not if your Apple

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Russia’s largest mobile phone networks have called Apple’s bluff and not renewed iphone agreements. These include MTS, Vimpelcom and Megafon with a combined 300 million subscribers.

As a result, the networks have got closer to Samsung and Windows Phone.

I just wonder if this is the networks playing hard ball with Apple to get a better deal, or the end for real. Luckily Apple can sell the phones directly, however this cannot be good news.

iOS 7 Beta 3 now available – changes

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Apple released its third beta for iOS 7. This features a number of changes, many of which are slight cosmetic changes including –

– Mail has tweaked search bar
– Music controls are slightly redesigned
– Clock icon in control centre is tweaked
– Weather app has had a change to the fonts
– Safari has seen some notable UI enhancements for the tab/bookmarks via on the iPad, in the loading bar for iPad/iPhone, and in Private Browsing mode.
– Calendar now shows which days you have events on
– Time on Lock Screen while playing music.
– Tweaked interface when clicking a key in Calculator.app
– Slight Game Center UI tweaks.
– Tweaked UI for wallpaper chooser.
– New silent control in iPad Control Center
– New app icon loading UI for download apps:
– Slightly tweaked pull-to-refresh animation in Mail app.
– New App Store tab buttons.
– Siri is much faster to navigate.
– Nice new UI for arranging tab-bar icons
– Yellow selection UI in notes
– New animation while accessing Spotlight
– Various font changes all over.
– Perhaps an even more improved voice in Siri
– Some transparencies removed from iPhone 4S (particularly in Siri)
– Some UI button tweaks in iTunes Radio
– Dictionary feature is now active:

I’m sure there are more tweaks along with tons of bug fixes. All in all, iOS 7 is shaping up to be something excellent.

What do you think?

Apple preparing for a bumper product release

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When did Apple last release a product. Nearly a year ago. So be prepared for a huge product launch of new iPads, iPad Mini, iPhone 5S and iWatch. Improvements are also likely on iPods too.

The full size iPad will copy the design of the current iPad Mini, so will feature a lighter and slimmer profile. Spec increases in processor and camera are expected too, along with iOS 7.

The iPad Mini 2 will have increased specs in the processor and camera, along with a retina based screen. But maybe more. Apple has recently been granted a new patent that allows for clever bezel technology. This could add touch controls to the bezel which will allow the bezel to also fade in and out of view, which would provide the largest screen area possible when needed as well. I hope the iPad Mini is also made available in 128gb.

The iPhone 5S should look similar to the iPhone 5, but again with better specs in processor and camera. And one new software/hardware feature that will be exclusive to the 5S. Colours are likely to feature, and this might relate to the new lower cost iPhone.

iWatch. Apple is prised to launch a smart watch. How serious is Apple about the iWatch. Enough to tempt Paul Deneve, the 53-year-old chief executive officer of haute couture fashion house Yves Saint Laurent, to head to Cupertino to be in charge of special projects. Yes a luxury Apple Watch, the iWatch.

And finally, iPods will receiver minor spec bumps in processor and camera and potentially memory.

Apple Keynote stats

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The key facts from Apple’s Keynote –

– 600 million iOS devices sold to date
-24th WWDC with attendees from 66 countries
– 6 million registered developers
– WWDC sold out in 71 seconds
– 1 million daily vistors at the 407 Apple Stores in 14 countries
– 50 billion apps download from the App Store
– 300 million iTunes in the Cloud users
– 900,000 apps in the store
– 375,000 iPad apps
– 575 million App Store accounts (more accounts with credit cards than any store)
– $10 billion has been paid to developers ($5 billion just last year)
– 72 million Macs installed
– 28 million copies sold of OS X Mountain Lion
– 35% of Mac users are now using OS X 10.8

Some serious numbers!