Apple Sees U.S. Mac Shipments Drop 2.5% in 2Q15 Amid Larger Worldwide PC Shipment Decline
Amid a decline in both U.S. and worldwide PC shipments, Apple has also seen a slight drop in its U.S. PC shipments in 2Q15, according to shipping estimates released today from Gartner. Apple shipped 1.92 million PCs during the second quarter of 2015, down from 1.97 million in 2Q14, marking a 2.5 percent decline.
Overall PC growth in the United States during the quarter was down 5.8 percent, with total estimated shipments at 15.1 million, down from 16 million in the year-ago quarter. With the exception of Lenovo, all of the top U.S. PC vendors saw declines in growth.
In the U.S., PC shipments totaled 15.1 million units in the second quarter of 2015, a 5.8 percent decline from the second quarter of 2014 (see Table 2). The decline was led by a double-digit decline of desk-based shipments, which offset single-digit growth of mobile PCs. Based on preliminary results, the desk-based PC shipment decline was the steepest since 2009 when the market was hit by the economic crisis.
During the quarter, Apple captured 12.7 percent of the market, up from 12.3 percent in 2Q14. Apple was ranked as the fourth largest PC vendor in the United States in 2Q15, based on Gartner’s estimates, trailing behind HP, Dell, and Lenovo.
Gartner’s Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2Q15 (Thousands of Units)
Market leader HP shipped nearly 4 million PCs during the quarter for a 26.2 percent share of the market, while Dell shipped 3.9 million for a 25.6 percent share of the market. Lenovo came in just ahead of Apple with 2 million PC shipments and 13.3 percent of the market, while Asus brought up the rear with shipments of 767,000 and a 5.1 percent share of the market.
Apple’s U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-2Q15 (Gartner)
IDC has also released its own estimates of Apple’s U.S. PC shipments during 2Q15, which are quite different from Gartner’s estimates. According to IDC, overall U.S. PC shipments totaled 16.4 million, a 3.3 percent decline from 2Q14’s 17 million.
According to IDC, Apple shipped 2.2 million PCs during the quarter, for 13.5 percent market share and 11.9 percent growth year over year. Gartner and IDC often have different numbers because each company counts different products in their PC totals.
Apple does not rank as one of the top five worldwide vendors in Gartner’s data, which ranks Acer and ASUS above Apple, but in IDC’s data, Apple ranks higher than Acer/ASUS and is counted as the number four worldwide PC vendor. IDC’s data suggests that Apple’s worldwide PC marketshare climbed to 7.8 percent in 2Q15 with 5.14 million shipments, while Gartner’s data suggests Acer was the number five worldwide PC vendor with 4.5 million shipments.
According to Gartner, worldwide PC shipments during 2Q15 totaled 68.4 million units, a 9.5 percent decrease from 2Q14. IDC’s estimates, meanwhile, point towards 66.1 million shipments during the quarter, a 11.8 percent drop from the year-ago quarter.
It’s important to note that data from Gartner and IDC is preliminary and that the numbers can shift somewhat, sometimes dramatically. Last year, for example, Gartner predicted Apple shipments of 1.68 million and 10.6 percent market share in 2Q14, a number that was later revised to 1.97 million shipments and 12.3 percent market share.
Update 2:40 PM PT: We’ve updated this post to add data from IDC.
Apple Debuts Two New iPhone 6 Ads: ‘Loved’ and ‘Hardware & Software’
Apple tonight debuted two brand new iPhone 6 ads that appear to be a part of a new marketing campaign. The ads feature a voice over detailing what makes an iPhone unique compared to other smart phones and smart phone platforms while showing off multiple iPhones doing different things on a white background. Both ads end with a new tagline: “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone.”
The first ad, “Loved”, talks about the iPhone’s high user satisfaction rate, claiming that 99% of people who have an iPhone love their device. It shows off people messaging, sending emojis, FaceTiming and having a good time on a multitude of iPhones before cutting to the new tagline.
The second ad, “Hardware & Software”, explains how Apple is one of the few smart phone manufacturers to design both the hardware and software parts of the device. It goes on to say that this allows the device to function as a whole better than other smartphones can. It shows off games, intensive apps like GarageBand and iPhone-exclusive features like Apple Pay and FaceTime.
The new ads mark the third campaign centered around Apple’s flagship device after the Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake ads explaining the differences between the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and Apple’s award-winning “Shot on iPhone 6” campaign.
Samsung May Announce Galaxy Note 5 in August to Beat iPhone Launch
Samsung is planning to move up the launch of the Galaxy Note 5 by one month to avoid competing with Apple’s annual iPhone event in September, according to The Wall Street Journal. The South Korean handset maker will reportedly unveil the next Galaxy Note in mid-August instead of announcing the smartphone at the IFA Berlin trade show in early September as it has done for four consecutive years.
Apple introduced the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus just six days after the Galaxy Note 4 was announced on September 3 last year, shifting much of the media coverage and consumer attention away from Samsung. With the launch of the so-called “iPhone 6s” and “iPhone 6s Plus” also likely to be in September, Samsung is reportedly looking to avoid the same fate with the Galaxy Note 5.
Apple Rumored to Announce New iPod Touch, Nano and Shuffle Around July 14
Apple will announce a refreshed lineup of iPod touch, iPod nano and iPod shuffle portable media players around July 14, according to usually reliable French website iGen.fr. The report claims the new iPod touch (codenamed “N102″) should be a more significant update, likely including a bump to a 64-bit A-based processor, while the iPod nano (“N31A”) and iPod shuffle (“N12D”) may be refreshed with new colors only.
iPods in unreleased colors spotted in iTunes 12.2 earlier this month
iPods in unreleased colors were spotted in iTunes 12.2 earlier this month, including a darker blue for the iPod touch, a new gold or beige color for the iPod nano and a brighter pink color for the iPod shuffle. Notably, a few eagle-eyed readers noticed that the Calendar app on the iPod touch displays “Tuesday” and “14,” which lines up with Tuesday, July 14 and information shared by iGen.fr‘s sources.
MacRumors discovered a full lineup of six new iPod colors
MacRumors subsequently discovered a full lineup of six new colors for the iPod touch, nano and shuffle hidden within iTunes resource files, including silver, space gray, red, bright pink, deep blue and light gold. Beyond new colors, storage capacities and other minor changes, Apple last updated the iPod touch and iPod nano in October 2012 and the iPod shuffle in September 2010.
Apple Rumored to Announce New iPod Touch, Nano and Shuffle Around July 14
Apple will announce a refreshed lineup of iPod touch, iPod nano and iPod shuffle portable media players around July 14, according to usually reliable French website iGen.fr. The report claims the new iPod touch (codenamed “N102″) should be a more significant update, likely including a bump to a 64-bit A-based processor, while the iPod nano (“N31A”) and iPod shuffle (“N12D”) may be refreshed with new colors only.
iPods in unreleased colors spotted in iTunes 12.2 earlier this month
iPods in unreleased colors were spotted in iTunes 12.2 earlier this month, including a darker blue for the iPod touch, a new gold or beige color for the iPod nano and a brighter pink color for the iPod shuffle. Notably, a few eagle-eyed readers noticed that the Calendar app on the iPod touch displays “Tuesday” and “14,” which lines up with Tuesday, July 14 and information shared by iGen.fr‘s sources.
MacRumors discovered a full lineup of six new iPod colors
MacRumors subsequently discovered a full lineup of six new colors for the iPod touch, nano and shuffle hidden within iTunes resource files, including silver, space gray, red, bright pink, deep blue and light gold. Beyond new colors, storage capacities and other minor changes, Apple last updated the iPod touch and iPod nano in October 2012 and the iPod shuffle in September 2010.
MasterCard and MLB Bringing Apple Pay Purchases & Rewards to All-Star Game in Cincinnati
Fans attending the 2015 MLB All-Star Game in Cincinnati will be able to use Apple Pay for on-site food and merchandise purchases, thanks to a partnership between MasterCard and Major League Baseball Advanced Media. MasterCard hopes it gets fans back to their seats as fast as possible during the week-long festivities, streamlining the sometimes lengthy lines at concession and souvenir stands at such events.
“Nobody wants to be caught in line at concession only to hear the crowd go wild over a play they’ve missed. The ballpark experience is an ideal environment for quick and secure payment options so fans can get through concessions and back to the game quickly,” said Cheryl Guerin, Group Executive, Global Products & Solutions, MasterCard.
“We’re thrilled to partner with MLBAM to bring contactless acceptance to the 2015 MLB All-Star Week festivities. Through our longstanding relationship with MLB and MLBAM, we are constantly looking for opportunities to create enhanced fan experiences both in-stadium and online, whether that’s through advanced payment capabilities or delivering surprises to fans.”
Any customer using Apple Pay at the T-Mobile All-Star FanFest from July 10th through July 14th or in-stadium at the Great American Ball Park from July 12th through July 14th, will also be eligible for MasterCard’s “Priceless Surprises” rewards. This will give customers the chance at winning premium All-Star branded merchandise, autographed memorabilia, prepaid cards, and more. The FanFest begins today in Cincinnati and ends with the 86th MLB All-Star Game on July 14.
MasterCard and MLB Bringing Apple Pay Purchases & Rewards to All-Star Game in Cincinnati
Fans attending the 2015 MLB All-Star Game in Cincinnati will be able to use Apple Pay for on-site food and merchandise purchases, thanks to a partnership between MasterCard and Major League Baseball Advanced Media. MasterCard hopes it gets fans back to their seats as fast as possible during the week-long festivities, streamlining the sometimes lengthy lines at concession and souvenir stands at such events.
“Nobody wants to be caught in line at concession only to hear the crowd go wild over a play they’ve missed. The ballpark experience is an ideal environment for quick and secure payment options so fans can get through concessions and back to the game quickly,” said Cheryl Guerin, Group Executive, Global Products & Solutions, MasterCard.
“We’re thrilled to partner with MLBAM to bring contactless acceptance to the 2015 MLB All-Star Week festivities. Through our longstanding relationship with MLB and MLBAM, we are constantly looking for opportunities to create enhanced fan experiences both in-stadium and online, whether that’s through advanced payment capabilities or delivering surprises to fans.”
Any customer using Apple Pay at the T-Mobile All-Star FanFest from July 10th through July 14th or in-stadium at the Great American Ball Park from July 12th through July 14th, will also be eligible for MasterCard’s “Priceless Surprises” rewards. This will give customers the chance at winning premium All-Star branded merchandise, autographed memorabilia, prepaid cards, and more. The FanFest begins today in Cincinnati and ends with the 86th MLB All-Star Game on July 14.
Geeksphone quits making smartphones, leaves its Multi-OS platform in the hands of the community
Remember Geeksphone, Spain’s first smartphone manufacturer that developed a MultiOS platform allowing you to choose when you want to use Google’s Android, Mozilla’s Boot2Gecko or another community developed operating system on its handsets? Well, today Geeksphone has announced it will quit making smartphones and leave further development of its MultiOS software in the hands of its community.
Having developed 6 smartphones over a period of 6 years, Geeksphone says it has come to ‘the end of a cycle‘. While it will quit making smartphones, its customer technical support service will continue operating as usual. The engineering talent behind the smartphones will transfer over to Silent Circle’s BlackPhone project and many of the remaining employees will cross over to the recently created geeks!me company, that is busy developing an activity bracelet. We have the full press release below.
Press Release:
Geeksphone leaves in the hands of its Users’ Community the development of their Multi OS platform.
– After having developed six smartphones in less than six years, the company has reached the end of a cycle.
– Our Customer Technical Support Service will continue to operate as usual.
-Geeksphone, jointly with some of its partners has created geeks!me, a new brand focused on the development of wearables.
Madrid, 20 June 2015.- It’s been almost six years since Rodrigo Silva-Ramos and Javier Agüera founded Geeksphone in 2009.
During all these years, Geeksphone has been the first Spanish company to develop a smartphone, the first European company to launch an Android-based phone, the first global brand to launch a Firefox OS mobile device together with Telefónica and the Mozilla Foundation, besides being the first global project in the mobile environment to have believed in the free code, encouraging it as its core philosophy.
In addition, the Company embarked in 2013, on a joint venture with Silent Circle in order to create Blackphone, a project that has leadered security and privacy issues and which has garnered many successes and awards, and has even been exhibited in several museums around the world.
“When we started the Geeksphone project, we never imagined that we would develop six smartphones in just five years,” says Rodrigo Silva-Ramos, Geeksphone’s Co-Founder. “We are very grateful and proud of having achieved so many professional and personal success and, above all, we are extremely proud to have received great recognition from both the Industry and the users”
Geeksphone has sold several thousand terminals, has reached business figures of great importance in relation to the environment of European technology startups, and has facilitated independent investment in other projects undertaken by Geeksphone’s founding partners.
Now the time has come for a new cycle. The reality of the company today is very different from what it was in the beginning, since the concept of innovation based on a passionate geek community, talented and creative, has now much less sense and it is a differentiation, which currently generates little interest in the mobile environment. in relation to the 2009 date of our creation.
“Mobile telephony has changed a lot in recent years,” comments Rodrigo Silva-Ramos. “Our perception is that it is now a sector with great actors who have come to be where they are without much concern for innovation and without being concerned by the needs of its users.”
Geeksphone has always worked for its users, trying to listen to their needs, in order to bring innovation, freshness, quality, style and to differentiate their mobile devices.
However these arguments have currently few followers in the mobile phone industry environment, and it is very difficult for a company to maintain its viability and business with this philosophy. Therefore, and for the moment, Geeksphone will not undertake new projects and future development will be in the hands of users.
Geeksphone has made available to the entire community of users all the tools that we are legally able to spread, for further development, since the company also has licensing agreements with third parties who may not be made public.
“This Company has always complied, and will continue, with the law regarding the rights and property of our partners. But we have always tried to find the best balance concerning the values of open source and community development,” says Rodrigo Silva-Ramos, Co-Founder of Geeksphone. “In short, everything that belongs to Geeksphone belongs to its users.”
In compliance with the commitments made to users in terms of warranty and support, Geeksphone’s Customer Technical Support Service will be maintained and it will operate in the same way it has done so far.
Moreover, all the engineering talent has passed to Silent Circle’s Blackphone, in order to continue opening new avenues for innovation along with Ana Gay-Puente and Javier Agüera, who are also Geeksphone partners.
María Alzola, also Geeksphone member and Co-Founder, leaves the company.
Finaly, Rodrigo Silva-Ramos and Angel Sánchez Díaz have created geeks!me, a new brand focused on the development of wearables and it will launch its first product in the upcoming months. It will be an activity bracelet that will allow users to carry a healthier pace of life, in harmony with the environment.
Source: Geeksphone
Via: Engadget
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Android is still suffering from horrendous audio latency
It has been a little while since we last looked at the long running, unresolved issue of audio latency and Android. I wish I could tell you that things were all fixed up with the roll-out of Android Lollipop, but sadly there doesn’t appear to have been enough of an improvement.
Results compiled by Nervous Systems using data collected the SuperPowered measurement application, which we talked about before, show that the most popular Android handsets are still far too slow at providing a round-trip from jack/mic to speaker for real-time audio processing. The results from the 20 most popular phones can be seen below.
For reference, the threshold of latency detection for audio, among other senses, is around 20ms before the brain will perceive the delay as two separate sounds. Keep in mind that this test is a simple round trip with no time spared for any processing! Even the best Android phones still fall well short of the 5-20ms target, with most modern handsets putting in a best score of 60-70ms.
On the plus side, there has been an improvement since Android 5.0 Lollipop, with many phones showing around a 40ms reduction in latency. But the final results are still far too high for real-time processing. It is especially disappointing that Apple devices score less than 10ms in the same test. Despite showing the biggest improvements, even the Nexus 5 doesn’t come close.
Samsung has its own Professional Audio SDK which exposes jack audio data directly to Android applications for reduced latency somewhere in the much more acceptable 10-15ms range. However, this has to be implemented on a per-app basis and likely isn’t used very widely and was disable for the test.
This issue is a problem not because it affects day-to-day audio playback, but because it is still locking Android out as a creative platform for real-time audio. Real-time apps that require jack or mic data just aren’t feasible with Android, years after the issue was originally raised.
Sadly, there’s not much we can do about it, other than keep complaining and hoping that Google comes up with a solution.
Amigo Pancho puzzles – Game Review
T
wo years later and more than 50 million copies distributed over 2,000 websites and game portals, such as Kongregate, Agame, and Nickelodeon’s Addicting Games, Qaibo Games’ puzzling hit Amigo Pancho is now available for download in the Google Play Store.
Game Play
In Amigo Pancho you play as Pancho, an adventure seeker who flies above high places by grasping on to only two small balloons. A puzzle adventure game almost seems unrealistic, although that’s exactly what you get with Amigo Pancho. Pancho with his two blue balloons hangs on for dear life as he avoids swordsman, cacti, bees and a variety of other obstacles. In order to free Pancho and advance, you have to erase, rotate, blow, burst, move and think your way soaring to the mountain tops.
Amigo Pancho is rated “E” for everyone. What is great about the game is that it’s fun, addicting, colorful and challenging. Yet, it’s simplistic enough for young and old users alike.
| What We Liked | What We Didn’t Like |
|---|---|
| Fun for all ages | Need for Customizations ex: different balloon types, sizes,colors |
| Addictive gameplay | Lack of story line |
| Appealing colors & graphics | Redundancy of starting points of Pancho |
Summary
After playing Amigo Pancho for the past week and a half, I have become a huge fan of the sombrero wearing balloon hanger. Before this review, I had never heard of the game, but after doing some research there is a huge library of gameplay videos on Youtube and shows that this title is a fan favorite.
Amigo Pancho is puzzling, fun, and addictive. I enjoy that you are challenged to think and make careful decisions in a manner that you aren’t even aware that you’re thinking. Amigo Pancho is fun for all ages, appealing graphics and is a great game for casual gamers who game-play in bursts.
Screen Shots
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