New Data Says AirPods Have Captured Much Smaller Share of Headphone Market Than Earlier Estimates

A report last week by Slice Intelligence suggested that Apple’s AirPods captured an estimated 26 percent share of online revenue in the wireless headphone market since launching on December 13. Ben Arnold, an executive director and industry analyst at NPD Group, has today submitted a report that claims Slice Intelligence’s data “paints an incomplete picture of the wireless headphone market” (via CNET).

According to NPD’s numbers, for all of December Apple captured a 2 percent share of the market in unit sales, and a 3 percent share in overall dollar sales. The discrepancy between the two sets of data lies in the methodology used by each site to gather the information.

Slice Intelligence analyzes the email receipts from a panel of 4.2 million online shoppers, while NPD’s data accounts for both online sales as well as brick-and-mortar transactions. It should also be noted that NPD tracked sales for all of December, while Slice Intelligence accounted only for the period when the AirPods were on sale, December 13-31.

Beats still leads the market in NPD’s data as well, with a 46 percent share in total sales for its line of headphones. The rest of NPD’s December data is as follows:

• Beats had a 25 percent share (unit sales) and a 46 percent share (dollar sales)
• Apple had a 2 percent share (unit sales) and 3 percent share (dollar sales)
• Bose had 8 percent (unit sales) and 19 percent (dollar sales)
• LG had 10 percent (unit sales) and 7 percent (dollar sales) with Sony at 7 percent (unit sales) and 6 percent (dollar sales)
• Plantronics and Jaybird were at around 2 percent unit sales each but Apple is already neck-and-neck with them after only one partial month of sales

Arnold noted that Apple’s AirPods launch is still “significant,” despite the lower numbers presented by the NPD, and given how little time the AirPods have been on the market. The analyst also said that in a year where the Bluetooth headphone market grew 51 percent from the previous year, “the fact that Beats was able to maintain share and its position in the market means its sales grew as fast as the market did.”

“Apple being able to capture 2 percent of the market in units and 3 percent in dollars with one product in its debut month is significant, given how big the headphone market is,” Arnold said.

The AirPods have been mostly well-received by users since their December launch, although some have faced consistent battery issues with the device and its charging case. Apple hasn’t released sales figures of its own, but CEO Tim Cook called the AirPods “a runaway success” when asked about the first few weeks of the headphones’ launch in late December.

Tag: AirPods
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Apple Retail Update: Palo Alto Temporarily Closed, Fifth Avenue Relocation Underway

Apple’s retail store in Palo Alto, California remains temporarily closed today, presumably to allow construction workers to repair the glass facade after robbers drove a vehicle directly into the storefront last month. The location has been closed since January 15, and Apple has not confirmed when it will reopen.

Meanwhile, Apple is in the process of relocating its Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan to a nearby ground-level space in the General Motors Building. The storefront is located just steps away from Apple’s iconic cube—set to be renovated—at 58th Street and Fifth Avenue, taking over the vacated FAO Schwarz toy store.

Apple’s temporary Fifth Avenue location opens on January 20.

(Thanks, Kyu Young and Patrick!)

Related Roundup: Apple Stores
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Wileyfox Swift 2 X preview: Cyanora custom software

The British company surprised the smartphone market in 2015, releasing two phones which boasted impressive specs and performance at a very affordable price. In many ways, the two first Wileyfox phones were essentially the Britain’s answer to the OnePlus One.

In 2016 it added a couple of new phones to its lineup, but didn’t enthral us. Can the Wileyfox Swift 2 X swing things back in the manufacturer’s favour? The Wileyfox Swift 2 X is available to pre-order on Amazon.co.uk for £219. 

Wileyfox Swift 2 X preview: Design

Credit where credit is due, the Swift X 2 feels great in the hand. That’s mostly thanks to the shaping of the metal back panel which, while mostly flat, has gentle curves towards the edges to give it a more ergonomic quality. This metal panel doesn’t extend to the very top and bottom edge though. Like many Huawei phones, the back is capped off with plastic panels.

Pocket-lint

The edges themselves are flat, but angle away from the front, making the back of the phone slightly wider and longer than the front. A power button joins a long volume rocker switch on the right edge, and both have a textured finish. The left edge plays home to the dual SIM tray which has a slot for a micro SIM and a secondary slot for either a nano SIM or microSD card.

On the bottom edge there’s a Type C port flanked by two grilles, both made up of a series of six small pill-shaped holes. The top edge has the usual 3.5mm headphone jack and a noise cancelling microphone.

As for the front panel, that features a completely round earpiece on the top, somewhat reminiscent of the LG-made Nexus 5. Despite not having any physical or capacitive buttons of any kind, the chin, or bottom part of the phone’s face is large and features only a Wileyfox logo.

On the back, there’s another Wileyfox logo in the centre, with a shiny-trimmed fingerprint sensor and camera near the top, joined by a single tone dual LED flash.

Pocket-lint

Because its bezel isn’t the slimmest, the phone isn’t especially compact for a 5.2-inch screened phone. Width-wise, it’s comparable to the skinny-framed OnePlus 3T, but it feels solid and well made overall.

Wileyfox Swift 2 X preview: Full HD goodness

Full HD 1080 x 1920 resolution may not be the most pixel-packed a phone screen can get nowadays, but in a 5.2-inch panel, it’s plenty to ensure all content looks sharp. With a pixel density of 424ppi you need to be incredibly close to the display to see any individual pixels.

The screen seems bright and the colours are nice and natural, without being overly faded or washed out. It’s definitely not unpleasant to watch, and if the colour temperature isn’t right for your preferences, there’s a screen calibration tool within the settings menu for adjusting it to suit your needs.

Because it’s not AMOLED based screen technology, the contrast isn’t super high and colours aren’t overly vivid or saturated, but still, for an affordable Android phone, it’s pretty impressive.

Wileyfox Swift 2 X preview: Not so snappy dragon

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors are some of the best out there, as long as you go with one of the more high-end 8-series chips. Sadly, the Wileyfox 2 X doesn’t have an 8-series, or even a 6-series processor commonly found in more budget-friendly phones. Instead, it’s a Snapdragon 430 octa-core processor which the company claims “allows you to multitask through fluid interfaces and stunning graphics without consuming too much power.”

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Despite its eight cores and plentiful 3GB RAM, our initial experiences haven’t been quite so brilliant. There have been a few noticeable instances of stuttering on screen, when scrolling through lists or even trying to browse the web.

In fact, if you scroll fast with your thumb and let go, instead of carrying on scrolling, the content on screen stutters suddenly to a stop, making scrolling through anything a drawn out process. If you’re hoping for a fast, fluid phone that doesn’t cost the earth, this doesn’t seem to be it.

As far as storage goes, the 32GB built in to the Swift 2 X is the bare minimum expected for any smartphone these days, and the inclusion of a memory card slot in the dual SIM tray will alleviate any fears of being constrained.

While speed and performance is less than optimal, the Swift 2 X does have its plus points on the hardware side. Firstly, the 3,010 mAh battery should easily be enough to get you through a full day’s use, especially with it being a 1080p resolution screen drawing the power on the front, rather than Quad HD.

Pocket-lint

What’s more, the phone is equipped with Quick Charge 3.0 compatibility, so if you have a QC3.0 charger lying around, you can top the battery up again very quickly. On the downside, it doesn’t ship with a charger of any kind, just a USB Type-A to Type-C cable. That means it’s down to you to provide the Quick Charge 3.0 adapter.

Wileyfox Swift 2 X preview: Cyanogen’s last laugh

Wileyfox has been a partner of Cyanogen for the past couple of years, releasing phones running the custom version of software which got one of its first official retail launches on the OnePlus One. That means the Swift 2 X launches running the latest version of Cyanogen’s software based on Android Marshmallow, but sadly, it’s also the last version.

Cyanogen recently announced its decision to end its consumer software program, citing financial struggles as the primary reason to disband. That means while the Swift 2 X currently runs the Cyanogen-made software, it will be updated to a more pure version of Android in the future.

Pocket-lint

As it stands currently, the Cyanogen software provides a lot of customisation choices you might not get on a regular Android phone. That includes fine-tuning the icons you see in your status bar, choosing the colours for the notification LED based on the alert, or even adding extra buttons to the main navigation bar.

You can also choose how many rows and columns of apps you want on the home screen, choose between large or small app icons, as well as download and install custom themes to change the software’s appearance.  

Wileyfox Swift 2 X preview: Pixel power

We haven’t tested the camera fully yet, but once more Wileyfox isn’t holding back from boasting about its cameras’ capabilities.

Pocket-lint

Both the 16-megapixel rear camera and 8-megapixel front camera use a Samsung sensor, with the primary camera boasting f/2.0 aperture, large pixel size and ISOCELL technology to improve low light performance and focus speeds.

The main camera also includes PDAF (Phase Detection Auto Focus) to try and ensure no shots are overly blurry, even with lighting conditions aren’t great.

In early testing, the front camera seems to take surprisingly good photographs, without any of that heavy softening you get from so many other Android phones. Likewise, the rear camera is decent enough, but we need to test those more thoroughly to see what they’re really like.

First Impressions

On the whole, despite the concerns over the phone’s tendency to stutter and stall, the Swift 2 X seems a decent package. It has a nice design and build, the screen is bright and sharp, and the battery should be capable of getting the heaviest users through a work day.

Hopefully with the upcoming Android Nougat update, the company manages to fix its performance issues, and leave us with a phone that’s very easy to recommend to anyone looking to spend around £200 on a smartphone.

Today’s the last day to save your Vines

Vine, the six-second video service that briefly up-ended popular culture is on life support, and today’s the day Jack Dorsey pulls the plug. From today, Vine as we know it will be shut down in favor of Vine Camera, an app that shoots six second clips to be shared on your Twitter feed. As such, you’ve only got a few short hours left to download your archive and remember all that you’ve done on the service.

If you’ve yet to rescue your data from Vine, then you can head into the app and go straight to your own profile page. Beneath your avatar is a Save Videos button, from which you can either back up the clips to your phone or get a download link. The latter is probably preferable, since it also comes with a log of your likes and re-vines for every clip you shared. You can watch those while you console yourself that you were only just one decent re-vine away from becoming the next King Bach.

ZTE’s crowdsouced phone will pack dual cameras

ZTE has already confirmed that its crowdsourced Hawkeye phone will include showstopping features like eye tracking and a sticky case, but what about the nuts and bolts? Well, it’s finally spilling the beans… and Hawkeye is a fairly powerful device for the money. The Snapdragon 625 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage and 5.5-inch 1080p screen are good, though not mind-blowing. However, you’ll also get a dual rear camera system — 12-megapixel and 13-megapixel sensors will deliver iPhone 7 Plus-style zooming at a price where that feature is relatively rare.

You’ll also find a backside fingerprint reader, NFC and a front 8-megapixel camera. You’ll also get LTE data on AT&T, T-Mobile and most Canadian carriers (including Freedom). ZTE is quick to boast about Hawkeye shipping with Android 7.0 Nougat, although that’s not exactly something we’d cheer about. Nougat is practically expected for a 2017 device, and could be old hat by the time Hawkeye reaches backers in September.

The company is still asking for your input on the phone’s color and material. For a $199 Kickstarter price, though, what you’re getting is tempting. Even if you don’t care for the crowdsourced features, it promises to be at least a solid performer.

Source: Kickstarter, ZTE

The death of Phones4u is still playing out

It’s been nearly two and a half years since Phones4u folded, but the aftermath of the company’s abrupt closure is still being felt. Thanks to a recent employment tribunal, 400 former staff have been awarded 12 weeks redundancy pay on the basis there was no consultation period ahead of the layoffs — not unusual when a firm suddenly implodes. The government’s Redundancy Payments Service is forking out £3,712 per person, equivalent to 8 weeks of statutory pay, while the invoice for the remaining 5 weeks is now on the desk of administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which did not dispute the claim.

It’s unlikely ex-Phones4u staff will end up seeing much, if anything from PwC, however. They join a long list of creditors owed money by the contract reseller, and are low enough down the pecking order that they can only expect a token payment when all is said and done. PwC is still picking at the carcass of Phones4u to find value wherever it can, including leasing old store sites and auctioning off leftover inventory like headphones.

Phones4u famously collapsed in 2014 after its only remaining partners Vodafone and EE both dropped the contract reseller within weeks of each other, forcing the company into administration. The timing was particularly unfortunate as it came just days after the company opened up pre-orders for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, leaving some customers out of pocket with little hope of a refund.

The situation was worse for thousands of Phones4u employees, though, who were suddenly out of work. Dixons Carphone, Vodafone and EE all quickly stepped in to take over stores and save hundreds of jobs. Not everyone was so lucky, of course, but for a few hundred ex-staff at least, getting some of the redundancy pay they were entitled to is better than nothing.

Via: Mobile News

Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers, Evening Express

ICYMI: SpaceX redeems itself with a showstopper rocket launch

Today on In Case You Missed It: SpaceX is back in launching mode after the FAA grounded the company following an unfortunate explosion last September. The rocket company successfully launched satellites from its revamped Falcon9, then the motor completed its landing on a SpaceX floating pad.

NASA Goddard released a video about its goals for earth science studies in the New Year and they mostly all point to studying climate change. Lastly, the last man of walk on the moon, astronaut Gene Cernan, died on Monday, leaving behind a legacy of being invaluable, even while working on the back-up team.

As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.

Bragi Officially Launches $150 AirPods Competitor ‘The Headphone’

Announced last September two days before the Apple iPhone 7 event, and originally planned to launch in November, Bragi’s $149.00 wireless Bluetooth hearable, called “The Headphone,” is now available for all users to purchase online. The Headphone includes a number of changes from Bragi’s The Dash ($299) in order to make it cheaper, ranging from having physical inputs instead of touch inputs and no activity tracking.

These feature removals have also boosted battery in The Headphone, however, with users able to get up to six hours of music playback on a single charge instead of the four hours that The Dash gets in one life. With the three physical buttons on The Headphone, users can skip through tracks, take calls, make voice commands, activate audio transparency, and more without needing to take out their connected smartphone.

At $150 The Headphone is $10 cheaper than Apple’s AirPods, with a few alternative design changes that might make Bragi’s device more enticing for some users, like the physical playback buttons and slightly longer battery life than the AirPods’ five hours. Bragi itself took to comparing The Dash, The Headphone, and AirPods in a Facebook post last September centering around nine categories that omitted the AirPods’ flagship features like Siri, seamless device pairing, and iCloud sync.

Those interested can order The Headphone today from Bragi’s website for $149.00, with shipping currently estimated to arrive within the next two weeks. Although The Dash is available in Black and White, The Headphone is only made in Black. A range of other Bragi accessories can also be purchased from the company’s online shop, including The Leash to connect The Dash buds together and extra FitSleeves.

Tags: AirPods, Bragi
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Apple Possibly Planning to Launch iPhone 6 Battery Exchange Program

Apple may be preparing to launch an iPhone 6 battery exchange program for undisclosed reasons, according to Japanese website Mac Otakara.

It is unclear if the iPhone 6 program would be related to Apple’s existing iPhone 6s battery replacement program. Apple launched that program in November after it determined that a “very small number of iPhone 6s devices may unexpectedly shut down” due to a manufacturing issue.

A number of iPhone 6s users said their devices typically shut down with around 30% battery life remaining. Apple noted the shutdowns are not a safety issue, but rather a feature designed to protect the iPhone’s internal components from low voltage. However, affected batteries still need to be replaced.

Apple also has an iPhone 5 Battery Replacement Program, which it launched in August 2014 after it determined that a “very small percentage of iPhone 5 devices may suddenly experience shorter battery life or need to be charged more frequently,” so an iPhone 6 program would not be unprecedented.

Mac Otakara accurately leaked several iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus features, including the removal of the headphone jack, but some of its rumors, such as a new Jet White color, have yet to materialize or proven incorrect.

Tag: macotakara.jp
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Samsung launches Galaxy C9 Pro with 6GB RAM in India

6-inch Full HD display, 4000mAh battery, and stereo speakers.

Samsung has launched the Galaxy C9 Pro — the company’s first phone with 6GB of RAM — in India. The phone was unveiled in China last October, and will be up for sale in India next month for ₹36,900 ($545). Pre-orders for the handset will go live starting January 27, and Samsung is throwing in a one-time screen replacement service for free to those pre-booking the device. The service will be valid for one year from the date of purchase.

The Galaxy C9 Pro offers a 6-inch Full HD display, Snapdragon 653 SoC, 6GB of RAM, 64GB storage, microSD slot, 16MP front and rear cameras, stereo speakers, and a 4000mAh battery. The handset weighs 189g, but has a thickness of just 6.9mm in spite of the large battery. On the software front, it runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box.

The Galaxy C9 Pro is slated to make its debut in other Asian markets shortly.