Apple Watch Sport Component Costs Estimated at $83.10, Which Won’t Sit Well With Tim Cook

IHS iSuppli often tears down devices to estimate component costs, and today, the research firm released its report on the Apple Watch, suggesting it has the lowest hardware costs compared to retail price of any Apple product IHS has researched.

The 38mm Apple Watch Sport dissected by IHS was estimated to cost $81.20 when broken down by component. In IHS’ estimation, the most expensive component in the Apple Watch is the display (including OLED and Ion-X cover glass), priced at $20.50, followed by the processor on the S1 chip, priced at $10.20. In addition to component costs, IHS adds an estimated $2.50 for manufacturing costs, bringing its total estimate for the Apple Watch’s raw cost to $83.70. IHS did not give similar cost breakdowns for the stainless steel or gold Apple Watches, both of which have sapphire cover displays and different casing materials.

At $83.70, IHS says the hardware costs of the Apple Watch are “only about 24 percent” of the manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $349, while other Apple product component costs have ranged from 29 to 98 percent, giving the Apple Watch a higher potential profit margin. During Apple’s most recent earnings call, the company announced that Apple Watch profit margins would actually be slimmer than other Apple products, at least during its first quarter of availability.

“It is fairly typical for a first-generation product rollout to have a higher retail price versus hardware cost,” said Kevin Keller, senior principal analyst-materials and cost benchmarking services for IHS Technology. “While retail prices always tend to decrease over time, the ratio for the Apple Watch is lower than what we saw for the iPhone 6 Plus and other new Apple products, and could be of great benefit to Apple’s bottom line if sales match the interest the Apple Watch has generated.”

IHS’ component cost estimations come just three days after Apple CEO Tim Cook declared that component cost breakdowns on Apple products are inaccurate. “There are cost breakdowns around our products that are much different than the reality,” he said. “I’ve never seen one that is anywhere close to being accurate.”

While these types of cost breakdowns look at the potential expense related to each individual component in a device, they do not take into account other possible expenses related to product creation like research and development, advertising, software, or distribution, making them of little practical use for estimating profit margin.

IHS

Early Looks Inside Apple Watch’s S1 Chip Confirm 512 MB RAM, Unexpected Suppliers

Since the Apple Watch’s initial unveiling last September, Apple has touted the S1 chip that serves as the brains of the device, with the company noting is has essentially packed an entire computer onto a single ultra-compact chip that is encapsulated in resin to help protect it from the elements.

iFixit was unable to delve into the S1 itself in the firm’s initial teardown of the Apple Watch, and Chipworks offered an early look at the chip’s internals starting x-ray imaging, but now ABI Research has more fully deconstructed the S1 and identified a number of its components.

ABI’s photo shows the center of the S1 dominated by the main processor carrying part number APL 0778, with 4 Gb (512 MB) of Elpida SRAM on top. We’ve yet to see a detailed look at the internals of the main processor, which should provide yet another interesting look at a custom Apple chip design when it does surface.

Also included on the S1 are an 8 GB flash storage chip, the Broadcom Wi-Fi chip cleverly identified by Chipworks from Apple’s promotional footage last September, an accelerometer/gyroscope from STMicroelectronics rather than the predicted InvenSense, touch controllers unexpectedly from ADI, and a wireless charging chip from IDT to facilitate the Apple Watch’s inductive charging.

“The design is an obvious variation from Apple’s smartphones, with many high-end functions / chips included that normally would not be found in a simple watch,” comments Jim Mielke, VP Engineering at ABI Research and head of the TeardownIQ group. “Judging by the complexity of the printed circuit board (PCB), and the number of parts on the PCB, one might think the Apple watch is a full-fledged cellular connected watch but in fact connectivity is limited to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC.”

In its initial look last week, Chipworks highlighted the 6-axis accelerometer/gyroscope, which marks the first time Apple has been able to include all of that functionality in a single component.

This is the first time that we see a true 6X sensor in an Apple product that doesn’t require an external accelerometer. In the iPhone 6 and 6+ we saw an Invensense 6 axis sensor and a Bosch 3 axis accelerometer. Here in an even more compact design, the Apple Watch, we finally have a solution for all 6 axis in a single component.

As seen in iFixit’s teardown, the S1 is a remarkably compact chip taking up a small percentage of the overall device volume in laying flat in the bottom of the casing. The majority of the space inside the casing is taken up by the battery and Taptic Engine/speaker assembly. We expect to see more details on the S1, particularly the main processor, in the coming days as chip experts get closer looks at the part.

Apple Watch review: a status symbol for iOS devotees

​Mankind’s fascination with watches capable of more than simply telling the time is nothing new. But recently, our collective interest in intelligent timepieces has spiked, and we have more and more powerful wrist-worn computers to choose from than ever — whether made by startups with record-setting Kickstarter campaigns or the biggest names in consumer electronics. Of course, the biggest name of all, Apple, had yet to release one of its own. Well, the Watch has arrived, and its maker has loftier aspirations for it than the smartwatches preceding it. Apple’s Watch isn’t some utilitarian gadget — it’s jewelry, an object of lust, not only for what it can do, but also for how it looks.

I’m not a watch person. Haven’t worn one regularly since high school (I’m 33 years old now), and have never been enamored with the likes of Rolex or Longines. But the Apple Watch is, of course, much more than a mere time teller, and the company expects to sell a lot of these things to people like me — you don’t build a $700 billion company selling niche products, after all. The question is: Why would someone like me want one?

Hardware

For the uninitiated, there are two sizes (38 or 42mm) and three Watch models: Sport, Watch and Edition. The entry-level Sport model starts at $349 and is made of aluminum, while the high-end Edition starts at $10,000 and is crafted of 18-karat rose or yellow gold. Apple loaned me a 42mm stainless steel Watch model ($549) with a bright, lime green Sport Band ($49 when sold separately) and a Link Bracelet ($449).

In keeping with its aspirations to luxury jewelry and with Apple’s usual obsessive attention to detail, the Watch case I received is constructed of machined, cold-forged steel polished to a high gloss. Its OLED screen on top and heart rate sensor on the bottom are sheathed in sapphire crystal, a material familiar to any luxe timepiece aficionado. (Note: Sport models make do without the sapphire protection.) The “Digital Crown” on the right edge is machined and polished too, as is the button with an ever-so-slightly chamfered edge alongside it. All of these elements are fitted together perfectly, with uniform gaps and nary a blemish to be found. The result is a watch that looks the part it’s been cast to play — assuming you dig the aesthetics of a rounded rectangle parked on your arm.

It’s the finest construction of any smartwatch I’ve seen, and none of the others are particularly close (second place: ASUS ZenWatch). More importantly (for Apple), it doesn’t feel ridiculous to compare its build quality to something made by Tag Heuer or Cartier.

The Sport Band is made of a pliable, soft-touch material called fluoroelastomer and can be had in white, blue, pink and black in addition to the green I received. The Link Bracelet’s made of brushed stainless steel (a Space Black Stainless Steel Watch and matching bracelet are also available, though the black bracelet isn’t available for purchase separately). There’s a plethora of other straps available for the Watch made of metal and leather, as well.

While I’m not wild about the color of the Sport Band I’ve been using, the green cuts a striking image on my wrist, and has garnered my Watch far more (favorable) attention on the street than when I’ve worn the metal bracelet. As you might expect, the rubbery Sport Band is the more comfortable of the two, and even though it’s a more casual look, I am impressed with its fit and finish; there’s not a seam to be found on the thing, which keeps it looking and feeling premium (for a rubber strap).

Meanwhile, the Link Bracelet is a marvelous bit of engineering, with a unique quad-hinged clasp that latches and releases with rifle-bolt precision. It also has links that can be removed with a simple button press, which makes fitting the bracelet a relatively painless process. Pressing the release button while pulling on the appropriate links required more fiddling than I expected, but it also gets easier the more times you do it. The bracelet is comprised of a single band of horizontal scales, which sets it apart visually from the three or four vertical bands of links in most other watch bracelets. The effect reminds me of the scales you find on the belly of a snake, and I dig the simplicity.

When combined with the polished steel Watch case, however, the brushed finish on the bracelet looks incongruous to my eye. Not to the point of distraction, but for a company that so sweats the little things like Apple does, I’m surprised that such a choice was made. At least it matches the bracelet in its precision construction, and the two fit together almost seamlessly.

Getting started

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Setting up the Watch is straightforward. Upon powering it up for the first time, it’ll prompt you to pick a language, then open up the Watch app — which is included with iOS 8.3 — on your iPhone 5 or later. Tap the ‘Start Pairing’ option on your Watch and a dancing point cloud (think of it as a beautiful QR code) appears. Point your phone’s camera at the Watch’s screen, and once the point cloud forms itself into a circular rosette, presto! You’re paired. Then, you’ll need to agree to the terms and conditions, link up your Apple ID, create a Watch-specific passcode and let it sync all of the compatible apps and info with your iPhone. The whole process takes less than 10 minutes.

Apple’s Watch display is an OLED unit which, in the 42mm version has a 390 x 312 resolution that performs well in just about any lighting condition. Colors are vibrant; blacks are inky; and it’s viewable in direct sunlight, despite washing out (as is the case with every screen I’ve ever used in such conditions).

The default mode for that screen is off, but it wakes up when you either touch it or twist your wrist so the Watch thinks you’re looking at it. Much digital ink has been spilled about the split-second delay between raising your wrist and seeing the time, and it is noticeable, but I found the slight impediment didn’t bother me. The bigger issue is when the first arm motion fails to trigger the display, which forces you to either repeat the process or tap the screen to wake it up.

Should you have more than one Watch band to choose from, swapping them is a similarly easy affair. On the underside of the Watch sit two-flush mounted buttons that serve to release each side of the band, and those buttons need only be depressed slightly, if deliberately, to release. Sliding the ends out of the channels milled into the top and bottom edges of the Watch in which they reside isn’t hard, although doing so smoothly took a few tries before I got the hang of it. Also, re-inserting the Link Bracelet requires sliding the tip of one side in before seating the other and pushing them both in simultaneously. Once you feel a muted “snick” on both sides, your band of choice is secure.

The mechanism is brilliant in its simplicity and execution, and makes swapping straps a far simpler process than the pin system on your standard watchband or a trip to the jewelers. Given the wide selection of straps Apple is offering out of the gate (and with more to come, no doubt), this feature is of greater importance than you might think. Any wearable device aspiring to be fashionable has to look good, and the ability to tailor colors and styles to taste so easily is key to the Watch’s appeal. (And, in what I’m sure is a completely unintended side effect, this portends greater commercial success — buying multiple bands makes less sense if you have to head to the nearest jeweler to change them.)

But tailoring the physical look is only part of the equation. Apple has built in digital personalization options, too. The company has put together a user guide that comprehensively elucidates all that the Watch can do, so for the purposes of this review, I’ll stick to the highlights.

In use

Generally speaking, the modes of interaction on the Watch’s user interface are straightforward, if not always intuitive. In keeping with its primary function, your homescreen is, naturally, a watch face, with the app launcher cloud hidden a layer below. Accessing it is a mere press of the Digital Crown away. Press it again and you’re taken back to your watch face. I found it helpful to think of depressing that crown as a sort of analogue for the iPhone’s home button, as double-clicking it also takes you straight back to the last app you’ve used. Scrolling through options and zooming in and out with that little knob made perfect sense from the start — I’m all about reducing fingerprints on shiny gadget surfaces, and the crown helps curb those smudges.

Another unique bit of UI comes in the form of Apple’s new Taptic Engine, a linear actuator that delivers haptic feedback. Far from a mere buzz or vibration, the engine delivers more detailed and nuanced tactile feedback, that in effect is not unlike Immersion’s HD haptic technology. Differentiating between the sensation of the different sorts of taps and rumbles it provides isn’t easy at first, but the more I felt the feedback, the more attuned I became.

Aside from the watch, app tray and individual applications, the Watch comes with a feature called Glances. A swipe up on the watch face drops you into a carousel of widgets for various apps and functions to let you get a quick look at battery life, the weather, or scores from teams you follow. You can add and subtract Glances in the companion iPhone app, though the only one I really found useful was a status screen that shows if the Watch is connected to your phone and lets you toggle airplane, do-not-disturb and silent modes. You can also ping your iPhone if you’ve misplaced it.

While the UI does take some getting used to, I settled into using the Digital Crown/touchscreen combo after a couple of days, and after a week, using the Watch became second nature.

Timekeeper

The Watch comes with 10 faces preloaded, and each can be adjusted to varying degrees. There’s also a creation engine that lets you make and save variations of those faces for quick access. To swap or tweak one, you’ll need to utilize Force Touch, Apple’s recently introduced tech that enables the Watch’s display (and the new MacBook’s trackpad) to distinguish a light tap from a hard press. Jamming your finger into the screen isn’t necessary, but you do need to apply significant pressure for the Watch to recognize what you’re trying to do.

Upon force pressing, the Watch gives you a horizontal carousel of the available faces. Swiping left and right gets you where you want to go, and any faces that can be customized have a button telling you so beneath them. Tap that button, and again, swiping right and left navigates the modes of adjustment. There are two main ways to tailor the faces: first, color. Wind the crown from top to bottom, and the hue of the words, numbers and watch hands change from salmon pink, to purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red and finally, white.

Next, you can adjust a series of widgets on the faces, called complications in watchmaking parlance. Depending upon the face chosen, you’ve got three to five complications to work with. Tapping on a given widget lets you change it, and turning the crown rolls through the options. These include: date, calendar events, moon phase, sunrise and sunset times, weather, stocks, activity summary, alarm, timer, stopwatch, battery charge and world clock. Fans of simplicity can also turn any and all complications off.

Additionally, the Motion face lets you choose among beautiful animations of different butterflies, flowers or jellyfish, while the Chronograph lets you change the watch face itself to black, navy, brown, forest green, dark gray or parchment color.

Two of the faces I found most appealing, Solar and Astronomy, don’t support such modding. They are, however, interactive and dynamic. Astronomy lets you swap among views of the Earth, the moon and the solar system (and spinning the crown lets you zoom forward and backward in time, spinning the celestial bodies and the sun’s shadow accordingly). Solar displays the sun’s position in the sky via a parabolic arc and horizon line and similarly, rotating the crown slides it along that arc. As it does so, the corona emanating from the sun changes to emulate the lighting of dawn, dusk, high noon and all other times before and after solar midnight.

Communicator

Some notifications are also actionable — such as archiving Gmail messages — though most are simply informational. Each is accompanied by a short pop or ding and/or a bit of haptic feedback. Both the sounds and vibrations can be turned on and off individually to suit your tastes or differentiate between types of notifications. Should you miss an alert when it first comes through, the next time you check the Watch, a small red dot appears on screen (or not, if you choose to turn that feature off) letting you know. A swipe down puts you in the notification tray, and if you want to dismiss all of them at once, a simple Force Touch does the trick.

Plenty of others have complained about a lack of granular controls for notifications, but I didn’t find it to be a problem. Really, having notifications mirror behavior from the iPhone or simply switching them off was all the control I needed. It’s just a matter of figuring out what sorts of pings you want on your wrist: just the important stuff, or a fire hose of info.

You can make and take phone calls, send and receive text messages or use Apple’s Watch-specific Digital Touch comms technology to send finger paintings, taps, animated emoji and even a facsimile of your heartbeat to your closest friends. Using the Watch to take calls is a middling-to-poor experience, though being able to mute an incoming call by covering the Watch is a handy feature. In a quiet, private place, it’s a “good enough” sort of thing, with mediocre audio at limited volume being pumped out of the Watch’s speaker. In public? Forget about it. Aside from the obvious lack of privacy and inconsiderate nature of forcing those around you to endure your conversation, you can’t hear what the person on the other end is saying when there’s any sort of ambient noise. The novelty of talking and listening to my wrist dissipated after just a few calls.

Messaging is, by far, the most useful of the Watch’s communication abilities. Using the app, you can receive, reply to and send texts, and Apple’s made replying to messages, in particular, even easier than on an iPhone. See, the Watch provides a list of (mostly) contextually relevant replies you can simply tap to use instead of typing out a response. You can also use Siri to dictate text replies or send audio messages — the voice dictation mostly works well, but plenty of times, there’s an interminable delay (sometimes of 15 seconds or more) between when I’d speak my reply and when Siri would recognize it. Still, I found messaging via the Watch a feature worth having, as it was often more convenient to deal with texts there than on my phone.

Apple’s made much ado about its Digital Touch technology, which, in theory, provides a more personal way to communicate. The tech enables you to tap, draw pictures or scribble words on the Watch screen and have it mirrored on your friend’s Watch, even if it’s a world away. You can also send your heartbeat by pressing and holding two fingers against the screen for a few seconds. In order to digitally touch someone, they also need to be added to your Friends circle in the iPhone app. In practice, I found it difficult to find the appeal of this mode of communication. I’m a poor artist; my handwriting looks like chicken scratch; and nobody would ever accuse me of being a romantic. Plus, I only had a couple of other Watch owners available in my contacts with which to experiment.

Fitness and health tracker

Despite my svelte frame, I’m no workout warrior. In fact, I’m one of the laziest people I know. (I will not apologize for this. Gormans are naturally a tall and skinny people.) Because of this, I greatly appreciate Apple’s multi-pronged, relatively frictionless approach to activity tracking. When first firing up the app, it prompts you to input your sex, age, weight, height and general activity level in terms of daily calorie burn. The app uses this information to recommend daily movement and exercise goals that can be adjusted manually as well. The app tracks you three ways using the Watch’s accelerometer: Move, Stand and Exercise. The aim is to give a comprehensive look at your daily activity and motivate you to stop being such a slothful meatbag.

Move is a calorie counter. Stand tracks how sedentary you are on an hourly basis (and prompts you to get up for at least one minute out of every hour). Exercise keeps up with how much time you’ve spent on any activity as or more strenuous than a brisk walk, with the aim of getting 30 minutes of exercise each day. I can’t say the Activity app has made me become more active, yet, but it has made me mindful of my activity level (or lack thereof) — and therefore I aspire to be more active. Baby steps, right?

There’s also a separate, more comprehensive Workout app that integrates with the Activity app. The app lets you choose from a set list of types of exercise (walking, biking, elliptical, rowing machine, etc.). It uses that information, plus the accelerometer and heart rate sensor in the Watch, along with the GPS and WiFi in your iPhone to measure distance covered and (if you have an iPhone 6) elevation gained and lost. All those elements working in concert enable the Watch, according to Apple, to compute a more accurate estimate of your calorie burn during workouts.

Navigation, payments, music and more

There are a few other miscellaneous features of the Watch that are of particular value, I found. First among these is Maps. Issues with Apple Maps itself aside, the implementation of it on the Watch is quite useful, especially when used in tandem with the iPhone. While you can search for locations using Siri on the Watch, I found it preferable to map my routes using my phone and then let the Watch handle telling me where to go. It does so with visual cues and haptic feedback. The tap pattern is different for right and left turns, though apparently my tactile perception is pretty weak at this point. I’ve yet to tell the two apart by feel alone. I imagine they will become easier to differentiate as I grow attuned to the sensations.

Apple Pay is also, of course, a part of the Watch experience. You add credit cards through the iPhone Watch app — and even if your iPhone already has Pay activated, you’ll need to re-add your card for the Watch — and you must have a four-digit Watch passcode enabled. Using Pay is easy. Once you’re set up, press the lone button on the Watch twice and your available credit cards pop up on screen. Choose the one you want; hold your wrist near the reader until you hear the beep; and you’re good to go.

The Watch also lets you store up to 2GB or about 250 songs on board, though you’ll need a Bluetooth speaker or headphones to actually, you know, listen to those tunes.

Lastly, a word about third-party Watch apps. I’ve only tried a handful of the over 3,000 available, but the ones I have used are buggy and slow. I’m chalking this up to them being built for a wholly new software platform and developers need some time to optimize them. I therefore don’t find it necessary or useful to spend time evaluating them here. I will say that it bodes well for Apple to have such a huge catalog of apps at launch, and I expect to see more and better software in the months to come.

Battery life

I’ll admit, coming into this review, I expected that having to charge the Watch nightly would be a chore. I was wrong. Because of the nifty magnetic induction-charging disc and the fact that I’d never sleep wearing a Watch anyway, charging it up each night just isn’t a big deal. (Though having to pack one more charging cable in my bag when I travel is certainly an irritation). As for battery life, well, I’ve made it through every day with at least 15 percent and sometimes over 50 percent of charge left when I hit the sack. Most importantly, I never once found myself worrying about the Watch running out of juice and never had to use the power reserve mode (which turns the Watch into a timepiece only) to make it through the day. Do I wish that the thing could last for days or weeks without a charge? Of course I do, but state of the art for smartwatch battery life is no more than a day — maybe two — and the Watch is in line with that despite packing a 205mAh battery just two-thirds the size of most of its competitors.

The competition

Mostly, the Watch’s competition comes from a plethora of Android Wear devices. When comparing software, the Watch does most everything that Wear does and more. Sure, Google Now ‘s contextual suggestions and voice recognition give it an edge over Siri, but the Watch’s customizable faces, with their nifty complications, are far more useful. Plus, Dick Tracy fans are sure to love the Apple timepiece’s abilities as a phone.

Yes, Samsung’s Gear S also makes calls, and matches the Watch Sport’s $350 price, but it’s huge, ugly and lacks app support due to its devotion to Tizen. The Moto 360 ($180) and LG G Watch R ($249) appeal to the circular-watch crowd, but both are masculine in appearance and are too chunky for those with feminine or dainty wrists. ASUS’ ZenWatch is only $200 and comes closest to the Apple Watch in terms of attractive design, but its massive screen bezel takes away from an otherwise handsome stainless steel body.

Really, if you’re smartwatch shopping, it boils down to the age-old question about the phone in your pocket: iOS or Android? Because if you want a Watch, you better be comfy as a resident in Apple’s walled garden.

Wrap-up

I don’t think the Watch is for me. While I appreciate the thoughtfulness, quality and ingenuity of the hardware design, it’s just not my style. Also, getting a Watch means locking one’s self into an iPhone universe, and while it’s an excellent handset, I harbor an affinity for Android phones. Plus, I rely heavily upon Google calendar and Gmail web apps both for work and personal purposes. Because of that, I can’t take full advantage of the Watch’s capabilities without switching to Apple’s calendar and email client. And that’s not happening.

However, there are plenty of folks picking up what Apple’s putting down, as evidenced by the (estimated) million Watch pre-orders Apple received. It’s a well-rounded wearable that handles notifications as well as any other smartwatch, has comprehensive activity tracking skills and the cachet of being the hottest device on the planet (for now). If you’re firmly on team iPhone, are willing to pay a premium for an intelligent timepiece and can handle charging it on a nightly basis, the Watch is for you.

The bottom line is: The Watch is the nicest smartwatch available, but it’s more status symbol than wearable revolutionary. Most of the Watch’s features can be categorized as nice to have (at best) or superfluous (at worst), and because of that, if you’re not enamored with the Watch’s appearance, it’s probably not compelling enough to buy one.

Photos by Will Lipman

Filed under: Wearables, Mobile, Apple

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Apple Partners With Japan Post Group and IBM to Provide iPads to Elderly [iOS Blog]

Apple today announced a “first-of-its-kind initiative” that will see the Cupertino company partnering with Japan Post Group and IBM to bring IBM-developed apps and analytics into the hands of senior citizens in Japan. The project hopes to connect its customers with apps related to services, healthcare, community, and family.

The initial plan sees Japan Post Group entering the service into a test phase, with expansion planned in stages and the final objective of the initiative being 4 million to 5 million customers in Japan by 2020. As a raw statistic, currently more than 33 million senior citizens collectively make up about 25 percent of Japan’s population, so the elderly-focused initiative announced today definitely has room to grow and expand in the future.

“This initiative has potential for global impact, as many countries face the challenge of supporting an aging population, and we are honored to be involved in supporting Japan’s senior citizens and helping enrich their lives,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “iPad is incredibly intuitive, easy to use and has accessibility features built in, making it a perfect device for any generation to be connected and engaged.”

“We are joining with two of the world’s most respected leaders in technology to bring our elderly generation into the connected world, expand our businesses by deepening relationships, and discover new ways to strengthen the fabric of our society and economy,” said Taizo Nishimuro, CEO of Japan Post Group.

Some of the new apps debuting on the service will include experiences custom-built by IBM Global Business Services, reminding customers with alerts for medication, diet, and exercise. Other apps will directly connect its customers to a larger community, showcasing various activities, possible job listings, and provide basic service support for grocery shopping. Previously, Apple has partnered with IBM for a lineup of enterprise apps called MobileFirst, a service which the two have continuously expanded upon in the months since it was announced.

According to today’s press release, IBM plans to bring analytic and accessibility technology to the initiative, providing ease-of-use to its elderly customers and ensuring a positive experience. Japan Post Group, under its parent company Japan Post Holdings, provides postal and package delivery services, banking services, and life insurance to “nearly all” of the around 115 million adults in Japan, which angles the company to provide a wider reach for the elderly-focused initiative in the long run.

iPad Continues to Lead Declining Tablet Market in First Quarter

The latest numbers from market research firm IDC‘s Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker reveal that Apple continues to be the largest vendor in a declining tablet market, shipping 12.6 million iPads in the first quarter of 2015 to capture a 26.8% share of the global tablet market. Apple maintained the top position despite facing a 22.9% decline in tablet shipments compared to the year-ago quarter.

Samsung was the second largest tablet vendor with 9 million tablet shipments in the first quarter, good for 19.1% market share in the global tablet market and a 16.5% year-over-year decline. Lenovo, Asus and LG Electronics rounded off the top five, with 2.5 million, 1.8 million and 1.4 million global tablet shipments in the first quarter respectively, with a combined 12.1% market share.

Apple, Samsung and several other electronics makers are feeling the effects of a prolonged slowdown in the tablet market, with the iPad declining in annual growth for five consecutive quarters and competing tablets experiencing similar trends. The launch of the larger iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and lack of major updates to the iPad lineup since 2013 are likely contributing factors to falling iPad sales over the past few years.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, during the company’s recent earnings call, said he believes that continued investments in the company’s product pipeline and shift to the enterprise market will help the iPad be an “extremely good business over the long-term,” although he stopped short of providing a forward-looking statement about when iPad sales could begin growing again.

“And so my belief is, that as the inventory plays out, as we make some continued investments in our product pipeline, which we’re doing, that we already had planned and have had planned for some time,” said Cook. “Between that, the inventory playing out, the enterprise starting to take over, I think still, i believe the iPad is an extremely good business over the long-term. When precisely it begins to grow again I wouldn’t want to predict, but I strongly believe that it will.”

Strategy Analytics shared smartphone data for the first quarter on Wednesday.

Apple Adds 20 New Flyover Locations to Maps [iOS Blog]

Apple has added 20 new Flyover locations to Apple Maps, including cities and landmarks in the United States, Australia, France, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa and Spain. Apple Maps now has a total of 141 destinations for Flyover, which provides photo-realistic, interactive 3D views of select areas that users can zoom, pan, tilt and rotate through.

The full list of new Flyover destinations:

Teotihuacán, Mexico

Apple has slowly been adding Flyover destinations to Maps since the feature was introduced nearly three years ago, including new cities in France, Sweden, Italy and the Netherlands and nine other locations last December. The company has also enabled turn-by-turn directions for Maps in Iceland and appears to have removed Siri voice-assisted directions in India at least temporarily.

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No Faulty Apple Watches Were Shipped to Customers [iOS Blog]

Apple identified a Taptic Engine defect affecting the Apple Watch before shipping the device to any customers, according to Re/code. The report, citing people with knowledge of the matter, claims that no faulty Apple Watches reached customers, and reiterates that Apple has shifted the majority of production to Japanese supplier Nidec, which has not encountered the same issue.

“I believe no faulty Apple Watches were shipped to consumers,” said Patrick Moorhead, founder of Moor Insights & Strategy. “I don’t think this is damaging at all.”

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Apple discovered Taptic Engines supplied by AAC Technologies Holdings in Shenzhen, China would break over time, likely contributing to current Apple Watch supply constraints. The Taptic Engine, which creates creates motion in a straight line by moving a small rod, powers the haptic feedback capabilities of the Apple Watch by alerting users about incoming messages or notifications with gentle taps on the wrist.

Apple Watch pre-order deliveries began on April 24 in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and the United Kingdom, although many customers are still waiting to receive their devices. A portion of customers with initial shipping estimates of 4-6 weeks or later have received their Apple Watches sooner than expected, but there remains several orders that have yet to be fulfilled, particularly some Space Gray and Space Black models.

Apple Reportedly Hires More BBC Radio 1 Staff for New Music Service [iOS Blog]

Apple has reportedly hired four producers from BBC Radio 1 for its brand new music service, according to sources who spoke to Music Business Worldwide (MBW) (via AppleInsider). In February, Apple hired BBC Radio DJ Zane Lowe for its music services.

Little more than two months after poaching Zane Lowe from BBC Radio 1, MBW understands that Apple has pinched four producers from the station – including key talent from BBC Introducing.

One of the four producers, according to MBW, is James Bursey, Lowe’s old producer. Bursey apparently left BBC last Friday and is flying to Los Angeles to “team up with Lowe”. According to a tweet, Bursey left for the airport yesterday. However, Bursey’s LinkedIn account still lists him as an employee of BBC Radio.

The other BBC Radio employees rumored to be on Apple’s poach list include Natasha Lynch and Kieran Yeates, who are both apparently “star producers” at the BBC. Lynch was on the Guardians’s Music Power 100 list in 2011 while Yeates is credited with building BBC Introducing, a radio show focused on up-and-coming music talent. However, Yeates’ LinkedIn still lists him as a BBC Radio employee, as does Lynch’s Twitter profile for her employment status. Finally, that one source tells MBW that there’s an “exodus to Apple from Radio 1″

While it’s difficult to confirm whether Apple has indeed made these hires, it’s likely Apple is looking to beef up its music team as the launch of its new streaming service draws closer. A report last month revealed that the development of the revamped Apple-branded Beats music service is being led by Jimmy Iovine and Trent Reznor with has a focus on curated playlists. Alongside the new music service, Apple is said to be planning an enhanced version of iTunes Radio that’s tailored toward regional markets and acts more like a radio station.

Rumors suggest that Apple’s revamped music service will debut at this year’s Worldwide Development Conference alongside a new streaming television service and a new Apple TV set-top box.