Apple’s smaller iPhone and new iPad tipped for March 15th event
The iPhone 5se and iPad Air 3 rumors are piling up, and it looks like we won’t have to wait long to get the official details. Both BuzzFeed’s John Paczkowski and 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman, both of whom have solid track records when it comes to rumors, report that Apple’s next event will take place on March 15th. The agenda for the soiree is said to include that long-rumored 4-inch iPhone and the new iPad Air that we got a look at yesterday. What’s more, an Apple Watch software update should be discussed at the event alongside a collection of new bands. We’ll know soon if the date is solid, as the official invites should be out sometime this month.
Source: BuzzFeed News, 9to5Mac
Apple focusing on yet another Android “innovation”
Apple fans will soon have a new “innovation” to crow about according to new reports coming out of China. Sources are reporting that Apple has requested their largest camera supplier, Largan Technology, to provide dual-lens camera samples. Reportedly Apple is asking other camera manufacturers in Japan and China to also provide dual-lens camera samples. The dual-lens setup is believed to be targeted at a version of the next-generation iPhone Plus. Android fans will quickly recognize that use of dual-lens cameras was pushed heavily by HTC in the past and more recently companies like Lenovo, ZTE and Huawei are adopting the technology.
The report from DigiTimes is not the first hint that Apple is looking at dual-lens technology. The news coming from upstream component manufacturers comes on the heels of a report from investment analyst Ming-Chi Kuo with KGI Securities outlining potential plans by Apple to include a dual-lens camera in the iPhone 7 Plus. Kuo suggested Apple may produce two variants of the iPhone 7 Plus, one with a dual-lens camera and one that uses their traditional iSight camera.
Although dual-lens cameras have their fans, many Android manufacturers have found consumers were not enamored with the technology and it tends to fall flat as a unique selling point. That may not be as big a problem for Apple which has a very effective marketing regime regardless of how innovative a particular feature may be.
Come comment on this article: Apple focusing on yet another Android “innovation”
Apple’s iPad Air 3 and ‘iPhone 5se’ Event May Take Place March 15
Apple’s next media event, where it is rumored to announce updates across three product categories, is tentatively planned for Tuesday, March 15, according to 9to5Mac. The date could change over the next six weeks.
As the scheduled event is still a month-and-a-half away, the date could conceivably still shift or turn into an online announcement. The media event would be Apple’s first since September, and much like the fall event, is planned to touch on three major product categories for the company.
At the media event, its first since September, Apple CEO Tim Cook and other executives are expected to introduce the new 4-inch “iPhone 5se” and iPad Air 3, alongside minor Apple Watch updates, including new bands.
Apple’s new 4-inch iPhone is rumored to feature an A9 chip with M9 motion coprocessor, 1,624 mAh battery, 1GB of RAM, Bluetooth 4.2, Apple Pay, VoLTE, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and 16GB and 64GB storage models, but 3D Touch appears unlikely.
The so-called “iPhone 5se” will reportedly ship in late March or early April, and will likely replace the iPhone 5s. Apple’s smartphone lineup come September is expected to be the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, and iPhone 5se.
Details surrounding the iPad Air 3 are less clear, but leaked design drawings and aftermarket cases suggest the new 9.7-inch tablet could have a rear-facing LED camera flash, Smart Connector, and four speakers like the iPad Pro.
Taiwanese website DigiTimes also said the iPad Air 3 will have a high-resolution 4K display and up to 4GB of RAM, but the report is questionable due to the publication’s mixed track record at reporting on Apple’s upcoming product plans.
Last, earlier rumors suggested an “Apple Watch 2” could debut around March, but the wrist-worn device will likely only receive minor updates, including new bands and possibly a FaceTime camera, at next month’s purported media event.
Buyer’s Guide: iPad Air (Don’t Buy), Apple Watch (Neutral)
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Nintendo Confirms Second Mobile Game Will Be Focused on a ‘Familiar’ Character
Nintendo today gave new hints regarding its mobile game plans, which will see the gaming giant release five games in total before March 2017 in a partnership with developer DeNA. During a quarterly profit meeting, the gaming company confirmed that its second mobile experience will be built around one of its popular and established characters, but no word was given specifically on which Nintendo franchise that would be (via The Wall Street Journal).
“The second game won’t be another communication app, and we plan to adopt one of our characters that fans are very familiar with,” Nintendo CEO Tatsumi Kimishima said.
In October, Nintendo revealed details about the first game to be released from its DeNA partnership, an app called “Miitomo” that will focus on social network-like interactions with the company’s customizable Mii avatars. Miitomo will be a free-to-play experience, but the company has said that subsequent games will be pay-to-download games.
The partnership with DeNA was announced in March of 2015, with initial expectations suggesting the first official Nintendo-published mobile game to be released before the end of 2015. Nintendo decided to push back Miitomo’s launch to better explain what the app is and earn the mobile game a better promotional push. Miitomo is expected to launch sometime in March, and there was no time window given for the company’s second game.
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Apple Patents Hover-Sensing Multi-Touch Display for Macs and iPhones
The United States Patent and Trademark Office today published a patent filed by Apple last March, which details how inline proximity sensors could be used in tandem with a touchscreen display to detect non-contact hover gestures (via AppleInsider).
The patent, titled “Proximity and multi-touch sensor detection and demodulation”, reveals how photodiodes or other proximity hardware work in parallel with traditional multitouch displays to extend user interaction beyond the screen surface.
One embodiment of the patent describes a capacitive sensing element, using a range of proximity sensors and an LCD display, that would let users deploy gestures above a traditional keyboard, resulting in a “virtual keyboard”.
With multiple proximity arrays deployed on every touch sensor or pixel of the panel, the system can detect a finger, palm or other object hovering over the display surface. The detected motion is then translated to a GUI by which users can “push” virtual buttons, trigger functions without physical touch, toggle power to devices and more.
Various configurations of the technology are outlined in the patent, including one which describes a MacBook featuring assistive hover-sensing displays that augment typing and trackpad input.
As with any filed patent, the technology is unlikely to appear in any product soon, if at all, especially given that Apple only recently introduced 3D Touch support and is still actively encouraging app developers to make more use of the feature.
Apple has expressed interest in non-contact user interfacing and motion control for some time. In 2013, for example, the company acquired PrimeSense, the firm responsible for the original technology used by Microsoft for its Kinect platform.
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Apple to Begin Testing Dual-Lens Camera Samples for iPhone 7 Plus
Taiwan-based Largan Technology as well as Japan- and China-based camera lens makers have sent dual-lens camera test samples to Apple for potential inclusion in its next-generation iPhone, according to sources from the upstream supply chain (via DigiTimes).
The same source notes that Largan currently supplies over 60 percent of Apple’s smartphone cameras, leading some market analysts to believe Apple is seeking dual-camera products from other makers to lower potential risks.
iPhone 7 mockup with dual-lens camera system (Image: Computer Bild)
Taiwan-based website DigiTimes has a mixed track record at reporting on Apple’s upcoming product plans, but its sources within the upstream supply chain have proven reliable in the past.
The report also follows predictions by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo that two 5.5-inch versions of the “iPhone 7 Plus” are in development, one with a single iSight rear-facing camera and another boasting a dual-camera design.
The rumored iPhone 7 Plus model with a dual-lens camera system would take advantage of imaging algorithms that Apple acquired through its purchase of Israeli camera technology company LinX Imaging last year.
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Guess which smartphone company used the most chips in 2015
With questions like these it is always a case of Apple or Samsung – that much is a given. But you might be surprised by the margin between these two telecommunications giants when it comes to semiconductor consumption in 2015. The difference between the two rivals is so close it’s only just over 2.5% (note the decimal point). So, who dominated global semiconductor consumption in 2015?
See also: Flashbacks and Forecasts: Samsung in 2016
Was it Samsung, the world’s largest producer of smartphones, the company that sold 40% more smartphones than Apple in 2015? Or was it Apple, with its massive spike in sales in China, thanks to its borrowing of the large-screened device idea from its arch rival Samsung? Between the two companies, they represent 17.6% of the world’s semiconductor business, purchasing $59 billion worth of chips in 2015.
Perhaps not too surprisingly, it was Samsung that took the number one spot yet again. But for the company that out-sold iPhones by 40% to only consume 2.5% more chips is surprising. The culprit? The iPad. While Samsung has more tablets than anyone knows what to do with (including those trying to sell them), Apple’s iPad is still performing quite well, despite hitting its peak in popularity two years ago. Well enough to make up for a 40% shortfall in phone sales.
See also: Snapdragon 820 vs Exynos 8890: the 2016 mobile SoC battle begins
But the real kicker to this story is who is making all the money off those massive semiconductor sales. You might recall that Samsung uses its own Exynos chips as well as chips sourced from Qualcomm in its Galaxy series. But guess who’s making Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 820 SoC this year? Samsung. And guess who makes almost half of the A series chips used in the iPhone? Samsung again.
Of course, other chip makers like TSMC are making bucketloads of cash out of the semiconductor market too, but only Samsung is making processors for the two largest chip consumers in the world as well as producing this year’s must-have Android chip for Qualcomm. Even as the semiconductor business is at risk of decline – topping $335 billion dollars in 2015 but dropping by 5% YoY – Samsung still stands to make a huge amount of money from it in the immediate future.
Samsung’s consumption is already on the decline. At this rate, Apple will be the world’s largest chip consumer by the end of the year.
However, you can see that Samsung’s consumption is already declining, while Apple’s is rising. Samsung’s demand declined by 3.6% in 2015, while Apple’s increased by 7.1%. So it was Apple that was responsible for the $800 million increase in consumption over 2014, not Samsung. At this rate, Apple will be the world’s largest chip consumer by the end of the year.
Did you guess right? Would you ever have guessed the margin was so close?
Google Nexus phones may be going the way of Apple
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Up till now, Google Nexus phones have been built through a healthy working relationship between Google and an Android device manufacturer. The symbiotic relationship allows Google to showcase its vanilla Android experience, and the manufacturer is allowed to demonstrate its formidable hardware capabilities. However, reports are saying that Google may be changing its relationship with manufacturers moving forward, adopting a more Apple-esque approach where Google designs both the hardware and software and just contracts out the manufacturing of the device.
While that sounds unthinkable for most Android manufacturers – especially for those who have provided such brilliant Nexus devices – there are manufacturers who would jump at the opportunity. While Google has taken a 15% cut in the past leaving little for the manufacturer itself, it’s rumoured that HTC would be willing to partake in such a scheme as it would give the struggling company a boost in short term revenue, even if their name doesn’t end up on the device itself. It will be very interesting to see how this all pans out in the future as the competition heats up between Google and Apple.
What do you think about Google Nexus phones with hardware and software designed by Google? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: The Information via engadget
The post Google Nexus phones may be going the way of Apple appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Detachable tablet sales are taking off
The tablet market might be tanking as a whole, but there’s apparently one major bright spot: tablets with detachable keyboards. While IDC estimates that slate shipments were down almost 14 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter, shipments of detachables more than doubled to 8.1 million. That’s about 12 percent of the entire space, folks. Analysts suspect that many people want to treat tablets as PC replacements, and they’re willing to pay a premium to make that happen.
You won’t win any prizes for guessing who’s at the front, though. Category pioneer Microsoft reportedly shipped 1.6 million Surface tablets (most of them Pros), while Apple shipped over 2 million iPad Pros in the device’s inaugural quarter. Design experience, brand recognition and sheer financial clout clearly went a long way.
This isn’t to say that companies need detachables for success. IDC notes that some of the hottest action came from low-end tablets, like Amazon’s $50 Fire tablet and various models from Huawei or Lenovo. However, it’s no wonder that Samsung and others are getting into the detachable tablet game. It’s not only a booming category, but potentially more lucrative — even if the tablet market shrinks, you could still turn a tidy profit.
Source: IDC
Google Briefly Surpasses Apple as World’s Most Valuable Company
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is encroaching on Apple’s status as the most valuable company in the world, reports CNN. While Apple is currently on top, a surge in Alphabet shares today gave it a market valuation of $533.4 billion, briefly surpassing Apple’s valuation of $532.7 billion on a 1 percent stock drop.
Alphabet shares dropped shortly after, leaving Apple at a higher valuation, but the numbers could shift again tomorrow following Alphabet’s first financial earnings report this afternoon. Alphabet is expected to announce overall revenue growth of close to 15 percent with a 20 percent increase in earnings per share.
Over the course of the last several months, Apple shares have fallen steadily, dropping its peak valuation of $740 billion to ~$540 billion. Despite record earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2016, with revenue of $75.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $18.4 billion, Apple has not bounced back from rumors that the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s are not selling well and concerns that the company has reached “peak iPhone” with no replacement product on the horizon.
Apple is in for a rough second quarter as the company is expected to announce its first ever decline in iPhone sales and its first year-over-year revenue drop in thirteen years. Currency headwinds caused by a strong U.S. dollar are costing Apple a significant percent of its earnings compared to the year-ago quarter.
Update 1:05 PM: Alphabet is up another 8 percent in after hours trading following a strong earnings report, meaning Alphabet will almost certainly open trading tomorrow at a higher valuation than Apple.
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