The fight has been among Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi for a period, but OnePlus has launched a rocket in India and has ridden it up into the premium space.
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Galaxy S8 drives up average Samsung phone sales price
The priciest Galaxy S series devices helped bring up the metric just a tad to $235, the best figure Strategy Analytics has logged for three years.
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Siri loses ground to Alexa, Google Assistant, Cortana in a year’s time
Apple's AI-powered assistant as well as Samsung's have lost users from May of last year to this May. Google, Microsoft and Hound have made some gains.
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iPhone 7 Plus pricing may make up for overall slump in demand for the series
The street gawkers are expecting Apple to breach records for revenues and iPhone sales this holiday quarter. Can it really?
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Analysts don’t see curved-screen Galaxy S8 driving demand
The rumor mill tells us not to look for too many axes when it comes to the Galaxy S8. Both 5.7-inch and 6.2-inch versions of Samsung’s spring 2017 flagship should feature dual-curved screens with lots of screen and little bezel.
But Korean financial analysts are expressing doubts on whether or not the lack of a flat screen or finger maneuverability will really get consumers excited.
“There appears to be no high demand for dual-edge screens because some still find them inconvenient because they mistakenly touch the sides of the smartphones,” said Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade analyst Choo Dae-young. “The utility of a bezel-less display does not seem that much higher for small, portable smartphones compared to televisions.”
Foldable smartphones may come from Samsung to better improve usage efficiency.
Alas, it might not be about cross between dexterity and utility, but about eye-catching design — and you can bet that money is being spent to refine it. The Galaxy S8 is also being considered the comeback phone for Samsung as it offers deep discounts for former Note 7 owners relieved of their phones by a recall.
We’d love for you to chime in on whether you’d prefer a phone with intense focus on the screen or something a little more palmable. Our Twitter poll on the subject is on through December 13 at 5am Eastern.
If pressed, would you rather have a phone with a curved screen and minimal bezels or a phone you could handle and operate comfortably?
— Pocketnow (@Pocketnow) December 12, 2016
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Apple limiting Qualcomm iPhone 7 modem performance to match Intel levels
After some intensive reception analysis, we learned about another discrepancy in components that should meet parity across all iPhone 7 models. No, it did not come in the applications processor, as with the iPhone 6s, but in the wireless connections modem.
In the US, Apple distributed two versions of the iPhone with major CDMA (Sprint, Verizon) carriers getting one equipped with the Qualcomm X12 LTE modem while the GSM (AT&T, T-Mobile) carriers got one with an Intel XMM 3360. Testing by Cellular Insights has determined that the Qualcomm modem outperformed the Intel one.
Well, this week, we’re learning that Cellular Insights and research firm Twin Prime have done further testing to realize that Apple has actually dampened the performance of Qualcomm’s modem to levels comparable to Intel’s modem, likely because it is not taking advantage of advanced features of the chip like extra data streams.
Performance was compared in data from 100,000 phones between the two variants of iPhone 7 and a Samsung Galaxy S7 with a Qualcomm X12 LTE modem in it. The test found that the latter phone outperformed both iPhones by at least 150 percent, with the Intel iPhone 7 performing slower than the Qualcomm iPhone 7 by 20 percent
In a statement, Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller said:
Every iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus meets or exceeds all of Apple’s wireless performance standards, quality metrics, and reliability testing. In all of our rigorous lab tests based on wireless industry standards, in thousands of hours of real-world field testing, and in extensive carrier partner testing, the data shows there is no discernible difference in the wireless performance of any of the models.
In the case of “Chipgate,” where Apple A9 processors made by TSMC and Samsung performed differently by a maximum of 3 percent, there was a backlash towards Apple in the tech cognoscenti for allowing such an inconsistency to hate people. Apple may be taking the risk of keeping all iPhones on equal level in order to keep consumers from complaining about the other getting better or worse performance.
Qualcomm as well some analysts believe that Apple has made a bad move in philosophy — though the company’s CEO Steven Mollenkopf did not mention any particular manufacturer. Cellular Insights analyst Milan Milanovic predicts that if customers notice and do complain, they will probably do so not to Apple, Qualcomm or Intel, but to their carriers.
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Google Pixel adoption rates outpacing Nexus 6P
According to mobile analytics firm Appboy, out of 100+ million data points recorded between October 20 and 27, the Pixel achieved 0.016 percent market share while the Pixel XL staked 0.02 percent at the end of its first week of wide availability.
It is claimed that last year’s Nexus 6P took more than two weeks to reach those levels. We don’t have a point of relativity for the Nexus 5X as Pocketnow does not have direct access to this report. We also don’t know if these market share percentages are universal or within Android.
Lack of inventory has been working against what’s believed to be Google’s largest marketing efforts around an own-brand smartphone in shipping out its new phones to customers. A pulse of deliveries occurred on October 25, which was able to spike the Pixel XL’s apparent market share by 158 percent and the Pixel’s by 274 percent by week’s end. Appboy believes that the numbers are constrained by the supply issues.
Contrasting numbers observed from Samsung’s latest devices, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S6 obviously had many times the market share more on launch day and a week out. Though both phones had approximately the same market share on their launch days, seven-day growth fell from 171 percent on the S6 to 104 percent on the S7.
Keep in mind that Appboy’s figures come out of its own methodology of data collection. That may skew numbers just a bit as they have for iOS adoption rates. But Google does have its some shipment goals to live up to.
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iOS 10 share nearing half as it overtakes iOS 9
It’s been fifteen days since the release of Apple’s latest version of its mobile software platform. As of 3pm Eastern Time today, more actively used iPhones and iPads had iOS 10 than any other version of iOS. Easy pickings, given that the only real competition was iOS 9.Analytics firm MixPanel’s hourly observations more than 240 billion records show that 48.34 percent ...
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KGI: Jet Black iPhone 7 production issues hold up deliveries
That iPhone 7 in Jet Black that you pre-ordered weeks ago still hasn’t gotten to you yet? Sit your butt down, your chances are still slim for a fast pickup.KGI Securities’s Ming-Chi Kuo has a research note saying that the glass-aluminium combination build has been trouble at the factories with yield rates dipping to between 60 and 70 percent. Demand for
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iPhone 6s tops US market for late spring, with Galaxy S7 and iPhone SE following
The enduring and incumbent main iPhone model has topped the US sales pile for the three months ending in July.Yep, it takes a little time for Kantar Worldpanel to compile the data, but it gives us a good snapshot of where sales were for the first few months of the iPhone SE‘s and Galaxy S7‘s release.In summary, ...
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Post-peak, where will Pokemon GO’s bottom be?
Pokemon GO’s first month has seen stellar growth that Nintendo couldn’t have imagined. The Pokemon Company and Niantic were riding the coattails of this windfall as did what we found out to be contingent markets.But the party has to be done soon, right? Every viral product has that top ...
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Xiaomi swears to US market with smartphones, but no dates
Xiaomi CEO Hugo Barra said that his company will be pushing more of its electronics to the US this year. While thought to be a quite seasoned player in China, it’s a six-year-old “lifestyle technology” upstart to the rest of the world, which is why Barra is on an introduction mission.“We are looking forward to introducing our brand to US consumers,” Barra ...
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Gartner: Windows phones sales for OEMs total 750,000 for Q2
Microsoft’s efforts in mobile have downsized and downplayed in accordance with its downsized sales of Windows phones. It’s a trend that doesn’t look to be reversing without major stimuli.As Microsoft reported only 1.2 million Lumia sales for the second calendar quarter, research firm Gartner believes that the company’s manufacturer partners have only been able to sell about 750,000 smartphones.Windows phone sales wedged in just under 2 million units for ...
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Motorola Android Marshmallow update rates are fastest by far
Every manufacturer has an approach to tackling major Android point upgrades. Some (claim) to turn out a fast product while others take their time to iron out wrinkles… and then others never take their time.While you might have an idea of who the suspects we’re talking about are, ...
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SurveyMonkey proclaims peak Pokemon GO in US
Peak Pokemon GO happened last week. At least in the US.How does SurveyMonkey figure that? Its Intelligence unit tracked the app’s daily active users and compared it to daily download rates and the internet’s search awareness for it.In terms of usage, more than 25 million user packed in on the most active day, Sunday, July 14. Numbers were about steady the day before and the day after before the inevitable slide followed that week, dropping to about 22 million users on July 20.Continue reading »
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