Posts tagged iPhone
Have an iPhone? Try out the new Facebook Camera app
I’m really liking this new Facebook app—specifically for editing, tagging, and sharing multiple photos in a much easier way.
Apple Reports Second Quarter Results
Apple PR:
The Company posted quarterly revenue of $39.2 billion and quarterly net profit of $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $24.7 billion and net profit of $6.0 billion, or $6.40 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 47.4 percent compared to 41.4 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 64 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
The Company sold 35.1 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 11.8 million iPads during the quarter, a 151 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4 million Macs during the quarter, a 7 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 7.7 million iPods, a 15 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.
Not bad.
iPhone 4S launch propels surging Apple 20% to close the gap with Android
The latest quarterly sales data from Nielsen shows that while just 25.1 percent of American smartphone buyers in October chose an iPhone, that number ballooned to 44.5 percent in December. In addition, 57 percent of new iPhone owners polled in December indicated they bought an iPhone 4S.
Considering lots of people said that the iPhone 4S was a dud and that everyone was disappointed that it wasn’t the iPhone 5, the take up of the 4S has been phenomenal. And if that’s the take up for a device with no external changes, imagine what the demand will be like for the inevitably redesigned iPhone 5 that will likely come out September/October time.
Apple's iPhone gets head start in smartphone Christmas battle
Wow. 37% of all smartphones being bought in the UK in the run up to Christmas are iPhones.
BBC iPlayer comes to the iPhone and gets AirPlay support
The BBC have just released an updated version of their iPlayer app that will now run on iPhone’s and iPod Touch’s as well as iPad’s which it has been on for some time now. This is what I’ve been really waiting for though:
The app is compatible with Apple AirPlay. If you are running iOS5, you can connect your iPhone or iPod touch to Apple TV and watch your favourite programme on your television.
The New Twitter (R.I.P. Tweetie)
Good critique of the new Twitter for iPhone app by John Gruber.
Flipboard Launches a New iPhone App
Christina Bonnington at WIRED:
Flipboard is taking its celebrated iPad magazine and shrinking it down so you can take your page flipping, graphics-filled social media experience with you on your iPhone, everywhere you go.
I love Flipboard for iPad, but I don’t really use it. It is beautifully designed and I so want to use it more. But, for whatever reason, it doesn’t quite work with my workflow. The new iPhone app could could become something I actually use though. I’ll use it for a few days and see whether it becomes a viable part of my workflow.
One glaring omission I can see however is the lack of a Read Later option with the Readability service. I really hope they get that sorted soon as otherwise it will become even harder to enter into my workflow.
An iPhone user tries out the Nokia Lumia 800…and loves it!
Jon Gold:
I have to keep questioning myself and what I believe in. Cellphones should not prompt an existential crisis. It’s just a phone. But I keep having to ask myself whether I want Apple to win, or I want better to win. As a designer I hope I always go for better. Metro is undeniably gorgeous but I still can’t form an objective opinion about whether the phone as a whole is good enough to replace my iPhone.
Very interesting read.
What is becoming clear is that Microsoft (with it’s Windows Phone 7 operating system) - amazingly - seems to have developed something great. The question is whether it’s too late to the party to gain any meaningful traction. And, whilst this article is about an iPhone user really liking the Nokia Windows phone, the real challenge is going to be whether it can take on the behemoth that is Android.
Apple iPhone 4S accounted for 42.8 per cent of all UK mobile phone sales in October
This clearly won’t be sustainable, but it highlights just how impressive Apple’s launch of the iPhone 4S has been. And, as the majority of this growth is from people upgrading, it emphasises how loyal iPhone users are.
Positive review of the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich
Joshua Topolsky at The Verge reviews the Galaxy Nexus and the latest Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich:
The Galaxy Nexus is the best Android phone ever made. It’s one of the best smartphones ever made, and with a couple of minor tweaks (particularly to the camera), it could be the best smartphone ever produced.
Still, there’s really not much to knock here. The hardware is elegant and smartly designed. The software is beautiful and useful. Google has cleaned up a lot of the bad, and replaced it with a serious amount of good. It’s faster, smarter, and a lot more friendly than any of its predecessors. Ice Cream Sandwich easily gives iOS and Windows Phone a run for their money, and in many ways, it’s a superior operating system than either of them.
If there’s a bone to pick, perhaps it’s with the size, which could be off-putting to some, or the fact that right now the only carrier you can definitely get the phone on in the US will be Verizon. But those are minor blips on the radar, not show stoppers.
Very positive review for the most part. The camera would be a big issue for me. 90% of the photos I now take are with my phone and so it simply has to be great.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball did have this to say about Topolsky’s review though:
If you’re like me, you’re skeptical about this, because every time a new Nexus phone has arrived (along with a major revision of the OS), the initial reviews have been along the lines of, “Hey, Android finally got its act together”, but then when the excitement wears off it turns out the whole thing is still a jumbled mess and second-rate (at best) experience and we’re really supposed to wait for next year’s Android.
But there aren’t many buts in Topolsky’s review of the Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0.
Samsung overtakes Apple in smartphone sales
From the BBC News site:
Samsung overtook Apple to become the world’s biggest seller of smartphones between July and September.
Research from Strategy Analytics showed that Samsung sold 27.8 million smartphones in the three month period, compared with 17.1 million from Apple and 16.8 million from Nokia.
Who says copying doesn’t pay?!
Seriously though, it’s a very healthy quarter from Samsung. Obviously the comparison is against Apple’s weakest quarter (in light of everyone knowing a new iPhone was on the way). I suspect that Apple will take the mantle back this current quarter (with some analysts predicting up to 40 million iPhone sales).
It’s worth emphasising that market share has never been a primary objective of Apple (though I suspect they would like to keep the crown of top smartphone maker). And, it’s also worth emphasising that though Apple only has 5% of the global phone market share, they take over 50% of the phone market profit.
It’s official, the iPhone 4S is Christian!
From Joshua Topolsky’s review of the iPhone 4S:
Asking [Siri*] “what is the meaning of life?” will bring up a number of responses, both serious and not so serious. The first time I asked, Siri simply said “42.” If you ask Siri if there’s a god, the software points you in the direction of the nearest church (oddly, no synagogues, Buddhist temples, or mosques are suggested).
*Siri is the new intelligent assistant that comes with the iPhone 4S.
My thoughts ahead of today’s iPhone announcement
As most of you will be aware, there’s a big announcement coming from Apple today. The long awaited next generation iPhone is going to be shown to the public by new CEO Tim Cook.
But what is the iPhone going to be like? Will it be an upgraded iPhone 4 that looks mostly the same but has some hefty internal upgrades? Or will there be a brand new design to match the internal improvements?
Before jumping into that, a quick mention of the one thing we can be certain of.
iOS 5 and iCloud
Tim Cook will undoubtedly announce the release date for iOS 5 and iCloud during his keynote today. I wouldn’t get your hopes of this being available today though. My guess is that developers will get a gold master release today and that the public release of iOS 5 will be sometime next week.
For those of you who aren’t aware, iOS 5 will be a free software update for anyone with an iPhone 4 or 3GS. So, even if you have no plans for getting the new iPhone, you can look forward to some big software improvements. You will also get access to Apple’s new iCloud service.
New iPhone
But what about the new iPhone itself? It has to be said that Apple have done a great job of leaving the tech press pretty confused and endlessly contradicting itself. Unlike the iPhone 4 which was leaked ahead of time, this next upgrade has been shrouded in mystery.
Initially, I was pretty confident that there would definitely be a newly designed iPhone 5. And this would seem to fit nicely alongside the fact that we know iOS 5 is coming. Would releasing just an internal upgrade to the iPhone 4 (iPhone 4S?) fit when they’re going to be pushing iOS 5 as the big new software update? Wouldn’t iOS 5 and iPhone 5 work nicely together?
But the rumours seem to have veered more towards the new phone maintaining its current design for the most part whilst having a big internal upgrade: more memory, better camera, faster processor.
Just when it seemed to be settling down on this reality though, a new rumour emerged suggesting that (in the US) the Sprint carrier would be getting exclusive access to the iPhone 5 and that the other carriers would get the updated iPhone 4. What this would mean internationally, who knows! And it has to be said there’s been a lot of scepticism about this rumour.
Ultimately, we’re just going to have to wait! Even if we don’t know what it will be like, there will be a new iPhone announced later today that will (probably) be available from Friday 14th October. And we can also be sure that there will be a release date announced for iOS 5 to get rolled out to all iPhone users, along with access to iCloud.
Bring on 6pm (UK time).
Robert Scoble on some surprises to expect from Apple tomorrow
A couple of quotes from a very interesting post by Robert Scoble on tomorrow’s announcements from Apple:
The press will be caught off guard by the expansiveness of the Facebook deal. Zuckerberg isn’t playing around. If he’s getting in bed with Tim Cook at Apple he’s going all the way, not just sticking his toe under the covers.
And:
iOS 5’s new AirPlay features will be shown over and over again tomorrow to drive home this new three-screen strategy. It’s one area where Apple is way ahead of Android, so look for them to make sure you understand that…Apple has never really made a big deal about AirPlay but tomorrow they will, demoing it over and over as they announce content deal after content deal.
What’s interesting about Scoble’s thoughts is how he’s not talking about the hardware at all. I know that that’s what a lot of people will be interested in, but it’s the software where the magic truly happens. It seems more and more likely that the next iPhone will not have a dramatic design overhaul and that Apple is going to simply give it a hefty internal boost whilst really pushing forward with the software capabilities.
The Facebook deal sounds very interesting. Apple and Facebook have been known to be far from friends and if they are working anywhere near as closely together as Scoble suggests, this will have big ramifications. Personally, I’d love to see the same kind of system level integration of Facebook into the iPhone that Twitter is getting.
An emphasis on AirPlay shouldn’t really be a surprise. It is an amazing and hugely underrated technology. Scoble talks about ‘content deal after content deal’ though which is where I already start to lose some hope. Almost certainly, the content deals will only have relevance to the US market. I hope I’m wrong, but it’s usually the case that UK content deals will get added later.
All in all though, I’m excited to see what Apple announce tomorrow. The new iPhone (whatever it is called) has been a long time coming (along with iOS 5 and iCloud) and my expectations are high.
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