Here is some aggregating of the data and then throwing out some predictions:
Mobile is eating the world also in 2017. As we pass 2.5bn smartphones on earth and head towards 5bn, and mobile moves from creation to deployment.
IHS research institute of the market next year will be 139 million a flexible screens, most of which are in smartphones. Vivo and Xiaomi have already released smart phones with flexible AMOLED screens. Progress has been slowed by the capacity of the display manufacturers, but Samsung Display and LG Display are already building new factories. It is expected that in 2020 the number of flexible screens will be 417 million.
Today’s smartphones utilize a wide array of sensors (accelerometers, gyroscopes and various other). New sensors will be added in 2017. Barometric pressure sensor, which measures air pressure, is currently being integrated into premium-grade smartphones and IoT applications. Air pressure sensors in smartphones are useful in navigation and fitness tracking applications but also in weather forecasting.
Rumors surrounding the next iPhone 8 keep coming in 2017. Analysts and market researchers have also predicted a big iPhone update from Apple. Let’s wait to see if this is evolution or revolution. A brief report in The Korea Economic Daily claims that Apple is working with LG on a new dual camera module “which enables 3D photographing. I would be surprised if Apple could come up with something that really revolutionary in 2017.
Virtual Reality Will Stay Hot in 2017. VR is the heaviest heterogeneous workload we encounter in mobile—there’s a lot going on. VR requires high refresh rates with new content every frame. It also needs to calculate data from multiple sensors and respond to it with updated visuals in less than 18 ms to keep up with the viewer’s head motions. To achieve these goals, the phone needs a fast-switching AMOLED display at nearly full brightness running constantly. The skyrocketing popularity of augmented reality (Pokemon Go) and virtual reality (Google VR) may be the boost microelecromechanical systems (MEMS) projectors into the mass market. Integrating micro-lidar (3-D imaging system using invisible infrared beams) to smart phone can become feasible.
Smart phone markets will be still almost completely be in the hands of Apple (iOS) and Google (Android) also in 2017. Microsoft’s Windows phone OS is practically dead in. But that does not stop other player trying to get their spot. For example Samsung wants developers to build apps for its homegrown Tizen mobile operating system, and it is offering cash prizes to do so. Samsung will launch further Tizen-powered smartphones in 2017, but the company is unlikely to swap Android for its home-grown software on high-end devices.
Mobile Video to Grow 50% a Year also n 2017. According to Ericsson’s Mobility Report, mobile data traffic continues to grow, driven both by increased smartphone subscriptions and a continued increase in average data volume per subscription, fueled primarily by more viewing of video content. Ericsson forecasts mobile video traffic to grow by around 50% annually through 2022.
Even though smart watch market has done much worse than expected in 2016, is not forgotter in 2017. Companies need to put effort to convince consumers that wearables — smartwatches specifically — are still in demand. For this Google says it will launch two flagship OEM-branded smartwatches and Android Wear 2.0 in early 2017. The new platform brings a number of new features.
Smartphone is already widely used mobile payment, a person identifying itself and a wide range of services in place, so it is only a matter of time until the driver’s license is transferred to smart phone. In fact, the trend is already on the move, as piloted by Gemalto digital driver’s license in Colorado, Idaho, Maryland and Washington. In the early stages of the digital card functions as a conventional physical card partner.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Geekbench Dev Confirms Apple Throttles Performance On iPhones With Older Batteries
https://hothardware.com/news/geekbench-dev-confirms-apple-throttles-performance-on-iphones-with-older-batteries
It looks like the developers behind the popular cross-platform Benchmark have confirmed suspicions that many users have amassed with regards to overall system performance on “older” iPhones. Earlier this month, we reported on a link between CPU throttling on some previous generation models and iOS updates that were pushed out to address unrelated battery-life issues regarding premature shutdowns.
Some users reported that replacing their old and well-worn battery with a new battery (OEM or third-party) restored overall system performance to a like-new state. It was surmised that Apple was throttling iPhones whose batteries capacities had fallen below a certain threshold in order to preserve battery life.
Poole’s testing showed that large variances in Geekbench 4 scores began cropping up after iOS 10.2.1, which was a release that aimed to fix premature shutdowns on certain iPhone models.
Whether intentional or not, Poole goes on to state that Apple’s decision to approach battery performance with iPhones in this manner may leave customers with the wrong impression.
Tomi Engdahl says:
iPhone Performance and Battery Age
https://www.geekbench.com/blog/2017/12/iphone-performance-and-battery-age/
Tomi Engdahl says:
End of the smashed phone screen? Self-healing glass discovered by accident
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/18/smashed-cracked-phone-screen-self-healing-glass-university-of-tokyo
New type of polymer glass that can mend itself when pressed together is in development by University of Tokyo after a student discovered it
Japanese researchers say they have developed a new type of glass that can heal itself from cracks and breaks.
Glass made from a low weight polymer called “polyether-thioureas” can heal breaks when pressed together by hand without the need for high heat to melt the material.
The research, published in Science, by researchers led by Professor Takuzo Aida from the University of Tokyo, promises healable glass that could potentially be used in phone screens and other fragile devices, which they say are an important challenge for sustainable societies.
While self-healing rubber and plastics have already been developed, the researchers said that the new material was the first hard substance of its kind that can be healed at room temperature.
“High mechanical robustness and healing ability tend to be mutually exclusive,”
The new polymer glass is “highly robust mechanically yet can readily be repaired by compression at fractured surfaces”.
The properties of the polyether-thioureas glass were discovered by accident by graduate school student Yu Yanagisawa, who was preparing the material as a glue. Yanagisawa found that when the surface of the polymer was cut the edges would adhere to each other, healing to form a strong sheet after being manually compressed for 30 seconds at 21°C.
Mechanically robust, readily repairable polymers via tailored noncovalent cross-linking
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/12/13/science.aam7588.full
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ban Sale of Mini Mobiles, Says Justice Minister
https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/17/12/18/1743254/ban-sale-of-mini-mobiles-says-justice-minister?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
Online retail companies should ban the sale of mini mobile phones designed to be smuggled into prisons, said justice secretary David Lidington on Monday. From a report:
Often marketed as “Beat the Boss phones”, the tiny feature phones can be bought for around $25 to $40 online on sites including Amazon, Ebay and Gumtree. On the inside, they can change hands for up to $670.
Ban sale of mini mobiles used in prisons, says justice minister
https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/ban-sale-of-mini-mobiles-used-in-prisons-says-justice-minister/
Phones are illegal in British prisons, and yet guards seized 20,000 of them in 2016.
Online retail companies should ban the sale of mini mobile phones designed to be smuggled into prisons, said justice secretary David Lidington on Monday.
Often marketed as “Beat the Boss phones”, the tiny feature phones can be bought for around £20 to £30 online on sites including Amazon, Ebay and Gumtree. On the inside, they can change hands for up to £500.
The phones, which can be as small as lipsticks, are popular with prison inmates due to their discreet size and lack of metal, which allows them to beat metal detectors.
“It’s pretty clear that these miniature phones are being advertised and sold with the purpose of being smuggled,” said Lidington in a speech. “I am calling on online retailers and trading websites to take down products that are advertised to evade detection measures in prisons.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia 9 hits the FCC
https://liliputing.com/2017/12/nokia-9-hits-fcc.html
The Nokia 8 smartphone that launched this summer was the first truly flagship-class phone to wear the Nokia name since HMD took over the brand last year. But it won’t be the last.
After months of rumors that a Nokia 9 was on the way, the phone seems to have passed through the FCC website.
Like the Nokia 8, the new Nokia 9 sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. But with 128GB of storage, it has twice as much space to store your data… at least on the model submitted to the FCC.
The phone has a 5.5 inch OLED display, a 3,250 mAh battery, 18W fast charging support, a 5MP front camera, and dual rear cameras, one with a 12MP sensor, and the other with a 13Mp sensor.
https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=ac59bjo25bhivhT%2FHrEUgg%3D%3D&fcc_id=2AJOTTA-1005
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple addresses why people are saying their iPhones with older batteries are running ‘slower’
https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/20/apple-addresses-why-people-are-saying-their-iphones-with-older-batteries-are-running-slower/?ncid=rss
Because of a Reddit post and the loose interpretation of subsequent benchmark tests posted by Primate Labs’ John Poole, the “Apple throttles old iPhones” meme has reared its ugly head again.
The gist, as it always is, is that Apple is being super petty and trying to force customers to upgrade their phones by making their old phones run slower.
As always, the answer is no. It would be beyond stupid and incredibly short-sighted for Apple to do this and, if it was actually true, would likely lead to tangles of a governmental and legal nature that no company like Apple would ever want to happen.
Instead, Apple is focusing attention on smoothing out the very high and quick peaks of power draw that can cause problems with older batteries.
The short-form version of what Poole’s benchmarks are showing is the result of a power curve-smoothing algorithm that Apple rolled out last year to mitigate iPhone shutdown issues.
Basically, iPhones were hitting peaks of processor power that the battery was unable to power and the phones were shutting off. Apple then added power management to all iPhones at the time that would “smooth out” those peaks by either capping the power available from the battery or by spreading power requests over several cycles.
Also, to be clear, Poole’s charts appear to be accurate — nor is Apple saying this isn’t happening.
Some users who have had older batteries replaced also said they’ve seen improved benchmarks after replacing their batteries. Well, yeah. Of course. As batteries age, they stop working as well. Period.
And that age isn’t just about years or charge cycles — heat is a huge killing factor for batteries, for instance.
Remember, benchmarks, which are artificial tests of a system’s performance levels, will look like peaks and valleys to the system, which will then trigger this effect. In other words, you’re always going to be triggering this when you run a benchmark, but you definitely will not always trigger this effect when you’re using your iPhone like normal.
Apple will continue to add this smoothing to more devices over time to avoid shutdown issues, freezing and other problems.
It’s important to note that this is a lithium-ion chemistry issue, not an Apple issue. Batteries just get crappy over time. This is an attempt to make your phone work for longer with less issues, not to get you to switch away from it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reuters:
Sources: Xiaomi’s 2017 profit could exceed $1B based on company’s $17B-$18B revenue estimate; $2B profit expected in 2018, making a $100B IPO value “reasonable”
Exclusive: IPO hopeful Xiaomi set to blow past 2017 revenue target – sources
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-xiaomi-profits-exclusive/exclusive-ipo-hopeful-xiaomi-set-to-blow-past-2017-revenue-target-sources-idUSKBN1EF30M
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc has told bankers it would top its annual revenue target by as much as 18 percent, sources with knowledge of the matter said, marking a comeback from a sales slump in recent years that triggered a business overhaul.
Xiaomi, which has been hearing bank pitches for what could be the world’s biggest tech float next year, will rake in a net profit of at least $1 billion in 2017, banker projections based on the company’s revenue estimate of $17 billion to $18 billion show. Profits are estimated to reach about $2 billion in 2018.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smart speakers to outsell wearables during U.S. holidays, as demand for wearables slows
https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/21/smart-speakers-to-outsell-wearables-during-u-s-holidays-as-demand-for-wearables-slows/
Smart speakers will likely outsell wearable devices this holiday season. That’s the latest prediction from analysts at eMarketer, which forecasts a slowing growth rate for devices like fitness trackers and smartwatches here in the U.S. The wearable market is continuing to grow, to be clear, but it’s struggling to reach the mainstream. Next year, only 20 percent of the U.S. adult population will use a wearable devices at least once a month, the firm says.
Note that eMarketer is looking at wearable usage and market penetration here, not sales.
That being said, the firm is estimating that usage of wearable will grow just 11.9 percent in 2018, rising from 44.7 million adult wearable users in 2017 to 50.1 million in 2018. As a percentage of the population, that’s a climb from 17.7 percent to 19.6 percent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientists can match photos to individual smartphones
http://hexus.net/ce/news/mobile-phones/113405-scientists-can-match-photos-individual-smartphones/
Researchers at the University at Buffalo NY have discovered that it is possible to identify individual smartphones from just a single photo taken by the device. The technique is compared directly to ‘barrel matching’ or identifying a gun which has fired a particular bullet. In the case of smartphones, each one takes photos with a telltale “pattern of microscopic imaging flaws that are present in every picture they take”. Specifically, the manufacturing imperfections creating tiny variations in each camera’s sensor is referred to as its photo-response non-uniformity (PRNU).
Explaining why there are differences in recorded photos from these mass produced products, the UB Blog says that while camera modules and lenses are built for identical performance, manufacturing imperfections cause tiny variations and “these variations can cause some of sensors’ millions of pixels to project colours that are slightly brighter or darker than they should be.”
The differences between the different smartphone outputs, especially shots of the same scene by the same device model are not easily to see by the naked eye, if at all. However, the lack of uniformity in mass production “forms a systemic distortion in the photo called pattern noise”. Extracted by special filters, the pattern is unique for each camera and can be saved as its PRNU.
In tests scientists accurately identified which of 30 different iPhone 6s smartphones and 10 different Galaxy Note 5s smartphones took each of 16,000 images in a database correctly 99.5 per cent of the time.
Beyond the obvious implications that come from the comparison between smartphone camera output and gun barrels / bullets, there are other uses for this tech. The UB team suggests that you could register your PRNU with a bank or retailer, for example, and it adds an extra layer of security to ID verification. Potentially the tech could be used to defeat three of the most common tactics used by cybercriminals, think the researchers; fingerprint forgery attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks, and replay attacks.
Your smartphone’s next trick? Fighting cybercrime.
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2017/12/013.html
Like bullets fired from a gun, photos can be traced to individual smartphones, opening up new ways to prevent identity theft
“Like snowflakes, no two smartphones are the same. Each device, regardless of the manufacturer or make, can be identified through a pattern of microscopic imaging flaws that are present in every picture they take,” says Kui Ren, the study’s lead author. “It’s kind of like matching bullets to a gun, only we’re matching photos to a smartphone camera.”
The new technology, to be presented in February at the 2018 Network and Distributed Systems Security Conference in California, is not yet available to the public. However, it could become part of the authentication process — like PIN numbers and passwords — that customers complete at cash registers, ATMs and during online transactions.
Digital cameras are built to be identical. However, manufacturing imperfections create tiny variations in each camera’s sensors. These variations can cause some of sensors’ millions of pixels to project colors that are slightly brighter or darker than they should be.
Tomi Engdahl says:
David Kline / Wired:
How Xiaomi’s investment in 100 startups making cheap connected gadgets like air purifiers and rice cookers, sold in new Mi Home Stores, helped firm’s turnaround
Behind the Fall and Rise of China’s Xiaomi
https://www.wired.com/story/behind-the-fall-and-rise-of-china-xiaomi/
A year ago, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi (sha-oh-me) had fallen from the world’s most valuable unicorn to a “unicorpse.” Sales plunged in 2016, pushing the company from first to fifth place among China’s smartphone makers. No firm had ever come back from a wound that severe in the trench warfare of the global smartphone business.
Today, Xiaomi is being called a “Chinese phoenix.” The company has grown so fast in the past year that research firm Strategy Analytics says Xiaomi could overtake Oppo, Huawei, and Apple in the next year to become the world’s second-largest smartphone vendor, behind Samsung. Executives are reportedly considering an IPO in 2018, which could be among the highest-valued ever.
What accounts for the company’s unprecedented turnaround? Is Xiaomi’s renewed success sustainable, or will it wither under the relentless margin pressures of the phone business?
In a classic case of “turning a bad thing into a good thing,” however, Xiaomi used its near-fatal stumble to fashion a radical new business model. With sales rebounding, and the company expanding globally
Like many businesses in the internet age, Xiaomi had initially relied on a dual business model of selling hardware products and online services. Most revenue came from the sale of affordable phones and smart TVs, which serve as platforms for Xiaomi’s online services. The hardware products have razor-thin profit margins, so most of Xiaomi’s profits came from the online services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is Apple Evil? The Case of the Slow iPhone
Looking at the engineering behind what’s causing the slowdown may very well quell the uproar.
http://www.powerelectronics.com/power-management/apple-evil-case-slow-iphone?NL=ED-003&Issue=ED-003_20171227_ED-003_367&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=14677&utm_medium=email&elq2=72e3ff46d91e4b419f09b75c823aa89e
I recently discovered Apple slows down the processor’s clock speed on older iPhones. Immediately, the public rose in anger at what could only be a marketing stunt to sell newer phones.
But, the public was wrong. As it turns out, this is simply a case of good engineering on the part of Apple.
To understand why they would slow down the processor speed of old phones, you should understand how lithium-ion batteries work and have a basic understanding of processors. Let’s start with Li-ion battery technology.
To understand the Apple problem, you should understand lithium-ion battery (LIB) limitations.
Heavy processing tasks, for example mobile gaming, require lots of power. Take a VR game, for example. It will need advanced video processing, audio processing, cellular radio communications, 3D rendering, and accelerometer algorithm processing—all in real time. Fortunately, phones are designed to handle this type of load.
But what happens when the battery degrades and can’t provide the necessary power?
Don’t take it from me, Apple says so in its statement on this matter:
“Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.
Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Flurry Blog:
44% of global smartphone and tablet activations from December 19-25 were iOS, same as last year, while 26% were Samsung devices, up 5% YoY — 2017 was another marquee year for smartphone sales and innovation with the introduction and evolution of manufacturers’ flagship devices …
Apple Wins 2017 Smartphone Holiday Season
http://flurrymobile.tumblr.com/post/168998333465/apple-wins-2017-smartphone-holiday-season#_=_
2017 was another marquee year for smartphone sales and innovation with the introduction and evolution of manufacturers’ flagship devices, such as Apple’s iPhone X, Google’s Pixel 2, and Samsung’s Galaxy S8
Similar to last year, 44% of new phone and tablet activations were Apple devices. While Samsung dominates global market share, they fell short as the gift of choice during the holiday season, with only 26% of activated devices in the lead up to Christmas. Samsung’s activation rate is up 5% from the 2016 holiday season, which can likely be attributed to the 2017 introduction of the Galaxy S8 after the late 2016 recall of their malfunctioning Note devices.
The remaining six manufacturers build affordable Android alternatives to Samsung devices. This is the first year that Vivo has had significant adoption, which can be attributed to their growth in China and India. Google is once again missing from this chart, despite the fanfare around the launch of the Pixel 2. It is safe to say that due to limited phone models (4) and lack of consumer mindshare, the Pixel is failing to pique users’ interest.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
CIRP: iPhone X accounted for ~30% of US iPhone sales during the first 30 days of availability while iPhone 8 and 8 Plus made up ~40% of sales in the same period
iPhone X outsold by iPhone 8 and 8 Plus combined during first month of availability
https://9to5mac.com/2017/12/26/iphone-x-outperformed-by-8-and-8-plus/
While Apple has yet to breakdown just how many iPhone X units it has sold so far, that hasn’t stopped analysts from taking a stab at it. Today, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) is out with a new investor note in which it attempts to offer some color on the breakdown of how each iPhone model sold during the first month of iPhone X availability…
CIRP’s research, which analyzes the first 30 days of iPhone X sales, shows that the device accounted for roughly 30 percent of total iPhone sales. The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus combined counted for around 40 percent of sales
Notably, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus captured around 20 percent of sales, despite being over a year old at this point.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samuel Axon / Ars Technica:
iPhone X’s Face ID can’t approve family purchases as Touch ID could, possibly due to family resemblance, requiring users to enter their passwords
The iPhone X’s Face ID can’t approve family purchases, and no one knows why
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/12/parents-cant-use-the-iphone-xs-face-id-to-approve-family-purchases/
Touch ID could be used before, but iPhone X owners must enter their passwords.
iPhone X owners have found that Face ID isn’t available as an authentication method for the “Ask to Buy” feature, which allows parents to approve their kids’ iOS purchases and downloads. Instead, the parent (or any other “family organizer,” as Apple terms it) must enter their entire Apple account password to approve each individual purchase attempt.
Users are frustrated because equivalent functionality was available on Touch ID devices, and that functionality has been lost in the transition to the iPhone X. Face ID can be used as an authentication method for other purchases, just like Touch ID before it—but Touch ID also worked for “Ask to Buy,” and Face ID doesn’t.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Teens Aren’t Partying Anymore
https://www.wired.com/story/why-teens-arent-partying-anymore/
Kevin is onto something. For example, iGen teens—those who were born in 1995 and later, grew up with cell phones, had an Instagram page before they started high school, and do not remember a time before the internet—spend less time at parties than any previous generation. The trends are similar for college students, who are asked how many hours a week they spent at parties during their senior year in high school. In 2016, they said two hours a week—only a third of the time GenX students spent at parties in 1987. The decline in partying is not due to iGen’ers’ studying more; homework time is the same or lower. The trend is also not due to immigration or changes in ethnic composition; the decline is nearly identical among white teens.
“What you read in books is, like, oh my God, high school has all these football games and parties, and when you come there, eh, no one really does it. No one is really that interested—including me.”
Why are parties less popular? Kevin has an explanation for that: “People party because they’re bored—they want something to do. Now we have Netflix—you can watch series nonstop. There’s so many things to do on the web.” He might be right—with so much entertainment at home, why party? Teens also have other ways to connect and communicate, including the social media websites they spend so much time on. The party is constant, and it’s on Snapchat.
Maybe parties aren’t for this cautious, career-focused generation. Especially with the declining popularity of alcohol
Except they’re not. The number of teens who get together with their friends every day has been cut in half in just fifteen years, with especially steep declines recently.
This might be the most definitive evidence that iGen’ers spend less time interacting with their peers face-to-face than any previous generation
That means iGen’ers were seeing their friends in person an hour less a day than GenX’ers and early Millennials did. An hour a day less spent with friends is an hour a day less spent building social skills, negotiating relationships, and navigating emotions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chrome OS Will Finally Run Android Apps in the Background
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/12/28/1940225/chrome-os-will-finally-run-android-apps-in-the-background
While it’s no longer a novelty to run Android apps on your Chromebook, that doesn’t mean they run well. To date, most of those apps pause when you switch away — fine for a phone, but not what you’d expect on a computer with a multi-window interface. However, they’re about to become far more functional. Chrome Unboxed has learned that the Chrome OS 64 beta introduces Android Parallel Tasks, which lets Android apps run at full bore regardless of what you’re doing.
https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/28/chrome-os-will-finally-run-android-apps-in-the-background/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple Apologizes For iPhone Slowdown Drama, Will Offer $29 Battery Replacements
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/12/28/2154255/apple-apologizes-for-iphone-slowdown-drama-will-offer-29-battery-replacements
Apple just published a letter to customers apologizing for the “misunderstanding” around older iPhones being slowed down, following its recent admission that it was, in fact, slowing down older phones in order to compensate for degrading batteries. “We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down,” says the company. “We apologize.” Apple says in its letter that batteries are “consumable components,” and is offering anyone with an iPhone 6 or later a battery replacement for $29 starting in late January through December 2018 — a discount of $50 from the usual replacement cost.
A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance
https://www.apple.com/iphone-battery-and-performance/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple apologizes for iPhone slowdown drama, will offer $29 battery replacements for a year
Batteries are “consumable components” now
https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/28/16827248/apple-iphone-battery-replacement-price-slow-down-apology
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is Apple Evil? The Case of the Slow iPhone
Looking at the engineering behind what’s causing the slowdown may very well quell the uproar.
http://www.electronicdesign.com/power/apple-evil-case-slow-iphone?NL=ED-003&Issue=ED-003_20171229_ED-003_674&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=14678&utm_medium=email&elq2=87e267193f434192825f69dc347214c6
I recently discovered Apple slows down the processor’s clock speed on older iPhones. Immediately, the public rose in anger at what could only be a marketing stunt to sell newer phones.
But, the public was wrong. As it turns out, this is simply a case of good engineering on the part of Apple.
To understand why they would slow down the processor speed of old phones, you should understand how lithium-ion batteries work and have a basic understanding of processors. Let’s start with Li-ion battery technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Newley Purnell / Wall Street Journal:
Alibaba’s UC Browser, with 430M+ users worldwide, leads in emerging markets with low-end smartphones, with 51% of India’s mobile browser market vs Chrome’s 30%
A Browser You’ve Never Heard of Is Dethroning Google in Asia
Alibaba’s UC Browser is dominating in emerging markets with lower-end smartphones
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-browser-youve-never-heard-of-is-dethroning-google-in-asia-1514808002
Tomi Engdahl says:
$30 Unlocked Android Smartphones To Launch in India This Month
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/18/01/02/116224/30-unlocked-android-smartphones-to-launch-in-india-this-month?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
Several Indian smartphone manufacturers including Micromax, Intex and Lava plan to unveil a slew of Android smartphones priced around $30 in the coming weeks, Indian news outlet FactorDaily reported on Tuesday. These handsets would run Android Oreo Go, a lite version of Google’s mobile operating system first unveiled last year.
Target Bharat: Indian phone vendors to release $30 Android Oreo Go smartphones this month on
https://factordaily.com/india-30-android-oreo-go-smartphones/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smartphone Production Projected to Increase 5%
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1332801
The global production of smartphones increased 6.5 percent in 2017 to roughly 1.46 billion units as Chinese smartphone brands continued their aggressive push, according to market research firm Trendforce. The firm expects smartphone production to increase by another 5 percent in 2018 to reach 1.53 billion units.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Meet eelo: An Android-based operating system that doesn’t use Google services
http://www.bgr.in/news/meet-eelo-an-android-based-operating-system-that-doesnt-use-google-services/
Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS control nearly 99 percent of mobile operating system, while the likes of Microsoft and BlackBerry tried to challenge but failed miserably in their effort. The significant market share means that consumers usually end up being locked to either Google or Apple’s ecosystem. For those looking for an alternative to these two tech giants, there is a new operating system based on Android.
Gael Duval, creator of Mandrake Linux, the popular early Linux distribution has confirmed that he is working on eelo, an open-source operating system that will be based on Android but won’t use any of the Google services. Duval says with eelo, he plans to win back his privacy. He says eelo will be designed with open-source software in mind, and will allow its users to use online services along with an attractive interface.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Horror Story Reveals How Apple Charged $30 for Fake iPhone Battery Replacement
Apple Store staff said battery was replaced; it wasn’t
http://news.softpedia.com/news/horror-story-reveals-how-apple-charged-30-for-fake-iphone-battery-replacement-519259.shtml
Apple launched a battery replacement program for old iPhone models whose performance might be impacted due to battery degradation, and the company offers a discount from $79 to $29 when the servicing takes place in an Apple Store.
One iPhone 6s user who wanted to take advantage of this offer ended up paying $30 for the battery replacement, only to discover that his battery wasn’t actually replaced with a new unit.
Shockingly, however, he discovered that his battery wasn’t replaced with a new unit, as the repaired iPhone was running on the same battery as before.
“I later checked my battery status through Coconut Battery and found it to be the SAME degraded battery as before, with the same number of charge cycles and degradation percentage,” tenaper said in his post.
The more surprising thing is that support chats provided contradictory battery data, and while the Apple Store staff said the battery needed to be replaced, support engineers said it was “in good health.”
You should always collect and store battery information before the actual replacement process and then compare it with the new unit to see if your iPhone got a new pack or not.
Apple charges you $30 for the exact same battery
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/7o981u/apple_charges_you_30_for_the_exact_same_battery/
Tomi Engdahl says:
iPhones and Children Are a Toxic Pair, Say Two Big Apple Investors
https://www.wsj.com/articles/iphones-and-children-are-a-toxic-pair-say-two-big-apple-investors-1515358834
Two activist shareholders want Apple to develop tools and research effects on young people of smartphone overuse and addiction
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix was 2017’s top non-game app by revenue
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/12/netflix-was-2017s-top-non-game-app-by-revenue/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
Netflix was the top earning app of 2017 that wasn’t a mobile game, according to Sensor Tower’s new year-end report on the most successful apps and publishers across Apple’s App Store and Google Play. In previous years, the top spot had gone to Spotify, and before that, LINE.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Tim Cook says you’ll be able to turn off battery management that reduces performance of your devices after Apple issues iOS update — Apple had already said that a future iOS update will give users more insight into the state of their battery. In an interview with ABC News …
Tim Cook says users will be able to turn off iPhone battery performance throttling in future iOS update
https://9to5mac.com/2018/01/17/turn-off-iphone-battery-performance-throttling/
he says that this forthcoming update will give users the option to disable performance throttling if they would rather be at risk of unexpected shutdowns but maintain full CPU and GPU performance.
In its public apology letter on Apple.com regarding the iPhone slowdown debacle, Apple described the update in the following way:
Early in 2018, we will issue an iOS software update with new features that give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone’s battery, so they can see for themselves if its condition is affecting performance.
This implied an enhancement of the Battery screen in iOS Settings to include more information about the iPhone’s battery health and whether users were being subjected to Apple’s advanced power management throttling.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Only around 50,000 units of the Essential Phone have been sold, according to its camera app’s install figures from the Play Store
http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/12/12/around-50000-units-essential-phone-sold-according-camera-apps-download-figures-play-store/
By now, it should be apparent that the Essential Phone hasn’t sold in the numbers that Andy Rubin and co. had thought it would. Having started at an MSRP of $699, the PH-1 dropped to $499 just two months after release (and to $650 CAD in Canada). On top of that, there have been numerous opportunities to get the phone for even more cheaply, including through a $200 friends-and-family discount and an incredible Cyber Monday Amazon deal. After all this, it looks like Essential has only sold around 50,000 units of the PH-1, if install figures from the Play Store of the Essential Camera are to be trusted. That’s not very impressive.
The Essential Camera app hit 50,000 downloads within the past few days. Last we heard about Essential sales figures of any sort, it was back in late September when a research firm estimated a measly 5,000 units had been sold within the month after release.
You might be wondering how we could come to the conclusion that the download figures for this app could lead to production figures. Well, the Essential Phone is the only phone that is capable of downloading the Essential Camera app via the Play Store, hence the assumption. The
there were four reasons that the install figure could be even more inflated than actual sales figures:
Devices being resold and signed into by other accounts (this is probably the most common situation).
Developers using multiple accounts to test their apps out (more common than you might think).
Custom ROMs like LineageOS for other devices allowing non-Pixel devices to trick the Play Store.
Modders tweaking their build.props to get the Play Store to recognize their device as a Pixel (similar to above).
there’s virtually no chance that the 50k number is actually lower than the total number of PH-1s in consumer hands.
As for other pre-installed Essential apps on the Play Store, both Essential Resources and Essential Services are still sitting at the 10k-50k range.
Hopefully the new, lower MSRP of $499 and more discounts drive sales upwards, as more competition is better in this space.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple:
Apple previews iOS 11.3 with ability to turn off controversial throttling of older iPhones, new Animoji, business chat in Messages, and more, coming this spring — Major Updates to ARKit, Messages and More Coming This Spring — This spring, iOS 11.3 will deliver exciting new ways …
Apple previews iOS 11.3
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/01/apple-previews-ios-11-3/
Tomi Engdahl says:
He made that sale months after the company was informed of the Spectre and Meltdown attacks but before they had been publicly announced. Intel has said that his sale was “unrelated” to knowledge of the security vulnerabilities.
Google Play hit record 19 billion+ downloads in Q4 2017, its highest quarter ever
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/25/google-play-hit-record-19-billion-downloads-in-q4-2017-its-highest-quarter-ever/
Tomi Engdahl says:
HMD Global, who rides on Nokia brand, lost its share capital: “Huge Year”
HMD Global, a manufacturer of smart phones from the Nokia brand, has lost its share capital. Ossi Korpela , the Nordic Business Director of HMD, does not agree to comment on the company’s financial situation, but notes that there is a “great year” behind it.
HMD Global started its operations in May 2016. The company’s first 14-month financial year was heavily loss-making, with a turnover of some EUR 14.8 million, a loss of about EUR 9.8 million.
According to the financial statements for 2016, the parent company had a residual equity of approximately EUR 6.1 million. Since equity is now consumed, the loss for the fiscal year 2017 is at least the same, probably more.
Businesses typically prepare for the losses of several years at the beginning.
Loss of share capital is, in his view, quite normal with start-ups. After the loss of share capital, the company may continue to operate.
In 2016, HMD’s turnover was only about one month. According to Felt, this year’s turnover was probably “at least EUR 200 million”.
HMD made 12 announcements in 12 months. He promises that activities will be developed especially in the Nordic countries and new models will be published in the future.
Source: https://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/nokia-brandilla-ratsastava-hmd-global-menetti-osakepaaomansa-huikea-vuosi-6697843
Tomi Engdahl says:
The iPhone X was the top shipping smartphone over the holidays, according to analysts
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/23/the-iphone-x-was-the-top-shipping-smartphone-over-the-holidays-according-to-analysts/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
Apple hasn’t been been particularly transparent about the iPhone X’s numbers, in part because it’s a bit of a tricky new model. For starters, it’s a $999 phone. It’s also positioned against another premium iPhone model — which got a healthy jump-start on the pricier model.
That said, Canalys’ latest smartphone state of the union shows pretty healthy sales for the pricey new handset, putting it at 29 million units shipped in the fourth quarter of last year. That makes it the “world’s best-shipping smartphone model over the holiday season,” according to the analysts’ numbers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Annual smartphone shipments in China declined for the first time in 2017
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/25/chinas-smartphone-market-is-no-longer-growing/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
China’s smartphone market is no longer growing after it witnessed its first annual decline in shipments during 2017, according to new figures released today.
The writing was on the wall with a market decline first noted in Q2 but this is the first time a drop has been sustained over a twelve-month period.
Tomi Engdahl says:
iPhone is ranked number one
Strategy Analytics has completed the last quarter’s quarter smartphone statistics and there is a couple of surprises. First, the number of phones sold in October-December was 8.8 percent less than a year earlier. And secondly, that Apple was again the biggest smartphone maker at the end of the year.
Apple managed to sell 77.3 million iPhones in October-December, which is about one million phones less than last year. At the same time, Samsung’s handset dropped more than three million units. In the Christmas season, iPhone picked up much better than the Samsung Galaxy models.
In the full year statistics, Samsung was clearly one of the 317.5 million handsets sold. Apple’s reading for the whole year was 215.8 million. The market shares of the companies were thus recorded at 21.1 and 14.3 per cent.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7500&via=n&datum=2018-02-02_15:13:36&mottagare=31202
TECHY TALKS says:
ya! really smartphone eating earth and there are a lot of companies move toward making new brand phones. But also there are really some positive effect of the phone like you said payment etc.
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