A new study published by Distimo provides us with a granular app level look at revenues in the Apple App Store and Google Play. Distimo's report debunks some of the myths surrounding application level revenue in Google Play and the Apple App Store. One of those myths is that although the (free) download volumes in Google Play are impressive, developers still find it hard to monetize their apps on this platform compared to the Apple App Store. Distimo's latest report examines this statement by digging into the battle between Google Play and the Apple App Store.
According to a new report out today, equal monthly installments (EMI) and cash back schemes have worked wonders for Apple in India as iPhone's monthly sales have risen by 300% to 400% over the last few months. Apple has managed to dramatically push up its sales by figuring out trends of consumer demand and changing the iPhone's perception from being a high-end product to an affordable one.
According to a new report out of London, the US has eased restrictions on the sale of mobile phones and other communications devices, software and services to Iranians. The shift marks the first time Apple's iPhone can be exported legally to Iran.
While the latest web traffic stats published by Chitika Insights yesterday showed that Apple's iPad is still sitting on 81% market share, Samsung is hard at work to beef up their sales of tablets so as to become the "market share" leader in tablets by next year. Playing the "market share" game has been Samsung's game plan because the mainstream press and Wall Street love it, even when profits sag well below what Apple pulls in. According to a recent report, The Ratio of Profits to Market Share shows Apple with 3.12% versus Samsung with 1.30%.
Smartflash has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. The patent infringement lawsuit basically concerns Apple's iTunes Store, the App Store, Apple TV, iOS and much more. A number of gaming developers are a part of this suit for using Apple's iTunes Store to sell their wares. Smartflash is claiming that Apple has allegedly infringed on their six standing patents which all relate to "Data Storage and Access Systems."
Every once and a while a very cool idea emerges in a patent that puts a smile on our faces just because we know that Jony Ive and his team (the Crazy Ones) have come up with yet another aesthetically minded industrial design. Today's little gem hits on a number of interesting things. Firstly, Apple has designed a display that could conceal or reveal hidden components behind a display such as a camera and strobe flash so that they could be eliminated as physical features on an iPhone, iPad or other computer. Apple states that "Placing components that would typically be found on the surface of an electronic device enclosure behind a transparent display may increase the surface real-estate of the enclosure for a larger display or additional components. Further, the aesthetics of the electronic device may be greatly enhanced by not cluttering the device enclosure with always-visible components, but instead creating a more seamless electronic device where the components are only visible when they are in use." Secondly, beyond the camera and strobe flash, there's an additional key component that Apple wants to conceal that's noteworthy, and that's a fingerprint scanner.
On May 30, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a new manufacturing process relating to precision display setting on devices like an iMac, iPhone, iPod or Television. For those of you who happen to love industrial design and its associated processes as much as Apple's Jony Ive does, you'll appreciate Apple's latest invention. The second invention that we briefly touch on in our report relates to Apple's work on a 3D cursor. Considering that Tim Cook stated that a new Mac Pro would be coming to market later this year, perhaps we'll see this new feature pop up. Then again, don't count on logic being a guide for the timing of any Apple invention.
On May 30, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a new flexible display invention. Apple has filed a number of flex display based patents over the last year including one for advanced concepts and features, another relating to the a next generation Smart Cover and yet another relating to unique functionality beyond the gimmickry of flex screen designs. Today's patent extends on the latter patent in that it ties a flex screen directly to an application such as Apple's GarageBand. In the future, playing the piano will be more realistic allowing the user to press the keys harder or softer to get the right sound that they're seeking. I'm sure that Apple is working on other applications for this new functionality but we'll just have to wait until they roll it out to see just how cool this could be.
On May 30, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals Apple's gaze detection technology. It should be noted that Apple's current patent is a divisional patent which means that Apple is breaking this aspect of their 2008 parent patent out as an individual patent. Technically, Apple had this technology in a patent prior to any other competitor including Samsung which actually implemented it first in their Galaxy S4 smartphone earlier this year. Apple also added gaze technologies to a January patent in context to an HDTV related patent and the likes of Sony and BlackBerry are working on similar features. Today, when you put your iPhone to your face the display is turned off. This is one of the technologies found in Apple's gaze detection patent. In the future, gaze technology will be able to stop a video when you look away or stop your tunes from playing based on this gaze detection feature. At the end of the day, Apple's gaze detection technology is really more about conserving power than it is about providing a flashy gimmick.
In the three years since Apple's iPad became the first modern web tablet available in the US, the tablet market has continued a steady growth. Tablets have worked themselves into both our daily and workplace lives, and the iPad in particular remains the king of this personal computer segment. New stats that were just released by Chitika, actually shows the iPad with a slight increase in April's web traffic over their competitors.
Apple reportedly plans to launch two models of its iPhone family in the third quarter of 2013 and has asked makers in the supply chain to prepare production capacity for 20 million units a month, according to industry sources in Taiwan.
According to Korea's ETNews, Apple is working on a new 12.9" iPad for some time in 2014. The new iPad, referred to as the iPad Maxi in the report, is supposedly being aimed at the educational market which requires a specific electronic textbook format.
It's being reported this afternoon that Apple has agreed to pay $53 million to resolve a consumer class-action lawsuit alleging the company relied on faulty indicators showing that iPhones and iPods were exposed to water to deny customers' warranty claims. One of Apple's patents covering the indicator technology was just approved earlier this month.
In April Patently Apple broke the news that Apple had filed a new Liquidmetal patent in Europe that clearly pointed to specific Apple designs under consideration for the new material. Apple pointed to the iPhone and iPad specifically and added that other distinct devices such as a TV monitor were being considered. Today the news has broken that Apple and HTC may in fact be in a race to deliver the first smartphone using Liquidmetal later this year.
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 36 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover a wide range of granted patents that relate to key iDevice features, functions and UI elements. Some of the iPhone patents directly relate to the original iPhone that the late CEO Steve Jobs introduced back in 2007. Our report concludes by providing you a list of 29 other patents that were granted to Apple today.
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 36 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover three design patents in addition to a surprising one that introduces us to the next generation of Lightning adapters designed to offer a certain degree of bendability using elastomers as illustrated in our cover graphic which depicts a new iPad dock.
According to the latest statistics published by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, there were 1.155 billion subscribers of mobile communication services in China as of the end of April 2013. The breakdown records 288.74 million (25%) were 3G users and 807.65 million (69.92%) were mobile Internet-access users. Samsung took top spot in China in April with 18.8% while Apple took the sixth spot according to Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily Newspaper quoting Sino Market Research results.
Apple is to open their first brick and mortar Apple Store in Turkey confirms an Israeli publisher. Smartphones, tablets and other mobile web-enabled devices are widespread in Turkey. Wireless carriers like Turkcell, Vodafone and Avea offer extensive connectivity throughout the country. The most recent government data from April 2012 show only 47.2% of the population have access to the Internet at home, although in Istanbul nearly two-thirds of households have Internet. Nonetheless, mobile phones are everywhere in Turkey, with more than 65 million of them in 2011.Apple has kept its plan for its Istanbul store mostly under wraps. The store is expected to open in the next few months.
Earlier this month we reported that the Pentagon was expected to approve Apple's iDevices for Non-Classified Communications. Two weeks later and the Pentagon approved iPhones and iPads to be used by military agencies for non-classified communications, such as email and Web browsing. The motivation behind Apple's push to get approval from the Pentagon may have surfaced in a new military related publication.
In Q1 Apple outperformed the projections of IDC and others who thought Apple's iPad would show little to no growth year-over-year. The facts illustrated that Apple's iPad experienced a healthy 65% leap in year-over-year sales going from 11.8 million units to 19.5 million units. After experiencing stellar iPad growth last quarter, a new report by KGI financial services now paints the gloomiest iPad prediction to date.
In April, Apple introduced a quiet yet creatively styled TV ad called "Photos Every Day." For May, Apple has introduced a new ad in this series simply titled: "Music Every Day." The message quietly states that "Every day, more people enjoy their music on the iPhone than any other phone."
In March we posted a report titled "In the Real World, Apple's iPhone and iPad are Still King." In that report we clearly stated that "In the real world, Apple's iPhone and iPad are still king in their respective categories. Nothing has changed except for the press's view of the world. The established press has created this grand consumer mirage that's a true disservice to the overall market. The press is mentally stuck in using a "volume" of cell phones metric as a measurement of technology leadership. They use Samsung's entire fleet of junky phones regardless of their technology worthiness and compare them to Apple's two technologically advanced iPhones, namely the iPhone 4S and 5 models. Seriously, these mainstream writers have decided to dumb down reality to support this mirage that they've created." Yesterday, a former financial advisor John Kirk writing for Tech.pinions published a truly great article called "Android's Market Share is literally a Joke." It's a must read for anyone with a scintilla of common sense.
New research surfacing today highlights the size of the task facing the vendors eager to become the 'third ecosystem' in mobility. Apps have become fundamental to how consumers use, personalize and engage with their mobile devices and connected services. While the iOS and Android duopoly is firmly in place when it comes to App availability at their respective App Stores, Microsoft and BlackBerry are feverishly battling it out to gain that third spot in the App Store market.
Last week we learned about Apple inventing an all-new touch sensor panel that would support larger displays like those found on a MacBook Air or Pro. Today, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals yet another major touch related invention relating to an all-new touch pad electrode design which is to reduce the effects of noise and thermal drift and to provide users with more precision in their interaction with a touch display. Another invention covered in our report covers an amorphous diamond-like carbon coating for increasing the thermal conductivity of the structural frames of any Apple mobile device that is battery-powered. We close out our report by covering a new camera patent and providing you with a list of continuation, provisional and divisional patents that were published today that may interest some.
Yesterday we reported that Apple had found proof of patent infringement deep inside Samsung's source code, and today we find out that little trickster Samsung is now opening a new company in Washington called Intellectual Keystone Technology (IKIT). The new company is being set up in order to beef up their patent-related business. According to a Samsung official, the legal battles with Apple encouraged them to invest more in patents.
Some of the major mobile device players in the market have been seeking replacements for indium tin oxide (ITO) used in today's touch panels in the hopes of resolving technological issues and related costs. Hon Hai's Foxconn subsidiary who makes most of Apple's devices including the iPhone and iPad has recently acquired new carbon nanotube (CNT) technology from the Tsinghua University and its own subsidiary in Tianjin China.
On May 23, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals an all-new intelligent audio system that is coming to future iDevices that will be based on a device's orientation rather than depending on its fixed speakers. Depending on the way the user is holding their iDevice and which content they're enjoying, Apple's new audio processing router will ensure that the very best audio output configuration is chosen using its intelligent audio mapping system.
On May 23, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals Apple's next generation of "Airplay" that will be able to operation in a two-way manner that is also interactive. Apple also hints that the separate devices of an Apple TV and a Television could be combined into a single device, an Internet-enabled television.
Apple informed the court last week that it intended to amend its infringement contentions in the second California patent litigation with Samsung to target the latest Galaxy S4. Yesterday, Apple followed through on their intentions and filed its motion against Samsung Electronics (Korea), Samsung Electronics (America) and Samsung Telecommunications America with the court in San Jose California. Apple's motion lists a series of specific patents allegedly infringed by Samsung's S4 as well as two patents allegedly infringed by Google's software known as "Google Now." Apple's document makes mention that they scoured through Samsung's source code and found "proof of infringement."
A new and interesting e-book trend has emerged showing that e-books are still not the preferred choice for books in Canada. While the Canadian market for ebooks remains steady, the reality is that they've already plateaued. The stats show that paperback books comprised 58% of all purchases in 2012. Hardcover made up 24% and ebooks came in at a miserable15%. And within that dismal figure, Apple's iPad struggled to come in as the number three e-book reader.
The US Senate investigation, results of which were disclosed Monday, found that Apple employs a group of affiliate companies outside the United States to avoid paying taxes.The subcommittee's chairman, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and other panel members could hold up Apple as an example of a powerful company using its privileged position to avoid taxes while ordinary Americans must pay them. The subcommittee last fall derided executives from other technology giants over similar allegations. MAJOR REPORT UPDATE 2:08 PM EST
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 26 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover three main granted patents. The first covers the possible implementation of a native Push-to-Talk feature for a future iPhone. The second covers a new flexible circuit supporting a double-sided touch panel that technically could be used for a wraparound display for a future iPhone. The third covers the touch technology that went into the design of Apple's Magic Mouse. Our report concludes with a full list of the remaining granted patents of the day.
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 26 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover Apple's future Magic Mouse that will utilize a new force sensor. Our report also covers and 4 new design patents covering Apple's Smart Cover and more.
The Society for Information Display (SID) is one of the display associations in the world. The association's tradeshow kicks off today in Vancouver, Canada. Hundreds of research papers are presented at the event and new display technologies are introduced. Noteworthy is that LG, Apple's main LCD supplier, will be introducing a new display that Apple may be able to use for a future iPhone.
A new and wild analyst report sees Apple's stock rocking to $888/share in the not-too-distant future based on Apple announcing an inked deal with China Mobile later this year driven by a new mid-range iPhone.
A new report by Asymco states that Apple retail stores in the US, on a sales per square foot basis, continues to perform twice as well as Tiffany & Co., the second best retailer, and three times as well as lululemon athletica, the third best retailer.The stats show that the average-visitors per store have steadied to 250,000 per store per quarter. This is a quantum increase from about 170,000 per store per quarter in the twelve months ending Q1 2010.
A sad story comes out of Las Vegas today. The Associated Press reports that two men have been arrested in the killing of a teenage boy over an iPad in Las Vegas. Police announced Sunday that two young men were booked into the Clark County jail in the killing of a teenage boy over an iPad in Las Vegas.
It's not a demo, more of a philosophical argument: Why did Sergey Brin and his team at Google want to build an eye-mounted camera/computer, codenamed Glass? Onstage at TED 2013, Brin calls for a new way of seeing our relationship with our mobile computers -- not hunched over a screen but meeting the world heads-up.