Earlier this month we posted a report about Apple's iPhone 5S being the number one smartphone in the world. Yet despite its popularity, it wasn't number one in China where they were beat out by Xiaomi's Redmi smartphone model that sells for well under US$200. Out of the top ten smartphones in China, Xiaomi, Apple and Samsung took nine of them. So in China, there's a strong three-way race taking place. Today Xiaomi raised the bar well ahead of Apple's iPhone 6 in order to drive sales their way. The new Mi 4 will be competing with both Apple's 5.5 inch model and Samsung's upcoming Note 4. The pressure is now on Apple to deliver their larger iPhone on time this fall in order to at least maintain their status in the Chinese market. Our report provides you with a look at the full specifications of the new Mi 4 that Apple will be competing against in China this current quarter and into the Holiday season.

The Financial Times makes a great point in a new report today about Apple's Research and Development spending. The report notes that "Rumours, supply-chain leaks and 'sources familiar with the situation' are one thing. But earnings reports do not lie. So when Apple's third-quarter results filing revealed a 36 per cent jump in research and development spending compared with the prior year, it means that something more than just the annual iPhone refresh is coming soon."

Earlier this year Microsoft introduced their Surface 3 tablet and insisted that it was really a hybrid notebook. We reported on this in a May report titled "Microsoft's New Surface Pro 3 Thinks it's a Notebook." I was perplexed at how aggressive Panos Panay, Microsoft's Corporate VP for Surface was by insisting that the Surface 3 was better and lighter than Apple's MacBook Air. Today, news has surfaced out of Taiwan that may shed some light as to why Panay focused so hard on competing with the MacBook Air.

Apple's rumored iWatch is in the news again today. According to a new supply chain rumor, "Universal Scientific Industrial (USI), an affiliated company of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), has reportedly landed SiP module orders from Apple for its iWatch wearable devices."

While Apple's CEO Tim Cook fielded most of the analysts questions during their Q3 Financial Conference Call today on a wide variety of matters from the impact of iPhone trade-in programs through to Japan's new VAT (Value Added Taxes) that will play havoc on short-term iPhone sales (smartphone sales in general), it was the iPad that Cook wanted to spend more time on. Apple's iPad sales were incrementally down as noted in Apple's press release posted earlier today. Yet Cook was really pumped up about future iPad developments and so this report takes a look at a few of Cook's comments on this important market segment.

Apple just announced financial results for its fiscal 2014 third quarter ended June 28, 2014. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $37.4 billion and quarterly net profit of $7.7 billion, or $1.28 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $35.3 billion and net profit of $6.9 billion, or $1.07 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.4 percent compared to 36.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 59 percent of the quarter's revenue. Apple's CEO stated that Apple's record June quarter revenue was fueled by strong sales of iPhone and Mac sales and the continued growth of revenue from the Apple ecosystem."

It's a smartwatch day apparently. Beyond Apple being granted an interesting smartwatch patent today, our other site Patently Mobile discovered a newly granted design patent for LG that has a huge twist associated with it. Although it looks like a smartwatch, LG has clearly categorized it as a "mobile phone." So obviously LG has something new up their sleeve relating to a future hybrid wearable device. With its rather large interface, it would appear that LG is aiming this mobile phone to accommodate Skype-like video conferencing – on your wrist. Could this hybrid device interest the mobile executive? Only time will tell.

A new web traffic report published today once again shows that Apple's iPad remains the King of web traffic in the US and Canada. It likewise reports that Samsung's user base exhibited the largest share loss over the same timeframe, dropping two full percentage points. This supports our report that indicated that Samsung tablet sales were sluggish for last quarter.

A new report from Asia today tells us that Apple has opted for Oxide TFT LCD technology for its 9.7" iPad Air 3 that will be released in the second half of next year. The decision was made for design innovation to reduce the overall thickness of iPad to decrease power consumption by more than half while keeping the LCD. In addition to oxide, Apple is scheduled to make considerable changes to liquid crystal display for LCD upgrades. In addition, Samsung Display and LG Display, the key suppliers, are forecast to embark on an investment for shift to oxide TFT LCD. The report also points to yet more display shits coming to the iPad in 2015.

A new report that has surfaced is claiming that Apple is preparing for its largest initial production run of iPhones, betting that larger-screen models will lure consumers now attracted to similar phones from their competitors. Yet according to new supply chain rumors, Apple is having some initial delays relating to the 5.5 inch model due to their choice of In-Cell displays.

A new supply chain report from China may have spilled the beans on Apple introducing a new iPad mini Air design later this year. The report also notes that a new a 12.9 inch iPad, which has been rumored since May, may actually surface in 2015.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 40 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover a key patent for future flexible displays. We wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.

Out of nowhere comes the granted patent surprise of the year. Apple has been granted a patent for iTime, the name they provided for a wristwatch. It's very different from Apple's first wrist-computer or iWatch in every way. It's simpler and more watch-like. Apple notes that it will work with gestures and specialized push notifications and alerts. Whether this is a head-fake or the real thing is unknown at this time.

Katy Huberty, a Morgan Stanley analyst who estimates that Apple sold 39 million iPhone units in the period, which is above the consensus stated that "Strong iPhone demand at the end of the product cycle speaks to high loyalty rate of the Apple ecosystem." In contrast Piper Jaffray is a little more conservative by forecasting Apple's iPhone sales will mark 14% year over year growth with between 35-36 million iPhones being sold. In a quickly maturing smartphone market where the likes of Samsung have dropped 24% in a single quarter due to heavy competition, some wonder how Apple will continue to stand out as the number one smartphone maker in the world.

Apple has announced this year's iTunes Festival London line-up of artists for this September. This is Apple's eighth such festival and Apple's Senior VP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue stated that "These live shows capture the heart and soul of iTunes and we love bringing them to our customers in the Roundhouse, as well as to the millions of people watching all over the world for free." Music fans from across the world can win tickets to the iTunes Festival through competitions run by local media partners. In the UK, fans can win tickets by entering ballots on iTunes, as well as through select media partners including Global Radio and the London Evening Standard.

While Patently Apple covers supply chain rumors, we try to avoid the daily barrage of rumors concerning the iPhone 6, especially those with fuzzy photos and alleged iPhone parts that could never be confirmed. Though a recent graphic caught our eye from the site nowhereelse.fr that we thought you might enjoy viewing. It's based on rumors rounded up from various Apple sources and placed onto one gigantic infographic with added scores of probability.

Late on Friday a Texas based company by the name of Cedatech Holdings, LLC filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple using a 2010 granted patent titled "Integration of Audio or Video Program with Application." The lawsuit focuses on Apple's use of speech recognition software in such products as the iPhone and iPad.

Samsung's profits plunged 24% on slumping smartphone sales and disappointing reception of their flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone. Reality bit Samsung as Apple's iPhone 5S crushed the Samsung's S5 globally. Samsung's smartphone sales in China specifically were absolutely terrible. The results for their smartphones were so bad that Samsung angrily took back billions in bonuses from over confident executive. After all that incredible bad news and press, a road to Damascus miracle happened to Business Insider writer Jim Edwards who saw the light, was blind but now could see that the Samsung S5 is his mobile media savior.

Earlier this month Apple was granted another Thunderbolt related patent. Wikipedia notes that Thunderbolt (code named light Peak) was co-developed by Apple and Intel and made public in 2011. Apple applied for the Thunderbolt trademark shortly thereafter and came close to getting it registered. In fact in 2012 they were 30 days away from approval before running into problems and since then Apple has been trying repeatedly to get it registered with no success. In fact the US Patent and Trademark granted Apple their fourth approval extension on April 29, 2014. As Apple continues their trademark efforts in the US, a new positive development is occurring with Thunderbolt in Canada.

A lot has been made of Microsoft's plan to cut 18,000 jobs. The headlines have been dramatic like "Microsoft Employees in Seattle Are 'Shell Shocked' At the Size of the Layoffs," or "Microsoft cuts 18,000 jobs as part of its largest layoff ever." Yet in the end, Microsoft is simply cutting out divisions of Nokia that it purchased last September. So these were "temporary" Microsoft employees that were there under a year. With 12,500 Nokia employee cuts out of 18,000, that equals 5,500 lost longer standing Microsoft jobs which is somewhere in the 5% range of their total workforce. That's a normal range cut for company's experiencing a recession. Microsoft intends to better focus their Nokia phone offering aiming for both economy phones and those aimed at Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy by 2015.

On July 10 we posted a report titled "After settling with the FTC over In-App Transactions, Apple Points the Finger at Google." In the end, the FTC decided that its next target will be Amazon. Now the issue of in-app transactions has been taken to a new level in Europe. The EU is stepping in by stating that Apple hasn't offered any "concrete and immediate" plans to stop users from being misled by "free" apps. I say, how blind can the EU Commision be?

On July 9 we reported that Samsung drastically cut Galaxy S5 orders for Q3 due to terrible sales. On July 10 we reported that Samsung's profits plummeted 24% on slow smartphone sales and on July 15 we reported that the iPhone crushed Samsung's S5 globally while Samsung failed miserably in China. So is it any wonder that Samsung's mobile division executives had to return 25% of their recent bonuses? The Korean Press confirmed that today.

Apple has sent out a media alert this morning announcing that their third quarter financial results conference call will take place on July 22, 2014 at 2 p.m. PDT/5 p.m. EDT. With Samsung missing their numbers by a wide margin earlier this month with the added note that tablet sales were specifically sluggish, it'll be interesting to see if Apple's numbers will be in-line with expectations and more importantly, whether iPad sales met their target. An Apple sales promotion earlier this month offered iPad owners up to $240 in a trade-up offer. It was a great offer which I gladly took advantage of. Hopefully the trade-up sale helped Apple's iPad number's bottom line. Time will tell – Next week.

On July 7 we posted a report titled "Hon Hai's Plan to Hire 100,000 Workers for iPhone 6 Production Throws Cold Water on Speculative Robot Rumors." Today that rumor was supported by a new DigiTimes report.

Rothschild Storage Retrieval Innovations (RSRI) has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in Miami Florida. The patent infringement lawsuit basically concerns Apple's Photos app features relating to "Years, Collections and Moments" and AirDrop.

On July 17, 2014, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple titled "Infrared Sensors for Electronic Devices." This is a new application and not one that is a continuation patent. I say this because the iPhone having infrared sensors really isn't new. The feature that shuts off the iPhone's touchscreen when a user's ear touches the display isn't new. So what is new? What's new in this filing is that Apple wants to combine sensors and add new ones like a bolometer and a new dimension to their existing infrared sensor so that it could measure blackbody light. This will better measure the temperature of external objects such as a user's head or hand. This will provide consumers with the ability to use new "motion commands" that don't require touching the display. And considering that the invention could be used in conjunction with "portable devices such as wrist-watch devices, pendant devices, or other wearable or miniature devices," motion commands to control various features on an iWatch would be rather cool.

On July 17, 2014, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a possible future "Find My iPhone" security feature. The invention is intended to allow the finder of a lost iDevice to initiate a communication with a particular contact stored in the device by bypassing the device's security scheme. In April we posted a report titled "Apple Agrees to Provide a Kill Switch on iPhones in 2015." The report noted that in San Francisco 60% of all robberies involved the theft of a mobile device and in neighboring Oakland it was up to a whopping 75%. The report noted that legislation had been tabled in California to force tech companies to do more to secure mobile devices and its contents. Apple currently provides mobile device users with a feature called "Find My iPhone." This current patent application marks Apple's third security related patent of the day. The other two security related features were covered in our first report titled "Apple Invents Wildly Advanced Bumping Technology."

On July 17, 2014, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple titled "Bump or Close Proximity Triggered Wireless Technology." Although Apple's Sr. VP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi made light of Samsung's bumping technology during his 2013 WWDC keynote segment introducing "AirDrop" by saying that there was no need to wander around the room bumping your phone with others in order to share photos and so forth, the fact is that bumping technology was long established in previous Apple inventions going back to 2009. Today, Apple takes bumping technology to newly advanced levels. Although Apple notes that it does use peer-to-peer Wi-Fi Direct like with AirDrop in some cases, they also note that they use many other communication standards that could be applied to a wide range of future applications such as e-Commerce, in-vehicle applications and into wild new areas involving vehicle collisions, theft and beyond.

Last week the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Google revealing new aspects of their smart contact lens invention. Patently Mobile began covering Google's breakthrough technology back in March of this year in a report titled "Google takes their Glass Vision to Smart Contact Lenses" which covered the foundation of this technology. In a new report posted only moments ago on Patently Mobile, we cover one of Google's latest patent applications titled "In-Situ Tear Sample Collection and Testing using a contact Lens." The timing of Google's latest patent application relating to smart contact lenses with integrated glucose testing couldn't have been any better. In under a week of its publication by the US Patent and Trademark Office, Google broke the news that the Novartis eye care unit Alcon had struck a deal to license their smart lens technology. As Google and Apple prepare to battle for future Home and Health markets, the deal with Novartis puts Google in a phenomenal position for first strike success. The ball is now in Apple's court – who just might deliver a surprise or two of their own later this fall. 

Apple has agreed to pay $450 million to resolve U.S. state and consumer claims the iPad manufacturer conspired with five major publishers to fix e-book prices, according to court records filed Wednesday. Yet the settlement, which would provide $400 million for consumers, is conditioned on the outcome of a pending appeal of a New York federal judge's ruling last year that Apple was liable for violating antitrust laws. For more on this developing story, see Reuters report.

It's being reported in India that Apple is now offering record margins to retailers and resellers for its flagship iPhone 5S as it looks to hit the 1 million mark for its smartphones in India in the year ending September, trying to buck the overall slump in expensive handsets that has seen prices being slashed by rival Samsung.

The Samsung Z was to go on sale in Russia in this current quarter but the company is now stating that more time is needed. At the last possible moment Samsung bailed out and failed to deliver their new Tizen OS based smartphone. This was a repeat of their embarrassing failure to launch a Tizen phone with NTT Docomo earlier this year. Samsung is now losing all market credibility by delaying their Tizen phone.

It's been reported on many occasions that Apple's 5.5 inch iPhone 6 is to be very thin and light. To date battery suppliers have had a difficult time figuring out how they can provide a good enough battery for the next gen iPhone. News today confirms that the battery issue may have been solved and that the larger iPhone 6 in general will have thinner components overall.

In 1991 Apple and IBM created the PowerPC alliance that included Motorola. They worked on a new OS called Taligent and a mobile OS called TalOS. The alliance never reached its dreams and Apple eventually went on to acquire NeXT Inc. and the rest is history. Today, a new chapter between these two companies has been announced. According to Apple's press release, "The new IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions will be built in an exclusive collaboration that draws on the distinct strengths of each company.

A new report from China Today claims that Chinese imitators have beaten Apple to the punch by launching clones of the highly anticipated iPhone 6 ahead of its official release date. While the world awaits Apple's announcement of the release date of the iPhone 6, Chinese manufacturers have already released a "shanzhai"–or knock-off–version based on alleged photographs of prototypes and the rumored specifications. That's the problem with websites supporting these crazy rumors of future iPhone cases, glass covers and specs on a daily basis. They're just assisting these knock-off cloners by promoting what the future iPhone may look like. It's like giving these cloners free advertising so that they can convincingly point to US websites to confirm that their knock-off design is the real thing. 

The Korean Press this morning is perplexed, stunned and confused at how Apple's iPhone 5S was able to remain the number one smartphone in the world. We reported earlier this month that in Q1 Apple was the number one smartphone in the world. Now the latest stats from Technology Research firm Counterpoint confirm smartphone statistics for May which finally reveals that the iPhone 5S retained its number one status and this time against the Galaxy S5 head on.

It's being reported that former White House press secretary Jay Carney is reportedly in the running to be Apple's next PR chief. Apple's been looking for a new PR head ever since Katie Cotton, the 'Queen' of PR Tech retired back in May and Carney just might fill the bill just right. In another rumor that surfaced yesterday we learned that an analyst is claiming that Apple may delay the 5.5 inch iPhone until early 2015. If that were to happen, it may be more strategic than you think. 

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 46 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover two key patents. The first covers an advanced haptics system for iDevices. The second is for a new 3D camera system that could apply to future iDevices and/or a standalone camera. In April we posted a report titled "Future High-End Android Smartphones with 3D Cameras will be using Apple's PrimeSense Technology." It now appears that Apple has their own surprise in the works. Between PrimeSense's 3D camera technology and acquiring an advanced 3D camera patent from one of the leading experts in this field, Apple is out to challenge Android OEMs on this front in the not-too-distant future. Our report also covers five new design patent wins and we wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 46 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover Apple's wild 3D imaging and display apparatus. Just last month Apple was granted a patent for different aspects of the same invention. The differences between the patents could easily be found in the finer details of Apple's patent claims. Whether the recent activity regarding this invention means Apple is any closer to delivering such a device is unknown at this time.

A new report published today claims that Apple's iPad may be the culprit behind certain types of skin rashes. It turns out that the iPad may contain nickel, one of the most common allergy-inducing metals. The simple use of an "iPad Smart Case" solved the issue for one child with this allergy.