Beyond the major stories of the day, our 'At the End of the Day' report takes a final look around the blogosphere at other technology news that was published today that might be of interest to our readership.

Apple Unleashes A11 Bionic Chip on iPhone X Ad

Tune: "Movement" by Oliver Tree: https://apple.co/2LD5WLU

CIRP Research Reports on iPhones and iPads in Q2

Earlier today Patently Apple posted a report titled "In Q2 Apple had Strong iPhone Growth in the U.S. with 8 out of the top 10 Smartphones being iPhones and iPhone X being #1 in China." This afternoon Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) released analysis of the results from its research on Apple, Inc. for the fiscal quarter that ended June 30, 2018.

CIRP's research on iPhone market share in the U.S. clashes with Kantar's. CIRP claims that Apple has 54% market share in the U.S. and Kantar states that Apple has 38.7%. CIRP state that they base its findings on its survey of 500 US Apple customers that purchased an iPhone, iPad, or Mac in the US in April-June 2018 period. Perhaps with that small a sampling the stats are a little more optimistic.

CIRP finds that iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X accounted for 54% of US iPhone sales in the quarter, with iPhone 8 at 13%, iPhone 8 Plus at 24%, and iPhone X at 17% (Chart 1).

In the iPad product line, the basic 9.7 inch iPad (introduced in March 2017 and recently updated) had the largest share of sales of a single model in both the June 2018 and 2017 quarters, at 31% and 32%, respectively (Chart 2).

iPad Pro had 40% of sales, split approximately evenly between the 10.5 inch and 12.9 inch models. iPad mini increased share to 18% in the quarter, up from 11% in the June 2017 quarter as Apple discontinued the smallest iPad Pro model.

Mike Levin, CIRP Partner and Co-Founder: "In the past year, Apple has consolidated the iPad product line, down to four models. Share is distributed pretty evenly among them, ranging from 18% for the mini and Pro 12.9 inch models, to 31% for the basic 9.7 inch iPad.

In comparison, Apple now has eight iPhone models, with share ranging from 3% for iPhone 6S Plus to 24% for iPhone 8 Plus. While the least expensive basic 9.7 inch iPad is the biggest seller, iPad Pro models, which are the most expensive, together account for 40% of unit sales."

Samsung's Answer to the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar?

Patently Mobile posted a granted patent report today wherein it was noted that Samsung won a design patent for a strange trackpad-like feature. Design patents don't come with details of any kind so we can't definitively identify this feature. However, it does appear to show a trackpad that has the ability to pop-up as to act as a mini second display.

Microsoft Wins Patent for Expandable Smartphone Frame and Display

Patently Mobile reported today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published granted Microsoft a patent yesterday for a smartphone that provides an easy to expand frame and display mechanism as presented above so that a user could double the size of the display when needed for watching videos and mobile TV.

Facebook Down After Hours on NY Times Report on bad news in China

The first news on Facebook is that they missed their revenue target after the bell. The chart above will fluctuate over the next 24 hours.

For several hours, a Chinese government database showed that Facebook had gained approval to open a subsidiary in the eastern province of Zhejiang. Facebook said it would use the company to set up an innovation hub there.

Then the registration disappeared, and references to the subsidiary were partly censored in Chinese media.

Now the approval has been withdrawn, according to a person familiar with the matter who declined to be named because the person was not authorized to speak on the record.

While the about-face does not definitively end Facebook's chances of establishing the company, it makes success very unlikely, the person said. For more on this, read the full NY Times report here.

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