The result: the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus may continue to be a tough device to find through the holidays.
While Apple's suppliers have ramped up production of the new iPhones, Cook said the available supply of iPhones isn't even close to meeting customer demand. "We're not even on the same planet," he said on a conference call to discuss the company's fiscal fourth-quarter results.
The comments further illustrate the continued strength of the iPhone franchise, which got a boost after Apple adopted a larger screen size -- 4.7-inch for the iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch for the iPhone 6 Plus -- and introduced new features such as its Apple Pay mobile payment service. The demand has driven Apple to sell 39.3 million units in the fiscal fourth quarter, propelling the company's revenue and earnings past Wall Street expectations.
"We're selling everything we're making," he said.
Cook declined to provide any details on the mix between iPhone 6 and the larger iPhone 6 Plus, noting that it's unfair to look at the mix because everything is selling out. He noted that Apple saw an improvement in demand from every country, which he called unusual.
Taking a look back at the week in news across the Android world, this week’s Android Circuit highlights a number of stories including Verizon’s new Droid Turbo and Xperia Z3v handsets, reviewing the Moto X 2014 smartphone, Nokia brings HERE Maps to the Galaxy, what is Microsoft’s slice of the Android profits, and running Windows 95 on Android Wear.
Android Circuit is here to remind you of a few of the many things that have happened around Android over the last seven days.
Perhaps This Is The Droid You Are Looking For?
Hot on the heels of the second generation Moto X and Moto G handsets, Motorola’s Droid Turbo looks set to be the phone to beat in 2014. The leaked manual shows a 2k (2,560 x 1,440) 5.2-inch pixel display, a Snapdragon 805 CPU, Krait 450 GPU, and 3 GB. It’s not without a few drawbacks, as Gordon Kelly discovers:
The most obvious (and superficial) point to make is it looks ugly. While there are some elements of the slick Moto X, the Turbo’s return to capacitive keys is a backwards step and the edges and rear look a little tacky. In addition the handset is only listed as having 32GB of onboard storage with no microSD expansion slot. For such a high end handset with a noticeably high resolution camera, this is a disappointment.
Also, that Droid name is typically limited to Verizon exclusive handsets, so getting a wider distribution could be tricky. Those caveats aside, this is one tricked out handset for the geekerati. When we know more here at Forbes Tech, we’ll let you know.
Is The Moto X Really ‘Smartphone Of The Year’?
Speaking of the 2014 edition of the Moto X, Gordon Kelly has reviewed the handset and is more than pleasantly surprised with the integration of hardware and software:
The cat may already be out the bag here, but the combination of the Moto X’s top end hardware and stock Android makes from a fearsome combination. Navigating around the UI is faster and more fluid than any handset I’ve used so far (including the Nexus 5) and there is quite simply nothing game-wise within the Google Play store that can trouble it…
Of course the Snapdragon 805 is on the horizon, which will have a few spec warriors concerned about investing in the Moto X. I wouldn’t worry. The 805 offers incremental performance and battery improvements over the 801, but when your phone is already lightning fast and long-lasting it should already do everything you need.
Sony continue to push the Xperia Z3 family of smartphones with the announcement of the Sony Xperia Z3v, a network tailored version of Sony’s latest waterproof smartphone for Verizon (reports Daniel Howley for Yahoo Tech). Just be careful what you get here – the Z3v is the body and chassis of the Xperia Z2, with the updated software package from the Z3.
Let Nokia Show You The Way On Your Samsung Smartphone
Once upon a time, when your smartphone ran Symbian, there was an app that was useful, that had social functionality, and generally made everyone happy who used it. That app was Nokia Maps, one of the first comprehensive mobile geo-location apps on the planet. Even though the hardware side of Nokia now belongs to Microsoft, Nokia retained three business units, and one of them was mapping. Now called HERE, the division has released the new Nokia Maps app (HERE Maps) for Android. The first public beta is now available for Samsung Galaxy owners. I’ve taken a closer look at the app suite here.
Galaxy Revenue And Profits Are Dropping Rapidly
Samsung is not having the greatest of weeks. It’s Q3 2014 pre-earnings guidance came out this week, and show the profits and revenue have been dropping faster and harder both in quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year comparisons. Looking at 2013 and 2014, revenue is down 20.45% and profit is down 59.65%. Samsung is stuck in the innovators dilemma, but in the world of smartphones this can lead to a rapid loss of revenue. I talk about this cliff theory in my analysis of the numbers out of the South Korean company.
Samsung Needs To Be Better Than Apple
Forbes’ contributor Michael Humphrey addresses Samsung directly over the situation, with some timely advice. In short, it’s time for Samsung to disrupt itself and change course. Doing the same thing, releasing the same handset with some slightly bigger numbers, following the same marketing path, is not working. Could the low-end of the market be the answer?
I am not anti-Apple. I have insisted for years that my MacBook Air is the best mobile device I own. I just don’t need to be that person with an iPhone. In fact, I don’t need any premium phone.
Samsung Galaxy Alpha (image: Samsung PR)
Anything You Can Do, We Can Do Better
You might have noticed that Apple is holding a launch event on October 16 (more details here), but Android fans can rest easy. Reports are coming in that Google will get a first strike in against Apple on October 15th with the reveal of the HTC manufactured Nexus 9. It’s sure to draw comparisons to the expected iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 2 with Retina Display expected to be announced by Tim Cook the day after.
I’d also expect Android L to be declared as ‘ready’ if there is an event on the 15th. Plans could still change at this late stage, but new Nexus hardware and Android builds in the next week seems likely.
One. Billion. Dollars. And That’s Just For 2013!
Meanwhile, court papers have been unsealed in Microsoft’s patent royalty suit against Samsung. With an outstanding bill of over $1 Billion, some back-of-the-envelope calculations show that Samsung is paying around £3.41 per Android device to Microsoft (and the South Koreans get discount thanks to its use of Windows Phone in the ATIV handsets). Multiply that over the Android ecosystem that is licensing the patents from Redmond, and Microsoft is earning a fair few dollars out of Android.
And Finally…
Hats off (or should that be watches off) to Corbin Davenport for his sterling work porting Windows 95 to Android Wear. Now you too can have the classic operating system just a few finger touches away on your wrist. He’s went into detail on this stunningly geeky hacking project on his blog, and there’s a demo video to go with it. Unsurprisingly there are some issues with mouse driver support, which should bring back memories for some readers!
HP on Saturday launched its budget voice calling tablet in India called the HP 7 VoiceTab (1351ra). Priced at Rs. 10,990, the 7-inch tablet is available on HP's online store in white colour.
The HP 7 VoiceTab supports single-SIM (Micro-SIM) and as the name suggests, it comes with voice calling support. The tablet runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat and features a 6.95-inch (1024x600 pixels) display.
The tablet is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT8382 Cortex-A7 processor with 1GB of RAM. The HP 7 VoiceTab boasts of a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a secondary 0.3 megapixel front facing camera. The 8GB internal storage on the tablet device is expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB).
The HP 7 VoiceTab (1351ra) can be purchased from the official online store in India.
Connectivity options on the HP 7 VoiceTab include 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS/ A-GPS and USB OTG. The device measures 102.23x192.05x10.15mm and weighs at 305 grams. It packs a 11.4 watt-hour Li-Po battery rated up to 10 hours of life.
Last week, the PC giant had launched four new Windows 8.1 devices in its Stream portfolio. The two new HP Stream laptops, the HP Stream 11 and HP Stream 13, start at $199.99 (approximately Rs. 12,300) and $229.99 (approximately Rs. 14,100) respectively. The two new Windows tablets, the HP Steam 7 and HP Stream 8 start at $99.99 (approximately Rs. 6,100) and $149.99 (approximately Rs. 9,200) respectively. All four devices will be available in November this year.
The all-new iPhones and Apple Watch can be easily avoided but there’s no escaping iOS 8
The Apple Watch: only an unhealithily devoted Apple fanatic could bear to wear one.
The past few weeks haven’t been great for Apple. First they were implicated in the stolen celebrity nude photo disaster, which reminded everybody how easily clouds leak. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think the iPhone is generally marketed as a diabolical timewasting device with the potential to wreak a grotesque and devastating invasion of your personal privacy. They tend to focus more on all the cool colours it comes in.
Then they launched the horrible-looking Apple Watch, which does everything an iPhone can do, but more expensively and pointlessly, and on a slightly different part of your body. Only an unhealthily devoted Apple fanatic could bear to wear a Apple Watch, and even that poor notional idiot would have to keep putting their iPhone down in order to operate the damn thing. It’ll scarcely be used for telling the time, just as the iPhone is scarcely used for making calls. It’s not a watch. It’s a gaudy wristband aimed at raising awareness of Chinese factory conditions. Or a handy visual tag that helps con artists instantly identify gullible rich idiots in a crowd.
Apple also unveiled the all-new bigger iPhone 6, and the all-new even bigger-than-that iPhone 6 Plus, which is the size of the Isle of Man and aimed at people who literally have deep pockets. By releasing two differently sized rectangles, which in turn differ from its previous range of differently sized rectangles, Apple has selfishly exhausted the global supply of differently sized rectangles. From now on, all rectangles, no matter what context they appear in, will have to be the same size. Wars will be fought to decide which dimension becomes the standard. And when mankind finally settles on a compromise, Apple is going to start on ovals.
As part of the iPhone 6 publicity blitz, Tim Cook also announced every iTunes user in the world would be getting U2’s new album free of charge. It was downloaded automatically on to millions of users’ phones, like a sinister virus. Music is meant to be catchy – but not until you’ve heard it. The album, which I haven’t listened to yet, is terrible: even worse than their last one, which I didn’t listen to either. I don’t want to listen to any U2 albums in case I discover I like them, and have to violently reassess my own self-image. For the past five years, it’s been delightfully easy to ignore U2. Then Apple comes along and slings them under your nose like a bowl of bum soup you didn’t order. What do we have to do? Start lobbying Google for U2’s right to be forgotten?
Still: new watches, new rectangles, new music – these needn’t really affect you if you don’t want them to. But the other new development – the launch of iOS 8 – is impossible for iPhone users to ignore. It’s curious that we, the users, are supposed to look as if we are eagerly anticipating these operating system updates – a load of digital dogwork Apple nonchalantly drop into our laps on a regular basis.
Updates are awful. All you want to do is watch TV and rot in your own filth. Instead you spend the evening backing up your phone, downloading a gigantic file and sitting around while your phone undergoes an intense psychological makeover, at the end of which it may or may not function. Often, it takes an hour or more. Fiddly, time-consuming admin – it’s like having to change the water in a fish tank. I can’t be arsed: it’s why I don’t have an aquarium. I’d rather let the fish die.
But if I hold out, gradually nothing will work on my existing phone. They’ll freeze me out by degrees. Cut me out of the club. Plus I’ll miss out on great features such as slightly different icons and a terrifying new form of predictive text that precisely mimics the sensation of talking to an idiot who keeps finishing your sentences for you. (Either my thumbs have grown clumsier, or predictive text in general has grown a lot more aggressive recently. I can’t type anything without it continually popping up to blurt random words on my behalf – it’s like being in the Beastie Boys.)
Part of the problem is that smartphones are so horribly addictive, as moreish as smoking. The difference between smartphones and cigarettes is this: a cigarette robs 10 minutes from your lifespan, but at least has the decency to wait and withdraw all that time in bulk as you near the end of your life – whereas a smartphone steals your time in the present moment, by degrees. Five minutes here. Five minutes there. Then you look up and you’re 85 years old.
That little rectangular screen is so hypnotic, so omnipresent, I feel lost and sick the moment mine’s tied up doing something as uninterruptable as an update. While it sits there, blank, progress bar inching along at a snail’s pace, I glance at it nervously, like an owner watching his dog undergo an operation – not out of anything approaching sympathy, but the selfish concern that if it dies, I might not be able to check my email for five minutes. I suppose if I had an Apple Watch I could at least fiddle mindlessly with that instead while waiting for the phone to spring back into life. Come to think of it, that’s probably the Watch’s sole purpose. They should market it that way. Big winner.
In a nutshell, Aviate automatically organizes your apps and aggregates your personal and local data. This may include weather forecasts, transit information and calendar events. It adjusts according to time of day and your other activities to bring contextually-relevant information to your homescreen.
A by-product of this is that Yahoo/Aviate gathers a lot of data about key activities on Android, including what apps users interact with most, average apps installed and so on. Indeed, Yahoo Aviate and Yahoo Labs have pulled together an infographic (see below) that reveals users have an average of 95 apps installed on their phones, 35 of which are used (on average) each day.
Digging a little deeper, it’s clear that certain apps appeal to users at specific times of day, which probably doesn’t come as that much of a surprise. Google Maps usage peaks later in the day when people are trying to get places, while the clock app peaks at night-time and in the morning.
Netflix, on the other hand, rises steadily throughout the day to a high at around 10pm, while the phone and SMS apps are most often used during working hours.
Though Yahoo won’t reveal actual download figures for Aviate, Google Play’s rather broad range reveals it has been installed between 1 million and 5 million times, so the data is based on a significant number of users. That said, it is restricted to those who are inclined to install a launcher such as this, so it’s perhaps not entirely representative of the broader Android app install-base.
Anyway, check out some more of its numbers from the infographic below.
After launching elsewhere, Asus has decided to have a push on the smartphone side of things in the UK. The budget ZenFone series, consisting of three different handsets, is on their way so here's what you need to know about release dates, prices and specs. See also: Best budget smartphones 2014.
The ZonFone range of smartphones was announced at CES 2014 back in January and has since launched in various countries including India and Sweden. We haven't given them much attention but now it's the turn of Blighty.
With the affordable prices (see below), the ZenFone devices will take on a new legion of decent budget smartphones like the Motorola Moto G, EE Kestrel and Nokia Lumia 630.
Asus ZenFone 4,5,6: UK release date and price
All three ZenFone models are available to pre-order now from Asus and will also be available from retailers including Currys PC World, Argos, John Lewis, eBuyer and Very. They will then start shipping and go on sale on 1 September.
The bigger the model, the more expensive it is so the ZenFone 4 costs £99 and the ZenFone 6 will set you back £249. See below for the full pricing.
The model number, as is typical for tech products, corresponds to the screen size. They are all different in this respect but the trio of smartphones share a few things in terms of design and specs.
Each come in various colours (the ZenFone 4 has more options) and the plasic rear cover has a 'ceramic' treatment applied to it. They also use Asus' own ZenUI interface on top of Android. They also all use Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and feature a microSD card slot for adding storage.
Most run on Intel Atom processors apart from the LTE-enabled ZenFone 5 which uses a Qualcomm chip for that 4G goodness.
ZenFone 4 specs
Processor: Intel Atom Z2520, 1.2GHz Dual-Core Display: 4in (800 x 480), 233ppi, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Storage: 8GB eMMC, microSD card (up to 64GB) Memory: 1GB LPDDR2 RAM Colours: Black / White / Red / Yellow / Blue
ZenFone 5 specs
Processor: Intel Atom Z2560, 1.6GHz Dual-Core Display: 5in (1280 x 720), 294ppi, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Storage: 8/16GBGB eMMC, micro SD card (up to 64GB) Memory: 1/2GB LPDDR2 RAM Colours: Black / White / Red / Gold
ZenFone 5 4G LTE specs
Processor: Qualcomm MSM8926, 1.2GHz Quad-Core Display: 5in (1280 x 720), 294ppi, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Storage: 16GB eMMC, microSD card (up to 64GB) Memory: 2GB LPDDR2 RAM Colours: Black / White / Red / Gold
ZenFone 6 specs
Processor: Intel Atom Z2580, 2.0GHz Dual-Core Display: 6in (1280 x 720), 245ppi, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Storage: 16GB eMMC, microSD card (up to 64GB) Memory: 2GB LPDDR2 RAM Colours: Black / White / Red / Gold
Microsoft launched its 4G-enabled Lumia 930 smartphone in Taiwan Thursday, marking the second Windows phone released in Taiwan since the software giant acquired Nokia's handset division.
The Lumia 930 will be available from Chunghwa Telecom Company, Taiwan's largest mobile service provider, on July 16 with a price tag of NT$18,900 (US$630) for a contract-free model. The 5-inch device runs Windows Phone 8.1 and sports a 20-megapixel PureView camera with a lens by German optical systems maker Carl Zeiss AG.
Microsoft launched the mid-range Lumia 635 in June with Chunghwa Telecom and plans to make more Lumia series phones compatible with the country's new 4G LTE network through software upgrades, said Jacob Chen, general manager of Taiwan sales and marketing at Microsoft Devices Group.
Gary Chan, the group's head of pan-Asia marketing, said Windows Phone volume in the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan grew 105% last year thanks to strong support from operators, retailers and developers.
The Lumia brand name, however, will no longer be used for Windows-based smartphones in the future as Microsoft plans to announce a new brand name by the end of this year, Chan added.
Nokia's feature phones will continue to feature the iconic name of the Finnish phone maker as guaranteed by a 10-year licensing deal with its parent company, he said.
In April this year, Microsoft announced it had completed its acquisition of the Nokia Devices and Services business after approval was granted by Nokia shareholders and governmental regulatory agencies around the world.
With the Nokia mobile phone business, Microsoft said it will target the affordable mobile devices market–a US$50 billion annual opportunity–delivering the first mobile experience to 1 billion people while introducing Microsoft services to new customers worldwide.
Microsoft will roll out Windows Phone 8.1 starting next month, according to the company itself. In response to a user query asking the release date of Windows Phone 8.1, Microsoft India tweeted that the update will start rolling out in the first two weeks of July, and of course, it will be available to all existing Windows Phone 8 handsets.
Though, how soon the update will reach your handset depends on the manufacturer and carrier. People living in India should be able to get the update a little faster, as the smartphones are usually sold unlocked here, thus carrier doesn't play much role.
Nokia Lumia and other handset users might have to wait a bit longer, as the mobile manufacturer will pack operating system updates and exclusive features depending on your hardware, for example Lumia owners will be getting the Lumia Cyan update, which will most likely be pushed together.
The New York Attorney General has signed agreements with Google and Microsoft to add "kill switches" to Android and Windows Phone devices.
It comes as part of the "Secure our Smartphones" initiative, where the report stresses the importance of kill switch safeguards for mobile phone platforms in order to keep user data safe. With these "kill switches", you'll be able to render your phone useless, remotely, in the event of its theft.
The kill switch issue has been one that's been hotly discussed. For example, in California, the kill switch idea was immediately rejected, but then the state recently approved it this May. This bill states that whenever a new phone is purchased in the state of California, it must be loaded with the kill switch software.
Apple already has a kill switch feature loaded on its iPhones, and the New York City Attorney General cited that there was a 19% decrease in iPhone thefts ever since the feature was implemented; whereas Samsung phones that still didn't carry the feature experienced a 40% increase in robberies.
Now it's unclear as to when the kill switches will be added to the Android and Windows Phone platforms, but when they are, every one of Google and Microsoft's phones will have a kill switch.
The iPhone 6 on release date this 2014 is likely to prove right most of its rumoured specs and features, headlined by a lightweight and slim build with a 64-bit A8 processing chip plus a killer camera combo.
According to Phone Arena, what largely the iPhone 6 will be has been confirmed by a YouTube clip that was uploaded this week. The online video shared information that allegedly came from a site that is dedicated to everything about the next iPhone, said the same report.
It should be noted, however, that there is no way at the moment to verify the authenticity of the details provided.
2 large-screen iPhones
Regardless, the new report is aligned with the solidifying belief that Apple's sequel to the iPhone 5S will come with two different display panel dimensions - the 4.7-inch model that some blog reports referred to as the iPhone Air and the 5.5-inch edition that supposedly will tussle with the likes of Galaxy Note 4.
Both handsets will sport an identical screen resolution of 1704 x 960 bit with varying pixel density. As expected, the first iPhone phablet will boast of a higher 416 pixels per inch (ppi) while its smaller sibling will debut with 356ppi pixels flooding the screen.
Super-slim iPhone 6
In the same video, the following dimension was provided: 138mm x 67mm x 7mm, which somehow backs earlier suggestions that Apple intends to further shrink the iPhone thickness while making light as a feather.
This plan will be realised with Apple using new mix of materials like Liquidmetal alloy, graphene and sapphire that will make up of the final cut that is the iPhone casing. MacRumors reported that Apple chief designer Jony Ive has largely hinted of 'the new materials' that will be part of the 2014 iPhone release.
A beautiful beast
Underneath its aesthetic appeal, the leaked YouTube clip also claimed that the bevy of iPhone 6 killer features will again be fired up by a 64-bit application processor with A8 chip replacing the A7 that came with the 5S last year.
10MP rear shooter
The most notable part of the report is the likelihood that iPhone buyers will get a significant camera bump up with their iPhone 6 purchases as the main shooter of the device will reportedly be updated from 8MP to 10MP.
Also, the front-facing camera will improve from 1.2MP to 2.1MP, which is a possibility that Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac has recently floated around.
And as a form of bonus, the iPhone 6 on its release date, likely on September 2014, will have a 128GB variant that will sell at $400, the Phone Arena report claimed, even as numerous analyst pegged the device's starting price at $200 for the regular model and $300 for the iOS 8-powered phablet - all presumably with contract agreements.
