Android

iPhone boosts T-Mobile sales, overtakes Android in Japan

Ed Sutherland ∙ October 1, 2013

The iPhone has fueled smartphone sales by Apple's latest U.S. carrier partner, Deutsche Telekom-owned T-Mobile USA. In the three-month period ended in August, the service provider saw its share of domestic smartphone sales jump to 13.2 percent, up 1 percent.

According to a report released Monday, the carrier began in April attracting owners of feature phones upgrading to smartphones. Now, however, 56 percent of consumers buying an iPhone from T-Mobile are coming from another smartphone. Indeed, more than 38 percent of T-Mobile's smartphone purchasers previously owned Android handsets...

Apple hasn’t lost its coolness, declare UK brand experts

Ed Sutherland ∙ September 27, 2013

Apple once again leads the list of brands viewed as cool in the UK. In its twelfth annual CoolBrands Top 20 survey suggesting an improving British economy, the iPhone ranks No. 1 among luxury brands such as Aston Martin, Rolex and Bang & Olufsen.

The California-based gadget maker was able to shrug off stiff competition from 10,000 independent brands to retain the top spot. Android's Google dropped to the fifth spot with YouTube and Twitter also falling position. Microsoft's Skype even dropped out of the top 20, according to the Coolbrands rankings...

Apple yet again is most-innovative company, leading Samsung and Google

Ed Sutherland ∙ September 27, 2013

Apple again was named the most-innovative company. For the ninth year in a row, the iPhone maker topped a survey of senior executives polled Boston Consulting Group.

South Korea-based rival Samsung was No. 2 and Android's Google was listed as No. 3. Microsoft and automaker Toyota rounded out the top five...

Amazon introduces new Kindle Fire HDX tablets

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 13, 2018

Amazon today unveiled a slew of new tablets, all based around its third generation Kindle Fire: the Kindle Fire HDX. As before, there's a 7-inch model, an 8.9-inch model, and both of them come in Wi-Fi-only and 4G configurations.

The new slates are lighter, thanks to an internal redesign, and 3x faster, thanks to Snapdragon's quad-core 2.2 GHz processor. And they feature various other hardware and software improvements. Much more details after the fold...

iOS 7 user experience beats Android and Windows Phone, survey says

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

After being available for just one week, Apple's new iOS 7 is making daily headlines. The latest kudo to the revamped mobile operating system is a win for best user experience. Measuring how iOS 7 performs for everyday users, the software handily defeats Android, Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10.

Apple's mobile software rated 73.25, placing it far ahead of Google's Android with 57.25. The version of Android available on Samsung smartphones ranked third, just behind Apple's previous mobile software, iOS 6...

iMessage comes to Android [video]

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Just a word of caution before anyone decides to dive head first into this. You need to use this app at your own risk. Several prominent developers within the community have expressed concern about the potential security issues revolving around the APK used here.

Now that the warnings are out of the way, let me show you how iMessage works on Android. This new app, entitled iMessage Chat, brings real cross platform iMessage chat ability to Android. Yes, it works. I've confirmed it on video.

BlackBerry to sell itself in $4.7 billion deal

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated December 29, 2016

Canadian phone maker BlackBerry - once the undisputed enterprise giant that used to be synonymous with smartphones and whose iconic BlackBerry handsets with their clickety-clack keyboards and real-time, secure push email were considered the real work machines - is now entertaining a $4.7 billion offer from its largest shareholder, a move that would take the free-falling phone company private.

Fairfax Financial Holdings, which already owns 9.9 percent of the Waterloo, Ontario firm, would pay $9 per share, a 3.1 percent premium over last week's share price. According to a statement by Fairfax CEO Prem Watsa, the private company will "focus on delivering superior and secure enterprise solutions to BlackBerry customers around the world."...

Loyalty: almost all iPhone 5s buyers apparently own an iPhone

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Remember the days when Apple or Android hoped to snag a customer from the rival camp? You can file that dream alongside winning the Super Ball lottery, because nearly all of the people lined up Friday to buy one of Apple's new iPhones already owns an iPhone.

According to one Apple observer, 90 percent of people lined up in New York, San Francisco and Minneapolis are upgrading from an older iPhone. The finding reflects both the loyalty of Apple users as well as a U.S. smartphone market where few consumers switch from one handset brand to another.

The 90 percent upgrade figure tops that of the iPhone 5, when 83 percent of those purchasing the handset in 2012 said they already owned an iPhone...

Cook, Ive, Federighi sit down with Businesweek for a wide-ranging interview

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 13, 2017

Last time an Apple executive gave a detailed interview to Bloomberg Businessweek was in December 2012, when CEO Tim Cook talked Scott Forstall, collaboration and management changes.

Following last week's iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c introduction and yesterday's release of iOS 7, the most significant visual change to Apple's mobile operating system since the original iPhone, the publication interviewed Cook and his lieutenants, design guru Jony Ive (who designed iOS 7) and software head honcho Craig Federighi.

In a wide-ranging interview, the three men discussed iOS 7, collaboration, competition, Android, the so-called cheap iPhone and other topics.

I've included the best quotes right below...

Nokia was working on an Android phone before Microsoft buyout deal

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 15, 2018

In February of 2011, Microsoft and Nokia announced a joint strategic partnership that would see Windows Phone become the principal platform strategy for Nokia's mobile devices. And the Finnish giant took quite a bit of heat for putting all of its eggs in Microsoft's basket.

But according to a new report, the company had a plan b: an Android device. Sources familiar with the project say that a team within Nokia had Android up and running on its Lumia handsets "well before" it began buyout negotiations with Microsoft for its mobile phone business...

1 out of each 4 US smartphones users has an iPhone

Ed Sutherland ∙ September 9, 2013

America is now a smartphone nation and the iPhone is increasingly becoming the favored device. Smartphones now account for 56 percent of cell phones in the United States. That's up nearly ten points from a year ago, according to a new Pew Research poll. Additionally, the iPhone is used by 25 percent of US smartphone owners - or one out of each four smartphone owners in the country.

That's a notable six-point increase from nineteen percent a year ago. The rise in US smartphones mirrors a drop in feature phones, which fell to 35 percent. Just nine percent of US adults do not own a cellphone...

NSA can hijack ‘most sensitive data’ on your iPhone, top secret files reveal

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2016

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has pretty much compromised every online user's security through a previously unknown ten-year program against encryption technologies that made "vast amounts" of collected data "exploitable."

After these shocking revelations came to light Thursday, a new report Sunday in German news weekly Der Spiegel has given the privacy scare a whole new meaning.

See, owners of iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices are at risk of their "most sensitive data" being fully exploitable because the NSA is able to crack protective measures of these systems, previously believed to be highly secure...