Apple

Windows Phone ad sees iPhone and Android owners trading insults at wedding

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 22, 2017

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19vR1GldRI

Despite the massive marketing blitz, Microsoft's Windows Phone platform has managed to regain but a fraction of market share lost to iOS and Android in years past. Figuring it could take a page from Samsung's marketing handbook, Microsoft on Monday published on its YouTube channel a new Windows Phone commercial which takes a mandatory jab at Apple's iPhone and its Siri digital personal assistant while also poking fun of Gorilla-sized Android devices from Samsung. The funny ad is aimed at boosting Microsoft's and Nokia's stagnant sales of Lumia handsets in the United States...

A first: smartphone shipments outnumber feature phones

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated February 28, 2017

For some time, the mobile phone industry has been shifting toward more powerful smartphones and away from basic mobile phones. Now comes word that smartphones outnumber feature phones for the first time. The line was crossed in the first quarter of 2013 with 216.1 million smartphones shipping, accounting for 51.6 percent of all handsets sold. Smartphone shipments grew 41.6 percent during the quarter, up from 152.7 million units shipped during the same period in 2012, one industry research firm announced Thursday...

Display shootout: iPhone 5 vs Galaxy S4

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 26, 2013

CEO Tim Cook during an earnings call re-iterated Apple very much remains focused on providing the highest quality mobile screens and argued his company would never compromise the experience by creating a Gorilla-sized iPhone with a subpar display. Specifically, Cook painted color reproduction, power consumption, quality and other factors determining the quality of a mobile screens as progressively suffering on larger displays.

"We would not ship a larger display iPhone while these trade-offs exist," he said Tuesday. But is that really the case? Display wizards over at DisplayMate took Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S4 through a battery of tests putting the screens through their paces. The results are surprising...

Chitika: iPad usage kept rising in March

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 24, 2013

One day after Apple announced selling 19.5 million iPads during the second quarter, new numbers show the tablet dominated online traffic as late as last month. The device held the market in a stranglehold, controlling 81.9 percent of tablet web traffic in the US and Canada, according to an online advertising network. According to the Chitika Ad Network, the 1.4 percent increase is the first month-on-month advance in the iPad's share of web traffic since December 2012....

Are Samsung drones trolling Apple?

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated December 6, 2022

We don't usually go in for conspiracy theories, but one is drawing quiet a bit of attention - and factual basis. Has corporate giant Samsung, stung by its more than $1 billion patent lawsuit loss to Apple in 2012, waging war on the iPhone maker? A number of signs point to the affirmative, including an apparent tactic to swamp any critics with pro-Samsung comments.

Along with blatant examples of the business press spinning news against Apple and for Samsung, there has been reports of fake Samsung product reviews. Additionally, we've seen up-close attempts by pro-Samsung 'trolls' to dominate comments...

Bono: Apple’s Jony Ive is Obi-Wan of design

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated October 6, 2016

Time Magazine's list of the 100 most interesting people for 2013 is packed with profiles of technology leaders. Apple design guru Jony Ive is among those listed, described as a Star Wars' Obi-Wan leading a team of Jedi employees.

The thread of Apple's innovation runs through other profiles, including Samsung's CEO, who is viewed by a former executive of the iPhone maker as carrying on the tradition of Steve Jobs...

Google’s Nexus 10 no threat to iPad sales

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 18, 2013

Here's an interesting tidbit we found this morning: Microsoft's Surface tablets could actually be outselling Google's latest Nexus 10. We understand every scuffle between Google and Apple is actually a proxy for the battle between Android and iOS, so the statement by blogger Benedict Evans caught our eyes. According to Evans, the Samsung-made Nexus 10 likely sold around 1.01 million of the Google tablets by the end of March.

This compares to the 1.5 million Surface tablets Microsoft has reportedly sold - not to mention the ten million iPad mini tablets purchased in just the last two months of the fourth quarter in fiscal 2012. While the latest Nexus tablet is no threat to the iPad, the calculations suggest something more important: strong distribution and a well-defined ecosystem can overcome big-name rivals...

Apple vs Samsung price war in India

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

In another era, Apple and Samsung would be competing gasoline retailers, locked in a war to entice more automobiles to the pump. Update the picture to the 21st century, replace gas with smartphones and you have the modern-day equivalent of a price war playing out in India, according to a Wednesday report.

Android-based Samsung smartphones initially had the majority of the India market to itself. However, now Apple is shaking things up by offering discounts on its iPhone 4 - a move fueling the company's challenge of rival Samsung.

The South Korean company has responded with discounts on its Galaxy family of products - on top of the current payment plan. Both companies are jockeying to control a market full of potential smartphone buyers...

How Samsung changed the game on Apple by focusing on advertising and distribution

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 11, 2013

Diagnosing Apple's Wall Street woes has become a bit of a cottage industry, prompting some to crown the consumer tech giant a has-been, while other observers point to a resurgent future. Earlier this month, a Forbes business contributor took a shot, claiming South Korea's Samsung has overtaken Apple using the iPhone maker's own weapon: promotion.

After knocking out music giant Sony with the iPod, using the iPhone to drive BlackBerry to the fringes and destroying the PC market with the iPad, Apple is "milking" its hard-won gains. Meanwhile, Samsung has plowed revenue back into promotion, outspending Apple by more than four-to-one. Ad attack coupled with Samsung's much wider footprint helped the Galaxy maker to change the game on Apple...

Hero devices help LG join Apple and Samsung at the top of the smartphone food chain

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 11, 2013

LG is now the No. 3 smartphone maker, for the first time, as sales of its higher-end handsets lift it above HTC and other brands scrambling for the scraps left by Apple and Android. Although Samsung and Apple combined for 71.4 percent of the market, sales by the South Korean LG rose to 3.2 percent as HTC fell to fourth place on word of disappointing profits, according to research firm Strategy Analytics...

LookAway Player brings Galaxy S4-like Smart Pause eye-tracking to iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

Samsung has been promoting its eye-tracking technology, which debuted on the Galaxy S3, for some time now. As an S3 owner, I must say I wasn't impressed with the handset's ability to automatically shut down the display when looking away: it's taxing on the battery and not very reliable. With the Galaxy S4, which is scheduled to go on sale by end of April, Samsung is doubling down on eye-tracking with a few related new features like Smart Scroll and Smart Pause.

And now, a new iPhone app has been released which brings the Smart Pause-like functionality to the iPhone...

Pro-Samsung paper: Apple excluded Samsung from A7 chip production

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 10, 2013

We've been hearing lots of rumors claiming that Apple is taking its lucrative chip biz contract away from Samsung in the final sign that the partnership between the two firms on parts has all but fallen apart. What's really interesting this time around is that a Korean publication that typically favors Samsung now claims that Apple has excluded Samsung entirely from its next-generation chip development project.

That's a major development knowing Apple's been paying billions of dollars to the Galaxy maker's semiconductor arm to manufacture iDevice processor, using Apple-designed silicon blueprints...