Apple

Spotify claims twice the subscription rate of Apple Music

Peter Cohen ∙ October 28, 2019
Spotify Stations focus on playlists

Spotify announced results for its third fiscal quarter 2019, reporting revenue of €1.7 billion ($1.9 billion), up 28% Year over Year (YoY) and up 4% Quarter over Quarter (QoQ). The company posted an operating profit of €54 million ($60 million). The company also claimed it's adding twice the subscribers per month as Apple is with Apple Music:

Relative to Apple, the publicly available data shows that we are adding roughly twice as many subscribers per month as they are. Additionally, we believe that our monthly engagement is roughly 2 times as high and our churn is at half the rate.

In June Apple noted that Apple Music had surpassed 60 million paid subscribers, up from the 50 million it had reported this past January. Apple is next set to report fiscal results on October 30th, when we might get an updated indication of its efforts with Apple Music.

Spotify said that its customer retention efforts are paying off with vigorous efforts to attract podcast listeners and a better onboarding experience. The company counts 248 million Monthly Active Users (MAUs) at present, up 30% YoY. It exited Q3 with 113 million Premium subscribers, up 31% YoY. Premium subscription feess accounted for about 90% of the company's quarterly revenue.

Spotify attributed its rosy news in part to higher gross profit and less-than-expected expenses related to marketing, promotion, and R&D. It also noted to investors that it expects to report an operating loss for the coming quarter.

Do you use Spotify and Apple Music? Or have you made the switch from one to the other? Which do you prefer? Sound off in the comments and let us know.

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More rumors point to 2020 iPhones with ProMotion-style displays

Peter Cohen ∙ October 28, 2019
iPhone 11 Pro Max

The latest supply line rumors posted by DigiTimes affirm that some of next year's iPhones will sport displays with refresh rates half again or up to twice as fast as today's models, according to AppleInsider. Whether that means new iPhones will get ProMotion displays or something akin to them remains to be seen.

Rumors of faster iPhone screens first bubbled up over the summer. So this isn't the first time we're hearing about this. It's also important to note that iPhone X models and later already sample input from the display at up to 120 frames per second, but the display frequency refresh of those models has remained at 60Hz.

ProMotion has been a feature of the iPad Pro since 2017. When Apple introduced it it said the technology provided greater responsiveness with reduced latency to provide more fluid and natural drawing capabilities when paired with the Apple Pencil.

To help reduce the battery drain found on other devices with high refresh rates like the Pixel 4, Apple's ProMotion technology can increase the refresh rate on the parts of the screen to only where it's needed.

While ProMotion has been remarkable for its impact on Apple Pencil users, the Pencil isn't supported on iPhones. Yet higher refresh rate displays have other practical benefits, especially for users of games, AR, and other applications that may benefit from greater on-screen responsiveness.

Is the display refresh of your iPhone left you wanting something more akin to a Razer gaming phone? Or is this a nothingburger? Sound off in the comments and let us know.

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Apple warns iPhone 5 users: Update to 10.3.4 ASAP

Peter Cohen ∙ October 28, 2019
iOS 10

If you are an iPhone 5 user and you haven't yet updated your phone to iOS 10.3.4, time is running out. Apple says you need to do so before midnight on November 3, 2019, at least if you want your iPhone 5 to keep working with the App Store, iCloud, e-mail and web browsing.

Apple explained the issue in a support document:

This is due to the GPS time rollover issue that began affecting GPS-enabled products from other manufacturers on April 6, 2019. Affected Apple devices are not impacted until just before 12:00 a.m. UTC on November 3, 2019.

The GPS bug fix was first pushed out by Apple in July, and has been available as an Over the Air (OTA) update since then. iPhone 5 users who haven't already updated to the new release are now being presented with a full-screen push warning to update, according to 9to5Mac.

The GPS issue also affects iPhone 4S, iPad 2, third-generation iPad (iPad with Retina Display), and fourth gen iPad, but those non-updated devices will simply stop working with GPS-related apps and services at the deadline. iPhone 5 users will suffer more significant issues.

If your iPhone 5 isn't updated before the deadline, you'll have to use a Mac or PC equipped with iTunes in order to download and install the 10.3.4 update to continue working.

Are you still using an iPhone 5? Have you upgraded to 10.3.4 or are you holding off? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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