Apple claims Google is withholding information about Samsung’s use of the Android source code. The company is now asking a judge to force Google to turn over documents related to Android as part of its second patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung, Bloomberg reported. Apple argued that Samsung uses Android in all of its infringing products and the platform “provides much of the accused functionality” in its claims. Apple is concerned that Google isn’t doing proper research to locate the files and would like U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal to intervene. More →
The rumors that Apple is preparing several different new iPhone models for release this fall gained more steam on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty said in a research note that Apple suppliers are planning to start building the new models in June and July. Per AppleInsider, Huberty reports that after meeting with multiple Apple component suppliers in Asia, she believes Apple will start manufacturing both a low-cost iPhone and the iPhone 5S over the summer for a likely release date in September. Huberty also says that carriers expect Apple to increase its iPhone shipments over the long haul not only with a low-cost iPhone in the fall but eventually also with a larger 5-inch model that would pit Apple against such noted phablet vendors as Samsung and LG.
According to Fortune’s Apple 2.0 blog, The Wall Street Journal’s recent report suggesting that the smartphone patent wars have been a big bust for all involved misses the point. Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt writes that while much of the Journal’s argument makes sense, the paper fails to differentiate between standards-essential patents (SEPs) and non-essential patents, and therefore fails to distinguish between claims made by Apple from claims made by the likes of Samsung. More →
Apple’s iPhone 5S is still eagerly awaited despite the expectation that it will be an iterative update similar to the bump from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4S, and now we’re one step closer to seeing the handset launch. According to a report from Japan’s Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, Apple supplier Sharp will begin mass production of the iPhone 5S’s display next month. LG Display and Japan Display will supply Apple with next-generation iPhone displays as well, according to the report. More →
According to data from Canaccord Genuity, Apple and Samsung managed to capture 100% of the mobile industry’s profits last quarter. In the first quarter of 2013, Apple took home 57% of the global smartphone industry’s profits, while Samsung grabbed almost 43% to leave nothing for BlackBerry, Nokia or HTC. In fact, the only company that managed a mobile profit share above 0% was LG with its 1% share. Even at nearly 100%, however, Apple and Samsung’s share of mobile profit has actually declined from last year. The research firm previously reported that the two companies captured 103% of handset industry profits in 2012. More →
When Apple unveiled the iPad in 2010, smartphone vendors were caught off guard and they rushed to launch similar tablets to take advantage of the new market that had been created. Their early efforts were absolutely awful, however. Android slates have gotten much, much better since those early days and now Android vendors’ combined tablet market share looks ready to pass Apple’s share. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company isn’t done setting trends though, and its iPad mini is the latest device Android vendors will look to base their new models on moving forward. More →
See if this scenario sounds familiar: A longtime Apple manufacturing partner looks to move away from its dependence on the company and focus more on creating its own products that it can sell at higher margins. While this has certainly been the story of Samsung’s success over the past couple of years, a new report from The New York Times suggests that iPhone manufacturer Foxconn may be drawing up a similar path for itself by designing and manufacturing its own brand of televisions while also inching itself away from depending on Apple as its major source of income. More →
Given its history over the past decade, it’s easy to see why investors have come to expect Apple to turn the whole tech market on its head every few years — after all, the iPhone, the MacBook Air and the iPad all respectively created mass markets for smartphones, ultrabooks and tablets. Many of these game-changing innovations are credited to the vision of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, whose passing in 2011 has created a sense of anxiety among some investors that the company has lost its innovative edge under the leadership of CEO Tim Cook. And given how quiet Apple has been in the first half of 2013 so far, speculative fears about the company’s ability to innovate have only grown in recent months. More →
Reviewers loved the iPad mini and every indication suggests the smaller Apple slate is selling to consumers quite well. The one item that seems to be on everyone’s wish list, however, is a Retina display. Coming from Apple devices like the full-size iPad and the iPhone 5, the iPad mini’s pixel-starved screen can be painful to use at times, but that will change later this year when Apple launches the second-generation iPad mini with an updated Retina display. According to CNET, NPD DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim says LG Display will begin mass production of the new iPad mini’s 2,048 x 1,536-pixel Retina display in either June or July ahead of a release this fall. Buying the new iPad mini this fall might be a bad idea though, since Shim believes an upgraded third-generation model will launch just a few months later in Q1 2014.
Apple may be developing a lower-cost iPhone to sell in emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil, but it’s increasingly having difficulty finding wireless carriers willing to meet its terms for selling its mobile devices. Bloomberg reports that Apple “is missing out on a chance to court as many as 2.8 billion new smartphone customers, many of them in Asia, as wireless-service providers balk at conditions imposed by the iPhone maker and drag their heels in signing on as partners.” More →
The past few months have been tumultuous for Apple, which has seen its shares sink in value and has provided little buzz for new products ever since it launched the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini last fall. But according to Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes, Apple’s fortunes may be about to change for the better now that the company is preparing to launch several new products over the next few months that should help its shares reclaim some of the value they’ve lost. More →
The latest U.S. smartphone market share data from comScore shows an interesting twist compared to global data. Fast growth in emerging markets has sent Apple’s global market share plummeting, but the big-money U.S. smartphone market is still very much driven by high-end handsets. According to comScore’s latest data, Apple’s share of the U.S. smartphone market climbed to 39% in Q1 2013 from 36.3% in the fourth quarter last year. Over the same period of time, Android’s share of the U.S. market slid from 53.4% to 52%. Perhaps even more interesting than the figures themselves, however, is the trend among mobile operating systems in the U.S. — Android is still the nation’s top smartphone platform by a healthy margin, but its remarkable growth stopped the iPhone from enjoying impressive growth as well. More →
