Category: iPhone

Would you have guessed that the leading seller of mobile PCs in Q4 2010 was Apple? Sounds crazy, hey? Microsoft Windows is still the dominant operating system worldwide, but when you combine MacBook and iPad sales, Apple sold more mobile computers in the last three months of 2010 than anyone else. That’s the story according to the analysts at DisplaySearch.

MacBook sales were solid throughout 2010, but the refreshed MacBook Air really kicked things up a notch. The iPad was one of the most popular holiday gifts. When you add all of that up, it’s no wonder that Apple killed it in Q4.

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Apple’s annual report revealed that 137 people in China were poisoned making its products, while 91 children worked in factories making Apple goods. The latter figure is particularly disturbing. This isn’t a knock on Apple at all, but a total knock on China. Perhaps I’m being naive, but I have a serious problem with a country where it’s common for a school to falsify documents for children so that they can build iPhones.

Here are more details from The Guardian:

The report says Apple found 91 children working at 10 facilities. The previous year it found 11 at three workplaces.

It ordered most to pay the children’s education costs but fired one contractor which was using 42 minors and had “chosen to overlook the issue”, the company said. It also reported the vocational school that had arranged the employment to the authorities for falsifying student IDs and threatening retaliation against pupils who revealed their ages.

Apple said it had strengthened its checks on age because of concerns about the falsification of ages by such schools and labour agencies. It also audited 127 facilities last year, mostly for the first time, compared with 102 in 2009.

Due to multiple Foxconn employees committing suicide, Apple has been paying close attention to its manufacturing partners in China. I’m happy that the company appears to be taking an active role at preventing child labor and improving conditions for employees. Still, there’s only so much a foreign company can do. This whole thing just makes me sad and wish that I could live without goods that were made in China.

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It looks like the iPhone will be getting a diminutive sibling in the near future — perhaps the iPhone Nano or iPhone Mini? That’s the word according to The Wall Street Journal. The rumored model would be small and cheaper than the mainline iPhone. Here are the details:

One of the people, who saw a prototype of the phone late last year, said it is intended for sale alongside Apple’s existing line. The new device would be about half the size of the iPhone 4, which is the current model.

The new phone — one of its code names is N97 — would be available to carriers at about half the price of the main iPhones. That would allow carriers to subsidize most or all of the retail price, putting the iPhone in the same mass-market price range as rival smartphones, the person said. Apple currently sells iPhones to carriers for $625 each on average. With carrier subsidies, consumers can buy iPhones for as little as $199 with a two-year contract.

Although Apple competes in the mid-range market with older iPhone models, it stands to do even better with a new model that costs $49 to $99 (on contract). That part of the rumor makes sense.

What doesn’t make sense is the whole “half the size” thing. The iPhone 4 is pretty damn small as it is. Even if the iPhone Nano does use an edge-to-edge screen, something half the size of the iPhone 4 sounds tough to use. I’m having visions of Derek Zoolander’s phone.

What do you think of the iPhone Nano rumor? Do you expect to hear about it at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in June? What features do you expect to have (and lack)?

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According to The Wall Street Journal, the Apple iPad 2 will feature a myriad of improvements over the original, but it won’t have the one feature Apple fans have been dreaming about — a “Retina Display” screen. The iPad 2 is allegedly in production. Here are the details:

The new iPad will be thinner and lighter than the first model, these people said. It will have at least one camera on the front of the device for features like video-conferencing, but the resolution of the display will be similar to the first iPad, these people said. It will also have more memory and a more powerful graphics processor, they said.

The new iPad will initially be available through Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., but not Sprint Nextel Corp. or T-Mobile USA in the U.S., according to some of the people familiar with the matter.

There were rumors swirling that the iPad 2 will feature a display similar to the one found on the iPhone 4, boasting a 2048 x 1536 resolution. Instead, it looks like that feature will have to wait until the iPad 3. That makes sense; although processors could power such a device today, display costs are probably too high at the moment.

For customers that are waiting for the iPad 2 (like me) and chronic early adopters, the WSJ rumors present an annoying problem. The features are improved, but it will be hard to resist a high-res iPad 3. I’m sure I’ll fall into the group of millions that will buy an iPad this year and next. Damn it. Built-in obsolescence sucks.

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When is unlimited data not really unlimited? When it’s throttled and shaped. In addition to reserving the right to throttle bandwidth for the top five percent of data users, Verizon also reserves the right to shape and manipulate bandwidth for all its customers. According to Wired:

Verizon incidentally announced a plan for “data optimization” for all customers, which may degrade the appearance of videos streamed on smartphones, for example.

The “optimization” method involves caching less data and resizing video, which “may minimally impact the appearance of the file as displayed on your device” — and that affects every Verizon customer.

This makes choosing an iPhone carrier a bit more difficult, hey? AT&T has shoddier service, but faster speeds. Verizon is more reliable, but it’s slower and the company reserves the right to make its vaunted “unlimited” service sucky. In the immortal words of Dennis Hopper, “What do you do? What do you do?”

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Verizon’s marketers are at it again, busting out the cleverest and more appropriate use of the phrase, “I can hear you now,” in this iPhone 4 ad. It’s a cute and straightforward spot that asks consumers, “Does your network work?”.

Also, I’m pretty sure that the “I can hear you now” guy has been going through the same depression and anxiety issues that I’ve had in the last year. Perhaps I’ll call him to see if he needs a workout buddy. Ha!

Just in time for the onslaught of iPhone 4 customers it will receive, Verizon has revised its terms in conditions and reserved the right to throttle data speeds. Unlike AT&T, Verizon still offers unlimited data plans. If you’re a data hog then there’s a chance that your speeds will slow down “periodically”. Here are the details:

Verizon Wireless strives to provide customers the best experience when using our network, a shared resource among tens of millions of customers. To help achieve this, if you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5% of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and immediately following billing cycle to ensure high quality network performance for other users at locations and times of peak demand. Our proactive management of the Verizon Wireless network is designed to ensure that the remaining 95% of data customers aren’t negatively affected by the inordinate data consumption of just a few users.

I know that some of you are interested in picking up an iPhone 4 on Verizon’s network. Does this development change anything for you?

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Tech nerds were going gaga over this Reuters story that proclaimed that Google (Android) has toppled Nokia (Symbian) as the leading seller of smartphones. Certainly the numbers can be interpreted that way, but it’s a bit of an apples-and-oranges comparison. First of all, Google doesn’t make smartphones; it makes a smartphone OS. Nokia actually sells and makes smartphones. This fact was later added to the article, but the headline is still misleading. Putting that important distinction aside, the numbers are still impressive:

In the fourth quarter, phonemakers sold 32.9 million Android-equipped phones globally, roughly seven times more than the year-earlier quarter, compared with Symbian’s sales of 31 million, according to Research firm Canalys.

Although Samsung and Sony Ericsson offer Symbian phones, the majority of Symbian smartphones are made by Nokia. Compare that to Google Android, which is used in a wide variety of smartphones from a wide variety of manufacturers. The business models are entirely different.

Android vs. Symbian is a boring fight. Depending on your point of view, Nokia is either confused or being glacial with its smartphone strategy. While the company still ships more phones than anyone else in the world, it looks like it will keep losing more and more ground in the immediate future. What’s more interesting — and a juicier topic to debate — is the Apple iOS vs. Google Android battle. Here’s more from Reuters:

The numbers also highlight Google’s success in battling Apple, whose shipments of its popular iPhone increased to 16.2 million from 8.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, when it almost doubled Android’s 4.7 million shipments.

Again, it’s an apples-and-oranges comparison since Apple makes the hardware and software for iPhone. However, there’s no denying that 2010 was a breakout year for Android. In my opinion, the Motorola Droid (released in late 2009) was the first Android phone that truly competed with the iPhone. From there, the Android market snowballed. With a variety of models from numerous manufacturers available on different networks, I knew that Android’s numbers would be gaudy, but I don’t recall anyone predicting that it would grow so much in a short amount of time.

I’m excited to see how 2011 pans out. The iPhone will be available on more carriers than ever before, but will that be enough to slow down Android’s growth? How do you think the smartphone market will play out in 2011? Are people making too big a deal about Android vs. iOS? Will HP WebOS and Microsoft Windows Phone 7 make an impact this year? Can RIM reinvigorate consumer BlackBerry sales with an updated OS? Gaze into your crystal ball and let me know (please)!

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