Apple's New iPhone Owners Demand Cheaper iPhones Share to facebook Share to linkedin Apple’s latest iPhones have had a rough time since they were announced in September 2018. Q4 numbers led to an unprecedented profits warning from Tim Cook and his team. But there are signs that the second quarter of 2019 will show an improvement. While this is good news in regards to higher than projected sales, the breakdown of which units are popular with customers is going to make for uncomfortable reading. The new iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR handsets are expected to be shunned for the older and cheaper models - namely the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 families. Apple Insider’s Roger Fingas reports on the last numbers from analysts at UBS: UBS is boosting its June-quarter iPhone estimates from 32.5 million units to 34.5 million, though mostly on the basis that Apple is expected to sell more pre-2018 models. While UBS is predicting 3 million more iPhone XR sales, it's expecting an equal decrease in iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max shipments. That’s going to lower Apple’s average selling price per handset, and limit the use of ‘geewhizz’ technologies such as FaceID which are not present on the older models. And while iOS does offer support to older devices, there’s nothing the software can do to replicate newer technology that can pull the platform forwards and match up to the latest offerings from Android-focused manufacturers. iPhone 8 Product (Red) (image: Apple PR)Apple Where does this use case cause the most difficulty? China. Irrespective of the feature set or the power of iOS, the Chinese market is focused on the brand new, very high-end specifications, and if a piece of hardware runs WeChat. The latter is pretty much universal and iOS offers no advantage, while the former areas have seen Apple outclassed since the launch of the iPhone XS and XS Max. The mid-cycle pick up is simply not there for the new design of iPhones which placed their focus on premium features and premium pricing. Apple may be holding steady in the
saturated markets of the US and the EU, but its strategy is counter to the needs to the countries where there is still capacity for significant growth. Now read why Apple should not have cancelled the iPhone SE without lining up a replacement…
02 Samsung has an amazing new Galaxy phone, but it's facing the same problems as the iPhone Sure, if you have $1,000, the Galaxy S10+ is a good bet, and you'll love the screen, cameras and battery life, three things that matter most to consumers. But you don't need to upgrade if you have a Galaxy S8 or newer, since the changes probably aren't worth the cost. If you like your iPhone, stick with that. There's no "must have" feature in the Galaxy S10+ that you can't find on an iPhone either. There are also some cheaper versions of the Galaxy S10+ that offer most of the same features I described here. The "regular" Galaxy S10 has a slightly smaller screen and one front-facing camera instead of two. It starts at $899. There's also the Galaxy S10e, which has less RAM and a flat (not curved) display to keep costs lower. It starts at $750. Finally, a version of the Galaxy S10 that can connect to 5G networks will launch later this year. That's the story of the Galaxy S10 family of devices. They're fantastic phones with high-end features, but there aren't enough things here that are going to make this the must-have phone of the year. That won't happen until something far better — or more affordable — comes along.
03 Turn iPhone, Pixel or Galaxy phone displays into 3D with this screen protector
Holoscreen can turn your iPhone's display, or any phone for that matter, into 3D. Angela Lang/CNET In a corner conference room, Han Jin, the CEO of Lucid, places an old iPhone 7 Plus on the table. He swipes through pages of apps, showing me what looks on all counts to be a normal iPhone with a screen protector on it. Then, he opens the Lucid app and plays a clip from Avatar in 3D. I look at him astonished, realizing he just made the iPhone 3D.
This isn't some magic trick, but rather a screen protector that can make the iPhone's display, or pretty much any phone for that matter, show 3D. It works by using a special lenticular screen protector called the Holoscreen along with Lucid's app. Now playing: Watch this: Holoscreen is a screen protector that makes any phone... 2:07 The screen looks normal when not using Lucid's app. Email and texts are sharp and crisp. But with the app, I can view photos and videos in 3D, and the effect looks very smooth. I didn't see the banding or ghosting that you see from some 3D screens such as those on the Nintendo 3DS. I can even take my own 3D photos and videos and share them using the app, too. The one caveat here is you need a phone with two rear cameras like the iPhone 7 Plus to do so. The two companies behind the Holoscreen are Holitech and Lucid. Holitech makes and supplies displays for midrange phones and Lucid makes AI-based 3D and depth capture software for phones. Notably Lucid partnered with Red on the 3D camera functionality on its Hydrogen One phone.
The Holoscreen looks like a regular old screen protector and works as one. But when used with Lucid's app, it turns your phone display into 3D. Angela Lang/CNET What's remarkable is that really the only other phone with anything like this 3D-wise is the Red Hydrogen One, which sells for $1,295. One of the criticisms I had about the Red Hydrogen One was that you could only share 3D videos and photos with people who had their own Hydrogen One.
The Holoscreen's price is much less and will be around $30 to $40 -- not much more than a normal screen protector. This affordable price should allow many people to try 3D out on a phone for the first time. The Holoscreen aims to be to 3D content what Google Cardboard is to VR. I don't think the Holoscreen will transform anyone's deep-seated beliefs or hatred for 3D. But for many people who are curious about 3D, this seems to be an affordable way to test the waters. And if you don't like the 3D effect or stop watching content over time, the Holoscreen still works as a screen protector. The Holoscreen protector will go on sale this summer.
1 Samsung has an amazing new Galaxy phone, but it's facing the same problems as the iPhone Sure, if you have $1,000, the Galaxy S10+ is a good bet, and you'll love the screen, cameras and battery life, three things that matter most to consumers. But you don't need to upgrade if you have a Galaxy S8 or newer, since the changes probably aren't worth the cost. If you like your iPhone, stick with that. There's no "must have" feature in the Galaxy S10+ that you can't find on an iPhone either. There are also some cheaper versions of the Galaxy S10+ that offer most of the same features I described here. The "regular" Galaxy S10 has a slightly smaller screen and one front-facing camera instead of two. It starts at $899. There's also the Galaxy S10e, which has less RAM and a flat (not curved) display to keep costs lower. It starts at $750. Finally, a version of the Galaxy S10 that can connect to 5G networks will launch later this year. That's the story of the Galaxy S10 family of devices. They're fantastic phones with high-end features, but there aren't enough things here that are going to make this the must-have phone of the year. That won't happen until something far better — or more affordable — comes along.
02 Apple's latest iPhone update makes it much easier to manage app subscriptions — here's how Apple's latest iPhone software update has a pleasant surprise for those who despise digging through the Settings menu to cancel their app subscriptions. The update, which was released on Feb. 7 to fix a security flaw with Apple's FaceTime video chatting service, also makes it possible to manage app subscriptions directly from the App Store. This might include subscriptions to magazines, or to music or video streaming services. Just open the App Store, tap your profile icon in the upper right corner of the screen, and you'll notice an option that says "Manage Subscriptions." After selecting this option, you'll see a list of each app you subscribe to. From here, you can tap each app to see additional details about the subscription, and change its status. The feature was first spotted by MacStories editor-in-chief Federico Viticci. It's a notable addition considering the other method of cancelling app subscriptions from your iPhone is way more laborious — it involves launching the Settings menu, navigating to the iTunes & App Store section, tapping your Apple ID, pressing View Apple ID, possibly verifying your Apple ID, and tapping the Subscriptions button. It's a small change, but one that reflects Apple's goal of improving the App Store experience. In 2017, the company overhauled its App Store to with the goal of making it easier to discover new apps. The change is believed to have worked, as data from Sensor Tower suggested that app discovery through browsing rather than searching in the App Store increased to 15 percent following the launch compared to 10 percent prior to the redesign.
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One of the 2020 iPhone’s best features just leaked, and it’s something you won’t even see It might seem crazy to suggest that a company can pile up $84.3 billion in revenue in a single quarter and have that be a disappointment, but that’s exactly what happened to Apple during the holiday quarter last year. Why would such a staggering sum be disappointing, you ask? Because it was a significant decline of 5% compared to the same quarter a year earlier. What’s more, the reason for that sizeable decline is quite worrisome: iPhone sales are down. Way, way down, with Apple saying that revenue from iPhone sales plummeted 15% compared to the year-ago quarter. Apple no longer shares iPhone unit sales with the public, which in itself is a troubling sign, but the company blamed troubles in China for the majority of the iPhone revenue dip. China undoubtedly played a role, but anyone paying attention knows that China isn’t the only reason iPhone sales are slowing. Apple’s current-generation iPhone models simultaneously represent Apple’s most boring iPhone upgrade ever and Apple’s most expensive iPhone upgrade ever. That is not a recipe for success, and it means that even more pressure will fall on Apple’s next iPhone upgrades in 2019 and 2020. We started to see a few leaks surrounding Apple’s iPhone 11 lineup begin to trickle in a couple of months ago, but things really started to heat up earlier this week. The world’s top Apple insider issued his first big report on Apple’s 2019 iPhone lineup, revealing plenty of key details in the process. Apple definitely has some intriguing new features planned for its iPhone 11 lineup, but rumor has it they’ll be packed inside a smartphone with a design that is largely unchanged. 2019 is a year of evolution, and every major Android phone vendor is working on exciting new all-screen designs. Meanwhile, apart from the rear camera being moved from the top corner to the middle area on top of the iPhone 11, Apple is expected to use the same iPhone design for the third consecutive year. As for Apple’s 2020 iPhone lineup — presumably the iPhone 11s series — nothing about the phones has been confirmed. There are barely even any rumors for the time being. All we know for sure is that Apple had better learn from the mistakes it made with the iPhone XS series. Namely, no one wants to pay over $1,000 for a smartphone that introduces no exciting new features whatsoever.
While it will undoubtedly be quite some time before we learn about Apple’s plans for next year’s new iPhones, a new report on Friday does shed some light on one feature of the phone. What’s more, it actually may turn out to be one of the 2020 iPhone series’ best features. Since we’re looking at an “S” upgrade for 2020, speed and performance improvements are going to be a big deal. And according to a new report from Digitimes, the iPhone 11s series will pack next-generation A series processors based on 5 nanometer process technology. Apple’s A12 Bionic SoC in the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR is based on 7 nanometer process tech, and it was the first smartphone to launch globally with a 7nm processor. The A12 offers performance and efficiency that are still unmatched among available smartphones right now, and it looks like Qualcomm’s new 7nm Snapdragon 855 and Samsung’s latest 8nm Exynos chip still can’t match Apple’s A12 from last year. If Apple moves to 5nm chips in next year’s iPhone 11s, as stated in this report, that means the chips will cram even more transistors into and even smaller space. The end result is processors, and therefore iPhones, that are faster and more power efficient than ever before.