Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts

Monday, 25 January 2016

Apple in 2016: Is the mighty iPhone in decline?

Apple's investors are spooked.

Despite a rip-roaring 2015, something peculiar happened this month: Apple's stock value dropped to below $100 for the first time since October 2014.
That was down from a high of just over $132 last May.
As I write this, it's rallying on account of some decent rumours - but it's on Tuesday we'll truly know if 2016 is going to be a tough one for the tech giant.
On the one hand, we're expecting an amazing Christmas with record-breaking revenues, yet again.
But it's Apple's guidance for what to expect in the months to come that investors will be eagerly awaiting. It's here where the company outlines its worries, the issues that keeps it awake at night (or at least, stressed out in the boardroom).



Apple stockImage copyrightGetty Images
Image captionApple's share price fell below $100 earlier this month

Troubled investors are expecting Apple to say this: For the first time, sales of the iPhone are in decline.
Decline!
The iPhone!
That's a big deal.

New business

According to the latest figures Apple has shared - from October - sales of the smartphone make up 63% of the company's entire revenue. That's before you factor in all the people who then go on to buy apps, subscribe to Apple Music, and do any number of other things with their phone from which Apple takes a cut.
Its other major products don't even come close. The Mac range has bucked a huge industry-wide decline but still only accounts for 13%. The iPad, meanwhile, represents 8% - though this may get a boost thanks to the recently launched iPad Pro, the bigger version that comes with a keyboard and little stylus.
Apple's major new product of recent times has been the Apple Watch. Yet we're still none-the-wiser about how successful that has been, as its performance is lumped into the "other" category, which includes sales of the iPod, Beats headphones and various other things.



Apple WatchImage copyrightGetty Images
Image captionAnalysts believe the Apple Watch is the bestselling smartwatch, but can only estimate its sales figures

Collectively, the "other" products were worth 6% in total.
The watch will have likely been a good performer at Christmas, so Apple may begin to shed some light on how well it is doing. But we'll have to wait and see.
The reliance on the iPhone is what worries investors most. Apple has plenty of repeat business - once hooked in, data shows people are far more likely to stick with Apple than change to another brand like Samsung - but it's now seeing a plateau when it comes to bringing in new customers.

'Bet the house'

Which is why China is so important.
Apple now makes more money in China than it does in the whole of Europe, and it's well on course to overtake the US.
"If China falls so does Apple," says Apple investor Daniel Ives, from FBR Capital Markets.



Apple Store NanjingImage copyrightGetty Images
Image captionApple opened its second store in the Chinese city of Nanjing in January

"They've really bet the house on the China growth opportunity."
Almost all of Apple's gains last year were thanks to Chinese expansion - new stores, and new customers who, until fairly recently, had to make do with awful knock-off imitations of the real deal.
But instability in the Chinese economy has rocked global markets. If China continues underperforming, it may be hard for Apple to continue that growth long-term.
But for the majority of investors and analysts, China doesn't represent a problem - yet.
It's still likely to be Apple's huge growth opportunity throughout 2016.
Case in point: there's currently only 30 Apple stores across the whole of China. California has 53.
Data suggests Apple's primary target in China, the middle classes, are still emptying their pockets with glee - particularly when it comes to buying Apple products.

Predicting the future

Trying to predict Apple's future is a dangerous habit.
It rarely ends well - just ask ex-Microsoft boss Steve "the-iPhone-is-not-a-good-email-machine" Ballmer. And everyone at Blackberry. And Nokia.



Steve BallmerImage copyrightGetty Images
Image captionSales of Windows-powered smartphones have lagged far behind those running Apple's iOS

But speculate we must, and here's a summary for what investors and analysts think could happen in 2016.
  • The iPhone 7 will come out - possibly without a headphone jack - and give iPhone sales a massive kick. (And perhaps headphones sales too, come to think of it.)
  • A new budget iPhone — called the "5E" - will hit the developing world. This may be a prime product for markets like India where, we learned this week, the company has applied to open up its own-brand stores too.
  • China will become even more important and show little sign of slowing down, at least where Apple is concerned.
  • A big acquisition will provide an express route for Apple into a new area. Apple investor Daniel Ives told the BBC that buying Netflix, for one example, would "get Wall Street the most excited".

On the road

And then there's one word that would send Apple's shares soaring in an instant: car.



Jony IveImage copyrightGetty Images
Image captionApple's chief design officer Sir Jonathan Ive is known to have a passion for cars

Rumours that Apple is making a car have gone from a murmur to shouts in the past six months.
Some predict Apple is looking at making a car, others say the company would be wiser to work with existing car makers to integrate Apple software - something which is already happening with CarPlay, a sort of slimmed down version of iOS designed for driving.
"It always goes back to can they come up with something as powerful as the iPhone," says Carolina Milanesi, an analyst with Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
"And I don't know if that is going to have to have us wait until the car comes out."
But she adds: "I don't think investors will ever be happy with Apple,"
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How to protect your iOS jailbroken device from malicious tweaks



iOS jailbreak
 
The internet is abuzz with news of several iCloud accounts being hacked recently, wherein nearly 220,000 accounts were allegedly exposed to potential compromise. Although avid jailbreakers would be aware of the inherited risks involved with iOS jailbreaking, not many would seem to know of potential ways to protect their device from external threats.

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Daimler CEO: Apple’s made more progress on automotive project than previously assumed


During a recent trip to Silicon Valley, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche told German weekly Welt am Sonntag that Apple and Google have made more progress on automotive projects than he had assumed, Reuters reported Monday.
“Our impression was that these companies can do more and know more than we had previously assumed. At the same time they have more respect for our achievements than we thought,” the executive told the paper.
Zetsche and an entourage of senior managers met with around 70 companies in Silicon Valley though the report didn’t name them.
“There were concrete talks. I will not say anything about the content. It was not just about the fact that there is an innovative spirit in the Valley,” he was quoted as saying.
“We know that already. We wanted to see what drives it, and all the things that can be created from it.” Mercedes-Benz established a research and development center in Silicon Valley twenty years ago.
The facility was headed by Johann Jungwirth, the former President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz, who joined Apple as Director of Mac Systems Engineering in September 2014 before leaving for Volkswagen in November 2015.
Apple’s electric car vehicle, dubbed Project Titan, has been called Silicon Valley’s worst kept secret though the initiative may have suffered a setback as Apple’s long-time veteran and VP of Product Design Steve Zadesky is reportedly leaving the company. He was tasked with spearheading the Cupertino firm’s ambitious automobile efforts.
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Sketchy Website Causes iPhones to Crash and Reboot

Sketchy Website Causes iPhones to Crash and Reboot
If the effective power bug taught us anything, it’s that something as simple as a text message can crash your iPhone. Now, there’s an even easier way to cause your phone to shit itself.
The site www.crashsafari.com was created to do exactly what the URL promises: With just four lines of code, the site runs a script that’s able to crash the iPhone’s default browser. (DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK!) The script adds thousands of characters per second into the browser’s address bar, overloading the browser’s memory, heating up the phone, and eventually forcing the iPhone to reboot.
Android devices and other iOS products experience similar problems. If you click the link on Android phone, it begins heating up after about 20 seconds and has problems completing basic commands. Quitting Chrome can stop the problem, but in many cases, a full reboot is the most effective way to deal with the bug.
Sketchy Website Causes iPhones to Crash and Reboot
The bug is equally effective on desktop and laptops. The site runs the exact same script on all versions of Chrome and Safari, overwhelming the browsers with code and causing them to crash. In most cases, you won’t be required to reboot your desktop or laptop because they’re better at dealing with overheating issues than popular smartphones.
Although the link appears to be growing in popularity, a WhoIs lookup indicates that the site was registered on April 29, 2015. Its creator is anonymous according to the registrar information. 

The crash safari i prank is similar to a Google Chrome bug we reported on last year. In that instance, the URL was not nearly as memorable and directed users to an open bug ticket on Chromium. The developer that found the Chrome bug revealed it to highlight how easily links can be proliferated. Keep that in mind while you’re spamming your friends with www.crashsafari.com.
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Here’s the difference between Apple’s alleged iPhone 5se and iPhone 5 in the leaked photo


Late last night, an alleged photo of the ‘iPhone 5se’ made its way to the Internet that showed the device sitting right beside an iPhone 5. At first glance, many people confused the iPhone 5 with an iPod Touch, while other struggled to find any major differences between the two phones in the leaked pic. 
To clear this confusion, the folks over at Business Insider have marked all the changes between the iPhone 5 and the alleged ‘iPhone 5se’ in the leaked image from earlier today.
iPhone 5se
As you can see, the front of the iPhone 5se packs in quite a lot of changes compared to the iPhone 5. This includes a repositioned FaceTime camera and Power button, new shape for the volume buttons, rounded edges for the front-facing glass, and a Touch ID enabled Home button.
The iPhone 5 features a 4-inch screen, so the phone on the right being an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6s despite the uncanny resemblance is unlikely.
With the iPhone 5e rumors and leaks now catching steam, it is almost a given that Apple is indeed working on a 4-inch iPhone. The latest leak surrounding the handset reveals that the handset will come with an A9 chip, always-on ‘Hey Siri’ functionality, and will eventually replace the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus from Apple’s lineup later this year.
Do you think the 4-inch ‘iPhone 5se’ is real?

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iPhone 5se: Leaked details claim next Apple phone will be an iPhone 6 in an iPhone 5 case


Many of the details of the new, smaller iPhone have been revealed.
The phone’s case will mostly be the same as that of the iPhone 5s, according to a report from 9to5mac. And the inside’s will be somewhere between those of the iPhone 6 and the 6s, according to the same report.
Apple hopes that updating the smaller iPhone will spur upgrades from those users who prefer to hang on to the old sizing scheme, which was dropped for the bigger iPhone 6. 9to5mac reports are almost always correct, and the rumour site has predicted the details of a range of recent Apple products.
Some reports last week showed what claimed to be the long-rumoured iPhone 6c. The video showed what appeared to be just a small version of the iPhone 6 — but it was fake, according to the report.
Instead of using the design from the iPhone 6, Apple will put new internals into a updated version of the iPhone 5s design, according to the report. From the outside, it will only differ by using rounded edges like the iPhone 6, rather than the shiny and straight ones on the iPhone 5s.
Inside will be a range of upgrades that bring it into line with the iPhone 6, according to the report. That will include an upgraded camera, a chip to allow it to use Apple Pay and the same processor as the iPhone 6.
The new device is called “N69” within the company, according to 9to5mac. But it’s likely that the phone will be called the “iPhone 5se” when it is released, marking a change from previous rumours that it would be referred to as the iPhone 6c or iPhone 6e.
The phone will also come in the same silver, “space gray”, gold and rose gold colours that the iPhone 6s comes in.Since it will mostly use the technologies of the iPhone 5s, 6 and 6s, the phone is unlikely to offer a glimpse at the design of the iPhone 7, which will probably be released around September. The company has been rumoured to be dropping the headphone jack from that phone, for instance, but the iPhone 5se will keep the old standard.
The new, small iPhone is scheduled to be introduced at a March event and come out soon after, according to rumours. The company might also show off new Apple Watch accessories at the same time.
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