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Withings' $500 toilet computer wants to be WebMD for your pee
Withings' has already conquered scales and smartwatches, now it wants to put a diagnostic engine in your toilet.
Apple's mixed reality headset may be a standalone device
According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the headset will have two processors -- one with the same computing power as the M1 chip.
The UK likely got more power from renewables than fossil fuels last quarter
The UK generated more power from renewable sources than from fossil fuels in the third quarter of 2019. This is the first time that's happened since the UK opened its first public electricity-generating station in 1882. The findings, revealed in an analysis by Carbon Brief, speak to progress the country has made in transforming its electricity system over the past decade.
Google says its own analysis shows 'no gender pay gap'
In a new post on pay equity, Google VP Eileen Naughton says the company was "taken aback" by the US Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) accusation that it paid women less than men, especially since the regulator gave no data to back up the claim. To counter it, the company supplied its own study that it called "extremely scientific and robust," showing that women and men are paid equally at the firm with a 95 percent confidence rating.
Analysts predict the end of the smartphone boom
Gartner's latest research into the state of the mobile industry is a dire warning to all phone manufacturers. The financial analysis firm believes that the growth in smartphone sales will fall to a single digit, half the rate it was in 2015. It's hard to think that people buying 1.5 billion devices in a calendar year is a bad thing, but for companies who make profit on scale, it's a nightmare. Last year, LG made just 1.2 cents in profit for every phone it sold, and you need to sell a lot of phones at that cost before you can consider yourself a big deal.
Acer feels the pain of the PC's decline
Analysts believe that the PC has had its day in the sun, and now, we've got another shred of proof to toss into the dossier. Acer, the world's fifth-largest PC maker, has revealed that its revenues fell by the better part of 30 percent in the second quarter of the year. The terse announcement wasn't supported by a full earnings release, but the figures mean that this period has been the company's smallest quarter since 2006. The spreadsheet may be missing, but Digitimes is reporting that Acer is betting on Chromebooks, 2-in-1 and gaming laptops will restore the firm to profitability.
Apple's now shipping as many smartphones as Samsung
When people talk about Apple and Samsung, the lazy narrative is to say that Apple makes the most money, but Samsung makes the most devices. According to Strategy Analytics, however, that story may no longer actually be the case. In its latest look at the state of the industry, Apple and Samsung both shipped an estimated 74.5 million devices in the last three months of 2014, making them joint first in the shipments race. Of course, this was the first period where both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were made available, but even still, those are some hefty numbers.
Moneyball comes to the NHL with ProPuck Wizard
Billy Beane with the Oakland A's earned the most attention for his early use of analytics in setting up a line-up and running a major league baseball team. Now more and more sports are employing front office personnel with strong statistical and math backgrounds. ProPuck Wizard, a free universal app, now makes it possible for even casual fans to study and analyze their favorite NHL teams and try to discover what is responsible for the team's success or failure. ProPuck Wizard works on IOS 4.3 or later and makes available to fans a thorough breakdown of NHL team and league statistics that goes way beyond what fans would normally find available. Here is a breakdown of just some of the stats available: Tracks teams performance and standings by points, win percentage, and momentum Travel analysis including distance travelled, time zones, and back to back games Goal type analysis including even strength, power play, and short handed Shooting analysis of shots, shot percentage, and save percentage Game match-up analysis for past and future games Complete home/away/aggregate customizable game results All of these statistical breakdowns are updated each day so they are always up to date. In the Help section users will find explanations for all of the breakouts and how they are calculated. The breakout of season long travel for each of the teams demonstrates some numbers that might be important as the season progresses. Western Conference teams travel a much greater distance over the course of the season. All of the Eastern Conference teams are in the Eastern time zone so the distances between cities is relatively close. The only two teams that will travel more than 40,000 miles are Florida and Carolina. Meanwhile all but two of the Western Conference teams will exceed 40,000 miles in travel this year most by several thousand miles. Arizona and Dallas log the most air miles since the are both way south of the other teams. All those extra miles means longer flights after games and getting to bed much later. This could impact a team's performance at certain points of the year. The statistic breakdowns are all color coded. Green numbers mean the team is performing above the league average, red designates areas where teams are below the league average and the blue numbers mark the points where teams are right at the league average. That makes if very easy to see just how your team is doing as you go through the breakouts. All the number columns have headers which can be confusing but a single tap on the header brings up a table with an explanation of each header. If you are kind of a stat-head and really enjoy investigating all areas of performance by your favorite team in an effort to find the reasons for success or failure this app is for you. I am sure you will spend hours on ProPuck Wizard pouring through the numbers and forming your own conclusions on why your team should win the Stanley Cup.
Apple CarPlay: What is it and why should you care?
If you have a car and an iPhone, chances are they already know each other. CarPlay builds on the iPod interfaces that are available on nearly every new model. It's not a direct mirror of your iPhone, but a tailored set of apps with a pared-down feature set. Plug in your phone, and CarPlay highjacks the center screen. Most of the partner brands promising CarPlay use touch screens, so swiping and tapping will be just like on the phone. A few, namely the Germans, use buttons and knobs instead-Mercedes with its COMAND interface, BMW with iDrive and Audi with MMI. The screen layout will be the same in every model, independent of automaker, adapted to whatever size display is in the car. Voice commands should work just like they do with Siri Eyes Free. The main apps include CarPlay-ized versions of Phone, Music, (Apple) Maps, Messages and Podcasts. A Home button lives in the corner, and a Now Playing shortcut brings up the current audio. Once third-party apps become CarPlay-friendly-Spotify is the first-they'll show up on the Home screen. Should you want to get back to the car's own system, a branded app (really just a button) will take you there. A lot of this functionality is already available to new-car buyers, albeit without the familiar Apple interface. Various infotainment systems can talk to smartphones through tethered apps, too-like brand-specific apps and iHeartRadio. CarPlay is the next step, a sort of killer tethered app. Because automotive product cycles are long, it takes a while to integrate the latest technology; a new model going on sale today has been in the works for a while, and major changes come every three years or so. iPhones, on the other hand, show up annually, with iOS updates adding new features in between. So CarPlay should continue to evolve and improve, and when you hook up your new iPhone 7S in a few years, it'll be like getting a higher-powered infotainment system, no invasive car surgery required. Now, about that tether. CarPlay won't let you cut the cord. It requires a Lightning cable connection, which also means it's only compatible with iPhone 5 models and up. This at least guarantees constant power. Good luck finding somewhere to stash that 6 Plus, though. Another slight bummer: CarPlay probably won't save you money on your next new-car purchase. No company has announced a dumb head unit that will let the iPhone be the sole brains of the operation -- think Mac mini's BYODKM (bring your own display, keyboard, mouse) philosophy. It's feasible, but automakers still want to get paid, and a navigation system bundled with a big screen is still an easy couple grand. Now the big question is when. Ferrari started delivering CarPlay-equipped models in September, making good on its claim that the gorgeous all-wheel-drive FF hatchback would be first to market with the new tech. (Eddy Cue, an Apple SVP and Ferrari board member, likely had something to do with that.) In the aftermarket, Pioneer made its NEX line of head units CarPlay-capable through a recent firmware update. Alpine has also promised CarPlay compatibility. Like those pre-installed in new cars, these units are expensive, already capable of navigation and plenty of other stuff. The advantage is you can put one in almost any car, and right now. The downside is a lower level of integration; they often don't talk to the steering-wheel controls of factory systems. As for the rest, Apple promised CarPlay for select models in 2014. In car-speak, that translates to 2015 models, most of which will go on sale this fall. But a CarPlay-compatible car you buy tomorrow won't be CarPlay-capable until it gets a software update, likely provided free of charge at the dealer once it's available. Like most things Apple, we probably won't know when CarPlay will show up in mainstream models until about the time it does. We'll have a review once we get our hands on a CarPlay-equipped model.
Analysts suggest video game Kickstarters are in decline
If you're still holding out hope for Kickstarter as the new face of funding video game development, you may want to revise that projection. Analyst group ICO Partners has been tracking Kickstarter through 2014 and has observed a marked drop in successful projects, funds pledged, and overall scale of projects on the site. Based on projections, the group expects a 20% drop in successful projects by the end of the year -- not a collapse, but a definite shrink. The downturn is attributed to a variety of factors, including the lack of several big-name projects to draw people to the service and a number of high-profile failures. ICO Partners analyst Thomas Bidaux also notes that the amount being received by successful projects is diminishing, which he attributes to fans being less willing to drop money on a potential game when some of their already funded games have yet to materialize. The full report has more data and is well worth a read for anyone interested in crowdfunding and its future.
WRUP: It's all about Maraad
Another week leads into another weekend, and this weekend's buzz around the virtual office is all about Vindicator Maraad, who wrapped up Blizzard's Lords of War series by telling his own story. A draenei jumping into the thus far all-orcs tale of the Warlords of Draenor? How odd! Long-time followers of WoW Insider can probably already guess at our response to Maraad's appearence, but read on to find out what we're up to this weekend -- and let us know what you're playing in the comments!
Apple's September event may be its most significant event in years
Let's be honest. There's something different in the air about Apple's upcoming media event, now officially confirmed for September 9. Before getting to what products might be announced, it's worth noting that this year's event will not be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts or on Apple's Cupertino campus. Instead, throngs of select journalists and various media outlets will file into the Flint Center for the Performing Arts to witness, first hand, Apple's next big thing. Now its entirely possible that the choice for the event space may be purely logistical -- the Flint Center holds more people than the Yerba Buena Center -- but note that two of Apple's most important product unveilings went down at the Flint Center; the 1984 introduction of the Mac at Apple's annual shareholders meeting and the 1997 introduction of the iMac. The former revolutionized the way we use computers while the latter emphatically signaled the beginning of a new and more focused Apple with Steve Jobs calling all the shots. Having said that, perhaps the choice for this year's special event is not logistical in nature at all, but rather purposeful insofar as Apple has a few grand announcements that warrant a storied event space. Interestingly, keen-eyed Apple enthusiasts have noticed that the company has already starting putting up a "massive structure" on the Flint Center campus. But enough about that, let's get to the meat and potatoes of it all -- new products. It's widely believed at this point that Apple in just a few weeks will unveil two new iPhone models. On top of that, Re/Code reported yesterday that Apple will also use the occasion to introduce a new wearable device. Indeed, rumors of an Apple designed wearable device -- prematurely dubbed the "iWatch" -- have been picking up a whole lot of steam over the last 12-18 months. From notable hires to interesting trademark filings to a bevy of published patents, it stands to reason that Apple has something big to announce in that regard. Also recall that Tim Cook during a 2013 interview with All Things D explained why the wrist as a spot for wearables is "interesting." There are lots of gadgets in this space right now, but there's nothing great out there," Cook said. "But none of them are going to convnice a kid that hasn't worn glasses or a band to wear one. ... There are a lot of problems to solve in this space. ... It's ripe for exploration. I think there will be tons of companies playing in this space." Will Apple be one of the companies doing the exploring? Said Cook, "I see [wearables] as a very key branch of the tree." And oh yes, Tim Cook also said earlier this year, quite explicitly at that, that Apple in 2014 will enter a new product category. When pressed as to whether this refers to modest enhancements to existing products, Cook answered that anyone "reasonable" would consider what Apple is working on a new product category. It's also worth mentioning, especially if you missed it the first time, a blurb from Apple executive Eddy Cue wherein he proclaimed that Apple's 2014 product pipeline is the best he's ever seen in his 25 years at Apple. That's a bold proclamation coming from a top tier executive like Cue, especially when one considers that Apple rarely if ever makes such grand pronouncements. Further, Apple last quarter spent more on R&D than they've ever spent before -- $1.6 billion to be exact. All told, the amount represented about 4.2% of the company's net sales for the quarter, a fact not lost on analyst Walter Piecyk who tweeted out that Apple's quarterly R&D expenditure as a percentage of net sales last topped 4% ahead of the iPhone launch in 2007. $AAPL R&D was over 4% of revenue. It hasn't been that high since 2006, before the first iPhone launched. - Walter Piecyk (@WaltBTIG) July 22, 2014 All told, larger screened iPhones may very well prove to be a small part of the story come September 9. And in case all of that hasn't gotten you amped up for whatever tricks Apple has up its sleeve, the following tweet from Jim Dalrymple of The Loop should do the trick. Holy shit people, hang on to your hats, this is going to be a wild ride. - Jim Dalrymple (@jdalrymple) August 28, 2014
In-depth analysis of soccer teams available with FuteNotes
The FuteNotes app is intended to be used by local youth soccer coaches or parents assisting the coaches but could also be used by fans who like to track their favorite professional team. The app, priced at US$2.99 works on the iPad and requires iOS 4.3 or later. With all the data entered ahead of time, you can track each player's playing time, where his or her shots came from and the result of each shot. The app also tracks direct kicks, corner kicks, and penalty kicks. You can even follow a shootout if your league uses that feature to decide games. The app require quite a bit of data entry before you start using it. FuteNotes has a help section that takes you step-by-step through all the date entry and how to start tracking each match. First you need to enter the information about your team including team name, the city where the game is being played, the complex or field for the games are played, when you season begins and when it ends. Once you have completed that entry it's time to move on to individual players. For each team member you enter first and last names, an email address (more on that in a minute), height, weight, birthdate, and primary position such as striker, central midfielder, fullback or goalkeeper. You can also upload a photo of each player and that becomes important too. This information is saved and can be used for future matches. Once you complete the date entry you are ready to start a match and track the team and each player's progress. After you have chosen the game you want to track an empty soccer pitch appears with all your active players on the sideline. The players are identified by their photos so as you can see in my test, each player just says Insert Photo. If you don't have photos, an option is to turn on the "Player Time" feature and the player's first name and last name initial will appear. Now the match begins, you tap the scoreboard clock once, and starting tracking. To record a shot, direct kick, etc. Take the soccer ball that is on the field, drag it over the player taking the shot or kick, and then place the ball at the spot on the field where the kick took place. Once you do that you can tap the ball and another window appears that allows you to record what kind of kick, shot, corner, etc, and the result on goal or not and if on goal did it go in. This information is saved and at the end of the game you will receive a statistical breakdown for every player on your team. In addition to tracking the kicks and shots, the app user can take notes that can be later passed on via email to the players or coaches. This might include that a player was out of position or made a special effort to score a goal. Most youth soccer leagues stress that all players get equal playing time, FuteNotes tracks that for you. It keeps a running time on each player on the pitch and when substitutions are made you can note that and stops the running time of the player taken off the field. Overall this app offers a lot of useful data to youth coaches and parents who want to track their youth soccer players. FuteNotes requires a lot of data entry up front and for the user to be busy during the actual match but that effort could pay off with better players and more wins at the end of the season.
WRUP: Guardians of the Twisting Nether
Guardians of the Galaxy is out this weekend, a thrilling tale of a motley crew of unexpected allies who somehow manage to come together and save the galaxy from certain destruction. I saw it on Thursday night and thought it was hysterically awesome. It's the combination of unlikely characters that makes the film, really -- so when I was putting together this week's WRUP, I thought I'd throw out an unlikely bonus question: If you were going to assemble an unlikely crew from Azeroth's finest to save the world, who would you stick together? I'm pretty sure Cro Threadstrong would have to be on my team, as well as Asric and Jadaar, Thisalee Crow, and Myra Tyrngaarde. Yes, the bread vendor from Ironforge. You just know she's hiding the secret ability to go ballistic. They'd totally defeat the Burning Legion. ... or at least they'd provide enough of a startling distraction for the other heroes to come in and take care of business. And of course we ask, as we always do, what are you playing?
WRUP: Someone should make a Warcraft movie MMO
So there's this Warcraft movie that's getting made? And they showed off the logo and some props from it this week, and there's apparently going to be a big panel at SDCC where Legendary Pictures may or may not reveal some details about the movie. And so now I'm thinking about it, and I think we totally should make an MMO based on this Warcraft property, if the movie does well enough. So this week, in addition to asking about what our friends are playing, I asked what they thought about this Warcraft movie and if it would make a good MMO.
Microsoft still doesn't get why the iPhone succeeded
About two weeks ago, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella penned a detailed memo to Microsoft employees, a mission statement of sorts, outlining the company's vision and strategy for the future. Upon reading the memo, along with a subsequent interview Nadella conducted with The Verge, I was struck by the fact that Microsoft still doesn't get it. As Microsoft continues its push to remain relevant in the mobile space, it still doesn't appreciate the factors that allowed Apple to enter a market it had no previous experience in, and turn that market on its head with the iPhone. Arguably blinded by the profits brought in by its Windows monopoly and its suite of productivity software, Microsoft still doesn't seem to fully comprehend how the iPhone was able to push established players like RIM to the brink of irrelevancy in just a few years. As an illustration, here is Nadella's response to a question from Joshua Topolsky regarding Microsoft's strategy to sell more devices to consumers. You're defining the market as "It's already done, Apple and Google have won, because they won the consumer side." And I'm going to question that. I'm going to say "No, any thinking consumer should consider Microsoft because guess what, you're not just a consumer. You're also going to go to work, you're also going to be productive and we can do a better job for you in there." And that's what I want to appeal to. And therein lies the problem. Consumers primarily buy mobile devices that make their lives easier and more fun, work be damned. Microsoft Office wasn't available on the iPhone until June of 2013. An iPad version wasn't released until four months ago! And guess what, hundreds of millions of consumers bought iPhones and iPads anyhow. The longer Microsoft continues to focus on the alleged allure of productivity software, the more it runs the risk of falling into the same trap as RIM, which remained so beholden to the notion of physical keyboards that it completely ignored the mass market to placate its beloved enterprise users. Just as RIM mistakenly believed that physical keyboards could fend off the growing popularity of the iPhone, Microsoft seems to believe that the abstract notion of "productivity" will help it garner more marketshare. The underlying problem with this train of thought is that it ignores the fact that the iPhone helped usher in the consumerization of IT, the dynamic where individuals themselves are able to influence the type of mobile devices supported in their work environments. I witnessed this myself back in 2008 when the IT department at the company I worked for tried, for as long as it could, to delay official support for the iPhone in the face of growing employee demand. By the time 2009 rolled around, the IT department simply couldn't ignore the ever increasing number of iPhone-toting employees (and executives) demanding iPhone support. Despite what Microsoft may believe, most consumers, when purchasing a smartphone, are not expressly looking for a device that makes them more efficient at work. Contrast Apple's notion of productivity (taking photos, editing movies, content creation, and sure, a little bit of word processing etc.) with the example Nadella relayed to The Verge. So that's the core of the memo, and when I think about productivity for me, a good canonical example for us is what we are doing with Cortana. Think about what Cortana can do for you as a salesperson, walking out of a sales meeting. It knows your calendar so it knows which company and person you met, where you were because of the geofencing, it does your "CRM" work for you as opposed to just about getting you there in terms of your mapping information. So it's about a much more broad view of what an intelligent agent that we can produce [is] that can reason over data, that's personal, organizational, and [can] improve productivity. Nadella expresses over and over again the notion of dual-use devices, which to me seems to indicate a clear lack of focus. I don't think of the world as enterprise and consumer. I think of it as people. In fact, I call out the specific thing about dual-use, which is I think where we can be most unique. Look, there's always going to be Pandora on our devices. But what is it that we can do with our operating systems, with our cloud, with our software, which is different and unique? We can make OneDrive, and OneDrive for Business, which I will use to share photographs and save photographs for my business documents. We can do a fantastic job of bringing those things together in support of you, the individual who's spanning both personal life and work life. So to me, that's what we are about. It's hard to read that and think that Microsoft is really able to distinguish the needs of the average consumer from those of an enterprise customer. It's why the bulk of Microsoft's Windows Phone and Surface advertisements tend to focus on the most boring use cases. I can use Excel on my Surface to be productive? Yawn. And check out this ad for Windows Phone. Note what's most prominently displayed -- Microsoft Office. Sure there's a market for tablet and smartphone productivity software, but targeting those features to mainstream consumers surely elicits nothing but yawns and glazed eyes. And again, it also ignores why the iPhone was able to become so successful. Because Office is responsible for such a huge percentage of Microsoft's revenue, the company has never faced the fact that for most people, applications like Word and Excel are necessary evils that they tolerate or are indifferent to (at best) in order to get work done. And yet, these are the use cases Microsoft continues to drone on and on about. The iPhone demonstrated that people want to do work on the devices that entertain them. Microsoft's strategy is seemingly the opposite; telling consumers that work-oriented Microsoft devices can also be used for entertainment. Nadella's memo mentions how Microsoft views each individual as a "dual user," yet the selling points Nadella makes for Microsoft products seem to wholly ignore the needs and interests of the average consumer. We will think of every user as a potential "dual user" – people who will use technology for their work or school and also deeply use it in their personal digital life. They strive to get stuff done with technology, demanding new cloud-powered applications, extensively using time and calendar management, advanced expression, collaboration, meeting, search and research services, all with better security and privacy control. It's almost painful to read. Who goes into a store looking for a smartphone with great time and calendar management? Apple understands that many of these business-oriented features are important, but it has added many of them over a period of time, focusing first on consumer-oriented features that actually drive sales en masse. I'll close with a story about Steve Jobs' view of the enterprise as told by VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger: "I went with (former Intel CEO Paul) Otellini to meet with Jobs and his lieutenants. We go into this meeting and say Steve, let's work together to make your Macs better for enterprise customers. Jobs looks at us and says 'Why would I do anything for that orifice called the CIO?'" said Gelsinger. "At Intel we're aghast; two-thirds of our business is that orifice called the CIO. [Jobs] went on to say 'I'm going to build devices that are irresistible for consumers, and CIOs will just have to deal with it.'"
WRUP: And now, our feature presentation
This week saw a release date announcement for Curse of Naxxramas, the first adventure pack for Hearthstone. Release dates are fine and all that, but in more relevant WoW news, this week also saw the launch of a brand new beta build that opened up four new levels to obtain, two new PvE zones worth of quests, two model revamps, one PvP island, a mysterious portal, and a whole mess of new places to explore. Sure, we already have a list of things to expect from Warlords, and a list of features we'll be seeing in the new expansion. But this week, in addition to asking everyone what they are playing this weekend, we decided to ask what one feature they'd like to see added to Warlords. How about you guys -- and what are you playing? Alex Ziebart (@AlexZiebart) This weekend I'm taking it easy for the most part and spending time outside. When I am playing something, I'll be on the Warlords beta checking out Talador. As for new features? Real player housing is still something I really want after seeing it in action in Wildstar -- the amount of creativity some players pour into their lots is incredible. Though I'd accept a Karabor comeback as an alternative.
WRUP: A lonely time of playing
This week was a complex mix of big news and no news. Weeks like this are weird. Your intrepid WoW Insider staff assembles itself, ready to lay down the big news smackdown... and then nothing else comes to light. It's a weird mix of hurry-up-and-wait and "Oh, please, let something happen." But the reality is that WoD approaches closer with every day. While there's obviously no release date yet, we're getting lots of information from the beta. So when we asked the WoW Insider staff what they're playing this weekend, we also asked them to opine on the state of the beta. Are we looking forward to the expansion as a whole new playground, or are we feeling like the not-time-travel expansion is perhaps a bit lackluster?
Report: Games industry saw $12.5 billion in acquisitions last year
Over $12.5 billion in game company acquisitions were announced in the last year, London-based game advisory firm Digi-Capital reports. The firm's second quarter review, as highlighted by GamesBeat, showed $4.6 billion of the deals involved mobile gaming companies. That was followed by $4 billion for MMOs, $2.5 billion in game technology and $1 billion for console deals. Digi-Capital managing director Tim Merel pointed to five reasons for the "consolidation crush" that occurred in the past year. For starters, Merel said that companies acquiring mobile developers are "buying into a large, high-growth market," as the firm forecasted that mobile games will generate $33 billion in revenue by 2017, growing from $4 billion in 2011 and $16 billion in 2013. Merel pointed to Zynga's purchase of Backbreaker developer NaturalMotion in January to the tune of $527 million as an example of its second reason for the industry's consolidation, mobile's cannibalization of other media and platforms.
Sales of smartphones with 5-inch+ screens grew by a staggering 369% last quarter
A newly published report from Canalys relays that the market for smartphones with screens 5 inches or above increased by a staggering 369% during the first quarter of 2014. Of the 279.4 million smartphones shipped during the quarter, 94.86 million units (about 34% of all shipments) were composed of larger screened smartphones. 'This is still a market segment led by Samsung, but the trend is unmistakably toward larger-screen handsets at the high end of the market. It held a 44% share of devices with displays of 5" and above, and 53% if the view is narrowed to look at 5.5"-plus displays,' said Canalys Analyst Jessica Kwee. ... Consumers now expect high-end devices to have large displays, and Apple's absence in this market will clearly not last long. It is notable that 5" and above displays featured on almost half (47%) of smart phones with an unlocked retail price of US$500 or more. Of the remaining 53% of high-end smart phones, 87% were iPhones. Apple plainly needs a larger-screen smart phone to remain competitive, and it will look to address this in the coming months.' While Apple initially remained beholden to the 3.5-inch display it introduced with the original iPhone, the company shook things up with the release of the larger screened iPhone 5. Looking ahead, there are a bevy of reports, leaks, and rumors suggesting that Apple's next-gen smartphone will feature an even larger screen. Specifically, 4.7 and 5.5-inch form factors are the two models most often mentioned. While speculation surrounding Apple's future product plans is just that -- speculation -- Apple's recent California trial with Samsung unearthed internal Apple documents indicating that the company was and remains well aware of the booming popularity of larger screened smartphones.
