Apple reportedly expects to sell more iPhones in its coming 2018 lineup that will be outfitted with cheaper LCD screens than the models equipped with pricey OLEDs.
Apple anticipates fans would lean toward the cheaper LCD iPhone this year
WSJ
WSJ: Apple taps Goldman Sachs for a branded Apple Pay credit credit due early 2019
Apple is planning to launch a branded Apple Pay credit card as soon as early 2019.
AT&T & T-Mobile now using Apple’s Hybridized Emergency Location tech for 911 calls
While major mobile platforms such as Apple's iOS and Google's Android come with rich location services helping apps like Uber and Facebook pinpoint a user’s location, emergency services were unable to use this data. Thankfully, that's beginning to change now.
Judge punishes Apple for withholding documents in FTC’s lawsuit against Qualcomm
US Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins has officially sanctioned Apple over withholding documents in the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) lawsuit against Qualcomm.
WSJ: Apple signs a deal with Steven Spielberg for “Amazing Stories” reboot
Apple has reportedly inked a deal with director Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television and Comcast's NBC Universal to create new episodes of “Amazing Stories,” Spielberg's 1980s fantasy, horror and sci-fi television anthology series.
Samsung to earn an estimated $110 on each iPhone X sold
Samsung, the sole provider of sophisticated OLED panels to Apple, will earn an estimated $110 on each iPhone X sold through the summer of 2019, according to an analysis conducted by Counterpoint Technology for The Wall Street Journal.
WSJ: iPhone 8 production glitches may lead to constrained supply and shipping delays
Multiple production glitches early in the manufacturing process this summer could result in extended supply shortfalls and shipping delays for iPhone 8, with contract manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group now offering bonuses to employees who can bring in new hires.
WSJ: Apple does not want to raise price of 4K movies, Hollywood disagrees
Just how much should Apple's iTunes Store charge for 4K movie downloads?
According to The Wall Street Journal on Monday, Apple has proposed pricing new 4K movie releases at $19.99, which is precisely what the company currently charges purchases of major digital movie releases in full HD (1080p) resolution on iTunes Store.
WSJ: iPhone 8’s deep-sensing 3D scanner works in complete darkness
iPhone 8 is said to pack in sophisticated 3D sensors on its front and back capable of scanning a user's face within “millionths of a second”. The Wall Street Journal has now learned that the phone's deep-sensing scanners work in low-light situations, even in complete darkness.
WSJ: Apple to spend $1 billion on Hollywood programming over the next year
Apple has set aside a reported $1 billion war chest to procure and produce as many as ten television shows over the next year, according to the Wall Street Journal today.
Former Apple creative director: “The pipeline that Steve Jobs started is over”
Hugh Dubberly, a former Apple creative director and former member of Samsung’s global design advisory board, was cited in The Wall Street Journal's write-up Monday as saying that the pipeline that Steve Jobs started is now over. “It’s not so much that Samsung has gotten better, but Apple has fundamentally changed,” he added.
While smartphone innovation in general has stalled due to market saturation and other factors as game-changing technologies continue to give way to incremental changes, the article suggests that Samsung has out-designed Apple with its Galaxy S8.
The smartphone war is shifting to how a phone looks and feels, reads the article.
Samsung design chief M.H. Lee was cited as saying:
Companies used to design phones to show off their technology. Now the focus is on designing a product that can be a buddy to the person, inseparable to them. Smartphone design is not just artwork that expresses what you want but a process of making things people around the world can actually use.
Charles L. Mauro, president of MauroNewMedia, a product-design research firm that has done consulting work for Apple and Samsung, said smartphone aesthetics now account for about half a consumer’s purchase decision versus just seven percent of purchases in an older survey.
An excerpt from the article:
Samsung's Galaxy S8 is nudging the bar higher as Apple seeks to impress with its 10th anniversary iPhone this fall. For Apple to outdo Samsung on design, analysts said, it would need a new distinguishing feature, like a fingerprint sensor beneath the display rather than a physical Home button.
Consumer Reports ranked the Galaxy S handset the top phone for the second straight year, praising features like Galaxy S8's industrial design, battery life and camera quality.
Galaxy S8 sales hit one million units in South Korea in half the time it took for its predecessor to hit that milestone. On the other hand, it saw significantly lower global sales during its first two months of availability than the Galaxy S7 model during the same period last year.
WSJ: Samsung working on Bixby powered smart speaker
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Samsung has been developing a wireless speaker powered by its Bixby personal assistant to take on the rival Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod devices.
Internally code-named “Vega”, the project has been in development for more than a year.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the report states that the release timing is far from determined because the device's feature set and other specifications are yet to be decided, much less a release date.
The development is said to have been held back by the progress of Bixby itself, which already forced the South Korean firm to launch Galaxy S8 without proper support for English voice commands which rolled out in preview form last month.
According to the report, Samsung sees the full release of Bixby voice support as “unlikely before the second half of July.”