Apple experienced minimal iPhone growth in 2024 despite a significant rebound in the global smartphone market, according to new data published by IDC. Worldwide smartphone shipments increased 6.2% to reach 1.24 billion units, but iPhone shipments grew by just 0.4% during the same period.
The tepid performance underlines Apple's challenges in key markets like China, where domestic rivals are gaining ground through aggressive pricing and technological innovation. Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi and Huawei are investing heavily in hardware and software development as well as custom processor designs, with Huawei recently launching its new Mate 70 phone featuring its own home-grown chips.
Elsewhere, Android device makers collectively drove the market's recovery, achieving 7.6% growth mostly through strong performance in emerging markets across Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. These manufacturers appear to have succeeded by offering more affordable devices, with an average selling price of $295 compared to Apple's $1,000-plus premium iPhone positioning.
Despite the slower growth, Apple maintained its position as the industry's profit leader through its premium pricing strategy. According to IDC, the Apple's prospects may improve in 2025, with a forecast of 3.1% growth for iOS devices compared to 1.7% for Android smartphones.
Overall, the broader smartphone market's recovery was driven by pent-up demand for device upgrades in regions with lower smartphone penetration. However, IDC analysts noted that even heavily marketed features like generative AI have failed to significantly impact consumer demand or drive early upgrades, which doesn't bode well for the impact of Apple Intelligence on iPhone sales going into 2025.
Friday October 24, 2025 2:30 pm PDT by Juli Clover
In the fourth iOS 26.1 beta, Apple added a "Tinted" option that reduces the translucency of Liquid Glass for those who prefer a more opaque look. I saw some comments wondering whether the setting might preserve battery life, so I thought I'd do some testing.
Test Settings
I did four separate tests using the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and I kept the parameters as similar as possible. Here are the...
Wednesday October 22, 2025 6:15 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more.
iOS 26.1 is currently in beta testing. The update will likely be released in the first half of November, and it is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and newer, but some...
Apple Maps could feature integrated ads as soon as next year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.
In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that Apple's plan to bring more ads to iOS is moving "gaining traction," with the Maps app being next in line. The project will apparently give restaurants and other businesses the option to pay to have their details featured more prominently in...
Thursday October 23, 2025 3:55 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple is one of several tech companies that will contribute to the construction of U.S. President Donald Trump's 90,000-square-foot ballroom, reports CNN.
Construction began on the ballroom this week, and the White House's east wing was torn down. Trump claims that the ballroom will cost $350 million, and that it will be privately funded through donations. The cost has already increased $150 ...
Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 could feature 50% more memory than its predecessor, according to Korea's The Bell.
With its latest iPhone lineup, the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max feature 12GB of memory. This is a significant increase of 4GB more their predecessors, largely driven by the demands of on-device artificial intelligence processing.
The iPhone 17 is the only new...
In July, Apple sued well-known YouTuber Jon Prosser and his acquaintance Michael Ramacciotti over alleged theft of the company's trade secrets, after Prosser leaked some iOS 26 details in videos uploaded to his YouTube channel Front Page Tech. If you are not caught up on the lawsuit, read our initial coverage to learn more.
Earlier this week, Prosser told The Verge he has "been in active...
Apple's new iPhone lineup launched in the fall of 2027 will be called the "iPhone 20" models, rather than the "iPhone 19," according to research firm Omdia.
Speaking at a conference in Seoul (via ETNews), Omdia Chief Researcher Heo Moo-yeol corroborated rumors that Apple plans to move the launch of its standard iPhone to the first half of the year and provided some additional clarity about...
Friday October 24, 2025 7:18 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
At least some new iPhone models launching next year may support full 5G satellite internet, according to a report this week from The Information.
"Apple plans to add support in upcoming iPhones as early as next year for 5G networks that aren't tethered to Earth's surface, which includes satellites," the report said. "That would give the iPhone full internet access over satellite," it added.
...
The Windows 10 end-of-support deadline is driving the largest coordinated PC replacement cycle in years across the industry, and Apple is emerging as one of the main beneficiaries as Mac shipments accelerate.
Counterpoint Research this week reported that nearly 40% of the global installed PC base was still running Windows 10 ahead of the October 2025 cutoff, triggering early fleet renewals...
Well, there wasn't a massive difference between iPhone 15 and 16 apart from a dedicated camera button which no one asked for. Or the delayed AI fiasco.
We need, as our American cousins say, something tangible that's worthy of upgrade. This will be unpopular opinion but there is nothing incitcing me to upgrade from my iPhone 13 Mini.
There really isn't much to do in terms of form factor, materials, or hardware performance at this late stage in smartphone development.
However, despite chips not advancing as fast as they used to, Apple could have reached record iPhone sales if they hadn't been as slow to announce and rollout AI as they have been:
Although the hype AI is getting is not fully warranted, and very disappointing on some level, the average consumer would want to buy a new iPhone if it came with features like an LLM Siri and a fully fledged suite of high quality generative AI features.
But Apple has just been too slow and the quality of its AI tools is not impressive.
I'm still convinced that Apple didn't add all the value to the $799 iPhone just to have it support AI in the near future, but much more to give buyers a reason to upgrade despite getting next to no AI while other brands are 2-3 years ahead of Apple.
I don't think that Apple AI, no matter how good or when it will be (or was) released, would have made any difference...AI is exciting to IT folks, and that's about it, and besides there are a dozen AI services that can be quickly installed on any iPhone, right now, from the app store. Phones are commodity items now, and people just aren't as interested in the new tech as they used to be. Their iPhone works, they don't think about it much, and don't care to replace them until they need to. There is zero pent-up demand (in the US).
Buying a new phone now is about as exciting as buying new tires. I'm happy to have them, and it's nice to be riding on a new set, but it's not exciting, not interesting, and not worth upgrading because a new design or feature is available.
I upgraded my 13 Pro to a 16 Pro, only because my employer paid for it. It has been the most boring, lateral upgrade of any tech in recent memory. A month later, it feels exactly the same as my 13 Pro did. The usb-c is nice, however.
Of course generative AI hasn't driven sales. Let's look at some facts...
People have been using ChatGPT on their iPhones since 2023.
Apple Intelligence is limited to the most recent model phones only.
Yet the people using those older phones know full well the phones are fully capable of ChatGPT. (Yes, yes, private on-device blah blah nobody cares about this distinction when there is such a huge functionality gap.)
But Apple Intelligence isn't even fully available, especially the one part that actually competes with the part of ChatGPT people actually use. And even then, it will fall back to ChatGPT.
And it won't even be available until next year, and ChatGPT is already miles ahead.
Also, their commercials for Apple Intelligence are perhaps the worst they have ever made.
Why would anyone expect AI to drive sales? In fact it's remarkable it even grew .6%
I enabled apple intelligence on my Mac and have yet to figure out a use for it. And I use Chatgpt multiple times per day so you would think I would have a use for something. Apple hasn't had an inspired phone design since the iPhone 4
