In a "Confirm or Deny" feature by The New York Times this week, PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel "confirmed" that "the age of Apple is over" based on his belief that smartphones will lack further innovation.
The age of Apple is over.
Confirm. We know what a smartphone looks like and does. It’s not the fault of Tim Cook, but it’s not an area where there will be any more innovation.
While the iPhone has become a familiar product as it turns ten, which perhaps makes it less exciting to some, to say smartphones are not an area where there will be any more innovation will certainly fuel a debate. And, of course, while the iPhone is Apple's most profitable product, it's not its only.
Thiel's comment can be argued one way or the other, but it does raise the question of what Apple's next "one more thing" will be after annual iPhone sales declined for the first time amid an uncharacteristically down year for Apple—perhaps something in the augmented reality or electric vehicle spaces? Will this be the year Apple pushes deeper into artificial intelligence with Siri and an Echo-like device?
Apple chief executive Tim Cook has routinely teased about what's around the corner. Last year, he said Apple has "great innovation in the pipeline," including "things you can't live without that you just don't know you need today." Likewise, he told employees last month that Apple has "great desktops in our roadmap," and earlier this week he said "the best is yet to come" for iPhone.
Health startup One Drop recently launched its iOS-compatible One Drop Chrome Blood Glucose Monitoring Kit on Apple.com for $99.95. Approved by the FDA and CE in Europe, the kit includes a Bluetooth-enabled blood glucose meter, a chrome lancing device, test strips, and a vegan leather carry case.
The blood glucose meter can read results "in just five seconds," transmitting the data to the One Drop iOS app [Direct Link] that users can download on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple Watch. One Drop's lancing device has custom depth settings to provide the right amount of pressure on a user-by-user basis in order to draw "a perfect drop every time." To keep up on compatible test strips, users can subscribe to One Drop Premium for a monthly $39.95 fee.
With Apple's energetic and consistent focus on health, One Drop provides a premium product that not only meshes well with Apple's design sensibility, but aligns well with their desire to empower users to take control of their health.
Its new Chrome hardware connects to One Drop’s iOS, watchOS, and Android apps, and have full HealthKit and CareKit integration, allowing you to sync data from other health apps (e.g., CGMs, bluetooth meters, food & activity trackers) and share your data with your Care Team.
One Drop was one of four apps to launch with Apple's CareKit platform in 2016, including fertility tracker Glow Nurture, maternity app Glow Baby, and depression medication tracker Start. CareKit allows app developers to create integrated software that helps patients and doctors to better track and manage medical conditions.
On Apple.com, the One Drop Monitoring Kit is available for both store pickup and home shipping, with delivery dates listed as early as tomorrow, January 13. For more information on One Drop, check out the company's website here.
Apple is building a "significant" business centered around creating original, scripted television shows and possibly even movies, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal. The content would be made available on Apple Music, falling in line with previous reports and accompanying already-announced projects for the music streaming service, including Carpool Karaoke and Vital Signs.
Apple executives have told Hollywood that the new original content will launch by the end of 2017, according to the new report. In terms of specific genres, HBO's Westworld and Netflix's Stranger Things were both used as comparisons for what Apple is aiming to produce on Apple Music. These proposed series and movies "don’t have any particular relationship to music," unlike Carpool Karaoke and Vital Signs.
Rumors about Apple meeting with Hollywood executives to create original TV shows for Apple Music or iTunes have existed since last year, and now Apple is even looking into producing original films for the service, "though those plans are more preliminary," according to people familiar with the matter.
The company is said to have been in talks with producers over the past few months about purchasing the rights to scripted television programs, as well as seeking out marketing people to come on board and promote the new content. The move is looked at as a way for Apple to gain an edge in its competition against Spotify, rather than become a streaming contender alongside Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Because it is looking at just a handful of carefully selected shows, and potentially films, it doesn’t appear Apple is preparing to spend the hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars it would need to spend annually to become a direct competitor to Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video or premium cable networks.
Rather, it would escalate the arms race between Apple Music and Spotify, which both offer essentially the same catalog of tens of millions of songs, by adding other content that could distinguish Apple’s service.
Although most of Apple's plans are still steeped in secrecy, the company has reportedly told producers an advantage it hopes to offer is that it would share its viewer and demographic data on the people who watch the new shows. Netflix has remained infamously private about the specific number of viewers who watch its streaming shows, making it hard to tell what is a successful launch or not, "which has been a source of contention among some in Hollywood."
Last Summer, Eddy Cue said that Apple is "not in the business of trying to create TV shows" when asked about the future of the company and its past relationships with Hollywood, where it once spoke with network programmers to get a live-streaming TV bundle launched before ultimately shelving the plans. At the time, Cue said that Apple would "help" producers whenever it had the chance and that any TV project would serve as "complimentary to the things we're doing at Apple Music."
Opera today showcased its first ever concept browser, codenamed Opera Neon. Built on the same browser engine as the standard Opera browser, Neon is designed to focus primarily on content.
Opera Neon includes a new user interface that consists of a start page using the user's current desktop background image, a sidebar with a video player, image gallery, and download manager, and a visual tab bar that makes it easier to switch between tabs and tell which tab is active.
There's also a built-in "intelligent system" that manages tabs, with frequently used tabs listed at the top and the less used tabs being relegated to the bottom.
A pop-out video option lets users watch videos while viewing other web pages, and a snap to gallery feature lets users take a screenshot and crop any part of a webpage, saving it for later use. With an included split screen mode, it's also possible to view two web pages simultaneously, side by side.
Opera Neon won't replace the current Opera browser, but some of its features will eventually be added to Opera. Both Mac and Windows users can download a free version of Opera Neon to test.
Apple's iOS ecosystem is on course to generate over $1 trillion in revenues for the company by the middle of this year, according to Asymco analyst Horace Dediu.
Dediu's prediction is based on several factors, starting with an expectation that Apple will have sold at least 1.2 billion iPhones in its first 10 years, earning it the rank of "most successful product of all time" and laying the foundations for the company's iPad, Apple TV, iPod touch, and Apple Watch categories.
In its first 10 years, the iPhone will have sold at least 1.2 billion units, making it the most successful product of all time. The iPhone also enabled the iOS empire which includes the iPod touch, the iPad, the Apple Watch and Apple TV whose combined total unit sales will reach 1.75 billion units over 10 years. This total is likely to top 2 billion units by the end of 2018.
Dediu claims revenue from iOS device sales will total about $980 billion by the middle of this year, and adds to that estimate more than $100 billon in revenues from supporting services (including app content sales), putting the ecosystem's total worth above the $1 trillion mark.
The analyst notes this excludes payouts to iOS app developers of around $60 billion, with the rate of payments now reaching $20 billion per year. Those numbers would appear to tally with comments made by Apple CEO Tim Cook last August that the company has paid out more than $50 billion to developers over the lifetime of the App Store, which first launched for the iPhone in 2008.
Dediu points to the locked-in nature of Apple's ecosystem ensuring the iPhone's resilience and longevity, despite strong competition from so-called "iPhone killers" that come and go, while its robust feature set and attached services continue to earn it the market reputation as the premium smartphone to beat.
In addition, the analyst claims that Android users are now more likely to switch to iOS rather than the other way around – a trend supported by previous reports from both market analysts and Apple, including, notably, comments made in the company's Q4 2016 earnings call.
Dediu ends by predicting not another "Big Bang" for the iPhone, but a "process of continual improvement" as the smartphone enters its second decade. Indeed, the analyst expresses more excitement for its network of "ancilliary smart accessories" like the Apple Watch, the AirPods, Apple Pencil, and other possible new wearables that point toward a future where the iPhone is a hub to a mesh of personal devices. "The seamless integration of such devices is what has always set Apple apart," Dediu concludes.
Amid an ongoing decline in worldwide PC shipments, Apple's Mac sales are holding steady, according to new PC shipping estimates shared today by Gartner.
During the fourth quarter of 2016, Apple shipped an estimated 5.4 million Macs worldwide, up from 5.3 million in the year-ago quarter for an estimated growth of 2.4 percent. During the quarter, Apple held 7.5 percent of the market, up from 7 percent during the fourth quarter of 2015, making it the number five PC vendor in the world.
Lenovo, HP, and Dell, the top three vendors, all saw growth during the quarter as well. Dell, which holds 14.8 percent of the market, saw 5.4 percent growth, while HP, responsible for 20.4 percent of the market, saw 4.3 percent growth. Lenovo, the number one PC vendor with 21.7 percent of the market, saw 1.6 percent growth and shipped 15.9 million PCs, up from 15.5 in the year-ago quarter.
Gartner's Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q16 (Thousands of Units)
Asus (number 4 vendor) and Acer Group (number 6 vendor) both saw declines in growth, with Asus shipping 5.4 million PCs (down from 6 million in 4Q 2015) and Acer shipping 5 million PCs (down from 5.2 million in 4Q 2015).
Worldwide PC shipments totaled 72.6 million units during the fourth quarter of 2016, a 3.7 percent decline compared to the fourth quarter of 2015. For the full year, PC shipments totaled 269.7 million, a 6.2 drop from 2015. Apple is estimated to have shipped a total of 18.6 million Macs in 2016, down from 20.3 million in 2015.
"Stagnation in the PC market continued into the fourth quarter of 2016 as holiday sales were generally weak due to the fundamental change in PC buying behavior," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "The broad PC market has been static as technology improvements have not been sufficient to drive real market growth.
There have been innovative form factors like 2-in-1s and thin and light notebooks, as well as technology improvements, such as longer battery life. This end of the market has grown fast, led by engaged PC users who put high priority on PCs. However, the market driven by PC enthusiasts is not big enough to drive overall market growth."
Apple's worldwide numbers held steady, but saw better growth in the United States. According to Gartner's data, Apple shipped an estimated 2.1 million PCs in the United States for 12.8 percent of the market. That's up from 2 million shipments (and 11.8 percent market share) in the year-ago quarter.
Gartner's Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q16 (Thousands of Units)
HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Acer all saw growth in the United States, but Asus saw a sharp dip, shipping only 621,000 PCs, down from 1.2 million in 4Q 2015. Overall PC shipments in the U.S. totaled 16.5 million units, a 1.3 percent decline compared to last year.
Apple's U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-4Q16 (Gartner)
IDC also released its shipment estimates today, and as expected, its numbers tell a different story, in part because of the difference in the way Windows-based tablets are counted by each firm.
According to IDC, worldwide PC shipments totaled 70.2 million units during 4Q 2016, with Apple shipping an estimated 5.26 million Macs, down from 5.3 million in 4Q 2015 for -0.9 percent growth and 7.4 percent market share (up from 7.3 percent last year). Similar to Gartner, IDC believes Apple shipped a total of 18.5 million Macs in 2016, down from 20.5 million in 2015, for an overall decline in growth of 9.8 percent.
It's important to note that data from Gartner and IDC is preliminary and that the numbers can shift, sometimes dramatically and sometimes less so. Last year, for example, IDC and Gartner predicted worldwide 4Q 2015 shipments of 5.7 million Macs, while the actual number was 5.3 million.
We'll know more about Apple's 2016 performance and how well its new MacBook Pros have been selling following the company's next earnings release on January 31.
Earlier this month, Sonny Dickson shared a collection of images and videos featuring an of the iPhone with an early iPod-style operating system called "Acorn OS," based on a clickwheel interface.
The iPod-like software was developed by "iPod Father" Tony Fadell, who shared some new details on its creation with The Verge in an attempt to clarify the backstory behind the software.
Click Wheel-based OS vs. the Icon-based OS that went on to become iOS
According to Fadell, the longstanding story suggesting there were two teams at Apple (one led by Fadell and one led by Scott Forstall) competing with one another to develop the iPhone's OS isn't quite accurate. There were multiple UI possibilities being explored by both the hardware and the software teams, who were working together.
"It was a competing set of ideas, not teams," says Fadell. "And we were all working on it."
He went on to explain that there were two paths in hardware and software UI development going on at Apple "at all times," and that the software shown off in the video is "just what the UI guys were doing, devoid of any hardware." There was never a hardware prototype running the software shown off in Dickson's video, but someone ported it "just for fun." It was only ever a Mac app.
A virtual clickwheel, as shown in the video, was just one path of iPod-style development, as Jobs had the iPhone team explore every possibility. Other iPod-like ideas included an iPod phone with a smaller screen and a click wheel, which was unrealistic, and a hardware-based wheel with buttons, another idea that didn't pan out.
We tried everything. We tried having little buttons on the clickwheel so you could click. There was a Nokia phone where they had a circular pattern for the numbers, in hard buttons, and Steve was like "Go make that work." So we tried that.
And we went, "Steve, give it up, it's going to be too hard. It's not going to work." So we were halfway through, like four weeks or five weeks into it, and we said "This is not working." We pushed this for like another four, five weeks to keep trying, and we're saying, "This is a waste of time." But we had to be ready, because that's what he wanted.
By the time Fadell took over the iPhone division from Jon Rubinstein, Apple was working on a Linux-based OS backed by Rubinstein and a reduced version of OS X, developed by Scott Forstall and Avie Tevanian. the OS X version, codenamed Purple OS, won out, and the Linux version was killed off within a matter of weeks. Purple OS went on to become the iOS software we know today.
Fadell's full interview with The Verge, which goes into more detail about the iPhone's development process, is well worth checking out.
Reliable aerial coverage of Apple Campus 2 from Matthew Roberts has continued today, with the first drone footage of the campus in 2017 posted on Roberts' YouTube channel. As construction continues into the new year -- originally expected to be completed by the end of 2016 -- the new footage shows a nearly-complete main building, as well as free-standing structures such as the nearby parking garage and its rooftop solar panels.
Still under construction is the underground auditorium where Apple will host various product reveal events, and workers continue to stream in and out of the "Spaceship" building's main atrium, which began glass installation in November.
A noticeable change comes in the form of landscaping within the circular main building, with dirt piles forming around the central water feature of the courtyard. There are also many more trees and other greenery either lined up to be planted, or already in the ground. This area is expected to be one of many where workers can relax outside to eat or exercise.
In December, Roberts created a video that looked back at the construction progress made on Apple Campus 2 from July to the end of 2016. Construction on the campus officially began back in 2013 and once complete will encompass 2.8 million square feet of space to house 13,000 employees.
Popular roguelike shooter The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is finally available on iOS devices. The highly-anticipated game was originally supposed to come out in early 2016, but its dark themes caused it to be rejected by Apple.
Based on a Flash game first released in 2012, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth has been available on Macs, PCs, and consoles since 2014. The game was inspired by a biblical tale, and the main character, Isaac, escapes from his evil mother and battles through a series of procedurally generated dungeons.
Gameplay wise, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a dual stick shooter with virtual controls and support for Made for iPhone game controllers. The game features more than 500 hours of gameplay, over 450 items to find, two-player local co-op, 20 challenge runs, and more.
The Binding of Isaac is a randomly generated action RPG shooter with heavy Rogue-like elements. Following Isaac on his journey players will find bizarre treasures that change Isaac's form giving him super human abilities and enabling him to fight off droves of mysterious creatures, discover secrets and fight his way to safety.
Our sister site TouchArcadeshared some tidbits on The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth this morning, noting that an Apple TV version of the game is coming in the future. The iOS version and Apple TV versions of the game will be the same, so gamers who purchase it today will later be able to play it on the Apple TV.
In regard to the $14.99 price tag, the game's developer, Tyrone Rodriguez, says there will be no pricing fluctuations or sales. "The price will not change, a month from now or a year from now," he said.
Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced in March of 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.
Safari Technology Preview release 21 includes bug fixes and updates for JavaScript, Fetch API, IndexedDB 2.0, CSS, Rendering, Web API, Accessibility, and Web Inspector.
Apple's goal with Safari Technology Preview is to receive feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.
In the U.S. last month, an estimated 75% of revenue from headphones sold online came from wireless models, up from 50% in December 2015, according to Slice Intelligence. Apple's new AirPods led the way, capturing an estimated 26% share of online revenue in the wireless headphone market since launching on December 13.
AirPods stole the top spot from Beats, which took an estimated 15.4% of online revenue in the wireless headphone market, down from 24.1% between the start of 2015 and December 13. Given it owns Beats, Apple appears to have actually taken nearly 40% of online revenue in the market since launching AirPods.
Slice Intelligence said wireless headphone spending on AirPods launch day was ten times greater than the pre-holiday average for 2016. December 13 was also the largest single day of online headphone spending last year, according to the research firm, topping Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday.
The research suggests 85% of shoppers who purchased AirPods are male, of which 35% are young millennials. Female buyers tended to skew older, with 38% falling in the baby boomer generation. The gender data is based on 2,871 U.S. online shoppers who purchased AirPods between December 13 and December 31.
Slice Intelligence aggregated its data based on anonymized e-receipts from up to 353,926 U.S. online shoppers—the size of the user base varies per chart. But without official figures, it is impossible to determine if the data is accurate—Apple could easily follow up with very different numbers.
Second-screen iPad app Astropad has today launched a new premium version of its drawing suite called "Astropad Studio" that's been built exclusively for the iPad Pro (via TechCrunch). The new service offers users a number of advantages over the basic app -- including 40 MB/s max speed for lower latency, deep Apple Pencil integration, and more -- for a subscription plan of $7.99/month or $64.99/year.
Similar to the original app, Astropad Studio works with any Mac app via Wi-Fi or through USB and mirrors drawing tools from the iPad's screen onto a connected Mac. The company says that this connection lets users gain control of "pro-level drawing tools" on a Mac, and is aimed at creative professionals who work both in an office and from home.
One of the biggest additions to the Studio suite of features is support for what Astropad calls "Liquid Extreme," which includes color-corrected output and retina resolution. Essentially, "what you see on your iPad is the same as on your Mac," according to the company.
Here's the complete list of exclusive features for Astropad Studio:
Liquid Extreme
40 MB/s Max Speed
Unlimited shortcut sets
Built for iPad Pro
Apple Pencil Only
Keyboard support
Magic Gestures
Pressure Smoothing
Eraser Tool
Hover Simulation
3-Button Mouse Simulation
Undo/Redo Gestures
Preview line customization
Unlimited Upgrades
Priority Support
The list features "Magic Gestures," which Astropad says is a way for users to set up easily accessible controls using a finger and Apple Pencil combination. For example, users can set up an erasing function to activate by setting one finger on the iPad's screen to instantly turn the Pencil into an eraser. Two fingers can be a right click, and so on.
The standard version of Astropad sells for $29.99 on the iOS App Store [Direct Link]. For the new app, users can try out Astropad Studio [Direct Link] with a 7 day free trial before deciding to subscribe to the service's monthly or yearly models. More information regarding Astropad Studio can be found here.
The iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, and iPhone 6s were the "three most popular smartphones" in the United States in the three month period ending November 2016, when users were purchasing early holiday gifts for friends and family members. According to new data collected by Kantar Worldpanel, the three Apple iPhones captured a total 31.3 percent of smartphone sales in the U.S., while Samsung accounted for 28.9 percent of smartphone sales during the three month period.
In the U.S., iOS grew 6.4 percent in the same three month period, rising to a 43.5 percent share of the market. Android dropped 5.1 percent, but still sits atop Apple with a 55.3 percent share of the market. As Kantar noted, the data marks the sixth consecutive decline for Android in the U.S.
Kantar's data shows that iOS made gains across most regions around the world in the same September to November period, despite a few losses in Germany and China. Apple's mobile operating system saw the biggest year-over-year increase in Great Britain, where it jumped 9.1 percent to account for 48.3 percent of the smartphone market in the country. Both Android and iOS increased their presence across France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Great Britain, "largely due to the decline of Windows," according to Kantar.
“In the EU5 countries, Android accounted for 72.4% of smartphone sales during this period, with iOS at 24.6%, a strong year-on-year uptick for both ecosystems as Windows’ share declined to 2.8%.
For Android, this represented a 2.8 percentage point decline from the October period, while strong sales of iPhone 7 boosted iOS,” explained Dominic Sunnebo, Business Unit Director for Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Europe. “The holiday period is always strong for Apple, but it remains to be seen if demand for the latest devices will level out in the first quarter of 2017.”
Despite dropping 5.4 percent in China from the year-ago quarter, Kantar pointed out that iOS market share did in fact increase slightly (by 2.8 percent) from the previous three-month period thanks to the launch of the iPhone 7, which became the best-selling device in Urban China. "Local brands continued to dominate the market," according to Kantar analyst Tamsin Timpson, and Android accounts for a massive 79.9 percent of the smartphone market in the country in comparison to Apple's 19.9 percent presence.
Despite Apple's iOS growth in places like Australia, Japan, and even the U.S., recent reports surrounding the company's manufacturing partner Foxconn have pointed towards "lukewarm" demand for the iPhone 7 as a major cause for the assembler's first-ever profit decline. Apple reportedly shipped 207 million iPhones in 2016, down from 236 million in 2015, but many hope the company can turn around from its own revenue downturn with a profitable 2017 and a major redesign for the "iPhone 8."
Instagram today announced that more than 150 million people now use its Snapchat-like Stories feature on a daily basis, and now the company is looking to monetize that user base with the introduction of full-screen ads.
Just like Snapchat, Instagram will sometimes add a 5-second photo or 15-second video ad in between stories when a user watches more than one in a row. The video ads in particular are set to autoplay with audio. The good news: each ad can be skipped by swiping on it, according to TechCrunch.
Instagram said it will begin testing the ads over the coming weeks with over 30 global brands, such as Airbnb, Capital One, Buick, Nike, Netflix, and Qantas. In the future, the company said the ads may be tappable, enabling users to proceed to an advertiser's website to purchase a product or learn more information.
Instagram Stories enables users to share personalized photos and videos with their followers that disappear after 24 hours.
Apple has partnered with security firm Tresorit so that developers using Apple's CareKit platform will have access to increased privacy options (via Mashable).
Tresorit's security technology, ZeroKit, will bring user authentication to patients and healthcare workers, while its end-to-end encryption smarts promise "zero knowledge" sharing of health data. The ZeroKit team announced the partnership in a blog post on Apple's CareKit blog.
"Apple designed the iOS platform and CareKit with security at its core. When building apps where data is shared across devices and with other services, developers want to extend this security to the cloud. This is exactly what ZeroKit does."
CareKit is Apple's open-source platform aimed at making it easer for developers and health care professionals to build health apps via a number of integrations, like monitoring of medical symptoms, sending images of an injury, and keeping tabs on medication schedules.
CareKit also offers two-way benefits, as it not only helps doctors monitor patients but also allows patients to observe their progress over time. While patients won't get to choose whether to apply ZeroKit's encryption tools, the back-end integration will allow Apple's platform to fall in line with state privacy rules around patient information.
U.S. airlines will no longer have to make a pre-boarding notification to passengers that the Samsung Galaxy Note7 is prohibited on aircraft, it was announced yesterday.
In a statement on its website, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was dropping the requirement because public awareness that the banned Note7 was a fire risk was deemed to have reached a sufficient level, thanks in part to extensive recall efforts by Samsung and smartphone providers.
The Department of Transportation removed the requirement for air carriers to specifically notify passengers about the Note7 phone immediately prior to boarding due to the high degree of public awareness of the ban since issuance of the emergency restriction/prohibition order, as well as the extensive efforts by Samsung and U.S. wireless providers to make all Note7 users aware the phone is recalled and banned from transport on U.S. aircraft.
Following the announcement, Samsung released a statement claiming that over 96 percent of Note 7 devices have been returned so far. U.S. carriers have sent out an end-of-life software update to handsets that remain in circulation, rendering the devices unable to charge. Meanwhile, Samsung has said it will release a report later this month detailing the results of its investigation into what caused some handsets to explode or catch fire while charging.
Purported leaked image of the Galaxy S8 expected to launch in April (Image: Weibo)
According to one report on Tuesday, Samsung has refused to give up on the Galaxy Note name, due to the historical popularity of the brand in the "phablet" category, and a Note8 is currently being readied for launch later this year.
Samsung is currently focusing on the Spring launch of its flagship Galaxy S8, which is rumored to include a "Bixby" AI voice assistant – based on its acquisition of Viv – and is said to have a home button embedded in its edge-to-edge display. The company is reportedly aiming to ship 60 million S8 units by the end of the year.
This week marked 10 years since Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone at Macworld in San Francisco. In commemoration, iFixit has published a roundup of 15 iPhone teardowns the site has completed over the past decade, offering a look at how the design's construction has evolved over time.
In contrast to Apple's iMacs and MacBooks which have become progressively more difficult to repair in recent years, the iPhone's repairability score has fared a lot better after quickly improving upon its first incarnation, as noted by iFixit.
iFixit's teardown of the first-generation iPhone
iPhones have become taller, wider, and skinnier. But they’ve also become more repairable. The very first iPhone earned a dismal 2/10 on our repairability scale. It had a soldered battery and was almost impossible to open without breaking the case. Repairability improved radically from there — jumping to a 7/10 for the iPhone 3G.
Since then, the company's flagship smartphone has remained relatively repair-friendly, earning at least 6/10 on iFixit's repairability rating with every iteration. The most recent iPhone offering, the iPhone 7, was awarded 7/10 on the scale in 2016.
Check out the "10 Years of iPhone" roundup page on iFixit, which also features a neat look at the visual changes the components have undergone over 15 models.
A couple days ago Sonny Dickson shared a look at one of two early prototypes for the original iPhone, the iPod Click Wheel-based OS that iPod "Godfather" Tony Fadell was working on. Tonight, Dickson has shared a video pitting Fadell's version against Scott Forstall's icon-based iPhone prototype, which went on to become the basis for iOS.
Fadell's prototype was referred to as P1 while Forstall's prototype was referred to as P2. The two projects reportedly went head to head in 2005 when Steve Jobs pitted the two against each other. While the P1 used the click-wheel interface to navigate the OS, the P2 used a series of touch-based icons to move around the OS.
Both P1 and P2 run a prototype OS Apple codenamed "Acorn OS" internally, though Dickson notes that P1 runs faster because it uses a slimmed down version of Acorn OS. Each prototype also sports a unique logo that pops up after the Acorn OS logo while it boots up.
The P2 loads octopus whereas the P1 has the iPod classic logo. The P2 takes a significantly longer to load because it actually has a real OS, whereas the P1 takes much less time since the OS is slimmer. These P unit prototypes are so early in the development process that they rely on a custom process to be turned off, and can only be powered down during a certain step of the boot process.
The video, and accompanying photos, provide both a look at the choice Steve Jobs and Apple employees faced as they were developing the iPhone and iOS 10 years ago and how Apple explores ideas. As Dickson notes, "P devices" are the first step of any project at Apple. They're barely-functioning devices that allow the company to explore and test concepts, iterating on them until they're satisfied enough to push the project further.
More images of the P2 iPhone prototype are available on Sonny Dickson's website.
In a "Confirm or Deny" feature by The New York Times this week, PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel "confirmed" that "the age of Apple is over" based on his belief that smartphones will lack further innovation.
Apple today 
