A report examining smartphone brand loyalty found that buyers of higher end devices tend to prefer sticking to what they have, but that Apple has been very successful in inciting switchers to jump to iOS during its iPhone upgrade cycles.
Across Apple's fiscal 2015, annual iPad unit sales fell by an astounding 19 percent while iPad revenues fell 23 percent, a plunge from fiscal 2014 of just over $7 billion. The tech industry pundits love to talk about the failure of Apple's tablet business, but are short on the specifics of what's happening. Here's why.
Apple on Tuesday released a beta version of its Apple Music service for Android users, just the third time the Cupertino company has crafted an application for its rival mobile operating system.
Google has plans for series of chips it wants to co-develop with hardware partners to help standardize Android and make it more computationally competitive with Apple. However, the effort is considered a long shot by people in the chip industry.
A new adware scourge injecting itself into popular apps such as Facebook and Twitter is also "virtually impossible to uninstall," requiring infected users to replace their phones. Because it only affects users of Google's open-store Android app model, the device replacement requirement may accelerate the trend of users switching to iOS.
The difference between encryption and security on iOS and Android isn't just a technical issue but a "digital security divide," according to the principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union. That's because Apple secures its devices while Google leaves Android open to data collection and surveillance.
Google's bug hunt to identify software flaws in Android has revealed 11 exploitable flaws in Samsung's software included on its high end Galaxy S6 Edge flagship, including "a substantial number of high-severity issues," within just a week of looking.
Facebook's chief product officer is reportedly requiring a number of team members to switch from iPhones to Android phones so they can experience how most people interact with the social network.
Internal Sony communications indicated that "Spectre" star Daniel Craig and the movie's director Sam Mendes were both opposed to multimillion dollar product placements for Sony or Samsung Android phones because it could tarnish the suave image of James Bond.
Google has struggled to attract a fraction of iOS' top-tier commercial app development for its own Android platform. The abusive language allowed in Google Play—for reviews of products the reviewer hasn't even downloaded—highlight another reason why so few developers take Android seriously as a platform.
After two years of exploration work, Google is said to be "folding" its web-based Chrome OS into its mobile Android platform, creating a single operating system strategy that it expects to unveil in 2017.
During Apple's quarterly conference call on Tuesday, CEO Tim Cook said 30 percent of iPhone buyers switched from Android during the fourth quarter, the highest ratio of "switchers" Apple has recorded in a single three-month period.
A newly spotlighted hack utilizes an iPhone or Android handset — with headphones plugged in — to remotely and silently access the smartphone's built-in voice controls, potentially unbeknownst to the user.
At a Tuesday press event, Apple rival Google announced a wide slate of new hardware including two new Nexus phones, new Chromecasts, and the Pixel C Android tablet.
An inspection of code in Apple's "Move to iOS" migration tool for Android users, its first app for Google's mobile operating system, reveals the title might be a simple rebranding of software already on offer in the Google Play Store.
In conjunction with iOS 9, Apple on Wednesday released Move to iOS, a tool for switching away from Android that is also its first-ever app custom-developed for Google's rival operating system.
Updated comScore analytics data published on Thursday suggests that Apple's U.S. smartphone share is still increasing in the U.S., despite the imminent arrival of new models.
Google is reportedly planning to host a Sept. 29 press event in San Francisco, at which it will reveal two new Nexus smartphones running Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
Google on Tuesday reopened Map Maker access in 45 more countries, including the U.S., with a new moderation system designed to prevent a repeat of the offensive Google Maps edits that forced it to disable the system in May.
Even with iPhone sales continuing to be strong, Apple is unlikely to make deeper inroads into Android's global marketshare in the near future, according to projections from an IDC research report released on Tuesday.
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Daniel Eran Dilger
AppleInsider Staff
Roger Fingas
Mikey Campbell
Neil Hughes
