Android smartphone manufacturers are looking towards developing more foldable phones to offer consumers a larger display to compete against bigger handsets like the iPhone 8 Plus, a report claims, with a number of vendors said to be working on mobile devices using multiple screens to create a larger display area.
Young smartphone buyers in China are preferring to buy low-priced domestic brands over phones from Samsung, but the loyalty rate in buying another Oppo or Vivo phone is half that of buyers getting another iPhone— which remains the largest installed smartphone base in China.
Apple's main competition in China — Huawei — has taken the unusual step of releasing a Kentucky Fried Chicken edition of the Enjoy 7 Plus to mark the 30th anniversary of the restaurant chain arriving in the country.
Low-end Chinese phones from companies that barely turn a profit and sell their cheaper products outside of urban centers are growing fast, but, Apple has an 80 percent lock on premium phone sales in China that isn't weakening. That's fueling Services and driving buyers into Apple Stores for other premium gear.
LeEco, the Chinese firm reported to be "taking on" Apple (as well as Tesla and Netflix) less than a year ago in an ambitious American expansion with new headquarters in San Jose, is now laying off employees and selling its property after running out of cash.
Huawei may have just 8 percent of its smartphones shipped with OLED panels in 2017 because of constrained supply forced by Apple's shift to the technology, and Samsung selling the majority of its available supply for the "iPhone 8."
Apple's iPhone continued to grab the vast majority of smartphone profits globally, due to poor performance by Samsung and largely profitless production of massive numbers of lower end models by several companies in China.
Apple continued to struggle for ground in China during the December quarter, ceding fourth place in the country's smartphone market under pressure from local brands like Huawei and Xiaomi, according to new research data.
Apple's record iPhone sales during the December quarter allowed it edge ahead of Samsung and once again become the world's top smartphone vendor, though not for whole of 2016, according to new research data.
Several major Chinese smartphone vendors are forming a consortium with a supplier to invest in AMOLED production in 2017, mainly out of worries that Apple will end up monopolizing panel supplies with upcoming iPhones, according to reports.
Huawei CEO Richard Yu thinks his company can tackle Apple head-on in marketshare, and declared on Thursday that he wants to beat Apple by the end of 2018.
Even with iPad shipments and the market as a whole shrinking year-over-year, Apple still managed to grow its share of the tablet industry in the September quarter, according to research data published on Monday.
Apple managed to grow its iPhone sales in the U.S. and the big five European markets during the June quarter, in spite of a global decline in shipments, according to new research data.
Apple and its chief rival — Samsung — both saw worldwide tablet shipments decline in the June quarter, although Apple managed to increase iPad marketshare in spite of moving fewer units.
Apple's 40.4 million iPhones shipped during the June quarter — a 15 percent decline year-over-year — were still enough to keep it in second place in the worldwide smartphone market, which reversed recent trends and grew "modestly," according to research firm Canalys.
Shares of Apple increased nearly 2 percent today to close at $98.79, close to the peak the stock has traded since diving below $100 after the company reported its fiscal Q2 earnings. Within two weeks, Apple will announce its earnings for Q3, which ended in June.
With Apple's upcoming "iPhone 7 Plus" rumored to feature a dual-camera design for better pictures, competing smartphone maker Huawei has pushed to market their own two-lens system. But in an attempt to suggest the Leica-branded lens can produce DSLR-quality images, the Chinese company actually used a picture shot with a full-fledged DSLR, not its new smartphone.
Apple's year-over-year drop in smartphone sales during the March quarter also caused the company to lose marketshare, though part of the shift can be linked to fast-rising Chinese smartphone makers, according to new research data.
Google's forthcoming Daydream platform for virtual reality has support from Android device makers including Samsung, HTC, LG, and Huawei, though the hardware is predicted to only be "slightly better" than Samsung's own Gear VR.
During the March quarter Apple's iPhone remained firmly in second place in global smartphone marketshare, but saw a significant drop year-over-year to 15.3 percent, ceding some ground to up-and-coming Chinese vendors.
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Malcolm Owen
Daniel Eran Dilger
Roger Fingas
Mike Wuerthele
AppleInsider Staff
Neil Hughes
