In other words, the giant that sold almost 400 million phones last year is getting bigger. And faster.

There’s a reason Samsung gobbles up 95 percent of the profits in the Android device market. It knows how to produce, market, distribute, and sell phones and tablets in massive numbers.

And, it doesn’t rest on its laurels.

The company also announced today that it would soon be introducing more color variations. The S4 is currently only available in black or white, or, as Samsung likes to say, Black Forest and White Mist. New color options coming this summer include Blue Arctic, Red Aurora, Purple Mirage, and Brown Autumn.

Meanwhile, five and a half months after the introduction of the iPhone 5, Apple is still not offering varying color options, although this are rumored to be in the product pipeline, probably for a fall release.

One caveat on the numbers: Samsung typically counts shipped units as sold units. And the company very carefully worded its announcement as “global channel sales,” which should likely be construed as units that are sold and delivered to its channel sales partners. So it’s possible that in terms of actual units in the hands of customers, Samsung has not yet hit the 10 million mark.

But there’s no doubt that the device is successful and will sell a boatload of units.

I still maintain, however, that the extra software, add-ons, and flashy-but-buggy gewgaws Samsung has added to the device will spell the beginning of the end of Samsung’s smartphone dominance. And would suggest people interesting in buying one wait for the Nexus version, which is basically an Galaxy S4 stripped of all Samsung’s software, and featuring a pure Google Android experience.

Image credit: Samsung

While analysts, Wall Street, former Apple employees, and, yes — journalists — have been raking Apple over the coals for its agonizingly slow product release cycle and lack of response to the growing market for larger screens, Tim “no new products until this fall” Cook has held his fire.

That’s probably at least partly due to the fact that that “growing” market might indeed be growing, but not all that quickly. In fact, according to mobile advertising company Tapjoy, fablets only make up a tiny 4 percent of the market.

“Fablets don’t fill a market need that is most valuable to end users,” Brian Sapp, a director at Tapjoy, told me yesterday. “They fall in a gray area … the device manufacturers want to make larger screens, but most users just don’t care.”

Source: Swipe Telecom

Swipe Telecom’s 5-inch F3 fablet.

Tapjoy is a pretty credibly source of mobile market data — the company’s monetization solutions live in tens of thousands of apps, and thereby on over a billion devices globally, the company told me. That’s a big sample size from which to draw conclusions.

“Users,” Sapp concludes, “want a phone that fits in their pocket.”

This data very likely comes with regional lumpiness to that data, with fablets being more popular in some areas (I suspect Asia, for one). But 4 percent is not a big number, and it’s not the kind of massive market that Apple typically looks for.

In addition, Apple is much more concerned with making great products than flip-flopping in the wind of what’s popular du jour. And usability experts point out that already on iPhone-sized screens, some areas are hard to manage one-handed and to both access virtual controls and initiate standard on-screen gesture motions.

Which, of course, makes fablets two-handed beasts.

One caveat, however.

While fablets may be a small slice of the market, phones that are bigger than iPhone are not. The supersuccessful Galaxy S III and Galaxy S4 are both bigger than iPhone 5. And Samsung, which shipped 400 million phones in 2012 and 82.2 million smartphones, tablets, and notebooks in the first quarter of 2013, knows something about what customers want, too.

“Market share is important and unit share is important,” Cook said on the company’s last earnings call. “But we’re all about customer experience and enriching lives.”

Which means it is very likely that a larger iPhone will be coming at some point in 2013, closer to fall. Just not as big as some pundits might like.

And … it probably will still fit in your pocket.

Since the company already employs 100,000 workers to manufacture components and devices for customers like Apple, Dell, and HP, that translates to 40,000 new workers. And since Apple is widely expected to be releasing not only an updated iPhone 5 but also a cheaper, plastic-bodied iPhone in the fall-to-winter time frame, that translates to speculation that Pegatron is gearing up for big orders.

This fits both with Apple CEO Tim Cook’s announcement during the company’s recent earnings call that Apple would not bring out any new products until the fall and with recent rampant rumors of new iPhone models.

And, says Reuters, Pegatron’s CFO Charles Lin indicated that 60 percent of the company’s 2013 revenue would come from the second half of the year.

Apple needs new products, badly.

Canalys’ numbers for smartphone, tablet, and laptop sales for the first quarter of 2013 show that Apple’s growing only 7.6 percent in smartphone sales, while the industry is growing at a 64.3 percent pace. And while Apple sold 37 million iPhones, Samsung shipped is growing its smartphone shipments by 64.3 percent.

Apple’s not interesting in market share for the sake of market share, but at some point market share has to impact the overall health of an ecosystem. And without a strong app, media, and device ecosystem, smartphone manufacturers are in deep, deep trouble.

photo credit: jurvetson via photopin cc

Ramping up production in June and July will stock Apple’s shelves for a late summer or early fall launch, when Apple typically sells millions of devices in just a few days. That timetable is in line with Tim Cook’s statements during Apple’s last earnings call, in which Cook warned investors not to expect any major new product launches this summer:

“Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software, and services we can’t wait to introduce this fall and throughout 2014,” he said at the time.

Japan Display and LG have long made screens for Apple’s smartphones, while Sharp was added just late last year as Apple continues to diversify its list of manufacturers in an attempt to ensure adequate production capacity — and to limit reliance on any one particular partner.

The most critical point in the report?

The liquid crystal panel of the next model “iPhone (iPhone) 5″ Apple, specification is close to the current and the “iPhone 5.”

In other words, the 5S is the same size and shape as the 5, which means that this particular product is not the iPhone Mini or iPhone Maxi that have recently been rumored. Which doesn’t, of course, mean that Apple is not sourcing components for those potential products from other manufacturers.

According to the report, the factory Sharp will be using has a production capacity of 600 million units a month. Apple will not even need even a reasonable fraction of that, and the factory has been chronically underutilized.

This is good news for Sharp, Japan Display, and Japan in general. Electronics manufacturers in Japan have seen Korean companies like Samsung take their lunch and eat it, too, and have had to cut staff, offload underperforming business units, and cut back expenses.

It’s also good news for Apple fans who are looking forward to some juicy new iTech.

Image credit: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

The last few months have been huge for T-Mobile. Not only has the company ditched the contract and smartphone subsidy, but it’s also finally completed its merger with MetroPCS.

In spite of all those big moves, however, the company’s most important news is that it’s finally started selling the iPhone, which, unsurprisingly, lots of people have been interested in buying. In fact, T-Mobile said it’s sold 500,000 of the Apple phones since they went on sale last month.

While commendable, T-Mobile’s numbers are far behind, say, the 4  and 4 .8 million iPhones Verizon and AT&T respectively sold last quarter. Still, T-Mobile’s iPhone has been on sale for less than a month, so we’ll wait until the device is around for at least a whole quarter before we judge how well T-Mobile is actually doing.

As for the rest of the company’s earnings, well, we got a good look at them a few weeks ago. It’s customer numbers are increasing (though most of those customers didn’t sign up for actual T-Mobile branded services), it’s losing fewer branded post-paid customers, and it’s revenue slid seven percent.

So is the new T-Mobile also the improved T-Mobile? We’ll have to wait a few more quarters before we can say for sure.

This sponsored post is produced by StackSocial.

The iPhone 5 is a phenomenal tool for taking high-quality photos of the moments in your life. But what if you could take some of your best photos – the ones that contain the best moments you’ve captured – and make them stand out on your iPhone even more?

This VentureBeat offer allows you to do just that – and a great savings. This VB Store limited time offer from Casetagram will net you a personalized iPhone 5 case, along with a free screen protector and free shipping for just $39!

Casetagram is a revolutionary design service that lets you create custom cases for your mobile devices from your Instagram and/or Facebook photos.

Here’s how you’ll make that customized case come to life…

1. Upon your purchase you’ll receive a coupon code that you will use to get your custom case for free on Casetagram’s website.
2. You’ll then have to sign up with your Facebook or Instagram account to start the create process. Click here to see how the customization process will work.

It’s a simple process that will bring an amazing and beautiful iPhone 5 case right to your doorstep. This promotion is available to iPhone 5 owners around the world – and includes free shipping. Need a case for another device? For a selection of the other mobile devices that Casetagram supports, click here and you’ll be able to get $25 off a custom case for any one of them!

(Note: For all of the important reminders regarding this offer, head over to the VB Store.)

This deal has more bonus items than any VentureBeat offer we’ve had in recent memory. You’ll get the custom Casetagram case for your iPhone 5, free global shipping, and a free screen protector valued at $20. And you’ll get all of it for only $39 during this limited time offer. So don’t delay. Visit the VB Store and pick up this great deal today!

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Starting today, iPhone and iPad owners can finally get their hands on Google Now.

Think of it like an evolved form of Apple’s Siri personal assistant baked within Google’s iOS search app. In addition to receiving voice commands (a feature that’s already been present on on Google’s search app for some time), Google Now also presents useful information without your prompting.

It could, for example, tell you an estimated commute time to your office or the status of your package deliveries.

In my brief testing with Google Now on my iPhone 5 and iPad Mini, I found it to be just as easy to use as on Android. Google Now’s Cards (little boxes that it uses to deliver different types of information) are all located on the bottom of Google’s search app. Typically, the software presents the most relevant cards to you — so since I tested it in the morning, it displayed cards for my work commute and weather.

You can tap a card for more information (typically retrieved through a Google search), or swipe to remove them. At first glance, the biggest difference between the iOS and Android versions of Google Now is the available screen space. It’s a bit different juggling Google Now’s cards on the iPhone 5′s 4-inch screen, as most Android phones are approaching 5-inch screens. I also noticed that the Package Card doesn’t show any images for shipments on iOS — but that’s a fairly minor complaint.

Check out my hands-on video below:

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

In a global smartphone market that Android has been expanding at a breakneck pace, a bright spot for Apple has been increasing market share in the lucrative U.S. domestic market. A new report from the Yankee Group says that’s going to continue, and that Apple is winning the slow way, via customer loyalty.

The difference, according to analyst Carl Howe, is Apple’s ecosystem.

“Apple’s “black hole” ecosystem captures subscribers who never leave, while Android smartphones are losing one out of every six customers to other manufacturers,” Howe wrote when publishing the study.

That’s iTunes, the App Store, iBooks, iCloud, and the entire physical ecosystem of iPhone-compatible speakers, peripherals, and even cars, which sync and integrate an iPhone with users’ devices.

It seems difficult to believe, given the avalanche of sales Android has captured — led by Samsung. But Kantar Worldpanel data from January supports the Yankee Group’s thesis: Apple briefly captured a majority of U.S. smartphone market share in late 2012. And earlier this month, ComScore said that Apple is growing overall iPhone sales and iOS market share, while Android share is dropping.

Interestingly, Tim Cook said in Apple’s quarterly earnings call earlier this week that a lot of that was due to Apple’ old phones.

“Market share is important, and unit share is important,” he said, adding that the company had reduced prices on the previous-generation iPhone 4 in order to make the phone more affordable to a wider range of people.

The iOS ecosystem is one reason, the Yankee Group report says, that 91 percent of iPhone users plan to buy another iPhone with their next phone purchase, compared to a still-high but clearly lower 76 percent of Android users who plan to switch away from the Android platform. And, in fact, 18 percent of Android owners plan to switch to Apple’s phones.

What that adds up to is the “black hole ecosystem,” as Howe puts it, that grows Apple’s market share slowly but surely.

The question for Apple is whether it can translate that stateside advantage into an international one, where it’s having a much more difficult time capturing huge swaths of market share.

photo credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video via photopin cc

The phone is both taller and wider than Apple’s older iPhone 4, at 120mm high and 65mm wide, or 4.7″ high by 2.55″ wide. That’s both shorter and wider than Apple’s current iPhone 5, which is 4.87 inches high, and 2.31 inches wide. For comparison, the current Android smartphone sales leader, the Samsung Galaxy S III, is 5.38″ by 2.78″, and the next-generation Samsung S IV is just a shade larger at 5.51″ by 2.82″.

A cheaper iPhone has long been rumored by the analysts, even though Apple has done its best to dispel the rumors — or at least the “cheap” part of them. But Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White said a week ago that Apple’s cheaper phone would be announced in June and ship in July. White’s pricing analysis suggests the budget iPhone will sell for between $350 and $400.

The new rumor that Tactus has published confirms the plastic shell but shows a flat back similar to the iPhone 4 and 5, not the curved plastic back of the older iPhone 3 and 3GS. It will allegedly have a five megapixel camera, and Apple’s A5 processor, similar to the iPad mini.

And, as rumored a number of weeks ago, it looks like the budget iPhone will ship in multiple colors: black, white, blue, red, and yellow. I’m sure Apple’s names for the colors will be a little more sophisticated.

Rumors are rumors, of course, so that legendary grain of salt is certainly indicated. But where there’s enough smoke, surely there’s fire as well.

And those who have long awaited an iPhone in something other than Apple’s iconic white or black could be very, very happy.

Photo credit: Tactus

Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White issued a research note today indicating that a cheaper ‘iPhone Mini’ would be announced in June along with the next version of the iPhone 5, the 5S, and shipped in July.

The ‘iPhone Mini’ is not actually expected to be smaller than an iPhone 5 — except in price — but will have a curved back casing constructed with colored plastic, White says, and should be priced somewhere between $350 and $400, as opposed to iPhone 5′s $700 to $900 price tag. Naturally, there will be deals with carriers to get the phones for “free” with wireless plans.

That price point, White says, will be cheap enough for consumers, but also expensive enough for investors:

We believe this price point will provide relief for those investors concerned that Apple would be sacrificing too much margin or brand to serve the lower price band of the smartphone market.

Part of White’s information is in strong contrast to a report from KGI Securities’ Ming-Chi Kuo yesterday, which said that Apple’s iPhone 5, the new cheap iPhone, and the updated iPad Mini would all be delayed until perhaps October/November. This kind of discrepancy is not uncommon as analysts fish for details with industry insiders who may have only small pieces of the full picture. Apple attempts to keep a firm lid on any shipping timetable information or rumors. White is basing his report today on new information from sources in the Chinese consumer electronics world.

The new report also confirms that, in keeping with Apple’s long-standing practice of unveiling similar update models, the iPhone 5S will look almost identical to the iPhone 5, but will have a slightly larger camera, plus fingerprint identification technology for security.

Finally, White can’t confirm any larger-screen iPhone at the moment, although he said that such a development is “inevitable” and, in fact, absolutely necessary for Apple’s success in the size-conscious Asian market:

… we believe it is inevitable that Apple will need a 5-inch to 5.5-inch iPhone or “iPhad” if the Company wants to remain competitive in China and elsewhere in Asia. For example, during our meeting with a leading consumer electronics vendor in Asia, the Company discussed new smartphone launches with screen sizes that are well over 5-inches and meant to be flagship products in this category. This larger screen phenomenon has been a very clear trend during our Asia trip over the past two weeks and one that we hope Apple eventually embraces.

photo credit: Incase. via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Good news, T-Mobile fans: You can finally preorder the iPhone 5 today.

As the carrier announced a few weeks ago in New York, the T-Mobile iPhone 5 starts at just $100 for the 16 gigabyte model. That’s $100 cheaper than what other U.S. carriers charge for a new iPhone.

Given T-Mobile’s new no-contract focus, you have the option of either paying for the iPhone for $20 a month over 24 months, or just paying $579 up front. T-Mobile’s new plans start at just $50 for unlimited talk, text, and 500 megabytes of high-speed data. You can add an extra 2GB of fast data for $10 more a month, or go fully unlimited for $20. (T-Mobile can still say it offers fully unlimited data for $50 — once you reach your high-speed data limit, your phone slows down to slower EDGE network speeds.)

As we saw at T-Mobile’s event, the iPhone 5 performs about as fast on its LTE network as on other U.S. 4G networks. T-Mobile’s iPhone 5 has a unique advantage over its competitors, though: It supports HSPA+ 42Mbps networks, which T-Mobile has widely deployed throughout the U.S. That gives T-Mobile a fast secondary network outside of LTE. AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, on the other hand, have much slower networks outside of LTE.

Photo: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

911 Metallurgist, which helps mines and recyclers extract precious metals from ore and, apparently, phones, has exhaustively checked the iPhones and other mobile devices. Each iPhone 5, for instance, contains $1.58 of gold, $.36 of silver, $.05 of platinum, and $.12 of copper.

Those numbers may sound small, but the phone holds from six to 300 times more precious metal than the equivalent amount of ore from a mine.

Also, in addition to the more familiar precious metals, smartphones also contain traces of huge swaths of the periodic table, particularly those “rare earths” that today’s electronics so depend on: Yttrium, Lanthanum, Neodymium, Gadolinium, and Europium, among others.

The problem?

“At the moment, there are no really good environmentally friendly methods available to mine and to recycle rare earths,” says Swedish University of Technology prof Christian Ekberg.

So less than one percent of the precious rare earths used in today’s phones are recycled — even though we appear to be running out of good sources for these vital materials.

Here are all the details, in visual form:

Apple’s iPhone 3G was released on July 11, 2008, and followed a little more than a year later by the faster 3GS on June 19, 2009. The iPhone 4 was released on June 24, 2010, and followed by the 4S sixteen months later on October 14, 2011. The iPhone 5 was launched on September 21, 2012, and if a rumor from Japan is correct, it will also be followed by a 5S model, to be released on June 20.

That is just an eight-month gap.

According to MacFan, a Japanese Apple fanzine that is celebrating its 20th anniversary, June 20 is the announce date of the newest iPhone, which will then ship in volume in July. How exactly a Japanese fanzine would be in possession of that privileged information is difficult to determine, but the timetable does square with analyst expectations. As CNet notes, Gene Munster and other Apple followers have identified June as the most likely launch window for the 5S.

If accurate, that’s a lot quicker than Apple has brought out upgrades in the past. But the pace of innovation has quickened, and the competition is getting hotter.

Samsung just recently unveiled its Galaxy S IV, the successor to its best-selling Galaxy S III, and the Korean manufacturer’s flagship phone against which Apple’s current iPhone 5 and next models will be compared. Samsung had released the S III in May of 2012, so the IV came out just ten months after — a much quicker model succession than Apple has traditionally managed. In addition, Galaxy IV pre-orders were 446 percent higher than III, at least for some carriers, and iPhone trade-ins doubled in the month leading up to the IV’s launch.

In other words, the Galaxy S IV is a major competitive threat, and Apple needs to address it. Which makes the June-July timeframe credible, even if the actual launch date is not June 20.

The only question, really, is whether Apple is prepared to run a quarterback sneak and maybe, just maybe, release multiple iPhone models simultaneously for the first time. With one that is just a bit cheaper for emerging markets – the cheaper iPhone that is supposed to come out in the latter half of 2013.

Now that would be interesting.

photo credit: Mez Love via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

NEW YORK CITY — T-Mobile is finally getting the iPhone next month — and it looks like the beleaguered carrier’s customers can expect speeds similar to the competition.

In my brief testing of T-Mobile’s iPhone 5 at its press event today, I saw a download speed of around 16 megabits per second and an upload speed of 7.4 Mbps. That’s typical real-world speed for both AT&T and Verizon’s LTE networks in congested areas, and it’s slightly faster from what I’ve seen of T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network (its fastest network so far).

T-Mobile’s LTE network certainly has the potential to be faster, just like its competitors. Earlier benchmarks on the same iPhone 5 unit I was testing achieved download speeds of 40 Mbps and 20 Mbps and upload speeds up to 12 Mbps. It’s also tough to judge T-Mobile’s LTE network at the moment, as it only turned on LTE connectivity in New York City today. T-Mobile CEO John Legere said today that it expects to cover 100 million people with LTE by the middle of 2013 and 200 million people by the end of the year.

As a comparison, I saw a Samsung Galaxy Note II achieve download speeds of close to 60 Mbps at T-Mobile’s event today. After a certain point, though, consumers likely won’t notice the difference between two blazing fast connections.

Below, check out a demonstration of T-Mobile’s iPhone 5 by Apple senior director Stan Ng.

Photos: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

The T-Mobile iPhone is real, and it’s here.

T-Mobile’s version of the iPhone 5 will land on April 12, the carrier revealed today during its ‘uncarrier’ press event in New York City (which we’re following live).

While T-Mobile is doing away with phone subsidies, that doesn’t mean hopeful iPhone 5 owners have to pay for the whole phone upfront. Instead, customers can pay $99 initially and cover the rest in $20 payments over the following 20 months.

T-Mobile’s angle here is pretty clear. “You love your iPhone, you hate AT&T. I want you to get used to that tone, because that is how we are going to play,”  T-Mobile CEO John Legere said back in December.

Also great news for T-Mobile customers is that iPhone 5 will be compatible with T-Mobile’s brand spankin’ new 4G LTE network, which it officially launched today.

Alongside the iPhone 5, T-Mobile is also getting the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, which customers can pick up for through its Simple Choice plans for $15 and $70 down, respectively.

The annoucement is a long time coming for T-Mobile, which is the last major U.S. carrier to land Apple’s iPhone. It’s too early to say whether getting the iPhone will help T-Mobile rise from its fourth-place spot, but the addition does finally put T-Mobile on an equal playing field with its competition. And that’s good enough for the moment.

Pre-orders for the iPhone 5 start April 5. Grab more info here.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

NEW YORK CITY — At a low-key press event today, T-Mobile made it clear that it’s not just another carrier anymore.

The tone was set the moment you entered the event, which was filled with signage railing against the evils of cellular contracts. A wall-sized poster highlighted the confusing language of typical contracts, and there was a bill shock hall of shame, detailing some horrific stories of massive cellphone bills. Attendees were also forced to walk through a mock “contract detector,” which approved or denied our self-worth seemingly at random.

The festivities kicked off with a short man-on-the-street video featuring The Daily Show‘s Jason Jones, who went around New York City asking typical consumers about their cellular experiences. To simulate the abuse consumers see from typical carriers, he repeatedly hit them in the face with his microphone.

“The worst fear of the wireless industry is that someone outside Oz comes in and starts looking at their inventory,” said T-Mobile chief executive John Legere on stage today [above], referring to his ability to look at the wireless industry with fresh eyes. “The worst thing in the world has happened, someone from outside the wireless industry has come in.”

He revealed that T-Mobile has made great progress in rolling out its LTE network. The company expects to cover 100 million people by the middle of the year, and 200 million people by the end of the year.

Legere didn’t shy away from detailing his biggest issues with the wireless industry today: Expensive phones, complicated plans, and endless penalties.

“Please stop the bullshit!,” he shouted.

A new kind of cellular carrier

So how is T-Mobile going to fix things? It starts with its new contract-free plans, which start at $50 for unlimited talk, text, and data (500MB of which is 4G). They’re also notably simpler than competing plans. “When you choose a T-Mobile rate plan, you get unlimited everything: no caps, no overages, no bill shock, only one rate plan,” he said. “We call it the simple choice, and it’s obvious.”

You can add a second line to your T-Mobile plan for an additional $30 and additional lines for $10 each. The plans also include tethering at no extra cost (though it’s data limited on the $20 unlimited high-speed data account).

Additionally, T-Mobile is going to be much clearer about the cost of phones. You can purchase phones at full-cost or split up the cost in your monthly bill. With its base plan, plus $20 a month to pay off a device, T-Mobile says you’ll save $1,060 over two years when compared to AT&T’s plan.

“Oh, yes, woe is me, you’re going to have to pay for your phone,” Legere said. “We’re just not lying to you. We’re laying the rules down.”

Source: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

T-Mobile’s iPhone 5 saw LTE download speeds between 14 Mbps and 42 Mbps at the event, which is in line with typical LTE speeds.

As a “small” update, Legere revealed that T-Mobile will finally offer the iPhone 5. Customers will be able to purchase it for $99 starting on April 12 (the remaining cost is covered by an extra $20 on your monthly bill for 24 months). Additionally, he noted that Apple added some new technology to T-Mobile’s iPhone 5 — it can now support LTE networks, HSPA+ 42 Mbps, and other HSPA networks.

That means T-Mobile’s iPhone will be far faster than the competition when outside of LTE coverage. In contrast, Verizon users get stuck with its slow 3G network when they drop off LTE.

“This is just a start, we’re going to be doing a lot of things … it’ll be very direct, very in your face,” Legere said with the conviction of a preacher. “The message is we’re not just aother phone company — we’re about changing this business. It’s not self-serving, it’s abut customers. Customers don’t need another AT&T, customers need someone to stop acting like AT&T.”

T-Mobile is also going to have a strong array of devices available at just $99, including the new HTC One and BlackBerry Z10. The carrier also announced that it will offer Samsung’s Galaxy S IV on May 1.

During the Q&A portion of the event, T-Mobile’s executives deflected the notion that it’s being unclear about data throttling. They pointed out that all of the rate plans see the same 4G speeds up until their posted limits (the base $50 plan tops out at 500MB, while the $60 plan tops out at 2.5GB).

The $70 fully unlimited 4G data plan won’t be throttled unless it inhibits the fair access for another customer. One of the T-Mobile executives noted that the company already has unlimited customers using more than 50GB per month who don’t get throttled.

“If there ever is a case where we’re going to use a fair use policy, we’re going to post it so you can take a look at it,” Legere said. “It’s not a number — if someone is having a party at 3 a.m. [using a ton of data], I don’t really care.”

A week after being outed for a clumsy state-media attack on Apple that backfired, China appears to be at it again. The Communist Party’s main propaganda outlet, the People’s Daily, attacked Apple a second time for a “brewing scandal” over the company’s iPhone and computer repair policies.

Ostensibly, the complaint is that Apple’s warranties on computers run for one year, while Chinese law states they should be at least two years. Further, while Apple replaces defective iPhones in other countries within the warranty period, in China it only replaces the electronics while keeping the same back cover.

“Foreign companies in China should obey Chinese law,” Chinese lawyer Ge Youshan was quoted as saying in the story. “If their clauses are better than Chinese regulations, that’s OK. But in this case, Apple’s warranty clauses apparently violate China’s laws.”

When the official Chinese party organs are attacking you, it’s generally safe to assume the story is more than the story. Which is probably why Apple responded on its Chinese-language website to those concerns, saying that the company does replace entire phones in some cases, and that its iPhone warranties are 90 days, three times longer than Chinese law requires.

In addition, Apple says it is company policy to fully comply with all local regulations and that some specific practices in Apple’s warranties will be tweaked for China.

Even in the last week, this is not the first time People’s Daily has taken a swing at Apple. On March 21, the news agency said that Apple pursuit “lures 20,000 students into ‘usury,’” or loans they cannot repay.

Sixty percent of Apple sales are overseas, and China is Apple’s number-two market after the U.S, growing by two-thirds last quarter. Despite that, the company has been unable to secure a deal with China Mobile — probably the largest mobile carrier on the planet, with 700 million subscribers — to offer its iPhones.

With government sentiment running the way it is, that deal might be getting even more unlikely.

Image credits: Aelius Aaron/ShutterStock

Hat tip: Wall Street Journal

That new Android-based smartphone from the biggest phone manufacturer in the world with the big New York launch, the massive screen, and the 13-megapixel camera? Looks like it’s pre-selling like proverbial hotcakes.

Carphone Warehouse, a big UK mobile distributor, says the Samsung Galaxy S IV is pre-selling at more than four times the rate of its predecessor, the Galaxy S III. Which was already a best-ever launch for Carphone.

“The record breaking launch of the Galaxy SIII last year was always going to be a tough one to beat,” said Carphone Warehouse COO Graham Stapleton. “But Samsung have pulled out all the stops with a dazzling new device that’s sure to inspire many people to make the switch to Android from other operating systems.”

The phones aren’t scheduled to be available until April 26, and pricing hasn’t been announced yet. Even so, with pre-orders at 446 percent of S III levels, it looks like Samsung has impressed enough of the Android faithful to deliver another best-seller.

The SII sold 10 million units in its first two months and 30 million in five months, so beating those numbers won’t be easy. But Samsung did ship 57 million smartphones in Q3 last year as part of over 400 million phones shipped in all of 2012, so anything seems to be possible.

The question will be: Can Samsung top Apple’s iPhone 5, which was the top-selling phone in the last quarter of 2012?

Perhaps.

“We’re anticipating a massive amount of customer interest in this handset and are expecting our stores to be busier than at the height of the Christmas period,” Stapleton said. “We are planning to extend opening hours at our larger sites to cope with the increased demand.”

None of which changes my contention that the Samsung Galaxy S IV will mark the beginning of the end of Samsung’s smartphone dominance.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Samsung’s highly hyped Galaxy S IV smartphone will debut tomorrow, but will the device have any surprises left to show?

The Galaxy S IV will be Samsung’s new flagship Android phone and will no doubt help Samsung to further challenge Apple’s position in the smartphone market. On top of potentially cutting into iPhone 5 sales, the Galaxy S IV will also attract people away from HTC’s beautiful new top-of-the-line Android phone, the HTC One. And now we likely know just what specs Samsung will be using to sway people away from these phones.

A new Bloomberg report today lists some of the most important specs expected on the new phone, including a 5-inch display, a Qualcomm quad-core processor, and a 13-megapixel camera. These specs have been rumored elsewhere, but it’s promising to see them being touted the day before the reveal.

Bloomberg also disputes a recent New York Times story that said the Galaxy S IV would include eye-tracking technology that would let apps follow your eye movement for scrolling. Bloomberg says no such tech will be included on this phone, but later versions of the device might include eye tracking.

Other supposed leaks have occurred recently showing off Galaxy S IV models in China. First there was a gallery of shots released to a Chinese forum online (see the gallery below), and later a 3-minute video leaked.

The Galaxy S IV will likely get a huge dose of marketing soon, and a new report today says Samsung spent $401 million on promotional efforts in the U.S alone last year. That’s $68 million more than Apple spent.

VentureBeat will be at Samsung’s big reveal event tomorrow evening in New York City, so keep your eyes here for the latest.

Galaxy S 4 leak photo via 52Samsung forum

Despite its sluggish stock price, Apple has topped Fortune’s list of most admired companies for 2013 — just as it did last year.

Apple has had a tough run the past few months, with an uncooperative stock price and shareholders pushing Apple to return cash to investors. Still, the company had the two best-selling smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2012 with the iPhone 5 and 4S, and it continues to be a powerful force in retail.

Google took a close second on Fortune’s list, with Amazon showing up in third place. In the tech realm, other companies also made the top 20 — IBM took sixth and Microsoft was 17th.

To make the list, Fortune ranked companies on the following criteria: innovation, people management, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment, quality of products/services, and global competitiveness.

Check out the top 20 of Fortune’s list below.

1. Apple
2. Google
3. Amazon
4. Coca-Cola
5. Starbucks
6. IBM
7. Southwest Airlines
8. Berkshire Hathaway
9. Walt Disney
10. FedEx
11. General Electric
12. McDonald’s
13. American Express
14. BMW
15. Procter & Gamble
16. Nordstrom
17. Microsoft
18. Nike
19. Whole Foods Market
20. Caterpillar

Apple Store photo via Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Seventy-seven percent of all new smartphones and tablets activated in the enterprise last quarter were Apple devices, according to a new report from Good Technology.

The most popular device was Apple’s new iPhone 5, with 32 percent of all activations. The top five devices activated also included the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPad 3, and iPad2. Out of the top 10, eight were Apple devices, including the iPad 4, the aged iPad 1, and the equally venerable iPhone 3GS.

Essentially, it’s utter enterprise domination by Apple’s iOS:

Source: Good Technologies

Top 10 devices activated in the enterprise: Q4 2012

Android’s first foray into the enterprise comes at number six, with the Samsung Galaxy S III, and its only other contestant is the S III’s baby brother, the Galaxy S II, which clocks in at number 10. iOS activations were up 8.5 percent year-over-year.

Good Technologies offers solution for secure collaboration, communication, and data. With 4,000 enterprise customers and half of the Fortune 500 in its stable, it has fairly good insight into what the enterprise is doing in mobility.

One place Android is gaining somewhat? Tablets.

“Between Q1 and the end of Q4 2012, Android tablet activations jumped from 2.7 percent to nearly 7 percent of total activations,” Good says in its report, attributing the spike in part to the rise of fablets: hybrid phone-tablet devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note.

Source: Good Technologies

Tablet activations in the enterprise: Q4 2012

Windows reigns, of course, on the enterprise desktop, but it is a marginal, niche player so far in enterprise mobility. Only .5 percent of enterprise device activations in the fourth quarter were Windows phones or tablets. That may, of course, change as Windows 8 edges into the enterprise and CIOs look at the potential benefits of a more unified desktop-mobile operating system environment.

Source: Good Technologies

Q4 2012 activations by device type

One interesting note: The business sector that is driving down Apple’s stock valuation is the same industry that is purchasing the most of Apple’s products. According to Good Technologies, between 30 percent and 36 percent of all iPads activated in enterprise where purchased by the financial services industry. The next closest sector is business and professional services, at under 20 percent.

Curious, no?

Source: Good Technologies

iPad activations by industry

photo credit: papalars via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Apple might have some problems keeping investors interested, but consumers are clearly still Apple-hungry. The iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S were the two best-selling smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to a new Strategy Analytics report.

Strategy Analytics’ data showed the iPhone 5 was the overall champ, with 27.4 million iPhone 5 units sold in the fourth quarter, while 17.4 million 4S units were sold, and 15.4 million Galaxy S III units were sold. The iPhone 5 and 4S combined accounted for 1 in 5 of smartphones shipped in the world in Q4 2012.

“The iPhone 5 captured an impressive 13 percent share of all smartphones shipped globally, and it has become the world’s bestselling smartphone model for the first time ever,” Strategy Analytics wrote in its report. “A rich touchscreen design, extensive distribution across dozens of countries, and generous operator subsidies have been among the main causes of the iPhone 5’s success.”

In the third quarter of 2012, by comparison, the Galaxy S III was on top with 18 million units sold, the iPhone 5 (which was barely available in Q3) sold 6 million units, and the iPhone 4S had 16.2 million units sold.

While this news is good for Apple, Samsung can’t be counted out looking forward. Samsung is rumored to be releasing its Galaxy S IV — the successor to the Galaxy S III — some time in March. If that timing holds true and the phone is more powerful and flashy than the S III, the S IV could easily overtake the iPhone 5′s sales in the second quarter of 2013.

Take a look at Strategy Analytics’ numbers below:

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Google’s Nexus smartphone lineup has been a dream for developers and software geeks, but it has consistently lagged behind the iPhone when it comes to camera quality. That’s about to change, according to Google’s vice president of engineering, Vic Gundotra.

“We are committed to making Nexus phones insanely great cameras,” Gundotra wrote in a Google+ thread last night, responding to someone who hoped that future Nexus phones could replace DSLR camers. “Just you wait and see,” he added.

Google’s most recent Nexus phone, the LG-made Nexus 4, has a nice camera, but it pales in comparison to the iPhone 5. As Apple, Nokia, and HTC have consistently improved their smartphone camera technology, it’s something the Nexus line seems to have ignored. Given the popularity of mobile photo apps like Instagram, having a strong camera on-board will be increasingly important for consumers.

Gundotra sparked the camera discussion by saying he was considering bringing a DSLR camera to his mountain vacation trip (alongside his Android phone and Google Glass headset). “Tonight, the DSLR won out,” he wrote. “I care about shallow depth of field and want to capture photos like the one I’ve included in this post. I need my Canon 5d with me.”

The main takeaway: Vic Gundotra deals with the same mundane gadget choices that we all do. He’s one of us!

Google originally focused on making its Nexus smartphone line a strong example of what’s possible with Android hardware, but now the Nexus line is typically one-upped fairly quickly by other Android manufacturers. The big draw with the Nexus now is its ability to get Android updates instantly — other Android phone owners are beholden to their carriers and manufacturers for updates.

In addition to the Nexus line, Google is rumored to be working on an “X phone” project with its new subsidiary Motorola. If that project ever sees the light of day, you can bet camera quality will be a big focus as well.

Via CNet; Photo: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

Both phones are incredibly hot sellers, of course, and that’s driving tremendous usage growth as well

“Both iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S III have doubled web traffic share since October,” an analyst from advertising and analytics company Chitika said.

But with its many other devices, Samsung has held a commanding sales lead over Apple for quite some time, selling almost 400 million phones in 2012 to Apple’s 136 million. In turn, Apple has held a commanding lead in web usage share: people actually using its devices to  surf the mobile web.

Now, even though Apple led fourth quarter smartphone sales in the U.S., that’s starting to change.

The iPhone 5 still has a small lead on the Galaxy S III, with 6.6 percent of mobile web share to the Samsung device’s 6.4 percent, but that’s shrinking, according to the latest study from Chitika.

And so is Apple’s overall lead.

Devices from both companies generate over 60 percent of all smartphone web traffic in North America, and Apple’s share has dropped slightly from 46 percent in October to 41.5 percent in February. Meanwhile, Samsung’s has bumped up from 17 percent to 20.6 percent.

Why?

When I talked to Chitika’s Gabriel Donnini about the last study, he said that it was a factor of both who was using those phones and the user-friendliness of the devices. In other words: Android users skewed older, and Android wasn’t as user-friendly as iPhone. But the changes in the current numbers seem to indicate that those differences are disappearing, and that Samsung’s global sales lead is having an effect on smartphone web use share.

I asked the company if they could identify whether that was caused by more S III devices being on the market, or by existing S III owners using them more to surf the web, but the company does not track individual users and so does not collect that data.

photo credit: samsungtomorrow via photopin cc

Vodafone UK and 3 Austria had warned their iPhone 4S subscribers to refrain from updating to the latest version of the Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 6.1, due to what Vodafone called occasional difficulties “connecting to the network to make or receive calls or texts or to connect to the Internet.”

The update is about 86.8 MB and is available over the air for iPhone 4S users. The release notes say that “this update fixes an issue that could impact cellular performance and reliability for iPhone 4S.”

My other devices, however, including an iPhone 5 and an iPad 2, show no update available.

The Next Web wonders if other devices will also get the update, and so do I.

I’m just one data point, of course, but my iPhone 5 has been extremely unreliable for the last week or two — since the iOS 6.1 update — sometimes failing to connect to my carrier’s networks, sending texts extremely slowly, and failing to connect to the internet, or connecting extremely slowly.

And the infamous cellular data bug seems to be still biting people.

Apple had released iOS 6.1 with an updated version of Siri, which now allows purchasing of movie tickets, and support for 59 new carriers. Apple’s Phil Schiller had said at the time that iOS 6 had reached nearly 300 million devices in just five months.

Perhaps taking it a bit slower might have been the better part of valor.

Question: Have you been experiencing any issues with cellular connectivity on iOS 6.1? Please let me know in the comments.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

You may not know that you can spend huge sums like $180, $350, or even $1,000 on an iPhone app. You don’t want to know that your purchase of even the most expensive app doesn’t guarantee you’ll be able to use it for years to come.

That’s what’s happened with Paragon Software, which sells iOS dictionary and reference apps for $20 to $30.

“We’re committed to supporting the app for people who have bought it,” Paragon’s CEO Alex Zudin told me from Russia this morning. “But Apple says we can’t, because once you pull an app back from sales, you can’t support it anymore.”

In what Zudin calls the worst example, Paragon’s mobile unit Penreader published the Oxford Concise Dictionary for €25, about $34. The app earned multiple “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” resulting in Apple revenue of at least six digits, according to Paragon. People are still using this app, which they must have originally purchased on the second version of the iPhone. But since Paragon doesn’t sell it any more, it can’t update the app cannot for new versions of iOS or newer hardware such as iPhone 4 or 5.

“They come back to us and say: ‘Listen, I bought this for iPhone 2, and now I have the iPhone 5 … and it doesn’t work,” Zudin says. “But if the publisher is gone, or our license to sell the content expires, we have to remove the app from sale.”

This essentially means that anyone who buys a pricey app for iPhone or iPad is at risk of no longer being able to use the app they bought years down the road. That’s an issue when you’re talking apps with lasting value and high price points in a new world of mobile computing that changes so much faster than the desktop world we used to live in.

I have contacted Apple PR for comment, and will update this when they respond.

A decade ago, if you bought software, you had a reasonable expectation of being able to use it for some years, at least. Some people — such as my parents — have been using the same software on their Windows XP machine for close to a decade. And of course, on the desktop, even if you updated the underlying OS or you bought a bigger monitor, a company that chose to support its users could actually do so.

But it’s not so simple in the app store model, which as closed systems have much more regulation around what publishers and consumers can and can’t do.

Interestingly, Apple failing to permit developers to update their apps could even possible be seen as a violation of Apple’s own app user agreement, which states in section (c) that the user is buying a license to use the app:

The license is effective until terminated by You or Application Provider.

In Paragon’s case, neither the user nor Paragon have, of course, terminated the license. Of course, Apple does also include section (e), which essentially says than the app can completely fail to work without Apple being liable:

THE LICENSED APPLICATION AND ANY SERVICES PERFORMED OR PROVIDED BY THE LICENSED APPLICATION (“SERVICES”) ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”, WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND

“The app store and iTunes don’t seem to be made for the long term,” Zudin says. “Apple doesn’t believe that customers can last for three to four years for apps, and their system is not able to handle long-term relationships.”

Zudin understands that this may be a rare exception and that not many mobile developers last for four years, never mind their apps. But Paragon has been in business since 1994, and he still wants to support his customers. And he says the same problem affects many developers of high-quality reference products, which are generally pricey and are intended to serve their users for years, not months.

“I understand they can’t handle it now,” he says. “Perhaps in iOS 7? That would be very nice!”

photo credit: Photo Giddy via photopin cc

New photos of Apple’s alleged ‘iPhone 5S’ have surfaced on a Chinese technology website, supposedly revealing that, just as the iPhone 4S looked basically identical to the iPhone 4, Apple’s newest upcoming iPhone model will look identical to the current flagship iPhone 5.

According to the rumor, Apple’s new iPhone 5S is already in production.

The photos, if real, were certainly hurriedly snapped by someone fearfully of being caught and are poor quality, but do show electronic calipers in almost every shot reveal relative size, apparently the same as the iPhone 5. Sharp eyes in Germany have noticed one minute difference: the vibration motor (which you can see in the shot below).

The motor appears to have been updated from the iPhone5′s to address concerns that it was too noisy.

Source: http://sjbbs.zol.com.cn/2/30_11361.html

iPhone 5S with a new vibration motor?

One thing that might cast some doubt on the images, and the source, is that the Chinese site also claims that the iPhone 6 will have a 4.8″ to 5″ screen, significantly larger than the current iPhone 5′s 4″ and much bigger than the iPhone 4S’s 3.5″. On the on hand Apple faces increasing competition from large-screen smartphones, or “fablets,” but on the other, Apple has gone on record that it is not interested in make phones that can’t easily be used one-handedly.

Of course, Apple said that it would never make a mid-sized tablet, too.

Here are all the images for your viewing pleasure:

You’re in luck: A group of hackers known as evad3rs has released the first jailbreak for iPhone 5, EvasiOn.

The EvasiOn website says the jailbreak is compatible with all iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and iPad mini models, as long as you’re running iOS 6 or the recently-released 6.1, and has released desktop jailbreak kits for Mac, Windows, and Linux. The group also says the jailbreak is safe … if you back up your phone or tablet prior to attempting the jailbreak, you can always restore your original system and data.

That is, of course, if you trust an anonymous group of hackers with complete root control of your device. What could go wrong?

Jailbreaking your phone allows you to install apps that are not authorized by Apple, and in fact a non-Apple app store: Cydia, which aggregates and installs apps that are not on the official app store. An untethered jailbreak, such as this one, survives multiple device reboots without needing to be reapplied.

As ExtremeTech mentions, this jailbreak means that Apple’s system-on-chip built into the Apple A6 processor has been cracked. No details have been released on how that actually happened, since those would then help Apple seal the leak.

One unfortunate detail, to those who want their devices to be free. According to one iOS hacker, the new software is a “userland jailbreak,” which exploits holes in iOS 6, but not the underlying layers of the system like the Bootrom. That means Apple can block it simply with a system update.

Other challenges, according to the FAQ EvasiOn has put up, include that users are experiences crashes on some standard apps, such as the Weather app. Another user reports that his iPhone was not charging after jailbreaking — which sounds like a hardware issue — and yet another user said his “sound died after jailbreaking.” And, of course, it does void your Apple warranty.

As the saying goes, YMMV.

Image credit: evasiOn.com

In the fourth quarter of 2012, manufacturers shipped 52 million phones in the United States, according to Strategy Analytics. Apple shipped 17.7 million of them, and Samsung shipped 16.8 million. The next largest competitor, LG, shipped only 4.7 million.

Everything else is buried in the dreaded “Other” category: What those numbers mean is that Apple and Samsung have cornered 65 percent of the market (or 69 percent, according to the NPD Group’s numbers). But it’s even more shocking when you look at phone models. The top five models all come from the only two smartphone vendors that have won significant market share in the U.S.

“Apple and Samsung continued to run away from all the other smartphone makers accounting for nearly 70 percent of all sales during Q4 2012,” analyst firm NPD Group said in a statement.

The iPhone 5 was the top-selling smartphone in the last quarter of 2012, according to that NPD Group report, and Apple has three more spots in the top five, with its old model iPhone 4S and even older model iPhone 4 still selling well.

Source: NPD Group

Top 5 selling smartphones in the U.S.

Still think Apple shouldn’t build a cheaper iPhone, by the way?

Samsung is doing very well also, of course, with two phones in the top five: its flagship Galaxy S III and the slightly less-well-endowed Galaxy S II. And of course, Samsung has a raft of other products in its Galaxy and other model lines targeted various consumer niches.

Besides the fact that the smartphone race in the U.S. is a two-horse race, another thing is completely clear: Smartphones have clearly beaten feature phones. And that’s going to force another set of changes in the market.

“While smartphone sales continued on their torrid pace in the fourth quarter, the seeds of change are evident in the sales numbers,” the NPD Group’s VP of industry analysis Stephen Baker said in a statement. “With of the vast majority of all phone sales now smartphones, and with the largest unit-sales growth within smartphones occurring in the prepaid segment, today’s product pricing and channel models will need to adapt to accommodate this new reality.”

It’s inevitable that Apple will move beyond the iPhone 5′s 4-inch screen — the real questions are how and when.

Recent rumors from China pointed to a 4.8-inch “iPhone Math” coming around June, but the odd name and questionable sources made that tough to swallow. Still, aside from the timing, there may be some truth to those reports.

Instapaper creator Marco Arment has mocked up what a 4.94-inch screen “iPhone Plus” (perhaps a better translation of iPhone Math) could look like, and the results honestly don’t look that far-fetched. Arment assumes Apple would use a wide 16:9 screen with the same 264ppi pixel density as the Retina iPad and an iPhone 5 resolution (640 by 1,136) — similar to how the iPad mini uses the original iPad’s resolution with the screen density of the iPhone 3GS.

Why that logical leap? The key to a big-screen iPhone, just like creating a smaller-screen iPad, is making sure that apps can run full-screen without any additional modification. Many developers still haven’t updated their iPhone apps to support the iPhone 5′s taller display, and Apple wouldn’t want to create yet another design schism so soon.

Even though we’ve only had the iPhone 5 for a few months, it wouldn’t be that crazy to think Apple is pondering a bigger phone. Large screen sizes are pretty much the standard now among Android phones, so eventually the iPhone 5′s 4-inch display could be a huge turnoff to potential buyers. Apple could also offer the iPhone Plus alongside its smaller iPhone (something that the iPhone Math rumors pointed to).

As for timing, I don’t think it would make much sense for Apple to have a mid-year iPhone debut, though you could argue that Apple has to move even faster to keep up with the competition. My bet is still on another fall debut for the next iPhone, which other recent rumors are also pointing to.

Personally, I’m all for sensible smartphone screen sizes. I thought Huawei’s 6.1-inch Ascend smartphone was one of the worst devices at CES this year, mostly because it was ludicrously large and difficult to use as phone. After a point, the race to create bigger phone screen sizes will have to stop. But I wouldn’t blame Apple for getting into the big-screen phone arena — it has to compete, after all.

A bigger iPhone would also mirror the iPad line, where Apple now has the large 9.7-inch iPad model alongside the iPad mini. There are also rumors that Apple is considering a cheaper iPhone model, which would make it more attractive to customers in emerging markets.

Photo: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat