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Apple, Samsung Reportedly Both Developing 12-Inch Tablets
Thickness Increases Coming To iPad mini 2 With Retina Display
New iPad Devices To Impact Expensive Competing Tablets
Why Microsoft’s Surface Strategy Will Flop with Holiday Shoppers
iPhone 5s Sales Dominance Over iPhone 5c Could Be Temporary
Quartz’s First Full-day Forum "The Next Billion" To Be Held Nov.6
Apple, Samsung Reportedly Both Developing 12-Inch Tablets
Digitimes' Aaron Lee and Joseph Tsai report that Apple and Samsung Electronics are said to both be planning to release 12-inch tablets, and that Apple is currently cooperating with Quanta Computer on the project, while Samsung is developing its 12-inch tablet product in house, according to unnamed sources in the upstream supply chain, and that in addition to the 12-inch tablet product, longtime Apple ODM.Quanta will also be a supplier of Apple's iWatch.
Lee and Tsai also say Samsung had originally hoped to partner with Google on its 12-inch tablet project, but that Google has decided to concentrate most of its focus on 7-inch tablet products for now. They suggest that with
Apple and Samsung's entries, the large-size tablet market is expected to see increasing demand, but that their sources are also apprehensive that that large-size tablets from these major players will furthermore negatively impact notebook demand, and that many brand vendors are developing 18-inch convertible all-in-one PCs, trying to get a leg up on the really the large-size tablet market.
For the full report, visit:
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20131014PD206.html
Thickness Increases Coming To iPad mini 2 With Retina Display
Japanese Apple Warcher blog site Macotakara reports that at "China Sourcing Fairs 2013" held in Hong Kong, some exhibiting manufacturers had cases made for the iPad mini (2nd generation) on display that indicated a case thickness increase from 7.2mm of first-gen iPad mini to 7.5mm, and an increase in case width of 0.2mm.
The reason for the upsizing is presumably in order to accommodate larger battery volume in order to compensate for the greater power consumption of a high-resolution display, similarly to the way the third-generation iPad was thicker in section than the iPad 2 in order to power its Retina display.
For the full report, visit:
http://www.macotakara.jp/blog/report/entry-21418.html
New iPad Devices To Impact Expensive Competing Tablets
Digitimes' Monica Chen and Joseph Tsai report that Microsoft's second-generation Surface and new Android-based tablets are expected to be impacted by Apple's launch of the next-generation iPad and iPad mini as the company is likely to reduce its existing iPad and iPad mini prices, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.
The iPad mini is currently priced starting US$329, while the Retina Display iPad is priced starting US$499. The next-generation iPad and iPad mini are expected to retain the same price ranges, while existing models' new prices are expected to impact 10-inch tablet models with prices above US$399 and 7-inch models with prices above US$299, the sources noted.
Microsoft's Surface 2 series tablets are expected to be the most impacted as the Surface Pro 2 is priced starting US$899 and the Surface 2 is priced at US$449. Although Microsoft claims to have seen good pre-orders, Digitimes' sources pointed out that demand Is still not strong enough.
Although Nokia is expected to release 10-inch tablets featuring Windows 8.1 or RT in the near future with the Windows RT-based model pricing at around US$499, the sources believe the non-iPad tablets are unlikely to achieve good sales performance.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20131014PD208.html
Why Microsoft’s Surface Strategy Will Flop with Holiday Shoppers
There's a particularly great line in this commentary by The Mac Observer's John Martellaro: "Never bring a Windows notebook in disguise to a tablet fight."
Martellaro observes that Microsoft took a productivity-oriented approach to its Surface tablets with Windows, MS Office and a keyboard, which is fine for the enterprise tablet market, but he's of a mind that with the Christmas shopping period ramping up and really fun items on people's minds, Surface tablets will be the last thing consumers will be thinking of giving for Christmas presents, and one has to wonder about Microsoft's timing rolling out a business-centric device for the second year in a row during the run up to the holidays, and that no Christmas shopper wants to disappoint a friend or loved-one by giving them something as awkward, buttoned down, non-mainstream and business-oriented as the Surface as a gift, so he expects Microsoft will repeat its tablet PC's tepid sales performance of last year during this holiday shopping season.
For the full commentary, visit:
http://goo.gl/ngUPx8
iPhone 5s Sales Dominance Over iPhone 5c Could Be Temporary
AppAdvice's Bryan M. Wolfe notes that while the latest iPhone analysis comes from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), posted by AllThingsD 64 percent of buyers selected the iPhone 5s with the iPhone 5c accountign for 27 percent, and the 2-year-old iPhone 4s taking the remaining 9 percent, indicating that the iPhone 5s outsold the iPhone 5c by more than 2 to 1.
However, Wolfe says while the iPhone 5s may continue to lead the iPhone 5c in terms of sales, its dominance heading into the holiday season could eventually wane, with CIRP co-founder Josh Lowitz noting that over time, the lower-priced phones have tended to gain share versus the flagship phone, after the initial rush of dedicated upgraders to the newest device.
Consequently, CIRP expects that the 5c will account for a higher percent of total U.S. iPhone sales in the coming months, but the design changes may alter that dynamic, with the iPhone 5c potentially appealing to different buyers than the legacy 4S did last year, or the new 5s will this year.
For the full report visit here:
http://goo.gl/MJp54K
Quartz’s First Full-day Forum "The Next Billion" To Be Held Nov.6
Quartz notes that the dumbphones market is skyrocketing, noting that there are more mobile phones on Earth than people, but only 26% are smartphones. As more people come online, that percentage will only get smaller. Quartz invites participants to join innovators from Mozilla, Microsoft, and more who are shaping the coming wave of connectivity at The Next Billion, Quartz’s first full-day forum, 11/6 in NYC.
At the end of 2012, there were an estimated 2.4 billion internet users worldwide. By 2016, this number will nearly double. Much of this online access will happen through mobile devices in the developing world. Connectivity on such a scale will profoundly affect the way businesses communicate, educate, innovate, and scale. It will likely threaten security and overload infrastructure, but also catalyze massive social and economic progress. How can business leaders leverage these seismic shifts to create new opportunities for global commerce and social action? How are governments likely to respond to the shifting ground under their feet? How will this new breed of connected consumers behave? What technologies will improve and accelerate internet users in the coming years?
The Next Billion is a gathering of global business leaders designed to foster lively debate and spark productive collaborations about the next wave of internet users and beyond.
Agenda:
Welcome To The Connected World
Leapfrogging
If you think you know how people will be communicating three years from now, you're probably wrong.
Mike Bell, Intel
Jay Sullivan, Mozilla
Cybersecurity
Are you prepared for a cyber attack on your e-mail account -- or your business?
Gavin Kim, NQ Mobile
Online Learning
The person sitting next to you just received an MBA by answering questions on their tablet
Katya Andresen, ePals
Suneet Tuli, Datawind
The Future Of Work
Get ready for a billion more applicants for your next job posting
Ali Velshi, Al Jazeera
Daniel Debow, Salesforce
Brad Garlinghouse, Hightail
Digital Finance
The next billion are more likely to have phones than bank accounts
Mung Ki Woo, Mastercard
Claire Alexandre, Vodafone
Crowdsourcing
Companies will now have 5 billion people to test their good ideas -- and bad ones.
Peter Bale, CNN International
Alph Bingham, Innocentive
Social Cities
Welcome to Jakarta, the world’s most active Twitter city
The physical and virtual worlds are converging.
Chinedu Echeruo, HopStop
Ulrich Quay, BMW iVentures
Martin Varsavsky, Fon
GLOBAL COMMERCE
The next billion might re-energize the world economy -- or just give it a bad shake-up
Venkatesh Bala, The Cambridge Group
Blanca Trevińo, Softtek
For more information, visit:
http://events.qz.com/thenextbillion
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