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Over 5 Million Smart Watches To Ship In 2014 - Canalys
Apple Reportedly Having IC Yield Problems With New iPhone Manufacturing
Will OS X Mavericks and iOS 7 Be Released Together?
Apple Unveils Logic Pro X
Over 5 Million Smart Watches To Ship In 2014 - Canalys
The worldwide smart watch market will exceed 5 million unit shipments in 2014 according to the latest Canalys forecasts. Canalys estimates that over 330,000 smart watches were shipped in 2012, led by Sony and Motorola. Kickstarter-backed Pebble Technology has joined Sony as a market leader in 2013; over 500,000 units will be shipped this year. Smart watches are then set to explode by the end of 2014, growing tenfold as a new generation of devices from Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and others are launched.
Unlike earlier products, these smart watches will provide more sophisticated software and more elegant hardware. Glanceable information, integration across sensors and hooks into web services will be key features. These companion devices will not replace smart phones, but rather complement them as 'appcessories'.
'Smart watches will be the most important new product category in consumer electronics since the iPad defined the market for tablets,' said Chris Jones, Canalys VP and Principal Analyst. 'Software platforms tied to smart watches will also be a tremendous opportunity for developers to write apps in categories such as health and wellness or sports and fitness.'
Hardware design will be critical for smart watches, as consumers will only want to wear fashionable products. The market for traditional watches will quickly be disrupted once consumers determine that smart watches add sufficiently valuable functionality to their lives while being 'stylish enough'. Canalys estimates that over a billion watches were shipped in 2012.
Device vendors will face a number of tough challenges. 'Strict power constraints will prohibit cellular technology, limit the number of sensors and necessitate communication with smart phones over Bluetooth Low Energy,' according to Canalys Analyst Daniel Matte. 'ARM architecture licensees that design custom silicon will enjoy significant hardware advantages in this space.'
Smart watches will also require custom software. 'An effective smart watch won't just be a second screen for a smart phone. Creating a competent developer platform specifically for the form factor will be an enormous challenge,' said Canalys Analyst James Wang. 'Google and Microsoft must execute more successfully than they have done with their tablet platforms and will have to adapt their business models appropriately.'
Technology companies can't afford to wait. Innovative companies that create compelling apps will be best poised to capitalize on this major market opportunity.
Canalys defines smart watches as smart wearable bands. Smart wearable bands are multi-purpose devices that can run third-party computing applications and are designed to be worn on the body, and not carried. These forecasts are taken from the Canalys Appcessory Analysis service.
For more information, visit:
http://www.canalys.com/what-we-do/appcessory-analysis
Apple Reportedly Having IC Yield Problems With New iPhone Manufacturing
Digitimes' Josephine Lien and Steve Shen rexport that poor yields of fingerprint-recognition chips and LCD driver ICs will likely force Apple to reduce first-quarter shipments of the rumored iPhone 5S, which is slated for launch in September 2013, according to industry sources.
They note that production of fingerprint-recognition and LCD driver chips for the iPhone 5S was supposed to have started at the end of June or early in July, but that issues related to yield rates will delay commercial production of the two chips to the end of July, therefore affecting the initial supply of the iPhone 5S, the sources say.
For the full report, visit:
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20130716PD206.html
Will OS X Mavericks and iOS 7 Be Released Together?
T-GAAP's E. Werner Reschke observes that last month at WWDC 2013 it was made clear that OS X Mavericks and iOS 7 are both slated for release sometime this fall," and he's begun to wonder whether Apple will do something it has never done before; release the two operating systems simultaneously.
For the full commentary, visit:
http://bit.ly/12IZ9Sc
Apple Unveils Logic Pro X
Apple on Tuesday unveiled Logic Pro X, featuring a new interface designed for pros, powerful new creative tools for musicians, and an expanded collection of instruments and effects.
Logic Pro X includes Drummer, a new feature that provides a virtual session player that automatically plays along with your song in a wide variety of drumming styles and techniques, and Flex Pitch, which provides integrated pitch editing for audio recordings. Apple also introduced Logic Remote, an innovative new way to play and control Logic Pro X from your iPad, giving musicians the flexibility to create and mix their music from anywhere in the room.
“Logic Pro X is our most powerful version yet, with advanced tools and a modern new interface designed to streamline the process of creating professional quality music,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Musicians are going to love creative new features like Drummer, Flex Pitch, Track Stacks and the Arpeggiator.”
“Logic Pro was critical to writing and recording our debut album Night Visions, so we couldn’t wait to get our hands on Logic Pro X,” says Wayne Sermon, guitarist of the Platinum-selling band Imagine Dragons. “We love the new design, and the creative features of Logic Pro X have already been inspiring us to write new material while we’re on tour.”
Logic Pro X has been designed with a modern new look while preserving and expanding the power and features that professional users rely on. The new interface provides access to advanced tools and functionality for more technical tasks, or can be hidden to allow musicians to focus on being creative. Flex Pitch helps users fix out-of-tune vocals and even change the melodies of recorded audio by manipulating individual notes within an audio waveform. Track Stacks lets you organize and collapse multiple tracks into one, or can be used to create rich, layered instruments. Smart Controls allow you to manipulate multiple plug-ins and parameters with a single move for quick and powerful sound design. An improved Mixer helps manage mix sessions more efficiently, with increased visibility into signal flow and dynamics and faster ways to manipulate channel inserts.
Logic Pro X provides a collection of new creative tools for songwriting and music production. Drummer delivers professionally produced, realistic drum tracks that respond to your direction and can perform millions of unique grooves in rock, alternative, songwriter and R&B genres. Drummer is powered by the performances and sounds of some of the industry’s top session players and recording engineers, including legendary mixer/producer Bob Clearmountain, who has worked with the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie. Designed to work with Drummer, the new Drum Kit Designer plug-in lets you build your own custom kit using a diverse collection of professionally recorded snare drums, toms, hi-hats and cymbals that you can mix, match and fine tune to get the right drum sound for your song.
Logic Pro X expands Logic Pro’s rich collection of synthesizers and keyboards with more new instruments. The Arpeggiator is one of nine new MIDI plug-ins and can transform a simple keyboard chord into an elaborate performance. The new Retro Synth emulates some of the most popular classic synthesizer tones from the 70s and 80s, and Vintage Keyboards offer realistic models of electric pianos, B3 organs and clavs, with sophisticated tone-shaping controls. Bass Amp Designer allows bass players to play and record using vintage and modern bass amps, with cabinets and microphones that can be configured to build a custom bass rig. Logic Pro X also features an entirely new Sound Library with an updated loop collection and over 1,500 instrument and effect Patches that make creative use of Track Stacks, Smart Controls, the Arpeggiator and other new plug-ins.
Logic Remote is an innovative new way to extend the creative power of Logic by using your iPad. Designed to take full advantage of the iPad Multi-Touch display, Logic Remote gives users new ways to record, mix and even perform instruments in Logic Pro X from anywhere in the room, turning their iPad into a keyboard, drum pad, guitar fretboard, mixing board or transport control.
MainStage 3, a major update to MainStage, is the live performance companion app for Logic Pro X, turning the Mac into a live rig that makes it easy to bring sounds from the studio to the concert stage. MainStage 3 features a new user interface and maintains compatibility with the new Logic Pro X plug-ins, Patches and Smart Controls.
Logic Pro X and MainStage 3 are available now from the Mac App Store for $199.99 (US) and $29.99 (US), respectively. Logic Remote is available now as a free download from the App Store. For a complete list of system requirements and compatible systems, visit:
http://www.apple.com/logic-pro
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