Samsung’s Galaxy S4 was always going to be a big seller — probably the best-selling Android smartphone of 2013 — but the Korean company has lost $12 billion in market value due to concerns that the two Galaxy S4 variants that were recently announced will have a detrimental affect on its profit margins.
Brokers are also concerned that the growth prospects for Samsung smartphone business have “dimmed” following rumors of a new iPhone trade-in program from Apple.
Google’s YouTube apps for Android and iOS have helped the company triple advertising sales on mobile in the past six months, the company has said. Mobile ads now contribute an estimated $350 million to YouTube’s revenue, with around a quarter of the site’s 1 billion users accessing videos on smartphones and tablets.
The New York Attorney General has called for Apple, Google, Samsung, and Microsoft to invent new ways to curb the ongoing smartphone theft “epidemic.” Eric Schneiderman wants meetings with representatives from all four companies, and he has urged them to “be as innovative in solving this problem as they have been in designing devices that have reshaped how we live.”
Boom, baby.
According to the latest report on smartphone subscriber market share from comScore, Apple still tops out over Samsung for market dominance, with both companies showing decent gains. HTC, Motorola, and LG are also in the top five smartphone makers, but lost market share this past quarter.
Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference is just a week away and although it’s highly unlikely we’ll see any new iOS devices, we will get our first glimpse at iOS 7.
iOS 7 could be one of the biggest iOS updates to date, with many rumors claiming it will be completely overhauled with a new look and new features as Jony Ive makes his mark as the head of software design. A report that was published earlier this month claims that Apple has had to pull engineers away from OS X 10.9 to help complete it.
Personally, I couldn’t be more excited about iOS 7. I made the switch to Android just before Christmas because I found Jelly Bean on the Nexus 4 to be better than iOS 6 on the iPhone 5 at a lot of things, which I wrote about back in February.
Having used Android for four months, I’ve compiled a list of things iOS 7 should learn from its biggest rival. If Apple adds these things to its own platform — or variations of them that provide the same experience — then I think iOS 7 could be fantastic.
Check out the list below and see if you agree.
