Monday, July 18, 2011

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

Apple Wields iPhone 5 & Patent Victories To Slaughter HTC, Samsung

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 08:06 AM PDT


Up until recently, 2011 was fast becoming “the year of Android.” But the prospect of a feature-rich iPhone 5 selling 25 million units by year’s end, coupled with key patent victories, has Apple taking aim at Android’s fair-haired boys HTC and Samsung. Will 2011 turn out to be another “year of the iPhone?”

2011 has been an up and down year for Apple. The company has seen its fair share of impressive iPhone 4 sales — thanks to several sales-extending campaigns, such as the late Verizon iPhone release and the white iPhone 4 — as well as several setbacks in the public relations arena. And because the iPhone 5‘s later-than-usual release has been framed as a “delay,” the aging iPhone 4 has begun to seem long in the tooth for many smartphone users in the know.

July, however, has turned out to be a watershed moment for Apple, as the iPhone 5 comes into slightly better focus as a formidable smartphone, expected to sell between 15 and 25 million units in the last part of the year alone, all while Apple’s recent patent victories begin to take their toll on top competitors HTC and Samsung.

Total Telecom reports that: “Apple has won an important early victory in its patent lawsuit against HTC, after a judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that the Taiwan smartphone player had infringed two of the iPhone maker’s patents,” and that “the decision could have far-reaching consequences for Google’s mobile operating system because the patents – which relate to real-time signal processing, and interface functions that enable users to initiate a voice call by selecting a phone number received in an email or text message – are core Android features used in devices developed by other handset players, including Motorola and Samsung.”

In this way, Apple has decided to take an aggressive approach to wielding its patents against the Android conglomerate of competitors, hoping to effectively derail two of its its most robust contributors, HTC and Samsung. Beatweek goes as far to say that: “And now that Apple has preliminarily gutted HTC in the patent arena, the events of this fall may graduate from major shift to sea change – and that's before Apple even gets its ruling against Android maker Samsung.”

Given how entrenched HTC and Samsung smartphones are in the marketplace. it’s hard to imagine that Apple could effectively eliminate these two companies’ smartphones from the U.S. completely, as Beatweek hyperbolically suggests when they say that “Android phones from HTC could be vacating shelves, or HTC could instead end up vacating much of itself, in order to settle new new debt and an old score.” That being said, the result of these patent lawsuits could end in a settlement between Apple and its two top Android foes that has them sending Apple hefty licensing royalties on all of their smartphone sales, essentially giving Apple a piece of the action on all of the iPhone 5′s competition, much in the same way that Apple now has to pay Nokia royalties on its iPhone sales. For Apple, an arrangement like this with Samsung and HTC would be a win/win.

And for as much at HTC has much to lose in Apple’s ensuing 2011 “resurrection,” Samsung has even more to lose.

In addition to its Galaxy S II running the risk of being marginalized by these new patent fights — not to mention the prospect of the iPhone 5 unleashing a barrage of unexpected features that dwarf the current buzz about the S II — Samsung is also poised to lose its chip manufacturing deal with Apple for the A6 chip. For Samsung, it would be a lose/lose – enough to potentially put the company up for fire sale.

The big Unknown in this discussion is the iPhone 5 itself, which Apple has done a commendable job to this point is keeping silent about. Aside from the few hints that iOS 5 and iCloud gives us, the device remains largely in the shadows. But once the iPhone 5 is released, it stands to reason that the Android cadre will have a great deal to contend with from Apple in this last half of 2011.



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More Thoughts On The iPhone 5 Delay, Nomenclature, And The A6 Processor

Posted: 17 Jul 2011 10:51 PM PDT


My take is that Apple would have been delighted to get an iPhone 5 incorporating a package of significant power and feature upgrades out the door at WWDC in June. I expect they would rather that it hadn’t taken four and a half months to clear the backlog of iPad 2 orders to a normal shipping interval of one to three days, which finally happened last week.

But stuff happened. Apple would never have anticipated nearly a year’s delay in shipping white iPad 4s. There was the matter of the Japanese earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster in March and its ongoing consequences for the OEM supply lines. I doubt very much that they expected to get into a nasty tort slugfest with their currently sole A4 and A5 CPU supplier. And those are just some examples of things we know for a fact. Circumstances either wholly, or in part not under their control.

So now they are faced with a dilemma. Whatever they do, the iPhone new product release cycle has been disrupted. It appears that there may be an issue with cooling the A5 CPU inside a revised, slimmer iPhone 5 form factor, although that’s rumor — not confirmed fact.

There is obviously immense consumer pressure for them to get a major iPhone upgrade out at least by September, and they may be able to do that. But what if LTE/4G support is not possible by then, or the A5 heating issue really is real, or both, again for reasons not entirely within their control? Would it be better to release a new iPhone model in September that retains the iPhone 4 form factor but incorporates what is doable from the hoped-for/expected/demanded feature set, such as an 800-megapixel camera, a Gorilla Glass screen, and a dual-core variant of the A4 chip if the alleged heat problems afflict the A5 inside even the iPhone 4 enclosure (as has been rumored) — or keep people waiting until a full-featured iPhone 5 is ready?

Of course, maybe Apple actually will have an iPhone 5 with a feature set that will satisfy pent-up demand ready for September with any A5 cooling issues (if there really are any) solved, and 4G support.

However, if not, and they opt to go with an interim, tide-them-over, upgrade and enhancement release, should they call it an iPhone 5 anyway, or use iPhone 4S nomenclature? Either way, they would be harshly criticized.

That’s one reason why I’m less certain than Michael is that what’s being referred to by some as the iPhone 4S is and always was vapor, although the name “4S” might have been fanciful.

Meanwhile, the upgrade that we would like to see may have to wait for an A6 28nm processor chip to become available, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) rather than Samsung as the supplier.

Computerworld’s Jonny Evans has posted an excellent discussion of the TSMC 28nm silicon project from an Apple-centric perspective that sheds some light on the issues and exigencies that obtain.

Evans says that Apples A6 processor indeed will be made by TSMC, and will be a 3D IC 28-nanometer low-power consumption powerhouse — possibly even powerful enough at low heat yields that it might be considered to power future model MacBook Airs. He notes that a 3D IC is a chip in which two or more layers of active electronic components are integrated both vertically and horizontally into a single circuit, compared with the A4 and A5 Apple chips which are layered designs: the A4 having three distinct layers consisting of the microprocessor itself and two layers of Samsung RAM.

Citing SemiWiki, Evans says TSMC’s 3D-IC implementation “is said to achieve performance gains of about 30 percent while consuming 50 percent less power.”

Making the news even more interesting and pertinent in the context of today’s discussion, TSMC could possibly begin shipping its first CPUs with 3D IC interconnects by year end 2011, according to a recent report by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA).

On the other hand, don’t yet rule out a continued processor OEM role for Samsung, which Evans reports has also confirmed plans to transition to a 28nm chip fab process, provided that Apple and Samsung can find a way to continue doing business as their court fight drags on.

Whatever, it appears that TSMC is well out in front with 28nm chip development to a degree that it has announced plans to commence commercial production 28nm CPUs this year, inclining Evans to speculate that it’s possible Apple might be helping drive the move, noting also that TSMC has approved chip design software from the San Jose, Calif. company, Magma Design Automation, for use with its 28-nm process. That’s interesting he says, because Magma has plenty of connections within Apple, and also with an iPhone graphics connected firm, Imagination Technologies.

9To5 Mac’s Mark Gurman reports that according to Reuters, TSMC has yet to be confirmed as the producer of Apples’ A6 chip when it ships sometime in the future, but the decision is said to be authorized — the only thing holding back the deal being the potential yield rate of the manufacturing.

On the other hand, Jonny Evans throws in the caveat that that since Samsung had a hand in the design of Apple’s existing A4 and A5 chips, a shift of suppliers would mean Apple’s processor team will need to work with TSMC to replace some elements of the design if that’s the direction they intend to go.

Looks like interesting times on the iPhone front are shaping up to continue for the rest of the year and into 2012.

Opinion: $9 AT&T iPhone 3Gs Means An iPhone 5 With No 4s Counterpart, Imminent Release Date

Posted: 17 Jul 2011 07:12 PM PDT


AT&T has dropped the price of its refurb’ed iPhone 3Gs to just $9 with a two-year contract upgrade. Read why this move by AT&T tells us that there won’t be an iPhone 4s — and how we might have to rethink the release date of the iPhone 5.

The iPhone 5 cometh.

So say the reading of the AT&-Tea leaves: AT&T is now selling their refurbished iPhone 3Gs for $9 with a two-year contract extension. This is a fire sale, folks, all in anticipation for AT&T, Verizon, and perhaps Sprint and T-Mobile to pack their coffers full of fresh iPhone 5s. Clearing out the refurb 3Gs at a price of $9 — less than what young parents pay for a pack of diposable diapers these days — is a landmark circumstantial moment that indeed ushers in the near-immiment release of the iPhone 5.

You can get to the original report from Electronista on the iPhone 5 News Ticker by clicking here.

Chances are, even at $9 bucks, the refurb iPhone 3Gs won’t sell like hotcakes — if iPhone 4 sales have slowed over the Summer in anticipation of the iPhone 5′s release, you can bet your bottom dollar that people are buying a $9 refurb 3Gs more for a paperweight or museum piece than an actual smartphone: it is already a virtual relic, and with the advent of the iPhone 5, it is due to become an ancient relic.

iPhone 3Gs as a Clearance Item Means No iPhone 4s

I have never bought into the notion that the next iPhone would be the fabled iPhone 4s. In fact, I don’t think the iPhone 4s ever existed, nor will it ever. Sure — it is possible that Cupertino shipped some top developed a tricked-out iPhone 4 with iOS 5 and the A5 chip prior to the WWDC — but to think that a developer’s iPhone model would magically become the iPhone 4s was a rumor made in the most cynical depth of the iPhone 5 rumor mill.

Thus, now that the iPhone 3Gs is basically being given away for free by AT&T tells us, by extension, that there will be no iPhone 4s. Why? Simply put, there will be no need for a lesser-priced iPhone 4s, as the iPhone 4 is obviously going to be positioned as the value-priced iPhone model against the premium-priced iPhone 5. It would highly irregular and asinine for Apple to peddle the iPhone 5, iPhone 4s, and iPhone 4 all at the same time. What would the 4s offer that the 4 doesn’t?

It doesn’t even bear scrutiny. The 3Gs is being cleared out for the iPhone 4 to be the value model, in preparation for the ascendancy of the iPhone 5. All hail the iPhone 5!

A $9 iPhone 3Gs Tells Us Something about the iPhone 5′s Release Date

As you know, this blog, while reporting on the wide array of prognosticated release ranges for the iPhone 5, has believed personally that the iPhone 5 would be released in late Summer/early Fall, and that the most reasonable timeframe for its announcement would be the “Back to School” period. The news of the 3Gs going on sale now for $9, however, gives me pause, and makes me think that perhaps the iPhone 5 is going to be released even sooner than I thought.

I work in marketing, and more than half of my clients are retailers. Thus, I know from experience that, when an updated product is due out, they hold a big sale to clear out the product that due to become “obsolete.” From retail clients in the U.S. to Australia to Hong Kong, regardless of their product, they all do this.

The thing is, they usually start selling off soon-to-be obsolete product at a bargain price once the stock is already being shipped to their warehouses!

Besides that, promotions in retail have a very short shelf-life; you only get a few days of real sales volume before everyone who was going to take advantage of the sale, does. That’s why retailers will do a “One Day Sale,” or “Weekend Sale.” It’s hard to imagine AT&T will push the $9 pricing of their 3Gs for 6 to 8 weeks before the iPhone 5 is announced. Perhaps they are planning on eventually dropping new 3Gss down to $9 and making the remaining refurb’ed models “free,” but even a schtick like that wouldn’t last 6 to 8 week.

If AT&T follows the logic of all other retail, then this move could be the indication that the iPhone 5 is indeed arriving in August and not September.

Just a thought.