"smartphone" articles

It seems this fall has been a great time for streaming services in the United States.  Google has introduced its ad-free YouTube Red and YouTube Music services, available free of charge to Google Play subscribers, and now T-Mobile has expanded its unCarrier approach to video as well as music. I'm talking about T-Mobile's new Binge On feature, available to subscribers of T-Mobile's 6GB plans or higher.  Last year T-Mobile introduced Music Freedom, a feature that offered...

Oculus and Samsung have unveiled the consumer version of Gear VR which will become available for purchase in November, making it the first consumer version of the “new wave” of virtual reality (VR) headsets that will be coming late this year and in early 2016. The biggest news is its price tag. The consumer version of the Gear VR is going to be sold for $99. That is approximately half the price of the Innovator Edition of Gear VR that Samsung was has been selling, primarily as...

Like everyone else who's been keeping an eye on the Windows 10 devices event , I was seriously impressed.  Seamless interoperability, a powerful new 2-in-1 laptop, and a wearable hologram that was like something out of science fiction?  Yes.  But what impressed me the most was the one thing that's seeming to slip past most peoples' notice. What am I talking about?  Well, we've got laptops that are also tablets, and tablets that are also laptops.  But...

Amena Ali , Senior VP and General Manager at WeatherBug Home , answers several industry questions about issues that are currently affecting the connected entertainment and smart home markets: What is the most important next step to engage consumers in smart home solutions, connected entertainment services, and/or value-added services like tech support and connected health? When it comes to engaging consumers in smart home solutions, we need to first consider their...

Today, Parks Associates announced new smartphone and tablet research at Mobile World Congress that reveals that app users regularly use nearly eight apps on their smartphone and nearly seven apps on their tablet. The average user spends 3.3 hours per week using social networking apps on a smartphone, while gaming and music apps score 2.7 and 2.6 hours per week, respectively. Commenting on the data, Parks Associates’ director of health and mobile product research, Harry Wang...

In a recent article for the San Francisco Gate , details of an open letter sent from Apple shareholder and activist Carl Icahn sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook were revealed.  In the letter, Icahn provides predictions for the next generation of Apple products, including its popular iPhone and iPad series, forecasting that the company's new releases will continue to drive popularity and demand, thereby raising stock prices, which he feels are too low for comfort. Harry Wang ,...

This morning, activist investor Carl Icahn issued an open letter to Apple, urging the technology innovator to buyback more shares. As an industry analyst, I am more interested in Mr. Icahn’s rationales and assumptions about Apple’s future growth, and there are plenty in that open letter. We agree with Mr. Icahn on many fronts but also disagree with him on several other areas. Here is a quick summary of how I dissect his arguments. What we agree with Mr. Icahn:...

Alongside the headline-grabbing Apple Watch and the new, improved, and enlarged iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, comes the most eagerly-awaited news for those in the payments and retail space: Apple Pay. Apple has sat aside and watched while major competitors got a several-years-long jump on the mobile payments marketplace, only to founder and generate very little traction. As is its custom, Apple strategically assembled all necessary pieces of its planned product first and then waited for...