DailyTech - Apple Cuts iPhone Screen, Component Orders for Q1 2013 by 50 Percent

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Gadgets Apple Cuts iPhone Screen, Component Orders for Q1 2013 by 50 Percent
Tiffany Kaiser - January 14, 2013 6:30 AM

95 comment(s) - last by retrospooty.. on Jan 17 at 7:54 AM

This may be a sign of how iPhone demand is faring amongst the competition

The latest iPhone may not be the rockstar Apple thought it would be. The Cupertino, California-based company slashed its orders for iPhone 5 screens by about 50 percent for the first quarter of 2013, and cut orders for other iPhone components as well.

This may be a sign of how iPhone demand is faring amongst the competition. Rival hardware makers like Samsung, whose devices are coupled with Google's Android operating system, have stolen much of the smartphone market share in the U.S.

For Q3 2012, Android was the No. 1 mobile operating system with a market share of 72.4 percent (compared to 52.5 percent in Q3 2011). Apple's iOS followed far behind at 13.9 percent (compared to 15 percent in Q3 2011).

As far as hardware goes, Samsung led the Q3 2012 market share at 22.9 percent (compared to 18.7 percent in Q3 2011) and Apple sat in third place at 5.5 percent (compared to 3.9 percent in Q3 2011).

Apple recently slipped behind in China's smartphone market as well. Apple, which previously held the No. 4 spot in the Chinese mobile phone market, slipped to No. 6 in Q3 2012 due to its low number of shipments, according to research firm IDC. Out of China's 60 million mobile phone shipments in Q3, Apple's iPhone accounted for less than 10 percent.

Apple's iPhone 5 was released in September 2012 with new features like a 4-inch screen and 4G LTE connectivity. It's available in either black or white, and is priced at $199 for the 16GB model, $299 for the 32GB model, and $399 for the 64GB model with two-year contracts.

Sources: CNET, The Wall Street Journal

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RE: Prices

By TakinYourPoints on 1/14/2013 3:36:14 PM , Rating: 2

The Nexus 4 doesn't have an SD card slot and it has a non-removable battery that can only be changed with the use of a Torx screwdriver. Clearly it is inferior.

/s

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RE: Prices

By retrospooty on 1/14/2013 3:43:54 PM , Rating: 2

Umm... with the same config the iPhone is more than double the price... with a poorer screen. good luck with that.

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RE: Prices

By TakinYourPoints on 1/14/2013 3:57:05 PM , Rating: 2

I thought people who posted at sites like this would be more technically knowledgeable. There are plenty of cheap phones that have removable batteries and storage.

It isn't about price at all, its all about engineering.

As chassis get smaller the ability to include mounting for SD card slots and battery housings goes away. It is the same reason why the first generation Kindle e-reader had an SD card slot and removable battery and why the following improved generations didn't. The chassis got so thin and small that they wouldn't fit anymore. It is also why 5" mega-phones and phablets can easily get away with including them, there is more than enough space.

This isn't rocket science.

As for the Nexus 4's "superior" screen, you're joking, right?

From Anandtech's review:

quote:
I’ve mentioned that Google continues to struggle at calibrating their displays. The truth is that everyone except for Apple, HTC, and occasionally Samsung, struggle at calibrating mobile displays. This continues to be the case with the Nexus 4, and the result is that accuracy could be better. I’m convinced the results that we’re getting out of the Nexus 4 basically represent no attempt at calibrating the display, and as a result the numbers suffer.

I shouldn't be surprised at so many of the posts here but I consistently am. So much is opinion that comes from the gut instead of from reality or objective analysis.

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RE: Prices

By retrospooty on 1/14/2013 4:05:42 PM , Rating: 2

LOL, I was just busing on you... As far as I am concerned the Nexus4 doesnt exist becasue you still cant freegin buy it, unless you have been on a 8 week+ waiting list.

But for the screen, yes. 4.7 inches at 1280x720 beats 4 inches at 1136x640 any day, by a long shot, regardless of how the color calibration is done. Throw in todays 1080 screens and its a landslide.

Dood, the iPhone screen and lack of spec is a serious weekness whether you can accept it or not.

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RE: Prices

By TakinYourPoints on 1/14/2013 4:14:52 PM , Rating: 1

You keep bringing up resolution on bigger screens, wtf? And no, bigger screens and the bigger chassis that comes with them are not automatically a feature. Not everyone carries a purse, uses a belt clip, or wears fatty pants. ;)

Almost every complaint you have about the iPhone comes down to its ergonomics. You don't like phones that can be operated with one hand, fine, but to say that something that comes down to personal preference makes for an inferior product when it is objectively better in so many ways (performance, display quality, applications, battery life) is silly.

As for getting a Nexus 4, a friend of mine got his in two weeks, easy. It exists.

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RE: Prices

By retrospooty on 1/14/2013 4:18:13 PM , Rating: 2

"You keep bringing up resolution on bigger screens, wtf? And no, bigger screens and the bigger chassis that comes with them are not automatically a feature. Not everyone carries a purse, uses a belt clip, or wears fatty pants. ;)"

"Size doesnt matter" says the guy with a small one ;)

But seriously, if Apple made a 5 inch model you KNOW you would be all over it in a heartbeat.

"Almost every complaint you have about the iPhone comes down to its ergonomics"
No, its about a high end phone (price wise) that is missing WAY too many features. But whatever. Now we are both parroting.

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RE: Prices

By TakinYourPoints on 1/14/2013 4:31:19 PM , Rating: 5

If Apple made a wider phone I'd be complaining about it. Stretching the display edge to edge would be acceptable, but that's buying a millimeter or two at this point. Widening the chassis would be silly.

The whole point of the size is to reach the entire display with your thumb without readjustment. It is a simple and logical design choice. If you don't like it, again, there are plenty of other devices out there, no reason to complain.

quote:
No, its about a high end phone (price wise) that is missing WAY too many features.

Yes, its all about size. Those features are the direct product of size and ergonomics. Everything else (SD card, removable battery, resolution) follows from that.

As for other things that matter, things like performance and LTE battery life, it is not just a high end phone, it is the best out there. Go beyond hardware into software and its even better given how strong developer support is.

Don't you find it a little unfair that such a small device outspecs 5" phones and phablets twice its volume? You figure with all that extra room they'd put some beefier guts in there.

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RE: Prices

By TakinYourPoints on 1/14/2013 4:32:31 PM , Rating: 2

And yes, whatever. :)

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RE: Prices

By retrospooty on 1/14/2013 4:36:02 PM , Rating: 2

Bah, dood, with all that space on the big ass bezel they could easily put 4 SD card slots, but... We'll have to agree to disagree. I do that with the full understanding that I am right and you are wrong. ;)

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RE: Prices

By TakinYourPoints on 1/16/2013 3:07:44 AM , Rating: 2

I can't believe you believe a low-end feature that costs pennies like an SD card slot is an advantage over faster hardware, better displays, better battery life, and superior applications.

You Fandroids will spin reality in any way you can to defend your beliefs, holy crap...

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RE: Prices

By retrospooty on 1/16/2013 7:25:42 AM , Rating: 1

Are you smoking crack again? It's not the SD slot. It's the SD slot, Bigger better screens, Higher resolution screens, Better OS, Better UI, NFC, Faster Voice search, Smaller Bezels, Mini HDMI port, Multi Window support, Flexibility in OS and HW, Micro USB. And your assertion of faster hw is another cherry pick. Faster GPU, not CPU, and not by alot. For someone that doesnt play games it means zero.

You seem to get irritated by this list, yet you keep posting falsehoods that require it's re-posting.

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RE: Prices

By TakinYourPoints on 1/16/2013 8:25:57 PM , Rating: 3

The screens aren't better! "Higher resolution" Pentile screens that have fewer sub-pixels than a proper "lower" res display and terrible color profiles are not superior!

Also, the only reason it is "higher" res is that it is physically larger, but again, Pentile displays cheat using fewer subpixels so there are all kinds of associated artifacts and things like small text rendering blurry.

And yes, I find the talk of "superior" displays irritating, just as I find people bragging about 27" 1080p TN displays bragging about their crap monitor being "better" than a smaller IPS display simply because it is bigger.

A Pentile display with bad color profiles and faked "high" resolution is not better than what is in the iPhone by any objective measure. Sorry.

It has a faster CPU by a wide margin as well, but I guess you don't find nearly double the browsermark score to be important at all...

As for faster Voice Search, again, it's on the iPhone. Google's Voice Search and Maps applications are currently faster with better UIs than what is on JB. Strange, yes, but not that odd given that Google makes more income from iOS than Android. Don't worry though, it'll catch up. Maybe the hardware from other OEMs will catch up someday as well.

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RE: Prices

By TakinYourPoints on 1/16/2013 8:38:24 PM , Rating: 2

And as far as UI goes, I use both and I don't see the big deal. Taking up your whole screen with widgets is highly personal. If you like it then great, but it is far from a dealbreaker. A bigger problem is that responsiveness and smoothness with JB is still second rate compared to iOS or WP7/8. There is still chop when scrolling pages and photos, you figured they'd have brought it up to snuff by now.

iOS may look "old" on the surface but under the hood it is a well oiled machine, and of course it is still the #1 platform for quality apps.

Windows 7 is technically "old", most of its UI elements date back to 1995, but I don't care about flash as long as it works well, I care about running applications!

And because I know you'll bring up games, note that they only make up about 20% of app downloads.

Why are your concerns so superficial and gimmicky? It makes sense given that the GS3 is an overpriced toy, but still...

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RE: Prices

By TakinYourPoints on 1/16/2013 9:43:31 PM , Rating: 2

Ok, last post to cover three more details I left out:

NFC - Its the same situation as LTE: Wait until it works properly. Apple waited for LTE tech to catch up with their requirements, so instead of cutting the 4S battery life in half from the iPhone 4 by adopting LTE early they instead doubled the LTE battery life over almost every other phone out there.

It is a similar situation with NFC, right now it is an easy vector for malware and theft. I know Android is a platform used to being full of security holes, so much so that even the Google Play store is crawling with it, so much so that the best way to remote wipe is from a malicious hack and not from the legitimate owner, but that won't fly elsewhere. Apple will probably make its move once NFC protocols move forward from the ancient and insecure state its in now.

HDMI - Beaming video to an HDTV over wifi is better. Why clutter up your phone with more useless ports? Its just an excuse to increase chassis size beyond what is ergonomically feasible for most (7" phones for 2014!).

MicroUSB - I have one device with MicroUSB, a Kindle, and it is trash. It is even more fragile than HDMI, just the worst physical connector out there. I wish the Kindle used a Lightning connector, that thing is durable as hell and plugs in either orientation, but unfortunately it belongs only to Apple.

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RE: Prices

By retrospooty on 1/17/2013 7:54:39 AM , Rating: 2

LOL... A QUAD POST! Looks like your trolling lost its basket.

1st, who said pentile? You cant compare that, we arent talking about the S3 you love to use. Any 5 inch 1080p screen from TODAYS smarphones smokes your little iPyoon. #1, because its bigger, #2, because its MUCH higher res and DPI.

As for the rest. Yes, again, when you cherry pick benchmarks and one by one eliminate the MANY MANY MANY features that the iPhone is missing, then it does come out on top.

I can play like you too though. If you like to play games and appreciate playing them on a tiny little screen, then the iPhone is a good phone for you.

See what I did there?

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RE: Prices

By TakinYourPoints on 1/16/2013 8:46:55 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Faster GPU, not CPU, and not by alot.

Uh huh, not by a lot:
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph6330/50943...
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph6330/50941...

Sorry dude, its just annoying seeing posts that fly in the face of reality. If you back up your posts with preference for bigger screens, that's fine, but being in denial over faster hardware, better apps, and better screens, its just silly given that the iPhone 5 is objectively superior in those ways.

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RE: Prices

By BillyBatson on 1/15/2013 2:36:13 AM , Rating: 2

Retro do you not know anything about displays? It's a display it isn't a magnifying glass over paper. Higher resolution does not "win" and does not mean quality. The nexus 4 for one is 318ppi vs 326ppi for the iphone5 and those pixels are better calibrated offering a better picture. If both screens were the name size (4" or 4.7") the iPhone screen would be superior. Higher resolution just allows a slightly more zoomed out image. The nexus 4 has nothing on the ip5's screen other than physical size IF that's what you're looking for.

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RE: Prices

By TakinYourPoints on 1/16/2013 8:27:50 PM , Rating: 2

He doesn't. Aside from everything else you've said, the Nexus 4 has one of the worst calibrated displays out there, even worse than the typically poor Samsung.

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