Taking a look back at another week of news from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop includes problems with the iPhone battery, iOS bugs and updates, pricing thoughts for the iPhone 8, iOS market share details, Apple Watch sales figures, the upcoming public macOS release, Netflix dominating the App Store, and a new way to translate on your smartphone.
Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the very many discussions that have happened around Apple over the last seven days (and you can read our weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes).
The Impact Of The Thirty Percent Battery Bug
It has taken some time, but Apple has started to acknowledge that the battery issue affecting 'a small number of handsets' (see Apple Loop previously) is more widespread than a small batch of machines. Apple is being careful to keep its language moderate, but there are signs that the 'thirty percent battery bug' is affecting more than just the 6S:
But the twist is Apple has still not fully fronted up to the situation. Its statement does nothing to specifically state the problems extend beyond the iPhone 6S (the only model it has named to date), when multiple sources in the thread above as well as social media and even a tweet from Apple executive and ‘father of the iPod’ Tony Fadell have confirmed cases involving different models.
Forbes' Gordon Kelly looks over the impact and potential scale of the bug.
More Issues With The iPhone 7
While the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus do not appear to be affected by the thirty percent issue, another issue has come to light this week over the newest handsets locking up:
Once again credit goes to users on Apple’s official Support Communities website who have done a sterling job in bringing the issue to light. Having contacted me directly, one affected user drew my attention to problems the iPhone 7 currently has making calls due to the Phone app repeatedly freezing.
Reports of this problem are all over the Support Communities forum and predominantly feature the iPhone 7, though some iPhone 6S and 5S models are affected too.
More details here. The hope is that an iOS update will address the issue but Apple has yet to formally acknowledge the flaw.
iPhone 8 Pricing
Although the presumptively titled iPhone 8 is not expected to be in stores until late September 2017, details of the pricing around both the iPhone 7S and 7S Plus (which will echo the current design), and the radical changes in the iPhone 8 have been discussed this week. The new iPhones will follow the lead of the 2016 generation of the MacBook Pro line-up and see prices rise at the top end, and the base models to lose functionality while maintaining then 'entry-level' pricing:
Those already struggling to justify the cost of owning an iPhone should probably look away now, because the iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus are expected to retain the current price points of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus ($649 - $969), while the iPhone 8 will sit above them both as the new flagship.
It’s pure speculation to say by how much, but with the Plus model currently $129 more at each storage capacity it would seem a $150-200 premium on top of the Plus would make sense and once again increase Apple margins - which have shrunk in recent years.
More discussion on this here at Forbes.
iOS Market Share Grows
Meanwhile the iOS platform continues to comfortably grow. Kantar Worldpanel's look at the mobile market share for the three months ending in October 2016 hands iOS a 40.5 percent share in the US market, 44 percent in the United Kingdom, and a majority 51.7 percent of the Japanese market. Jack Purcher has more details:
In the US, iOS grew 7% year-over-year, from 33.5% of smartphone sales to 40.5% in the three months ending October 2016. This represents the strongest rate of growth for the OS in more than two years, as well as the highest share seen since the three months ending January 2015 (42.8%).
The report further noted that while Android remains the dominant OS in the US, at 57.9% of smartphone sales, this latest Android data represents the 5th consecutive year-on-year period decline.
More at Patently Apple, and the original report can be read at Kantar's own site.
An Apple Watch For The Holidays?
While the geekerati react to Pebble's capitulation and subsequent acquisition by Fitbit, the more consumer-friendly Apple Watch has had an impressive third quarter. The information comes direct from Tim Cook in a reply to Reuters, as he talks about the smartwatch's growing momentum as a holiday gift.
Responding to an email from Reuters, Cook said the gadget's sell-through - a measure of how many units are sold to consumers, rather than simply stocked on retailers' shelves - reached a new high.
Cook's comments followed a report on Monday from technology research firm IDC estimating that the tech giant sold 1.1 million units of the Apple Watch during the third quarter of 2016, down 71 percent from the year-ago quarter. The comments offer a glimpse of the gadget's performance during the holiday quarter, which is typically Apple's strongest.
MacOS Closes In On Next Release
Apple has released another minor update to macOS for developers and those involved in the beta testing. Version 10.12.2 has been through six iterations, and appears to be getting the final polish before a public release. Mike Wutherlee looks at the update for Apple Insider:
Release notes accompanying Apple's new beta offers no information about what the updates include beyond maintenance-related changes and minor bug fixes. The short cycle on the macOS beta, similar to the frequency of iOS beta updates, suggests that a release is imminent.
While mostly consisting of bugfixes, the update also includes the same emoji featured in the iOS 10.2 beta. These match the Unicode 9.0 standard, and offer both new and redrawn icons, the latter with more detail.
Netflix Wins For Apple
The popular iOS streaming media application Netflix can mark off another milestone - it is now the top-grossing app in the iTunes Store, reports Don Reisinger for Fortune:
The video-streaming app, which is free for users to download but requires a subscription to its service, is now the top-grossing iPhone app in Apple’s App Store. The achievement comes about a year after Netflix announced that it would offer in-app purchases in the program, allowing users to sign up for the service or add the ability for multiple users to watch its content on the same account all from within its software. Sensor Tower, a company that offers mobile app services and analytics, says the app is also the top-grossing iPhone app in India, Mexico, and Colombia.
Not only will Netflix be happy with the subscription income, so will Apple, thanks to Cupertino's thirty percent cut of the revenue.
And Finally...
It's not just the frequent traveller that need translation. The connected world chats and voice calls all demand a common language or a cutting edge digital babel fish. Step forward Odle, from this week's Tech Crunch Disrupt in London. From the pitch:
Odle’s technology turns your smartphone into a real-time translation device instantly. A commercial version of Odle that will help international business to flourish will be launching in the coming weeks. Odle’s VOIP real-time translation feature will use human translators that will help people get the best quality in real-time translation, creating a marketplace for translators where they can earn.
You'll find more at aodle.com.
Apple Loop brings you seven days worth of highlights every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any coverage in the future. Last week’s Apple Loop can be read here, or this week’s edition of Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit, is also available on Forbes.
