Apple Inc suppliers in China are to begin mass production of its largest iPhones ever next month, according to people familiar with the plans, as the US smartphone brand faces increased competition.
Apple is ramping up on two bigger devices, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private. One model is to have a 4.7-inch display, compared with the 4-inch screen of the current iPhone 5s, that may be available to ship to retailers around September, two of the people said. A 5.5-inch version is also being prepared for manufacturing and may be available at the same time, the people said.
Apple is getting ready for its annual unveiling of new iPhones after rivals including Samsung Electronics Co and HTC Corp (宏達電) released handsets with displays that are as large as 5.7 inches.
Consumers have been gravitating toward larger-screen devices: In China, 40 percent of mobile gadgets based on Google Inc’s Android operating system that were sold this year had display sizes of more than 5 inches, according to an estimate from Forrester Research.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is under pressure to reignite Apple’s sales growth and the iPhone, which generates more than half of the company’s annual revenue, remains his chief weapon. Last year, the smartphone produced US$91 billion in revenue alone, more than the total sales of Oracle Corp, Yahoo Inc, Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc combined.
Apple shares fell 0.1 percent to US$90.83 in New York trade yesterday.
The new iPhones will also be rounder and thinner than previous models, one of the people said. Production of the 5.5-inch model is more complicated than the smaller version, resulting in lower production efficiency that must be overcome before manufacturing volume can be increased, the person said.
Apple is developing new iPhone designs, including bigger screens with curved glass and enhanced sensors that can detect different levels of pressure, Bloomberg News reported in November. Called 2.5-dimension glass, the material lets manufacturers taper the edges of the screen where the bezel meets the frame of a smartphone.
Earlier this month, Apple also introduced new features for the software powering the iPhone and iPad in a bid to add more functions and utility to the devices. The company’s new iOS 8 mobile software has capabilities that enable people to use the gadgets to monitor their health and remotely control locks and lights for their home.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained