Financial Times (December 10)
“The world’s leading semiconductor companies are racing to make so-called “2 nanometre” processor chips that will power the next generation of smartphones, data centres and artificial intelligence.” While TSMC “remains the analysts’ favourite to maintain its global supremacy in the sector… Samsung Electronics and Intel have identified the industry’s next leap forward as a chance to close the gap.”
Tags: 2 nanometre, AI, Chips, Data centres, Gap, Intel, Leading, Next-generation, Processor, Samsung, Semiconductor, Smartphones, Supremacy, TSMC
The Economist (January 12)
“Analysts reckon that the number of smartphones sold in 2018 will be slightly lower than in 2017, the industry’s first ever annual decline.” “Peak smartphone” may be “bad news for Apple shareholders,” but the apparent “levelling off at around 1.4bn units a year is good news for humanity.”
Tags: Analysts, Apple, Decline, Humanity, Industry, Peak smartphone, Shareholders, Smartphones
Website Magazine (February Issue)
“Mobile traffic is past its tipping point with roughly 52 percent of web traffic currently deriving from smartphones versus desktops…To date, forward-thinking ecommerce companies have worked to ensure their sites were primed for mobile viewing, turning to responsive web design (RWD) as the solution.” Now, however, the move is toward adaptive design. Although it requires more coding, “it offers a whole range of other prioritizing features on mobile that customers crave versus receiving a shallow, shrunk-down version of the desktop site that leaves too much to be desired.”
Tags: Adaptive, Coding, Customers, Desktops, Ecommerce, Mobile, Responsive, Smartphones, Tipping point, Web design, Web traffic
Inc (Winter 2018)
“This is the beginning of the end of smartphones…. There’s already evidence of the next wave of computers, which we’ll wear and command using our voices. The transition from smartphones to smart wearables–earbuds that have biometric sensors and speakers; rings and bracelets that can sense our motion; glasses that record and display information–will forever change how we experience the world…. All of which is to say that, in the not-too-distant future, we’ll be making the physical and digital realms interchangeable. Think smartphones are addictive? You haven’t seen anything yet.”
Tags: Augmented reality, Biometric sensors, Computers, Earbuds, Glasses, Smartphones, Voice, Wearables
The Atlantic (September Issue)
Smartphones may be destroying the iGen (individuals born from 1995–2012). They’ve been “shaped by the smartphone and by the concomitant rise of social media.” Despite much worrying, “the impact of these devices has not been fully appreciated, and goes far beyond the usual concerns about curtailed attention spans. The arrival of the smartphone has radically changed every aspect of teenagers’ lives, from the nature of their social interactions to their mental health.” There are some positive aspects, but by and large “the results could not be clearer: Teens who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy, and those who spend more time than average on nonscreen activities are more likely to be happy.”
Tags: iGen, Mental health, Smartphones, Social media, Teenagers, Unhappy
Reuters (April 28)
“Global shipments of smartphones shrank 3 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier in the market’s first year-on-year contraction on record…reflecting growing strains on the industry.” Q1 shipments dropped to 334.6 million devices from 345 million in 2015.
Tags: Contraction, Industry, Q1, Record, Shipments, Shrank, Smartphones, Strains
Wall Street Journal (July 12)
With about 1,000 companies making smartphones globally, only “one reaps nearly all the profits” and that company accounts for just 20% of smartphone unit sales. “Apple Inc. recorded 92% of the total operating income from the world’s eight top smartphone makers in the first quarter, up from 65% a year earlier.”
Tags: Apple, Companies, Operating income, Profits, Smartphones
The Economist (February 28)
As the “defining technology” of the beginning of the 21st century, smartphones “matter partly because of their ubiquity. They have become the fastest-selling gadgets in history, outstripping the growth of the simple mobile phones that preceded them. They outsell personal computers four to one. Today about half the adult population owns a smartphone; by 2020, 80% will.” Smartphones also matter because of the tremendous empowerment they bring users. Today, even the most basic smartphone “has access to more number-crunching capacity than NASA had when it put men on the Moon in 1969.” In their day, the clock and the car brought revolutionary change. “Today the smartphone is poised to enrich lives, reshape entire industries and transform societies.”
Tags: 21st century, Car, Change, Clock, Gadgets, Moon, NASA, PCs, Smartphones, Technology, Ubiquity
Wall Street Journal (October 7)
“The fourth major era of computing” is leaving mainframes, PCs and the Web further behind. “The mobile era began this summer, as there are now more mobile users than desktop users, with 1.8 billion surfing the Web on their smartphones. Having a personal computer in your pocket is changing the tech world because, unlike a computer, a smartphone is always there when you need it.”
Tags: Computing, Desktops, Era, Mainframes, Mobile era, PCs, Smartphones, Surfing, Users, Web
Chicago Tribune (March 31)
Ride share services like Lyft, Uber X and Sidecar are changing the way people get around urban environments like Chicago. “Consumers like ride shares. They like being able to find a nearby car, check out the driver and agree to a fare, all on their smartphones. They like the option of paying a premium for faster service in peak hours or bad weather. They like choices.” In contrast, taxi owners are unhappy with the new competition and pushing for tighter regulation or outright bans on ride sharing. Some prudent regulation is inevitable and desirable, but lawmakers should side with consumers rather than protecting “the people who got into the taxi business by paying $300,000 or more for a city medallion.”
Tags: Bans, Chicago, Consumers, Lyft, Premium, Regulation, Ride share, Sidecar, Smartphones, Taxis, Uber X
