Tag: iphone

What You Need To Know About Today’s Apple Event

Posted on by Richard Yao

As you may have heard, Apple hosted a keynote event at its Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino earlier today. As anticipated, the company unveiled a new 4-inch iPhone model and a smaller iPad Pro. A new addition to its healthcare toolkits was one of the few surprises. Here is everything a marketer should know about Apple’s announcements today.  

iPhone SE Aims To Reach More Consumers
Apple has been pushing for bigger screens since the iPhone 6, but the company says that most first-time iPhone users are still buying 4-inch iPhones, especially those in certain global markets such as China. In fact, Apple sold over 30 million 4-inch iPhones in 2015 alone. Aiming to capture those smaller-phone lovers, Apple introduced the iPhone SE which comes with a 4-inch screen and significant hardware improvements from Apple’s last 4-inch offering. Equipped with the A9 processor and the M9 motion coprocessor, iPhone SE is as powerful as the iPhone 6s, and will no doubt bring the latest features, such as Apple Pay, always-on Siri, and Touch ID, to more smartphone users.

iPad Pro Positioned As A PC Replacement
Apple also followed up last year’s 12.9-inch iPad Pro with a smaller version. The new iPad Pro comes with a 9.7-inch retina display, improved hardware specs, and its own custom keyboard. The Cupertino company shared that of the 308 million total iPads sold, over 200 million have had 9.7-inch screens, and that the majority of iPad Pro buyers were moving from a Windows PC. With over 1 million apps designed for iPad available in the App Store, Apple seems bullish on the iPad Pro’s market positioning as a PC replacement.

New CareKit To Boost Healthcare Apps
Apple’s HealthKit, which helps collect data for medical studies, has proven to be a hit among medical professionals. In fact, Apple says it facilitated the largest Parkinson’s study to date in less than 24 hours of its launch last year. To follow up on the ResearchKit’s early success, Apple debuted a new developer framework called CareKit, which focuses on patient-facing data that can assist chronic patient care or monitoring post-surgical recovery. The first app to use this framework will also focus on Parkinson’s. This new developer tool should provide healthcare brands with another great channel to learn more about patients’ needs.

Header image courtesy of Apple.com

What To Expect From Apple’s Press Event Today

Posted on by Richard Yao

Apple’s annual press event is set for 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, September 9 in San Francisco, where the Cupertino-based company is expected to unveiled the next-gen iPhones, iPads, and even a new Apple TV. Here is a quick summary of what to expect from tomorrow’s big event and why brands should care:

New Apple TV To Become The Smart Home Hub
Based on numerous credible reports, Apple will almost certainly unveil a major upgrade to its set-top box Apple TV, which will be equipped with a modified version of iOS that includes Siri integration, universal search, and a full-blown App Store. Moreover, it is also expected to add a motion-sensitive remote control to support gaming consoles, further signaling Apple’s intention to push Apple TV into the gaming market. The long speculated OTT TV subscription service reportedly won’t be ready until next spring due to stagnant negotiation with content owners, so this update will mostly focus on unveiling a new, more capable Apple TV, well poised to become the central hub for Apple’s smart home ecosystem.

iOS 9 To Arrive With Ad-Blockers
It was announced back in June at Apple’s WWDC event that the new iOS 9 will allow developers to build content blocking extensions for Safari browser, which has led to a round of panic and debates over the impending popularization of ad-blockers among the ad industry and digital publishers. You can read our take on this issue and brand implications in our recent Fast Forward here.

New iPhones And iPad To Push Consumers Deeper Into Mobile
As usual with Apple’s September events, the main star of the show would most likely be the new iPhones, which reportedly would be a minor upgrade with new features such as 3D Force Touch added in. More intriguingly, Apple is also reported to be launching a new line of tablets named iPad Pro, which will likely feature an impressive 12.9-inch display that can run 2 full-sized apps side by side. Together, we expect these new devices to usher today’s consumers deeper into the mobile-first age and away from desktops and TVs, and brands would be wise to follow where the audience is going.

As usual, Apple will be live-streaming the event tomorrow and the Lab will be live-tweeting @ipglab during the event, followed by our original posts highlighting the brand implications of the new announcements. So remember to check back tomorrow afternoon to learn more.

By The Numbers: A Stats Breakdown Of Apple’s Monster Quarter

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: TechCrunch

Charts courtesy of ben-evans.com

Apple just had the most profitable quarter of any company, ever. The Cupertino company announced on Tuesday the financial report for its fiscal 2015 first quarter ending December 2014, and the results are staggering.

The tech giant posted record quarterly revenue of $74.6 billion and record quarterly net profit of $18.04 billion. To put it in perspective, that means Apple makes around $8.3 million per hour in profit.

AppleUnitSales

Thanks partly to the holiday shopping season, a record number of 74.5 million iPhones was sold in Q1, which saw a 46% year-to-year increase.

One side effect of the rising popularity of “phablet”-sized iPhone 6 Plus is a 21% drop in iPad sales compared to year ago, but at 21.4 million, tablet sales are still holding strong.

AppleRevChina

Another source for Apple’s record quarterly revenue comes from its aggressive retail expansion in China, its third biggest global market following the US and Europe. The company reports $16.1 billion in revenue from the greater China region, up 70% from the same period a year ago.

 

Apple Introduces Health App Suite

Posted on by Lab Team

The wait is over: Apple announced a new app suite called Healthkit, which is part dev kit and part Health app that syncs multiple fitness trackers, heath data, and medical information into an easily accessible hub. At the same time, it leverages the accelerometer on the iPhone to trace different datapoints about individual wellbeing. It also could very readily pave the way for Apple’s own piece of wearable tech, which is rumored to contain even more sensors to monitor personal health. 

Twitter Introduces Mute Feature

Posted on by Lab Team

Twitter is looking to answer its detractors who think its feeds are overcomplicated and too busy by introducing a Mute feature across Android, iPhone, and Web platforms. The option, as its name implies, allows you to silence other users in your feed by taping on the gear icon and choosing “mute @username.” The goal is to give users more control over the content they see, and to allow you to curate your own feeds by selectively cutting people out. Muting users doesn’t stop people from favoriting, replying to, and retweeting tweets – they can still use Twitter as usual. And, the muted user won’t know that others have muted them; it’s entirely silent. It’s a way to hopefully reduce the noise on the social network, and keep users engaged in a customized feed that works for them. 

Smart Bracelet Vibrates On Call & Text

Posted on by Lab Team

Wearable tech continues to heat up as a consumer space, in many different forms. One of the main sticking points, though, is that many wearable options simply don’t look good – it you’re going to put something on your wrist, surely you want it to look nice, and many options at present try to jam too much into a small screen that becomes hard to navigate through, or ultimately looks off. MEMI is looking to solve some of those problems through its new smart bracelet aimed specifically at women who carry their phones in handbags: it’s a simple silver piece of metal that vibrates when the users’ phone receives a text message or a phone call. The kicker? It doesn’t even look like a wearable device, which is seen as a stylistic win. It weighs as much as a similarly styled bracelets, and runs at $150 in its current iteration. Though it only aims to alert users to incoming notifications, one could make the argument that its technological simplicity is its advantage, while still maintaining its purpose as a fashion accessory instead of trying to cram an entire smartphone onto a wrist. 

Hulu Will Offer Free Mobile Viewing

Posted on by Lab Team

This summer, Hulu wants to ramp up its subscription numbers by offering free viewing for mobile device this summer. It’s part of a broader effort to keep up with Netflix, and to encourage multi-device viewing on the platform that is increasingly being configured to be watched on both mobile and desktop. Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins said that they’re backing this effort up with the campaign this summer – and it strikes the casual observer as a fairly transparent way to hook new users. In conjunction with this effort a new, redesigned iPhone app will be released this summer. As well, Hopkins reiterated that Hulu is in talks with traditional paid-TV providers to integrate with existing cable boxes, which would be a huge win for the on-demand network. 

New Tracking App Targets Non-Athletes

Posted on by Lab Team

Many athletic types – and people who just want to track their daily activities – are already familiar with wearables like FitBit, and Nike’s several offerings. RunKeeper is amongst these apps as well, as an app designed to target runners who want to know more details about their habits and running statistics. But RunKeeper is targeting non-athletes with its newest offering, called Breeze, which launches on Thursday. The app tracks all daily activity – from steps, to food eaten – through the smartphone itself, without additional wearables. It promises the convenience of many of the wearables before it, but without the purchase of additional devices to keep track of your activity. It works through the iPhone’s M7Coprocessor, which allows the app to pull location and accelerometer data without putting undue strain on the phone’s battery. As phones themselves become more advanced, expect to see tracking apps like this pop up more frequently, as there is a proven desire on the part of consumers to learn more about their daily habits and lives with this additional data.  

IFTTT Now Works With iOS Notifications

Posted on by Lab Team

IFTTT, the popular productivity platform that allow users to set up custom notifications across platforms and devices, is now available for iOS and works with notifications. It means that IFTTT users are getting something they’ve wanted for some time: the ability to truly geo-fence and customize personalized notification systems. For instance, you can set push notifications within recipes, or tell the air conditioner to turn on when you walk in the door to a custom set temperature. You set a custom input, and the device outputs what you want, where you want, and when you want – and now you can do it on the iPhone. It means that location-based – and indeed action based – targeting would get a big boost.