First, those mainstream, non-geek, smartphone-interested, carrier-prioritizing Verizon customers — the buyers that will be slow to move to the iPhone because they’re waiting out their contracts — are a very large portion of Android’s U.S. marketshare.
It’s important to consider why they bought Android phones in the first place. Was it because they tried their friend’s Droid and had to have one because it was so good? Or was it because they went into the Verizon store for their next contract renewal, they wanted an iPhone but knew it wasn’t available on Verizon, the sales guys told them this was just as good as the iPhone, it looked a bit like an iPhone, and it had a buy-one-get-one-free sale?
Arment argues the next 18 months will reveal the full impact of the iPhone 4 on Verizon. But I don’t think we’ll ever get to know since in the next year and a half, Apple will unveil at least two new versions of the iPhone, which will be on Verizon from day one.
NTT Docomo Touch Wood SH-08C has a unibody wood construction. At least the wood in the Touch Wood can be easily recycled.
The following chart compares the reported dropped call rates of Verizon iPhone 4 owners (1.8%) vs. AT&T iPhone 4 owners (4.8%) in the current ChangeWave survey.
Overall, including all phones, dropped call rates for AT&T was 4.6% in March 2011; Verizon was just 1.4%. The iPhone 4 seems to be below average when it comes to dropped calls.
ChangeWave Research has been tracking this type of information since September 2008 and there are two very obvious trends. One, AT&T has always had higher dropped call rates compared to Verizon. The closest it has ever gotten was back in September 2008 with a rate of 3.6% versus Verizon’s 2.7%, and the difference has gotten wider ever since with only one exception: December 2010 where the difference was just 3.0%, shrinking from a difference of 4.2% the month prior. Second, the trend for AT&T’s dropped call rates have been increasing while Verizon’s have been on a decline.
Clearly AT&T has offered its customers a declining experience in terms of dropped call rates since September 2008. And only recently, since December 2010, has it done something to reverse the trend. Why December? Probably because the iPhone 4 was due to be available on Verizon in just two short months. Competition is good. Another reason why AT&T’s purchase of T-Mobile should be blocked.
아이폰4의 차기모델인 ‘아이폰5′가 오는 6월 4째주에 출시된다. 아이폰5의 출시 연기설이 제기되는 가운데 애플 측은 애초 예정대로 아이폰5 출시를 확정했으며 국내에는 같은 시기에 SK텔레콤과 KT를 통해 동반 출시될 예정이다.
31일 관련업계에 따르면 애플 측은 최근 아이폰5의 출시 일정을 6월말로 확정한 것으로 확인됐다. 부품 조달 문제 등으로 출시가 올 하반기나 내년께로 미뤄질 것이라는 일부 언론 보도와 달리 아이폰5 출시에는 별다른 문제가 없는 것으로 알려졌다.
The iPhone 5 will be unveiled on the fourth week of June, and not during WWDC. In South Korea the iPhone 5 will be available on SK Telecom and KT at the same time. Dong-kyu Seo, the reporter, is referring the source of this information as a company involved in the supply chain of the iPhone 5. Steve Jobs is expected to announce the iPhone 5 himself.
Avion Securities via Business Insider:
Supporting out comments over the last month, conversations with yet another key component supplier indicates that production for iPhone-5 will begin in September. This is consistent with Avian findings in the supply chain in recent months and we believe the consensus view is moving towards this scenario. In addition, our conversations also indicate the existence of a lower-spec/lower-priced iPhone in Apple’s roadmap. However, while our contacts have seen the placeholder in the Apple roadmap, they do not yet have insight into specs or production timing. This leads us to believe that any launch is likely a very late 2011 or more likely a 2012 event. As a reminder, Avian has uncovered several data-points in recent months pointing to the existence of a lower-spec/lower-price iPhone. A lower-spec/lower-price iPhone has also been speculated in the press and gadget blogs, though we do not believe consensus currently discounts the existence of such a model.
This contradicts reports from etnews.co.kr just six days ago that the iPhone 5 is on target for a fourth week of June release. Just in terms of displays, Apple uses multiple suppliers. In the case of the Retina Display on the iPhone 4 there are at least two that I know of: LG Display and Samsung. Depending on projected demand for an iPhone 5 there might be second tier suppliers lined up that might need to begin mass production at a later date, September for instance.
And regarding this lower priced iPhone: wouldn’t the iPhone 4 naturally be placed in the lower priced position once the iPhone 5 comes out? Much like how Apple has been doing ever since the iPhone 3G came out and bumping the original iPhone down as lower spec’ed and lower priced? Most likely the iPhone 4 will come down in price to $99 once the iPhone 5 comes out. At that price point the iPhone 4 with the 3.5-inch IPS-based Retina Display will be unbeatable in value, based on the display specification alone.
I still think the iPhone 5 will be an iPhone 4S.
Myriam Joire at Engadget:
The 4-inch ClearBlack AMOLED touchscreen is bright and beautiful, even in direct sunlight. Colors are vivid, and contrast and viewing angles are excellent, as you’d expect from this type of display. Interestingly, the US version exhibits a slightly warmer color temperature. Resolution is a different story, and pixel-density enthusiasts will be disappointed. With a mere 640 x 360 pixels (what Nokia calls nHD), the E7 makes even a 4.3-inch WVGA display look high definition. Of course, we realize this is a limitation imposed by software, but in this day and age of qHD devices, it misses the mark. We also observed some strange color banding on our European review unit (see here), which might be a manufacturing defect since the problem is absent from the other one. A sheet of Gorilla Glass protects the touchscreen and houses the proximity and light sensors, the earpiece, and a front-facing camera (VGA). Strangely our US model acquired a few small scratches on the display within hours of being unboxed, despite being treated gently, while the other one survived an entire rough and tumble week at CTIA unscathed.
640×360 pixels combined with a largish 4-inch OLED display makes for a resolution of almost 184 ppi. Compare that with the class-leading 326 ppi on the 3.5-inch Retina Display on the iPhone 4 with a pixel format of 960×640 and clearly the Nokia E7 is behind the times. Of course, comparing an OLED display with a LCD when it comes to pixel density isn’t really comparing apples to apples. Cramming pixels into OLED displays is a much more difficult task. This 4-inch OLED is most likely using a RGB sub-pixel structure when most other 800×480 are using Nouvoyance’s PenTile Matrix sub-pixel structure. And what’s up with the Gorilla Glass that’s easily being scratched?
Darren Murph at Engadget:
There’s no question that Kyocera has cooked up something fancy to make two panels work in conjunction, and the Tablet Mode Extension app is largely to thank, but outside of seeing Android work across two screens, you aren’t apt to notice any irregularities. And that, friends, is impressive.
This is the type of hardware advancements that you are able to see on a generally open platform like Android. For a displays guy like me having twice the screen real estate on a small smartphone is very exciting. Kyocera’s execution of integrating unique hardware to Android is superb.
Truth be told, the extended 960 x 800 screen resolution isn’t too far off from the 1024 x 600 found on the Galaxy Tab (or the 1024 x 768 on the iPad), so you definitely encroach “tablet” territory when viewing these programs across two panes. To say it’s a refreshing new look would be understating it; after a week of use, peeking TweetCaster on our Nexus One felt like a true step back from a visibility standpoint.
Refreshing indeed. Dual 800×480 LCDs will certainly get close to the pixel format of some tablets, but in a much smaller and lighter chassis. What I’d like to see is the bezel between the two LCDs shrink in a future version. Kudos to Kyocera for building something unique in a world of me-too smartphones. You really have to see the Kyocera Echo in motion so check out the hands-on video at Engadget.
Vlad Savov at Engadget:
The Desire S makes use of the same Super LCD tech as the Incredible S, leaving us to only echo what we said of its bigger sibling. You get vibrant, well saturated images, which also benefit from excellent viewing angles. The only weakness is readability in direct sunlight. One thing we omitted to mention in the Incredible S review was that the screen is protected by Gorilla Glass, a feature that has naturally been included on the Desire S as well.
The only LCD that works well in direct sunlight is Pixel Qi’s display in reflective mode. I wonder why smartphone display manufacturers have not embraced Pixel Qi’s technology as it would help a great deal with readability when out in direct sunlight. The Super LCD in the HTC Desire S looks to be a winner.
Dana Wollman at Engadget:
We’ve known about the so-called HTC Pyramid for months, long before the Vodafone leak this morning. Now the long-rumored Android phone is official and coming to T-Mobile under the moniker HTC Sensation 4G. As expected, it matches many of the EVO 3D’s specs, including a 4.3-inch (540 x 960) Super LCD screen, dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor, and Android Gingerbread (2.3) with Sense 3.0. But it one ups the 3D handset by bumping the rear lens’ resolution to 8 megapixels, throwing in a second LED flash, and speeding up the video frame rate to 30fps at max 1080p resolution.
Quarter Full HD or qFHD should be the term for 960×540. Instead it’s qHD for some reason. Such is the almost non-sensical nature of display jargon. The 4.3-inch packing 960×540 pixels lead to a resolution of 256 ppi. Of course the comparison to the class-leading 3.5-inch Retina Display on the iPhone 4 must be made. With a pixel format of 960×640 on a relatively small display, but perfect in my opinion, the iPhone 4′s IPS LCD has a 326 ppi resolution. The 326-ppi Retina Display is only a Retina Display when held at about 12 inches from your eyes, so you can get the same effect with the HTC Sensation 4G by holding it farther.
1080p HD content is displayed at 30fps. That sounds good and all, but that glorious 1920×1080 HD content is going look more like 960×540. Just a guess. What I’d like to see in the very near future is a pixel format of 1280×720 on the displays. That way we can capture 720p video and display it without monkeying around with scaling, resulting in some very good HD video quality.
Vlad Savov at Engadget:
A VGA resolution on a 2.46-inch display equals 326ppi. Talk about pixel density!
That’s all folks!
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