Shipments of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have topped 1 million, with that success driving increased interest in other developments of lightweight smart glasses using on-device and cloud AI to provide interactive services, Counterpoint Research said Monday. The category of similarly designed smart glasses will gradually become a key segment of smart wearable, it added.
Requiring providers to unlock handsets within 60 days of activation, even if not paid off, would encourage handset-related arbitrage, fraud and trafficking and increase providers’ bad debt, according to AT&T. It said an unlocking requirement would create a disincentive for providers to continue offering aggressive handset promotions and flexible handset financing. Recapping a meeting with FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics staffers, AT&T said in a docket 24-186 filing posted Wednesday that arguments for 180-day unlocking periods for prepaid and postpaid handsets miss that the different business models of the two offerings dictate various results. It said prepaid customers may not pay every month, so prepaid providers might need more than 180 days from device activation to recover subsidies on a device. AT&T said prepaid unlocking shouldn't be required any sooner than six months after activation, as that is typically enough time to recover the subsidy on most prepaid devices and to mitigate most device fraud and theft risks.
Skylo's direct-to-device partnership with Google for emergency messaging capabilities for the Pixel 9 phone (see 2408130067) could be the first of many for Skylo, which already has chip partnerships with Qualcomm, Samsung and Mediatek, William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma noted Wednesday. While Viasat is one of Skylo's main partners, the Pixel 9 partnership isn't material for Viasat, he said. For the Pixel 9 service, Skyo is largely layering direct-to-device connectivity atop Viasat's existing L-band network, he said.
Gabb, which makes smartphones for kids, Monday introduced the Gabb Phone 4 “designed to foster the skills necessary for kids to flourish in the digital age.” Children “gain independence as they learn to navigate just the right amount of tech, supported by built-in parental controls and free from capabilities they aren’t quite yet ready for,” the company said. The phone includes GPS tracking that lets parents know their kids’ location in real time.
By making AI available on just its newest devices, Apple appears to be attempting to encourage customers to replace their old phones, LightShed’s Walter Piecyk told investors Tuesday. “The addition of AI features to the newest iPhone comes at an ideal time for Apple,” Piecyk wrote: “Its iPhone revenue has been stagnant, and the vast majority of its installed base has old phones as the upgrade cycle slowed to record lows. It should therefore be an easy lift for Apple to stimulate a stabilization or inversion of the lengthening replacement cycle.” Apple’s announcement Monday was “what was necessary to stay in the game,” Piecyk added in the note.
Apple is rolling out text messaging-via-satellite capabilities for iPhone 14 and later generations, said Ronak Shah, director-internet technologies product marketing, at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference this week. He said it follows on existing iPhone emergency messaging capabilities via satellite. Text messages sent via satellite are end-to-end encrypted, and Apple also supports satellite-delivered messaging to people not on iMessage via SMS messaging via satellite, Shah said. The SOS messaging capability, in partnership with Globalstar, debuted in 2022 (see 2211100005).
Apple will integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT into Siri, iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia, the companies announced Monday. OpenAI’s popular chatbot will be available free to iOS, iPadOS and macOS users, OpenAI said. Apple said it will enable obscured IP addresses and to protect privacy, it won’t store user requests. Siri will have “richer language-understanding capabilities,” and be “more natural, more contextually relevant, and more personal,” Apple said.
Samsung reclaimed the top spot as largest smartphone maker in Q1, after Apple had overtaken it Q4 2023, according to International Data Corporation's latest worldwide quarterly mobile phone tracker data, released Monday. IDC said Samsung accounted for 20.8% of smartphones shipped in Q1, compared with Apple's 17.3%. Both companies shipped fewer smartphones than in Q1 2023, while third-place Xiaomi is rebounding from the large declines it saw the past two years, IDC said.
Apple eclipsed Samsung in Q4 2023 for the top spot globally in the smartphone market, Counterpoint blogged Tuesday. It said the global smartphone market grew 7% in 2023, and 8% in Q4 compared with Q4 2022, reaching 323.2 million units. Beyond losing share to Apple in the premium market, Samsung gave up market share in the mid-tier segment to Chinese original equipment manufacturers such as Xiaomi and in the entry-level segment to Transsion brands, Counterpoint said.
Worldwide shipments of used smartphones, including "officially refurbished and used" ones, hit an estimated 309.4 million units in 2023, up 9.5% over 2022, IDC said Monday. IDC forecasts 431.1 million units in 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 8.8% from 2022 to 2027. "Despite the near 10% growth, the secondary market is showing signs of slowdown due to a genuine lack of inventory," said Anthony Scarsella, IDC research manager. "With refresh rates extending in most mature markets, acquiring inventory remains the biggest challenge for resellers,” he said: “Secondary phone retailers are hungry for inventory as the high end of the market continues to be scarce due to customers just holding on to their device.”