Why iPhone is losing the race and Apple needs to rethink its India strategy

With Apple shipping less than 1 million iPhones in the first half of 2018, which is fewer than 2 per cent of the estimated 60 million smartphones that were shipped in India during the same period, Apple seems to be struggling to compete with its rivals in the country, reports The Verge.

According to the report, Apple's rival Samsung shipped 17.4 million while Xiaomi shipped 19 million smartphones to India in the same time period.

The Verge reports that this slump in iPhone sales comes after a steady growth in the numbers for the company during 2016 and 2017 when it shipped 2.6 million and 3.2 million units. The report says that iPhones smartphone market share has dropped to 1 per cent, which is its lowest in recent history, as of April-June quarter.

Devices priced in the top slots (Apple's iPhone X 256GB is priced at over Rs 100,000) in a price sensitive market like India has been a reason for Apple's struggle in India, The Verge report says.

Apple's most popular devices in India are iPhone SE and iPhone 6 which were launched two and four years ago. With available discounts, both the iPhone SE and iPhone 6 fall in the bracket of Rs 20,000 - Rs 30,000 which makes them more accessible to the Indian audience and hence the popularity.

HomePod is no match for Alexa. Is Apple losing the smart speaker plot?

The war for your digital home is waging. Apple has finally followed Amazon, Google and Microsoft by launching a smart speaker with a voice-controlled artificial intelligence assistant. Yet even though the “HomePod” is another technological marvel, there’s a chance Apple is already losing the battle.

The competition isn’t just through the sound quality of the speaker – but the other things that users can do with it. The most common requests to AI personal assistants such as Apple’s Siri are reportedly to play music, read the weather forecast and set timers or reminders.

But the capabilities of these assistants are increasing at lightning speed. This doesn’t just rely on the sophistication of the artificial intelligence involved but also what other technology the assistant can link to. And given Apple’s tendency to reject open connections to other company’s systems, it may find it has some serious catching up to do.

Amazon unveils new Echo devices to compete against Apple, Google

Manage the spinned words as you want..

Amazon.com Inc on Wednesday announced a variety of new voice-controlled Echo gadgets, as it gears up for new opposition in the class from Apple Inc .

At a press event at its Seattle headquarters, the arena's largest on-line store showcased new Echo devices, one tailor-made for gaming and one for phone calls. It additionally announced the small, round Echo Spot, suit for video-calling from a bedside table.

Amazon additionally announced the Echo Plus, aiming to make it less difficult for clients to put in connected homes so that it will command home equipment through voice.

"there's no apps. there's no abilties. It simply works out of the container," Senior vice president David Limp stated, contrasting the Echo Plus with the clever-home setup on preceding gadgets. The Echo Plus will cost $149 in the u.s..

The statement comes after Apple introduced its $349 HomePod speaker earlier this 12 months, marking its first move into a very new area in more than two years.

Apple has leapt ahead of friends within the beyond when it launched competing gadgets, and lots of are already acquainted with its voice-powered Siri assistant.

Hold Sleep/Wake button to activate Siri in iPhone 8

As Apple decided to do away with the physical Home button in its upcoming iPhone 8 flagship, a developer has suggested that the Sleep/Wake button in the soon-to-be-released device might activate Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant Siri.

In its iPhone editions released till now, users could long press the iconic Home button to activate Siri.

According to a report in Macrumors website, iOS developer Guilherme Rambo has also said users may activate Siri by using the voice command "Hey Siri" as well.

Rambo's comments are based on a discovery that he has made in source code that points to the possibility.

The Brazilian developer has previously found several details of upcoming Apple products in the company's beta software, including references to a 4K Apple TV in tvOS 11 as well as references in early HomePod firmware to some features widely expected in the company's upcoming OLED iPhone.

Last month Brazilian blog iHelp BR discovered a line of code in the HomePod firmware that suggested the Sleep/Wake button could in fact change functions on the OLED iPhone depending on the app currently in use.
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