Interesting commentary from around the Web on the tech story that made headlines this week.
This week marked the start of iPhone mania. Apple’s much-awaited unveiling of the device on Wednesday drew a degree of criticism from tech commentators, some of whom saw the changes as incremental. But the longer, thinner and lighter bodied iPhone didn’t dissuade consumers from burning through Apple’s first round of online pre-order supply.
Apple v Samsung trial fuels patents bubble
Apple’s victory over Samsung in the patents dispute shone an interesting light on the murky world of patents. For one thing it demonstrated clearly that there are two different types of patents around mobile devices that operate very differently.
On the one hand you have patents that are to do with how the phone actually operates, how it connects calls and handles data. These are the standards essential patents and they are the things that companies like Samsung, Nokia and Motorola have a lot of, as they have been in the business of making phones for a very long time. Read more
Facebook takes a step towards “mobile first” with new iPhone app
Facebook has overhauled its much-criticised application for Apple’s iPhone and iPad, in the social network’s latest attempt to tackle the challenging transition from desktop to mobile. Read more
Mobile phone sales dip amid wait for iPhone 5
The love affair with the mobile phone appears to have faltered a little, with worldwide mobile phone sales down for the second quarter in a row, according to new figures from Gartner. But is this just a small hiatus as consumers wait for the next round of handsets from Apple and Samsung to hit the shelves later this year, or a sign of something deeper?
Gartner is clearly a little worried, as it is paring back its earlier estimates for 2012 handset sales by between 25m and 40m units. Its not a huge drop, only about 2 per cent of the estimated 1.9bn unit sales this year, but Anshul Gupta, analyst at Gartner says he has been a little surprised by the fall. Read more
Interesting commentary from around the Web on the tech story that made headlines this week.
Even though Apple’s earnings disappointed Wall Street this week, attention quickly shifted to the forthcoming iPhone 5 and the latest version of its Mac operating system, Mountain Lion. Read more
Apple watchers expect new iPad on March 7
Anticipation is building that Apple will unveil a new iPad within the next month with significant upgrades, including faster 4G wireless networking and a high-resolution Retina display.
A string of rumours and reports have helped to push Apple’s stock above the $500 mark for the first time – making each Apple share more expensive than the iPad itself. Read more
Apple threatens to boot developers that game the App Store
Ever looked at the iPhone App Store’s list of most popular apps and thought, how did that get so popular?
Apple has been asking the same question – and it has found that not all are quite as popular as they seem. This week it posted a stern warning to developers to stop using shady marketing firms that can artificially drive their apps to the top of the charts. Read more
Apple has done it again. For a brief moment last week, following the announcement that it beat quarterly forecasts with record numbers, the Silicon Valley company once again became the world’s most valuable company.
This time, though, things were different, with Tim Cook, who took over as Apple’s chief executive from co-founder Steve Jobs, now at the helm. Read more
iPhone becomes top US smartphone – and other Apple superlatives
After posting forecast-beating results last night, Apple has hit another high this morning.
According to figures published on Wednesday by Kantar Worldpanel, the WPP-owned market researcher, Apple’s iPhone has just overtaken Google’s Android to become the most popular smartphone platform in the US. Read more
Tech news from around the web:
In a number of security issues exposed in the last 24 hours, Chinese hackers claim to have infiltrated the secure smart card system used by US Government employees, according to a report by AlienVault. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
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