The company built by Steve Jobs continues to unravel slowly under caretaker Tim Cook. Apple is poised to fall to the #4 smartphone maker in the world. Here’s the details:
Going by the IDC’s numbers, Apple may have single-handedly been responsible for the smartphone market tanking, with the quarterly numbers down 8 million units, suspiciously similar to Apple’s drop in sales between Q2 2018 and Q2 2019.
Apple shipped 33.8 million new iPhones during 2Q19, which was down significantly from the same quarter one year ago.Xiaomi about to overtake Apple as 3rd largest smartphone company
The numbers show that now 3rd placed Apple may soon drop into 4th, with Xiaomi only 1.5 million handsets behind Apple.
In other Apple news, they finally announced some 5G phones late in 2020.
Apple may not be joining the Android world with 5G this year – expect the first iPhone 5G to show up in September 2020 – but yesterday’s purchase of Intel’s modem business by Cupertino offers Tim Cook a way out of Qualcomm’s dominance in the smartphone modem space.
Apple’s 5G Plans Should Include These Three Gloriously Insane ‘One More Thing’ Ideas
Concerning Apple’s purchase of Intel’s 5G business…
Apple made the move in order to develop its own in-house 5G modems rather than rely on Qualcomm, a company with which the iPhone maker has had a fraught history.
But the move is also a positive for Intel, according to CEO Bob Swan, who said the company can now focus on 5G in other areas.Intel sold its smartphone modem business to Apple, but it says it will still be a big player in 5G
Speaking with CNBC, Swan explained the rationale behind selling off the modem business: 5G modems, he said, were not an area that would differentiate growth for the industry. And with only one customer — Apple — retaining the business would not provide attractive returns, he added.
Apple’s smartphone business is shrinking but after doing a head fake earlier this year to dump Intel and go with QUALCOMM, they were able to come to terms with Intel. The problem is that the Intel modems are slower and more power intensive than QUALCOMM. This means less data transfer and lower battery life with Intel modems. Coupled with Apple’s habit of overstating battery life per charge, this may be interesting to see. I think Apple will have a steep learning curve to be competitive with 5G technology. Their first generation of 5G devices might do for them what Vista did for Microsoft. Mr. Cook may be creating a perfect storm for some class action litigation if this goes sideways on him.