LUSARAP

Rumours that the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C will hit shops from September 20 appear to be on the money, judging from information posted by China Telecom.



Apple is set to push hard into the Chinese smartphone market with its next generation of iPhone devices. Indeed, many feel that the low-cost iPhone 5C has been developed with such a lucrative mid-range market in mind.

This view has been strengthened in recent days with the announcement that Apple will host a separate iPhone launch event in China just a day after the US event being held on September 10.

So when China Telecom, the countrys third largest mobile network, spills details on the new iPhone ranges release date, its worth taking note.

According to Sina Tech, the network has taken to Chinas microblogging website Weibo to inform customers of the imminent arrival of the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. It also indicated that the new phones will be available to purchase from September 20, just 10 days after the initial US launch event.

The message has since been removed, confirming that China Telecom jumped the gun somewhat in its announcement.

September 10 should see the reveal of a new top-of-the-range iPhone, the iPhone 5S, which will closely resemble the iPhone 5 from the outside. However, its expected to sport a faster processor, a superior camera, and a fingerprint scanner.

Also on the cards is the first ever purpose-built budget iPhone, the iPhone 5C. It will feature similar proportions to the iPhone 5S, but will be made of tough plastic rather than aluminium. It should feature a similar 4-inch display, but will probably contain older, slower internal components.

Both phones will run on iOS 7, Apples boldly overhauled mobile operating system.

Apples old staples are selling well enough, but questions always swirl about what "one more thing" Cupertino has planned next.


One of the most recent reports about an area of interest for Apple is the mobile payments space, and CEO Tim Cook brushed on the possibility during the companys earnings call.

Cook, who refrained from levying the calls opening remarks as he normally does and stuck to fielding questions, called mobile payments in general an area "weve been intrigued with, and that was one of the thoughts behind Touch ID."

"So I dont have anything specific to announce today, but you can tell by looking at the demographics of our customers, and the amount of commerce that goes through iOS devices versus the competition, that its a big opportunity for the platform," he concluded.

It certainly is: Apple has access to millions of users payment information, not to mention their fingers at the ready to punch in purchases.

Throw in Touch ID, an "incredibly simple and easy and elegant" way to buy things Cook said consumers have gravitated to, and it looks like Apple has the fruit to turn an intriguing idea into some dollar-making juice.

But what else is next?

Mobile payments werent the only future tech Apple hinted at.

"Hinted at" may be too generous - lets just say Apple is working on something weve yet to see from it, though what that something is remains as close to the vest as ever.

CFO Peter Oppenheimer said in prepared remarks that Apple is investing heavily in R&D for future products and services, though he didnt elaborate on what those could be. Corporate Controller Luca Maestri also teased that the company is investing "in areas that are not visible," adding the company is "very excited about them."

When pressed on what Maestri meant, Cook expanded his comments, explaining that Apple is "working on things that are not shipping today. Things you cant see today."

The Motorola Moto G and Google Nexus 5 have ‘shaken up’ the smartphone market, network provider Three has suggested.


Speaking on the current state of the handset sector, retailer Three has claimed that the budget Motorola and high-specced Nexus 5 are forcing rival manufacturers to alter their approach to the smartphone space.

“The Moto G and Google Nexus 5 have absolutely shaken up the market,” Three’s Product Portfolio Manager Brendan Arndt said.

Launched last November as a mid-range smartphone with an entry-level price tag, the Motorola Moto G, which can be snapped up for just £100, features a 4.5-inch 720p HD display alongside a 1.2GHz quad-core PCU and 1GB of RAM.

Adding a 5-megapixel rear-mounted camera and the choice of 8GB or 16GB of internal storage, the Motorola Moto G became an instant hit, with the wallet friendly price tag meaning many consumers could bypass costly 24 month contracts.

Discussing the Moto G’s new approach to smartphone pricing, Arndt stated: “It will absolutely put pressure on the other guys to up their game a bit.”

The Moto G is not alone in its efforts to push the smartphone sector in a new direction either. The Three Portfolio Manager highlighted the LG-manufactured Google Nexus 5 as another handset that has ‘shaken up’ how consumers view their smartphone buying habits.

“The Nexus is absolutely one of those phones that people will buy outright, because it’s a good deal, and not just buy it on a network,” the Three official said.

While the Motorola Moto G and Google Nexus 5 might have led the way, Arndt believes they are only the start of a larger movement.

“All the vendors are looking at giving consumers a bit more value, and bringing 4G down,” he said and added: “Moto G and Nexus 5 have challenged all the other vendors to do that.”

A 64-bit version of Googles Android operating system is only months away from an official launch, according to Jeffrey Ju, vice president, Smartphone Business Unit at Mediatek, during an impromptu briefing yesterday.


He said that Q3 will be when that elusive beast will be announced, one that is likely to carry the moniker Android 5.0.

Q3 is also when, traditionally, Google is expected to announce the followup of the Nexus 5 and the Nexus 7 2013 edition.

64-bit to become mainstream

Ju said that it made perfect sense for Google to launch a 64-bit Android in Q3 because there are already two mainstream 64-bit system-on-chip solutions, Qualcomms Snapdragon 410 and Mediateks just announced MT6732, both based on ARMs A53 architecture and aimed at the "super mid-market audience".

Other vendors like Samsung and Rockchip are also expected to launch 64-bit SoCs soon. In the entreprise arena, the likes of Cavium and AMD are also doing the same.

The Linux Kernel, which is at the core of Android, is already 64-bit capable which means that the transition should be painless.

Moving from 32 to 64 bit is likely to have the biggest improvement in performance in multimedia, added Ju. Intel worked on a 64-bit version of Android 4.4 Kit Kat for its own Merrifield solution earlier this year.

Samsung has confirmed that the heavily rumoured Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Lite will not be coming to the UK.

SanDisk says it is working on storage tech that will enable both 128GB phones and 128GB microSD cards.


SanDisk product marketing manager Ruben Dennenwaldt said that micro-storage capacity of “128GB is certainly something we’re working on”, and that the technology would needed to produce 128GB phones will “absolutely” be readily available within the next two years.

Although vague about exactly when the prerequisite tech will arrive, Dennenwaldt says SanDisk is “making very good progress in the next capacity point.”

Full-size 128GB SD cards are already available – Sandisk’s own 128GB Extreme SD card sells for just over £100 – but getting the size down to a level that will fit into microSD cards and today’s slim phones is “a significant challenge.”

Dennenwaldt explains, “for microSD, from a technology perspective, the maximum that can be done at this point is 64GB, purely because of the form factor.”

He added that the miniaturisation of flash storage used in phone memory “is pretty much the same challenge” as squeezing yet more storage into the thumbnail-size microSD form.

SanDisk is commonly regarded simply as a maker of memory cards, but it also produces a significant amount of the NAND flash wafers that go into the storage of phones, tablets and computer SSDs.

Dennenwaldt sees increased internal storage, including to the 128GB level, as “something consumers want, consumers demand.”

He says, “The massive amounts of data being created, people just need higher capacities.”

Will 128GB phones prove popular?

At present, the largest-capacity phones available have 64GB of internal storage – including the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4.

However, there has been limited demand for such high-capacity phones that also have a microSD memory card slot.

For example, UK retailer Clove cancelled plans to stock a 64GB Samsung Galaxy S3 in late 2012 as “the number of pre-orders that we received did not meet the minimum required to bring stock into the UK.”

A company likely to be among the first to successfully pioneer an ultra-high storage phone is Apple – it was also the first to range a 128GB tablet, introducing the 128GB iPad in February 2013.

It has also never offered expandable storage in any of its iOS mobile devices.

The question is whether sufficiently tiny high-capacity storage tech will be ready for the iPhone 5S, due to launch later this year in September.

SanDisk teased that it has a big announcement to unveil on 22 July. Could such super-storage be what they have to show off?