Tag: technology news

Apple unveils iPhone 5S and 5C

Apple revealed its highly anticipated iPhone 5S this week during a special press event, but the famed technology company also unveiled some unexpected products as well. Apple has been fighting to maintain its market share in the mobile sector for some time, and this fight has became more desperate when long-time rival Samsung took the top spot in the global market. In an effort to boost device sales, Apple unveiled the iPhone 5C, which is meant to be a low-end smartphone designed to appeal to the world’s low-income populace.

New 5S could be a hint at Apple’s mobile payments interests

Apple’s event was enough to generate hype among long-time supporters of the company. The iPhone 5S has won praise for the new features it offers, the most notable of which is fingerprint sensor technology that could make the device much more secure than its predecessors. This technology could also help Apple break into the mobile payments space, which the company has been approaching with caution for some time. While Apple sees a great deal of promise in mobile payments, the company considers this sector to be somewhat dangerous due to the lackluster security features that some payment platforms offer.

Fingerprint technology may help make mobile payments more secure

While Apple has not yet made an announcement concerning its plans for mobile payments, the iPhone 5S could provide some insight on where the company is heading in this sector. Equipped with a fingerprint scanner, the iPhone 5S is able to function as the most secure mobile payments platform available. The technology is able to authorize payments more effectively than conventional platforms, many of which are based on NFC technology. Apple considered NFC technology to be lackluster for mobile payments because the technology is susceptible to hacking, putting a consumer’s financial information at risk.

5C designed for low-income consumers

The iPhone 5C and other models are not designed with mobile payments in mind. The 5C is meant to appeal to low-income consumers who have an interest in smartphones but not necessarily enough money to purchase cutting-edge models. The iPhone 5C is expected to retail for approximately $99, whereas the iPhone 5S will feature a significantly higher price tag.

The firm has released its data indicating that the rate in the United States broke the 60 percent mark last quarter.

comScore just released its latest technology news data on Friday, which has identified the latest penetration and other trends in the mobile world, using data as recent as the end of July.

As of the close of July 2013, there was a considerable growth in smartphone popularity in the U.S.

The latest mobile technology news trends up until the last quarter have shown that the penetration rate of smartphones in the United States has now broken the 60 percent mark. The details of the report from comScore showed that the leading manufacturer of smartphones in the U.S. is still Apple.

The technology news data showed that Apple is maintaining a hold of 40 percent OEM market share.

At the same time, while Apple may be the single smartphone device manufacturer leading the way, it is Android that is making the technology news as the most popular smartphone platform, not Apple’s proprietary iOS. Android’s lead is considerable, as it holds an estimated 52 percent of the platform market share.

As a result of this, it didn’t come as a surprise to very many people that Google Sites were once again the leaders in that category of technology news, last quarter, as they have in the previous quarters.

The comScore report stated that “Google Sites ranked as the top web property on smartphones, reaching 92.6 percent of the mobile media audience (mobile browsing and app usage).” Their technology news went on to say that this was “followed by Facebook (86.3 percent), Yahoo! Sites (81.7 percent) and Amazon Sites (66.8 percent).”

When all was said and done, the comScore data estimated that during the surveyed period, there were 143.3 million people in the United States who owned smartphones. The estimated penetration rate which is now believed to be greater than 60 percent would indicate that there has been an increase of a considerable 3 percent since April 2013. This clearly indicates that these devices are making rapid headway within the United States, and that the growth will continue.