2017 State of Mobile: Apple

Enter into the mysterious world of Apple. Apple is known for keeping its plans top secret, but 2016 was the worst year for keeping its plans under wraps.

The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were huge successes as always. Apple's marketing machine and brand loyalty have equaled to one of the best selling devices to date. Although, many people might be surprised to know that Apple's 2016 wasn't all that hot.

iPhone 7 Plus

No Apple didn't have a debacle like Samsung, but rather continued its lukewarm trend of innovation. Sure Apple's marketing may make it seem like they are innovating, but the last 3 years in truth have been the opposite. Apple actually missed its margins on sales slightly, thanks in large part to Google, Samsung, and LG. The competition has been more competitive than ever and Apple in some cases has been surpassed in many areas, but remains strong in those areas even if the competition has caught up. Enter 2016 and Apple's yearly iPhone release. It was very "unexciting" as one tech analyst put it. There was just nothing new or exciting about the iPhone 7 or 7 Plus.

iPhone 7

I think many tech analyst have the same sentiments to Apple. What happened? Once a great innovator that has fallen off the map. Okay maybe not off that map, but off the map of innovation. Look at the pictures above, nothing has really changed except on the Plus they added an extra camera. On both devices there is no more physical home button, the cut out for the button is just a target for Apple to tell users how to activate their Taptic Engine button that interacts with the phone.

With that said, I am expecting a strong 2017 from Apple. Yes, I may have been down on them in my analysis, but with the 10th anniversary iPhone approaching and the possibility of an iPhone with and AMOLED display, it is exciting regardless if you're an Apple fan or not. I am hesitant to say if I expect any huge innovation from Apple, but I can't discount it either. If there is, I'm thinking a function area similar to the new Touch Bar on MacBook Pros. 2017 should be an exciting year to be an Apple fan to see how they execute, but if innovation from Apple stifles this year than I think Apple starts losing some of its iPhone brand loyalty in 2017.

2017 State of The Mobile Phone Industry

As I promised in an earlier post, I will now give you my opinion on the state of the mobile phone industry. I will review the industry as a whole briefly in this post and then review the major players in the mobile phone industry in future posts.

2017 Trends In Mobile
The big trend in 2017 will be the almost, complete removal of bezels. The LG G6 and the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus have proven that this is a consumer move. Consumers want more content and screen real estate. Removing the bezels allows for the screen to dominate, thus allowing the content to be front and center.

We can't talk about mobile phones without VR (Virtual Reality). Google and its partners are making VR more relevant. At Google I/O 2016, the Mountain View company released its new platform for VR called Daydream. Google even released a reference product, Daydream View, to show off the new capabilities of Daydream ready phones like the Google Pixel and Pixel XL.

Other possible trends I see for 2017 is initial innovation. What I mean by initial innovation is the beginnings of new technologies for mobile. HTC is working on releasing a phone with pressure sensitive sides. Also rumored is Andy Rubin's new company Essential Products Inc. with a focus on a new way of creating a mobile phone chassis, new protocol for flash photography, and a new interface for adding modular components on mobile devices.

The industry looking forward into 2017 looks exciting, but we are missing innovation from one major player, Apple. Apple like to keep things under wraps, but there has been not even a trickle of any innovation coming out from the Cupertino company. Only time will tell if all of this innovation will come to fruition in 2017.

iPhone 8 Rumors: New Function Area? OLED Screen? Price Starting at $1,000?

We are still months off from the official release of Apple's 10th Anniversary phone, the iPhone 8. Being months away doesn't mean speculation can't come into play.

Reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has a few insights into what the Cupertino company could bring to the table in the iPhone 8. One of the most radical ideas is inspired from the new MacBook Pro's Touch Bar. Kuo has dubbed this idea the function area. Kuo also describes the pixel density Apple could switch to using in this upcoming iPhone release.

According to Kuo, the iPhone 8 (or iPhone X) will have a higher pixel density than the current line of iPhone devices. This also lines up with rumors of Apple using OLED display technology for the first time. The pixel density of 2800x1242 equates to a screen size of about 5.8 inches. This is possibly a 2K display, which many consumers contemplating switching from Android or other operating systems have complained about. This in itself would be a welcome change to those considering and the Apple loyalists.

Kuo's biggest insight idea is a trend that Apple has started though its MacBook Pro line up with the addition of their Touch Bar. Kuo said this area is internally known as the function area. Kuo claims that the display area for content will be around 2436x1125 which leaves 117px difference. This 117px will be home to the function area that will include the new function area use on the home screen and in different apps.

Apple has fallen off as an innovator the last 4 year, but could 2017 and their 10th anniversary iPhone change the game again? Can it do what the original iPhone did and create the hype that gave it its outstanding success. All eyes will be on Apple come September