Samsung apparently lands contract to produce A9 chips for iPhone 7 in 2015

Apple and Samsung have one of the most checkered relationships in technology, but it appears that at least a part of Samsung and Apple have made nice and reached an agreement. According to The Korea Economic Daily, Samsung has agreed to provide Apple with 14 nm SoCs in 2015.

This comes after Apple signed a deal with another fabrication corporation, TSMC, to provide chips for the future. However, many questioned if TSMC could actually produce chips in the quantity that Apple requires for its high-profile iOS devices.

The future of Apple’s chip production seems to be up in the air. Many seem to think that Apple is interested in purchasing the necessary facilities to fabricate their own designs, though that would require a massive amount of capital. Others think that Apple will continue to design the chips, but have separate entities like Samsung and TSMC actually build them.

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Apple asks ITC for stay on sales ban affecting older iOS devices

Apple has asked the United States International Trade Commission (or ITC) to stay a ban on sales of older iPhone and iPads while a court considers an appeal. The company filed a motion on Monday arguing that the ban, which is the result of a Samsung patent infringement complaint, will ‘sweep away an entire segment of Apple’s products…’

GigaOM reports:

“Less than four weeks before an import ban on popular Apple products will take effect, the iPhone maker is asking the International Trade Commission to stay the ban while a court considers an appeal.

In a motion filed Monday with the ITC, Apple said the ban, set for August 5th, will “sweep away an entire segment of Apple’s product offerings,” and also harm its phone carrier partners.”

For those who missed it, the ITC ruled last month that several Apple products, including the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS and 3G iPads, infringe on one of Samsung’s cellular patents. The commission issued a blanket sales ban on the devices, which would bar Apple from importing them into the country, and it’s currently trying to appeal the decision.

“If the Orders go into effect, Apple will lose not only sales of its iPhone 4 (GSM) and iPad 2 3G (GSM) products but also the opportunity to gain new smartphone and tablet customers who otherwise would have purchased these entry- level Apple devices…

…The products subject to the Commission’s orders have been purchased by [REDACTED]. They remain very popular and are strong sellers for the GSM carriers. As noted above, the GSM carriers will be placed at a competitive disadvantage against their CDMA competitors because the Orders will prevent them from offering these popular, entry-level devices.”

In a statement last month, Apple said that the ban would not impact the availability of its products in the United States. But given the above comments from Monday’s filing, it appears they’re starting to get a bit more nervous. If Apple doesn’t win the stay, the White House Administration is essentially its final hope to avoid the sales ban.

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

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Tasting Apple’s bitter pill: Samsung’s smartphone growth story running its course

In an age of demand for simple, inexpensive smartphones, big is not always better. The latest example is Samsung, viewed until recently as the Asian Apple, it’s Galaxy smartphones keeping Android from sinking into mediocrity. After snickering at the iPhone maker’s spate of bad luck on Wall Street, Samsung Friday lost 3.6 percent of its stock value amid a disappointing quarterly forecast.

With 70 percent of its profits coming from mobile devices, Samsung is in the same leaky boat as Apple. Addicted to high profits from sales of expensive smartphones built cheaply, Samsung Friday forecast $8.3 billion in profit during the second quarter, lower than the $8.9 billion Wall Street expected.

Since early June, the South Korean firm’s stock value has lost $34.2 billion, the market capital of Sony and LG combined, according to one report…

Reuters sums it up nicely:

Now investors fear Samsung may also follow in the footsteps of Apple and other one-mighty players that are struggling with shrinking margins, in an industry where companies live and die by their ability to stay ahead of the innovation curve.

Although Samsung is a conglomerate, more than 70 percent of its profits come from selling mobile devices. It’s that very dependence which makes investors nervous. So is the Galaxy S4 dead in the water already?

“Is Samsung’s smartphone story now over? Not quiet yet,” fund manager Jung Sang-jin tells the news service. At the same time, Samsung’s kick in the shins is directly related todisappointing sales of its newest phone, the Galaxy S4.

“It’s growth is indeed slowing due largely to disappointing sales of the S4,” Sang-jin adds.

Samsung earlier this week reported shipping 20 million cumulative Galaxy S4 units into the channel.

Some notable headlines highlighting the Samsung growth story concerns:

1. ‘Profit at Samsung Disappoints’ by The New York Times
2. ‘Samsung’s New Problem: High Expectations’ by The Wall Street Journal
3. ‘Samsung Electronics’ second quarter misses forecast as smartphone worries deepen’ by Reuters
4. ‘Samsung Faces More Downgrades as Earnings Miss Estimates’ by Bloomberg

Phones such as the Apple device and Samsung’s S4 were introduced at the start and the last breath of what I call the iPhone Parenthesis, a corollary to the publishing industry’s Gutenberg Parenthesis. In short, both companies must deal with a world saturated with high-end smartphones.

“Apple is suffering from iPhone fatigue, while Samsung is suffering from Galaxy fatigue,”opines Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston, whose notable clients include the South Korean conglomerate.

Philip Elmer-DeWitt wrote for Fortune that Samsung may have become even more dependent on smartphone sales than Apple.

Mobile phones accounted for 74 percent of Samsung’s operating profit last quarter. In the same quarter, the iPhone represented 52 percent of Apple’s revenue and 65 percent of its gross profit.

Also, Samsung customer satisfaction losing to Apple on its home turf probably didn’t help either.

Like Apple apparently deciding to build a less expensive iPhone as well as venture into wearable computing (such as the iWatch), Samsung is also reportedly mulling over Samsung Gear, a new wearable technology brand, and temporarily using its manufacturing resources to increase profits.

As we’ve also reported, low-cost handsets already dominate Samsung sales in China and elsewhere. Apart from those measures, Samsung could scale back on its marketing efforts, suggest analysts.

We’re still scratching our heads over this promo for the S4 Samsung aired in Iceland.

While Apple has been criticized for its highly-controlled PR, it’s South Korean rival actually spent more on marketing than on research and development, according to Reuters.

Among the highlights: $4.3 billion – quadruple Apple – on ads in 2012, open shops in more than 1,000 Best Buy shops and even using a Broadway show to kick off the S4.

But did Samsung get much ‘bang for the buck’?

Like a Fourth of July fireworks show during a rainstorm, shipments of the new Galaxy smartphone are expected to increase by 4-8 percent during the second quarter. All of which gives readers a feeling of deju vu.Of course, Samsung is not alone in releasing disappointing numbers. In related news, handset maker HTC also failed to wow Wall Street.

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Check Out Samsung's Strangest Anti-Apple Commercial Video

We all know that there's a long and unfinished war between Samsung and Apple and each one is trying to convince to the other company that it has the best smartphone ever.. Today Samsung is here again with another anti-Apple commercial video but this time it is very strange and wired, and I really mean it...

The short ad begins with a poor, sad, white guy in a nice warm vest sitting on a mountainside in what I presume to be Iceland. He’s tapping and listening to an apple. Not an Apple, mind you, but an actual apple, as in the fruit.

After some confused facial gestures, the man is shown smiling and using a Samsung Galaxy S4 device.

That’s when it gets weird.

Once he starts using the Galaxy S4, the electronica music pumps up the volume, and a bunch of what look like cat-burglars in leather or rubber pants show up, complete with black sweaters, ski masks, and knit gloves. They all dance about, as does the now super cool white guy. It’s compelling and fun, and way more hip than that goofy Surface tablet commercial with all the kick-standing. Check it out.

 Very strange video right ? Then the video ends when the man start to bite Apple... So what do you think ??

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WSJ: Apple signs iOS device chip deal with TSMC, decreasing dependence on Samsung

Following up a scoop from DigiTimes earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal is reporting this afternoon that Apple has finally inked a deal with TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., to produce chips used in the company’s iPhone and iPad products.

The two sides reportedly signed the deal, which has been in the making for a few years now, earlier this month after TSMC met Apple’s requirements for speed and power usage. And it signifies yet another move by the Cupertino firm to distance itself from Samsung…

Here’s The Journal’s Jessica Lessin:

“As early as 2010, Apple and TSMC started discussing working together to build the chips, say the TSMC executives. In 2011, TSMC senior executive Chiang Shang-yi met Apple officials to discuss collaborating on the complex process. Apple asked to invest in TSMC, or to have TSMC set aside factory space dedicated to Apple chips, the executives say. TSMC Chairman Morris Chang rejected both requests because the company wanted to maintain its independence and manufacturing flexibility, the executives say. TSMC plans to start mass-producing the chips early next year using advanced “20-nanometer” technology, which makes the chips potentially smaller and more energy-efficient.”

The move comes amidst increasing litigation and competition between Apple and Samsung. The two are currently involved in courtroom battles in 10 different countries, and Samsung’s line of Galaxy phones have taken over Android with record-breaking sales figures.

Apple has been slowly moving its orders for numerous components away from the South Korean giant over the past year, including mobile display panels. A report surfaced last November claiming that the iPad-maker had moved a bulk of its panel business to LG Display.

Of course, even with this new TSMC deal, Apple will continue to rely on Samsung for chips as it likes to diversify its suppliers to avoid bottlenecking issues. And it’s unknown when we’ll start seeing the first iOS devices with TSMC chips, but it sounds like it’ll be next year.

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Apple remains #1 smartphone maker in U.S.

If anyone needed confirmation, the U.S. smartphone market can be summed up in two words: Apple and Samsung. Those are the findings by measurement firm comScore, with Apple increasing its lead as the nation’s top smartphone brand. The iPhone maker had 39.2 percent of the domestic market at the end of May, growing its share 0.3 points.

Samsung also improved on its February second-place showing, growing 1.7 percentage points to capture 23 percent of the American market. Meanwhile, Google’s Android remains the No. 1 smartphone platform in the U.S., although Apple’s iOS inched up during the three-month period which ended in May…

Apple’s position as leading smartphone maker in the U.S. rose to 39.2 percent of the market, up 0.3 percent from the earlier 38.9 percent, according to comScore. Samsung increased its standing by 1.7 percent, up from 21.3 percent. HTC, Motorola and LG rounded out the top five smartphone makers sold in the United States.

In the battle for smartphone platform, Google’s Android increased its lead with 52.4 percent of the U.S. market, comScore said Friday. Although that was less than a one-percentage point gain over February, it was twice the growth of Apple’s iOS.

The report found Apple had 39.2 percent of the American smartphone market, up 0.3 percent from an earlier 38.9 percent.

BlackBerry was the No. 3 smartphone platform in the U.S., registering 4.8 percent of the market in May, a slip of 0.6 percent from February’s 5.4 percent – not surprising for a system consumers recently voted as the ‘most not wanted to own’.

Microsoft was fourth with 3 percent of the domestic smartphone subscribers, a 0.2 percent drop, according to the analytics company. Symbian was in the basement and quickly heading for absolute zero. The platform had 0.4 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, down from a half of one percent in February.

Both categories show that the Apple/Android duopoly is solidifying at the expense of other brands. While Microsoft touts its Windows 8 slate, it remains a distant fourth with U.S. market share in the single-digits.

As for BlackBerry, it has announced it will not install its new messenger app on the Playbook, thereby effectively closing the book on the company’s tablet plans.

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Designed by Apple in California, ripped off wholesale by Samsung in South Korea

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So if Samsung created Apple’s awesome ‘Intention’ video (part of the new ‘Designed by Apple’ ad campaign), the results would no doubt look something like this…

Here is the ’Samesong’ clip, someone’s funny take on the ‘Designed by Apple’ thing.

Rings true to me (via The Loop).

For reference: Apple’s nice ‘Intention’ video that kicked off the WWDC 2013 keynote.

In addition to the above video, Apple is also airing a nice mission-statement commercial that can be seen virtually everywhere, with print ads and more coming.

I kinda hoped Samsung would never copy Apple’s next-gen Mac Pro because its friends in South Korea wrote it would exit the desktop biz altogether, but it turned out to be false.

“Can’t innovate anymore, my ass!”

Meet us in comments.

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Is the party over for high-end smartphones?

Every company loves maximum profits. For years, Apple and Samsung have sold high-priced smartphones loaded with features that were eagerly snapped up by consumers in mature economies in North America and Europe. Now the two largest smartphone makers face a changing consumer profile where basic is best and inexpensive is in vogue.

Just days ago, research giant Gartner noted low-cost devices comprise the bulk of both firm’s device sales, making questions of whether to sell ‘cheap’ handsets only a distant – and irrelevant – memory. Now comes fear from Wall Street that the salad days of smartphones are over for Apple and Samsung…

Bernstein’s Toni Sacconaghi Monday on CNBC tried to explain (via Fortune) why both smartphone makers have recently been punished by investors.

Samsung’s tepid sales of its new Galaxy S4 are “perhaps not fulfilling expectations about the high end of the smartphone market.”

In other words, “the Street is thinking that if Samsung can’t sell as many high-end smartphones as expected, then neither can Apple,” writes Philip Elmer-DeWit.

Seems like a pretty good assumption.

Source: IDC European Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, May 2013.

Growth has slowed in developed nations, such as the U.S. and in Europe, as adoption of smartphones is nearly complete. Instead, the competition isn’t over whether to buy a smartphone or stick with your dumb feature phone, but whether you’ll stick with Apple or try Android.

In a way, the smartphone market in the U.S. resembles competition among cellular carriers, where the customers drift from one brand to another.

“The challenge in the smartphone market is also that, as penetration move more and more to the mass market, price points are lowering and in most cases so do margins,” Gartner announced Monday.

In Samsung’s case, almost half of its smartphone sales are in the sub-$200 category.

If the rumors are true, Apple will launch a less-pricey iPhone sold contract-free to the mid-tier sub-$300 segment in developing markets.

Some watchers expect the device to actually replace Apple’s free iPhone 4/4S on-contract phones, but that’s just speculation at this point.

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Samsung reportedly cutting Galaxy S4 production, S3 going in early retirement

The unstoppable advance of Samsung may have hit a bump in the road. A report from South Korean claims the Apple smartphone rival plans to reduce production of its just-released Galaxy S4 by 10-15 percent, while sending the S3 to an early retirement.

The South Korean-based firm also believes the flagship Galaxy S4 won’t be able to increase its share of the smartphone market alone, requiring a range of new models to do the job, the Thursday report claimed…

Earlier this month, Samsung’s share price fell by six percent following a JP Morgan note that Galaxy S4 orders had fallen by up to thirty percent. The news instantly erased an astounding $12 billion in Samsung market cap as investors hit the ejection handle.

Samsung has poured billions into its marketing efforts, positioning the huge corporate conglomerate as an underdog competing with the well-oiled image machine of Apple.

Are we seeing the first signs that – like Apple – Samsung is subject to the vagaries of all companies, including overzealous analysts?

Samsung Electronics president Jongkyun Shin dismissed the earlier JP Morgan report, telling reporters “there is no problem” with Galaxy S4 sales.

The Korea IT News begs to differ:

However, a warning light started to blink this month in Samsung’s supply chain management, as the gap between Galaxy S4s sold in the market and the parts inventory started to widen.

July orders for Galaxy S4 parts is for 6.5 million smartphones – about half the number of orders placed in May, claims the site. After a two-month period from April to May, there’s been a downward trend in parts orders.

To support flagging sales of the Galaxy S4 – which reportedly are not strong enough to boost Samsung’s smartphone share alone – the company just introduced a range of Galaxy-branded gear, including the new Galaxy S4 Mini, coming in July .

Other devices unveiled at a London event yesterday include the ATIV Q convertible which dual-boots Windows 8 and Android, the Galaxy S4 Zoom smartphone/camera hybrid  and a brand new Galaxy NX interchangeable lens camera with a 4.8-inch touch screen.

Additionally, the Galaxy S3 will be given early retirement as part of Samsung’s plan to drop low-selling models to concentrate on more popular – and presumably more profitable – products.

Here’s the Galaxy S4 Zoom.

There are a number of similarities with Samsung’s current troubles and the rough waters Apple has had to navigate. Like Samsung’s leader, Apple CEO Tim Cook quickly responded to analyst claims of dropping iPhone orders by announcing all is well.

The world of FUD also has a tendency to feed on itself with negative analyst reports prompting sliding stock prices and seemingly confirming the original dire forecasts – which starts the cycle all over again.

Did Samsung think it was immune to this sort of pump-and-dump behavior?

Build the company up as invincible, attracting stock buys. Then pass on rumors of trouble, attracting stock sells.

Who wins?

The investment banks which charge fees on all stock action.

The analysts who grab headlines by adding ‘Apple’ or ‘Samsung’ to their press releases. The whip-sawed investor or the under siege tech companies?

They’re just collateral damage.

Beyond the numbers, Samsung’s reported plan to dump the aging Galaxy S3 and other less-profitable handsets only makes sense. The opportunity for growth through sales of high-end smartphones is increasingly limited.

Earlier this week, we reported in China nearly 50 percent of Samsung’s smartphone sales are in the sub $200 handsets. Apple also recognized this shift, putting increased resources into development flexible payment options for India, China and other developing nations.

The iPhone 4 has become the introductory Apple smartphone for the low-end consumer, saving it also from retirement. Just the latest reason for our repeated urging that readers look beyond the sheer numbers for the real story of today smart device landscape.

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Apple won’t use Samsung screens for iPad 5 and iPad mini 2

In another hint of Apple distancing itself from Samsung by procuring crucial gadget components from alternative suppliers, we hear the Cupertino firm may have already dropped Samsung entirely as the maker of next-gen panels for a fifth-generation iPad and a second-generation iPad mini.

Both devices are rumored to arrive later this year, allegedly sporting the high-resolution Retina display technology and sharing a light aluminum chassis with thinner appearance and chamfered edges…

Seoul-based Korea Economic Daily cites industry reports claiming Apple sent out its requests for quotation for new Retina screens to LG Display, Sharp, Japan Display and AU Optronics, but not to Samsung Display.

In case you didn’t know, a request for quotation is a document firms like Apple send to component suppliers. In it, the buyer (Apple) inquires about prices quotations for specified components and parts.

As this document is usually sent five-ten months prior to a product’s launch (to give suppliers ample time to deliver the order), it’s the first step of the component purchase process and as such a credible hint of the upcoming changes in Apple’s manufacturing process.

On the other hand, iNews, South Korea’s tech news site, mentions that Samsung and Apple have not yet begun the separation process on mobile screens.

The publication quotes Samsung president Kim Ki-nam as saying the rumor is “not necessarily true.” Interestingly enough, the guy added that a possibility of Apple adopting Samsung components still exists, though I’d bet my shirt that was just his wishful thinking.

Samsung’s acquisition of a three percent stake in Apple’s screen supplier Sharp was probably the last straw.

Apple’s manufacturing partner Foxconn has been trying to buy eleven percent of Sharp for months, but has cancelled all acquisition talks after learning about Sharp going to bed with Samsung.

The fact that Sharp has now begun shipping its 32-inch panels to Samsung certainly won’t help improve the rocky Apple-Samsung relationship. What’s more, thanks to Samsung’s LCD panel orders, Sharp is now expected to turn an operating profit by the end of its fiscal 2012, which concludes on March 31.

According to market research firm DisplaySearch, LG Display accounted for 28 percent of the global LCD sales versus Samsung Display’s 25.1 percent share, the first time LG Display surpassed Samsung in the LCD market since 2005.

DisplaySearch also estimates Samsung’s display supplies have decreased from 12.8 percent of the total supplied to Apple in the second quarter of 2012 to just 0.90 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Apple is also said to have decreased the proportion of Samsung’s supply of SSDs for MacBooks this year.

And IHS iSuppli, another credible market research firm, yesterday acknowledged an 81 percent drop in 9.7-inch panel shipments in January. At the same time, panels measuring 7.9 inches diagonally, like the one used on the iPad mini, climbed fourteen percent.

It’s another proof that the iPad mini is outselling its bigger brother faster than Apple anticipated.

As for Apple’s chip making contract with Samsung, it’s set to expire in June 2014 – conveniently coinciding with talk of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (andpossibly Intel) starting to fab Apple’s next-generation iPhone and iPad processors early next year.

TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor foundry, in particular, is expected to tape out Apple’s A7 processor on a 20nm process later this month, possibly moving the chip into risk production in May-June.

If true, this would pave the way for commercial shipments of the TSMC-made A7 chip some time in the first quarter of 2014.

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ITC judge finds Samsung guilty of infringing on Apple’s text selection patent

In a decision issued on March 26, but kept classified until earlier this week, an International Trade Commission judge found Samsung to be infringing on Apple’s US RE41,922 patent that covers things like text selection and translucent buttons.

It’s only a preliminary decision, and the judge only found Samsung guilty of infringement on one of two patents listed in the complaint. But if the decision gets upheld, Samsung could once again be looking at a major product ban in the US…

Reuters reports:

“Samsung Electronics Co Ltd infringed a key portion of an Apple Inc patent by including a text-selection feature in its smartphones and tablets, an International Trade Commission judge said in a preliminary decision…

…If it is upheld, the ITC can order any infringing device to be barred from importation into the United States. Apple has alleged that Samsung’s Galaxy, Transform and Nexus devices, among others, were among those made with the infringing technology.”

The patent in question is labeled a “method or apparatus for providing translucent images on a computer display,” and the features in Samsung’s products that seem to be infringing on it are text selection in its browser and the buttons in its Photo Gallery.

Apple filed the original complaint with the ITC in mid-2011, and initially it included 7 patents. Samsung was found guilty of infringing on four of them last October, and Judge Thomas Pender was asked to reexamine two of them, which brings us to today.

Although we’re still a ways off from a definitive outcome here—the full ITC commission isn’t expected to rule until August, and then there will almost certainly be appeals—the ramifications of it could be huge. Several Samsung products could face sales bans.

Of course, it seems like we’ve heard this story before, and nothing ever happens. In fact, look at Apple’s big $1 billion victory against Samsung last fall. That settlement has since been cut in half, and who knows when, or if, Samsung will have to pay it.

I get that you have to defend your intellectual property, but this just all seems like such a waste of time and resources.

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IDC: Apple within spitting distance of Samsung in smart connected devices

Research firm IDC today shared an interesting data point which again reminds us that the mobile game has pretty much come down to the epic fight for supremacy between California-based Apple and Seoul-headquartered Samsung group. Combined shipments of desktop and notebook PCs, tablets and smartphones rose to 378 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, accounting for $168 billion in quarterly sales.

One particular data point has piqued our interest: thanks to the (sarcasm alert) “disappointing” iPhone 5 and “overpriced” iPad mini, Apple closed the gap with the South Korean giant, having accounted for a 20.3 percent unit share versus 21.2 percent for its rival.

And, of course, when you narrow down the analysis to just revenues, Apple’s high-margin business has allowed the company to pull in the market-leading 30.7 percent revenue versus 20.4 percent revenue share for Samsung.

In other words, nearly one out of every three dollars spent on desktop/notebook PCs, smartphones and tablets in Q4 2012 went to Apple, with Samsung taking one out of each five bucks…

According to IDC, global shipments of smart connected devices in 2012 rose 29.1 percent versus 2011, largely thanks to a whopping 78.4 percent growth in the tablet category where Apple’s iPad is a market leader.

Tablet shipments for the calendar 2012 surpassed 128 million units, with total smart connected device shipments (notebook/desktop PCs, tablets and smartphones) hitting one billion units with a value of $576.9 billion.

Meanwhile, the good ol’ PC continues on a downward spiral.

The research firm, best-known for making wild predictions a few years into the future, projects tablet shipments to surpass desktop PCs in 2013 and portable PCs in 2014.

Given the iPad’s tablet lead, Apple stands to benefit the most should IDC’s estimates prove realistic. Globally, IDC expects PC desktop shipments to drop by 4.3 percent this year, with the notebook category maintaing a flat growth of 0.9 percent.

In peering into its crystal ball, IDC has concluded that the worldwide smart connected device market will reach 2.2 billion units shipped by 2017 for an astounding $814.3 billion in revenue, mostly driven by “a huge growth potential in the emerging markets” such as India and China.

Contrast this to tablets that wil reach a new high of 190 million units in 2013 for a healthy annual growth of 48.7 percent. The smartphone market is slowing and will grow an estimated 27.2 percent to 918.5 million units this year.

Another noteworthy factoid to glean form the report: 378 million devices shipped in the holiday quarter of 2012 alone, with a combined worth of more than $168 billion. This means that Apple’s IDC-estimated 30.7 percent revenue share translates into a cool $51.58 billion worth of MacBooks, iPhones and iPads sold in Q4 2012.

Notably, Apple’s own earnings cite $54.5 billion in fourth-quarter sales.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster noted today that we shouldn’t expect any major new product launches from Apple until June’s iPhone 5S introduction (no new iPad for you this Spring).

In turn, he says, Apple’s second-quarter revenue will fall short of Wall Street’s projections.

We also reported yesterday that investors are expecting a record revenue for Apple’s June quarter, but also a lower income due to lower margins from all the new products Apple introduced in the past six months.

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iPhone and Galaxy owners are not that different

While iPhone and Galaxy S3 owners are often viewed as fans of rival teams, the two groups have more in common than Apple or Samsung would care to admit.

A new report finds owners of the two smartphones follow the same usage patterns, while maintaining some distance on hardware and carrier choices.

Based on surveys conducted in January and February, both iPhone and G3 owners follow a trend away from voice calls and emails to texting. Before anyone thinks the two will for a mutual admiration society anytime soon, there are some striking differences, as well…

AppleInsider cited a Consumer Research Partners survey which states that between 80 percent to 90 percent of iPhone and S3 owners use their handsets to send multiple texts each day.

There is only a slight difference between the two smartphone platforms when it comes to going online: more than 80 percent of iPhone owners use their device to reach the Internet, while 75 percent of G3 users launch an Internet session from their phones.

While few iPhone or Galaxy S3 owners used their phones to call someone, there was a slightly larger number of S3 users who dialed digits.

In another area, the advantage of the iPhone’s Retina Display may be a factor.

Owners of iPhones reported more often using the handset to play games or view photos one or two times per day. Although 80 percent of iPhone owners said they often played games on their phones, that figure dropped to 70 percent for S3 users.

When it comes to other hardware, there were more disparities between the two groups.

While both iPhone and S3 owners said they owned PCs, iPhone owners were more likely to own a Mac laptop or desktop, according to the report. The research also found while 20 percent of iPhone owners also have a Mac laptop, just 7 percent of S3 owners said they own a Mac laptop.

In other words, an Apple laptop owner is more likely to buy an Apple smartphone than an Android-based G3 owner is to cross “party lines” and purchase a Mac.

Apple today amusingly emailed out its ninth JD Power award to users (kudos to Mark Gurman).

That line against cross overs also includes tablets. iPhone owners are twice as likely to buy an iPad, while Galaxy S3 owners are twice as likely to own an Android tablet. Of interest to Amazon: iPhone owners are more likely to have a Kindle e-reader, as well.

Despite iPhone owners having three U.S. carriers supporting their Apple smartphone, AT&T – which was Apple’s original partner – has more than 50 percent of iPhone users, according to the researchers.

Verizon has around 35 percent of iPhone owners, while a bit more than 10 percent of iPhone owners are Sprint customers. For the S3, there is no apparent carrier preference with Galaxy owners evenly spread across the four domestic wireless providers.

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Precise renderings depict just how bulkier Galaxy S4 is versus iPhone 5

Though Samsung’s new Galaxy S4 smartphone has just a slightly larger display compared to its predecessor, the 4.8-inch Galaxy S3, its five-inch screen puts in the phablet category, especially compared side-by-side next to Apple’s iPhone 5. Because the device won’t launch before end of April, we’re currently unable to compare their form factors in person.

Enter Martin Hajek, a 3D artist who made a name for himself with painstakingly rendered mockups of Apple’s rumored products. The latest from his kitchen: a fresh batch of precise renderings which give us a good idea how the two devices compare size-wise…

“I recently completed a highly detailed 3D model of the Samsung Galaxy S4,” Martin writes on his blog. “Of course I had to see what it looks like compared to the iPhone 5…sort of clash of the mobile titans.”

The S4 is slightly taller compared to the iPhone 5 than it is wider.

Specifically, the S4 is 11.2mm, or 0.44 inches wider than Apple’s handset.

As for the height, Samsung’s baby is 136.6mm tall versus the iPhone 5′s 123.8mm in height. In other words, the S4 is 12.8mm, or half an inch taller than Apple’s handset.

As you can see, Samsung was able to increase screen size from 4.8 inches to five inches without dramatically blowing up the phone’s chassis.

As for the thickness, the S4 is slightly bulkier (7.9mm) than the iPhone 5 (7.6mm), though it’ll be hard to tell the 0.3mm difference with naked eye.

As for the weight, Apple’s handset should feel lighter because the S4 is eighteen grams heavier, or 0.65 ounces.

I own both the S3 and the iPhone 5 and while I do appreciate the Galaxy’s bigger screen when enjoying my media or reading content, I find it cumbersome in daily use.

Operating the S3 with one hand leaves a lot to be desired due to its massive screen so I often have to use two hands to perform a pull-down gesture to bring Android’s notification panel.

The S4 also costs more to build than Apple’s device (even without the exquisite aluminum enclosure) and its chip is twice as fast as the A6 processor powering Apple’s 2012 iPhone.

Martin has a few more highly detailed S4 renderings so head over to his blog for more awesomeness. And, if you’re a 3D artist yourself, you can also download these models and create your own dramatic close ups.

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