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Apple today released its Q3 2013 earnings report, announcing 31 million iPhones sold in the three-month period ending June, along with 14.6 million iPad units sold. Both the iPhone and iPad sales are down from the previous quarter, but this marks the first time the iPad has seen a yearly decline in sales, a 14 percent decrease YOY.

Analysts expected Apple to sell 27 million iPhones, 18 million iPads, 3.85 million Macs, and 4.9 million iPods this quarter.

Last quarter, Apple showed a slight drop in sales from the previous record-breaking quarter with 37.4 million iPhones and 19.5 million iPads sold.

This quarter’s 31 million iPhones represent a quarterly loss of 21 percent, while still being up 20 from the same quarter last year. However, the iPad is down 25 percent sequentially and is down 14 percent from last year.

Interestingly, the average selling price for the iPhone has decreased from $613 last quarter to around $580 this year, perhaps marking that cloud innovation has required users to purchase less capacity, but more likely pointing toward the near ubiquity of smartphones.

When everyone owns a smartphone, as opposed to early adopters and tech fanatics, the lower-end model becomes a more attractive option in terms of pricing, especially with aggressive promotions from carriers.

The drop in iPad and iPhone sales quarterly can be attributed to the fact that this is a historically slow time for Apple and all CE companies, and that both devices are expecting a refresh soon.

The iPhone 5 was unveiled last fall, with the next-generation Apple smartphone expected in the fall alongside iOS 7. In terms of the iPad, the most recent refresh came in November with the availability of the iPad mini.

Of course, that Christmas quarter was Apple’s strongest yet for iPhone and iPad sales, breaking previous records for both products. But things have not-so-surprisingly slowed down since the star products’ unveiling, with many now waiting for the newer models to go on sale.

Meanwhile, Mac and iPod sales remain relatively flat from last quarter. Apple sold 3.75 million Macs in the quarter ending in June, down just barely from 3.9 million last quarter. This represents a 7 percent YOY loss, down 5 percent from the previous quarter.

Obviously, the PC market is dying all around us, so flat yearly and quarterly growth is actually quite impressive.

Mac sales usually do best during the back-to-school season. In Q4 of 2012, which goes from July through September, Mac sales hit 4.9 million, which was actually a 1 percent increase from the year before.

But during Christmas, the first full quarter of the 13-inch Retina MBP’s availability, Mac sales only reached 4.1 million units, representing a 16 percent quarterly decrease. Worse yet, it was a 21 percent fall from the same time last year. Last quarter, Mac sales were essentially flat again with 3.95 million units sold, down just one percent from the quarter before and nearly flat with the 4 million they sold in the previous year during the same period.

iPods continue to lose traction with a group of users who are increasingly interested in the iPhone and iPad, both of which offer similar, yet more robust technology.

Third quarter sales totaled 4.5 million, down from 5.63 million last quarter and a YOY loss of 32 percent.

There’s no denying the fact that the global smartphone market is captured by the duopoly of Samsung and Apple. The former releases a handful of devices each year, from low-end entry level smartphones to big phablets such as the Mega […]

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Apple has won a couple of patents today from the USPTO (via AppleInsider), and both are very practical advancements of tech that it’s easy to imagine being integrated in upcoming versions of existing devices. One is a camera sensor imaging enhancement that could make its way into both mobile and Mac product lines, and the other is a way to make hold more enjoyable for the person doing the waiting on a call.

The imaging patent describes a dual sensor camera system that could be integrated into iOS devices like the iPad and iPhone, as well as into Mac computers, that would use two sensors instead of one to capture simultaneous imaging data and then stitch those together intelligently, picking the best of each and obscuring the other sensor’s faults.

This would have the effect of covering up bad or dead pixels on one sensor, identifying blurry parts or strange exposure or lighting effects and compensating with image data captured by the other sensor. The patent describes a way for it to work with both still images and video, which is probably why it’s described as being useful both for mobile devices and for Macs, where it could help improve video quality being fed to chat applications from the built-in FaceTime camera.

The hold call patent is perhaps of more limited utility, but it does provide a way for users to share their photos and music with one another in an unconventional way. When people are on hold, they’d be presented with a variety of available data from the other party that they could browse while waiting. Options include pictures, music, upcoming events, location, books, wait time, status updates, videos or a recorded message, and a user can customize what kind of content gets shared, and where it gets sourced.

Access to hold content can be adjusted on a granular level, too, allowing you to opt to share some types of content only with family members for instance, while all callers have a much more constrained set of data to check out. Since it could potentially be something the hold party might actually enjoy, there’s even a provision that would let the person who put you on hold indicate they’re ready to come back on the line, giving you a chance to wrap up.

It’s a little precious, as use cases for this might be limited (who even talks on the phone anymore, let alone puts anyone on hold?) but it’s also potentially an easy way for Apple to indirectly advertise more of its iTunes content, and it’s a feature that would show well in demos and in marketing material. Also, it seems like it would be relatively easy to implement.

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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While Apple most-recently went smaller with the iPad, moving down to a 7.9-inch display with the iPad mini, but it seems Apple will be moving in the opposite direction if a recent report is to be believed. It’s said that Apple is testing out 13-inch iPad prototypes, as well as larger displays on iPhones that exceed the current 4 inches.

According to the Wall Street Journal, sources from suppliers in Asia say that Apple has asked for prototypes of screens larger than 4 inches for the iPhone, as well as ramblings of the company wanting to experiment with larger iPads that are around 13 inches in size. This means we could see a third iPad model, offering the Goldilocks effect to potential iPad buyers.

Of course, experimenting with different sizes of displays doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll see a larger iPad come into fruition. Apple is known to experiment quite a bit with potential products, but seeing as how larger screens are becoming popular than ever, it would make sense that the Cupertino-based company is looking to get in on that market.

The report on the larger iPhone displays goes right along with rumors last month of low-cost, plastic iPhone models with up to 5.7-inch screens. These are said to be budget-friendly devices that would get even more iPhones in the hands of consumers, since Android has a huge hold on the lower-cost device market currently.

Of course, Apple increased the size of the iPhone’s screen to 4 inches with the introduction of the iPhone 5. That marked the first time that the iPhone has gotten a screen size change, with all past models having 3.5-inch screens. The company has said that the screen size would never get any larger, but it seems that they’re buckling under peer pressure.

SOURCE: WSJ

Apple iPad 13-inch model tipped for testing alongside larger iPhones is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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