New Apple iPad goes official, Retina display and A5X chip

Apple just unveiled the next-gen iPad at its event in San Francisco. Packing a Retina IPS display with the mind-blowing resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels and a bumped up GPU, this shapes up to be one of the hottest slates on the market. And yes, the iPad has kept its Home button alright.

Strangely, rumors about the new slate being called iPad 3 or iPad HD turned out wrong and the new device is simply called iPad - just like the first generation device.

The event started with the announcement of iOS 5.1 - it's available starting today and will roll out in Japan over the next few weeks, bringing Japanese language support for Siri, as previously rumored.

The new Apple TV also got a spot under the sunlight at the event - 1080p-capable, running iOS with a new UI with big "billboard images for movies". It will be available for $99 and will be available next week with pre-orders starting today.

Moving on to the main course for the night, the new Apple iPad offers a Retina display with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 with around 263.92 ppi. Apple also says that it has better color saturation than the iPad 2.

The processor inside is not a quad-core A6 but a dual-core A5X with quad-core graphics.

The camera is dubbed iSight - it's a 5 MP BSI unit with auto-focus, sporting a 5-element lens. The new iPad's camera offers 1080p video recording.

The new iPad features 21Mbps HSPA+ and 42Mbps DC-HSDPA and 4G LTE up to 73Mbps.

The new iPad will keep its acclaimed 10-hour battery life, save when in 4G mode when it will be able to do 9 hours.

The 16GB version of the new iPad will cost $499, the 32GB abd 64GB will be $599 and $699. The 4G versions will be $629, $729 and $829 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions. It will be available on March 16.

Along with the third-gen iPad we saw the iPhoto for iOS and updated iMovie app as well as new versions of Infinity Blade - Dungeons and Sketchbook Ink.

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Why Apple Wins: Better Beats "New"

By Melissa Daniels | Mon Mar 12, 2012 1:40 pm

At Apple, being new isn't good enough, according to design leader Jonathan Ive -- it's only improvement that gives way to innovation and builds the company's successful brand philosophy.

Ive opened up about the company's design process in a rare interview with the Evening Standard, boiling it down to "designing and prototyping and making." Those three steps are essential to advancing development, Ive said, shedding light on how Apple consistently produces top products.

The noted designer's comments suggest why the Cupertino, Calif.-based company's competitors may have failed to win over Macs, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, all of which Ives oversaw. By offering devices that, in Ives words, fit with the mission "to create simple objects, objects that you can't imagine any other way," Apple manages to edge out competitors trying to beat it with something "new" that may not necessarily improve the overall product.

Forging new ground is where Apple succeeds, or as Ives says, "if we can't make something better, we won't do it."

As the senior vice president of industrial design for Apple, Ive is widely acclaimed as one of the world's most influential designers both within the design world and beyond. Ive was knighted by the Queen in his home country of England, was also named Designer of the Year by the Design Museum London, and received the title of Royal Designer for Industry by The Royal Society of Arts.

With such recognition, the designer rarely opens up about what goes on in Apple's creative team. But his recent interview shed light on how Apple stays focused on its mission -- and suggests how competitors can wander from the path during the race to the next big thing.

"Most of our competitors are interested in doing something different, or want to appear new -- I think those are completely the wrong goals," he told the Evening Standard. "A product has to be genuinely better. This requires real discipline, and that's what drives us -- a sincere, genuine appetite to do something that is better."

That appetite is readily filled in the market, with Apple breaking iPhone sales records at the end of 2011 with 37 million worldwide sales. Sales jump while other manufacturers see decline in a shaky economy, and that demand for Apple products is intrinsically related to the "something that is better" manifesto.

Apple's success in the future is assured by some analysts who say its customer loyalty and return rate project long-term stability. When Apple does release a new product or feature, it's a problem-solving tactic, like Siri voice recognition, which offers multiple services to users without installing technology for technology's sake.

Design is different at Apple, Ive says, because designing, prototyping and making are all part of the same process. Separating those, he says, makes it suffer. Ive acknowledged it is difficult to describe the design process, but there is much to glean of his insights into high standards and razor-sharp focus.

As rival companies attempt to take away sales from Apple, Ives and Apple engineers are staying focused on what they have to offer, honing in on their own philosophy. As the public learns more about what goes on inside one of the most powerful technology companies in the world, the philosophy behind Apple's success is sure to inspire the next wave of innovators, designers and those who dare to think differently.

Tue Mar 13, 2012 4:04 pm | By
AT&T is expanding its LTE service, and Tim Cook sold off more of his stock in Apple. Meanwhile, Verizon had some sporadic outages, Apple denies Proview's claims on its iPad name and Twitter snapped up Posterous, a blogging platform.



Tue Mar 13, 2012 2:46 pm | By
Apple's is reducing the price of the iPad 2 with the release of the new iPad, boosting the company's educational initiatives by making tablets more affordable for schools.

Tue Mar 13, 2012 1:39 pm | By
IPads drastically help doctors boost their productivity, according to a study, highlighting how mobile technology is revolutionizing healthcare.

Tue Mar 13, 2012 10:58 am | By
Chinese factory workers say Apple overlooked safety hazards after an explosion last December, as the company struggles to maintain its reputation amid mounting public concern.

Mon Mar 12, 2012 4:15 pm | By
The Apple-Samsung battle heats up, RIM's BlackBerry loses a key sector of customers and other stories from today's news.


Editorials & Opinion By Kat Asharya
The Justice Department approved the $4.5 billion purchase of over 4,000 Nortel patents to major Android rivals like Apple and RIM, guaranteeing no end in sight to the legal battles entangling the mobile industry.

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Apple to Sell 'Cheap' iPad to Fend Off Android: Report

Black and white versions of the new iPad 2.When Apple [AAPL  Loading...      ()   ] releases its new and enhanced iPad next week, the company will also re-launch a less expensive version of its current iPad 2 to combat cheaper tablets running Google’s Android operating software, according to a JPMorgan analyst report out of Asia.

“Expect higher resolution new iPad, but also a cheaper iPad 2 to defend against Android Tablets,” wrote Gokul Hariharan of JP Morgan in a note today. “PC vendors like ASUS have issued aggressive guidance on cheap Android Tablets. If Apple comes out with a multi-pronged pricing strategy for iPads, then Android tablets may again find it difficult to gain traction, except for very low-end ones like Kindle Fire.”

Shares of Apple are up more than 30 percent this year in anticipation of the iPad announcement next Wednesday. The device is expected to have 4G capability and even more enhanced features. Meanwhile, shares of Google [GOOG  Loading...      ()   ] are lower for the year and Amazon’s stock is up barely 3 percent for 2012.

It is not unprecedented for Apple to keep selling older models under a new pricing structure in order to take market share on the lower end. After introducing the iPhone 4S last October, Apple announced it would keep selling the iPhone 4 for $99, as well as an iPhone 3GS for free when accompanied with a two-year contract.

For the best market insight, catch 'Fast Money' each night at 5pm ET, and the ‘Halftime Report’ each afternoon at 12:00 ET on CNBC. Follow @CNBCMelloy on Twitter.

______________________________________________________

John Melloy is the Executive Producer of Fast Money. Before joining CNBC, he was an editor for Bloomberg News, overseeing the U.S. Stock Market coverage team. Click here to see his full bio.

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Apple increases download limit for OTA App Store downloads

Apple has finally decided to increase the download limit for the App Store. Previously, if you had to download an app, podcast or any other content on your iOS device using the network connection, you would have to put up with the 20MB download limit or choose to download it over Wi-Fi instead.

Now with the launch of the new iPad, Apple has relaxed this restriction a bit and will now allow you to download content up to 50MB over your network connection, although anything beyond that will still require Wi-Fi. That should be enough for most apps, podcasts and songs but it would have been nice if Apple had increased it a bit further or at least provided the option to remove the limit for those on unlimited data plans.

Source

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Apple awarded major 'iWallet' patent for future NFC-enabled iPhone

Apple on Tuesday was granted a significant patent by the United States Trademark & Patent Office, Patently Apple reported. The technology, which is supported by 23 Patent Claims, allows credit card companies to send statements directly to a user’s iTunes account for purchases made using an NFC-enabled iPhone. Account holders will also be able to allow a secondary account holder, such as a child, to make purchases on the same card while allowing the primary account holder to control spending and implement various limits. Even though NFC technology has been featured in a number of Android devices, some believe that the technology won’t go mainstream in a number of markets until an iPhone is equipped with a mobile payment solution.

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Apple TV Next Week? Not Necessarily a Good Thing

It's pretty clear that we're going to see a new iPad next Wednesday at the Apple event in San Francisco. But what about an Apple TV?

I'm going to make the case that investors should hope we don't get a television next week. Why? The iPad is Apple's [AAPL  Loading...      ()   ] newest growth machine, and deserves to have the spotlight to itself. And spring and summer aren't great times to sell televisions.

First, there's not a lot of upside to Apple stealing thunder from the new iPad. Think about it: Apple executives take the stage and talk about what a huge success the iPad has been; introduce new software and services for it; unveil a new model with a sharper screen, better camera and faster chip; design Jony Ive appears in a video talking about how there's never been a high-resolution touch display this responsive — and then, "One more thing" — a TV.

Whiplash. Marketing chief Phil Schiller would have to take another hour to explain how great the TV is. Design chief Jony Ive would have to appear in another video about how everything Apple has done in digital entertainment since the iPod has built up to this moment. And all the headlines would be about Apple's bold attempt to take over the living room. And oh yeah —there was something about a new iPad.

Considering Apple sold 15.4 million iPads last quarter for $9.2 billion in revenue, it would be sort of a shame for Apple to steal the buzz from a product category CEO Tim Cook says will be bigger than PCs. There would be a real financial cost to taking the focus off the iPad.

Then there's the question of timing.

There are two major shopping seasons in the 250-million-unit annual TV market. In North America in particular, the first is the holiday season, starting just after Thanksgiving. The second follows a month later, just before the Super Bowl. So if Apple's going to unveil a new TV, the best time to do it is probably August or September — that gives enough time for Apple to build up inventory after the announcement and have millions of sets on hand to sell.

Why would you unveil a TV set in March? Well, that would catch the Dads and Grads season if it's ready by May. But people don't buy TVs for Father's Day and graduations, they buy gadgets. And while there might be a little bit more incentive for shoppers to buy TVs this summer with the Olympics happening, summer is actually a slow season for TV in general.

Then there's the developer issue. If Apple needs software developers, gaming companies or other content providers to build products that work with an Apple TV, they'll want to give them a few months to work on things. That could justify showing us a TV this early.

But you know what might make the most sense? Apple could update the $99 Apple TV box with a lot of the features it intends to build into the full-fledged television, but save the TV launch for closer to TV-buying season. That would give the iPad its day in the sun, and let the TV stand on its own.

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Apple TV Next Week? Not Necessarily a Good Thing

It's pretty clear that we're going to see a new iPad next Wednesday at the Apple event in San Francisco. But what about an Apple TV?

I'm going to make the case that investors should hope we don't get a television next week. Why? The iPad is Apple's [AAPL  Loading...      ()   ] newest growth machine, and deserves to have the spotlight to itself. And spring and summer aren't great times to sell televisions.

First, there's not a lot of upside to Apple stealing thunder from the new iPad. Think about it: Apple executives take the stage and talk about what a huge success the iPad has been; introduce new software and services for it; unveil a new model with a sharper screen, better camera and faster chip; design Jony Ive appears in a video talking about how there's never been a high-resolution touch display this responsive — and then, "One more thing" — a TV.

Whiplash. Marketing chief Phil Schiller would have to take another hour to explain how great the TV is. Design chief Jony Ive would have to appear in another video about how everything Apple has done in digital entertainment since the iPod has built up to this moment. And all the headlines would be about Apple's bold attempt to take over the living room. And oh yeah —there was something about a new iPad.

Considering Apple sold 15.4 million iPads last quarter for $9.2 billion in revenue, it would be sort of a shame for Apple to steal the buzz from a product category CEO Tim Cook says will be bigger than PCs. There would be a real financial cost to taking the focus off the iPad.

Then there's the question of timing.

There are two major shopping seasons in the 250-million-unit annual TV market. In North America in particular, the first is the holiday season, starting just after Thanksgiving. The second follows a month later, just before the Super Bowl. So if Apple's going to unveil a new TV, the best time to do it is probably August or September — that gives enough time for Apple to build up inventory after the announcement and have millions of sets on hand to sell.

Why would you unveil a TV set in March? Well, that would catch the Dads and Grads season if it's ready by May. But people don't buy TVs for Father's Day and graduations, they buy gadgets. And while there might be a little bit more incentive for shoppers to buy TVs this summer with the Olympics happening, summer is actually a slow season for TV in general.

Then there's the developer issue. If Apple needs software developers, gaming companies or other content providers to build products that work with an Apple TV, they'll want to give them a few months to work on things. That could justify showing us a TV this early.

But you know what might make the most sense? Apple could update the $99 Apple TV box with a lot of the features it intends to build into the full-fledged television, but save the TV launch for closer to TV-buying season. That would give the iPad its day in the sun, and let the TV stand on its own.

View the original article here

Apple to Sell 'Cheap' iPad to Fend Off Android: Report

Black and white versions of the new iPad 2.When Apple [AAPL  Loading...      ()   ] releases its new and enhanced iPad next week, the company will also re-launch a less expensive version of its current iPad 2 to combat cheaper tablets running Google’s Android operating software, according to a JPMorgan analyst report out of Asia.

“Expect higher resolution new iPad, but also a cheaper iPad 2 to defend against Android Tablets,” wrote Gokul Hariharan of JP Morgan in a note today. “PC vendors like ASUS have issued aggressive guidance on cheap Android Tablets. If Apple comes out with a multi-pronged pricing strategy for iPads, then Android tablets may again find it difficult to gain traction, except for very low-end ones like Kindle Fire.”

Shares of Apple are up more than 30 percent this year in anticipation of the iPad announcement next Wednesday. The device is expected to have 4G capability and even more enhanced features. Meanwhile, shares of Google [GOOG  Loading...      ()   ] are lower for the year and Amazon’s stock is up barely 3 percent for 2012.

It is not unprecedented for Apple to keep selling older models under a new pricing structure in order to take market share on the lower end. After introducing the iPhone 4S last October, Apple announced it would keep selling the iPhone 4 for $99, as well as an iPhone 3GS for free when accompanied with a two-year contract.

For the best market insight, catch 'Fast Money' each night at 5pm ET, and the ‘Halftime Report’ each afternoon at 12:00 ET on CNBC. Follow @CNBCMelloy on Twitter.

______________________________________________________

John Melloy is the Executive Producer of Fast Money. Before joining CNBC, he was an editor for Bloomberg News, overseeing the U.S. Stock Market coverage team. Click here to see his full bio.

______________________________________________________
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Apple Is Expected to Unveil iPad 3 Next Week

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Apple Gives Shareholders More Input; Will Facebook Get the Message?

Images by Wired's Jim Merithew

At its annual shareholders meeting on Thursday, Apple’s management bowed to pressure from key investors and agreed to allow shareholders to elect board directors by a simple majority vote. Now any new or current director standing for election who fails to receive support from a majority of shareholders must resign his or her position. At next year’s shareholder meeting, the company’s bylaws will be changed to reflect the new policy.

Apple’s current directors all received votes of over 80% signaling shareholder approval. CEO Tim Cook’s popularity was the highest, at 98.15%. The company successfully resisted calls for a stock dividend.

Still, the message from shareholders is simple: no matter how successful a company or its stock has become, or how visionary its leadership, investors want input into corporate governance.

The board election resolution was sponsored by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, a giant pension fund and increasingly important activist. The Financial Times’ Dan McCrum notes that Calpers’ “push for change at one of the fastest growing and most popular US companies had become the centrepiece of a campaign for boardroom accountability“:

Its victory reflects a growing investor consensus in favour of the corporate governance agenda… Calpers has now persuaded 77 large US companies to adopt majority voting in the last two years, and is targeting 17 who are holding out – which it has not yet named.

“It’s vitally important that a company the size and importance of Apple is not lagging behind on governance,” Anne Simpson, head of corporate governance at Calpers, told McCrum. “A high standard of governance will underpin their future success… There is a fundamental flaw in US capital markets if shareholders cannot hold boards to account.”

Apple’s response to investor concerns resonates in no small part because all McCrum’s criticisms could easily be applied to Facebook. In fact, another large California pension fund and early Facebook investor, CalSTRS (“State Teachers’ Retirement System”), has already urged Facebook to rethink its governance structure.

“No matter how brilliant you are, when you come to the public market — not that we want to ever tell Zuckerberg or anyone like him how to run his company — there should be some protection especially for long-term, patient money like CalSTRS,” the fund’s Janice Hester-Amey told Reuters.

Facebook’s proposed board structure is actually much more closed and hostile to rank-and-file shareholders than the one Apple is moving away from.

Between his own stock holdings and agreements with early investors including DST Global Ltd and Accel Partners, CEO/founder Mark Zuckerberg controls a majority interest in the company. This gives him total control over approving the board of directors as well as any acquisition or mergers. He also has the ability to appoint his own successor, even after his death.Because of Zuckerberg’s control, Facebook qualifies as a “controlled company,” meaning that it is not required to have a majority of independent directors or a separate nominating committee. Zuckerberg effectively has the ability to select anyone he chooses inside or outside Facebook to serve on the board, and then use his controlling interest to approve his own choices.Facebook has two-tiered stock; private Class B shareholders hold ten times the voting power per share accorded to publicly-traded Class A stock. If Class B shareholders ever lose a controlling interest in the company, the governance structure shifts again; only the board of directors will be able to fill vacancies within its own body, director elections will become staggered (making it even more difficult to vote in an all-new-board), and it will take a supermajority vote to change the company’s by-laws.

Taken together, the rules concentrate power with Zuckerberg and his inner circle of early investors and advisors. Zuckerberg is steering the ship; shareholders purchasing public stock can only come along for the ride.

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Tim is a technology and media writer for Wired. He loves e-readers, Westerns, media theory, modernist poetry, sports and technology journalism, print culture, higher education, cartoons, European philosophy, pop music and TV remotes. He lives and works in New York. (And on Twitter.)
Follow @tcarmody on Twitter.

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Apple Riding High for Now, but How Long Can it Last?

When Ellie Turner decided she wanted an upgrade from her iPhone 3G, she expected to pay more for Apple’s new iPhone 4S than for the other leading smartphones on the market.

Instead, Ms. Turner, a public relations specialist in London, got the fast-selling device free.

She consulted Phones4u, a bulk discounter of cellphones and data packages, which offered her a free iPhone 4S and data plan for £2, or $3.20, more than what she had been paying each month. She returned to her operator, O2 U.K., which had been selling the 4S for £99 with the same plan. She told people there about the rival offer.

“They didn’t blink an eye,” Ms. Turner said. “They matched it.”

Apple [AAPL  Loading...      ()   ] , the global market leader in smartphones, is enjoying record profits and sales that have transformed it into one of the world’s most valuable companies. But the mobile computing industry it has conquered in just five years is changing rapidly, and nothing, not even Apple’s vaunted brand premium — the ability to charge more than its competitors for premium smartphones — appears guaranteed.

In Britain, for example, the iPhone 4S costs at least £170 more than the Samsung Galaxy S II with a two-year commitment at O2 U.K. At T-Mobile in Germany, the Samsung model costs about €80, or $108, and the 4S €130. In the United States, the difference between the two models at AT&T [T  Loading...      ()   ] is at least $50 and as much as $250.

The premium is Apple’s reward as progenitor of the modern smartphone segment: the sum of its software DNA, intuitive user experience, cash-generating universe of applications, cultivated image of hipness and first-mover advantage.

But Apple’s main rivals — Samsung and other sellers of cellphones using the Google [GOOG  Loading...      ()   ] Android operating system, like HTC of Taiwan and Huawei and ZTE of China — are making smartphones for much less, and the iPhone is becoming ubiquitous, threatening to dull its cachet.

For now, said T. Michael Walkley, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity in Minneapolis, the iPhone lineup has momentum and Apple, based in Cupertino, California, should be able to pad its lead over its rivals this year.

“But I cannot say with certainty that five years on, Apple will still be on top,” Mr. Walkley said, noting that Apple and HTC did not even make smartphones six years ago. “I assume they will be, but it is difficult to predict anything in this dynamic market.”

Mr. Walkley estimated that Apple had captured 52 percent of all profits in the smartphone industry during 2011, a share he expected would increase to 60 percent this year.

Apple, following its tradition of participating only in its own promotional events, has no formal presence or exhibition stand at the Mobile World Congress, the industry’s largest annual convention, which begins Monday in Barcelona.

An Apple spokesman in London, Alan Hely, said the company had no comment for this article.

Timothy D. Cook, the Apple chief executive, told a Goldman Sachs [GS  Loading...      ()   ] investment conference this month that Apple would not rest on its laurels after its record fourth quarter, in which it sold 37 million iPhones — 17 million more than it had ever sold in a quarter.

Tongue in cheek, Mr. Cook called the 37 million “pretty good,” drawing laughs, but then put it in stark perspective: “As I see it, that 37 million for last quarter represented 24 percent of the smartphone market. So three out of four people bought something else. And it represented less than 9 percent of the handset market, so 9 out of 10 people are buying something else.

“The smartphone market last year was a half billion units,” he continued. “In 2015, it is projected to be a billion units. When you take it in the context of these numbers, the truth is, this is a jaw-dropping industry. It has enormous opportunities to it. Up against those, the numbers don’t seem so large anymore.”

Carrying the iPhone has benefited operators, who use it to lure new customers. Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. carrier, sold 1.8 million iPhone 4S’s in the fourth quarter, its first sales of Apple models. In that period, the operator added 1.6 million new customers, the biggest such increase in six years.

Deutsche Telekom, France Télécom and Vodafone [VOD  Loading...      ()   ] have also spoken of the positive effect iPhone sales have on their profits. But over time, the iPhone could be undermined by its own success.

“All of a sudden, every teenage girl has an iPhone,” Mr. Walkley said. “The real danger is that Apple becomes so mainstream that there is a breakaway by consumers to something new.”

Apple’s competitors are waiting for that chance, said Mark Newman, the director of mobile research at Informa Telecoms and Media, a research firm in London.

That puts pressure on Apple to continue innovating with each new iPhone. Mr. Newman said that Siri, the Apple voice-activated command function introduced with the iPhone 4S, had been an incremental improvement, not a paradigm change.

“Apple is focused on defending the high end of the market and that is becoming harder to do each year,” he said. “Competitors, such as the Galaxy from Samsung, are starting to catch up. I think it is inevitable that the margin pressure increases.”

So far, there is no sign of that pressure at Apple, which continues to derive more than 40 percent operating profit from the sale of each smartphone, Mr. Walkley estimated.

In 2011, Apple became the world’s largest buyer of semiconductors, according to Gartner. It displaced LG of Korea as the No. 3 maker of mobile phones by volume, trailing only Nokia [NOK  Loading...      ()   ] and Samsung. Apple narrowed the lead held by Android, the free operating system developed by Google. By December, 44.5 percent of all U.S. smartphone buyers were choosing iPhones, up from just 25.1 percent in October. The proportion choosing for Android fell to 46.9 percent from 61.6 percent, according to Nielsen.

Patrick Rémy, the vice president of devices at France Télécom in Paris, said he saw no sign of the Apple brand’s diminishing. On the contrary, Mr. Rémy said, Apple and Samsung have the financial resources to invest in the marketing, image and innovation that are needed to stay a step ahead of the competition.

“We are not seeing any major part of these brands declining,” Mr. Rémy said.

But competition, especially from lower-priced rivals, is not standing still.

Current DateTime: 08:11:55 26 Feb 2012
LinksList Documentid: 22528753By 2016, more than half of all smartphones sold will cost less than $300, according to Informa. Last year, 81 percent — most of them iPhones — cost more than $300. The proportion costing less than $200, which currently makes up 5 percent of the global market, is expected to increase almost fivefold, to 24 percent, by 2016.

It is unclear what effect a proliferation of low-priced smartphones will have on Apple’s niche. But Shao Yang, the marketing director for mobile devices at Huawei — the Chinese maker of mobile networking equipment which has set a goal of being among the world’s top three cellphone makers by 2015 — said consumers would be able to obtain superior performance for less in the future.

“I think currently the biggest trend is not the price, but the capability,” Mr. Shao said. “There is a competition in capability. The function of the phone will change very fast.”

Huawei, based in Shenzhen, sold 20 million smartphones last year, up from 3.1 million in 2010. Huawei sold about half of its smartphones in China for between $150 and $200. Its biggest foreign market is the United States, where Huawei in January presented the Ascend P1 S, calling it the thinnest smartphone at 6.65 millimeters, or 0.26 inch.

The P1 S will not start selling until April and Huawei has not released the price. But Mr. Shao said it would cost less than an iPhone. “Smartphones are going to become cheaper and cheaper,” he said.

Apple, despite the higher prices of the 4S, is not unrepresented in the low-price smartphone segment. The iPhone 3, a predecessor, is being given away with a £16.50 plan at O2 U.K., while the iPhone 4 is free with a £36 plan.

This story originally appeared in The New York Times

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