Elon Musk has admitted it was "foolish" to ignore analyst questions on Tesla's financial results call this week, though insists he had good reason to shut down the "boneheaded" comments. The outspoken CEO managed to overshadow Tesla's financial results this week, when he berated analysts for asking uninteresting questions during the Q&A session.
The pessimism around Apple HomePod continues to mount, with suggestions that the smart speaker could only sell a small fraction of the total amount predicted for 2018. The Siri-powered speaker launched earlier this year to no shortage of fanfare from Apple, promising the slickest way to consume Apple Music as well as smart home and iPhone integration.
Elon Musk's big April Fools' Day joke was that Tesla was going bankrupt, but the chief exec may be struggling to find the funny side today amid stock price slumps and criticism from numerous angles. The automaker is under the magnifying glass again this week over just how many of its more affordable Model 3 electric sedans it managed to pump off the production line as Q1 2018 came to a close.
Apple is aiming to pivot its AirPods success into a set of Apple-branded over-the-ear headphones, reports suggest, effectively competing with its own Beats range. The AirPods, Apple's Bluetooth earphones which do away with wires between the two earpieces completely, have been a stand-out win for the Cupertino firm, and are still in high demand even a year after they first went on sale.
Samsung will keep its pole position in the global smartphone market in 2018, but faces a shrink in sales while Apple picks up pace, according to new phone stats. The South Korean company is expected to produce around 300 million handsets in 2018, a number that may sound huge but is actually down 5-percent compared to 2017. Meanwhile, there's an unexpected resurgence predicted for an old player in the industry.
The Android versus iOS war may often be phrased in terms of Pixel vs iPhone, but new sales stats for Google's Pixel suggest there's a long way to go before Apple needs to be worried. The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL launched last year to no shortage of enthusiasm from Android fans, replacing handsets that had been equally lauded by vocal users.
Apple's ongoing spat with Qualcomm will have a big impact on the modem-maker's fortunes this year, with suggestions that every 2018 iPhone will jump ship to use Intel hardware instead. It's the latest installment of a long-lasting legal and contractual argument between the Cupertino company and what has been one of the most significant chipset providers for its smartphones. That battle culminated in a huge $1.2bn fine leveled at Qualcomm by the European Commission in January.
Apple may not have the resources to add wireless charging to the iPhone SE 2, with analysts casting doubts on reports of the smallest iPhone getting a big upgrade in 2018. Released in early 2016, the iPhone SE was Apple's compromise for critics of big-screen smartphones. It proved to be surprisingly successful.
Apple's trio of new iPhone models for 2018 could see it sacrifice familiar features in order to offer a budget option, it's been predicted, with the 6.1-inch iPhone tipped to compromise in unexpected ways in order to stay affordable. Though Apple has, unsurprisingly, not made any comment on its roadmap for iPhone launches this year, the Cupertino firm is widely expected to offer three new models, all more akin to the iPhone X than the iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus.
The landscape for smartphone chip-makers like Apple, Qualcomm, and Samsung may be growing, but none can rest on its laurels as the industry tries to keep up with new trends like AI. SoC (System-on-Chip) design being increasingly brought in-house by players like Apple and Samsung are eating into the business of former go-to providers like Qualcomm, fueled in no small part by fierce and lengthy litigation over processor technology patents.
Less than a third of new iPhone buyers bought the iPhone X in the first month that the flagship iOS smartphone was released, analysts claim, with pricing and skepticism blamed for the cautious uptake. Apple has been reluctant to share how new iPhone sales broke down in 2017, with the Cupertino firm even suggesting that, as it has never had three new handsets launching pretty much simultaneously before, even it was uncertain how consumers would behave.
A high price tag and "lack of interesting innovations" could see iPhone X demand slump, some tech industry analysts are warning, predicting disappointment at Apple come 2018. The flagship iPhone was undoubtedly one of the most eagerly-anticipated launches of this year, though it brought with it an eye-watering price tag along with no small amount of controversy. Now, there are suggestions that enthusiasm could be waning.