Apple’s iPhone 11 has been the most-shipped smartphone of 2020 so far. According to a report by a London-based tech research firm Omdia, the iPhone 11 outsold every other phone by a significant margin. Apple is said to have sold nearly 37.7 million units of the iPhone 11, three times more than Samsung’s budget Galaxy A51 handset which ranks second on the list.
Other than the iPhone 11, Apple dominates the charts as all of its recent models including the iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone SE, and iPhone 11 Pro Max have made the top-10 cut. Samsung, meanwhile, managed to secure only a single position and the rest of the spots have been acquired by China-based phone maker Xiaomi.
The 2020 first-half results are in stark contrast with last year’s list on which four of Samsung’s phones were present, while only two iPhone models made their way onto the top-10 charts. Both the lists, however, were led by Apple’s entry-level flagships.
Omdia’s research falls in line with earlier reports that claimed Samsung’s phone business has had an underwhelming year so far due to the pandemic. Last month, Gartner said that “among the top five smartphone vendors, Samsung experienced the largest decline in sales while Apple’s smartphone sales were nearly flat year-over-year.” Samsung’s slump has reportedly even allowed Huawei to climb to the pole position for the first time. Despite arriving late in September, the iPhone 11 was also the second-bestselling smartphone in 2019 after its predecessor, the iPhone XR according to Counterpoint Research.
Over the last couple of years, Apple has reoriented a portion of its smartphone strategy to focus on low-cost products. In 2019, it launched iPhone 11 at a starting price of $699, $50 less than the iPhone XR. It also refreshed its midtier iPhone SE earlier this year.
Further, as per Bloomberg, Apple plans to announce its next entry-level flagship phone in two sizes to offer buyers on a budget more options. Also said to be in the works: an affordable Apple Watch and a smaller HomePod. The report adds that unlike the rest of the smartphone industry which is on a decline, Apple has asked its suppliers to produce the same amount of iPhones as last year.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.