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Thursday, 27 August 2020

Apple Losing Share of Wireless Earbuds Market Despite Growing AirPods Sales

Apple will grow its share of the true wireless earbuds market by a third this year, despite losing its dominant position in the space to more affordable alternatives, according to Counterpoint Research (via Bloomberg).

AirPods Pro

Apple accounted for nearly half of all sales of true wireless earbuds in 2019 and is expected to grow to 82 million units this year, according to the report. However, its lead has been eroded by the arrival of Chinese rival brands, shrinking its share to just over a third of the market (35%). Xiaomi remains in second place with 10%, while Samsung sits in third with a 6% share.

According to the report, specialized Chinese brands like the $90 Lypertek Tevi offer comparable performance to Apple's AirPods at a lower price, while the $180 1More True Wireless ANC rival the noise-canceling smarts of AirPods Pro, which cost $250. Samsung's new Galaxy Buds Live are also ANC-equipped and come in at under $170.

"The low-to-mid end segment including Chinese brands and U.S. makers such as JLab is taking away share from the premium market," said Counterpoint analyst Liz Lee. "Competition between Samsung and Apple is likely to intensify in the latter half of the year, as positive reviews of the Buds Live and increased investment from Samsung are expected to close the gap between the two," she added.

Samsung is projected to more than double its true wireless earbuds sales this year, growing from 8 million to 17 million, while Apple’s ‌AirPods‌ family is forecast to go from 61 million to 82 million.

Samsung's Galaxy Buds Live vs. Apple's AirPods Pro

Apple is rumored to be working on a third-generation version of the ‌AirPods‌, although Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said that third-generation ‌AirPods‌ won't be coming in 2020, with mass production to begin in the first half of 2021.

The third-generation ‌AirPods‌ are expected to adopt a more compact integrated system-in-package (SiP) that's similar to the SiP used in the ‌AirPods Pro‌, which will allow the audio features of the ‌AirPods‌ to be integrated into a casing more similar in design to the ‌AirPods Pro‌. Current ‌AirPods‌ use surface-mount technology (SMT).

There have also been multiple rumors suggesting Apple is working on a version of the ‌AirPods Pro‌ that have a cheaper price tag and no Active Noise Cancellation. Jon Prosser and another leaker, "l0vetodream," believe that these are "AirPods X," a version of the ‌AirPods Pro‌ designed for sports and running.

DigiTimes has referred to these entry-level earbuds as the "AirPods Pro Lite," and claims that Apple originally planned to launch these new ‌AirPods‌ in early 2020, but has postponed them until the second half of 2021.

According to Apple analyst ‌Ming-Chi Kuo‌ these "‌AirPods Pro‌ Lite" or "‌AirPods‌ X" earbuds that might be launching in September or October aren't ‌AirPods‌ at all, but are instead headphones in the Beats family.

Related Roundups: AirPods 2, AirPods Pro

Buyer's Guide: AirPods (Neutral), AirPods Pro (Buy Now)

This article, "Apple Losing Share of Wireless Earbuds Market Despite Growing AirPods Sales" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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GoodNotes 5 Updated to Support Document Sharing via iCloud Sync

Popular note-taking app and PDF editor GoodNotes has been updated to support document sharing over iCloud for the first time.

After updating to version 5.5.0, users will be able to share individual notes and entire folders of notes using unique URLs, as well as collaboratively edit the same note with others at the same time.

Users can share documents from their GoodNotes library by tapping a document title, which opens a context menu containing the new Collaborate option. If a user is already working in a document, they can tap the share icon to reveal the same option.

Shared documents display a special icon in the GoodNotes library, and can also be accessed from a new Shared tab in the app's navigation bar. Changes to shared documents sync via ‌iCloud‌ and take around 15 to 30 seconds to show up on other devices, and anyone with the link can open and edit a shared document in GoodNotes.

The developers concede that this way of working is unlikely to replace real-time collaborative whiteboard apps, but it does offer a means of working together on things like calendars, meeting notes, grocery lists, and so on over an extended period of time.

GoodNotes 5 costs $7.99 and can be downloaded for iPhone and iPad from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tag: GoodNotes

This article, "GoodNotes 5 Updated to Support Document Sharing via iCloud Sync" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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LG's New Wearable Air Purifier Is What George Jetson Would Wear in the Bad Timeline

LG unveiled its new PuriCare™ Wearable Air Purifier on Thursday, essentially putting one of LG’s home air purifiers on your face. The device looks like something George Jetson might wear if he got stuck in the bad timeline—with climate change-fueled wildfires, militarized police tear-gassing peaceful protesters, and a…

Alleged iPad Air 4 Manual Depicts All-Screen Display With USB-C and Touch ID Built into Power Button

Photos of an alleged leaked manual for an unreleased iPad Air have emerged on social media this morning suggesting Apple's next middle-tier iPad option could feature an all-screen display in lieu of a Home button, with Touch ID integrated into the Power button instead.

Originating from Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu and shared on Twitter by leaker DuanRui, the photos depict a Spanish-language manual for an iPad Air with an edge-to-edge screen similar to the iPad Pro.

The manual makes no mention of Face ID, however, and instead instructs users to activate "Touch ID with the top button to unlock the iPad Air," above an image of an iPad with a noticeably longer power button.

On other pages, the manual references USB-C connectivity rather than Lightning, and shows a Smart Connector on the rear of the device to connect a Magic Keyboard and other compatible accessories.

Multiple rumors suggest Apple will release a new iPad in the near future, but there has been some confusion over the model of the device as well as its display size.

Anonymous Twitter account L0vetodream has claimed that Apple is working on an 11-inch iPad Air with an all-screen display that uses an under-display version of Touch ID rather than Face ID like the iPad Pro.

Meanwhile, DigiTimes has suggested a 10.8-inch iPad Air is coming in the second half of 2020, while Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also expects Apple to release a 10.8-inch iPad in the second half of 2020. However, Kuo has not specified if the 10.8-inch iPad is an Air or a low-cost standard iPad.

It's not impossible that these rumors refer to the same device shown here, and that the confusion over the details stems from Apple's novel implementation of Touch ID, which allows it to offer an all-screen mid-tier device without the prohibitive costs of the TrueDepth camera system required for Face ID.

It's worth noting that the only previous mention we have seen of Touch ID integrated into a power button was in a January 2020 research note from Kuo, which said that Apple plans to release an LCD iPhone with a Touch ID power button on the side of the device in the first half of 2021.

iPad Air 4
Touch ID
via 小红书 pic.twitter.com/2jc09uAKUY
— DuanRui (@duanrui1205) August 27, 2020

The next-generation version of the iPad Air has already been rumored to feature a USB-C port like the iPad Pro, instead of a Lightning port, and that's what we see here.

Apple in late August registered seven new iPads with the Eurasian Economic Commission, some of which could be a new iPad Air. Leaker Jon Prosser has also claimed that Apple will release an unspecified new iPad in September, with an announcement done via press release. It's not clear if this refers to the iPad Air, but it is possible given prior rumors of an iPad Air release in the second half of 2020.

Bear in mind these photos have not yet been verified and Twitter leaker DuanRui does not have much of a track record, but has previously leaked photos of a new Lightning to USB-C cable allegedly shipping with upcoming iPhone 12 models.

Related Roundup: iPad Air

Buyer's Guide: iPad Air (Caution)

This article, "Alleged iPad Air 4 Manual Depicts All-Screen Display With USB-C and Touch ID Built into Power Button" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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The Only Good Modular Phone Now Has New Cameras and Is Even More Sustainable

Get excited, repair nerds: Fairphone is rolling out a new 3+ model with two new camera modules. And yes, they’re compatible with the company’s current Fairphone 3 model.