Apple Retains Its Smartphone Kingship

Competition remains hot for the smartphone market.

For second place, that is. The market leadership has long been decided. And despite the increasing number of wannabes, the throne remains an exclusive domain for the late Steve Jobs' company.

The Cupertino company is expected by almost everybody to retain this position in the foreseeable future.

Apple's financial performance for its latest quarter should make this clear, removing whatever doubt remains in some of its rivals blinded by misplaced optimism.

The company sold more than 35 million units of the iPhone, which accounts for about half of its total income for the quarter. Apple sold more than $7 billion worth of iPhones in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Net income for the quarter rose to $11.6 billion, up from the previous year's $6 billion.

You know what this reminds me of? It reminds of Achilles (as played by Angelina Jolie's soon-to-be better half, Brad Pitt) staring and shouting down a rival Greek kingdom's army with "Is there anyone else?"

Those ancient Greek soldiers were too shaken after seeing their champion being banished to Hades by the demigod; they could not even acknowledge Achilles' challenge. Apple's rival smartphone vendors must be shaking quite as bad as those noble Greek warriors were.

Pixel Qi's Better Screen

Praises for the Retina display has been some of the loudest paeans sung by Apple fans for the iPad. Casual and hard-core users of the Cupertino tablet claim the Retina has set the standard for tablet screens quite too high for the other tablet computers to reach.

One manufacturer of liquid crystal displays, however, claims it has created a tablet screen that offers resolution equal to that of the Retina display. Moreover, Pixel Qi asserts its tablet screen does it using far less battery power than the Retina does.

Pixel Qi founder and boss, Mary Lou Jepsen, also claims that her company's screen offers more color saturation, better viewing angles, and better contrast than those of the latest iPad's display.

Will we be seeing Pixel Qi's screen on future generations of the iPad? And would it help Apple keep the iPad cool, as in literally cool?

Skype on Vita

Skype, the free IP phone service, is no stranger to Sony's PlayStation mobile gaming platform. In fact, my son's PlayStation Portable gaming console comes with Skype pre-installed. I have been using Sony's PSP to access my Skype account and calling my wife's mobile phone in the United States. That is, whenever I could "steal" the PSP from my youngest son.

Last week, however, Skype debuted on the PlayStation Vita, Sony's latest mobile-gaming console. A Skype application for the PS Vita became available on the PlayStation Store in the United States and was to be made available for download in Asia and Europe a day or two later.

By ALLAN D. FRANCISCO

mb.com.ph

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