Tag: iPhone
Posted inNews

Apple prepares for deeper integration of Shazam in iOS

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Apple has only just released the latest major update for its iPhone software, iOS 14, but it’s already hard at work on forthcoming minor updates.

iOS 14.2 has been released to developers, and it includes a significant music feature. Apple’s music recognition app Shazam can now be added to the iPhone’s ‘Control Center’, and when switched on will identify music playing around the device, but also in apps running on the iPhone – even when the owner is using headphones.

It’s the deepest integration of Shazam into Apple’s software since it completed its acquisition of the app in September 2018. There’s no confirmed release date for iOS 14.2 yet, so for now the new feature can only be tested by iOS developers.

Posted inNews

Apple’s HomePod will soon support non-Apple music services

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Last night was the keynote for Apple’s annual WWDC event, which is an online-only affair this year. You can watch the full presentation on YouTube, and read about the new features coming to iPhone’s iOS software. But what about music?

One slide of new features shown during the keynote included an image of Apple’s HomePod smart speaker with the words ‘third-party music services’, which suggests the device will finally open up properly to Apple Music’s rivals – including Spotify, whose anti-competition complaint to the European Commission last year included HomePod in its list of grievances.

Posted inNews

Report: US iPhone app spending grew by 23% in 2017

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Sensor Tower is the latest research firm putting out numbers on the apps market for 2017, this time focusing on iPhone app spending in the US.

It claims that the average amount spent per active iPhone in the US was $58 last year, up 23% from 2016’s figure of $46. This covers spending on premium (pay up-front) apps as well as in-app purchases, although not spending through associated credit cards – for example in apps like Amazon and Uber.

Or, in a music context, it counts spending on streaming subscriptions when handled through in-app purchases, but not when the payment is through other off-Apple means.

Posted inNews

YouTube stars had greater role in Apple iPhone X launch

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

A number of journalists are huffing and puffing this week, after it emerged that Apple cut back advance access to its new iPhone X for technology writers, while giving handsets to a handful of YouTube stars.

“Apple provided the iPhone X to a small number of traditional testers for about a week, while limiting most others, The Wall Street Journal included, to a single day with the device before reviews could be published,” reported the Wall Street Journal. “About a half-dozen personalities on Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube video service were granted time with the device before its release.”

Posted inNews

Analyst suggests Apple should bundle Apple Music with iPhone 8

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Apple has confirmed that its next press launch will be on 12 September, which is when we can expect the iPhone 8 to be unveiled. Could there be some Apple Music news then too?

It will be surprising if Apple doesn’t offer an updated figure for the service’s paying subscribers: based on its growth from 20 million in December 2016 to 27 million by early June 2017, Apple Music should be past the 30 million mark by the September event.

What else? Analysts at Barclays have an idea: in a note for investors, they have suggested that Apple could bundle a year’s worth of Apple Music, as well as 200GB of iCloud storage, into the iPhone 8.

Posted inNews

Mobile apps spending expected to reach $81bn in 2021

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Analytics firm App Annie has published its latest set of predictions for the smartphone apps market in 2017.

Obligatory big numbers: it anticipates 195bn global downloads across Android and iOS this year, with smartphone owners spending $81bn on those apps.

App Annie also breaks down the latter number by store, predicting $40bn of spending within Apple’s App Store, $21bn from Android’s official Google Play store, and a further $20bn from third-party Android app stores.

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Apple’s iMessage Store has nearly 5k apps already

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Six months after its launch, Apple’s iMessage Store – the in-app catalogue of stickers and add-ons for iOS’ native messaging app – now has nearly 5k apps available.

That’s according to research firm Sensor Tower, which notes that this figure equals the number of iOS apps during the first year of the App Store after its launch in 2008.

That isn’t a hugely-illuminating comparison though: the apps landscape now is very different to then, in terms of iPhone ownership and the appetite for apps.

Posted inAnalysis, Data, News

iPhone helps Apple return to growth as services loom large

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Crisis? What crisis? Apple announced its financial results for the final quarter of 2016 – its fiscal first quarter of 2017 – yesterday, reporting record revenues and iPhone sales.

But it’s the continued surge in Apple’s revenues from ‘services’ that’s just as interesting from a music industry perspective, with Apple Music playing a role.

The key stats? Apple reported revenues of $78.4bn last quarter, up 3.3% year-on-year. That helped to generate a $17.9bn net profit, slightly down from the $18.4bn a year ago. Apple sold 78.3m iPhones during the quarter, up 5% after much talk in 2016 about declining year-on-year sales of the company’s flagship devices.

Posted inMarketing

Campaigns: Video Deluxe – Sandbox 155

Avatar photo by Music Ally

Perhaps more than normal, there have been a number of properly eye-catching music videos recently – so we have decided to take a closer look at the best of them.

First up, J-pop band Lyrical School, who have created a video best watched on your iPhone. The idea behind the video is that it takes over your screen and switches between apps such as FaceTime and Twitter. It’s a great experience and a creative video, making the most of recognisable moments, especially for younger users