Samsung will stop producing so many models of smartphones and focus on a core set of devices in the new year, the company said Tuesday.

Speaking to investors in New York, Samsung's head of investor relations, Robert Yi, said his company plans to cut the number of smartphone models it produces in 2015 by 25 percent to 30 percent, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Though Samsung is still a juggernaut in the mobile business, the company has watched its smartphone business start to falter in key markets, such as China. In China specifically, chief competitor Xiaomi has been able to increase smartphone shipments and get consumers excited about its products by delivering higher-end devices at budget-conscious prices.

Meanwhile, Apple, with its new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, has moved to offer smartphones with larger screens, which had been a key point of distinction for Samsung.

The South Korean company's latest quarterly returns put the situation in stark relief. At the end of October, Samsung said that third-quarter income in its mobile business tumbled 74 percent from the previous year and that its operating profits were the lowest they'd been since the middle of 2011. It also warned that smartphone competition would be fierce toward the end of the year.
Samsung is also dealing with increasingly strained margins as its marketing costs have risen considerably. In the third quarter, the company generated just 7 percent margins on smartphones, down from 15 percent in previous years, the Journal reported.

Prompted by the shifts, Samsung had already said that it plans to "fundamentally reform" its product lineup.

Here's how overwhelming Samsung's array of products has become: In just its flagship Galaxy S line, Samsung offers five models beyond the namesake Galaxy S5: the knockabout Galaxy S5 Active and Galaxy S5 Sport; the more modest Galaxy S5 Mini; the Galaxy K Zoom with a higher-end camera; and the Galaxy S5 LTE-Advanced for higher Internet speeds.

There's also the Note phablet line, the new, metal-clad Galaxy Alpha devices and a long list of other Android and Windows Phones devices.

The idea behind streamlining its offerings is simple: the company will be able to cut its overall costs and find ways to improve efficiency in production. Marketing dollars will also be spread across fewer products. Samsung is also planning to use the same components in multiple products to help cut costs.

Yi didn't say how many smartphones the company will ship next year. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

CNET

Palo Alto Networks Inc (PANW.N) has discovered a new family of malware that can infect Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) desktop and mobile operating systems, underscoring the increasing sophistication of attacks on iPhones and Mac computers.

The "WireLurker" malware can install third-party applications on regular, non-jailbroken iOS devices and hop from infected Macs onto iPhones through USB connector-cables, said Ryan Olson, intelligence director for the company's Unit 42 division.

Palo Alto Networks said on Wednesday it had seen indications that the attackers were Chinese. The malware originated from a Chinese third-party apps store and appeared to have mostly affected users within the country.

The malware spread through infected apps uploaded to the apps store, that were in turn downloaded onto Mac computers. According to the company, more than 400 such infected apps had been downloaded over 350,000 times so far.

It's unclear what the objective of the attacks was. There is no evidence that the attackers had made off with anything more sensitive than messaging IDs and contacts from users' address books, Olson added.

But "they could just as easily take your Apple ID or do something else that's bad news," he said in an interview.

Apple, which Olson said was notified a couple weeks ago, did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

Once WireLurker gets on an iPhone, it can go on to infect existing apps on the device, somewhat akin to how a traditional virus infects computer software programs. Olson said it was the first time he had seen it in action. "It's the first time we've seen anyone doing it in the wild," he added.

Sprint is not standing still, continuing to tinker with its plans as it seeks to win over new customers.

The iPhone 6 launched in China today, and as usual there were crowds at Apple Stores across the Middle Kingdom. In fact, these launch events have become big enough that apparently other tech companies are now using them for viral marketing.

Chinese tech company Hasee, which makes PCs and smartphones, dispatched people wearing yellow “Hasee” shirts and carrying big yellow signs to Apple stores in Beijing, Kunming, Chengdu, Dongguan, Guangzhou, Shijiazhuang, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Nanning, Xi’an, Shanghai, Nanchang, Shenzhen, Hefei, Zhengzhou, and Guiyang. The signs read “straight men don’t bend” – a reference to the reports of the new iPhones bending in people’s pockets – and at at least some of the stores, an additional Hasee rep appeared to bend and then snap an iPhone 6 in half. For example, the video below was taken in Shenzhen:

A recent study monitoring the behavior of mobile phone owners shows that the average smartphone owner picks up his device a staggering 1,500 times in a week and spends more than three hours a day staring into its screen.

The numbers come from a survey of 2,000 smartphone owners, conducted by the Tecmark marketing agency and reported by the Daily Mail.

The subjects first reached for their phones at 7:30 in the morning, on average, and many admitted to finding themselves using their phones “without realizing they’re doing so.” Two-thirds even said they manage to log in and browse Facebook without thinking about it, and four in 10 said the same about checking email.

Tecmark says its findings show that there are, on average, 140 tasks in a typical day that people now turn to smartphones for, cutting into time that used to be spent at desktops or laptops.

That last part seems to match recent Web surfing numbers. Earlier this year, mobile Web traffic actually overtook that of desktop computers for the first time in history. The decline in Web hits from PCs also somewhat coincides with an overall drop in computer sales in the past five years.

Could we soon be shifting to another screen? Some analysts are predicting the rise of a new, smaller display that could steal glances from smartphones: the smartwatch.

Google’s new Android Wear watches and Apple’s upcoming Apple Watch connect wirelessly to the handset in your pocket (or on your nightstand) and provide access to texts, emails, directions, and search information right from your wrist.

Though we’re not ready to crown these gizmos as smartphone killers just yet, we’ll certainly be watching their impact over the next year or so.

In the meantime, try looking up once in a while. OK?

(Reuters) - First there was bendgate... now brace yourself for hairgate.

Fresh from the online uproar over whether the shiny new iPhone 6 bends when carried around in pockets, Apple has been hit by a new complaint - that the handset traps users' hair or beards when they make calls.

It is difficult to gauge whether there is any real issue, but Twitter users have made #hairgate a rising social media trend, leading major news outlets to pounce on the story.

"The seam on my iPhone 6 where the aluminum meets the glass is definitely catching my hair and pulling it out," one user tweeted.

Bearded iPhone users have jumped on the bandwagon complaining that their facial hair gets yanked during calls, leading to spats over whether to treat #beardgate as a separate trend, or simply as a subset of #hairgate.

Apple was not immediately available to comment.

Jokers are having a field day, with the Twitter account of the Atlanta International Fashion Week speculating that it may be an elaborate plot against hipsters for whom facial hair has become de rigeur. Another user tweeted: "Congrats, Apple, for finally getting hipsters to shave."

For some it is a heaven-sent marketing opportunity; Gillette Co. [PGGIL.UL] was quick to tweet: "Your phone may be smarter than ever, but leave the shaving to the experts."

However, many iPhone 6 users were left to wonder what all the fuss was about.

"I have iPhone 6. Doesn't bend and doesn't snag hair. Who thinks up these things? Apple haters? Competitors?" tweeted Dr. John Wooten, a Virginia-based technical consultant.

(Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) broke its silence on complaints about bending iPhones, hours after withdrawing a glitch-ridden software update as the company struggles to restore momentum to the rollout of its latest phones.

"With normal use, a bend in iPhone is extremely rare and through our first six days of sale, a total of nine customers have contacted Apple with a bent iPhone 6 Plus," Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said in an email.

Apple shares closed down nearly 4 percent at $97.87 on Thursday, wiping out nearly $23 billion in market value.

The new phones face criticism over their bendability, dubbed "bendgate". Social media and online forums have been abuzz with comments about how the new phones can bend when placed in back pockets or while wearing skinny jeans.

Apple said its iPhones feature stainless steel and titanium inserts to reinforce high-stress locations and use the strongest glass in the smartphone industry.

The only way an iPhone may have bent is if someone put it in their back pocket and sat on the phone for a very long time, said Laban Roomes, chief executive of Goldgenie, which customizes and gold plates iPhones.

Apple was also forced to withdraw a faulty update to its latest operating system after some users of its new phones complained of call service disruptions.

"We apologize for the great inconvenience experienced by users," Muller said.

Apple said on its website it was working on an iOS update to fix the issue, and will release it in the next few days. (bit.ly/1qxHWGR)

"I do believe this speaks to execution issues at Apple," said JMP Securities analyst Alex Gauna. "At the end of the day I believe this too shall pass, but we are noting with concern that the miscues pile up."

Apple said on Monday it had shipped 10 million units of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

Users of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus also complained about the inability to use the fingerprint-reading Touch ID after updating to iOS 8.0.1.

Some users had complained of "sluggish Wi-Fi and dwindling battery life" after moving to iOS 8, Time magazine reported earlier this week. (ti.me/1pqlCPt)

On Thursday, Apple issued a step-by-step guide for users to reinstall iOS 8, launched last week, through the latest version of iTunes. The health app will not work for now and will be fixed in the next software update, the company said.

Customers might, however, hope for replacements for their bent iPhones, depending on whether their devices passed an inspection, tech news website The Next Web reported, quoting an Apple support executive. (tnw.co/1rlv7mW)

"It's not game over for Apple, but nor should we give them a pass on this," Gauna said.

Cases of bent iPhones 5 and 5s had been reported in 2013 by Cult of Mac, a website that exclusively covers Apple. (bit.ly/1sjZbOT)

Rival smartphone makers took digs at Apple's problems.

A Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) advertisement showcased a bending phone against its own product, while BlackBerry Ltd (BB.TO) CEO John Chen said: "I would challenge you guys to bend our Passport."

Nestle SA's (NESN.VX) Kit-Kat chocolate wafer brand tweeted "We don't bend, we break".

Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus appears to have a hidden feature, though it’s one you might not want to test out. According to a report by MacRumors, Apple’s latest smartphones are susceptible to bending out of shape if kept in your pocket for too long.

MacRumors’ report is based on posts by two of its forum members. The first forum member, Hanzoh, said that he kept his iPhone 6 Plus in his front pants pocket for about 18 hours.

During that time, he said, he drove to a wedding, danced, and sat down for varying periods. Later, when he took his iPhone out of his pocket, he noticed that it had a slight bend at its midsection.

Bent iPhone 6 Plus


A second MacRumors forum member, DevinPitcher, claimed that his friend’s iPhone 6 Plus bent after his friend put it in his pocket and got into his car. Both Hanzoh and DevinPitcher provided photos of their iPhone 6 Pluses to back up their claims.

As MacRumors points out, past forum members have seen similar problems with the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s. Those owners reportedly received replacements for their bent handsets from either Apple or their carriers.

That the iPhone 6 Plus is capable of bending isn’t out of the realm of possibility. The phone is not only Apple’s largest, but it’s also one of its thinnest.

In fact, Lewis Hilsenteger over at Unbox Therapy tried bending his iPhone 6 Plus after reading reports of its flexibility, and managed to put quite the kink in the handset. Though, it took a good amount of force for him to see any results.


Daniel Howley

Yahoo

Bloomberg - If bandits rob banks because that’s where the money is, then it makes sense to hold up an Apple Store in Germany on the day after a new iPhone is released -- because that’s where the cash is.

Late Saturday afternoon, with would-be iPhone buyers still queuing in front of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s marble-and-glass emporium on Berlin’s Kurfuerstendamm, three masked gunmen stormed a security company’s van that was hauling away the pile of euros the store had taken in over the weekend.

One reason the outlet had so much cash on hand: Germans are famously behind much of the developed world in credit- and debit-card payments, with cash still used in more than half of money spent in stores. The iPhone 6, released Sept. 19, presents an opportunity for Germans to move toward a cashless future.

Whereas Americans, Scandinavians, French and Italians can buy a cup of coffee or a pack of gum with a card, it’s rare for Germans to use plastic for such payments, and it can be hard to find a cafe or restaurant in Berlin, Munich or Frankfurt that will accept credit cards.

Just 15 percent of retail payments in Germany are made by credit or debit card, the lowest among seven countries studied by the European Central Bank in a paper released in June. In the U.S., by contrast, 45 percent of payments are made by card.

While it’s easy to use plastic at Apple’s Berlin store, it’s not uncommon to see customers pay cash for iPhones or computers costing hundreds of euros. A staff member who answered the phone at the shop declined to make a manager available to comment. Police declined to say whether they had any leads on the identity of the thieves. Apple declined to comment on matters of security at its Berlin store.

Apple Pay

A key feature of the iPhone 6 is something called Apple Pay. The service, which the company expects to introduce in the U.S. in October, will let customers shop in stores and online by tapping their finger on the phone’s fingerprint scanner rather than paying cash or swiping a card. Apple hasn’t given details about plans for Apple Pay outside its home market.

“Apple Pay has the critical mass to accelerate the transition toward digital payments,” Barclays Bank Plc analysts said in a note released Sept. 19.

Germans have already started moving -- slowly -- away from cash. People in the country used cash for 53 percent of the money they spent in stores in 2011, down from 58 percent three years earlier, according to the most recent data from the country’s central bank, the Bundesbank.

That change, though, won’t accelerate unless German worries about privacy and data security are addressed, said Richard Crone, founder of Crone Consulting LLC, a mobile payments researcher in San Francisco.

Security Breaches

And those concerns give a system like Cupertino, California-based Apple’s an advantage, Crone said. The technology doesn’t reveal a customer’s identity or payment information to the vendor, which means shoppers face less risk from security breaches such as the recent theft of millions of credit card numbers from retailers such as Target Corp. (TGT) and Home Depot Inc. (HD)

“You cannot get rid of this risk until you get rid of the card,” and Apple’s system does just that, Crone said.

Google has its own cash replacement, software called Google Wallet, and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), Telefonica SA (TEF), Royal KPN NV (KPN) and Deutsche Telekom AG are trying to gain traction for similar services. While the competition will hasten the introduction of new ideas into the market, it could slow adoption by consumers because it could sow confusion in the market.

“There are a lot of conflicting technologies out there,” said Thad Peterson, a consultant at Aite Group, a research firm in Boston. “Companies and customers have been on the fence because there has been no technological standard in mobile payments.”

Brazen Heist

The heist was brazen. The Apple store, a former movie palace built a century ago, was flooded with people checking out the new phones and shoppers thronged the busy boulevard outside. The bandits rushed the cash transporter and carried off a chunk of the day’s earnings. The robbers jumped in a Citroen sedan and sped off. A short time later, police say they found the burning remnants of the getaway car in a wooded area about two miles from the store.

Though authorities and Apple haven’t said how much the thieves got away with or whether the money was insured, the hold-up won’t do much damage to Apple, which reported cash and investments of $164.5 billion at the end of last quarter.

Apparently, the bad guys didn’t nab any of the new phones while making their getaway.