Welcome to March! As the daffodils begin to peek out, we have a few stories from the world of Apple for you:
- The Apple Watch Series 3 propelled Apple into the leader spot of the wearables market in the 4th calendar quarter of 2017
- Going to the movies this weekend? Use Apple Pay with Fandango and you can get $5 off of two or more tickets
- Asymco analyst Horace Dediu calculates that two out of three Apple devices ever sold are still in use
- The big four US mobile carriers have joined forces to create a new secure authentication method that will eventually replace those SMS texts of two-factor authentication codes
The text version of the podcast can be read below. To listen to the podcast here, click the play button on the player below. Apple News readers need to visit Apple World Today in order to listen to the podcast.
Text Version
This is Steve Sande for Apple World Today, and you’re listening to the AWT News Update podcast for Thursday, March 1, 2018.
A research report published today by IDC shows that 8 million Apple Watches may have been sold in the December quarter, with Apple becoming the leader in the wearables market. Apple’s marketshare rose from 14.4 percent in 2016 to 21 percent in 2017, much to the detriment of former market leader Fitbit, which saw marketshare fall from 18.5 percent down to 14.2 percent in the same period. What caused the big rise during the fourth quarter of 2017? The availability of the Apple Watch Series 3 with its built-in cellular connectivity. For the entire year, it’s estimated that Apple shipped 17.7 million Apple Watches of various models.
Apple really wants you to use Apple Pay if you’re an iPhone user, as the company is holding another limited time promotion with Fandango to provide you with a discount of $5 off of the purchase of a pair of tickets if you pay for the transaction with Apple Pay. To qualify for the discount, you must use Apple Pay in the Fandango app or pay with Apple Pay when purchasing through the online Fandango booking system. Use the coupon code STARPOWER at checkout and buy your tickets before March 4 to get the discount.
Asymco analyst Horace Dediu does magic with statistics on a regular basis, and his latest number shows that two out of three Apple devices ever sold are still in use. He came up with this statistic by taking the total number of monthly active devices and doing a comparison with the total number of devices sold. What does that number really show? Two things — the longevity and quality of Apple devices, and the level of satisfaction customers have with their Apple products.
It’s rare when the major US mobile carriers work together on anything, but they’ve finally joined forces to create a secure authentication method that can eventually replace getting a two-factor authentication code via SMS text. SMS is quite old, so it isn’t very secure. So the companies decide that they’d come up with a system that will “deliver a cryptographically verified phone number and profile data for users of authorized applications with their consent.” In addition to the cryptographic verification, the system will also use machine learning to help assess risks and protect customers. The companies say they want to launch the new solution to consumers by the end of 2018.
That’s all the news for today – join me tomorrow afternoon for another edition of the AWT News Update.
