Apple That

The iPhone 5 launched in China back in December with the company expecting it to make waves like it did in the United States. However, customers in China appear to be a bit smarter than the ones in the U.S. and don’t just run out and buy the next smartphone Apple releases just because of the symbol on the back.

The Cupertino company’s market share of smartphones in China hardly increased at all during last year’s fourth quarter. Apple retained the position as the sixth largest smartphone vendor in China that it had in the third quarter. Even though market share increased to 8.5%, which was up 0.5%, it still wasn’t enough to make a significant impact.

Samsung, on the other hand, took the top spot with a 16% market share and was followed by Chinese vendors Lenovo, Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific, Huawei and ZTE. Booming growth in China’s smartphone segment overall was a detriment to Apple’s performance in the country as shipments reached 65 million units and growth was driven by low-end handsets priced relatively cheaply.

According to Canalys Analyst Nicole Peng, “The iPhone 5 is doing very well, and you saw for the first time Apple announced it had sold 2 million iPhones in the first weekend of sales in China.” Peng also added that quarter-over-quarter Apple’s iPhone shipments in China were up 30%.

However, Apple’s entrance into the Chinese market is still hindered by the absence of a low-cost smartphone in Apple’s catalog. In addition to that, the company has also failed to make a deal with China’s largest mobile carrier to offer Apple phones. “Apple can only do so much,” Peng added. “Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, their market shares have been supported by low-end models.”

The smartphone market in China is so large that Lenovo became the world’s top five vendor in the fourth quarter simply because of sales in the country. In addition to that, 98% of Lenovo’s smartphone shipments of 9.5 million phones went to China. If you’re looking for a great cellphone repair shop to fix your iPhone, you can check out iPhone Repair Gold Coast.

Source: Computer World – iPhone 5 fails to boost Apple’s market share in China

A new exploit has recently surfaced in Apple’s iOS operating system for its mobile devices. The exploit itself allows users to gain access to an iPhone locked via passcode even if they have no idea what the passcode is. Obviously this is a huge defect in the programming as it makes having a passcode completely irrelevant.

The good news is that Apple is well on its way to releasing a patch for this exploit. According to a recent statement released by the company, “Apple takes user security very seriously. We are aware of this issue and will deliver a fix in a future software update.”

Unfortunately, Apple was unable to give a specific time frame on when users can expect the update and its subsequent fix of the exploit. In addition to that, the company also didn’t offer any information on a “quick fix” that would temporarily allow users to secure their iPhones until the update.

The hack, which was published a month ago by a user on YouTube, recently surfaced and opens up access to the iPhone, allowing the hacker to listen to the phone’s voicemails, make calls and view contact information. However, any attempt to go beyond that information will send the hacker back to the passcode screen.

The latest update to Apple’s iOS, v6.1.1, went live earlier this week but was only a supplemental update for iPhone 4S users and only fixed an issue with cellular connectivity and reliability. All other users have the ability to update to version 6.1, which adds 4G LTE support for more carriers on Apple devices as well as a feature that allows users to purchase movie tickets from Fandango after searching for them using Siri.

This is definitely a critical flaw in the iOS for Apple. The fact that an iPhone user’s device can be accessed to listen to voicemails, make calls and view contact information is something that most users will find unnerving. Apple’s best course of action is to deliver a fix as soon as possible on this issue.