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Huawei's Mate 40 Pro could be firm's last hurrah in the smartphone world
Huawei's Mate 40 Pro could be firm's last hurrah in the smartphone world
Huawei on Thursday welcomed into the world the latest addition to its flagship lineup: the Mate 40 Pro. But the phone's arrival was bittersweet. The device launched under a dark cloud, with a combination of US sanctions and reputational damage to the company raising the question of whether the Mate 40 Pro will be the last Huawei phone of its kind.
Since 2018, the US government has been imposing increasingly harsh sanctions on Huawei due to the company's purported links to the Chinese Communist Party. That's the reason Huawei's phones, which are popular elsewhere in the world, including Europe, aren't on sale in the US.
It's also why the Mate 40 series is the third lot of Huawei flagships (after the Mate 30 and P40 series) to arrive without access to Google services. Over the past year, Huawei has made great strides to beef up its app offering and homegrown Harmony operating system, but it still doesn't match up to Google and Apple. That's made it hard to recommend Huawei devices over Android rivals.
The lack of access to Android's key services is taking its toll. Despite the company clinging to its No. 1 position in the global smartphone market in the first half of 2022 -- largely because of its strong performance in China -- Huawei's global market share dropped to 16% in August, from 21% in April, according to the latest Monthly Market Report by Counterpoint Research.
In comparison, its closest competitor, Samsung, has jumped from 20% to 22%. Not only has this seen Huawei drop to second in global rankings, it's also created a 6% gap between first and second place.
"Many of the restrictions imposed on Huawei by the US government are beginning to bite now, so it is losing share in many markets outside China," Counterpoint VP of Research Peter Richardson said over email. "Assuming there is no relaxation in the restrictions placed on Huawei by the US administration, it is likely that its market share will continue to suffer."
It's a bad time to be vulnerable if you're a phone manufacturer, because the global 5G rollout is really beginning to gain momentum. Every jump to the next generation of network technology creates wiggle room at the top for a reshuffle. Ambitious companies can use this to their advantage, but just as there are always winners, there are always losers.
The big loser in the leap from 3G to 4G was HTC -- once one of the most popular phone makers in the world, now nowhere to be seen in global rankings. Huawei will be keen to avoid a similar fate.
It's not as though Huawei isn't well prepared for 5G. As one of the world leaders in building 5G equipment, it has an inside knowledge of what's required of 5G devices. Its homegrown Kirin 9000 chip, which powers the Mate 40, is a prime example of this: It's the first and only 5 nanometer, 5G system-on-a-chip with the modem built-in.
Huawei's 5G credentials should put it ahead of the game. But unfortunately, the Kirin 9000 is the last such chipset the company will be able to produce for its phones. US trade restrictions introduced this year mean Huawei no longer has access to many of the components it needs, and the company stopped manufacturing Kirin chips last month.
It's a big loss for the company. Kirin has been the secret sauce allowing Huawei to get ahead of the competition -- particularly setting it apart from rival upstarts from within China. Boosting everything from speed to camera performance, the chip is responsible for many of the things CNET has praised Huawei phones for over the years in our reviews. Two years ago, Huawei touted that an older version of its Kirin chip was smart enough to power a self-driving Porsche.
During a phone briefing this week, Huawei declined to answer any questions about what the loss of Kirin would mean for phones beyond the Mate 40. But without clarity on what post-Kirin Huawei phones might look like, it's hard not to see the Mate 40 as the last of its kind.
"It is a tragedy to see Huawei's difficulties in its smartphone division," said Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight. "Having once been close to challenging Samsung as the market leader for mobile phones, the division is now fighting for survival as it finds it increasingly difficult to get components and its brand is eroded."
For now the company is still the No. 2 phone maker in the world, and the newest addition to the Mate line, which has always been especially popular in China, could help buoy its sales for the next six months or so.
But while this might buy it some time, there's a huge question mark over what's next for Huawei phones. If analyst predictions are correct, the company might need to brace itself for a tumble down the global rankings. One report, from Digitimes Research in Taipei, has Huawei slipping down as far as seventh place by April 2021.
"Outside of China there is a real risk that the Huawei Mate 40 family of devices could be the company's last hurrah in smartphones," said Wood.
Apple's Health app keeps evolving, with aspirations to be a complete combination personal data archive, medical liaison and insight engine. But the goals, while ambitious, aren't fully realized yet. iOS 16 and WatchOS 9 are adding medication management and multistage sleep tracking to a growing list of features. But what comes next, and will it start to become a tool that interfaces with doctors even more than it has?
Apple just published a multipage health report (PDF), which aims to detail where the company sees its health focus heading on the iPhone and the Apple Watch. The report covers the app, research studies and initiatives with medical organizations.
As Google prepares to release a Pixel Watch that will connect to Fitbit's features and services, Apple looks to be strengthening its position by expanding beyond the watch to a larger spectrum of health services. Already, Apple Health and Fitness Plus are evolving into services you don't need an Apple Watch to use.
When will Health start to become an extension of how I connect with my own doctors? Will sleep tracking offer a doorway to other health insights? And why doesn't Apple have its own equivalent of the "readiness score" used by Fitbit and Oura?
Apple's vice president of health, Dr. Sumbul Desai, spoke with CNET about the goals of Apple Health and where goals are being set next. She sees the blend of lifestyle with clinical data, medication data and an increasing number of metrics in one place as helping future insights in other health measurements over time.
"You have to do it in a really thoughtful and meaningful way," Desai said. "Because there are also correlations you can make that are incorrect. That's where the work is, making sure that when you make those connections that they are correct, grounded in the science and make sense to the user."
Medication tracking on iOS 16 looks like another step to bring medical histories onto Health.
Apple
Where does Apple Health meet your doctor?
As I've found over the last few months, over several surgeries and doctor visits, my own medical care doesn't often connect with my wearable and phone apps. Apple's been aiming to make strides to connect Apple Health with medical providers, but the framework isn't fully there yet for digital health platforms. A lot of Apple's promised benefits are in identifying long-term data patterns and insights.
"I do think how they interact with each other is really important," said Desai, who points to the new tracking of atrial fibrillation patterns over time in Watch OS 9. "We are actually taking how much time you're in AFib and correlating it to your lifestyle. How much you're sleeping. How much you're moving, you'll see the changes in AFib. If you're using Mindful Minutes, do you see a change."
Apple has tried making data sharing easier with doctors, but right now it still doesn't go far enough. At the medical group where I'm a patient, for instance, there's no obvious way to share the data I'm collecting in Apple Health through the patient portal.
Sleep tracking is gaining sleep stages in WatchOS 9. Will that bring a wave of other health insights down the road?
Apple
Sleep as the next frontier?
Apple's addition of sleep stage-based sleep tracking in the upcoming Watch OS 9 looks to close the gap on other fitness trackers like those from Fitbit, Samsung and Oura. Apple's been pulling new features for the Apple Watch from work in some of the company's ongoing heart research studies, and sleep could end up being a place that evolves next.
"What I'm really excited to learn from a scientific standpoint is, does the amount of sleep that you're getting in certain stages, like core [replenishing sleep], does that actually translate to benefit during the day when you're moving?" Desai said. "Are there certain phenotypes of certain people who have more benefit versus others? There's so much to tackle from a research standpoint there. We would never put anything out until we knew we kind of had some scientific grounding. The whole causation-correlation thing can get very tricky."
Desai suggested future research combining sleep stage data with Apple's ongoing heart and move data from its ongoing study will possibly provide more insights, "but we're still a ways away from that."
Could Apple ever develop its own readiness score?
One thing Apple's evolving and elaborate set of Health insights currently doesn't have is any sort of attempt at a distilled score, or personal health rating. Fitbit, Oura, and a number of other wearables have daily personal scores derived from a variety of individual metrics. I asked Desai whether Apple might pursue a similar idea anytime soon. While it sounds like a direction Apple Health could head in, it also seems like Apple is still trying to lock down the best path to get there.
"It's a really good question. I think the answer is, to be honest, is we don't have a firm POV yet," Desai said. "We want to understand the science behind that, and what can we understand and glean from a scientific standpoint."
Desai suggests that the health measurements, and their meanings, can vary. "HRV [heart rate variability] is a great metric. I'm super fascinated by HRV. But HRV can be changed based on multiple reasons." She suggested that Apple's eventual evolution of its insights will need to come with clear guidance, too.
"I think for us, we want to be able to provide actionable information. So to understand to do that, you actually have to be able to draw it back to, what we think is actually causing that? We are really trying to understand the science behind all of these different metrics and focus on how we provide insights that we know we can back up."
On whether Apple Health could come to other non-Apple devices
Apple's aiming for Health to be a comprehensive, secure system for anyone to use, but it still flows through Apple hardware, which means a portion of the population will always be left out. I asked Desai whether Apple Health might ever be available beyond iPhones.
"We're always looking at ways to support the ecosystem. We just want to make sure we can support that in a private and secure way. That's fundamentally what drives our decision making," Desai said. "We have a ton of things in the App Store ecosystem that are super interesting that people are doing, and we're very supportive of supporting that work.
"Honestly, we make a lot of decisions driven by privacy. And there's a lot of things we choose not to do and choose to do, based upon that."
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
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iPhone, Galaxy S, Pixel: How smartphones evolved to dominate your life
iPhone, Galaxy S, Pixel: How smartphones evolved to dominate your life
This story is part of The 2010s: A Decade in Review, a series on the memes, people, products, movies and so much more that have influenced the 2010s.
Steve Jobs' pitch for the original iPhone in 2007 as a phone, music player and internet communicator was a landmark moment in the tech world. It crystalized the iPhone's almost mythic reputation from the start -- remember the nickname, the Jesus phone? -- and helped usher in the idea that smartphones could be chic. But looking back, those three capabilities barely scratched the surface of what we can do with the modern smartphone.
What can you do with one now? Everything.
"We never imagined how a decade later iPhone would become such an essential part of our lives, from streaming TV shows and playing games, to finding directions when traveling, to managing health and fitness, to opening garages in smart homes, to sharing beautiful memories with stunning photos and videos," Phil Schiller, head of marketing for Apple, said in an email.
As CNET explores the impact of various technologies over the past decade, none has changed our lives as dramatically as the smartphone. When the original iPhone launched, and the first Android phone, the G1, followed in 2008, they were still the stuff of gadget enthusiasts with loads of disposable income. Even 10 years ago, at the launch of the Motorola Droid -- the first Android phone to enjoy mass appeal, thanks to a massive marketing blitz by Verizon Wireless -- we were just getting started with the potential that came with smartphones and mobile applications.
Nowadays we take for granted that we have a virtual supercomputer in our pockets. Our iPhones and Android handsets let us hail a car right to our location, draw from a library of hundreds of thousands of television shows and movies stored online, or livestream our silly antics to millions across the world. You can shoot down cartoonish avatars of your friends in Fortnite. They've literally been revolutionary, with secure messaging apps playing a role in the Arab Spring movement in the early 2010s and the Hong Kong protests against China playing out today.
Think about it: What's the one thing you can't leave your home without? Chances are, it's your smartphone. It's become such a critical part of our lives that we're starting to question whether we're spending too much time on them. Tech giants like Apple and Google have even introduced ways to tell you how much time you're spending on your phone -- with apps found on the phone.
"It's astonishing how quickly we've gone from being astonished to having an always-connected supercomputer in our pockets to somewhat resenting having a supercomputer in our pockets," said Avi Greengart, an analyst at research firm Techsponential.
No matter where you stand on the spectrum of smartphone dependence, it's undeniable the staggering impact they've had on society, culture and how we live our lives.
"A lot has changed since 1.0," Stephanie Cuthbertson, director of Android, said during her Google I/O keynote speech in May. "Smartphones have evolved from an early vision to this integral tool in our lives, and they are incredibly helpful."
Clumsy to coveted
Smartphones had been around for years before iPhones and Android handsets became the default mobile devices of choice. The white-collar crowd happily tapped on the physical keys of their BlackBerrys. Old-school gadget enthusiasts would've proudly shown off their Palm Treos or their "Pocket PC" phones (with a stripped-down version of Windows jammed behind a smaller screen). Never mind that these devices required a precise stylus to navigate.
With the original iPhone, Steve Jobs and Apple changed how we interact with the world.
Getty Images
In 2007, Jobs and the iPhone changed the meaning of a smartphone, making a touchscreen device intuitive -- and fun -- to use, thanks in large part to the full browser experience and tricks like pinch to zoom. It's the only phone that I could pull out at a bar and legitimately impress women with. (That still wasn't enough help.)
In July of 2008, Apple introduced its App Store, opening it up to third-party apps. Google would follow with the G1 smartphone (also known as the HTC Dream) and its own app store a few months later. The G1 catered more toward gadget enthusiasts and lacked the mass appeal of the iPhone, but it was no less influential as the launchpad for Android.
Today, there are more than 2.5 billion active Android devices out there, making Google's OS the most dominant platform in the world.
"Today, everyone has a smartphone, and that's amazing," said Peter Chou, co-founder and former CEO of HTC, which built the G1, who stood on stage with Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page when the device was unveiled.
But it wasn't until the debut of the original Droid, which next month celebrates its 10th anniversary, that Android catapulted into the mainstream, thanks in part to a huge marketing campaign from partners Google, Verizon and Motorola.
Upping the ante even further, Samsung jumped into Android in 2010 with a willingness to build up its Galaxy S franchise by way of an even more impressive marketing push, which created the two-horse dynamic we see today (Apple vs. Samsung, Apple's iOS vs. Google's Android).
"It's exciting to reflect on 10 years ago launching the first Galaxy S smartphone," said Drew Blackard, head of product management for Samsung Electronics America. "Over the past decade, we've introduced a number of industry-leading innovations that have given our consumers a better mobile experience and changed the way we think about smartphones."
From fart apps to limitless videos
The explosion of smartphone demand wasn't driven just by increasingly advanced, and bigger, hardware. The handset's Swiss Army knife utility came from the sheer number of programs available to us. It took Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store about eight years each to surpass 2 million apps, from standbys such as Instagram and Angry Birds to obscure apps for bird watching.
It's easy to forget that the early experimental days included fart apps that raked in $10,000 a day or useless virtual lighter apps. At that point Android, which initially didn't have the same oversight that Apple gave iOS, was a real Wild Wild West, with tons of junk apps.
You'd never be able to watch all that's available on video streaming sites, even if you stared at your phone all day.
Sean Hollister/CNET
That's a far cry from the utility of apps today. You pretty much can't get lost, thanks to Google Maps. Protestors use secure messaging platforms like Signal and WhatsApp to coordinate demonstrations. Uber and Lyft mean you're never stuck without a ride -- even a helicopter ride. Apps like Life360 or Disaster Alert can literally save your life.
Entertainment buffs, meanwhile, would need several lifetimes to watch the countless hours of programming found on apps from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and HBO Go, among others -- with new options such as Apple TV Plus and Disney Plus emerging all the time.
Societal changes
When Samsung unveiled the original Galaxy Note in 2011, the then-gargantuan 5.3-inch display provided rich fodder for endless mockery. Remember, the first iPhone had a 3.5-inch display.
Today, the original Note seems quaint in its diminutive stature. Samsung's latest, the Galaxy Note 10, rocks a 6.8-inch display, while the iPhone 11 Pro Max features a 6.5-inch display.
Nowadays, smartphones are almost too large to hold in one hand.
Juan Garzon/CNET
"The desire for more screen in your hand has exceeded the grasp of your hand," Greengart said.
When the world was transitioning to all-touchscreen phones, there was a constant debate about whether people could let go of buttons. Back in 2009, handset makers were still experimenting with different ways to cram QWERTY keyboards onto handsets, said Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen. The G1, for instance, had a slide-out physical keyboard.
Many of us can now blind touch-type on a display by memory.
Smartphones are also notable for what they've destroyed as much as what they've enabled. Those little supercomputers have left a wake of failed businesses over the years.
When was the last time you saw a point-and-shoot digital camera? Google Maps rendered GPS navigation systems irrelevant, and when I want to feel really old, I tell younger reporters about a time when I used physical (paper) Thomas Guide maps to get from one assignment to another. Apple's iPod and other MP3 players, Cisco's Flip video cameras and even voice recorders have virtually disappeared.
Outside of luxury fashion statements, wristwatches became a novelty until companies like Apple brought back the trend by offering smartwatches. They work by connecting to -- what else? -- your smartphone.
Rise of China
The smartphone revolution was radical enough that it destroyed an older generation of handset stalwarts. Nokia and BlackBerry were the kings of the mobile device -- and now neither of those companies makes phones, having licensed out their names to upstarts eager to make the most of once viable brands. US phone pioneer Motorola is owned by Chinese consumer electronics giant Lenovo.
Microsoft, which dominates PCs with its Windows software, couldn't make Windows Phone work. HTC, the maker of the G1, has virtually disappeared from the scene.
Some of the most interesting phones are coming out of Chinese companies -- like Huawei, with its foldable Mate X.
Juan Garzon / CNET
While Samsung remains the king of the hill for smartphones and Apple remains the most profitable player, much of the action in the smartphone world is now coming out of China. Huawei, embroiled in controversial claims by the US that it's a security risk, is the world's second-largest smartphone maker, and that's without selling any phones in America. TCL, a Chinese company best known for budget televisions, has the rights to make phones using the BlackBerry brand.
Many features, like the addition of multiple cameras, a pop-up camera or the use of slimmer bezels, emerged from companies like Huawei or smaller Chinese players such as Xiaomi, Oppo or OnePlus.
The inevitable backlash
The days when we'd get giddy over each new Android or iPhone release are gone. And though innovation is still on the horizon with the rise of 5G and foldable phones like the Galaxy Fold, enthusiasm has given way to a more critical look at how these tiny slabs of metal and glass have really affected our lives.
That little buzz or chime creates an almost Pavlovian need to check your phone, a phenomenon dubbed FOMO, or fear of missing out. It has critics worried that the generation raised on smartphones will be too glued to their screens to operate in the real world. After all, older generations are already hooked on their phones.
"We all seem more preoccupied with what comes out of those little screens than what is going on around us," said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Creative Strategies.
The very companies that serve up these time-sucking gadgets are working on apps and tweaks to their operating systems to minimize the amount of time you need to spend on the devices. Through its Screen Time feature, Apple's iOS 13 lets you control access to apps, and allows parents to manage their kids' activities better too.
In November, Google launched a Digital Wellbeing tool to offer many of the same kinds of controls. Part of Google's presentation at its I/O developer conference in May was focused on being smarter and quicker about addressing your needs.
"Looking ahead, we see another big wave of innovation to make them even more helpful," Cuthbertson said.
We've come a long way from simply making phone calls, playing music and browsing the internet.
Originally published Oct. 21, 5 a.m. PT. Update, 3 p.m. PT: Adds background.
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Getting a new iPhone every 2 years makes less sense than ever
Getting a new iPhone every 2 years makes less sense than ever
We all know the drill. As Apple's annual fall event draws close, many of us start to check in on our previous two-year smartphone plan to see if we're eligible for an upgrade in September. After all, the newest phone is only the newest phone for so long. Even for discerning shoppers like me, it takes serious willpower to resist the lure of a purple iPhone or 1TB of storage.
Mobile carriers have long persuaded many of us to upgrade our smartphones every two years, offering two-year contracts linked to free or low-cost phone upgrades to keep the two-year upgrade cycle going. That feeling of ponying up just a couple hundred dollars (or less) for the newest, fanciest phone available has helped perpetuate the rise of the de facto two-year phone upgrade. Case in point: AT&T and Verizon marketed a "free" iPhone 12 last year for customers who buy unlimited plans and commit to a multiyear deal. And the trade-in deals were even better this year for the iPhone 13.
But even though that might still be the norm in the US, a routine upgrade isn't a thing for much of the world.
I was born and raised in developing Asia, a region where buying a smartphone is financially unattainable for hundreds of millions of people, much less a two-year upgrade. In India, the average person needs to save two months' salary to buy the cheapest available smartphone, according to a survey published by the Alliance for Affordable Internet last August. From my perspective, the trend of routinely upgrading a phone every two years when it doesn't change that much is a privilege, one that reminds me of the stark income equality gap as well as the ever-increasing digital divide globally.
Read more:Billions of people still can't afford smartphones: That's a major problem
Beyond that, and perhaps more tangibly, I think we should consider the environmental cost of purchasing a new phone. You've read the headlines: Climate change is accelerating at rapid speed. Countries around the world keep setting new records for the highest temperatures. There are more climate-related disasters than ever before, arctic caps are melting and biodiversity is disappearing faster than we can save it. What, exactly, happens to all those discarded phones over time? Does all that plastic ever fully decompose?
Apple says it removed the in-box charger from its iPhone 12 lineup for environmental reasons.
Apple
Read more:Apple is opening up its world of iPhone recycling
Consumer electronics are responsible for tonnes of e-waste annually, which in turn contributes to the climate crisis. Experts have warned about how e-waste disposal contributes to climate change due to the chemicals released when the waste is burned, some of which are equivalent to carbon dioxide.
For years, developed countries like the US have shipped recyclable waste overseas for processing. Although that is now beginning to change, there are real costs. iPhones contain toxic materials like lead and mercury, for instance, which can harm the environment and people if disposed of improperly. And often e-waste isn't properly managed. In Southern China, there is a town called Guiyu that has become known as the world's biggest graveyard for America's electronic junk, and synonymous among environmentalists with toxic waste. The UN's 2020 Global E-waste Monitor report found that the world dumped a record 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste last year, of which the US is the world's second-largest contributor to e-waste, dumping 6.9 million tonnes.
Read more:I paid $69 to replace my iPhone battery: Here's what happened
While Apple is committed to a net zero supply chain by 2030, it's tough to argue that there's a better alternative to lower carbon consumption than less consumption. After all, Apple says the iPhone 12's end-to-end supply chain emits 70 kilograms of carbon to the atmosphere. If even 1 million people waited that extra year, we could save 70,000,000 kilograms of carbon from going into the air in a year. Imagine if it was 10 million or 100 million. It's something to think about before making that upgrade.
The smartphone upgrade cycle has gotten longer
Even with the enticing deals offered by carriers, the upgrade cycle has seemingly lengthened. In recent years, several reports show how Americans and Europeans are more than happy to hold on to their phones for longer periods of time. In fact, in 2019 smartphone upgrades hit record lows at two of the biggest US carriers, Verizon and AT&T. Carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon seem to have responded to this by offering month-to-month plans, which offer more flexibility and options, indicating a potential departure from the "norm" of a two-year phone upgrade.
Barring big-picture factors like the struggling global economy amid the ongoing pandemic as well as our increased mindfulness over the environment, I think this trend is persisting for a confluence of reasons. Phones today are receiving software, and therefore security, updates for longer. For instance, 2015's iPhone 6S is compatible with iOS 15, potentially dampening desires for a bi-yearly upgrade.
In addition to all this, smartphone innovation has hit a plateau, and the industry bears the hallmarks of one that's maturing: slowing smartphone sales growth along with the slower evolution of what we need, what we want and so forth. There are no big surprises here: Today's phones are getting more nice-to-have refinements rather than the awe-inspiring innovation seen just three or four years ago.
Decreasing technological gap
Up until a couple of years ago, smartphone manufacturers had us sitting on the edge of our seats, waiting for the next design refresh. But that's not as much the case anymore. With the iPhone 12 series, 5G was probably its buzziest feature -- one that understandably ended up triggering an upgrade supercycle. But the most exciting thing for many of us at CNET was MagSafe, which is hardly new. Apple's proprietary technology, allowing you to magnetically snap on attachments, was first introduced some 15 years ago with the first-gen MacBook Pro. It was then reintroduced for the iPhone 12.
Patrick Holland/CNET
When you look at what changed from the iPhone 11, you'll see the usual suspects on your list: 5G, OLED screen, new design. Admittedly there are a few more things you won't see everywhere, such as MagSafe and the Ceramic Shield, but nothing extra-special to truly write home about. Personally, the last time I was blown away by an iPhone reveal was back in 2017 when Apple introduced the iPhone X, which set new design standards for the modern-day iPhone. The iPhone X did away with the physical home button and chunky bezels of its predecessors and made way for a sleek, futuristic device that inspired the iPhone 12 family. Also, for the first time with Apple, we were able to unlock an iPhone with Face ID, Apple's facial recognition technology.
Looking at the iPhone 13, the narrative sounds familiar. We knew it wouldn't get a major technical upgrade (though that didn't stop us from wishing). While we appreciate the upgrades Apple did give the phone (a smaller notch, a larger battery and a faster screen refresh rate), the iPhone 13 is "not radically different," according to CNET's Patrick Holland. Plus a number of these new iPhone features, like the 120Hz screen, currently exist on Android phones, reinforcing the notion of a decreasing technological gap in the smartphone landscape. Apple itself says the life-cycle of a typical iPhone is now three years. So the company times its new releases accordingly: We get a major redesign every three years, not two, with more minor updates in between.
Look no further than the glitziest non-Apple flagship launch of this year for clues: Samsung's Galaxy S21 family. Here the standout change wasn't made to the hardware or software, but perhaps to its least interesting feature: its price tag. The S21 lineup has a starting price of $800 (£769, AU$1,249), which is $200 less than last year's $1,000 Galaxy S20, making for an enticing deal.
Apart from that, major differences between the S21 and last year's S20 were mostly incremental. I remember having to pore over the specs sheet to spot salient differences as I covered Samsung's virtual Unpacked event. Refinements were made to the usual suspects, including the processor, software and 5G. This might have been part of Samsung's response to the global coronavirus pandemic, but again it lends credence to the notion of that decreasing technological gap. It was also interesting to note the items Samsung dropped from the S21 flagship family to meet that lowered price. We said goodbye to expandable storage, bundled earphones and most notoriously the in-box charger, as Samsung followed in Apple's lead -- apparently in the name of the environment.
Read more: Here's what we know so far about Samsung's Galaxy S22
Let's also take a moment to consider the question: What makes the S21 an attractive buy? Chances are, a great camera, fast performance, battery longevity and a crisp display with narrow bezels are at the top of your list. But the truth is 2019's Galaxy S10 boasts all those features. Heck, even the Galaxy S7 from five years ago did. My point is yearly changes have become too incremental to compel most people to upgrade with urgency, especially given the backdrop of rising smartphone prices.
Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip.
Angela Lang/CNET
Are we at peak phone?
I'm not discounting foldable phones. Samsung and Huawei have made undeniable technological progress, and their bendy handsets have dramatically altered the way smartphones are used and could represent the future of the industry. But folding phones are far from the mainstream. Phone manufacturers and carriers in the US have moved the most innovative devices to a price that's simply beyond reach for most people. For instance, the Galaxy Fold 3 starts at $1,800 (£1,599, AU$2,499) and Huawei's Mate X2, available in China for now, costs nearly $3,000 ($2,800, £1,985, AU$3,640 converted). Until these prices hit price parity with, say, the iPhone 12 Pro or Pro Max, foldable phones are likely to remain a niche product.
Smartphone innovation has stagnated, and this is not a knock against the consumer electronics companies or the tech giants that design them. Maybe we've reached peak smartphone, and this is as far as it needs to go. It could well be part of the reason why the race to upgrade your phones is slowing.
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Getting a new iPhone every 2 years makes less sense than ever
Getting a new iPhone every 2 years makes less sense than ever
We all know the drill. As Apple's annual fall event draws close, many of us start to check in on our previous two-year smartphone plan to see if we're eligible for an upgrade in September. After all, the newest phone is only the newest phone for so long. Even for discerning shoppers like me, it takes serious willpower to resist the lure of a purple iPhone or 1TB of storage.
Mobile carriers have long persuaded many of us to upgrade our smartphones every two years, offering two-year contracts linked to free or low-cost phone upgrades to keep the two-year upgrade cycle going. That feeling of ponying up just a couple hundred dollars (or less) for the newest, fanciest phone available has helped perpetuate the rise of the de facto two-year phone upgrade. Case in point: AT&T and Verizon marketed a "free" iPhone 12 last year for customers who buy unlimited plans and commit to a multiyear deal. And the trade-in deals were even better this year for the iPhone 13.
But even though that might still be the norm in the US, a routine upgrade isn't a thing for much of the world.
I was born and raised in developing Asia, a region where buying a smartphone is financially unattainable for hundreds of millions of people, much less a two-year upgrade. In India, the average person needs to save two months' salary to buy the cheapest available smartphone, according to a survey published by the Alliance for Affordable Internet last August. From my perspective, the trend of routinely upgrading a phone every two years when it doesn't change that much is a privilege, one that reminds me of the stark income equality gap as well as the ever-increasing digital divide globally.
Read more:Billions of people still can't afford smartphones: That's a major problem
Beyond that, and perhaps more tangibly, I think we should consider the environmental cost of purchasing a new phone. You've read the headlines: Climate change is accelerating at rapid speed. Countries around the world keep setting new records for the highest temperatures. There are more climate-related disasters than ever before, arctic caps are melting and biodiversity is disappearing faster than we can save it. What, exactly, happens to all those discarded phones over time? Does all that plastic ever fully decompose?
Apple says it removed the in-box charger from its iPhone 12 lineup for environmental reasons.
Apple
Read more:Apple is opening up its world of iPhone recycling
Consumer electronics are responsible for tonnes of e-waste annually, which in turn contributes to the climate crisis. Experts have warned about how e-waste disposal contributes to climate change due to the chemicals released when the waste is burned, some of which are equivalent to carbon dioxide.
For years, developed countries like the US have shipped recyclable waste overseas for processing. Although that is now beginning to change, there are real costs. iPhones contain toxic materials like lead and mercury, for instance, which can harm the environment and people if disposed of improperly. And often e-waste isn't properly managed. In Southern China, there is a town called Guiyu that has become known as the world's biggest graveyard for America's electronic junk, and synonymous among environmentalists with toxic waste. The UN's 2020 Global E-waste Monitor report found that the world dumped a record 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste last year, of which the US is the world's second-largest contributor to e-waste, dumping 6.9 million tonnes.
Read more:I paid $69 to replace my iPhone battery: Here's what happened
While Apple is committed to a net zero supply chain by 2030, it's tough to argue that there's a better alternative to lower carbon consumption than less consumption. After all, Apple says the iPhone 12's end-to-end supply chain emits 70 kilograms of carbon to the atmosphere. If even 1 million people waited that extra year, we could save 70,000,000 kilograms of carbon from going into the air in a year. Imagine if it was 10 million or 100 million. It's something to think about before making that upgrade.
The smartphone upgrade cycle has gotten longer
Even with the enticing deals offered by carriers, the upgrade cycle has seemingly lengthened. In recent years, several reports show how Americans and Europeans are more than happy to hold on to their phones for longer periods of time. In fact, in 2019 smartphone upgrades hit record lows at two of the biggest US carriers, Verizon and AT&T. Carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon seem to have responded to this by offering month-to-month plans, which offer more flexibility and options, indicating a potential departure from the "norm" of a two-year phone upgrade.
Barring big-picture factors like the struggling global economy amid the ongoing pandemic as well as our increased mindfulness over the environment, I think this trend is persisting for a confluence of reasons. Phones today are receiving software, and therefore security, updates for longer. For instance, 2015's iPhone 6S is compatible with iOS 15, potentially dampening desires for a bi-yearly upgrade.
In addition to all this, smartphone innovation has hit a plateau, and the industry bears the hallmarks of one that's maturing: slowing smartphone sales growth along with the slower evolution of what we need, what we want and so forth. There are no big surprises here: Today's phones are getting more nice-to-have refinements rather than the awe-inspiring innovation seen just three or four years ago.
Decreasing technological gap
Up until a couple of years ago, smartphone manufacturers had us sitting on the edge of our seats, waiting for the next design refresh. But that's not as much the case anymore. With the iPhone 12 series, 5G was probably its buzziest feature -- one that understandably ended up triggering an upgrade supercycle. But the most exciting thing for many of us at CNET was MagSafe, which is hardly new. Apple's proprietary technology, allowing you to magnetically snap on attachments, was first introduced some 15 years ago with the first-gen MacBook Pro. It was then reintroduced for the iPhone 12.
Patrick Holland/CNET
When you look at what changed from the iPhone 11, you'll see the usual suspects on your list: 5G, OLED screen, new design. Admittedly there are a few more things you won't see everywhere, such as MagSafe and the Ceramic Shield, but nothing extra-special to truly write home about. Personally, the last time I was blown away by an iPhone reveal was back in 2017 when Apple introduced the iPhone X, which set new design standards for the modern-day iPhone. The iPhone X did away with the physical home button and chunky bezels of its predecessors and made way for a sleek, futuristic device that inspired the iPhone 12 family. Also, for the first time with Apple, we were able to unlock an iPhone with Face ID, Apple's facial recognition technology.
Looking at the iPhone 13, the narrative sounds familiar. We knew it wouldn't get a major technical upgrade (though that didn't stop us from wishing). While we appreciate the upgrades Apple did give the phone (a smaller notch, a larger battery and a faster screen refresh rate), the iPhone 13 is "not radically different," according to CNET's Patrick Holland. Plus a number of these new iPhone features, like the 120Hz screen, currently exist on Android phones, reinforcing the notion of a decreasing technological gap in the smartphone landscape. Apple itself says the life-cycle of a typical iPhone is now three years. So the company times its new releases accordingly: We get a major redesign every three years, not two, with more minor updates in between.
Look no further than the glitziest non-Apple flagship launch of this year for clues: Samsung's Galaxy S21 family. Here the standout change wasn't made to the hardware or software, but perhaps to its least interesting feature: its price tag. The S21 lineup has a starting price of $800 (£769, AU$1,249), which is $200 less than last year's $1,000 Galaxy S20, making for an enticing deal.
Apart from that, major differences between the S21 and last year's S20 were mostly incremental. I remember having to pore over the specs sheet to spot salient differences as I covered Samsung's virtual Unpacked event. Refinements were made to the usual suspects, including the processor, software and 5G. This might have been part of Samsung's response to the global coronavirus pandemic, but again it lends credence to the notion of that decreasing technological gap. It was also interesting to note the items Samsung dropped from the S21 flagship family to meet that lowered price. We said goodbye to expandable storage, bundled earphones and most notoriously the in-box charger, as Samsung followed in Apple's lead -- apparently in the name of the environment.
Read more: Here's what we know so far about Samsung's Galaxy S22
Let's also take a moment to consider the question: What makes the S21 an attractive buy? Chances are, a great camera, fast performance, battery longevity and a crisp display with narrow bezels are at the top of your list. But the truth is 2019's Galaxy S10 boasts all those features. Heck, even the Galaxy S7 from five years ago did. My point is yearly changes have become too incremental to compel most people to upgrade with urgency, especially given the backdrop of rising smartphone prices.
Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip.
Angela Lang/CNET
Are we at peak phone?
I'm not discounting foldable phones. Samsung and Huawei have made undeniable technological progress, and their bendy handsets have dramatically altered the way smartphones are used and could represent the future of the industry. But folding phones are far from the mainstream. Phone manufacturers and carriers in the US have moved the most innovative devices to a price that's simply beyond reach for most people. For instance, the Galaxy Fold 3 starts at $1,800 (£1,599, AU$2,499) and Huawei's Mate X2, available in China for now, costs nearly $3,000 ($2,800, £1,985, AU$3,640 converted). Until these prices hit price parity with, say, the iPhone 12 Pro or Pro Max, foldable phones are likely to remain a niche product.
Smartphone innovation has stagnated, and this is not a knock against the consumer electronics companies or the tech giants that design them. Maybe we've reached peak smartphone, and this is as far as it needs to go. It could well be part of the reason why the race to upgrade your phones is slowing.
Here's Who Needs a Monkeypox Vaccine, and What We Know About It
Here's Who Needs a Monkeypox Vaccine, and What We Know About It
What's happening
The monkeypox vaccine is available to people at higher risk of getting the disease, but supply has been limited. To stretch out more doses, the US is starting to administer the vaccine in a slightly different way that requires a smaller dose.
Why it matters
Vaccination is an important tool to slow the monkeypox outbreak happening in the US and other countries. Access to vaccines is crucial for people most at risk.
What it means for you
Some men who have sex with men are eligible for the vaccine, as are other people who may've been exposed to monkeypox.
The vaccine Jynneos is being given out a little differently now in some places. If you're eligible for a monkeypox vaccine, you might be getting a shot under a top layer of skin, instead of deeper into your arm. That's because the US Food and Drug Administration authorized intradermal injection for the monkeypox vaccine this month, which is an effort to increase the US supply of vaccine up to five times since intradermal injection requires a much smaller dose than one given subcutaneously.
Also called "dose-sparing," intradermal types of injections aren't new to health care. But the change in medical guidance on how the monkeypox vaccine can be administered reflects a shortage of Jynneos that's plagued the vaccine rollout since it began. Health officials have touted a national stockpile of vaccines that work against monkeypox as well as smallpox, but getting them out to states and into the arms of people who need them has been a challenge.
According to a report from The New York Times, a hurdle in the monkeypox vaccine rollout (besides limited supply of Jynneos) is that the federal system being used to move vaccines to states and cities is different from the system local health officials are used to, which is run by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is already linked to state databases. The current system states are using for the monkeypox vaccine is made for mass vaccine rollouts where every person would need a vaccine (like a smallpox bioterrorism event), and it's been difficult in some states for local health officials to track their orders or get to the site where the doses have been delivered, the Times reports.
But federal health officials are confident in the new intradermal vaccination method, which they say gives an immune response similar to that of the traditional method. But it still requires two doses, about 28 days apart. One-dose priority policies for the vaccine, which could potentially delay a second dose, have been put in place in cities like San Francisco and New York City, which make up a large portion of the country's monkeypox cases.
Here's what we know about monkeypox vaccination.
Read more: Monkeypox: What to Know About Variants, Symptoms and More
Who can get a monkeypox vaccine?
Exact criteria for who should get a monkeypox vaccine depend on the city or state people live in and how widespread the outbreak is there, but men who have sex with men and who have had multiple or anonymous sexual partners in the last two weeks are eligible in cities like New York. That's because gay and bisexual men are currently at higher risk in the outbreak, though anyone with close contact to monkeypox can get the disease. You may also be eligible if you were recently exposed to someone with monkeypox.
According to the CDC, you meet the criteria for a monkeypox vaccine if:
You're a contact of someone who has monkeypox or you were identified as possibly exposed via contact tracing.
You had a sexual partner within the last two weeks who has monkeypox.
You've had multiple sexual partners in the last two weeks in an area with a high number of monkeypox cases.
You are a lab or health care worker who's around orthopox viruses, including in animals.
If you think you qualify for a vaccine or were exposed to monkeypox, contact your local health department or doctor's office to find an appointment in your area. You can also book an appointment for the vaccine online, a process that'll walk you through the eligibility criteria. Here is New York City's vaccine appointment website. You can make an appointment and find a vaccine in San Francisco by calling one of the city's clinics or visiting its drop-in location.
Colematt/Getty Images
What is intradermal vaccination?
Intradermal vaccination is a method that injects the vaccine under a more shallow layer of skin, typically on the inner side of the forearm. This should produce a "noticeable pale elevation of the skin," according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Counties including Los Angeles county and Fulton county in Georgia (where Atlanta is) have already transitioned to intradermal injections, according to the White House.
Most vaccines we get these days go either into the muscle in our arm (intramuscular injection) or into the fatty tissue under our skin (subcutaneous injection), like Jynneos has been given so far. Subcutaneous injection of Jynneos is the only authorized method of vaccination for people younger than 18. If you get the monkeypox vaccine intradermally, you'll still need two doses.
When the FDA authorized the new vaccine method, the agency referenced a study published in 2015 that found that a smallpox vaccine given intradermally gave a similar immune response in people compared to the vaccine given subcutaneously.
What are the monkeypox vaccines?
The US has two vaccines in its national stockpile that work against monkeypox. Jynneos is currently being given out to people before an exposure, as well as after an exposure, as it's a newer vaccine that's safe for most people.
Jynneos (made by Bavarian Nordic) is a new-generation vaccine approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2019 for monkeypox and smallpox. It's a two-dose vaccine, with each shot given about four weeks apart. It uses a weakened virus and is approved for adults 18 and older who are at high risk of getting monkeypox or smallpox.
Because of limited supply, it's likely you'll only be able to book an appointment for the first dose for the time being. In New York City, for example, health officials say you'll be contacted if you received a first dose about the second dose in the coming weeks.
Side effects of Jynneos may include typical temporary vaccine side effects, including headache, chills and fatigue. There can also be some pain and swelling around the injection site, which can result in what some are reporting as a temporary swollen lump around the injection site.
ACAM2000 is a second-generation smallpox vaccine that also works against monkeypox. According to the CDC, ACAM2000 is a derivative of Dryvax, which helped eradicate smallpox. (The two diseases are closely related and both caused by orthopoxviruses, which makes this possible.) If necessary, the US Department of Health and Human Services said it's also prepared to ship out the ACAM2000 vaccine, which is in greater supply than Jynneos but remains a second choice in the monkeypox response because it has a side effect profile that isn't safe for certain people.
ACAM2000 is administered differently than the typical vaccine shot we're used to, including intradermal injection. It's given by dipping a needle into a vaccine solution which will then be "pricked" several times on the upper arm. It will cause a localized infection (a "pox"), prompting an immune response.
While ACAM2000 doesn't cause smallpox, it contains live vaccina virus, which isn't suitable for everyone. It could be unsafe for immunocompromised people, pregnant folks and those with certain heart or skin diseases, like eczema.
Smallpox was declared eliminated from the world in 1980. The US stopped routine vaccination against it in 1972, though some health care workers or people who work in labs may have had the vaccine. Historically, according to the CDC, smallpox vaccines were 95% effective against infection and protect you for about three to five years, and after that protection starts to wane.
Because of this, it's possible people born before the early 1970s who got the smallpox vaccine might have some cross-protective immunity against monkeypox, according to the WHO, but there is "little immunity" to younger people living in non-endemic countries because they've had no exposure to a similar virus.
Read more:Monkeypox: What Gay and Bisexual Men Need to Know
A smallpox vaccine scar. People born before the mid-1970s might have such a scar. Jynneos, a newer-generation monkeypox and smallpox vaccine, is not the same type of vaccine as the one used to eradicate smallpox and doesn't leave a scar.
Picture Alliance/Getty Images
How effective are the vaccines against monkeypox? How long do they take to work?
Giving Jynneos within four days of a monkeypox exposure is the best option for stopping the onset of the disease, according to the CDC. If it's given four to 14 days after an exposure, the CDC says, Jynneos may not prevent monkeypox but will likely reduce the severity of symptoms. However, this information was published when Jynneos was given only the "standard" way (subcutaneous injection).
The CDC says that the Jynneos vaccine takes two weeks (14 days) after the second dose for immunity to build, and that ACAM2000 takes four weeks for maximum immunity. Though many people are receiving only the first dose of Jynneos at this time, early research suggests that one dose will still offer some protection, at least for a shorter period of time.
Because the US outbreak of monkeypox is so new, there's no data yet on exactly how effective the vaccines will be in the current situation, according to the CDC.
You should still self-isolate if you develop symptoms of monkeypox after getting vaccinated, such as a rash.
A computer image of a monkeypox virus.
Uma Shankar Sharma/Getty Images
Why does the US have a stockpile of monkeypox vaccines?
The US has a stockpile of Jynneos and ACAM2000 on hand not because the country was worried about an outbreak of monkeypox (which has been endemic in some African countries for years), but in case smallpox becomes a public threat again. Smallpox was declared eliminated in the 1980s, and the last natural outbreak in the US happened in 1949. But smallpox is usually much more severe than monkeypox, and officials worry it could be used as biological warfare.
"The stockpile was created in the event of a biological weapons attack on the United States with smallpox," Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious-disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security said. In this event, health officials would not be rationing vaccines or using only the newer-generation vaccine, according to Adalja.
"If there was a smallpox attack, we would be using whatever vaccines we have to be able to deal with it," he added.
Why is there a monkeypox vaccine supply issue?
The supply of Jynneos, the newer vaccine specifically approved to prevent monkeypox, has been in particularly short supply.
Officials who spoke to The New York Times said the supply issue is partly because the government waited too long to ask Bavarian Nordic, which makes Jynneos, to bottle and fill the vaccine order the US had already purchased.
Another report by the Times alleges that the US national stockpile of monkeypox and smallpox vaccines dwindled because the government never replaced the expired doses and instead put money into technology that would extend their shelf life. Part of the reason for this was that the government created the stockpile not for monkeypox but for smallpox, which is a more contagious and often more serious disease officials fear could be used in biological warfare against the US.
The US Department of Health and Human Services didn't respond to a request for comment on the reports.
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
