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Apple was able to recently become the top dog in the U.S., wrestling the title away from its Swedish rival. While Apple CEO Tim Cook has tried to reframe the narrative around the overall market growing, investors are still keenly interested in how the two companies are faring against each other. iOS users tend to have more disposable income than Android users, and Apple is able to better integrate Apple Music throughout the platform, which not only makes for a "seamlessly integrated music experience," but also allows Apple ample opportunities to nudge users to sign up. Munster estimates that Apple now has 21 million Apple Music subscribers in the U.S., compared to Spotify's estimated 20 million. Globally, Spotify is still in the lead by a significant margin, with 62% market share towering over Apple's 34% share. But if you look at those market shares directionally, Apple is steadily chipping away: Spotify has lost about 3 percentage points over the past year, while Apple has added 4 percentage points.

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Qualcomm Inc. added yet another layer to its ongoing legal battle with Apple Inc. by accusing the iPhone maker of stealing software and tools to help improve chips from rival Intel Corp. Bloomberg's Ian ...

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There were already initial indications that demand for Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) new $1,100 phone was strong, with shipping estimates promptly slipping as soon as the iPhone XS Max was available for pre-order earlier this month. Meanwhile, iPhone XS demand seems lukewarm, likely since the improvements over last year's iPhone X are incremental and don't fully justify upgrading, especially when you consider how expensive the devices are. The iPhone XS and XS Max officially launched last weekend, and demand appears to be disproportionately concentrated on the XS Max model, which is good news for Apple's iPhone average selling prices (ASPs). Respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo put out a research note this week (via MacRumors) that says XS Max demand is coming in much better than expected, potentially outstripping demand for the XS by three to four times.

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Apple shaves cost from displays in newest iPhones: analyst firm. (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) shaved some parts from the display in its largest new iPhone, helping keep costs under control in what has become the priciest component of its phones in recent years, according to a new cost analysis of the device. TechInsights, an Ottawa, Ontario-based firm which rips open phones to analyze their contents and estimate the cost of the parts inside, said on Tuesday that the iPhone Xs Max with 256 gigabytes of storage capacity contains about $443 in parts and assembly costs, compared with $395.44 for the 64-gigabyte version of last year's iPhone X. Apple released a trio of new phones earlier this month, including an update on last year's iPhone X, called the iPhone Xs, that starts at $999, and the budget-minded iPhone Xr that starts at $749. But it was the iPhone Xs Max - with a 6.5-inch display that uses so-called OLED technology for richer colors - that pushed new pricing boundaries, starting at $1,099. In its cost analysis released on Tuesday, TechInsights found that the single priciest part in the iPhone Xs Max - the display - cost $80.50, compared with $77.27 for last year's iPhone X, which featured a smaller 5.8-inch screen.

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Now, Qualcomm is seeking to tack on additional charges the current lawsuit, indicating that Apple stole "vast swaths" of trade secrets and confidential information through their partnership in order to help out rival semiconductor manufacturer Intel Corp. ( INTC), as reported by CNBC. At large, the dispute demonstrates the degree to which chip makers within the Apple ecosystem are at the mercy of the smartphone maker and its iPhone cycles. The recent development is being viewed as a tactic by Qualcomm to pressure the smartphone giant to settle. The existing lawsuit against Apple accuses the firm of breaching a "master software agreement" that it agreed to when it inked a deal with Qualcomm earlier this decade.

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A Vodafone spokesman said: "The watch is 4G (LTE) ready and we have tested it thoroughly for a number of months. Most of these are processed within four hours and very occasionally overnight." Ben Woods, a mobile and telecoms expert and CCS Insight, said: "There is a huge amount of complexity in adding an eSim to the network. It comes as little surprise that EE went through similar problems last year, but now they know what they are dealing with." The Apple Watch Series 4 costs £29 on top of an iPhone contract. One Vodafone customer said: "After speaking to Apple Support over the weekend it appears this has been a disastrous launch for Vodafone and the advisor at Apple joked I was just one of the hundreds of customers he had spoken to with exactly the same issue." While some accounts have failed to link to the eSim, CCS's Woods said some customers might be experiencing issues due to trying to attach business phone contracts to their watch.

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Last year, Qualcomm sued Apple for breach of contract, saying that while a contract stipulated Qualcomm was allowed to audit how Apple was handling its proprietary software, Apple wasn't giving the chipmaker that access. Qualcomm further alleged that when Apple requested proprietary information from it, the company included a competitor in those communications. But that suit was neither the beginning nor the end of the animosity between the two companies. The chipmaker reportedly said in its new filings that documents provided through the current trial's discovery process included email correspondence and source code development history that suggested Apple provided confidential Qualcomm information to Intel. "Unlawful use of Qualcomm's valuable trade secrets to try to help a competitor catch up irreparably harms us and must not be allowed to continue," Qualcomm's general counsel, Donald Rosenberg, told CNBC.

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Qualcomm Accuses Apple Of Illegally Sharing Trade Secrets With Intel. (RTTNews) - Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) has accused Apple Inc. (AAPL) of stealing trade secrets and giving them to rival Intel Corp. (INTC), according to reports citing a legal filing. The filing reportedly alleged that Apple stole trade secrets "for the purpose of improving lower-quality modem chipsets, including those manufactured by Intel, a competitor of Qualcomm, to render such chipsets useable in Apple devices with the ultimate goal of diverting Qualcomm's Apple-based business." Apple pointed to the company's comment from June 2017: "Qualcomm's illegal business practices are harming Apple and the entire industry. They supply us with a single connectivity component, but for years have been demanding a percentage of the total cost of our products - effectively taxing Apple's innovation."

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The production of TSMC (TSM), Apple’s (AAPL) sole foundry, was affected for four days due to a computer virus outbreak. This could probably be one of the reasons for a one-month delay in the launch of iPhone XR. DigiTimes, citing Apple supply chain sources, stated that shipments of new iPhones are expected to hit 70 million to 75 million units by the end of 2018, its highest since the iPhone 6 launch in 2014.

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Apple's iPhone XS Max Teardown Reveals Further Vertical Integration. Ashraf Eassa, The Motley FoolMotley FoolSeptember 25, 2018, 2:30 PM GMT. Apple has been designing its own applications processors for years but has, over time, swapped out licensed pieces of intellectual properties within those chips for Apple-designed ones. For years, Apple has sourced power management integrated circuits (PMICs) from a small company called Dialog Semiconductor (NASDAQOTH: DLGNF). Back in May, Dialog admitted to investors that it had been "provided with a reduced share of the volume forecast from Apple for the main Power Management IC (PMIC) for the 2018 smartphone platform." On Dialog's Aug. 2 earnings call, CEO Jalal Bagherli told investors that Dialog has "two chips in the upcoming cycle, one is across all three [iPhones] and one is across two models." So, TechInsights' stated expectation that a teardown of the standard-sized iPhone XS will reveal a Dialog-designed main PMIC is reasonable.

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