Over the last few years, we've heard plenty of speculation about how Samsung and Android will trump the iPhone, yet every time Apple releases a new smartphone, the opposite seems to be true. Our Wednesday Morning Report takes a look at Samsung's quarterly profit drop, along with a peek at an iPad Air 2 dummy unit, and a new contender for the mobile payment throne.
Leaked iPad Air 2 Reveals Thinner Frame, Touch ID
Apple will reportedly be holding another media event as early as next week, and in addition to an expected release date for OS X Yosemite and iOS 8.1 with Apple Pay, all eyes are on Cupertino to show off a followup to last year's iPad Air, which the rumor mill has dubbed iPad Air 2.
According to MacRumors, we may not have to wait that long to get a glimpse of the refreshed tablet, thanks to newly leaked photos from Vietnamese blog Tinhte.vn, which has a pretty good track record lately of showing off Apple products before they're officially launched.
Judging from today's details, iPad Air 2 buyers can expect a thinner, 7 mm profile that's just a bit thinner (0.5 mm) than the existing model, and the home button now includes a Touch ID fingerprint sensor like the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 models. Unfortunately, the leak isn't an actual working unit just yet — rather, it's a dummy unit supposedly used by accessory manufacturers to work out the kinks in their forthcoming products prior to release.
Samsung Profit Tumbles in Wake of iPhone 6
The iPhone 6 appears to be taking a bite out of Samsung's bottom line, with The Wall Street Journal reporting Tuesday that the Korean smartphone giant is anticipating a 58 to 72 percent drop in third-quarter operating profits — the fourth straight quarter of declines for the maker of the Galaxy S5, and a dip already higher than what industry analysts have braced themselves for.
Samsung claims total smartphone shipments have "increased marginally," but profit fell as a result of "lower selling prices and higher marketing expenses." The iPhone 6 may also have something to do with that, having been launched 12 days prior to the end of Samsung's third quarter — and the red ink may continue to flow well into the fourth quarter as more consumers opt for Apple's larger 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch smartphones over Samsung's Android devices.
Plastc Takes on Apple Pay, Coin with Connected Credit Card
Can there really be one credit card to rule them all? The folks at Coin came up with a great idea last year but have failed thus far on execution, and now a new outfit called Plastc has done it one better with a more expensive ($155), Bluetooth-enabled credit card replacement that connects to an iPhone app. Capable of storing 20 cards at once (an improvement over only eight on Coin), the e-ink touchscreen looks quite slick from the online demo, but the device won't be available until spring of next year — coincidentally, when Coin is also finally expected to launch to the public. Plastc may wind up having the upper hand, however, as it will arrive with an embedded chip-and-pin system to prevent cloning, which US merchants will be forced to adopt by 2015.
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