The iPhone XS and XS Max each had 8 percent of U.S. iPhone sales for the quarter ended Sept. 29, reported Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. The iPhone X had 14 percent of sales, while the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus were the best-selling models at 16 and 17 percent in the quarter, which tracked an “unprecedented” 10 models, CIRP said Thursday. The analytics firm calculated U.S. weighted average retail price (reflecting wholesale discounts and promotional pricing Apple offers to retailers and carriers but not including international results) at $796, vs. $751 in the June quarter and $705 in the year-ago quarter. The increase in U.S.-WARP suggests a similar rise for average selling prices, said analyst Mike Levin. The most expensive iPhone XS and XS Max models captured early premium demand, while other upgraders may wait a month for the less expensive iPhone XR, which could moderate U.S.-WARP this quarter, Levin said. CIRP surveyed 500 U.S. Apple customers who bought an iPhone, iPad, Mac computer or Apple Watch.

Mobile device manufacturers can license the Google mobile app suite separately from the Google Search App and Chrome, Senior Vice President-Platforms Ecosystems Hiroshi Lockheimer blogged Tuesday. Android partners distributing Google apps can also build “non-compatible, or forked, smartphones and tablets for the European Economic Area.” Google is appealing the European Commission’s $5 billion fine for Android anticompetitive behavior (see 1807300048).

Flagship smartphones in 5- and 5.5-inch screen sizes are preferred by most consumers, especially in China and India, where a 5.5-inch screen is considered “ideal” vs. the preferred 5-inch last year, Strategy Analytics reported. SA Wednesday cited better productivity and entertainment capabilities, thinner designs, higher quality screen resolution and quality as features driving consumers to larger screens. Improving “one-handed usability” and adding voice assistants will reduce user friction with larger screens, pushing preferences for larger devices further, said analyst Chris Schreiner.

Huawei announced availability Tuesday of its Mate 20 smartphone series, previewed (see 1806140075) at CES Asia in June. Notable features of the Android phone are battery life and charging capability, a Leica ultra-wide-angle lens with macro capability and file-sharing between the phone and a PC. The Mate 20 Pro is the first smartphone to support the 4.5G LTE Cat. 21 standard, said Huawei, enabling download speeds of up to 1.4 Gbps. With Wi-Fi, users can download 2 GB of footage in 10 seconds, it said. The phone houses a 4200mAh battery and supports a 40-watt “supercharge” feature, certified by TÜV Rheinland, that’s said to reach a 70 percent charge in half an hour. The Mate 20 Pro also supports 15-watt Huawei wireless quick charging and has a reverse wireless charge feature that enables the phone to be a power bank for select devices that support wireless charging, said the company. The Mate 20 series phones are available in the U.K., France, Italy and the United Arab Emirates soon, Huawei said.

Though telecom accessibility is improving, gaps remain, said the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau in the biennial 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act report to Congress, in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Low-end mobile phones with accessibility features are hard to find, a need for accessible alerts for video calls isn’t being met, and accessible telecom devices for the deaf-blind are lacking, CGB said. In 2016 and 2017, 24 consumer requests for dispute assistance were filed. “No consumer chose to escalate his or her RDA to an informal complaint for investigation by the Enforcement Bureau,” the report said. “Complaints received by the Bureau suggest that companies should remain aware that upgrades to their software may result in accessibility barriers if measures are not taken to test such upgrades for accessibility prior to deployment." Some aspects of telecom accessibility improved over the period, the report said. Cisco added accessibility features for wireline office phones, smartphones became more accessible for “people with a wide range of disabilities” and more hearing aid compatible headsets became available, it said.

Google Tuesday appealed a $5 billion fine from EU antitrust enforcers (see 1807180003) who alleged the company abused dominance of its Android operating system, a company spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. Google in July announced its intent to appeal.

Wednesday’s wireless emergency alert test “will not adversely affect your service or device,” Verizon General Counsel Craig Silliman said Tuesday. Silliman posted information about the test due to "controversy on social media” about the alert (see 1809210032). The alerts are “really critical, lifesaving information” that citizens should want to receive, a Federal Emergency Management Agency official said Tuesday on a media call with FCC and FEMA officials who spoke on background, not allowing their names to be used. A journalist and two small-business owners in New York City sued (in Pacer) the government last week at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, claiming the presidential alerts violate First and Fourth Amendment rights to be free from government-compelled listening and warrantless trespass into cellular devices. People mightn't get the alert if their device is configured incorrectly or if they are on a phone call or have an active data session ongoing throughout the 30-minute window, the official said. The wireless industry is working on standards to address those issues, said another FEMA official. The first nationwide WEA test will start at 2:18 p.m. EDT and last 30 minutes, and the fourth nationwide emergency alert system exercise starts at 2:20 p.m., the agencies said. The WEA message will carry the header “Presidential Alert” and read, “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” The EAS simulation will read: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Emergency Alert System. This system was developed by broadcast and cable operators in voluntary cooperation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Federal Communication Commission, and local authorities to keep you informed in the event of an emergency. If this had been an actual emergency an official message would have followed the tone alert you heard at the start of this message. A similar wireless emergency alert test message has been sent to all cell phones in the nation. Some cell phones will receive the message. Others will not. No action is required.” The FCC looks forward to more dialogue and lesson sharing with stakeholders after the test, Public Safety Bureau Chief Lisa Fowlkes blogged Tuesday. The agency plans to engage with FEMA and wireless providers, and welcomes public feedback, she said. D.C. text alert subscribers received a notice about the WEA and EAS tests Tuesday. The test was previously postponed due to response efforts to Hurricane Florence.

Samsung filed trademark applications Sept. 24 in the U.S. and Sept. 20 in the EU to register the promotional phrase “The Future Unfolds” for many goods and services, including smartphones, Patent and Trademark Office records show. Samsung didn’t comment Monday. Its first foldable smartphone late this year or early next is expected to be a “fold-in” model with cover material sourced from Sumitomo Chemical fashioned from colorless polyimide film for the curvature and hard coat for scratch resistance (see 1809270001).

Samsung will source the cover material for its first “fold-in” smartphone (see 1809260028) from Sumitomo Chemical, Display Supply Chain Consultants President Bob O’Brien told us Thursday. Sumitomo will fashion the cover material from colorless polyimide film for the required curvature and hard coat to make it resistant to scratches, said O’Brien. Sumitomo and Samsung didn’t comment.

Sony landed a U.S. patent (10,083,288) Tuesday for a method of unlocking a smartphone using a “simulated parallaxing” 3D scene on the phone’s touch screen, Patent and Trademark Office records show. Many “authentication techniques that involve a lock screen” to control access to a phone’s “full functionality” can have their “drawbacks,” said the patent, which names David de Leon, former director-interaction at Sony Mobile Communication in Sweden, as its only inventor and is based on a March 2014 application. It’s easy to forget a PIN or password, and even modern “biometric” techniques for unlocking a phone aren’t infallible, it said. The method it describes provides for a “relatively fast and easy to remember unlocking action” that affords a “reasonable level of access security” by dragging a finger on the parallaxing 3D scene to reveal a hidden “predetermined target object,” it says. Manipulating the object through finger “gestures” can “satisfy the input requirements to unlock the electronic device if the revealing of the hidden object is accomplished by two or more distinct motions performed in a predetermined order,” it says. Sony didn’t comment Tuesday on plans to commercialize the invention.