Apple went off to a good start with its new generation of iPhone – in just the first weekend the company shipped 9 million units of the 5s and 5c combined. But analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray thinks this is mostly thanks to the iPhone 5s, which was the top selling device in the US for the month of September.
Munster contacted 60 Apple stores and found that the iPhone 5s availability dropped to just 6%, down from 27% a couple of weeks ago. Even if you'd settle for any iPhone 5s variant you'd still find it hard to grab one – stores that have at least one iPhone 5s SKU went from 90% to 40% in about a week.
All of this has pushed the resale value of the iPhone 5s pretty high – a 16GB version currently resells for 32% more than it costs at the store. Munster didn’t mention color versions, but we guess the high-demand gold version is pricier than the white and space grey models.
Munster believes the short supply is caused by Apple preparing to launch the iPhone 5s into 51 new markets next month.
This overwhelming demand contrasts the iPhone 5c, which is in stock everywhere. You don't even have to wait for it – while there's some lead time for the 5s, a 5c can be delivered to your door in just 24 hours in the six biggest markets for Apple.
Yesterday we heard a report that Apple halved iPhone 5c production orders after weak performance in China, as the high price tag didn’t help its cause.
The 5c resale value is 11% lower than its retail value, another stark contrast with the 5s. For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S4 resale value is currently around 12% lower than its retail value in the US (to be fair, the S4 has been available longer than the iPhones and is readily in stock everywhere).
The Bluetooth news comes not long after a little bird let the launch date slip at Google Launchpad developer event.
Speculation
At this point, there isn't much we don't know about the Nexus 5: it seems set to come with a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 5-inch HD display and an 8MP rear camera.
The handset will be made by LG and while it's expected to be revealed next week, we reckon there may be a few weeks' wait for an actual Google Nexus 5 release date.
Want to know literally everything there is to know about the Nexus 5? We've got you covered.
Well done, Samsung. It's a Galaxy, and it's a bit round
Is everyone fed up with flat? Samsung seems to be: as phone OSes get flatter and flatter, it's decided that it's high time cellphones got curvy.
Its solution is the Samsung Galaxy Round, the world's first smartphone with a curved display. Sadly the phone is curved horizontally rather than vertically. Maybe we'll see the Samsung Galaxy Banana next year.
A curved screen means it'll sit more snugly in your back pocket, but is there more to it than making your phone more buttock-friendly? Let's ask Dean Evans, who pitted the Round against its sibling, the Galaxy Note 3. The verdict? It's essentially a Galaxy Note 3 with a curved screen.
Lessons with Auntie
Imagine telling somebody 20 years ago that one of the world's top tech firms would be the BBC. They'd have laughed at you and hit you with sticks. But they'd have been wrong, because the BBC is doing all kinds of interesting stuff - and this week it unveiled a whole bunch more.
First up there's Playlister, a new music service that hopes to "transform people's relationship with music".
As Hugh Langley explains, it's "a music discovery service waiting for the next time you ask 'what was that track being played on Strictly Come Dancing last night?'" and it'll soon be integrated with iPlayer. You'll be able to add tracks to playlists, and then - this is the good bit - you'll be able to export those playlists to your chosen digital music service.
BBC Playlister puts an end to mid-show Shazamming
That's not all Auntie Beeb's been cooking. Director general Tony Hall gave an inspiring speech about the BBC's future, and as Patrick Goss explains, there's lots to look forward to: a personalised iPlayer, public service broadcasting via digital and most interestingly of all, a programme to educate the next generation of coders. As Stephen Fry put it, we used to teach children Greek; now we need to teach them geek.
Fancy a Chromebook? The range has just got bigger, with some particularly nifty models from Acer and HP. The latter's new Chromebook 11 comes in a range of funky colours, boasts an 11-inch IPS screen and delivers an awful lot of tech for just £229.
HP's loyalty to Windows appears to have slipped somewhat, and this week HP CEO Meg Whitman explained why: Microsoft and Intel have swung from long-time partners to "outright competitors," and "Wintel-based devices are being aggresively displaced by ARM-based PCs and mobile devices." HP isn't taking that lying down, as its closer relationship with Google demonstrates.
Not-so-secret Nexus
Did someone say Google? The not-so-secret Nexus 5 continues to tease, and it could be out in October - although if Google's planning a launch around October 22, it might want to change the date. In a move that's in no way designed to annoy Nokia (which is unveiling a tablet on October 22) and Microsoft (whose new Surfaces launch on the same day), Apple has moved its rumoured iPad event from the rumoured October 15 to a rumoured October 22.
We (sort of) know the date, but do we know what Apple will unveil? The rumour factory's predicting the usual flying cars, infinite improbability drives and so on, but we're hoping for an iPad Mini 2 and a thinner, lighter iPad 5 with an A7 processor and maybe even a Touch ID sensor. Most importantly of all, we're likely to see new colours: Space Grey is a given, and we wouldn't bet against a gold one either.
And that brings us to HTC, which has decided to show us exactly what we feared when we first heard the words "gold phone".
Where the iPhone 5S kinda gets away with gold (although we're still divided on that one), the HTC One Gold Edition definitely doesn't. The gold-plating doesn't just hurt your eyes - it ruins the signal too, and it costs £2,700 to make. We're very glad that there are only five in existence.
Fancy a great phone that hasn't been dipped in precious metal? Read our HTC One review
When you hear the words "blue screen of death" you're instantly transported to sitting in front of a Windows PC, sobbing into your keyboard because you've just lost the essay you've been writing for the past hour - but Apple fans are now experiencing a similar trauma.
Several owners of the new iPhone 5S have reported their handset randomly rebooting and in some cases displaying a blue screen after the phone seemingly crashes, before then restarting.
According to The Verge, the problem is often trigged when using Apple's own iWork suite of apps and when users attempt to multitask between apps. We're sure Apple will be working on an update to fix these issues - we'll keep you posted.
More blips!
Has your iPhone 5S just crashed? Then why not check out some other blips?
HTC lovesinfographics and often uses them to announce a new product, like the Little Things infographic that teased the HTC One mini. The company's latest infographics celebrates the Great Trios in History, which is a clear nod at the third device joining the One family – One, One mini and soon One Max.
The infographic also continues HTC's marketing effort that plays an association game with the three letter H, T, C (another great trio).
HTC put out beautiful blue versions of the One and One mini but they are exclusive to certain retailers. In the UK that retailer is Carphone Warehouse, who just put up the blue HTC One on sale while the One mini will come later this month.
The big HTC One can be had for £32 on contract, with options on EE, Vodafone, Orange, O2, Three, T-Mobile and Talkmobile. That’s the same price as the Silver and Black models. If you want it off-contract, you can grab it for £490.
The Blue HTC One mini is expected this month and you can register your interest for it and be reminded when it is available. There's no pricing info yet, but the Black and Silver ones start at £17 a month or £380 SIM-free, so that's the most likely price point.
You can check out our hands on with the blue HTC One in the US where Best Buy has exclusivity.
It seems Samsung is readying new color models of the Galaxy S4 mini for the US carriers. evleaks has revealed three new hues of the S4 mini, arriving on AT&T and Sprint networks in the US.
AT&T will be getting a rather flashy shade of pink, or hot pink as it is often referred to. This one is bound to divide opinions but there is no shortage of people who like pink devices.
Sprint gets the more sober shades. There is the standard black and white, or Black Mist and White Frost, as Samsung likes to call them.
Other than the colors, these are identical to the existing Galaxy S4 mini available in the US.
