New iPhone to stick with iPhone X design, have new colours, bigger screens

Apple Inc is not only doubling down on the iPhone X, it's tripling down.

The world's most valuable company plans to launch three new phones soon that keep the edge-to-edge screen design of last year's flagship, according to people familiar with the matter. The devices will boast a wider range of prices, features and sizes to increase their appeal, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing unannounced products.

However, none of the three iPhones will be wholly new designs like the iPhone X was last year or the iPhone 6 in 2014, with some inside Apple labelling the launch as an "S year", a designation the company has given to new handsets that retain the previous design but add new internal features. The company is planning more significant changes for next year, they added.

The iPhone X wasn't as big a hit as some Wall Street analysts hoped for before it was released last November. However, it still sold strongly and helped Apple gain share in a smartphone market that has almost stopped growing.

OnePlus shows Apple how to become the India's top smartphone seller

India is arguably the world’s toughest smartphone market — just ask Apple. Yet Chinese manufacturer OnePlus has found a path to success in the country of 1.3 billion.

As Pete Lau, OnePlus’s co-founder and chief executive officer, describes it, OnePlus targeted younger users with stylish and affordable Android-based phones. Rather than plastering shops with ads, student ambassadors promote the Shenzhen-based company’s products. OnePlus also sponsors cricket games, breaking a no-advertising pledge it has in other places.

Thanks to those efforts, OnePlus commanded 40 per cent of India’s premium smartphone market in June, compared with zero when it arrived in 2014, according to Counterpoint Research, which defines the segment as one where devices cost Rs 30,000 ($435) or more. OnePlus is ahead of Samsung Electronics Co., which has a 34 per cent share, and Apple Inc.’s 14 per cent. Long term, Lau is betting that he’ll be able to outrun rivals at the top end of the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market.