Apple Loses European Market Share

It seems the Euro crises could be causing Europeans to look beyond expensive iPhones, and opt for cheaper alternatives powered by Google’s Android. A study by the Kantar Group, a research firm based in London, revealed that Apple’s smartphone market share declined in France, Germany, Italy and Spain to name a few in the last few months. [1]

 

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Apple’s loss is Android’s gain

 

According to the report, during the 12 weeks ending November month, Apple’s smartphone market share declined from 29% to 20% while it declined from 27% to 22% in Germany. [1] The iPhone 4S helped Apple gain market share in the U.S. and Britain, but significant market share loss in Europe should be concerning Apple. Weakening global economy and fear of recessionary environment coming back in the near future could make this situation worse for Apple. Android, on the other hand, continues to flourish and enjoyed a dominant market share of 61% in Germany with the Samsung Galaxy II, its flagship product.

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Siri now available on jailbroken iOS 5 devices, including iPhone 4

A fully functioning port of the iPhone 4S’s hyped Siri voice assistant is now available for almost all jailbroken Apple mobile devices and huzzah, it’s legal!

The somewhat gimmicky Siri assistant has been the focus of the iPhone 4S’s advertising campaign, and the feature is suspected to be helping fuel major sales for that device. But as the program only officially works on the iPhone 4S, other iPhone owners have been wanting to get in on the action. To date, the options have been either illegal or fairly technical in execution.

But now a new hack called Spire allows for almost any jailbroken iPhone or iPad to run the lusted-after Siri. Specifically, it allows Siri to work on a jailbroken iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, third-gen iPod touch, fourth-gen iPod touch and first-gen iPad.

The free Spire app is available to download from the Cydia app store on jailbroken devices and takes about 100MB of space. The jalibreak developers who created it, Chpwn and Ryan Petrich, recommend users connect to a Wi-Fi network when downloading the app.

One issue that had plagued earlier Siri ports was legality and concerns about copyright infringement. But Chpwn writes that the new app uses a different method to obtain data that makes the app legal. He writes:

Spire uses a new method to obtain the files necessary for Siri, so it doesn’t have the copyright issues encountered by previous attempts. Similarly, rather than directing all traffic through a specific proxy server (and the associated privacy issues), Spire allows you to specify your own proxy server.

Will you give the Spire app a spin on your jailbroken iPhone or iPad?

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