Chinese smartphone makers are leading a push to include higher quality audio in smartphones, and handset makers are customizing solutions to provide it, ABI Research reported Friday. Many top- and mid-tier phone makers are breaking away from standard chipsets to include custom technologies that improve the audio quality on both sides of calls, said ABI. It cited Korean smartphone maker Samsung and its Galaxy C9 Pro that uses a Cirrus Logic low-power audio codec combined with an NXP audio amplifier to create an always-on, low-noise, hi-fi audio system. "Handset manufacturers are notorious for removing every penny of extra cost from the mobile phone, but in this case, they are spending a few extra dollars to customize the audio system to satisfy consumer demand for higher quality audio," said analyst Jim Mielke. The trend to improve audio quality is most prevalent in China, “infiltrating lower and lower product tiers every quarter,” said Mielke.

T-Mobile’s “no surprise” Mobile One plan is now in effect, it said Monday in a news release about the product that was announced at CES. Under the plan, subscribers pay the listed price for service with taxes and fees rolled in. “T-Mobile ONE now includes all monthly taxes, surcharges and fees,” the carrier said. “When a family of four signs up to pay $40 each with autopay for the unlimited T-Mobile ONE, they actually pay just that for unlimited wireless service -- per person and not a penny more.”

Samsung will report the cause of Galaxy Note7 “incidents” and the company’s “quality enhancement plan” in a news conference Monday morning (8 p.m. EST, Sunday) in Seoul that will be live-streamed on its website, it said in a Friday announcement. The company will share findings of its own investigations, conducted over several months, along with those from independent “expert organizations,” it said. Samsung will also discuss new measures it put in place in response to the incidents. On Thursday, Samsung began rolling out the Android 7.0 “Nougat” update for its Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge smartphones. The new features enable faster speeds for downloading apps and system software updates, said the company. Updates will allow users to more easily adjust window size in split-screen mode and access up to seven apps simultaneously. The phones will also support Samsung Pass, called a master key that enables users to use their fingerprint to log into select websites and apps. Samsung Pass will soon support mobile banking app integration, said the company.

CTIA published updated “Messaging Principles and Best Practices,” the wireless association said Thursday. The document reflects “the messaging ecosystem’s shared goal of promoting a dynamic and innovative wireless messaging community where communication between consumers and enterprises is made simple and users are protected from unwanted messages,” the group said. The report said U.S. wireless networks carry more than 5 billion text messages daily. “Since 2001, CTIA has helped to convene and facilitate discussion among wireless messaging ecosystem stakeholders,” the group said. “Through this role, CTIA has identified ways to protect and enhance the consumer experience and account for the evolving wireless messaging marketplace.”

Apple could see an uptick in average selling price for iPhones, said Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) co-founder Josh Lowitz in a Thursday report: In the first full quarter of iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus sales, the latest Apple models generated nearly three-fourths of the company’s smartphone sales in the quarter ended Dec. 31. The iPhone 7 was 40 percent of U.S. iPhone sales and the iPhone 7 Plus 32 percent, which CIRP said was a “slightly higher percentage” of iPhone sales than the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus had in the year-ago quarter. The highest priced iPhone 7 Plus had a larger share than the 6s Plus, and the entry-level SE had a smaller share of iPhone sales than the similarly positioned 5s, said the research firm. Among iPhone 7 and 7 Plus buyers, 16 percent upgraded from the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, and 37 percent upgraded from previous generation phones. The 7 and 7 Plus models attracted “mostly loyal iPhone owners, rather than Android owners,” said Mike Levin, CIRP co-founder. Only 15 percent of 7 and 7 Plus buyers switched from an Android phone, consistent with the 14 percent of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus buyers who jumped from Android in the year-ago quarter. CIRP surveyed 500 U.S. Apple customers Dec. 31-Jan.12.

IHS Markit sees the global smartphone installed base growing to more than 6 billion devices in use by 2020, from 4 billion in 2016, the research firm reported Wednesday. “Mobile innovations, new business models and mobile technologies are transforming every adjacent market as the mobile industry diversifies from the maturing smartphone market.” Globally, smartphones and tablets account for more than 60 percent of smart connected consumer devices, up from about 17 percent in 2008, it said. “Smart mobile devices will rapidly become universally adopted throughout the world, enabling innovative smart services, which will transform emerging economies,” it said. “Mobile devices and services are now the hub for people’s entertainment and business lives, as well as for communication. The smartphone has replaced the PC as the most important smart connected device.”

ZTE announced specs for its upcoming crowdfunded Hawkeye smartphone, saying in a Tuesday news release it’s “challenging the way devices are developed” by letting consumers decide throughout the design process what the end product will be. Planned next-generation functions for the phone include an adhesive case that allows users to affix the phone to a wall for hands-free operation and eye-tracking for scrolling through Web pages. Consumers chose the phone’s name and will choose final color and material, said ZTE USA CEO Lixin Cheng. Specs for Hawkeye include the Android N operating system, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625 processor, a 3000 mAH battery, dual rear 12- and 13-megapixel cameras, near-field communications, a fingerprint sensor and hi-fi audio. A $199 limited-time pledge on Kickstarter gets consumers the phone and an adhesive case, with availability slated for September, assuming the goal is met. A disclaimer called the project “all or nothing.” The 5.5-inch phone had 159 backers Tuesday, and had reached $30,472 toward a goal of $500,000 with 32 days to go. The Hawkeye project will be funded only if it reaches its goal by Feb. 18, said ZTE.

Samsung will blame faulty batteries for the Galaxy Note7 fiasco that twice forced the company to recall the flagship smartphone and ultimately scrap it (see 1610130044), Reuters reported Sunday, quoting unnamed sources. Samsung is expected to release a comprehensive report about its investigation into the Note7 debacle Monday, the report said. The company is to release its year-end financial results a day later. Samsung Electronics America President Tim Baxter led his company’s CES news conference saying Samsung soon will release a root-cause report on the Note7, based on “intensive efforts internally and with third-party experts to understand what happened and to make sure it does not happen again" (see 1701040074). Samsung representatives didn’t comment Tuesday.

More than half of U.S. adults have cut the cord and live in cellphone-only homes, according to the latest GfK MRI Survey of the American Consumer released Tuesday. The 52 percent without a landline compares with 26 percent in 2010. The portion of senior citizens in cellphone-only households quadrupled in the past six years, to 23 percent, and millennials (born from 1977 to 1994) climbed to 71 percent from 47 percent. Adults of Hispanic/Latino origin are the most likely to have cut the cord -- at 67 percent. Asian-Americans at 54 percent, whites, 51 percent, and African-Americans, 50 percent, were close to the overall average.

U.S. airlines no longer will be required to make preboarding announcements that the Samsung Galaxy Note7 smartphone is prohibited onboard aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a Tuesday announcement. announced Tuesday. Note7s will still be barred, but the “high degree of public awareness of the ban” means the announcements no longer are needed, the agency said. That Samsung has “successfully recalled” more than 96 percent of the Note7s shipped in the U.S. is evidence of “the awareness of the ban,” it said. The company is continuing its “intensive efforts internally and with third-party experts to understand what happened” with the Note7 “and to make sure it does not happen again," Samsung Electronics America President Tim Baxter said at CES (see 1701040074).