The launch of the iPhone 5 and the declining popularity of non-smartphones have made Apple the biggest seller of phones in the U.S. for the first time, research firm Strategy Analytics said Friday.
The firm estimates that Apple shipped 17.7 million iPhones of all kinds to U.S. buyers in the October to December period, meaning it accounted for one in three new phones.
Samsung Electronics of Korea was close behind, shipping 16.8 million phones, including non-smart ones. Samsung has been the largest seller of phones to the U.S. market since 2008, Strategy Analytics said.
Worldwide, Samsung is still the biggest phone vendor with 23 percent of the market, according to another research firm, IDC. Apple is No. 3, with 9.9 percent of the market. Inbetween sits Nokia with 17.9 percent.
Samsung beats Apple even when only smartphones are considered. It shipped 63.7 million units worldwide versus Apple's 47.8 million.
IPhones are more expensive than most Samsung smartphones. So, they're well within reach for U.S. buyers, but not for buyers in the developing world, where cheaper phones running Google's Android operating system dominate.
In the U.S., iPhone sales are usually very strong in the first few months after a new model is released. They then taper off. That means Samsung could regain the smartphone crown as early as this quarter. (Apple's lead was also enhanced because the iPhone 5 launch was done at the start of the fourth quarter to help?maximize sales.)
The NPD Group, another research firm, on Friday said the iPhone 5 was the single most popular phone in the U.S. in the holiday quarter. The Samsung Galaxy S III was No. 2, followed by the older iPhone models, the 4S and 4.?
NBC News also contributed to this report.
? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A growing number of Americans are looking farther south than Mexico, and a bit further east, for their ?medical tourism? needs.
Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory in the Caribbean, has become a top destination of choice for those attempting to bypass the high costs of healthcare in the United States.
According to the Medical Tourism Association, a global non-profit organization raising awareness on medical tourism,?Puerto Rico is joining the game of vying for the billions of dollars spent by people seeking cheaper healthcare abroad.
?Puerto Rico is becoming a prime destination for American medical tourists,? said Renee-Marie Stephano, President of the Medical Tourism Association based out of West Palm Beach, FL.
?Since Puerto Rico is just gaining momentum, it cannot be compared to other countries, but it could catch up very fast,? said Stephano.
With healthcare costs in the U.S. increasing at a rate of 6-percent a year, and insurance coverage decreasing, Latin America has always been a viable solution for Americans looking to save money.
?I saved a lot of money,? said Lorena Romero, with a sigh of relief.
Romero spent two weeks in Puerto Rico on a medical tourism trip through Satori World Medical. The company gives employers the option to send people internationally for their healthcare needs.
And in dire need of a hysterectomy, and trying to avoid high hospital fees in the United States, Romero chose Puerto Rico.
?Everything was paid for. I have no extra medical expenses from that trip,? she said.
?It was either Puerto Rico, Mexico or Turkey,? said Romero. ?I decided Puerto Rico because it would be closer to the U.S. and that way my mom wouldn?t be more worried that we were in some foreign country.?
?It was a wonderful experience. The doctor contacted me months in advance, and let me know step-by-step what was going to happen,? said Romero.
?The nurses would speak in Spanish, but when I responded in English, they responded back in English.?
According to the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, an organization that has monitored medical travel abroad, an estimated 1.6 million Americans would receive medical services abroad in 2012, with a growth rate of 35-percent per year. That?s over 2.1 billion dollars a year spent on healthcare services in other countries, costing the United States billions of dollars in lost revenue.
Countries like Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Brazil and Venezuela, have supported the American demand for cheaper healthcare abroad. Procedures can include anything from orthopedic surgery on hips, knees, back and spine, to cosmetic procedures like breast implants and face-lifts.
Other top destinations for international medical tourists include India, Thailand and other Asian countries.
According to the International Federation of Health Plans, a hip replacement in the U.S. on average would cost around $38,017. In Argentina, that same procedure would cost $3,589. A CT head scan in the U.S. goes for a commercial average of $510 or more. In Chile, that same procedure will cost around $184, and in countries like India, can be as low as $43.
In Puerto Rico, procedures like orthopedic surgery, cardiovascular disease treatment, oncology, neurology procedures, and many more, can be done for 60 to 80-percent less than in the United States, and with the same standards.
As a U.S. territory, all hospitals are required to comply with the U.S. infrastructure standards and be staffed by board certified physicians.
?It is American healthcare at much more affordable prices,? said Stephano.
The cost for supporting the infrastructure of healthcare in Puerto Rico is almost 70 to 80-percent less according to the Medical Tourism Association. The cost of labor for doctors and nurses, healthcare supplies, and equipment, all contribute to Puerto Rico?s lower prices.
Travel to Puerto Rico is also fast and simple for United States Citizens.? U.S. Citizens don?t require visa or a passport; just a government issued identification card.
Since most medical procedures abroad are outpatient, which can include anything from breast implants to dentistry, the patient can be sent home within hours of the surgery, making farther destinations a bit more complicated.
Puerto Rico doesn?t have that problem.
?When traveling to a medical facility away from home, patients look for three qualities ? ease of travel, value and high quality of services, and a safe leisure tourism haven. Puerto Rico has all three,? wrote the Puerto Rico Tourism Company on their website.
Many tourism agencies in Puerto Rico have been attempting to take advantage of that ease, creating travel packages for potential American patients. They offer activities like excursions, shopping, and cultural events, all to be enjoyed before or after the procedure.
?At the present there are over 70 hospital facilities, some that have partnerships with hotels,? writes the company.
?There are also six approved projects that integrate hotel and hospital facilities.?
One of those facilities is the 104-room Hyatt place, with the El Tropical Casino, that sits adjacent to the San Pablo HIMA Bayamon Hospital.
?The Puerto Rico Tourism Company has also provided training and presentations for members of the industry, including hotels and hospitals,? said Luis Rivera-Marin, Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company.
?These efforts are meant to create awareness of this market, and bring members of the industry together to begin a collaborative effort in promoting PR as a medical tourism destination.?
Despite some of the obvious advantages, many U.S. based doctors and lawyers continue to raise red flags about medical travel abroad.
For Jed Kurzban, an attorney in Miami, FL specializing in medical malpractice, he?s witnessed how medical travel abroad can play out of favor for the ?medical tourist.?
?I think it?s always more dangerous to go abroad because it limits your ability to recover (money) if there is wrong done to you,? said Kurzban.
He says it?s not uncommon to have patients seek malpractice abroad, and they usually come up short.
?If they are a out-of-country doctor, it?s very difficult to list them on a verdict form,? which would place them at fault for malpractice. ?So what happens is you end up not being able to recover that money, which is necessary many times for future medical treatments,? said Kurzban.
?But I certainly understand why people do go abroad because health insurance is so expensive.?
For Lorena Romero, she says it was worth her risk.
?Just take the chance,? Said Romero. ?At this point, nobody has the extra money anymore to give to the hospitals. Medical care is just really outrageously expensive. I just say why not. Why not do it??
And as the price of healthcare and insurance in the United States continues to rise, Puerto Rico, and many Latin American countries, will continue to accept those looking for other options.
Alex Pe?a is a freelance foreign correspondent currently covering Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Previously, Pena was based in Nairobi, Kenya covering East Africa for Voice of America TV, and has also filed stories from the Middle East, including the border of Jordan and Syria. He graduated from the journalism program at Florida Gulf Coast University in December 2011.
A new update out today for Angry Birds Star Wars adds 20 new levels to the game for free, via the new Escape From Hoth content pack. It brings new types of enemies via the "mynock pigs," and adds another boss fight into the mix as well as new bonus levels. I don't know how close to canon this is, but it looks like fun and it's a free extension of Angry Birds gameplay.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When nWay began a trial of its dark, sci-fi combat game "ChronoBlade" on Facebook last year, the San Francisco-based startup felt sure it had a hit on its hands.
"First of all, what comes is, 'Wow, I had no idea you could actually do a game of this quality on Facebook,'" said Dave Jones, Chief Creative Officer of nWay, who has worked on "Grand Theft Auto."
Then came some resistance: Jones admits some potential investors and partners questioned how an action-focused game with slick graphics can play to a Facebook audience more accustomed to "Farmville" and other less time-consuming casual games. Others wondered how the game -- which launches this spring -- would gain significant users and revenue on the social network.
But Facebook Inc is betting nWay and a clutch of other developers this year can extend console-style action games beyond Microsoft Corp's Xbox or Sony Corp's PlayStation onto the world's largest social network.
Facebook is spearheading the launch of 10 high-quality games created by third-party developers in 2013 that squarely target so-called hardcore gamers, an atypical audience overlooked thus far against the wealth of family-friendly offerings like Zynga Inc's "Farmville" that now dominate the social network's gaming landscape.
The effort, which began late last year but will accelerate in 2013, is part of Facebook's ongoing objective of making sure its 1 billion-plus users log in and spend more time on the network, which in turn boosts ad revenue. Facebook also takes a cut of its applications' revenue.
Facebook's push into action and battle games follows a meeting in January between companies that make games like "first-person shooters" and Vice President Joe Biden to look for ways to curb gun violence in the wake of the Connecticut school shootings.
Based on the console gaming industry experience, hardcore gamers -- typically men 18 to 30 years old -- spend more time and effort to master fast-paced games such as first-person shooters (Microsoft's "Halo") or real-time strategy games (Activision Blizzard's "StarCraft").
"You'll see a whole set of games hitting in the next two quarters in particular and throughout the year that really start to redefine what people think of Facebook games," Sean Ryan, head of game partnerships at Facebook said in an interview.
Facebook will embrace games from "casual all the way up through first-person shooters, massively multiplayer online games, real-time strategy games - all those types of more core player-versus-player games."
Just as hardcore gamers interact online and form clans in multiplayer games on console game networks like Xbox LIVE, Facebook can be that social layer needed to foster such gaming communities that help popularize titles, Jones said.
GAMING POPULATION
Over a quarter of Facebook's 1.06 billion monthly active users play games, one of the largest gaming communities in the industry, and the social network hopes that can grow.
Facebook also aims to make more revenue from games. Revenue from the area was flat in the fourth quarter from a year ago, the company said on Wednesday without providing details.
The 8-year-old social network takes a 30 percent revenue share from game developers who offer their product free but then charge for virtual goods -- like ammunition and power boosts.
On Wednesday, Facebook's Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman told analysts on a post-earnings conference call that its "games ecosystem continues to show healthy signs of diversification" and suggested that games revenue would grow with increasing user engagement.
To grow its gaming business, Facebook has invested time and resources to work with developers since the summer to bring titles like u4iA's first-person shooter "Offensive Combat" and Plaruim's real-time strategy game "Stormfall: Age of War" alive, Ryan said.
"It doesn't mean we're walking away from other games, but there's no question our focus for 2013 much of it will be about becoming a better platform for core gamers and developers who make those games."
To help users discover them, Facebook added new action and strategy games categories on its App Center that also shows you friends from your list playing those games. It brought back notification messages from game apps -- a feature that had been removed because users found the annoying -- with certain restrictions that stop developers from spamming a gamer.
Developers also rely on word-of-mouth publicity and ads on Facebook's advertising platform to draw in prospective gamers.
"Stormfall" has a player base of 4.5 million and hardcore games were proving to be far more lucrative, said Gabi Shalel, chief marketing officer Of Tel Aviv, Israel-based Plarium.
"Hardcore gamers pay more, play more and generate higher average revenue per user than traditional casual games."
Kixeye, which makes the warfare-strategy game "War Commander," said its gamers spend 20 times more than players of social games, helping it stay profitable over the past three years.
Going forward, nWay's Jones says Facebook must have a defining title that comes along that establishes it as a hardcore gaming spot for gamers.
"Like 'Super Mario' did for Nintendo or 'Halo' on Microsoft, I think it just takes one title to come along, sort of as a benchmark to legitimize the whole thing," he said.
(Reporting By Malathi Nayak; editing by Andrew Hay)
There comes a time every marriage when it?s necessary to tell a tiny little lie. Be it to safeguard?your spouse?s feelings, or to not ?blow a big surprise,? or just keeping the peace, I think we?ve all done it. Although my cover will be COMPLETELY blown when he reads this, I wanted to share a few of the false?statements that I tell my husband, some more often than others. Here are 7 lies I tell my husband:
1. I had a coupon.
Because I actually do use them, let?s say 90% of the time, sometimes this one flies right out of my mouth, without thought. It doesn?t matter whether I have one or not, he still always gives me the same look that asks, ?Do you really need this anyway?? ?I don?t make big purchases without him anyway, so whether he knows the truth or not, I don?t think he really cares.
2. I?m OK.
It doesn?t take a rocket scientist to know that this is a lie when you can see smoke coming from my ears. I?m mumbling under my breath and my nostrils are on permanent flare, but yet I utter those two words, ?I?m OK.? Yes, its an obvious lie, but I tend to think of it as a ?safety measure and ?that it?s in the best interest of everyone that I say it.
3. I?m a big girl, I can take it.
I am the most sensitive soul known to man. When I follow an intricate recipe to make a special gourmet meal, I really want to know the truth, but deep down inside I can?t handle the truth. I also say this when I ask him the dreaded question, ?Does this make me look fat?? I mean really, what is he supposed to say? Whatever he says will probably lead me back to lie #2.
4. Go ahead. I don?t mind. You can have the last piece.
Ugh! This is a hard one. I have so much ?to prove being raised as only child. I?m naturally a selfish and self-indulging person. So, when we?re sharing a decadent dessert after dinner, I really and truly want that last piece, but I choose to take the high road and offer it to seem polite and basically, not-so-greedy.
5. I love your friends.
I am really going to park this one right here, although I do like quite a few of them. Next!
6. I don?t know where it is.
In my opinion, my husband is a hoarder, for a lack of a better term. He is a man of a certain age that still has term papers around our house as well as ?sweaters ?from the same era. I know that by donating a few things of his [to charity] that I am helping the greater good.
7. We?re fine. Don?t worry about us.
Whether he?s out with friends, or missed ?the last leg of his flight home from a business trip, I use this one out of necessity, as well as a courtesy. I don?t want my husband worried about me and the kids while he?s away. I want him to enjoy himself if it?s for pleasure or concentrate on his work if it?s for business. As you can see, I have been quite transparent by writing this and I?m hoping that this will free my soul and be therapeutic for me. Again, I?m pretty sure that my cover is blown once my husband reads this, but maybe this is what our marriage and other marriages actually need? a chance to just come clean.
BMWK ? Do you ever tell an ?untruth? to your spouse?
About the author
Sheree is a wife and WAHM of three who passionately blogs about marriage, family, health tips and more as Smart & Sassy Mom. Sheree is committed to helping blended families and keeping marriages strong, healthy, fun and SPICY!
John Oliver played host at the Crunchies tonight. He's a funny guy who's either British or expert at pretending to be, and he's on the Daily Show, Community and other things so you might recognize him. Also even though he's not a journalist, he pretends to be one, so how fitting is it that he hosted an awards show put on by a bunch of bloggers?
A new update out today for Angry Birds Star Wars adds 20 new levels to the game for free, via the new Escape From Hoth content pack. It brings new types of enemies via the "mynock pigs," and adds another boss fight into the mix as well as new bonus levels. I don't know how close to canon this is, but it looks like fun and it's a free extension of Angry Birds gameplay.
John Oliver played host at the Crunchies tonight. He's a funny guy who's either British or expert at pretending to be, and he's on the Daily Show, Community and other things so you might recognize him. Also even though he's not a journalist, he pretends to be one, so how fitting is it that he hosted an awards show put on by a bunch of bloggers?