Apple’s iCloud outage affecting backups

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It’s not been the ideal start to the week for some Apple users who are reportedly experiencing issues syncing data across their Apple devices.

The company has confirmed that an outage has hit its iCloud service and a few users are having issues with backups, syncing of files, photos, calendars and sign-ins.

The outage lasted for a few hours but, as of Monday morning, NZ time, appears to be resolved, according to the Apple website.

This hiccup comes just weeks after another outage affected the company’s cloud storage and media services.

Samsung back to top smartphone spot

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Samsung has reclaimed its spot at the top of the ranks in global shipments of smartphones in Q3 of 2020.

After falling to second place behind Huawei in Q2, the South Korean manufacturer has reclaimed the top place, according to numerous analysts, including Canalys and IDC.

Samsung smartphone shipments grew by 2% in 2020, to 80.2 million units, Canalys said.

Another surprise in the ranking is Xiaomi taking third spot for the first time, and relegating Apple to fourth place.

According to Canalys senior analyst Ben Stanton, these results are a relief for many brands, benefiting from relaxed restrictions to businesses between July and September, across the world.

“But the ramifications of the first-half lockdowns still persist,” Stanton added. “Offline channels, for example, are being increasingly pared back, amid store closures and staff redundancies, and vendors now have to compete harder to attain floorspace. Limited supply of 4G chipsets will cause supply chain bottlenecks and increase production costs.”

New waves of Covid-19 resurgence across Europe and the US could also be a bad sign for the next quarter, as governments begin to bring back restrictions to businesses.

Tablet market continues on steady growth path

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The global tablet market grew 24.9% year-on-year in Q3 of 2020, with shipments up to 47.6 million units, IDC reports.

The analysts say the Covid-19 pandemic is responsible for this boost, with people turning to tablets as a way of facilitating working from home, as well as a form of leisure during lockdown.

With things like dining out and tourism travel down sharply, people have been using their disposable income on technology to keep them connected to the world, IDC pointed out.

Apple remains the top tablet vendor, with 13.9 million units shipped. Samsung remains in the second spot.