Wednesday Tech Wrap: Apple, Microsoft, Samsung

Apple reported a small but surprising drop in iPhone sales for the first three months of 2017. The company sold 50.8 million iPhones in the last quarter, down 1 percent from an annual basis. Chief Executive Tim Cook said the "pause" was due to customers waiting for the next iPhone, due out in September. However, Apple's shares fell 1.8 percent or $ 2.66 in pre-market trading on Wednesday morning in New York; Apple reported after closing on Tuesday. The stock had hit a record high of $ 147 a share on Tuesday as investors expected a quarter of expansion, Forbes' Brian Solomon said.

The results were mixed in general. While iPhone sales fell, the company was more profitable than expected, making $ 2.10 per share compared to the $ 2.02 expected by analysts, Solomon added.

Microsoft unveiled its next Surface laptop along with the Windows 10 S version of its operating system. "Cloud is still at the heart of its strategy," writes Forbes collaborator Ewan Spence. The surface laptop will ship with a 10-point 13.5-inch multi-point display with a resolution of 2256 x 1504 pixels. As for the competition, Spence believes that Microsoft is looking for Apple's 12-inch MacBook and "the last moments of the MacBook Air."

Patrick Moorhead of Forbes said Microsoft was initially targeting the education market with the new device: "The Surface Laptop is the spearhead of Microsoft's new efforts to accelerate and innovate education, but I think it will quickly Consumers and businesses ".

Samsung has received approval from the South Korean government to test its self-driving car technology on real roads in the country, not only in the test courses. Samsung is not working on the construction of self-driven cars, according to The Korea Herald, but rather the construction of technology that runs on a commercialized Hyundai vehicle. Samsung "plans to develop state-of-the-art sensors and computer modules backed by artificial intelligence and deep learning technologies to enhance the auto-driving capabilities of cars," adds the Herald.

Facebook is releasing "Instant Games" to active monthly Messenger users. The company is also launching new game features that will make it possible for developers to make more engaging games for the chat application, including turn-based games, leaderboards and tournaments. One of the first games to take advantage of the new features will be Zynga Words With Friends, Facebook Messenger product manager Andrea Vaccari said in a blog entry.