In turn, the fact that manufacturers won't need to worry about software or sourcing
hardware components means they can turn around products more quickly.
Apple's announcement that the company will allow certification of HomeKit devices without requiring a special HomeKit
hardware component means that we can expect a good number of new HomeKit devices in 2018, as well as updates to existing devices to make them compatible with HomeKit.
Not exact matches
This
means there's no way to guarantee that the Ghost Pro will be a more powerful version of the Ghost, both of which are said to be codenames for their respective handsets, but the «Pro» in the name would suggest that the internal
hardware components being used will make this a more powerful phone, so consumers in the region whenever it launches should be able to expect better specifications.
Less
hardware diversity
means being able to share more
components across devices (particularly in the mid-to-low-end models), allowing Samsung to maximize profits while they «further leverage economies of scale.»
Initially it will be 3G connectible, but with a
hardware LTE upgrade (presumably to 4G) available sometime after launch - this could
mean physically adding a
component to the device though which sounds a bit strange.
We've heard that before over the years, which
means there may be some small tweaks that occur as the
hardware ramps up from prototype to full scale production, but for the most part the
hardware design and
components are set.
«If a
hardware partner stops supporting a given device or one of its key
components and stops providing driver updates, firmware updates, or fixes, it may
mean that device will not be able to properly run a future Windows 10 feature update,» a Microsoft spokesperson told the Register.
BlackBerry is using
hardware to establish a Root of Trust chain, which
means that software hacks can not gain access to key
hardware components, so unauthorized changes to the operating system are virtually impossible.
We have, however, seen
hardware manufacturers cease supporting older
components for newer builds of Android, for example the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and 801 chips do not have official drivers for Android Nougat,
meaning large swathes of devices are unlikely to ever be officially updated to the new platform.
Some of this is under the skin, for example, the support for 64 - bit
hardware means access (potentially) to more power efficient
components in the future.
Apart from different
components inside, it's still the same footprint,
meaning the company chose not to go big with its first truly
hardware - based voice - activated speaker.
Importantly, the same TrueDepth
components should be used in all 2018 iPhones, which
means Apple isn't planning any
hardware upgrades at all for the TrueDepth camera on next year's iPhone X successors.