For as long as Apple has been selling hundreds of millions of iPhones, it has always been compared to Samsung. That’s because Samsung sells more product than Apple, at least when it comes to smartphones. They certainly don’t beat Apple with tablets and smartwatches.

The reason is simple: Apple builds a small number of iPhone models — though there are more of them this year with the addition of the iPhone X and keeping some older models in stock — while Samsung has loads of models ranging from the relatively cheap to high-priced gear. Indeed, the Galaxy Note 8 only costs slightly less than an iPhone X, but Samsung isn’t normally criticized for its pricing policies. Maybe it’s because of widespread discounts, or because it’s somewhat further removed from the magic thousand dollar threshold.

Quarter after quarter, iPhones sell in greater quantities — often far greater — than any Galaxy smartphone, at least worldwide. And, no, I do not think total sales figures influence Consumer Reports magazine to grant Samsung smartphones slightly higher ratings even though, in several categories, the iPhone scores objectively better.

Among smartwatches, Samsung Galaxy Gear also rates better than an Apple Watch, evidently because of a lower rating for “Readability in bright light.” Not having compared the two side by side, I couldn’t say. How about you, readers?

In any case, there’s a published report that Samsung’s tenure at the top may be ending soon. According to estimated sales and market shares for the top six smartphone brands over the past year from TrendForce, after two quarters where Apple fell further behind Samsung, they might hit the number one spot this quarter.

As you might surmise, that’s due to the apparent success of the iPhone X, which went on sale November 3rd, and remains backordered.

In any case, Samsung’s share of the worldwide market has remained flat or eroded slightly over the past three quarters, according to TrendForce. It was 21.1% in the September quarter, whereas Apple, despite a slight sales increase, dipped to 11.5%.

By the way, TrendForce is a Taiwan-based marketing intelligence firm that counts many major tech companies among its clients, including Amazon, Apple, Dell, Google, HP and Intel. But not, based on their posted client list, Samsung.

For this quarter, TrendForce estimates the iPhone’s market share at 19.1%, and Samsung’s at 18.2%. I suppose there’s also the potential for keeping that status as Apple manages to sync iPhone X supplies with demand through early 2018.

Now don’t forget that Apple doesn’t often sell more gear than other companies in any single category. The Mac has never been number one, not even close. The iPod did capture a big majority of the digital music player market, and I suspect that was largely due to the fact that competing products were, by and large, so bad.

With smartwatches, the Apple Watch has been judged against Fitbit, even though they are only in the same category when you place them in a “wearables” category. Even then, with Apple’s claims of steady double-digit growth, the Apple Watch may now be ahead even when you keep the broader category.

Up until now, the iPhone has been at the top of the heap only on the basis of individual models, not the company’s entire smartphone output. That this might be changing this quarter is indeed a stellar achievement for Apple, especially if you consider all the skepticism and fear mongering about the iPhone X (even when it was referred to as the iPhone 8) for over a year.

In fact, you can only imagine that a product that has been denigrated so consistently would end up being a smash hit except in a perverse way, that publicity, good or bad, is somehow a positive thing. But now that the iPhone X has been reviewed favorably by a number of tech and mainstream media outlets, and has gotten high ratings from customers, its hit status seems assured.

Published reports, in fact, have begun predicting what Apple might do next year. With the apparent success of Face ID, that means extending this biometric to other iPhones. According to industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, who has a decent track record about such matters, Apple is going to offer an even larger version of the iPhone X next year, with a 6.5-inch display, plus a 6.1-inch version of the LCD iPhone Plus. By removing Touch ID, its bezel will also be narrowed.

Now this may be a devil’s advocate view, but having played with the regular and Plus iPhones, I don’t consider the side bezels to be particularly wide. As a practical matter, slight side bezels are enough to allow you to hold the iPhone without your fingers encroaching on screen real estate. The 16:9 aspect ratio is compatible with widescreen videos, whereas the 19.5:9 aspect ratio of the iPhone X is non-standard, and if you subtract the height (width) of the notch, you end up with a somewhat smaller image than the Plus.

Do I make any sense?

I’m not suggesting the iPhone X is inferior to the other iPhones, though. The two models have different tradeoffs, and it’ll be up to Apple’s customers to decide which is better for them. Of course, having a narrower bezel means the same sized display can be packed into a smaller package, or the same size case will accommodate an even larger display. That might be what the rumored 6.1-inch iPhone will be. Will it become the iPhone 9?

And if the iPhone does gain the number one spot in worldwide smartphone sales this quarter, when its market share returns to number two or less, and it will no doubt happen someday, we’ll hear more “Apple is dead” nonsense.

Consumer Reports magazine claims to be incorruptible because it buys all the products it tests and retail, and won’t allow companies to use its reviews in their advertising. On the surface, it all sounds credible. But I’ve long felt that its test results are often unfairly skewed against Apple. Are corporate politics at play?

Indeed, Apple has had a curious history with CR, and you can decide whether it’s received fair treatment. Consider the iPhone 4, released in 2010. Do you remember AntennaGate? If you held the handset in a certain way, reception quality would nosedive. You could see the signal strength dip precipitously in YouTube videos of the time, and it appeared to be a potential source of trouble.

So Steve Jobs sarcastically remarked that you should hold it differently. That suggestion went over like a lead balloon, so Apple invited the media to a press conference where they actually allowed some of them to tour its multibillion dollar antenna test facility. According to Jobs, other smartphones exhibited similar symptoms when held in certain ways, and Apple posted videos of telling examples, but CR still decided not to recommend the iPhone 4. Other mobile handsets were not similarly downgraded.

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This has happened to most of you. You’re preparing dinner or are otherwise occupied. The phone rings, and perhaps the Caller ID indicates a company with which you’re familiar. But when you answer your phone, it’s someone, a stranger, live or recorded, with a bogus offer for a product or service.

One that I receive frequently comes from some alleged travel service claiming that I had stayed at one of their hotels, and they have such a terrific deal for me. But I have to stop what I’m doing, write down the phone number and call them to find out. Of course I never stayed at any of their hotels or resorts, whoever they are.

Now I haven’t checked out any of these offers. I assume they are mostly scams, for why would they call people with fake claims, often using a false Caller ID? A spoofed Caller ID is illegal in the U.S., a violation of the Truth in Caller ID Act. Indeed, this shady practice is also employed by collection agencies, and even if they have a legitimate reason to call you, the practice is still illegal.

Normally, I ignore such telemarketing calls, but sometimes I have a few moments for payback, especially if there’s a live caller at the other end. If it’s a recording, it doesn’t matter what I say. They won’t hear me.

The simplest response is just to inform them that I’m on the FTC’s National Do Not Call Registry. You can put all your phone numbers on the list, and legitimate telemarketers won’t call you unless you’ve previously done business with them and haven’t opted out of callbacks.

When I remind a caller about it, they will often apologize and promise to take my number off their list. Indeed, it’s always possible they are telling me the truth. But it’s up to the telemarketer to purchase the full list of numbers on that registry, and it can cost a lot if a company is marketing to the entire country. If they violate the law, they can be subject to a fine, though I suspect that doesn’t happen very often except in extreme cases.

Perhaps the worst offenders are companies, or hackers, who call and claim your computer has a problem, and they are ready to fix it. Sometimes they assert they are from “Windows technical support,” but they never explicitly state they are from Microsoft. In every case, the Caller ID will be generic, and doesn’t present a company name. Regardless, you can bet that this call is bogus.

Now the obvious solution when you receive a call of this sort is to hang up. The clear goal of these callers is to somehow gain access to your Mac or PC via an online tool, and perform their mischief. They might install ransomware, meaning you’ll have to pay them to regain use. Or they might claim that you have a virus or another problem that they’re happy to fix — for a price.

Indeed, a former client of mine once fell for such a scam, even though I tried to explain to him to be careful about unsolicited phone calls.

So he was having a problem with his Mac mini, nothing serious, and asked if they could help. Evidently they did something that cleared up the problem, but the price was outrageous. He reported paying nearly $400 for their services. Lest we forget, that generation Mac mini cost him $599.

He was lucky his Mac wasn’t hacked. But the next time he called me to help him out, I told him that I expected more than my usual rate to help. After all, he was willing to pay total strangers far more than I would have charged for simple maintenance.

In any case, sometimes I like to mess with the people who claim to know about my computer problems, at least when I have the time. Their reactions can be humorous.

So I might ask what computer they’re talking about, and they’ll often respond, “Your Windows computer.” My favorite response is: “Only fools use a Windows computer. Are you a fool?”

They will usually hang up, or offer a vulgar response first.

Sometimes I’ll address the logic of the situation: “How do you know what kind of computer I have? Are you hacking it?”

That usually shuts them down, until the next call.

Just the other day, I asked: “Which computer are you talking about?” His response: “The one you use for all your work.” I then said: “I use several. Which one are you talking about?”

On that occasion, the caller switched to vulgarisms and hung up, only to call back a few moments later. This time the Caller ID represented a foreign country; New Zealand I believe. When I picked up the phone, I heard a few epithets before he hung up, for good.

I’m sure most of you know that not all of the people who call you have bogus offers to separate you from your hard-earned money. Some may be legitimate telemarketers that received your number from a mailing list service or a company with whom you’ve dealt. But you have every right to ask those companies not to call you. But even if your phone numbers have been  stored on the National Do Not Call Registry, it doesn’t mean you won’t receive any telemarketing calls, but the activity will be sharply reduced.

On your iPhone and other smartphones, you can block a caller, but if the ID is spoofed, it’ll just be different the next time. I do not, however, recommend that you actually talk to those people, as I do sometimes. But I enjoy upsetting their “programming” when I have the time.

After building a business on DVD rentals, Netflix got involved in streaming content direct to you. Certainly the Apple TV was a pioneer in being able to deliver such content to your set. I’ll avoid, for the moment, the current generation and the previous one, since I’m not at all sure the advantages they may offer are worth the extra cash.

Considering a former market leader has a much lower share these days, customers appear to be more interested in price over voice assistants and running apps on their TVs, other than those delivering TV shows and movies.

At one time, it was believed Apple wanted to get into the subscription TV business, roughly in the fashion of Dish Network’s Sling TV, and AT&T’s DirectTV NOW! The service would include a subset of popular cable TV channels, and perhaps the major broadcast networks. The Apple TV was allegedly meant as the forefront of this venture, but that ship appears to have sailed, and in its place is Apple’s nascent effort to produce its own TV content.

While it doesn’t show much in the way of originality, the series version of “Carpool Karaoke: The Series,” derived from James Corden’s TV sketch, was at least something new. But just where is Apple taking this project, or was this show meant as a proof of concept to gauge the public’s reaction?

Then came published reports that Apple planned to spend $1 billion on original TV content, and the venture became all the more serious with stories about the hiring of several seasoned TV executives from Sony TV.

For a short time, there were unconfirmed rumors that Apple might be negotiating to acquire Eon Productions, best known as the production company responsible for James Bond. But all those 007 films have been broadcast on TV dozens and dozens of times. There’s a new film every three years or thereabouts, but would all of that be worth committing several billon dollars for the acquisition?

Why not something new, something original?

The next report about original programming was actually about a planned reboot, a 1980’s fantasy/sci-fi/horror anthology series from Steven Spielberg, “Amazing Stories.”

This doesn’t mean that it won’t be any good. I’ll assume it’ll have the solid production values for which Spielberg and his associates are famous.

But what about something completely new?

Well, the other story was about a new drama featuring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, neither of whom has had a major Hollywood hit for a while.

So according to published reports, Apple has given a two-season order for this series. It’s reportedly about people involved in morning TV shows and is partly based on a book, “Top of the Morning,” from Brian Stelter. The duo will reportedly executive produce the show along with Michael Ellenberg, a former HBO executive. Also reportedly involved is Jay Carson, who previously worked on “House of Cards.”

The deal is “straight to series,” and involves 20 episodes. In other words, there will be no pilot episode first to sell it to a network. In that way, it’s similar to the way Netflix has handled original programming. Apple reportedly won out in competition with Showtime and other networks.

The question, however, is whether this show will be family friendly, or something with a more adult slant. If it’s typical of the approach taken in resurrecting a 30-year-old series originally broadcast by a TV network, it will probably not rise beyond PG, and that’s very much in line with Apple’s image as a company that  builds family-friendly tech gear with a focus on user privacy.

Now a successful TV series doesn’t have to feature explicit language, nudity and sexual situations. The highest rated shows on broadcast television during prime time may sometimes push the boundaries a tad, but seldom contain content that you wouldn’t want your kids to watch.

Take a recent Top 25 survey of American TV shows from Nielsen. The first 10 included sporting events, “The Big Hang Theory,” “60 Minutes,” “NCIS,” and “Dancing with the Stars.”

Compare that with the way Netflix handled its original series debut, with such cutting-edge fare as “Orange is the New Black,” and “House of Cards.”

The key is that Netflix took an approach that was closer to that of the premium cable TV channels, such as HBO and Showtime, as opposed to such broadcast outlets as CBS and NBC.

The real question is how Apple plans to distribute these new shows. Will they join “Carpool Karaoke” as extra content for Apple Music? I suppose it could be rebranded as Apple Music and TV, to make it an all-encompassing service covering different types of content. Perhaps Apple could offer the new shows for sale or rent, but that doesn’t seem to be it either.

Or maybe there will be a new streaming service to compete directly with Netflix with plans to license additional content to flesh out the programming repertoire. Or maybe that’s not it either.

But Apple has not exactly been forthcoming about its plans. All of the reports, at least so far,  have not been officially confirmed, so it’s not at all clear what happens next. However, it’s not that Apple has made any effort to deny the stories, so no doubt news about these and other deals will only intensify interest until the final game plan is announced. That the reports have been published as mainstream stories in such industry trades as “Hollywood Reporter” means you should take them seriously.

I’m not at all interested in a show from a pair of rom-com performers, but I wouldn’t be averse to giving “Amazing Stories” a try; that is, assuming I don’t have to add one more subscription to see it.