“Gartner, Inc. forecasts that worldwide shipments of wearable devices will reach 225 million in 2019, an increase of 25.8 percent from 2018. End-user spending on wearable devices is forecast to reach $42 billion in 2019. Of that, $16.2 billion will be on smartwatches.” Most of that will likely be earned by Apple as its Apple Watch emerges as a very strong health and fitness monitor.

But what comes next? Gartner prognosticates. “However, Gartner predicts that by 2022, ear-worn devices (“hearables”) shipments will take over as the top wearables segment with 158 million units shipped compared with 115 million smartwatch shipments in 2022.” This kind of makes sense as, more and more, we’ll be chatting with smarter, more intuitive AIs.  The link has a table of sales predictions for the out years.

Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf told CNBC on Wednesday that his firm and Apple are “on the doorstep” of settling their ongoing dispute. He told Mad Money host Jim Cramer that they “do talk as companies.” He reiterated that he believes a resolution is likely in the last part of 2018 or early 2019. Apple has accused Qualcomm of taking an unfair cut of each iPhone. Meanwhile, Qualcomm has accused of Apple of stealing and bartering its trade secrets. Mr. Mollenkopf also discussed 5G rollout in the interview. He predicted that the 5G rollout will start in spring 2019.

“We’ve always talked about — I’ve been very consistent — that … the second half of this year and into next year is when we’re really on the doorstep of finding a resolution and we don’t see anything different than that,” the CEO said.

According to Apple Vice President of Product Marketing, Greg Joswiak, the iPhone XR has “been our most popular iPhone each and every day since the day it became available.” During an interview with CNET on Wednesday, Mr. Joswiak was pushed on the much debated reports that alleged disspointing sales. However, he reiterated that the device has “has been the most popular and best-selling” iPhone since it hit the market. He also said that in recognition of World Aids Day, between 1-7 December Apple will donate $1 for every purchase via Apple Pay made at an Apple Store, on Apple.com and in the Apple Store app. The firm will also turn the logos at 125 Apple Stores red.

Apple’s iPhone XR has been outselling the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max every day since the cheaper, colorful phone hit the market last month. Greg Joswiak, Apple vice president of product marketing, told CNET in an interview Wednesday that the device has “been our most popular iPhone each and every day since the day it became available.”

Microsoft and Apple are now worth nearly the same. A few years ago such a development would have been unthinkable. On Thursday, The New York Times had an interesting piece of analysis by Steve Lohr on how this happened. He said that Microsoft has “built on its strengths,” won its big bet on the cloud and was brave enough to walk away from bets it was losing (such as making smartphones). Mr. Lohr also notes that under CEO Satya Nadella “Microsoft has loosened up” and made its technology and culture more open.

Microsoft has become a case study of how a once-dominant company can build on its strengths and avoid being a prisoner of its past. It has fully embraced cloud computing, abandoned an errant foray into smartphones and returned to its roots as mainly a supplier of technology to business customers.