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Nokia to Lose Smartphone Crown to Samsung, Apple |
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Nokia,
which has led global smartphone shipments since 1996, may soon be
eclipsed by Samsung and Apple, according to analysts, as the phone
maker struggles to reverse its dire fortunes.
A Gartner analyst acknowledged that Samsung " might" overtake Nokia if the Finnish company's third quarter handset efforts aren't well received and Samsung's Galaxy S 2 ramps up, according to Reuters. Others were less certain. " There is certainly a very close three-way battle going on for top spot in global smartphone volumes between Nokia, Apple and Samsung during the second quarter," said Neil Mawston, analyst at Strategy Analytics, to Reuters. News that Nokia is still at the top of the smartphone market may come as a surprise to U.S. consumers, who have seen the company's high-end handsets virtually disappear. Nokia's move to abandon Symbian for Microsoft's Windows Phone accelerated the plummet as buyers shy away from an orphaned platform. In the U.K. market, Nokia's smartphone share plunged to around 11 percent in May, down from 31 percent a year earlier, according to research firm Kantar Worldpanel. If Nokia does give up the top smartphone spot, the question will become whether its Hail Mary play with Windows Phone will fuel a comeback or seal its fate. Nokia's future as well as Microsoft's mobile ambitions will hang in the balance: the software company has pinned its hopes for its new platform, which has failed to gain traction so far, on the staggering phone maker. Gartner predicts Windows Phone will grow to be the number two mobile platform globally by 2015, fueled in part by the Nokia partnership. Few dispute Nokia's ability to make top-notch hardware: it's the software part of the equation that's proved tricky. Even Nomura, which has made the most aggressive prediction of Nokia's fall, acknowledges that the company could quickly come back but doesn't think it's likely. " Market shares in mobile phones have swung greatly in prior years and so a comeback from Nokia is feasible, in our view," Nomura said in its report. " However, we see no evidence of a product led turnaround and continue to see better opportunities among Asian vendors in particular." | |||||||||
IPhone 5 in Final Testing, No 3G Video Chat for Verizon |
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Apple is completing the final step before being put the iPhone 5 into production, which may begin as early as the beginning of July and could be released as early as September.
Along with hinting at the phone's release date, another source is starting several new rumors, while putting others to rest, suggesting Verizon won't support FaceTime over 3G due to technical limitations with the carrier's 3G network, rather than over business disagreements. Apparently Verizon's 3G network is slower than AT& T's and doesn't have the bandwidth or low-latency needed for video conferencing. The iPhone 5 could see FaceTime over 4G in 2012, some speculate, when the network is introduced to Apple products. The third rumbling is that the iPhone 5 won't have an 8-megapixel camera, one of the longest-rumored features of Apple's next-generation handset. The iOS 5 developer kit suggests the phone will keep the 5-megapixel camera found on the iPhone 4. An 8-megapixel camera appeared on prototype specs, including the " N94," the rumored iPhone device running on T-Mobile, but are rebuffed in these latest reports. These rumors join a slew of previous iPhone 5 rumors to surface over the past several months. Early speculation that the next generation iPhone would debut at last week's WorldWide Developers Conference, or WWDC, was debunked when the company opted to announce new versions of iOS, Mac OS X and its new iCloud storage service. Since the company did not mention the iPhone, many predicted a new device wasn't coming until 2012. Last month, the iPhone 5's possible size and pricing were made public when France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard said Apple would be using a smaller SIM card in an attempt to make the device thinner. A smaller SIM card allows Apple to decrease the thickness of the device and save money during production, allowing Apple to sell the phone at a cheaper price. The iPhone 5 has been the white whale for the technology industry for quite some time. The mystery surrounding its features and release date have led to plethora of rumors and speculation that will surely continue until Apple gives the public details. |
IPhone 4 Heads Into Space |
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Apple's iPhone 4 will join NASA astronauts on the space shuttle next month, bringing smartphones to the final frontier.
After the space shuttle Atlantis docks with the International Space Station, crew members will use the devices and the application to conduct several experiments with the phones' cameras, gyroscopes and other sensors. Each device will include step-by-step directions for the astronauts, eliminating the need for printed instructions. " I'm pretty sure this is the very first iPhone to go into space," said Brian Rishikof, Odyssey CEO, who was inspired to create a space experiment based around the iPhone after he learned the device had a gyroscope. " For the kind of work we do, that The crew will conduct four different experiments using the iPhone during its stay in space, including a test to see if space radiation affects computer memory by watching for unintended changes to single bits in the iPhone's RAM. Though the iPhone may be the first Apple product in space conducting scientific experiments, it isn't the first smartphone to enter the final frontier. Late last year, Google sent crates of its Nexus S Android device more than 100,000 feet above the Earth's surface. Along with the devices, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company sent video and digital cameras, radar reflectors, weather balloons and a parachute along for the ride to collect data on the edge of the atmosphere. The Nexus S device still worked at 60,000 feet. Google also partnered with British researchers from the Surrey Space Centre to launch Android-based smartphones into space. The test will see if it is possible to design spacecraft from inexpensive parts, like those used in smartphones. The devices will start orbiting in November or December. " If a smartphone can be proved to work in space, it opens up lots of new technologies to a multitude of people and companies for space who usually can't afford it," said Chris Bridges, lead researcher of the Strand-1 Project. " It's a real game-changer for the industry." The initial small steps by Google and Apple into space may result in giant leaps for the smartphone industry in the future. | |||||||||
More Evidence of 8-Megapixel Camera in IPhone 5 |
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More evidence that Apple’s next-generation iPhone
will features an 8-megapixel rear camera has emerged from suppliers,
adding detail to the device shrouded behind Apple’s famous veil of
secrecy.
DigiTimes report, with the remaining 10 percent coming from Sony. Sony CEO Howard Stringer fed 8-megapixel rumors in April with comments that the company could have trouble fulfilling Apple imaging sensor orders because of earthquake-related damage to its plant in Sendai. DigiTimes also reports that new wafer fabrication at OmniVision foundry partner Taiwan Semiconductor will rise by 40 percent in the third quarter, which would be consistent with the expected iPhone 5 launch window this fall. The rumor mill has by now fleshed out a fairly complete view of the new iPhone, though whether it matches the final product remains to be seen. Some of the latest information points to a concave screen, and earlier rumors suggested that while the iPhone 5's size and shape will remain largely identical, the screen will be slightly enlarged by extending it from edge to edge. Other camera related speculation suggests the camera itself and the flash will be spread farther apart to improve image quality in low light while reducing red-eye. In May, Verizon CEO Fran Shammo said the new iPhone would be a dual-mode device operating on both Verizon's CDMA network and GSM networks like AT& T. This would allow Apple to regain economies of scale lost by having to manufacture a separate version for CDMA carriers like Verizon. Parallel to the " refined iPhone 4" line of prediction are persistent rumors that Apple is working on some kind of smaller, cheaper smartphone that could target entry level buyers or markets in the developing world. |
Worldwide
Mobile Phone Market Grew 20% In Q1 2011, Fueled By Smartphone Boom
According to research firm IDC, the global mobile phone market ballooned in the first quarter of this year, growing 19.8 percent year-over-year, mostly due to the meteoric rise of smartphone shipments, especially in emerging markets. According to the firm’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped 371.8 million units in Q1 2011 compared to 310.5 million units in the first quarter of 2010.
IDC posits that smartphone growth worldwide, particularly in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan, due to the impact of the earthquake and tsunami), Middle East, Africa and Latin America, helped lift the overall market to a record first-quarter high.
Perhaps surprisingly, quite a few handset manufacturers, including feature phone makers such as Micromax and TCL-Alcatel, outpaced the overall market. Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, says this trend contributed to share losses of some top suppliers.
Feature phones still represent the majority of mobile phone shipments, even though they are under increasing pressure from smartphones, but IDC says it does not expect feature phones to disappear quickly as there is still strong demand across the globe.
In the United States, Apple’s iPhone and HTC Thunderbolt were two devices (introduced at Verizon Wireless) that helped keep the smartphone category front and center of the overall mobile phone market last quarter. BlackBerry, iPhone, and Android devices were best sellers, says IDC, and the same trend is visible in Canada.
In Western Europe, Android-based phones and iPhones helped grow the market in the seasonally slow quarter. New devices from HTC, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson sold well in most countries in the high-end tiers.
Apple maintained its number 4 spot on IDC’s Top 5 list (see below) thanks to a record quarter for unit shipments. The company also posted the highest growth rate of the worldwide leaders, with market share rising to 5 percent.
Beleaguered Nokia remains the world’s largest mobile phone maker by volume, although its market share dropped from 34.7 percent to 29.2 percent year-over-year.
The world's largest individual mobile operator by subscribers is China Mobile with over 500 million mobile phone subscribers.[38] Over 50 mobile operators have over 10 million subscribers each, and over 150 mobile operators have at least one million subscribers by the end of 2009 (source wireless intelligence). In February 2010, there were 4.6 billion mobile phone subscribers, a number that is estimated to grow.[39]
Competitive forces emerged in the Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) region at Q3 2010 to the detriment of market leader Nokia. Brands such as Micromax, Nexian, and i-Mobile chipped away at Nokia's market share plus Android powered smartphones also gained momentum across the region at the cost of Nokia.
Based on IDC India, Nokia's market share dropped significantly to 36 percent in the second quarter, from 56.8 percent in the same quarter last year and further drop to 31.5 percent in the third quarter, reflecting the growing share of Chinese and Indian vendors of low-end mobile phones.[40]
Based on IDC in the last quarter of 2010, RIM has been knocked out from the top five list global mobile phone sellers. The number one rank is still Nokia followed by Samsung, LG Electronics, ZTE and Apple. For the first time Chinese ZTE is among the top five list and mainly make of lower cost phones.[41]
For the year of 2010, Sony Ericsson and Motorola are out from the top of five list and have been replaced by LG Electronics and Apple. Significant increase from 16.5 percent to 30.6 percent has been done by many small not yet recognized brands (some of them are new brands) – Others-2. Total sales in 2010 to end users were 1.6 billion units or increase by 31.8 percent from the year of 2009.[42]
At April 6, 2011 market capitalization of HTC surpassed Nokia with $33.8 billion over $33.4 billion respectively. The credit agency was also downgraded Nokia's debt from A2 to A3.[43]
Top Five Mobile Phone Market Share
| Source | Date | Nokia | SAMSUNG | LG | Apple | ZTE | Others | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IDC | Q1/2011 | 29.2% | 18.8% | 6.6% | 5.0% | 4.1% | 36.3% | [44] |
- Source: IDC Worlwide Mobile Phone Trackers, April 28, 2011
- Note: Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors
By year-over-year at Q1, Nokia dropped significantly, but Apple rose significantly, while Others still rose and achieved more than a third of market share. Vendors shipped 371.8 million units in Q1 2011 compared to 310.5 million units in Q1 2010 or growing by 19.8 percent.
Other manufacturers include Audiovox (now UTStarcom), CECT, HTC Corporation, Fujitsu, Kyocera, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Panasonic, Palm, Pantech Wireless Inc., Philips, Qualcomm Inc., Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), Sagem, Sanyo, Sharp, Sierra Wireless, Just5, SK Teletech, T& A Alcatel, Huawei, Trium, Toshiba and Vidalco. There are also specialist communication systems related to (but distinct from) mobile phones.
Dun have to be apple, HTC will do
HTC Profits Double In One Year |
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HTC's
profits have more than doubled since last year, according to its annual
report, thanks to the phone maker's best-selling Android-based devices.
HTC has been raking in the money ever since it adopted Google's Android OS as its mobile platform of choice in 2009. By 2012, analyst firm Gartner predicts Android's platform will run on half the smartphones on the market HTC's success so far makes this possibility seem very real. The company's first quarter profits rose above rival handset-maker Nokia's, propelling HTC into third position in the category of world's largest handset maker by revenue. This achievement is due largely to Android devices like the Thunderbolt handset, which outsold the iPhone in almost 30 percent of Verizon stores. Other HTC successes include the Flyer, an Android-based tablet, along with HTC's new Sensation smartphone. The company also plans to debut its Evo 3D this summer, which, true to its name, will let users watch movies in 3D. HTC is not alone among manufacturers in its success with the Android platform. Even though Samsung reported a loss in the first quarter of this year, its smartphone division is managing some success because of phones like the Nexus S, Infuse and Droid Charge. Also, Acer and Asus recently debuted cost-effective, Android-run tablets, which haven't sold as briskly as Apple's iPad 2, but managed to find a niche in the cheaper end of the market. Motorola, too, has piggybacked on Android's success with its Droid smartphone series and the Atrix, among others, resuscitating the company on the strength of the OS. HTC began its rise in 2002 by making Windows phones, and while it still produces the HD7 and Oxygen, Microsoft's partnership with Nokia could impact its sales in this realm. Nokia and Microsoft are in need of mutual help -- Nokia needs an OS and Microsoft needs a wide consumer base -- so they have agreed to plant Windows Phone on future Nokia handsets, and HTC could be marginalized in its Windows operations once this happens. But HTC could eschew Microsoft's OS if Google's Android continues to spread in popularity at its current rate. Especially now that Google has addressed several developer requests to make it easier for programmers to sell their apps on the Android Marketplace, it's likely the app store will continue to grow and sustain the market for Android phones. At some 250,000 apps already available on the marketplace, Google is quickly catching up to Apple's 350,000 programs. As people develop more apps and build more Android smartphones and tablets, the process becomes a self-perpetuating cycle to draw in consumers. HTC stands to benefit greatly from this loop. HTC forecasts a nearly five to ten percent increase in shipments for the second quarter, projecting a nearly 100 percent boost in next year's profits. | |||||||||||||||||
Facebook, Netflix in Partnership Talks |
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Facebook
and Netflix are reportedly in partnership talks that could see tight
integration between the social network and streaming video, a move that
could impact the way people consume media.
This could be part of a series of partnerships looking to tie music, video and other media into the social networking experience. " Music, TV, news, books -- those types of things I think people just naturally do with their friends," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook chief executive, at the recent G8 conference in France. " I hope we can play a part in enabling those new companies to get built, and companies that are out there producing this great content to become more social." Facebook trades in information about people's interests and social connections, and movies and television are intensely social experiences even when the media is consumed in private, it drives huge amounts of social exchange. Facebook is missing out on much of that, without media integrated into its site, and Netflix isn't really set up to capture it. A partnership would allow each company to capitalize on the others' strength. Netflix could also see a huge boost in customers. Its rapid growth has taken it to 24 million subscribers this year, but Facebook has nearly 700 million users. The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company has yet to fully integrate a social experience onto its site, but adding that layer would increase traffic and time spent on a company that already commands nearly 25 percent of peak Internet traffic. If Netflix accounts become more tightly tied to individual Facebook identities, it would also discourage sharing Netflix subscriptions, to the company's benefit. Besides the wealth of social data Facebook could harvest from the way users interact with media, the company could also generate revenue by encouraging users to pay for content through its our Credits virtual currency (which is purchased with real currency). Facebook has already dabbled with streaming more movie content on its site. A number of Warner films, including " Inception" and " The Dark Night," have been distributed for rentals on the social network this year. A partnership with Netflix would give it access to a much wider swath of TV and film, and create a powerful synergy between two dominant powers in the tech and media worlds. |
TDK Shows Off See-Through Screen |
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TDK recently showed off its transparent mobile display as the race to manufacture see-through cell phones speeds up.
Active-matrix addressed displays look " brighter" and " sharper" than passive-matrix addressed displays of the same size, and generally have quicker response times, producing much better images. AMOLED displays are more complicated and expensive to create, and are used more for larger displays. PMOLED displays are very simple to build and don't cost as much, but are limited to small sizes like a cell phone display. As a PMOLED component, the TDK's UEL476 transparent mobile display is much more power efficient than its counterpart. In addition to the simpler display, TDK's device is able to overcome privacy challenges that often plague similar products due to the transparency of the screen. TDK, though, said it won't be a problem on its device. " The product is a see-through type, but is constructed so that the display contents cannot easily be seen from behind, to protect the user's privacy," said the company. Other details about the screen including operating system and interface, were not announced. The race towards transparent phones took off in 2009 when LG unveiled its GD900, a mobile phone with a transparent keypad design. The device's keypad looks like ice or a piece of glass that slides down from behind the screen. Earlier this year, Aston Martin unveiled its CPT002, a smartphone featuring a transparent sapphire crystal touch screen with a platinum body that contains the electronics, battery and SIM card. The phone is still a prototype and has not been released to the public. While many companies work to create transparent handsets, researchers at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Postdam, Germany are working on a system to replace the physical phone all together. They've created a system that allows a people to use the palm of their hands to input commands into an iPhone. A person uses their finger to press points on their palm where application would be located on the phone's screen. A camera focuses on their palm and sends the images and data back to the device. From transparent to invisible, the smartphone continues to evolve. |
Teen Sells Kidney for IPad 2 |
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A
17-year-old student in China reportedly sold his kidney to black market
organ dealers and used the proceeds to buy Apple products, suggesting
that the company's marketing in the country is enormously effective.
iPad 2 but could not afford it," said the boy, known as Zheng, to the Shanghai Daily. " A broker contacted me on the Internet and said he could help me sell one kidney for 20,000 yuan." Zheng reportedly eventually received 22,000 yuan, or about $3,400. The boy's mother became suspicious when he came home with " a new laptop and Apple handset," according to Shenzhen TV. The discrepancy between " handset" and " iPad" is unexplained. The surgery reportedly took place on April 28, which would have given Zheng a few days to recover before braving the long and occasionally violent lines of Apple fans waiting to buy the new tablet on May 6, when it launched in China. One hopes he didn't buy a gray market version imported from the U.S. -- people reportedly paid about double the U.S. price for early access to the tablet before it was officially available in the country. Apple's iPad 2 has been hard enough to obtain in the U.S., even for people who didn't need to sell an organ to pay for it. Wait times have stretched into weeks for online orders, and retailers have reportedly had trouble keeping the tablets in stock. But Apple products appear to have a special cachet for the Chinese. In April, Chinese villagers in Malaysia reportedly scoured stores selling paper versions of the iPad 2 for burning in a traditional funerary rite. Those who missed out had to settle for paper first-gen iPads or Samsung Galaxy Tabs instead. |
Facebook to Reach 700 Million Members |
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Facebook
is on pace to surpass 700 million members, as the site continues to
expand worldwide to become the preferred social network across the
globe.
Facebook's biggest growth came from Brazil, where the social media company added nearly 2 million new members in May. The Philippines, Mexico and Argentina saw close-to or above one million new people join Facebook in May, and Indonesia bested those figures by adding 1.5 million Facebook friends during that same month. What makes the milestone more notable is that Facebook has been able to break through in countries that already had established social media outlets. Orkut, a social network owned by Google, has dominated in countries like Brazil and India. Half of Orkut's 100 million members come from Brazil with another 40 percent from India. Orkut has dominated in these countries, but if trends continue, the service could have trouble competing with Facebook, which is looking to enhance its service by adding even more dimension and integrating additional services to its site. Recently, Facebook has been in talks with Netflix, the popular online movie rental and streaming service about a possible integration between the two companies. Facebook could begin licensing videos from Netflix so users could watch movies and television shows together through the social network. For example, a person could see his or her friend watching an episode of " Lost," click a link and watch the show right on Facebook in seconds. Facebook's 700 million mark proves its momentum and importance in daily life -- so important that some would choose it over one of the five senses. A recent survey of 7,000 Facebook members ages 16 to 30 found that 53 percent would give up their sense of smell rather than their social networks. If the social networking juggernaut is able to incorporate Netflix and truly become a platform for media and communication, it will have taken another step to ensuring that its users really have no reason to ever leave the site. |