Samsung Smartphone Sales May Pass Apple

Samsung Electronics Co., maker of the Galaxy mobile phone, may have surpassed Nokia Oyj and Apple Inc. in smartphone sales for the first time on demand for devices that run on Android software, a research company said.

Samsung is estimated to have sold between 18 million and 21 million smartphones globally in the April-June quarter, compared with 16.7 million for Nokia and 20.3 million iPhones, Neil Mawston, a London-based analyst at Strategy Analytics, a research company based in Boston, said in an e-mailed response to questions on July 22. The data exclude tablet-computer sales.

The estimates show Google Inc.’s Android is gaining ground on Apple in smartphones as Nokia, which is turning to Microsoft Corp. for software support, struggles to keep up with the pace. Samsung, which also produces low-end phones that aren’t capable of downloading applications, has said it aims to more than double sales of high-end devices this year.

“Samsung’s Android portfolio is selling strongly in most regions,” said Mawston. “Samsung stands a reasonable chance of capturing the top spot on a quarterly basis if it can continue expanding its Android portfolio across high-growth markets like China and Brazil. Samsung and Apple will be at similar levels in smartphones by the end of the year.”

Catching Nokia

Including basic phones, Samsung will probably have a 20 percent share this year, compared with Nokia’s 26 percent, closing the gap between the world’s two largest handset makers to the narrowest ever, he said.

Samsung wasn’t immediately able to verify the figures, said Nam Ki Yung, a Seoul-based spokesman for the Suwon, South Korea- based company. Steve Park, a Seoul-based spokesman for Apple, declined to comment.

Cherry Gong, a Nokia spokeswoman in China, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Samsung fell 0.4 percent to 847,000 won at the 3:00 p.m. close in Seoul, while South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index lost 1 percent. The shares have declined 11 percent this year.

Samsung’s global smartphone sales had lagged behind Nokia, Apple and Research in Motion Ltd. in the first quarter, according to researcher International Data Corp.

The South Korean company’s sales are accelerating after it began selling the Galaxy S II, a successor to its best-selling Android device introduced last year to counter Apple.

New Galaxy

Samsung planned to roll out the model in 120 countries through 140 operators from May, the company said in April. The latest Galaxy handset went on sale last week in five cities in China, including Beijing and Shanghai, as the company seeks to make a push into the world’s largest market for mobile phones.

The latest 4.27-inch Galaxy phone, unveiled in February, helped Samsung more than double operating profit at its mobile phone business in the second quarter, according to five analysts polled by Bloomberg News.

Apple reported net income that beat estimates on July 19, lifted by record sales of iPhones and iPads. In contrast, Nokia reported its first quarterly loss since 2009 as the Finnish company struggles to sell handsets based on its 10-year-old Symbian software.

Cupertino, California-based Apple plans to introduce a new iPhone in September that boasts a stronger chip for processing data and a more advanced camera, two people familiar with the product said last month.

Lawsuits

Apple sued Samsung in April, claiming the Galaxy products “slavishly” copied technologies and designs used in the iPad and iPhone. The suit against Samsung added to its patent fights with Android-device makers including Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and HTC Corp., with the Google software gaining market share.

Android’s share will rise to 44 percent by 2015 from 39 percent this year, according to a forecast by IDC. Global sales of smartphones will soar 55 percent to 472 million units this year, according to the researcher.

Samsung is also tapping consumers looking for lower-priced models with devices using its own Bada software. It plans to introduce a new model based on the system in the second half, J.K. Shin, head of Samsung’s mobile-phone division, said July 20.

The debut of a new iPhone may slow the momentum for Samsung, Mawston said.

“Samsung will need to work hard to hold off that competitive threat,” he said.

Thank you :
http://thumbsup.in.th/tag/samsung/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-24/samsung-may-have-surpassed-nokia-apple-in-second-quarter-smartphone-sales.html

Google+ Users Irked at Surge in Deleted Accounts

Within the last day or so there has been a surge in the number of Google+ accounts that have been suspended as part of the social network's real name policy, reports Violet Blue for ZDNet who mentioned the likes of writer and editor A.V. Flox, rapper Doctor Popular and Limor Fried who recently graced the cover of Wired Magazine. Fried's account was later reinstated.

Google requires that G+ profiles use real names and not pseudonyms.

But some people feel there are good reasons to use a fake name. "Political dissidents may want to avoid persecution. Those who've been harassed may want to avoid more of it. And plenty of people want both online interactions and privacy," wrote Stephen Shankland for CNET recently. Google employee and "psuedonymity" proponent Kirrily "Skud" Robert agrees. Also making Blue's list of the banned, she's currently collecting data from others whose accounts have also been suspended.

And some people have even lost access to all of their Google accounts.

One person quoted in Blue's article wrote, "To be clear, the stories we're hearing so far are of people being suddenly frozen out of EVERYTHING, all their data and resources, not just one or a few Google functions. Given who we early adopters are, even a few more days of this unreasonable behavior could abort the whole G+ effort."

Some people are even getting banned without knowing why.

A diatribe written by @thomasmonopoly is currently getting lots of attention on Twitter. Here's an excerpt:

"On July 15 2011 you turned off my entire Google account. You had absolutely no reason to do this, despite your automated message telling me your system "perceived a violation." I did not violate any Terms of Service, either Google's or account specific ToS, and your refusal to provide me with any proof otherwise makes me absolutely certain of this. And I would like to bring to your attention how much damage your carelessness has done. My Google account was tied to nearly every product Google has developed, meaning that I lost everything in those accounts as well."

Most people probably can't imagine such a grim scenario. Personally, my Google accounts contain data that has taken years to amass. Losing access to them would feel like nothing short of robbery.

• See more like this:
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  Thank you :
  http://www.pcworld.com/article/236450/google_users_irked_at_surge_in_deleted_accounts.html

Smartphone Review : T-Mobile G2x

The good: The T-Mobile G2x features a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor that delivers great performance. It also has a sharp design, plenty of multimedia features, and HSPA+ speeds.

The bad: The T-Mobile G2x's photo quality did not meet our expectations. The call quality could also be slightly better.

The bottom line: The T-Mobile G2x's simple Android interface, blazingly fast speeds, and polished look make it the phone to beat in T-Mobile's lineup.

When LG introduced the world to the LG Optimus 2X late last year we were suitably impressed by its dual-core processor and multimedia capabilities, but because LG has a history of not importing its high-end devices into the U.S., we held out little hope that it would hop across the pond.

Fortunately, we were proved wrong. At CTIA 2011 in Orlando, Fla., LG introduced the T-Mobile G2x, which is essentially a T-Mobile USA-branded version of the Optimus 2X. Available now for $199.99 with a two-year contract, it boasts an impressive 1GHz Nvidia dual-core processor, great specs, support for T-Mobile's HSPA+ network, and all-around good looks. Sure, it's running Android 2.2 at launch, but LG promises it will be upgradable to version 2.3 in the future and Android fans will appreciate the stock Android interface.

Also notable is that the T-Mobile G2x is T-Mobile's first "G-series" phone not made by HTC (unlike the T-Mobile G1 and T-Mobile G2). This underscores T-Mobile's confidence in LG; we hope the G2x is the first of many excellent LG smartphones to make their marks on the U.S. market.


Design
When you hold it in your hands, there is no doubt that the T-Mobile G2x is a premium handset. At 4.9 inches long by 2.5 inches wide by 0.4 inch thick, the G2x features smooth, rounded corners and is clad in a matte soft-touch finish on the back, with a seamless piano-black face and attractive gunmetal-gray accents around the sides. At 5 ounces, the G2x also has a certain heft that gives it a solid and luxurious feel in the hand.

The T-Mobile G2x has a beautiful 4-inch WVGA display.

The 4-inch IPS touch-screen display is simply stunning. The WVGA resolution provides crystal-clear sharpness, with vibrant colors and impressive detail. This is especially evident when playing games and HD video. It's not quite as vivid as the Super AMOLED screen on the Samsung Galaxy S 4G or the qHD display on the Motorola Atrix 4G, but it still offers rich colors and great graphics.

The touch screen is really responsive, requiring only a simple tap for a touch to register, and thanks to the dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, we were also amazed by how zippy the navigation felt. Simple tasks like scrolling through a Web page or launching an application felt that much quicker. Even the accelerometer kicked in faster when switching from portrait to landscape mode. The G2x comes with a gyroscopic sensor as well.

Beneath the display are the usual Android shortcut keys in the form of touch-sensitive buttons for menu, home, back, and search. On the top right of the phone is the front-facing camera. There are a couple of external speakers on the bottom along with the Micro-USB charging port. The volume rocker is on the right, and the 3.5mm headset jack, HDMI port, and power/screen lock button are on the top. The microSD card slot is located behind the battery cover, but you don't need to remove the battery to access it. On the back of the phone are the camera lens and LED flash.

T-Mobile packages the G2x with an AC adapter, a USB cable, and reference material.

Features
The T-Mobile G2x's feature set is an embarrassment of riches, with plenty of advanced smartphone technology that promises to provide speed and multimedia prowess. As we mentioned, it has the highly praised 1GHz Nvidia dual-core Tegra 2 processor. It does have only 512MB of RAM, but we didn't notice any performance drawbacks in real-world tests. Transitions between menus felt snappy, and we jumped through different points in an HD video clip with zero jittering.

To prove the strength of the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor even further, LG has included the Nvidia Tegra Zone app with the phone. The app lets you easily find, purchase, and download games that take advantage of the Nvidia processor. The G2x comes with Nova and Need for Speed Shift, and we have to say that both games performed very well in our initial tests. Graphics were very smooth and we experienced zero lag time during gameplay.

Because of all this power, it's no surprise that the G2x comes equipped with multimedia features galore. It has a Micro-HDMI port so you can hook up the phone to a big-screen television, and with mirroring mode, you can see on the TV whatever is on your phone. If you want to go wireless, the G2x also supports DLNA, a technology that lets you share media on your phone with other DLNA devices wirelessly. The G2x also comes with T-Mobile TV, a T-Mobile service that gives you access to live and on-demand TV.

If you would rather watch your own movies, the G2x comes with 8GB of internal storage. This might not seem like a lot, but you can load additional media onto a microSD card--the phone supports up to 32GB of extra storage. To get content onto your device, you can treat the phone like a mass storage device by dragging and dropping media, or you can use the DoubleTwist software to sync content wirelessly.

The T-Mobile G2x has an 8-megapixel camera and LED flash on the back.

One of the other benefits of the dual-core processor is that the phone supports full HD 1080p video playback. In addition, the G2x can record video in 1080p with its 8-megapixel camera. The short video clips we recorded looked pretty impressive, considering they are from a phone. We don't think video quality quite compares to that of a professional quality camera, but for family videos or simple YouTube clips, it works great.

Thank you:
http://androidandme.com/2011/03/phones/t-mobile-g2x-confirmed-as-first-dual-core-phone-with-stock-android/
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12261_7-20044830-10356022.html
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/T-Mobile-G2x_id5272
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/05/25/t-mobile-g2x-pulled-from-shelves-due-to-quality-issues/
http://www.gforgames.com/gadgets/news-gadgets/tmobile-lg-g2x-optimus-2x-overview-release-date-specs-6827/
http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/t-mobile-g2x/4505-6452_7-34550510.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody#reviewPage1

HTC Flyer Review

The good: Fans of 7-inch tablets will appreciate the HTC Flyer's screen quality, durable construction, HD video recording, and unique features, such as digital pen compatibility and HTC's Sense UI customization.

The bad: The Flyer is small, thick, and pricey, and isn't running Google's Android 3.0 tablet OS. Its most unique feature, the Magic Pen, may not come included and is expensive to replace.

The bottom line: The HTC Flyer puts a new spin on the 7-inch Android tablet, but its high price and smartphone-style OS are a tough sell next to its bigger, cheaper Honeycomb kin.

While the rest of the industry is rushing to produce 10-inch tablets that compete directly against the Apple iPad 2, HTC is throwing out a curveball called the HTC Flyer. Using a 7-inch screen and running Android 2.3, the HTC Flyer feels like an echo of 2010's Samsung Galaxy Tab. Its pricing is also a little behind the times, with a 16GB model priced at $499 in a time when dual-core 10-inch tablets can be had for a hundred dollars less.

Does the Flyer have its head in the sand, or is this portable 7-inch tablet worth every penny? Let's take a look.

Hardware design
The Flyer looks and feels like a high-end take on the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The 7-inch screen size and surrounding bezel are identical, but HTC wraps its tablet in iPad-like aluminum with two strips of nonslip rubber padding on the back. With a little brute force, the topmost rubber fitting can be removed to reveal a microSD memory expansion slot, which is a convenient design trick adopted from the world of smartphones.

Across the bottom of the screen you'll find the typical trio of Android smartphone navigation buttons (Home, Menu, and Back) along with an illuminated button that responds only to HTC's optional Magic Pen accessory, which we'll explain in the next section. One impressive feature of the navigation controls is that they'll reorient to the bottom of the screen regardless of whether you're holding the tablet in portrait or landscape. It's a neat and practical trick, and one we haven't seen before. That said, it's a trick that today's Android 3.0 tablets don't need to employ, since all navigation is moved to the screen.

On the top edge of the Flyer you'll find a headphone jack and a power button/screen lock. The right edge offers an ample-size volume rocker along with two pinhole microphones. The back holds a pair of small speaker grilles and a 5-megapixel camera lens capable of HD video recording (though lacking an integrated flash).

On the bottom edge of the Flyer is a unique 12-pin Micro-USB port, compatible with the included USB sync cable and charging adapter. At first blush, we found it annoying that HTC would use a specialized connector for syncing and charging, but it turns out that our old trusty five-pin Micro-USB (type B) cable works just fine. All those extra pins are just there for HTC's line of audio/video output accessories. In the end, it's a model example of how manufacturers can maintain basic connection standards, while still incorporating specialized accessories.

Overall, the HTC Flyer is a solidly built little tablet with a lot of attention paid to details. But in comparison with Apple's highly successful iPad 2, the HTC Flyer is relatively thick and its screen area is around half that of the iPad. There's an argument to be made for tablets with the Flyer's smaller, more portable screen size, but for us, the experience often overlaps too much with using a smartphone and still feels constricted for Web browsing.

The back of the HTC Flyer is a mixture of aluminum and white rubber, offering durability and an expensive feel.

Features
As a 7-inch tablet running Android 2.3, the Flyer doesn't show us much we haven't seen on the Samsung Galaxy Tab running Android 2.2. Granted, we do appreciate HTC's Sense UI customizations for social network feeds and commonly used applications (Mail, Internet, Stocks, Weather, Reader), but that hardly makes up for the $150 premium over the Tab. There are a few little things that made us smile, such as Adobe Flash 10.1 being preinstalled, and the browser's default setting to load full sites instead of their mobile-optimized versions. Still, these are refinements of an OS designed for smartphones, at a time when Google is pushing a distinctly different OS (Honeycomb) for use on tablets. It's going too far to say that HTC is putting lipstick on a pig, but HTC is definitely putting considerable effort into dressing up Android 2.3 to make it tablet-worthy.

Thank you:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-buy-launching-wi-fi-htc-flyer-may-22/
http://www.mobilegazette.com/htc-flyer-11x02x15.htm
http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/28700/htc-flyer/
http://www.businessinsider.com/htc-flyer-tablet-launching-at-best-buy-may-22-2011-5
http://reviews.cnet.com/tablets/htc-flyer/4505-3126_7-34505385.html?tag=productCarousel;carouselOverviews#reviewPage1

Apple launches new 27-inch Thunderbolt Display, Mac mini

Coinciding with the launch of Mac OS X Lion and the revamped MacBook Air, Apple has unleashed a new high-resolution display and Mac mini, both of which advance Apple's adoption of Thunderbolt connectivity (formerly known as Light Peak). Set to ship in the next 60 days, the 27-inch Thunderbolt Display is billed as the "ultimate docking station" for Mac notebooks as the display can use one Thunderbolt cable to transmit power and visuals, or to daisy chain up to five additional external devices.

The Thunderbolt Display sports an LED-backlit IPS panel that touts a resolution of 2560x1440 and 178-degree viewing angles. It's also outfitted with an ambient light sensor that tweaks the brightness based on external lighting conditions, a built-in "FaceTime HD" webcam and mic, a 2.1 speaker system, as well as an integrated MagSafe charger to keep MacBooks charged. Aside from Thunderbolt, connectivity includes three USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and Gigabit Ethernet. Pricing is set at $999.

Meanwhile, the new Mac mini crams more speed and functionality in the same compact aluminum body as its predecessors. Three base configurations are available starting at $599, which gets you a 2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, 2GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM, and a 500GB 5400RPM HDD. For $799, that's upgraded to a 2.5GHz dual-core Core i5, 4GB of RAM, and an AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics chip. A third, server-oriented system wields a 2GHz quad-core i7 and dual 500GB 7200RPM HDDs for $999.

If desired, the two non-server configurations can be equipped with a 2.7GHz Core i7, 8GB of RAM, a 750GB HDD or 256GB SSD (or both), which pushes the fee north of $1,800. All systems come with a Thunderbolt port, four USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, an HDMI port, an SDXC card slot, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0, audio jacks, as well as a built-in power supply and speaker system. Mac OS X Lion is preinstalled on the dual-core models, while the quad-core server build gets Lion Server.

Thank you :
http://www.techspot.com/news/44771-apple-launches-new-27-inch-thunderbolt-display-mac-mini.html