Articles about Samsung

While we wait for Samsung to unveil its new smartphone in a few hours, for your waiting pleasure I've got answers to the question posed last week: "Would you pay Google $399 for unlocked, HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus?" The search and information giant ended April with a May flower: Direct sales of its flagship, Android 4.0 smartphone, presumably because AT&T and T-Mobile aren't doing so.

Google's got a good thing going here for Android enthusiasts, but I've got a problem with the direct sales thing. What Apple offers that its rival can't: Service. People buying iPhone can get defective replacement at local Apple stores. They also can purchase, granted for an extra 99 bucks, AppleCare+, which extends the basic warranty and provides discounted replacements. If you drop and break iPhone 4S, Apple will replace it for $49, up to two times. What's Google going to do for you, if Galaxy Nexus goes bust or you bust it up?

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Apple apologists' brief respite is over. Late last week, IHS iSuppli and Strategy Analytics released first quarter data putting Samsung handset shipments ahead of Nokia, ending the Finnish company's 14-year reign. But the analyst firms couldn't agree on smartphones, with Strategy Analytics positioning Samsung ahead of Apple, but IHS giving the nod to iPhone. The Apple Fanclub clung to the "We're No. 1!" data, unsurprisingly. But the last word comes today from IDC, which corroborates Strategy Analytics, crowning Samsung king in both categories.

"The halcyon days of rapid growth in the smartphone market have been good to Samsung", Kevin Restivo, IDC senior research analyst, says. "Samsung has used its established relationships with carriers in a mix of economically diverse markets to gain share organically and at the expense of former high fliers such as Nokia".

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There was great news on the Android front this week. Samsung reported blow-out earnings, with smartphones -- the majority running Android -- accounting for nearly three-quarters of profits. Meanwhile comScore data spotlights the growing US Android tablet market. Additionally, Google started selling Galaxy Nexus direct, with no carrier contract, for $399. But all three share something in common -- what they foreshadow. Google has lost control of Android, and must swiftly act to regain it.

Forrester Research predicts that proprietary Android will surpass the Google Android ecosystem by 2015. Stated differently, Google's open-source mobile platform risks fracturing into multiple fatally fragmented Android ecosystems. Not one but many. There is little time for Google to demonstrate decisive leadership that can keep the ecosystem largely intact.

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On this solemn Friday morning let us bow our heads in a moment of remembrance. The once mighty Nokia has fallen, after reigning supreme over the cellular handset market for 14 years. Apple succumbed in only three months over smartphones. Long live the king. Samsung leads both markets, according to Strategy Analytics.

I warned you, as did many others. Last week: "Nokia does the Windows Phone death dance". Two weeks ago: "Don't cry for me, iPhone". Samsung shipped 93.5 million phones during first quarter, easily eclipsing Nokia's 82.7 million. Nearly half of Samsung's shipments were smartphones -- 44.5 million, compared to 35.1 million for Apple.

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Though the newest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, has been available for a little more than six months, its availability has been extremely limited. Only 2.9% of Android users were running it first week of April, according to the Android Developer Dashboard.

Samsung on Tuesday released an updated list of the U.S. devices that will receive an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich, bringing its total number of devices with the operating system version up to thirteen.

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Mark April 16th on your calendars as a day to remember -- and not because your taxes are due tomorrow, Americans. The weeks ahead promise cool ways to spend your refunds (assuming the tax man giveth back to you). Some of the best smartphones will arrive this week, with a blockbuster announcement coming in 17 days -- from Nokia and Samsung and another Samsung but with a big dash of Google sprinkled in. And Apple? Aaaaaahnt! Sound the game show buzzer. LTE iPhone is nowhere to be seen.

Coming April 22nd are not one, but two tasty 4G treats. As previously announced, Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone comes to AT&T all decked out in white -- yours for 100 bucks. Meanwhile, announced today, for an extra C Note, Sprint subscribers can get Galaxy Nexus along with fat $50 credit to put in their Google Wallet; the only real Google phone comes to the only national carrier with unlimited data. Looking ahead, Samsung today dispatched invites for a splashy May 3rd launch event -- it's the next Galaxy phone, baby. Don't cry for me, iPhone!

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Today's big Samsung Galaxy Note announcement -- 5 million shipped in five months -- has me wondering "Who?" Is it you?

It's a big number for an over-sized smartphone, under-sized tablet measuring 146.85 x 82.95 x 9.65 mm, weighing 178 grams and packing beastly 5.29-inch display. On Dec. 29, 2011, Samsung announced shipment of 1 million Galaxy Notes. Just weeks ago Samsung put shipments at 2 million. That's a helluva jump in just three weeks.

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What's all this dirty talk about enterprises going gaga for iPads? During Mobile World Congress, Samsung announced that SAP will deploy Galaxy S II smartphones and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets internally. Oh my, perhaps there is a place for Android in the enterprise. But how much room alongside iPad?

SAP CIO Oliver Bussmann says the Android devices will be available to the company's "global workforce as part of our internal device-agnostic strategy. SAP software running on Samsung's Android devices will allow our workforce to do business in the moment". From an enterprise management perspective, he expressed confidence that SAP "can secure our business data on these devices using an extensive range of IT policies".

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Now why is that? I want to know. Don't you?

For weeks, persistent leaks and rumors teased about Samsung Galaxy S III and how the phone wouldn't debut at Mobile World Congress. Boy Genius Report has deets that are to die for: 4.8-inch 1080p display, 1.5GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos processor, 8-megapixel rear and 2MP front-facing cameras, ceramic case, 4G LTE and Ice Cream Sandwich.

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I am seriously having Windows Tablet PC déjà vu. Today, at Mobile World Congress, Samsung unveiled Galaxy Note 10.1 -- a tablet with stylus (okay S Pen, as the South Korean electronics giant calls it). So much for capacitive touchscreen tablets -- really, Apple's emphasis on fingers -- liberating us from the stylus. There are reasons why Tablet PC failed, while iPad succeeded. The pen isn't mightier than the finger.

Galaxy Note 10.1 is essentially a larger version of Galaxy Note, which Samsung is promoting heavily here in the United States. Difference: No telephony on the larger Note, which display is 10.1 inches. AT&T sells the 5.3-inch Note for $299.99, although Amazon has it for half as much. I know three people who bought the smaller Note. Two returned theirs, and the other says he will this week. Reason: The pen, which is supposed to be the device's main benefit. Complaints range from accuracy problems to less need for the stylus than expected.

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Samsung wasted no time announcing new devices during Mobile World Congress 2012, and what a strange lot, too. There's a projector phone and successors to the original Galaxy Tab that, by the specs, are last year's models. That's right, Galaxy Tab 2 has no quad-core processor for you.

Galaxy Beam stays in the past, too, running Android 2.3, rather than newest version Android 4.0 -- aka Ice Cream Sandwich.

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Thursday, ARM announced the release of its Cortex A9 MPCore Processor Optimization Pack for Globalfoundries 28nm-SLP High-K Metal Gate process technology. This will let System-on-Chip designers optimize performance for Cortex A9 and provide typical working performance of up to 2GHz.

This is a significant announcement because Globalfoundries makes chips for many of the leading mobile companies, including Qualcomm's Snapdragon SoC, and most prominently -in terms of market share and promises of 2GHz smartphones in early 2012- Samsung's Exynos.

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Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung on Monday announced its first Android tablet to be powered by Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) will be the 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2.

Though it's called the Galaxy Tab 2, it's actually the third of Samsung's 7" tablets. The first Galaxy Tab debuted in September 2010, and then just about a year later, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 plus was launched.

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iPhone's remarkable fourth-quarter surge -- 37 million units -- lifted the handset ahead of the two previous smartphone leaders, according to Canalys. For full year 2011, Apple shipped 93.1 million smartphones, compared to Samsung's 91.9 million and Nokia's 77.3 million. Nokia, the company that invented the smartphone, has bled share since iPhone launched nearly 5 years ago, but artery versus vein since announcing the switch to Windows Phone from Symbian in February 2011.

Apple's climb to the top followed October's iPhone 4S launch and availability of older 3GS and 4 models for free and $99, respectively. Samsung shipped 35.3 million smartphones in Q4, behind Apple, while Nokia shipped 19.6 million -- a stunning 31 percent decline. By comparison, iPhone shipments surged 128.1 percent for the quarter and 96 percent for the year.

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Corning Incorporated and Samsung Mobile Display Company on Thursday announced they are beginning an equity joint venture in Korea that focuses on making the glass substrate for Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays.

OLEDs were a big topic at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, especially the large-panel TVs sporting the display technology. But OLED tablets were also on the menu, as Toshiba teased with a 7.7" concept tablet with a high contrast AMOLED display.

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