Nokia

Samsung leads Apple, Lenovo in China smartphone market

Ed Sutherland ∙ March 11, 2013

An interesting report on what smartphone brand is leading in China leaked over the weekend. It's interesting because most market updates are distributed far and wide. Instead, the South Korean news agency Yonhap published a private report indicating that country's Samsung leads Apple and others in the huge mobile marketplace.

According to the Strategy Analytics report obtained by Yonhap, Samsung is the number one brand in China with 17.7 percent of the market during 2012. Intriguingly, Samsung's rise coincides with a plummeting Nokia, which previously held the top spot...

Nokia files brief in support of Apple’s bid to ban Samsung products

Cody Lee ∙ March 7, 2013

Since Apple won its monumental case against Samsung in California last fall, things haven't really been going its way. Its billion dollar settlement has been nearly cut in half, and its request to ban Samsung's infringing products has been denied.

But it appears that Nokia, of all companies, has been watching the case closely. And according to a new report, it has filed a brief with the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on behalf of Apple, claiming that Judge Koh got it all wrong...

iPhones found to be 300% more reliable than Samsung handsets

Cody Lee ∙ February 22, 2013

Earlier this week, research firm Strategy Analytics issued a report showing that the iPhone 5 and 4S are the two most popular smartphones in the world. The 5 alone accounts for 13% of all smartphones shipped globally.

Today, crowd-sourced trouble-shooting website FixYa shared its own findings on the smartphone space. And according to its data, Apple's handset isn't just the best-selling in the world. It's also [by far] the most reliable...

Gartner: more than half of all handsets sold in 2012 were Apple, Samsung

Ed Sutherland ∙ February 13, 2013

The battle between Apple and Samsung for smartphone supremacy rages on. While the two rivals accounted for more than half of smartphones sold during 2012, demand for the South Korean firm's phones rose nearly 86 percent while iPhone sales rose by around 22 percent last year. According to Gartner, the two companies took No. 1 and No. 3 spots in overall while ranking first and second in the growing market for smartphones, respectively.

This as the cell phone industry saw its first dip in sales since 2009. Other vendors, of course, were left fighting each other for scraps...

Apple, Samsung took 103% of 2012 handset profits

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

We have often written how the handset market is essentially a duopoly of operating systems - iOS and Android - as well as brands: Apple and Samsung. Yesterday came even another way the two are dominating the mobile world - profits. Apple and Samsung accounted for 103 percent of handset profits in 2013, a figure made possible by the zero or negative growth by six of the eight leading handset makers. Apple held 69 percent of handset profits earned in all of 2012, more than double that of the South Korean Samsung, which hauled in 34 percent of phone profits last year, according to Canaccord Genuity...

The iPhone is now one-fourth of the world’s smartphone market

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Lost in all of the talk of Apple's declining profits was that the iPhone now accounts for a quarter of all smartphones shipped globally in 2012.

Although Samsung's triple-digit yearly growth-rate blinded many observers, Apple last year did eek out 47 percent growth.

It was enough to make Apple the only smartphone maker beside the South Korean firm to show any growth at all in 2012. Apple shipped 136.8 million iPhones in 2012, up from 93.1 million units in 2011, according to technology researcher IDC. Wednesday, Apple announced it shipped 47.8 million iPhones during the fourth quarter of last year...

Apple wins key SIM connector patent related to iOS gadgets, Macs – even TVs

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 26, 2012

The United States Patent & Trademark Office on Christmas Day granted Apple a key patent detailing a SIM tray solution for mobile products which incorporates connectors that "may allow SIM cards to be easily removed and replaced". The invention - which also may be resistant to damage by an improper insertion of a SIM card and may provide reliable mechanical performance - is viewed as a strategically important patent grant "in light of the battle between Nokia and Apple over the design of future miniature SIM cards for mobile devices", explains the PatentlyApple blog that tracks Apple's trademark and patent filings...

Samsung passes Nokia as the world’s top phone brand in 2012

Ed Sutherland ∙ December 18, 2012

The cellphone industry has a new king. South Korea's Samsung is #1 in the market, unseating the Finnish-based Nokia after fourteen years. As 2012 wraps up, Samsung is responsible for 29 percent of all cell phone shipments, up from last year's 24 percent.

Conversely, Nokia slips to #2, dropping to 24 percent of the market, a fall from 30 percent posted in 2011. Nokia's departure from a top spot it held since 1998 is largely due to the predominance of smartphones, an area where Samsung thrived and Nokia faltered, according to the hardware research firm iSuppli...

China is now the world’s largest Android smartphone market

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Just how important is China to the top two smartphone platforms: Google's Android and Apple's iOS? The Asian nation is now the largest single market for Android, with the United States a distant second. What's more, half of the smartphones sold in America next year could be Android-powered unless Apple "makes radical changes to its aging iOS", one research firm warns Tuesday.

China is rushing to turn in their feature phones for more powerful smartphones, according to Informa Telecoms & Media. Smartphones grew at an 85 percent clip compared to 2011. That's nearly double the 45 percent year-over-year growth worldwide. Just in 2012 alone, an astounding 786 million smartphones were sold in the 1.33 billion people market...

Has Google just won the iOS maps war?

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEz1sSKCpIc

While most people consider the return of Google Maps to Apple's App Store an all-around positive, one observer sees the move as a 'mixed blessing' for club Cupertino. Not only is the familiar mapping application once again available, but the Android maker Google may now overshadow Apple's own efforts to make a difference in the increasingly competitive mobile mapping arena. As we reported yesterday, the new Google Maps for iOS is the top free app for the iPhone.

Indeed, Google admits the iOS app - which adds turn-by-turn directions - is superior to the Android version from a design standpoint. But for Google, returning to iOS means it also reconnects with iPhone users and a wealth of data...

Looks like it’s gonna be a very Merry Apple Christmas indeed

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

Despite a blitz of advertising and promotions, consumers across the globe are choosing Apple products during the run up to Christmas. After interviewing more than seventy shoppers in ten cities, Reuters reports consumers are not swayed either by Wall Street concerns or Madison Avenue come-ons. Instead, in shopping malls in the US, Europe and Asia, the key is Apple's simplicity.

Samsung - Apple's chief rival - is gaining no converts in shopping malls. Only in Singapore and Bangalore, India did Reuters find consumers picking Samsung products over the iPhone or iPad. In Mexico, despite having a mall covered with ads and displays promoting the South Korean firm's products, the iPad mini is selling like hotcakes...

Apple shares fall 4 percent amid heavy trading and post-Jobs era concerns

Ed Sutherland ∙ December 7, 2012

Questions about Apple's future lead to heavy trading in the technology giant Wednesday afternoon, prompting a 4.2 percent drop to $551.50 per share and an almost 22 percent decline since it's all-time high of $705 in September. More than 17 million shares were traded during midday action on Wall Street. Among questions facing investors: can Apple management perform without Steve Jobs, can the company produce another hit product, and can the iPad maker fend off Android...