Samsung celebrity tweets Galaxy S4 love… from his iPhone

By Cody Lee on Apr 30, 2013

So this would be kind of embarrassing. All-star Spanish tennis player and Samsung spokesman David Ferrer served up a fault this afternoon during his attempt to send out what looks like a sponsored tweet expressing his love for his new Galaxy S4.

The problem? Shortly after Ferrer sent out the tweet, several of his 350,000+ Twitter followers noticed something peculiar about his Samsung shout out—it featured the infamous ‘Twitter for iPhone’ notation, effectively killing all of its credibility… Read More

 

Apple acquires several new imaging patents from Kodak deal

By Cody Lee on Apr 30, 2013

Earlier this year, Kodak completed the sale of more than 1,000 digital imaging patents in an effort to help restructure the company after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It wanted $2 billion for the portfolio, but only garnered $500 million from a group of companies.

That consortium consisted of several tech giants, including Google and Apple. And according to a new report, their names are starting to turn up on transfer filings with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, meaning Kodak’s patents are changing hands… Read More

 

Apple and Samsung to battle it out over damages this fall

By Cody Lee on Apr 30, 2013

It seems like it’s been a while since we’ve heard any news on the Apple/Samsung lawsuit front, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But today, the silence was broken as Judge Lucy Koh issued a new case management order to the two sides.

According to the order, the two will be battling it out over damages from their August trial this fall, with the next hearing scheduled for November 12. Here, Apple will get a chance to get back some of the $500M Koh cut from its settlement earlier this year… Read More

 

Windows Phone ad sees iPhone and Android owners trading insults at wedding

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 29, 2013

Despite the massive marketing blitz, Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform has managed to regain but a fraction of market share lost to iOS and Android in years past. Figuring it could take a page from Samsung’s marketing handbook, Microsoft on Monday published on its YouTube channel a new Windows Phone commercial which takes a mandatory jab at Apple’s iPhone and its Siri digital personal assistant while also poking fun of Gorilla-sized Android devices from Samsung. The funny ad is aimed at boosting Microsoft’s and Nokia’s stagnant sales of Lumia handsets in the United States… Read More

 

A first: smartphone shipments outnumber feature phones

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 26, 2013

For some time, the mobile phone industry has been shifting toward more powerful smartphones and away from basic mobile phones. Now comes word that smartphones outnumber feature phones for the first time. The line was crossed in the first quarter of 2013 with 216.1 million smartphones shipping, accounting for 51.6 percent of all handsets sold. Smartphone shipments grew 41.6 percent during the quarter, up from 152.7 million units shipped during the same period in 2012, one industry research firm announced Thursday… Read More

 

Display shootout: iPhone 5 vs Galaxy S4

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 26, 2013

CEO Tim Cook during an earnings call re-iterated Apple very much remains focused on providing the highest quality mobile screens and argued his company would never compromise the experience by creating a Gorilla-sized iPhone with a subpar display. Specifically, Cook painted color reproduction, power consumption, quality and other factors determining the quality of a mobile screens as progressively suffering on larger displays.

“We would not ship a larger display iPhone while these trade-offs exist,” he said Tuesday. But is that really the case? Display wizards over at DisplayMate took Apple’s iPhone 5 and Samsung’s Galaxy S4 through a battery of tests putting the screens through their paces. The results are surprising… Read More

 

Chitika: iPad usage kept rising in March

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 24, 2013

One day after Apple announced selling 19.5 million iPads during the second quarter, new numbers show the tablet dominated online traffic as late as last month. The device held the market in a stranglehold, controlling 81.9 percent of tablet web traffic in the US and Canada, according to an online advertising network. According to the Chitika Ad Network, the 1.4 percent increase is the first month-on-month advance in the iPad’s share of web traffic since December 2012…. Read More

 

Are Samsung drones trolling Apple?

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 24, 2013

We don’t usually go in for conspiracy theories, but one is drawing quiet a bit of attention – and factual basis. Has corporate giant Samsung, stung by its more than $1 billion patent lawsuit loss to Apple in 2012, waging war on the iPhone maker? A number of signs point to the affirmative, including an apparent tactic to swamp any critics with pro-Samsung comments.

Along with blatant examples of the business press spinning news against Apple and for Samsung, there has been reports of fake Samsung product reviews. Additionally, we’ve seen up-close attempts by pro-Samsung ‘trolls’ to dominate comments… Read More

 

Bono: Apple’s Jony Ive is Obi-Wan of design

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 19, 2013

Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most interesting people for 2013 is packed with profiles of technology leaders. Apple design guru Jony Ive is among those listed, described as a Star Wars’ Obi-Wan leading a team of Jedi employees.

The thread of Apple’s innovation runs through other profiles, including Samsung’s CEO, who is viewed by a former executive of the iPhone maker as carrying on the tradition of Steve Jobs… Read More

 

Google’s Nexus 10 no threat to iPad sales

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 18, 2013

Here’s an interesting tidbit we found this morning: Microsoft’s Surface tablets could actually be outselling Google’s latest Nexus 10. We understand every scuffle between Google and Apple is actually a proxy for the battle between Android and iOS, so the statement by blogger Benedict Evans caught our eyes. According to Evans, the Samsung-made Nexus 10 likely sold around 1.01 million of the Google tablets by the end of March.

This compares to the 1.5 million Surface tablets Microsoft has reportedly sold – not to mention the ten million iPad mini tablets purchased in just the last two months of the fourth quarter in fiscal 2012. While the latest Nexus tablet is no threat to the iPad, the calculations suggest something more important: strong distribution and a well-defined ecosystem can overcome big-name rivals… Read More

 

Samsung admits paying students to lambast rival phones in fake web reviews

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 17, 2013

How low could Samsung go? Apparently as low as hiring students to post fake web reviews that criticize phones by rival HTC. The Seoul, South Korea-headquartered conglomerate is now being probed by fair-trade officials in Taiwan over the scandalous accusations, BBC News reported Thursday.

Samsung on its part confirmed the “unfortunate incident,” arguing it had gone against its “fundamental principles.” The inevitable question arises: are some of those pro-Android thread commentators we see on iDB and many other Apple-focused publications also being paid to pooh-pooh Apple, regardless of the article being discussed? Read More

 

Apple vs Samsung price war in India

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 17, 2013

In another era, Apple and Samsung would be competing gasoline retailers, locked in a war to entice more automobiles to the pump. Update the picture to the 21st century, replace gas with smartphones and you have the modern-day equivalent of a price war playing out in India, according to a Wednesday report.

Android-based Samsung smartphones initially had the majority of the India market to itself. However, now Apple is shaking things up by offering discounts on its iPhone 4 – a move fueling the company’s challenge of rival Samsung.

The South Korean company has responded with discounts on its Galaxy family of products – on top of the current payment plan. Both companies are jockeying to control a market full of potential smartphone buyers… Read More

 

How Samsung changed the game on Apple by focusing on advertising and distribution

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 11, 2013

Diagnosing Apple’s Wall Street woes has become a bit of a cottage industry, prompting some to crown the consumer tech giant a has-been, while other observers point to a resurgent future. Earlier this month, a Forbes business contributor took a shot, claiming South Korea’s Samsung has overtaken Apple using the iPhone maker’s own weapon: promotion.

After knocking out music giant Sony with the iPod, using the iPhone to drive BlackBerry to the fringes and destroying the PC market with the iPad, Apple is “milking” its hard-won gains. Meanwhile, Samsung has plowed revenue back into promotion, outspending Apple by more than four-to-one. Ad attack coupled with Samsung’s much wider footprint helped the Galaxy maker to change the game on Apple… Read More

 

Hero devices help LG join Apple and Samsung at the top of the smartphone food chain

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 11, 2013

LG is now the No. 3 smartphone maker, for the first time, as sales of its higher-end handsets lift it above HTC and other brands scrambling for the scraps left by Apple and Android. Although Samsung and Apple combined for 71.4 percent of the market, sales by the South Korean LG rose to 3.2 percent as HTC fell to fourth place on word of disappointing profits, according to research firm Strategy Analytics… Read More

 

LookAway Player brings Galaxy S4-like Smart Pause eye-tracking to iPhone

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 10, 2013

Samsung has been promoting its eye-tracking technology, which debuted on the Galaxy S3, for some time now. As an S3 owner, I must say I wasn’t impressed with the handset’s ability to automatically shut down the display when looking away: it’s taxing on the battery and not very reliable. With the Galaxy S4, which is scheduled to go on sale by end of April, Samsung is doubling down on eye-tracking with a few related new features like Smart Scroll and Smart Pause.

And now, a new iPhone app has been released which brings the Smart Pause-like functionality to the iPhone… Read More

 

Pro-Samsung paper: Apple excluded Samsung from A7 chip production

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 10, 2013

We’ve been hearing lots of rumors claiming that Apple is taking its lucrative chip biz contract away from Samsung in the final sign that the partnership between the two firms on parts has all but fallen apart. What’s really interesting this time around is that a Korean publication that typically favors Samsung now claims that Apple has excluded Samsung entirely from its next-generation chip development project.

That’s a major development knowing Apple’s been paying billions of dollars to the Galaxy maker’s semiconductor arm to manufacture iDevice processor, using Apple-designed silicon blueprints… Read More

 

Samsung patent war strategy shakeup may happen, chatter suggests

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 8, 2013

Is South Korea’s Samsung preparing to settle ongoing mobile patent disputes with Apple, perhaps curtailing the firm’s dependance on smart phones for future profits?

That’s the conjecture as Samsung’s chairman prepares to meet reporters later this week, following comments on returning from a three-month trip to Japan and Hawaii.

According to one South Korean newspaper, “several pending issues” will be on the plate of Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee… Read More

 

ITC judge finds Samsung guilty of infringing on Apple’s text selection patent

By Cody Lee on Apr 7, 2013

In a decision issued on March 26, but kept classified until earlier this week, an International Trade Commission judge found Samsung to be infringing on Apple’s US RE41,922 patent that covers things like text selection and translucent buttons.

It’s only a preliminary decision, and the judge only found Samsung guilty of infringement on one of two patents listed in the complaint. But if the decision gets upheld, Samsung could once again be looking at a major product ban in the US… Read More

 

German court invalidates Apple’s slide-to-unlock patent, but it’s not big deal

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 5, 2013

A German court ruled invalid Apple’s patent for a sliding touchscreen unlocking image, marking another win for allies of Google’s Android mobile operating. In its ruling in favor of the Google-owned Motorola, the country’s Federal Patent Court slammed the iPhone maker’s slide-to-unlock patent as devoid of “technological innovation.” Still, a long-running patent dispute which began in 2011 may still live on as Apple’s legal team prepares for a round of appeals, according to Friday reports… Read More

 

Apple widens U.S. lead over Samsung, makes ground on Google

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 4, 2013

OMG, Apple is screwed! In another data point proving Apple doomsayers need to re-run their spreadsheets, research firm comScore reported Thursday its latest survey of the United States market for smartphones has found Apple’s iPhone widening its lead over second-ranked Samsung, which has gone up one percentage point to grab a 21.3 percent share of US-owned smartphones during the three month average period ending February 2013.

During the same timeframe, Apple’s slice of the pie has gone up from 35.9 percent in November 2012 to 38.9 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers in February 2013, an increase of 3.9 percentage points. The good news doesn’t stop here: Apple’s iOS has increased 3.9 percentage points to 38.9 percent, matching Apple’s aforementioned smartphone share.

Google’s Android platform, available on numerous devices from dozens of manufacturers, still ranked as the top smartphone platform with a healthy 51.7 percent market share in February 2013, but it has dropped two percentage points from the November 20121 53.7 percent share… Read More

 
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