IDC: Apple, Android own 92% smartphone volume, Windows Phone beats BlackBerry

By Ed Sutherland on May 16, 2013

Just days after rival research firm Gartner released quarterly sales for iOS and Android, rival IDC today announced similar numbers for shipments of smartphones. Combined, iOS and Android maintained their stranglehold on the smartphone market, accounting for more than an astounding 92 percent of shipments during the first quarter of 2013.

In a surprising move, shipments of the Windows Phone smartphone operating system surpassed the BlackBerry OS, putting Microsoft in third place behind Android and iOS. I bet you didn’t see that one coming… 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

 

Apple claimed $3 out of each $4 top app stores made in Q1

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 9, 2013

In the latest sign of the importance apps play in smartphone adoption, more than thirteen billion downloads were recorded during the first three months of 2013, according to a Monday report.

The survey of the four leading app stores also found Apple, Google and others earned $2.2 billion from apps, an eleven percent increase over the final quarter of 2012.

Whereas Apple leads in terms of revenue – and by a large margin, too – Google’s Play Store, thanks to a large installed base of Android devices, has the upper hand in terms of download count. Specifically, the App Store collected 74 percent of the revenue of top app stores, while Google Play led registered 51 percent of apps obtained… Read More

 

Chart: how US mobile landscape changed in 7 years

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 21, 2013

Research firm comScore today released a comprehensive report on mobile landscape in the United States and elsewhere and one particular chart stands out as another example of how the smartphone market is a duopoly between iOS and Android, with Apple and Samsung increasingly taking industry’s profits at the expense of – well, pretty much every other handset maker out there.

Spanning 2005-2012, the chart paints an accurate picture of platform dynamics when it comes to the competitive market for connected mobile devices… Read More

 

Vevo wants to become the next MTV, launches always-on broadcast channel

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 12, 2013

Today at SXSW, Vevo announced a 24/7 channel coming to your traditional television via the Roku set-top box and the Xbox gaming console, but also to the Vevo web site and mobile platforms like Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows Phone. As you know, Vevo streams official music videos licensed from record labels, both through its web site and via a dedicated YouTube channel, where most of its 52 million monthly uniques come from.

Vevo’s mobile apps will be updated with an around-the-clock curated experience of original programming, including live concerts and television shows. The experience is being described as multicast, meaning everyone gets to watch the same programming at the exact same time, regardless of the platform they’re accessing it from. Vevo TV will even feature a 24-hour schedule of static programming blocks, just like your regular dumb-ified tube… Read More

 

This year, smartphones should outship feature phones for the first time

By Ed Sutherland on Mar 4, 2013

It has already happened in the United States and now comes word 2013 will mark the date when smartphones outsell simpler so-called feature phones globally. More than 918 million smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone will ship this year, for the first time outnumbering feature phones.

According to research firm IDC, a nice 50.1 percent of mobile phones shipped this year will be smartphones, most destined for China. However, that small lead should widen greatly by 2017 as more emerging nations increase adoption of the powerful mobile devices… Read More

 

Is Apple losing its coolness edge to Microsoft and Android?

By Ed Sutherland on Feb 21, 2013

In the contest for coolness, the amorphous concept potentially driving young consumers to smartphones, tablets and other devices, Apple has some competition. While the iPhone maker is seen as cooler now than previously by 60 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds, even more people point to Android as the king of cool.

Even more surprising is Microsoft apparently isn’t your father’s software giant. The Windows maker – long viewed as buttoned-down and behind the technology curve – has revamped its image, thanks largely to the firm’s smartphone and Surface tablet… Read More

 

Poll: my next cell phone will be…

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 21, 2013

These days, it’s all but impossible to escape Apple hate speech. You know who to blame: big media. I mean, stock manipulators played even the credulous Wall Street Journal. It’s not just WSJ – or NYT or Reuters, for that matter.

Anti-Apple Forbes hit new lows with clickbait headlines like this one or this one. And as crazypants analysts voice their concern regarding “Apple’s lack of a strategy in the lower-end phone”, they at the same time continue to hallucinate about a happiness or time travel machine from Apple.

And all of them get an assistance from traffic-hungry journalists like Dan Lyons whose write-ups sound bitter and idiotic. But in spite of all that FUD talk, Apple is demolishing Android in every metric that matters. None of this frenzy should matter when considering your next cell phone.

But real life can be a bitch and with so much negative publicity mounting ahead of Apple’s earnings report, no wonder some of the faint-hearted fans are beginning to question their faith in the California firm. I know where my heart stands, but I want to know one thing: do you know where your heart stands? So, what’s your next phone gonna be? Read More

 

Microsoft launches free natural disaster helper app

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 16, 2013

Available now as a free download on Windows Phone, Android and iPhone, HelpBridge is Microsoft’s new mobile app that everybody should have on their handset, just in case. Should you, God forbid, ever find yourself at the epicenter of a large scale natural disaster like Hurricane Sandy, the software will help you connect with those that matter to you most.

As a bonus, you can also use HelpBridge to rally everyone around one cause – that is, donate your money, time and resources to support relief and rebuilding efforts. The above clip shows off the Windows Phone version of HelpBridge, but you get the idea… Read More

 

AT&T confirms ‘best-ever’ sales of iPhone and Android smartphones

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 8, 2013

Ahead of its earnings call pertaining to calendar 2012 fourth-quarter results scheduled for January 24, carrier AT&T just announced, reporting ‘best-ever’ sales of Apple and Android smartphones. The Dallas, Texas wireless company sold a record ten million smartphones powered by Apple’s and Google’s platform during the holiday quarter of 2012 as Android and iPhone sales hit all-time highs. The figure beats the year-ago quarter when AT&T moved 9.4 million smartphones, 7.6 million of them being iPhones.

The “best-ever quarterly sales of Android and Apple smartphones”, according to AT&T Mobility President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph de la Vega, came down to an average of 110,000 smartphone sales each day. “These are the industry’s most valuable postpaid subscribers with average revenues twice that of non-smartphone subscribers”, he noted… Read More

 

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

By Ed Sutherland on Dec 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… Read More

 

China is now the world’s largest Android smartphone market

By Ed Sutherland on Dec 18, 2012

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… Read More

 

Another survey says more than half want an iPhone 5 for Christmas

By Ed Sutherland on Dec 13, 2012

After getting off to a shaky start, more than half of consumers shopping for a smartphone plan to buy an iPhone 5, according to a new Wall Street survey. Likewise, Twitter chatter indicates a growing number of Internet users hope to find Apple’s new handset under the Christmas tree.

Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster told investors Thursday that 53.3 percent of a group polled Wednesday said they plan to purchase the iPhone 5 over the next month. That number is just slightly below the 54.9 percent found in mid-October, following the new smartphone’s launch… Read More

 

RIM lost Nokia suit, now faces BlackBerry ban

By Christian Zibreg on Nov 28, 2012

An interesting opportunity has presented itself to Microsoft following news that Canada-based Research In Motion has lost a legal dispute with Nokia over wireless technology patents. As a result, RIM could see BlackBerry handsets banned unless it agrees to pay royalties to Nokia. As things stand, Nokia has already filed cases in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom to enforce the ruling, a move that could see all Blackberry smartphones removed from store shelves.

“In order to enforce the Tribunal’s ruling, we have now filed actions in the US, UK and Canada with the aim of ending RIM’s breach of contract”, Nokia said in a statement. If the courts enforce the sales ban, consequences for the ailing BlackBerry maker could be devastating while opening door to Microsoft’s Windows Phone becoming the #3 mobile platform… Read More

 

Ad assault: Windows Phone commercials are heavy on celebs and great overall

By Christian Zibreg on Nov 12, 2012

Microsoft is sparing no expense in promoting its freshly updated Windows Phone software platform. The massive advertising blitz that will end up costing billions over the next twelve months kicked off during NFL games on Sunday with a series of effective commercials. They’re all heavy on celebs who explain how Windows Phone makes their lives more personal.

The basic message the campaign wants to instill in the mind of the consumer is that Windows Phone is “reinvented around you” (it reminds a bit of the “inspired by nature, designed by humans” tagline for Samsung’s Galaxy S III, doesn’t it?). “When we set out to make a smartphone, we didn’t make one for all of us”, the ad above proclaims. “We made one for each of us”.

Right below the fold: more ads showing Gwen Stefani arranging Live Tiles, Jessica Alba using Kid’s Corner parental controls and even Microsoft’s boss Steve Ballmer messing with the Live Apps on the Start screen… Read More

 

Microsoft said to be building its own smartphone

By Cody Lee on Nov 2, 2012

Once Microsoft unveiled its Surface tablet, its first foray into designing its own mobile hardware, this summer, you had to imagine that a Redmond-built smartphone wouldn’t be far behind.

And sure enough, according to a new report from a highly regarded news outlet, the Windows company is currently working with suppliers in Asia to test its own smartphone design… Read More

 

Samsung bets on Windows

By Christian Zibreg on Oct 30, 2012

Say what you will about Samsung, but it’s always been a multi-platform player. True, the company’s bet on Android has paid off big time, but Samsung also maintains another smartphone operating system, its own Bada software, and pledges to build a plethora of desktop and mobile products driven by Microsoft’s new Windows 8 desktop operating system and its Windows Phone 8 counterpart.

The South Korean conglomerate currently makes Windows-based Smart PC and Smart PC Pro, in addition to a Windows Phone 8 tablet and smartphone. All are marketed under the new ATIV moniker (whoever thought of that one?). I kinda like how the commercial above highlights different usage scenarios for these devices. By the way, what’s up with the evident James Bond theme to advertising recently? Read More

 

iPhone share rising, everyone else looks flat or down

By Christian Zibreg on Oct 2, 2012

Analytics firm comScore is out with new research data concerning the mobile landscape in the United States during August. Good news for Apple: the iOS is on the rise among smartphones, going from 31.9 percent during the three-month period ending in May 2012 to 34.3 percent in June, July and August.

During the same timeframe, Google’s Android went from 50.9 percent to 52.6 percent smartphone market share. Better still, Apple grew at a faster clip than Google. Microsoft’s Windows Phone, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry and Symbian? All losing ground… Read More

 

Nokia pre-empts iPhone 5 with new Lumias rocking Windows Phone 8

By Christian Zibreg on Sep 5, 2012

Software giant Microsoft and former cell phone champion Nokia held a press conference earlier today in a very wet New York City. Nokia is attempting to re-boot its ailing smartphone biz with some sleek new Lumia handsets, with a little help from its pal Microsoft and its new Windows Phone 8 operating system. It pays to keep tabs on what competition is doing and it’s always exciting watching good ol’ Windows maker playing a catch up in mobile.

With that in mind, the presser was basically a pre-emptive tease against the massive iPhone 5 launch due next Wednesday. Interestingly, Nokia hasn’t shied away from criticizing Samsung for failing to deliver a working Windows Phone 8 phone. Conspicuously enough, Nokia itself did not announce price points or shipping dates for the new Lumias.

Perhaps it would have been better to hold this event a month from now? Be that as it may, Microsoft will hopefully play its cards right and over time establish Windows Phone as a third viable platform. I’m all for it: some balance to the force is needed as it’s been disrupted lately by Android’s relentless march. Here’s what’s new from the Microkia camp… Read More

 

Nokia and Microsoft schedule September 5 event to talk Windows Phone 8

By Christian Zibreg on Aug 15, 2012

We’ve known for awhile that Nokia and Microsoft were planning to counter Apple’s iPhone 5 launch with an event of their own. It’s official now as Microsoft issued media invitations for a Windows Phone-focused presser in New York City on September 5, just a week before Apple is expected to take the wraps off its next iPhone. Talk about preempting what analyst Gene Munster likes to paint as “the biggest consumer electronics launch in history”.

With Nokia close to being on life support and Microsoft’s market share in mobile still eroding, there better be some darn exciting announcements if smartphone buyers are to consider upcoming Windows Phone 8-powered Lumia phones this holiday season… Read More

 
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