Apple

Is there any hope left for Nokia? (probably not)

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2016

It's not a typo: I really meant Nokia, not RIM. Look, the writing's on the wall. In the first quarter of 2012, only Apple and Samsung reaped benefits of the 41 percent year-over-year growth in the smartphone biz.

Together, the two frenemies accounted for 55 percent of global smartphone shipments in Q1 and an astounding 90 percent of the profits.

Apple shipped 35 million iPhones in Q1 while Samsung recorded 43 million global shipments. None of this is surprising. What's stunning is how sharp Nokia's decline is. Of all companies, beleaguered RIM, whose Q1 shipments dipped 20 percent, may soon surpass Nokia...

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iPad web traffic drops a little, Nook overtakes Kindle Fire

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 14, 2012

An interesting change in tablet web traffic in June, as observed by ad network Chitika which sampled hundreds of millions of ad impressions across mobile apps that incorporate its solution. While they're by no means an accurate representative of the market, the numbers still outline market trend changes.

Apple's iPad dropped a bit in June, but the biggest change comes in Barnes & Noble's Nook passing Amazon's Kindle Fire. Of all non-iPad tablets, Samsung's Galaxy Tab remains the most widely-used device...

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Apple leverages Siri patent to block imports of Galaxy S III to US

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 6, 2012

Perhaps not unsurprisingly, Apple has asked the court for permission to add Samsung's latest smartphone to its list of devices eligible for a preliminary injunction.

The company is leveraging its two patents to enforce the ban, one already successfully used to stop imports of HTC devices and the other covering unified search and Siri capabilities that Samsung's device replicates with its S-Voice feature that Cupertino feels shamelessly rips off Siri's user interface.

Looks like Samsung may want to re-think its stance that the S III wasn't designed by lawyers...

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No sales ban on Samsung and Motorola tablets in US and Germany

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 5, 2012

A judge in California this morning decided to hold off on a ruling related to Apple's case against Samsung, meaning Cupertino won't be able to impose a sales ban on Galaxy Tab tablet sales in the United States. Apple's also been dealt another blow in Germany as a court said it's unlikely to grant them the same victory against Motorola's tablet as it'd done with last year's sales ban of the Galaxy 10.1 tablet...

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Apple’s Siri and Samsung’s S-Voice go head to head (video)

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 25, 2012

The Verge was first out of the gate today with its exhaustive review of Samsung's Galaxy S III handset. A section of the piece provides an interesting side-by-side comparison of two intelligent personal assistants, Siri on the iPhone 4S and Samsung's darling dubbed S-Voice.

Both features work as advertised (well, most of the time), amuse with canned responses, delight with factual answers - all the while letting you converse with your handset using natural language rather than remember a bunch of hard-coded commands.

Siri and S-Voice also score similarly in handling common tasks such as pulling local weather, creating appointments and reminders and what not. And of course S-Voice is a blatant rip off of Siri's user interface. Apple's digital secretary appears to be snappier at running queries and S-Voice at times has a hard time understanding what you want.

And here's a nice side-by-side comparison video laying it all out for you...

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No, lawyers didn’t design Galaxy S III, Samsung design boss says

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

When Samsung introduced its third-generation Galaxy S smartphone earlier this month, folks immediately took to Twitter, opining how the handset was "designed by lawyers" in a nod at Samsung's ongoing legal feud with Apple over alleged copying of the iPhone's hardware design and software features.

Instead, the phone that was "inspired by nature" and "designed for humans", as the tagline has it, fits in Samsung's five-year redesign plan and went through hundreds of iterations before they settled on a final design....

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Tim Cook to start settlement talks with Samsung head today

Cody Lee ∙ May 21, 2012

Well it appears that Apple could be getting closer to resolving its 14 month-long patent dispute with Samsung. The two companies are slated to begin their court-ordered mediation session later today.

Reuters is reporting that it has learned that Apple's Tim Cook, and Samsung vice chairman Choi Gee-sung will be meeting in a San Francisco federal courthouse this afternoon to discuss a legal truce...

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Samsung reports nine million Galaxy S III pre-orders worldwide

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 18, 2012

Confirming its recent status of both the world's #1 smartphone and cell phone vendor, Samsung reportedly racked up over nine million pre-orders for its Galaxy S III smartphone worldwide. The figure excludes the United States, where an LTE version of the phone is slated to arrive in June.

This compares to first-weekend sales of the iPhone 4S exceeding four million units, twice as many units as the iPhone 4 which sold 1.7 million units during launch weekend.

Samsung's flagship handset got introduced on May 3, accompanied by a strong marketing push. It will first go on sale on May 29 in Germany with the 32GB model as a Vodafone exclusive for the first month. The device is already available on Amazon contract-free for $799...

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Samsung: Apple “definitely using” our chips, “no plans” to cut production

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 17, 2012

Samsung has allegedly launched its latest 20-nanometer mobile memory chips ahead of schedule, acting on market concerns that a rumored Apple-Elpida partnership could hurt their business. New 4Gb mobile DRAMs are currently shipping to customers, the global conglomerate said, confirming it's been supplying memory chips for Apple's iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

It's business as usual, execs for South Korea-based Samsung claim, adding the company is not losing its edge as Apple’s top-tier client. Still, Cupertino could soon buy fewer chips from Samsung as it's been moving aggressively to diversify its part-sourcing channels...

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Samsung just lost $10B market value on Apple order stoppage rumor

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 16, 2012

Samsung has lost a whopping ten billion dollars of market value on rumors of order stoppage concerning DRAM chips. The iPhone maker has reportedly secured half the manufacturing output from Elpida, a struggling Japanese maker of dynamic random access memory chips.

Apple is Samsung's biggest client and Cupertino's business contributes substantially to their fortunes so no wonder Samsung’s shares fell yesterday more than six percent to a nine-week low, effectively wiping out a cool $10 billion of the company's market capitalization...

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Samsung posts first Galaxy S III advert, 100 percent devoid of Apple bashing

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

South Korea-headquartered Samsung, now the top smartphone and cell phone vendor in the world, just posted on its YouTube channel the first official advertising for its latest would-be iPhone-killer, the flagship Galaxy S III handset unveiled less than two weeks ago.

Unlike last year's Samsunged campaign, this high-profile advert is free of any direct or implied Apple spoofing. Even though it does ignore some pretty important marketing basics, the commercial is kinda cool (if I wanted to be cynical about it, I'd call it a typical agency bulls**t).

If anything, one's gotta appreciate Samsung's focus on establishing an emotional connection with the viewer in a manner that resembles Apple's Siri advertising. Have a look and tell us whether this Galaxy commercial is a match for the world's greatest marketing machine...

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