HTC leaves South Korea to Samsung, LG et al
Exits quietly, but not very brilliantly ...
Posted in Business, 31st July 2012 06:12 GMT
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Mobile device biz HTC has abandoned its operations from Samsung’s home market of South Korea, in yet another blow to the beleaguered Taiwanese handset giant.
The firm announced in a widely reported statement that the move was being made to “streamline operations”.
"This is a hard decision that has direct impact on people who have contributed to the growth HTC has experienced the past several years," it added.
It seems that several years of failing to make an impact in a market dominated by local hero Samsung and several other home-grown players has finally taken its toll.
HTC never really pushed beyond a five per cent market share, hitting that high in Q4 2010, according to Gartner. Since then it has languished with one or two per cent over the past couple of years.
“Globally, many players are struggling to maintain market share as Samsung and Apple share the majority of profit in the smart phone market,” Ovum analyst Mark Ranson told The Reg.
“The Korean market is especially difficult because of the dominance of not just Samsung but other local players, LG, and Pantech – Korean players are even more dominant in the local LTE smart phone market.”
Gartner’s Seoul-based analyst CG Lee explained that this local dominance in the LTE space is “because there’s no standard frequency band between countries”, making it hard for foreign handsets to make an impact.
“Without economies of scale, foreign vendors also find it difficult to survive in a communications market where huge marketing dollars are needed,” he told El Reg.
Although HTC announced its intention to pull out of Brazil last month and has been hit with a run of poor financial results recently, the Korean departure is not necessarily a bad move for the company, according to Ovum’s Ranson.
“Ovum expects HTC will treat every market on a case-by-case basis, assessing which offer the best growth potential – few other nations will offer such difficult and unique market conditions as South Korea,” he said. ®
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Apple design chief Sir Jonathan Ive: iPhone was 'nearly axed' - Daily Telegraph
"We have been, on a number of occasions, preparing for mass production and in a room and realised we are talking a little too loud about the virtues of something. That to me is always the danger, if I'm trying to talk a little too loud about something and realising I'm trying to convince myself that something's good,” he said.
The Apple director, who grew up in Chingford, Essex and studied in Brighton before joining Apple in 1992, also claimed that the $556bn (£354bn) firm prioritised “great design” over making money.
“Our goal isn’t to make money. Our goal absolutely at Apple is not to make money. This may sound a little flippant, but it’s the truth. Our goal and what gets us excited is to try to make great products. We trust that if we are successful people will like them, and if we are operationally competent we will make revenue, but we are very clear about our goal.”
Although Apple’s growth slowed in the last quarter, the technology firm founded by Steve Jobs still delivered a 21pc increase in profits to $8.8bn. Sales climbed nearly a quarter to $35bn. Earlier this year, Tim Cook, its chief executive, told investors the company is throwing off more cash than it knows what to do with.
Even so, Apple is determined to make sure it reaps the financial rewards for its designs. Sir Jonathan’s comments in London came as a high-stakes patents battle with Samsung over claims that the rival technology firm copied its iPad and iPhone designs began in a Californian court on Monday.
Apple is suing Samsung for more than $2.5bn, to cover some $2bn profits it has allegedly made on the back of Apple’s intellectual property and the “hundreds of millions of dollars” Apple has lost as a result.
Sir Jonathan, whose personal fortune is estimated at $130m, attributed the California-based company’s success to its struggles in the mid-1990s, when it teetered on the brink of bankruptcy in the face of competition from Microsoft.
“Apple was very close to bankruptcy and to irrelevance [but] you learn a lot about life through death, and I learnt a lot about vital corporations by experiencing a non-vital corporation,” he told the British Business conference. “You would have thought that, when what stands between you and bankruptcy is some money, your focus would be on making some money, but that was not [Steve Jobs’] preoccupation. His observation was that the products weren’t good enough and his resolve was, we need to make better products. That stood in stark contrast to the previous attempts to turn the company around.”
Sir Jonathan’s comments about design, and the difficulty of great design, could not have come at a more pertinent time for Apple. Its court battle with Samsung follows a succession of skirmishes in Britain, Germany and Australia, and is being hailed as the “patent battle of the century”.
The fight began last year when Apple sued Samsung for “slavishly” copying its devices. Samsung counter-sued, claiming that Apple is trying to stifle competition so it can keep raking in “exorbitant” profits. The first day of the trial in San Jose, California, was taken up with picking the ten-person jury. District Judge Lucy Koh asked prospective jurors which brand of mobile phone they owned, with just one saying they did not own one at all. Opening arguments are due today in a case that is expected to last four weeks.
iPhone App "Shortcut IQ" Provides an Easily Accessible Shortcut Reference Guide for Apple Users - YAHOO!
ValleyRocket.com announces the iPhone Shortcut App "Shortcut IQ". Shortcuts, tips and gestures for Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod Nano are now available in one concise reference guide.
Greenville, SC (PRWEB) July 31, 2012
The iPhone App “Shortcut IQ” is an easy to use shortcut reference application for the Mac, iPad, iPhone and iPod Nano. Keyboard commands can be difficult to remember. Often, the best way for a user to find them is to bookmark multiple websites or dig through various menus and help files. Now, Shortcut IQ offers all this information in one iPhone Application for free.Productivity and speed are important. Shortcut IQ offers shortcut keys for the Mac, turning the iPhone or iPod Touch into a nice computing accessory. If the user needs to take a screenshot but has forgotten the specific 4 keys necessary, Shortcut IQ can be used to quickly find that information. If the user is rebooting the Mac and needs to know the keys to startup in target disc mode or to boot from a USB drive, Shortcut IQ provides this information and more.
Gestures are also included in Shortcut IQ. Often is the case that users get into a rut of using one and two fingers only. It is easy to forget that there are simple three and four finger gestures which can increase user’s efficiency on the iPad and Mac. “My one year old daughter was playing with my iPad and constantly accessed menus and features I didn’t know existed using three and four finger gestures. As an example, she kept changing applications without hitting the home button. I realized her fingers were so small she was doing a four finger swipe left and right.”, said Bobby Wilson, President of ValleyRocket.com.
iPod Nano and Apple Headset shortcuts are included as well in the Shortcut IQ iPhone App. It is easy to remember how to increase / decrease the volume or pause a song using the earbuds, but it is not so easy to remember how to change a playlist. Jumping from a playing song back to the Nano home-screen can be challenging if the user doesn’t know the shortcut. Before going for a jog, users can quickly scan their iPod Nano shortcuts in Shortcut IQ and remember how to navigate using multiple presses and holds.
Industry experts, bloggers and podcasters often provide tips or accessory recommendations which increase proficiency with Apple products. The Shortcut IQ iPhone App pulls the best of this information together from around the web into one feed. Some examples of these sources are LifeHacker, Cult of Mac and Mac Break Weekly.
Rumors are a large part of the Apple subculture. Users of these products are typically early adopters and very interested in what is coming next. To provide a friendly user experience, the Shortcut IQ iPhone App includes a feed from Mac Rumors with links to all of the latest news.
Shortcut IQ is a free app in the Apple App Store supported by iAds.
About ValleyRocket.com:
Valley Rocket was founded in 2011 as a tech startup in Greenville, SC. The company’s focus is on mobile application development starting with the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch with support coming soon for the Android Platform.
Other applications in the portfolio consists of:
Daily Commute iPhone App - A commute app available for iPhone designed to help users make better decisions for their commutes through the use of statistical data.
Alpha Calc iPad and iPhone Calculator App - The Alpha Calc iPhone Calculator App offers a new and better user interface for calculators that have been around for decades. As an example, the memory button has been removed in Alpha Calc, and replaced with numerous customizable buttons. The user can customize these buttons with virtually any number, such as answers to equations or regularly used numbers like tax rates.
Bobby Wilson
ValleyRocket.com
(864) 416-1133
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iPhone 5 to launch on September 12th, say multiple sources - Stuff.tv
Well, blow us down with a graphically-rich Keynote presentation and call us Tim Cook if we didn’t wake up to yet more iPhone 5 rumours this morning. This time, we’re hearing a launch date of September 12th from three separate sources – iMore, AllThingsD and The Loop.
So that’s almost a month earlier than last year’s iPhone 4S launch, plus it falls on a Wednesday (Apple is renowned for only holding its launches on Tuesdays). So can we trust it?
On one hand, we’re tempted to think Apple might want to launch that week (it ties in with previous rumours), but fears looking triumphant on a day – September 11th – that remains rawly emotional for many, if not most, Americans.
On the other hand, we look to Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield: “For as tens of millions of circles can never make a square, so the united voice of myriads cannot lend the smallest foundation to falsehood.”
Eighteenth century novelists aside, we’ve tentatively pencilled September 12th in the Stuff diary for a rendez-vous with Tim Cook and Phil Schiller. And we're pretty sure we haven't heard our last launch date rumour...
[via Engadget]
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Samsung Galaxy Note no longer the only 5.3-inch smartphone - uk.news.yahoo.com
The Samsung Galaxy Note has long confused users over whether it should be a tablet or a phone, but now a second devices from relatively unknowns Thomson is joining the 5.3-inch party launching a new smartphone that will come with a 5.3-inch screen.
The Thomson X-View-2 smartphone will be unveiled at IFA in Berlin on 30 August and will join the Samsung Galaxy Note as the second smartphone device to feature a 5.3-inch display.
As with the Samsung Galaxy Note (upgradeable), the Thomson X-View-2 will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The large display has a resolution of 800x480 pixels while the phone itself packs a 1GHz Cortex A9 CPU.
Thomson has also taken the decision to pack two Sim card slots, enabling users to switch between two tariffs, useful if they keep their work and personal mobile numbers separate or if they plan to travel and don't want to rack up roaming data costs.
However, while the Thomson X-View-2 will lay (joint) claim to housing the largest display for a smartphone, it could be short lived.
Samsung are expected to announce the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 at IFA on the same day as the Thomson X-View-2, with the display rumoured to be increased to 5.5-inches.
© copyright Pocket-lint 2012
Samsung's in-development 11.8-inch HD tablet revealed in court documents - Pocket Gamer
This latest snippet concerns the South Korean half of the feud. In court documents made public, Samsung's plans to launch an 11.8-inch HD tablet are revealed.
Yes, Samsung's trying yet another tablet hat on for size. Having started with the tiddly Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0, then moved up to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and promptly retreated to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 7.7, Sammy's going big once again.
Very big, in fact. With a screen size of 11.8 inches, this latest device will be the biggest tablet we've ever seen.
Number, numbers, numbers
Not only will the new tablet's display be large, it'll also be sharp. At 2560x1600, that's double the resolution of the original Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Of course, the larger size doesn't necessarily result in double the sharpness, but it'll still have an impressive pixel density of 256 ppi.
We're talking the same level of pixel density as the latest iPad with its Retina display, in fact.
The Verge reckons we might get to see the 'Samsung Galaxy Tab 11.8' (our name) at a special New York show in mid-August.
iPhone 5 to further decline Android smartphone market share - Phones Review
The battle for the smartphone market is mainly about the iPhone and Android, and new reports are showing that the Android smartphone market share for Q2 2012 declines to 56-percent in United States.
Strategy Analytics’ research published by Wireless Smartphone Strategies aka WWS service shows that smartphone shipments has fallen by 5-percent each year to reach 24-million units in the United States during Q2 2012. The iOS and Android operating system are the most popular on the market, and the report shows that Android has lost ground to Apple’s iOS, leaving Androids market share falling by four points on an annual basis to 56 percent.
When you look at the volume in USA Android still remains the number one platform, but looking further into the report the Android market share is at its peak for now as iOS gains ground. This results in Apple’s US market share hitting a rise of ten points from 23-percent to 33-percent (in Q2 2011 to Q2 2012 respective). BlackBerry by RIM has dropped 11 percent to 7 percent over the same year and this is understandable considering there has been no decent BlackBerry smartphone releases and the lack of its new BB10 operating system does not put them in favour.
Has Android reached its peak? Q2 2011 the United States smartphone operating system market share (% of Total) was at 60.6 percent, Q2 2012 is at 56.3 percent, Apple iOS was 23.2% and Q2 2012 is at 33.2%, Blackberry OS at 10.5% and now 6.5%.
Looking at the above figures surely the iPhone 5 is to further decline the Android smartphone market share, if we look at the news we reported yesterday that Apple is going to have a special event where they will be revealing the new iPhone 5 on Wednesday, September 12, 2012 this will surely have an affect on the Android corner.
Apparently the iPhone 5 will be released on Friday, September 21st. If reports are correct customers may also see an Apple Mini iPad release too, time will tell. The iPhone 5 release in our eyes will be one of the best selling smartphones in history, we are not just saying this to be vindictive in any way, we are clearly pointing out that when Apple releases an iPhone sales and shipments goes through the roof. The Samsung Galaxy S3 is doing very well at the moment and we thought that the Android market share would have risen over the last year not dropped, hopefully this is not the case of Android reaching its peak this year as we love healthy competition.
O2 phishing emails pose as network disruption apology - naked security
When the O2 mobile network went down in the UK earlier this month, hundreds of thousands of people were unable to make and receive calls, or connect to the internet from their 3G smartphones.
When the service was eventually returned to normal, O2 apologised and said it would offer compensation to affected users.
It was, therefore, with some interest that SophosLabs researchers noticed a wave of spammed-out emails claiming to come from O2 with the subject line "O2 Online Security".
Here's what a typical email looks like (if you want better picture, take a look at this larger version).
Part of the email reads:
As we said in our last update, we want to make it up to our customers for the loss of service some people experienced over the weeks.
The issue we had was unprecedented and we recognise that this caused inconvenience and frustration to those impacted over that one-day period.
We have now identified all those customers directly affected (those whose devices could not connect on our system). To thank all our customers for supporting us through an unprecedented and difficult period, we are also giving everyone on O2 a £10 O2 voucher to spend in store.
Click the link below to protect your account with the new security update.
A £10 voucher. That sounds nice. Who wouldn't want one of those? And a security update as well!
Well, O2 *is* offering customers a £10 voucher - but the link in the email is, of course, bogus.
If you click on it, you aren't taken to the real O2 website, but instead a webpage hosted on a compromised third-party website which is just waiting to scoop up your login details.
In short, if you enter your information on the fake O2 login page you will be phished.
Always be cautious about the links that you click on in emails, and think twice before entering your personal information.
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