Gadgetorama - Your eye on the latest mobility and gadget news

Rumour: More details on AT&T’s Q1 2012 roadmap

Jan 272012

AT&T Along with the AT&T launch details of the Nokia Lumia 900, BGR this week obtained additional details about the carrier’s Q1 roadmap. It includes:

LTE-enabled Samsung Galaxy Note available on February 18^{th for US$299.99}
HSPA+ Samsung Rugby Smart and AT&T Fusion available on February 18^th for US$99.99 and US$124.99 respectively
HTC Titan II available on March 18^th for US$199.99 with a two-year contract
A Sony HSPA+ tablet called the Crystal for US$409.99 (Could it be the Sony Tablet P?)

The Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD, Samsung Exhilarate, and the Sony Xperia Ion are also on deck for the latter part of the quarter. There are no specific dates or price details yet.

Sony LT21i ‘Tapioca’ specifications and LT22i ‘Nypon’ photos

Posted by Jerome No Responses »

Jan 272012

A Sony smartphone roadmap leaked this week revealed at least a portion of the devices the manufacturer would bring to market in 2012. Among those was the already leaked Sony ST25i ‘Kumquat.’ Now details have emerged about the Sony LT21i ‘Tapioca’ and Sony LT22i ‘Nypon.’

The Sony Tapioca will be an entry-level smartphone with the following specifications:

Processor: 800MHz single-core
Operating system: Google Android 2.3.7
Cellular connectivity: WCDMA
Other connectivity: 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Display: 3.2-inch HVGA (320×480)
Input: Capacitive touchscreen
Memory: 512MB ROM
Storage: 4GB onboard
Rear-facing camera: 3.2MP

There are few details about the Sony LT22i Nypon but it should come with a bright 1000-nit display which should make it easier to read on sunny days. Based on price, it looks set to be a mid-tier device.

Rumoured Sony LT22i Nypon

There is no word on whether either of these will make their way to North America.

Former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein leaves HP

Posted by Jerome No Responses »

Jan 272012

Jon Rubinstein, Palm’s former CEO HP, has left Hewlett-Packard, the company that acquired Palm in 2010. HP spokeswoman Mylene Mangalindan confirmed the departure: “Jon has fulfilled his commitment and we wish him well.”

Rubinstein does not appear to have any immediate plans. He told AllThingsD that “I am going to take a well deserved break after four and a half years of developing webOS.”

His departure had been planned for some time. When acquired, he had made a “12- to 24-month commitment.” HP’s decision under former CEO Leo Apotheker to get out of the webOS hardware business likely did not help convince him that he should stay around longer.

HP this week outlined the timetable it would follow to fully open source webOS.

Apple regains smartphone crown in Q4 2011

Posted by Jerome No Responses »

Jan 272012

With shipments of over 37 million iPhones in its last quarter, it should not come as any surprise that Apple has regained the smartphone lead in Q4 2011. The Strategy Analytics report found that 155 million smartphones were shipped in the last quarter with Apple taking a 24% market share.

According to its findings, Apple shipped 37 million smartphones (good for a 23.9% market share), followed closely by Samsung with 36.5 million (23.5% market share). Nokia followed in third with 19.6 million (12.6%).

On an annual basis, it was Samsung that was crowned the smartphone market leader as its market share reached 19.9%. Apple is right behind with a 19% market share. Nokia is again in third with a 15.8% share. “With global smartphone shipments nearing half a billion units in 2011, Samsung is now well positioned alongside Apple in a two-horse race at the forefront of one of the world’s largest and most valuable consumer electronics markets,” said Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics.

2011 smartphone market share
Credit: Strategy Analytics

A separate report by IHS iSuppli reached the same conclusions. It added that all may not be well in the Android camp. Both Sony Ericsson and Motorola (and HTC) showed smaller growth suggesting that “the Android smartphone market is becoming too crowded as the various licensees compete for limited consumer mindshare and shelf space.”

Read more: Strategy Analytics and IHS iSuppli

Samsung “still reviewing” Galaxy S III launch options

Posted by Jerome No Responses »

Jan 272012

Samsung Conflicting rumours have suggested that Samsung will or will not launch the much anticipated Galaxy S III at next month’s Mobile World Congress. The question came up yesterday during the analyst call that followed its financial results announcement.

A Samsung Marketing VP, Mrs. Younghee Lee, would only confirm that the company is “still reviewing” a number of options and has not made a final decision on the launch. An audio clip of the question and her answer is below:

The latest rumours suggest that Samsung will launch its Galaxy S III in the U.S. market this summer. To reduce the time between announcement and launch, the company could push out the expected MWC announcement to sometime later.

Record profits in latest quarter for Samsung

Posted by Jerome No Responses »

Jan 262012

Samsung Samsung is the latest company to announce its financial results. Sales topped KRW47 trillion (around US$42 billion) and operating profits topped KRW5.3 trillion (US$4.7 billion). Full year revenues and profits came in at KRW165 trillion (US$147 billion) and KRW16.25 trillion (US$14.5 billion) respectively.

Unlike Apple earlier this week, Samsung did not reveal smartphone shipment numbers but said that global smartphone shipments had increased 30% quarter over quarter. Analyst numbers suggest Samsung sold between 32 and 37 million smartphones in the last quarter, just short of Apple’s 37.04 million iPhones. Whatever the numbers, the mobile division accounted for almost half of the company’s profits thanks in large part to the success of its Galaxy smartphones.

Samsung also expects smartphone growth to continue to grow in 2012 while feature phone growth slows down. LTE will drive some of this demand in developed markets such as the US. At the same time, price competition is expected to intensify. Samsung expects a similar trend in the tablet space: Increased demand but greater pricing pressure.

Read more: Samsung (PDF document) and Bloomberg

New Windows Phone update available for TELUS LG Optimus 7 and HTC Surround

Posted by Jerome No Responses »

Jan 262012

TELUS Mobility TELUS has released Windows Phone Update 7.10.8107.79 for the LG Optimus 7 and HTC Surround. It addresses three key issues:

Resolves issues that cause the on-screen keyboard to periodically disappear while typing.
Resolves issues with Local Scout not providing the correct identity of the current location.
Resolves issues that may cause your contact lists to not fully synchronize with your Gmail account.

To check if the update is available for your device, simply check Settings > Phone Update.

Motorola posts Q4 FY11 loss on shipments of 10.5 million mobile devices

Posted by Jerome No Responses »

Jan 262012

Motorola Mobility today announced its Q4 FY2011 and full-year results. This could well be its last such report before it gets acquired by Google. For its Q4, it recorded revenues of US$3.4 billion but posted a net loss of US$80 million. For the full year, it recorded revenues of US$13.1 billion and a net loss of US$0.84 per share.

“In the fourth quarter, we received very positive consumer response to Motorola RAZR, which combined an iconic brand with ultra-thin in an innovative smartphone. Our Home business continues to be a leader in the industry’s transformation to all IP, with unique solutions that enable rich media experiences across any screen,” said Sanjay Jha, chairman and chief executive officer, Motorola Mobility. “We remain energized by the proposed merger with Google and continue to focus on creating innovative technologies.”

Motorola shipped 10.5 million mobile devices, including 5.3 million smartphones and 200,000 tablets in the last quarter to bring year-end totals to 42.4 million mobile devices, including 1 million tablets.

Motorola expects that its acquisition by Google will close in early 2012. Regulator approvals are still pending in a number of countries including Canada and the U.S.

HTC to focus on “hero” devices in 2012

Posted by Jerome No Responses »

Jan 262012

HTC HTC appears set to follow in Motorola’s footsteps and reduce the number of smartphones it will release in 2012. Rumours have already hinted at this but it has now been confirmed by HTC UK chief Phil Roberson. In 2012, HTC will focus on a smaller number of higher-specifications devices. In an interview with Mobile Today, Roberson said:

“We have to get back to focusing on what made us great – amazing hardware and a great customer experience. We ended 2011 with far more products than we started out with. We tried to do too much.

So 2012 is about giving our customers something special. We need to make sure we do not go so far down the line that we segment our products by launching lots of different SKUs.”

The move will allow HTC to focus its efforts (marketing, development, etc) on fewer devices. It should also offer a less confusing product catalog to customers.

While not exiting the market completely, HTC is also slowing down its tablet projects. This suggests that HTC may not unveil its rumoured quad-core HTC Quattro tablet at Mobile World Congress.

Rumour: New 2012 RIM roadmap details emerge

Posted by Jerome No Responses »

Jan 262012

On the heels of this week’s leaked 2012 RIM roadmap, BGR has obtained additional details. As expected, it focuses heavily on BlackBerry 7 devices as the first BlackBerry 10 device, expected to be the BlackBerry London, will not be launched until late September or even October.

The roadmap shows that RIM is planning to launch a new 7-inch 3G BlackBerry PlayBook, the new BlackBerry Curve 9220 and BlackBerry Curve 9320, and a number of colour variations for other models.

The leaked slide deck showed speficiations for a number of devices. It also confirmed that RIM and Porsche are planning a follow-up to the P’9981, the P’9531 with a 1.2GHz processor and 8GB of onboard memory.

Nokia sells over a million Lumias but records US1.2 billion loss in Q4 2011

Posted by Jerome No Responses »

Jan 262012

Nokia Nokia today announced its Q4 FY2011 financial results. Revenues for the quarter came in at just over €10 billion (US$13 billion), a 21% year-over-year slide, and it recorded a €954 million (US$1.2 billion) operating loss. In terms of mobile devices, Nokia shipped 113.5 million feature phones, down 8%, and 19.6 million smartphones, down 31% from the same quarter a year ago.

While “pleased with the performance of our mobile phones business,” Nokia also recognizes that it has a “tremendous amount to accomplish in 2012.” Its transition to Windows Phone is off to a decent start. It confirmed that it had sold “well over 1 million Lumia devices to date.” It also has high hopes for its re-entry into the North American market and promises more in 2012:

In the war of ecosystems, clearly there are some strong contenders already on the field. And with Lumia, we have demonstrated that we belong on the field. Our specific intent has been to establish a beachhead in this war of ecosystems, and country by country that is what we are now accomplishing. To date we have sold well over 1 million Lumia devices. From this beachhead of more than 1 million Lumia devices, you will see us push forward with the sales, marketing and successive product introductions necessary to be successful. We also plan to bring the Lumia series to additional markets including China and Latin America in the first half of 2012.

Nokia’s financial statement also outlines that it received a “platform support payment from Microsoft.” The US$250 million (€180 million) paid by Microsoft was the first quarterly payment in an agreement that will “measure in the billions of US Dollars” over the lifetime of the agreement between the two companies.

Nokia is another player for whom 2012 will be a critical year…

Mobilicity to launch Galaxy Nexus on February 6th

Posted by Jerome No Responses »

Jan 252012

The Mobilicity Galaxy Nexus ‘coming soon’ banner is about to come down. The carrier today announced that it will launch the first Android 4.0 smartphone on February 6^th:

Big news…just announced – @Mobilicity is launching the Samsung Galaxy Nexus on February 6! #HoFoLicity

Pricing has not been announced. With other carriers now offering it for CA$599.99 with no contract, we have a rough idea of what Mobilicity will sell it for.

Samsung Galaxy S III to miss MWC?

Posted by Jerome No Responses »

Jan 252012

Samsung On the heels of yesterday’s rumour that Samsung would unveil its Galaxy S III next month at Mobile World Congress comes some bad news. Citing “people familiar with the matter,” The Verge is reporting today that Samsung has decided to delay the announcement.

The reason for the delay was not disclosed. One possibility is that Samsung did not want to have a long lead time between the announcement and the U.S. launch (apparently set for the summer).

The company is still promising to announce some “interesting stuff.” Among the possibilities are some quad-core refreshes for the Galaxy Tab lineup and some Windows Phone news.

I think I liked yesterday’s rumour far more than this one…

HP webOS to be open source by Fall 2012

Posted by Jerome No Responses »

Jan 252012

Hewlett-Packard HP today outlined a schedule to make webOS open source. By September 2012, it expects to have completed the entire open sourcing process. Everything it releases will be made available under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

HP also announced that Enyo 1.0, the JavaScript app framework, will be available as of today. It is also releasing a core version of Enyo 2.0, “which will be the foundation for Enyo going forward.” The latter is still incomplete, for example missing UI widgets, but updates will be released shortly. Among the other updates will be a migration to the Linux Foundation’s standard kernel, a WebKit release supporting HTML5, Silverlight and Flash (through plug-ins), and the replacement of the current database with LevelDB.

Here is the full schedule:

HP's webOS open source timeline

Welcome Open WebOS 1.0!

Rumour: Foxconn gearing up for iPhone 5 production

Posted by Jerome No Responses »

Jan 252012

Apple Production of the next generation iPhone 5 appears set to start in the near future. Citing “a reliable source” (the same that told them that the iPhone 5 would not launch in 2011), 9to5Mac reports that Foxconn has produced a number of sample devices and is now gearing up for full production.

The sample units are all somewhat different, suggesting that design has not completely wrapped up. All share a number of common characteristics including a 4-inch display (or possibly larger), a symmetrical body rather than the rumoured teardrop design and a longer and wider design than the iPhone 4/4S. The rumours line up with previous ones.

Assuming the same five month production lead time as the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 5 could be ready sometime this summer. Could an announcement happen at WWDC as in years past?

Other rumours have suggested that the iPhone 5 will also come with a quad-core processor and LTE-based 4G.

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