MWC 2012 Event and Party Calendar. Things to do at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona
It’s that time of the year again – Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona is a little more than 2 weeks away. This time GSMA has decided to move the show from the middle to the end of February. Finally mobile industry professionals will be able to spend Valentines day with their loved ones, instead [...]
HTC sales drop 52% in Jan. Plans 35% decline in Q1. R&D slashed by 60% in Q4, starts hiding unit volumes too
Things just keep getting worse for HTC. They were already pretty bad in the last quarter of 2011, when HTC had to issue a profit warning and then reported 30% revenue decline compared to Q3. Now this HTC sales slump is accelerating into 2012. January revenues just came in at 16.6B $NT ($560M), and they [...]
Nokia Q4 2011 results. PR lipstick on the approaching trouble
On Thursday Nokia announced its results for Q4/full year 2011. And it is a mixed bag of goods. On the surface, the result looks pretty good, and it seems that Nokia managed to stop the free fall it experienced in the first half of last year. But if you look closer at the reported numbers [...]
Hey, top Nokia brass, could you please STFU now? And let your deeds do the talking
Dear Nokians, Especially up there at the top. Could you please shut up now, and let the results of your work speak for themselves? Instead of creating wildly unrealistic expectations that are bound to backfire when not met. You’ve been doing such a great job managing expectations prior to Nokia World and the launch of [...]
Andy Rubin: “Android daily activations top 700K”. On the way to 1 million a day in Q2 2012
Oh my. Just when I almost made up my mind that Android growth has stalled, Andy Rubin comes out with another growth data point to mock all of us, doubters. According to Google’s mobile chief, they are now activating 700K Android devices a day. And, just to dispel any doubts that are indeed all new [...]
HTC sales crashed 30% in November. LTE Verizon Rezound and AT&T Vivid didn’t help against iPhone 4S
Troubled times for HTC indeed. Today they have released monthly sales figures for November 2011, and the numbers are terrible. Last month HTC earned 30.9 billion in Taiwan dollars, or 1,024B in US$. Which is an almost 20% drop from November 2010 sales, and a whopping 30% decline from just a month before. And that’s [...]
Nokia Lumia 800 vs Samsung Galaxy S2 vs iPhone 4S/4 price comparison and NWP shipment expectations
So, Nokia Lumia 800 sales are disappointing, some analysts say. Perhaps. But what does it mean, really? For sales to be disappointing we first have to set some realistic expectations of what they should have been. And then see whether Nokia exceeded, met or missed them. So how many Lumia 800s and Lumia 710s can [...]
Nokia’s road to Feb.11th – the last 18 months. Part 2
This is part 2 of my look into the situation at Nokia during the last 18 months before February 11th 2011, when it made the dramatic strategy shift, abandoning Symbian and Meego platforms in favor of Microsoft’s Windows Phone. In the first part I talked about how the top managers saw the company situation in [...]
Nokia’s road to Feb.11th – the last 18 months. Part 1
Nokia strategy shift on February 11th 2011, came as a huge shock to most mobile industry watchers. At the time many expected Nokia to add either Windows Phone or Android OS to its offerings. But the general consensus was that it will keep its own Symbian and Meego platforms too. Back then, Symbian was still [...]
Samsung Galaxy Nexus/ Google Ice Cream Sandwich launch points to signs of trouble in Androidland
Ever since the first Verizon Droid with Android 2.0 launched 2 years ago, the rise of Google’s mobile OS seemed unstoppable. And meteorically fast. But trouble free Android growth days seem to be coming to the end. We all heard about the biggest threat to Google’s mobile OS – patent issues. We took a close [...]
Android is patently ill. Two strains of IP disease that may soon derail Google’s OS
Android has been THE smartphone success story of the past couple of years. Android usage has skyrocketed, driven by more devices from more manufacturers than for any other smartphone OS ever. Android now stretches across a price range from ~ $80 to the ultra-high end (yes, there are now luxury phones based on Android). But [...]
What does T-Mobile have to compete with the iPhone 4S?
As you’ve probably heard by now, Apple has finally decided to launch the iPhone via Sprint, too (both the 4S and 4 versions). The third largest US carrier has thus joined Verizon, which is offering Apple’s smartphone since February this year, and AT&T, which is selling the iPhone since the very first day it was [...]
The Microsoft Tax is official: Samsung will pay royalties for each Android phone or tablet it sells
Samsung finally caved. The Korean giant agreed to pay Microsoft royalties for each and every Android-powered tablet or smartphone it sells. This then is the day that the Microsoft Tax has become official. Unlike the (in)famous Apple Tax, which is just a way of saying that Apple products are more expensive than the competition, the [...]
Samsung to open source Bada next year. Will they use Meego to do it?
According to Wall Street Journal, Samsung is planning to open source their Bada smartphone platform next year. Companies that do have their own successful proprietary platforms are no it usually too eager to start giving them away in hopes that outside developers will make it better in exchange. Companies who’s platforms do fail to take [...]
Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich launch musings. Samsung Verizon Droid Prime, Google Nexus, tablets and timing
It happens every year, like a clockwork. By the end of summer/early fall, rumors about the new version of Android become so widespread, that there is no doubt in anyone’s mind the next Google mobile OS release is coming very soon. The only difference this year – is that we are talking about only one [...]
Kindle Tablet is great news for Amazon. But Android now is truly forked
Finally we got a real confirmation that Amazon tablet is coming soon. And it brings to the market the first mainstream Android fork. Some people are disappointed that Amazon tablet is just a souped-up Kindle, instead of some sort of iPad killer. But that’s Ok. A souped-up, smarter Kindle is exactly what Amazon wants and [...]
Samsung Galaxy S II now official in US, heading to AT&T(Galaxy S II), T-Mobile, and Sprint(Epic 4G Touch)
The wait in the USA is finally over for the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S II. The device that is considered by many as the iPhone 5′s main competition will be heading to three out of the four major US carriers: AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. According to rumors, Verizon opted out on the Galaxy S [...]
Why Apple doesn’t need a new cheaper iPhone Nano alongside iPhone 5
In about a month from now, Apple should officially announce a new (and probably not that revolutionary) iOS smartphone, possibly called iPhone 5. But will it be just one new iPhone? Rumors about a smaller and cheaper iPhone (iPhone Nano or whatever) have been around ever since the Cupertino company introduced its first smartphone back [...]
Google buys Motorola to get some patents. Samsung, HTC, LG and other Android OEMs rejoice
Wow! That was quick. I told you a couple of weeks ago about the best and easiest solution for all Android patent problems. Google should just buy Motorola. Today Google went and did just that. They bought Motorola Mobility for $12.5B in cash. So now that the deal is done, what does it mean to [...]
Quick and easy fix for all Android patent problems. Google should buy Motorola
You may not know it from the meteorically rising device sales, but right now Google’s Android is in deep trouble. It is being besieged by various patent holders, demanding licensing fees or an outright stop of Android device sales. Furthermore, those suing Google right now are no ordinary patent trolls. The biggest challenges come from [...]