Displaying items by tag: Samsung

As the Apple vs Samsung clash rages on with the release of the new iPhone 5, plenty of rumors have started to circulate. One of these is that Samsung will be releasing a new device, the Galaxy S4 in February 2013. The first thing that comes to mind is, “Why would they even need a new device when the “old” S3 beats the iPhone 5 any day“. Of course Samsung has stated that these rumors are simply not true. If the rumors were true, the S4 would just stomp the new iPhone and there would be no decent competition on the horizon.

HTC has been sending out invites for their presentation happening tomorrow. A few weeks ago they were pretty mysterious about whole thing. There have been much speculation about what will they release and the current consensus is a new Windows 8 devices. Today they decided to give a hint via their Facebook page, in the form of a picture that shows what appears to be a corner of the device they will announce. It is possible the device could be The HTC 8x a.k.a. HTC Accord. We have had a few leaks on this new device with several pictures, but nothing is yet confirmed.

Today Apple had their big press conference and it was really big. They announced almost all they could, we will get a new iPhone, new iPod Touch, new iPod nano, new connector and new earphones. In this article we will focus on the main star, the iPhone 5. Even though there were many rumors that Samsung will sue them over LTE patents they have released it with LTE support and also a new A6 chipset, previous iPhone used the A5. The back panel is replaced with sheet of anodized aluminum, and the whole device is the slimmest so far, the width stayed the same but it did gain some length.

Apple’s iPhone 5 should launch tomorrow, but it might be a launch that is short lived if Samsung and HTC have anything to say about it. Both companies plan to aggressively pursue Apple over the use of Long Term Evolution (LTE) in their products HTC already has a complaint into the ITC.  To make matters worse for Apple (who is trying the invalidation tactic now) Judge Thomas Pender has ruled that HTC’s patents are most likely valid saying “Clear and convincing means something to me. I have to be pretty darn certain a U.S. patent is invalid”. Apple has also tried to claim that HTC only bought the patents to sue Apple. Judge Pender was quick with the reply: “I don't care if they bought these patents to sue you or not. They are a property right”.

It took only 100 days for the Galaxy SIII to reach 20 million units sold; they marked 10 million at the end of July.  Now the company has announced that they have doubled the numbers. Samsung said that the Galaxy S III achieved this level three times faster than Galaxy S and six times faster than Galaxy S II. Since 2012, the Galaxy S and S II have marked over 50 million units sold. With the S III Samsung has made their biggest sales in Europe at around 6 million devices, followed by Asia at 4.5 million and North America with 4 million. The final 2.5 million units were sold in Samsung’s homeland, Korea.

FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) is annoying to read regardless of what side is doing it. Today’s bit of FUD is about Apple decreasing the amount of memory they are using from Samsung for the next iPhone. To start off with the decrease is nothing new nor is it unexpected. Apple used Elpida as the primary source for memory in the third generation iPad last year. They liked the product and the price so we would not expect them to drop that particular connection. Another supplier of memory to Apple is Micron Technologies. By an amazing coincidence Micron is also planning to buy Elpida some, like Citibank even feel that Apple might have encouraged Micron to make the purchase last year.

In the second half of 2012 most panel makers stationed in Taiwan expect their biggest orders to come from the rising tablet and notebook markets. Customers want more and more from mobile devices and as we know there are a lot of new tablets coming out just before the holiday season. AU Optronics said that they expect their shipments of small and medium size segments to grow even more in the last 2 quarters of 2012. Panels in near future will continue to have higher and higher resolution as well as reduced power consumption. As far as size is concerned most shipments will be of 7 to 10-inch panels as they are the most popular.

Over the weekend a report popped up on “The Next Web” that claimed Samsung attempted to leave a few bloggers stranded in Germany if they did not do as they were told. The story has produced anger and more than a few tweets across the web denouncing Samsung. As with most items we find the timing very interesting as well as the way the article was presented. For starters the original article kicked things off with a very aggressive headline indicating that Samsung is clearly to blame: “Here’s how Samsung flew bloggers halfway around the world, then threatened to leave them there”. Sounds pretty bad doesn’t it?

Apple has become very brave in the light of their apparent victory over Samsung in Judge Lucy Koh’s court room. Despite potential issues with the verdict including evidence that the jury ignored the explicit instructions that were directly read to them by Judge Koh and written in several places, Apple is riding on a wave of euphoria that has caused them to expand their attack against Samsung. This was not overlay surprising as Apple is confident that the US population is ignorant of the concept of Prior Art, the differences between being inspired by a design and copying as well as some of the basic concepts behind software development (and that nagging little detail that prevents you from copyrighting a UI).

Although not surprising in the least, there are numerous articles expressing concern and shock at the fact that Sharp, a supplier of display panels to Apple, is having a rough time keeping its commitments. Wed talked about some of the moves Sharp has taken in the past few months to keep investors happy; including actually giving details on the production cycle dates. This is something that in the past (under Steve Jobs) would never have happened. Now with Cook at the reins things are different and many companies that are facing financial troubles are using their connection to Apple as a flag to either entice investors or to keep them.