Archive for 2011

HTC Smartphone profits rises 160%

HTC, the Taiwanese smartphone maker that has emerged as a major rival to Apple’s iPhone, saw net profits rise 160% during the October to December quarter compared with a year earlier.

HTC was the first smartphone maker to use Google’s Android operating system.

Net profits rose to New Taiwan dollars 14.59bn ($500m; £315m) on the back of NT$104bn sales.

The company sold 24.6 million phones last year, more than double the 2009 figure.

Growth is expected to remain rapid this year, with the company predicting some 8.5 million handsets to be sold during the January to March quarter this year.

The company will also start making tablet computers to challenge Apple’s iPad.

"It’s a new market with many competitors, and we don’t want to rush into it," Peter Chou, HTC chief executive, said.

"We hope the product we eventually unveil will be one that meets consumers’ needs."

Via BBC

Posted by: James

Samsung teases us again

Those cheeky teasers at Samsung have got the media all in a kafuffle again. Like Samsung did with the Galaxy Tab they have updated the Samsung Unpacked website to show an image of the Galaxy S sitting beside what they will be unveiling at Mobile World Congress next month.

They say ‘”Something big is coming” so one can only presume it is the successor to the Galaxy S.

Our man Gareth will be at MWC to cover all the new announcements and gets hands on with the devices so you had better be ready for some good stuff from February 13th.

Posted by: James

Does this crush the 7 inch iPad rumors?

There have been plenty of rumors about whether Apple will release a 7 inch version of the iPad and like always the company have been very tight lipped about the whole thing.

Apple COO Tim Cooks recently spoke on the subject of Android and Windows tablets and like Steve Jobs has said previously he characterized the small sizes and lack of optimization as “bizarre”.

[With] the variety shipping today, the OS wasn’t designed for a tablet; but Google said this," Cook said. "So you wind up having the size of a tablet that’s less than reasonable, or one that’s not even a real tablet experience. It’s a scaled-up smartphone; that’s a bizarre product in our view. Those are what is shipping today. If you do a side-by-side with an iPad, some enormous percentage [is] going to pick the iPad. We have no concern there."

On the subject of Windows tablets Cook said that current designs are “fairly big, heavy and expensive, with weak battery life. They also need to have a keyboard or a stylus for input and were largely irrelevant in the market. From our point of view and what we’ve seen, people just aren’t interested in them.”

I cant see Apple turning round and saying that a 7 inch in now not bizarre so maybe we should put the rumor to bed?

Posted by: James

Blackberry Playbook to have no Calendar and Email?

Playbook’s Sr. Product Manager Ryan Bidan seems to stand behind the decision that the device will be shipping without independent calendar and e-mail features. He states the device is a “great standalone tablet” with just using WIFI and “this is not a device that is reliant on a Blackberry.” This still doesn’t address the concerns of the Playbook missing many of it’s popular BlackBerry features such as calendar, e-mail, blackberry internet and messenger services without a tethered BlackBerry phone.

This may be addressed in firmware update after the launch of the device but would have prevented the 1Q 2011 release date of the Playbook to include these on day 1 without being tethered to a Blackberry. Another consideration is that keeping personal data secure to the phone allows for non-secure data to be on the Playbook and this added benefit may be to prevent the data from being publicly accessible which has long been one of RIM’s strongholds in the market of keeping data secure.

Posted by: Gareth