Camera Comparison: Sony Xperia S, Samsung Galaxy S2, HTC Sensation XL, Nokia N8 and Fujifilm Finepix T200

The HTC Sensation XL, Nokia N8 and Samsung Galaxy S2 have all in their own right won a Recombu Camera Phone Faceoff so it makes sense we pit them against one another. The Sony Xperia S should get in on the action being the latest 12-megapixel handset coming out in March.

As a category of tech however, all these handsets are out to prove a point - that they can take on the real deal - compact cameras. Most likely to suffer from camera-phone leaps and bounds are the sub £100 cameras such as the Fuji Finepix T200, so we've got one, are comparing it against the best phones of today and tomorrow, and sharing our raw data so you can reach your own conclusions.

A note to readers, our Sony Xperia S sample is not final build software, so there is room for change in terms of processing of images (noise handling, exposure etc).



In standard comparison style, we've created a grid of images above, these can be clicked through so peruse and abuse until you decide upon your own winner (once we've announced ours of course). We've taken a series of shots: four outdoor testing different scenes, two macro shots and two indoor shots, one with flash and one without. The aims today are to find a camera phone king and question whether a camera phone can take on a fully fledged compact camera.

Let the shootout commence:

Outdoor: Direct light source

Aside from the Sony Xperia S, these phone are all winners of previous challenges so we're starting at the deep end. The light in the tunnel was very bright with the sun right behind and a scene like this is just asking for a washed out photo. So how did our contenders do?



The instant winner is the Fuji Finepix. With the most balanced exposure and best dynamic range the shot doesn't look washed out and detail is discernable in the darks and lights. A very close second is the Nokia N8. More washed out, the 12-megapixel Finn offers some very clean lines surrounding the light-source proving that older tech isn't necessarily worse tech. Neither however is new tech, with the only other 12-megapixel contender, the upcoming Sony Xperia S, picking up third place with an ever so slight white wash when compared to the silver and gold.

Outdoor: 70:30

They say that when shooting the sky, a rough 70:30 split between earth and air makes for the most visually appealing picture. The problem with 70:30 splits on a clear day? Over exposure. Skies become white instead of blue in order to make the foreground stand out. How did our 70:30 snappers fair?



The new kid on the block, the Sony Xperia S has snatched the crown in this round. Proving that better saturated roofs can swing a win, with great foreground detail and colour coupled with a very attractive sky, it maintains good contrast levels and produces a great overall image. Second is the Nokia N8. Slightly more subdued and delivering arguably the most realistic colours, great sky detailing is coupled with an agreeable depth to the image. Third is the HTC Sensation. Good levels of saturation in the background make way to very nice levels of detail in the foreground. As with the Sony Xperia S, it's picked up on the slight yellow daylight hue in the air and picks up a very respecable bronze in the process.

Outdoor: Backlight + Macro = Oh no

Usually, we'd either give a camera a backlit shot or a macro shot to handle. Not in this test - these are winners remember.

In turn, we focus on a dark bud on a tree and a bright blue sky. All were taken as close as focus would permit on the specific camera (which is why, for example the N8 is much further away than the HTC Sensation XL) and the Nokia N8 and Fuji T200 had to be forced into Macro. We will decide our winner by how well the camera balances background and foreground lighting, not necessarily the most in focus shot.



Winning. It's just something the Sony Xperia S does very well and you guessed it - it's just won again. Despite being test-software, it's delivered a pretty incredible amount of detail on the tree while retaining a huge amount of background colouration, in contrast to, say, the Fujifilm T200 which loses out in the backdrop. We'd strongly advise clicking through on the image to see just how impressive this level of detail is. In addition, it was a breeze to focus on the bud, a blessing in the face of other devices requiring we take as many as 4 shots to focus. Winning.

Second is the HTC Sensation XL. Also a breeze to focus with just a touch, it produced a less detailed but very handsome picture with a great amount of information on the branch and no overblown skys. While the N8 may have produced an arguably better picture than the HTC Sensation XL, it was a nightmare to focus with us having to re-frame the shot in order to achieve the one we got. Still, we think you'll agree, very good, balanced outcomes are worth the effort giving Nokia's N8 a bronze.

Detail: "Can you read that number plate?"

You're car's been scraped, the assailant drives off, you pull out your phone and snap a picture. You'll need some pretty receptive megapixels to track your perpetrator and we're here to tell you which camera would do the best job. Reason would have us believe that the Fujifilm with its 14-megapixel sensor would be in the best position to grab as much information as possible, with the two 12-megapixeled camera phones tailing its tracks, the reality however might prove surprising:



The unquestionable winner in this round is the Sony Xperia S. In fact, it's the Xperia S' picture that prompted us to black-bar the number plate it was so legible. There is a fair amount of grain on the shot, so when compared to the Fuji, it looks a lot less smooth, however in a detail round it's detail that scores points and it's the Sony Xperia S that delivered the only legible number-plate of the bunch.

The best overall picture and a close second is the Fujifilm Finepix T200. While it goes without saying that had we used its impressive 10x zoom it would have won, at its widest angle, we got five of the seven digits of the license plate. That it softened the image more will prove more flattering when shooting things like people, but in a round like this, every crevice counts.

Coming in third is the Nokia N8 proving our anticipated top three to be near enough on the money. With two digits legible, it hammers the final nail in the coffin - for tiny number plate capture, 12-megapixels is better than 8.

Outdoor macro

Once again, we are taking a macro shot with some pretty spectacular lighting and a good amount of depth. With a coin from Mauritius, we do our best to identify which camera handles tricky metal while also assessing how close we can get to our subject.



If the last round was about landscape detail, this round is about close up detail and while it produces arguably the most attractive shot, the Fuji T200 softens the harsh detail on the coin missing out on our top three. With the Nokia N8 not even focusing properly in close quarters, the winners are the remaining handsets. It's such a close call, were almost begrudged to pick one, however if we must we'd call the Samsung Galaxy S2 the winner with its incredible detailing of every chip, nick and scratch. Second would be the HTC Sensation XL and third the Sony Xperia S. All were a breeze to focus on and impressed us no-end in this round.

Indoor Macro

We usually take a picture of a flower to illustrate freshness, insinuate an aroma and capture nature's colour pallet at its most vibrant. Not today. These are dried flowers, cob-webbed with dust and altogether a little more Miss Haversham than Hermione Granger. The camera winner will therefore need to pick up the withered within the beauty.



As with the first round, our winner is the Fujifilm Finepix T200, followed by the Sony Xperia S and closely trailed by the HTC Sensation XL. With the best overall exposure, the Fuji T200 captured the off yellow of the flower's pale petals. The webbing is clear and the whole shot looks accurate. The Sony Xperia S captured a great amount of detail in the centre of the rose, just falling behind on overall exposure while the HTC Sensation over-yellowed the flower and over-greened the leaves ever so slightly despite fantastic detail placing it third.

Indoor: No flash

This is a noise round and Nugo's fur is a prime spot for noise to breed, with its dark colouration there's every danger that rather than a detailed grey it will become a speckled colour bath. Despite all the cameras compensating well, the scene wasn't lit well from the front with no artifical lighting.



Which camera handles itself best when challenged with a furry subject indoors? The Nokia N8 does. With the most amount of detail against the least amount of noise, fur is discernable as are Nugo's eyes and the overall shot is well exposed. Second is the Sony Xperia S. While producing some noise, the overall scene is well exposed and there is depth across Nugo's face, with more in the pink areas than any other contender. Finally, in third place is the Samsung Galaxy S2. Producing more noise than either Nokia or Sony's efforts, it nevertheless betters the other two shooters with a fine amount of detail and depth.

Indoors: Flash

To fill out Nugo's wrinkles and create an altogether more flattering shot, we get out our fill-flash. This should take some strain off the noise processing so detail on Nugo's fur should be more life-like. In addition, we can also hope for a well balanced overall scene.



The reality is thankfully in-line with our expectations, at least from three of the cameras. Unsurprisingly the Xenon flashes of the Fujifilm Finepix T200 (gold) and Nokia N8 (silver) win the final round with Xenon being a standard on compacts and one that has fared well for the Nokia N8 in previous tests. The Samsung Galaxy S2 with its dual LED flash comes in third concluding our final round and deciding on a winner.

Conclusion

Our leader-board is as follows:

Sony Xperia S - 14 points
Fujifilm Finepix T200 - 11 points
Nokia N8 - 11 points
HTC Sensation XL - 5 points
Samsung Galaxy S2 - 5 points
Ironically, we've got a joint second and third. The newest device, the Sony Xperia S has managed to seize the crown despite not sporting final release software. It captures a shot incredibly fast, produces a fine picture and also offers amongst the most intuitive UI with a great focusing system. The joint second place goes to the Fujifilm T200 and Nokia N8, though the prior is considerably easier to use and more adept to macro shots. The winner's board pits the HTC Sensation XL and the Samsung Galaxy S2 joint in third place with both showing a real forte for macro and along with the Sony Xperia S, delivering the best focusing systems of our test.

The leader-board isn't the only reason we put together this comparison, we wanted to ask the question, can a mobile phone camera rival a sub-£100 compact camera. Clearly, the answer is yes - to a degree.

To what degree exactly? With a 10x optical zoom as opposed to no optical zoom on any of the mobiles, the Fujifilm would be the only viable option to take on, say, a holiday to Florence or to your child's nativity play when you're two rows from the back. Also, as is clear in the final shot, if you plan on using a flash - nothing beats Xenon, something 99% of compacts have.

What this comparison shows is that now, top-end camera-phones can indeed rival compacts for day to day snaps and produce some incredible pictures, with the latest from Sony whetting our appetites for the MWC reveals next week. Until a decent optical zoom lands on a mobile phone however, as much as we love our camera-phones, our compact is here to stay.


source

Sony Xperia S vs. Nokia N8 test video

Comparison of the video quality of the Sony Xperia S and the Nokia N8. The Xperia S records in a resolution of 1080p, but for the sake of the comparison it's set to 720p as that is the max resolution of the camera of the Nokia N8. That being said...which one is the best?

Media alert: Nokia press conference at Mobile World Congress - doors open at 8:00 a.m. CET; Live webcast planned

On Monday, February 27, the first day of Mobile World Congress, Nokia will host a press conference, where it will announce significant industry news. The press conference will be hosted by Stephen Elop, Nokia's president and CEO. Due to the pending public transportation disruption, doors will be opened, and accredited media admitted starting at 08:00 a.m. CET.
All attendees to the Nokia Press Conference must have an official Mobile World Congress pass identifying them as accredited media. Unfortunately, admittance to the press conference without accreditation is not possible.
We strongly encourage all attendees to register and collect their badge over the weekend. Please note, badges can only be collected in person and cannot be collected for other attendees. On Monday, February 27, MWC registration at the Fira opens at 07:00 a.m. CET.
Due to space limitations, admittance to the Nokia press conference will be on a first-come, first served basis.
For those unable to attend, we will offer a live webcast of the press conference at: www.nokia.com/mwc
Further details on registration for MWC can be found here:
http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/press-registration.html
- Mobile World Congress: Nokia Press Conference
- Monday 27 February, 08:30 a.m. to 09:30 a.m. CET.; Doors open at 08:00 a.m.
- Fira Hall 7, Nokia hospitality area: http://www.nokia.com/global/about-nokia/mwc/venue/venue/
About Nokia
Nokia is a global leader in mobile communications whose products have become an integral part of the lives of people around the world. Every day, more than 1.3 billion people use their Nokia to capture and share experiences, access information, find their way or simply to speak to one another. Nokia's technological and design innovations have made its brand one of the most recognized in the world. For more information, visit http://www.nokia.com/about-nokia

Smartphone Final Numbers 2011 - All the stats including Q4 by handset brands, operating systems and installed bases

Time to do the final count for 2011 smartphone numbers. This is the one big blog about all the smartphone numbers you could ever hope for.. So please mark this page for your reference in the future and do send your colleagues here too. If you blog or write about smartphones, you may want to link here.


As always, this Quarterly and Annual blog article series is as heavily based on global stats and facts as possile. So each of the major smartphone manufacturers has provided their Quarterly results for Q4 (not all provided the numbers we hoped to receive) and the big 4 analyst houses (Gartner, IDC, Canalys and Strategy Analytics) have each given their count of total smartphone sales (or shipments, depending on their methodology). As usual, I use the average of the big 4 as the starting point, then use the best available info to calculate or closely estimate the actual numbers for each individual brand. If you want to see last year's numbers and analysis, they are here.

So while my own analysis suggested somewhat a larger number of smartphones sold in Q4 when adding all of my individual data points, the total we have to live with for Q4 is 155.1 Million units sold. And yes, we have now celebrated the first full year when smartphones have sold more than all types of personal computers (including tablet PCs like the iPad) combined. I do a separate calculation of the biggest computer makers by units sold, when smartphones are included in the count. Last year's top manufacturer list is here.

This blog article is also my official estimate (and that of my company, TomiAhonen Consulting) of the market shares both for Q4 of 2011, and as we finished the full year, this is also the final count for the full year 2011. As I started to do a year earlier, in 2010 the 'Year of the Bloodbath' in smartphones - I also will grade each major smartphone maker for the quarter and full year, for their performance with some commentary for this ended year 2011 which I called 'Year 2 of the Bloodbath, the Electric Boogaloo'.

I know some want the big picture numbers so here they are, first the full year - what will be most useful in the longer run - and then the Q4 results:

2011 FULL YEAR SMARTPHONE SALES STATISTICS


Rank . Brand . . . . 2011 units . Market Share . 2010 units . Market Share

1 (3)  . Apple  . . . . 93.1 M . . . 19.1% . . . . . . . 47.5 M . . . . 15.9%
2 (5)  . Samsung  . 90.9 M . . . 18.7% . . . . . . . 24.0 M . . . .   8.0%
3 (1)  . Nokia . . . .  77.3 M . . . 15.9% . . . . . . 100.3 M . . . .  33.7%
4 (2)  . RIM . . . . . . 52.5 M . . . 10.8% . . . . . . . 48.0 M . . . . 16.1%
5 (4)  . HTC  . . . . . 44.6 M . . .   9.2% . . . . . . .  24.6 M . . . .  8.3%
6 (7)  . Sony . . . . . 26.8 M . . .   5.5% . . . . . . . .  9.5 M . . . .  3.2%
7 (8)  . LG  . . . . . . 23.3 M . . . . 4.8% . . . . . . . .  7.0 M . . . .  2.4%
8 (-) . . Huawei . . . 20.0 M . . . .  4.1% . . . . . . . . 5.0 M . . . .  1.5%
9 (6)  . Motorola . . 18.6 M . . . .  3.8% . . . . . . . 13.7 M . . . . . 4.6%
10 (-) . ZTE . . . . .  12.0 M . . . .  2.5% . . . . . . . . 3.5 M . . . . . 1.2%
Other . . . . . . . . . . 26.5 M . . . .  5.6%
TOTAL . . . . . . . ..486.0 M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .297.8 M

Source: TomiAhonen Almanac 2012
This data may be freely used and repeated

The overall industry grew by 63.2% in just one year. Apple did incredibly well growing by 96% and taking top honors for the year. Samsung had an even more monsterous year, more than tripling in size growing by 279% and coming within a hair from the top. Past master, Nokia which was bigger than its two nearest rivals put together just a year ago, had a horrid year, declining by 23% for the full year and tumbling from the top to third place and losing more than half of its market share within one 12 month period - this is a world record fall for a market leader in any industry ever, in a period of only one year. RIM was also often called for a lousy year, but at least they managed to grow a bit, with 9% growth for the year and falling in rankings from 2nd to 4th. HTC, ZTE, SonyEricsson - since rebranded to only Sony - and Huawei had strong growth years. Motorola had a bad year and was bought by Google. Sharp and Fujitsu fell out of the top 10 chart replaced by ZTE and Huawei.


2011 FULL YEAR OPERATING SYSTEM MARKET SHARES

Rank . . OS . . . . . . . .  2011 units . market share . 2010 units . market share
1 (2) . .  Android  . . .  .  208 M . . . . 43% . . . . . . . . . 54 M . . . . 18%
2 (4) . .  iOS . . . . . . . . . . 93 M . . . . 19% . . . . . . . . . 48 M . . . . 16%
3 (1) . .  Symbian . . . . . .  81 M . . . . 17% . . . . . . . . 116 M . . . . 39%
4 (3) . .  Blackberry . . . . . 52 M . . . . 11% . . . . . . . .   48 M . . . . 16%
5 (7) . .  bada * . . . . . . . . . 9 M . . . . . 2% . . . . . . . . . . 3 M *  . . . 1% *
6 (8) . .  Windows Phone * . 5 M . . . .  1% . . . . . . . . . . 2 M * . . . . 1% *
7 (5) . .  Windows Mobile . . 4 M . . . .  1% . . . . . . . . . 11 M . . . . . 4%
Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28 M . . . .  6%
TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . .  486 M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 M

Source: TomiAhonen Almanac 2012
This data may be freely used and repeated
* - the two operating systems, bada by Samsung and Windows Phone by Microsoft were launched at the end of 2010, so the full year-to-year comparison is not valid. See analysis below by each brand of smartphone OS

In the operating system wars, Symbian and Android essentially swapped places, Symbian fell from 39% to 17% while Android went from 18% to 43%. In the second battle, Apple's iPhone iOS pulled strongly ahead from its near rival Blackberry OS and iOS even passed Symbian in the process. Among the backmarkers, Microsoft's new Windows Phone finally passed its older and incompatible sibling, Windows Mobile but still lingers in the 1% range. Samsung's bada has pulled well away now being almost twice the size of Microsoft's best. Among the others we find past major platforms that died like Palm Web/OS, Maemo and LiMo, as well as the orphaned new Nokia and Intel OS MeeGo among many others.

Please remember, I am only counting smartphones. So for example iOS has a larger number of new sales (and installed base) due to iPads and iPod Touch devices. Same true for many of the platforms, Android is increasingly also on tablets etc. The data in this blog is always only about smartphones, not all possible digital devices that might use that platform.


2011 SMARTPHONE OS INSTALLED BASE

Rank . . OS . . . . . . . .  . 2011 base . market share . 2010 base . market share
1 (1) . .  Symbian . . . . .  314 M . . . . 35% . . . . . . . . 346 M . . . . . 49%
2 (4) . .  Android  . . . . .   247 M . . . . 27% . . . . . . . . . 61 M . . . . . . 9%
3 (3) . .  iOS . . . . . . . . . 149 M . . . . 16% . . . . . . . . . 77 M . . . . . 11%
4 (2) . .  Blackberry . . . . 106 M . . . . 12% . . . . . . . .   95 M . . . . . 14%
5 (5) . .  Windows Mobile . 20 M . . . . . 2% . . . . . . . . . 48 M . . . . . . 7%
6 (7) . .  bada . . . . . . . . .  13 M . . . .   1% . . . . . . . . . . 3 M . . . . . .  0%
7 (8) . .  Windows Phone . . 7 M . . . . . 1% . . . . . . . . . . 2 M . . . . . .  0%
Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 M
TOTAL  . . . . . . . . . . . . 910 M  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700 M

Source: TomiAhonen Almanac 2012

This data may be freely used and repeated

Symbian still rules the world in the installed base of smartphones, benefitted also by the strong second-hand appeal of Nokia smartphones in Africa and less affluent parts of Asia and Latin America. Android's strong growth will move it past Symbian shortly in the installed base. Apple and RIM fight for the title of third and fourth biggest OS by installed base. And two years from launch, Windows Phone is nowhere near the reach of its older incompatible cousin, Windows Mobile and continues to be overshadowed by Samsung's bada.

Q4 NUMBERS

That was the full year. But the smartphone bloodbath was indeed quite tumultuous in year 2011 and the Q4 numbers will be much more indicative of where the race stands today, than the full-year picture which is obviously somewhat lagging. So lets do Q4 results

SMARTPHONE Q4 SALES BY BRAND


Rank . Brand . . . . Q4 units . Market Share . Q3 units . . . .  Market Share

1 (2)  . Apple  . . . . 37.0M . . . 23.9% . . . . . . . 17.1 M . . . . 14.4%
2 (1)  . Samsung  . 35.4 M . . . 22.8% . . . . . . . 25.1 M . . . . 21.2%
3 (3)  . Nokia . . . . 19.6 M . . . 12.6% . . . . . . . 16.8 M . . . . 14.2%
4 (5)  . RIM . . . . .  14.1 M . . . . 9.1% . . . . . . . 10.6 M . . . .  8.9%
5 (4)  . HTC  . . . . .  9.5 M . . . . 6.1% . . . . . . . 13.2 M . . . . 11.1%
6 (6)  . Sony . . . . .  9.0 M . . .   5.8% . . . . . . . . 7.6 M . . . .  6.4%
7 (8) . . Huawei . . . . 7.5 M . . .   4.8% . . . . . . .  5.4 M . . . . 4.6%
8 (7)  . LG  . . . . . . . 7.3 M . . . . 4.5% . . . . . . .  6.2 M . . . .  5.2%
9 (9)  . Motorola . . .  5.3 M . . . . 3.4% . . . . . . .  4.8 M . . . .  4.1%
10 (10) ZTE  . . . . . . 3.8 M . . . . 2.5% . . . . . . .  3.0 M . . . .  2.5%
Other . . . . . . . . . . . 6.9 M . . . . 4.5%
TOTAL . . . . . . . ..155.1 M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118.5 M

Source: TomiAhonen Consulting 2012
This data may be freely used and repeated

The fight was tight between Samsung and Apple as we expected. As Samsung didn't release official numbers, I used the average as reported by the Big 4. But none of the four had Sammy ahead of the iPhone so we can safely trust that this ranking order is correct. Yet it was close. Nokia continued its slide after the Elop Effect. RIM and HTC reversed positions with Blackberry having a resurgence. Sony (ex SonyEricsson) is making a strong showing of fighting into the Top 5. And in the bottom half of the Top 10, Motorola continues its slide and Huawei is growing strongly. LG and ZTE are keeping pace with the industry.

Q4 OPERATING SYSTEM MARKET SHARES

Rank . . OS . . . . . . . .  Q4 units . market share . . Q3 units . market share
1 (1) . .  Android  . . . . . 76 M . . . . 49% . . . . . . . . . 56 M . . . . 48%
2 (3) . .  iOS . . . . . . . .  37 M . . . . 24% . . . . . . . . . 17 M . . . . 15%
3 (2) . .  Symbian . . . . . 18 M . . . . 11% . . . . . . . . . 18 M . . . . 15%
4 (4) . .  Blackberry . . .  14 M . . . . . 9% . . . . . . . . . 11 M . . . . . 9%
5 (5) . .  bada . . . . . . . .  4 M . . . . . 2% . . . . . . . . . . 3 M . . . . . 2%
6 (6) . .  Windows Phone  2 M . . . . . 1% . . . . . . . . . . 1 M . . . . . 1%
7 (-) . .  MeeGo . . . . . . .  2 M . . . . . 1% . . . . . . . . . (launched Q4 of 2011)
8 (7) . .  Windows Mobile  1 M . . . . . 0% . . . . . . . . . . 1 M . . . . . 1%
Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 M . . . .  1%
TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 M

Source: TomiAhonen Consulting 2012
This data may be freely used and repeated

Android continues to dominate, and nears the half-level of all smartphones sold. Apple's iOS took a solid second place and Symbian continues to crash. Blackberry held steady. In the small ranks we have bada the strongest outside the top 4. Windows Phone saw the first 600,000 phones sold by Nokia under its Lumia series in Q4 which turned the long decline of Windows Phone into a modest growth. Still, the brand new MeeGo from Nokia, even with its very limited launch availability almost tied all Windows Phone sales by all brands. I have Windows Phone at 1.8 million units and MeeGo at 1.75 million. Thus within Nokia, MeeGo and the N9 outsold all Microsoft Windows Phone based Lumia phones by.. 3 to 1. And Windows Mobile is doing its slow death. Again even the combined sales of both Microsoft platforms, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone did not match Samsung's bada sales.

ANDROID, WINDOWS PHONE MANUFACTURER SHARES

I have also been providing the market shares for the various operating systems that had more than one manufacturer, where it was 'relevant'. Recently the only OS worth monitoring was the Google Android OS family with Symbian shrinking to being mostly only Nokia and Windows Mobile shrinking overall to oblivion, but now that Nokia has launched its Lumia series, I will also give my measure of Windows Phone OS family market shares for Q4.

ANDROID FAMILY MARKET SHARES Q4
Samsung . . . 41%
Sony . . . . . .12%
HTC . . . . . . 11%
Huawei . . . . 10%
LG . . . . . . .   9%
Motorola . . . . 7%
Others . . . . . 9%
TOTAL . . . . 76.0 Million

Source: TomiAhonen Consulting 2012
This data may be freely used and repeated


WINDOWS PHONE FAMILY MARKET SHARES Q4
HTC . . . . . 39%
Nokia . . . . 33%
Samsung . 17%
Others . . . 11%
Total . . . .  1.8 Million

Source: TomiAhonen Consulting 2012
This data may be freely used and repeated


These are approximate market shares, to fit the overall numbers as best as possible. I do not find any particularly 'glaring' problem with any of those numbers for this past quarter (sometimes some number does not seem to be right, these are reasonable).


GRADING FULL YEAR 2011 PERFORMANCE

So, we come to the end of 2011, in the Bloodbath it was Year 2, Electric Boogaloo. We expected carnage and intrigue but the year got even more of a roller-coaster ride when Nokia suddenly committed market share suicide with the Elop Effect (combining the Ratner Effect with the Osborne Effect). As I predicted when giving a preliminary analysis of what it would cause - Nokia's market share crashed - my first prediction on February 15, when I said Nokia would end in Q4 having 12% market share haha.

The Nokia give-away was a once-in-a-lifetime type of opportunity for the swift to capitalize, and move quickly, to steal market share. The fastest to take advantage were Samsung, Apple, ZTE and Huawei. Surprisingly the usually nimble HTC didn't manage to capitalize and RIM utterly failed in its chances, unfortunately putting all its attention to the tablet PC they launched which failed miserably in the market as well. But lets look at each brand now, and a quick analysis of how well they fared in the Electric Boogaloo. As usual, I will grade each contestant by the order of their finish starting from the biggest.

APPLE - 93M, 19% - Grew unit sales strongly and grew profits strongly - Grade A

Apple had a monster year. Yes, its iPhone 4S was delayed by more than a quarter, but even then the 4 sold well and once the 4S came along, Apple had a phenomenal Christmas. More than half of Apple's income now comes from the iPhone and Apple generates easily most of the profits of the handset industry. Even while making only smartphones, Apple has crashed into the Top 3 biggest handset makers, ahead of LG and behind only Nokia and Samsung, all three of which of course make most of their phones as 'dumbphones'. What an achievement!

For Q4 Apple is doing even better, selling 24% of all smartphones sold on the planet, so Apple's trajectory is even stronger than its annual performance. And while Samsung was briefly the biggest smartphone manufacturer in Q3, Apple took back that title in Q4 - giving us a different leader in the smartphone race every Quarter of the year. Congratulations Apple, perfect year, I give you an A.

SAMSUNG - 91M, 19% - Grew sales explosively and made huge profits - Grade A+

Samsung did the nearly impossible - it had an even better year than Apple in smartphones. Before you say 'but but' - remember, Apple only doubled its sales in smartphones, Samsung more than tripled its smartphone sales - all while also being very profitable. Samsung was briefly the biggest smartphone manufacturer in Q3, partly because the iPhone 4S was delayed, and now gave the lead back to Apple. But Sammy is growing far faster than Apple and is destined to run away with the smartphone crown for the full year 2012. The race will be close still in Q1 but from Q2 Samsung should be clear of Apple...

Samsung's Q4 was also strong growing well faster than the industry and holding 23% market share. Samsung sells most of its smartphones on the Android platform, but also sells on bada and Windows Phone (and is developing Tizen with Intel for the future). The Galaxy series is synonymous with industry tech leadership currently. I grade Samsung an A+

NOKIA - 77M sales, 16% market share - lost sales massively and generated huge losses - Grade F-

Nokia's Annus Horribilis was a self-induced wound. Not a wound. A self-induced serial crippling. Yes, a year of torture by the CEO. A year of water-boarding in fact. A year ago Nokia grew by 48% and made a proft. This year as the industry grew 62% Nokia sales crashed 23% and produced massive losses. Nokia's market share in 2010 was 34%. By Q4 it was just above 12%. Nokia had scared away 65% of its customer base in just one year! We witnessed the establishment of a world record in market share destruction - not only in telecoms but in all industries. Stephen Elop will go into the Business Hall of Shame as the all-time costliest CEO. The biggest loss ever, for a current market leader. Nokia was twice as big as Apple exactly one year ago. Today (based on Q4 sales) Apple is almost exactly twice as big as Nokia in smartphones. That is a total comprehensive collapse. Nokia was doing just fine through the middle of February of last year - had an excellent early year in China sales for example, as we saw from its Q1 results - but then from February 9, Nokia's CEO had his brain-freeze and insanity took over. I have chronicled enough of the carnage on this blog, suffice it to say that his Elop Effect and the year of lunacy caused total damages so severe, Nokia destroyed a Blackberry-sized slice of Nokia's business, and yes, the CEO's moronic actions caused 3.9 Billion dollars of damage to Nokia last year. So yes, for those who remember, Siemens died fast in dumbphones, as did Motorola. Palm died fast in smartphones, as did Windows Mobile. Those market share disasters were child's play compared to what Nokia did last year. That was epic. The biggest damage to any global leader ever. EVER. Any industry. ANY INDUSTRY. Not like New Coke, not like the BP oil spill, not like British Airways Terminal 5 fiasco, etc etc etc. The biggest damage to any company in any one year, EVER.

But yes, what of that wonderful promised 'third ecosystem' fantasy by delusion-boy Elop? There were some who thought Microsoft plus Nokia would be a sure winner. There were others who felt that partnership was a case of two turkeys who will not make an eagle. It was sheer speculation until we got to see the Lumia launch. The Nokia CEO had total control of the most important new phone series launch in Nokia's history. Elop could control every aspect of it, from the design of the phones, to where they would be marketed and offered to what carriers/networks, to the pricing, to the promotion. Total control of the launch of what Nokia branded the Lumia smartphones that run on Windows Phone. The previous comparison point was the launch of Nokia's previous new operating system based smartphones, the S^3 platform of Symbian with the flagship smartphone N8, one year ago for Q4. Those sold 4 million units. Just counting for the growth in the industry of 62% Nokia should have easily sold 6.4 million Lumia smartphones under any reasonably bright CEO, without the extra effort of the most important launch ever. And Nokia threw the biggest marketing push for this smartphone series, ever. And on top of that, Microsoft came in and threw hundreds of millions of dollars more in marketing support - including giving away free Xbox 360 videogaming consoles to buyers of the Lumia800 for example in the UK. How many sales did Nokia do of all Lumia phones in Q4? More than 6.4 million? No. Not even close. 600,000 is what Nokia managed. Literally they managed only one tenth the level they did a year ago (when adjusted for industry growth in the past year). That is utterly horrid performance and the signs were all there. The Lumia is not succeeding, and will not succeed. Anyone who hopes or thinks or expects that Lumia and Microsoft can rescue Nokia, has now facts - it will not. The Lumia launch is a total dud. And major analyst houses like Morgan Stanley see Nokia struggling far more this year, that market share of 12% will end at 8% according to Morgan Stanley's projection by the end of this year.

There is a ray of hope, it is called the N9 and MeeGo (And the N950 and other MeeGo devices either designed or otherwise MeeGo compatible like the N900). MeeGo outsold Lumia by 3 to 1 (more about MeeGo below). But Nokia's psycopathic CEO refuses to let the highly desirable N9 to be sold in Nokia's major markets - to the degree in Germany the biggest newsmagazine, Der Stern actually recommended to its readers to drive to Austria or Switzerland to go buy the N9 rather than Lumia smartphones. And bizarrely he refuses to sell the sister device, the N950 anywhere! Highly desirable 'hit' phones are very rare in this industry and Nokia dearly could use one right now. Only a fool as CEO refuses to sell a hot product globally. Only a fool. As long as Elop is in charge, Nokia is continuing its death-dance and has to sell its best assets just to survive. For the company that set the world record for market share destruction in a year, and going from big profits to huge losses, Nokia deserves the worst grade ever given. Unfortunately I can only fail Nokia and give it an F-

RIM - 53M units, 11% market share - grew modestly and remained modestly profitable - Grade C+

Blackberry maker RIM had a bad year. The Blackberry had grown market share every year up to 2009. Then their sales stalled, and Android (not the iPhone) started to eat into Blackberry's share. This year they were uniquely poised to steal most of Nokia's collapsing sales of its E-Series QWERTY based business-oriented smartphones. RIM should have had an easy time taking at least 6 million Nokia customers without batting an eyelash. And in a year of 62% growth, if RIM otherwise held steady for the year, they should have been in the scale of 84 million units of Blackberry sales. Yet they didn't. RIM launched its doomed tablet PC - which took the focus away from the management. RIM's strong profits vanished and in its panic, the co-CEO's fired tons of valuable sales and marketing (and design) staff which were needed right then to capture the slice of the Nokia customer give-away. And then the OS was delayed and Blackberry's troubles just compounded. No wonder the co-CEO's were both replaced by the end of the year.

In Q4 we see a rebound, strong sales on paper, but actually the growth in Blackberry sales from Q3 is only on par with the strong growth of the overall Christmas period Q4, so RIM actually only kept pace with the industry. However, as the previous two quarters had seen actual sales declines (not just market share declines), the turn-around was welcome and signals a possibly recovering RIM for 2012. Still, for their 2011 performance, I grade Research in Motion with a C+

HTC - 45M sales, 9% market share - grew unit sales strongly and made profits - Grade C

Taiwanese HTC had a good year, inspite of the bad press. Their smartphone sales grew stronger than the industry, by 81% in fact - and HTC did report a profit every quarter. They issued a series of downgrades to their forecasts, which has been more the source of the bad press. But they outgrew the market in one of the most dynamic big industries ever seen, and they grabbed market share in a very topsy-turvy year. HTC sold smartphones on Android and both Windows based platforms.

In Q4 we see HTC stumbling quite badly and falling in market share down to 6%, so the current trend is perilous for HTC, even as it manages profits. So I find it a reasonable and kind of 'average' mid-fielder performance, I grade HTC at a C.

SONY - 27M sales, 6% market share - grew unit sales but was in and out of profits - Grade B-

The long partnership saga of Sony and Ericsson was finally ended in 2011 and Ericsson exited the handset industry (focusing only on the infrastructure side of telecoms hardware). That leaves us a potentially far stronger Sony - consumer electronics powerhouse - and owner of a slew of consumer electronics brands led by PlayStation and a vast catalog of content from movies to music. Sony(Ericsson) grew sales strongly close to 3x in size, and took a lot of market share. The partnership was notoriously poor in profitability and slipped in and out of profits in the year. As Sony(Ericsson) shifted away from Symbian and Windows Mobile to focus on Android, with its Xperia series Sony became highly desirable. The company sells about 80% of all of its handsets now as smartphones and said it will complete the transition to 100% smartphones this year. That would make Sony the first legacy handset maker to achieve that major transformation of its business (and surviving it too, haha, many rivals like Siemens, Motorola and yes, Ericsson, didn't survive that transition).

For Q4 Sony grew a little slower than the industry so its market share gains are stalling, but still for the full year, I grade Sony at a B-

LG - 23 M sales, 5% market share, grew strongly but made losses - B-

LG seems to have had an almost identical performance as Sony. LG more than tripled its sales for the year, but like Sony, LG also was both in and out of profits in its handset unit. LG offers smartphones on Android and a few token Windows Phone units. The last quarter saw worse performance from LG with the company slipping in the standings. But as it did grow strongly and is borderline in profits/losses, I grade LG with a B-

HUAWEI - 20 M Sales, 4% market share, grew explosively and made profits - Grade A

Huawei is better known for its major business of telecoms networking infrastructure (like Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent) than its handset unit, where its close sibling Chinese rival ZTE is more reversed, doing more in handsets than infrastructure. But in smartphones, Huawei has leaped ahead of ZTE and had a monster monster year. Huawei mainly offers Android based smartphones and usually at the low end of the price range. For Q4 they again grew faster than the industry. I find no fault in a perfect year for Huawei and grade them with a solid A

MOTOROLA (GOOGLE) - 19 M units, 4% share - grew modestly but continued big losses - D+

Motorola was bought by Google last year or more precisely, Google announced its intention to buy Moto, and they are now in the legal process to complete that deal. I will for now continue to call its Motorola unit as Motorola. So Moto-Moto, what have you done for me lately? Not much. Was yet another under-par year for the former giant known for the Razr. So how did it go in the Electric Boogaloo? Moto grew sales yes, but less than the rate of the industry, so they lost market share. Motorola had abandoned Symbian already a while back and also ended its use of Microsoft based operating systems, concentrating only on Android. They were 'thanked' by Microsoft with a lawsuit on patent infringements.. (Microsoft simply doesn't 'get it' that lawsuits in mobile will only make you more hated and the major players in this industry have very long memories). For Q4 Motorola continued its slide, growing less fast than the industry. So when you bleed market share, and do that unprofitably, that is bad business. I grade Motorola year 2011 at a D+

ZTE - 12M units, 3% market share, grew massively while making a profit - A-

Just like its bigger brother Huawei, ZTE also grew enormously in 2011, more than 3x bigger. They made a profits. They only provide Android handsets. Their only minor blemish was that in Q4 they grew a little less fast than the industry overall while not enough to lose market share. That is why I grade them an A-

FUJITSU - out of Top 10 - F

Fujitsu promised they will re-enter the global market and did launch in some Asian markets. So far their record is poor for 2011 and they fell out of the Top 10. I score them an F

SHARP - out of Top 10 - F

Sharp had already started on their come-back to the world stage, but that had its series of stumbles and bumps (they were the manufacturer of Microsoft's Kin series, a pair of youth phones that established a world record for new launch and market removal of 6 weeks in 2010). As they made some Android based moves to some markets around the world, their sales did not keep them in the Top 10. I grade them an F


OPERATING SYSTEMS ANALYSIS

Now lets do the operating systems. Two died in 2011 (Palm Web/OS by Hewlett Packard and LiMo by the Linux Foundation). Two more had their deaths announced (Symbian and MeeGo). One new OS launched (MeeGo). Two more were announced (Tizen and Meltemi). And Android continued to roll as the huge steamroller of the OS wars while Microsoft Windows Phone - then the 8th ecosystem - convinced Nokia to join in the propaganda to promote the Windows Phone as supposedly the 'Third Ecosystem' haha. What a laugh. But like with the phones, lets do these in size from biggest to smallest.

ANDROID - 208 M units, 43% market share - grew explosively - Grade A

Google's Android is now three years of age and it has taken the world's most competitive global industry ever, and is on the brink of having captured half of it (some analyst houses have jumped the gun and claim Android is already past 50% in smartphones in Q4 but Google's own activation numbers do not support that view). Android grew almost 4-fold in 2011 from 54 million to 208 million units per year. Android features smartphones made by Samsung, HTC, Sony, LG, Huawei, Motorola (Google) and ZTE out of the Top 10 plus many smarpthones outside the Top 10 like Fujitsu, Sharp, Mi-Fone, etc. In Q4 the sales growth slowed a bit but was still well faster than the industry growth rate. All in all, perfect year for Android. I grade them an A

iOS - 93 M units, 19% share - grew strongly - Grade A-

Apple's iOS grew very strongly in 2011, nearly doubling in size and taking a lot of market share. Not much more to report. Sold only on Apple iPhones in the smartphone races (plus some other Apple products). The Q4 was a stellar quarter but Q3 was under-par due to the late launch of the iPhone 4S. Still a near perfect year for the iOS platform, I grade it an A-

SYMBIAN - 81 M units, 17% market share - collapsed - Grade F

What can I say? Symbian towered over its rivals a year ago  Now its a shadow of what it was and while Nokia's delusional CEO Stephen Elop first promised Nokia would produce another 150 million more Symbian smarphones when he said Nokia would transition to Microsoft - and most analysts said that was a ludicrous pipe-dream - today Elop has admitted it was a futile attempt and has reneged on that promise. If I was a Nokia app developer partner, I could not imagine a more disasterous year from Nokia, from abandoning the replacement platform MeeGo and the promised migration path to it via Qt, to badmouthing Symbian and the ecosystem, to unbranding the Ovi store, to shifting Nokia handset production to outsourced Taiwanese Compal, to switching away from Nokia staple components, to abandoning Nokia standard (and industry-leading) features - to now turning back on the solid promise of 150 million more Symbian devices. Yes, only a year ago, in January 2011, Nokia's Ovi had become the world's second biggest app store by downloads - and was rapidly catching up to Apple. Now all that is wasted..

So yes, while the industry grew 62%, Symbian saw sales crash by 31%. The last Symbian partners were solidly committed for big sales of Symbian, in particular in Japan, and very importantly NTT DoCoMo the biggest carrier/operator of Japan, but that all died in February of last year with the dual death-nails of the Elop Effect. By Q4 Symbian's death-spiral is only accelerating - with now the third straight decline of Symbian sales. Not decline of market share, but true decline of sales. This from a platform so strong, it grew 44% just the year before. If you lose actual sales in a year when the industry grows 62% - then you have failed and I grade Symbian an F

BLACKBERRY - 52 M units, 11% market share - anemic growth - C-

Blackberry did grow, but barely for the year. RIM is the only manufacturer making Blackberry compatible smarpthones (but interestingly and perhaps ironically, they are migrating to be compatible with Nokia's Qt developer tools - the ones that Nokia itself is now moving away from as Qt is compatible with Symbian and with MeeGo but not with Windows Phone). For Q4 they had a little bit of a come-back but only still grew at the pace of the industry, not more. Thus for the year I grade the Blackberry OS with a C-

bada - 9 M sales, 2% market share - massive growth - A-

Samsung's bada is the biggest and best-growing of the three new operating systems, and where Microsoft sells the fantasy of Windows Phone being somehow a 'third' ecosystem, in reality bada is very legitimately now the 5th ecosystem. bada only powers Samsung based smartphones and Samsung stepped into the place vacated by Nokia with the MeeGo partnership, to join Intel to develop Tizen as the next open source based smartphone OS to power not just Samsung but many other brand smartphones. Note that the comparison between 2011 and 2010 data is not comparable, because bada launched in the last quarter of 2010, so the right comparison is only Q4 of 2011 to Q4 of 2010 where the growth was 3.5x ie truly massive. bada grew ever consecutive quarter and once again in Q4 it grew faster than the industry. This is excellent for a new OS platform - I grade bada at A-

Windows Phone - 5 M sales, 1% market share - declining sales - grade D+

Note just like bada, Windows Phone data cannot be compared directly between 2011 and 2010, because Windows Phone launched at the end of 2010 so the sales number is not for full year 2010 but only Q4 of 2010. And when we compare Q4 2011 to Q4 2010, Microsoft's brand new Windows Phone OS sales have.. yes.. declined. In Q4 of 2010, Microsoft's Windows Phone shipped 2 million units (most of which were free early trial smarphones) By Q4 of 2011, Windows Phone sold only 1.8 million units which included the launch of Nokia and its Lumia smartphones, which accounted for 600,000 out of the Windows Phone totals or exactly one third. The others came mostly from HTC and Samsung. Note that Windows Phone lost unit sales for three quarters straight, Q1, Q2 and Q3 and then Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer fired the Windows Phone President (sorry, no he was not fired, he was demoted). Ballmer himself expressed frustration time and again in 2011 how Windows Phone sales were declining and disappointing. In Microsoft's best market, the USA, even in Q4 the older and obsolete (and incompatible) Windows Mobile OS still outsold Windows Phone! And Microsoft started to hide the true division by making a big marketing PR push to call now all Windows Mobile smartphones also Windows Phone (which they obviously are not) and each of the big 4 analyst houses have stopped separating the two OS platforms, calling it simply Microsoft. The performance of Windows Phone is dismal and I grade it at D+

WINDOWS MOBILE - 5M sales, 1% market share - declined sales - C-

Yes, Windows Mobile did decline more than Windows Phone - but Windows Mobile was announced dead more than two years ago, and it simply refuses to die. Like I said, in the USA, Microsoft's best market, it still stubbornly outsells Windows Phone in Q4 of 2011. For the full year, Windows Phone lost almost two thirds of its sales and its market share fell into the toilet from 4% to 1%. But it just refuses to go away, to Microsoft's great dismay. Yes its about to vanish and yes it fell massively, but I salute the attitude of refusing to go quietly, and I give that spunkiness a bit of respect and grade good ole WinMo with C-

MEEGO - 2M sales, 0% market share - new launch OS first quarter - B+

The newest and hottest of the three new operating systems, MeeGo by Nokia and Intel, is also already a dead-man-walking. In a bizarre decision by the delusional Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, he announced in the summer, that even if the sales of the N9 - the first MeeGo handset - were exceptionally good - he would not authorize any more MeeGo devices to be made by Nokia (beyond the N9 and its sister N950 which was already announced). So Nokia took all the trouble to create a fully functional touch-screen optimized smartphone OS, which by all reviews is excellent - and which is open source, Linux based, and compatible with Qt, Nokia's developer tools - and which does not cost one cent to Nokia to use in any handsets - and which works on Nokia's standard components and can be manufactured in Nokia's mostly idling massive factories (so badly idling, Nokia has already been forced to shut down and/or sell 3 of them just because of the collapse of Nokia sales last year). And then Nokia announce it will replace MeeGo with Windows Phone, which is not open source, is not Linux based, is not compatible with Qt, and for which Nokia has to pay a license to Microsoft for every handset ever sold, which does not work with Nokia standard components, and at least the first Lumia phones were made in Taiwanese factories of Compal, not in Nokia's own (idling) factories. And this OS, MeeGo, the CEO says he won't ever use again? What is wrong with him? I can see if the alternate was 'not open' or 'expensive to use ie needs a royalty payment' or 'not compatible with Nokia's tools' but where MeeGo is in every way better than Windows Phone - I didn't even mention how many ways Windows Phone is not compatible with Nokia standard features and functions (but MeeGo of course is)..

So, we have an excellent launch Quarter for Nokia's MeeGo - a launch which was totally abandoned by the CEO who spent all the money on the Lumia Windows Phone launch (simultaneously). The N9 was the only handset sold (bizarrely, the N950 also on MeeGo is manufactured yes, but in tiny numbers. Mad!) and the N9 is only sold in obscure or tiny countries. Like New Zealand or Nigeria or Kazakhstan - no offense to my friends in any of those countries haha.. MeeGo did about 1.75 million units of sales - three times as many as the two Lumia smartphones in the same Quarter - and the one handset N9 alone almost matched all Windows Phone smartphones made by HTC, Nokia, Samsung and the other Windows Phone partners in Q4, which were obviously sold in most of the biggest smartphone countries and definitely the most affluent countries. Considering that Nokia gave it no support and deliberately prevented the N9 from being sold in any major countries - I mentioned the German magazine actually telling readers to drive to another country to buy it, that it is so good - I grade 1.75 million sales - and a 1% market share for its launch quarter a good performance at B+

PALM WEB/OS - terminated in 2011 - F

Hewlett-Packard bought Palm when its Web/OS and the latest Palm smartphones were rated second best on many tech sites behind only the iPhone. HP could have 'easily' turned its Palm asset into what the iPhone is to Apple - to deliver half of sales and most of profits - and help push the company to the top of the most profitable companies on the planet - as the Palm purchase was optimally timed if HP - already a maker of smartphones - wanted to capitalize on the massive smartphone industry expansion. It utterly failed, rather than using the existing Palm devices and rebadging them with HP and rapidly flooding the market with a hot smartphone - instead HP decided that a smartphone is a pocket PC and tried to make a business tool out of its Palm unit. That silly adventure ended last year when the Palm Web/OS unit was turned into an open source project. Palm is for all practical purposes dead now. Hence, if you die in the year that the industry grew by 62% - you failed. Miserably. I grade Hewlett-Packard's Palm misadventure as an F

For those interested to quote these numbers - you may fully use any analysis, and any numbers - and the tables - freely. I ask you list as your source if it is a printed document like book, article or white paper or infographic or for example powerpoint slide etc - please list source: TomiAhonen Almanac 2012. If you quote info from here on a website or blog or Facebook, Twitter etc mentions, please include web link to this page. I have also created an easy short permalink on Tinyurl for you to copy-and-paste if you prefer to this page, which is:


http://tinyurl.com/FoneStats

Also note, you may freely recreate the above tables into better form, including any diagrams and graphs if you like as long as you mention the source.


IF YOU WANT MORE INFO

I have published the TomiAhonen Phone Book 2010 about the mobile phone handset industry statistics and data up to the end of year 2010. It has 98 tables and charts about the handset industry, including cameraphone resolutions, browsers, bluetooth, 3G, etc and regional data and user data and all sorts of facts. It is only available as an eBook with pages formated for the small screens of smartphones, so you can carry the pdf file with you to have the stats everywhere. The Phone Book costs only 9.99 Euros so it won't damage your budget. See more at this link TomiAhonen Phone Book 2010.

If you like this information about smartphones but are more interested in the overall mobile telecoms industry from data services to subcribers to revenues to advertising to consumers etc, I publish an annual statistical volume, called the TomiAhonen Almanac with 94 tables and charts. It has of course one chapter on handsets and the above data in this blog article is part of that chapter. The current edition is from year 2011 but I am about to release the 2012 edition within literally days from now with all data current to January 2012. So if you buy the 2011 edition today as we are less than one month from the next edition, I will actually deliver to you both, so that 2011 edition immediately, and the new 2012 edition when it is released, for the same low price of 9.99 Euros. Please do not buy the wrong eBook, as they have some overlap! See more including table of contents at TomiAhonen Almanac 2011.

source

Symbian/Nokia Carla update coming to all devices in Q4 2012. 603,700,701 to ship with Carla in Q3 2012!!

A trusted source has shared with us following info about Symbian /Nokia Carla,

2nd gen Belle devices 603,700,701 will start shipping with Carla in Q3 2012

1st gen Belle devices N8,C7,E7,X7,E6,C6-01 ( and 2nd Gen as well ) will get Carla as software update in early Q4 2012.It will be a global release as well.

Carla update for 1st gen devices will be lighter version of Carla as most of them lack NFC and  have less than 1 Ghz processing power. But Browser and resizable widgets are confirmed to be coming along with enhanced smoothness and bug fixes.

N8 successor is not the last device to be launched with Carla. Minimum two more devices will be launched in 2012 running Carla. Though this source didn’t say anything about N8 successor running dual-core CPU.
Now again time to analyze the above info.

As far as Carla coming to 1st gen devices is concerned, we have seen screenshots of Carla being tested on E6 and E7 in our earlier articles. So it seems believable to a certain degree. Check our coverage below,

http://nokiapoweruser.com/2012/02/12/701-caught-running-browser-version-8-2symbiannokia-carla/

http://nokiapoweruser.com/2012/02/01/nokia-carla-successor-to-belle-being-tested-for-bugs-on-devices-like-e6e7701/

The browser version here is 8.2 and Symbian OS version is 112.010.0905, which is close to version number 112.010.0404 being tested for bugs, hence must be latest version of Carla.

Also let us have a look at this picture leaked by a developer from a conference in Mexico.

This blurred image gives following info about Carla,

Carla will have  major improvements, NFC, Dolby surround, New improved Widgets, Improved Browser (Version 8). Also Carla is supposed to come in late 2012 or early 2013.

So now if consider “the lighter version of Carla update coming to 1st Gen devices” part of tips, it really seems trustworthy as most of them excluding C7 don’t have NFC. But Improved browser (version 8) and resizable widgets would be coming, and browser version is confirmed by our above mentioned article as well (8.2).

Also the leaked picture shows more than one devices coming with both Carla and Donna. Hence if Nokia launches more than two devices this year, it might not be a surprise.

Keeping fingers crossed for MWC !!

source

Nokia Carla on new vehicles in the third quarter, an update for everyone - in the fourth

The network has new details on the further development of the operating system, formerly known as Symbian. Nokia Carla OS version will appear in the third quarter of 2012, when will come the first smartphone operating initially under the control of the OS. In this case the new models they will not - this is the second generation of smart phones running Nokia Belle, including the Nokia 603, 700 and 701, but with the third quarter, they will be shipped with a newer version of the software. Following them, a quarter later, all the other machines running OS Nokia Belle get this OS as an upgrade. In the fourth quarter, Nokia Carla will be available on devices Nokia N8, C7, E7, X7, E6 and C6-01. Despite the fact that the earlier reported that the OS Nokia Carla will not be available for some smartphones already on the market, this does not happen. But to make this possible, the Nokia will not offer a complete and stripped-down version of the OS, since a number of devices that will receive this update does not have a 1 GHz processor and support for NFC. To avoid errors when appropriate opportunities will be limited to software or deleted. It is also noted that there will be new smartphones that will be equipped with OS Nokia Carla. Among them are already on Monday at the MWC show will be shown successor smartphone Nokia N8. Be followed by two more models that Nokia is going to present to the end of this year.

Opera Mobile Labs web browser

by: Opera Software

Utilities - 11.38 MB

The premium web experience for rich, interactive content on mobile devices.

A web browser ideal for fast network connections on your mobile (such as Wi-Fi or 3G). Opera Mobile is smooth, speedy, and it makes surfing the Web on a mobile device more fun and efficient than ever.

Opera Mobile is the ultimate browser when connected over Wi-Fi or wireless broadband.

Opera acquires Mobile Theory and 4th Screen Advertising

Opera Software announced hat it has acquired Mobile Theory Inc. and 4th Screen Advertising, Ltd., to significantly expand its offering to advertisers and mobile publishers that engage consumers via the mobile web and applications, across all mobile platforms. Opera offers complete advertising solutions for mass-market feature phone and smartphone platforms, including iOS, Android, Blackberry, Java and Symbian.

Additionally, these acquisitions will enable Opera to better monetize the traffic that flows through Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers. With the world’s most popular mobile browser, Opera serves more than 160 million monthly active users that generate more than 100 billion page views, and consume more than 16 Petabytes of mobile data services a month, as of December 2011.

Mobile Theory is a leading premium mobile advertising network focused on the U.S. mobile advertising market, based in San Francisco, with offices in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle.

4th Screen Advertising is a leading premium mobile advertising network focused on serving the European mobile advertising markets, based in London.

“This is yet another important step in Opera’s quest to create even more economic value in the mobile ecosystem. Two years ago, we announced the acquisition of AdMarvel – which has grown to become the global leader as a supply-side platform (publisher platform) for mobile advertising. Last year, Opera helped generate well over $200 million in revenue for our publishers globally,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software.

Today, we are announcing the acquisition of two great demand-side platforms for mobile advertising. With these assets, and our very popular mobile browsers, Opera is uniquely positioned to deliver end-to-end mobile advertising solutions to brands, agencies, publishers and mobile operators across the globe. We are delighted to welcome the Mobile Theory and 4th Screen team to the Opera family.”

About Mobile Theory

Mobile Theory is the premier mobile ad network built for brand advertisers. Through an exclusive network of premium-quality mobile sites and apps, Mobile Theory enables the world's top agencies and brands, such as Microsoft, Chevrolet, AstraZeneca, Coca-Cola and Capital One, to deliver rich media advertising campaigns that engage and immerse the mobile consumer. Reaching more than 60 million mobile users on over 300 mobile sites and apps, Mobile Theory serves up 2 billion impressions per month. For more information, visit www.mobiletheory.com.

About 4th Screen Advertising

4th Screen Advertising is one of the world's leading premium mobile advertising agencies. 4th Screen goes beyond just clicks, offering brands and advertisers engagement and rich media based mobile campaigns. Publisher clients include The Guardian, MTV, Global Radio, Shazam, and IMDb. For more information visit www.4th-screen.com.

About Opera Software ASA

The worldwide World Wide Web — any device, any platform, any bandwidth, absolutely anywhere in the world. Opera Software was founded in 1994, based on the idea that access to the Web should be a universal right. 220 million people (and counting) use the Opera web browsers for computers, mobile phones, TVs and other connected devices. Opera also delivers tools, distribution, engagement, monetization and market insights to developers, publishers and brands around the world. We are passionate about breaking down barriers, so everyone can share in the power of the Internet. Our vision of one Web for all remains at the heart of what we do, because we believe that participation changes everything. Opera Software ASA is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at www.opera.com.

The Pure Black phone – the Grand Monaco collection favourite

The Gresso company presents an exclusive Grand Monaco collection model, designed entirely in extravagant black color. The Pure Black phone is a true reflection of sophisticated style inspired by leading-edge supercars.

In creating the new piece the designers aspired to add more luxury and elegance to the sports image of the Grand Monaco collection. The domination of black color in every detail fulfills the attitude of the phone with exquisiteness and nobleness. Black color, all-time haute couture favourite, undoubtedly accents the impeccable taste of the owner.

The new model is released in two editions: Pure Black Cayman with crocodile leather and Pure Black Carbon with Italian carbon leather.

The phone case is executed from high resistant and light titanium alloy. At the finale stage of the manufacturing the case is being covered with several high-tech ceramics layers. Due to this innovating coating the surface texture becomes mate and velvet.

For the first time in the Grand Monaco collection the numeral keyboard is set on the plate of black toned glass. The phone screen is also protected with 42 carat sapphire glass polished by hand with a diamond tool.

The keyboard of the device is crafted from surgical steel. The accurate and impeccable shape of every key button is created due to precision cutting technology. The titanium PVD-surface coats the keyboard which makes it mirror- black and resistant to the mechanical damages.

The Gresso company follows the traditions of hand work on all stages of creating the new phone, from hand polishing of every detail to individually assembling the handset by a single craftsman. Such an attitude allows to manufacture unique phones, highlighting the status and personality of their owners.

The Pure Black phone is a brand-new spotlight of the Grand Monaco collection, the masterpiece for those who truly appreciate the luxury.

The Pure Black model is a limited collection of 100 copies.
The phones will be available in February 2011. The estimated price is $2 700

Size: 116*46,5*16 mm
Weight: 120 gram
Platform: Symbian S40

The phone is available for sale at authorized Gresso dealers only and at online-boutique www.gresso.com

Update Nokia Belle available for Nokia 500

About a week ago we wrote that update Nokia Belle arrive at the top of the Symbian-smartphones, including Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia E6, Nokia X7, Nokia C6-01, Nokia C7 and Nokia Oro. At the same time it was promised that the Nokia 500 will receive a new version of the software in the near future and now update appeared. Nokia has announced that it will be gradually transferred to smartphones, so Nokia 500 in various regions of the world can not receive the upgrade at a time.

Among the main innovations of Nokia Belle - function of HD-video at 30 frames per second, and improved video quality in your browser. In addition, a number of enhanced design: widgets, menus, toolbar alerts, and so on. Plus, software version includes Nokia Maps 3.06. Update for Nokia Nokia Belle 500 has been specially adapted for the hardware capabilities of this smartphone. Upload it to the device is available with Nokia Suite, that is, the need to connect to your computer via USB.

Sony Xperia S vs. Nokia N8 - Camera Comparison - Dialaphone

Sony Xperia S vs. Nokia N8 camera comparison by Dialaphone (Sony versus Nokia). The mobile phone may be able to do quite a lot these days so if you're into photography, knowing which camera phone to go for can seem a bit daunting.

To make this decision a little easier, we've pitted the two highest megapixel camera smartphones against each other to find out which one can take the best photo. Representing Finnish smartphone giant Nokia is the Nokia N8, a Nordic masterpiece counting a 12 megapixel camera, Carl Zeiss optics and a Xenon flash is its best assets. Taking on the N8 is the Xperia S by Sony which also brings a 12 megapixel camera to the table, as well as Sony's Exmor R sensor and the ability to take a shot from standby mode in just 2.2 seconds.

Nokia Public Transport goes commercial

GLOBAL – Using Nokia Maps to explore cities and urban areas is a pleasure. With the integrated and free voice guided turn-by-turn walk navigation you can go anywhere on foot, with shortcuts and footpaths all considered. However, sometimes you just want to take a bus or the tube to reach your destination: it’s just faster. And it might be also essential for your daily commute.
This is why we have developed Nokia Public Transport. It’s an app (currently available for Nokia Belle), which is going to be your perfect commuter and traveller companion.

Nokia Public Transport provides the most convenient underground, trams, buses and suburban trains directions in almost 80 cities or urban areas across the world. All the details are available on your Nokia smartphone and always accessible. You won’t need to carry around travel cards, timetables or network maps anymore.

As a commuter, you will find being able to save destinations such as office, home, clients addresses and friends houses to the app start screen particularly useful. Each time you open Nokia Public Transport you’ll have a quick overview and one-tap access to the next departures for those favourite destinations.

You can search for any address in your city but also for point of interests like restaurants or hotels. Very useful when you are visiting a city you are not familiar with. Nokia Public Transport also helps you walking to the stop you have to board and guides you from the final stop to your destination with the free voice guided turn-by-turn walk navigation provided by Nokia Maps.

Some of you might be already familiar with Nokia Public Transport, which we introduced for the first time, as beta, on Nokia Beta Labs last October. In fact, we have been collecting all your feedback to perfect the app.

We have been also introducing more cities to our already impressive coverage. Such as Helsinki (our home base and World Design Capital 2012) and Austin, TX (useful for the upcoming SxSW) but also Baltimore, MD, Sacramento, CA and Philadelphia, PA.

Today we are highlighting the commercial release of Nokia Public Transport for Nokia Belle, and if you love this version you can already test the next version (with more coverage and features) which is part of Nokia Maps Suite beta.

We would also like to remind that public transport directions are also available on http://maps.nokia.com, useful to easily plan your route on your web browser. Android or iOS users can do exactly the same on http://m.maps.nokia.com.

Nokia Maps for Nokia N9 and Nokia Maps for Nokia Lumia also provide public transport directions.

Last but not least, we are working on Nokia Public Transport for Nokia Lumia too, so stay tuned for further news.

Nokia 302 portrait QWERTY (RM-813)

This is apparently the Nokia C3′s successor (the keyboarded C3, not the touch and type one – darn these silly names)

Not keen on this colour scheme. I’d prefer them to be black or some other colour. The styling is more like the E6. It’s slightly more serious (as opposed to the more playful nature of the 200) and probably wouldn’t look odd in an E7x line up.




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