Proview Sues Apple in Santa Clara Taking IPad Trademark Fight to U.S.

Proview International Holdings Ltd. (334), seeking to block shipments of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPad tablet computer in and out of China, separately asked a court in California to stop the U.S. company from using IPAD trademarks.
A December 2009 agreement in which a Proview unit agreed to sell IPAD trademarks to Apple’s IP Application Development Ltd. should be canceled, Proview said in a Feb. 17 filing to the California Superior Court in Santa Clara. IP Application made “false” statements to Proview in correspondence before the agreement, the filing said.
Apple acquired Proview’s worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 countries, including China, the Cupertino, California-based company said Feb. 14. Proview is refusing to honor an agreement with Apple in China, Apple said. Carolyn Wu, a Beijing-based spokeswoman at Apple, declined to comment on Proview’s U.S. lawsuit beyond the statement last week.
Graham Robinson, an agent for IP Application, used the name Jonathan Hargreaves in correspondence with Proview before the Dec. 23, 2009 agreement to acquire all of Proview’s IPAD-related trademarks for 35,000 pounds ($55,267), the court filing said.
“This statement was false and untrue,” according to the filing. Proview is seeking unspecified damages from Apple, according to the document.
Proview applied to China’s Customs Bureau to block exports as well as imports of the iPad tablet computer, Roger Xie, a lawyer for Proview, said last week.
A court in Shanghai’s Pudong district yesterday rejected Proview’s application for an injunction against sales of the iPad tablet in the city, Xie said yesterday.
The iPad tablet was introduced by Apple in 2010 and is now the second-biggest revenue generator for the company, the world’s biggest by market capitalization.
Proview shares have been suspended from trading in Hong Kong since Aug. 2, 2010, and reported a HK$2.91 billion ($375 million) loss in 2009. The company last published its results in March 2010.
The case is Proview Electronics Co. v. Apple Inc. and IP Application Development, 12-cv-219219, California Superior Court, Santa Clara County.

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Apple aquires Chomp to help with that iTunes revamp

Do you remember the iTunes/App Store overhaul we talked about a few days ago?

The new design is said to be even simpler and more user-friendly than the current design. Apple is working on ways to enhance the speed and efficiency of finding new content, such as songs, videos, and applications. The cornerstone element of Apple’s new iTunes Store is interactivity. As Apple vaguely explained to a number of music labels and entertainment partners, Apple is looking to make the iTunes Store a much more engaging experience.
Yeah, Apple is not doing that 100 percent organically like the barley at Cafe Macs. Turns out, it is bringing some outside talent to help with the job. TechCrunch learned that a startup founded by Ben Keighran called “Chomp” is now part of Apple:

This is not a cheap “acqui-hire”, Apple has bought the Chomp team and technology and plans to use both to completely revamp App Store search and recommendations, I hear.
Chomp currently powers Verizon’s Android market, but it might be time for Big Red to look for a new technology partner.

Update: Our sources said Chomp CEO Ben Keighran and CTO Cathy Edwards are already working at Apple. Keighran joined the iTunes marketing team, and Edwards is now a senior iTunes engineer.

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Apple getting ready to ditch the traditional iPhone, iPad, and iPod dock connector

An updated “micro dock” would make room for bigger batteries, 4G radios, and other components far more important to the iPhone and iPad in a PC free world.

We’ve heard that Apple is getting ready to ditch the dock connector as it’s currently sized and implemented on iPods, iPhones, and iPads. The reason isn’t anything political, like a new desire to conform to an outdated micro-USB standard, but typically Apple: to save space inside the iPhone 5 for what are now more important components.

There are some precedents for this. Apple switched from the very common mini SIM card to the then very uncommon micro SIM card for the original iPad. They took the antenna out of the core package and put it around the edge in the iPhone 4. They had 10 hours of battery life they wanted to hit. They had a Retina display and its backlight. They had an HSPA radio. They had 802.11n Wi-Fi. They had a bigger camera sensor. They had a lot of power-hungry components, and they needed space to hold them and power them, so they switched to a smaller SIM and kicked the antenna to the outside.


The dock connector, while not huge, still takes up space that could otherwise go to what are now more important components like battery and LTE radios

The dock connector as it exists now is a relatively big component that takes up, while not a lot of space compared to the entire assembly, a lot of space compared to the difference between mini and micro SIM.

4G LTE radios also take up a lot of space. Apple has waited on better, smaller chipsets, and won’t be going to a form-factor the size of the Galaxy Nexus or Nokia Lumia 900 any year soon, but every square millimeter they can save inside the device will matter.

The importance of the dock connector has also changed. When the iPhone 4 was released, iOS was not yet PC free. There was no iCloud. There was no AirPlay. There was no Bluetooth 4.0.


Apple cut-the-cord to iTunes with iOS 5. Cutting the 30-pin dock connector down to size is a logical next step.

The 30-pin dock handled all syncing and data transfer, including backups, music, movies, and other media, all car and other connections, even video-out dongles. Over the years it changed slightly, most significantly the change from FireWire to USB-only charging, but up until now it did all the heavy lifting.

Up until now. Backups are easier and better over iCloud. Wi-Fi sync can handle even large media files, if not as quickly, still relatively painlessly given their average frequency. Video and screen mirroring just bean straight to the Apple TV. Accessories can connect and interact over the air. The iTunes app tether has been appreciably cut, so the timing to cut down on the dock connector might never be better.

Apple has also reduced the size of connectors in their Mac line, going to the PCI Express and Mini DisplayPort based Thunderbolt connector almost across the line (Mac Pro the lone holdout).

iOS devices probably can’t go Thunderbolt since they doesn’t use PCI Express architecture, but that doesn’t mean the dock port can’t get smaller, doing everything it still needs to do in a PC free world, and saving Apple precious space inside the iPhone 5 package.

(I’m saying iPhone 5 because we haven’t heard a specific timeline. iPad 3 is a much bigger device which may not be facing the physical size constraints of the iPhone yet. iPad did get the micro SIM first, however, so it’s possible Apple could be looking to debut a newer, smaller dock connector on that device first. We just haven’t heard anything specific about it and so think iPhone 5 is more likely.)

Apple probably won’t go micro-USB either, because it’s not faster and not Apple’s style.

A smaller dock connector — a “micro dock” if you will — makes a lot more sense.

Not all current accessories would be compatible, of course, even if Apple offered an adapter dongle. It would upset as many customers as it would thrill. But Apple had never been afraid to ruthlessly jettison the past for a better future. Just ask the floppy drive, and now the optical drive and FireWire port.

Apple is fearless when it comes to driving the future. And the dock connector might be next on their list.

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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.

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The Sonos Wireless HiFi System

The Sonos Wireless HiFi System lets you stream all the music on earth in every room. Start with one room, then expand anywhere to fill your home with wall-to-wall sound. Control all your music with free apps for your Android™ smartphone, iPhone® or iPad®.

The iPad & related] sun iPad3 motherboard look forward to the A6 processor fruit powder to be disappointed

As shown, processor A5X, rather than the A6. .
As previously reported,

S5L8945X iPad3 the CPU model. . .
2nd generation is S5L8940X generation is model S5L8930X. . . Therefore, according to naming convention. . . If the span of the names should S5L8950X fishes. . . . . . . . .

The new iPad pass 3/7 on sale in the heart to change four core lens to increase

Concern that the new iPad rumors went on sale in the United States in 3/7, this picture made ​​by the special channels, point of view, the new iPad for the iPad facelift, appearance is the same remain 9.7-inch screen, but screen resolution retina to the same with the iPhone 4S screen on the back of the camera lens is also raised to 8 million pixels, the largest change is upgraded to dual core by the current A5 A6 four-core processor.
It is understood that the new iPad from the end of last year had one after another mass production using the latest iOS 5.1 operating system launch is expected this year, 3/7 on sale, as the outside world is expected to be called the iPad 3 or only a small facelift, said for the iPad 2S not known.

source

Photo iPad tablet three 8-megapixel camera

Taiwan Apple Daily Resource has posted photos of the back of the tablet iPad next generation. The announcement of this device, while the well-known as the iPad 3, is yet to come - it is expected in early March. The new tablet, judging by the photos, get a silver metal back panel streamlined shape (though slightly different than the iPad 2), but the most interesting thing in it - a camera. It is, according to the source, has a resolution of 8 megapixels - is much higher than the iPad 2.

Recall, iPad 3, as expected, is built on quad-processor Apple A6, equipped with a 9.7-inch touch screen Retina high-resolution 2048 x 1536 pixels and supports cellular fourth-generation LTE. According to the latest unofficial reports, the announcement of the device is scheduled for March 7.

Proview held iPad rights conference: suing Apple for rights

Li Su, dark, Yang Rong Mountain, founder of Proview today jointly Jun entrepreneurial president

Proview held iPad rights conference
media Source: Sina Technology
Shenzhen Proview attorney to Ma Dongxiao instructions iPad trademark disputes between the Proview and Apple iPad rights conference held in Beijing. Yang Rong Mountain, founder of Proview at the meeting pointed out, Apple had to buy the iPad trademark of the countries of the world, the existence of fraud, is now suing Apple to protect their interests.

Proview iPad Past and Present

Rights conference held in Shenzhen Proview attracted great concern to the packed conference room, a conference room in the the Guoco law firm Beijing office, more than 60 media, many media only station finally arrived participate in a meeting at the door.

Yang Rong Mountain, founder of Proview opening the Proview production iPad product. According to him, the iPad is a product name (full name is the internet the Personal Access the Device), is also a trademark. Proview in the second half of 1998 the company began to design the iPad product R & D investment over 30 million dollars.

According to Yang Rong Mountain, iPad the Proview iFamily one of the series, 2000 and officially released. "This is a conceptual product at the time." Proview iPad in the United States does not own the trademarks, product can only be sold on an OEM basis to Hewlett-Packard (microblogging) .

The LCD screen is not widely available and the cost of expensive Proview iPad using cathode picture tube CRT monitor. Yang Rong Mountain, in dry conditions, CRT touch screen is very prone to operational error, resulting in the iPad ultimately not very successful.

Proview Proview iPad presentation materials distributed to the media scene in today's conference. According to the information provided, Proview iPad is a small desktop with a mouse, keyboard, monitor, and now sold by the Apple iPad Tablet PC is completely different. In addition, the Proview iFamily Series products also include iNote, iPDA, iDVD, iClient.

Proview to sell the iPad trademark

According to Yang Rong Mountain, Proview after the introduction of the iPad was to do a global registration of the mark, mainly involving the 31 countries of the European Union, Mexico, in other areas not able to get the iPad trademark, Panasonic registered. Apple and Proview are at peace, but in 2003 the two sides to a lawsuit, but not because of the iPad trademark.

Yang Rong Mountain, 2003, Apple wants players trademark registered in Europe, iPod, iPod and Proview iPad trademark similarity, the Proview then initiate proceedings to prevent Apple from register.

"We have gone through three years of litigation, but also spent a lot, eventually we give up to continue litigation with Apple, we withdrew its defense, this is the first battle with Apple." Yang Rong mountain does not explain why did she abandon the prosecution of Apple.

Proview development is so smooth, was among the world's top five display manufacturers, the highest annual sales revenue has reached 10 billion yuan. However, the financial crisis of 2008 Proview into a corner.

Time of financial turmoil in 2008, Proview has been tremendous damage. "Yang Rong Mountain, rights at the meeting said that the collapse of not only the two largest U.S. customer, Proview has a significant backlog of display inventory. When the average price of LCD screen quickly fell from U.S. $ 250 140 dollars, has fallen by 60 percent, eventually leading to the Proview bank debt 2 billion yuan.

Yang Rong Mountain, then only crown began to restructure the assistance of the Bank, during a British company IP Application Development came into contact with Proview, seeking to buy the iPad trademark. Later, the company proved to be the Apple set up shell companies in order to obtain the iPad trademark.

Yang Rong Mountain, recalled that the UK IP lawyer active contact with Proview, said the company referred to with the iPad very similar to the trademark requires the purchase of the trademark. Both sides initially talks iPad trademark of the European region, followed by the two sides to discuss the transfer of the global brand.

"UK IP's initial bid of £ 20,000, because that was not enough registration fee, I initially did not agree to sell." Said Yang Rong Mountain. Rejected, the UK IP if Proview does not sell, will use legal proceedings to apply for revocation of the trademark iPad Proview Proview e-mail said.

Yang Rong Mountain, Proview financial crisis in 2009, is going to shrink overseas operations, at the same time because it was the litigation "threat", so Proview Taipei companies claim to sell the iPad trademark. "Selling there is money to take, if the litigation, then I do not know how much attorney fees."

In December 2009, Yang Rong Mountain authorized employees wheat Shihong signed the relevant agreements, trademark rights and interests of 10 the price of £ 35,000 transferred to the UK IP, which involves iPad trademark.

A month later, on January 27, 2010, Apple officially released to the world the product iPad Tablet PC. Yang Rong said that at that time was "deceived" and know that the UK IP is actually Apple.

He said in today's conference, Proview is now a financial crisis, but we still did not disclose require specific compensation figures. "We are now under Chinese law to protect their interests. Claims circulating on the network of 10 billion yuan, not only the crown of the requirements, it is the views of professionals."

He also said, "Many people believe that our registered trademark, but in fact, the iPad from 1998 accompanied by Proview to today. Proview wronged," he revealed, Proview is seeking a new opportunity to stand up again, now have a restructuring plan and investment.

iPad Chinese trademark dispute

Yang Rong Mountain, iPad trademark of the transfer process, Ma Dongxiao lawyers then began iPad trademark case. He said that the iPad trademark ownership litigation, a key issue is the trademark of Apple established IP companies to buy in the end the package does not include the Chinese mainland trademarks, and Taiwan Proview can not sell the Chinese mainland trademarks.

Ma Dongxiao a live demonstration of one year Yang Rong Mountain authorize the only crown wheat Shihong, Ministry of Justice Director of Taipei company signed iPad trademark of the transfer authorization. He said that the power of attorney can prove just Proview Taipei registered iPad trademark was purchased by the UK IP, and does not include the Shenzhen Proview registered trademark iPad.

He added that the Proview Taipei and the United Kingdom IP signed a trademark transfer agreement attachments which out of several countries iPad trademark, which does include the Chinese trademark, but even if this contract is valid, but if you just signed a contract, did not fulfill the trademark the right to transfer the program, the transfer of the trademark did not take effect.

He believes that only a 'no' fruit ', Apple did not get the trademark license, openly use to today iPad trademark transfer. "So I tell you, in this case, the Trade and Industry Bureau to investigate and deal with any problems if not addressed, but is an administrative omission."

He also put aside the Shenzhen Proview as an agent to make a comment on the matter. He believes that Apple very low-level errors committed in the whole process, no due diligence of intellectual property.

"Apple is so great a company, such a stupid mistake I feel very sorry. Its lawyers may be planning in the transaction which is very good, but the intellectual property rights a link omissions, did not investigate the trademark in the end who should, this is a very a painful lesson, "said Ma Dongxiao.

He also said that the disputes between the Proview and Apple is actually a commercial war between the merchant, independent of moral. Proview is done only to protect their legitimate rights and interests according to law, there is no need to accuse it of how large level; as Apple is concerned, there is no need to accusations from the moral level, that it is how high or how low, in fact, The problem is that the commercial warfare between businessmen. "

And Jun start to refute Apple's statement

In after Ma Dongxiao speech, and Jun start Li Su, president released a statement a letter to Apple, and fight back Apple had reiterated the statement of China's trademark rights and interests. And Jun start of the statement are as follows:

Proview from 2004 to 2006 for the iPod and the iPad trademark approximation litigation with Apple in the UK, from the lawsuit after never and can not negotiate with Apple to sell the iPad mark. Apple set up a false company spent £ 35,000 bought iPad trademark obtained fraudulently improper, we commissioned a U.S. company is preparing to sue Apple.

Second, the iPad mark does not sell to Apple when Apple acknowledged that the fact that the two sides on the time of the transfer negotiations, in 2010 eight banks seized Proview Shenzhen, Apple also sent lawyers and eight banks coordination paid transfer of the trademark, is now admitted that the negotiations after Apple forced to use the iPad trademark. As for the iPad trademark is not sold to Apple, and Apple can use the iPad on the mainland trademark is not Proview companies admit does not recognize the problem, China permitted by law not allowed. When Wahaha and up can sign the contract to sell trademark dismissed by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, iPad trademark of both fraud dispute is not a trademark holder Shenzhen Proview signed contract, Apple's present and future are impossible to China's trademark to be recognized.

Third, the courts of Hong Kong for the contract dispute between the two sides simply have not yet hearing, Apple has openly said that Hong Kong courts to support their trademark owners the right to advocate, which is to deceive public opinion of the behavior is contrary to the legal knowledge.

Fourth, Apple grounds of proceedings are under way between the two sides, citing the Hong Kong courts of temporary restraining order to prevent the enforcement of China's business sector is China's judicial contempt, when Wahaha and Danone during the proceedings up to be able to take in the BVI court provocation to the Chinese judicial sovereignty to an injunction against Wahaha, by an intermediary organization, Wahaha litigation liability to the other party to admit its mistakes ended. China's business sector according to Chinese law enforcement is a legitimate law enforcement, not serious law enforcement departments should not act, our lawyers to prosecute.

Angry Birds Space - Teaser #1

They are coming on March 22nd http://www.angrybirds.com/space.

iOS 5.1 hide undisclosed new beta versions of the system

Since last December, Apple released to developers a beta version of anticipated iOS 5.1, but since then, the new findings are very scarce. Does she want to change something so little in this new update? Unlikely, since the numbering indicates major changes. So what happens?

In fact, the iPhone Blog has obtained a version of "pre-GM" (final candidate) and can see that being prepared for more changes than those shown in the current beta versions.

One is access to the camera by the iPhone's locked screen device. Currently, to open the Camera application without having to unlock your phone, you must double-tap the Home button to display the button for the camera (see details of this in our book Secrets of iOS 5 ). This is impractical and yet many people do not notice that this functionality exists.

Fortunately iOS 5.1 Apple will change this, leaving a permanently active camera icon on the screen locked. To take a picture, just slide your finger up the icon, making the camera screen appears. Check out the screenshot:

It is another step on the way to make iOS more intuitive, using gestures to replace the buttons.

Another point that we saw was the proof of the inclusion of the Japanese language in the languages ​​supported by Siri, as previously suspected . Unfortunately, we also make sure that there will be this time we will have support for Portuguese.

The fact that Apple is already testing a pre-GM system indicates that the release date for the general public should be close. It is believed that it is released together with the future iPad, at the beginning of March .

Among the changes that have been discovered in the beta, we are unable to use the direct link to the system functions and the option to turn off the 3G network on iPhone 4S .

Clove Vlog #29 -Smartphone/iPhone/Tablet/Mobile Tech Rumours

The 29th vlog from www.clove.co.uk -This vlog looks at the the positive, negative and power of rumours on the web about new mobile technology products.

In the future, iOS will ask the user before downloading contact details

Some time ago one of the social application Active Path was subjected to criticism for its ability to download contact information to the server without notice to the owner of a smartphone. However, the market has a significant number of other applications, which are also charged with the contact information you can notify that he was not putting. These include applications like Instagram, Facebook, Foursquare and others who use these data to search for other people. In the case of the Path, the developer apologized and released an update that has created a "patch", which forces the unit to report the transfer of contact data. Nevertheless, the company Apple, which was implicated in the scandal as a software developer smartphone iPhone, decided to make their own adjustments that in the future to avoid similar incidents. According to unofficial information, soon to be released OS update iOS, which is a pop-up message will notify the user about the possibility of transferring contact information. The owner of the device itself will allow the program to decide whether or not to transmit the information. The decision will be made ​​similar to the prevention of transmission of information on the location of the device. Applications that do not support this feature will not appear in the App Store. Apple has not yet informed about when to upgrade the operating system with built-in warning about the transfer of contact information will be released.

Apple - Introducing OS X Mountain Lion

Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 NEW, 2012!
Coming this summer. Get a sneak peek. With all-new features inspired by iPad, the Mac just keeps getting better and better.

Inspired by iPad. Re-imagined for Mac.
You're about to use your Mac in all-new ways with OS X Mountain Lion. Because it's designed with innovations from iPad and it works even better with iCloud. And that makes everything you do on the Mac smarter, easier, and even more fun.

Messages:
Send unlimited messages to iPhone, iPad iPod touch, or Mac. From you Mac.

Notification Center:
Mail, messages, reminders, alerts, and more.
See what's new with you. All in one place.

Reminders:
For everything you have to do or remember,
it's the most unforgettable app on the Mac.

Notes:
Jot down whatever's on you mind.
Add photos and attachments, too.

Game Center:
It's Mac versus iPad versus iPhone versus iPod touch.
And it's a win‑win.

Download Messages Beta now: http://bit.ly/wpRCR6
More info on Mountain Lion: http://bit.ly/w0xE5r


Copyright To apple. I do not own the video. Full credit goes to beloved Apple. Love Apple. have whole range of products.

Gartner summed up in 2011 in the mobile industry

Gartner disclaims summed up in 2011 to develop the market for mobile phones. There were no reports of sensational press release does not contain. 2011 was a year of growth in the smartphone market, which he won 39% of the total of all sales. The market leader among mobile operating systems in the fourth quarter of 2011 were Android and iOS, which occupied 50.9%, respectively, and 23.8% of the market. Steepest year ago on Symbian OS with 32% of all smartphones slid to third place - it accounts for the most recent quarter, accounted for only 11.7%. Do not look better business and the BlackBerry, which, although it retained the fourth most common, but its share fell from 14.6% to 8.8%. Slightly increased proportion of Bada-devices - from 2.0% to 2.1%. The popularity of the operating system from Microsoft has dropped from 3.4% to 1.9%, despite the active promotion of investment in OS Windows Phone and the transition from Nokia with Symbian OS on this. The share of other operating systems amounted to 0.8% of the market. As for the vendors, there are also no surprises. Samsung has even approached, and phone sales to end users with Nokia, but not ahead and not sharing it with the manufacturer, and while it sold fewer vehicles than in 2010, retained his position. Deliveries of Nokia phones dropped to 461 million units to 422 million and market share from 28.9% to 23.8%. The growth of the Samsung was exactly the same as the growth of the market sales from 17.6% to 17.7%, but unit shipments in the calculation it is more than evident: from 281 million units to nearly 314 million (the difference is greater than the aggregate supply of Sony Ericsson) . In third place came by Apple. During the year it sold 89 million iPhone, which accounted for 5% of the total market. A year ago the number was 46.5 million, and they accounted for only 2.9% of the market. It failed in 2011 became the company LG. Share this manufacturer declined from 7.1% to 4.9% in unit shipments from the calculation of 114 million phones to 86 million. But the record growth of Chinese manufacturers showed. ZTE is supplied 56 million units bringing its stake to 3.2% of the market (in 2010 it was 29 million and 1.9%). Reserch in Motion has managed to realize only 51.5 million smartphones BlackBerry. It's a million units more than a year ago, but its market share fell from 3.1% to 2.9%. The Taiwanese company HTC is not even taking into account the very successful fourth quarter put the 43 million units, while last year only 24.7 million. The growth in market share from 1.5% to 2.4%. A little less than it does China Huawei has sold 40.6 million vehicles, taking 8th place with 2.3% market share. penultimate and last place in the top ten once occupied the market set the tone for Motorola phones and Sony Ericsson. Motorola built up while sales from 38.5 million units to 40 million lost 0.1% market share, compare this indicator with Huawei. But ceases to exist Sony Ericsson sold in 2011, almost 10 million phones are smaller and now instead of having a 2.6% market share only 1.8%. share of other producers increased from 30.4% in 2010 to 33.7% in , 2011. In quantitative terms, with 485 million units to 597 million. Among those who still gets into the list may be noted the company Alcatel - in the fourth quarter of 2011 it shipped 9 million units ahead of Sony Ericsson and taking on this indicator 1.9% of the total market.

In Google + for iOS appeared Startup photos and videos to social network

The new version of Google + applications for the platform iOS, she was free of charge available in the App Store. The main novelty of this application is a function of Instant Upload. That is, all the photos and videos, which makes the built-in camera of mobile devices that automatically loaded into a private album on Google +. Already out pictures and videos can be shared with users, consisting of circles, or make them publicly available. This function works on the condition that the program Google + open and for a brief period after closing. Although, if you want you can completely disable it.

Among other new features become available in the popular view Google + so (What's Hot Stream), the opportunity to see who put the message "1", as well as various bug fixes and performance improvements. New version of Google + 1.0.9.4278 for iOS platform requires version 4.0 or higher and is compatible with devices such as iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

We verified combining an LCD panel, a back plate, and a dock connector which might be considered to be for iPad3.

We combined and evaluated the quality and integrity of an LCD panel by Sharp Corporation which is from our previous article “Is it the LCD panel by SHARP for Apple’s iPad3??”, a back plate and a dock connector cable.
First of all, in comparison to a back plate of iPad2, the iPad3 one(?) is a little bit thicker; less than 1mm, and equal-sized length and breadth.

This is a picture of a back side of the back plate.
Does this picture show you the difference in the attachment screw hole of the LCD panel?

We assembled the back plate of iPad2 and iPad3 (?) into the LCD panel by Sharp Corporation which we’ve got the other day.
The points which the arrows indicate just the right size as screw holes.

Now, it became clear that the LCD panel made by SHARP was designed for this back panel.

This is a comparison picture of the dock connectors which might be considered to be for iPad3 and the dock connector of iPad2.

If these parts are aligned with each back plates…..

The screw holes meet well!

Another point is the difference of a hole of a camera.

If the back plate which we got this time is compared with the plate of iPad2, although we could see the difference in the form and size.
If we see it from the outside, a diameter of a hole is about 7mm and an inside diameter is about 4.5mm, those are not so much different from iPad2.
However, we believe that it is certain to be equipped with a different camera lens from iPad2 as a mount form of a camera is different when we see it from the back side.

Well, are these parts really for iPad3?
Or are these prototypes in the middle of a trial production?

source

Verizon, AT&T To Sell 4G iPad

Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. will sell a version of the coming iPad that runs on their newest fourth-generation wireless networks, according to people familiar with the matter, as the battle to cash in on big investments in mobile broadband heats up.

Apple Inc. appears to be planning to announce the latest version of its tablet computer in the first week of March, according to another person briefed on the matter.

Whether other carriers will also sell the device couldn't be learned. Sprint Nextel Corp., T-Mobile USA and Apple declined to comment.

iPad 3 announcement March 7, quad-core, possible 4G LTE

According to sources who have been reliable in the past, Apple currently plans to hold their iPad 3 announcement on Wednesday, March 7, 2012. Along with the 2048×1536 Retina display, the iPad 3 will feature a quad-core Apple A6 system-on-a-chip, and possibly 4G LTE networking.

The March 7 date fits with what AllThingsD reported last week, about the next iPad event being scheduled for the first week of March, and Wednesday is a traditional day for Apple to hold these types of events.

Whether Apple would simply improve and optimize the current dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor found in the Apple A5 SoC, or go quad-core has been a lingering question, with 9to5Mac finding code references to quad-core but The Verge hearing otherwise. However, it sounds like they’re going quad-core.

4G LTE networking has been another mystery surrounding the iPad 3, with a compatible Qualcomm chipset becoming available, but international LTE coverage is still slim, and in some cases a year or more away. It sounds like Apple has 4G LTE lined up for iPhone 5 this October, but we’re still not certain if the iPad 3 will get it earlier. Verizon is going to want iOS devices that go faster than 2-3mbps, of course, especially with AT&T offering HSPA 14.4, and potentially faster, models. Apple could release a 4G LTE variant model, targeted at Verizon, AT&T, Rogers, Bell, and other carriers that have rolled out enough support to see demand, or they could wait and debut it in the next iPhone instead. (No doubt Apple has already decided, it just isn’t clear to us which way they went for the iPad 3.)

Other rumors from iLounge have included better cameras, either a 5 or 8 megapixel rear camera and a FaceTime HD front camera. We haven’t received any information on these, though any camera Apple includes will have to fit into the thin iPad 3 casing. Likewise, they’re probably going to want to keep component costs down low enough to maintain their $499 entry level price tag. (Even if Apple decides to keep iPad 2 around, with a low end, low storage offering at $399.)

Again, these are rumors, and an extract of a lot of information we’re still trying to properly sort, but we’ll update when and as needed to clarify and correct. Either way, we’ll only know for certain when Apple executives take the stage next month to officially announce the iPad 3.

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Apple, Suppliers Test Tablet With Smaller Screen

TAIPEI–Apple Inc. is working with component suppliers in Asia to test a new tablet computer with a smaller screen, people familiar with the situation said, as it looks to broaden its product pipeline amid intensifying competition and maintain its dominant market share.

Officials at some of Apple's suppliers, who declined to be named, said the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has shown them screen designs for a new device with a screen size of around 8-inches, and said it is qualifying suppliers for it. Apple's latest tablet, the iPad 2, comes with a 9.7-inch screen. It was launched last year.

One person said the smaller device will have a similar resolution screen as the iPad 2. Apple is working with screen makers including Taiwan-based AU Optronics Co. and LG Display Co. of South Korea to supply the test panels, the person said.

Apple, which works with suppliers to test new designs all the time, could opt not to proceed with the device.

Apple spokeswoman in California declined to comment.

The move comes as Apple is preparing to announce a new iPad in early March, according to people familiar with the matter. That device is expected to have a higher resolution screen than the iPad 2 with a similar screen size, according to people familiar with the matter. A version will run on fourth-generation wireless networks from Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc.

A smaller tablet device would broaden Apple's portfolio and help it better compete with rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co. and Amazon.com Inc. It would also begin to emulate the strategy it took for its iPod music player, which it released in a number of shapes and sizes over time. The company has taken a different tack with its iPhone, releasing one design at a time.

Analysts said a tablet with a smaller screen size will help Apple expand its

market share in the increasingly competitive market.

"Samsung's 5.3-inch Galaxy Note and Amazon's 7-inch Kindle Fire have been selling well. It means consumers want a tablet that is smaller than the existing 9.7-inch iPad," said Diana Wu, an analyst at Capital Securities in Taipei. "IPad's features are good enough but pricing would be an important factor in the mass market, especially in big emerging markets like China and India."

The iPad represented more than 61.5% of world-wide tablet shipments in the third quarter, down from 68.3% in the second quarter, according to market researcher IDC.

Samsung Electronics, which supplies Apple key components such as memory chips and processors used in iPads, sells its Galaxy Tab iPad competitor in three screen sizes: a 7-inch, an 8.9-inch and a 10.1-inch.

Amazon.com Kindle Fire has a 7-inch screen size and is priced at $199, well below the iPad's entry-level price of $499.

Apple has long contemplated different tablet designs, according to people familiar with the matter. But it indicated it was wedded to the iPad's current size.

In 2010, Steve Jobs, Apple's late co-founder and chief executive, criticized smaller tablets, saying the iPad's 9.7-inch form was "the minimum size required to create great tablet apps."

The iPad represented more than 60% of world-wide tablet shipments in the third quarter, according to market researcher IDC.

Apple, like many other big personal-computer and consumer-electronics brands, doesn't actually make most of its products. It hires manufacturing specialist–many of which are from Taiwan and have extensive operations in China–to assemble its gadgets based on Apple's designs. They use parts from other outside suppliers, many of which also are from Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia. The arrangement frees Apple and its fellow vendors from running complicated, labor-intensive production lines, while the ability of Taiwanese companies to slash manufacturing costs helps cut product prices over time.

In the quarter ending in December, Apple hit new sales and profit records based on runaway holiday demand for its iPhone and iPad tablet devices. The company's share price has climbed in the wake of those results, closing above $500 a share for the first time on Monday.

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