Sony Xperia S vs. Apple iPhone 4S test video

Comparison of the video quality of the Sony Xperia S and the Apple iPhone 4S. Both devices record in 1080p Fuyll HD but....which one is the best?

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.

source

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 The reason isn’t anything political, like a new desire to conform to an outdated micro-USB standard, but typically Apple: to save space inside the iPhone 5 for what are now more important components.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.

source

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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.

source

Twitter mobile app updates for iPhone and Android

New versions of both Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android are available today. Both apps bring back high-demand features, including the swipe shortcut, and they also introduce new design and functionality improvements. Here’s a rundown.

Both apps
Swipe shortcut: Swipe a Tweet in your home timeline to reply to, retweet, favorite or share it, or view the Twitter user’s profile, without leaving your timeline.
“Find friends”: We’ve added a confirmation alert when you select “Find friends”. This notification more clearly and explicitly messages the fact that when you upload your contacts’ email addresses and phone numbers, you can quickly find which of your friends are on Twitter (that is, if they’ve chosen to be discoverable by email or phone number).

Twitter for iPhone
Copy and paste: We’ve returned the ability to copy and paste the text of Tweets and user profiles. Just press and hold to copy.
Link love: The “share” feature used to just give you the option to copy or email a link to a Tweet. Now, if there’s a link within a Tweet, you’ll see the option to tweet, copy or mail that link, or you can choose to read it later. (Select a “Read Later Service” under Settings > Advanced.)
Pressing and holding links provides similar options, along with the ability to open the link in Safari.
Direct messages: We updated the design for Direct Messages and returned the ability to mark all DMs as read. Simply tap the check mark in the lower right corner.
Font size settings: Change the font size under Settings > Advanced.

Twitter for Android
New devices: Twitter for Android is now optimized to run on Android devices running Ice Cream Sandwich, as well as on the Kindle Fire (available today through the Amazon Appstore) and the Barnes & Noble NOOK Color and NOOK Tablet (available February 23 though the Barnes & Noble NOOK Store).
You can download Twitter for iPhone today from the App Store and Twitter for Android from Android Market.

Android is most-used smartphone OS in UK, overtaking Apple, data shows

With its iPhone, Apple may be the most-used brand, but Android now has more than a third of installed base of consumers

Android has taken over from Apple and now has the largest share of the installed base of smartphones among consumers in the UK, according to new figures provided to the Guardian by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

Google's mobile OS has a 36.9% share of the smartphones in use among consumers in the UK, the company says in its latest survey, which covers the four weeks to 23 January 2012. Apple's iPhone models have the next biggest share, with 28.5% of all handsets in use. The company does not split out brands, but it is likely that Apple is the most-used brand, with Android sales split among brands including Samsung, HTC, LG and Motorola.


UK smartphone installed base, by OS, January 2012. Source: Kantar Worldpanel ComTech
In terms of market share – a snapshot of ongoing sales figures for the four weeks, rather than the phones in people's hands – Android handsets have just under half the market, while Apple has nearly a third. BlackBerry-maker RIM has just over 15%, with the remaining 6% split between more than five different platforms.

The data come as the survey company, which polls consumers and retailers (but not enterprises) about the handsets that they use and are purchasing, confirmed other surveys which indicate that more than half of the British population – 50.3% – now have a smartphone. It surveys users in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia.

In the US, the largest smartphone market in the west, Apple handsets outsold Android among consumers, with a 48.4% share compared with 42.8%, the company said. That indicates ongoing strength for Apple there, said Dominic Sunnebo, Kantar Worldpanel Comtech's global consumer insight director: "The jump we saw in Apple's share last period was clearly not just a blip caused by the iPhone 4S release. Although the majority of growth is coming from the new handset, Apple's latest pricing structure is also working in its favour with no discernible drop in sales of older iPhone 4 and 3GS models."

But the growth has not been evenly spread. In the UK, RIM, which is under increasing pressure from both Android and Apple handsets, saw its share of UK sales fall from 18.7% to 18.1%. However, Nokia's Symbian – effectively declared dead a year ago by its chief executive Stephen Elop – saw the most dramatic fall, with a halving of its share of the installed base in a year.

That was matched by a collapse in Symbian's share of UK sales, from 15.5% in January 2011 to 2.8% in 2012.

Yet even that remained ahead of the share of sales achieved by Nokia's new platform, Microsoft's Windows Phone, which grew from just 0.4% in the same four-week period a year ago to 2.2% in 2012.

According to Kantar Worldpanel, handsets running Windows Phone now have a 1% share of the UK installed base. Nokia looks likely to already be the largest single Windows Phone vendor, ahead of rivals such as Samsung and HTC.

Sunnebo commented: "For the first time ever, you are now in the minority if you don't own a smartphone. With more people jumping on the bandwagon, there is huge opportunity for both retailers and manufacturers. However, the competition is intense.

"Android holds on to its lead but Apple is making inroads, increasing its [market] share of the British market from 21.7% a year ago to 29.1% now." That figure refers to a snapshot of sales, rather than the installed base.

He added: "Windows Phone 7 is also creeping up, taking over 2% of the market for the first time with the Nokia Lumia 800 taking the lion's share. This looks set to continue with the expected launch of at least two new models at the Mobile World Congress conference. We forecast this will help it to grow its share to around 8% in the latter half of 2012."

Sunnebo said there were signs of hope for Nokia and Microsoft in owners' engagement with their devices, which emerged from more detailed interviews: "One of the real positives for Microsoft Windows Phone is how engaged its users appear to be with its devices: 81% of handset owners have used social networking on their device in the past month, higher than both iOS & Android. Meanwhile, three-quarters have used GPS, indicating that Nokia's decision to include Nokia maps for free was a price worth paying to drive user engagement."

Other data that emerges from the company's research:
• Android dominated sales in every country except the US, where Apple led.
• Android's sales share was highest in Spain, where it had 65.8% of sales.
• Android's sales share was lowest in France, at 42.3%.
• Symbian's sales market share is highest in Italy, at 19.2%, though that is substantially down from 46.8% a year ago.
• Apple's sales share is lowest in Spain, where it had just 9.2% of the market – the same as a year ago. Symbian previously dominated with 65.3% of sales; now it is the second, with 13.2%, but far behind Android.
• RIM's sales share is highest in the UK, at 15.5%, and lowest in Australia, at 0.7% – down there from just 3.7% a year ago.


Smartphone sales in different countries: comparing a four-week period to Jan 23 2011 to four week up to Jan 23 2012 in US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia. Source: Kantar Worldpanel ComTech
The picture that emerges is that the market generally is split into two dominant ecosystems, of Apple and Android. RIM's share is being gradually eroded among consumers, but there is no large-scale shift visible yet towards Windows Phone – which was Elop's hope when he abandoned Symbian for Windows Phone, saying that the smartphone market was a war of ecosystems rather than a battle of handsets.

Smartphone data for countries
 
Android
iOS
RIM
WP7
Symbian
WinMobile
Bada
Other
 
Data for installed base for UK, and market share for various countries Jan 2011/2012. Source: Kantar Worldpanel ComTech
Installed base Jan 2011 20.1 29.2 18.7 0.1 26.7 3.2 0.8 1.2
Installed based Jan 2012 36.9 28.5 18.1 1 13.1 1.3 0.7 0.4
Change 16.8 -0.7 -0.6 0.9 -13.6 -1.9 -0.1 -0.8
sales (market share)
UK Jan 2011 37 21.7 23.3 0.4 15.5 0.8 1 0.4
UK Jan 2012 49.7 29.1 15.5 2.2 2.8 0.1 0.3 0.2
 
Germany Jan 2011 27.2 31.9 2.8 1.9 28 2.7 3.9 1.6
Germany Jan 2012 61.1 23.4 2 1.5 8.2 2 1.6 0.2
 
France Jan 2011 35.1 20.6 11.8 1.9 21.7 0.6 7.3 1.1
France Jan 2012 42.3 25.7 11.6 2 4.3 2.6 10.9 0.6
 
Italy Jan 2011 18.7 19.5 4 1.4 46.8 5.6 2.7 1.3
Italy Jan 2012 49.7 22.4 3.5 1.8 19.2 1.7 1.1 0.5
 
Spain Jan 2011 14 9.2 15.6 0.3 55.3 0.6 2.8 2.2
Spain Jan 2012 65.8 9.2 11 0.5 13.2 0.3 0 0
 
US Jan 2011 54.5 21.7 14.3 3.2 1.7 2.4 0 2.3
US Jan 2012 42.6 48.4 5.7 1.5 0.4 0.3 0 1.1
 
Australia Jan 2011 23.9 34.2 3.7 2.3 30.7 1.3 1.5 2.5
Australia Jan 2012 48.8 42.9 0.7 0.9 4.3 0.5 0 1.9
The data for the countries.

next generation iPhone will appear in the September-October

Japanese share Macotakara reported that Apple intends to release a new smartphone the iPhone in September or October of this year. These data revealed the journalists informed source. He also mentioned that this trend will continue, that is, the next iPhone model will also go on sale in the fall. recall, usually Apple released the iPhone in the summer (June) and last year alone, such an order has been violated: the new iPhone 4S ( instead of the expected iPhone 5) appeared only in October. It is assumed that the iPhone is still 5 will hit the market this year, according to the source, too, in the fall. Among its expected performance - quad-processor Apple A6, 4-inch touchscreen, 8 megapixel camera, and perhaps, LTE.

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®.

Angry Birds Space - Teaser #1

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

Settlement reached in iPhone 4 antennagate suit

Original iPhone 4 buyers can get either $15 or a new bumper case from Apple as part of a newly settled class-action lawsuit.

A settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit targeting the antenna performance of Apple's iPhone 4.
As part of a preliminary approval made this afternoon, U.S. residents who bought Apple's iPhone 4 will be entitled to $15 in cash or a bumper case provided by Apple.
The settlement comes from 18 separate lawsuits that were consolidated into one. All share the claim that Apple was "misrepresenting and concealing material information in the marketing, advertising, sale, and servicing of its iPhone 4--particularly as it relates to the quality of the mobile phone antenna and reception and related software."
The settlement has its own Web site, www.iPhone4Settlement.com, which will be up in the coming weeks (the site doesn't go anywhere right now). There, customers will be able to get information about the settlement and how to make a claim. As part of the arrangement, e-mails will also be sent alerting original buyers to the settlement before April 30, 2012. The claims period is then open for 120 days.
"We believe that the Apple iPhone 4 settlement is fair, adequate, and reasonable," Ira Rothken, co-lead counsel representing the class, told CNET. "We believe that it allows members of the class to choose, and they can get $15 of cash or a bumper, so we believe that type of choice is proportional to the circumstances."
An Apple representative told CNET: "This settlement relates to a small number of customers who indicated that they experienced antenna or reception issues with their iPhone 4, and didn't want to take advantage of a free case from Apple when it was being offered in 2010."

Shortly after the release of the iPhone 4, owners began posting videos of themselves holding the phone tightly, showing that the device would eventually lose some reception, something that was criticized as being a hardware flaw.
Apple did not weigh in on the matter for three weeks, deciding instead to hold a press conference to address what had been dubbed "antennagate" with a sea of data to show that other phones had similar issues. The company then offered to let people return the phone for a full refund, or claim a complementary case from Apple or third-party case makers--an offer it kept going for two months. It also issued a software update that changed how the phone determined how many reception bars were displayed.
Apple's latest iPhone, the iPhone 4S, was released in October of last year. According to testing done by Consumer Reports about a month after its release, the device was free of the issue.
Rothken says the class is comprised of 25 million members. Besides the e-mails to those members, the settlement requires a summary notice of the settlement to be posted in print versions of USA Today and Macworld.

source

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 .

Mozilla Boot to Gecko's JavaScript phone stack and web API dials the phone

Mozilla Boot to Gecko's JavaScript phone stack and web API dials the phone

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.

Gartner Says Worldwide Smartphone Sales Soared in Fourth Quarter of 2011 With 47 Percent Growth

Apple Became Top Smartphone Vendor in Fourth Quarter of 2011 and in 2011 as a Whole

          Worldwide smartphone sales to end users soared to 149 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 47.3 per cent increase from the fourth quarter of 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. Total smartphone sales in 2011 reached 472 million units and accounted for 31 percent of all mobile devices sales, up 58 percent from 2010.

Smartphone volumes during the quarter rose due to record sales of Apple iPhones. As a result, Apple became the third-largest mobile phone vendor in the world, overtaking LG. Apple also became the world's top smartphone vendor, with a market share of 23.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, and the top smartphone vendor for 2011 as a whole, with a 19 percent market share. "Western Europe and North America led most of the smartphone growth for Apple during the fourth quarter of 2011," said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner. "In Western Europe the spike in iPhone sales in the fourth quarter saved the overall smartphone market after two consecutive quarters of slow sales."

The quarter saw Samsung and Apple cement their positions further at the top of the market as their brands and new products clearly stood out. LG, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Research In Motion (RIM) again recorded disappointing results as they struggled to improve volumes and profits significantly. These vendors were also exposed to a much stronger threat from the midrange and low end of the smartphone market as ZTE and Huawei continued to gain share during the quarter.

Worldwide mobile device sales to end users totaled 476.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 5.4 percent increase from the same period in 2010 (see Table 1). In 2011 as a whole, end users bought 1.8 billion units, an 11.1 percent increase from 2010 (see Table 2). "Expectations for 2012 are for the overall market to grow by about 7 percent, while smartphone growth is expected to slow to around 39 percent," said Annette Zimmermann, principal research analyst at Gartner.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, Nokia's mobile phone sales numbered 111.7 million units, an 8.7 percent decrease from last year. "Samsung closed the gap with Nokia in overall market share," said Ms. Cozza. "Samsung profited from strong smartphone sales of 34 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011. The troubled economic environment in Europe and Nokia's weakened brand status posed challenges that were hard to overcome in just one quarter. However, Nokia proved its ability to execute and deliver on time with its new Lumia 710 and 800 handsets. Nokia will have to continue to offer aggressive prices to encourage communications service providers (CSPs) to add its products to portfolios currently dominated by Android-based devices.”

Table 1
Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Vendor in 4Q11 (Thousands of Units)

Company
4Q11
Units
4Q11 Market Share (%)
4Q10
Units
4Q10 Market Share (%)
Nokia
111,699.4
23.4
122,278.1
27.1
Samsung
92,682.3
19.4
79,168.7
17.5
Apple
35,456.0
7.4
16,011.1
3.5
ZTE
18,915.1
4.0
9,033.9
2.0
LG Electronics
16,938.3
3.6
30,119.1
6.7
Huawei
13,966.2
2.9
7,824.0
1.7
Research In Motion
13,184.5
2.8
14,762.0
3.3
HTC
10,837.4
2.3
8,907.0
2.0
Motorola
10,075.3
2.1
10,908.4
2.4
Alcatel
9,004.7
1.9
7,997.9
1.8
Others
143,795.8
30.2
145,026.3
32.1
Total
476,554.9
100.0
452,036.5
100.0
Source: Gartner (February 2012)

Table 2
Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2011 (Thousands of Units)

Company
2011
Units
2011 Market Share (%)
2010
Units
2010 Market Share (%)
Nokia
422,478.3
23.8
461,318.2
28.9
Samsung
313,904.2
17.7
281,065.8
17.6
Apple
89,263.2
5.0
46,598.3
2.9
LG Electronics
86,370.9
4.9
114,154.6
7.1
ZTE
56,881.8
3.2
29,686.0
1.9
Research In Motion
51,541.9
2.9
49,651.6
3.1
HTC
43,266.9
2.4
24,688.4
1.5
Huawei
40,663.4
2.3
23,814.7
1.5
Motorola
40,269.0
2.3
38,553.7
2.4
Sony Ericsson
32,597.5
1.8
41,819.2
2.6
Others
597,326.9
33.7
485,452.0
30.4
Total
1,774,564.1
100.0
1,596,802.4
100.0
Source: Gartner (February 2012)

Apple had an exceptional fourth quarter, selling 35.5 million smartphones to end users, a 121.4 percent increase year on year. Apple's continued attention to channel management helped it take full advantage of the strong quarter to further close the gap with Samsung, which saw some inventory build up for its smartphone range. Apple's strong performance will continue into the first quarter of 2012 as availability of the iPhone 4S widens. However, since Apple will not benefit from delayed purchases as it did in the fourth quarter of 2011, Gartner analysts expect its sales to decline quarter-on-quarter.

After Apple, ZTE and Huawei were the fastest-growing vendors in the fourth quarter of 2011. "These vendors expanded their market reach and kept on improving the user experience of their Android devices," said Ms. Cozza.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, ZTE moved into fourth place in the global handset market. ZTE posted a strong smartphone sales increase of 71 percent sequentially. The company was able to extend its portfolio to three CSPs in its home market and benefited from consumers' interest in low-cost smartphones. Huawei moved ahead of LG in the Android marketplace to become a top-four Android manufacturer, thanks to strong smartphone growth in the quarter. Huawei has made significant progress in moving to its own-branded devices, and it has continued to expand its portfolio into higher tiers as its tries to build more iconic products.

RIM dropped to the No. 7 spot in the fourth quarter of 2011, with a 10.7 percent decline. RIM's delay with its BlackBerry 10 platform will further impair its ability to retain users. However, RIM's biggest challenge is still to expand the developer base around its ecosystem and convince developers to work and innovate with BlackBerry 10.

In the smartphone OS market (see Table 3), competition between Google and Apple intensified. Android's share declined slightly sequentially. This was due to strong iPhone sales, driven in particular by the iPhone 4S in mature markets and the weakness of key Android vendors as they struggled to create unique and differentiated devices. Samsung remained the main contributor to Android share gains in the second half of 2011. iOS's market share grew 8 percentage points year-on-year, but Gartner analysts expect Apple's share to drop in the next couple of quarters as the upgrade cycle to the iPhone 4S slows. Nokia's first Windows Phone smartphones, the Lumia 710 and 800, made their debut, but, as expected, sales were not enough to prevent a fall in Microsoft's smartphone market share.

Table 3
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 4Q11 (Thousands of Units)

Operating System
4Q11
 Units
4Q11 Market Share (%)
4Q10
 Units
4Q10 Market Share (%)
Android
75,906.1
50.9
30,801.2
30.5
iOS
35,456.0
23.8
16,011.1
15.8
Symbian
17,458.4
11.7
32,642.1
32.3
Research In Motion
13,184.5
8.8
14,762.0
14.6
Bada
3,111.3
2.1
2,026.8
2.0
Microsoft
2,759.0
1.9
3,419.3
3.4
Others
1,166.5
0.8
1,487.9
1.5
Total
149,041.8
100.0
101,150.3
100.0
Source: Gartner (February 2012)

Additional information is in the Gartner report "Market Share: Mobile Devices by Region and Country, 4Q11 and 2011." The report is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1923316.



Contacts:


Laurence Goasduff
Gartner
            + 44 1784 267 195    
laurence.goasduff@gartner.com

Christy Pettey
Gartner
            +1 408 468 8312    
christy.pettey@gartner.com


About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is a valuable partner to 60,000 clients in 11,500 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,500 associates, including 1,250 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 85 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.