The worldwide video game marketplace, which includes video game console hardware and software, online, mobile and PC games, will reach US$93 billion in 2013, up from $79 billion in 2012, according to Gartner.
Driven by strong mobile gaming and video game console and software sales, the market is forecast to hit US$111 billion by 2015.
Mobile games are the fastest-growing segment of the market, with revenue set to nearly double between 2013 and 2015 from US$13.2 billion to US$22 billion.
Several trends are affecting the market for mobile device semiconductors. Two have been the shift towards multi-core application processors and the addition of x86 and MIPS to what used to be purely an ARM play. Two newer trends are the addition of heterogeneous processing functionality and 64-bit processors for mobile devices, according to ABI Research.
The trend towards more integrated platforms is the most crucial because the revenue of standalone components is folding into integrated platforms and the revenue for mobile device semiconductors lie with the higher cost components – mostly the application processor.
While the shift from standalone components to integrated platforms is drastic over the next five years in terms of shipments, this shift is even more radical in terms of revenue. From 2013 to 2018, the share of integrated platforms compared to all application processors in terms of shipments will jump from 46 percent to 79 percent while the revenue shares of the same will be higher. Smartphone application processor (integrated and standalone) revenue as a percentage of total mobile device semiconductor revenue for the major components will increase from 71 percent in 2013 to 89 percent in 2018.
Apple’s fall event early this morning (Singapore time) was about thinner, lighter and more powerful products. Yes, these are improvements but not something that would get me excited to lay my hands on one.
After all, having gone through two iterations of the iPad and other Apple products, the new announcements seem to be marginal improvements. OK, the new iPad Air is lighter and thinner but hey, I’m already used to having the New iPad (or at least, that’s what it was called at launch). However, what kept me awake (remember, it was in the wee hours) was the announcement that users can have the latest Mac operating system, OS X Mavericks, for free. Now, this has the potential to be a game changer especially in its battle with Windows. How often have we heard of free Microsoft products? If at all…
According to Jan Dawson, Chief Telecoms Analyst of Ovum, the changes to Apple’s software licensing for Mac OS X, iLife and iWork is also important, not least for Microsoft. 
Lower-priced devices are driving the growth of worldwide combined shipments of PCs, tablets and mobile phones in 2013, according to Gartner. The global devices market is expected to hit 2.32 billion units, a 4.5 percent increase from 2012.
Worldwide shipments of traditional PCs (desk-based and notebook) are forecast to total 303 million units in 2013, an 11.2 percent decline from 2012, and the PC market, including ultramobiles, is forecast to drop 8.4 percent. Mobile phone shipments are projected to grow 3.7 percent, with volume of more than 1.8 billion units.
Tablet shipments are expected to grow 42.7 percent this year, with shipments reaching 184 million units. Premium tablets are faced with continued price decline in the 7-inch form factor as a larger number of consumers prefer smaller form factors when it comes to content consumption.
The wireless local area network (WLAN) hardware market in ANZ continued to grow for the third consecutive quarter, according to IDC.
While enterprises remained the largest users of wireless infrastructure, the consumer space gained share from enterprise over the year. This means that more consumer wireless routers were sold, thanks to an increased number of devices in households during the period.
Service Provider (SP) WLAN deployments differed between Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand SPs embraced 3G/LTE offload via WLAN infrastructure while Australia SPs preferred to rely on available spectrum to support mobile connectivity. Overall, SP contribution to the WLAN market remained minuscule in the region despite having the strongest growth. Table 1 shows growth for the three main segments quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) and year-on-year (YoY):
The gaming console market is highly competitive with Microsoft just edging Sony for the top position in ABI Research’s game console Competitive Assessment, based on expectations for the impact of Sony’s PS4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One game consoles.
ABI Research evaluated a number of companies across three device categories: game consoles, smart set-top boxes, and TVs/Blu-ray players. Several factors were used to score each company based on two main axes of Innovation and Implementation. The assessment provides deep insight into consumer electronics ecosystems and modern video experiences in the connected home.
Sony fell to second in the game console assessment in part because key PlayStation 4 (PS4) differentiators such as cloud gaming are still untested (and won’t be fully available at launch), but largely because Microsoft has shown more features on the broader entertainment front (eg hybrid premium/OTT services). Nintendo secured the third position but a significant gap remains between it and market leaders.
The HTC One has gotten a bigger brother — the 5.9-inch HTC One max. Just like the recently launched Apple iPhone 5S, the new smartphone has a fingerprint scan feature. Located on the back of the device, the fingerprint scanner allows users to lock or unlock the screen and quickly launch up to three favourite applications by assigning an individual finger to each.
With a larger and full HD1080p display, users can better enjoy photos, videos and movies. Driving the smartphone is the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor featuring a quad-core 1.7 GHz CPU.
The 16GB or 32GB onboard memory can be expanded with the microSD card slot, and with up to 65GB of Google Drive storage free for two years offered to HTC One max owners.
China smartphone makers looking to take their domestic success globally need to carefully consider their expansion strategies, according to Frost & Sullivan.
While the China market has been driven by demand for cheap devices that offer a unique range of services such a virtual goods, messaging apps, and photo sharing, the more mature Western markets are very different, with carrier relationships, strong brand equity, and innovative features crucial to success.
Along with Huawei and ZTE, three interesting China companies have ambitions to take their smartphone businesses international: Lenovo, Yulong Coolpad and Xiaomi. The first and most successful China smartphone company is Lenovo, which has the largest smartphone market share of China companies, second only to Korean giant Samsung in China. Lenovo is also one of the most diversified China electronics companies, with a broad portfolio. The company has already achieved success on the global stage with its PC business, now the world’s largest after overtaking HP in 2012.
Worldwide IT spending is forecast to reach US$3.8 trillion in 2014, a 3.6 percent increase from 2013, but it’s the opportunities of a digital world that have IT leaders excited, according to Gartner.
The beginning of the Digital Industrial Economy will make every budget an IT budget; every company a technology company; every business a digital leader, and every person a technology company.
“The Digital Industrial Economy will be built on the foundations of the Nexus of Forces (which includes a confluence and integration of cloud, social collaboration, mobile and information) and the Internet of Everything by combining the physical world and the virtual,” said Peter Sondergaard, Senior Vice President of Gartner and Global Head of Research.
Smart watches may well provide the biggest opportunity for flexible displays in the short term, according to ABI Research.
A number of new smart watch vendors have incorporated some form of flexible display technology to maximise the screen size of the small device. Most of the digital smart watches and other fitness and health wearable devices will incorporate a flexible display over the next 18 months due to the robust and rugged characteristics of the displays.
Furthermore, flexible displays or e-ink displays could be used as secondary displays on smartphones and media tablets. Phablets are predicted to be a key application for secondary displays — it is anticipated that more than six percent of annual phablet shipments could include the display type in 2015.
Google Glass and Samsung Gear are two of the most talked about developments in wearable devices. And many more are set to follow in their footsteps.
Canalys believes that consumerisation of IT is paving the way for even bigger transitions that will rock the IT industry. Smaller app-enabled devices (‘appcessories’) enable customers and employees to do more on the move. Adoption of wearables, such as wristbands, eyewear and sensors in clothing, will lead to a new era in which location, movement, fitness, health and potentially visual focus and interest points are tracked. The data generated by these devices creates possibilities for brands to understand, segment, target and service customers. Through functional apps, buyers and sellers are also finding new ways to interact.
‘Apps have emerged as the accelerator of current industry transitions. In place of large code bases and years of development, we now have the possibility of turning out multi-platform apps in weeks, or even days,’ said Tim Shepherd, Senior Analyst of Canalys. ‘By focusing on user experience, app developers have revolutionized how new functionality is brought to market and how behavior and activity are measured. Enterprise customers have started to exploit this capability across several disciplines, including product design, marketing, customer services and operations, and buying points are changing as a result.’
A shift in leadership is now upon the tablet mobile computing market, observed ABI Research.
At the year’s mid-point, the market intelligence firm has identified a trio of events signalling Apple’s iPad family of products has passed the baton to the Android ecosystem. During Q2, the number of Android-powered tablets surpassed iOS-based slates for the first time, tablet-related hardware revenues reached parity, and perhaps most important, the average selling price (ASP) of iPad is rapidly approaching the market average.
Overall shipments in the quarter dropped 17 percent sequentially while growing 23 percent year-over-year for the same quarterly period. “Smaller 7-inch class tablets are finally the majority of shipments,” says Jeff Off, Senior Practice Director at ABI Research. “The 7.9-inch iPad mini represented about 60 percent of total iPad shipments and 49 percent of iPad-related device revenues in the quarter.”
ZTE has introduced two new 4G mobile routers with data download speeds of 110 Megabits per second for users in Japan. The ZTE Pocket WiFi SoftBank 203Z and Pocket WiFi (GL09P) 4G routers, which are […]
After the first Samsung Galaxy Note 3 reached the hands of eager fans, one glaringky unwanted feature was spotted — the smartphone has region locked its SIM card.
This brought about a flurry of media reports on why Samsung would do such a thing and how this was a backward move, similar to the region locking of DVDs. Concerned users began lamenting that if this was the case, then they cannot swap in a local SIM card when they are travelling to another region.
But, UK Mobile Review has managed to ease nerves by testing this feature of the Galaxy Note 3. After first using a UK SIM card with the handset, the online media was able to use a UAE SIM card later. Seems that the trick is to use a SIM card from the region from which the smartphone is first purchased to activate the phone and then it can be used with SIM cards issued anywhere else.
Myanmar’s devices market is on target to take centre stage as the country hurtles towards becoming an ICT-driven nation, according to IDC.
Following the award of telecommunications licenses to Telenor and Ooredoo, SIM cards and service provision has dipped considerably towards levels even low-wage earners are able to afford. IDC expects this to drive a considerable uptake in demand for both mobile phones and tablets.
“The Myanmar government has set highly ambitious targets for mobile subscriber penetration over the next two years. At this point, they are on the right track, but there is still much work left to be done,” said Daniel Pang, ASEAN Research Manager for Client Devices at IDC Asia/Pacific.
ZTE has launched the Net Sphere home networking solution, which comprises multiple home networking terminals including a wireless router, portable APs and wireless PLC adapters to let users build high-quality home networks. The solution uses a wired […]
China’s mobile phone shipments reached 110 million in Q2, with smartphones accounting for 86 million units, according to IDC. “The smartphone market has maintained a two-digit quarter-on-quarter growth rate in Q2 due to two reasons. First, […]
Microsoft has introduced Surface 2, the successor to the ill-fated Surface RT, for which the company booked a US$900 million loss. So, what’s the difference between the first iteration and this new version?
“Surface 2 is not subtle, but is a revamp. It is not the simple changes that everybody wants, but it’s the changes people need,” said Panos Panay, Surface Chief of Microsoft.
It’s powered by the NVIDIA Tegra 4, which should provide a major performance boost over the first-generation Surface RT tablet. The chip’s ARM Cortex-A15 quad-core CPU and 72 GeForce GPU cores should help the device fly across web browsing, zip through Office applications and deliver immersive DirectX gaming experiences.
The ANZ inkjet printer market expanded in Q2, thanks largely to heavy price and bundling promotions particularly within the entry level segment, according to IDC. This augmentation was further supported by the growth of high-end machines that served as a replacement for colour laser printers.
Unit shipments increased 2 percent to about 443,000 although they dropped by 3 percent on a year-on-year basis
“The second quarter of 2013 saw aggressive promotions on various levels including price, bundling, cash back, catalogue promotions as well as TV commercials. Continued traction within the photographic printer segment and augmentation of A4 inkjet printers that could print A3 added to the positive development. However, with the close of financial year in March for certain vendors, this expansion was offset due to the limited in-take of new stock on the back of already existing stock in their channel,” said Arunachalam Muthiah , Market Analyst of Peripherals Research of IDC New Zealand.
Just when you thought that the Galaxy line-up was packed, Samsung has unleashed yet another model — the Galaxy Tab 3 (10.1-inch) with LTE in Singapore.
Offering an expanded range of options along with previously announced 7-inch and 8-inch versions, the Galaxy Tab 3 (10.1-inch) with LTE is packed with enhanced content and intuitive design for viewing or sharing content.
Stacked with a 1.6 GHz Dual Core processor, it features a comprehensive suite of video, music, and photo software, making it ideal for mobile entertainment.
Apple and Samsung are slugging it out for attention in Singapore and across Asia. Yesterday, Apple fans in Singapore queued to be among the first to lay their hands on the Apple iPhone 5s and […]
ViewSonic has introduced a new PJD8 series of projectors — PJD8653ws, PJD8333s and PJD8633ws — that features dual pen interactivity and advanced connectivity functionality.
“When it comes to ultra short throw projector solutions, it’s common that manufacturers will offer either reflective mirror technology or direct projection technology, but we feel it is important to offer our customers both. Paired with advanced interactive and connectivity features, our brand new PJD8 series delivers the opportunity of choice, not chance.,” said Roger Chien, Product Manager of ViewSonic
This new ultra short throw, networkable series allows the projector to be mounted right above a whiteboard or screen without creating hot spots, shadows or casting bright light in front of the presenter, making it perfect for smaller or difficult projection spaces like classrooms and meeting rooms.
At this year’s Computex, NVIDIA gave a preview of a tablet, tentatively called Tegra Tab, that leverages the NVIDIA DirectStylus technology, which significantly improves passive stylus performance.
That device is now called NVIDIA Tegra Note and will be available in the next few months. Designed by NVIDIA, it will be marketed by NVIDIA partners including Colorful, Shenzhen Homecare Technology, XOLO, and ZOTAC XOLO in Asia-Pacific.
The suggested retail price for the Android-based device is US$199, making it highly competitive in the growing tablet space.
To most people around the world, Coolpad, Lenovo and Xiaomi don’t quite ring a bell when it comes to smartphones. But, in China, these three Chinese smartphone OEMs outsold Apple in Q2, according to ABI Research.
Only Samsung managed to hold its own but snaring a 17 percent market share. Lenovo was next with 13 percent, Coolpad with 10 percent and Xiaomi edged out Apple with 6.5 percent.
“Even though these OEMs are only selling into the Chinese market, the size of the market has allowed them to achieve shipment volumes that place these OEMs in the top 12 globally. It is not hard to imagine these OEMs as global competitors within the next two years,” said Michael Morgan, Senior Analyst of ABI Research.
The much awaited Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will be available in Hong Kong on September 25. Coming in black and white, the suggested retail price of the 3G and 4G LTE versions are HK$5,998 andHK$6,198 respectively.
The phablet packs innovative features where users can enjoy captivating viewing experience on the 5.7-inch full HD Super AMOLDED screen that offers a stunning and divine viewing experience with a clear canvas for content creation. It also comes with an enhanced S Pen and multitasking features.
“Some people may often feel that the latest gadgets out there offer a contradicting feeling to our users because while you’re very engaged with your product, you tend to neglect the things around you. With the latest Galaxy Note 3, you will be able to enjoy a delightful mobile experience that brings passion to life,” said Yiyin Zhou, Director of Telecom Business, Samsung Electronics Hong Kong Limited.
Tablets and smartphone shipment will continue to drive growth in 2013, according to IDC, which expects tablet shipment to surpass total PC shipment (desktop plus portable PCs) in Q4. The worldwide smart connected device market, comprising PCs, tablets, and smartphones, is forecast to grow 27.8 percent year over year in 2013, slightly lower than the 30.3 percent growth in 2012.
PCs shipment is still expected to be greater than tablet shipment for the full year, but IDC forecasts tablet shipments will surpass total PC shipments on an annual basis by the end of 2015. Smartphones will continue to ship in high volumes, surpassing 1.4 billion units in 2015 and accounting for 69 percent of all smart connected device shipments worldwide.
In terms of shipment value, the worldwide smart connected device market will again exhibit double-digit year-over-year growth of 10.6 percent in 2013, but this growth will gradually slow to just 3.1 percent in 2017. The tapering revenue forecast reflects the increasing impact of low-cost smartphones and the white box tablet market.
ZTE’s Grand Memo LTE is poised to become the first 4G device available for sale in China, after it became the first to be awarded a TD-LTE handset permit by the Ministry of Industry and […]
One billion smartphones are expected to be shipped this year, helping the global mobile phone market to rebound from just 1.2 percent growth in 2012 to 7.3, percent in 2013, according to IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.
The overall mobile phone market is growing faster than previously forecast thanks to a stronger-than-expected first half of the year driven by strong gains in emerging markets and the sub-US$200 smartphone segment. IDC previously projected 5.8 percent growth for the year. Vendors are now forecast to ship more than 1.8 billion mobile phones this year, growing to over 2.3 billion mobile phones in 2017.
Worldwide smartphone shipment is forecast to grow 40.0 percent year over year to more than one billion units this year. High smartphone growth is the result of a variety of factors, including steep device subsidies from carriers, especially in mature economic markets, as well as a growing array of sub-US$200 smartphones. Total smartphone shipment is forecast to reach 1.7 billion units in 2017.
China mobile device maker Xiaomi has announced the Xiaomi Mi3, the world’s first to be based on the NVIDIA Tegra 4 mobile processor.
Delivering superb gaming and lightning-fast web browsing, the flagship phone represents the first collaboration between NVIDIA and Xiaomi. The Mi3 will launch on China Mobile, the world’s largest carrier, in October.
Based on the Tegra 4 – the world’s fastest mobile processor — the phone combines premium specs and features with all-day battery life. In addition to Tegra 4, it includes a 5-inch 1080p full HD display with 441ppi, 2GB RAM and up to 64GB of storage. The Tegra 4 processor offers record levels of performance and battery life with its 72-core NVIDIA GeForce GPU, quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 and fifth battery-saver CPU core, also based on Cortex-A15.
Android’s smartphone mobile app revenues are projected to reach almost US$6.8 billion by the end of 2013, nearly doubling its revenues from the previous year, according to ABI Research.
The Android platform has some way to go before catching iOS’s smartphone revenues but the smartphone app market will be Android’s most fruitful hunting ground compared to other devices.
ABI Research estimates that Android smartphone app revenues will increase from 59.1 percent to 65.9 percent when compared to iOS smartphone app revenues over the next 12 months.
ViewSonic has announced the new Full HD 1080p 3D projector for office and home entertainment in Singapore. The ViewSonic PJD7820HD offers best in class price-performance Full HD 1080p 3D projector with 3,000 ANSI lumens and 15,000:1 contrast ratio.
It comes integrated with 3,000 lumens for a clear, bright image even in well lit rooms – perfect for watching sports or playing on games consoles during daylight. The 15,000:1 contrast ratio ensures black colours don’t appear grey while BrilliantColour technology delivers breathtaking colour reproduction.
“As more and more business applications run on high definition resolution, the demand for 1080p projectors in the business world has been on the rise,“ said Vincent Hung, Product Manager of ViewSonic. “Our new PJD7820HD offers best in class price-performance for a Full HD 1080p 3D projector on the market today, making it the ideal crossover model for SMBs, corporate and home office consumer use.”
Homegrown brands are gaining more market share in the Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) (APEJ) smartphone market. While Samsung continues to lead the smartphone pack, Apple fell out of the top five in the region for the first time. Chinese players — Lenovo, Coolpad, Huawei and ZTE — all outshipped Apple in the Q2, according to the IDC Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.
Korean giant Samsung has nudged aside all competition in ABI Research’s assessment of 19 top tablets.
The competitive assessment ranked companies on several criteria related to both product implementation and vendor innovation.
Samsung bested all other tablet vendors in the innovation category while scoring second overall in the implementation category. Clearly king of the hill when it comes to tablet shipment volumes, Apple trailed Samsung on tablet Innovation landing in second.
Shipment of smartphones costing under US$200 are expected to grow from 238 million in 2013 to 758 million by 2018, driven by the low penetration of smartphones and large subscriber bases found in BRIC countries, according […]
Tablet shipment’s growth 42.9 percent iwas not enough to lift a sluggish PC market in Q2. Desktop and notebook shipments fell 7.4 percent and 13.9 percent respectively, according to Canalys, which believes that tablets will outsell notebooks by Q4.
PC shipment in the Asia Pacific region declined 0.5 percent year-on-year to just over 40 million units. The region was badly affected by slow shipment in China, which accounted for almost 45 percent of the region’s shipment and declined by about six percent.
Demand for smartphones and tablets is increasing around the world. Faced by an industry in transition, channel partners are exercising caution when planning and placing orders.
Samsung and Apple grew smartphone shipment by 55 percent and 20 percent respectively to maintain first and second place in Q2, according to Canalys.
However, both lost market share to Chinese vendors as the top 5 China vendors (Lenovo, Yulong, Huawei, ZTE, and Xiaomi) now account for 20 percent of the market, up from less than 15 percent a year ago.
Altogether, some 238.1 million units were shipped in Q2, an impressive 50 percent year-on-year gain.
Samsung has a device for every price point, giving it leadership in all, bar one category — the high end where it faces Apple.
According to ABI Research’s Device Portal sales channel analysis, the balance of power remains with Samsung/Android and Apple and looks set to remain so in the foreseeable future.
“This leaves little room for the other vendors to compete, especially the other Android vendors and those using uncompetitive operating system ecosystems. Despite some carrier’s efforts to create a more balanced smartphone device vendor industry with their use of subsidy, ultimately they are obliged to fulfill consumer demand and at the moment that means Samsung/Android and Apple,” said Nick Spencer, Senior Practice Director of ABI Research.
Samsung has boosted its ATIV lineup with four new Windows 8 devices — ATIV Book 9 Plus and ATIV Book 9 Lite notebooks, ATIV Tab 3 tablet and ATIV One 5 Style all-in-one desktop PC.
Also introduced is a new feature called HomeSync Lite, which transforms the PC’s hard drive into a personal cloud server. HomeSync Lite lets users to backup their personal files, photos and videos from portable devices to PCs and access them remotely via a mobile device anytime, anywhere.
The ATIV Book 9 Plus is the next generation of the ATIV Book 9, which is ultra thin and light. Its aluminium, uni-body design features several enhancements from the previous model, including a Windows 8 optimised touchscreen to give users a choice of inputs and a panel that flips 180 degrees so that users can change or share their perspective easily. The notebook will be available in mineral ash black from Q4 at major consumer electronics and IT stores and Samsung Experience Stores.
Three in 10 PC shipped in Q2 were tablets. According to Canalys, more than 34 million tablets were shipped in Q2, a 43 percent year-on-year increase. Even more impressive is the fact that tablets now account for 31 percent of worldwide PC shipments.
The charge is led by Android-based tablets as Apple’s tablet shipments declined 14 percent in Q2 and saw its market share shaved to 43 percent. The chasing pack of Samsung, Amazon, Lenovo, and Acer each grew annually by over 200 percent, driven by increasing demand for small-screen tablets.
Canalys estimates that 68 percent of tablets shipped in Q2 had a screen size smaller than nine inches. “Consumers have been evaluating tablets and the results are now in,” said Tim Coulling, Senior Analyst at Canalys . “With touchscreens contributing to a high proportion of the build cost of a tablet, small-screen products can be priced very aggressively.”
ZTE has grabbed five percent of the global smartphone market, catapulting it into fourth worldwide, according to Strategy Analytics. The 11.5 million smartphones shipped in Q2 represented a 79 percent year-on-year increase. The China smartphone maker will […]
Samsung has announced the new eight-inch GALAXY Tab 3 that sports a slim bezel that makes it easier to read and have a more engaging multimedia experience. The physical keys on the bezel at the bottom […]
ZTE has launched the MF253 LTE wireless router that enables 4G mobile data access for homes, retail stores and offices.
With a sleek upright design, the MF253 supports data downlink speeds of 100Mbps, and 50Mbps for uplink, delivering high-speed mobile Internet access for up to 32 users simultaneously. It comes with a streamlined white chassis and blue indicator lights.
Customised versions for markets in the Americas, Europe and China ensure comprehensive support for a broad range of LTE spectrum used in different markets globally. Support for an external antenna will allow the MF253 to be deployed in areas of poor mobile signals.
Demand for mobile phones continue to grow. In Q2, the worldwide mobile phone market grew six percent year over year, according to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.
Vendors shipped a total of 432.1 million mobile phones in Q2 compared to 407.7 million units in the corresponding quarter of 2012. The Q2 total was also slightly higher than the 428.8 million units shipped in Q1.
The growth in the mobile phone market was partly driven by vendors from outside the Top 5 who experienced torrid shipment growth that outpaced the overall market. Several vendors, including Alcatel and Huawei, had high double- and triple-digit growth rates in Q2 for their Android-based offerings shipped to high-growth countries such as China and India. These vendors from outside the Top 5 accounted for 44.8 percent of the overall shipment volume, up from 42.2 percent in the same quarter one year ago.
Accelerometers, vision-based gesture recognition, gyroscopes, and NFC are predicted to be the feature set big winners in smartphones in 2013, according to ABI Research.
“Gesture recognition is soon going to become a key differentiator in high-end flagship smartphones. Samsung’s latest Galaxy S4 has already incorporated the technology within its handset and has received significant plaudits for its new innovative user experience. Today’s consumers are becoming much savvier with their smartphones and they’re looking for new interesting ways to communicate with each other and their devices,” said Joshua Flood, Senior Analyst of ABI Research.
In 2013, almost 12 percent of smartphones shipped will have vision-based gesture recognition capabilities. It is unsure if Apple will include the technology in its next generation iPhone but the company is expected to include a full array of MEMS sensors and NFC.
It’s official! NVIDIA has informed those who pre-ordered the NVIDIA Shield gaming portable that the product would be shipped to US and Canada customers on July 31. This is more than a month off its […]
Huawei is banking on the popularity of tablets among the younger generation with the launch of the Huawei MediaPad 7 Youth. Compact, sturdy and stylish with its aluminum metal unibody measuring just 9.9mm and weighing […]
Fancy a new accessory? How about a smart watch? It looks like smart watches are going to be the next “must have” item. According to Canalys, the worldwide smart watch market will exceed five million units in 2014.
Canalys estimates that over 330,000 smart watches were shipped in 2012, led by Sony and Motorola. Kickstarter-backed Pebble Technology has joined Sony as a market leader in 2013. More than half a million units will be shipped this year. Smart watches are then set to explode by the end of 2014, growing tenfold as a new generation of devices from Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and others are launched.
Unlike earlier products, these smart watches will provide more sophisticated software and more elegant hardware. Glanceable information, integration across sensors and hooks into web services will be key features. These companion devices will not replace smart phones, but rather complement them as ‘appcessories’.
In an effort to make an impact in the smartphone market, Nokia seems to be banging the camera feature. Boasting a second generation 41 megapixel sensor, the new Nokia Lumia 1020 reinvents zoom, delivering more details than the eye can see so people can take photos first and frame later.
With Nokia’s innovative PureView technology and a new application called Nokia Pro Camera, it claims to be able to produce some of the sharpest images possible by any digital camera. Nokia Pro Camera makes it easy to capture, edit and share photos and videos.
The Nokia Lumia 1020’s 41 megapixel sensor features ZEISS optics with six physical lenses, plus optical image stabilisation. It also captures blur free videos with stereo sound even at the loudest concerts thanks to Nokia Rich Recording, which handles sound pressure levels six times louder than conventional smartphone microphones.
Yet another iteration of the Samsung Galaxy S4 will be making its debut in Singapore on Saturday. The Galaxy S4 Active with LTE is designed for active users who want to stay connected while exploring environments from the most rugged mountain trails to the roughest rivers.
Priced at S$898 without contract, the phone has qualified protection from dust and water (IP67), keeping dust particles out and protecting against water damage for up to 30 minutes of submergence at a depth of one metre. Equipped with a water-resistant earphone jack, the GALAXY S4 ACTIVE With LTE frees you to use earphones above water when the phone is wet or in water.
“The Galaxy S4 Active with LTE is a new addition to the Galaxy series and is purposefully designed for active users who love the outdoors,” said Irene Ng, Vice President, Marketing, Samsung Asia Pte Ltd. “Samsung has taken the innovative features of the Galaxy S4 and added breakthrough protective design elements to create a device that thrives in an active environment and is built for a lifestyle of travel and exploration.”
Smartphone shipments in Japan grew 4.0 percent year over year in Q1 to 6.8 million units to account for half of the overall mobile device market in Q1, according to IDC’s Japan Quarterly Mobile Device Tracker.
Total shipments in the Japan mobile device market for Q1 came to 13.6 million units, an increase of 9.7 percent on a year-over-year basis.
While the PC market declined by 4.6 percent in the quarter, the rapidly growing tablet market enjoyed year-over-year growth of 187.2 percent to slightly more than 2 million units. The tablet growth was largely driven by the availability of inexpensive new tablets and huge sales incentives from mobile operators to boost the shipping volumes of LTE (4G) tablets.
Gartner has adjusted its worldwide IT spending forecast for 2013 downwards to US$3.7 trillion in 2013. Last quarter, the research firm predicted a 4,1 percent increase compared to 2012 but that projection has been sliced by half to 2 percent. This reduction takes into account the impact of recent fluctuations in US dollar exchange rates.
The Gartner Worldwide IT Spending Forecast is the a leading indicator of major technology trends across the hardware, software, IT services and telecom markets. For more than a decade, global IT and business executives have been using these highly anticipated quarterly reports to recognise market opportunities and challenges, and base their critical business decisions on proven methodologies rather than guesswork.
“Exchange rate movements, and a reduction in our 2013 forecast for devices, account for the bulk of the downward revision of the 2013 growth,” said Richard Gordon, Managing Vice President at Gartner.
Like the Samsung Galaxy S4 but prefer a smaller form factor? The good news is that Samsung has launched the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini with LTE, a compact version of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone.
Priced at S$698 without contract, the phone will be available in two colours — white frost and black mist — from July 6.
With a 4.3-inch qHD SUPER AMOLED display, 107g lightweight and compact design, it is easy to carry and operate with one hand. Though compact, the Galaxy S4 mini with LTE boasts a 1.7GHz dual core processor that allows users to quickly and easily perform data intensive tasks.
Those hoping to lay their hands on a NVIDIA Shield gaming portable device have to wait a little longer. As “some final quality-assurance testing has just turned up a mechanical issue that we’re not happy […]
Barely a month after it introduced the first GeForce 7 series GPUs — the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 — NVIDIA has added another new card to its lineup. Priced at US$249, the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 GPU, is designed to deliver extreme frame rates for this year’s hottest PC games, including Call of Duty: Ghosts, Watch Dogs, and Battlefield 4,.
According to NVIDIA, this would be its last GeForce 7 series card to be introduced this year. The new lineup now consists of:
Powered by an NVIDIA Kepler architecture-based GPU with an incredible 2.3 gigaflops of processing horsepower, the GeForce GTX 760 is more powerful than the next-generation game consoles expected by the end of the year.
Combined shipments of PCs, tablets and mobile phones are projected to reach 2.35 billion units in 2013, a 5.9 percent increase from 2012, according to Gartner. The market is being driven by sales in tablets, smartphones and to a lesser extent, ultramobiles, as PC shipments are on the decline.
Worldwide traditional PC (desk-based and notebook) shipments are forecast to total 305 million units in 2013, a 10.6 percent decline from 2012 , while the PC market including ultramobiles is forecast to decline 7.3 percent in 2013. Tablet shipments are expected to grow 67.9 percent, with shipments reaching 202 million units, while the mobile phone market will grow 4.3 percent, with volume of more than 1.8 billion units.
The sharp decline in PC sales recorded in Q1 was the result in a change in preferences in consumers’ wants and needs, but also an adjustment in the channel to make room for new products hitting the market in the second half of 2013.
When Samsung launched the 5.3-inch Galaxy Note in October 2011, critics scorned at the size of the phablet and wondered if people would actually buy the product. In under two years, the Galaxy Note has not only proven to be a success but has become the trailblazer to bigger-screen phones.
The latest iteration is the Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue, which sports a 7-inch display, aluminum unibody and quad-core processor.
“We’re delighted to introduce the MediaPad 7 Vogue, our call-enabled tablet with world-class entertainment capabilities and long-lasting battery power,” said Richard Yu, Chief Executive Officer of Huawei Consumer Business Group.
NVIDIA has done something quite unheard of — dropping the price of a pre-ordered product just a week before shipping. According to a NVIDIA blog post, “we’ve heard from thousands of gamers that if the price was US$299, we’d have a home run. So we’re changing the price of SHIELD to US$299”.
All pre-orders will be charged the new price of US$299 when the product ships.
“We want to get SHIELD into the hands of as many gamers as possible. That’s because we think they’ll have the same reaction to it as thousands of gamers already have: joy,” said NVIDIA Product Manager Jason Paul.
Claimed to be the world’s slimmest smartphone at 6.18mm, the Huawei Ascend P6 weighs just 120g. Packed into this sleek design are a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, Android 4.2.2 operating system, 2000mAh battery, 4.7-inch HD in-cell LCD screen technology, and ‘MagicTouch’ for enhanced screen responsiveness even when wearing gloves.
As the flagship smartphone of the Huawei Ascend P series, it is targeted at the fashion conscious. The smartphone’s brushed metallic look with a naturally curved base is both elegant and intuitive.
“The Huawei Ascend P6 is a star among smartphones with its industry-leading design, high-quality camera, and intuitive user interface, Huawei’s proprietary Emotion UI,” said Richard Yu, Chief Executive Officer of Huawei Consumer Business Group.
Samsung Electronics has released yet another model of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom is positioned as a smartphone with the capabilities of a high-end compact camera.
Packed with 10x optical zoom, 16MP CMOS sensor, optical image stabiliser (OIS), and Xenon Flash, the Galaxy S4 zoom aims to enhance the mobile photography experience.
“As communication continues to become increasingly visual in nature, people wish to capture and share their moments in the highest quality possible, but often do not have the space or inclination to carry a dedicated camera for this purpose. The GALAXY S4 zoom changes this forever, combining the industry leading functionality and connectivity of the GALAXY S4 with the high quality photographic experience you’d expect from a compact camera,” said JK Shin, President and CEO, Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division, Samsung Electronics.
The ANZ tablets market grew a phenomenal 147 percent year-on-year in Q1, bringing the total market size up to 1.14 million units, according to IDC. This tremendous growth was due to increased demand of smaller, cheaper Android tablets, as well as Windows tablets.
“Users now have better access to a wide range of low to high-end tablets as well as different operating systems compared to last year. In 2012, an user would usually choose between an Apple iPad or a Samsung Galaxy Tab but now, a year later, brands like ASUS, Acer and Microsoft would also appear on the user’s radar,” said Suzanne Tai, Associate Market Analyst of IDC’s ANZ Infrastructure Research Group. “Whitebox tablets have picked up significantly as well, driven with heavy promotions by retailers such as Aldi, Harvey Norman, K-Mart, and Warehouse Stationary.”
“Android is growing its foothold in the marketplace, thanks to Samsung’s aggressiveness with promotions and channel strategies, as well as the influx of whitebox tablets. Additionally, Windows tablets are also gaining traction with entry of new models, pilot rollouts and implementations in commercial sector especially in education.”
Entelechy Asia 