By Edward Lim
When it was first introduced in 2011, the Samsung Galaxy Note received brickbats for its 5.3-inch screen size with critics wondering if this was a wrong move for the Korean smartphone maker. History has proven that Samsung had made the right bet as others followed suit with larger screen sizes as well. Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy Note comes of age”
While its competitors struggled, Huawei strode ahead and emerged the winner in the worldwide smartphone market in Q1. Though it’s still behind market leader Samsung, the China-based smartphone giant narrowed the gap with an astounding 50 percent growth in the quarter, according to IDC. Continue reading “Huawei bucks the trend as global smartphone shipment shrinks in Q1”
Worldwide shipment of wearable devices will touch 225 million in 2019, an increase of 25.8 percent from 2018, according to Gartner. Continue reading “Global wearable market to grow 26% in 2019”
Televisions have come a long way since the days when one can be kept for decades and handed down to the next generation. The goggleboxes of old were also centre pieces that were much to be admired and where families and even communities gathered. Continue reading “Samsung introduces second edition of Frame TV in Hong Kong”
Smartphone vendors shipped 355.2 million units in Q3, down six percent from the corresponding quarter last year, according to preliminary estimates by IDC. This is the fourth straight quarter of year-on-year decline.
Continue reading “Global smartphone shipment slides 6% in Q3”
Spotify has joined hands with Samsung to give users a seamless listening experience across Samsung devices.
Continue reading “Seamless Spotify listening experience across Samsung devices”
Xiaomi and Samsung shipped 9.9 million smartphones each to India in Q2. Together they account for 60 percent of the total shipment that quarter, according to Canalys.
Continue reading “Samsung and Xiaomi neck-to-neck in India in Q2”
Taiwan smartphone maker HTC is making a cut of the most painful kind — by slicing 20 percent of its workforce. The decision to swallow the bitter pill comes in the wake of heavy losses and strong competition.
The worldwide wearables market is adjusting as smartwatches continue to come to the forefront. In the coming years, smartwatches will encompass more features and functionalities.
Continue reading “Smartwatch market heading towards steady growth”
Twenty-two days. It took relatively unknown smartphone maker OnePlus just that amount of time to sell one million units of OnePlus 6, its latest smartphone.
China smartphone makers Huawei and Xiaomi grew strongest as the market recovered in Q1, according to Gartner.
Continue reading “Huawei and Xiaomi lead smartphone growth in Q1”
The India smartphone market shipped 30 million units in Q1, the strongest Q1 performance ever and an 11-percent growth year on year, according to IDC.
Continue reading “India smartphone market posts strongest Q1 shipment”
In a quarter when the China smartphone market experienced it biggest ever decline, Xiaomi bucked the trend and grew 37 percent to 12 million units, according to Canalys.
Continue reading “Xiaomi bucks trend as China smartphone market dips in Q1”
Building on a momentum of 155 percent annual shipment growth in India last year, Xiaomi started Q1 at the top with a whopping nine million plus units to snag 31 percent market share, according to Canalys.
Continue reading “Xiaomi tops India smartphone market in Q1”
India has become the fastest growing smartphone market in the world with total shipment growing 14 percent to 124 million units in 2017, according to IDC.
Continue reading “India is fastest growing smartphone market in 2017”
Cryptocurrency mining has been given a boost with the revelation that Samsung is working on chip just for that purpose.
Continue reading “Samsung to make cryptocurrency mining chip”
Amid rumours that Apple was going to axe the iPhone X came encouraging sales numbers by Canalys.
Continue reading “Apple iPhone X is holiday bestseller despite axe rumours”
New Android mobile phone launches spurred growth in Australia, leading to year-on-year growth of 18.4 percent to 2.16 million units, exceeding expectations in Q2, according to IDC.
Smartphones accounted for nearly all of the shipped phones — totalling 2.06 million.
Android returned to being the most popular smartphone OS in Australia. Recently, iOS had overtaken Android as the most popular smartphone OS in Q4 2016 as it held over 54 percent of the market compared to 47 percent for Android.
Continue reading “New Android devices boost Australia smartphone market in Q2”
China-based vendors strengthened their grip in the India smartphone market, snaring 51.4 percent share of the smartphone shipment in Q1, according to IDC. They grew 16.9 percent sequentially and an impressive 142.6 percent over the same period last year.
In contrast, share of homegrown vendors dropped to 13.5 percent in the Q1 from 40.5 percent in the same quarter last year.
Overall, 27 million smartphones were shipped in Q1, a 14.8 percent growth over the same period last year. Unlike last year, shipment grew sequentially in the first quarter of 2017 by 4.7 percent recovering from demonetisation impact in Q4.
Continue reading “China vendors corner India smartphone market”
Everybody knows China is big but with nearly half a billion smartphones shipped last year, the market is massive — that’s one smartphone for every three person in the world’s most populous country.
According to Canalys estimates, China reached 476.5 million unit shipment, growing year on year at 11.4 percent, far exceeding the annual growth rate of 1.9 percent in 2015. China shipment reached 131.6 million units in Q4, which is the highest single quarter total in history, accounting for nearly a third of worldwide shipment.
Huawei took the top spot in the market with 76.2 million shipment, a small lead ahead of runner-up Oppo with 73.2 million units, followed by Vivo in third place at 63.2 million units.
While Samsung remained at the top, China smartphone makers occupied four of the top five positions to snare the lion’s share in India in Q4, according to Canalys.
Their extremely price-competitive devices pushed out India makers, who have been hit hard by the Indian government’s decision to demonetise the INR500 and INR1,000 (US$7.30 and US$14.65) banknotes.
“Local brands’ target customers typically buy in cash and from independent retailers. With the short-term liquidity crunch caused by demonetisation, these retailers are suffering a slowdown in consumer spending. Local vendors are losing out as retailers look to shift their stock to fast-moving, current devices. In Q4 2015, Micromax, Intex and Lava took second, third and fifth place, accounting for almost 30 percent of the market. One year on and all three vendors have dropped out of the top five, with their collective share falling to around 11 percent,” said Rushabh Doshi, Analyst of Canalys.
Continue reading “China phone makers dominate India market in Q4”
It’s official! Samsung Electronics will be announcing the findings of its investigation report of the Galaxy Note 7 in a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, on January 23, 2017, 9am.
UPDATE: The problem was the battery.
With an increasing number of airlines banning the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 completely from their flights, Samsung has set up service counters at several airports for Note 7 customers to return and exchange their phones.
These include airports in Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Incheon (Korea), Singapore, Taipei (Taoyuan and Songshan), Kaohsiung, and Taichung.
This is a relief for customers who may otherwise have to junk their phones or find alternative ways for the phones to be sent to their home countries.
The Galaxy Note 7 page on Samsung Singapore’s website says it all. It’s a dark day for Samsung.
Just two months after the Korean giant announced its newest Galaxy Note, the smartphone has gone into history, in possibly the shortest lived model. The company has discontinued production of the smartphone.
The Galaxy Note 7 had the features to take on the Apple iPhone 7 but somehow things didn’t work out properly. Exploding phones while charging led to recalls and even bans from airlines. Even newly-exchanged phones were reported to be facing the same problems.
UPDATE: It’s official. Samsung is recalling the Galaxy Note 7.
Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 smartphone has launched with a bang (literally). According to reports, some of these devices overheated and exploded while being charging — leading to Samsung to consider a recall, according to Arirang News. Meanwhile, Samsung is delaying shipment of the smartphones.
The stars are aligned. Samsung’s stars, that is. The Korean mobile phone giant has launched the Galaxy Note 7, bringing the phablet numerically in line with the Galaxy S series.
And just like the Galaxy S7, the new Galaxy Note 7 comes with curved edges for easier handling. It also sports a 12-megapixel rear camera, expandable storage and a larger 3,500 mAh battery. Among its upgrade from the previous generation are a water-resistant body, iris scanner for added security and new S Pen tricks, in particular GIF-making.
Open for pre-orders from major telcos and Samsung now, the Galaxy Note 7 will be available from August 20.
The Philippines smartphone market jumped 20 percent in Q1, according to IDC. With a projected annual growth of 25 percent this year, this makes the country the fastest growing smartphone market in Southeast Asia (SEA).
“While many of the more mature smartphone markets of the world already displayed signs of saturation, the Philippines smartphone market continues to enjoy robust growth owing to a relatively low smartphone penetration rate (30 percent in 2015), active local brand presence, and healthy consumer spending,” said Jerome Dominguez, Market Analyst for Mobile Devices of IDC Philippines.
Local vendors continue to dominate the Philippines smartphone market as they flood it with the most affordable smartphone options.
Continue reading “Philippines is fastest growing smartphone market in SEA”
It’s almost unthinkable but the smartphone market has dipped for the first time in its history.
According to Canalys, worldwide smartphone shipment fell from 324 million units in Q1 2015 to 321 million units in Q1 2016. The top two vendors both posted shipment declines, with Apple the worse hit.
Excluding Apple and Samsung, smartphone shipment grew five percent despite some of the big named international vendors outside the top five also faring badly. LG, Lenovo and TCL-Alcatel posted significant declines, while Sony plummeted by around 57 percent.
Virtual reality (VR) is not new but it has had a few false starts in recent years. However, it looks like 2016 is going to be a great year for VR.
According to IDC, worldwide shipment of VR hardware will hit 9.6 million units in 2016. Led by key products from Samsung, Sony, HTC, and Oculus, the category should generate hardware revenue of about US$2.3 billion this year.
While VR will drive nearly all of the hardware volume in 2016, augmented reality (AR) hardware is forecast to ramp up over the next few years. The combined AR/VR device market will see hardware shipments surge past 110 million units in 2020.
Samsung Electronics Singapore has introduced the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S, its first 2-in-1 premium tablet featuring seamless integration of laptop and tablet capabilities.
As the first premium tablet range to be powered by Windows 10 to support LTE Category 6 capabilities, the Galaxy TabPro S comes with enhanced features and long-lasting battery life, making it suitable for on-the-go individuals seeking convenience and performance.
Encased in a 6.3mm slim and sleek exterior, it weighs just 696 grams. The tablet also comes with a full-sized keyboard and cover – the touchpad of the keyboard emulates that of a laptop. The Pogo pin on the Galaxy TabPro S keyboard eliminates the need for pairing or charging separately.
Continue reading “Samsung launches 2-in-1 Windows 10 tablet in Singapore”
