3Ghomepage.com Blog

Apple and Google strengthened their control of the US smartphone market in the three months ended January, with three out of four devices using their software, reports Bloomberg. According to new figures from ComScore, Apple powered 29.5 percent of US smartphones, on average, in the period, up from 28.1 percent in the prior three months, while Google’s Android had 48.6 percent market share, up 2.3 percentage points. BlackBerry-maker RIM saw its share drop to 15.2 percent from 17.2 percent.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

3G homepage.com
The Number 1 Homepage Download into 3G Mobile/Cell Phones

ADD OUR FEED: COPY THIS ADDRESS INTO YOUR NEWSREADER:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php

OR:
RSS2:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/

Atom:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/atom/

Shares in BlackBerry-maker RIM slipped by as much as 7 percent in extended trading last night as the struggling firm reported another disappointing quarter, provided a weak sales outlook for the current period and pushed back the launch of its new device line.

For the quarter ended 26 November, net income came in at US$265 million, down 70 percent from a year ago, while sales came in at US$5.17 billion, down from US$5.5 billion. Although RIM had earlier warned of the poor numbers, the figures were still below most analyst forecasts.

It sold 14.1 million devices in the quarter, increasing its BlackBerry subscriber base to 75 million, up 5 million on the previous quarter. However, it shipped just 150,000 units of its PlayBook tablet.

More bad news was revealed on the earnings call by co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, who said that the first devices running the new BlackBerry 10 operating system would not now appear until late next year. The delay is apparently due to the firm having to wait on critical chipsets becoming available.

The delay could be highly damaging for the firm as it struggles to keep pace with rivals such as Apple, say analysts. “They’ve already got tepid developer support and then they’re going to be rolling out these phones right smack in the (midst) of an iPhone 5 (launch) most likely,” Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners, told Reuters. “By then the ecosystem runs the risk of being abandoned.”

The guidance for RIM’s current quarter – which includes the key holiday sales period – was also below par. The firm guided that profit will be between US$0.80 and US$0.95 per share, and said that sales will be between US$4.6 billion and US$4.9 billion. Analysts had projected profit of US$1.08 a share and sales of US$4.85 billion, according to Bloomberg data.

RIM said it expects BlackBerry shipments in the quarter to be between 11 million to 12 million. Analysts had projected 12.8 million units. According to Reuters, this would mark the first quarter-to-quarter decline in BlackBerry shipments for six years during the crucial sales season.

In a statement, RIM said that it “continues to have strong technology, unique service capabilities and a large installed base of customers, and we are more determined than ever to capitalise on our strengths to overcome the recent execution challenges surrounding product launches and the resulting financial performance.”

Its two co-CEOs, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, have agreed to take a pay-cut to just US$1 while they work through the problems. The firm faced renewed calls from shareholders yesterday to separate the roles of chairman and chief executive, which are currently held jointly by both Lazaridis and Balsillie.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

3G homepage.com
The Number 1 Homepage Download into 3G Mobile/Cell Phones

ADD OUR FEED: COPY THIS ADDRESS INTO YOUR NEWSREADER:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php

OR:
RSS2:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/

Atom:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/atom/

Facebook is working to develop a customised version of the Android OS which will appear on an HTC device codenamed ‘Buffy’, according to AllThingsD sources. The custom OS could attract users with deeper software integration and allow Facebook to monetise in-app payments. Previous phones featuring deeper Facebook integration – such as the HTC Status and Salsa – have failed to take off.

– - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

3G homepage.com
The Number 1 Homepage Download into 3G Mobile/Cell Phones

ADD OUR FEED: COPY THIS ADDRESS INTO YOUR NEWSREADER:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php

OR:
RSS2:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/

Atom:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/atom/

AT&T Labs CEO Krish Pabhu has said the US operator is planning to deploy an LTE-Advanced network in 2013, reports Engadget. LTE-Advanced is the next-generation version of LTE with theoretical peak downlink speeds of around 100Mb/s in the wide area and 1GB/s in fixed situations, low latency and wide spectrum bandwidths of up to 100MHz.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

3G homepage.com
The Number 1 Homepage Download into 3G Mobile/Cell Phones

ADD OUR FEED: COPY THIS ADDRESS INTO YOUR NEWSREADER:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php

OR:
RSS2:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/

Atom:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/atom/

Bendy phones sound like science fiction – but the far-out gadgets could be on sale in just a few months’ time.

Both Samsung and Nokia are working on the technology.

Samsung executives have given the clearest signal yet of when we should expect to see the first ‘bendy’ phones hit the market – early 2012.
During a company results conference, investor relations chief Robert Yi said, ‘The flexible display, we are looking to introduce sometime in 2012, hopefully the earlier part.’
Yi said that the first devices to ship with flexible screens would be phones.

Other possible applications include ‘foldable’ iPad-style tablets.

It’s not an out-there prediction, either.

Rival smartphone giant Nokia unveiled a basic prototype of the Nokia Kinectic – a bendable smartphone – at Nokia World
Kinectic allowed users to bend the screen to control functions such as music and video.

Nokia refuses to say when its Kinectic smartphones will be on sale.

Earlier Samsung demonstrations have shown off OLED screens which can be folded over.

The company demonstrated ‘bendable’ AMOLED screens 4.5 inches across and just 0.3mm thick in January this year.
Another paper by Samsung scientists showed off an AMOLED screen with a section that could be folded over completely without cracking.

Earlier this year, reports leaked that Samsung had the capacity to manufacture large amounts of such screens by ‘early 2012′ – but no one knew what they might be for.

Skin was a project carried out by design students using the Samsung logo and Galaxy trademark.

Samsung’s Galaxy Skin – unveiled as a concept earlier this year – could be on sale as early as Spring 2012, according to recent reports

Layers of ‘Graphene’ – atom-thick layers of carbon – will be used to create paper-thin ‘foldable’ screens in the Samsung Galaxy Skin
‘Flexible’ screens have been demonstrated in various forms since as early as 2004 – with tech insiders suggesting that laptops or e-Book readers might one day take the form of a ‘pen’ housing a processor with a ‘sheet’ of paper-like screen wrapped around them.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

3G homepage.com
The Number 1 Homepage Download into 3G Mobile/Cell Phones

ADD OUR FEED: COPY THIS ADDRESS INTO YOUR NEWSREADER:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php

OR:
RSS2:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/

Atom:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/atom/

03 Oct 2011

Android Police reported a “massive security vulnerability in HTC Android devices,” stating that any app on an affected handset can access data including user account details and location information.

The report said the flaw was introduced with a recent update to “some” HTC devices, including a number of its flagship smartphones such as the Evo 3D, Evo 4G, and Thunderbolt. The company has added a “suite of logging tools that collected information” for an unspecified reason, without ensuring that this data is secured from other apps.

It was suggested that “theoretically, it may be possible to clone a device using only a small subset of the information leaked here.”

The information is accessed via the same system request that an app makes to connect to the internet. Android Police noted: “when you install a simple, innocent-looking new game from the Market that only asks for the INTERNET permission (to submit scores online, for example), you don’t expect it to read your phone log or list of emails.”

The report said that HTC was contacted on 24 September, with the company then given five business days before the vulnerability was made public. No comment was received in the interim. The company said it is “taking customers’ security seriously.”

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

3G homepage.com
The Number 1 Homepage Download into 3G Mobile/Cell Phones

ADD OUR FEED: COPY THIS ADDRESS INTO YOUR NEWSREADER:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php

OR:
RSS2:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/

Atom:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/atom/

Samsung announced its Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, an update to the vendor’s first Galaxy Tab device, launched last year. The device gains support for the Android Honeycomb platform, which specifically targets tablet devices, and is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor. It also includes HSPA + connectivity.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

3G homepage.com
The Number 1 Homepage Download into 3G Mobile/Cell Phones

ADD OUR FEED: COPY THIS ADDRESS INTO YOUR NEWSREADER:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php

OR:
RSS2:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/

Atom:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/atom/

China Mobile is reported to have signed an agreement with Apple to start selling the iPhone 4 in China at the end of October, reports Cellular News, citing Chinese language website, ccidcom.com. The two firms have been in talks for some years about selling the iPhone in China, but the operator is hampered by its use of TD-SCDMA, which is not currently supported by Apple. It is not clear if Apple is developing a TD-SCDMA version of the handset or will simply sell its existing model offering only GSM and Wi-Fi functionality. According to recent reports, there are already as many as 6 million “unofficial” iPhones running on China Mobile’s network

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

3G homepage.com
The Number 1 Homepage Download into 3G Mobile/Cell Phones

ADD OUR FEED: COPY THIS ADDRESS INTO YOUR NEWSREADER:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php

OR:
RSS2:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/

Atom:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/atom/

eBay has made a major push into mobile payments, acquiring Silicon Valley-based Zong, a specialist in carrier billing. The online auction giant will pay approximately US$240 million in cash for the firm and expects the deal to close in the third quarter. Zong boasts connections with more than 250 mobile operators worldwide, offering “localised, secure and easy-to-use payments capabilities for digital goods and services” in 21 languages and 45 countries. eBay described Zong as a “complementary technology” to its existing online payments business, PayPal – a market leader with over 100 million active accounts. Zong will “strengthen PayPal’s leadership position in mobile payments and digital goods,” eBay said in a statement.

Zong’s technology allows users to pay for virtual goods on mobile devices – such as game credits – using just their phone number with payments added directly to the operator bill. This space is also a current focus for PayPal. eBay launched ‘PayPal for Digital Goods’ earlier this year and claims that PayPal processed US$3.4 billion in payments for digital goods in 2010. “[eBay is] pushing faster and harder on mobile than any other company in the e-commerce payments landscape,” Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Partners, told Bloomberg. “[Zong is] one of the best private mobile plays out there and there aren’t many.”

– - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

3G homepage.com
The Number 1 Homepage Download into 3G Mobile/Cell Phones

ADD OUR FEED: COPY THIS ADDRESS INTO YOUR NEWSREADER:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php

OR:
RSS2:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/

Atom:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/atom/

The Internet is once again awash with speculation that Microsoft is planning an audacious move to acquire its smartphone partner Nokia’s handset business. The source of the latest gossip is an article by Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin, a long-term Nokia watcher who has previously correctly predicted several big moves at the handset giant. Murtazin noted in his latest post that the acquisition could be closed this year, with both companies “very much in a hurry.” Microsoft and Nokia struck a high-profile deal in February for the ailing handset giant to use Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform as its primary smartphone OS. If Microsoft is deciding to go a step further and acquire Nokia’s handset business outright, commentators believe it will need to spend around US$30 billion.

Murtazin’s track record in accurately predicting Nokia-related stories is impressive – much to the annoyance of Nokia, which last year appealed to the Russian authorities to force Murtazin to return its intellectual property. Murtazin correctly anticipated Nokia’s dumping of its Symbian OS; its partnership with Microsoft; and the appointment of ex-Microsoft employee Stephen Elop as its new CEO last September. Nevertheless, the latest rumour still seems far-fetched: many believe Microsoft has little desire to own Nokia now it has the handset agreement in place. Furthermore, the sale of its handset business would leave the remaining Nokia as a tiny firm: owning only its stake in Nokia Siemens Networks, its mapping arm Navteq, and its intellectual property.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

3G homepage.com
The Number 1 Homepage Download into 3G Mobile/Cell Phones

ADD OUR FEED: COPY THIS ADDRESS INTO YOUR NEWSREADER:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php

OR:
RSS2:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/

Atom:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/atom/

Nokia is still keeping mum on when its first Windows Phones will go on sale, with speculation that their debut could slip into 2012. But what will those phones be? Industry blogger Eldar Murtazin claims to know, predicting that Nokia’s first two Windows Phone devices will be the W7 and W8.

Eldar who? The Russian blogger has been something of a thorn in Nokia’s side over the years, with regular leaks of new phones. In July last year, Nokia even involved the Russian authorities in trying to seize back prototype devices that had fallen into his possession.

The point is he’s regularly had an inside track on new Nokia devices, which is why this new rumour has credibility. Murtazin tweeted it yesterday: “In one words — W7, W8 will be the first Nokia WP7 phones W7 like HTC Mozart, W8 — N8 variant (chipset TBD)”. Which is actually 21 words and an emoticon, but we’ll let it slide.

Engadget puts some flesh on the bones of this tweet, suggesting the W7 will — as its name implies — be not entirely dissimilar to the just-unveiled Nokia X7 Symbian handset, while the W8 will be an evolution of the existing N8. Its report claims both devices will be built using Qualcomm chipsets to conform to Microsoft’s specs standards.

Engadget also claims that according to Murtazin, Nokia is planning to release 12 Windows Phone devices in 2012 with various specs and form factors, using Microsoft’s Mango update to the Windows Phone OS — shown off this week at its MIX11 conference in Las Vegas.

Earlier this year, a leaked photo of some Nokia Windows Phone prototypes emerged that looked like someone had been Photoshopping WP7 screenshots on to the Nokia C7, but using the X7 and N8 as the basis for the first commercial handsets makes sense. The N8′s bullet-proof hardware teamed with the smooth Windows Phone software would be a strong combination indeed.

We’re hopeful that Nokia’s first two Windows Phones will be affordable, too. In February, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop looked forward to a time when Windows Phones would reach “a very low price point”, and said this had been a key discussion point in Nokia’s negotiations with Microsoft before signing up to use its OS.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

3G homepage.com
The Number 1 Homepage Download into 3G Mobile/Cell Phones

ADD OUR FEED: COPY THIS ADDRESS INTO YOUR NEWSREADER:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php

OR:
RSS2:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/

Atom:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/atom/

“IDC caused some chuckles to break out across the tech world when they predicted that Microsoft’s Windows phones will beat the iPhone in market share by 2015. Impossible! Absurd! seemed to be the default responses,” Jon Brodkin reports for Network World. “But is it really so far-fetched? Gartner, the other giant tech analyst firm, now agrees with IDC in a new report that says Windows phones will take 19.5% market share by 2015, compared to 17.2% for Apple’s iOS.”

“While it’s tough to predict outcomes in such a volatile market four years in advance, there are plausible scenarios under which Microsoft can topple Apple in market share,” Brodkin reports. “To do so, Microsoft must position Windows Phone 7 as a low-end smartphone, almost like a high-end ‘dumb’ phone, while Apple continues going after the highest, most expensive end of the mobile market. If your phone can check email, surf the Web, and play music and videos it already does most of what a typical iPhone owner uses the device for. And if it’s free, rather than $200 to $300, many people will take it.”

“The other factor working in Microsoft’s favor, of course, is the Nokia deal. Because of its dominant position outside the United States, Nokia still sells more smartphones than Apple,” Brodkin reports. “Today, those phones are Symbian-based, but they will be transitioned to Windows Phone 7 as fast as Microsoft and Nokia can make it happen.”

Brodkin reports, “There have been some reports that Apple will develop a cheaper, smaller version of the iPhone to go after the low end of the market, but that still remains to be seen. 2015 is a long way away in the mobile market, but the combination of Nokia’s existing market share and a Microsoft strategy to target the low end of the smartphone market could well be enough to drive Microsoft sales ahead of the iPhone.”
Jon Brodkin.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

3G homepage.com
The Number 1 Homepage Download into 3G Mobile/Cell Phones

ADD OUR FEED: COPY THIS ADDRESS INTO YOUR NEWSREADER:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php

OR:
RSS2:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/

Atom:

http://3ghomepage.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php/feed/atom/