Samsung Market Share Continues To Decline, Xiaomi Soars

Samsung continues to see their smartphone market share decline. The Galaxy S5 has sold well below expectations and the South Korean giant has also struggled in China where Xiaomi took the number 1 spot from Samsung earlier this year.

The latest numbers from research firm Gartner reveal that Samsung continues to struggle while the growth continues for Xiaomi.

In the third quarter of 2014 overall smartphone sales increased by 20% thanks to demand in emerging markets.

Smartphones which account for 66% of total mobile sales are gaining traction in emerging markets, especially since the price difference to feature phones continues to decrease.

Samsung is still the largest smartphone maker but has lost almost 8% within a year. Xiaomi has seen the largest growth and are now the 4th largest smartphone manufacturer as market share increased from 1.5% to 5.3%. Huawei holds the third spot but Xiaomi is expected to overtake Huawei as they are growing quicker and are only 0.1% behind. Considering Xiaomi is only for sale in a number of regions the future growth potential is enormous.

Apple sales grew 26% in the third quarter thanks to the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Gartner expects Apple to have the best quarter ever in terms of iPhone sales during the fourth quarter.

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 3Q14 (Thousands of Units)

Company	3Q14 Units	3Q14 Market Share (%)	3Q13 Units	3Q13 Market Share (%)
Samsung	73,212.4	24.4	80,356.8	32.1
Apple	38,186.6	12.7	30,330.0	12.1
Huawei	15,934.9	5.3	11,665.7	4.7
Xiaomi	15,772.5	5.2	3,617.5	1.5
Lenovo	15,011.9	5.0	12,882.0	5.2
Others	142,891.6	47.5	111,445.0	44.5
Total	301,009.9	100.0	250,297.0	100.0

Source: Gartner (December 2014)

“Over the holidays we expect record sales of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but we should not underestimate the Chinese vendors and local brands,” said Annette Zimmermann, research director at Gartner. “Chinese players will continue to look at expanding in overseas emerging markets. In Europe prepaid country markets and attractive lost-cost LTE phones will also offer key opportunities for these brands.” Gartner expects sales of smartphones to reach 1.2 billion units in 2014.

In terms of OS market share it is no surprise that Android is dominating with 83.1%. iOS holds 12.7% while both Windows and Blackberry declined.

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 3Q14 (Thousands of Units)

Operating System	3Q14 Units	3Q14 Market Share (%)	3Q13 Units	3Q13 Market Share (%)
Android	250,060.2	83.1	205,243	82.0
iOS	38,186.6	12.7	30,330	12.1
Windows	9,033.4	3.0	8,916	3.6
Blackberry	2,419.5	0.8	4,401	1.8
Other OS	1,310.2	0.4	1,407	0.6
Total	301,009.9	100.0	250,296.8	100.0

Notebook Shipments Increased 10% In November

Notebook brands have recently adjusted their strategies in order to limit the impact tablets and smartphones have had on sales.

It seems that the strategy is going to work out for the holiday season. While overall notebook numbers are expected to see a small decline, in November it actually increased by 10%.

The two main reasons are strong HP enterprise sales and high demand in the low-cost consumer segment.

HP ordered 4 million units from ODMs, which is a 60% increase from the previous month.

All seven major vendors being Apple, Lenovo, Samsung, HP, Asus, Dell and Acer are expected to make further adjustment when it comes to their product offering which should shake things up in this space.

Source: Digitimes

iPhone Market Share More Than Triples

The iPhone 6 has given Apple a record third quarter but if we look at the latest research figures and taking into consideration that Apple has made it available in a lot more countries during this quarter, it is pretty certain that Apple is going to report record iPhone sales.

According to analyst firm Kantar Group, the iPhone has gained a lot of market share in the U.S., Japan, Germany and Great Britain.

In Great Britain the iPhone market share more than tripled from 8.5% to 31%. In Japan it also almost tripled from 17% to 48% while market share in the U.S. increased to 41.5%, up from 32.6%.

In Germany the market share was up 5.1% to 16.9%. According to the report some other regions in the EU decreased and so did the market share in China but could be down to the late launches and the fact that a majority of the market in those regions is in the entry level space.

Some positive news after the class action law suit has made headlines in the last few days.

Android 5.0 Available For Samsung Galaxy S5

Users in Poland have reported that Samsung has started an over-the-air update of Galaxy S5 devices.

It is not known when the update will be available in other regions.

Maybe the update will help Samsung to increase sales on the flagship smartphone as sales has been way below expectations so far.

LG was the first company to make the new Android OS available to G3 users, Motorola and Google have also offered Lollipop to their users.

Sony and HTC have announced that they are going to make the update available within shortly as well.

Firefox Coming For iPhone And iPad

Firefox is one of the most popular browsers but it isn’t available for iOS. The reason is because Apple doesn’t allow Firefox to its own web engine, so the company has always said it would not release a Firefox version for iOS which would force them to run Apple’s engine instead.

Firefox manager Lukas Blakk wrote on Twitter “”we need to be where our users are so we’re going to get Firefox on iOS”.

We need to be where our users are so we're going to get Firefox on iOS #mozlandia

— Lukas Blakk (@lsblakk) December 2, 2014

Chris Beard, the new CEO of Firefox, seems to be making a number of strategic changes, just last month it was announced that Yahoo will be the default search engine, replacing Google.

You Can Crash Your Friends WhatsApp And Delete The Chat History

Two Indian security researches have found a way to make WhatsApp crash remotely and the only way for someone to fix it is to delete the entire chat history.

Apparently 500 million people are effect as it effects versions 2.11.431 and 2.11.432.

All you need to do is send a 2000 word message in special character to your friend and the app will crash. Every time the recipient opens the chat, the app will crash again and it will happen until the entire chat history is deleted. This can be done with single recipients or for an entire group as well.

The hack was demonstrated in a video at The Hacker News:

Last month WhatsApp released a new feature which showed users when the recipient had actually read a message in the form of two blue check marks. It later took that even further and included the exact time when the message was read. Many users took to social media complaining about the new feature. We wrote a short article on how to avoid the blue check marks.

iPad Sales Will Continue To Decline, Android To Dominate Tablet Market For Years

While Apple had a record quarter last time around, iPad sales continued to disappoint and decreased by 13%.

According to market research firm IDC that trend is going to continue. For the first time since the launch of the iPad it will see a year over year decline which is not surprising if you look at the last few quarters.

Currently the iPad has 27.5% market share which is forecasted to decline to 24.5% by 2018. Android is dominating the space with 67.7% market share but will also experience a slight decrease to 64%.

What Apple and Google leave on the table will benefit Microsoft. During the last earnings we already pointed out that strong demand for the Surface Pro 3 has increased tablet revenues to almost $1 billion and if IDC is right that will multiply as they predict the market share to increase from 4.6% to 11.4%.

Class Action Law Suit Could Cost Apple $1 Billion

Today a long lasting class action law suit will actually start in court. Apple is being accused of abusing their market position during the iPod dominance when it comes to blocking competing devices and services as Apple made sure iTunes music could only be played on the iPod.

The group of individuals and resellers that are suing Apple, wanted to receive $350 million in compensation as they argue that by locking the iTunes music, the prices of the iPod was inflated. Apple chose not to settle, if they lose in court the amount the company has to pay will increase to over $1 billion.

Microsoft Acquires Mobile Email Management App Acompli

Microsoft just announced the acquisition of Acompli, a popular mobile email management app. The company was only founded 18 month ago however the innovative free app has become THE mobile email app for many Android and iOS users. Acompli integrates your calendar and contacts into the same app and it easily allows you to handle attachments from cloud storage providers such as OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox.

While no financial details have been disclosed, the number circulating is north of $200 million. Last year Acompli raised $7.3 million.

Here is what the companies had to say about the acquisition:

“I’m incredibly excited to announce that Acompli has been acquired by Microsoft. Our team and products will become part of Microsoft’s ambitious effort to reimagine productivity for the mobile era,” Co-Founder Javier Soltero said in a blog post.

Microsoft Vice President Rajesh Jha commented on the acquisition as well: “This acquisition brings us an app with innovative technology and a set of talented people who are passionate about reinventing email and communications on mobile screens. It will expedite our work to deliver the full power of Office to mobile devices.”

Twitter Now Tracks Which Apps You Have

Twitter wants to “build a more personal experience” for you which is why they are now collecting a list of which apps you have installed on your phone. Twitter insists they only collect the list of apps, no information within them. This means Twitter will be able to get more insight into your interests, show you more targeted advertising and suggest content or pages to follow.

Once the feature is turned on you will be notified by Twitter.

There is a way to opt out though, by following these steps:

Using Twitter for Android:

1. Tap the overflow icon 
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap the account you’d like to adjust.
4. Under Other, you can adjust the setting to Tailor Twitter based on my apps.

Using Twitter for iOS:

1. From the Me tab, tap the gear icon 
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap the account you’d like to adjust.
4. Under Privacy, you can adjust the setting to Tailor Twitter based on my apps.