Microsoft Will Kill Nokia Brand

Microsoft has confirmed that they are going to start replacing Nokia and launch a new brand called Microsoft Lumia for smartphones instead.

Rebranding of marketing material and social media accounts will start in France and be completed in other regions in the near future as well.

The former dominating mobile brand has struggled big time in recent years and the decision to focus on Windows based phones only didn’t help in recent years. Well, the only good thing was the fact that they got saved by Microsoft through the acquisition.

The question remains, will it actually get any better under the Microsoft brand?

Amazon Dumps Price of Fire Phone

Amazon has dumped the price of the Fire Phone as they look to convince customers to purchase the smartphone and get more tied into the Amazon eco-system.

The 32 GB version with a two year contract has dropped from $199 to just 99 cents, while the 64 GB model now costs $99, down from $299.

Apparently the Fire Phone is already the best selling smartphone on Amazon but we believe it was absolutely necessary for Amazon to drop the price. Interesting timing though, right before the iPhone 6 launch, although the new Apple flagship can hardly be considered as a direct competitor.

HTC Releases Desire 820 – Mid-Range Beauty made for Selfies and Android L OS

HTC has officially released the Desire 820, which is the first smartphone based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 1.5GHz processor. This is an eight core 64-bit processor which will be fully utilized under Android L.

The 5.5″ device is positioned below the flagship HTC One M8, the display has a resolution of 1,280 x 720.

The Desire 820 has 16 GB of storage which is expandable through the microSD slot.

HTC is offering the Desire 820 in a variety of different colors:

One thing the company is focusing on is the camera which is on par with the best smartphones on the market. The 8 MP front facing camera will make for crystal clear selfies – notice how a selfie is the focus in the official product image from HTC? The rear camera comes in at 13 MP.

Check out the official product video from HTC:

Technical Specifications HTC Desire 820:

	HTC Desire 820
OS	Android 4.4
Display	5.5″ 1,280 x 720
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 1.5 GHz
	64-bit Octa-Core
Storage	16 GB + microSD
RAM	2 GB
Camera Rear	13 MP
Camera Front	8 MP
Battery	2,600 mAh
Weight	155 g
Size	78.74 x 157.7 x 7.74 mm

 

 

The Highest Megapixel Camera for Smartphones and Tablets – 20MP, 5384 × 3752!

The cameras on our smartphones have become so ridiculously good that most people don’t carry around a separate camera anymore, unless you want to shoot professional photos with your SLR camera.

Toshiba is set to take things to a whole new level when it comes to the camera quality for smartphones and tablets. The Japanese company just released a camera module with 20MP! The image resolution is 5384 × 3752 and uncompressed the image size would be 20 MB.

You can find the product page and detailed specifications here.

LG unveils L Series Fino and Bello smartphones

LG is launching two new phones for the mid-range segment to grow their share in emerging markets and amongst teenagers. LG calls the new devices the alternative to high-priced smartphones.

The L Fino has a 4.5″ display with a resolution of 480 x 800 while the L Bello features a 5″ 854 x 480 display. Both devices are running Android KitKat 4.4.2.

 

Here are the complete specs:

 

L Fino Key Specifications:

￭ Chipset: 1.2GHz Quad-Core

￭ Display: 4.5-inch WVGA IPS (800 x 480 / 207ppi)

￭ Memory: 1GB RAM/ 4GB

￭ Camera: Rear 8MP/ Front VGA

￭ Battery: 1,900mAh

￭ Operating System: Android 4.4.2 KitKat

￭ Size: 127.5 x 67.9 x 11.9mm

￭ Network: HSPA+ 21Mbps (3G)

￭ Colors: White / Black / Gold / Red / Green (varies by market)

 

L Bello Key Specifications:

￭ Chipset: 1.3GHz Quad-Core

￭ Display: 5.0-inch FWVGA IPS (854×480/ 196ppi)

￭ Memory: 1GB RAM/ 8GB

￭ Camera: Rear 8MPAF / Front 1MP

￭ Battery: 2,540mAh

￭ Operating System: Android 4.4.2 KitKat

￭ Size: 138.2x 70.6x 10.7mm

￭ Network: HSPA+ 21Mbps (3G)

￭ Colors: White / Black / Gold

Is Samsung about to lose Top Spot in India as well?

Earlier this month we reported that Samsung had lost the number one spot in China as local Xiaomi overtook them with a reported 14% market share, the Korean electronics giant dropped to 12%.

Samsung has had a struggling quarter as world wide market share declined, so did revenue and profits. As we pointed out before, Samsung is especially having problems to compete in the low- and mid-range market segment. This is how they lost the top spot to home grown Xiaomi in China and we might just see the same happing in India where Micromax is gaining ground on Samsung quickly.

Research firm IDC has just released the latest numbers for India and here is what they said:

“While Samsung has held on to its leadership position in the market, it is noteworthy that Micromax is growing faster. Samsung needs to continue to address the low-end of the market aggressively, and also needs a blockbuster product at
the high end to regain momentum.”

Ranking Overall Handset Market Share:
1. Samsung – 17% (-3%)

2. Micromax – 14% (+1%)

3. Nokia – 10%

Ranking Smartphone Market Share:

1. Samsung – 29% (-6%)

2. Micromax – 18% (+3%)

3. Karbonn- 8%

 

Looking at the quarterly growth of Mircomax and how quickly Samsung is declining, they might have to give up the top spot as early as next quarter.

And more competition is on its way: Motorola didn’t even show up in the first quarter, now they have managed to grab 5% of the total market share and sold over 1 million units right after launch according to IDC.

Xiaomi is also planning to enter the Indian market with a smartphone in the $50 range. Nokia has sold more than 12 million units of the $50 Lumia 520 and just recently released the Nokia 130 which is priced at $25.

Samsung is going to have to make a decision here, are they going to cut margins, fight for overall market share and volume or leave this market to other vendors so they can focus on the high end segment where the margins are still high.

New Huawei Ascend P7 will feature a Sapphire Display

Huawei is a rising brand in the smartphone market. The Chinese electronics giant has shipped 34 million phones in the first six month of the year and most recent data from research firm IDC shows just how rapidly they are growing. 20.3 million of the total number so far this year was shipped during the second quarter. Huawei now has a market share of 6.9%, the year over year growth on number of units shipped is a staggering 95.1%.

As we reported on previously, most of the sales has come from the entry level and mid range phones. Huawei wants to ship 80 million phones this year and 20% of these will be high-end models if their strategy plans out.

The company needs to continue to invest when it comes to positioning themselves as a premium brand and innovating on the product side.

With the new flagship Ascend P7 model they seem to be doing just that. Just like the iPhone 6, the P7 will feature a sapphire display.

In an interview with 21st Century Business Herald, Yu Chengdong (Device Chairmain at Huawei) showed a prototype of the new device and also mentioned that the company will continue to shift their focus to the high-end market as they need to start increasing their profit long term, something which is difficult to do in the lower end of the market.

He also mentioned that cloud services and big data are continuing to make smartphones better and Huawei is investing a lot in this area to ensure it can differentiate from competitors and bring out new features for consumers.

Motorola set to release Moto 360 on September 4th

Smartwatches have been amongst to most popular articles in recent month and the hit amongst them has definitely been the Moto 360. The classic design took people by storm and everyone was eagerly waiting for Motorola to confirm the official launch.

Now it seems the company has finally set the date for September 4th.

That means the beginning of September is going to be crazy in terms of new product launches. Samsung is holding an event on the 3rd where they will unveil the Galaxy Note 4, while Apple is rumored to release the iPhone 6 on September 9th.

Here is the invitation Motorola has sent to media partners:

 

iPhone 6 set to launch on September 9th! 5.5″ still delayed?

Apparently Apple has set the date for the iPhone 6 launch – September 9th. The new flagship model which is in production, being built by an army of robots, is set to feature a sapphire display. Apple is also going to release two versions – a 4.7″ and 5.5″. It will be interesting to see if both models are going to be released in September, as we previously reported that the 5.5″ model was expected to be delayed until 2015.

Maybe the robots managed to pull in the schedule so the company can have a real launch event as Apple needs the bigger screen iPhone 6 to compete with larger screen smartphones and phablets from competitors like Samsung.

 

Samsung struggling in low-end market, Revenue, Profits and Market Share Decline

Samsung Electronics just released their quarterly financials and disappointed on all fronts. It was the worst quarter in two years as the South Korean giant saw revenue and profits decline sharply and their overall smartphone market share dropped significantly.

Highlights:

• Revenue: $50.86 billion (decrease of 9%)
• Operating Profit: $6.99 billion (decrease of 25%)
• Net Income: $6.11 billion (decrease of 20% compared to last year)
• 95 million mobile handsets sold, 80% smartphones

 

According to IDC Research Samsung dropped from 32 to 25% in overall market share. While they are still the largest smartphone brand the challenge becomes clear when you look at the fact that the overall market has grown by 23% since last year while the number of units Samsung shipped declined by 4%.

IDC reports that Huawei and Lenovo were the two brands that drove the increase in the market, especially in emerging markets and the low-end segment. That is a market which Samsung has struggled to capture so far. Huawei is gaining market share quickly, so far this year they have shipped 34 million phones and Nokia has been successful with their entry level Lumia models in emerging market as well.

Higher than expected marketing expenses also impacted the button line. The company said that it was necessary to increase marketing efforts in order to clear inventory ahead of new product launches.

They didn’t give many details about the new models other than saying several would be coming in the next few month including a new flagship with a large screen, new design and material.

Let’s compare the financials to Apple as they reported their quarterly results earlier this month: While Apple generated less revenue ($37.4 billion), they managed to generate more net profit, $7.7 billion. Apple sold fewer phones than Samsung (35.2 million) but there are two fundamental differences here: Apple can show year over year growth, showed their strongest iPhone sales for the current period and unlike Samsung the company has not released new phones every quarter. With the upcoming iPhone 6 we should see the iPhone units increase dramtically.

Samsung is facing stiff competition from all sides. There is no doubt the iPhone 6 will be a success , at least in terms of sales, companies like Huawei, HTC and Lenovo are investing big in growing their market share in the high-end segment and Samsung has not been able to really compete in emerging markets with low-end models making up a majority of the smartphone sales.

The new flagship will be important to defend their leading position in the high-end space while they also need to come out with compelling models in the mid- and low-end segment.