Cellcom Canada: January 2014

Friday, 31 January 2014

Lenovo Takes on Apple and Samsung in Smartphone Market

Pandu, a 25-year-old mobile phone salesman at Oke Shop in a mall in central Jakarta, has noticed a change in his customers’ tastes. Indonesian consumers who used to prefer BlackBerry (BBRY) or Samsung Electronics (005930:KS) devices have started asking for products made by Lenovo (992:HK). The world’s No. 1 PC maker is expanding into smartphones, and Indonesia is one of its most important targets. “We can get Lenovo smartphones with almost the same specifications as the Samsung brand for almost half price,” says Pandu, who like many Indonesians has one name.

Keeping salesmen like Pandu busy is an important part of Lenovo Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing’s plan to transform the Chinese PC maker into a credible rival to Apple (AAPL) and Samsung. Lenovo is the world’s No. 4 smartphone brand, according to data released by market research firm IDC on Jan. 27. Its market share for the fourth quarter of 2013 was 4.9 percent, up from 4.1 percent in the same period in 2012. That’s tiny compared with Samsung’s 28.8 percent and Apple’s 17.9 percent, but Lenovo’s shipments jumped almost 50 percent for the quarter. It could make further strides:Google (GOOG) announced on Jan. 29 that it’s agreed to sell Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for about $3 billion.

Since Jan. 23, after announcing plans to pay $2.3 billion for IBM’s (IBM) x86 server business, Lenovo’s Hong Kong-listed stock price has jumped 6 percent and hit its highest level in more than 13 years. The company’s stock price has surged 53 percent in the past six months, beating Apple’s 10 percent rise and a flat performance by Samsung.

Yang is trying to wean the company off its reliance on the Chinese PC market and diversify with new products and in new markets. Worldwide PC shipments contracted 10 percent last year, and the company has struggled to gain ground among U.S. computer buyers. The PC market in Asia (excluding Japan) shrunk 10 percent in 2013, IDC says, the first ever double-digit drop.

While other PC brands such as Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Dell, and Acer (2353:TT)have had little success with mobile devices, Lenovo now trails only Samsung, Apple, and Chinese competitor Huawei. In December, Lenovo opened a production, sales, and research and development complex in central China focused on tablets and smartphones. One of five factories it’s opened since 2011, the complex took five years to complete and cost 5 billion yuan ($826 million).

Gerry Smith, Lenovo Americas Group’s executive vice president in charge of the servers group, said on Jan. 23 that the company also sees opportunities in servers, which have margins about double those of Lenovo’s current businesses. “This is a bigger margin pool for us than PCs, so we’re excited,” he said. Worldwide, the server market was $51.3 billion in 2012, or one-quarter of the global market for PCs. The growth of cloud computing is increasing demand for servers in data centers. After the IBM acquisition, Lenovo will be the world’s third-largest server brand, up from No. 6, with a 14 percent market share. Currently its share of the server market is less than 2 percent. “The server business will become an effective future earnings driver,” say Daiwa Capital Markets (8601:JP) analysts Steven Tseng and Jason Chen in a Jan. 23 report.

Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect 12 percent sales growth for Lenovo in the last quarter of 2013. Earnings for the fiscal year ending in March are expected to jump 27 percent, to $803 million, and sales are projected to grow 12 percent, to $38 billion, according to the analysts.

On Jan. 28, Lenovo announced it was restructuring into four main business groups: PCs, mobile, servers and storage, and cloud services. The new structure “will help us be even faster, more focused, and more efficient,” Yang said in a statement. Lenovo will need to be if it wants to catch up to Apple and Samsung.

Thursday, 30 January 2014

Iphone 5 and 4/4s cases!

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Apple releases iOS 7.0.5 to address iPhone network issues in Chin

Apple on Wednesday pushed out a minor update for its mobile platform in the form of iOS 7.0.5, intended to address some network issues associated with the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c when being used in China.

iOS 7.0.5 can be obtained by accessing the Software Update option in the native Settings application on an iOS device. According to Apple, the update "corrects network provisioning for some iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models sold in China."

The update comes just a few days after both devices officially launched on China Mobile, the world's largest wireless provider. Apple didn't indicate whether the update is specific to China Mobile iPhones or if it also applies to customers on China Unicom and China Telecom.

The last minor update for Apple's mobile platform came in November with the release of iOS 7.0.4. That update was intended for a more global audience, addressing issues associated with FaceTime.

Still in beta testing is iOS 7.1, of which a fourth pre-release build was supplied to developers last week. The point-one release is more full-featured and is expected to contain numerous tweaks for the iOS 7 platform. Rumors have suggested that update may not arrive until March.

Wednesday, 29 January 2014

iPhone interchageable lenses, WP 8.1 for MWC, iPhone 5c disappoints

Cellcom

Smartphone sales pass 1bn in 2013 as China booms

Cellcom

Dominated by Samsung and Apple, smartphones accounted for 55% of all mobile sales last year, but cheap rivals from China are changing the market

People try out Samsung Galaxy phones at the Samsung Electronics' headquarters in Seoul January 23, 2014. The South Korean company dominated the smartphone market. Photograph: KIM HONG-JI/REUTERS

The smartphone market passed a key milestone in 2013, with 1bn devices sold during the year, according to the research company IDC - and other research companies gave almost identical figures.

Chinese vendors made significant inroads. Samsung and Apple topped the figures with 31.3% and 15.3% of fourth-quarter shipments, with Korean firm LG third with 4.8%. Huawei, Lenovo and ZTE were key players, taking nearly 15% of smartphone sales collectively.

More generally, smartphones are eating into the total mobile phone market, which totalled 1.82bn handsets in 2013, up just 4.8% from 1.74bn in 2012, said IDC. That means that smartphones made up 55% of all mobile phone sales in the year.

With growth accelerating, in the fourth quarter smartphones made up 58.2% of the 488.4m mobile sales, the research company said.

But the rapid expansion of smartphones to markets where featurephones have held sway has also created a huge market at the low end, while seeing saturation at the premium end where Apple in particular dominates. Its year-on-year phone sales growth in 2013 was just 12.9%, compared to smartphone sales growth for the year of 38.4%.

The figures suggest that Apple is increasing its share of the smartphone market against the context of total mobile phone sales that grew by 4.8%. That may be at the expense of featurephone makers - notably Nokia, which saw combined shipments of smartphones and featurephones for 2013 plummet by 25.2% from 335.6m to 251.0m.

Nokia's mobile phone division is being sold to Microsoft, which is trying to build a smartphone platform to compete with Google's Android and Apple's iPhone.

Metric choice

"Smartphone market share is a bullshit metric," commented Benedict Evans, telecoms and tech analyst at Enders Analysis, on Twitter. "Phone share matters. Smartphone share tells you nothing about Apple or Samsung's success."

Samsung shipped 313.9m smartphones by IDC's estimates, up 42.9% on 2012, while its total phone shipments grew 9.1% to 446.7m. As a proportion of all its phone shipments, its smartphone shipments rose from 53.6% to 70.3%, according to IDC's estimates.

Samsung does not provide official figures for smartphone or featurephone shipments.

However, the mobile phone business remains a brutal one for many companies. While Samsung and Apple have made huge profits in the past two years from smartphones, other companies have seen losses.

Even LG, which this week announced that it had surged back into contention with shipments of 13.2m smartphones in the fourth quarter, and 18.5m including featurephones, made an operating loss because of high marketing costs.

Chinese handset makers driving growth

The drive of smartphones to newer buyers in developing markets as prices of handsets plummets - driven by the huge growth of handset makers in mainland China - is changing the basis of competition, suggested IDC.

"Among the top trends driving smartphone growth are large screen devices and low cost," said Ryan Reith, program director with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.

"Of the two, I have to say that low cost is the key difference maker. Cheap devices are not the attractive segment that normally grabs headlines, but IDC data shows this is the portion of the market that is driving volume. Markets like China and India are quickly moving toward a point where sub-$150 smartphones are the majority of shipments, bringing a solid computing experience to the hands of many."

Smartphone sales volumes have doubled in just two years, from just under 500m in 2011; in 2010, they were fewer than 300m.

Tuesday, 28 January 2014

What's On My iPhone 5s!

Cellcom

Android 4.4 KitKat Update: Galaxy Note 3 Rollout Continues As Samsung Admits Fault With Third-Party Accessory Incompatibility

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Despite the hot water Samsung has been in lately, many Samsung Galaxy Note 3 owners are eagerly awaiting the Android 4.4 KitKat update, which has continued rolling out on SM-N9005 and SM-N900 models in India, Korea, Singapore as well as several other European countries.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Android 4.4 KitKat update in Korea Twitter/@lalithbhaskar

Several Galaxy Note 3 owners have reported via social media and on forums that their handsets have begun to receive the Android 4.4 KitKat over-the-air update. Various screen screenshots indicate that the update is in fact coming to other Galaxy Note 3 models, in the aforementioned India, Korea, Singapore, in addition to more handsets in Poland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Hungary. Firmware websites also report that the Galaxy Note 3 Android 4.4 update is available in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belgium/Luxemburg, Germany, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Italy, Bulgaria Spain, the Baltic, Malaysia and Thailand.

Update information and downloads can be found here for most countries.

A few weeks prior, the Android 4.4 KitKat update hit the Galaxy Note 3 SM-N9005 model in Poland, and then the SM-N900 model in Russia. Notably, some countries – such as Poland sell multiple models of the Galaxy Note 3, which feature either the Samsung Exynos 5420 chipset (SM-N900) or the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset (SM-N9005). This could account for why such countries may see different models update at different times.

Third-Party Accessory Incompatibility Issue To Be Fixed With Software Update

Meanwhile, Samsung is also dealing with the aftermath of the Galaxy Note 3 Android 4.4 KitKat update rendering various third-party accessories non-functional. Several early adopters of the Android 4.4 update for the Galaxy Note 3 quickly discovered that their third-party smart covers no longer worked after handsets were updated to the latest Android system.

At first Samsung claimed there was “no correlation” between the non-functioning accessories and the Android 4.4 update. Though previous reports indicated that Samsung had planned to outfit various accessories as smart covers and wireless chargers with authentication chips, which would make Samsung devices only compatible with Samsung brand accessories -- while third party smart accessories without the chip would fail to function with Samsung devices. Now Samsung is addressing the issue and states that a software fix will be provided. Whether the incompatibility issue was intentional on Samsung’s part or an Android 4.4 KitKat glitch is not known.

We have currently identified a software compatibility issue with the Galaxy Note 3 update to Android 4.4 (KitKat) and select 3rd party accessories. A software update will be available shortly. We are committed to offering a diverse and reliable mobile experience for all customers, providing continued support and solutions for any issues that arise with product updates for both Samsung manufactured and third-party accessories.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 models that have already updated to Android 4.4 KitKat should receive a fix in a future software update, as said, while models that have not yet updated should receive builds with the fix already implemented.

Samsung's Other Galaxy Note 3 Software Issue

This third-party accessory incompatibility issue is eerily similar to the region locking issue, which plagued the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 launch last year. Samsung explained that the region lock mechanism was intended to combat “grey market” importers. Instead it was preventing owners from properly accessing their devices even after being region unlocked. Owners complained, and the region lock even deterred prospective buyers from purchasing the Galaxy Note 3 to the point where Samsung officially admitted its misstep with the feature.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has still seen impressive sales worldwide, having hit the 10 million-unit milestone in just two months on the market.

The Android 4.4 KitKat update includes such features and improvements as "immersive mode," an updated lock screen design, "always on" hands-free navigation, decreased fragmentation with Project Svelte, an updated dialer and caller ID, text message and Hangouts integration, a complete emoji keyboard, updated NFC powered features, cloud printing and storage, TV and Bluetooth compatibility as well as screen recording.

Monday, 27 January 2014

MaxBoost Pulse - iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch (Battery Pack) 10,000 MAH

Kantar: Android Accounted 70% Of Smartphone Sales In Q4, But Samsung Is Now “Under Real Pressure”

Cellcom

Android continues to be the most popular mobile platform, with its share of smartphone sales climbing in every major market in Q4 2013, now accounting for 69.5% of all sales across 12 key markets versus 23.7% for number-two Apple, according to figures out today from Kantar Worldpanel, a market research subsidiary of WPP. But the story is shifting when it comes to looking at what the engine is behind that growth.

Samsung, the handset maker that has led the charge for Google’s OS, is “now coming under real pressure in most regions” as it faces stronger competition from local players in markets like China. There, Xiaomi led in sales for the last 12 weeks of 2013, and other Chinese handset makers like Huawei also continued to gain ground. It’s still Android, but delivered in different, more locally focused packaging.

Elsewhere, although Apple has seen overall declines — losing a proportion of sales in each of the 12 big markets tracked by Kantar, in fact (the trend for some time now) — its new iPhone 5 models continue to lure in users at the high end, and in certain key markets, if not all of them. In the U.S., Apple lost nearly 6% of sales compared to a year ago but still accounted for just under 44% of smartphone purchases in the holiday period (Android came in at nearly 51%).

The continuing appeal of Apple among high-end users also remains a driver of sales for the company in Japan, where Apple is the biggest player of all with nearly 69% of all smartphone sales. Kantar says that a large reason for that “unarguable success” has to do with NTT Docomo, the largest mobil carrier, now finally selling the iPhone. In Q4 it accounted for some 58.1% of all smartphone sales at Docomo, a nice boost to the 92% of sales at Softbank (yes, 92% of sales) and 64% at KDDI.

Kantar says the effect of competition on Samsung resulting in the Korean OEM taking 40.3% of sales across the big five markets in Europe (UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain) — that’s down 2.2 percentage points. In the key market of China, Samsung accounted for only 23.7% of sales — flat compared to a year ago.

The decline in sales for Samsung, particularly for high margin devices, has been matched also by a decline in profit growth.

“It’s no surprise that everyone is concentrating on high growth China, but currently local brands are proving clear winners,” Sunnebo writes.

He says that in December, Xiaomi overtook both Apple and Samsung and is now the top selling smartphone in China, “a truly remarkable achievement for a brand which was only started in 2010 and sells its device almost exclusively online. The combination of high spec devices, low prices and an ability to create unprecedented buzz through online and social platforms has proved an irresistible proposition for the Chinese.”

Important to note that Samsung appears to still be the biggest mobile phone maker in China over the whole of last year, and globally it accounted for 32.2% of sales across all 12 markets in the last 12 weeks of 2013.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform continues to take a minor third position, with 4.4% of all smartphone sales globally, according to Sunnebo. Bu in contrast to Apple, it is in a continued phase of growth — with Latin America the only region where its sales declined compared to a year ago. Still, Windows Phone’s portion of sales remains small. Its biggest market in terms of market share was in Europe, but its performance was flat on a year ago, with Windows Phone accounting for 10% of all smartphone sales.

“Windows Phone has now held double digit share across Europe for three consecutive months,” Sunnebo says. “Unfortunately for Nokia the European smartphone market is only growing at 3% year on year so success in this market has not been enough to turn around its fortunes – reflected in its recent disappointing results.”

Last week, Nokia announced that it sold about 8.2 million Lumia devices — its handsets built on the Windows Phone OS. That was a decline on the previous quarter, especially bad given that it was the holiday sales period.

Windows Phone, moreover, is still only doing a bit better than Kantar’s generic “Other” grouping. This category would include lingering Symbian purchases, and it accounted for 2.4% of all smartphone sales, Sunnebo tells me.

BlackBerry continues to show up on Kantar’s league tables but with a miniscule proportion of sales. It declined in all 12 markets tracked by Kantar and didn’t manage to break through 4% in any market.

The UK was the best-performing market for BlackBerry, with the device maker taking 3.2% of sales. But then again, the UK it seems has a wider love affair with smartphones. Penetration in the country now — that is, the number of mobile phone-owning consumers that are using smartphones — is now nearly at 70%, with 85% of all handsets sold in Q4 smartphones. Although Samsung may be hitting tougher times, it’s still going strong in the UK, where it accounted for 31% of all smartphone gifts in December, with Apple trailing at 28% and Nokia at 18%.

kantar worldpanel smartphone sales jan 2014

Saturday, 25 January 2014

What's On My iPhone 5s?

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Android this week: KitKat for Galaxy Note 3; Nexus 7 dock duo; Galaxy S5 home screens

Cellcom

News of KitKat coming to more Galaxy Note 3 handsets is a good thing, unless you use a third-party case, that is. Asus showed off a pair of Nexus 7 docks while the Galaxy S5 home screen may have leaked, looking very different.

There’s good and bad news for Samsung Galaxy Note 3 owners this week. Android 4.4, or KitKat, is appearing in a software update for the handset in more regions. The software first started rolling out in Poland but has found its way to India, South Korea, and Switzerland reports SamMobile. It’s sure to follow in more regions soon. Along with the update, however, are reports of third-party accessories not working the way they did prior to the KitKat upgrade.

Cases in particular appear to have a problem. Many mimic Samsung’s own case for the Note 3, showing data through a windowed cutout when the phone is sleeping, for example. Last October, Samsung was reportedly testing a chip verification system to ensure accessories would be compatible with its devices, but the company never announced such a program. However, a software workaround that bypasses accessory verification appears to fix the issue with third-party accessories, indicating Samsung has implemented a hardware check.

There’s no such check on the newest Nexus 7 docks. Asus published product pages for a pair of docks this week: one wired and one wireless. Both charge the 2013-edition of the Nexus 7 tablet and can prop up the tablet for watching video or browsing the web. The wired dock includes an HDMI port to shoot content to a larger display while the wireless dock simply charges the tablet; there’s no output from the dock. Neither dock is available in the U.S. yet. They have been sold in a few regions overseas for roughly $50.

Samsung’s Galaxy S5 isn’t available in any country yet since it hasn’t been launched. That hasn’t stopped the leaks flowing about the company’s next flagship phone, however.

This week screen shots of the reported home screen for the handset appeared on the web, courtesy of @evleaks.

This looks like a combination of Samsung’s Magazine UX — found on its latest tablets — and the cards of Google Now, showing contextual information as well as notifications from contacts and social networks. The approach also reminds me of Facebook Home, the Android launcher that focuses more on content and less on apps.

If the Galaxy S5 does use this as a home screen, it would be a big departure from the company’s TouchWiz user interface. That’s probably not a bad thing as TouchWiz has become a little stale over the past three to four years. Samsung needs some type of software to differentiate itself from other Android phones while also improving the user experience.

Will this type of layout do that? It’s difficult to say, but I like the idea of more glanceable information from the home screen of a handset.

Friday, 24 January 2014

Smartphone Photographers Community "Point and Shoot"

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Moto G vs Moto X comparison review: What's the best Motorola smartphone?

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Motorola, now owned by Google, has a couple of smartphones on the market but which is better for you? Find out in our Moto G vs Moto X comparison review.

The Moto X is coming to the UK and the Moto G is already available so you might be trying to decide which to buy. Well that's where we come in because we've compared the two Android smartphones in various categories to highlight how they differ.

Moto G vs Moto X: Price

Motorola smashed it in terms of value for money with the Moto G, offering users a mid-range smartphone for a budget price. There's little to argue about with a price of just £130 to buy it outright.

Things are a little different when it comes to the Moto X. It's Motorola's current flagship smartphone so it's bound to cost more than the Moto G and as such has a £350 price tag.

This means you can buy nearly three Moto Gs for the price of one Moto X. So it is worth the extra money? Read on to find out. See also: The 17 best smartphones of 2014.

Moto G vs Moto X: Design

Both of Motorola's phones look very similar. Even though the screen sizes are a little different, the devices themselves are about the same size. In fact, the Moto G with is smaller screen is a little bigger than the Moto X. It's also understandably thicker and heavier than its more expensive brother.

Each is well made but feels quite plasticky so there's little in it. With no Moto Maker in the UK just yet, the Moto X doesn't have a big advantage over the Moto G here.

Moto G vs Moto X: Screen

Screen size is a great way to choose between two smartphones – you'll want to pick a size that's comfortable for you personally. There's only a small difference between the Moto G and Moto X here. The former is rocking a 4.5in display while the latter give you a little extra at 4.7in.

They both use a 720p resolution so it's in fact the Moto G which has a better pixel density but there's not much in it so it's better to go on the size.

As our readers have pointed out, the Moto X uses AMOLED technology. Colours are more vibrant and punchy but some users may prefer the more natural look of the Moto G's display - I certainly do.

Moto G vs Moto X: Processor

Despite its bargain basement price, the Moto G has a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor with 1GB of RAM. Meanwhile, the Moto X has a dual-core Snapdragon Pro chip clocked a bit higher at 1.7GHz. It's got 2GB of RAM.

This might seem a little confusing but the bottom line is that both offer decent performance so you needn't worry. The Moto X has a software optimised chip with a natural language processor and a contextual computing processor. Just bear in mind that the Moto G is punching way above its weight here.

Moto G vs Moto X: Storage

With no expandable storage available on the Moto G or Moto X, storage is another area to consider closely. The Moto G is available in 8- or 16GB models while the Moto X has double these capacities. However, it appears that the 32GB Moto X missed its flight to the UK.

Moto G vs Moto X: Cameras

The Moto G has a mid-range 5Mp main camera which takes surprisingly good photos. It's even got an HDR shooting mode. Although the 10Mp camera on the Moto X isn't quite as good as we'd hoped, it still offers more details and video in 1080p compare to 720p. It's front camera is also better at 2Mp against 1.3Mp.

Moto G vs Moto X: Software

If you can't find a Moto G or Moto X which ships with Android 4.4 KitKat, you'll be able to upgrade to the latest software once you're up and running – an advantage of being a Google-owned company.

Although both phones run pretty vanilla versions of Android, there are differences which you should be aware of. On top of things like Moto Assist, the Moto X has unique features like Active display and Quick capture. It's also got voice recognition which can learn your voice so there are a few reasons to opt for the Moto X over the Moto G here.

Moto G vs Moto X: Battery life

It's worth noting that neither the Moto X nor Moto G has a removable battery. Each phone offers typical smartphone battery performance of one day with an average usage. Only light users will get more than a day.