Hasta La Gadget!

Remember when Steve Jobs had a dig at Apple’s mobile competition and proclaimed that “no one” would buy their Hummer-like 4-inch-plus smartphones? Well, going by the latest NPD data, that group of “no ones” among US smartphone consumers is now a meaty 24 percent. Separating handsets into screen categories of 3.4 inches and below, 3.5 to 3.9 inches, and those above 4 inches, the stat mavens discovered that the midrange is holding steady, but smaller-screened devices are starting to lose out to their jumbo-sized brethren. No prizes for guessing that Android-powered devices were behind that big sales increase, with the HTC EVO 4G and Motorola Droid X leading the way, followed by Samsung’s multivariate Galaxy S range. Now, care to tell us more about our mobile future, Steve?

[Thanks, Skylar]

Disclaimer: NPD’s Ross Rubin is a contributor to Engadget.

Continue reading ‘Hummer’ handsets now account for 24 percent of US smartphone sales, prove Steve Jobs wrong

‘Hummer’ handsets now account for 24 percent of US smartphone sales, prove Steve Jobs wrong originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 09:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reminder: Vote for the 2010 Engadget Awards! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You like numbers? Good, because it’s the season and amid all these lovely financial reports we’ve been hitting there are some broader trends to look at. IDC has released its mobile phone report for 2010 and has concluded that, worldwide, the industry grew 18.5 percent over 2009, shipping a massive 1.39 billion units. That’s nice and all, but check out this bit about ZTE. The manufacturer boosted its annual shipments by 94 percent, stealing Apple’s recently-won fourth place position globally and, in doing so, knocking RIM straight into the dreaded “others” category. Can RIM make it back? Will Apple recover? Will Siobhan and Lucky ever reconcile their differences? Tune in next quarter to find out.

IDC: ZTE takes fourth in global cellphone rankings, leapfrogs Apple and knocks RIM out of top 5 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 10:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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July 19, 2010 marked the day that Amazon’s digital book sales eclipsed the sales of hardcover books, and it barely took half a year for those e-book sales to also overtake the sales of paperbacks. According to the ouftit’s latest earnings release, “Kindle books have now overtaken paperback books as the most popular format on Amazon.com.” The company had surmised that this would happen by Q2 of this year, but it clearly went down a lot earlier than even it expected. Bezos and co. also sold through $12.95 billion worth of goods, representing The Jungle’s first “$10 billion quarter.” That came up to $416 million in net income, representing an eight percent uptick year-over-year. Of note, operating income slipped from $476 million in Q4 2009 to $474 million this year, with the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates generating a staggering $18 million hit.

When looking at 2010 as a whole, Amazon’s sales were up 40 percent over 2009, with operating income rising some 25 percent to $1.41 billion compared to the whole of 2009. Speaking specifically of the Kindle, the company is now moving 115 Kindle books for every 100 paperbacks sold, but this obviously only takes into account the US book business. We’re still no closer to finding out exactly how many Kindles have been moved, but we’re told that “millions” of the third-gen model were moved in Q4 2010, and the Kindle Storeitself has over 810,000 books on its digital shelves. Head on past the break if you’re thirsty for more, Sir Economist.

Continue reading Amazon celebrates its first ‘$10 billion quarter’ in sales, finds Kindle books overtaking paperbacks

Amazon celebrates its first ‘$10 billion quarter’ in sales, finds Kindle books overtaking paperbacks originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve got a speedy Snapdragon in your smartphone, Qualcomm’s the one to thank — but considering the raw earnings figures shared yesterday, your dollars have applauded the firm enough already. Qualcomm reported record earnings of $3.35 billion for its first fiscal quarter of the year, up 25 percent since Q1 2010, and it raked in a nice fat $1.17 billion of that in profit, 39 percent more than last year. That’s thanks to shipping 118 million of those Mobile Station Modem (MSM) chips that power mobile devices, as well as other ventures, and the company expects revenues to continue their upward bent as 2011 progresses — thanks to new devices on the way.

Qualcomm EVP Steve Mollenkopf told investors that “we currently have more than 150 Snapdragon devices in development, including more than 20 tablets,” and that the dual-core 1.2GHz MSM8660 in particular was picking up steam, with over 60 devices slated to use the dual-mode chipset with HSPA+ and EV-DO Rev. B. What of a groundbreaking deal with Apple to power new iPhones and iPads? CEO Paul Jacobs wouldn’t say: “We’re happy to see the Verizon iPhone announcement since it’s been the subject of intense speculation, but we have no other comments on that topic.” Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Qualcomm has best quarter ever, teases a host of Snapdragon tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 07:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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