Hasta La Gadget!

The saying, “It takes money to make money” most certainly applies to Samsung. It turns out that the leader of Android spent about $401 million on advertising last year, which is even more than the $333 million that Apple spent on its campaigns. Researchers say that the huge increase in spending is necessary as it’s competing with Apple for the top spot in the smartphone market place.

In 2011, Samsung only spent $78 million on its advertisements, a number that was completely overshadowed by the $253 million spent by Apple. 2012, Samsung realized that it needed to step up its marketing efforts greatly in order to dominate the market place, so it went on a spending frenzy. It went all out with ads on TVs, billboards in major cities, and massive online advertisements. A good amount of its advertising money was also budgeted to create smear campaigns towards Apple.

2013, there is no doubt that Samsung will go even farther in its marketing efforts in order to make its Samsung Galaxy S IV device, as well its other line-up of smartphones, THE smartphones to buy. It purchased a highly coveted, and highly expensive ad slot during the Superbowl this year in order to appeal to the 114 million people watching the game. It’s set to announce the S IV tomorrow at Radio City Music Hall in New York, and you can expect the company to give the device 110% when it comes to marketing. Not that the S IV needs it because it’s already the most highly anticipated phone of the season, if not the year.

The amount of money Samsung and Apple spent on advertisement is enough to embarrass the other phone companies out there. HTC came in 3rd place, spending only a measly $46 million. Blackberry followed behind with only $35 million spent (but what were they really going to advertise?), and Nokia spent a laughable $13 million. HTC’s CEO Peter Chou has stated on numerous occasions that marketing was the reason why its brand did so terrible last year. This year, Chou plans on stepping up HTC’s marketing game, and the company will be going all in on its flagship device, the HTC One.

[via Wall Street Journal]

2012: Samsung spent a fortune on ad/smear campaigns is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The booming smartphone market means that more and more people out there have mobile web connectivity right at their fingertips wherever they go. Pew Internet has published the results of a study that it conducted investigating smartphone adoption among American teens. The study found that the adoption of smartphones among teenagers has increased substantially and that access to the Internet via mobile devices is pervasive.

According to Pew, one in four teens in America are “cell-mostly” Internet users. These teens say they are most likely to go online using their phone rather than other devices such as desktop or laptop computers. The survey looked at the technology use among 820 youths between 12 and 17 years of age and their parents.

According to the results, 78% of teens have cell phones and 47% of those own smartphones. Pew says that 37% of all teens now have smartphones, an increase from 23% in 2011. The survey also found that 23% of teens have a tablet computer, which is comparable to the general adult population. Other interesting statistics from the survey include the fact that 95% of teenagers use the Internet.

When it comes to having a computer or having access to one at home, 93% of teens do and 71% of those teens say the home computer is shared with other family members. The fact that such a large percentage of teens in America access the Internet on a smartphone is no surprise. Accessing the Internet on their personal device may allow teens to access content that parents may otherwise object to on a computer in the home.

[via Pew Internet]

Survey shows a quarter of American teens are “cell-mostly” Internet users is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

South by Southwest – the music, film and interactive festival/conference always guarantees to highlight some of the up-and-coming everything. Venues across Austin are packed to take in new bands and musicians. New directors are discovered through the film festival. And new, sometimes conceptual, technology takes center stage and gain following in the interactive portion of SXSW including technology like Twitter and Foursquare. All the big companies now have a presence. Including Google, who teased attendees with another interactive and wearable technology.

Google Glass will enable you to run your life via your eyes. But what about those days when you need some extra motivation? Maybe you don’t feel so ambitious. You need Google Shoes, speaking basketball-looking shoes.  In conjunction with Adidas and YesYesNo, an interactive project company, and the famous agency 72andSunny, Google developed a device that attaches to the laces of the shoe. The accelerometer and gyroscope contained within help the device understand what you may or may not be doing. Based on your activity it speaks one of 250 pre-recorded and somewhat smart-alec phrases that do everything from praise you to rip on you. So yes, if you are sitting around your shoe could tell you that it is bored. Or if you are intensely working out maybe it will congratulate you. Bluetooth is included if you want to hook it up to a speaker or earpiece. And like other techy shoes this could track your activity too. Don’t hold your breath though. Google made it apparent that there were no long term plans to launch Google Shoes. It was a SXSW concept. But if we all end up toiling in laziness due to the other products that Google brings to our lives maybe this nagging voice concept could become a necessity!

Thanks: Huffington Post
[ Smart Shoes, Yes Shoes copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

What used to be one of the major smartphone manufacturers in the world is now nothing but a pale shadow of itself, and I am referring to the company formerly known as Research In Motion, or RIM for short, that hails from the Great White North. Well, RIM changed their name recently at the end of January this year to just BlackBerry, in an effort to be able to better connect with their customer base (future or current one), in addition to introducing a couple of new BlackBerry smartphones with the all-new BlackBerry 10 operating system. Of course, the BlackBerry Z10 is one of them, and we have word from AT&T that from March 22nd onwards, the BlackBerry Z10 will be made available to interested parties.

Pre-sales of the BlackBerry Z10 will kick off from March 12th onwards, where you will have to drop $199.99 for the BlackBerry Z10 which will come with a two-year agreement. Of course, the asking price is pretty much in line with the rest of the high end models from other smartphone manufacturers regardless of the mobile operating system. Corporate customers or those receiving a corporate discount can get their BlackBerry Z10 via all available AT&T channels when March 22nd rolls around.

What makes the BlackBerry Z10 more special than all the other BlackBerry devices out there? For starters, this is said to be the first smartphone that has launched with the re-designed, re-engineered and re-invented BlackBerry 10 platform, where it will enable customers to enjoy a powerful and unique new mobile experience. Also, this is the fastest and most advanced BlackBerry smartphone to date, and will boast of an all-touch keyboard, a high-resolution 4.2-inch display and an 8-megapixel camera that is more than capable of handling 1080p HD video. Other than that, this is also the first BlackBerry device that plays nice with AT&T’s 4G LTE network. Any takers?

Press Release
[ AT&T to offer BlackBerry Z10 this March 22nd copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Samsung has finally taken the top spot in China’s smartphone market. It has been gunning for the position since 2009, and has not only taken the top spot, but has taken it by a landslide. The company has reported that it has sold a whopping 30.06 million smartphones in China in the last year alone, a figure that is 3 times the 10.9 million smartphones it had sold back in 2011. The huge boost in sales is attributed to Samsung’s renown branding in the smartphone market.

Yonhap News states that Samsung currently has a 17.7% market share in China, a 5.3% boost from 2011. This also supports China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s belief that Android is too dominant in its country. Samsung has beaten out China’s mobile manufacturers Lenovo, and Huawei for the top spot. Lenovo came in 2nd place with a market share of 13.2%, Apple came in 3rd with 11%, and Huawei came in 4th with 9.9%. Nokia, who held the top position in China’s smartphone market in 2011 fell all the way down to 3.7% from the 29.9% it used to be at.

It’s very interesting to see Huawei in 4th place, especially since the company has high hopes of one day taking the top spot in the global smartphone market place someday. The company believes that it can take on the likes of Samsung and Apple by releasing a variety of mid-tier smartphones that vary from region to region, and also by releasing a universal flagship smartphone each year. It is dedicating a lot of resources to its mobile sector, and believes that since its experienced in both the hardware side and network side of mobile technology, it has the upper hand against the two current mobile juggernauts.

Samsung’s dominance in the Chinese smartphone market is very impressive, seeing how it has yet to release it’s next flagship smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S IV. The company is set to announce the device on Thursday, March 14th, and there’s no doubt that it will be a major success like its predecessors. It’ll be very interesting to see how much Samsung’s smartphone sales and market share increase by next year.

[via Android Community]

Samsung finally tops the smartphone market in China is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.