This week during the Apple earnings call that also saw Apple report a record quarter for iPhone sales, CEO Tim Cook suggested that the higher end of the smartphone market has not reached it’s peak. This was in response to a question about the iPhone and how possible it was that the “high end” was “reaching saturation”. This was in spite of, as the user asking the question made clear, the increase in iPhone sales this quarter.
It’s not as if the iPhone is hurting for sales – even with the iPhone 5 being the newest model on the market and rumors of a next-generation device already saturating the airwaves. Instead, Apple’s attitude during the Q and A section of the earnings call this week remained wholly positive.
“From a growth point of view for Apple, our key catalyst will always be new products and new services. In addition we have opportunities in distribution, carrier partnerships, the online store, and the indirect channel.” – Tim Cook
Cook added that he saw the iPhone’s market as healthy – not a place where too many devices on the market means no one will want a new machine.
“I don’t subscribe to the common view that the higher end of the smartphone market has hit its peak.” – Tim Cook
Does this mean no iPhone budget model? While no one asked such a question directly, Tim Cook’s representation of Apple as a company whose one goal is to make great products remained solid.
“We think if we focus on great products and do it well, the financial performance will also come. We don’t see those things as being mutually exclusive.
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The most important thing is that the customers love the products – if you don’t start at that level, you end up creating things that people don’t want.” – Tim Cook
What do you think? Do you think it’s time the smartphone market started seeing innovation in ways we’ve not yet thought of? Consider the Nokia Lumia 1020 and it’s massive 41-megapixel camera setup. Is that enough?
Or does Apple – in this case – need to create a smartphone that’s got something we’ve not even considered?
This week Apple let loose their quarterly earnings for investors and the public alike, letting it be known that a quarterly revenue of $35.5 billion along with $6.9 billion in quarterly net profit is all well and good. This quarter saw the sales of 31.2 million iPhones, this a record for this quarter of the year, along with 14.6 million iPads – that’s up for iPhones, down for iPads.
Meanwhile the company has declared a cash dividend, Apple’s Board of Directors bringing a dividend of $3.05 per share of common stock in this period. This dividend is payable on the 15th of August, 2013, and shareholders of record as of August 12th, 2013 will be eligible for the payout.
“We are especially proud of our record June quarter iPhone sales of over 31 million and the strong growth in revenue from iTunes, Software and Services. We are really excited about the upcoming releases of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, and we are laser-focused and working hard on some amazing new products that we will introduce in the fall and across 2014.” – Apple CEO Tim Cook
This same quarter last year saw Apple bring in $8.8 billion in quarterly net profit one year ago, while revenue has also gone down from $43.6 billion this past quarter.
This past quarter didn’t exactly come in as one of Apple’s most mind-blowing when it comes to hardware, this resulting in an expected set of numbers as reported. What we did see, on the other hand, is previews of software such as OS X Mavericks and the next iPhone’s iOS 7.
This Fall, Apple says, we’ll be seeing some exciting new products – and if you’re surprised by that suggestion, you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years. Without an iPhone, at that.
Stay tuned to SlashGear for additional analysis on this quarter’s results, and stick around for the Q and A as well!
If you’re anxiously anticipating the release of Motorola’s common hero smartphone Moto X and like the idea of confirming specifications before the device itself is revealed in full, today is your lucky day. What we’ve seen today in the reveal of three new Motorola smartphones with DROID branding for Verizon is the re-appearance of a few features that’d previously been tipped for the Moto X. They’ll carry ever-so-slightly different user interfaces, but will they keep the same Android-deep features?
Gesture to Launch Camera
As we saw in a leaked video earlier this month and as indicated by Motorola’s own Dennis Woodside back in May, Moto X will be able to detect when you take it out of your pocket, then will be able to activate its built-in camera with a flick of your wrist.
“The [Moto X] knows when it is in my pocket, it knows when I take it out of my pocket. I might want to do something, I might want to take a picture, so it fires up the camera.” Dennis Woodside for Motorola
Today Verizon’s new DROID line hints at a similar bit of functionality. They suggest that you’ll be able to “quickly launch the 10-megapixel camera with a simple gesture”, just the same. This indicates that there are two possibilities, the first being Google adding this flick feature to Android itself, therefor moving it to their Nexus line not too far into the future. The second possibility is that this feature will be Motorola’s own, and will only appear on Motorola smartphone (until hacking can commence.)
Camera Interface
This morning we saw a leak of what was called a Moto X camera interface. There we saw what very well could appear on a Nexus device and not look out of place in the least. Many of these same images appeared on-screen at this week’s Verizon event introducing the phones, shown as Motorola’s new UI for cameras on all devices.
It’s shown again on Verizon’s purchase page for the DROID MINI in short. They’ve also reminded us there that the device “helps you take better photos in low-light environments” – that kind of power comes from the device’s processor, but it’s very possible the same claims will be made of the Moto X.
Always On Voice Commands
Back in June of 2013, Qualcomm (with LG) revealed that they’d be bringing on “Always On Voice Commands” in their next-generation processing architecture. We’ve heard from Qualcomm earlier in the year that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 brought this ability natively, then we heard about Android’s Open Mic.
It was leaked as part of the hands-on video shown earlier this month of the Moto X, and here once again we’re seeing the exact same user interface appearing on the new DROID lineup.
“When Droid Mini is on, it’s ready. Command this smartphone without touching it, even when it’s asleep. Use voice commands to get directions or open a Mobile Hotspot.” – Verizon
So don’t expect that bit of functionality to be limited to Moto X, not by any measure. Instead we may very well see not one whole heck of a lot of Motorola-centric software appearing on the Moto X when it’s formally revealed on August 1st at all. Not unless Google has something up their sleeves for reveal tomorrow morning!
And don’t forget that fancy super-minimal notifications screen while the device is sleeping, either.
“The low-power notification system displays alerts so you can avoid constantly waking your phone.” – Verizon
We’re to understand that Motorola has formulated a way to only light up a portion of the display to show these notes, saving energy as they do so. Stay tuned!
There’s been a lot of talk about Sony’s reported Honami smartphone, but there haven’t been photos of the beast in a nearly finished state. At least, until now: Gadget Helpline and Weibo user @latter21 claim to have multiple photos of the would-be flagship. The photos largely match up with previous rumors, which have Sony fitting a larger (possibly 20-megapixel) camera into the corner while otherwise preserving a very Xperia Z-like design. There are a couple of surprises — the xenon flash of an earlier leak isn’t visible, and a large speaker has surfaced at the bottom. Unfortunately, the photo suppliers can’t verify many other details. The camera interface is purportedly unfinished, and there’s no mention of the CPU and display quality upgrades inherited from the Xperia Z Ultra. If the images are accurate, though, we’re looking at a subtle design evolution whose biggest upgrades are hidden inside.
Verizon quickly announced a new line of DROID smartphones alongside Motorola today, and by quickly, we actually mean it. The event lasted for around 10 minutes and they unveiled three new phones, as well as a new processor that they’re calling a “computing system.” If you’re having a bit of trouble catching up on the new DROIDs, we’re here to save the day.
The three new phones that were unveiled today are the DROID MINI, DROID ULTRA, and the DROID MAXX. All of these fit in their own specific budget range, and we’ll first start off with the DROID MINI. This is Motorola’s successor to the DROID RAZR M of last year, and it’s all about a compact design with a 4.3-inch HD Super AMOLED display, as well as wireless charging capabilities. This phone will cost $99 after a two-year contract and will be available starting on August 29.
The DROID ULTRA and DROID MAXX share the same body style, with a larger 5-inch 720p OLED display with a kevlar shell for ruggedness. However, the MAXX sports a huge 3500 mAh battery that Verizon says can last “two days” on a full charge. The ULTRA sports a smaller 2,130 mAh, but only comes in at 7.2mm thin, which is quite impressive. The ULTRA and MAXX also pack in a 10-megapixel camera with an f2.4 lens.
The DROID ULTRA will cost $199 after a two-year contract, while the DROID MAXX will be priced at $299. Both phones will be available starting on August 20. All three of these handsets are also running Motorola’s new X8 Mobile Computing System, which was also announced today in partnership with Qualcomm.
The X8 is an eight-core SoC, which consists of a dual-core application Qualcomm processor that clocks in at 1.7GHz, a quad-core graphics processor, a contextual computing core, and another core for “natural language processing.” This layout should be able to give each phone the power to delegate certain tasks without taxing any of the cores. Motorola says the new X8 chip gives these three devices 24% faster CPU performance and graphics that are twice as fast than before.
The DROID ULTRA will be available in black, white, and red, while the MAXX will only be available in black. Pre-orders are open now, and as a bonus, anyone who buys one of these new phones between now and September 30 will get six months free to Google Play Music All Access.
Verizon has this week delivered a full set of DROID devices, including the DROID Ultra, DROID MAXX, and DROID mini as successors to the DROID RAZR HD line on the market since last year. The smallest of these is the DROID mini, of course, working with an August 20th release date and a 720p LCD display.
This device works with the same computing power of its larger relatives, that being a 1.7 GHz Dual Core processor with Quad–Core Graphics paired with Motorola’s x8 mobile computing system – which we’ll certainly be detailing at length later today. For now you’ll be interested to know that this device works with the same hardcore body as the rest of the DROID line, kevlar back and all.
Inside will be 2GB of RAM, 16GB of onboard storage, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and Motorola’s ever-so-slightly modified bit of Google’s mobile operating system. We’ll see soon how this compares to the Moto X, a device that’ll be working with a rather unique look at Android, Google style.
This device will be appearing alongside the DROID Ultra and DROID MAXX later this month at a cool $99 USD with a two-year contract while the larger devices will add a hundred bucks for each level. You’ll find red accents through the series while the main color utilized here will be straight up textured black.
As expected, Verizon announced a line of new DROID devices today, and while the carrier held a stage event, the unveilings were quick and dirty. Verizon announced three new DROID smartphones today, consisting of the DROID Mini, DROID ULTRA, and DROID MAXX, all of which have different price points to cater towards any budget.
The DROID Mini is the entry-level device in this new lineup, and it’s all about a compact design for this one. It’s essentially a refresh of the DROID RAZR M, which was the compact DROID device from last year’s lineup. The phone runs a 1.7GHz dual-core processor with quad-core graphics and 2GB of RAM (this goes for all three phones).
The next step up is the DROID ULTRA, which Verizon says the main focus is thinness. It sports a kevlar shell, which gives it some ruggedness as well as a sleek look. The device also has a glossy red finish to it, which Motorola says is “a lot like a sports car,” but this isn’t the first time we’ve heard this statement about past phones (DROID Incredible, anyone?)
As for the big daddy of them all, the DROID MAXX is a lot like the ULTRA in that it sports the same kevlar body, but the MAXX also packs in a much larger battery as you’d expect. We’re still waiting on official details on battery life and size, but Motorola says that you can get around two days of battery life with “normal usage.”
All three phones will be available for pre-order today and will begin shipping on August 20. The DROID Mini costs $99, while the DROID ULTRA will cost you $199. The DROID MAXX will be priced at a steep $299, but that’s the price you pay for better battery life, it seems. All these prices are after signing a new two-year contract.
This week the folks at Verizon have revealed the full new wave of DROID devices starting with the DROID Ultra. This device will be delivered alongside a MAXX version, complete with the same set of specifications save a much larger battery. These two devices will be joined by a smaller handset called DROID Mini, each of these devices coming forth to replace last year’s DROID RAZR family.
The DROID Ultra will be appearing with a rather thin at just 7.18mm while the larger comes in at 8.5mm, the both of them working with full Kevlar backs. These machines work with Google’s Ingress game built-in, a sure sign that the company’s ownership is coming in full tune.
UPDATE: Oddly enough, these devices are not working with 1080p displays. Instead they’ll both be 5-inch, 720p displays, mimicking the resolution of last year’s displays on slightly larger panels.
Both machines will be working with a brand new Motorola X8 SoC. This is a rather unique move by the company, bringing on their own processing architecture for the full set of machines – certainly set to put the full DROID line on a different road from the Moto X.
Motorola suggest that both machines work with a 24-percent increase in CPU speed as a result of this new processor, along with a 100% increase in GPU speed. That’s over last year’s DROID RAZR offerings with the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processors in place, of course – so with quad-core we’d certainly hope for such a jump.
Both machines work with a 10-megapixel camera at their back complete with f2.4 lens, and both work with capacitive buttons at their base, believe it or not!
As expected, the star of the show is here: Verizon has unveiled the Motorola Droid Ultra at its New York City press event. The 5-inch smartphone is “all about thin,” according to Moto, and sports a glossy, unibody Kevlar shell that makes it thinner (7.18mm) yet stronger than its predecessors. It’s also speedier: a new dual-core X8 Mobile Computing System delivers about 24 percent faster processing power than the previous generations, graphics that are twice as quick and dedicated chips for both contextual computing and language processing. It sports the software tricks we’ve seen in leaks of the Moto X, such as hands-free voice control, Active Display notifications and Quick Capture. Google’s augmented reality game Ingress comes preloaded for more adventurous owners. The Droid Ultra ships August 20th for $199, and pre-orders are starting today.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is a smartphone with a rather sizable camera on its back. While you’ll find this machine appearing to want o take the place of the Samsung Galaxy Camera, we’ve found it to be attempting to carve out a different category entirely. Here Samsung aims to cross-breed a smartphone with a high-powered pocketable camera. Can it stand the test of the average, everyday user, or better yet, the common hobby-level photographer?
Hardware
This machine comes in at 125.3 x 63.3 x 15.25mm (4.93 x 2.45 x 0.6 inches), quite a bit thicker than any smartphone or tablet from this generation of Samsung devices. It’s not especially wide, nor tall, coming much closer to the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini than it does to the full-sized Samsung Galaxy S 4 if you’re not considering its thickness. It’s certainly not heavy at 208g (7.34 oz), either.
This device is made of the same materials as the Galaxy S 4, made mostly of the same light, hard, and rather crackable plastic across the bulk of its body. As a result, this device does not feel like it’s ready to hit the field the way the Samsung Galaxy Camera did at CES 2013. This device is ready for basic hobby photographers instead, as a sort of stepping stone between smartphone and what most would consider your average mid-to-high-level pocketable camera.
The Galaxy S4 Zoom works with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display at 960 x 540, that is: 256 PPI. Inside you’ve got 8GB of storage and a microSD card slot allows for MicroSDXC cards up to 64GB for storage expansion.
This device’s processor is a 1.5GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos 4 (4212) (the same as appears in the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0) paired with 1.5 GB of RAM that’s certainly not meant to bust the charts out with benchmark greatness, tuned instead, it would seem, to the camera UI alone. It’ll still be able to be your general smartphone engine as well, but don’t expect to be playing the highest-powered games any time soon – not without lag.
This device can connect to the rest of the device universe with DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, infra-red with its IR blaster, and a variety of Wi-fi and Wi-fi direct-based Samsung-specific apps. Also included is an NFC reader and Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS, GLONASS, an accelerometer, digital compass, proximity sensor, gyroscope, and light sensor – essentially everything on the market.
Wi-fi on the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom kicks in at 802.11a/b/g/n. Depending on your region you’ll be able to pick this device up with 3G HSPA+ or LTE connectivity – the same goes for the processor, apparently, but we’ve yet to see another processor version in the wild – we’ll see what it comes with when it hits the states, if it does!
Software
This device brings Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with TouchWiz on top in an amalgamation that’s essentially the same as you’ll find on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0, limited only slightly in its abilities below the build you’ll find on the Galaxy S 4. This is one of a series of devices based on the hero of this generation of Samsung devices in the Galaxy S 4, each of them with their own little odd additions or exclusions therein.
Inside you’ve got WatchON for connecting to your television with your IR-Blaster, Group Play for connecting to other Samsung smartphones and tables live inside a local area network, and a full collection of Samsung-specific apps like ChatON to remind you that you’re part of the Galaxy S 4 team. As expected, Galaxy S 4 specific apps like Air View and Smart Scroll/Pause/ etc are absent, these being reserved for the hero – until the Galaxy Note III arrives, of course.
This device is not meant to be a competitor for the likes of full-fledged connected cameras, even those edging in on the smart space with Wi-fi connectivity. This device is half smartphone / half camera, and it’s not really dominating in either category by any means. Have a peek at a collection of benchmark results below and see how this device does in a mathematically measured way.
Can the Galaxy S4 Zoom go to war with the closest thing on the market today – or soon, depending on when you’re reading – in the Nokia Lumia 1020? Have a peek at the Galaxy S4 Zoom vs Nokia Lumia 1020 camera war we’ve got set up and check back when we’ve got the full 1020 review, too.
Camera / Battery
This device’s camera interface takes the abilities delivered – rather inspiringly, at the time – in the original Samsung Galaxy Camera – and brings them to a new level. While if this interface were brought to the Samsung Galaxy Camera itself, we’d give it a full thumbs up. Instead there’s just one thing holding this device back from being a next-level Galaxy Camera: its smartphone side.
As described a bit in the hardware section above, this device feels exceedingly fragile. Its hard plastic body on all sides save the display side feel as though they’d crack at the lowest drop, while the reinforced glass is just as hard as it’s ever been from Corning. The Galaxy Camera did not attempt to be the baby clone of the Samsung Galaxy S III – so too should the Galaxy S4 Zoom have skipped such a set of similarities. Once you’re past your fear of dropping this device, its camera features are actually pretty neat.
The Zoom Ring up front doesn’t just access this camera’s 10x optical zoom, it brings up a feature selection screen unique to this device. This “ring” shows a collection of shooting modes for the camera which are highlighted with the ring itself, selected then with a tap of the device’s shutter button. If only because we’ve literally never seen this combination of selection modes with a physical contraption such as this before, it stands out as one of the most interesting bits on the Galaxy S4 Zoom.
As you’ll see above in brief, this device works with the full collection of Samsung Galaxy S 4 camera modes, coming clean with – if it worked a bit smoother – the best of the bunch with “Smart mode suggest.” This mode detects what the scene might be in your camera’s viewfinder, giving you a choice of three possible best modes for your selection.
In the end though, it was the simplest Auto Mode that we ended up using most given the intended audience of this machine. Have a peek at a collection of shots and video below to see what you’ll be rolling with internationally. We’ll see if the quality of this machine’s shooter changes if it ever hits the USA in a carrier iteration when it happens!
Up front you’ve got a 1.9 megapixel camera that works surprisingly well – or is at least tuned to look superior even when shooting something so terrifying as the users’ face (as shown above).
The back-facing camera amalgamation brings on a 16-megapixel CMOS sensor paired with a 24-240mm 10x optical zoom and ISO 100-3200. This all works through a F3.1-F6.3 Samsung lens. You’ll have the ability to kick out ISO 100-3200 and up to 4fps burst photography – and the results are, on the whole, generally excellent enough for top-notch non-professional hobby photography.
Battery life is just about the worst we’ve seen in this generation of Galaxy devices, if you’d like to consider everything in the Galaxy Tab 3 and Galaxy S 4 lineup. If you’re planning on this being your daily driver as a smartphone, you’ll certainly need to charge it up halfway through the day if you intend on getting to the end. If you’re using it as a camera, you’ll want to bring another battery to help you make your way through a full workday if you’re at an event.
Above you’re seeing the device working it’s relatively decent stand-by abilities for the most part. And just supposing you are using this device and need more up-time than it’ll delivery on the regular, there’s always a replaceable battery or two you could be picking up. One size only: 2,330 mAh in the side alongside the microSIM card slot.
Wrap-up
While we’ve found this device to be taking one of several awards home for most unique device in Samsung’s most recent collection of smart devices, it’s not necessarily the best device for any one use-case. While we expected the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom to take the place of the Samsung Galaxy Camera, instead we’ve found it to be another entry point for new users to get in on the smart device universe through Samsung’s flavor of Android.
The Galaxy S4 Zoom connects well with the rest of the most recent collection of Samsung Galaxy S 4 devices, it’ll be interesting to see how it fares in the market with little to no direct competition. Stay tuned as we see what US mobile carriers think of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom in coming weeks, and if they’ll give it as much faith as they did the Galaxy Camera.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
