Samsung says Galaxy Tab sales to consumers actually ‘quite small’

When is a tablet sold not actually a tablet sold? When it’s a Galaxy Tab, apparently. As The Wall Street Journal reports, those two million Galaxy Tabs that Samsung reported it had “sold” in the fourth quarter of last year were apparently not actual sales to consumers, but simply sales to distributors (which is a different matter altogether). Even more surprisingly, Samsung’s Lee Young-hee further explained on an earnings call on Friday that so-called “sell-out” sales to customers were actually “quite small,” but she wouldn’t provide a specific number. Somewhat confusingly, however, she also later noted that while “sell-out wasn’t as fast as we expected,” Samsung still believes that sales to consumers were “quite OK,” and that it is “quite optimistic” about 2011.

Samsung says Galaxy Tab sales to consumers actually ‘quite small’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceWall Street Journal  | Email this | Comments

Android Now World’s Most Popular Mobile OS

Thumbnail image for Android Meet Android.jpg

It’s hard to fathom now, but there was a time when Google’s open mobile operating system seemed destined to fail. Android was really slow out of the gate. Few users and fewer handset manufacturers were adopting it, and after several months, the OS seemed dead in the water.

Now look at where we are. Mobile analyst group Canalys is reporting today that, in the fourth quarter of last year, Android became the top smartphone platform. Shipments for the OS hit 32.9 million in the quarter, beating out 31.0 million worldwide shipments for the Symbian platform.

Apple and RIM were in a distant third and fourth, respectively, at 16.2 and 14.6 million shipments repectively. Microsoft, meanwhile, rounded out the top five at 3.1 million handsets shipped globally.

Despite Symbian’s slipping marketshare, Nokia is still the top smartphone vendor, with 28 percent of the total market.

Dell Streak 7 launching at T-Mobile on February 2nd: $200 with two-year contract, $450 without

It’s been an interesting few weeks of rumored Dell Streak 7 prices, but as promised, T-Mobile’s setting the record straight with some official dollar figures. Yep, that predicted $330 price was indeed pretty far off — turns out, T-Mobile will be offering the 7-inch, Android 2.2 tablet for just $200 (okay, $199.99 to be exact) on contract starting this Wednesday, February 2nd. Of course, you’ll have to sign a two-year contract to get that sweet deal as well as send in a $50 mail-in rebate. Those looking for a bit more freedom can snatch up the NVIDIA Tegra 2-powered, T-Mobile HSPA+ slate for 450 bucks, which actually seems like a pretty sweet deal to us considering the Samsung Galaxy Tab is still about $500 off contract and $300 with two years of service. Sure, the Galaxy Tab has a few more things going for it, including a higher resolution display and bigger battery, but you’ll just have to wait for our full review of the Streak 7 to find out if Dell’s got a killer “4G” Android tablet hitting shelves later this week.

Dell Streak 7 launching at T-Mobile on February 2nd: $200 with two-year contract, $450 without originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceT-Mobile, @TMobile (Twitter)  | Email this | Comments

Canalys: Android overtakes Symbian as world’s best-selling smartphone platform in Q4 2010

One day somebody will write a book called “The rise and rise of Android” and this moment will be highlighted in bold. Canalys’ latest smartphone sales figures show that Android phone makers managed to shift a cool 33.3 million handsets in the last quarter — more than any other smartphone platform out there, including the previous leader, Symbian, which sold 31 million units. That’s a mighty leap from the 20.3 million Android devices the stats agency estimates were sold in Q3 2010. Symbian itself grew from 29.9m in Q3 to 31m in Q4, but Android’s pace of expansion has been so rapid as to make that irrelevant.

Update: NPD’s numbers are in as well, indicating that Google now has a 53 percent share in the US market, while Windows Phone 7 has managed to nab only two percent so far.

Continue reading Canalys: Android overtakes Symbian as world’s best-selling smartphone platform in Q4 2010

Canalys: Android overtakes Symbian as world’s best-selling smartphone platform in Q4 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 05:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Reuters (Yahoo! News)  |   | Email this | Comments

CE-Oh no he didn’t!: Netgear boss calls ‘game over’ for Microsoft, Jobs’ ‘ego’ reason iPhone doesn’t support Flash

Can’t say that Patrick Lo is a name that immediately rang any bells around here. He’s certainly not as recognizable as Netgear, the company that he chairs and rules supreme. But boy did he hit our radar screens this morning. Lo had plenty of criticism to spread around the Microsoft and Apple camps today during a press lunch in Sydney. Oh where to even begin? Let’s start with Microsoft, and Lo’s claim that, “Microsoft is over — game over, from my point of view,” when comparing Windows Phone 7’s chance to compete with Android and the iPhone. Doubtful, not with Redmond’s Windows 7 and MS Office cash cows fueling Microsoft’s intense desire to execute on its new mobile strategy.

Lo then turned his sights on Apple, having this to say on the topic of Steve Jobs’ refusal to support Adobe Flash on Apple’s mobile devices: “What’s the reason for him to trash Flash? There’s no reason other than ego.” Funny, we thought it was due to performance, security, and power consumption issues. Lo later added, “Once Steve Jobs goes away, which is probably not far away, then Apple will have to make a strategic decision on whether to open up the platform.” Classy. Hit the source link below if you’re just dying to hear how “closed” systems are inferior to “open” systems all over again.

CE-Oh no he didn’t!: Netgear boss calls ‘game over’ for Microsoft, Jobs’ ‘ego’ reason iPhone doesn’t support Flash originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 04:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceThe Sydney Morning Herald  | Email this | Comments

LG G-Slate makes guest appearance on MysteryGuitarMan’s YouTube channel (video)

LG’s promotional strategy for the G-Slate seems to be to keep officially mum about the device, while letting random pseudo-celebrities tease it out in brief glimpses. A week ago, K-Pop artist Seungri gave us our first sighting of the dual-camera array on the back of the G-Slate, which has today made its triumphant return to YouTube, courtesy of one MysteryGuitarMan. The rear of the device here doesn’t look identical to the one in Seungri’s video, however the metallic strip separating the cams and its “with Google” branding look nearly identical to what LG has on the back of its Optimus 2X Android smartphone. We’re also seeing a single LED flash for the first time, there are a couple of unidentified connectors at the bottom, at least one of them likely to assist docking in landscape mode, and we do get to see the tablet in profile for an idea of how thin it is. Video after the break.

Continue reading LG G-Slate makes guest appearance on MysteryGuitarMan’s YouTube channel (video)

LG G-Slate makes guest appearance on MysteryGuitarMan’s YouTube channel (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 02:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink @KevinLyHD (Twitter)  |  sourceMysteryGuitarMan (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

Enspert Identity Tab E201 rings up at $350 with Froyo, Gmail and Android Market

Enspert blindsided us at CES 2011 with a pair of quality Android tablets, and here’s another surprise — next month, the company’s Identity Tab E201 will apparently ship 100% Google-certified. Importer Dynamism is taking preorders on February 1st for the 7-inch Android 2.2 tablet, which comes with both Gmail and Android Market on board, though admittedly for a somewhat larger outlay than we originally heard. $350 is what you’ll pay for the 800 x 480 slate, which sports a 1GHz Hummingbird processor and PowerVR SGX540 graphics, 8GB storage and 512MB RAM, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, a full compliment of sensors and an SD card slot. Just a month ago we’d have called this quite the deal, but come February 1st you may want to wait — after all, Google’s busy bees may show off the fruits of their labors the very next day.

Enspert Identity Tab E201 rings up at $350 with Froyo, Gmail and Android Market originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Jan 2011 12:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink jkkmobile  |  sourceDynamism  | Email this | Comments

Android Honeycomb port for Nook Color gets graphics acceleration, first demo video

Can’t wait until February 2nd to see more of Android 3.0 in action? That’s not a problem, as today we’ve got a whole 129 seconds of video showing Google’s latest mobile software doing its thing on the Nook Color. The OS was ported to B&N’s tablet on Friday, when we were promised further work would be taking place over the weekend to enable hardware acceleration of the GUI, and what do you know, that goal has been achieved with plenty of Sunday to spare! Most core functionality is still not available, but the delicious Honeycomb interface is very much in effect. Jump past the break for the eye candy feast.

[Thanks, Jules]

Continue reading Android Honeycomb port for Nook Color gets graphics acceleration, first demo video

Android Honeycomb port for Nook Color gets graphics acceleration, first demo video originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Jan 2011 07:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourcexda-developers  | Email this | Comments

Android 2.3 security bug shows microSD access vulnerability

A researcher at North Carolina State University is warning of an Android 2.3 security vulnerability that gives attackers access to your personal information, further proof that Gingerbread isn’t all sugar and spice (to be fair, that SMS issue has since been remedied). According to Xuxian Jiang, the bug allows malicious websites to access and upload the contents of a user’s microSD card, including voicemails, photos, and online banking information to a remote server. The flaw apparently resembles a similar bug in previous version of Android, thought to have been addressed with Gingerbread. However, as Jiang points out, that fix is easily bypassed. Apart from removing the microSD card, disabling JavaScript, or switching to a third-party browser, Android 2.3 users have little recourse in squashing the bug. The folks at eWeek reported that Google is working on a solution to the problem, but there’s no word on when we can expect to see an update.

Android 2.3 security bug shows microSD access vulnerability originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Jan 2011 10:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceNorth Carolina State University  | Email this | Comments

LG Optimus 2X and Optimus Black priced at €499 by Amazon Germany, not yet available to buy

Amazon’s German outlet has started listing LG’s two latest and undoubtedly greatest phones: the Optimus 2X (seemingly renamed the Optimus Speed here) and the Optimus Black. Both run Android 2.2 on 4-inch screens, with the former offering a dual-core Tegra 2 processor capable of 1080p video recording and HDMI output, and the latter cranking up the display brightness to a quite unreasonable 700 nits. The Optimus Black also has one of the thinnest profiles on a smartphone of its class at 9.2mm, and will be one of the first phones to offer WiFi Direct connectivity. Intriguingly, Amazon’s Optimus Speed / 2X listing also shows a brown color option for the handset, though only its black SKU is subject to a neat €50 discount bringing its price to €499, the same as the cost of the Optimus Black. We don’t know when either one will drop, but you can go and reserve yourself one (or a dozen) at the links below.

[Thanks, Julian]

Continue reading LG Optimus 2X and Optimus Black priced at €499 by Amazon Germany, not yet available to buy

LG Optimus 2X and Optimus Black priced at €499 by Amazon Germany, not yet available to buy originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Jan 2011 05:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAmazon DE (Optimus Speed), (Optimus Black)  | Email this | Comments