IDC: Samsung, ZTE see jump in mobile shipments, Apple slides to fifth place

Q3 earnings reports have been pouring in over the past few days, which means it’s time to check in with IDC on the state of the mobile market. The research firm’s latest report, released today, is something of a mixed bag. On the one hand, Q3 global shipments increased by 12.8 percent year-over-year — higher than the 9.3 percent that IDC had predicted for the quarter and the 9.8 percent growth observed last quarter. At the same time, however, the market grew at the second slowest pace in two years and shipments to Western Europe and the US actually declined over the year, something the company attributes to more restrained consumer spending and more widespread economic uncertainty.

On the company level, both Samsung and ZTE came away as the biggest winners this quarter; Sammy’s shipments increased by 23 percent over the year, good for second place, while ZTE’s shot up by a whopping 57.9 percent, launching the company into fourth place. Apple, meanwhile, saw 26.2 percent growth in its shipments and a slight bump in market share, but still couldn’t avoid getting leapfrogged by ZTE and dropping down to fifth place. And then there’s LG, which had by far the worst quarter, relative to Q3 2010. The manufacturer saw shipments decline by nearly 26 percent over the year, while its market share slipped to 5.4 percent. All these horses, however, are still chasing Nokia, which saw a small drop in shipments, but managed to hang on to the top spot, with over 106 million shipments during the quarter — good for 27 percent of the market. For more numbers and insight, check out the full PR after the break.

Continue reading IDC: Samsung, ZTE see jump in mobile shipments, Apple slides to fifth place

IDC: Samsung, ZTE see jump in mobile shipments, Apple slides to fifth place originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IDC and Gartner: Lenovo leaps past Dell for second place, still trails HP for the gold

IDC and Gartner have come out with their latest Q3 rankings of the world’s PC manufacturers, which means it’s time for us to do some dissecting. Not much changed at the top of the heap, where, according to IDC, HP still rules the roost with about 18 percent market share (despite that whole PC biz spinoff thing). But the most dramatic shift came from Lenovo, which scurried past Dell for second place, with 13.7 percent market share (13.5, according to Gartner) — a 36.1 percent jump from the third quarter of 2010 (25.2 percent, says Gartner). Dell’s pie slice, on the other hand, shrunk slightly to 12 percent this quarter, down from 12.6 percent last year. On the global scale, meanwhile, PC sales increased by about 3.6 percent compared to Q3 2010 (3.2 percent, in Gartner’s books), though both research firms acknowledged that this figure was well below their respective projections. Why? IDC points to several economic factors, including the threat of a double-dip recession, while Gartner blames the rise of “non-PC devices,” including tablets. Surprise!

Continue reading IDC and Gartner: Lenovo leaps past Dell for second place, still trails HP for the gold

IDC and Gartner: Lenovo leaps past Dell for second place, still trails HP for the gold originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 07:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows 7 overtakes XP globally, Vista found weeping in a corner

According to StatCounter, it’s taken roughly two years for Redmond’s latest to surpass XP and become the world’s most popular operating system. October 2011 marks the first time that Windows 7 has overtaken XP globally, with a 40 percent share of the market versus the latter’s 38. As for Vista, it’s been holding steady at around 11. Not that it’s much of a surprise, as in North America, Windows 7 took the crown back in April of this year. Rounding out the top five, are OS X (though it’s not clear whether that captures all of Cupertino’s beasts) and Linux, which come in at 7 and 0.82 percent respectively. But don’t take our word for it, hop on over to the source links and get your interactive chart on.

[Thanks, Pipera]

Windows 7 overtakes XP globally, Vista found weeping in a corner originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Oct 2011 13:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo sells over 50 million DS units, 3DS sales fall flat in comparison

Nintendo’s twin-screen wonder has seen almost as many reinventions as Lady Gaga, so it may not come as a huge shock to hear that the DS (in all its guises) has now sold over 50 million units in the US. The home entertainment maestros are still chasing similar success for its three-dimensional sibling, the 3DS, however. Nintendo has managed to sell almost half a million three dee units units after its weighty price cut, but there’s now some very potent competitors seeking their own slice of the (portable) gaming pie. Good luck, Nintendo, you’re probably going to need it.

Continue reading Nintendo sells over 50 million DS units, 3DS sales fall flat in comparison

Nintendo sells over 50 million DS units, 3DS sales fall flat in comparison originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Oct 2011 05:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kickstarter hits a million backers, impoverished design students rejoice

Despite these shaky economic times, people still have the time — and money — for modded Arduino kits, iPhone lens and air guitar mods. Kickstarter users have now pledged over $100 million to projects, with the number of backers leaping from around 250,000 in September last year to over one million. The crowd-funding site is marking the occasion with visualizations of its vital statistics, showing, among other things, that one-time backers make up the bulk of investment. With over 13,000 projects green-lighted so far, projects still vying for our investment dollars include a caterpillar-tracked smartphone robot, a bike light that attaches to your spokes generating an 8-bit light show and an energy recovery unit that picks up on heat from a dryer exhaust. If the idea of heat exchanges gets you all hot under the collar, check out Kickstarter to help give the creators a fiscal foothold.

Kickstarter hits a million backers, impoverished design students rejoice originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mobile devices may outnumber humans in the US, but they can’t take our soul

We’re not really sure what to make of this, but it looks like Americans may be under siege… from their own cellphones. No, seriously — according to the latest survey from CTIA, there are now more mobile devices in the US than there are human beings. The trade association’s semi-annual statistics show that during the first six months of 2011, the number of wireless subscriptions rose by nine percent over the previous year, to a total of 327.6 million. The combined population of the US, Puerto Rico, Guam and the US Virgin Islands, by comparison, is around 315 million. That translates to a nationwide wireless penetration rate of 103.9 percent, and, not surprisingly, a 111 percent surge in data usage. CTIA says these results highlight “the industry’s need to purchase more spectrum from the federal government,” as well as our collective need to get a life. You can find more crunch-able numbers in the full PR, after the break.
[Image courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art]

Continue reading Mobile devices may outnumber humans in the US, but they can’t take our soul

Mobile devices may outnumber humans in the US, but they can’t take our soul originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Digital video game distribution finds brick and mortar camping, moves in for win

Blame it on the economy, or simply chalk it up to a better way of earning revenue, but physical distributors of new video games are beginning to feel some major heat from the scrappy competition. While this mainstay segment still comprises the bulk of sales with $1.44 billion earned in the previous quarter, the combination of digital purchases, subscriptions, downloadable content, social network and mobile games — along with help from rentals and used purchases — now tops $1.74 billion dollars. This news comes from the NPD Group, and while we’re still scratching our heads at the logic of combining second-hand purchases with electronic distribution, it provides a strong indicator of consumers’ changing tastes and preferences (along with their willingness to spend). Does this industry titan simply need a new console or another Call of Duty to maintain supremacy? Perhaps a modest uptick in GDP? Or does this signal the changing of the guard for our favorite electronic pastime? There’s a full PR after the break, where you’re welcome to fire one off in the comments and let us know your take.

[Image courtesy bradleyolin / flickr]

Continue reading Digital video game distribution finds brick and mortar camping, moves in for win

Digital video game distribution finds brick and mortar camping, moves in for win originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ComScore: Android extends lead over Apple, holds 44 percent of smartphone market

Gather ’round, everyone, because a fresh batch of ComScore numbers has just arrived. According to the research firm, Android remains in firm control of the smartphone platform market, commanding 43.7 percent, followed by Apple (27.3 percent) and RIM (19.7 percent). In fact, Google extended its share by nearly two points over last month’s figures, while Apple’s iOS grew by just 0.3 points, but further distanced itself from RIM, which now sits 7.6 points behind. On the manufacturing side of the equation, Samsung remains top dog, accounting for 25.3 percent of all mobile subscribers (including both smartphone and feature phone users), followed by LG (21 percent) and Motorola (14 percent). Apple, meanwhile, sits a distant fourth, at 9.8 percent, followed by RIM, which rounds out the top five with 7.1 percent market share. Number crunchers can find more fodder in the full PR, after the break.

Continue reading ComScore: Android extends lead over Apple, holds 44 percent of smartphone market

ComScore: Android extends lead over Apple, holds 44 percent of smartphone market originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adidas builds intelligent soccer cleats that can outwit even Joey Barton

Impoverished football soccer clubs, with their massive stadiums, billionaire owners and millionaire star players have it awful hard, you know. If a club wanted a statistical analysis of the team’s movements over the 90 minutes (more if Sir Alex Ferguson is involved) then it needs to spend big on a ProZone statistics system. That’s all due to change, thanks to Adidas’ new adizero f50 miCoach — an “intelligent football boot” that includes a space for the miCoach Speed Cell, a tracking device that works like a souped-up Nike+iPod. The chip records your speed, sprint times, distance, step and stride rates, stores it for up to seven hours and pushes it over WiFi or USB to the device of your choice. You’ll be able to share your stats online with friends via Facebook and compare them to pros like diminutive pitchman Lionel Messi, diminutive Welshman Gareth Bale and the, ah, not-so-diminutive Emmanuel Adebayor. A pair of boots, Speed Cell and dongle will require your bank account to shrink to the tune of €245 ($330) and will hit the stores in November — just in time for you to sit indoors during the snowy January transfer window.

Continue reading Adidas builds intelligent soccer cleats that can outwit even Joey Barton

Adidas builds intelligent soccer cleats that can outwit even Joey Barton originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Solipskier Infographics for Stat Freaks

This article was written on October 27, 2010 by CyberNet.

solipskier plays.png

A few months ago we wrote about an awesome iPhone/iPad game called Solipskier that some of my friends put together. The developers realize how much some of you love stats, and have assembled two gorgeous infographics that breakdown the traffic and money they scooped up with the hit game.

The first infographic they posted was done in early October after they had a solid month’s worth of data from their players. Here you will see the result of them putting some “robots” inside the free Flash-based version of the game. In the first month they had 15 million plays, and only a mere 0.4% of the runs scored over 100 million points. They also go on to talk about the different ways people died in the game, areas that players need to work on the most, traffic sources (Stumbleupon tops the list), and more.

The second infographic they posted has all the juicy details. It covers the first two months that the game has been in the wild, and lays out how much money they’ve made thus far. The stats include money from both the Apple App Store as well as the Flash-based game. You’ll also be able to see a chart of how their App Store sales have progressed since the launch, and they point out what a big affect sites like Engadget had on their sales. Even more interesting, however, is their visual explanation of how the “bidding war” went on for the sponsorship of their Flash-based game.

solipskier stats.png

An Android version of the game will be coming out shortly, and I can’t wait for them to tally up the stats on that one as well. In the mean time I was talking with the game creators and asked how they came up with the Solipskier name. The “skier” part was rather obvious, but I wasn’t sure about where “solip” came from. They apparently grabbed “solip” from a shortened version the word solipsism. According to Wikipedia solipsism “is the philosophical idea that only one’s own mind is sure to exist.” So basically it’s like living in a dream world that your own mind is making up. According to Mikengreg this is how it applies to the skier:

The implication is that the skier and his world just exists within his own head, and therefore he can create the world however he sees fit. So the obvious use for his infinite power is to make a mountain and do sweet tricks.

Fair enough. If you haven’t played the game you can jump on over to their homepage to play it for free, or you can grab the universal app for the iPhone/iPad for $2.99 in the App Store:

Solipskier Homepage (where you can play the free Flash-based version)
Solipskier iTunes Link ($2.99 to purchase as a universal iPhone/iPad game)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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