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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (AP) – South Korean handset maker LG Electronics Inc. has upgraded its flagship smartphone model with a faster chip and a longer battery life, hoping to regain ground lost to more nimble rivals.

The Optimus LTE II smartphone, which costs 935,000 won ($804) without subsidies, will be released by all three mobile carriers in South Korea this week. Park Jong-seok, president of LG’s mobile business, said Thursday the new model is for South Korean users only but similar iterations would be released overseas.

LG, which is recuperating from massive losses in its mobile business since 2010, is betting on the introduction of a faster mobile network called LTE around the world to boost smartphone sales.

Mobile carriers in South Korea, Japan, North America and Europe have begun services on the latest wireless network, aiming to lure consumers seeking quicker downloads of videos and smooth web surfing on a phone.

With a 2-gigabyte memory capacity, the new Optimus phone can run multiple applications simultaneously at a faster rate, LG said. Most other high-end smartphones have a 1- or 1.5-gigabyte memory.

LG claimed the new phone’s battery life is about 40 percent longer than its predecessor, the Optimus LTE.

Once the world’s third-largest mobile phone maker, LG was overtaken by Apple Inc. last year. Sales of LG’s low-end phones were hit by Chinese competitors while its top-end lineup could not compete with the Galaxy series of smartphones by Samsung Electronics Co. or Apple’s iPhones.

IDC Group ranked LG as the world’s fifth-largest phone maker in the first quarter of this year as China’s ZTE Corp. climbed to No. 4 and Apple went up to the third place.

“We reduced the shipments of lowest end feature phones last year,” Park told reporters at a press conference. “We are not so focused on the unit shipments as much as the quality and sales of premium phones.”

LG plans to increase sales of its smartphones by 75 percent to 35 million units this year from 2011. Meanwhile, the company expects its overall mobile phone sales to drop to 80 million from 88.1 million.

LG said it is aiming for smartphones to make up 44 percent of its mobile phone sales in 2012, compared with 23 percent in 2011.

Shortages of mobile chips made by Qualcomm Inc., however, remain a potential roadblock in achieving its smartphone sales goal.

“It is one of the issues that are giving headaches,” Park said. “All industry is experiencing the shortages.”

The new Optimus phone is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor. The U.S. chipmaker is the primary supplier of chips that give connections to the faster wireless network.

In the last two years, LG’s handset division lost a total of 943.6 billion won ($811 million). The division returned to the black in the last two quarters. It posted a 35.2 billion won profit in the first three months of this year.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Article source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/17/lg-upgrades-flagship-smartphone-to-revive-fortunes/

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There’s a pretty good chance you either own a smartphone or, according to the stats, you’re going to own one really soon. A recent Nielsen report said that almost half of all mobile subscribers now have smartphones.

If you already have a smartphone, the reasons are pretty obvious why you’ll hold on to it. You can download apps to organize your work, play games, search Wikipedia, get directions and connect to the Internet whenever you want.

However, like anything else we buy, there’s a cost of ownership that we rarely think about when we make a purchase.

So, what’s the real cost of owning a smartphone?

What It Really Costs
According to the Wall Street Journal, the average data, texting and minute plan for a smartphone costs about $2,100 for a two-year contract. However, that’s not the real cost. The average tax on smartphones is about 15% and some can be as high as 20%. On top of the taxes, you need to factor in costs like overage charges and other fees. When all of these are added together, the average cost for owning a smartphone is $3,400 over two years.

There are a lot of comparisons out there between iPhone and Android phones, so if you’re trying to decide which one is cheaper overall, keep in mind that according to appleinsider.com, paid Android apps cost an average of 2.5 times more than paid iPhone apps. Techcrunch.com reports that 57% of Android apps are free, versus only 28% of iPhone apps. This does not mean that if you go with an Android phone your bill will definitely be more expensive, but you may want to keep it in mind when you decide which phone is best for you.

How to Save Money
There’s no real good way to get around owning a smartphone. If you want one, you’re probably going to buy it. Here are some tips to keep the monthly bill lower.

• Get Less Data – The average smartphone user only uses about 20% of their data a month. If you know you are not going to be a power-user, consider the lowest data plan.
• Sign Up for Fewer Minutes – A 2009 report by Consumer Reports said that 1/3 of smartphone users used less than half of their allotted minutes each month.
• Watch App Purchases – This is an obvious one, but can be so hard to keep in check. Compare your app purchases month to month to see how much you’re really spending.

Smart Alternatives
The days of having to sign up for a contract are over. There are good smartphones available through places like Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile that still run Google’s Android and have cheaper data and texting options.

You’ll pay more upfront for the phone if you choose a pre-paid carrier, but it could literally save you thousands of dollars over the course of two years. The best part, besides a cheaper bill, is that if you don’t like the carrier you can always quit with no cancellation fee.

The Bottom Line
There are lots of choices out there and all the information can be overwhelming. If you think a little outside the box and actually figure out how many minutes, data and texting you’re actually going to use, then you might be able to save some real money. Or, you can sign up for a pre-paid carrier and kiss those costly contracts goodbye.

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Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/real-cost-owning-smartphone-191002962.html

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China Telecom’s Ready To Ride The 3G Revolution In China

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China Unicom’s 3G Gains Overshadowed By Margin Squeeze

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China Mobile Sits On A 3G Gold Mine With One Billion Mobile Subscribers

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(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The similarities are quite stark. Not only does China Unicom have the second largest mobile subscriber base in China but is also the first to launch the iPhone in the country, much like ATT in the U.S. And now, following in ATT’s footsteps, China Unicom will become the first to roll out the faster HSPA+ 3G network in the country later this week. ^[1]

In a message to existing 3G subscribers, China Unicom announced that all phones and tablets that currently run on its network and are HSPA+ compatible will be able to access higher speeds on their devices, starting May 17th. HSPA+ is the same technology that, although not technically right, ATT touts as 4G and markets effectively as a ploy to maintain its iPhone lead over rivals in the U.S. It looks like China Unicom is using the same playbook to not only promote 3G but also retain a competitive edge over rival China Telecom, to whom it recently lost its iPhone exclusivity in March. As the 3G battle heats up, it needs to fend off behemoth China Mobile as well, which is also likely to get the iPhone soon.

See our complete analysis of China Unicom here

iPhone Helps Unicom To Profit From An Equitable 3G Mix

With close to 670 million subscribers, China Mobile is the largest wireless carrier in the world and has twice as many subscribers as China Unicom. But when it comes to 3G, the difference is not nearly as wide. As of March 2012, China Mobile had around 60 million 3G subscribers, only about 22% ahead of 49 million that subscribe to China Unicom’s 3G network. Low 3G penetration of about 15% in China is giving smaller wireless carriers such as China Unicom ample opportunity to compete on an even ground with the otherwise dominant China Mobile.

Moreover, the fact that China Mobile runs its 3G network on a proprietary homegrown TD-SCDMA standard has proved to be a big deterrent in securing smartphones that are compatible with its network. Even the iPhone, which has already been launched on the other two carriers in China, hasn’t made its way to China Mobile yet.

Taking advantage of this, China Unicom has been closing the 3G gap with China Mobile by adding at least an equal number of 3G subscribers every month. In February, it added more than 2.8 million 3G subscribers compared to China Mobile’s 2.65 million. In March, however, both added almost the same number of 3G subscribers. The iPhone 4S’ addition in January this year is definitely providing a boost to China Unicom’s 3G ambitions, and the carrier is looking to make the most of it before the popular smartphone arrives on China Mobile’s network. (see Qualcomm Paves the Way for an Apple-China Mobile iPhone Deal)

So, what happens when the iPhone arrives on China Mobile eventually? The next-generation iPhone will, in all likelihood, have LTE capabilities and currently, China Mobile is the only carrier ‘testing’ out its TD-LTE network in China. However, it is unlikely that the 4G network will be up and running in a meaningful number of cities across China any time soon. This gives China Unicom enough time to market its faster HSPA+ network as 4G and drive the sales of its iPhones and in turn promote 3G.

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The reason why carriers such as China Unicom are increasingly trying to promote 3G is because most of the growth being seen is on the data side rather than on the voice side, which has reached near-saturation. Adding 3G subscribers will help China Unicom increase its ARPU levels as 3G smartphone users consume huge amounts of data as well. Higher speeds from the use of its HSPA+ network will also see users increasingly use data-intensive applications on their phones, driving data ARPUs further. Margins will be impacted by the sale of subsidized 3G phones such as the iPhone but the carriers are betting on making their money back over the term of the contractual period.

Understand How a Company’s Products Impact its Stock Price at Trefis

Notes:

1. China Unicom to Rollout HSPA+ 3G For Phones Next Week, TechInAsia, May 9th, 2012 [?]

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Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/05/17/china-unicom-speeds-ahead-in-smartphone-race-with-hpsa-rollout/

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With more and more people picking up smartphones and tablets, it should be no surprise that app usage has also seen a swift uptick in the last year.

According to stats from Nielsen, the average number of apps per smartphone has increased 28 percent since 2011 – from 32 to 41.

The large majority of those apps are being downloaded onto Android and iOS devices. Those mobile OSes accounted for 88 percent of app downloads in the last 30 days, Nielsen said. At this point, 50 percent of mobile subscribers in the U.S. have a smartphone, up from 38 percent last year.

This has prompted a switch from the mobile Web to apps; users are
spending about 10 percent more time using apps than mobile browsers. Still, the top five apps haven’t changed much. Users are still gravitating toward Facebook, YouTube, Android Market, Google Search, and Gmail, and are only spending about two more minutes on each app than they were last year, or 39 minutes.

Concerns about privacy continued to plague app users, however, with 73 percent expressing reservations this year compared to 70 percent last year. About 55 percent, for example, were wary of sharing location-based information with smartphone apps.

Back in December, app downloads on iOS and Android jumped 125 percent on Christmas Day, while actual device activations surged 353 percent, according to mobile analytics firm Flurry. In February, Google said it is now activating 850,000 Android devices per day.

For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

Article source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404502,00.asp

Continue reading »]]> Today, Gartner put to end weeks of cellular handset debate. Apple apologists disputed Samsung’s smartphone success over iPhone — the presumption that the South Korean electronics giant benefits from greater shipments vs actual sales. Make no mistake: Samsung is the global leader overall and in the smartphone category, based on actual sales. Apologist arguments be damned.

That said, Apple’s position is solid. Together, Apple and Samsung combined smartphone sales market share approaches 50 percent. Contrary to speculation that Windows Phone might appear as a third dominant mobile OS, the market is set to largely split between two vendors. As I explained three weeks ago in post, “Google has lost control of Android“, Sasmung’s rise isn’t necessarily good for the broader ecosystem.

Sales vs Shipments

During first quarter, Samsung sold 38 million smartphones, compared to 33.1 million iPhones, decisively snatching back the top spot, according to Gartner. Meanwhile Samsung represented more than 40 percent of all Android smartphone sales, with no competitor topping 10 percent. Meanwhile, Samsung stole Nokia’s crown, by becoming overall global handset sales leader.

Gartner’s data is the most revealing, because it represents sales to end users rather than shipments into the channel. Since Samsung first boasted about 3 million Galaxy S II sales during the first 55 days, Apple apologists have disputed the figure, and others that followed. Gartner leaves little room for error. Apple claimed 35.1 million sold, but that’s really shipped, given Gartner put actual sales 2 million units lower. Samsung no longer discloses sales data, but IDC reports 42.2 million smartphone shipments during Q1. Assuming Gartner and IDC numbers reconcile, that’s 4.2 million more Samsung smartphone shipped into the channel than sold, which is a reasonable number for keeping store shelves stocked.

“Shipments are not sales, and therefore they present only a partial account of the success or failure of a product or an item”, Stephen Baker, NPD’s vice president of industry analysis, says. He makes the distinction regarding Kindle Fire, which unit shipments plunged from 4.7 million to 700,000 between fourth and first quarters, according to IDC.

Baker observes that Amazon filled the retail channel during Kindle Fire’s launch quarter. Actual sales: 3.8 million then and 1.8 million during Q1. “If you add up those two sales figures you get a number almost exactly the same as IDC’s shipment number”, Baker observes. “Looking at the numbers from that actual sales perspective the concept that Kindle Fire sales collapsed in Q1 becomes absurd”. The point: Only actual sales figures are truly reliable.

Market Turbulence

Sales show Samsung rising above all other Android handset manufacturers as well as iPhone. All this before the hotly anticipated Galaxy S III ships in 13 days internationally. Strangely, in Apple, Samsung has a benefactor. US Customs has stopped importation of HTC One X and EVO 4G LTE — two fearsome Androids — clearing away two of the S3′s biggest competitors available on these shores. Officials halted HTC shipments as they evaluate whether the handsets violate Apple patents.

Samsung’s rise to dominance comes during an uncertain period for smartphones, which stands to solidify its position against Android rivals and even iPhone. Overall handset sales declined 2 percent year over year to 419.1 million units — that’s down sequentially from 476.5 million handsets.

“The lower results in the first quarter of 2012 have led us to be cautious about sales for the remainder of the year”, Annette Zimmermann, Gartner principal research analyst, says. “As we are starting to update our market forecast we feel a downward adjustment to our 2012 figures, in the range of 20 million units, is unavoidable”.

However, smartphone sales continued their strong upward trajectory, rising 44.7 percent year over year to 144.4 million. Though, sales fell from 149 million units sequentially.

The China Syndrome

“Global sales of mobile devices declined more than expected due to a slowdown in demand from the Asia/Pacific region”, Anshul Gupta, Gartner principal research analyst, says. “The first quarter, traditionally the strongest quarter for Asia, which is driven by Chinese New Year, saw a lack of new product launches from leading manufacturers, and users delayed upgrades in the hope of better smartphone deals arriving later in the year”.

To its credit, Apple capitalized on the Chinese New Year. iPhone 4S went on sale in China 10 days before the January 23rd holiday, leading to a sales surge in the region.

“It was an incredible quarter in China“, Apple CEO Tim Cook said during calendar first quarter earnings conference call last month. “Part of this was the pent-up demand for iPhone 4S”.

He emphasized: “Revenue was a record, at $7.9 billion in greater China, which is up over three times year over year and brings the first half revenue for greater China to $12.4 billion. That compares to a full year of last year of $13.3 billion”. Stated differently, China accounted for 78 percent of Asia-Pacific region revenues during the quarter.

Samsung also makes huge inroads to China, but didn’t have something spanking new to sell for the new year celebration. That will come with Galaxy S III, which is expected to reach the Mainland long before Apple ships iPhone 5 (or whatever it’s named).

But Apple and Samsung aren’t alone. “The continued roll-out of third generation 3G-based smartphones by local and regional manufacturers such as Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Yulong and TCL Communication should help spur demand in China”, Zimmermann says.

Two Market Leaders

Looking ahead, Samsung and Apple look to sop up Nokia’s remains — and for Android to solidify an already strong position over every rival mobile operating system, including Apple’s. Nokia market share slumped from 25.1 percent year over year to 19.8 percent in the broader handset market, or a 22.7 percent decline. Nokia is caught between a rock and a hard place — declining feature phone sales and Windows Phone transition — that puts it in worse position: The Apple and Samsung trash compactor.

“Smartphone sales are becoming of paramount importance at a worldwide level”, Gupta says. “For example, smartphone volumes contributed to approximately 43.9 percent of overall sales for Samsung as opposed to 16 percent for Nokia”. They’re 100 percent for Apple.

Samsung global handset market share rose to 20.7 percent from 16.1 percent a year earlier, or 25.9 percent increase. However, Apple sales rose considerably more, up 96.2 percent, bringing market share to 7.9 percent from 3.9 percent a year earlier. While Samsung and Apple rank first and second, respectively, in smartphones, iPhone’s maker moved into third place for all handsets. Should Nokia’s decline continue, while Apple rises, something quite dramatic could occur within the year: Apple and Sumsung dividing up not just smartphone sales but the entire global handset market.

Samsung’s rise pulls Android along. The operating system had 56.1 percent smartphone sales share during Q1 — that’s up from 36.4 percent a year earlier. As aforementioned, Samsung accounts for 40 percent of all Android sales. By comparison, iOS share rose to 22.9 percent from 16.9 percent. However, iOS lost share sequentially — on overall market shipments, which accentuates the decline more than it appears. iOS share fell nearly 1 point, while Android gained more than 5 points.

However, Android share gains deceive, as commoditization increases. “Most players are finding it hard to break the mould”, Gupta says. “At the high end, hardware features coupled with applications and services are helping differentiation, but this is restricted to major players with intellectual property assets”.

The point is crucial as patent lawsuits, the most prominent lead by Apple, stifle innovation. Here on BetaNews, I’ve called Apple a patent bully and troll, accused it of litigating rather than innovating and called the lawsuits hypocritical.

As patent-warfare stifles innovation and Android licensees struggle to stand apart from one another, “price is increasingly becoming the sole differentiator”, Gupta says. “This will only worsen with the entry of new players and the dominance of Chinese manufacturers, leading to increased competition, low profitability and scattered market share”. That’s good for Apple margins and market consolidation around the two leaders.

Article source: http://betanews.com/2012/05/16/smartphone-market-consolidates-around-apple-and-samsung/

Continue reading »]]> IDG News Service - Baidu, which runs China’s most popular search engine, has unveiled its newest smartphone, featuring the company’s own mobile platform and priced to target the country’s low-end handset segment.

The Changhong H5018 will be priced at about $158 without a contract, the company said Tuesday. The device marks the second smartphone the company has released, the last one being a handset developed in cooperation with U.S. PC maker Dell that was announced in December.

Baidu’s last smartphone, the Dell Streak Pro D43, was priced three times higher than the H5018 at 2,999 yuan, and was marketed toward business users and young trendsetters.

This time, Baidu has partnered with Chinese handset vendor Changhong to create a new handset, which was manufactured by Foxconn. The phone is built with a 3.5-inch (8.89-centimeter) touchscreen and has a 3-megapixel camera along with a 1,400mAh battery.

The less than 1,000 yuan price-tag puts the smartphone in a market segment that analysts believe will have the fastest growth in China. Currently, only about 15% of China’s 1 billion mobile phone subscribers are using 3G services, according to government statistics. But this is expected to change as consumers move toward more affordable smartphones.

The Changhong H5018 also incorporates the Chinese search giant’s latest mobile handset platform, Baidu Cloud, which has supplanted the company’s previous mobile platform “Baidu Yi,” according to company spokesman Kaiser Kuo.

The company refrains from calling Baidu Cloud its own mobile operating system. The platform is based on the Linux OS, can run Android apps and is localized for Chinese users. “The main thing about Baidu Cloud is that it’s more geared toward running cloud-based apps rather than native apps,” Kuo said in an email.

Baidu has created the platform to run a whole suite of mobile products that connect to the company’s online search, music, mapping services and more. Along with these services, the smartphone comes with 100GB of free personal storage through Baidu.

Baidu declined to offer a specific launch date for the device, saying only that it would arrive in the very near future. The company said it was working with other “mainstream mobile brands” to install the Baidu Cloud platform on other smartphones.

The Chinese search giant is launching its new smartphone as more Internet service providers in the country work on releasing their own handsets pre-installed with company services. Last month, a subsidiary under Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group launched a new smartphone using the company’s Aliyun OS.

Chinese companies including Baidu and Alibaba are still in the early stages of mobile product development and are experimenting with various business models, said Nicole Peng, an analyst with research firm Canalys. This comes as U.S.-based Google has partially withdrawn from China, making its Google Play Store unavailable for the country. “In the absence of Google in China, (Chinese companies) have good potential to provide a Google-like user experience in the mobile space,” Peng said.

Article source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227168/Baidu_unveils_low_end_smartphone_with_cloud_platform