Apple’s iPhone Continues To Show Strong Growth In The U.S., Samsung And Android Adoption Slow

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Apple’s trajectory in the U.S. smartphone market over the past little while has been an upwards one, with the company gaining more and more iPhone subscribers every month. During the three-month period covering November 2012 to February 2013, Apple added 8.9 million new iPhone subscribers according to comScore , while Android as a platform in total added only 2.9 million. That means Apple’s share of the total smartphone subscriber base in the U.S. grew to 38.9 percent from 35 percent, while Android’s dropped from 53.7 to 51.7 percent. ComScore’s figures also show that in terms of smartphone manufacturers, Apple also continues to lead the pack. Its share among OEMs rose 3.9 percentage points during the three month period, while Samsung gained only 1 percent percentage point, rising from 20.3 percent of the U.S. market to 21.3 percent. Read more »

Apple’s Smartphone Marketshare Expected To Peak At 22% In 2013, Says ABI Research

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iPhone-maker Apple’s share of the smartphone market will peak this year — at just over a fifth (22 per cent) of the global market, says analyst ABI Research. Apple’s share will then remain flat through to 2018 as mobile maker Samsung continues to dominate .  The prediction comes from ABI’s latest  Mobile Handset Markets  report. “Barring an unlikely collapse in Samsung’s business, even Apple will be chasing Samsung’s technology, software, and device leadership in 2013 through the foreseeable future,” commented senior analyst Michael Morgan in a statement. ABI notes that Samsung has grown its share of the global smartphone market from eight per cent to more than 30 per cent in 2012. The Korean mobile maker has leaned very heavily on Google’s Android OS thus far — Android currently accounts for 90 per cent of its smartphone shipments — but the analyst points out that the future smartphone OS landscape will likely be “heavily influenced” by how much Samsung decides to focus on other elements in its OS portfolio: namely its homegrown OS Bada; its open source collaboration with Intel Tizen; and Microsoft’s Windows Phone. Samsung has recently been showing signs of wanting to diversify its OS distribution to reduce its reliance on Android. Earlier this month it confirmed it will be launching Tizen-based devices this year . Read more »

E-Ink on a Smartphone? This Android Phone Has 2 Displays

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Times Up You can use the rear of the YotaPhone as a clock, or to display wallpapers. Click here to view this gallery. LAS VEGAS -- What if your phone had two displays? Announced in mid-December, YotaPhone aims to change how people use their smartphones by bringing together a full-color LCD display on one side of the phone and an e-ink display on the other. I caught up with Yota Device’s Vladislav Martynov at CES to give the phone a closer look. In essence, the two displays on the handset each have their own unique purpose. The front display is used just as you might your traditional smartphone screen to run apps, browse the web or watch videos. The rear display on the YotaPhone is what makes it stand out. Read more »

Nokia’s Loss Is Samsung’s Gain: Top Global Cellphone Brand Won’t Be Finnish For First Time In 14 Years

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Nokia’s once cluttered mobile trophy cabinet hasn’t had much silverware to boast of in recent years — as the company has been moving from its legacy smartphone OS to Microsoft’s Windows Phone — shedding massive amounts of marketshare in the process, and watching fleet-of-foot Android OEMs expand to fill the gap. Despite this smartphone switch, Nokia has continued to sell a lot of basic mobile phones — running its S40 OS (it shipped 76.6 million mobiles in its Q3 , for instance) – which has helped it stay on top of the annual global cellphone rankings. But no longer. This year will be the first time in 14 years Nokia’s name is not top of the list, according to analyst IHS iSuppli . That honour will go to 2011′s runner up: Samsung. IHS says Samsung is expected to account for approaching a third (29 percent) of worldwide mobile shipments in 2012, up from 24 percent in 2011. While Nokia’s share this year is expected to drop to 24 percent, down from 30 percent last year — so it’s pretty much a straight marktet share swap. Apple is third in IHS’ preliminary 2012 forecast, predicted to take 10 percent of the market this year. The analyst notes that its the first time Samsung has achieved top billing in the mobile table — although Nokia has been the runner-up before — back in 1998. Smartphones are the fastest-growing segment of the cellphone market — accounting for nearly half of all wireless handset shipments for all of 2012 — and with Android and Samsung taking the lion’s share of smartphone sales per quarter ( Android took a 75 percent of the global share in Q3 , according to IDC) it’s no surprise the Korean mobile giant finally gets to take the overall, annual mobile crown too Read more »

‘Minority Report’-Like Tech Brings Touchless Control to Windows 8

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A Norwegian technology company is bringing touchless gesture controls to Windows 8 devices. The company, Elliptic Labs, launched a series of tools to help electronics companies enable a hands-free control feature into their products (think: Tom Cruise's computer in Minority Report ). Read more »

Free Stuff Friday: Win A Kisai Uzumaki Tokyoflash Watch

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You know you want this thing: it’s a crazy watch from Tokyoflash called the Kisai Uzumaki and it’s designed to look like some sort of organic sea anemone blossoming on your wrist. The watch has an electroluminescent backlight which lights up vinyl disks which spin to tell the time. It’s not as hard to read as some Tokyoflash watches and they want to give you one Read more »

More Smartphone Owners Use Location-Based Products [STUDY]

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As smartphone adoption continues to grow nationwide, nearly three-quarters of smartphone owners are accessing their mobile devices to get location-based information in real time, a new study suggests. A new study conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that about 74% of smartphone users use location-based services to find out information about what’s around them. Read more »