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Posts tagged ‘Samsung’

29
Jan

Galaxy J7 (2016) source code surfaces, reveals hardware specs


Samsung_Galaxy_S_4_Front_Top_Samsung_Logo_Version_2_TA

Samsung’s Galaxy J7 (2016) in nearing an official release. Today, the device’s kernel sources leaked on GitHub, which revealed some key specifications.

The Galaxy J7 (2016) is codenamed “j7xlte.” Based on the leaked code, we were able to determine some of the device’s hardware specifications. The Galaxy J1 (2016) will sport a 5.5-inch Full HD display powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 SoC. 3GB of RAM is also expected along with a 13MP rear-facing camera and a 5MP front-facing camera for selfies and video chats. Both sensors will be produced by none other than Samsung itself.

Most notably, the code indicated a possible fingerprint scanner to be embedded in the device’s home button. Storage space is unknown, but the device is expected to include a microSD card slot for expansion. A 4,300mAh battery should be sealed at the back, which should provide some lengthy battery life.

The Samsung Galaxy J1 2016 model has already released and Galaxy J7 (2016) benchmarks have already been spotted. It can’t be too far away from a release. We’ll let you know when it becomes official.

Source: GitHub
Via: GSMArena

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29
Jan

Galaxy S7 Edge shows up on Geekbench


Samsung_Galaxy_S7_Edge_SM-G935F_Geekbench_results_012816

MWC 2016 is less than a month away and Samsung is putting in its final preparations for the big flagship unveiling. Based on the latest reports, Samsung is giving us two Galaxy S7 variants, one standard flat 5.1-inch version and one Edge version codenamed SM-G935F. Both devices will seemingly replace their counterparts that were announced around this time last year.

According to recent reports, each Galaxy S7 model will be split into two different variants other than their varying storage capacities. One will run a Snapdragon 820 processor (United States and China), and the other will be powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 8890 processor. The Exynos 8890-powered variant will be the international model.

Earlier today, we caught a glimpse of the Exynos 8890-powered Galaxy S7 Edge on mobile benchmarking site Geekbench. The listing confirmed the device’s model number and revealed a few key specifications.

Based on the test, it’s clear that the Exynos 8890-powered Galaxy S7 will sport 4GB of RAM. This will match the high on the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ that were announced last September. The device will also have Google’s latest Android 6.0.1 preloaded.

In the test, the Exynos 8890-powered Galaxy S7 Edge was able to produce a single-core score of 1363 and a multi-core score of 4951. This isn’t bad, but it’s nowhere near the range we were hoping for. Considering the fact that the scores were so far off what we anticipated judging from a recently leaked AnTuTu score, it’s believed that the unit could have been for testing purposes only. We’ll see exactly what we get in about three weeks time.

Source: Geekbench
Via: Gadgetzarena

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28
Jan

Global smartphone sales hit a record high in 2015, but growth is slowing


flagship-smartphones-aa-13-of-18

We know, it’s that time of year: fourth quarter earnings are coming in, annual reports are being released and various research companies are crunching the numbers and telling us what it all means. But before you fall into a spreadsheet-induced coma, remember that the trends these reports reveal mean very big things for the mobile telecommunications market, both in terms of who’s coming up, who’s on the way out and even how much we’ll likely be paying for phones in the coming years.

So it is with the two annual smartphone industry reports released in the last couple of days by Strategy Analytics and IDC. According to both companies, 2015 witnessed the largest-ever shipments of smartphones globally: 1.4 billion units to be precise. That’s a solid 10% increase over 2014’s figures and the most number of phones sold in the market’s history.

2015 global sales IDC

But what about all these stories saying that the smartphone market is weakening and everyone is at risk of going under? Well, both LG and Samsung posted dismal fourth quarter reports in the last week and even Apple has predicted its first sales decline in over a decade. But if smartphone sales are increasing, what’s the problem?

The problem is that while smartphone sales are still strong, smartphone growth is diminishing at the same time as increased competition is threatening the status quo. We’ve seen the symptoms of this situation just this week as many of the traditional big players lose ground to strong Chinese competition from the likes of Xiaomi, Lenovo and Huawei. But even for the successful Chinese vendors the market’s future isn’t looking great.

strategy-analytics-2015 Strategy Analytics

According to Strategy Analytics, the fourth quarter of 2015 saw the weakest growth rate the smartphone market has ever seen. While it must be pointed out that 6% growth isn’t exactly terrible – a profit is still a profit – when the entire industry is trending downwards, it’s only a matter of time until growth becomes decline. 2016 may not be the year that smartphone sales plateau, but that turning point isn’t far away.

Expansion into emerging markets will slow the outgoing tide, perhaps for a number of years, but once everyone without a phone in those new markets gets a phone, market growth will plummet. There simply won’t be anywhere new to sustain such rapid growth. This is why new markets are so enticing: when a new market opens up the entire population is a potential customer. The trouble starts once all those potential customers have what you’re selling.

2015 global vendor list IDC

So just as we’re seeing Samsung losing ground and Apple supposedly hitting its own sales ceiling, other big names like Sony and HTC are already on the way out. Apple and Samsung will be able to stick it out through their sheer size alone, but there’s only so long Chinese vendors can grow when the market itself begins shrinking, even if they do continue to nibble at the bigger players.

2015 FLAGSHIP REVIEWS:

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Of course, the numbers don’t agree entirely either, as you can see if you look at QoQ and YoY fluctuations in market share according to the two research firms data, but the wider trend is clear: smartphone penetration globally is slowly reaching saturation point. The good side of all this is that as competition increases and the market weakens, lower prices will become the next competitive advantage.

When do you think smartphones sales will begin to decline? What do you see happening to the market in the years to come?

Don’t miss: Flashbacks and Forecasts: Samsung in 2016

Don’t miss: Flashbacks and Forecasts: LG in 2016

28
Jan

LG wants to replace all your credit cards with White Card, coming at MWC


lg-pay-whitecard_1

There’s a land grab going on in mobile payments, and LG wants a stake. LG’s approach, however, is different from archrival Samsung’s – while Samsung has integrated mobile payments right into its phones, LG is working on an electronic card in the vein of Coin and Plastc.

According to a report from Korea’s ETNews, LG will announce its “White Card” during MWC, along the hotly anticipated LG G5.

LG G5 rumor roundup: everything you need to know

White Card will allow users to register their regular plastic cards. The device is about the size of a regular card and just slightly thicker, so it can reportedly be used for withdrawing money from ATMs. Basic controls and an LCD display allow users to cycle between registered cards and lock the device, which charges through a set of metal pins.

At launch, White Card will reportedly work with magnetic stripe card readers, while chip reader support will come at a later stage.

lg-pay-whitecard_3_3

LG has already signed up a number of Korean card companies, who are interested in the idea because they don’t have to cede a lot of control over to LG. Transactions won’t be processed by LG, so card companies don’t have to fret about helping a potential competitor take over their business. By contrast, adoption by card partners has been a real problem for Samsung Pay and Android Pay.

It’s not clear for now how LG plans to implement its Pay service on phones. It’s hard to believe that the company will settle for an electronic card, when everyone else is adopting truly mobile phone payments.

A number of startups have promised to free us from having to carry a wallet-ful of cards. Most notably, Coin launched a crowdfunding campaign for its eponymous electronic card back in 2013, but needed almost two years to deliver devices to its backers. And, when it arrived, many found that Coin wasn’t working nearly as well as promised. Coin has since launched a second version of its card, to better reviews.

The theme of LG’s MWC 2016 event is “Play,” but if this report’s accurate, “Pay” would be very fitting. Before you get too excited though, remember that rolling out financial services is hard. Take Samsung – a year after the launch of its payment service, Pay is still only available in the US and South Korea, with a handful of new markets coming in the next months.

28
Jan

Samsung Widens Gap Over Apple in Worldwide Smartphone Market


The latest numbers from market research firm Strategy Analytics reveal that Samsung increased its lead over Apple as the world’s largest smartphone maker, after shipping 81.3 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of the 2015 calendar year. Apple announced earlier this week that it sold a record 74.8 million iPhones during the same three-month period encompassing the busy holiday shopping season.

Galaxy-S6-iPhone-6s

Global smartphone shipments grew 12 percent annually from 1.28 billion in 2014 to a record 1.44 billion in 2015, according to the data. Samsung and Apple contributed 317.2 million and 192.7 million smartphone sales respectively to that worldwide total, while Huawei, Lenovo-Motorola, and Xiaomi rounded off the top five smartphone makers. All other vendors collectively shipped 637.5 million smartphones in 2015.

Samsung led the fourth quarter with 20.1 percent market share, a slight increase over its 19.6 percent market share in the year-ago quarter. Conversely, Apple’s fourth quarter market share was 18.5 percent, a slight decline from its 19.6 percent share in the fourth quarter of 2014. Huawei, Lenovo-Motorola and Xiaomi had market shares of 8.1 percent, 5 percent and 4.8 percent respectively.

Strategy-Analytics-Q4-15

In the year-ago quarter, Apple matched Samsung’s 74.5 million smartphones shipped on the strength of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but its South Korean rival has since pulled ahead again. The comparison is largely unbalanced, however, as Samsung sells dozens of different smartphone models worldwide, while Apple currently only sells the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and iPhone 5s.

Apple expects iPhone sales will likely decline in the March quarter, marking the first year-over-year decline since the smartphone was released over eight years ago. The decline will be realized if Apple sells fewer than 61.2 million iPhones this quarter, ending in late March. iPhone growth in the just-announced first fiscal quarter of 2016 was the slowest since the smartphone’s introduction in 2007.

Strategy Analytics has also published smartphone data for the Chinese market, where Apple trails closely behind Xiaomi and Huawei.

Tags: Samsung, Strategy Analytics

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28
Jan

Samsung’s fourth quarter earnings out, profits down 40%


Samsung booth

Samsung has released its consolidated fourth quarter earnings for 2015 and they don’t paint a pretty picture. Samsung’s earnings for the final quarter of the year were far from good, with the South Korean giant reporting net profit of just 3.2 trillion Korean won ($2.7 billion), a massive 40% drop and well below earnings expectations.


samsung galaxy note 5 review aa (15 of 32)See also: Flashbacks and Forecasts: Samsung in 201620

Samsung’s quarterly revenue remained relatively unchanged at 53 trillion won ($44 billion) although operating profit increased to 6.14 trillion won ($5.1 billion). A “difficult business environment and slowing IT demand” were held accountable for the massive drop in profitability, but these were compounded by a weakening of Samsung’s semiconductor, memory and display divisions, which have been picking up the slack for a diminished mobile division in recent times.

Samsung-Electronics-FY-2015-Results.pdf 2016-01-28 16-33-49 Samsung

“Strong economic headwinds”

Samsung faced “strong economic headwinds, including a sharp fall in oil prices” during the quarter, producing yearly revenue of 200.65 trillion won ($167 billion) for the year with operating profit of 26.41 trillion won ($22 billion), although sales increased progressively throughout the year. The company is predicting tough times ahead for 2016, especially in its mobile division, which has been struggling to turn things around. Nevertheless, Samsung is still the number one smartphone seller in the world, according to IDC.

The IM division, which includes both Samsung Mobile and IT, saw a quarterly revenue of 25 trillion won ($21 billion) with operating profit of 2.23 trillion won ($1.85 billion). For comparison’s sake, that’s a 7.5% drop in revenue for the year compared to 2014 and a 30% drop in operating profit. Samsung reported a QoQ drop in smartphone shipments “due to a year-end inventory adjustment” with increased marketing spend affecting the bottom line.

2015 global sales IDC

“Softening demand and intensifying competition”

As for 2016, this is what Samsung had to say in a statement: “In the first quarter, although slowing demand for smartphones and tablets is forecast due to seasonality, and in spite of slowing shipments of Samsung smartphones, an enhanced product mix with the introduction of new line-ups, such as the Galaxy A (2016) series, is expected to help stabilize sales and profitability.”

But Samsung is expecting single-digit growth in both smartphone and tablet sales in 2016, citing “softening demand and intensifying competition”. The earnings statement is full of pledges of increased profitability and shipments throughout the year ahead, but with very little to back it up. Samsung Pay, wearables, software and tablets are all expected to increase to Samsung’s bottom line.

2015 global vendor list IDC

Samsung expects a tough year ahead

With excess chipset and memory supplies in the fourth quarter and diminished profitability for the display division as well, the areas Samsung has been relying on to compensate for a borderline mobile business are now also in trouble. Massive investment in a flexible OLED factory, new chipset customers like Qualcomm and new Internet of Things and Smart Home products are expected to soften the blow, but they can’t cover up the fact that Samsung is facing a very tough year.

Do you think Samsung will get out of this slump? What areas do you think it should focus on?

SAMSUNG’S BIG HITTERS:

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28
Jan

Smartphone sales crossed a record 1.4 billion in 2015


If the latest figures are anything to go by, smartphone industry is witnessing a slow growth rate as the overall shipment increased only by 12 percent in 2015. While overall global shipments surpassed 1.4 billion devices during the last year, the growth percentage the fourth quarter grew only six percent in comparison to the year before.

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), the slow growth can be attributed to the fact that most people in major mobile markets already own smartphones so the bubbling phase that we saw over the last few years cannot be matched.

Among OEMs, Samsung continues to take lead by having shipped 81.3 million units globally in the Q4, which is nine percent up from the same period in 2014. However, Apple has felt the pinch of the slow growth as it only managed to shipped 74.8 million devices in the fourth quarter in comparison to 74.5 million iPhones it sold in 2014. The research company advised that Apple should look to emerging markets such as India to ensure a steady growth.

On the third spot is Huawei, which only saw two percent growth from 2014 by selling 32.4 million handsets. Lenovo that acquired Motorola last year has seen a 24 percent year-on-year growth by shipping 74.0 million smartphones in 2015 in comparison to 59.4 percent. In the Q4, it shipped 20.2 million units while which is six percent up from the same period last year. On the fifth place remained Xiaomi that sold 18.2 million phones compared to 16.5 million units the year before. Check the table below to know more about the survey conducted by IDC.

Vendor 4Q15 Shipment Volumes 4Q15 Market Share 4Q14 Shipment Volumes 4Q14 Market Share Year-Over-Year Growth
1. Samsung 85.6 21.4% 75.1 19.9% 14.0%
2. Apple 74.8 18.7% 74.5 19.7% 0.4%
3. Huawei 32.4 8.1% 23.6 6.3% 37.0%
4. Lenovo 20.2 5.1% 14.1 3.7% 43.6%
5. Xiaomi 18.2 4.6% 16.5 4.4% 10.0%
Others 168.3 42.1% 174.0 46.1% -3.3%
Total 399.5 100.0% 377.8 100.0% 5..7%
Lenovo + Motorola 20.2 8.1% 24.7 6.5% -18.1%

 

Vendor 2015 Shipment Volumes 2015 Market Share 2014 Shipment Volumes 2014 Market Share Year-Over-Year Growth
1. Samsung 324.8 22.7% 318.2 24.4% 2.1%
2. Apple 231.5 16.2% 192.7 14.8% 20.2%
3. Huawei 106.6 7.4% 73.8 5.7% 44.3%
4. Lenovo 74.0 5.2% 59.4 4.6% 24.5%
5. Xiaomi 70.8 4.9% 57.7 4.4% 22.8%
Others 625.2 43.6% 599.9 46.1% 4.2%
Total 1,432.9 100.0% 1,301.7 100.0% 10.1%
Lenovo + Motorola 73.9 5.16% 93.7 7.20% -21.1%

 

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, January 27, 2016

The post Smartphone sales crossed a record 1.4 billion in 2015 appeared first on AndroidGuys.

28
Jan

LG trolls Samsung for ditching removable batteries


Note5_vs_LGV10_2

In one of those lovely social media kerfuffles we all love so much, LG USA has trolled Samsung Mobile for ditching removable batteries in the Galaxy S6 Edge+. Samsung tweeted to advertise the fact that you can charge the S6 Edge+ battery from zero to full in just 90 minutes. LG replied with the clever rebuttal that the LG V10 can go from zero to full instantly with a removable battery.

This is great for several reasons. One, it keeps us giggling like schoolgirls. Two, it implies LG plans to stick with removable batteries for the near future. Three, LG kinda stole the idea of removable batteries and microSD cards from Samsung in the first place. Of course, rumors have it that the Galaxy S7 will get a microSD card slot back and Samsung’s battery improvements since the Galaxy S6 mean that removable batteries are kind of obsolete. But we still love a sick burn when we see one.

LG USA Mobile Twitter@SamsungMobile (Twitter)

Whether or not removable batteries are necessary anymore is a question up for constant debate. Fast charging has, for many flagships, replaced the need for a replaceable battery. While a user-switchable battery is definitely convenient for power users, it is a feature not made use of by many, and including it makes a device thicker than it would be with a non-removable battery. So whether LG is poking fun at the future or Samsung made a wrong move, it’s little scraps like this that keep the OEM game fun.

Are you a fan of removable batteries? Or do you prefer fast charging?

28
Jan

Smartphone makers shipped a record 1.4 billion devices in 2015


Smartphone global shipments grew 12 percent and hit a record 1.4 billion devices in 2015, according to Strategy Analytics. That doesn’t mean all’s well in the industry, though — not when it’s no longer expanding as fast as it did in the past. In the fourth quarter of 2015, shipments grew merely six percent from the same period in 2015. The research company says that’s the industry’s slowest growth rate of all time, most likely because the people in major markets like China who are inclined to use smartphones already have one.

Samsung, however, continues to thrive and lead the pack. It shipped 81.3 million units worldwide in the fourth quarter, up nine percent (its highest within the past two years) from Q4 2014. Apple, on the other hand, isn’t doing too hot. It still shipped 74.8 million iPhones in Q4, but that’s barely higher than the 74.5 million devices it sent out in 2014. Strategy Analytics says “Apple’s iPhone growth is peaking,” and that Cupertino should look into exploring new markets like India to ensure it doesn’t remain stagnant.

Huawei’s two percent growth from 2014 is nothing to write home about either, but it still comes third after the two clashing giants. Xiaomi in fifth place shipped over 2 million phones more compared to 2014’s figures. It seems the only entry in the top five that shipped fewer units in 2015 is Lenovo-Motorola, whose growth rate has declined by 18 percent.

Source: Strategy Analytics

28
Jan

Samsung did alright in Q4, but is worried about 2016


Samsung-Gear-VR

Samsung has finally unveiled their final Q4 earnings. They earlier reported what they thought they earned, but now the results are final. Overall, they did pretty good, but 2016 is already looking to be a hard year.

Its operating profit was around $5 billion, which was a drop from it’s Q3 earnings of $6.1 billion. However, it is still 16.2% higher than last years Q4 earnings. Samsung is blaming “global economic headwinds”, slower high-end smartphone sales, and weakened prices on memory and LCD panels.

Although Samsung wishes they did better, they still did pretty good. They managed to increase tablet and television sales in Q4. Also, Galaxy Note 5 as well as mid to lower-end smartphone sales were up.

Additionally, they have hopes for more TV sales this year as the 2016 Olympics are coming soon. They also plan on increasing sales for IoT, smartwatches, and other wearables this year.

Source: Samsung

Come comment on this article: Samsung did alright in Q4, but is worried about 2016

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