Samsung is still making a ton of money, but 2016 will be tough
Korean mega-tech company Samsung just dropped its fourth quarter results and while the short term looks meh, year-over-year it’s doing pretty well. It posted an operating profit of $5 billion during the quarter that ended in December a drop from the third quarter operating profit of $6.1 billion. But quarterly profit was an increase of 16.2 percent over last year’s fourth quarter results. It blamed the quarterly drop on slowing demand for high-end mobile phones, weakened prices for memory and LCD panels and “global economic headwinds.”
Like Apple, the tech company warned that 2016 will be a difficult business environment. To help highlight that, it’s quarter to quarter profits fell, it’s quarter-to-quarter sales increased three percent.
Some bright spots in the results include shipments of tablets and television growing in the fourth quarter. The Note 5 and mid-low level smartphones shipments increased this year. It sold nine million tablets last quarter. For the TV market, it cites sporting events like the Olympics as a bright spot on the horizon for TV sales in the coming year.
The company is also hoping that its IoT, wearables and smart health businesses will become more relevant to the company’s bottom line in the future.
Source: Samsung
Apple and Samsung are feeling the mobile sales pinch
So Apple had a pretty good financial day yesterday. The broad strokes: it reported $75.9 billion in revenue and a whopping $18.4 billion in pure profit, the biggest of any public company ever. And yet, not all was well among the company’s investors and shareholders. Apple’s first quarter results are always pretty insane because they encompass the holidays and the launch of its newest model iPhones. And every year, iPhone sales surge pretty dramatically come Q1. Every year, that is, except this one.
Apple sold 74.78 million iPhones this time, compared to 74.5 million iPhones in the same quarter last year. That’s still a ridiculous amount of hardware to move in three months, but it hasn’t stopped people from wondering what’s up with those slowing iPhone sales. We can chalk it up to lots of things, and there’s no single, definitive answer.
People bought the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in droves, which isn’t a surprise because it represented a significant design and performance shift from the previous year’s iPhone 5s. Perhaps people didn’t feel the need to jump into an improved, but visually identical device after cradling their iPhones for a year — S-series iPhones historically don’t make for huge sales bumps. Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook pointed out that global economic conditions were dire, with currency values declining not only in established economies like Canada and the UK, but in growing ones like Brazil and Russia. Less spending power equals fewer people shelling out for iPhones.
“We’re seeing extreme conditions unlike anything we’ve experienced before just about everywhere we look,” he said during the customary earnings call.
Whether the last three months were just a fluke or a symptom of some deeper issues remains to be seen, though. Here’s the thing: no incumbent is safe from market forces and fickle shifts in consumer taste. A report from IDC released this summer forecasted global smartphone sales to slow down in 2015, and the actual numbers were even worse than they expected — worldwide smartphone shipment growth was less than half of what we saw in 2014.
Just look at Samsung, which released a new earnings report of its own today. The Korean tech titan has spent the better part of two years releasing new phones and seeing its power in the market erode thanks to lower than expected sales and dwindling profits. That road culminated with today’s release, which saw the company’s mobile and IT arm make ₩2.23 trillion ($1.84 billion) off total sales of ₩25 trillion ($20.67 billion). The numbers look pretty good if you’re walking into this cold, but here’s the killer context.
Samsung’s arc is clear if you look at how much money the company pulled in from its mobile division over time. Its last big mobile peak was a little over two years ago when it made ₩6.7 trillion ($5.55 billion) in profit on ₩36.57 trillion ($30.3 billion) in phone sales. After that, the company spent nearly a year making less and earning less profit from its phone business before slowly starting to recover. The road to that recovery hasn’t been easy, naturally, and it includes no shortage of corporate shakeups and painful admissions. Remember when Samsung didn’t make enough Galaxy S6 Edges to go around and had to cut prices on the regular S6 to make it sell? Ouch. Hell, Samsung is still in a tricky position — this past quarter saw a dip in mobile sales after a brief recovery, and the company’s still having trouble turning big profits.
That means Samsung is moving lots of inexpensive devices, a crucial part of its strategy to bulk up its influence in developing markets like China. Upstarts like Xiaomi and stalwarts like Huawei do a great job of churning out attractive, powerful devices that sell incredibly well in their home country. A report from Canalys issued this summer pegged them as the two biggest smartphone sellers in China, with Apple and Samsung trailing in third and fourth place, respectively. Couple that pressure with even more from good, cheap devices being snapped up by the country’s growing middle class and it’s no wonder Samsung’s been having such a tough time.
The measure of a sustainable business is seeing how it reacts to the perfect storm of economics, technical innovation and people’s tastes. For now, both companies’ answers are similar: build relentlessly in search of capturing more lightning in a bottle. Samsung pushed out the mid-range Galaxy A9 to help its chances in China, and will unveil its Galaxy S7 at a press conference at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Apple has its next-generation iPhone 7 in the works too, along with what seems to be an updated iPhone 5s to keep small phone fans across the globe happy. Innovation and the winds of global economic change might carry these titans to even higher heights; right now, though, they’ve just got to buckle down.
Funny or Die makes a fart joke in VR
The news itself sounded like a joke: Funny or Die, the irreverent comedy video site created by the likes of Will Ferrell, among others, was to premiere its first-ever virtual reality short at the Sundance Film Festival. Except this wasn’t some Onion-style spoof headline; it was very much true. The piece, Interrogation, debuted last Saturday on Gear VR at Samsung Studio, a pop-up VR lounge the company installed in Park City, Utah, for the duration of the festival. It stars Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel, faces better known for their work on FX’s The League, as two cops trying to get to the bottom of a heinous crime. It is, in essence, an extended and immersive fart joke.
Director Lex Halaby (The Walking Dead: A Decade of Dead) says the shoot was done in two continuous takes, thanks to its relatively simple setup: There’s just one room, two cops (played by Scheer and Huebel) and you, the captive viewer. To capture the full 360-degree, 3D environment of the interrogation room, which has both actors moving all around you, Halaby built a custom camera rig comprising GoPros modified with wide-angle lenses. This was then placed atop a mannequin, where its head would be, so the actors could accurately interact and maintain eye contact with the viewer.
The result may look seamless, but Halaby says that shooting VR isn’t without its own problems. First, there’s no way for the director to watch each take as it’s being filmed — an issue Nokia’s recently addressed with its Ozo VR camera. Then there’s the lighting, which can’t be set per scene and instead has to be carried out using a combination of natural and artificial sources like daylight and nearby lamps or overhead fixtures. And finally, there’s the matter of stitching. Since the action’s being captured by a variety of cameras, each recording has to be blended together so the actors don’t suddenly disappear.
Though the marriage of Funny or Die and VR isn’t immediately obvious, it works out to good effect in Interrogation. Halaby believes that immersive setting gives comedy an extra push that takes it from reality to a state of “heightened reality.”
“I think that’s something that VR can do that can’t be done in another medium,” he says.
Right now, Interrogation can be viewed by anyone with access to a Gear VR — it’s currently being hosted on Samsung’s Milk VR app. But Halaby says the plan is to put the piece into wide release soon and make it available for most every VR platform accessible to consumers. As for whether this was just a one-off experiment for Funny or Die, Halaby says to stay tuned.
“There’s a couple things in the works. This will not be the last VR piece coming out of Funny or Die.”
The Galaxy S7 Edge+ has reportedly been cancelled, only two flagships left
It wasn’t all that long ago that the rumor mill said there’d be four Galaxy S7 variants – a regular S7, an S7 Edge and a Plus version of both – but then that number dropped to three as the Plus-sized Galaxy S7 mysteriously disappeared. Now the number has been reduced again, with Evan Blass reporting that the Galaxy S7 Edge+ has also been cut from the lineup.
See also: 6 phones we look forward to in 2016
Blass, AKA @evleaks, took to Twitter to share the news. If true, it means Samsung will be sticking with a standard Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge model but not exactly abandoning the idea of a Plus variant. Considering recent leaks have put the S7 and S7 Edge displays at 5.1 inches and 5.5 inches respectively, these two devices will fulfill the role of a standard Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge+ under another naming convention.
Confused? The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, you will recall, had the same sized display diagonal, so offering an S7 and S7 Edge with different screen sizes is really just a case of dropping the Plus moniker, not of dropping a Plus variant. So it is actually the regular-sized S7 Edge that is getting the chop, meaning there won’t be an Edge screen option on a “regular-sized” Galaxy S7.
Until Samsung goes public with sales figures of the Galaxy S6 Edge+ it will be hard to determine if this move was prompted by low sales or other considerations. Needless to say, releasing the Galaxy S6 Plus variant months after the original S6 launch with the same specs was a confusing move it would be wise to avoid repeating.
Blass also took the opportunity to remind everyone that his S7 predictions – including IP67 water-resistance and dustproof rating, microSD card slot and larger batteries – have all been “confirmed”. However, it’s worth noting that the original rumor of four variants came from Blass, then the news that the number had dropped to three and now the claim of only two variants.
With only a few weeks to go until MWC 2016 and rumors out of South Korea that journalists there have already had a Galaxy S7 preview, we’ll soon know for sure.
Do you think this product lineup is a winner? Will you be sad to see no smaller Edge variant?
Some Galaxy S7 specs appear on leaked slide
We’re just under a month before the alleged Galaxy S7 unveiling and a new leak may have just confirmed the device’s hardware specs.
What appears to be a leaked slide from a slideshow just surfaced containing a spec comparison of recent flagship Galaxy models. The leak suggests that the Galaxy S7 will include a 5.1-inch 1440p display, which is good for a QHD resolution. In addition, the Galaxy S7 will have different variants, one running the Snapdragon 820 SoC, and the other running Samsung’s own Exynos 8890 processor. Judging from recent leaks, both chipsets perform about the same in terms of benchmarks.
Based on the leaked presentation slide, the Galaxy S7 will contain the rumored 12MP camera sensor with a new BRITECELL technology to take better low-light shots. The Galaxy S7 is also expected to get a boost in RAM. Instead of the 2GB that came on the Galaxy S5, and the 3GB that the Galaxy S6 had, the Galaxy S7 will have 4GB of RAM matching that on the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+.
All these specs line up perfectly with recent leaks, so you can assume these are the real deal. The leak also includes an image of what could be the Galaxy S7, but sources say that it’s just a placeholder. The Galaxy S7 should be announced on February 21, the day prior to the start of MWC 2016. The event is taking place in Barcelona as it normally does and will run from February 22 through the 25. The device could launch as early as March 11.
What feature are you looking forward to seeing most on the Galaxy S7?
Source: Phone Arena
Come comment on this article: Some Galaxy S7 specs appear on leaked slide
[Deal] You can snag an unlocked 16GB Galaxy S5 for $259.99
If you’re in the market for a new smartphone, but aren’t too fussed about having one of the latest devices on the market, we have a great little deal for you. Online discount website Daily Steals has today launched a fantastic sale on Samsung’s flagship smartphone of 2014, the Galaxy S5. For the next 24-hours, you can pick up a brand new factory unlocked 16GB variant of the handset in either Black, Gold or White for $259.99, which is a whopping 56% off its launch price of $599.99.
The Galaxy S5 isn’t old hat by any means, so don’t go thinking that it won’t see you through a good two-to-three years of use. It’s a pretty impressive mid-range phone, which sports a 5.1-inch Full HD display, a 2,5GHz Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor, an Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB of RAM, a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 2-megapixel selfie shooter and a 2,800mAh removable Li-Ion battery. There handset also features a biometric scanner and is IP67 dust and water resistance.
At present, the device is running Lollipop skinned with Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface, but is scheduled to receive the much-anticipated Marshmallow update in April, along with a more recent version of the custom UI, that’s more compliant with Google’s Material Design guidelines. This is cracking news for those drawn towards a more stock-like Android experience.
To find out about taking advantage of this deal, hit the source link below.
Source: Daily Steals
Come comment on this article: [Deal] You can snag an unlocked 16GB Galaxy S5 for $259.99
Ride along with Apollo 11 astronauts on launch day
David Whelan, lead developer for the kickstarted Apollo 11 VR Experience, announced on Wednesday that the game will be a launch title for three upcoming VR systems: the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR. The team is also reportedly working on a version for the Oculus DK2 dev set, however they have no current plans to port the game to the Samsung Gear.
“We are working very hard to ensure that we hit the submission deadlines and quality checks for each platform,” Whelan wrote on the project’s Kickstarter page. “But we are now getting to a place with development where we feel quite confident that we should hit these targets barring any changes requested from the main platform providers.”
[Image Credit: Getty]
Via: VR Focus
Source: Kickstarter
Marshmallow on the Galaxy S6 is a welcome improvement
A key issue with Android is how long it takes older devices to get the latest update, but with Marshmallow, we’ve seen companies take a different approach. Like Sony and honor before it, Samsung isn’t known for being forthcoming with its software updates, but has opened a public beta for customers to test the update before it’s rolled out. After a few days with the update, what’s new and how does it impact on the Galaxy S6 experience?
For more info on Samsung updates, read our Marshmallow update roundup
Like most phones, I found the Galaxy S6 to be great at launch before it began to slow and show signs of struggling after a few months. The biggest difference with the Marshmallow update has to be the performance, with the handset appearing to be much smoother than it was running Lollipop. Naturally though, the performance will drop after a a period of usage but the initial experience is definitely positive and, from memory, better than my experience with the Galaxy S6 Edge when it first came out.
Throughout the update, Samsung seems to have made an attempt to adopt Material Design with varying degrees of success. While the flatter icons and a consistent UI language between third parties, Google and Samsung apps are definitely impressive, there are some changes that are garish and unnecessary. As a long-time Galaxy user accustomed to TouchWiz, these two changes are my biggest pet-hates about the update, but some of you may find them acceptable.
The first is that the UI changes are now overly white, even things like the notification menu that were absolutely fine on Lollipop. The second is that Samsung has bought back the dreaded “squircles” and the white background on the home screen icons reminds me of early versions of Huawei’s EMUI. It’s completely unnecessary and to be honest, it looks downright ugly. It’s a classic example of a company trying to make something better, but actually reinventing the wheel and making it much worse.
The notification menu has had some welcome improvements, not least with Samsung allowing you to swipe down to access all the quick settings. You can also scroll the initial quick settings bar like you could in Lollipop so this should appease most users. At the bottom of the notification drop down is a shortcut to Notification settings, where you can now turn off or turn on notifications for individual apps. It’s not all great though as you can’t remove Quick Connect and the wasted space does get quite annoying.
Gaiaxy S6 vs in video:
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The Marshmallow update also signals a closer partnership between Google and Samsung and this has likely been one of the factors behind the new user experience. One of the biggest new features in the update is Now on Tap, which brings contextual information to your fingertips that is related to whatever’s displayed on your screen. From first use, Now on Tap certainly works well enough, and it’s refreshing to see that Samsung hasn’t tried to replace Now on Tap with a feature of its own making.
The camera has also been updated in Marshmallow and finally, you can now shoot in RAW format using a Galaxy S6. In the latest Android 5.1.1 update, the RAW option was grayed out so it’s good to see that Samsung has finally enabled a feature that many people have asked for. The updated camera also loads much faster and the delay between taking consecutive pictures has been reduced as well.
Galaxy S6 family in reviews:
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Alongside the changes in the camera, the Marshmallow updates also brings with it Doze mode which is meant to offer significant standby time improvements. Over the past few weeks, the battery has been somewhat impressive with average battery life with minimal usage around 2-4 days. While this isn’t on par with other flagships that have bigger batteries, the performance gain is almost 40% and no doubt, Marshmallow plays a large part in it.
Overall, the Marshmallow update brings several big changes and features to the Galaxy S6 and not least, the performance gains certainly make it a worthwhile update. However, like all user experiences on mobile, the changes aren’t all for the better and there’s no doubt going to be a few elements that some users won’t be pleased with.
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All things considered, the Marshmallow update is certainly a welcome one and the Galaxy S6 is a much better smartphone for it. What do you think of the Marshmallow update for the Galaxy S6 and are you running the beta? Check out all the screenshots and the video above and let us know your views in the comments below!
T-Mobile’s BOGO promotion is one of its biggest sales ever
Are you looking for a new smartphone? Could someone else on your plan use an upgrade? If so, T-Mobile is going to save you a ton of money. For a limited time you can walk into a T-Mobile store and pick up a flagship phone from LG, Samsung, or Apple for half off.
Here are the details. You must purchase one phone at a full price, and the second phone must be from the same manufacturer. For example, if you want to pick up a Samsung Galaxy Note 5, your second phone must be a Samsung phone and equal or less value. Pretty simple, right? In that scenario, you can get a Samsung Galaxy S6 for about $12 a month, and over 24 months that’s a $290 savings. If you want to grab two LG V10’s, your second phone will only be $12.50 a month and save you $300 off the purchase price.
This deal is NOT limited to just new customers. Current customers are eligible for the deal, and even though you can trade in your phone for a discount, you don’t have to. T-Mobile doesn’t give the best value for phone trades so you can easily sell it for more on sites like Swappa. Depending on what type of phone you currently have, you could sell it and end up making enough to pay off your phone you just got for half price.
Click here for the top 10 Android phones on T-Mobile
T-Mobile says they’re offering this sale because up to 70% of people don’t upgrade when they can due to price or upgrade restrictions. This leaves many teenagers with hand-me-down phones. Their motivations may not be all that altruistic, but this is a great deal to get your kids a phone. For a family of four, walking in and getting the entire family phones means you’re going to end up with four phones for the price of three. You can’t beat free.
The deal starts today, January 27, and T-Mobile hasn’t stated when it will end. Both family and business accounts on T-Mobile’s Simple Choice plans qualify for the promotion, and you can get up to six half-priced phones. The available models are the Apple iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, Note 5 and the LG G4 and V10. You can read here why we here at AndroidGuys think the V10 is one of the best phones of 2015.
Source: T-Mobile
The post T-Mobile’s BOGO promotion is one of its biggest sales ever appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Rumored Galaxy Upgrade Program scheduled for S7 launch
A new report out of South Korea claims that Samsung is planning to launch a Galaxy upgrade program alongside the Galaxy S7 launch in March. The program would be very similar to Apple’s current upgrade program, whereby a new phone can be rented instead of bought, and upgraded once per year.
The story comes from South Korea’s Electronic Times and is pretty light on details, including how competitive Samsung’s monthly payments would be compared to Apple’s. If we look to Apple’s iPhone upgrade program for inspiration, this report from Fortune shows that Apple’s program costs about the same as buying the phone outright, and both options are much more expensive than a standard two-year contract.
See also: Samsung Galaxy S7 rumor roundup: release date, price, specs, features
The resale value on a second-hand iPhone is, naturally enough, much higher than on a used Galaxy device. So while owning your iPhone after a couple of years gives you options on the resale market, a two year old Galaxy is worth much less, making the upgrade program that much more enticing, but only if it is competitively priced.
Either way, we’ll soon find out when the Galaxy S7 is launched around MWC 2016. For comparison’s sake, the iPhone 6s is available starting at $32.41/month and the iPhone 6s Plus at $36.58/month. Both of these plans are device-only, requiring you to source your own carrier service on top. The Galaxy upgrade program is reported to launch in South Korea with a US launch to follow.
Would you use a Samsung upgrade program? How much do you think is fair per month?
AIVAnet 