Author: Stefan

Stefan has been writing about the mobile phone industry since November 2006. He also spent 14 months at Nokia between 2008 and 2009, but has since purchased a Nexus One and an Apple iPhone. He's watching Windows Phone like a hawk, hoping it'll get better with time.

Apple’s iPhone 5 allegedly costs $35 more to make than the iPhone 4S

Apple’s newest iPhone, the iPhone 5, is going to go on sale this Friday in America and in several major European and Asian countries. It has numerous new features, but what’s arguably most important is the screen. For the first time since the iPhone launched in 2007, the display is finally bigger than 3.5 inches diagonal. Now yes, 4 inches isn’t that much larger than 3.5 inches, but it’s still significant in today’s market when you consider that Samsung’s flagship device has a 4.8 inch display and Nokia’s upcoming Lumia 920 has a 4.5 inch display. Continue reading “Apple’s iPhone 5 allegedly costs $35 more to make than the iPhone 4S”

Samsung: Ignore those Galaxy S IV rumors, they’re not true!

Yesterday we wrote up a rumor from The Korea Times that said Samsung was going to announce the Galaxy S IV in February 2013, ship it a month later, and that it’ll feature a 5 inch display. Samsung, not being all too thrilled with the internet talking about the next Galaxy S when the current Galaxy S is barely four months old, went on Twitter to say that the rumors are false. We’re not exactly surprised they’re saying that, but let’s step back for a second and think things through. Continue reading “Samsung: Ignore those Galaxy S IV rumors, they’re not true!”

Rumor: Samsung Galaxy S IV to ship in March 2013 with a 5″ screen

Samsung’s Galaxy S III started shipping in late May, meaning it’s been out on the market for less than four months. Is it a bit crazy to be talking about the Galaxy S IV? Maybe, but let’s do it anyway! According to The Korea Times, the next Galaxy S will be announced at Mobile World Congress 2013. It’ll ship one month later, in March. And craziest of all, it’ll have an even larger 5 inch screen. Continue reading “Rumor: Samsung Galaxy S IV to ship in March 2013 with a 5″ screen”

Vodafone accidentally confirms that the new iPhone will use nanoSIM cards

Vodafone UK prematurely published a blog post featuring photos of the first nanoSIM cards (above, right). What exactly are nanoSIM cards? Some background: SIM cards used to be the size of credit cards. Someone suggested they get smaller, so the miniSIM card was invented. You’ve probably played with miniSIM cards for most of your life. In fact, most people don’t even use that term, they just call them plain old SIM cards. Apple, back in 2010, launched devices (iPhone 4) that used an even smaller card called the micoSIM (above, left). Most high end smarpthones on the market today use this new size. Why? Because if the SIM card is smaller, then there’s more space inside the body of the phone for handset makers to put larger batteries or more components. Continue reading “Vodafone accidentally confirms that the new iPhone will use nanoSIM cards”

Smartphones running Firefox OS to cost between $100 and $115

Mozilla, the company that gave birth to Firefox at the turn of the century, wants to make smartphones cheaper for people living in emerging economies. To do that, they’re writing their own mobile operating system, dubbed Firefox OS, and partnering with operators and Chinese handset makers. According to The New York Times, the company aims to make devices that retail for $100 to $115. It’s pretty obvious that you’re not going to get anything high end at that price point, but that’s not the goal here. We should see these devices start hitting the market in 2013, but should consumers actually care?

Companies like ZTE, Huawei, Lenovo, and some local brands like Micromax in India, are already selling sub $100 Android smartphones. They come with Google’s services preinstalled, they come with access to the Google Play Store, they basically come with everything a person needs to live an online lifestyle. Mozilla on the other hand, being an open source company, is obsessed with a certain ideology, that everything should be free and equal. Sadly that’s not how the world works. Firefox OS might end up being the most awesome HTML5 technology demo to ever be created, but do you really think that people living in parts of the world where $150 phones are considered expensive don’t really care about that?

Then there’s the whole aspirational thing. Would you, as someone with hardly any personal possessions, be seen walking down the street with a Samsung or with a no-name Chinese handset that looks like a knock-off of a knock-off?

We wish the Mozilla people the best of luck, but at the same time we’re trying to be realistic and set people’s expectations appropriately. Open source doesn’t really mean anything at the end of the day. Products matter, not ideas, and anything running Android is practically flying off store shelves.

[Hat Tip: @andreascon]

Reuters: The Nokia Lumia 920 will go on sale in November

Earlier this week, on Wednesday, Nokia unveiled two Windows Phone 8 devices: the Lumia 820 and the Lumia 920. The Finnish handset maker failed to provide any guidance regarding pricing or availability, but according to a piece published on Reuters, the Lumia 920 will go on sale during the second half of November. If you’re surprised, well … don’t be. We’ve known for a long time now that Microsoft is going to hold their own event to launch Windows Phone 8. Rumor has it it’s going to take place on the 29th of October. Handling the logistics of a launch means you need to add a week or two for distributors to do their thing, so mid-November sounds just about right. You’ve got to remember, last year the Nokia Lumia 800 launched on November 16th. So a one year anniversary isn’t such a bad thing. Continue reading “Reuters: The Nokia Lumia 920 will go on sale in November”

Leak: Say hello to the HTC Windows Phone 8X and the One X+

HTC is going to hold a press event in less than two weeks, on the 19th, where it’s widely believed that the company is going to show off their first smartphones powered by Windows Phone 8. One of those smartphones, codenamed “Accord” (pictured above), has just been leaked by Twitter user @Football4PDA. We don’t know who this person is, but Paul O’Brien, the founder of MoDaCo, trusts this source, so we’re going to run with the story. Continue reading “Leak: Say hello to the HTC Windows Phone 8X and the One X+”

Samsung Galaxy S III sales hit 20 million units

Samsung has just issued a press release saying that sales of the Galaxy S III have surpassed 20 million units. The South Korean handset maker managed to hit this goal in just 100 days. They say that’s 6x faster than the original Galaxy S, and 3x faster than the Galaxy S II. The company even breaks things down by territory: 6 million units in Europe, 4.5 million in Asia, 4 million in North America, and finally 2.5 million in the country that they call home. We know that doesn’t add up to 20 million, but bear with us, there are other territories out there. Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy S III sales hit 20 million units”

Apple now controls more than 400 4G LTE patents, aims to protect itself from Samsung

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute, commonly referred to at ETSI, says that last year Apple had zero 4G LTE patents. This year, according to the Korea Intellectual Property Office, that number has now ballooned to 318 patents. And of those patents, only 44 of them were actually developed by Apple. The rest came via acquisitions from Nortel and Freescale. When you combine Apple’s 4G LTE patents with the 116 patents controlled by Rockstar Bidco, a patent troll in which Apple is the majority stakeholder, then the total number of patents in their portfolio jumps up to 434. That’s a little more than half the number of 4G LTE patents Samsung owns (819), but on the brighter side it’s also slightly more than what Huawei has (402). Continue reading “Apple now controls more than 400 4G LTE patents, aims to protect itself from Samsung”

Nokia Lumia 920 to have wireless charging and a misleading 8 megapixel PureView camera

Reporters from The Verge are sitting on some exclusive Nokia Lumia information that they’re slowly trickling out as we get closer and closer to the Finnish handset maker’s press event on Wednesday. Their latest article states that the Lumia 920 will have wireless charging, it’ll have 32 GB of built-in storage, it’ll have a 720p screen that measures 4.5 inches across, and that the camera will have an 8 megapixel sensor. The camera will be marketed as “PureView” capable because of “some advancements in image stabilization and camera software”. Considering that Nokia used the “PureView” branding to promote their Symbian powered 41 megapixel camera-beast-phone, we’re a little upset to see them slap the same label on what will undoubtedly be a generic sensor paired up some image manipulation trickery. Continue reading “Nokia Lumia 920 to have wireless charging and a misleading 8 megapixel PureView camera”

Google to announce a 3G Nexus 7 in October, right in time for the iPad mini

Google’s $200 Android tablet, the Nexus 7, is a sweet little device that’s attracted a ton of press because of everything it can do for half the price of the iPad 2. Most folks get the $250 model with 16 GB of internal memory, but still, the $200 8 GB model can handle most people’s needs just fine. There’s a slight problem though. The Nexus 7 isn’t very useful if you try to use it outside your home since it can only connect to WiFi networks. If you live in a part of the world where you can connect to an open WiFi hotspot with little to no effort, then congratulations. Not everyone is so lucky. According to Paul O’Brien from MoDaCo, he says that Google will start selling a 3G enabled Nexus 7 in roughly six weeks. To put it another way, mid October, which coincidentally is when we’re expecting Apple to announce a smaller iPad. Continue reading “Google to announce a 3G Nexus 7 in October, right in time for the iPad mini”

HTC Desire X: Think of it as a low end One V, minus the chin

Yesterday Samsung and Sony announced a plethora of new smartphones. Today it’s HTC turn to show off the goods. According to The Verge, HTC has just unveiled the Desire X. It has a 4 inch 800 x 480 screen, a dual core 1 GHz processor, 768 MB of RAM, and a 5 megapixel camera that can’t even record video at anything higher than VGA resolution. HTC isn’t saying how much the Desire X is going to cost, which makes it difficult for us to say whether or not this thing is worth buying. The dual core processor, which is designed by Qualcomm, actually uses two ARM Cortex A5 cores. They should deliver decent performance, but again, without a price tag it’s very difficult to judge this product. We often recommend that a better way to save money when buying a new phone is to simply buy last year’s flagship. Continue reading “HTC Desire X: Think of it as a low end One V, minus the chin”

Motorola Mobility and Intel to hold a press conference on September 18th

Motorola Mobility is sending out invitations to a press conferences scheduled to take place on September 18th in London. What makes the invite stand out is the Intel logo that’s located right next to Motorla Mobility’s logo. This means we can look forward to seeing an x86 based smartphone from a “traditional” handset maker. There are several Intel based smartphones out on the market, but they’re from companies like Lava. That’s not to say Lava isn’t a great company, they just don’t have the same sort of clout that Motorola does. Continue reading “Motorola Mobility and Intel to hold a press conference on September 18th”

TSMC turns down offers from Apple and Qualcomm to secure chip orders

Every iOS device on the market has a chip inside that was manufactured by Samsung. Apple, looking to distance themselves from Samsung because they’re one of their fiercest competitors, has long been rumored to switch to TSMC. TSMC is a Taiwanese company that makes chips. One of their most well known clients is Qualcomm. Qualcomm can’t feed demand for their new Snapdragon S4 part fast enough. According to a report from Bloomberg, both Apple and Qualcomm have offered TSMC at least $1 billion so that they can get secure some, but not all, of TSMC’s output. TSMC turned down both of them for reasons we don’t quite understand. TSMC needs the money to increase their output, otherwise the smartphone market is going to experience a chip shortage. Did TSMC request more money than either Apple or Qualcomm were willing to offer? The world may never know. What is known however is that TSMC says they would rather remain flexible when it comes to picking their customers. Continue reading “TSMC turns down offers from Apple and Qualcomm to secure chip orders”

Nokia says “things are about to change” on September 5th

Nokia has just uploaded a 21 second video to YouTube that features a young woman riding her bicycle near a shipping yard. The woman doesn’t say anything, but at the end of the video a block of text appears saying “THINGS ARE ABOUT TO CHANGE” and then the date 05.09.2012 appears. That date, the 5th of September, is when Nokia is going to hold a press event in New York City where it’s widely believed that the Finnish handset maker will announce at least one Windows Phone 8 device. Last week reporters from The Verge said their sources tell them we’ll see two devices. One codenamed “Phi”, which is supposed to be a successor to the Lumia 800 and Lumia 900, and another codenamed “Arrow” that will be a midrange device. It’s safe to say that “Phi” will have a 720p display and a dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor under the hood. As for “Arrow”, we haven’t got the slightest clue what it’s supposed to bring to the table. Continue reading “Nokia says “things are about to change” on September 5th”