IDC: smartphone market grows 80 percent year-on-year, Samsung shipments rise 350 percent
May 6, 2011 No Comment
Smartphones are getting kind of popular nowadays, in case you hadn’t noticed. The latest figures from IDC show a 79.7 percent expansion of the global smartphone market between this time last year and today, which has resulted in 99.6 million such devices being shipped in Q1 of 2011. That growth has mostly been driven by Samsung , which has more than quadrupled its output to 10.8 million shipments in the quarter, and HTC , whose growth has been almost as impressive. The other big gainer is Apple, with 10 million more iPhones shipped, but the truth is that all the top five vendors are showing double-digit growth. In spite of Nokia losing a big chunk of market share and RIM being demoted from second to third in the ranking, both of those old guard manufacturers improved on their quarterly totals. IDC puts this strength in demand down to the relatively unsaturated smartphone marketplace, and believes there’s “ample room for several suppliers to comfortably co-exist,” before ominously adding, “at least for the short term.” And after the short term, our break-dancing robot overlords take over. Continue reading IDC: smartphone market grows 80 percent year-on-year, Samsung shipments rise 350 percent IDC: smartphone market grows 80 percent year-on-year, Samsung shipments rise 350 percent originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 May 2011 04:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Global rare earth supply deficit should turn into a surplus by 2013, Goldman Sachs says
May 6, 2011 No Comment
It looks like rare earth elements are getting slightly less rare. According to a research note released by Goldman Sachs today, the world’s rare earth supply deficit will probably reach its apex this year, before converting into a surplus by 2013. Goldman’s analysts constructed their projections based on evidence that many Western companies have begun building their own mines, in response to China’s overwhelming market dominance. Today, the People’s Republic produces about 90-percent of the world’s rare earth minerals — a group of 17 elements that are used to manufacture many of the flat screen TVs, hybrids and cellphones we’ve come to know and love. Over the course of the past few years, China has only consolidated its hold on the industry, thanks to economic policies aimed at nationalizing private mines and implementing restrictive export quotas . As a result, global rare earth prices have skyrocketed, forcing mining companies in the US and elsewhere to look inward and harvest their own deposits. The only downside, however, is that even if global supply spills into a surplus within the next two years, prices probably won’t cool down until 2015. But at least the horizon looks brighter than it has in recent months. Global rare earth supply deficit should turn into a surplus by 2013, Goldman Sachs says originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 May 2011 15:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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The tablet market is still a one-horse race, but e-readers continue to ramp , and Walmart wants another piece of that precious pie at big box retail. Starting this week, the online retailer will deliver shipments of Amazon’s mighty Kindle 3G and ad-supported Kindle to over 3,200 Walmart stores across the US, where it will join the Nook and Kobo e-readers in competing for shelf space. Could this be the beginning of another e-reader price war? Perhaps not yet, but it could be one more retail channel for Amazon’s ethereal tablet . Kindle joins Nook and Kobo on Walmart store shelves originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 May 2011 02:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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If you work in office, odds are your inbox is full of Oscar polls, baby pictures, fantasy football tips, and various other obstacles standing in the way of finishing up those TPS reports. Thanks to Xerox’s Business of Your Brain, you can finally deal with the issue from the passive aggressive comfort of you own mailbox. The free Microsoft Outlook plugin lets you know who’s sprinkling in the most exclamation marks and buzzwords per email, who sends the longest messages, and which senders are wasting your time with emails that just say “thank you.” It’s a nice start, but we think we’ll hold out for the premium version that will detonate every Troll doll within a 50-foot radius. Now get back to work — as soon as you’re done checking out video and PR after the break. Continue reading Xerox’s Business of Your Brain liberates your inbox from annoying coworkers Xerox’s Business of Your Brain liberates your inbox from annoying coworkers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 May 2011 01:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Samsung’s entire line of active shutter glasses gets a price cut, more money for your popcorn
May 5, 2011 No Comment
Following its pledge to make 3D TV experience more affordable, Samsung’s just announced a price drop on the rest of its active shutter glasses lineup. As you probably already know, the entry-level SSG-3100GB went from $129.99 down to just $49.99 last month; and now we have the better-looking SSG-3300CR plus SSG-3300GR reduced by $50 down to $129.99, along with the swanky SSG-3700CR (pictured above) getting a $70 discount to just $149.99. Of course, these premium spectacles are still far from affordable compared to their passive counterparts, so it’ll be interesting to see if Samsung’s attempt to lure more 3D viewers will work at all. Ultimately though, we’d love to see other manufacturers follow suit — bring on the 3D price war! Samsung’s entire line of active shutter glasses gets a price cut, more money for your popcorn originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 May 2011 23:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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iTablet has found itself on the pages of Engadget before, primarily for vaporware slates and cheap attempts to garner attention with its iMoniker . Now its parent company AHX Global is back with an actual product — a thumb-friendly Bluetooth keyboard. That’s right, no capacitive touch screens here, just backlit QWERTY keys and a “patented rear-facing touchpad” (oh, you mean like the Backflip ). You can order the inventively named Thumb Keyboard now at the source link for
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AT&T has been adding a little dash (and asterisk) of 4G to all its phones as of late, but not all of those handsets are created equal — the Motorola Atrix 4G, HTC Inspire 4G and HP Veer 4G are technically capable of only HSDPA Category 10, which equates to maximum download speeds of 14.4Mbps. Not so for the new Samsung Infuse 4G , as it’s been boosted to HSDPA Category 14, which bumps its particular flavor of 4G up to 21Mbps. That has AT&T playing in the same arena as T-Mobile , assuming that your local cell towers have the fiber backhaul in place… and assuming that T-Mobile doesn’t make good on promises to deliver some 42Mbps (HSPA+ Category 20) handsets before AT&T catches up. And yes, the uploads should be fine , too — AT&T says the Infuse 4G supports HSUPA Category 6, which should give us maximum rates of 5.76Mbps when firing files into the clouds. Samsung Infuse 4G is AT&T’s first 21Mbps smartphone originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 May 2011 16:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Sony offers free Debix identify theft protection for PSN and Qriocity hack victims
May 5, 2011 No Comment
Sony’s “Welcome Back” package of free software and PlayStation Plus subscriptions was a nice gesture, but it won’t help you if your credit card gets fraudulently charged in the aftermath of the PlayStation Network debacle . That, however, is exactly what Debix is for. Sony’s announced that it will provide a complimentary one-year subscription to Debix’s “AllClear ID Plus” identity theft protection service to all PlayStation Network and Qriocity account holders in the United States, which will attempt to protect your personal data from harm, by both monitoring known criminal activity for your private digits and providing up to $1 million in ID theft insurance coverage. We’ve never used Debix, so we can’t vouch for its reliability, and this particular plan admittedly doesn’t look quite as comprehensive as the one Debix offers regular customers for $10 a month. Still, some peace of mind is a heck of a lot better than none, so we think we might give take Sony up on its offer and sign up by the June 18th deadline. If you’d like to join us, you should find an activation code in your inbox before long. Sony offers free Debix identify theft protection for PSN and Qriocity hack victims originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 May 2011 22:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Harvard researchers have married a smartphone to a metal detector to create PETALS, a low cost way to improve mine detection in third-world countries. Traditionally, locating land mines has required a carefully trained ear to distinguish deadly explosives from, say, a can. This new system removes some of the guesswork by mapping the beeps on a cell phone screen, creating a silhouette of whatever is beneath the surface. Similar results have been accomplished using acoustic sensors, but so far they’ve been relegated to research projects and would likely be too expensive for use where they’re needed most. Not only should the simplicity of PETALS (which stands for Pattern Enhancement Tool for Assisting Land mine Sensing) make it cheap and easy to deploy but, in tests novice de-miners were able to improve their performance by 80 percent — that’s a least a few less brave humanitarians going “boom” in the field. Metal detectors and smartphones make beautiful, mine-sniffing music together originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 May 2011 21:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Here’s a phrase we never though we’d utter: Bezos is the bomb! Okay, so maybe a nuke reference isn’t exactly appropriate here, considering Jeff Bezos is actually backing a company that’s looking to create cheap energy through nuclear fusion , but we couldn’t resist. General Fusion, a nuclear fusion startup, released a statement today saying that it has completed a $19.5 million round of funding that included backing by the Amazon founder’s Bezos Expeditions. According the company’s website, General Fusion’s approach to generating “safe and plentiful” energy employs a concept created about 30 years ago called “magnetic target fusion,” and expects commercialization of its process could come before the end of the decade. Full PR after the break. Continue reading Nuclear fusion startup gets Jeff Bezos backing, won’t be dropping any bombs Nuclear fusion startup gets Jeff Bezos backing, won’t be dropping any bombs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 May 2011 20:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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