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ComScore: iPhone grew to 34 percent US share in a pre-iPhone 5 world, Android still on top at 52 percent
Apple is all too used to the rumor cycle affecting its sales: the company just saw a dip in sequential iPhone shipments this spring as customers waited for what would ultimately become the iPhone 5. If you believe ComScore's US smartphone market share estimates, though, Apple wasn't the worse for wear this August. While the iPhone was in the doldrums this spring, it jumped almost a whole point versus an already positive July to hit 34.3 percent; we're wondering if last-minute discounts played a part in keeping iPhone 4S sales healthy. Google didn't have much to fear and saw Android climb to 52.6 percent, even if its ascent wasn't as rapid as that of its Bay Area neighbor. RIM took the brunt of the losses and dipped to just 8.3 percent of the market in what's increasingly a two-horse race, although Microsoft's Windows Phone held its ground at 3.6 percent. The wider US cellphone market tells a familiar story, with Samsung on top. There's signs that the narrative is very close to changing, however: LG and Apple are now close enough, at one point's difference, that Apple could seize second place by the time we see ComScore's figures for September. Before interpreting Apple's performance as some sign of a wider reversal of fortune, just remember that most of its challenges are on the world stage. There's no guarantee that the Android-focused markets beyond American borders have been as receptive to iPhone price drops and updates.
ComScore: Android back above 51 percent of US share, iOS still growing briskly
We're starting to see a distinct shift in US smartphone market share that leaves Android having to share the spotlight. ComScore's results for this past June have Google hitting a new high of 51.6 percent share, which still gives it something to crow about -- that's both a small increase over a month earlier and a return to the 51 percent mark. However, Android is still competing with an iOS platform that's been growing at a healthy rate, reaching 32.4 percent of the American space. The fuel for both sides comes from an all too familiar decline in BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows share. Samsung is still in the top spot as far as manufacturers, although it's shrinking where Apple and HTC are on the way up. We'll be looking to see how much the Galaxy S III affects the numbers during the summer, but less patient observers can get the manufacturer results after the break and the full scoop on current market share at the source.
Nokia Air promo surfaces, teases what could have been
In some alternate timeline, droves of Nokia fans are enjoying seamless cloud syncing on Symbian handsets. Here on Earth-One, however, we'll have to settle for watching a leaked preview of the syncing service that never was. The Nokia Air promo (after the break) promises a service that lets you "experience everywhere" by serving your devices from the ever-present cloud. "Apps don't require downloading, installing or updating," the narrator boasts, explaining that updates, notification, apps and other content are delivered directly from the cloud to all of your devices. Sound familiar? Don't get too excited though, between Nokia's commitment to Redmond and the ancient Engadget post we spied in the demo's feed, this project was probably scrapped.
ComScore: Android's US share dips ever so slightly, iPhone slowly marching up
Here's a minor surprise: Android slipping at all in US market share. Although it saw just a tiny drop of two tenths of a point from where it was in March, and still saw a gain over January, Google's platform was down to 50.8 percent in April. Nothing dramatic enough to make Mountain View worry, as such, but definitely a sharp break from the rapid growth of last year. Apple could meanwhile claim a small victory for the month as a result by continuing to grow -- even if we wouldn't call its 31.4 percent iPhone share a revolution. Of the other platforms, only Microsoft had anything to crow about, as the Lumia 900 launch brought Windows Phone back just over the four percent mark. The positions among individual cellphone makers as a whole didn't budge in April, and whatever losses came to Android's partners in that area were spread evenly across top-dog Samsung as well as LG and Motorola. Perhaps the biggest twist was HTC holding its ground at a steady six percent, which hints that the HTC One S' arrival at T-Mobile might have been just the ticket to keeping Taiwan in the fight.
IDC: Android has a heady 59 percent of world smartphone share, iPhone still on the way up
We've been jonesing for a more international look at smartphone market share for the start of 2012, and IDC is now more than willing to oblige. In case you'd thought Android's relentless march upwards was just an American fling, Google's OS has jumped from 36.1 percent of the world's share a year ago to exactly 59 percent in the first quarter of this year. That's nearly two thirds of all smartphones, folks. As we've seen in the past, Android is siphoning off legacy users looking for something fresher: Symbian and the BlackBerry have both lost more than half of their share in one year's time, while Linux (led mostly by Bada) and Windows Mobile / Phone together lost small pieces of the pie despite raw shipment numbers going up. As for Apple? Even with all the heat in the kitchen, the iPhone's share grew to 23 percent, leading to a staggering 82 percent of smartphone buyers siding with either the Cupertino or Mountain View camps.
Nokia's new 110 and 112 dual-SIM phones are cheap and chatty (video)
Nokia may be serving up polycarbonate slabs of smartphone with one hand, but the other is still dishing out candy bars for the masses. The new 110 and 112 models, announced today, are perfect examples of this. Once again, these phones are dual-SIM, which should appeal to the Asian / Indian markets, and offer money-saving features like crunching websites in the cloud first -- which Nokia claims reduces data consumption by up to 90 percent. As for the rest of the phone, it's all about being social, with direct access to Facebook and Twitter from the home screen, and the eBuddy IM service preloaded. Those 1.8-inch displays might not be ideal for watching movies, but are likely adequate for viewing the shots taken with the VGA camera. These stripped down specifications thankfully equate to a stripped down price, with the 110 landing at around 35€ and the 112 just three euros more when they show up sometime this quarter. Full PR after the break.
Nokia responds to questions over Symbian name swap
Nokia seems to have finally realized that it can't just kill off a long-standing name like Symbian with a mere three-word mention (in parentheses) on its official blog. It's now posted up a marginally more detailed statement in response to "heaps of questions" from Nokia fans about the name change, and it reads as follows: "We are still using Symbian Belle with some audiences like developers but now we also have the flexibility of using Nokia Belle when referring to our greatest and latest Symbian software update." There, that should clear it up. Or maybe not. The idea of switching between different names for the same product might be considered bad branding, and the notion of developers being an "audience" is confusing too. But what more can you expect from a single sentence? In other news, the update also clarified that Nokia/Symbian Belle will be coming to the Nokia 500, along with the devices mentioned yesterday, and that it's delay until February 2012 was due to this being a "major software update" that will "make such a big difference in the user experience."
Nokia Drive with MirrorLink on Toyota Touch Life hands-on (video)
Just a few meters from the entrance to Nokia World at London's sprawling ExCel Exhibition Centre, we found a Toyota iQ compact with Nokia branding on the door. And in the dash was Toyota's new Touch Life smartphone integration system, complete with Nokia Drive compatibility and display mirroring via MirrorLink. In addition to mirroring your Symbian Belle (or MeeGo) display on the 7-inch touchscreen, Touch Life also provides a driver-friendly interface, including enormous icons to control music playback, or to place calls to contacts by tapping their name and photo, or by using the jumbo telephone keypad. It also integrates with the Nokia Drive app, with a very simple (and also oversized) navigation interface. The concept is simple: access basic smartphone functions as you drive while limiting distractions. While you're parked, you'll have unrestricted access to your phone's interface, but non-critical features are disabled as you drive. The demo unit we saw is still a few months away from hitting production, so there were a few hiccups. After connecting the Nokia 701 to the system, the smartphone's display appeared on the in-dash screen within a few seconds. We had full access to all of the phone's features until shifting into drive, when a much simpler screen popped up, with Call, Drive and Music modules. Everything worked rather seamlessly until we neared the end of the demo, when an "Enjoy the sound while driving" message appeared on screen, where the navigation window had been just a moment before. There isn't a firm release date in place, and the demo unit only appears to work with Symbian Belle at the moment -- though MeeGo support (and likely Windows Phone as well) will be available after launch. Jump past the break to see how it works from behind the wheel.%Gallery-137700%
Nokia's Chris Weber promises US-centric push for Windows Phone 7 devices
Nokia's US prexy Chris Weber's been making the media rounds lately, talking up the company's Windows Phone near-future and offering a peek at the marketing blitz to come. In an interview with VentureBeat, Weber confirmed the death of Symbian and the N9's North American release, but was much less straightforward when asked about the WP7 launch, saying only that a US focus is paramount to the OEM's global success. The MS-blessed smartphones are set to debut "in volume" next year, at which point Nokia hopes to have ironed out its complex negotiations with carriers, bringing aggressively subsidized handsets to market. Nokia's chief also engaged in a bit of mobile OS grandstanding, touting Microsoft's live tile integrated approach as superior to the "outdated" app focus popularized by iOS and Android. And if you're wondering just how the OEM plans to differentiate its hardware in this cluttered wireless market, expect to see phones with an emphasis on "state-of-the-art imaging technology and battery performance." Here's to hoping Weber's words don't come back to haunt him when his bet goes live next year.
Nokia 700 'Zeta' caught in spyshots, ready to give mobile makeovers
While we're busy recovering from a recent overdose of Nokia eye candy, secret agents are hard at work hunting down more visual goodness for us to ogle at. These shots above are of the Nokia 700 "Zeta," which appears to be a replacement to the C6-01. The photos show it running on Symbian Belle -- Anna's successor -- and packed with a 5 megapixel camera, LED flash, and NFC support. The source indicates the Zeta will house a 1 GHz CPU and 3.2-inch nHD AMOLED display, weighs a smidge over 80g, and measures out at 10mm thick. Oddly enough, we dug up a leaked snapshot of the Zeta's spec sheet claiming it'll be the "thinnest smartphone ever," which at 10mm isn't anywhere close to earning that title. Though no other phones were pictured, the spec sheet (shown below) brought attention to three other Symbian offerings on the roadmap: the Nokia 701 Helen has the best specs of the bunch with 8 megapixel camera and 3.5-inch ClearBlack display; there's the Nokia 600 Cindy with NFC, 5 megapixel shooter, and 3.2-inch AMOLED; also, we've likely seen the Nokia 500 Fate already leaked as the N5. There's no indication on when (or if) we can expect any of these phones to hit the market, but it looks like Mr. Elop is intent on keeping his promise. More photos after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Nokia delays Symbian^3, investors not impressed
As in any business, in the world of the smartphone there are winners and there are losers. Earlier this week Apple blew away market expectations and posted a $3 billion profit thanks largely to increased popularity of the iPhone. For the competition news is not so good, and while Nokia did manage to boost earnings per share 40 percent this year, it missed analyst expectations and, more importantly, is having to delay the release of Symbian^3 until sometime in the third quarter. The release was initially due in the first half of the year, then became a little more specific as a Q2 release. These factors have sent share prices dropping 12 percent and leaves Nokia fans waiting another few months for a taste of something fresh -- not good when there are so many other delectable options up for the taking.
Nokia launching a Symbian app store at MWC?
Because you're not cool unless you've got an app store, Nokia is reportedly set to join the ranks of Apple, Palm, BlackBerry, Samsung, and pretty much everyone in opening a software portal for its Symbian OS. According to Mobile-Review editor Eldar Murtazin, the Finnish phone maker's already got it running and is testing behind-the-scenes, with a formal announcement to come at the Mobile World Congress. While we'll have to wait until Barcelona to find out with some degree of certainty, at this point we'd be more surprised to see a company not open up an online app shop. [Via Unwired View]
Nokia releases widget platform for S60
If you're a fan of Apple's Widgets and Microsoft's Gadgets, Nokia's software engineers hear you. Nokia's Symbian-based S60 platform now has support for dashboard-like widgets thanks to the recent introduction of its "Web Run-Time" tools for web developer types. Nokia is claiming its S60 widgetry to be a first for a mobile platform, although Microsoft may be readying the same concept for Windows Mobile 6. So, if you're ready to stock up that slicker-than-slick N73, just remember that you're going to need Nokia's S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 to get those new widgets -- then let the WeatherBugging begin.[Via Mobilewhack]
Nokia makes play for Linux developers
Nokia's had a long-standing relationship with mobile operating system maker Symbian, but that doesn't mean the world's largest mobile phone maker wants to limit itself. Nokia's newer "Open C" for use with its own S60 software development kit (SDK) is an effort to encourage open source application developers to take a stab at porting their existing apps to the Symbian platform on which S60 is based. Potential result? Getting some of those cool mobile Linux apps sitting on that sweet Nokia S60 handset you may have.
The Nokia E61i gets unboxed
If you were / are a Nokia E61 fan but wished those Finns would have refined it just a bit, you're probably salivating over the E61i. Updates to the newer model include a 2 megapixel cam, a d-pad (no joystick) and a better QWERTY keyboard for your typing pleasure. If you're wanting to see a svelte E61i get undressed, it's been done to a decent degree for your viewing pleasure. That is, until you plunk down some cash for the real deal, right?[Via Boy Genius Report]
Symbian's UIQ 3.1 gets ready to drop
Are you itching for that new UIQ operating system in your trusty Symbian smartphone? Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) come into play with the newer UIQ 3.1 version as well as improved multi-tasking support. We're going to see some newer UIQ devices shortly -- probably from UIQ love buddy Sony Ericsson -- with all the announcements that 3GSM is bringing at the moment -- and developers will be in a heyday when the new SDK for UIQ 3.1 is released shortly at developer.uiq.com, according to AllAboutSymbian. Windows Mobile 6 and UIQ 3.1 -- ok, fight!
Nokia's N95 gets FCC approval
The lovingly gracious FCC has yet again spoiled the secret party on another handset, as we spied the Nokia N95 with all its technical and RF detail at the FCC website. This means, umm, the N95 will probably be here in the U.S. by maybe June (or not). With the average delays we see from FCC approval to hitting carrier shelves being months (many months sometimes), the N95 should wash ashore by early summer -- and maybe late Spring. With the N95 being such a high-end handset, though, maybe Nokia is planning to sell it directly from its new retail storefront(s) instead of going straight to a carrier. Both T-Mobile and Cingular (err, at&t) are not that known for carrying manufacturer flagships (and the N95 may be that in some form), so will Nokia shun the carriers this time around with this UMTS / HSDPA unit? Most likely, yes.
Nokia N95 gets fully peeped from top to bottom
Although this review of the new Nokia N95 is labeled as a first impression, all the scuttlebutt was fleshed out (well, most of it) and the N95's guts were examined with clarity and precision. Thinking of picking one up? Take a look over at AllAboutSymbian. The nerdy details on the N95 are pretty decent -- but is it a smartphone? A digicam? A DAP? A....keypad? Just what is this thing, or is it everything? Well, we know it's a Symbian S60 (3rd Ed.) smartphone that sports dual-slider action (keyboard and music controls) and looks pretty chunky svelte for what's under the hood; but Nokia, what is up with those apparently-stringy earbuds? Is that rubber casing on the wires? We prefer the non-gangy set o'phones please. Let's hit up the good based on AAS's touchy-feely on the N95 -- very good-sounding stereo speakers built into the sides, a diet form factor compared to previous N-series units, every wire-free connectivity option you could ever need, and a 5 Megapixel cam with Zeiss optics and even VGA video capture -- what's not to love? AAS's overall impression of this unit is very good -- all the way to how the keypad looks and feels (ridgy and tactile). Need we say more?
