2011: THE YEAR OF THE TABLET January 26, 2012 GLOBAL tablet shipments in 2011 soared to 66.9m units – over triple the previous year’s number – with Android increasingly encroaching on Apple’s market domination. Last year Android, used in Amazon and Samsung tablets among others, upped its share of the market by a third to 39 per cent, while Apple’s supremacy declined over ten percentage [...]
How we’ll waste our time this year January 25, 2012 SONY PLAYSTATION VITA Expected: 24 February Price: £280 with 3G Sony’s long-awaited portable console is almost upon us. We now know it features both a touch-screen (expected) and an innovative touch-sensitive rear (similar to the one that failed to materialise on the iPhone 4), meaning you can control the system with swipes of your finger [...]
Please wake me up when Apple does something wrong January 25, 2012 Bouncing a ball against a wall is fun. Doing it a hundred times is still fun. But bouncing the same ball against the same wall for years on end can get a little repetitive. Finding creative ways to dress up the words “Apple,” “record” and “profits” is like bouncing that ball. For a long time [...]
Only drastic change can save RIM now January 23, 2012 FEW in the telecoms industry will mourn the departure of Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis. As co-chairmen and co-CEOs of BlackBerry maker RIM, the pair wielded far too much power over the troubled handset maker. It was an open secret that the chief executives of the big network operators found it incredibly hard to do [...]
Kodak snaps and files for bankruptcy January 19, 2012 KODAK’S moment has come to an end, as the company yesterday admitted defeat in the face of an increasingly digital age by filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Citigroup has thrown the dwindling company a $950m (£614m) lifeline to support Kodak through its ongoing operations, which will continue despite the bankruptcy application. Kodak subsidiaries outside [...]
Sony Ericsson plunges into loss January 19, 2012 Sony Ericsson posted a quarterly loss that missed all forecasts after losing in the battle for smartphone sales in the key year-end period, showing the challenge for Sony as it prepares to take full control of the joint venture. The world’s ninth-biggest handset maker, which got left behind in the boom that powered smartphone growth [...]
The good, the bad and the ugly from Las Vegas January 18, 2012 The dust is settling after what turned out to be something of a damp squib at the Consumer Electronics Show. The ultrabook (read: thin laptop) was king, with most manufacturers launching rivals to Apple’s lauded MacBook Air. Mobile had a big presence but hero releases were thin on the ground – perhaps waiting for Mobile [...]
Samsung denies RIM interest January 17, 2012 Samsung said last night it was not interested in taking over Research In Motion, after shares of the BlackBerry maker jumped more than 10 per cent following a report that it was seeking to sell itself to the South Korean firm.
Thomas Cook: The company taking visitors to the Olympics since 1896 January 17, 2012 COUNTDOWN TO THE LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES Q. WHAT WAS YOUR BRAND’S PRIMARY REASON FOR BEING INVOLVED WITH THE GAMES? A. Thomas Cook actually took customers from Britain to the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, and passengers from all over the UK to the 1908 and 1948 London Olympics, so we’ve got a [...]
Samsung sides with Intel OS January 16, 2012 SAMSUNG is merging its Bada operating system with Tizen, an Intel-backed mobile operating system, in a bid to increase its stake of the smartphone market. The move could be seen as a response to Google’s $12.5bn (£8.2bn) acquisition of Motorola Mobility last year which has hinted that software giants could eventually hold in-house hardware departments. [...]