Motorola in phone launch to rival Apple October 20, 2011 MOTOROLA yesterday set out to show it is still a force in the mobile market with a “reboot” of its top-selling Razr handset, saying the phone is “out of the league” of rivals Apple and Samsung. The ultra-thin device, the first launched since Google announced its $12.5bn (£7.91bn) takeover of the firm, looks set to [...]
Microsoft flashes cash to promote WP7 October 17, 2011 MICROSOFT will hand £28m to Nokia and Samsung to spend marketing handsets running the latest version of its Windows Phone mobile software. The move is Microsoft’s latest attempt by to force its way into the smartphone market, with Windows Phone 7 (WP7) languishing in an industry increasingly dominated by Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. It [...]
BlackBerry brand seriously hurt by outages, according to our panel October 16, 2011 THE BlackBerry brand has been seriously damaged by the recent outages that left users with no data services for three working days, according to the City A.M. / PoliticsHome Voice of the City Panel. More than half of the 355 people surveyed said it will take longer than six months for BlackBerry to restore its [...]
Apple wins ban on Samsung Tab October 13, 2011 A COURT slapped a temporary ban on the sale of Samsung Electronics’ latest computer tablet in Australia yesterday, handing rival Apple another legal victory in the two firms’ global patent war. Resolution of the case could take months, which, in the fast-moving industry, could mean the new Galaxy tablet is never launched in Australia.
Sony to recall 1.6m Bravia TVs October 12, 2011 Sony may recall 1.6m of its Bravia LCD TV screens after failures caused several to melt or emit clouds of smoke. At least 11 TVs in Japan have been struck by the faulty part. The setback is the latest blow for Sony’s struggling TV business, which is heading for its eighth straight year of losses [...]
iPhone 4S breaks pre-order records with 1m on first day October 10, 2011 THE iPhone 4S has broken Apple’s previous records for pre-orders, clocking up more than 1m in a single day. The handset, which received a muted reaction on its launch last week, surpassed its previous one-day record of 600,000 sales for last year’s iPhone 4. One company alone – AT&T – sold 200,000 contracts for the [...]
Samsung upbeat on profits as smartphone sales fly October 7, 2011 Samsung Electronics said its quarterly profits should top the most bullish market forecasts, with smartphones becoming its main profit engine despite intense competition from bigger rival Apple. Indeed, analysts expect Samsung to report record profit from handset sales in the third quarter and overtake Apple as the world’s biggest smartphone vendor in unit terms. The [...]
A talismanic leader who leaves the world a richer place October 6, 2011 IT’S OFTEN said that Steve Jobs didn’t give a fig about maximising shareholder value. Considering how good he was at it, it scarcely matters. When he rejoined Apple in 1997, its stock was worth $5-a-share while its market cap – mostly accounted for by cash and other tangibles – was a whisker under $5bn. Now [...]
New iPhone gives rivals a shred of hope October 5, 2011 THE TELECOMS world was yesterday digesting the implications of Apple’s latest product launch, with manufacturers hoping to capitalise on the initial lack of enthusiasm. Nokia was trading almost five per cent up yesterday, with its new line of phones running Windows Mango expected to put it in direct competition with other high end handset makers. [...]
Phones beyond Apple: our pick of the new crop October 5, 2011 HOORAY, the not-quite-iPhone 5 has arrived. Yes, it has this fancy voice-recognition software, which might well solve the perennial iPhone typing problem and has finally caught up with the majority of the market with its 8 megapixel camera. But whether this latest model is enough of a change to warrant ditching your current phone or [...]