Android has 75% of the Smartphone Market

Smartphones running Google's Android are dominating the market, according to the latest figures.

Gartner's numbers show that during the first quarter of 2013, Android smartphones accounted for 74.4 percent of global sales. This represents more than 156 million devices and a jump of nearly 20 percent in market share year-on-year.

Apple lost some of its market share compared to the same time past year, dropping to 18.2 percent from 22.5 percent. The firm sold just over 38 million iPhones during the first quarter of the year.

"Worldwide smartphone sales totaled 210 million units in the first quarter of 2013, up 42.9 percent from the first quarter of 2012," said the Gartner report.

Like Apple, BlackBerry lost market share dropping from 6.8 percent to just 3 percent as it continues to struggle against its rivals. It shipped 6.2 million devices in the first quarter compared to nearly 10 million in the same quarter last year. (Competing analysts at the Yankee Group, however, expect iPhones to make a resurgence.

Microsoft, on the other hand, was the only operating system to gain market share other than Android. Windows Phones made a small growth from 1.9- to 2.9 percent, shipping 5.9 million units in the first quarter.

It's unsurprising that Android has a dominant position since so many manufacturers make smartphones running the OS. Samsung remains the top vendor for smartphone and feature phones, regardless of platform with Nokia and Apple in second and third respectively.

June Issue

Our June issue went out today and it is a great one, if I say so myself. As usual there are some excellent opinin pieces and a whole bunch of great reviews.

This month we have reviews of hardware and software are ther should be articles of interest to everyone. If any of our blog followers aren’t subscribers just let me know and we’ll add you to he subscriber list.

Thanks to all of our writers and contributors for a job well done.

Thoughts on Technology

One of the biggest advantages of being the editor of this daily blog is that I have to stay up to date on technology (more or less, that is). I will admit there are times that I fall behind, sometimes far behind, but I do my best.

One of the biggest changes I’ve seen in the past few years is the rise of the Phablet and the fall of desktops and laptops. This paradigm shift has had a serious impact on the value of company’s stock.

Ever since the late Steve Jobs returned to running the iFruit company after his initial ouster, there was a steady climb in their stock price. They were producing great products and were doing magnificent marketing. People actually believed that Apple was an innovative company and couldn’t wait to spend BIG bucks on their products.

It didn’t matter that the iFruit folks didn’t make the first MP3 player, people believed the iPod was the first. The iPhone was a late arrival in the Smartphone arena but people believed they were the first. There were PDAs and Tablets LONG before the first iPad came out but people believed Apple was first.

The result of this mind warping was that the price of iFruit stock went sky high. A year ago people were talking about the potential of iFruit stock going to unheard of levels. There were pundits predicting $1,000 a share (or much higher!!). How far off can anyone get?

Without the slightly crazy mind of Steve Jobs leading them they are in the doldrums. Their stock price continues to drop, it is now only half the price of Google stock. Since Google is their main competitor (along with Google’s partner Samsung, of course) this doesn’t look good for their iFuture.

I’ve never been one of their FanBoyz but I wish them well. We need competition to stay healthy.

Olympus is Dropping Under $200 Cameras

When was the last time you bought a no-frills camera? Exactly…

Seeing as how most people now carry a phone with a pretty good camera built in, compact cameras have to significantly up the ante to attract an upgrade purchase — and they can’t do that too well at the low end of the market. What does a $100 camera do that your phone doesn’t — except hurt your wallet less when you lose or break it?

So the general online response to the Wall Street Journal’s report that Olympus will halt production of <$200 models was a resounding lack of surprise.

The elimination of the V series of compacts comes after the company’s camera business posted a loss in the last fiscal year through March, “because demand for compact cameras turned out to be weaker than expected, the company said.” What were they expecting? Well, they did sell 5.1 million cameras last fiscal year, but in light of recent weak sales now look to move only 2.7 million this year.

Olympus says it will concentrate on its well-received mirrorfree interchangeable lens models.

PC Sales in Europe Decline

PC shipments in Western Europe declined by 20.5 percent during the first quarter: The only vendors to see shipments grow were Lenovo and Apple, which returned to the top five.

Shipments during the quarter dropped to 12.3 million, compared to 15.5 million units in the first quarter of 2012, according to market research company Gartner. That is the worst quarterly decline the company has seen since it started tracking PC shipments in the region.

The wide availability of Windows 8-based PCs was again unable to boost consumer PC purchases. Users still wonder about its suitability for traditional PCs, according to Gartner analyst Meike Escherich.

All market segments were affected by the first quarter drop: Mobile and desktop shipments fell by 24.6 percent and 13.8 percent respectively. Shipments in the professional PC market declined by 17.2 percent, while those to consumers decreased by 23.7 percent.

The two biggest vendors, Hewlett-Packard and Acer, both saw volumes decline by over 30 percent. Despite shipping only half as many notebooks to consumers as it did a year earlier, HP remained the market leader by approximately 1 million PCs. It shipped 2.4 million units while Acer totalled 1.4 million

Lenovo, on the other hand, grew shipments by 7.2 percent, and was only 6,000 units behind Acer, according to Gartner's data. The vendor continued to expand in the consumer PC sector by winning share from both Acer and HP, and competed closely with HP and Dell in the professional PC market, Gartner said.

Huawei Sweepstakes

Huawei W1 'Make it Yours' Music & Mobile Sweepstakes

Check Out the Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbr6TatfkM0

How the Sweepstakes Works:

·         Participants will be required to “like” the Huawei Device USA Facebook page

·         Entry will require an email address and feature an option to opt-in to receiving further email communication from Huawei

Huawei W1

Key Features of the Huawei W1:

·         A speedy 1.2GHz dual-core processor

·         A 1950mAh battery

·         A VGA front-facing camera with a Single LED flash

·         A gorgeous 4” IPS LCD touch screen made of Gorilla® Glass that looks great even in sunlight

·         5MP auto-focus camera with LED Flash, 4X digital zoom, quick access button and 0.3MP front-facing camera

Consumers can now purchase the Huawei W1 at select Walmart stores and on Walmart.com beginning on May 20.  The Huawei W1 is competitively priced at $229.

Laplink 30th Anniversary Free Software

Today marks the 30th Anniversary of Laplink Software. To celebrate this milestone, Laplink is giving away their new product, Laplink Sync™, for free on May 15th only. Laplink Sync is a revolutionary new way to sync between PCs, Macs, and mobile devices, including Android, iOS, and more.

   

Laplink Software, originally known as Traveling Software, was a driver of innovation in the infancy of the PC, beginning with groundbreaking products, such as: T-Word (1984), the first word processor changing font sizes on a LCD screen; WizardLink (1987), the first synchronization tool for Casio’s Personal Information device; and LapDOS (1986), the file transfer application that provided then-groundbreaking transfer speed over serial cables.

   

Other innovations included ViewLink (1989), the first technology enabling files to be associated with applications; and, of course, the original LapLink. In the early days of the PC, LapLink was the only way to copy files directly between PCs. Back then, it was a simple copy process that allowed a user to migrate everything needed from an old PC to a new one.

   

“In thirty years, we’ve learned a lot. The tech industry has made tremendous advancements in this time and has brought new concepts to the users,” stated Thomas Koll, Laplink’s CEO.

   

With the introduction of the more complex Windows PC, users needed a new tool to move from an old PC to a new one, and one that would move everything – gigabytes of data, millions of files, settings, applications, and the entire “personality” of the user. The top-selling Laplink PCmover® was created to meet this need and is now the world market leader for PC migration software.

   

PCmover saves an entire weekend of PC setup and configuration tasks, reducing the PC setup process to just a few mouse clicks. All e-mail, address books, pictures, music, videos, and even programs like iTunes and Microsoft Office are automatically copied over from the old PC and installed, ready-to-use, on the new PC.

   

“Most software companies don’t get to celebrate 30 years of production and advancement in the field,” added Koll. “We are working hard for you, today and in the years to come.”