Sunday, July 8, 2012

Nokia RDA tool leaks Lumia 910, 920, 950, 1001, and Nokia 510, 805


Developers accessing Nokia's online RDA tool over the weekend were in for a nice surprise as they spotted a number of unannounced devices by searching for other available devices near-by over Bluetooth.
Last year, we first heard of the Nokia Lumia 900 WindowsPhone in this fashion, so it's generally a legit source of leaked device names.
Well, the whole thing started yesterday with the appearance of one Nokia Lumia 910 in the list of discoverable devices via Bluetooth during a regular session with the RDA tool.
The Remote Device Access (RDA) is a service that allows developers to test their mobile applications and services remotely on various Nokia devices via a regular browser. Devs can remotely control a device, install and run applications on it, or transfer files.
In one of these test sessions later on, another device popped up - the Nokia Lumia 1001. Now that's a serious model name jump and this might suggest it's either a Windows Phone 8 device, or even a tablet.
As things heated up and the interest for the RDA tool grew immensely, people who logged in started finding all sorts of unannounced devices this way. Enter the Nokia Lumia 920, the Lumia 950, the Nokia 510, and the Nokia Belle 805.
Now take all these with a pinch of salt. Given the hype surrounding the RDA tool since yesterday, it might as well be a case of other devs messing with the available test units to display fake Bluetooth IDs. So for now consider this as just a heads-up. We won't go as far as analyzing the model names and potential market positioning, as they might turn out bogus.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Samsung posts record profit, Galaxy S III to hit 19M sales in Q3

Samsung hasn’t released its full Q2 financial report yet, but it unveiled some salient details on its performance. Largely thanks to the Galaxy line of Android smartphones, Samsung's profit reached a record $5.9 billion (up 79% year on year). Executives expect it to grow even further, 36% quarter-on-quarter for Q3.
Samsung's mobile division is responsible for over 70% of the company's earnings. In the second quarter of this year, the Korean giant sold around 50 million smartphones and expects profits to have doubled, reaching $3.87 billion.
One Samsung exec predicts that sales of Galaxy S III flagship will hit the 19 million mark in Q3, growing in the absence of a new iPhone.
When the new Apple smartphone inevitably comes, the growth of the Samsung's mobile division is expected to slow down, but the Korean company's semiconductor business will benefit from the launch as Samsung provides screens and chips for Apple's gadgets (and maybe even an Exynos-based quad-core chipset for the next iPhone).
Samsung's biggest worry at the moment is the Euro crisis - Europe is the biggest market for Samsung electronics and the fall of the euro compared to the Korean won cuts into its profits

Amazon said to be developing its own smartphone

Amazon is said to be in the midst of developing its own smartphone, which will compete against the iPhone and the Android smartphones, says Bloomberg. The world's largest online retailer is said to have partnered with Foxconn to manufacture the handset for it.


There are no other details available at the moment but if Amazon plans to compete with iPhone their phone has to be high-end, unlike the Kindle Fire, which was a budget offering. We don't know what software it would be running but it's fair to assume it would be a heavily customized version of Android such as the one on the Kindle Fire.
Considering Amazon has its own application store, along with books, music, movies and loads of other stuff, it really doesn't matter if it doesn't allow access to the Google Play Store (assuming you're in the US).
Amazon may not have the same brand value when it comes to smartphone, seeing as it doesn't have any so far, but it does run the world's most popular online store, where it can advertise the phone on every page. This, coupled with the content from its store and possibly an attractive price tag means the Amazon smartphone could be a success, just like the Kindle Fire.