Countdown.. 6 more days to go!!!

Six more days to go.. it is almost there.. long wait.. it better be worth waiting.. Let us see which rumors were true.. I am hoping for slightly bigger form factor. I think, iPhone is mature enough that they can have multiple form factors as well along with multiple hardware releases to offer more choices to customers in terms of price and capabilities.

All other phone makers are scrambling for the phone to be launched before iPhone5 launch. Nokia, I heard was big disappointment.. Galaxy Note2.. Don't know if it is out or not.. should be coming out soon. Apple is banking big on this iPhone launch and hope that they have stuffed enough features for those expectations.. also.. I hope this won't have iPhone4 type of antennae bugs or some other bugs..

Keeping my fingers crossed.. I might be ordering it on the very first day of online launch.. keeping my fingers crossed..

Cheers!!!

DEBUT DATE?

Apple hints at newest iPhone

Shadowy image on invitation ramps up anticipation

By Patrick May and Troy Wolverton

Staff writers

Ready or not, here comes the iPhone 5.

With its trademark flair for anticipation-laden showmanship, Apple on Tuesday sent out media invitations for a Sept. 12 event in San Francisco. It offered up few details, except time (10 a.m.) and place (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, its traditional launchpad for new products).

But this time, in an unusual bit of hat-tipping, Apple included the shadow of the number 5 directly beneath the big 12 for the date. At the top of the invite were the words: “It’s almost here.” 

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APPLE

Apple’s media invite hints at a Sept. 12 unveiling for the anticipated iPhone 5.
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“A new iPhone is in line with all of our expectations,” said ISI analyst Brian Marshall. “Frankly, the iPhone 4S is a bit long in the tooth from a technological standpoint. For example, most smartphones now have the larger 4-inch screens, so I’m sure we’ll see the new iPhone with that larger screen as well.” 

Marshall estimates Apple will sell 41 million iPhone 5s in its December quarter and possibly more if its supply chain can keep up with what is expected to be crushing demand worldwide for the Cupertino tech giant’s latest product. 

“They could sell 50 million or more that quarter if things go right,” he said. 

An Apple representative did not respond to a call seeking comment. 

The date and subject of the Sept. 12 media event have been widely rumored in recent weeks. In addition to having a larger screen than previous iPhone models, the new phone is expected to have a radio that will allow it to connect to newer, highspeed 4G LTE networks. 

Analyst Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray said in a note to investors that Apple could sell millions of its new phone right out of the gate. “While we do not yet know the confirmed ship date of the iPhone 5, previous reports have suggested a September 21 ship date,” Munster said. “If the 21st ship date is true, the company may be able to sell 8 million iPhone 5s before the end of the quarter, assuming no supply issues.” 

By comparison, Apple sold 1 million units of its first iPhone in the first 74 days after it its June 2007 release. 

Apple has unveiled a new iPhone once a year. The company debuted the iPhone 4S, its most recent model, last October. 

Shares of Apple rose on the news. Apple closed up nearly 1.5 percent in trading Tuesday, ending the day at $674.97 a share. 

Contact Patrick May at 408-920-5689 and follow him at Twitter.com/ patmaymerc. 

Can Samsung takeover Apple in Smartphone Segment as well?

Samsung is already number one in overall cellphone market share. First time they overtook Nokia in World's largest Cell phone manufacturer. Nokia is trying a comeback and it would be interesting to see in next couple of quarters, how this will shape overall cellphone market. Along with Nokia & Samsung, it is Microsoft as well, whose future is at stake. Cell phones are already accounting for close to 50% of revenues of companies like Samsung and Apple.

As of now, Samsung is clear winner in overall Cellphone market. However, they face uphill battle with Apple's flagship iPhone. It will be difficult to compete with iPhone in terms of overall value and satisfaction. Unless, Apple goof's up big time in coming years, which they can as Steve Job's is not around and I am already feeling that new management is more focussed directly on share prices instead of customer satisfaction, usability and attention to details. We have to accept that nothing is permanent and current iPhone's dominance will go down sooner or later.

At the same time, Samsung is coming up with really great phones with really cool and great features and trying to compete hard with iPhone. However, in my view they need to focus more on some really great selected features and make them really easy and standardize across the board. They also need highlight and focus where Apple restrict's iPhone... and moreover, build some really cool and easy to use ecosystem. Bring some standardization across the devices so accessories can be useful. One feature which I really envy from Android phones is simplicity to play HD videos (1080p) directly to HDTV using HDMI cable.. But still, it has clumsy UI, especially as compared to iPhone. They need to work on reduction in number of clicks needed to accomplish things..

I haven't played too much on Samsung phones except to my stone age Blackjack long time back. Which was really clumsy phone based on Windows CE (or whatever it was called) and voice quality was so bad that I took a vow to never use Samsung phone. Only feature which I used to like was tethering of it which used to give me great internet connectivity to my laptop. However, with iPhone, 99% of time you don't need tethering, you can literally do everything on it, despite its lower screen size. I hope my nephew who works in Samsung is reading this and will soon send me some great samsung phone to try so I can write better review ;-)

Hope to see real good competition in coming days.. which should result in really cool phones for all of us. I hope, Motorola/Google will also churn out great phones in coming days.. so will Nokia with their MS collaboration... future seems to be great!!!


Samsung cellphones beat out Nokia’s

By Andrea Chang

Los Angeles Times

Samsung in the first quarterbecametheworld’s largest cellphone brand for the first time, overtaking longtime market leader Nokia. In the smartphone segment, Samsung remained in second place behind Apple, according to market research firm IHS iSuppli.

The South Korean electronics giant shipped 92 million cellphones worldwide in the first quarter, compared with 83 million for Nokia. While Samsung’s shipments declined by 13 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011, Nokia’s dropped by 27 percent.

In the smartphone segment, Apple shipped 35 million units in the first quarter compared with 32 million for Samsung. Apple’s smartphone shipments declined 5 percent from the fourth quarter, compared with 11 percent for Samsung. First-quarter declines in the shipments of smartphones and cellphones reflect normal seasonal patterns, in which sales decrease after the peak holiday period in the fourthquarter. “With cellphones now accounting for more than 40 percent of Samsung’s overall revenue, it’s clear that the company’s continued investments in smartphone hardware and software R&D are paying off,” said Wayne Lam, senior analyst of wireless communications at IHS. Lam noted that Samsung’s performance was even more impressive because its latest Galaxy S III handset has yet to be launched, with shipments set to start in May. “This indicates Samsung is likely to make further progress in market share in 2012,” he said.

Now Windows / Nokia Phone..

Has any one tried it out. I was big fan of Nokia Cell phones. Just Phone part.. I used to love it. There were the best.. In past, they were best phones when it comes to voice quality or working even in poor signal area. I rarely had any call drops on it. As compared to iPhone or even previously, those flashy Sony Ericson or even my Samsung Blackjack (anyone even remembers it :-) ).

I rarely see Nokia phones here in US. They are still very much popular in India and may be rest of the world. In US, due to dominance of Cell Providers, Nokia had almost zero market share. For some reasons, they failed to come up with any agreement with them. May be they were happy with non-US market.

Now with Microsoft alliance, I am guessing they are coming back. Nokia is known to be best in terms of hardware. However, we will have to see how there machines works or marry with crappy Microsoft OS. It will be interesting to watch and track how do they perform. I guess, future and reputation of two once upon a time best companies is at stake. I hope that they will come up with better cell phone and more importantly better overall experience for users and customers. Now a days, more important thing is overall experience and ecosystem around it. All thanks to Apple iPhone, customers are more demanding and levels are set much higher.

I guess, MS and Nokia should also come up with some thing like iPod touch type. With Skype in their bag, they can easily come up with good competitor for non cell phone type of devices to extend product range similar to iPhone, iPod-touch and even iPad. They can freely and aggressively sell and try it out. There is still ample of diet for good tablets. Especially for MS, if they can some how link their tablet to Desktop/Laptop.. May be MS tablet can introspect your desktop and bring applications and media on tablet automatically either on memory or may be thru their cloud. There could be great synergy for them. MS is still defacto leader in desktop area. If they help users migrate and ease pain by keeping data/application/media in sync they still might have some good story and can still successfully get good pie of the market.

AT&T to sell $100 Nokia phone

Rival to iPhone and Android devices will have LTE speed

By Scott Moritz

Bloomberg News

AT&T plans to start selling a Nokia smartphone with Microsoft software for half of what it charges for the iPhone, as the device’s makers seek to break Apple and Google’s dominance of the U.S. market. The Lumia 900, which runs on AT&T’s network using faster, so-called longterm- evolution technology, will start selling for $99.99 on April 8, the second-largest U.S. wireless carrier said Monday in a statement. The latest iPhone and newest handsets running Google’s Android software typically start at $199.

Nokia is counting on Microsoft’s Windows Phone software to reignite sales in the U.S., where the iPhone, Android makers such as Samsung Electronics and Research In Motion’s Black-Berry control 92 percent of the market. Microsoft is trying to increase its share of the mobile software market to expand beyond the slowergrowing personal-computer market.

“The pricing is aggressive,” said Avi Greengart, an analyst at research firm Current Analysis in Teaneck, N.J. “They are hoping to use price to get people to buy a product with an operating system they aren’t familiar with.”

To get the $99.99 price, customers need to sign a twoyear contract with AT&T. The Dallas-based carrier will also sell the phone without a contract for $449.99, said Steven Schwadron, an AT&T spokesman.

Those price points suggest that AT&T is subsidizing each Lumia by about $350. That compares with a $450 subsidy for the cheapest version iPhone 4S, which sells for $199 with a contract and $649 without one.Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, a former Microsoft executive, started rebuilding the Espoo, Finland-based company’s smartphone strategy around the Windows Phone operating system last year. Nokia had previously focused on its own MeeGo and Symbian operating systems.

Nokia and Microsoft have said they are willing to spend money to fuel sales. Microsoft said last year it would pay Nokia $1 billion to develop and promote Windows phones. Elop said in October that marketing spending on the Lumia series would be triple the money spent on previous product sales promotions.