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  • Samsung Galaxy S III Sales Top 40 Million

    Samsung Galaxy S III Sales Top 40 Million

    It’s official – the Galaxy S III is a real competitor to the iPhone. Samsung revealed this weekend that it has sold more than 40 million Galaxy S III smartphones. That’s as many units of the Galaxy S II that have sold in the nearly two years it has been available. The original Galaxy S only managed 24 million units sold. In total, the three Galaxy S smartphones Samsung has released have sold more than 100 million units.

    This news comes just as Apple is reportedly cutting orders for iPhone 5 components. Although the iPhone 5 was another a fast-selling record-breaker for the company, it appears that the anticipated demand for the device hasn’t materialized. The announcement has led to another drop in Apple’s stock price, which has been falling since the release of the latest iPhone.

    Samsung’s stock, on the other hand, has been steadily increasing since the release of the Galaxy S III. The Korean company’s latest announcement included the fact that average daily sales of their flagship Android smartphone are currently 190,000. Samsung has effectively taken over the high-end Android smartphone market, causing companies such as HTC to falter.

    Rumors are currently putting the release of the iPhone 5S (or whatever it will be called) and the Galaxy S IV will be released at the beginning of this summer. With the competition finally heating up, 2013 looks to be another transformative year for smartphone markets.

    (via BGR)

  • Apple Requests Samsung Product Bans Following Verdict

    Apple is wasting no time taking advantage of its big court victory against Samsung last week. Having read through the verdict, Apple has now released a list of 8 Samsung devices it says it wants banned from being sold in the U.S. Bloomberg is reporting that a court filing by Apple requests that Judge Lucy Koh, who oversaw the Apple vs. Samsung trial, to ban the following devices:

    • Galaxy S II 4G
    • Galaxy S II (AT&T)
    • Galaxy S II (T-Mobile)
    • Galaxy S II Epic 4G (Sprint)
    • Galaxy S II Skyrocket
    • Galaxy S Showcase
    • Droid Charge
    • Galaxy Prevail

    While some of these devices would be hard to find on U.S. store shelves anyway, the Galaxy S II has been among Samsung’s best-selling smartphones. A ban on the Galaxy S II could be costly for the company. An injunction hearing on September 20th will be held to determine which products, if any, should be banned.

    The verdict had a predictable effect on both Apple and Samsung’s stock prices, sending Samsung’s market value plummeting. News of actual product bans, not just the fear of bans by investors, would no doubt harm Samsung’s stock prices even more. Still, the entire endeavor may end up having been worth it for Samsung, which over the past year has begun to consolidate the Android smartphone market and is now is a real position to compete with Apple.

    Since the jury in last week’s trial returned a verdict of $1.049 billion against Samsung for violating Apple patents, both companies have issued their take on the verdict. Apple has declared itself a victim of its own brilliant design and innovation, while Samsung has lamented the state of U.S. patent law and the stifling of competition they believe the verdict represents. Meanwhile, Google has been rather dismissive with regard to the case, stating that the verdict doesn’t affect its core Android operating system, and that some of the Apple patents are being re-examined by the U.S. Patent Office anyway.

  • AT&T Gives Galaxy S II An Ice Cream Sandwich, Then Takes It Away

    AT&T Gives Galaxy S II An Ice Cream Sandwich, Then Takes It Away

    The hot item around the country today is the Samsung Galaxy S III. Samsung’s latest may be having all the tech and Android blogs in a tizzy, but there are a lot of people who are still happy with the Galaxy S II. If you bought the phone through AT&T, you were eligible for an upgrade for a bit.

    Over on the Android Central forums, it was found that AT&T began pushing Android 4.0 out to Galaxy S II owners through Samsung’s Kies software. It was supposed to be a simple update that would take less than 10 minutes and give Galaxy S II owners some delicious Ice Cream Sandwich. Unfortunately, it’s not working for everyone.

    Soon after the news of the update went out, many forum posters began reporting that the Kies software told them that there was no update available for their device. After a lot of troubleshooting for various things that could delay the update, it was decided that AT&T mistakenly leaked Android 4.0 before it was ready. Just as well since one user reported that it was just base 4.0 and not the latest 4.0.4.

    Jumping around the other Android forums reveals a similar problem. There are people who have been able to upgrade to ICS, but the majority seems to have trouble upgrading. At least we know that the update is out there and being applied to some users so it should be getting around to everybody soon enough.

    As to the cause of the potential problem, one moderator says that AT&T will rollout major updates like ICS over regions so as not to bog down the servers. It could also have been the aforementioned premature leak. Both scenarios seem entirely plausible at this point in time.

    As you wait for ICS to hit your device, you should go download Kies to be ready. You can only update to ICS with the desktop version as it’s not available over the air. Be warned: Some users are reporting that ICS is performing somewhat sluggishly on the Galaxy S II so be sure you want to upgrade if your current Gingerbread installation works just fine.

    UPDATE: AT&T just got in contact with us about the ICS upgrade. Here’s their official statement:

    We plan for the upgrade to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) for Galaxy S II customers to be live very soon. Like with every OS update, we test it on our servers before we roll it out to customers. We’re in the process of doing that with Android 4.0 (ICS) for Galaxy S II customers and hope to make that live soon. We recommend customers wait to attempt the update. More information will be available as soon as the update is published at http://blogs.att.net/consumerblog.

    It seems that speculation over it being a leak was indeed accurate. If you weren’t able to get ICS when it dropped this morning, you’ll just have to wait. If you did, you probably got a test version that’s still unstable. We’ll let you know when it’s officially available.

  • Samsung Hits Success With Its Galaxy Note and S Devices

    Apple is really good at what they do. Just looking at sales numbers for the iPad and iPhone prove that. You know who else is really good at what they do? Samsung, with its Galaxy Note and S devices, has been on a roll lately.

    That roll ended up with Samsung selling 7 million Galaxy Note devices worldwide since the device’s introduction. I was one of those skeptics who didn’t think a phone/tablet hybrid could do well on the market. Samsung has proven me wrong and their success could be what’s driving Apple to create the rumored mini-iPad.

    The Galaxy Note may be doing well, but it’s nowhere near the success that the company has seen with its Galaxy S line of phones. The Galaxy S has now reached 24 million in worldwide sales. Despite being released after, the Galaxy S II has now reached 28 million in worldwide sales. Samsung also pointed out that it sold eight million Galaxy S II and two million Galaxy S devices since last February.

    So, what’s next for Samsung? The Galaxy S III, of course, which has already launched across Europe. Over nine million pre-orders have been taken for the device as well so it’s pretty obvious that Samsung has another hit on their hands.

    The Galaxy series sales news must have Samsung patting themselves on the back and for good reason. The company is moving on up and becoming one of, if not the most, important players in the Android scene. Google’s acquisition of Motorola may put a little dent in their plans as Motorola starts to roll out specially designed Android phones straight from Google.

    Samsung may not have the advantage from a software standpoint, but they obviously know what they’re doing when it comes to hardware. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the most important thing. Android is so flexible that you can change the software if it bothers you that much. You can’t change the hardware of your phone yet. That’s where Samsung needs to apply itself to gain the advantage.

  • Ice Cream Sandwich For Galaxy S II Skyrocket Leaked

    Two weeks ago Samsung began rolling out upgrades for the popular Galaxy S II smartphone. The updates brought Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the most recent version of Google’s smartphone/tablet operating system, to Samsung’s flagship phone. There was just one problem: the upgrades were starting in South Korea (where Samsung is based), as well as Hungary, Poland, Sweden, and other European countries. The UK was set to follow on March 19th, pending carrier approval, but there was no word on the US. When asked to clarify, Samsung said that there was no further information on when Ice Cream Sandwich would be coming to American Galaxy S II owners.

    Whether Ice Cream Sandwich will ever come to the Galaxy S II in America is unclear – it’s possible that Samsung will delay the update in order to prompt people to upgrade to the Galaxy S III, which may be due out in May. If there’s one thing, though, that smartphone makers have had to learn and re-learn over the last few years, it’s that if you tell your customers that they can’t have something, some of them will figure out a way to get it anyway. That’s why there are those who jailbreak or root their iOS or Android devices (respectively). Now it looks like Galaxy S II users aren’t going to be denied their Ice Cream Sandwich after all.

    According to a post today on RootzWiki, a build of Ice Cream Sandwich designed specifically for the Galaxy S II Skyrocket has been leaked. According to the post, the OS appears to have been designed specifically for the Galaxy S II, and it’s available to anybody who wants it (and has the know-how to install it on their phone). The OS apparently has the hallmarks of an official Samsung-designed build, but of course, that may not be the case.

    Will you put Ice Cream Sandwich on your Galaxy S II? Should Samsung go ahead and release the software to US customers? Let us know in the comments.

  • Samsung Clarifies U.S. Release Date For Ice Cream Sandwich

    This morning we reported that Samsung had announced that it was beginning to roll out upgrades to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to customers with the Galaxy S II smartphone.

    Samsung announced that the update would be available in Korea and several European countries today. A release in the UK is scheduled for March 19th, pending carrier testing and approval. There was no information in the announcement about the release of Ice Cream Sandwich on Galaxy S II phones in the US.

    As part of this morning’s story, a request for more information was sent to Samsung. They had not replied by the time the story ran, however a Samsung representative sent the following statement just a few minutes ago:

    Samsung is in close communication with both Google and our carrier partners to upgrade eligible devices to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as quickly and as smoothly as possible. Specific models that are upgradable to ICS will vary by market. Other specifics for the ICS upgrade in the U.S. have not been announced.

    So there you have. It looks like US Samsung customers will have to wait a bit longer for the update. While it is undoubtedly in Samsung’s best interest to get Ice Cream Sandwich to its devices in the US market as quickly as possible, there doesn’t seem to be any timeline for doing so.

  • Ice Cream Sandwich Finally Coming To Galaxy S II

    Late last week Samsung accidentally teased owners of their popular Galaxy S II smartphone when they posted and then retracted news that the phone would be getting the latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, on March 10th. The inaccurate information was apparently put up on Samsung’s website by mistake. The company quickly corrected the mistake and promised that real news of the update would be coming at a later date.

    Well, it looks like that later date is today. Samsung announced this morning that they would begin delivering Ice Cream Sandwich to the Galaxy S II today. The upgrade begins in Samsung’s native South Korea, as well as several European countries including Hungary, Poland, and Sweden. Other international rollouts have not yet been announced. A Samsung representative told Pocket Lint that customers in the UK would be getting Ice Cream Sandwich on March 19th, pending carrier testing and approval.

    A request for comment concerning the US rollout has not yet been answered.

    Samsung also announced that Ice Cream Sandwich would be coming to several more of its mobile devices in the coming months. After the Galaxy S II update, upgrades to the Galaxy Note, Galaxy S II LTE, Galaxy R, and most Galaxy Tabs are scheduled to “follow soon.”

    Ice Cream Sandwich brings Android users a variety of cool new features, including Face Unlock, Photo Editor, and more – including the ability to download Chrome for Android.

  • Samsung Announces Then Denies Galaxy S II Update

    Samsung announced yesterday on their website that their Galaxy S II smartphone would be finally be getting an update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on March 10th. Understandably, Galaxy S II users were excited to see the latest version of the Android operating system coming to their phones.

    Their excitement was short-lived, however. Not long after the announcement went up on Samsung’s website, however, they posted the following to the official Samsung Electronics Twitter feed:

    @samsungtomorrow
    Samsung Electronics    [알려드립니다] 10일부터 갤럭시S2 ICS 업그레이드가 된다는 필리핀 삼성전자 홈페이지 글은 잘못 올라간 게시물로 사실과 다릅니다. 업그레이드 일정이 확정이 되면 트위터를 통해서 말씀드리도록 하겠습니다. 7 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    Now on the off chance your Korean is a little rusty, it says (according to Google Translate) that the post concerning the Galaxy S II Ice Cream Sandwich update was incorrect, and that the company would announce the update at a later date.

    So if you were excited to update your Galaxy S II to Ice Cream Sandwich, it looks like you’ll have to get by on Gingerbread for awhile yet. There’s no information on when the update might actually roll out. For the time being, then, the only Samsung phone running Ice Cream Sandwich appears to be the Galaxy Nexus, which launched late last year.

    Are you disappointed by the news that the Galaxy S II won’t be getting ICS yet? Tell us what you think in the comments.

  • Samsung Takes A Dig At Apple Fans In New Ad

    Samsung has released a new ad making fun of iPhone fans. Entitled “Samsunged” the ad takes a subtle shot at the iPhone’s battery life issues, and picks on the iPhone’s lack of built-in turn-by-turn navigation. It shows a group of would-be iPhone buyers waiting in line outside an Apple store, talking with a hipster (complete with fixed-gear bike) about his Samsung Galaxy S II phone. When they realize that his phone comes with turn-by-turn navigation functionality built in, one of them says “We just got Samsunged.” Yes, “Samsunged.” Check it out for yourself below:

    As commercials go, it’s hardly the worst I’ve seen, but it comes across as one of those ads that really wants to be clever but doesn’t quite manage it. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

  • Apple Sues Samsung (Again) To Halt Sales In Germany

    Whew. 2012 arrived and there was a brief concern that Apple and Samsung might drop their 2011 pastime of suing each other in as many countries as possibly. Lucky for, uh, I guess people who could win lawsuits, they have not resolved to cease their legal battles this year.

    Bloomberg reports today that Apple has filed yet another lawsuit in Germany, this time seeking to ban sales of multiple Samsung devices. The design suit, which focuses on Samsung smartphones such as Galaxy S Plus and the S II, alleges that the models violate Apple’s design rights. As if the fun should stop there – and why should it – Apple filed a separate lawsuit against five Samsung tablets. The Bloomberg report continues:

    Last month, the Dusseldorf court said it is unlikely to grant an injunction against the Galaxy 10.1N and an appeals court also voiced doubts about the reach of Apple’s European Union design right that won the company the injunction against the Galaxy 10.1. The new suits aren’t filed under emergency proceedings and allow Apple a new procedure against both models.

    The end of last year was witness to an international back-and-forth court room dispute between Samsung and Apple that played out in courts in the United States, Germany and Australia. No word yet on where they plan to take their Patent Lawsuit World Tour next.

    To be fair, though, not all of this design war is futile act of hair-splitting. At the beginning of this year, you may recall the debut of the Samsung Ace, which was a might familiar looking if you’re an Apple fanboy.

  • iPhone, Samsung Smartphone Demand Remains High After Holidays

    iPhone, Samsung Smartphone Demand Remains High After Holidays

    It looks like a lack of Christmas isn’t slowing down anybody’s desire to buy smartphones. ChangeWave Research, an independent research firm that examines consumer behavior, has found that people are still clamoring to get their hands on iPhones and Samsung smartphones.

    Unsurprisingly, demand for Apple’s iPhones continues to dominate the market months after the release of the iPhone 4S. ChangeWave, who tracks consumer behavior in quarterly reports throughout the year, states that “Apple has never dominated smart phone planned buying to this extent more than two months after a major new release.” Again, it’s not exactly news to blow your hair back but it’s suggestive of the Siri factor that the iPhone 4S offers users.

    The amount of people who plan to buy an iPhone has steadily increased over the past four years with the predictable spikes of interest whenever a new iPhone was released. Traditionally, the amount of people intending to purchase an iPhone drops precipitously a few months after the release of a new model but then establishes a new baseline that is higher than the previous baseline percentage of people planning to buy an iPhone before a new model is released. Apple, in other words, are wizards at creating a sustained interest after the release of iPhones.

    What’s more telling is that, while iPhone’s demand has remained strong, it’s dipped 11% from September to December among people planning to purchase a smartphone within the next 90 days. Alternately, the amount of people planning to purchase a Samsung smartphone climbed 8% in the same time period. Combine that with the 2% increase of consumers planning to purchase a Motorola smartphone and you can pretty much see where that missing 11% of would-be iPhone buyers went. In case you forgot, Samsung launched a pretty wild campaign for their Samsung Galaxy S II phone by singling out iPhone users as an affected group of Kool-aid-swilling consumers. While this wouldn’t normally resonate among consumer trends, the December 2011 marks the single-highest increase of people planning on buying a Samsung smartphone in the past four years. That said, it seems Samsung’s left a favorable impression on the minds of potential buyers.

    Maybe Samsung’s new market of planned buyers were poached from Apple or maybe they’ve managed to appeal to a sect of consumers who, until now, had remained smartphone-less. When ChangeWave releases their data for March later this year a clearer picture of how (or if) Samsung has chipped into Apple’s market dominance will take a firmer shape.

  • Samsung Galaxy S II Outsells iPhone 4S in UK

    Samsung and their Galaxy S II continue to cramp Apple’s style. First, they toss a pie at the face of Apple’s tribe of loyalists, then Samsung wins Pocket-lint’s Gadget Award for Best Phone of the Year and then, only a couple of days later, they manage to fend off the release of Apple’s iPhone 4S and retain the spot of the best selling phone in the UK for November. This latest victory for Samsung marks the eighth consecutive month the Galaxy S II has topped the list of phone sales in the UK.

    Some assert that iPhone’s failure to overtake the Galaxy S II in sales is owed to a supply deficiency during the Apple device’s first month on the shelves. However, Samsung has received some attention because of the aggressive initiative taken in targeting Apple and the iPhone 4S with advertisements that attempt to make the case that it’s now cool to not be an affected cool person (This is basically the “I know you are but what am I?” tactic in cellphone battles). So far, Samsung has given no quarter to Apple – they won’t even let Apple be the only company with claims of crotch-combusting technology. That’s some real dedication you got to winning there, Samsung.

    It’s a telling sign of the times whenever Apple “fails” to be number one at something and that constitutes news, as if they are perpetually expected to be this juggernaut of technology that topples all competitors without breaking a sweat. That’s the high cost of being awesome a lot, I suppose. At this point it’s hard to conclude whether Samsung’s ad campaign has been pivotal enough to actually depress sales of the iPhone 4S or, as retailers have speculated, if the only thing keeping Apple from trouncing the Galaxy S II in the UK is merely a matter of supply-and-demand. I haven’t seen any data that supports the latter explanation – if you have found any, please post in the comments.

  • Galaxy S II Catches Fire In Guy’s Pants

    Talk about a close call. A really, really close call.

    Apparently, a Samsung Galaxy S II caught fire inside someone’s pocket. The incident was reported on the xda-developers forums, by a friend who seemed to be seeing at least a little bit of humor in the situation:

    My friend almost lost his nuts! He said he heard a sound, a burning sensation on his leg and as he pulled this piece of junk out of his pocket he smelled burning. There was smoke coming out of his pocket and out of the phone. LoL, He said he was scared.

    You think? One time a friend secretly dropped a lit firecracker in my front pocket. I imagine the situation was similar.

    According to the report, the victim hadn’t even had the phone for longer than two weeks and hadn’t recently used it either – it was just sitting, cold in his pocket. He posted some photos of the melted device to prove his story. From the looks of those photos, it appears that the battery may be to blame for the incident:

    It appears that iPhones aren’t the only smartphones spontaneously blowing up these days. Two high profile reports emerged earlier this week about Apple devices smoking and catching fire. The first came from Australia, where a group of passengers were startled when one of their iPhone 4s began smoking and emitting a red glow. Luckily, they were in the process of landing. Officials are still investigating the cause of the incident.

    A few days later, a man in Brazil had a bad morning when he awoke to his iPhone 4 on fire, only inches away from his face. It’s thought that the battery could be the issue in those cases as well.

    So look out, guys. It’s not just the radiation that could hurt your reproductive prowess when you carry your smartphone in your pocket.

    [Via RegHardware]

  • Galaxy S II’s Facebook App: Samsung’s Latest Jab At Apple

    Hey, remember these commercials?

    You probably do because it was pretty effective in establishing the “cool” cult of personality that most people identify with Mac while simultaneously categorizing PCs as a square, inadequate, and just not very hip to be seen with.

    The thing is, Apple may have done too good of a job with this ad campaign, and their competitors have been taking notes. You may have heard about the patent dispute currently going on between Samsung and Apple and, more amusingly, have likely seen Samsung’s latest commercial for their Galaxy S II:

    Yup. Samsung is trying to turn the cafeteria tables on Apple by taking a page out of Apple’s own playbook. I gotta admit, that’s a pretty bold swipe Samsung took with their new commercial by accentuating the risible and affected archetype so often associated with Apple’s legion of fans. Stepping up this spirit fight of the hip tech culture, Samsung has now released a Facebook app where users can compare specs of the new Samsung Galaxy S II with the iPhone 4S as well as… an old cordless phone from the 80s and a couple of cans attached by a string. The app also allows visitors to post comments about how much cooler they think the Galaxy S II is than the iPhone4S. While the campaign grabs your attention pretty quickly, there’s also this uncomfortable suggestion of techno-virility (or impotence, depending on which device you use) loaded in each of their tag-lines on this app:

    “The next BIG THING is ALREADY HERE.”

    “I’m experiencing serious phone envy.”

    “It’s so thin… and that screen is massive!”

    See where that’s going yet? Thought so.

    Still, lumping the newest iPhone in with examples of communication devices you’d find in an Acme Corporation catalog is a pretty hilarious move from Samsung. It remains to be seen whether it’s effective enough to even cause a blemish on Apple’s shining armor of cool, but this is a pretty good start. What do you think of this latest move in Samsung’s ad push for the Samsung Galaxy S II? Effective or egregious? Leave your comments below