Intel and AMD know a thing or three about processors, and between the two, there's barely any room left over in the desktop market for competing players. In the mobile handset and tablet sectors, however, both chip giants play second fiddle to ARM, which rules the mobile roost with low power processors. The reason for this is simple: ARM processors are cheaper.
There's a funny thing taking place in the mobile phone market. The first portable handsets were big and bulky, and the race was on to deliver smaller, slimmer phones. Then mobile phones got smart with touchscreens, dual-core processors, full-fled operating systems, and all sorts of advanced features, and now the trend is towards bigger devices, culminating in handsets like Samsung's Galaxy Note and, as teased to the Web, LG's Optimus Vu.
Finnish phone maker Nokia today outlined plans to shed roughly 4,000 workers combined from three separate smartphone production plants in Komarom, Hungary, Reynosa, Mexico, and Salo, Finland. What remains of the three factories will focus on smartphone product customization for customers mainly in Europe and the Americas, while smartphone production at large will be diverted to Asia where the majority of component suppliers hang their hats, Nokia said.
With such a steady clip of Droid devices marching into the smartphone marketplace, eventually you're bound to find the Droid you're looking for. Maybe it's Motorola's Droid 4 you've been holding out for, a 4G LTE smartphone with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, five-row QWERTY keyboard, and a 4-inch qHD display with scratch and scrape resistant glass. If so, you only have to wait a few more days.
Thinking about signing up with Verizon Wireless? If so, you may want to hold off a few days before inking a two-year service agreement with Big Red. Word on the Web is that Verizon is resurrecting its double data promotion for 4G LTE smartphones, which means instead of being allotted a rather snug 2GB data cap for $30/month, you'd be given room to breathe in a 4GB cap for the same monthly fee.
Last month, there were rumors that Samsung was going to unveil the successor to the hugely successful Galaxy S2 smartphone at this month’s Mobile World Congress event. But last week the South Korean electronics giant nipped all such rumors in the bud when it confirmed to our sister site TechRadar that the Galaxy S3 “will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year” and not during MWC 2012 in Barcelona. The company may have put that particular rumor to rest with its timely statement, but it’s very difficult, if not entirely impossible, to keep the rumor mill from churning out fresh rumors for too long.
Nobody in their right mind would dump their desktop or notebook PC for a smartphone, but plenty of people are willing to own both as they seek to stay connected and check email on the fly. Underscoring this point is fact that smartphone sales in 2011 skipped ahead of PC sales, and by a pretty wide margin, according to data released by Canalys.
While Apple's been busy trying to chase Samsung's Galaxy line out of the Milky Way, Android device makers have ganged up on the Cupertino outfit and experienced a spattering of success. The latest setback for Apple comes from a second German patent ruling against the company over its iCloud service that was brought about by Motorola Mobility, which is currently being acquired by Google.
Your choice of smartphone might say more about your love life (or lack thereof, as the case may be) than you think. Prone to office romances? You're probably toting an iPhone. Android users aren't as picky about where they hook up, and out of all smartphone users, they're the most likely to have a one-night stand, a new survey reveals.
AT&T and Samsung announced the Galaxy Note smartphone at AT&T's Developer Summit leading up to the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month, and in just a couple of weeks, you'll be able to own one. The Galaxy Note will be available in carbon blue and ceramic white in AT&T stores beginning February 19, 2012 for $300 with a two-year service agreement, AT&T announced today.
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