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SELLER OF SHINY TOYS Apple might not be on top of the smartphone market in March, according to Strategy Analytics.

A day after Apple was installed as the leading smartphone vendor by Strategy Analytics, the firm told The INQUIRER that the ding-dong battle between Apple and Samsung will continue for a while. Scott Bicheno, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics told The INQUIRER that there is a good chance that Samsung will regain its top spot in the first quarter of 2012.

Yesterday Strategy Analytics published figures showing that Apple was the top smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter of 2011, overtaking Samsung. The figures showed Apple edging out Samsung by 500,000 units with 37m units shipped.

Bicheno said, “We expect to see the smartphone number one spot being occupied by either Samsung or Apple for a few more quarters. Furthermore, the fact that Samsung got so close to Apple in what was an exceptional quarter for Iphone sales suggests Samsung has a strong chance of retaking the crown in Q1 2012.”

That Apple and Samsung will battle it out for top position is not all that surprising given the disasterous year suffered by LG, Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson. However if Samsung can regain its top-spot from Apple it will show that the company is a serious, long term challenger.

Strategy Analytics’ figures for fourth quarter 2011 shipments highlighted just how bad things are at Nokia, with the outfit claiming Nokia shipped 19.6m units, down almost 9m from the same period a year previously. As for global market share, Nokia almost made Research in Motion look successful, showing a drop of 15.5 per cent to 12.6 per cent.

When asked whether the many lawsuits between Apple and Samsung were having an effect on actual sales, Bicheno didn’t seem to think so.

“We have seen little evidence of the lawsuits affecting retail sales – as our latest smartphone figures imply. So far the impact of any minor legal defeats has been minimal and we haven’t seen the kinds of blanket sales bans litigants have been aiming for. That could change at any time, of course, and the only thing that does seem certain is that it will be another busy year for the patent lawyers,” said Bicheno.

Bicheno’s comments suggest that Apple’s legal battles to get countries to ban the import and sale of certain Samsung devices are seeing little effect. Perhaps this could encourage firms to stop fighting in the courts but, as Bicheno suggested, that seems unlikely. µ

IRISH BETTING FIRM Paddy Power has started accepting bets on what Apple’s first announcement of the year will be.

Apple has confirmed an event at the end of the month in New York when it will be making its first announcement of 2012. As usual there is an air of mystery surrounding the event so Paddy Power wants to cash in.

There have been a typically large number of rumours as to what the announcement will be, with many related to the next Ipad. Paddy Power’s favourite is electronic or digital textbooks with odds of 1:6.

A spokesman for Paddy Power said, “Like all tech junkies I’m awaiting the latest Apple announcement with bated breath, it looks very likely that they’re on the verge of launching electronic textbooks but I don’t think it’s beyond those geniuses at Apple to build a robot teacher!”

Coming in second and third are the Ipad Lite and Ipad 3 with odds of 6:1 and 9:1, respectively. Further down the list are a new Imac, Apple TV and the Iphone 5.

If you fancy a lucky punt then the firm is taking bets for a fruit themed robot teacher with odds of 40:1. You can also bet on how many Ipads Apple will announce this year. Interestingly the most likely is two with odds of 4:5 closely followed by one at 10:11 and the odds of none are 16:1.

We reported earlier this month that the announcement could be related to its Ibook service. The location could be a clue, as New York is the US stronghold of publishing media empires and advertising businesses. Apple traditionally announces hardware on the west coast of the US.

This isn’t the first time that the firm has taken the opportunity to rake in some money and it did the same thing in the months just prior to previous Iphone and Ipad announcements. µ

FLOGGER OF SHINY TOYS Apple has lost in an early court decision over the future of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany.

The two firms have been battling over patents and designs for some time now, and last month Samsung said it was going to change the design of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet to get Apple off its back.

“The newly modified device will be renamed the Galaxy Tab 10.1N and we’ve made two changes to the design,” said Samsung spokesman Jason Kim. “The design of the bezel has been changed and the speaker has also been relocated.”

Apple was not keen on this of course, and said so, in its oft-released statement. “It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”

Then Apple appealed to have the hardware banned. The ruling in that appeal came down today. According to Reuters the judge dismissed Apple’s concerns, saying that Samsung had done enough to distance its hardware from its competition.

“According to the court’s assessment, the defendant has moved away sufficiently from the legally protected design,” said Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann.

Last week Samsung fired back at Apple in Germany and issued four patent challenges in Apple’s direction.

We have asked both Apple and Samsung to comment on the court’s decision. µ

A HACKER has rejigged Apple’s voice-activated personal assistant Siri to control a TV, with some interesting results.

The hacker, Tood Treece has posted a short blog and a video of Siri in action, which can change channels and switch the TV off with just voice commands. However, some additional hardware has been introduced for the system to make it work.

Siri responds to questions such as, “Siri, can you change the channel to the History channel?” and it responds with information about what’s playing on that channel and asks the user to confirm the switch.

We particularly like the response Siri gives after discovering Piers Morgan Tonight is on CNN. “Do you really want to watch this crap?”

The Iphone sends a command to an Arduino microcontroller via transmission control protocol (TCP) and the required information is gathered from a TV guide web site.

This project is based on the same open source proxy code as the thermostat hack we saw last month. It’s an expensive way to control your TV, but Siri type technology is looking more and more likely to be the future of controlling the home. µ

Siri Universal Remote from toddtreece on Vimeo.

ANALYST OUTFIT Asymco is predicting that the sales growth of Apple IOS devices will significantly slow down in the coming five years.

Asymco’s figures show that Apple’s IOS devices will continue to grow in popularity, however the rate of sales growth will fall for the next five years, it predicts, dipping below 25 per cent after 2015. Nevertheless, according to the firm’s figures there will be close to 600 million Apple IOS devices by 2016.

Apple’s IOS devices have been star performers for the firm, with the Iphone and Ipad leading Apple’s sales surge. Although there is little surprise to see IOS’ staggering growth tailing off, the drop will be dramatic and sustained, according to Asymco’s figures.

Asymco forecasts IOS growth to be just over 75 per cent in 2011, but a 20+ per cent drop in growth during 2012, with the firm forecasting that Apple will ship 260 million IOS devices next year.

Although Asymco is forecasting slowing growth, it predicts that the vast majority of IOS users will be upgrading to new IOS devices, not heading off to Google’s Android. And if Apple can keep hold of its existing customer base, slowing growth will be of less concern, as after all there are only so many customers in the world.

Asymco’s figures might be crystal ball gazing but it highlights the issue Apple is facing with increased competition in the smartphone and tablet markets. Although Apple still enjoys the vast majority of tablet sales, in the smartphone market Android has long since overtaken Apple, and slowing growth could be the prelude to a sales decline. µ

KOREAN ELECTRONICS GIANT Samsung is seeking depositions from Apple’s top product designers in its legal battle against the firm.

Apple and Samsung have been in a bitter and widespread patent battle with lawsuits and countersuits going on in courts all over the world. Now Samsung’s US lawyers are seeking depositions from Apple’s top product designers Jonathan Ive, Douglas Satzger, Shin Nishibori and Christopher Stringer.

While Ive’s role within Apple is well known, the other three designers all had significant input into some of Apple’s most popular products, with Nishibori and Stringer appearing on several Apple patent applications. Interestingly, Satzger was last seen leaving Apple to work for Palm, though there is no word on whether he is currently working for HP, which bought Palm.

Samsung had originally planned for these depositions to happen in mid-October but filed another motion to delay, citing unavailability by Satzger, Nishibori, Ive and Stringer.

Samsung’s request for depositions concerns only the US case between Apple and Samsung, which was originally filed in April 2011 and is expected to reach trial in July 2012. It will be interesting to see if Samsung manages to get Apple’s creative gurus to somehow help its case. After all, it’s highly unlikely that Ive and the others will say that the Iphone and Ipad were not products of their own creative minds. µ

KOREAN ELECTRONICS GIANT Samsung shipped more than 20 million smartphones in its previous quarter, beating its fierce rival Apple.

Samsung’s smartphone range spans three operating systems and, according to the Wall Street Journal, the firm has managed to overtake Apple and Nokia by shipping over 20 million in the three months up to 30 September 2011. In comparison, Apple revealed that it had sold 17.1 million smartphones in its most recent quarter, while yesterday Nokia said it had sold 16.8 million.

Samsung has done exceedingly well with Google’s Android operating system. Its Galaxy range has gone from strength to strength. Although the company also has Windows Phone devices and ones running its own Bada operating system, Won-Pyo Hong, EVP of global product strategy at Samsung said at the Allthingsdigital Asia conference, “our relationship with Google was key”.

Hong’s comments regarding the firm’s relationship with Google are exemplified by its Nexus S and most recently Galaxy Nexus devices, both of which were the first devices to have access to the latest version of Android.

Interestingly the WSJ said Samsung does not disclose smartphone shipments, but earlier this week the firm celebrated 30 million shipments of its Galaxy S and Galaxy S II smartphones. However, there was no word on how many of those devices actually ended up in the hands of punters.

While Samsung might have shipped more smartphones than Apple, it did so by having a large portfolio of products. Apple, on the other hand, managed to reach its 17.1 million devices sold by selling just the Iphone 3GS and the Iphone 4, making a lot more cash in the process. µ

FLOGGER OF SHINY TOYS Apple will hold its Iphone 5 launch at its campus in Cupertino, California.

Sources close to the cappuccino company told Allthingsd that the 4 October event will not be held at its usual San Francisco location.

The reason for the change of venue wasn’t made clear, though it could be that Apple’s usual venue, the Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts (YBCA), was already booked. Whatever the reason, significantly fewer people can fit into Apple’s town hall, making for a more ‘exclusive’ event.

Last week, it was revealed that Apple plans to make the Iphone 5 available within a few weeks of the announcement on 4 October.

Earlier this month, the shape of Apple’s upcoming Iphone 5 was apparently revealed when accessories maker Case-Mate ‘leaked’ images of a case for the device.

Before that, we reported that fruit themed toy seller Apple had lost another Iphone prototype in a bar.

All we can say is that in a week it will all be over, until next year that is. µ

SHINY TOY MAKER Apple could slap its bitter rival Samsung with yet another lawsuit after the Korean manufacturer unveiled plans to ship a white version of its Galaxy S II smartphone.

Apple is already suing Samsung for “slavishly copying” the designs of the Iphone 4 and Ipad 2. Many would have thought this would lead Samsung to be a little bit more careful about future devices, but no.

Samsung appears to be laughing in the face of legal action, as its latest strategy is to release a white version of its flagship device, although its reasoning appears completely innocent.

“[Following] the success of the original Galaxy S II released in May this year, the popular handset will now be available in white in the UK,” the Korean firm said.

However, no one actually knows the exact sales figures for the Galaxy S II. Samsung has yet to confirm to The INQUIRER the figure of 5 million units shipped that has been bandied about.

Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs is likely to think that Samsung is trying to ride on the back of the success of the white Apple Iphone 4. After all, the mystical white device did whip up Apple fanbois into a frenzy, driving sales of the ageing smartphone.

With the cappuccino company always ready to claim ownership over everything that has ever been successful, such as the term ‘App Store’, Apple’s lawyers will no doubt try to argue that the white Iphone was original and that no one else should be allowed to even think about using the same colour, let alone ship such a device.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see Apple try to get an injunction before the proposed release date of 1 September.

Still, even if Apple sues and Samsung doesn’t manage to get the white Galaxy S II smartphone to market, at least it can have the comfort of knowing that it has never charged a customer 122 times for a piece of software. µ

THE LATEST OVERPRICED CREATION from Apple’s Mac Mini line has gone under the scalple showing just how much over the odds fanbois are willing to pay for a shiny logo and some angular industrial design.

Apple’s Mac Mini is supposed to represent a low-cost Macintosh computer and years ago it was not a bad bit of kit for the price. However the latest version, which came out earlier this week, costs upwards of £529 and Apple thinks a £849 version can be used as a server. But after the chaps at Ifixit took the latest Mac Mini apart we were left to wonder whether you could even stuff £529 worth of tenners into an empty Mac Mini.

Being fair to Apple, its design department has been very clever in slimming down the Mac Mini further. No smoke and mirrors here, oh no, just remove the built in DVD writer and watch the fanbois fawn over ‘cleaner lines’, creating an opportunity for Apple to flog the same USB drive it offers Macbook Air customers for £66.

After taking the lid off Apple’s ‘mid 2011′ Mac Mini, the Ifixit boys found out that there is enough space for a second hard drive, though Apple doesn’t provide the connections required to hook one up to the motherboard. However Apple kindly offers fanbois the option to make use of this space by opting to have a 750GB SATA drive and a 256GB SSD for only £600, doubling the cost of a Mac Mini. At that sort of price the space inside the Mac Mini is priced higher per square inch than most of London’s Zone 1.

On the whole Apple has done a very good job of packaging the pint size money hole, and it should be commended that it can fit a 2.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 chip into such a small space.

What users can easily do, as is evident from Ifixit’s teardown, is upgrade RAM and the hard drive easily, which is probably more than what most fanbois would ever dare to do. That said, after spending so much to buy a Mac Mini, most fanbois won’t have the cash left over to upgrade anyway. µ