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KOREAN SMARTPHONE VENDOR Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy S Advance smartphone ahead of mobile world congress (MWC).

The Galaxy S Advance is Samsung’s latest addition to its already crowded Galaxy range of smartphones. This one offers similar specifications to the original Galaxy S but with a 1GHz dual-core processor.

JK Shin, president of IT and mobile communications at Samsung said, “The Galaxy S Advance adds to the successful track record of the Galaxy smartphone range with a phone that combines power and style with all the versatility of Samsung’s Hub services.”

The Galaxy S Advance has the same 4in Super AMOLED screen as the Galaxy S, but it’s curved like the Galaxy Nexus. It also has the same 5MP rear camera and almost identical dimensions. It will come with a better 768MB of RAM, 8GB or 16GB of internal storage and a 1.3MP front facing camera.

It will ship with Android 2.3 Gingerbread rather than Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Samsung touts HSPA connectivity with speeds of up to 14.4 Mbit/s.

The phone isn’t exactly the most exciting to be announced so far this year. Perhaps Samsung wants to fill the gap before it brings out the Galaxy S III.

Samsung has vaguely said that the phone will tip up “later this year” in the UK. Russia will get it first next month, with a “gradual roll out” to follow.

MWC is happening next month in Barcelona, but it’s unclear what the firm will be unveiling. The Galaxy S III is apparently delayed, so it might show off its next generation Galaxy Tab instead. µ

KOREAN HARDWARE GIANT Samsung will unveil its next Galaxy tablet at next month’s Mobile World Congress (MWC).

The firm’s upcoming Galaxy S III won’t be making an appearance at the show, so it will unveil a bigger Galaxy Tab, according to Android and Me. The next Apple Ipad 2 rival will have a screen larger than 10in and will be powered by its Exynos 5250 2GHz dual-core processor.

German technology web site Tabtech reports that it will have an 11.6in screen. Behind closed doors Android and Me saw a prototype of the upcoming tablet at the consumer electronics show (CES) earlier this month, and it was running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Android and Me admitted that it could be wrong but said, “If Samsung was showing off this next-generation tablet behind closed doors at CES, then it should definitely be ready for show time at MWC. Given the fact that the Galaxy S III will be absent, it makes perfect sense that this tablet will be the star of the show for Samsung.”

Samsung announced the Exynos 5250 processor last November, which is based on the ARM Cortex A15 chip design. Back then it said the chip was designed for high-end tablets that would be available in the second half of this year. The chip can support screen resolutions up to 2560×1600, which is what the Galaxy Tab 11.6 is set to have.

Samsung doesn’t comment on rumour or speculation so we’ll have to wait until MWC to see what it announces. µ

KOREAN PHONE MAKER Samsung has reported record quarterly profits, as its Galaxy range of smartphones boosted overall sales.

The firm’s telecoms arm earned a record .35bn profit during the quarter ended 30 December 2011 after a surge in sales of Galaxy smartphones.

Samsung’s profit for the fourth quarter of 2011 was .72bn, up 76 per cent from a year ago and 25 per cent from the third quarter.

Although Samsung did not give its volume of phone sales for the quarter ended 30 December, analyst firm Strategy Analytics estimated the Korean company sold 36.5 million smartphones. This is only slightly lower than Samsung rival Apple’s 37.04 million Iphones shipped during the fourth quarter. Nokia, meanwhile, sold 19.6 million mobile phones.

The Korean firm said it will increase its spending this year by nine per cent to 25 trillion won, with 15 trillion won going to its semiconductor division.

In addition, 6.6 trillion won will go to its flat screen division and the rest will go towards adding overseas production capacity and new research and development centers. µ

KOREAN HARDWARE GIANT Samsung has lost another court case against Apple’s Iphone in Germany.

According to the Korean Times, the decision was made Friday in a Mannheim regional court.

The tit for tat patents war between the two companies continues. However, an official told the Korean Times that a cross-licensing agreement could be the next step, saying, “It’s too early to talk about a cross-licensing agreement, but we have to admit that is a scenario that has become likelier than before.”

The latest decision addresses one part of Samsung’s arguments that Apple’s wireless technology related to 3G infringes its patents.

Only last week, a German court ruled against Samsung in another decision about a mobile technology patent.

The court cases come after Apple sued Samsung last year, saying Samsung’s products “slavishly” copied the Ipad and Iphone. Samsung then countersued Apple and legal battles between the two companies spread across the globe.

Earlier this month, Samsung failed to win a ban on the Iphone 4S in Italy. Meanwhile, in December Apple lost in an early court decision over the future of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany after Samsung changed the design of the device.

Also last week, Apple filed two more lawsuits in Germany, one that alleges design patent infringements in ten of Samsung’s smartphones and another that levels similar charges for five of its tablets. Apple has asked for bans on sales of Samsung’s devices.

Samsung told us, “We are disappointed that the court did not share our views regarding the infringement by Apple of this specific patent in Germany. We will wait for the written grounds of today’s judgment, and after thorough review make a decision about a possible appeal to the Higher Regional Court Karlsruhe.

“Today’s ruling relates to only one of several patents asserted by Samsung in the Mannheim court, and it is of no indicative value as to whether Apple may be found to infringe other of Samsung’s intellectual property rights in Germany. A ruling on an additional Samsung patent relating to telecommunications standards is due to be handed down by the Mannheim court in the next several weeks.” µ

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

KOREAN HARDWARE GIANT Samsung is reportedly delaying its announcement of the Galaxy S III smartphone.

The firm had been expected to announce its next flagship smartphone at next month’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, where it announced the Galaxy S II last year. However, The Verge said Samsung has chosen to wait until later in the year.

There’s no date set for the announcement apart from that it will be “out there before the Summer”. Samsung is apparently unhappy with a long time gap between global and US availability.

Unsurprisingly Samsung is keeping quiet on the subject and said it doesn’t comment on rumours. It told The INQUIRER, “We will share our plan to announce the new product when we are ready.”

With the US being an important market maybe Samsung needs more time to get the launch together so the yanks don’t have to wait so long to get their hands on it. If Samsung doesn’t unveil the Galaxy S III at MWC then it will probably focus on tablets and maybe new Windows Phone handsets.

Some possible specifications for the handset came to light last September. They include a 2GHz quad-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage and a 10MP camera. Of course, we expect it will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

It might also have a 4.65in super AMOLED III screen with 1280×1024 resolution and near field communication (NFC) technology. MWC is fast approaching, so we will soon find out what happens. µ

KOREAN HARDWARE GIANT Samsung has launched the white edition of its Galaxy Note smartphone in the UK.

Samsung launched the Android 2.3 Gingerbread handset last November but now the vanilla ice cream coloured version is available. The firm has struck an exclusive deal with John Lewis, which is selling the smartphone from today at its Oxford Street, London shop for the princely sum of £599.

Simon Stanford, managing director of Samsung in the UK said, “At Samsung we always want to offer our customers choice and are delighted to bring the Galaxy Note in white to the UK. The Galaxy Note is an innovative addition to the Samsung Galaxy family and a new category of device that consumers can’t get anywhere else.”

The first 100 customers to pick up the big smartphone or small tablet Galaxy Note in white will get a bonus of £250 worth of music, films and e-books.

Apart from the colour, the phone is the same as before with a 5.3in Super AMOLED HD display, a 1.4GHz dual-core processor, an 8MP rear-facing camera and Google’s 2.3 Gingerbread operating system.

If you don’t fancy getting it from John Lewis, other retailers will be selling the handset from next month. Online retailer Clove has it available for pre-order with a price tag of £594 and an availability date of 6 February. µ

This seems to be a month of SSD firmware updates. Less than two weeks ago, Crucial released a firmware update to fix the issue that caused BSODs after 5184 hours of operation. Today, OCZ released a firmware update for Octane that improved its random write performance. Samsung also joins the chorus and they have released a firmware update, or actually two updates, for their SSD 830 Series

The first update, named as CXM02B1Q, was actually released two weeks ago. Its release went mostly unnoticed due to CES, hence we never saw it until today. The release notes state that the update fixes a BSOD or hang issue when waking the computer up from hibernation mode. The 830 Series has generally been said to be one of the most reliable SATA 6Gb/s SSDs, and while this issue doesn't seem to be widespread, it's still an issue that affected some users. Samsung also claims that the update fixes partition issues with some enclosures and laptops. 

The second update, CXM03B1Q, was released last Thursday and it's identical to the earlier update, but with improved compatibility and stability of the update tool. You can download the latest firmware for the Samsung 830, and as usual we recommend backing up critical data before flashing.

A GERMAN COURT has ruled against Samsung in its tit for tat patent war with Apple.

According to Reuters, Samsung hasn’t decided whether it will appeal the ruling, which covers one mobile technology patent. The German court has not made a decision on the other two mobile technologies that Samsung claims Apple infringed.

The court ruling comes after Apple sued Samsung last year, saying Samsung’s products “slavishly” copied the Ipad and Iphone. Samsung then countersued Apple and legal battles between the two companies spread across the globe.

Samsung stressed that Friday’s ruling relates to only one of several patents asserted by Samsung in the Mannheim court.

Earlier this month, Samsung failed to win a ban on the Iphone 4S in Italy. Meanwhile, in December Apple lost in an early court decision over the future of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany after Samsung changed the design of the device.

Also in December, Samsung fired back at Apple in Germany by issuing four patent challenges.

Only this week, Apple filed two more lawsuits in Germany, one that alleges design patent infringements in ten of Samsung’s smartphones and another that levels similar charges for five of its tablets. It has asked for a ban on sales.

We have contacted both Apple and Samsung for comment on this latest German court ruling.

Update
Samsung sent us a statement, which said, “We are disappointed that the court did not share our views regarding the infringement by Apple of this specific patent in Germany. It should be noted that today’s ruling relates to only one of several patents asserted by Samsung in the Mannheim court.

“Today’s ruling is of no indicative value as to whether Apple may be found to infringe other of Samsung’s intellectual property rights in Germany. Rulings on additional Samsung patents relating to telecommunications standards are due to be handed down by the Mannheim court within the next few days and weeks, and specific legal analysis of whether Apple infringed on these patents will result in distinct rulings.

“We will wait for the written grounds of today’s judgment, and after thorough review make a decision about a possible appeal to the Higher Regional Court Karlsruhe.” µ

AGGRESSIVE LITIGATOR Apple has started the new year with another legal assault on Samsung in Germany.

The fruit themed firm has filed two lawsuits, one that alleges design patent infringements in ten of Samsung’s smartphones and another that levels similar charges for five of its tablets. Apple has asked for a ban on sales.

You know by now that the two parties do not get on, and while Samsung might tease Apple, the cappuccino always seems to hit harder.

We have asked both Apple and Samsung to tell us what is going on here, but in the meantime Bloomberg has it that Apple has filed two lawsuits, one that targets the ten smartphones, and one that goes after tablets. Bloomberg quotes a court official as its source.

So far so bad for Samsung in Germany. So far it has had to pull hardware out of a trade show and had to modify its 10in Galaxy Tab tablet to get around a ban.

“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,” is the official Apple line, which concludes, “This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”

Incidentally, the joke last week was that Samsung had started throwing eggs at its own stores. Samsung is throwing lawsuits of its own at Apple, of course, and as recently as December was adding to its court diary. µ