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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

TABLET COMPUTERS are still going strong, but sales were lower than expected in the third quarter, signalling a potential slowdown in growth.

18.1 million tablets were sold in the third quarter, 23.9 per cent higher than in the second quarter and 264.5 per cent higher than in the same period last year, but this was 5.8 per cent below the original forecast of 19.2 million units, according to a report by International Data Corporation (IDC).

Of course, there’s only so long high growth can last before device penetration becomes an obstacle to further growth. If everyone has a tablet already they are less likely to keep buying more of the things, and thus growth will drop from high double or triple digits to low double or even single digits.

Apple continued to dominate the tablet market, with 11.1 million units shipped, compared to 9.3 million in the previous quarter. However, its market share dropped slightly from 63.3 per cent to 61.5 per cent due to the extra competition in the sector, according to IDC.

HP shipped 903,354 Touchpads in the third quarter, marking the beginning and end of its foray into the tablet market. The move helped it secure a five per cent market share, earning the third spot behind Samsung’s 5.6 per cent market share for the Galaxy Tab. However, HP lost money on almost every Touchpad.

Despite the poorer than expected performance in the third quarter, IDC expects strong sales in the fourth quarter, primarily due to Christmas shopping. It has increased its forecast from 62.5 million units to 63.3 million, which should largely make up for the third quarter shortfall.

IDC also expects market share to shift considerably in the fourth quarter, with Android’s 32.4 per cent market share growing to 40.3 per cent, thanks largely to Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, which IDC believes will sell well thanks to its low price tag. µ

 

LIMBO, the haunting indie platformer that netted a slew of awards for its minimalist design, has sold over a million copies, announced the developer Playdead. The success has allowed Playdead to achieve full financial independence from early investors, and it’s also motivated them to bring LIMBO to Mac.

"With the success that LIMBO has achieved, we felt this was the ideal time to fully regain our independence,” said Dino Patti in a statement released yesterday. “We are grateful to everyone who supported us over the past few years, and look forward to forging new partnerships that will both let us reach new heights as a studio and give our director, Arnt Jensen, room to grow creatively.”

LIMBO, originally released on Xbox Live Arcade, has since been released on PlayStation Network and PC via Steam. It is likely that the Mac version will use Steam, as well. There's no release date yet, but Playdead claims it “will be released before the end of the year.”

Despite its brevity, I think LIMBO is a brilliant title that makes excellent use of purposefully limited resources. If you want to see what all the fuss is about, you can download a demo of LIMBO for PC right here or on your console of choice.

FLOGGER OF SHINY TOYS Apple could sell as many as four million of its latest Iphone 4S smartphones this weekend.

The cappuccino company is poised to shift over twice as many Iphone 4S phones as it did Iphone 4 devices in their first months on sale, according to Bloomberg and an analyst roundup.

The four million figure comes from Yankee Group analyst Carl Howe, who told the INQUIRER, “I’ve heard figures that Apple built more than 4M units for launch; All carriers currently show sold out.”

Charlie Wolf from analysts Needham & Co pitched the numbers lower but added, “It’s going to easily outpace any previous launch,” in his interview with Bloomberg.

Lower estimates put sales at two or three million, but again both of these are higher than the number of Iphone 4 devices sold in the relevant financial quarter.

In that fiscal quarter, Apple’s third quarter of last year, the firm sold 8.4 million handsets. If Apple does sell half as many as that this weekend it will prove that there is some real cash, and not just people, in the queues outside its stores. µ

UK ONLINE RETAILER Clove has announced that the HTC Sensation XL will tip up on 24 October.

Keeping in HTC’s trend of turning phones out quickly, the Sensation XL will be available in just over two weeks time. HTC announced the handset just last night, when the firm said it would be available in November.

Clove said, “HTC last night announced the HTC Sensation XL and we can now confirm that we are expecting the first stock to arrive on October 24th.”

Unfortunately Clove has no price tag attached to the phone yet but Expansys has it pegged at £519. This is only about £20 more than the Sensation XE.

The Sensation XL is the third Sensation phone to come from HTC and the second handset to feature Beats audio technology. It’s also the largest smartphone HTC has produced with its 4.7in screen.

Other than a big touchscreen the device will have a Qualcomm 1.5GHz single-core processor, 16GB of internal memory and an 8MP camera that has a 28mm wide-angle lens. HTC has put the handset on a bit of a diet to achieve a slim 9.9mm profile.

The INQUIRER was at the launch of the phone this week so take a look at our video demo for a closer look at the Sensation XL. µ

Not content to flood the market in Android variants, Samsung is starting their roll out of Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) devices. The release we received this morning was scant on details or images [Ed. note: The image above is from our Samsung Focus review], but a look at the specifications tells us to expect a significant performance upgrade from Windows Phone's first generation hardware. The new models being premiered share similar internals, including a 1.4 GHz single core SoC, most likely an MSM8255 variant, as found in the HTC Flyer and HP TouchPad. But where the Focus S stands a full head over its sister, the Focus Flash, is in display. The 4.3" Super AMOLED Plus display in the Focus S is wrapped in an 8.55 millimeter that challenges the Galaxy S II for thinness. The Focus Flash provides a smaller frame with its 3.7" Super AMOLED screen, but no details on its thickness. Having split the difference on size around the original 4" Samsung Focus, early adopters need not worry that they are going to be left behind, as Samsung has promised to bring Mango to their first generation hardware.

AT&T was a strong proponent of Windows Phone during its roll out, and it seems they're going to double down with the first major update to the platform. Release and pricing, though, remain unannounced. We'll update with pictures when we've got them.

 

If the dearth of world-famous puzzlers was keeping you from picking up a Nintendo 3DS, it’s about time you started saving up: the Hudson Soft-developed Tetris: Axis will be released for Nintendo’s newest handheld on October 2nd.

Tetris: Axis will feature the classic Marathon mode, as well as a plethora of Tetris variants including multiplayer modes for up to eight players. It will also leverage the handheld’s front-facing camera and 3D display to create augmented reality versions (see above screenshot) of the Marathon and Tower Climber modes. Clearing rows on my computer monitor is stressful enough, clearing rows off my kitchen counter could prove unbearable.

Nintendo’s already dropped the price of the 3DS in an effort to move units, and a new Tetris could help sell a few more (the original version on Game Boy did sell over 35 million copies). The appeal of 3D and extra modes will have be to strong, however, as just today Electronic Arts released a free version of classic Tetris in the Android marketplace. For comparison’s sake, Tetris: Axis is currently listed on Amazon for .99.

Source: Nintendo

Almost a month ago, we posted about the Motorola Droid 3 popping up in GLBenchmark 2.0's online result browser, with a dual-core 1 GHz OMAP 4430 SoC at its core. Since then, Motorola made the Droid 3 official, announcing online availability for July 7, and in-store availability July 14 for the pretty standard 9.99 on a two year contract. We waited patiently and sure enough a Motorola Droid 3 hit our doorstep today, which we'll have a full review on sometime before the week is up. Until then, we're going to go over high level things in our usual This Just In format.

We're still running all our benchmarks, but for the time being have scores for the web suite, GLBenchmark 2.0, and RightWare's Basemark ES2.0. We now have independent confirmation that those previous Droid 3 results from the GLBench online result browser weren't crazy, in fact, Egypt has gone up slightly. 

The Droid 3 is a world-branded phone, and thus includes a dual-mode baseband. If you've been following some of Motorola's other devices closely, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Qualcomm's MDM6600 baseband is inside the Droid 3.

There's the standard CDMA2000 1x/EVDO Rev.A 800 / 1900 MHz connectivity for Verizon and some roaming on other CDMA carriers, alongside GSM/UMTS 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 support for roaming abroad. There's 2.4 GHz 802.11n support, though no 5 GHz love for 802.11an.

Motorola Droid 3 – Network Support

CDMA2000 1xRTT/EVDO Rev.A

800 / 1900 MHz

GSM/EDGE

850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz

WCDMA/UMTS

850 / 1900 / 2100

HSPA Speed

HSDPA 10.2/14.4 (UE Cat. 9/10), HSUPA 5.76

 

Qualcomm MDM6600

The Droid 3 comes running the very latest version of Gingerbread out right now, 2.3.4. It's a breath of fresh air to play with something that isn't launching running 2.2 Froyo for a change. The device is also running the new brand of Motoblur Motorola's UI skin, which includes a new lock screen and some eye candy on the application launcher and home screens. I'm still making my mind up about how this compares to the previous brand of Motoblur that comes with the Droid X2. 

The other big change is of course the new five-row QWERTY keyboard, which thus far is honestly spectacular. I picked up the Droid 3 and immediately was speeding along comfortably. The domes are convex, very clicky, and provide great haptic feedback. I have to admit that I initially questioned the wisdom of dedicating an entire row to 0-9, but I completely understand how helpful this is after entering my 20 character WPA PSK and getting the Droid 3 on my WiFi network. Moreover, it provides a nice buffer so fingers and long nails don't hit the bottom of the slider. The slide mechanism still isn't spring loaded or on a particularly smooth rail, however.

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The device is also 0.8 mm thinner than the Droid 1 and 2, and it's surprising how much that actually translates to a device that feels like it hasn't put on weight just because it has a keyboard. Check out the gallery for some shots of the sides and all around.

The Droid 3 curiously comes without a microSD card, instead going with 16 GB of internal storage. I was a bit confused at first, but sure enough there's no microSD card mentioned on the box. 

There's an 8 MP rear facing camera with LED flash. It's down to one LED instead of two with the Droid 3, but it looks like the LED has an improved fresnel lens atop it, and no doubt more power output. There's also a VGA front facing camera. 

The device can capture 1080p30 video at 15 Mbps with stereo audio. I'm not passing judgment quite yet, but things in the lightbox look a bit undersaturated, but there's great high frequency spatial detail. Check out the gallery for some quick pictures I took with the rear facing camera.

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Stay tuned for our full review!

TAIWANESE HARDWARE MAKER Asus has announced that its Eee Pad Slider tablet will be available in the UK this Autumn.

The Slider is one of Asus’ Android Honeycomb tablets that we’ve all been waiting for, for a long time. The exact date is yet to be confirmed, which Asus said it will reveal, along with pricing, later this month.

Via its Facebook page Asus said, “[The] Eee Pad Slider will be coming to the UK this Autumn. We’ll confirm dates and pricing later in July.”

Already upon us from Asus is the Eee Pad Transformer, which we gave a 10 out of 10 score because we liked it so much. Initially, the Slider was meant to be launched in April but was then delayed until June, and the wait goes on.

We’ve been unable to speak with Asus to find out why the Slider isn’t coming until later on in the year.

If it’s as good as the Transformer, then the Slider will be worth the wait. It too offers a keyboard, but instead of having a detachable one it is built in to the body of the tablet.

As far as we can see, the specifications for the Slider are identical to those of the Transformer. It will have a 10.1in touchscreen with 1280×800 resolution and will be powered by the same Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor.

Its storage options are still 16GB and 32GB, with unlimited Asus Webstorage for a year. Cameras are also the same with 5MP rear facing and 1.2MP front facing lenses.

The major differences are the size and the weight, due to the built in keyboard. The Slider weighs 960g and is 17.3mm thick whereas the Transformer weighs 680g and measures 12.98mm. µ