Worldwide smartphone sales stay surprisingly strong
By Matthew Shaer | 11.06.09
No matter how bad the economy gets, a lot of consumers will still fork over a couple hundred bucks for the latest smartphone.
That’s the lesson we learned today from the folks over at market research firm IDC. In a new report, IDC says vendors worldwide shipped 43.3 million devices in the third quarter of 2009 – up 3.2 percent from the second quarter of this year, and up 4.2 percent from the same time last year.
“Demand for converged mobile devices has remained strong all year,” Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team said in a statement. “These devices provide more utility and entertainment than traditional mobile phones. Moreover, users have plenty of devices from which to choose, whether it be a multimedia powerhouse, a messaging machine, or a social networking tool.”
Llamas predicted continued gains in the smartphone market. “As users expect greater functionality from their devices beyond telephony, we believe the converged mobile device market to grow faster than the overall mobile phone market,” he said.
Top on the IDC list was Nokia, which IDC analysts called the “clear” worldwide leader in smartphone sales. (Interestingly, as IDC notes, Nokia “struggles” in North America.) Next was BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion, followed – in order – by Apple, HTC, and Samsung.
Of course, it’s been one of the busier weeks in history for smartphone aficionados. Today was the official release of the Droid, the much-hyped smartphone built by the folks over at Motorola. Verizon has been saturating the airwaves with a commercial touting the Android-equipped Droid as the phone that could finally knock the Apple iPhone off its perch in the US, and at least a few reviewers concur.
Meanwhile, many bloggers have whipped themselves into a frenzy over a second Droid smartphone, which is being manufactured by the Taiwan company HTC. The Droid Eris, which will also be sold by Verizon, will reportedly get a price tag of $100, less than half the cost of the Motorola Droid, and right in line with the BGM estimate on a cheaper iPhone.
Among the features on the HTC Droid Eris are a Qualcomm MSM 7600 528MHz processor, a 5.0 megapixel auto focus camera, and a 3.2 inch 320×480 HVGA capacitive touch screen.
Drop us a line here, or on Twitter, @CSMHorizonsBlog.
Read entire post | Comments (no comments)
Droid launch party could be cut short by arrival of new iPhone
By Matthew Shaer | 11.06.09
Droid launch day is here, and it couldn’t come soon enough. For weeks, we’ve been digging through the waves of buzz surrounding the Android 2.0 Droid – the iDon’t commercials, the photo leaks, the Droid Eris, the official list of specs, a massive Droid launch event in New York City, and that cool Droid advertisement with all the stealth bombers.
Sorry folks, but the Horizons team has Droid launch fatigue.
So imagine our happiness when we turned on the Internets this morning and discovered that someone else feels the same way. According to the team over at Boy Genius Report, Apple is in the final stages of prepping a bargain-basement priced iPhone, which would undercut the Droid, and bring the Droid launch party to a screeching halt.
BGR is filing their report under the category of “whisper,” but it should be said that BGR is rarely wrong – this is the blog that had the Droid specs before anyone else, and the site has been exceptionally snappy with picking up gossip on all manner of smartphone. If BGR is correct, Apple would launch a $99 8GB iPhone 3G S sometime in the next month.
The idea is pretty clear: A sub-$100 iPhone, priced for Christmas shoppers, and rolled out right in time to flatten the Droid launch parade. (It should be said that the $99 iPhone would obviously only come in at $99 if you bought the thing with a 2-year contract.)
Meanwhile, many bloggers have whipped themselves into a frenzy over a second Droid smartphone, which is being manufactured by the Taiwan company HTC. The Droid Eris, which will also be sold by Verizon, will reportedly get a price tag of $100, less than half the cost of the Motorola Droid, and right in line with the BGM estimate on a cheaper iPhone.
Among the features on the HTC Droid Eris are a Qualcomm MSM 7600 528MHz processor, a 5.0 megapixel auto focus camera, and a 3.2 inch 320×480 HVGA capacitive touch screen.
Are you sold? Or will you be standing by your iPhone? Drop us a line here, or on Twitter, @CSMHorizonsBlog.
Read entire post | Comments (15 comments)
Jim Carrey’s website: creepy - and cool
By Andrew Heining | 11.06.09
Seen “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”? “Man in the Moon”? How ’bout the previews for Tim Burton’s take on “Alice in Wonderland”?
Jim Carrey starred in two of those three films (and we think he may’ve made a fine Mad Hatter over Johnny Depp) and knowing that, it’s easy to see where his new website gets its inspiration.
The experience at the star’s new website – launched close to Halloween, according to Carrey’s Twitter account – is nothing short of mind-bending. The Flash-heavy site (it took this visitor close to a minute just to get past the creepy loading animation using corporate broadband) takes visitors on a stirring journey through the actor’s memorable roles.
In a site filled with Easter eggs, there are nods to “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” “The Mask,” and “The Cable Guy.” “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” has prominent placement on the first landing page, and Carrey’s take on Dr Seuss’s Grinch appears on the side of a topiary-turned toaster. Truly bizarre.
Navigation is pretty out there too. Though a standard menu appears at the bottom, most visitors will enjoy clicking through the animated levels of the site. Tiny arrows take visitors on stirringly animated transitions – from a Carrey-centric heaven (with the star subbing for Michelangelo’s Adam), to a netherworld of Carrey’s imagining, to a scene filled with Canadian imagery (eh). Oh, and there’s a giant squid. You have to click through it to believe it.
Carrey fans who dig deeper into the site will enjoy early clips of him from the Canadian stand-up scene, and aspiring paparazzi can click on a pop-up character with antlers to see candid snapshots of Carrey and friends. Other hidden treats include a link to the MySpace page of Carrey’s daughter’s band, a Carrey-ized bird that links to the star’s Twitter page, and various other buttons that trigger sounds and surprises.
And of course, there’s a section that features a preview of Carrey’s new movie, Disney’s CG adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”
Check it out at jimcarrey.com
––
Got another favorite off-the-wall site? Leave it in the comments, and be sure to catch up with us on Twitter.
Read entire post | Comments (4 comments)
Which Sesame Street character should Google use tomorrow?
By Chris Gaylord | 11.06.09
Sesame Street has gotten some serious Google love this week. On Wednesday, Google swapped out its usual kindergarten-colored logo for Big Bird’s happy feet, in honor of Sesame Street’s 40th anniversary. (His foreign friends Chamki and Boombah smiled for the Google India homepage. Their clay cousins Wallace and Gromit spruced up the UK Google site that day for their 20th anniversary).
But the festival didn’t end there. Cookie Monster gobbled his way onto the homepage worldwide Thursday – munching on Google’s name in Australia, France, and here in the states. Today, Google-logo duty fell to Bert and Ernie, who made our list of favorite Sesame Street moments of all time.
Sesame Street’s official birthday is Nov. 10, so Google may keep this trend going all week. If they do, whom should the spotlight hit tomorrow? Around the office, we’re rooting for Mr. Aloysius Snuffleupagus, or “Snuffy” to his friends. Submit your nomination in the comments section below.
–
–
Read entire post | Comments (152 comments)
Droid will allow tethering, Verizon says
By Matthew Shaer | 11.05.09
After weeks of anticipation, Verizon is slated to officially release the Droid on Friday morning. The Droid smartphone, which is manufactured by Motorola and powered by Google’s Android 2.0 operating system, will retail for $199, with a two-year contract and a mail-in rebate. To celebrate the Droid release, Verizon is airing a new commercial, billing the Droid as next-generation ’stealth’ technology.
So far, so good. But what about tethering? Even as the hype surrounding the Droid has reached a fever pitch, many tech bloggers have wondered if the Droid was tether-ready. (Instant primer: Tethering is the use of one web-connected device to hook-up another device to the Internet. The iPhone, for instance, is capable of tethering a laptop.)
Now we have an answer.
According to Network World, Verizon has confirmed that Motorola Droid owners will be able to use their phones to tether. The only stipulation: the tethering comes at a price. What kind of price? Around $30 a month, Verizon says.
Of course, as we noted earlier today, the Motorola Droid isn’t the only Droid in town. The HTC Droid, which will also be sold by Verizon, will reportedly get a price tag of $100, less than half the cost of the Motorola Droid. Among the features on the HTC Droid are a Qualcomm MSM 7600 528MHz processor, a 5.0 megapixel auto focus camera, and a 3.2 inch 320×480 HVGA capacitive touch screen.
–
Drop us a line here, or on Twitter, @CSMHorizonsBlog.
