Android Overtook Nokia As Top Selling Smartphone OS in Q4 2010

The Google backed Android smartphone platform has overtook Nokia’s Symbian OS during the last quarter of 2010, according to figures released by Canalys. Shipments of Android-based smart phones reached 32.9 million, while devices running Nokia’s Symbian platform trailed slightly at 31.0 million worldwide. However, Nokia did retain its position as the largest single brand smartphone vendor, with a share of 28%.

The fourth quarter also saw the worldwide smart phone market continue to soar, with shipments of 101.2 million units representing year-on-year growth of 89%. The final quarter took shipments for the year to fractionally below 300 million units, with an annual growth rate of 80% over 2009 (see table below).

In Q4 2010, volumes of Google OS-based smart phones (Android, OMS and Tapas) were again boosted by strong performances from a number of vendors, notably LG, Samsung, Acer and HTC, whose volumes across these platforms grew 4,127%, 1,474%, 709% and 371% respectively year-on-year. HTC and Samsung together accounted for nearly 45% of Google OS-based handset shipments.

“2010 has been a fantastic year for the smart phone market. After a difficult 2009, the speed with which the market has recovered has required real commitment and innovation from vendors and they have risen to the challenge,” said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst Chris Jones. “But vendors cannot afford to be complacent. 2011 is set to be a highly competitive year with vendors looking to use new technology, such as dual-core processors, NFC and 3D displays, to differentiate their products and maintain value.”

At a regional level, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) remained the largest market, with shipments totalling 38.8 million and a year-on-year growth rate of 90%. Nokia continued to lead in EMEA and Asia Pacific, but in 2010 it was overtaken by RIM in Latin America, which shipped over a million more units than Nokia in Q4 2010. The vendor was particularly helped by the popularity of its mid-range smart phones, such as its Curve family of devices.

The USA continued its reign as the largest country market in terms of shipments, at more than double the size of the Chinese smart phone market. RIM recaptured first place from Apple, as the latter experienced its usual US seasonal dip, and RIM benefited from the first full quarter of shipments for the BlackBerry Torch. HTC successfully maintained its third-place ranking in the US for the third consecutive quarter, driven by its speed to market with the latest Android updates and new Windows Phone 7 devices.

“The US landscape will shift dramatically this coming year, as a result of the Verizon-Apple agreement,” said Canalys Analyst Tim Shepherd. “Verizon will move its focus away from the Droid range, but the overall market impact will mean less carrier-exclusive deals, while increasing the AT&T opportunity for Android vendors, such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung.”

Android was by far the largest smart phone platform in the US market in Q4 2010, with shipments of 12.1 million units – nearly three times those of RIM’s BlackBerry devices. Windows Phone 7 devices appeared too late in the quarter to take full advantage of holiday season purchasing. As a result, Microsoft lost share in the United States, from 8% in Q4 2009 to 5% in Q4 2010.

Analysis of the published country-level data shows that, around the world, the strength of smart phone performances remained diverse. In South Korea, for example, shipments grew from under 700,000 units in Q4 2009 to just under 3.4 million units in Q4 2010, making the country a top 10 market. In Japan, Android shipments have taken off over the past year, with nearly 1.4 million units shipping from local as well as international vendors, such as HTC. More Japanese vendors have also announced plans to launch Android devices in 2011, such as NEC Casio and Panasonic. Under pressure from Huawei and Samsung in particular, Nokia’s share in China slipped to 56%, down from 76% a year ago, despite growing its volume in the country by over 70% in the same period. Albeit from a smaller base, the Chinese market grew 134% year-on-year, notably faster than the US market, which grew at 64% in the quarter.

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Samsung C322: Dual Sim, QWERTY Phone

Aimed for developing countries, Samsung C322 is the latest device from Samsung that supports two SIMs (Dual SIM) at a time with full QWERTY keyboard for fast and enhanced typing experience for SMS chat.

Also known as Samsung C322 was introduced in India before it recently surfaced in Pakistan. Samsung C322 features a trackpad, a rather small landscape display, DUOS UX interface, Facebook and Twitter integration, “push-like email”, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, and a 1.3MP camera.

Samsung C322 is likely to earn huge followership in Pakistan, due to its dual-SIM capability and QWERTY keyboard, a bonus for the youth of the country who loves sending SMS.

Samsung C322 Specifications

• Brand: Samsung
• Model: Chat 322
• Product: Mobile
• 1.3 Megapixels Camera
• 2.4” inch TFT Display
• Bluetooth v2.1
• Dual Sim GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz
• Expandable Memory Micro SD Card Slot
• Facebook/Twitter/ Flickr apps
• Fm Radio
• GPRS/EDGE/WAP
• Music Player
• Push E-mail
• SMS/MMS
• Video/Movie Player

Samsung C322 Price in Pakistan:

• Samsung C322 is available in Pakistan for Rs. 8,900.
• Samsung C322 comes with TeleTech and Mobo International warranties.

Smartphones record HD videos

Pixilation, trailing, colour mishmashes: recording video with a cell phone camera was long considered more of a gimmick than a serious function. But times have changed. Smartphones are now capable of recording films in HD quality.

The scene: a rock concert in Berlin’s Columbia Halle. American hard rock band Korn is playing its song “Falling Away From Me”. The audience is awash with arms held high. Many of them are holding cell phones, taking snapshots as well as home videos.

And while the sounds and images from that kind of recording have traditionally been disappointing, times are changing. Smartphones now offer high definition videos for watching later on the television, and several even offer Dolby surround sound.

The connection between smartphone and TV is often established via HDMI cable. The films can usually be transferred to computers via USB, either directly or using special software specific to the devices.

The clips are typically encoded in the MPEG4 format and can be edited later using video editing software. One minute of HD film eats up around 90 megabytes of storage. This applies to HD video with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels using the progressive scan process (720p), which is what HD-ready mobile phones currently offer.

There are very different HD smartphones running different operating systems (OS) on the market right now. Sony Ericsson issued an HD-ready phone some time ago, the Vivaz. Available from $250 in online shops, the device runs on the Symbian OS, with a touchscreen and 8 megapixel camera. The Vivaz Pro ($260) has a slide-out keyboard as well. The Satio model ($320) works with Symbian and has a 12 megapixel camera.

Samsung also relies on Symbian for its OmniaHD i8910 8GB ($390, eight megapixel camera). Its Galaxy S i9000 8GB ($450), by contrast, runs on Android and offers a five megapixel camera capable of taking HD videos.

Nokia’s N8 ($460) works with the new Symbian 3 operating system and stands out for its 12 megapixel camera. Almost three hours of film in HD quality will fit onto the installed 16 GB of memory. When the battery is full, the Finnish company promises three hours and 20 minutes of recording time.

HTC offers a bevy of solutions. It features two Android models: the Desire HD ($560) and the Desire Z 8510, a similar model with a keyboard and a five-megapixel camera. HTC is also marketing devices running Windows Phone 7: both the Trophy ($460) and the HD7 ($560) shoot images and HD films with a five megapixel camera. The same is true for another Windows Phone 7 device, the E900 Optimus 7 ($470) from LG.

Before you buy one of these mobile mini-computers with a built-in camcorder, you should try to get your hands onto the device to determine whether you like the way it feels. “There are users that purchase just because of the hardware itself and don’t care so much about the user-friendliness and software,” says Carolina Milanesi from marketing research institute Gartner.

The HD quality found in the current crop of mobiles, typically offering a vertical resolution of 720 lines, marks the lower end of the HDTV standard. Sony has now announced a 16.4 megapixel sensor for smartphones, which will make HD videos with 1080 pixels possible.

“I can’t say yet when and how we’ll be integrating it,” explains Sony-Ericsson spokesman Susanne Burgdorf. Perhaps the first smartphones capable of producing higher-end HD video will show up for the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2011.

“Mobile end devices represent an important platform for access to video content and films,” explains David Cook, manager at RoxioNow, a video hardware company. The demand for video mobile phones will grow rapidly in the next twelve months, the experts expect.