If you polled a roomful of smartphone pundits about the best phone you can buy right now, there’s a good chance plenty of them would say the HTC One. Hell, we might even say that. So it’s a bit strange to hear stories of the company bleeding top staff and continuing to hit hard times … while simultaneously selling one of the most important phones of the year. Welcome, HTC. You’ve officially entered Bizarro World.
The best Android phones represent a powerhouse combination of features, specs, and all-around user experience. Last week we asked you to tell us which ones you thought were the best. Then we looked at the five best Android phones available right now, and put them to a vote. Now we’re back to highlight our winner.
iPhone growth stalls as Android continues to nip away at Apple’s market share
A new report has found that mobile device shipments, including notebooks, tablets and smartphones, exceeded 300 million units in the first quarter of 2013. According to research from Canalys, shipments increased 37.4% year-over-year to reach 308.7 units. Android manufacturers continue to ship more devices than any other vendor, totaling 59.5% of all shipments. Strong demand for the iPhone and iPad gave Apple a 19.3% share, ahead of Microsoft’s 18.1% share from shipments of Windows-powered notebooks, tablets and smartphones.
In what I see as a refreshing change, T-Mobile, the fourth largest carrier in the U.S., has made sweeping changes to its service, ending both phone subsidies and service contracts. Its CEO said, ‘Here’s the deal: If we suck this month, go somewhere else. If we’re good, stay with us.’ As part of that change, the new base plan will include unlimited access, including voice, text, and data. Data will be restricted to edge speeds after 500MB with no overage costs, but can be upgraded to 2.5GB for $10, or unlimited for $20. Portable Wi-Fi hotspot usage is also unrestricted for no additional cost. In addition, LTE services just went live in eight markets. As is already standard practice with T-Mobile, you are free to bring your own device. To keep customers from having to front the full cost of the phone with unsubsidized plans, they’ll let people pay off phones in installments. They’re also getting the iPhone 5 next month for $650.
With winter finally behind us, the 2013 smartphone-buying craze is starting to hit its stride. That means it’s about time consumers, enterprise device buyers and anyone else start to handicap the current state of the marketplace and determine which products would be best buys. From the iPhone to the BlackBerry Z10, several other products, particularly the Samsung Galaxy S 4, are expected to make a splash this year, and some might perform quite well on the sales front. But which products might perform better than others? Choosing the right devices isn’t so simple. And unfortunately, there is quite a bit of product and feature overlap because so many companies are offering a bewildering array of devices at many different price points. At the same time, only a few companies—principally Apple and Samsung—are actually performing that well in the marketplace. As a result it’s clear that currently available iPhone models along with several from Samsung are likely to do well in 2013. As for the others, this eWEEK slide show will try to sort out which ones are among the best on the market.
Today QR Values released a video to the Georgia Convention and Visitors Bureau (“GACVB”) Winter Conference in Peachtree City, Georgia. The presentation discusses smartphone use, growth, and market penetration. This presentation also touches upon the difference between mobile websites and mobile applications which helps to inform the audience of the importance of having an App for their community.
With the eyes of the tech world fixed on CES this week, Apple this morning conveniently decided to issue a press release announcing that the iTunes App Store has now topped over 40 billion downloads. That’s an incredible feat, to be sure, but even more incredible is that nearly half of those downloads occurred in 2012. In December alone, iOS users downloaded over 2 billion applications, setting a monthly record in the process.
The Dec. 12 reinstatement of Google Maps on iOS has apparently been enough for some of those reticent users to finally make the upgrade to iOS 6. According to MoPub, the San Francisco-based mobile ad exchange that monitors more than 1 billion ad impressions a day and supports more than a dozen ad networks and 12,000 apps, there has been a 29 percent increase in unique iOS 6 users in the past five days following Google Maps’ release on iOS. In fact, MoPub reports a 13 percent increase in iOS 6 users from last Monday to Wednesday alone, which would mean that nearly half of the converts to iOS 6 in the past week switched the very moment Google Maps’ standalone app hit the App Store.
HTC is the world’s fifth largest phone maker, but it’s starting to feel some serious pressure from giants like Samsung and Apple. HTC’s third quarter net income dropped 79% from the previous quarter, and total revenues were down 48%. ‘Sales of HTC’s flagship One series, which debuted in February, are trailing off as Apple and Samsung spend four to six times more on marketing to ensure the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy SIII dominate the market, while strongly subsidizing their older models … HTC’s share of the global smartphone market by shipments fell to 5.8% in the second quarter from 10.7% a year earlier, according to Bloomberg. The company released its first Windows Phone 8 models in September, its most high-profile pre-Christmas launch, but Microsoft’s operating system has yet to establish itself as a serious third player after Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.’
Motorola has introduced three new Android-powered LTE smartphones to its RAZR family. There’s the DROID RAZR M, which the company describes as a “full screen phone,” the DROID RAZR HD, dubbed the “nonstop all-day entertainer,” and the DROID RAZR MAXX HD, which boasts a “live-forever” battery that provides up to 32 hours of power. Motorola claims this makes the MAXX HD the longest lasting LTE smartphone on the market.