25/01/2013: Intel to build huge plant in Ireland, Samsung posts record earnings! Plus much, much more!

Intel to open a plant in Ireland with $4billion investment!

Image Credit: EETimes.

   Intel have their sights on 14nm processors, that's no secret, but what most people probably don't know is that Chipzilla needs a new manufacturing plant to make that happen! After a little bit of deliberation Ireland has given Intel permission to build a $4 billion chip plant!

   The new facility will be quite an impressive build. There will be two years of building times required, it'll add 3,500 jobs to the economy just in construction terms, this will then create 800 full-time jobs when the plant is up and running! This new facility will be just one of three sites, the other two of which will be in Oregon and Arizona in America, which will be charged with manufacturing 14nm processors! 

  As we look to the future Intel wants to offer 10nm, 7nm, and even 5nm chips as we head past 2015, so there's plenty of room for future manufacturing in Ireland and hopefully this will be a good step for Western European countries, who need to start thinking about offering manufacturing options again instead of just invisible services!
Via Slashgear.

Samsung posts record earnings!

    Samsung had an amazing 2012! The whole of their Galaxy range of smartphones was on fire, in some cases literally! The Korean giant reportedly earned  $6.6 billion worth of profit in Q4 2012!

   This sort of profit smashed through the previous record of $6 billion, which they saw in Q3 last year! This huge profit was in part down to an 18% year over year increase in revenues, but it was mainly driven by Sammy's telecoms business which “accounted for 62% of its operating profit.” 

   It wasn't all rosy for Samsung though, the Wall Street Journal pointed out that handset profit margins took a slight dip and “fell to 17.4% in the fourth quarter, down from the 18.8% in the previous quarter”. Seemingly smartphone growth is also slowing down with revenue in that area now 58% year on year, "down from 82% in the third quarter."

   When all was said and done Samsung's smartphone sales and the increased margins in their chip business were the main drivers of their success and we can't see there being too many problems into the coming year, especially with the huge anticipation of the Galaxy S4!
Via WallStreetJournal.

In other news:

• Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Xcover II! The device will reportedly be showcased at MWC this year. The specs were widely what we expected to see, if you need a refresh you can check the full specs and press release out over at SamMobile!

• Samsung is also reportedly aiming to shift 10 million Galaxy S4's per month when the phone debuts later this year! Money Today have reported that Sammy has ordered each of their subcontractors to provide 10 million components per month! We don't expect any comment on these figures to confirm or deny them, but  and even if that is true, we don’t expect Samsung or any of its clients to comment on those numbers!
  Via Slashgear.

• Apple, as most tech companies lately, have been trying to ensure that there are no under age workers in any part of their supply chain. So today Apple has decided to end a deal with the Chinese circuit board manufacturer, PZ. This news comes after Apple discovered 74 under-age workers, all under 16, were at the company. In the company's defense the children had all been recruited from the regional recruitment company who supposedly gave them fake documents! The tale ends well as all the children have been reunited with their families.
  Via BBC.

• Sony has confirmed that red and blue PS3's will be landing in the UK in February!
  Via Slashgear.

   And finally, Samsung has announced the Galaxy Grand LTE! It's a new quad-core smartphone which runs at 1.4GHz. There's also LTE, a 5-inch (800 x 480) display, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, a relatively small 2100 mAh battery, a 2 megapixel front and an 8 megapixel rear-facing camera. The device will ship out with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and you'll get a good assortment of connections NFC with S Beam support, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.

Via AndroidCommunity.

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07/01/2013: Samsung sold 500 handset per minute in Q4 while HTC struggled! Elop on Nokia using Android and much more!

Samsung reportedly sold 500 handsets a minute in Q4 2012 and earnt $5.5 billion in profit!

   Today Reuters has published a post explaining how Samsung has earnt profits close to $8.1 billion (which works out to around £5 billion) for Q4 2012! The report explains how Samsung's sales have been excellent handset sales, especially sales of the Galaxy Note 2, as well as the large orders they've received for their chipsets which made Q4 a stellar time for the Korean giants.

   With both Samsung’s OEM and consumer electronics businesses again seeing growth analysts don’t expect anything to slow down for the foreseeable future. This has pushed the company’s shares to record values and they'll likely only be heading upwards as we progress through 2013.


   Morgan Stanley analyst, Shawn Kim said, "Guidance is unlikely to disappoint given new product launches and a further upturn in cyclical parts of the business... Smartphone momentum has not decelerated, despite Apple's new iPhone, and the business continues to be driven by its flagship products. This time, it's the Galaxy Note II ... with the upside in unit shipments mainly from the U.S. We expect strong momentum to continue in the first quarter."


   Reuter's continued to say that "Samsung's flagship Galaxy S III, which overtook the iPhone 4S in the third quarter to become the world's best-selling smartphone, are likely to have slipped to around 15 million in the last quarter from 18 million in July-September. But estimated sales of around 8 million Galaxy Note II phone-cum-tablets, or 'phablets', should more than make up for that - pushing overall smartphone shipments to around 63 million, analysts estimate." Which is great news for Samsung and disproves the 'too big' myth which many people have been discussing!

   It's expected Samsung's sales will slow down as people start waiting for the Galaxy S4, but whe that device is release it will reinvigorate sales again!
Reuters Via KYM.

HTC had their worst quarter since 2004!

   Sometimes it's hard to know why things aren't going right, but for whatever reason they're not. That's exactly the predicament HTC finds themselves in at the moment. They seem to be competing with Samsung and Apple, both of whom are selling their phones by the bucket load, but HTC just can't get a magic formula together at the moment. In Q4 2012 the company returned their smallest profit since they started making Android devices so where next?

   At the moment HTC has pinned their hopes on the new portfolio of devices which will be landing this year. The much rumoured M7 and a new version of Sense (pictured here) are the supposed saviours. Either way this does not detract from the fact that HTC made £21.5m profit in the past three months off of a total revenue of over £1 billion.

   With income still around that figure there's nothing too worrying yet, because HTC can always cut some costs, but it's their lack of manufacturing ability which Samsung and even LG have which is holding them back from making a solid profit!
Via CNet.

Elop says 'anything is possible', but reaffirms he's content with Windows Phone.

   Stephen Elop is Nokia's CEO and their current leader, he was the one who took the company into the Windows Phone arena and he says that he's quite happy with the position of his company at the moment! He said in an interview with El Pais, a Spanish newspaper, that he even sees Nokia's current strategy getting them in double-digit marketshare at some point in the future and that Lumia 920 sales have been encouraging. When asked about the possibility of using Android as their OS of choice this is what Elop had to say:

El País: Do you discard launching an Android phone next year?

Elop: In the current ecosystem wars we are using Windows Phone as our weapon. But we are always thinking about what's coming next, what will be the role of HTML 5, Android... HTML5 could make the platform itself—being Android, Windows Phone or any other—irrelevant in the future, but it's still too soon [to tell]. Today we are committed and satisfied with Microsoft, but anything is possible.

   Elop makes an interesting and rather astute point when he says that HTML5 and the apps which come with it, could make platforms irrelevant in the future. We'll have to wait and see, but as a worst case scenario for Nokia they can always fall back into the loving hands of Android!

Via PhoneArena. 

In other news:

• Oppo is looking for 5 people from around the world to beta test their Find 5 smartphone. The biggest perk of this offering is that you get to keep the phone afterwards! You can enter here!
  Via PhoneArena.

• One part of Google chairman Eric Schmidt's journey to North Korea has emerged to be the negotiation for freedom of an American citizen. Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson confirmed "We are going to ask about the American who's been detained. [It's] a humanitarian private visit." The detainee, Kenneth Bae, is a Korean-American tour guide who was arrested in November, after crossing the border into North Korea with five other tourists.
  Reuters Via TheVerge.

• ZTE and Nuance have agreed a new multi-year deal for voice activated services on ZTE devices. This agreement focused on ZTE's upcoming in-car services, which is coming in more than 25 languages! Car Mode will come pre-installed on ZTE sets shipping this year and if you're after more details you can find the press release here!
  Via Engadget.

• The release for the factory images of Ubuntu OS for the Galaxy Nexus have been pushed back until the end of February! Still it's not too long to wait seeing as we aren't expecting devices until next year!
  Via LandOfTechnology.

• If you're in need of Photoshop, more specifically an older version of Photoshop, then Adobe is offering Photoshop CS2 for free at the moment. There are direct links to the official download destinations on this webpage here!
  Via LandOfTechnology.

• Apple is being sued by a patent troll which is using some old BT patents which they acquired. You can read the full details here!

And finally, it seems Apple's customer satisfaction has finally been toppled by the relentless onslaught of Android devices. For the first time today a glimpse of the February issue of Consumer Reports shows that on the top 4 US carriers Android phones are rated ahead of the iPhone 5! Does this mean Android is now finally user friendly and has come of age? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Business Insider Via DroidDog.

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