AdDuplex give the Windows Phone breakdown for April: The Lumia 920 is now the Windows Phone king!

   Windows Phone is always an interesting operating system to follow because it has one of the world's biggest companies behind it, it's widely considered to be a fantastic operating system and yet somehow Microsoft and Nokia in particular, just can't quite get it to catch on the way iOS and Android have!

   That being said there's been a bit of growth lately, but the guys over at AdDuplex have used their tracking software, which people put in apps, to give us a much more rounded idea of how well the platform is doing and which devices in particular are stealing the limelight!

   The one device which seems to be setting the ecosystem on fire is the Nokia Lumia 920. Nokia's flagship is now the most popular Windows Phone out on the market and it's finally knocked the Lumia 800 off the top spot for the first time! As you can see in the pie chart below, other phones are selling really well too, with the Windows Phone 8 powered range from the 620, through the 820 to the 920 all starting to catch up with their Windows Phone 7 counterparts which were released the year before! We're surprised to see just how few devices HTC have sold, given the amount of HTC 8S' which we've been seeing around lately, so perhaps we live in a particular hotspot for the device!

   The comparison between Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 sales is also interesting lately with Windows Phone 8 now starting to assert the sales authority on its older sibling in many of the key countries from Microsoft's perspective. Through the majority of Western European countries and indeed in the US, Canada and Australia there are now more Windows Phone 8 handsets than Windows Phone 7 handsets in the wild!

   The final thing which we wanted to point out from AdDuplex's findings was that, in the key market of the United States, Nokia are the most popular Windows Phone manufacturer with 66% of the market. After the Finns it's interesting to see that Samsung's Omnia and ATIV ranges haven't proved very popular, especially not compared to HTC's devices. It'll be interesting to see whether or not Nokia can continue to grow in the United States, which is a market they've traditionally struggled in!

   If you want to read more about the platform then AdDuplex have lots more comparisons and country specific breakdowns on their website which you can find here!
Via WindowsPhoneDaily.

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16/01/2013: Sony working on the Xperia Tablet Z? Samsung to release a Pocket Plus? HTC M7 renders and much, much more!

Is Sony working on Xperia Tablet Z?

Sony's last gen Xperia Tablet S!

     Sony only really has one tablet in their range at the moment and that's the relatively mid-ranged Sony Xperia Tablet S (not to be confused with the original Tablet S, which we reviewed here)! So when we got wind of a potentially new tablet from Sony, we were neither surprised, nor hesitant, that this could indeed prove to be a real device. 

   Just to make it easier for you guys to decipher the tweets below Google has kindly help us with the translation, so what these tweets reveal, if they're to be believe, is that the Tablet Z will waterproof, dustproof, have Wifi A/B/G and N connection support, as well as an LTE option, a 2 mega-pixel front and an 8.1 mega-pixel rear cameras. The screen will supposedly be a 10.1" WUXGA, that's 1,920 × 1,200 pixel resolution screen and there is supposedly a 1.5Ghz Quad-core Qualcomm APQ8064 processor running Android 4.1, with 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage and a 6,000 mAh battery could keep you going all day. All of this will supposedly fit into a shell which is 6.9mm thick and can be coloured either black or white!

   We're reluctant to say this will happen, but we do think it's quite likely to happen! Last year Sony released both the Xperia S and the Xperia Tablet S so it would make sense if we saw a pairing of phone and tablet with Z after their names this year! If this does turn out to be true then we expect to see it at MWC next month and hopefully we'll see Sony keep their 'folded over magazine' design language, it really helps when you hold the tablets!
Twitter (Tweets embedded below) Via XperiaBlog.

【SO-03E】Xperia Tablet Z/1.5G Quad APQ8064/6.9mm厚/10.1インチ WUXGA 1,920×1,200px/カメラ：外810万画素 内220万画素/LTE/WiFi：abgn/ワンセグ/防水：IPX5 7/防塵：IP5X/色：黒、白
— Xperia™(@Xperia_info) January 15, 2013

【SO-03E】Xperia Tablet Z/10.1インチ/Android 4.1/CPU Quad1.5GHｚ/RAM 2GB/ROM 32GB/バッテリー 6000mAh/防水防塵
— Xperia™(@Xperia_info) January 15, 2013

Via XperiaBlog.

Samsung's Galaxy Pocket Plus gets detailed!

      Not everyone out there is after the latest processor, the highest resolution screen, the biggest memory size or even the latest version of Android. This might be hard for proper techies to accept, but it's a reality of the world. Samsung, to their credit, realise that not everyone needs or wants to pick up a Galaxy S3, so here is the Galaxy Pocket Plus, a budget device, which is strangely endearing!

   Now this device is destined for South America in the first half of this year, but there might be other availability! So what does your money buy you with this offering? To quote SamMobile directly there is:

"• Android OS: IceCream Sandwich (4.0.4)
• BCM21654, 850Mhz (Broadcom)
• GSM (GSM850/ EGSM900/ DCS1800/ PCS1900), WCDMA (W850/ W1900)
• 4G Bytes (eMMC) + 4G bits (RAM) memory
• 2 megapixel camerac
• 2.8″ QVGA TFT (C-type, Multi Touch)
• 1200mAh standard battery
• A-GPS / BT v3.0 / USB v2.0 HS / WiFi (802.11 b/g/n) / FM Radio
• Sensors: Accelerometer, Digital Compass"

   Obviously none of this is the going to blow you away and we don't think this will run particularly quickly either, but there should be enough for the target market! You never know if it's cheap enough we might even pick one up ourselves!
Via SamMobile.

In other news:

• Samsung is rolling out the Android 4.1.2 update for their US based Galaxy Note 10.1's! Hit that check update button!
  Via Slashgear.

• Google has cleared up the apparent murder of the donkey in Botswana. They released a blog post, which is here, explaining how it is just the way you look at it! The donkey was rolling around in the dust as the car arrived before getting up and out of the way of the car. The pictures explain it better on the post!

• According to the Korea Times LG has grand plans to ship 75 million handsets this year. It's not totally unachievable for them either because they sold 55 million last year! The plan is that 45 million of this years phones will be smart and the rest will be feature phones, something which will hopefully see LG's mobile division turn a profit this year! The device set up will also supposedly include a couple of Windows Phone 8 devices, but we'll have to wait and see!
  Via Slashgear and UnwiredView.

• If you live in Europe you can pick up Huawei's new budget dual-core device from Amazon for £179! The G330 can be picked up in white here and if you find another £5 you can get the black version here!
  Via Eurodroid.

• After yesterday's revelation of HMV going into administration and so here we are a day later faced with the same situation all over again. This time Blockbuster has announced that they're in administration too! You can find more in depth coverage from the BBC here!

• UK retailer, Clove has had a bit of hands on time with the Sony Xperia Z! Now they reiterate that the device on show is a pre-production model so not everything is perfect, but nonetheless here it is in all it's glory!
  Via CloveBlog.
  

And finally, is this render from EVLeaks HTC's much anticipated European for the forthcoming year? If the rumours are to be believed there will be a 4.7-inch, full HD display and a 1.7Ghz quad-core processor, so this will definitely be a good competitor for Sony's brand new Xperia Z!
Via UnwiredView.

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