Low-cost Blackberry-style Android phone from Huawei, it may be sold for around 150€.
Category: Smartphones
Samsung Galaxy Y, cheapest Samsung Android phone
Posted by – September 5, 2011
This looks like it may be a very cheap Android smartphone, with a 3″ QVGA capacitive LCD, a 832Mhz processor, 2megapixel camera, is Samsung aiming this at the potentially sub-$99 Android Smartphone market?
Samsung Galaxy Y Pro, Samsung’s cheapest qwerty Android phone
Posted by – September 5, 2011
This looks to be Samsung’s cheapest Blackberry-style Android phone with a 2.6″ QVGA capacitive touch screen, a 832Mhz processor, it runs on Gingerbread for now.
Samsung Galaxy S2 White
Posted by – September 5, 2011
Samsung releases this white version of the Samsung Galaxy S2 Android Smartphone. This is likely the best phone on the market, so if you prefer to have a white version of it, you can consider getting this one.
Samsung Galaxy W
Posted by – September 5, 2011
Samsung releases this new medium range Samsung Galaxy W, it has a 3.7″ WVGA LCD, an unknown 1.4Ghz processor (please write in the comments if you know which processor this has), it runs Gingerbread for now.
Samsung Galaxy Xcover
Posted by – September 5, 2011
Here’s an even cheaper smartphone from Samsung, it has a 3.65″ HVGA capacitive touch screen, runs a 800Mhz processor (Qualcomm MSM7227?) (if you know which processor this is, please post in the comments).
Samsung Galaxy M Pro
Posted by – September 5, 2011
Here’s a new Blackberry-style Android smartphone from Samsung with a 2.7″ HVGA capacitive LCD screen and a full qwerty keyboard.
Samsung Galaxy Note, testing out the HD Super AMOLED screen
Posted by – September 2, 2011
This screen really is amazingly awesome. 5.3″ HD Super AMOLED, 1280×800, amazing and awesome colors, in a huge form factor that still can fit in any pocket.
Here are some comparative pictures showing it next to the Archos 70 Internet Tablet, the Archos 43 Internet Tablet and the Samsung Galaxy S2. You can click on the images to see the full size.
Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE, 4.5″ Super AMOLED Plus, 1.5Ghz Dual-core
Posted by – September 2, 2011
This looks like an upgrade of the already most awesome phone in the world, they increased the screen size from 4.3″ to 4.5″ and they increased the processor speed to 1.5Ghz Dual-core. I am just speculating here, but this processor might be the Texas Instruments OMAP4460 at 1.5Ghz, or perhaps it is a new version of the Samsung Exynos clocked at a higher clock speed. Perhaps this processor does improve video playback and 3D performance. If you have any information about the processor used in this device, please post in the comments. This might be pretty close to the hardware that may be used for the Nexus Prime, Ice Cream Sandwich reference development platform.
ViewSonic ViewPad V350 smartphone, unlocked dual-sim MSM7227
Posted by – September 2, 2011
They are releasing this MSM7227 unlocked dual-sim smartphone with a 480×320 capacitive touch screen for around 279€.
Samsung Galaxy Note, 5.3″ Super AMOLED Plus, 1.4Ghz Dual-core, with N-Trig S Pen stylus input
Posted by – September 1, 2011
Awesome new 5.3″ Super AMOLED Plus hybrid device from Samsung. It runs on the new 1.4Ghz Dual-core processor (upgraded Exynos?), will probably run Ice Cream Sandwich beautifully. So it’s capacitive and also has what looks to be the N-Trig stylus input technology also used on the HTC flyer to let you input handwritten scribbles and annotations such as in a notepad app but also in new S Pen apps and things like annotating a screenshot of any Android instance. As you can see in this video, the 5.3″ screen is huge compared to the already big 4.3″ Samsung Galaxy S2 screen, which really is awesome because I believe even this device fits nicely and confortably in most pockets.
This extra size, in my opinion, really does provide for extra potential productivity, better video playback, better web browsing on its amazing 1280×800 resolution, this size and resolution offers a better hybrid of the Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich features that are coming up.
Samsung Wave 3, Bada 2.0, 4″ Super AMOLED Plus
Posted by – September 1, 2011
Here’s the newest Samsung Bada phone, running the Bada 2.0 software on a 4″ Super AMOLED Plus screen, this is probably aimed at lower cost, although Android does allow Samsung to lower the cost of smartphones as well, so I am not really sure what Samsung is trying to do with Bada. Maybe Samsung wants to option of being able to own a smartphone ecosystem to try to profit as much as possible on every level of the value chain of the phone all the while trying to sell it for cheap. I prefer the cheap Samsung Android phones though.
Samsung to unveil Nexus Prime next week at IFA Berlin? I will video-blog it
Posted by – August 22, 2011
I video-blogged every IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin every year since 2005 (the last 2 years are here and my archive for 2005-2008 is here), I will be there again this time, bringing you 75 videos of the coolest new products to be shown there. Subscribe to my RSS feed, add my RSS to your Google Reader and subscribe to my YouTube channel for the latest. Here’s a teaser video from Samsung of what may be that rumored 4.5″ 1280×720 Super AMOLED mega Plus screen, running Ice Cream Sandwich on an OMAP4460 1.5Ghz or a new 1.4Ghz Samsung Exynos processor? It might be..
If you have any tips on new cool products that I should video-blog at IFA, let me know here in the comments, or send me an email charbax@gmail.com with the info, thanks!
$80 Huawei IDEOS sells 350K units thus far in Kenya
Posted by – August 18, 2011
SingularityHub.com publishes this article about the explosion of access to cheap Android phones in the developing world. Already 350 thousand $80 Huawei IDEOS have been sold through Kenya’s carrier Safaricom. Kenya has a population of 41 million people, 40% are said to live with less than $2 per day.
The developing world, Africa, BRIC countries Brazil, Russia, India, China, access to cheaper Android in those countries, that is the most interesting story in technology today. Sure we will all also get better, faster, more powerful, more colorful and more featureful gadgets soon also. But the idea that 5 Billion people may soon experience the Internet for the first time through Android smart phones, and thinking of what that can potentially do to improve peoples lives, that is the biggest story.
We’re talking better farming, better healthcare, better commerce, better education, better democracy. The potential is immense. Hopefully technology companies are really attentive, hopefully software developers are imaginative, hopefully telecom carriers and Governments embrace this for all and very fast, Android may reach sub-$50 phones before the end of this year to even further accelerate the reach and accessibility.
Here’s my video of the Huawei IDEOS as it was unveiled for the first time at the IFA 2010 consumer electronics show in Berlin (the next IFA 2011 is coming up in less than 2 weeks, I will provide you with a full video coverage of all the latest ARM Powered devices shown there):
Follow this blog for the latest news on the cheapest Android phones, I am trying to find some new MTK6573, ST U6715, MSM7227 and the upcoming new cheaper smart phone platforms out of China and elsewhere. Look forward to a lot of crazy cheap Android smart phone news in the months to come. By the way, I’ve used my $87 FG8 for the past 3 months as my main phone and it has worked great.
via: techmeme.com
Google buys Hardware company for $12.5 Billion
Posted by – August 16, 2011
Here are some numbers according to Josh Pritchard, posted on Quora about a week before this acquisition was announced:
–Motorola actually has ~$3.2B in cash (~$170M are “cash deposits”), with $200M more coming from Motorola Solutions, per the terms of the separation.
–They have $2.4B in deferred tax assets, that Google presumably plans to use (the media seems to be completely missing this one).
So, if you net the cash and tax assets, it’s more like ~$7B that Google is paying for the operating businesses and the patents.
Motorola Mobility has $6.2 Billion in assets (buildings and other stuff?) according to Wikipedia. Google gets 19 thousand new employees (up from 29 thousand current Google employees, a 65% jump in employee count).
Of course, what everyone is talking about are those 17 thousand patents and 7 thousand pending patents that Motorola Mobility has. Consider Motorola is a 80 year old company. Their patents most likely include many of the interesting Hardware Patents, I’m not a lawyer, but I am pretty sure strong Hardware Patents are worth much more than bogus software patents. This means Android, Chrome OS, Google TV can stay free and open source forever. Apple and Microsoft have to drop all their bogus lawsuits against Android companies immediately. Google now has the patent on the mobile phone, the Apple iPhone can be illegal tomorrow if Google wants it to be.
What do I think Google is going to do:
1. Ask the genius team behind the Motorola Atrix to join the Android team to make a platform that combines Ice Cream Sandwich, Google TV and Chrome OS into the ultimate ARM Powered device. Provide that solution as an all-in-one standard for the Android ecosystem and not just make it one product.
2. Interview any of the other 19 thousand employees at Motorola Mobility, ask who wants to work within Android, within Google or remain within Motorola Mobility and to do what. They can invent some genius interview process so somehow everyone gets what they want and what they deserve.
3. Maybe Samsung, HTC, Sony-Ericsson or simply the stock market are later offered to buy back the Motorola Mobility Hardware division without the patents but with free unlimited licence to use any of the patents on Android devices. In 6 months, if the stock market has somewhat recovered, Google may get all their money back for that.
4. Or Google can find use in owning Motorola, perhaps ask Motorola to design hardware such as Cheap $50 Android phones to bring Android to all people in the developing world, special focus on Brazil, Russia, India, China (potentially 1-2 Billion Android phones can be sold there in 1-2 years), Google can ask Motorola design $50 ARM Powered Google TV enabled Set-top-boxes that all consumers and all Pay-TV providers are going to use.
5. Maybe Android is mature enough (owning more than 80% of the smart phone market by the end of the year), Google may want to use Motorola to launch White Spaces networks worldwide for free wireless broadband for all. $99 Android phones unlocked that include unlimited free Google Voice, unlimited free wireless broadband in every city all over the world. White Spaces are unstoppable. Maybe this is the time. They can bundle a Motorola router with the phone, you plug it to your home ADSL/Cable/Fiber to expand that White Spaces network in your neighborhood.
Related articles
- $12 Billion: Why Google Is Buying Motorola Mobility (techland.time.com)
- Google to buy Motorola’s mobile unit for $12.5 billion (news.consumerreports.org)
- Google-Motorola Mobility would create interesting enterprise portfolio (zdnet.com)
Pricing speculations on cheaper Samsung Galaxy R, Tegra2 4.2″ Super Clear LCD Smartphone
Posted by – August 14, 2011
Arguably, the Samsung Galaxy S2 is the best phone in the world today. Samsung now also brings what looks to become a lower cost similar smartphone experience using the Tegra2 Dual-core 1Ghz processor instead of the 1.2Ghz Dual-core Exynos and using an LCD touch screen instead of the more expensive and harder to manufacture Super AMOLED Plus screen.
I played with the Samsung Galaxy S2 for a few days as I was able to borrow it during Computex, it’s a very impressive phone, the screen is amazing and the processor for now seems unbeaten in terms of performance (until 1.5Ghz Dual-core OMAP4460 devices start coming out next month).
In Europe, I cannot find the Samsung Galaxy S2 sold below 458€ and in the US it seems to cost $629. Clearly, that’s very expensive. But I guess, many people still consider that the normal going rate for high-end smart phones?
What is really the true manufacturing cost for Samsung on the Samsung Galaxy S2? My guess is they spend less than $200 to manufacture each phone (which is probably a bit higher than Apple and other LCD based Android smart phone makers pay per phone). Which means they are making upwards 200% profit margin on each phone. Sure enough, Samsung spends extra on making the Super AMOLED Plus screen, which they also are in the process of using their new multi-billion dollar Super AMOLED Plus factory to try to ramp up mass manufacturing to keep up with demand. But I guess that’s just how things are for getting a Samsung for now. I’d find it cool if they decided to sell the Samsung Galaxy S2 for $250 unlocked or 250€, it may allow them to not loose money and gain huge market share as they increase their mass manufacturing even much further, but that may be too disruptive for the whole smart phone carrier business model yet.
Anyways, Samsung may save with Galaxy R compared to S2 (according to my pure guess) about $20 on the LCD, and perhaps about $10 on the processor and other electronics that come with the Tegra2 package. A $30 savings in Bill of Material, may translate to upwards $100 cheaper retail price. So I expect Samsung will sell the Samsung Galaxy R below 399€ and below $499 as unlocked. I do not consider the carrier subsidized pricings as I consider those more expensive, they can sometimes add up to $2500 over the 2-year contracts, which I do not consider a pricing advantage over buying the phones unlocked and then using cheaper data and voice SIM cards in there.
What do I recommend geeks who want the best regardless of the price? If you can’t wait, get a Samsung Galaxy S2, don’t look too much at the price tag, consider all competing big brand Android phones cost about the same. If you can wait, maybe in 1 or 2 months, the rumored Samsung Nexus Prime might be coming with Ice Cream Sandwich. I do not know if the rumors of a 720p Super AMOLED Plus 4.3″ screen are realistic, or if Samsung will use the 1.5Ghz Dual-core OMAP4460 or perhaps overclock their own Dual-core Exynos platform to 1.5Ghz. I would not be surprised if the rumored Nexus Prime is more or less the same as a Samsung Galaxy S2, with very minor design changes and it just running vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich, just like the Nexus S is a copy of the Samsung Galaxy S1 and the Nexus One is a copy of the HTC Desire. The OMAP4460 Ice Cream Sandwiches might be used by LG, Motorola and other companies which may have more history in working with Texas Instruments, but who knows, maybe Texas Instruments is doing huge efforts to provide attractive package deals to all the device makers and that they all feel they cannot afford to miss the non-exclusive TI OMAP4460 based opportunity.
TheInquirer recently quoted analysts saying that Samsung has now overtaken Apple and has become the worlds biggest smart phone maker.
Samsung might have sold more smartphones than Apple and Nokia during April, May and June
With phones like the Samsung Nexus Prime, Galaxy R, cheaper Galaxy phones (2, 3) targetted at pre-paid and developing countries (including focus on BRIC, Brazil, Russia, India, China), the new Super AMOLED Plus factory being ready for increased mass production, Samsung’s rise in smart phone market share is likely to only increase. Consider that with just Samsung’s Android smart phones, there are more sales than the iPhone, consider how much more Android smart phones sell overall compared to iPhone when all the other many growing Android smart phone makers are put together. I think it is not ridiculous to expect a 1/4 ratio in daily sales to be demonstrated pretty soon, likely before Christmas, regardless of how many current iPhone owners decide to upgrade to the iPhone5.
Related articles
- Another Big Bang? Samsung debuts Galaxy R smartphone (gigaom.com)
- Samsung Galaxy R official – NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core CPU, 4.2 inch display, & 5 megapixel camera goodness (intomobile.com)
- Samsung roadmap leaks, suggests Ice Cream Sandwich, 720P smartphones and more (9to5google.com)
- LEAKED Samsung Roadmap Reveals New Tablet and Smartphones … Galaxy S2 Appears? (buyitorfryit.com)
- Samsung Debuts the Galaxy R, A Mid-Level Android Phone (wired.com)
Qualcomm Dragonboard, $300-$500 Dual-core MSM8660/APQ8060 development board
Posted by – June 8, 2011
Qualcomm is releasing this hardware and software development board solution for hardware makers wanting to customize their use of Qualcomm’s latest Dual-core ARM Processor. The Dragonboard includes a dual-core Snapdragon APQ8060 clocked at 1.5GHz (same as MSM8660 and MSM8260, just without the modem), runs on Android by default. The cost is $300 for a basic unit, and $500 if you want the screen and all the other components featured in this video.
Qualcomm’s Dual-core is asynchronous, demonstrated at Computex 2011
Posted by – June 2, 2011
Qualcomm now has their dual-core super fast ARM processor in several products shown at this trade show, they demonstrate how they suggest that thekir asynchronous implementation is superior to competing Dual-core implementations, anyone got some benchmarks?
Acer Iconia Smart, 4.8″ 1024×480 wide screen Android Smartphone
Posted by – June 1, 2011
Acer I think makes pretty cool Android phones that cover low end but also like this one pretty differentiated high-end in the Android smartphone space. This is the first time I see this aspect ratio in a 4.8″ capacitive LCD screen, nice.
Gigabyte Gsmart G1310, G1315 and G1317D Android phones launched
Posted by – June 1, 2011
Those are using the cheap Qualcomm MSM7225 platform with dual-sim card support for one 3G sim card and one 2G sim card. Thus this type of phone, that could start retailing at $220 unlocked or that could be sold for even cheaper locked on pre-paid plans could be great to be used as a combination of basic Android smartphone, Mifi, using a cheap 3G data sim card and at the same time being used as your basic phone for your cheap pre-paid phone number. Gigabyte are first launching these in some eastern european countries.
