Tag: samsung

  • Telsyte: Australia’s smartwatch market to exceed $400M by 2018

    Telsyte: Australia’s smartwatch market to exceed $400M by 2018

    smartwatches

    With some 370,000 smartwatches sold in 2014, Australians are warming to wearable computing with the market poised to exceed $400 million by 2018, according to new research from emerging technology analyst firm Telsyte.

    According to Telsyte’s Australian Smartphone & Wearable Devices Market Study 2015, the smartwatch market is expected to grow by at least 50 per cent in 2015 due to the arrival of an Apple Watch.

    Samsung, an early entrant in to the smartwatch market is the current market leader.

    Watch jewellery is a mature market with around 40 per cent (more than 7 million) of Australians (age 16 and above) wearing a watch almost every day. Notwithstanding the challenges, smartwatches have the potential to disrupt the traditional market as people consider wearable devices an extension to their smartphone and apps they use for fitness and communications.

    Telsyte Managing Director Foad Fadaghi says smartwatches will become more appealing to consumers as new stylish and featured devices enter the market, with the 25 to 44 year-old age group representing the best sales opportunity in 2015.

    “There is a lot of anticipation for the Apple smartwatch and our research indicates half of all smart fitness band users are looking to upgrade to a smartwatch, creating a potentially vibrant new product category” Fadaghi says.

    Telsyte research showed that over 800,000 smart wristbands such as those made by Fitbit and Garmin were sold in 2014.

    As with smartphones, consumers consider ease of use, pricing and battery life the most important attributes of smartwatches. Many current smartwatches have been criticised for their short battery life and limited unique usage scenarios.

    Telsyte’s research found the top three applications people want from a smartwatch are to (1) check the time and date (2) use it as an alarm clock or a reminder alert, and (3) read messages, including e-mail.

    Smartphone sales mature as hand-me-down devices shake up the mid-market

    According to Telsyte research, there were 16.8 million smartphone users in Australia at the end of December 2014 with sales of just below 5 million units in the second half of 2014.

    This was around 10 per cent less than Telsyte expected over H2, despite very strong iPhone 6 sales.

    Telsyte Senior Analyst Alvin Lee says the iPhone gained market share in H2 2014, but the overall share trends are likley to change again as an Android-users upgrade cycle in expected to commence in early 2015.

    However, Telsyte has recognised increased competition to Android device by older model iPhones, typically received through a “hand-me-down”.

    “The durability of handsets and the hand-me-down phenomenon is impacting the market, along with a flood of second hand iPhones cutting into sales of mid-tier Android handsets in the second half of 2014,” Lee says.

    Telsyte estimates 1.3 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units sold in Australia last year, with the iPhone 6 outselling the iPhone 6 Plus, at a ratio four to one. Despite this Telsyte believes the demand for phablets or larger form factor smartphones is growing and will represent around a quarter of smartphones in use by 2019.

  • Samsung Galaxy A7 Smartphone for Social Network Lovers

    Samsung Galaxy A7 Smartphone for Social Network Lovers

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    Samsung’s newest phone, the Galaxy A7, stands out in 2 ways; its is the most thin phone of all its Galaxy A collections and a lot of emphasis has also been put on social networking. For a while now, there has been many rumors on its release that its actual realease doesnt feel so new.

    The Galaxy A7 is the thinnest but it shares some of its qualities with other A series phone. For example, both the Galaxy A5 and the Samsung Galaxy A3 feature the same kind of metallic unibody as the Galaxy A7.

    Other features include a 260mAh battery, 5.5 inch 1080p saMOLED display, a slot for a microSD card of up to 64GB, 16GB storage, and a 2GB RAM. The main camera has LED light, autofocus and 13 megapixels while the front has 5 megapixels and a sensor.

    Buyers can also choose between 2 sim cards and 1 sim card phone. The 1 sim card phone has 32-bit Exynos 5430 processor while the double sim features a 64-bit snapdragon 615 octa-core processor. Currently, the phone uses the Android 4.4 KitKat but this is expected to change soon after the launch of Android 5.0 Lollipop.

    What makes the Galaxy A7 good for social networking? To start with, the phone has an “auto selfie” setting on the front camera. It also has gesture and voice command  features which come in handy when taking pictures.

    Another feaure is the “ultra wide Shot”. For people that like sharing their pictures on social media, the LTE 4G makes it so easy and fast to browse and share.

    Galaxy A7  is expected to retail at about $600 and will be available in selected markets for the first quarter of 2015.

  • Best Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals in Electronics

    Best Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals in Electronics

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    Black Friday is here and it comes with awesome deals. If you’ve been looking for a way to cut right through the mess and to the best deals then you’ve come to the right place. You need to keep in mind that Black Friday deals won’t be up for long and some of them are actually limited to Friday. This means that you have to be quick and aggressive so as to bag the best deals. That said, here are our top 10 Black Friday electronics deals this year.

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    Enhance your TV watching experience with the Sony XBR55X850B 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV. This new TV features 120Hz refresh rate, LED backlight, smart functions such as Internet browser, Twitter, Skype, 3 USB, 4 HDMI and MHL. The TV also comes with various accessories including two 3D glasses, IR blaster, a remote, and touchpad remote control.

    It retails at $1,498.00 and you get to save 50% off the original price.

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    The Jabra FREEWAY Bluetooth Speakerphone is a revolutionary car speakerphone with crisp and rich sound from 3 speakers and a virtual surround sound. You can use it to take and make calls completely hands-free, and it will even announce the name of the caller. It also features A2DP streaming for music playback and GPS directions. The FM transmitter sends calls and music from your mobile phone to the car radio. It also comes with noise reduction technology and advanced multiuse for Bluetooth connections.

    Get 62% off and buy it for only $49.99.

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    Get 64% off the Optoma HD25-LV Projector with HDMI, which delivers high-quality and high-resolution home theatre experience. It features sharp and visually stunning image quality thanks to its use of the 1080p resolution. It also comes with full 3D compatibility and in-built SRS WOW HD Surround Sound for exceptional sound quality and rich deep bass.

    This projector retails at $899.00.

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    The Samsung UN55H6350 55-Inch 1080p 120Hz is one of a kind smart LED TV. It features a minimalist design and offers top-of-the-class smart TV suite with more content than most TVs. This TV also comes with out-of-this-world picture quality with excellent processing, accurate color, and nice-bright-room.

    This TV was previously selling at $1,399.99, but with the 43% discount you can now own it for $797.99.

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    This Black Friday you can save up to 42% off this beautifully crafted and high-quality Bose CineMate GS Series II Digital Home Theater Speaker System. This 2.1-channel speaker has been specifically designed to enhance audio from video sources, including your TV. The home theater features a simplified setup that makes connections a breeze. It also features improved digital acoustic and gemstone speakers.

    This home theater system retails at $349.95.

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    You get to save 58% when you purchase this 39-inch Seiki SE39HE02 720p LED TV. This TV comes with 60Hz refresh rate, Edge-Lit LED backlight, 1 VGA, 3 HDMI, and 1 USB. The TV dimensions without the stand are 34.78” x 21.52” x 9.78” while with stand it is 34.78” x 20.21″ x 2.87”.

    This is a great TV to own and it retails at $209.99.

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    Get up to 70% off on the Infinity Primus Three-way dual 6-1/2-Inch Speaker. This high-quality speaker allows you to experience home entertainment at a new level of realism and clarity, featuring 5-way binding posts, MMD hi-frequency, mid-range, and low-frequency drivers. With the low resonance enclosures and Primus P363BK’s Metal Matrix Diaphragm technology you can now hear the music exactly the way it was recorded without any alterations.

    This speaker is retailing at $179.40.

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    Multiply your entertainment with the Samsung BD-H5100 Blu-Ray Disc Player. This new player comes with HD Upconversion and improved picture quality. You can also use it to stream shows and movies with instant access to entertainment thanks to its myriad of in-built apps.

    This disc player retails at $47.99 and thus saves you 52% off the original price.

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    Save up to 48% off with the VIZIO M602i-B3 60-inch 1080p Smart LED TV. This is not your normal TV as if features Full-Array LED backlight that helps with the distribution of LED light behind the entire screen, which helps in delivering superior picture performance and light uniformity. The TV also comes with VIZIO Internet Apps Plus that allows you to instantly enjoy the latest TV shows, hit movies, and music. Other functions that you will absolutely love include active pixel tuning, clear 720 action, and 32 active LED zones.

    It retails at $998.00.

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    Save 58% off the original price with the Panasonic DMP-BDT225 Smart Wi-Fi 3D Blu-ray Player. This is a true smart device with web browsing capability, miracast that allows you to share and see smartphone content, fast loading of Blu-ray discs and in-built Wi-Fi.

    This device retails at $54.99.

  • IFA 2014: Samsung To Incorporate Netflix and Amazon 4K Ultra HD TV Apps

    IFA 2014: Samsung To Incorporate Netflix and Amazon 4K Ultra HD TV Apps

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    Samsung are partnering up with Netflix, Amazon, Maxdome, Chili, and Wuaki.tv with the intent of incorporating loads of 4K Ultra HD content to their smart TVs. The South Korean electronics giant is expected to launch Amazon’s Ultra HD service in October. Meanwhile, Netflix’s 4K app is going to be stretched to Europe later this year, making a debut with “House of Cards”, the political drama.

    Samsung also reinforced its cooperation with major European content partners, including maxdome, Wuaki.tv, and CHILI “to secure more UHD content to work towards a more robust UHD ecosystem.”

    According to the visual display’s executive vice president at Samsung’s electronics, Won Jin Lee, the UHD era has begun making it important to provide customers with more options as far as the UHD content goes. This will help in continuing the widespread adoption of UHD content. Won further added that Samsung offers its consumers with a wider range of UHD content for them to enjoy on their immersive Curved Ultra HD TVs.

    This is definitely not Samsung’s first venture into the 4K UHD content market. Prior to World Cup, Samsung partnered up with Portugal Telecom and with RTP, the Portuguese broadcaster to show live warm-up matches employing the MEO content service on 4K TVs across the world.

    The next big step for the excellent quality TV revolution is to come up with a secure UHD content distribution solution with the SCSA (Secure Content Storage Association). Samsung is working with SCSA’s founding partners including Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, Western Digital, and ScanDisk and have sprung a 500GB external hard drive which is pre-loaded with 40 tiles having 4K picture quality that includes ‘life of Pi’ and ‘ Star Trek Into Darkness’.

  • MWC 2014: The Red Herring Price Goes For – Triple Draw Between Samsung, LG and Sony

    It's split between three big players this year.

    Samsung:

    The core feature Samsung has been touting all MWC long has been the ability of its tablets to run 4 application windows at once. Useful, of course, but… Nothing else?

    LG:

    How long have you been dreaming of a curved mobile phone? Me neither, but the engineers at LG are very happy with its curved battery and screens. The phone doesn't feel specially awesome either.

    Sony:

    Speaking of dreams, we've been always waiting for a waterproof tablet, don't we? No? Yeah. Sony thinks otherwise. In any case, after seeing the impressive feats of the HZO guys I'd rather purchase a water-proofer from them and use the tablet I like.

  • Samsung’s 110-inch 4K HDTV Now Available for Sale


    After displaying its new 110-inch HDTV at CES, Samsung has finally opened up orders for this set. However, it is not clear what the cost of the HDTV will be. Besides, Samsung is availing the huge set in the Middle East, China, and a number of European countries.

    Samsung’s 85-inch 4k set had the cost of $40,000 after its launch in March. Taking this into consideration, the gigantic set is likely to be costlier. In that pricing range, it is clear that Samsung is using this TVs to aim for bragging rights.

    At CES, 4K TV sets were among the few new technologies and they are expected to be such a bigger deal at 2014 CES coming up next week. While several manufacturers are attempting to introduce their 4K sets to the market, Samsung is wielding its might by displaying huge sets. Ultimately, it does not really count if only a few of the sets get sold.

    These days, many people in need of a huge screen would rather invest in home projectors. You will need to go for the 1080p projectors currently (the 4K projector from Sony costs $25,000), though this isn’t a loss, given the absence of 4K content in the market.

  • Samsung SC-03F Tizen Device Seen in FCC Listing

    Samsung has been in the news for a while now with regard to its very first Tizen smartphone. Now, the FCC listing has a Tizen smartphone whose model number is SC-03F and it is thought to be bound to NTT DocoMo, a Japanese carrier.

    Tizen Indonesia was the first to spot the FCC listing of the claimed Samsung SC-03F and this gadget has a design similar to the Samsung Galaxy S4. However, the alleged SC-03F comes with a sleeker profile than the Galaxy S4. According to the site, Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon chipset, operating it 2.3GHz, powers the alleged Samsung SC-03F. It is worth noting that the same chipset is one that powers Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S4 and the recently released Galaxy J.

    The spotted SC-03F model supports radio frequency bands such as WCDMA 850 and 850/1900MHz GSM. The connectivity options are Bluetooth 4.0 (low energy) and Wi-Fi. At this time, the details of the gadget’s innards are yet to be known.

    Besides, Sammobile proposes that the Japanese carrier (NTT DoCoMo) will be the very first mobile carrier to start selling the Tizen smartphone. It also suggests that Samsung might release the anticipated Tizen smartphone around February 23. According to an earlier report, Samsung would display its commercial gadets based on the Tizen OS in 2014 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Catalonia.

  • Leaked Screenshots Purportedly Reveal New Smartphone UI from Samsung


    Although Samsung was busy with the CES 2014 announcements, a new rumor has indicated that the company is gearing up for its next generation User interface UI. Several screenshots that indicate the home screen panel for the new smartphone have been released by @evleaks, a popular tipster.

    The snapshots show the new design, icons and fonts that are totally reworked as compared to the TouchWiz UI that runs on the Android based Galaxy smartphones. A cartoonish theme is evident on the purported home screen panels.

    The alleged designed UI will include Internet, PlayBooks, S Health, Samsung Links, Play Store, dialer, S Memo, Maps, message, Gallery and Gmail. The design also indicates that users may be able to browse through different updates, which is similar to the BlinkFeed UI from HTC.

    The tipster unfortunately did not reveal when the new UI will be released and even if there will be a name change from the previous TouchWiz.

    However, Samsung is not expected to release the new UI on the Galaxy S5, its next flagship smartphone that is set to be released in February, at Mobile World Congress  that will be held in Barcelona, Catalonia.

  • Samsung to Launch Galaxy S5 and Galaxy F Series in 2014


    Latest reports indicate that Samsung has plans to release its next generation gadget – Galaxy S5 together with the Galaxy F series in early 2014.

    Initially, speculations about Galaxy F appeared on the internet in September 2013 but no much has been heard again until now.

    ET News, Korean media, citing sources from the industry, reports that Samsung created its Galaxy F prototype in Europe recently and has shifted to its Vietnam branch, possibly for mass production.

    While there is no solid evidence to ascertain the report, many people believe that Samsung’s mystery device – SM-G900F may turn to be the brand new Galaxy F.

    Antutu benchmarking site had indicated that SM-G900F (the current Galaxy F) would have a full HD display (1920x1080p), Snapdragon chipset (MSM8974AC), CPU speed of 2.45GHz, 3GB RAM, Android v4.4 KitKat OS, 32GB inbuilt memory, front camera of 2.0-megapixel, and main camera with 16.0 megapixel.

    Also, Galaxy S5, which is said to be in the production line, will feature a huge (5.25-inch) display with 2560x1440p resolution and a metal shell, 64-bit architecture, KitKat OS, 16-megapixel main camera that uses ISOCELL technology, 4GB RAM, front camera of 2.1 megapixel and biometric technology for unlocking screen.
    Samsung is expected to release both Galaxy S5 and Galaxy F at once, either March or April.

  • World’s First Curved Screen Smartphone Unveiled by Samsung


    Samsung has released a variant of the Galaxy Note that is the world’s first smartphone with a curved display. Curved displays are poised to bring Samsung closer to achieving wearable devices with unbreakable and flexible screens.

    This comes in the frontline of Samsung’s innovations war with LG electronics and Apple. Samsung is seeking to expand its lead in the market for high end smartphones.

    The smartphone will have a 5.7-inch display and also has a horizontal curve. It has a comfortable grip as compared to other flat screen models and also weighs less than the Galaxy note 3.

    Key features on this smartphone include a tilt function which allows users to check various information including missed calls as well as battery life when the home screen is off. The users are also able to browse through various media files by pressing the right or left sides of the screen.

    Curved displays are opening up possibilities for the creation of bendable designs, which might revolutionize the high end smartphone market.

    Competition amongst Samsung and LG electronics is heating up with the announcement that LG is launching a smartphone with vertical curved display in early November. LG chem. Ltd, its component affiliate is poised to start production of a curved battery for the device.

    Technology analysts also indicate that Apple is planning to launch a smartphone with a curved screen.

    The new Samsung smartphone will be available in South Korea and a decision to release it on other markets is yet to be made.