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  • Half the World's Smartphones are Delivered by Samsung and Apple

    A few days after the rival Apple announced its less spectacular results, it is time for Samsung to disclose the official figures of the financial performance in the second quarter, and they are pretty impressive.

    Mobile market grew by only 1% in the second quarter of 2012, compared with 2011, and the giants Samsung and Apple have delivered almost half of the smartphones in the world, according to a recent IDC study.

    The two companies have doubled their market share over the past two years distanced themselves more and more from the competition, but at the same time has also increased the advantage of those from Samsung from the Cupertino-based company.

    Thus, in chapter smartphones, Samsung's market share in the second quarter was 32.6% , while of those from Apple was 16.9%. Samsung has also managed to achieve deliveries of 50.2 million units during this period.

    However, we must take into account the fact that Samsung has already launched the model that counts the most in this year, Samsung Galaxy S3 and Apple's iPhone 5 will likely see the light of the day later this year, with a market share of 6.6% and shipments of 10.1 million units, followed by HTC, with 5.7% and 8.8 million units sold.

    In total, global deliveries in the second quarter of 2012 have reached the impressive figure of 153.9 million smartphones, according to the same study conducted by the IDC.

    Samsung, Apple and Nokia are the top three producers with the most smartphones sold, but the surprise is ZTE, which climbed up to the fifth place in this ranking, with an increase of 300%.

  • It’s Our Year, Says Solar Power Mobile Phone Giants Intivation

    Intivation has declared 2009 a breakthrough year and the solar power mobile phone technology giant is not about to rest on its laurels.

    Paul Naastepad, chief executive officer of Intivation, says GSM Association award the Netherlands based company won early this year is clear testimony that they are moving in the right direction in technology advancement.

    “Intivation today is the biggest supplier of solar power conversion chip technology used in mobile phones in the world.

    “What we believe is more important though – that since we won the GSM Association’s Major Innovation Award in early 2009, the whole industry seems to be more and more interested in the idea of using solar powered phones to enable people living in electricity grid deprived areas make telephone calls now!

    “The year 2009 is definitely the breakthrough for our SunBoost technology, as it is currently deployed in solar phones made by ZTE and Commtiva,” said Naastepad.

    He believes the world has wasted no time in embracing their products, born out of proprietary technology which enables the development of highly efficient and reliable solar powered handsets, chargers and battery packs.

    Paul Naastepad

    “In less than six months after we launched, solar phones ‘with Intivation inside’ are now sold in eight countries by 10 operators already, both in Africa and Latin America.

    “The Commtiva phone is aimed largely at the more data intensive users as it operates in GPRS, while the ZTE phone caters for the buyers seeking the lowest price,” he said.

    Naastepad was clear about the advantages of the solar powered phones in a world with millions of people without access to electricity, especially in rural areas.

    “Intivation’s SunBoost technology ensures that phone batteries are charged much faster than with any other solar technology.

    “Phones with our technology also charge the battery in fully cloudy conditions, in which case others would not charge at all.

    “In the future, many more devices will be brought to the market in Africa and beyond, some of which are high performance universal chargers that can be used with any existing phone,” he said.

    Intivations’ target market, says Naastepad, is easy to identify.

    “First of all it’s people living in areas without electricity, unreliable electricity or who cannot afford the electricity charges.

    “And when you know that there are 1.6 billion people in the world who do not have electricity, 640 million of whom do have GSM coverage, that is quite a lot.

    “Secondly, environmentally conscious people who want to take their responsibility for CO2 emission reduction.

    “And thirdly, all those people who simply enjoy the comfort of a phone that never runs out of power,” he said.

    Naastepad said the solar phones had made a huge impact on people.

    “It brings communication to them, enabling both better trade and social welfare,” he noted.

    Environmentalists, says Naastepad, have warmly received the new technology.

    “Even in places where we did not expect the ‘green’ feature of solar phones to matter that much, we are surprised by how much attention the environmentalists are giving this issue.

    “Of course, with a solar phone you never produce any CO2 anymore since you are using the sun to charge your phone. And the sun is even free of charge,” he said.

    The Intivation CEO said they were looking forward to 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, which he said would be a perfect platform to market their products where around 500 000 visitors from all over the world are expected to converge.

    “We will continue to develop our technology to enable solar phones charge yet faster, become smaller and cheaper so that more people can benefit from our invention,” promised Naastepad.

    Intivation was founded in 2003 as True Solar Autonomy, after inventor Anne Osinga found a new way to boost output voltages.

  • WiMAX MENA: Gulf Offers "Real Opportunity" For WiMAX


    Richard Jones has just overseen the largest WiMAX deployment in Europe, Africa and the Middle East for a telecom startup in Saudi Arabia.

    Yet the managing partner of Ventura Team said his biggest concern is whether WiMAX will make it as a technology.

    "LTE is coming. The difficulty is can WiMAX be in service before LTE arrives?"

    Jones told smartphone.biz-news that WiMAX is suffering from not having a "poster boy" to accelerate its adoption, perhaps a contributing factor to why it has failed to take off so far in India and the US.

    Another is cost.

    He said that despite there being plenty of WiMAX development around the world, prices for base stations are still high.

    "Volumes are needed to get down the production price because WiMAX is still expensive," he said.

    "The economies of scale that could normally bring equipment costs down will not occur. It’s a real challenge."

    Richard Jones, managing partner of Ventura Team

    Jones said WiMAX has to succeed and the key to increasing the number of subscribers is a successful deployment.

    "If that happens, other people will get confidence in it."

    He is part of an expert panel at the this week’s WiMAX MENA Forum in Dubai discussing how WiMAX can create profitable opportunities for new entrants in the Middle East and North Africa.

    His 16-month stint as Chief Commercial Officer for the Saudi Arabia company making the WiMAX deployment makes him well qualified to comment.

    Jones said the Gulf does offer a real opportunity since it is a market with relatively low broadband penetration.

    The area’s mix of villas and apartments often means it is not possible to put fibre in economically.

    In addition, there is the presence of an incumbent and the fact the industry has been slow to de-regulate means prices remain relatively high.

    "DSL is very poor in the region as a whole," he said. "There’s a long distance between people’s houses and exchanges, so no-one is getting a reasonably fast DSL service from the incumbent."

    Earlier this month, ZTE announced that it has partnered with Etihad Atheeb Telecom (Atheeb), the largest WiMAX operator in Saudi Arabia.

    They have agreed to build the Kingdom’s first nationwide WiMAX network.

    What WiMAX offers, according to Jones, is coverage which is so far lacking.

    "WiMAX provides an interesting opportunity for companies to provide broadband in areas that are uneconomical for fibre and places where people would not get a DSL service," he said.

    The existing gap in the market has led to a rise in 3G services but Jones said the opportunities for WiMAX are considerable.

    "WiMAX is still there. There is still the potential for services based on WiMAX to cover lots of subscribers not covered by fixed and around the 1-2 meg broadband service," he said.

    Jones said that WiMAX has become the fast roll-out technology of choice.

    But he said it is also being exploited by fixed licence operators in the Gulf who currently have a very good 3G service.

    In this situation the operators may have a WiMAX license – obtained at a fraction of the cost of a mobile licence – that doesn’t allow them to do anything mobile with the technology.

    But when licences are unified to pave the way for fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) these carriers will be able to become good quality mobile providers.

    "What’s happening is that people are using WiMAX as part of a very innovative strategy," said Jones. "There are huge cost saving to be made."

  • ZTE to Unveil Range of Smartphones at MWC 2009


    ZTE Corporation is promising to reveal a full portfolio of smartphones at the Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona.

    All in all, 10 different designs are to go on show, including customised handsets for Vodafone and China Mobile.

    The highlight is expected to the the VF 1231 model, which has been developed especially for Vodafone. The smartphone is based on Windows Mobile platform and has a single chip for GSM and EDGE.

    Other handsets due to be paraded in Barcelona is the ‘XIANG’ series of 3.5G super slim HSDPA/HSUPA handsets, the e760 (a

    ZTE’s e760 smartphone

    GSM-based handset custom-made for China Mobile) and the D820/D810 (a CDMA-based handset custom-made for China Telecom).

    Also expected to go on show is the U981, a top-end smartphone that was deployed by China Mobile during the Beijing Olympic Games.

    Xiong Hui, vice president of handset division of ZTE Corporation, said the demand for smartphones has reached the point where they are no longer seen as a luxury or a strictly work-related item.

    He said ZTE recognised this trend early on and invested in developing a range of smartphones.

    "ZTE is meeting the specific requirements of leading mobile operators such as Vodafone and China Mobile, and helping smartphones become a popular item worldwide," he said.