Smartphone Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Walt Mossberg picks iPhone over Lumia 900

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 5th, 2012)

Nokia handed out its new Windows Phone-powered Lumia 900 to several high-profile reviewers including Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal. Mossberg says the tile-based user interface of the Lumia 900 is "a refreshing change", but concludes that the phone has too many drawbacks to beat the ...

Samsung to challenge Apple's iAds, Google

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 4th, 2012)

Samsung is entering the mobile advertising space by working with OpenX Technologies on a project that would let advertisers place ads on its mobile devices, says a report in The Wall Street Journal. This new service would compete with Apple's iAds and Google's own mobile advertising. Samsung ...

Watch out, Apple -- that Samsung in your mirror may be closer than you think

by Steven Sande (Apr 2nd, 2012)

The iPhone 4S is currently the king of the hill when it comes to smartphone sales in the U.S., but Samsung is coming on strong as the second place manufacturer for U.S. mobile carriers according to Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley. AppleInsider posted the analyst's report that ...

Nielsen: Smartphones dominate US phone purchases

by Kelly Hodgkins (Mar 29th, 2012)

A new report from Nielsen suggests the US is quickly becoming a smartphone nation. As of February 2012, almost half of all mobile subscribers (49.7 percent) own a smartphone. This is up from 36 percent recorded this time last year. People are buying new smartphones at an amazing clip with ...

China surpasses US on iOS, Android activations

by Steven Sande (Mar 21st, 2012)

When I first saw this news on MacRumors this morning, my immediate thought was "Duh! China has 4.4 times the population of the U.S." But there's more to the story of China passing the U.S. in iOS and Android activations, since the per-capita income is almost twelve times greater for Americans ...

Apple loses ITC ruling against Motorola Mobility in patent infringement case

by Steven Sande (Mar 17th, 2012)

Florian Mueller over at FOSS Patents noted yesterday that Apple's patent infringement case against Motorola Mobility has been dealt a nearly fatal blow in the courts of the United States International Trade Commission (ITC). The suit alleged that Motorola Mobility was infringing on three ...

Gartner reports Apple top among smartphone vendors

by Kelly Hodgkins (Feb 15th, 2012)

Gartner released its quarterly and yearly mobile phone sales estimates and, not surprisingly, Apple was the leader in the smartphone market. Apple sold 37 million iPhones in the quarter and became the world's top smartphone vendor with 23.8 percent market share. Worldwide smartphone sales climbed ...

AT&T's iPhone "sales" versus "activations": Doing the Math

by Richard Gaywood (Jan 27th, 2012)

Love Apple gear? Like math? TUAW's Doing the Math series examines the numbers and the science behind the hardware and software. Several sites -- including TUAW -- reported yesterday that 80% of all smartphones AT&T sold in Q411 were iPhones, based on AT&T's quarterly earnings report. On ...

Low-cost smartphones to challenge iPhone in China

by Kelly Hodgkins (Dec 29th, 2011)

China has the largest number of mobile subscribers in the world, by far. With over 600 million subscribers, wireless carrier China Mobile is the number one carrier both in China and in the world. Despite receiving a globe-leading 24 million smartphones in Q3 2011, China is still a relatively ...

Over a quarter of photos now taken with smartphones, according to NPD

by Mike Schramm (Dec 22nd, 2011)

I'll 'fess up -- on our wish list earlier this week, I was the one who asked (reasonably, I thought) for an Apple Camera. I've been shopping for a DSLR lately, and while the quality of some cameras are great, the interfaces are pretty terrible. I really do wish that Apple would step in and ...

Apple and Google mobile grew in 2011, all others shrank

by Kelly Hodgkins (Dec 15th, 2011)

Every month, the NPD analyzes the mobile market and tracks the performance of smartphone platforms and manufacturers. Now that the year is almost over, the metrics company released a comprehensive report that summarizes January to October 2011. Not surprising, the results show that Android is in ...

Gartner shows iOS lost smartphone share to Android in Q3 2011

by Steven Sande (Nov 15th, 2011)

Although Apple is selling iPhones like the proverbial hotcake, iOS lost market share in the worldwide smartphone market in the third quarter of 2011. What's remarkable is that sales of the iPhone actually grew during that time, according to sales information from Gartner. As noted in a post on ...

Report suggests Apple slipping in handset rankings

by Kelly Hodgkins (Oct 28th, 2011)

Last quarter was a transition quarter for Apple and its iPhone. Sales of the 18-month-old iPhone 4 fell slightly as the company prepared to introduce the iPhone 4S. This slowdown caused Apple to slip to fifth place in the global handset market and to the number two slot in the global smartphone ...

C-Spire to become 4th U.S. iPhone 4S carrier

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Oct 19th, 2011)

You would think the fourth U.S. iPhone 4S carrier would be T-Mobile. But, because of network incompatibility, it's not. It's actually C Spire Wireless, formerly known as Cellular South, a CDMA regional carrier that most people probably haven't heard of unless you happen to live in Mississippi ...

8 GB iPhone 3GS now free with contract, iPhone 4 price dropped

by Mike Schramm (Oct 4th, 2011)

With the announcement of the new iPhone 4S today, Apple has also dropped the price on the previous versions of the iPhone. The iPhone 3GS version with 8 GB of memory is now down to the low, low price of absolutely free (as long as you're willing to sign up on a two-year contract with the ...