T-Mobile Brings HTC One S to the U.S. (USA)
At the Mobile World Congress 2012, HTC announced the upcoming availability of the HTC One S, with T-Mobile as the premier launch partner in the U.S. the HTC One S is T-Mobile’s thinnest smartphone (7.95mm), featuring an ultra-sleek, aluminum unibody design. The next smartphone to take advantage of 4G technology (HSPA+42) running on America’s Largest 4G Network, the HTC One S is T-Mobile’s first product to ship with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and HTC Sense 4.
With access to T-Mobile’s fastest network speeds, the HTC One S allows for a high-quality entertainment experience, which is also enhanced by Beats By Dr. Dre technology. The Beats Audio integration in the HTC One S is enabled for richer, more authentic sound when consumers listen to music. The HTC One S also makes it simple to get and listen to music, with Google Music pre-loaded on the device for easy cloud-based access to the user’s personal music collection.
Andrew Sherrard, senior vice president, marketing, T-Mobile USA, said that they’re thrilled to partner with HTC on the launch of its new HTC One series of smartphones and to bring the HTC One S to the U.S. With the HTC One S, they’re not only delivering on our promise to bring leading-edge technology to market but are continuing to provide customers with the best 4G entertainment experiences from listening to high-quality music to streaming high-resolution movies.
Consumers increasingly expect smartphone camera technology that offers the ability to capture life’s moments with high-quality photos and videos – and the HTC One S delivers. Joining T-Mobile’s best-in-class lineup of advanced camera smartphones from HTC, the arrival of the HTC One S marks the introduction of HTC’s new amazing camera experience that rivals traditional digital cameras. With the introduction of HTC ImageSense, improvements are brought to every part of the 8-megapixel camera, including lens, the sensor and the software. Camera enhancements include:
Superfast Capture – The HTC One S dramatically reduces the time it takes to capture those key moments, with an estimated 0.7-second shot time and a 0.2-second autofocus that allows for nearly unlimited continuous shots.
High Quality Photos in Adverse Conditions – The HTC One S delivers dramatic enhancements in image capture quality even in adverse lighting conditions. The f/2.0 lens on the HTC One S offers amazing low-light performance, capturing 40 percent more light than the f/2.4 lenses available on other high-end phones.
Concurrent Video/Still Capture – HTC One S lets the user capture a shot and shoot video at the same time – perfect for capturing life’s moments as they happen. While shooting 1080p HD video, consumers just need to tap the shutter button and the device snaps a high-resolution still photo while the video continues to shoot. Consumers can also capture a still from a previously recorded video.
Jason Mackenzie, president, global sales and marketing, HTC Corporation, said that people take photos on their phone more than any activity other than making phone calls, which is why they improved every part of the camera experience on HTC One S. They’re thrilled to bring their combination of their premium design, amazing camera and authentic sound to T-Mobile customers in the U.S.
The HTC One S will be one of the fastest smartphones running on America’s Largest 4G Network, with access to T-Mobile’s fastest 4G (HSPA+ 42) speeds, currently available in 175 markets, reaching more than 180 million Americans. Equipped with a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor by Qualcomm, the HTC One S delivers powerful performance while Web browsing, streaming movies and watching TV shows on the device’s 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED touch screen.
HTC reports 70 percent decline in profit (Taiwan)
HTC Corporation, a global leader in mobile innovation and design, announced the unaudited consolidated results for 1Q 2012. For the first quarter of 2012, total revenues reached $2.3 billion, a decrease of 34.92 percent year-on-year.
The company has said that first-quarter net income was $151 million, a 70 percent drop from a year earlier. As per reports, rivals Apple and Samsung have given stiff competition to HTC causing the profits to slump.
The handset maker will introduce the One series in an attempt to compete with the Apple iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy smartphone range. Reports reveal that the series is expected to be launched this month across markets.
Vodafone launches first German carrier communications service (Germany)
Vodafone will offer the first network operator in Germany as the new communications service, RCS-e. RCS-e, which stands for “Rich Communication Suite enhanced” by the industry association GSMA is a standard developed for easy and secure communications that will be launched globally by many mobile network operators.
Soon Vodafone first smartphones with software installed for the use of RCS-e will offer in trade. With many smartphones already available RCS-e can be used in the next few months, this is possible through free updates. To introduce the use of RCS-e in the Superflat Internet tariffs will be included.
With RCS-e-phone users can now easier than ever to send and receive messages, share files such as documents, pictures and videos with each other and also take part in an ongoing voice call, a video-link and see as their interlocutor. All functions can easily be started directly via the contacts stored in the address, the service is integrated seamlessly in this smartphone. Customers benefit from entirely new possibilities for communication, for RCS-e is a by operators globally supported service. For example, the network speed between transmitter and receiver is detected automatically, so for example, video calls, or photos and videos in the highest quality possible in each case by the fastest means to be transmitted securely.
Erik Friemuth, head of retail banking at Vodafone Germany, said that they introduced the first LTE network operators introduced in this country and are now underscoring their role as an innovative pioneer as the first provider of RCS-e in Germany. He added that their customers can now easily over any other than chat ever with each other to stay on video telephony in touch, share photos and videos live and share files. In communication is their core competency and they emphasize the rapid introduction of RCS-e.
To ensure that customers of different network operators communicate with each other messages and files, and video phone calls to the GSMA has developed so-called extensive interoperability testing. Everyone wants to offer network operators, the RCS-e, it must go through to ensure high quality and safety requirements and the availability of RCS-e these tests and are certified for this purpose.
The mobile network operators that will support the service in Germany, are next to the German telecom Vodafone and O2. Smart phones with preinstalled software RCS-e will come for example from equipment manufacturers such as HTC, Huawei, LG, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. More details to RCS e timely given the launch of the service, Vodafone announced.
Apple bags first place as top smartphone vendor (USA)
Apple Inc. has proved once again that it is still the world’s best vendor in terms of smartphones. Despite of the fact that Android phones are the new flavor of the season, Apple managed to take a decent lead with its iOS platform. It was the fourth quarter sales which changed the whole market scenario for Apple.
Apple Inc. overtook Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Co. to become the top vendor of smartphones’ worldwide. Latter one managed to get a fifth position in the list behind ZTE Corp. As per market estimates, Apple sold 35.5 million smartphones to consumers in comparison to Samsung’s 34 million.
As per sources, the key reason behind the success of Apple was the increased sale of iPhone 4S and fragmentation of Android phones. Some of the credit for increase in the sale of Apple devices can be credited to its holiday sales as well.
The Android market diminished for vendors like Sony Ericsson, LG Electronics and HTC, however, new players in the market like ZTE got a place in the last few names. According to sources, Nokia trailed behind in its competition with Apple because of lack of innovation competitive with Apple’s devices. Third and fourth position in the vendor list was acquired by Nokia’s Symbian and Research in Motion (RIM) respectively.
Apple and Samsung lead smartphone shipments in 2011
The demand for smartphones around the world continues to witness a rise as users across segments have been increasingly replacing traditional handsets with smartphones by Samsung and Apple. According to a report by IDC, the worldwide smartphone market went up by 55 per cent in Q4 2011, largely driven by the demand for the Apple iPhone 4S.
As per the report, around 492 million smartphones were shipped in 2011, a 61 per cent rise from 305 million units in 2010. Apart from the introduction of high and medium-end devices by telecom giants Samsung and Apple, affordable handsets by these firms have gone a long way in increasing their presence in the market.
South Korea’s Samsung emerged as the leading smartphone maker for 2011, with the launch of its successful range of the Galaxy series, primarily the Galaxy SII and Galaxy Nexus. The Apple iPhone 4S helped the US manufacturer maintain its market position as well as set a new shipment volume record for a quarter.
Smartphone vendor Nokia attempted to gain back some its market share with the launch of its Windows Phones, the Lumia 710 and Lumia 800, while BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion (RIM), is still working towards recovering from the losses caused due its network outage and hopes to release its updated handset by the end of the year. Taiwanese handset maker, HTC also saw a decline in the volumes shipped in the fourth quarter as compared to the previous quarter.
Apple wins patent battle against HTC (USA, Taiwan)
Apple Inc has emerged victorious in its patent lawsuit against handset manufacturer HTC, as the International Trade Commission has reportedly ruled that HTC has infringed on one patent held by the iPhone maker. As per reports, any of HTC’s phones using the technology which has been infringed will be banned from sales in the USA from 19 April, 2012.
According to reports, industry analysts believe that the ruling is not expected to have a major impact on the company’s sales as the ruling gives them enough time to come up with another feature to compensate for the infringed feature.
As per sources, HTC has said that the feature in question is a common user-interface function which enables smartphone users to access information such as contact numbers and e-mail addresses from apps and other sources, and use them by simply tapping on the text.
The victory will be well received by Apple, after losing out to Korean giant Samsung, on a similar patent infringement case in Australia last month.
HTC reports 20 percent decline in sales (Taiwan)
Taiwanese handset manufacturer HTC Corp. has reported a 20 percent decline in its consolidated sales in November this year as compared to the previous year, causing its share price to drop significantly. According to reports, the stock price fell to US$ 14.1 (TW$ 428) the lowest price this year.
Increasing competition from global players like Apple and Samsung has led to decreasing profit margins for the company. Further, industry analysts reportedly claim with these manufacturers gaining a larger customer base with each product launch, the market share of HTC may decline in the next few quarters.
As per sources, HTC Corp.’s consolidated revenue declined to US$ 1.02 billion in November this year.
