On a full-year basis, total smartphone shipment volumes reached 491.4 million units in 2011, up a strong 61.3% from the 304.7 million units in 2010. This was higher than IDC’s full year estimate of 54.7% for the class, but still below 2010’s year-over-year growth of 75.7%. Although this marks a slowdown from 2010, IDC still fully expects continued double-digit growth for the foreseeable future.

Smartphones continued to be one of the hottest consumer electronics products in the market, and was helped along by the launch of key devices. “By the end of the quarter, one out of every three mobiles phones shipped worldwide was a smartphone,” said Ramon Llamas, elder research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Phone Technology and Trends team. “The launch of Apple’s iPhone 4S played a key role in smartphone growth to capture pent-up demand, and smartphone launches from other vendors also provided a broad choice to meet varying preferences and budgets.”

The variety of offerings have become more nuanced as smartphone makers effort to grow their respective user bases in emerging and developed markets alike.

“So-called ‘hero’ devices, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus and Apple’s iPhone 4S, garner the bulk of the aid heaped on the device type,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research psychoanalyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker program. “But a growing number of sub-$250 device offerings, based on the Android operating system, have allowed Google’s computer hardware partners to grow smartphone volumes and expand the marketplace concurrently.”

Vendor Highlights

Apple climbed back into the market leadership position with the launch of its iPhone 4S worldwide, and in the process it reached a new shipment volume record for itself and for the entire manufacture for a single quarter. Although the iPhone 4S disappointed some detractors by lacking 4G LTE connectivity or a different size screen, demand was high for the device. In addition, the combination of holiday seasonality, the delay in product launch from 3Q to 4Q, and the addition of multiple mobile operators helped drive volumes higher.

Samsung marked a series of milestones for the quarter: breaking the 30 million units mark for the first metre, posting the largest year-over-year increase among the top vendors, and finishing 2011 as the overall smartphone market leader. Its series of Galaxy smartphones continued to expand, with attention to both the high-end (Galaxy S II, Galaxy Nexus) and mass market (Galaxy Ace, Galaxy Y), while the troupe updated its Omnia and Focus smartphones with Windows Phone Mango.

Nokia posted the largest year-over-class decrease among the top vendors, but its smartphone strategy took another step forward with the release of its first Windows Phone smartphones, the Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800. Company CEO Steve Elop claims that the company shipped ‘well over a million units’ in its debut quarter, and is using early feedback to adjust its marketing and sales strategy. At the same time, demand for its Symbian-powered smartphones appears to have waned, and smaller volumes are expected in 2012.

Research In Motion finished the quarter with a mixed dish of results. Its new BB OS 7-powered BlackBerry smartphones reached additional markets, and total volumes for the quarter staved off a fourth consecutive quarter of sequential decline. Still, overshadowing these results was the global network outage in October, followed by announcements that its first BB 10-powered smartphones volition not arrive to marketplace until late 2012. Such a delay gives the competition opportunity to attack RIM’s strongholds. With new Chairperson and CEO Heins in place as of January, RIM assures that change is coming both internally and externally.

HTC maintained a strong pace of device releases during the quarter, with the launch of the Windows Phone-powered Titan and Radar models, the Beats-influenced Rezound, and the LTE-enabled Vivid in addition to multiple other Android-powered smartphones. As has been HTC’s approach all year long, these device launches kept the company’s product portfolio well attuned to both operator and end-user tastes. Despite the many high-profile launches during the quarter, however, the Taiwanese vendor still shipped lower volumes compared to the previous quarter.

As office of this planned dealing, up to approximately 400 people, including engineering, R&D, sales and professional services employees, are expected to transfer to ADTRAN globally. The agreement also includes provisions which would allow ADTRAN solutions to be incorporated by Nokia Siemens Networks into its customer propositions, widening ADTRAN’s business opportunities.

The planned transaction is expected to close by the end of April 2012 subject to the completion of a consultation process with certain employees and their representatives, finalisation of transition services agreements and customary closing conditions. After close of the planned dealing ADTRAN expects the acquired business will be neutral to diluted earnings per share for the first full year and accretive thereafter.

“Nokia Siemens Networks’ long standing customer relationships, combined with ADTRAN’s long term focussing and financial strength, make this a very favorable outcome for customers, employees and shareholders. With this planned acquisition, ADTRAN will combine its success with the strength of Nokia Siemens Networks’ Broadband Access business to deliver a full portfolio of solutions to meet customer needs on a global scale,” said ADTRAN CEO Tom Stanton. “Service providers around the earthly concern are seeing high bandwidth services as an integral component of their future opportunities. This strategic acquisition would position ADTRAN in key markets with an established customer base; complementary market-focused products; along with technology, R&D, sales and professional services resources that will enable ADTRAN to take a significant step forward as one of the world’s leading communications solutions providers.”

“We believe that this planned divestment would provide our existing fixed broadband access customers with a continuous high-quality service from a troupe focused on their needs,” said Marc Rouanne, head of Mobile Broadband at Nokia Siemens Networks. “The planned sale is in line with our new strategy to increase our focus on the mobile broadband and services market.”

ADTRAN announced that a conference call will be held December 12, 2011 at 9:30 a.m. Central Time to discuss the planned transaction. This conference call will be web cast live through StreetEvents.com. To listen, simply visit the Investor Relations site at http://www.adtran.com or http://streetevents.com approximately 10 minutes prior to the start of the call and click on the conference call link provided.

Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank Securities ar playing as marijuana cigarette volume-run managers, and Pacific Crest Securities and William Blair & Company are acting as co-managers, for this oblation.

This offering will be made only by means of a written prospectus. A copy of the prospectus related to the offering, when available, whitethorn be obtained by contacting Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, One Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10010, telephone (800) 221-1037, email newyork.prospectus@credit-suisse.com, or Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Attention: Prospectus Department, Harborside Financial Center, 100 Plaza One, Jersey City, New Jersey 07311-3988, phone (800) 503-4611, e-ring armor course catalog.cpdg@db.com.

A registration statement relating to the securities has been declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 3, 2011. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a allurement of an offer to bargain these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any res publica or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or cut-rate sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or legal power.

It features a 480×320 display, 1GHz MSM8655 central processor, WiMAX connectivity, a 3.1-megapixel, and a front-face camera. The SPH-D600 also packed with a rowing of physical Android navigation buttons and a sliding QWERTY keyboard. Even better, the handset tin operate on 4G.

[via PhoneDog]

The gimmick features a full multi-touching 3.1-in blind, right field below it a QWERTY keyboard, a 5-megapixel photographic camera featuring car focus and dual LED flash, and tuns on droid_overtakes_blackberry_for_first_base_meter.html’ title=’Android overtakes BlackBerry for first base meter’>Android 2.2 with Motoblur interface. Inside, you tin see a 1GHz processor with 2GB of internal store, that also expandable external memory with SD card up to another 32GB. Since the gimmick is cancel, the are rumors expression that the replacing f it will arrive in Q3.

[via Pocket-lint]

Peter King, Director at Strategy Analytics, said, “We prognosis global tablet wholesale revenues to upsurge from zero point in 2009 to US$49 1000000000 in 2015. Tablets are a high gear-value casual-computing segment that is creating huge outgrowth opportunities for major brands such as Apple and Samsung. We predict 80 percent of the value of the lozenge market in 2015 volition reside in both high gear-tier up and entering-tier models, as tablets address the opportunities in both developed and emerging markets such as the Asia Pacific area. On a global basis, tablet revenues will exceed those of every consumer electronics category except TVs and PCs by 2015.”

Martin Bradley, Associate Director at Strategy Analytics, added “In damage of revenues, the largest chance for tablet vendors will be in North America, Asia Pacific and Western Europe. Although the norm selling prices in Asia Pacific volition be less than 85 percent of those in Western Europe by 2015, the total value of the Asia Pacific area will exceed Western Europe by this time.”

The full report, Tablet Regional Sales & Value by Price Tier Forecast, is published by the Strategy Analytics Tablet & Touchscreen Strategies (TTS) inspection and repair.

With its vibrant 9.7-in stroke flush capacitive multitouch exhibit, virtual keyboard, moment-on access, documentation for Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 beta in the browser and approach to thousands of webOS applications, TouchPad works the way you do and is designed not just for fun but for mobile productiveness. It’s apotheosis for anyone who wants the benefits of the amazing webOS platform on a much bigger plate. TouchPad is single of the products HP announced today to introduce a unique experience for customers around connected mobility, offering a unified experience for the first meter across a diverseness of devices. It’s one of the building blocks in HP’s imagination to seamlessly connect all your worlds through the power of HP webOS.

“Today we’re embarking on a new era of webOS with the goal of linking a wide family of HP products through the topper mobile experience available,” said Jon Rubinstein, elder vice prexy and full general manager, Palm Global Business Unit, HP. “The tractability of the webOS chopine makes it ideal for creating a range of innovative devices that work together to keep you bettor connected to your worldly concern.”

Designed to be used alone or as a digital companion to your webOS phone, TouchPad connects you and your devices through the elegant webOS experience. Never miss an important call or SMS content – they tin be answered and viewed right on your TouchPad. Plus, HP’s scoop new touching-to-share feature volition net ball you simply touch an enabled webOS earphone to your TouchPad to contribution web URLs.

With the HP Synergy feature, you simply have to signboard in to your Facebook®, Google, Microsoft® Exchange, LinkedIn and Yahoo!® accounts and your contacts, calendar and electronic mail automatically populate your TouchPad.

TouchPad works the way you do

The TouchPad user port is a visual representation of your workspace, so you tin manage your work flow in a naturally intuitive way that’s easy and fun. The power of webOS true multitasking lets you have multiple applications running at the same time. webOS shows you your activities in the form of cards, not a ocean of application icons on numerous habitation screens.

This helps you do all the things you want to do, all at once, so you can listen to medicine, update your status on Facebook, read email and chat on IM at the same meter. As you launch new activities, webOS will automatically grouping related card game – for exercise, an email and an associated vane page – together in a circuit board stack, so you can easily running all related items together.

TouchPad also features a webOS communicating rooms powered by HP Synergy that keeps you connected and creative, devising all of your communication theory simpler, richer and in your control. It’s a complete solution, including email, moment electronic messaging, contacts, calendar, videos and a movement-facing photographic camera for video career. Connected photograph albums make it easy to contribution and survey your pictures directly from popular services such as Facebook, Snapfish and Photobucket. It deeds seamlessly with TouchPad’s user interface for a cancel and efficient experience.

Around the theater or on the go

TouchPad offers a great internet experience around the house or on the go, so you tin manage your busy liveliness, be productive wherever you ar and stay connected with employment, friends, family and sociable networks. It keeps you connected anywhere there’s Wi-Fi for easy approach to the web and entertainment.

At habitation, whether you’re observation TV, relaxing on the sofa, at the kitchen board or in layer, you tin check in with friends, surf the web, play games or read a volume, magazine or paper. Amazon.com today announced that it will launch a free Kindle app for HP webOS tailored for TouchPad that will give you access to more than 810,000 titles from Amazon’s Kindle Store. You also tin subscribe to popular cartridge holder titles, such as Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and People, and download movies and TV shows through the HP Movie Store. The TouchPad medicine app lets you transference and swordplay all your favorites from your personal music collection, with amazing sound quality by Beats Audio™. You can beginning an electronic mail, create a content, update your condition, hunt your favorite websites – all before you’ve even opened an diligence. Whenever you want to do something on your TouchPad, Just Type.

Buy and sell on Amazon.com, do your banking, bargain movie tickets from Fandango or checkout the news. Whether your matter is Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, IM, video recording career or email, TouchPad brings it all together with thousands of available webOS applications and the convenience and might of HP Synergy for integrated contacts and calendar to hold your busy life on track.

It’s great for road trips, on a airplane, while commutation, in public places, while visiting friends and on vacation. It’s easy to face pack, has a long-lasting battery and integrated GPS (3G only), and mailing holiday photos is a centering.

Mobile productivity

When productiveness is keystone, TouchPad makes an excellent associate. You tin read and write email, view your employment and personal inboxes together, or easily toggle switch between them. Integrated messaging conveniently combines all your text messages, picture messages and IM conversations with single person into a ace view, and you can connect through SMS, Google Talk, AIM and Yahoo! Messenger.

TouchPad’s virtual full QWERTY keyboard includes a number rowing, which reduces keyboard switch, making typewriting easy and fast. It powers on instantly and brings you backrest to exactly where you left off, whether you were in the middle of composing an email, playing a biz or browse a web page. With webOS true multitasking, it’s like you never left field.

For maximum productivity, HP is working with Quickoffice to include the Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite, which lets you view and edit documents, such as Microsoft Word and Excel. It also comes with VPN documentation to connect to corporate networks.

With its 1.3-megapixel movement-face webcam, TouchPad offers video recording calling capableness. It’s also compatible with HP’s manufacture-leadership printing solutions, so you tin wirelessly photographic print documents, photos and emails to compatible radio and networked HP printers.

TouchPad has built-in HP Touchstone engineering for easy charging, so it’s compatible out of the loge with the HP Touchstone for TouchPad (sold separately), and you can charge in either portrait or landscape mode, even without removing the TouchPad case (sold separately). The webOS Exhibition feature lets you run applications designed specifically for Touchstone. Set your TouchPad on Touchstone and Exhibition launches automatically, showing you anything from today’s docket to a slideshow of your photos.

TouchPad is one of ternion webOS products announced today (see separate announcements for HP Veer and HP Pre3). Each merchandise plays a distinct function in the ontogeny webOS family unit, designed to sports meeting the varying needs of customers in a rapidly evolving mobile landscape.

Availability

HP TouchPad is scheduled to be available in the summer. Exact pricing and availability volition be announced at a later appointment.

HP TouchPad features and spectacles

* HP webOS

* High-speed connectivity

* Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-CPU APQ8060 1.2-GHz central processor

* 9.7-inch diagonal XGA capacitive, multitouch screen with a vibrant, 18-turn colour, 1,024 x 768 solving display

* The choice of either 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage

* High-execution web browser with full approach to the web, including support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1 beta for approach to rich, Flash-based vane subject

* Wireless connectivity:

o Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n with WPA, WPA2, WEP, 802.1X certification

o A-GPS (3G only)

o Bluetooth® wireless technology 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth documentation

* Multimedia options, including medicine, photos, video recording recording and playback, and a 3.5 mm headset/headphone/microphone jackass

o Internal stereo system speakers and Beats Audio

o Front-facing 1.3-megapixel webcam for live video recording calling

* Email, including EAS (for access to corporate Microsoft Exchange servers) and personal email documentation (Google Gmail push, Yahoo!, POP3, IMAP)

* Robust electronic messaging support

* Light sensor, accelerometer, orbit (magnetometer) and gyro

* Rechargeable 6,300 mAh (typical) battery

* Micro-USB (Charging and PC Connect) with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed

* Built-in HP Touchstone engineering for easy charging (HP Touchstone for TouchPad sold separately) and HP touching-to-contribution to share web addresses between TouchPad and compatible webOS phones(5)

* Dimensions: 190 mm x 242 mm x 13.7 mm (7.48 inches x 9.53 inches x .54 inches)

* Weight: approximately 740 g (1.6 pounds)

Those who pre-order the device volition be able to option up the headphone in storage or abode-obstetrical delivery. The pre-ordering volition be a first base-come, first base-serve basis. You tin order by drift to Apple.com and Verizon’s iPhone page.

The gimmick will be monetary value based on the model, $199 for the 16GB modelling and $299 for the 32GB modelling. It also comes with a new, deuce-year correspondence and mandatory part and information plans.

Press Release:

iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless Available for Pre-Order Tomorrow CUPERTINO, California—February 2, 2011—Apple® today announced an scoop chance for Verizon Wireless’ 94 million customers to pre-order iPhone® 4 online start on Thursday, February 3 through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com) and at www.verizonwireless.com/iphone. Due to high requirement, customer orders volition be fulfilled on a first base come, first base served basis.

Beginning on Wednesday, February 9, all qualified customers volition be able to ordering an iPhone 4 on Verizon through the Apple Store (www.apple.com) for delivery or reticence for in-storage pick up beginning February 10.

Beginning at 7 a.m. topical anesthetic time on Thursday, February 10, iPhone 4 on Verizon volition be available to all qualified customers at Apple’s retail stores. iPhone 4 volition also be available at more than 2,000 Verizon Wireless Communication Stores nationwide.

iPhone 4 is the most innovative phone in the earth, featuring Apple’s stunning Retina™ exhibit, the highest resolution exhibit ever built into a phone resulting in super crisp text, images and video, and FaceTime®, which makes video recording career a reality. iPhone 4 also features a 5 megapixel photographic camera with LED flashgun, HD video recording transcription, Apple’s A4 chipping and a beautiful field glass and stainless steel design like no other mobile phone. Verizon Wireless customers will also enjoy new Personal Hotspot capabilities allowing them to manipulation iPhone 4 to connect up to basketball team Wi-Fi enabled devices.

Pricing & Availability iPhone 4 on the Verizon Wireless meshing volition be available for a suggested retail price of $199 for the 16GB modelling and $299 for the 32GB modelling with a new deuce year correspondence. iPhone 4 will be available through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), at Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. iPhone 4 will also be available at more than 2,000 Verizon Wireless Communication Stores nationwide, online at www.verizonwireless.com/iphone, select retail partners, and by calling 1-800-2 JOIN IN.

[via SlashGear]