Jay Z’s latest album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, was pre-released last week to a lucky 1 million fans. Samsung singlehandedly handed Jay Z a platinum record, buying 1 million downloads at $5 per, downloadable only on Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets. But the promotion backfired on Samsung, causing a virtual free-for-all online and creating a case study in music piracy. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
South Korea’s defence ministry said on Monday it has ordered its staff to install a smartphone application that restricts key functions like the camera in an attempt to prevent military leaks.
The ministry said that, from Monday, its 1,500 staff are no longer allowed to bring smartphones into their offices without installing the app, called “Mobile Management Device”.
The order caused a long queue at the gates of the ministry on Monday because some 20 percent of the staff had failed to install the app, officials said.
The ministry declined to confirm a report by Yonhap news agency that some staff had refused to install the app due to concerns about privacy.
Ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok told reporters that the app, which restricts the use of cameras and audio recording, prevents leaks through smartphones and stops outsiders from hacking into the devices of defence ministry officials.
“We’ve developed a system to restrict the core functions of smartphones because of concerns that our work could be leaked through them,” he said.
For now, the app only works in the ministry compound. Officials said all South Korean soldiers would be ordered to install it later.
The ministry promised to upgrade the app after an operational flaw emerged.
Users of Samsung’s Galaxy and other Android phones can receive and make calls and text messages, but iPhone users can only receive calls and text messages.
Yonhap quoted an unnamed air force lieutenant colonel as saying: “Even if I bring my iPhone 4 that passed the security review, I can only receive calls and text messages. What can I do with the dumb phone?”
About 70 percent of South Korea’s 50 million people have smartphones — the world’s highest penetration rate.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By Haydn Shaughnessy, Contributor
How come Samsung’s Galaxy range of phones was able to catch up with Apple’s iPhones so quickly – not just in terms of the market but in terms of the quality of the phone? The Galaxy range gave the iPhone a 2 year start and then pulled ahead only 3 years after launch.
Filed under: Company News, Apple, Best Buy, Did You Know
A company’s reputation is one of its most valuable assets. And while a reputation can take years to build, it can be battered or ruined in an instant. Consider what happened to JPMorgan Chase after the London Whale trading debacle, or Hyundai after it overstated the gas mileage for many of its cars.
Ethical lapses like those can be a major cause of a brand’s collapse-the consequence of a breach of trust between a company and the public. So can flawed product design (the burning battery in Boeing’s Dreamliner) or failure to meet a challenge from the competition (Apple’s iPhone, rapidly losing ground to Samsung’s Galaxy line).
More commonly, though, a company’s reputation erodes because of a failure in its core strategy. Take Blackberry, for example. Time after time it created products that led the global smartphone industry, but it never managed to move its reputation from being a successful manufacturer of smartphones for business to one for consumers.
The nine companies on this list severely damaged their brands in one of two ways: by aggressively promoting a product or a business strategy and failing badly; or being involved in a corporate or personal scandal. Click through the gallery to see America’s nine most damaged brands.
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Methodology: To identify the most damaged brands, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed large, publicly traded companies that offer products or services in the United States. These companies had to be among the largest brands in the world, as measured by Corebrand, or command an especially large amount of media attention in their industry.
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From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/11/americas-9-most-damaged-brands/
By Rich Duprey, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
According to a recent Harris Interactive survey, most consumers feel smartphone payments will eventually replace credit and debit cards and cash for most purchases but it’s likely not going to happen within the next five years.
That bodes well for the long-term outlook for chip makers like NXP Semiconductors and Skyworks Solutions , which are leaders in the field of near-field communications, or NFC. That’s the technology that allows mobile devices to securely communicate with a payment terminal. Wave your NFC-enabled smartphone in front of an NFC-enabled terminal and you can easily make a payment.
Objects are closer than they appear
The interest expressed in the survey is part of the reason behind why NXP feels 2013 is the year that NFC technology takes off. Google has been in the forefront of the issue through its Wallet mobile payment system and Android smartphones like Samsung’s Galaxy have been equipped with NFC chips to take advantage of it wherever it’s available. Indeed, Samsung recently partnered with Visa to provide an NFC platform that financial institutions can trust.
Banks will be able to load payment account information to a secure chip embedded in Samsung devices using Visa’s mobile provisioning service linked to Samsung’s service that creates secure data storage domains for card issuers.
Notably, however, Apple has yet to jump into the fray. Although many watchers had anticipated the iPhone 5 to include an NFC chip, it was not to be, even though it had acquired such capabilities through its AuthenTec acquisition last year. And with Skyworks already a chip supplier for the iPhone, should Apple decide it needs to be a part of the NFC revolution, it has ready access to a key player in the field.
Scanning the horizon
Yet retail king Wal-Mart may be leading the way in killing off the chances of NFC gaining a real foothold. Rather than investing in the expensive new terminal upgrades that would be required to make NFC in its stores a reality, it’s rolling out an iPhone app called Scan & Go that allows consumers to scan and bag their purchases while shopping and simply scan a quick-response pixilated QR code square at the checkout terminal to complete the purchase.
While that may be a means for it to ultimately save money on cashier salaries, it could provide the pathway for other retailers to follow. Wal-Mart is expanding the test program to 200 stores in 14 markets, and though the app is only available for the iPhone, it’s easy to see that (depending upon its success) it could eventually roll out to all 14,000 stores and be available across all smartphone platforms.
Stop & Shop supermarkets have offered a similar app for both iPhones and Android devices for several years, but Wal-Mart’s entry could be the thing that brings it mainstream. Because near-field communications has taken longer than expected to get up and running, just as widespread adoption looks to be within …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By Jeremy Bowman, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
Stocks edged higher today, as the market received a boost from a Japanese stimulus package, though investors received another jobs-related scare as initial unemployment claims soared. Trading was choppy, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 56 points, or 0.4%.
Earlier, the Bank of Japan announced a whopping stimulus plan to inject $1.4 trillion into its struggling economy over the next two years. The move would nearly double Japan‘s monetary base as officials search for an end to two decades of low or no growth. The Nikkei index jumped 2.2%, while the yen fell more than 3% against the dollar, after the unprecedented decision.
Following yesterday’s foreboding employment report from ADP, initial jobless claims for last week came in much higher than expected, hitting a four-month high. The new jobless rolls climbed to 385,000, up from 357,000 the week before, and way ahead of estimates of just 340,000. Previously, the four-week moving average of new jobless claims had a hit a five-year low. Continuing employment claims, however, still remain relatively calm.
On the Dow today, Hewlett-Packard was the best performer, up 1.8%, as Chairman Ray Lane announced he would be stepping down, though he would remain on as a director. Lane was nearly ousted by shareholders earlier when he received less than 60% of their vote along with two other directors at HP‘s annual meeting last month, as investors seemed to blame him for the Autonomy debacle. Director Ralph Whitworth will take over as the Interim Chair. Two other HP directors also said they were resigning.
AT&T was another winner today, as Facebook and HTC rolled out a $99 phone that comes pre-loaded with a Facebook home page. AT&T will be the exclusive carrier of the new phone, HTC First. Home is essentially a new Android platform for Facebook, as the new technology will allow users to see Facebook photos and messages on the phone’s home page. Facebook shares were up 3.1% on the news.
Also making news with a similar partnership of its own was Best Buy , whose shares were up 16% after the retailer said it struck a deal to install 1,400 Samsung kiosks in its stores. Investors seem to think the move could give Best Buy an edge over online competition, which it will need to stem falling sales. Still, Samsung’s Galaxy lineup may now be the most appealing of all Smartphones, and the Korean electronics-maker is certainly a strong brand for Best Buy to hitch its fortunes to.
The massive wave of mobile computing has done much to unseat the major players in the PC market, including venerable technology names like Hewlett-Packard. However, HP‘s rapidly shifting its strategy under the new leadership of CEO Meg Whitman. But does this make HP one of the least-appreciated turnaround stories on the market, or is this a minor blip on its road to irrelevance? The Motley Fool’s technology analyst …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By Daniel Sparks, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
“Turns out, we spoke too soon,” begins an email Apple sent out on Friday, March 22. It is the second fusillade in a new marketing campaign that outlines the main reasons consumers love the iPhone 5. In the Friday email, the company set the record straight: As of last Thursday, Apple has bragging rights to nine — not eight — straight J.D. Power and Associates awards for “Highest Customer Satisfaction with Consumer Smartphones.”
iPhone 5. Source: Apple press product images.
Signs of a new marketing approach
The first round of the well-timed campaign came just two days after Samsung launched its flagship Galaxy S4. The campaign is great news for Apple investors, after Samsung dramatically stepped up its advertising in 2012, even outspending Apple.
Samsung’s increased advertising spending during 2012 is nothing short of massive. Samsung spent more on advertising than HTC, BlackBerry , and Nokia combined. Even more mind-boggling, the company more than quadrupled its 2011 spending on advertising.
Source: Kantar Media.
Marketing experts — like ex-Apple ad executive Ken Segall, the man behind Apple’s legendary “Think Different” campaign — have suggested that Apple is losing some of its cool factor.
While Apple continues to stick to its traditional product-based ads, Samsung has spent a fortune on people-based ads featuring celebrities. And Samsung’s approach is working, Segall asserted several weeks ago. The premise behind the ads is to show consumers exactly what there is to love about the Galaxy line. According to Segall, Apple needs to step up its marketing in order to counter Samsung.
Apple’s new “Why iPhone” campaign “appears to be trying to bridge that divide somewhat by focusing on how the iPhone experience has drawn so many loyal and happy customers,” MacRumors’ Eric Slivka explains.
Will the mobile ad war heat up in 2013?
There’s no doubt Apple’s top management team is keenly aware of Samsung’s remarkable inroads in the mobile market in 2013 — in both smartphones and tablets.
According to estimates from Gartner, Google‘s Android-powered smartphones grew 88% year over year from 2011 to 2012 while iOS smartphone sales grew just 23%. This brings the Android OS share of total smartphone market share to 70% in the fourth quarter of 2012, up from 51% in the fourth quarter of 2011. Meanwhile, iOS market share fell from 24% to 21%.
To be fair, Android is spread out across a whole spectrum of smartphone brands and models, with a far lower average selling price. Even so, Samsung’s Galaxy line represents the largest portion of Android sales.
Samsung’s made inroads in tablets, too. The company shipped 7.6 million tablets in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to Canalys — that’s a 226% increase from the year-ago quarter, far more than Apple’s 48% increase.
Samsung’s gains are undoubtedly at least partly due to the quadrupling of its ad spending. The evidence goes both ways. BlackBerry and Nokia, two companies that reduced their already minuscule advertising budgets in 2012, saw smartphone …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By Anders Bylund, The Motley Fool
Alleged screenshots from the as-yet-unannounced Samsung Galaxy Altius watch, courtesy of
Filed under: Investing
You know that old Chinese curse, right? “May you live in interesting times.” It’s in full swing over the mobile computing market right now.
Rumor has it that Apple is working up a watch-like gadget for the post-smartphone era. Not to be outdone, Samsung flat-out confirmed that it has a smart watch on tap.
Lee Young Hee, who spearheads the Korean company’s mobile division, didn’t mince words in a Bloomberg interview.
“Weave been preparing the watch product for so long,” he said. “We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them.”
Alleged screenshots from the as-yet-unannounced Samsung Galaxy Altius watch, courtesy of Slashgear.
No ifs, ands, or buts: Samsung is definitely preparing this thing.
All right. So I guess a new class of digital watches will be cool again, like the calculator-equipped armband clocks of the early 1980s. ( I thought they were cool when I was eight, OK? Mine played “Rondo Alla Turca”!)
Why dump another gadget style on consumers just as smartphones and tablets are becoming ubiquitous? Well, you can’t stop the wheels of progress and something must eventually replace the common smartphone. The market is maturing fast and will most certainly be saturated in just a few years. Just as camera-equipped feature phones replaced basic call-making handsets and smartphones replaced feature phones, this too shall pass. So why not a wristwatch?
These things will perform many of the same tasks as a regular iPhone or Samsung Galaxy handset do today, except on a smaller screen that’s more accessible. With a portable computer attached to your wrist, we won’t need to dig through pockets and purses anymore. Glancing down at your watch can be more convenient and less rude to bystanders than pulling out and unlocking your phone.
It’s also different from Google ‘s digital spectacles, branded Google Glass. That might become the first mainstream wearable computing platform (some people are always way ahead of the rest of us), and then the watches come in to grab market share. Or maybe people will start wearing advanced watches and glasses on a regular basis, complementing each other.
And in the background, post-PC gear starts to fade as these newfangled alternatives take over. Who will rule the next generation?
Interesting times, indeed.
There’s no doubt that Apple is at the center of technology’s largest revolution ever, and that longtime shareholders have been handsomely rewarded with over 1,000% gains. However, there is a debate raging as to whether Apple remains a buy. Eric Bleeker, The Motley Fool’s senior technology analyst and managing bureau chief, is prepared to fill you in on both reasons to buy and sell Apple and the opportunities left for the company (and your portfolio) going forward. To get instant access to his latest thinking on Apple, simply click here now.
Taiwan’s HTC has delayed shipments of its new flagship smartphone due to parts shortages, a report said on Wednesday, dealing a blow as it looks to lift sales and compete with the iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
By Chris Neiger, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
The tablet market is already red-hot and poised for more growth, but it’s smaller tablets that are likely to grow in popularity this year. Investors interested in in mobile tech should take note of this trend.
Smaller is the new bigger
The shift from desktop to mobile has been clear for quite a while now, and many predict that this is the year global installed base units of mobile devices will outnumber desktop computers.
Source: KPCB.
In the tablet space, Apple and Android rule the roost, and Microsoft‘s Windows 8 tablet OS trails far behind. Just a mere two years ago, Apple was riding the tablet market share like a show pony, with a whopping 90% market share, but over the past three years Apple’s share has slipped to 43.6% because of Android’s dizzying worldwide expansion.
The Android-based device market share breaks down as follows:
Source: Localytics.
Amazon.com‘s Kindle dominates the Android market, with the Barnes & Noble‘s Nook following in a distant second, Samsung’s Galaxy in third, and Google‘s Nexus nabbing the fourth spot.
Apple’s market wasn’t just stolen away by the prevalence of Android tablets, but also by the cheaper and smaller offerings of those Android devices. Some believe tablets like the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire forced Apple to enter the smaller tablet game months ago — a move that helped save Apple’s small tablet future.
A report by DisplaySearch showed that shipments of 9.7-inch tablets (original iPad size) fell by more than 6 million from December 2012 to January 2013. At the same time, small tablets measuring 7- to 9-inches increased from 12 million to 14 million. Last year, 160 million tablets were shipped worldwide and that number is estimated to increase to a whopping 254 million this year. The chart below shows tablet sales from last year and projected sales for this year, along with 2013 estimates for small versus large tablet shipments.
Source: DisplaySearch.
It’s a small world
If the shift to smaller tablets comes true — and it the current trends suggest that it will – then investors need to look at which companies are in the position to ride this small tablet wave all the way to the shore. In 2011, about 17 million small tablets were shipped, and that number spiked to 34 million in 2012. Apple was originally expected to sell 60 million iPads in 2013 and 40 million iPad Minis, but some have estimated the numbers to be more like 55 million Minis and 33 million iPads.
A report by Forrester last year said that one-third of Americans will have a tablet by 2016. It now seems that many of those tablets are likely to be smaller ones.
With Apple well into the small tablet market now, its prospects for future market share look good. By 2016, IDC estimates that Apple will have 49.7% tablet market share, Android will take 39.7%, and Microsoft’s Windows OS …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By Haydn Shaughnessy, Contributor
Samsung continued a great year last night by picking up the smartphone of year award at the 2013 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona beating off the challenge of Apple and its iPhone, HTC Droid DNA, Nokia Lumia 920, and Samsung Galaxy Note II. It was one of four major awards for Samsung, compared with none for Apple. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By Jason Evangelho, Contributor
In the technology rumor mill, the existence of a potential iWatch is impossible to ignore, but will Samsung beat Apple to this wearable tech party? On Friday morning, alleged screenshots of the OS powering a Samsung Galaxy smartwatch surfaced online. When you start assembling pieces of the puzzle things get rather tantalizing. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By Bobby Powell
Alpena Mi – I got up at 0700 after only an hour of fitful sleep and traveled 120 miles to the only open spot in a concealed weapon licensing class. The only reason I got in at all was because I “know a guy”, as CPL classes in Michigan are booked solid for at least two months – and spent the entire day brushing up on the law, taking written exams to prove I knew it, and then spending another three hours qualifying on the gun range for my Michigan Concealed Pistol License.
My classmates ranged from an older (about 70) 1st MarDiv Marine to a young couple in their early 20′s. We were all there for one purpose: to be certified to carry a concealed pistol in Michigan. But why?
Northern Michigan is a beautiful place; and it is also a place where folks stop to help you back out of the snow drift that suddenly jumped out in front of you (me), where the owner of a LOCAL tire store drives your wife and son (mine) back to the car they had abandoned when the tire blew, puts on a used tire for them and charges only $30, and where most people don’t even lock their doors unless they are leaving town for an extended trip. Every now and then, a snowmobile will get stolen (or someone will get busted for drugs, petty theft, or shoplifting.) But by and large, there is not much in the way of violent crime here.
Other than a general desire for personal protection, I can’t say why the others were there; but after the world intruded on our little paradise in the form of threats of my murder and the rape of my wife simply for something I said, there is no way I can NOT carry a gun. I RESENT having to carry a gun up here. It’s totally cheesing my calm, but I refuse to be a victim or to allow my family to be anyone’s victims either. Until the people who made these threats are in jail, I will be forced to carry a gun for our protection.
Since the government has no interest in tracking down and prosecuting those who have made threats against not only me, but every NRA member, Tea Partier, and Republican – basically anyone who isn’t all up on Obama’s jock – in the United States (OR in allowing us to defend ourselves), it is up to every free man, woman, and child to take up that responsibility themselves.
Part of that responsibility is standing up to protect our God-given rights as enumerated in the Constitution, and thousands of Michigan gun owners are going to join me on the capitol steps in Lansing this Friday, Feb. 8th. Even more exciting is the fact that this Open Carry demonstration is going to take place simultaneously in each of the fifty states. With one voice, we are going to say: “No More! No more blaming an entire culture for the horrific acts of of a few deranged DEMOCRATS as an excuse to limit access to guns or take them away entirely. No more stupid, unconstitutional laws that are passed without even being read by those who vote on them. NO MORE!”
Now that Obama has been reelected, he is going to pull out all of the stops in order to institute a demonically inspired, Communistic Tyranny on these fifty individual, free, and Sovereign states. Not one to shy away from doing whatever the hell he pleases through the use of Executive Orders, you all can expect one to gut the Second Amendment any time.
This demonstration is the most important event in which I have ever taken part or covered as a reporter. It is the most important event in which YOU will ever take part, as I believe it is our last opportunity to use our voices to defend our rights. If the Obama administration actually does institute the Draconian gun laws many observers expect it to, the time for talking will be over; and a new American Revolution will be the result.
I’m not advocating violence against any person or entity in any way, shape, or form; I never have, and I never will. I am simply stating what I fear will come true, no matter how badly I wish it wouldn’t.
Continue reading at http://bobpowell.blogspot.com/2013/02/only-few-days-left.html
EDITOR’S NOTE: I produced this episode, and the last one, with a Samsung Galaxy 7-inch tablet and Youtube’s video editor. And I did it like a BOSS! “Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome” Baby! If I have to, I’ll WALK to Lansing with a sandwich board around my neck. If they want to stop me, they’re gonna have to shoot me.
Samsung, which knows a thing or two about patent infringement cases, is poking fun at Super Bowl trademark rules in a new commercial that promotes its Galaxy smartphones.
The ad features comedic actors Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd, who both played parts in the movie “Knocked Up,” with Rogen also known for his work in “Superbad” and Rudd recently starring in “This is 40.”
In the spot, a corporate suit says “Samsung. The next big thing. You two. Ideas?”
Every time Rogen and Rudd try to mention “Super Bowl,” the company man shushes them. When they ask why, he tells them, “We could get sued.”
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
By Ewan Spence, Contributor Firefox’s announcement today of the impending availability of the Firefox OS mobile smartphone (in a developer preview model) continues a trend over the last few months of a new type of smartphone… the boutique smartphone. Away from the mass market handsets of the Samsung Galaxy range, the Nokia Lumia Windows Phone, and the monolithic iPhone, the boutique smartphone has a much lower production run, has a greater affinity with their users, and still turn a profit to keep the boardroom happy.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Google is currently developing it’s own flagship devices to take on the iPhone and iPad, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. Leveraging its acquisition of Motorola from earlier this year, the two companies are hard at work on a pair of devices rumored to be codenamed “X Phone” and “X Tablet.” The devices, which are expected to debut sometime next year, are said to be a new product line in direct response to Apple’s iDevices and Samsung’s Galaxy series.
The Wall Street Journal’s well-placed sources say that former Google product manager, Lior Ron, who specializes in mapping technologies, is heading up the project. While additional details are scarce, Google and Motorola are emphasizing photographic performance with the “X Phone” and are considering bendable displays and ceramic casing for the handset. The rumored smartphone is allegedly the company’s highest priority, though a tablet device is expected shortly after.
Source: IGN Tech
