Smartphone

Samsung Display said Thursday that it received approval to build a $1 billion display module assembly plant in Vietnam. The company already makes some of its smartphones in the country, so the addition of a display assembly facility will allow the company to boost its manufacturing efficiency. Samsung intends to …

Qualcomm Inc. on Wednesday said that it has completed acquisition of Wilocity, a leading developer of chipsets supporting the WiGig technology with multi-gigabit transfer rates. The company also said that it will offer platforms for various devices that will support the 60GHz wireless tech based on the IEEE 802.11ad standard. The …

Microsoft Mobile on Thursday introduced Nokia X2, its new smartphone based on a modified version of Google Android operating system aimed at customers in budget. The new handset weds Windows Phone-like experience with Google Android applications. The device features numerous software and hardware enhancements compared to the original Nokia X1. …

Google’s Android operating system for mobile devices passed one billion of activations in September, 2013. While the number of activations is important, it does not indicate how many customers actually use a platform. On Wednesday Android and Chrome chief Sundar Pichai revealed that over a billion of people used Google’s …

The open-source Tizen operating system, which is jointly developed by Intel Corp., Samsung Electronics and a number of other hardware and software companies, yet has to prove that it can be competitive against Google’s Android and Microsoft Corp.’s Windows. Samsung appears to be a strong believer in the OS. The …

Amazon on Wednesday unveiled its long-awaited smartphone. The device is called Fire and it comes with free cloud storage for photos, an auto stereoscopic 3D screen, the Dynamic Perspective software that allows to control the smartphone without touching it as well as the Firefly application that recognizes everything the owner …

At the Computex 2014 trade-show Intel Corp. announced that its reference designs based on the Skylake generation of microprocessors will support Rezence, a wireless charging standard developed by the Alliance 4 Wireless Power (A4WP). This week Intel actually licensed wireless charging solutions for computing devices designed by WiTricity. The A4WP’s …

It is not a secret that Apple and Samsung are the most profitable smartphone makers in the world thanks to sales of their high-end lines, whereas the competition of other manufacturers has pushed margins so narrow that their low-priced handsets are barely profitable. In a bid to earn more money …

Samsung Electronics on Monday introduced the world’s first smartphone based on the Tizen operating system. The new Samsung Z smartphone will help the company to lower its dependence on Google Android platform that powers the majority of Samsung’s handsets and tablets. The Tizen will also aid Samsung to offer unique …

It is not a secret that Microsoft Mobile is working on the second-generation Nokia X smartphone that was originally expected to be based on the heavily modified Google Android operating system and was projected to be sold mostly in developing countries. Apparently, the new Nokia X2 smartphone will not be …

Microsoft Corp. does not have plans to discontinue Nokia X-branded smartphones that are based on the heavily-modified Google Android operating system. Furthermore, a media report claims that a team at Microsoft Mobile is already working on the next-generation X handsets featuring the same OS and some improvements. The Nokia X …

Although sales of Nokia smartphones have been on the decline for quite a while, many market observers agree that the company’s handsets feature the industry’s best cameras. Select smartphones from Nokia even provide better imaging capabilities than many mainstream cameras. Apparently, not all people who developed the know-hows that are …

The rumours about Apple’s plans to introduce its eight-generation iPhone ahead of traditional September timeframe resurrected on Friday, when a China-based media reported that the Cupertino, California-based consumer electronics giant wants to launch its iPhone 6 with 4.7” display in August. In addition, Apple is rumoured to pull in the …

Amazon is rumoured to reveal its first smartphone only sometimes in June, but we already know what is inside it and how does it look thanks to a publication of its alleged image in a media report. Based on the first look on what is claimed to be the final …

Nvidia Corp. on Thursday said that it had started volume shipments of its Jetson TK1 development kits, which are based on the company’s highly-anticipated Tegra K1 system-on-chip with four ARM Cortex-A15 cores, Nvidia Kepler-based graphics and a variety of other hardware. The development kit is aimed at designers of software …

Motorola, the company that is about to become a part of Lenovo Group, plans to introduce its all-new smartphone – Moto E – on the 13th of May, 2014, in London. The handset will be positioned below the Moto G and will be very affordable, yet, rather powerful for everyday …

Nokia Corp. this week announced financial results for the first quarter of 2014. While the company did not provide a lot of information regarding performance of its handset businesses, it clearly stated that there was a major decline. Apparently, as Nokia transits its devices and services division to Microsoft Corp., …

As it appears, the Nokia brand-name will disappear from smartphones and mobile phones produced by the former devices and services division of Nokia Corp. that now belongs to Microsoft rather sooner than later. Microsoft Corp. is already working on consistent brand for its new devices. “The Nokia brand is available …

Although Intel Corp. already offers 64-bit microprocessors for ultra-mobile devices that are compatible with Google Android operating systems and a number of ARM partners plan to reveal their 64-bit system-on-chips featuring ARMv8 architecture in the coming months, actual 64-bit Android-based devices will only emerge by end of 2014. “We have …

The sale of Nokia Corp.’s devices and services business unit to Microsoft is set to be closed this month and it looks like the situation with Nokia brand and the future of Nokia itself are getting clear. A letter from Microsoft suggests that the company will give its smartphone division …

Samsung Electronics said this week that was working on two smartphones based on Tizen operating system. The company said that thus far it had delayed introductions of Tizen-based handsets due to various reasons, but in the second quarter of 2014 it would introduce two models on select markets. Samsung planned …

Intel Corp. has been offering application processors for smartphones and tablets for several years now, but none of those chips featured integrated baseband capabilities, which is why the company was unable to address the mass market of mobile devices. However, this is going to change in the fourth quarter of …

Amazon is expected to formally announce its highly-anticipated smartphone only in June, but the first details as well as pictures of the device were revealed already on Tuesday. The final specs and design of the handset are unknown, but from what we do know, it seems that the product will …

BlackBerry on Tuesday said that it had bought a stake in NantHealth, a healthcare IT company. The companies intend to collaborate on the development of HIPAA and other government privacy certified, integrated clinical systems. BlackBerry hopes that the new business will allow it to finally earn hefty profits. NantHealth describes …

John Chen, chief executive of ailing handset maker BlackBerry, said in a new interview that he was not looking forward to exit the hardware business and cease selling smartphones. Contrary to the previous statement, Mr. Chen is now looking forward to make money on handsets. “I actually do plan on …

The world’s largest e-tailer Amazon is on the finish line with its long-awaited smartphone, a media report citing people familiar with the matter claims. The company reportedly intends to unleash the smartphone and services associated with it in June and plans to start shipments in late September. Unfortunately, it is …

BlackBerry would consider exiting smartphone hardware business if it remains unprofitable, its chief executive officer said. The head of the company is very interested in keeping the company afloat, so he is looking beyond the smartphone in general to other connected devices, which will become pervasive across different industries. “If …

Nokia Corp. has announced that the Chinese anti-trust authorities have approved the sale of its devices and services division to Microsoft Corp. Essentially, this means that the transaction between the two companies is complete as by now the two were authorized by the majority of the world’s regulators. Nokia and …

Qualcomm on Monday announced two new high-end application processors for smartphones and tablets. The new chips integrate 64-bit general-purpose cores, new-generation Adreno graphics engines, 2K/4K video processing as well as 4G/LTE Advanced modem that supports 3*20MHz carrier aggregation, enabling speeds of up to 300Mb/s. The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 and …

Lenovo Group, the largest supplier of personal computers in the world that wants to become a top smartphone maker, said that it had bought a portfolio of mobile patents from NEC Corp. The move should help Lenovo to avoid legal conflicts with other makers of smartphones and boost its own …