HTC is said to be planning to partner with ST-Ericsson to bring chip production in-house for its lower-end smartphones.
According to China Times the Taiwanese manufacturer is looking to bring production of application processors for future low end devices in-house, allowing greater control over manufacturing and more effective costing of hardware.
Both Apple and Samsung have bought lower end devices to the market that have been cheaper to manufacture.
LG is apparently targeting Samsung with its new smartphone as a rumoured LG handset is set to take on the highly-anticipated Samsung Galaxy S3.
Codenamed the LG D1L the device is rumoured to be the company’s first Android Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone with reported specs including a dual-core Qualcomm MSM8960 1.5GHz processor, a 4.7 inch HD display, which is slightly larger than what the Galaxy S3 is expected to have.
The LG D1L is said to arrive at the end of May which is before any rumoured release dates of the Samsung Galaxy S3.
Production for the Samsung Galaxy S 3 has apparently already started, well at least on the screens of the handset.
According to sources from Samsung Mobile Display the eagerly-awaited smartphone will feature a non-pentile display with an HD resolution, making it the first of its type to come from Samsung’s OLED division.
Specs for the device has not being confirmed by Samsung but its expected the phone will feature a quad-core mobile chipset, the same Mali 400 MP GPU as the Samsung Galaxy S II, a larger 4.5 to 4.65 inch HD Super AMOLED screen with a 720p resolution, an impressive 12 megapixel camera and of course will run of Google’s latest Android 4.0 operating system.
The hot rumoured Samsung Galaxy S3 has apparently already hit 10 million pre orders, most likely from carriers.
The successor to the award winning Samsung Galaxy S II has still not been officially announced and with no specs or release date confirmed though according to Eldar Murtazin the S3 has already hit the landmark figure.
If most recent rumours are to be believed the smartphone will feature dual-operating systems and a quad core processor.
Interestingly it’s likely the budget Nokia Lumia 610 will have Wi-Fi hotspot functionality rather than the more higher-range Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710.
The Nokia Lumia 610 is a 3.7 inch smartphone with a 800MHz single core processor and the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality will allow up to five devices to be connected. The feature isn’t really unique but it is interesting how Nokia has decided to include it on the 610 and not the 800 or 710.
There is a chance the other Lumia devices may get the functionality with an update.
Bad news for Samsung Galaxy Note users as there is a possible delay for the update to Android Ice Cream Sandwich.
The manufacturer originally announced the update would roll out during the first quarter of 2012 but now according to its Norway Facebook page the update may be postponed till Q2.
It’s unsure if this will just affect Norway of if it is global so stay posted for further updates.
ComScore has released its regular report on mobile phones market in the US.
The Report shows a number of smartphones crossed the 100 million mark for the first time but there was no position shuffling in the top 5 phone makers.
Samsung remains at the top taking a quarter of the shares with LG, Motorola, Apple and RIM following behind. Apple was the only manufacturer to see a 2% point growth, RIM stayed the same while other manufactures saw a loss.
In terms of operating systems Android has nearly 50% of the market and has also grown the most. Apple’s iOS has also grown but Microsoft’s operating system has fallen from 5.4% to 4.4% despite the recent release of high-end Nokia smartphones running on Windows Phone.
There has being talk of a possible mini iPad but its only now that there seems to be any real evidence to back up these rumours.
Apparently a new Samsung document has being discovered that offers proof of a “new [Apple] seven-inch product temporarily referred to as the iPad mini”. Sources say the American giant is preparing a more compact version of the iPad to rival Amazon’s Kindle Fire.
Its expected the device will be released quarter three this year but hopefully we will get a preview at the launch of the iPad 3 this week.
Samsung has announced several new devices to take on its competitors at MWC such as HTC and Huawei.
The first to be unveiled was the Samsung Galaxy Beam which is a four inch smartphone powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor plus a five megapixel camera, but more importantly the handset features a built-in 15 lumen LED projector, letting users display videos, images and texts.
Secondly the manufacturer announced a 10.1 inch version of the Samsung Galaxy Note, which has similar features to the five inch model including a digital pen, 1.4GHz dual-core processor and operates on Android ice Cream Sandwich.
Lastly Samsung announced two new tablets to join its Samsung Galaxy Tab range. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 both feature a 1GHz dual-core processor, a three megapixel camera and operates on Android Ice Cream Sandwich.
The LG Optimus 4X HD was announced just days before the MWC and barely a day after the LG Optimus 3D Max was announced.
The LG Optimus 4X HD features Nvidia’s 1.5GHz Tegra 3 quad-core processor with its 4 +1 “Companion Core” using a low power fifth core to take care of background tasks and therefore to extend battery life.
On board is a main eight megapixel camera with autofocus and LED, a secondary 1.3 megapixel camera plus 1GB RAM and a 1250mAh battery.
The handset is expected to hit markets worldwide “starting with Europe in second quarter” and will make an appearance at MWC in a few days.
