Mobile Phone Blog:

Reports suggest that Samsung may be postponing the launch of the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S3 until the second quarter of 2012 in an attempt to allow consumer demand for the iPhone 4S to subside.

It has been widely anticipated that the Korean giant would unveil its new flagship device at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) next month, which would be in keeping with the last two years which saw the release of the Galaxy S and the Galaxy S2 respectively.

But according to supply chain sources, a number of companies, such as Samsung, could be planning on holding back their new handsets to avoid a head-to-head battle with the iPhone 4S… still going strong after being released late last year.

A report claims that the group, which allegedly includes HTC, Nokia and LG, could postpone their phones until the second quarter of 2012, raising the prospect that the S3 won’t show until early April at the earliest.

So all you Android fans out there will just have to hold on a little bit longer… however I can imagine the reward will be well worth it!

New rumours suggest the next Samsung Galaxy flagship smartphone will be out on shelves come April.

Russian blogger Eldar Murtzain, who has got a reputation for his rather accurate predictions, has said the Samsung Galaxy S III will be announced at next month’s MWC and on sale in April.

Murtzain thinks the phone will feature a HD screen (larger than its predecessor), a 12 megapixel camera and a Quad-Core CPU at either 1.5 to 1.6GHz as well as operating on Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Samsung Galaxy S III will need to have some great specs if it’s to follow from the Galaxy S II which was launched a year ago in April and remains to be one of the best-selling handsets.

Samsung takes a swipe at Apple with its latest Galaxy SII TV campaign.

The 60-second advert shows queues of obsessive iPhone 4S fans waiting outside an Apple store on launch day. They are soon distracted by Samsung Galaxy S II fans who turn up flouting their devices in front of the impatient Fanboys.

It may only be short, but this clip manages to get a whole lot of wry one-liners and back-handed jibes in about Apple as well as the shortcomings of the latest iPhone, the 4S.

The two companies have been battling it out over the last 12 months with a list of petty issues, but what will Apple Fanboys think of this latest stunt?

The rumour mill is turning once again as leaked images of a lesser-known LG Optimus handset are seen online!

The LG Optimus EX (or so it has been dubbed) hides some fantastic specs underneath a simple-looking exterior. Including a 4 inch, 800 x 480 IPS LCD display, 1.2Ghz dual-core Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM, 5 megapixel camera with 1080p video recording, 8GB of storage space and 1,500mAh battery.

This device, although whispered about briefly in September, had pretty much been forgotten until PocketDroid came across this leak… finger’s crossed we’ll be seeing more evidence of it soon!

Research In Motion has unveiled BlackBerry BBX, the next smartphone and tablet platform which takes the best of the BlackBerry platform and the best of the QNX platform to connect people, devices and services.

The new platform was announced at the BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 in San Francisco, CA along with a series of developer tool updates, including WebWorks for BlackBerry smartphones and tablets.

BBX-OS and support for the BlackBerry cloud services will be included along with EAL4 and SIL3 security certifications making the BlackBerry Playbook the first ever tablet certified for government use.

RIM also announced the SDK final versions with all the tools needed for porting android apps, support for Adobe Air 3.0 and flash 11 as well as WebGL.

Mike Lazaridis, President and co-CEO at RIM, commented: “With nearly 5 million BlackBerry apps downloaded daily, our customers have made BlackBerry one of the most profitable platforms for developers.”

They’ve created a monster of a device… and it’s called the Samsung Galaxy Nexus!

The latest Google and Samsung collaborated handset, the Galaxy Nexus, has finally been released… and we can tell you we’re not in the least disappointed!

The first phone to run on the latest version of the Android operating system 4.0, also known by its pet name of Ice Cream Sandwich, the Nexus follows the Honeycomb approach and does away with hardware control buttons, instead favouring virtual software ones, located at the bottom of the screen. The new OS also has some brilliant camera quirks, such as the ability to automatically ‘stitch’ shots together to create a panoramic view, shoot a timelapse video and also zoom while recording.

A fantastic HD Super AMOLED display is another first for this device and it measures in at a whopping 4.65 inches and boasts a resolution of 720×1280. The curved effect of the Gorilla Glass screen also means there’s a super-fast response time of just 0.01ms… now that’s quick!

The Galaxy Nexus packs a 1.2GHz dual-core Cortex A9-based processor and 1GB RAM. The device harbours a 5 megapixel camera which is capable of shooting 1080p video, while the front-facing camera is 1.3 megapixels and can be used for video chat.

Dubbed ‘future-proof’, the Galaxy Nexus has both LTE and NFC onboard, and the battery size is a fearsome 1750mAh meaning the phone should last a good day or two before needing a recharge.

With Apple‘s delay of the iPhone 5 analysts are forecasting 30 million sales for the company by Q4 of 2011.

Industry analysts have forecast that post-poning the fifth-generation handset till September, instead of its original June release date, could see the popular device’s sales totaling 30 million by Christmas this year.

The move, considered by many to be a high risk due to the fact it will allow a slew of dual-core powered Android devices to receive a amount of time in the limelight, is now being considered a good thing, as it could see the company reaching staggeringly high sales’ totals.

Walter Piecyk, a BTIG analyst, claims in a blog post that total iPhone sales could reach the staggering heights of 30 million for the fourth quarter of 2011.

Of these sales, some ten million will be US-based driven by high demand for the iPhone 5.

As the launch date of September ebbs ever nearer, rumours concerning the handset are rife, with technical specs suggesting a smaller device with features such as NFC support and 3D video capture and play-back.

Watch this space…

Following the enormous success of the Galaxy S2, which shifted a colossal 5 million handsets in a mere 85 days, Samsung has decided to release a white model!

Since the iPhone went on sale in with two distinct colour options, the desire for white handsets has increased, with many manufacturers bringing out a limited edition white version of their most popular devices to boost sales.

Samsung are the latest to follow suit, with a white Galaxy S2 expected to land mid-August with a price tag or around £492 SIM-free.

The same specs as the original version can be found, including a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, and an 8 megapixel camera capable of full high-definition video-recording. There’s also the fantastic 4.3 inch Super AMOLED plus screen which truly is an amazing sight.

Is this Samsung’s attempt to nab potential iPhone 5 customers prior to its launch, or is it an attempt to keep sales rolling high? Either way, it’s sure to be a winner.

Windows Phone 7 update is attempt to gain ground on market leaders.

Microsoft has announced a software update, codenamed Mango, for its WP7 operating system, which will offer 500 new features, including the use of Internet Explorer 9 as the web browser.

The update will feature in the new Nokia handsets, which are planned for later this year, following the Finnish company partnering with Microsoft.

Currently Microsoft only holds a 4% share of the smartphone market, and it is hoped that the new Mango update will help in the battle against Google and Apple in the fight for the top spot. According to figures from analyst firm Gartner, Google’s Android system accounts for 36% globally, followed by Apple with 17%. But with Nokia’s support, Gartner predicts that Microsoft could turn this around and increase its share to 19.5% by 2015.

Andy Lees, president of Microsoft’s mobile communications, commented: “With Mango, Windows Phone 7 takes a major step forward in redefining how people communicate and use apps and the internet.”

The update promises to “challenge the way people think about apps”, offering to integrate them more directly into the core functions of the handsets. For instance, apps will be more closely linked to the music, video and picture hubs on the phone, allowing them to surface “when and where they make sense”.

Samsung is planning to raise the bar for smartphones by bringing out a 2GHz handset.

Two years have passed since the first 1GHz smartphone was introduced to the market, and now Samsung has decided that it will bring out a 2GHz dual-core powered phone by 2012.

The company has claimed it is going to narrow the gap between the smartphone and a desktop PC when it comes to data processing power as confirmed by a Samsung official, who said: “We are planning to release a 2GHz dual core CPU-equipped smartphone – this product will have the data processing capacities of a regular PC.”