HTC reports weak Q3 results as revenue and profits fall

HTC was once on its way to the top of the smartphone world, but it's in a bit of a slump lately. The results from the preliminary report were confirmed in the new report and the outlook for the final quarter of this year isn't looking too good either.

The company saw a revenue of $2.4 billion in Q3 of this year, down from $4.54 billion in the same quarter last year. Net profits (predictably) are down too - $133 million, down from $625 million. The gross margin was 25% and operating margin was 7%.

HTC continued to do well in China and introduced the HTC J Butterfly in Japan, an Android smartphone with a 5" 1080p screen. HTC is also waiting on the launch of its Windows Phone 8 handsets (the OS launches next Monday).

Even so, the company is expecting revenues in Q4 to fall to $2 billion with both gross profit margin and operating margin falling, to 23% and 1% respectively. And that's the holiday quarter.

Source (PDF)

The LG Nexus 4 was lost in a bar a month ago

Well, we had to look at a calendar to make sure its not April 1. The upcoming LG Nexus 4 was lost in a bar, just like the Apple iPhone 4 was. And this wasnt a recent event (now that the Nexus successor was reviewed and put on pre-order), no this happened back in late September, when details of the device were much more scarce.

The phone was found in a San Francisco bar and the bartender that found it didnt know what to make of it first. He showed it to a tech-savvy bar patron who instantly recognized the device.

The LG Optimus 4 that was lost in a San Franciso bar

Unlike the iPhone story, the two decided to talk straight to Google to return the lost phone. Even so, they didnt avoid the unpleasantness of dealing with a big company trying to protect its secrets.

You can read the whole story over at Wired who talked to the bartender. The story pretty quickly turns into something that could make a decent movie with an unrelated incident causing a riot an attack at a local police station as the Google security guy and a lawyer representing the bartender were inside.

As you know, there's a Google event this Monday and we'll be there. The LG Nexus 4 smartphone is expected to be officially announced, but also a 10" Nexus tablet by Samsung and updated Nexus 7 with 32GB storage and 3G.

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Google Nexus 10 previewed before announcement, loved

Google's upcoming Nexus 10 slate has leaked out in live photos, confirming previous rumors for the Samsung made tablet. Set to be officially unveiled on Monday, the device packs impressive specifications, headed by a stunning 10.1" display with a iPad beating resolution of 2560x1600 pixels and a pixel density of 298.9ppi.

The Google Nexus 10 will feature a brand new dual-core Samsung Exynos 5250 chipset, whose Cortex-A15 cores run at 1.7GHz. The new silicon is reportedly faring better in benchmark scores than the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro and Apple's custom A6, but we got no actual scores confirming that.

The Mali -T604 GPU is also brand new - it should be able to handle the massive amount of pixels with ease. Two gigs of RAM, 16GB of non-expandable built-in memory (other options will likely be available), 5MP camera (you can check out its samples here) with front-facing companion, and full connectivity suite are also on board.

The back of the slate appears to be made of metal, while the dual-speakers at its front remind us of its Samsung roots. The tablet is said to be remarkably thin for its size.

The Google Nexus 10 will launch with Android 4.2, which will still go by the name Jelly Bean, but will bring a number of improvements to the OS. The more notable ones include improved camera UI, and connectivity toggles in the notification area.

The Google Nexus 10 will break cover at a Google event in New York City on Monday, October 29. We will be there live, so be sure to stick around for the full scoop on everything Android.

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Samsung I9260 Galaxy Premier images leak

We have seen some images of the Samsung I9260 Galaxy Premier in the past but they have mostly showed the front of the device. But these latest pictures show us some of the other sides of the device, including the back.

The Galaxy Premier looks very similar to the Galaxy S III from the front, but has a prominent chrome strip around the bezel. The sides use glossy plastic and the back looks like it is matte, just like on the Galaxy Nexus.

From the previous leaks we know that the Galaxy Premier has a 4.65-inch, 1280 x 720 resolution display, 8 megapixel camera, dual-core 1.5GHz processor (we're guessing the TI OMAP4470), 1GB RAM, 8 megapixel camera, 16GB internal memory and microSD card slot.

One would assume why Samsung would be releasing a phone with specs so close to the Galaxy S III, but they could just be trying to fill the hole that would be left in their line-up once the Galaxy Nexus gets replaced by the LG Nexus 4 next week.

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Samsung Q3 report: Operating profits reach $7.4 billion

Samsung has released their quarterly earning figures and once again has come up with some impressive numbers. Their total revenue last quarter was 52.18 trillion won ($47.5 billion), a 26 percent increase over last year, and the operating profits were 8.12 trillion won ($7.4 billion), a 91 percent increase over last year.

Samsung's mobile communication department has seen some strong growth, contributing to 26.25 trillion won ($23.9 billion) to the overall revenue of the company. The display department also did well this time, with revenue of 8.46 trillion won ($7.7 billion) and operating profits of 1.09 trillion won ($1 billion), a 19 percent increase over last year.

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Apple Q3 report: iPhone sales down, but profit still strong

Apple has just posted its report for the third quarter of the year and things are looking healthy for the Cupertino-based company. The revenue was $36 billion and the net profit stood at $8.2 billion, both of those comparing very favorably to the numbers from the same period of last year ($28.3 billion and $6.6 billion).

Somewhat surprisingly Apple didnt manage to better its achievement from the second quarter of this year, when the company made $8.8 billion in profit from just $35 billion revenue, despite the launch of the iPhone 5. The supply shortages are probably a part of the explanation as Apple is still struggling to cope with the demand for its new smartphone.

The iPhone sales were somewhat disappointing at 26.9 million units, compared to 35.1 million in Q2. The iPad shipments stood at 14 million units, compared to 17 million in the previous quarter, while Mac sales grew from 4 million to 4.9 million. Despite the refresh of the lineup, the iPod sales slid to 5.3 million units from 6.8 million in Q2.

The lowered profits, despite the higher revenue can also be explained with the fact that the iPhone accounted for a smaller percentage of the Apple revenue this quarter (the smartphone is the Apple product with the highest profit margin).

The financial markets didnt respond very well to the posted results and the Apple Inc. shares slid to 1.43% in after hours trading (they were 1% up before the results were posted) and are close to falling below $600 after reaching . Still, the drop is pretty minor and a strong holiday quarter, fuelled by the launch of the iPad mini, the 4th generation iPad and the extended availability of the iPhone 5 will probably bring the company back to the right track.

Update: The stock has bounced back and to levels close to the ones from market close. We'll see how things pan out tomorrow when trading restarts.

You can find the complete Apple report by following the source link below.

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Verizon Galaxy Note II to have the carrier's logo on its home button

It's not unusual for US carriers to put their branding on the backs of the smartphones they offer. We've even seen them above the displays on the backs, on wallpapers and what not. However, Verizon has just reached a new level of tackiness and put its logo on the home button of the latest Android flagship it will offer - the Samsung Galaxy Note II.

The device is currently available for pre-order for $300 with a 2-year plan and can be ordered in black or white flavors. However, the extra color choice Verizon is offering would likely be enough to make up for the extra branding both on the front and the back.

According to our humble opinion, the carrier logos on various smartphones aren't anything out of the ordinary. They sure don't help looks, but they aren't too bad and, given that the US carriers invest quite in subsidizing the smartphones they offer it's normal to try and improve the return by using them as ad space. In this case however the result is quite ugly and we really hope the trend doesn't pick up.

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LG Nexus 4 benchmarked, Android 4.2 confirmed

The LG Nexus 4, under the codename Mako, has surfaced in the GLBenchmark scoreboard, securing itself a top 4 place, just behind the Pantech Vega IM-A850, Asus PadFone 2 and the Xiaomi MI-2. All of these, like the Nexus 4, are rocking a Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset with the Adreno 320 GPU.

The published information on the GLBenchmark website cites Android 4.2 as the OS running on the Nexus 4, which all but confirms the next Nexus will come with it out of box.

There's also a new picture of the LG-made Nexus device courtesy of @evleaks on Twitter.

Click for larger image

The Nexus 4 got 30.4 frames per second in the offscreen 1080p Egypt test, which coincides with what we achieved on the Optimus G in our review.

Thanks for the tip, r4yN!

Source 1 | Source 2

LG Nexus 4 goes on pre-order early, specs and pricing confirmed

Mr. Nexus 4, you're early. Carphone Warehouse just couldnt wait until next week and decided to put the next Google purebred droid on pre-order right now, complete with specs, price and delivery date.

Here come the specs - the LG Nexus 4 has a 4.7" LCD screen with 768 x 1280 and a Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset with quad-core processor at 1.5GHz and 2GB of RAM. In other words, it's based on the Optimus G, just as expected.

The camera is listed as "8+MP", though it's really a 8MP camera and not 13MP. It shoots 1080p@30fps video, though you might want to be careful with that as you only get 8GB of non-expandable storage. Yep, unfortunately the rumors were true. This doesnt mean there won't be a 16GB version later on, so keep your fingers crossed.

On the connectivity side, the LG Nexus 4 has quad-band 2G and tri-band 3G (no LTE in sight), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC.

There's the question of the OS - the specs page doesnt seem to be finalized and lists it as both 4.1 and 4.2, but invariably calls it 'Jelly Bean'. This would mean that the 4.2 update isn't major and is not Key Lime Pie (as you might remember 2.0 and 2.1 were both Eclair, while 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2 were all Honeycomb).

Update: Two anonymous tipsters (who have our thanks!) sent us this photo of a brochure detailing the LG Nexus 4. It gives us a SIM-free price of 390 ($630, 485) along with a few other specs.

LG Nexus 4 brochure

The phone measures 133.9 x 68.7 x 9.1mm and will weigh 139g (a hair lighter than the Optimus G). The color options will be black and white (as the brochure shows) and the talk time is listed at 12 hours. The Optimus G does 15 hours of talk time (we tested it) and since the chipsets are the same, there's a possibility that the battery on the Nexus 4 will be smaller.

Carphone Warehouse lists deals from Vodafone and O2. You can have the LG Nexus 4 for free on a 31/month 2-year contract (slightly pricier than a Galaxy S III, which currently can be had for free with a 28/month contract). The phones will be delivered on October 30.

Here's the pre-order page on Carphone Warehouse, though it might get pulled down soon.

Update: as expected, the page has been pulled. You can see what the page looked like from this screenshot.

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LG outs Q3 financial results, reports a profitable quarter

LG has posted its financial report for Q3 2012 and the news are mostly positive. The company has been described its performance as "solid" and while it didn't report huge profit at least it's in the black.

The overall net profit is reported at 157 billion Korean won ($138.57 million), which is $1.8 million lower than in Q2, but is still great news for LG.

The LG mobile division managed to ship 14 million smartphones, which is a 9 percent increase over the previous quarter. The revenue from the mobile communications department is also up by 5 percent on a quarter basis adding up to 2.5 trillion Korean won ($2.26 billion).

One of the main reasons for the growth are the company's newly introduced LTE droids, which sell particularly well in Korea, Japan and the US. The L-series of phones have also contributed to the positive results.

For the Q4 2012, the company says that it has set the groundwork to improve sales thanks to the launch of the Optimus G and Optimus Vu 2 in Korea. It also acknowledges that R&D and marketing expenses have increased, but it's still turning up profits thanks to "improved product mix" and "cost structure".

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Samsung Galaxy Premier live picture appears on Twitter

A live picture of the Samsung Galaxy Premier has popped up on Twitter courtesy of @evleaks. The device follows the design scheme of the Samsung Galaxy S III mini although the sensors above the display are on the right of the speaker, instead of on the left.

The Samsung Galaxy Premier is rumored to feature a 4.65" Super AMOLED Plus of 720 x 1280 pixel resolution but Sammobile has recovered a PDF file that points to a WVGA screen.

Click for larger image

The Premier will also feature a dual-core TI OMAP 4470 chipset with two cores clocked at 1.5 GHz and a PowerVR SGX 544 graphics processor. There will also be an 8 MP camera, and 8GB/16GB built-in memory with microSD card expansion on board.

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Xperia E and E Dual leak, marked as Sony's new entry-level droids

Sony is preparing to refresh its entry-level Android line-up, as Indonesian site Postel has leaked the Xperia E and Xperia E Dual model names.

Codenamed NanHu DS (dual SIM) and NanHu SS, both the Sony Xperia E Dual and Xperia E will feature Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7227A chipsets with Adreno 200 graphics. The two will run Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich on a 320 x 480 resolution display.

As of yet there aren't any photos, but Xperia E sholdn't be any larger than the Xperia tipo, nor more expensive. Still, we are yet to get more detailed information on the two handsets in the coming weeks.

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Samsung reportedly working on a 1080p sAMOLED screen and phone

The first 1080p smartphones are a reality and regardless whether you consider 400+ ppi pixel density as great or as an overkill, the next generation of Android flagships will most probably feature FullHD screens.

MK News is reporting that Samsung is already working on a FullHD display, which will use the company's trademark Super AMOLED technology. It's too early to tell what kind of matrix they'll use (PenTile like on the Galaxy S III or full RGB like on the Note II).

It's not clear how big the display will be either, though it should have a pixel density of at least 400ppi, meaning 5" or bigger. Sources say Samsung is also preparing a smartphone that will use this screen too.

Speaking of phones with 5-inch FullHD screens, the HTC J Butterfly is already official and it packs a 5" Super LCD3 screen with 1080p resolution (440ppi). There's also the Oppo Finder 5, which also promises 1080p resolution on a 5" screen.

Those seem to be the specs of choice as both LG and Sharp are making 5" 1080p displays. The Sony C660X 'Yuga' might have a 5" 1080p screen too, made by Japan Display (a merger between Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba).

So, Samsung and LG reportedly have 1080p smartphones planned for the first half of next year and Pantech (another Korean maker) will be joining them.

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Apple's overscroll-bounce patent has been invalidated in the US

The tide of the patent war seems to be turning against Apple lately - the latest victim is the patent of the rubber band effect when you reach the end of a list while scrolling (most often referred to as overscroll-bounce).

Apple used that patent to force Android makers to remove the feature from their phones. That's also why Google went with the glow at the end of lists. This patent was used in the big Apple vs. Samsung case too.

Anyway, as of recently, the patent was rejected by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on the grounds of lacking novelty and being obvious (that is, it's nothing new and it's an apparent consequence of something that already exists).

It's important to note that this decision isn't final and can be appealed, so it can't be enforced just yet. But it's entirely possible that it will have an effect on the Apple vs. Samsung case (the judge could overrule the parts of the case that relate to that patent).

HTC and Motorola have been under fire over this patent too. In Moto's case, it's over an equivalent patent Apple has registered in the European Patent Office. This one hasn't been overturned yet, but the office is looking into it.

Apple has many more patents in its war chest, so the battle is far from over. Still, this decision is bound to slow its assault on Android and we might even start seeing previously removed features making a comeback.

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EE launching its LTE network in UK on Oct. 30, pricing revealed

EE is calling its new service 4GEE and it will launch commercially stating next Tuesday (October 30). 4GEE stands for the services offered by EE's LTE network, which will allow the usual calls and texts, with the addition of mobile data speeds of about 8-12Mbps.

The 4GEE service will be initially available in only 10 UK cities (London, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield and Glasgow), but you would be able to buy it throughout the country nonetheless.

Six new cities will be added before Christmas (Southhampton, Belfast, Derby, Hull, Nottingham, Newcastle) with plans to cover 98% of the population by the end of 2014.

All LTE smartphone plans include unlimited calls and texts, user simply pick a data allowance of their choosing. The prices of the new plans start from 36/pm (offering up to 500MB traffic) and going north to up to 56/pm (which gets you up to 8GB of traffic). Free BT Wi-Fi access is included in the plans. So, yes, there are no unlimited plans just yet, but the offered plans are expensive enough as they are.

To make use of the 4GEE service, you would need an LTE-enabled handset purchased directly from Orange or T-Mobile or any of their partner retail stores. The only exception is the iPhone 5, which (if unlocked) would operate on 4GEE no matter where in the UK you got it from. And if you have recently bought an Apple iPhone 4S, a Samsung Galaxy SIII or an HTC One X, EE would upgrade it to an LTE version for 99.

EE is not only launching its 4G LTE service next week but it will also be rolling out its new corporate identity. Starting on October 30, all existing Everything Everywhere, Orange and T-Mobile stores will be re-branded as EE stores.

Existing customers will keep their plans and will continue to use the combined 3G network of T-Mobile and Orange without any change (though the network identifiers on their phones will start showing EE).

However, to become a new EE subscriber, you would need to pick one of the 4GEE plans. This is a quite odd move as not that many people have the phones to utilize the LTE network. In the same time there are no EE plans without LTE connectivity and LTE coverage is pretty limited for now.

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Purported live photo of Sony Xperia Odin C650X surfaces

An alleged live photo of Sony Xperia C650X Odin has emerged, thus giving us a glimpse of the tech giant's upcoming Android powerhouse. The device has previously made an appearance in a leaked user agent profile.

The purported photo of the device doesnt reveal much, save for its large, almost frameless, rumored 5" 1080p display, tucked in what appears to be a metal-clad body. The rest of the handset's alleged specifications include quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset and 2GB of RAM.

Rumor has it that the Sony Xperia C650X Odin will likely break cover during CES 2013 in Las Vegas this coming January. Such on occurrence makes quite a bit of sense as we saw the Sony Xperia S and Xperia ion go official during the same industry event this year.

Source (in Japanese) | Via

HTC Windows Phone 8X and Nokia Lumia 920 go on pre-order

Best Buy has kicked off pre-orders of the Nokia Lumia 920 and the HTC Windows Phone 8X for AT&T. The Nokia flagship is priced at $149.99 with a two-year commitment, while its Taiwanese counterpart has gone below the three-digit mark at $99.99.

There is no specific information on the shipping dates for the two smartphones - Best Buy has only mentioned that it "will ship when available." We believe that we will find out more about the dates on the Windows Phone 8 event on October 29.

With the HTC Windows Phone 8X and the Nokia Lumia 920 sporting quite similar specifications and a $50 price difference, all signs point at a serious battle for market share shaping up. Microsoft however, wont mind any of the two devices coming out on top.

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Samsung I9260 Galaxy Premier GLBenchmark scores reveal GPU

The Samsung I9260 Galaxy Premier was once rumored as the next Galaxy Nexus phone, but those rumors were renounced. The Premier sits somewhere between the Galaxy S III and the S III mini and now we know its GPU (and most likely chipset) thanks to a GLBenchmark score.

GLBenchmark reports Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean and 720p resolution (that's exactly 1280 x 720 pixels, which confirms there won't be on-screen controls). The CPU max frequency is listed as 1.5GHz and while the number of cores was left out, the rumors point to a dual-core processor.

The GPU is a PowerVR SGX 544, very similar to the SGX543 found in Apple's latest chipsets. All of this - plus some AnTuTu scores from last week - point to a TI OMAP 4470 chipset (recently used in Amazon's Kindle Fire HD 8.9 tablet).

This means the I9260 Galaxy Premier has two Cortex-A9 cores, probably 1GB of RAM and the SGX544 GPU. Other Android chipset makers rely on Mali (Samsung's Exynos), GeForce (Tegra) or Adreno (Qualcomm), which leave Texas Instruments.

We know it's not a Cortex-A15 packing OMAP 5 chipset (which has a dual-core CPU and SGX544 too), because the AnTuTu CPU scores are below those of the HTC One S and its two Krait cores.

Anyway, the Galaxy Premier is not going to dethrone the Galaxy S III, but it does look more temtping than the NovaThor-packing Galaxy S III mini. We're still waiting for the Samsung I9260 Galaxy Premier to be officially announced.

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Nokia Asha 306 review: Smartphone Ash-pirations

Introduction

In a shrinking featurephone market, the Nokia Asha lineup is trying to deliver a near-smartphone experience with less complexity and, more crucially, at a more attractive price point. The Asha 306 slots just above the middle of the pack - delivering a touchscreen display and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Nokia Asha 306 official photos

The Nokia Asha 306 is aimed at those that value Wi-Fi connectivity over a second SIM slot (there's Asha 305 if that's not the case). Wi-Fi connectivity is the headline feature, but it's not everything the Asha 306 has going for it.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM, GPRS, EDGE
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• S40-based Asha touch interface
• 3" WQVGA resistive touchscreen, ~155 pixel density
• Multi-touch in the gallery and Nokia Maps
• Display auto-rotation
• Nokia Browser 2.0
• Nokia store and 40 EA games for free
• 2 MP camera
• microSD card support (up to 32 GB)
• Complimentary 2 GB microSD card in the box
• Bluetooth v2.1
• Standard microUSB port, charging
• 1100 mAh Li-Ion battery
• Excellent loudspeaker performance

Main disadvantages

• Interface slows down at times, due to low RAM
• Poor screen quality
• Resistive touchscreen feels awkward
• Fixed-focus camera
• QCIF video recording
• No smart dialing

The Nokia Asha 306 is no powerhouse, but then again, the target user for this one isn't really obsessed with specs. The Asha 306 makes sense for people looking for a straightforward handset for calling other people or are just on the lookout for a secondary phone, which should complement their smartphone without breaking the bank.

The Nokia Asha 306 at HQ

A case can be made that touch and simple don't really mix in times when pixels and clockspeeds are what drives the industry forward. Why not simply get a regular phone with a keypad. You'll save a little money and still get basically the same functionality in a possibly smaller package. An Asha 201 would cost you significantly less too. So why go for a Nokia Asha 306?

This is where the new interface comes into play. It's not just a touchscreen you are getting here - you are actually purchasing something that enables even easier UI navigation. Web browsing is also way more intuitive on touchscreen devices and gaming benefits, too.

So can the Nokia Asha 306 deliver all it promises on such a tight budget? Read on to find out.