The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are, without the shadow of a doubt, great products. I personally use an edge as my daily driver and went as far as calling it “the end of the Smartphone 1.0” era; whether this consideration is a stretch may be debatable, but numbers aren’t.
And, as far as those go, Samsung seems do be doing well…
Shipments of Chromebooks outpaced Macs in the US for the first time in Q1 2016, that’s according to data from IDC shared during a session at Google’s I/O developer conference today.
In addition to knocking $80 off all Nexus 5X models, the US Google Store is also discounting all cases for the latest Nexus devices by 50%. The discount is applied at checkout and covers the Nexus-branded Case and Folio, as well as those made by ADOPTED and Speck…
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Today is officially Black Friday, which means several companies will be selling various products at better-than-full prices. OnePlus’ version of a Black Friday weekend sale has begun and — instead of getting discounted smartphones — the company has made its phones available for open sale from today through until the 30th. That’s four full days of invite-free purchasing.
Both of the latest phones — the OnePlus X and OnePlus 2 — are available to buy all weekend and you won’t need an invite to purchase.
While the phones haven’t been discounted, the company has taken a percentage off the retail price of most of its accessories. Multiple OnePlus One accessories are available for 90% off, while accessories for the newer devices are 10% off. If you’ve been desperate to get your hands on the company’s new smartphones, now is the best opportunity to do so. To take advantage, head on over to OnePlus.net.
As for devices with actual discounts, we compiled a list of phones that we’d personally recommend buying, all of which have seen healthy price-cuts this week. What’s more, we’ve also rounded up some of the best gift ideas for you to consider, while our friends at 9to5Toys have an extensive list of all notable Black Friday deals running.
Without an invite, buying a OnePlus 2 has been pretty much impossible up until now. Today, however, the company has made its ‘2016 flagship killer’ available invite-free on Amazon India to local customers.
The open sale is only live until Friday, when the company will launch its global Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend holiday deals. Those planning to order are limited to just one device each, costing 24,999 Indian Rupees (roughly $377 USD).
OnePlus has been both praised and criticized for its use of an invite-only system for purchasing its smartphones. Whichever side of the fence you sit on, when you actually want to buy one for yourself, having to wait for an invite can be a frustrating experience. Despite that, the experience has arguably been better with the OnePlus 2. It’s already held a couple of open sale days, has sent more invites out, even extending their expiration and introduced a new extended warranty to make it a more pleasant buying experience.
Amazon has announced that its popular Black Friday sale event will begin this week, and last eight days. From Friday, new deals will be added “as often as every five minutes” for eight straight days leading right up until Black Friday. What’s more, the company will offer 10 ‘Deals of the Day’ on Thanksgiving with ten more on Black Friday…
Google has just kicked off its press event, where it’s expected to unveil next-gen Chromecast and Nexus devices alongside other announcements, but it started with an update on company numbers and more.
Among the numbers, Google’s Sundar Pichai confirmed that it’s introducing around 30,000 new Chromebooks everyday with around 10,000 companies using or testing the company’s new Android for Work platform. Google announced its new Android for Work platform back in February, opening up a dedicated Google Play store and other features specifically for enterprise users.
The company also said that it’s now at 1 billion active Google Play users with around 1.4 billion active Android devices over the last 30 days and 20 million Chromecasts sold to date.
Head below for a full roundup of numbers announced today during Google’s press event:
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While many good reasons can be given for this disparity, ranging from Apple’s marketing budget to its reality-distortion field, there are a couple of key aspects to this situation that haven’t often been mentioned…
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In a recent report, KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo noted that Samsung has experienced a better-than-expected market response to its Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge devices. According to the report, Samsung is expected to raise its 2015 shipment guidance by 50 percent from 35-40 million units to 50-55 million units. Kuo says that the increase in expected shipments is mainly due to a strong showing by the Galaxy S6 Edge.
The latest estimates from Slice Intelligence suggest that Apple sold just under 1 million units of its new smartwatch on the first day or pre-orders, an unsurprising figure considering the fact that the Cupertino company sold 74 million iPhones in Q4 2014. Knowing the number of Apple Watches sold, and assuming it’s correct, we can say with certainty that Apple sold more Apple Watches over the weekend than the combined various OEMs (LG, Samsung, etc.) shipped Android Wear devices in 2014.
Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge don’t officially launch until April 10th, but the company says it expects the device to set new records. Speaking at a press event, Samsung’s head of mobile J.K. Shin said that the company expects record shipments of the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge (via Reuters).
It’s been a long time coming for the Verizon Nexus 6, but several new pieces of information that popped up this morning and over the weekend (including a quote straight from a Verizon customer service representative) suggest that the device should be seeing a public launch—at least via Internet sales channels—on March 12th. We now have some information on pricing as well, and it looks like the device might just be shipping with Android 5.1 on the Big Red…
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Google’s Chief Business Officer Omid Kordenstani gave several updates on the status of the company’s $35 Chromecast streaming device during the this evening’s Q4 2014 earnings call. Kordenstani first stated that users have “casted” content to their television more than one billion times. The company says that this is a huge milestone for the streaming stick and the implementation of the Cast functionality in a variety of different apps.
Samsung on Wednesday announced that it will be repurchasing $2 billion worth of its own common and preferred stocks to increase shareholder value through securing share price stability. Samsung investors have become increasingly worried in recent months as the South Korean electronics maker has faced declining Galaxy smartphone sales.
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From 9to5Toys:
As the leaked Black Friday ads continue to surface, today we got a look at what Target will be offering come the end of the month. The retailer says it will have hundreds of door busters and thousands of deals on everything from Google products and gaming consoles with gift cards attached along with deep discounts on home goods and more. Items on pages 2 and 3 of the ad are available today to order online with free in-store pickup. We’ve shared some of the standout deals we’ve spotted so far ahead, and keep checking back as we add more.
OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei confirmed to Forbes that OnePlus One smartphone sales have eclipsed the 500,000 mark to date, adding that the Chinese company has a lofty goal of selling 1 million units by the end of the year. “It’s going to be hard,” said Pei, speaking at the Dublin Web Summit taking place this week. “But I think it’s possible.”
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According to numbers crunched by The Guardian‘s Charles Arthur and based on data from Chitika and comScore, it appears as if the Amazon Fire Phone isn’t exactly setting hardly anything on fire. In fact, if this report is to be believed, Amazon hasn’t sold more than 35,000 total Fire Phone units since the much-hyped unveiling of the device in June.
Samsung has launched a redesign of its website in Europe and with it has started selling its Android devices directly from the site. The company previously linked to other retailers and carriers, as it continues to do in the US, but now most EU countries also have the ability to add products to a cart and purchase directly from the website.
In the US, samsung.com continues to link to AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and websites of smaller carriers for its smartphones, but it does provide the ability to buy other devices direct from the website such as tablets.
The ability to purchase appears to be available in most EU countries, but you can visit samsung.com to check availability and prices in your country.
(via SamMobile)
History has taught us that manufacturers typically don’t discuss hardware sales and shipments publicly, but some firms will occasionally issue press releases sharing statistics when boasting about success. However, the folks at Motorola Mobility have taken a much more casual approach to outlining its figures. Today, the soon to be Lenovo-owned company tweeted that it shipped 6.5 million devices globally during Q1 of 2014.
Want to do something nice for mom on Mother’s Day, but flowers make her sneeze and candy goes against her strict diet? Then perhaps a few books and magazines from Google Play’s Mother’s Day sale will bring a smile to mom’s face on her special day.
ABC News reports that RadioShack will close 1,100 stores following a disappointing holiday season and generally unsuccessful attempt to rebrand the chain as the go-to retailer for smartphones and accessories. The number represents about 20% of the electronics shop’s locations. The company previously announced plans to close only 400-700 stores.
That doesn’t mean RadioShack will be disappearing completely, though. Around 4,000 stores are still expected to remain open. While the cell phone business hasn’t been able to keep the entire company afloat, it has apparently provided enough fuel to keep the majority of the stores functional… for now, at least.
Editor’s note: As noted in the graph above, the numbers in this article refer only to the commercial channel, as NPD does not measure direct sales. Some of the language below has been updated to clarify this point.
A new release from the NPD Group indicates that notebooks running Google’s Chrome OS have gained significant ground in the past year. According to the statistics, over one-fifth of all laptops sold in 2013 were running the free software. Of course, it should be noted that the numbers presented don’t take built-to-order machines or direct sales into account, instead relying on sales of pre-configured options, but even so, this impressive figure is still very good news for Google.
In fact, when considering all computer sales, including desktop and notebook form factors, Chromebooks have still gained a pretty sizeable chunk of the market. Last year Chromebooks took home a measly 0.2%. This year, however, the number comes in closer to one-tenth of the market at 9.6%.
While that may not seem like much next to the 34.1% of all computer sales held by Windows-powered notebooks, it’s over five times better than Apple’s sales for its entire MacBook lineup combined. It now seems that Google—not Apple—is in the best position to someday knock Microsoft from the top of the notebook computer market.
Korean site ET News reports that Samsung has cut its smartphone sales target for 2014 from 360M handsets to 330M. The company’s original goal would have represented 25 percent year-on-year growth, now reduced to just 14 percent.
The company is blaming saturation at the top end of the market, with many existing owners of flagship handsets having reduced their upgrade cycle from annual to bi-annual.
Samsung as a whole isn’t hurting – it recently announced record revenues and profits – but the bulk of those earnings came from lower-end handsets and its chip manufacturing business. The ET News piece says that Samsung also plans to move into a whole bunch of new areas, including cloud computing and hi-tech materials …
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Black Friday is well in the rear-view mirror and that means our shopping focus is now firmly zeroed in on Cyber Monday. The one-day sales event now matches Black Friday in deals, specials, savings and more. It’s still early in the day as we wait for the nations largest retailers to announce more Cyber Monday savings. For now, sneak a peek at our continuously updated list of specials on apps, smartphones, tablets, Chromebooks, and any other Google-related goods!