IDC released an updated forecast today lowering its expectations for worldwide smartphone shipments this year with a continuing slowdown of growth in China cited as the biggest contributor to the lower than expected shipments. It also shared some insight into the future of Android, expecting its current 81% share of the global smartphone market as of 2015 to hold strong through 2019, citing continued price sensitivity in the markets with the biggest growth potential (read: China, India, and everyone else in the Asia-Pacific region). Expand Expanding Close
OnePlus earlier this week finally took the wraps off the much anticipated OnePlus 2, the successor to the company’s first Android smartphone, the OnePlus One. And while the young Chinese company says it significantly increased manufacturing capacity for the 2 over the One, it still seems to believe that demand will initially outstrip supply. As such, once the OnePlus 2 launches on August 11th you’re likely to do some more waiting before you get it. Expand Expanding Close
As predicted by the company itself, Android device manufacturer HTC today reported bleak earnings results for the April through June period. For the three month period, the Taiwan-based company lost NT$8.03 billion after tax and operating costs are taken into consideration. HTC reported profits during the prior four quarters, but apparently those couldn’t hold, likely due to lackluster demand for the One M9. Today’s reported losses spread out over the company’s shares come out to an approximate NT$9.70 ($0.3) per share. Revenue for the quarter was NT$33 billion.
comScore today released a new U.S. smartphone manufacturer and platform market share report for the three month period ending in March. The data suggests that while the continued strength of iPhone 6 adoption has resulted in market share gains for Apple, Android is still the most popular smartphone platform in the United States.
During the measured period, comScore reports that 187.5 million people in the United States owned smartphones, which equates to 77 percent of the total population. Of that, Apple was the most popular OEM (original equipment manufacturer) with 42.6 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers (up 1% from December), followed by Samsung with 28.3 percent market share (down 1% from December), and LG taking third place with 8.4 percent (up 0.4% from December).
Today, Google TV is moving to the latest version of Android (Jelly Bean, 4.2.2), and we’ve refactored Google TV so that our TV OEM partners can update to future versions of Android in a matter of weeks rather than months. For developers, this means you can build TV experiences using the latest Android APIs, including the NDK.
Today Google TV is also moving to the latest version of Chrome, and from now on Google TV benefits from Chrome updates on the same six week cycle that you’ve come to expect from Chrome. In Chrome on Google TV, we’ve added support for hardware-based content protection, enabling developers to provide premium TV content in HD within their web apps.
Google TV has always been a(t least a) generation behind Android phones and you have to wonder if Andy Rubin’s move away from Android is allowing the YouTube group that runs GoogleTV more access to core Android features. Word on the Street is that Rubin and YouTube boss “couldn’t be in the same room together”.
Speaking of YouTube, the GoogleTV Youtube App got a facelift today with the following additions:
– New home screen interface.
– Enhanced video playback controls.
– Support for paid subscriptions.
Update: LG is on board. Press release and 4.2.2 demo below Expand Expanding Close
