Tech Industry

A new report from Bloomberg indicates that Samsung’s global market share losses can be attributed to Apple and others pressuring the company to cut its profit margins. As the rising popularity of cheaper smartphones erodes Samsung’s profit margin, the company continues to struggle to meet industry estimates. According to the report, Samsung also faces a new threat from Apple in China. Following the Cupertino company’s deal with China Mobile, Apple is expected to make tremendous gains in that country, further pressuring Samsung to drop prices in order to maintain any hope of competing in the market. This, in turn, will drive the Korean manufacturer’s profits even lower. Analysts are hopeful that the inbound Galaxy S5 can help balance out the company’s losses, but don’t expect that it will help Samsung regain its lost market share.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere announced today the company’s plan for Uncarrier 4.0 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Starting tomorrow, T-Mobile will offer new customers coming from AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint up to a $300 credit to trade-in their phone with the purchase of a T-Mobile device and a Simple Choice Plan. T-Mobile will also cover the cost of the early termination fee charged by the three major carriers for breaking contract by crediting up to $350 per line after sending in your last bill from your old carrier…

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This is not the promo card for an awful ABC sitcom

Today Sprint announced a new offer that allows up to ten “framily” (that’s friends+family) members to share a common plan. The “framily” plan (yes, they’re really calling it that) offers unlimited talk and text for up to ten people, even if they don’t live in the same household, as required by many previous family plans. Each member of the “framily” will also get 1 GB of data each as long as they don’t roam onto another network.

Unlike old family plans, “framily” plans allow everyone to get a separate bill sent to their homes. As you add more people to your group, the bill drops by $5 for everyone, and goes as low as $25 per month if you have seven or more “framily” members. The plans will be available in Sprint retail stores starting on January 10th.

T-Mobile’s John Legere somehow managed to sneak into a party thrown by arch-rival AT&T for its developers at CES tonight. Though he told Re/code that he was only there to see a performance by Macklemore (riiight), the “un-carrier” CEO—clad in his trademark magenta “T”-shirt (sorry)—was soon escorted from the facility by un-amused security.

Legere has made himself out as AT&T’s biggest fear in recent weeks, mocking his nemesis on Twitter without reservation. AT&T certainly isn’t helping their own case with new attempts to lure away T-Mobile subscribers by offering up to $450 in credit. Legere seems to have another trick up his sleeve, though, and has teased that the fourth phase of his “un-carrier” initiative will be revealed at CES this week.

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Samsung is generally one of the best companies to visit at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. The Korean giant arguably puts on some of the best shows and has one of the largest individual display areas for any company in attendance. That’s all well and good, but a new post by the company’s “Samsung Tomorrow” blog is capturing our attention.

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As the hours tick away to the end of 2013, Google Play Music is still offering a few freebies to help ring in the new year. Under the “Best Tracks of 2013,” Google is giving away some of the following songs:

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1QVpWpL19g&w=600&h=400]

By all accounts the Consumer Electronics Show kicking off in the next 10 days is looking to be fairly tame. While its true there could be dozens of surprises in store, the hype thus far has been pretty timid and I don’t see many of my colleagues expecting a wild ride as has been the case in years past. That’s not to say CES won’t be filled with exciting announcements of new products by hundreds of companies all converging on Las Vegas for one week in early January.

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[protected-iframe id=”51a2cae011875bc424f221d83668d301-22427743-3648805″ info=”http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/k1Hw3BmLT9UDeW53Rup” width=”600″ height=”400″ frameborder=”0″]

Update: TechCrunch reports that this video is fake.

Update #2: TechCrunch now reports the video is real and commissioned by Yahoo!, but not a real product yet.

With Yahoo’s acquisition of SkyPhrase, a natural language processing startup this month questions immediately arose as to how Yahoo would incorporate the technology. Now, thanks to a video on Daily Motion discovered by Android Police, we may have our answer as Yahoo prepares a Google Now/Siri voice-controlled personal assistant.

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There was little question at some point, somewhere in their roadmap Pebble’s smartwatch was going to get a dedicated appstore. That day has arrived as a new company blog post indicates the new developer portal is now open. The app store will launch to the public in 2014 and be the “first-of-its-kind wearable application directory.”

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Everyone loves a good surprise and that’s why we’re happy to see YouTube arrive on the Roku 3. The arrival happens simultaneously in the US, Canada, UK and Ireland. The surprise arrival of YouTube includes features like:

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv-sY_z8MNs]

Google does a lot well during the year, but perhaps one of the things Google does best is its year-end Zeitgeist. For the unfamiliar, Google’s Zeitgeist wraps up all the top searches for various categories during the 2013 calendar year in combination with a video, dedicated set of web pages and enough information to keep you interested for hours.

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Google Ventures, the Google-backed group that “provides seed, venture, and growth-stage funding to the best companies” just released their 2013 year-end report. The group, which has previously backed major names like RetailMeNot, Uber and Nest reports more than 75 new investments this year totaling more than 225 companies in total.

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(via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbtaylor/5725362250/in/photolist-9HVYJf-dUa6Vv-9p5wzz-dktAoT-8zr6jL-8niyxG-ahWGGU-ahWGHh-ahWGHm-ahWGH3-8oqttH-dnDryR-8nfrfD-9HFdUX-c83Cah-7JfazN-e2xr5t-bURuKH-e1kDuL-9MSHjY-adVi2Z-aptqJu-ccdK8C-bmKsbu-bURuWi-ccdKcf-ccdKi5-e1faCa-8SdCBv-8MmowQ-dMm3Uk-dMrBxA-fmgSPT-dFmKF4-dFmqQ4-cCuqoG-ccdKb9-e1eY4P-8jshhM-e1eYeV-9GDiuc-9GGb4A-9MSF1E-dLUyCK-8niyGq-8nixJY-8nfrBp-g2sFSy-g2t57H-9Tufzo-9Trpo6/">Flickr</a>)

Almost two years to date since AT&T pulled its bid for T-Mobile USA, rival carrier Sprint is reportedly preparing its own offer to purchase the fourth largest carrier in the US.

That’s according to a The Wall Street Journal report which claims Sprint is currently looking into regulatory concerns that could be voiced if the third largest US carrier acquired the company which runs the fourth largest US carrier.

Sprint hasn’t yet decided whether to move ahead with a bid. Going forward despite regulators’ concerns would be highly risky. Any pursuit of a bid by Sprint could be aimed at testing antitrust officials’ reaction to a deal, and a bad reaction could put an end to the effort.

While Justice Department denied AT&T’s bid for T-Mobile in 2011 after a year long effort, it’s certainly possible a Sprint/T-Mobile merger could prove otherwise considering rival carriers AT&T and Verizon’s position in the market.

As the WSJ report notes, Verizon leads with 95 million postpaid subscribers and AT&T has 72 million subscribers, but such an acquisition would keep Sprint in a distant third place with just 53 million postpaid customers.

Both Sprint and Verizon have proved capable of adding competition in an an industry with so few key players. Sprint has long boasted its unlimited data offer for customers while T-Mobile famously reinvented the 2-year upgrade model with options soon adopted by the competition.

Unlike the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile acquisition bid two years ago, Sprint and T-Mobile operate with different technologies. The former company relies on CDMA technologies while the latter company is built on GSM.

Well, would you look at that, just moments after reports of a deal being near comes the news that a deal has actually been reached. The CTIA has posted a PDF document that reveals some of the agreed upon terms of the negotiations. The bottom line is no matter what, this is a major win for consumers and the overall industry even if the carriers are probably steaming over the deal.

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Perhaps one of the most annoying though security-laden features inside of Gmail is the ever-familiar “dis play images below” link. Gmail has always provided this message in order to protect its users against compromising the security of the device or computer. Well, no more as Google has announced some changes across the board for its Gmail app. 

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Google has announced the winners of the 2013 Players’ Choice awards for top Google Play apps and games. The awards are given based on user popularity, unlike the apps featured last week in the Play Store for a similar award,  which were chosen by Google themselves. There were six categories spanning apps and games. The winners of each respective category are listed below, as chosen by the Android community.

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If these words resonate with you: the Amiga 500 computer can live again in your Chrome browser then this story courtesy of CNET is for you. Google developer Christian Stefansen is introducing a whole new world to the Amiga 500 thanks to Portable Native Client software and Google Chrome.

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Google’s former head of patents Michelle Lee has been named as the interim head of the USPTO, starting work there on 13th January, reports Yahoo! Finance.

Although technically Lee is deputy director, the agency hasn’t had a director since David Kappos left back in February, meaning that Lee will be running the show for the immediate future at least.

The appointment is an interesting choice given Google’s vocal criticism of patent trolls … 
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