Tag: samsung

Chinese smartphones conquering Europe

Posted on February 19, 2019 by - News

Despite the US crackdown, Chinese devices are doing really well in Europe, according to Canalys beancounters.

According to Canalys, preventing the likes of Huawei and Xiaomi from operating in the States means they are investing in Europe to make up for their lost US business and have experienced significant sales gains.

Although Samsung still ranks number one in the continent and Apple remains a number two, Huawei’s market share now stands at 23.6 percent, compared to a market share of 14.8 percent last year.  Xiaomi’s grew from 3.6 to  six percent, the fourth position.

HP revenue beats estimates

Posted on December 3, 2018 by - News

The maker of expensive printer ink, HP, reported a  quarterly revenue that thrashed analysts’ estimates,  thanks to growth in its systems business that sells notebooks and desktops and the acquisition of Samsung’s printer business.

The personal systems business, which accounts for more than 60 per cent of HP  total revenue, rose 11 percent to $10.06 billion, beating analysts’ average estimate of $9.78 billion.

The company had the second position in worldwide PC shipments in the third quarter with a 22.8 percent market share, down from 23.9 percent in the preceding quarter, according to research firm International

Smartphone leaders saw growth this quarter

Posted on December 6, 2017 by - News

Samsung_Stonehenge_Galaxy_S8-20170410031501639The top five vendors leading the smartphone race all saw growth in the third quarter, according to numbers crunched by analyst outfit Gartner.

Global sales hit 383.4 million units for the quarter, which represents a three percent increase over third quarter 2016’s 372.2 million. North America sales grew 11.2 percent, Big G said.

North America was the third largest region for smartphone sales in the quarter (topped by Greater China and Emerging APAC, respectively), representing 12.4 percent of the market and selling 47.5 million smartphones, compared to 42.7 million in third quarter 2016.

Worldwide, Samsung led the quarter with 22.3 percent market share and 85.6 million units shipped. With 71.7 million units shipped in third quarter 2016, Gartner noted Samsung smartphone sales grew 19.3 percent for the quarter.

Gartner research director Anshul Gupta said: “Renewed pushes of the newly designed Galaxy S8, S8+ and Note8 smartphones have brought back growing demand for Samsung smartphones, which helped it compete against Chinese manufacturers and deliver a solid performance in the quarter. The Last time Samsung achieved a double-digit growth was in fourth quarter 2015.”

Apple controlled 11.9 percent market share and shipped 45.4 million units, compared to 43 million in third quarter 2016.

“The arrival of Apple’s new flagship iPhones at the end of the third quarter 2017 has delayed smartphone purchases into fourth quarter 2017. Following compelling offers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the holiday season will likely boost sales of smartphones before the end of the year. We estimate fourth quarter ‘s smartphone sales will boost total sales for the full year. We expect smartphone sales will reach 1.57 billion units in 2017.”

Huawei rounded out the top three with 9.5 percent market share. The Shenzhen, China firm shipped 36.5 million units for the quarter, compared to third quarter 2016’s 32.5 million.

Dongguan followed Huawei, China-headquartered firm OPPO, which earned 7.7 percent market share by shipping 29.4 million units (versus third quarter 2016’s 24.6 million), and then Xiaomi, which had seven percent market share and shipped 26.9 million smartphones (versus third quarter 2016’s 14.9 million)

Gartner also noted increased customer demand for “high-priced” smartphones, with North America and Western Europe’s market growth being attributed to such purchases.

 

 

 

 

Samsung provides smartphones to UK emergency services

Posted on November 27, 2017 by - News, Products

fire_brigadeSamsung has inked a deal with the UK’s emergency services to provide smartphones to 250,000 police, paramedics and fire crews.

The UK Home Office is preparing to deploy an upgraded network and phones for use by police, firemen, and ambulances.

Samsung will be supplying its specially designed smartphones from 2018.

Previous disaster phones supported only voice calls, but the new phones support mobile data services, video live streaming, and come with various applications for use by trained professionals.

The company will also supply various accessories for use with the phones.

The South Korean tech giant first showed off the public safety use gear back in June 2015, which are based on public safety LTE standards.

It was last year selected as the vendor to provide South Korea with a boosted emergency services network. In February this year, it showed off live video streaming between handsets and mission control.

The business is part of Samsung’s enterprise mobile portfolio. The firm also collaborated with SK Telecom to redeploy South Korea’s first LTE-R service.

The British Home Office awarded Samsung the three-year contract, which will see the Koreans supply toughened, water-resistant 4G devices to emergency services.

These smartphones will offer both hardware and software features that will support emergency services functions and critical voice services, according to Samsung, including a “push to talk” button.

 

Samsung down to one UC distributor

Posted on November 10, 2017 by - News

samsung-hqSamsung unified communications (UC) is down to one UK distributor now that it has decided not to use Exertis.

Exertis will still be distributing Samsung’s UC equipment until 22 December but after that it looks like Nimans will become the exclusive distributor of Samsung’s UC offering.

It is a slap in the face with a wet fish for Exertis which had been trying to snuggle up closer with Samsung by acquiring Essex-based 60 man mobile phone and tablet refurbishment outfit MTR.

MTR had a tight partnership with Samsung and Exertis hoped the deal would enable the distributor to “deepen its entanglement” with what is one of its key vendors.

It is not clear what Exertis did to miff Samsung, it might have just passed the port the wrong way at dinner. However Nimans was named best partner (UK) in the 2017 Samsung Enterprise Best Partner Awards which culminated in a global conference at the communication giant’s South Korean headquarters.

It might just have been that sole distributorship was an award for good behaviour.

Nimans said that it had a direct working relationship with Samsung in Korea and the awards were a chance to forge closer working relationships.

 

HP talks up the printer industry

Posted on November 2, 2017 by - News

history-of-print-16th-century-printing-companyWhile sales of printers are dropping faster than Donald Trump’s popularity, HP has splashed out and written a $1.05 billion cheque for Samsung’s printer business.

The move gives it the strongest A3 printer portfolio on the market along with 1,300 researchers and engineers joinomg HP from Samsung – along with 6,500 printer patents.

HP CEO Dion Weisler said: “As we ignite a renaissance in printing, we’re thrilled to bring together the industry’s best and brightest talent.

“Together we will build on more than 30 years of print leadership to accelerate our strategy, disrupt new market opportunities, and provide our customers and partners with unique and highly innovative print solutions.”

HP thinks that the A3 market is now the biggest opportunity in the printer space, worth an estimated $55 billion.

As part of the acquisition, Samsung will make an equity investment of between $100 million and $300 million in HP through open markets. Figures released last week suggested that the only place in the world were printer sales had not dropped was the UK – where they stayed the same.

 

Exertis names Rik Hubbard commercial and services director

Posted on August 10, 2017 by - Moving People, News

Rik_HubbardExertis has announced the appointment of Rik Hubbard as its mobile commercial and services director.

Hubbard will be working with the sales and purchasing teams to boost the performance of the division’s market leading vendors across the consumer and business to business areas.

He also has to build on the opportunity to launch a range of device-focused services from trade-in, repair and refurbishment to finance and service contracts, following the recent announcement of the MTR Group acquisition.

Hubbard will report to Exertis mobile director Simon Woodman, who said: “Rik is joining our team at an exciting time for the mobile division. He brings a wealth of experience having worked for a major vendor and a leading telco and internet service provider.

“We have opportunities to grow in the main areas of our business with a superb portfolio of products and solutions to offer our customers. We are now also in an excellent position to enhance our entanglement still further with our vendor partners and clients by providing additional services to support their business. Rik will play a fundamental role in helping us to achieve that.”

Hubbard is a chartered accountant with almost twenty years’ experience in the telco industry, and joins from Samsung where he was head of commercial finance and financial services for five years.

When he was there he helped launch the S7 Upgrade programme which was the UK’s first manufacturer backed handset upgrade scheme. Before that, he spent a similar period at Three in a variety of commercial roles.

Hubbard was very positive on his appointment, saying: “Providing services that add value are fundamental to being successful in technology distribution. I am delighted to have joined Exertis, a company at the forefront of mobile distribution with an outstanding product and solutions portfolio, and one with the drive and ambition to look for and add complementary services that make a positive contribution to revenue and profit for partners and customers. I look forward to building on this success and working with a vibrant, award-winning team.”

 

4K telly market booms

Posted on July 12, 2017 by - News

television-exploding-biz-2015-billboard-650The global 4K TV market is expected to reach $380.9 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research.

The beancounters claimed that the evolving nature of the consumer electronic industry, advancements in graphic engines of televisions, increased pressure on manufacturers to reduce prices, and popularity of the ultra-high definition technology and its advantages have fueled the demand for UHD televisions in the past few years.

Latest graphic processors permit advanced technical image formats and have improved the content quality significantly hence, they are widely used in production and distribution of UHD content. Customers are getting accustomed to using such contents, which is further anticipated to spur the market growth.

The 52-65 inches’ segment dominated the global 4K TV market in 2016 since this segment has a wide range of product offering at different price points. Moreover, the adoption of novel technologies, such as Quantum dot LEDs (QLEDs) and Super UHD (SUHD) and decreasing prices of 4K TVs are expected to catapult the segment demand over the forecast period.

Televisions belonging to this range have high penetration rates as compared to the others. However, the above 62 inches’ screen size segment is expected to witness the highest growth over the forecast period owing to the declining price trend of 4K TVs coupled with increasing disposable incomes of individuals globally.

The global UHD TV market is expected to witness a CAGR exceeding 20 percent  from 2017 to 2025 owing to the changing consumer preference from HD to UHD technology along with increasing demand for high-end home products

Moreover, increasing penetration of ultra-high-speed internet, particularly in developed regions including metropolitan cities are expected to favorably impact the 4K TV market growth over the coming years.

The 52 – 65 inches’ segment accounted for the largest share in 2016, which is accredited to increasing penetration of 4K TVs in the higher economic class; however, with decline in TV prices the above 65-inch screen size segment pose high growth opportunities

The Asia Pacific region accounted over 40 percent  of the overall revenue share in 2016 and is also expected to dominate over the forecast period owing to the huge adoption along with declining prices of 4K televisions

A few key players who captured a significant market share in 2016 were Samsung, LG Electronics, Sony, Hisense, and Sharp.

 

Most top vendors suffering

Posted on June 21, 2017 by - News

220px-Dramaten_mask_2008aNumber crunchers from Gartner group claim that four of the top five IT vendors suffered a fall in sales last year.

Out of Apple, Samsung, Google, Microsoft and IBM, only Google grew its revenues.

In its Gartner, Global Top 100: IT Vendors report, the number crunchers attempted to rank the top 100 largest tech companies based on estimates for their revenue across IT and component market segments.

Despite seeing estimated IT revenue fall from $235 billion to $218 billion year on year, Apple topped the rankings, well ahead of Samsung, which saw its haul shrink from $142 billion to $1391 billion.

Google grew its revenues from $74.9 billion to $90.1 billion, while Microsoft shrank from $88.1 billion to $85.7 billion and IBM fell from $79.6 billion to $77.8 billion.

Gartner said its figures will help illustrate the shift in the industry from the ‘Nexus of Forces’ to digital business as the driver of IT purchasing.

For those who came in late, or find it difficult to care, the Nexus of Forces, Gartner’s term for the convergence of social, mobility, cloud and information. It believes it has propped up many of the IT market’s leading players – including Apple and Google – in recent years.

Gartner vice president John-David Lovelock said that the needs of IT buyers are shifting. CEOs were focused on growth and are more focused on realising business outcomes from their IT spend, Big G said.

We are not sure about this, people have been saying that sort of thing since the 1990s when we started reporting on the IT market. In fact, it was the reason so many companies moved to outsourcing.

Digital giants, like Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent will leave their mark in 2017, Gartner said.

These seven companies will be involved in 20 percent of all activities an individual engages in by 2020, Gartner predicted.

“Digital giants effectively become gatekeepers for any business that delivers digital content and services to consumers. Any company that wants to engage consumers in, or through, their digital world will have to consider engaging with one or more of these digital giants,” Lovelock said.

Samsung returns its IP PBX customer support back to Korea

Posted on June 14, 2017 by - News

samsung-hqIn a move designed to give better support for its UK channel, Samsung is returning its IP PBX product assistance back to Korea.

Providing support directly from the Korean HQ should make life for the firm’s UK distributors easier.

Warren Hampton, general manager of networks for Samsung UK, said that the old support model had too many steps which slowed down the high-quality support the company wanted to offer.

He said that Samsung looked at ways of streamlining its service and come up with a new initiative that delivers support direct from its Korean HQ team.

“We strongly believe this will give our UK distributors the control and autonomy needed to offer the best product support to our channel,” he added.

Recent market analysis from WinterGreen Research found that the SIP based IP PBX market was heading towards a value of $6.5 billion worldwide by 2023 and cloud based set-ups were enabling vendors to offer PBX products as part of their digital transformation sales pitch.

Tablets could be the next big channel package

Posted on November 28, 2016 by - News

tabletBeancounters at IDC seem to think that the channel could make big money flogging tablets to corporates.

While tablet sales in the consumer market are deader than Steve Jobs, corporates can find a use for the bigger models.

IDC predicted that because of the mobility attractions of the hardware tablets will be a key investment for  firms undergoing digital transformation next year.

Premium devices drove tablet growth in the third quarter, with IDC recording a 13.1 percent increase year-on-year in the commercial sector. Overall there were 8.2 million tablets shipped in Western Europe in Q3, which represented a 6.7 percent decline on the same period last year.

Although volumes are dropping the unit value has held firm, which has offset the impact of the declines, as more customers pay for higher quality products. The share of detachables in Western Europe priced above €600 increased from 26.5 percent in 3Q15 to 52.2 percent a year later.

Daniel Goncalves, research analyst, IDC Western European personal computing, said that detachables are proving to be particularly attractive to firms, particularly those with the performance and security to meet enterprise standards, are continuously gaining traction and this is boosting demand for premium devices.

“Surface Pro and iPad Pro success comes from them being a notebook replacement, as well as the quality of the devices. The devices are increasingly adopted across consumer and commercial segments, and while in the consumer segment both appeal to the ‘prosumer’ user, in commercial the adoption varies depending on the activities of the end user. iPad Pro is more popular for creative types of jobs, whereas Surface is more likely to be adopted by top executives, partly due to Windows’ strong legacy in enterprise.”

Apple, Samsung and Lenovo dominate the market but Amazon has seen its unit growth increase year on year by 166.5 per cent thanks to the very competitive pricing of its Kindle tablet range.

Acquisition happy Exertis looks for a happy Medium

Posted on November 16, 2016 by - News

medExertis, which last month wrote a cheque for its Hammer acquisition wants to buy audio visual outfit Medium.

The move is part of Exertis’s cunning plan to snap up complementary businesses. Medium will strengthen its position in the AV market. It will get a much wider range of products and is being pitched to provide resellers with access to a complete solution.

Medium has been around for a long time and supplies a broad range of AV products, including projectors, interactive displays and digital signage from vendors including LG, NEC, Samsung and Panasonic.

The channel player employs 40 and has a turnover of £32 million and flogs its gear to 800 AV resellers across the UK.

Last month Exertis added the storage and server expertise of Hammer to expand its business coverage.

Ian Sempers, Medium MD said: “We are delighted to be joining forces with Exertis. The continued convergence of the IT and AV market means we will be in a great position to service a sector that extends beyond traditional AV solutions. Our expertise and technical knowledge in this market combined with Exertis’ wider product portfolio will provide a compelling proposition for resellers and vendors.”

Apple and Samsung push for carrier agnostic Sims

Posted on July 17, 2015 by - News

Smartphones

In what might end up being the end of an era in telecom packages the major smartphone makers Apple and Samsung are moving to force suppliers to telco agnostic Sim cards.

The technology first appeared in the iPad Air 2, which ditched typical carrier-linked SIM cards in favour of an Apple one that let users switch freely and easily between multiple providers.

Now it seems that both Apple and its rival Samsung want to bring that technology to the cut-throat smartphone market.

Apple and Samsung have joined the push to standardise these newer embedded electronic SIM (e-SIM) cards with the GSM Association, which represents many worldwide carriers.

Anne Bouverot, the GSMA’s chief executive, said that involved companies are all working on an agreement for a standard to drive the technology, and make it work across carriers and countries. The report says that carriers expected onboard include Orange, Vodafone, AT&T, Hutchison Whampoa, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, and Telefónica.

This will be good for consumers but not so hot for the carriers and their channel partners who could lock the technology into their own networks, making it difficult for users to escape. Changing suppliers is a headache if you have to swap sim cards and it also means global roaming is easier.

Telcos have also been pretty slow when it comes to providing updates for Android resulting in fragmentation.

In a statement, the GSMA said that the majority of operators were on board. The plan is to finalise the technical architecture that will be used in the development of an end-to-end remote SIM solution for consumer devices, with delivery anticipated by 2016.

It will be a year after that before any products hit the shelves.

Qualcomm to outsource Snapdragon to Samsung

Posted on April 2, 2015 by - News

qualcomm-snapdragonUS chipmaker Qualcomm is going to outsource the production of its new Snapdragon 820, to Samsung so ti can take advantage of its 14nm node process.

Samsung has demonstrated its 14nm as a proven process as showcased by the performance and power consumption of its14nm EXynos 7420 CPU developed in house.

Digitimes Research thinks that since Samsung has also been aggressively striving for orders with competitive pricing, other players such as Nvidia, AMD and MediaTek are believed to have a high chance of shifting part of their orders to Samsung.

It warns that this could affect the global mobile AP market in 2015 and 2016.

Qualcomm was forced to accelerate the roadmap of its mobile AP following a mishap of the Snapdragon 810 and is also being pushed to fabricate its Snapdragon 820 via Samsung’s 14nm process as the development of a similar advanced 16nm process by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacture Company (TSMC) is currently lagging Samsung’s 14nm node by about one quarter.

With Samsung shifting to use in-house developed APs for its high-end models such as the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5 instead of Qualcomm’s APs, Qualcomm is expected to see its high-end AP shipments halve to 100 million units in 2015. As a result, the Snapdragon 820 might be used as a bargain chip persuading Samsung to purchase more of its high-end Snapdragon chips.

Qualcomm is likely to outsource up to half of the Snapdragon 820 chips to Samsung in 2016, attracting other chip suppliers to follow suit.

Google buys Samsung 3D NAND

Posted on April 1, 2015 by - News

edefectoSearch engine Google is rumoured to be signing up for Samsung’s 3D NAND in its data centres in a move which is similar to its rival’s Amazon. 

Samsung’s 3D NAND is currently used in Kaminario K2 all-flash arrays and is being tipped for MacBooks.

Neither Google nor Samsung have commented but if it pans out then it means that stacking 32 layers of planar 2D NAND built using 39-30nm-class cell geometry in a die, is the way forward. It also means that Samsung must have a better price and performance advantage over other flash fabricators.

Samsung’s 3D NAND is generally available while its rivals are still at the sampling stage with GA late this year or in 2016. SanDisk is sampling a 48-layer chip, but Samsung is expected to match that soon.

Since it has signed big supply deals with Amazon, Apple and Google, Samsung clearly has its foot in the door. It also means that these big data centre operators will be buying less planar NAND than otherwise from the other flash suppliers.