Samsung has reported its earnings for Q1 2018, in which the company has made operating profit of 15.64 trillion won ($14.4 billion), up 58% YoY for the January-March 2018 period. This is a fourth straight record profit, and new all-time high quarterly profit, due to strong sales in Semiconductor Business and the early global launch of the Galaxy S9.
It reported revenue of 60.56 trillion won, an increase of 19.8% from 50.55 trillion won last year and net profit of 11.69 trillion won, a 52.2% increase from 7.68 trillion won for the same period a year earlier.
IM sector that includes Mobile Communications and Networks Businesses posted 28.45 trillion won consolidated revenue and 3.77 trillion won operating profit for the quarter, up 82% compared to 2.07 trillion won in the same quarter last year.
Regarding the shipments and the expectations in mobile sector, Samsung said:
While overall market demand for smartphones and tablets declined during weak seasonality, Samsung’s smartphone shipments increased QoQ due to an early release of the Galaxy S9 and S9+ as well as solid sales of the Galaxy S8. As a result of increased sales, mainly driven by premium models, revenue and profit significantly increased both QoQ and YoY. Earnings for the ...
Samsung has reported its earnings for Q1 2018, in which the company has made operating profit of 15.64 trillion won ($14.4 billion), up 58% YoY for the January-March 2018 period. This is a fourth straight record profit, and new all-time high quarterly profit, due to strong sales in Semiconductor Business and the early global launch of the Galaxy S9.
It reported revenue of 60.56 trillion won, an increase of 19.8% from 50.55 trillion won last year and net profit of 11.69 trillion won, a 52.2% increase from 7.68 trillion won for the same period a year earlier.
IM sector that includes Mobile Communications and Networks Businesses posted 28.45 trillion won consolidated revenue and 3.77 trillion won operating profit for the quarter, up 82% compared to 2.07 trillion won in the same quarter last year.
Regarding the shipments and the expectations in mobile sector, Samsung said:
While overall market demand for smartphones and tablets declined during weak seasonality, Samsung’s smartphone shipments increased QoQ due to an early release of the Galaxy S9 and S9+ as well as solid sales of the Galaxy S8. As a result of increased sales, mainly driven by premium models, revenue and profit significantly increased both QoQ and YoY. Earnings for the ...
Xiaomi announced MIUI 9 back in July 2017 in an event in China that brought various new features including Split Screen, Smart app launcher, Universal Image search, Notifications Filter, Smart Assistant and more. Later, in November 2017, the company announced Global version of MIUI 9 with New Gallery App, Calendar Cards, New Notification Shade, App Vault, Mi Video App, New Mi Explorer and Mi Drop.
Earlier this year, the company’s co-founder and vice president Hong Feng confirmed that company has started development of next iteration of MIUI, and it will be called MIUI 10 (not X). With MIUI 10, company’s focus will be on improving user experience using AI and Machine learning algorithms. In the same event, it was mentioned that company will remain focused on MIUI 9 development. Yesterday, MIUI forum Admins posted announcement related to MIUI China ROM and said that company is suspending MIUI 9 Beta ROM updates for some time. The post says,
To achieve better system stability and optimization, MIUI will release the last Development/Alpha ROM 8.4.26 on 27th April 2018. Thereafter, MIUI developers will focus on system optimization, which will continue for a period of time. It's expected that the update will be resumed in June ...
LG Electronics has reported revenues of 15.12 trillion won (US$ 14.1 billion) for the first quarter that ended March 31, 2018, which is up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. It has posted profits of 1.11 trillion won (US$ 1.03 billion), up 20% YoY, highest first-quarter profit and revenue in company history and the highest quarterly profitability since the second quarter of 2009.
The LG Home Appliance & Air Solution Company and the LG Home Entertainment Company reported their largest quarterly operating profit ever with each recording double-digit operation margins.
Mobile Communications sector reported a revenue of 2.16 trillion won (US$ 2.01 billion), down 26% QoQ and 27.7% YoY due to revised smartphone launch strategy. The sector posted a operating loss of 136.1 billion won (US$ 126.85 million), compared to loss of 0.1 billion won a year ago, but it is less 36% compared to previous quarter, despite component price increases, by continuing to improve its business structure.
It shipped 11.4 million smartphones in the quarter, down 18% QoQ, and 23% YoY. While the global smartphone market is forecast to experience stagnant growth and more intense competition in the second quarter, LG expects to see positive results with the launch of the LG G7 ...
OPPO launched the A83 earlier this year. Today it has launched OPPO A83 (2018), an upgraded version with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. Other specifications are same, including the 5.7 HD+ full-screen 2.5D curved glass display, MediaTek Helio P23 SoC with 3GB RAM, 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with support for A.I beauty technology that scan 200 facial recognition spots to beautify a selfie shot perfectly as well as face unlock to unlock the phone quickly.
It has dedicated dual SIM slots and microSD slots and packs a 3180mAh battery. It doesn’t have a fingerprint sensor.
OPPO A83 (2018) specifications
5.7-inch (1440 × 720 pixels) 18:9 HD+ full-screen 2.5D curved glass display
2.5GHz Octa-Core MediaTek Helio P23 16nm processor with 800MHz ARM Mali G71 MP2 GPU
4GB RAM, 64GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD
Android 7.1 (Nougat) with ColorOS 3.2
Dual SIM
13MP rear camera with LED flash, f/2.2 aperture
8MP front-facing camera, f/2.2 aperture
Dimensions:150.5 × 73.1 × 7.7mm; Weight: 143g
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS
3180mAh (typical) / 3090mAh (minimum) battery
The OPPO A83 (2018) comes in Red, Blue and Golden colors, is priced at 15,990, is ...
Gionee has launched F205 and S11 Lite, the company's latest smartphones in India. Both these were unveiled back in November last year and have 5.45-inch and 5.7-inch HD+ FullView displays with 18:9 aspect ratio, respectively. The S11 Lite has 82.2% screen-to-body ratio, comes with 13MP + 2MP dual rear cameras with portrait mode that blurs the background. It also has 16MP selfie camera with Bokeh Selfie mode, enhanced face beauty and more.
The F205 has uni-body design, 2.5D Arc edge screen with Corning Gorilla Glass protection and triple card slot that can accommodate two Nano SIM card and 1 Micro SD card, which is expandable up to 256GB.
Gionee F205 specifications
5.45-inch (1440 x 720 pixels) HD+ 18:9 FullView 2.5D curved glass display, Corning Gorilla Glass protection
1.5GHz Quad-Core MediaTek MT6739 64-bit processor with PowerVR Rogue GE8100 GPU
2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD
Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) with Amigo OS 5.0
Dual SIM
8MP rear camera with LED flash
5MP front-facing camera
Dimensions: 148.4x70.7x7.95mm; Weight: 135.6g
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS
2670mAh battery
Gionee S11 Lite specifications
5.7-inch (1440 x 720 pixels) HD+ 18:9 FullView 2.5D curved glass display, 82.2% screen-to-body ratio
1.4GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 430 Mobile Platform ...
Motorola's Z series is due for an update and the company's Z3 Play smartphone has hit the headlines a lot recently but most of it was restricted to concept images that are based on known dimensions, features and design traits. However, today we are having our first official clean look at the Moto Z3 Play.
The image does showcase the phone in its full glory including the front and rear of the phone in detail. Interestingly the fingerprint sensor which we are used to seeing on front embedded into the home button is now being moved to the side and the front now packs a tall 18:9 bezel-less design. The phone is expected to pack a 6.1-inches FHD+ display in-line with the recently launched flagships.
The rear of the phone packs a glass design and like always packs a camera protrusion where the dual-rear cameras rest and Moto dimple. Since Z-series is famously known for its modularity, the Z3 Play also comes with 16-pin connector down below the camera module. While the latest leak doesn't reveal any specifications, previous rumors suggested a 12-megapixel and 8-megapixel cameras.
Another design change over the Z2 Play is that the Z3 Play might not have a 3.5mm audio jack. The ...
Samsung has launched Galaxy J2 (2018) (SM-J250F), a new smartphone in India. It was introduced back in December last year, packs a 5-inch qHD Super AMOLED display, is powered by Snapdragon 425 SoC with 2GB RAM, runs Android 7.1 (Nougat), has a 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 5-megapixel front camera that also comes with a flash.
The phone has a new design on the back with polycarbonate finish, but it has a familiar design on the front with a home button with capacitive touch buttons on either sides. It packs a 2600mAh battery
It also comes with Samsung Mall, that was introduced with Galaxy On7 Prime earlier this year. This lets users shop by clicking a picture of the desired product and automatically getting results for the item across popular e-commerce platforms.
Samsung Galaxy J2 (2018) specifications
5-inch (960 × 540 pixels) qHD Super AMOLED display
1.4GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 425 Mobile Platform with Adreno 308 GPU
2GB RAM, 16GB Internal Storage, expandable memory up to 256GB via micro SD card
Android 7.1 (Nougat)
Dual SIM
8MP rear camera with LED flash
5MP front camera with LED flash
Dimensions: 143.8mm x 72.3mm x 8.4mm; Weight: 153g
4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS
2600mAh battery
The Samsung Galaxy J2 ...
While most of the company are gearing up to launch more and more Android Oreo (Go Edition) smartphone, looks like Samsung too is joining the race. The Samsung Galaxy J2 might be the first Android Oreo (Go Edition), and the device has now surfaced in Geekbench benchmarks.
Android Oreo (Go Edition) is an iteration of Android 8.0 that is specially designed for entry-level devices with low-RAM. Google has even launched Go specific apps including the Files Go, Gboard Go, Maps Go, YouTube Go. Facebook and Twitter have also launched their lite version apps that will work on low-cost phones.
As for the Samsung's Android Oreo (Go Edition) phone, it comes with a model number SM-J260G indicating that it might the Galaxy J2. It comes with 1GB of RAM, coupled with Android 8.1. The chipset appears to be an optimized version of the Exynos 7570 clocked at 1.43GHz. The benchmark listing says “Universal7570_Go,” which is yet another indication of this device’s Android Go credentials.
Since these are just Geekbench benchmarks listing, we are not sure about the authenticity of it unless the company officially announces it.
Source | Via
Qualcomm made it evident that it is aiming to ease licensing terms in order to strike deals at its earnings call on Wednesday. The chipset maker posted quarterly profit and revenue that topped Wall Street forecasts, which suggests that the company's slowdown in the global smartphone business might be less severe.
Qualcomm's other line of business includes licensing patents that are essential for smartphones to work and this has traditionally driven most of its profits. However, this business has dropped sharply over the past year, as revenue most of which is attributed to Apple's iPhones withheld amid a legal dispute.
Qualcomm now made it evident that it is prepared to accept lower revenue in exchange for maintaining the business structure and avoiding future customer disputes. Qualcomm calculated the percentage of the selling price of a smartphone and this so-called model had been the center of regulatory disputes in China, Korea an, the United States and also in its disputes with Apple.
However, during the earnings call, Qualcomm said it would cap the phone price which is the basis of the revenue calculation at $400. More expensive phones, which can sell for $1,000, would still be treated as $400 for the Qualcomm license fee. This move comes after Qualcomm ...
Google India has hosted a four-day workshop which is a mentorship boot camp for around ten Indian startups this week. This initiative was launched last year and was initially aimed at an India-only pilot for mentorship and engagement by Google Developers Launchpad team.
The ‘Solve for India’ mainly focuses on bringing the best of Google expertise across product, UX/UI and latest technologies including machine learning and AI that will help the emerging startups who are focusing on building solutions that serve's needs of India.
At the Boot camp, founders and teams of the ten startups spent four days in one-on-one consults with experts from Google and external mentors from the industry with a goal to solve the critical product and growth challenges of the startups. The ten startups that participated in the first boot camp include Nebulaa, Slang Labs, PregBuddy, LegalDesk, PaySack, Vokal, FarMart, Meesho, Pratilipi, and M-Indicator.
Speaking about the initiative, Karthik Padmanabhan, Developer Relations Lead, Google India said:
In the last few years, we have seen the growth in entrepreneurial and startup activity that goes beyond the big metros. We’re seeing a whole new generation of entrepreneurs and founders who’re innovating to solve for real challenges across Agriculture, Healthcare, Environment, Retail, Education, MicroFinance and the Indian language web. ...
Earlier this month LG opened first-of-its kind Software Upgrade Center in South Korea, aimed at providing customers worldwide with faster, timelier, smartphone operating system and software updates. At that time it promised Android Oreo update for the LG G6 later this month starting in Korea. Now the company has confirmed that the update will roll out starting from April 30th.
Android Oreo brings a lot of new features and improvements including Background limits, Notification channels, snooze notifications, Autofill APIs, Picture in Picture (PIP) display, Adaptive icons, Support for high-quality Bluetooth audio codecs such as LDAC codec, Companion device pairing, Keyboard navigation and much more. You can check out the complete list of features here.
LG said that it is also planning to add AI features to the G6 that was introduced with the V30 ThinQ. The upgrade will be available both as OTA and through LG Bridge software. LG also confirmed that the LG V20 and LG G5 will be the next set of devices that will get the Oreo update. The company has not revealed details about global roll out yet, but it expected sometime in May.
Source
Apple's entry-level 6.1-inch iPhone has been in the news for quite some time and today, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is back again with yet another research note where he claims that the 6.1-inch iPhone 2018 will skip 3D touch and have strong impact-resistant glass.
Furthermore, the phone is said to have what he calls "Cover Glass Sensor" (CGS) technology relocating the iPhone's touch module from the display panel (in-cell technology) to the surface glass. The CGS results in a display that is lighter and more shock resistant. In addition to CGS, Apple will also add a thin-film sensor to the touch film sensor that will be included in the CGS. However, the purpose the thin-film layer is unknown.
This will most definitely see a 15% increase in the cost of the touch panel, resulting in a higher purchase price of $23 to $26. To compensate the high-cost, KGI says that he believes Apple might remove the 3D Touch functionality on the 6.1-inch iPhone. This is an interesting development considering Apple's 3D touch functionality is well integrated into the OS at this point.
The other two iPhone models that are said to launch in 2018 along with 6.1 are the 5.8-inch OLED iPhone X successor and the 6.5-inch OLED ...
Google is rolling out a new functionality to GSuite business users. If your organization uses SAML to sign into G Suite services, Google will now show additional steps in the process. Starting 7th May, Google will now show a new screen on accounts.google.com to confirm users' identity.
This additional layer is to ensure better security and help prevent users from unknowingly signing in to an account created and controlled by an attacker. This screen will only be shown once per account per device, and it also said that it is working on ways to make the feature even more context-aware in the future.
Google says that this additional screen is to ensure that the user is not signing into phishing campaign or clicking a link that would instantly and silently sign them into a Google Account the attacker controls. This also falls in-line with Google's part of a larger project to create a consistent identity across Google web services and native Chrome browser services.
Google is also giving the ability to disable this feature; you can use the X-GoogApps-AllowedDomains HTTP header to identify specific domains whose users can access Google services. Users in those domains won’t see this additional screen, and this header can be set in the Chrome.
Source
Apple today has announced that it has officially ended development of its AirPort line of products which includes AirPort Express, the AirPort Extreme, and the AirPort Time Capsule. Apple has not updated its AirPort products since 2012 (Express) and 2013 (Extreme and Time Capsule) and in late 2016.
The current AirPort engineers are being reassigned to other products. Apple with an aim to focus more on the products that generate the bulk of its revenue has reportedly started shutting down its AirPort unit in early 2016. The company has started selling third-party routers including Linksys Velop Mesh Wi-Fi System since January of 2018 following the news that Apple had shuttered the AirPort unit.
Apple's AirPort offered unique benefits like built-in Time Machine backup support in the Time Capsule and AirPlay functionality for the AirPort Express and some of these features are not available through third-party. Apple will be providing service and parts for current generation AirPort Base Stations for the next five years. The company has shared support-documents to assist customers who are shifting to alternatives.
However, Apple will continue to sell the three AirPort products online and in its retail stores until available supplies are exhausted and no price drop is seen as of now.
Apple Spokesperson said:
We're discontinuing the Apple AirPort base station ...
Microsoft today released its earnings report for FY18 Q3. It as recorded a $26.8 billion revenue which is 16% up compared to same time last year. The company reported a $7.4 billion in net income with 35% YOY increase compared to the $5.5 billion in net income in 2017.
The company's diluted earnings per share was $0.95 which is an increase of 36%, and the operating income was $8.3 billion with an increase of 23% YoY. This quarter witnessed growth in Microsoft's cloud and commercial services. Office related consumer products and cloud services surge 12%, LinkedIn shows a 37% increase in revenue.
On the other hand, server products and cloud services revenue which are a part of the Microsoft's Intelligent Cloud business grew 20%. Windows OEM revenue increased 4%, Surface increased 32%, gaming surged 18%. Search advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 16%, and this is driven by higher revenue per search and search volume.
Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft, said:
Our results this quarter reflect the trust people and organizations are placing in the Microsoft Cloud. We are innovating across key growth categories of infrastructure, AI, productivity, and business applications to deliver differentiated value to customers.
Source
Samsung is gearing up to launch the Galaxy A6 and Galaxy A6+ smartphones. Earlier this week we have seen the press images of the A6+ surfacing on the internet, and today the device is back again, but this time it surfaces in live images. Falling in-line with the earlier rumors and leaks, it packs a unibody metal design, dual rear cameras, rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.
Furthermore, there is a dedicated dual SIM and microSD slots on the left, loudspeaker grill on the right and front flash. In terms of specifications, the A6+ is said to sport a 6-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED 18:9 display, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 Octa-Core SoC, even though earlier rumors said it would be Samsung Exynos 7870. It is said to pack 4GB RAM, 32 or 64 GB of internal storage and Android 8.0 Oreo with Experience 9.0 on top.
Since the phone looks like it has completed most of the required formalities before it goes official, Samsung might not take long before it officially introduces the phone to the world. The A6 and A6+ will be launched in Europe, Russia and the Middle East initially and might expand to other markets. We are yet to learn details about cameras, ...
OPPO has announced A3, the company's latest mid-range smartphone in China, as rumored. This has a similar 6.23-inch Full HD+19:9 aspect ratio display with 88% screen-to-body ratio, is powered by MediaTek Helio P60 with up to 6GB RAM, runs on ColorOS 5.0 based on Android 8.1 (Oreo) and has a 16-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, as the F7, but this has an 8-megapixel front camera instead of 25-megapixel front camera on the F7.
It has multi-layered metallic and glass back cover that replicates a diamond-like glow and light refractions, with triangular-cut patterns that shimmer bright and dark shades when seen from different angles. It doesn't have a fingerprint sensor, but has face unlock that can unlock the phone in just 0.08 seconds.
OPPO A3 specifications
6.2-inch (2280 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 19:9 IPS display
Octa Core MediaTek Helio P60 (MT6771) 12nm processor (Quad 2GHz Cortex A73 + Quad 2GHz Cortex A53 CPUs) with 800MHz ARM Mali-G72 MP3 GPU
4GB RAM, 128GB storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD
Dual SIM
ColorOS 5.0 based on Android 8.1 (Oreo)
16MP rear camera with LED flash
8MP front-facing camera
3.5mm audio jack, Dirac HD
Dimensions: 156×75.3×7.8mm ; Weight: 159g
4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz ...
Earlier this week there were rumors that Nokia X or X6 will be announced on April 27th, which is today. The company after the event in Sanlitun experience store in Beijing confirmed that the phone will officially introduced on May 16th. It has also shared the official image of the phone with a notch and an 19:9 aspect ratio display. Unlike the earlier renders, the Nokia branding is in the middle of the bottom bezel.
The company did not confirm the specifications of the phone. The phone is rumored to feature a 5.8-inch 19:9 aspect ratio display and is powered by Snapdragon 636 or MediaTek Helio P60 SoC. It has dual rear cameras, which is said to come with ZEISS dual camera. There is also a fingerprint sensor one the back and the phone runs Android Oreo.
The phone will be showcased at the Sanlitun experience store from today, April 27 till May 2nd. Someone will probably find out the detailed specifications of the phone during this time, before it goes official on May 16th.
Source 1, 2
Apple introduced special edition (Product) Red iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus smartphones earlier this month and said that they will go on sale in India in May. Now these new phones are already available from through Apple Authorised Resellers in the the country, few days before announced date and are also available for pre-order from Flipkart that ships from April 30th.
The new Product (RED) iPhone features red glass enclosure, matching aluminum band and sleek black front. The new (PRODUCT) RED iPhone X Leather Folio is also available for purchase. It has been crafted from specially tanned and finished European leather for a luxurious look and feel.
To remind you, the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus have 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch Retina HD displays, new glass and aluminum design, new A11 Bionic chip tuned for augmented reality experience, feature water and dust resistant (IP67) body and have support for Qi wireless charging as well as support for fast charging that can charge the phone up to 50% in 30 minutes.
Pricing
Apple iPhone 8 Red 64GB - Rs. 67,940
Apple iPhone 8 Red 256GB - Rs. 81,500
Apple iPhone 8 Plus Red 64GB - Rs. 77,560
Apple iPhone 8 Plus Red 256GB - Rs. ...
LG is said to be working on a new wearable dubbed LG Watch Timepiece which is a hybrid smartwatch and will run on Google's Wear OS. Since it is a hybrid smartwatch it won't be a straight-up smartwatch, instead, it will have a mechanical clock setup alongside the smart functions.
The LG Watch Timepiece is said to come with Qualcomm Snapdragon 2100 chipset and has 4GB of eMMC storage and 768 MB of RAM. It is said to sport a 1.2-inches 360x360 LCD screen. As for connectivity features; it is expected to have Wi-Fi 802.11n, and Bluetooth 4.2 will be on board, but no cellular data support. It boasts a stainless steel body and IP68 water and dust-resistance certification.
It is said to come with 240mAh battery and once it drains the 240 mAh battery, the device will still be able to continue tracking time at least for upto hundred hours, or roughly upto four days. The Watch screen can display watch faces and complications you can install from the Google Play Store. It is said to measure 45.5 x 45.4 x 12.9 mm in size. It is said that the company will be shipping the wearable with a 22 mm silicone rubber strap and should also get the ability to swap with ...
