Samsung has reported record Q4 2012 profits largely thanks to very strong sales of its smartphone range, which cements its position as the number one mobile manufacturer in the world.

Only this year Samsung surpassed Apple as the biggest provider of smartphones in the world, which is all the more impressive when you consider that Samsung has been in the Mobile arena a very short time. Mobile phones are now the technology company's biggest source of revenue.

Results for Q4 came out at 5.2 trillion won, up 73 percent from the same time last year, whilst total profits for 2011 ended at a whopping 16.2 trillion won.

Recent results for Samsung sales stands 27.8 million smartphones sold compared to at Apple who shifted 17.1 million devices globally in the same quarter. This currently gives Apple a 14.6 per cent market share, while Samsung whilst Samsung is well in the lead with 23.8 per cent of the market.

The impact of the iPhone 4S has yet to be realised however, and sales between the two companies can appear swewed as Apple generally only releases one handet a year compared to Samsung's plethora.

And this trend is set to continue with Samsung shipping around 35 million units in the fourth quarter it's expecting very decent sales despite the recession. The battle will no doubt continue between Apple and Samsung, and not just on the basis of who can produce and sell the most devices, as the courts are coming into play to decide patent disputes with 2011 seeing around 30 lawsuits.

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Tags: Phones Samsung Results Biz

Samsung smartphones pave way to record Q4 results originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:59:00 +0000

Research In Motion, the company behind the BlackBerry smartphones, has confirmed that its next generation of smartphones running the new recently announced BB10 operating system, won't be with us until the end of 2012.?

Blaming availability of the processors that it needs to power the new operating system the new phones that are based on the new QNX powered operating system already seen in the BlackBerry PlayBook, it spells the beginning of a tough 12 months ahead for the Canadian company.?

"We now expect our first BlackBerry 10 smartphone to come to market in the latter part of calendar 2012," confirmed Lazaridis.?

Research In Motion's latest results are a mixed a bag on the whole. On the one hand profits have dropped by 27 per cent and the company is forecasting that it will only sell 11 - 12 million smartphones over its usually strong Christmas period.

On the plus side though, revenue is up 24 per cent from the last quarter, subscribers are up 35 per cent year-on-year to 75 million,?and the founding duo, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, have agreed to forgo their salaries, estimated to top $1 million each per year, instead taking just $1.

During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 14.1 million BlackBerry smartphones and approximately 150,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.

Lazaridis admitted that the company was working out how RIM can recover from the most "trying" quarter in the company's history.?That trying history involved a global outage, as well as, being linked to the London riots.?

That recovery will start with making sure the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 makes its revised February launch says the co-CEO.

Until the new BB10 smartphone become available the company's latest BB7 handsets are the only hope for the company in the next 12 months.?

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Tags: Phones Tablets RIM BlackBerry Results Biz

BB10 smartphones delayed until late 2012, RIM details tough times ahead originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:01:00 +0000