Day: August 4, 2006

Samsung Electronics has recently released the Ultra Edition series consisting of 3 ultra slim models – a candy bar, a slider and a clamshell. Now we have the info that the company is preparing the release of 3 new models of the series. They are expected to appear in December 2006. Besides we have slides of two upcoming phones – the slim clamshell Z620 or Ultra Edition 11.8 and the slider Ultra Edition 13.5. As you can guess the Z620 is 11.8 mm thick. It is designed for 3G networks. The clamshell is packed in magnesium body. The device is equipped with a 2-megapixel camera, a 2.3” QVGA (240×320 pixel) LCD, 138 MB of internal memory and an expansion slot for microSD cards.In addition it supports video telephony. The Ultra Edition 13.5 slider goes under the slogan “Joy, Top of the class”. It is also designed for 3G networks and supports video telephony. It features a 3-megapixel camera with video capture opportunity, 150 MB of internal memory and an expansion slot for microSD cards. It is 13.5 mm thick.

“TOKYO and MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA, August 4, 2006–Toshiba Corporation (Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan) and SanDisk Corporation (Milpitas, CA, USA) today announced that, further to definitive agreements that the companies entered into in July 2006, construction has started of Fab 4, a 300-millimeter (mm) wafer fab, in Yokkaichi, in Mie Prefecture, Japan.The NAND flash memory market is growing fast, on healthy growth in a wide range of digital electronic applications, including MP3 music players, mobile phones and several kinds of memory cards. Toshiba and SanDisk started operation of a state-of-the-art 300-millimeter (mm) wafer fab, Fab 3, in summer 2005, at Yokkaichi Operations, and have boosted the facility’s capacity to meet market demand. Today’s start of construction reflects the need for a new facility, in parallel with expansion of Fab 3, in order to meet anticipated demand for NAND flash memory products in 2008 and beyond. Read the full press release here:

FRAMINGHAM, Mass., August 3, 2006 – The second quarter of 2006 saw the worldwide handheld devices market experience its tenth consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline. According to IDC’s Worldwide Handheld QView, vendors shipped a total of 1.4 million devices, a 26.3% decrease from the same quarter one year ago. For the first half of the year, vendors shipped a total of 2.9 million units, down 21.4% from the 3.7 million units shipped during the first half of 2005. “The past ten quarters have provided a combination of factors that have led to this milestone: the exit of vendors from the handheld market, the shift of vendor focus from handheld devices to converged mobile devices (i.e. smartphones), and the increasing popularity of converged mobile devices overall,” said Ramon Llamas, research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Markets Team. “Looking ahead, we expect additional quarters of decline and a flattening out of shipment activity before a return to growth. In order to do that, vendors must discover more market segments, relevant applications, and improved usability beyond personal information management. The inclusion of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS have kept handheld devices relevant, particularly for core users. However, more applications must be deployed to reach more users and eventually bring about a stabilizing effect to shipment activity.” Vendor Highlights Palm, Inc. Despite posting a year-over-year decline, Palm remained far and away the worldwide market leader of handheld devices with shipments totaling more than the next two vendors combined. In addition to being the leader of handheld devices, Palm has also developed its converged mobile devices, with shipments surpassing its handheld devices. HP. HP remained the clear number 2 vendor of handheld devices worldwide, with double the shipment volume of the number 3 vendor, Dell. Like Palm, HP has been developing its own line of converged mobile devices, but during Q2 HP’s handheld devices still outpaced its converged mobile devices.Dell. Holding steady in the number 3 position was U.S.-based Dell. Over the course of the quarter, Dell continued to tout the Axim X51, having phased out its Axim X30 and X50 products from a year ago. Unlike Palm and HP, Dell has not released a converged mobile device to the market. Mio. Despite posting a year-over-year decrease this quarter, Taiwanese vendor Mio was able to post the smallest year-over-year decrease of the top five vendors, and supplanted Acer for the number 4 position worldwide after trailing by just a thousand units last quarter in the process. Acer. Of the top five vendors, Acer suffered the largest year-over-year decline, but still managed to remain ahead of other vendors to lay claim to the number 5 position worldwide. Acer’s position as the number 5 vendor worldwide is hardly assured, with a number of vendors trailing closely behind. Source: IDC Worldwide Handheld QView, August 3, 2006 Notes: Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors. Handheld devices are pocket-sized, either pen or keypad-centric, and are capable of synchronizing with desktop or laptop computers. Handheld devices are designed to access and manage data including office documents, multimedia, and games. Handheld devices do not include telephony but may include wireless capabilities that enable Internet access and text communication. These devices feature evolved operating systems or applications environments such as the Palm OS, Windows Mobile Pocket PC, Linux, or other proprietary platforms with the ability to download, run applications, and store user data beyond their required PIM capabilities. IDC’s Worldwide Handheld QView provides device vendors, software developers, service providers, and component suppliers with timely and accurate information on the worldwide handheld market. The program provides quarterly measurements of worldwide unit shipments and vendor market shares. For more information about IDC’s Worldwide Handheld QView program, please contact Jonathan Guloyan at 508-935-4296 or jguloyan@idc.com.

“Drowned power button is located on top side, as well as two leds. On the left we can see miniSD slot, soft reset button, headset jack. Unfortunately, only original headset will fit, this means that you will not be able to use your favorite headphones in this one. The headphones that are in the package are very quite, you cannot hear anything while you’re in a subway even if volume is set to maximum. Sound quality is below average. I should also say that headphones act as external antenna for radio and television, but we shall speak more about that in corresponding chapter. miniSD and headset connectors are locked by not very good covers (cork prevents you from connecting headset nicely within first attempt).” Read this nice review here: