Nokia, HTC, Motorola and more take to Twitter to rain on Apple’s big day

Not everyone was all that happy to let Apple have its day in the spotlight and leave it at that. Of course, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that competing companies would take to Twitter to try to draw a bit of attention away from Apple and its iPhone announcements. Some worked well, some didn’t, and some were just odd, so let’s round up the most notable.

Our favorite was likely Nokia, but that’s mostly because we freaking loveBreaking Bad, and we definitely agree that “Real gangsters don’t use gold phones.” Motorola used the time to simply link to its recently released “Lazy Phone” ads with TJ Miller. The official Windows Phone Twitter account went the GIF route to show off the Lumia 1020 camera. Then, there was Denny’s which you certainly wouldn’t expect, but that was definitely a good one.

HTC bombed the day, in our opinion. HTC didn’t have any images prepared, and didn’t even seem to have a good writing team on the job, so rather than pithy, it just came off as mean-spirited. Oh well. They can’t all be winners.

Android dominates smartphones in Q3 2012, Samsung widens its sales lead

Android continues expanding its dominance of the smartphone market, Samsung keeps on increasing its lead as the biggest smartphone maker and Nokia slips catastrophically in Q3 2012. That is a quick summary of what happened in the third quarter of 2012, according to the latest numbers by Gartner.

The analytics company concludes that while overall phone sales dropped slightly, smartphone sales are growing rapidly rising by 46.9% in Q3 2012.

Samsung cemented its position as the most prolific phone manufacturer selling nearly 98 million devices in the quarter.

Apple could get $6 to $8 for every smartphone HTC sells

A new 10 year patent licensing deal came in effect two days ago between Apple and HTC. However details on what the benefits for either side might be weren’t given at the time.

Shaw Wu, analyst at Sterne Agee, reckons Apple could be generating between $6 and $8 per sold HTC smartphone, which when put together with the shipment estimate of 30 to 35 million HTC devices in 2013 could mean anywhere between $180 and $280 million going Apple’s way.

HTC and Apple end their patent feud with a “global settlement”

In a rather surprising fashion, Apple and HTC have settled their patent disputes. The two companies have reached a “global settlement” with confidential terms, which dismisses all their current lawsuits. The agreement includes all current and future patents held by the two giants and will extend over the next ten years.

Naturally, both companies’ CEOs issued a statement on the matter. Here’s what Peter Chou from HTC had to say:

Samsung sold twice as many smartphones as Apple in Q3, Nokia falls out of top five smartphone makers

Samsung sold 56.3 million smartphones in the third quarter of 2012, more than any other company and twice as many as its nearest competitor Apple, according to latest research by IDC. The two companies combined sold nearly a half of the total 179.7 million smartphones in the quarter.

As Samsung grew sales, though, the smartphone top 5 changed a lot and for the first time in years Nokia is not in it. The Finnish manufacturer, known for basically creating the smartphone, sold only 6.3 million smartphones.That is less than RIM, less than ZTE and less than HTC.

There are now over 1 billion smartphone users on the planet

In Q3 of 2012, a pretty significant milestone has been reached, according to a study by the research experts at Strategy Analytics. It is estimated that the total number of smartphone owners worldwide has surpassed the 1 billion mark for the first time ever since smartphones came to be back in 1996. In comparison, the figure stood at 0.7 billion at the end of Q3, 2011. That’s huge!

Think of it this way: one in seven people around the globe have some kind of a smartphone, be it an iPhone, an Android handset, a Symbian device, or any kind of phone worthy of being called smart. But what’s even more exciting is that the numbers are to go higher at an even more ridiculous pace, if the research is correct.

Mobile Choice Consumers Award 2012: Samsung Galaxy S III best smartphone, Apple iPad best tablet

The 2012 Mobile Choice Awards have just taken place in London and the results are in – with Samsung’s Galaxy S III coming out on top as Best Smartphone of 2012. Despite its main competitor – the iPhone 5 – enjoying a great deal of early success and record sales figures, it is the Korean company’s quad-core effort which came out on top this time around.

It’s key to note, however, that the iPhone 5 wasn’t actually included in the competition but the iPhone 4S, so while this is something to cherish from Samsung’s point of view, many will wonder how the competition might have gone if the results were coming in later this year, and inclusive of the Cupertino company’s flagship.

The best of upcoming Android smartphones in India

It has been over a fortnight since the conclusion of IFA Trade fair. We saw quite a few new Android device announcements at the event and the first devices from IFA should be landing in the country very soon. We have put together a list of some of the best Android smartphones that are going to be launched in India in the coming weeks.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2

It isn’t your typical smartphone. Samsung had carved a new product category “phablets” with the launch of original Note and we are going to see its successor. Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is already up for pre-booking on Samsung’s official e-store and Snapdeal.According to our sources and the product listing on Snapdeal, it will become available in the first week of October, while the actual India launch will be happening on September 27^th.

Nokia slams HTC’s Windows Phone 8 announcement, calls it a ‘tactical re-branding’

HTC has just unveiled two new Windows Phone 8 devices today (the 8X and 8S), making them the signature phones for Microsoft. We asked Nokia about today’s announcements and the company’s head of marketing, Chris Weber, has responded to HTC’s move by claiming the announcement is “good news for the Windows Phone ecosystem.” However, Weber says that “while others may choose to tactically re-brand their products,” Nokia is building its Lumia franchise exclusively around Windows Phone.

 

Windows Phone 8X by HTC: 4.3-inch 720p display, LTE, dual-core S4, available this November

HTC’s event is underway and we just got to see the company’s first two Windows Phone 8 handsets, with the HTC Windows Phone 8X being the flagship.

Unlike the Titan, the HTC Windows Phone 8X is rather compact with its 4.3″ 720p screen. It measures 132.4 x 66.2 x 10.1mm and weighs 130g. The HTC Windows Phone 8X (now that’s a mouthful) uses a polycarbonate unibody, similar to that of the One X.

  
HTC Windows Phone 8X

Going back to the screen, it’s a Super LCD 2 unit with Gorilla Glass 2 protection and it’s laminated to reduce glare.

The HTC Windows Phone 8X is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset with two Krait cores clocked at 1.5GHz, Adreno 225 GPU and 1GB of RAM. It runs Microsoft’s latest phone OS, Windows Phone 8 (as the name quite clearly indicates).