Tag: mobile technology

Although the South Korean handset manufacturer had previously lost its crown, it appears to have regained it.

By the end of last year, Samsung had managed to make its way back up the list in smartphone trends by shipping about the same number of handsets as Apple, but the news for the South Korean tech giant has continued to improve according to some of the latest stats.

Samsung has now moved its way back to the top spot for the number of smartphones shipped.

These smartphone trends are based on the number of shipments that the company made during the first quarter of this year. During the first three months of 2015, Samsung shipped 83.2 million mobile phones, which represents an increase over the 74.5 million that it shipped during the last quarter of 2014 when it had pretty much matched Apple’s numbers.

At the same time, these smartphone trends weren’t as favorable for Apple, which saw its shipments fall.

From January through March, iPhone shipments dropped to the level of 61.2 million, putting the company in second place behind Samsung. Both of those companies remain well ahead of the third place manufacturers, which are Lenovo/Motorola. Together, they shipped a much lower 18.8 million smartphones during the same period of time. That said, closely behind those two was Huawei, which managed to send 17.3 million devices out the door of its own warehouse during the first quarter of the year.

This data was presented by Strategy Analytics, which assembled the shipment and market share figures for the top players in the mobile technology industry. According to that firm, Samsung took in a 24.1 percent global smartphone market share. It also placed Apple at 17.7 percent of the worldwide share of the market. Lenovo/Motorola held 5.4 percent and Huawei had a firm grip on 5 percent.

Strategy Analytics also went on to release a range of additional feature phone and smartphone trends figures with regards to their shipments around the globe. That helped to show that Microsoft’s performance in this sector is not nearly as good as what that company had likely been hoping to achieve. After all, the figures revealed that Microsoft had seen a 33 percent drop in its mobile phone shipments in the first quarter of 2015, when compared to the same quarter in 2014.

Swatch to introduce a new wearable device in the coming months

Swiss watchmaker Swatch has plans to sell an affordable wearable device that is capable of making mobile payments. The company has been showing more interest in wearable technology, especially as others begin developing such devices for the consumer market. Swatch is no stranger to wearable technology, as watches are a form of such technology themselves, but the company has not yet build what could be called a “smartphone worn on the wrist.”

New device will have mobile payments capabilities, supported by NFC technology

Swatch is expected to unveil its wearable device in either July or August of this year. The company believes that it will compete with Apple Watch, which was released in April. The device will be called the Swatch New Gent watch and will come equipped with NFC technology. NFC currently makes up much of the mobile payments infrastructure, serving as the tool that many platforms use in order to make mobile transactions possible.

Swatch may compete with Apple with its inexpensive wearable device

One of the attractive features of the new wearable device is its pricing point. Swatch CEO Nick Hayek claims that the least expensive iterations of the new watch will cost approximately $5.49, a far cry from the $349 price tag of the least expensive Apple Watch. More advanced versions of Swatch’s watch will be more expensive, but not by much. The low price of the device could make the watch more attractive to consumers that are interested in wearable technology.

Swatch is forming partnerships to make its efforts in the mobile payments space a success

Swatch claims to be entering into a major deal with a global credit card company to bring its mobile payments interests into a reality. The company is also considering adding NFC capabilities to its other brands, but has not offered any details concerning this plan. The company may soon become a prominent player in the mobile payments space, if its plans with its wearable device move forward without trouble.