It will take a lot to knock the iPhone off its perch as the best-selling smartphone. So, competitors are circling around its success and uniform design with different features, screen sizes and the odd gimmick. This week, a look at new pairings and partnerships that offer consumers more flexibility.
New Nook eReader glows in the dark
Barnes & Noble already produced the best pure eReader for me in the $99 Simple Touch, with its touchscreen, a great display that was never washed out by sunlight and two months of battery life, due to E Ink technology being used for its 6in black-and-white screen.
But with no backlight, it was no good for reading in the dark.
That chapter has been closed with Thursday’s announcement of the Simple Touch with GlowLight, a lighter 7oz version which adds a soft, adjustable glow to the E Ink display.
Tablets bigger than expected – Gartner, Toshiba
Gartner upped its 2012 worldwide tablet sales forecast on Tuesday to 119m units, from the 103m it predicted last September and almost double its final figures for 2011 of 60m units.
The research firm predicted Apple would still dominate with a 61 per cent market share, with Android taking 32 per cent. Toshiba will hope to have some of the latter share, with three new Excite tablets announced on Tuesday, including a supersized 13.3in version.
Nokia’s Lumia 900 needs to succeed
Nokia’s Windows Phone-powered Lumia 900, available today in the US from AT&T, has broad shoulders – which is fortunate because Nokia, Microsoft and AT&T all need this new handset to be a big success.
The Lumia 900 runs on AT&T’s expanding LTE network and boasts a distinctive unibody design with curved side edges, a big 4.3 inch screen and an 8 megapixel digital camera sensor but despite these high-end specs, costs only $99.
Harman’s AKG K495 NC headphones
Noise-cancelling headphones enable consumers to listen to music without the annoyance of background noise such as the drone of traffic on a busy road or the whine of aircraft engines. The three headphones featured here are the latest entrants in an increasingly crowded market for sophisticated noise-cancelling headphones that satisfy audio enthusiasts.
Tivo boosts boxes, lowers subscription
Tivo has lowered the monthly subscription to its DVR service, a move that may be aimed at stemming subscriber losses.
The company dropped its monthly service fee for its machines from $20, with a one-year commitment, to $15. It also raised the price of its entry-level Premiere digital video recorder from $100 to $150 as it increased its capacity from 45 hours of HD video recording to 75.
Apple iPad complaints seem like hot air
Apple must be wondering whether it was worth the improvements, particularly the addition of 4G LTE, to the new version of its iPad.
The extra mobile connectivity has earned the company plenty of criticism, despite it offering the opportunity to enjoy, at least theoretically, 73 megabits-per-second 4G speeds for the same price as the old single-megabit 3G models.
Samsung = half of new iPad cost – IHS
Samsung and Apple may be locked in a smartphone and tablet war and concomitant patent disputes, but the Korean manufacturer may be responsible for more than half the cost in component terms of the new iPad, which went on sale on Friday.
A “teardown” by the IHS iSuppli research firm reveals Samsung is supplying the new Retina high-definition display, its applications processor, the Nand Flash memory in some cases and probably the battery as well.
Apple TV’s sharper image
The new iPad isn’t the only Apple product getting a high-definition makeover on Friday, with a new version of Apple TV also going on sale.
The $99 box (#99 in the UK) has been upgraded from 720p to 1080p “Full HD”, making its movies and photos look better on a big-screen TV.
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