It’s something that many have predicted but nobody thought would happen anytime soon. According to IDC, sales of smartphones have surpassed that of feature phones in the first quarter. Samsung is leading the race, with Apple, LG, Huawei and ZTE in the top 5.

Samsung’s shipments increased 60.7 percent to reach 70.7 million smartphones and that has helped the South Korean company to get 32.7% of the market share. Apple’s iPhone 5 helped the Mac maker to grow 6.6% to 37.4 million handsets, but their market share dropped to 17.3% from 23%.

Samsung certainly has gained by flooding the market with cheaper Android devices. And the variety of hardware configurations they bring out is an answer just about anyone’s needs (rugged S4 anyone?).

In the third spot is LG, with the Google Nexus 4 among the company’s most popular handsets. The company has 4.8 percent of the market. But where is Nokia, which until last year was a global leader for 14 years? Although their Lumia shipments have grown, that hasn’t helped them with market share. Nokia and BlackBerry have been pushed out of the top 5 by Huawei (4.6%) and ZTE (4.2%).

Nokia, as you might know, is very fond of feature phones, but smartphones have taken over the stage. Nokia should evolve and expand its smartphone line if they plan to get back to the top again. Kevin Restivo, IDC senior research analyst, says, “Phone users want computers in their pockets. The days where phones are used primarily to make phone calls and send text messages are quickly fading away. As a result, the balance of smartphone power has shifted to phone makers that are most dependent on smartphones“.

[Source]

The post Samsung Leading The Smartphone Race, As BlackBerry and Nokia Fall Behind appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Looking for a great way to protect your iPhone 5? There are tons of cases out there that can protect your iPhone 5 from scratching or scuffing but many of them largely look the same. If you want something a bit “different”, you might want to check out these new limited edition Star Wars cases.

The new cases are available via Firebox, or at least they will be. Right now they are up for Pre-Order and will set you back $30.49.

There are four unique variants themed around Chewbacca, Darth Vader, R2-D2 and C-3PO. You certainly will stand out if your phone has this case, that much is pretty much guaranteed.

These cases might not be for everyone but if you are a fellow Star Wars geek like myself, you might find these are the droids cases you are looking for.

Source: Firebox
Via: Ubergizmo 

The post Looking For A Unique Case for Your iPhone 5? Check Out These Special Star Wars Cases appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Do you feel that your iPhone 5 just isn’t fancy enough for you? Don’t worry, there is a cure for that. You could always spend $15 million to have diamonds adorn the entirety of the phone, even going so far as to replace the home button with a giant 26 carat black diamond.

If that sounds crazy, well it actually has happened. Apparently a Hong Kong businessman commissioned the project to turn his phone into diamond-bedazzled work of art. Beyond the 26 carat black diamond, there are also 600 white diamonds on the phone, with the entire ‘design’ being made by British Designer Stuart Hughes.

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable carrying a $15 million dollar phone around in my pocket. Maybe that’s just me. Still, you have to admit that it certainly looks pretty damn stunning, if not a little too gaudy.

[ source ]

The post Custom Diamond Encrusted iPhone 5 Valued at Around $15 Million appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

T-Mobile customers can now finally start pre-ordering Apple’s iPhone today. In line with its new ‘uncarrier’ initiative, you won’t have to sign a traditional contract to get your hands on the phone.

T-Mobile’s iPhone 5 will set you back $579 up front. That’s a lot of cheddar, and T-Mobile understands that not everyone will be able to swing this cost outright. As an alternative, you can always choose to pay $99 down and make 24 payments of $20 to T-Mobile.

As far as plans are concerned, the iPhone 5 will work with the new $50 Simple Choice plan, which includes unlimited talk, text and 500MB of data. Additional options include boosting the data to 2GB for $10 more, or getting unlimited 4G data for just $20 extra.

For those wondering, if you decide to cancel with T-Mobile before your iPhone payments are finished, the phone will be carrier locked until you either trade it back in or pay off the balance on your account.

What do you think of T-Mobiles new approach, additionally any T-Mobile customers interested in getting their hands on the iPhone?

[ source ]

The post T-Mobile’s iPhone 5 Now Available for Pre-Order appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Smart-phones are always getting thinner, faster and better equipped cameras, but what about batteries? With every process upgrade, and increase in RAM, there is a knock-on effect when it comes to battery life, and when you have a built-in battery like on the iPhone 5 this means carrying a charger and hunting for outlets.

But now there is another way. Mophie have just announced the Juice Pack Air for the iPhone 5 which gives the Apple smart-phone a 1,700mAh back-up battery, which wraps around the phone and doubles as a protective shell.

The Mophie Juice Pack Air adds up to 10-hours of 3G talk-time, boosts audio performance thanks to clever speaker redirection and is available in white, black or red for $100.

[ Source ]

The post Boost your iPhone 5 battery by 1,700mAh with the Mophie Juice Pack Air appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Early on Wednesday morning, Strategy Analytics posted their newest numbers on the world’s smartphone market. Coming out on top, Apple’s iPhone 5 was sold an estimated 27.4 million times worldwide during the fourth quarter of 2012. Out of the 217 million smartphones sold during this period, the iPhone 5 accounted for 13%.

In addition, the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S put together accounted for 1 in every 5 smartphones shipped in Q4 of 2012. These numbers show that Apple still has a pretty good grip on the worldwide smartphone market despite losing overall market share to Android in the past years. With the Galaxy S4 on the way, one can only wonder what these stats will look like come mid-2013.

The iPhone 5 destroyed the Samsung Galaxy S3 in this time frame, which shipped out only 15.4 S3 units during Q4 of 2012. Furthermore, the Galaxy S3 could not even touch the 17.4 million iPhone 4S units sold during Q4. It is crazy to think that the iPhone 4S sold more units in Q4 than it did in Q3, even with the introduction of the iPhone 5.

Despite the incredible number of iPhone 5 sales, Apple stock plummeted from close to 700 points all the way down to below 450 during Q4 of 2012. At the end of Q4 when Apple posted earnings, they were met yet again by disappointment because they did not post “great” earnings.

Are you one of the 27.4 million new iPhone 5 owners? How long do you think that Apple will hold the number 1 spot? Let us know in the comments below.

[ Source ]

The post iPhone 5 Was World’s Best Selling Smartphone in Q4 2012 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

According to a recent survey, Apple’s iPhone 5 comes fifth in customer satisfaction ratings, with the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 coming in in 4th place (the S3 isn’t even in the top 5!), while Motorola took 1st and 2nd places.

The phone which managed to please most U.S phone owners is the Motorola Atrix HD, A phone which is currently available on AT&T at just $49. Across the pond in the UK the HTC One reached the top spot with Apple coming in second, and the last 3 places all going to Samsung phone.

Does it surprise you that the iPhone or Samsung phones aren’t at the top of the smartphone sanctification list?

[ Source ]

The post Most U.S Customers satisfied with Motorola Atrix HD, not iPhone 5 or Galaxy S3 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

This seems to happen every year: low quality pictures get leaked of an upcoming phone, and occasionally we’ll see images of the phone being manufactured. Magically enough, we never actually see the handset in its full glory until it’s official announcement.

The same thing has happened with a Chinese website which has recently uploaded images of what is said to be the iPhone 5S. Of course there aren’t any images of the full phone, however there are pictures of what is allegedly the next generation iPhone in production.

There aren’t very many noticeable differences between what is being shown and the original iPhone 5. The chipset does look slightly different, but other this, I don’t really see any change.

It’s currently unknown what Apple are planning to bring into play this year, and other than the obvious rumors following next gen phones and tablets, rumors have spread about a possible iPhablet and even an Apple smartwatch. Are you interested in the Apple iPhone 5S or not?

[Source]

The post Possible Pictures of iPhone 5S in Production appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The iPhone 5 brings with it a larger display, but also creates a bit of a small annoyance along the way: the black bars for apps that aren’t optimized for its longer display. While the black bars at the top and bottom make using these apps perfectly functional, what if there was another way? There is if you happen to have a jailbroken iPhone 5. The new tweak called FullForce will take apps and stretch them to fill up the display.

The app is made by iOS developer Ryan Petrich and costs just $.99 through the BigBoss repository. According to the app developer, when you launch an unoptimized app you will be presented with a prompt asking if you want to stretch out the app or not.

Unfortunately, stretching isn’t going to work for all kinds of apps. The picture below shows a scenario where it works quite well, but in games and other instances it could great an uglier looking image. What do you think, is it worth a buck to you to have the ability to pick and choose whether to stretch apps or not? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

[ source ]

The post FullForce Stretches iPhone 4/4S Apps to Better Support the iPhone 5 Display appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

This pattern began with the iPhone 3GS, then the iPhone 4S, and now it seems the iPhone 5S, which analysts suspect will launch later this year and will look physically identical to the current iPhone 5. Analysts watching Apple also spotted a trend in the companies performance and spending before the launch of a next generation iPhone, and claim that the signals are pointing to an iPhone 5S rather than all new phone.

With this in mind we can look forward to seeing yet another iPhone-shaped iPhone which will likely receive an improved processor, more RAM, updated camera and possibly a boost in resolution and storage. Are you looking forward to an update to the iPhone 5 or not?

[ Source ]

The post Surprise, Surprise: Next iPhone to Look the Same as Current iPhone 5 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.