Could Samsung lose the smartphone war?

Could Samsung lose the smartphone war?

Jungah Lee

Bloomberg

Samsung Electronics Co. the world’s largest smartphone maker, is heading for its roughest quarter in years amid rising competition from Apple Inc. and China’s Xiaomi Corp.

Analysts have been cutting their profit estimates almost daily, with at least 26 of 42 tracked by Bloomberg reducing their estimates in the past four weeks. Operating profit for the third quarter is projected to plunge 47 percent, while sales are projected to fall 15 percent, according to the average analyst estimates. Both are the steepest declines since at least 2009.

Samsung is fighting to retain its dominance after Apple introduced bigger-screen iPhones and Xiaomi began selling its low-cost devices in more overseas markets. Samsung moved up the release date for its Galaxy Note 4 smartphone to the end of September, meaning device sales will aid third-quarter results.

“We all know Samsung’s third-quarter earnings will be pretty ugly,” Claire Kim, a Seoul-based analyst at Daishin Securities Co., said by phone. “The earlier release of its new phones could be reflected in its third-quarter earnings, it could give them a slight boost.”

Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have screens of 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches, respectively, compared with 4 inches for previous models, and are comparable to the size of Samsung’s devices. Apple said it sold a record number of the new models during their debut weekend last month.

Product release dates are determined based on a range of internal and external factors that affect business operations, Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung said in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg News. The company introduced its Galaxy S series phones in June 2010.

China mobile

Samsung has lost about 17 percent of its market value this year, or approximately $32 billion. Shares fell 1.3 percent to 1,141,000 won on Oct. 2, the most recent day of trading in Seoul.

At the annual IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, Samsung said Sept. 3 the Galaxy Note 4 would be released in October. Apple introduced new iPhone models Sept. 9 and the phones went on sale starting September 19 in select markets.

The Cupertino, California-based company will start selling new iPhones in China on October 17 after the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology granted the smartphones a network access permit, the final step in the approval process.

The Note 4 is available through China Mobile Ltd. for 5,199 yuan ($847). In South Korea, the device is available through the nation’s three mobile carriers for 957,000 won ($901).

Subsidy removed

“Samsung wanted to release the Note 4 in China ahead of Apple to give an earlier splash,” said Greg Roh, a Seoul-based analyst at HMC Investment Securities Co. “Although it’s the very-last minute release in September, it will definitely contribute to its third-quarter earnings.”

Samsung will start global sales of its 5.6-inch Note Edge in the fourth quarter, the company has said. The Edge allows users to read messages, news and stock tickers from an angle by extending the display down the side of the phone.

Samsung and Apple face stiffer competition in the world’s largest market as China Mobile takes steps to eliminate $2 billion in smartphone subsidies, almost doubling the costs of some high-end devices for consumers.

That may benefit manufacturers like Xiaomi that offer cheaper devices packed with high-end features.

“The most important thing for Samsung now is to protect its fast-falling market share, especially in China,” said Daishin Securities’ Kim.

Samsung fell to fourth in Chinese market share in August with 10 percent, behind Lenovo Group Ltd.’s 17 percent, Huawei Technologies Co.’s 16 percent and Xiaomi’s 14 percent, according to Hong Kong-based research firm Counterpoint Technology Market Research Ltd.

Recapture innovation

While the introduction of new smartphones aimed at low- to mid-range markets may help retain market share, it will take the release in 2015 of Samsung’s next marquee device, such as a successor to the Galaxy S5, for earnings to recover, according to analysts.

Operating profit is expected to rise to 6.7 trillion won in the three months ending September 2015, according to analyst estimates.

Recapturing growth would be helped by ensuring Samsung innovates with new technologies that are hard for rivals to imitate, such as the wraparound screen on the Note Edge and the bendable screens it has been working on, said Song Myung Sup, a Seoul-based analyst at HI Investment & Securities Co.

“We can’t really expect good news from Samsung’s mobile business this year,” Song said. “To reverse the current tide, the company should bring out the Galaxy S6 with flexible screens.”

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Kids get new hands made with 3-D printers

Kids get new hands made with 3-D printers

Meredith Cohn

Baltimore Sun 

BALTIMORE — Trauma surgeon Albert Chi gave a talk last year to families about advanced prosthetics that would someday benefit their children who were missing hands.

But when a parent asked what was easy, available and affordable now, Chi was stumped. After focusing on the latest artificial limb technology, he began to hunt for more basic options.

Like many researchers, entrepreneurs and even artists in recent years, he turned to the 3-D printer. With one his wife bought him for Father's Day, sheets of colored plastic, and free designs and advice found online, he made a hand for about $20.

"One of the first kids we fitted was a 2-year-old," Chi said. "We thought the child was too young, but we weren't even able to finish strapping it on, and the kid was picking an object up."

The need for such prosthetics has spawned a network of volunteer designers, medical workers, artists, engineers, parents and 3-D print enthusiasts who have been outfitting children with prosthetics — some with lower-end machines that cost less than $1,000.

That network is hoping to give hands — free of charge — to any interested child. It includes the nonprofit e-NABLE, the largest and perhaps only organization matching kids with printers.

The organization has provided more than 400 kids with printed prosthetics over the past year. In addition, with designs that are free on the e-NABLE's website, families may be printing their own.

The 3-D printed prosthetics are particularly useful for children. They often grow out of prosthetics and can't afford replacements every few months or years. The 3-D versions also can be lighter and easier to wield — and come in their favorite colors.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that four in 10,000 children are born with some congenital hand loss, or about 1,500 a year. That doesn't include those who lose their hands in accidents.

Insurance also doesn't always cover pediatric prosthetics, which cost up to $40,000, said Chi. And children can have trouble adjusting to them.

Griffin Matuszek, who was born without part of his left hand, found his traditional prosthetic mostly useless and a bit scary, said his mother, Quinn Cassidy. So she began researching alternatives.

When someone sent the family a link to Chi's work on 3-D hands, Cassidy's father called the doctor. Griffin's family came from North Bethesda, Md., to Baltimore to get his first printed hand. The 5-year-old requested one that glowed in the dark.

Cassidy said Griffin was drawn to his new hand because he could put it on himself and easily manipulate it with his palm muscles. The traditional prosthetic was tight and covered his forearm.
"He put it on and immediately gave Dr. Chi a high five and then gave everyone in the room a high five," Cassidy said. "He was able to pick up a small ball and throw it with his left hand right away."

Cassidy said the hand made Griffin happy and more confident, and didn't break her bank. The old prosthetic was covered by insurance, but her co-pay was $1,000. She was so grateful to Chi that she pledged to cover the cost of a 3-D printed hand for another child every time Griffin got a new one.

Another recipient was Mike Waldron, 22, a senior political science major, at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

"It gives me many options. I can go kayaking and work on my cars now," said Waldron, who said an electronic prosthetic device could cost as much as $40,000, while the one he received at Hopkins, was in the $45 range. "It's all plastic and the only metal is the screws. The string is 40-pound test fishing line."

John Fielding, a 7-year-old from Arlington, Va., was looking forward to being able to play the guitar one day and ride a bike.

"Now, I can fight my sister," he said, laughing.

The printers work like glue guns, as plastic sheets are fed into the machines and melted. The plastic comes out in layers that eventually look like Lego pieces, fitted together with plastic bolts that also are printed.

Hand parts take up to 10 hours to print and another couple of hours to assemble with elastic cords to keep the hands open. Kids make them grasp by flexing their palms or wrists. Extra cords can be used to strap them on kids with more extensive limb loss.

Chi, a trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, called the effort a "labor of love."
A senior prosthetist at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Brian Giavedoni, said he uses traditional prosthetics but sees a place for 3-D printed hands.
Younger children don't always see a need for a prosthetic and find them cumbersome, as they have found ways to function without a limb or hand, he said. Some don't see the need for both hands for school work and activities until they are teens. And parents often want the most advanced prosthetic, which can be overwhelming.

"If I told you that when you get home tonight you'll need a hammer but you have to carry the hammer all day, you'd reject that, and that's how kids can see it," Giavedoni said. "But I guarantee you at some point they'll want a prosthetic."

Getting younger kids to wear them helps them learn, tone their muscles and prepare them for more advanced equipment down the line, he said. It also could help make the case to insurers that prosthetics are needed.

Printers have been used for other types of prosthetics, but hands designs were more difficult to develop because of the specific movements such prosthetics are required to carry out, designers say.

Hand designs proliferating online can be traced to two men who collaborated online in 2011 from their respective locations in Bellingham, Wash. and South Africa. The South African, Richard Van As, was a carpenter who accidentally severed some fingers. He couldn't afford a prosthetic, so he jury-rigged something but needed help making it more useful.

He found a prototype online, a giant puppet that used metal cables for tendons, and contacted the prop maker Ivan Owen.

After Skyping for some time, Owen flew to South Africa to finish the job. Then a local mother asked for a prosthetic hand for her 5-year-old son, so they made him one too. They eventually replaced the hands with better 3-D printed versions they called Robohands.

They put those designs online for free, hoping others would continue to improve and share them.
A research scientist at the Rochester Institute of Technology, John Schull, later founded e-NABLE to moderate the community and match needy kids with people willing to print the hands. (The group recommends consumers get their doctor's input.)

"The goal is to make these devices as accessible and useful as possible," said Owen, who was recruited by the University of Washington to work on 3-D technology for medical devices full-time. "It's a powerful experience watching someone use a new hand."

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Taylor Swift Confirms Key Advisor Role On 'The Voice' Season 7

Taylor Swift Confirms Key Advisor Role On 'The Voice' Season 7

Taylor Swift keeps it chic in a little black dress while stepping out of her apartment on Friday (October 3) in New York City’s Tribeca district.

Earlier in the night, the 24-year-old singer entertained her fans at a secret listening session for her upcoming album 1989, which drops on Monday, October 27.

It was just confirmed that Taylor will be joining the seventh season of The Voice. We are so stoked!

“Way excited about being a ‘key advisor’ on @NBCTheVoice. Here are some pics of me and the coaches that I key advised,” Taylor tweeted with pics of herself with the judges – Gwen Stefani, Adam Levine, Pharrell Williams, and Blake Shelton.

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Google said to be making giant displays that work like Legos

Google said to be making giant displays that work like Legos

Edgar Alvarez

Engadget 

Many interesting projects have been born inside Google's famous X labs, including smart glasses, balloons capable of distributing internet connectivity and, most recently, a self-driving car. Now, according to The Wall Street Journal, the next big thing that could come out of Google X are giant, modular displays which can connect to create one very large image. Per the report, the project is being developed by Mary Lou Jepsen, co-founder of the One Laptop Per Child initiative and previously a professor at MIT.
In general, details about Google X's unnamed project are still rather scarce, but sources told the WSJ that the large screens "could be made into different sized and shapes," similar to how Legos work. An NPD DisplaySearch research director believes these might be used to do many things familiar to every one of us, like reading email, surfing the web as well as watching TV and movies -- perhaps, all at the same time. Think of it as Project Ara, but on a much, much greater scale and with different type of components.Source: The Wall Street Journal

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Picture this: the best of the Paris Auto Show

Picture this: the best of the Paris Auto Show

Steve Dent

Engadget

The Paris Auto Show is the biggest in the world and the event for car makers' most madcap models and concepts. We saw Lamborghini's 910HP Asterion hybrid, the first supercar that can get groceries on battery power. Another crazy hybrid was Citroen's Cactus Airflow 2L, which stores braking energy as compressed air to get 115mpg. Finally, we took a look at two different connected car takes, with Honda going all-in on Android and Nokia showing off new Here Auto tech. But what about the rest of the show? Some of the wildest crossover designs we ever saw (like the Peugeot Quartz, above) were flaunted, along with plenty of interesting EV and hybrid tech -- and, of course, supercars.

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HTC's next Desire phone reportedly captures 13-megapixel selfies

HTC's next Desire phone reportedly captures 13-megapixel selfies

Jon Fingas

Engadget 

If you've wanted to shoot 13-megapixel selfies with your phone, you've usually had to get either a knock-off or a one-of-a-kind device like Oppo's N1. You might not have to look very hard if a handful of leaks are correct, however. Both HTCFamily.ru and @upleaks have posted pictures of what's reportedly the HTC Desire Eye, a relatively conventional upper mid-range Android phone that would pack 13-megapixel cameras on both the front and back. They'd even have flashes to help with those dimly-lit dance club snapshots.
The Desire Eye could be quite the powerhouse beyond its photographic abilities, too. Another rumor from @upleaks has it carrying a 5.2-inch 1080p display, a speedy quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of built-in storage. There's no direct clues as to when this new Desire would show up, although HTC already has a "double exposure" event lined up for October 8th. It won't be shocking if the company has more up its sleeve that day than an action camera.
Source: HTCFamily.ru (Twitter), @upleaks (Twitter 1), (2)

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Google+ is the latest Android app to get a Material Design makeover

Google+ is the latest Android app to get a Material Design makeover

Google's quest to bring that extra-flat, extra-colorful Material Design look to everysingleapp is still underway, it seems. The search giant has posted an update to Google+ for Android that flattens even more of the social network's interface and adds splashes of solid color, such as a bright red "new post" button. This isn't just a cosmetic update, mind you. The Photos section is both simpler and better-looking, so it should be easier to share recent snapshots with your circles. At this rate, about the only software Google has left to officially Materialize is Android itself... which might happen soon.

Source: Google Play

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Lamborghini's 910HP plug-in hybrid goes 30 miles on a charge (hands-on)

Lamborghini's 910HP plug-in hybrid goes 30 miles on a charge (hands-on)

Steve Dent

Engadget

Lamborghini knows what you want -- ridiculous, excessive power. But hey, if you need to pick up some groceries, the Italian automaker can do that too. We just got a look at the concept car that proves it, the Lamborghini Asterion, at the Paris Auto Show. It can run in three modes: the first two use only the rear-drive 610HP V10 gas engine or "eco-friendly" 300HP front-drive electric motor system. And if you really need those groceries now, both can join forces to bring an unholy 910HP. More surprisingly, if you're willing to settle for a paltry 300HP, you can actually drive it up to 30 miles or so on the battery alone. %Slideshow-229907%
Lamborghini told us that it has packed in a lot of tech concepts that it might bring later in production cars. For example, the front-wheel-drive electric system -- rather bizarre on a Lambo -- also provides torque vector steering, useful on a high-powered vehicle. It also looks decidedly different from current models, with a curved rear section that resembles an old Lamborghini Miura. The Asterion even has more interior space thanks to a higher profile than, say, the Aventador. Unfortunately, it's strictly a (fully functioning) concept car that'll never reach the market, so don't sell off that Hurrican yet.

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Google allegedly working on its own WhatsApp competitor

Google allegedly working on its own WhatsApp competitor

Google introduced its Android One program earlier this year, which focuses on building budget-friendly, solid quality smartphones for the developing world. Back then, the search giant made it pretty clear that, with help from manufacturers, it wanted to create a big splash in emerging markets -- such as India, where the first Android One devices were revealed last month. But a rumor suggests Google's next step is to build what it couldn't buy when it lost out on messaging king WhatsApp to Facebook. The Economic Times, a trusted Indian news outlet, is now claiming the company from Mountain View has started working on a messaging app of its own that will head to emerging markets first, before potentially launching elsewhere.
Citing sources familiar with Google's plans, The Economic Times says the purported service will "likely" launch in 2015, noting that it's still in the early stages of development. One key way it might differ from the existing Hangouts service is that it wouldn't require a Google account to login, and unlike WhatsApp, it would be entirely free to use. Hooking the service up to Gmail may have helped Google get messaging users in the US, but competing with Whatsapp and its ilk (WeChat, Line, Viber) may require more flexibility and support for different devices.
Source: The Economic Times

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The Tah Bluetooth stick lets you control (almost) anything with a smartphone

The Tah Bluetooth stick lets you control (almost) anything with a smartphone

Daniel Cooper

Engadget

We've seen plenty of development boards, but this might be the first that comes with both Bluetooth LE and built-in USB. Tah is the creation of India's Revealing Hour and has been designed to both lower the cost of adding Bluetooth to Arduino projects, but also to connect your smartphone to other devices in the home. For instance, adding an IR shield will enable you to create a universal remote control for appliances and your TV. Even better, is that you can slot the hardware into your games console and use your smartphone as a controller -- in the video embedded after the break, the company uses a smartphone as a substitute PlayStation controller, and there's an Xbox variant that's currently being developed. Naturally, Tah is currently gathering funds over at CrowdSupply, and its makers need $25,000 to begin manufacturing. If you'd like to get your hands on one, then early-bird customers can snag one for $40, while the late-comers will pay 10 dollars more.
Source: CrowdSupply

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Microsoft sues Samsung over the interest on billion-dollar patent payments

Microsoft sues Samsung over the interest on billion-dollar patent payments

Richard Lawler

Engadget

Microsoft had over a billion reasons (per year) to pursue a patent licensing deal with Samsung back in 2011 over the latter's use of Android. That fact is laid bare by a lawsuit today over the interest on payments (based on the number of Android devices sold) that are supposed to flow from Korea to Redmond. Re/code posted the unsealed lawsuit this evening, showing how despite the existing deal, Microsoft's purchase of Nokia last year lead to Samsung holding up its payment for the second fiscal year of the deal, and then refusing to pay interest on it. All of that is according to Microsoft, which also claims Samsung is threatening to hold off on paying its end for the third year of the seven-year deal. The documents reveal Microsoft's patent licenses cover some 80 percent of the Android phones sold in the US (up from 70 percent in 2012), and that the deal includes provisions for Samsung to lower the amount owed by developing and marketing Windows phones and tablets, and for Microsoft's use of Samsung patents. The amount in question? A paltry $6.9 million, although a decision on whether the deal will remain in force going forward is clearly worth more than that.

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Ariana Grande Shares Her Tips to Staying Healthy

We're so excited that Ariana Grande partnered with WAT-AAH brand water, because she's sharing her tips for staying healthy and hydrated. Water is essential to keeping your body and mind running strong, and Ari sure knows it!

“Living a healthy lifestyle is so important to me,” Ariana said. “My fans are my everything and, because of this, I could only endorse something I believe in. Also, I love drinking water and I want to inspire my fans to do the same."

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