John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

Galaxy S4 Shipments Top 10 Million in First Month

samsung_galaxy_s4Samsung’s new Galaxy S4 handset has become the company’s “bestselling” smartphone, just as co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun predicted it would last week. The South Korean company said today that “global channel sales” of the S4 surpassed 10 million units.

That’s a massive amount of product to move in the first month after the device’s commercial debut. But, as noted here last week, this number doesn’t refer to devices sold to consumers, but to carriers: “The S4 may well be selling much faster than its predecessor, but not so much faster that there will be 10 million units in consumer hands next week. Some will still be sitting on carrier shelves awaiting purchase.”

And that’s worth noting. Because while many handset vendors like to tout shipments into the channel as sales, there is some variation. Apple, when it posts quarterly earnings, reports iPhone “sell in” numbers to retail partners. But when it makes its annual “First Weekend iPhone Sales Top TK” news release, it’s referring to sales to consumers. So, when Apple said last September that it sold more than five million of its iPhone 5 in three days, it wasn’t referring to devices sitting on retail shelves, but to those purchased by end users.

Twitter’s Tanking

December 30, 2013 at 6:49 am PT

2013 Was a Good Year for Chromebooks

December 29, 2013 at 2:12 pm PT

BlackBerry Pulls Latest Twitter for BB10 Update

December 29, 2013 at 5:58 am PT

Apple CEO Tim Cook Made $4.25 Million This Year

December 28, 2013 at 12:05 pm PT

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Another gadget you don’t really need. Will not work once you get it home. New model out in 4 weeks. Battery life is too short to be of any use.

— From the fact sheet for a fake product entitled Useless Plasticbox 1.2 (an actual empty plastic box) placed in L.A.-area Best Buy stores by an artist called Plastic Jesus