21 posts and columns on manufacturers

Now Open: Amazon Appstore Launches With 3,800 Apps for Android

in Commerce on March 22, 2011 at 12:05 am PT

With 3,800 apps on Day One, Amazon has officially launched the Android Appstore, a potential iTunes equivalent for Android.

Intel Resumes Shipping That Troublesome Chip

in Enterprise on February 7, 2011 at 2:22 pm PT

Remember that support chip of Intel’s with the “design issues”? The one that might cost it $300 million in revenue this quarter? It turns out PC makers want it anyway.

The Empire Strikes Back: Microsoft Goes After Google on Web Video Formats

in Mobile on February 2, 2011 at 6:00 am PT

In the latest move in an escalating tussle, Microsoft blasts Google for dropping support for a video format known as H.264. Microsoft says it will build an add-on for Chrome that will add back support for the video format. Kids: Sooner or later, someone is going to lose an eye.

News Byte

An "Apple Invasion" in Korea: Two Million iPhones Sold

in Mobile on January 24, 2011 at 11:22 am PT

Another sales milestone for the iPhone, this one in Korea. Korea Telecom today said that it has sold two million iPhones since it began offering the handset in November 2009. Of the that number, 1.03 million were iPhone 4s, and KT sold one million of them in four months. The remaining 970,000 were iPhone 3GSs. Quite an achievement considering there were only seven million smartphone users in Korea at the end of last year and the country has long been viewed as a tough market for multinational cellphone manufacturers. Or, rather, other multinational cellphone manufacturers. Because according to a KT spokesperson, the iPhone’s “proliferation rate” in Korea is high–and accelerating to the point of “Apple invasion.” That said, local cellphone manufacturers are still doing quite well. Samsung, for example, sold 2 million Galaxy S handsets in six months following its June debut.

Memory Chips Are About to Get Cheaper

in Enterprise on January 13, 2011 at 8:28 am PT

As demand for PCs has slowed, so has demand for the memory chips that go into them. Good news for everyone but the companies that make memory.

Analyst: Windows Phone 7 Needs to Win Over Smartphone Makers as Well as Buyers

in News on December 10, 2010 at 1:59 pm PT

There’s another turf war brewing in the mobile space, and this one isn’t over consumers–it’s over the top smartphone manufacturers.

Galaxy Quest: Samsung Now King of the Androids

in News on December 3, 2010 at 12:17 pm PT

Motorola’s Droid is no longer the doer it once was when it first debuted–in market share terms, anyway. The company has ceded its Android crown to Samsung, which now ranks as first in the United States among Android manufacturers.

Jobs on Android: The Fight Isn’t Closed Vs. Open, but Integrated Vs. Fragmented

in News on October 18, 2010 at 3:18 pm PT

CEO Steve Jobs made a special guest appearance on Apple’s Q3 earnings call today and used the opportunity to fire a few shots at Google while reframing the comparison between iOS and Android.

Voices

From Snowmobiles to Cellphones, a Scramble for Parts

in News on August 6, 2010 at 12:00 am PT

Companies are reconfiguring products and paying up to stockpile parts, as persistent supply shortages in the electronics industry continued to curb sales in the second quarter.

Multiplicity: China Begins Cranking Out iPad Clones

in Mobile on March 31, 2010 at 5:15 am PT

With the iPad, Apple hopes to create a new category of device, one that, in the words of CEO Steve Jobs, is “more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone.” And though the iPad is unproven at market, some Chinese electronics manufacturers are betting that it will succeed in doing just that. And they’re cloning the hell out of the device.

What Downturn? Worldwide PC Shipments Soar in Q4.

in News, January 14, 2010 at 3:00 am PT

Sony Hopes 3-D Pops TV (And Blu-ray and Vaio and PlayStation) Sales

in Media, September 2, 2009 at 7:25 am PT

FCC Votes Unanimously to Make Wireless Industry’s Life a Living Hell

in News, August 28, 2009 at 4:46 am PT

PS3 Price Cut Tomorrow?

in News, August 17, 2009 at 2:05 pm PT

Windows 7 Released to BitTorrent, Manufacturing

in News, July 23, 2009 at 4:30 am PT

Area Netbook Owner Still Waiting for Final Cut Studio 2 to Load

in News, June 23, 2009 at 10:01 am PT

European Commission Overclocks Intel Antitrust Fine

in News, May 13, 2009 at 1:29 pm PT

Intel to Change "Sponsors of Tomorrow" Slogan to "Sponsors of the European Union"

in News, May 13, 2009 at 3:59 am PT

Intel to Change “Sponsors of Tomorrow” Slogan to “Sponsors of the European Union”

in News, May 13, 2009 at 3:59 am PT

Yahoo Widgets Lend Brains to Boob Tube

in The Mossberg Solution, March 24, 2009 at 4:30 pm PT