Daily News Courier

Samsung Announces $100 Million Fund to Inspire Gadget Breakthroughs

The world’s top smartphone maker will devote new funds to nascent technology ideas, with an eye to solving today’s challenges for mobile devices.

In a presentation to reporters yesterday at a golf resort on Silicon Valley’s Sand Hill Road, Samsung president Young Sohn announced that his company plans to invest $100 million in research projects and businesses aiming to solve important technology problems. Seeking to demystify its sprawling business, Sohn said the South Korean company’s latest investing activities would be centered at a new “Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center” just across the street, near Stanford University.

AT&T buys Alltel for $780 million, gains spectrum and 585,000 customers

AT&T has announced today that it will completely acquire the Alltel brand and assets from Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc. for $780 million in cash. This purchase encompasses all of the Alltel assets, from spectrum, network licenses and wireless properties to retail store locations and about 585,000 subscribers. That's a good number of customers that will come under the AT&T umbrella, but what's likely more valuable is the spectrum holdings that AT&T will gain.

Alltel currently operates mostly in rural areas of Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio and South Carolina — covering about 4.6 million people. Spectrum gains in these areas are in the 700, 850 and 1900MHz bands, which compliments AT&T's network deployment nicely. It's a cheap, all cash acquisition that will help AT&T continue its LTE rollout into the future.

Source: AT&T

LG Optimus G: One million units sold, heads to Europe and China in Q1

We have some solid news coming out of LG camp earlier today — the manufacturer managed to sell one million units of its flagship LG Optimus G Android smartphone.  With availability of the Optimus G in the United States, Korea, Canada, and Japan, one million units sold is a great feat for the company.  Unfortunately, the Optimus G is having a hard time eating away sales from the Galaxy S III and iPhone, but it has otherwise been a successful launch.

In other news, the Optimus G is expected to launch in a couple of other major markets in the next couple of weeks.  Specifically, the Optimus G will launch in Europe and China, which are two major markets and will allow the Optimus G gain exposure to many other customers.

The sales report and new market announcements comes amid a rumor circulating that LG is preparing an Optimus G Pro smartphone.  I wouldn’t be surprised if sales slowed for the Optimus G in order to see if the Optimus G Pro pans out.  Again, we’re looking for LG to make quite a splash at MWC 2013.

[AndroidCentral]

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Samsung announces that 100 million Galaxy S devices have been sold

We have some very impressive news coming out of Samsung camp earlier today, as the Korean company announced that it is sold over 100 million Galaxy S smartphones.  While we tend to assume the Galaxy S III as the main Galaxy S device, it is important to remember that a considerable portion of smartphone users are still holding onto the Galaxy S and the Galaxy S II.

In any event, it is a tremendous accomplishment for Samsung to sell 100 million devices of a single brand.  In terms of a time frame, the Galaxy S launched 2 years and 7 months ago in May 2010.  It is a feat that I’m not sure if Motorola will come close to with the DROID brand or HTC with its One brand.  On a related note, Samsung announced it sold 40 million Galaxy S III units in the past 7 months.  This number equates to roughly 190,000 Galaxy S III devices being sold daily.

[Samsung on Flickr]

Related Stories

• Samsung introduces the Galaxy S II Plus, offers Jelly Bean and a 1.2GHz dual-core processor
• Samsung: Android 4.1 update for Verizon Galaxy S III rolls out tomorrow
• AT&T’s Samsung Galaxy S III currently receiving Android 4.1 update

Samsung ships 100 million Galaxy S devices worldwide

Galaxy S2, S3 shipments stand at 40 million each

Samsung has announced that its Galaxy S line of Android phones has shifted a total of 100 million units “on the supply side” to date. Meanwhile, the manufacturer’s leading Galaxy S3 smartphone has reportedly moved some 40 million units.

Samsung broke the news through a Flickr post, in which it also revealed that the Galaxy S3 is currently selling at a rate of around 190,000 per day.  The S3’s predecessor, the Galaxy S2, also accounts for some 40 million of those units shipped, the company says. (Our last update on Galaxy S3 sales came in early November, when Samsung had moved 30 million units.)

The history of the series stretches back just over two and a half years, to the launch of the original Galaxy S in May 2010. Since then, Samsung has gone on to dominate the Android market, and in many countries its devices account for the majority of smartphone sales.

Desirable specs, broad international availability and aggressive marketing have seen the Galaxy S3 emerge as one of the biggest-selling handsets of the year, going toe-to-toe with Apple’s iPhone 5 in recent months.

As we move further into 2013, all eyes will be on the eventual successor to the Galaxy S3, though at present Samsung remains tight-lipped about any possible Galaxy S4 device.

Source: Flickr

Paris Apple store robbed: thieves take goods worth more than $1 million

Apple Said to Have Ordered 2 Million Extra iPad Minis

By speters ⋅ December 22, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

Today we have more evidence that the iPad mini is proving to be incredibly successful for Apple, with iDownloadBlog reporting that according to a new story on DigiTimes, Apple has already increased its order for iPad mini units by 2 million, to arrive before the end of this year. In the report, DigiTimes said that Apple correctly anticipated the roaring success of the iPad mini to some degree, and in fact originally estimated shipments of around 10 million iPad minis for 2012, but component shortages meant that Apple was forced to lower the number of shipments expected to between 6 and 8 million. Now, though, it seems Apple has upped its estimate to 12 million iPad minis shipped in total by the end of 2012. DigiTimes says that Apple has been able to do this because yield rates have improved, with shipments of iPad minis for the first two months of the current quarter already moving past 8 million. And as iDownloadBlog notes, if this story is accurate, Pegatron will be very happy indeed, as it is believed to have agreed with Apple to make iPad minis for the next three years.

Source: Buoyed by strong sales, Apple orders 2M extra iPad minis

Apple On Course to Ship 26 Million iPads This Quarter

By speters ⋅ December 4, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

Boy Genius Report writes today that one analyst, namely Sameer Singh at Tech-Thoughts, is predicting that Apple could sell between 24 and 26 million iPads in the current quarter, which of course includes the holiday season, and he thinks that 7 million of those could be iPad minis. Singh says that this estimate factors in the fact that there may be ongoing supply constraints affecting the iPad mini?s sales figures for this period. He adds that he thinks that there may only be 10 million iPad mini displays in total shipped before the end of the year. According to a previous story on Boy Genius Report, there are mass production issues affecting the manufacture of the iPad mini?s display. Apparently it did not help matters when Apple decided it no longer wanted Samsung to provide the display for the iPad mini, and it has taken a while for Apple to find other manufacturers to take Samsung?s place in the iPad mini supply chain.

Source: iPad Q4 shipment estimate: 24-26 million | BGR
iPad mini price rumor: supply chain woes blamed for high price | BGR