Huawei’s welcome gift from Samsung as it joins the pantheon of smartphone greats are a bunch of lawsuits. The patent war has started.
Huawei has gained traction and has started its invasion of the western market especially in the US. Being currently the third largest smartphone manufacturer alongside Apple and Samsung, it’s about time it gets the welcome it deserves: a bunch of patent lawsuits from Samsung.
A little bit of history, Huawei filed suit against Samsung for allegedly using its 11 standard-essential patents made and owned by Huawei. Now Samsung is returning the favor by firing its own lawsuits to Huawei. Samsung is making claims that Huawei infringed six patents for their tablets and smartphones and wants 161 million yuan or $24.1 million in damages. It also wants to block Huawei from selling and making these electronic products.
Samsung said it had “faithfully negotiated with other patent holders for the fair licensing of technology.” The company added: “Despite our best efforts to resolve this matter amicably, it has regrettably become necessary to take legal action in order to defend our intellectual property.”
Lawsuits like these show Huawei’s growth in market share and posing as Samsung’s deep Android rival. Gartner shows that a growth from 5.4 percent to 8.3 percent in Huawei’s first three months market share of the year, while Samsung’s dipped slightly from 24.1 percent to 23.2 percent.
Samsung Electronics today announced the launch of the truly cord-free earbuds, the Gear IconX, in select markets including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, Canada, Australia and Korea. The Gear IconX will then gradually be launched around the rest of the globe.
The Gear IconX offers a new fitness experience, with an in-ear heart rate monitor and standalone music player. It can track and provide instant feedback for fitness data, such as distance, speed, duration, heart rate and calories burned, and easily syncs with S Health app.
With internal storage large enough for up to 1,000 MP3s and easy-to-use controls so people can operate their music by simple tapping or swiping the earbuds, users don’t need carry a smartphone anymore to listen to music during a workout.
Featuring a lightweight, secure and comfortable fit with three different sizes of eartips and wingtips, the Gear IconX is available in three colors – black, blue and white.
In addition, the Gear IconX comes with a charging case that not only keeps your earbuds safe, but also holds for up to two additional charges that begin automatically when the earbuds are placed inside.
We exclusively reported last week that the Gear S2 would get multiple new features with an upcoming software update. We also previewed the new softwarealong with all the new features and UX improvements. Samsung has now started pushing the update to the Gear S2 and you should be receiving it shortly.
The software update has a file size of 61.1MB and firmware versionR732XXU2DPFB (for the Gear S2 classic) or R730XXU2DPFB (for the Gear S2 Sport). It brings My Photo watch face, social sharing for activities, automatic sleep tracking, new S Voice commands, a new contacts app and widget, and other new features to the smartwatch.
You should read our Gear S2 update preview along, which contains screenshots of all the new features, to know more about the update. If you’ve installed the update already, which features do you think the Gear S2 is still missing?
Equipped with unique features, a stylish design and a fitness-optimized UX, the Gear Fit2 has every tool you need to work toward being a healthier and happier you, at any hour of the day. Here is a portrait of your daily life that we imagine how the Gear Fit2 can be your companion.
6:00am – Rise and shine! It may be Monday, but after a good night’s rest, I’m feeling ready to take on the week. Before I’m out of bed, I switch off the alarm on my Gear Fit2. The device is lightweight, making it comfortable to wear throughout the entire day, even when I’m sleeping. It recognizes that I’m now up and moving around, and lets me check my sleep analysis about fifteen minutes after waking up.
6:30am – There’s no better way to start the morning than with a quick bike ride along the river. And, with the Gear Fit2, I can actually enjoy the scenery, as I’ve manually activated it to keep track of my stats. All I have to do is set the target duration of my ride; the sports band then detects my movements and lets me know when I reach my goal. Its built-in GPS also tracks my route so I don’t have to.
8:10am – After a quick shower and breakfast, I log my coffee consumption. I’m really trying to cut back on caffeine, and the sports band is a good way to keep track of how much I’m drinking coffee. Before I’m out the door, I stylize my sports band with a watch face to better match my outfit. I end up settling on Activity Sparkles—a pretty face that twinkles when I’m physically active.
8:35am – I use the half hour commute to work to read the news and update S Health on my smartphone. I use the Together feature to check the Steps challenge and Steps leaderboard updates. I see that I’ve won my latest one-on-one competition with my sister Ellie. It looks like she owes me dinner.
10:50am – It’s amazing how fast mornings in the office fly by. Sometimes, I don’t even realize how long I’ve been typing away at my computer. Fortunately, my Gear Fit2 vibrates to alert me when I’ve been sitting for too long, like now. I take a bathroom break and refill my water bottle to get moving.
12:15pm – I grab a salad for lunch and go for a walk around the neighborhood with my co-worker, Morgan. Ten minutes in, the Gear Fit2 notifies me that I’m walking at a healthy pace and automatically starts recording my walking session. Even when the sun is at its highest and brightest, the sports band’s display is clear and visible. When we conclude our walk, it automatically indicates the total walking time, distance, calories burned and average speed.
4:10pm – I’m in an important meeting when my Gear Fit2 vibrates, and a message from Sam pops up; he’s going to be late for our dinner appointment tonight. I send him a quick reply discreetly with a simple tap on the device to confirm.
6:40pm – The work day is officially over, so I head to the gym to blow off some steam. I put on my earbuds and pair them with my Gear Fit2, which I’ve already loaded with my workout playlists. Unlike other devices, I don’t even need to carry my phone, since the sports band is equipped with its own standalone music player. The high-energy songs keep me motivated during my Pilates session.
7:45pm – After my workout, I check my heart rate and tag it as an “After exercise” measurement. Monitoring my heart rate is a good way to optimize my aerobic fitness.
9:30pm – After dinner (and dessert) with Sam, I see that Ellie has shared the results of our Steps Challenge on Facebook via S Health. She has come out on top… this time. I send her a congratulatory text, promising her a tasty dinner. I appreciate having friends and family who constantly encourage me to be the healthiest I can be, and the Gear Fit2 only complements that support.
10:50pm – Before turning in for the night, I check the 24-hour Log to see how many calories I’ve burned for the day, and compare today’s activity with that of the past few days. It looks like I’m improving. I also see in my notifications that I’ve earned the floor reward for the third time this week, having climbed 10 flights of stairs.
I set the Gear Fit2 on its easy-to-use charging cradle so it can charge while I sleep. With an extensive battery life, it can last a good three to four days before recharged. I personally don’t have that kind of energy, but with a little help from my Gear Fit2, I’m slowly and surely becoming happier and healthier. Perhaps I’ll challenge someone else to a new steps challenge tomorrow, but for now, it’s bedtime.
Samsung Sales for the 2nd Quarter Blooms with the S7
Banks are on to the accounting sheets as they project what the profit margin of Samsung for the second quarter of this year. Samsung is yet to release the official report.
First quarter (January to March): $5.7 billion
Second quarter (April to June): $6.8 billion (projected)
Banks are on to the betting game of what Samsung\’s operating profit this quarter. The primary factor for this optimistic and flourishing sales is their ever popular Galaxy S7. The consumers are even more keen to try out Android with the marketing and form factor allure of Samsung\’s flagship device.
Yuanta Securities is estimating about $44 billion in sales revenue with that resulting $6.8 billion profit target. Other firms’ projections begin from at least $6.4 billion. Samsung’s consumer electronics unit saw a gain in profit margin to 4.8 percent in the first quarter.
Samsung will report earnings in about a month’s time.
Samsung’s Mirror Display is Now for Hair Salon Use
Samsung has proven once again the commercial potential of having wider displays on their first installation of Mirror Displays.
We have seen Samung TV’s, 4K TV’s and computer monitors, transparent OLED displays, and even bendable phone screens, but Mirror Displays are something new. A hair salon in South Korea have installed 4 55-inch Mirror Displays that acts as a mirror and a sort of TV. This keeps the clients entertained as they get their hair cut while seeing info of various hair color and styles on the wide screen.
When not in use, these wide Mirror Displays simply serves as a conventional mirror. Samsung is planning to expand it’s consumer base to many creative fields such as in businesses specializing in fashion, furniture, interior design, and retail. When they start to produce and sell these starting by July this year, it is expected to be a major hit even to regular consumers.
Using various technology can extend the use case scenarios that Mirror Displays will be even more useful. For example on providing a direct interface to customers with menus and services that they can reserve or choose from the Mirror Display.
According to a new report published by Pulse News, Samsung is preparing to launch the much-rumored Gear Fit 2 in South Korea next month. The device is expected to be the first fitness tracker on the market to pack a Bio-Processor, which will provide users with a wider range of health-based statistics, including a bioelectrical impedance analysis, a detailed breakdown of organ measurements, an electrocardiogram showing electrical activity of the heart and a graph showing skin temperature. Aside from the new measurements, the chip is also said to be more reliable than using individual components as it’s an all-in-one solution, meaning there’s no need for external processing — so all data can be pushed through in real-time, yielding more accurate results.
Recent leaks have suggested that the Gear Fit 2 will sport a 1.84-inch AMOLED display, 4GB of internal memory and a GPS chip embedded in the CPU. With regards to the design, Samsung appears to have opted for a more rubberised, robust body with no exposed parts, which leads us to believe that the unit is, in fact, waterproof. Unfortunately, the specification remains unknown, but we presume that it will be IP68 as this would mean that the band can be submerged in over 1.5-meters of cold water for 30 consecutive minutes, making it perfect for snorkeling, surfing, swimming and other water-based sports. Much to our disappointment, we still don’t have any information with regards to pricing, but we expect the wearable to cost somewhere in the region of $150-200 when it finally hits the market.
It was only last week that images of the Gear Fit 2 fitness band and the Gear IconX Bluetooth earbuds were leaked online. Samsung released the original Gear Fitsome two years ago so it’s about time that it came out with a successor. The images we saw last week came from an unofficial source but now Samsung’s own website has leaked the images of the Gear Fit 2 and Gear IconX, hinting at an official announcement in the near future.
The images of both of these devices are up on Samsung S Health website even though the company is yet to officially announce the Gear Fit 2 and the Gear IconX. While the website doesn’t provide any information about these new devices, it’s believed that the Gear Fit 2 is going to be a big improvement over its predecessor with a 1.84-inch AMOLED display, 4GB internal memory, built-in GPS, water resistance and a host of fitness-related features. No word as yet on when Samsung plans to make an announcement.
The first commercial Tizen handset, the Samsung Z1, was a considerable success for a smartphone with a new operating system, and it was followed by the Samsung Z3 in less than a year. The Z3 offers notably improved specs over the Z1 while keeping the low price tag; we exclusively revealed that a slightly upgraded version of the Z1 is in the works, and we have now discovered that a Samsung Z2 (model number SM-Z200F) is under development as well.
The Z2 is being made for the Indian market, and Samsung has started work on the device’s firmware. We don’t know much about the Z2, except that it will support 4G LTE connectivity, a feature that’s missing on both existing Tizen smartphones. It’s unclear what specs the device will offer; going by the name the Z2 should slot in somewhere between the Z1 and Z3, but then again that is something the Z1 (2016) would do as well. The Z2 can’t be more powerful than the Z3, either, as that would make it grossly confusing for the consumer.
Our sources couldn’t find a firmware for the Z1 (2016), so it’s possible it will be replaced by the Z2. Nothing is set in stone, however, especially with the Z5 also on the horizon. We will just have to wait and see what Samsung is planning for its Tizen smartphone lineup this year.
There are quite a few predictable events within the tech world, one being that companies often launch their products in the same month as they did the year before (although rumors push us to think differently). Another predictable tech event is how to tell a new product is coming: usually, it’s evident by constant price reductions of the current product that keep popping up everywhere. In adherence to this familiar pattern, Samsung’s Tizen-powered Z3, designed for the India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka markets, has started seeing price drops at online retailers.
The Samsung Z3 price dropped from Rs. 8,200 to Rs. 6,980 ($123.59 to $105.21) at Snapdeal; from Rs. 8,200 to Rs. 6,900 ($123.59 to $105.36) at popular Indian retail site Flipkart (who discounted Samsung’s Android-powered handsets in honor of Samsung Week); and the phone has seen a Rs. 2,035 drop (from $135.50 to $104.83) at eBay and Amazon, deals that we sighted two weeks ago. While Samsung has not yet made an announcement or dropped any hints as to the existence of a new-generation Tizen-powered handset, if the pattern is true, it’s telling indeed.
While we don’t know the exact announcement and launch dates of the Samsung Z5, we do know that the handset is in testing bearing model number SM-Z500 and could see it arrive this year. With May already here, and Tizen 3.0 set to arrive in September, we could be looking at a September announcement for the Z5 or a high-profile Tizen smartphone to arrive that could provide more attractive specs for the Korean giant’s homegrown OS.
The first Tizen-powered smartphone, the Z1, is due for a 2016 makeover this year, and Samsung intends to not only bring the Gear smartwatch compatibility to the Z3 but to release the discounted Z3 in several European countries. Clearly, Samsung has world domination on its mind for more than just its Android-powered Galaxy smartphone series.
