A judge on Friday cut $450 million from the $1 billion award to be paid by Samsung in a landmark patent lawsuit from Apple, saying a jury had wrongly calculated the damages.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, today reduced the jury’s damages award by $450.5 million and said Samsung deserves a new trial on infringement claims over its Galaxy Prevail and other smartphones. Koh rejected Apple’s request to enhance the jury’s award, saying the amount Samsung owed was heavily disputed and the jury wasn’t bound to accept either side’s damages estimate.
[quote]“It is not the proper role of the court to second-guess the jury’s factual determination as to the proper amount of compensation,” Koh said in her ruling.[/quote]
The rulings are the latest twist in the global litigation war between Apple and Samsung. The case at issue covers a series of older Samsung products that Apple says violated its intellectual property. A second lawsuit is pending before Koh in which Apple makes similar claims against Samsung’s more recent smartphones and tablets.
[quote]”We are pleased that the court decided to strike $450,514,650 from the jury’s award,” Samsung said in a statement. “Samsung intends to seek further review as to the remaining award. We are also pleased that the court earlier found that Samsung had not acted willfully, denied Apple’s request for a permanent injunction, and denied Apple’s motion for increased damages.” [/quote]
While not an outright loss for Apple, the ruling is not the best news for a company that’s been on bit of legal losing streak.
At an event yesterday, Samsung launched its latest entrant in the budget smartphone segment, the Samsung Galaxy Fame.
The Galaxy Fame has a 3.5in 320×480 display which uses TFT rather than AMOLED technology, behind which is a single-core 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage – which, again, can be upgraded by up to 64GB using a micro-SD card. The device includes a five megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash and VGA resolution front-facing camera, and runs Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.
Samsung has packed a 1,300mAh battery inside.
Times have changed over the years, but never did we see the smartphones reach the consumer market with such a blow that feature phones would almost disappear.
Samsung Galaxy Fame
Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
3.5-inch 320×480 TFT display
1GHz processor single-core
512MB RAM
4GB of storage, externally expandable to 64GB
5MP rear camera, with LED flash
VGA front camera
1,300mAh battery
Pricing and availability in India is yet unannounced and we’ll update you soon as soon as we get a hint of it. Till then, stay tuned.
After launching the Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus earlier today, Samsung also launched two cheaper handsets aimed at younger or low-budget users, one of them being the Samsung Galaxy Young.
The Samsung Galaxy Young has a 3.27in 480×320 TFT display with a 1GHz processor and upgradeable 4GB of storage but with 768MB of RAM. Sadly, the camera has a measly 3.15-megapixel sensor, while there is no secondary camera. The Samsung Galaxy Young runs Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.
Samsung has packed a 1,300mAh batterie to help users enjoy increased multimedia use and long talk time. Well, most of Samsung’s handsets are known for their decent battery life.
Pricing and availability in India is yet unannounced and we’ll update you soon as soon as we get a hint of it. Till then, stay tuned.
Looks like Samsung is not going to slow down. They’re releasing devices too fast and it’s getting hard to keep up with all these releases!
Samsung is known for releasing its smartphones in a wide array of colors, and now the company has launched its popular Galaxy Note 2 in three new shades.
We’ll see the 5.5-inch Android be splashed with Amber Brown, Ruby Wine and Topaz Blue.
The new colours are added to the Galaxy Note 2 range alongside the existing ‘Titanium Grey’ and ‘Marble White’ options, bringing the total model range to four. Interestingly, there’s no sign of a black model, despite Samsung having paraded a pre-production version at previous events.
The Galaxy Note II, with its 5.5-inch HD SuperAMOLED display, is slightly bigger than the original Galaxy Note, which had a 5.3-inch touchscreen. This device runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system, layered with the company’s TouchWiz UI. The phablet has a quad-core 1.6GHz Cortex A-9 processor with 2GB of RAM and will come in 16, 32 and 64GB variants, with support for microSD card having capacity of up to 64GB.
Will any of our readers be hoping to snap up one of the new colours when they hit the mobile space?
Samsung has launched two lines of notebook is the new generation Series 7 Chronos and Series 7 Ultra.
The Series 7 Chronos sports a rather seek and elegant design in an aluminium chassis at just 20.9mm, only a little thicker than a comparable ultrabook. Though it is slightly heavy at 5.2 pounds.
The device claims to be a multimedia powerhouse with quad-core Intel Core i-series processors with up to 16GB RAM and offering up to 1TB of storage, plus discrete AMD Radeon HD 8870 graphics.
The 15.6-inch display has a full 1,920×1,080-pixel resolution, which is what we’d expect from a modern multimedia laptop.
The Series 7 Chronos has a 15.6-inch multi-point full-HD (1920×1080) touch screen display and comes integrated with JBL speakers. The machine promises a battery life of up to 11 hours and quick boot times of less than 12 seconds.
Connectivity ports include four USB ports (2 USB 3.0 and 2USB 2.0), HDMI, mini VGA, headphones and microphone, a LAN port and security slot to help ensure the device is securely tethered when necessary.
The Series 7 Ultra runs on Intel’s Core i7 or i5 ultra low voltage processors and has AMD HD 8570M graphics that has 1GB of memory. It supports up to 16GB of RAM and Samsung claims that delivers 8 hours of battery life. The Series 7 Ultra is truly a portable workhorse as it weighs only 1.46Kg and measures at 18.9mm in terms of thickness. It also comes with JBL speakers.
Pricing and availability will be revealed soon!
Samsung Series 7 Chronos (2013) specifications
15.6-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) 10-point multi touch display with 300nit brightness
Slim 20.9mm chassis
Windows 8 OS
Backlit Keyboard with clikpad
RAM accelerator with 150 percent increase in speed for browsing and running app.
Wakes up in two seconds and boots in under twelve seconds
Samsung has been enjoying a really successful time of things in the last year or so in the smartphone market with a number of hugely successful products on offer. Its recent successes were arguably built on the Samsung Galaxy S2 that was released in 2011 and is still available today. Now though the company has revealed the Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus and we have the official specs and details for you.
Initially outfitted with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the original S2 received an update to Android 4.0 last June and is finally due up for Android 4.1 sometime soon.
Otherwise, most of the tech specs between the S2 Plus and the original S2 are the same.
Like its predecessor the Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus will offer a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 4.3-inch WVGA Super AMOLED Plus display. An 8-megapixel camera with an LED flash is on the back, while a 2-MP camera graces the front. But the rear camera now comes with a zero-lag shutter speed that can more easily capture fast-moving objects.
The Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus offers 3G in the form of 21Mbps HSPA+, dual-band Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 3.0.The Plus’s built-in storage has been trimmed in size to 8GB from the original’s 16GB or 32GB. But the new model’s SD storage can handle up to 64 gigabytes of data, while the original maxed out at 32GB. The Plus also includes an option for near-field communications support so people can use the phone for mobile payments.
We will be back with the pricing details and a hands-on video soon, so stay tuned!
The Samsung Galaxy S IV could use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 in the United States, and a Samsung Exynos 5 Octa in Europe and other places of the world where LTE is not that widespread, according to a recent JPMorgan note.
When Samsung unveiled the eight-core Exynos 5 Octa at CES, it was widely expected that the Samsung Galaxy S IV would feature Samsung’s latest innovation. However, according to an earlier report from SamMobile, Samsung seems to have run into some overheating issues with the processor, and Samsung believes the problem will not be fixed in time for the Galaxy S IV launch.
The Exynos 5 Octa is a an 8 core processor from Samsung, running 1.8 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 and 1.2 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 along with Tricore PoverVR GPU. The Snapdragon 600 on the other hand runs a quad-core Krait 300 CPU clocking at 1.9 GHz along with the Adreno 320 GPU. Qualcomm claims that the new SoC delivers 40% better performance than the existing S4 Pro chips.
It must be noted that Samsung utilized the same Mali-400 GPU in both its international Galaxy S II and Galaxy S III models, the latter clocked significantly higher, to little ill effect. And the Snapdragon 600 SoC is significantly faster than the dual-core S4 Plus offered in the North American Galaxy S III. It’s also likely the included Adreno 320 GPU would be clocked faster than in previous devices.
Various reports also suggest that Galaxy S4 will sport an improved 13 Megapixel camera with Orb camera technology that will be capable of taking 1080p videos. Other expected features include a 2 megapixel front-facing camera, a removable battery, an Adreno 320 GPU, TouchWiz UI and Wireless charging.
A teaser released by samsung shouts out ‘Be Ready 4 The Next Galaxy’, and mentions Times Square (New York, USA) as the venue and 14 March 2013, 7PM EST, as the date and time for the Samsung Unpacked 2013 event. The event would also have a webcast as the teaser mentions a live stream link.
Samsung Mobile has confirmed a major launch event in New York next month, expected to involve the new Galaxy S4 flagship smartphone.
The invites, issued at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, ask members of the press to “come and see the next Galaxy” at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on March 14 at 7pm local time.
The Mobile Unpacked invite does not specifically mention the rumoured Galaxy S4, but it does bear the telling line, “Ready 4 the Show”. The New York event will also be live streamed on Samsung Mobile’s YouTube channel.
After the blockbuster success of the Galaxy S3, anticipation has surged for the successor to the Galaxy S franchise. The Galaxy S3 last year emerged as a true rival to Apple’s iPhone, even seeing accelerating sales after the iPhone 5 launched late last year.
According to Android Geeks, a software engineer working in the team that develops the new Samsung Galaxy S4 has confirmed that the highly-anticipated smartphone will come with a new camera feature called Samsung Orb, which will work in a way similar to the Photo Sphere that was integrated in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.
Reports are indicating that Samsung Galaxy S4 will come with the company’s proprietary Exynos 5 Octa processor with octo-core processor and tri-core PowerVR SGX544MP3 GPU, so the powerful hardware platform will help the smartphone render Orb photos with ease.
Samsung makes phones, tablets, and televisions that can run apps. Now the company is also offering a set-top-box, called the HomeSync that can bring Android apps to your TV, let you stream content from your mobile device to a TV, or keep your data synchronized between devices.
This device runs a dual-core 1.7GHz SoC, has 1GB of RAM, 8GB of flash, and for all that media, a 1TB hard drive. It hooks up to your TV over HDMI and can connect to your local network over Gigabit Ethernet or WiFi. It will stream content right from your Galaxy phone, or can play back locally stored files. For connection to your home theater system, there’s optical audio-out.
Under the hood, the HomeSync is running software based on Google Android Jelly Bean, which means you can use it to watch movies on the hard drive or stream videos from YouTube, among other things. It also includes access to the Google Play Store, which should let you download additional apps such as Netflix or Vudu to turn the HomeSync into a pretty powerful media center for your TV.
Samsung says you can also link up to 8 accounts to the HomeSync so you can synchronize data across your devices or access shared or private storage. In other words, you can keep your music and movie collection on the HomeSync’s 1TB hard drive and use each of your family’s phones to access a different set of media files for each user.
Samsung hasn’t yet revealed how much the HomeSync will cost.
[toggle_box title=”Press Release” width=”Width of toggle box”]
Samsung HomeSync creates connected media experience for the whole family
Provideshome cloud for storing, sharing and streaming content
across multiple devices
Barcelona, February 24, 2013 – Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd., a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, today announced Samsung HomeSync, a home hub solution that a shared storage fit for a family, the best entertainment experience on a big screen TV, and a new way of enjoying your HDTV through a familiar and smarter Android user experience.
Shared Storage for a Family
HomeSync’s 1TB drive can help you sync to multiple devices, providing shared or private storage for all your content. It supports eight separate accounts to cover a whole family, and allows each user to upload and download content from multiple devices and instantly share with other family members. File encryption and user-specific ID and password ensure content in a user’s private area remains separate from the shared area in HomeSync.
Entertainment on a Big Screen
The HomeSync brings the best of Android gaming, movies, TV shows and streaming content direct into your living room. It allows you to stream content from your Galaxy device wirelessly to the TV – letting you watch, see and use all your home videos, photos and apps, and all at a full HD 1080p.
Giving any HDTV new Smarts
Users can enjoy the full and familiar Android experience with HomeSync’s Jelly Bean media player and access to Play Store and all of your apps. HomeSync also enables new ways to interact with your content via the control modes enabled wirelessly on the phone.
HomeSync will be available from April 2013 in select countries and continue to expand globally.
*All functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.
*Android, Google, Android Beam, Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Latitude, Google Play Store, Google Play Books, Google Play Movies, Google Plus, YouTube, Google Talk, Google Places, Google Navigation, and Google Downloads are trademarks of Google Inc.
About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in technology, opening new possibilities for people everywhere. Through relentless innovation and discovery, we are transforming the worlds of televisions, smartphones, personal computers, printers, cameras, home appliances, LTE systems, medical devices, semiconductors and LED solutions. We employ 236,000 people across 79 countries with annual sales exceeding KRW 201 trillion. To discover more, please visit www.samsung.com.
After months of leaks and news , Samsung has finally launched the new Galaxy Note 8.0. The new 8 inch marvel sports an 8-inch 1,280 x 800 TFT display with an equivalent resolution to the 10.1 inch Note and a 189ppi density. Built along the lines of previous tablets with a plastic chassis the Note 8 has an Exynos 4 Quad processor set at 1.6GHz with 2GB RAM. The Galaxy Note 8 will also be capable of handling full Phone calls and Video calls directly from the unit itself, and it does have an earpiece.
The Galaxy Note 8.0 also has WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS, GLONASS and HSPA+ 21 (850/900/1900/2100MHz). On the inside of the Note 8 is up to 32GB of internal storage (microSD expansion separate), a nice and large 4,600mAh battery. The Galaxy Note 8.0 will come with version 4.1.2 of Jelly Bean onboard and the new TouchWiz Nature UX.
For Cameras the Galaxy Note 8.0 has and 8 MP rear and a 2.1 MP 5 MP Rear and 1.3 MP front facing camera, With the rear capable of full HD video at 1080p.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 will have the features found in the Note II and S3 and more recent devices including Smart Stay, Multi-Window and Air View functionality, Popup video and S Note, AllShare Play and Cast. Flipboard (designed to be used with S Pen’s hover and preview capabilities for headlines) and Awesome Note, which is debuting as a one-year exclusive.
The Unique feature that sets the Galaxy Note 8.0 apart from previous versions is the ability to use the Android buttons with the S Pen.
See a preview in the video below.
[toggle_box title=”Press Release” width=”Width of toggle box”]
INTRODUCING THE GALAXY NOTE 8.0,
A NEW ERA OF PORTABILITY AND EVERYDAY PRODUCTIVITY
SEOUL, Korea [February 24, 2011] – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, today announced the launch of the 8 inch tablet, the GALAXY Note 8.0; a new era of intelligent Note technology set to re-ignite the mid-size tablet category that Samsung established in 2010. Providing unrivalled multimedia performance within a compact one-hand-grip screen, the GALAXY Note 8.0 has the power and advanced technology to evolve the tablet experience and ensure you achieve new levels of efficient multi-tasking while benefitting from superb voice call functionality*. Furthermore, the intelligent S Pen brings together the latest innovation and the ease of using a traditional pen and paper; creating a sophisticated mobile experience that will enhance life on the go.
“Back in 2010 the launch of the first Samsung GALAXY Tab with 7 inch screen opened a new chapter in the mobile industry. Now almost three years later, Samsung continues to evolve the sector that meets the demands of modern life.” said JK Shin, President of the IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics.
“The GALAXY Note 8.0 breaths fresh life into the category as it delivers the perfect fusion of portability and everyday productivity – the result is a pioneering, pocket-sized solution that enhances and enriches our everyday lives, whether at work or play,” added Shin.
At the core of the GALAXY Note 8.0’s innovative solutions are beneficial functions, including multi-window options to split the portable 8inch screen and allow optimal access to a number of live applications; a new generation of Samsung’s intelligent S Pen with advanced usability; access to a suite of S Note templates and tools that allow you to create, edit, manage and share everyday documents; the Samsung “reading mode” technology to enjoy e books with optimized resolution, video and voice calls*. In addition, a suite of exciting new content and services are pre-loaded for users at no additional cost including, for the very first time on Samsung GALAXY tablet, the innovative Flipboard, and Awesome Note.
A smart diary for life on the go
Slim and compact enough to become the perfect on-the-go work and play companion, the GALAXY Note 8.0 brings powerful performance and functionality to support even the most demanding of lifestyles. Designed to store and manage your personal and professional data efficiently, the new era device gives users the perfect pocket-sized hands-on organizational tool. Practical S Note templates and S Planner feature help to manage everyday tasks, including meeting notes, to-do lists and even personal diary entries. All content can be entered and updated with the finest of detail thanks to the evolution of the intelligent Samsung S Pen. Enhanced precision is offered with Handwriting-to-Text conversion and advanced Productivity Tools that support formula and shape recognition are now available at the touch of your S Pen.
New content and services
GALAXY Note 8.0 is packed with pre-loaded content and apps specifically for the value maximizing, mass multimedia consumer. Upgraded Chat-On provides easy instant messaging and group chatting in multiple formats – images, video, voice, contacts – for simple, enjoyable communication. Awesome Note, an integrated application that is introduced in android tablet for the first time with NOTE 8.0, is capable of unlimited note-taking uses including Memo, Diary and Must-remember lists. With Flipboard, your news, social network and other feeds come together in one stylish, flippable format so you can enjoy all your news and life’s great moments in one place. Flipboard developed a customized version of its application exclusively for Samsung that allows users to take the S Pen’s hover feature and preview article headers beneath Flipboard’s main screen tiles. Finally, Smart Remote, gives you a universal remote control and electronic programming guide allowing you to manage TV and video watching seamlessly.
A new age of S Pen intelligence
Optimized to aid personalized creativity, the Samsung S Pen has evolved to increase everyday usability and enhance creation expression. Embedded within the tablet, the S Pen is an extension of the GALAXY Note 8.0. Removing the S Pen from the device will automatically launch innovative features such as Pen Detection that will suggest adapted menus that it thinks you’ll need and Page Buddy, a feature that will intuitively activate your most recently adapted S Note home screen.
S Pen technology is now so advanced that it doesn’t even have to touch the screen. With Air View, the S Pen needs only to hover over the screen to see previews of videos, emails, photos and appointments on SPlanner without opening the file or application in full. S Pen Gesture allows images and content to be easily edited and cropped, whilst Paper Artist and Photo Note allow photos to be artistically personalized.
In addition, for the very first time in GALAXY NOTE category, you can use S Pen to control the physical menu/back buttons on the device with WACOM technology.
Maximizing mass multimedia consumption
Creative multi-tasking with the GALAXY Note 8.0 is effortless due to innovative Dual View feature, two multi window options that seamlessly allow you to facilitate multi-screen usage. Dual View’s split screen accommodates optimal operation of different apps, such as launching the S Note on the web browser screen and allowing content to be resized, dragged and dropped as required.
Multi-tasking is extended to phone calls*. Pop Up Note allows you to access S Note at any time to keep track of key actions and Pop Up Video ensures you can keep surfing the web whilst chatting – content windows can be easily resized by pinching to enlarge or reduce.
Perfect info-tainment partner
Packed with features to engage, entertain and excite, the GALAXY Note 8.0 supports your practical everyday needs. Reading Mode transforms the GALAXY Note 8.0 into an e-Book reader, provides the optimal reading conditions to ensure you can curl up and enjoy a good book. You can even turn it into a universal remote control with Smart Remote, to seamlessly manage TVs, set-up boxes, DVD & Blu-ray players.
According to DDaily, a Korean journal with what seems like the scoop on all things Samsung, the Korean giant will be releasing the Galaxy S4 in the middle of next month, likely at a launch event on March 15th. It may be launched with similar design that of Galaxy S3, but it will be packed with amazing specs and features.
The report says that the Samsung Galaxy S4 will have the same “human-centric,” “organic” look along with the three button-setup. It is initially reported that Samsung experimented with a buttonless arrangement but in the end decided to stick with the familiar home, back and menu layout.
The newspaper says reports of the Galaxy S4 featuring a Wacom-based “S Pen” stylus like the Galaxy Note series are incorrect, but claims that the device will support “contactless” gestures. There’s not much detail about what this might entail, but it’s possible technology similar to that of the Sony Xperia Sola, which can detect fingers at a distance, might be used. Other reported hardware details include a 4.99-inch 1080p SuperAMOLED screen — a long-rumored component, and probably a safe bet at this point.
If Samsung chooses to use its in-house Exynos 5 Octa chipset to power the Galaxy S4 — and we’re almost certain the company will use an Exynos chip this time around — it stands to reason that there will be a fairly large battery cell included with the phone to accommodate all that extra horsepower.
The Galaxy S4 should be publicly unveiled in mid-March, ahead of a late March or early April release. Again, that timing makes sense if Samsung wants to deny Android competitors like HTC and Sony the chance to gain too much traction in the weeks following Mobile World Congress. And it’s not the first time we’ve heard rumors of an early April launch either.
Samsung’s Galaxy Note II has been an incredibly popular device, and now Samsung are launching a pink version of the handset just in time for Valentines Day, the device will go n sale some time between now and the 14th of February.
About a year ago last March, Samsung unveiled a hot-pink version of its first-generation Galaxy Note in Germany, and, in September, Korean customers got the Galaxy S3 in light pink.
We’ve been hearing whispers about new color outfits for the Galaxy Note 2 since the end of 2012, but pink may not be the only new shade on the horizon. Back in December, a photo that was believed to be a black version of the Galaxy Note 2 found its way online. This version of the phone, along with a topaz blue variant, are expected to be unveiled at this month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Slash Gear reported in December. In addition, the website also reported that we can expect to see the Galaxy S3 Mini in some new shades, as well.
As you might expect, this edition of the device only differs in looks. On the inside, where beauty really matters, everything’s still the same. You’re looking at a 5.5 inch Super AMOLED HD display with a 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos processor, 2GB of RAM, an 8 megapixel 1080p HD video camera, a 2 megapixel front camera, S Pen support, Jelly Bean and more.
The only reason the patent war between LG and Samsung hasn’t become more notorious is because it has been mostly overshadowed by the ongoing fight between the latter and Apple.
It turns out that was a good thing. The IT world could definitely do with a bit less drama, and a government ministry from South Korea helped eliminate this particular source of it.
Long story short, LG and Samsung have agreed to settle their patent disputes without pushing anything further through courts.
The decision was reached after the aforementioned government ministry persuaded the chief executive officers (CEOs) of Samsung Display and LG Display to meet.
The meeting took place in a Seoul hotel and ended with the legal stalemate being broken at last.
LG had filed a patent infringement lawsuit against fellow South Korean electronics giant Samsung over the latter’s use of advanced OLED display technology in smartphones and tablets, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The paper reported that alleged patent infringements include the design of OLED panels, driver circuitry and device design, and said LG intended to seek damages and a permanent injunction against the sale of accused devices in South Korea.
Devices accused of infringing LG’s patents include Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy SIII, along with the Galaxy Note phablet and the Galaxy Tab 7.7 tablet.
Apple’s share of the tablet market declined again in the fourth quarter of 2012 but the company still has twice the share of its nearest rival, Samsung.
Research firm IDC and their latest numbers are showing that current market leader Apple with their iPad are losing tablet market share. Apple’s tablet market share dropped from 51.7% to 43.6%, where in the last three months of 2012 Samsung jumped up to 15.1%.
When taking in consideration the year-over-year numbers, Samsung’s growth has been huge where a year ago they sold just 2.2 million tablets, and twelve months later they’re seeing sales of 7.9 million units.
IDC said the strongest growth came from Android, including tablets made by South Korea’s Samsung and Taiwan’s Asus, which makes a Google-branded Nexus tablet.
The survey found that Microsoft, which launched its new Surface tablet in the quarter, failed to break into the top five sellers and shipped a modest 900,000 of the devices in the quarter.
IDC said Amazon, which does not provide its own sales data, delivered some six million tablets in the quarter to retain its spot as the number three vendor.
That represented 26.8 percent growth, giving Amazon a market share of 11.5 percent, IDC said.
Fourth place belonged to Asus, which sold 3.1 million tablets, year-on-year growth of more than 400 percent. That gave the Taiwan-based firm a 5.8 percent market share. Barnes & Noble sold one million of its Nook tablets and accounted to 1.9 percent of the market, the survey found.
The tablet market is expected to get much more serious this year, with multiple Nexus tablets from Google, as well as Microsoft’s upcoming Surface Pro slate.
Today a few benchmark results have appeared on the web showing off a Samsung tablet device that will likely be appearing at Mobile World Congress 2013 for the first time in full. This device appears to be one of 3 or 4 new models appearing soon according to SamMobile, their tipster letting it be known that “Santos” is the code-name attached to the whole new Galaxy Tab 3 lineup.
This model could be the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0, Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1, or the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0, though the last entry on this list has also reportedly been dropped from final production.
With these benchmark results in effect we’ve got a 7-inch display on a tablet with 800 x 1280 pixel resolution, not all that fantastic, but certainly not low-end. You’ve also got Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean and a processor (with an unknown amount of cores) running at 1.5Ghz. This machine will likely be an incremental update resting on the specifications of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 which we reviewed mid-2012.
Additionally, Samsung is also making efforts to bring the Android-based Galaxy Tab 3 Plus or P8200 to the market. This is the high-end tablet we reported earlier that is expected to come in 16 and 32GB variants. Furthermore, a second generation Galaxy Note 10.1 codenamed Vienna may also be in the works.
