1Q2020: WorldWide smartphone market share: Samsung 21.1%, Huawei 17.8%, Apple 13.3%, says IDC.

 Worldwide smartphone shipments decreased 11.7% year over year in the first quarter of 2020 (1Q20), according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. In total, companies shipped 275.8 million smartphones during 1Q20. Although the first quarter usually experiences a sequential (quarter over quarter) decline in shipments, with the average sequential decline over the last three years hovering between -15% to -20%, this is the largest annual (year over year) decline ever.

The drop comes as no surprise as 1Q20 marked the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the peak of the lockdowns in China, which extended to the rest of the world by the end of the quarter. The largest regional decline in 1Q20 was in China, which saw shipments drop 20.3% year over year. Since China constitutes almost a quarter of worldwide shipments, this had a huge impact on the overall market. The global dependency on China for its smartphone supply chain also caused major issues as the quarter progressed. Other regions that contributed to the drastic worldwide decline were the United States and Western Europe, which declined by 16.1% and 18.3% respectively.

"What started as primarily a supply-side problem initially limited to China has grown into a global economic crisis with the demand-side impact starting to show by the end of the quarter," said Nabila Popal, research director with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "While the supply chain in China started to recover at end of the quarter, as IDC expected, major economies around the world went into complete lockdown causing consumer demand to flatline. Consumers get increasingly cautious about their spending in such uncertain times and it is hard to think smartphone purchases won't suffer as a result. This drop in demand, combined with the lockdowns and closures of retail shops across the globe, strongly impacted all consumer device markets, including mobile phones. As the uncertainties of the lockdowns and total economic impact linger, vendors are reconsidering their outlook for 2020."

"The Chinese market saw better than expected demand in March as the number of new COVID-19 cases began to ease. Nevertheless, the rate of recovery in March is mostly due to pent-up demand and is unlikely to be sustained as the global economic downturn is expected to have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy and consumer sentiment as well and only allow the market to achieve annual growth in the fourth quarter," said Will W o ng, research manager at IDC.

Smartphone Company Highlights

Samsung shipped 58.3 million smartphones in 1Q20 and regained its top position with 21.1% share despite an 18.9% year-over-year decline. This is primarily due to the continued success of the A series despite the launch of its premium 5G flagship, the Galaxy S20. However, the higher price of the S20 did help grow profits according to Samsung. Looking ahead, Samsung, like others, will face an uphill battle due to a lack of consumer demand, especially with two new premium devices (Note 20 and Fold 2) coming in the second half of the year.

Huawei held the number two position with a 17.8% share of the global smartphone market despite a decline in shipments of 17.1% year over year. The company reduced the impact of the downturn with early price cuts on Mate 30 and P30 series and in Honor's V30 and 9X series along with a diversified online-offline channel mix which helped reach consumers even during periods of hard lockdown.

Apple shipped 36.7 million iPhones in 1Q20, which placed the company in third with 13.3% share. However, shipments were down only 0.4% year over year, which is the lowest annual decline among the top 3 vendors. This is primarily due to the continued success of its iPhone 11 series. Looking forward, the launch of the recent SE (2020) device targeting the lower-priced segment could work well for the vendor if consumers shift their buying preferences towards more budget-friendly devices in the uncertain economic climate of 2020.

Xiaomi’s market share surpassed 10% for the first time with year-over-year growth of 6.1%. In India, the company launched the new Poco and Redmi products just before the full lockdown began, helping some of its 1Q20 numbers.

vivo returned to the Top 5 this quarter with 9.0% market share and 7.0% year-over-year growth, the largest annual growth rate among the top 5. Success in India has also been a key driver for vivo's low-end and mid-range Y and S series. Nevertheless, due to the full lockdown in India, vivo also faced delays in its product launch.

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LG WebOS software 4.72.10 update is available for download.

Japanese companies invent electrical tissue to destroy microbes, viruses, and bacteria

Japanese companies invent electrical tissue to destroy microbes, viruses, and bacteria.

Two Japanese groups, Murata Manufacturing and Teijin Frontier, invented a fabric capable of using motion to produce small amounts of electricity, thereby destroying microbes, viruses, and bacteria.

Called PIECLEX, the fabric has many uses, from garments capable of ending body odors to protective equipment such as masks, which are very necessary in these times of pandemic.

 Electricity is produced by stretching and contracting tissue, especially during a person's usual movements, in such small amounts that they cannot be felt by the user but are sufficient to destroy bacteria, microbes, or viruses that are on or within the fabric, both companies assure.

 We are able to prevent proliferation and make 99.9% of the bacteria and viruses that we have tested it harmless, ”a spokeswoman for Murata told AFP.

According to both firms, the fabric has a real interest in products such as sportswear, hygiene articles - diapers or masks - and even in industrial applications such as filters.

 

The next objective is to test its efficacy against the new coronavirus. However, at present, the two companies have problems obtaining the virus for testing, due to the very strict regulations regarding the management of infectious diseases by the competent agencies.

AFP

4Q 2019 Worldwide smartphone market share: Apple 18.9%, Samsung 18.4%, Huawei 15% says SA.

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments held steady at zero growth to reach 375 million units in the fourth quarter of 2019. Apple grabbed the first position with 19 percent global smartphone market share, Samsung claimed the second position, while Huawei dipped to 15 percent share in third place. Full-year smartphone shipments totaled 1.4 billion units in 2019.

Linda Sui, Director at Strategy Analytics, said, “Global smartphone shipments grew zero percent annually from 376.0 million units in Q4 2018 to 374.5 million in Q4 2019. Worldwide smartphone demand remains mixed for now, with sharp declines in China balanced by strong growth across India and Africa. Full-year smartphone shipments hit 1.41 billion in 2019, dipping 1 percent from 1.43 billion in 2018, due to mild inventory build in the second half of the year. Looking ahead, US trade wars and the China coronavirus scare will be among barriers to growth for smartphones in 2020.”

Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Apple iPhone shipments rose 7 percent annually from 65.9 million units worldwide in Q4 2018 to 70.7 million in Q4 2019. This was Apple’s best growth performance since 2015. Apple’s global smartphone market share has lifted from 18 percent to 19 percent in the past year. Apple is recovering, due to cheaper iPhone 11 pricing and healthier demand in Asia and North America. Samsung shipped 68.8 million smartphones worldwide in Q4 2019, dipping 1 percent annually from 69.3 million in Q4 2018. Samsung’s global market share stayed flat at 18 percent, the same level as a year ago. Samsung continues to perform relatively well across all price-bands, from the entry-level to premium models such as Galaxy Note 10+ 5G. On a full-year basis, Samsung remains number one with 21 percent market share in 2019.”

Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Huawei shipped 56.0 million smartphones worldwide in Q4 2019, sliding 7 percent annually from 60.5 million in Q4 2018. Huawei’s global market share has dipped from 16 percent to 15 percent in the past year. Despite strong 5G sales, Huawei is slowing at home in China and facing tougher competition abroad in key markets like Europe.”

Linda Sui, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Xiaomi maintained fourth place, capturing 9 percent global smartphone market share in Q4 2019, up strongly from just 7 percent a year ago. Xiaomi had a great quarter in Western Europe and held steady in its biggest market India. Xiaomi is pushing hard into the 5G smartphone category and this will be a solid growth area for the vendor in 2020. OPPO held the fifth position with an 8 percent global smartphone market share during Q4 2019, staying at the same level from a year ago. OPPO is expanding hard into Western Europe, with new models like the Reno 5G, but it remains under persistent pressure from giant Huawei at home in China.

For the full year 2019 smartphone worldwide market share, Samsung has a 20.9%, Huawei 17%, and Apple 14%.

The full report, Global Smartphone Shipments Hit 1.4 Billion in 2019, is published by the Strategy Analytics Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, details of which can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/y75uhw62 .

About Strategy Analytics

Strategy Analytics is a global, independent research and consulting firm. The company is headquartered in Boston, USA, with offices in the UK, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, and China. Visit www.strategyanalytics.com for more information.

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1 Numbers are rounded.

Samsung Billboards in Paris, Milan, Times Square NY, and Madrid hint its latest devices coming in Feb 11th.

Yesterday Samsung posted a teaser video about the shape of the future. Now the company is showing 4 billboards placed at Place de Concorde in Paris, in Duo de Milano, Milan, in Times Square, New York and Callao Square in Madrid.

Samsung will hold an UNPACKED GALAXY 2020  event in New York on Feb 11th, to unveil the Galaxy S20 Ultra, S20+, S20, and the Galaxy Z Flip.

 You can see the billboards below:

Place de la Concorde Paris.

Duo de Milano, Milan

Times Square, New York.

Callao Square, Madrid.

Samsung

Samsung Change the shape of the future video teaser. Galaxy Z Flip specifications.

Samsung is going to hold an UNPACKED event on February 11, 2020, in New York to unveil the new Galaxy trio family S20: Ultra, S20 + and S20 and probably alongside the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip new foldable smartphone with a clamshell form factor.

Some specifications of the Galaxy Z Flip:

6.7-inch foldable Infinity Flex display.

There’s also a tiny 1.06-inch display on the outside with Gorilla Glass 6. The 300×116 pixel resolution Super AMOLED display can show the time and notifications with the ability to be always-on.

RAM 8GB

Storage: 256GB

No microSD card slot

No 5G

Snapdragon 855+ processor.

Rear camera:  12-megapixel f/1.8 primary sensor and a 12-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle camera with a 123-degree field of view.

Front camera: The Galaxy Z Flip’s 10-megapixel front-facing camera supports autofocus.

Release date: February 14th, 2020 Price: EU 1500 ($1.650) to be confirmed 

Battery:  The Galaxy Z Flip has dual batteries like the Galaxy Fold. They provide it with a total capacity of 3,300mAh and support 15W fast charging and 9W wireless charging.

Year 2019 PC WorldWide market share: Lenovo 24.3%, HP 23.6%, Dell 17.5% says IDC.

 The worldwide market for traditional PCs, inclusive of desktops, notebooks, and workstations, finished an impressive 2019 with fourth-quarter growth of 4.8% year over year, according to preliminary results from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. Global shipments during the quarter beat forecast expectations at just under 71.8 million units, the highest single quarter shipment volume in five years (4Q14). Overall, global shipments grew 2.7% year over year in 2019, the first full year of PC growth since the market grew 1.7% in 2011.

"This past year was a wild one in the PC world, which resulted in impressive market growth that ultimately ended seven consecutive years of market contraction," said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "The market will still have its challenges ahead, but this year was a clear sign that PC demand is still there despite the continued insurgence of emerging form factors and the demand for mobile computing."

The holiday quarter capped an impressive run for PCs in 2019, where three out of four quarters delivered year-over-year growth. The storyline in the commercial sector for most of the year was around the momentum driven by businesses transitioning PCs over to Windows 10 before the end of support for Windows 7 arrives in January 2020. The continued business push specifically helped the top 3 players – Lenovo, HP, and Dell – to further consolidate their hold on the market with a combined share of just over 65% in 2019 (up from 63% in 2018). In addition, the impact of several other market challenges declined in the quarter. Concerns about CPU availability continued but were helped by the adoption of AMD CPUs while signs of easing trade tensions and other industry drivers helped to increase market uptake for the most important quarter of the year.

"Despite the positivity surrounding 2019, the next twelve to eighteen months will be challenging for traditional PCs as the majority of Windows 10 upgrades will be in the rearview mirror and lingering concerns around component shortages and trade negotiations get ironed out," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "Although new technologies such as 5G and dual- and folding-screen devices along with uptake in gaming PCs will provide an uplift, these will take some time to coalesce."

Regional Highlights

USA: The traditional PC market continued to see positive momentum in the fourth quarter of 2019, recording single-digit growth compared to the same period a year ago. Desktop and notebook categories both saw an increase in shipments as Windows 7 end of service (EOS) continued to loom large over the commercial segment, while the holiday season and fading concerns about tariffs contributed to a strong end of the year.

Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) (APeJ): The traditional PC market came in slightly above forecast with shipments expected to be flat year over year. In China, the consumer PC market beat the forecast with notebooks showing year-over-year growth thanks to stronger than anticipated demand during the Singles Day (11.11) promotions. Meanwhile, the commercial PC market was soft, affected by the uncertain economic situation in China. In other APeJ countries, hardware renewals related to Windows 10 migration and end-of-year budget spending combined to support commercial PC shipments.

Canada: The traditional PC market grew for the 14th consecutive quarter as commercial markets continued to do the heavy lifting. Desktop shipments easily surpassed expectations posting an impressive 15.0% year-over-year gain.

Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA): The traditional PC market continued its momentum in 4Q19, thanks to positive results from both desktops and notebooks. Despite the worsening of the CPU supply chain from Intel, which is expected to impact premium commercial products, the OEMs have been successful in securing components to deliver solid single-digit growth in the region.

Japan: The PC market maintained its Windows 7 EOS-driven momentum in 4Q19. The consumer segment is likely to show stronger growth in 2020 while the commercial segment should meet expectations.

Latin America: PC shipments were better than the year-over-year decline of 3.2% expected in 4Q19, despite weak macroeconomic indicators in the major economies and the political and social movements in the region in 2019. The improved results were mainly in portable devices for the commercial segment as some shipments were taken before the end of the year for education and government deals in the region.

Company Highlights

Lenovo retained the top position and made further share gains compared to 2018, finishing the year with a market share of 24.3%. Outside of the APeJ region, Lenovo grew in almost every other region and led all OEMs with 8.2% year-over-year growth in 2019.

HP Inc. PC volumes grew 4.8% in 2019 with strong fourth-quarter growth of 6.9%. HP did a good job navigating the CPU shortages throughout the year and as a result, was able to grow its market share to 23.6% (up from 23.1% in 2018).

Dell Technologies retained the third position in the PC market in 2019 and grew its market share 0.5 points over 2018 reaching 17.5% worldwide. Dell recorded its own record high for shipments during the holiday quarter and led the top OEMs with 10.7% year-over-year growth. The growth was largely thanks to a robust U.S. market mixed with strong commercial activity throughout North America and a few other important markets.

Apple's Mac volumes saw a decline in 4Q19 with 4.7 million units shipped, down 5.3% year over year. Apple's continued momentum in the iPad and iPhone space have more than offset its challenges with Mac volumes, however. Shipment volumes were also down 2.2% for the full year 2019.

Acer Group rounded out the top 5 with a 6.1% market share during the quarter and 6.4% for the year. Despite remaining in the top 5, Acer did see volumes decline 4.2% during 4Q19 and 4.6% for the year.

Download the New Microsoft Edge Chromium browser.

You can download the new Microsoft Edge Chromium now from this Microsoft site. It is an update of the current version and it is available for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, macOS, iOS and Android.

After you download the new browser and installed it, it will start up and show various options of settings including 3 avoid tracking levels that you can select.

MWC 2020: SONY will unveil new Xperia smartphones at a press conference on February 24th.

SONY will announce a new range of Xperia smartphones at MWC Barcelona 2020 in Monday, February 24th, 8:30 a.m and will live stream the conference on this address: www.youtube.com/user/sonyxperia

LG is rolling out WebOS 5.3 software 2020 version for smart TVs.

Some LG Smart TVs are receiving the 2020 WebOS software update from before version 4.0 to 5.3. At least this guy from techwibe has updated his LG LH 604T Smart TV to the new software version, as you can see on the picture below:

There are no details of the goods of the WebOS 5.3 software update that brings to the users, at this time.

Before related post:

https://worldwidegadget.blogspot.com/2019/12/ces-2020-lg-webos-new-version-software.html

Wi-Fi Certified 6 is here for advanced connectivity.

Capacity, efficiency, and performance for advanced connectivity

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™, the industry certification program based on the IEEE 802.11ax standard, provides the capacity, efficiency, coverage, and performance required by users today in the most demanding Wi-Fi® environments. Emphasizing quality connectivity in locations with hundreds or thousands of connected devices such as stadiums and other public venues, as well as corporate networks utilizing time-sensitive, high bandwidth applications, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 networks ensure each connected device performs at an optimum level. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 devices meet the highest standards for security and interoperability, and enable lower battery consumption, making it a solid choice for any environment, including the Internet of Things (IoT).

Key benefits of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 technology include:

• Higher data rates
• Increased capacity
• Performance in environments with many connected devices
• Improved power efficiency

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 provides the foundation for a host of current and emerging uses from streaming ultra-high-definition movies, to mission-critical business applications requiring high bandwidth and low latency, to stay connected and productive while traversing large, congested networks in airports and train stations.

Introducing Wi-Fi 6E

Wi-Fi operation in the 6 GHz frequency band will enable Wi-Fi to continue delivering positive experiences for the most bandwidth-intensive applications. Wi-Fi 6E brings a common industry name to identify devices that will offer the features and capabilities of Wi-Fi 6, extended to the

6 GHz band following regulatory approvals.

Wi-Fi 6E will utilize up to 14 additional 80 MHz channels and 7 additional 160 MHz channels in 6 GHz for applications such as high-definition video streaming and virtual reality. Wi-Fi 6E devices will leverage these wider channels and additional capacity to deliver greater network performance and support more Wi-Fi users at once, even in very dense and congested environments.

Innovation and performance in challenging environments

The ubiquity of Wi-Fi and its ability to complement other wireless technologies helps bring the promise of connecting everyone and everything, everywhere, closer to reality. Wi-Fi popularity has also created very diverse and densely populated Wi-Fi conditions, requiring technological advances to meet the needs of users. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 delivers improvements and new features that enable Wi-Fi devices to operate efficiently in the densest and dynamic connectivity settings.

Key capabilities:

• Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) effectively shares channels to increase network efficiency and lower latency for both uplink and downlink traffic in high demand environments
• Multi-user multiple inputs, multiple outputs (multi-user MIMO) allows more downlink data to be transferred at one time, enabling access points (APs) to concurrently handle more devices
• 160 MHz channel utilization capability increases bandwidth to deliver greater performance with low latency
• Target wake time (TWT) significantly improves network efficiency and device battery life, including IoT devices
• 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation mode (1024-QAM) increases throughput for emerging, bandwidth-intensive uses by encoding more data in the same amount of spectrum
• Transmit beamforming enables higher data rates at a given range to increase network capacity

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 devices bring enhanced performance to emerging applications such as virtual and augmented reality used in e-Learning, telepresence, and healthcare. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 also provides carriers and public Wi-Fi operators with more capabilities to support advanced connectivity in retail, stadiums, and transportation hubs, including a growing array of location-based applications and services.