8 Oct 2012

Mobile Phone
Samsung has estimated record profits in the 3 months to September, led by strong sales of its Galaxy smartphones. Samsung said it expects operating profits 4.5bn, nearly double last year's figure. The estimates beat analyst expectations sending Samsung shares 1.5% higher. (bbc)

Computing
Digitimes has reported that the PC manufacturers are gearing up to launch a wide range of entry-level Ultrabooks at a 430 price point. To maintain profitability, they will also continue to sell premium machines above 650. The cheaper models will sacrifice premium materials, instead relying on fiberglass-reinforced plastic or metal-plastic hybrid bodies. They will also run on traditional batteries, lack touchscreens for Windows 8 and use either slim hard drives or HDD/SSD hybrid drives. Comparatively, premium versions will have Lithium Polymer batteries, touchscreen interfaces and use aluminum unibody or carbon-fibre bodies. (techradar) Microsoft has sent out invites to a Windows 8 event which also includes a Surface tablet reception. The Surface tablet will go on sale the same day as Windows 8, meaning there will be a dual launch Oct. 26. (techradar)

Consumer Electronics/TV
Retail footfall YTD 2012 v 2011 was down 3% for the week ending 30th Sept 2012 (footfall.com) John Lewis sales rocketed 26.5% to 72.67m as the cold weather put customers in the right mood for shopping and Christmas buying began in earnest in the week to September 29. Electricals and home technology sales continued its impressive run with sales up 31.8% as tablets continued to sell well. Of the main line stores, Trafford and Swindon delivered the stand-out performances. (retailweek)

EE has announced that its 4G network will launch on 30 October. O2 & Vodafone have now agreed that they would not pursue legal action to block EE's roll-out. In return they have been promised that officials will accelerate the process to free airwaves so they can offer their own high-speed data services. Their 4G networks are due to launch in spring 2013. EE's network will cover 16 cities this year. The firm's target is be able to offer the facility to 98% of the UK's population by 2014. (bbc)

Printers/Cameras/E-readers
Kodak said on Friday said it would quit making desktop inkjet printers and focus on churning out ink for the millions of printers it already has sold. That abrupt about-face comes after Kodak has spent nearly a decade and many hundreds of millions of dollars to create the printers (democratandchronicle)

Gaming & Apps

TomTom navigation finally arrives on Android, but lacks compatibility with popular devices. The app supports devices with Android 2.2 or higher, running at either 800 x 480 or 854 x 480 resolutions, but the company is "committed to supporting higher resolutions on an ongoing basis." (techradar)

Social Media & Internet

Google has soared past Microsoft in terms of market value to become the second-richest firm in the tech world behind Apple. Google has a market capitalization of $249.1bn, whilst Microsofts market cap is $247.2bn. Both remained well behind Apple, which has a market cap of $618bn. (telegraph)

8 Oct 2012

QR code usage up 96% in Europe

UK still lagging behind Germany, Spain and Italy

European Highlights
European smartphone users are scanning QR codes like nobody's business, with new figures revealing a 96% increase compared with a year ago. A report from comScore said 17.4 million users in Germany, Italy, France, Spain and the UK scanned a code in the three months leading up to June 2012. The Germans led the way with 18.6% of users embracing the scannable barcodes, which often lead to restaurant menus, travel info, company websites, concert ticket sites & other special offers.

UK in 5th spot
UK users are lagging behind with only 11.4% of smartphone users engaging with the codes. The most popular use for the QR codes, according to the comScore report, is to find further information about a certain product. 71% of scans, across Europe, were for this purpose. 31.8% of people scanned to find event information, while 19.4% of users were seeking special offers and 13.4% of users were using the codes to download apps.

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