As with recent stats from Animoca for its native Hong Kong, the smartphone landscape in Singapore is dominated by Samsung. The top five Android phones observed in Singapore are all Samsung models, with the lead four all being big-screen models. It’s not a total whitewash, as Sony and HTC get a look-in as well. Here’s the top ten in full:

Good news for all app developers is that this mature market is keen on the latest software as well, with versions of Android 4.0 and 4.1 on 52.8 percent of all those phones. But there are still plenty of older – or budget – phones in use, with 16.5 percent of Singaporeans on Android 2.3.6. However, Hong Kongers are more on the cutting edge, where 58 percent are rocking Android 4.0+.

via article.joinsmsn.com/

I’m not sure if this will be a boost to HTC’s sales or not, but it appears that Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of North Korea, carries a HTC phone. North Korea’s Central News Agency caught a picture of the phone at a national security meeting where Kim Jong-un had the Taiwanese-made handset on the desk.

This isn’t the first time a political leader’s phone has come under public scrutiny. US President Barack Obama has been known to carry a Blackberry and spend hours before sleeping on his iPad. Wen Jiabao, China’s outgoing prime minister, it seems, uses a Nokia slider. World leaders beware, take your choice of gadget seriously.

In North Korea, citizens aren’t allowed to access the internet via mobile phones. In fact, numbers from the South Korean Ministry of Unification indicate that there may be 1.7 million mobile phones in the country by this year. That’s roughly 6 percent of the population. Most of the phones are smuggled in from China and the North Korean government is known to carry sensors that track device usage. Clever citizens often use the phones for a short period, and in crowded areas, so as not to get caught.

Given looser restrictions on foreigners bringing cellphones into the country, a quest for economic growth, and hints of technology opening up under the youngest supreme leader in the land, are we about to see a Korean Spring?

If the picture of the supreme leader sporting an Android-powered HTC phone gets out in Pyongyang, you can be sure that those who can afford it (a particularly small segment of the population) will be grabbing one. But will HTC be opening a store in Pyongyang? Probably not.

UPDATE: HTC has apparently responded to these reports by saying simply: we are thankful for all of our users.

(Source: Taipei Times and Image Source)

When Taiwanese media discovered that HTC was using student interns as laborers and accused it of basically running sweatshops (a charge HTC is not wholly unfamiliar with), the company responded that it was all part of a government-approved internship program. But, legal or no, HTC is reportedly saving around $15 million on wages by ‘employing’ student interns in some jobs instead of proper workers.

This trend is bad for workers, and I suspect it’s also pretty bad for students. Aside from a few avenues of study at technical colleges, it’s difficult for me to imagine how spending hours on an assembly line provides skills that are in any way relevant to students’ chosen fields. HTC says that the curriculum was designed by HTC, its partners, and the Taiwanese Ministry of Education, but I wonder how much say in the matter students had.

This isn’t just a tech industry phenomenon, either. Forced internships are common in many industries in China (I’m not sure about Taiwan) because they are good for the schools (which get kickbacks for providing cheap labor) and the factories (which get cheap labor). They’re bad for the students, of course, but the students have no power to change anything, and most are told that if they do not complete their internship they will not receive a degree.

It’s a really unsettling system of exploitation, and I hope that companies like HTC and the many companies Foxconn serves will step in to abolish it. Perhaps I’m in the minority here, but I wouldn’t mind paying a few extra dollars for my electronic gadgets if that meant I could feel confident they were built by voluntarily employed workers paid a fair wage, and not forced student interns making a pittance.

(image source)

Taiwan’s Digitimes Research has a new report out looking at the smartphone landscape in mainland China. It states that sales of smartphones in China – across all platforms, like iPhone and Android – are expected to grow 137 percent year-on-year to 189 million devices in 2012.

It’s expected that 86 percent of fourth quarter sales in China will be Android phones (with 50.8 million Androids sold in Q4). For the year as a whole, that amounts to an impressive 157 million Android smartphones sold in China during the whole year, which is up 260 percent from a year ago.

The new report also signals a shift towards Chinese consumers favoring domestic smartphone brands, with local brands expected to account for 61 percent of China’s smartphone market in 2012 led by Lenovo. That syncs with Canalys data we saw last month which pointed out that China’s top five smartphone brands are, in descending order, Samsung, Lenovo, CoolPad, Huawei, and ZTE. That’s very bad news for the once-beloved HTC; as for other overseas phone-makers, only Samsung and Apple appear to be making a strong showing this year.

This all seems to be on a par with what Canalys said earlier this year. It found that China “accounted for 27 percent of the 158 million global smartphone shipments” back in Q2 alone.

[Source: Digitimes and Digitimes Research]

Japanese carrier KDDI (TYO:9433) has announced the launch date for its much anticipated HTC J Butterfly. The handset will go on sale in Japan this Sunday, December 9. This is the flagship model among KDDI’s winter lineup of Android phones, which we had a look at back in October. The HTC J Butterly will, like the rest of that lineup, be compatible with the carrier’s 4G LTE service.

The J Butterly – also known as the Droid DNA in the US – will feature a very large 5-inch, 440ppi super LCD 3 display, and will run on Android 4.1. It also will be NFC-capable, and include mobile wallet functions, as well as one-seg video. It will be available in black, white, and red.

For Taiwanese manufacturer HTC (TPE:2498), a lot is riding on the hopes of this model, as well as the Windows Phone 8 handsets that it has rolling out around asia. The company’s revenue has been sliding off a cliff in recent quarters, and HTC has a daunting task ahead if it hopes to turn things around.

Check out KDDI’s promo video for the handset below, which highlights many of the phones features. You can learn more about the HTC J Butterfly over on the KDDI website (Japanese).

Authorities at Taiwan’s stock exchange confirmed to Sina Tech that they were indeed investigating the unusual jump in price. But while the jump could indicate foul play and the timing is certainly suspicious, the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s senior executive VP told the Wall Street Journal that there are automated systems in place that trigger an investigation into any spike like HTC’s, and the stock exchange does not appear to have obtained any evidence of criminal behavior yet.

If no wrongdoing is found, the price jump would be HTC’s biggest gain in stock price so far this year. 7 percent is the maximum daily price growth allowed in the Taiwan Stock Market, but over the week as a whole, HTC’s stock jumped 15 percent in its best performance so far this year. Of course, any criminal wrongdoing that is uncovered could send shares tanking, so a lot of HTC investors are probably a bit on edge right now. But whether HTC’s celebrations of the end of its patent war with Apple will truly be tempered by a criminal case remains to be seen.

[via Sina Tech and NASDAQ]

L-R: The HTC 8X, the Huawei Ascend W1, and the Nokia 920.

An industry source in China, cited by Sohu IT and Marbridge Daily, says that six new Windows Phone 8 (WP8) smartphones are lauching in the country in December. The rollout will mark the debut of Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) revamped mobile OS in China, a mere eight months after the initial WP7 found its way onto the local market.

Three phone-makers will be spear-heading the WP8 launch here: Nokia (HEL:NOK1V; NYSE:NOK), HTC (TPE:2498), and Huawei. These are the six colorful contenders that they have lined up:

• Nokia will unveil the China-bound, WP8-powered Lumia 920, Lumia 920T, and Lumia 820 at an event in Guangzhou on December 5th. The model with the ‘T’ suffix is destined for China Mobile, and supports the requisite TD-SCDMA protocol for 3G.
• HTC will do a local launch for the 8X and 8S the next day in Beijing. The source claims that the models will go to both China Unicom and China Telecom. The 8X is expected to cost just over 4,000 RMB (US$636).
• Huawei will show its Ascend W1 phone sometime in mid-December. It’s not known which telco’s 3G network it will support. With a lowly 480×800 pixels screen, it’ll be the cheapest of the bunch at just 2,500 RMB ($400).

In June of this year we heard that the uptake of WP7 in China has been fairly brisk, and that the country is already the second-biggest market in the world for WP devices – with the US out front.

[Source: Marbridge Daily]

Things aren’t looking good for Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC (TPE:2498). If you look at the chart from HTC’s Q3 results deck (see right), you can see how revenue and profit just kept sliding.

The forecast for 4Q12 is set at NT$60 billion ($2 billion), an expected 14 percent drop compared to this quarter. With the holiday season and crazy Chinese buying habits for 11/11, numbers should go up. But probably won’t be the case for HTC as it has predicted its own fate.

An IDC report released yesterday showed that HTC shipped about 7.3 million units in 3Q 2012, which represents four percent of the smartphone market share, a six percent drop compared to the same period in the previous year. Meanwhile just north of Taiwan, Korean giant Samsung has a whopping 31.3 percent market share for 3Q 2012, a 8.6 percent gain compared to 3Q 2011.

Is HTC screwed? Things certainly don’t look good. But there is a glimmer of hope for the company, at least, and it comes in the form of its slick new HTC J Butterfly. So far it’s only available in Japan (we had a look at it at a KDDI event recently), but leaked images suggest that it could be making its way to Verizon in the US market soon, where it would go head-to-head with Samsung’s flagship model, the Galaxy S3. [Via Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch]

[Download image version of chart]

KDDI (TYO:9433) unveiled its winter mobile line up this afternoon in Tokyo, with a number of new Android devices stepping into the spotlight. All 10 devices (nine smartphones and a tablet) on display are compatible with the carrier’s 4G LTE service.

Here’s a quick rundown of the new line up, and a brief overview of their specs.

• HTC J Butterfly
• Sony Xperia VL
• Samsung Galaxy S III Progre
• Sharp Aquos Phone Serie
• Fujitsu Arrows ef
• LG Optimus G
• Pantech Vega [1]
• Casio G’zOne Type L
• Kyocera Digno S
• Sharp Aquos Pad

HTC J Butterfly

The headliner of KDDI’s event was the HTC J Butterfly, running on Android 4.1 with a quad core processor. It boasts a 5-inch, 440ppi, super LDC 3 display, and with Beats Audio built in that makes it a pretty impressive mobile media device. The Butterfly will have 2GB of RAM and 16 GB of onboard storage, and feature NFC, mobile wallet functions, and one-seg video. It will be available in Japan in December.

Sony Xperia VL

• Android 4.0
• 4.3 inch HD TFT display
• 1 GB of RAM
• 16 GB of onboard storage
• weight: 120 grams
• NFC, Mobile wallet, One seg
• Coming in November

Samsung Galaxy S III Progre

• Android 4.0
• 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED display
• 2 GB of RAM
• 32 GB of onboard storage
• weight 141 grams
• Mobile wallet, One seg
• Coming in November

Sharp Aquos Phone Serie

• Android 4.0
• 4.7 inch HD S-CG Silicon display
• 1 GB of RAM
• 16 GB of onboard storage
• weight: 148 grams
• NFC, Mobile wallet, One seg
• Coming in November

Fujitsu Arrows ef

• Android 4.0
• 4.3 inch HD TFT display
• 1 GB of RAM
• 8 GB of onboard storage
• weight: 139 grams
• NFC, Mobile wallet, One seg
• Coming in November

LG Optimus G

• Android 4.0
• 4.7 inch HD IPS display
• 2 GB of RAM
• 16 GB of onboard storage
• weight: 143 grams
• NFC, Mobile wallet, One seg
• Coming in November

Kyocera Digno S

• Android 4.0
• 4.7 inch HD TFT display
• 1 GB of RAM
• 16 GB of onboard storage
• weight: 157 grams
• NFC, Mobile wallet, One seg
• Coming in November

Pantech Vega

• Android 4.0
• 4.3 inch HD TFT display
• 1 GB of RAM
• 16 GB of onboard storage
• weight: 134 grams
• NFC, Mobile wallet, One seg
• Coming in November

Casio G’zOne Type L

• Android 4.0
• 4.0 inch WVGA IPS display
• 1 GB of RAM
• 8 GB of ROM
• weight: 181 grams
• Mobile wallet, One seg
• Coming in November

Sharp Aquos Pad

• Android 4.0
• 7 inch WXGA IGZO display
• 1 GB of RAM
• 16 GB of onboard storage
• weight: 280 grams
• NFC, One seg
• Coming in December

(Image via 591hx.com)

The hi-tech manufacturing hub around the city of Shenzhen, in southern China, is set to be hit with a rise in the minimum wage of 13.3 percent in 2013. According to Wired, that could cause something of a shockwave through gadget manufacturers in that area – Taiwanese OEMs like Foxconn [1], for example, which does the final assembly of so many Apple products – that might result in inflated costs for the phones, tablets, and other gadgets we love to buy.

But after weighing up the figures and considering the changing manufacturing landscape in China, we don’t think this’ll make too hard an impact on consumers. For one, Shenzhen saw its minimum wage go up in February this year already, by 13.6 percent, to stand at 1,500 RMB (US$236) per month. The anticipated hike for 2013 shouldn’t be a surprise, as the China Daily points out that, “Local governments are required to raise their minimum wage levels at least once every two years.” If it does rise 13.3 percent next year, probably again in February during Chinese New Year, then it’ll stand at 1,700 RMB ($268).

Other factors come into play, too. Shenzhen is not quite the manufacturing hub that it once was, and it seems that the international media haven’t yet followed the trail of gadget guts to newer tech hubs in, say, Jiangsu province in eastern China – where a great deal of Samsung, Apple, and Nokia components are made – or to much poorer inland areas where land and labor costs are significantly lower. And so minimum wages in other regions of the country are more of a factor than ever before.

Taiwan’s Foxconn (LSE:HHPD; HKEX:2038; TPE:2354) has blazed this trail, and it has already had a profound – and positive – impact on one town in central China’s Henan province where Foxconn’s two-year old plant now accounts for 48 percent of the province’s total exports. And others have moved too. Acer was making about 30 to 40 percent of its notebooks in the municipality of Chongqing by the end of last year; Philips opted for Chengdu in neighboring Sichuan province; others, such as Dell, are shifting to central China too, and are even looking towards ‘shipping’ by train directly to Europe from China’s amply hilly bosom.

So, the Shenzhen minimum wage hike is good for its factory workers – so long as greedy local landlords don’t screw them for extra rent once again – in an area that’s definitely not cheap to live in. But labor costs in other areas of China need to be taken into account as well, and so gadgets shouldn’t see noticeable or alarming price hikes in the coming year.

2G vs 3G vs Wifi

Among all the mobile visitors to Baidu, we also see a strong trend in greater 3G usage, now up to 15.6 percent of pageviews, up from just 6 percent exactly a year ago. If those visitors are broken down by iOS and Android versus everyone else, it should be no surprise that 3G usage wins out:

Phone brands

Apple accounts for a strong 8 percent of such visits to Baidu sites, which is impressive for just a few models of iPhone and iPad. That makes it the third most-used brand of mobile device, by Baidu’s observations. Nokia still (though not for much longer) reigns over Samsung:

Breaking down the Android space, it should be no surprise that Samsung and HTC rule the roost. Huawei is a very strong third, with 9.8 percent; but that’s down a bit from the previous quarter. The smaller homegrown phone-maker Xiaomi sure is making an impact, with its one single model now accounting for 4 percent:

But the iPhone remains the king, just as it was when I last looked in 2011 Q4. At that time, the iPhone was the biggest model observed visiting Baidu, with 4.48 percent, but now it has rocketed to 9.6 percent in the newest stats. The Xiaomi M1 makes an appearance as well:

Mobile OS

Android is, as we expected, now bigger than ever before – the new stats show that 21.4 percent of all Baidu’s mobile hits were on Android devices. The Symbian S60 platform, as seen in many recent Nokias, holds on to a shrinking third spot. But the presence of the generic “feature phone” label, and other JAVA-based OSes like MTK and S40, shows that non-smartphones – like the Nokia 5233 that’s ranked second only to the iPhone in terms of popular models – are still widespread across China. That gives smartphone makers a lot of scope for growth.

Changing Telcos

The search giant is seeing a sea change in the dominance of China Mobile (NYSE:CHL; HKG:0941) – it’s now seriously ebbing away, flowing to a rising China Telecom (NYSE:CHA; HKG:0728):

For the full PDF report, head to the ‘Baidu Open Mobile’ page.

It has been another record-breaking quarter of smartphone sales in China with more than 42 million shipped in the country in Q2 2012. That’s from the newest report by the analysts Canalys. That represents 199 percent year-on-year growth in smartphone sales in China, and 32 percent up on the previous quarter.

Canalys also notes that:

China accounted for 27 percent of the 158 million global smartphone shipments, compared to 16 percent for the United States.

Samsung (005930:KS) remained the top smartphone vendor in China with 17 percent market share of sales. (Backing up web impressions stats we looked at last year showing that Chinese consumers love the Samsung Galaxy SII). But it can’t be complacent, as its sales were pretty flat. In second-, third, and fourth-place are, respectively, ZTE, Lenovo, and Huawei – all local brands. Lenovo saw astonishing 2,665 growth in shipments – but then it’s always easier to improve on a previously crappy performance. Apple fell to fifth place despite being up 102 percent year-on-year. HTC grew 389 percent, mainly on the back of its new Desire V phones which look to be replicating the success of the first Desire model. Nokia and Motorola both fell sharply.

Here’s all that condensed into our one simple graphic for China [1]:

The one primary winner among all this is Android, Google’s mobile OS, which is now on 68 percent of all smartphones sold globally. Apple’s iOS, by contrast, is on just 26 million of them.

Samsung is on top worldwide with “over 45 million” smartphones sold – that’s 35 percent of the pie. Apart from Taiwan’s HTC, no Chinese brands cracked the top five. Yet. Interestingly, that differs from IDC recent report for the same period that declares ZTE a new-comer in the global top five smartphone brands.

[Source: Canalys; via TechCrunch]

This year and last has seen a wave of smartphones and mobiles OSes being launched by Chinese web companies such as Alibaba (Aliyun), Qihoo, Shanda, Baidu, and Xiaomi. All those are very familiar names to web users in China, and the phones – some of which I recently looked into in detail – are pretty sweet. In fact, these represent a huge threat to hardware makers who’re currently doing well in China – namely Apple, HTC, Samsung, and Motorola. Hey, they might even threaten other Chinese phone-makers such as ZTE and Huawei.

Here are six reasons why I think these (mostly) Android-based phones from Chinese web companies could soon by depriving Samsung et al of tens of millions – and, later, hundreds of millions – of Android smartphone sales:

1. Cheaper - Starting with the dramatic Xiaomi phone launch that emphasised its 1,999 RMB (then $313) price tag with giant numerals, getting your hands on one of these is generally a lot cheaper than mid-range new products from the likes of HTC, Samsung, or Motorola. For example, HTC unveiled the Daren phone for China after the Xiaomi release, but it was a low-end, smallish-screen handset that cost a few bucks more than the dual-core Xiaomi with the four-inch screen. Motorola has been trying a bit harder to make models that are adapted to local consumers, but they’re not able to compete on price either. To make it even tougher, the new Shanda Bambook phone has taken dual-core, hi-res screen prices down to as little as 1,299 RMB.

2. Better pre-installed software - Being web and/or software companies, the makers of these new Chinese smartphones make some superb apps – light years ahead of what the hardware makers tend to pre-install. It’s all useful stuff from popular services – like Baidu’s Ting for music streaming, or Shanda’s Mknote for cloud note syncing – and none of the undeletable crapware that users have suffered in the past.

3. Brands are more recognizable and accessible - Allied to that last point, web companies like Alibaba and Baidu are well known, and feel a lot more familiar – and perhaps trustworthy – to consumers than the more abstract moniker behind a hardware maker like ZTE or Motorola.

4. Not pre-flashed - On a more obscure point, it’s worth noting that a lot of people in China buy grey-import phones that have been smuggled into China. They tend to be cheaper, having avoided import taxes. But then these “grey” phones almost always – especially for the easily tweaked Android platform – get “flashed” with a different ROM by some shady middleman who gets a cut for preinstalling some apps or third-party app stores on it. Needless to say, having random people who work outside of the law tweaking your phone is a very bad idea in terms of digital security.

5. More likely to get updates - As a corollary to that previous point, those pre-flashed phones will never get software updates from the manufacturer as they have been too heavily modified. But these new breed of smartphones will get updates. Xiaomi pushes monthly minor updates, and will eventually update its M1 phones to Android 4.0, and Alibaba has pushed Aliyun 2.0 to its customers.

6. Chinese consumers prefer unlocked phones - And it’s unlocked phones that the web companies are dishing out, avoiding the telco contracts (and telco crapware; see #2) that are not a popular choice.

What’s your take on these new competitors? Hit the comments, and add your own points in favor – or against!

Before we get to the shiny charts: a quick reminder that this is data gathered based on Baidu pageviews, so it doesn’t apply to the entire Chinese mobile web browsing market. That said, Baidu has such a huge percentage of China’s overall search market share that Baidu’s numbers are likely very representative of overall internet trends in China.

OK, let’s get to it! Here are the top twenty handset models in China, by percentage of Baidu pageviews (note the Android handsets in green):

That iPhone stat has nearly doubled since we looked at Baidu’s previous report for 2011 Q4. At that time the iPhone’s lion’s share was at 4.48 percent.

It’s interesting to look at the massive contrast between this and the data we saw yesterday, which indicates that iOS users account for just 5.8 percent of mobile web browsing. Of course, the data is not contradictory; rather that big iPhone bar is the result of Apple’s limited handset offerings — there is only the iPhone. In contrast, note that while no single Nokia handset is anywhere near as popular as the iPhone, eight of the top twenty handsets are made by Nokia.

Diving more specifically into Android handsets, the fastest-growing segment of China’s smartphone market, we can also see some interesting things:

One of the most interesting things about this graph is the popularity of Xiaomi’s mi-one (also called M1) handset, apparently the fourth-most-popular handset model despite being only available in limited quantities and being generally difficult to find. That certainly bodes well for Xiaomi’s future device launches. Also of note are HTC and Samsung, whom eagle-eye readers (or just readers who can count) will note each have five devices on the top twenty list. Overall, there’s no one handset that’s blowing any of the others out of the water here. It will be very interesting to see how this graph looks a year from now, once the market has been flooded with the low-priced, Android-based smartphones we’ve been writing so much about lately.

The Infographic of the Day series visually expresses important stories from Asia and the world of technology.

Mobile ad platform InMobi has been busy these past few days crunching ad impressions stats from across Asia, giving us insights into growing smartphone usage in various countries. Now it’s Hong Kong’s turn, where mobile advertising grew 656 percent from Q4 2010 to the same period at the end of 2011. But the picture in Hong Kong is a bleak one for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), whose iOS presence in the Chinese SAR fell 16.1 percent; in contrast, Android seemed to grow by a staggering 36.8 percent, and is now the dominant mobile OS in Hong Kong by some margin.

Smartphones as a whole now account for 80 percent of all of InMobi’s observed advertising impressions, squeezing down features-phones – or “advanced phones” as the company calls them – from 38 percent at the end of 2010 down to just 20 percent at the end of 2011.

It’s all in interesting contrast to InMobi’s stats for Vietnam, which we looked at last week – but of course, Hong Kong is a technologically much more advanced market.

There’s also good news for Samsung (005930:KS) in there, as it now has the first- and third-most popular phone in Hong Kong. Here’s the full infographic, which you can click to enlarge:

We wrote about Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC (TPE:2498) and its new One Series a couple of weeks back during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. And today in Singapore, the HTC One X (the flagship Android model) and V were both unveiled in at a media launch.

The One Series is said to rival traditional digital cameras with improvements to every part of the camera, including the lens, sensor, software, and even integrating a new custom HTC ImageChip. You can activate the camera almost instantaneously in 0.7 seconds and auto-focus in 0.2 seconds.

The One X has an 8.0 megapixel rear-facing camera, a 1.3 megapixel front camera, and can do 1080p HD video recording. The One V has 5.0 megapixel camera and does 720p HD video recording, but does not have a front-facing camera.

HTC shows off the camera. Click to enlarge.

With HTC Smart Flash in place, it claims to take better photos than Apple’s iPhone 4S in low light environments. You can also hold onto the shutter button and take up to 99 continuous shots at 4 frames per second. Personally, I really love the ability to record HD video and snap photos at the same time, just by hitting the shutter button.

The One Series also features Dropbox space for two years, which is more than enough space for 10,000 high-quality photos. I didn’t think this was particularly groundbreaking as compared to the other functions they introduced though.

For a richer and more authentic sound experience, they have also integrated Beats by Dr. Dre Audio into the HTC One Series. It is easy to access and listen to your playlists with the built-in HTC Sync Manager software, which automatically installs to your computer when connected. You can also customize the new Music Hub with your favorite music applications, such as Doubletwist, Zimly, and Soundhound.

Also, with its HTC Car Stereo Clip, you can bring your mobile music to your car’s sound system and connect to more than 50,000 online radio stations worldwide or play music from any service or app through your car speakers.

HTC has also made it easy to transfer what is playing on your phone to the TV screen wirelessly. All you need to do is to plug in the HTC Media Link HD accessory into the HDMI port of any HDTV, and then HTC One smartphones automatically senses the Media Link HD, configures, and using three fingers to swipe, you can share what is on your phone with your family. Even when you’re sharing on the TV screen, you can still continue to surf the internet or even check your emails on the phone.

I personally prefer the 4.7-inch display HTC One X in Polar White, it looks and feels absolutely stunning. One X has the new NVIDIA Tegra 3 Mobile Processor for clear graphics, faster applications, and longer battery life. It’s powered by a 1.5GHz Super 4-PLUS-1 quad-core processor and a high-performance 12-Core NVIDIA GPU. It will be available in select 4G LTE markets with the LTE-enabled Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor.

The HTC One X handset will be available in Polar White and Glamour Grey at S$898 (US$715). As for the HTC One V, it will be available in a color called ‘Jupiter Rock’ at S$398 (US$317). They will be available at all Singapore mobile operators and authorized retailers starting next Monday.

A big thanks to the representative who gave me a hands-on demo of the camera, which I put into the video below (apologies for the poor resolution):

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has just wrapped up its own launch event in Beijing for its new mobile operating system, WP7. It marks the official Chinese debut of the software, which will hit the shelves by the end of the month on new devices from Nokia, HTC, and ZTE.

Here are some of the event highlights, along with photos from various sources on Sina Weibo:

The hour-long launch focused on usability and readiness, emphasising that 2,000 Chinese-made apps – out of over 70,000 WP7 titles – have already been made, allowing potential switchers in China to be able to do all the social networking, gaming, and online shopping that they’d expect on a new smartphone:

Among the new apps was one on display from e-commerce site 360Buy (pictured below), and plus there are a number of updates to the early-bird Chinese WP7 apps that we looked at last summer:

WP7-powered phones from Nokia (HEL:NOK1V; NYSE:NOK), HTC (TPE:2498), and ZTE (HKG:0763; SHE:000063) all got a quick live demo:

China Telecom’s (NYSE:CHA; HKG:0728) deputy GM, Yang Xiaowei, hit the stage to explain in brief that his company will launch a CDMA version of Nokia’s Lumia 800 next week in conjunction with Nokia itself:

Weird interpretative dance. Apple doesn’t give you stuff like that!

ZTE’s contender will be this, the WP7-powered Mimosa:

HTC’s will be the HTC Triumph, which is a remake of the Titan phone:

Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud service got some stage time, with the focus on its 25GB of storage compared to only 5GB on Apple’s iCloud:

That’s it for now. Nokia is expected to be in action this time next week launching its Lumia WP7 phones in China, probably with China Telecom, and maybe the other two mobile telcos as well.

[Most images from Popmobile’s Weibo page - thanks!]

The Windows Phone 7 enthusiasts at the Chinese site WPDang have gotten hold of a China-spec HTC Triumph (aka: HTC Titan), pictured above, which looks likely to launch later this week. The HTC (TPE:2498) WP7-powered smartphone reveals how Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) will localize its mobile OS for Chinese consumers, packing it with relevant pre-installed apps and ditching sync services to Twitter and Facebook, both of which are blocked in China.

And so the HTC Triumph will come pre-loaded with apps for Chinese web services and social media such as Baidu, Youku, Qunar, and Tencent’s Weixin. While some of this selection are indeed pre-installed, others are just links to the app in the WP7 Marketplace.

But a lot has been removed from WP7 – the latest 7.5 ‘Tango’ – for China, such as the banishment of Twitter and Facebook syncing from the People Hub area. Weirdly, LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) has been ditched as well, despite the fact that it’s not blocked in China. Disappointingly, no local social media have been added in their place – not even Sina or Tencent Weibo. And so that just leaves the options for Windows Live or Google accounts:

XBox Live support has not been ripped out, but it has been hidden from view of Chinese WP7 users, as the gaming network is not officially launched in China. Indeed, game consoles as a whole are a legal grey area in China. But a tweak of your location in the Windows Live ID settings will enable the XBox Live goodness.

Overall, the Chinese WP7 experts at WPSauce, who first translated the original Chinese scoop, were not too impressed with what they saw, joking that it has taken a year and a half for Microsoft to delete stuff from the OS in readiness for its launch in China. And I must agree with that; I was expecting more than just a bunch of pre-installed apps for WP7’s Chinese debut.

Perhaps Nokia (HEL:NOK1V; NYSE:NOK) will come up with some interesting Lumia-only features for its own WP7 phones, which CEO Stephen Elop has said will launch on March 28th.

Hit the source links for more images and details on the HTC Triumph.

[Source: WPDang (in Chinese), via WPSauce]

With China’s Congress in session, the Minister of Industry and IT, Miao Wei, has revealed that the country will not launch a 4G mobile network for another two to three years. Although 4G trials are currently underway in a few cities, the minister said that the timing was dictated by the building of the higher-speed network’s base-stations, which ought to exceed 200,000 by the end of 2013. And that’s when a nationwide roll-out might actually happen.

For now, China Mobile (NYSE:CHL; HKG:0941) will have to make do with its 3G network which uses the home-grown TD-SCDMA protocol that’s not used anywhere else in the world. This has made it tough to get killer devices onto the network – though it finally did last year, with help from the likes of Motorola (NYSE:MMI) with its customized-for-China Atrix phone. But the country’s leading mobile network needs another boost, prompting one China Mobile executive to hint that China Mobile will soon launch a Windows Phone 7 (WP7) device – that would most likely by a HTC or Nokia model. Both HTC (TPE:2498) and Nokia (NYSE:NOK) are racing to be the first to launch a WP7-powered phone in China, and so it seems that China Mobile will be in on the action.

That’s in contrast to China Mobile’s misfortune in not being able to persuade Apple to make a TD-SCDMA version of the iPhone. Nonetheless, just over 15 million locals use their unlocked iPhones on the network anyway, using mere 2G (i.e. GPRS) if they want to get mobile data.

In the interim, the IT minister said that China’s three mobile telcos will have to boost their 3G network in order to bring on more subscribers before the move to 4G. For the government’s preferred mobile network, the semi state-owned China Mobile, that means planning to have as many as 400,000 TD-SCDMA (3G) base-stations in three-years time – critical to a smooth handover to 4G. The country saw 80 million new 3G users in 2011, and the grand total now stands at over 127 million 3G subscribers out of a billion nationwide phone users.

But the future 4G landscape will be fragmented by differing protocols – just as was the case with 3G. China Mobile will use the LTE TDD variant (though it’s not a homegrown solution, unlike TD-SCDMA), while most American networks use LTE FDD. The former is better known as WiMax, and the latter as simply ‘LTE.’ China is pushing for LTE TDD to be the global standard.

[Source: HC360 Telecom news - article in Chinese]

Hedy is the English branding, while the Chinese name is ‘Qi Xi’ which is actually the official local brand for the soda drink 7-Up, so not even that is original.

Ripping Off HTC

The Hedy H701 (pictured above) is a very blatant rip of the HTC Desire S. On Hedy’s own Tmall online store (see it here), which links to individual Taobao product pages, it’s selling for 999 RMB (US$158). But I’ve seen prices vary wildly from 669 to 1999 RMB on other sites, so it feels like they’re just picking random numbers.

As is always the case with such ‘shanzhai’ phones, the software shown in the screenshots might bear no resemblance to what’s actually in the phone. But the heavy Android branding on the H701, and the general ease of sticking an Android ROM into a device, means that it could well actually be running a HTC Sense-flavoured version of Google’s mobile OS. The text claims that it’s running Android 2.3, but, very suspiciously, many screenshots on the store’s item page show a much older version with that white toolbar at the top. Live photos of the device only show it switched off, which is probably not a good sign.

The H701’s specs are nowhere close to the actual Desire S, sporting only a low-res 320 by 480 pixels screen, no 3G support, and a wheezy 640MHz processor.

Note that it’s probably stuff like this that keeps Alibaba’s Taobao on the US government’s piracy blacklist, despite the company’s repeated claims of it being an unjust assessment.

Ripping Off Samsung

We’ve seen that the real Samsung Galaxy phones are proving to be China’s top choice of Android handset, so it’s not too much of a surprise that Hedy’s other smartphone clone is of Samsung’s popular product. Dubbed the Hedy H601 (pictured above), it’s priced at 559 RMB and cunningly incorporates a few style elements of the iPhone 4, thereby sort of metamorphosing the Galaxy with Apple’s much-loved phone. Clever. Specs are something of a mystery, but it comes in either white and black.

Some photoshopped images of the device show the logo at the top, while on others it’s between the one hard-button and the screen – again a clear indication that veracity is tossed to the wind when you’re a shanzhai cloner. Live photos show the logo is up top, and also reveal a very grainy screen. You pay your money and you take your chance.

Ripping Off Nokia, Lots of Japanese Feature-Phones, etc etc

Hedy also makes a huge array of feature-phones. I’m not so familiar with these devices, but I spot one Nokia (HEL:NOK1V; NYSE:NOK) clone amongst its lineup, and my colleague in Japan sees another that’s strikingly similar to Emobile’s Smart Bar phone. There are probably more. The Nokia fake is the Hedy V001 (pictured above) which actually launched way back in 2009.

Although we’ve previously reported that the shanzhai phone industry might be dying out in China, there are still some audacious cloners who’ll fake, package, and sell whatever resembles the most popular phones out there. Cloning smartphones is tougher than doing so with feature-phones, but Hedy shows that it’s worth a shot, with apparently no copyright protection in sight. Unless you’re a Chinese company up against a western one.

Photo: HTC

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC (TPE:2498), in the wake of poor Q4 revenue and profits, has unveiled a lineup of handsets that that it hope will turn its fortunes around. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the company showed off its HTC One smartphone series that brings a new version of its Sense UI (Sense 4) and a partnership with Dropbox for 25 gigabytes of free cloud storage for two years.

The One Series, which includes models X (the flagship model), S, and V, all will run Android 4.0 (ICS) and feature new camera and imaging features like ‘Video Pic’ (taking a high-resolution still picture while shooting video).

The One X measures in with a 4.7-inch display, and is powered by a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, and in some 4G LTE markets it will boast an LTE-enabled Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor (dual core). That’s the same processor that its sibling, the One S, will have. But the One S is a little more compact with a 4.3-inch screen, and measuring in at 7.9mm thin.

The HTC One Series will be shipping globally in April to over 140 mobile operators [1]. PC Magazine speculated today about whether or not the phones can keep the same product names across the many carriers, which – if they can manage it – should help its phones build a global reputation rather from slip into obscurity like many of its previous models. We’ll have to wait and see if HTC can win over any significant amount of customer mind-share after its recent lackluster performance. You can check out HTC’s promo video for the One X below.

China’s largest mobile ad platform, Madhouse, has released new stats which give a fresh picture of the smartphone landscape in China. It shows that, up to the very end of 2011, there has been a recent strong surge in Android usage, and that consumers are buying both cheaper and more high-end phones as iOS and Android phones spread across the social (and wage) spectrum.

The stats were taken from a very broad range of apps and websites that make use of Madhouse’s mobile ad platform, allowing the Chinese company to collate geographic, handset, and software data. And so this relates to observed usage, not sales figures. Some highlights include the 64.2 percent market share of Android devices (more than double that of all iOS ones), and another stellar quarter for Samsung (005930:KS) thanks to its range of Android phones.

You might like to contrast the Android aspects of the data with those sourced from Umeng, a rival Chinese ad and referral platform, which collects usage sessions data in the same way. Last time we looked at stats from Umeng, we crowned Samsung’s Galaxy S as the king of Android phones in China, but the Madhouse figures beg to differ.

Here are the five key areas of iOS and Android usage in China, whipped into graphic form by the Madhouse crew:

By Region and Province

It’s a bit of a surprise that Beijingers cause so few ad impressions. Perhaps the capital’s residents don’t browse the mobile web so much, are resistant to clicking ads, or can’t see their smartphone’s screens through the smog. No surprise, though, that the wealthier provinces make up the top four.

By Handsets and Phone Brands

But that doesn’t mean that only those with fancier phones go online, of course. Though Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone 4 is the leading single model (albeit down 13.1 percent on the previous quarter), second place goes to the lowly Huawei C8500. In contrast to the data from Umeng, the Samsung Galaxy S is only the fourth most popular phone.

By Cost of Phone

As a corollary to the previous graph, we see the greatest growth in cheap phones costing from 1,000 to 1,499 RMB (US$159 to $238), such as the afore-mentioned Huawei C8500.

By Size of Screen

Meanwhile, higher-resolution screens were booming as well, presumably among more monied folk. Phones that have screens wider than 640 pixels include the likes of the Motorola MT917 and the HTC Sensation.

By Android or iOS Version

This data being from Q4 2011, we see that most iPhone users were on the fairly recent iOS 4.3, which was the last before iOS 5 rolled out. However, on the Android platform we see the effect of all those budget phones as the relatively ancient Android 2.1 was still (by a tiny margin of 0.4 percent) the most used version. The newest iteration for phones at that time was 2.3 (with 3.0 being for tablets).

But the headline news is that, judging by these metrics, Android is well over twice as popular as iOS in China – and a broad price range of handsets will accelerate that even further as yet more people snap up, say, the Galaxy S II and new budget phones from local brands Huawei and ZTE in the coming year.

As a side-note, Madhouse observed that just over half – 52 percent to be precise – of its tallied ad impressions were done over wifi, not 2G or 3G. Grab the full report from the Madhouse newsletter for February.

Note that this method is better than taking a poll, as asking an invited audience for their opinions can be very self-selecting and reductive. So by taking these stats from popular product searches, we get a free-form and realistic view of what Chinese consumers are keen to buy with their own money. Of course, that doesn’t translate into sales, but it gives a good picture of which smartphones are the most likely to be parting cash from consumers.

So here, in reverse order, is the top ten:

10th. Lenovo A60

Lenovo (HKG:0992) smartphones won’t be too familiar to overseas readers, but they’ve been a low-end to mid-range mainstay in China for years. This A60 is one of the better efforts, with Android 2.3.3 and a 3.5-inch HVGA screen. Lenovo’s custom UI, with those huge round icons, is not exactly classy though. But it seems plenty of Chinese netizens are keen to read-up on the phone with a view to buying it. Afterall, with a China Unicom (NYSE:CHU; HKG:0762) subsidy, it’s a cheap ticket to the smartphone club, costing just under 1,000 RMB (US$158).

9th. Meizu MX

Another local kid makes the list, as Shenzhen manufacturer Meizu generates a lot of hype and excitement for its newest MX. The Meizu MX comes with a highly-customized Android 2.3.5 (which it now calls Flyme OS) which looks good on its 4.0-inch screen and is powered by its dual-core processor. The screen is higher-res than many others on the list, at 960 by 640 pixels. Starting at 2999 RMB for the 16GB version, this could be a headache for the more established brands in 2012.

8th. Motorola Defy (ME525+)

Despite Motorola (NYSE:MMI) pushing some high-end business-oriented handsets in China, its cheaper phones are proving to be of interest too. This ME525+ runs Android 2.3.4, has a 3.7-inch screen, and costs about 1,900 to 2,200 RMB.

7th. HTC Wildfire S

And now things get a bit lame, with the ridiculously under-powered Wildfire S from HTC (TPE:2498) – known as the G13 in China – with its small, low-resolution screen that makes it obsolete and unable to run a lot of newer, funkier apps.

Despite running the older Android 2.2 OS, its small form-factor combined with the Sense UI makes this pretty popular around here. It costs about 1,300 on the grey-import market, but it’s a very bad deal via more official channels where it costs 2,000+ RMB.

6th. Samsung Galaxy SII

Samsung’s (005930:KS) new flagship – dubbed the i9100 around here – is the impressive follow-up to the best-selling original Galaxy S. In a recent analytics report, we found that the first version was now the most popular single Android phone model in China, usurping the HTC Desire. But, frustratingly, it seems Samsung might deny all those consumers an upgrade to Android 4.0, which ought to be the decent thing to do for a mere year-old phone. Shame on you, Sammie!

Anyway, Chinese consumers seem to like the TouchWiz UI and other local customization such as a Chinese app store which accepts local payment methods. The Galaxy SII is currently about 3,400 RMB on the grey-import market.

5th. Nokia N9

Halfway through the list, and we finally encounter Nokia (HEL:NOK1V; NYSE:NOK). This beautiful-looking device seems popular in product searches, though I’m very skeptical that this will translate to sales once people realise it runs a moribund OS – MeeGo – for which there are few games or apps. The 16GB models costs about 3,500 RMB in most gadget malls, although the official local price is a not-so-reasonable 4,888 RMB.

4th. HTC Sensation XE

HTC’s most impressive release this year was perhaps the Sensation XE, which launched in China last month with all the usual Beats ephemera such as branded in-ear headphones and better music software. Its 4.3-inch qHD screen was a welcome feature, as Android phones were so slow to rise to the challenge of Apple’s ‘retina screen’ iPhone. The 1.5GHz dual-core phone, complete with the updated Sense 3.5 UI, costs about 3,500 RMB on unofficial sales channels.

3rd. Apple iPhone 4

Daddy’s home! Yes, Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) ubiquitous iPhone makes the list of popular product searches, but only in third place. With the iPhone 4S still not on sale here officially, it seems the older but aesthetically identical previous model is still in vogue. The 8GB model costs 4,000 RMB when schlepped over the border tax-free from Hong Kong, or 4,500 RMB direct from Apple or China Unicom.

2nd. Nokia N8

Grandpa’s home! Pull up a comfy chair, make a mug of hot chocolate, and get out the medication – because Symbian has just arrived on our list. The creaky old OS is still soldiering on in Nokia’s N8, which is proving popular amongst those who’re familiar with Symbian and its still significant catalog of apps and services.

There have been a lot of bad omens for Nokia in China this year, but the interest in the N8 is a ray of hope at a time when middle-income Chinese have been turning to Android smartphones and the iPhone. The N8 costs about 1,800 RMB.

1st. Xiaomi M1

Regular readers of PO won’t be too surprised to find the much talked about dual-core, Android-powered Xiaomi phone at the top of the list of searches in 2011. It launched with a bang and a breath-taking price tag – just 1,999 RMB – back in August of this year, and ends the year being talked about in the Chinese tech press pretty much everyday, snagging a supply deal with China Unicom, and attracting a further US$90 million in funding – some of which is coming from Yuri Milner’s own pocket.

In October, we dropped into Xiaomi HQ in Beijing to get a hands-on demo of the phone on the same day that it hit shelves across China; here’s the video:

[Hat-tip to QQ Tech news (article in Chinese) for collating the list data; Motorola Defy image from Whatmobile.net, and the Lenovo one from Zol.com.cn]

And this year's Android winner in China is... Samsung! Especially this Galaxy S, which seems to be China's hottest Android smartphone this year.

The Infographic of the Day series visually expresses important stories from Asia and the world of technology.

The Chinese mobile analytics company Umeng has released new stats which give us a clear picture of the Android user-base and the devices being used in China.

It shows us that in Q3 2011 Samsung (005930.KS) and HTC (TPE:2498) dominated the Android scene here, together accounting for about 53 percent of all phone traffic detected by Umeng. Bizarrely, it also reveals that Android tablets have become less popular this quarter, with decreased usage from Q2 to Q3.

Umeng only covers apps which utilize its mobile ad network – which we reviewed before – so this is not a measure of sales, more of active usage. But that’s actually fine, as it covers over 10,000 common apps that are downloadable from a range of sources and alternative Android app stores. And so it gives a pretty representative view.

Android Tablets vs Android Phones
Yes, Android tablets – which seem to be as popular as stale cakes – saw even less usage in China in Q3. The Ionesco-esque rhinocéros in the room is that the iPad is still booming, whilst Android tablets are not quite so appealing to consumers. Meanwhile, in the graph on the right, we see the top ten Android phone brands in China:

Phone Models
Samsung’s GT-I9100 – better known as the Galaxy S – is the most popular single model of Android phone in China. Huawei snuck into a surprise second place with its cheap but low-end C8650:

Tablet Models
Another victory for Samsung in terms of tablet models, with its seven-inch Galaxy Tab taking the top spot. It’s another home-grown competitor in second place, but this time it’s from Lenovo (HKG:0992):

Powerful Androids
It seems people are more likely to have really powerful tablets than phones. The processor speed (the CPU) of most phones is spread quite evenly, suggesting a broad price range of devices. The afore-mentioned Galaxy S phone has a 1 GHz CPU, making it pretty speedy:

Phone Screen Resolution
Further indication that many people in China are on budget handsets comes from the fact that about 40 percent of people are using phones with a resolution of 320 by 480 pixels or less. Higher rez screens, such as seen on the new Motorola MT917 for China are creeping in slowly, meaning that local developers need to remember to create more detailed graphics for apps and games:

Tablet Screen Resolution
Here’s the same scenario amongst tablet users here:

Pricey vs Cheap
From looking at the models that are on the Umeng network, the company has figured what kind of money people are currently spending on their Androids:

Across China
No surprises here, where the richest areas in China show the most usage of these smartphones and tablets. In descending order, the provinces are: Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Beijing, and Shanghai, which are highlighted in that blue rectangle:

How Has All That Changed From 2010?
Good question, dear reader. Looking back at Umeng’s report from Q4 2010, we see that Motorola (NYSE:MMI) and HTC had the most popular models. So it has not been too great a year for either of those to have been usurped by Samsung in 2011. Here’s the old view from 2010:

Download the full reports – and others from the archive – from Umeng at the link below.

[Source: Umeng report - page and report in Chinese]

Liu accepts his award; image via Sina Finance

Each year, CCTV — China’s state-owned television conglomerate — announces awards honoring successful businessmen and economic contributors for their achievements over the past year. It should be no surprise, then, that there are some tech companies in the mix.

Officially on this years list are HTC’s Wang Xuehong and 360Buy’s Liu Qiangdong. The former has enjoyed a year in which smartphones became more popular than ever in China, and the latter has seen a year of impressive expansion and now ranks among China’s biggest e-commerce outlets.

Other awardees came from other industries, but Vancl CEO Chen Nian did turn up on the “nominated” list. We can’t be totally sure why he didn’t make the final cut, but we’re guessing it has to do with this (and maybe this, too).

Congratulations to the winners!

[via Sina Tech]

HTC (TPE:2498) has today unveiled a so-called ‘Renren phone’ – an Android-powered smartphone with baked-in widgets and features crafted especially for Renren.com (NYSE:RENN), China’s largest Facebook-like social network. The phone is dubbed the HTC Daren (pictured above). It’ll be priced at 2099RMB (US$330) unlocked, available only from official HTC or mobile telco outlets, and will launch a bit later this month.

It was unveiled by the Taiwanese handset maker at its HTC Week event which is taking place in Beijing (in the same place where we were at for TC Disrupt and the 2011 CMDC last week).

In actual fact, the HTC Daren is just the budget HTC Explorer handset with a slight tweak in its Sense UI that ditches Facebook and Twitter integration in HTC’s Friendfeed feature, and replaces it with Renren instead. So it’s nowhere near as special as it’s made out to be. The phone has fairly low-end features, such as a low-res (480px by 300) 3.2-inch screen, and a 3-megapixel camera. It’s totally out-run by the new dual-core Xiaomi phone, which is a few dollars cheaper.

Back in July of this year, HTC did a similar thing with its ‘Weibo phone’ called the HTC Weike. On that occasion, it was a disappointing reworking of an aging HTC Salsa handset. At least this new device for China is based on a brand-new model.

Boosting Android in China

At the HTC event (pictured above), CEO Zhou Yong-ming also outlined the company’s revamped China line-up of five new Android smartphones, which includes the Sensation XE coming to the mainland for the first time.

HTC Android phones are so popular in China that they’ve been given nicknames whereby each new one is a higher number suffixed to a ‘G’ – thus the fairly new HTC Sensation has become commonly known as the G14. The Taiwanese firm will be hoping to continue this success – which is taking away a good deal of sales from Nokia (HEL:NOK1V; NYSE:NOK) – with this new line-up.

[Source, inc. images: HTC’s official Renren Page - in Chinese]

HTC’s recent purchase of Dr Dre’s Beats Audio company proves that the Taiwanese hardware maker is young and cool and down with that hippety-hop music all the kids are listening to. And now, finally, China has the chance to check out a new Beats-badged phone, as HTC has just announced on its official Sina Weibo account that it’s bringing the white Sensation XE smartphone to mainland China “in mid-November.”

The giant Android-powered device has a dual-core 1.5GHz processor – matching the cheaper Xiaomi phone which launched last month – and comes with white Beats in-ear earphones that have distinctive, red cords. Those massive headphones pictured above are actually an (expensive) optional extra. An official price for the milky-white smartphone has not yet been given.

The Beats element is about software, as well as hardware and branding – it gives the phone a built-in equalizer and added bass that fixes the abysmal state of audio on Android. On most other phones running Google’s OS, equalizers are supported since 2.3 (Gingerbread) but are not incorporated in the OS.

As one of the comments on HTC’s Weibo post points out, the Sensation XE has been out in Hong Kong for a month already.

Here’s a short video made by GizmodoUK showing some of the stand-out features of the phone:

[Source: HTC’s Sina Weibo account]

Apple's brand value rose 58% since last year according to Interbrand

Interbrand has just released its annual Best Global Brands Report, and not surprisingly Coca-Cola tops the list again. But here at Penn Olson we’re more interested in how the tech companies fared, specifically the ones from Asia. The report looks at a number of factors, including financial performance and the “strength of a brand to continue to secure earnings.”

If we look at the global overview, only ten of the top 100 brands listed are from Asia. 52 are from the Americas (almost all from the US), and 38 are from Europe. Here’s a quick visualization of the top 100. Companies who improved brand value on the previous year are in orange. Notice how orange Apple is? Nice work Steve!

*data is brand value in millions of dollars, and change in brand value since last year

[Download static image | View on ManyEyes]

Drilling down further to the ten Asian companies who made Interbrand’s cut, we see that the majority are tech companies. Japanese companies placed well with Canon at 33, Sony at 35, Nintendo at 48 (down from 38 the previous year), and Panasonic at 69. Korea’s Samsung is the highest-ranking of all Asian electronics companies on the list in 17th spot. Noticeably absent from the top one hundred are any brands from mainland China.

Taiwan’s HTC is perhaps the standout performer from Asia breaking into the top 100 for the first time at 98. Interbrand’s APAC CEO Stuart Green explains that this is a good sign for the region, saying “I have no doubt that in the years to come, more top Asian brands will break into Interbrand’s global top 100.

For more information, I encourage you to click over to Interbrand for details.

via Gizmag

• a list of user accounts for the phone, including email addresses
• last known network and GPS locations, as well as other previous locations
• SMS data, including phone numbers and probably actual text as well
• system logs that include lots of other data

That sounds pretty bad, but it’s actually just the tip of the iceberg. According to the folks at Android Police who discovered this issue, the flaw — which can be exploited by any app with permission to access the internet — potentially reveals basically everything about your phone right down to the battery charge status and history.

Ready for the worse news? There’s no way for you to fix this issue unless you’re willing to root your phone. That might be a good option for the tech-savvy, but it’s a bit complex and it voids your warranty, so most users will probably be stuck waiting for an update from HTC. If you do want to root your phone, Android Police recommends you delete the HtcLoggers.apk file, which is apparently what’s keeping track of all your data and sharing it with everyone.

HTC has already offered a response, although it’s a bit vague for our taste:

“HTC takes our customers’ security very seriously, and we are working to investigate this claim as quickly as possible. We will provide an update as soon as we’re able to determine the accuracy of the claim and what steps, if any, need to be taken.”

Still, better than nothing! Here’s hoping there’s a fix available ASAP.

Here’s a video rundown of the issue, also from Android Police:

[Android Police via Gizmag and Gizmodo]

Vodafone Blue is meant for the emerging markets and was tested stringently for its resistance to dirt and water. We are not device manufacturers but we plan to position Vodafone Blue as a sturdy yet affordable social networking device.

Some fast facts about the Vodafone 555 Blue:

• One-touch Facebook button in a QWERTY keypad.
• It is not a smartphone and does not have touch screen either.
• It’s aimed at college students and low-end phone buyers.
• It has a 2.4-inch QVGA display with 320×240 resolution.
• Features a 2 megapixel camera with flash and a FM radio (These are standard features in any phone in the price range of Rs 3000 to 5000, or $65 to $108, but I think Vodafone could have done better with the camera at least.)

Can it compete with the ‘other’ Facebook phone?

While the HTC ChaCha is a touch smartphone with a Qwerty keypad, the Vodafone 555 Blue is a standard phone, with no touchscreen.

There has been no official announcement regarding Vodafone 555’s launch, but according to Gartner, the Vodafone 555 Blue may cost around Rs 5000 ($110) in India providing its users with unlimited Facebook access for a year. Gartner analyst, Mr. Vikas Nishal, explained:

Most handset vendors have social networking phones in their portfolios, and the only way Vodafone can sweeten the deal for customers is by giving them a cheaper handset, with a closely integrated Facebook experience that is vastly better from what other feature phones deliver today.

So, if Vodafone manages to keep the cost of its Facebook phone around this figure, and come up with an attractive data plan for buyers, then it surely is going to have an edge on the ‘other’ Facebook phone, the HTC ChaCha. That one is priced much higher at Rs15,990 ($390).

Check out the promo video for the 555 Blue below.

A report from Digitimes is claiming that Samsung is considering buying Hewlett Packard’s webOS in order to strengthen its position against Apple and Google. As you’re probably aware by now, HP recently announced it was looking to offload its Personal Systems Group (PSG), which is responsible for the development of webOS devices.

Digitimes adds that the Korean manufacturer has already brought on HP’s former VP of PSG marketing Raymond Wah for its own PC sales.

Many speculate that Google’s recent pickup of Motorola could mean that many vendors – including Samsung – are uneasy about the future of the Android platform.

WebOS could make for an interesting contingency plan for either Samsung or HTC, both of whom have a lot riding on Android. According to an IDC report earlier this year, Samsung and HTC led the smartphone industry in year-on-year growth after the first quarter, improving 350 and 229.6 percent respectively over the same period last year. That growth, of course, directly coincided with the explosive growth of the Android platform.

Engagdet goes hands-on with the Xiaomi phone at its launch event.

After some tantalizing tasters last month, Xiaomi’s Android-powered phone launched yesterday at an event in Beijing. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun took to the stage and wowed the crowd with China’s first-ever 1.5 GHz dual-core smartphone.

The Xiaomi team – best known previously for its work on the gorgeous-looking MIUI ROM for Android – managed to hit the lowest price-tag expectation, promising to sell the phone for 1,999 RMB (US$313) when it goes up for order on August 29th. Shipping begins sometime in October.

At 1,999 RMB it’ll significantly undercut HTC’s Weibo-oriented Weike phone, and it’ll be the exact same price as Motorola’s brand new China-first XT531, which has better-looking but less powerful hardware.

Some novel price savings will be made by avoiding the usual bricks-and-mortar retail channels, and selling the device on B2C e-commerce sites such as Vancl.

The Android-powered phone will effectively run the MIUI interface that Xiaomi has worked on for so long, and made available for free to Android customizers. Some regard it as the best-looking Android interface mod that has ever been made. Others, however, dismiss it as a tiresome attempt to ape Apple’s iOS.

Engadget’s China editor Richard Lai went hands-on with an early prototype of the phone, including a video, right after the event, and reported that the Xiaomi smartphone felt “a bit like the HTC Sensation but smaller.”

Xiaomi’s timing is not too hot, though. Most Chinese gadget geeks know that the iPhone 5 will be announced in the next month or two, and they’ll likely be able to get their hands on one before the Xiaomi phone even ships. There are other challenges facing the device…

Ambitions to rival HTC, Apple?

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun channels his inner Steve Jobs. Image source: Xiaomi's BBS.

Hardware itself is not totemic to a brand; just having your logo on a device will not elevate your name. It’s worth remembering that before HTC’s rise to selling 12.1 million smartphones in Q2 2011, it labored for years as a no-name OEM, making handsets such as the Palm Treo Pro.

If Xiaomi has a long-term future, there’s a long path ahead. Remember Meizu? You know, the company that made an iPhone clone and then got lawyer-whacked by Apple? Yeah, those guys. Funny story: making a phone is easy, but building a brand that people want to buy and be a part of is infinitely more challenging than putting all the bits together in the right place.

Indeed, there are those who’ll say that building a phone in this way might be detrimental to a brand. Some in China will see the new phone as too cheap, and perhaps dismiss Xiaomi’s superphone as a shanzhai effort that wouldn’t look very impressive when ostentatiously placed on the table at a coffee shop, next to the keys to your Audi.

There’s also a legal danger this year in wading into Android, with a tide of litigation hitting Samsung and HTC. Taiwan’s HTC is facing a costly showdown with Apple over user interface and gesture elements in Android which Apple claims infringe on its own copyrights.

Having said all that, we wish the Xiaomi good luck – we like the way they embrace the (fairly) open nature of Android, and improve it visually and practically. It’s just that these are choppy waters, and China’s middle-income smartphone buyers are more concerned with brand-power than dual-core power.

[News source: Engadget; Image sources: Engadget (main photo) and Xiaomi’s BBS (lower photo)]

Chalkboard's plan in brief. Credit: Chalkboard's Flickr

HTC Malaysia first, HTC Singapore next — Bernard Leong, CTO and co-founder of Chalkboard told us that his team has sealed a deal with HTC Singapore to include its location-based deal widget on all HTC EVO 3D handsets in the country. The widget will be pre-installed into the firmware as a default app for all HTC EVO 3D users in Singapore.

While I have always called Chalkboard a location-based ad platform, it seems to me that calling it a location-based deals platform sounds more apt. Essentially, what users are getting is location-based, relevant content. This is also a key reason why HTC has been pretty keen to adopt Chalkboard’s widget in Singapore and Malaysia so far. Melvin Chua, the country manager at HTC Singapore remarked:

The Chalkboard widget provides a quick and easy way for HTC users to find out about local businesses wherever they are. We are excited to provide HTC customers with even more value packed into the new HTC EVO 3D.

It’s another small win for the folks at Chalkboard. And the back-to-back partnership could be a signal that more partnerships in other countries could be coming soon. Not just with HTC, though. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chalkboard is planning to partner with other handset makers in the near future. Given that the service is primarily Southeast Asia focused, I’m guessing BlackBerry could be next.

Motorola is giving Chinese consumers first pick on its new XT531 – a budget-minded, youth-oriented smartphone that’s running the very latest Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) software. For the Chinese market it’ll get some unique customizations…

With a price tag of only 1,998 RMB (that’s US$310), it still has some stand-out features, such as a front-facing camera for video chatting, and an iPhone-sized 3.5-inch touchscreen. It supports WDCDMA 3G, so it can run on China Unicom’s 3G network, but the phone will be sold unlocked and off-contract, the way that most Chinese people like to have it.

At that price point, it’ll be quite a bit cheaper than HTC’s brand-new Weibo phone, the Weike, which is selling for 2,300 to 2,800RMB online right now. Both phones share some specs, such as front-facing cameras, 512MB of RAM, 800MHz processors, and 480 x 320 resolution screens. However, the XT531’s screen is a tad larger than the Weike’s 3.4-incher.

The Motorola XT531 also has a black version with a sweet blue trim line around its body.

The very slick Android skin looks familiar from Motorola’s dual-core, business-oriented beast that it made for China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA 3G network earlier this year. That was based on the ATRIX.

But this XT531 is aimed at a different audience. Speaking to Penn Olson, Motorola’s top PR guy in China, William Moss, says:

This is definitely a more youth-oriented phone than the ATRIX. More affordable, but still with a very solid range of features.

William also explains how the China-only version of the phone will differ from the international one that’ll roll out later, with some unique customizations. For China, the new smartphone will come pre-installed with some of the country’s favourite apps, such as QQ, Tudou, and the increasingly ubiquitous Sina Weibo. Also, only in China will it come equipped with Motorola’s own SHOP4APPS store, which has a mix of free and paid apps, and supports local payment methods.

The XT531 goes on sale today across mainland China. It’s expected to land in other countries in its global trim a couple of months later.

Here’s Motorola’s full press release which contains more info and specs:

1. Apart from FriendStream, where else is Weibo integrated into the HTC Weike?

The one-touch dedicated Weibo key on the HTC Weike offers users a host of integrated functions and services. For example, a short press on the Weibo key allows users to:

• Write on and edit their Weibo pages
• Add new contacts
• Add trends and topics to their Weibo pages
• Insert emoticons into their posts

Users can also check-in at their current locations or send their location information on both Weibo and Gypsii by holding and pressing the Weibo key on the HTC Weike

There are lots of other integrated functions which make the HTC Weike the ideal device to share content with friends and family. Simply press the Weibo key to share Web pages and links of interest which you come across while surfing the Internet. Sina music content is also easily shared by pressing the Weibo key. Your friends on Weibo can then listen to the music that you have just shared simply by clicking the music player on their Weibo pages.

Weibo integration on the HTC Weike

Consumers can use the HTC Weike to take photos wherever they go. Instead of clicking the shutter button to take photos, pressing the Weibo key uploads the photo instantaneously onto their Sina Weibo photo album. Their friends are then able to view all uploaded photos, and see their albums as well.

The HTC Weike also makes live chatting simple and easy to use with the Weibo chat widget, allowing consumers to chat with friends in a real-time chat environment that is constantly and instantaneously updated. Users will also be able to search for and locate the hottest topics on Weibo and join in the real-time discussion immediately.

2. Have Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr integration been removed from the phone for China?

Due to the unique market in China, and the popularity of Weibo, HTC has partnered Sina.com in a groundbreaking initiative to launch the first mainland-China specific smartphone which offers integrated Weibo services and a dedicated one-touch Weibo key that makes it easy, simple and intuitive to connect with friends and family…Currently, Facebook and Twitter are not supported as these services are blocked in China.

3. Will this Weibo integration expand to the popular Desire S and Incredible S phones as well? Will HTC be offering OS upgrades for the HTC Weike?

HTC does not comment on future plans and will make the appropriate announcement in due time.

4. Will this come only on official HTC phones sold at HTC outlets, or can people get this on gray market too?

Weibo integration is only available on the HTC Weike, and is available through authorized HTC retailers and distributors.

5. Which 3G network will the HTC Weike run on?

The HTC Weike is a WCDMA smartphone.*

6. Is there anything else you can share with us about your strategy for social media phones?

HTC understands that social media is one of the most important ways in which people interact, engage and communicate with each other. The HTC Weike is a prime example of how by putting the customer at the centre of everything we do, HTC is able to create the best possible mobile lifestyle experiences to benefit consumers’ lives.

*Editor’s note: This means that, at least theoretically, the phone is compatible with China Unicom’s 3G network. [Back]

[Images via Sina Tech]

Note the Facebook button at the bottom

Android-powered phones with a dedicated Facebook button could be the next gadget Indonesians go gaga for. With over 38 million Facebook users in the country, social network addicts would surely love these phones.

Within a span of ten days, HTC has brought in two ‘Facebook Phones’ to Indonesia: the ChaCha and most recently, the Salsa. And from the looks of things people are very enthused about the Salsa.

As reported by Okezone yesterday, dozens of people are queuing as early as 8am in hope to be the first two hundred HTC Salsa owners in Indonesia. The handset is the second ‘Facebook Phone’ released here and has successfully won over hundreds of users. Prior to its launch, the HTC Chacha was launched just ten days earlier.

The phones are enjoying great popularity for two reasons: They are powered with by Android 2.3, and they feature a super-convenient Facebook button.

A Facebook Button Boom?

Agus Sugiharto, the HTC country manager for Indonesia, said “These new phones will give a new experience accessing Facebook on mobile device and creating new levels to communicate with your friends”.

The popularity of these phones could inspire other phone vendors to introduce their own version of ‘Facebook phones.’ Is it just an ingenious marketing ploy? Perhaps. But the big boys including Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and LG surely don’t want to be left behind in this money-making opportunity. And until those brands come up with their Facebook products, Indonesian social media geeks will likely gravitate to two options: the Chacha and the Salsa. Pick your choice.

The HTC Weibo phone looks to be a reworked HTC Legend, with its unibody aluminium chassis, that has had its optical trackpad replaced by the Sina Weibo fast-access hard button.

Unique to the phone is a sort of Weibo Home app (see above; left screenshot), which melds Sina news, your Weibo badges and Sina’s location-based service.

In addition, you can chat with the people that you follow on the microblogging service, and they’ll also get integrated into your contacts on the phone similar to how HTC Sense also syncs up with Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook. It’s not clear, however, if HTC will remove those latter two social networks – which are both blocked by the Great Firewall here – to be replaced by the more useful Weibo.

Being based on the Legend, which was launched way back in March 2010, the specs are not too hot – a 320×480 resolution on its 3.2-inch screen is disappointing, and it can almost certainly only run Android 2.2, which is not the latest version.

The new HTC Sina Weibo phone shows off its aluminium curves, familiar from last year's Legend handset.

Like many of HTC’s phones sold via official outlets in China, the HTC Weibo phone will come with the HTC App Store, not Google’s Market.

This is turning into a bumper year for China-made or oriented smartphones, with rumors of a Baidu mobile OS being followed by more concrete news of upcoming phones from e-commerce giant Alibaba as well as the software development start-up Xiaomi.

If this dedicated button concept sounds familiar, it should. HTC has implemented the same idea before, but with a Facebook button. Seeing as how Sina Weibo might be the closest thing that China has to a near-ubiquitous social network, the Weibo button wins out.

[Source: Sina Tech news - article in Chinese]

Much like the Salsa, the ChaCha also features one-touch Facebook access, something that should definitely appeal to the nation’s 25-million strong Facebook population. The dedicated Facebook button is ‘context-aware,’ providing the user with options to share in the proper situation (for example, after taking a photo). Powered by Android 2.3, the phone is an intriguing hybrid combining a full QWERTY keypad and a 2.6-inch touchscreen all in one.

Tata Docomo is providing three months of free data (up to three gigabytes) and three hours of mobile TV for its 3G customers. 2G customers will get three gigs of data and 300 Tata-to-Tata calling minutes valid for three months.

The ChaCha will be priced at Rs. 15,990 (or about $360) and will be available at HTC resellers nationwide. Check out the video below for a closer look.

[Tata Docomo]

Taiwan’s HTC is facing a potentially costly smartphone showdown with Apple, as the Californian company’s lawsuit claims HTC violated a number of user interface (UI) and gesture copyrights. In response, HTC’s co-founder, Cher Wang, is speaking out and trying to calm investor fears by emphasising her company’s own innovations.

Speaking on Taiwanese TV, Cher Wang said:

I think we and Apple are the same – we both have a lot of patents … I believe the lawsuit against HTC will not have any impact. But we will strive to innovate more, so we can compete even better on the world stage.

HTC (2498:TAI) could well end up paying out to Apple for every one of its own Android-powered phones that it sells – a pricey peace-treaty that HTC has already succumbed to with Microsoft, which has separate copyright claims over various Android UI elements. It has not been made known how much HTC already pays to Microsoft.

Sina’s Tech news portal quotes a Morgan Stanley analyst, Lu Zhi-ying, saying that if HTC were to pay Apple US$4-$5 per Android phone sold, then that would shave only 1-2% off of earnings.

Mrs Wang, however, is defiant of her company’s innovations, as well as desperate to calm investor jitters which have caused HTC shares to slide nearly 20% since last Wednesday. In the same TV interview she added:

I believe this [HTC's] type of multi-touch technology is a different approach. If we think back to the time of HTC Dopod devices, it was multi-touch – so we have patents for that multi-touch.

[News and image sources: Businessweek HK, and Sina Tech news - both articles in Chinese]

According to a report from Voice & Data, Indian consumers purchased over 120 million handsets in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, on average that’s a remarkable 10 million phones per month. India also added 18 million mobile subscribers for the year, as handset market revenue grew 15% on the previous year.

Nokia still holds the largest share of the market at 39%, but posted a meagre growth rate of 0.2% on the year. When we attended the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing this year, Pankaj Choudhury, the managing director of iFree India explained:

India is getting hit from all sides in India. From NTK, Micromax. In India you need to roll out handsets very quickly, and Nokia isn’t doing that.

While Samsung holds the second spot at 17%, things get interesting after that with homegrown maker Micromax taking third posting 43% growth on the previous year, a Voice & Data explains:

Its success can be attributed to its strong distribution network and ‘good-looking’ phones at an affordable price. Certain credit can also be given to its brand promotional activities. It spent more money than any other mobile phone company in India on brand building.

Taiwanese manufacturer HTC led the field in growth at 99.1%, but companies like G7Five, Intex, and Maxx are also doing surprisingly well.

For more on the rapidly growing mobile Industry in India, check out this recent infographic that summarizes some key numbers.

Chart: Revenue in crore for 2010-2011 (% growth on previous year), dark green = high growth, light green = low/negative growth)

Photo: Phones.com

This week Motorola announced one million smartphones sold in mainland China in Q1 2011 (of course, not all are Android), whilst, at the same time, HTC said they’d triple the number of shops here, to as many as 2000 outlets by the end of this year.

But for both HTC and Motorola, it’s proving to be an ongoing battle to make Google’s Android mobile OS work – and sell – in China, as a result of Google’s troubles in China. Motorola’s CEO, Sanjay Jha, explained to the Wall Street Journal on his current trip to Beijing:

Some of the services that are available on most Android phones are not available here, so we have built relationships with Baidu and Microsoft to enable all of those applications to be available on our devices.

What that means is adding a tablet-spec Tudou app to the Motorola Xoom, for example; or HTC’s tie-up with a Chinese email provider.

HTC Sensation, soon heading to China onto two networks

Also, the Android Market in China is one of the few in the world without paid apps support. Which is where the Moto SHOP4APPS and HTC app stores bring their own tailored selection of free and paid apps.

MT870 vs Sensation

Both Motorola and HTC have new, dual-core, qHD smartphones aimed at business users in China: Motorola’s MT870 (pictured, top) is an Atrix-like beast on TD-SCDMA 3G exclusively for China Mobile. HTC, meanwhile, has the upcoming HTC Sensation (pictured, right) that’ll roll out with China Mobile and China Unicom (as a WCDMA variant).

[Sources: Taiwan Economic News for HTC stats; WSJ Online for Motorola's]

Local business owners can inform customers of new deals and sales. One of the exclusive features of this widget is the “Live” mode, where the stream is automatically updated in real-time.

The widget will work on all HTC handsets that run on Android 2.1 and above. To Users can get this free location-based widget by sending an SMS to 32355 with any of the following keywords:

• SMS chalk
• SMS chalkboard
• SMS htc

You will receive a reply with an URL where you can download the widget on your HTC phone:

Chalkboard Scores Big

HTC Malaysia appears delighted to bring Chalkboard on board as a partner. SK Wong, the country manager at HTC Malaysia commented:

HTC is proud to provide a richer experience for our users by incorporating Chalkboard – a service that works with thousands of local businesses – on our innovative handhelds. . . Consumers are relying more and more on their mobile devices to give them ready access to the local information they want. HTC is proud to bring this service to all our Malaysian users.

Congratulations go out to team Chalkboard on coming one step closer to location-based success!

Here at Penn Olson we have been experimenting with Chalkboard’s ad widget in our sidebar, and we encourage your feedback on whether or not you think it’s intrusive or if it adds value. So please let us know.

There are over 25 million Facebook users in India, and this number is only going to get bigger. HTC India’s country manager Faisal Siddiqui realizes the importance of this trend:

[The] new HTC Salsa offers special new ways to socialize through a mobile device. With Indians increasingly getting hooked on to the social web, we wanted to create the ultimate socially connected phone which makes this experience simple and convenient.

The phone has a 3.4-inch touchscreen display and a 480 x 320 resolution. It’s powered by Android’s gingerbread operating system with the company’s Sense UI over top. The Salsa sports an 800 MHz processor and 512 megabytes of RAM, as well as a five megapixel rear camera. There’s a VGA camera around the front for video calling also. The internal storage is only 512 megabytes, but this can be supplemented up to 32 gigabytes using a microSD card.

The Salsa will be available at a market operating price of Rs.22,000 or about $490. For a video demonstration of the Salsa, see the clip from igyann.in below.

This is not the first time that mobile manufacturers and service providers have made it easier for Indians to access Facebook features on their phones. Bharti Airtel recently implemented Facebook on low-end phones via a handy USSD menu system.

HTC release

Samsung posted a stunning 350% year-on-year growth, while Taiwanese manufacturer HTC notched a 229.6% improvement. Certainly a big part of why these two companies improved so much is owing to their commitment to the Android operating system. Can Nokia fend off Apple powered by only Windows Phone? Or perhaps a better question is whether they can withstand the onslaught that lies ahead as Android continues to gain traction.

Here’s a quick overview of the 2010/2011 compared market shares of the top five smartphone makers. All numbers are expressed in percentages. (Trouble viewing? Try here)

IDC

The top tech spot belonged to ‘Apple iPad‘. The other three most mentioned Apple products were ‘Apple iOS’ (3rd), ‘Apple iPhone‘ (4th) and ‘MacBook Air’ (9th).

The next technology company that was most mentioned is Google. ‘Google Android’ ranked 3rd and Google Instant managed to squeeze into the tech chart at 10th place.

‘New Twitter’ was also in the list as users embraced and celebrated Twitter’s new design. The video did a marvelous in spearheading the new design rollout. HTC, the Taiwan based smartphone maker, also made into the list at 7th place. Sitting at 8th is Rockmelt, a new social browser which was launched early last month.

Besides technology, other trend lists include People, Hashtags, Sports, World Cup and many more. Check out Twitter’s year in review site for more trends insight. If you have not already done so, you might also want to check out Google’s and Yahoo’s year in review too.