Kantar: Android dominates EU, WP closes gap to iOS

According to market reasearch company Kantar Worldpanel, Android is the dominating force in the top five European countries accounting for well over 70% of the market. The UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain are not the only countries where the Google platform extended its market share, though.

Spain and Germany is where Android is the most popular in Europe. The green droid powers 92.5% of all smartphones in Spain and 76.7% in Germany. iOS penetration there is 4.2% and 15.0%, respectively.

Windows Phone usage is picking up in Europe, too. The platform grew an average of 2.5 percent points in the polled EU countries, with its share in Italy already standing at a healthy 9.7%.

Rather unsurprisingly, Samsung is the major culprit for Android's success, responsible for nearly half of all smartphones sold in those five countries.

In China, Google's mobile OS is also a clear leader, with over 70% of all smartphones running Android. iOS takes up 23.6%, while Windows Phone and Symbian record 2.9% and 1.3%, respectively. Interestingly, BlackBerry is doing pretty bad in the country with just 0.2%.

Apple's iOS is holding strong in the US, with 41.9% of the market, 3.5 percent point rise over the same period of last quarter. Android also marks a rise, albeit very small, from 51.9% in 2012 to 52.0% this year. BlackBerry and Symbian have seen their shares evaporate, while Windows Phone slowly but surely gains traction. Microsoft's mobile OS usage in the region has gone up from 3.7% to 4.6% for the period.

It's worth noting that Symbian usage in Mexico is peculiarly strong, considering that Nokia has announced it's dropping support for the OS. In fact, it's used by 10.3% of the people with smartphones, right above iOS which accounts for 9.9%. BlackBerry sits in second place with 11.3%, while Android is the undisputed leader with 60.3%.

Check out the complete usage table below.

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Android 4.2 update rolling out for HTC One Dual Sim

HTC created a special Dual Sim version of its HTC One flagship, which is limited to several markets like India, China and Russia. Strangely enough this is also the first One variant to receive Android 4.2.2 (not counting the Nexus Edition), the worldwide version of the flagship is still on 4.1.2.

The update brings a number of improvements to both the Android base and HTC's customizations. There's a widget-enabled lockscreen, quick toggles in the notification area plus smaller enhancements like rearranging homescreen panes, battery percentage in the status bar, options for the Home button to remove the on-screen Menu button.

The Camera and Zoe apps were improved too – now you get AE/AF lock, an updated Zoe file format that handles videos better and 6 new themes for Video highlights.

The update weighs in at 175MB and is only for the dual-SIM version of the phone. The update for the regular HTC One should come out soon. This might be HTC playing it safe, first releasing the update for the rarer One Dual Sim to make sure there are no issues before launching for the the more popular HTC One.

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Nokia 301 with 3.5G network support arrives for Rs 5349

Nokia has unveiled a new entry level handset, called Nokia 301. The new Nokia 301 is priced at Rs 5,349 and flaunts a candy bar form factor. Nokia boast of adding 3.5 generation cellular network technology to the Nokia 301 device for faster mobile web experience.

The Nokia 301 features a 2.4-inch display with 320x240 pixel resolution natively. This 18-bit display is decent enough for the users to enjoy the mobile web and offers pixel density of 166 pixels per inch. Nokia has added a smart camera app with panorama shot feature. This camera app makes use of the 3.2 megapixel camera at the back and also offers other features such as sequential shots.

The phone has a multi-tap keypad with directional pad in the center along with dedicated calling keys. Consumers can also enjoy streaming movies with the exclusive UTV Movies app that comes pre-loaded on it. As of now, the phone is not listed in the Supported Phones for the WhatsApp.

Nokia 301 comes with Dual-SIM configuration and will be offered in Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, Black and White colours.

Sony 'Honami' Xperia i1 images surface online

Images of a new Sony Android smartphone, dubbed as Xperia i1, have now surfaced. Codenamed as "Honami", the images of these smartphones, which were posted on the Xperia Blog , gave a brief idea about the minimalistic appearing smartphone.

Sony's Xperia i1 Honami smartphone will feature a 5-inch display with full 1080p HD resolution. The system dump of this handset was leaked and investigation revealed that the Honami smartphone will feature 20 megapixel camera. This camera has been tweaked to record 4K video with 2:1 aspect ratio.

It is quite implied that the Honami device will pack a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 family chipset.

The Honami handset features a minimalistic looking design from the front without any capacitive buttons. There is just one metallic start/sleep button on the right side in the center. The speaker mesh is located at the bottom. That is where we notice that the phone is immensely slim. At the rear lies the camera but it does not look large enough to be 20 megapixel. By default, the phone will run Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

The Sony Xperia i1 Honami can be expected to be announced in coming months. We anticipate the price of this handset to drop many jaws.

How to book railway tickets using mobile phone

As reported earlier , Indian Railways have now started the mobile ticketing service.

Now you can book your railways tickets using mobile which don't support internet, either through SMS or using USSD based service.

Here is how you can book your tickets using your mobile. However, keep in mind only registered IRCTC users can use these services as of now.

Remember you cannot use these methods between 8 AM to 12 PM, so tatkal booking is out of question. Since both SMS as well as USSD are based on SMS mode, you do not need internet connection and can use any mobile phone to do so. Also, you can book a maximum of four tickets using the SMS method at one go.

HP plans to re-enter smartphone market

PC giant, HP, is contemplating to re-enter in the smartphone segment.

HP's senior director, consumer PC and media tablets, Asia Pacific, Yam Su Yin told PTI that the company is focusing on all segments including tablet PCs, notebook PCs as well as all-in-ones (AIOs). When asked if a smartphone is in the offing, she said: "The answer is yes but I cannot give a timetable. It would be silly if we say no. HP has to be in the game." This has reinforced the earlier reports to this effect.

HP made a big bet on smartphone and tablet space by purchasing Palm (one of the first smartphone makers) for USD 1.2 billion, but soon exited the market after its WebOS based products failed to take off. Even before that HP had a line of smartphone under iPAQ brand name.

HP will be very late to market, as players are like Apple and Samsung are already well entrenched with more than 50 percent market share in the overall smartphone market. And rest of the market is fragmented amongst biggies like Sony, LG, HTC and numerous other players from China like Huawei, ZTE and much smaller regional players in countries like India, China and other countries.

So HP will not only have to face Samsung and Apple but it also have to battle with smaller players like Micromax and UMI.

Asked if it will be able to make up for the lost time, she said, "Being late you have to create a different set of proposition. There are still things that can be done. It's not late. When HP has a smartphone, it will give a differentiated experience."

While there are no details available about HP's smartphone plan as of now, the company is most likely to use Android operating system as it would not want to repeat the same mistake as it had done years' back with WebOS. Windows Phone 8 is the other operating system that HP can bank upon but its ecosystem is not that big as Android.

Sony C906 'Honami' system dump reveals new UI

Yesterday, we saw some leaked images of the upcoming Sony Xperia handset, known for now by the codename ‘Honami’. Now, a system dump of the device has surfaced, which reveals some details about the hardware and showcase some of the new UI changes.

For starters, the phone seemingly runs on a Snapdragon 800 processor, has a 20 megapixel sensor and can record 4K videos in 4000 x 2000 resolution. The last spec seems interesting even though the aspect ratio is unusual.

Other than that, there are several changes to the UI on the phone. You can see a new clock, calendar, calculator and contacts apps. You can now place multiple Small Apps on screen at once and there is a new keyboard as well. Sony also seems to have added a new augmented reality app.

You can find more screenshots in the link below.

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