Electronics, Mobile | featured news

Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of Global Marketing, said in an interview to a Chinese newspaper that “cheap smart phones will not be developed in order to grab market share away”. There have been a number of analysts, especially over the past few days, and the Wall Street Journal who have speculated that Apple will come out with a lower priced iPhone in potentially a smaller format.

Samsung went for commercial flash at the international Consumer Electronics Show this week with bendable screens, kitchen appliances controlled by smartphones and razor-thin televisions. But just as important was a less-glamorous announcement that the world’s largest smartphone maker is turning its attention to a new pocket of lucrative potential customers: corporations and government agencies.

Although smartphone ownership percentages continue to climb, western markets are clearly approaching saturation. At the same time, there are markets within those markets which do not so much resist the incursion of smartness as simply have little interest or opportunity to enjoy it.

The Linux-based Ubuntu operating system is to work on smartphones, allowing users to run full-scale programs on handsets designed for Android.

Developers told the Next Web that they’re seeing some activity on their user logs that indicate Apple may be testing its next-generation smartphone and mobile operating system. According to a Monday report, some app developers have logged activity from a device called the “iPhone 6,1” that also appears to be running a new mobile operating system.

A company based in the Congo says it is the first to launch a smartphone and tablet fully designed and engineered in Africa.

Motorola engineers working on a handset to be released next year, that parent Google hopes will provide more potent competition for devices like Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy phones.

Here’s a tech stock pop quiz: Who has had a better quarter on the stock market? Apple? Or Research in Motion? The answer may surprise you. Apple’s stock, which peaked at more than $700 per share in September, has lost nearly 25 percent of its value. But Research in Motion, due to report earnings Thursday afternoon, has seen its stock more than double its abysmal September price of $6.30 per share. On Thursday morning, the stock was trading at $13.63 a share.

At least one former Apple exec wasn't surprised or sad to hear the news that iOS chief Scott Forstall is leaving the company... Several reports since then have suggested that Forstall didn't get along well with some other key players on the team and angered CEO Tim Cook by refusing to apologize for Apple's maps application.

Poor Microsoft. People who use your search engine seem especially interested in ... Apple. Bing published its most-searched news stories for 2012, and topping the list -- ahead of the presidential election, Superstorm Sandy and the London Olympics -- was the iPhone 5, the newest version of Apple's iconic smartphone.