Vodafone and O2 to team up for UK 4G network

While Everything Everywhere patiently waits for approval on it's next-generation network, Vodafone and O2 has announced that it'll be forming an alliance to create a single shared grid in the UK. While the two UK carriers will still compete for customers, it'll pool the infrastructure needed to roll out 4G coverage. Both companies will run on separate spectrum and each will have access to around 18,500 masts, apparently boosting the number of sites by more than 40 percent for each operator. The duo will also cooperate on new masts in remote areas and intend to start later this year -- once Ofcom's had its say.Vodafone and O2 to team up for UK 4G network originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jun 2012 03:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink BBC  |  O2  | Email this | Comments

'Hummer' handsets now account for 24 percent of US smartphone sales, prove Steve Jobs wrong

Remember when Steve Jobs had a dig at Apple's mobile competition and proclaimed that "no one" would buy their Hummer-like 4-inch-plus smartphones? Well, going by the latest NPD data, that group of "no ones" among US smartphone consumers is now a meaty 24 percent. Separating handsets into screen categories of 3.4 inches and below, 3.5 to 3.9 inches, and those above 4 inches, the stat mavens discovered that the midrange is holding steady, but smaller-screened devices are starting to lose out to their jumbo-sized brethren. No prizes for guessing that Android-powered devices were behind that big sales increase, with the HTC EVO 4G and Motorola Droid X leading the way, followed by Samsung's multivariate Galaxy S range. Now, care to tell us more about our mobile future, Steve?

[Thanks, Skylar]

Disclaimer: NPD's Ross Rubin is a contributor to Engadget.Continue reading 'Hummer' handsets now account for 24 percent of US smartphone sales, prove Steve Jobs wrong'Hummer' handsets now account for 24 percent of US smartphone sales, prove Steve Jobs wrong originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 09:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  NPD  | Email this | Comments

Nook app comes to Windows 8 with clean Paper-like design

Barnes & Noble's Nook readers are top notch -- there's no argument about that. The application part of that equation however, is pretty messy. The web app is integrated into the B&N site and keeps the UI clean and minimal. The Mac and PC clients on the other hand go with forest green highlights, grays and a busy sidebar for navigation, while the Android and iOS apps get bright blues and lots of gradients. And lets not even bring the Nook Tablet and Color into this. Basically, they're all completely different, confusing and rather poorly designed. The company's new Windows 8 app on the other hand appears to take cues from the Paper interface of the Nook HD which, while not exactly stunning, is certainly a huge step in the right direction. It also brings a certain amount of consistency to the ecosystem across platforms, something that's been sorely missing. The current version is a little basic, as it appears the app lacks notation, look up and social sharing features, but it will let you pin content to your Start Screen as a live tile. Download it now at the source and check out the PR after the break.Continue reading Nook app comes to Windows 8 with clean Paper-like designFiled under: SoftwareNook app comes to Windows 8 with clean Paper-like design originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Nov 2012 12:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink The Verge  |  Nook (Windows Store)  | Email this | Comments

NPD: HP nabs spot as number two tablet maker... for the moment

You hear that Samsung? HP's number two. For now at least. The PC maker, which snuffed out its line of webOS devices not all that long ago, managed to grab the number two spot in the tablet race between January and October, according to analyst group, NPD. The news comes thanks in part, no doubt, to the bargain basement pricing on its discontinued TouchPad. According to NPD, the time frame saw the sale of more than 1.2 million non-iPad tablets. Apparently 76 percent of those who bought such devices didn't even consider picking up Apple's industry leading slate.NPD: HP nabs spot as number two tablet maker... for the moment originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  CNET  | Email this | Comments

NPD Group: US MacBook sales took a 6 percent hit during 2012 holidays

NPD Group is reporting that sales of Apple's MacBook line were 6 percent lower during the period between November 18 and December 22, 2012 than during the same period in 2011. The report, as described by John Virata of AppleInsider, notes that the average selling price of all MacBooks sold was up about US$100 from 2011 to $1,419 as well. Part of the explanation behind the drop in US MacBook sales could be that the only really new Mac notebook released in the run-up to the holiday shopping season was the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. In late 2011, Apple kickstarted sales of the entire MacBook Pro line by adding faster Intel processors, improved GPUs and hard drives with increased capacities. There's one bright side to the numbers, though -- at least sales of MacBooks didn't take the same hit as Windows PCs. NPD's figures showed an 11 percent drop in sales of notebooks running Windows, despite -- or perhaps because of -- the launch of Windows 8. Those touchscreen notebooks running Windows 8 that were hyped in advertisements had an average selling price of $700, but only accounted for 4.5 percent of Windows notebook sales.NPD Group: US MacBook sales took a 6 percent hit during 2012 holidays originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Digital gaming soars nine percent, still knows nothing of rarity value

It's already chewed up some big names on the retail scene, but the game-downloading trend shows no sign of being sated. Fresh figures from market research firm NPD show that American digital game sales (including rentals and DLC) amounted to $2.04 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011, which represents a nine percent year-on-year hike at a time when physical game transactions fell three percent. Things are going the same way across the Atlantic, with the UK, France and Germany adding a further $1.29 billion to the burgeoning click-to-buy market. Industry types will surely welcome the news, since digital titles rake in higher margins (hello, PS Store) and reduce the trade in used discs, but what about those of us who'll one day want to swap our dusty copy of Fight Night Round Four for something more subtle?Digital gaming soars nine percent, still knows nothing of rarity value originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink SlashGear  |  CNET, NPD  | Email this | Comments

Research Firm Says Windows 8 Had a Rocky Start

While Microsoft has promoted big sales figures for Windows 8 this week, NPD, a retail sales tracking firm, is painting a darker picture of the product's introduction. NPD estimated that sales of Windows PCs in retail stores in the United States fell 21 percent in the four-week period spanning Oct. 21 to Nov. 17, compared to the same period the previous year.

NPD: Hardware sales hit $144 billion in 2011, PCs lead the moneymaking pack

Canalys recently announced that smartphone shipments surpassed those of PCs for the whole of 2011. Well, NPD's just released its own set of hardware numbers, this time focused on revenue shares, and it appears PCs (that's laptops and desktops for NPD's purposes) are still far and away the biggest moneymakers around, bringing in about 19 percent (or $28 billion) of the reported $144 billion in hardware sales last year. TVs, PCs and gaming hardware each saw a decline in revenue share while smartphone and tablet sales grew -- slates and e-readers experienced a five percent increase, taking up nearly 11 percent of the hardware pie and raking in $15 billion. Unsurprisingly, Apple topped the chart for sales by manufacturer, seeing a 36 percent increase over 2010, while HP, Samsung, Sony and Dell rounded out the top five with varying levels of sales declines. For more number crunching and statistical whatnots, check out the full PR after the break.Continue reading NPD: Hardware sales hit $144 billion in 2011, PCs lead the moneymaking packNPD: Hardware sales hit $144 billion in 2011, PCs lead the moneymaking pack originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  NPD  | Email this | Comments

Scalado Photobeamer for iOS brings rapid photo sharing to any web-connected display (video)

Scalado's latest 99 cent app for iOS only does one little thing, but it does it well. Its singular mission is to let you share an image from your Camera Roll to any web-connected display in front of you, without having to navigate through a more sophisticated file-sharing platform or use extra hardware on the receiving device. That recipient can be anything -- a smart TV, tablet, PC, Mac, games console, whatever -- so long as it has a browser pointed at the Photobeamer homepage. That page displays a QR code, which provides all the clever linkage you need: you simply load up the app on your mobile, pick the image you want to share, and then point the rear camera at the QR code to beam the image across via the web. Having given it a quick test, we'd say it's definitely up to regular domestic challenges where you just want to display a few photos rather than perhaps videos or presentation slides, and where there's no need to print or store shared images. You can swipe left and right between different pictures in your gallery, and also choose whether you want those images to be fitted to the recipient display or resized to fill it. There's a video after the break to help you decide if that's worth a dollar, while the Photobeamer app itself waits patiently at the iTunes link below.Continue reading Scalado Photobeamer for iOS brings rapid photo sharing to any web-connected display (video)Scalado Photobeamer for iOS brings rapid photo sharing to any web-connected display (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 May 2012 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  Photobeamer (iTunes), Scalado  | Email this | Comments

NPD credits Verizon iPhone with stemming the Android tide in Q1 smartphone sales

As much as we were hoping to get some definitive statements from AT&T and Verizon's Q1 2011 financials about the Verizon iPhone's impact on the smartphone market, none were really forthcoming. It's left to analyst outfits like the NPD, therefore, to try and parse the data for us and read between the official lines. The latest numbers from the NPD Group's Mobile Phone Tracker indicate that Apple's share of US smartphones sales jumped from 19 percent in Q4 2010 to 28 percent in the first quarter of this year, which helped stymie Android's prodigious expansion. The Google OS went from being on 53 percent of all smartphones sold to a flat 50 percent in the quarter. Also intriguing about the period is that, for the first time, smartphones accounted for more than half of all mobile phones sold in the US, at 54 percent. The top five best-selling cellphones also happened to be smartphones, with Apple and HTC providing two each; the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, Droid X, EVO 4G, and the Droid Incredible took home the NPD commendations.

[Thanks, Matt]

Disclaimer: NPD's Ross Rubin is a contributor to Engadget. NPD credits Verizon iPhone with stemming the Android tide in Q1 smartphone sales originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 08:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  NPD  | Email this | Comments