The Hippest Phones » sales

iPhone 4 pre-order mess takes a sinister turn with privacy breach

Vladislav Savov — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 08:17:00 +0000

In amongst the otherwise fun stampede that befell Apple and AT&T's servers yesterday, some less humorous problems were also taking place. Numerous tipsters reported to Gizmodo during the day that they were being logged into other people's AT&T accounts while going in to try and sign up for an iPhone 4 upgrade. An insider source suggests that this was caused by a major fraud prevention overhaul of AT&T's software last weekend, which was followed by "absolutely no testing" prior to the iPhone 4's launch. Tsk tsk. The network itself has responded by saying it's unable to replicate the issue and is looking into it. While it's doing that, a bunch of people might be "looking into" your AT&T account details. Sleep tight now.

iPhone 4 pre-order mess takes a sinister turn with privacy breach originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 03:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint fires employee who leaked weak EVO 4G sales numbers

Vladislav Savov — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:14:00 +0000

You know the backstory by now: Sprint boasted that the EVO 4G was its fastest selling phone ever a couple of days after hitting the American market, before abruptly correcting itself and admitting that the EVO's sales were in fact in line with those achieved by the Pre last summer. What you, and we, didn't know till now, however, is that Sprint's self-correction was sparked off by an employee with a curious mind and posting privileges over on the xda-developers forum. On June 6, according to MobileCrunch, this unnamed hero of truthiness browsed Sprint's internal inventory system and nailed down a figure of 65,500 sold units from Sprint's own stores -- a stat far south from what Sprint would announce a day later. That number ultimately found its way onto the message board, and though it obviously shouldn't be taken as authoritative (or exhaustive), it was enough to get Sprint to hit the auto-correct button and part ways with the activist member of staff. Harsh.

[Thanks, Carol]

Sprint fires employee who leaked weak EVO 4G sales numbers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First sales survey indicates iPad is big hit in Japan

Serkan Toto — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:06:08 +0000

The iPhone turned out to be a mega-hit in Japan's competitive cell phone market, and the iPad is poised to replicate this success. Tokyo-based market research firm BCN [JP] today said Apple's share of the domestic notebook market more than tripled in May (on a month-to-month basis) to reach 11.5% - thanks to the iPad.

Motorola selling Droids faster than it can make them, has up to four videophones in pipeline

Vladislav Savov — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 09:34:00 +0000

In case you're not yet convinced that video chat is the next big thing phone makers are going to push on us, let Motorola's Sanjay Jha enlighten you. Having just launched the video-centric Motorola XT720 in Europe (sans a front-facing camera), Jha is promising that his crew will deliver between two and four handsets this year with the equipment necessary to carry out video calls. Funnily enough, Moto's co-CEO describes himself as someone who's "never been a great believer" in the functionality, but clearly his company's seeing a trend it feels the need to be a part of. Speaking of trends, Moto has also fallen afoul of supply shortages similar to those constraining Droid Incredible inventory, with Jha saying about the Moto Droid, "if I could build more, I'd sell more." And if you could get Android 2.2 on them, you'd have some really happy customers too.

Motorola selling Droids faster than it can make them, has up to four videophones in pipeline originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Jun 2010 04:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC EVO 4G sold out pretty much everywhere

Laura June — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:08:00 +0000

It's being widely reported that the HTC EVO 4G is sold out all over the US -- at brick and mortars and online. And while we can't 100 percent certain that Sprint doesn't have a few hidden away in some of the less traversed pockets of this great land, the fact that they're selling out shouldn't come as a huge shocker. The phone overtook the Palm Pre to become Sprint's best-selling launch day ever, though we don't have an actual number of units moved. Be sure to let us know in comments if your local store has any left -- we'll be sure to stampede over there.

HTC EVO 4G sold out pretty much everywhere originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia sells just 100,000 N900s after first five months: so? (updated: more like 5 weeks)

Thomas Ricker — Fri, 28 May 2010 10:37:00 +0000

Look, the N900 might be sitting at the top of Nokia's handset pyramid in terms of capabilities, but as we've said all along, the N900 is not a mass-market device. Nokia's been very clear that the N900 was launched as a means to strengthen its Maemo development community (on the path to MeeGo we now know). And by all accounts, it's done just that while winning a rabid fanbase of nerds in the process. Nevertheless, Reuters uses Gartner's estimate of less than 100,000 units sold in the device's first five months as proof that Nokia can't mount a challenge to RIM and Apple. True the numbers are paltry compared to the 8.75 million iPhones Apple sold from January to March, but a more apt comparison might be the oft noted Nexus One sales that reached just 135k units moved after 74 days. Regardless, in its defense, Alberto Torres, head of Nokia's solutions business said that "Sales have substantially exceeded expectations." So yeah, Nokia has problems, but the N900 ~~isn't~~ wasn't one of them.

Update: While Nokia doesn't normally give out detailed sales figures per device, we've just been told that more than 100,000 N900s sold in the first five weeks -- not months -- globally.

Nokia sells just 100,000 N900s after first five months: so? (updated: more like 5 weeks) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 05:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IDC and Gartner award smartphone growth prizes to Apple and Google

Thomas Ricker — Wed, 19 May 2010 09:44:00 +0000

Get ready to rumble, the latest Gartner and IDC smartphone numbers are out to give us a pretty good idea of how things shape up globally. Remember, IDC measures vendor shipments while Gartner measures actual handset sales to end users. So what does the data tell us? Well, to start with, in terms of smartphone devices, Gartner claims a 48.7% increase in smartphone sales of 54.3 million units in Q1 2010 compared to Q1 2009 -- IDC pegs growth at 56.7% on 54.7 million units for the same period. Both estimates easily outpace the 17% or 21.7% growth in worldwide units of mobile phones moved according to Gartner and IDC, respectively.

IDC's list of top 5 smartphone device makers (pictured above) has Nokia at the number one spot repeating its 39.3% share as it did in Q1 of 2009 while RIM is down slightly from 20.9% in 2009 to a 19.4% market share in 2010. Apple (up from 10.9% to 16.1%) more than doubled its device shipments in the last year as HTC (up from 4.3% to 4.8%) and Motorola (up from 3.4% to 4.2%) all managed to increase their shares on higher volumes.

Regarding smartphone OS market share, Android's global numbers echo its success in the US jumping from a 1.6% market share to 9.6% in just one year. Gartner claims that sales of Android-based phones increased 707% year-on-year to displace Windows Mobile in the top 5 for the first time. Apple's iPhone OS also saw growth from 10.5% in 1Q09 to 15.4% in 1Q10 as both RIM (down from 20.1% to 19.4%) and Symbian (down from 48.8% to 44.3%) dropped. See the OS numbers broken down into a no-nonsense table after the break.

Continue reading IDC and Gartner award smartphone growth prizes to Apple and Google

IDC and Gartner award smartphone growth prizes to Apple and Google originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 04:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Western Digital has sold more hard drives this year than Seagate

Scott Merrill — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:30:46 +0000

Five hundred and fifty eight million hard drives were shipped in 2009. Think about that for a moment. Five hundred and fifty eight million. Of those, 175.2 million (or 31.4%) carried the Seagate brand name while 165.2 million came from Western Digital. According to The Information Network, WD pulled ahead in the first quarter of 2010, selling 51.1 million hard drives compared to Seagate's 50.3 million sold. I guess that's big news, if you're really into hard drives, or have strong brand loyalty to the drive in your computer. Me, I don't care so much.

Sales of netbooks and CULV notebooks expected to increase this year

Frank Zhang — Fri, 07 May 2010 15:00:24 +0000

It looks like people are still buying computers. Research firm iSuppli Corp believes that netbooks and Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage (CULV) notebooks are poised for significant growth in 2010. Notebook PC shipments overall are expected to hit 209.5 million this year, up 25.5% from last year. In particular, sales of netbooks, or smaller and cheaper versions of a notebook, are expected to grow 30% to 34.5 million units. Meanwhile, CULV notebooks are expected to reach sales of 14.5 million units this year, a whopping 93% increase.

CrunchDeals: 40% off all ScottEVest Goodness

John Biggs — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:00:10 +0000

Our best buddy, Scott, he of ScottEVest, just started its massive 40%-off sale. They have plenty of great stuff including the Quantum and Evolution jackets and my favorite, the cotton hoodie.

SSD sales up last year, despite recession

Dave Freeman — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:30:39 +0000

So it wasn't all bleak last year, SSD manufacturers experienced a 14% increase in sales, along with a total of over 11 million drives sold. That's a whole lot of memory chips.

December was the best month ever for video game sales

Dave Freeman — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:00:28 +0000

Looks like the recession is helping at least one industry. NPD Group reported that the video game industry turned in $5.53 billion dollars in sales for December, topping the results from last year by 4 percent! Boring as all these statistics are, the bottom line is people spent a whole lot of money on video games last month. The previous record was set in December of 2008, which was the first time that sales went over $5 billion.

PC shipments up 15 percent last quarter (but none of those are the Apple tablet so whatever)

Nicholas Deleon — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:00:03 +0000

There was plenty of talk ever since Lehman Brothers exploded in mid-2008 about how would consumers cope. Would they keep buying widgets in the face of insane job cuts? Would they keep buying, but only at a fraction of what they had in the past? Let's take PC sales, a pretty good barometer of where the average person is. (It's a big purchase, but not like buying a car or house.) Shipments of new PCs jumped 15 percent in the fourth quarter of last year. That's worldwide, by the way, and much higher than the people who expect things expected. This is good news.

Allegedly leaked Nexus One purchase page answers, raises questions (update: we’ve got the terms of sale)

Joshua Topolsky — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:02:00 +0000

So apparently the cats over at Gizmodo have gotten their hands on leaked pics of the Nexus One's landing and purchase page. First, the meat. According to the pages, the phone will be available in two ways: as a $529.99 unsubsidized and unlocked device, and as a $179.99 T-Mobile device locked to a two year contract. Sound familiar? It should, because it's exactly the same story as every other phone available on the market right now. Additionally, the pics seem to suggest that there will only be one plan available should you get the device on contract -- 500 minutes of talk time, unlimited text, data, and mobile to mobile for $79.99 -- which happens to exactly equal what you'd pay for a T-Mobile Even More 500 plan with unlimited smartphone data and unlimited messaging, so that means there's no bogus premium here. Furthermore, Giz claims that if you cancel your contract within 120 days you have to pay a $350 fee (a la Verizon) or return the phone to Google, and any existing customer that wishes to buy the phone has to switch to the Nexus One plan.

One thing that caught our eye is a mention of personalization -- you'll be able to get the phone engraved, something that we've been able to independently confirm through another tipster of ours. It looks like you can do two lines of text on a metallic bar on the back of the device... just don't expect to return it if you do (seriously, it says right in the terms of service that you're married to that thing if you get it etched).

To be perfectly honest, it's hard to say if this is the real deal or not. We don't get why Google would want to lock you into a single plan, nor do we fully understand why you would need to activate your phone via the website (as shown in the grab). Of course, the big G sometimes works in mysterious ways -- perhaps they're going for a little Apple magic here with restrictive plans and draconian ideas about how you can use the phone. It wouldn't be surprising given the timing of the company's little event next week. Don't worry, all will be revealed soon enough.

Update: Well what do you know. We've just been hit with a few photos of our own, apparently straight from HTC training materials, according to a tipster. And what else? Oh yes -- a PDF of the terms of sale, which you can download and view right here.

Allegedly leaked Nexus One purchase page answers, raises questions (update: we've got the terms of sale) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Online iPhone sales back on in New York City

Nilay Patel — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:01:00 +0000

We may never know exactly why AT&T suspended online sales of the iPhone to residents of New York last night, but it doesn't matter anymore -- the site's been updated and online sales are back... online. In other news, previously spiking sales of pants in the New York area have suddenly flatlined.

Online iPhone sales back on in New York City originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry shipments break record in Q3, RIM profits jump 59 percent

Vladislav Savov — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:41:00 +0000

RIM being a thriving and profitable company is hardly a new story -- as confirmed by third quarter earnings of $628 million off the back of a record-breaking 10 million units sold -- but the way it's making its money seems to be changing. More than 80 percent of new BlackBerry subscribers in the quarter were private customers, marking a distinct shift -- maybe not away from the corporate arena, but definitely toward embracing the consumer market. In an effort to further consolidate its global empire, RIM has also announced a partnership with China Telecom to go along with its earlier China Mobile deal. Oh, and there's the small matter of the 75 millionth BlackBerry being sold, but we're sure the cool cats up in BB HQ aren't counting handsets, they're probably too busy rolling around in piles of money.

BlackBerry shipments break record in Q3, RIM profits jump 59 percent originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola Milestone becomes eXpansys UK’s ‘fastest selling gadget’

Chris Ziegler — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:59:00 +0000

Call it a pent-up demand for WVGA Android devices, call it Droid jealousy, call it an unnatural love for the sweet, doughy goodness of a just-baked Eclair -- but whatever it is, early indications suggest that the British love their Milestones. Retailer eXpansys (which is big enough to actually produce some meaningful sales trend data, we suspect) is reporting that the just-launched Droid clone for GSM became "the fastest selling gadget in the website's 11 year history, even more successful than the iPhone" when it sold out inside of three hours on its site on top of the roughly 1,000 preorders they had taken prior to the 10th. This might be a case of double-speak -- we're trying to establish just how many phones were sold during those three hours, because what we really need is a sales rate, not a time span alone -- so we're cautioning Moto not to bust out the champagne glasses just yet, but it's certainly looking like a promising start. Schaumburg hasn't had a lot of success in Western Europe in recent years, of course, but if we can use eXpansys as a barometer here, we'd say that a little cautious optimism is well justified.

Motorola Milestone becomes eXpansys UK's 'fastest selling gadget' originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xbox 360: Not big in Japan

Nicholas Deleon — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:30:54 +0000

Would it be foolish to begin this story with the words “poor Microsoft”? I mean, the company isn't exactly hurting for money, and yet it looks like 2009 was the year that the Xbox 360 finally died in Japan. Not that the Xbox 360 ever really did well in Japan, but this year it looks like everything fell off a cliff.

iPhone in Korea off to a good start

Serkan Toto — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:20:06 +0000

The iPhone officially went on sale in China at the end of October and in Japan in summer last year, but many people in one important Asian market were still waiting for it the whole time: Korea. After getting the official government approval in mid-November, the country’s number two mobile carrier, KT Corporation, started rolling out the iPhone on November 28. And it can be happy about a pretty successful roll-out.

iPhone to be sold by Tesco in the UK, hemorrhages cachet

Vladislav Savov — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:30:00 +0000

So we know the iPhone has been slumming it and selling itself on Walmart shelves in the US for a while now, but it's retained a somewhat more dignified cachet over here in Europe. Until today, that is. Just "in time for Christmas," British retailer Tesco will make it possible for you to buy your socks, no-frills groceries, and shiny smartphone all in the same place. You'll still be riding O2's network, thanks to the Tesco Mobile service, but the department store chain is likely to price its contracts more aggressively, as it already has a £30 per month plan that includes unlimited calls, texts, and web surfing. Maybe there's something to this whole "competition" thing after all then, eh?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

iPhone to be sold by Tesco in the UK, hemorrhages cachet originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony Ericsson Satio sales suspended after bugs discovered

Thomas Ricker — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:02:00 +0000

Adding insult to Sony Ericsson's injurious bottom line, Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U shops (the UK's largest mobile phone retailers) have halted sales of the SE's Symbian-powered Satio handset after a high number of customer returns and complaints. A "software glitch" reportedly causes Sony Ericsson's flagship device to power down when users try to access certain applications -- unfortunately, the issue can't be patched via an over-the-air update. A little digging into CPW discussion forums reveals multiple complaints of freezes, crashes, under-performing batteries, and bizarre interface behavior. Both the Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U will offer "new phones" to customers fed up with their Satio. Richard Dorman, senior marketing manager at Sony Ericsson, concedes the issue and assures us that it should be sorted by Christmas. Until then, you can still purchase the handset directly from Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile... but really, why would you? The Satio's not the only dubiously-speced 12 megapixel cameraphone on the market.

[Thanks, ugotamesij]

Sony Ericsson Satio sales suspended after bugs discovered originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Analyst estimates 100,000 DROID smartphones sold in first weekend

Darren Murph — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:12:00 +0000

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA, Android

The lines may have been subdued, but one way or another, it sounds as if Motorola managed to sell quite a few DROIDs over the weekend. According to analyst Mark McKechnie at Broadpoint AmTech, the outfit managed to move around 100,000 of 'em during the opening weekend, with most stores moving at least half of their original shipments. He also estimated that Moto would sell one million Android-based phones in Q4 2009 alone (which includes the CLIQ, obviously), and that he viewed the first few days as "encouraging." It's been a long, long while since we've been able to say this, but hey -- nice job, Motorola.

Analyst estimates 100,000 DROID smartphones sold in first weekend originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Where were the games? Ubisofts sales down 52 percent for first half of FY2009-2010

Nicholas Deleon — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:00:20 +0000

Looks like Ubisoft hasn't had a great couple of months, either. The France-based publisher reported today a 52 percent decline in sales for the six months that ended on September 30 compared to the same period last year. (Fiscal years tend to begin in March.) A 52 percent drop translates to €166 million, or around $246 million.

Transformers 2 sells 7.5 million DVD & Blu-ray discs. Can’t you people find a better movie to buy?

Dave Freeman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:30:16 +0000

This is just wrong. I'll admit, I didn't enjoy "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". I thought the plot was weak and contrived, and I was slightly offended by the dumbing down of the film (robot urination and racial stereotypes? give me a break). I realize that the original "Transformers" wasn't exactly the height of cinematic art, but it was better then the sequel.

Can we blame Nintendo’s profit drop on the lack of gamer’s games?

Nicholas Deleon — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:45:07 +0000

It hasn't been the best couple of months for Nintendo. Profits were down for the six months leading up to September, which the company blames on the strong yen and the Wii's price cut. Net sales, too, were down, some 34.5 percent. Fair enough, and those reasons are likely to explain Nintendo's situation, but is there something else going on? I know Pat Buchanan, the older gentlemen that he is, always uses the phrase “the chickens have come home to roost,” and I think it's applicable here. Perhaps Nintendo's strategy of selling the Wii to the “casual” crowd (housewives and the like, to simplify this) has finally run out of gas?

Oh dear: Analyst slashes DJ Hero sales expectations by 50 percent

Nicholas Deleon — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:30:09 +0000

Interesting note regarding DJ Hero, where “interesting” means “potentially bad news.” One of those fancy analyst types, someone at Cowen and Company, has slashed sales expectations by a little more than 50 percent. That's nothing to brush aside if you're Activision.

What was the best selling video game system in September? (Hint: Sony makes it.)

Nicholas Deleon — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:15:08 +0000

This probably won't come as a surprise to any of you, but September was a Very Big month in the life of the PS3. For the first time ever, since its launch in fall, 2006, the PS3 was the best-selling video game system. See what amazing things happen when you price a product at an affordable level?

PSP Go? More like PSP [word that rhymes with ‘go’]!

Nicholas Deleon — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:30:54 +0000

Oh, dear. The first sales reports of the PSP Go started trickling out yesterday, and they were sorta so-so, let's say. (It's no PS3 Slim, that's for sure!) More details have emerged today, and, again, the PSP Go isn't exactly lighting the world on fire.

CrunchDeals: Wal-Mart going really cheap with the laptops this weekend

John Biggs — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:32:41 +0000

Just in case you need a cheap computer Wal-Mart has got your back. They're working with HP to sell a Compaq Presario for $298 and a number of laptops that are well under the $400 range. The laptop will have 3GB of ram, 160GB hard drive, and will include Vista. Why all of this information is showing up in a Reuters article is beyond me.

On the apparent Apple suicide

John Biggs — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:09:46 +0000

Every once in a while you get a story so strange and horrible that it takes a while to sink in. I’m talking about the suicide of a Foxconn employee who was caught doing something with an “iPhone prototype” and jumped out of the window. Matt wrote: So the story goes that a 25-year-old man at Foxconn [...]