HUA HIN, Thailand - Research firm Gartner released a report this week stating that, despite surges by Samsung and Apple, overall global mobile phone sales declined by 1.7% in 2012 compared with 2011. A total of 1.75 billion units were sold and the decline works out to around 30 million handsets.
Smart-phones lead the sales charge and the fourth quarter of 2012 saw record smart-phone sales of 207.7 million units, up 38.3% from the same period last year.
Last year’s overall decline hints towards a slowdown in the Asian
consumer market, particularly China. Saturation is also a factor. There are fewer people left in the world who have yet to buy their first phone. The industry is moving into an upgrade phase targeting consumers who want to improve on the device they already have.
The big winner in 2012 was Samsung (see Samsung sparkles, Asia Times Online, January 26, 2013). Its sales rose 22% to almost 385 million handsets, making the company the world’s largest by units sold. Nokia, now the overall number-two seller, shipping 85 million units, fell by 21%. Apple remained third and sold 43.4 million phones in the fourth-quarter compared to Samsung’s 64.5 million. Together, Apple and Samsung accounted for 52% of the smart-phone market. Huawei also had a good fourth quarter, and for 2012 it sold 27.2 million smart-phones, up 73.8% from 2011.
Out of those smart-phones Google's Android and Apple's iOS together powered more than 90% of the devices shipped during the period, with Android taking a 70% share of that total. This left BlackBerry with a paltry 3.5% of the total and Windows Phone at 3%.
Analysts claim that 2013 will be the year of the rise of the third ecosystem, as the battle between the new BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone intensifies and consumers look for an alternative to the Google/Apple duopoly.
Mobile security
A recent report by web security company Blue Coat has highlighted the increasing role Android-powered smart-phones are playing in the dissemination of malware. It went on to state that almost 25% of all mobile malware comes from porn websites yet less than 1% of mobile web traffic is related pornography.
Porn led to more malware on smart-phones and tablets than e-mail spam, malicious websites, and fake apps combined. The company noted that "In the desktop environment, pornography continued to fall as a threat vector as it became easier to target a large number of users on places like search engines or social networking sites."
The breakdown of Android malware showed that 58% originated from root exploits and rogue applications. Leading security firms have widely predicted that this will be the year that mobile devices emerge as a major target for cybercriminals. Smart-phones are portable personal computers; however unlike with desktops the vast majority of users do not lock their handsets with a password.
Security
Software giant Microsoft came close to breaking its own record for security fixes with this month's "Patch Tuesday". The company released 12 security bulletins that addressed 57 software flaws and vulnerabilities. The record number of flaws patched stands at 64 in April 2011.
Five of this month's patches were rated as critical and seven important, and all operating systems were affected; Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, RT and Server editions. Also included in the patches were Office, Internet Explorer versions 6 to 10, Exchange, and the .NET Framework. As before, the vulnerabilities, if exploited, allow a third-party access to remote control the compromised PC. Using IE to browse websites harboring malicious code is one way to allow the nasties to infiltrate Microsoft's operating systems.
Adobe has also been busy patching its much-maligned Flash Player software for similar vulnerabilities. IT administrators and security experts are recommending that home users of Windows keep automatic updates on and if possible use an alternative web browser.
Science
An Achilles heel to today's technological advancement is a reliable portable power supply. Battery technology has progressed little over the past few years. Smart-phone users are lucky if they get a day's use out of their devices when taking advantage of all of its functionality.
Current lithium-ion batteries, which are used in everything from vehicles to electronics, take several hours to recharge. However researchers at the University of Southern California have developed a new lithium-ion battery that can recharge within 10 minutes and hold three times the amount of energy held by other similar batteries.
The rechargeable cells in conventional Li-On batteries generate current by moving positive lithium ions between microscopically thin sheets of carbon graphite located at each electrode. Over time, the capacity and discharge performance of the carbon or silicon sheets degrades.
The research team has done away with the sheets entirely and replaced them with fields of porous silicon nano-tubes to shuffle electrons without wearing down and without losing capacity. The results yielded improved battery performance and a much-reduced recharge time. The new batteries, once they can be mass produced, could be powering our devices in just two or three years.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
(Copyright 2013 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
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Mobile security
