Gartner recently revealed its latest analysis of the worldwide mobile phone sector, with sales for the second quarter of this year estimated to have declined by 2.3 percent compared with the same period in 2011. Smartphones reportedly accounted for around 36.7 percent of all mobile phone sales in the quarter but are expected to sell yet more strongly in the second half of 2012.

“High-profile smartphone launches from key manufacturers such as the anticipated Apple iPhone 5, along with Chinese manufacturers pushing 3G and preparing for major device launches in the second half of 2012, will drive the smartphone market upward,” said Anshul Gupta, Gartner’s leading research analyst.

According to the newest available numbers, demand for Apple iPhones of all kinds fell on a global basis in the second quarter of the year and similar declines are forecast for the third. Only with the introduction of a new and updated device will the US consumer tech giant see its smartphone sales increase again, Gartner’s latest report maintains.

Meanwhile, Apple’s great rival Samsung has seen sales of its smartphone devices go from strength to strength in recent months. The company sold some 45.6 million smartphones in Q2 2012, with demand for the Galaxy S3 exceeding expectations and impressive sales figures making it the most popular Android-operated product currently on the market.

“In the race to be top smartphone manufacturer in 2012, Samsung has consistently increased its lead over Apple, and its open OS market share increased to one-and-a-half times that of Apple in the second quarter of 2012,” said Gartner’s Gupta.

There was however no mistaking Apple and Samsung’s dominance as the world’s two leading smartphone providers, occupying as they did more than half of the overall market worldwide in the second quarter.

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Remarkably, Apple managed to sell roughly 17 million of the second and third versions of the iPad, which essentially created the tablet sector as it is regarded today after its launch in 2010. The second quarter sales were a massive 44.1 percent up on figures for the previous quarter, IHS iSuppli’s data indicates.

All of which means that Apple’s domination of the tablet sector reached a five-quarter high during the second three months to June of this year. It looked in 2011 as if the American consumer technology giant would see its market share eaten into consistently for some time yet as new entrants made a stream of rival devices available worldwide. However, Samsung remains a long way off Apple in the tablet computer stakes despite having successfully matched and even surpassed the popularity of its rival’s leading smartphone in recent months.

IHS iSuppli explained the resilience of Apple’s position as the dominant force when it comes to tablet sales by pointing to the ‘ecosystem’ that surrounds the iPad.

“A major component of Apple’s success to date is the company’s well-developed ecosystem of content and applications it had in place before entering the tablet market, and its absolute control of the hardware, software and operating system,” explained Rhoda Alexander from IHS. “When a customer buys a media tablet, what he or she is really doing is purchasing a key to that ecosystem, not just a piece of hardware.”

However, the tablet landscape looks set to change again in coming quarters as Google and Microsoft look to recreate some of the success Apple has achieved in the market by developing similarly all-encompassing ecosystems.

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Evernote is perhaps the most note-worthy addition to the Reader PRS offering, with the cloud system enabling users to access and save highlighted sections of their text from a variety of similarly equipped devices. So you can highlight your favourite quote or a particularly pleasing piece of text with your Reader PRS-T2 and view later via your laptop, your tablet or indeed your smartphone. You will need Wi-Fi connectivity switched on though of course.

Whether or not the Reader from Sony succeeds in making any inroads into the substantial lead that Amazon has managed to gain in the UK’s e-reader market remains to be seen. But if you’re a JK Rowling and a Sony fan then you might be pleased to know you can get a free copy of Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone free of charge when you buy a new PRS-T2. You will need to splash out £119 in order to do so, which puts the device at a price level just £10 above the resiliently popular Kindle from Amazon.

As far as battery charging issues are concerned, Sony has said its newest e-reader will offer users close to two months of battery life with a single charge as long as the Wi-Fi functionality is switched off. It also offers 2GB worth of storage space but you can bump that up to a whopping 32GB if you invest in a microSD memory card.

In other UK e-reading news, Amazon recently revealed that it now sells more books in digital formats than in hardback and paperback combined around the country. The milestone was passed just two years after its first Amazon Kindle was introduced to British consumers. Interestingly, the hugely popular novel Fifty Shades of Grey by the author EL James managed to become the UK’s top selling Kindle book ever within just four months of being officially made available to British readers earlier this year.

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The Galaxy Note 10.1 follows hot on the heels of an earlier incarnation that was introduced towards the back end of 2011 and which Samsung describes as having met with considerable success. The new tablet will be powered by a 1.4 quad-core processor and boast 2GB of RAM, which is all designed to offer more powerful user experiences than its predecessor and rival devices already on the market.

“The Galaxy Note 10.1 is a product we are very excited about and will offer our customers a new way to use and experience a tablet device,” said Simon Stanford, vice president of Samsung UK’s telecoms and networks division in the UK and Ireland.

“As well as being able to consume content such as videos, photos, document and the Internet, the Galaxy Note 10.1 also gives them the power to produce, create and customise that same content – something they won’t get from any other product on the market.”

Among the elements of the Note being emphasised by Samsung on announcing its impending launch is its multi-screen and multi-tasking capabilities. Essentially, users will be able to use two distinct applications simultaneously and side-by-side on their 10.1-inch displays. Another much touted feature of the offering is, as you might expect given its name, the S Pen and S Note system that is designed to enable highly personalised and organised on-screen note-taking.

Samsung has managed to match and surpass Apple in the context of smartphone shipments worldwide in recent quarters, largely thanks to the massive popularity of its Android-operated Galaxy S2 and Galaxy S3 handsets. However, the same is not true of the tablet sector, where Apple’s iPad remains by far the dominant player and the top-selling device. In fact, the latest figures from research firm IHS iSuppli recently showed that Apple stretched its lead as the world’s top tablet seller in the second quarter of this year.

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A new report on the smartphone market from IDC has emphasised the popularity of Android devices on a global basis and of the foremost device of its kind right now in the shape of the Galaxy S3. According to the technology research firm, Android and Apple’s iOS operating systems were to be found on a massive 85 percent of all smartphones shipped in the second quarter of this year. Apple and Samsung are currently battling it out to claim the bragging rights of having the world’s leading smartphone on their roster. At present though it is Samsung’s Galaxy S2s and S3s that are out in front in that respect.

But while the battle at the forefront of the sector is fierce and likely to stay that way between Apple and Samsung’s Android devices, other handset makers and operating systems are struggling to stay in the race. IDC’s figures show that RIM’s BlackBerry OS and the Symbian system used by Nokia devices both saw their share of the relevant market fall below five percent in Q2 2012.

“Android continues to fire on all cylinders,” said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst at IDC’s mobile phone technology and trends programme.”The market was entreated to several flagship models from Android’s handset partners, prices were well within reach to meet multiple budgetary needs, and the user experience from both Google and its handset partners boosted Android smartphones’ utility far beyond simple telephony,” he added.

Llamas went on to describe the market for mobile phone operating systems as being “unquestionably a two-horse race” with Apple and Android dominating the field and stretching their lead as the quarters go by. All of which explains the interest surrounding the court case going on in the US right now where Apple and the leading Android-using smartphone maker Samsung are doing battle over a string of disputed patents.

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Samsung explains that it hopes to see a growing number of professionals make use of their ultrabooks and laptops more as work-ready devices than purely as entertainment or media-obsessed machines. With this in mind, Windows 7 Professional allows Samsung Series 5 and 9 users to install and run many of the most powerful and popular business software solutions out there.

“As consumer devices continue to infiltrate the workplace, we want to change this perception among businesses too,” said Damian Cusick, general manager of computing for Samsung in the UK.”Companies are demanding all the business features the workplace requires along with the performance and storage the Series 5 Ultrabook delivers, within its thin and light form factor.”

Powered by Intel’s Core i5-3317U processors, Samsung’s Series 5 ultrabooks promise up to seven hours of battery life with a single charge and boot up within just 20 seconds. They weigh only 1.52 kgs and measure 12.4 inches across. Other notable features of the 5 Series include its LCD technology, 300nit HD LED display and an anti-reflective screen.

Meanwhile, the Series 9 Notebook is billed by the company as the world’s thinnest and most compact premium laptop device. It uses the same Intel Core i5-3317U processor as the Series 5 but promises 7.7 hours worth of battery life with every charge. It is available either in ‘mineral black’ or what Samsung is referring to as ‘mystic silver’. But whichever style and whichever device you use in future, it can now be equipped with Windows 7 Professional if you’re looking to sharpen up the work-focussed functionality of your laptop.

Samsung is of course one of the world’s leading makers of consumer technology from laptops to TVs and from smartphones to tablets. But it is currently embroiled in a major legal battle in the US as it looks to disprove claims it infringed a number of copyright patents owned by its great rival Apple.

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Its dimensions will put the ThinkPad Tablet 2 in competition with an array of devices, not least the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the latest iPad from Apple. Lenovo will of course be hoping to build on the relative popularity of its earlier offerings in the category and the strength of Microsoft’s keenly anticipated new operating system. The plan is for the Tablet 2 to be made officially available worldwide at the same time as Windows 8, which means we can expect to see it launched in October of this year.

“For the next generation of Lenovo PCs, designed to be great with Windows 8, we’re working closer than ever with Microsoft Corp and our silicon partners,” said Dilip Bhatia, vice president and general manager of Lenovo’s ThinkPad business unit.

“Today we are excited to reveal the fruit of this collaborative co-engineering, the ThinkPad Tablet 2, a joint effort between Lenovo, Microsoft and Intel.”

Intel’s contribution to the development effort sees the Tablet 2 equipped with Atom processors designed specifically for mobile devices and for Windows 8 Pro. There will be a range of internet connectivity options with the device as you might expect and Lenovo has been keen to stress the versatility of its newest tablet that it hopes will fit seamlessly into consumer lifestyles. There will be a number of input methods available to users of the Tablet 2 as well, including your trusty fingers or a digitiser and pen, which should be particularly useful for old-fashioned note-taking and for capturing signatures.

“Our new ThinkPad Tablet 2 marries incredible hardware and software to give consumers a great device for office, home or travel while also offering companies and IT managers the oversight they need to help secure and manage their company’s networks and data,” Bhatia commented.

Much of the success or otherwise of the ThinkPad Tablet 2 will of course rest on the response among consumers worldwide to the Windows 8 operating system for tablets. It will no doubt face stiff competition from the muchmore wellestablished systems offered by Apple and Android from Google.

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JT Wang told the Financial Times of London that Microsoft’s decision to launch it’s own tablet device later this year could be notably damaging for companies like Acer who have worked closely with the US firm in the same sector. Surface tablets from Microsoft are set to be introduced to various markets in October and according to Mr Wang will be in direct competition for custom with Acer’s own Iconia tablet and devices from its rivals like Lenovo’s latest IdeaPad.

“We have said [to Microsoft] think it over,” he is quoted as saying in the FT. “Think twice. It will create a huge negative impact for the ecosystem and other brands may take a negative reaction. It is not something you are good at so please think twice.”

The issue for the likes of Acer, Lenovo, HP and others is that the launch of the Surface will significantly alter the landscape of competition for them going forward. So where they were once all able to work with Microsoft on developing openly available operating systems, they will now be forced to view the provider of its platforms as a rival maker of the relevant hardware, at least when it comes to tablets.

However, despite these potential problems and issues for Acer as it deals with Microsoft, Wang apparently welcomed the work being done by the company in the context of touchscreens. He’s quoted as saying: “The keyboard is still a necessity but touch is becoming a fashion and necessary feature. Windows combines the touch and the keyboard. If you don’t have touch you are antique.”

Acer’s current range of devices includes several ultrabooks, desktops and laptops, as well as its Iconia tablets. It is well established among the top handful of computer companies in terms of shipments worldwide. Lenovo meanwhile recently unveiled a second version of its ThinkPad Tablet, which is scheduled for worldwide release in October along with the Windows 8 operating system it has been designed operated with.

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The Kindle was made available in the UK a little over two years and has been the top selling item on Amazon.co.uk for much of that time. The Seattle-based e-commerce behemoth noted that it took twice as long for its digital book sales to outstrip printed versions in the US than has proved to be the case in the UK.

“Customers in the UK are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books, even as our print business continues to grow,” saidJorrit Van der Meulen, vice president of Kindle for the European Union.

“As a result of the success of Kindle, we’re selling more books than ever before on behalf of authors and publishers. And thanks to Kindle Direct Publishing, thousands of self-published authors have also been given an outlet to share their work with the millions of Kindle readers worldwide.”

Amazon revealed a number of other statistics about the scale of its digital book sales, with the remarkable popularity of EL James’ novel Fifty Shades of Grey apparently making her the number one selling author in Kindle history. Amazingly, her two million-strong sales in four months have eclipsed even the scale of Harry Potter digital downloads achieved by JK Rowling over the past couple of years.

As well as the Kindle e-reading devices themselves, Amazon’s Kindle books are also available to be downloaded and read with many of the world’s most popular consumer technology items. So you can read Kindle books on the likes of the iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone from Apple, and a range of Android-operated handsets as well.

In the wake of the success of the Kindle on both sides of the Atlantic and particularly in the US and UK markets, Amazon has also introduced a tablet computer to rival devices like the iPad and the Galaxy Tab. To date though Amazon Kindle Fires are yet to be made available in the UK despite proving popular with consumers in the US.

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Presentations can in fact be made using the technology to project images and info on surfaces as wide as 50 inches. It is an Android operated device, as are so many of Samsung’s best sellers, including most prominently right now the Galaxy S3.

Simon Stanford, vice president of Samsung’s telecoms and networks division for the UK and Ireland, said of the Galaxy Beam: “It’s the kind of device you won’t find anywhere else – a high definition projector within a standard sized smartphone – and is great for people who want to watch movies, show photos to friends or need to give a presentation while they’re out and about.”

The Beam was first showcased at the international Mobile World Congress event that took place back in February. It weighs in at just 145 grams, has a four-inch 480 x 800 display and a five-megapixel camera with a flash and 720p video recording capability. The Android system that it operates with is the version 2.3.6 better known as Gingerbread and it has a dual-core 1GHz processor. In terms of its battery life, Samsung assures users that it will last at least the duration of a three-hour presentation without needing to be recharged.

The Beam is billed as being a fun and interactive device that should be ideal for anyone looking to lead groups of people in discussion at any point. You can pick one up from a variety of retailers or online right now at a SIM-free cost of £385, or without charge on the basis of a £31 per month two-year contract.

Alternatively though if your keen to get your hands on Samsung smartphone but the Windows operating system is more what you’re after then you should perhaps look into buying the newly-launched Samsung Omnia M that offers you just that.

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