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Samsung’s Bada Doing Well In Europe
As we all know the main players in today’s phone operating systems are Apple with their iOS, Google’s Android and RIM’s Blackberry operating system, with small percentages going out to Windows Phone 7, Symbian and webOS. Oh and how could we forget Samsung’s very own attempt at a platform of their own – Bada.
Samsung’s Bada OS was released last year in June 2010 on the Samsung Wave 8500 and managed to sell over one million units during its first four weeks of sale. Granted that’s a pretty small figure compared to iOS or Android devices but now it seems it’s doing even better than Windows Phone 7, at least in the European market.
The latest market share figures for smartphone operating systems revealed by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech shows that Samsung’s Bada is commanding 8.8% market share in France, 7.8% in Germany, 3.3% in Italy and 1.3% in Great Britain,which are rather impressive figures compared to Windows Phone 7 who only managed 1.5% in France and 5.4% in Germany. Part of Bada’s appeal has to be that it is found on Samsung devices that have been catered to those who are looking for a smartphone that is a cheaper alternative to the likes of iOS and Android devices, which means more than likely we will not be seeing Samsung’s Bada play catchup to iOS or Android any time soon.
The Fairphone 2 was first unveiled in June earlier this year, where this particular handset carried a modular design while featuring majority of its components that have been sourced from conflict-free mines. It seems that this particular handset that you can purchase with a clear conscience has begun to ship to those who happen to live across Europe.
Fairphone announced in a blog post, “It’s been almost two years in the making, and some of the earliest buyers have been patiently waiting since July to receive their new phones. As community manager, I want to personally welcome the new batch of Fairphone owners to our community.” The initial 1,000 units are tipped to ship this month, before the other pre-orders follow in January 2016.
In terms of hardware specifications, the Fairphone 2 will run on a Snapdragon 801 chipset, has a 5″ 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP camera, with Android 5.1 Lollipop in tow. It will be a dual SIM capable handset with a microSD memory card slot and plays nice with 4G LTE networks, retailing for approximately €525 a pop.
It looks like the upcoming flagship model from Xiaomi will feature NFC support, at least based on a document that was released by China UnionPay. Just in case you are scratching your head and wondering who China UnionPay is, they happen to be the only domestic payment gateway supplier and card organization, and hence, to see them offer detailed support concerning the newly released NFC-based payment system points to the very real possibility of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 featuring NFC capability.
After all, the Xiaomi Mi 3 was also mentioned on the list, which so happens to feature NFC, and there is no mention of the Xiaomi Mi 4 which does not come with NFC. Still, such a new payment system would be the ideal tool to see the reintroduction of NFC to the flagship model.
OnePlus did make an announcement in the previous month that the Ceramic variant of the OnePlus X will be released on November 24. True to their word, they did exactly that – although only a pitiful number of units were made available, and not only that, this was through a charity auction. Thankfully for the rest of the masses who are on the lookout for this device, it has gone on sale officially already.
Needless to say, this particular variant is available only by an invitation, although do bear in mind that standard OnePlus X invites are not good here – you will still need to snag yourself a specific Ceramic variant invite before you make a purchase. OnePlus is also on the lookout to offer additional methods of picking up this smartphone, although no further details were revealed.
The OnePlus X Ceramic will be available only in select markets, where among them include Europe, India, and Hong Kong. To date, we do know that OnePlus had made only 10,000 units of the handset available. A case of the early bird getting the proverbial worm here?