Author: Brad Reed

At this rate, Samsung (005930) looks likely to give one of its televisions voice-calling capabilities and still call it a smartphone. Until then, fans of big phones will have to make do with the Samsung Galaxy Mega lineup, a monstrous new “phablet” line that comes with display sizes of 5.8 and 6.3 inches. JK Shin, the CEO of Samsung’s mobile business, said that the new phablets tap into “a great potential in the bigger screen for extensive viewing multimedia, web browsing, and more.” The 6.3-inch version of the Mega features a dual-core 1.7GHz processor, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, a 3,200 mAh battery and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera, while the 5.8-inch version features a 1.4GHz dual-core processor, Android 4.2 and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. Samsung hasn’t announced pricing for the Mega models yet but it says the devices will launch in May in Europe before expanding to other markets later in the year. Samsung’s full press release is posted below.

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While we’ve heard encouraging reports on BlackBerry Z10 sales from other countries, here in the United States the picture looks decidedly gloomier. With one major wireless carrier providing next to no marketing push, sales of BlackBerry’s (BBRY) flagship phone in the U.S. have apparently gotten off to a very slow start and are showing few signs of picking up anytime soon. Per The Wall Street Journal, two analysts on Thursday added to reports of slow early U.S. sales and painted a very dire picture of BlackBerry’s future prospects in the American smartphone market.

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Consumer surveys haven’t been very kind to BlackBerry (BBRY) this week. In the wake an earlier survey showing that 83% of Americans had no idea BlackBerry 10 had even launched, AllThingsD points us to a new survey from research firm Raymond James showing that 71.4% of consumers would never buy a BlackBerry under any circumstances. For comparison, just 19.7% of consumers surveyed said that nothing could convince them to buy an iPhone while just 31.3% said the same of Android phones. It goes without saying that this only underscores the challenges that BlackBerry faces in trying to win over consumers who are already very attached to both iOS and Android and suggests that the company faces a pretty low ceiling for how high its market share can climb.

If you were hoping that Google’s (GOOG) upcoming Babel cross-platform messaging service would integrate your Google Voice account, you’re out of luck for at least a little while. According to Droid-Life, Babel will “eventually” support Google Voice as one of its services but is most likely to launch only with support for Google Talk, Google Hangouts and Google Messenger. Droid-Life also says that Babel will likely launch with “synced notifications, cross-platform conversation experiences, a new UI, photo sharing, quick access to live video chats, and on-the-record chat history viewing from anywhere,” making it a truly comprehensive messaging service that will be available on both Android and iOS.

Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Phone 8 hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire since its release last fall and the company could face trouble gaining traction if things don’t turn around soon. Per Barron’s, BGC analyst Colin Gillis has released a new research note that casts doubts on Microsoft’s future in the mobile computing market despite the fact that he remains “supportive of the quality and innovation of Microsoft’s software to power phones and tablets.” The big issue for Microsoft, Gillis says, is that the company hasn’t figured out how to make people care enough to buy its mobile products, no matter how good they might be.

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The world’s top smartphone vendor has decided it would rather tug on our heart-strings than tickle our funny bones for its first Galaxy S4 ads. Samsung (005930), whose ads have often generated laughs at the expense of rival Apple (AAPL), released three new television spots on Wednesday that focus solely on three key new Galaxy S4 features: the S Translator that provides instant voice-enabled translations into different languages, the Sound Shot camera feature that lets users embed audio files into their pictures and the Group Play feature that lets users quickly sync up audio playing on all their devices to create a more amplified sound from multiple smartphone speakers. All of these features were important parts of Samsung’s tap-dancing Broadway unveiling of the Galaxy S4 last month and the company apparently thinks that they’ll be winners with consumers by featuring them so prominently in their first television ads. Videos for all three ads are posted below.

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Watch out, rival carriers: T-Mobile has its eyes on your iPhone subscribers. The so-called “un-carrier” on Wednesday announced that it would give new customers an iPhone 5 for $0 down if they trade in their iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S models. The iPhone 5 won’t be completely free, however, because customers will still have to pay monthly charges over a two-year period to pay off the cost of the device. That said, iPhone users who switch from other carriers will still be getting an iPhone 5 for $99 less than current T-Mobile subscribers who want to buy the device and for $199 less than what they’d pay on other carriers. T-Mobile’s full press release is posted below.

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Canadian BlackBerry (BBRY) fans who want a new device with a full QWERTY keyboard won’t have much longer to wait. MobileSyrup has captured a screenshot from a Rogers Wireless internal document showing that the QWERTY-equipped BlackBerry Q10 smartphone will launch on April 30th. While Canadians will get the new device by the end of the month, we still have no official word on when Americans will be able to buy the Q10, although recent rumors have claimed that it will launch on T-Mobile at some point in May. The Q10, which is designed to look more like iconic pre-touchscreen BlackBerry phones, includes 3.5-inch display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage and a 2,100 mAh battery.

If you want to understand the major challenges that BlackBerry (BBRY) faces in the American market, look no further than a new survey commissioned by MKM Partners showing that most Americans don’t even know that BlackBerry 10 has launched yet. Per Barron’s, the survey of 1,500 American consumers shows that 82.6% did not know that BlackBerry released its newly revamped operating system earlier this year, while 68% said they had no interest in buying a BlackBerry 10 smartphone. By contrast, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Phone 8 operating system has significantly higher brand recognition, as just 60.5% of American consumers did not know that Windows Phone 8 devices were available to buy. Smartphone owners accounted for 51% of respondents in the MKM survey, so it seems to have a reasonably good sample of tech-savvy consumers.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere’s attempted populist revolt against the major wireless carriers has apparently sparked some consumer interest. In an interview with CNET, T-Mobile executive David Carey claims that “traffic was up in all of the stores he visited after the carrier made its switch [to ditching wireless contracts] late last month and announced the changes during a high-profile event in New York.” T-Mobile in March announced that it was abandoning contracts for its wireless plans and would give customers the option to either buy new smartphones at full price or to buy them for $99 up front followed by a series of $20 payments over the span of two years. Early estimates have shown that the carrier’s new plans could be big money savers for individual subscribers.