Author: Natasha Lomas

The 3G Nokia Lumia 720 slots into Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 portfolio behind its two 4G flagships, the 920 and 820 — with the aim of pushing some of their fancier features down to a more affordable mid range price point. Rather than beefy tech specs, Nokia has focused on polishing two populist areas. Firstly design: the 720 has been gifted with sleek looks — it’s the thinnest Lumia to date (at 9mm), sharing the rounded style and curved screen of the 820 but much more pleasing to hold, being lighter and thinner. The bright Lumia colours come in a matte finish, with the exception of a high gloss white option.

And secondly: the camera. Nokia has not gone as far as adding the PureView branding to the 720′s 6.7 megapixel lens but it’s put in Carl Zeiss optics (and branding), a new f1.9 aperture to boost performance of low light photography, and — to amp up the social networking street cred of the device — it’s added a new digital lens that lets people take enhanced self portraits using the 1.3 megapixel front facing lens.

This vanity filter processes self-portraits to ‘beautify’ the results — using a little digital airbrushing trickery to whiten teeth, smooth out skin tone and so on. Results seemed a bit hit and miss during my brief hands on but it did add a more cartoonish look to self portraits. Nokia said the feature had played well with its target consumers — young, fashion-conscious social networking users — during testing. As for the main lens, it wasn’t possible to scrutinise the low light performance claims during my brief hands on but Nokia is planning on making a big song and dance about its powers, creating a dedicated retail display unit to show off the low light prowess. The sales pitch is that this device puts a ‘proper camera’ in the consumer’s pocket so they don’t need to rely on a having a separate point and shoot.

Elsewhere, the phone’s specs are much the same as the two entry level Lumias — underlining that Nokia is not aiming this phone at the tech spec crowd, but rather going for a mainstream social networking audience. The 720 does have a slightly larger 4.3 inch display than its cheaper siblings, albeit it has the same resolution of 800 x 480. Nokia has added its Clear Black display technology to the 720, though, to improve viewing outdoors in sunlight. Indoors, in the glare of conference center fluorescent lighting, the screen looked clear and crisp, without being especially high res.

Under the hood, the 720 has a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon chip — the same sized processor as the entry level Lumia 520, along with the same 512MB of RAM. During a brief hands on the device felt no less responsive than its lower priced siblings. As with other devices in the Lumia line Nokia has included its range of software add-ons, including its HERE mapping and navigation software, and its free streaming music service.

The 720 does include NFC but wireless charging is an optional extra — the handset has three metal connectors on the rear which are compatible with a wireless charging cover. Nokia has also made room in the unibody design for an SD card slot – supporting user expanded memory of up to 64GB. On board memory is 8GB. The integrated battery is 2,000mAh.

Nokia is targeting the 720 at the Asia Pacific market initially, with China Mobile signed up to range it. There’s no confirmation as yet of whether the 720 will make it to the U.S. market.

The Lumia 520 is Nokia’s new entry level Windows Phone device — costing around $180 before taxes, a far cry from the flagship Lumia 920 and 820 currently up for grabs in the US. The 520 is confirmed for the U.S. market with T-Mobile due to range it in Q2. So what do you get for not-too-many dollars? Besides the latest version of Windows Phone (WP8), Nokia has included a few perks for budget buyers, including its HERE mapping and navigation software, its Mix Radio free streaming music service and its digital lenses camera filters and Cinemagraph animated GIF creator.

Also on board: Nokia’s glove-friendly sensitive touchscreen tech — so the 520 can be poked with a fingernail or prodded with a glove. But of course, this is still a budget device — so it’s more compact in size than the higher end Lumias, with a 4 inch display. It also lacks 4G, NFC and wireless charging. There’s no compass on board either so the 520 doesn’t get to tap into Nokia’s augmented reality City Lens app.

Design wise, as you’d expect, the 520 is certainly the least premium looking of the range — lacking any fancy touches, such as the layered colour-on-colour casing flourish Nokia added to its previous entry level Lumia (the 620). That’s not to say it’s unattractive. To my eye ‘cheap and cheerful’ is a fair description, while its fairly steeply curving sides give it a more angular look than the rest of the range.

The 520 shares the Lumia’s plastic unibody design but unlike the flagship Lumia 920 and 820 it’s a less premium feeling material, with a matte finish. The advantage of this cheaper plastic and smaller size is it feels much lighter of course. Thickness is just under 1cm. The brighter Lumia colours — red, yellow and white — are available as swappable shells sold separately, with cyan and the less stand out black option being the standard retail options.

The screen has a resolution of 800 x 480 — aka the old Windows Phone 7 resolution. It looked bright and clear during a brief hands on but less contrasty than the Lumia 720 (which includes Nokia’s Clear Black display tech). Under the hood the 520 has a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon chip — giving it the same amount of power as the former entry level Lumia 620. It handled the Windows Phone UI well, feeling fast and responsive during my encounter with it.

On the back there’s a five megapixel lens, which supports 720p HD video recording. While more expensive Lumias have had lots of tender loving care lavished on their camera kit, the 520 sits in Nokia’s unbranded camera category, so set your expectations accordingly. Nokia has included some of the features offered at higher Lumia price-points, including its Smart Shoot feature and the ability to capture wide angle shots but there’s no front facing lens.

Windows Phone 8 is an increasingly attractive OS at these budget price points — where Android hardware can be woefully underpowered. The easy to use Live Tiles interface, embedded Facebook et al social networking and value-add extras (such as 7GB of free SkyDrive cloud storage from Microsoft — and free streaming music from Nokia) compare well against a swathe of budget Androids. While WinPho is still certainly constrained when it comes to choice of apps, here at the low end smartphone price point that’s not such a huge minus. What the OS lacks in apps it makes up for with its polished look and feel — and, in the 520′s case, enough power under the hood to keep the basics feeling slick.

Nokia has just announced two new Lumia smartphones at its Mobile World Congress press conference – broadening its Windows Phone 8 portfolio to five devices and filling in some of the pricing gaps in the mid and lower end of the range. The two 3G newcomers to the Lumia line are the Lumia 720, which slots into the portfolio just above the Lumia 620, and a new entry level handset, the Lumia 520, which pushes the price of Nokia’s Window Phone 8 devices to a new low of €139 ($180) before taxes, down from its previous low of $249.

CEO Stephen Elop described the new more populous Lumia line up as “the most innovative portfolio of devices in the world” — reappropriating the tagline the company uses for its Lumia 920 flagship to underline how some of the features found on its flagships are trickling down to more affordable devices, including its ”super sensitive” touchscreen technology which allows users to interact with the screen using a fingernail or when wearing gloves, and its digital lenses image filters and its Cinemagraph animated GIF creator.

“What we’re doing with this Mobile World Congress in many respects is taking some of the great innovation you’ve seen in flagship products like the Lumia 920 and we’re broadening that down through the portfolio,” said Elop. ”We’re now at a point where you’re seeing an organisation which has undergone a great deal of restructuring and changes but now you’re seeing the full power and might of Nokia being applied to the broadest range of portfolio for the Lumia products.”

Nokia Lumia 520

Nokia’s previous entry level Lumia, the 620, was announced last December but still hasn’t launched in the U.S. — however Nokia confirmed today that its new entry level Windows Phone will be coming to North America, with T-Mobile US set to range the Lumia 520 (pictured below) in Q2.

The Lumia 520 has a 4 inch LCD display with a resolution of 800 x 480. Under the hood the handset is powered by a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon chip, along with 512MB of RAM. Internal storage is 8GB but there’s a Micro SD card slot to expand memory up to 64GB (not counting the 7GB of free cloud storage that comes with Microsoft’s SkyDrive service). The device also includes a 5 megapixel rear camera, plus the swappable shells featured on the Lumia 820 and 620 — in the same range of distinctive and bright Lumia colours.

Nokia Lumia 720

The new mid-range Lumia 720 (pictured below), priced at around €249 ($330), is initially targeting the Asia Pacific market — with China Mobile confirmed to range it in Q2. It’s unclear whether it will come to the U.S. later — Nokia said it has nothing to announce at this point. China Mobile will also range the 520.

The dual-core 1GHz Lumia 720 has a 4.3 inch Clear Black display, for improved viewing outdoors, with the same screen resolution as the Lumia 520. Memory and storage are also the same. Nokia described the handest as the “trendiest Lumia in product family” — talking up its sleek, rounded looks, including curved edges to the screen and a 9mm waist, which makes it the thinnest Lumia in the range. This handset is being targeted specifically at “younger, trendier, hyper social users”.

Aside from the device’s look and feel, the camera is the big focus with the 720 — thanks to its target audience’s love of social networking and photo sharing. Although the 720 is not PureView branded, it has a 6.7 megapixel rear lens, with Carl Zeiss optics (and branding) and an f1.9 aperture to allow in lots of light to boost low light photography performance. The front-facing lens has not been forgotten either — it’s a 1.3 megapixel HD wide angle lens, which allows for up to three people to squeeze into a shot so someone can take a self portrait with two friends.

Nokia has also added a new Lumia digital lens — called ‘Glam Me Up’ — which lets 720 users snap an enhanced self portrait using the front facing lens, which then auto processes their photo to make it look more polished, giving them whiter teeth and smoother skin. The company said this feature had played very well with its target market of appearance-conscious consumers.

Going Lower, Not Higher

Despite rumours of a true PureView Windows Phone, Nokia had no high end Lumias to unbox at its MWC press event today (nor was there any sign of Windows tablet hardware). Its focus this year is evidently on bulking out and expanding the competitiveness of its mid range offerings — in both Windows Phone and Series 40 products — to firefight the spread of affordable Androids, and presumably also to try to head off the threat from other low cost newcomers such as the nascent Firefox OS.

Driving Windows Phone to lower price points is a strategy Nokia CEO Stephen Elop discussed last month, during Nokia’s Q4 results, when he noted: “We are clearly innovating with Microsoft around Windows Phone, and are focused on taking that to lower and lower price points. You will see that over time compete with Android.”

Nokia has unwrapped a new handset — not a fancy smartphone but a budget feature phone: the Nokia 301 (pictured left) is an $85 mobile that doesn’t have a touchscreen or a Qwerty keyboard but does pack HSPA (aka 3.5G) and includes some enhanced camera features, as well as supporting YouTube streaming video via Nokia’s cloud Xpress browser for the first time.

Right now Nokia is holding its Mobile World Congress press conference where CEO Stephen Elop and his team are banging the drum for a newly expanded line of Lumia Windows Phone smartphones. But Nokia’s mobile strategy is two-pronged: with Windows Phone at the higher end and its own Series 40 OS powering a broad swathe of basic and budget devices, such as the 301. The thing is, right now, Nokia simply can’t afford to ignore the low end. Here, far from the glamour of Lumia smartphones, is where Nokia’s volumes are.

For all its marketing efforts to push Windows Phone, Microsoft-powered handsets still only account for a fraction of Nokia’s device sales. In its Q4 the company shipped just 4.4 million Lumias vs 79.6 million mobile phones — mostly S40 based, as Symbian limps to its end.

A Feature Phone With Some Smart Extras

At $85 the Nokia 301 sits at a price-point Windows Phone hasn’t dipped down to yet, although Elop has said Nokia is “innovating” with Microsoft to drag Windows Phone “to lower and lower price points” (case in point: it just unveiled a new entry level Lumia, costing circa $185 — the Lumia 520). In the meantime, Nokia is doing itself what Microsoft’s OS can’t: powering phones that are priced to fight super budget Androids. In November it was the launch of a $62 Nokia Asha Qwerty device with a Facebook button. Today it’s a brightly coloured feature phone with some smarter than average camera features. Nokia needs to keep budget buyers away from Android’s low end — which sets consumers on an upgrade path to higher end Android smartphones — if it is to stand a chance of convincing them to upgrade to Windows Phone-based Lumia phones later on. 

While the 301 doesn’t have the touchscreen smarts of a budget droid — or even Nokia’s Asha full-touch devices (the cheapest of which is priced at $99)  – Nokia has beefed up the device’s camera capabilities, adding some quasi-smartphone features, including a panorama mode, which lets users take up to four separate shots and stitch them together; a sequential shooting mode that allows for up to five photos to be taken continuously; a filter application to apply a choice of five camera effects to shots; and a neat voice-guided self portrait mode to help users align their image in the frame when snapping a photo of themselves. Hold the phone up in this mode and it will bark LEFT! UP! DOWN! RIGHT! and so on until your face is in the right position for your close up. Photos can also be shared straight from the gallery to social networks like Facebook (or to other phones via Nokia’s Slam Bluetooth sharing tech).

Nokia is also consciously styling its budget devices like its smartphones — dressing them in the Lumia range of distinctive colours (cyan, magenta, yellow, black and white in the 301′s case) — as well as borrowing other Lumia design touches, such as the metal camera plate on the rear to draw attention to the 301′s 3.2 megapixel lens (as seen below).

“For the first time now you’re seeing from Nokia, one single portfolio. One single industrial design language that’s coming through from the Lumia 920 smartphone, all the way down to products like the 305,” said Neil Broadley, Director, Technology Marketing, of Nokia’s Mobile Phones division, showing off Nokia’s latest addition to the bottom wedge of its handset portfolio.

As well as fancy casing colours and camera tricks, the 301 comes preloaded with apps including Facebook, Twitter and eBuddy. Additional apps can be downloaded from the Nokia Store, although when you’re fighting the might of Google Play it pays not to focus too much on apps. Instead, Nokia is trying to stand out through hardware design and camera innovation: so it’s borrowing some of its Windows Phone strategy here too.

It remains to be seen whether bright colours, some camera tricks and a few key social networking apps are enough to convince the masses of cash-conscious buyers to choose Nokia feature’s phone over a budget Android. But Nokia also points to the thrifty nature of its cloud browser, which compresses webpages before delivering them to eke out more data, and long battery life (up to 39 days on standby in the 301′s case) as other areas where it’s looking out for the cash-conscious mobile consumer.

The Nokia 301 will go on sale “during Q2 this year”, and will be available in single and dual SIM versions. Nokia said it will be offered in multiple markets globally (but not currently the U.S. market), rather than being targeted solely on emerging markets — launching in more than 120 countries, in “Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, India, Middle East and Latin America”.

New Entry Level Phone: The Nokia 105

For the very cash-strapped phone buyer, Nokia has also today refreshed its rock-bottom entry-level device. The Nokia 105 (pictured below, right) is the successor to the Nokia 1280, and has a price-tag of just $20. The biggest update, beyond the design refresh, is the screen — which is no longer monochrome but colour. The handset’s design has also been spiced up, with a single piece keymat and a couple of Lumia-esque casing colours: cyan or black. The device includes Nokia LIfe: its SMS-based subscription information service — but is clearly not going to get developers too excited. This phone really is a phone — in the traditional voice and text sense of the word. 

Small and feature-lite though it undoubtedly is, the 105′s predecessor, the Nokia 1280 (which launched back in November 2009) has now sold more than 100 million units globally, Nokia said today. So small and low priced continues to do the volume heavy-lifting for Nokia, even as its top end Lumias struggle to make an impression against Android and iOS.

The Nokia 105 will start rolling out in Q1, with the initial target markets being “China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Vietnam and other markets in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East”.

 

After unboxing a pair of phablets at CES, Chinese mobile maker Huawei looks to be lining up a new flagship smartphone in its Android-based Ascend P line ahead of the Mobile World Congress trade show kicking off in Barcelona Monday. The company, which pushed into third place in the global smartphone rankings for the first time in Q4, has sent out invites to a press conference taking place tomorrow afternoon (CET).

It’s not confirmed what device or devices Huawei plans to unveil tomorrow — the invite includes the cryptic tagline “Discover possible” – but CNET‘s Stephen Shankland has snapped a photo of Huawei’s MWC booth, currently under construction before the crowds arrive on Monday, which includes a sign for an as yet unreleased device called the Ascend P2.

Judging by the name, the Ascend P2 is the sequel to the Ascend P1, which launched in Europe last summer. P stands for ‘Platinum’ in Huawei’s marketing speak — one rung down from its top-of-the-line D for Diamond devices, such as the 5-inch Ascend D2, which it outted at CES, along with the 6.1 inch Ascend Mate (its Galaxy Note rival). Those quad-core whoppers leave room in Huawei’s portfolio for a powerhouse smartphone with a slightly less palm-stretching screen. So, enter stage left the Ascend P2. Either that or it has a typo in its booth signage.

Aside from an LTE variant, the Ascend P1 was a relatively mid-range affair — with a dual-core 1.5Ghz chip, 4.3-inch display and 8 megapixel camera. The Ascend P2 is rumoured to add more beef the second time around, with various leaks hinting at a 1.8GHz quad-core chipset — which would give it more welly than either the Ascend Mate or the D2 — along with a 4.7 inch display, a 13 megapixel camera and Android 4.1. We’ll find out for sure tomorrow.

Huawei can’t claim to have the massive brand clout of Samsung and its Galaxy range, but its mobile profile is growing and it has carved out a savvy niche for itself in the Android space by offering relatively impressive specs for the device’s price point — which, in its Ascend G range, has helped to power up the functionality of budget Androids. The company is also taking a similar tack with Windows Phone — showing off an “entry level” Windows 8 device at CES, the Ascend W1, and partnering with Microsoft to launch an “affordable” Windows Phone device for the African market.

SumUp, one of the myriad of European mobile card reader startups taking advantage of Square’s continued absence in the region to build out a business, is adding support for American Express. Its mobile card reader system already accepts Mastercard and Visa payments but today the startup said it has signed a deal with American Express to process Amex card payments in all “major regions” in which it operates. Its merchants will be able to start accepting Amex in Q2.

SumUp now operates in 10 European countries. It confirmed to TechCrunch Amex payments will be supported in eight of its markets initially — namely: Germany, France, the UK, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Austria. The two markets where negotiations are ongoing, with a view to also adding Amex support in future, are Belgium and Portugal.

SumUp also confirmed its per transaction fee remains the same, with no premium for merchants to process Amex. Merchants using SumUp to process a transaction are charged a flat 2.75% per transaction fee.

With the addition of American Express, SumUp said it will be able to accept “more types of cards in more regions than any other mobile point-of-sale technology provider worldwide”. SumUp Co-founder Stefan Jeschonnek said Amex support is a “big deal” for it, and for the tens of thousands of merchants in Europe who use its technology.  ”SumUp is about enabling small businesses to grow and for our merchants being able to accept card payments from all the major brands is a big deal,” he added.

Commenting on the tie-up in a statement, Werner Decker, Senior Vice President, American Express, said: “We see SumUp as a smart and convenient way for small businesses to further enable commerce by accepting card payments.”

SumUp added that American Express will also be included as a payment option in its forthcoming consumer payment app — called SumUp Pay — which it demoed at Finovate Europe last week. The app will allow consumers to link their credit card to it and pre-authorise payments with trusted merchants. The payment process does not involve a physical card reader — rather the buyer’s phone is identified as it enters the store, using geofencing technology, and the merchant can then process the payment when the buyer confirms what they want to order.

As yet, there’s no confirmed launch date for SumUp pay.

SumUp’s Amex release follows below.

SumUp to accept American Express

SumUp broadens range of payment options for merchants in major European markets

 

London – 21^th February 2013: SumUp, the company that enables merchants to take debit and credit card payments with their smartphones, has signed a deal with American Express that will allow it to process American Express card payments in all major regions in which it operates. The deal means that SumUp merchants will soon be able to take payments from American Express Card members.

In December 2012, SumUp extended its service to merchants giving it a presence in ten European countries.  SumUp’s ability to process American Express payments means that it will accept more types of cards in more regions than any other mobile point-of-sale technology provider worldwide.

Any small business using SumUp will soon be able to accept card payments from all the major card brands for an affordable and transparent fee and without any monthly costs.

Daniel Klein, CEO of SumUp, commented: “It’s extremely frustrating for a merchant when they miss out on making a sale because they can’t accept the type of card a customer wants to use. The only person it’s more frustrating for is the customer who goes away empty-handed. That’s why we’re delighted that we will be able to process American Express card payments on behalf of our merchants and to the advantage of American Express’ thriving and deeply loyal customer base.”

– ENDS –

About SumUp

SumUp is the easiest way for small businesses and sole traders to accept credit and debit card payments securely, even on-the-go.

Using only a free, supremely portable card reader and an app available for iPhone, iPad and Android, artisans, taxi drivers, cafes, restaurants, shops and many other merchants are now able to accept credit and debit card payments anytime, anywhere.

SumUp only takes a fee of 2.75% per transaction made using the SumUp card reader, meaning that businesses no longer have to worry about additional costs, expensive terminals or high monthly fees. The transaction fee is the same for American Express, Visa and MasterCard. SumUp is Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) compliant and PCI-DSS certified, ensuring that payments are processed in accordance with the highest security standards.

The company was founded in 2011 and already has over 140 employees, and major offices in Berlin, London, Dublin, Madrid, Milan and Amsterdam. SumUp has been available in the UK, Germany, Ireland and Austria since August 2012, in the Netherlands, Spain, and Italy since November 2012, and in France, Portugal, and Belgium since December 2012.

Website: www.sumup.co.uk

Analyst Forrester is predicting tablet ownership in Western Europe will quadruple by 2017 – with the percentage of online adults owning a slate projected to increase markedly from less than a fifth (14 per cent) last year to more than half (55 per cent) in 2017. In 2011 the tablet-owner figure stood at just 7 per cent, underlining how quickly digitally connected consumers are adopting slates. ”With double-digit growth in tablet uptake across Western Europe in 2012 and further double-digit growth expected, tablets can no longer be considered a fad,” says Forrester, writing in a new tablet-related research report it’s putting out tomorrow.

The analyst said it expects the consumer-owned installed base of tablets to reach more than 147 million in Western Europe in 2017, up from 33 million in 2012. Its tablet growth forecast is based on a survey of 13,000 consumers in France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. The polled nations with the largest proportion of tablet owners, as a percentage of their total online population, were the Netherlands, with 20 per cent tablet penetration in 2012; Spain with 18 per cent; Italy with 16 per cent; and the U.K. with 15 per cent. France was lowest with just nine per cent.

In a preliminary version of Forrester’s tablet report, seen by TechCrunch, a few observations stand out — including a downward shift in the age-range of the largest group of tablet owners, shifting away from 30- to 40-year-olds to 18- to 24-year-olds. The analyst found a quarter of online adults in the 18- to 24-year-old category owned a tablet in 2012. The shift towards more younger tablet owners may accelerate in future — Forrester points to the rise of “competitively priced” Android powered tablets in the sub-€250 category, such as Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Google’s Nexus 7. And since tablet ownership increases with income, according to Forrester’s findings, and the young are keenest on owning a tablet, then cheaper Android tablets which are half the price of Apple’s iPad are likely to be helping to drive adoption lower down the age range, to users who previously may not have had the disposable income to afford an iPad. As well as Android-powered slates stepping into that pricing vs demand gap, Apple also came out with the smaller, cheaper iPad mini last year. Yet more fuel for the tablet fire.

The living room and the bedroom are the only locations where tablet owners chose their slate over their smartphone

While the young are the keenest on tablets, Forrester said they are by no means the only age-group with an interest. Nearly one in six European online consumers aged 65 or older already owns a tablet, according to the report.

Despite the rise of cheaper slates, price remains a considerable barrier to tablet entry for a big chunk of online European adults — Forrester found that around a third of those polled are not planning on buying a tablet due to price (and regardless of income) — suggesting lots of potential tablet owners still have trouble justifying the purchase of an additional gadget, on top of their smartphone or PC.

When it comes to tablet usage, Forrest found that tablets are unsurprisingly most used in the home — specifically the living room, bedroom and kitchen, whereas smartphones have a much wider and more consistent distribution of usage (as illustrated by the graphic below). The living room and the bedroom are the only two locations where polled tablet owners chose their slate over their smartphone. Or, in other words, the most used gadget is the gadget you have in your pocket.

According to Forrester, the main usage activities for tablets are accessing the Internet, emailing, social networking, playing games, and viewing pictures. It also found that tablets are not the highly personal devices that smartphones are: of the tablet-owners who have a spouse/partner, 63 per cent said they share their tablet with them, while one-third share it with their children — making tablets “a far more social device than smartphones”, according to the analyst.

“Tablets are social devices mostly used in the digital home,” said Thomas Husson, analyst and co-author of the new report, in a statement. “Companies that want to exploit tablet opportunities need to understand they require a differentiated approach from smartphones.”

The report also underlines a ‘halo effect’ for smartphone makers who also sell tablets. Forrester identified a general allegiance among smartphone owners to their phone’s brand when choosing a tablet — especially pronounced for iPhone owners but not limited to Apple’s hardware. The report notes:

While the Apple iPad is the dominant tablet in Western Europe, it is most popular with iPhone owners — a staggering 83% of European iPhone owners who have a tablet opted for an iPad. Similarly, the Samsung Galaxy tablet is most popular with Samsung Galaxy and Wave smartphone owners, and the Windows 7 tablet with owners of Windows-based smartphones.

Tablet owners also tend to own a plethora of other connected gadgets — six others on average, according to Forrester — and are “more technology savvy than non-tablet owners”, a finding that is consistent with an early adopter profile. Forrester links smartphone ownership to tablet ownership as a key driver for slate sales up to now — noting that “the proportion of European smartphone owners who own a tablet (28 per cent) is more than double that of those who aren’t smartphone owners (12 per cent)”.

However the analyst says what’s true for the current crop of (still early adopter) tablet owners, won’t be true as tablet ownership expands to take in a greater proportion of the population. ”We are still in the early-adoption phase of tablet ownership, so the next wave of tablet owners will not be as eager; to convince them to adopt a tablet, marketers will need to stress attributes like accessibility, ease of use, and relevance,” says Forrester.

The analyst believes tablets are likely to expand their usefulness beyond the living room/bedroom in the near future, with usage patterns being shaken up by a variety of factors including enterprise/workplace adoption of tablets; the diversification of form factors (such as smaller tablets and phablets, touchscreen laptops and “netvertibles”, hybrid devices and other new forms); as well as the roll out of 4G cellular services and more cellular data bundles.

Likewise, tablet usage will be dictated by form factor — so usage patterns may also shift, as tablets migrant to other locations. “A tablet with an attachable keyboard will encourage greater usage of email and work-related applications; and while not a pocket-size device, a 7-inch tablet will encourage greater portability,” the report notes.

Apple’s iPhone 5 became the best selling smartphone globally in Q4, pushing past Samsung’s flagship Galaxy SIII, according to research by Strategy Analytics. The data comes from its Handset Country Share Tracker service. It’s the first time the iPhone 5 sales have topped Galaxy SIII shipments. According to the analyst, a “rich touchscreen, extensive distribution and generous operator subsidies have propelled the iPhone 5 to the top spot”.

Strategy Analytics estimates that 27.4 million iPhone 5 smartphones shipped worldwide during Q4, versus 15.4 million Galaxy SIII units. The iPhone 5′s share of the total global smartphone shipments was 13 per cent in Q4, according to the analyst, while Samsung’s handset captured an estimated seven per cent share.

Comparing the performance of Apple and Samsung’s respective flagships does have drawbacks. The different launch dates of the respective handsets make a direct sales cycle comparison a little unfair, since Apples iPhone 5 launched last September, positioned to fully capitalise on holiday sales, while Samsung’s Galaxy SIII is considerable older, launching back in May. The hype around its successor, the Galaxy SIV, is already cranking up, potentially dampening sales as consumers may be opting to wait for the next generation device — with a launch rumoured as soon as next month.

That said, Apple’s iPhone 4S launched in October 2011 – yet still managed to out-ship Samsung’s 2012 flagship in Q4. Apple shipped an estimated 17.4 million iPhone 4S handsets — two million more than Samsung’s Galaxy SIII shipments for the quarter — making the 4S the second most popular global smartphone model in Q4, with an eight per cent share (the Galaxy SIII was third).

Apple’s iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S together accounted for one in five of all smartphones shipped worldwide in the quarter, according to Strategy Analytics’ data. It described this as ”an impressive performance, given the iPhone portfolio’s premium pricing”, adding that the Galaxy SIII’s global popularity “appears to have peaked”.

Apple’s premium pricing strategy is matched by the use of premium materials in the construction of its handsets — with metal and glass the materials of choice for the iPhone 5 and 4S, rather than the plastic used in the Galaxy SIII. Apple is also able to deliver OS updates over the air, bypassing carrier testing requirements, which frequently impede Android updates — meaning some Android fans may choose to opt for a newer model of smartphone in order to get the latest version of the OS.

LG’s Galaxy Note clone forthcoming flagship, the 5.5 inch Optimus G Pro, has been confirmed for the U.S. market. Writing in a release on its website (translated from Korean by Google Translate), LG said the device will be  released in international markets including North America and Japan in the second quarter of this year. Pricing has not been confirmed.

Phones that are large enough to act as small tablets — hence the phone+tablet ‘phablet’ portmanteau — were popularised by Samsung’s original Galaxy Note — and now its successor, the Note II. Back in November Samsung announced it had pushed past five million channel sales of the Note II in around two months since the device went on sale. Analyst iSuppli is predicting phones with screens of more than five inches will more than double their share of the smartphone market this year, with 60.4 million units forecast to ship in 2013 as big phones carve out a larger niche for themselves.

On paper, the LG Optimus G Pro is a specs-busting affair — packing in a full 1920 x 1080 HD display, with screen resolution equating to 400ppi. Under the hood the 4G phablet is powered by a quad-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, which LG claims offers improved performance — including lower power consumption — than Qualcomm’s S4 chip. It runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, skinned with an updated version of LG’s UI.

On the back there’s a 13 megapixel camera, while the front facing lens is 2.1 megapixels. The removable battery is a whopping 3,140mAh. There’s also NFC on board. Device thickness is 9.4mm.

The forthcoming phablet will make its debut in LG’s domestic market later this month, and will doubtless also be on show at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow next week — so stay tuned for hands-on.

Material scientists and nanotechnologists get very excited about the potential of graphene — a one-atom-thick sheet of bonded carbon atoms which is exceptionally strong, lightweight and flexible and is a better conductor than silicon  – but they are not the only ones to see huge potential in it. Nokia, Plastic Logic, Philips, Dyson, and BaE systems are among more than 20 industry partners who have pledged £13 million worth of support for a new graphene R&D centre to be established at Cambridge University. The Centre is also backed by more than £12 million of government funding.

It’s unclear exactly what kind of support Nokia et al will be providing the centre but we’ve reached out to Cambridge University for more information and will update this story with any response. Nokia does already have an R&D lab in Cambridge, at the University’s Broers Building — one of a network of labs Nokia operates. According to the website, Nokia’s Cambridge lab studies ”physical, chemical and biological phenomena and manipulation of matter at the nanoscale enables generation of knowledge for enhancing human capabilities”.

The new Cambridge Graphene Centre aims to develop graphene from a material with a lot of raw potential — researchers have already been looking at how graphene could improve battery capacity, and exploring its water-repelling properties —  to a point where it can “revolutionise flexible, wearable and transparent electronics”. Future industrial applications envisaged by the University are said to lie in the areas of “flexible electronics, energy, connectivity and optoelectronics”. So, hopefully, bendy, see-through wearable smartphones here we come — albeit, not tomorrow.

One of the issues scientists have with graphene to-date is making (i.e. growing) large quantities of it — large enough to be useful for industrial applications. Graphene sheets are also difficult to manipulate and connect with other materials. So one of the projects the Centre will undertake will look specifically at the “manufacturability” of graphene and other, layered, 2D materials — focusing on a growth method called chemical vapour deposition that has been used to enable industrial scale production of other materials, such as diamond, carbon nanotubes and gallium nitride.

As well as tackling graphene manufacturing, the Centre will investigate how graphene can be integrated into networked devices — “with the ultimate vision of creating an ‘Internet of things’” — and look into how it can improve the performance of super-capacitors and batteries. So potentially improving the longevity of consumer electronics devices, such as phones and MP3 players, but also aiming to provide “a more effective energy storage for electric vehicles [and] storage on the grid”.

“Graphene’s potential is beyond doubt, but much more research is needed if we are to develop it to a point where it proves of benefit to society as a whole,” said Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, in a statement.

Professor Andrea Ferrari, who will be the Centre’s Director, added in a statement: “We are now in the second phase of graphene research, following the award of the Nobel Prize to Geim and Novoselov. That means we are targeting applications and manufacturing processes, and broadening research to other two-dimensional materials and hybrid systems. The integration of these new materials could bring a new dimension to future technologies, creating faster, thinner, stronger, more flexible broadband devices.”

The Cambridge Graphene Centre will start “activities” on February 1 this year, although the dedicated research facility isn’t slated to open until the end of the year. Its activities will be funded by a more than £12 million government grant, allocated to the University in December by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.  A further £11M of European Research Council funding will support activities with the Graphene Institute in Manchester, and Lancaster University.

Cambridge University’s full release follows below.

A centre for research on graphene, a material which has the potential to revolutionise numerous industries, ranging from healthcare to electronics, is to be created at the University of Cambridge. The University has been a hub for graphene engineering from the very start and now aims to make this “wonder material” work in real-life applications.

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The Cambridge Graphene Centre will start its activities on February 1^st 2013, with a dedicated facility due to open at the end of the year. Its objective is to take graphene to the next level, bridging the gap between academia and industry. It will also be a shared research facility with state-of-the-art equipment, which any scientist researching graphene will have the opportunity to use.

The Centre’s activities will be funded by a Government grant worth more than £12 million, which was allocated to the University in December by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).  The rest of this money will support projects focusing both on how to manufacture high-quality graphene on an industrial scale, and on developing some of its potential applications.

Graphene is a one-atom thick layer of graphite with remarkable properties. It is exceptionally strong, yet also lightweight and flexible, enables electrons to flow faster than silicon and functions as a transparent conductor. Researchers in industry and academia are keen to harness its potential to make significant technological advances. This work might lead to numerous new devices and applications which could then be commercialised by industry and help to boost economic growth.

There is still much to be done before that early promise becomes reality. The first job for those working in the Cambridge Graphene Centre will be to find ways of manufacturing and optimising graphene films, dispersions and inks so that it can be used to good effect.

Professor Andrea Ferrari, who will be the Centre’s Director, said: “We are now in the second phase of graphene research, following the award of the Nobel Prize to Geim and Novoselov. That means we are targeting applications and manufacturing processes, and broadening research to other two-dimensional materials and hybrid systems. The integration of these new materials could bring a new dimension to future technologies, creating faster, thinner, stronger, more flexible broadband devices.”

Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said: “Graphene’s potential is beyond doubt, but much more research is needed if we are to develop it to a point where it proves of benefit to society as a whole. The pioneering work of Cambridge engineers and scientists in fields such as carbon nanotechnology and flexible electronics, coupled with our record working with industry and launching spin-out firms based on our research, means that we are in a unique position to take graphene to that next level.”

Professor Bill Milne, who will be part of the Centre’s management group, said:  “Graphene has amazing fundamental properties but at the moment we cannot produce it in a perfect form over large areas. Our first aim is to look at ways of making graphene that ensure it is still useful at the end of the process. We have to find modes of production that are consistently effective – and there is still a lot of work to be done in this respect.”

One such project, led by Dr Stephan Hofmann, a Reader and specialist in nanotechnology, will look specifically at the manufacturability of graphene and other, layered, 2D materials. At the moment, sheets of graphene that are just one atom thick are difficult to grow in a controllable manner, manipulate, or connect with other materials.

Dr Hofmann’s research team will focus on a growth method called chemical vapour deposition (CVD), which has already opened up other materials, such as diamond, carbon nanotubes and gallium nitride, to industrial scale production.

“The process technology will open up new horizons for nanomaterials, built layer by layer, which means that it could lead to an amazing range of future devices and applications,” Dr Hofmann said.

The Government funding for the Centre is complemented by strong industrial support, worth an additional £13 million, from over 20 partners, including Nokia, Dyson, Plastic Logic, Philips and BaE systems. A further £11M of European Research Council funding will support activities with the Graphene Institute in Manchester, and Lancaster University.

Its work will focus on taking graphene from a state of raw potential to a point where it can revolutionise flexible, wearable and transparent electronics. The Centre will target the manufacture of graphene on an industrial scale, and applications in the areas of flexible electronics, energy, connectivity and optoelectronics.

Professor Yang Hao, of Queen Mary, University of London, will lead Centre activities targeting connectivity, so that graphene can be integrated into networked devices, with the ultimate vision of creating an “internet of things”.

Professor Clare Grey, from Cambridge’s Department of Chemistry, will lead the activities targeting the use of graphene in super-capacitors and batteries for energy storage. The research could, ultimately, provide a more effective energy storage for electric vehicles, storage on the grid, as well as boosting the energy storage possibilities of personal devices such as MP3 players and mobile phones.