Facts, Figures and Rumors as of January 2012

January has been a busy month for everyone. With the arrival of 2012, a lot of things changed and many more are about to in the months to come. In general; but particularly in the tech world. Still, January is the months of rumours, promises of products to come and legends of the year past.

2011 was a great year for Apple and we know this after their announcement of last week. Stepping on many shoes, they released their total sale number for the last quarter, a staggering 15,43 million units. That is impressive, even for Apple, but this time, not only did they eclipse the Android operated devices’ sales, but also those of PC magnates, such as HP, Dell or Lenovo. Kudos for Apple! Further celebration is needed, as their iPad will be used as educational tool by Wisconsin Schools. In the interest of full disclosure, the tablets will be purchased with the settlement from State of Wisconsin vs. Microsoft.

To counterbalance the continuous winning stream for the American giant, comes then news that Samsung is winning. In court, that is, all over the world, seems like. As ruled by Dutch court, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 does not infringe upon Apple iPad’s design patents. Australia agrees, as the Galaxy Tab is already on the market, in Vodafone stores. Taking a step forward, the Korean giant has leaked the information that the next generation of the Galaxy Tab will be revealed at the upcoming MCW event. Not bad.

On the other part of the fence stand proudly the Android based tablets of last year. Not quite as proud as Apple, but they also have an amazing sales record for the last quarter: 10,5 million devices, mostly by the three big players out there: Amazon Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet and Kobo Vox. They account for 40% of that 10 million, value achieved by reducing prices from time to time, but they made it, in comparison to Motorola that sold a bare 1 million devices on the whole duration of 2011. However, they seem to keep their spirits up while preparing the Motorola Xyboard tablet.

Moving further, with news about RIM and its PlayBook, we hear a new upgraded, shiny sequel is being readied for the public. By RIM, not by Sprint who seem to have given up on the PlayBook.

As times goes by, so do the versions of Android. They’ve made it up to 4.0 so far and companies gather around to get the last OS version. Sony and HTC promised the latest Android versions for their S and P tablets (Sony) and Flyer (HTC), as did ASUS for its first generation of Transformer, upcoming mid February.

As of January, the Pantech Element can be purchased for $300, while the Acer Iconia Tabs A510 and A700 will become available in April. By then, the ZTE Light 2 and Optik tabs will have been present for 2 months, hitting the markets in February.

Last, but definitely not least, Nokia is rumoured to be creating a long awaited and overdue tablet with Windows 8 OS. Every day something new; don’t you just love the tech world?

 

 

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