Tag: manufacturers

Five Great Smartphone Manufacturers You Might not Know about

The smartphone industry is absolutely packed full of competitors. It’s got to the point where every competing manufacturer is trying incredibly hard to offer up everything they’ve possibly got. Sometimes, the OEMs with the biggest brand name or marketing budget push out the smartphone manufacturers you might not be aware of. In this article, I’d like to share five of my favorite manufacturers that I believe don’t get enough attention.

Marshall

Marshall? What? Yes, that’s right. Marshall, the same company responsible for the popular music amp lineup has now entered the smartphone space. I’m not really sure what gave them the guts to brave the smartphone industry, but as you could imagine it was based somewhat upon music.

Marshall has recently announced a new smartphone called the Marshall London and it features a nice rugged leather back, similar in design to the black leather found on many of their amps.

Whilst it’s internal hardware isn’t superb, what makes the London special is its audio setup, both software and hardware wise. Firstly, the smartphone has a dual front-facing speaker, similarly to the HTC One M9. On top of that, the Marshall London has two audio outputs so that you can share your music with a friend. Finally, you’ll find a range of audio software features including equalizers, volume controls and gain control. Basically, if you’re a music head, the Marshall London might just be of interest to you.

Oppo

Oppo is perhaps more known in the smartphone world than Marshall is, but with that being said, this smartphone brand still doesn’t have a great grasp of the smartphone market. The Oppo has a lineup of different devices that’s a bit confusing to outsiders, but their latest device is the Oppo R7 Plus – a huge beast of a smartphone.

Firstly, Oppo’s smartphones have always been incredibly thin, so if that’s your thing, you’ll be excited to hear that the Oppo R7 is one of the thinnest phablets around right now. Despite the moniker, the R7 actually only has a 6-inch display, which admittedly is still rather large. Amazingly the Oppo R7 also comes with a 4,100mAh battery, as well as 3GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 615 which features an octa-core processor.

Yota

You may have heard about Yota before. It’s because they’ve managed to build the best smartphone to rival the likes of Samsung, LG, Sony and Apple, but instead because what they’ve done is quite unique. Yota’s last smartphone was the Yotaphone 2, but soon a Yotaphone 3 and Yotaphone2c will be launched into the market.

Yota’s speciality is creating dual-display smartphones. The Yota range has always had one thing in common – on the front, users will find a standard smartphone display, whilst the back there sits a less power-hungry e-ink display, like those found on a traditional Kindle.

The idea is that the e-ink display can be used for basic tasks in everyday life, which will help lengthen out the battery life. When you’re ready to view some real content, the main display can be used.

It’s a neat idea, but it never really caught on, mostly due to the lack of decent internal hardware and Yota’s struggle with appealing to the global market.

Fairphone

What is a Fairphone? Apparently it’s a smartphone that has been constructed fairly. It’s not so much about the smartphone, but the message behind it. Here’s a little excerpt from the Fairphone website.

By making a phone, we’re opening up the supply chain and creating new relationships between people and their products. We’re making a positive impact across the value chain in mining, design, manufacturing and life cycle while expanding the market for products that put ethical values first. Together with our community, we’re changing the way products are made.

If you’re concerned about the way smartphones in today’s industry are manufactured, then Fairphone is a company you may want to get behind and support.

On top of being fair to all involved in the creation process, the Fairphone will feature a modular design, making self-repairs not only possible but viable for most consumers. The device will also come with some decent internal specifications (Snapdragon 801, 2GB RAM) and a reasonable 525 Euro price tag.

Pantech

Pantech is one of the Korean manufacturers that has been around for a long, long time. Unfortunately, Pantech hasn’t done quite as well in the mobile industry as either Samsung or LG have, but that doesn’t mean they don’t make good devices.

Yes, that’s right, they do actually make smartphones and they’re actually pretty decent. Earlier in the year, one of Pantech’s most popular smartphones was the Vega Iron 2 – this device had some flagship-worthy specs and a decent build quality.

A Snapdragon 801 can be found inside, which includes 3GB of RAM, an Adreno 330 GPU, a 5.3 inch 1920 x 1080 AMOLED display, a 3,220 mAh battery and 32GB of storage among other features.

These specs are a little outdated, but this device was competing with 2014 devices such as the Galaxy S5. There’s no reason not to dismiss Pantech as a smartphone brand because they’re actually doing a pretty good job at making decent devices.

So there we have it, they’re five great smartphone manufacturers you might not have been aware of. What lesser known manufacturers are you a fan of? Let us know in comments.

September 4, 2015
The Harsh, Cutthroat Reality of Competing in the Mobile Industry

In light of recent events with HTC and their struggling attempts to remain a profitable business, I’ve wanted to delve into what it’s really like for smartphone manufacturers and why any big game player like HTC or even Samsung and Apple have the chance to burn in flames at any point in time.

It’s not particularly easy to stay on the top of the smartphone game, and we’ve already seen big game mobile manufacturers fall to the pressures of the market in the past. Both Motorola and Nokia have struggled in recent years – this gives two great examples of how manufacturers that were once at the top of the game can still fall under the radar.

So what exactly makes the mobile industry such a harsh, competitive environment? There are multiple issues but I’d like to talk about the most obvious ones below.

Customer Loyalty is Easily Ripped Away From You

In the mobile industry, whether we’re talking about smartphone manufacturers, network providers or retail stores, it’s very hard for such companies to build a strong customer loyalty. When the time comes for a consumer to pick up a new smartphone, a lot of the decisions are based on price, features and what the best cellular deals are available at the time.

As a result, it’s constantly difficult to keep customers sticking to your own brand because other businesses in the mobile industry are often trying to outplay you by offering better deals and touting that what they’re offering will result in a better experience.

Because the mobile industry is so fast paced and constantly evolving there’s absolutely no way you can stay a successful business within the industry without constantly trying to outplay your competitors in any possible avenue. If you’re a smartphone manufacturer that fails to provide something new and exciting or a mobile network operator that can’t keep up with the latest trending deals then your current customers will leave you.

The Fine Line Between Innovation and Gimmickry

One thing that powers the growth of the mobile industry is it’s fast paced competitive nature. Smartphone manufacturers are now pressured to release new smartphones with better features and hardware every single year. In fact, it’s more common at this point to see big time manufacturers releasing two high end smartphones each year.

To really stand out from every other smartphone manufacturer that’s trying to get a piece of the mobile industry pie, you’d have to try and create your own innovative experiences, software or hardware elements. The trouble with this is it’s sometimes hard to create something that really catches on. Eventually after spending millions on researching and developing new smartphone experiences, you end up with a list of gimmicks that don’t really interest the general smartphone consumer to a great ordeal.

But at the same time, if you don’t try and find something new and exciting for your own smartphone lineup then you’re going to struggle to be a top worldwide smartphone manufacturer, unless you’re willing to throw billions on a strong marketing campaign.

Making Deals with the Devil

Sometimes to stand a chance in the mobile industry you’ll need to make deals with other hardware manufacturers or network operators. For example, if you can’t find a strong network operator to team up with in a region like North America that heavily relies on subsidized smartphone sales, you’re going to have a difficult time shipping enough smartphones.

If you end up making a deal with a company and then the other side doesn’t follow through with the arranged plans then you’re just as worse off. The difficulty here is that it’s important to make these kinds of partnerships in the mobile industry – they can be helpful to get your name out there, get your smartphones sold and provide the tools you need to further develop and innovate your own brand and experience.

As you can see, trying to be a top smartphone manufacturer is not an easy game, and it’s not surprising to see a manufacturer like HTC starting to struggle.

August 6, 2015
5 Features to Expect from Smartphones of the Near Future

The mobile industry is highly competitive and as a result, mobile manufacturers are pushed to be more creative, more innovative and fit more features in each and every year. This creates a fast moving industry that sees the huge change over short periods of time. As a result it can be hard to accurately predict what may be coming to the mobile industry next, but I can think of at least 5 features that smartphones either deserve or could be getting within the next few years.

I’d like to talk a little about these features and why I think they could be making their way into smartphones of the near future.

Foldable or Curved Displays

This is an area that both LG and Samsung are dabbling in a little bit with some of their smartphones, but so far we haven’t seen too much of a productive reason to have a curved display. I strongly believe that a number of manufacturers are working behind the scenes to develop folding displays, and most importantly trying to find a way to make foldable or curved displays useful for consumers.

A lot of features for smartphones are often seen gimmicky – manufacturers may try to be innovative and it ends up not working out for them. Take 3D smartphone displays for example.

I do, however, think that foldable displays could open up opportunities for larger devices, making them more portable and easier to carry throughout the day.

I couldn’t estimate when foldable displays may make it into the public domain, but as it stands right now, curved edged displays are already being used and Samsung has shown their interest in working on folding displays.

10-Core Processors

I personally think that 10 core processors could be a possibility for flagship devices. It isn’t just about putting as many numbers as possible into a smartphone to impress buyers, either. Whilst multi-core processing to this degree may not be as viable on a desktop PC, it works well on smartphones, and SoC’s with processors with eight or even ten cores could be beneficial for performance.

The idea behind a multi-core setup is that it provides the smartphone plenty of ‘utility’ Using a big.LITTLE array, or something similar, would allow a smartphone to pick and choose between various levels of performance. A ten core processor could be split into one dual core and two quad cores. The dual core could be used for when idle, or for very low resource tasks, whilst the first quad core could be used for standard browsing through the operating system. The final quad core could be used for intensive work such as video processing or playing games. Being able to swap out between either of these processors can help reduce power consumption, therefore increasing a smartphone’s battery life, which brings me onto my next point…

New Battery Technology

Whilst batteries in smartphones have been increasing in capacity over the last few years, the increase in battery capacity is very slow, and it’s being overtaken by display size and display resolution improvements, negating any real benefit of having a large battery.

Perhaps in five years time it may be standard to see 4,000mAh batteries in lithium-ion powered smartphones, but there are alternatives. There is currently plenty of research being done into alternative battery mediums.

We’re looking at the potential for super fast charging aluminum graphite batteries in the near future, or potentially batteries that run on water or even a battery that can harness power from a human’s skin.

There’s plenty of space for innovation in the battery department and I feel like smartphone manufacturers will soon have to look outside of the box instead of slowly improving battery capacity for the lithium-ion solution they’re currently relying on.

Even Better Cameras

This is one area that we’re likely to see improvements on in the very near future, and by that I’m talking within the next three years. Sony has already put a huge amount of effort into their smartphone camera sensors and a lot of their profit is coming in through sensor sales to other smartphone manufacturers. As the leading smartphone camera provider in the industry, Sony are looking to put more research into their work to improve smartphone cameras. As a result, this will directly improve the camera quality for any smartphones manufactured by companies buying from Samsung and will indirectly push other camera manufacturers to work harder to keep up with the competition.

Branding and Design Improvements

This is largely based around speculation on my part, but I think it’s a valuable insight that deserves a listen. Samsung took a brave approach this year by completely revamping their smartphone designs and it has paid off incredibly well for them. The new Galaxy lineup has been received positively by critics and consumers and it’s going to mark a new start for branding and design improvements in the mobile industry.

As Samsung is setting the bar for high-quality smartphone design, other manufacturers are going to be pushed to reconsider their own designs. I doubt we’ll see a complete overhaul from Apple, but I would not be surprised at all if Apple reworks their next smartphone lineups to ensure the iPhone looks even sleeker and slimmer than the Galaxy S lineup.

I think this will result in a wave of new work done towards smartphone design and branding that all manufacturers will take part in. Manufacturers want to hold onto their customers, but more importantly they don’t want their competitors taking their customers away from them.

Creating a strong smartphone flagship lineup in years following 2015 could be more about the actual design, appearance and branding than it’s ever been before.

What do you expect to see from smartphones in the near future?

Image credit: Androidcentral; Yourmumhatesthis

July 31, 2015
Five Concerns with Smartphones in 2015

No matter what a manufacturer does, it’s hard to create a smartphone that is 100% perfect. Sacrifices are sometimes made to fit in with certain budgets or to better serve a growing audience. I still, however, think that there are a few areas that most manufacturers need to improve on for the sake of their consumers.

Lack of Support for Power Users

If we focus solely on Android for a second, there was a time where it felt like almost every smartphone had a microSD storage slot and a removable battery. Fast forward to today and far fewer devices now support such features designed to help power users get through their day. Even Samsung, a manufacturer that has always stuck to using removable batteries and including microSD storage, has now moved away from these features in their latest smartphones.

For the average smartphone user this isn’t too much of an issue – most smartphone batteries can just about manage to get through a day’s worth of moderate use on one charge and internal memory is less of an issue now that streaming services like Spotify exist for a smartphone user’s music collection.

With that being said, power users and phone geeks do make up a large audience for many smartphone manufacturers and they’re currently being left out in the dark. As it stands right now, more third party equipment that supports external battery, portable charging and additional storage on the go is becoming more popular.

Ideally though, it would be nice for manufacturers themselves to offer affordable battery case packs, portable charging stations or other mobile equipment to help power users on the go.

Over saturated Smartphone Releases

I personally don’t feel like this is something that needs to change, but I do believe there is something that could be done to make it less complex for consumers. Currently, many manufacturers release a number of smartphones each year – a recent trend has pushed manufacturers to not only release multiple smartphones, but multiple devices within their ‘flagship lineup.

For example, Samsung now has the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge. LG has the LG G4, but an LG G4 Stylus is coming, along with an LG G4c. Even Apple, that used to be renowned for focusing on simplicity and ease for the sake of the customers is expected to release three flagships this year; the iPhone 6S, the iPhone 6C and the iPhone 6S Plus.

For the most part, one device stands out as the ‘main’ device and this usually gets all of the marketing buzz. The LG G4, the Galaxy S6 and the iPhone 6S would be the prime examples here. Consumers may be a little confused when they see other variants as well – perhaps manufacturers should work on marketing and advertising campaigns that shows off their whole flagship lineup and points out the benefits and drawbacks of each.

HD Displays and Battery Life

Having a nice, crisp display on your smartphone is nice, but many manufacturers are looking at pushing for 2K or even 4K displays on their flagships. Considering that most households don’t own 4K TVs yet, it seems like an odd path for the mobile industry to take. The problem with higher resolution displays isn’t about not needing it though, it’s down to the way smartphone displays draw power. Simply put, the more pixels a smartphone has to display, the more battery life it’s going to take.

Battery saving features are becoming more advanced both hardware and software side, but an improvement in battery capacity should be a manufacturer’s first concerns before increasing the resolution by thousands of pixels. That’s my two cents on the topic, but other opinions may vary.

Doesn’t Have to Be About Innovation

It’s always great to be excited about new features and functions of a brand new smartphone, and it obviously helps out manufacturers with their marketing campaign, but innovation doesn’t have to be touted every step of the way. Manufacturers should leave the buzz words and hype for real, innovative changes and admit to consumers that sometimes their latest smartphone isn’t always as out of this world as they make it out to be. With that being said, new smartphones are always going to offer a considerable improvement in performance from their predecessors – that should be enough of a reason for consumers to upgrade.

The Blur Between Price Points

It’s great to see that smartphone manufacturers are releasing various devices to fit the needs for all audiences and countries, but I personally think manufacturers should make it clearer when a device falls into the flagship, mid range or low end price categories. It would be nice if consumers knew that the devices they purchase could offer the best experience for their budget without being confused about how they would compare to other similar priced smartphones, sometimes from the same manufacturers.

What smartphone trends concern you in 2015?

Image credit: Pexels, Flickr – boegh,scruch,zionfiction,japanexperterna,

July 8, 2015