According to a forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC), more than a billion smartphones will be shipped in 2013. The number represents growth of close to 40% in comparison to 2012.
According to IDC, a number of mature markets are nearing saturation. Future growth will be driven by demand for low-cost devices in emerging markets which include Asia/Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.
Steady decline of the smartphones’ average selling price (ASP) is the major force behind the growth of the segment. According to IDC, the ASP for a smartphone is expected to be $337 in 2013 – down from $387 the year before. By 2017, the ASP is projected to reach $265.
Going forward, total smartphone shipments are expected to reach a staggering 1.7 billion units in 2017. The compound annual growth rate is expected to be 18.4% over the next four years.
BlackBerry's BBM instant messaging service is becoming a little more social today thanks to the launch of its Twitter-like BBM Channels feature.
This update is available to all smartphone owners still wielding a BlackBerry after having been in beta since its debut in May, according to dedicated BlackBerry blog CrackBerry.
After downloading the newest version of BBM, Channels will give users the ability to follow and subscribe to other people or business' channels. Users can also set up and post to their own BBM Channels.
It effectively connects users to brands, proving that BlackBerry's messaging service is moving beyond peer-to-peer and group chats.
It's also a great way for BlackBerry to monetize its fledgling BBM service to businesses that want to market with targeted ads to BlackBerry users.
Coming to Android, iOS soon
As the company formerly known as RIM is getting its house in order by reshuffling its executive team, it's continuing to show interest in expanding its platform beyond BlackBerry devices.
To that end, BBM Channels is supposed to be "coming soon" to iOS and Android chatters.
T-Mobile UK already has Sony's Xperia Z1 flagship, but its US-based counterpart is still to get it.
Leaks of the US version of the Z1 continue though, and we now have both the front and the back of the device. The back is branded with the carrier logo (US carriers love their logos), while the front shows the Sony-customized Android 4.2 build and the 4G connectivity icon.
Leaked image of the Sony Xperia Z1 for T-Mobile USA
Note that there are a couple of differences between this unit and the official Xperia Z1 units we've seen so far. Namely, the 3.5mm audio jack has moved and the front-facing camera is on the other side of the Sony logo. There also seems to be a new mic hole on the back.
Neither the jack nor the front-facing camera match leakedshots of the Xperia Z1S (the anticipated mini version of the Xperia Z1 flagship).
The Vivo Xplay 3S is rumored to be a venerable Galaxy Note 3 killer with a 5.5" 2,560 x 1,440 display, Snapdragon 800 with 3GB RAM and a USB 3.0 port. Other rumored specs include a camera of unknown resolution with an f/1.8 aperture and 4G LTE connectivity.
Leaks of the phablet have been lacking in the spy shot department, but an invite to a launch party indicates we'll be seeing the real thing soon enough – the Vivo Xplay 3S will be unveiled on December 12.
The invite to the Vivo Xplay 3S unveiling
The invite, of course, is mum on the technical details, but if the rumors pan out, the Xplay 3S will be the first pocketable device with a QHD screen (Quad HD, 4x 720p).
Making the Vivo Xplay 3S, or something else?
There are some screenshots of a video allegedly showing the manufacturing process of the 3S, but they don't reveal anything, unfortunately.
How do you follow up a phone like the HTC One? It was only the third smartphone to garner a highly coveted five star TechRadar review and the Taiwanese firm has got a job on its hands to repeat the trick with its successor.
HTC is working on something though, as a myriad of leaks, rumors and suggestive benchmark results worm their way onto the web - all of which appear to reference the "HTC M8."
Why is this significant? Well, the codename for the original HTC One during development was M7, so the M8 moniker makes logical sense for the firm's next flagship smartphone.
The handset won't launch under the M8 name however; there's actually a bit of confusion over the name HTC will give it after backing itself into a little bit of a corner with its "One" brand.
Currently HTC One Two is being bandied about, but we reckon that's more for convenience rather than a hard and fast name for the market.
With 2012's One X, One S, One V and then One X+ followed by the One SV and headline making One in 2013 it's not clear where HTC will go next.
The HTC One+ perhaps? Or how about the HTC One Magnificent?
Bear in mind we also have the One Mini and One Max - variations HTC will no doubt want to exploit with its next-gen flagship - and we're left scratching our heads.
One thing is for sure though, the HTC M8 is going to have some stiff competition as the Samsung Galaxy S5 will also be rocking up in 2014, along with the iPhone 6 later in the year.
We've rounded up all the latest M8 chatter from around the web to bring you the best picture of what you may see from the HTC One Two.
HTC M8 release date and price
We have seen a mention of the HTC M8 release date, with perennial leaker @evleaks tweeting that the handset would be with all four US networks by the "end of Q1 '14."
In other words the HTC One Two should be hitting stores before the end of March 2014, which pegs an unveiling earlier that month, or even in February - could there be a MWC appearance for HTC's next flagship?
There's no mention of a HTC M8 price just yet, but if it does transpire to be the next flagship handset it'll carry a hefty price tag - so you might want to start saving now.
Big screens are the order of the day for today's flagship smartphones and various reports seem to suggest HTC will build ever so slightly on the 4.7-inch display found on the One.
There's been a lot of talk around 2K and 4K displays on smartphones arriving in 2014, but if an Antutu benchmark result is to be believed HTC will stick to the same full HD, 1920 x 1080 resolution for the One Two.
The 5-inch, full HD screen has been echoed by @evleaks - a usually reliable source of upcoming phone leaks.
HTC M8 power
The HTC One arrived on the scene with a relatively decent 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 processor, but things have advanced since then and numerous reports are all pointing to the same chip for the M8.
That processor is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 SoC, and benchmarking results points towards the quad-core chip being clocked at 2.26GHz - the same as the LG G2.
There was a rumor doing the rounds claiming that HTC was looking to boost the One to an octa-core processor and 3GB of RAM, but the handset never materialized - has it been held back for the M8?
Several other leaks are quoting 2GB of RAM, which would be the same as the HTC One - but still plenty to run Android.
For those of you who love gaming on your smartphone there's some potentially good news for you, as the M8 has also been linked to the Qualcomm Adreno 330 GPU which will enhance the graphical output of the handset.
HTC M8 operating system
No surprises here, when the M8 finally launches under whatever moniker HTC has managed to bodge together you can be sure Android will be hiding under the hood.
Word is that the One Two will come with a brand spanking new version - Sense 6.0 - although we hope it doesn't deviate to much from 5.5, which we greatly enjoy.
If the details surrounding processor and RAM ring true then you can expect the M8 to run whatever version of Android it's rocking smoothly.
HTC M8 camera
HTC broke the cameraphone mould with the One as it introduced its Ultrapixel lens and proceeded to slap it on the Mini and Max variants of the handset as well.
The technology was met with mixed responses and questions were raised when the camera transpired to be equivalent to a 4MP snapper - albeit letting in a hell of a lot more light thanks to the larger pixels.
Some will be hoping HTC ditches the Ultrapixels tech in favor of the traditional megapixel approach and with the likes of the 41MP Lumia 1020 and 20.7MP Xperia Z1 on the market competition is fierce.
There's been little leaked on the camera front of the M8, but the one revealing benchmark result we keep referring to quotes the same front and rear cameras as the One.
HTC M8 chassis
Something which really made the HTC One stand out from the crowd was its all metal body - something only Apple had really fully embraced before, and it gave the handset a supremely premium look and feel.
A couple of images have already slipped out claiming to show the body of the HTC M8, and from first glance it appears almost identical to the One - no surprise, why change a winning formula?
The report reckons that HTC will keep the all metal body, but that the M8 will feature a slimmer form factor, making the handset even more pocketable - and hopefully a touch lighter too.
The Moto G hit the UK a couple of weeks ago, but availability hasn’t been the best. In fact, the 16GB version is still on pre-order.
The 8GB version, however, is available right now from Amazon UK on the announced £135 price.
Or you can grab it from Phones4U on £130. Both of these prices are for a SIM-free device, getting shackled with a contract for such a cheap phone isn't worth it.
Pay As You Go is another option – for £130 you get £10 top up with Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, O2 or Virgin.
Clove UK is currently selling the Moto G at a higher price due to VAT, but the etailer does have four colorful back covers – Lemon, Royal Blue, Violet and Vivid Red – for £7.50 each.
Nokia has done what we asked: released a Windows Phone handset in metal. Except it's not all metal. And it's very similar to the Nokia Lumia 920. And it's in the high-end price bracket... but does a stunning camera warrant the extra cost?
Last year's Lumia 920 was a decent handset. It married striking looks to a quality screen and an even better camera. However, while it was undeniably good there was still some room for improvement, as being a flagship phone many hoped for better specs, less weight and a more premium build.
Now the Finnish phone-smiths are back with the Nokia Lumia 925. It's only seen a small number boost in its name, and if you assumed that meant that not much had changed, well, you'd be right.
While Nokia has equipped the Lumia 925 with a similarly brilliant camera and gone some way to addressing the build of its flagship, it hasn't really improved the specs, leaving the Nokia Lumia 925 in the curious position of feeling more like a tweaked handset than an all new one.
This used to be a problem when the handset was so expensive, but it's much more reasonable at £380 (around AU$674) now, making it a much more attractive buy compared to the now discontinued Nokia Lumia 920, although the older model can now be had for under £290 through some sellers.
With a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and just 1GB of RAM the Nokia Lumia 925 matches the Lumia 920 for horsepower and trails some way behind the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4 or Sony Xperia Z - both of which have double the RAM and quad-core processors.
Arguably Nokia didn't need to go all out, since it doesn't have a huge amount of competition in the Windows Phone space - only the HTC Windows Phone 8X really poses much of a threat. But it seems like a missed opportunity to compete on a level playing field against the wider phone world.
At first sight you might almost not recognise the Lumia 925 as a Nokia handset. It has the same sharply rectangular shape that the Nokia Lumia 920 has, but where that was all brightly coloured plastic, the Nokia Lumia 925 has a shiny aluminium band running around the sides. It gives it a premium edge that is sorely lacking from other Nokia handsets, and it looks good for it.
Unfortunately Nokia hasn't gone the whole hog and made a completely metal handset like the HTC One, and instead made the back from polycarbonate. It still looks decent and the fairly conservative colour options (black, white or silver) mean that it looks a lot classier and more grown up than the Nokia Lumia 920, but it doesn't come close to the premium look or feel of the HTC One.
Despite incorporating metal into its design, the Nokia Lumia 925 is actually lighter than the Nokia Lumia 920, coming in at 139g (4.9oz) compared to the 185g (6.5oz) Lumia 920. The weight was one of our key qualms with the Nokia Lumia 920, so it's good to see that it's been addressed.
At a sleek 8.5mm (0.33 inches), the Nokia Lumia 925 is quite a bit thinner than its 10.7mm (0.42-inch) predecessor too, while the length and width remain almost identical at 129 x 70.6mm (5.08 x 2.78 inches).
It feels nice in the hand and it's generally quite comfortable to hold, though there are a couple of caveats to that. Firstly the position of the camera lens on the back makes it very easy to accidentally put your fingers over it, which is uncomfortable and could leave marks on the lens.
And secondly, the corners aren't very curved, which means they can dig into your hand if you hold the phone in a certain way. On the plus side, the polycarbonate back feels soft and warm against your palm, which is a comforting sensation.
The front of the Nokia Lumia 925 is dominated by the 4.5 inch 768 x 1280 AMOLED screen. It's not quite edge to edge but it's not far off at the sides - although there's reams of plastic above and below, which seems a trifle unnecessary. It's a good size too in our opinion, big enough to use easily without becoming unwieldy.
At 332 pixels per inch it also has a pretty good pixel density, though not one that will bother the HTC One or Samsung Galaxy S4. And in fact it's exactly the same size and resolution as the previous model, which is a little disappointing. However it does use the same impressive PureMotion HD+ ClearBlack technology as the Nokia Lumia 920.
Above the screen there's Nokia's logo, the earpiece and the 1.3 MP front-facing camera, while below the screen there are three soft touch buttons with icons for Start, Back and Search.
Flip the Nokia Lumia 925 over and you'll find another Nokia logo stamped across the middle of the polycarbonate back, while above that there's an 8.7MP Carl Zeiss camera lens and flash, and near the bottom of the handset there's a speaker.
The plastic around the lens is raised, leaving the lens itself slightly indented. That gives it a little protection when putting the phone down, but it also makes the phone less comfortable to hold as your fingers will often stray over the raised area.
The left edge of the phone consists of a strip of metal with no real features on it, while the right edge has the power button in the middle, a volume rocker just above it and the camera button near the bottom. The buttons are all quite raised and responsive, making them easy to press and easy to find by touch alone. They're also spaced out enough that there's no confusion over which is which.
The top of the Nokia Lumia 925 houses the micro SIM card slot at the left, the micro USB port and 3.5mm headphone port near the centre and the microphone to the right.
The bottom edge is left unadorned, with just the metal band running along it.
You can't remove the back cover so there's no getting to the Nokia Lumia 920-matching 2000mAh battery and there's also no microSD card slot, so unlike some lower-end Nokia handsets (such as the Nokia Lumia 520), the storage isn't expandable. This leaves the Nokia Lumia 925 with just 16GB of memory, which is half what the Nokia Lumia 920 offers - although 32GB options are apparently going to be available.
The Nokia Lumia 925 is slimmer and lighter than the Nokia Lumia 920. It also has a more premium build and a slightly improved camera (more on that later) but with the same core specs, less storage space and a much higher price tag it's got an uphill struggle on its hands.
Spotify Connect is a nifty little feature, letting you stream your music to select speakers locally over Wi-Fi and eliminating the need for any Bluetooth pairing faff.
It's also something that iOS users have been able to rub in Android faces for the past couple of months. Now the feature has been made available for fans of Google's OS via an update for the Android app, as spotted by Android Police.
There are currently only a limited number of compatible partner speakers, which include Philips, Argon, Revo, Pioneer and Bang and Olufsen, and of course you'll have to be using Spotify Premium before you can start streaming.
Multi-room, multi-platform
While you're streaming music over Spotify Connect you'll be able to take calls and just generally use your phone however you want without interrupting the music.
You won't be able to play any local files though, just tracks you find on Spotify. But it's an especially handy feature if you want to get some of your own tunes rocking when visiting a friend's house.
It also means you can be as far away from the speakers are you like, just as long as you're still in Wi-Fi range.
There's been a lot of talk and rumours lately about the Sony Xperia Z1s, a handset believed to be a mini version of the Sony Xperia Z1.
But as likely as that had previously seemed, a new image posted on Chinese site Digi-wo and found by Xperia Blog shows a phone that's supposedly the Xperia Z1s side by side with an Xperia Z1 and it looks anything but mini. In fact if anything it looks slightly bigger than the Xperia Z1.
The angle of the image isn't great, so it's hard to say for sure, but the Z1s looks both taller and wider than the Z1, as well as having its headphone port near the middle of the top edge, rather than to the side as the Z1 does.
Super size me
Credit: Digi-Wo
The size difference could mean that rather than being a shrunk down Z1, the Z1s is actually a slightly bigger version of the handset, perhaps with a 5.2-5.5 inch display and maybe even an increased resolution to match.
If you were looking forward to a more pocket friendly Z1 though don't give up hope yet, as a shrunk down version known as the Z1F has already been confirmed for Japan. This new news may just mean that we're getting both a mini and a max version of the Z1.
The ZTE Grand S II Dual existence has been confirmed by the AnTuTu benchmark database. The phone is the successor of the ZTE Grand S and all the information available right now is its AnTuTu score.
The ZTE Grand S II Dual managed to score a cool 33,357 points, which puts ahead of the competition in terms of performance. Its predecessor ran on the quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 platform, but judging from the benchmark result the upcoming smartphone is likely to sport a Snapdragon 800 chipset.
AnTuTu 4
Higher is better
ZTE Grand S II Dual 33357
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 31109
Sony Xperia Z1 30850
LG G2 30243
Sony Xperia Z Ultra 29185
Samsung Galaxy S4 27613
HTC One 26389
HTC One Max 26348
LG Nexus 5 25097
Meizu MX3 24391
LG Nexus 4 17006
If the Grand S II Dual's result is correct, it beats the Samsung Galaxy Note III by a bit over 2,200 points. That's impressive, considering ZTE is likely to be very aggressive with the phone's pricing.
ZTE is presumably going to make a single-SIM version of the Grand S II as well. The current Grand S sports a 13MP camera and a 5" 1080p display - hardware we assume the upcoming smartphone is going to keep. We hope the Grand S II keeps the 6.9mm slim waistline too. We'll keep you posted as new information comes up.
Samsung has started pushing out the Android 4.4 KitKat update for the Galaxy S4 Google Play edition. The update comes right after HTC pushed out the KitKat update for the HTC One Google Play edition.
One of the reasons for getting these Google Play edition devices was the promise of getting Android updates on time, along with the Nexus devices and so far they have been pretty close to keeping that promise. In fact, this time around these phones have gotten the update even before some of the Nexus users, who are still waiting for their KitKat update.
The Google Play edition phones, along with the Nexus phones and the Moto X are now the handful of devices to have the very latest version of Android installed. If you haven't received the notification yet, check the Settings app to see if it is available.
There isn't enough room in town for three separate versions of the Windows operating system, admitted Microsoft's Executive Vice President of Devices Julie Larson-Green.
"We have the Windows Phone OS. We have Windows RT and we have full Windows. We're not going to have three," she confirmed last week at a UBS Global Technology Conference.
Reading between the versions, Microsoft sounds as if it's looking for a unified, mobile-friendly edition of its operating system, while keeping the more intensive desktop version.
Two months ago, the company hinted at just that, suggesting Windows RT could make its way into phones.
"I think we didn't explain that super-well. I think we didn't differentiate the devices well enough," Larson-Green surmised
"They looked similar. Using them is similar. It just didn't do everything that you expected Windows to do. So there's been a lot of talk about it should have been a rebranding."
She went as far as to say that Microsoft should have called it something other than "Windows."
"We should not have called it Windows. How should we have made it more differentiated? I think over time you'll see us continue to differentiate it more."
Whether or not the product of Windows Phone and Windows RT takes that rebranding route seems to be up in the air at the Redmond, Wash.-based company right now.
The new path
Toward the end of her comments, Larson-Green noted that Microsoft's path includes a more defined mobile operating system. One that's different from the tablets like the Surface Pro 2 running full Windows 8.1.
"We do think there's a world where there is a more mobile operating system that doesn't have the risks to battery life, or the risks to security," she said.
She complimented Apple's efforts in this area, saying "you look at iPad in particular, and it's a turnkey, closed system. It doesn't degrade over time.
"It doesn't get viruses. It's not as flexible, you can't do as much with it, but it's a more seamless experience, even though more simplified.
"It also comes at the cost of flexibility," she concluded. "So we believe in that vision and that direction and we're continuing down that path."
Read our ongoing Xbox One review, proving Microsoft got it right with its unified One console.
