AT&T has today announced the LG Optimus G Pro, a 5.5-inch Android-powered smartphone that will sell for $199 when it launches on May 3. The device is designed to give Samsung’s Galaxy Note II a run for its money, with a 1080p display and the latest quad-core Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm.
Android may have the edge over iOS at the moment, but by 2015, there’s a chance Apple’s platform will have stolen the crown. And it’s all thanks to customer loyalty.
According to new research from Yankee Group, iPhone owners are more loyal to their devices and therefore less likely to stray to competing platforms. There’s a large percentage of Android users, however, who have plans to switch when it’s time to upgrade their smartphone.
While smartphone have really taken off since Apple launched the iPhone back in 2007, believe it or not, traditional feature phones have remained the biggest sellers worldwide. That was until the first quarter of 2013, when smartphones out-shipped feature phones for the first time ever.
Of the 418.6 million cellphones sold during the first three months of the year, 51.6% of them were smartphones, according to new figures from IDC.
A new update is making its way to Samsung Galaxy S III handsets on Sprint this week. In addition to fixing a lock screen flaw that allows users to bypass any security locks you have set — exactly one week after it was fixed on the Galaxy Note II — it also introduces Samsung’s excellent Multi-View feature, and more.
For those unfamiliar with Multi-View, it’s a TouchWiz feature that was first introduced to the Galaxy Note II, and it allows you to run two apps side-by-side simultaneously. So you can watch YouTube videos while you chat to friends on Facebook, or keep an eye on the sports scores while you reply to emails.
It’s true multitasking on a smartphone, and Samsung’s the only smartphone manufacturer that provides it — for now, at least.
The update also makes improvements to the built-in Gallery, Camera, and Paper Artist apps, and addresses the lock screen security flaw that was discovered on a number of popular Samsung smartphones earlier this year.
The update is rolling out over-the-air to Sprint users as I write this, so if you haven’t seen it yet, you should do fairly soon.
Samsung warned us that its Apple Store clones were on the way, and this week they’ve begun popping up in Best Buy stores across the United States. Dubbed “Samsung Experience Shops,” the locations give customers the chance to get their hands on Samsung smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other devices so that they can try them out before making a purchase.
