Samsung Electronics | featured news

Soaring sales of smartphones lifted Samsung Electronics's profit to a record and apparently pushed the South Korean company past Nokia as the world's biggest cellphone seller—and perhaps past Apple as No. 1 in smartphones.

The evidence continues to mount that the mobile phone business is evolving into a two-horse race. It’s Apple, Samsung, and a host of desperate hangers on. In the first quarter, according to Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt, Apple accounted for about 80% of all profits in the mobile phone business, with Samsung accounting for the rest. The two companies combined, he figures, had 74% of mobile handset industry revenues.

Samsung has decided to pour some fuel on the fire and release a Web site teasing its “next galaxy,” which is likely the update to the Galaxy S II. Most people have been calling this phone the Galaxy S III, though that name is not confirmed. All we know about the next Galaxy is that it will be unveiled at Samsung Unpacked in London on May 3.

Is it a small tablet or a big smartphone? That seems to be the debate regarding the Samsung Galaxy Note. All in all, the Galaxy Note's standout feature, its large, 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED display, is a bit of a double-edged sword.

Taiwan's HTC, the world's No. 5 smartphone maker, launched a new range of smartphone models on Sunday, hoping the fresh designs will help it to recover some of the lost market share. The new smartphones are crucial for HTC in a cut-throat market place -- dominated by Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc -- as lack of new, outstanding models has sent its sales sinking over the last months.

Samsung Electronics Co said on Wednesday it was not interested in buying ailing Blackberry maker Research In Motion or licensing its operating system, refuting a tech blog report that RIM was seeking to sell itself to the South Korean technology giant.

Google, seeking to reboot its flagging efforts in television, said consumers will soon have a broader choice of TVs using its software--with lower prices also a likely outcome.

As far as years in technology go, 2011 was one for the record books. It wasn’t just about big battles like Apple vs. Samsung, Microsoft vs. Google, AT&T vs. the world, or Hewlett-Packard vs. itself. It wasn’t just about the growth of apps and the ever-increasing pervasiveness of the Web in our daily lives, though there were plenty of amazing developments both these realms. It wasn’t just about hardware or software. And it wasn’t just about towing the line or trying to hold onto it.

Verizon Wireless is blocking Google's new flagship phone from supporting Google's attempt to make the smartphone the credit card of the future. In blocking the Google Wallet software from running on the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Verizon Wireless said Tuesday that it was waiting to provide a wallet application until it can offer "the best security and user experience." Verizon and rivals AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA are part of a consortium called ISIS that is planning its own payment system.