Sony to slash smartphone line-up

Samsung is not the only giant planning major changes in its smartphone business for 2015. Despite seeing and hearing rumors of an Xperia Z4 and Z4 Ultra for early next year — after the announcement of the Xperia Z3 raised a lot of eyebrows — Sony is also planning some major changes as far as its mobile division is concerned.

Sales of Sony smartphones aren’t exactly up to expectations (the company has revised sales targetsmore than once), and the Japanese manufacturer has constantly lost ground on the market to competitors like Apple and Samsung. As a direct effect, Sony is fine with losing as much as 30 percent of smartphone sales, as long as the division will start generating profits. “We’re not aiming for size or market share but better profits“, said Hiroki Totoki, head of Sony’ mobile division.

Instead, Sony will focus on more profitable segments, like its image sensor or gaming division. Whether this means that we’ll see fewer Sony smartphones in the next period, or this means the end of the smartphone division is yet unknown. The new three-year electronics business plan however emphasises on segments which don’t include the mobile division.

Source: Reuters

Weirdest smartphone camera yet swings up and over

In an effort to help their models stand out from the crowd, smartphone manufacturers have been turning to some interesting camera designs. Sometimes that brings us phones like the PureView Lumia 1020 with a big ol’ rear sensor, while other times we end up with something like the HTC Desire Eye and its dual high-res front and rear cameras. One old idea from the days of flip phones has even started making a comeback, with Oppo turning to rotating cameras for the N1 andnew N3, where the same physical camera pulls double duty as it snaps both front and rear pics itself. Today we’re looking at another handset that call upon one camera for both front and rear shots, though one quite different from anything’s Oppo’s made – and really, quite different from anything anyone’s made, as near as we can tell.

The Doov Nike V1 has a five-inch 720p display, runs a MediaTek SoC, has 2GB of RAM, and gets its juice from a 2480mAh battery. Those are alright specs for a budget phone (and indeed, the V1 will sell in China for what works out to about $325), but they’re not what we’re interested in here.

It’s the phone’s camera that’s captured our attention, with a 13MP Sony sensor and dual LED flash that pivot up from the phone’s back, up and around the top, allowing the assembly to shoot rear pics one moment before flipping forward to grab selfies. If seeing the camera exposed like that already has you fearing for its safety, you can rest a little easier knowing that the lens is protected by sapphire crystal. There’s also OIS in there to help keep things sharp.

While you probably won’t have the opportunity to buy the Doov Nike V1 yourself, it’s still got a noteworthy design which we’re curious to see if other phones attempt to copy.

Source: Blog of Mobile (Google Translate)
Via: phoneArena

HTC One M9 concept shows us that great can get better

We’ve praised HTC for making some of the best smartphone designs ever, not just of this year. HTC’s design legacy goes back to some of the first award-winning Pocket PCs that got this whole smartphone ecosystem started, and the same continues to happen today. If you thought the HTC One M8 was already gorgeous enough, concept designers are always there to prove there’s room to grow.

Graphic designer Jermaine Smit has recently decided to take a stab at what he feels should be the design of the HTC One M9 for 2015, and if you have a close look at all things considered, you’d understand why some of us agree with him. We’re not much about covering concept designs here, but a lot of our biggest quirks with the design of the HTC One M8 get solved here. For instance, one of our biggest complaints is the full inch of separation between the bottom of the phone and the active user interface (above the navigation buttons), which makes typing a tad uncomfortable for people with small hands. The inch of separation houses the Boom Sound speakers and the HTC brand, but Smit’s approach pushes the speakers and logo to the bottom in a very elegant way.

Do you agree with this concept, or would you add other things that you feel HTC should change for the One M9 next year? Make sure you share your thoughts in the comments.

Source: AndroidJS
Via: BG
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