While Apple dipped to only 14.6 percent of the whole smartphone zone, Samsung touched 23.8 percent. Nokia had 16.8 million devices sold and, with its 14.4 percent, is still behind Apple

The success Samsung was credited with is a consequence of getting “memorable” brands in “elegant” hardware. Most people have connected the recent run to the Galaxy S II. It has managed to sell over ten million devices since its arrival in April. Although sales of cheaper or older models, such as the original Galaxy S versions or budget Galaxy ace phones, had a contribution to these results, their sales are considerably smaller.

Sales of smartphones are a central point for a rather downbeat quarter, with chips and displays dragging the profit down. Apple has had record sales with the occasion of the iPhone launches and it is already established that iPhone 4S sales have even offset the company’s summer drop. Therefore, Samsung may not keep its top position for a long time. Apple is adding KDDI and Sprint to its carrier choice for the first time and expects to see its new phone arriving on Verizon too.

Operating profit at $2.3 billion was over double and came mainly from runaway success of handsets like the Galaxy S II. Although the company did not say how many smartphones and cellphones it had shipped, leaks have mentioned over twenty million smartphones and topped the 17.07 million iPhones of Apple. This success is not supposed to repeat as Apple waits for its iPhone 4S to establish historical sale records.

Samsung’s past fall quarter might get a lift from sales of the holiday, but most of that may still come from smartphones, such as the Galaxy Nexus, as well as closely related components that the company provides to itself and to customers including Apple, like mobile screens and flash memory.

There is no mention of the preliminary bans Apple requested on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany and Australia and also a brief ban related to the Galaxy phone line.

Accordingly, some phone producers may gradually draw less in terms of gross margins. Apple’s iPhone is believed to enjoy a brand equity benefit, which would allow Apple to keep prices high and profits as well. Apple controls both iOS, the iPhone platform, and the design of its hardware, and therefore the only pressure in terms of competition comes from other platforms.

As Wolf observes, recent figures of IDC show Android with a growth of 24.8 percent in the third quarter of 2010, related to smartphones, versus only 3.2 percent a year earlier. Compared to Android, the iPhone shows a static year-over-year with 17.2 percent, although the number of iPhone shipments has grown 91.2 percent. Another important competitor, Windows Phone, has been in circulation only since October this year.

The new device is expected to represent overall sweeping upgrades. Thus, it would move up to 14.4Mbps HSPA on networks that could support such a speed, as well as an eight-megapixel camera. It would be using the Gingerbread version of Android (2.3) and is supposed to be extremely thin. Its thickness may be compared to that of a classic iPod nano, thinner than most smartphones. An internal storage of 16GB, Bluetooth 3.0 and 802.11n Wi-Fi are expected to port over from Samsung’s Galaxy S.

The launch of the device is scheduled for February next year, coinciding with the Mobile World Congress that will take place in Barcelona. It is not usual for Samsung to ship phones presented at the show very soon after the event, but the company reserves the show for what it estimates to be flagships like the Wave. Since the company would launch its device sooner, it is believed that Samsung hopes to pre-empt the iPhone’s usual mid-year update and also any possible rivals coming from Motorola and HTC.

A 1GHz Snapdragon processor is powering both handsets. The 003SH incorporates a 9.6-megapixel camera with 720-pixel video shooting capabilities. Wi-Fi b/g, GPS and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR are present on both devices. They also have up to 7.2Mbps WCDMA download speeds. A slot compatible with up to 32 cards can receive a microSD card for storage. The 05SH model has an 8-megapixel camera in order to keep the device thinner and accommodate the sliding keyboard. Some 3 content deals lined up with Capcom include the handsets shipping with Mega Man, em>Resident Evil and Ghosts ‘n Goblins.

It is not a surprise for anybody that Sharp has launched phones with the same technology as the upcoming Nintendo 3DS, as the company is also supplying the displays for the gaming console.

While the Galapagos 003SH is believed to arrive in the United States in December, the 005SH model will not ship until February next year.

The Galapagos 003SH has a 9.6-megapixel camera provided with auto-focus, 3D still capture as well as 720-pixel video recording support. The Galapagos 005SH is downgraded to an 8.0-megapixel camera sensor, but has instead a full QWERTY keyboard and more internal memory.

Sharp will add seven 3D movies to highlight the 3D possibilities of both phones, Shrek and Despicable Me being included. Seven 3D games will also be included. Among them, Konami Mobile Baseball, Hazard and Taiko No Tatsujin will be provided.

The Galapagos phones are shipping in July, according to the company’s schedule.

Whether or not the users will be able to uninstall the V Cast Apps icon was not mentioned by the carrier, although it has emphasized that the store would not replace Android Market. The carrier has, under certain circumstances, loaded software that could not be installed.

The decision of loading the store about half a year after the launch of the phone might draw criticism from Verizon. Users also complained when they discovered they could not use Google search widgets on Samsung’s Fascinate, even if it was downloaded later. Google has many times stressed that Android was an open platform but had to defend giving up control to carriers that often put limits to control of actual users. The company has said that putting restrictions on the influence of carriers would affect the concept of openness. However, it has not said what open experience could have a user with even the stock G2 preventing custom firmware.

Apple has also been criticized for imposing limits to choices for searches and app stores. Recent restrictions on Android-based devices have in some cases left iPhones with more options, like unofficial support for jailbroken firmware and default search engines.

Experiments have more than 1,000 members of the staff involved and are expected to take at least four weeks but no more than six. The test at Bank of America is almost complete but would involve a dry run before committing to offering iPhone support. Although neither of the two banks has confirmed the tests, both have claimed to regularly explore new technological solutions.

The option for iPhone does not necessarily mean a shift from the BlackBerry but could determine a drop of the smartphone OS adoption at two of its most important clients. Research in Motion has suffered a number of setbacks during the past few months, which included a Standard Chartered iPhone option and a recent switch of Dell to Windows Phone 7. Goldman Sachs’ analysts have warned that many companies were less interested in BlackBerry than before. Many users are using their personal smartphones, and many of them are not BlackBerry models, or are looking for more modern interfaces and wider application variety.

As for Apple, it has been more cautious about entering the enterprise area and just end-of-lived the Xserve. However, the company began to make significant efforts to persuade businesses and recently hired Unisys for the promotion of its Macs, iPhones and iPads as tools at enterprise level. Not less than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 is either testing or even using iPhones as a corporate deployment.

Some researchers have blamed BlackBerry’s limited profile in touchscreen devices. Apart from its Storm2, tepidly received, and the not enough tested Torch, RIM avoided touchscreens and often proclaimed its hardware keyboards as attraction points. The two above mentioned phones use the same touchscreen, with a size of 3.25 inches and a resolution of 480×360, as well as the same processor as in devices made in 2008. This was not enough to lure customers away from the iPhone on AT&T or from Android smartphones on Verizon.

Nokia’s drop is attributed to its aging Symbian platform, while its small application store also had a negative impact on customers.

Research in Motion still keeps chances to regain the lost position as it is expected to ship between 13.8 and 14.4 million BlackBerry handsets in fall. The company has objected to the comparison with Apple, since their fiscal quarters end a month apart and this does not reflect the actual performance of RIM. On the other hand, Apple has mentioned it was shipping every phone it could even after the increase of the production. In their short history, the sales of the iPhone have multiplied during the holidays.

Multiple blows have affected Symbian recently and some of its main proponents at Nokia have voluntarily or involuntarily left. For example, Nokia’s CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo left the company in September due to dissatisfaction with his inability to stop losing market share. The Finnish phone builder also lost Anssi Vanjoki, its smartphone team leader, who will leave the company soon.

Considered the default platform for smartphones in its god times, Symbian has been dropped by Sony Ericsson and Samsung because Android has offered them more advanced features and access to a partly open-source operating system, largely free at the same time. Although Symbian^3 has brought the operating system almost up to date with respect to multi-touch and other characteristics already available on other platforms for years, critics still say it is too close to the old S60 platform.