Author: Kaluka wanjala

BlackBerry has promised us that it will release three Android smartphones by early 2017. The company has plans to release one Android smartphone every quarter within the next 9 months. The first of these devices will be called the BlackBerry Neon and will be launched sometime next month even though the company is yet to confirm the exact date. Even before BlackBerry officially unveils the Neon, someone inside the company got excited and published its images and specs on the company’s official website. The images and specs were taken down meaning that they were not supposed to go up in…

Yesterday, Verizon announced that it is acquiring Yahoo in a move no one would have predicted 10 years ago. Yahoo has been struggling in the advertising and search business as some of its rivals such as Facebook and Google see their market shares rise year after year. For those who don’t know, Verizon is an American company that offers telecommunications products and services. The company has over 141 million subscribers and is the largest wireless communications provider in the US. How Much? Well, the first question you may be asking is, how much did Verizon pay for Yahoo? That would…

Huawei has just announced its financial results for the first half of the year a day after we told you that the company’s revenue target for 2016 has been set at $75 billion. The latest cumulative first half results from the company just shows you why Huawei is the third largest smartphone manufacturers in the world. The company shipped over 60.5 million smartphones during the first six months of the year from January to June. This represents a growth of 25% from the same period last year which is impressive considering that other manufacturers are seeing their market share drop…

The Android tablet market has still not picked up but manufacturers such as Samsung are hopeful that it will do so one day. The company has a number of tablets on the market from affordable ones to expensive ones that compete with the iPads of the world. Samsung has added a new entry level tablet to its lineup to cater for the low end market segment. This new tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tad J, was announced in Taiwan yesterday. Samsung already has the Galaxy J smartphones that target the low end market segment and the J letter on this tablet…

Huawei is definitely having a good year so far if its latest sales figures are anything to go by. The company saw a 40% rise in sales revenue during the first half of 2016 to reach $36.67 billion. Compared to the same period last year, Huawei saw an improvement of 10%. Going forward, Huawei is optimistic and has set its revenue target for the end of 2016 at $75 billion. “We are confident that Huawei will maintain its current momentum, and round out the full year in a positive financial position backed by sound ongoing operations,” Chief Financial Officer Sabrina…

Oppo has always been innovative when it comes to smartphone cameras. The company unveiled the Oppo N3 which came with a rotating camera that could act both as the rear and front facing camera. This phone was not that very successful but showed us how innovative Oppo wants to be as it curves a niche for itself in the crowded smartphone market. In January this year, the company unveiled the Oppo F1 which came with 3GB of RAM, the Snapdragon 616 processor, an 8MP front facing camera and a 16MP rear camera. This was a standard mid-range smartphone from Oppo.…

It seems like things are not so good for Cyanogen Inc as the company is downsizing its workforce and shifting focus to app development. Cyanogen Inc is behind both Cyanogen OS and the open source CyanogenMod which is one of the popular customized versions of Android. While CyanogenMod is enjoying a good run, Cyanogen OS is not so lucky as the number of manufacturers willing to include the OS on its devices is not rising as fast as expected. The company has had difficulties convincing manufacturers to adopt its official OS, Cyanogen OS, and this is what is forcing it…

When smartwatches came into the market a few years ago, we all thought that we would see them on every wrist in less than a year. This did not happen and even though they have been around for a while, not many people own them probably because they are expensive or they just don’t add any value to their lives. According to the latest stats from IDC, smartwatch shipments are on the decline and in the second quarter of 2016, only 3.5 million units were shipped. 3.5 million units in three months is a small figure considering the over 5.1…

For smartphone manufacturers, being innovative and ahead of competition is always a plus. If you want to win the customers, you must innovate every so often as this is one of the ways to differentiate yourself from other players on the market. LG is one company that understands this but the company’s poor marketing strategies have slowed it down when it comes to actual sales. Besides its unimpressive marketing tactics, LG has always been innovative with its devices. The current innovation that the company is working on has to do with foldable displays that it may include in some of…

WhatsApp voice calling rolled out to Android users last year but it wasn’t as fun to use since it lacked some essential features. Two of these are the voicemail and call back features that WhatsApp will be adding very soon. WhatsApp is already testing these features on its Android beta version. Users who have installed WhatsApp beta saw these features on their apps yesterday and this means that the company has already started public testing. Both the voicemail and call back features are welcomed additions to the platform especially for people who use its voice calling feature regularly. The WhatsApp…