With Samsung’s high-end TV sales doing well, the company is now looking to launch cheaper television sets according to Reuters. Demand for lower-end TVs has been on the rise in recent months, with major South Korean retailers teaming up with local manufacturers to provide flat-screen models that are as much as 40% cheaper than Samsung sets. “As long as there’s demand, we’re open to get into that segment,” Samsung’s executive VP of visual display, Kim Hyun-suk said. “W...

Demand for Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet has started to cool off according to one study. ChangeWave published results of a survey on Thursday, which found that just 2% of customers in January were “very likely” to buy a Kindle Fire, down from 4% in December. Respondents who were “somewhat likely” to buy the tablet fell as well, from 13% in December to 10% in January, though demand following the holidays is expected to slow. Amazon’s tablet has better satisfaction ratings than...

Global smartphone vendors including Samsung, HTC, Nokia and LG are expected to launch new smartphone models in the second quarter to avoid competing directly with the iPhone 4S, according to Digitimes. “Mainly due to hot sales of the iPhone 4S, Apple recorded the largest global smartphone market share of 23.9% in the fourth quarter of 2011, followed by Samsung with 23.5% and Nokia with 12.6%,” the publication’s supply-chain sources said citing data from Strategy Analytics. “Based on ...

Following what Amazon reported to have been a huge holiday season for the company’s debut tablet, demand for the Kindle Fire has slowed according to new claims. Citing unnamed sources from within Amazon’s component supply chain, DigiTimes on Friday stated that Amazon’s tablet orders with original device manufacturers have been cut in half from roughly 6 million tablets in the fourth quarter last year to 3 million units this quarter. The Kindle Fire had a hot holiday season so a drop-off in o...

Pent up demand for Apple’s latest smartphone caused the company to halt sales of its just-released iPhone 4S in Beijing, China on Friday, fearing for the safety of its sales staff. According to Chinese tech blog M.I.C. Gadget, Beijing residents eager to get their hands on Apple’s iPhone 4S began to line up more than 12 hours before stores opened on Friday. A massive crowd had gathered at the Sanlitun Apple Store, and workers were forced to delay its opening. The crowd seemingly then became unruly...

Demand for Apple’s latest smartphone is still outpacing supply, causing customers to wait three weeks or more to purchase the new phone. Apple launched the iPhone 4S more than a month ago, and the handset shattered opening-weekend sales records. BGR reported more than two weeks ago that strong demand for the handset was resulting in stock-outs around the country, and now Dow Jones Newswires reports that supply is not yet able to keep up with the mass of would-be iPhone owners waiting impatiently for the...

Demand for Apple’s iPad tablet is said to be in decline as competition finally heats up thanks to the $199 Kindle Fire from Amazon, and investors could be in for a disappointing fourth quarter as a result. In a recent research note, Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope suggested Apple’s firm grip on the global tablet market may finally loosen unless the Cupertino, California-based company lowers its pricing. Read on for more. (more…)

Amazon has reportedly increased Kindle Fire orders with its manufacturing partners following stronger than expected demand for its premier tablet. DigiTimes reports that more than 5 million units are now on order in 2011 as pre-orders for the $199 tablet remain strong; the online retailer took nearly 100,000 pre-orders on the first day of pre-sales availability alone. Amazon had already increased its orders last quarter according to the site’s anonymous industry sources, from 3.5 million to 4 million...

Apple sold more than 4 million iPhone 4S handsets in the smartphone’s first weekend of availability but according to a new report, Apple thinks demand for its latest phone will stall in the fourth quarter. DigiTimes on Wednesday reported that Apple has cut fourth-quarter iPhone 4S parts orders with its suppliers. The report’s anonymous sources claim that some amount of production volume has been moved from the fourth quarter this year to the first quarter in 2012 due to weaker than expected deman...

Apple will turn to Samsung and Chimei Innolux to supply display panels for its iPad 2 after LG’s panels failed to meet Apple’s quality requirements. The quality issues with LG’s displays forced the company to miss its July monthly shipment goal by 1 million units, DigiTimes said. Reportedly, LG’s LCD backlight units failed during Apple’s drop tests. LG had hoped to ship 4 million LCD units per month during the third quarter, but only shipped an estimated 2.5-2.6 million units in ...

It took 145 days, but Apple’s supply of iPad 2 tablets has finally caught up with demand. Purchases made from the online Apple Store will now ship within 24 hours of being placed, and the new fulfillment time applies to all six variants of the iPad 2. Since the tablet launched in the middle of March, Apple’s iPad 2 instantly became the world’s most sought after tablet. Inventory at brick and mortar Apple Stores, retail partners and at Apple’s online store depleted as fast as Apple co...

Parts for a new white Apple iPod touch have surfaced, courtesy of 9to5 Mac, suggesting that Apple has plans to release a new color scheme when it takes the wraps off its next-generation iPhone in late August or early September. The leaked images show the iPod touch’s digitizer component, although it is currently unclear if the unit is real or not. The Cupertino-based company has already placed orders for the new color scheme and production is slated to begin next month, according to Concord Securities a...

HP finally revealed a launch date and pricing for its TouchPad tablet on Thursday and we have to say, we’re pretty excited. It’s no mystery that we’re fans of webOS, and we were definitely impressed with the device during our hands-on in San Francisco. JP Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz argues that consumers in general aren’t quite as excited as we are, however, and he doesn’t see HP’s maiden tablet voyage attracting buyers away from Apple’s iPad 2. “While we expe...

Companies that have introduced consumer tablets to compete with the iPad are dialing back production as demand for their tablets is failing to meet expectations. A new report issued Wednesday by J.P. Morgan Chase paints a sad picture for companies like Samsung, Motorola, RIM and ASUS as they look to make headway in the emerging consumer tablet market. These manufacturers have slowed production of their respective tablet offerings by as much as 10%, J.P. Morgan claims, due to limited consumer demand. Among th...