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Huawei shipped more smartphones in Q2 than any other company

Global smartphone shipments have been tanking this year as the world reacts to the global COVID-19 pandemic. And you’d think that Chinese phone maker Huawei would be in a particularly tough position, since the US government has blocked Google and other key hardware and software companies from working with Huawei. But that hasn’t stopped Huawei […]

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Smartphone shipments tank in response to the global pandemic

Demand for personal computers may be up due to all the people working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. But it looks like demand for smartphones is down… way down. Research from IDC and Canalys shows that smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2020 were down by 12 to 13 percent compared with the same […]

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Lilbits 388: Microsoft’s Surface 2 and Surface Book 3 coming in May?

There’s mounting evidence that Microsoft is preparing to launch new Surface hardware soon… like next month soon. According to a new report from Windows Central, and apparently confirmed by The Verge’s sources, Microsoft is expected to launch the Surface Book 3 and Surface Go 2 in May. The Surface Go 2 will most likely be […]

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Canalys & Gartner: PC shipments were down in Q1, despite increased demand (updated)

After years of declining PC shipments, things were starting to look up, with analysis’s spotting an uptick at the end of 2019. And then came the COVID-19 pandemic. Research firm Canalys says demand was up in the first quarter of 2020. But there were production and shipping delays related to the international efforts to curb […]

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Counterpoint: Top smartphones of 2019 were nearly all Apple and Samsung devices

I don’t think it’s any surprise that Apple and Samsung dominate the smartphone market these days. But a recent report from Counterpoint Research confirms that fact — and offers a few interesting details that I hadn’t necessarily expected. The report examines the top 10 smartphone models sold in 2019. First up, only one of those […]

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PC shipments grew in 2019 for the first time in 7 years

Smartphone shipments may have skyrocketed in the past decade, but apparently there’s still a place for personal computers. Research firms Gartner and IDC have both released reports suggesting that PC shipments were up in 2019, making it the first year since 2011 that PC shipments were up year-over-year. The increase was a modest one… and […]

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Wearable gadget shipments nearly doubled in a year (thanks to smart earbuds)

Wearable electronic devices had a record quarter according to new figures from research firm IDC. The company has put out a report estimating that 84.5 million “wearable devices” were shipped  in the third quarter of 2019, which is nearly twice as many as shipped during the same period a year earlier. Why the big boom? […]

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Lilbits 358: Ryzen-powered “Zork” Chromebook on the way (if it’s not eaten by a grue)

Acer and HP unveiled the first Chromebooks powered by AMD processors this year and they’re… cheap laptops with cheap, low-power processors. If you’d been holding out for a Chromebook with a more powerful AMD Ryzen processor, it looks like you might not have to wait forever. Kevin Tofel from About Chromebooks spotted references in Chromium […]

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Smartphone shipments declines in 2018, for better or worse

Phone makers shipped about 4 percent fewer smartphones in 2018 than the year before according to reports out this week from IDC and Counterpoint Research. IDC says that makes 2018 the “worst year ever for smartphone shipments,” as measured by growth (or shrinkage, in this case). But it’s also worth looking at the possible explanations […]