Samsung sells 1 million Galaxy S II units, talks Galaxy S III

Watch out for the Koreans:

Samsung is the jewel of South Korea, so it’s no surprise to hear that their phones are some of the most popular selling devices in their native country. The first Galaxy S took just 70 days to sell 1 million units, but the newer Galaxy S II that’s just been launched obliterated that record and has managed to ship the same 1 million units in only 30 days. That makes the Galaxy S II the fastest selling smartphone in South Korea, faster than even the iPhone 4. When Samsung was asked what they attribute to the fabulous sales, they talked about the improved screen, 21 Mbps 3G modem, 8.9 mm body, and the new version of TouchWiz. Oddly they didn’t mention the dual core processor inside or near field communication (NFC). It’s expected that 10 million Galaxy S II units will be sold by the end of 2011, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see that number hitting 11 or 12 million, especially after it comes to America’s shores on Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint.

Looking into our crystal ball, what might the next Galaxy S have inside and when will it hit the market? J.K. Shin, President of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Division, told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview that the Galaxy S III will launch during the first half of 2012, but failed to provide any more details. We’re thinking that like the Galaxy S II it’s going to feature a dual core processor and NFC, but instead of a 4.3 inch screen it’ll shrink back down to a more manageable 4 inch display that will be ultra compact too since it’ll run Ice Cream Sandwich, which we believe will pave the way for Android devices with no physical buttons on the front of the handset.

Expect to hear a lot more leaks come out as we get closer to February 2012, the likely month when the Galaxy S III will be unveiled.

via Samsung sells 1 million Galaxy S II units, talks Galaxy S III.

Next wave of mobile marketing: NFC, QR codes and location-based technology – Mobile Commerce Daily – Columns

It looks like the next big thing is going on right now.

By Hamilton Chan: Smartphones have quickly become powerful tools for brands and marketers to interact and engage with consumers.

Mobile applications have especially paved the way in mobile marketing strategies, allowing brands to reach their audiences through branded apps and other in-app mobile advertising opportunities.

A new generation of interactive mobile technologies has recently entered the scene that allows us to link real world and digital experiences and communication, among them near field communication (NFC), quick response (QR) codes and location-based services.

These technologies are all driving new channels of interaction between businesses and customers in real-time, context-sensitive environments.

While there is room for all of these technologies to transform how businesses can reach consumers, competing markets and inherent weaknesses within each technology could hinder mainstream adoption.

With this in mind, what should marketers consider before diving into these real-world linking technologies?

via Next wave of mobile marketing: NFC, QR codes and location-based technology – Mobile Commerce Daily – Columns.

Confirmed: Google Wallet NFC payment system launches tomorrow, retail partners in tow | This is my next…

That is: today, May 26 2011!

We’d already guessed that tomorrow’s Google event would be all about contactless payments, and we can now confirm that the system will be called Google Wallet and launch later this summer. We can also confirm that Google’s lined up several retail partners including The Container Store to get things off the ground — it sounds like special NFC readers will arrive in stores sometime around September 1st, and customers will be able to pay just by tapping their phones against them. That’s all we know for sure right now — but we’re sure to find out far more about device support and additional retail partners tomorrow during our liveblog.

via Confirmed: Google Wallet NFC payment system launches tomorrow, retail partners in tow | This is my next….

What’s new in mobile?

Tomorrow, Monday 18 April 2011, Spits will publish an article in which I am being what the future of mobile life will be. For those who do not master the Dutch language, I’m sorry to say it is only written in Dutch and I don’t really know whether it is worthwhile translating it in a more common global language.

But then, what is hot and not in mobile life? Well, as I see it, there is nothing really new. It is a matter of evolution more than anything else. Our society has always been triggered to move on ever since people decided to come up with ‘new’ ideas. And again, what is new? In our technocratic world, we are constantly adapting to a new level of technology. So one may wonder if we are the triggers of innovation or innovation is triggering us. This is probably a philosophical paradox and answering the question will have no effect on the process of evolution (more than innovation). Evolution means that there is an ongoing change in a certain cadence, not too slow, not too fast. Innovation means that something is completely newly though up and developed for a specific reason (such as earning money or helping people solve a problem).

It has been said many times that mobile life is such an innovation; a newly made up idea turned into a real thing currently enriching our lives. This is of course not true. People have always been mobile and people have always felt the urge to be mobile. I’d like to type mobile as physically on the move. I understand that there is such a thing as a meta-physical mobility, a human concept perhaps, a philosophy, but lets boil mobile down to actually being on the move. This means that a mobile device is something one can carry around without being bothered in a sense that is obstructs you when on the move. A mobile device therefor is a small apparatus one may put in one’s trouser pocket. (Hence, this excludes larger devices such as tablets our notebooks. I would baptise that size of machine as portable.)

Again, what is mobile life? The Mobile Life Centre in Sweden, as impressive as their output is, does it like this:

We get inspired by doing studies on people’s mundane leisure and creative activities such as horseback riding, hunting, parcour, dancing or role-playing. We use those insights to spur innovative design processes, resulting in mobile applications, sensor-based applications, pervasive games, mobile mash-up services, new mobile media, technical platforms and materials to support amateurs’ creativity.

They claim to be innovative but they are not; they are evolutionary. No sweat but linguistically wrong. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing new at the time. We are truly experiencing a fin de siecle, an era adrift searching for new stabilities in human relationships, politices, economics, arts and sports. We are in a collective mode of togetherness because the world out there is big, dangerous and dark. We fear and we kill what we fear. And since there are no common foes, we start shooting around in shopping malls or somewhere else on the planet, surpress citizens to ones own benefit. (Sorry for this train of thoughts.)

New may be NFC, no innovation but a string evolution anyway. Or the fact that 3 billion Android apps were installed and 350.000 devices are activated each day. For me, that’s a revolution. And it’s only getting better.

RIM’s Balsillie: NFC Coming to ‘Many if Not Most’ BlackBerrys This Year

As announced in Barcelona last week and readable here, Blackberrys will be equipped with near field communication from now on. In my opinion that is a major breakthrough. And Deutsche Telekom will launch an NFC service known as  ‘mobile wallet‘. Things are getting interesting.