Source: Apple
Apple takes the crown as it ships most smartphones in Q4 2021
The official news today begin with the worldwide smartphone shipments for Q4 of 2021 which are interesting to say the least. Yes, the numbers are out and let’s just say we’re not too surprised by the results. Yes, Apple is still at the top, even if they dropped 1 percent year over year at 22% of the market share. Samsung managed to grow 3 percent while securing the number 2 spot and now they're at 20 percent, which is crazy considering how many products they sell. At number 3 we have Xiaomi which kept the same 12 percent they had the year before and we have OPPO and Vivo to complete the top 5. According to the report, Apple's sales were driven by a stellar performance of the iPhone 13, as they saw an unprecedented performance in markets like China. And yes, that's even with all the supply issues they had at the end of the year. Canalys hasn't released their other reports where we get to see what the best selling phones of the year were but, let's see how this year ends up considering we're still going through a chip shortage and now that foldables are becoming a bit more mainstream. Let us know in the comments how you feel about these results, cause I honestly didn’t expect the iPhone 13 to be this successful.
New Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 renders (with notch) and specs leak
Upcoming Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra with notch spotted on Samsung's website
Let's shift gears on to Samsung and don’t worry. It’s not about Galaxy S22 leaks. At this point I think those are already set in stone as we get closer to its potential launch date. Now the topic seems to be a tablet that’s been waiting for a refresh for quite a bit. I’m talking about the Galaxy Tab S8 that'll reportedly come with the S22 Series and it'll apparently bring some interesting changes. A few days ago we got some renders from WinFuture showing off the new design. Rumors claim that we're getting 3 different models with the Tab S8, the Plus and an Ultra variant. All of them powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and with some pretty good specifications with the main differences often being the battery size. The Ultra seems to be the one stealing the headline, but not necessarily for good reasons as it seems it'll bring a notch. Yes, Samsung is putting a slight one on their Tab S8 Ultra and in their typical fashion, it was just spotted in the company's Bixby support page. This image was recovered by 91Mobiles and it shows the Tab S8 Ultra next to a Galaxy phone with Bixby working.. So yes, these should be coming very soon with the prices ranging from 680 Euros to 1060 for the Ultra variant.. Anyone remember that ad where Samsung was mocking Apple for the notch?
Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard for a deal valued at $68.7 Billion
And come on, you know we had to talk about this cause it's been a topic everywhere... Yesterday, Microsoft announced that they plan to acquire Activision Blizzard in a deal that would be valued at 68.7 Billion Dollars.. Yes, that's Billion with a B. For those of you thinking, oh this is just them buying another Gaming Studio, not really.. This deal also includes studios like Treyarch, Raven Software, Sledgehammer games, King and more. Meaning Microsoft owns huge titles like Overwatch, Diablo, Call of Duty, Candy Crush, World of Warcraft and more.. This, along with their purchase of Bethesda last year, will allow Microsoft to become the third largest gaming company in the world by revenue, only behind Tencent and Sony. On a statement, they're saying that "this will accelerate their plans for Cloud Gaming, allowing more people in more places to participate in the Xbox community." Of course, they're now allowed to add some major titles to Game Pass which has been crazy successful. And for those of you gaming on PC and other platforms, this doesn't mean they'll be exclusive to them, as they will continue to support others going forward. For those of you on the loop, Activision has gone through a ton of controversy lately and this might actually be positive for all of the players that feel that their games have been lackluster or not treated properly for the past few years, with Halo Infinite's success serving as an example. Let us know what you guys think of this in the comments, do you think it's positive, negative, or you don't care?
New Apple iPhone SE 3 could arrive in April
The next Mac Pro should complete transition to Apple Silicon in Q4 2022
Finally, for the hottest news today, let's talk about Apple, Macs and the iPhone SE... Again. Starting with Macs, let's talk about the company completing their transition into Apple Silicon. According to a new tweet from Dylan, this transition will end by Q4 of 2022, with the Mac Pro being the last device to be replaced. He claims that the processor on this machine would not be an extension from the M2, and instead it'll be a further extension of the M1, even beyond the cores of the M1 Max. A previous report from Mark Gurman claimed that we can expect two dies in this machine, essentially forming a dual M1 Max design. Other rumors also point to a 3nm TSMC chip with up to 40 cores but, those are tipped until 2023. Moving on to the iPhone SE, we have another tweet from Ross Young that gives us an actual time frame for this phone. He claims that the iPhone SE 5G model is starting panel production this month, with the actual phone going into production this March. This means that the launch is likely for the 2nd half of April or early May, with shipments also going either in late April or Early May. And yes, it'll still be the same design we currently get but, with a new processor and 5G capabilities.