| Exclusive Deal | While supplies last, save 40% off over 40 iPhone 5 and iPhone 4/4S cases and chargers as well as Samsung S III cases at Kensington.com. Use coupon code 'SAVE40%' at checkout to receive this exclusive discount. |
LG, the world's fourth-largest mobile phone maker, announced today that it will be turning its focus away from tablets and looking to improve its standing in the smartphone market. Responding to inquiries from Bloomberg, spokespersons for the phone maker denied that the decision had anything to do with Microsoft's unveiling of its new Surface tablets yesterday.
Industry insider estimates have claimed that the iPad 2 has reached the million-unit sales mark in South Korea. The milestone came after a late November 2010 launch and 700,000 iPads shipped just in 2011, leaving the remaining 300,000 to have been sold in two and a half months' time, the Korea Herald said. That number could be higher, Korean media thought, since many had bought iPads even before official approval.
LG had mixed news on Wednesday that showed a possible turnaround of its long-suffering mobile group. Although the company as a whole posted a loss equivalent to $97.7 million, its mobile division turned a slight $10 million profit. Most of the recovery came on the back of the Optimus LTE and its US variant the Nitro HD.
LG took its second shot at tablets in an unusual post-CES launch with the Optimus Pad LTE. A direct sequel to the original we reviewed, it keeps the 8.9-inch, 1280x768 IPS screen and jumps to its namesake 4G for Internet access. Added speed comes through a platform switch, with LG moving from the dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 to a similarly dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon.
An LTE version of LG's Optimus Pad tablet has shown up in South Korea. It runs on the country's U+ 4G network and gets a faster, 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor rather than the 1GHz Tegra 2 of the original. Its dual five-megapixel cameras for 3D also look to have been replaced with eight-megapixel units.
Amazon's rumored 8.9-inch Kindle Fire has been given a narrower release window and possible deliberate attempt to compete outside of Apple's space through a new claim early Monday. Although a 10.1-inch version of the Android tablet is still considered an option, only an 8.9-inch model has been picked and would ship near the end of the spring, Digitimes heard. LG Display and Samsung were pitching 8.9-inch panels to start, but the real goal was evade competition with "9.7-10.1-inch products," or the iPad and Android tablets from HTC, Samsung, and other majors.
LG Display explained Monday that it would cut its capital spending by exactly a quarter. The company explained the move as necessary with smartphones and tablets cutting into demand for TVs. It planned to spend a comparatively modest $2.8 billion and had dropped plans for an extra factory, since existing plants would have to take over.
Other than the T-Mobile G-Slate, LG is apparently working on a second Android-powered tablet, called the P930. This may not be a tablet after all, as an XML file makes mention of an Android device with a 1280x720 display and both GPRS/EDGE and HSDPA/HSUPA 3G. Historically, LG devices prefixed with a 'P' are smartphones rather than tablets, while the G-Slate is called the Optimus Pad V900 in markets other than the US.
Android 3.0 tablets aren't selling well because their creators don't understand retail, NVIDIA chief Jen-Hsun Huang said in a talk conducted on Thursday. He believed that early manufacturers, so far including Acer, ASUS, Dell, LG, and Motorola, didn't understand how to sell their tablets at retail. Although not mentioning Apple by name, he implied to CNET that the iPad's lower pricing, clearer marketing, and better buying experience at retail were all impacting the chances of tablets like the Motorola Xoom, which he singled out as an example of what went wrong.
NTT DoCoMo announced on Monday it will begin shipping the Optimus Pad L-06C tablet in Japan beginning on Thursday, March 31. NTT will be the first to offer the tablet, as T-Mobile hasn't officially confirmed its own launch date. It was expected to arrive in the US as the G-Slate on March 23 but missed that date and is more likely to ship April 20.
Retailer MobileCity has just listed the 8.9-inch LG G-Slate tablet up for pre-order for $700. While no ship date is revealed, the device will be tied to T-Mobile and promises to cost $100 less than a retail price for the device. The tablet will sport Android 3.0 and dual rear five-megapixel cameras that can record 3D movies.
Japan had the distinction today of being one of the first countries to get the Optimus Pad. LG's 8.9-inch Android 3.0 tablet will come to the country as the L-06C on NTT DoCoMo. Its version will be customized with a BeeTV app for Internet video as well as a 2DFacto app to read Japanese comics and e-books.
LG on Friday confirmed that it would bring the G-Slate outside of the US at Mobile World Congress. It confirmed that the hardware would be badged as the Optimus Pad for other countries and would be very similar outside of the native 3G frequencies. In a surprise, it confirmed that the 8.9-inch tablet would have an even larger battery than the iPad with a 6,400mAh pack.
NVIDIA's Tegra 2 processor will be a common sight throughout the CES show at the start of 2011, insiders said today. Chief among the vendors with tablets based on Tegra 2 will be Motorola, which is also now said to release such a tablet in February or March. Whether it will be the smaller seven-inch Motopad or the larger 10-inch Stingray model wasn't mentioned by Digitimes, however.
