Posted by admin on Feb 8, 2012 in Sony, Xperia ion | 0 comments

According to a blog post by Mobile Fun, the Birmingham based UK company will be selling the Sony Xperia Ion which has been said as a US only release and an exclusive for American network carrier AT&T. The Xperia Ion is due in the US in Q2 of 2012, so any time between April and June and should be released in the UK shortly after. An exact date is currently unknown for the Sony Xperia Ion in the UK, as is pricing information.

The Sony Xperia Ion features a 4.6? Reality Display with a HD resolution of 1280×720 which will grant you to watch HD content in it’s native resolution. The Xperia Ion, like the Xperia S will feature a 12 megapixel camera with 1080p video recording and a 1.5GHz dual core processor. The Ion also comes with NFC support and is PlayStation certified.

Currently Mobile Fun is the only UK retailer to have the Sony Xperia Ion for pre-order.

Related posts:

AT&T unveil Xperia ION ahead of Sony CES press conference
Xperia ion confirmed as US exclusive release
SmartTags Announced as Sony Xperia Smart Extra
What is NFC and how will it work with Sony Xperia handsets?
Sony Xperia S UK release date and price

SE-Xperia

Wolfram Alpha is taking its chatty search engine — it powers Siri — to another level with the launch of Wolfram Alpha Pro. The addition of new ways to handle data and images will come at a price, though, and users might not be ready to pay for those advanced capabilities. They are clearly advances in the search space, stated SEO expert Ken Saunders — but they are of interest only to a minority of people.

How much does a civil engineer in New Orleans make? What is the average temperature there? What are the differences in the trigonometric functions of sin, cos and tan? What is the exchange rate between the U.S. and the UK right now?

Throw one of these questions at Siri, the voice assistant in iPhone 4S, and she will speedily reply. Fueling Siri is Wolfram Alpha, a computational knowledge search engine launched in 2009.

Now the engine’s developers are taking its data-driven approach one step further with the launch of Wolfram Alpha Pro — but it’s not clear how far this paid application will get.

“It is still an uphill effort for outside celebrations in search, even with the study recognition of Siri,” Ken Saunders, president of Search Engine Experts, told TechNewsWorld.

A Wolfram Alpha spokesperson was not immediately acquirable to wage further details.

The Wonder of Wolfram Alpha

Created by Stephen Wolfram, who also developed the math formula software program Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha is one-of-a-kind in the search engine world, not so much because it is voice activated, but because of the way it uses algorithms to search its vast collection of built-in data.

The service can be used to answer a broad range of queries, including those that could easily be fielded by Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) or Bing. Showtimes can be pulled up, for instance, for a particular motion picture on a certain day. The difference is that instead of searching the Web for the local times, Wolfram Alpha Pro uses a specialized information service.

Growing Knowledge Base

Indeed, it is Wolfram Alpha’s extensive knowledge base that is the engine’s secret sauce.

For example, in the mathematics category, it can offer expert information on elementary math, numbers, plotting, algebra, matrices, calculus, geometry, trigonometry and so on — basically a high school or college student’s dream come true.

Other categories include money and finance, socioeconomic data, health and medicine, physics, chemistry, the weather, dates and times, units and measures, places and geography, life sciences, sports and games, colors, shopping and technology. Wolfram Alpha is adding to its repertoire each day.

Wolfram Alpha Pro

In the paid version, Wolfram Alpha Pro users can ask more complex questions using a multitude — as many as 60 — inputs. Such questions can range from complicated mathematical problems to the relationship between social media contacts.

The service will be US$ 4.95 per month. For students, the rate will be $ 2.99 per month.

These inputs can also vary in format, from images to data files. The system is healthy to spit out answers in different formats, too — translating tables to color-coded bar charts, for example.

Hard to Change

These are clearly advances in the search space, Saunders stated — but they are of interest only to a minority of people.

“It is a much more detailed algorithm and different way of looking at the Internet, which is why it supposedly delivers better results,” he pointed out.

Nonetheless, even students could probably make do with the free version of the product, Saunders said.

The fact that Wolfram Alpha still exits, to state nothing of launching a new paid version, is in itself an accomplishment, noted Greg Sterling, principal of Sterling Market Intelligence.

“Wolfram Alpha has managed to create a beachhead in a market — search — where few new entrants last long,” he told TechNewsWorld.

Siri can be credited with that at least in part, stated Sterling.

Although it is unlikely to ever reach mainstream status, “it has managed to establish a following,” he said, “and so it might generate some reasonable revenue through its subscription price.”

TechNewsWorld

While parts of its operations are working diligently on things like perfecting driverless automobiles and crunching untold mountains of individual data, Google is also busy inventing a pair of glasses, according to a current report. The specs have lenses that display user-readable content. It’s doable they will hook up to the World wide web via a wireless connection to the user’s cellphone.

Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) apparently taking a cue from movies like “Iron Man” and “The Terminator in designing one of its upcoming products: Eyewear that displays data and information to the wearer.

The World wide web giant’s glasses are in the late image stage, 9to5Google claims.

They are likely going to run a version of Android, connect to the Internet, include a global positioning system and double as a phone, 9to5Google stated.

The devices could be released to the market soon.

“Nothing here [as reported] requires a big technology breakthrough, just some cost optimization,” stated Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. “The cost of the displays will be the main issue, and unless Google sells a ton of them, it’ll be hard to bring down their price.”

More About the Google Glasses

The glasses from Google somewhat resemble Oakley Thumps, 9to5Google reported.

Thump is a line of sunglasses that incorporate an MP3 player with up to 1 GB of memory. They were priced at US$ 250 to $ 350, but the line has been discontinued.

The Google glasses will reportedly have some buttons on the arms and will communicate directly with the cloud. They could use a smartphone’s World wide web connection, through WiFi or Bluetooth.

It’s doable the Google glasses will run a version of Android. They will reportedly have a front-facing camera and a flash. The camera will only have a resolution of a few megapixels.

Apparently, only one lens of the Google glasses will have the heads-up display. Users will tilt their heads to scroll and click.

The glasses will apparently also feature voice input and output, and might have up to 8GB of storage, running on a 1 GHz ARM (Nasdaq: ARMHY) A8 processor.

Google did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

About the Glasses’ Specs

It’s likely the glasses will use transparent LCDs rather than active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) technology for the lenses, Enderle told TechNewsWorld.

“I first used transparent LCDs in head-mounted displays a decade ago, so [this technology] would be well-vetted,” Enderle speculated. “AMOLED is still pretty young and likely wouldn’t easily lend itself to this function.”

However, the glasses would likely complement smartphones rather than perform the same function because this “would make them avoidably more expensive,” Enderle opined.

Possible Uses for Google Glasses

A device like this could be useful in ways we aren’t even thinking about now.

Between component miniaturization and the increasing use of information technologies, including video and audio feeds crossways various industries, “there would be dozens of potential applications if and when these [items] come to market,” Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, told TechNewsWorld.

The United Says Department of Defense is reportedly considering something similar to the Google glasses for its Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) program, Defense News reports.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Bureau (DARPA) has reportedly awarded a US$ 1 million contract to Vuzix to develop image glasses. Other contractors will develop software to display information inside the glasses and apps to link unmanned aircraft and their sensors to their human controllers.

Other Players

Microvision is another company working on mobile device eyewear. It’s combining its ultraminiature PicoP display engine with special optics embedded into fashionable or conserving eyeglasses.

Information originating in a mobile device will be beamed to the eyewear through a wired or wireless connection. The eyewear can either be see-through or opaque.

Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Washington have demonstrated a image contact lens that can receive streaming data wirelessly. The lens can currently only contain a single pixel of information, but the researchers state it’s a proof of concept and the device can be eventually worn by humans who could use it to read short emails and other messages.

Technology for incorporating a readout or electronic display into eyewear is progressing rapidly, and “before long, we’ll probably wonder how we ever lived without Google glasses,” Pund-IT’s King said.

TechNewsWorld

Dag Kittlaus was co-founder and CEO at Siri, which was acquired by Apple in 2010.

For decades, Hollywood has been portraying machines that humans can converse with, delegate tasks to, and command. Remember the HAL 9000, KITT the car, COMPUTER from Star Trek, or even the brilliantly conceived and visualized Apple “Knowledge Navigator” from over 20 years ago? The day is dawning.

Hello Siri.

The response to Siri has exceeded even my own imagination … and I have a rather vast imagination. I don’t believe it’s an happening that Siri has captivated as it has. It’s fun, it works well for most, and makes complex interactions simple. And while I don’t know what Apple plans to do with Siri going forward, you can bet that it’s going to get superior and do more. I’ll be the first one in line for the iPhone 5, 6, and 7 just to get the latest Siri. (Better yet, I’ll just ask Siri to send me the latest model as they become available.)

But these are the primeval days. I believe that when our children are our age, they will ask us in amazement how we got along without having a virtual assistant to delegate the menial tasks of our life to, in the same way we can barely remember a world without the internet, Googling, and the laptop. As the say of the art progresses, you will see domain-specific competitors emerge crossways all kinds of verticals where conversational interactions make complex interactions simpler. Think banking, where a European bank is already aggressively investing in automated virtual tellers, e-commerce where evidence hints at Amazon starting to achievement down the path of speech-based commerce. Don’t forget virtual travel agents, virtual customer service agents like VirtuOz, and finally Virtual medical assistants that will embody Vinod Khosla’s vision of Dr. Alogorithm. This world is coming, and coming soon. But why?

Because the AI Virtual Assistant is the interaction substrate of the digital future.

This is because it elegantly encapsulates the myriad of elements we want in applications and world wide web services such as personalization, easy interaction, contextual awareness, and integrated actions … all wrapped up in one easy conversation. For example, if we use a conversation snippet from an imaginary virtual travel assistant, you see how several aspects of services are joined:

“Dag, your flight is 2 hours, 30 minutes delayed. Can I find you  a hotel room in the area? Or can I check other flights to the same destination?”

To do this seemingly easy task integrates an understanding of time, location, context, personalization, as well as integrating flight status, hotel booking and acquirable flight services. If we continue in this domain we could envision this follow-on response to the travel snippet:

“I have found a seat to Seattle on Friday, October 3 departing at 8:30am. I have requested an aisle seat and a frequent flyer upgrade as usual.“

Again, this snippet shows a knowledge of travel destination, seating preferences, frequent flyer features, and flight booking service in one elegant interaction. Doing exactly the same thing in today’s smartphone paradigm would entail some serious form filling, at least three or four different apps and far more time and clicks.

Imagine the illusion that happens when your virtual assistant knows your preferences crossways many areas, your friends, your credit card, your address, music tastes, accounts, and lots of other information about you and dynamically applies these crossways whatever you need done crossways many acquirable services and applications.

-“Send a check to PG&E for $ 89.47”

-“Let me know when Sting is playing nearby”

-“Buy the Steve Jobs biography and send it to my brother”

-“Set up an afternoon doctor’s appointment for late next week ”

-and on & on & on

It will be game over. You will not go back to yesterday’s way of doing things. When a platform emerges that integrates the web with conversation and understanding, the individual paradigm will change forever and a kinder, gentler version of the HAL 9000 will emerge as the norm. One interesting question that remains unclear is whether the world will have one gigantic AI overseeing all of your needs, weaving together the various vertical domains into a single AI mosaic or whether we will have many assistants at our beck and call. As John Battelle elegantly place it, “the future of search isn’t search, it’s a conversation with someone we trust.” And while I’m not sure he was thinking of this specific example, it’s a wonderful way to sum up the coming age of AI Virtual Assistants.

Siri on iPhone 4S lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more. Ask Siri to text your dad, remind you to call the dentist, or find directions, and it figures out which apps to use and who you’re speaking about. It finds answers for you from the web through sources like Yelp and WolframAlpha. Using Location Services, it looks up where you live, where you work, and where you are. Then it…

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Siri’s CEO is Dag Kittlaus, who founded the company as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at SRI. A serial innovator and consumer wireless world wide web veteran of 10 years in Scandinavia and the US, Dag is working on creating his third consecutive mobile world wide web product with over a million users. Dag has held leadership roles as VP of Consumer World wide web Services at Scandinavian telecom giant Telenor Mobile, and several consumer product groups at Motorola including GM of xProducts and founder and GM of…

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Jan 4, 1976

February 8, 1980, NASDAQ:AAPL

Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from personal to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their study from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. in Jan 2007. Among the key offerings from Apple’s product line are: Pro line laptops (MacBook Pro) and desktops (Mac Pro), consumer line laptops (MacBook) and desktops (iMac), servers (Xserve), Apple TV, the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server operating systems, the iPod (offered with…

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TechCrunch » Mobile

Healthy intake can be tricky, but electronic media make it easier than ever before. Apps and sites are saint for helping to motivate people to do the right thing, according to nutrition expert Susan Mitchell. “This always-on communication gives people tools to change their health goals whenever and however they want to.”

One day, Hemi Weingarten’s wife brought home some glow-in-the-dark yogurt for their three young children. He read the ingredient list to find out how the strawberries could be so red, and finding “Red #40,” looked it up online. He was surprised to discover that it was a controversial chemical illegal in parts of Europe.

That incident prefabricated him realize there was a market for easily accessible nutritional information for consumers.

“I decided to help consumers like me by creating a easy tool that people can use while at the supermarket,” Weingarten told TechNewsWorld.

He created Fooducate, a mobile app that provides nutritional and ingredient information about packaged foods. When a individual launches the app and points the smartphone’s camera at the bar code of a product, it returns information about a product’s ingredients and assigns it a nutrition grade, based on an algorithm developed by scientists and dietitians.

The app empowers consumers who want to know exactly what’s in the food they’re thinking about eating, Weingarten said. “It helps people make decisions based on what’s really inside a food, not just the marketing messages on the package. It helps decipher the ingredient list.”

Tracking Food

Nutritional apps and sites also let people easily track their intake habits, making it easier to make healthy choices, particularly when they’re trying to lose weight. One such app is DailyBurn Tracker.

“The awareness you get causes the motivational change,” Andy Smith, CEO of DailyBurn, told TechNewsWorld. “Because you’re about to track, you’re aware of what you’re putting in your mouth.”

Another app from DailyBurn, MealSnap, lets users take a pic of food they’re getting ready to eat, and the app then delivers detailed nutritional and caloric information. The key to the app’s success comes not so much from the information it gives, however, as from the act of taking a photo. Taking a pic of food, in short, makes a mortal more aware of it.

“We’re less worried about being super accurate with apiece tiny calorie [than making] you aware of your food,” stated Smith. “You still get the benefit of the tracking.”

Community Dieting

Online communities are doing much to make the dieter’s job easier, as well. Having a sense of community gives people motivation to stay focused on their goals. Jenny Craig is one company that provides this kind of community to its users.

“At Jenny, we offer our members a rich community to celebrate reaching milestones, get support and guidance, and connect with real people who get where they’re coming from and believe in where they’re headed,” Annette Behunin, director of digital marketing with Jenny Craig, told TechNewsWorld.

“Whether a customer is new to the program, currently on the path to success or on maintenance, they can call our community home. Jenny is more than just a forum, it’s a place where people make long-lasting friendships and help apiece other succeed,” she said.

The connections prefabricated between people help them to stay on track and reach their goals, and they also wage information and social interaction.

“Jenny’s forums motivate clients, wage advice and open, honest communication within our client family,” stated Behunin. “Like-minded fans can use the forums to ask questions and get answers from real people who have walked in their shoes through similar weight-loss journeys.”

Beyond Food

Some motivational online communities, such as SparkPeople, go beyond food to create motivation in all areas of their users’ lives.

“Our mission is to spark people to reach their goals, and we use health and fitness to help them do that,” Chris Downie, SparkPeople’s CEO and founder, told TechNewsWorld. “Our members lose a lot of weight, but we want to help people set and meet goals in all areas of their lives.”

Through tracking tools, nutritional and health content, and a sense of community, the site instructs people to set goals and gives them the motivation, information and incentives necessary to reach them.

“We’re a brand that sparks people to reach their goals,” stated Downie. “It’s a positive way of getting healthy.”

Apps and sites are saint for helping to motivate people to do the right thing, according to nutrition expert Susan Mitchell.

“This always-on communication gives people tools to change their health goals whenever and however they want to,” she told TechNewsWorld.

“In some ways,” she said, “it’s like having a coach — even though virtual — who continually encourages you to move forward.”

Freelance writer Vivian designer has wide-ranging interests, from technology and business to music and motorcycles. She writes features regularly for ECT News Network, and her work has also appeared in American Profile, Bluegrass Unlimited, and many other publications. For more about her, visit her website.

TechNewsWorld

BTJunkie has suddenly gone dark, apparently in response to the severe actions the Justice Department took against Megaupload and its operators last month. These closures are clearly a win for the RIAA and MIAA, stated tech attorney Christopher Collins, but “unless some version of SOPA with real teeth is enacted — a question for another day — then I believe that this will be a recurring issue for the content owners and their Net police.”

BitTorrent search engine BTJunkie has abruptly shut down its website, giving its users a short and sweet goodbye: “We’ve decided to voluntarily shut down. We’ve been fighting for years for your right to communicate, but it’s time to move on.”

It appears likely that the move was a defensive maneuver in response to law enforcement’s takedown of the Megaupload site in January, accompanied with several arrests.

If that’s the case, BTJunkie is hardly alone in reacting to the Megaupload drama — even though the proactive and permanent step of shutting down is probably among the most drastic of responses.

FileSonic, for instance, is now blocking file- sharing among users. Members can only upload and download their own files. Other file-sharing sites are blocking users from the U.S.

BTJunkie might have felt it needed to take more direct action, even though it has never been a public target of law enforcement. The RIAA and MIAA reportedly have tagged it a “rogue” site.

A Turning Point

Some of the trends behind the reactions of BTJunkie and other sites have been long-brewing. They came to a head, however, with Megaupload’s takedown by the U.S. Justice Department last month on the grounds of copyright infringement violations.

The founder, Kim Dotcom, is sitting in a New Sjaelland jail, having been denied bail. Dotcom is covering some serious charges — conspiracy to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement. If convicted, Dotcom could be looking at up to 50 years in prison.

Separately, the founders of the notorious Pirate Bay, are covering a slammer term, even though nothing close to what Dotcom might serve. Sweden’s supreme court has declined to hear their appeal, and now Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundstrom might have to serve their months-long sentences handed down in November 2010. They also must pay fines totaling close to US$ 7 million.

“Megaupload sent a message,” Randy M. Friedberg, counsel at White and Williams, told TechNewsWorld. “The Pirate’s Bay was the bad boy out there, so it was simple to ignore or brush off what was happening with that site. However, a lot of people were surprised by the Justice Department’s shutdown of Megaupload, and it definitely grabbed their attention.”

Certainly, the criminal penalties and potentially large prison sentence has had a chilling impact, White added.

Sites that assist file-sharing have good reason to be fearful, he added. “I think the Department of Justice was definitely sending a message or a warning shot to these sites. They intend to begin catching up with these sites, many of which have been breaking the law with impunity. In short, we are finally seeing events in the digital world catch up with enforcement actions in the physical world.”

Although the responses of sites have varied, White doesn’t necessarily think that is a gauge of how innocent or guilty they are — or believe themselves to be. “I think a lot of these calculations are based on where the sites and their servers are located, and whether the U.S. has extradition treaties with those locales.”

BTJunkie Reorg?

It is doable that BTJunkie is closing to reorganize, even though its parting message doesn’t recommend that, Christopher M. Collins, an attorney with Vanderpool, Frostick & Nishanian, told TechNewsWorld. Other sites that are fearful of a suddenly more aggressive Justice Department might opt for a reorganization, however, he added.

These closures are clearly a win for the RIAA and MIAA, which are still smarting from the temporary defeat over the Stop Online Piracy Act, he added. However, it is not a decisive or final victory by any means.

“Unless some version of SOPA with real teeth is enacted — a question for another day — then I believe that this will be a recurring issue for the content owners and their Net police,” Collins said.

“Also, let’s see what happens with Megaupload,” he added. Even with the founder behind bars, “I could easily envision that this becomes an [Internet] version of whack-a-mole.”

TechNewsWorld

I first saw Monster Wars a tiny while ago at Macworld as Liv Games was just publishing it, but the title has been out for a tiny while now and I’ve had a tiny longer to play with it. Monster Wars is not only another large content pack for Legendary Wars, with tons of new stages, modes and units to play with, but it is a nice iteration on the series as a whole, with a lot of subtle but solid improvements to the gameplay.

Unit animations are generally superior crossways the board, and the controls work basically the same. I still sometimes have trouble keeping track of which heroes I’m controlling and which lanes they are supposed to be in. The UI is much improved. The pacing of the game shows that Liv Games has learned quite a bit about how to move players from level to level. The new modes add quite a bit to the game, which was likely a tough task considering how much variety was already there.

If you loved Legendary Wars, you’ve probably already grabbed this one. But even if you’ve never heard of Legendary Wars, Monster Wars is a steal at 99 cents. New players might be slightly overwhelmed by what’s going on in the new title, but Liv Games has prefabricated two really spectacular titles here.They really shouldn’t be missed, especially on the iPad.

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TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog

To state that RIM has had a tough time these past few months is an understatement, and today’s news probably won’t help raise the morale around Waterloo. According to AppleInsider, oilfield services giant Halliburton will soon be migrating their BlackBerry-toting workforce to run exclusively on a new fleet of iPhones.

I can also envision the conversation now. “Sorry RIM, it’s not you, it’s us… alright, fine, it really is you.”

The news was sent out via an internal newsletter, which mentions that the reason for the switch was because the company “determined that the iOS platform offered the ideal capabilities, controls and security for application development.” It goes on to offer a basic timeline for the process — all 4,500 of Halliburton’s employee-operating BlackBerrys will be swapped for iPhones over the course of the next two years.

So what does this development mean for RIM? Not much at all, if Halliburton was the only company to jump ship. It’s clear that they’re not the only ones in search of some greener pastures — Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer pointed out during the company’s Q1 2012 earnings call that nearly all of the top Fortune 500 companies “now approve and support iPhones on their networks,” including Credit Suisse, Kimberly Clark, St. Jude Medical, and Nike.

Of course, that hardly means that all or even most of them will transition their workforce from one platform to the other. Still, it clearly shows that these companies are considering different, more compelling mobile options to help conduct their business. And with the first BlackBerry 10 device not slated to ship until much later this year, RIM might not have too many chances left to show off what they’re really capable of.

In the meantime, RIM continues to illustrate how serious they are about the enterprise market with the launch of initiatives like BlackBerry Cloud Services, which grants businesses using Microsoft Office 365 more fine-grained control over devices and their data. It’s clear that RIM isn’t going to give up their hard-won enterprise segment without a fight, but if their recently leaked roadmap is any indication, they’re running awfully low on bullets right now.

TechCrunch » Mobile

According to new research from the NPD Group, Apple passed LG and Samsung to become the top-selling U.S. handset brand in Q4 2011. Combined, the three acquirable models of the iPhone (iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS) accounted for 43% of the U.S. smartphone market.

Android, however, continued to see larger market share at 48%.

Together, iPhone and Android accounted for over 90% of U.S. smartphone sales, leaving tiny room for any up-and-comer like Windows Phone, or even the declining brand that is RIM’s BlackBerry.

Android’s market share might continue to grow, too, given that more first-time smartphone buyers were choosing Android over iPhone this past quarter, the firm found. Based on NPD Group’s monthly Smartphone Track service, 57% of first-time smartphone buyers went with an Android device compared with just 34% who bought iPhones.

NPD recommends that the reason for these consumers’ Android preference has to do more with availability – Android has “wide carrier support,” the report says. Also helpful is Android’s massive app selection and its support of LTE at Verizon.

The overall portion of handset income that were smartphones also climbed in Q4 2011, now bookkeeping for 68% of the total U.S. phone market. That’s an increase of 18% from Q2 2010, stated NPD. The average cost per smartphone, however, hasn’t seen as much movement, down from $ 149 in Q4 2010 to $ 143 in Q4 2011.

Not surprisingly, Apple’s record-breaking quarter (its fiscal Q1, running September 25-December 31), led to the iPhone 4S coming out on top as the best-selling handset in Q4. It also attained the top three slots among the top five handsets for the time period:

Apple iPhone 4S
Apple iPhone 4
Apple iPhone 3GS
Samsung Galaxy S II
Samsung Galaxy S 4G

Ross Rubin, executive director, Connected Intelligence for The NPD Group, stated that consumers were attracted to the iPhone 4S’s ”faster processor, improved camera and the Siri speech-driven agent.”

“The iPhone 4S outsold the iPhone 4 by 75%, and outsold the iPhone 3GS, acquirable for free on AT&T, five to one,” Rubin noted.

NPD Group is a bourgeois of consumer and retail market research information for a wide range of industries. The company specializes in providing consumer behavior and point-of-sale (POS) information.

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TechCrunch » Mobile

Robin Wauters currently works as a staff writer for TechCrunch and lead editor of Virtualization.com. Aside from his professional blogging activities, he’s an entrepreneur, event organizer, occasional board adviser and angel investor but most importantly an all-round start champion. Wauters lives and works in Belgium, a little country in Europe. He can often be found working from his home or… ? Learn More

Smartphones and tablets maker HTC this morning stated it foresees a huge drop in revenue (PDF) in the first quarter, citing “short-term difficulties” as it gears up to – reportedly – launch four new phone models at the Mobile World Congress later this month.

The Taiwanese company sees revenue dropping as much as 36 percent in Q1, to between NT$ 65 billion and NT$ 70 billion (roughly $ 2.2 and $ 2.4 billion) due to this “product transition”.

In PR speak, that sound something like this:

Despite short-term difficulties, momentum will resume in the upcoming product cycle driven by HTC’s brand strength, innovation, and design/engineering capabilities

The smartphone maker also stated it expected gross margin to come in at around 25 percent, and operating margin at 7.5 percent, which is down from 27.1 percent and 12.7 percent in the previous quarter. Again, HTC states it anticipates these margins to “normalize” after the debut of the new phones.

In other words, HTC has a heck of a lot riding on these new smartphones selling like hotcakes, as it feels the pressure from Apple’s overwhelming iPhone success and an increasing number of manufacturers churning out and selling competing Android-powered devices by the millions.

Also read:

It’s About Time: HTC To Refocus Smartphone Efforts Around “Hero” Devices

Is HTC’s 20% Revenue Dip Last Month A Sign Of Things To Come?

HTC Corp, (TAIEX: 2498) produces smartphones running the Android and Windows Phone 7 operating systems for themselves and as an OEM to other manufacturers. Since launching its own brand in late 2006, the company has introduced dozens of HTC-branded products around the world. The company recently introduced the HTC diamond to compete with Apple’s iPhone. Founded in 1997 by Cher Wang, Chairwoman, and H T Cho – former CEO who is a chairman now, HTC prefabricated its study as…

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TechCrunch » Mobile