Samsung mocks iPad Air & iPhone’s screen size in new Galaxy Tab Pro & Note 3 ads (Video)

Like it has done on several occasions in the past, Samsung is directly mocking Apple in its latest advertisement for the new Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1. The commercial, posted to Samsung’s YouTube page, is a clear parody of Apple’s Pencil ad for the iPad Air that has been airing on TV since Apple debuted it for the introduction of the new tablet in October of last year. Another ad for the Galaxy Note 3 (below) takes on the iPhone’s small screen size.

In the ad, Samsung mentions that Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 has an even thinner body than the iPad Air and also demos multitasking features that aren’t available on iOS. While Samsung doesn’t get into specifics in the video, we know the new Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 measures in at 7.3mm thick. That’ less than a millimeter thinner than the iPad Air at 7.5 mm. The ad also makes references to the Galaxy Tab’s  10.1-inch HD display, which comes in at a resolution of 2560-by-1600 at 299 ppi compared to the iPad Air’s 2048-by-1536 resolution at 264 ppi.

Microsoft has used a similar strategy in the past by comparing its Surface tablets side-by-side with iPads and pointing out features like multitasking and Office that aren’t available on iPad.

And another new ad from Samsung today puts the new 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 3 up against the much smaller iPhone display:

- 9to5mac.com

Analyst says iPad tops other tablets in Q4, accounting for a third of all tablets sold in 2013

Strategy Analytics reported its tablet figures for 2013 and unsurprisingly, iPad remains in first place with 33.9% marketshare. Marketshare growth has dipped slightly, however, year-on-year as iPad accounted for 35.7% of tablet sales in Q4 2012.

In terms of unit growth, Apple rose 14% compared with the year-ago quarter. The second-place position goes to Samsung, with 17.7% marketshare (although this means annual growth was more than 80%). Apple sold just under double Samsung’s shipments for the period, so even though Apple’s growth has slowed, there is still a significant gap between first and second place.

Amazon’s share of the market remained pretty much constant with 6% of sales in last quarter, compared with 7% in Q4 2012. Lenovo and Acer both experienced triple-digit growth but sales are almost negligible in the context of the market, shipping just 4 million tablets between them.

“2013 was another extremely healthy year for the tablet market,” Matt Wilkins, director of tablets and wearables at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement. “While it may not be a three-figure growth rate like we have witnessed previously, it is still significant considering the market is now delivering in excess of 200 million units on an annual global basis.”

The firm said that, over the year, worldwide tablet shipments rose 33 percent to 227 million units, with 76.8 million of those sales coming from the holiday quarter alone.

- 9to5mac.com

Reports: A8 won’t feature integrated LTE yet, low yield rates pushing Samsung out of the process?

Image via iFixit

Two new reports out today are offering a bit of early insight into what to expect from Apple’s next A-series SoC, or system on a chip, that powers its iPhone and iPad devices.

The first tidbit from Fudzilla says Apple will once again rely on Qualcomm for LTE chips in the next round of iOS devices rather than an A8 chip with LTE integrated. So what does this mean? It’s probably safe to assume Apple will save a SoC which includes the LTE modem in a future iteration.

Generally, the fewer chips required in a mobile device, the better optimized for battery life the device is. Apple, of course, must strive to engineer battery life parity, if not improvements, as our devices get more powerful each generation.

The second bit of information once again suggests Samsung will not be involved in Apple’s system on a chip production, but not for the reasons you might suspect. Rather than parting ways due to political differences, production deficiencies on Samsung’s part could position TSMC as the only partner in manufacturing the A8, according to a report.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi-Kuo released his report last week predicting Apple will replace the iPad 2 with the iPad 4, update the iPad Air with Touch ID, and keep the current A7-powered iPad mini with Retina display around for another year.

If Kuo’s predictions are on point, the A8 news could only apply to an updated iPhone and full size iPad this year.

- 9to5mac.com

iPhone market share in China more than doubled following 5s and 5c launch

Data from smartphone market intelligence specialist Counterpoint shows that iPhone market share in China more than doubled between September and October even before launching on the country’s biggest carrier, China Mobile.

Apple’s market share rose from just under 5 percent to 12 percent, taking it from 6th place to 3rd place, behind Samsung and Lenovo … 

Apple had previously seen its share fall from 9 percent in early 2012 as the market was flooded with relatively high-spec Android phones at low prices.

With wildly-varying estimates of the likely effect of the China Mobile deal, there will be huge interest in the numbers following the iPhone’s official launch on the carrier on the 18th.

Pre-orders start today, and Fortune noted that the reservation page was notching up website visitors at the rate of one every two seconds.

Written by: Ben Lovejoy @benlovejoy December 12, 2013/5:11 am - 9to5mac.com