The Sony Xperia Z: the mobile camera, reloaded? A brief shootout, Xperia Z Vs Galaxy Note 2 Vs the Nokia Pureview 808

This piece is a heads-up of sorts to let you know that thanks to the good folk at Mobicity, we're fortunate enough to have an Xperia Z in our hot little hands already.

As you might guess a (rapid-) review will be forthcoming, but this time around I'm going to start with something a little different. You see I had some fun yesterday on Twitter trying out the Xperia Z camera, pitting it against the Note 2 camera and the undisputed king of mobile imaging, the Nokia Pureview 808. After looking at the results I thought it was too worthwhile an exercise to leave just to Twitter, and so here it is on the blog too.

Although it's a little bit of a departure, the camera of the Xperia Z is too fundamental a part of its marketing drive to leave to a couple of paragraphs in a rapid-review; it demands more. If you believe Sony's hype surrounding the purported imaging advances offered by its latest and greatest, you'll be expecting a solid improvement over last years shooters, and maybe even a substantial improvement. Sony is betting the bank on the camera being a strong differentiator to favour their 2013 flagship against incumbents like the incoming HTC One and Galaxy S4, so the question of whether its camera can indeed carry the day looms large over the Xperia Zs fate.

Dear HTC, please find enclosed your 2012 report card.

The best phone ever made. EVAR.

HTC.

HTC!

Where do I start? Perhaps I shall start by saying I love you. Seriously, I love you. Sadly, these days I am starting to love you in the way that I love cassette tapes; for what you once were to me, not what you represent now.

If that sounds painful HTC, please remember, the truth only hurts if it ought to.

Perhaps that was a little acerbic for a beginning? Allow me take one step back, and lay down some context.

Samsung takes top mobile phone sales in Q1

Samsung has surged into number one spot globally in handsets sold and perhaps more importantly, in smartphones, the latter being the future of mobile.

Despite Q4 2011 smartphone champ Apple’s iPhone range collaring the Cupertino Colossus a healthy 35.1 million units shipped in Q1 2012, it wasn’t enough to beat the efforts of its nemesis Samsung. The Korean company sold 42.2 million smartphones in Q1 2012, an impressive 267% increase over the same quarter last year. This compares more than favourably with Apple’s 88.7% increase year to year.

Gartner weighs in with smartphone market results...

Last analyst cab off the rank, Gartner has added their two cents on the state of the mobile market, broadly agreeing with those figures previously reported.

As AndroidNZ predicted, Android saw more than double the market share of its smartphone platform rival iOS despite the hype that surrounded the iPhone's "super quarter" in which pent-up demand, a new product launch and the holiday season all combined to artificially inflate its sales for the period.

According to Gartner's figures, 35.45 million iPhones were sold during Q4 for 24% share, (helping sneak Apple's total handset share past LG's by half a percent for the whole of 2011 and into third place in the process). However, Android powered smartphones accounted for 75.9 million phones in the fourth quarter, taking 51% of the market, despite the "perfect storm" of advantageous conditions that helped Apple's 24% Q4 performance.

Comparing fourth quarter performance year on year, iOS grew 150% while Android handily topped that with 170% growth.

Android extends market share lead in 2011

Despite the overwhelming media hype regarding sales of Apple's iPhone in the final quarter of 2011, Android-powered devices accounted for 51.6% of global smartphone shipments for the quarter, versus iPhone's 23.4% as reported Friday by researcher Canalys. Android smartphone shipments grew 148.7% compared to the same quarter in 2010, to 81.9 million units, and a total of 237.8 million for the full year, up a huge 244.1% over 2010.

In contrast, second placed Apple sold 37.0 million iPhones, in a December quarter that for the first time combined an iPhone model launch with the Christmas holiday period, a "perfect storm" of favorable conditions for the iDevice maker. For the whole of 2011, Apple shipped 93.1 million iPhones, demonstrating a growth of 96% over 2010 - a strong result but still far shy of Android's performance.

A Brief History Of Android - Part 4: Crossroads

Ice Cream Sandwich. Sweeeet...

In this series so far, we've looked at the modest beginnings of Android through its various iterations, with our last chapter focusing on the explosive growth of the platform in the last year. To the makers of competitive platforms, Android's rise to dominance has been a serious impediment to their own good fortune. And they haven't been shy in roundly criticising Google's effort whenever the opportunity arises either.

Although Android's perceived weaknesses have been the subject of regular negative commentary from the opposition camps, the spectacular performance of the little green robot has continued unabated. So what's going on here? If Android is the disaster that its opponents claim it to be, shouldn't it be failing miserably? Is it failing at all? Let's have a peek after the jump.

A Brief History Of Android Part 3: Rise Of The Robot

Recently Android founder and Google VP Andy Rubin tweeted that Android's growth was a credibility-straining 4.4% week on week. Think about that for a second – it's not just 4.4 times 52, it's compounding. He's talking activations here and those activations are one-off events, tied to the unique hardware serial in every cellphone built.

That's a very big claim, and would seem to suggest that Android will become the Windows of the smartphone world. For those unfamiliar with Windows in PC land, firstly welcome to Earth, and second, Windows has more than 90% of the personal computer marketplace. Huge! So is Android really headed for such domination? Let's take a look.

Samsung On Its Way To Number One

According to Strategy Analytics, while Nokia's third quarter share of the global cellphone market continued its slide from 32.3% to 27.3%, Samsung increased its market share from 20.9% to 22.6%, in a market that itself increased 14%.

LG also dipped in share, dropping from 8.3% to 5.4%, while Apple picked up a meagre 0.3% improvement to fall one place with 4.4%, behind late bloomer ZTE's 4.7%.

So the order for the five top handset makers for Q3 2011 is:
Nokia - 27.3%
Samsung - 22.6%*
LG - 5.4%
ZTE - 4.7%
Apple - 4.4%

In summary then, Apple's decision to delay its iPhone 4S has resulted in a reversal for the company during calendar quarter three. Whether Apple can make up the shortfall remains to be seen, but Android's game-changing Ice Cream Sandwich OS release may well prove an insurmountable barrier to the Cupertino handset maker's aspirations for global cellphone dominance.

Quarter four should be an interesting trend setter...

*27.8 million of 88 million Samsung handsets sold are reported to be smartphones, suggesting that Samsung smartphones have 7.14% of the market, beating Apple by a large margin.