Samsung in Q2: lowest quarterly profit in two years

Samsung unveiled its Q2 earning report and the numbers match the guidance published earlier. The consolidated revenue of Samsung Electronics was $50.9 billion and net profit is down almost 20% since last year, $6.1 billion.

That's a significant decrease from the $7 billion in operating profit Samsung earned in the second quarter of last year. Currency exchange rates are said to have resulted in $485 million in missed revenue.

Most of the revenue comes from Samsung's lucrative phone business, which raked in $27.7 billion in revenue and made an operating profit of $4.3 billion on that. Samsung is pointing the finger to seasonally weak demand and built-up inventory in European markets, which lead the company to increase its marketing budget.

Demand for smartphones remained level with Q1, while tablets declined slightly. Samsung isn't saying it but it seems that the Galaxy S5 failed to light up the market like the Galaxy S4 did last year.

The company states that the second half of the year will be a challenge too but will focus on launching premium devices, expanding the availability of AMOLED-packing Galaxy Tab S tablets and the mass-market Tab 4, plus diversifying its wearables portfolio.

"Despite this plan, prospects for improving profit margins are still uncertain, due to the increasing market competition," warns Samsung.

Samsung is a component supplier for other smartphone makers and the weaker smartphone and tablet demand are having an impact. System LSI (the division that makes chipsets) revenue dropped because of it. Shipment of OLED displays increased with better high-end smartphone shipments (but those mostly come from Samsung's own phones).

Samsung Memory recorded a 4% increase in revenue quarter on quarter but also a 5% lower margins. Samsung reports steady demand for DRAM chips and maintained profitability from SSDs.

The World Cup was a boon for Samsung's TV business with increased demand for large, UHD TVs. Samsung saw a record demand for its TVs in the US. The LCD panel business posted improved earnings, which are expected to get even better in H2 of this year with predicted growth in TV sales.

The Consumer Electronics Division, which makes TVs but also appliances, printers and medical equipment, saw a 15% increase in revenue and a whopping 300% increase in profit quarter-on-quarter.

KDDI launches the new HTC J Butterfly in Japan

Japanese carrier KDDI has announced a new version of the HTC J Butterfly. This one is based on theHTC One M8 sold elsewhere in the world but with a few changes.

First of all, the phone is waterproof, as practically all phones in Japan tend to be. In order to get the phone to be waterproof the dual front BoomSound speakers had to be sacrificed. To make up for that, though, the J Butterfly comes with high quality a JBL in-ear headset.

On the back, the 4 Ultrapixel Duo Camera from the M8 has been replaced with a 13 megapixel sensor similar to the one on the One mini 2 and One E8 but it still has the secondary depth sensor from the M8. So basically what the M8 camera should have been.

Other than that, this is more or less the same phone as the One M8. It has the same 5-inch, 1080p display, Snapdragon 801 SoC, 2GB RAM, 32GB internal memory with microSD card slot, 5 megapixel front facing camera, 4G LTE and Android 4.4. It also supports the HTC Dot View Case.

The new HTC J Butterfly will be available in Japan on KDDI in late August.

InFocus launches the high-end M810 Android handset in Taiwan

The US electronics manufacturer InFocus launched the high-end M810 Android smartphone in Taiwan. The Oregon-based company will bring the handset to the market through a partnership with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. – a major Apple contractor, which assembles iPhone and iPad devices.

InFocus M810 packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset with 2.5GHz quad-core CPU. The handset has 2GB of RAM, 16GB of built-in memory, and a microSD card slot.

The device’s display is a 5.5” IPS unit with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. A 13MP main camera, 5MP front-facing unit, and full connectivity suite, which includes FM radio and Cat 4 LTE round up the highlights of the spec sheet.

Physical measure of the smartphone are 153.7mm x 76.2mm x 6.99mm, while its weight tips the scale at 156 grams. A 2,600mAh battery powers the InFocus M810.

Most importantly, the InFocus M810 will sport the affordable price tag of NT $ 9,988 (around $333) when available. The handset will be available in the company’s official online store in Taiwan on July 31.

HTC Desire 610 also launched by AT&T today

The Amazon Fire Phone isn't the only handset that's become available at AT&T today. The HTC Desire 610 joins it in the carrier's portfolio, as anticipated last week when it first got listed on AT&T's website.

And now it's due to be out too. To buy one with a two-year contract with AT&T you'll only need to pay 99 cents.

The price if you don't want a contract is $199.99, which is pretty good despite the fact that this isn't a high-end device.

And you can also use AT&T's Next installment plan to grab the Desire 610. You won't pay anything upfront, but then you'll have to make either 24 monthly payments of $8.34 or 20 monthly payments of $10.

The Desire 610 was announced by HTC back in February during MWC, and it's already made its way to a few markets, including in Europe.

It's got a 4.7-inch touchscreen with 540x960 resolution, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage, an 8 MP rear camera, and it's powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with a 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU.

Apple denies including privacy backdoors in iOS

in a recent research paper which highlights back doors and surveillance mechanisms in iOS devices, security researcher Jonathan Zdziarski brought to light some potential issues with the mobile OS that could potentially be used to compromise user privacy.

The paper argues that people with inside information of how iOS 7 operates could use vulnerabilities which are coded into the source code to install applications or extract data from devices, even without assistance from Apple.

Apple does have the ability to provide law enforcement with SMS messages, call history, contacts, videos and other media to law enforcement with a valid search warrant, but Zdziarski argues that advanced techniques exist to provide third parties with that information through ulterior methods. This allegedly includes more data than Apple can provide even as required by law enforcement, including deleted items.

iOS has since issued a statement to Financial Times journalist Tim Bradshaw, which was published on Twitter:

"We have designed iOS so that its diagnostic functions do not compromise user privacy and security, but still provides needed information to enterprise IT departments, developers and Apple for troubleshooting technical issues. A user must have unlocked their device and agreed to trust another computer before that computer is able to access this limited diagnostic data. The user must agree to share this information, and data is never transferred without their consent.

As we have said before, Apple has never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products of services."

It's worth noting that Zdziarski has stated that he's not looking to create a Snowden-esque security emergency with his paper. Instead he wants Apple to remove the questionable services from iOS devices, or at the very least to provide some level of disclosure as to why they're there.

Apple iPhone 6 cloned before it is even released

Apple iPhones are always among the most popular smartphones in the market and that’s beyond any shadow of doubt. In the past there have been multiple iPhone clones and the tradition is going to continue with the iPhone 6 as well.

    

While the next generation iPhone is about two months away, we already have the functional clones of the iPhone 6. The design of the smartphone is based on the already available mock-ups and the device also runs on an OS that has been skinned to look very similar to iOS.

    

There’s no word on what hardware the device features, but as seen in the previous clones, the iPhone 6 replica is bound to be pack an underpowered processor. However, we don’t expect to see this device anywhere outside the Chinese land.

Meanwhile, the original iPhone 6 model is said to sport a new A8 chipset with a clock speed of 2GHz. Apple is expected to officially announce its next-generation iPhone in September.

Two unannounced ZTE Nubia phones hit Chinese TENAA

Two ZTE smartphones have been spotted at the Chinese TENAA (an equivalent to the FCC in the USA) carrying the model numbers NX507J and NX505J. Both have undergone the approval process of the Chinese authority a few weeks ago.Neither of the phones is the Nubia Z7 that ZTE teased last month, judging from the photos released.The rumored specifications of the new higher-end of the two new phones include a 5.5" 1080p display, a Snapdragon 801 chipset with a 2.3GHz quad-core CPU, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (microSD slot is present, too).

   

ZTE Nubia NX505J

At the back of the Nubia NX505J, there's an 8MP camera with a CMOS sensor and 1080p video recording skills. The phone measures 152.7x 76 x 8.5 mm and its weight is 168g. ZTE has included support for the Chinese networks TD-LTE and TD-SCDMA and the phone will ship with Anrdoid 4.4.2 KitKat.Next up is the ZTE Nubia NX507J. It features a smaller, 5" 1080p display and a clocked-down 2GHz CPU. There's no information if its on a Qualcomm chipset yet or ZTE has opted for a MediaTek chip on this one. Internal storage is 16GB (plus a microSD card slot), while RAM is 2GB.

    

ZTE Nubia NX507J

At the back of the NX507J is an 8MP shooter, while at the front there's a 5MP one. No further information on either the price or the availability of the two is available at the moment.