Sony borrowed heavily from its imaging and audio businesses in designing its flagship $1,299 Xperia 1 III smartphone, which went on preorder Thursday, with shipments starting Aug. 19. Orders placed by Sept. 26 will come with Sony’s WF-1000XM3 wireless noise-canceling earbuds, a $230 value, and 43,200 Call of Duty Mobile CP Points, valued at $540, said the company. Co-developed with the engineers behind the Sony Alpha brand cameras, the Xperia 1 III has a variable telephoto lens paired with a dual phase-detect sensor, and it has real-time eye auto-focus, real-time tracking and accurate, continuous auto-focus across all lenses, said the company. It has four focal lengths in photo and video recording -- 16mm, 24mm, 70mm and 105mm -- and Zeiss coating is said to improve rendering and contrast by reducing reflections, Sony said. The phone, with a 6.5-inch OLED display, has 20-frame-per-second burst mode, AI zoom and is the first phone with a 4K HDR 120 Hz refresh rate display, said the company. Dolby Atmos is included. Its stereo speakers are 20% louder than previous models and the phone is the first to reproduce Sony’s 360 Reality Audio. Sony's 360 Spatial sound allows users to up-mix stereo music to create an immersive audio experience, and they can create videos in 21:9 aspect ratio at 24/25/30/60 frames per second. The unlocked Android phone comes in two versions: The frosted black model will be available at authorized Sony dealers; the frosted purple one will be available exclusively at electronics.sony.com.

TCL, which entered the U.S. smartphone market with its own branded phones for the first time last year (see 2004060053), launched a trio of unlocked Android handsets for sale on Amazon Monday. In a promotion good through July 5, customers can get a pair of TCL Moveaudio earbuds free with the purchase of the top two models. The Moveaudio S600s earbuds ($99) are free with the purchase of the TCL 20 Pro 5G; the 20S smartphone is paired with the Moveaudio S150s ($39 value) in the promo. The starter smartphone ($189) is the unlocked TCL 20 SE. The LTE 20 SE has a 6.8-inch display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 chipset, 48-megapixel rear camera along with wide-angle and macro cameras, 128 GB storage and 5,000-mAh battery. The mid-priced TCL LTE 20S ($249), with a 6.6-inch full HD display, has a 64-megapixel main and macro and wide-angle cameras, 4K video recording with HDR, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 chipset. The 5G model, the 20Pro 5G ($499), has a 6.7-inch AMOLED display, 4K video recording and a 48-megapixel Sony camera with additional wide, macro and depth cameras, optical image stabilization, and a Qualcomm 750G chipset. All three models have Google Assistant. The GSM phones aren’t certified for use on Verizon.

Nearly 4 billion people, half the world’s population, use a smartphone daily, 27 years after IBM’s Simon was launched in the U.S., said Strategy Analytics Thursday. Analyst Neil Mawston called the smartphone “the most successful computer.” Apple’s iPhone “popularized the smartphone in 2007, while Google Android democratized the smartphone with an affordable software platform from 2008,” said analyst Linda Sui. SA predicts 5 billion people will use a smartphone by 2030.

Global smartphone sales to end users, rebounding from their “steep decline” in 2020, grew 26% year over year in Q1 to just under 378 million handsets, reported Gartner Monday. “The improvement in consumer outlook, sustained learning and working from home, along with pent-up demand from 2020 boosted sales of smartphones in the first quarter,” said Anshul Gupta. Consumers started spending on discretionary items as the pandemic situation improved in many parts of the world and markets opened up,” said the analyst. Top-three vendors Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi maintained their positions. Samsung’s launch of under-$150 handsets boosted its unit sales globally, as did early shipments of its flagship 5G smartphones, said Gartner.

IPhones global sales will generate nearly 40% of 2022's smartphone market, despite being fewer than 20% of units sold, reported Juniper Research Monday. “Apple has managed to consistently convince users to purchase higher-priced models through curation of a strong hardware and software ecosystem.” Apple’s average selling prices will rise in coming years, while Android ASPs will decline, “unless they can leverage new technologies like 5G or bring new design features, such as foldable phones, into the market,” said Juniper. Android smartphone vendors “will struggle to compete on a features basis,” it said. “Vendors that focus on a particular segment and investing in premium features, such as high-end audio and advances in camera technology, will not appeal widely enough to compete at scale.”

Samsung called its deal with Walmart to equip 740,000 store employees with Galaxy XCover Pro smartphones (see 2106030028) its largest enterprise deal ever in the U.S. The deal took a year of planning and piloting, Samsung blogged Friday, saying Walmart approached the phone maker in spring 2020 about the “Connected Associate initiative.” After learning about the in-house app designed to improve worker productivity, Samsung’s team shadowed Walmart employees to learn how they work and what tools could help them work better, it said. Insights showed the need for an “agile mobile device” with Walmart’s integrated custom app to improve employee engagement and customer care. It described the phone as having an immersive display, “powerful camera” and long-lasting battery in a lightweight, durable design. On-the-job functions include mobile clock-in, access to scheduling and inventory management via the camera, which doubles as a barcode scanner. Workers can tap a co-worker's name and initiate a push-to-talk conversation from the phone using a physical side key, Samsung said. In the past, workers had to use different devices, including dedicated barcode scanners and walkie-talkies. Samsung’s Knox platform secures the phone from the chip level up and has automated enrollment, firmware management, device and Wi-Fi network analytics, loss prevention and deep device customization, Samsung said. The phone is designed for Walmart employees to use in and outside of work. Knox security software creates completely separate work and personal profiles, allowing work applications to stay secure, and personal usage to stay private, said the company.

Global smartphone shipments are expected to reach 1.38 billion handsets this year, rising 7.7% over 2020, reported IDC Wednesday. That trajectory is expected to continue into 2022, with 3.8% growth to 1.43 billion. “Markets worldwide continue to migrate toward 5G,” said IDC. “Within emerging markets, there is strong demand for mid-range and low-end 4G phones following last year's pandemic slowdown.” It projects a 3.7% compound annual growth rate in smartphone shipments through 2025. The chip shortage remains a concern for smartphone OEMs, but the impact has been far less than in other markets, said IDC. “Smartphones are seeing competition for consumer spending from adjacent markets like PCs, tablets, TVs and smart home devices, yet that hasn't slowed the market's path to recovery,” said analyst Ryan Reith. A strong “supply-side push” toward 5G continues, and prices of such handsets are dropping, said Reith. IDC expects average selling prices for 5G Android devices to drop 12% in 2021 to $456 and then below $400 in 2022: “With 5G shipments expected to grow nearly 130% in 2021, almost all regions outside of China will see triple-digit growth.”

Consumers are “avoiding iPhone mini and SE,” preferring larger models, reported Consumer Intelligence Research Partners Thursday. Apple’s four iPhone 12 models were 61% of U.S. phone sales in Q1, while the iPhone 11 had the largest single-model share at 24%. The iPhone 12, 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max all had “decent share"; the priciest, the iPhone 12 Pro Max, had 20% of sales, said analyst Josh Lowitz. In the year-ago quarter, the comparable model, the iPhone 11 Pro Max, had 13%. The iPhone 12 mini and SE had the smallest shares of all models, both falling from the December quarter. CIRP surveyed 500 U.S. Apple customers who purchased an iPhone, iPad, Mac computer or Apple Watch in Q1.

Supply chain challenges have big implications for smartphones and telecom, said Michael Orlando, acting director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC), during an Intelligence and National Security Alliance webinar Tuesday. A recent White House summit focused on supply chain issues (see 2104130005). A smartphone “consists of numerous components -- battery, antenna, integrated circuit, the screen,” Orlando noted. “Those components are made from raw materials” that “have to be extracted from around the world and then shipped to various factories to build those components,” he said. The components are then shipped to another factory to be assembled, he said. The supply chain has many vulnerabilities, Orlando said: “An adversary can target any point of that long, complicated process. They could cut off access to components, steal technology or introduce infected components.” The semiconductor supply chain has risen to the “top of the policy agenda” in Washington, said Semiconductor Industry Association CEO John Neuffer. Chips are “driving the technologies of the future,” including 5G and AI, he said. The best way to “provide security is through technical leadership,” and the U.S. is falling behind, said Tower Semiconductor CEO Russell Ellwanger. Within weeks of the pandemic's start, Dell got 90% of its factory capacity back, said Cameron Chehreh, chief technology officer of the federal business. “That was a direct result of the diversification in the supply chain -- prescreening suppliers” and “ensuring that we had great resiliency,” he said. That's critical as more people live online and need new computers, he said.

Aging devices created healthy Q1 demand for smartphone upgrades, which, combined with a 5G push by Chinese vendors, drove a 24% shipment increase year on year, reported Strategy Analytics Monday. Top-five vendors took 76% share vs. 71% a year ago. Chip shortages and supply side constraints didn’t have an impact in Q1 among the top five brands but will be a concern for smaller vendors over the next few quarters, said analyst Linda Sui. Samsung shipped 77 million phones, up 32% on sales of affordable A series 4G and 5G phones and the flagship S21 series, it said. Apple shipped 57 million units, No. 2 with 17% share. No. 3. Xiaomi shipped 49 million, 15% share.