If we are talking big smartphone news in 2012, the two phones on everyone’s minds are the Apple iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S3.  With Apples constant  secrecy surrounding their future releases, confirmed specs are extremely unlikely, however many hoped that Samsung would be revealing their much anticipated, Android powerhouse, the Samsung Galaxy S3 at MWC 2012.  MWC, or the Mobile World Congress is the worlds largest exhibition for the mobile industry and if announced the Samsung Galaxy S3 would have clearly stolen the show.  Samsung have pulled an Ace out of their sleeve and gone against expectations, confirming that the Galaxy S3 will not be making an appearance at MWC 2012.  Instead they seem to be mirroring Apple’s hype machine announcements and are hosting a seperate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of 2012.  Just when excitement was reaching fever pitch, everyone has realised they in fact have to wait even longer…

Still, if we take a step back and look at it from Samsungs perspective its quite easy to see why they might take this approach.  The Samsung Galaxy series of smartphones have been hugely successful, with the Galaxy S and Galaxy S2 two of Samsungs best selling phones of all time.  The Galaxy S2 was in 2011 (and pretty much still is) regarded as the must have Android smartphone, as well as the biggest competition to the Apple iPhone 4/4S.  But what does all this mean?  Well Samsung may not have wanted attention and focus to be lost on their huge release, which with the large numbers of new products and announcements at MWC 2012, could have been a risk.  Instead Samsung have decided to opt for an independant announcement nearer the release date of the Samsung Galaxy S3 and we think the hype/buzz radar is going to be on overdrive!

Samsung have said in a statement that they do have other new mobile products that they are looking forward to demonstrating at this years Mobile World Congress but we can’t help but think they will get bugged for info on the S3 throughout the exhibition.  Still, there’s always information leaks, a very active rumour mill and that upcoming Samsung announcement to look forward to.  Hopefully we won’t have to wait much longer!

So 2011 saw the epic battle between the Apple iPhone 4/iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S2, competing for the crowning glory of the ‘best smartphone’ in the market. Nokia’s Lumia 800, their first entry into the Windows smartphone market, was released in November 2011, which was too late for it to properly wrestle its way into the ring with Apple and Samsung.  LG’s main effort was the LG Optimus 3D, which although an absolute powerhouse on the spec sheet, failed to ignite enough interest in it’s 3G functionality from the smartphone market.  HTC had their ‘Sensation’ smartphone range (such as the XE and XL) , which with Beats by Dre on board were popular with music enthusiasts.  Sony Ericsson (now just Sony) expected big things from the worlds first Playstation certified smartphone, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play but it never really quite took off.    Finally BlackBerry released the BlackBerry Bold 9900, which in my opinion is one of the best smartphones BlackBerry have ever released.  The difficulty that BlackBerry face however is not in their hardware but in their software.   The most popular operating systems by a huge amount are iOS and Android and as BlackBerry use their own OS, apps and development support is limited and apps are a huge driving force behind smartphones.

So what about 2012? Lets take a quick glance at what we think the key smartphone release will be for each of the major manufacturers :-

Apple – Even your Gran could answer this one, Apple’s big 2012 smartphone is the iPhone 5 of course!  Apple have the likes of Samsung and HTC snapping at their heels and they need to address the criticism surrounding the iPhone 4S changing very little from its predecessor.

Samsung – Easy, the Samsung Galaxy S3 and its a very exciting 2012 release indeed.  With rumour surrounding 2GB of ram, a 4.6 inch 1080P display and a picture perfect 12 megapixel camera, Apple better watch out!

Nokia – So far, the realms of huge smartphone releases for Nokia, all we really know about is the Nokia Lumia 900.  This upgrade on their previous Lumia 800 release, will see updates such as a larger screen, improved battery, vastly improved front facing camera and the potential for 4G support.

HTC – The HTC Edge is thought be to be powered by a 1.5GHz Quad Core processor, that’s right – Quad Core.  This fact alone shows that HTC are well and truly still in the race and could potentially release the most powerful smartphone of 2012.

LG – We haven’t heard much from the LG corner regarding 2012 releases but the LG Spectrum (possibly Revolution 2) sounds a pretty tasty smartphone.  With a 1.5GHz dual core processor, incredible HD IPS display and HD graphics/engine, we could have quite the battle on our hands when it comes to comparing displays in 2012.

Sony – Another 12 megapixel toting smartphone for 2012 will come in the form of Sony’s flagship release, the Sony Xperia S. Alongside this it will feature Android Ice Cream Sandwich, a 4.3 inch HD display screen, NFC and HDMI support.

BlackBerry – What about BlackBerry? Well from what we can tell, the BlackBerry Triton looks promising and of course BlackBerry 10 operating is set to be released this year but one thing is for sure, they really need to impress this year to stay in the race.

The International Consumer Electronics Show is underway in Las Vegas and offers the perfect introduction to the hottest handsets of 2012. The latest handset from Sony, The Sony Xperia S has stunned audiences with its powerful specifications. After dropping the Ericsson tag from their brand name, the Xperia S boasts a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor with 1 GB RAM; supercharged hardware that will help the Android 2.3 device operate smoothly upon it’s dazzling 4.3 inch display. Sony representatives have confirmed the device will be upgradable to Android Ice Cream Sandwich in the near future.

This increased power is perfect for gamers. In addition to the Android Market, users will be excited for exclusive privileges as the PlayStation Certified smartphone will host a whole library of classic PS1 games.
The camera specifications are also dazzling. Boasting a 12 megapixel rear facing camera with LED flash, capable of 1080p video record, the Sony Xperia S will take great photography. For your video calls, the front facing 720p video camera is perfect for keeping in touch.

With so much to offer within the Sony Xperia S, we just can’t wait for the expected March UK release date. We predict this will easily be one of the top 5 handsets of 2012.

It may not have been a white Christmas in the UK this year but it seems smartphones sales have stirred up a blizzard, whitewashing all existing records in their path! The two culprits, Android and iOS have both shattered existing records for phones activated on Christmas Day, already the most popular day to set up your new present.

Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, Andy Rubin, reported 3.7 million Android operating systems were activated over Christmas Day. According to Flurry Analytics, Apple also achieved a huge boost with over 300 million iPhones and iPads switched on over the 24 hour period. As a comparison to a “normal” day, Christmas day saw a rise in Android and iOS activations by 353%. This comfortably excels last year’s 125% rise seen on 25^th December 2010.

The huge increase in iOS and Android activations additionally led to a surge in app downloads over the festive season. Unwrapped and ready to play, a total of 242 million apps were downloaded across the Android Market and App Store. That’s almost a quarter of a billion downloads in 24 hours!

With Android and iOS available across smartphones and tablets, there’s never been so much availability for devices using these operating systems. With Android now available on more affordable handsets, cheaper smartphones have become an attractive Christmas present for a wide range of shoppers.

If there’s one great feature about smartphones, it’s the wide array of applications (or apps for short) at our disposal. Whether you download apps for their fun, usefulness or ability to provide up to date information, it’s clear that we’re app crazy. The table below shows you approximately how many apps each store currently has. How many apps have you downloaded?

Adding up across all the Operating Systems suggests there are now over 1 million apps to choose from! The question is, which is the operating system for you and what can we expect from the great app war in 2012?