According to new data from GfK, Android has surpassed Symbian as the most popular smartphone OS in Asia.
Smartphone sales in Asia have grown 270 percent year-over-year to 4.7 million units.
In defining “Asia,” GfK uses sales from Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
“Our Q3 report shows that Android has recently overtaken Symbian as the most popular smartphone OS in the context of Asia as a whole, in both value and unit sales. However, it is interesting to note the difference in OS trends when we look at findings in North and Southeast Asia separately,” says the research firm.
Globally, Android has jumped to second place, with over 26 percent share, behind Symbian at around 38 percent.
Result for: singapore
According to the Wall Street Journal an Apple employee has been arrested and charged with selling secrets to Asian suppliers in exchange for over $1 million in kickbacks.
Paul Shin Devine, who is one of Apple’s global supply managers, was charged “with offenses that include wire fraud, money laundering and unlawful monetary transactions,” which began in 2006.
Devine was charged in a federal grand jury indictment.
Says the Journal: “Devine came up with a scheme in which he supplied companies such as Cresyn Co. in South Korea, Kaedar Electronics Co. in China and Jin Li Mould Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. in Singapore with confidential information that would let them negotiate favorable contracts with Apple.”
“The indictment and civil suit claim that in return, Mr. Devine demanded payments, which were sent to bank accounts in his wife’s name in amounts that were small enough to avoid attention.”
The indictment also names Andrew Ang, who worked for one of Apple’s suppliers, and who is charged with wire fraud and conspiracy. Devine shared the kickback money with Ang, who brokered the deals between Jin Li and Apple.
Result for: singapore
Apple has noted today that the iPhone 4 will be made available in 17 more nations starting on July 30th.
Beginning on Friday, the device will be available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
The smartphone will be available at Apple Stores in the nations or through carriers and other authorized resellers.
Apple’s latest device is currently only available in France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US.
It retails for $199 (16GB model) or $299 (32GB model) in the U.S. with contract.
Apple will announce “many more countries later this year,” for iPhone 4 availability.
