Samsung beats iPhone to T3 award

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Samsung beat HTC, Motorola, Apple and Sony Ericsson to the phone award The Samsung Galaxy S2 has beaten the iPhone 4 and a host of other mobiles to claim T3's phone of the year award.

It is the first time for three years that Apple or HTC have not won the category.

Talking about the handset, judges said: "Not content with pretty much owning internet search, Google has turned Android into a real threat to Apple's dominance on both mobiles and tablets."

Gadget of the year went to the Microsoft Xbox Kinect.

The console also picked up the gaming gadget of the year.

T3 Editor, Luke Peters, said: "The Kinect is not only an amazing gadget for today, it's a mouth-watering technological prospect for tomorrow too."

Other winners included Apple's iPad 2 (Tablet), Amazon's Kindle (Commuter gadget) and the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9780 (work gadget).

Apple picked up three awards in total with Samsung also winning the TV of the year.

Twitter was voted digital media service of the year while Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg picked up the gadget personality prize.

The winners were as follows:

Phone of the year: Samsung Galaxy S2

Tablet of the year: Apple iPad 2

Work gadget of the year: RIM BlackBerry Bold 9780

Innovation of the year: Razer Switchblade

Commuter gadget of the year: Amazon Kindle

Digital camera of the year: Canon Powershot G12

Gadget accessory of the year: Eye-Fi X2

Gaming gadget of the year: Microsoft Xbox Kinect

T3 design award: Apple MacBook Air 11-inch

Tech brand of the year: Google

App of the year: Flipboard

Digital media service of the year: Twitter

Music gadget of the year: Monster Beats by dre Dre Pro Studio

Home gadget of the year: Philips Airfryer

Retailer of the year: Amazon

Computer of the year: Apple MacBook Air 11-inch

Gadget personality of the year: Mark Zuckerberg

TV of the year: Samsung 8000 Series (UE55D8000)

Outstanding contribution to technology: Sir David Attenborough

Gadget of the year: Microsoft Xbox Kinect

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Samsung forecast beats estimates

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7 October 2011 Last updated at 06:35 GMT Falling demand and prices of flat-screen TVs have hurt profits at various electronics makers Samsung Electronics has issued a better-than-expected profit forecast for the third quarter as its handset business helped to offset falling demand for TVs and computer chips.

Samsung said it expected an operating profit of 4.2tn won ($3.5bn; £2.3bn) a 14% dip from a year earlier, but better than market projections of 3.5tn won.

Compared with the previous quarter, the projected profit is up 12%.

Samsung is the world's second-largest maker of mobile phones.

"Its telecommunications business is seen very positive as shipments of smartphones and other high-end handsets expanded," said Park Jong-Min of ING Investment Management.

Advantage Samsung? Analysts said they expected Samsung's handset business to keep growing robustly, not least due to the Apple's decision to upgrade its existing model of iPhone4 with new features and technology, rather than launch a new version.

Apple had been expected to launch an iPhone5 at a media event held earlier this week.

"Given Apple's relatively unchanged new iPhone, Samsung will have the opportunity to eat into Apple's market share with its hardware build-up and growing software power until next year," said Jang In-Beom of Bookook Securities.

Samsung has also been growing its presence in the tablet PC market.

Last month the Korean electronics manufacturer announced that sales of the Samsung GALAXY S II had crossed the 10 million mark, doubling from five million in just eight weeks.

'Major risk'

Despite the optimism about the growth potential of its handset business, analysts said that external factors remain a big threat to the company in the short to medium-term.

There have been concerns that a slowdown in the US coupled with the ongoing debt crisis in Europe may hurt global growth and dent consumer demand.

"The macroeconomic situation will remain a major risk for Samsung in the fourth quarter," said Ahn Seong-Ho of Hanwha Securities.

At the same time, there are fears that volatility in the currency markets may also have a bearing on its earnings.

The Korean won has fallen as much as 10% against the US dollar since the start of July.

A weaker won makes Korean goods cheaper for foreign buyers.

"The weakening won may have inflated third-quarter profits," said Kim Young-Chan of Shinhan Investment Corp.

However, Mr Kim added the exchange rate remained a threat to Samsung as any recovery in the won would have a counter effect.

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