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Apple and Samsung Electronics' lead over the rest of the handset field only widened in the second quarter, with the two companies combining for a staggering 108 percent of the industry's operating profit.

How can two companies exceed the 100 percent mark? When several of the other companies, including Research in Motion, Nokia, Motorola, and Sony, posted hefty operating losses in the period.

"With Apple enjoying leading share of the high-end smartphone market and Samsung extending its overall smartphone and Android market share, competing smartphone (original equipment manufacturers) are increasingly struggling to compete with these dominant smartphone OEM,&… Read more

After a long wait, Research In Motion has unveiled its 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook.

The device will be available to Canadian customers first and come with 32GB of storage. If LTE is not available, the tablet will "automatically adjust to connect on HSPA+," RIM says. The tablet will be available to Bell, Rogers, and TELUS customers in Canada.

The 4G LTE-equipped PlayBook comes with the same 7-inch display as its predecessor, and includes both front- and rear-facing HD video cameras. HDMI out and stereo speakers are also included. On the software side, users can expect the same operating … Read more

Apple scored the greatest gain in market share among cell phone makers last quarter but was stuck in third place behind Samsung and LG.

Looking at the three months ending with June, ComScore pegged Apple with a 15.4 percent share of the U.S. mobile-phone market, up from 14 percent the prior three months. Such growth surpassed that of the other top three players, each of which saw a dip in market share.

Samsung's chunk of the market fell to 25.6 percent from 26 percent, but the company remained the dominant player. In second place was LG … Read more

A 10-inch BlackBerry tablet has surfaced on the Web.

User "vuhai6" on Vietnam-based forum Tinhte has posted several images (Translate) of what is purported to be a 10-inch BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. The device looks to have the same design as its currently available 7-inch counterpart, but according to the poster, could support 4G networking.

Speaking of 4G, the poster also shows images of a 4G 7-inch PlayBook. Although it's not immediately clear where the images were taken or when, the person claims to have obtained them from someone else.

Rumors have been swirling for months that RIM … Read more

Android still owns more than half the U.S. smartphone business, but it declined in both shipments and market share in the second quarter.

Google's mobile OS grabbed a 56 chunk of the the market in the June quarter, down from 61 percent a year ago, according to a report released today by Strategy Analytics. Shipments fell to 13.4 million from 15.3 million in 2011's second quarter.

At the same time, the iPhone saw increased demand. Apple's smartphone market share surged to 33 percent last quarter from 23 percent a year ago. Shipments rose to … Read more

The New York Times has decided to stop supporting its current BlackBerry app because of a decrease in users, Reuters reported today.

The newspaper cut off support to the apps for BlackBerry and the DealBook BlackBerry Reader on Monday, directing BlackBerry users to use the NYT mobile site instead.

"Currently, our mobile Web site offers a more complete New York Times experience than the NYTimes app native to your device," the NYT wrote in an announcement to its customers. "We've made the decision to consolidate our efforts and concentrate on delivering you the best possible experience … Read more

Even Tim Cook seems to be hinting that a new phone is right around the corner. But it may frustrate people updating from an earlier device, as trusted news source Reuters is reporting that the new device will boast a smaller 19-pin dock connector. What will that mean for compatibility with older accessories, like speaker docks? A headache.

Also on today's show, the youngest child in the MacBook Pro line may get some love from Apple soon; Nokia's mathematicians may have figured out a novel way to save the company; and the BlackBerry PlayBook isn't dead, and … Read more

Consumers still interested in Research In Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook may get a chance at the long-awaited 4G model.

The new model tablet is expected to launch in Canada through Bell and possibly other Canadian carriers on July 31. Citing an internal document from Bell, blogging site MobileSyrup says the tablet will be priced at $549.95.

The specs revealed by the document point to a 7-inch 1,024x600-pixel display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage.

Running BlackBerry OS 2.0, the tablet will offer a 5-megapixel rear camera capable of 1080p videos and … Read more

The International Trade Commission has upheld a ruling that a Kodak patent in an infringement case against Apple and Research In Motion is invalid -- undermining the iconic photography company's efforts to save itself by selling its patent portfolio.

The ITC dismissed the Kodak complaint late Friday, upholding a preliminary ruling made May 21 by ITC administrative law judge Thomas Pender.

Kodak, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, has been hoping to raise billions of dollars by selling its 1,100 patents at auction.

The patent in the Apple and RIM case covers the previewing of … Read more