Google’s (GOOG) Android platform clearly dominates the mobile landscape in terms of market share, and though Samsung (005930) continues to close in, Apple (AAPL) leads the pack in profitability by a wide margin. According to one industry watcher, however, they should all be watching out for Microsoft (MSFT). Sizemore Capital’s Charles Sizemore writes in a contribution to NASDAQ that “Microsoft will ultimately muscle-out Apple as the leader in smartphones and tablets.” He says the war will be long and grueling, but Microsoft will ultimately pull ahead because Apple has no ”durable long-term advantages” to keep customers loyal. He also contends that “Apple’s insistence on controlling every aspect of both its software and hardware puts it at a disadvantage to a more flexible Microsoft.”

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NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Texas Instruments is eliminating 1,700 jobs, as it winds down its mobile processor business to focus on chips for more profitable markets like cars and home appliances. Texas Instruments said in September it would halt costly investments in the increasingly competitive smartphone and tablet chip business, leading Wall Street to speculate that part of the company's processor unit, called OMAP, could be sold. The layoffs are equivalent to nearly 5 percent of the Austin, Texas-based company's global workforce. ...

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SEATTLE (Reuters) - U.S. shoppers woke up with mild Surface fever on Friday, lining up in moderate numbers to buy Microsoft's groundbreaking tablet computer designed to challenge Apple's iPad. The global debut of the Windows 8 operating system was greeted with pockets of enthusiasm, but not the mania reserved for some previous Apple Inc launches. Microsoft is positioning the slick new computing device, which runs a limited version of Windows and Office with a thin, click-on keyboard cover, as a perfect combination of PC and tablet that is good for work as well as entertainment. ...

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(Reuters) - Tech bloggers and other reviewers praised Microsoft Corp's new Surface RT tablet for beautiful design but said a shortage of applications and a slow operating system meant the result was heartbreak for users. Microsoft begins selling the Surface on Friday, joining the fight in a tablet market dominated by Apple Inc's iPads and devices using Google Inc's Android system. Reviewers given the product early to play with it said its first version paled in comparison with the iPad. ...

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REUTERS - Tech bloggers and other reviewers praised Microsoft Corp's new Surface RT tablet for beautiful design but said a shortage of applications and a slow operating system meant the result was heartbreak for users. Microsoft begins selling the Surface on Friday, joining the fight in a tablet market dominated by Apple Inc's iPads and devices using Google Inc's Android system. Reviewers given the product early to play with it said its first version paled in comparison with the iPad. ...

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Today Microsoft will have the official coming out party for its maybe-too-different Surface tablet and the baffling Windows 8 operating system that goes along with it. Since its first over-hyped Surface related event in June, we've learned all the things about the gadget Microsoft didn't tell us the first time around. Like: the $500 price tag for the 32 GB model, the availability: tomorrow, and the not-as-good-as-the-iPad 7-hour battery life. At this point, reviewers and some customers have played with both tablets, giving us the impressions we'd need to make a purchase. ...

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On Thursday, Research in Motion Ltd. released details on the number of BlackBerry smartphones and tablet computers shipped in the latest quarter.

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Tablets may indeed herald the coming of a “post-PC world,” but that world won’t arrive for another few years, NPD said on Tuesday. According to the latest NPD DisplaySearch figures, tablet shipments in 2016 will top 350 million units, putting them ahead of notebook shipments for the first time ever. NPD projects that tablet shipments will have a compound annual growth rate of 28% over the next five years as the total number of shipments rises from 121 million in 2012 to 416 million in 2017. Notebooks, meanwhile, will see shipments grow from 208 million in 2012 to 393 million in 2017. Tablet Shipments to Surpass Notebook Shipments in 2016 Total Mobile PC Shipments Exceed 800M Units by 2017 SANTA

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Microsoft just announced its own tablet, named Surface. If you want a play-by-play account of the announcement, you can read our liveblog, but here are the basics...

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After a number of failed attempts in the Android tablet market, Dell is looking to readdress the tablet space with Windows 8. According to a leaked document obtained by Neowin, Dell will launch a 10.8-inch tablet with 1,366 x 768-pixel resolution and a dual-core Atom processor later this year. The slate will also be equipped with a fingerprint reader, an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, Intel graphics, 2GB of RAM and a massive 128GB solid-state drive. Unlike many other tablets, Dell has included a removable battery that will come in two sizes. A smaller battery will get between six and eight hours of battery life, while a larger one will offer between 10 and 12 hours of usage

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