Some time ago Sky Go app was made available for iOS, and since then Android users have been dreaming of it. Now that the company has announced about its integration with Android the first companies to host it are HTC and Samsung.

Sky Go will be available starting from February. The chosen devices are the Desire, Desire S, Desire HD, Incredible S, Sensation, Galaxy S and Galaxy S II. As you understand these handsets were chosen for this deal thanks to their sales volumes, which suggests that Sky won’t be limited to these smartphones and if they succeed, it will enlarge its Android related activities.

The users of abovementioned smartphones will have access to 22 live TV channels via Sky Go app. Sky Movies on Demand will appear later. In short, Android users will enjoy almost the entire service provided by Sky.

This year RIM’s shares have fallen in their cost by 70% and this explains why the company must find in the nearest future major solutions to overcome the crisis. One of the steps was revealed recently when RIM offered two leading companies – Samsung and HTC to use its BlackBerry OS on their respective smartphones. But both HTC and Samsung are quite content to cooperate and have such allies as Google with Android OS and Microsoft with its Windows Phone OS. Samsung in addition is preoccupied with its Bada OS, and would not think to be diverted at this point.

It is in this wake of events that an opportunity to buy RIM with its BlackBerry seems quite promising for Amazon, Nokia and Microsoft, who all expressed, in this or that way, their wish of Canadian takeover.

According to Wall Street Journal

According to Canalys’ survey, in summer HTC sold 5.7 million smartphones in the US, then come Samsung with 4.9 million sold smartphones and Apple with 4.6 million units.

The former leader was RIM, which is missing from the list. All in all, this year was fatal for the Canadian manufacturer, and Rim’s only hope is the BlackBerry Colt with its new operating system, BBX. It is set to be launched in early 2012 and its success will save the company from crash, though I don’t believe it.

Anyway, HTC’s leadership is conditioned by the quality and quantity of its flagship models. I mean the company has smartphones for any taste, though only few of them ensured its summer success — the HTC Thunderbolt, the Evo 3D, the Sensation and the Inspire 4G. All these smartphones can be purchased from four biggest US carriers. Moreover, HTC offers not only smartphones supporting 4G, but also mid-range ones. Though we haven’t seen low-cost and low-end devices made by the company, HTC is said to enter this market too. So the sales rate will increase in coming years.

Presently the smartphone market is led by Google and Apple. They account for about half the market, while Microsoft is lagging behind because of its slow response to the changing conditions. This is not a new thing for anyone, and even if it were a secret, trust me it would be an open one, because everything is more than obvious. Numbers speak for themselves. However, not everything is lost. After Google acquires Motorola Mobility Holdings and gets a chance to create its own smartphones, things will change from top to toe. What do I mean?

The smartphone market is cruel and manufacturers can’t fight alone. As Google’s always open to cooperation, it’ll very likely not mind a deal with Microsoft to realize new ideas.

Smartphones running Mango will be involved in a brutal struggle. According to surveys, before the end of this year Android-powered smartphones will take over the 40% of the market and Apple’s iOS — up to 20%. As for Symbian, it’s not a danger at the moment, because the platform’s losing its popularity (though I doubt it’s ever been popular). All in all, Microsoft is on the right way and will succeed, especially considering the partners it has chosen — HTC and Samsung.

The results concern the shipments and only. The actual sales don’t count. But still the fact that HTC’s shipped 5.9 million devices is absolutely great (Apple’s shipped 4.6 and Samsung 4.9 million devices). Obviously, the income of the Taiwanese manufacturer will grow way fast.

“Apple did not stir the usual excitement levels in the industry with the announcement of the iPhone 4S, but that was never likely to dampen volumes, due to pent up demand from the later than expected launch and the addition of Sprint as a third carrier,” said Chris Jones, Catalys Principal Analyst. “Early iPhone 4S sales have shown this is the case, and we expect to see a strong Q4 for Apple,” he added.

And lastly, we should note that at the moment RIM’s position is the worst. It had another tough quarter. Its U.S. market share dropped from 24% in Q3 2010 to 9% in Q3 2011.

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You still don’t get what I’m talking about? This agreement allows Microsoft to put its hands in the pockets of companies responsible for producing 53 percent of the Android devices in the U.S.. Among them are HTC, Samsung, Motorola and LG. But if Microsoft has already signed licensing contracts with HTC and Samsung, LG and Motorola are still out of the cooperation.

At this moment we know neither the exact amount of the license fee, nor the terms of the agreement. It’ll be revealed in the near future and we’ll learn how much Microsoft will get from each purchased Android device. Well, share your thoughts with us in the comments area.

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Anyway the case is different with Apple vs. HTC patent war. Despite the fact that Apple is a local manufacturer for Google, the Big G company seems to be as if in HTC’s team.

“Apple is the largest seller of mobile computing devices in the U.S. Allowing this supplier to eliminate the competition from a fast-moving maverick competitor (HTC) could drive up prices, diminish service, decrease consumers’ access to the technology and reduce innovation,” announces a quote from Google.

The final result of the ITC decision will be announced on December 6. Hopefully HTC will get a chance to get away with this trial, thus preventing Apple from becoming a monopolistic manufacturer of high-end innovative devices in the United States.

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Mango update brought Windows Phone 7 to a level up and no one can bring serious charges against Microsoft’s product in terms of functionality. But nowadays Android and iOS rock due to good PR, so Samsung and HTC’s decision is more than necessary at this moment. The problems don’t come from Microsoft itself, as Windows Phone has seen its fair share of retailer bias. According to Gartner, Inc. analyst, Michael Gartenberg:

“If you went to store they showed you anything other than a Windows Phone. If you asked for a Windows Phone, they tried to talk you out of it.”

So these two mobile manufacturers have a hard job to do, because it won’t be easy to convince retailers of being more attentive towards the products running Windows Phone. This is more important for HTC than Samsung, because the Taiwanese company has launched more smartphones powered with WP, and according to HTC, almost one third of their sales come from Windows Phone. So this campaign will be beneficial not only for Microsoft, but also for HTC.

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A great number of largest manufacturers of mobile devices will be engaged in the development and manufacturing of the new devices. Among them will be Samsung and HTC, which are working with SK Telecom introducing current smartphone and devices on sale. In October three new smartphones will be introduced by Samsung, Pantech and LG. In addition, Samsung will prepare an 8.9-inch plate with support for LTE. It also will appear in October.

Fourth-generation network of SK Telecom was actively exploited in the summer of 2011. LTE network provides a data rate 75 Mbit/s, but still it can be used only by the residents of the capital Seoul. The expansion of 4G-services across the country will take place sometime in 2013. Experts estimate that by 2015 approximately 65% of mobile data traffic in South Korea will account for fourth-generation network, that is the same LTE.

The demand for the LTE based-devices is rapidly growing and thus the release of such devices in South Korea is the best thing to fulfill this demand.

I hope our comparison of the HTC Sensation and the Samsung Galaxy S II will help you decide which one is worthy of your money.

So let’s start.

Design

I’ve always liked to say that design is a matter of taste. Someone likes bigger and heavier devices, someone prefers smaller and lighter ones. We can say the same about the HTC Sensation and the Samsung Galaxy S II. Both look great, but they’re made for different types of people.

The HTC Sensation’s chassis is made of aluminium and plastic; plus it has a heavy glass front, so the smartphone is rather heavy overall – 148 g. The Samsung Galaxy S II is made of plastic and is much lighter – only 116 g. The dimensions of these devices aren’t really different, just the Galaxy S II is a bit smaller – 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm against 126.1 x 65.4 x 11.3. And it’s thinner, too – only 8.5mm!

So those who prefer bulky devices (count me in this group!) will surely like the Sensation. And those who like having almost weightless smartphones in their pockets will prefer the Galaxy S II.

Display

Both smartphones feature 4.3-inch displays, accelerometer sensors for UI auto-rotate, proximity sensors for auto turn-off and use the multi-touch input method. The resolution of the HTC Sensation’s S-LCD capacitive touchscreen display is higher – 540 x 960. It shows 16M colors that are bright, sharp and look very good, however, no one can say that the Galaxy S II’s 480 x 800 pixel Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen display yields in any aspect, some people even claim it’s now the best display of a mobile device in the world.

Camera

The HTC Sensation sports an 8MP rear-facing camera with auto-focus and dual-LED flash. It supports face detection, touch-focus (which is a big plus nowadays), geo-tagging and instant capture. HTC Phones were never famous for having great cameras, but the Sensation is an exception – its camera makes really good 3264×2448 images, even when it’s dark. And here is a proof, have a look at these pics (thanks to gsmarena):

The HTC Sensation’s camera can also shoot 1080p videos at 30fps. And they look great:

The Samsung Galaxy S II has the same 8MP camera with auto-focus taking the same 3264×2448 images and sporting the same features (Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and image stabilization). The only difference is hidden in the flash – the Galaxy S II’s camera has only a simple LED flash, not a dual one. But still I can’t say it makes the pics shot by this camera any worse.

Here are some example photos shot by the Galaxy S II’s camera:

And here is a sample video:

So both cameras are excellent, but the pics taken by the Sensation are a bit brighter and the video is less blurry, so I think the HTC Sensation wins here.

By the way, both smartphones have secondary cameras, too, but well, I don’t think those VGA cameras are that important.

Platform and UI

Both devices run the latest version of Android known as Gingerbread. However, the Sensation runs the famous HTC Sense UI, and Samsung’s smartphone runs TouchWiz 4.0 UI. HTC Sense is really loved by users and is even considered the best UI ever, but we have to admit that TouchWiz 4.0 looks very good, too. So it’s also a matter of taste, just like the design. I personally like the HTC Sense UI more, so I would prefer the Sensation anyway.

Processor and RAM

The HTC Sensation has a really powerful 1.2 GHz dual-core processor (Qualcomm MSM 8260 Snapdragon) with Adreno 220 GPU and 768MB RAM. These hardware features ensure great performance: zooming in and out, scrolling pages up and down is really fast, downloading is fast, too.
A cool 1.2GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor with Mali-400MP GPU, Exynos chipset and 1GB RAM are hidden inside the Samsung Galaxy S II, so it shows great performance, and whatever you do (surf the web, play games, edit photos and so on), it will never make you wait for a long time. It will not make you wait at all, since it’s really, really fast.

Maybe the bigger amount of RAM makes the Galaxy S II a bit cooler, but both smartphones have great hardware features, and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed in any of them.

Battery

For some strange reason HTC is never equipping its smartphones with powerful batteries. And the HTC Sensation is no exception. It has a standard Li-Ion 1520 mAh battery that provides up to 8.2 hours of talk time in 2G (up to 6.4 hours of talk time in 3G) and lasts up to 350 hours in 2G in stand-by mode (up to 400 hours in 3G). Well, not bad, but it could be better!

The Samsung Galaxy S II has a larger Li-Ion 1650 mAh battery plus its Super AMOLED display saves more power, providing up to 18.2 hours in 2G (8.4 hours in 3G) of talk time and up to 710 hours in 2G (610 hours in 3G) in stand-by. So in this field the Galaxy S II is a winner, no doubt, and if it’s important for you to have a phone with a powerful battery, the Samsung Galaxy S II must be your choice.

Other features

Both devices are very good in the connectivity area, featuring Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and microUSB version 2.0 (MHL).

Price

Amazon is now selling the unlocked version of the HTC Sensation for $539.99, while the Samsung Galaxy S II is a bit more expensive – $604. Since both smartphones are almost equal, maybe it’s better to pay less and get a HTC Sensation, especially when there are so many affordable HTC Sensation deals on the net offering the smartphone for a lower price with a contract.

If you still prefer the Galaxy S II, you can easily find carrier versions of the handset both in the U.S. and the UK.

Source 1, 2, 3, 4