IMEI Awareness! Check your Smartphone's Originality

Its not easy for one to detect whether a phone he/she buying is original or not. May be its stolen if you're buying a second hand phone or may be its Korean. Many of my friends ask me about this and i used to help them. So in this article i want to help my blog readers so that they see no difficulty in buying any phone whether new or second hand. I will try to cover all of the brand phones. Do read this and spread this awareness.

As you know, Mobile Market is now filled with fake phones and many people selling phones as Original even with Branded tags. Besides this factor, there are replicas available in the market like Korean phones that looks similar to the original phone and it is quite hard for one to spot at the moment whether phone is original or a copy. So following are the ways to check your phone.

IMEI:-

IMEI stands for International Mobile Equipment Identity. It is a 15 digits number and found on the box of your mobile phone. You can also find in by removing back cover and bettery, other way of finding IMEI is dial *#06# and your IMEI will pop up. You can also find your IMEI by going in settings->about phone->status.

Nexus 5 Users:-

If you're planning to buy Nexus 5 then before you buy, please check its imei and originality. After copying IMEI, go to link http://csmg.lgmobile.com:9002/csmg/b2c/client/auth_model_check2.jsp?esn=123456789123456 and replace your imei number at the end of the link in place of counting. After hitting enter, you will see Nexus 5 information. If this information matches its phone box then your mobile is original else not.

Samsung Galaxy Users:-

If you have Galaxy phone in your hand and you want to check its originality, dial *#0*# and you will be displayed with a menu which is called as General Test Mode. There, you can test your device's LCD, color test, touch test, sensors test, vibration test, camera test, sound test etc. If your device pass all of these tests then its a Samsung device. You can also dial *#7353# which will take you to Quick Test Menu.

You can further check Samsung's Secret Codes and their working HERE & HERE. 

Spot Galaxy by Physical Looks

1) Screen is made of cheap glass material.

2) Screen is too far from the edge.

3) Screen is not as bright and vibrant as the original device.

4) Some of the sensors are not available.

5) Home button is not of the exact same size as that of genuine.

6) Samsung logo is not smoothed out and can be removed by rubbing.

7) Device's proportions is different than that of genuine product.

8) Gaps between parts like home, power and volume buttons are obvious.

9) Battery specifications are not the same.

Sony Users:-

If you want to test Genuine Product Verification for Sony then it's pretty easy. Go to Sony's official site for Product Verification HERE and enter your imei number to check your device's originality.

HTC Users:-

HTC users please proceed to this LINK to check your devices.

Best Way to Know Your Phone Better:-

Look at the 7th and 8th digit of your IMEI. These two digits will ensure your phone's quality.

• If 7th and 8th digits are 01 or 10, this indicates your cell phone is manufactured in Finland which is high quality.
• If 7th and 8th digits are 13, this indicates your cell phone is assembled in Azerbaijan which is too bad and also dangerous for health.
• If 7th and 8th digits are 02 or 20, this indicates your cell phone is assembled in Emirates which is very poor quality.
• If 7th and 8th digits are 03/30 or 04/40, this indicates your cell phone is made in China but its quality is good but not good as 00,01 or 10.
• If 7th and 8th digits are 05 or 50 this indicates your cell phone is manufactured either in Brazil or Finland or USA.
• If 7th and 8th digits are 06 or 60 this indicates your cell phone is manufactured either in Hong Kong or China or Mexico.
• If 7th and 8th digits are 08 or 80 this indicates your cell phone is manufactured in Germany which is fair quality.

Further, visit imei.info to get details about your mobile model by entering your imei number.

Share this awareness and help others!

Thanks :)

Smartphone Industry : Top Trends in 2014

Yet again this year has yielded some impressive smartphones, but not all of them have come from the familiar brands. Chinese manufacturers have continued to improve their offerings, while Samsung has reported its poorest earnings in years. Android One looks set to bolster the mid-range market in India, and Apple is hoping that it hasn’t missed the“phablet” trend.

We all have our own opinions about which handsets are best, but they don’t always match up with what everyone else is buying. Fortunately we’ve managed to grab a hold of a ton of data on the smartphone market this year, revealing some very interesting trends and developments.

The big picture

Before we delve into this year’s big winners and losers so far, let’s see how smartphone sales are doing in general.

Overall global smartphone shipments were up 27 percent for Q2, compared with last year, and reached 295 million units in the second quarter of this year. We have already passed the 1 billion devices a year mark, and growth does seem to be slowing somewhat compared to previous years, depending on which region you look at.

Geographically, Africa and the Middle East are witnessing the fastest levels of growth last quarter, up 68 percent on last year, with Central & Latin America following on 38 percent, and Asia Pacific territories up 35 percent YoY. North America continues to show strong signs of saturation, with only a 6 percent increase in shipments in the last 12 months. The averaged YoY growth for the last four quarters can be seen above. 

Asia Pacific still accounts for the greatest number of smartphone shipments and also shows one of the strongest levels of growth. This accounts for the surge in popularity that we have seen from more cost effective Chinese manufacturers, such as Xiaomi and Huawei. Perhaps we can use this to at least partially explain why big players, such as Samsung and Sony, have been losing global market shares and profits over the past few months, which we’ll take a closer look at in a minute.

As we can see from the data already, typically strong regions for the established premium smartphone players are experiencing the slowest rate of growth, whilst emerging markets continue to surge forward. Years of high cost premium devices appear to have taken a toll on Western consumer appetites for smartphones, and slowing levels of innovation appear to be denting consumer demand.

Whilst the wide range of Android devices makes this trend less of an issue for the operating system as a whole, some Android brands have had their market shares squeezed over the last few quarters. Over the past 18 months or so the Android ecosystem has become increasingly diverse, with more than 10 brands now occupying the largest combined share of the smartphone market.

Apple’s limited range of products has made iOS far more susceptible to changing tastes. As a result, Apple’s global smartphone market share sat at just 11.9 percent last quarter, compared with 17.6 percent at the end of 2013 and 22 percent at the end of 2012.

Changing regional tastes

Despite the wide range of handset manufacturers operating in the market today, they aren’t spread around the world entirely evenly.

Whilst some observers are under the impression that smartphone innovation has stagnated over recent years, big brands, such as Samsung, Apple, LG, and Sony, still make up the largest market segments in North America and Europe. However, year on year growth for Apple hit a brick wall come the end of 2013. The company ended up on just 9 percent growth in North America compared with 2012, and 13 percent in Western Europe. This year Samsung has faced similarly slow growth of just 9 percent in the second quarter and also saw shipments in Europe fall by a massive 27 percent. 

Matching up with the negative sales and financial results for Samsung, we can see a cut back in the company’s market share in Europe this year. Interestingly though, the US market remains relatively unchanged over the past 12 months. When analysing Samsung’s recent performance, it is worth looking at the inner part of the chart to see just how quickly the company has grown since 2011.

Whilst Apple’s head start in the smartphone game has seen its share of the market stay relevantly constant lately, Samsung is experiencing a full stop on its exceptional rate of growth, which obviously looks bad if you compare data in terms of year on year growth or profit forecasts. However Samsung is far from disaster, it remains the largest manufacturer in every regional segment.

LG was the best performer in North America last quarter, in terms of growth, and managed to increase its market presence to 11.9 percent. However, HTC, Sony, and Motorola have seen their shipment figures remain virtually flat, partly due to the lack of new device releases. Recently announced smartphones from these companies should see an upturn in shipments come Q3 and 4.

Apple and Samsung need to adapt

With the iPhone 6 launching around the world as we speak, Apple is no doubt banking that finally caving in to consumer demands for larger devices will reignite the company’s dwindling growth. Whilst Apple might may more units than the iPhone 5S and 5C, the product isn’t industry leading and is unlikely to inspire consumers to switch over to iOS. Therefore iPhone 6 is only likely to click with existing Apple customers, and does nothing to help the company break into the fastest growing regions. Despite the Western media’s infatuation with Apple, the figures show that Xiaomi is now a bigger deal in the world’s largest smartphone market.

Samsung is facing a similar problem, and has been for some time. Consumers are refusing to pay top dollar for marginally improved handsets and marketing gimmicks. The fastest growing regions are more interested in products which offer value for money.

The key takeaway from all this juicy data is that the everyday smartphone brands that we are most familiar with are undoubtedly behind the curve. Not necessarily in terms of hardware, but in terms of being where the market is. Western consumers are set in their ways and saturated, the real opportunities for growth lie in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

And, despite what blinkered Apple and Android pundits believe, this isn’t all about price and “poorer” developing nations simply buying budget Android handsets because they can’t afford anything else. Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo, ZTE, and the rest, and producing handsets with hardware that match and sometimes exceed the staple brands. With prices that offer consumers a better value proposition, thanks to the lack of gimmicks.

Brand loyalty only lasts for so long. The big OEMs need to realise this sooner rather than later.

Source: Android Authority