Google’s latest mid-priced smartphone, Pixel 6a, launched at various carriers last week, loaded with incentives. UScellular began taking pre-orders Thursday, offering the 6a with no money down -- with Google Pixel Buds A-Series earbuds and “an assortment” of Google Nest smart home products -- for customers buying a 36-month installment contract. The offer is available on the Unlimited Everyday and Even Better plans. The 6.1-inch phone has 12-megapixel wide and ultra-wide cameras; an adaptive battery that learns which apps are used most and conserves power on those not used; and IP67-rated water protection. It's powered by Google's Tensor processor.

“The mainstream moment for foldable smartphones is here,” blogged Samsung MX President TM Roh Thursday, ahead of the company’s virtual Aug. 10 Unpacked event. “Where we turn for work, entertainment, wellness and more has become a single place -- our phone,” said Roh, saying consumers need a “flexible device” like Samsung’s Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Flip to meet their daily demands. Three years after Samsung introduced the concept to the market, the foldable phone “is now the preferred choice for millions,” Roh said. One in three Samsung foldable phone customers bought the $1,799 Fold last year, which Roh attributed to its multitasking capability and 7.6-inch screen that allows users to “get things done faster.” The other 70% opted for the $999 Flip, which Roh called a device “built for self-expression.” The company will show new models for both use cases in August, he said.

Emerging electronics brand Infinix introduced the Note 12 Pro, the first smartphone powered by MediaTek’s Helio G99 mobile processor, which uses Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s 6-nanometer manufacturing process. The Android phone, designed for "modest" budgets, has a 108-megapixel camera, 6.7-inch FHD AMOLED display, 5000 mAh battery, dual speakers with DTS Stereo and multifunctional near field communication. The phone will cost about $219, depending on region, the company said.

Worldwide smartphone shipments fell 9% year on year in Q2 to about 287 million shipments on economic headwinds and regional uncertainty, Canalys analyst Runar Bjorhovde emailed Monday. Samsung had 21% market share in the quarter, up 3 points from Q1 2021; second-place Apple gained 3 points to 17% share. Leading Chinese brands “continued to struggle” with Xiaomi (17%), Oppo (11%) and vivo (10%) having double-digit shipment declines, Canalys said. “Vendors were forced to review their tactics in Q2 as the outlook for the smartphone market became more cautious,” said the analyst, saying economic headwinds, sluggish demand and "inventory pileup” forced vendors to quickly reassess portfolio strategies for 2022. “The oversupplied mid-range is an exposed segment for vendors to focus on adjusting new launches, as budget-constrained consumers shift their device purchases toward the lower end,” Bjorhovde said.

TCL's 30 Z is available on AT&T and Cricket for under $100, becoming the carriers' first TCL-branded smartphone. The Android device has a 6.1-inch display, 8-megapixel main camera and 24-hour battery life, TCL emailed Wednesday. TCL-branded smartphones are now carried by all major American carriers, said the phone maker.

Samsung Electronics introduced an image sensor for thin smartphones that it said has the industry’s smallest pixels. The 200-megapixel Isocell HP3’s pixels are 0.56 micrometers vs. 0.64 micrometers in the previous generation, allowing 200 million pixels to fit in a 1/1.4-inch optical format for a 20% reduction in camera module surface area, the company said Thursday. The sensor allows users to take videos in 8K at 30 frames per second or 4K at 120 fps, Samsung said.

Samsung launched Samsung Wallet in the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K. last week, allowing Galaxy device users to organize digital keys, boarding passes, identification cards and more in a secure mobile application, the company announced Thursday. Samsung Wallet is protected by the company’s Knox security technology, and it integrates with Samsung Blockchain Wallet to monitor cryptocurrencies and SmartThings to unlock doors, the company said. Later this year, Samsung Wallet will begin to support official IDs, such as mobile driver’s licenses and student IDs; other important documentation, such as proof of COVID-19 vaccination status, can also be securely stored in Samsung Wallet, it said.

Verizon’s BlueJeans videoconferencing platform developed a custom mobile app for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip smartphones that allows users on a videoconference call to show shared content on the device’s top screen while the attendee gallery is displayed on the bottom screen. An updated keyboard allows for simple in-screen messaging, the company said.

German consumers bought more than 5 million smartphones in Q1, a 4.5% increase from the 2021 quarter, reported Gfu Thursday, according to an unofficial English translation. Revenue grew 16.9% to more than 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion), as the average selling price of all phones sold climbed 11.9% year over year to 621 euros ($668), it said. “Smartphone sales depend to a large extent on the offerings of network operators,” said Gfu Managing Director Sara Warneke. “After their shops were closed for a long time during the pandemic, the number of smartphones sold decreased.” With COVID-19 restrictions now lifted, sales “are back on course for growth, because smartphones are still among the most popular products in our market," she said.

“Increasing headwinds from many fronts” will doom smartphone shipments to a 3.5% decline this year to 1.31 billion handsets, reported IDC Wednesday. Three straight quarters of decline and increasing supply and demand challenges forced IDC to significantly downgrade its 2022 forecast from the previous projection of 1.6% growth. IDC expects the 2022 decline to be a short-term setback as the market rebounds to achieve a 1.9% five-year compound annual growth rate through 2026, it said. COVID-19 lockdowns in China “hit global demand and supply simultaneously by reducing demand in the largest market globally and tightening the bottleneck to an already challenged supply chain,” said IDC. Apple appears to be the “least impacted” vendor because most customers in the high-priced iPhone segment “are less influenced by macroeconomic issues like inflation,” it said. “Barring any new setbacks, we expect these challenges to ease by the end of this year and the market to recover in 2023 with 5% growth."