Samsung featured as top smartphone vendor in the world in the third quarter of 2015 and the arch rival Apple is following them, as per latest report from research organisation, Digitimes Research. While the South Korean tech giant acquired 25.6% market share in Q3, the iPhone maker managed to get 14.5% share.

This is actually quite obvious considering Samsung ships a very large variety of handsets - from the entry level to the mid-range along with good number of flagship models as well. We can be sure that they have a far larger market share, and that makes Apple's iPhone sales all the more impressive (since it is a fact that there is no such thing as a cheap current generation unlocked iPhone).

As for the rest of the top 5 smartphone makers in the world, they are Huawei standing at 7.4%, Lenovo at fourth position with 4.8% and LG is just behind Lenovo's share with 4.5% of the market. Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi has come to 6th spot with 3.8% market share, whereas Sony and Microsoft far away with 2% and 1.7% share, respectively. Last quarter we saw 331.9 million smartphones shipped internationally, and this also shows that there is a year-on-year increase of 7.7%.

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Samsung disappointed quite a few buyers by limiting the Samsung Galaxy Note 5's storage at 64GB. It added to the frustration, as there was no miscoSD slot in the flagship device. The company has unveiled a special Winter Edition Galaxy Note 5, the only Note smartphone with 128GB of internal storage.

The new Note 5 will feature a 5.7-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) Super Amoled display and inclusion of the stylus can make this note a threat to the Apple's iPhone 6S Plus, which already comes in a 128GB variant and features a 5.5-inch screen. But, the Winter Edition needs to connect with consumers outside of Korea to boost the Samsung's sluggish sales numbers.

This device is powered by company's own Exynos 7420 octa-core SoC, Mali-T760 MP8 GPU, and backed by 4GB of RAM.. But, note that the microSD slot is still not available. Other features include a 16-megapixel snapper in the back with OIS (f/1.9 aperture), a 5-megapixel camera in the front. The battery will be non-removable and it'll be of 3000 mAh.

It can connected via 4G LTE, 3G, Wi-Fi, and other standard connectivity option. This winter edition will also have a fingerprint scanner. The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Winter Special Edition is available at KRW 999,900 and is being sold via SKT and KT mobile carriers.

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We recently got to know that Samsung might be coming on-board with Google to optimize TouchWiz, and a new news has added more credibility to this rumour. As per ITHome, Samsung will be concentrating more on user experience enhancement with the Galaxy S7, while Google engineers will help the Samsung backend code on its popular customized version of Android.

The report also says that Samsung and Google's primary goal is to make a "a non-delayed operating experience", one with "superior fluency than iOS". Now, Android has got huge market and is probably having more support on high-end devices when it comes to general fluidity. In the recent times, given how Apple's updates to iOS continue to bring new issues (especially as they try to make the OS more flexible), it's not clear if Android will ever be as optimized as the iOS.

The Korean tech giant has already attained a significant level of optimization with the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+, and it would be super exciting to see TouchWiz become even more efficient in the future (it would also be great to see Samsung solve the issues pertaining to multitasking in high-end devices). The report also establishes that the microSD slot will come back with the Galaxy S7, though at this very moment things are quite hazy. We'll wait and watch!

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Samsung recently released the details of their CES 2016. Keynote would be held on the 7th of January and the press conference is scheduled for January 5th.

There have been speculations that Samsung may announce their new Galaxy S7 smartphone in January. But contrary to all the speculations there won't be any S7 show-case in CES.

The Korean tech giant will once again start its CES with a press conference, revealing its latest offerings in TV, home appliances and smartphones on January 5.

For all the latest updates, media resources and content related to Samsung at CES 2016, you will soon be able to check out Newsroom's special page. Samsung's CES-related information can also be accessed on social media by using the hashtag #SAMSUNGxCES2016.

Samsung has already attained a significant level of optimization with the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+, and it would be interesting to see TouchWiz become even more efficient in the coming future (Samsung might also have plans to fix the prolonged multitasking issues present in the high end devices). The report also says that the microSD slot will come back with the Galaxy S7, but right now all we can do is wait for the device.

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Samsung Galaxy A9 will be released following its predecessors like A3, A5, and A7 models of the revamped Galaxy A (2016) series. The images of the smartphone were leaked via official promotion and is expected to be available in the market this month.

The Galaxy A9 will have a 6" Super AMOLED screen of 1080p resolution and a Snapdragon 620 chipset backed by 3GB of RAM will power the phone. The 620 platform has a powerful octa-core 1.8GHz processor with 4x Cortex-A72 and 4x Cortex-A53 cores, and the GPU for graphics is Adreno 510.

The Galaxy A9 will be following the suit of the smaller A3, A5, and A7 from the 2016 series and will be built with a metal frame and dual 2.5D glass panels.

All other specifications of the Galaxy A9 are the following: a 13MP camera in the back with optical image stabilization and bright f/1.9 aperture. The 8MP selfie camera will also support panoramic pictures, 32GB expandable storage, LTE Cat.7 connectivity, and a 4,000 mAh battery.

With this type of stellar specs, the Galaxy A9 is also expected to feature power bank capabilities. Those would be supported natively by Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but the Galaxy A9 will be released with 5.1.1 Lollipop, which makes it difficult to confirm the availability of this feature.

Samsung Galaxy A9 is supposed to go official very early and be available for consumers in Christmas or in early January. The price in China will be more than CNY 3,000, which implies it will be more than €430.