Mobile data increased very much last year. I expect the growth to continue. If operators do not invest enough to their network and/or find suitable charging schemes the network can become more congested than before.
4G mobile device speeds becomes the new standard. As competition move to that end, there will be fast growth there. Shipments of ’4G’ LTE devices, that is handsets, dongles and tablets, reached almost 103 million units in 2012, according to figures published by ABI Research. It interesting that almost 95% of the devices shipped went to North America and the Asia-Pacific.
3G will become the low-cost option for those who think 4G option is too expensive. What is interesting to note is that not everyone who upgraded to an LTE-capable device last year took out an LTE subscription; in fact, only around half of LTE device owners also have an LTE subscription.
The shift to 4G can take many more than year to fully happen even in USA. ABI expects the rate at which 3G subscribers with LTE handsets upgrade to LTE connections will gather pace over the next two years. And even longer in Europe. Carriers should not be panicking. And 3G will live and expand besides 4G for quite a long time. For many of those living outside cities, 3G internet connections are still hard to come by.
Apple and Samsung will continue to make money this year as well as people rate Apple and Samsung more highly than ever. Accountant Deloitte predicts that Smartphone sales to hit 1bn a year for first time in 2013.
Samsung is currently the world’s leading seller of phones and televisions. Those leaders should be careful because competition is getting harder all the time. Samsung boss has given warning on this to employees. Remember what what happened to Nokia.
Android will dominate smart phone market even stronger than before. Digitimes Research: Android phones to account for 70% of global smartphone market in 2013.
Windows Phone 8 situation is a question mark. Digitimes predicts that Shipments of Windows Phones, including 7.x and 8.x models, will grow 150% on year to 52.5 million units in 2013 for a 6.1% share. There is one big force against Windows Phone: Google does not bother doing services for Windows Phone 8, Google’s sync changes are going to screw Gmail users on Windows Phone and there are issues with YouTube. Does Windows Phone even have a chance without Google? For active Google service users the changes are pretty that they get this phone.
Competition on smart phones gets harder. It seems that smart phone business have evolved to point where even relatively small companies can start to make their own phones. Forbes sees that Amazon, Microsoft, Google, will all introduce branded mobile phones.
Patent battles are far from over. We will see many new patent fights on smart phones and tablets.
Mobile phones still cause other devices to become redundant. Tietoviikko tells that last year mobile phone made redundant the following devices: small screen smart phones (4 inch or more now), music buying as individual tracks or discs, navigators (smart phone can do that) and a separate pocket size camera. Let’s see what becomes redundant this year.
Many things happens on Linux on mobile devices. Ubuntu now fits in your phone. Firefox OS phones from ZTE will come to some markets. ZTE plans to make Open webOS phone. Meego is not dead, it resurrects with new names: Samsung will release Tizen based phones. Jolla will release Sailfish phones.
Cars become more and more mobile communications devices. Car of the future is M2M-ready. Think a future car as a big smart phone moving on wheels.
Nokia seemed to be getting better on the end of 2012, but 2013 does not look too good for Nokia. Especially on smart phones if you believe Tomi T Ahonen analysis Picture Tells it Better – first in series of Nokia Strategy Analysis diagrams, how Nokia smartphone sales collapsed. Even if shipment of Windows Phone 8 devices increase as Digitimes predicts the year will be hard for Nokia. Tristan Louis expects in Forbes magazine that Nokia abandons the mobile business in 2013. I think that will happen this year, at least for whole mobile business. I have understood that basic phone and feature phone phone business part of Nokia is quite good condition. The problems are on smart phones. I expect that Windows Phone 8 will not sell as well as Nokia hopes.
Because Nokia is reducing number of workers in Finland, there are other companies that try to use the situation: Two new Finnish mobile startups and Samsung opens a research center in Espoo Finland.
Finnish mobile gaming industry has been doing well on 2012. Rovio has been growing for years on the success of Angry Birds that does not show slowing down. Supercell had also huge success. I expect those businesses to grow this year. Maybe some new Finnish mobiel game company finds their own recipe for success.
Late addition: Wireless charging of mobile devices is get getting some popularity. Wireless charging for Qi technology is becoming the industry standard as Nokia, HTC and some other companies use that. There is a competing AW4P wireless charging standard pushed by Samsung ja Qualcomm. Toyota’s car will get wireless mobile phone charger, and other car manufacturers might follow that if buyers start to want them. Wireless charge option has already been surprisingly common variety of devices: Nokia Lumia 920, Nexus 4, HT, etc. We have to wait for some time for situation to stabilize before we see public charging points in cafeterias.
1,261 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Landfill Android devices set to get 4G, courtesy of Qualcomm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/04/qualcomm_spreads_4g_goodness_into_the_midrange/
Qualcomm’s latest chips will bring 4G LTE to mid-range devices, including Windows RT tablets and medium-priced handsets, as the tech goes mainstream.
The new chips are part of the Snapdragon line, which puts an entire system, including a few ARM cores and networking stacks, onto a single wafer. LTE has been in the Snapdragon mix for a while, but limited to the top-end chips for flagship devices – so now the technology is trickling down.
For Windows RT, unbeloved junior sibling of Windows 8, Qualcomm has apparently “worked with Microsoft” to create a chip adding LTE to the 3G, wi-fi and Bluetooth standards already supported. The Snapdragon 800 supports all those
Tomi Engdahl says:
Firefox OS: Go away fanbois, fandroids – you wouldn’t understand
Repeat after me: developers, developers, developers, developers…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/03/my_month_with_firefox_os/
The Western world’s smartphone market has devolved into a duopoly of Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. In the rest of the world, however, the mobile story has yet to be written… and this is where Mozilla hopes users will embrace its mobile operating system, Firefox OS.
The browser-maker wants Firefox OS to be the gateway drug to the wider Mozilla software platform for the web’s next billion users.
Firefox OS simulators have been available for developers for some time, but it wasn’t until recently that hardware sanctioned by Mozilla was available for testing. The first actual devices running Firefox OS are two “developer” phones from Spanish manufacturer Geeksphone – the Keon and the Peak.
Keon: It’s not an iPhone replacement, but it’s bloody good for €100
The thing about familiar tools is you know what to do with them
Developers can make or break a platform but Mozilla has a distinct advantage over other platforms trying to break into the iOS-Android duopoly: the web.
Firefox OS apps are built using the same basic toolkit you’d use to build any website: HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It’s tempting to say if you can built a webpage you can build a Firefox OS app. Technically that’s true: any webpage can be installed as a Firefox OS app even if its author has never heard of Firefox OS, but to take advantage of the unique attributes of a mobile device you’ll need to go a little beyond a simple webpage.
Perhaps not everyone who can build a webpage can build a Firefox OS app, but anyone who can build a webpage is about 80 per cent of the way to building a Firefox OS app. Add in a few extra bits of JavaScript, take advantage of HTML5 offline storage (so your app works even without a mobile connection) and then you’ve got a web app that can be packaged up and downloaded just like a traditional mobile app.
And that’s where Firefox OS just might have an ace up its sleeve: there are far, far more people out there who know how to build web apps than there are that can write C or C++ apps for other platforms.
And the overwhelming demand for the Keon and Peak is a good indicator there are a lot of interested developers – the initial supply of both phones sold out in a matter of hours.
Firefox OS: “You don’t build to the hardware, you build to HTML5.”
There are three different types of apps: web apps, which don’t have access to lower-level APIs; privileged apps, which have access to more sensitive APIs and must be approved by Mozilla; and certified apps, which are limited to those from Mozilla and partners.
There’s one big difference though between Mozilla’s App Store and the app stores you’re used to: developers aren’t compelled to use it. Developers can distribute apps through the store, through their own websites or through any other store build with Mozilla’s open-source tools.
Mozilla has already lined up hardware and carrier partnerships around the world, including the US which is home ground for the iPhone-Android duopoly and where Sprint is now working to bring some sort of Firefox OS phone to the market.
“Apple has talked up HTML5,” he says “but it doesn’t offer the hardware access developers need to actually build HTML5 apps.” Firefox OS does offer that access
Tomi Engdahl says:
ITC votes to prohibit iPad 4 imports
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4415716/ITC-votes-to-prohibit-iPad-4-imports
U.S. regulatory body finds that several models of Apple’s iPad tablet and iPhone smartphone violate patent held by Samsung.
Tomi Engdahl says:
comScore: Apple increases lead as top US smartphone maker, Samsung gains; Android down fourth month in a row
http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2013/06/04/comscore-apple-increases-lead-as-top-us-smartphone-maker-samsung-gains-android-down-fourth-month-in-a-row/
In the US, Apple’s dominance as the top smartphone OEM during the first quarter of 2013 has spilled over into April. Samsung is gaining as well, but not quite as quickly. Rounding out the top five are HTC, Motorola, and LG, all of which lost share once again.
In the platform space, Google is still first courtesy of Android, Apple is second with iOS, but the latter continues to gain on the former. For the fourth month running, Apple’s gains in the hardware space have forced Android to take a hit. Rounding out the top five are BlackBerry, Microsoft, and Symbian, none of which are gaining share.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Over 1 billion Android-based smart phones to ship in 2017
- 1.5 billion total smart phones to ship, accounting for 73% of all mobile phone shipments
http://www.canalys.com/newsroom/over-1-billion-android-based-smart-phones-ship-2017
Worldwide, 1.5 billion smart phones will ship in 2017, according to the latest country level forecasts from Canalys, to account for 73% of all mobile phone shipments. In North America and Western Europe, virtually all phones shipped will be smart phones. Even in Greater China, smart phones will represent 95% of all mobile phone shipments in 2017.
‘The price of smart phones has fallen dramatically over the last few years and this has helped increase penetration,’
‘But, so far, the problem with low-cost smart phones has been that the user experience has been compromised to hit lower price points. This is why Nokia has been so successful with its Asha portfolio. These handsets have been purpose-built and provide a great “pseudo-smart phone” experience. But the situation will change over the next few years. As component prices continue to fall, vendors will be able to deliver great experiences on smart phones at low price points, which means that in many markets, feature phones will become extinct.’
The smart phone market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18%, while mobile phone shipments will decline by a CAGR of 9% over the same period. Growth in the smart phone market will continue to be driven by Android.
Apple’s shipments will continue to grow, but at a slower rate than the total smart phone market
Microsoft’s market share is forecast to grow from 2.4% to 12.7% over the same period. ‘The scalability of Microsoft’s platform will be critical to its success and it has made progress here by enabling Huawei and Nokia to deliver Windows Phone products at aggressive price points,’
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sources: Not only Nokia EOS but Nokia Tablet too in trials at AT&T and in other markets. A July unveil for EOS and Tablet on cards!!
http://www.nokiapoweruser.com/2013/06/01/source-indicate-not-only-nokia-eos-but-nokia-tablet-too-in-trails-at-att-a-july-unveil-for-eos-and-tablet-on-cards/
EOS aka Lumia 950 may be the first device to have rich-recording or stereo recording with HAAC mics
“Now, some of our sources confirm that device is already under trials at AT&T and in other markets. Not only this they confirm that it will have that 41 MP sensor albeit improved than one on 808 PureView.”
sources mention that even Nokia Tablet is in simultaneous trials at AT&T and in other markets
Tomi Engdahl says:
Waze is the world’s fastest-growing community-based traffic and navigation app. Join other drivers in your area who share real-time traffic and road info, saving everyone time and gas money on their daily commute.
http://www.waze.com/
Waze is available for Android and iOS.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google’s YouTube Triples Mobile Sales Amid Wireless Shift
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-05/google-s-youtube-triples-mobile-sales-amid-wireless-shift.html
Google Inc.’s YouTube has tripled advertising sales on mobile devices in the past six months, the company said, contributing as much as an estimated $350 million to revenue at the video-sharing website.
About a quarter of YouTube’s 1 billion global users now access the service via handheld devices, spurring a increase in promotional spending to reach that audience, according to Lucas Watson, vice president of sales at YouTube.
With faster wireless networks and accelerating adoption of smartphones and tablets, U.S. mobile video-ad sales are projected to expand to $2.69 billion in 2017, increasing more than 10-fold from last year, according to EMarketer Inc.
“The commercial business has exploded,” Watson said in an interview. “It’s a huge part of our business, and we know that’s where it’s headed.”
More than half of smartphone users in the U.S accessed YouTube’s application in March, according to Nielsen Holdings NV (NLSN). At least 70 million people in the U.S. were on the app in March, up 42 percent from a year earlier, the researcher said.
YouTube’s program, available as a download from Apple’s App Store and featured on devices running Google’s Android operating system, shows commercials before a video starts playing. The challenge in mobile advertising is to keep consumers engaged to view promotional clips
“People have less patience on the phone; consumers have become more task-oriented,”
YouTube automates the task for marketers buying advertising, splitting airtime between computer browsers and mobile devices, Watson said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android’s Limits
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/androids-limits
Android is a lot more free than iOS, but there are limits. We need to break through those.
At its birth, Android was the horizontal and open solution to the problem of Apple’s vertical and closed silo. On Android, hardware makers and software writers could build devices and apps, free to operate outside the walls of any vendor’s closed garden.
This was fine, as long as we ignored the closed and vertical natures of three controlling forces in Android’s market space: 1) mobile-phone companies; 2) Google’s main business, which is advertising; and 3) every e-commerce vendor, each operating its own silo. So let’s visit those, in order.
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tomi says:
This is a customized theme specifically designed for this site.
You can’t get it ready made just like this anywhere.
It is a combination of in-house work and outside designers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
WWDC 2013 Roundup: iOS 7, OS X 10.9, MacBooks, ‘Genius-like’ Radio app (plus new tidbits)
9to5mac.com/2013/06/06/wwdc-2013-roundup-ios-7-os-x-10-9-macbooks-genius-like-radio-app-plus-new-tidbits/
Even though Apple has been out of the limelight, the Cupertino company has been hard at work on a slew of new hardware, software, and services products, and the company plans to introduce new versions of iOS, OS X, and the MacBook Air at its WWDC conference next week.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: iPhone still top seller at AT&T, Galaxy S4 tops other carriers
http://www.electronista.com/articles/13/06/05/survey.based.on.surveys.of.cellular.dealers.shows.sharp.difference/
On the heels of a recent study showing the Android platform losing ground in US marketshare to rival Apple, Canaccord Genuity has released data showing that Samsung’s Galaxy S4 took the top seller position at three of the four major US carriers’ outlets in May — with the exception being AT&T, where the eight-month-old iPhone 5 continues to be the most popular model.
The news for Samsung was not all good, however. In an interesting twist to the survey, the HTC One took third place in May at AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, while Nokia’s Lumia 928 took third place at Verizon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NHTSA and DOT Want Your Car To Be Able To Disable Your Cellphone Functions
http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/06/07/0058227/nhtsa-and-dot-want-your-car-to-be-able-to-disable-your-cellphone-functions
“The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Department of Transportation are considering technological solutions for people to stop using their cellphones while driving. Proximity detectors or requiring physical link with the car are the solutions under the scope.”
‘NHTSA wants automakers to make it impossible to enter text for messaging and internet browsing while the car is in motion’
The Feds’ ‘Ultimate Solution’ to Curb Distracted Driving
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/06/feds-ultimate-solution/
Distracted driving kills more than 3,000 people each year in the United States, a figure that represents about 10 percent of all traffic fatalities. How many of those people die because they were fiddling with their phones or navigating their navigation systems isn’t clear, but no matter. The feds say they’ve got “the ultimate solution” for curbing the use of mobile devices while we’re mobile.
Nathaniel Beuse, associate administrator for vehicle safety research at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says government regulation coupled with standards set by automakers and the electronics industry could reduce fatalities. He says we need “a technological solution, some sort of innovation” in which the device or the car would recognize when the driver is using a mobile device and deactivate it.
“This would be the ultimate solution,” he says.
Federal regulators want to make it impossible for you to send a text, update Facebook or surf Instagram while driving, a campaign that could have as big an impact on mobile phone manufacturers as automakers. This spring, the NHTSA and its parents at the Department of Transportation laid out — in a 281-page report (.pdf) — several guidelines for accomplishing this.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Addictions already at the age of one? Kids chose the tablet computer instead of the mother
Experiment, babies were given the choice, it pass over to his mother, or iPad. Time after time, the digital toy irresistible attraction to beat breast cylinders. Playful test was performed in New York’s Upper West Side neighborhood mothers’ group.
One of the mothers, Suzy Wolfson, says he is concerned about the 13-month-old son to the use of the tablet.
- I feel guilty when he is sitting with a tablet, but at the same time I know that I can get him to eat dinner, if you will give him an iPad, Wolfson says.
Tablet Computer manufacturers are discovering the children’s interest in tablet computers
Source: http://www.iltalehti.fi/digi/2013060617118108_du.shtml
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Tomi Engdahl says:
The research firm ABI Research believes that Samsung’s upcoming Linux-based Tizen is to become the world’s fifth most popular smartphone operating system later this year because the operating system gets strong support from Intel and Samsung: Tizen replaced the other linux-entrants such as Firefox and Ubuntu.
It may well come into a significant challenger in the Asian market, where operators are looking for new options, ABI writes. Operators are frustrated with Apple’s unwillingness to adapt the operating system. In Europe Orange and Vodafone may open its doors to Tizen.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/tizen+uhkaa+iphonea++apple+tympii+operaattoreita/a907490?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-10062013&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tizen Will Become Fifth Largest Mobile OS in 2013
http://www.abiresearch.com/press/tizen-will-become-fifth-largest-mobile-os-in-2013
A group of new open source mobile operating systems look set to make an impact on the mobile industry. Jolla recently released its first smartphone running on its Sailfish OS. Additionally, Firefox will be launching in Latin America and other emerging regions later this year on ZTE devices, and Tizen will be available on new Samsung smartphones in the next quarter. Also, Ubuntu-based mobile devices are projected to be released in 2H 2013. Amongst the clutter, market intelligence firm ABI Research projects Tizen to become the most notable player out of the emerging OSes.
“Tizen’s strong backing from Intel and Samsung will enable it to quickly outpace its other Linux mobile OS challengers,”
Tizen has been quick to build its membership group and some very notable mobile vendors are volunteering their support.
Although Tizen—or any of the emerging OSes—are not projected to make a significant impact on the global mobile OS market this year, the new group of OS platforms is forecast to make steady progress over the next five years, with 135 million smartphone shipments worldwide.
usps intelligent barcode says:
usps the full program at the most inexpensive, just a couple of hits away.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft retrieves lost Windows Phone handset running on prototype software
http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/9/4411976/lost-windows-phone-retrieved-by-microsoft
Apple famously lost an iPhone 4 prototype in a bar, sparking a hunt for the individuals involved in the loss and sale of the handset. Microsoft has also lost a phone, one running a future Windows Phone ‘Blue’ version of its mobile software. A Reddit user posted screenshots and information obtained from the device over the weekend, generating interest in unannounced features for Windows Phone which included an early prototype of a notification center.
Jeremiah Wong purchased a Lumia 920 from eBay on June 5th from a seller located in Seattle. “The phone in the pictures looked different,”
After posting screenshots of the software running on the device, and accidentally revealing his cellphone number in the process, Wong was contacted by Microsoft’s legal team. Microsoft locked the phone remotely and requested that Wong take down his photos from his Flickr account. “Apparently the guy who owned it lost it on a bus. It was then picked up and sold,” he says. Instead of pursuing Wong, Microsoft has offered to reimburse him for the cost of the device and also ship him a replacement phone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Time It’s Real: Google to Buy Waze And Keep It Independent
http://allthingsd.com/20130609/this-time-its-real-google-waze-deal-on-the-way/
Google is very close to acquiring Waze, the crowd-sourced navigation app, according to two sources close to the situation.
Waze will remain an independent entity for the time being, one source said, perhaps assuaging some fears that the tech giant will either outright kill or significantly alter the popular app.
However, it’s likely not going to be as easy as writing a check. There are not many global sources of mapping data: just Waze, Google, Navteq, TomTom and OpenStreetMap. Thus, this would be a deal that attracts serious regulatory scrutiny — the political rigamarole that the search giant is all too familiar with at this point.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AT&T extends upgrade period to two years, continues a worrying trend
http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/09/att-extends-upgrade-period-to-two-years/
The big US carriers tend to echo each other’s customer-hostile policy decisions all too often, and that’s unfortunately happening once again. Effective today, AT&T is shadowing Verizon by extending its standard device upgrade interval from 20 months to the full two years of a typical agreement.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This App Wants To Help You Find Cheap Alternatives To Really Expensive Wines
http://au.businessinsider.com/sydney-chemists-are-building-an-app-that-can-identify-cheap-replacements-for-luxury-wines-2013-6
Wine expert Ben Malouf has enlisted teams of Australian scientists and statisticians to determine the chemical characteristics of a good drop.
The data will inform a wine recommendation engine in a mobile app. It could identify cheaper alternatives to luxury wines and “ruffle a few feathers”, Malough says.
What everyone will want to know is: what’s the closest chemical match to Australia’s famous Penfold’s Grange?
In the next 12 months, Sydney University chemists will identify 1000 “flavour markers” in each of 2000 wines to build up a proprietary database for Malouf’s start-up, Wine Cue.
“We want to be able to cross-reference chemical compositions with customer ratings”
Tomi says:
Android apps to overtake Apple
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10095401/Android-apps-to-overtake-Apple.html
Google’s Android will become the most popular app platform in the world within months, claim reports that will deal a blow to Apple.
Although Apple recently celebrated 50billion app downloads, users of Google’s Android platform are currently downloading 500million more apps per month.
Driven by new devices from Samsung, Google’s app store, called Play, has surged ahead, despite a continued lack of top-end applications and consumers who still spend lower amounts. There are now 900million Android devices in the market compared to 600million Apple products.
Google recently said that 48 billion apps in total had been downloaded from Play.
Approximately 2billion iOS apps are downloaded each months, compared with 2.5billion from Play.
Tomi says:
Evaluating Android Anti-malware against
Transformation Attacks
http://list.cs.northwestern.edu/mobile/droidchameleon_nu_eecs_13_01.pdf
Mobile malware threats (e.g., on Android) have recently become a real concern. In this paper, we evaluate the state-of-the-art commercial mobile anti-malware products for Android and test how resistant they are against various common obfuscation techniques (even with known malware).
Our results on ten popular commercial anti-malware applications for Android are worrisome: none of these tools is resistant against common malware transformation techniques. Moreover, a majority of them can be trivially defeated by applying slight transformation over known malware with little effort for malware authors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple Unveils iOS 7
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/06/10Apple-Unveils-iOS-7.html
iOS 7 is completely redesigned with an entirely new user interface
iOS 7 introduces Control Center. Now the controls you want to access quickly are all in one convenient place.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The design of iOS 7: simply confusing
The new iOS is better and worse all at once
http://www.theverge.com/apple/2013/6/10/4416726/the-design-of-ios-7-simply-confusing
What I saw today at Apple’s annual WWDC event in the new iOS 7 was a radical departure from the previous design of the company’s operating system — what CEO Tim Cook called “a stunning new user interface.” But whether this new design is actually good design, well, that’s a different story entirely.
Apple did indeed tout a completely rethought mobile OS, one which isn’t technically a great distance from its predecessor, but is an incredible deviation on design. Gone are lush, skeuomorphic objects, dials, and textures (in fact, Apple took several potshots at itself about the faux-felt and wood textures of the iOS of yesteryear). Instead, they have been replaced with stark, largely white and open app spaces; colorful, almost child-like icons; pencil thin, abstract controls for settings.
The icons are striking to see, and the first sign that there are points of confusion and even missteps in Apple’s new approach. For starters, the icon styles wildly vary from app to app.
But with the icons, there’s an enormous feeling that Apple’s designers couldn’t decide on a direction. And for all the jokes about skeumorphism, I would have preferred something nearer to the company’s previous efforts than the new set, which seem closer to bathroom signage than even Windows Phone in their plainness.
It’s not just that the icons on the homescreen feel and look like the work of a lesser designer. They also vary across the system.
Elsewhere there is trouble — instead of correcting issues with the notification panel and alerts, Apple has simply given them a fresh coat of paint and several layers of sub-navigation.
But it’s not all a loss, or a miss. In fact, there are some extremely beautiful aspects of iOS 7 — aspects that lead me to believe that the raw materials for a more cohesive and useful OS are there, if perhaps a little buried.
Tomi Engdahl says:
For the first time, a third of American adults own tablet computers
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Tablet-Ownership-2013/Findings.aspx
A third (34%) of American adults ages 18 and older own a tablet computer like an iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus, or Kindle Fire—almost twice as many as the 18% who owned a tablet a year ago.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: Carrier Wi-Fi market is ‘red hot’
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/06/carrier-wifi.html
Infonetics Research has released excerpts from its latest Carrier WiFi Equipment report, which tracks WiFi equipment deployed by operators in public spaces for wireless Internet access. The global carrier WiFi equipment market is forecast by Infonetics to top $3.9 billion by 2017, primarily driven by mobile operators deploying carrier WiFi for data offload.
“The Carrier WiFi space is red hot right now, driven by the explosion in demand from mobile operators using WiFi to augment their 3G/4G deployments and offload a portion of mobile data traffic to unlicensed spectrum,” reveals Richard Webb, directing analyst for microwave and Carrier WiFi at Infonetics Research.
“Mobile operators by and large have held WiFi at arm’s length, fearing that it could cannibalize their opportunity to derive data revenues,” Webb continues. “Now operators are embracing WiFi to offload excess data and enhance the broadband experience for users. For the long-term success of carrier WiFi, though, integration with the mobile network is key.”
“Mobile operators are in the midst of a land-grab, rapidly claiming prime small cell locations by deploying carrier WiFi and then later replacing the WiFi access points with dual mode 3G/WiFi and LTE/WiFi small cells,” concludes Infonetics’ Webb.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘TV Everywhere’ mobile initiative still hasn’t gotten there, executives admit
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/technology/headlines/20130611-tv-everywhere-mobile-initiative-still-hasn-t-gotten-there-executives-admit.ece
TV was supposed to be everywhere by now — watchable anytime, anywhere, on your smartphone or tablet. But four years into the industry’s effort, network executives readily admit: TV isn’t everywhere.
The promise of “TV Everywhere” has been a key strategy in the cable and satellite TV industry’s fight to retain customers in the face of challenges from online video providers such as Netflix.
With TV Everywhere, customers who pay for packages with hundreds of television channels are supposed to be able to watch them on mobile devices and computers as well for no extra charge. That perk is meant to make pay TV packages seem more worthwhile and keep customers from defecting.
Yet many rights deals still haven’t been worked out. More important, audience measurement firms have been slow to count viewing on mobile devices, so advertisers have been reluctant to pay as much for commercials on phones and tablets compared with television sets.
“We either don’t get any credit at all, or if we do get credit it’s at a fraction of what we would have gotten if they first watched it live on the TV,” Ron Lamprecht, NBCUniversal’s executive vice president for digital distribution, said during a panel at The Cable Show, an industry conference this week.
This gap in ad revenue has created a kind of chicken-and-egg scenario. Networks and pay TV providers aren’t able to offer as many shows online because they don’t want to spend too much for rights without knowing they can make their money back. So, viewers can’t reliably find their favorite shows online and don’t use the services much.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Design, And Insecurity, Is Back At Apple
http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/10/design-and-insecurity-is-back-at-apple/
“Can’t innovate anymore, my ass.”
The phrase uttered by Phil Schiller during today’s keynote got a few laughs from the predictably enthusiastic WWDC audience. To me it dropped like a ton of bricked iPhones.
Is perception reality? Do products no longer speak for themselves?
As Cook said at D11 last month, “Many people now define innovation as new [product] categories.”
Apple abides by the same laws of physics and market dynamics as every other company. Not every concept has the potential to be a life-changing hit, and not every idea that makes oh so much sense on paper to fans and pundits can be willed into a game-changing product, even by Apple. That’s how it ought to be. Categories don’t equal innovation. Just ask Sony.
In a world of companies willing to say yes to just about anything in the name of being innovative Apple still says no.
Half-baked ideas that just don’t stick the landing, products that elicit hand-wringing and that require lengthy explanation. If Apple releases its own Google Glass, get worried.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia to stop shipping Symbian smartphones summer 2013 according to Financial Times. The last Symbian smartphone is 808 Pureview released at 2012.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/symbiantoimitukset+loppuvat/a908678?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-12062013&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia planning to cease shipments of Symbian devices this summer
http://www.phonedog.com/2013/06/11/nokia-planning-to-cease-shipments-of-symbian-devices-this-summer/
Ever since Nokia first announced that it’d be adopting Windows Phone as part of a “strategic partnership” with Microsoft, the Finnish manufacturer as steadily been turning its focus away from its Symbian-based products in favor of its Windows Phone-powered Lumia hardware and its affordable line of Asha handsets. Now a new report claims that Nokia will soon complete its transition from Symbian by ceasing shipments of products running the operating system.
According to the Financial Times, Nokia is planning to stop shipments of its Symbian-based smartphones this summer. The company isn’t expected to make a formal announcement regarding the decision since there’s still stock of Symbian hardware in some parts of the globe.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia saying final farewell to Symbian this summer
http://wmpoweruser.com/nokia-saying-final-farewell-to-symbian-this-summer/
The Financial Times reports that Nokia will send its final shipments of Symbian handsets to store shelves this summer.
Their Windows Phone shipments only surpassed their Symbian shipments in Q4 2012 and Nokia still shipped 500,000 of the handsets in Q1 this year. It was thought by many that that quarter would be the last the devices will appear.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ZTE inks patent licensing deal with Dolby for smartphones and tablets
Wants to make better sounds
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2274140/zte-inks-patent-licensing-deal-with-dolby-for-smartphones-and-tablets
CHINESE PHONE MAKER ZTE has signed a patent licensing deal with Dolby to use its audio technology in smartphones and tablets.
ZTE has made a name for itself by making low-end Android smartphones that have been picked up by the Android modding community. The firm has also tried to build premium devices and in signing a patent licensing deal with Dolby, it seems it plans put more effort into the audio quality of its devices.
Curiously both Dolby and ZTE seemed to play against the notion that Chinese companies are not willing to sign patent licensing deals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google to punish sloppy mobile webmasters
Sick of 404s on mobiles? So’s Mountain View
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/12/google_gets_bolshie_with_dodgy_mobe_site_errors/
Google’s blog post uses just a couple of examples of configuration errors: faulty redirects or unrenderable video.
And videos – such as the infamous auto-plays that are becoming a staple of newspaper sites – are an obvious snafu: if you’re presenting Adobe Flash video, it’s not going to work on an iPhone or newer Android.
There’s also the howler of incorrectly handling the mobile robot – which would, of course, automatically spoil the search rank of your mobile site.
“To improve the search experience for smartphone users and address their pain points, we plan to roll out several ranking changes in the near future that address sites that are misconfigured for smartphone users,” the post says.
Google’s main advice is that detecting the user agent and redirecting to different HTML links is bad practice anyhow: far better, The Chocolate Factory says, to use the same HTML and use different CSS media queries for rendering.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smartphone Makers Pressed to Address Growing Theft Problem
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/13/smartphone-makers-pressed-to-address-growing-theft-problem/
Seeking to curb a nationwide increase in smartphone thefts, New York’s attorney general and San Francisco’s district attorney on Thursday announced an initiative to push the industry to develop technologies that will discourage theft and dry up the market for stolen devices.
Mr. Gascón and Mr. Schneiderman were scheduled to meet Thursday afternoon with representatives from Apple, Samsung, Google’s Motorola unit and Microsoft, which have about 90 percent of the smartphone market.
“It is totally unacceptable that we have an epidemic of crime that we believe can be eliminated if the technological fixes that we believe are available are put into place,” Mr. Schneiderman said.
The coalition is encouraging manufacturers to equip all smartphones with a “kill switch.” When consumers reported to providers that their cellphone had been stolen, the phone, like a stolen credit card, would be rendered inoperable.
“For the thieves who would steal them,” Mr. Schneiderman said, the phones would be “nothing more than a paperweight.”
“The industry has the moral and the social obligation to fix this problem,” Mr. Gascón said. “There are very few things that can be fixed with a technological solution, and this is one of them.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smartphones, the design should pay more attention to user interfaces. If the phone makes the user feel himself a fool, it will easily cause the user to feel badly towards to the device.
Particularly well remain in the memory haunt the situations in which the phone due to forced embarrassed in front of other people. An example of this is that the user is not able to end the call with a new on their device.
“Such a basic function of realizing failure to chip away at the user’s sense of self and creates a strong negative feeling, which, over time, begin to set out in the public view,” says Miron Shatz, Ono Academic College, Research Institute of medical decisions.
“Manufacturers are investing millions of development and planning to amaze consumers, but they do not always fully understand the factors of price and user experience but also may affect how the end users will actually see their products,” Aalto University Department of Design senior lecturer Dr Sari Kujala said.
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/pitavat_holmona_vaihdanpa_kannykkamerkkia
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Takes Home Half of Worldwide Mobile Internet Ad Revenues
http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Google-Takes-Home-Half-of-Worldwide-Mobile-Internet-Ad-Revenues/1009966
Google earned more than half of the $8.8 billion advertisers worldwide spent on mobile internet ads last year, helping propel the company to take in nearly one-third of all digital ad dollars spent globally, according to eMarketer’s first-ever figures on worldwide digital and mobile advertising revenues at major internet companies.
After making nearly half a billion dollars worldwide on mobile ads last year, Facebook—which had no mobile revenue in 2011—is expected to increase mobile revenues by more than 333% to just over $2 billion in 2013, and account for a 12.9% share of the global net mobile advertising market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finally. Office 365 is available for the iPhone, lets you edit any Word, Excel and PowerPoint file
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/06/14/finally-office-365-is-available-in-the-app-store-lets-you-edit-any-word-excel-and-powerpoint-file/
After so many years of speculation, it’s finally happened. At long last, an app encompassing Microsoft’s popular Office applications is available for iOS owners.
It’s called ‘Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers’,
For users with an Office 365 subscription, it means they can access, view and edit any file previously saved in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Powerpoint.
The introduction will undoubtedly be welcomed by all Office 365 subscribers, as it significantly increases the perceived value of the service.
The app pulls all of the users’ files from the cloud, meaning that Office documents can be stored and downloaded from SkyDrive, SkyDrive Pro and SharePoint. There’s also device syncing, so recent documents that have been edited or accessed on one device – say a desktop PC or Windows RT tablet – will be shown in the iOS app through the recent documents panel. Similarly, when the user opens a document from SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro, it will open up at the exact place where they last stopped reading – regardless of which device they previously accessed it from.
Office 365 is a cloud-based service, but that doesn’t mean that the user needs an Internet connection to get to work. The app saves recently viewed and edited documents automatically, so that they’re always available – regardless of where the user is at the time. Documents can then be viewed and edited offline, with changes being submitted to the cloud when the user connects to a new network.
Tomi Engdahl says:
We want to put a KILL SWITCH into your PHONE, say Feds
The only good mobe is a dead mobe
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/14/us_government_wants_mobile_kill_switch/
US law enforcement is calling for a mandatory kill switch on all mobiles, enabling the shut down of stolen phones in the hope of rendering them worthless.
Mobile phone theft keeps rising, with one in three US robberies involving mobile kit, apparently. A coalition of US law enforcement agencies calling itself “Secure our Smartphones” is therefore calling for manufacturers to take responsibility for their products – to the point of reaching out and locking them down if they get nicked.
This plays nicely into the hands of Apple, whose latest mobile OS (announced last week) coincidentally has exactly that feature. Samsung has promised something similar, and both Google and Microsoft came along to the Smartphone Summit to talk about the idea.
And it’s not a bad idea. Yet, like all “not-so-bad” ideas, the devil is in the detail.
All (GSM) phones have an International Mobile Equipment Identifier (IMEI – press *#06# to see it) number, and the majority of mobile networks subscribe to a system which blocks stolen IMEI numbers from their networks.
That system, known as the Central Equipment Identity Register or CEIR, theoretically makes stolen phones useless, but this is assuming that the IMEI hasn’t been changed, the handset isn’t shipped to a developing market which hasn’t coughed up the CEIR fee, and (perhaps most importantly) that the thief knows all this.
Most UK muggings, for example, include the theft of a mobile phone, but it’s rarely the phone the thieves want.
The purpose of stealing the handset and then discarding it is to delay pursuers, thus providing more time during which stolen credit cards and other spoils can be turned into cash.
But that can skew the crime figures, making it look as though mobile theft is reaching the epidemic proportions described by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
That’s not to say stolen phones are without value. Changing the IMEI of a phone is illegal in the UK (even advertising one’s ability to perform the act is against the law) but on most handsets it remains possible.
Manufacturers could make it all but impossible to change the IMEI. That would address many of the issues, but it wouldn’t give them greater control over their customers and an excuse to stay in touch throughout the life of the product (“send in your warranty documents or we’ll kill the phone, and be sure to tell us if you decide to sell it on”).
Tomi Engdahl says:
EU signs off on eCall emergency-phone-in-every-car plan
GPS and a mobe in every car – do you suppose the NSA would fancy that?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/14/eu_signs_off_on_ecall_plan/
The European Union’s plan to insist every new car on the road by 2015 includes a mobile device that phones home after a crash is set to become reality, after the European Commission signed off draft legislation to enact the scheme. Assent from the European Parliament and Council of the European Union is now required, but little opposition is expected.
The idea behind the scheme, known as eCall, is simple: when a car crashes, an on-board device that combines a GPS and mobile communications device will contact Europe’s ’112′ emergency services number. By automating that call, legislators expect emergency services response will be faster, which will mean lives will be saved.
The EU says “Taking into account economies of scale, installation of the eCall in-vehicle system is estimated to cost much less than €100 per new car.”
As we’ve previously noted, the idea is noblebut with 250m cars in the EU multiplied by 100 Euros, the bill gets very large over time.
The upside is an expected 2,500 lives saved over ten years and a likely boost for sim-free devices on mobile networks, which should please those keen on an internet of things and more machine-to-machine communications.
the spec means eCall units are “… not traceable and when there is no emergency (its normal operational status) it is not subject to any constant tracking.”
The EU also says “As it is not permanently connected to mobile networks, hackers cannot take control of it.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
eCall system drawing
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/esafety/images/ecall/img10.jpg
Tomi says:
This information iPhone, Lumia and Android phones transmit the United States
Calls, text messages, location information – a lot of things, including U.S. intelligence agencies can apparently be accessed. Also the Finnish smartphone data is likely to be achieved if desired.
The U.S. intelligence community NSA can get your hands on the most popular smartphone data. About a week ago revealed that, among other things, Microsoft, Google and Apple have given the NSA for information about users of their services.
Leak shows that NSA has a firm grip on smartphones, as Apple, Google and Microsoft share the majority of the smartphone market.
What information you can get from the mobile phone?
1 Who is calling you, and because
Google can store your data on Android phones for calls.
2 Address and credit card number
If you register as Apple, Google or Microsoft’s application store, he must notify his name and address, phone and other contact details and credit card numbers.
3 With your contact information
The companies also offer cloud services, which can back up your phone content.
4 Your text message
Google can save Android users, at least for SMS routing information. Windows Phone 8, Phone users can activate the automatic backup,
Apple again seeks to replace the text in their own iMessage service.
US-based servers.
5 Where you are and move
As well as Google, Apple and Microsoft for example, store a user’s location from the map or the other Services.
6 Your photos
Photos may also include location information, so they can be transmitted with the data, where they were taken.
7 Web browsing and search
The companies will also record the websites you visit to your phone’s browser. Google will also save your searches times. So does Microsoft’s Bing search service.
8 Your speech, your nickname and family tree
Apple iPhone’s Siri voice-hour service for the spoken word will be sent to Apple. At the same time Apple Siri can be stored in the interest of users and nicknames, address book contacts, nicknames, as well as the relations between persons.
Also, Windows Phone, voice recognition
9 Your phone’s model and the unique identifier
10, Almost everything else
If Apple’s iPhone, the user accepts the diagnostics and user data collection
Source: http://www.digitoday.fi/tietoturva/2013/06/15/nama-tiedot-iphone–lumia–ja-android-puhelimet-valittavat-yhdysvaltoihin/20138379/66?rss=6
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sources: Microsoft Is Paying Developers Up To $100,000 To Write Windows Phone 8 Apps
http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-pays-big-bucks-for-windows-phone-8-apps-2013-6?op=1
Microsoft openly pays developers up front for writing Windows Phone 8 apps.
The company right now has an offer to pay $100 for any app that gets published in the Windows store by the end of the month. But there’s a cap: up to $2,000 per developer.
Word is that Microsoft is offering some developers way more than that, as much $100,000 to bring their apps to Windows Phone 8.
The move makes sense for Microsoft. Its Windows Phone 8 operating system for smartphones doesn’t have strong app selection like Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android phones do. Apps are very important to many smartphone customers, and it’s a big challenge for Microsoft to convince people to buy Windows Phones if its app store doesn’t have the apps they want.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AT&T GoPhone plans to support LTE, drop most data add-ons on June 21st (updated)
http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/14/att-gophone-lte/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google To Shut Down Mobile Ad Aggregator AdWhirl Sept 30, Points Developers To AdMob Mediation
http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/13/google-shuts-down-mobile-ad-aggregator-adwhirl-asks-developers-to-use-admob-mediation-instead/
Google, the worldwide leader in mobile advertising, today made another move that could help consolidate its position a little bit further. The company today announced to developers that it would be shutting down AdWhirl, a platform that let app developers switch between different ad networks on the fly. AdWhirl was a part of AdMob, acquired by the mobile ad network after a flurry of competition, just months before AdMob was acquired itself by Google for $750 million.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Galaxy S4 upsets iPhone 5 in our brutal destruction test (video)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57588673-1/galaxy-s4-upsets-iphone-5-in-our-brutal-destruction-test-video/
We dunk, scratch, and drop the two hottest smartphones to discover which is tougher. And then we run them over.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smartphone demand makes Spreadtrum guidance soar
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4416470/Smartphone-demand-makes-Spreadtrum-guidance-soar
Spreadtrum Communications Inc. continues to be stretched by demand for its mobile phone chips.
The company has revised guidance for sales in the second quarter ending June 30 up to between $270 million and $278 million, an increase of between 43 and 47 percent over the first quarter.
Back in March Leo Li, Chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum (Shanghai, China), told EE Times that the company was struggling to keep up with growing smartphone demand.
Spreadtrum supports 2G, 3G and 4G wireless communications standards with chipsets, customizable software and reference designs in turnkey platforms.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Acer: ‘We’d love to do a Windows Phone 8 handset’
Exclusive Trouble is, no one knows about it
http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/acer-we-d-love-to-do-a-windows-phone-8-handset–1158727
Microsoft is keen for manufacturers to build smartphones for its Windows Phone 8 OS, but Acer isn’t willing to bite this time.
Allen Burnes, Acer’s VP of Smartphones for EMEA told TechRadar: “We are looking at Windows Phone 8, we think it’s a great OS. The integration with Xbox is nice, the enterprise suite is nice, but I think no one knows about it.”
Burnes continued: “You’ll find everyone in our smartphone team would really like to deploy Windows OS, but in relation to where we are as a company we have to make our decisions in relation to what we think will sell out.
“We’ve made the decision not to launch a Windows Phone 8 device this year.”
“What they [Microsoft] has to do is communicate. They can’t rely on Nokia, which has its own challenges of rebuilding its brand, to do it for them,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Latest leak suggests Nokia EOS to pack 41MP camera, possible metallic variant also spotted (updated)
http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/14/nokia-eos-41mp-camera-leak/
We gotta say, originally we weren’t very confident in the above alleged spy shots of the rumored Nokia EOS smartphone, but after talking to the leakster from Sina Weibo, we think we got this figured out. First of all, there are two parts here: the paint-less camera cover plate that now says “41 MEGA PIXEL” — the same camera resolution featured on the 808 PureView — instead of “XX MEGA PIXEL,” and a metallic chassis of the EOS phone.
Judging by his background and track record so far (he claims he also leaked the red EOS factory photos), we have reason to believe that this leakster does have a good source on the factory floor. Hence our two assumptions: either this chassis is an early engineering sample, or that this is a metallic variant of the plastic EOS.