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.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia design guru urges Apple to end cable chaos
http://www.afr.com/p/technology/nokia_design_guru_urges_apple_to_gUAUu5zOQJPmRuA058BnbN
The man who designed the Nokia mobile phones, which once ruled the world, has called on Apple to work with the broader technology industry and end its policy of having proprietary connectors for its device chargers and accessories.
Phone design guru Frank Nuovo said the smartphone market had grown to such a ubiquitous level that it had become too inconvenient for Apple devices to use different connectors to everyone else. He warned that failure to reach a compromise could see Apple marginalised in a world of greater device interconnection.
Unlike most Android and Windows smartphones and tablets, which use standard micro USB ports for recharging batteries and connecting to computers and other devices, the recently released iPhone 5S and 5C stuck with Apple’s lightning connector.
While no surprise, the move disappointed many users, fed up with hunting around for chargers from colleagues around offices and in airport lounges when their cables have gone astray. It will also have dismayed European Union officials, who have tried to force Apple to use the same chargers as everyone else to reduce e-waste.
Needless frustration
“I think that the world is frustrated that you have to have a proprietary connector at this point of maturity in the mobile phone world, we have reached a point where these phones of different brands are everywhere,” he said.
“Can you imagine if you move to a different zip code and the plug in the wall changes from Australian to American or British? Phones are at a point in maturity that people expect to be able to walk into a place and charge it.”
More standardisation, less waste
While Mr Nuovo’s concerns come from a consumer’s perspective, while there is also a political push for standardisation. In September the EU’s Internal Market Committee introduced a proposal calling for micro USB chargers to become the industry standard.
“We urge member states and manufacturers to introduce a universal charger, to put an end to cable chaos for mobile phones and tablet computers,” German Euro MP Barbara Weiler said at the time.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Watch is happening soon, heavy into Kit Kat/Google Now functionality
http://9to5google.com/2013/10/14/google-watch-is-happening-soon-heavy-into-kit-katgoogle-now-functionality/
I recently heard word that Google was putting the finishing touches on a Watch product. Details are slim but the person seemed to think that Google Now functionality would be at the center of the product.
Google is focusing on longer battery life and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.
“Google will announce a Nexus watch, codenamed Gem, likely together with the KitKat announcement. The date I have, which, once again, is about a month old, is also October 31st.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google readying ‘Mobile Meter’ app that offers rewards for tracking mobile usage (updated)
http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/14/google-mobile-meter-tracking-ios-android-app/
Google already knows better than most how we use the internet. Now it wants to dig a little deeper and monitor your app usage as well. Engadget has learned that the company is readying a new mobile service that compensates users if they allow their mobile behavior to be monitored. We’re told that the project, known internally as “Mobile Meter,” utilizes iOS and Android apps that intelligently monitor app usage and web browsing habits and send the data back to Google.
Google refused to comment, as it usually does on what it considers “rumor and speculation.” However, our sources tell us that the Mobile Meter program will be totally voluntary.
Google already passively collects data to improve its apps and resources. The Google Maps app, for instance, regularly feeds back location metrics to enhance the service.
Google has confirmed the development of the new apps, which it says are part of its Screenwise market research project that began rolling out last year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ex-Valve employees raising $400K on Kickstarter for augmented reality, 3D-projection glasses
http://www.geekwire.com/2013/castar/
Maybe Valve should have kept these two around.
Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson today launched a Kickstarter to raise $400,000 for their projected augmented reality glasses that display interactive 3D images right in front of you. The castAR specs are unlike wearable virtual reality headsets like Oculus Rift, which can only project images into your eye instead of the other way around.
For nearly one year, Ellsworth and Johnson actually had been working hard on this project while together at Valve.
“The first thing out of almost everyone’s mouth when they put this ‘head crab’ on was like, ‘Oh wow! Wow,’”
“The first thing out of almost everyone’s mouth when they put this ‘head crab’ on was like, ‘Oh wow! Wow,’” Ellsworth recalls in this video. “So I knew that this was really a great direction to go because we could go from this big heavy thing and we could actually start shrinking it down and make super light-weight glasses.”
But Valve “didn’t quite see how it fit with the type of games that they do,” Ellsworth said. Even though several Valve employees came into their offices and spent hours into the nights playing with the glasses — “it was magical,” says Ellsworth — the idea never sunk in with the Valve execs.
Soon later, Ellsworth and Johnson — who had developed software for the specs — were sent packing this past February when Valve fired 25 people in a somewhat surprising and out-of-character move.
“I was devastated,” Ellsworth said. “I had really fallen in love with this project and we had developed so much cool stuff around it. We were heading in a good direction. Devastated — I can’t find a better word for it.”
Hours after learning she was being fired, Ellsworth met with Valve CEO Gabe Newell and asked if he would let her and Johnson continue working on the glasses outside of Valve.
“Gabe turned to the lawyer in the room and he said, ‘Let them have it,’” Ellsworth recalled. “And I was like, ‘Oh, O.K.’ At that point it was still a really sucky thing, but hopes were kind of reinvigorated.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dude, Where’s My Car?
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1163208
While we usually remember what side of the mall we parked on, there was a time downtown that I couldn’t remember what parking garage we used, much less what level or spot. Thankfully, I had the parking ticket in my pocket, which included the address for the particular parking lot we used.
If you’ve ever walked around a parking lot wondering if you were the victim of theft, or possibly going senile, Valet is the perfect app for you. It not only remembers the GPS location of your parked car, but it also has a timer to remind you of parking meter timing. Plus, if your car has Bluetooth connectivity, Valet will record where you left your car without any interaction on your part. It just marks the location where Bluetooth disconnected, and it happily guides you back when you’ve finished spending your paycheck
You can find it at the Google Play store, or check out the Web site: http://valetapp.co
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android 4.4 KitKat will let you choose your own default texting app
http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/14/4838696/android-kitkat-allows-default-third-party-texting-apps-sms-mms
Android users will be able to choose third-party apps to handle their text messaging by default when the operating system’s next big update, version 4.4 KitKat, eventually launches. On its developer blog, Google notes that many third-party SMS and MMS apps have already been made using workarounds to gain access to users’ texts
Google will begin supplying a proper way for them to be accessed in KitKat, alongside the option to choose a default app to handle them.
The details come amid rumors that Google will also begin bundling SMS and MMS messaging right into its Hangouts app, creating a competitor to Apple’s iMessage.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Slip your SIM into a plastic sheath, WIPE international call charges
Nano, Micro or Mini?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/16/sim_condom_wipes_international_call_charges/
A sticker slapped onto a SIM card can cut international calls by 98 per cent, and guarantee a 50 per cent saving on business spending, without changing numbers or phones.
The sticker comes from BiBiTel, and is really a second SIM which sits between the handset and the operator SIM. Most commands are passed straight through, but international numbers are intercepted and routed through BiBiTel’s service which provides discount calls on a pre-paid basis.
The tariffs are comparable to those offered by calling-card schemes
It’s not the first time an intercept has been slotted between the SIM and the handset. Developers frequently use a ribbon which breaks out SIM communication to a PC – the protocol is serial 9600 baud 8N1, so interception is technically trivial, but other than academic examination or cryptanalysis there’s been little reason to bother.
BiBiTel’s approach is a nice application of the idea, and should worry network operators, which make a lot of money on international calls that customers are too lazy to route elsewhere. Of course one shouldn’t underestimate the laziness of consumers – who might decide that wrapping their SIM in plastic is still too much of a faff
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore on Windows Phone Sales: We’re Small, but Growing Fast
http://allthingsd.com/20131014/microsofts-joe-belfiore-on-windows-phone-sales-were-small-but-growing-fast/
While Microsoft hasn’t had a major update to Windows Phone this year, Joe Belfiore rejects the idea that the company isn’t running fast enough in its effort to catch up to Android and iOS.
Instead, the Microsoft VP said the company is moving quickly, but in ways that are less visible to consumers. Its three updates to Windows Phone 8, including one announced earlier on Monday, haven’t added a lot of features to existing phones, but have paved the way for Nokia and other partners to expand Windows Phone into new markets.
“The work we are doing is valuable, and a lot of people aren’t aware of it,” Belfiore said in an interview.
While it is always nice to add features, Belfiore said that the biggest gap for Windows Phone remains the lack of some key apps, and that the biggest thing Microsoft or its partners can do is grow the market for Windows Phone to make it a more attractive platform for developers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The South Korea Report: Device and App Trends in The First Saturated Device Market
http://blog.flurry.com/bid/101499/The-South-Korea-Report-Device-and-App-Trends-in-The-First-Saturated-Device-Market
In August of this year Flurry Analytics measured 33,527,534 active smartphones and tablets in South Korea. While that was only 2.8% of the entire worldwide connected device installed base Flurry measures, South Korea is an important market for connected devices for several reasons. First, it is the first connected device market in the world to approach saturation. Second, it is Samsung’s home market, and largely as a consequence of that, more of the devices in use there are manufactured by domestic firms than is the case for any other country. Finally, it is home to more phablet fans than anywhere else.
First Saturated Device Market
Worldwide the installed base of connected devices measured by Flurry grew by 81% between August of 2012 and August of 2013, whereas growth for South Korea during the same time period was only 17%. It was a different story just a couple of years ago. During late 2011 and early 2012, the South Korean connected device market grew more rapidly than the worldwide market
This was the period during which Samsung introduced the Galaxy Note. It was the first successful ‘phablet’, enabling Samsung to capture two-thirds of the South Korean mobile phone market, and driving rapid growth in that market.
Home to Samsung, LG, Pantech, and Phablets
Even as growth in its domestic market has slowed, Samsung continues to dominate the South Korean connected device market. It had a 60% share of a random sample
the vast majority of the smartphones and tablets being used in South Korea (85% of the devices in our sample) are manufactured in South Korea.
Given that South Korea’s rapid period of connected device growth was ushered in by the phablet, it is perhaps not surprising that it continues to surpass the rest of the world in its preference for that form factor.
Games Occupy Time And Generate Revenue
Games are the most popular app category in South Korea, as they are in much of the rest of the world.
What Happens Once The Connected Device Market is Saturated?
The fact that the South Korean connected device market is saturated (or very close to being saturated) makes it an interesting test case for considering the future of the connected device market worldwide. What happens once more or less everyone who is likely to is carrying at least one smartphone or tablet?
One area to keep an eye on is new uses for connected devices, such as mobile payments. South Korea is a world leader in mobile payments – probably in part because of the prevalence of NFC-enabled devices. For example, SK Planet has a mobile payment system called T Cash, which is used for 54% of in app purchases, and also can be used to pay for off-device transactions such as train and taxi fares. Interestingly, another third of in app purchases are paid for using gift certificates, demonstrating the potential of mobile devices as a mechanism for giving and receiving gifts
Another area to watch is interoperability across connected devices. The fact that Samsung manufactures smartphones, tablets, and connected TVs (as well as other consumer electronics that are becoming part of the Internet of things) makes it well-positioned to better integrate those devices and the content that runs on them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
All cool kids’ phones run ALTERNATIVE alternative custom Android ROM
New fandroid team to give Cyanogen a run for its money – literally
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/16/android_custom_roms_splinter_over_openness/
Android users who want a custom ROM*, but are turned off by Cyanogenmod’s attempts to go commercial, now have another option in the form of newly launched OmniROM.
OmniROM comes from several of those involved in CyanogenMod, who lost interest when those in charge of the most popular replacement firmware committed the cardinal sin of trying to turn a buck, so now we have competing ROMs for Android devices – offering more choice than ever.
Users place their supplied ROM (strictly speaking a ROM-Image) to enable additional features, or remove things their manufacturer has decided to include, or get a new version of Android working on old hardware which isn’t officially supported any more.
Both OmniROM and CyanogenMod are descended from the Android Open Source Project.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jolla time to strike
One of this year’s most exciting new smartphones do not show off with a giant screen, high-speed processor or high camera. The technical information in the light Jolla newcomer to get lost in a flood of smartphone, but the dinghy was a good trump cards. The first phone should just get in stores soon.
There is room for a fourth operating system, especially as Samsung and Intel have not yet received a Tizen phone out. Firefox phones do not yet correctly on sale, and Firefox will compete even more low-cost phones.
Jolla benefit can also be calculated more grand Ubuntu Edge to crash a number of financial projects. Edge would in itself have been a very interesting novelty. It’s a shame that the price of ruined its chances.
Jolla has not made a similar mess up. The first phone is very common in available components. Technically, the phone is quite modest, but on the other hand, it is reasonable priced, pre-order 399 euros.
Jolla phone’s design is quite successful and the operating system is interesting. Sailfish operating system helps to distinguish Jolla mass, but the challenge is to get the developers. On the other hand Android apps available to facilitate the application in short supply.
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/artikkeli/blogit/omenalohkoja/jollan_aika_iskea
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Problem with Android is Choice
http://sixrevisions.com/user-interface/androids-problem/
Android is flexible. Most reviews tout that as a key advantage of the operating system, particularly when it’s being compared with iOS.
Here’s why that’s a bad idea:
1. Choice reduces user satisfaction.
2. Choice reduces usability.
3. Choice reduces product quality.
Android: A Layer Cake of Choices
So you’ve decided to buy an Android phone.
Great! Which one?
At some point you make a decision on which phone to buy.
You download a bunch of apps and set up your home screen. Good news! You have choices here too.
There’s a drawer with an alphabetical list of all your apps.
On some phones, there’s a Favorites page.
Later, a friend texts you a hilarious photo. You’d like to save it for later. You’re presented with these choices:
And that list of choices only gets longer because each app you install adds itself to it.
Over time — talking to friends, reading blogs — you’ll realize you’ve barely scratched the surface of Android choice.
You can install custom lock screens!
Launchers!
Replacement phone apps!
Different fonts!
Choice Reduces Satisfaction
As a society we’re deluded about choice.
We perpetuate the myth that more is better — yet there’s research going back decades to suggest the opposite.
Perhaps the most famous is Sheena Iyengar’s 1995 “jam jar study”, which showed a 4x increase in options decreased purchases by 85%.
That’s bad enough in a traditional retail environment, where you make your purchase and move on. But it’s worse in the world of software, where apps are cheap and each app provides its own array of options.
Choosing vs. Tinkering
There’s a distinction here between choosing and tinkering.
We all have friends who tinker with their cars, their bikes, their computers. It’s a hobby, and the constant fiddling is a destination in itself rather than just the journey. For such hobbyists, a plethora of choices is necessary: it’s the fuel that powers the tinkering.
I think many who extol Android’s flexibility fall into the tinkerer category, including some tech bloggers. They love all the ways they can customize their phones, not because they’re seeking some perfect setup, but because they can swap in a new launcher every week. That’s fun for them; but they’ve made the mistake of not understanding how their motivation differs from the rest of us.
Choice Reduces Usability
We often talk about the best products being simple. But that’s not quite it: The best products are opinionated.
A great product is one you can disagree with because its creators have made choices on your behalf. If they’re good product designers, they’ve made good choices, and the result is that much-lauded simplicity.
Choices vs. Preferences
It’s also worth distinguishing between choice and preference.
Catering to all individual preferences creates a bloated, bland product. Not to mention a UI that’s impossible to navigate.
Furthermore, people are notoriously bad at identifying what we want.
To deliver a product that will improve people’s lives, we must sometimes break expectations and force users through a period of adjustment. The long-term path to user satisfaction sometimes involves short-term dissatisfaction.
Choice Reduces Product Quality
It takes a lot of code to produce software. And bugs are unavoidable because developers are human, and because that’s what happens with a system whose many, many moving parts are constantly changing with an incomplete awareness of each other and the dependencies among them.
To test effectively, it’s necessary to replicate as many of the conditions under which the product might run as possible. And to fix a bug, a developer needs to reproduce it–make it happen again so she can see what’s really going on.
So, software teams spend a huge percentage of their time finding and fixing bugs.
The more variation, the more testing, and the harder it becomes to replicate a bug when it’s found.
This is why Android’s fragmentation — the array of Android versions and devices an app must support — is such an issue.
We can’t control fragmentation, but we can avoid exacerbating it. When we introduce excessive choice, we increase the number of possible environments in which something could break, and the number of conditions we have to test. That increase isn’t additive, it’s multiplicative: the number of conditions downstream of a choice is multiplied by the number of options it provides.
Epilogue: Dealing With User Feedback
To begin with, the loudest users aren’t necessarily the most typical; someone might request a feature that would genuinely improve his experience, at the expense of most other users.
Tomi says:
Fair mobile phone aims to mobile marketing
New Fairfield Phone smartphone to advertise its production as transparent as possible, and ecological. Finn Watch, Fair Phone operates mainly in the sustainable development message for the big phone companies.
The smartphone market, competing applications, including the phone ecological footprint. Over a cell phone, or the Fair Phone makes their shops the first phone on the market.
Dutch Fair Phone, the company was in the spring of the size of the required number of pre-orders for the production began.
Fair Phone wants to bring out the telephone industry ethical problems. The phone is said to be over the transparency of production and the ecological thanks.
There are currently 30 to mobile phone used in the mineral we are able to fully trace the routes of the two minerals. Remember we do not yet have a clue, says Bibi Bleekemolen Fair Phone company.
Now the company knows the tin and tantalum routes. The next objective is to determine, among other things, gold and copper tracks.
In Finland, the idea of fair phone is taken patiently.
A small company has limited resources for fairness
Problems Fairphonen chain transparency by the fact that it is a small company, which is why contractors control is very difficult. FinnWatch Vartiala points out that a big company has a bigger resources to identifying the origin of the phone.
- A big company is already doing a lot of things forward. For example, Nokia has its own factory in India, which gives the company a quite different capacity to control the working conditions in the factory.
Vartiala call into question the fact that the Fair Phone configuration is chosen as the country of China, which is not at all the free trade union activities.
“For consumers, it will eventually decide”
Finnish is also a small gang formed a cell phone company he who does not believe that the phone would have a significant fair market gap, at least in Finland.
Message to large enterprises – if consumers get excited about fairness
Jolla CEO Tom Pienimäki believes that the Fair Phone is an example of fair trade only if consumers prefer mobile phone chain transparency of the other features the phone instead.
- Do not take the big companies fair to the phone signal, if consumers do not get excited about it. In fact, yes, I assume that consumers are more interested in the various properties and apps like any other business
Source: http://yle.fi/uutiset/reilu_kannykka_pyrkii_markkinoille_eettisyyden_applikaatiolla/6834671
Tomi says:
Watch out, Nike: Adidas announces smartwatch for runners, starting at $399
http://www.geekwire.com/2013/adidas-interactive-annouces-smartwatch/
Another big shoe brand just joined Nike in the wearable technology race: Adidas.
At today’s GigaOM Mobilize conference in San Francisco, Paul Gaudio, the Vice President in charge of Adidas’s Interactive division, announced that the company is throwing its hat in the smartwatch ring with a new piece of hardware directed at runners’ wrists.
In addition to a GPS connection to track an athlete’s activity, the Adidas watch boasts Bluetooth connectivity, as well as a heart rate sensor that will track an athlete’s performance, and provide feedback and heart rate training guidance either through the watch’s screen and vibration, or over Bluetooth headphones.
Unlike other smartwatches on the market, Adidas’s watch doesn’t rely on having a phone present in order to function, and doesn’t include some of the phone capabilities that appear to be the industry standard in the smartwatch market like forwarding notifications.
Since you won’t have your phone’s music library to pull from, the watch will have onboard flash storage for music, which you can then listen to through Bluetooth headphones.
“We’re not trying to make the best smartwatch, we’re trying to make the best running watch,”
Tomi says:
Akamai: Half Of All Internet Connections Now At 4Mbps+, Safari Remains Most Used Mobile Browser
http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/16/akamai-half-of-all-internet-connections-now-at-4mbps-safari-remains-most-used-mobile-browser-globally/
Tomi says:
Apple Cuts iPhone 5C Orders
Move Raises Concerns About Demand, Pricing Strategy for Lower-Cost Device
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702304864504579138761727258256-lMyQjAxMTAzMDEwNjExNDYyWj
Apple Inc. has reduced orders for its lower-end iPhone 5C, people familiar with the situation said, fueling concerns about weaker-than-expected consumer demand and the company’s pricing strategy.
Apple last month began selling its two new iPhone models in 11 markets, including the U.S. and China. Much of the consumer attention focused on the company’s high-end iPhone 5S—which offers faster chips and more features, including a fingerprint sensor—but is about $100 more expensive than the 5C.
Tomi says:
Akamai: Half Of All Internet Connections Now At 4Mbps+, Safari Remains Most Used Mobile Browser
http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/16/akamai-half-of-all-internet-connections-now-at-4mbps-safari-remains-most-used-mobile-browser-globally/
Mobile browsers
Akamai tracking of which browsers are being used the most from mobile devices underscores two of the bigger trends in mobile adoption: Android may be the world’s most ubiquitous browser, but Apple’s devices are still more popular in terms of usage overall. Akamai notes that when it looks at access from mobile devices over cellular networks, Android Webkit is just edging out Mobile Safari, with other browsers trailing quite a ways behind. Webkit, it notes, accounted for 38% of requests, while Safari 34%. When usage was tracked across cellular and other networks (for example, broadband via WiFi), Safari shot into the lead, with 54% of all requests and Android Webkit at 27%+. This could partly be attributed to iPad usage; perhaps also just to the fact that while iOS owners may be proportionally smaller than Android device owners, when you take into account all kinds of usage, they are simply just using their devices more.
Akamai also notes that average connection speeds on mobile networks are now ranging from between 9.7Mbps to 0.5Mbps. Akamai doesn’t track this itself but notes that Ericsson says that mobile data traffic volume grew 14% in the last year, while voice traffic was up by only 5%.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Galaxy Round simply a prototype test device, will have limited production even in South Korea
http://www.sammobile.com/2013/10/16/galaxy-round-simply-a-prototype-test-device-will-have-limited-production-even-in-south-korea/
Your plans to score one of Samsung’s Galaxy Round, the world’s first smartphone to feature a flexible display might not work out that well, as according to our insider, Samsung is looking to produce only limited quantities of the device, even in South Korea. It’s apparently a prototype device to test curved OLED displays, similar to devices like the SCH-W850 and the Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE (SHV-E120S), which were also produced in limited quantities in order to test AMOLED and HD AMOLED displays, respectively.
This pretty much explains the high asking price of the device
Tomi Engdahl says:
LinkedIn brings its Work With Us job tool to mobile, launches iOS app to help recruiters manage candidates
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/10/16/linkedin-brings-work-us-job-tool-mobile-launches-ios-app-help-recruiters-manage-candidates/
With Mobile Work With Us, this is the smartphone equivalent of LinkedIn’s existing Work With Us offering. Those looking for jobs can scour through the professional social network’s profiles to find a colleague, co-worker, or someone they wish to connect with and then view job openings at their current company.
The newest mobile app in LinkedIn’s arsenal is Recruiter Mobile, an iOS product that lets those looking to bring in new talent into an organization better manage applications and interactions with candidates and hiring managers. The app is free to download. Recruiters can respond to candidate inquiries in real-time either by phone, text, email, or through LinkedIn’s InMail service. The app also offers the ability to search for candidates and tracking their updates — all from the comfort of an iOS device.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scratch Wireless Unveils Free ‘Wi-Fi First’ Mobile Service
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2425853,00.asp
When you buy a Scratch smartphone, you’ll never have to pay a penny for service. No contracts. No ads. No catch. Just free service, according to the new wireless company.
Sound too good to be true? It is, sort of.
“The world’s first free mobile service for text, data and voice,” Scratch Wireless offers the 4.3-inch, Android-powered Motorola Photon Q, complete with dual cameras, 4G LTE, and a slide-out keyboard for $269.
And as long as you’re able to access a Wi-Fi network, you’re set to make all the calls, send all the messages, and surf all the Web you want. All for free.
When users are away from Wi-Fi, though, Scratch offers pay-as-you-go access to cellular data and voice, but without the usual contract obligations.
Scratch operates on a “Wi-Fi First” motto, aiming to revolutionize the mobile phone industry by providing Internet-based mobile service.
Scratch cited data from PricewaterhouseCoopers, which found that Americans spent an average $83 per month on cell service last year, while many families get locked into two-year contracts and pay upwards of $3,000 annually for mobile service. Meanwhile, consumers are actually using fewer voice minutes each month as people increasingly rely on devices for texting and data.
“We live in a world where many vital technologies — from email to social networking — are free. Why not mobile phone service?” Scratch CEO Alan Berrey said in a statement.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AuthenTec cofounder shows off early prototype of Apple’s Touch ID
By Lester Victor Marks
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/10/16/authentec-cofounder-shows-off-early-prototype-of-apples-touch-id
F. Scott Moody, the cofounder of Apple-acquired company AuthenTec, gave a presentation this week on the origins of what is now the Touch ID technology found in the iPhone 5s, and AppleInsider was present for a hands-on with an early prototype fingerprint scanner.
Early versions of Touch ID were dubbed FingerLoc, with a fingerprint scanning box connected via ribbon to another, even larger box.
Though the early versions were both buggy and bulky, what drove FingerLoc was essentially “a piece of silicon” that was improved over time, he said.
“We convinced people that the signal processing and work could be shrunk into an exceedingly small sensor that we eventually got down to 80 cents,” he said.
The metal ring around early prototype scanners, just like the one in the iPhone 5s home button, works like a capacitor, sending a signal through the user’s finger that allows it to sense through the outer layer of dead skin, into an inner layer where the skin is alive. Moody said AuthenTec worked closely with a number of dermatologists in development to perfect the technology.
Tomi says:
Some News from Bloodbath Year 4: Smartphones Galore – Blackberry results, China market data
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2013/10/some-news-from-bloodbath-year-4-smartphones-galore-blackberry-results-china-market-data.html
We saw another death in the smartphone bloodbath, Nokia is now gone (ok, going out) to be swallowed by the death star of mobile handset wars, Microsoft. Lets see what else is happening.
Well its another death imminent on the battlefield. Once the world’s second largest smartphone maker – yes, Blackberry was, as recently as Q2 of 2010, the world’s second largest smartphone maker
Not due to the iPhone, as legend and myth would have it – when Apple grew strongly (years 2007 to 2010) Blackberry also grew. When Blackberry fell (from 2011 to 2013) Apple’s market share has been flat
Blackberry management is trying to sell the company, or do a buy-out, and a bid is out there
We have some interesting market data from China, the world’s largest smartphone market as well as the world’s largest overall handset market. China has now passed the migration rate of the USA as well, in terms of new handset sales with 91% of new phones sold in China now being smartphones according to Counterpoint. They also give a view to the Chinese smartphone market for the month of August which they say is: 15% Samsung, 11% Lenovo, 11% Coolpad (Yulong), 7% ZTE, 6% Huawei, 3% Nokia and 1% Apple. 45% of China’s market is split by the approx 1,000 local domestic brands that almost all do Android.
Samsung’s Note series has passed cumulatively 40 million shipments since their launch. Quite impressive and clearly there is a big market demand for bigger screens.
Return of the Panasonic? Panasonic is launching three Android based smartphones in India, its first big international expansion for many years. Panasonic could follow Sony’s (and Samsung’s) footsteps of expanding its consumer electronics brand into the smartphone space in various international markets
Talking about India, Lenovo was there already selling its LePhone and now is expanding its Android based smartphone product line
HUAWEI
Is also expanding, has entered the Israeli smartphone market.
HTC is again expected to report declining sales
ZTE
The Chinese maker which is selling its Firefox based smartphones in Europe, is promising to bring the Firefox OS also to the USA next year
Sony has just issued guidance that its fiscal year 2014 sales of smartphones will grow by 55% and hit 65 million units, up from 42 million it expects to ship in fiscal 2013.
The next Chinese brand to keep your eyes on is Xiaomi, it has passed 10 million cumulative smartphone shipments and may enter into the Top 10 brands soon as the next Chinese brand there (after Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo and Coolpad/Yulong)
JOLLA
So the largest Finnish handset maker now is Jolla, the start-up based on the departing staff from the MeeGo and Maemo projects around Linux software at Nokia. Jolla will use the Sailfish OS
Sailfish will allow Android apps to be used, giving Jolla an interesting play, being kind of compatible with Android while not being Android.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers challenge Apple’s claim of unbreakable iMessage encryption
http://www.macworld.com/article/2055640/researchers-challenge-apples-claim-of-unbreakable-imessage-encryption.html
A close look at Apple’s iMessage system shows the company could easily intercept communications on the service despite its assurances to the contrary, researchers claimed Thursday at a security conference.
But researchers at the Hack in the Box conference in Kuala Lumpur showed it would be possible for someone inside Apple, of their own volition or because they were forced to by a government, to intercept messages.
The company’s claim that iMessage is protected by unbreakable encryption is “just basically lies,” said Cyril Cattiaux, who has developed iOS jailbreak software and works for Quarkslab, a penetration testing and reverse engineering company in Paris.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Same Phones, Different Carriers, Varied Satisfaction
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/211537/same-phones-different-carriers-varied-satisfacti.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+marketing-daily+%28MediaPost+|+Marketing+Daily%29#axzz2i2rxrva0
Consumers who have the same smartphone but are using different wireless carriers have different satisfaction levels, indicating there’s more to being happy than just having the latest device.
According to the latest research from J.D. Power covering satisfaction levels of smartphone owners, Apple’s iPhone devices had higher satisfaction rates among AT&T and Verizon Wireless Customers, while Samsung’s devices ranked higher among Sprint and T-Mobile customers.
“Even though the devices may be similar, there’s a lot of overlaid features and apps [the providers] put on them that are tailored to their individual networks,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yup, Nokia’s designing a watch too
http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/17/nokia-watch-patent-application-wearable-tech/
Plenty of companies have been noodling around with the idea of wearable tech, but Nokia’s always offered up some of the most eye-popping concepts. The latest application to reach the Patent and Trademark Office, however, is a little more practical: a modular watch that you can customize to your heart’s content. An even more outlandish idea is that each of the segments would contain a display tailored to a specific function — and by turning the device around, you’d be able to access and use whichever was pointing upward.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google boss: PC era is over
The world’s dominant search engine company and advertising giant Google topped the July-September, analysts’ earnings forecasts. The interim report as CEO Larry Page announced the PC era to be over.
Google CEO Larry Page on the PC equipment reign has been left behind, and has entered a multi-device era. Google’s positive economic figures are based on the new simpler tools for mobile ad pricing and better analytics, the company’s Senior Vice President Nikesh Arora said
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/google_pomo_pc_aikakausi_on_ohi
Tomi Engdahl says:
Image of the Day: Meet the actor who provides the voice for Siri
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Computer_Systems/Standalone_Mobile/Image_of_the_Day_Meet_the_actor_who_provides_the_voice_for_Siri.aspx
CNN reveals face of the woman behind the world’s most popular virtual assistant
Tomi says:
Lenovo Approaches BlackBerry
Chinese Company Considers Buying Canadian Smartphone Maker
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702304864504579141691352006498-lMyQjAxMTAzMDEwNzExNDcyWj
Lenovo Group Ltd. is actively considering a bid for all of struggling Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter, the latest sign of the voracious appetite of Chinese companies for foreign acquisitions.
Lenovo, a late comer to the smartphone market, has gained traction in its home market and now ships more smartphones than BlackBerry. In the second quarter, Lenovo accounted for 4.7% of global smartphone sales, according to research firm Gartner, while BlackBerry’s share fell to 2.7%.
Tomi Engdahl says:
So the 5S is (allegedly) killing the 5C. Why is this bad news?
http://stratechery.com/2013/where-is-the-bad-news/
‘Apple has the prototypical good-news, bad-news scenario on its hands, with soaring sales of its flagship iPhone 5S contrasting sharply with souring sales of its “for the colorful” iPhone 5C.’
The key question is the mix of iPhone sales between the 5S, 5C, and 4S. Many commentators, including myself, assumed that the 5C would be a big seller, and, indeed, it still might be after the initial wave of purchases die down. However, it seems obvious now that the 5S will sell far more overall.
In the end, this analysis is quite obvious: presuming the number of phones sold is the same, it’s great news to be selling more of the more expensive model. It’s even better news when iPhone sales are still growing, as the opening weekend indicates they clearly are.
The only objection, then, is that Apple is artificially limiting itself to the top end and not growing enough.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia leaks Lumia 1520 details on Chinese online store: 20MP PureView camera, Snapdragon 800 processor
http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/20/lumia-1520-leaked-by-nokia/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google’s iron grip on Android: Controlling open source by any means necessary
Android is open—except for all the good parts.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/googles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/
Six years ago, in November 2007, the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) was announced. The original iPhone came out just a few months earlier, capturing people’s imaginations and ushering in the modern smartphone era. While Google was an app partner for the original iPhone, it could see what a future of unchecked iPhone competition would be like. Vic Gundotra, recalling Andy Rubin’s initial pitch for Android, stated:
He argued that if Google did not act, we faced a Draconian future, a future where one man, one company, one device, one carrier would be our only choice.
Google was terrified that Apple would end up ruling the mobile space. So, to help in the fight against the iPhone at a time when Google had no mobile foothold whatsoever, Android was launched as an open source project.
In that era, Google had nothing, so any adoption—any shred of market share—was welcome. Google decided to give Android away for free and use it as a trojan horse for Google services.
Today, things are a little different. Android went from zero percent of the smartphone market to owning nearly 80 percent of it. Android has arguably won the smartphone wars, but “Android winning” and “Google winning” are not necessarily the same thing. Since Android is open source, it doesn’t really “belong” to Google. Anyone is free to take it, clone the source, and create their own fork or alternate version.
Android’s massive install base means it has a ton of apps. If a company forks Android, the OS will already be compatible with millions of apps; a company just needs to build its own app store and get everything uploaded. In theory, you’d have a non-Google OS with a ton of apps, virtually overnight.
And a few companies are taking a swing at separating Google from Android. The most successful, high-profile alternative version of Android is Amazon’s Kindle Fire.
The entire country of China skips the Google part of Android, too. Most Google services are banned, so the only option there is an alternate version. In both of these cases, Google’s Android code is used, and it gets nothing for it.
Google has always given itself some protection against alternative versions of Android. What many people think of as “Android” actually falls into two categories: the open parts from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which are the foundation of Android, and the closed source parts, which are all the Google-branded apps. While Google will never go the entire way and completely close Android, the company seems to be doing everything it can to give itself leverage over the existing open source project. And the company’s main method here is to bring more and more apps under the closed source “Google” umbrella.
For some of these apps, there might still be an AOSP equivalent, but as soon as the proprietary version was launched, all work on the AOSP version was stopped. Less open source code means more work for Google’s competitors.
Once Google had its closed source app up and running, it immediately abandoned the open source version.
Locking-in manufacturers
While Google is out to devalue the open source codebase as much as possible, controlling the app side of the equation isn’t the company’s only power play.
If a company does ever manage to fork AOSP, clone the Google apps, and create a viable competitor to Google’s Android, it’s going to have a hard time getting anyone to build a device for it. In an open market, it would be as easy as calling up an Android OEM and convincing them to switch, but Google is out to make life a little more difficult than that. Google’s real power in mobile comes from control of the Google apps—mainly Gmail, Maps, Google Now, Hangouts, YouTube, and the Play Store. These are Android’s killer apps, and the big (and small) manufacturers want these apps on their phones. Since these apps are not open source, they need to be licensed from Google. It is at this point that you start picturing a scene out of The Godfather, because these apps aren’t going to come without some requirements attached.
While it might not be an official requirement, being granted a Google apps license will go a whole lot easier if you join the Open Handset Alliance.
joining the OHA requires a company to sign its life away and promise to not build a device that runs a competing Android fork.
Acer was bit by this requirement when it tried to build devices that ran Alibaba’s Aliyun OS in China.
This makes life extremely difficult for the only company brazen enough to sell an Android fork in the west: Amazon. Since the Kindle OS counts as an incompatible version of Android, no major OEM is allowed to produce the Kindle Fire for Amazon. So when Amazon goes shopping for a manufacturer for its next tablet, it has to immediately cross Acer, Asus, Dell, Foxconn, Fujitsu, HTC, Huawei, Kyocera, Lenovo, LG, Motorola, NEC, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba, and ZTE off the list. Currently, Amazon contracts Kindle manufacturing out to Quanta Computer, a company primarily known for making laptops. Amazon probably doesn’t have many other choices.
Any OEM hoping to license Google Apps will need to pass Google’s “compatibility” tests in order to be eligible. Compatibility ensures that all the apps in the Play Store will run on your device.
Testing the waters with bloatware
For most OEMs, leaving the Google ecosystem and still being successful is nothing more than a pipe dream. One way for an OEM to experiment with a Google-free existence without incurring the wrath of Mountain View is to produce alternative versions of Google’s apps. This is what most of us dismiss as “bloatware.” Bloatware works as a software engineering “what if” thought exercise, where OEMs set out to replicate all of Google’s core apps to see just how hard life outside of the walled garden would be.
Samsung does a particularly “good” job of this, going as far as having its own user account system, backend syncing, and app store. It also maintains the most complete set of alternatives to Google apps. A lot of these, like Internet, E-mail, and Calendar, have roots in AOSP, but Samsung continued to add features long after Google abandoned them for closed alternatives.
We previously explored Play Service’s update implications, but it is a huge weapon in the fight against Android forks.
The Google Maps API allows you to use Google’s map data in your application. It’s extremely handy for things like overlying the weather on top of a map or showing location in a travel app. The only problem is, it’s part of Google services and not part of Android. Relying on the Maps API means your app will not work on a non-Google-approved device.
Play Games is another proprietary API that solves a lot of difficult problems for mobile developers. It provides easy access to user accounts, leaderboards, achievements, cloud saves, anti-piracy, and (on Android) real-time multiplayer. The best part is that works on just about everything: Web apps, iOS, and Android. Well, everything except AOSP, which is not supported.
Amazon has a set of game APIs called “GameCircle,” but it’s not a drop-in replacement for Play Games, the way the Amazon Maps API is.
A “look but don’t touch” kind of open
If a company even wanted to consider forking Android and creating a viable commercial competitor, they would have to replicate everything in this article. Even then, you’ve only broken even. You would still have to give your users a reason to switch from Google’s Android to your fork of Android.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Using NFC, IBM brings dual-factor authentication to mobile
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57608119-76/using-nfc-ibm-brings-dual-factor-authentication-to-mobile/
Dual-factor authentication can work by combining smartphones and PCs, but that approach needs to be updated for the mobile era. An new IBM technique combines near-field communications and smartphones.
Banks and major Web sites often combine passwords with people’s phones to offer more secure two-factor authentication when logging onto a service with a PC. But what happens when you’re logging on using a phone?
With a new approach IBM started touting today, NFC, or near-field communications, will fill the void.
“When you use your phone to access the service, the phone is no longer the second factor,” he said, speaking to reporters at a press event here Wednesday. An NFC-enabled credit card issued by a bank or other authority serves as the second factor, he said.
Dual-factor authentication offers more security since it means a password alone isn’t enough to break into another person’s account. The password must be supplemented by something a person has. For example, Google’s dual-factor authentication uses a smartphone running an app that generates a one-time passcode, and some financial institutions issue key fobs that will generate a passcode number on demand.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Android First is a Myth
http://stevecheney.com/why-android-first-is-a-myth/
In mobile, particularly in consumer markets, there has been an ongoing debate about when or if Android will become the first platform that sophisticated startups develop for. Often times, this argument is wrongly centered around vanity metrics for Android such as worldwide shipments or installed base of each platform.
The reality is that platform constraints at the engineering and financing levels tell a much different story. “Android-first” faces structural and financial barriers which are unlikely to be overcome. iOS will remain the primary platform that startups develop for regardless of how much more quickly Android grows share. Here are the reasons why:
1. In the US, iOS market share is still extremely strong
2. building and releasing on Android costs 2-3x more than iOS.
3. The effort required to build and release an app is severely gated by capital-raising. Today’s startup seed rounds typically range between $800K to $1.2M.
4. These structural limitations around capital raising for venture-backed companies force startups to take a non-linear path to development which is gated by fundraising
5. To build a mobile app with $1M in capital, a startup can roughly afford to hire one designer, one client developer (iOS or Android) and one back end engineer.
6. Almost zero startups are going Android-first under these constraints. Why? Because founders know they have an extremely high bar to prove traction on the primary platform, before they can raise additional financing and accelerate into two platforms.
7. So it’s well known in tech circles today that seed round sizes constrain app development to a single primary platform. And startups are choosing to go iOS first
8. Since iOS better supports startups’ ability to prove metrics requisite for raising Series A rounds from institutional investors, the earliest most innovative services are almost always available first on iOS.
9. For every seed-funded startup which successfully raises a series A, about 80-90% die trying.
While in theory Android provides a very modern platform for mobile development, the realities around Android-first are quite different. Startups simply cannot afford to bypass iOS and go Android out of the gate. One could even argue the gap is widening.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Soon, half of the Youtube use is mobile
Smartphones and tablet computers have already made the companies in the mobile Internet business. Google’s YouTube video service consumption is 40 percent of mobile devices.
YouTube is the world’s most popular consumer video service. Google precious stones belonging to more than one billion user company started betting the contents of the mobile editing at the earliest, and corrects the fruit. Last week’s interim report in Google reported that 40 percent of YouTube’s traffic goes mobile devices. A year ago, the proportion was only 25 per cent and two per cent six years ago.
A significant part of YouTube’s consumption is Apple’s devices. App Store distributed application is just as important to Google as its directly controlled by Google Play Android world. YouTube and the App Store’s cooperation has not always been smooth, but they both see it as necessary.
The situation is different from Microsoft, and YouTube. Windows Phone’s market share was so small that Google has been able to afford to knock out the Microsoft’s attempts to create its own native YouTube application for Nokia Lumia phones. Microsoft does not want to swallow their pride and break Google’s YouTube provisions
Facebook, which has also invested a lot of money and work on the development of mobile services, gets 41 percent of its revenue from mobile advertising.
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/pian_puolet_youtube_kaytosta_mobiilia
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple has been in JD Powers satisfaction survey number one since the appearance of the iPhone. iPhone is still the American favorite, but the two operators’ customers will increase Samsung’s number one. Nokia Lumia 920 has also been liked by Yankees.
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/jd_powers_iphonella_ja_samsungilla_tyytyvaisimmat_kayttajat
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia Lumia sales reportedly hit record-high numbers last quarter
http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/21/4861098/nokia-q3-2013-lumia-sales-recrord-rumor
Citing people familiar with the matter, the WSJ says Nokia sold “at least eight million” Windows Phones between July and September. That’s close to triple the 2.9 million sales it managed in the same period last year and also more than the 7.4 million it sold last quarter. Of course, those numbers are very low when compared to big players like Samsung and Apple, but Nokia is at least continuing to prove it — and the Windows Phone platform — has a place in the market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
In Case You Don’t Realize How Fast Apple’s iPad Business Has Gone Down The Tubes …
http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ipad-sales-2013-10?op=1
The iPad Mini and Apple’s larger iPads are still arguably the best tablets of their kind on the market. But they’re also some of the most expensive. Apple, which generates its profit from device sales, is trying to protect its profit margin by maintaining relatively high price points for its iPads. Amazon, Google, and other tablet manufacturers, meanwhile, are selling their tablets at lower price points, in part because they generate their profits from app and media sales rather than device sales.
Apple says it wants to sell the “best” products, not the “most” products, so this pricing strategy is in keeping with that philosophy.
The trouble is that Apple is also trying to ensure that its mobile operating system, iOS, remains the dominant global mobile platform. And in platform markets — markets in which third-parties build apps and sell services on top of a platform — market share is crucial.
By trying to maintain its premium pricing and high profit margin, Apple is likely losing sales that would otherwise help the company capture more of the mobile platform market. That tradeoff helps produce higher profits for Apple today, but it also likely weakens the long-term value of the iOS platform.
In other words, Apple is stuck with what can only be described as a high-quality problem.
The company’s profit margin is so high, and this is producing so much profit, that investors have made it one of the most valuable tech companies in the world. If Apple sacrifices its profit margin and profit to increase its mobile platform market share, investors will probably scream
Apple is so phenomenally profitable that it could reduce its iPad and iPhone prices significantly and still coin money.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tablet shipments to grow 53.4% in 2013, PCs to fall 8.4%
http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/21/tablet-shipments-to-grow-53-4-in-2013-pcs-to-fall-8-4-says-gartner/
It’s a familiar picture for the gadget world: Tablets are on the way up, while traditional PCs are on the decline, according to the latest data from the research firm Gartner.
While the firm expects a 4.5 percent increase of all computing devices this year, that will be mostly led by cheaper gadgets. Tablets shipments will increase by 53.4 percent in 2013, while PC shipments — including desktops, laptops, and “ultramobiles” — will fall by 8.4 percent.
Gartner also expects mobile phone shipments to grow by 3.7 percent this year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why The ‘Second Screen’ Is Now Ready For Prime-Time
http://www.businessinsider.com/a-primer-on-the-second-screen-industry-2013-10?utm_source=House&utm_term=RR&utm_campaign=RR
These days, TV shows and ad campaigns are planned with a smartphone or tablet-toting TV viewer in mind. A wide majority of U.S. audiences now use a second screen while watching TV, and about half of them do so on a daily basis.
The second screen industry has grown up around this now-established consumer habit. Social media is a big part of it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia unveils 10.1″ Lumia 2520, a $499 Windows RT 8.1 tablet coming this fall with LTE and a $150 Power Keyboard
http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2013/10/22/nokia-unveils-10-1-lumia-2520-499-windows-rt-8-1-tablet-coming-fall-lte-150-power-keyboard/
At Nokia World in Abu Dhabi today, Nokia unveiled its first tablet: the Lumia 2520. The Windows RT 8.1 device will ship this fall for $499; initial roll out will be in the US, the UK, and Finland, with additional countries to follow “shortly after.”
Much like the Microsoft Surface, the Lumia 2520 is more than just a screen: it pairs with a $150 Nokia Power Keyboard, a wraparound cover that includes a fully functional keypad
While many tablets nowadays ship with a lower-end Wi-Fi model and a higher-end Wi-Fi plus LTE model, Nokia’s tablet comes with 4G LTE and Wi-Fi.
It includes a 6.7 megapixel camera and ZEISS optics
Lumia 2520 comes with HERE Maps. Nokia argues this makes the device the only tablet with “true offline maps.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
This iWatch design concept is sexy as hell
http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2013/10/21/iwatch-design-concept-sexy-hell/
Apple still hasn’t announced made any sort of official iWatch smartwatch product announcement but that doesn’t stop the world salivating at the prospect, and knocking up design concepts to give Apple something to think about along the way.
This time around, Berlin-based engineer Thomas Bogner, is the person behind the designs – and if we do say so ourselves, they look pretty darn sweet. In fact, to quote our very own CEO Zee M Kane, you could say “that’s sexy as hell”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia introduces the Lumia 1320, a mid-range 6-inch handset coming to Europe and Asia
http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/22/nokia-introduces-the-lumia-1320-a-mid-range-6-inch-handset/
Nokia came to Abu Dhabi prepared to put on a full show. At its annual Nokia World conference, the company just pulled the wraps off Batman — its code name for the Lumia 1320.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft buns have not been very good in the oven, when you look at the whole operating systems picture on all devices. Gartner forecasts that Apple is catching up Microsoft’s lead in almost closed. Android runs quite far away from the front of their numbers.
Android’s growth seems to be exploding in recent years: From 505 million units last year to 1115 million units next year.
At the same time Windows only grows 346 million to 368 million units. This year, the Windows device sales are expected to be 332 million.
Apple’s growth is much faster than Microsoft, but it is forecast that pass over into the next year.
Gartner says that Microsoft-Nokia acquisition will not affect the prognosis, since most of the Windows phones will be from Nokia.
Gartner predicts equipment sales to grow this year by 4.5 per cent. It will, however, all other device groups than the traditional PC devices.
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/apple_ajaa_microsoftia_kiinni_kayttojarjestelmissa
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook Is Losing Teens, And New Privacy Settings Won’t Bring Them Back
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2013/10/19/facebook-is-losing-teens-and-new-privacy-settings-wont-bring-them-back/
There’s no question that Facebook is quickly losing teenage users to other social networks.
In fact, many teens attest to the fact they are abandoning Facebook.
Unfortunately, a simple privacy setting is not Facebook’s problem. Today’s teens are primarily mobile users, spending the majority of their time on their phones and tablets. If teens are using Facebook, it’s via Facebook’s mobile app. Compared to other social apps such as Instagram and Snapchat, Facebook’s app is cumbersome and simply posting an update just takes too much time for these teens. While teens might be spending more time on their phones and tablets than you and me, they don’t want to spend extra time navigating through apps to do what they want. Remember – this generation was raised on technology and doesn’t know life without it. The experience that apps such as Snapchat and Instagram delivers has created an expectation of instant gratification for teens that the current Facebook app just can’t meet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hope Springs at Nokia
Elop to Show Off New Devices as Microsoft Watches Closely
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304402104579147950096450792
Stephen Elop, who until last month was Nokia Corp.’s chief executive and who for now runs its devices business, is preparing to introduce six new products on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi. The beefed-up portfolio includes Nokia’s first tablet computer and so-called phablet devices.
The event hits on the same day Apple Inc. is expected to unveil its new iPad.
Microsoft has long struggled to crack into the device-making business. That means Mr. Elop’s new wares carry far more meaning for Microsoft investors who question the long-term strategy than to shareholders in Finland-based Nokia, which once dominated the global handset market but is now paring its focus.
Nokia and Microsoft need a change of fortune. Their arm’s-length partnership has had muted success. Nokia, by far the world’s largest seller of Windows phones, holds only a fraction of the global market for smart devices, falling far behind Apple and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Smartwatches, Glasses and Other Wearable Tech are No Gimmick
http://www.cio.com/article/741602/Why_Smartwatches_Glasses_and_Other_Wearable_Tech_are_No_Gimmick?source=cioartmor
Executives, product managers, analysts and others from wearable-technology companies spoke at MobileCon 2013 about the current state of “wearables,” challenges and barriers to success, as well as why wearable tech is here to stay.
When you hear the term “wearable technology,” you very likely think of one, or all, of these things: Google Glass, fitness trackers such as Fitbit and Nike+ or smartwatches including Pebble and Samsung’s new Galaxy Gear.
There’s good reason for that; these gadgets are some of the most popular examples of wearable tech today. But they’re far from all the category entails. And the many analysts, VPs, product development reps and evangelists who spoke at a panel on wearable technology at CTIA’s MobileCon 2013 event this week all believe that wearable tech, or just “wearables,” will become a part of everyday life as much as smartphones and mobile apps have.
Putting User Data to Use via Wearable Technology
The MobileCon Wearable Tech panel was broken into two parts: one based on data collection via the various sensors embedded within wearable gadgets (the “input”) and the second on presenting the data to users in valuable and, perhaps more importantly, actionable ways (the “output”).
tomi says:
Nokia’s Refocus Lens camera app promises infinite depth of field control
http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/22/nokias-refocus-lens-camera-app/
Nokia’s just announced a new camera app called Refocus Lens at Nokia World that brings a Lytro-like variable depth of field to Lumia cameras. Likely to be the fruits of that Scalado purchase from a while back, it’ll let you change the focus of a snapshot using “clever algorithms” while adding “brilliant splashes of color” to images via a feature called color pop. Nokia also said that images will be 5-megapixels in size and that you’ll be able to use the refocusing option while in Facebook. The app will debut on the Finnish company’s new flagship Lumia 1520 and trickle down at a later date to older devices like the Lumia 920 and 925.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exclusive: HTC scales back production lines as cash flow worsens-sources
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/23/us-htc-production-idUSBRE99M03920131023
Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp has halted at least one of its four main manufacturing lines, accounting for at least a fifth of total capacity, and is outsourcing production as a sales slump puts pressure on its cash flow, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia Refocus turns your Lumia into a Lytro-like camera
http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/22/4865576/nokia-refocus-windows-phone-app-hands-on-photos-video
Nokia may have had a bunch of hardware on display at its Abu Dhabi event today, but some of the company’s most impressive work is linked with its camera improvements. While the Lumia 1020 introduced a 41-megapixel camera and a new Pro Cam app, Nokia is detailing a new addition to its app line-up today: Nokia Refocus. It’s a separate app that works with all of Nokia’s PureView Windows Phones to allow owners to refocus parts of an image.
The most obvious comparison is to Lytro’s camera hardware that lets you focus your pictures after you’ve taken them. Nokia isn’t using any unique hardware to achieve that, instead its using a software app that can create similar results. It’s probably not going to be as good as a real Lytro camera, but it might just be second best.
As Nokia Refocus is a separate app, you’ll need to launch it from the Windows Phone Start Screen. It starts up into a camera mode that simply directs you to tap and take a picture. What it actually does is it analyses the scene and then takes between two and eight photos to allow you to refocus afterwards. It’s actually rather impressive.
The real beauty of the apps is that Nokia allows you to upload the images and share them to Facebook and other social networks. Friends can then interact with the photos and refocus freely. If the whole software refocusing and sharing sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Focus Twist for iOS is pretty much identical to this, allowing iPhone users to refocus after a shot and share their results. Obviously the backing from Nokia on its Lumia Windows Phone handsets means the usage could be more widespread, but not until Nokia builds it into its new Camera app.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HTC Said to Plan Smartwatch as Wang Rallies Workers
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-22/htc-said-to-plan-android-smartwatch-with-camera-for-next-year.html
HTC Corp. (2498) is developing a smartwatch that uses Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android software and can take pictures, according to a person familiar with the matter.