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:
Does anyone know why Google bought Motorola?
http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/26/4271432/does-anyone-know-why-google-bought-motorola
The products weren’t great and the patents overvalued — so what did that $12.5 billion actually buy?
Why did Google spend $12.5 billion to purchase Motorola Mobility? It’s been nearly two years since the deal was announced and close to a full year since it closed, and the questions keep piling up while the answers keep getting worse.
The biggest problem is that Motorola’s patent portfolio doesn’t appear to be worth anything close to what either company assumed
it would take 3,235 years for Microsoft’s royalties to pay off Google’s $5.5 billion valuation of Motorola’s patent portfolio.
“These rulings show that the portfolio isn’t nearly as valuable as Google thought it was,”
That’s a significant blow to Google’s interest in using Motorola’s patent portfolio as a defensive measure against an increasingly-litigious Apple.
And that patent-licensing business certainly isn’t enough to offset quarter after quarter of losses as Motorola’s current products fail to compete against strong devices from Apple, Samsung, and HTC.
“We acquired Motorola to level the playing field in patent attacks against Android and draw on Motorola’s long history of innovation,” a Google spokesperson told The Verge.
But new phones can’t be Motorola’s only contribution to Google — the company’s Nexus program already allows the Android team to build high-end reference devices, and entering a full-throated competition with Android market leader Samsung might further impact a relationship that’s already seeing the Korean company relegate Google’s operating system to second place behind a thick veneer of Samsung software and services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia Invests in High-Resolution Cameras to Woo Apple Customers
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-29/nokia-invests-in-high-resolution-cameras-to-woo-apple-customers.html
Nokia Growth Partners, the venture- capital arm of Nokia (NOK1V) Oyj, plans to invest in California startup Pelican Imaging as the phonemaker seeks to win back customers from Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Android devices with cameras that give greater depth and ease of splicing together images.
The Pelican investment is part of a push to differentiate Nokia as it tries to stimulate demand in its Lumia smartphones, which run Microsoft Corp.’s Windows software, to reverse falling sales and recover market share.
Lumia sales rose to 5.6 million in the first quarter, up from 4.4 million in the previous three months. Still, Apple and Android-based devices control more than 90 percent of the smartphone market
Array cameras, which use multiple optics and mesh the data into one image, “are on the cusp of being commercialized and Pelican does software for that,” Bo Ilsoe, a partner at Nokia Growth Partners, said yesterday in a phone interview from California. “It’s very complicated to do this algorithmically and Pelican is one of the companies that has mastered this technology.”
Nokia, which bought Lund, Sweden-based imaging-software maker Scalado last July, released the 41-megapixel 808 PureView last year and is incorporating the technology in smartphones including the flagship Lumia 920.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook loses millions of users as biggest markets peak
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/apr/28/facebook-loses-users-biggest-markets
Facebook’s dominance in the social media world has come under threat from newer services such as Instagram and Path
Facebook has lost millions of users per month in its biggest markets, independent data suggests, as alternative social networks attract the attention of those looking for fresh online playgrounds.
In the last month, the world’s largest social network has lost 6m US visitors, a 4% fall, according to analysis firm SocialBakers
“The problem is that, in the US and UK, most people who want to sign up for Facebook have already done it,” said new media specialist Ian Maude at Enders Analysis. “There is a boredom factor where people like to try something new. Is Facebook going to go the way of Myspace? The risk is relatively small, but that is not to say it isn’t there.”
Facebook is still growing fast in South America: monthly visitors in Brazil were up 6% in the last month to 70m
But book is still growing fast in South America: monthly visitors in Brazil were up 6% in the last month to 70m
As Facebook itself has warned, the time spent on its pages from those sitting in front of personal computers is declining rapidly because we are switching our screen time to smartphones and tablets.
Shareholders will be particularly keen to learn how fast Facebook’s mobile user base is growing, and whether advertising revenues are increasing at the same rate.
The company warned in recent stockmarket filings that it might be losing “younger users” to “other products and services similar to, or as a substitute for, Facebook”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple’s Share of Worldwide Tablet Shipments Falls Below 40% in 1Q 2013
http://www.macrumors.com/2013/05/01/apples-share-of-worldwide-tablet-shipments-falls-below-40-in-1q-2013/
Research firm IDC today announced its preliminary estimates of worldwide tablet shipments for the first quarter of 2013, finding that Apple’s share of the market continues to slide as competitors begin to gain footholds in the market
Samsung and Asus in particular saw strong performances during the quarter, with each seeing year-over-year shipment increases in excess of 250% compared to Apple’s 65% growth.
Still, Apple’s share of the market is more than double that of second-place Samsung.
In looking at operating systems, Android now outships iOS, with Android taking 56.5% of the market and iOS taking just under 40%
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile Technology’s Influence on Data Acquisition
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=262720&
Industrial users are starting to expect mobile access to measurement data, according to an article on mobile technology that is part of the recently released “Data Acquisition Technology Outlook 2013″ report from National Instruments
The report states:
The worldwide proliferation of mobile devices has given people unlimited and instant access to information. Questions no longer go unanswered, as information is made available from anywhere, anytime. Mobile technology has created a natural expectation to have continuous access to information and it is now influencing the data acquisition market.
The report also quotes Jessy Cavazos, industry director for test and measurement at the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan:
Mobile computing devices are evolving and providing opportunities for wireless data acquisition systems. This is going to change the data acquisition market.
Though we may not be surprised by this trend or even by that bold prediction, they do raise questions about the impact of mobile technology on data acquisition methods and tools.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia, the good news in the U.S. – “the trend of playing Lumia bag”
Windows Phone handsets – in particular, Nokia’s Lumia models – the situation looks better than ever in the United States.
Windows Phone phone market share rose to 5.6 per cent.
Nokia and Windows Phone smartphone with the sale of shares are still small. Most attention by Android (49 percent) and Apple iOS (44 percent).
“Windows strength seems to be its ability to attract first smartphone buyers who move to the smartphone from traditional mobile phones,” says Kantar.
More than half of the Windows Phone buyers have previously owned a traditional mobile phone. In contrast, the majority of Android phones and the Apple iPhone buyers are already smartphone customers.
This provides considerable opportunity for Nokia and Windows Phone platform.
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/uutiset/nokialle_ilouutisia_usa_ssa_trendi_pelaa_lumian_pussiin
Tomi Engdahl says:
At This Pace, Windows Phone 9 Could Be Nokia-Only
http://pocketnow.com/2013/04/30/windows-phone-9-nokia-only?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Is this a trend we can read out into the future? As we start thinking about Windows Phone 9, will we be seeing HTC and Samsung return with a few stabs at the platform? While it’s probably still too soon to say with any certainty, I’m starting to think that it wouldn’t be so far-fetched for Windows Phone to turn into a Nokia-only affair.
Don’t get me wrong – these other companies have made some really nice phones.
So, what would happen if Nokia did actually become the sole manufacturer of future Windows Phone models? Would the other OEMs feel the impact on their bottom lines? I doubt it. The most popular non-Nokia phones at the moment are the HTC 8X and 8S, and each accounts for a mere 4% of the global WP market.
Samsung is so successful with Android, that it can lose that 5% without thinking twice. HTC might be trickier, as its finances aren’t quite so stable
Would consumers suffer from a loss of options in a Nokia-only world? I don’t think so. More than any other Windows Phone OEM, Nokia hits a wide variety of spec- and price-points.
But what about Android? Isn’t that just like Windows Phone, except instead of Nokia, it’s Samsung dominating the market? It’s not like anyone thinks Samsung should be the only Android-maker, right? There are three big differences. For one, that’s a matter of Samsung’s 45% share versus Nokia’s 80%. Then there’s the presence of far more competition between all those runners-up on Android. Finally, with the sheer numbers Android commands, even a 5% interest is a huge deal – that’s just not the case with Windows Phone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mozilla launches Firefox OS Simulator 3.0 with push to device, rotation simulation, geolocation API, and more
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/05/02/mozilla-launches-firefox-os-3-0-simulator-with-push-to-device-rotation-simulation-geolocation-api-and-more/
Mozilla on Thursday announced the release of Firefox OS Simulator 3.0, polishing all the features in the preview release as well as making a few more improvements. You can download version 3.0 now for Windows, Mac, and Linux from Mozilla Add-Ons.
The arguably biggest addition to version 3.0 is the new Push to Device feature. If you have an existing device supporting Firefox OS, you can connect it via USB and push apps installed in the Firefox OS Simulator directly to it (make sure to enable remote debugging: Settings > Device information > More Information > Developer > Remote debugging).
Tomi Engdahl says:
GPS navigators sales are expected to turn into a dramatic decrease as smartphone to run the same thing today.
Navigation systems market for many years followed the Berg Insight predicts ( pdf ), and personal GPS navigation devices sales collapse by almost 40 per cent. The company’s figures, sales dropped last year’s 28 million units in just 17 million units in 2017.
Equipment sales have declined in Western Europe and the United States for a couple of years. Eastern Europe and Asia, there is still growth.
At the end of last year, smartphone navigation guidance already been used by 150 million people, while the car navigation devices with 230 million users. Of the latter, 80 million was used in a car that came with the device.
Source: http://www.itviikko.fi/teknologia/2013/04/26/navigaattorit-lentavat-kohta-romukoppaan/20136118/7
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers create a smartphone that curls up when you get a call
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Computer_Peripherals/Display_Graphics/Researchers_create_a_smartphone_that_curls_up_when_you_get_a_call.aspx
Our smartphones have a variety of different notification options.
Researchers at the Queens University Human Media Lab in Canada have designed the “MorePhone” that can morph into a shape to give users a visual signal of an incoming text, call, or e-mail.
The smartphone is made of a thin, flexible, electrophoretic display made by British company, Plastic Logic. Electrophoretic displays form visible images by rearranging pigment particles using an applied electric field. Under the display lie shape memory alloy wires that contract when the phone needs to notify a user.
Using this kind of technology, the MorePhone can curl up its entire body
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chat apps have overtaken SMS by message volume, but how big a disaster is that for carriers?
http://gigaom.com/2013/04/29/chat-apps-have-overtaken-sms-by-message-volume/
According to analysts at Informa, IP-based platforms such as WhatsApp now carry more messages than SMS infrastructure does. However, we should be cautious about how we interpret the figures.
There’s a reason why mobile carriers are scared of third-party messaging apps such as WhatsApp, and here it is: people are now sending more messages over these services than they are text messages.
Informa says 2012 saw nearly 19 billion messages sent over these apps each day around the world, versus 17.6 billion SMS messages. The analyst house reckons the contrast will be even starker in 2014, with 21 billion text messages projected, against almost 50 billion app-based messages.
As you will note, this suggests that SMS volumes will continue to increase, at least in the short term.
First off, while the volumes of non-SMS messages has overtaken that of traditional texts, the user numbers remain significantly lower – although how much lower is a bit unclear.
According to Informa analyst Pamela Clark-Dickson, there were 3.5 billion SMS users in 2012.
Regarding the chat apps, Clark-Dickson only took 6 into account, namely WhatsApp, BlackBerry Messenger, Viber, Nimbuzz, Apple’s iMessage and KakaoTalk. At the end of 2012, she said, there were 586.3 million users of these platforms, but that’s not taking into account other giants such as Facebook Messenger for Android (somewhere between 100-500 million installations) and China’s TenCent (around 300 million users).
And then we have a big unanswered question: even when SMS tails off, how big a chunk of the IP-based messaging market will the carriers themselves own?
“Mobile operators do have the opportunity to provide their own IP-based messaging applications,” Clark-Dickson noted.
Tomi says:
The Verdict Is In: Nobody Likes Google Glass
http://www.businessinsider.com/nobody-really-likes-google-glass-2013-5?op=1
The elite of the tech world have decided that Google Glass is the future.
And perhaps they’re right, but, Google Glass is clearly not the present. It’s not even the near-future, if the early reviews that are rolling in turn out to be accurate.
After reading all the reviews, and talking to people who actually wore Glass, I just see a product plagued by bugs, and of questionable use, that’s generating a lot of buzz because people want so desperately to have some new gadget to latch onto, and fear being wrong about the next major technology trend.
The battery life is terrible. Engadget estimated battery life is at five hours.
It’s disorienting, and gives you a headache.
The screen is hard to see in bright light.
You can’t tweak any settings in Glass
The voice controls for Glass are buggy
You still need a smartphone to use Glass outdoors. Google Glass doesn’t have a built-in cellular data connection.
It’s hard to take off Glass. Unlike glasses, which actually fold up, Glass is one piece that can’t be made smaller.
Responding to messages is tough. It’s not easy to edit your responses
Much of these things can be fixed over time by Google. These are hardware and software tweaks.
But even when these things are fixed, we still haven’t heard a single compelling use case for Glass.
After reading the most enthusiastic review of Glass on the web from early adopter Robert Scoble, the biggest reason for owning Glass is that you can take photos more quickly.
The photo quality, it should be noted is worse than that of your iPhone or the latest Android.
Looking at your phone in front of friends sends a direct, honest signal that you are tuning them out. With Google Glass, you’re doing the exact same thing, just in a more surreptitious way.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung defends 16GB S4′s mere 8GB of usable storage
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/samsung-defends-16gb-s4s-mere-8gb-of-usable-storage-50011111/
Samsung’s Galaxy S4 has drawn criticism as phone fans discover the 16GB version of the 5-inch smart phone actually only has around 8GB of useful memory. Samsung has defended its flagship blower, saying you’re getting more features and a higher-res display in return.
Nearly half of the S4′s storage space (after a factory reset, our 16GB Galaxy S4 showed 8.49GB of available room) is taken up with the phone’s operating system and built-in apps, limiting the amount of data you can store on the company’s quad-core monster.
Unlike the HTC One and iPhone 5, the Galaxy S4 does come with a microSD card slot, to expand the amount of storage at your disposal. What you might not know, however, is that Samsung doesn’t let you install apps onto that card.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analyst: Apple to release Retina display iPad mini models in Q3 and early 2014 [u]
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/05/06/retina-display-ipad-mini-not-coming-until-2014-analyst-says
NPD DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim is now saying that Apple will release two Retina iPad mini versions, “One in the second half of this year, then one in Q1 of 2014. The Q1 device will have a Retina display plus an updated processor.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Addressable markets for high-end phones
http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2013/5/6/addressable-markets-for-the-iphone
There are all sorts of ways to estimate the addressable market for a high-end phone like the iPhone. One way is to look at price sensitivity, the propensity of lower income groups to spend on expensive entertainment products and how that might be affected by the increasing capabilities of cheaper devices. Another is to look at the mobile operators that do and do not actually offer the iPhone, which gives you a figure for people who cannot in fact buy one, at least on subsidy, even if they want to (assuming they’re not willing to switch operator).
However, it seems to me that the central issue in sales of the iPhone and other high-end models is the availability of subsidies themselves.
There were about 5.2bn adults on earth at the end of 2012. Of those, around 3.2bn had mobile SIMs, though not necessarily phones (some people have a SIM but no phone, and many have multiple SIMs, which is why the number of connections is well over 6bn). Within that, roughly 1.1bn had ‘smartphones’ at the end of 2012, of which around 900m ran either the iOS or Android versions of Unix. (As an aside, it is pretty striking that almost a fifth of the earth’s adult population has a Unix box in their pocket.)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jolla’s Marc Dillon teases world’s first Sailfish device, confirms launch in a couple of weeks
http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/07/jolla-sailfish-device-marc-dillon/
So the rumor is true: the world’s first Jolla Sailfish device will be launching this month. In fact, Marc Dillon, the ex-CEO and now Head of Software Development at Jolla, was kind enough to flash the back of the product at the GMIC Beijing conference earlier today
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Glass Picks Up Early Signal: Keep Out
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/technology/personaltech/google-glass-picks-up-early-signal-keep-out.html?pagewanted=all
Google’s wearable computer, the most anticipated piece of electronic wizardry since the iPad and iPhone, will not go on sale for many months.
But the resistance is already under way.
“This is just the beginning,” said Timothy Toohey, a Los Angeles lawyer specializing in privacy issues. “Google Glass is going to cause quite a brawl.”
As personal technology becomes increasingly nimble and invisible, Glass is prompting questions of whether it will distract drivers, upend relationships and strip people of what little privacy they still have in public.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Reminds iOS Developers That They Can Easily Integrate Chrome With Their Apps
http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/07/google-reminds-ios-developers-that-they-can-easily-integrate-chrome-with-their-apps/
Google just reminded developers that they can use Chrome as the default browser for their apps and easily switch back and forth between app and browser. With x-callback, Google says, developers can open links in Chrome and once the page has loaded, Chrome will show a link back to the original app in the top left corner of the screen. This should make it much easier for developers to allow users to support Chrome in their apps.
Currently, Google says, developers have two options when they want to access web content from their apps: they can create their own in-app web browser frame – using Apple’s own WebKit browser, of course – or by sending users away from their apps to a browser
Once users are in the browser, though, chances are, they won’t come back, so Google’s scheme will surely help to ensure that users remember what app they were coming from in the first place.
Tomi says:
Amazon Is Developing Smartphone With 3-D Screen
New Gadgets, Including Audio-Only Device, Is Bid to Expand Beyond Kindle Fire
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324744104578473081373377170-lMyQjAxMTAzMDAwOTEwNDkyWj.html
The Seattle e-commerce giant has recently been developing a wide-ranging lineup of gadgets—including two smartphones and an audio-only streaming device—to expand its reach beyond its Kindle Fire line of tablet computers, said people familiar with the company’s plans.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple’s iPad dominance slows as Android leads tablet market to record growth
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2267384/apples-ipad-dominance-slows-as-android-leads-tablet-market-to-record-growth
GADGET DESIGNER Apple’s dominance in the tablet market is beginning to slow as Android devices took the market to record growth in the first quarter of 2013, the latest figures from Canalys have revealed.
Canalys said that tablet shipments grew 106.1 percent year on year in the first quarter, aided by an influx of affordable Android devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android is also continuing to dominate the smartphone market, Canalys said, with a dominant 75.6 percent of all smartphones apparently running Google’s mobile operating system. Unsurprisingly, Samsung apparently has been responsible for most of this growth, with 32 percent market share
Source: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2267384/apples-ipad-dominance-slows-as-android-leads-tablet-market-to-record-growth
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile phone for four year olds launched
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2267356/mobile-phone-for-four-year-olds-launched
A MOBILE PHONE aimed at four year old children has been released.
Called 1stFone, the handset was announced yesterday by a firm that has already released a simplified phone for the elderly.
This one is aimed at kids, or rather, parents who think that four year olds should have a mobile phone monthly contract, and it looks like a cruddy toy.
It is a very stripped down handset that limits who toddlers can talk to on a mobile phone. This makes some odd kind of sense to us. Like matches designed for tiny hands, or booster shoes for children that want to drive a car but can’t reach the pedals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kaspersky inks a deal with Qualcomm to improve Android security
Says lower level OS work is needed
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2262217/kaspersky-inks-a-deal-with-qualcomm-to-improve-android-security
SECURITY FIRM Kaspersky Lab has signed an agreement with chip designer Qualcomm to improve security at “the lower level” of a smartphone’s mobile operating system (OS).
Kaspersky told The INQUIRER that it has agreed to offer “special terms” for preloading Kaspersky Mobile Security and Kaspersky Tablet Security products on Android devices powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon processors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is Nokia’s Asha Range a Bridge to Nowhere?
http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2013/05/09/is-nokias-asha-range-a-bridge-to-nowhere/
The Asha range was launched alongside the higher-profile Lumias at the same October 2011 London event. It was designed to offer a smartphone-like experience at an un-smartphone-like price.
For Nokia, which at the time was still the world’s largest phone maker, the Asha was in the sweet spot; above its basic phones, below its new flagship range. The two markets were distinct and Asha slotted into the gap.
While for some customers, the Asha was an end in itself, others, Nokia hoped, would upgrade from their Nokia feature phone via the Nokia Asha to the Nokia Lumia.
Unfortunately for Nokia there were two problems with the bridge strategy
They look nothing like each other.
“There is no clear on-ramp,”
But by far the bigger worry for Nokia, and others as well, is the threat from Android.
But it is not all gloomy for Nokia, said Ovum’s Eden Zoller. “For many customers the Asha is an end in itself. Many customers are very happy with the phone and don’t want to upgrade to a Lumia. It is a huge market sector and they are well placed in it.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Has Google shut down SMS search?
http://paritynews.com/web-news/item/1061-has-google-shut-down-sms-search
Users in the US are reporting that Google has allegedly shut down its SMS Search service without any official announcement or notification.
SMS search from Google has been available to millions of users in countries like US, India, Pakistan and China. The service was also available in UK, Germany and Spain. The service allowed users to send out search queries to Google in the form of SMS without paying any premium charges.
Tomi says:
Why Apple is beginning to fall behind
Taking a closer look at Apple and Samsung’s financials hints future possibilities
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Computer_Systems/Standalone_Mobile/Why_Apple_is_beginning_to_fall_behind.aspx
The extremely profitable Apple, whose net income rose from $8.24 billion in September 2009 to $41.73 billion in September 2012, has finally experienced a profit loss during the first quarter of this year; the company earned 16% less than it did in the same quarter a year prior, and 27% less than the latest quarter of 2012. With Samsung hot on its heels, the entire dynamic of the mobile phone market may shift in the near future. The question that arises is: Why is Apple losing market share if the company’s net income is so high?
With that being said, Apple’s yearly R&D budget does not reflect the urgency placed on innovation compared to its competitors. The company’s R&D budget totaled $3.38 billion in 2012, $2.43 billion in 2011, $1.78 billion in 2010, and $1.33 billion in 2009.
By contrast, Samsung’s R&D spending was $10.47 billion in 2012, $9.04 billion in 2011, $8.26 billion in 2010, and $6.71 billion in 2009, significantly higher than Apple’s.
So why is Apply falling behind?
Clearly the lack of innovation and reliance on past momentum is one possibility. Competitors have caught up and overtaken the iPhone in many regards, both in consumer perception as well as from a technological standpoint.
By all means, we are excluded from the secrecy of the company’s R&D department, and cannot speculate on what sorts of innovations are now in the works. However, what is obvious is that we as consumers crave change.
If the operating system of the iPhone 6 sports the exact same interface of its 2007 3G predecessor, but with improved hardware, consumers may become bored with the line as a whole.
Additionally, the almost symbiotic reliance on iTunes is archaic and runs counter-productive to the scope of the iPhone, which boasts convenience and ease of access as one of its major strengths. iTunes is not convenient and makes transferring content onto the phone a hassle
Tomi Engdahl says:
Breaking News Rolls Out Mobile Ad Unit
http://www.digiday.com/publishers/breaking-news-rolls-out-mobile-ad-unit/
Mobile advertising remains in flux. The jury is out on what form factor will win out.
Real-time news alert service Breaking News has an interesting experiment with units that are, in effect, sponsored content.
Many are turning to advertorial-type content as a viable model for mobile, where screen sizes are limited. Twitter’s seeing success with promoted tweets in mobile, and Buzzfeed is reporting the same with its advertising content placements.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ABC to Test Expanding Nielsen Ratings to Mobile
http://adage.com/article/special-report-tv-upfront/abc-test-expanding-nielsen-ratings-mobile/241465/
ABC will begin measuring advertising in videos viewed with mobile and tablet apps during a trial run with Nielsen, the network said at its upfront presentation to ad buyers Tuesday afternoon.
It will be the first test expanding Nielsen’s Online Campaign Ratings to mobile, allowing ABC to measure audience demographics and understand the reach and frequency of online campaigns within apps, according to executives. Nielsen’s online ratings currently include video viewed on computer and tablet browsers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft shares details about its next Windows Phone 8 update
http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-shares-details-about-its-next-windows-phone-8-update-7000015366/
Summary: Microsoft is starting to detail features coming in this summer’s GDR2 update to the Windows Phone 8 operating system.
Microsoft’s supposed plan, according to my tipsters, is to release three GDR updates to the Windows Phone 8 operating system before delivering what we’ve been calling Windows Phone Blue.
The new update will include support for CalDAV and CardDAV, so that it will continue to work with Google contact and calendar syncing services, officials said. This CalDAV/CardDAV support previously was rumored for GDR2.
The update will reintroduce support for FM radio (as a feature carriers can opt to support or not) — a feature which was part of the Windows Phone 7 operating system platform, but which was cut for Windows Phone 8. The update also will make the Data Sense monitoring feature of Windows Phone 8 available for more carriers to support if they decide to do so.
The GDR2 update will be rolling out to existing Windows Phone 8 users starting “later this summer,” officials said today.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nearly 75% Of All Smartphones Sold In Q1 Were Android, With Samsung At 30%; Mobile Sales Overall Nearly Flat: Gartner
http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/14/android-nearly-75-of-all-smartphones-shipped-in-q1-samsung-tops-30-mobile-sales-overall-nearly-flat-says-gartner/
Gartner has just released its Q1 figures for mobile handset sales, and the key takeaway is that Android continues to steal the show, led by handset maker Samsung. Google’s mobile platform now accounts for nearly 75% of all handset sales, a jump of almost 20 percentage points on a year ago, and equating to 156 million devices sold in the three-month period.
Smartphones sales grew by 63 million units to 210 million for the quarter, making up nearly half of all mobile phone sales overall, at 425 million.
With the number of mobile handset sales up by a mere 0.7% on a year ago, it’s clear that higher-end devices are very the much growth engine for the mobile industry at the moment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
As of today, every major mobile competitor… also makes apps for iOS
http://www.imore.com/today-every-major-mobile-competitor-also-makes-app-ios
A few minutes ago BlackBerry announced BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) for iOS. With that announcement, every single one of Apple’s major mobile competitors now makes apps for iOS. Google, who also has Android, makes many very popular apps including Gmail, Maps, Google+, etc. Microsoft, who also has Windows Phone, makes a bunch of apps and games for iOS, including OneNote and Kinnectimals. Nokia, Microsoft’s primary Windows Phone partner, also makes Here Maps.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Watch out, Nokia: Global mobile phone sales slowing
Only the Asian market showing growth
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/14/gartner_global_mobile_sales_slowing/
It seems as though hardly a month goes by without the launch of some flashy new mobile phone. Yet according to new figures from Gartner, overall mobile sales are slowing throughout most of the world, which could mean trouble ahead for some vendors – particularly Nokia.
Total sales of all types of handsets were essentially flat for the first quarter of 2013, the report states, growing just 0.7 per cent over the same period in 2012.
the Asia/Pacific, which grew sales by 6.4 per cent. Sales in all other regions were down, particularly in areas where the smartphone market is mature.
Mobile phone sales in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region were down 3.6 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2012, Latin American sales were down 3.8 per cent, and sales in Japan decreased by 7.3 per cent. And in North America, which embraced smartphones in a big way early on, overall handset sales were down a troubling 9.5 per cent.
“Apple is faced with the challenge of being increasingly dependent on the replacement market as its addressable market is capped,”
“Feature phones users across the world are either finding their existing phones good enough or are waiting for smartphones prices to drop further,”
“Either way the prospect of longer replacement cycles is certainly not a good news for both vendors and carriers looking to move users forward.”
Nokia probably has it worst of all.
According to Gartner’s figures, Nokia’s global sales in the first quarter were down 24 per cent from the previous year’s quarter, and its market share shrank from 19.7 per cent to 14.8 per cent.
What’s more, Nokia’s smartphones running Windows Phone 8 have proven unpopular with consumers compared to Android handsets
Meanwhile, Apple, Huawei, LG, Lenovo, Samsung, and Sony all saw their sales increase, if only modestly.
“There are two clear leaders in the OS market and Android’s dominance in the OS market is unshakable,” Gupta said.
Gartner estimates that 53.1 per cent of global mobile phones are now owned by customers in the Asia/Pacific region, and nearly half of those are in China.
“The Chinese and local manufacturers have been exemplary at addressing the demands of buyers by offering affordable devices with optimum features such as 2.5G (EDGE) instead of 3G in a smartphone,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia Asha 501 hands-on
http://www.slashgear.com/nokia-asha-501-hands-on-09281046/
Take Nokia’s estimable skills in crafting solid, affordable smartphones, a dash of MeeGo-learned interface know-how, and a motivating desperation to own the developing market, and you get this, the Nokia Asha 501. First of the new Asha Touch series, and toting an ambitious $99 (pre-tax and subsidy) sticker, the Asha 501 does what Nokia would argue only it can: distill the build quality and usability of a Lumia into something with the mass market reach of an Asha.
Nokia isn’t new to making cheap phones, nor cheap touchscreen handsets. Its previous Asha series have run the gamut from numeric keypads through QWERTY thumbboards, to full-touch, with pricing in the low double-digits even before operators have had their way with subsidies.
The hardware straddles the line between price and ability. Most disappointing – though understandable, given the target market – is the absence of 3G, with the Asha 501 making do with a 2G connection along with WiFi. There’ll be 3G Asha touch phones in future, Nokia tells us.
Nokia is quoting a runtime of up to 48 days standby (from the single-SIM version; the dual-SIM manages up to 26 days standby) or up to 17hrs talktime, which is more than impressive for a touchscreen smartphone. There’s Bluetooth inside too, along with a 3.2-megapixel camera.
the new Asha platform. It may be built on some of the fundamentals of S40, but in practice it’s a new beast almost entirely, far more reminiscent of MeeGo on 2011′s N9 than anything else.
The Asha platform has access to a download store for third-party titles, with only a minor amount of fettling needed to get existing S40 software ready for the new OS.
In practice, it all works surprisingly well, considering the price. At 99.2 x 58 x 12.1 mm and 98g
Tomi Engdahl says:
McAfee all-in-one security suite covers PCs, tablets, and smartphones
Put your passport and ID docs in the cloud
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/15/mcafee_livesafe/
McAfee has launched an all-in-one cross-platform security suite for consumers that incorporates online storage through biometric authentication as well as a host of other security technologies. Equally importantly, the Intel security division is trying to shake up the way security software is sold to consumers.
The McAfee LiveSafe service features a cloud-based “safety deposit box” – Personal Locker – that allows online users to store their most sensitive documents, including financial records and copies of IDs and passports, providing they fit into the 1GB allocated storage space. Users would access their documents through biometric authentication – using voice, face, and device recognition technologies.
This is delivered through Intel Identity Protection Technology, a tamper-resistant hardware authentication mechanism, built into the latest Intel processors.
The cross-device service offers protection for a user’s PCs, Macs, smartphones, and tablets against the latest malware and spam, along with a host of other security technologies, including McAfee Anti-Theft. This aspect of the technology gives consumer the means to remotely lock, disable or wipe a device as well as an ability to recover some data if a device gets either lost or stolen.
The LiveSafe service will be offered from July 2013 at a special introductory price of £19.99 with the purchase of selected new PCs or tablets. LiveSafe will come preinstalled on Ultrabook devices and PCs from Dell starting on June 9. By contrast, a 12-month subscription for consumers’ existing PCs and tablets will cost £79.99.
Tomi says:
Android device? Ooohhhh, you mean a Samsung phone
Koreans nabbed nearly all the Q1 profits – more even than Google
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/15/samsing_android_profit_share/
Android may now be the bestselling smartphone OS in the world, as Google pointed out in its Wednesday morning I/O conference keynote, but a new report says most handset vendors aren’t actually making much money off Android – with one notable exception.
According to a study by market research firm Strategy Analytics, the global smartphone industry brought in operating profits of $12.5bn in the first quarter of 2013, and 43 per cent of those – or $5.3bn – came from sales of Android phones.
By Strategy Analytics’ estimates, the South Korean firm raked in a staggering 94.7 per cent of all profits in the Android market during the first quarter.
Samsung’s local rival LG brought in the second-largest share of the spoils – if you can really describe it as such. It pocketed just 2.5 per cent of the total profits.
Even more boggling is that all of the remaining Android phone vendors – including HTC, Huawei, Motorola, Sony, and ZTE among others – were left squabbling for the scraps, dividing a paltry 2.7 per cent share of the profits between them.
“An efficient supply chain, sleek products and crisp marketing have been among the main drivers of Samsung’s impressive profitability,”
Samsung is now believed to generate both more revenue and more profits from Android than even Google does.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Wants to Help Apps Track You
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514956/google-wants-to-help-apps-track-you/
Google will help people who build Android apps follow their users around without draining too much battery life.
More and more apps look at a person’s location to offer services, advertising, and discounts that are relevant to what they’re doing, and also to help people track their own activities. Google itself is at the forefront of this trend—with its Google Now service, it uses sensor data and other inputs, like e-mail, to try to anticipate people’s needs before they have to open an app or a search box. The more services it provides to other Android developers, the more people may see similar in-the-moment features in third-party software.
One new service announced today at Google’s annual developers’ conference in San Francisco will let developers build apps that recognize whether a person is driving, walking, or cycling without having a power-hungry GPS sensor reporting data in the background. Rather, the “activity recognition” service would let them tap into the device’s accelerometer and run Google algorithms that can learn over time whether a person is stuck in traffic or just out for an evening stroll.
Another service will allow app builders to create what are called geofences. These allow them to define an area on a map—say, an office park or a shopping mall—and trigger notifications or automatic actions once a person enters that area.
Many apps could already do a lot more with location data, but one barrier is the battery drain. A person who realizes that an app uses too much power might decide to turn it off or not download it in the first place. To overcome that problem, Google also announced a “fused location provider,” which has rewritten location algorithms so they use all the phone’s sensors—not only GPS—to more quickly and accurately target location.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple’s App Store Reaches 50 Billion Downloads, Now on Pace for 20 Billion Apps Per Year
http://www.macrumors.com/2013/05/15/apples-app-store-reaches-50-billion-downloads-now-on-pace-for-20-billion-apps-per-year/
Apple’s App Store today reached 50 billion downloads since its inception in 2008, and along with the milestone comes the end of the company’s “50 Billion App Countdown” promotion
With the last 25 billion downloads coming over a period of 14.5 months, Apple’s pace is now at over 20 billion downloads per year or over 50 million per day.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google demands Microsoft remove YouTube Windows Phone app, cites lack of ads
http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/15/4334030/google-demands-microsoft-remove-youtube-windows-phone-app
Microsoft updated its own YouTube application for Windows Phone just over a week ago and Google isn’t impressed. The Verge has obtained a copy of a cease and desist letter that Google has sent to Microsoft recently, demanding that Microsoft “immediately withdraw this application from the Windows Phone Store and disable existing downloads of the application by Wednesday, May 22, 2013.” Microsoft’s YouTube app for Windows Phone appears to have taken Google by surprise.
Google’s complaint centers on the lack of ads in Microsoft’s YouTube app, something it claims is a direct violation of the terms and conditions of the company’s YouTube API. The Verge has learned that Microsoft created the app without Google’s consent with features that specifically prevent ads from playing. The lack of ads clearly hits Google’s own revenues, but also those of its third-party content creators that are paid through the company’s AdSense program.
Microsoft has previously complained to the EU over Google’s apparent refusal to let Windows Phone access YouTube metadata. While it initially seemed like both companies had reconciled their differences, that’s clearly not the case.
Microsoft responds to YouTube demands, ‘more than happy’ to include ads if Google allows it
http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/15/4334956/microsoft-responds-to-youtube-windows-phone-takedown-notice
Following Google’s demands for Microsoft to remove its Windows Phone YouTube app, Microsoft has responded saying it’s happy to include advertising.
“We’d be more than happy to include advertising but need Google to provide us access to the necessary APIs,” says a Microsoft spokesperson.
Microsoft appears to want to rectify the situation
Tomi Engdahl says:
New CEO vows Intel will be more responsive in mobile push
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/16/us-intel-krzanich-idUSBRE94F0YC20130516
Intel Corp’s new CEO Brian Krzanich said on Thursday that under his leadership the top chipmaker will be more responsive to customers in an intensified focus on the fast-growing smartphone and tablet market where it lags its rivals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android and iOS accounted for 92% of Q1 2013 smartphone shipments, as Windows Phone passes BlackBerry
http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2013/05/16/android-leads-ios-with-162-1m-shipments-in-q1-2013-as-nokia-edges-out-blackberry-for-third-place/
Android and iOS accounted for 92.3 percent of all smartphones shipped during the first quarter of 2013, according to new figures published today by the International Data Corporation (IDC).
The number of new smartphones delivered with Android jumped to 162.1 million in the first three months, up from 90.3 million during the same period last year. It means that Google’s mobile operating system had a 75 percent market share of all new smartphones being shipped around the world
iOS held second place rather comfortably, rising ever so slightly from 35.1 million in the first quarter of 2012 to 37.4 million in 2013.
Apple’s market share of new smartphone shipments dropped from 23 percent to 17.3 percent
The battle for the so-called “third pillar” of smartphone adoption continues to rock to-and-fro between Windows Phone and BlackBerry OS.
BlackBerry OS shipments had dropped
Windows Phone, meanwhile, saw some significant gains. Shipments increased from 3 million in the first quarter of 2012 to 7 million over the last three months. It’s arguably a small rise, but one that brings its market share up to 3.2 percent for overall smartphone shipments for the period. The 0.3 percent lead over BlackBerry suggests that we’ll see the two platforms swap places throughout the year.
Rounding out the top six were Linux and Symbian, with a 1 percent and 0.6 percent marketshare respectively.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Heart film is now available to mobile phones – beneficial for both athletes and health care
VTT has developed a smart phone application that can measure consumer heard film even at home. The unit aims at introducing to the market within a year.
“Now, a device developed for people suffering from cardiac symptoms can start ECG boot their registration as soon as symptoms appear, and sends the result to the doctor, either by e-mail or via the Internet. Device can be used to help in the home health care,” says the father of the idea, Technology Timo Varpula .
It can also be overburdened with work-related burnout prevention. New Beat2Phone device and application to measure and analyze the heart’s electrical signal, or ECG (electrocardiogram) with physical applications.
With a little development work equipment is suitable for other applications, such as people suffering from sleep apnea monitoring and warn of impending sleeper, sleep apnea episode. The device can also be used to prevent some of the support and musculoskeletal disorders, which are common in office occupations.
The device measures the ECG signal sufficiently high sampling frequency, detects the signal of a single heart beat and measure the successive intervals between heartbeats. The apparatus further includes an acceleration sensor. The signals are transmitted via Bluetooth to your smartphone. The application displays the ECG signal, the heart rate curve and heart rate variability. The acceleration sensor signal is also calculated, among other things, a step density.
Beat2Phone is the first Android phone developed hardware and software to measure and to record the ECG and make it a large-scale analysis. In addition, the device allows for traditional products with more sophisticated analysis of heart rate and GPS-based movement speed and distance measurement.
About five per cent of the world’s population suffers from cardiac arrhythmia. With the age of arrhythmias increases: they are 12% of people aged over 60.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/sydanfilmin+saa+nyt+kannykkaan++hyotya+seka+urheilijoille+etta+terveydenhuollossa/a901987?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-17052013&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia and Microsoft: True Love or a Marriage of Convenience?
http://mashable.com/2013/05/15/nokia-microsoft-interview/
Nokia’s VP of European Sales and Marketing, Chris Weber, and asked him where Nokia’s future lies.
“Microsoft has the broadest ecosystem across phone, tablet, PC and XBOX – what we call the digital lifestyle”
“There are two reasons we bet on Microsoft. First, we felt we could differentiate, so we’re partnering tightly with them, and specifically on imaging. Second, Microsoft has the broadest ecosystem across phone, tablet, PC and XBOX – what we call the digital lifestyle, and that’s something that’s not talked about enough. Cloud services like Skydrive, Search by Bing, XBOX gaming assets and Skype… this is a whole set of things we define as the digital lifestyle and being able to tie all that together makes us very excited about being in bed with Microsoft.”
He’s undoubtedly got a point. The Microsoft ecosystem is far-reaching and well established, and Nokia Lumia represents the very best Windows Phone has to offer. But it’s still hamstrung by the historically poor press, a generally negative consumer perception that it’s always going to be second fiddle to Android and Apple, and this sense of a last-minute last stand for survival. The consumer is not convinced.
“We’re making progress. We sold 4.4million Lumia devices worldwide in Q4 2012, then 5.6million in Q1 2013 and we said we’d grow even faster in Q2.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile Game Biz to Nintendo and Sony: Seasons? What Are Those?
http://allthingsd.com/20130516/mobile-game-biz-to-nintendo-and-sony-seasons-what-are-those/
As if you needed any further reminding that phone and tablet games are where it’s at, take a look at the new portable gaming report that IDC and App Annie are releasing today.
The report, obtained in advance by AllThingsD, shows just how different the new generation of mobile games is from the gaming-only devices that previously reigned supreme.
For context, back in Q4 2012, total consumer spending on games for iOS and Android devices surpassed spending on “gaming-optimized handhelds” (that is, Sony’s PSP and Vita, and Nintendo’s DS, DSi and 3DS).
But the real bombshell is in the new report, which covers Q1 2013: In that quarter, consumer spending on Sony’s and Nintendo’s handhelds declined significantly, while iOS and Google Play spending both increased, also significantly. Combined, the phone and tablet crowd spent nearly three times as much on games as handheld device owners.
But the real bombshell is in the new report, which covers Q1 2013: In that quarter, consumer spending on Sony’s and Nintendo’s handhelds declined significantly, while iOS and Google Play spending both increased, also significantly. Combined, the phone and tablet crowd spent nearly three times as much on games as handheld device owners.
Tomi Engdahl says:
At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/at-google-conference-even-cameras-in-the-bathroom/
The future came crashing down on me this week at the Google I/O developer conference while I stood at a bathroom urinal.
I had just wrapped up a conversation with a man who owned a pair of Google’s Internet-connected glasses, Google Glass. He had explained that one of the gadget’s greatest features is the ability to snap a photo with a wink. “It’s amazing, you just look at something, wink your eye and it just takes a picture,” he said enthusiastically.
Everywhere I looked at the conference, people were wearing Google Glass. Hundreds of them. Maybe more than a thousand! They were on the escalator. At the coffee stations. Press lounges. Lingering in the hallways like gangs of super nerds. They looked like real people as they nibbled on M&M’s and nuts at the snack bars. Except they weren’t; these “humans” were able to take pictures with their eyes and then post them to the Internet.
The developers present who didn’t own the company’s augmented reality glasses stared at those who did with awe.
Often, Google Glass owners looked strange. Many were using their cellphones while wearing the glasses — defeating a declared purpose of the new gadget, to free you from having to look at your phone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inside AT&T’s 83GB/hour mobile cell tower …or why your iPhone no longer drops out at huge events
http://9to5mac.com/2013/05/19/inside-atts-83gbhour-mobile-cell-tower-or-why-your-iphone-no-longer-drops-out-at-huge-events/
AT&T shared a little bit of what goes into a portable network cells they put up at special events where bandwidth needs will be extraordinary. Remember, AT&T’s network is about 80% iPhones so this is important stuff. The setup above was what they used to cover a recent Los Angeles festival (read: Coachella).
This isn’t a test network; AT&T’s been honing their skills since they got caught with their pants down at SXSW in 2010
Since then, with their mobile response team, they’ve been able to keep their network up and running at huge events with the addition of these ‘kits’ above.
The network performance stats for this setup – some of which are staggering:
Carried approximately 83 GB of data traffic during the peak hour on our in-event network
Carried a combined 6,054 GB (or more than 6 terabytes) of data on our in-event network during the two weekends of the music festival (24-hour traffic totals, Friday-Sunday for two weekends).
About 50 engineers were involved in planning, construction or onsite 24/7 monitoring.
Both the super multi-beam antenna and five-beam antenna are AT&T innovations
The super multi-beam antenna has two rows with nine beams each – 18-beams total – and can handle as much as 18 times the network traffic capacity of a traditional single-beam antenna.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jolla announces its first Sailfish OS smartphone
Available in Europe later this year
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2269151/jolla-announces-its-first-salifish-os-smartphone
FINNISH STARTUP Jolla announced the first smartphone to run its Sailfish mobile operating system (OS) on Monday, ahead of its European release later this year.
The Jolla smartphone is the first handset to run Jolla’s Sailfish OS, which is essentially a reworked version of Nokia’s now defunct Meego OS. The Sailfish OS is compatible with Android apps, Jolla boasted, and features a predominantly gesture based user interface.
The Jolla handset will be available in Europe by the end of 2013, sporting a €399 price tag. It’s available to preorder now and there are three preorder options available.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Study: Only one in 10 smartphone owners willing to wear Google Glass regularly
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Computer_Systems/Standalone_Mobile/Study_Only_one_in_10_smartphone_owners_willing_to_wear_Google_Glass_regularly.aspx
Alarming numbers for one of the industry’s most hyped-about products
There’s no denying that Google Glass is one of the most eagerly anticipated devices to come to market in a long time.
Unfortunately for Google, the results were less than stellar:
• One in 10 smartphone owners said they were willing to wear the device all the time, even if priced within their personal budget
• One in two fear Google Glass will be too socially awkward or too irritating to wear
• 38% of the group total (smartphone owner or not) said that they would not wear Google Glass even if priced within their budget
• 44% do not feel that any of Google Glass’ key features are appealing
“Google is leading the wearable technology bubble as it looks to define what the next consumer screen will be,”
On the flip side, the study did find there to be some genuine interest around what Google Glass has to offer:
• 44% said that they liked the idea of being able to instantly photograph whatever they’re seeing
• 39% are interested in being able to make phone calls without having to touch their phone
• 37% like being able to capture video of whatever they’re seeing
• 31% would enjoy wearing the device to receive interactive directions of where they would like to go
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple Mobile Devices Cleared for Use on U.S. Military Networks
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-17/apple-mobile-devices-cleared-for-use-on-u-s-military-networks.html
The Pentagon cleared Apple Inc. devices for use on its networks, setting the stage for the maker of iPhones and iPads to compete with Samsung Electronics Co. and BlackBerry for military sales.
The decision eventually may spur a three-way fight for a market long dominated by Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry.
The Pentagon has depended on BlackBerrys, which have consistently received federal certification for protecting sensitive data.
Samsung
secure version of Google’s Android operating system
The Galaxy S4 released in April will be the first smartphone using the new system, known as Knox, according to Samsung.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple retail revenues per visitor reach new record
http://www.asymco.com/2013/05/20/apple-retail-revenues-per-visitor-reaches-new-record/
In the US, on a sales per square foot basis, Apple retail continues to perform twice as well as Tiffany & Co., the second best retailer, and three times as well as lululemon athletica, the third best retailer.
The latest quarter showed a 7% growth in visitors and a new record revenue of $57.6 per visitor.
Average visitors per store has steadied to 250,000 per store per quarter (average for trailing 12 months).
The strategy seems to be expanding US stores while opening new stores outside the US.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New commercial promotes Windows Phone as safe pacifier for annoying children
http://wmpoweruser.com/new-commercial-promotes-windows-phone-as-safe-pacifier-for-annoying-children/
A commenter recent suggested the reason Microsoft did not implement VPN and instead spent the time on Kids Corner was that it was pointless to simply replicate the features of other operating systems, but that time was better spent creating features uniquely Windows Phone and using those as selling points.