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:
Android drives cameras to GPUs, plans IR support
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4414713/Android-drives-cameras-to-GPUs–plans-IR-support
The next version of Android will enable using graphics cores for computational photography and infrared links for TV remote controls. Meanwhile, mobile developers need better tools for harnessing the power of the graphics cores in the works for 2014 and beyond, said an Android developer.
“Only this year have mobile GPUs gotten powerful enough to do something beyond render a screen so you can do computation with them using [Google’s] Renderscript,” said Dave Burke, engineering director of the Android team in a talk at Google I/O. “The [smartphone] camera can evolve—there’s so much more you can do in hardware and software, too,” he said.
Enabling computational photography on graphics cores is one of the priorities for Google’s Android team.
Google’s Camera 3.0 spec will be released later this year. It will also provide support for 3-D depth data, said a Google Android developer.
A number of impressive mobile graphics cores are coming to market over the next year
Renderscript remains Google’s tool of choice for general purpose parallel processing on graphics cores
“I’ve been writing way too much native code this past year,”
Google is working on more low level APIs for video and streaming, he added.
one Android engineer said the software also will support infrared sensors for use in TV remotes
Tomi Engdahl says:
SAP touts service that sells customer data from phone firms
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57585627-83/sap-touts-service-that-sells-customer-data-from-phone-firms/
The European maker of enterprise software would serve as a kind of middleman, analyzing data gathered by various wireless operators, selling results to marketers, and sharing the profits with the wireless companies.
Verizon Wireless already sells its customers’ mobile data to marketers. Now European enterprise-software giant SAP is taking things a step further by testing a service that will sell data collected by a number of wireless providers.
SAP announced its Consumer Insight 365 mobile service this week at the CTIA 2013 wireless show in Las Vegas. The service will, the company said in a release, pull data from SAP’s “extensive partner network” including “over 990 mobile operators;” aggregate and analyze it “without drilling down into user-specific information;” and make results available to subscribers through a Web portal.
SAP says its Mobile Services division works with more than 990 operators and 5.8 billion subscribers across 210 countries.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mercedes S-Class wows with 3D cameras and night vision
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/mercedes-s-class-wows-3d-cameras-night-vision-1C9960709
The Mercedes S-Class, to be launched in 2014, is packed with blow-your-mind details: LED lights, a perfumer, radar, 3D cameras.
Mercedes officials noted that it will be the first automobile to dispense with conventional light bulbs, opting instead for more advanced LED technology for everything from the head to taillights, and all those small indicators, reading lamps and mood lights in-between.
The mammoth, 104-page press release covering all the details of the new car is overwhelming. The section on sensors runs longer than most new car announcements.
As the maker revealed during a session halfway around the world at the annual Google I/O developers’ conference, there will be more apps. Mercedes is even developing a so-called “Heat Map” system to guide a motorist to the center of the urban action by visualizing areas with high concentrations of night clubs, restaurants and shopping centers.
Don’t expect to see final pricing until closer to the 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class launch this autumn, but expect about $100,000, a moderate increase over the current $93,000 base.
Tomi Engdahl says:
I can truthfully say this is the most used phone accessory I’ve ever owned. Meet the CardNinja.
http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2013/05/22/i-can-truthfully-say-this-is-the-most-used-phone-accessory-ive-ever-owned-meet-the-cardninja/
Card Ninja is effectively a wallet replacement that attaches to the back of your phone. I use it on the back of my iPhone but it works on virtually any smartphone.
To attach Card Ninja, you simple glue it to the back of your phone.
Cards falling out? Not a problem for me (or others), as mentioned above.
Losing both your phone, cash and money at the same time? Valid, but at least with Find My iPhone, Where’s my Droid and others, you stand a better chance of getting them all back than if you just lost your wallet somewhere.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Research finds new channels to trigger mobile malware
May 16, 2013
http://phys.org/news/2013-05-channels-trigger-mobile-malware.html
(Phys.org) —Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have uncovered new hard-to-detect methods that criminals may use to trigger mobile device malware that could eventually lead to targeted attacks launched by a large number of infected mobile devices in the same geographical area. Such attacks could be triggered by music, lighting or vibration.
“When you go to an arena or Starbucks, you don’t expect the music to have a hidden message, so this is a big paradigm shift because the public sees only emails and the Internet as vulnerable to malware attacks,”
A team of UAB researchers was able to trigger malware hidden in mobile devices from 55 feet away in a crowded hallway using music. They were also successful, at various distances, using music videos; lighting from a television, computer monitor and overhead bulbs; vibrations from a subwoofer; and magnetic fields.
“We showed that these sensory channels can be used to send short messages that may eventually be used to trigger a mass-signal attack,”
“While traditional networking communication used to send such triggers can be detected relatively easily, there does not seem to be a good way to detect such covert channels currently.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Family of modules provides all-in-one LTE connectivity for M2M
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4414819/Family-of-modules-provides-all-in-one-LTE-connectivity-for-M2M
French 4G chipmaker Sequans Communications has introduced a new line of LTE modules with a complete RF front end and key interfaces in a single, compact package for M2M designs.
The EZLinkLTE modules are based on Sequans’ LTE baseband and give device designers a plug-and-play, all-in-one LTE connectivity solution that significantly reduces development cost and time to market. The first EZLinkLTE module, sampling now, is the VZ20Q, which is one of the first modules in the industry to support both LTE bands 4 and 13.
EZLinkLTE modules are designed to provide a comprehensive LTE connectivity solution for the design of connected consumer electronics devices, tablet and laptop computers, machine-to-machine devices, and other applications featuring embedded LTE connectivity.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why iPhone repair costs have soared
A broken screen can now cost more than $200 to fix
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-iphone-repair-costs-have-soared-2013-05-22?mod=e2tw
The company charges as much as $229 to replace an iPhone 5 with a broken screen. That’s more than the $200 price of the device with a two-year contract, and more than a third of the $650 cost of the phone without a contract.
The replacement components for the iPhone 5 are much more expensive than similar parts for prior models — so expensive in fact that many independent repair services cannot compete. “Due to the high cost of replacement parts, we are not yet offering iPhone 5 repairs,”
Nearly one-third of iPhone users damaged their devices during 2012, according to a recent study by gadget insurer SquareTrade
Replacing an iPhone 5 screen takes 5 to 10 minutes and is easier to fix than the 4, says AJ Forsythe, founder of iCracked, a repair service for iGadgets.
The iPhone 5 has five screws and two layers.
As the iPhone 5 is larger than the 4, the cost for replacement parts rises, he says. “Apple is trying to get people to sign up for Apple Care for $99 and to rely on their services at the Apple store,” he says, “If you don’t, that cracked screen could cost you at least $230.”
Thanks to do-it-yourself kits, it’s possible to replace the screen on an iPhone 4 for less than a quarter of that price.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android’s Market Share Is Literally A Joke
http://techpinions.com/androids-market-share-is-literally-a-joke/16709
The Joke
Have you heard this one?
Two farmers bought a truckload of watermelons, paying five dollars apiece for them. Then they drove to the market and sold all their watermelons for four dollars each. After counting their money at the end of the day, they realized that they’d ended up with less money than they’d started with.
“See!” said the one farmer to the other. “I told you we shoulda got a bigger truck.”
Or how about this one?
Android is winning because they got a bigger truck.
Both “jokes” are based upon the old saw that one can lose money on every sale but make it up in volume.
TechCrunch sums up the thoughts of many this way:
“The latest numbers are in: Android is on top, followed by iOS in a distant second. There is no denying Android’s dominance anymore. There is no way even the most rabid Apple fanboy can deny that iOS is in second place now. Android is winning.”
ReadWrite takes it one, final step further, stating:
“The Mobile Battle Is Over – And Google Won.”
In other words, pundits think that Android has won because they “have a bigger truck” (i.e. more market share) – regardless of how much – or how little – profit Android manufacturers make. Android, the pundits opine without a hint of irony, is not making much, if any, money but that’s okay because they’re making it up in volume.
Summation
It isn’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so. – Will Rogers
Not only do the high priests of market share have it wrong, they have it exactly backwards. The company with the lower market share and the higher profits has all of the leverage. The goal is to INCREASE, not decrease, the ratio of profits to market share. Increasing market share at the cost of profits is a recipe for disaster, not a formula for success.
Tomi Engdahl says:
4G LTE: Good for tweets and watching Dr Who. Crap at saving lives
Why cops, medics must stick to walkie talkies
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/24/lte_wont_go_critical_until_2018_at_best/
Critical Communications World High-speed mobile broadband standard LTE, the preferred 4G technology around the world, isn’t good enough for critical networks and won’t be up to scratch until at least 2018.
That’s according to the TETRA + Critical Communications Association (TCCA) which promotes the development of communications tech and has been lobbying 3GPP, the custodian of LTE.
Most emergency services use TETRA, or one of its predecessors, which offers robust voice communications and a feature list of things that LTE is lacking. But those networks can’t cope with significant quantities of data so there’s great interest in getting LTE up to speed as a replacement.
LTE is great for over-the-air broadband but lacks four features considered crucial if anyone is going to take it seriously as a mission-critical technology, which are due to be added to the standard over the next half decade.
The most obvious shortfall in LTE is the lack of voice. There is a standard for it but today’s users are shunted into 3G as soon as a voice call is made (or not, on EE’s UK network where users routinely complain that using 4G results in them missing voice calls). For police, ambulance and suchlike voice is still the killer feature, and they’d like to speak to everyone at once too.
That comes under the heading of Group Communications, and enables one person to speak to a load of other people at the same time. In the cellular world this is known as Push To Talk and has been a commercial failure outside the US. It’s a key feature of TETRA and the TCCA reckons to be on track to have the same functionality built in to Release 12 of the LTE standard – expected late 2014.
Tomi says:
Smartwatch face off: Pebble, MetaWatch and new hi-tech timepieces
Tick, tock, Tweet
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/22/roundup_smartwatches/
Product Round-up If the rumours are to be believed, Apple and Microsoft are both developing “smartwatches” – wrist-worn gadgets that do rather more than simply display the time.
In fact, for all the current buzz around the smartwatch, tech’d up timepieces have been making headlines for the past decade or more. A quick survey of past Register write-ups reveals Motorola demo’d a phone-in-a-watch in February 2000, six months before IBM engineers showed off a proof-of-concept watch running Linux.
The early Noughties saw a number of no-name Chinese companies pitch Dick Tracy-style watchphones, and Japan’s venerable telco NTT DoCoMo even shipped one itself in 2003. Five years later, Korea’s LG had a go, building its offering around Windows Mobile 6.5, a move that encouraged Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to strap one on during a Mobile World Congress keynote the following year.
Not to be outdone by its arch-rival, Samsung unwrapped a watchphone of its own, the S9110, in 2009, only four years ago. It’s believed to be working on a successor even as we speak.
Of course, the watchphones to date have been more about what vendors are able to make, rather than what punters actually want to use. Inevitably, they required Bluetooth headsets, gadgets that most phone users clearly don’t care for given how few of them you see being used on a daily basis.
Sending notifications over a Bluetooth link isn’t new. In 2006, Sony’s phones division, back when it was Sony Ericsson, released a Bluetooth-connected watch
The Reg Verdict
A fair few Reg readers no longer wear watches because they can find out what time it is on their phone or computer.
I like the notion that a watch can tell me, at a glance, many if not all of the things I currently have to whip out my phone to check.
Right now, though, the latest generations of smartwatch, so called, are not ready to do that.
There is a basic feature set common to all devices: warnings when the Bluetooth link is lost, call alerts, phone finding and message notifications. But there’s little consistency on the latter: different phones feed over different types of message depending on which services their apps support.
Another differentiator is battery life. A rechargeable cell will give you up to a week’s operation
The alternative is the replaceable but single-charge lithium batteries found in the Casio and Cookoo. These usually last five years or so, but Bluetooth reduces this to a year, the vendors claim
Tomi says:
The First Six Months Developing For The Computer On My Face
http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/24/theres-a-computer-on-my-face/
Developing applications for Glass is actually more similar to building a website than it is to building an Android application.
Mirror API is a RESTful web service. This means that developing applications for Glass is actually more similar to building a website than it is to building an Android application.
Once a user logs in to your application, they grant you permission to push “cards” to their Glass devices and to receive responses from it. It is purely asynchronous, and is not designed for real-time applications, such as an augmented-reality game or a Call of Duty-style, heads-up display. This will likely change with the upcoming release of the GDK, but for the moment you are restricted to building asynchronous applications.
All concerns aside, the hard truth that skeptics must face is that this is an inevitable evolution of computing. We will continue to debate the pros and cons of wearable technology for decades to come, but one thing is crystal clear: wearable technology is coming, it is inevitable, and Google is steamrolling a path to this unavoidable future.
Tomi Engdahl says:
99.9% Of New Mobile Malware Targets Android Phones
http://mashable.com/2013/05/22/new-mobile-malware-targets-android-phones/
Android, the world’s most popular smartphone operating system, has malware issues. We knew that already. But a new report suggests these issues are only destined to worsen.
In fact, 99.9% of new mobile malware detected in the first quarter of 2013 is designed to hit Android phones, according to a new report released by online security firm Kaspersky Lab.
The vast majority of those are trojan viruses
SMS trojans, which steal money by sending unauthorized texts to premium rate numbers, are the most common, with 63% of total infections.
Outside of the mobile world, the report has some other interesting numbers. Using malicious links comprise 91% of total threats, making it by far the hackers’ preferred method of infecting victims.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lenovo Aims at U.S. Smartphone Market
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887323336104578502843289017624-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwNTEyNDUyWj.html
China’s Lenovo Group wants to start selling smartphones in the U.S. within a year, its chief executive said, as the company behind the ThinkPad brand tries to repeat the success of its personal-computer business.
Lenovo is pushing aggressively into the smartphone market just as the traditional PC industry is struggling with shrinking demand. Consumers are spending more money on mobile devices, and the weak economy is pushing corporate clients to hold off on office PC purchases.
Since last year, Lenovo has expanded its smartphone business outside China, starting with emerging markets such as India, Russia and Indonesia. Its next challenge is to enter markets like the U.S. and Europe.
Lenovo’s smartphones are expected to face an uphill battle in the U.S.
The market for smartphones “is more like the fashion industry,” said Mr. Yang. “We know the importance of marketing, and we will strengthen that.”
In the PC market, Lenovo has used acquisitions to increase its global presence.
“If an acquisition helps us quickly build capability, we would consider it,” said Mr. Yang
The company aims to increase smartphone sales to 50 million units in its current fiscal year, up from 30 million in the year that ended in March.
“The PC market will not grow as fast as it did before,” Mr. Yang said. While desktop and laptop PCs still account for more than 80% of Lenovo’s revenue, the company has seen rapid growth in smartphones. In the latest quarter, Lenovo’s smartphone shipments in China more than doubled from a year earlier.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung sold a record 12.5 million smartphones in China during Q1 2013: Strategy Analytics
http://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/05/27/samsung-sold-a-record-12-5-million-smartphones-in-china-during-q1-2013-strategy-analytics/
Samsung topped China’s smartphone sales for the first time last year, and the Korean firm has taken that momentum into this year, after selling a record 12.5 million smartphones in China during Q1 2013, according to Strategy Analytics.
Strategy Analytics’s Q1 2013 data put Huawei behind Samsung in second place on 8.1 million units sold, having overtaken Lenovo — which has announced its intention to launch devices in the US within one year — which sold 7.9 million smartphones.
Chinese phone makers Coolpad (7 million smartphones sold) and ZTE (6.4 million) rounded out the top five, with Apple coming in sixth with an estimated 6.1 million iPhones sold during the three-month period.
Nokia was ranked first on Chinese smartphone sales back in 2011, but its slide continues and it was not even noted in the Korea Times report.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Foxconn and Mozilla join hands over Firefox OS, may show off new devices next week Mobile
http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/27/foxconn-mozilla-firefox-os-partnership/
In a Chinese invitation we received earlier today, Foxconn Technology Group and Mozilla confirmed an upcoming press conference that will detail and make their Firefox OS partnership official. The event will take place in Taipei next Monday
Tomi Engdahl says:
Downloadable applications for smart phones have changed the world in recent years. Smoldering under the surface for the next disruption – cars downloadable applications.
The software used in cars will soon become the new billion-dollar market, predicts research firm Juniper Research. The consequences for the average motorist could be interesting.
Juniper Research has released a study on new technologies, which are imported automotive systems. The company predicts that the automotive application is seen as a revolution in the near future.
According to the company car cabin used in the applications sales will reach more than 1.2 billion U.S. dollars (about 930 million) for the year 2017, less than five years.
The applications are of two types. Others take advantage of smart phones and automotive systems to work together. Some of the applications is, however, own car entertainment systems inside.
Ford offers software agents for application development package.
So the idea is similar to the smart phone programs
Juniper Research estimates that the other car manufacturers follow as rapidly as GM’s and Ford’s example. Juniper Networks, the global population in 2017 for 120 million cars that are able to take advantage of smart phone applications, or the car’s own systems running on external programs.
Development will be the strongest in the two regions, North America and Europe. United States accounted for 120 million cars is forecast to almost half. Europe, these new cars would be about 30 million within five years.
Car applications, special emphasis is, of course, voice control, so safety is not put at risk.
Automotive systems, opening for application developers would likely lead to a similar wave of innovation than what has been seen in smartphones.
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/uutiset/autojen_sovelluksista_seuraava_mullistus
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tizen-based Samsung phone leaks online
http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/tizen-based-samsung-phone-leaks-online-371910
After integrating its Bada OS into Tizen, Samsung has been in the works for creating significant devices for the OS for a while now. After its long lived commitment to Google, it might now finally be concentrating on the Tizen operating system based on Linux.
Tizen Greek Community recently leaked images of the GT-i8800 codenamed Redwood, a new smartphone running the Tizen version 2.1.0.
The device looks similar to existing Android phones from Samsung like the Samsung Galaxy S2.
The smartphone will be given to around 500 developers participating in the on-going Tizen Developer Conference in San Francisco.
The conference also saw the announcement of the Tizen Application Store. Labeled the ‘Tizen Store’, the application UI is majorly based around sliding gestures and featured segmentation
Tomi Engdahl says:
Disruptions: At Odds Over Privacy Challenges of Wearable Computing
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/disruptions-at-odds-over-privacy-challenges-of-wearable-computing/
Perhaps the best way to predict how society will react to so-called wearable computing devices is to read the Dr. Seuss children’s story “The Butter Battle Book.”
The book, which was published in 1984, is about two cultures at odds
Well, the Zooks and the Yooks may have nothing on wearable computing fans, who are starting to sport devices that can record everything going on around them with a wink or subtle click, and the people who promise to confront violently anyone wearing one of these devices.
I’ve experienced both sides of this debate with Google’s Internet-connected glasses, Google Glass.
This is not just a Google issue. Other gadgets have plenty of privacy-invading potential. Memoto, a tiny, automatic camera that looks like a pin you can wear on a shirt, can snap two photos a minute and later upload it to an online service.
Apple is also working on wearable computing products, filing numerous patents for a “heads-up display” and camera.
But what about people who don’t want to be recorded? Don’t they get a say?
Deal with it, wearable computer advocates say. “When you’re in public, you’re in public. What happens in public, is the very definition of it
Mr. Starner has been experimenting with different types of wearable computers for over 20 years, and he said that although some people are initially skeptical of the computer above his eye, they soon feel comfortable around the device, and him. “Within two weeks people start to ignore it,” he said. Over the years, his wearable computers have become less obtrusive, going from bulky, very visible contraptions, to today’s sleeker Google Glass.
Mr. Starner said privacy protections would have to be built into these computers. “The way Glass is designed, it has a transparent display so everyone can see what you’re doing.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple’s Cook hinted at the clock and tv
Cook said the IT conference in California, the iPhone manufacturer has “great plans”. He stated that the areas of interest include televisions and accessories products, such as smart watches.
- We need to focus on the products.
Source: http://www.itviikko.fi/uutiset/2013/05/29/cook-vihjasi-applen-kellosta-ja-tvsta/20137601/7?rss=8
Tomi Engdahl says:
Global Tablet Shipments to Overtake PCs by 2015, IDC Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-28/pc-market-to-decline-7-8-in-2013-as-mobile-devices-gain.html
Global shipments of tablets will eclipse personal computers in 2015, as consumers flock to lower-priced and smaller alternatives to Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPad, market researcher IDC said.
Tablet shipments are projected to grow 45 percent from this year to reach 332.4 million in 2015, compared with an estimated 322.7 million for PCs, according to Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC. PC shipments may decline 7.8 percent this year, the worst annual drop on record, the researcher said, a revision from its prior projection for a 1.3 percent decrease.
More portable, affordable and backed by hundreds of thousands of applications, tablets are replacing PCs as consumers’ main tool for checking e-mail, browsing websites and accessing music and movies.
IDC said the worldwide average selling price for tablets is seen falling 11 percent to $381 this year, and keep declining as more consumers choose smaller machines
In 2017, 333 million PCs will be sold worldwide, while tablet shipments will reach 410 million, IDC said. IDC, which had previously forecast a “gradual increase in volume” for PCs next year, now projects that the market will contract 1.2 percent in 2014.
Consumers are pushing back upgrades to their PCs and companies are also holding off on spending on replacements for employees’ machines, IDC said. Tablet shipments will overtake laptops this year, the researcher said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Americans spend 58 minutes a day on their smartphones
Posted by John Fetto under Consumer Insights, Featured
http://www.experian.com/blogs/marketing-forward/2013/05/28/americans-spend-58-minutes-a-day-on-their-smartphones/?WT.srch=PR_EMS_smartphones_052813_press
New data from Experian Marketing Services’ Simmons® ConnectSM mobile and digital panel sheds light on the way smartphone users spend time using their phone, with the average adult clocking 58 minutes daily on their device. On average, smartphone owners devote 26% of the time they spend on their phone talking and another 20% texting. Social networking eats up 16% of smartphone time while browsing the mobile web accounts for 14% of time spent. Emailing and playing games account for roughly 9% and 8% of daily smartphone time, respectively, while use of the phone’s camera and GPS each take up another 2% of our smartphone day.
It may surprise some to read that an activity like watching video accounts for such a small share (less than 1%) of the typical adult’s daily smartphone use.
the greatest share of smartphone owners engage during a typical day and include the usual suspects: talking (79%), texting (76%), visiting websites (62%), emailing (61%) and social networking (52%). Activities with the fewest daily participants are: watching video, which 2.3% of smartphone owners do during a typical day, and reading, which just 0.5% of smartphone owners do daily.
Tomi Engdahl says:
These shoes were made for charging: The footwear that can power up your iPhone as you walk
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2331550/The-SHOES-charge-iPhone-walk.html#ixzz2UgLO4Is1
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung readies first R&D center in Finland as it outsells Nokia in its home market for first time
http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2013/05/29/samsung-readies-first-rd-center-in-finland-as-it-outsells-nokia-in-its-home-market-for-first-time/
Samsung is going all out to best Nokia in its home market of Finland. Fresh from an IDC report claiming that Samsung outsold Nokia in Finland during Q1 2013 — a notable first — the Korean phone maker has outed plans to open an R&D base in the country next month.
According to an invitation sent to Android Beat, Samsung is setting “Research & Development facility with a focus on advanced technologies” on Nokia’s home turf on June 13. The base will be the company’s first in the Nordics.
The Google-owned platform was responsible for 43 percent of smartphone profits in 2012, according to Strategy Analytics, which determined that Samsung accounted for a dominant 95 percent share of all Android revenue itself.
Samsung is booming in places where it has traditionally been weak. For example, its Q1 2013 China sales were a record 12.5 million, which represents nearly half of its sales in 2012 (which itself was a record, and saw 3X growth on 2011 sales). Likewise, in Finland, its new-found dominance is telling.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tim Cook: iOS 7 is the one Jony Ive has been working on for WWDC
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2013/05/29/tim-cook-ios-7-is-the-one-jony-ive-has-been-working-on/
“Yes, Jony [Ive] is really key,” Cook said in response to a question about whether the design chief would have his fingerprints on the next version of iOS, due to be unveiled next month.
Cook touted the elegance of a design that melded hardware and software tightly as something that Apple focused on, which was the point of the recent executive shakeup.
Cook said that the future of iOS and OS X would be announced at WWDC next month.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wikimedia launches ‘Nearby’ to surface Wikipedia articles based on location, and it wants your photos too
http://thenextweb.com/media/2013/05/29/wikipedia-surfaces-articles-based-on-your-location-and-wants-you-to-add-photos-with-your-mobile-phone/
Back in January, the Wikimedia Foundation announced a new GeoData extension for MediaWiki, which promised to provide a “structured way to store geo-coordinates for articles,” this was in addition to an API so developers could build tools based on this data.
In real terms, this means that location coordinates associated with articles are stored separately in the Wikipedia database which makes it easier to ‘query’ the coordinates of a particular Wikipedia page. It’s all about mining and mapping.
One of the first uses of this data was in the experimental mode of the Wikipedia mobile site, which allowed opt-in beta users to see a list of articles based on their location
Tomi Engdahl says:
2013 Internet Trends
http://www.kpcb.com/insights/2013-internet-trends
The latest edition of the annual Internet Trends report finds continued robust online growth. There are now 2.4 billion Internet users around the world, and the total continues to grow apace. Mobile usage is expanding rapidly, while the mobile advertising opportunity remains largely untapped. The report reviews the shifting online landscape, which has become more social and content rich, with expanded use of photos, video and audio.
Tomi Engdahl says:
In Blue: Start Experience Changes
http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/blue-start-experience-changes
I can now confirm that most of the rumored coming changes to the Start experience in Windows 8.1 “Blue” are correct. And I’ve got a few screenshots to help demonstrate how these changes are implemented.
Start button
It’s back, baby. And if you are familiar with how Start 8 looks and works, this will look awfully familiar. Here, confirmed for the first time, is the Windows 8.1 Start button.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why almost everyone gets it wrong about BYOD
http://www.infoworld.com/t/byod/why-almost-everyone-gets-it-wrong-about-byod-219241
Whoever owns the device, mobile use should encourage enablement, but too many organizations fall into control trap
BYOD is pretty clear: It’s bringing your own device. It isn’t the company’s device or your best friend’s device. It’s your device, and you own it. Because you own the device, you have certain rights to what is on the device and what you can do with the device. This is the crux of every issue that comes with BYOD programs.
You have to realize that most companies gravitate toward BYOD programs because they believe they can save money.
But savings shouldn’t be your focus. There’s a lot more to BYOD than saving money, which many companies are now starting to realize. If they let their employees use or at least choose their own devices, they find that their employees are more likely to use the devices as tools. They tend to work more hours each week than non-mobile-equipped employees.
You want employees to use mobile technology because they end up working more and often more flexibly. Whether you go BYOD or you provision employees’ devices that you buy (called COPE, for “corporate-owned, personally liable”), the real effort is to provide them access to the organization’s data ecosystems so that they can be productive with those devices.
There is no difference between the BYOD and COPE models. When you get started with your mobile program, you have to create policy.
You create apps that are designed to work with their devices, not crapplications based on legacy thinking.
What about all the issues that everyone is talking about with BYOD? These issues are all based on ownership. When you design your processes, you need to realize you can’t rely on the legacy thinking of owning the device anymore. You have to build solutions that can live in a world where the user may own the device. You may not have rights to wipe their devices. You may not even be allowed to look at what they do on the devices if it isn’t work-related.
The good news is that plenty of tools allow you to isolate all your business data from employees’ personal data. Those tools can let you wipe business data from their devices without touching their photos and private emails. There are ways to back up your data and protect it so that you can handle e-discovery investigations and meet the needs of legal, security, and human resources.
the balance between enablement and management varies across the world; in Europe, for example, privacy laws can dictate that if you put data on users’ device, they now own that data. There are ways to work around this, but it becomes more complicated.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Your Phone Is the Key to the New August Smart Lock
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/05/august-smart-lock/
Of all the mechanical gadgets in our homes that could be improved by adding an electronic component, the lowly door lock seems the most ripe for picking.
Evidence: the many companies that have developed “smart” locks, including the iPhone-controlled Kevo and Lockitron. And now, designer Yves Behar and serial entrepreneur Jason Johnson are the latest to join the lock business with the launch of their company, August, and its debut product, the August Smart Lock.
Much like the Kevo door lock or Lockitron, the August Smart Lock can be controlled using a smartphone. It pairs with your phone — and potentially other devices — over a Bluetooth low energy (BLE) connection to communicate with the lock and grant you keyless access. It’s as simple as walking up to a door and giving the lock a moment to recognize you. It then unlocks and lets you pass through the door, which auto-locks behind you.
Behar and Johnson spent the last year working on August, which will go on sale later this year for around $200. Their aim was to create a lock that is as simple and safe as possible
“Safer, simpler and more social are the areas we’ve focused on,” Behar says. “Just as we’re doing for fitness tracking, really changing access and managing guest entries into our home is the next stage.”
The lock comes with both a mobile app and a web app, so it can be used with all Bluetooth-LE-enabled smartphones. August will initially launch with iOS and Android apps
Of all the items in the home, the door lock is one where physical control over its state is paramount to a person’s feeling of security. The August team recognizes that getting people to the point where they’re comfortable passing off that firm control to something as ephemeral as a wireless Bluetooth connection is a challenge.
“There are emotional barriers [with the door lock],”
“I believe that people will start forgetting about their keys and not really use them,” Behar says.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple’s Tim Cook disses phablets and Google Glass
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/apples-tim-cook-disses-phablets-and-google-glass-50011343/
“A large screen today comes with a lot of tradeoffs,” the CEO said. “Customers clearly are looking at size, but they’re also looking at do the photos show the proper colour, the white balance, reflectivity, battery life, brightness, the longevity of the display — so there’s a whole bunch of things that are very important to the display.
That’s a clear dig at Samsung, which has taken the exact opposite approach to Apple, producing phones and tablets with dozens of different sizes and prices, and hoping some of them will find an audience. That means there’s probably a Samsung phone for you, but it might take some effort to work out which one it is.
Asked about Google Glass, the Apple boss was also far from effusiv
“I think there are some positive points in the product,” Cook said. “I think it’s probably more likely to appeal to certain vertical markets,” meaning doctors or warehouse managers or other specific work-based uses.
“I wear glasses because I have to. I don’t know a lot of people that wear them that don’t have to. I think the wrist is interesting. The wrist is natural. But you have to convince people that something’s so incredible they have to wear it.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Atheer Labs unveils 3D augmented reality mobile platform and a natural human UI (hands-on)
http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/30/atheer-labs-3d-augmented-reality-smart-glasses-natural-human-interface/
With the advent of Google Glass and the continued development of platforms like the Epson Moverio and Vuzix Smart Glasses, head-mounted wearables are getting a lot of attention these days. Atheer Labs is a small company looking to catch that wave of interest with a new set of intelligent spectacles and a novel way for folks to interact with them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://kfalck.net/2013/05/28/glass-kayttoliittyma-android-puhelimeen says:
“If Google Glass interested but not yet own smart glasses, the Glass interface can be installed in your Android phone.”
“Some of the Glass apk package is a bit of incompatible phones, but, fortunately, can be found in the repair Xenologer GitHub project.”
“Glass is the main interface with voice control, navigation needs, but also the arrow keys and the Enter and Escape keys, simulating the tap-gesture. Since the phone’s virtual keyboard is not available, the need for them to use either a separate Bluetooth keyboard or a Wi-Fi Bridge, which was transferred to the computer keystrokes in an Android phone. The latter can be found as a free application Play.”
[Download] Google Glass XE4 And XE5 System Dumps – Please Do Something Cool With These
http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/05/08/download-google-glass-xe4-and-xe5-system-dumps-please-do-something-cool-with-these/
Tomi Engdahl says:
If You Bought An ‘iWatch’ From Apple, You’d Check it ~95 Times Per Day (And That’s Why Apple Is Going To Make A Boatload)
http://www.businessinsider.com/apples-iwatch-will-be-a-huge-hit-2013-5
There have been multiple reports that Apple has a team of people working on making a computer for your wrist – a “smartwatch.”
Some are already calling it the iWatch.
exactly, the average smartphone user is looking for when he or she checks their phone ~150 times per day.
Even if you eliminate all or most of the voice call, messaging, and news checks from my tally, you still get ~50 checks per day.
For a lot of people, that’s going to be enough usage to justify spending the $200 or $300 analyst Gene Munster believes Apple will charge for the watch.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Apple needs a budget iPhone
And why arguments saying otherwise don’t make sense
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/opinion/2271848/why-apple-needs-a-budget-iphone
perhaps the most interesting rumour circulating at present is that Apple has shifted iPhone production from Foxconn to Pegatron, as it starts building a budget iPhone.
Recently I’ve read a handful of articles explaining why Apple shouldn’t release a budget iPhone, and I disagree.
Many of these arguments – in fact, almost all of them – lead with the opinion that Apple would never release a cut-price Macbook, and they’re right.
It’s silly to compare the laptop market
to the rapidly evolving smartphone market, where some customers quickly switch and swap between Blackberry, Android and iOS devices.
Apple needs to create a new SKU, not repurpose an old phone for the sake of trying to win over those looking for a cheap mobile
There’s a lot of value for Apple in releasing a budget iPhone, a point that some people seem to have missed. It might have a knock-on effect on Apple’s profit margins at the beginning, but there’s little question that in the long run, Apple will reap the rewards.
Assuming Apple gets the price right – we’re thinking sub-£300 is a must – it will start to see customers flocking from other mobile operating systems who previously didn’t want to fork out so much money to get their mitts on the iPhone 5.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
How Samsung Got Big
http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/01/how-samsung-got-big/
In all, something like $50 million worth of hardware burned on one day in 1995 when Samsung hoisted its “Quality First” banner and began its slow march towards world domination in earnest. Samsung Electronics emerged from those ashes a very different company, but the road leading to that cleansing fire was a long one.
To most of the western world the name “Samsung” is inextricably linked with smartphones and televisions and refrigerators and microwaves — with the consumer electronics that have turned Samsung into a global force.
Before Samsung Electronics there was merely Samsung Sanghoe: a small trading company founded by Lee Byung-Chull in 1938 that dealt mostly in dried seafood, produce, and its own noodles.
1969 saw the founding of Samsung Electronics, the subsidiary that would ultimately go on to become perhaps the world’s most powerful electronics brand. But that’s a long way off — its first products were mostly modest home appliances. Samsung’s inaugural black-and-white television set rolled off assembly lines in 1969 by way of a joint venture with Sanyo since the Korean subsidiary had no experience putting TVs together, and refrigerators, air conditioners, and electric fans soon followed.
It didn’t take long for Lee to figure out that the growing demand for consumer electronics of all stripes could mean very big things for Samsung down the road
In 1974 it nabbed a majority stake in Korea Semiconductor in a bid to help wean itself off of foreign tech.
Korea Semiconductor was renamed Samsung Semiconductor in 1978
The rest of the 1970s would see Samsung Electronics making strides abroad with its inexpensive wares. One of its earliest international hits was a cheap color television
While the Samsung Group broadened its scope and grew into an economic powerhouse, Samsung Electronics slowly became more proficient at churning out consumer gadgetry.
That M.O. speaks to another trait of Samsung Electronics: it doesn’t do much pioneering in unproven spaces. Rather, it picks out markets that have clear traction and try to consistently outperform the players that are already there
And of course, mobile was another one of the those big opportunities.
The approach would best be described as “scattershot.” Be they feature phones or Android smartphones, Samsung Electronics has always seen to fit to churn them out at an astonishing rate to see what clicks with consumers. That’s led to a considerable number of one-off devices meant to stand on their own and then disappear after mere months on the market, but hits are inevitable and so are their sequels.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Motorola’s Moto X Phone Will Be Made in America
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/motorolas-moto-phone-made-america/story?id=19284860#.Uae5x79Y5mQ
Motorola’s next flagship phone won’t only have sensors that will know when you are going to take a photo or when it is in your pocket, but it will be the first smartphone assembled in the U.S.
The phone will be made at Flextronics’ 500,000-square foot facility in Fort Worth, Texas, which was once used to make Nokia phones. While the phone will be designed, engineered and assembled in the U.S., not all the components in the phone will be made in the U.S. The processor and screen, for example, will be made overseas.
“There are several business advantages to having our Illinois and California-based designers and engineers much closer to our factory,” Motorola said in a statement. “For instance, we’ll be able to iterate on design much faster, create a leaner supply chain, respond much more quickly to purchasing trends and demands, and deliver devices to people here much more quickly.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Americans spend 58 minutes a day on their smartphones
Posted by John Fetto under Consumer Insights, Featured
http://www.experian.com/blogs/marketing-forward/2013/05/28/americans-spend-58-minutes-a-day-on-their-smartphones/?WT.srch=PR_EMS_smartphones_052813_press
New data from Experian Marketing Services’ Simmons® ConnectSM mobile and digital panel sheds light on the way smartphone users spend time using their phone, with the average adult clocking 58 minutes daily on their device.
On average, smartphone owners devote
26% of the time they spend on their phone talking and
another 20% texting.
Social networking eats up 16% of smartphone time while
browsing the mobile web accounts for 14% of time spent.
Emailing and playing games account for roughly 9% and 8% of daily smartphone time, respectively, while use of the phone’s camera and GPS each take up another 2% of our smartphone day.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: Nokia EOS 41MP PureView Windows Phone in early trials at AT&T
http://www.wpcentral.com/nokia-eos-41mp-pureview-wp8-early-trials-att?utm_source=wpc&utm_medium=twitter
Nokia still has big plans for their expanding Lumia line of Windows Phones this year with the next big reveal expected later this summer. That subsequent device is expected to be the ‘EOS’, an internal testing name that seems to refer to the Greek goddess of dawn (and not Canon’s brand of cameras).
The EOS is anticipated as the first 41MP camera Windows Phone, based off of the PureView 808 Symbian device, which was released in early 2012.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile Device “Security”: The Problems of Remotely Disabling Stolen Phones
http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/mobile-device-security-the-problems-of-remotely-disabling-stolen-phones/
The problem of mobile device theft has become sufficiently severe that legislators have decided to file bills discussing it.
Having one’s mobile device stolen has real costs. Replacing a phone can cost hundreds of dollars; any data on the device may be either lost or stolen. Enterprises particularly care about the latter problem
The bigger issue is that other solutions to try and “fix” this problem may actually weaken mobile device security, not strengthen it. It’s frequently suggested that “remote kill” systems that would remotely disable stolen devices be included in new devices. However, these are very problematic from a security perspective: it would mean that the capability to remotely administer a device would have to be built into the device: i.e., a backdoor. If the capability to remotely kill a device is built into a product, it has to be assumed that a sufficiently determined attacker can access it and do what they with that capability.
There’s also the thorny issue of who would hold the keys: both end user and organizations can be socially engineered and end up with a malicious attacker disabling (or just threatening to disable) a device.
a “remote kill” system brings with it very real potential problems. It may be better to focus on locating the device after it has been stolen; this capability is already built into iOS and Windows Phone, but not Android.
walkie talkie wrist watches says:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile data expected exponential growth of 1100 per cent
According to a recent study by mobile network data traffic doubled last year to the first quarter of this year to the corresponding period. By 2018, mobile networks, data traffic is expected to increase 12-fold.
Produced by Ericsson Mobility Report, the mobile data traffic growth was due to many reasons. More and more access to the network while on the move, an increasing number of mobile devices and the increasing amount of data addressing. In addition, smart phones are sold all the time.
Mobile networks, the contents of the fastest-growing mobile video, which is all traffic for 30 per cent. Ericsson predicts that the amount of video data is growing at an annual 60 per cent, and in 2018 at the end of the video makes up about half of the world’s mobile data traffic.
The study also shows that a 4g or LTE networks are spreading faster than expected. In 2012, the LTE network covered about 10 per cent of the world’s population, the figure is expected to be five years from now about 60 per cent.
Particularly fast LTE is growing, mainly in North America. The trend in Europe has been slower in some cases very advanced 3G networks.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/mobiilidatassa+odotetaan+huimaa+1100+prosentin+kasvua/a906614?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-04062013&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers Say They Can Hack Your iPhone With A Malicious Charger
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/06/02/researchers-say-they-can-hack-your-iphone-with-a-malicious-charger/
Careful what you put between your iPhone and a power outlet: That helpful stranger’s charger may be injecting your device with more than mere electrons.
At the upcoming Black Hat security conference in late July, three researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology plan to show off a proof-of-concept charger that they say can be used to invisibly install malware on a device running the latest version of Apple’s iOS.
conference website describes the results of the experiment as “alarming.
The researchers’ malicious charger, which they’re calling “Mactans” in what seems to be a reference to the scientific name of the Black Widow spider, is built around an open-source single-board computer known as a BeagleBoard, sold by Texas Instruments for a retail price of around $45. “This hardware was selected to demonstrate the ease with which innocent-looking, malicious USB chargers can be constructed,” the researchers write.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kantar: In April Windows Phone hits new market share highs in UK, Germany, Europe overall
http://wmpoweruser.com/kantar-in-april-windows-phone-hits-new-market-share-highs-in-uk-germany-europe-overall/
“Android and iOS continue to take the lion’s share of smartphone sales in Britain. However, Windows phones are becoming increasingly popular with consumers. Windows has grown its share by 4.4 percentage points compared with the same period last year and now holds an 8.4% share of the market.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mozilla, Foxconn Confirm Firefox OS Partnership
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/06/03/2053244/mozilla-foxconn-confirm-firefox-os-partnership
“Mozilla has confirmed reports that indicated a probable collaboration with Foxconn for development of Firefox OS based devices.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smut-for-Glass app suffers premature ejection
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/04/smutforglass_app_suffers_premature_ejection/
Google has barred the infamous Tits&Glass application from the app store for its “Glass” tech specs.
MiKandi says the app “allows Google Glass Users to share sexy content from their Glasses directly with other Glass users and online through the titsandglass.com web app”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Europe Is Losing the 4G Race
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324412604578515222989449746-lMyQjAxMTAzMDAwMzEwNDMyWj.html
Once a Pioneer in Cellphone Technology, the Region Trails Asia and the U.S. as Regulation Threatens Network Investment
Europe was a trailblazer in cellphone technology 15 years ago. Now it is lagging badly in the rollout of high-speed mobile services and desperately trying to catch up.
The continent trails the U.S. and parts of Asia in embracing fourth-generation technologies such as LTE, which enable faster Internet surfing and video streaming for computers, tablets and smartphones.
Mobile operators blame Europe’s weak economy and stifling regulation for a lack of investment in their networks in recent years, although some are now rolling out faster services as governments auction off fourth-generation spectrum.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ericsson forecasts 4.5 billion smartphone subscriptions and 60% LTE coverage worldwide by 2018
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/06/03/ericsson-4-5b-global-smartphone-subscriptions-and-60-of-the-world-covered-by-lte-in-2018/
Telecommunications company Ericsson has released its latest mobility report which predicts that in the next five years, the number of smartphones subscriptions in the world is expected to reach 4.5 billion, with 60 percent of the world’s population covered by LTE. Other findings show that with the proliferation of better network speeds, video traffic will also grow by 60 percent annually and data traffic volume will grow 12-fold by 2018.
With more people sharing photos on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, should we be surprised by the fact that faster network speeds are becoming available throughout the world?
Where is the biggest penetration in mobile technology? Europe. Globally, this number is at 90 percent, but there in Central and Eastern Europe, that number is 132 percent while it’s 128 percent in Western Europe. China, Africa, and India are the three main regions that do not have a penetration rate above 100 percent.