The platform wars is over: Apple and Google both won. Microsoft wanted to be the third mobile ecosystem, and it has got clear solid third position, but quite small market share of overall smart phone market. Apple now sells around 10% of all the 1.8bn (and growing) phones sold on Earth each year and Android the next 50%, split roughly between say 2/3 Google Android outside China and 1/3 non-Google Android inside China. So Apple and Google have both won, and both got what they wanted, more or less, and that’s not going to change imminently.
Wearables and phablets will be the big device stories of 2015. I think that the wearables will be the more interesting story of them, because I expect more innovation to happen there. The smart phone side seemed to already be a little bit boring during 2014 – lack of innovation from big players – and I can’t see how somewhat bigger screen size and higher resolution would change that considerably during 2015. CES 2015 debuts the future of smartphones coming from all places – maybe not very much new and exciting.
Say good-buy to to astronomical growth in smart phone sales in developed countries, as smartphone market is nearly saturated in certain regions. There will be still growth in east (China, India etc..), but most of this growth will be taken by the cheap Android phones made by companies that you might have not heard before because many of them don’t sell their products in western countries. The sales of “dumb phones” will decrease as cheap smart phone will take over. Over time this will expand such that smartphones take almost all phone sales (perhaps 400m or 500m units a quarter), with Apple taking the high-end and Android the rest.
The current biggest smart phone players (Samsung and Apple) will face challenges. Samsung’s steep Q3 profit decline shows ongoing struggles in mobile – Customers sought out lower priced older models and bought a higher percentage of mid-range smartphones, or bought from some other company making decent quality cheap phones. Samsung has long counted on its marketing and hardware prowess to attract customers seeking an alternative to Apple’s iPhone. But the company is now facing new competition from low-cost phone vendors such as China’s Xiaomi and India’s Micromax, which offer cheap devices with high-end specs in their local markets.
Apple has a very strong end of 2014 sales in USA: 51% of new devices activated during Christmas week were Apple, 18% were Samsung, 6% Nokia — Apple and Apps Dominated Christmas 2014 — Millions of people woke up and unwrapped a shiny new device under the Christmas tree. It is expected that Apple also will see slowing sales in 2015: Tech analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has predicted Apple will face a grim start to 2015 with iPhone sales plummeting by up to a third.
In few years there’ll be close to 4bn smartphones on earth. Ericsson’s annual mobility report forecasts increasing mobile subscriptions and connections through 2020.(9.5B Smartphone Subs by 2020 and eight-fold traffic increase). Ericsson’s annual mobility report expects that by 2020 90% of the world’s population over six years old will have a phone. It really talks about the connected world where everyone will have a connection one way or another.
What about the phone systems in use. Now majority of the world operates on GSM and HPSA (3G). Some countries are starting to have good 4G (LTE) coverage, but on average only 20% is covered by LTE. Ericsson expects that 85% of mobile subscriptions in the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa will be 3G or 4G by 2020. 75%-80% of North America and Western Europe are expected to be using LTE by 2020. China is by far the biggest smartphone market by current users in the world, and it is rapidly moving into high-speed 4G technology.
It seems that we change our behavior when networks become better: In South Korea, one third of all people are doing this ‘place shifting’ over 4G networks. When faster networks are taken into use, the people will start to use applications that need more bandwidth, for example watch more streamed video on their smart phones.
We’re all spending more time with smartphones and tablets. So much so that the “second screen” may now be the “first screen,” depending on the data you read. Many of us use both TV and mobile simultaneously: quickly responding to email, texting with friends, or browsing Twitter and the news if I lose interest with the bigger screen. Whatever it is I’m watching, my smartphone is always close at hand. There is rapid increase of mobile device usage—especially when it comes to apps.
The use of digital ads on mobile devices is increasing. Digital ad spend is forecast to increase 15% in 2015, with research saying it will equal ad spending on television by 2019. Mobile and social media will drive 2015 spending on digital to $163 billion, with mobile ad spending expected to jump 45%. “Almost all the growth is from mobile”
Mobile virtual reality will be talked about. 3D goggles like Sony Morpheus and Facebook’s Optimus Rift will get some attention. We’ll see them refined for augmented reality apps. hopefully we see DIY virtual reality kits that use current handsets and don’t cost thousands.
Google glass consumer market interest was fading in the end of 2014, and I expect that fading to continue in 2015. It seems that developers already may be losing interest in the smart eyewear platform. Google glass is expected to be consumer sales sometime in 2015, some fear consumer demand for Glass isn’t there right now and may never materialize. “All of the consumer glass startups are either completely dead or have pivoted” Although Google continues to say it’s 100% committed to Glass and the development of the product, the market may not be.
The other big headliner of the wearables segment was Apple’s basic $350 Watch. Apple invest its time when it released the Apple Watch last quarter, going up against the likes of Google’s Android Wear and others in the burgeoning wearables area of design. Once Apple’s bitten into a market, it’s somewhat a given that there’s good growth ahead and that the market is, indeed, stable enough.
As we turn to 2015 and beyond wearables becomes an explosive hardware design opportunity — one that is closely tied to both consumer and healthcare markets. It could pick up steam in the way software did during the smartphone app explosion. It seems that the hardware becomes hot again as Wearables make hardware the new software. It’s an opportunity that is still anyone’s game. Wearables will be important end-points both for cloud and for messaging. The wearable computing market is one of the biggest growth areas in tech. BI Intelligence estimates that 148 million wearable devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers will ship in 2019.
I see that wearables will be big in 2015 mainly in the form of smart watch. According to a survey by UBS, 10% of consumers said they were very likely to buy a smartwatch in 2015, even though so far, no smartwatches have resonated with consumers. I expect the Sales of fitness wearables to plunge in 2015 owing to smartwatch takeover. In the future you need to look at exercise and fashion products as being in the same space. Samsung, Motorola, LG, and Apple debuted or announced smartwatches in 2014, so it’s no surprise that smartwatches are expected to be huge in Las Vegas at CES January’s show.
The third mobile ecosystem Windows phone has some new thing coming as Microsoft ready to show off Windows 10 mobile SKU on January 21. But it does not well motivating to me. After all, the vision of a unified Microsoft world extending across all screens is great, and it’s what Microsoft has needed all along to make Windows Phone a winner. The problem that hits me: if you fail enough times at the same thing, people stop believing you. It’s not just that Microsoft keeps failing to integrate its mobile, desktop, and console products. But Microsoft keeps claiming it will, which starts to loose credibility.
Mobile will change on-line sales in 2015: Phones have already radically altered both the way Americans shop and how retail goods move about the economy, but the transformation is just beginning — and it is far from guaranteed that Amazon will emerge victorious from the transition (this will also apply to other “traditional” players in that space).
Mobile payment technology reaching maybe finally reaching critical mass this year. Long predicted but always seeming to be “just around the corner,” mobile payments may finally have arrived. While Apple’s recent Apple Pay announcement may in retrospect be seen as launching the coming mobile payment revolution, the underlying technologies – and alternative solutions – have been emerging for some time. Maybe it isn’t going to replace the credit card but it’s going to replace the wallet — the actual physical thing crammed with cards, cash, photos and receipts. When you are out shopping, it’s the wallet, not the credit card, that is the annoyance.
Mobile money is hot also in developing countries: ordinary people in Africa using an SMS text-based currency called M-Pesa. M-Pesa was invented as a virtual currency by mobile network provider Vodafone after it was discovered that its airtime minutes were being used and traded in by people in Africa in lieu of actual money. In Kenya, a critical mass was quickly reached, and today, over 70% of the 40 million Kenyans use M-Pesa.
Mobile security will be talked about. Asian mobiles the DDOS threat of 2015, security mob says article tells that Vietnam, India and Indonesia will be the distributed denial of service volcanoes of next year due to the profieration of pwned mobiles.
Intel is heavily pushing to mobile and wearable markets. Intel is expected to expand its smartphone partnership with Lenovo: Intel will provide both its 64-bit Atom processor and LTE-Advanced modem chips for the Lenovo phones. The 4G phones follow Intel’s announcement in October of its first 4G smartphone in the US, the Asus PadFone X Mini. Now Intel remains well behind Qualcomm — which controls two-thirds of the global mobile modem market — and MediaTek as a supplier of chips for smartphones and tablets. Intel faces tough competition trying to fight its way into mobile — a market it ignored for years. Intel in early 2015 will introduce its first 4G system-on-a-chip under the new SoFIA name. Such chips include both a processor and modem together and are sought after by handset makers because they’re smaller in size than separate processor and radio chips, and use less power (matching Qualcomm’s Snapdragon).
Mobile chip leader Qualcomm will be going strong in 2015. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 is not only a killer part, it has raised the bar on what a mobile SoC has to be in 2015. It can power devices that drive 4K (3840 x 2160) TV, take 4K videos, run AAA games and connect to 5-inch HD display. There are finished, branded products just waiting to be released. I am convinced Qualcomm is on track to deliver commercial devices with Snapdragon 810 in mid-2015. I expect Qualcomm to be strong leader throughout 2015.
More material worth to check out:
New questions in mobile
http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2014/11/20/time-for-new-questions-in-mobile
What’s Next in Wireless: My 2015 Predictions
http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/issues-insights-blog/2015-predictions.htm
1,230 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung Beats Apple For The First Time Ever In New Customer Satisfaction Survey
http://www.inquisitr.com/1720777/samsung-beats-apple-customer-satisfaction-survey/#jvdcGKdsfB9dpvmL.99
Apple and several iterations of its iPhone have for years boasted about its consistent top ranking in various customer satisfaction surveys conducted across the United States. However, a recent survey conducted by the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) seems to be pointing towards a shift in the sentiments of people, reports CNET.
All said, while Samsung lovers might rejoice about this victory, there is increasing concern regarding the future for Samsung. 2014 was not a particularly great year for the South Korean giant, with the company expecting to see a massive 60 percent dip in profits.
Apple, on the other hand, is still raking in handsome profits and is expected to announce another stellar performance in the last quarter of 2014.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Verge:
What to expect at CES 2015: wearables, Intel Broadwell devices, retail-ready VR headsets, more
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/2/7472871/ces-2015-preview-consumer-electronics-show-predictions
Tomi Engdahl says:
Aaron Tilley / Forbes:
Military tech company ODG announces consumer augmented reality glasses running Android featuring Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS; to be released in 2015 for under $1,000
http://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2015/01/02/secretive-military-tech-company-announces-augmented-reality-glasses-for-consumers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Stephen Hall / 9to5Google:
Hyundai’s upcoming Android Wear app lets you start, lock, and locate your car from your wrist — Hyundai has announced today that it’s working on an Android Wear app, marking another advancement in the next-generation of the company’s Blue Link system for monitoring and controlling your car remotely.
http://9to5google.com/2015/01/02/hyundai-android-wear-app-blue-link/
Tomi Engdahl says:
James Vincent / The Verge:
New tax rules for digital goods take effect in Europe, affecting apps, ebooks, music downloads, more
http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/23/7433281/eu-vat-changes-digital-goods-europe
Tomi Engdahl says:
Roberta Naas / Forbes:
Montblanc unveils a luxury watch strap with an activity tracker and vibrator for notifications, available in June for about $425
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertanaas/2015/01/01/2015-montblanc-just-got-smarter/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Tracker 2015: Everything we know Google is working on for the new year
2014 included major expansions in home automation and medicine, so what’s next?
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/12/google-tracker-2015-everything-google-is-working-on-for-the-new-year/
bi-annual Google Tracker, our roundup of all of Google’s news, rumors, and acquisitions. Hopefully it paints a clearer picture of what will happen with the company in the future.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Verge:
What to expect at CES 2015: wearables, Intel Broadwell devices, retail-ready VR headsets, more — Here’s what to expect from CES 2015 — The future will be wearable, autonomous, and always connected — With 2014 now firmly in the rearview mirror, the tech industry is gearing
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/2/7472871/ces-2015-preview-consumer-electronics-show-predictions
Tomi Engdahl says:
Steven Loeb / VatorNews:
Intel invests $24.8M in smart glasses maker Vuzix for a 30% stake in the company
http://vator.tv/news/2015-01-03-intel-invests-248-million-in-smartglasses-maker-vuzix
Aaron Tilley / Forbes:
Military tech company ODG announces consumer augmented reality glasses running Android featuring Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS; to be released in 2015 for under $1,000 — Secretive Military Tech Company Announces Augmented Reality Glasses For Consumers
http://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2015/01/02/secretive-military-tech-company-announces-augmented-reality-glasses-for-consumers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Xiaomi says its smartphone shipments up 227% to more than 61M in 2014, revenues grew 135% to almost $12B, plans expansion to more countries — Xiaomi Confirms It Sold 61M Phones In 2014, Has Plans To Expand To More Countries — Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker that raised $1.1 billion last month
http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/03/xiaomi-2014/
Tomi Engdahl says:
HP sells Palm trademarks; brand could be resurrected with new smartphones
It looks like Palm will rise from the dead as a Chinese smartphone brand.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/12/hp-sells-palm-trademarks-brand-could-be-resurrected-with-new-smartphones/
Palm, the legendary smartphone and PDA company, might seem dead and gone, but it’s now looking like the name “Palm” will rise again as a zombie brand. For a quick refresher: HP bought Palm for $1.2 billion in 2010. HP killed the Palm brand after about a year of ownership and stopped making WebOS devices entirely about a year-and-a-half after the acquisition. Since then, Palm has been pretty dead.
Alcatel One Touch is a smartphone brand owned by TCL Corporation, a Chinese firm that ranks as the 25th-largest consumer electronics manufacturer and the third-largest producer of TVs, after Samsung and LG. The company doesn’t have a huge presence in America; believing that doing business under a known US brand might make entering the market a little easier, like Lenovo’s strategy of buying Motorola.
As for what an Alcatel/Palm device might look like: the company’s current smartphone lineup is a bunch of low- to mid-range Android devices, and for the most part they still have menu buttons.
Tomi Engdahl says:
5 Smartphone Wishes for 2015
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1325150&
1. Better battery life – Unfortunately, improvements in battery life trail badly the overall technological leaps made by phone makers.
2. Paying for stuff – Competing products Google Wallet and Softcard both reported surges in use after Apple Pay’s debut. This is great news, but the industry needs to do better.
3. More resilience – Most phones break when dropped.
4. Better security – The latest versions of Google Android and Apple iOS offer built-in encryption. They also offer PINs, passwords, face locks, fingerprint locks, and remote lock and wipe tools.
5. Affordability – Smartphones are too expensive. The full retail price of many smartphones is $650 or more. A maxed out iPhone 6 Plus goes for nearly $1,000.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft’s latest Windows Phone app lets users publish news
http://www.neowin.net/news/microsofts-latest-windows-phone-app-lets-users-publish-news
The beta version of Microsoft’s Social News app is now available for Windows Phone users to create and publish news right from their smartphone.
According to the Windows Phone store description of the app, Social News allows users to create, edit and publish news items among friends and nearby people. It also mentions that professional media partners can pick up these articles and help the user reach a wider audience.
Last year, Microsoft launched a social news app for iOS users, however, it was mainly focused on discovering news about celebrities and didn’t offer the ability to publish anything.
Social News Beta
https://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/social-news-beta/1d276d61-9678-4daa-b60b-27b6b9036fd8
Unleash the mobile journalist in you! Social News is a service designed to help you to create and share interesting stories. Report interesting local events or cool new things to your friends, people around you and beyond together with our professional media partners.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple has lost the functional high ground
http://www.marco.org/2015/01/04/apple-lost-functional-high-ground
Apple’s hardware today is amazing — it has never been better. But the software quality has taken such a nosedive in the last few years that I’m deeply concerned for its future.
Apple has completely lost the functional high ground. “It just works” was never completely true, but I don’t think the list of qualifiers and asterisks has ever been longer. We now need to treat Apple’s OS and application releases with the same extreme skepticism and trepidation that conservative Windows IT departments employ.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alcatel looks to undercut everyone with cheap new smartwatch
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/2/7480113/alcatel-smartwatch-watch-for-android-smartphones
Alcatel has announced its first ever smartwatch, a device that it claims will create “a new market segment: the affordable smart watch.” The budget phone maker says that its imaginatively named Watch will be available “at a fraction of the cost of competitors” — although the company has yet to specify any prices or, indeed, any hardware specs.
With its conventional round face, the Watch looks similar to the Moto 360 and Alcatel claims it has the “same look and feel as a traditional watch.”
Alcatel says the Watch connects to Android smartphones, monitors daily activity (the render above shows a heart rate monitor in action), controls music, takes photos (presumably acting as a remote shutter button for your cameraphone), and receives notifications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony, Facebook, Google, Samsung, Apple, and Microsoft Now All Have a Hand In VR
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/15/01/04/1320238/sony-facebook-google-samsung-apple-and-microsoft-now-all-have-a-hand-in-vr
Tomi Engdahl says:
What Isn’t There an App For?
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/01/04/067240/what-isnt-there-an-app-for
“There’s an app for that!” It’s been both an educational comment and a joke for years, now. There are so many small, single-purpose pieces of software available that it’s impossible to keep track of everything apps can do
What Isn’t There an App For?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/style/what-isnt-there-an-app-for.html?ref=technology&_r=0
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nvidia announces Tegra X1 SoC with Maxwell-based GPU [Updated]
“Mobile superchip” has 256 GPU cores, will power two new in-car computer systems.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/01/nvidia-announces-tegra-x1-soc-with-maxwell-based-gpu/
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA—Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang took to the stage this evening to kick off the company’s CES. His first announcement was something that should interest mobile gamers—the new Tegra X1 SoC, a new chip with a GPU based on Nvidia’s new Maxwell architecture.
Further Reading
Nvidia announces next-generation 64-bit Tegra K1 SoC with 192 GPU cores
Nvidia unifies its desktop and mobile GPU architectures, right on schedule.
The X1 is a follow-up to the Tegra K1, the first of Nvidia’s mobile chips to unify its mobile and desktop GPU architectures. Both the quad-core 32-bit version and the dual-core 64-bit version of the K1 included a Kepler GPU with 192 cores, the same number as a low-end desktop GeForce card. Nvidia emphasized the fact that both desktop and mobile chips supported all the same APIs, theoretically reducing the amount of work that developers would have to do to port a game from the PC to a phone or tablet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here’s what to expect from CES 2015
The future will be wearable, autonomous, and always connected
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/2/7472871/ces-2015-preview-consumer-electronics-show-predictions
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile Internet Strategy Fuels Xiaomi’s IoT Ambitions
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1325130&
Xiaomi attracts the investment community because the hardware vendor — masquerading as a “mobile Internet” company — comes without baggage.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Unveils Nokia 215, a $29 Phone With Internet Access
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/15/01/05/1241215/microsoft-unveils-nokia-215-a-29-phone-with-internet-access
“Smartphones may be more affordable than ever, but, for quite a few people, they are still too expensive. And they offer short battery life, pretty much across the board. It is not a winning combination, especially for those living in developing markets”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple Watch launch expected in March, retail training set for mid-February
http://9to5mac.com/2015/01/06/apple-watch-launch/
Apple is finishing up work on the Apple Watch’s software, and sources familiar with the product’s development say that the device is currently on track to ship in the United States by the end of March. Apple previously said that the wearable product will ship in “early 2015,”
Several sources tell us that Apple is planning an extensive testing program to familiarize Apple Retail Store employees with the new product category.
Of course, unexpected delays in software development and manufacturing could push the Watch back further in the year, but March is the current plan.
While Apple has only revealed pricing for the metal and glass sport model ($349), rumors indicate that Apple will price the stainless steel and sapphire crystal standard model around $500
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Office Preview apps for Android tablets are now open to anyone
http://venturebeat.com/2015/01/06/office-for-android-tablets-opens-to-anyone/
Two months to the day after Microsoft launched a trio of all-new Office apps for Android tablets, the software giant has today revealed that Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are now available for anyone to download with a compatible device.
The initial launch back in November accompanied a broader shift in the Office strategy on mobile, as Microsoft made creating and editing documents completely free, removing the need for an Office 365 subscription. This was in addition to new standalone Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps for iPhone and Android tablets, though the latter incarnations were made available in limited “Preview mode” at first.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Old brands try to make comeback with new companies behind them:
Roger Cheng / CNET:
TCL, the Chinese company behind Alcatel Onetouch, confirms it bought rights to Palm name, will create Silicon Valley based company to resurrect the brand
http://www.cnet.com/au/news/palm-makes-a-comeback-tcl-to-recreate-the-brand/
Sarah Mitroff / CNET:
Kodak IM5 Android smartphone with 13 MP back camera, 5 MP front camera, and octa-core processor available in EU end of Q1 for €229, later in US for $249
http://www.cnet.com/products/kodak-im5/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Misfit Bolt, a $50 smart bulb with sleep tracker integration, now available for pre-order
Misfit introduces a smart bulb to go with its sleep tracker
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/6/7488419/misfit-bolt-smart-bulb-mobile-app-sleep-tracker
There’s no shortage of smart light bulbs on the market, but wearables company Misfit has decided that its influence shouldn’t stop with collecting health data. The company has just started taking pre-orders for the Misfit Bolt, a multicolored smart bulb that will work with its mobile apps. A forthcoming Misfit Home service will let users control their lights, but it will also have some compatibility with the existing Misfit app, which currently records physical activity, food intake, and sleep patterns.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vlad Savov / The Verge:
Razer OSVR: an Android-based open source VR platform with a $199 dev kit headset
Razer introduces OSVR, the ‘Android of virtual reality’
OSVR takes a shot at unifying the world of virtual reality
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/6/7491867/razer-osvr-virtual-reality-open-source-platform-ces-2015
For a year or more after the Oculus Rift got people talking about virtual reality, the two were nearly synonymous. In 2015, that space is filling out. You’ve got Samsung and Oculus’ mobile Gear VR, experimental headsets like the Avegant Glyph, and a huge number of motion controllers and other peripherals. So at CES, gaming company Razer and professional VR company Sensics are heading an effort to standardize virtual reality development: the Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) platform.
OSVR is a development system meant to get VR on all kinds of hardware. It’s not an operating system, but Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan refers to it as the “Android of virtual reality,” an open-source software platform that encompasses multiple game engines, head-mounted displays, and control schemes.
Tan says he’s not trying to compete with Oculus. Instead, he hopes OSVR will become “the new standard” upon which VR devices and games are built. Fellow gaming company Valve has been experimenting with the same idea, but it’s been quiet on the VR front lately, and OSVR is a larger, more ambitious plan.
Tomi Engdahl says:
For example, with smartphones (and agreed, this is projection, it’s all too new to really know yet, but we think the effect will be like that of mobiles a decade and more ago), we’re pretty sure that there’s going to be a boost to growth in the poorer countries simply because of the existence of smartphones. If it’s the same boost we saw with the introuction of basic mobiles (opinion differs, all say it will have some, but more or less than mobiles, well, snarl at each other over that), then for every 10 per cent of the population in a country without a decent computer/internet network, we should expect growth of 0.5 per cent in GDP per annum.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12/31/mazzucato_new_statesman_economics_column/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Would You Wear These Virtual Reality Glasses on a Plane? (Exclusive)
http://recode.net/2015/01/04/hey-frequent-flyers-avegant-wants-you-to-watch-movies-on-this-thing-exclusive/
One of the lingering (and somewhat compelling) arguments against the latest wave of virtual reality headsets is style: As Valleywag’s Dan Lyons put it earlier this week, “Nobody wants to sit around for hours with those big fucking goggles strapped to their head.”
Avegant, a startup originally out of Michigan but recently relocated to Redwood City, Calif., is trying to create a video and virtual reality headset that can compete for style points with Beats’ stylish headphones.
“If it’s headphones, it has to be cool,” Avegant CTO Allan Evans said in an interview. “To be cool, it can’t look like I’m wearing a pope hat.”
“People love movies,” Evans said. “Where does that experience suck? Anytime you’re watching on your phone or tablet.”
Like other head-mounted displays — such as the Samsung Gear VR or upcoming Oculus Rift — Avegant’s Glyph sticks the screen directly in front of your eyes. However, the company claims its technology is less likely to cause eye fatigue
The other big difference is content: Although the Glyph has the head-tracking sensors to let users play 3-D virtual reality games (in a demo, I tried Sega’s Alien: Isolation and an unofficial VR version of Activision’s Call of Duty: Ghosts), Avegant is initially targeting the plane-bound traveler with nothing but time on her or his hands. The company says its HDMI port, with the right cables, will be able to take in and display content from phones, tablets, computers and game consoles.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android phone with holographic display?
[Holographic 3D Smartphone] Takee 1 World’s First Holographic 3D Smartphone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sYA8i7amE8
A Chinese company claims to have produced the world’s first smartphone with a holographic interface. It’s called the Estar Takee 1, and no, we’d never heard of the company before, either. To generate a holographic image, the Takee phone has four front-facing cameras, which track the user’s eyes to create a three-dimensional image. If that sounds familiar, it’s the same approach taken by Amazon with its Fire Phone.
Does that make the world’s first claim redundant? Maybe not.
the video shows the phone “projecting” a 3D image off the screen, whether it’s from an app or an incoming video call, which is really exciting. If it can really do it.
Takee’s phone is otherwise relatively unremarkable. It has a 5.5-inch 1080p screen, a 13-megapixel camera, a 2,500mAh battery, 32GB of memory, and a 2GHz octa-core MediaTek processor with 2GB of RAM.
Takee 1 Holographic 3D Smartphone Test (Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfaXjeuMwxI
Takee 1
http://www.estaramerica.com/pdfs/technical_specs_takeeone.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mozilla is planning a Linux-based Firefox OS version for wearable devices.
Mozilla’s mobile half-director Joe Cheng, the aim is that the platform enables more mobile devices, televisions, home appliances, and wearable devices to exchange information with each other more easily.
Firefox OS is used in the cheap smartphones.
In addition, it is coming from Panasonic this year the launch of the 4k smart TVs.
Now, Mozilla wants to expand its base in wearable devices, which makes the platform to attract low-cost equipment manufacturers in China, for example. For users Firefox OS offers an alternative to Google’s Android Wear and Apple’s iOS. Mozilla does not give a timetable for their project.
Firefox OS’s trump card is the open source technologies. The platform has, however, been difficult to get to smartphones.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/uutisia/mozillalta+kayttojarjestelma+puettaville+laitteille/a1040508
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here’s a phone with 320GB of storage
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/6/7505955/saygus-v-squared-super-smartphone-ces-2015
It’s not necessarily to say something is “great on paper.” Saygus has created what it’s called a “super smartphone,” and in many ways it feels like they looked at a spec sheet and said, “we can make this look really good.”
The Saygus V2 has a 5-inch, 1080p display and features a 2.5GHz quad core Snapdragon processor with 3GB RAM, powering Android 4.4.4 KitKat. Saygus says the V2 designed for the media junkie, which is to say it boasts up to 320GB of storage — 64GB internal with two MicroSDXC slots.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exclusive: The hottest smartwatch of CES isn’t running Android Wear — it’s Open webOS
http://www.androidcentral.com/lg-audi-watch-android-wear-webos
LG and Audi’s smartwatch collaboration is the most desirable wearable of CES 2015, and while the carmaker says it’s just a prototype, the device offers a tantalizing glimpse of future LG wearables. Or at worst an agonizing look at a beautiful watch we’d love to own.
We tracked down the Audi/LG watch — still officially nameless, by the way — in Las Vegas today, and we can exclusively reveal that it’s not running Android Wear as originally believed. In fact, it’s packing completely different software based on LG’s Open webOS.
WebOS is the OS developed by the now-defunct Palm, which first released webOS with the Pre smartphone in 2009. Palm was bought by HP in 2010 and put out to pasture the next year. WebOS was open-sourced in 2012. LG picked up the proprietary bits (and some people along with it) in 2013. And just this week, Chinese manufacturer TCL announced it was resurrecting the Palm brand.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Steven Musil / CNET:
Samsung expects fourth-quarter profit to drop 37 percent from year ago — Decline in quarter would mark fifth consecutive quarterly drop for the world’s largest maker of smartphones. — Samsung Electronics said Wednesday that it expects its fourth-quarter earnings report to show a decline
Samsung expects fourth-quarter profit to drop 37 percent from year ago
http://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-expects-fourth-quarter-profit-to-drop-37-percent-from-year-ago/
Decline in quarter would mark fifth consecutive quarterly drop for the world’s largest maker of smartphones.
The South Korean electronics giant estimates its operating profit for the quarter will be 5.2 trillion won ($4.7 billion), a drop of about 37 percent from the year-ago period.
Samsung also estimates that its sales for the quarter likely fell about 12 percent year over year, to 52 trillion won ($47 billion).
The prediction means the company expects to report its fifth consecutive quarter of declining operating profit after a string of five consecutive quarters of record profits.
Samsung smartphone shipments, which typically account for two-thirds of the company’s operating profit, are being squeezed in emerging markets by low-cost handset vendors such as Xiaomi and Huawei. The company is also facing stiff competition from Apple in the market for pricey, high-end smartphones, especially since Apple in September launched two bigger-screen iPhones that now compete with Samsung’s large-screen offerings.
Samsung’s share of the global smartphone market in the third quarter shrank from 32.1 percent to 24.4 percent year over year
The sales slump led Samsung to reduce the number of smartphone models it produces and focus instead on a core set of devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Kantar: Apple’s share of smartphones up in nearly all markets on strength of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus for the three months ending November 2014
Apple’s Bigger iPhones Dent Android’s Sales Momentum
http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/07/kantar-november-2014/
Apple’s newest iPhones, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, have put a spring in iOS’ smartphone sales figures for fall, and a small dent in the rival Android platform’s share, according to new data from market watcher Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
Kantar’s figures show Android’s still dominant share declining two percentage points in the U.S., year on year, from a 50.4 per cent share of sales in the three months to November 2013, down to 48.4 per cent this year. While iOS grew its share in the U.S. by 4.3 percentage points, rising to 47.4 per cent.
Evidently iOS is also taking share from smaller platform players in the U.S., such as Windows Phone (which dropped 1.6 percentage points) and others, likely BlackBerry. The others category shrunk a further 0.4 percentage points over the measured period.
Across the five biggest European economies (the U.K., Germany, France, Italy and Spain) in aggregate, Android dropped 3.2 percentage points (to 66.8 per cent), iOS rose 6.3 percentage points (to 23.8 per cent), and Windows Phone declined 1.5 percentage points (to 8.3 per cent).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
LG’s webOS smartwatch is scheduled for early 2016, says WSJ
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/7/7507541/lgs-webos-smartwatch-is-scheduled-for-early-2016-says-wsj
Tomi Engdahl says:
Simon Khalaf / Flurry Insights:
Mobile app usage grew 76% in 2014, with most growth in lifestyle and shopping category at 174%; utilities and productivity growth also strong at 121%
Shopping, Productivity and Messaging Give Mobile Another Stunning Growth Year
http://www.flurry.com/blog/flurry-insights/shopping-productivity-and-messaging-give-mobile-another-stunning-growth-year
Tomi Engdahl says:
BlackBerry: Internet of Things! Smartwatches! Anything but the sound of a flushing toilet!
On-wrist BBM touted to help bowl-swirling biz
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/07/blackberry_at_ces/
CES 2015 BlackBerry used this year’s CES conference in Las Vegas to make the case for a comeback, touting not just two new smartphones but also moves into wearables and the internet of things (IoT).
On the wearables front, the beleaguered Canadian firm showed off a version of its BlackBerry Messenger client that runs on Android Wear smart watches.
“With BBM for Android Wear, we’ve taken some of the most common BBM activities out of your pocket and onto your wrist,” BlackBerry marketeer Jesse Ariss said in a blog post on Wednesday. “If you often hear the BBM notification when your hands are full you’re going to love this.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lollipop licked: KitKat still king in Android land
Latest stats show Android 4.4 leading the pack
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/08/android_kitkat_is_king/
Android 4.4 “KitKat” is now the single most popular version of the mobile OS, according to Google’s latest stats.
KitKat, which first made its way onto devices in October 2013, now accounts for 39.1 per cent of all active Android devices, as measured by access logs from the Google Play Store.
When we last checked the numbers in June 2014, KitKat represented just 13.6 per cent of Android devices, suggesting that a lot of customers have either bought new phones or received upgrades from their carriers since then.
Strictly speaking, Android “Jelly Bean” is still running on the most devices overall, with 46 per cent of the total. But those figures are spread across three different versions of the OS that all share the same codename. Version 4.2.x is the most popular of the three, at 20.3 per cent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Many 4G mobile phones do not transmit at full power
FCC tests indicate that a large part of the LTE phones to send, for example, a frequency of 800 MHz to 2.5 dB less power than the 3GPP configuration is allowed. Device Manufacturers strategy of the power amplifier power calculation means directly to a longer battery use.
Nujiran indicates that this is not the case. Calculation of the power of the power amplifier side means that the same amount of data transmission will take twice as long. Nujiran own calculations show that this leads to the fact that LTE cell capacity is limited by the terminal transmission power.
The problem is even more pronounced in time division of TD-LTE cells.
Nujiran according to a burst transmission power amplifier would be useful to send up to the maximum power.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2254:4g-kannykat-eivat-laheta-taydella-teholla&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Remember how Windows XP was “good enough” that people took forever to upgrade? The same might be happening with Kitkat vs Lollipop.
Android Lollipop is out, but almost no one is using it
http://www.zdnet.com/article/android-lollipop-is-out-but-almost-no-one-is-using-it/
Summary:The latest Google Play Store operating systems results are in and after six weeks out Lollipop hasn’t even reached 0.1 percent of users yet.
According to Google’s latest Google Play Store results for early January 2015, less than 0.1 percent of all Android devices were using Lollipop. Ouch! By comparison, the last major Android release 4.4, KitKat, reached 1.1 percent of its audience in its first month out.
In January 2015, almost two months in for Lollipop, KitKat is still number one with 39.1 percent of the market. It’s followed by the various Jelly Bean versions, 4.1.x with 19.2 percent; 4.2.x with 20.3 percent, and 4.3 with 6.5 percent. Trailing them is Ice Cream Sandwich, 4.03-04 with 7.8 percent, followed by antique Froyo, 2.2, with 0.4 percent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft’s New Browser Will Make It Easier For You To Read Long Articles On Your Phone
Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/microsoft-spartan-browser-will-have-reading-mode-2015-1?r=US#ixzz3OEIqrmm0
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung’s more powerful Note 4 won’t pack the Snapdragon 810
Updated Samsung confirms it’s Exynos
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/you-probably-won-t-be-able-to-buy-samsung-s-more-powerful-galaxy-note-4-1278437
A Samsung spokesperson has confirmed with TechRadar that the new, more powerful Galaxy Note 4 will not in fact feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chip, as some reports claimed.
The spokesperson could not comment on where those reports got their information, but confirmed with TechRadar that the new Note 4 will be powered by Samsung’s own Exynos chips.
Rumors and signs
Qualcomm has supposedly been having trouble producing enough Snapdragon 810 chips for all the handset makers that would like to use them in 2015, though the company said officially that “everything with Snapdragon 810 remains on track.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
What Is Going To Happen
http://avc.com/2015/01/what-is-going-to-happen/
1/ The big companies that were started in the second half of the last decade, Uber, Airbnb, Dropbox, etc, will start going public. Investors will be glad to scoop up some of their shares.
2/ Xiaomi will spend some of the $1.1bn they just raised coming to the US. This will bring a strong player in the non-google android sector into the US market and legitimize a “third mobile OS” in the western world.
3/ More asian penetration into the US market will come from the messenger sector as both Line and WeChat make strong moves to gain a share of the lucrative US messenger market.
4/ After a big year in 2014 with the Facebook acquisition of Oculus Rift, virtual reality will hit some headwinds.
5/ Another market where the reality will not live up to the hype is wearables. The Apple Watch will not be the homerun product that iPod, iPhone, and iPad have been.
6/ Capital markets will be a mixed bag in 2015. Big tech names will continue to access capital easily
7/ The Republicans and Democrats will start jockeying for position in silicon valley for the next presidential election and tech issues will loom large.
8/ The horrible year that bitcoin had in 2014 will be a wakeup call for all stakeholders.
9/ the enterprise/saas sector will shine in 2015 with dozens of emerging important new companies taking advantage of the cloud and mobile to redefine what work and workflow looks like in the enterprise.
10/ cybersecurity budgets will explode in 2015 as every company, institution, and government attempts to avoid being Sony’d.
11/ the health care sector will start to feel the pressure of real patient centered healthcare brought on by the trifecta of the smartphone
What Just Happened?
http://avc.com/2014/12/what-just-happened/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alcatel’s £100 smartwatch will work with your iPhone
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-01/08/alcatel-onetouch-watch
Alcatel isn’t a company you generally hear too much about, despite it making some pretty decent smartphones. This year at CES it has really outdone itself, however, and built an attractive and affordable smartwatch that works with both iOS and Android.
As smartwatch design goes, Alcatel’s efforts should be applauded for not falling too far into the big and clunky category. It looks a little like the Moto 360, but definitely feels smaller and less obtrusive than that particular watch when it’s on. It comes in various different styles, with one metal version and one plastic version.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony’s SmartEyeglass Attach! module makes any specs smart
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-01/09/sony-smarteyeglass-attach-hands-on
Sony showed off a tech specs concept at CES in Las Vegas this week and WIRED.co.uk was there to go hands-on with it in the company’s booth.
Despite going by the clunky name of SmartEyeglass Attach!, the device itself is actually quite nifty — attaching to your regular specs, so you have total control over the style. A module packed with a processor, sensors, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi sits on the arm of the glasses, and a tiny OLED microdisplay hovers just above your eye.
The demo that we experienced involved a run-through of various sporting activities, which is a clue as to how Sony is pitching this device. We saw running routes, cycling speed, maps for directions and other data relating to golf and tennis overlaid on the tiny 640×400 screen. Sony is currently preparing a software development kit for Attach! so that developers can explore more use cases for the device.
Unlike Google Glass, you don’t need to wear the module all of the time — only when you need to use it — which solves one of the main problems that has cropped up continuously where Google’s device is concerned.
Mass production of the Attach! is due to start in the coming year
Tomi Engdahl says:
Module transforms eyewear into smart augmented reality devices
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4438099/Module-transforms-eyewear-into-smart-augmented-reality-devices?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150108&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150108&elq=60ceafedf026427c830cf304c374f71e&elqCampaignId=21060
Sony Corporation has announced an attachable smartglass module featuring OLED technology that enables ordinary glasses to be turned into augmented reality smart devices.
The two-part module features a single lens which comprises a 0.23 inch, 640 x 400 pixel, color OLED micro-display; an attached micro-optical unit projects an image equivalent to the field of view of a 16 inch display two meters away. The 40 gram module includes an ARM Cortex-A7 core and a 400 mAh battery and supports Bluetooth Low Energy along with 802.11b/g/n.
The compact nature and lightweight of the solution has enabled Sony to attach the module to a piece of eyewear. The device is equipped with a high-resolution color OLED microdisplay
Attaching the display module to a pair of fashionable glasses, goggles, sunglasses, or other type of eyewear, allows users to gain access to visual information that adds a level of convenience to their everyday lives. The module also has potential applications in sports or for work, among other areas, displaying helpful information that supports a user in their activity.
Sony is planning to begin mass production in 2015 and will demonstrate a module called “SmartEyeglass Attach!” for sportswear at CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA in January 2015.
Sony; http://www.sony.net
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
The EFF’s New App Is Android-Only, As Organization Calls Out Apple For “Outrageous” Developer Terms — Non-profit digital rights organization EFF rolled out a new mobile application this morning, which allows users to more easily access the group’s “action center” from their smartphone.
http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/08/the-effs-new-app-is-android-only-as-organization-calls-out-apple-for-outrageous-developer-terms/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tim Higgins / Bloomberg:
Apple: App Store sales grew 50% and generated $10B+ for developers in 2014, responsible for creating 1M+ US jobs
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-08/apple-touts-u-s-job-creation-says-app-store-sales-rose-50-.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel’s button-size Curie will power all kinds of wearables
http://www.cnet.com/news/intels-button-sized-curie-may-power-any-wearable/
Intel believes the chip will serve as a platform for new product. It is set to debut in the second half of the year.
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich unveiled Curie, a button-size chip that includes a processor, Bluetooth low-energy radio, sensors and a dedicated engine to determine different sporting activity.
The move to be more aggressive has been a result of the lessons learned from its experience with mobile. Intel continues to lose billions of dollars chasing after the market to supply chips to smartphones, but has largely been outgunned by incumbent Qualcomm, as well as MediaTek, which sells lower costs chips for mobile devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Heidi Moore / Nieman Lab:
Reaching readers who don’t use apps, alerts, social media, but do want to get news presents a challenge
The readers we can’t friend
http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/12/the-readers-we-cant-friend/
“There’s a vast segment of America that wants to consume news, but isn’t as savvy and app-happy as journalists.”