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:
IBM Launches New Health Unit, Teams With Apple, J&J, Medtronic
http://recode.net/2015/04/13/ibm-launches-new-health-unit-teams-with-apple-jj-medtronic/
IBM, deepening its partnership with Apple to make use of health information gathered by millions of Apple devices, is creating a unit dedicated to providing data analytics to the health care sector.
Its new Watson Health unit plans to aggregate health information from a large number of devices and providers in the cloud and offer insights to health companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic, which can then integrate results into services they sell to health care companies.
IBM said it will create headquarters for the unit in Boston with 2,000 employees, including about 75 medical practitioners.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg Business:
Xiaomi says it lost more than half of its Mi Power Bank sales to counterfeiters last year
Xiaomi Confronts Counterfeits as Fake Products Eat Into Sales
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-09/xiaomi-confronts-counterfeits-as-fake-products-eat-into-sales
Xiaomi Corp., the Chinese smartphone vendor that overtook Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. in the world’s largest market, now faces another foe: counterfeiters.
Sales of the company’s Mi Power Bank battery pack for smartphones hit 14.6 million units last year, less than half what the total should have been, Chief Executive Officer Lei Jun said at a press conference at the company’s headquarters in Beijing Thursday.
“What is the biggest problem? There are many fakes,” Lei said. “If there were no counterfeits, our sales would be double or triple. The product has been recognized by everyone.”
Five years since its founding in 2010, Xiaomi has grown into China’s top smartphone vendor and — at $45 billion — the world’s most valuable startup. Now, it must handle growing pains from counterfeits to perceptions that investments in smart-device startups risk compromising strategic focus, according to Lei.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:
Apple Watch gains medication reminders, doctor consultations, appointment scheduling, and more from a dozen new healthcare apps including WebMD
http://9to5mac.com/2015/04/13/apple-watch-healthcare-apps/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sharp Announces 4K Smartphone Display
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/04/14/0237214/sharp-announces-4k-smartphone-display
Japanese electronics giant Sharp has announced production of 5.5″ displays with 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution. They’ll hit the market next year. The display will have a pixel density of 806 PPI. It’s not known yet which smartphone makers will build devices with these screens.
Sharp’s 4K Smartphone Display Highlights OEM Tradeoffs
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/sharp-4k-display-smartphone-trade-offs,28915.html
Sharp announced today that it’s going to manufacture the world’s sharpest display, a 5.5″ IGZO screen with a 4K/UHD 3840 x 2160 resolution. The display has a pixel density of 806 PPI and will arrive in devices in 2016. [Samsung is another company that promised to smartphones with 4K displays.]
Not long ago, even the prospect of having a Full HD resolution on an ~5″ display seemed quite unbelievable. Now, some are disappointed that new flagship smartphones such as the HTC One M9 come with “only” a 1080p screen (something that HTC fixed in the HTC One M9+, although it won’t be available for sale in the Western markets).
Although devices that are 1440p or even 4K will look even more stunning, there are indeed diminishing returns benefits-wise as the cost, the power consumption, or the GPU resources required to handle such high resolutions are significantly higher than the previous generations.
For instance, the extra cost to get a 4K display over a 1440p display this year could be used instead towards improving the device’s camera.
Sometimes the competition among OEMs to “one-up” each other causes some monotony in the market. Consumers like to have “better” components every year, but that becomes quite predictable after a while, and consumers can become less interested in upgrading their phones.
Higher-resolution displays will also help lower the cost of lower resolution panels.There’s another angle to the trend of higher-res displays to consider, though: If 4K displays become popular in high-end flagship devices, then 1440p and 1080p panels will be an even more common occurrence at the mid-range, while HD 720p displays should soon become the norm at the low-end — even for devices that are less than $100 unsubsidized. And that’s not a bad thing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Stuart Dredge / Guardian:
Mobile is now the first screen, and TV industry has to work on mobile-first, not digital-first strategy, French TV exec says
TV industry faces its ‘ketchup’ moment: ‘Mobile is now the first screen’
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/13/tv-industry-ketchup-moment-mobile-first-screen
France Télévisions’ director of future media Eric Scherer on the trends providing headaches and huge opportunities alike for television firms
“The TV industry will have to work on a mobile-first strategy. Not a digital-first strategy, but a mobile-first strategy, because mobile is now the first screen, and it’s taking time away from the TV.”
Eric Scherer is director of future media at French broadcaster France Télévisions, so understanding – surprise! – the future of media is a key part of his job. In a speech at the MIPFormats conference in Cannes this weekend, he outlined the digital trends that he thinks are presenting traditional TV firms with headaches, but also huge opportunities.
“We are in a growing business. We are not in the print business, we are in the video business, and it is a growing business,” said Scherer, before warning his audience of television industry executives that they must adapt fast to changing technology and habits of viewers.
“the new kids on the block” in the form of apps including Instagram, Snapchat and Periscope.
“They are always mobile, they are always social, they are always interactive … and it is more and more live,” he said, before turning his attention to YouTube and the growth of multi-channel networks (MCNs) like Maker Studios, which was bought by Disney in 2014.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mark Bergen / Re/code:
Memo: Google responds to EU’s imminent antitrust charges, says it expects EU to open investigation into Android on Wednesday
http://recode.net/2015/04/14/here-is-googles-internal-response-to-the-imminent-e-u-charges-memo/
Financial Times:
Sources: EU’s competition commissioner to announce that formal charges will be filed against Google, alleging traffic was diverted from rivals
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0%2F643f49ec-e285-11e4-aa1d-00144feab7de.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Selfie sticks BANNED by Apple: No hipster tools’ tools allowed at WWDC
Narcissis-sticks outlawed at app-maker confab in June
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/14/apple_bans_selfie_sticks_wwdc/
Apple is selling tickets to this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference – though if you get hold of one, leave your selfie stick in the hotel room.
“You are not permitted to make audio or audiovisual recordings of WWDC or take professional photographic or video equipment, or wearable recording devices into Moscone West or Yerba Buena Gardens. In addition, you may not use selfie sticks or similar monopods within Moscone West or Yerba Buena Gardens,”
Apple has joined a growing number of events and locations that have banned the selfie stick
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google Play’s New Program “Designed For Families” Will Highlight Pre-Approved, Kid-Safe Apps — Google today announced a new developer program called “Designed For Families” which will allow app publishers to opt into an additional review in order have their apps labeled as being “family-friendly.”
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/14/google-plays-new-program-designed-for-families-will-highlight-pre-approved-kid-safe-apps/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paul Thurrott / Thurrott.com:
Microsoft’s long list of apps for iOS highlight company’s commitment to the platform
http://www.thurrott.com/mobile/ios/2902/microsoft-iphone
Tomi Engdahl says:
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Chinese streaming video service Letv announces its Le Superphone smartphone is headed for the US, in a profoundly unconvincing pitch
After comparing Apple to Hitler, Chinese company reveals Le Superphone
‘Hello US’
http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/14/8407131/letv-le-superphone-apple-hitler
At an event Monday evening in San Francisco, Letv (pronounced “L-E-T-V”) introduced itself to the United States in the same awkward, lost-in-translation style it had used to bash Apple.
So what is Letv? Listening to Jia wasn’t much help; he described his $12 billion company as “an open, vertically integrated ecosystem for how content is distributed and experienced.” So ignore that and instead think of Letv as a kind of Chinese YouTube that went public instead of selling to Google. Now imagine that YouTube had opened its own movie studio, and started manufacturing connected TVs so as to better market its video content. And then told you it was going to make an electric car and call it “the sixth screen.”
Mark Li, a Letv vice president, and JD Howard, a former Lenovo executive who is running Letv’s international expansion, were tasked with introducing Le Superphone to America. “The smartphone industry is getting a little stale,” Howard lamented. “It’s a little same-old, same-old.” Ever since a certain never-mentioned smartphone re-fashioned the industry in its image, possibly using a combination of arrogance and tyranny, the world had delivered only incremental improvements.
Enter Letv. With 400 million monthly users of its streaming-video service
The innovations mentioned on stage numbered three: a different kind of USB connector, a display with enhanced colors, and improved sound reproduction. They sounded like the sort of incremental improvements that Letv had just spent 20 minutes complaining about, but there were no phones to be seen
When a Letv employee puts it in my hand, I first think it’s an HTC One: similar polished aluminum finish, similar gray borders on the rear, similar placement of camera and fingerprint sensor.
Le spec sheet of Le Superphone largely meets your expectations for a flagship Android phone these days: it runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chip, has a high-resolution display, and offers a 21-megapixel camera. It’s billed as the first Android phone to use a reversible USB Type-C port for charging and data transfer, and includes a custom sound chip to offer enhanced audio. (We didn’t get to try it.)
I pressed Howard on Letv’s US ambitions, and how its core asset — millions of hours of Chinese-language video — would be of any use to it here. The United States has an estimated 2.9 million Chinese speakers, the company says; Apple sells eight times as many iPhones in a month.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Robin Sidel / Wall Street Journal:
American Express and Jawbone plan to let cardholders use future fitness bands for purchases at select merchants — AmEx, Jawbone Team Up to Allow Payments Via Fitness Bands — Partnership latest to add payment function to devices — Fitness enthusiasts may soon be able to shop while they work out.
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/amex-jawbone-team-up-to-allow-payments-via-fitness-bands-1429025439-lMyQjAxMTE1MzE5NDQxMjQ1Wj
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Acquires Mobile Business Intelligence Service Datazen
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/14/microsoft-acquires-datazen/#.utwu3c:p27l
Microsoft today announced that it has acquired Datazen, a mobile business intelligence and data visualization service.
Datazen, which launched about three years ago, allows businesses to create mobile dashboards from data in Microsoft Excel, but also from other cloud and enterprise database sources. To run Datazen, enterprises need to run Windows Server, IIS and .NET behind their firewalls, as well as Datazen’s server software.
The company offers apps for Windows, Windows Phone, iOS, Android and the web. According to today’s announcement, all of its products will remain available for the time being and the team will continue to work on Datazen’s server and client products.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FDA draws line between wearable health gizmos and proper medical gear
You don’t diagnose nothin’, you don’t cure nothin’, capisce?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/20/fda_pitches_rules_to_wrangle_wearables/
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published draft rules for wearable gadget makers to follow if they want their stuff classified as “general wellness” devices by the watchdog.
By “general wellness”, the regulator means monitoring basic things like heart rates and distances walked each day, as opposed to vital medical equipment and treatments.
Getting this classification would be relatively easy and, for now, not mandatory. It would signal that the wearable is good for helping to live a healthy life rather than, say, cure the owner of a particular disease.
This is important if you, as a gadget maker, are sued by customers after your wearable fails to eradicate their type-2 diabetes, or similar. In response to such a lawsuit, you can whip our your “general wellness” classification, and argue buyers were fully aware of the capabilities of the wearable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung Is Creating a Team That Will Make Screens for Apple Devices Only
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-15/samsung-said-to-create-apple-team-in-display-unit-to-boost-ties
Samsung Electronics Co. created a standalone team of about 200 employees working exclusively on screens for Apple Inc. products as the world’s biggest technology companies strengthen business ties, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The team at Samsung Display Co., which provides screens for iPads and MacBooks, helps develop products and is only allowed to share information about Apple business within the group, the people said
Samsung is relying more on its display and semiconductor units after falling into a tie with Apple for leadership of the global smartphone market. Relations between the companies thawed after they dropped all lawsuits against each other outside the U.S., and Apple is now the biggest external customer for Samsung components, one of the people familiar said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia May Sell Its HERE Mapping Business
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/14/nokia-here-review/
Nokia is considering the sale of its HERE mapping business, according to a statement released today.
The Finnish mobile giant heavily reduced its business when it sold its devices arm to Microsoft for $7.3 billion last year, and HERE is one of the last consumer-facing components that the company retained — alongside its embryonic line of devices, which includes its N1 Android tablet.
That said, the company — which today also confirmed a deal to buy Alcatel-Lucent for $16.6 billion — pointed out that it is only “reviewing” options for HERE at this point.
“Nokia today announces that it has initiated a review of strategic options, including a potential divestment, for its HERE business… The strategic review of HERE is on-going and it may or may not result in any transaction,” it said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Europe Blog:
Android has helped create more choice and innovation on mobile than ever before
http://googlepolicyeurope.blogspot.be/2015/04/android-has-helped-create-more-choice.html
It’s hard to believe, but smartphones barely existed ten years ago. People used feature phones, which had very basic functionality, and were a nightmare for developers. The only way to build apps was device by device and platform by platform—Google had a closet full of hundreds of phones that we tested one by one each time we wanted to launch new software.
Android was born from this frustration. We hoped that by offering a great, free open-source operating system, we could turbocharge innovation by allowing manufacturers and developers to focus on what they do best. At the time, most people thought this plan was nuts.
Fast forward to today. The pace of mobile innovation has never been greater. Smartphones are being adopted globally at an increasingly fast pace, with over hundreds of millions shipped each quarter, and the average smartphone price fell 23% between 2012 and 2014. It’s now possible to purchase a powerful smartphone, without subsidies or contracts, for under $100. And the app ecosystem has exploded, giving consumers more choice than ever before.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung Electronics says demand for Galaxy S6 models much higher than planned for
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/15/us-samsung-elec-smartphones-idUSKBN0N60PT20150415
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hello Alfred Raises $10.5M To Automate Your Chores
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/14/alfred-series-a/
Under the name Alfred, the company won the Startup Battlefield at our most recent Disrupt SF. It lets users sign up for weekly automated chores, or text in spontaneous requests, and those chores are fulfilled by Hello Alfred’s own employees while the user is at their job or away during the day.
Customers are assigned their own home manager, also called an Alfred, and those managers take care of the work — in part by using outside services like Handy and Instacart. Your Alfred hangs out with the home cleaner, delivers the groceries and puts them in the fridge, and unwraps dry-cleaning from its plastic to hang in the closet. You can even have your shoes shined.
The $99-per-month service originally launched in Boston and has since gone live in New York. The company says it has already made 18,000 runs for its customers, covering tasks like dry cleaning 57,600 shirts, delivering 3,326 pounds of dog food and placing 1,280 flower arrangements.
“So many people in the professional ranks are leading lives that are incredibly unmanageable,” said NEA’s Scott Sandell in the funding release. “Hello Alfred gives them back control over their home life and frees up their time to live.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Speaking in Tech: Meet Apple, the global healthcare provider
Mastering that wrist flick is all important
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/15/speaking_in_tech_episode_155/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cram my freebies into Android phones and get a royalty discount, says Microsoft (allegedly)
Mobe makers get lower patent fees in exchange for bloatware
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/16/ms_lowers_android_patent_fees_if_you_bundle_its_apps/
A new report claims Microsoft hasn’t been offering Android device vendors any money to bundle its mobile apps on their phones and slabs; rather, it has offered to reduce the tolls it collects from the mobe-makers.
Citing sources among supply chain players in China and Taiwan, DigiTimes Research says Redmond has offered to cut its patent licensing fees if Android vendors agree to ship their kit with Microsoft apps preinstalled, including OneDrive, OneNote, Skype, and in some cases Office.
Nearly every company shipping devices that run Android has now inked a licensing deal with Microsoft, which claims to hold patents covering technologies critical to the functioning of the mobile OS.
The software giant has consistently declined to name just which patents it’s talking about or how Android might infringe, but in the past it has claimed to hold “approximately 200″ patents that it could assert against the OS.
Digitimes Research: Microsoft patent fee cut to attract vendors to pre-install apps in Android products
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20150331VL200.html
According to Digitimes Research’s latest findings from Taiwan’s and China’s smartphone/tablet upstream supply chain, in exchange for hardware players to pre-install its software applications such as Office, OneDrive or Skype onto their Android-based devices, Microsoft is offering them discounts on the patent licensing fees it charges their Android devices.
“On March 23, Microsoft announced it had reached an agreement with 11 hardware players including Samsung Electronics, Dell and Pegatron Technology, for them to pre-install Office programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, as well as OneDrive and Skype onto their Android devices.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google releases handwriting-recogniser for Android
Scrawl-interpreter speaks 82 languages, gets @ signs and “quotes” right
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/16/google_releases_handwritingrecogniser_for_android/
Google has released Google Handwriting Input, an Android app that makes it possible to write in any Android app.
The Chocolate Factory’s research arm says handwriting recognition is needed because touchscreen keyboards remain modestly effective and while “Voice input is an option, but there are situations where it is not feasible, such as in a noisy environment or during a meeting.”
“Using handwriting as an input method can allow for natural and intuitive input method for text entry which complements typing and speech input methods,” say Google’s boffns.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.handwriting.ime
Tomi Engdahl says:
We’ve all been there — you’ve searched under your car seat, tossed around the sofa cushions and you still can’t find your phone. If you know where your computer is, you can now ask Google to find your Android phone from your desktop. If the pesky phone is hiding nearby, Google can ring it for you — or you can see it on the map if you, say, forgot it at the bar. Just make sure you’ve got the latest version of the Google app!
https://plus.google.com/+google/posts/CEdEWkg4dvf
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
Tomi Engdahl says:
You can now Google your lost Android phone
http://venturebeat.com/2015/04/15/you-can-now-google-your-lost-android-phone/
Despite all its efforts in various markets, Google is still primarily a search company. So the fact that you can now use the search engine on your desktop computer to find your lost phone is really just business as usual.
If you’ve lost your Android phone, there is still an important requirement: You need to know where your computer is. The company also emphasizes you need the latest version of its main Android app for this to work. Once you’ve updated, just type in “find my phone” and let Google do what Google does best.
Google doesn’t explain the feature in depth, but we presume you also have to be signed in to Google for this feature to work.
If your phone is nearby, Google can ring it for you. If it’s further away, Google will show you it on a map.
If this sounds familiar, that’s because Google introduced a tool called Android Device Manager in August 2013. The website and app can find lost phones and tablets (running Android 2.2 Froyo and above) by ringing them or showing them on a map.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Would MediaTek Dare Take on Intel in PC Business?
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1326356&
MediaTek, the world’s third-largest chip designer, is rumored to take on Intel in the PC business this year.
Some interesting speculation has cropped up on the Internet in recent days that MediaTek, the world’s third-largest chip designer, may take on Intel in the PC business sometime around the end of this year.
Much of the conjecture centers around MediaTek’s MT8173 processor, which combines two ARM Cortex A53 cores with a pair of Cortex A72 cores. The MediaTek chip scores about 1,500 on single-core Geekbench results — reportedly the highest score ever for a mobile processor, including those from Intel.
An extrapolation of the 1,500 single-core score indicates a multi-core grade of about 7,500 for an octa-core processor based on A72 technology. The MT8173 is fabricated with 28 nm process technology at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC).
If MediaTek were to produce the chip with TSMC’s 16 nm FinFET when the technology becomes commercially available later this year, so the story goes, MediaTek’s new version of the chip would benefit from a 25% boost in performance, yielding a single-core performance score of about 1,850 and an octa-core rating as high as 9,000.
That would put the hypothetical MediaTek chip in the same ballpark as Intel’s desktop PC processors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smartphone Sales to Peak in Western Markets in 2017 as They Enter New Phase of Maturity
Global smartphone shipments to reach 2 billion units in 2019
http://www.ccsinsight.com/press/company-news/2183-smartphone-sales-to-peak-in-western-markets-in-2017-as-they-enter-new-phase-of-maturity
The global mobile phone market is expected to reach 2.35 billion units in 2019, up from 1.96 billion in 2014, according to the latest worldwide forecast by technology analyst firm CCS Insight.
However, CCS Insight’s annual forecast reveals that despite continued growth in emerging markets, sales in developed markets, notably Western Europe and North America, are close to saturation and are poised to peak in 2017, before falling to lower levels.
Jasdeep Badyal, Analyst, Smart Devices and Pricing at CCS Insight said: “Unless we see a major new disruption similar to the one prompted by the iPhone’s arrival in 2007, we expect smartphone sales in Western Europe and North America to slowly decline after 2017.”
CCS Insight’s forecast highlights the diminishing importance of the smartphone as it becomes one more connected device in a growing range of gadgets. Tablets, games consoles, smartwatches, fitness trackers, virtual reality headsets and other connected devices are now increasingly competing for consumers’ disposable income.
Badyal commented: “There’s a lot of competition for a household’s gadget budget and a fantastic array of exciting new devices out there. Compare that with the lack of radical innovation in the smartphone sector and that’s one reason why having the latest and greatest phone isn’t as important as it once was. For many people in Europe and North America, a midrange smartphone with a reasonable camera, a nice large screen and decent battery life is now good enough”.
Alongside Apple, the smartphone market continues to be dominated by Android.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exclusive: Six percent of U.S. adults plan to buy Apple Watch – Reuters/Ipsos poll
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/15/us-apple-watch-idUSKBN0N628820150415
(Reuters) – About 6 percent of U.S. adults plan to buy Apple Inc’s smartwatch according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, with men twice as likely as women to purchase Apple boss Tim Cook’s first new major product.
The poll showed the watch, marketed by Apple as a high-fashion item as well as a new frontier in technology, appealed to fewer than 4 percent of women compared with 9 percent of men.
Wall Street estimates had varied widely between 10 million and 32 million worldwide sales in 2015. Van Baker, an analyst at tech research firm Gartner, said the Reuters poll results indicated a “pretty high percentage” was interested in buying.
“It should serve Apple well if they can even get close to that,” he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jawbone Up4 encourages BONKING with latest sweaty hipster toy
‘Advanced sleep’. You’ve unlocked a new level: Snoring
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/16/jawbone_up4_wrist_bonking/
After deciding you deserve a cappuccino — earned following a particularly good workout — you can now use your Jawbone UP4 bracelet to pay for it.
Jawbone, which makes cool Bluetooth things, has done a deal with Amex to add a pay-by-bonk account to its exercise-measuring wrist decoration.
The $199 UP4 will initially only allow contactless payments in the US and so will (almost certainly) suffer from the same lack of terminals as Apple Pay.
The UP4 tracker is based on the UP3, a bracelet which was very late to ship as Jawbone tried and failed to make it completely waterproof, and able to cope with the wearer going for a swim.
“In addition to enabling contactless payments,” said the San Francisco headquartered company, “UP4 is also backed by our industry-leading UP app and Smart Coach system, which helps people move more, sleep better and eat healthier each day.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft joins forces with Cyanogen to lessen Google’s hold on Android
Microsoft’s apps and services coming to Cyanogen OS later this year
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2404393/microsoft-joins-forces-with-cyanogen-to-lessen-googles-hold-on-android
ANDROID ROM MAKER Cyanogen has joined forces with Microsoft in a partnership that will bring the Redmond firm’s apps and services to Cyanogen OS.
No figures have been mentioned, but Cyanogen has confirmed the partnership today, saying that it will bundle Microsoft’s Bing, Skype, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook and Microsoft Office apps with Cyanogen OS at some point this year.
Microsoft has also committed to creating “native integrations” on Cyanogen OS, which the firms claim will enable “a powerful new class of experiences”.
Kirt McMaster, CEO of Cyanogen, said: “People around the world use Cyanogen’s operating system and popular Microsoft services to engage with what matters most to them on their mobile devices.
“This exciting partnership with Microsoft will enable us to bring new kinds of integrated services to mobile users in markets around the world.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft will bundle its apps on Cyanogen’s Android OS
http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/16/8427381/cyanogen-microsoft-partnership-apps-services-bundle
Rumors of a Microsoft and Cyanogen partnership have been making the rounds recently, and the Android mod maker is confirming them today. In an email to The Verge, Cyanogen says it’s partnering with Microsoft to integrate the software giant’s consumer apps and services into the Cyanogen OS. Bing, Skype, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, and Microsoft Office will all be bundled later this year. As part of the partnership, Microsoft has committed to creating “native integrations” on Cyanogen OS.
These native integrations will likely result in increased integration for Microsoft’s apps and services in a way the company has been trialling recently with Android. Microsoft has experimented with a number of Android apps, and even a Next Lock Screen that aims to replace the traditional lock screen of Google’s Android OS.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple copycat Xiaomi complains others are copying its copies
http://www.cultofandroid.com/72854/apple-copycat-xiaomi-complains-others-are-copying-its-copies/
You know Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker which copied Apple designs en route to becoming the world’s most valuable startup?
Well, depending on who you are, get ready to bust out a tune on the world’s smallest violin, because Xiaomi’s quest to conquer the smartphone-owning world has apparently hit a bit of a snag: people keep copying its designs.
Yes, seriously.
Speaking at a press conference, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun claimed that his company is currently selling way fewer of its Mi Power Bank battery pack for smartphones than it should be.
“What is the biggest problem? There are many fakes,” Lei said. “If there were no counterfeits, our sales would be double or triple. The product has been recognized by everyone.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cyrus Lee / ZDNet:
With Android Wear unavailable in China, Baidu previews Android-based DuWear smartwatch OS
Baidu previews Android smartwatch OS
http://www.zdnet.com/article/baidu-previews-android-smartwatch-os/
Summary:Chinese search-engine giant Baidu has officially launched the advertising campaign for its Android-based smartwatch OS, which supports various devices including the Sony SmartWatch 3, Moto 360, and LG G Watch.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung responds to S6/S6 Edge ‘bending’ concerns
http://www.zdnet.com/article/samsung-responds-to-s6-s6-edge-bending-concerns/
Summary:In an attempt to alleviate concerns relating to the durability of its new flagship Galaxy S6 handset, Samsung has released information regarding just how much pressure it will take to bend the device.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Cardboard gets a new standard to unify devices and viewers
http://venturebeat.com/2015/04/16/google-cardboard-gets-a-new-standard-to-unify-devices-and-viewers/
Google’s lo-fi virtual reality solution is already popular enough that it needs a standard.
Google Cardboard has seen an explosion of new third-party viewers spring up since its launch about a year ago, and this has the company responding with a new certification standard today called “Works With Google Cardboard.” It’s a way to certify manufacturers of these fold-together cardboard viewers as well as support the varied builds through the Cardboard software. This standard opens the door for anyone with a smartphone to try VR. The low-tech, smartphone-friendly Cardboard scene is just one segment of the rapidly growing virtual reality market, which is expect to hit $150 billion by 2020.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Joshua Ho / AnandTech:
Galaxy S6, S6 edge review: Exynos is SoC to beat in Android space for the next 6 months, battery life effectively the same as S5, camera comparable to iPhone
The Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge Review
by Joshua Ho on April 17, 2015 9:00 AM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9146/the-samsung-galaxy-s6-and-s6-edge-review
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft to bring universal Office apps to Windows Phones in a test build before the end of April
http://www.zdnet.com/article/whats-next-for-microsofts-universal-office-apps/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon Shuts Down TestDrive, The Appstore Feature That Let You Try Apps Before Downloading
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/17/amazon-shuts-down-testdrive-the-appstore-feature-that-let-you-try-apps-before-downloading/
Amazon is shutting down TestDrive, one of the differentiating features of the Amazon Appstore which allowed consumers to test out new applications ahead of purchase. The feature was introduced back in March 2011 alongside the launch of the Appstore itself, where it then utilized a browser-based emulated instance of Android running in the cloud. This let consumers control an application and experience it like they would on their Android device. The feature later arrived on Android phones, too.
Amazon says that the decision to close the service was based on “a significant decline” in usage, and cited the popularity of “free to play” business models as a factor.
Many of the apps that offered TestDrive were mobile games, as those are generally the kinds of apps that consumers wanted to check out ahead of making a purchase. But game publishers these days tend to generate revenue through sales of virtual goods and other in-app purchases – not by offering their app as a paid download. That means that consumers who wanted to experience a game could simply download it for free on their mobile device and play it. There was no need, really, to test it out first using another means.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google has an ingenious way to find your lost phone
http://uk.businessinsider.com/google-find-my-phone-android-search-map-call-update-2015-4
Google has a new way to find your lost phone, and it’s so on-brand: Just Google it.
Just head over to Google and search “find my phone.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Aaron Butcher / Blogging Windows:
Microsoft’s new Maps app comes to phones with latest Windows 10 Technical Preview build, with guided navigation features from HERE maps, traffic data from Bing — Navigate the World with Windows 10 Maps for Phone
http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/04/17/navigate-the-world-with-windows-10-maps-for-phone/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Robert Bartley / FierceMobileIT News:
Google makes Android for Work available for any device running Android 4.0 or higher
Google makes Android for Work available on nearly all Android devices
http://www.fiercemobileit.com/story/google-makes-android-work-available-nearly-all-android-devices/2015-04-17
Google pushed Android for Work to its Play Store on Thursday, making the container technology it announced in February available for anyone running a partnered enterprise mobility management solution on Android 4.0 or higher.
As Android for Work was originally only compatible with Lollipop 5.0 or later, Google has opened the door for the tech to more than 92 percent of its user base.
Companies must be partnered with one of Google’s EMM partners–which include AirWatch by VMware, Citrix, MobileIron and all the other big names–in order to set up and manage the platform.
Google has long sought acceptance for its mobile OS in the enterprise, a campaign that has been stymied by the reputation of Android as security risk
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paul Thurrott / Thurrott.com:
Former Microsoft designer talks about original Windows Phone UX and mistakes the company made with Modern UI — Ex-Microsoft Designer Explains the Move Away from Metro — Windows Phone fans pining for the days of Metro panoramas and integrated experiences have had a tough couple of years
Ex-Microsoft Designer Explains the Move Away from Metro
https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/windows-phone/3000/ex-microsoft-designer-explains-the-move-away-from-metro
Windows Phone fans pining for the days of Metro panoramas and integrated experiences have had a tough couple of years, with Microsoft steadily removing many of the platform’s user experience differentiators. But as I’ve argued, there’s reason behind this madness. And now an ex-Microsoft design lead who actually worked on Windows Phone has gone public and agreed with this assessment. You may have loved Windows Phone and Metro, but it had to change.
Why a hamburger menu? “Windows Phone’s original interaction model put actions on the bottom and navigation on the sides, as swipes,” the design lead notes. “That’s not a great pattern for a variety of reasons.” Long story short, panoramas and pivots are good for exploration (like spinning through photos) but are not good for organizing information. And other platforms have adopted a common UX layout with common actions (commands) on the bottom, navigation on the top, and less-needed commands found hidden behind a hamburger menu or similar UI. Only Windows Phone lacked this UX model. So it had to change … And swiping sucks. It hides content
But people need to be able to use it with one hand. “What the research is showing is that people aren’t actually as wedded to one handed use as we used to believe they are. Don’t get me wrong, this is clearly a tradeoff. Frequently used things have to be reachable, even one-handed. But hamburgers are not frequently used, and one-handed use is not ironclad. Combine those two factors together and you see why the industry has settled on this standard. It wasn’t random … And, sorry. But the hamburger has some real issues, but ‘I can’t reach uncommon things without adjusting my hand on my massive phone and that annoys me because it reminds me of the dominant OS on earth” [is not one of them].
But the bottom is better. “It turns out bottom is not better. You’d think that something 3 pixels from your palm would be easier to reach than something in the middle of the phone. But nope. The way average people hold phones means the middle of the device is the best location. Both bottom and top require your hand to make a bit of a shift to reach. You don’t use the hamburger very often … You have to design for the 80% case, no matter how much that annoys the other (vocal) 20%
What does the future look like? “Imagine your kid is writing a book report and doing a presentation in 10 years. I don’t think it’s in Word and PowerPoint as we know it today. But I do think it could be with Microsoft software. And statistically speaking, it’s on Android … “
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple Watch: Why Apple shouldn’t have released its debut wearable yet
Column And why I won’t be getting one
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/opinion/2404505/apple-watch-why-apple-shouldnt-have-released-its-debut-wearable-yet
In part, this is because the model I want costs upwards of £600, but it’s largely because of the disastrous launch of the product.
Sure, Apple has reportedly sold 2.3 million watches already which will prompt many, including analysts, to hail the launch as an immediate success.
From a consumers’ perspective, however, the Apple Watch launch couldn’t have been worse.
Surely, Apple being Apple, it should have been aware of the huge demand the Apple Watch was likely to see.
And surely, once it had caught on that the Watch would sell in its millions from the get-go, it could have made sure it had enough stock available before it put the gadget on sale. Not enough stock available? Don’t launch it yet.
The decision to go ahead with the launch, despite a lack of stock, appears to many that the cracks in the company are starting to show, and it tarnishes Apple’s long-held reputation for the excellence of its product launches.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge Review
by Joshua Ho on April 17, 2015 9:00 AM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9146/the-samsung-galaxy-s6-and-s6-edge-review
Tomi Engdahl says:
No More Expiration Dates: MIT Is Developing Sensors To Detect When Food Is Going Bad
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3045113/no-more-expiration-dates-mit-is-developing-sensors-to-detect-when-food-is-going-bad?partner=rss
Forget dubious dates on containers. These sensors could tell when food is starting to rot and reduce food waste.
One reason the U.S. wastes 40% of all the food it harvests is that we don’t have a good handle on the status of that food. As consumers, we rely largely on best before and use by dates that are notoriously conservative, and often flat-out wrong. Actual food decays at variable rates that aren’t reflected in that information.
That’s why new types of food quality sensors could be so useful. If we can assess the actual state of each food item, that should allow us to make more informed choices and thus manage our fridges better. All things being equal, better information ought to lead to better decision-making.
One promising technology: the sensors being developed by Timothy Swager’s lab at MIT. Swager is testing an electrically-conductive material that changes resistance in the presence of gases called amines, which are released when food starts going bad. By reading that resistance from outside a package, you can figure out how edible the food is inside.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chinese ‘Superphone’ manufacturer declares war on Apple
Godwin’s Law makes an appearance during handset launch
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/20/chinese_superphone_manufacturer_declares_war_on_apple/
Under the moniker of “Superphones”, streaming TV company LeTV has launched a trio of high-end mobes with all the subtlety of a hippo with toothache.
As the first devices to have a new reversible USB type C, the specs are impressive.
The key application for the device is LeTV’s over-the-top video service, akin to Netflix. As a result it’s not too worried about locking to a network and so the phones are dual-SIM.
The CPU is the octa core big.LITTLE Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 which Samsung recently eschewed. Fast memory helps performance, of course, and the Max has 4GB of PDDR4 memory.
In the run up to the launch, LeTV laid into the closed world of Apple and posted a cartoon on its Weibo (Facebook for the Chinese) page. Initially this showed a cartoon of Hitler wearing an Apple armband refusing entry. The cartoon has now been modified to show a king.
Tomi Engdahl says:
China overtakes US to become world’s largest LTE SIM market
By Nick Wood, Total Telecom
Friday 17 April 2015
http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=489689
SIMalliance says 540 million LTE SIM cards were shipped worldwide in 2014; NFC SIM shipments surge 69%.
China overtook North America in 2014 to become the world’s largest market for LTE SIM card shipments.
Worldwide LTE SIM volumes rocketed 330% to 540 million last year, according to statistics published by the SIMalliance this week. Greater China accounted for 270 million of the total, compared to 138 million in North America.
The growth was attributed to the efforts by Chinese operators to acquire millions of LTE subscribers and the aggressive expansion of 4G networks in the country.
Indeed, in 2015, China is expected to overtake the U.S. to become the world’s largest 4G market in terms of subscribers too. At the end of 2014, the U.S. was the largest with 148 million. However, GSMA Intelligence expects China to comfortably overtake the U.S. and finish 2015 with 300 million LTE subscribers.
“Despite regulatory, economic and market maturity challenges continually faced by individual countries, the SIM industry is thriving,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
na Fried / Re/code:
Sources: Nokia plans a return to consumer phone market in 2016, also has virtual reality and other projects in the works
Nokia Plots 2016 Return to Phone Market
http://recode.net/2015/04/20/nokia-plots-2016-return-to-phone-market/
Four years ago, Stephen Elop, Nokia CEO at the time, described Nokia as a man at the edge of a burning platform. While its rivals had set the phone market on fire, Nokia had poured gasoline on its own platform by failing to acknowledge newcomers Apple and Google had changed the game.
In hindsight, the “burning platform” memo can be seen as the prelude to the 2013 disposal of its once dominant mobile handset business to Microsoft in what many Finns considered a fire sale. The operation that made the candy bar phone as ubiquitous as the smooth black slate of the iPhone design is today was no more.
So it is surprising that Nokia is quietly plotting a return to the consumer mobile market.
As early as next year, the company aims to rejoin the phone market, two sources briefed on Nokia’s plans told Re/code. In addition, the company has a number of other ambitious technology projects, including some in the virtual reality arena, these sources said.
Unlike other patent houses that do little more than license intellectual property, Nokia Technologies has designed new products and licensed them to other companies. So far, these ambitions have been small in scale. The division has released just two products–an Android program called Zlauncher and the N1, an Android tablet design it licensed to another manufacturer that is selling it under the Nokia name in China. Its return to the market is likely to employ a similar tactic.
But insiders said those two products are just the beginning.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Promises ‘Universal’ Office App For Phones Running Windows 10 This Month
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/17/microsoft-promises-universal-office-app-for-phones-running-windows-10-this-month/
Microsoft promised this morning to release by the end of April a set of Office applications that it calls “Universal” for smartphones running Windows 10.
The company has a two-prong productivity strategy in place for Windows: Office 2016 for desktop use, and, for all other Windows 10 experiences, its touch-focused Office Universal apps. The latter apps, according to Microsoft, will function across tablets and smartphones, dynamically changing their design to allow users to better use them based on their current screen size.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Greg Kumparak / TechCrunch:
Android Wear’s Second Big Update Is Coming: Gestures, WiFi, And Better UI In The Next Few Weeks
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/20/android-wears-second-big-update-is-coming-gestures-wifi-and-better-ui-coming-in-the-next-few-weeks/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft updates OneDrive app to support Apple Watch, lets you view albums, delete photos, and find photos through tags — Microsoft backs Apple Watch early with OneDrive update — Microsoft was quick to support Google’s Android Wear smartwatches last year, and it’s ready to do the same for the Apple Watch.
Microsoft backs Apple Watch early with OneDrive update
http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/20/8455973/microsoft-apple-watch-support-onedrive-update
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exclusive: Qualcomm to Use Samsung’s Foundries for Its Next High-End Chip
http://recode.net/2015/04/20/exclusive-qualcomm-to-use-samsungs-foundries-for-its-next-high-end-chip/
Breaking from past practice, Qualcomm plans to have its next-generation Snapdragon 820 processor manufactured at Samsung’s chip-making plants, according to sources familiar with Qualcomm’s roadmap and Samsung’s foundry operations.
Historically, Qualcomm has manufactured its leading-edge chips largely at contract chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. as well as other foundries. However, Samsung has had an edge over TSMC and other chip plants because it is cranking out chips using thinner 14-nanometer wiring, compared with 20-nanometer transistors at TSMC. All other things being equal, thinner wires mean smaller and less costly chips as well as better battery performance.