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
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Tomi Engdahl says:
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Woman Wore A Fitbit During Sex, Got Mansplained By Trolls
“Man, now I gotta defend my orgasm to a bunch of strange dudes. Wait, no I don’t.”
Headshot of Taylor Pittman
Taylor Pittman
Staff Writer for Voices, The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/woman-wore-fitbit-during-sex-mansplained-by-trolls_55cc9dbfe4b0cacb8d3307d6
Reddit user Noveltysin, who identified herself simply as Jess, told The Huffington Post that recording her heart rate during sex wasn’t “specifically planned,” and that she did it “out of curiosity.”
“I got the gadget a week ago, so I’ve been tracking everything to learn how my body reacts to different stimuli,” she said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tizen Uprising: Will a mid-range Z3 allow Samsung’s OS to reach a larger crowd?
http://www.androidauthority.com/tizen-based-samsung-z3-tol-be-bigger-and-better-640234/
Despite initial reports that Samsung’s first commercially released Tizen smartphone was a flop, the device went on hit a major milestone in key markets where it was sold. Still, the mainstream media and phone-loving public were quick to dismiss the device, known as the Z1, both because of its unabashed low-end specs, and the fact that it runs an, essentially, brand new mobile OS that is devoid of the robust app marketplace Android and iOS enjoy.
Much as how Microsoft sought to skip Windows 9, so too does it look like Samsung will play parlay with darling digits: the upcoming – yet still unofficial – Z3 smartphone is shaping up to be bigger and better than its predecessor in every way possible. Literally.
A story of success, however “small” it may be
As far as Tizen goes, this is a significant upgrade that is posed to pounce on customers in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal where the device is supposedly going to launch. There may be a larger picture in mind however, given that reports have been surfacing for some time now indicating Samsung may have an intention to release this device, or a future one, in Europe. Indeed Russia was once going to be the testing bed for Tizen for the scrapped Samsung Z device that never made it to market.
Given that the Z1 had sold a million units as of June, clearly it found a market. In fact, it found a market curiously larger than last year’s Galaxy Note Edge which, as of this February, had only sold an estimated 630,000 units worldwide. Naturally pricing was an issue here, and indeed the Z1 can currently be purchased directly from Samsung India for an impressively reasonable 4,990 Rupees (roughly $75 US).
Tomi Engdahl says:
On the High-speed Train to Handset Innovation
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1327612&
Here’s an inside view on China’s market dynamics and how local vendors are accelerating their innovations.
With almost 500 million mobile phones projected to ship in China for 2015, Chinese companies like Meizu, Xiaomi, Huawei and Lenovo are collectively churning out smart phone models faster than any other manufacturers in the world. The question is “how?”
The answer is multi-faceted. Like the United States, China has a strong domestic handset market with sophisticated expectations in terms of both hardware and software functionality. Chinese handset manufacturers have a tremendous incentive to match — and even attempt to outperform — the rest of the world in terms of innovation.
This is not difficult to do with the exceptionally strong and complete infrastructure of component, technology and manufacturing suppliers that can be found right in its own back yard.
China is uniquely blessed with access to the entire mobile handset supply chain. After all, there isn’t a major branded handset sold anywhere in the world that isn’t made in China.
China also has a very pragmatic relationship with available operating systems, especially Android-based ones.
Google services are not directly available in China, so there is no compelling reason to strictly follow Android OS requirements, except as directly benefits individual handset manufacturers and their user ecosystem.
In my many trips to China, I observed a willingness to take risks and adopt new technologies as well as a try-it-and-see philosophy that allows new ideas to come to market quickly.
The Chinese companies with whom I’ve worked understand that differentiation through innovation is key to long-term success and the prevention of margin and market share erosion. In addition, their decision-making process is based upon speed, so it is well matched to the pace of change inherent in this ultra-competitive market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Once the leader in personal computers sales, Dell, like its peers, has been hit by a rapidly declining PC market as consumers move to smartphones and tablets.
“I think there are maybe only one or two companies who make a profit in the smartphone business today and there are quite a few companies that lose substantial sums of money in the smartphone business,” Dell said.
“So, no thank you! I do not want to be in the smartphone business.”
Source: http://venturebeat.com/2015/09/07/michael-dell-expects-pc-makers-to-consolidate-in-the-next-few-years/
Tomi Engdahl says:
EarlySense, Samsung unveil direct-to-consumer, contact-free sleep monitor
http://mobihealthnews.com/46487/earlysense-samsung-unveil-direct-to-consumer-contact-free-sleep-monitor/
Israel-based EarlySense has announced its first direct-to-consumer product: a sleep monitoring device called myEarlySense. Samsung will directly market a version of the device called Sleep Sense. The device will be available in South Korea by year-end with other regions to follow, the company told MobiHealthNews. MK News reports a price point around $169.
“Building upon the success of our contact-free monitoring solution in the hospital setting, our core technology can make a similar impact for consumers who want key information on their overall wellness,” Liat Tsoref, VP and GM of the Digital Health Business Unit of EarlySense, said in a statement. “myEarlySense is the next logical step after wearables — which we call ‘invisibles.’ We are proud to offer an extremely accurate, contact-free device to manage personal wellness and sleep patterns. Our solution can benefit everyone in taking better care of themselves and their loved ones.”
EarlySense releases myEarlySense for digital health consumer market
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20150902/EarlySense-releases-myEarlySense-for-digital-health-consumer-market.aspx
EarlySense, the market leader in contact-free, health and wellness sensing and analytics, announced today the release of myEarlySense, its first OEM solution for the digital health consumer market. The new sleep and wellness monitoring solution will be showcased at the upcoming IFA event, taking place in Berlin on September 4-9.
myEarlySense tracks and helps users improve sleep and overall wellness in an automatic and contact-free manner. The ultra-sensitive sensor, placed under the user’s mattress, detects individual heartbeat, respiratory rate, sleep stages and movement, and then wirelessly transmits data to the accompanying smartphone application.
“Building upon the success of our contact-free monitoring solution in the hospital setting, our core technology can make a similar impact for consumers who want key information on their overall wellness,” said Liat Tsoref, VP & GM of the Digital Health Business Unit of EarlySense. “myEarlySense is the next logical step after wearables – which we call ‘invisibles.’ We are proud to offer an extremely accurate, contact-free device to manage personal wellness and sleep patterns. Our solution can benefit everyone in taking better care of themselves and their loved ones.”
myEarlySense is designed to seamlessly integrate with smart home solutions, home security and smart bed solutions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Continuing downward spiral, HTC is removed from Taiwan’s Top 50 index
http://www.cnet.com/news/htc-continues-downward-spiral-with-its-removal-from-the-taiwan-top-50-index/#ftag=CADf328eec
The Taiwanese smartphone pioneer is dropped from the country’s top 50 stock index as its market share and stock price continue to dwindle.
Beleaguered HTC’s woes just keep piling up. Following dwindling market share and a plummeting stock price, on Sunday it was announced that the smartphone maker is to be removed from the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s FTSE TWSE Taiwan 50 Index.
The index is a list of 50 highly valued Taiwanese blue chip stocks, with the companies that populate it comprising nearly 70 percent of the country’s stock market.
The first mobile phone manufacturer to take advantage of Google’s Android software, HTC was once a strong player in the market, but in the past several years has steadily lost ground to competitors Samsung, Apple and, more recently, efficient Chinese manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Huawei.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wileyfox Swift: Brit startup budget ‘droid is the mutt’s nuts
Blows Sony and Motorola out of water
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/08/review_wileyfox_swift_android_smartphone/
If someone asked me what my ideal smartphone would be I’d say one that costs no more than £120, has 16GB of storage, at least 2GB of RAM, a 5-inch IPS screen, a removable battery, two SIM slots, space for a microSD card, the best iteration of Android available (that’s the Cyanogen OS Android fork, in my opinion) and is waterproof.
Wileyfox’s new Swift actually fails to meet two of those criteria – the cost is £130, and there’s no waterproofing. But as we’ll see, considering the rest of the package, it’s very easy to forgive those two failings.
Physically the Swift is one of the most expensive-looking cheap phones you can lay hands on.
Bundled into Cyanogen OS comes some quality Android apps like the Truecaller caller ID and blocker and the AudioFX sound management suite. And there is native support for nearly every audio and video codec known to man. The Cyanogen gallery app is worth a mention too. It can be connected directly to your Flickr, Dropbox, Facebook and Google accounts but without wanting to share your stuff with all and sundry by default.
The Reg Verdict
While the Xperia M4 Aqua only narrowly beat the Moto G as the best sub-£200 Android smartphone the Swift blows them both into the weeds.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Qualcomm Sketches Out Kyro Core
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1327620&
Qualcomm sketched out details of Kyro, the custom ARM core in its next-generation Snapdragon SoC which got rave reviews from one veteran analyst.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 is something of a supercomputer in a chip with so many different processor types that the company has chosen to release information on it piecemeal. We’ve covered the Spectra image processor, the Hexagon DSP, the separately powered always-on DSP that listens to everything you say, and now the custom Kyro 64-bit CPU.
The Kryo ties everything together in the 820. Although many of the processors in it, such as the Hexagon and Spectra can have private communications that even the LPD can’t hear, generally speaking the CPU and its kernel control the communications, and inter-processor communications. Qualcomm calls this its Symphony System Manager (SSM).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon Stops Selling Fire Phone
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/15/09/09/0021227/amazon-stops-selling-fire-phone
Last June Amazon announced their Fire Phone, an Android device packed with interesting but questionably useful tech that left reviewers unimpressed. Now, just a few weeks after big layoffs in Amazon’s Fire Phone division, the phone has gone out of stock globally and seems unlikely to return.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adblock Plus browser comes to Android and iPhone users ahead of iOS 9 release
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2425002/adblock-plus-browser-comes-to-android-and-iphone-users-ahead-of-ios-9-release
ABLOCK PLUS has launched its long-awaited browser for iOS and Android, pre-empting tomorrow’s arrival of iOS 9.
The browser was first announced for Android earlier in the year and has been in beta, but it has now arrived on the Google Play store and Apple App Store.
It marks the first time that an ad blocker has been available for iOS, and additionally celebrates a return to the Google Play store for Adblock Plus, after its original app was removed for breach of Play store rules.
“Adblock Plus is very excited and grateful to have our app, Adblock Browser for Android, available in the Google Play store,” said Till Faida, co-founder of Adblock Plus.
“As annoying and irritating ads have spread fast to mobile devices, we are still championing the user, offering the ability to block ads and thereby giving them faster browser speeds and longer battery life, not to mention keeping them safe from malvertising exploits.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Proposed MAC Sniffing Dongle Intended To Help Recover Stolen Electronics
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/09/08/1638238/proposed-mac-sniffing-dongle-intended-to-help-recover-stolen-electronics
An anonymous reader writes to say that an Iowa City police officer is developing a new concept to help police find more stolen property. The Gazette has a short report that officer David Schwindt, inspired by a forensics class, is working on L8NT, a specialized wireless dongle to help police officers locate stolen electronics (any of them with wireless capabilities and a MAC address, at least) by scanning for MAC addresses associated with stolen goods. The idea is to have police scan as they drive for these MAC entries, and match them against a database.
The article notes a few shortcomings in this concept, but does not point out an even bigger one: MAC addresses are usually mutable
Iowa City officer develops software to find stolen Wi-Fi-enabled devices
L8NT can be used on squad car laptop
http://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/public-safety/iowa-city-officer-develops-software-to-find-stolen-wi-fi-enabled-devices-20150907
Next month, an Iowa City police officer will introduce technology at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in Chicago that could help law enforcement recover Wi-Fi-capable devices.
David Schwindt said his software product, L8NT — which stands for latent analysis of 802.11 network traffic — won’t be used to find the occasional stolen iPod or laptop, but instead will help police solve bigger cases.
“I foresee law enforcement using L8NT software to solve higher-level crimes,” said Schwindt, a 14-year veteran of the department.
“If your cellphone is stolen from a bar … that’s not necessarily what L8NT is intended for. But, if your home is burglarized and your cellphone is stolen, now, as a police chief, I’m interested” in that technology.
Schwindt’s product — which is software that operates through a thumb drive sized-antenna that plugs into a squad car laptop’s USB por — works by searching for media control access, or MAC, addresses from a database of known stolen items.
MAC addresses are unique to individual Wi-Fi-enabled devices such as laptops, smartphones and gaming systems.
Law enforcement officers using L8NT would plug the USB device into their in-car laptops. The device would scan MAC addresses, looking for matches to known stolen items. The device has a range of about 300 feet and can be attached to a directional antenna to allow police to determine where the signal is coming from and obtain a warrant.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Eva Dou / Wall Street Journal:
Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, others try to emulate Xiaomi’s business model by creating separate brands, subsidiaries to sell cheap smartphones with high-end specs
Rivals Try to Reinvent Xiaomi Business Model
Smartphone makers are flooding China’s market with high-end, low-cost devices
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/rivals-try-to-reinvent-xiaomi-business-model-1441658086-lMyQjAxMTE1NTAxODQwODg0Wj
BEIJING—A growing number of companies big and small believe they can beat China’s Xiaomi Corp. at its own budget-phone game, revving up competition and threatening profits in the world’s largest smartphone market.
Established computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd. in recent weeks began selling its first smartphone from its new Xiaomi-like spinoff called ZUK. Like Xiaomi, it will sell the high-end smartphone at a budget price of about $280 through online sales, thereby cutting marketing costs. ZUK’s chief executive, Chang Cheng, said he saw an opportunity to out-Xiaomi Xiaomi.
“You can use someone else’s model to defeat them,” Mr. Chang said in an interview.
Five-year-old Xiaomi upended the world’s largest smartphone market by selling high-end phones at rock-bottom prices, in hopes that sales of services and merchandise, such as mobile games and headphones, would make up the difference. In return, it won a $46 billion valuation from private investors and a place among the world’s largest startups.
Now others are trying the same thing. China’s largest, deepest-pocketed gadget companies—Lenovo, Huawei Technologies Ltd. and ZTE Corp.—have launched Xiaomi rivals.
China sold 209 million smartphones in the first half of this year, compared with 75 million in the U.S., according to Canalys. Apple sold 26 million iPhones in the country during the period, while Xiaomi sold 31 million, by the research firm’s estimates. Xiaomi aims to sell 80 million this year after selling 61.1 million last year.
Xiaomi says it is profitable, but doesn’t disclose financial results as a private company.
Xiaomi, whose name means “little rice,” has ridden the wave of China’s smartphone boom, with its smartphone sales more than doubling each year since it launched its first device in 2011.
Xiaomi’s valuation is $46 billion, higher than any other startup in the world except for Uber, because of investor hopes that the company will be able to develop lucrative Internet services after building a large user base through its bargain phones.
Still, Xiaomi said in April that it wants to make $1 billion in mobile-services revenue this year, which would be just 6% of its projected revenue for the year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HTC dropped from main Taiwan stock index after share price fall
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34172323
Smartphone maker HTC has been dropped from the index of Taiwan’s 50 largest firms, following a 66% slide in its share price this year.
The collapse in HTC’s share price means it is not big enough to be included in Taiwan’s TWSE 50 Index.
In June it said second-quarter revenues had halved from the same period last year, resulting in an operating loss of 5.1bn Taiwanese dollars ($155m; £102m).
Last month, it said it would cut 15% of its global workforce.
HTC’s share price is now less than the amount of cash it holds on deposit, which means investors consider the rest of the company to be, in theory, worthless.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Social Decay: How Tweets Can Predict The Death Of An App
http://www.buzzfeed.com/williamalden/social-decay-how-tweets-can-predict-the-death-of-an-app#.oeZK2Zzxg
We used Twitter data to analyze the health of social apps and find out which ones might be in trouble — or, as we call it, in social decay.
It’s hard to pick winners in the social media business, where new apps with new gimmicks are forever competing for your limited attention. Even highly paid investors are often wrong about which social app will be the next Instagram, Snapchat, or Vine.
But what about picking losers?
Using Twitter data, BuzzFeed News analyzed the health of dozens of social apps to determine which ones might be fading away. To study a particular app, we tracked how the number of tweets linking to the app
If the chart showed a steady decline over a number of months, we interpreted that as a warning sign. You might call it social decay.
Tomi Engdahl says:
iPhone as a service?
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
With New iPhone Upgrade Program, Get A New iPhone Every Year For $32/Month — Today at Apple’s keynote, the company introduced a new program available in Apple Store in the U.S. The iPhone Upgrade Program is a 24-month payment plan with an option to upgrade for a new iPhone every year.
http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/09/with-new-iphone-upgrade-program-get-a-new-iphone-every-year-for-32month/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung’s new 12Gb DRAM modules allow for smartphones with 6GB of RAM
Smartphones and tablets will soon sport more memory than your average laptop.
http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2015/09/samsungs-new-12gb-dram-modules-allow-for-smartphones-with-6gb-of-ram/
Samsung has begun mass production of the industry’s first 12Gb LPDDR4 DRAM dies for mobile devices, fabricated on its 20nm manufacturing process. The new chips, which offer a 50 percent greater density than existing 8Gb dies, will allow manufacturers to offer mobile devices with more RAM than a mainstream laptop: 6GB, with four 12Gb dies in a single DRAM chip package.
Phones like Samsung’s own Galaxy Edge 6+ currently top out at 4GB, with 3GB being more common, even on high-end devices. Aside from increasing the amount of memory, the higher density of Samsung’s new 12Gb memory chips mean that devices with 3GB of RAM would only need to use two stacked memory dies instead of four, saving precious millimetres of Z-height.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yes, There Is a Difference Between 3D Touch and Force Touch
http://www.wired.com/2015/09/what-is-the-difference-between-apple-iphone-3d-touch-and-force-touch/
If you noticed Craig Federighi stumble over his explanation of 3D Touch while talking up the new iPhones by letting “Force Touch” slip out, you weren’t alone. While the function arguably is the most noteworthy thing about the latest iPhone S cycle, plenty of people caught the naming change.
But is it actually a change?
According to Apple patents, there is another level of sensitivity of Force Touch that will be used in the new iPhones. Basically, these two technologies do the same things, but what you’ll see in the newest iPhones is an additional level of sensitivity. Simply put, Force Touch has less capability to measure your touches and presses and doesn’t react as quickly to your input, whereas the new 3D Touch is highly sensitive and reacts immediately, while also allowing different “levels” of actions based on how firmly you press.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Recap: Everything New From Apple’s iPhone Event
http://www.wired.com/2015/09/recap-everything-new-apples-iphone-event/
Today’s Apple iPhone event may be over, but we can help you relive it all. From 3D Touch iPhones to the giant iPad Pro to an Apple TV you can talk to, we’ve got the perfect recap on what you need to know.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung emits Galaxy S6 Edge+ ‘inboxing’ video
Somebody probably called this out-of-the-box thinking
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/24/samsung_galaxy_s6_edge_leaves_us_wanting/
Unboxing and teardowns used to be something that fanbois did, but marketing savvy Samsung has hijacked the genre with a video of its own. Calling it an “inboxing”, the video shows the phone being assembled, not by a worker on a production line, but by a well-dressed man in the kind of setting you only see in carefully crafted videos.
The inboxing is nowhere as near as comprehensive as a proper teardown:
Tomi Engdahl says:
Huawei new telephone arrived in Finland – appearance more important than security
Huawei’s own version of Android slowing down do with security updates, the company admits.
Huawei launches today the sale of Finland, the new Honor 7 phones.
Release spoken to the conference, Huawei Honor phones in Eastern and Northern European Product Manager Jin Yiming admits that its own security-sensitive user interface has a problem.
- Upgrading is a problem. EmotionUI-based version of Android with Android code so deep that the repairs to be slow. Instead, we offer customers our user interface looked like, says Yiming.
When asked Yiming admits appearance before going to security.
Huawei Consumer Products Group Senior Vice President Mika Engblom points out that in many other Android manufacturers are having trouble getting the software patches on the market
Source: http://www.digitoday.fi/mobiili/2015/08/27/huawein-uutuuspuhelin-tuli-suomeen–ulkonako-tarkeampaa-kuin-tietoturva/201510976/66
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nintendo, Google spinoff Niantic join with Pokemon for mobile-device location gaming
http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/nintendo+google+spinoff+niantic+join+with+pokemon+mobiledevice/11352920/story.html
TOKYO – Imagine coming out of your office, home, or school and getting an alert: A Pikachu is lurking behind a nearby tree, and the chase is on.
Japanese video game company Nintendo Co., the Pokemon Co. and Google spin-off Niantic said Thursday they intend to transplant the virtual realities of the famous Pokemon “pocket monsters” into real world locations with a smartphone app that players can use to catch, trade and stage battles between the creatures.
Location-gaming app Pokemon GO is similar to Niantic’s “Ingress” real world adventure game, which reports 12 million downloads. The new Nintendo game will be released in 2016, initially as a free download.
“You find the Pokemon with the smartphone. You’ll have a map on your mobile device to find the Pokemon and you can try to catch them,” he said.
A video virtualization of the game seemed almost hallucinatory, with images of the Pokemon showing up on a screen operating like a video camera and masses of people chasing through streets.
Ishihara said one of the biggest challenges of designing the game is ensuring that the real world location data gathered by GPS and replicated in the game would not put people in danger.
“You don’t want people rushing into traffic,” he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
iPhone Upgrade Program screws Apple junkies
http://betanews.com/2015/09/09/iphone-upgrade-program-screws-apple-junkies/
Apple has a ‘sweetener’ to help ensure its customers just keep on coming back for more: the iPhone Upgrade Program which lets you upgrade to a new iPhone every year as long as you keep paying each month.
On the face of it, it might seem like a good deal
In reality, Apple would like you to perma-rent your iPhone and keep paying through the nose for it. Ideally forever. And the sad thing? People will be quite happy to bend over and take it.
It’s something that works very well for Apple.
Ah, but customers get the option of a new phone after a year, don’t they? That’s true. But in taking advantage of this offer and upgrading after 12 months, you’re tied in to another 24 month contract — a further $768. Apple wins. The customer might feel like this is a win as well, but it’s one that is paid for.
What do you make of it? Do you feel like you’d be getting a good deal, or would Apple just be lining its pockets? Does Apple offer enough incentive to upgrade to the new version of the iPhone every year? Enough of an incentive to justify paying extra for it? Because this is what’s happening. Apple is essentially taxing people’s desire to be seen with the lastest and greatest iPhone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hands-on with the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, and why the 16GB model needs to die
There are few surprises in this year’s low-key iPhone refresh.
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/09/hands-on-with-the-iphone-6s-and-6s-plus-and-why-the-16gb-model-needs-to-die/
The iPhone accounts for something like two-thirds of Apple’s revenue, but you wouldn’t know it from the way Apple introduced the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus at its product event today. The phones were fourth on a long list of announcements, after new Apple Watch colors and bands, the iPad Pro, and the new Apple TV and tvOS.
The 6S and 6S Plus (hereafter simply the “6Ses”) build on the foundation laid by the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but no matter how interesting the internal changes are they can’t really replicate the usefulness and obviousness of bigger screens. Apple is going to sell a lot of these phones, but it’s fitting that they had such a low-key introduction—they’re mostly subtle improvements, welcome but not really mind-blowing.
o start, a list of the important year-to-year changes:
“3D Touch” pressure sensitivity that’s a lot like what you get in the Apple Watch.
More durable 7000-series aluminum.
A new “rose gold” color option, which is more or less just pink.
A 12MP camera that can shoot 4K video at 30 FPS.
A 5MP FaceTime camera that can use the entire screen as a flash.
A new A9 chip with improved CPU and GPU performance.
Faster Wi-Fi and LTE.
Always on, voice-activated Siri.
An examination of things like camera quality and SoC speed will have to wait for our full review, so here we’ll just focus on the things we could try in our brief hands-on session after Apple’s event.
About that 16GB model
We’ve been complaining about the 16GB iPhone base model for a while now. iOS 9′s space-saving features and lower pricing for cloud storage are Apple’s official solutions to the problem, but the iPhone 6S-series cameras are going to make those entry-level phones feel more restrictive than they did before. You can’t upgrade to 12MP photos (with extra frames for the Live Photos feature, no less, which by some accounts doubles the size of a standard picture) and 4K video without eating up more storage, but the iPhone 6S’ local storage didn’t grow to accommodate the new capabilities.
The only real justification for keeping the base iPhone at 16GB is financial. Bump it to 32GB, and you’ll get fewer upgraders to the 64GB and 128GB tiers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Apple should improve the iPad by making it a better platform for developers, not introducing a new product
From Products to Platforms
https://stratechery.com/2015/from-products-to-platforms/
If the last decade-and-a-half has taught us anything, it is that Apple is really, really good at making hardware products, for a whole bunch of reasons. As CEO Tim Cook and his fellow presenters repeat at every opportunity, the fact the company controls both the hardware and software layers is critical; less remarked upon but just as important is the way in which Apple’s massive cash position enables the company to spare no expense when it comes to designing, producing, and scaling new products. Similarly, Apple’s scale gives them unmatched leverage in the global supply chain, ensuring Apple always has the best components made in the best factories for the best prices.
More fundamentally, Apple is a company that is completely aligned and incentivized by said products.
It’s a lot easier to give the designers control when Apple’s business model is predicated on achieving high margin, not necessarily the lowest possible cost. Relatedly, all of the company’s software development, from operating systems to cloud services, exists to differentiate the hardware, not to make money in their own right,
resulting in a virtuous cycle that means it is becoming more difficult to compete with Apple’s hardware products over time.
This cycle of design, differentiation, profit-taking, and reinvestment is seen most clearly in the iPhone. While the processor has improved in every iPhone generation, that improvement has accelerated over recent generations; a similar rate of improvement has come to the iPhone’s cameras.
That bit about one’s phone being one’s most important and most used possession is critical: Apple’s cycle of accelerating improvement only matters to the extent that iPhone customers perceive benefit from those improvements.
The “good enough” critique, though, certainly applies to the iPad; while a smartphone and all of the social and communications apps that run on it are a necessity for nearly everyone, for many the iPad simply doesn’t have that many use cases beyond, perhaps, video, an activity that worked just fine on the original iPad.
That, then, means that Cook’s conclusion that Apple could best improve the iPad by making a new product isn’t quite right: Apple could best improve the iPad by making it a better platform for developers. Specifically, being a great platform for developers is about more than having a well-developed SDK, or an App Store: what is most important is ensuring that said developers have access to sustainable business models that justify building the sort of complicated apps that transform the iPad’s glass into something indispensable.
The Developer Problem
The problem for iPad developers is three-fold:
First, the lack of trials means that genuinely superior apps are unable to charge higher prices because there is no way to demonstrate to consumers prior to purchase why they should pay more. Some apps can hack around this with in-app purchases, but purposely ruining the user experience is an exceedingly difficult way to demonstrate that your experience is superior
Secondly, the lack of a simple upgrade path (and upgrade pricing) makes it difficult to extract additional revenue from your best customers; it is far easier to get your fans to pay more than it is to find completely new customers forever. Again, developers can hack around this by simply releasing completely new apps, but it’s a poor experience at best and there is no way to reward return customers with better pricing, or, more critically, to communicate to them why they should upgrade
That there is the third point: Apple has completely disintermediated the relationship between developers and their customers. Not only can developers not communicate news about upgrades (or again, hack around it with inappropriate notifications), they also can’t gain qualitative feedback that could inspire the sort of improvements that would make an upgrade attractive in the first place
These mechanisms work: they are the core of the Mac application ecosystem which has been thriving with a far smaller user base for years now.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Siri, Google Now, Cortana … and now Duer
Baidu, China’s Google, announced Tuesday in Beijing’s own mobile virtual assistant.
Source: http://www.digitoday.fi/mobiili/2015/09/10/siri-google-now-cortanaja-nyt-duer/201511676/66?rss=6
Duer to help Baidu get voice heard by its peers
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/tech/2015-09/09/content_21825925.htm
Baidu Inc, the online search giant, launched its own Siri-like virtual assistant on Tuesday which is able, for instance, to place takeout orders.
Robin Li, chief executive officer of the Beijing-based company, unveiled the artificial intelligence-powered Duer at the company’s annual technology event, Baidu World.
Demonstrating Duer’s abilities, Li asked the virtual assistant to search for a nice restaurant in the Gulou area in Beijing, with the condition that it must allow pets.
Duer smoothly processed Li’s voice request, recommended him a restaurant, and helped make the reservation.
Li said compared with pure information searches, a search for services is often based on specific criteria and sometimes complicated interaction.
“That’s why we wanted to launch an artificial intelligence-powered assistant, to match search requests with high-quality services,” he said.
Duer’s launch ties in closely with Baidu’s 20 billion yuan ($3.14 billion) investment, announced in June, in online-to-offline services over the next three years, which will transform the search giant from being simply a platform to connect people with information, to linking people with services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple iPhone 6S: Same phone, another day, but TOTALLY DIFFERENT
Force your fingers deeper into your friends with new pressure sensors
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/09/iphone_6s_6s_plus/
So here are the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus – basically the same phones with a few new bits and bobs.
Or as CEO Tim Cook downplayed it: “We have changed everything.”
The new mobes look virtually identical to the 2014 iPhone 6 and 6 Plus smartphones. Same size screen, resolution and casing, pretty much (the 6 versus the 6S, and the 6 Plus versus the 6S Plus.)
The new iThings also offer identical 16, 64, and 128GB capacities, and prices ranging from $199–$399 for the 6S and $299–$499 for the 5.5-inch 6S Plus.
Where the 6S will differ is under the hood, where Apple has promised beefier chips and a better camera. The 6S will use the new 64-bit ARMv8-compatible A9 processor (a 14nm system-on-chip from Samsung and TSMC) and M9 motion controller. The 6S also sports improved LTE speeds (depending on your carrier) and faster Wi-Fi connections.
The camera is perhaps the biggest selling point of the 6S over last year’s models. The new handset will be able to capture 4K video through a 12Mp camera capable of taking larger-resolution images
a new “Live Photos” option that captures images 1.5 seconds before and after you press the button
We guess the camera app is constantly and silently taking photos so it can capture the 1.5s of images before the button is pressed. Good luck with all this, 16GB iPhone owners.
Should people want to make extensive use of those high-res photo and video options, they might want to spring for one of the higher-capacity configurations. 4K video and 12Mp images take up considerably more storage space than you may be used to.
Also touted with the 6S was the introduction of “3D Touch,” a new gesture system capable of recognizing how much force one applies to the screen and the duration of a touch.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pali Bhat / Official Android Blog:
Android Pay begins rolling out at over 1M locations in the US today — Tap. Pay. Done. — Today, we’re beginning to roll out Android Pay — the simple and secure way to pay with your Android phone at over one million locations across the US. Android Pay also stores your gift cards …
Tap. Pay. Done.
http://officialandroid.blogspot.fi/2015/09/tap-pay-done.html
The choice is yours
Android Pay works with all NFC-enabled Android devices (running KitKat 4.4+), on any mobile carrier, at every tap and pay ready location across the US. Android Pay will support credit and debit cards from the four major payment networks: American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa. These cards are issued by many of the most popular US banks and credit unions
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mary-Ann Russon / International Business Times:
Companion: Tens of thousands using safety app that lets friends digitally walk you home at night
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/companion-tens-thousands-using-safety-app-that-lets-friends-digitally-walk-you-home-night-1518197
Tens of thousands of people around the world are now using a free personal-safety mobile app that allows friends to virtually walk you home at night. The Companion app, created by five students from the University of Michigan, enables users to request a friend or family member to keep them company virtually and track their journey home via GPS on an online map.
Although they can do so, the friend or family member does not need to have the Companion app installed, which is available for both Android and iOS. The user can send out several requests to different phone contacts in case people are not available to be a companion or not with their phones at the time.
Those contacted then receive an SMS text message with a hyperlink in it that sends them to a web page with an interactive map showing the user walking to their destination. If the user strays off their path, falls, is pushed, starts running or has their headphones yanked out of their phone, the app detects these changes in movements and asks the user if they’re OK.
If the user is fine, they press a button on the app to confirm within 15 seconds. If they do not press the button, or a real emergency is occurring, the Companion app transforms the user’s phone into a personal alarm system that projects loud noises to scare criminals from the scene, and gives you the option to instantly call the police.
As the app was originally designed to aid students in walking home at night across university campuses, if the user calls 911, the app will also alert the person’s relevant university campus safety department within the US, but this feature is only applicable to universities that have signed up to work with Companion.
At the same time, the app will send an alert to the contact who is keeping you company, and that person can choose to call the police and give them your location, as well as call you to find out if you are OK.
“Both men and women from all demographics have emailed us saying they’d love to use the app, lots of parents want to use the app for their children, and some people want their elderly parents to use it too to make sure they don’t get lost.”
As the app is meant to remain as a free product for users, the creators are monetising the app by working with universities.
Tomi Engdahl says:
David Gilbert / International Business Times:
Cyanogen is working with Microsoft to deeply integrate Cortana into the next version of Cyanogen OS — Cortana On Cyanogen: CEO Kirt McMaster On Building The Next Great Smartphone OS — Cyanogen is attempting to be the first player to truly disrupt the smartphone duopoly of iOS and Android
Cortana On Cyanogen: CEO Kirt McMaster On Building The Next Great Smartphone OS
http://www.ibtimes.com/cortana-cyanogen-ceo-kirt-mcmaster-building-next-great-smartphone-os-2093032
Kirt McMaster likes to use the word dude a lot. He laughs at his own jokes, and isn’t afraid to poke fun at himself.
You might not expect a guy like that to be at the forefront of a push to disrupt the global Android-iOS duopoly in smartphones, but the co-founder and CEO of Cyanogen is quite determined in that pursuit. And his Silicon Valley startup has major backers, funding and momentum behind its Cyanogen “alternative” operating system.
“Ultimately if you are going into the mass market, when you consider the iPhone and Apple’s marketing budget, you have to have signature experiences that really stand out and you are going to see some of these things [from us] by late Q2, early Q3 of next year.”
The charismatic McMaster even goes so far as to say his company will be introducing some “big devices that are going to be iPhone and Galaxy-slayers next year.”
What Is Cyanogen?
If you haven’t heard of Cyanogen, don’t worry; not many people outside of the tech industry have — but with backers like Andreessen Horowitz, Tencent, Qualcomm, Foxconn, Telefonica and, crucially, Microsoft Corp., it is one of the hottest startups in the Valley at the moment, having raised $80 million to date.
Cyanogen offers an alternative operating system for smartphones. It is based on Android, and still has all of Google’s services available (Gmail, Maps, Search, etc.). McMaster says, “We plug right in to an existing [Android] eco-system and we are enhancing that.”
The project began under the name CyanogenMod in 2009 as an open-source OS based on Android and developed initially by Steve Kondik. Over the next four years it grew quickly with contributions from the open-source community. In 2013 Kondik established Cyanogen Inc. together with McMaster, backed by its first round of venture funding. It has since released Cyanogen OS, which comes pre-installed on smartphones (such as WileyFox and the original OnePlus One). As of March 2015, there were over 50 million users of CyanogenMod.
Cyanogen Replacing Windows Phone?
When pushed on the failure of Windows Phone as a platform, McMaster said it comes down to the fact that “people are not buying Windows phones; it’s as simple as that.”
Cyanogen has not announced any partnerships with hardware manufacturers beyond what is already on the market, but to really reach the masses, it will have to partner with a well-known name — and for companies like Sony, HTC and LG, all struggling to make Android work, Cyanogen could be an enticing option.
McMaster revealed that Cyanogen is working with Microsoft to deeply integrate Cortana into the next version of Cyanogen OS. This is key to catapulting Cyanogen into the mass market, he asserts: Cortana is currently available as an app on Android, but in order for it to make a real difference, it needs to be able to be integrated at the OS level so that its full potential can be leveraged.
“Natural language coupled with intelligence is very important but as an application it doesn’t rally work because you need to be embedded into the framework of the OS because that is where you get all the signal from the services that makes that intelligence smarter,” explained McMaster.
Cortana is clearly going to be a big deal for Cyanogen and crucial to its success in the next couple of years.
Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants
McMaster is well know for his outspoken comment about on Google and Android saying at various times over the last year that Cyanogen “was putting a bullet through Google’s head” and “we’re taking control of Android away from Google.”
When these comments are raised, McMaster laughs, saying he doesn’t mind hearing them repeated, but his investors aren’t best pleased when they keep cropping up.
The end-game for Cyanogen is that it will have “no dependencies on Google,” which McMaster says can happen in the next two-to-three years. “From an evolutionary standpoint, Android is a platform that enables us to springboard into something else.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Simon Khalaf / Flurry Insights Blog:
Time spent inside mobile apps has exceeded that of time spent watching TV in the US for the first time
The Cable Industry Faces The Perfect Storm: Apps, App Stores and Apple
http://flurrymobile.tumblr.com/post/128773968605/the-cable-industry-faces-the-perfect-storm-apps
On the 3rd of September, 2015, Benedict Evans, a veteran mobile industry analyst turned venture capitalist, tweeted a chart showing how traditional TV is losing its share of screen to smartphones and tablets. While Mr. Evans’ chart was not the first chart to alarm the cable industry, its timing was particularly interesting, as it came exactly a week before Apple’s major update of its Apple TV hardware. In fact, many financial and industry analysts have predicted the demise of the cable industry since rumors of a new Apple TV hardware or an Apple over-the-top streaming service emerged earlier this year.
After yesterday’s announcement, it turns out fears surrounding the long-term prospects of the cable industry were well warranted. We believe that the industry is facing a perfect storm: Apps, App Stores and Apple.
Apps Are Gaining Ground
After putting the desktop web in their rear view mirror, apps now reign supreme as the top media channel in the United States, even without the help of the mobile browser. For the first time ever, time spent inside mobile applications by the average US consumer has exceeded that of TV.
And they are paying handsomely. This year, it’s estimated that revenues from in-app purchases will exceed advertising revenues for the first time. In 2014, App stores generated $21B USD in sales on a worldwide basis, while the mobile ads industry generated $23B USD during the same time. This year, we expect in-app purchases to exceed $33B USD and the ads industry (excluding search) is expected to generate $31B USD.
As shown on the chart above, the average US consumer is spending 198 minutes per day inside apps compared to 168 minutes on TV. Please note that the 198 minutes per day spent inside apps on smartphones and tablets don’t include time spent in the mobile browser.
It is hard for us to quantify how much of that time spent in apps overlaps with time spent on TV, as the second screen phenomena is clearly prevalent especially among generations Y and Z. So, while time-spent on TV hasn’t decreased, it is hard to say how much of that time is actual watching, versus having background noise to the plethora of apps being actively consumed on mobile devices. In the media industry, time-spent is the ultimate metric and if we simply look at the chart above, there is no point for analysts to debate the long term prospects of the cable industry.They’re better off debating its short-term prospects.
App Users Pay For Content
Since its launch in 2008 and until this year, the Apple App Store and its Android counterpart’s top grossing charts have been dominated by the gaming industry. But this year, many media & entertainment apps such as Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, Spotify and Pandora have ranked well in the top grossing charts and have ended the gaming industry’s de-facto monopoly on the App Store’s revenues. This demonstrates that the mobile consumer has been trained to pay for content.
This impressive growth in sales can easily encourage traditional media companies to move its content to apps and stream it over-the-top, charge consumers for it through the App Stores, and still make money from ads.
Here Comes the … New and Improved Apple TV
While Apple didn’t announce its much anticipated TV service (the cable killer) yesterday, it sent a warning shot at the cable industry in particular and the the media industry in general.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Daniel Pasco / Medium:
Lack of WebKit webview support in Apple’s tvOS poses problems for porting many apps that use webviews to display web widgets and pages — Apple TV—A World Without Webviews — The new Apple TV’s operating system—tvOS—has some differences from iOS 9, but one of the most startling ones is the removal of support for webviews.
Apple TV — A World Without Webviews
https://medium.com/@dlpasco/apple-tv-a-world-without-webkit-5c428a64a6dd
The new Apple TV’s operating system — tvOS — has some differences from iOS 9, but one of the most startling ones is the removal of support for webviews. These are used throughout the industry for a wide range of purposes, the most obvious of which is to display a website from within your app.
Our friend, the Webview…
Webviews are found on every major platform out there: OS X, iOS, Android, Windows, linux, etc. Generally speaking, most major browsers, such as Safari and Chrome are applications built around a webview. The menus and buttons let you change interact with the app, navigate to different sites, etc, but the actual heavy lifting of the browser, i.e., showing you what’s on daringfireball.net, are rendered in the main content pane of the app in an embedded webview.
Webkit is the framework that Apple uses to allow developers to include webviews in their apps. UIWebview, a UIKit class, provides a simple way to do so.
Both of these are missing from tvOS.
A lot of broken applications and a lot of new code
Webviews are the duct tape of the mobile world. I’d estimate that 50% to 80% of the major apps out there use webviews somewhere within their apps.
The thing about a webview is, although it’s not as good as a native view, it can still be pretty darn good. If you’re a big company trying to roll out apps for iOS, Android, and the desktop browser, you’re going to have three different teams belting out code like crazy for each platform.
Taking a select subset of your apps views and making them webviews lets you cheat a little. You’re a sports company rolling out dedicated apps for each platforms, but the batter’s box you show in all of them is actually an embedded web page. Or you’re a social networking app, and the user registration page is an embedded web page.
Goodbye, OAuth (woah). For now, anyway.
Or you have some content that may have to be changed on the fly, like a concert schedule. Just make it an html file you can update and all the sites will just grab it and show it when the user wants to check the schedule out.
Webviews make showing content that doesn’t *have* to look native pretty easy to do, and you only have to do it once and make sure that it renders correctly on all three of your platforms. This can simplify a lot of tricky situations and reduce your costs when you can use them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New tool reduces smartphone battery drain by intelligently suppressing background activities
http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2015/Q3/new-tool-reduces-smartphone-battery-drain-from-faulty-apps.html
The first large-scale study of smartphones in everyday use by consumers has revealed that apps drain 28.9 percent of battery power while the screen is off. To address the problem, researchers have created a software tool that reduces the energy drain by about 16 percent.
Researchers at Purdue University, Intel Corp. and startup company Mobile Enerlytics studied the use of 2,000 Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4 phones served by 191 mobile operators in 61 countries.
“This was the first large-scale study of smartphone energy drain ‘in the wild,’ or in everyday use by consumers,” said Y. Charlie Hu, a Purdue professor of electrical and computer engineering.
Out of the 45.9 percent of daily battery drain where the screen is off, 28.9 percent is due to apps that frequently wake up and run in the background. Out of this 28.9 percent, researchers have shown how to save 15.7 percent with a new system called HUSH, which is available for free at http://www.github.com/hushnymous
Tomi Engdahl says:
7 worst apps that violate your privacy
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/09/12/7-worst-apps-that-violate-your-privacy/
When you’re browsing through the millions of apps available from the Apple and Android app stores, you’ll notice that close to 98 percent of them are free to download. That’s great if you’re looking to fill up your gadget, but many free apps, and some paid ones, do come with a hidden price — your privacy.
When apps install on your gadget, they request permission to access certain information or phone features. Sometimes they need this information and sometimes it’s not necessary.
Most people just hit “Accept” and install apps without reading what they do. Want to see something funny? Watch people’s reactions when they actually read the permissions they’re approving.
Apple gadgets let you approve or deny each permission individually. You can go to Settings>>Privacy and open a feature like the Camera to see and control what apps have permission to access it. Or you can go to Settings and scroll to the bottom and tap a particular app to see and control its permissions.
A similar system is coming to Android in the future version 6, dubbed Marshmallow. Until then, however, it’s all or nothing for Android users. So, you need to decide just how badly you want the app.
A few years ago, Carnegie Mellon University set up a site called PrivacyGrade that analyzes popular Android apps to find out what permissions they ask for and how they use the information. Then, it gives each one a grade from A to D.
Here are 7 popular apps that PrivacyGrade gives a low score and why you should think twice before downloading them.
1. Draw Something Free – D
2. Words With Friends – D
3. GO Locker – D
4. GO Weather Forecast & Widgets – D
5. Camera360 Ultimate – D
6. Angry Birds – C
7. My Talking Tom – D
PrivacyGrade: Grading The Privacy Of Smartphone Apps
http://privacygrade.org/
Grades are assigned using a privacy model that we built. This privacy model measures the gap between people’s expectations of an app’s behavior and the app’s actual behavior. For example, according to studies we have conducted, most people don’t expect games like Cut the Rope to use location data, but many of them actually do. This kind of surprise is represented in our privacy model as a penalty to an app’s overall privacy grade. In contrast, most people do expect apps like Google Maps to use location data. This lack of surprise is represented in our privacy model as a small or no penalty.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Play Top App Charts
https://www.appannie.com/apps/google-play/top/united-states/game/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Margaret Rhodes / Wired:
Estimote’s Location Intelligence Platform now allows users to track and search for indoor items that have company’s Bluetooth beacon-enabled stickers on them
You Can Use These Tiny Stickers to Map All of Your Stuff
http://www.wired.com/2015/09/can-use-tiny-stickers-map-stuff/
From the beginning, Estimote has wanted to create an operating system for the physical world. And it’s just taken another step toward that goal.
The hardware and software company makes Bluetooth-enabled stickers you can put pretty much anywhere. These stickers use beacon technology to communicate with apps on your phone. The way Estimote imagines it, analog people and objects magically become digital and interactive. Estimote co-founder Steve Cheney puts his company’s mission in the form of a question: “What if, in the physical world, you could have a search box, and find stuff inside it?”
Estimote has built that box: It announced this week that you can now track and search for objects in its platform.
Previously, Estimote’s indoor location capabilities extended to people, via their phones. You could deck out a room or building with beacons, and they would triangulate with your phone to determine your location.
Now, Estimote’s platform can do with this any object wearing a sticker. When someone with an Estimote-enabled phone comes within range of that object (in location intelligence lingo, these objects are called nearables), the platform records the item’s location and stores it in the cloud. Over time, there will be a huge and evolving library of physical objects and their relation to us at any given time.
Cheney is the first to admit that it’s unclear how this will all be put to use. That’s been Estimote’s MO in the past—make the technology available, then see what developers and clients do with it. The company is starting to see the results. Target, for instance, is using Estimote beacons in its stores to experiment with offering context-aware shopping.
All of this interactivity still hinges on one very important human input: putting the beacon stickers on things.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple “Re-Invents” Nokia Living Images as Live Photos
http://geekongadgets.com/2015/09/10/apple-re-invents-nokia-living-images-as-live-photos/
With Apple’s iPhone 6S event yesterday, they also announced a “new” feature called “Live Photos”, those familiar with Lumia phones will find this feature direct rip-off of Nokia’s Living Images. The concept revolves around simply capturing a second or two of video before the image, allowing you to capture the scene behind the photo
Of course Apple have taken Nokia’s concept a bit further and allowed users to view their Live Photos anywhere, not just in the gallery app
Apple’s Live Photos Take Up About 2x Space of Normal Images
http://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/11/live-photos-twice-space/
One of the novel new features coming in the iPhone 6s is the new Live Photos feature which captures an additional 3 seconds of video surrounding photos on the new iPhones. The new feature is on by default and allows you to take photos as usual.
Live Photos will be viewable on existing iPhones, iPads, Macs and Apple Watch devices with the latest operating systems. Apple is also opening up the API for developers to support the new format in their own apps. Facebook has already committed to supporting Live Photos in their iOS app later this year.
While few details about the new image format has been released, TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino reveals in a video that the new format will take up approximate twice the space of a normal 12MP photo.
Meanwhile, @DanMatte reveals that the new Live Photos format is a bundle of images based on the JPEG file format, allowing them to be easily sent as a still image to devices that don’t support Live Photo. Apple’s developer documents indicate that you can share the image as a regular JPEG if desired.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ixel Madness, Sony Announces the Z5 Premium with a 4K Display
http://geekongadgets.com/2015/09/03/pixel-madness-sony-announces-the-z5-premium-with-a-4k-display/
My living room TV is still stuck in the dark ages of 1080p, my phone (the LG G4) has a more advanced 2K display; however Sony’s latest flagship puts both of those to shame, as the Z5 Premium comes with an insane 4K display. The world has hardly accepted 4K TV’s into their livings rooms, yet Sony has crammed the same technology into a 5.5″ display, giving it a PPI of 806.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cell Phone Memory already as fast as a PC memory
Samsung has introduced a new LPDDR4-memory for mobile devices. Their clock frequency will reach as early as 4266 MHz. Cell Phone Memory is thus already virtually as fast as the fastest PCs modules.
Samsung’s new feature is the market, December 1 gigabit mobile phone memory. Samsung itself believes that the market will move at an accelerated rate to a newer DDR4 bus.
Compared to the previous 8-gigabit LPDDR4 memories of Samsung’s newest circuit is faster by 30 percent. It is twice as fast as PC machines on the basic level of DDR4 memory, even consumes 20 percent less power.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3312:kannykkamuisti-jo-yhta-nopeaa-kuin-pc-ssa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Play Store Download statistics show that by Lollipop ie Android 5.0 and 5.1 operating systems share of all Android devices has increased by 21 per cent. The most popular is the 4.4 KitKat.
Android versions 4.1-4.3, ie Jelly Bean platform currently accounts for 31.8 per cent. Ice Cream Sandwich that is accounted for 4.0 versions has now fallen to 3.7 per cent.
Gingerbread- (2.3) and Froyo (2.2) platforms is still in use, but the proportion of these devices is only slightly more than four per cent.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3314:joka-viidennessa-android-kannykassa-lollipop&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Xcode confirms 2 GB RAM for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, 4 GB RAM for iPad Pro — Hamza Sood has cleverly used asset catalogs with the Xcode 7 GM to confirm the rumors around the iPhone 6s and iPad Pro RAM specifications. It confirms that the iPhone 6s has 2 GB of RAM, up from 1 GB in the iPhone 6 …
Xcode confirms 2 GB RAM for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, 4 GB RAM for iPad Pro
http://9to5mac.com/2015/09/13/iphone-6s-2gb-ram-ipad-pro-4gb-ram/
Tomi Engdahl says:
4K Video Drives Up LPDDR4 Densities
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1327677&
Samsung is now producing what the company said is the industry’s first 12Gb LPDDR4 mobile DRAM using its 20-nm process technology.
“It’s interesting that Samsung used the LPDDR4 to introduce the next density,” observed Objective Analysis principal analyst Jim Handy in an email interview with EE Times. “Companies usually start with a higher-density standard DRAM, then chop it down to make one of these ‘between sizes’ of LPDDR. This time Samsung reversed that approach.”
He said a higher-density chip also means devices can reduce their chip count, and that means that the battery will last longer. “That should make this chip pretty popular.”
There are a few reasons Samsung opted to go the LPDDR4 route first with this density, and although extending battery power is important, it’s not at the top of the list
He said the flagship smartphones that are launching today are now processing 4K video, which is demanding more powerful memory. At the same time, users are expecting a slimmer phones with long battery life. “With PCs and servers you have a lot more room to play with,” he said. “High density die is more important in mobile.”
Most video today is 30 frames-per-second, noted Lum, in the near future we could see 60fps, which would put additional pressure on memory.
LPDDR4 does make sense for a great deal of other devices because of its low power consumption but not all of them need the density of Samsung’s latest chip. Lum said smartwatches don’t require it yet, but their needs will increase as they become even smarter. Similarly, LPDDR4 makes a lot of sense for Internet of Things devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TSMC Wins All Apple’s A10 Chip Business, Report Says
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1327681&
TSMC will make all of the microprocessors for the iPhone 7 that is due to debut in 2016 using its 16nm FinFET manufacturing process, according to a Chinese language report.
Taiwan’s Commercial Times referenced unnamed people in Apple’s supply chain as sources for the story.
This would represent a rejection for Samsung and Globalfoundries – its partner in 14nm FinFET manufacturing. Samsung is thought to have a 50 percent share of production of the current processor, the A9 which is shipping in the recently launched iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. It would also be a bounce back into Apple’s favor for TSMC.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook open-sources React Native for Android to speed up mobile development
http://venturebeat.com/2015/09/14/facebook-open-sources-react-native-for-android-to-speed-up-mobile-development/
Facebook today announced the release of React Native for Android, a new open-source software project intended to speed up the process of making sophisticated native apps for Android using JavaScript. The release of the framework comes six months after Facebook open-sourced React Native for iOS, which has been widely tested out.
Facebook started out on React with an eye toward making its own developers more productive, as a better alternative to client-side MVC frameworks, server-side rendering, and its own XHP technology. Engineers could move faster with it and had more fun with it, Facebook engineering manager Tom Occhino told VentureBeat in an interview today. Facebook open-sourced React in 2013, allowing developers outside the company to more efficiently build web apps.
React Native
A framework for building native apps using React
http://facebook.github.io/react-native/
React Native enables you to build world-class application experiences on native platforms using a consistent developer experience based on JavaScript and React. The focus of React Native is on developer efficiency across all the platforms you care about — learn once, write anywhere. Facebook uses React Native in multiple production apps and will continue investing in React Native.
With React Native, you can use the standard platform components such as UITabBar on iOS and Drawer on Android. This gives your app a consistent look and feel with the rest of the platform ecosystem, and keeps the quality bar high
All operations between the JavaScript application code and the native platform are performed asynchronously, and the native modules can also make use of additional threads as well.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Game CARTRIDGES make a comeback … for smartmobes
Plan calls for games once Big in Japan to become small in Japan again
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/16/game_cartridges_make_a_comeback_for_smartmobes/
A Japanese company named Beatrobo has revealed plans to revive games cartridges, for use in smartphones.
Beatrobo already makes a device that plugs in to a phone’s audio port and sends a sound to the phone to authenticate you as someone able to access content stored in the cloud.
The company’s now planning to use the audio port again, this time as a way to have vintage games run on smart phones. At the Tokyo Games show this week the company says it will debut a device called a “Pico Cassette” that mimics the shape of the cartridges used by Nintendo’s Entertainment System (NES) and Super NES.
Deals for games haven’t been done yet but the company hopes that copyright holders will be keen to wrong yet more revenue from retro-gaming-obsessed Otaku around the world.
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s a sign that while Apple hopes to replicate the success of its mobile gaming business on Apple TV with casual games, it’s not interested in going into direct competition with Sony or Microsoft. The mobile market, which supports external controllers but largely appeals to players who use touchscreens, could be worth $30 billion in 2015, according to market research firm Newzoo.
Source: http://venturebeat.com/2015/09/15/apple-tv-games-must-use-the-remote-no-controller-only-games-allowed/
Tomi Engdahl says:
CHRIST ALMIGHTY: US Catholic Church finally turns to technology, launches app
Is the data stored in the cloud … where God lives?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/16/us_catholic_church_launches_app_for_smartphone/
Devout followers of the non-holy trinity of Cook, Ive and the holy ghost of Jobs will be delighted to learn that the US branch of the global franchise known as the Catholic Church has introduced its first mobile app … and also available on Android devices.
USA Catholic Church gives latest news on where the Pope is, what he’s going to do, and a stream from the @Pontifex twitter feed (7.1m followers) – which seems to run at about one tweet a day, with homilies such as “A Christian who is attached to riches has lost his way” and “Scientific and technological progress cannot be equated with the progress of humanity and history”.
The app, in English and Spanish, gives information from all Catholic sources: parishes, dioceses, the US bishops and the Vatican. It includes religious news, daily scripture readings and local parish content, and the ability to make donations.
“This is the most comprehensive virtual connection to the Catholic faith available,”
So if you have a Jesus phone you can download the app from iTunes, others from Google Play, or the Catholic Church website.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why are there apps on the iOS that I can’t delete even though I never use them? Why does Apple insist that I keep Tips and Stocks on my iPhone when I’d like nothing more than to delete them? For Cook the question seems a familiar one. “This is a more complex issue than it first appears,” he says. “There are some apps that are linked to something else on the iPhone. If they were to be removed they might cause issues elsewhere on the phone. There are other apps that aren’t like that. So over time, I think with the ones that aren’t like that, we’ll figure out a way [for you to remove them]. … It’s not that we want to suck up your real estate; we’re not motivated to do that. We want you to be happy. So I recognize that some people want to do this, and it’s something we’re looking at.”
Source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnpaczkowski/twenty-minutes-with-tim-cook#.lsZPZzKq0
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung’s foldable ‘Project Valley’ smartphone leaks, hints at January unveiling
http://venturebeat.com/2015/09/16/samsungs-foldable-project-valley-smartphone-leaks-hints-at-january-unveiling/
While this isn’t the first we’re hearing about Samsung’s elusive and top-secret foldable smartphone project, code-named “Project Valley,” a new leak surfaced Tuesday on Chinese microblogging site Weibo purporting to show the device.
We first caught wind that Samsung may be working on the odd smartphone in late March, when Business Korea reported a Samsung official as hinting, “The industry believes that the commercialization of foldable smartphones will be possible in 2016.”
What it does point to is the possibility that such foldable screen technology by the likes of LG and Samsung is now moving beyond a purely conceptual stage.
“Flexible screens have theoretical potential in that they can provide more screen real estate and perhaps still fit into one’s pocket or purse, thus opening up quite a bit of potential in portability and usability,” Ma said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Your finger is about to replace your bank password
http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/05/technology/bank-fingerprint-reader/
We already use our fingerprint to unlock our phones, and one day soon your finger could replace your bank password.
Over the past year, U.S. banks have been ramping up efforts to incorporate biometric technology (iris scanners, fingerprint readers and facial recognition) into their systems.
Biometric scanners could let you log in to you bank account on your phone or PC, letting you transfer money or send cash without entering a password. That could potentially be safer than using a password, since your fingerprint is unique to you. Passwords can be easily guessed or hacked.
Bank of America Introduces Fingerprint and Touch ID Sign-in for Its Mobile Banking App
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bank-of-america-introduces-fingerprint-and-touch-id-sign-in-for-its-mobile-banking-app-2015-09-15
Bank of America today announced a series of improvements to mobile and online banking to better meet customers’ changing needs and make it easier for users to manage their finances digitally. The new updates include the introduction of fingerprint and Touch ID sign-in, in addition to the launch of an Apple Watch mobile banking app, streamlined “Accounts Overview” page and new Security Center for more than 31 million active digital banking customers.
Bank of America adds fingerprint logins to its Android and iOS apps
http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/15/bank-of-america-adds-fingerprint-logins-to-its-android-and-ios-a/
Bank Of America Apps For Android And iOS Now Support Fingerprint Sign-In
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2015/09/bank-of-america-apps-for-android-and-ios-now-support-fingerprint-sign-in/
Bank of America today released updated apps for iOS and Android with support for fingerprint and Touch ID sign-in, this means that users will be able to access their finances by simply authenticating their identity with a fingerprint. Fingerprint sensors have gradually become common on smartphones with Google going so far as to add support for sensors right into Android 6.0 Marshmallow whereas Touch ID has been open to third-party developers for over a year now so it’s about time that BoA embraced this technology.
Fingerprint and Touch ID sign-in is going to enable users on Android and iOS devices to log into the mobile app using their fingerprint, it will allow access to the most common functionality of the app without requiring users to punch in a passcode.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Surprise mobile networks: 80 percent of malware has come from other than mobile phones
Mobile networks detected malware surprisingly many works on your computer and mobile devices. Motive Security Lab estimates that 80 percent of operating mobile data networks from malware can be traced to Windows-based computers.
The situation has changed in two years: 2013 and 2014 half of the detected malicious programs were Android devices, and the other half for Windows devices.
Motive Security Lab is part of the network equipment manufacturer Alcatel-Lucent. The company released the first half of 2015 on the malware situation report.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/yllatys-mobiiliverkoissa-haittaohjelmista-80-prosenttia-tuleekin-muualta-kuin-kannykoista-3483519
Motive Security Labs
Malware Report – H1 2015
http://media.ne.cision.com/l/uxmbdwgr/resources.alcatel-lucent.com/asset/189669