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:
iFixit:
Nexus 5X teardown shows many components are modular and can be replaced independently
Nexus 5X Teardown
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+5X+Teardown/51318
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dan Graziano / CNET:
Moov Now review: $100 wearable with 6-month battery life is useful for real-time workout coaching, less so for all-day activity tracking
Moov Now review: A personal workout coach on your wrist
http://www.cnet.com/products/moov-now/
The Good The Moov Now is small and comfortable workout tracker with a long battery life. It can be worn in the shower and the pool. The Android and iPhone app provides real-time audio coaching and feedback for a wide array of activities. It can track sleep, calories burned, and active minutes.
The Bad It’s not a good option as an all-day activity tracker; the syncing process is a hassle; it requires you to have a smartphone with you for coaching feedback; its best feature — the boxing workout — requires two devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HTC’s One A9 is a $399 iPhone running Android 6.0
A blasphemous concoction of Apple design and Google software that makes for a very nice phone
http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/20/9567471/htc-one-android-6-0-marshmallow-iphone
The HTC One M9 introduced earlier this year was a disappointment, both to fans of high-end smartphones and, consequently, to HTC itself
Taiwanese company today introduces its second hero handset of the year in the One A9. This 5-inch smartphone will be among the first to ship with the latest Android Marshmallow software on board, and it will be available to buy unlocked for an attractive price of $399.99. It’s also the most blatant and highest-profile iPhone ripoff since Samsung’s original Galaxy S.
Just like the iPhone, the One A9 feels like more than the sum of its parts
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple sued over iOS 9′s eagerness to chew up cellular data
http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/25/apple-sued-over-ios-9-wifi-assist/
Not happy that iOS 9′s WiFi Assist feature is quietly gobbling your iPhone’s cellular data for the sake of boosting your WiFi performance? You’re not alone — and you might get compensation for your troubles. A California-based couple has filed a class action lawsuit accusing Apple of doing too little to warn iPhone owners about WiFi Assist’s data use.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Keith Peiris / Facebook:
Facebook bolsters Notifications tab on mobile with birthday, events reminders, location based news, weather updates, nearby movie, restaurant info, more — A More Useful Notifications Tab on Mobile — Today, we’re starting to roll out an expanded, personalized notifications tab in the Facebook app.
A More Useful Notifications Tab on Mobile
http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/10/a-more-useful-notifications-tab-on-mobile/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chase and MasterCard Jump Into Mobile Payments
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/15/10/27/0311229/chase-and-mastercard-jump-into-mobile-payments
JP Morgan Chase said Monday that it plans to launch its own smartphone payment platform in mid-2016. ‘Chase Pay will be based on CurrentC, a retailer-led mobile payment system that has largely been written off by Silicon Valley techies for its reliance on barcodes rather than the more sophisticated NFC (near-field communications) technology adopted by its competitors
Meanwhile, MasterCard announced a program that aims to turn any type of gadget into a payment device, from car keys to fitness trackers.
Chase takes aim at Apple, Google with new mobile payments service
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/chase-introduces-its-own-mobile-payments-service-to-take-on-apple-212355699.html
JPMorgan Chase (JPM), one of the world’s biggest banks, on Monday announced a new mobile payments service meant to compete with similar offerings from tech giants Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOGL) and Samsung.
The new service, called Chase Pay, will be available by the middle of next year. And unlike its competitors, Chase’s service will work at almost all leading retailers, including Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT). Chase Pay will also work at the most popular pharmacy, gas station and grocery chains that have lagged in adopting Apple and Google’s pay services.
Consumers are just getting started with mobile payment services, but analysts expect usage will grow quickly over the next few years as more stores accept smartphones at the register alongside traditional plastic cards for payments. Consumers spent only about $16 billion in stores with mobile payments last year, according to research from eMarketer. But the total is expected to grow to almost $70 billion by 2019.
Chase’s new service will rely on relatively low-tech bar codes displayed by the Chase pay app on any smartphone. Apple and Google are using a more modern wireless technology that relies on a Near Field Communications, or NFC, chip which is only included in some phones.
But Apple doesn’t allow any other company’s apps to access the NFC chips in iPhone, putting would-be competitors in a tough position. Google chose to use NFC for its Android Pay, but the service can’t work on iPhones. Capital One’s (COF) recently introduced NFC-based mobile service also works only on Android phones.
Chase wanted its service to work on both Android and Apple phones, so it must rely on older bar code technology. Making a consumer scan the code for a purchase is slower and more cumbersome that the “tap and pay” enabled by NFC chips.
MasterCard wants to turn every gadget into a credit card
http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/26/9615746/mastercard-enabling-wireless-payment-through-iot-devices
MasterCard wants to let every new gadget turn into a credit card. It’s launching a new program today that’ll allow tech companies to make gadgets like smart rings, car keys, and fitness trackers that can also be used to make credit card payments in stores, just like most new smartphones can with programs like Apple Pay and Android Pay. MasterCard is starting out with a few partners, who have already put together prototype units. GM has made a key fob with MasterCard’s wireless payments tech built in; Ringly has done the same with a version of its smart ring; and Nymi has created a smart wristband.
The goal is to make paying — and, of course, paying with your credit card — as easy as possible. Rather than needing to have a specific device on you and at the ready, MasterCard wants you to simply swipe the keys that are already in your hand or the ring that’s already on your finger. In doing so, it’s starting to get ahead of the boom in connected gadgets. MasterCard is imagining a world in which its tech even allows connected clothing to make payments.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Whoopsies: Some Nexus 5X cases have a major design fail
http://thenextweb.com/google/2015/10/27/whoopsies-some-nexus-5x-cases-have-a-major-design-fail/
Your shiny new Nexus 5X is a great phone, but is your case making it practically unusable? It turns out that there’s a serious problem with some cases that are out on the market today.
Specifically, some cases actually cover the primary microphone found on the bottom of the phone.
Reddit user /u/brucensb posted a PSA in the /r/Android subreddit showing the 5X’s microphone covered by a Spiegen Ultra Hybrid case, which is still available for sale. Comments in the thread point out similar problems with Ditztronic, Verus and Cruzerlite cases, which are also backed up and supported by reviews available on Amazon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
By 2019, vendors will have sucked out your ID along with your cash 5 billion times
Biometric payments may ‘irretrievably compromise’ online identities
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/27/biometric_payment_authentication_to_hit_5_billion_says_juniper/
Research house Juniper has stared into its crystal ball and discovered that the number of biometrically authenticated payment transactions will reach nearly five billion by 2019, up from a mere 130 million currently.
Apple Pay and Samsung are the only providers that currently use fingerprint scanners for authentication, with availability currently limited to the US and UK and South Korea. However, Juniper estimates next year will be a turning point for the services.
According to the report, there will be a greater number of fingerprint scanners in mid-range smartphones, as part of moves to push the “mobile wallet”.
Uptake is likely to happen alongside the growing take-up of contactless infrastructure Point of Sale, said the research.
But biometrics for payment is not confined to fingerprints, with Mastercard thought to be trialling a ‘selfie’ facial payment verification app.
Tomi Engdahl says:
85% of Android devices are exposed to at least one vulnerability
Is your device secure?
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Programming/OS/85_of_Android_devices_are_exposed_to_at_least_one_vulnerability.aspx
Approximately 85 percent of Android devices have been exposed to at least one of 13 critical vulnerabilities the OS has become inflicted with, a new study conducted by Cambridge University and funded by Google, found.
While the Stagefright vulnerability put Android devices front and center as being insecure, it appears that the OS’ issues lie in more than just one security hole. How protected a device is depends on the number of updates released by the manufacturer as well as how regularly customers update their phones; Android only receives 1.26 updates every year.
On average, 85 percent of the devices they surveyed were found with at least one critical vulnerability.
“The security of Android depends on the timely delivery of updates to fix critical vulnerabilities,” the Cambridge University team said. “Unfortunately few devices receive prompt updates, with an overall average of 1.26 updates per year, leaving devices unpatched for long periods.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung Stripe And Band Batteries Enhance Wearables, Supercharge Smartwatch Runtimes By 50 Percent
Samsung says its Stripe battery uses “cutting-edge materials,” both internally and externally, resulting in an ultra-slim 0.3mm design
image: http://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png
. To make the most of the slim form factor, Samsung also said it minimized the width of the battery sealing to create a higher energy density compared to existing batteries.
Read more at http://hothardware.com/news/samsung-stripe-and-band-batteries-enhance-wearables-supercharge-smartwatch-runtimes-by-50-percent#TivFpo5QEDPizxzS.99
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Android Users Can Now Record And Publish Their Video Gameplay From The Google Play Games App — Google is doubling down on its investment in its Twitch competitor, YouTube Gaming, with today’s launch of a new feature in its Google Play Games app that will allow users to record and share …
Android Users Can Now Record And Publish Their Video Gameplay From The Google Play Games App
http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/28/android-users-can-now-record-publish-their-video-gameplay-from-the-google-play-games-app/
Google is doubling down on its investment in its Twitch competitor, YouTube Gaming, with today’s launch of a new feature in its Google Play Games app that will allow users to record and share their best moments directly from their favorite mobile games. Essentially, the addition is a built-in tool for recording gameplay and video commentary, then editing and uploading that content to YouTube.
The feature, clearly, is meant to help Google increase the amount of video game-related content housed on YouTube – content which now has its own dedicated mobile application, thanks to this summer’s debut of YouTube Gaming. There, users can browse through over 25,000 pages dedicated to specific games, where they can peruse channels, videos and even live streams.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Andrew Webster / The Verge:
Nintendo to release its first smartphone game, Miitomo, in April 2016, will be available as a free download with add-ons available as in-app purchases — Nintendo’s first smartphone release is a free-to-play game called Miitomo — At an investors meeting in Tokyo today …
Nintendo’s first smartphone release is a free-to-play game called Miitomo
But it’s delayed until next year
http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/28/9633272/nintendo-smartphone-game-miitomo
Tomi Engdahl says:
World Q3 smartphone shipments: 355 million, 354m, 342m or 366m?
The correct answer is ‘E – all of the above’ as analysts spray numbers around
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/30/world_q3_smartphone_shipments_495m444m_234m_or_444m/
How many smartphones emerged blinking into the sunlight during the third quarter of 2015?
It depends who you ask.
IDC says 355.2 million hit the streets between June and August.
That’s not a million miles away from Strategy Analytics’ assertion that 354.2 million machines made it out the door.
Juniper Research is willing to put its name to a figure of 342.5 million for the quarter.
Counterpoint Technology Research lives up to its name with an assessment claiming 366 million smartphones were boxed up and sent off for sale.
The average comes in at 354.5 million, or just a tick under four million phones a day.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Your 30-second guide to why Samsung is acting all Smugsun today
Investors grinning too as South Korean’s mobes show signs of life
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/29/samsung_q3_2015_stillalive/
Samsung is getting a nod of approval from investors and analysts as the electronics giant has revealed gains in its mobile, semiconductor, and consumer electronics operations.
The South Korean firm said its Android phone business managed to grow its sales figures in its third quarter of 2015, raising hopes that further gains are on the horizon from the upcoming holiday shopping season. The tech giant’s mobile division had been suffering from shrinking revenues until now.
“The outlook for Samsung is one of slow but steady profit growth driven by Device Solutions, and on that basis the worst is over,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Moto X Force features the ‘world’s first’ shatterproof display
Motorola sets its sights on clumsy iPhone users
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2432608/moto-x-force-features-the-worlds-first-shatterproof-display
MOTOROLA IS TARGETING clumsy iPhone owners with the Moto X Force, the first smartphone to offer what the firm claims is a ‘shatterproof’ display.
The Moto X Force, which is the international equivalent of the Droid Turbo 2, isn’t just ‘shatter resistant’ like a plastic ruler, but is described as “completely shatterproof” thanks to the Moto ShatterShield screen. This comprises five layers that absorb shock from impact and is guaranteed not to shatter.
We’ve yet to put these bold claims to the test
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Photos Will Hide Pics of Your Ex
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2494091,00.asp
If you’re looking for someone—or looking to avoid someone—Google Photos for Android just made it a lot easier.
Already available to users in the U.S., Google’s facial detection feature is rolling out to Latin America, Canada, the Caribbean, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as parts of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
In app version 1.8, tap the Search button and watch as Photos automatically organizes faces from your entire image library. Snapshots of your best friend or significant other are grouped together; a thumbnail image represents a folder of photos, which can be labeled for even quicker access.
And, if you can’t stand seeing an ex’s face or goofy pictures of your embarrassing parents—but don’t want to delete the images—Google Photos now lets you hide a person from appearing under People.
Google Photos launched at I/O in May, with unlimited free storage for images up to 16 megapixels, and high-definition video up to 1080p.
The service recently hit 100 million users.
Google Photos for Android – now with face grouping in more countries, people hiding, and more
https://plus.google.com/+GooglePhotos/posts/EPjgwrsrRyF
The latest version of our Android app (v1.8) is rolling out now.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Speed Up Smartphone Typing with Keyboard Shortcuts on Android and iOS
http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/speed-up-your-smartphone-typing-with-keyboard-shortcuts-1737988998
If there are words and phrases you type out over and over again on your phone—from your email address to “I’ll be five minutes late”—then both Android and iOS include built-in tools to help you communicate faster. Here’s how to get the shortcuts set up and burn through emails and texts messages on your smartphone.
Head into the Settings app, then tap Language & input and choose the Personal dictionary entry from the menu that appears. A list of all the words you’ve added to your personal dictionary appears on screen. Tap the plus icon (top right) to enter your word or phrase, then give it a unique shortcut code in the field underneath.
Next time you’re tapping out a message, enter the shortcut code and the word or phrase appears as a suggestion on screen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Monica Anderson / Pew Internet:
Report: 68% of US adults now own a smartphone, up from 35% in 2011, 45% own a tablet, no growth in ownership of other digital devices in recent years — Technology Device Ownership: 2015 — 68% of Americans have smartphones; 45% have tablet computers. Ownership of other digital devices has not grown in recent years.
Technology Device Ownership: 2015
http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/technology-device-ownership-2015/
68% of Americans have smartphones; 45% have tablet computers. Ownership of other digital devices has not grown in recent years.
Today, 68% of U.S. adults have a smartphone, up from 35% in 2011, and tablet computer ownership has edged up to 45% among adults, according to newly released survey data from the Pew Research Center.1 Smartphone ownership is nearing the saturation point with some groups: 86% of those ages 18-29 have a smartphone, as do 83% of those ages 30-49 and 87% of those living in households earning $75,000 and up annually.
At the same time, the surveys suggest the adoption of some digital devices has slowed and even declined in recent years.
For example, e-reader device ownership has fallen. Today, about one-in-five adults (19%) report owning an e-reader, while in early 2014 that share was a third (32%). Ownership of MP3 players has not had a notable decline, but the percentage of adults who own one has hovered around the 40% mark since 2008.
There is a similar pattern with computer ownership. Today, 78% of adults under 30 own a laptop or desktop computer, compared with 88% who did so in 2010. Smartphone ownership, on the other hand, has surpassed both of these devices, with 86% of 18- to 29-year-olds owning one in 2015. In other words, as smartphones came to prominence several years ago, younger owners perhaps did not feel as much of a need as their older peers to have other kinds of devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Hands-on: Facebook M, powered by humans, excels at carrying out real-world tasks, unlike pure AI virtual assistants like Siri or Cortana — Hands-on with Facebook M: the virtual assistant with a (real) human touch — There’s something eerie about realizing you live in a time people once considered a sci-fi fantasy.
Hands-on with Facebook M: the virtual assistant with a (real) human touch
A smarter child
http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/26/9605526/facebook-m-hands-on-personal-assistant-ai
Facebook M, the social network’s text-based virtual assistant, is only in its infancy, but I couldn’t help feeling like Her’s Theodore Twombly when I had it order me a sausage breakfast burrito. I didn’t even have to open a new browser tab, but I did have to go pick it up down the street — Amazon is trying to solve that problem via drones, I’m told. But it was still a good example of how Facebook, through a natural evolution of its software, has begun intertwining with our basic wants and needs.
Last week, I received access to the beta version of M, which lives inside Facebook Messenger, through happenstance. (Beta testers can invite other people so long as they live in California.) The service first launched in August to a small subset of users; Facebook says it has a “few thousand” across California. It’s been advertised as an easy way to find a good local restaurant, get factoids you’d rather not have Google search for, and setting reminders. M can’t yet access other apps on your phone the way Siri or Google Now can, but it’s designed to be more powerful than those services.
That’s because Facebook has a growing customer service-style team of M “trainers” at its Menlo Park office who oversee the software. The few dozen contractors take the steering wheel whenever the query is beyond M’s capabilities, though Facebook says humans monitor communication from start to finish. That’s how I got my breakfast burrito.
Placing an online food order is a neat example of lifestyle automation, but M felt revelatory when I had it call Amazon’s customer service line for me.
The AI assistant only asked for the email address that I placed the order with and the product name. About 35 minutes later, I suddenly had an email from Amazon telling me my refund had been issued. M chimed in a few minutes later, telling me, “OK – Amazon has informed me that your refund is being processed and the amount will be reflected in your account in 2 to 3 business days!” Welcome to the future, I thought.
Eliminating the need to sit on hold with Comcast, Ikea, or United Airlines is a glorious gift I hadn’t quite considered software capable of solving. But how can something this powerful, with real humans doing real work unseen in the background, scale to the more than 700 million Facebook Messenger users around the globe?
The team behind M, which includes the 10-person startup Wit.ai that Facebook acquired back in January, says it’s approaching AI in this fashion because it doesn’t want to constrain the service.
Even then, there’s something vaguely dystopian about M. Eventually, M could be the personal online butler of 1.5 billion people, helping us all lead more blissful lives as we tap out instructions to our software companion every day.
Tomi Engdahl says:
APNewsBreak: South Korea pulls plug on child monitoring app
http://goo.gl/bqV6ue
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The most widely used child surveillance app in South Korea has been pulled from the market after security specialists raised serious concerns about the program’s safety.
Moon Hyun-seok, a senior official at the Korea Communications Commission, told The Associated Press that “Smart Sheriff” has been removed from the Play store, Google’s software marketplace, and that existing users are being asked to switch to other programs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Key to Modular Smartphones
http://hackaday.com/2015/10/30/the-key-to-modular-smartphones/
Cellphone startup Fairphone is now taking pre-orders for their modular smartphone, which is expected to start shipping in December of this year. Although I’m much more familiar with Google’s project Ara, this is the first modular concept to make it to market. It does lead me to a few questions though: is this actually a modular smartphone, and how widely will modular concepts be adopted?
Great in Theory, Questionable in Practice
What if I told you that your smartphone camera was user upgradeable? When the next great gigapixel sensor comes out, just pop out that module and pop in a new one. What if the same went for the processor, the screen, or the charging circuitry? Surely everyone wants the USB type-C fast charging that is available in the new Google Nexus Phones.
It sounds great, but the truth is that the majority of smartphone users don’t know what they have anyway. Orienting our modular design thinking to the high-end market is a miscalculation. The people who want the highest specs also want the thinnest, sexiest phones. Those are already slimmed down to the point of insanity
What we’re really talking about with modular smartphones are standards that can be used from component to component across all phones. This involves settling on a physical form-factor, and making sure the software can handle each component that is developed. That increases code complexity and makes it harder to squash bugs. This is already an issue with single-manufacturer phones and is unlikely to get better when bringing in modules from different companies.
Currently, Google is working on their own modular standard which includes active data handling in the framework itself. The Fairphone design uses the frame as a substrate with conductors between each slot that don’t actively participate in the way the phone operates.
The established smartphone market is far too fickle for wide adoption of a modular standard that would make the phones look uniform, boxy, etc. I’m not saying this is impossible to get around, but before you can get around that issue you need to establish modularity as a proven smartphone technology.
The original PC revolution put up with beige boxes because they were cheap to get into, and could potentially be upgraded. I think the same will happen with modular smartphones. If you can drop 10% of the cost by having a 640×480 camera module instead of a 4k video sensor you’re making great progress. Especially so if you can later upgrade that camera. The same can be said for the pitiful 8GB of flash that many low-end phones still offer.
When I was growing up I was the “computer guy” that people knew and looked to for help with their machines.
I expect the same phenomenon to develop in the communities of people adopting modular smartphones as their first Internet technology.
Why Would Manufacturers Embrace This?
This is a question I cannot answer. Why would smartphone manufacturers go willingly toward modular design? As far as I can tell there are only disincentives here. It’s not surprising that Fairphone is a startup and not already in the market. Google — who is behind Project Ara — is not a hardware manufacturer. They are an advertising and content delivery company that uses third-parties like LG and Huawei to manufacture their gear.
For modular design to work you need to allow anyone to build modules.
It’s wonderful to see what is going on with these concepts. But for now I see them as phones that are much easier to repair, and may have the capacity to be upgraded. They’re not modular
Project Ara: Part of it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intua_p4kE0
Tomi Engdahl says:
Financial Times:
Activision Blizzard to buy King Digital Entertainment, the company behind the Candy Crush games, for $5.9B — Activision to buy Candy Crush’s King for $5.9bn — Activision Blizzard has agreed to acquire King Digital Entertainment, the London-based group behind the hugely popular Candy …
‘Candy Crush’ owner King sold to Activision Blizzard for $5.9bn
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/680ccbd2-81d4-11e5-8095-ed1a37d1e096.html#axzz3qRtQXqM1
Activision Blizzard is to pay $5.9bn to acquire King Digital Entertainment, the London-based group behind the hugely popular Candy Crush Saga mobile games, in the gaming industry’s biggest deal since Microsoft bought Minecraft last year.
the company is paying a huge sum for one of the largest communities of mobile gamers in the world.
The deal gives the combined group more than 500m monthly active users across almost 200 countries
Peter Kafka / Re/code:
Analysis: King generated massive but eroding profits, and like most mobile game makers, couldn’t launch another megahit — Candy, Crushed. — What would you do if you found a gold mine? — Would you keep it to yourself and sell as much as gold as you could dig out, for as long as you could?
Candy, Crushed.
http://recode.net/2015/11/02/candy-crushed/
What would you do if you found a gold mine?
Would you keep it to yourself and sell as much as gold as you could dig out, for as long as you could?
Or would you sell it to investors, and promise to make even more money for them?
King Digital, the people who brought you Candy Crush, chose the second path. It didn’t work out, so now they’re selling the company again.
Here’s all you need to know about what happened to King: It went public back in March 2014, at $22.50 a share, and fell immediately, down to $18.08. It’s selling today to video game heavyweight Activision, for $18 a share.
And here’s the (slightly) longer version:
In the iPhone/Android era, a megahit game is something close to a perpetual money machine. Once you find one, it will keep making money for you for a very long time, because a small percentage of its players will pay you for power-ups and other virtual goods.
That money machine will decline over time, as other games capture people’s imaginations/credit card accounts, but it’s going to keep making money. In the last three months of 2013, Candy Crush generated an astonishing $493 million for King. In the last three months ending in June of this year, Candy Crush generated $206 million for King. Still astonishing. But smaller.
The thing about creating a megahit game in the iPhone/Android era is that there’s no flywheel effect: A megahit gives you resources to market other games, which is nice. But no one has been able to prove that making one megahit lets you make other megahits. Ask Rovio, the people behind Angry Birds.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jonathan Cheng / Wall Street Journal:
Samsung shipped 84M smartphones in Q3, up 6.3% YoY, rise in sales largely from cheap devices like Galaxy J, with 38% of the phones sold priced below $200
Samsung Sells More Phones — but for Less Money
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/11/01/samsung-sells-more-phones-but-for-less-money/
Samsung Electronics Co. is selling more smartphones than it was this time last year. But under the hood, there are fewer reasons to celebrate.
Last week, the South Korean smartphone giant celebrated its first quarter of year-on-year mobile profit growth since 2013.
Samsung has been selling more cheaper smartphones, and fewer high-end premium devices, than it did even compared to Samsung’s rocky 2014, according to numbers from data firm Counterpoint Technology Market Research.
Samsung doesn’t separately disclose smartphone sales numbers.
Samsung shipped 84 million smartphones in the third quarter of 2015, 6.3% more than during the same stretch last year and more than the No. 2 and No. 3 players, Apple Inc. and Huawei Technologies Co., combined, according to Counterpoint.
But while 55% of its smartphones were priced at $301 per unit or more at this time last year, that high-end segment has fallen to just 40% of Samsung’s overall smartphone sales, Counterpoint said.
Phones priced $200 or below now account for 38% of total units
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analyst: Samsung gives up phones in the future
Already for years the smartphone market, revenues are practically divided between Apple and Samsung – and certainly not equitable. Samsung collects the money, but only traces, and therefore, some predict a company’s business go soon to give up the phone entirely.
Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin predicted that it may take place over up to five years.
According to him, the problem stems from “innovators problem” (in english. Innovator’s dilemma), which earlier projected beating the ears of most Apple. When the markets are satisfied enough good smartphones, consumers opt for less expensive devices, and would leave the inventor of the original equipment on the shelf.
However, Bajarin says that the problem is emphasized specifically for Android. After all, manufacturers offer basically the same product in different delicacies, consumers prefer to buy cheaper devices. End Finally, the winners might be the Chinese OEM manufacturers, who push good marketing copy.
According to him, Samsung has also entered into a long line of strategic errors in pricing and properties.
The biggest problem is that the company’s devices are not separated enough competition. Samsung is also burdened by the enormous extent of the product range as compared to, for example, Apple’s only a few
The ultimate question of the authors agree: Samsung’s strategy is incomplete
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/analyytikko-samsung-luopuu-puhelimista-6062626
More:
Android and the Innovator’s Dilemma
https://techpinions.com/android-and-the-innovators-dilemma/42215
We have two very different things happening in the smartphone world. We have Apple, who is growing smartphone share in many regions where people said iPhone peaked, raising ASPs, and capturing new customers switching from Android. Then we have Samsung, who has quite a different circumstance. Samsung’s mobile phone unit is suffering from nearly every symptom found in the “You Are Being Disrupted” handbook. Not shockingly, they missed estimates again. A key point here:
Increased marketing spending, including a $120 rebate program, hasn’t sparked sales of the premium devices that generate fatter profit margins. Samsung is investing in computer chip plants as it tries to revive Galaxy smartphone demand through a new mobile payment service and by releasing larger devices at least a month before the new iPhones to recapture market share from Apple Inc.
The article also goes on to say their smartphones in the $150 range sold well but their premium smartphone sales are falling off a cliff
If you are not familiar with the Innovator’s Dilemma, it is that, as a market matures, the early innovators get disrupted by competitors who come into their space with lower priced products, similar specs (the specs that matter), and eat into the market share of the early innovator in the category. Once the market embraces good enough products, the innovator can no longer push premium innovations as their value is diminished once a good enough mentality sets in. Android devices in the $200-$400 range are good enough for the masses leaving Samsung’s $600 devices and above stranded on an island.
One of the most interesting observations about all of this is the innovator’s Dilemma was supposed to impact Apple.
When the market for smartphones became filled with good enough devices at very low prices, why would anyone buy an iPhone? Yet this is impacting Samsung exactly according to the guidebook — but not Apple. The fundamental lesson to learn here is the innovator’s dilemma, in this case, only applies to Android land because all the hardware OEMs run the same operating system.
Android’s new premium price point is between $300-$400 and the new mainstream Android smartphone price point is under $300. No other Android OEM, Samsung included, will sell in volume anything above those prices.
Android devices will be extremely capable and with very good technology in the premium $300-$400 price range. But the innovator’s dilemma will make it very tough to commercialize true premium innovation in Android at any scale.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung will abandon the smartphone market within five years: Analyst
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/217424-analyst-claims-samsung-will-abandon-the-smartphone-market-within-five-years
For the past few years, two companies have accounted for virtually every scrap of profit in the smartphone business: Apple and Samsung. Even this comparison, however, is misleading, since it implies that the two companies split the market more-or-less equally. In reality, Apple captures the overwhelming majority of the profit. Now, one analyst is predicting that slumping sales at Samsung could lead it to abandon the Android market altogether.
The argument is straightforward: Because Samsung doesn’t own its own operating system, it can’t prevent third-party manufacturers from slipping in and cutting prices while offering equivalent products. It also explains why Samsung attempted to create its own Tizen OS, even though that didn’t work out in the end. Regardless, this creates a race-to-the-bottom mentality that favors low-cost Chinese manufacturers like Huawei and Xiaomi over the likes of Samsung. Not coincidentally, it also favors companies like MediaTek and Rockchip, and we’ve seen SoC sales from these vendors boom in recent years, as the carriers that use them gain market share worldwide.
Once the market has decided that “good enough” devices are actually good enough, the thinking goes, Samsung can no longer maintain margins and the value proposition for Android collapses. I don’t think the author is entirely wrong — but pinning all of Samsung’s problems on the fact that it doesn’t control Android is simplistic.
The Innovator’s Dilemma
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator's_Dilemma
First published in 1997, Christensen’s book suggests that successful companies can put too much emphasis on customers’ current needs, and fail to adopt new technology or business models that will meet their customers’ unstated or future needs.
As the title states, the innovator’s ‘dilemma’ comes from the idea that businesses or organizations will reject innovations based on the fact that customers cannot currently use them, thus allowing these ideas with great potential to go to waste. It goes into great detail the way in which ‘successful’ companies adhered to customer needs, adopted new technologies and took rivals into consideration, but still ended up losing dominance in their market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel puts cash behind Wi-Fi-first smartmobes
Chipzilla funds FreedomPop to get its SoFIA silicon into more mobes
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/04/intel_to_freedompop_heres_some_money_now_buy_our_mobile_chips/
Chipzilla’s mobile phone silicon is so popular it’s taken the step of funding a network operator to buy a custom-made smartphone based on its SoFIA chipset.
Nobody’s talking how much money FreedomPop is getting from Intel Capital, but it will be enough to create a “Wi-Fi optimised” smartphone that will switch to cellular networks if needed.
The announcement was made at the Intel Capital Global Summit, and beyond promising a 2016 launch in “multiple markets”, Chipzilla didn’t say when product would ship, nor which OEM will build the phone.
You’re right to fear a second dot-com crash, says Intel VC boss
Chip giant’s investment wing looks abroad as tech bubble grows
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/04/tech_bubble_intel_vc/
Fears of another technology startup bubble bursting are “legitimate,” says the outgoing head of Intel’s venture capital arm.
As a result, the chip biz is playing it safe in “overheated sectors” of the market, and looking overseas for the next big thing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EQT VI sells VERTU
http://www.eqt.se/Newsroom/Press-Releases/2015/eqt-vi-sells-vertu/
EQT VI has completed the sale of Vertu Corporation Limited (“VERTU” or “the Company”), the leading manufacturer of luxury mobile phones and related accessories to a group of international private investors.
EQT VI acquired VERTU in 2012. During EQT VI’s ownership, VERTU has transferred the Company’s operating system from Symbian to Google’s Android, launched a range of new devices
Vertu’s mysterious Chinese buyer has its own secure smartphone OS
http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/03/vertu-sold-to-chinese-company-godin/
In recent years, we’ve watched Vertu evolve to a luxury phone maker that actually cares about specs, and you can thank CEO Massimiliano “Max” Pogliani for that. But according to Financial Times, Swedish private equity group EQT has recently sold Vertu to Hong Kong’s Godin Holdings, and Pogliani has since decided “to pass on the baton” to someone else. While these changes may bring a tear to some eyes out there, things are about to get real interesting for Vertu. You see, after some digging around in the Hong Kong Companies Registry, we found out that this Godin Holdings is actually just a four-month-old shell company of Godin Cyberspace Security Technology (translated name), which claims to be working on its very own secure smartphone OS dubbed “GOS.” If you put the pieces together, we could be looking at a luxury equivalent of the Blackphone or the BlackBerry Priv in the making.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple may be cutting back on iPhone 6s orders
http://www.cultofmac.com/395607/apple-may-be-cutting-back-on-iphone-6s-orders/
Despite the iPhone 6s’ record-shattering 13 million unit sales in its first three days, reports coming out of Apple’s supply chain suggest that manufacturer Pegatron has stopped operating several of its iPhone 6s production lines in Shanghai — and may even be laying off some employees who were hired to work on the handset.
While this has the distinct feel of an unsubstantiated rumor to it, Pegatron has come forward and acknowledged that it’s actually true.
Specifically, Pegatron says that it has halted several of its iPhone 6s production lines in Shanghai… but only so that they can be moved to a factory in Kunshan, eastern China, where room is less tight than it had been in Shanghai.
There have been a growing number of reports suggesting that sales of the iPhone 6s indicate that Apple’s iPhone market may finally be slowing down.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tired of those full page ‘Install this App’ Mobile web blocks? Google is doing something about it
http://9to5google.com/2015/11/03/google-hates-full-page-install-app-pages/
There’s nothing worse when browsing the web — or hitting a search result — and coming across a page completely obscured by a huge pop-up window asking you to install the site’s (or someone else’s) app. In fact, full-page interstitial ads in general are incredibly frustrating, when all you want to do is read the article. Thankfully, Google is doing something about it…
Those of you following Google’s search strategy over the past year or so will be aware that the company decided to start rewarding websites with a ‘mobile-friendly’ design. In other words, sites that look great on mobile and don’t just try to cram a desktop page in to a small screen on your phone. Being mobile-friendly makes a site easier to find on search, or has better SEO, to use the technical term.
“Starting today, pages with an app install interstitial that hide a significant amount of content on the transition from the search result page won’t be considered mobile-friendly.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft sabotages own Lumia smartmobe flagship launch
Post-leak Windows phones to stand at back at Surface party
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/01/microsoft_spoils_lumia_flagship_party/
Microsoft has ensured that its unwanted Lumia phone division won’t upstage its Surface team next week, by posting details of the phones to its own UK Store website.
It’s the latest in a series of “accidental” leaks, meaning the new Lumia flagship will be rather familiar by the time it is officially unveiled in New York at the year’s big Microsoft Devices event.
Microsoft originally envisaged two device launch events – one for Surface, and one for Lumia – ensuring each range got its fair share of the spotlight. But the two were merged, ensuring Lumia would receive only a walk-on role.
Microsoft began to scale back Windows Phone this year.
Microsoft promised new hardware aimed at premium buyers (albeit those keen on mid-range design and materials) and business customers, while budget users would merely get “experiences”. You’ll note that an “experience” and a “telephone handset” are not necessarily the same thing.
Digitimes recently reported that Microsoft is looking for budget no-name vendors to take up the strain of flogging cheap Windows phones.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Protect your phone from water
Going for a walk or fish in rain?
According smartphone must, however, be protected so that there is no place that oozes moisture damaging expensive equipment. For many phone models are designed for expensive, waterproof covers, but the thing succeeds much simpler way.
It is a “elmukelmu”, ordinary plastic clingfilm.
Suffice it around your phone wraps one layer of foil and keep in mind while protecting your phone carefully all the openings. Thin, phone tightly to the surface sticky film does not impair in any way touch-screen operation.
If there is even a slight chance of rain, cling film are good to have just in case.
You can even dive with the device or also able to use the sauna.
Source: http://www.kauppalehti.fi/uutiset/suojaa-puhelin-vedelta-dioottivarmalla-konstilla–voi-kayttaa-vaikka-suihkussa/kYDdU9Cz?_ga=1.43749920.483596618.1402989016
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fitbit triples revenue on popularity of activity tracking
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34703577
Fitbit the maker of wearable activity monitors, tripled its third quarter sales – capitalising on the popularity of wearable fitness technology.
The company brought in $409.3m (£265.5m) in the third quarter compared to $152.9m in the same period the year before.
Fitbit sold 4.8 million devices between July and September compared with 2.3 million in the third quarter of 2014.
The company said it saw “tremendous opportunity” to grow.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Augmented reality has unexpected problems – intellectual property rights, privacy and physical security
Augmented reality means more information to the human observation, for example, through the virtual glasses. The best-known tools for the added reality is the Google Glass -älylasit and Microsoft HoloLens system.
Unfortunately, augmented reality also brings with it the legal problems that survives the University of Washington study. Equipment users collect a lot of information, thus undermining the security, violates intellectual property rights, harm freedom of expression constitutes a danger to the physical safety, reducing attention to the environment and perhaps easier for people to the discrimination.
Those devices collect all the time information on the user, and saving and sharing to third parties are legally problematic.
Displaying the information can be problematic in the sense that it may impair the user to focus on environment, which can cause even physical damage. It is not clear who is responsible for accidents.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Uutiset/lisatyn-todellisuuden-odottamattomat-ongelmat-tekijanoikeudet-yksityisyys-ja-fyysinen-turvallisuus-6062769
Tomi Engdahl says:
That “Unbreakable” Glass That’s “As Strong As Steel” Isn’t Either
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/11/04/2057214/that-unbreakable-glass-thats-as-strong-as-steel-isnt-either
A number of stories about a new paper in Scientific Reports claim that it describes an “unbreakable” glass that’s as “strong as steel.” In a report about the paper for Forbes, Carmen Drahl notes that these claims are exaggerated. But that doesn’t mean that the researchers haven’t produced a promising material.
Sorry, But That New Glass From Japanese Researchers Isn’t Unbreakable
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carmendrahl/2015/11/03/sorry-but-that-new-glass-from-japanese-researchers-isnt-unbreakable/
It’s the kind of news that makes anyone with a cracked iPhone screen take notice: Researchers in Japan have announced they’ve created a new kind of glass, with some news reports calling it practically unbreakable and strong as steel. Thinner, lighter, stronger glass could be useful for building and car windows in addition to devices.
Curious chemist that I am, I wanted to learn more. And I’ve learned that like so many things in life, the reality of this new glass isn’t quite so simple.
Traditional glass is based on silica (silicon dioxide), the main component of sand. This new glass, though, starts with aluminum oxide (Al2O3), more commonly called alumina.
Now, alumina-based glass is not new. Scientists know that its chemical properties can directly translate to glass with high hardness. So why not just make an all-alumina glass and call it a day? Because if your glass contains too much alumina, you run into manufacturing problems.
What this report describes isn’t some miracle material, but a well-above-average performing glass that seems promising on a tiny scale.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dawn Chmielewski / Re/code:
Canalys Estimates Apple Has Shipped Seven Million Watches, Fewer Than Some Projected — Apple has shipped seven million Apple Watches since its introduction this spring, giving the technology giant a firm lead in the nascent smartwatch market, according to researcher Canalys.
Canalys Estimates Apple Has Shipped Seven Million Watches, Fewer Than Some Projected
http://recode.net/2015/11/04/canalys-estimates-apple-has-shipped-seven-million-watches-fewer-than-some-projected/
The Apple Watch will face intensifying competition for consumers looking for a watch that does more than tell time. Among the devices vying for a spot on the wrist are the round-faced Samsung Gear S2, the second-generation Moto 360 and the 360 Sport and the first smartwatch from the high-end watchmaker Tag Heuer.
“People are still deciding whether it’s something they want to invest in,” Jones said. “Watches are not worn by everyone now. The phone can do a lot of notifications. So a lot of people are figuring out whether this is something they need.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dave Maass / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
California cops are using biometric devices for digital fingerprinting, facial and tattoo recognition, in the field
California Cops Are Using These Biometric Gadgets in the Field
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/11/how-california-cops-use-mobile-biometric-tech-field
Mobile biometric technology includes mobile devices and apps that police use to capture and analyze a person’s physical features in the field and submit that information to a central database for matching. Ostensibly, police deploy this technology as a means to confirm the identity of someone during a stop. However, the technology can be used to capture people’s biometric data and add it to biometric databases, regardless of whether their identity is in question.
Of those that did respond, most employed a digital fingerprinting device. Facial recognition has also been widely embraced among agencies in San Diego County, with Santa Clara County law enforcement agencies close behind. In addition, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s biometrics system includes tattoo recognition, while the Orange County Sheriff’s Department is also investigating iris recognition.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NEC Brings Augmented-Reality Keyboard to User’s Forearm
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2015/11/06/nec-brings-augmented-reality-keyboard-to-users-forearm/
NEC Corp. said Thursday that it has created a user interface which can display an augmented-reality keyboard on a person’s forearm, using eyeglasses and a smart watch.
The ARmKeypad uses glasses to provide a view of the keys and detect the finger movements, while the watch can sense the timing of keystrokes and alter keyboard displays, the company said.
The device can make it feel like the user “is wearing a keyboard or input buttons” on his or her forearm without actually carrying one, the company said in a statement.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alex Austin / Medium:
In a saturated app ecosystem, mobile app developers face challenges of discovery, user adoption, and monetization
Mobile App Developers are Suffering
https://medium.com/swlh/mobile-app-developers-are-suffering-a5636c57d576
“It’s just too saturated. The barriers to adoption and therefore monetization are too high. It’s easier on the web.”
Said my friend as he described why his company stopped building native apps. It’s easier to build a business on the web. How could that be? The browser-based web app ecosystem has existed for more than 20 years while the app ecosystem has existed for only 6. One thing is for sure, it’s not because there are fewer websites than apps.
My mind then wandered through this ‘saturation’ concept.
Why is it that the mobile app medium has become saturated with apps while the mobile web is still capable of absorbing more websites?
How Bad is the Mobile App Ecosystem?
As you can see, as you approach even the 10th most popular app (Skype), it’s a small fraction of the traffic seen by the top app (Facebook). As you approach the 1000th app (Pixable), you’re at just0.2% of the total adoption of the first.
Now, take a step back. In the past four weeks, there were 45,000 new apps submitted to the iOS App Store alone. The chances that any of them will ever break into the top 1000 are effectively 0%, and even if they did, they’re still not seeing any amount of traffic to build a successful business.
Monetization is an even worse story since it’s how a majority of these apps plan to pay rent and keep running. According to a study done by Activate, the top 20 app publishers, representing less than %0.005 of all apps, earn 60% of all app store revenue. Ouch.
These types of mathematical relationships are called a power laws, and are often used to explain the phenomena behind the 80/20 rule (80 percent of the value is centralized in 20 percent of the distribution).
The app ecosystem has an extremely harsh power law where app adoption and monetization are heavily skewed towards the top few apps. It’s nowhere near 80/20. In fact, it appears to be more like 99% of the value is centralized to the top 0.01%. Let’s call it the app store 99/0.01 rule.
This would indicate that the App Store became saturated back in 2008 when we hit 1000 apps.
The Root Cause: Adoption Barrier Too High
First, a user must discover the potential new app. This is by far the most challenging problem that developers face. There are two portals for discovery today: 1. paid promotion, which is dominated by Facebook, and 2. the app stores themselves. The biggest issue is that these two forms of promotion only work for the apps that have already been discovered.
Paid promotion is completely unsustainable for most apps given that the cost for an active install increased to $4.14 in the last few months.
The second way that discovery favors the discovered is the structure and layout of the app stores. The search function is unusable unless you know the name of the app you’re looking for, leaving only two other pathways: 1. the home page feature and 2. the top ranking lists.
The top charts are the biggest driver of the power law, as they are self-reinforcing.
The top charts continue to feed an influx of new users, since they are the primary channel for users finding new apps, pushing you further ahead of the pack.
For the savviest of mobile marketers (mostly in the gaming space), this has given rise to what’s referred to as ‘charting’. Where you buy tens of thousands of fake installs overseas within a small window of time in an attempt to push your app above the fold in the category chart.
Many Reasons To Say No
Once an app has been discovered, there are other forces at work which prevent adoption from occurring. These primarily revolve around the process required to install and configure an app.
Space Is Too Expensive
One last deciding factor in whether or not to adopt an app is whether or not the user is willing to give away their precious disk space to the app. Everyone’s phone is always running out of disk space. Be it photos or disk-hogging apps, nobody ever has enough.
To make matters worse, phone manufacturers have decided that they can charge a premium fee for phone disk space.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Turn Any Watch Into a Smartwatch With the Chronos Disc
A little metal disc that fits on the watch you’re already wearing.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-05/chronos-will-turn-any-watch-into-a-smartwatch
People who like watches tend to really like their watches. That means most aren’t giving up their hard-won collections in favor of something digital. Smartwatches aren’t just up for debate—they’re not even part of the conversation. The Chronos device is one of the best attempts yet at addressing this gap.
Chronos is a small metal disc that turns any watch into a smartwatch. It’s just 33 mm across and 2.5 mm thick and weighs next to nothing. It’s waterproof, and a microsuction surface on the back lets it adhere to the back of a watch, situating it between the mechanism and your wrist. Inside the Chronos is an array of sensors, a few LEDs, a vibration engine, and a battery, letting it add sort of ad-hoc smartwatch functionality to watches you already wear.
The Chronos comes with an charging pad and should get about 36 hours of juice on a three-hour charge.
The Chronos app is straightforward and the set-up process really easy. It prompts you to pair with the device and pulls in your health data from iOS’s HealthKit. Steps, distance, active calories burned, and flights of stairs climbed are the main categories, and the interface is clean and easy to read, showing activity across the day in a ring. There will be some proprietary fitness tracking down the line, but for now it works seamlessly with Apple’s native Heath app.
The other big function of Chronos is notifications
Each type of notification can be assigned one of eight vibration patterns and one of six colors of LED flashes (or no lights at all).
There are also options for turning on gesture controls, letting you use the Chronos as a basic remote. Tapping your watch in different patterns lets you silence calls, skip music tracks, and activate your phone’s camera remotely.
For a lot of mechanical watch wearers, smartwatches have been a nonstarter so far, and most fitness trackers don’t do a very good job with notifications and other nonfitness things. The Chronos offers watch lovers a lot of functionality in a slim package that won’t interfere with the baubles they’re already strapping to their wrists.
The Chronos is currently available for preorder via http://www.wearchronos.com for $99.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AG Heuer, Google Release First Swiss Luxury Smartwatch: All the Details
The Vallée de Joux meets Silicon Valley.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-09/tag-heuer-connected-watch-from-google-and-intel-specs
The Swiss are now officially making a smartwatch. On Monday in New York City, TAG Heuer unveiled the Connected Watch, a $1,500 Android Wear smartwatch made in partnership with Google and Intel. It’s the first true smartwatch from a Swiss luxury watchmaker, but can it solve the steadfastly traditional industry’s looming problems?
The TAG Heuer Connected Watch is modeled after TAG’s classic Carrera model, an auto racing timepiece that dates back to 1963.
The case and buckle are designed and manufactured in Switzerland by the same team that makes the rest of TAG’s watches, though the Connected Watch is not technically “Made in Switzerland” since the electronic guts come from Intel.
The Connected Watch is big at 46.2mm across and 12.8mm thick, but it’s made of titanium, so it’s surprisingly light.
From a distance it’s nearly indistinguishable from TAG’s Heuer 01.
Importantly, TAG developed the Connected Watch in partnership with Google and Intel, so electronics, aesthetics, and software features were all developed together. The project was first announced back in March at Baselworld, the watch industry’s largest trade show, with executives from the three companies all present. The watch runs Google’s Android Wear operating system and works with Android phones going all the way back to those running version 4.3 Jelly Bean and iPhones running iOS 8.2 or later.
It uses Bluetooth LE to connect to your smartphone, has Wi-Fi connectivity as well, and has 4 GB of onboard storage for apps and media. Gyroscopic sensors are there for basic fitness tracking
The TAG Heuer Connected Watch is explicitly a luxury smartwatch and it comes with a price tag to match. It will cost $1,500, making it more than four times the price of most other high-end Android Wear watches and in line with the likes of the Apple Watch Hermès edition.
For the premium price, TAG is offering additional features that most Android Wear watches cannot access. Owners register directly with TAG Heuer and gain access to a bunch of features not available to people sporting the latest Huawei or LG watches, including TAG Heuer watch faces, special timing apps, and apps that offer things like restaurant recommendations and let you track your golf game.
Now, one thing TAG can offer that none of its competitors can is a service it calls “connected to eternity.”
After two years, a Connected Watch owner can bring the watch into a TAG Heuer retailer, trade it in with an additional $1,500, and receive a mechanical TAG Heuer watch in return.
Whether this is the right way for Swiss watchmakers to stay afloat over the coming decades is yet to be seen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kevin Rose / HODINKEE:
Hands on with TAG Heuer Connected Watch: if you want tech, look elsewhere, but if you want a classic with an upgrade path, this is it
My Thoughts On The TAG Heuer Connected Smartwatch, By Kevin Rose (VIDEO)
http://www.hodinkee.com/articles/my-thoughts-on-the-tag-heuer-connected-smartwatch-by-kevin-rose-video
Today, TAG Heuer announced the TAG Heuer Connected smartwatch, which is powered by Intel hardware and Google’s Wear OS. While it might not feature the latest and greatest in the increasingly crowded wearable-tech market, it might just be – due to a unique trade-in program – the smartwatch of choice for the diehard TAG Heuer fan.
The Specs
- 46.2 mm in diameter
- 12.8 mm thick
- case, back, and lugs made of grade-2 titanium
- black rubber strap, with additional straps available in red, blue, white, and orange
- 1.5 in. transflective LTPS LCD display
- 360 x 360, 24-bit display
- 240 ppi, 200 nits
- 1 GB main memory, 4 GB storage
- Dual core processor, rate at 1.6 GHz (normal operation speed = 500 mHz)
- 410 mAh battery; 25 hours of battery life
- $1,500
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pinterest’s New Tool Lets You Do Searches Using Pictures
http://www.wired.com/2015/11/pinterests-new-tool-lets-you-do-searches-using-pictures/
Pinterest is diving into wordless searches.
The site’s new visual search tool is Pinterest’s latest effort to help its 100 million users discover the things they didn’t even know they liked, leveraging the vast repository of 1 billion “boards” and 50 billion “pinned” images now on the social scrapbooking site. The new tool lets users zoom in on a specific object in an image that could contain multiple elements—say, if a user was looking at picture-perfect living room showing off a lamp, table and couch—to see more of a specific object that looks visually similar. A user could choose to see more lamps, for instance, with similar colors, shapes, and patterns.
The company says that it has indexed about a billion images on its social network for the new search engine with the help of the Berkeley Vision and Learning Center, known for its expertise in “deep learning” techniques.
“Pinterest is about discovery, and visual search is another dimension of discovery,”
Yes, Google still rules search. But Pinterest has its own an edge. Because the very act of pinning is supposed to signal a user’s preference, that makes it a potentially valuable record of consumer desire.
Tomi Engdahl says:
20th Century Fox’s Danny Kaye talks mobile entertainment
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/catching-waves/4440746/20th-Century-Fox-s-Danny-Kaye-talks-mobile-entertainment-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20151110&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20151110&elq=a71fb7cf88404f23aaa6987b8b9e3ee8&elqCampaignId=25640&elqaid=29181&elqat=1&elqTrackId=5bf2e54e7ff443979be5c27ff781eb5c
EDN: I’m sure there are business challenges, but what are the biggest technical challenges that remain to offer fuller media experiences on mobile or automotive devices?
Kaye: There are several. First, we have to give the consumer both quality and convenience in the same content and devices. Then, we have to deliver next-gen content and experiences to devices over networks that are challenged by traffic and bandwidth constraints. And finally, we have to provide seamless integration between the local device and cloud storage.
EDN: How might the movie industry change as a result of the latest mobile and virtual reality technologies?
Kaye: Movies may be produced with virtual reality in mind, and virtual reality productions might be integrated directly into film production.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Disney’s Designing a Smart Watch That Knows What You’re Touching
http://hackaday.com/2015/11/10/disneys-designing-a-smart-watch-that-knows-what-youre-touching/
Did you know Disney actually has a huge R&D subsidiary? It’s called Walt Disney Imagineering, and they’ve come up with some pretty interesting technology. They’re currently working on a smart watch interface called EM-Sense that uses an electromagnetic signal to detect and learn what the user is interacting with.
Basic machine learning allows the watch to learn what different devices “feel” like on an electromagnetic scale. It’s capable of detecting things you would expect, like appliances, power tools, and even electronic devices — but it’s apparently sophisticated enough to tell when you’re touching a door handle (and which one) depending on the structure and EM feedback!
EM-Sense: Touch Recognition of Uninstrumented Electrical and Electromechanical Objects
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpKDNle6ia4
Tomi Engdahl says:
ARM Flexes Handset, IoT Cores
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328212&
SAN JOSE, Calif. – ARM rolled out new cores for smartphones and the Internet of Things at its annual conference here. The Cortex A-35 brings 64-bit capabilities to entry-level handsets while the ARMv8 Cortex-M architecture enables hardware-based security on the smallest 32-bit microcontrollers with minimal impact, even on real-time operations.
The A-35 is a new low-end 64-bit core, targeting an entry-level smartphone segment ARM expects to grow 8% a year to reach one billion devices by 2020. ARM believes the power efficiency of the core also will attract use in a wide range of embedded systems including set-top boxes for online video.
Several companies have licensed ARM’s A-35 core. The company expects system level products using such chips will debut by the end of 2016.
Separately, ARM announced a new architecture for 32-bit microcontrollers, bringing hardware-based security to even the lowest end parts with minimal impact on real-time operations. The ARMv8-M
TrustZone for ARMv8-M includes new instructions and a revised memory and exception processing techniques that handle in hardware functions currently run in software on higher end Cortex-A cores. The 32-bit version does not require a hypervisor. Instead, the approach enables mechanisms to securely handle switching between secure and unsecure processes.
The approach lets chips run secured and unsecured code in parallel and support secure stack pointers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Get an Apple Watch or die warns Tim Cook
When salesmanship gets out of hand
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/11/get_apple_watch_or_die/
After hyping his first new product as Apple CEO to death, it appears Tim Cook is feeling the pressure to make the Apple Watch a success.
Sadly, that has not been the case and the expensive and not terribly useful wristwatch is expected to have sold just seven million units in its first year, against expectations of 30 million sales.
Not to be outdone, Our Cooky has hit the road in an effort to drum up interest, telling everyone that will listen about this tremendous product. That doesn’t seem to have worked so he has turned up the pressure by warning people that if you don’t get one you may die.
That’s right, according to an interview with the Daily Telegraph this week, Timmy has personal knowledge of a college football player for whom the Apple Watch proved to be a literal life-saver.
Quizzed about the weak sales of the watch, he said that “things are going well” and started to pitch the value of its sensor and monitors. He then told the story of one lucky use
Apple’s iRing…A Bit Late
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328185&
OK, I am a bit late writing about the “iRing” patent application that was published at the start of October, but that is life. Armed with this set of information I had some fun thinking about what Apple might be telling us about an iRing’s potential.
First, I agree with AppleInsider that, at least on the surface, the device configuration appears to be another possible configuration for the set of the features that now appear in the AppleWatch
Here one does not have to look at the display of a device that is on your wrist or your finger and use the other hand to enter commands. In this latter scenario both hands are in use.
The AppleInsider article also comes back to the so-called iRing rumour of 2013.
As I have said many times before, it is interesting to think laterally. There are often clues given in patent documents that lead to further, possibly very interesting ideas. On one level watching the iRing discussion is a bit of fun. On another level the iRing’s form presents some neat device interaction possibilities.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PNI Out Googled Android
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328188&
PNI Sensor Corp. is selling sensor hubs–like every other MEMS maker–but with a twist, compatibility with Google growing list of mandates, plus the ability to create custom sensor-fusion recognition algorithms to differentiate products and still pass Google’s rigorous compatibility test suite (CTS).
SENtral-A2 is being chosen by top-brands of Android wearables, smartphones, and tablets. I believe it one-ups Google by meeting and exceeding the mandates for functionality and compatibility, plus PNI adds the ability to differentiate with custom sensor-fusion recognition algorithms.
The nit-picky details are that the PNI SEMtral-A2 measures 1.7 mm square, is pin-compatible with earlier versions of SENtral, runs over 140,000 floating point operations per second while burning about 200 microAmps at 1.8V.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ARM’s new Cortex-A35: How to fine-tune a CPU for web browsing on bargain smartphones
Proof that Brits are experts on forming queues
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/10/arm_cortexa35/
ARM, designer of smartphone brains, will today reveal the Cortex-A35: a processor core subtly tweaked to run mobile web browsers and similar apps faster.
How can a CPU be tuned for something seemingly so specific? The answer lies in the A35′s instruction prefetch queue. ARM has halved the length of this queue in an attempt to balance memory access bandwidth against faster processing. It’s not a major breakthrough in computer science, but an interesting change, nonetheless.
Modern processors have an instruction pipeline that is constantly primed with program code for the CPU to execute. The longer the pipeline, the more instructions the core can carry out at the same time.
There’s one little problem with this otherwise neat design: the processor can burn through its pipeline faster than your RAM can give it instructions. In other words, there needs to be a stockpile of code to satisfy the CPU’s hunger.
The answer to this headache is a prefetch instruction queue: this is a buffer of program code that’s automatically filled up by the core’s prefetch unit during idle moments, providing instructions for the execution pipeline to gobble up.
The Cortex CPU is either accessing data in memory or filling its prefetch buffer: it can’t do both at the same time. So for the new A35, it’s understood ARM has reduced this queue length from its other Cortex cousins, so the processor can spend more time accessing stuff in memory. We understand the queue is half the length of the Cortex-A7 and A5′s.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook conjures up a trap for the unwary: scanning your camera for your friends
Auto-spam your friends with Photo Magic
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/10/facebook_scans_camera_for_your_friends/
Facebook has decided it doesn’t pester its users enough, so it’s going to use its facial recognition technology as the basis of a new nag-screen.
The ad network is testing a feature in its Android app that will scan a user’s recent images for photos that look like their friends. If it spots a match, it’ll ask if the photos should be shared with other people in them.
The feature is being tested on Australian users first, with iOS to arrive by the end of the week, and if they don’t grab pitchforks and torches, The Social NetworkTM threatens promises to take it to the US soon.
The pic-scanning isn’t restricted to photos you’ve already uploaded to Facebook – the app scans your phone’s photo collection for new images, and will raise a dialogue asking if you want to post it to your friends.
There will be an opt-out, just in case you don’t want a careless selfie in flagrante delicto with a partner’s friend turning up on your feed because the evening involved a lot of booze and not much good sense, and Facebook users who can navigate the baroque maze of its privacy settings can already opt out of having their faces detected in other users’ photos.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The smartphone will tell us all
Analytics2015 – All are now talking about big data. Miscellaneous equipment, sensors and sensors produce us data continuously. – The smartphone tells us really everything, said SAS Institute spoken Analytics2015 event data artist Jer Thorp.
Thorp examples show how the modern human life can be very accurately described as the basis of the data collected by the smart phone. – Our movements can draw a map that tells you where to go to the pub every Friday at five o’clock.
Thorp, this does not surprise anyone. When he has presented the results to humans, the result is essentially a shrug and a comment that I think he’s working for the NSA.
This is, of course, partly a matter of concern. We should have a personal relationship with your data.
- Data is not numbers, but encoded in your life. Man to produce data, not the machine. If you do not understand that big data is human, to have the opportunity to make big mistakes.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3585:alypuhelin-kertoo-meista-kaiken&catid=13&Itemid=101