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:
China Deal Squeezes Royalty Cuts from Qualcomm
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1325631&
Qualcomm Monday (Feb. 9) put an end to a nearly two-year patent fight in China by paying a $975 million fine to Beijing authorities.
Qualcomm’s Chinese settlement calls for a 5% royalty rate on multimode 3G/4G devices (including multimode 3G/4G devices) and a 3.5% rate on other 4G hardware (including 3-mode LTD-TDD devices). The key change is that now rates will be derived from a royalty base of 65% of a device’s net selling price, instead of an OEM’s full sales price. Qualcomm’s royalty rates are typically based on 100 percent of the net selling price of a handset.
The 5% royalty when multiplied by .65 equals an effective royalty rate of 3.25% for 3G. The 4G royalty is 3.5% of the net selling price of the device, which results in a net royalty rate of 2.275%.
Qualcomm simply asserts that the resolution “requires no licensing changes outside China.”
Qualcomm’s assumption is that regulators in the US and the EU, where Qualcomm is under investigation for monopolistic practices, won’t interfere with pricing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Research reveals: activity bracelet is in many cases vanities
If you are using activity bracelet as a pedometer, it is perhaps useless. At least if the strains of modern smart phone in your pocket.
Smartphones such as Apple iPhones and Samsung’s Galaxy S4 will work equally well with the step indicators as separate bracelets, indicates the University of Pennsylvania study.
The study compared the iPhone 5S System, the Galaxy S4 and six bracelet manufacturers including Fitbit, Jawbone and Nike.
The test consists of smartphones calculated number of steps resigned from 7 per cent of the human eye calculated steps and with the wristband difference ranging from 2 to up to 20 per cent.
Bracelets advantage is of course the fact that they do not eat your smartphone battery.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/2015-02-12/Tutkimus-paljastaa-aktiivisuusranneke-on-monessa-tapauksessa-turhake-3215681.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Galaxy S6 release date, specs and price
Updated Everything you need to know about Samsung’s upcoming flagship Android smartphone
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2382855/galaxy-s6-release-date-specs-and-price
SPECULATION SURROUNDING the so-called Galaxy S6 are already coming through thick and fast, ahead of the handset’s likely launch at MWC.
Samsung’s fortunes have taken a turn for the worse this past year, after the firm posted a 60 percent fall in profit in the third quarter owing to slowing sales of its smartphone line-up.
Samsung is no doubt looking to turn this around, and will be hoping that the Galaxy S6 will help.
Samsung has sent out invites (below) to a Galaxy Unpacked event ahead of this year’s MWC on 1 March, which is likely when the Galaxy S6 will debut.
There’s no word yet regarding how much the Galaxy S6 will cost at launch. However, we’ll assume that it will be priced similarly to last year’s model, which Samsung offered from £579 SIM-free.
According to a report at Business Insider, Samsung will be launching a second version of the Galaxy S6 alongside the metal version, which will also reportedly come crafted from a premium material.
The display is expected to have a higher resolution than the Galaxy S5, which featured a 1,920×1,080 Full HD display. It’s likely that Samsung will look to challenge the likes of the Nexus 6 and LG G3 with a QHD 2,560×1,440 screen resolution.
With Android 5.0 onboard, it has also been suggested that the Galaxy S6 will launch with a 64-bit processor. This is likely to be Samsung’s own Exynos 7420 or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810
According to speculation, the handset will feature Samsung’s Exynos LTE modem and Broadcom’s new BCM4773 processor, which combines GPS and other sensors on a single chip.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reuters:
Qualcomm faces antitrust probe from South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission following similar investigations from the US, EU, and China
South Korea antitrust body investigating Qualcomm: source
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/12/us-qualcomm-southkorea-idUSKBN0LG02120150212
(Reuters) – South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission is investigating Qualcomm Inc, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday, adding to antitrust woes for the U.S. chipmaker following a record fine it agreed to pay in China.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New tracking device could help children with autism
http://news.microsoft.com/features/new-tracking-device-could-help-children-with-autism/
Last year, when his friend went missing, Vinny Pasceri was struck by how helpless he felt. All he could do was tweet and post about the search for his friend, a fellow Microsoft employee believed to have vanished from a popular hiking spot north of Seattle.
The prototype, called Lighthouse, has since become a much hailed idea, winning a first place award in last year’s Global Startup Battle.
“Our purpose is to keep children safe in school,” says Pasceri, a Microsoft program manager, of the Lighthouse team. “We think there are three key questions: Where are they? Are they with the right people? And do they need help?”
Tracking devices for kids with autism and other developmental disorders have gained traction in recent months
About half of autistic children are prone to wandering
“At the (National Autism Association), we often hear from parents who have a child who cannot sleep, forcing caregivers to barricade doors and take shifts staying awake,”
Unlike GPS trackers, which pinpoint location, Lighthouse tracks proximity to a caregiver through Bluetooth Low Energy.
With Lighthouse, a student wears a beacon in a wristband or other small device. It’s linked to an app on the phone of every teacher and specialist on the student’s schedule. The app registers when the student is within range of each caregiver. It sends a missing-kid alert if the student is out of range.
“The thing we were going after is reducing the time for someone to know that a kid is missing,” Pasceri says.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Understanding Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810: Performance Preview
by Joshua Ho & Andrei Frumusanu on February 12, 2015 9:00 AM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8933/snapdragon-810-performance-preview
Tomi Engdahl says:
Federico Viticci / MacStories:
Apple Promoting “Great Games with No In-App Purchases” on App Store Front Page — Apple has started promoting games that don’t have any In-App Purchases on the front page of the App Store.
http://www.macstories.net/news/apple-promoting-great-games-with-no-in-app-purchases-on-app-store-front-page/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:
Xiaomi’s Mi.com marketplace to launch in US this year, will sell accessories like its headphones and fitness band, but not phones or tablets — China’s Xiaomi to open shop in the US this year, but not for phones
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/12/8029081/chinas-xiaomi-to-open-shop-in-the-us-this-year-but-not-for-phones
Tomi Engdahl says:
Peter Thiel-backed Instapray app passes the 30 million prayer mark
http://venturebeat.com/2015/02/12/peter-thiel-backed-instapray-app-passes-the-30-million-prayer-mark/
In a lot of ways, the Internet is kind of a downer: haters, click bait, porn, celebrity gossip, trash talk, leaked nude photos, hostile YouTube comments, tweeting trolls.
Then there’s this app called Instapray (free, for iOS and Android), which is all about prayer, meditation, comfort, and faith — and a lot of people are using it. The app just passed a major milestone: 30 million prayers have now been posted and/or shared through the app. That’s a whole lot of prayers.
Instapray forms a social community around prayers.
You could do these same things on Facebook, but most people wouldn’t want to pray on Facebook. It’s too public.
Instapray is not a religious app exactly — it’s a prayer app. It doesn’t mention or even suggest any denomination.
“I started Instapray to create a safe, supportive online community, a place free of the overwhelming negativity present across much of the Web,” Instapray founder and CEO Fryderyk Ovcaric said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reverse Engineering Apple’s Lightning Connector
http://hackaday.com/2015/02/14/reverse-engineering-apples-lightning-connector/
Introduced with the iPhone 5 nearly two and a half years ago, Apple’s Lightning connector has stymied the incredible homebrew electronics scene that was previously accustomed to the larger, older, better documented, and more open 30-pin connector. Now, finally, the protocols inside the Apple Lightning connector have been broken. We’re still a ways off from a Lightning breakout board, but this is the first proof that a serial console can be obtained through a Lightning connector. That’s the first step to totally owning an iDevice, and this is how all those exploits will start.
[Ramtin Amin] began the teardown of the Lightning connector began as most reverse engineering tasks should – looking at the patents, finding a source for the connectors, and any other products that use similar hardware. [Ramtin] found a Lightning to Serial converter powered by an STM32 microcontroller.
The chip in question is colloquially known as the Tristar, and more accurately as a CBTL1608A1.
The chip is an incredibly small BGA affair that [Ramtin] desoldered, reflowed onto a breakout board, and connected to an STM32 Discovery board. Using the techniques he used with other Lightning-enabled hardware, [Ramtin] was able to connect his iPhone and ever so slightly peek his head into the inner workings of his device.
Apple Lightning
http://ramtin-amin.fr/#tristar
Tomi Engdahl says:
Essay
What the Tech World Doesn’t Understand About Fashion
http://www.racked.com/2015/2/16/8039853/apple-watch-google-glass-fashion-tech
The tech world is infatuated with fashion. This is because fashion has something tech seriously wants: the ability to create and sustain demand for products that are—let’s face it—kind of useless.
“We desperately need the fashion industry,” proclaimed Ayse Ildeniz, VP of Intel’s new devices group, in the Wall Street Journal recently. “The fashion industry understands the aesthetic sense, but also it is very much in tune with why a woman would wear something on her body.”
The luxury fashion world, on the other hand, has yet to warm to technology. Yes, there are designers that lend their names to wearables (for a good price, most likely) and there are fashion executives being recruited to work at the Amazons and Apples of the world (for great salaries, I’m sure). But at the biggest fashion houses in Europe, there is a general disdain for the connected future that the tech world fetishizes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Qualcomm Raises Bar in Mobile
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1325750&
With Qualcomm’s new mobile SoCs, Qualcomm is first ARM partner to announce products using the new 64bit ARM Cortex-A57 core.
In one fell swoop, Qualcomm announced a family of new mobile SoCs, doubled down on the Snapdragon brand, and set the stage for a new class of performance in future products. With the new product announcement, Qualcomm becomes the first ARM partner to announce products using the new 64bit ARM Cortex-A72 core and kicks off what is sure to be a flurry of announcement leading up to and during Mobile World Congress (MWC) the first week of March in Barcelona, Spain.
Qualcomm’s product announcement concerns the company’s 600 and 400 series Snapdragon mobile SoCs aimed at mid-range mobile devices. Starting off at the high-end is the Snapdragon 620
If the new products were not enough, Qualcomm also doubled-down on the Snapdragon brand. Going forward, Qualcomm will use the Snapdragon brand to represent both the mobile SoCs and discrete modems, which have been branded under Gobi
Tomi Engdahl says:
4G NETWORKS TO COVER MORE THAN A THIRD OF THE GLOBAL POPULATION THIS YEAR, ACCORDING TO NEW GSMA INTELLIGENCE DATA
http://www.gsma.com/newsroom/press-release/4g-networks-to-cover-more-third-of-global-pop-this-year/
Number of 4G Operators Worldwide Surpasses 350; 4G Forecast to Account For More Than 30 Per Cent of Mobile Connections Globally by 2020
According to new data from GSMA Intelligence, 4G-LTE networks will cover more than a third of the global population by year-end as 4G deployments continue to accelerate across the world. The new data released today calculates that 4G coverage will be available to 35 per cent of the global population by the end of 2015, up from 27 per cent at the end of last year.
The first commercial 4G networks were launched in December 2009; by the end of January 2015, the number of live 4G operators globally stood at 352. The number of 4G connections is also growing rapidly, more than doubling from 200 million at the end of 2013 to almost half a billion (490 million) at the end of last year. Seven per cent of all global mobile connections1 were running on 4G networks at the end of 2014, up from 3 per cent a year earlier.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Qualcomm outs ARM Cortex A72-based Snapdragon 620 and 618 chips
Promises to improve performance and connectivity
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2396074/qualcomm-outs-arm-cortex-a72-based-snapdragon-620-and-618-chips
QUALCOMM HAS UNVEILED four new Snapdragon processors which the company claims will improve connectivity and the user experience on high-performance smartphones and tablets.
As part of the announcement, the firm released new 600-tier chips, the Snapdragon 620 and the Snapdragon 618, which are said to “redefine the 600 tier with significantly higher levels of performance” owing to integrated 64-bit ARM Cortex A-72 CPUs and the X8 LTE modem.
The Snapdragon 620 and 618 upgrades also include features previously available only in the higher level Snapdragon 800 tier, including dual ISP camera, 4K video capture and playback, HEVC hardware encoding and richer gaming with next-generation Qualcomm Adreno graphics.
Qualcomm also unveiled updates to its 400-tier mobile chips, the Snapdragon 425 and Snapdragon 415, both of which feature octa-core CPUs, a first for the 400 tier.
The Snapdragon 620, 618 and 425 processors are all expected to reach devices in the second half of 2015.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jamie Rigg / Engadget:
Hands-on with Windows 10 Technical Preview for phones, which adds interactive notifications, a customizable “Action Center”, new Photos and File Explorer apps
http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/16/an-in-depth-look-at-the-windows-10-technical-preview-for-phones/
Tomi Engdahl says:
New York Times:
Android Auto and CarPlay-enabled cars are coming, but some auto manufacturers are slow to adopt either platform — Rivals Google and Apple Fight for the Dashboard — MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — When Google hosted a boot camp here this month for its Android operating system, there were some new faces in the room: auto manufacturers.
Rivals Google and Apple Fight for the Dashboard
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/23/technology/rivals-google-and-apple-fight-for-the-dashboard.html?_r=0
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — When Google hosted a boot camp here this month for its Android operating system, there were some new faces in the room: auto manufacturers.
They made the trip to learn about Android Auto, a new dashboard system meant to let a smartphone power a car’s center screen. Tasks as varied as navigation, communication and music apps, all constantly talking to the cloud. And to the driver.
A similar scene is playing out just a few miles down the road at Apple, where a rival system, CarPlay, has been developed for iPhone users.
After years of being treated as an interesting side business, autos have become the latest obsession for Silicon Valley, with Apple assigning about 200 engineers to work on electric vehicle technology and Google saying it envisions the public using driverless car s within five years.
But nowhere is that obsession playing out more immediately than in the battle to develop the next generation of cars’ dashboard systems. In the coming weeks and months, dealerships around the country will begin selling vehicles capable of running Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, or both.
The systems go far beyond currently available Bluetooth pairing for playing music or making a hands-free call, and allow for Google’s or Apple’s operating system to essentially take over the center screen and certain buttons within the car.
“Consumers have spoken,” said John Maddox, assistant director of the University of Michigan’s Mobility Transformation Center. “They expect to have coordination between their phone and their vehicle.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ultra-low power system for wearable devices
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4438646/Ultra-low-power-system-for-wearable-devices?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_systemsdesign_20150218&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_systemsdesign_20150218&elq=76b47d8115734b278622b23d1e1c420e&elqCampaignId=21692
While the brains of the typical wearable device might be the embedded microcontroller (MCU), the heart is definitely with power management. Extremely small capacity batteries, diverse array of functions needing power, and the incredibly small solution size force new and innovative power management solutions to make the system work well. But when an ultra-low power optimized MCU and ultra-low power optimized DC/DC converter come together, the result is a well-running, well-oiled machine fit for wearable applications.
A wearable device brings together multiple facets of engineering, beginning with the MCU and its integrated features and peripherals. Temperature sensors, analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), display drivers, a Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE) radio, and even encryption are frequently integrated into the MCU. Other sensors such as accelerometers or pressure sensors are usually implemented discretely due to their system-specific nature. The MCU and sensors define the features and capabilities of the wearable device, which gives it its appeal and niche in the market.
For a very small wearable device, the heart of the system is the power management. A wearable device can lose its appeal if it must be recharged multiple times a day or has a heavy battery pack. Achieving multi-day run times and keeping the device small and light requires ultra-low power-optimized power management to efficiently convert the battery’s limited energy to useable power by the loads.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Today, a typical mobile device must support up to 28 bands for worldwide 2G, 3G, 4G, LTE network connectivity, and more complex carrier aggregation schemes and additional frequency bands are expected for future generations.
Source: http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1325709&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows 10 cellphone in September-October
Microsoft has introduced the Windows 10 platform test version that can be installed where the Lumia models. The wider the distribution of the operating system will be different according to estimates in the fall, during September and October.
Mobile phones, Windows 10 is Microsoft, still far from complete.
It will be interesting to see whether Windows 10 can change in the time of Windows mobile phones miserable market share. Analysts say that no change occurs because Windows 10 does not fix the major shortcomings of the equipment: the application range of iOS and Android.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2424:windows-10-kannykkaan-syys-lokakuussa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Swimmers’ heads-up display delivers real-time feedback
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4438710/Swimmers–heads-up-display-delivers-real-time-feedback?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20150223&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20150223&elq=bc3e5fa2f2c54efab97620dd75886fcc&elqCampaignId=21777&elqaid=24443&elqat=1&elqTrackId=fcf9c329d45a4d4bbe85491d7e474a6e
Mounted on any pair of swim goggles, a heads-up display monitor from Instabeat tracks, stores, and projects key information, including heart rate and swimming speed, onto the goggle lens to give swimmers real-time feedback of their performance.
t the heart of the monitor is STMicroelectronics’ 9-axis iNEMO inertial module for motion sensing, a BlueNRG Bluetooth Low Energy network processor for wireless connectivity, an STNS01 Li-Ion linear battery charger, and an STM32L1 32-bit microcontroller for overall system processing.
Optical sensors in the Instabeat module measure heart rate from blood flow in the temple, eliminating the need for a constricting chest strap. Three RGB LEDs project information onto the goggle lens.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MediaTek Push into Global LTE Not Likely Until 2016, Analyst Says
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1325795&
The aggressive push by MediaTek, Taiwan’s largest smartphone chip designer, to enter the global long-term evolution (LTE) market in competition with leader Qualcomm of the U.S. is not likely to show significant results until 2016, according to Randy Abrams, Taiwan head of equities research for Credit Suisse.
“MediaTek’s ramp in developed markets may take until next year to have some traction as some of its China-based customers will start from China on LTE and are still focusing exports on 3G into emerging markets still ramping from feature phones to smartphones,” Abrams said in comments to EE Times. “The company indicated that it is still working on U.S. carriers for certification later in the year,” he said.
The baseband chip business has been a snake pit for companies such as Broadcom, STMicroelectronics and Renesas, which have exited the competition due to the need for qualification by global smartphone vendors as well as cellular network operators.
MediaTek’s push into LTE will face additional challenges as Qualcomm will work to maintain its competitive edge, according to Abrams.
MediaTek forecast that its shipments of LTE products this year will soar to 150 million units from about 30 million last year. The company said it expects to ship more than 450 million chips for smartphones in 2015, an increase of almost a third from the 350 million units that MediaTek forecast for 2014.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung Wants Moore’s Law End, Analyst Says
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1325790&
Rather than fearing the future, Samsung may be looking forward to inventing it.
Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone maker, may be looking forward to the end of Moore’s Law as a way to gain a new competitive edge, according to Mehdi Hosseini, an analyst with Susquehanna International Group.
Rather than fearing the future, however, Samsung may be looking forward to inventing it, according to Hosseini. South Korea’s biggest company expects the crash of Moore’s Law to open competitive advantages in new technologies such as flexible displays as early as 2015, he says.
“The battleground will become very interesting next year,”
Within the next two years, the competitive edge in the smartphone business will not be about the chips that go into handsets, he says. Instead, it will be about the display, user friendliness and form factor.
Apple Inc., which makes more than 90 percent of the profit in the smartphone business, would probably be the first company to feel the heat if Samsung’s bet comes true, Hosseini says. Apple, unlike Samsung, outsources all of its manufacturing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FTC shuts down skin cancer app scam
https://gigaom.com/2015/02/23/ftc-shuts-down-skin-cancer-app-scam/
If you’re worried about melanoma, head to the doctor — not the app store. On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission announced it has cracked down on two companies that charged customers up to $4.99 for apps that claimed to help them detect early signs of melanoma.
The scheme is so far-fetched that the best way to explain it is through these pictures from the FTC, which show how the apps — named MelApp and Mole Detective — claimed to use smartphone cameras to assess skin conditions
According to the FTC, the app makers had no evidence to provide support for their apps’ claims that they could assist consumers detect melanoma, which is a form of skin cancer.
Current FTC rules prevent it from imposing financial penalties on first-time offenders, though this could soon change in light of a recent proposal by the White House to give the agency more teeth.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple wants to track iPhones – even when they’re turned off
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/apple-wants-to-track-iphones–even-when-theyre-turned-off-10066378.html
Apple could soon be able to track phones even when they’re turned off.
The plan, for which Apple was awarded a patent at the end of January, would allow phones to go into a kind of zombie mode – apparently shut off, but actually tracking the phone’s movements.
But while the feature might sound like a way of Apple and other governments tracking your location, it will likely make the phones more secure.
Apple’s Find My iPhone service allows users to track phones if they’re lost or stolen, allowing them to be traced and found. But at the moment, thieves can simply turn the phones off, stopping the tracking feature.
Tracking features and other innovations such as kill switches have cut smartphone theft in half, and also allow phones to be recovered if they are stolen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IDC:
Android and iOS take 96% of smartphone OS market in Q4 and calendar year 2014
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS25450615
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM brings location awareness to MobileFirst apps
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2888472/ibm-brings-location-awareness-to-mobilefirst-apps.html?null
Enterprise apps built with IBM’s MobileFirst management and development platform can now be made more aware of their surroundings.
The new capabilities, included in an upcoming MobileFirst update, could give app users more information about their location and let enterprises more granularly tailor their apps to user needs, said Mike Gilfix, vice president of IBM’s MobileFirst platform.
MobileFirst is IBM’s package to build enterprise mobile applications that tie directly into the data and business logic of backend IT systems.
The software is targeted at those organizations that don’t have sufficient in-house IT or development staff to fully build and support apps. About 75 percent of organizations have a backlog of up to 20 mobile apps that they plan to build, but haven’t yet, according to a survey commissioned by IBM and conducted by OutSystems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android and iOS Squeeze the Competition, Swelling to 96.3% of the Smartphone Operating System Market for Both 4Q14 and CY14, According to IDC
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS25450615
“Many of the same drivers were in play for Android and iOS to tighten their grip on the market,” said Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC’s Mobile Phone team. “A combination of strong end-user demand, refreshed product portfolios, and the availability of low-cost devices – particularly for Android – drove volumes higher.
“What will bear close observation is how the two operating systems fare in 2015 and beyond,” added Llamas. “Now that Apple has entered the phablet market, there are few new opportunities for the company to address. Meanwhile, Samsung experienced flat growth in 2014, forcing Android to rely more heavily on smaller vendors to drive volumes higher.”
“Instead of a battle for the third ecosystem after Android and iOS, 2014 instead yielded skirmishes, with Windows Phone edging out BlackBerry, Firefox, Sailfish and the rest, but without any of these platforms making the kind of gains needed to challenge the top two,” said Melissa Chau, Senior Research Manager with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pebble Time Raises $1 Million in 49 Minutes, a New Kickstarter Record
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/pebble-time-raises-1-million-in-49-minutes-111979398809.html
What’s that? Smartwatches aren’t popular? Pishposh, says smartwatch pioneer Pebble, who just broke a fundraising record at the crowdfunding site Kickstarter.
On Tuesday morning, the Pebble Time campaign reached its $500,000 goal in less than 20 minutes and hit the one million dollar mark in just 49 minutes. The latter is a new record on Kickstarter, a spokesman for the site told Yahoo Tech.
The previous record belonged to the Android-based game console Ouya, which raised $1 million in 2 days and 19 hours. So: Not even close.
Pebble garnered over $10 million in funding during its first run on Kickstarter in 2012, but with Pebble Time breaking the $4 million mark in less than three hours, the company’s newest watch seems poised to shatter that mark and possibly set a new high for the website. The current Kickstarter record for pledge total is $13,285,226, held by the aforementioned Coolest Cooler.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Huawei’s 4.5G Smartband is the first LTE-M wearable
Firm claims next-generation 4.5G technology will be commercially available next year
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2396743/huaweis-45g-smartband-is-the-first-lte-connected-wearable
CHINESE PHONE MAKER Huawei unveiled the 4.5G Smartband at an event in London on Tuesday, claiming it as the world’s first LTE-M wearable.
The Huawei 4.5G Smartband will boast next-generation 4.5G connectivity, described as being “in the middle of 4G and 5G”, which the firm aims to make commercial next year.
the device will make use of an LTE-M chip made by Neul, following its acquisition of the start-up last year, a processor which the company claims will make a “cellular Internet of Things” (IoT) a reality.
The firm also revealed that, like most wearables, the Huawei 4.5G Smartband will be capable of tracking a wearer’s fitness levels and heart rate, and will be able to pair with other IoT devices, such as smart thermostats and energy readers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finnish Study: Cell Phone to beat the work and partnership
Finnish mobile phone is already more important than a job or a relationship, says the University of Turku research. Also, the internet connection is considered necessary.
Source: http://www.iltalehti.fi/perhe/2015022519258168_pr.shtml
Tomi Engdahl says:
5 Trends to Watch at Mobile World Congress
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1325797&
Anything and everything in the world that demands wireless connectivity — cars, phones, homes, retail transactions, factories, buildings, wearables, public transportation systems, you name it — is descending upon the Mobile World Congress (MWC) next week in Barcelona.
The MWC is no longer reserved to smartphones and cellular modem technologies. It has morphed into a gathering place to discover and debate connected devices and new network technologies tailored for different applications — best represented by Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications, aka, the Internet of Things (IoT).
The mobile industry is already hard at work adapting LTE for “Machine Type Communications (MTC)” via the development of LTE Cat-0 or LTE-MTC. But pay attention.
“5G as a standard isn’t done, but there are people who are looking at [4G and 5G] and trying to do pre-standard product,”
Setting that aside, the biggest trend among smartphones emerging in 2015 and 2016 is a host of “always-on” features embedded in handsets, according to Ceva, a DSP IP core licensor. In short, your next phone will be always listening to you and watching, so that it can add context to your actions. More important, it’s intended to anticipate your next move, Eran Briman, vice president of marketing at Ceva, told EE Times.
As a part of the connected life, “connected cars” will have a big presence again at the Mobile World Congress.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Typical displays in modern mobile devices emit approximately 650 nits of light when driven at maximum brightness. Most of the LED light produced is lost as it passes through the physical elements integrated into the display (light diffuser, polarizers, RGB color filter, touch-panel ITO, and so on). Modern display stack-ups loose approximately 95% of the light produced by the LED.
Source: http://www.edn.com/design/led/4438689/A-simple-method-for-determining-the-optimal-operating-point-of-an-LED?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150225&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150225&elq=8ed5a33fe5fc419e9a75bb96568b806c&elqCampaignId=21788&elqaid=24461&elqat=1&elqTrackId=e5fc616eb2204df2bfc3fcf49ad1b708
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook uses the most mobile data
Ericsson’s research reveals that the five most popular mobile application generates two-thirds of all mobile data. Facebook is the largest mobile data capacity eater in all countries studied.
Facebook in addition to video applications and social media in general is the fact that operators spectrum congestion.
For example, South Korea and Spain, Facebook’s share of mobile data is 20 per cent.
The other five major data consumers are Android and Chrome browsers as well as Youtube.
Mobile data growth is mainly explained by the number of smart phones a blistering growth. Last year, the operators’ networks came to 800 million new smartphone subscribers. All in all, the smartphone is already 2.7 billion people
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2477:facebook-kuluttaa-eniten-mobiilidataa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Phablets to claim 20% of smartphone market by 2019
http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/2015/01/phablets-to-claim-20-of-smartphone-market-by-2019.html?cmpid=EnlLFWFebruary252015
While the iPhone 6 Plus has brought the category further into the limelight, it is budget devices that will drive phablets (smartphones with 5.5-6.9” screens) into the global mainstream, says Juniper Research (Hampshire, England). According to their new report, more than 400 million phablets will ship in 2019, a five-fold increase over the 138 million devices estimated to be shipped in 2015.
The report, Tablets, Phablets & Hybrids: Ecosystem Evolution, Vendor Landscape & Forecasts 2014-2019, has found that with steady increases in smartphone screen sizes, many flagship smartphones are likely to be phablets by default within 2 or 3 years. This is because consumers worldwide are increasingly using smartphones as media consumption and gaming devices, which offer richer experiences through a larger screen.
The report has also found that for many stakeholders, device elements are becoming more similar. “The same chips can now power any mobile device, from smartphones to laptops,” remarked report author James Moar. “Hardware capabilities are blurring, with devices like cellular-connected tablets, phablets and smartphones with console-level graphics and sound systems becoming much more common. This shifts device design parameters to budgets and use cases, rather than technological features.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sebastian Anthony / Ars Technica:
Source: Top-end 128GB Samsung Galaxy S6 priced at $1,189, curved model facing supply constraints
Source: Curved Samsung Galaxy S6 will suffer from yield issues at launch
One of Samsung’s carrier partners gives Ars Technica the skinny.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/02/source-curved-samsung-galaxy-s6-will-suffer-from-yield-issues-at-launch/
Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy S6 at Mobile World Congress next week.
US pricing is more complex than simply converting euros into dollars, but €849 for the entry-level curved Galaxy S6 is way, way above the launch price of the Galaxy S5, which was around €650 in Europe and $650 in the US.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google will launch Android Pay at I/O in May
Source tells Ars that the company will revitalize its payments platform with a new API.
http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/02/google-will-launch-android-pay-at-io-in-may/
A source close to the matter told Ars on Wednesday that Google will be announcing a new payments API that will be called Android Pay at Google’s I/O conference in May. The platform will power in-store and in-app payments for third-party apps.
Android Pay will allow companies to add a mobile payments option to their app, to which users can upload credit card or debit card information, so that payments become single-tap transactions within the app. In addition, a company adopting the Android Pay API will be able to allow tap-to-pay transactions in brick-and-mortar stores. This function will rely on Google’s Host Card Emulation (HCE), which makes it easier for third-party apps to take advantage of Android phones’ Near Field Communications (NFC) chips.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Money from apps? It’s all about Apple iOS, says survey
Oh yeah, and don’t bother with ads
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/26/apple_app_ios_android_survey_money_revenue_adverts/
A new survey of mobile app developers shows that Apple iOS is where the money is, despite Android’s higher market share among mobile devices.
VisionMobile surveyed more than 8,000 developers across 143 countries, and the ensuing report presents a detailed snapshot of the state of the mobile app economy.
The consistent theme is that Apple’s iOS platform is the place to be if your aim is cold, hard cash rather than obtaining maximum reach for your app.
Of those developers that target Android as their primary platform, 20 per cent achieve zero monthly revenue, compared with only 12 per cent of those targeting iOS.
At the other end of the scale, eight per cent of the iOS folk raise over $200,000 in revenue per month, compared with only three per cent of those targeting Android.
It turns out, in fact, that the second most profitable platform after iOS is not Android, but the mobile browser.
Another tip for developers in search of fortune is to code enterprise apps. Some 43 per cent of enterprise app developers make $10,000 per month, versus only 19 per cent of consumer app developers.
“It’s very hard to convince consumers to part with their cash for software and digital services,” observe the report’s authors, Mark Wilcox and Christina Voskoglou.
“The iOS ecosystem appears to have a lock on the high end that will be hard to break,”
There are big regional differences, as you would expect. In North America and Europe, iOS has 42 per cent of full-time app developers, compared with 33 per cent for Android. In the rest of the world, Android has 48 per cent, versus 30 per cent for iOS.
The report pegs the number of developers who primarily target Android at 40 per cent, iOS at 37 per cent, and Windows Phone comes in third at just 8 per cent.
Of course, many developers also target other platforms. If you take into account all supported platforms, the figures rise to 71 per cent Android, 54 per cent iOS, and 30 per cent Windows Phone.
They also find that Windows Phone has a disproportionate share of hobbyists and experimenters who try out mobile development using Microsoft’s excellent tools, but turn to Android and iOS for reach when they get serious.
Although Swift only has two per cent share as a primary language, 20 per cent of app developers reportedly use it some of the time.
Java is the most popular language overall, though, with 29 per cent of app developers claiming it as their primary language. Microsoft’s C# is a primary platform for an impressive 16 per cent of devs despite the small share of Windows Phone, suggesting that developer tools from Xamarin, which allow coders to target iOS and Android with C#, may be having considerable impact.
On the server side, Java is the most popular language for back-end services targeting mobile apps, with 25 per cent of server-side developers using it as the primary language. PHP is next with 24 per cent, and Microsoft’s C# is third with 19 per cent.
Returning to money matters, the authors note that far more revenue comes from mobile eCommerce than from other sources such as app store sales, advertising, or subscriptions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kevin C. Tofel / Gigaom:
Broadcom has an Android Wear platform with 3G, NFC and more
https://gigaom.com/2015/02/25/broadcom-has-an-android-wear-platform-with-3g-nfc-and-more/
Broadcom wants to make it easier for hardware makers to build an Android Wear smartwatch, complete with features that Google’s software doesn’t even support yet, notes PhoneScoop.
Broadcom Smartwatch Platform Improves Battery Life for Android Wear Devices
Integrated Platform Adds GPS and Wireless Charging Support
http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=s898227
Broadcom will showcase its innovations for the mobile and carrier ecosystem at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, March 2-5.
In addition to an advanced application processor (AP) and Broadcom’s leading Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combo chip in the new platform, OEMs can choose to integrate GPS with sensor hub processing, near field communication (NFC), wireless charging support and camera support based on their product needs1. With smartwatches expected to account for more than half of wearable shipments in 20152, there is a significant opportunity for companies to integrate a variety of features and quickly bring products to market.
By providing a complete smartwatch reference design including hardware, Android Wear-enabled software, an optimized bill of materials (BOM) and a rich set of features, Broadcom empowers OEMs to quickly develop robust consumer products to capture the growing market.
Broadcom’s Smartwatch Platform includes:
Broadcom wearable system-on-a-chip (SoC) including 4x Cortex-A7 application processor and 2G/3G modem support
BCM4343: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2/Bluetooth Smart combo chip
BCM4773: GPS SoC with integrated sensor hub
BCM20795: NFC and secure element support
BCM59350: Wireless charging support
Camera support
Support for Android Wear OS
Tomi Engdahl says:
Visa: One million bonks a month for Europeans… from next year
2015 is the year mobes become credit cards
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/26/bonking_credit_cards_visa_contactless_payments/
There is a quote attributed to Visa International that NFC has had “more pilots than the RAF”. Well, that may or may not be true, but what’s beyond doubt right now – according to Jeremy Nicholds, Executive Director, Mobile, Visa Europe – is that people will soon be using mobile phones to tap to pay.
And he’s prepared to put a number on it. He says that by next January, there will be a million monthly users of NFC on their mobes across Europe. That isn’t a particularly big number (Oyster sees many millions of contactless card payments every day) but in bonking terms it’s a lot.
Tfl told El Reg that of the first million contactless credit card payments, only around 0.01 per cent used a phone to bonk.
To help support the technology, Visa Europe will launch a payment tokenisation service, a technology which is often used by websites to support recurring billing. The rules for storing credit card details – name, long number, expiry date and CVV code – are strict, and are formulated as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (or PCI DSS).
Tomi Engdahl says:
iOS, Android Crushing Rival Platforms, IDC Finds
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1325825&
Apple’s iOS and Google Android own a combined 96.3% of the global smartphone market, leaving a pittance for Microsoft and BlackBerry.
Android had a darned good year in 2014, according to research firm IDC. The platform saw shipments breach the one billion mark for the first time. Android vendors pushed out 1.059 billion smartphones, a 32% jump from the 2013 shipments of 802.2 million. Samsung remained the leader in Android shipments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android For Work Brings Google To The Office
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1325824&
Google aims to make Android better suited to the demands of businesses.
Google on Wednesday introduced Android for Work, a program designed to make its mobile operating system better suited to the requirements of businesses.
The goal of Android for Work is to help employees bring Android devices into the workplace, to help companies manage those devices, and to use mobility to make business processes more efficient, said Rajen Sheth, director of product management for Android and Chrome for business and education, at a press event in Google’s San Francisco office. The company announced the program at its 2014 Google I/O developer conference and now has its technology and partner ecosystem ready.
For business use, Android’s advantage over other operating systems is faster innovation and greater choice, Sheth said. “One size doesn’t fit all in the workplace,”
Google’s competition here is Apple’s iPhone and iPad
Android for Work
Security, Management, Choice
https://www.google.com/work/android/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google is working on a Chrome reading mode, try it out
http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/25/google-chrome-reader-mode/
Google wants to give your peepers a break. Google Chromium Evangelist Francois Beaufort laid out early versions of Reader Mode for Chrome desktop and mobile in a post today on Google Plus (of course). Reader Mode is designed to make on-screen text easier to absorb, by removing unnecessary pictures, boxes, buttons and ads. Safari has long featured a Reader Mode, and extensions such as Readability offer similar services for Chrome, but now Google is getting into the game itself with these Reader-friendly experiments.
Google’s project is based on Chromium’s open-source DOM Distiller, meaning technical minds can poke around right in the code.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Digital Wallets: End of the Beginning or Beginning of the End?
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/digital-wallets-end-of-the-beginning-or-beginning-of-the-end/
Apple Pay is up and running and digital wallets are back in the limelight. Are merchants, consumers, and the market ready for mass adoption of digital wallets? Google Wallet’s poor early uptake comes to mind four years after its launch in 2011. We believe a combination of factors – part structural, part user experience – will drive the next and larger cycle in digital wallet adoption. Apple Pay will be a key enabler, it will neither be alone nor, the necessary winner.
The mobile wallet space has been fragmented without a clear leader. By this time next year we will have our leaders in place. Payment systems and currencies are either universal or limited, this has been true as long as records have been written down, carved into rock or told of around the campfire. The more limited the usability, the less likely a digital wallet is to keep users engaged as infrastructure catches up with entrenched payment methods. Past brushes with digital wallet greatness have withered on the cloud as insecure, less than seamless alternatives to boring analogue cash and plastic cards. Lack of a universal technology standard, disparate interests of stakeholders, and poor user experience, have severely limited adoption and growth. Apple Pay has begun to change this, quickly, given the short and still limited rollout of the service. Google’s recent moves with SoftCard from AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon and Samsung’s purchase of Loop Pay suggest the future is arriving fast.
Fortunately for the industry, a perfect confluence of contextual realities has formed to allow rapid evolution of wide spread digital wallets adoption. The secular facts on the ground are: near-ubiquitous presence of NFC (Near Field Communications) POS terminals; October 2015 deadline for retailers to upgrade to Europay Mastercard and Visa (EMV) enabled POS terminals; and several massive hacks costing merchants and banks millions while driving up interest in newer, safer, payment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Who’s Afraid of Android Fragmentation?
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/15/02/26/1831225/whos-afraid-of-android-fragmentation
The dreaded term “fragmentation” has been applied to Android more times than anyone can count over the past half-decade. That’s part of the reason why game developers often build for iOS before Android, even though Android offers a bigger potential customer base worldwide,
Fortunately, new sets of tools allow game developers to build for one platform and port their work (fairly) easily to another.
So is fragmentation an overhyped roadblock, or is it a genuine problem for developers who work in mobile?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google cheapens Android Play Store — sells top app search spots to highest bidder
http://betanews.com/2015/02/26/google-cheapens-android-play-store-sells-top-app-search-spots-to-highest-bidder/
Not everything has to be monetized. In business, the goal is profits, true, but that is not the sole reason for existence. The money is earned by the hard work of employees, and relationships built with customers. If you have no customers, you have no profits — never forget that. If a company takes advantage of customer trust and the overall relationship, the customers may become fatigued to the practices.
This brings us to Google. It is a company that is near and dear to our hearts.
Siliski further explains, “in the coming weeks, a limited set of users will begin to see ads from a pilot group of advertisers who are already running Google search ads for their apps”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Modular smart phones in the world market will grow to $ 80 billion, or about 70 billion by 2018.
Phone Blocks blog says market research firm IDC estimates that smartphone sales increase last year of 1.3 billion units of 1.9 billion by 2018.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/2015-02-26/Lego-puhelimet-vaikuttavat-huterilta-mutta-niiss%C3%A4-on-j%C3%A4ttim%C3%A4iset-kasvun%C3%A4kym%C3%A4t-3216373.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Modular Phones Market is Estimated to Reach $80 Billion Per Year by 2018
http://blog.phonebloks.com/post/112036731698/modular-phones-market-is-estimated-to-reach-80
Google’s vision of inexpensive smartphones made up of a set of modules is getting closer to reality. The company will start selling its first modular phone in Puerto Rico later this year.
Recently, a research on the smartphone market was conducted by a respected research and analysis company IDC. IDC categorized the smartphones based on their operating systems:
Android
IOS
Windows
Other Operating Systems
The paper forecasts year-to-year growth in the coming years, both in terms of the number of units sold and also the US dollars. The total number of smartphones sold per year will rise from 1.3 billion in 2014 to 1.9 billion by 2018. The market share of Android phones is expected to remain constant, i.e. around 80%. However, the revenue generated by Android phone manufacturers is expected to go down by around 7% (current share is around 67%). It’s because of the rising popularity of smartphones with a low price tag in highly populated developing countries. By 2018 the total revenue generated by smartphones sales is expected to reach around $450 billion.
On top of the research done by IDC, we did some research of our own. Firstly, we estimated the initial modular phone shipments in 2015. Google will launch the Ara in Puerto Rico, where the total number of mobile users can be rounded to 3 million. Due to high speculations and buzz on the web, it is likely that many Puertoricans think of grabbing one for themselves. But, the chances of it creating heat waves isn’t likely because the concept of the Ara is entirely new and people treat new concepts with caution. They would probably expect their highly tech savvy friends to get one, and later buy one for themselves depending on their experience. Going down on these, we concluded that only around 2% (around 50K) of the Android users in Puerto Rico would lay their hands on the modular phone in the first year.
Modular phones are expected to arrive in all countries by 2016, but still the number of Android users buying a modular phone will be quite low, i.e. around 2%
A fair vision and estimate tells us that in 2017 the number of Android users who will opt for a modular smartphone will be 10% and around 30% in 2018, which is roughly equals to 140 million and 450 million respectively.
After 2018 the new market factors are expected to sprout.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paranoid Android Kaymera smartmobe takes on Blackphone
Super-secure Israeli platform only lacks Mossad bodyguard
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/27/israelis_take_on_blackphone_with_kaymera/
Security specialist Kaymera – based in Herzliya, Israel – has launched a mobile security platform aimed at paranoid corporations.
The Kaymera 360° software consists of a secure build of Android and accompanying MDM functions. The company describes it as a three-layer approach of protection, prevention and detection.
Using a Samsung Galaxy S5 or Nexus 5, Kaymera reflashes the phone with its own version of Android. There are also plans to support the LG G3 and the company’s COO, Oded Zehavi, told us that the plan is to support four to six high-end phones per year.
“One part of our secret sauce is that we provide military-grade security, while providing an experience as simple as any commercial device,” he told us.
Kaymera has chosen the approach of using branded phones rather than commissioning a device because its customers’ senior staff often want a brand they recognise and which offer better support mechanisms. It’s much easier for a company to get a broken screen on a Galaxy S5 repaired locally than to have it sent back to the manufacturer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Finnish unit to locate missing children
Mobile-based wearable smart clothing and device applications developer Yepzon brought to market in December a little matchboxes larger tracking device, which can be slipped into a child or an elderly person with dementia in your pocket. All over the GSM network functioning device may result in more of the phone.
Yepzonin founder Otto Castle wants to make the world a place where important things are not lost. According to him, for ten years after the positioning feature is smart clothes, for example, the technology needed to price drops.
- Positioning feature also comes in almost all major objects, such as cars, keys, computers and even thieves favored boats outboard motors, he predicts.
- According to statistics, only the United States and the EU is lost each year more than a million children, of whom one in ten will never be found. Also, dementia and memory disorder patient monitoring asked wildly Yepzoneita.
Yepzonin development story has been extraordinarily fast, innovative financing Tekesinkin according to the record class in Finland. In October 2013, the company received the final product on the market by Christmas 2014.
- Consumer sales began in December in Finland and Italy. During the spring device also appears in French, British and American store shelves. In addition, the device can be ordered Yepzonin own online store in the EU, says Castle.
Research and development continues to consumer feedback all the time.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2488:suomalaislaite-paikantaa-kadonneet-lapset&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft to cut 9,000 Nokia jobs in China
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/microsoft-to-cut-9000-nokia-jobs-in-china-2015-02-25?link=MW_home_latest_news
Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +0.15% plans to shut two mobile-handset manufacturing plants in China formerly run by Nokia Corp., cutting about 9,000 jobs in total, various reports said Thursday. Microsoft, which bought Nokia’s handset business last April, scheduled the closure of the plants — located in Beijing and the southeastern city of Dongguan — earlier this month and plans to ship some of the manufacturing equipment there to Vietnam