In year 2016 it will be sold over 1.4 billion smart phones. Mobile is the new central ecosystem of tech. The smartphone is the single most important product, which will determine the development of the semiconductor market. Smart phone centre of innovation and investment in hardware, software and company creation. The smart phone market is huge. Today, there are well over 2bn smartphones in use, and there are between 3.5 and 4.5bn people with a mobile phone of some kind, out of only a little over 5bn adults on earth. With billions of people buying a device every two years, on average, the phone business dwarfs the PC business, which has an install base of 1.5-1.6bn devices replaced every 4-5 years
Smart phone market is no longer fast gowing market. Expect single-digit worldwide smartphone growth in 2016. According to a new forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC ) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker , 2015 will be the first full year of single-digit worldwide smartphone growth. IDC predicts worldwide smartphone shipments will grow 9.8% in 2015 to a total of 1.43 billion units. The main driver has been and will continue to be the success of low-cost smartphones in emerging markets. China has been the focal point of the smartphone market – now China has largely become a replacement market and there is economic slowdown in China.
Apple & Google both won, but it’s complicated – both Apple and Google won, in different ways. Android won the handset market outside of Apple, but it’s not quite clear what that means. Microsoft missed the shift to the new platform so Windows Mobile is on life support.
We will continue to see a globalization of the mobile landscape in 2016, as new China brands shake up the smartphone markets with new designs and business models. Expect continuing growth from China brands like Xiaomi, Lenovo and Huawei. Huawei says it sent in 2015 to more than 100 million smartphones and its now firmly among the world’s three largest suppliers. Samsung is the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, but it looks that it’s production volumes are shrinking because of cheaper Android phones coming from China.
Last year’s CES had a conspicuous lack of killer smartphones, and O’Donnell expects this year to be very challenging for handset vendors – Apple included. It is getting really hard to differentiate from a phone perspective. In the smartphone market changes happen slowly, and for the challengers it is difficult to penetrate the market.
Apple’s position in smart phones is not currently a threat really none. The volumes of the iPhone does not come close to the Android camp in the unit sales figures, but it is clearly not Apple’s target at all – it targets to high-end phones. Apple made record sales in 2015 holiday season, but it is possible that Apple is going to have a tough year in 2016. Some Wall Street analysts predict an end of iPhone sales growth, shrinking iPad sales, and a tough year ahead for Apple. The high cost and the markets getting full are met weigh the Apple iPhone phone sales.Wall Street expects iPhone sales for the fiscal year ending in September will barely budge — and might even decline — from last year. That would be the worst year for iPhone sales since the device was introduced in 2007. If realized, the forecast significantly affect Apple’s value. Despite recent reports of cuts by iPhone suppliers, Apple remains most profitable company in S&P 500. Fortunately for Apple, most of its smartphone competitors are struggling.
Microsoft got the third mobile ecosystem market position, but it’s market share is pretty low: Microsoft’s market share was only 1.7 per cent in the third quarter of 2015. It is very possible that Microsoft will cut Lumia production significantly in 2016. Microsoft’s long-rumored Surface Phone is coming in the second half of next year, reports Windows Central. Windows 10 phones are not dead yet even from other manufacturers as Acer, Alcatel OneTouch just made some new ones. The key feature in the Jade Primo is support for Microsoft’s Continuum feature, allowing you to use the phone like a PC when connected to a larger display – though limited to apps that run on the device’s ARM processor. The idea, claims Acer, is that you can leave your laptop at home, but what’s the demand for PC phones? It is hard to get winning much traction in a market dominated by Android.
Microsoft says the Windows 10 Mobile upgrade will begin early 2016 to select existing Windows 8 and 8.1 phones. Microsoft could not update the smart phones in 2015 despite the fact that the operating system had originally been set to launch alongside the desktop version of the software in July. Microsoft has had a longstanding “chicken and egg” problem: Too few people have Windows phones for developers to care about making apps for the platform, and customers don’t want to buy Windows phones because they don’t have enough apps. Microsoft tries to help his problem With Windows 10, apps that developers write for the PC will also work on Microsoft’s phones. It could have some positive effect, but is no silver bullet. Microsoft’s biggest problem: The 10 most-used apps of the year in the U.S. were all made by three companies — Facebook, Google, and Apple.
It’s only been 15 years since the first camera phone came out. Today smartphones are giving consumers enhanced photo and video capabilities with 8-16 megapixel class. Smartphone cameras are great, or at least close enough to great that you don’t notice the difference. We’ve reached the point where you’ve got to work pretty hard to find a phone with a mediocre camera. Compared to a DSLR, smart phone cameras are lousy because they use tiny sensors, but still the camera in your pocket is crazy good considering the limitations manufacturers work under. The vast majority of top-tier smartphones use Sony sensors for their main cameras. The molded plastic lens elements in many cameras have reached the point where they’re essentially perfect.
For new smart phone camera technologies you could see array of lenses to enable Lytro-like refocusing, create 3-D depth maps, and improve image quality in low light. Some manufacturers are also exploring new areas, such as 3D cameras, massive megapixels (80MB), cameras that can take 360 degree panoramic images and video and cameras that can shoot 1,000 frames a second. 4K Ultra HD for mobile is another move to watch in 2016 as it becomes more common feature. Smartphones have decimated the point-and-shoot camera segment.
Smart phones are increasingly used to shoot videos. Smart phones are already deployed in many newsrooms for mobile journalism video shooting as it is easier (and cheaper) to learn how to film and edit on your phone than it is to use a big camera.(check for example step-by-step guide to shooting iPhone video). Live streaming video from smart phone becomes mainstream. Periscope was one of the first apps to really make live streaming events simple and easy enough that people wanted to do it. Many other apps are following the trend. Facebook begins testing live video streaming for all users.
Smart phones have already replaced many separate technical gadgets already, and this trend will continue. Smartphone have increased screen sizes and have finally become mobile TVs: Smartphones have overtaken the tablets as the most popular mobile device for viewing videos. The most watched content were targeted at teenagers videos and animation series for children.
Mobile display will be more accurate than eye in 2016 in high-end smart phones. Few enjoys a 4K-quality image even in his living room, but by the end of 2016, the same accuracy can be your smartphone. ETSI is preparing for development at ETSI CCM working group (Compound Content Management). Scalable 4K signal requires a very high dynamics (HDR, high dynamic range), as well as the WCG wider color space (Coloc Wider gamut). Such HDR / WCG techniques has only slowly been add to TV broadcasting. One can of course ask whether UltraHD- or 4K image are planting a cell phone make any sense, but they are coming (Sharp already announced that it would launch 4K-level mobile phone).
So device manufacturers need to support user expectations for downloading larger files for apps, movies, photos, videos and other materials, more frequently and more quickly. Networking speed is an area where we will see companies start to push the envelope in 2016, such as new creative strategies for caching, spectrum hopping and managing the Internet of Things.
The quality of LTE modem can make or break your smart phone product. Smartphones consist of two main components: Modems and application processors. Application processor performances of several smartphone brands are widely published, but LTE modem performance measures are much more difficult for the average purchaser to assess. Consumers have generally ignored the importance of connectivity in smartphone purchases, but device performance and positive user experiences are driven by best-in-class connectivity. There are 5 LTE smartphone modem chip makers currently shipping in mobile devices and besides U.S.-based Qualcomm, they include: HiSilicon (China), Intel (U.S.), Leadcore (China), MediaTek (Taiwan), Samsung (Korea), and Spreadtrum (China).
5G will be talked a lot enven though standardization is not ready yet. Just five years after the first 4G smartphone hit the market, the wireless industry is already preparing for 5G: cell phone carriers, smartphone chip makers and the major network equipment companies are working on developing 5G network technology for their customers.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that a smartphone is also a telephone. Nearly half of all phone users today employ their mobile phones as their primary voice connection (a number sure to grow). That the voice features in cell phones also advance. Very early on, the standard for human voice transmission was set as the “voice band” located between 300 Hz and 3.3 kHz (to put this in perspective, the natural frequency span of human voice during speech ranges from about 50 Hz to nearly 10 kHz). These standards were carried over for cellphone audio quality. Now that there are about about as many cellphone subscriptions as there are people on earth, one would think that there really shouldn’t be any more technological excuses for poor voice quality. New standards branded as HD Voice and VoLTE promise the eventual extension of voice transmission frequency range up to 7 kHz. There are also other major challenge preventing great sounding calls – especially noise challenges facing cellphone users. To get good sound quality we need to develop algorithms that isolate the person speaking from all other sources of noise.
Financial Services needs to get over its reluctance and go mobile in 2016, but it might not happen in large scale this year. Compliance concerns have long prevented financial services businesses from adopting mobile capabilities as quickly as other industries. Yvette Jackson of Thomson Reuters argues that technology advancements have made compliance worries of the past now obsolete.
Mobile payments are finally taking the momentum in North America, Japan and some European countries in 2016. Every second consumer is expected to smartphone or wearable device purchases to pay in few years. There are now types of mobile payment technologies in use. Some of them will turn to be interim techniques.
Despite many tools available mobile application development is still hard work in 2016. Mobile developer report shows growing back-end challenge: 33.9 per cent spent more than half their development effort on back-end integration. This effort includes creating and debugging APIs, finding documentation for existing APIs, and orchestrating data from multiple sources. iOS and Android dominate as target platforms. The disappointment for Microsoft is that all its hoopla about the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) does not seem to resonate here. What about making money? Only just over 60 per cent of those surveyed are primarily out to make money from apps themselves, with others aiming for goals such as customer loyalty and brand awareness. In-app purchases are the most effective method, followed by advertising and app purchase. Application landscape is changing: Single-function applications no longer meet the everyday life needs on mobile devices.
Web standards are becoming promising for mobile use but they are still far from making mobile apps obsolete in 2016. There’s a litany of problems with apps. There is the platform lock-in and the space the apps take up on the device. Updating apps is a pain that users often ignore, leaving broken or vulnerable versions in use long after they’ve been allegedly patched. Apps are also a lot of work for developers. Use the Web and the Web browser can sometimes help in solving some of those problems while creating other different set of problems. For example updates to HTML apps happen entirely on the server, so users get them immediately. Also HTML-based platform and a well-designed program that makes good use of CSS, one site could support phones, tablets, PCs, and just about anything else with one site. Currently HTML5 standards are advancing rapidly in the area of mobile Web applications. Web standards make mobile apps obsolete? I don’t think that it will happen immediately, even though many big tech companies are throwing weight behind a browser-based world (backed strongly by Google and Mozilla). So app or web question will still very relevant for mobile developer in 2016.
Google appears to be lining up OpenJDK – an open-source implementation of the Java platform – for future Android builds. Android runs apps written in Java on its Dalvik engine, and lately, its Android Runtime virtual machine. These apps require a Java class library, as well as various Android-specific bits and pieces, to work. Now it seems the next big releases of Android will use not the heavily customized Harmony-derived library but instead OpenJDK’s core libraries.
Android, which is controlled by Google, is one of Facebook’s biggest markets. Facebook has a contingency plan in case the company falls out with Google, according to The Information: a way to deliver app updates without going through the Google Play Store — currently the only way to update apps — and has a way of handling in-app payments. Amazon, which makes Android-based tablets, has a similar system: The app acts as a new store front from which other apps can be downloaded and updated, without Google Play.
There will be fascinating conversation in tech about smartphone apps and the web – what can each do, how discovery works, how they interplay, what Google plans with Chrome, whether the web will take over as the dominant form and so on. Ask the question: Do people want to put your icon on their home screen?
Mobile Internet continues to be important also in 2016. There is place for both Internet pages and apps. The internet makes it possible to get anything you’ve ever heard of but also makes it impossible to have heard of everything. We started with browsing, and that didn’t scale to the internet, and then we moved to search, but search can only give you what you already knew you wanted. In the past, print and retail showed us what there was but also gave us a filter – now both the filter and the demand generation are gone.
There is hunt for a new runtime, and a new discovery layer. Could it be messaging, Facobook or something else? Facebook and Google try to make mobile publishing platforms faster. Facebook has Instant Articles platform that aims to make articles loading fast on mobile devices. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is Google’s plan to make pages appear super-fast for those using mobile devices. Fast-loading pages may also mean fast-loading ads, with advertising platform support for AMP that’s been announced. I expect that first those plaforms will make loading the articles faster than traditinal pages, but over years those systems, if they catch, will be bloated to be slow again.
Maybe in 2016 we should stop talking about ‘mobile’ internet and ‘desktop’ internet - it’s like talking about ‘colour’ TV, as opposed to black and white TV. We have a mental model, left over from feature phones, that ‘mobile’ means limited devices that are only used walking around. Get over it. For 15 years the internet was a monolith: web browser + mouse + keyboard. The smartphone broke that apart, but we haven’t settled on a new model. Mobile’ isn’t about the screen size or keyboard or location or use. Rather, the ecosystem of ARM, iOS and Android, that has bigger scale than ‘Wintel’.
Dick Tracy had it right. Wearable devices are becoming more of any every day item as they proliferate across markets. Wearable market is still immature and growing in 2016. While many new fitness bands, smartwatches, and other wearable devices have entered the market, most have under-whelmed prospects and users. It is quite clear the wearable industry is in its infancy and fraught with growing pains. You can expect the top five vendors will not only shift places, but come in and drop out on a quarterly basis. Wearables grew 197.6% in Q3 2015 when mobile companies shipped a total of 21.0 million wearables worldwide.
Whereas the smartphone is the ultimate convergence product, we are learning that wearables are inherently divergent products. It seems that super-duper smartwatches loaded with full-blown phone/email/camera/voice assistant capabilities together with all other bells and whistles are not necessarily winning recipe like it was for smart phones. Many consumers want instead simplicity, ease of use, and instant actionable feedback. As an embedded developer of wearables, not only do you have the challenge of addressing battery life issues, but also architecting and developing a system that takes full advantage of the underlying hardware. Heartbeat monitoring has become the must-have feature for fitness trackers. China has quickly emerged as the fastest-growing wearables market, attracting companies eager to compete on price and feature sets.
The newest wearable technology, smart watvches and other smart devices corresponding to the voice commands and interpret the data we produce - it learns from its users, and generate as responses in real time appropriate, “micro-moments” tied to experience.
Links to some other mobile predictions articles worth to check out:
16 mobile theses by Benedict Evans
Mobile 2016 Predictions from EE Times
2015 Appcelerator / IDC Mobile Trends Report: Leaders, Laggards and the Data Problem
702 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dan Thorp-Lancaster / Android Central:
Sprint set to join other major US carriers in killing two-year contracts for smartphones, according to leaked internal document
Sprint kills 2-year contracts for smartphones
http://www.androidcentral.com/sprint-kills-2-year-contracts-smartphones
Sprint has gone through with its plans to 2-year contracts for smartphones, according to an internal document sent to us by an anonymous tipster. According to the document below, customers activating a new account with Sprint will no longer have the option of subsidizing their smartphone purchase with a 2-year agreement. Tablets, apparently, are still able to be purchased on such an agreement.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Google teams up with Lenovo on smartphone with Project Tango’s augmented reality — Lenovo and Google announced a partnership today to create a new smartphone that makes use of a 3D augmented reality technology known as Project Tango. — Johnny Lee, a member of the Tango team at Google …
Google teams up with Lenovo on smartphone with Project Tango’s augmented reality
http://venturebeat.com/2016/01/07/google-teams-up-with-lenovo-on-smartphone-with-project-tangos-augmented-reality/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Motorola promises: New mobile phone screen does not break
The smartphone display is still the weakest component of the device.
Motorola’s research has developed ShatterShield technology where the display consists of a total of five layers. They reduce impact strength, for example, dropping a cell phone so that the display withstand impact better.
Finland has just gone on sale the new Moto X Force model, where the display is based on ShatterShield technology. The display promises to be indestructible. Warranty period of four years from date of purchase, which is in smart phones means eternity.
The promise is hard. How, then, ShatterShield work?
Screen frame chassis is made of aluminum. It provides structural rigidity and durability. On the aluminum layer is a 5.4-inch Quad HD quality AMOLED display panel.
It will be interesting to see how the Moto X Force display survives the upcoming drop tests, which it will no doubt soon be exported.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3813:motorola-lupaa-uutuuskannykan-naytto-ei-hajoa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Salcomp’s USB-C charger based on FPGA circuits
Finnish Salcomp with others moving in it’s chargers to new C-type USB connector. Now the FPGA manufacturer Lattice Semiconductor, says that the new Speedy Salcomp’s charger base of the driver circuit.
Speedy is Salcomp’s 36-watt model, which can be connected to new devices containing C_tyypin the USB connector. The charger accepts various input voltages and input devices 3000 milliamperes battery power.
C-type USB connector is an important step in this development. Fitting the connector on both devices is increasing at a rapid pace, so the chargers need to keep up with the times.
new USB standard allows for devices to download up to 100 watts output
Salcomp’s Speedy Lattice LIF-UC-controller ensures a seamless connection to the AC / DC controller circuit. Because the driver is Lattice FPGA architecture are based, it can be programmed according to the requirements of different products in Salcomp.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3812:salcompin-usb-c-laturi-pohjaa-fpga-piiriin&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Roger Cheng / CNET:
Motorola name to be slowly phased out, products to carry label “Moto by Lenovo” instead — Goodbye, Moto(rola). Iconic brand to be phased out — Motorola, where wireless got its start, will see its name disappear from its products. It’ll soon be Moto by Lenovo.
Goodbye, Moto(rola). Iconic brand name to be phased out
http://www.cnet.com/news/goodbye-moto-rola-iconic-brand-name-to-be-phased-out/
Motorola gave wireless its start. But its name will soon disappear from products as a new brand label comes to life called “Moto by Lenovo.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Abhimanyu Ghoshal / The Next Web:
Xiaomi’s Redmi 3 offers a massive 4,100mAh battery and all-metal body for just $107
http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2016/01/11/xiaomis-redmi-3-offers-a-massive-4100mah-battery-and-all-metal-body-for-just-107/
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi announced its latest budget handset today, the Redmi 3. The device features all-metal construction and a large 4,100mAh battery, which are both unusual in phones below $250.
The 5-inch Redmi 3 runs on the company’s MIUI 7 Android software layer and packs a 720p display, an octa-core Snapdragon 616 processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB of onboard storage.
There’s a 13-megapixel camera with fast autofocus on the rear and a 5-megapixel snapper in front. You can use either two SIMs simultaneously or use one of the slots for a microSD card to expand storage by 128GB.
The Redmi 3 should be able to offer serious competition to budget favorites from last year like the $180 Moto G and the 4.7-inch Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 ($250).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Andreas Gal:
With Google’s move to integrate OpenJDK in Android, Oracle gains influence over a significant part of the Android software stack
Oracle sinks its claws into Android
http://andreasgal.com/2016/01/05/oracle-sinks-its-claws-into-android/
While I am no longer working directly on mobile, a curious event got my attention: A commit appeared in the Android code base that indicates that Google is abandoning its own re-implementation of Java in favor of Oracle’s original Java implementation. I’ll try to explain why I think this is a huge change and will have far-reaching implications for Android and the Android ecosystem.
Why did Google create its own Java clone?
To run a Java app, you need a runtime library written in Java called the Java standard classes. This library implements basic language constructs like hash tables or strings.
Since the early days, Android didn’t use Sun’s version of the Java standard classes. Instead, the Android team enhanced the open source Apache Harmony Java standard libraries. Harmony is an independent “clean room” open-source implementation of the Java standard libraries maintained by the Apache Foundation.
There is basically no technical advantage in using Harmony. Its a strictly less complete and less correct version of Sun’s original implementation. Why did Android invest all this effort to duplicate Sun’s open source Java standard classes?
Apache vs GPL
Over the course of Android’s meteoric rise, the powers behind Android demonstrated a deep strategic understanding of different classes of open source licenses, their strength, and their weaknesses. Android has from its early days successfully used open source licenses to enable proprietary technology. Sounds counter-intuitive, but it explains why Google rewrote so much open technology for Android.
Java is actually not the only major open technology piece Google reinvented. Since Android 1.0 Google uses bionic as its standard C library. There were very few strong technical reasons to use bionic over open source alternatives such as the GNU libc.
Writing a standard C library from scratch is crazy. Its one of the most commoditized pieces of software. Its almost impossible to do it significantly better than existing implementations, and it costs a ton of time and money and compatibility is a huge pain. Why did Google do it anyway? There is a simple answer: Licensing.
Bionic (as Google’s Java implementation) is licensed under the non-viral Apache 2 (APL) license. You can use and modify APL code without having to publish the changes. In other words, you can make proprietary changes and improvements. This is not possible with the GNU libc, which is under the LGPL.
“Open”JDK
OpenJDK is the name for Oracle’s Java that you can obtain under the GPL2, a viral open source license with strong protections. Any changes to OpenJDK have to be published as source code (except if you are Oracle).
Because Oracle has means to control Java beyond source code, OpenJDK is about as open as a prison. You can vote on how high the walls are, and you can even help build the walls, but if you are ever forced to walk into it, Oracle alone will decided when and whether you can leave. Oracle owns much of the roadmap of OpenJDK, and via compatibility requirements, trademarks, existing agreements, and API copyright lawsuits (Oracle vs Google) Oracle is pretty much in full control where OpenJDK is headed. What does this mean for Android?
In short: there is a new sheriff in town. The app ecosystem is at the heart of every mobile OS. Its what made Android and iOS successful, and its what made Firefox OS struggle. The app ecosystem rests on the app stack, in Android’s case Harmony in the past, and going forward OpenJDK. In other words, Oracle has now at least one hand at the steering wheel as well.
Its anyone’s guess what Oracle will do with it, but Google and Oracle have a long history of not getting along, so its going to be quite curious to watch. Java itself aims to be a platform, and it is similarly vast in scope as Android. Java includes its own user interface (UI) library Swing, for example. Google has of course its own Android UI framework. Swing will now sit on every Android phone, using up resources.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Finnish manufacturer released smart watch – a completely different Android device
Finnish company Wergo announced smart warch called WERGO. Android-based clock specialty is the 3G sim slot, which makes it independent from the phone.
According to the manufacturer the clock allows phone calls to be directly or Bluetooth headset. Weatherproof bell marketed price of EUR 250 “active users in the wild and in the city.”
The clock is not based on Android Wear, but the basic Android 4.4 reads. This allows the manufacturer to download phone applications from the Play Store.
The processor is ARM-based dual-core 1.3 GHz Cortex A7. Central memory is a half and four GB of storage space. The device also has a camera and a flash light.
Source: http://www.digitoday.fi/vimpaimet/2016/01/11/suomalaisvalmistaja-julkaisi-alykellon–taysin-erilainen-android-laite/2016301/66?rss=6
Tomi Engdahl says:
Various activity bracelets are growing in popularity at a rapid pace. Silicon Labs has now introduced an optical sensor solution that heart rate measurement can be imported to the wrist unit very cost-effectively. The district such, SiLabs sent a market for the sale of forecasts, up to 100 million units by 2018.
Si1144 chip includes an optical sensor module, a very energy-efficient 32-bit version of the driver circuit, the green light-emitting LED, the necessary drivers, AD converters, and control logic.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:sykemittari-ranteeseen-edullisesti&catid=13&Itemid=101
More: http://www.silabs.com/products/sensors/infraredsensors/Pages/si1144.aspx
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lenovo chief: Google Play Services will be in China this year
http://9to5google.com/2016/01/11/google-play-services-in-china-2016/
According to a report by Tech.Sina, Google will finally bring its services in to China. Lenovo chief, Chen Xudong claims Google is on track to bring its Play Services to the nation at some point in 2016, and that its desire to do so isn’t a secret. Google wants its services back in China, but has faced strong opposition from the government in the past, heavily restricting its presence there.
While Android has long been the dominant smartphone platform in China, Google’s presence there is still very limited. In fact, Google Play Services are practically non-existent
Clearly, with Android being the most widely-used smartphone OS in China, Play Services aren’t required or critical to the platform’s success. Bringing Play Services in to China would mostly be an effort to help end fragmentation in a country where multiple app stores exist for Android.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The world’s first intelligent mobile phone shell
Consumer electronics giant CES fair still exudes the news. I-Blades introduced in Vegas in conjunction with the sensor manufacturer Bosch Sensortechin mobile phone shell, which for the first time in the world are integrated in embedded electronics.
The company’s development of shell platform will be integrated with Bosch BME680 environment sensor (only 3 x 3 millimeters component).
When your smartphone is slipped i-Blades-shell, this will be the device extension. It may contain new features, such as the Bosch sensor, extra battery, more memory, or even a variety of security functions.
I-Blades recalls that the smartphone more shells are already sold eight billion dollars a year, and the market is growing.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3825:maailman-ensimmainen-alykas-kannykkakuori&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android Candy: Quality Time, or Not?
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/android-candy-quality-time-or-not
This is the season of resolutions, and in the technological world we live in, spending time off-line is a difficult but healthy activity. The problem is our lives have become so intertwined with our phones that it’s easy to whip out our cell phones inadvertently to check our social networks quickly.
The QualityTime app is designed to help curb the habit just a bit. Ironically, it’s an Android app designed to help you stop using Android apps so much. Still, it’s just geeky enough to make limiting technology time a fun endeavor. If you like graphs, data, numbers and goals, QualityTime can help you identify where you spend most of your time on-line
If you just want to see how much time you spend on various applications on your Android device, you should try QualityTime as well
Check it out at http://qualitytimeapp.com.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Whatever the Android-ChromeOS mashup looks like, it’s gotta be better looking than this
Remix OS 2.0 leaps out of China
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/13/remix_os_alpha/
If you’ve ever wondered what Android would look like as a desktop PC OS, then try this for size: Remix OS from China.
It’s a very rough-around-the-edges build of Android-x86 – an ongoing port of Google’s open-source OS from ARM gadgets to x86 PCs – with some closed-source stuff to create a multitasking desktop with moving windows, an application bar, and so on, but with Android’s look-and-feel. It tries its best to map keyboard shortcuts and mouse movements to the normally fingertip-driven user interface.
If you’re wondering what the upcoming Android-ChromeOS mashup will look like, this could be it but hopefully with a lot more polish.
Version 2.0 of Remix OS for PC was released on Tuesday as an alpha-quality download for developers and the techno-curious to toy with. You’re expected to write the .ISO image of the operating system to a USB 3.0 flash stick, and boot from that. It should work on real hardware, if it’s supported, or in a virtual machine: El Reg was able to get it going in Parallels by creating a generic 64-bit Linux guest and supplying the .ISO as a bootable DVD.
The OS is developed by Beijing-based Jide, which was founded in 2014 by three ex-Google engineers; their startup also touts an Android-powered tablet and a ‘droid PC, both of which sport ARM system-on-chips.
The Next Evolution of Android PC.
http://www.jide.com/en/remixos-for-pc
Built on the Android-x86 project, Remix OS for PC unlocks our next phase of development for Remix OS and introduces a whole new range of versatility to how and where you can Remix
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Samsung strikes deal to produce Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 processor — Samsung announced today that it’s begun mass production of chips using the 2nd generation of its 14nm process, the technology that will power both the company’s own Exynos 8 Octa processor and that of a major rival: Qualcomm.
Samsung strikes deal to produce Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 processor
http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/13/10765024/samsung-manufacturing-qualcomm-snapdragon-820-chip
Samsung announced today that it’s begun mass production of chips using the 2nd generation of its 14nm process, the technology that will power both the company’s own Exynos 8 Octa processor and that of a major rival: Qualcomm. The Snapdragon 820 will be manufactured by Samsung, using the new 14nm LPP process, and is likely to be used by multiple flagship devices available in the first half of 2016.
The news comes after a challenging 2015 for Qualcomm, who saw its Snapdragon 810 processor fall short of the company’s reputation for class-leading performance in the Android space. Samsung, meanwhile, moved away from Qualcomm chips in earnest for its 2015 high-end lineup and turned in excellent results from its Exynos processors. Samsung’s foundry business shouldn’t be confused with the company’s phone business or the chips it designs itself — it’s very much for hire, and most prominently has been Apple’s long-term partner in iPhone chip manufacturing.
At least some models of the Galaxy S7 are rumored to use the Snapdragon 820,
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cheap Smartwatch Teardown
http://hackaday.com/2016/01/13/cheap-smartwatch-teardown/
A proper smartwatch can cost quite a bit of money. However, there are some cheap Bluetooth-connected watches that offer basic functions like show your incoming calls, dial numbers and display the state of your phone battery. Not much, but these watches often sell for under $20, so you shouldn’t expect too much.
Because they’re so cheap, [Lee] bought one of these (a U8Plus) and within an hour he had the case opened up and his camera ready. As you might expect, the biggest piece within was the rechargeable battery. A MediaTek MT6261 system on a chip provides the smart part of the watch.
http://www.sodnpoo.com/posts.xml/u8plus_smart_watch_quick_teardown_and_uart.xml
Tomi Engdahl says:
Manufactures and develops optical pulse measurement technique PulseOn is an example of the growth of a company that has had to change its direction rush in the market environment changes.
The company launched the 2014 October bracelet in the consumer product on the market, but at the same time entered the market a dozen competitors. New and small newcomer did not fare sale.
PulseOn is one of Nokia spin-offs from companies. Its technology was licensed from Nokia, the Swiss company CSEM survey from. PulseOn set out to develop the technology on their own in 2012.
The company developed the optical pulse measurement technique and received foreign investor in that round in 2013. Three Russian investor Otar Marganya company has invested a total of EUR 2.9 million.
After Christmas sales flop the company had to find a new direction.
PulseOnilla was acting in his hands the technology, but its market introduction and the opening of sales channels would have required a huge investment. The company decided to take the b-to-b technology vendor that makes the sensor technology to others.
It acquired its first pilot customer, an American Icon Health & Fitness, which makes the iFit-brand wearable devices.
“At first we thought that the OEMs would be the main target of our group, but they often want to make their technology themselves.”
“One option is to make finished products consumer brands. Interestingly, customers are strong health & fitness business by operating brands that do not have the technology know-how, “says Korhonen.
Wearable- a wearable technology field is hot. Korhonen says that in 2013, three percent of US consumers were wearable instrument or device. Now, users will be 20-30 per cent of consumers. Growth rates are high, but the market shares may be divided again several times.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/suomalainen-sykerannekeyritys-yrittaa-uutta-starttia-6245172
Tomi Engdahl says:
All Google Glass units reportedly affected by server problem, making devices unusable
http://9to5google.com/2016/01/13/all-google-glass-units-affected-by-problem-causing-units-to-become-unusable/
The number of people out there that are still using Glass Explorer Edition is getting smaller by the day, but it looks like Glass is experiencing some widespread technical difficulties this morning. As reported by many members of the Glass Explorers group on Google+, many devices have been resetting themselves, are unable to be set up, and have become simply unusable over the last several days…
Reports of the problem have been surfacing since January 5th, and it appears that this is widespread, affecting every single Glass user to some degree.
The company is working on a fix right now according to this user, and things should be resolved within a few days.
Tomi Engdahl says:
4 reasons Fitbit is being sued for inaccurate heart-rate monitors
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/sensor-ee-perception/4441200/4-reasons-Fitbit-is-being-sued-for-inaccurate-heart-rate-monitors?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160114&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160114&elq=a12e63c660c348d3be9ba85524867603&elqCampaignId=26520&elqaid=30326&elqat=1&elqTrackId=d9ae4f5135f94cc4abc4fb352677ff57
There are at least four reasons Fitbit was just hit with a class-action lawsuit over the inaccuracy of its $150 Charge HR and $250 Surge heart-rate monitors. Oddly, it has almost nothing to do with engineering, design, or software.
The first two have to do with questionable tort laws, and consumer and lawyer greed (combined with a little anger). Third is tied to a bad marketing mistake by Fitbit, while the fourth is more interesting, having to do with the difficulty of accurate heart-rate (HR) monitoring on a consistent basis.
To eliminate frivolous lawsuits should we adopt a “loser pays” system where the winner’s legal fees are paid by the loser, like in Europe?
Consumers don’t like to feel deceived. A company usually gets one chance to make it right: when the customer calls to complain. In this case, Fitbit blew it on both levels. When the users called to gripe about the HR accuracy, they should have accepted the complaint, also known as “free customer survey response” and offered a refund.
Instead, Fitbit chose to stand behind their product, the engineering of which was completely undermined by an awful marketing mistake: they should never have said “every beat counts.” Once that statement got out, even if Fitbit isn’t claiming to be able to measure every beat, the consumers are led to the assumption that the device can measure every heart beat, and anything short of that is a “bad” product. Ooops!
That simple tagline, combined with poor customer service, opened the door to a class action lawsuit that may well be settled before it ever gets to court, but the damage is done. This is one reason it’s hard to be an engineer. Not because the job is hard, that’s a given, but because really good work can easily get undermined by something as inane as a marketing tagline.
Companies like Polar have been doing accurate HR monitoring for eons using sensors on a chest strap. Serious athletes don’t mind the hassle. Casual exercisers are a different story: it’s awkward and uncomfortable, so wrist-based monitoring is the technique of choice for Fitbit, and for many other consumer HR monitoring OEMs, including Apple for its watch.
Odland made a good point: Fitbit was using photoplethysmography (PPG). This technique measures light absorption through blood and correlates that with the heartbeat as blood volume increases and decreases. Green light (530 nm) is typically used, as that wavelength has been shown to give the most accurate results when compared to an electrocardiogram (ECG), the gold standard.
Odland’s point was that while PPG is good in a steady state, it’s at the end of an arm, which moves up and down as we walk, like a big, honking pendulum. This causes large variations in blood volume due to centrifugal force, so it becomes increasingly difficult to separate out high volume in a blood vessel due to systolic pressure versus centrifugal force acting on the blood.
For now, PPG isn’t perfect, but highly motivated engineers and software developers are “on the case” so it will improve. In the meantime, let’s not let marketing get ahead of us again. Gotta manage those expectations a bit more carefully
Tomi Engdahl says:
Low-power Misfit wearable exposed at DesignCon 2016
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/sensor-ee-perception/4441198/Low-power-Misfit-wearable-exposed-at-DesignCon-2016?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160114&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160114&elq=93d467ba1b5543629a7a9fcb21d3985d&elqCampaignId=26513&elqaid=30318&elqat=1&elqTrackId=95cea20118384c3d94de65bc376bc67f
The Shine 2 fitness and sleep tracker from Misfit goes under the knife at DesignCon next week as we almost criminally sacrifice a work of art in the irrepressible pursuit of knowledge.
The Shine 2 is a fitness and sleep tracker that can last up to 6 months without having the battery replaced. We’ll find out how this was done when we expose its innards at DesignCon on Jan 20.
Ignoring its new sibling for now, the Shine 2 really is beautiful. Enclosed in T6061 T6 aircraft-grade aluminum with glass-reinforced polycarbonate, the designers opted for a minimalist capacitive touch user-interface (UI) that relies on 12 LEDs on the face for visual feedback, a vibrator for touch feedback, and a delicate, high-pitch alarm that’s almost, well, pleasant to hear. I never thought I’d actually say that about an alarm.
Aside from aesthetics, the Shine 2 stands out because the company addressed the common issue of battery life by opting for a coin cell that can last up to six months. This gets around the annoyance of having to recharge all too frequently and hoping it’s done before you leave the house. Having used the Fitbit for a period of time, this was definitely a drawback.
With wearables so hot at CES 2016, we’ll also take a look at how the Shine 2 stacks up in terms of usability, functionality, mechanical design, software features, and of course cost.
Other key features of the Shine 2 include water resistance to 50 m, vibrate on text or calls to a synched iOS or Android device, LED display of time, control of remote devices using the separate Misfit, among others.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mumbai police enforcing “no selfie” zones
http://www.techeye.net/mobile/mumbai-police-enforcing-no-selfie-zones
Mumbai police have had enough of people getting practically killed while taking selfie and are starting to enforce “no-selfie” zones in parts of the city.
Inspector Knacker of the Mumbai Yard is mapping out areas in the city where it might be dangerous to take a selfie, and will mark those areas as no selfie zones.
Nevertheless the Interent is full of narissitic types doing their best to snap the perfect selfy. If Mumbai police do arrest those for trying to enter themselves in the darwin awards chances are they will try to take a picture of the event. – See more at: http://www.techeye.net/mobile/mumbai-police-enforcing-no-selfie-zones#sthash.FPIQSBa9.dpuf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Best wearables of 2016: the top smartwatches and fitness bands
Updated A rundown of the best wearable tech available right now
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/feature/2407761/smartwatches-and-fitness-bands-the-best-wearables-of-2015
WHETHER IT’S SMARTWATCHES that promise to make reading your notifications easier, or fitness bands that guarantee accurate biometric readings, wearables are inescapable. So if you’re in the market for one, or even want to know a little more about which ones offer what features, knowing where to start can be daunting.
The wearables industry is still relatively new and, while there are plenty of options, not all of them will work with your existing smartphone. So here’s a round-up of what we think are the best wearables from the past year that are available now.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Chinese are growing, Apple will lose
Last year sold a total of 1.293 billion smart phone, says the Research Institute of Trend Force. The amount was 10.3 percent higher than the previous year. The Chinese Manufacturers’ share of the amount was 539 million.
The Chinese Manufacturers’ share of all smartphones had been doing this for more than 40 per cent. The ten largest manufacturers in the list was the last year as many as seven Chinese companies.
Samsung is still the largest smartphone manufacturer. However, 320 million devices sold means that for the first time in the history of Korean companies smartphones delivery volume declined.
Apple is the second largest manufacturer of iPhone (227 million units). However, Trendforde predicts that Apple’s growth this year will remain below 10 per cent.
Huawei was the last year the absolute achiever. It sold 108 million smartphone and at the same time overtook Lenovo.
The three non-Chinese manufacturer among the top ten are trademarks of Apple, Samsung and another Korean LG.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3853:kiinalaiset-kasvavat-apple-menettaa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft’s HoloLens won’t have a full panoramic field of vision
Don’t scare the horses, but this might not live up to the hype
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2442204/microsofts-hololens-wont-have-a-full-panoramic-field-of-vision
MICROSOFT HAS FLESHED out more information about the much touted HoloLens augmented reality Judge Dredd headset.
Microsoft tech evangelist Bruce Harris told delegates some new juicy details at an event in Tel Aviv, most notably the product’s battery life which is said to be up to 5.5 hours, but more realistically 2.5 hours if you’re really hammering it. It sounds like it’s going to restrict you spending too long in marathon gaming sessions.
There’s no consumer release date for the product yet, but we’re told that developers will start to receive test units this quarter.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coming soon
Microsoft will announce the Lumia 650 on February 1 with little fanfare
http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-will-announce-lumia-650-february-1
The Microsoft Lumia 650 is finally getting its official announcement. Windows Central has been following new on the business-orientated phone for a few months now noting that it is likely the last Lumia for the year.
Microsoft is likely going to keep their presence at Mobile World Congress low-key.
Lumia 750 and Lumia 850? Unlikely
Speaking of Mobile World Congress, there have been reports of a ‘Lumia 750′ or ‘Lumia 850′ also being announced at that event. We are still sticking to our claim that both of those phones were cancelled back in July of 2015 and we have seen no concrete evidence of that having changed.
none of our sources knows of an RM-1182, and we have heard multiple times that the Lumia 650 is the last Lumia. Instead, Microsoft will be focusing on the flagship ‘Panos phone’, which is expected to be part of the Surface line later this fall.
Microsoft so far has not announced plans for Mobile World Congress
Tomi Engdahl says:
Virtual reality is, despite the expensive price point one step closer to the lives of consumers, believes the consulting firm Deloitte in its report.
Even this year, the majority of the commercial activities will focus on video games, but in the future virtual reality may be present in the most varied situations.
“Technology events in the field of virtual reality has generated a lot of enthusiasm. On the other hand the enthusiasm is based on only a few minutes in the experiment, and therefore does not give an accurate picture of future demand in the consumer market, ”
Used smartphone market will grow by an average of about 4-5 times faster than the smartphone market in general. “The average price of a used smartphone this year is about $ 140, or the market as a whole is valued at $ 17 billion, a staggering,” says Suortti.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/01/15/raportti-virtuaalitodellisuus-ja-kaytetyt-alypuhelimet-suosioon/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is Apple Heading for a Disastrous Quarter?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2016-01-19/is-apple-heading-for-a-disastrous-quarter-
Bloomberg’s Cory Johnson reports on the performance of Apple. He speaks on “Bloomberg Markets.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
4 reasons Fitbit is being sued for inaccurate heart-rate monitors
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/sensor-ee-perception/4441200/4-reasons-Fitbit-is-being-sued-for-inaccurate-heart-rate-monitors?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160119&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160119&elq=502b498700014c749cc9bfc5a3e4d1f7&elqCampaignId=26567&elqaid=30374&elqat=1&elqTrackId=6f4bd158176543ab81427dc985bb5050
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ultrasound Proximity Software Replaces Hardware-Based Sensors
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328723&
Elliptic Labs has launched a software-based ultrasound proximity sensing solution that relies on the smartphones’ speaker and microphone to replace today’s optical proximity sensors.
Beauty, as the ultrasonic software is called, allows for more aesthetically pleasing designs since it removes the need for optical proximity sensors, which themselves typically require one rectangular black shape or two small holes on the screen.
Enabling always-on gesture detection, the solution also frees up physical space inside mobile devices. “It works very similar to how bats use echolocation to navigate. The ultrasound signals are sent through the air from a smartphone’s current earpiece and bounce against one’s head and are recorded by the smartphone’s microphone.
The company’s Beauty product maps its proximity readings to standard sensor service in Android, thus requiring no additional user interface. But detection range goes up to 2m, enabling high-resolution touchless gestures near, far, and all around the sides of a device screen at 180 degrees.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple made more revenue from iPhone in a single quarter than Google has ever made from Android
http://9to5mac.com/2016/01/22/apple-made-more-revenue-from-iphone-in-a-single-quarter-than-google-has-ever-made-from-android/
The lawsuit between Oracle and Google is inadvertently revealing some confidential information about the companies. It has already been disclosed that Google paid Apple a $1 billion fee in 2014 to keep Google as the default search provider for iOS Safari, as well as a revenue sharing agreement where Google gives a substantial portion of the iPhone search ad revenue to Apple.
Another lawyer from Oracle has also stated that Google has generated $22 billion in profit and $31 billion in revenue from Android in its lifetime, via Bloomberg. Although any number in the billions is impressive, it pales in comparison to Apple’s mobile platform profiteering. As highlighted by Quartz, Apple made more revenue from the iPhone in one single quarter, raking in $32 billion dollars worth of iPhone sales from July – September.
Obviously, there are some qualifications which explain the huge discrepancies somewhat. Most notably, Google doesn’t really make or sell its own hardware. Almost all Android revenue is derived from the Google Play Store developer revenue share (like Apple, Google has a 70/30 split) or ads shown from Google’s phones. Apple’s highly successful hardware business is better stacked to give higher margins, and with higher margins comes higher profits.
Even looking at software sales numbers, Apple is close to Google’s numbers. Apple last announced the App Store had raked in $40 billion for developers. That means Apple generated at least $17 billion in revenue from App Store.
Remember: Apple and Samsung are the only manufacturers to make money from smartphones. Everyone else consistently loses money.
Google’s Android Generates $31 Billion Revenue, Oracle Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-21/google-s-android-generates-31-billion-revenue-oracle-says-ijor8hvt
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Amazon is reportedly asking OEMs to integrate retailer’s services into Android phones at a “factory level”, but Google’s contracts may limit the possibilities — Amazon reportedly seeks a bigger hand in Android phone software — Amazon is reportedly in talks with OEMs to “gain a bigger backdoor to Google’s Android.”
Amazon reportedly seeks a bigger hand in Android phone software
Amazon is reportedly in talks with OEMs to “gain a bigger backdoor to Google’s Android.”
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/01/amazon-reportedly-seeks-a-bigger-hand-in-android-phone-software/
After flopping with the Fire Phone, it seems Amazon is looking to dip its toe back into the mobile pool. According to a report from The Information, Amazon is hoping to partner with smartphone OEMs to deeply integrate its services into handsets. The report claims that Amazon “has discussed working with phone brands at a ‘factory level’ to integrate its services with devices in a deeper way than simply preloading apps.”
“In essence, the retailer would like its partners’ phones to resemble Amazon’s line of Kindle Fire tablets that it builds on its own,” the report states. The phones would be full of Amazon services and encourage people to become a member of Amazon Prime.
Amazon already dove into the phone market once with the Amazon Fire Phone, which the company released in July 2014 for $199 with a two-year contract, or $650 unlocked. Six weeks later, Amazon slashed about $200 off of both options and the price kept falling. The Fire Phone cratered at $130 for the unlocked version in August 2015, and it was pulled from the market shortly after.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chinese processors are the most powerful in the mobile phones
Strictly speaking, the most powerful mobile phone processor is manufactured by Taiwanese Media Tekin Helio X20. The company has “slipped” to the public Geekbench 3 test resulrs, according to which Helio X20 is unequaled performance processor.
Helio X20 gets results 7037
Huawei Kirin 950 got 6245
Qualcomm Snapdragon flagship 820 results by reading 5400
Apple A9 processor result of 4578
What kind of circuit Media Tekin Helio then X20 is? This is the first smartphone 10-core application processor. It has two Cortex-A72 cores that operate at a clock frequency of 2.5 gigahertz. The four Cortex-A53 cores operates at a frequency of two gigahertz and four A53-core 1.4 gigahertz clock.
Helio X20 is expected to be launched in the new Meizun and Xiaomin smartphones, but not until after the summer.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3894:kiinalaisprosessorit-ovat-kannykoiden-tehokkaimpia&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
No more smart phone term
n 2020, basic cellphones share falls already five per cent. At the same time the difference between the basic handset and smartphone is lost. In many markets selling basic handsets and smart phones a few top ten at the same price.
Soon will be noted that the telephone word into the circle is closed. The starting point was the 1980s, when the phone meant the old device equipped with a rotary dial. So it is that today’s youth does not even recognize.
The long-term cell phone came along. First it was a device that just was able to take along for the ride. Then it became all parts of the portable cellular phone. Continuous Internet connection and touch screen will come into the pockets of smartphones, without which most of us no longer get along.
Perhaps it is time to abandon the smartphone-term, while other types have been removed.
A lot of these devices in any case, will be sold: According to Gartner, this year 1.959 billion, and in 2018 more than two billion pieces. The market will continue to grow, albeit at a very slow rate.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3868:alypuhelimia-ei-enaa-pian-ole&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
4K image from a mobile phone to the big screen
ARM latest Mali graphics processor capable of delivering 4K-quality video to the big screen.
ARM’s Mali, the DP650-processor brings a 4K image on your cellphone preferably, very high quality image and low power consumption.
Mali-DP650 is optimized for 2.5k-tier image, tablet, this means-resolution WQXGA (2560 x 1600 pixels) and a smart phone WQHD-screen (2560 x 1440 pixels.
Due to 4K video transmission processor AXI bus is widened to 128 bits. At best, the processor can play back 4K video at 60 fps. The new Mali-processor will be seen on mobile devices later this year.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3874:4k-kuvaa-kannykasta-isolle-ruudulle&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results — CUPERTINO, California — January 26, 2016 — Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2016 first quarter ended December 26, 2015. The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $75.9 billion and record quarterly net income of $18.4 billion, or $3.28 per diluted share.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2016/01/26Apple-Reports-Record-First-Quarter-Results.html
Daisuke Wakabayashi / Wall Street Journal:
Apple says it sold 74.8M iPhones, up under 1% year-over-year, the slowest growth pace ever — Apple Reports Slowing Growth in iPhone Sales — Company sees revenue in current quarter declining at the steepest rate in 15 years — Apple Inc. said iPhone sales grew at the slowest pace since …
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/apple-reports-slowing-growth-in-iphone-sales-1453843920-lMyQjAxMTA2NTI5NjQyNDYzWj
Tomi Engdahl says:
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple says it now has over 1B active devices worldwide, up 25% year-over-year
http://www.macrumors.com/2016/01/26/apple-1-billion-active-device-installed-base/
Tomi Engdahl says:
My prediction ” it is possible that Apple is going to have a tough year in 2016. Some Wall Street analysts predict an end of iPhone sales growth” seems to be coming true:
Apple warns iPhone sales set to fall for first time
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35412892
Apple has reported the slowest growth in iPhone sales since the product’s 2007 launch and warned sales will fall for the first time later this year.
The US tech giant sold 74.8 million iPhones in its fiscal first quarter, compared with 74.5 million a year ago.
Apple said revenue for the next quarter would be between $50bn (£34bn; €46bn) and $53bn, below the $58bn it reported for the same period a year ago.
This would mark Apple’s first fall in revenues since it launched the iPhone.
Despite first-quarter iPhone sales being below the 75 million expected by analysts, it was still a record quarter for the company.
Sales of iPhones accounted for 68% of the company’s revenue in the period.
But the firm’s chief financial officer, Luca Maestri, said the company was operating in “a very difficult macroeconomic environment”.
He added that “iPhone units will decline in the quarter” and that the company was not projecting beyond those three months.
Analysis by BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones:
Any other company announcing record profits and revenues might expect a warm welcome from investors. But now that Apple has scaled so many peaks the worry is that the only way is down – and there’s evidence in these figures to back up those concerns.
Sales of the iPhone, surely the single most profitable product any company has produced, were basically flat. What’s more, the revenue outlook for the next three months indicates we can expect the first fall in sales since the iPhone’s 2007 launch.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Warning! Apple falling into no-growth mode
http://world.nethirdetes.com/news/warning-apple-falling-into-nogrowth-mode
Tomi Engdahl says:
Teardown: Misfit Shine 2 and the art of power management
http://www.edn.com/design/sensors/4441289/Teardown–Misfit-Shine-2-and-the-art-of-power-management?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20160127&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20160127&elq=d0775e13f06d49f79fb287153ca03348&elqCampaignId=26686&elqaid=30525&elqat=1&elqTrackId=186cc190c424405eb747d57af31d283a
At DesignCon 2016 in Santa Clara, we put the Misfit Shine 2 Fitness + Sleep monitor under the knife, and exposed the latest in low-power technology, processes, and power management techniques.
The Misfit Shine 2 is thinner, stronger, and smarter than, well, the original Shine. As per the maker’s advertisements, it really is beautiful.
A vibration alarm provides status feedback and notifications/alerts, which is useful for phone calls and texts from the paired Apple (iOS 7 or above) or Android (Jelly Bean) phone whenever they’re in a bag or in mute mode. Audio feedback comes from an alarm that’s almost, well, pleasant to hear.
Connectivity to the phone is achieved using a Bluetooth 4.1 radio and motion sensing is accomplished using a three-axis accelerometer and magnetometer working together. Also, by downloading the Misfit Link app you can connect using IFTTT recipes to control your mobile device to play music, take a selfie, or tap the Shine to control one of a plethora of home connect services, called IFTTT “channels,” such as a WeMo switch, Nest thermostat, or even Twitter feeds.
Aside from aesthetics and ease of use, the Shine 2 stands out because the company addressed the common issue of battery life by opting for a coin cell that can last up to six months. This gets around the annoyance of having to recharge all too frequently and hoping it’s done before you leave the house. Having used the first iterations of the Fitbit for a period of time, this was definitely a drawback.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CES 2016: It’s all about smartphones
http://www.edn.com/design/consumer/4441266/CES-2016–It-s-all-about-smartphones?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20160127&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20160127&elq=d0775e13f06d49f79fb287153ca03348&elqCampaignId=26686&elqaid=30525&elqat=1&elqTrackId=8e93109ffd8041469550d0d60512a061
Smartphones were at the center of many innovations (Congratulations Apple and Android for your vision!) at the Sands/Venetian at CES 2016.
The Sands/Venetian was where it’s at as far as I am concerned regarding innovations in electronics. The Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) was not even close as far as analog and power technology (except for my visit to the NASA booth; I did not expect to see them there!). The LVCC was more of a place to make deals for distributors and reps with the many new consumer-related innovations; after all it is the Consumer Electronics Show.
Here are only a select few of the smartphone innovations I saw:
Smart phone stabilizers for video or still camera photography by DelTron Intelligence Technology Limited, which announced the launch of Vimble.
Marvell introduced its NFC controller, which enables the smallest antennas for mobile.
GreenPeak Technologies’ smart home solutions, including non-intrusive senior monitoring capability via sensors through a hub for smartphone monitoring, were on display. The Family@Home consists of easily installed interoperable sensors, wirelessly connected, that talk to each other and to the Web, and have cloud intelligence and special algorithms to enable this network to recognize, assess, and make decisions regarding what the smart home should be doing. All managed over the Web on a single dashboard app on a smartphone, users can keep an eye on their family members and pets and monitor their home; their most valuable asset.
Semtech and myDevices partnered for a platform open to all hardware manufacturers with LoRa-enabled device
Bosch’s sensors are in 75% of all mobile phones.
The ZigBee Alliance and EnOcean Alliance came together at CES to combine the benefits of energy harvesting wireless with ZigBee 3.0.
There were so many more like smartphones plugging into the smart car and connecting with the smart home using MirrorLink, and smartphones snapping into augmented reality systems to view your smartphone videos in true stereo, with realistic sound location, even when you turn your head.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Augmented Reality Becomes Useful, Real
http://hackaday.com/2016/01/27/augmented-reality-becomes-useful-real/
The state of augmented reality is terrible. Despite everyone having handheld, portable computers with high-resolution cameras, no one has yet built ‘Minecraft with digital blocks in real life’, and the most exciting upcoming use for augmented reality is 3D Dungeons and Dragons. There are plenty of interesting things that can be done with augmented reality, the problem is someone needs to figure out what those things are. Lucky for us, the MIT Media Lab knocked it out of the park with the ability to program anything through augmented reality.
The Reality Editor is a simple idea, but one that is extraordinarily interesting. Objects all around you are marked with a design that can be easily read by a smartphone running a computer vision application. In augmented reality, these objects have buttons and dials that can be used to turn on a lamp, open a car’s window, or any other function that can be controlled over the Internet. It’s augmented reality buttons for everything.
This basic idea is simple, but by combining it by another oft-forgotten technology from the 90s, we get something really, really cool. The buttons on each of the objects can be connected together with a sort of graphical programming language. Scan a button, connect the button to a lamp, and you’re able to program the lamp with augmented reality.
The Reality Editor is already available on the Apple app store, and there are a number of examples available for people to start tinkering with this weird yet interesting means of interacting with the world.
http://www.realityeditor.org/
Comments:
The way it can link up actions reminds me of IFTTT but with a control interface based in an augmented reality. I can see that it could make some things easier (if you couldn’t remember what you’d called the items) but does restrict you to only being able to configure the sequences up in person.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Glass Sharpens Focus On Enterprise
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328788&
Signs point to a sharper focus on the enterprise as Google Glass 2 designs surface and Google’s consumer social media accounts for Glass shut down.
Google took another step away from its consumer Glass initiative when it disconnected its social media accounts for Google Glass recently. That decision built on the earlier move to halt its Explorer program, which signaled the death of the Google Glass consumer efforts.
The glasses struggled to gain favor among consumers, with their steep $1,500 price tag and no clear purpose for them other than messaging friends and family, and checking stock prices and sports scores. Google’s enterprise efforts for Glass, though, seem to be expanding.
Last month, for example, Google filed documents with the Federal Communications Commission, in which it revealed new drawings for Google Glass 2. This filing appeared to bolster a Wall Street Journal report over the summer that Google was having healthcare, manufacturing, and energy-related companies testing out a new and improved version of Google Glass.
On Sunday, 9to5Google cited in a report, “multiple people familiar with the matter say that Glass: Enterprise Edition is only just now starting to see wider adoption.”
There are 10 certified partners listed on the Google Glass at Work page, which showcases some of the ways these organizations are using Glass in their products and services.
https://developers.google.com/glass/distribute/glass-at-work?hl=en
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says it only sold 4.5M Lumia devices last quarter, a 57% drop year-over-year — Windows Phone is dead — Windows Phone started off life as a promising alternative to Android and iOS five years ago. Microsoft positioned its range of Windows Phone 7 handsets as the true third mobile ecosystem …
Windows Phone is dead
http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/28/10864034/windows-phone-is-dead
Windows Phone started off life as a promising alternative to Android and iOS five years ago. Microsoft positioned its range of Windows Phone 7 handsets as the true third mobile ecosystem, but it’s time to admit it has failed. If a lack of devices from phone makers and even Microsoft itself wasn’t enough evidence, the final nail in the coffin hit today. Microsoft only sold 4.5 million Lumia devices in the recent quarter, compared to 10.5 million at the same time last year. That’s a massive 57 percent drop. Even a 57 percent increase wouldn’t be enough to save Windows Phone right now.
Microsoft and Nokia have sold a total of 110 million Windows Phones compared to 4.5 billion iOS and Android phones in the same period. IDC recently reported that 400 million phones were sold in the recent quarter, meaning just 1.1 percent of them were Lumia Windows Phones. Microsoft does not have any compelling Lumia handsets, and the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL were both disappointing flagship devices with unfinished Windows 10 Mobile software.
With Lumia sales on the decline and Microsoft’s plan to not produce a large amount of handsets, it’s clear we’re witnessing the end of Windows Phone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Sony Posts $1B Profit For Q3 2015 But Feels Pinch From Slowing Mobile Market
http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/28/sony-posts-1b-profit-for-q3-2015-but-feels-pinch-from-slowing-mobile-market/
Another quarter of promise for Sony. The Japanese tech giant just released its Q3 2015 financial results, posting net income of 120.1 billion JPY ($1 billion) on total revenue 2,580.8 billion JPY ($21.5 billion) — those figures are up 33.5 percent and 0.5 percent year-on-year. Operating income came in at 202.1 billion JPY ($1.7 billion), an 11 percent rise on a year previous.
Those figures surpassed analyst expectations
Tomi Engdahl says:
New York Times:
Facebook to shut down Parse, the toolkit for mobile developers it acquired in 2013; developers will have year-long window to migrate their data — Facebook to Shut Down Parse, Its Platform for Mobile Developers — Facebook acquired Parse, a toolkit and support system for mobile developers, in 2013.
Facebook to Shut Down Parse, Its Platform for Mobile Developers
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/facebook-to-shut-down-parse-its-platform-for-mobile-developers/?_r=0
Facebook acquired Parse, a toolkit and support system for mobile developers, in 2013. At the time, the social network’s ambitions were high: Parse would be Facebook’s way into one day harnessing developers to become a true cloud business, competing alongside the likes of Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
Those ambitions, it seems, have fallen back to earth. On Thursday, Facebook said it plans to shut down Parse, the services platform for which it paid upwards of a reported $85 million.
“We know that many of you have come to rely on Parse, and we are striving to make this transition as straightforward as possible,” Kevin Lacker, co-founder of Parse, said in a blog post. “We enjoyed working with each of you, and we have deep admiration for the things you’ve built.”
Most of what Parse does involves things most people will never see. Parse helps developers with support and tools, so that independent programmers can spend more time writing code and less time on keeping up the back end. Developers who use Parse include those at Quip, a productivity app, and Expedia’s Orbitz, a travel website. Facebook would make money from Parse by storing data from developers and sending customers product notifications.
Achieving that goal, however, would be no easy feat. Microsoft, Google and Amazon have similar developer offerings, along with a much richer set of other computing tools and services that developers need. Amazon Web Services, in particular, has in the past two years stressed both its developer tools and analytic services, so companies can think about what to build next. In every case, these companies can also benefit by selling other computing services, like complex commercial databases, which Facebook does not provide.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MWC2016: Finnish LTE phone to Barcelona
Previously served as Bittium Elektrobit introduces a few weeks to get the Barcelona Mobile World event suitable for use by public authorities Android smartphone. The phone has a special components implemented security platform that can integrate multiple security applications.
Bittiumin SafeMove enables the utilization of IP-based applications and infrastructure by securing connections between client and service.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/01/28/suomalainen-lte-puhelin-salauksella/http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/01/28/suomalainen-lte-puhelin-salauksella/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/M4iiS7jVymc
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Digital assistant bots like Siri, Google Now, and Alexa undermine the open internet by only indexing select apps
The internet bundle is already here
…and it’s a bot
http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/28/10858728/internet-bundle-siri-alexa-google-now-cortana-bots
For the past six years or so, this image that (as best I can tell) was created by Reddit user quink has been making the rounds as the “nightmare scenario” if net neutrality dies. It’s the bundle: your favorite websites tiered up into different packages, forcing you to pay different rates just to access different sites. A significant thread through the net neutrality debate was making sure ISPs (read: cable companies) didn’t turn the free and open internet into the thing those ISPs actually want, cable packages.
We had to stop the bundle.
We have, thus far, been mostly successful in stopping it. We’ve been less successful in stopping the inverse-yet-also-bad idea of zero-rating, thanks to companies like T-Mobile and Facebook offering access to certain internet sites and services for free. That battle is more complicated, because saving people money is as well-liked as making them pay extra or blocking access is well-hated.
In these battles, people who care about keeping the internet from turning into cable have been assisted by companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and even Facebook. These companies built their businesses on the back of the internet and helped craft the tools we use to freely surf (remember web surfing?) across the internet.
Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook have defended net neutrality and fought the bundle. But, deep inside the software that powers their empires, they’re each creating a different kind of bundle.
The bundle is already here, it came from places we haven’t been watching closely enough, and it has many names. There’s more than enough doomsaying about the issues related to Instant Articles, Internet.org, and Binge On. Instead, I’d like to take a minute to doomsay what could become the other opponents to the kind of free, transparent, and open internet we all want: Siri, Cortana, Alexa, Facebook M, and Google Now.
These intelligent assistants are great. I use them every day and expect I will continue to use them for, well, ever. But there’s a problem that’s built into them: they only seem to work with certain parts of the web and — here’s the real rub — certain apps.
http://i.imgur.com/5RrWm.png
Tomi Engdahl says:
The smartphone became a basic phone
Traditional basic phones no longer sold in large quantities. Cheapest smartphones have eaten their share and there are now only a few models mainly senior use. The telecom operator DNA phone sales last year, already 95 percent were smartphones.
In December and January, the smartphone share of the telecom operator DNA selling phones reached a historic level, since virtually all phones purchased were smartphones. DNA, the number had 99.9 per cent in January.
The same pace of other operators. The transaction is difficult to senior phones, except to find traditional basic phones.
“Customers acquire basic phones no longer very rarely, only in specific situations”
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/02/01/alypuhelimesta-tuli-peruspuhelin/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Buyers have already killed Windows phone
Microsoft sold 4.5 million Lumia smartphones in October-December. Cell phone sales turnover is already less than one billion euros. Microsoft itself has not announced the cancellation of mobile phone production, and analysts do not have it declared.
Microsoft paid Nokia’s mobile phone business for $ 7.2 billion in 2013. In practice, this money has been wasted, because the Windows mobile phone business with a value of zero.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3920:ostajat-tappoivat-jo-windows-puhelimen&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Glass Sharpens Focus On Enterprise
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328788&
Signs point to a sharper focus on the enterprise as Google Glass 2 designs surface and Google’s consumer social media accounts for Glass shut down.
Google took another step away from its consumer Glass initiative when it disconnected its social media accounts for Google Glass recently. That decision built on the earlier move to halt its Explorer program, which signaled the death of the Google Glass consumer efforts.
The glasses struggled to gain favor among consumers, with their steep $1,500 price tag and no clear purpose for them other than messaging friends and family, and checking stock prices and sports scores. Google’s enterprise efforts for Glass, though, seem to be expanding.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung Challenges Google As New Android Browser Beats Chrome
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2016/01/31/samsung-android-browser-v4-html5/#7868944045ce
Samsung has begun to roll out the latest version of the Android-powered Samsung web browser found in the latest Galaxy smartphones and phablets. It should become available within the coming weeks, and it represents Samsung’s desire to create a browser built around compatibility, functionality, and ease of use.
When you pick up your Galaxy smartphone, the web browser you use should be the most capable, the most well-featured, and easiest to use. Unfortunately most people will mentally switch over to Chrome, and not give the built-in Samsung Browser a second look. The South Korean company wants to change that attitude with the imminent release of version 4 of its Android-Based browser.
there needs to be a greater focus on ensuring that Galaxy users do not ‘default to Chrome’ when they pick up a new Galaxy smartphone or tablet