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četvrtak, 23.02.2012.
Mobile Device That's Better for a Jotter Than a Talker
Mobile Device That's Better for a Jotter Than a Talker
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG.
Lots of folks carry a smartphone, and, at least some of the time, tote a second mobile device - an iPad or other tablet. But some people might prefer a product that combines the two. Similarly, many have come to love the finger-controlled interface popularized by Apple, but might prefer at times to use a stylus, a common tool in the pre-iPhone days.
Samsung is hoping to offer all of the above. On Sunday, it's introducing to the U.S. a phone-tablet hybrid with a large 5.3-inch screen that uses a stylus as well as your fingers. It's called the Galaxy Note and costs $300 with a two-year AT&T contract.
While the Note could be mistaken for a small tablet, Samsung insists it's a phone that merely offers some of the roominess of a tablet. And in fact, it runs the last purely phone-oriented version of Google's Android operating system, called Gingerbread. This product positioning may be due to bad memories of another company's effort to sell such a 'tweener: Dell's 5-inch Streak, which was marketed as a tablet that could make calls and failed miserably in 2010.
After testing the Galaxy Note, I have decidedly mixed feelings about it. It isn't a very practical phone and, as a tablet, it can't match the experience of the iPad, which is more spacious and has over 150,000 apps designed for it. However, I can see where some folks might consider the 5-inch screen a good trade-off for much better portability than other tablets, and Samsung has done some very interesting work in making the stylus, which is stored in a slot on the device, useful.
As a mobile phone, the Galaxy Note is positively gargantuan. It's almost 6 inches long and over 3 inches wide. When you hold it up to your ear, it pretty much covers the entire side of your face. You look like you're talking into a piece of toast.
The Note is so big, an iPhone can almost fit within its display. And it dwarfs even the more-bloated crop of recent Android phones, like Samsung's own Galaxy S II series, whose screen can be as large as 4.5 inches. And while it can fit into a large pocket or handbag, the Note isn't going to slip unobtrusively into your jeans or a small purse. It weighs 6.28 ounces, nearly 30% more than the iPhone and nearly 50% more than some Galaxy S II models.
For people who use Bluetooth earpieces all the time, or who primarily use the speakerphone function, the Note's size may not be a problem. But for the rest, the Note is just too large to go without a more reasonably sized phone, which defeats the one-device argument.
Voice quality in normal use was good. But, in my limited tests of its Bluetooth voice capabilities, the caller on the other end felt the Note sounded significantly worse than the iPhone or other Android models I've tested.
However, as a data device, I liked the Note a lot. Its screen sports a high resolution that made photos, videos and text look very good. It uses AT&T's high-speed LTE data network, where available, and in my tests it was very fast. The larger screen enabled more of a Web page to be visible without scrolling than on typical phones.
Like all Android devices, it has fewer, and, in my opinion, generally lower-quality third-party apps than the iPhone. But those I tried worked well. The Note was consistently speedy and responsive.
The 8-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front camera both did a good job. Photos and videos I shot from the rear camera were excellent. But I found the sheer size of the Note undercuts its convenience as a camera and there's no dedicated camera button or quick way to launch the camera when the screen is locked, as there is on some other phones.
In moderate mixed use, where I played music and videos, surfed the Web, texted, used email constantly and took pictures, the Note's battery lasted more than a full day between charges.
Unlike Apple, Samsung allowed AT&T to load a bunch of its own apps you might not want on the Note, like a $10 to $15 a month program for locating family members via cellphone GPS. A particularly egregious example is a Yellow Pages app that's jammed into the very top of your contact list.
Another drawback: While other Android phones I've tested can be plugged into either a PC or a Mac so you can manually transfer files onto them, I couldn't get the Note to do this with either of two Macs I tested with it. It did work with Windows machines.
The stylus is a big plus, at least for users who like to jot down notes, create sketches or annotate documents in a way that's much more precise than using a fingertip. Even on the iPad, which wasn't designed for a stylus, third-party styli have become quietly popular, but Samsung has taken the idea much further.
The Note's stylus, called the S Pen, can be used instead of a finger to launch and operate apps. But that isn't its main purpose. It's meant to work closely with a special app called S Memo that allows you to take notes or make sketches. These can be saved or shared via email or text messaging, or uploaded to sites like Facebook. They can include photos or typed text.
The software allows the stylus to draw in different colors and widths and to emulate a brush or marker.
A button on the side of the stylus can be pressed while tapping the stylus on the screen to bring up a light version of S Memo for quick notes, or to capture whatever is on the screen as a photo that you can annotate with the pen and send off to others.
Samsung plans more pen-oriented apps, and there are some games and drawing apps for the stylus. Some similar apps are available for the iPad and iPhone, but Samsung is investing more in the stylus and what it can do. For people who like jotting notes or sketching, the stylus alone could be a reason to buy the Note.
The Samsung Galaxy Note isn't for everyone, and I can't recommend it as the main mobile phone for most people. But as a stylus-driven small tablet, it might be just what some users are looking for.
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New Apple Operating System Aims to Knit Together Its Products
New Apple Operating System Aims to Knit Together Its Products
By BRIAN X. CHEN.
With the next version of Apple's OS X operating system for its Mac computers, the company has one clear message: If you're going to buy one Apple product, you might as well keep buying more.
Apple released a preview on Thursday of the software, called Mountain Lion. It introduces several new features that move it closer to iOS, the software running on iPhones and iPads. While Apple is the world's biggest smartphone maker, its share of the PC market is still small, so tying the two together could help it sell more computers.
Mountain Lion includes some apps and features that were previously exclusive to Apple's mobile devices: Messages, Notes, Reminders and Notification Center. And it has a strong focus on iCloud, Apple's online service for storing and synchronizing data between mobile devices and Macs.
When users first start up Mountain Lion, they are asked to enter their iCloud credentials. This way, content like notes, messages and event reminders can be easily shared between multiple Apple devices. For example, if a user jots something down in the Notes app on an iPhone or iPad, that same note will appear in the Notes app in Mountain Lion on a Mac.
Apple's iCloud is one of several new so-called cloud services available from technology companies, including Amazon, Dropbox and Microsoft. Though the details of these services vary among companies, they generally focus on storing files on online servers as opposed to a local hard drive, so that multiple devices can have access to the data over an Internet connection.
Apple is thinking about "a world where the personal cloud is rapidly displacing the personal computer as the center of the consumer's digital life," said Michael Gartenberg, an industry analyst with Gartner.
With the Mountain Lion update, Apple is calling the overall operating system OS X, instead of Mac OS X. This move and the continuing convergence between Macs and iOS devices raises questions about whether one day, the two products will run the same operating system. Mr. Gartenberg said he did not think that would be the case.
"When you try to unify those devices, you end up with weird devices," he said. Apple is creating a similar look and feel for the two operating systems to create a sense of familiarity among its different computing platforms, which could make customers more loyal to the brand, Mr. Gartenberg said.
In other words, the similarities and new features mean that if you own an iPhone, it makes more sense to buy a Mac as opposed to a Windows PC. Or if you own a Mac, you might as well get an iPhone or iPad, as opposed to an Android device.
"Consumers don't like change and they don't like uncertainty," said Stephen Baker, vice president for industry analysis at the NPD Group. "When I, as the consumer, know that I can get a consistent experience across all my devices, it makes it much easier for me to buy products from that company since I know the learning curve will be short."
Apple released the early version of Mountain Lion on Thursday for software makers to get a head start on making apps for the operating system. The official Mountain Lion upgrade is due for release this summer, one year after the release of Mac OS X Lion, Apple's current Mac operating system.
An Apple spokesman said no executives were available to comment.
The annual release schedule for OS X upgrades shows that Apple is still pushing Mac products, even though the iPad and iPhone account for 72 percent of the company's total revenue. But many features in Mountain Lion are already in iOS, so it appears that the Mac is still in the back seat.
"Apple's future is iOS," said Phillip Ryu, chief executive of Impending, a company that makes iPhone apps. "It's obvious OS X is playing catch-up and second fiddle. The Mac is in Apple's future, but it's not the destination."
Take a load off with crowdsourced bathroom locator apps
By Scott Raymond.
Summary: In a hurry? Feeling the pressure build? Don't strain any longer, there are public bathroom locator apps available for Android and iPhone.
How often has this happened to you? You're in an unfamiliar place, and the call of nature hits you unexpectedly. Many stores don't let you use the bathroom, even if you buy something. What if you're not in a mall, or a department store, or near a gas station where facilities are ubiquitous.
Don't feel down in the dumps, because you don't have to dance around the issue any longer. Thanks to your smartphone and a selection of applications, you can relieve yourself of worry. I found several apps that were available on both Android and iPhone platforms. They really help out in a pinch.
First up is Sit or Squat. This app is free for both Android and iPhone, and also has a website. You can find bathrooms by entering a location, or by GPS locator. You can rate the facilities, leave a review, or even add a new location with photos.
Next up is Toilet Finder. Free for both Android and iPhone, it also has Nokia and Windows Phone versions as well. Also a crowd-sourced bathroom locator, it shows the nearest bathrooms on the map, along with distances-which is handy when your speed is reduced by clamping your legs together.
Finally there's Find Toilets, which is free for Android (with ads) and 99 cents for the iPhone version. This one stands out by providing custom directions to the nearest facility. With GPS, it also provides latitude and longitude, which is quite handy if you need to nuke the site from orbit after that burrito.
And if you need to keep yourself occupied while you're taking care of business, you can grab these games for your phone: Drag Toilet Paper for Android and iDrag Paper for iPhone.
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Mozilla's Boot2Gecko Mobile Platform and Gaia UI
Mozilla's Boot2Gecko Mobile Platform and Gaia UI
By Ryan Paul.
Mozilla launched a new project last year called Boot2Gecko (B2G) with the aim of developing a mobile operating system. The platform's user interface and application stack will be built entirely with standards-based web technologies and will run on top of Gecko, the HTML rendering engine used in the Firefox web browser. The B2G project has advanced at a rapid pace this year and the platform is beginning to take shape.
The B2G team at Mozilla is preparing to give a demo of the platform's user experience at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) event. Mozilla's Brendan Eich told us via Twitter that the B2G project has already attracted partners, including one that is developing its own custom home screen. This suggests that multiple parties, possibly hardware vendors, are interested in adopting the platform.
According to a roadmap recently published by Mozilla, the B2G project could potentially reach the product stage by the second quarter of 2012. That's a highly ambitious target, but the project's impressive rate of development suggests that it can be done. The pervasive use of HTML and JavaScript to build the user interface and application stack is no doubt speeding the project along. Web technologies are very conducive to rapid development.
The B2G platform consists of three main layers. The bottom layer, which is called Gonk, includes the Linux kernel, the hardware abstraction layer, the telephony stack, and other low-level system components. The middle layer is the Gecko rendering engine, which has been improved with new APIs that expose device capabilities. The top layer is Gaia, the B2G user interface, which is built entirely with HTML and JavaScript.
The Linux kernel that is used in Gonk is said to be "reasonably close" to upstream Linux. According to Mozilla's documentation, Gonk uses some of the underlying bits of the Android open source project, including some minor kernel customizations, in order to make it easier for hardware vendors to get B2G running on Android hardware. B2G is not based on Android, however, and will not run Android applications. It's currently possible to replace the Android environment on a Samsung Galaxy S II with a B2G build.
Much of the interaction between the Gecko and Gonk layers will be mediated by a B2G process that runs with a high privilege level and acts as a sort of Gecko server. The B2G process will paint to the framebuffer and interact with hardware components like a built-in GPS antenna or camera.
The wireless modem functionality is implemented in a radio interface layer (RIL) daemon, which B2G will interact with through a simple proxy process. Actual web content and multimedia playback will be handled by separate processes that communicate with the B2G process.
Mozilla aims to build the entire B2G user interface and application stack with native HTML and JavaScript. In order to accomplish that, Mozilla launched the WebAPI project, which exposes device functionality to web content through JavaScript APIs. Mozilla has already previously introduced APIs for accessing certain device capabilities, such as the accelerometer and geolocation APIs that are supported in the mobile versions of Firefox.
The WebAPI project goes a step further and adds a great deal of additional functionality for tasks like taking pictures with the built-in camera, dialing the phone, accessing the device's battery level and status, sending and managing SMS messages, accessing the user's address book, and making a device vibrate. These capabilities are largely made accessible to web content through a set of JavaScript APIs. This means that the B2G dialer interface, for example, is just a web page that uses a JavaScript function to initiate a call.
Mozilla is working to standardize these APIs through the W3C Device APIs working group. In theory, the same underlying JavaScript APIs that are used to enable access to underlying platform features on B2G could eventually be supported natively in the default web browsers that ship with other platforms.
The standardization effort around device APIs is especially significant. If the APIs gain widespread adoption, it would make it possible for large portions of the B2G user experience and application stack (which are, essentially, just web content) to run in web browsers on other platforms. At that heart of Mozilla's agenda for B2G is a vision of the future in which browser-based mobile applications, built with standards-based HTML and JavaScript, will be capable of doing everything that can be done today with the native mobile application development frameworks.
Because B2G's Gaia user interface layer is implemented in HTML and JavaScript, it can technically run in a regular desktop web browser. Of course, the device-related capabilities will only work when the content is run in an environment that has WebAPI support.
We tested the Gaia home screen user interface and several of the platform's applications in a Firefox nightly build. All we had to do to get it running was download the code from the relevant GitHub repository and then open the homescreen.html file in Firefox.
When the page loads, the user will see the B2G lock screen, which displays the current date and time. The home screen interface can be accessed by dragging the lock screen up. The home screen displays a grid of application launchers and has a notification bar at the top. You can drag a notification slider down from the bar, much like the equivalent user interface element in Android.
If you look at the source code of the homescreen.html page, you will see that the contents of the interface, including the lock screen, are created with HTML div tags with some JavaScript code to handle interaction and populate the values. It's quite simple and predictable web content.
Individual applications run inside of a frame in the homescreen interface. We tested several applications, including a dialer, a web browser, and a map application. Like the home screen, these are all implemented in HTML and CSS. The web browser is basically a web page with an HTML input element for the URL bar and an embedded iframe element where the page content loads.
The current implementation of the Gaia environment is still simplistic and incomplete, but it offers a compelling demonstration of how conventional web content can be used to create a smartphone user experience. It's possible to do anything in the B2G user interface that can be done with HTML and CSS, so the possibilities for styling and theming are prodigiously extensive. Such intrinsic flexibility could help make B2G appealing to hardware vendors because it would make it easier for them to create custom user interfaces that differentiate their products.
Mozilla hasn't created an HTML-based widget toolkit for application development. The applications currently included in Gaia are just straight markup with CSS for design. It's theoretically possible to use existing HTML widget toolkits in B2G, however, such as jQuery Mobile and Sencha Touch.
The B2G project is off to an impressive start. The underlying concept of bringing native application capabilities to the standards-based web technology stack is also tremendously compelling. It hints at the possibility that the open web could someday provide a unified application platform for mobile devices.
It's also worth noting that the project is entirely open. As Eich pointed out to us yesterday in response to our coverage of Open webOS, the B2G project has had open governance and public source code since its first day. B2G also benefits from Mozilla's engineering talent and potential partners. The B2G platform has an opportunity to bring positive disruption to the mobile landscape and be a serious contender.
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Mozilla to reveal allies for its challenge to Android and iOS
Mozilla to reveal allies for its challenge to Android and iOS
By Stephen Shankland.
Expect partners for Mozilla's Boot to Gecko, a mobile OS for Web apps, to emerge at Mobile World Congress. B2G has big challenges, but there are no easy ways into the mobile market.
Firefox developer Mozilla will reveal partners later this month for its Boot to Gecko project, an ambitious attempt to build a browser-based operating system for mobile devices.
At first glance, it's easy to write off Boot to Gecko (B2G) as doomed from the start. When it comes to taking on iOS and Android, WebOS was a dud, BlackBerry OS is struggling, and Microsoft is carving out a niche for Windows Phone only by dint of extraordinary effort.
But B2G has a couple things going for it. First, it's a browser-based operating system, meaning that Web apps become its native apps. With legions of Web programmers already at work and increasingly attuned to mobile browsing, B2G isn't starting from scratch.
Second, it turns out, B2G has allies.
"B2G is partnering up," Mozilla Chief Technology Officer Brendan Eich said in a tweet. "More at MWC," he added, referring to the frenzied Mobile World Congress show that starts in a week and a half in Barcelona, Spain.
Having Web developers as allies is nice, but having strong partners is essential--especially because Mozilla plans for B2G products to arrive in the second quarter. Without a vehicle to deliver B2G into users' hands, the software will be mostly irrelevant.
And Mozilla doesn't want to be on the sidelines. The non-profit's mission is to keep the Web open, and it can't do that without some leverage on the actual technology used. Firefox on personal computers has served Mozilla's purpose, but Chrome and Microsoft bring new competition there, and Mozilla hasn't had much success so far gaining a foothold on the mobile Web.
B2G partners
So who might become a B2G partner? I'm guessing that the most likely candidates are the mobile network operators, aka carriers. They hold a powerful position in the mobile market, in particular because their strong retail presence is often the channel that delivers phones into customers' hands. But they've seen handset makers such as Apple and software companies such as Google usurp much of their power.
Indeed, last year at Mobile World Congress, 24 mobile operators launched the Wholesale Applications Community, an effort to promote Web apps that can run on any phone. WAC is essentially an attempted end-run around Apple's App Store and Google's Android Marketplace. WAC allies include AT&T, Verizon Wireless, NTT DoCoMo, Deutsche Telekom, China Mobile, and Vodafone.
WAC hasn't dented Apple and Google dominance when it comes to mobile apps. But it does show that some powerful players have an appetite for Web-app technology as a way to counterbalance the stronger players. Perhaps some of them see B2G as a new way to serve this goal.
Carriers today are in danger of being relegated to the role of retailer and dump pipe, with not much influence over online services, app stores, and other cash-generating possibilities. No doubt carriers would like to return to the days when they exerted a lot more power over the mobile marketplace.
B2G in the limelight
B2G is one of Mozilla's top 2012 priorities that the browser maker unveiled earlier this week. The organization's overarching goal is to try to break the ecosystem lock-in that can trap customers into a technology stack extending from device hardware through the operating system and reaches up to services and app stores.
B2G plays a role in Mozilla's plan to use Web apps to break the lock-in.
"A truly Web-based OS for mobile phones and tablets would enable the ultimate in user choice and developer opportunity, both from a technology and an ecosystem point of view," said Jay Sullivan, Mozilla's vice president of products of the plan. "Boot to Gecko is a project to build a OS that runs HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS directly on device hardware without the need for an intermediate OS layer."
According to Mozilla's B2G road map, the organization wants to demonstrate the mobile software in the first quarter of 2012 and build it into products in the second quarter.
Software distribution is a higher-level part of the ecosystem that Mozilla hopes to crack. First, it's got plans for its own coming marketplace. Second, it's working on technology that would let other app stores work with it, so people who buy a Web-app game from one won't have to re-purchase it later from another.
And the operating system layer is also key. As with Chrome OS, Google's laptop-oriented browser OS, programmers write software that runs on the browser. The devices don't expose the underlying sub-browser OS (Linux in BTG's case) that handles hardware details such as displaying pixels, paying attention to multitouch gestures, or putting a processor to sleep when it's idle.
But to make a smartphone useful, new services are needed beyond what browsers traditionally have offered. Thus Mozilla's WebAPI effort to provide interfaces so apps running in the browser can dial the phone, operate the camera, send and receive text messages, manage an address book, dim or brighten the screen, and monitor battery levels.
Until recently, the WebAPI work was somewhat at odds with a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) project caled Device API (DAP) that's backed by browser maker Opera and others. In January, though, Mozilla agreed to marry its WebAPI project with DAP.
And of course the browser itself is at the center of the project. Mozilla has been working for years on a mobile browser project called Fennec, but has been thwarted when the operating systems it supported fell by the wayside. Now it's got Firefox working on on Android, though.
Many of ingredients necessary for Mozilla's mobile success are therefore coming together. The next steps, though--persuading partners to commit strongly, and attracting developers, and winning customers--are out of the organization's direct control.
Cracking the mobile market is tough. But with Firefox effectively barred from iOS and Windows Phone and not installed by default on Android, Mozilla has no easier ways to steer the mobile market.
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četvrtak, 16.02.2012.
Would you buy 8-inch iPad?
Would you buy 8-inch iPad?
By Joe Wilcox, VIA:betanews.com.
Wall Street Journal claims that Apple is testing a smaller tablet, around 8 inches. The question: Would you buy one, if available?
Who knows, maybe your answer will help Apple, given how super-secretive is the company's product development. You can be the customer research Apple should seek before launching new products, particularly now that Steve Jobs -- master of good taste and guiding voice of one -- is gone. Please answer in comments and take our poll. But first read this perspective on what 8 inches could mean.
Pricing Continuum
Analysts have debated whether or not tablets are PCs. Canalys and DisplaySearch say yes, Gartner and IDC say no. But from Apple's perspective, the answer is meaningless. The company sells a continuum of mobile computing products available to consumers from free to $2,499:
iPhone: free, $99, $199, $299, $399
iPad: $499, $599, $629, $699, $729, $829
MacBook Air/Pro: $999, $1,199, $1,299, $1,499, $1,599, $1,799, $1,999, 2,499
The only meaningful gaps are $1,399, $1,699 and $1,899 -- and up in that range, does it matter? No. At the low end, Apple has pricing covered, and that's ignoring any overlap from iPod nano and touch. Apple doesn't price to compete with other companies so much as to offer a full spectrum of its own stuff. The approach presumes the buyer already thinks "I want to buy Apple" and just needs something that fits his or her needs and budget.
Pricing is an important consideration for anticipating any Apple product strategy because the company is master of the upsell, providing something just a little bit better -- different/additional benefits -- for a little more money. Related: Offering something a little bit less for lower price to attract new buyers. So immediately I ask: Where does 8-inch iPad fit in?
Size Matters
The question is important because Apple also maximizes margins like no other hardware manufacturer selling consumer products. Where would an 8-inch tablet add to overall sales without taking away from (presumably) higher-margin iPad 3? More importantly, does size matter that much as a differentiator?
In the laptop space, Apple shows that size does matter, given the popularity of MacBook Air and Intel's push to get every OEM in the Windows camp to adopt ultrabook. Consumers (and many business users) want something lighter and thinner to carry around; heck, even iPad sales -- 55 million since launch -- is proof point. Additionally, Amazon's success selling 7-inch, $199 Kindle Fire shows there is a market for lower-cost, smaller tablets. The strategy proved most successful with iPod, where size was a huge sales differentiator.
Taking the size conundrum before price, there's question: Does the buyer benefit more from an 8-inch iPad versus 9.7 inches, which is what Apple offers today? iPad 3 is the answer, if rumors about high-resolution display and other features are true.
Apple typically doesn't lower prices like many of its competitors. Rather, the company introduces something else, with different features, for less money while adding more value to the product line already available for higher price. From that perspective, 8-inch iPad makes lots of sense. iPad 3 would sell for the same prices as today, while the smaller tablet would cost consumers less, maybe as low as $299 to start. iPad 3 would differentiate from its smaller sibling with extras like higher-resolution display, better camera (maybe none on the 8-incher) and Siri, for example.
Where some readers will disagree: The reason. I don't see Apple responding to competition from Kindle Fire or other, smaller, cheaper tablets so much as conducting business as usual. Apple effectively used this kind of pricing strategy throughout iPod's rise. Lower prices on newer, smaller models -- like the original iPod nano seven years ago -- broadened the customer base of buyers. Same can be said of MacBook Air, which compelling features are size and price. If consumers want more graphics capabilities, larger screens or higher resolution, they pay more for MacBook Pro.
iPhone is an interesting variation on the model. Rather than introduce new, lower-cost smartphones, Apple chose to keep older ones (with less storage capacity) in market selling for less money. The approach is possible because wireless carriers subsidize the phone's price, which keeps Apple's margins still fairly high. Nevertheless, people choosing free iPhone 3GS or $99 iPhone 4 get less than they would with 4S. Apple broadens the iPhone market after initial sales expansion to more buyers. But only after maximizing margins from smartphones selling for more money.
Teach Me
So what about iPad? Is there room in the continuum for a smaller, lower-priced tablet? Yes is the answer based on Apple's historical strategy. The question: Is it too soon, since iPad still sells so well starting at $499? Normally I would answer yes.
But there is another consideration: electronic textbooks. Last month, Apple kicked off a major push into the e-textbook market with iBooks 2, iBooks Author and iTunes U. Seems to me that an 8-inch iPad would be much better suited to reading books than iPad 2 (or presumably its successor).
However, just because Apple might be testing an 8-inch iPad doesn't mean we'll ever see it, or anytime soon. Apple is known for testing lots of products that either never come to market or do so much later as something else. For example, Apple was rumored to be testing a smartphone for years before Jobs announced one in January 2007.
So I regard any rumors of smaller iPad as only being somewhat credible. However if Apple was to release a smaller iPad this year, back-to-school season would make sense, except it would be uncharacteristic for a model so different to release so soon after major update to a flagship product -- in this case the forthcoming iPad 3.
So back to the question, if available, would you buy 8-inch iPad? Again, please answer in comments below and take the poll above.
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Thunderbolt: One Year Later
Thunderbolt: One Year Later
By Mauricio Grijalva, Macworld.
It's been almost 12 months since Thunderbolt made its debut on the 2011 MacBook Pro. In that time, just a few dozen Thunderbolt products have shipped, to the disappointment of users eager to take advantage of the fast connection.
The reasons for the lack of devices range from the technical to the financial. For Hitachi, implementing Thunderbolt technology into their products turned out to be a bit more complex than they had anticipated. Back in September, the company announced that they would begin shipping Thunderbolt G-Raid and G-Drive external drives in October, but had to put those plans on hold.
"The complex technical nature of Thunderbolt required us to take extra time with design, testing and quality assurance, as the inside of a Thunderbolt product is considerably more complicated than a simple USB device," explained Mike Williams, VP and General Manager of branded business for Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.
Unlike USB and FireWire, Thunderbolt combines video, audio, data, and power into one single connection, allowing up to 10Gbps of information to be passed through. The technology's complexity even extends to the cable, where chips in the connectors on both ends of the cable help with the heavy lifting.
"It's a developing process. It isn't completely there yet, but we've worked closely with Intel and Apple, and now we're seeing great performance," Williams said. Due to the delay, Hitachi now hopes to ship products in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Sonnet Technologies experienced a similar situation. At the NAB Show in April 2011, the company announced a slew of Thunderbolt storage devices and adapter cards. Since then, only one product, the Echo ExpressCard/34 Thunderbolt Adapter, is currently for sale.
"The overall development and testing is taking a bit longer than we thought," explained Greg LaPonte, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Sonnet.
After looking at the cost benefits, Sonnet decided to put the development of Thunderbolt drives on the back burner and focus on making adapters. Instead of releasing individual gigabit ethernet and FireWire 800 adapters, as originally intended, Sonnet shipped the Echo instead, which works with ExpressCard/34 cards. "When we saw how much adapters would cost, we decided it would be better to put out the Echo to provide a better value," LaPonte said.
In BlackMagic Design's case, it wasn't the technological complexity of the new protocol that kept their products from entering the market. Rather, it was the certification process. According to Dan May, president of BlackMagic's US Office, products must be certified and approved by Apple and Intel before they are released. In the case of the Intensity Extreme, a video capture and playback device, that procedure added about a few weeks to the development process.
"We wanted to try making it so that the device was powered through the Thunderbolt port, which presented some new challenges," May said. "It delayed us for about a month, but we got it out."
May didn't seem to mind the delay though, since he praised Apple and Intel's way of doing things. "Both Apple and Intel have been hands-on in this. They've made the process smooth. Everyone involved said, 'let's make sure everything is done the right way.'"
Some manufacturers are waiting for costs to come down, as Larry O'Connor, CEO of Other World Computing, conveyed to Macworld. "Everyone points to the products that are out there and asking why we aren't there yet," said O'Connor. "But many of the same products pointed to, the number one complaint is the high cost. We're waiting for the right performance, right features, and cost consideration as well."
One example of that high cost is with the Thunderbolt cable itself, which currently retails for Ł39/US$49, and can only be purchased through Apple. The cheapest Thunderbolt accessory available is the Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt adapter, which costs $100 in the US and isn't available yet in the UK -- but it doesn't include an external drive.
The companies that have released Thunderbolt products say they have been met with praise. Mike Mihalik, Senior Engineer & Program Manager at LaCie, said customers were happy with the Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Series, released last September and tested by us here. "The response has been excellent, with demand exceeding our expectations. We've had to increase our initial forecasts several times. Only recently have we been able to ramp up volumes to meet our worldwide demands."
Despite the delays and current lack of devices, companies are still excited about the technology and its potential. Hitachi's Williams feels that Thunderbolt's biggest impact will be in video production. The new technology "helps laptops and desktops morph into full-fledged video editing workstations. Just imagine the blazing speed that you can get while editing in the field."
Several of the company representatives pointed out that Thunderbolt adaption will only continue to flourish. Apple recently announced that it sold 5.2 million Thunderbolt-equipped Macs in the fiscal first quarter of 2012, outpacing the rest of the PC industry, and the numbers are expected to grow.
More products were unveiled at CES and more recently at Macworld | iWorld, where Seagate and Western Digital demonstrated their new Thunderbolt adapter and hard drive, respectively.
PC manufacturers have also thrown their support behind the protocol. Asus and Acer have expressed their interest in adding Thunderbolt to their line of products later this year.
BlackMagic's May thinks Thunderbolt could even show up in non-computer devices in the future. "Thunderbolt continues to push boundaries, so we're definitely excited," he said. "How great would it be to have a Thunderbolt connection in your car?"
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The Next-Generation MacBook Pro 2012
The Next-Generation MacBook Pro 2012
BY JESUS DIAZ, VIA:gizmodo.com.
Have no doubt about this: Apple is revamping their MacBook Pro line in 2012 in a radical way - not merely evolutionary. We know this not because of the usual rumors, but because there is no way this will not happen.
A radical but logical change
When Steve Jobs said that the MacBook Air was the future of laptops, he was right. To the disgust of a vocal minority, Apple destroyed lots of ancient technology with the Air. They simplified its guts and squeezed its industrial design to create an amazing machine. The result was a huge success - and the whole industry started their photocopiers once again.
It's only logical that they will take the same steps with their MacBook Pro. It's not only a rational consequence of the Air, it's also extremely convenient for their bottom line and their public image: The new MacBook Pros - and not the beefed-up iPad 3 - will be the first real test for the new executive team at Apple.
They need to make a statement. Here's how.
Faster guts
The new MacBook Pro will use Ivy Bridge, the new Intel 22-nanometer architecture with 3D transistors that will provide quite a speed boost over the current MacBooks. Intel estimates that it Ivy Bridge will provide a 20 percent performance boost with comparable Sandy Bridge laptops. Ivy Bridge also provides a 30 percent boost in integrated graphics performance, although these machines will use something stronger to drive graphic intensive applications (more on this later).
No hard drives
Screw the hard drives. It's antiquated technology with a negative impact on battery life. Apple loves SSD and Apple users love SSD. They may not be the cheapest, but it's the fastest, safest and most power efficient storage technology for mobile devices. Moving their entire laptop line to SSD will also give them more buying power, which will help them keep the same price and benefit margins.
SSDs are also key for speed. In fact, for most consumers, it's also one of the key factors to boosting speed perception, even more than the processor and the graphic cards. When everything loads and saves almost instantly, people instantly get it, which is what happened with the Air.
No legacy stuff
The new MacBook Pro 2012 line will get rid of legacy technology. That means no more optical drives, and no more Ethernet port and FireWire. These machines will have nothing but a bunch of Thunderbolt and USB ports, plus the SD memory card reader, just like the MacBook Air. By taking this out, the new machines will save space and simplify the electronics on board.
I can't remember the last time I used my optical drive. All my media and application consumption goes through online services, like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and iTunes. Apple and thousands of developers have already shifted to 100% digital downloads for software distribution. The optical drive is dead.
And I can't remember the last time I used my Ethernet port. Most consumers are in the same position. And while FireWire is the only point of conflict I may have - since I use it for backups and extra disk space - an adapter will easily an cheaply take care of any legacy equipment. In fact, there's plenty of Thunderbolt adapters at this point, for FireWire, Gigabit Ethernet, and even PC Cards.
Retina-ish display
The machines will have a high definition Retina-ish display. This is part of Apple's ongoing move to HiDPI.
How much? They will not be as dense as the iPhone's 326 pixels per inch - which is as high as your average printed page - but they will be close enough. The current 15-inch MacBook has a 128-pixel-per-inch display (1440 by 900 pixels), while the 17-inch runs at 133 pixels per inch (1920 by 1200 pixels). These relative resolutions are similar to the current MacBook Airs.
The question now is if they would be able to double these resolutions to 2880 by 1800 pixels and 3840 by 2400 pixels. It seems insane and there's no evidence of anyone manufacturing these kind of displays.
But we know that there are graphic cards that can push that kind of power. We also know that, before the iPhone 4 came out, nobody had heard of a 326ppi Retina Display before. Apple had bought all of them and they kept the lid on them until the iPhone 4 was announced.
Perhaps Apple will just increase the resolution to 180 or 200ppi. Given the distance from your eyes to the screen, 200ppi will be enough to achieve close to the effect of a "retina" display in the iPhone, the point in which you can't see pixels. And still, it will be a lot of extra pixels.
Killer graphics
All those extra pixels will require a lot of graphic muscle. Apple uses AMD Radeon graphics in all their MacBooks now, so most probably they will stick with them. AMD is set to introduce their new high end, mobile 28nm process graphics engine in the second quarter of 2012. They will be part of the Radeon HD 7700m family.
If Apple continues with AMD, the top of the line MacBooks will likely use the HD 7770M (their current notebooks us the HD 6670M). Given the boost in resolution, I wouldn't be surprised if the highest end came with 2GB of GDDR5 memory. The current top of the line MacBook has 1GB of GGDR5 RAM. The cheaper option could be the HD 7750M, with 1GB of GGDR5 memory.
If Apple decided to change with Nvidia, it's not clear what would they use. Someone leaked that Samsung's Ivy Bridge laptop would use a Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M with 2GB DDR5, but GTX graphics would probably run too hot to be incorporated into a super-slim product like the MacBook Pro 2012.
Redesigned enclosure
That will be the biggest selling point of these new MacBook Pros. These things will have a super-slim wedge profile. Perhaps even more so than the Macbook Air, given that they will have a largest surface to spread the components. They will also be really light compared to the current machines, all thanks to the saving achieved by getting rid of so much legacy crap. Although maybe they will be less aggressive on the weight shaving and increase the space used by the battery.
Battery capacity
Something that will make everyone extremely happy and will be truly disruptive: some insane battery life. Given the reduction of components and the lack of a hard drive, an increased battery life seems more than reasonable no matter what. If they decide to increase the amount of battery cells, then maybe we could witness a laptop that will run for an entire work day on a single battery charge. Or close enough. If Apple is going radical on these, I would expect a radical battery life.
One more thing: Full surface trackpad
This is something that has been rumored before, but now I believe it may happen: the entire palmrest of the new MacBook 2012 will be a multitouch trackpad. It's obvious that, technologically, Apple can accomplish this. They have patents that cover detection of palm touch vs finger touch vs accidental touch. Even a Wacom Bamboo tablet can distinguish between my fingers and my palm.
But they would not do it just because they can. They would do it mainly for two reasons.
The first, because the full surface would be the cornerstone for the final step in the metamorphosis of Mac OS X. A metamorphosis that started with the success of multitouch and direct interface manipulation on iPhone and iPad.
Lion brought some of those concepts into Mac OS X and, while it isn't the successful merging that I was hoping for, it clearly shows where Apple is headed. The next Mac OS X will only get deeper into multitouch, just like Microsoft is doing with Metro and Windows 8. A full surface trackpad - not a touchscreen - will be the key in this transition for laptops and the desktop (for an idea of how this could work you only need to see the video next to these lines).
But there's perhaps a more important reason for the introduction of such an innovation: the "one more thing" factor. Cook and the new executive team need to show the world that they have what it takes, that they can keep innovating and pulling rabbits out of their hats just like the old boss did. He would have gone something like this:
"But why have just a trackpad? The current trackpad is very good, but too limiting. What about if we could give you the entire palmrest as a trackpad? It's a hard technological challenge, but we found a way to differenciate between your palms and your fingers, so your MacBook doesn't get confused and you can use multitouch with Mac OS X as easy as you can do it in your iPad! So we did it. We are eliminating the little trackpad and giving you a trackpad when you can freely use multitouch. We love it. And we think you will love it too. Let me show it to you."
Showing the world that they can pull something like this will be the perfect "Yes We Can Kick Ass Without Steve" statement from Cook's Apple. Because, even while they have their amazing economic results, they need to demonstrate the world that they can keep "making magic" happen for a long time.
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BlackBerry faces new challenge from U.S. agency
BlackBerry faces new challenge from U.S. agency
By Alastair Sharp.
(Reuters) - In another blow for beleaguered BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, the U.S. federal government's main procurement agency is issuing iPhones and Android-based devices to some of its 17,000 workers.
While the General Services Administration does not impose its purchasing decisions on other parts of the government, the terms and conditions it negotiates can be used as a blueprint for other agencies.
"We actively seek to be progressive in our adoption of new technologies so that we can learn the lessons which will inform our client and customer agencies as they seek to go down a similar path," the GSA's chief information officer, Casey Coleman, told Reuters in a phone interview on Tuesday.
Once Washington's only option for secure mobile communication, RIM has struggled to offset a rising tide of companies allowing their workers to use their own devices for work or supplying them with rival devices, which have made strides towards matching the BlackBerry's famed security.
The GSA - which manages $500 billion of government assets including telecom, information technology and real estate - is also testing the use of employees' personal smartphones and tablets on their secure networks, a popular move for corporations looking to cut costs.
Coleman said that BlackBerry remains by far the most used smartphone at GSA, with devices from Apple and those using Google's Android software accounting for less than 5 percent of the agency's fleet, which covers the majority of GSA employees.
The personal smartphone pilot is to supplement rather than replace government-issued devices, she said, and the GSA has no plans to abandon RIM servers, which manage secure BlackBerry traffic.
RIM charges a fee for use of its servers and data centers, which compress and encrypt email and other sensitive data.
The GSA's move is just the latest hurdle to face Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM.
Another U.S. agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said last week it would ditch the servers that run its BlackBerrys by June as it trimmed costs.
Oilfield services company Halliburton plans to switch 4,500 BlackBerry-toting employees to iPhones, saying it's is better suited to its needs. Several banks have also welcomed BlackBerry rivals.
The NOAA move was made possible after it switched its desktop-based software to Google Apps for Government.
Coleman said the GSA moved to Google Apps in June, cutting its costs in half compared with its legacy desktop software.
The GSA plans to offer a service so other agencies can quickly order Web-based email, she said.
"This is an area that is changing and evolving rapidly and as the market changes we will continue to seek to provide our employees with the best devices for them to do their best work."
BlackBerry Dealt Blow as U.S. Procurement Agency Issues IPhones to Staff
By Hugo Miller.
The General Services Administration, the U.S. government's main procurement agency, has begun issuing iPhones alongside BlackBerrys, delivering another knock to Research In Motion Ltd.'s once dominant position in Washington.
The GSA, with 12,635 employees, supplies more than US$70-billion worth of products and services to other federal agencies a year. GSA staff may now request Apple Inc. phones and devices running Google Inc.'s Android software if they have applications that can help them work more efficiently with customers like the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, said Deborah Ruiz, a GSA spokeswoman. She didn't say when the change took effect.
The move highlights the challenge facing Thorsten Heins, RIM's new chief executive officer, who has vowed to rethink the way the company markets and sells BlackBerrys to reverse slumping demand. Sales in the U.S. fell 45% last quarter as consumers and businesses opted for iPhones or Android devices for their better Web browsers and wider array of apps.
The U.S. decline is dragging down RIM's global market share even as sales in emerging markets like India and Indonesia climb. RIM's share of the worldwide smartphone market slid to 8.2% in the fourth quarter from 14% a year earlier, while Apple's share rose to 24% from 16% in the same period, according to research firm IDC.
Jamie Ernst, a spokeswoman for RIM, didn't have any immediate comment.
Approved Devices
The sales drop has led to a 90% plunge in Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM's share price from its 2008 high. RIM fell 0.7% to US$14.80 at 11:41 a.m. New York time. Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple gained 0.4% to US$504.81.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said last week it would support BlackBerrys until May and then begin replacing them with iPhones. Apple's devices can be integrated into its current infrastructure more cheaply than paying for a dedicated BlackBerry server, said Joe Klimavicz, chief information officer of the the weather, ocean and fisheries research agency with 13,000 workers.
Halliburton Co., the world's second-largest oilfield- services provider, said last week it will phase out 4,500 BlackBerrys and switch to the iPhone because the Apple device does a better job of supporting internal company applications like software to monitor well construction.
The GSA, which also manages office buildings for more than a million federal employees across the U.S., picks suppliers and negotiates prices for more than 12 million products and services ranging from consulting contracts to office supplies and laboratory equipment.
The Washington-based agency will continue to issue BlackBerrys alongside other devices and allow employees to choose their own device from an approved list, Ruiz said. The agency has no plans to support employees' own devices, a policy adopted by some companies seeking to reduce costs.
Ruiz didn't say how many smartphones the GSA issues to employees or what the breakdown is by type of device.
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Straddling the tablet/ laptop divide; Time for Android and iOS laptops
Straddling the tablet/ laptop divide; Time for Android and iOS laptops
By James Kendrick | VIA:zdnet.com.
Summary: Some folks (myself included) are successfully using tablets with keyboards for work tasks. Is there a market for Android/ iOS laptops and if so, what do they need?
Some folks (myself included) have been able to shift a good portion of work tasks from conventional laptops to tablets. This usually involves pairing the tablet, Android or iPad, with a small external keyboard for handling lots of text entry. There are plenty of keyboard options for both Android tablets and the iPad, and even slick two-piece tablets like the ASUS Transformer Prime. Whatever the solution that folks are using, it is interesting how many folks are straddling the tablet/ laptop divide.
My coverage of using both the iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab with keyboards is extensive, and I am constantly amazed how much of my work can be accomplished with these combos. While not everyone’s work is appropriate to be performed without a Windows or Mac laptop, the more I talk to folks the more of them I hear from who are able to leave the laptop behind and go the tablet/ keyboard route.
Even though I am using the tablet/ keyboard combo for more and more of my work, I still use the tablet without the keyboard at least half the time. That’s not the case with quite a few folks with whom I have discussed this; I am hearing from many that they are mostly leaving the tablet docked in the keyboard almost all of the time. This has me wondering if there is a viable market for a Android and iOS laptops?
If there is a significant enough interest for Android and iOS laptops, a few criteria would have to be met to be successful. Size is important, as a dedicated laptop shouldn’t be larger than existing two-piece combos being used today. It would make no sense to trade existing solutions for a dedicated laptop if the size and weight increased. I personally wouldn’t be interested in a laptop solution if the screen was bigger than 10 inches. The beauty of these two-piece systems are how small they are. Let’s keep the same for the laptop solution.
A laptop with iOS or Android would also have to be cheaper than the two-piece varieties. That should be feasible given there’s nothing new about the laptop form. Make these mobile laptops very thin and light, and cheaper than tablets plus external keyboards.
I used to think laptops with touch screens were a waste of money, but on an Android or iOS laptop I think they are required. Both of these OSes are optimized for touch operation, and it makes sense to take advantage of that on these little laptops.
One of the coolest features of the Transformer Prime is the second battery in the laptop dock. Together, the keyboard and tablet get about 20 hours of battery life. This could play into the dedicated laptop form, with a light second battery fitted inside that can generate over 12 hours of battery life combined with the main battery. Long battery life is a major reason these tablet/keyboard combos work so well, so do the same with the dedicated laptop form.
I am not sure that an Apple iOS laptop or an Android laptop would be widely accepted. It depends on the factors I have mentioned, plus how large the market is for those who would benefit from having a keyboard on the tablet form. Microsoft is betting a lot on Windows 8 on the ARM platform, both tablets and laptops, so perhaps the market exists. We’ll soon find out.
ARM Chief Touts Windows 8 Tablets, Questions Android's Appeal
By Damon Poeter, Via:pcmag.com.
In the process of reporting strong earnings for the fourth quarter on Tuesday, ARM CEO Warren East had some interesting things to say about Microsoft's coming Windows 8 release-namely, that it could propel more tablet sales than Google's Android mobile operating system has accomplished so far.
"Consumers are familiar with Microsoft and very familiar with Windows and they're less familiar with an Android environment," East said during an exchange with an analyst noticed by CNET. "Microsoft has an awareness advantage with consumers that the Android folks didn't have.
"It's up to Microsoft [and we'll see] how well they're going to exploit that advantage. But I think that's a fundamental difference."
East's comments add to the anticipation for Windows 8, expected to be released by Microsoft this fall and "accompanied by a tidal wave of tablets, hybrids, and convertibles," as PCMag.com lead laptop analyst Eric Grevstad put it recently.
Indeed, there's a lot for tablet fans to like about Windows 8, starting with Microsoft's recommended specs for a Windows 8 tablet. Grevstad breaks those down as "a 1,366-by-768-pixel screen with a minimum of five touch inputs; at least one USB 2.0 port; Wi-Fi and Bluetooth; a three-axis accelerometer; power, rotation lock, and volume buttons; 10GB or more of free storage space when taken out of the box; and a Windows key button measuring at least 10.5mm in diameter in the center of the bottom bezel."
And it's no secret that Microsoft has been courting tablet and smartphone makers who in the last several product cycles have overwhelmingly selected ARM-based chips to run their devices over the x86-based parts made by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.
In fact, Windows 8's release is likely to mark a pivotal moment in personal computing history as the long-running "Wintel" partnership of Microsoft and Intel takes a decidedly new turn. Not only is Microsoft tuning its next-generation operating system for non-x86 processor architectures, but Intel is concurrently optimizing its own Atom chips for Android, as it takes another shot at penetrating the mobile device market.
East did have some nice things to say about Android, of course. ARM's stellar growth, including a 45 percent increase in net income in its fourth quarter, owes a lot to the popularity of Android smartphones (Apple also uses ARM-based chips designed in-house in the iPhone and iPad).
If history is any lesson, he said, Android tablets just need "a little more time" to mature.
"Actually when Android phones were introduced, there was a lot of hype," East was quoted as saying by CNET. "And then, actually, they didn't take off in the sort of way that reflected that hype. Then a few years later-two years later-half a million units a day, 700,000 units a day. [Android phones now are] really ... a very successful product."
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Worldwide Mobile Phone Market Maintains Its Growth Trajectory in the Fourth Quarter Despite Soft Demand for Feature Phones, According to IDC
Worldwide Mobile Phone Market Maintains Its Growth Trajectory in the Fourth Quarter Despite Soft Demand for Feature Phones, According to IDC
FRAMINGHAM, Mass., Feb 01, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE), VIA:marketwatch.com.
The worldwide mobile phone market grew 6.1% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2011 (4Q11), as the feature phone market declined faster than anticipated, dragging market growth down to its lowest point in over two years. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped 427.4 million units in 4Q11 compared to 402.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010. The 6.1% year-over-year growth was higher than IDC's forecast of 4.4% for the quarter, but weaker than the 9.3% growth in 3Q11.
"The mobile phone market exhibited unusually low growth last quarter, which shows it is not immune to weaker macroeconomic conditions worldwide," said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker. "The introduction of high-growth products such as the iPhone 4S, which shipped in the fourth quarter, bolstered smartphone growth. Yet overall market growth fell to its lowest point since 3Q09 when the global economic recession was in full bloom."
While smartphones continue to grow in popularity, feature phones still comprise the majority of all mobile phone shipments. "Feature phones accounted for a majority of shipments from four of the five market leaders during the quarter," said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Phone Technology and Trends team. "Even though their proportion is eroding, feature phones maintain their appeal on the basis of price and ease of use.
"At the same time, feature phones are fighting to maintain their market share," adds Llamas. "To meet the challenge, feature phones are becoming more like smartphones, incorporating mobile Internet and third-party applications. While this may not stem the smartphone tide, it should slow down the rate at which smartphones are selected over feature phones."
Regional Highlights
-- In Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), the feature phone market declined in conjunction with the region's largest feature phone markets -- China, India, and Indonesia. The impact on phone demand due to the holiday season, which generally means a sales uplift, was minimal in this category. Meanwhile, smartphones maintained their growth momentum as the iPhone 4S was well received in Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan. Competition in the Android market intensified as mid-range vendors, such as Lenovo, Coolpad, and Huawei, shipped large numbers in their home market of China. Elsewhere, the rest of the Android market was dominated by Samsung, followed by HTC and LG. Windows Phone gained some momentum thanks to sales of the HTC Titan and Radar and Nokia Lumia. In Japan, pent-up demand for mobile phones after last year's natural disasters and weakened economy meant unusually high growth for the country's mobile phone market. Smartphone sellers, such as Apple, fared particularly well while non-Japanese vendors continue to make incremental gains in the market.
-- The Western European mobile phone market was impacted by lower demand, a result of the worsening economic environment. Smartphone growth was not enough to offset the feature phones decline, despite excellent performances from Apple and Samsung. Nokia experienced another difficult quarter as a result of its transition towards Windows Phones. Feature phone shipments were near historic lows, supported primarily by very low-end devices. Overall, the Central Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMA) markets showed strong double-digit growth due in large part to Samsung's continued strength in the regions. Bucking its global troubles, Nokia shipments flattened out in the regions after a strong third quarter, enabling it to remain the market leader in the regions. Apple continued to make quiet progress in the regions as well.
-- In North America, smartphones held the spotlight with the launch of the Apple iPhone 4S, while LTE smartphones from HTC, LG, Motorola, and Samsung also made important gains. Research In Motion launched several new phones running on BB OS 7 during the quarter, and signaled a late 2012 timetable for its first BlackBerry 10 smartphones to reach the market, leaving an opportunity to its competitors to attack its market share.
-- Smartphones also took center stage in Latin America with the launch of multiple models across the region, particularly sub-$200 Android models. The low price points have enabled broader appeal, and have also found placement among popular prepaid markets. Although smartphones continued to grab attention, low-cost feature phones ruled the market, with strong participation from Nokia, Samsung, and multiple Chinese vendors.
Vendor Highlights
Nokia finished the year exactly where it began: as the undisputed leader of total mobile phone shipments. The company took another step in its storied transition, having officially launched its first Windows Phone-powered Lumia smartphones and its Asha line of smartphone-like feature phones. While both have received positive response from the market, Nokia has been quick to adjust its retail experience, customer engagement, and hardware bug fixes. At the same time, the increased focus on the Lumia, combined with changing market conditions in key markets, has prompted Nokia to change its strategy on Symbian smartphones. Fewer Symbian devices will be sold in 2012. Still, Nokia's broad distribution around the world and manufacturing capabilities make it a serious contender to maintain its leadership position.
Samsung finished the quarter and the year reaching new record levels: breaking the 90 million unit mark for the first time in a single quarter and breaking the 300 million mark for the first time in a single year. Leading the charge for Samsung was its growing smartphone volumes, boosted by the release of several high-end devices (Galaxy S II, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Nexus), mass market models (Galaxy Ace, and Galaxy Y), and new Windows Phone smartphones (Focus Flash and the Focus S). These, along with its own steadily growing feature phone volumes, pushed Samsung closer to market leader Nokia, with fewer than 20 million units separating them in 4Q11.
Apple jumped into the third spot globally from the fifth spot last quarter thanks to a record-breaking quarter of shipments. That represents the Cupertino-based company's highest-ever ranking on IDC's Top 5 global mobile phone leaderboard. The launch of Apple's iPhone 4S smartphone, which is now available in over 90 countries (as of mid-January), was the primary reason the company leapt over LG and ZTE in 4Q11. Device sales in the U.S. and Japan were particularly strong given extra sales days in the quarter and carrier distribution.
LG's total volumes declined for the third consecutive quarter, sinking to levels not seen since the second quarter of 2007. Driving this result was a combination of waning interest in its aging feature phones and stalled smartphone volumes. In addition, from a full year perspective, LG posted the largest full year-over-year decline among the leading vendors. Still, the quarter did have some bright spots, including a return to profitability and a warm reception for its Optimus LTE smartphones across multiple markets. 2012 will feature more smartphones from LG, especially LTE-powered models, but the competition has similar smartphone strategies.
Chinese vendor ZTE nearly tied with LG for fourth place, with fewer than a million units separating the two vendors. Long known as a purveyor of entry level devices, ZTE's smartphones increasingly moved into the spotlight. The company's primary targets included countries throughout Asia/Pacific, but it also gained presence in EMEA and Latin America, and branched out into North America. Key models for the quarter included its popular mass-market Blade and mid-range Skate Android smartphones, and recently the company added its first Windows Phone-powered smartphone, the Tania.
Top Five Mobile Phone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Q4
2011 (Units in Millions)
Vendor 4Q11 Unit 4Q11 Market 4Q10 Unit 4Q10 Market Year-over-year
Shipments Share Shipments Share Change
Nokia 113.5 26.6% 123.7 30.7% -8.2%
Samsung 97.6 22.8% 80.7 20.0% 20.9%
Apple 37.0 8.7% 16.2 4.0% 128.4%
LG Electronics 17.7 4.1% 30.6 7.6% -42.2%
ZTE 17.1 4.0% 15.7 3.9% 8.9%
Others 144.5 33.8% 135.9 33.7% 6.3%
Total 427.4 100.0% 402.8 100.0% 6.1%
Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, February 1, 2012
Note: Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors.
On a full-year basis, the worldwide mobile phone market maintained its upward trajectory by growing 11.1% in 2011, which was down from the 18.7% year-over-year growth experienced in 2010. While part of the slowing growth can be attributed to softening demand for feature phones, IDC expects continued double-digit growth in the years ahead as smartphones continue to capture a greater share of the overall market.
Top Five Mobile Phone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share
Calendar Year 2011 (Units in Millions)
Vendor 2011 Unit 2011 Market 2010 Unit 2010 Market Year-over-year
Shipments Share Shipments Share Change
Nokia 417.1 27.0% 453.0 32.6% -7.9%
Samsung 329.4 21.3% 280.2 20.1% 17.6%
Apple 93.2 6.0% 47.5 3.4% 96.2%
LG Electronics 88.1 5.7% 116.7 8.4% -24.5%
ZTE 66.1 4.3% 50.5 3.6% 30.9%
Others 552.1 35.7% 443.6 31.9% 24.5%
Total 1,546.0 100.0% 1,391.5 100.0% 11.1%
Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, February 1, 2012
Note: Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors.
About IDC
IDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For more than 47 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com .
All product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
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Will mobile campaign donations be a game-changer for politicians?
Will mobile campaign donations be a game-changer for politicians?
BY MIKE FLACY, VIA:digitaltrends.com.
While many smaller retailers have adopted Square's mobile payment technology for consumer purchases, candidates seeking presidential office in 2012 have the same idea for fundraising.
Detailed by reports from both the campaigns of President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney, Square's mobile payments hardware is being rolled out to collect campaign donations. Fundraisers are being outfitted with the small, plastic credit card reader which can be used with the iPhone, 3G iPad or Android smartphone to collect money while campaigning within neighborhoods or other commercial locations. Assuming that this program is successful when collecting money for presidential candidates, more politicians in lower levels of office could also adopt the strategy of collecting thousands of micro-payments with mobile smartphones or tablets. During the 2010 campaign season, the Square application was used by New York politician Reshma Saujani as well as Silicon Valley's Josh Becker for political campaigns.
According to Obama re-election campaign spokeswoman Katie Hogan, she stated "Eventually we want to make a version of the Obama Square application available to everyone from within the App Store. Someone who is a supporter of the campaign can then download the app, get a Square attachment and can go around collecting donations." All money collected by the application would go directly to the Obama campaign and supporters wouldn't need to get the approval of the local campaign office to become a fundraiser. The Square application that's being used by campaign officials across the country does comply with Federal Election Commission's rules on mobile payment donations.
Last year, Square partnered with the Salvation Army in a similar manner to help the organization collect donations through credit cards rather than limiting collections to loose change, bills and checks. This program was rolled out in large cities such as New York City and San Francisco. It helped cut down on theft of typical collections, but Square also continued to collect its standard 2.75 percent fee on all transactions.
The same processing fee will apply to political campaign donations, but does offer the public a digital paper trail to keep track of the donation. Identical to the standard Square application, the payee will receive a receipt through SMS or email. Outlined within the Federal Election Commission's rules, the Square application has to collect specific information from the donor such as employer name, occupation, name, street address, city and zip code.
As stated by Square's brand marketing representative, "It's now easier than ever to give to campaigns of any political stripe. At a campaign, or any political event, donors will be able to give on the spot. They won't have to run home and get a check or fill out long paper forms."
Romney's campaign is also rolled out a "beta test" of the technology in Florida during today's primary with merchandise sales and fundraising. Since Romney won the Florida primary with approximately 46 percent of the vote, it's likely that Romney fundraisers are using the Square hardware to collect donations tonight from registered Republican voters.
According to Romney campaign digital director Zac Moffatt, he stated "Anything that reduces the barrier to donate is going to help us with our supporters. The challenge on this sort of thing is never with the technology, it's with the compliance. We're making sure everything we're doing follows fundraising rules and is compliant with the FEC," in regards to Square's mobile payment technology.
The Romney campaign is also looking into creating a custom mobile application, similar to Obama's campaign, that would allow anyone to collect money for the Republican candidate using the Square hardware. According to campaign officials, they are also looking into developing an iPhone specific application to collect donations through an app interface. However, Romney campaign officials are concerned about the 30 percent revenue cut that goes to Apple when a micro-transaction is conducted through an application downloaded from the iTunes App Store.
Facebook's Mobile Monthly Active Users Grew 21% Over Past Four Months
By Sarah Perez, VIA:techcrunch.com.
Earlier analyst estimates from December had pegged the monthly active users of Facebook's mobile apps at around 300 million per month. This number includes smartphone apps, like those for the Android and iPhone, but also apps that run on BlackBerry, Nokia, and feature phones. At the time, that number equated to roughly 40% of the company's overall user base.
Facebook hadn't revealed an official number for monthly active users on mobile since September, however, which was then at 350 million users for both mobile apps and mobile web combined. Today, thanks the Facebook IPO filing, we have an update to the official numbers: there are now 425 mobile monthly active users as of December 2011, out of Facebook's total 825 million users.
Facebook defines a monthly active user (MAU) as a user who accessed Facebook via a mobile app or via mobile-optimized versions of the Facebook website (e.g., m.facebook.com), whether on a mobile phone or tablet device like the iPad, during the period of measurement.
The company said that mobile usage of Facebook increased in 2011, including in major developed markets like the United States where smartphone penetration has been rapidly growing. But the mobile MAU has also been driven by other product enhancements, including Facebook's acquisition of Snaptu in April 2011 and the launch of the long-awaited Facebook iPad app in October.
However, despite the large numbers of mobile users for the social network, Facebook doesn't currently display ads through either its mobile apps or websites. That's a large, untapped market for Facebook's advertising efforts, since, in many cases, users only engage with Facebook via mobile – not on the desktop-sized web. Not surprisingly, Facebook didn't assign a number to its "mobile only" demographic. When it comes to how many Facebook users only interact with the social network via apps or the mobile website, it's still going to be anybody's guess.
Facebook also notes that its revenue may be negatively affected by the fact that it doesn't currently monetize its mobile user base via ads. This will continue "unless and until" it rolls out either ads or sponsored stories (promoted stories from advertisers) to mobile devices. The global mobile advertising market was $1.5 billion in 2010 and is expected to grow at a 64% compound annual rate to $17.6 billion in 2015, Facebook notes in the filing. With that number in mind, Facebook says it believes in its potential future monetization opportunities. (No kidding).
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Health Discovery Corporation Launches Android Version of Popular MelApp, Melanoma Risk Analysis Mobile Phone App
Health Discovery Corporation Launches Android Version of Popular MelApp, Melanoma Risk Analysis Mobile Phone App
MelApp Named One of the Top Ten Apps that can Save Your Life in Parade Magazine
SAVANNAH, Ga., Feb 01, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE), Via:marketwatch.com.
Health Discovery Corporation, the molecular diagnostics company that launched MelApp, the first SVM-based image analysis iPhone app for melanoma risk assessment, today debuts its popular MelApp mobile app for Android(TM) devices. Now, health-conscious consumers can easily learn about melanoma and identify areas on their skin which may need attention from a specialist, anytime, anywhere with their iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, as well as Android smartphone.
First launched this summer for iPhone, MelApp uses highly sophisticated patent protected mathematical algorithms and image based pattern recognition technology to analyze an uploaded image. The app was validated using an image database licensed from Johns Hopkins University Medical Center and uses a device's camera feature to deliver a risk analysis of user's photographed skin lesions within seconds. In addition, MelApp can use the smartphone's GPS to refer users to physicians specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of melanoma for proper medical diagnosis and treatment.
"Being currently used in nearly 50 countries, and having been named one of the 'Top 10 Apps That Could Save Your Life' in a recent issue of Parade Magazine, MelApp has become a worldwide success," stated Stephen D. Barnhill, M.D. Chairman and CEO of Health Discovery Corporation. "With the launch of MelApp for Android our goal was to extend the availability of this easy to use, inexpensive and potentially life-saving app to the more than 46 percent of the smart phone market that use Android devices, according to Nielsen."
Now available for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, as well as for Android, MelApp is available for download at a special limited time price of $1.99 at the following app marketplaces:
-- iTunes App Store - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/melapp/id446669257?mt=8&ls=1
-- Android Marketplace - https://market.android.com/search?q=MelApp&c=apps
This version of MelApp for Android has been optimized for the Droid X. For support and technical inquiries. Physicians who diagnose and treat melanoma can become a subscribing member of HDC's physician referral network.
About MelApp & Health Discovery Corporation
MelApp uses highly sophisticated patent protected mathematical algorithms and image based pattern recognition technology to analyze the uploaded image. MelApp was validated using an image database licensed from Johns Hopkins University Medical Center and uses a device's camera feature to deliver a risk analysis of user's photographed skin lesions within seconds. The app can use the iPhone GPS to refer users to physicians specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of melanoma for proper medical follow-up. MelApp by Health Discovery Corporation is available at a special limited time introductory price of $1.99. For more complete details.
Health Discovery Corporation is a molecular diagnostics company that uses advanced mathematical techniques to analyze large amounts of data to uncover patterns that might otherwise be undetectable. It operates primarily in the emerging field of personalized medicine where such tools are critical to scientific discovery. Its primary business consists of licensing its intellectual property and developing its own product line of biomarker-based diagnostic tests that include human genes and genetic variations, as well as gene, protein, and metabolic expression differences and image analysis in digital pathology and radiology.
Forward-Looking Statements
This document contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which is necessarily subject to risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, statements regarding future performance, opportunities and investments, and anticipated results in general. From time to time the Company may make other forward-looking statements in relation to other matters, including without limitation, commercialization plans and strategic partnerships. Actual results may differ materially due to a variety of factors, including, among other things, the acceptance of our approach to applying mathematics, computer science and physics into the disciplines of biology, organic chemistry and medicine and our products and technologies associated with those approaches, the ability to develop and commercialize new drugs, therapies or other products based on our approaches, and other factors set forth from time to time in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
All forward-looking statements and cautionary statements included in this document are made as of the date hereof based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or cautionary statement.
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