Archive for 'mobile' Category
Can the Microsoft Windows Phone 8 impact Indian SmartPhone Mobile Market ?
The overall Mobile smartphone handset market seems to be fairly distributed in terms of market shares with Android sweeping the non-Apple market, can the advent of Windows Phone 8 could impact market shares and is something worth watching out for in 2013. One of the reasons Windows Phone 8 is getting, and will continue to get, a lot of attention from operators as they want an alternative to the Apple and Android space where they can get a better revenue stream (or the share thereof) from their customers. Microsoft without an element of doubt is providing a lot of marketing support, which also helps. In addition, potential for Windows Phone 8, alongside Xbox platform, to deliver the full triple/quadruple play services is an added attraction for the operators.
Given Android’s out-sized market share 72%, success of Windows Phone 8 is likely to impact this segment more than it would impact the Apple iOS eco-system, though at the high-end, attractive new phones could impact Apple somewhat too. Within Android, Read the rest of this entry »
From Samsung Android to Samsung Tizen Mobiles – DoCoMo, Vodafone, Sprint back Tizen Mobile OS
Samsung Electronics Co which is churning Billions of Dollars in QoQ Profit from the Android Mobile OS is sensing increasing threat from Google owned Motorola and hence to mitigate the risk has thrown its weight behind Tizen Mobile OS [Derived from the Linux Kernel] consortium and is expected to launch the first Samsung Tizen Mobile in 2013.
NTT DoCoMo, the biggest wireless carrier in Japan, has extended its support to Tizen along with the already expected support from Vodafone in the UK and France Telecom. Tizen is already part of the Sprint roadmap. Sprint was the first US telecom player to join the Tizen Association back in 2012. Since the Mobile World Congress in 2012. This puts Tizen in the spotlight for the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Tizen and The Roadmap for Connected Devices
Tizen is positioned as another open-source software platform looking to become Read the rest of this entry »
Will 2013 be the Year of SmartPhone Land Grab in India led by Android Platform ?
As 2012 winds down, we see many indications that the era of Feature Phones dominated by Nokia and Symbian Platform is coming to an end and the “Land Grab” for SmartPhone is beginning. In the early days of 3G in India, Mobile carriers have focused at capturing high-ARPU smartphone customers and driving smartphone take-up and data spending.
We can classify the SmartPhone penetration into 3 phases – LandGrab, Middle Game and then the End Game. The LandGrab pahse will Last until 50% of the Subscribers have SmartPhone and would have subscribed to Mobile Internet Data Services. [2G GPRS /EDGE or 3G] We’ll also see that handsets maybe Subsidized with minimum spend requirement and data usage caps.
Data from Online Retail and Group Shopping major Snapdeal suggests Indians increasing affinity towards SmartPhones across the Spectrum of Buyers from Tier-I to Tier-III cities and Towns. Also their is no other competing platform to Android in the extremely price sensitive Indian Market. Nokia in partnership with Microsoft is bleeding with the wounds of a double edge sword cut – at one end it marked the end of Symbian and bet on the Wrong Platform of Windows Phone.
Indian Wireless Sector is dominated by Read the rest of this entry »
Apple iPhone 4S / 5 Outperform other SmartPhone Cameras – Flickr Statistics
Apple’s iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 are well-positioned to capture the most profitable pockets of the smartphone market in 2013.
iPhone is actually becoming the digital camera of choice for consumers in developed markets given its ease of use and ability to quickly get photos online. This usability helps warrant a premium for the product and creates stickiness with software that connects consumers with other Apple products. The iPhone 4S augmented Apple’s position in the higher value smart phone arena, in our view, given significant enhancements to the camera, photo editing software and sharing capabilities.
A recent study on Flickr proves that consumers are using iPhone as a real point and shoot camera – and using it to get photos on the web. This type of behavior is quite valuable in our opinion, fostering user loyalty and higher value within the Apple ecosystem. The pace at which the iPhone 5 has surpassed the Galaxy S III phone from Samsung is quite impressive as well. The Apple iPhone 4S remains the most popular camera on Flickr.com with 4,072 average daily users as of 12/03/12.
Apple already has four Read the rest of this entry »
Skype Updated – Optimized for Tablets, 100Mn Downloads on Android Challenging Tencent, Sina
Skype releasing version 3.0 into the Android market and 4.2.1 for the iOS has farther reaching significance and implications than most of the industry bloggers and media would believe. The longer-term strategic implications appear sound and are gathering momentum.
We tested the new version of Skype for Android against older versions on iPad and PC, off an internal WiFi network as well as between Asia(Bangalore) and USA(Seattle). Skype version 3.0 has been tweaked and optimised for tablets (designed for landscape mode), but the changes in look and feel are not significant to those of us who already use Skype on Windows and iOS (iPad). From our tests, the quality of a voice call, even between Asia and USA, is as good as any normal cell phone call, and the video quality is sufficient for use even on a 7-inch Android tablet.
Product Engineered – For those who follow the workings and technologies being submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for standardization or use Skype on desktop PCs, the SILK audio codec and compression format quality is relatively familiar as well, as SILK is already in use for PC-to-PC calls.
For those of us looking at Asia and the emerging markets strategically, it is worthwhile to note Read the rest of this entry »
Microsoft Windows Phone 8, Surface Tablet Apps Developers Views on new Platform
Microsoft under Steven Sinfosky is attempting to build its ecosystem of apps for the recently launched Windows 8 ecosystem. We’ll review the views of Developers across Mobile, Surface, Desktop & Server and Cloud – the Azure. This article is specifically focused on the developments in Windows 8 Mobile and Microsoft Surface Tablet Apps / Applications.
To begin with Microsoft has a Large Pool of Developers [Millions] across the Globe. For the current Windows 8 devices, Microsoft is starting at position 3 after Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS and trying to make a comeback. They finally released the Windows Phone 8 SDK. Developers are enthusiastic about the tools that Microsoft has provided to build apps. On the device side this is typically C# and Visual Studio for procedural coding and XAML for the interface, or if a web-based app this would be JavaScript and HTML5. Microsoft is transitioning away from the familiar .Net as a development platform, but has done a good job of extending this with new tools and not abandoning the past. Nonetheless, Developers emphasized that Microsoft makes their job easier and this has been a traditional strength of the company.
HTML5 does provide to run across different platform / devices and some developers will choose to write once and run anywhere. However, every advantage comes with its own shortcoming and this time it is the performance of HTML5 compared to Apps specifically developed using Tools & Technologies and Optimized for a Given Platform. As Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg observed and noted it is important to write natively Read the rest of this entry »
SmartPhones / Handset eco-system Development for TD-LTE / 4G
It is not just Telecom Operators who are investing in developing the LTE Networks but Network Gear Manufacturers and SmartPhone Vendors as well. One major hurdle currently for the TD-LTE ecosystem is availability of SmartPhones / Handsets. At the end of July 2012, there were more than 417 LTE devices (including smartphones, data cards, MiFi, etc ) commercially available on the market, but just 15% of those devices supported TD-LTE functions. OEMs have put higher priority on FDD-LTE handset development due to limited availability of the TD-LTE commercial network around the world.
However, developments in the last few months are encouraging. China Mobile when deployed will be the largest LTE Network in the world, announced its minimum requirements for TD-LTE handset chipsets and disclosed that there are ten chipset vendors participating in the development of TD-LTE chipsets now. Among those ten vendors, Huawei’s Balong 710 and Qualcomm’s MSM8960 have already satisfied China Mobile’s minimum chipset requirements, including the support of five standards (TD-LTE, FDD-LTE, GSM, TD-SCDMA and WCDMA) and 10 frequency Read the rest of this entry »
4G LTE in 1800MHz band – Eco-system Ready and Better than 2300MHz
As demand for data increases, operators are trying new ways to accommodate traffic on existing spectrum instead of going behind higher bands such as 2300MHz and 2600MHz. According to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), one third of today’s 96 commercial LTE operators have deployed LTE using the 1800MHz spectrum in their networks.
What are the benefits of Deploying LTE in 1800MHz band ?
- As Data traffic volume doubles every year (or more), LTE 1800 complements LTE 2600 and existing HSPA networks.
- LTE1800 commercial terminals are ready. LTE1800 networks being rolled out, with more to come.
- Up to 50% reduction in site count compared with LTE2600.
- LTE in 1800MHz band is of advantage only if it is deployed with atleast 10MHz Spectrum Block or 20MHz is most desired to reduce the cost / MB of Data
Apple recently announced three versions on the iPhone 5, supporting the LTE frequencies used by AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Nextel in the US, and Read the rest of this entry »
