mobile

Tizen Foundation throws candy at mobile app devs


Game on.

A $4 million lolly scramble is underway to jump start the Tizen mobile operating system’s app store. The Tizen Foundation announced a developers’ competition with individual prizes that could go as high as $250,000, and released a new version of the software developer kit for the Linux-based and HTML5-centric OS.

Among other things, Tizen is Samsung’s coming replacement for bada, its in-house smart (or at least modestly bright) phone OS. While bada is a very functional, if lower end, platform, it’s suffered from a lack of developer love.… More

HTC won't help its shrinking share by shrinking a phone

19 July 2013 by Steve Blum
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It used to be bigger.

Combined, Samsung and Apple are selling about half the world’s smart phones, with 30% and 19% market share respectively in 2012 according to IDC. Much of Samsung’s growth from 19% in 2011 came out of HTC’s hide. Its share was cut in half over same period, dropping below 5% and putting it more or less in a tie with Nokia and Blackberry.

At least it was still in the top five then.… More

Air travellers might soon get a reading break

12 July 2013 by Steve Blum
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Something to read for the rest of us.

The Federal Aviation Administration might finally update fifty year old rules on electronic devices – tablets, computers, smart phones, ebook readers.

The current rules, some dating from the 1960s, are there purely out of momentum. Personal electronics pose zero danger to airplanes. There’s never been an incident where a passenger device has interfered with an airplane’s operation and no one has ever come up with a plausible theory about how one might, given modern technology.… More

HP's hope is going up the down staircase

4 July 2013 by Steve Blum
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Can HP face Palm again?

There’s a new report that Hewlett-Packard might be about to jump into the mobile phone business. Its last such venture – the capture and rapid slaughter of Palm and its webOS in 2010 – is generally regarded as a disaster. But HP has to try again. It has no choice.

Computer sales are slipping, both for HP and the industry in general as tablet sales climb. It does make a Windows tablet, but that pretty much says it all.… More

Fossils don't fit in the new mobile world

28 June 2013 by Steve Blum
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Blackberry and Windows are the bedrock of the mobile world.

A year from now, this past week will be looked upon as the point when we shifted from one mobile operating system epoch to another. Two dinosaurs – Blackberry and Windows – appear irrecoverably stuck in a tar pit of tumbling market share and industry confidence, while two warm-blooded open source upstarts – Ubuntu Linux and Firefox – are walking tall.

Blackberry’s latest results show widening financial and subscriber losses.… More

M2M standards will unleash innovation

14 June 2013 by Steve Blum
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Bringing down the vertical market.

Machine-to-machine communication protocols are propriety, frequently established by low volume vertical applications that are bolted onto existing mobile networks. There’s no established way to make M2M equipment that can roam across a large ecosystem of different networks. But similar to the GSM and CDMA standards that were originally developed for voice, carriers are starting to group together, with four European carriers – Telecom Italia, Deutsche Telekom, Orange and TeliaSonera – forming the Global M2M Association (GMA) and a larger group – which includes NTT Docomo, SingTel, Telefonica, O2 and Optus – coalescing around a proprietary platform developed by Jasper Wireless.… More

Apple plays market leader again with Hotspot 2.0

13 June 2013 by Steve Blum
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Seamless offloading of cellular data traffic onto WiFi networks is a big step closer. Apple announced that version 7 of iOS and the next generation of iPhones will support the Hotspot 2.0 standard. The new capability should start appearing this fall.

The idea is to allow users to automatically authenticate on a WiFi hotspot blessed by their carrier when it’s available. Data traffic would then be routed via WiFi until the user moves out of range.… More

No middle ground for BYOD

10 June 2013 by Steve Blum
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There’s a variety of methods IT departments use to manage bring-your-own-device (BYOD) users. It ranges from limiting access to the internal network – no different, say, than accessing your business email from home – to putting managed apps on devices to installing a ring-fenced operating environment. SAP, for example, provides companies with a way of creating a sealed-off area on consumer-grade phones.

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Fully compliant BYOD.

Limiting access isn’t intrusive, but it greatly limits the company resources an employee can access with his or her phone.… More

Better connectivity undermines PC sales

28 May 2013 by Steve Blum
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Tablet sales will soar past stagnating personal computer results, according to forecasts released today by International Data Corporation. With mobile networks powering handheld productivity and growing commercial and industrial grade fiber networks enabling more and more work to be shifted onto servers, PCs are caught in a squeeze.

IDC expects 59% growth in tablet sales in 2013, reaching 229 million units, up from 145 million in 2012. That means more tablets will be sold this year than laptops (including netbooks, ultrabooks and the like).… More

Based on Linux and orphaned by Nokia, Sailfish OS debuting on Jolla handset

24 May 2013 by Steve Blum
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The first mobile phone based on the Sailfish operating system has been unveiled by Jolla, a company that splintered off of Nokia when it gave up on the MeeGo OS. It’s feature packed and is trying to differentiate itself by offering customizable backs for the fashion conscious.

So far, it fails to impress. I don’t see a killer sales proposition for the Jolla phone. Swappable backs are fine, but I doubt many people will cough up $500 because a phone is easy to accessorize.… More