Business News Holding

Category: smartphone

  • HTC partners with Facebook for HTC Myst

    HTC has decided to collaborate once again with Facebook and AT&T, in order to create another smartphone that focuses on the use of Facebook. It will be known as HTC Myst and its rumored specs are already online.

    It's not the first time that HTC collaborates with Facebook and AT&T, since they had already cooperated two years ago, for the release of HTC status, the smartphone with its own button for quick Facebook access. This was just the beginning, since HTC Myst plans to gain an even bigger part of the smartphone market. According to UnwiredView, HTC Myst is expected during the spring with its rumored specs already being online. Thus, if we want to have a first look at HTC Myst, it will have a 4.3-inch screen, a 1.5GHz dual core MSM8960 processor, a RAM of 1GB, a 16GB storage (without microSD),a rear camera of 5MP and a front one of 1.6MP. What's more, it will have all the latest apps by Facebook already preloaded, such as the typical Facebook app, the Facebook Messenger, Instagram and others, while it will run on Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2.

    Although Facebook seems reluctant for the time being to create their own unique phone, this collaboration might be attractive for the customers that want to stay connected as much as possible. Facebook as a brand name is powerful enough to target some significant attention for HTC Myst, not to mention the power of AT&T and the decent smartphones by HTC. Hence, even though Mark Zuckerberg doesn't think it is necessary to have a Facebook smartphone, he still thinks that he can keep an eye at the smartphone market for future reconsideration. HTC Myst will not be the only phone that connects you on Facebook, but we still want to see its performance on the smartphone market. We are waiting for more details about its release, then.

  • Mobile World Congress 2013: The End of Apple Dominance Is Near

    The annual meeting Mobile World Congress, ongoing this week in Barcelona, seems to mark more than any other event the end of Apple dominance in the global market for smartphones and tablets and the rise of some rivals with more open operating systems.

    Mozilla has opened the event in Barcelona unofficially. The nonprofit organization, which used Firefox a decade ago to fight Microsoft control in the online search engine market, wants to change totally the smartphone market as well.

    The industry is currently unnaturally controlled by a few companies, said general manager of Mozilla, Gary Kovacs, during the presentation of the first generation of mobile devices with Firefox operating system.

    More than 20 telecom industry executives who brought their support to the launch of Firefox OS had similar views.

    “We change the industry for the common good,” said Cesar Alienta, general manager of Telefonica, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. Spanish company chief criticized the closed operating systems, such as iOS, and warned that “the smartphone market is making a step back from the internet’s opening feature”. Telefonica wants to introduce shortly Firefox OS devices in Spain, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela.

    America Movil, controlled by Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world, committed to launch Firefox OS in Mexico “and in all possible markets” soon.

    The outgoing General Director of Deutsche Telekom, Rene Obermann, called the Firefox OS release “an important step towards more competition between different systems”. Deutsche Telekom will launch Firefox OS devices starting from this summer in Poland.

    Mozilla is not the only company that wants to change the market for smartphones and tablets. Samsung and Intel are also developing an operating system called Tizen, which would be even more open and will allow software developers more important changes compared to Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

    Mobile operators are strongly attracted by the prospect of being able to strongly change the operating systems, for an interaction as direct as possible with the user.

    The irony in this case is that the success of Samsung with Tizen would make the South Korean company less dependent on Google and stronger in the smartphones and tablets market.

    The rest of the world seems to recover the distance to Apple's platform for mobile devices, and the American company must innovate again or will be cannibalized by rivals with cheaper and more accessible devices. Smartphone market seems to have matured, so that real opportunities could be in the expansion in emerging markets.

  • Mobile World Congress 2013: Nokia launches a $20 phone – Nokia 105

    Nokia has decided to create a lower cost phone, Nokia 105, aiming at those that still purchase a phone for calls and texts.

    While we are all discussing the latest smartphones by Apple and Samsung and whether we should prefer iOS, Android, BB10 or WP8, Nokia is approaching a different type of customers, the ones that are unwilling to pay a fortune for a phone. Thus, they created a $20 device, which was presented at this year's Mobile World Congress and has already been discussed a lot..

    Nokia 105 does not impress you with its specs, but you can use it for calls, texts, alarm, FM radio and flashlight. What's more, its battery life lasts for 35 days, which is really impressive on its own, and it has a resistant keypad to endure in scratches and dust. Nokia 105 is expected during the following months in many countries, starting from China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Vietnam and other markets in Africa, Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Europe.

    As you may notice, their target audience is not the U.S., they are not even including them for now, but the emerging markets that are still not under the hype of the latest trending smartphones. Hence, they are trying to win a new territory, hoping that they will remain loyal to Nokia for their future purchases, too. After all, there are still so many people out there, even in Europe, that do not use their phones extensively and would find the price of the Nokia 105 tempting.

    According to Stephen Elop, the CEO of Nokia:

    "There's a very large number of inexpensive and largely undifferentiated devices. We believe we have to offer differentiation at each price point."

    It seems like smart move for Nokia and it could be the chance for them to rebound on the smartphone market.

  • GSMA Announces Winners Of The 2013 Global Mobile Awards

    The GSMA today announced the winners of the 18th Annual Global Mobile awards, held at the Mobile World Congress 2013 in  Barcelona. The winners were honoured in an afternoon ceremony hosted by writer, actor and comedian, David Walliams.

    Walliams entertained nominees and attendees with a comic introduction to the ceremony. He was joined on stage by representatives from sponsors McAfee, Myriad and Telmap, and media partners CNBC, Fortune and Time, who co-presented awards, as well as John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA and members of the judging panel.

    In total, more than 170 independent analysts, journalists, academics and subject matter experts and 13 representatives from mobile operators throughout the world participated in the judging of the 2013 awards.

    The winners of the 2013 Global Mobile Awards are:

    Best Mobile Health Product or Service
    MIPsoft for BlindSquare

    Best Mobile Education or Learning Product or Service
    Mobilink for SMS Based Literacy program

    Best Mobile Product or Service for Automotive
    BMW i, MINI, Sixt and Vodafone Group for DriveNow Premium Car Sharing

    Best NFC /Mobile Money Product or Service
    Etisalat for Flous – The Etisalat Commerce Programme

    Best Mobile Publishing Product or Service
    Ver Se Innovation for NewsHunt

    Best Mobile Innovation for 'Smart Cities'
    Streetline for Parker

    Best Mobile Enabled Consumer Electronics Device
    Samsung Electronics for Samsung GALAXY Camera

    Best Enterprise Mobile Service
    Mobilelron for Version 5 Complete Enterprise Persona

    Best Consumer Mobile Service
    Comviva for Mahindra Comviva's mobiquity™ MFS platform powering mTicketing service for Bangladesh Railways

    Best Advertising or Marketing on Mobile
    McCann Worldgroup (Hong Kong) for Chok! Chok! Chok!

    Best Network Product or Solution for Serving Customers
    NTT DOCOMO for Hanashite Hon'yaku, world's first automatic voice translation service

    Best Product, Initiative or Service in Emerging Markets
    Ericsson for Amazon Connection– a digital inclusion program in the Amazon

    GSMA mWomen Best Mobile Product or Service for Women in Emerging Markets
    Asiacell for Almas Line

    Best Use of Mobile in Emergency or Humanitarian Situations
    Vodafone Foundation for Vodafone Instant Network

    The Green Mobile Award
    Indus Towers for Green Sites Project

    Best Mobile App for Consumers
    Facebook

    Best Mobile App for Enterprise
    Evernote

    Judges Choice – Best Overall Mobile App
    Waze

    Most Innovative Mobile App
    McCann Worldgroup (Hong Kong) for Chok! Chok! Chok!

    Smartphone Application Challenge
    AT&T for Application Resource Optimizer (ARO)

    Best Application using Network APIs
    Bharti Airtel Limited for my airtel app

    Best Smartphone
    Samsung Galaxy S3

    Best Feature phone or entry level phone
    Nokia Asha 305

    Device Manufacturer of the Year
    Samsung

    Best Mobile Tablet
    Google and Asus for Nexus 7

    Best Mobile Infrastructure
    Samsung Electronics for Smart LTE Networks

    Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough
    Accuris Networks for AccuROAM Wi-Fi: Making Wi-Fi a carrier driven extension of GSM for Offload and Roaming

    Best Cloud Based Technology for Mobile
    Jasper Wireless cloud-based connected devices platform for machine-to-machine (M2M) and consumer electronics

    Best Mobile Safeguard & Security Products and Services
    AdaptiveMobile and Syniverse for Messaging Trust

    Outstanding LTE Contribution
    SK Telecom for 4G LTE with PETA Solution

    Outstanding Overall Mobile Technology – The CTO's choice
    Samsung Electronics for Smart LTE Networks

    Spectrum for Mobile Broadband Award
    Government of New Zealand

    Mobile for Development Award
    U.S. Agency for International Development

    m-Government Award
    Government of Moldova

    "Through these awards, we are proud to shine the light on the mobile industry's many innovators and leaders, from all corners of the world," said John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Ltd. "This year's new categories reflected the industry's reach into many new sectors and we received more than 600 high-quality entries from across the mobile ecosystem. We would like to congratulate all Global Mobile Awards winners and thank the many hundreds of companies and organisations that support these awards by entering each year."

  • Mobile World Congress 2013: Nokia presents Lumia 520 and Lumia 720

    Nokia has presented two new smartphones at the Mobile World Congress, the Lumia 520 and Lumia 720, aiming at customers with lower budget.

    Lumia 520 is the cheapest Windows Phone 8 for Nokia, starting at $184, with a 1GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of storage, a 4-inch WVGA screen and a 5MP camera. It weighs 124g, it has a 2D hardened glass and it is also ideal for touch while wearing gloves. It will be released in five colours (cyan, yellow, red, black and white) and it is expected during the next quarter. It seems like a pretty decent phone for its money, with Nokia's experience and Micorosft's ambitious Windows Phone 8 being a great combination.

    As for Lumia 720, it is a bit more sophisticated, with a 6.7MP camera, a 4.3-inch screen, a 1GHz CPU, 512 MB of RAM, 8GB of storage and it will be priced at $329. Lumia 720 will also have a Carl Zeiss lens and f/1.9 aperture, also focusing on the front camera with an f/2.4 aperture, which makes it an ideal choice for everyone that loves taking decent pictures with a smartphone.  It supports NFC and it also allows wireless charging with a snap-on cover. Lumia 720 will also be released in 5 colors and it is expected mostly in Asia and some countries in Europe. There are already some users from the U.S. that found Lumia 720 attractive, although it seems that it won't be available for them.

    Nokia is trying to recover on the smartphone market, targeting for now the low and mid budget users who used to purchase affordable Android devices. It's up to them to persuade them to trust them.

  • HTC announces the 4.7-inch HTC One

    HTC has just announced a new smartphone, the HTC One, which brings additional competition for Apple and Samsung on the war of the smartphones with the bigger displays.

    There is a trend lately with bigger displays for our smartphone and that is why HTC chose to launch HTC One with a 4.7-inch 1080p display. Apart from the bigger screen, HTC One will have a new imaging sensor, UltraPixel camera as they call it, which has a f/2.0 lens, gathers 300% more light than the usual sensors, but is of only 4MP. However, they are confident enough that their brand new UltraPixel Camera will enhance the pictures taken from smartphones, featuring optical image stabilization and adding the ability to share short videos.

    Moreover, HTC is presenting BoomSound, an audio experience that they think it is the best in the market, which is justified by the two front stereo speakers. As for the technical features, it has a quad-core Snapdragon 600, running at 1.7GHz, having a 2GB RAM and allowing storage of 32GB or 64GB. Not to mention that it will support 4G connectivity, as every smartphone that is competitive nowadays. Last but not least, HTC One will sport the new Android Jelly Bean (4.1.2), called Sense 5, which makes the interface simple and nice.

    It seems that HTC is determined to get back on the track of Apple and Samsung, trying to fit in between their endless war. And they seem capable of boosting their sales for 2013 with smartphones like this one. They just have to convince the users to trust them once again, instead of choosing Apple or Samsung.

    HTC one is expected during March and it will be launched globally, with HTC having already signed with 185 carriers all over the world. We might not know about the price yet, but its launch it's not that far. If you are convinced from the first presentation, just be patient for a while.

  • Mobile Phone Sales Fell in 2012 While Smartphones Thrived

    Half of last year, the research and market analysis company Gartner warned that sales of handsets are in decline, the final report for last year, which was published today, confirming the trend observed in August.

    The unfavorable economic climate that people from Gartner blame for this negative trend, has affected the sales figure for mobile phones. Producers managed to sell 1.75 billion pieces, a 1.7 percent decrease compared to performances recorded in 2011.

    The least demanded products were the featurephones, in the last three months they managing to attract only 264.4 million customers, a figure that marks a sharp drop of 19.3 percent compared to the same period in 2011.

    In the same three months of last year, smartphone sales reached a record level, the 207.7 million units representing a jump of 38.3 percent compared to the last quarter of 2011. In 2013, Gartner estimates that sales of smartphones will reach one billion and the entire mobile phone market will recover and reach a figure of approximately 1.9 billion pieces.

    Rivals Samsung and Apple have captured 52 percent of the market. South Koreans last year sold 386.4 million mobile phones, of which 53.3% were smartphones, while Apple, which is only selling smartphones, has sold 130 million handsets, an increase of 22 percent from 2011.

    According to Gartner, the Android platform has captured nearly 70 percent of smartphone market in the last quarter, followed by the iOS, down nearly 3 percent, BlackBerry OS, also in decrease, and Windows Phone, which managed to reach a modest market share of only 3 percent, but which represents almost double compared to the situation in late 2011.

  • Verizon names data and battery hogs

    Verizon Wireless in a relatively unprecedented move by a carrier has started a campaign of rating and reviewing of apps for both Android and iPhone. On whats grounds?

    • Respect for users' privacy,
    • User battery drain while on use,
    • Data plan usage while on use.

    Verizon has not made any friends by opening this can of worms, although its usefulness to users is relatively unquestioned among experts. The worst rated apps have been popular games (among them OMGPOPs Draw Something and Halfbrick's Fruit Ninja,) and even heavyweights like Facebook and MSN Messenger have got low grades for its persistent connection.

    It remains to be seen how this impacts users and Verizon's network. Will this be the beginning of a recommendation scheme to alleviate carriers' nightmares?

  • Apple Launches iOS 6.1: Short List of Improvements

    Apple has released an update package for the 6.1 version of its iOS software platform, bringing few improvements. iOS 6.1 is a minor update designed to improve the LTE compatibility and to repair a series of vulnerabilities.

    iOS 6.1 expands the LTE support for 36 operators in 17 countries, this feature being offered to the iPhone 5, iPad 4th generation tablets and iPad Mini. Those who are using the 3rd generation of iPad will be limited by the LTE support of the modem used by Apple.

    The list of software innovations includes the integration within Siri of the possibility of purchasing movie tickets through Fandalgo, feature limited to the United States, and the possibility of individual downloading and deleting music tracks downloaded from iTunes Match, option that existed in iOS 5, but which disappeared from iOS 6 until this new version.

    iOS 6.1 brings improvements and strengthens the security in the operating system kernel and the modules WebKit, StoreKit and Identity Services, as well as eliminating a security vulnerability discovered in the Broadcom wireless drivers that affected the models iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4th generation and iPad 2.

    The list of minor innovations also includes the possibility of removing identification codes used by advertisers, option available in the General/About/Advertising menu, and small changes in the interface, such as redesign of audio playback control buttons in Lock Screen.

    According to Apple, of the 600 million Apple products running the iOS, half of them are using the latest major release of the operating system.

  • RIM to license its technology out to other hardware manufacturers?

    Research in Motion is thinking ahead, while the Blackberry 10 is about to hit the market. RIM CEO Thorsten Heins told Die Welt that they are examining the possibility of selling their hardware to other hardware manufacturers in the future. This means that they could license their technologies and provide them to others, leaving behind their exclusivity, which had its advantages, but also its disadvantages.

    More specifically, he mentioned:

    "There are several options, including the sale of the hardware production is as much as licensing our software. But there is no reason for us to decide in hectic. It is important first of all, BlackBerry 10 successfully putting them on the market. Then we shall see."

    Altough it is still early to predict the future of RIM, it could be a good choice, which could significantly expand their audience. Especially now with the release of Blackberry 10 that they have put all their hopes on, it could be a wise move indeed for such a thought.

    For the time being they are focusing on the promotion of BB10, enlarging its hype and raising the anticipation level. For example, RIM's stock is following the general hype that favors RIM, jumping more than 10% the last week. And BB10 has not even launched to justify the general optimism.

    If it is a success, as they wish, why not plan for bigger things?