Business News Holding

Blog

  • Nokia to Reduce Smartphone Prices

    Nokia will reduce the prices of its smartphones in Europe, say sources within the sector profile. Finnish strategy would thus lead to a price war on mobile phone market.

    Finnish company’s smartphones began to increasingly lose market share in Europe in favor of Android mobile operating platform produced by Google. Thus, Nokia may report losses for the second and third quarters of this year.

    One inside source told Reuters that the Finnish giant will make cuts up to 15%, especially for the N8, C7 and E6 models, designed for business customers. For other phones, the discounts will be smaller.

    "There were no discounts for certain models, but the scale of the measure on the portfolio has not been seen for a long time," said the source, who works at a European telecommunications operator.

    Nokia shares fell by 1.5% during yesterday’s trading and early this year declined by 40% because of the fears that switching to the Microsoft Windows operating system will not contribute to improving the competitiveness with Apple’s iPhone.

    Nokia spokesman declined to comment on price, but said the changes are part of the normal business process.

    Nokia's strategy, ready to affect the other mobile phone manufacturers

    Nokia measures could trigger a price war, affecting companies such as Motorola, Sony Ericsson and LG Electronics, warns Neil Mawson, an analyst at Strategy Analytics. He believes that both, the operators and the customers will benefit from lower prices of smartphones, but the producers with low profit margins will face serious problems.

    According to Nomura, Samsung Electronics will become in this quarter the largest manufacturer of smartphone devices worldwide, exceeding Nokia. Finnish company's share on smartphone market fell to 25.5% in the first quarter of 2011, from 39%, the value recorded in the previous year, according to the market research company Gartner.

    You may also want to read:
    Smartphone.Biz-news.com Test: LG Optimus Chic – Android for the Masses
    UK Mobile Gambling Revenue Doubled in 2010
    Skype Introduces Video Calls for Android Smartphones

  • Smartphone.Biz-news.com Test: LG Optimus Chic – Android for the Masses

    LG really discovers the Android operating system. Does Optimus Chic manage to compete with the models from HTC and Samsung?

    Optimus Chic is for now the best known Android smartphone from LG. At purchase, the buyer can choose between black and white color options, in rest, just like the most smartphones in this price class, the image is dominated by plastic. In addition, the housing is a quickly magnet for fingerprints – the only solution against them is to repetitively erase the surface.

    As attraction Optimus Chic features a 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen. The display offers a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels for optimal navigation on the Internet and because of the enormous brightness of 681 cd/m2, the visibility in direct sunlight is good. Thus, using the Korean is facile either in a summer garden or on the shore of a lake. The four keys with sensors located below the screen proved to be the weaknesses. Through these keys, the user accesses the options, the home screen, “back” and “search”. During our testing, when operating rapid and successively, the quartet has responded pretty slow.

    A variety of equipment on board
    Optimus Chic is running on the 2.2 version of the Android operating system, the 2.3 version being ready for launch. User Platform was slightly modified, but still offers a considerable plus-value compared with the original. As we already know, the Optimus Chic home screen is customizable. The user has at its disposal seven home screens, on which can be placed widgets, folders and shortcuts to applications. In particular on the widgets category, LG offers the Optimus Chic a few applications – such as the Briefing Today app that brings on the screen the scheduled meetings and the weather forecast. The main menu is presented rather conservative. However, here we can also find enough interesting things: client for Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and Xing.

    In this context, the displayed keyboard has left a good impression. By the ThinkFree Office suite, Optimus Chic even offers a program for viewing and processing Office documents. The widening horizon is responsible for the so-much-beloved Layar app with Augmented Reality, by displaying information about points of interest on a certain live image fixed with the camera. As hardware equipment, we remember the Wi-Fi connection, the HSPA mode, GPS and a 5-megapixel camera, plus the usual features.

    Performance in the lab
    Optimus One has passed our tests with bravery – and the Optimus Chic is not inferior to his older brother. Chic displays 9-hour autonomy while speaking and 21 days in waiting. A special appreciation deserves the very-good signal. Our tests have also showed that the sound qualities are good, the partner for dialogue being easily understandable.

    Overall, the Korean smartphone receives from us more points than most of Android smartphones, including HTC and Samsung, phones in the same class of price.

    You may also want to read:
    Skype Introduces Video Calls for Android Smartphones
    Google Mobilize Comes To Help Small Businesses
    The Most Efficient Mass-Media Apps for iPad

  • UK Mobile Gambling Revenue Doubled in 2010

    According to new IHS Screen Digest research, mobile gambling market in the UK witnessed two times  growth in the 2010 when compared with the 2009 figures.

    Mobile gambling in the UK is widely popular as online wagering, and this gambling happens completely through communications medium such as telephone, television and the internet.

    The net mobile gambling revenue recorded in the year 2010 as 41 million pounds, which is more than double to the business turned out in the year 2009 as 19 million pounds. The participation percentage is also increased widely according to the research report, which mentioned it as 13.7% against the 9.8% in the year 2007.

    The 2005 U.K. gambling act was successfully implemented in the year 2007 and made this mobile gambling completely legitimate. This legitimate gambling started to advertise their activities in the television and radio successfully. Past twelve months this gambling market witnessed significant increase in spending money over these advertisements. In addition to this, latest smartphones’ accessibility to the internet helped well to increase this participation in  the UK to a major extent.

    The current 4G and advanced features in the samrtphone making them more appropriate for smart wagering in the UK. This is clearly distinguishing the today’s mobile gambler completely away from the one that was five years ago. As further step in this aspect, some of the special smartphone apps are ventured into the market that is exclusively designed for the smart wagering.  All these situations are clearly indicating the further growth to this market in the year 2011.

    The current mobile gambling, or mobile betting or mobile wagering is completely different from earlier. The research mentioned that this gambling is expected to grow further and online user’s average revenue per user will witness significant growth by 10 to 20 percent in the coming two years. Now, the bet stakes are collected from the user’s account balance like Amazon and PayPal. This trend is indicating that the pretty soon mobile operators will turn into billing centers for this mobile wagering.

    You may also want to read:
    Skype Introduces Video Calls for Android Smartphones
    Google Mobilize Comes To Help Small Businesses
    The Most Efficient Mass-Media Apps for iPad

  • Skype Introduces Video Calls for Android Smartphones

    Skype has just introduced a new service that allows the users of Android phones to make free video calls to the contacts on Skype or to those having an Apple iPhone.

    The company, whose name has become in mid-2000s synonymous with internet calls, says the application will now support video calls only to certain HTC and Sony Ericsson phones.

    But they will not stop here. The company wants to bring the video call options on as many platforms, according to Neil Stevens, director of sales and marketing for Skype.

    This step will certainly spark a competition between the handset manufacturers that rely on Google Android software and the video call services FaceTime of Apple. FaceTime was launched last year for iPhone and is now available on the tablet iPad 2 and on the computers using Mac.

    The new video calling option will help Microsoft, the new owner of Skype, to promote their Smartphone Windows Phone platform, which is merging with Nokia platform in an effort to compete with Android and Apple.

    In the last four months of 2010, Skype had on average 145 million users online per month. In 2010, the users made calls that totaled 207 billion minutes, of which 42% were video calls.

    For now, video phone calls are in an early stage, but the market for fixed calls on the Internet has increased by 12.6%, last year reaching a value worth 17.3 billion dollars.

    With the new Android Skype application, the users can make free calls between the phones running on Android, iPhones, Macs, Microsoft Windows PCs and TVs.

    The first phones that support video calls are HTC Desire 5, Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo, Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro and Google Nexus S.

    You may also want to read:
    Google Mobilize Comes To Help Small Businesses
    iPhone in a Smaller and Cheaper Version for Emerging Markets
    The Most Efficient Mass-Media Apps for iPad

  • Google Mobilize Comes To Help Small Businesses

    Google takes initiative and wants to help the small and medium businesses to create websites for mobile phones. The project is called Google Mobilize and it was launched at a conference held in London. The concept involves converting web pages in order to be accessed through mobile phones.

    This is the first time when Google choose to launch an application in the United Kingdom before the United States, the impulse for this being given by a research project made by the company, which revealed that 28% of Britons are using their mobile phone when making a purchase online.

    "Many people are making purchases by using their smartphones, but what we do not know is that there are many sites adapted to the mobile phones, enabling them to order directly from the phone",briefs us Ian Carrington, successful sales manager of Google in Eastern and Northern Europe.

    He has also announced some official statistics registered in the UK. From these, it results that 36% of the population are using a smartphone, and 20 million people are connected to the Web by phone, compared to 14 million, in 2010. Also, the number of those who once saw an ad on TV, are using their smartphone or tablet for searching additional details about the product or about the brand.

    Android Market has reached 4.5 billion for the downloaded applications and games. "A year ago the figure was one billion, and it took two years to get here," said Carrington. Now, it reached one billion in 60 days. If this number will continue to grow in direct proportion to the number of daily active devices, the figure will explode by the end of the year.

    You may also want to read:
    iPhone in a Smaller and Cheaper Version for Emerging Markets
    The Most Efficient Mass-Media Apps for iPad
    Adobe Facilitated Android, iOS and BlackBerry with its Updates for Flash Builder and Flex

  • Cisco Unveils AppHQ Application for Cisco Cius

    Cisco introduced AppHQ, an application ecosystem built specifically for Cisco Cius that provides new ways to create, manage and rapidly deploy tablet applications in the enterprise. According to Cisco, with the Cius, organizations can now deliver an optimized tablet with enterprise-grade security, as a natural extension of the enterprise network.

    AppHQ provides developers with tools and resources to create, test and market applications for Cisco Cius, and allows IT managers to control which applications can be used on the devices. Additionally, companies can create private, custom-branded application storefronts for their organizations where employees can find, publish and procure applications that complement their business environments.

    During a series of media events, Cisco highlighted that CDW, Nervecentre Software, Nottingham University Hospitals, Palomar Pomerado Health, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and Verizon are among customers using Cisco Cius.

    Cisco AppHQ

    Cisco AppHQ is a highly secure, cloud-based user storefront that provides capabilities for end users and IT managers. Some of these capabilities include:

    – Testing and validation:Cisco AppHQ provides IT managers and users with a "trusted source" for applications, ensuring that every application within AppHQ goes through Cisco validation testing, whether developed by Cisco, third-party Android developer partners, or users within the enterprise. The validation process includes interoperability testing both for the application itself and in typical configurations within the device.

    – Store-within-a-Store: Enterprises will have a Cisco hosted, highly-secure and private application store within AppHQ. Businesses can customize the storefront, following their corporate branding guidelines, including use of logos, icons and color schemes. Beyond customization, the store-within-a-store is a platform that customers can use to deploy applications efficiently in their organizations. For example, a financial services company could deploy applications pertaining to their back office operations, such as human resources or payroll apps, and populate those applications on the devices of relevant employees.

    – Empowers IT management:With AppHQ Manager, IT will have the ability to allow (or deny) access to application marketplaces by user role or device and to grant (or deny) access to applications by type, source or category. This unique capability will let IT organizations balance the individual freedom of users with the enterprise-class policies on security and cost efficiency.

    The AppHQ ecosystem will include Cisco selected applications that deeply integrate Cisco collaboration capabilities, as well as validated business-to-business and business-to-consumer applications from developer partners. The company announced that it will continue to add applications to AppHQ based on customer requirements. IT managers can also select from approximately 200,000 applications in the Android Marketplace.

    Cisco Cius is scheduled for global availability on July 31, 2011. The estimated street price is below $750 USD and Cisco has made available a new promotion* called "Triple V" (for Voice, Video and Virtualization) that could enable further price reductions below $700 USD. Pricing may vary by country. Basic access to Cisco AppHQ is included with every Cisco Cius device.

    You may also want to read:
    fring Brings Mobile Group Video to iPad
    Logitech Teams Up with GN Netcom on Unified Communications Solutions
    Speedflow Offers Multifunctional Software for VoIP Providers

  • fring Brings Mobile Group Video to iPad

    fring, the mobile communication service that pioneered mobile video over internet calls across smartphone platforms, now brings the world’s first dedicated group video chat service to the iPad.

    fring’s iPad Group Video chat enables four friends to simultaneously video chat one another, & see friends across a host of devices including iPhone, Android & Nokia, over any internet connectivity (Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G).

    "With fring on the iPad, users enjoy full-size 9.7-inch LED, glossy widescreen Video chat, with Multi-Touch display and optimized picture quality using fring’s proprietary DVQ™ technology," the company said.

    The fring iPad Group Video chat experience is wrapped in an intuitive, natural gesture- navigation where users drag & drop friends into Group Video chat, move their video chat stream & seamlessly augment video chat with parallel communication like tandem text chatting.

    “fring is empowering tablet users to unleash the power of their 9.7 inch screens beyond movie watching and gaming to rich, fun personal video communication,” says Avi Shechter, CEO and Co-founder of fring. “With Group Video on the iPad, we are changing face to face video chat. Users will now be able to video socialize on big screen tablets enjoying seeing their friends wherever they are- as they commute, sunbathe at the beach or wait for coffee at a café.”

    In addition to free Group Video chat, fring enables users to make free two-way video chat, voice calls and live chat with friends on Android, iPhone/iPod touch & Nokia Smartphones.

    fring’s iPad Group Video is available from Apple’s App Store.

    Here is the demo video:

  • iPhone in a Smaller and Cheaper Version for Emerging Markets

    A few days ago have appeared a number of new rumors about iPhone 5, according to which the terminal will come equipped with iPad's processor, will have an 8-megapixel camera and will have a radically changed design, as "teardrop".

    The sources close to Bloomberg are disclosing some information that we won’t even dare to hope: Apple is preparing a smaller and cheaper version of iPhone, based on the iPhone 4’s hardware. The device aims the under-development countries, areas that until now have been dominated by Nokia’s handsets.

    The same sources are saying that Apple will soon release a new iPad, which uses an improved version of the “Retina Display” technology, which currently features the iPhone 4. The tablet will have a higher resolution and will include a touch layer to respond more quickly to commands.

    And as the sixth generation of iPhone is becoming more and more interesting for the Apple fans and the speculation have already started to flow, the enthusiasts claim that the iPhone 5 will hit the market in the spring 2012. The phone is expected to come equipped with major hardware updates, with a magnitude as great as the fourth generation had.

    The experts in this field believe that Apple should really embrace a more aggressive launch cycle to cope with strong competition coming from the growing army of Android smartphones.

    It is estimated that by the end of 2011, Apple will hold 18.5 percent points of the market share, while Google will have twice, 38.9 percent points. These are some bad news for Apple, which obtains more than half of revenue from the sales of iPhones.

    Meanwhile, new information on the final design for the iPhone 5 were used to create a portrait that we can form an opinion about how the future iPhone should look like.

    You may also want to read:
    Apple Prepares the Next iPhone for September
    The Most Efficient Mass-Media Apps for iPad
    Adobe Facilitated Android, iOS and BlackBerry with its Updates for Flash Builder and Flex

  • Logitech Teams Up with GN Netcom on Unified Communications Solutions

    Logitech is teaming up with GN Netcom to fuel the Unified Communications market. As a first step in their collaboration, the two companies have entered into a distribution agreement under which Logitech will offer select products from the award-winning line of Jabra headsets and speakerphones through distribution channel partners in North America.

    The two companies also plan to roll out the offering globally as well as collaborate on the development of future audio peripherals for UC.

    As part of the initial agreement, Logitech will begin offering select Jabra headsets and speakerphones for Unified Communications, beginning in July 2011. Logitech will offer the Jabra products, which will be co-branded “Logitech powered by Jabra” as part of a portfolio of audio and video business solutions for UC.

    The products Logitech will be offering are currently certified to work with Avaya, Microsoft Corp., Cisco and Polycom under the Jabra brand. Logitech plans to confirm certifications with these partners as well as others for the “Logitech powered by Jabra” headsets and speakerphones.

    According to Roopam Jain, principal analyst at Frost and Sullivan, with LifeSize meeting rooms, Logitech webcams and ‘Logitech powered by Jabra’ headsets, Logitech is leveraging its strong brand and simplifying deployment and support for customers. “With the convergence of VOIP and video conferencing in unified communications solutions, we see a significant opportunity for Logitech to be a full solution provider,” he said.

    “This collaboration with GN Netcom will enable Logitech to be a full solution provider for Unified Communications,” said Gerald P. Quindlen, Logitech president and chief executive officer. “Businesses will now have a single company for a full range of UC solutions – from the meeting room with LifeSize video conferencing end points and infrastructure products to PCs, Macs and tablets with Logitech webcams, headsets and speakerphones.”

    “Jabra is already a leader in the UC space and we will continue to market the full range of Jabra branded solutions for Unified Communications. The agreement with Logitech enables GN Netcom to further expand the presence of Jabra products in North American sales channels,” said Mogens Elsberg, chief executive officer of GN Netcom. “We believe this agreement will lead to more people using Jabra headsets and speakerphones for their UC solutions.”

  • Apple Prepares the Next iPhone for September

    Apple prepares for September the launch of a new iPhone 5 which will have a more powerful processor and an advanced video camera, said two sources close to the situation.

    The phone will be equipped with the A5 processor of the iPad 2, and an 8-megapixel camera, compared to the 5-megapixel on the iPhone 4, said the sources, adding that Apple is also testing a new version of the iPad tablet, which boasts a higher resolution screen.

    Apple representatives declined to comment on this information.

    A faster chip will allow faster processing of data and will strengthen iPhone’s market position in relation with the smartphones launched by rival companies such as Samsung and HTC using Google’s Android platform.

    The new Apple phone will run the iOS 5, recently introduced by the company at a WWDC conference. The system has improved messaging features and photo-sharing and can run on all Apple mobile gadgets. By the end of last year, the iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch were using slightly different versions of the iOS.

    The company has delayed the introduction of the fifth iPhone to coincide with the launch of the iOS 5, said the sources.

    The iPhone is Apple's best selling product, generating half of the revenues in the last quarter.

    Market research firm, IDC, estimates that the smartphone market will reach one billion units sold by the end of 2015. The IDC also predicts that Apple will have a market share of 18.2% this year compared to 38.9% for Android phones.

    Apple is close to completing a cheaper and smaller version of the iPhone for consumers in emerging countries, the sources added. This gadget would use chips and screens close to the current seen on iPhone 4.

    You may also want to read:
    The Most Efficient Mass-Media Apps for iPad
    Adobe Facilitated Android, iOS and BlackBerry with its Updates for Flash Builder and Flex
    Windows Phone Will Dictate the Smartphone World Soon?