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Tag: android

  • Motorola Milestone XT720 Announced

    Motorola has announced MILESTONE XT720, one of the world’s slimmest 8 Megapixel Android smartphones and the first to have a Xenon Flash. This sleek (10.9mm), capacitive touch Android 2.1 phone also features a high definition video experience and enhanced media and mobile internet capabilities.

    It offers 3.7 inch, WVGA (480X854) display, 10x digital zoom, 720p HD camcorder and comes with 8GB microSD card (included inbox; expandable up to 32GB) as well as with a smart image capture (includes easy panorama, face detection, multi-shot (six shots in a row), face filter, red eye reduction and camera shake prevention).

    According to Motorola, MILESTONE XT720 is designed to deliver high speed web-browsing and it has the capacity to support up to eight open browser windows.

    A suite of Google mobile applications including Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail and YouTube are also integrated onto the device, as well as Motorola’s MOTONAV turn by turn navigation.

    The new Motorola also supports management of multiple accounts and document editing.

    Ralf Gerbershagen, vice president and general manager for Motorola’s Mobile Devices business in Western Europe said, "MILESTONE XT720 is one of the most powerful phones in Motorola’s current smartphone range. Slim, sophisticated and technically savvy, MILESTONE XT720 is a high performance device designed for those who are actively engaged in both their work and social lives.

    "With MILESTONE XT720, Motorola has taken yet another step towards eliminating the barriers for consumers to creating and consuming media on the go."

  • Cortado Delivers Mobile Desktop Solution for Android

    Cortado has announced that it now offers its Cortado Workplace, a free cloud desktop solution for mobile applications, for Android OS.

    Cortado Workplace allows users to remotely store, access, view and manage documents through a smartphone (BlackBerry, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android devices are already on board), PC or Mac. The solution provides users with a 1GB online storage space where documents can be saved using a mobile file manager.

    In addition, documents can be printed to any local or network printer. In order to use the printer, the user simply needs to connect, through Cortado Workplace, with the relevant Wi-Fi network.

    “Since its entry into the market, Google’s mobile operating system has steadily increased its market share,” stated Dirk Löwenberg, business director online sales & services at Cortado.

    The ever increasing number of Android devices, including the popular Motorola Milestone and Google’s Nexus One, as well as the convincing usability of the system, lead analysts to believe that Google Android devices are destined for a large market share.

    "We are sure that aside from its foreseeable success, Android is ideal for enterprise solutions. For Cortado as an innovative provider, it is important that this operating system is compatible with our cloud printing function. At the same time, we have come closer to our goal of offering cross-platform solutions,” said Löwenberg.

    Cortado is the mobile business division of the printing specialist ThinPrint AG. According to the company, they already have 15,000 smartphone users.

    Related articles
    NPD: Android Shakes Up U.S. Smartphone Market
    fring Gives Android Users the 1st Mobile 2-Way Video Calls
    Global IP Solutions Brings Video Chat to Android Mobiles

  • fring Gives Android Users the 1st Mobile 2-Way Video Calls

    fring just announced the release of the world’s first mobile video calls over internet on Android devices.

    “Now we know iPhone will push video calling with its new 2-camera phone. But before they do, fring is launching today 2-way video calling over IP, across a whole host of Android devices – old and new,” said Gil Regev, Director of Marketing Communications at fring.

    According to recent NPD’s wireless market research, the Android OS continued to shake up the U.S. mobile phone market in the Q1 of 2010, moving past Apple to take the number-two position among smartphone operating systems.

    Android device owners now join Nokia (Symbian S60) and iPhone/iPod touch users who are already making free mobile video over internet calls with fring.

    Regev said fring believes that mobile video calling will change the way people call and communicate with each other. “It will impact the way they shop or kiss their kids goodnight from the road,” he added.

    According to Avi Shechter, fring’s Co-Founder and CEO, the demand for this feature has been “overwhelming”.


    Related articles
    AXTEL Partners with fring to Extend Fixed VoIP Services to Mobile
    Frings Brings Video Calls to Nokia Symbian 9.3 Devices
    MWC 2010: Interview with Gil Regev of Fring

  • Gartner: Worldwide Smarpthone Sales Grew 49% in Q1 2010

    Worldwide smarpthone sales to end users reached 54.3 million units in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 48.7% from the first quarter of 2009, according to Gartner. Mobile phone sales totalled 314.7 million units, a 17% increase from the same period in 2009.

    Gartner report "Competitive Landscape: Mobile Devices, Worldwide, 1Q10" shows that among the most successful vendors were those that controlled an integrated set of operating system, hardware and services.

    "In the first quarter of 2010, smartphone sales to end users saw their strongest year-on-year increase since 2006," said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.

    Q1 2010 saw RIM, “a pure smartphone player”, make its debut in the top five mobile devices manufacturers, and saw Apple increase its market share by 1.2 percentage points. Android’s momentum continued into the first quarter of 2010, particularly in North America, where sales of Android-based phones increased 707% year-on-year.

    According to the report, growth in the mobile devices market was driven by double-digit growth of smartphone sales in mature markets, helped by wider product availability as well as mass market price tags.

    “Increasing sales of white-box products in some emerging regions, in particular India, also drove sales of mobile phones upward. We expect sales of white-box products to remain very healthy for the remainder of 2010, especially outside of China,” said Milanesi.

    The first quarter also saw some movement outside the top five mobile handset vendor rankings: Hong Kong-based manufacturer G-Five made its debut into the top 10, grabbing 1.4% of market share

    The rise of white-box manufacturers from Asia has also helped the "others" section, as a proportion of overall sales, increase its market share to 19.20%, up 2.7 percentage points.

    “This is having a profound effect on the top five mobile handset manufacturers’ combined share that dropped from 73.3 in the first quarter of 2009 to 70.7% in the first quarter of 2010,” said Milanesi.

    In Q1 2010, Nokia‘s mobile phone sales to end users reached 110.1 million units, a 1.2% decline in market share year-on-year. Although Nokia’s midtier products sold well, Nokia lacks a high-volume driver in the high-end, according to the analysts.

    “MeeGo based devices and other high-end products will not rejuvenate Nokia’s premium portfolio until the end of the third quarter of 2010 at the earliest, and Nokia will continue to feel pressure on its average selling price (ASP) from vendors such as HTC, RIM and Samsung,” said Milanesi.

    The reorganisation announced last week demonstrated that Nokia is trying to streamline the reporting process to deliver results quickly, which Gartner believes shows its recognition of the pressure it faces from investors.

    Samsung sold 64.9 million devices in Q1 2010, an increase of 26.3% year-on-year. Samsung was one of the five vendors in the top10 vendors ranking to grow its market share, which increased by 1.5 percentage points year-on-year.

    RIM’s mobile phone sales reached 10.6 million units, a 45.9% increase year-on-year. RIM is making its debut into the top five worldwide mobile handset manufacturers ranking. RIM’s focus this quarter was centred on its ecosystem strategy, its tightly integrated control of store, OS and device played to RIM’s strengths, according to the report.

    The reports also shows that the first quarter of 2010 was Apple’s strongest quarter yet, which placed the company in the No. 7 position with a 112.2% increase in mobile devices sales.

    “Growth came partly from new communication service providers in established markets, such as the UK, and stronger sales in new markets such as China and South Korea,” said Milanesi.

    She claims that the second quarter of 2010 will be a very important one for Apple. “We expect that Apple will present its new iPhone in June during its Worldwide Developer Conference, which will be the first to feature the latest release of the iPhone OS that includes welcome improvements for developers and users, such as multitasking,” she said.

    OS market
    In the smartphone OS market, Android and Apple were the winners in Q1 2010. Android moved to the No. 4 position displacing Microsoft Windows Mobile for the first time. Both Android and Apple were the only two OSs vendors among the top five to increase market share year-on-year.

    Symbian remained in the No. 1 position but continued to lose as Nokia remains weak in the high-end portfolio.

    Smartphones accounted for 17.3% of all mobile handset sales in the first quarter of 2010, up from 13.6% in the same period in 2009.

    “As seen with the iPad and web books based on Google’s Android platform, mobile OS ecosystems are developing and will move beyond smartphones to continue to deliver consumer value and a rich user experience,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner.

    Related articles
    NPD: Android Shakes Up U.S. Smartphone Market
    IDC: Mobile Phone Recovery Continues with Nearly 22% Growth in Q1
    Berg Insight: 894 Million Mobile Banking Users by 2015

  • NPD: Android Shakes Up U.S. Smartphone Market

    The Android OS continued to shake up the U.S. mobile phone market in the Q1 of 2010, moving past Apple to take the number-two position among smartphone operating systems, according to NPD.

    NPD’s wireless market research reveals that based on unit sales to consumers last quarter the Android operating system moved into second position at 28 percent behind RIM’s OS (36 percent) and ahead of Apple’s OS (21 percent).

    “As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share,” said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD. “In order to compete with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer beyond RIM devices to now include all of their smartphones.”

    Strong sales of the Droid, Droid Eris, and Blackberry Curve via these promotions helped keep Verizon Wireless’s smartphone sales on par with AT&T in Q1. According to NPD, smartphone sales at AT&T comprised nearly a third of the entire smartphone market (32 percent), followed by Verizon Wireless (30 percent), T-Mobile (17 percent) and Sprint (15 percent).

    “Recent previews of BlackBerry 6, the recently announced acquisition of Palm by HP, and the pending release of Windows Phone 7 demonstrates the industry’s willingness to make investments to address consumer demand for smartphones and other mobile devices,” Rubin said. “Carriers continue to offer attractive pricing for devices, but will need to present other data-plan options to attract more customers in the future.”

    The report also shows that the continued popularity of messaging phones and smartphones resulted in slightly higher prices for all mobile phones, despite an overall drop in the number of mobile phones purchased in the first quarter.

    The average selling price for all mobile phones in Q1 reached $88, which is a 5 percent increase from Q1 2009. Smartphone unit prices, by comparison, averaged $151 in Q1 2010, which is a 3 percent decrease over the previous year.

    Related articles
    comScore: Motorola and RIM Lead U.S. Smartphone Market
    Apple Ranks Highest Among Both Consumer and Business Smartphone Owners

  • Combined VoIP and CRM for Small Businesses

    Ringio, a new company founded by a group of long-time SaaS and Telephony Executives, has launched a new service for small and mid-sized businesses that brings them a combination of CRM and telephony functionality that until now has been available only through call centers and enterprise-level telephony systems.

    Ringio’s Rich Calling service presents calls together with their contextual details, either through the service’s desktop client or through its mobile version (available for Android phones).

    The Ringio team developed Rich Calling as a SaaS with an emphasis on affordability and ease of setup. The company assures that it can be set up in minutes and works with users’ current phones, including mobile devices, with no additional hardware or software required.

    According to Ringio Co-founder and Chairman Michael Zirngibl, Ringio defines ‘rich calling’ as ‘bringing a telephone call and relevant information about the caller together at the same time to enrich communication and information sharing, and – most important — to accelerate speed-to-satisfaction.’

    “By tapping into the cloud for customer data, we bring everything that’s important about the caller to the top of your mind – in real time,” he said.

    “As you take or make a call, you can draw upon the collective notes of everyone in your organization who has dealt with this person. This helps you to connect with customers much more efficiently, professionally and meaningfully than SMBs typically are able to do.”

    Ringio’s call-routing technology, also part of the service, helps direct the caller to the right employee in the organization at the start. If he or she needs to transfer the caller to a colleague, the person handling the call can tell whether that co-worker is available at that moment.

    “This kind of real-time visibility also known as ‘presence’ resolves issues quickly, avoids dumping customers into what they call ‘voice mail jail,’ and produces well-informed, coordinated responses that close the sale or solve the caller’s problem,” Zirngibl added.

    Ringio is launching the service’s own integrated call-control and screen-pop client for the PC, Mac desktop or Linux. Through the client, users view and add to a company store of customer information about contacts as they handle calls. Ringio also automatically retrieves and synchronizes records built using Google’s Contacts database. They also plan to integrate Ringio with Salesforce.com.

    ‘Rich Calling’ details
    Users can accept or redirect incoming calls as they appear on the screen; Ringio then completes the call to the user’s desired 10-digit phone number or sends it to voice mail. If users are not logged into the system, they can still receive calls on the Ringio number; in that case, an audio caller ID gives them the same screening options.

  • Global IP Solutions Brings Video Chat to Android Mobiles

    Global IP Solutions, a provider of HD voice and video processing solutions, announced yesterday another first-to-market with GIPS VideoEngine for Android, which provides mobile developers the vital building blocks for integrating video conferencing/video chat into applications running Google’s Android mobile operating system.

    Mobile video application revenue is expected to double worldwide over the next four years to $2.42 billion, with much of the growth taking place this year, according to U.K.-based research firm Screen Digest.

    According to Joyce Kim, GIPS’ Chief Marketing Officer, mobile applications are becoming more and more sophisticated and by providing HD voice and video capabilities inside their applications, GIPS customers continually differentiate themselves to lead the mobile application market.

    “GIPS continues to innovate for mobile application developers by offering the ability to incorporate high-quality voice and video communications without having to worry about the complex challenges of wireless networks,” he said.

    Now with GIPS VideoEngine Mobile, developers can integrate the real-time video technology overcoming the multiple issues intrinsic to IP networks and devices. “By dealing with obstacles such as delay, packet loss, bandwidth limitations and echo; GIPS VideoEngine Mobile ensures video conversations dynamically adjust with Wi-Fi or 3G cellular network conditions maintaining great caliber video,” the company claims.

    “GIPS VideoEngine is capable of running on a wide variety of smartphone devices globally,” said Ronald Gruia, Frost & Sullivan’s Principal Analyst of Emerging Telecom.

    “Android is becoming the fastest growing operating system and with the addition of Android video support from GIPS, application developers can utilize established real-time video expertise without the need for heavy R&D investment to offer real time voice and video capabilities.”

    GIPS VideoEngine Mobile is available on Android, iPhone and Windows Mobile OS platforms.

  • Sprint Announces First 4G Handset in the U.S. – the HTC EVO 4G

    Sprint and HTC announced summer availability of the world’s first 3G/4G Android handset, HTC EVO 4G.

    It runs Android OS 2.1 with Sense UI and features 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 4.3 inches 480 x 800 TFT display, 8.0 megapixel auto-focus camera with HD-capable video camcorder (720p), forward-facing 1.3 megapixel camera, HDMI out and GPS.

    It also comes with 1GB of built-in memory (8GB microSD card in the box!) and 512MB of RAM as well as with built-in mobile hotspot functionality, allowing up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices to share the 4G experience.

    According to Sprint, the custom Web browser is optimized for HTC EVO 4G’s large display. It supports Adobe Flash and features automatic text reflowing.

    The new HTC device features the newest version of theHTC Sense user experience. Along with all of the HTC Sense features it adds a number of new features, including Friend Stream, which aggregates multiple social communication channels including Facebook and Twitter into one organized flow of updates; a "Leap" thumbnail view to easily switch between home screen "panels"; the ability to download new, interactive widgets; and a "polite" ringer, which quiets the ringing phone once lifted up.

    Sprint said that in addition to today’s Android apps, the performance of which will be enhanced by 4G speed, application developers will be introducing new apps that take advantage of 4G power in new ways – games and communications tools and other apps that bring together video, presence and location simultaneously.

    “For example, an application developer might create an app that allows a customer to simultaneously watch a streaming sporting event while pulling down stats and conducting a video chat with a friend,” says Sprint.

    "The Android platform was developed to give people unmatched mobile connectivity to the Internet. By combining this vision with the promise of Sprint’s first-to-market 4G technology, HTC EVO 4G makes accessing thousands of applications from Android Market, using Google) services like Google Goggles, Google Earthand the all-new Gesture Search, or simply browsing the Web faster, easier and more enjoyable than ever before," said Andy Rubin, vice president, mobile platforms at Google.

    Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO, said, "Not only is this feature-rich device incredible on our Sprint 3G network, but Sprint 4G speeds will take mobile multimedia, including live video streaming, gaming and picture downloads, to a whole new level."

    Pre-registration started yesterday. The company informed that pricing will be announced at a later date.

    Today, Sprint offers wireless 4G service in 27 markets covering more than 30 million people. They expect to have up to 120 million people covered by the end of 2010. Sprint says their 4G network is up to 10 times faster than any 3G network.

  • Motorola Partners with Microsoft for Search and Maps Services

    Motorola announced a global alliance with Microsoft to deploy Bing services on Motorola devices powered by Android.

    This new offering, launching in China on smartphones in Q1, will provide consumers a choice when using search and map functions on their Android-based devices.

    This collaboration will bring a pre-loaded Bing bookmark on the mobile browser and an enhanced search widget with Bing integration.

    According to Motorola, by enabling users to customize their devices and select their own search provider, the company, with help from Microsoft, is expanding the capabilities and range of services currently offered in the marketplace and opening the doors for increased personalization.

    According to Christy Wyatt, corporate vice president of software and services at Motorola Mobile Devices, “the consumer choice is one of the most critical components to ensuring a rich and seamless client experience".

    He said the addition of Bing services to their Android-based smartphones in China is “another important step in empowering Motorola’s end-users."

    "Mobile devices continue to be a critical place for customers to access location-based services such as local search and mapping," stated Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of the Online Services Division at Microsoft.

    Search and Maps capabilities through Microsoft will initially be available in China, starting in Q1 2010, through either pre-load or over-the-air updates for devices already in market.

  • Interview with Xavier Bertschy, Founder of CityOnline.net

    Smartphone.Biz-News.com spoke to Xavier Bertschy, CEO at xb83studio Sàrl and the founder of CityOnline.net, a specialist in web content management. Xavier was one of the speakers at MobileMonday “Android and web-convergence” event that was held last… Monday in Fribourg, Switzerland.

    Smartphone.Biz-news.com: Can you tell us a little about CityOnline.net background and what other projects your team has worked on recently?

    Xavier Bertschy: CityOnline.net is a Swiss SME providing cityguide technology. Our free service provides prompts information about all local activities of the user’s region: cinemas, concerts, restaurants, hotels, museums and shopping.

    Xavier Bertschy

    Behind CityOnline.net is Skeeble‘s technology. Skeeble.com is a mobile internet database / Content Management System for everyone.

    Skeeble imports data from all kinds of sources (XML, databases, static HTML pages, WordPress, Drupal, Typo3, Excel, Access, PDF, and many others) and provides this data in a standard and structured format to all kinds of devices. So as a result, you can manage all your content in one place and Skeeble takes care of creating the data for any interface required.

    By having this available, services, events and even information related to tourism are easily accessible to a variety of devices such as mobile phones, smartphone, PDA, iPhone, PSP, Nintendo DS etc. Skeeble automatically detects the user’s device and adapts images, videos, sounds and texts for the interface the user is using.

    A good example of this is Crans-Montana Tourism. They had recently started to use our technology. As a consequence, a user is able to access their website from the mobile.

    What are your experiences with Android so far?

    Our R&D team has performed numerous test applications for internal use. We have explored the main functionalities of the SDK, like the camera functions, the GPS device and the User Interface framework.

    As yet, we have not developed a real and usable application, however in the near future we expect to release our first application. CityOnline.net has its own Android application, but it’s a WebView of the Web Application (available with a mobile browser).

    How the Android can help with web content management, its usability and accessibility?

    Android has an excellent web browser that supports all the latest technology, i.e. HTML 5. This allows the developers to be really inventive, as they can continue to use the Web 2.0 concepts that they are already familiar with. We admit that a lot of current WebApps are now at the maturity stage, so why not adapt them to be usable on the mobiles phones?

    What distinguishes Android from other platforms?

    The alliance with Google and the mobile manufacturers will make Android available on many phones brands such as: Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola, HTC etc. From what I have seen during the last months, almost all the mobile manufacturers have announced mobile phones with Android for the next two years.

    How will Android benefit from the convergence of mobile and web?

    I think that Android will benefit from this convergence as it will universalize the usage of WebApp. In this day, due to the constant increases in mobile internet connection speeds, the need for offline phone applications is quickly becoming redundant.

    Cloud-computing is the next generation of application usage and Google is making preparations for it, at the same time it is also trying to influence the users/developers behavior using Android and Chrome OS.

    Will Android and Chrome converge? Does it make sense? Do you agree that the future is just for the web-based apps?

    It is uncertain whether or not Android and Chrome will converge, but I think that Google is betting on the possibility that the usage of web-based apps will flourish. Most of all their services are available through the mobile browsers and are really handy. One of the biggest advantages of web-based apps is that they are compatible with a great number of different devices and browsers unlike native applications.

    What are the main problems Android has to struggle with?

    The Market is one of the biggest weaknesses for Android, reason being there is no way to search a specific application, and at present the quality and the quantity of applications are really low. However, Android is still young and emerging, and Google is constantly improving it day by day.

    The Android developers struggle with the problem of custom firmware on many phones as well as the hardware differences between different models. Is there any solution in your mind of how the Android could solve this problem?

    I don’t think there is an easy way to manage these problems. For instance, let’s think about the web: with the multitude of different OS and browsers, it gives the developers a hard time but they have learned to deal with that problem. The mobile development will have the same difficulties in the future.

    For example, if one wants his/her application to be available on all the different models of devices, he/she would have to be well-informed on the differences and adapt or redevelop the application for each interface. Having said that, it’s not just a simple technical adaptation; you will have to consider the navigation system, the screen size, the kind of available interactions and many other parameters. Perhaps WebApp is the solution but it’s too soon to make this prediction.

    Apple’s App Store recently reached three billion downloads. What are the perspectives for Android Market in terms of the competition with the App Store?

    I believe that Android Market will one day catch up the App Store. Apple has the monopoly with the App Store because he was the first one in the business. So why do I think that the Android Market will catch up the App Store.

    There are three different iPhones on the market, but Android is different: manufacturer-free and carrier-free. There is more and more devices with the Android OS, so if you do simple math: more phones = more customers = more money.

    Do you agree with the opinion that the Google’s main goal of releasing Nexus One was to gather critical user data for developing new software and improving Android?

    It’s really difficult to say what is the main goal of Google. I imagine that Google wants to have a functional phone to show the others manufacturers the possibilities of Android OS.

    Is it possible to imagine Android without Google behind it? How would the Android operating system look like without Google’s web-based services?

    There aren’t many companies which can afford the costs to develop a free mobile operating system, Microsoft and Apple already have their own system. But sometimes the open source community on the web can be surprisingly innovative and maybe one day we will see a new open source mobile operating system.

    And Android, without all Google’s services, would only be a mobile operating system like the others without any advantages. It’s understandable that Google integrates its services in Android, it’s a good way to get more users and develop their loyalty.

    What is your best Android feature or application?

    Actually, I have two preferences: the customizable home screen with widgets and the integration of Google’s services such as Gmail, the contacts and the calendar.

    ***
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