Weekend Mobile Industry Snippets!
Gigabyte Technology, a motherboard maker company from Taiwan, has been manufacturing its own brand, GSmart, on Windows Mobile operating devices. However, it was reported that they lost an estimated 9.3-12.5 million dollars in the handset business.
Gigabyte Communications, the subsidiary, has announced that they have changed from making GSmart branded Windows Mobile phones to ODM with Android as an additional operating system.
Though the U.S. may not be the place that we will see Gigabyte, we look forward to seeing what new products they might develop.
Sources:
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha revealed to Reuters that the company’s Android-powered mobile devices are selling faster than they can be manufactured. Verizon has had similar experiences with the Droid Incredible from HTC, an Android phone whose biggest problem has been that demand outstrips current supply.
Additionally LG, a company that had previously committed to releasing Windows Mobile handsets, has stated that it will release 20 Android handsets this year alone.
Source:
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
A recent study on more than 4200 people who had downloaded a mobile application in the last month showed that there was an increase in smartphone app usage these days. On average, the number of apps a smartphone user has on an Android phone is 22.
The average number of installed apps based on various smartphone OS:
The most popular apps across smartphones showed pretty consistent results. A few had strong showings, with the obvious and leading ones dominated by Google Maps and Facebook.
Source:
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
Google’s Android was the fourth most popular operating system on smartphones sold in the first quarter, research firm Gartner said, putting the company in a good position as handsets look set to surpass computers for browsing the Web.
Android, which was in 10 percent of smartphones sold in the quarter, still lags Nokia’s Symbian, Blackberry-maker Research in Motion and Apple. But Gartner said Android phones were already outselling the iPhone in North America, less than two years after the Internet search giant entered the market.
In fact, more and more start-ups are developing applications for Android, boosting interest among consumers and posing increasing risk to Apple. Android now has 38,000 apps. The openness of Google’s mobile operating system is helping it gain popularity with developers.
Sources:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20005359-94.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0
http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/19/iphone-android-25-percent/
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/android-crushing-windows-mobile-globally-apple-could-be-next/
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64I35620100519
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/19/idc-and-gartner-award-smartphone-growth-prizes-to-apple-and-goog/
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
Microsoft has created BING navigation app for Windows Mobile, adding all the right features to it. The app has been taken for a test drive. While there’s nothing too shocking or surprising, it looks like the voice input works well, and the turn-by-turn directions seem to be at least up to par with your average navigation device — it even has a few nice touches like being able to tap on the screen to repeat the instructions. The app is available for free download.
Source:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bing-turn-by-turn-navigation-for-windows-mobile-gets-taken-for-a/
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
The M1 AppStore, which allows the telco’s customers to access many applications ranging from games to social networking, makes its debut.
These applications will be available on various operating platforms including iPhone, Android, Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Java. M1 customers will also be able to access applications previously restricted to specific mobile platforms on their devices. There is a mix of free and chargeable content. Customers’ purchases will be reflected on their monthly bills. Prepaid customers will have the charges deducted from their card balances.
Source:
http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC100512-0000109/M1-rolls-out-multi-OS-AppStore
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
There has been numerous reasons fro HTC to build its own software platform, or acquire one. The company is expanding and playing a more important role to the market each day. However, they are still at the mercy of Android and Microsoft windows platform. HTC’s CFO revealed in an interview that his company continues “to assess developing its own smartphone operating system, but that requires a few conditions to justify.”
Source:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/13/htc-continues-to-assess-developing-its-own-smartphone-os-palm/
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
Microsoft sent out invitations to their press event on April 12. It has been revealed that Microsoft is planning to unveil its Project Pink phones, a youth-focused phone.
Project Pink was rumored to be an attempt by Microsoft to recapture the young people market. According to the Microsoft source, the company will officially reveal the Project Pink phones that have been making their rounds on the web since last year.
Microsoft is positioning the Pink phones as complimentary to Windows Phone 7. It’s aiming for the Pink devices to fill the niche with connected teenagers. The Pink phones will be built for social media services like Twitter and Facebook. To be more differentiated, Microsoft will also include Zune services in the phones as well.
Sources:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63441V20100405?type=technologyNews
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100405/ttc-us-it-company-telecom-internet-micro-0de2eff.html
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
There are some first screens of the Windows Phone 7 OS running on the HTC HD2. It has been claimed that almost everything is working including WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth. However, there are still some problems with the graphics driver, and there is noticeable device lag. Nevertheless, the team is planning a beta release soon.
Source:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/28/htc-hd2-gets-early-windows-phone-7-os-port-could-be-released-be/
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
Admob has released its Feb 2010 Mobile Metrics Report, according to it, smartphones accounted for 48 percent of its worldwide traffic last month, up from 35 percent in February 2009. The iPhone OS is still dominant, which has increased its share of smartphone requests on the AdMob network from 33 percent in February 2009 to 50 percent in February 2010.
However, Android is the fastest-growing these day while Symbian is the big loser. For Symbian, it accounted for 43% of AdMob’s smartphone requests in February 2009, it only reached a 18% share last month.
Source:
