mobile

Asus is reportedly working on Windows 8 laptops that are equipped with Microsoft’s Kinect technology. The Daily recently reported that it was able to “check out” two different prototype laptops that “appeared” to be made by Asus. The Kinect sensor was built into the area where a notebook’s camera would typically reside, and The Daily also noted a set of LEDs below the screen. Microsoft reportedly confirmed that the notebooks were Kinect-enabled prototypes. As The Daily points out, a Kinect-enabled notebook could allow a user to interact with Windows 8 or play games using motion controls, much like Xbox 360 Kinect users are able to do now. It is unclear when, or even if, the notebooks will ever be released.

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LG still has to step up to the second generation Windows Phone 7 game, so it is reassuring to see that they have continued development of at least one Windows Phone 7.5 handset.

The LG E740, which we first heard of in October 2011, when it was noticed on the Occasional Gamer stats site, confirming at the very least that it was a Windows Phone, has now passed through the Bluetooth SIG on the 11th January 2012.

The handset may be the LG Fantasy (pictured right) which is a Windows Phone handset with a 4 inch IPS display and front-facing camera whose pictures leaked in December last year and which is rumoured for a Q1 2012 release (i.e. soon).

The LG E740h also has an entry at LG’s user agent site confirming it is powered by IE9 and is therefore a Mango handset.

At the time the LG e740 leaked the E950 also leaked, but unfortunately nothing further has so far been seen from that handset.

See the Bluetooth SIG entry here.

Verizon released the DROID RAZR MAXX on Thursday for $299.99 with a new two-year agreement. The device features a massive 3,300 mAh battery and a slightly thicker frame than its predecessor, the DROID RAZR. Other than that, the handsets are identical. Droid-Life confirmed on Friday that both devices run the same exact software, in fact — the Android version on both devices features the same build number, same kernel and same baseband version. We have seen similar products in the past (DROID 2 and DROID R2D2), but they all carried slightly different software versions to accommodate various changes. With the DROID RAZR and DROID RAZR MAXX however, it looks like everything is interchangeable, so savvy users already have a wide range custom ROMs to choose from.

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Global mobile phone shipments grew 14% annually to shatter the previous shipment record in 2011. Market research firm Strategy Analytics estimates that 1.6 billion cell phones were shipped last year, representing more than one-fifth of the world’s total population, which surpassed 7 billion in late October last year according to the Population Reference Bureau. An earlier report from the GSMA estimated that there are now more than 6 billion total mobile connections worldwide. Read on for more.

Handset shipments grew 11% to reach 445 million units globally last quarter according to Strategy Analytics, 155 million of which were smartphones. Nokia retained its No.1 position globally with mobile phone shipments totaling 113.5 million units, and Samsung followed with 95 million units. With just one smartphone line that includes just three models, Apple was the world’s No.3 cell phone vendor last quarter with shipments totaling 37 million units.

Nokia was also the top vendor for the full year, having shipped 417.1 million phones globally according to Strategy Analytics’s figures. Samsung shipped 327.4 million units in 2011 and Apple sold 93 million iPhones into distribution channels.

“Smartphone specialist Apple shipped 93.0 million handsets worldwide in 2011, nearly doubling the previous year’s volumes,” Strategy Analytics analyst Tom Kang said. “Currently in just its fifth year of participation in the handset market, Apple is on track to ship well over 100 million units during 2012. China is becoming a key market for Apple this year, and we expect Apple’s share to grow rapidly in 2012, despite countless copycat rivals.” The firm’s full press release follows below.

Strategy Analytics: Global Handset Shipments Reach 1.6 Billion Units in 2011

Boston, MA – January 26, 2012 – According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global handset shipments grew 11 percent annually to reach 445 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011. Apple was the star performer, capturing a record 8 percent market share worldwide during the quarter. Full-year handset shipments reached 1.6 billion units globally in 2011, with annual growth of 14 percent.

Alex Spektor, Associate Director at Strategy Analytics, said, “Despite continued macroeconomic difficulties in major markets like Western Europe, global handset shipments grew a reasonable 11 percent annually to reach 445 million units in Q4 2011. Apple was the star performer, shipping 37.0 million iPhones worldwide and capturing a highest-ever 8 percent market share. Apple’s growth was fuelled by intense demand for its refreshed iPhone 4S, as well as the availability of three generations of iPhones at a variety of price points at operators like AT&T in the United States.”

Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Nokia’s global handset shipments declined 8 percent annually to 113.5 million units in Q4 2011. Volumes were buoyed by the sales of Nokia’s low-end dual-SIM models in emerging markets like Southeast Asia, but were a little soft overall, as initial shipments of Microsoft Lumia phones could not offset declining Symbian sales. Hot on Nokia’s heels, second-ranked Samsung captured 21 percent share with shipments of 95.0 million units. Samsung’s 18 percent annual growth was fuelled by robust shipments of its broad Galaxy-branded 3G portfolio, headlined by the Galaxy S2 superphone.”

Tom Kang, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Smartphone specialist Apple shipped 93.0 million handsets worldwide in 2011, nearly doubling the previous year’s volumes. Currently in just its fifth year of participation in the handset market, Apple is on track to ship well over 100 million units during 2012. China is becoming a key market for Apple this year, and we expect Apple’s share to grow rapidly in 2012, despite countless copycat rivals.”

Exhibit 1: Global Handset Vendor Shipments and Market Share in Q4 2011

[See chart above]

The full report, Global Handset Shipments Reach 445 Million Units in Q4 2011, is published by the Strategy Analytics Wireless Device Strategies (WDS) service, details of which can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/3tbnzb6.

Snake has made the trip from 1997 to 2012, with Dutch developer Willem porting the app to Windows Phone 7.

The app faithfully reproduce the dot-matrix display and monotone sounds and feature 9 original and 2 extra difficulty levels plus a high score that cannot be reset (just like the original).

The game is $0.99 with a free trial, that will allow you to earn up to 250 points.

If you are waiting for your new Nokia Windows Phone or already sport a new Lumia, pay a homage to the heritage of the phone company by downloading Snake from Marketplace here.

Video via Pocket-lint.com

Thanks Romit for the tip.

Chinese support for Windows Phone 7 is only expected in the second half od 2012, but it seems no-one told Suning, Microsoft’s Chinese retail partner for Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8.

The large retailer has been passing round a circular calling the 6 handsets, which include 3 Windows Phones, the “6 most anticipated products in the year of the dragon” and are offering the Nokia Lumia 800, 900 and HTC Titan for pre-order.

Buyers will have to put down ?100 (about 16 US$) to secure the phones, which translates into a ?300 reduction when the phone actually ships.

WPSauce notes that a pre-order 6 months before availability seems unlikely, suggesting Chinese support has been moved up quite a bit.

China has recently overtaken USA as the largest smartphone market in the world, and is one of Nokia’s stronger markets. I am sure the company cant wait to bring their devices to the region.

Via WPSauce and  WPXAP.

Although Apple outsold all Android vendors in the fourth quarter, the Cupertino-based company’s share of mobile internet usage is reportedly beginning to slide. An analysis of last year’s Internet usage shows that in the United States, the proportion of Android mobile web visitors overtook Apple users by the end of the year, according to 51Degrees.mobi. The share of Apple’s iOS web traffic in December fell to 34.1%, while Android increased to 36.6%. In Europe, Apple remained ahead with 42.6% however, despite an increase in Android traffic that pushed the platform to 25.5% by the end of 2011. RIM’s BlackBerry devices remained stable in both regions with roughly 9% of all mobile web usage. “The battle for mobile operating system dominance is far from over”, said 51Degrees.mobi CEO James Rosewell. “Apple experienced record sales of iPad2 and iPhone devices, yet its share of mobile web traffic declined in the US and Europe – indicating just how many more Android based products were used online in the same period.” The firm’s full press release follows after the break.

Decline in Apple share of mobile internet usage shows battle to dominate mobile phones and tablets is far from over

Apple’s dominance of mobile web traffic appears to be fading

Android traffic now ahead in the US; Apple still leads in the UK

BlackBerry share of web traffic remains stable

Nokia starting to slide in India

51Degrees.mobi, the leading provider of device detection and web optimisation solutions, has today published an analysis of the mobile devices its online partners detected browsing the internet last year.

The 51Degrees.mobi Mobile Web Trends 2011 white paper shows that the proportion of mobile web visitors in the USA with Android devices overtook Apple users by the end of the year. The share of Apple iOS web traffic in December 2011 fell to 34.1% in the US, while Android increased to 36.6%.

In Europe, Apple remained ahead with 42.6% of mobile web visits despite an increase in Android usage to 25.5% by the end of 2011.

Figures for RIM’s BlackBerry OS were stable in the USA and Europe throughout the second half of 2011, varying by just a fraction of a percentage point. Both regions saw BlackBerry usage remain at around 9% of all mobile web traffic.

Unlike the mobile market in Europe and the USA, mobile phone use in India has been dominated by Nokia and its Symbian operating system for several years. Nokia mobile web visits fell in H2 2011 from 57.3% of the total figure to 50.6% by the end of the year.

The data has been collated from customers who use 51Degrees.mobi free and premium device detection services.

“The battle for mobile operating system dominance is far from over”, said 51Degrees.mobi CEO James Rosewell. “Apple experienced record sales of iPad2 and iPhone devices, yet its share of mobile web traffic declined in the US and Europe – indicating just how many more Android based products were used online in the same period.”

Last year (2011) was not a very good year for Nokia, from the now famous burning platform memo, to the restructuring, to the latest report of 4th Qtr losses.  Even though the Finnish mobile giant is down, it is definitely not out.

According to recent report from StrategyAnalytics Nokia is still the worlds largest phone manufacture by almost 90 million units!

To put into prospective of  just how truly huge Nokia is as a handset manufacturer in 2011 Nokia had a market share of 26.9% while Apple had a meager 6.0% even with the iPhone4s bounce in the 4th Qtr.

This would beg the question where are all these sales coming from? With the Windows Phone announcement Symbian sales started to drop off  almost immediately. Combine that with the fact that  Windows Phone was only available in a few select markets in the 4th Qtr Nokia should have had pretty horrible year. The answer would be low end phones.  Nokia has made a big push this year for emerging markets or what they call “The Next Billion”.

The Next Billion handsets range from super low end Nokia 100′s to the touch screen, full qwerty keyboard Asha 303.  With features like dual sim, flashlight, and batteries that lasts for weeks on stand by not days Nokia is the still the choice for first time cell phone users.

Also Symbian is not as dead as you would think in another report from StatCounter Symbian is still by far and away the world’s most used mobile OS.

The real stunner here is that if you look at the chart more and more people chose to buy Symbian as the year when on knowing it was a “dead platform” and it actually rose in popularity as the year went on.

The real take away here is while Nokia is not as big as it use to be in the  smartphone business, it’s overall business model is working and they should be able to ride out the storm till Window Phone catches on.

VIA

The LTE-powered HTC Titan II has just passed through FCC, hopefully in time for the rumoured 18th March launch.

The certification does not reveal anything interesting such as T-Mobile bands for example, but does show the location of the antennas, which suggests holding the phone in your right hand may occlude the WIFI antenna, and if your hand is big enough, the LTE antenna, while the left hand should not interfere with any of them.

How many of our readers are salivating for this handset? Let us know below.

See the FCC documents here.

Via Engadget.com

Twitter announced recently that it now has the ability to, and will begin to, censor content on the social network by country. “As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression,” the company said in a blog post Thursday. “Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there.” Twitter gave France and Germany as examples, two countries that ban pro-Nazi rhetoric from being posted on the Internet. Previously, Twitter would have had to delete specific content worldwide in order to prevent it from being visible, but it can now remove content on a country-by-country basis. Read on for more.

The company’s announcement has caused some to worry Twitter might cross a line that is already blurred. For example, the new policy could prohibit a country’s citizens from using Twitter as a means to band together and stage an uprising. No doubt much of 2011′s Arab Spring uprisings were fueled by social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, and censorship could have killed the powerful voices that helped topple a number of regimes.

“We haven’t yet used this ability, but if and when we are required to withhold a Tweet in a specific country, we will attempt to let the user know, and we will clearly mark when the content has been withheld,” Twitter said. “One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user’s voice. We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can’t. The Tweets must continue to flow.”

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Microsoft is working to integrate Kinect into portable computers. According to The Daily, Microsoft currently even has a prototype from Asus which has Kinect sensors over the top. The Daily had a chance to check out a pair of prototypes incorporating Kinect sensors over the last few days. The devices, which at first glance appear [...]

Read more at Microsoft News

After the rumored cancellation of Samsung’s Galaxy S III debut at next month’s Mobile World Congress, we were left wondering what the South Korean company will unveil instead. Samsung promised “interesting stuff” in place of the Galaxy S III, according to Android And Me a new Galaxy Tab featuring the updated Exynos 5250 processor may be just that. The next-generation tablet will reportedly feature a dual-core 2GHz Exynos 5250 processor, a display larger than 10 inches with WXQGA (2560 x 1600 pixels) resolution and will run the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. The rumor apparently stems from a prototype tablet the site’s staff spotted during this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. The Exynos 5250 processor, which was announced last November, is the Samsung’s first mobile processor to feature ARM’s latest Cortex-A15 CPU core. The chip should produce twice the computing power, increased memory bandwidth, and five times the graphics horsepower as the current generation of CPUs, as well as all-day battery life.

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In a sales call which accompanied their recent earnings, Stephen Elop complained that their Lumia handsets still suffered at the hands of carrier sales staff.

He said:

“We need to increase the engagement of the retail sales associates in the stores, because it is the retail associate who speaks with our consumers and puts the Lumia device in their hands. For example, in the United Kingdom, where competitive ecosystems are firmly entrenched, we have seen mixed retail execution around Lumia devices with a range of results among different locations, different chains, different stores and so on.”

It is interesting that, according to Elop, the handsets could be selling well in one locale and poorly at another, simple based on the attitude of the staff working there.

Hopefully moves to educate and more importantly to incentivise sales staff will allow this boat to be turned around.

Have any of our readers noticed any change in attitude towards the better at retail locations yet? Let us know below.

Via Slashgear.com

Apple, Google and five other technology companies must face a lawsuit for violating antitrust laws, according to a federal judge. The two companies, along with Intel, Adobe, Pixar, Intuit and Lucasfilm, are accused of entering into agreements to not recruit each other’s employees. U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh in San Jose, California said on Thursday that even if the claims were dismissed, she would give the plaintiffs a chance to amend their complaint and refile it, reports Bloomberg. “They still have an antitrust claim that’s going forward so I don’t want to see any obstruction on discovery,” she told lawyers during a hearing.

The judge’s decision will result in each company being required to provided a detailed account of the agreements made with other companies. “We get to see what really happened,” said Joseph Saveri, a lawyer for one of the plaintiffs. Saveri claims the damages could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Google said in statement to Bloomberg that the company has “always actively and aggressively recruited top talent.” The other companies declined to comment after the hearing.

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WhatApp recently released version 1.6 of their Windows Phone 7 app, which brought numerous fixes, but also broke the viewing of videos and images.

It seems the WhatsApp team is aware of the issue, from WhatsApp’s response to one of our readers.  They wrote:

Hi ,The submission for 1.6 came from a "tainted" build machine and was not linked correctly. This makes us fail to download media. We regret the error and have sent an update to Microsoft.

Regards,

Andrew

Hopefully version 1.7 will reach Marketplace soon.

Thanks Jesus for the tip.

Facebook plans to file for its initial public offering as soon as Wednesday next week according to multiple reports from Dow Jones Newswires. Morgan Stanley is expected to win the deal to lead the highly anticipated IPO, which could top $100 billion according to earlier reports. Goldman Sachs is also reportedly expected to play a role. According to Dow Jones Newswires, Facebook is currently looking at a valuation between $75 billion and $100 billion. Following next week’s anticipated filing, it will still be several months until the company goes public. The initial offering is expected to raise as much as $10 billion.

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Earlier this week, Google announced that the company would combine individual privacy policies from a variety of its products into one main policy. The idea behind it was to provide users with a “more intuitive Google experience.” Critics of the change are worried that Google is now collecting more data than ever, however, leading members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee to demand answers. Read on for more.

The search giant claims that it is not collecting more data and the new terms merely clarify how existing data is used to improve the Google experience. “We’re making things simpler and we’re trying to be upfront about it. Period,” said Google’s policy manager Betsy Masiello in a blog post. “You still have choice and control. You don’t need to log in to use many of our services, including Search, Maps and YouTube.”

Users will also have access to privacy controls, with the ability to customize options for search history, Gmail, and other services. “You can use as much or as little of Google as you want. For example, you can have a Google Account and choose to use Gmail, but not use Google+,” Masiello added. “Or you could keep your data separate with different accounts — for example, one for YouTube and another for Gmail.”

The Nokia Lumia 800 has just been released in Sweden, and Telia, the country’s biggest carrier, is giving it pride of place.

The carrier has a two-monthly in-store magazine promoting their handsets, which Wingadget.se notes usually features the iPhone 4S.

In this edition however the Nokia Lumia 800 has featured position, and the Nokia Lumia 800 and 710 also have hero positions inside the publication. The magazine also includes HTC and Samsung’s Windows Phone handsets.

The magazine is available in store, but can also be seen online here.

The magazine will remain current till the 22nd March, which should give pretty good exposure to the handset.

Read more at Wingadget.se here.

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Jon Rubinstein, the former CEO of Palm, has left HP. AllThingsD broke the news Friday afternoon, noting that Rubinstein had served his promised 12-24 month tenure with the company before leaving. “Jon has fulfilled his commitment and we wish him well,” HP spokeswoman Mylene Mangalindan told AllThingsD. Rubinstein led the team responsible for the original iPod and left Apple in 2006 to eventually join Palm as CEO in 2009. While at Palm, Rubinstein was responsible for, among other projects, the development of the Palm Pre and Palm’s webOS mobile operating system, both of which were transferred to HP in 2010 When it acquired Palm for $1.2 billion. HP has since open-sourced the mobile operating system after failing to gain traction with its Pre, Pixi, Veer and TouchPad products.

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