Nokia has had a great financial cushion with Microsoft. However, that “funding” cushion has come to an end due to the fact Nokia is selling the windows phones.
Also Nokia has returned to a profit which is good news, so paying royalties back to Microsoft shouldn’t be an issue now.
As phones get more sophisticated, people use them more and more to access the internet. There are rumours that operators will be unable to keep up with smartphone users’ growing demand for data on the move, a report warns.
On average, iPhone, Android or Windows Mobile handset owners consumed 35 times more data traffic than a typical phone user. Source the annual Deloitte report. If this was to carry on, mobile Internet use could explode in a few years time.
The bandwidth demand would not mean users failing to connect at all, the report added, but mobile networks would suffer “rush hours” just like roads do. During these times, it might take two or three attempts to connect, there would be three or four times as many dropped calls, web pages may freeze and browsing speeds would be much reduced, the report said.
This is a real problem. I live in a rural spot but its not uncommon to get faster speeds than the nearest city of Exeter or even Plymouth. Even the customer service staff joked with me that everyone should live in the middle of the Moors then.
I don’t think there is a proper solution either. The government is opening up and selling more of the wireless spectrum but eventually this will get used up. And there is a mad rush to sell this spectrum without much consideration to the interference or loss or TV that some people will suffer.
It could be quite ironic that we buy the latest smartphone because it can manage a super high speed connection, except there isn’t one available.
Unbelievably Nokia is seeing a slight turnaround with its financial performance, with the Nokia Lumia picking up some traction.
However, it is its own Asha phones that are selling even faster, by a rate of 2 to 1. This shows there is still value in the Nokia Brand and low cost handsets.
This year there are going to be some really hot phones released. Starting with the Sony Xperia Z, Samsung S4 & Note 3, iPhones, and other Chinese manufacturers.
Now, hold your current phone in your hand, and ask yourself, what can it not do that a newer phone can? Of course, if your current phone is slightly busted or has a broken screen I can understand why you might a newer one.
Fundamentally the new phones coming up this year will be in 2 segments. 4 core and 8 core chips, 13mp cameras and then 16mp cameras and higher, thin and large, and then Apple does what it wants regardless of anything else. A newer phone might feature a larger screen size but again with larger screen sizes you lose one handed use but gain better media and Internet experiences. The newer phones might have features like NFC that you haven’t got on your old phone. Well NFC is not really that essential yet. Newer phones might feature the latest software but there are ways of making your old handset still run newer software, eg HTC HD2 is running a multiple of different software from android to windows 8. But do we need 8 cores to send a message, make a phone call and browse the Internet. No we don’t.
If I look at my iPhone 5 it does so much so amazingly well, even better than the S3, which IMO is an incredible device. With the iPhone 5 I can take stunning photos that even at my local camera club surprised them. Especially macro using the olloclip which is reviewed tomorrow. But why do I want to upgrade? Gadget lust is my illness.
So why do you want to upgrade?
Last week at CES, Qualcomm took centre stage with the official opening keynote speech.
It was a totally bonkers opening, but made even more bonkers by Mr Ballmer of Microsoft who made a surprise visit. Here’s what Ballmer said. We have seen the number of apps in our Windows Marketplace, available on Windows tablets, increase five-fold since October. If you have ever experienced the ‘Windows Marketplace,’ particularly if you have experience with Apple’s App Store, you know what I mean. It’s full of garbage. It’s akin to Netflix loading its library with cheesy knock-offs of Disney films, Quantity means nothing. Quality and user experience. These types of things matter. So Ballmer then added. Soon, we will have the Twitter app and the Dropbox app and even the CNN app.
Talk about contradiction. Either you have the quality apps or you don’t. Then there is the sensitive subject of Google not supporting the platform properly.
One thing is for sure, Steve Ballmer is larger than life, and whatever he is drinking I would mind some of that.
Good news.
Google Maps is back on Windows Phones. Ironically it is the same day Google withdraw its patent claims against Microsoft. Coincidence?
With successful devices like the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Note 2 and 30 plus other handset derivatives, it is no surprise that Samsung is producing such stellar results as below. They are selling a massive 500 handsets per minute in the last quarter of 2012 alone.
The consolidated operating profit is expected to be $8.28 billion. Consolidated sales for the third quarter of 2012 are at $49.10 billion, while operating profit is recorded at $7.58 billion U.S. dollars.
Revenues for fiscal 2012 are estimated at $189.18 billion on consolidated basis, and operating profit is expected to be $27.29 billion.
Staggering figures. The challenge will be to maintain these results. But with Samsung releasing refrigerators with Evernote integration anything is possible.
Peter Chou of HTC made a point recently that they didn’t have nor spend as vast amounts on Marketing as Samsung or Apple.
So lets look at the amounts. Lets take Coca Cola. Last year it spent $3bn. That’s huge but we all know what Coca Cola is. How about Apple? Apple spent $1bn which still seems huge. But these amounts are nothing compared to Samsung who spent $11bn. That’s nearly 4 times the marketing spend of Coca Cola.
I cannot see how any company, even HTC compete against such a strong marketing budget and campaign.
There are lot of whisperings that Sony is looking to launch an Internet TV service. This could be a breakthrough as it will simply transform the need for your TV to have an aerial. Adios to cable television and more.
I strongly believe the tech companies that will survive are the ones offering the best services. And Sony could recover from their recent drop in financial performance and the Japanese earthquake disaster.
20 years ago I was involved in a paper discussing threats to the insurance industry. Up at the top sat Sony, who at the time had nothing to do with the industry. But they did have the consumer database and infrastructure.
In technology it only takes 18 months for a top company to slide out of the rankings. In the same light that is all that is needed for a tech company to reach the top. Interesting times are ahead.
Ever wanted to try a Windows Phone, but didn’t want to lose out on all those apps and functionality.
Well Tile Launcher is a launcher available on the Google Play store. It mimic the windows phone interface fairly well. It is still in beta, so more development and bug quashing is yet to come.
This is another reason why android is so popular. You can customise the look and feel to your hearts content.
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