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Predicted Growth For Major Smartphone Platforms In 2012

There are a number of different mobile operating systems battling with one another to increase their market share in 2012. we have recently seen platforms from Windows and Apple enjoy an increase but the system they will all be looking to beat is Android, the popular software used by a number of leading handsets including the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

When Android first emerged as a leading smartphone operating system many commentators stated that it would eventually over shadow the Symbian platform that was used by many devices at the time. this shift in power is almost complete with Symbian practically slipping of the radar leaving the three big guns to fight among themselves for the most impressive market share. the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC) in Taiwan have reported that they expect the total market share for Android to grow to over 50% in 2012. In 2011 over 206 million Android devices were shipped which accounted for 46% of the market and this number is expected grow thanks to numerous new handsets such as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus being released together with software improvements like the new ICS version of the platform.

It is not only the Android platform that is expected to enjoy a prosperous 2012. Both Windows and iOS are expecting increases in their numbers during this period. it is expected that the Apple share of the market will increase to 19 per cent while Microsoft will see their relatively new platform increase to around 13 per cent. this boom in numbers for the major platforms is thanks to the global popularity of smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the iPhone 4S. not long ago smartphones were only used by professional users with the general public favouring the more compact feature phones. As the prices of smartphones started to decrease we saw the functionality of these devices improve and a combination of these two factors has led to a broad spectrum of phone users opting for such a device. this trend is confirmed by MIC who state that they expect the total number of global smartphone sales to top 614 million in 2012 which is a massive 36 per cent increase on 2011.

The current trend in smartphones sales is great news for the three major platforms and all should enjoy a prosperous 2012. the Google Android system remains the one to beat however and the launch of the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus is the perfect start to such a big year for the company.

Predicted Growth For Major Smartphone Platforms In 2012


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    Posted by admin - January 14, 2012 at 10:00 pm

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    The Smartphone War: What Is It and How Does It Affect You?

    Unless you have been on a deserted island for the past 6-7 years, it’s impossible not to have heard about all the smartphone wars that have been going on. They’re everywhere on the news, you see articles in newspapers, you hear people talking about them on the subway. hardly a week goes by without another lawsuit in the smartphone technology world. did you ever stop and wonder why? What’s their angle? what are they trying to achieve? Obviously the answer can be only one: they are trying to own the stack, to get control over the four layers that make up the whole smartphone universe. It’s simple; the more they control, the more ways they’ll have to extort money from you, the average Joe.

    Above, I mentioned the four layers of the stack. the smartphone ”universe” is composed of these 4 greatly important parts: Carrier networks (meaning AT&T, Vodafone, Verizon, etc providing the data connection that smartphones use), Devices and their makers (the actual smartphone made by HTC, Samsung, Nokia, which run on the carrier networks), Mobile Operating Systems (representing the software basis that runs on the devices) and last but not least we have Apps and app developers (consisting in all those little programs that run on the devices inside the operating systems. As we tried to explain, all of these layers integrate and are dependent of each other. whoever is lucky/smart enough to control as much of the layers as possible, has a huge control over consumers and naturally over the revenue stream. Their control is easily exerted through licenses, agreements, trademarks, copyrights and different patents. All that consumers are able to do is fight back through lawsuits and urge governments to adopt consumer protection laws.

    These constant skirmishes go back a few years ago, with the first generation of smartphones between Symbian, BlackBerry and the very first versions of iOS. at that time, the mobile OS, Symbian and Windows Mobile weren’t that widely adopted. the hardware as well, wasn’t matured enough, nor was the price. In those days, the companies preferred to just create huge portfolios of tens of thousands of patents. It was very much a cold war, with missiles being aimed at each other and if someone makes even the smallest mistake, the whole smartphone universe blows into pieces. Exactly as the ”Cold War’s ”Mutual Assured Destruction the companies knew that the best way out of that situation was negotiating, because put it simple.if you shoot, I shoot back and as a consequence we’re all dead. the way of lawsuits and settlements was preferred than that of mutual destruction.

    With the launch of Android OS, things got even messier, because this OS enjoyed great success and quick adoption, leaving room for a full war to begin. It didn’t take long until Microsoft sued HTC for infringement on its various Android phones and at the end of the day, the Taiwanese company decided to settle by paying Microsoft a small fee for each phone that it makes. the same things happened between Microsoft and Samsung, and now, Microsoft apparently makes double the money off these two settlements than with its own Windows Phone 7 smartphones. Another important war goes on between Apple and Samsung, a war that without exaggeration ca be called a global world, since it goes by in courts of law from Africa, to most of Europe, India, China, Japan and the U.S. the Cupertino-based company is suing Samsung claiming copyright infringement and patent infringement of many of its designs, such as the iPhone and iPad. In its turn, Samsung also sued Apple all over the world, but they don’t quite seem to have as much success. Anyway, the vast majority of these sorts of patent lawsuits usually end with a cross-licensing deal and maybe even a bit of financial settlement. what this means is that the implicated parties agree to share those patents and this way they can’t be used on each other.

    Now that I’ve summarized the whole idea behind these smartphone wars, let’s take a look on how they affect us as customers. Basically, two things tend to happen; first off all, when the competition is diminished and slowing it down makes a monopoly easier which obviously means bad news for the customer. also, the money spent on lawsuits has nothing to do with improving the products or services, and it’s not like these areas don’t need improvement. that large amount of money might bring significant improvements in research and development of both new and better products for people. In this rhythm, we’ll just end up paying more for less. the smartphone war is bad, because it doesn’t enable people with the right to make their own choices. Instead, companies prefer to compete with one another in a courtroom, meaning that a small number of people will choose for us all. Sounds kind of communist, don’t you think?

    The Smartphone War: What Is It and How Does It Affect You?


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      Posted by admin - October 12, 2011 at 7:01 pm

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      AT&T Improves Smartphone Management for Businesses

      AT&T has a new service to help businesses of all sizes better manage and help secure smartphones on multiple operating systems within their organization – MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform for AT&T.

      The MobileIron platform provides over-the-air protection and control for smartphones being used within an organization, both company and employee-owned. It provides multiplatform visibility for integrated devices running on various mobile operating systems and across multiple wireless service providers. The solution is expected to be available for purchase by AT&T business customers by the end of the month.

      MobileIron VSP for AT&T enables both IT and mobile workers to better secure data and control cost without compromising privacy, even on employee-owned mobile phones. The MobileIron VSP is an easy-to-install server that can be up and running in a corporate network quickly, according to AT&T.

      “More and more companies are using mobile technology as an essential business tool. however, as corporate information moves onto mobile devices, companies are challenged with visibility into what is happening with data, costs, security and applications,” said Michael Antieri, president, Advanced Enterprise Mobility Solutions, AT&T Business Solutions. “With the addition of this new mobile device management service from MobileIron, we’re providing customers the ability to manage devices across multiple platforms.”

      “Smartphones are transforming the way enterprise users do their work.  after many years of talking about the mobile enterprise, it has finally arrived,” said Bob Tinker, CEO, MobileIron. “More and more companies of all sizes are embracing both corporate- and employee-owned smartphones. We’re delighted to be working with AT&T’s Advanced Enterprise Mobility Solutions group to help more enterprises say yes to smartphones.”

      In a recent IDC market share report, the research firm predicts the worldwide mobile-device management market will grow by a CAGR of 7.6 percent over the next five years to reach $382.7 million in revenue by 2014.

      "The increasing acceptance of individual-liable devices in the enterprise will continue to be an important driver of activity for mobile device management throughout the forecast period. This is due to the increased number of mobile operating systems that IT will have to support as well as the added security risks these devices can present," said Stacy Crook, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Enterprise Software program.

      AT&T Improves Smartphone Management for Businesses


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      Posted by admin - November 18, 2010 at 3:01 am

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      Engadget's Full Comparison of iPhone3.0 to Other Mobile OS

      As soon as Apple rolled out its preview of iPhone OS 3.0, the comparisons to existing (and forthcoming) mobile OSs started flying. while the major update isn’t exactly a done deal, it’s pretty far along, and we’ve been able to glean quite a bit from our time with the developer beta we’ve been checking out. iPhone OS, Android, webOS, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, S60; if you’re in the market for a new smartphone, your choices have been getting exponentially more complicated lately, and 3.0 won’t make the selection any easier. Luckily for you, Engadget is here to make sense of a frightening and uncertain landscape. Read on for an in-depth look at the similarities — and differences — between modern mobile operating systems.

      Basics

      When it comes to OSs, it’s generally true that you’re only as good as your kernel, and these days, there’s no shortage of options in that department. Comparing core systems is difficult — each one has its own strengths and weaknesses, but we’d be lying if we didn’t say that the underlying structure of the iPhone OS is pretty robust. since it’s built atop OS X, which in turn is built atop Unix, it tends to be fairly sophisticated and stable (even if Apple has managed to lag it up with its UI). Android is Linux based, though its basic functionality is sandboxed in a particularly healthy variation of Java. S60 and Windows Mobile may be more mature, but that age doesn’t always work to their advantage, and while RIM has done a tremendous job at updating its look and feel, the OS — which is based around a proprietary kernel — still showcases some of its ugly, underlying Java from time to time.

      As you can see in the chart below, the basics slot these devices into fairly specific categories, though it’s obvious that Apple is trying to nudge its way into the enterprise world (the company went out of its way to cite business customer satisfaction at the preview event). of course, we don’t expect to see the BlackBerry OS and Windows Mobile leaving that space any time soon.

      Basics Return to Top Kernel Type Linux
      Proprietary
      OS X
      Symbian Linux Windows CE Platform Adaptability
      Excellent
      Good
      Poor
      Excellent Excellent Excellent Platform Age
      Young
      Mature
      Adolescent
      Mature Young Mature First-party Enterprise Support
      None
      BlackBerry
      Exchange
      Exchange, Domino, BlackBerry
      Exchange Exchange, Domino, BlackBerry
      Wireless Technologies GSM, WiFi GSM, CDMA, WiFi GSM, WiFi GSM, WiFi GSM, CDMA, WiFi GSM, CDMA, WiFi User Interface

      Apple nailed it out of the gate with many of its UI ideas. Gestures, lists with inertia, and plenty of touch-friendly sliders, wheels, and buttons generally make the iPhone OS a pleasure to navigate. while Android borrows some of that functionality, its uneven UI still doesn’t match up (though Cupcake certainly makes a few welcome improvements). Windows Mobile and the BlackBerry OS have made some gains here over the years, but they still suffer from inborn deficiencies that are clear the moment you start using them (especially the Storm’s 4.7 implementation), and S60 has a long, long way to go before it’s up to speed. The only real competitor in terms of user-experience right now appears to be the Palm Pre, which capitalizes on many of the gains Apple pioneered and throws in a few tricks of its own, like those cards as well as a bigger emphasis on gestures.

      A key innovation over the past couple years has been the emergence of capacitive touchscreens in mobile devices, which allow for lighter touch, greater display clarity, and true multitouch at the expense of stylus compatibility. The iPhone, webOS, and Android have all embraced the technology, but Windows Mobile and S60 aren’t quite there yet, largely because they still make use of UI elements too small to accurately press with a human finger. to keep up, they’ll need to get cranking on this over the coming versions. of course, all of these platforms (save for webOS) can sport a virtual keyboard of some sort — a technology particularly suited to a capacitive screen — but we’ve yet to see a single one pull off a typing experience as solid as what Apple offers.

      As good as they may be in stock form, both Apple and Palm leave users hanging if they want to customize — hell, changing font sizes is taboo with the iPhone, much less a total reskinning of the interface. If you’re into making your device all your own, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry are where you want to be; customization isn’t just allowed with these platforms, it’s practically encouraged. in fact, Microsoft pretty much touts the flexibility as a feature nowadays (a quick glance at this year’s MWC offerings is proof of that).

      User Interface
      Return to Top Screen Gestures Yes
      Yes Yes
      Limited Yes Limited Screen Technology
      Capacitive
      Capacitive
      Capacitive
      Resistive / Capacitive
      Capacitive
      Resistive
      Multitouch Yes (unofficial) Yes Yes No Yes No UI Skinning
      Yes
      Yes
      No
      Yes No Yes Input Methods
      Virtual keyboard, physical keyboard
      Virtual keyboard
      Virtual Keyboard
      Virtual keyboard, T9, and triple tap; character recognition; physical keyboard Physical keyboard Virtual keyboard, character recognition, physical keyboard Core functionality

      Now here’s a category where the operating systems really start to show their colors. while Apple is finally adding the promised — but delayed — push notification to its devices, it’s still lagging far behind in some pretty important areas. First off: multitasking. Much like an original Palm OS device, Apple seems stuck in the past with its open-quit-open app switching scheme, which it claims is in the interest of preserving battery life. Windows Mobile, S60, Android, webOS, and BlackBerry all handle true multitasking, allowing you keep multiple apps open in the background. The push notifications will help, but nothing beats being able to return to an active app, particularly if you’re doing something like loading a web page or using a map to get around.

      Palm is smartly introducing a web-centric functionality called Synergy in its webOS, which allows you to pool contacts and calendars from disparate sources, while the iPhone OS, BlackBerry OS, Windows Mobile, S60, and Android still present mostly siloed options in that department (without some third-party involvement). Apple has made strides with its new calendar functionality — CalDAV support, for example — but it still doesn’t present anything as revolutionary for dealing with scores of contacts. we do give the company marks for finally, mercifully, allowing users to share contact cards, however.

      A big problem that Apple has yet to address with OS 3.0 is its obnoxious, obtrusive notifications. Where Android and webOS slide a handy “tray” into view to let you know you’ve got something incoming, the iPhone regularly piles on one notice after another, leaving you with a stacked, productivity-stalling, ugly mess of pop-ups. Apple, you kill this kind of annoying garbage in your browser — why do you think users want it in their phone? even older systems get this one more right than Apple does — both Windows Mobile and the BlackBerry OS use a mixture of pop-ups and background notifications. It’s perplexing that a company so concerned with usability and simplicity has done nothing to address the situation in three iterations of its software.

      Still, Apple has certainly answered the call (no pun intended) on a lot of user-requested features. Stereo Bluetooth support, MMS, that new Spotlight homescreen (aka global search), tethering capabilities, unlocked Bluetooth support for the touch, turn-by-turn direction capability, and a whole lot more. The sad part is that these additions only really bring the OS to speed with almost all of its competition, making this update a victory, but still kind of a bummer if you take the long-view.

      And don’t even get us started on copy and paste.

      Core Functionality
      Return to Top Notification Style
      Tray
      Pop-up, background Pop-up
      Pop-up Tray Tray, pop-up Contact Integration / Management
      Google
      BES, BIS
      Exchange, ActiveSync, Mac OS Address Book
      Exchange, Domino, BlackBerry, iSync
      Synergy Exchange, Domino, BlackBerry, ActiveSync Multitasking Yes
      Yes
      No
      Yes Yes Yes Copy / paste
      Yes
      Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Media Support / Ecosystem
      Amazon
      Non-DRM iTunes iTunes
      Ovi Amazon Windows Media Player / None
      Global Search No No Yes Yes Yes No Firmware Updates OTA Tethered, OTA Tethered Tethered, OTA Unknown Tethered, OTA Browser Engine WebKit Proprietary WebKit WebKit WebKit Internet Explorer Tethering Yes (unofficial) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Stereo Bluetooth Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Third-party development

      This is where Apple really shines. while Windows Mobile and S60 have had thriving developer bases for a while, no one has brought applications and app development to the forefront like Apple. It goes without saying that the company has revolutionized the way devs do business, and torn down dozens of barriers to entry in the process. no single company has made it easier for developers to create work (and profit from it) on a mobile platform. The new version of the iPhone OS seems designed to stoke that system, introducing 1,000 new APIs and allowing developers to offer things like in-game commerce and peer-to-peer networking.

      Of course, the system isn’t without its negatives, and Apple has endured more than its share of (deserved) critics of its opaque and sometimes unfair application approval process. while they say 96 percent of apps receive approval, we’re fairly confident what gets left on the cutting room floor is hurting end users. just think, with its current policies, you’ll never see an Opera or Firefox browser for the device.

      Regardless, other companies are currently playing catch up to Cupertino’s game, with all of the major OSs offering some version of an application store now or in the near future. to date, none have been remotely as successful as Apple’s outing, but none have the luxury of being tied to a pre-existing revenue stream like the iTunes Store — and with the exception of Android’s Market, they really haven’t had time to marinate with the public. Only time will tell if companies like Palm, Google, and (gasp) Microsoft will be able to turn on the fire hose of development and go toe-to-toe with Apple.

      Third-Party Development
      Return to Top SDK Availability / Support
      Yes
      Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Official App Store
      Yes
      Coming
      Yes
      Coming Yes Yes App Availability
      Medium
      Medium
      High
      Medium Low High Native Applications
      No
      No
      Yes
      Yes No Yes On-Device App Management
      Excellent
      Good Excellent
      Good Excellent Good Wrap up

      Ultimately, there are loyalties and preferences that no chart can help you navigate. we won’t go as far as saying it’s a matter of choice — we believe that the newer, younger operating systems offer far more than the aging ones can at this point (unless you absolutely need something like BES). in particular, the improvements Apple’s made in its forthcoming update speak to many of the issues we’ve had since the platform’s launch in 2007, patching a slew of flaws in its mobile OS, and making the advantages of something like Android or webOS (what we know of it) a little less obvious. that said, you won’t find the open source freedom of the former, and there are a handful of innovations in the latter (yet to be roadtested, but extremely promising nonetheless). One thing is sure regardless of what side you throw your lot in with: the hype Apple created with its devices has spurred a space race in smartphones, and the end user is reaping the benefits.

      Special thanks to Chris Ziegler and Ross Miller for their work on this feature.

      Engadget's Full Comparison of iPhone3.0 to Other Mobile OS


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      Posted by - August 18, 2010 at 10:00 am

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