Mobile Phones News Blog

Posts Tagged ‘consumer’

With Nokia and Microsoft partnering to offer some amazing devices in 2012, analysts are predicting these two companies will witness a surge in sales this year. The two partners will offer updated hardware and are also planning some heavy promotional activity.

According to analysts at global financial services firm Morgan Stanley, Nokia’s Windows Phone shipment will touch 37 million units in the current year, and in 2013 this figure will be 64 million units.

In fact, HTC will also ship more Windows Phone Devices this year, with the analysts predicting the total number of Windows Phone handsets shipped this year to be more than 40 million units.

Steve Ballmer, CEO at Microsoft, commented during the Consumer Electronics Show, “we’ve got a lot of room to go in selling Windows Phones,” further adding,”but I feel very much like the work we’re doing is really going to pay off,” Mobiledia reports.

Nokia and Microsoft have already hit the market with the entry level Lumia 710, and more high-end Lumia 800 which have had positive reviews. The Lumia 900 has also just been announced, and should be hitting markets soon, see pics and video here.

The rules of the game have changed. Just a few years ago, handheld consoles such as the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP ruled the roost of portable gaming. I remember in my childhood being captivated by Zelda DX and Pokémon Blue on my Game Boy Colour; back then the must-have device for gaming on the go. The birth of the app and evolution of smartphones have brought to light an increase in the quality of apps games available on your mobile phone. Not only do the likes of Android and iOS offer quick fix games such as Angry Birds, or Plants vs Zombies but fully fledged blockbusters with lengthy storylines and awe blasting 3D graphics such as GTA III and Infinity Blade II. With the next generation of smartphone releases set to run faster and blast even more power, is it game over for the portable games console?

The Problem

Statistics from Flurry Analytics suggests that portable consoles are losing their slice of the pie. In 2009, Sony PSP and Nintendo DS were recipients of 81% of total portable game software revenue in the United States. Fast forward to the end of 2011, and their share has halved to 42%. Where has it gone? Smartphone operating systems iOS and Android have leapt from a combined 19% share in 2009, to a dominating 58% in just two years.

Out of control?

Hard core gamers may criticise iOS and Android games apps for their lack of a physical game pad to control the game; often the player has to touch the screen repeatedly. Even this hindrance can be removed thanks to an Android app which allows Bluetooth synchronisation with your PS3 controller. It won’t be long before apps games have this feature coded into their official titles and smartphones steal another life from the portable games console.

Power to the smartphone!

The iPhone 4S released with a dual-core A5 chip, has given the 1UP in smartphone apps games and offers power and graphics unseen in mobile devices previously. Even consoles such as the Nintendo 3DS, which offers 3D gaming without the need for glasses, could be matched for technology. We’ve already seen the release of the LG Optimus 3D smartphone and further rumours suggest the Samsung Galaxy S3 will come with eye trickery technology to match Nintendo.

Apps Games cost less

The apps games streamlined digital approach, eliminates the need for physical manufacturers and distributers. This means cheaper games for the consumer. Combine this factor with an ultra-competitive OS platform that releases new games daily, and you create a market where £6 chart toppers are frowned upon as too expensive – effectively the price of a bargain bin Nintendo DS game in the supermarket. Why would you pay £40 for the latest handheld title when you can download entertaining apps games that all your friends have for under £3?

What does the future hold for portable gaming hardware? Visit our blog tomorrow for Part 2 of our apps games review…

Get the Nintendo 3DS as a free gift on selected contracts.

What titles currently top the Apps Games Chart?
Android | iOS | Windows Phone

Word on the street is that Nokia is all set to roll out its brand new products namely the Lumia 900 and the Lumia 719 at the upcoming Consumer Electronic Show, to be held in January 2012 in Las Vegas.

Apparently, the rumours started with a self proclaimed anonymous Nokia employee revealing the ‘secret plans’ of the Finnish phone maker for CES 2012 to the DGui team.

And as one could guess, like most other rumours floating around on the Web, the rumours of Nokia unveiling Lumia 719 and 900 have yet to be backed any concrete statements or details from the company.

The Lumia 900 is likely to be pretty similar to the Lumia 800, but with a larger 4.3 inch toucscreen display alongside 4G LTE connectivity.

And about the other device, the Nokia Lumia 719, there is simply not much information available. However, judging by the model number (that’s all we have as of now), it is highly likely that the 719 will be an enhanced version of the current Lumia 710 model.

All speculation aside, we will just have to wait until the CES in January to learn more about Nokia’s plans for its mobile phone line.

Microsoft has signed yet another patent licensing deal with an Android device maker as it continues to use the might of its patents to make money from the popularity of Android.

The Windows maker, which struggling to compete with Android with its Windows Phone 7 platform, announced that it had signed licensing deal with Taiwan based device maker Compal Electronics, which covers tablets, mobile phones and other consumer devices that run on either Google’s Android or Chrome platforms.

Microsoft announced that the patent deal, which is the tenth such deal, now means that the company has licensing deals with device makers that make half of the Android devices in the market. “We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Compal, one of the leaders in the original design manufacturing, or ODM, industry,” said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, Intellectual Property Group at Microsoft.

“Together with the license agreements signed in the past few months with Wistron and Quanta Computer, today’s agreement with Compal means more than half of the world’s ODM industry for Android and Chrome devices is now under license to Microsoft’s patent portfolio,” he added.

Apart from Wistron and Quanta, the company has also struck patent licensing deals with HTC, Samsung, Acer and ViewSonic among others.

Andy Lee, the president of Windows Phone division at Microsoft has touted Windows Phone and the Mango update while criticising Apple’s iPhone 4S.

Even though within barely 24 hours since it was unveiled, Apple received 1 million pre-orders of the iPhone 4S, Andy Lee commented that “From a pure hardware perspective, I was surprised they’re not giving the consumer more choice,” as told to The Seattle Times. “People want a variety of things,” he added.

Lee also made some strong comments on Google Android platform which is dominating the market currently.

Calling them random, Lee said that some of the Android apps are great but not all of them. Thus, he thinks that Android is going through a “chaotic phase”.

Currently Microsoft is offering “Mango” updates for the Windows Phones that has some 500 tweaks and new features, which will help Windows Phones to combat Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android which are ruling the market now.

Despite putting continuous efforts and hardwork into their platform to make it one of the best in the market, the market share of the company’s smartphones has been dipping in the recent quarters.

Thus, Lee is hoping that the new broad number of hardware configurations for Windows Phone along with Mango and tight OEM and carrier relationship will definitely result into a growth in its sales figure.

Apple has missed a trick today according to Andreas Bernsrtrom, CEO of VoIP company Rebtel and guest columnist on ITProPortal.com (check his posts here).

Enabling full 4G, he says, would have enhanced the consumer experience of the latest iPhone by tenfold. On 4G networks, smartphones could work similarly to regular (wireless) broadband routers. 

Devices out there could actually cooperate for increased capacity, rather than compete with each other. He adds “We would have literally be able to jump back and forth from congested routes to less congested routes – it could have put an end to dropped calls due to over-capacity, slow loading times and poor VoIP service (Voice over IP) quality”.

Apple stopped short of a full LTE roll out and instead went for HSDPA. The iPhone 4S is also Apple’s first true world phone, combining GSM and CDMA on one chip and almost certainly using Qualcomm IP/baseband chipset.

Apple has also confirmed that the iPhone 4S integrates two smart antennas that switch between send and receive to improve call quality. It is likely that Apple refrained from going 4G because the cost would have outweighed the benefits.

A new report has shed light into how Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform has managed to draw the attention of a significant portion of the consumer market, and yet has a long way to go before it lives up to the expectations of everyone including the company itself.

The report has been published by the research outfit NPD’s Connected Intelligence service, and it has truly brought some much needed words of encouragement and hope for the Windows Phone franchises.

According to the Connected Intelligence report, 44 percent of smartphone owners are currently pondering over the idea of getting themselves one Windows Phone 7 handset.

The report also highlighted some quite powerful negative aspects, such as a lack of brand awareness in the market, which it believes, is offering stiff resistance to the growth of the platform.

The report states that 45 percent of consumers are “still not aware of Windows Phone 7.”

“Windows Phone 7 has a way to go before consumers really understand what it is,” said Linda Barrabee, research director for Connected Intelligence.

“But with the right marketing mojo, apps portfolio, and feature-rich hardware, Microsoft could certainly improve its standing and chip away at Android’s dominant market position,” she added.

Little known Shenzhen Sang Fei Consumer Communications, a Chinese company which bought the mobile phone business of Dutch-based electronics conglomerate Philips five years ago, will start selling smartphones that bear the familiar name in India before the end of 2011.

The top of the range model will be the X9320 which, one executive said, would provide tough competition for the Samsung Galaxy S series of handsets and presumably the soon to be launched iPhone 5.

The specs are sketchy as it stands; the phone will come with a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen, as well as Android 2.3 Gingerbread, two cameras and two SIM slots. The X9320 is also very likely to come with Philips’ Xenium technology which may significantly increase the stand by and talk time of the device.

Other Philips smartphones featuring the technology have a stand by time of 960 hours and talk time of around 15 hours; in comparison, the iPhone 4 has a stand by time of only 300 hours and talk time of 7 hours on 3G.

The phone is said to be going on sale in India for around 8200 Indian Rupees, which is the equivalent of £110 and sounds impossibly cheap. But then, this is the country where a subsidised Android-based tablet will go on sale in 2012 with a tag price of $35.