Mobilityfeeds

There is more in the mobile world than the 'great four' operating systems

Presenting our new infographic – the Clash of Ecosystems.

Google's Android, Apple's iOS, Microsoft Windows Phone, Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry, Samsung bada, Nokia Symbian and others are locked in a winner-takes-all battle – and everything revolves around an ecosystem.

This infographic presents key figures for each of our competing platforms, smartphone penetration per region – but it also shows what happened to platforms that didn’t make it.

Which platform has the largest sales base?
Which has the largest app store, with the most downloads?

Check out the answers in the Clash of Ecosystems infographic after the break.
As well as the mural of dead (or dying) platforms, our Dead Platform Graveyard.

Intel could work on a Windows Phone device

Intel is open to bringing Microsoft's Windows Phone Operating System (OS) to smartphones based on its x86 chips, but only if it is commercially viable.

Windows Phone's share of the smartphone market is underwhelming at the moment, but the OS is worth watching, said Hermann Eul, President of Intel's Mobile Communications Group, during an interview with the IDG News Service at the Computex 2012 trade show in Taiwan.
Intel will consider putting Windows Phone OS on x86 depending on how the OS does in the market in the future.

"We would be [interested] when we see that this market has a good chance to return our money that we have invested into this," Eul said. "Our roadmap has devices that can support Windows also on phones. So we can do that. The hooks for doing that [are] there."

Intel is just getting started in the smartphone market.

HTC said to join the Tizen mobile OS project

After we have seen Tizen Operating System (OS) in action on a Samsung slate a few days ago, today we are bringing fresh news about this fresh platform.

As you probably know, Intel, Linux Foundation, Samsung, US network operator Sprint and many other big names of the telecom industry are involved in the Tizen Project.

Well, it seems that HTC are interested, too, and rumor has it that the Taiwan-based company will launch a Tizen-powered smartphone in the second half of the year, while Samsung will also unveil some smartphones running on the open source Operating System over the same time frame.

Windows Phone overpasses for the first time Symbian in UK - Report

Figures from a 12-week research recently conducted by Kantar Worldpanel show that the Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform is outdoing Nokia's Symbian-run devices in terms of sales in the United Kingdom.

Although still a far cry from the market share of Google's Android and Apple's iOS smartphones, the Microsoft platform is yielding positive results compared to its Symbian counterpart.

These figures, compiled from a study that culminated on 19^th February 2012, illustrate the decrease in market share of mobile Operating Systems (OS) Symbian, Research In Motion (RIM, maker of BlackBerry) and bada (by Samsung).
This year’s gainers remain to be Android and Apple’s iOS, while Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 recently joined for the first time ever the ranks.

Samsung to launch low-budget smartphones in India

 

In a report by news daily The Economic Times on Sunday, Ranjit Yadav, country head of mobile and IT at Samsung India, said the lower-priced smartphones will not compromise the user experience.

The executive was in Bangkok for a company-sponsored forum.

Yadav however did not disclose any specific details on the pricing or the launch dates of the smartphones, according to the report.

The South Korean phone giant has about 16 smartphone models available in India, starting from 7,000 rupees (US$140/€106), it said.

The company currently owns about 41% market share and plans to grow it to 60% by end 2012, it added.

Samsung to merge its own bada OS with Intel's Tizen

Samsung said it is working on merging its homegrown “bada” smartphone Operating System (OS) with Tizen, an Operating System project the company is conducting with chipmaker Intel.

“We have an effort that will merge bada and Tizen,” said Tae-Jin Kang, Senior Vice-president of Samsung’s Contents Planning Team in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

Kang said he didn’t know when the work would be complete but that it was already underway.

When the integration is finished, Tizen will support mobile applications written with bada’s SDK (software development kit).
That support will include backwards compatibility for previously published bada apps.

The mobile landscape will not change much in 2012 - Prediction

It's the time of  year for mobile industry predictions, like it or not.  

Sometimes the predictions from prognosticators sound incredibly obvious, but other times they provoke thought and insight. 

Bill Dudley's list of 2012 Mobile Predictions seemed as good a place as any to hash out some of these ideas.  
We picked out several of his predictions to pass along and comment upon, but not all of them.

Dudley is Group Director of Product Management at Sybase 365, so he has a vested interest in seeing smartphones, tablets and mobile apps grow, but he also speaks from spending 25 years in building and management telecom networks.
He's from Texas, USA, which helps him speak his mind.

Soon you'll be able to replace Bada by Android on your Samsung Wave phone

Samsung may be one of the biggest names in the Google's Android phone business, but Samsung also offers a handful of phones using its own Bada Operating System (OS).

The Samsung Wave line of devices look a lot like modern touchscreen smartphones and offer pretty good hardware.
But there aren’t as many apps available for Bada as Android, so one way to get a little more out of a Samsung Wave phone is to replace the Operating System.

And that’s exactly what a team of developers at XDA Developers is doing: they’ve started to port Android to work on Bada devices.

Samsung updates the 'Theme Designer' authoring tool for Bada 2.0

Samsung has announced the launch of the new version of Samsung Theme Designer which now supports the Bada 2.0 platform.

Samsung Theme Designer 2.0 is an authoring tool that allows developers to create content for the Bada mobile Operating System (OS) for devices including the Samsung Wave 3.

This new version allows developers and designers to create their own Bada 2.0 themes - any theme that they want - and then distribute them to the users of Samsung mobile device across the globe via Samsung Apps.
 

'No plans yet for a bada tablet' - Samsung

Samsung does not have imminent plans to release a Bada tablet, according to Head of Content Keith O'Brien.

When quizzed on the possibility of Samsung's in-house Operating System (OS) making its way on to a tablet device, as is the way of tech companies these days, he answered:

"It's not on the agenda for now, at least not as far as the UK is concerned."

That's not to say that Samsung's OS won't ever end up on a tablet, though, as O'Brien explained that the company is still "absolutely committed" to Bada.

Samsung to open Bada to all - Soon a Sony Ericsson or HTC Bada phone?

Soon Samsung might not be the only mobile phone manufacturer using Bada in its handsets.

The South Korean technology giant is allegedly planning to open up the Operating System (OS) to third-parties.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Samsung "is planning to make Bada software an open source platform next year," which means any other company can create products around the OS.

If true, it’s clearly a manoeuvre to reduce its reliance on Google following the company's acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

At the time the news broke, Samsung released a statement welcoming the news, but clearly it - along with HTC, Sony Ericsson and LG - must be worried about whether access to early versions of software updates or Nexus releases handsets - will be given to Motorola.

Samsung may be considering buying dying MeeGo OS - Rumors

Samsung Electronics may be considering a potential purchase of the increasingly defunct smartphone Operating System (OS) Meego as its own proprietary platform.

That's according to a report today from Mobiledia, which cites industry sources.

A Samsung representative wasn't immediately available to comment.

The platform chatter highlights the increasing dilemma that Google's Android handset manufacturers face now that Google is to buy Motorola Mobility and makes its own smartphones.

Samsung has no plan to buy or license webOS - CEO

Samsung, the world’s No. 2 maker of smartphones, said it would never purchase or license webOS from Hewlett-Packard (HP).

The company believes in its own Bada platform and thinks that it will eventually compete against Apple’s iOS and Google Android.

Choi Gee Sung, Samsung' Chief Executive Officer, said that the company would “never pursue such a deal” at the IFA 2011 consumer electronics fair.

The company officially clarified its position afterwards:
The firm believes that it is not right just to buy Operating Systems (OS) and not develop anything on its own.

Samsung announces three new Wave bada-based phones to conquer emerging markets

Samsung unveiled three smartphone models that run on its own Operating System (OS), as it seeks to expand market share in the low-end segment and diversify its lineups heavily focused on Google's Android software.

The Wave series models backed by Samsung's proprietary system "bada" reflects the South Korean firm's shift in strategy from being a pure hardware manufacturer to become more software-focused.

It is also aimed at pulling together Samsung's different products of smartphones, televisions, printers and computers under its own software platform and online application store Samsung Apps.

Samsung to launch ChatOn - its own cross-platform instant messaging service

Samsung said on Monday it would launch a mobile instant messaging tool in its latest push to attract more consumers to its handsets and challenge rivals such as Apple and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM).

The new service, called ChatON, will be available from October and preinstalled in Samsung's feature phones as well as smartphones running on its own Bada Operating System (OS) and Google's Android platform, it said.

With the move, Samsung enters an already crowded mobile messaging market, which telecoms carriers fear will hit revenue from profitable text messaging services.

Samsung launches its home-brew Bada 2.0 mobile OS and announces the Wave 3 Bada smartphone

Bada 2.0 - the next generation of the Bada Operating System (OS) - is all set to hit the stores with the launch of the Samsung Wave 3 handset, which is set to be unveiled on 1st September 2011.

But before the platform and the new device actually hit the stores, Samsung Mobiles has announced the software development kit (SDK) for the Bada 2.0 OS that will help developers make new application for it.

Bada 2.0 brings together a wide variety of new capabilities which were missing from the earlier version including multi-tasking, WiFi Direct (it allows WiFi devices to share content without the need for wireless access points), Near Field Communication (NFC) and voice recognition.
It enables smartphone users to experience advanced services such as mobile payment, transport pass-card recharge and file sharing without Internet networking.

Samsung has big plans for India

Riding on its newfound success with mobile phones in India, Samsung is betting big on the smartphone market. 

Samsung mobile business' Senior Vice-president for Global Marketing Younghee Lee said that the company would not let its own Operating System - Bada - take the same fall as Nokia's Symbian.

Excerpts : 

What's your strategy to strengthen stronghold in the Asia Pacific market, including India? 

Globally, Samsung has seen double-digit growth every year. India is the third largest country after the US and China in volumes.
The Indian consumer is very demanding, in terms of demand for the latest and super-premium products. 

New Samsung roadmap till the end of the year leaked (again)

Last week a few bits and pieces of the Samsung smartphone roadmap leaked (and quickly denied by Samsung stating it was 'not accurate'), and now we add more pieces to the puzzle.

We just got the expected release dates for most of the smartphones and the two tablets as well as a whole new addition to the Samsung lineup that will, reportedly, be running on Microsoft Windows Phone 7.

So obviously Samsung hasn't given up on Windows Phone 7 just yet and it will be releasing the I8350 Omnia W sometimes this year.
It will probably be running Windows Phone Mango on a 1GHz CPU and will be built around a 3.7" display.
The rest of the Omnia W features that we know at this stage include a 5 MP camera, WiFi and GPS.

Jump after the break to see what the whole picture looks like, now that we've added the extra info.

Samsung sold three million Galaxy S II smartphones in 55 days

Samsung has proudly announced that it sold 3 million Galaxy S II i9100 Android smartphones around the world since its initial launch (55 days ago).

Thus, the new Galaxy S II has become the fastest selling smartphone in the company’s history.
The previous record was held by the original Galaxy S (i9000), sold in 3 million units in 85 days back in 2010.

At the current rate, a Galaxy S II is being sold every 1.5 seconds – meaning about 57,000 devices per day!

The handset’s huge global success isn’t really a surprise:
It definitely has a place among the best smartphones on the market right now, regardless of what Operating System (OS) you prefer, and more than 1 million units have been shipped in South Korea only.

With the new Galaxy’s upcoming launch in Canada and the United States, we’re expecting to see a few more million units sold pretty soon.

Understanding mobile Operating Systems to better decide which to develop for...

So what do developers really think of the various Operating Systems (OS) they build apps for?

For starters, Apple's iOS walled garden isn't all that bad; Google's Android flexibility can be a pain; and making apps for Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry smartphones is a headache.
Oh, and Microsoft new OS Windows Phone 7?
Love the development tools.

Developers play an important part in making mobile Operating Systems and the smartphones that run them successful.
A good app elevates a smartphone from just a mobile phone to a mobile computer than can both entertain and inform.

But things get complicated pretty quickly when developers set out to create an app.
They have to deal with different generations of an Operating System, different form factors, compatibility issues and unexpected glitches with hardware – and that's all before the app is even tested to see if it works properly.

Here's a platform-by-platform look at the advantages and disadvantages of the top mobile Operating Systems, from the developer's point of view.