Android powers 59% of smartphones, tablets, and laptops says Canalys

New reports indicate that mobile platforms are continuing to dominate the market and that the Android is the go to operating system for over half of the devices out there.

The independant technology analyst firm, Canalys, released findings recently that exposed Android devices account for around 59% of all smartphones, tablets, and laptops currently on the market. According to the report, mobile computing device shipments grew by about 37% in the first quarter of 2013 which amounted to almost 309 million devices.
Out of this increase, which included a pool of smartphones, laptops, and tablets, tablets were found to be the fastest growing segment out of the bunch. In this report, Canalys senior analyst Tim Coulling suggest that sales of tablets were continuing to increase due to lower expectations of the devices when they were first released: "Spearheaded by Google and Amazon, the commoditization of the tablet market has happened far quicker than that of the wider PC market."
Included in the report was speculation behind the lagging growth of Apple's iPhone sales compared to that of rival manufacturers, mainly residing in what Pete Cunningham, another analyst at Canalys, described as an aging UI and increased fierce competition by HTC and Samsung:

But HTC and Samsung have raised the bar with their latest handsets and Apple needs to respond with its next iPhone. The iPhone user interface is now six years old and badly in need of a refresh. Hardware-wise, the biggest dilemma that Apple faces is what it does with the size of the display on the next iPhone. It cannot afford to ignore the trend for larger displays in premium smart phones.

All in all, Android remains on top of all smart mobile devices with a dominant market share of 59%. Apple placed second with 19.3% percent with Microsoft trailing closely behind at 18.1$.
With a surprising lead over competitors Apple and Microsoft, it seems like it's full steam ahead for Android and Google. However, the company should take note of it's own hubris and continue the innovation and creativity it has been known for. Not long ago, both Apple and Microsoft had spent time atop the podium.

YouTube Says It Will Bring Advertisers Into Its Partner Program, Starting This Fall

YouTube just announced (as part of this week’s Cannes Lions advertising event) that it’s expanding its partner program to include advertisers.

The program already provides the top YouTube content creators with access to resources for improving their production skills and distribution (and as a result improve their monetization).

YouTube says the advertising program will be structured identically to the existing partner program — just, y’know, for advertisers. The program will start in September with a week-long workshop in Los Angeles. Each advertiser will be assigned a partner manager to help them develop their content strategy.

“By inviting advertisers into our partner program, we hope to give them access to resources and expertise that will help them develop even more compelling and authentic content on YouTube,” said Lucas Watson, YouTube’s vice president of video online global sales, in the announcement press release.

With this program, YouTube-owner Google seems to be encouraging businesses to create advertising that’s designed specifically for the video site, rather than just repackaging existing TV ads and video content. Those kinds of custom campaigns could potentially be more lucrative for YouTube and its content partners. The company also says it will “facilitate the development of strategic alliances with some of YouTube’s top creators” so that advertising and content can be integrated in new ways.

The initial advertising partners are American Express, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo, along with their ad agencies. This is currently just a pilot program, but YouTube plans to expand it to include 100 advertisers by the end of 2014.

Video To Dominate Mobile Data Traffic In Four Years, Says Ericsson

If you thought smartphones were ubiquitous now — and in certain places they pretty much are — prepare for a whole lot more people to be coming online on their phones in the next five years. Network kit maker Ericsson has published its latest mobility report, based on traffic measurements of live mobile networks, which projects that global smartphone subscriptions will rise from 1.2 billion in 2012 to 4.5 billion by the end of 2018 — a CAGR of 25 percent.

Ericsson is also expecting the monthly mobile data usage per smartphone to rise from 450MB in 2012 to 1,900MB by 2018. Even larger growth is on the cards for tablets, with monthly data usage forecast to rise from 600MB in 2012 to 3,100MB in 2018 — a CAGR of 30 percent. By 2018, Ericsson also reckons LTE (4G) will cover 60 percent of the world’s population. As for the mobile data driver, it’s video — with video growth underpinned by increasing availability of faster networks as LTE spreads. Larger devices with bigger screens with higher resolutions are also causing users to gobble up more MB, according to Ericsson:

The fastest growing segment in mobile data traffic is video. Increasing usage is driven by continual growth in the amount of available content as well as the better network speeds that come with HSPA and LTE development. Larger device screens and better resolutions will also drive video traffic as they will enable high definition and eventually even ultra high definition video.

Ericsson’s data shows video makes up the largest segment of mobile data traffic today — and is expected to grow by around 60 percent annually until the end of 2018 when it’s forecast to account for about half of total global traffic, dominating mobile content consumption. Good news if you’reVine, then.

The data also shows music streaming gaining in popularity — with a projected annual growth rate of around 50 percent, although Ericsson notes there is a “high degree of uncertainty” in the audio forecast because it’s “very dependent on how music streaming services develop over the coming years.” So that likely refers to stuff like Apple being rumoured to get into the streaming space, and the knock on effect a Cupertino iRadio could have on other services, should it indeed come to pass as rumoured.

On the social and web front, Ericsson reckons web browsing and social networking will each constitute around 10 percent of the total data traffic volume in 2018 — so achieving some sort of parity, even if social networking still ends up taking up more of mobile users’ time and therefore more mindshare. According to Ericsson’s data, smartphone users are spending the largest portion of their time on social networks: an average of 85 minutes a day in some networks.

Ericsson has also broken out mobile traffic by device type, to give a breakdown of what different devices are being used for right now, which shows how quickly video has established itself on tablets — passing smartphones video volumes already. The latter device type remains the most popular device for social networking, which dovetails with how personal smartphones are vs tablets and laptops which can be shared within groups and families:

Sony says it will fix unusable PlayStation 3 software with a June 27th patch

A couple of days ago, many PlayStation 3 owners found that the latest version of Sony's firmware locked up their systems, causing the PS3 to hang indefinitely at startup. Sony quickly took version 4.45 of the software offline, saying it would work to resolve the problem. Now, PlayStation Europe has said that a fix is coming on June 27th, hopefully across all regions — though it hasn't been posted on the main PlayStation Twitter account
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Microsoft considered opening online marketplace to compete with Amazon, says WSJ

Microsoft considered building an online marketplace to take on Amazon before it ultimately decided against the venture, reports The Wall Street Journal. Microsoft had reportedly entered into talks with both technology companies and retailers as it explored setting up the marketplace, and it had even begun devising business models to set it apart from the competition. Under one scenario, Microsoft would have subsidized the price of goods with the revenue it made from ads placed on Bing or the marketplace itself. Microsoft confirmed to WSJ that it had stopped developing the marketplace, which was being developed under the codename "Brazil."

It's unclear why Microsoft decided to cancel the marketplace product in the end, but a company spokesperson told WSJ that it's still interested in finding new ways to build a better online shopping experience. The marketplace reportedly would have been integrated into Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox, bringing into question what exactly the service would have been focused on selling. There's no word about whether Microsoft had planned a web-accessible option, nor if a wide range of consumer products would have been offered or if it would have retained a focus on electronics.

Microsoft flirted with buying Nokia, WSJ says

Nokia House, the company's headquarters in Espoo, Finland.

(Credit: Roger Cheng/CNET)

Microsoft was in deep discussions to acquire Nokia, but talks have broken down, according to the Wall Street Journal.

With such a deal, Microsoft would gain direct control over the mobile device maker, which has been the marquee partner for the software giant's fledgling Windows Phone operating system. Such a deal could shake up the smartphone business in the same way that Google did when it acquired Motorola Mobility.

Both Microsoft and Nokia had been struggling to regain their once dominant positions. Microsoft has been pushed back on its heels with a weakening PC market and tepid reception to its new Windows software. Nokia has fallen far from its once-lofty perch atop the cellphone market, and its new line of Windows Phone-powered Lumia smartphones has yet to break out.Nokia and Microsoft both declined to comment on the report.

Microsoft walked away from the deal because of the price and Nokia's weak position in the market, according to the Wall Street Journal. While Nokia remained the No. 2 cellphone maker by market share, it doesn't rank in the top five when it comes to smartphones, the fastest growing and most lucrative part of the business.

The companies, however, were reportedly close to an oral agreement about a deal, the Wall Street Journal said.

While Windows Phone has made some progress in the market, it still lags far behind Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating system. Nokia has already been the most fervent supporter of Windows Phone, relying solely on the OS for its smartphones at a time when others have opted for the more popular Android OS.

BlackBerry CEO says iPhone UI is old, lacking innovation

Speaking to The Australian Financial Review, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins was very outspoken about BlackBerry 10 and its place in the smartphone market.

Heins touted BlackBerry’s new OS, mentioning that the company has seen a fair amount of early adopters who have switched from another platform to BlackBerry 10 OS. BlackBerry may not be winning by a long shot, but it enticign customers to leave iOS and Android. Heins notes that the release of several high-profile devices has loosened Apple’s grip on the smartphone market and Apple has been slow to overhaul iOS.

“Apple did a fantastic job in bringing touch devices to market … They did a fantastic job with the user interface, they are a design icon. There is a reason why they were so successful, and we actually have to admit this and respect that,” Mr Heins said.

“History repeats itself again I guess … the rate of innovation is so high in our industry that if you don’t innovate at that speed you can be replaced pretty quickly. The user interface on the iPhone, with all due respect for what this invention was all about is now five years old.”

This statement will no doubt cause a stir, especially since BlackBerry is on the death watch listof many analysts. So what do you think? Is iOS old and musty?

Heyzap Says Its Mobile Ad Network Has Grown To 800 Games (And Makes Up The Majority Of Its Revenue)

Back in March, I wrote about how Heyzap was introducing advertising to its mobile gaming platform. Now co-founder Jude Gomila says the company has become a significant player in mobile advertising.

Specifically, Gomila sent along the chart showing the growth in publishers running Heyzap ads and the corresponding growth in ad impressions over the past six months. You can’t tell exactly where things stand now, because there’s no Y-axis to the chart. However, Gomila did note that Heyzap ads are now running in 800 games (it was 350 in March), and that number is also growing quickly. He also said that the publishers advertising with Heyzap include big names like Zynga and DeNA.

In the six months since the program launched, ad revenue has grown to the point that it already makes up the majority of its revenue. As a result, Heyzap is looking to expand its team beyond the current 25-person workforce.

“This does change our priorities,” Gomila said. “We want to offer full monetization tools for game developers. There’s also opportunity for a lot more automation.”

Gomila refers to Heyzap’s ad program as its “game discovery network” — basically, when publishers pay to promote their games, Heyzap will start recommending that game through interstitial units that pop up in the games. Those recommendations are also based on the gaming data that users share on Heyzap’s social platform, so Gomila said the discovery network and the social tools “go hand-in-hand.”

He argued that this is a much better approach for the mobile gaming ecosystem, because Heyzap can recommend games that users are actually likely to enjoy.