Business News Holding

Category: smartphone

  • RIM Takeover: Microsoft, Nokia and Amazon Are Interested

    Bosses of Microsoft and Nokia have carried out several discussions in the recent months with the Canadians from RIM (Research in Motion), the manufacturer of BlackBerry phones, in an attempt to build extensive partnerships regarding the future of RIM, company whose shares have reached the minimum value of the last eight years.

    Amazon was also interested in the RIM takeover, but Canadians are determined to reject all the bids, following the idea that they can solve the company problems on their own.

    Discussions status is unknown, but the fact that this kind of discussions took place highlights the severity of the problems faced lately by RIM.

    The company posted results below expectations in Q4, while RIM shares are trading now at a value of more than four times less than 12 months ago.

    Currently, RIM capitalization is 2.83 times the annual income, the figure being the lowest among all players in the telecommunications industry with a value of over $ 1 billion.

    RIM is facing lately with a lot of problems, the company announcing recently that it will delay the launch of its latest BlackBerry handsets.

    In addition, BlackBerry smartphones have steadily lost market share against its competitors, Apple’s iPhone or terminals equipped with Android.

    RIM has failed on the tablets market too. Its 7-inch Playbook tablet launched this year by the Canadian company, recorded sales well below expectations. In order to counter this fail, the device was gradually reduced in pricing from about $ 500 to about $ 200, another fact proving the delicate situation faced by the Canadians at RIM.

  • Realizing the Connected Car: The Consumer Telematics Show 2012, Las Vegas

    [PRESS RELEASE]

    Leaders and innovators from consumer telematics industry will gather in Las Vegas, Jan 9, 2012 to bridge the connected lifestyle gap by positioning the car as a highly personalized and intuitive mobility service.

    Until now embedded wireless connectivity has been the preserve of the premium vehicle ranges. However, with Glen Lurie, President of AT&T’s Emerging Devices Division recent prediction that, “all cars will have embedded wireless in 3-4 years”,  factory fitted connected infotainment services seem within reach of all vehicle classes  for the first time.

    The race to bring the connected car to the masses just hotted up

    At this lucrative tipping point for connected vehicle services, The Consumer Telematics Show 2012 (Jan 9, Las Vegas, NV) marks the start of a critical year in the development of the consumer telematics industry. With embedded connectivity on the horizon within the next automotive development cycle, it is imperative that the connected vehicle ecosystem unites at the start of 2012 to answer the technological and business questions that will put the industry on the roadmap towards mainstream connectivity.

    Kevin Link, Senior VP at Hughes Telematics states, “CTS is a great opportunity to kick start the year by bringing together the thought leaders related to automotive, telematics, and consumer electronics.” Now in its 10th year, CTS is the largest forum dedicated to automotive infotainment in the USA and is once again set to feature exclusive keynote OEM announcements of brand new services for 2012. Henry Bzeih, National Manager – Connected Car at KIA, who will be making a major telematics announcement at the conference states, “CTS’ role as a major node in the Connected Car information line is a must stop”.

    Other senior-level speakers  at CTS 2012 include BMW, Ford, General Motors, Audi, Toyota, Panasonic, Continental, Wireless Car, Hughes Telematics, Gartner, KIA, Mercedes-Benz and many more, will address key infotainment focused topics such as:

    • OEMs make exclusive next-gen service announcements 
    • Innovative models for monetizing the commercial telematics business case
    • Harnessing dynamic content and apps for a highly personalized services package
    • Key HMI tech. developments in creating an intuitive user experience

    With 2 exclusive OEM presentations, 300+ exec delegates, 25+ senior-level telematics speakers and 12 businesses-focussed sessions, CTS 2012 is the premiere infotainment business intelligence and networking forum.

    For the complete CTS 2012 conference program and speaker line-up, access the e-brochure at
    https://www.telematicsupdate.com/cts/download-brochure.shtml, or contact the Telematics Update team at [email protected]

    Register today to join the 300+ senior delegates already registered, via the secure link below: https://secure.telematicsupdate.com/cts/register.shtml

    About Telematics Update:
    Telematics Update Conferences are the most prestigious in the industry. We produce the largest telematics events in North America, Europe & Asia, and attract the most influential speakers providing a rich environment for establishing strategic relationships and networking.

    Contact:
    Gareth Ragg
    Conference Director | Telematics Update
    T: (UStf) 1 800 814 3459 ext 7589 | (Global) +44 (0)20 7375 7532
    E: [email protected]
    W: www.telematicsupdate.com/cts

  • Google, Sued by the British Telecom Operator BT

    British telecom operator BT sued Google in the United States for infringement of patents in areas such as mobile access to maps, Reuters.

    BT has launched the action in a court in Delaware. The complaint refers to six patents that would have been violated by https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Google, according to BT, by services such as https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Android, https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Google Maps, https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Google Music, Advertising, https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Gmail and other products.

    "It’s about protecting BT’s investment in intellectual property and innovation. We think we have a solid case," said in a statement the British group.

    In the telecommunications industry are currently taking place numerous conflicts on patents, while the number of operators, mobile phone manufacturers and content providers try to offer attractive services such as accessing the maps or entertainment.

    Google Group is already involved in several disputes with companies such as https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Apple, https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Microsoft and https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Oracle. A Google spokesman said the allegations are without foundation.

    BT announced that it has a total portfolio of approximately 5,600 patents and applications in the past financial year and demanded protection by patents of 62 inventions.

    The British group is the fifth largest company that sued Google for patent infringement.

    In August, Google announced that an agreement was reached regarding the takeover of https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Motorola Mobility for $ 12.5 billion, the largest acquisition in its history, partly to protect themselves from aggressive legal attacks. Motorola is one of the largest portfolios of patents in the mobile phone industry.

  • Top Smartphones of 2011

    The year of 2011 brought a series of major changes in the telecom industry. If at the beginning of 2011 the market started to be dominated by devices with 4-inch screens, now manufacturers already impose a new trend: devices with larger screens of up to 4.3 inches, so the potential buyer gets to a point where does not know if the terminal desired is a phone or…a smaller-sized PC tablet.

    Also, in what concerns the hardware part, things have evolved incredibly in just a few months. From the 1 GHz processors used for smartphones early this year, now we can see dual-core chipsets that defy the “older” laptops.

    We have tried to create a ranking of the most interesting smartphones launched in 2011. We were unable to include them all in here, but we invite you to come with proposals.

    Samsung Galaxy S2

    Samsung Galaxy S2 is one of the most anticipated models of 2011. After the success of its predecessor – Samsung Galaxy S – Galaxy S2 proved to be a top follower, the real flagship of the South Koreans this year.

    The Samsung Galaxy S2 screen surprises through its 4.52 inches and the AMOLED technology, while the processing power is excellent (1.5 GHz Scorpion dual-core CPU, Adreno 220 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 chipset, 1GB of RAM).

    Galaxy S2 also comes with Android OS, the 8-megapizel camera with HD filming capabilities and the 16 GB storage capacity, plus the microSD slot.

    Apple iPhone 4S

    Surely, Apple’s iPhone prepared for 2011 was the most rumored smartphone of this year. Fans’ expectations have been so high from the Cupertino company that, many months before the launch, there were weekly versions over the Internet about how the new iPhone 5 should look like.

    But, surprise, Apple has released iPhone 4S just two days before the death of Steve Jobs, a more powerful version of the 4th generation that does not differentiate esthetically with nothing from its predecessor.

    Even if it hasn’t released the iPhone 5, the “4S” aroused strong reactions of admiration from the Apple fans. iPhone 4S’s advantage is the personal assistant Siri, the first step towards adopting in daily life the Artificial Intelligence.

    Samsung Galaxy Note

    Samsung did not bring only the Galaxy S2 model this year. In fact, we believe it can be said that the South Korean company is the most prolific in the industry.

    Through the Galaxy Note release, Samsung has imposed on the market (although Dell tried it too) a new device: the tablet phone, a device having a 5.3-inch screen and being perfectly situated in between the two concepts. It’s portable almost like a phone and provides excellent ergonomics for the use as tablet.

    Tell us your opinions about which are the best smartphones launched in 2011.

    You may also want to read:
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    HTC Failed With the New Smartphone Range – Sales Drop by 30%

  • HTC Failed With the New Smartphone Range – Sales Drop by 30%

    HTC hardly manages to attract the interest of users with the current range of smartphones, ending November with disappointing sales – 30% less than previous month. The trend is even more worrying in the context of the upcoming winter shopping season, usually marked by increase in sales and significant earnings.

    The company has not explained why the steep decline in demand for its products, but it’s easy to understand: HTC bombarded us lately with many new models, most of high quality, well built, but with an undiversified design, which simply don’t manage to attract public attention.

    Sales for November dropped to $ 1.03 billion, compared with $ 1.46 billion in October. Really worrying is the 20-percent decrease from the same period of 2010, when HTC recorded sales of $ 1.27 billion.

    Even if it’s too early to compare HTC with Nokia, it’s clear that both companies need to reinvent themselves in order to survive in the increasingly dynamic market of smartphones and tablets.

    HTC currently enjoys a large number of fans, but they are not nearly as numerous and devoted as those of some heavy competitors like Apple. In the absence of some production facilities with resources comparable to Samsung, for example, HTC cannot bet too much on models with an extravagant design, through which to seduce its users. On the other hand, the company focused more on services and custom software, but without much enthusiasm.

    Unfortunately for HTC, software features such as Sense UI begin to lose their importance as Google continues to improve the native interface of their Android operating system, so that HTC needs more than ever to focus on the product itself and not on additional features, otherwise risking taking the same way as Nokia.

    You may also want to read:
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  • What to Expect from Android in 2012

    Google has shown just the tip of the iceberg with the latest improvements to the Android operating system. Users have become accustomed to expect more from the mobile operating systems and it is likely that the expectations to end in 2012.

    Software Improvements

    Latest release, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, came with the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus, being only a matter of time before other smartphones and tablets to start using it. Cameras with better software, improved graphics and perhaps a voice assistant similar with Siri might be on the launching ramp next year.

    Ice Cream Sandwich already allows users a wide enough range of voice commands. Even if the idea of assistant will not be adopted by Google, via Google Translate, they provide an idea in which direction the voice functions are moving.

    In what concerns the cameras software, Android started with a gross soft, not having too many options. The upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich brings features such as panoramic photos and zero time between shots. Future updates may include facial recognition and advanced settings options. These functions could also be included in tablets, not just for smartphones.

    Hardware Improvements

    Improvements in terms of hardware are also foreseen, especially in the range of smartphones with two processors. Starting with Ice Cream Sandwich on smartphones with dual-core processors, hardware acceleration option is automatically activated. This means that new applications for the operating system will run much faster. Also, there will also be improvements in games, in terms of graphics. Old applications will require updates in order to observe the improvements in performance.

    The number of terminals that will use Android is growing. This year Google launched android@home, a base for the operating system to be installed in smart homes. They will communicate with other devices running Android to make life easier for residents. In addition, car manufacturers have also been showing their interest since 2010 regarding Google’s OS in order to introduce it in cars’ consoles, which will allow sharing media files between smartphone and car.

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  • iPhone 4S Could Be Banned in Europe

    iPhone 4S, Apple’s latest smartphone, could be banned in Europe along with all Apple devices that have GPRS connectivity and run iOS, following a lawsuit filed in Germany by Motorola.

    The number of lawsuits in which the company in Cupertino is involved grows with every passing day. After last week a court in Australia has unanimously decided to withdraw a preliminary decision prohibiting Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 to be sold in Australia, Apple faces a new threat from Motorola.

    The company, acquired this year by Google, has won in Germany a preliminary injunction through which obtained prohibiting the sale of Apple devices that have the GPRS  technology, namely iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G, in Europe.

    The case represents a huge loss for Apple in the patents war that they are carrying with the Asian manufacturers of Android devices in several countries worldwide.

    “We will appeal the decision immediately. German consumers who want to buy an iPhone or an iPad for the holidays should not have troubles finding them,” said Apple representatives shortly after the decision.

    In the light of recent events, the Motorola Mobility purchase by Google, recorded this summer, seems a natural one. Market specialists have speculated even since those times that Google has paid $12.5 billion for the U.S. company only for its patent portfolio in the telecom area, and only in order to defend Android, the mobile platform that develops, by the trials filed by Apple against several manufacturers.

    Legal conflict between Apple and Android manufacturers has a long history, most of the lawsuits being filed by the U.S. company against the South Koreans from Samsung.

    Apple accuses them of copying the design and functionality of the iPhone and iPad smartphones and tablets of the Galaxy series models. In response, Samsung accuses Apple of violating several patents in the telecommunications area.

    Currently, between Apple and Samsung are opened 23 lawsuits in countries like France, Japan, Germany, South Korea and the United States.

  • Nokia Sells Luxury Division Vertu

    Nokia wants to sell the luxury phone line Vertu as part of restructuring the company. Given the problems faced by the Finnish phone manufacturer and the quite difficult adoption of the Microsoft’s operating system for its phones, Nokia has done a pretty natural step in thinking about selling the luxury division Vertu.

    Nokia missed the trend of technology and now is struggling to get rid of all its businesses that suddenly became unprofitable. After closing several factories all over the world, where they were producing cheap phones, Nokia is now trying to get rid of its “Crown Jewel” – Vertu luxury handset division.

    The UK-based subsidiary that manufactures phones with a starting price of at least 1,000 pounds, designed for those who can afford throwing money on a weak terminal in terms of performance, but with a case made of rare materials and with inlays in rubies or diamonds.

    According to sources close to the talks, it seems that Goldman Sachs mediates this sale. Although no one knows the value of the Vertu Company, its annual revenues are estimated at EUR 200-300 million.

    Vertu was considered an exclusive brand, and even if, technologically speaking, the phone wasn’t that brilliant, the handset compensated through the materials used – gold, silver, diamonds, sapphires. Thus, the phone was seen more as a luxury accessory than a functional object, needed every day.

    The latest model of the company – Constellation – which has a 3.5-inch AMOLED screen and 8-megapixel camera has a price of £ 10,000 if purchased with options such as crocodile leather and diamonds.  True value of these terminals does not come from the sum of technical specs or materials used but from certain VIP service of specialized consultants that can make recommendations about any field and set up meetings with other exclusive members worldwide.

    There are no details about potential buyers, but according to international media, there are only several investment funds interested in purchasing the Nokia subsidiary. Whoever will take over Vertu, will have a lot of work to do – phone design is exceeded, while the gold and the diamonds cannot compensate the performance needed by users.

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  • Sales Below Expectations For Nokia Lumia 800

    Nokia Lumia 800, although very promising at the time of launch, fails to stop the Finnish manufacturer from its sharp decline in the smart devices market.

    Despite efforts made by Nokia to promote their new model Lumia 800 and the encouraging sales figures announced at the time of launch, the reality seems to be different at all. The direction taken by Nokia Lumia 800 is actually moving toward sales far below the Finnish manufacturer's expectations.

    According to analyst James Faucett at Pacific Crest, if current trends maintain, sales figures for the Lumia 800 will not exceed 500,000 pieces sold, four times less than expected by Nokia.

    Given that the design team has done their homework, creating a very successful handset, which should easily convince the audience it is addressed, the only culprit remains its operating system – Windows Phone 7.5, still regarded with suspicion by many users.

    Nokia can only hope not to end the year with disastrous financial results. They only have the winter shopping season, which could raise again the sales figures.

    Unfortunately, at least for now, the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft does not seem to give the results foreseen by the CEO Stephen Elop, putting the company in disadvantage by using a too-new operating system, with many limitations artificially imposed and unable to convince in front of the competition presented by Google's Android and Apple's iOS.

    Despite the optimism shown by Nokia, the success that Lumia 800 enjoys in the UK cannot be entirely attributed to the design team. Orange UK recently launched a very aggressive campaign to promote Nokia’s handsets, rewarding about half of customers who have pre-ordered the phone with an xBox console completely free. As expected, the offer was very useful, even if it’s just a low-end version of the xBox console.

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    BitDefender Launches Mobile Security for Android Smartphones
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  • BitDefender Launches Mobile Security for Android Smartphones

    BitDefender, one of the leading antivirus vendors in the world, has launched BitDefender Mobile Security, an application specially designed for Android smartphones.

    The solution proposed by the Romanian company protects the users of smartphones and tablets against all the malware for Android, expanding BitDefender’s technological competence from desktop solutions to security applications for mobile devices.

    In terms of technological solution, BitDefender Mobile Security is based heavily on the in-the-cloud scanning, so that the process of scanning the application to be made with maximum efficiency and only when necessary. This is why the fingerprint of the security solution is minimal in terms of hardware resource consumption, fact certified in the “real life” by the more than 120,000 beta testers of BitDefender Mobile Security.

    Apart from the minimal impact on processing speed, the battery of mobile equipment is the second major beneficiary, the application having very little influence on energy consumption. "BitDefender Mobile Security is an excellent example demonstrating that an application can be very strong in the level of protection and also amazing when it comes to economic resources or battery," said Alex Balan, Senior Product Manager at Bitdefender .

    "The very high performance of our application is guaranteed by the years of experience in the malware field, BitDefender technologies being certified and awarded internationally. Finally, we are among the most experienced in-the-cloud developers, so that our security solution extensively uses this resource, the concept of "mobile security" becoming truly mobile," he added.

    BitDefender Mobile Security includes features such as Application Audit, Anti-Theft or Web Security, which help the user preserve privacy, to protect themselves against all the threats or even to recover a lost or stolen mobile device.

    Commercially speaking, the BitDefender security solution is a “freemium” type of product, meaning the application can be downloaded for free from the Android Market.