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Monday, October 21, 2013

Apple iPhone 5C narrows 5S' lead in global activations

The number of active iPhone 5S device is now about double the number of 5Cs, not triple, according to a new report from mobile analytics firm Localytics




(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)


Apple's iPhone 5C has narrowed its gap with the iPhone 5S in terms of activations, according to a new report, but the pricier phone is still about twice as popular.


For every iPhone 5C activation in the US, there are 1.9 iPhone 5S activations, according to mobile analytics firm Localytics. Globally, the gap widens to 2.3 iPhone 5s devices per iPhone 5C. Still, the difference is much better than a couple weeks ago when Localytics found that the iPhone 5S outpaced the iPhone 5C by a factor of 3.4.


The smaller gap in the US indicates the cheaper device is more popular here than in other markets, including the much-desired developing regions, the firm said. It examined 20 million devices as part of the iPhone study.



(Credit: Localytics)


While Apple still sells a truckload of iPhones, the fate of its continued growth is a little less certain. The Cupertino, Calif., company may have invented the modern generation of touchscreen smartphones, but it faces stiff competition from companies unafraid to offer dirt-cheap, but functional, phones. While the iPhone remains king in the US, it has since ceded its leadership position elsewhere around the world. Globally, Apple has been losing market share to Android devices, particularly from Samsung.


The company also has faced more competition in tablets. Apple on Tuesday will unveil its newest iPads as it attempts to stave off competition from Android devices.


Check out CNET's live coverage of the Apple's event on Oct. 22.


Processors and chili peppers: How HTC is like Hoy Fung, the company behind ...


Earlier today Quartz profiled David Tran, the man behind the Sriracha hot sauce, an international sensation that has been used in everything from sushi and potato chips to soup and PF Chang's meals. Tran told Quartz that he hasn't raised the wholesale price of the sauce since he started selling it 30 years ago, that he doesn't know where it's sold, and that he doesn't care about profits. He just wants to make a good hot sauce.


It seems that HTC is beginning to think the same way. It still cares about profits, of course, but it no longer seems willing to compete with Samsung or Apple for mobile dominance. The company simply wants to make good smartphones, tablets, and wearable computers.


'The market is really big. HTC is a small company. For us to stay competitive and survive is not a huge problem,' HTC CEO Peter Chou told the Financial Times, adding that HTC needs only to snag five percent of the global smartphone market to remain in business. 'People need to look at it that way, rather than [saying] we have to beat the other guy who has a 50 percent market share.'


HTC might need to fade into the background in order to do that. The company has reportedly engaged in talks with Amazon to build its smartphone, a long-anticipated device that might require the experience a manufacturer like HTC has to build. It previously released the first -and so far only - smartphone to ship with Facebook Home pre-installed, and it also developed co-branded products like the Droid Incredible for Verizon or the MyTouch series for T-Mobile. HTC makes good products; it simply isn't good at selling them.


The company has denied that it is for sale despite declining marketshare and financial results. (It posted its first quarterly loss earlier this month.) That doesn't mean that it won't partner with other companies to use its product expertise while mitigating its relatively weak sales and marketing efforts, though. HTC might be taking a page from Tran's playbook by focusing on its products instead of the less-glamorous aspects of the smartphone business.


Tran has long avoided working with larger companies. 'People who come here are never interested in the product, only in the profits,' he told Quartz. Sriracha is a hot sauce first and a money-maker second.


HTC attempted to do something similar with its smartphones. Analysts have wondered at the company's insistence on using high-end materials and focusing on product design instead of profitability. These decisions led to thin margins and supply issues, which contributed to the company's financial troubles. Chou tells the Financial Times that HTC remains 'diehard about design' despite all those setbacks.


On the surface, HTC and Tran face very different problems. HTC's products are less popular than they were before; Sriracha is becoming more popular every year. HTC failed to effectively advertise its products and in turn ceded more of the smartphone market to Samsung; Tran says that he can't advertise Sriracha because he wouldn't be able to meet demand. HTC is working with metal and glass and silicon to make electronics; Tran is working with peppers and spices and garlic to make hot sauce.


But underneath all that, it seems that HTC and Tran have more in common than you might think. Both are focused on making the best product and making sure it gets to people who want it without worrying about competing with other, larger companies. Both have their fervent admirers and their dismissive nay-sayers. And both are trying to stay true to their original mission despite constant pressure from other businesses, customers, and pundits.


[Image courtesy ilovememphis]
HTC

More Samsung Galaxy S4 handsets get Gear support

Tonight pinky, we try to update the world...

If you haven't already received the Samsung Galaxy S4 Android 4.3 update, today's news that it is gaining wider availability might go some way to cheering you up.


SamMobile reports that the update has now hit Indian shores, so surely the rest of us can't be sat clock watching much longer.


Specifically, the update is for Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 handsets, via the Kies software and OTA.


Faster and prettier, but not in the US... yet

There has been an unfortunate lack of release announcements for US owners, and there is still no news as to when this will arrive.


Previously we've heard that the update, which brings support for the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch, is available for the GT-I9505 LTE variants.


The update also promises to make your handset faster and more beautiful, with a speedier launcher and improved colour reproduction.


Via Softpedia


Nokia Stock Price Surges Past $7

Nokia Lumia 1020 (Photo credit: Janitors)

Following the early September announcement that Microsoft was buying the handset device segment of Nokia, NOK surged from under $4 to $5 almost immediately. Doubters and naysayers jumped ship at that first bounce never expecting the strong performance that has ensued. Now the stock is over $7 and still moving north. Nokia World is being held in Abu Dhabi starting 10/22 and will be followed on 10/29 with Q3 earnings. Then the shareholder vote will occur on the Microsoft transaction in the Helsinki Ice Hall on November 19. Those are lots of opportunities for good news to flow.


Suddenly, the about to be reconstituted Nokia faces a vastly different future bereft of its handset division. How it will fare as the leader in Windows mobile devices will become the deep pocketed Microsoft's problem going forward. This is not the first time that Nokia has totally recast itself and gone into new directions. It sold off its industrial activities decades ago to pursue mobile communications. There are many uncertainties but going from being very cash poor to being very cash rich is not going to be one of them.


It's hard to understand why anyone would vote against this deal. It saves NOK from the issues of having a bloated, indecisive partner in Microsoft that doesn't understand the word 'Urgency' that Elop has enforced on Nokia as its CEO. Actually, as a former Microsoft executive, one wonders where Elop learned the concept. Surely not there in the land of 'um, let's think this over yet again.' One presumes Elop will take that sense of urgency with him as he spins himself out of NOK with the division either as the continuing head of mobile devices at Microsoft or as the possible successor to Steve Ballmer as CEO of the whole company. He's been rumored for weeks to be on that short list.


Elop didn't mince words when he arrived three years ago about the issues he inherited from earlier management that allowed NOK to miss not just one but about three cycles in handsets pushing it from the dominant player in the industry in terms of handsets sold to a total also ran. Nokia fell from a huge market share to about 3% of late. From the sub basement, it was working hard to rebuild even as its cash was dwindling away. What Nokia knows how to do well, and Apple appears to not do at all, is make a highly reliable device for a cheap price and actually turn a profit on volume. Apple's model is the obverse. Fewer phones, glitzy gadgets that are easily broken but have cache and are coveted as a status symbol.


As mobility becomes commoditized globally, many manufacturers are stumbling and falling by the wayside. Motorola is almost invisible since it was acquired by Google for its patent portfolio. In the U.S., just watch what has happened to Blackberry as it missed a product cycle or two. It is on the auction block now and for sale as its sales decline. Blackberry's best product line is its business networking capability which many don't want to see fall into foreign hands for security reasons. Think about the promise in the Softbank acquisition of Sprint that it would not use Huawei equipment in its national network to assuage Congressional concerns about security from Chinese designs.


Globally, Google's Android system is most dominant with 187 million units shipped in Q2, or 79% of the total, by multiple suppliers. Even within that operating system, Samsung is eating HTC's lunch. HTC reported dismal results in the latest quarter and a huge loss. Apple sits in the middle of this competitive landscape with just a 13% share having sold 31.2 million units in Q2, a gain of just over 13% but at prices in some cases six times that of its competitors like Nokia. The interesting problem for Apple is that as the developed world is well saturated with high end devices, it just tried an experiment with a lower end phone in the U.S. with its new 5c. Verizon reported last week that its Q3 results were constrained by not having enough 5S devices to sell. It seems that volume demand was twice for the expensive 5s what it was for the 5c. If that trend goes global, then Apple will not be able to effectively compete in Asia and India with lower priced devices. The Nokia 520 is now accounting for about a third of NOK's sales which only represent about a 4% market share, That particular phone sells for less than $100. That compares with Apple out-negotiating Sprint into paying more than $600 per unit even as Apple was peaking in 2012.


This week Apple will be announcing its new iPad. I have no special insight but if the 5s is any indication, it will be an evolution, not a completely newly redesigned device that will force anyone into the store to replace what they have. On October 22, 2013, Nokia World is going to see the rumored launch of a new Lumia 1520 with a 6 inch screen and more RAM, a 20 Megapixel camera, and with 16 GB and 32GB options. New phones, new phablets and a net tablet are also expected to be unveiled. The implication is that Nokia is alive and breathing, if not yet thriving. What it is not lacking is innovation after years without any.


What remains of Nokia has interesting options for its path forward. On the financial side, it will go from being very cash poor to being very cash rich. It will have full control of NSN , Nokia Siemens Networks, formerly a joint effort, just at a time that the world is rebuilding its wireless infrastructure. NOK will be in a position to restore its dividend which it was forced to discontinue to preserve cash. It could validate the rumors that it might buy some or all of Alcatel Lucent to embellish its competitive position with NSN. It can optimize the value of its mapping activities. It could take itself into an entirely new direction as it did years ago when it entered cellular telephony. And, it can figure out money making options for its very strong patent portfolio if it does so quickly. With the current pace of change, patents lose their luster faster than before. Eastman Kodak was too slow to act on its patent portfolio to maximize its value before it went under.


Joan E. Lappin CFA Gramercy Capital Mgt. Mrs. Lappin, Gramercy Capital and its clients own shares in Nokia at this time of the companies mentioned in this article.For information about our firm: info@gramercycapital.com. to follow Mrs. Lappin on Forbes click on the button at the top of this article. To follow her on twitter: @joanlappin

BlackBerry resumes BBM launch for Android and iOS


BlackBerry is at last ready to resume its paused BBM rollout for Android and iOS. The instant messaging client should reach the App Store, Google Play and certain Samsung Apps portals within the next few hours. Not everyone can start chatting right away, however. To prevent a repeat of last month's server troubles, the company is implementing a queue system: those who signed up in advance can use BBM right away, while latecomers will have to secure a spot in line. It's not quite the broad launch many were hoping for, but it is good news for a company that has lately been feeling down.


Leaked image of the Sony Xperia Z1S surfaces, likely the Xperia Z1 LTE


Over the weekend, an image surfaced (via @evleaks) showing off a new Sony handset that is supposedly dubbed the 'Sony Xperia Z1S'. Not too long after the photo landed some tech sites reported the handset might be the international version of the Sony Xperia Z1 f - aka the Xperia Z1 Mini. But is it really?


Looking at the Z1 f and Z1S side-by-side (below), you'll notice that the height of the software keys, screen DPI and even the power button seem to indicate that the Z1S might actually be a bigger sized handset than the Z1 f.


So if this isn't the Z1 f, what are we looking at?



Considering the layout and color tone perfectly matches a previous @evleaks image of the back of the T-Mobile branded Sony Xpera Z1, we'd guess that this handset is merely the LTE version of the Sony Xperia Z1. This wouldn't be the first time that we've seen Sony give their handsets a different name for the U.S. market, and it's not the only time we've seen minor cosmetic revisions of Sony handsets either.


While we'd love to see the Sony Xperia Z1 f come to the U.S. in some form, we strongly doubt that the Xperia Z1S is the mini handset that some folks have been waiting for. We would be happy to be wrong though, as a smaller-screened handset with bleeding edge specs sounds absolutely amazing.


What do you think, could this be the Xperia Z1 Mini or are we more than likely looking at a minor LTE-touting revision of the Sony Xperia Z1?


After Numerous Delays, BlackBerry Messenger for iOS to Launch Today [Update ...

Five months after it was initially announced, and after an unplanned delay due to unexpected demand, BlackBerry Messenger is finally launching on iOS. The app, which is similar to Apple's own iMessage, was first announced back in May. It should launch on the App Store later today.


Back in September, the BBM for Android and iOS apps were delayed after an unreleased version of BBM was leaked that 'caused issues' with the BBM servers.


To avoid similar issues with strong demand this time around, BlackBerry is using a staggered queue system to handle the demand. Users will install the app, enter their email address to hold their spot in line, and then will receive an email when they can start using BBM.



According to BlackBerry, there are still more than 60 million BBM users worldwide exchanging more than 10 billion messages per day. Though the BBM platform remains popular, it will need to compete with several other messaging services on iOS and Android, including WhatsApp and WeChat. WhatsApp alone has more than 300 million active users, sending 27 billion messages daily.


BlackBerry Messenger offers basic text chats, multi-person group chats, voice messaging (via push-to-talk), and image sharing. Contacts can be added via BBM PIN, SMS, email, or QR code. Users are asked to set up a profile, which includes an image, nickname, and status.


Update: The app is live: BBM is available for free from the App Store. [ Direct Link]