Tel: +44 (0)1268 724005 | Email: info@o-net.co.uk

Linkedin
  • Home
  • Benefits
  • Platforms
  • Sectors
  • Services
  • Portfolio
  • About Us

Orange to get Intel based smartphone for UK and France

Posted on 01/06/2012 by Marketing

 

Intel and Orange are backing the device with a big marketing campaign according to BBC News.

Intel Smartphone - San Diego

News of Europe’s first Intel smartphone was announced via telecoms firm Everything Everywhere.

The handset will be powered by Intel’s single-core Atom Z2460 processor and runs Google’s Android system.

It was manufactured by the Chinese firm Gigabyte, but will be marketed under EE’s Orange brand.

The launch marks Intel’s entry into a market dominated by chips based on designs by British firm Arm Holdings.

The phone will go on sale 6th of June in the UK. It will be called San Diego. There has been no announcement as yet for other markets.

Growth market

The handset is the third Intel-based smartphone, following the launch of Lava’s XOLO X900 in India in April and the Lenovo LePhone K800 in China on Wednesday.

Intel has also partnered with Google’s Motorola Mobility division with devices scheduled to launch in the second half of the year.

Sales of mobile devices are growing at a much faster rate than PCs and some analysts believe the dividing line between the two sectors will blur, so success could be critical for Intel’s future.

“This is part of our strategy to grow into what we refer to as adjacent markets, whether that be premium high performance smartphone products in the mature markets or lower cost solutions in some of the emerging markets, and everything in between,” Graham Palmer, Intel’s country manager for the UK and Ireland told the BBC.

“This is absolutely a core part of Intel’s strategy to allow us to take our technology into these new growth sectors.”

He added that his firm had worked closely with Google and other developers to ensure apps designed for ARM-based phones would be compatible and run at desired speeds on the Atom chip.

“Our intent is that all applications will run seamlessly on the Intel-based phone,” added Mr Palmer.

Posted in News | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

LG announces world’s first Full HD smartphone screen

Posted on 28/05/2012 by Marketing

LG has announced a 5in LCD display for smartphones with a Full HD resolution, according to PC Advisor.

Smashes ‘Retina’ quality displays

The firm is touting the screen as the highest resolution mobile panel to date. It uses AH-IPS (advanced high performance in-plane switching) technology and features a Full HD resolution of 1920×1080.

Sang-Deok Yeo, CTO and executive vice president of LG Display said: “As smartphones become increasingly valued for how well they do multimedia and with the rapid growth of LTE enabling faster large file transfers, our new 5″ Full HD LCD panel is certain to prove a significant asset to the mobile market,”

The display tops those found on smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC One X which both use a resolution of 1280×720. The Full HD resolution spread across the 5in screen results is a whopping pixel density of 441ppi. In comparison the Apple iPhone 4S has a ‘Retina’ quality of 230ppi.

The firm touts excellent colour representation, wide viewing angles and high responsiveness to the touch. It also said the screen is ideal for outdoor use with its brighter light transmission and lower power consumption.

LG’s stunner is due to be released in the second half of the year and will be on exhibit next month at SID 2012 Display Week in Boston.

“With the world’s highest resolution smartphone display, LG Display continues to remain a step ahead in developing the most innovative in display technology products.” added Yeo.

Posted in News | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Android, Apple Own 80% of Global Smartphone Market: Microsoft’s Share, 2.2%

Posted on 25/05/2012 by Marketing


Companies’ worldwide market share jumps nearly 30% compared to last year, according to PC Advisor.

A year ago, Apple and Android controlled around 50% of the smartphone market, now they own more than 80 percent of it.

Of the 152.3 million smartphones shipped in the calendar quarter ending in March, 59 percent had Android on them and 23 percent ran Apple iOS, according to a report released Thursday by International Data Corporation (IDC). That’s nearly a 30 percent jump from the pair’s 54.4 percent share of shipments during the same period in 2011.

The remainder of the market was left to Symbian (6.8 percent), RIM Blackberry (6.4 percent), Linux (2.3 percent) and Windows 7/Mobile (2.2 percent).

“The popularity of Android and iOS stems from a combination of factors that the competition has struggled to keep up with,” Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Phone Technology and Trends program, said in a statement. “Neither Android nor iOS were the first to market with some of these features, but the way they made the smartphone experience intuitive and seamless has quickly earned a massive following,” he added.

In addition, both platforms have been able to build robust developer communities, added Kevin Restivo, a senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker program. “In order for operating system challengers to gain share, their creators and hardware partners need to secure developer loyalty,” he observed.

“This is true because developer intentions or enthusiasm for a particular operating system is typically a leading indicator of hardware sales success,” he added.

During the period, Android shipments showed the greatest growth, to 89.9 million units from 36.7 million in 2011, a 145 percent increase. Almost half those shipments (45.4 percent) were smartphones made by Samsung.

Apple iPhone shipments climbed 88.7 percent during the quarter, to 35.1 million from 18.6 million in 2011.

Android and iOS gains during the period were largely at the expense of Symbian and Blackberry smartphones. Symbian’s shipments dropped 60.6 percent and Blackberry’s slipped 29.7 percent.

While Microsoft’s share of the market remains small, shipments of smartphones based on its operating systems climbed 33 percent, to 3.3 million from 2.6 million in 2011.

“Windows Mobile/Windows Phone has yet to make significant inroads in the worldwide smartphone market, but 2012 should be considered a ramp-up year for Nokia and Microsoft to boost volumes,” IDC noted.

“Until Nokia speeds the cadence of its smartphone releases or more vendors launch their own Windows Phone-powered smartphones, IDC anticipates slow growth for the operating system,” it said.

Posted in Industry Stats, News | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Gartner Says Worldwide Sales of Mobile Phones Declined 2 Percent in First Quarter of 2012

Posted on 22/05/2012 by Marketing

Samsung’s Android-Based Smartphone Sales in First Quarter of 2012 Represented More Than 40 Percent of Android-Based Smartphone Sales Globally; No Other Vendors Achieved More Than a 10 Percent Market Share

Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users reached 419.1 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 2 per cent decline from the first quarter of 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. This is the first time since the second quarter of 2009 that the market exhibited a decline.

“Global sales of mobile devices declined more than expected due to a slowdown in demand from the Asia/Pacific region,” said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. “The first quarter, traditionally the strongest quarter for Asia – which is driven by Chinese New Year, saw a lack of new product launches from leading manufacturers, and users delayed upgrades in the hope of better smartphone deals arriving later in the year.”

“The lower results in the first quarter of 2012 have led us to be cautious about sales for the remainder of the year,” said Annette Zimmermann, principal research analyst at Gartner. “The continued roll-out of third generation (3G)-based smartphones by local and regional manufacturers such as Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Yulong and TCL Communication should help spur demand in China. In addition, the arrival of new products in mature markets based on new versions of the Android and Windows Phone operating systems (OSs), and the launch of the Apple iPhone 5 will help drive a stronger second half in Western Europe and North America. However, as we are starting to update our market forecast we feel a downward adjustment to our 2012 figures, in the range of 20 million units, is unavoidable.”

Samsung became the world’s top mobile handset vendor during the quarter, displacing Nokia which had held the No. 1 spot since 1998. Samsung’s mobile phone sales reached 86.6 million units (see Table 1), a 25.9 percent increase from last year. Samsung took back the world’s No. 1 smartphone position from Apple, selling 38 million smartphones worldwide. In addition, Samsung’s Android-based smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2012 represented more than 40 percent of Android-based smartphone sales worldwide; no other vendors achieved more than a 10 percent share of the market.

Sales of smartphones continued to drive mobile device market growth, reaching 144.4 million units in the first quarter of 2012, up 44.7 percent year-over-year. This quarter also saw the top two smartphone vendors, Apple and Samsung, raising their combined share to 49.3 percent, up from 29.3 percent in the first quarter of 2011, and widening their lead over Nokia – which saw its smartphone market share drop to 9.2 percent.

Nokia’s mobile handset sales reached 83.2 million units, a 22.7 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2011. “Smartphone sales are becoming of paramount importance at a worldwide level. For example, smartphone volumes contributed to approximately 43.9 per cent of overall sales for Samsung as opposed to 16 per cent for Nokia,” Mr. Gupta said.

Driven by the continued success of the iPhone 4S, Apple’s sales grew 96.2 percent in the first quarter of 2012 as the new model expanded into new markets and carriers. Sales in China were particularly strong this quarter. With more than 5 million units, China became the second-largest market for Apple after the U.S. On top of the sales through official carriers’ channels, there was an increase in transshipments from Hong Kong where volume has been growing over the past few quarters to reach a sell-in of more than 3 million units.

RIM sold 9.9 million mobile handsets in the first quarter of 2012, with its global share declining to 2.4 percent as competition increased in its international market strongholds. “RIM desperately needs to deliver winning BB10 products to retain users and stay competitive. This will be very challenging, because BB10 lacks strong developer support, and a new BB10 device will only be available in the fourth quarter of 2012,” said Mr. Gupta.

In the smartphone OS market, Android accounted for more than half of all smartphone sales (56.1 percent) in the first quarter of 2012 (see Table 2). Gartner analysts said the smartphone market has become highly commoditized and differentiation is becoming a challenge for manufacturers.

“This is particularly true for smartphones based on the Android OS, where a strong commoditization trend is at work and most players are finding it hard to break the mould,” Mr. Gupta said. “At the high end, hardware features coupled with applications and services are helping differentiation, but this is restricted to major players with intellectual property assets. However, in the mid to low-end segment, price is increasingly becoming the sole differentiator. This will only worsen with the entry of new players and the dominance of Chinese manufacturers, leading to increased competition, low profitability and scattered market share.”

Posted in Industry Stats, News | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Samsung Galaxy S3 has 9 million pre-orders worldwide

Posted on 18/05/2012 by Marketing

Samsung Galaxy S3 : image from Mashable

Samsung has received 9 million pre-orders from more than 100 international carriers for its upcoming flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S3, according to Korea Economic Daily reports.

The report goes on to say that Samsungs factory in Korea is making more than 5 million units a day.

This just gives further strength to Samsung, which became the world’s biggest phone maker in Q1 2012. The company also controls a lion share of the Android market: Its smartphone sales represent about 40% of all Android-based smartphone sales worldwide.

Samsung Galaxy S3 hits Europe on May 29, followed by a US launch in June.

It sports a 4.8-inch touchscreen, a 8-megapixel rear-facing and 1.9-megapixel forward-facing camera, and comes with the latest version of Android — Ice Cream Sandwich.

Posted in News | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

One-fifth of all money spent on mobile apps is by just 3% of smartphone users.

Posted on 15/05/2012 by Marketing

According to a consumer survey study conducted by ABI Research, around two-thirds of app users have spent money on an application at least on one occasion. Among these paying users, the mean spend was $14 per month. Behind the seemingly high average amount there are, however, some striking findings.

Senior analyst Aapo Markkanen explains, “The median amount among the consumers who spend money on apps is much lower than the average, just $7.50 per month. This reflects the disproportionate role of big spenders as a revenue source. The highest-spending 3% of all app users account for nearly 20% of the total spend, while over 70% spends either nothing or very little.”

The numbers also reflect certain trends in different app categories. Thus far, the releases that have best succeeded in making money have typically been utility apps often used for business purposes, or iOS games monetized through strings of in-app purchases. In both cases the money comes from a remarkably small base of customers. Is there anything developers can do to boost the conversion rate from free to premium?

Markkanen has two recommendations. “First, don’t get obsessed by mobile and apps, but remember also the web,” he adds. “Most of the successful app concepts either support, or are supported by, a web component. Second, see your product through a long-term lens, asking yourself what could convince your customers to still engage with the app in two years’ time. Evernote, for example, has excelled at both. It has skillfully combined the web and the mobile, and at the same time it has also managed to become a habit for many of its users. It demonstrates that the longer its customers stick around with a free version of an app, the likelier they’re going to convert to its premium version.”

Posted in Industry Stats, News, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Smartphones…location based services on the rise

Posted on 14/05/2012 by Marketing

Social Media Apps

Location Applications

Smartphone ownership continues to rise around the world. Along with a growing number of smartphone owners, there is a growing demand for location based services, according to a new study.

A new study conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that about 74% of smartphone users use location-based services to find out information about what’s around them. In addition, one in five (18%) are checking in to local businesses — from restaurants to cinemas — with geo-social services such as Foursquare.

Smartphone adoption has grown from around 35% in 2011 to 46% in 2012, bringing with it more access to location-based apps and services. The amount of consumers who “check in” to certain places via geo-social services has reached 18%, up from 12% in 2011.

“It has been fascinating to watch how people’s physical location has reentered the picture in their communications patterns,” Pew Internet Research Specialist and report author Kathryn Zickuhr told Mashable.

“For a long time in our research, we’ve seen that location didn’t matter to consumer’s Internet use or cellphone use. But the rise of location services and awareness has become a new part of people’s use of these digital technologies. The importance of where people are is reemerging as an element of their identity and their social interactions,” Zickuhr added.

Not surprisingly, location-based information services and geo-social “check-in” services are more likely to be used among young adults than older adults. And although those in lower-income households are not as inclined to use location-based information services, they are more likely to use geosocial services, according to study.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Which countries are most prepared for mobile payments via smartphones?

Posted on 08/05/2012 by Marketing

According to Mashable, North America, Southeast Asia and Kenya are better set up for mobile payments than Europe.

MasterCard has unveiled its Mobile Payments Readiness Index (MPRI), an analysis of 34 countries and their readiness to use mobile payments. Interestingly enough, the index identified Singapore, Canada, the United States, Kenya and South Korea as the most prepared markets.

In a lot of ways this news is not overly surprising as a lot of the mobile technological advancements are originating from these countries.

Even so, we’re a long way away from worldwide mobile payment adoption, according to the index.

The MPRI gives each country a number identifying its readiness for mobile payments based on person to person, mobile commerce and mobile payments at the point of sale.

Numbers were assigned based on 50 data points such as GDP, household consumption, and the number of mobile phone subscriptions for each household using all public data. MasterCard also talked to consumers in each country, and asking what mobile payment methods they were familiar with, have used, or would be willing to use.

“Everybody is operating by what we call folklore, ” says Theodore Iacobuzio, a vice president at MasterCard Worldwide. “They all know that mobile is big. They all know that mobile is going to happen, but nobody has ever taken a stick out and measured it. Nobody has ever developed a quantitative data-driven way for measuring where we are.”

“We knew that mobile is the most important change in the form factor — which is industry jargon for the actual authentication device for a transaction — since the introduction of end-to-end electronic authorization clearing and settlement 30 years ago in the early 80s,” says Iacobuzio. “What we wanted to do is get imperial evidence as to where we were on a continuum of adoption.”

In addition to pegging Singapore, Canada, the United States, Kenya and South Korea as the countries most ready for mobile payment options, the study also found that markets with young affluent consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 are the most willing to engage in mobile payments. Of countries surveyed, an astounding 71% had done some type of mobile commerce.

Overall, however, the study showed that we’re still in the early days for mobile payments, with no one country breaking away from the pack.

“Technology infrastructure, a responsive regulatory environment and a robust economy are table stakes for the advancement of mobile payments,” says Iacobuzio. “The necessary conditions are consumer readiness and industry integration. As no one entity can develop and promote mobile payments by itself, key players in the ecosystem must work together to collectively advance the cause of mobile payments.”

Posted in Industry Stats, News | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Samsung takes lion share of smartphone market for Q1

Posted on 01/05/2012 by Marketing

Samsung’s and Apple’s unit sales grew, while Nokia, RIM and HTC struggled

According to IDG News Service, the worldwide smartphone market grew 42.5% year-over-year during the first quarter, as Samsung Electronics overtook Apple for the smartphone leadership position.

Vendors shipped 144.9 million smartphones during the first three months of 2012 compared to 101.7 million in the same period last year, the market research company said.

Out of those 144.9 million smartphones, Samsung sold 42.2 million handsets, which is a new record, while Apple sold 35.1 million during the first quarter. Impressively enough that means about every second smartphone sold across the world came from either Samsung or Apple.

Since Samsung doesn’t report unit numbers, IDC and its competitors have to estimate how many devices the company sells.

Last week, Strategy Analytics said Samsung shipped 44.5 million smartphones in the first quarter, while another research firm IHS iSuppli said the company only shipped 32 million, giving it the second place in the smartphone market.

The race between Apple and Samsung remained tight during the quarter, according to IDC. Propelling Samsung forward was the continued expansion of its Galaxy portfolio in nearly all directions, while the launch of the iPhone 4S in China helped boost Apple sales, it said.

Apple and Samsung were the only two star performers for Q1 really.

Nokia came in third by selling 11.9 million units, but the company’s market share dropped by 50.8%, according to IDC.

Symbian phone shipments declined precipitously as demand dropped in important emerging markets, including China. The company’s current woes make a speedy transition to products powered by the Windows Phone operating system critical, IDC said.

Research In Motion (RIM) saw its unit sales drop by 29.7% reaching levels not seen since 2009, according to IDC. But 9.7 million units was still enough to make it the fourth largest vendor.

Like Nokia, RIM is a company in transition. Smartphones running on its new platform, BlackBerry 10, will be released later this year. Until then, results like these may be a sign of things to come, according to IDC.

HTC, which came in fifth place, sold 6.9 million smartphones during the first three months of 2012, compared to 9 million during the same period in 2011, according to IDC’s data.

HTC continued to struggle in the U.S. market, and the company is now staking its future success in large part on its One X and One S products.

“The smartphone market is a two-horse race at moment, and we don’t see that changing this year,” said Francisco Jeronimo, research manager at IDC.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
Oakley Mobile

5 Britannia Court | Wollaston Way | Basildon | Essex SS13 1EU
Tel: +44 (0)1268 724005 | Fax: +44 (0)1268 724162 | Email: sales@o-net.co.uk

Microsoft Silver Partner and Sage CRM Development Partner

Copyright © 2011 Oakley Global Business Solutions Ltd
Registered under the England and Wales Companies Act 2011
Registration No. 03731162 - VAT registration No. 735 9960 85