Google to launch NFC payments’ trials
Google is planning NFC mobile payments’ trials in New York and San Francisco. According to reports, the trial will begin in the next four months and that Google will pay for the installation of thousands†of custom-built NFC-enabled Verifone terminals at merchants across both cities. It is speculated that Google’s Nexus S smartphone the first Android device to ship with built-in NFC functionality will play a key role in the trial.
These rumors follow on the back of Google’s recent launch of NFC-enabled marketing in Las Vegas, Portland and Austin, which allows users to swipe their NFC-enabled smartphones against a merchant-displayed sticker to access tourist/business information or special offers.
The service works in conjunction with the Google Places and Hotpot applications, which allows users to recommend and rate businesses and tourist attractions while allowing businesses to use customized Google kits from the Google Places catalogue to encourage customer participation.
The rumors about the latest trials have given rise to speculation that users will have coupons, gift-and-loyalty cards and subscriptions loaded onto their devices in addition to the usual purchasing information.
Smartphone applications processor revenue showed rapid growth in 2010
A recent research report has revealed that smartphone applications processor revenue showed 77% year-over-year growth to reach $4.52 billion in 2010. This 2010 market surge helped most applications processor vendors grow in terms of both revenue and unit volume.
According to reports, both Qualcomm and Samsung registered triple-digit unit shipment growth in 2010, despite their contrasting approaches to the smartphone applications processor market. Qualcomm led the overall applications processor market with 41% revenue share, followed by TI with 27% and Samsung with 19%. Also, the baseband-integrated applications processors continued to gain share, accounting for 74% of total 2010 smartphone applications processor revenues.
Researchers recognize Qualcomm as a top-tier supplier in the smartphone applications processor market in 2010, due to its active participation in the multiple software ecosystems and its highly integrated Snapdragon processors. They added, in their view, Qualcomm has a two-to-three year advantage over most of its competitors in terms of integration; and is ideally situated for further share gains from on-going radio technology shifts, such as HSPA+ and LTE.
With strengthening product portfolios and increasing competition, 2011 is shaping into an interesting year for the applications processor market. According to research, applications processor vendors should build competitive barriers by investing in integration, graphics processing technologies, multi-core processors and software expertise. Otherwise, they risk becoming commoditized, since the entry barrier is relatively low for new vendors to enter into the ARM-based chip.
Indian security agencies dissatisfied with RIM’s interception solution
The Indian government has announced that the country’s security agencies have expressed dissatisfaction over the solution provided by BlackBerry smartphone maker Research-In-Motion (RIM).
According to Minister of State for IT and Communications Sachin Pilot, for Blackberry Messenger (BBM) services, a solution has been offered by RIM but the Security Agencies are not satisfied with the solution.
The government has asked RIM to handover interception solution for its BlackBerry Internet Services (BIS), BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and BlackBerry Enterprise Servers (BES) by January 31, 2011.
RIM later claimed it has given government solution to intercept BIS and BBM before the stipulated timeline but denied to have any solution to intercept BES.
According to Pilot, RIM has not yet given the solution for interception of their BlackBerry Enterprise Services (BES). According to RIM, they do not have any key for this service because communication offered through this service is dynamically encrypted.
The Minister mentioned the message in text can be obtained from Enterprise Email servers, where it is in readable format. Enterprise Email servers are deployed for corporate houses.
According to Indian Telegarph Act, 1885 and the licensing term and condition of telecom service providers, it is required for companies to provide Lawful Interception and Monitoring solution for any service they provide.
However, in case of Blackberry security agencies are only able to intercept voice (phone calls), SMS and BIS.
Sprint outlines plans for more IDEN to CDMA Migration (US)
Sprint has outlined plans for its migration of its Push-to-Talk services over to its CDMA network. The Sprint Direct Connect will launch with an initial portfolio of rugged devices from Motorola Mobility and Kyocera. The devices will feature most of the capabilities available on current Sprint Nextel iDEN based phones. The planned portfolio will include an ultra-rugged camera flip phone and an Android Smartphone with a touch screen and a QWERTY keyboard.
Sprint expects to deepen its push-to-talk portfolio by 2012, adding more devices with new form factors and features.
The devices are expected to enable group push-to-talk for up to 200 participants, Land Mobile Radio (LMR) interoperability, and availability notification. In early 2012, Sprint Direct Connect is expected to add more capabilities, including international push-to-talk.
In addition, the Push-to-talk coverage footprint is planned to increase to nearly 2.7 million square miles and is expected to cover a population of 309 million (with the addition of 1xrtt and roaming coverage) – an increase from the iDEN network’s 908,370 square miles covering a population 278 million.
During the nationwide implementation of Network Vision, Sprint expects to continue operating the iDEN network at current performance levels. As the customer base shifts to more broadband-centric push-to-talk applications on the CDMA network and Sprint launches Sprint Direct Connect, iDEN cell sites are expected to be phased out in 2013.
According to Paget Alves, President-Sprint Business, their customers are asking for broadband push-to-talk now. They’ve seen steadily increasing demand for faster data speeds, better and broader coverage, and more applications on push-to-talk devices. Sprint Direct Connect is designed to solve for all three, and is expected to come with sub-second push-to-talk call set-up time initially in Sprint CDMA RevA coverage areas. Sub-second call set up is expected to expand across the U.S. with the implementation of Network Vision.
Alves added, they believe the new push-to-talk service powered by a broadband network and featuring competitively priced rugged handsets and smart phones will represent an unmatched offering in the market.
Korean smartphone users approach 10 mn mark
If reports are to be believed, the number Korean smartphone users are approaching the 10 million thresholds. According to the report, SK Telecom has registered more than 5 million smartphone subscribers. KT Corp secured 3.7 million users and LG followed with 1 million.
The combined number topped 9.7 million, 35% higher from about 7.2 million at the end of last year.
SK Telecom added that its own 5 million subscribers, nearly seven times greater than a year earlier and 20 times that of June 2009. KT also saw its number of smartphone customers surge 35 percent since late December. LG users nearly doubled over the same period.
Roughly 60% of the sales came from just two handsets – with 3.7 Apple iPhones being sold, followed by 2.6 million of Samsung’s Galaxy S.
26% smartphone owners use new apps loyally,26% are fickle
A recent research study has unveiled that while smartphone and tablet owners are very willing to give applications a try, 26% of the time they never use the same application again. It is also found that another 26% of people become very loyal, repeat customers, using a new application more than 10 times.
The researchers analyzed app usage data from thousands of Android, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 apps subscribed to their real-time mobile application analytics service. For all new customers of an app between July and September 2010, they counted the number of times customers used the same app through early March 2011.
The results revealed that 26% of new customers are fickle, install an app and only use it once. However, the share of customers lost with each additional usage drops quickly and half of customers use an app four or more times.
More importantly, 26% of new customers also become the most loyal customers, using an app more than 10 times over the following months–and many go on to use an app hundreds of times.
Finding Loyal Customers amid 10 Billion Downloads
With over 10 billion downloads from just Apple’s App Store, it’s clear that people are very willing to try new apps. It’s equally clear that app developers and publishers need to look beyond downloads and focus marketing resources on attracting and retaining the quarter of customers who tend to become loyal users.
Smartphone sales to reach 100 mn in Asia-Pacific
A study has revealed that sales of smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone4 are set to reach 100 million units for the first time this year in the Asia Pacific market. A team of researchers believes that smartphone sales are projected to hit 137 million units in 2011, up from nearly 84 million last year.
According to researchers, smartphones were a hot item in 2010, with more than double the shipments of 2009. It added that the growth came from the region’s more developed markets such as South Korea.
This fire is expected to keep burning as mobile phone vendors race to get consumers on higher-margin devices, operators look to pull up revenues on mobile data, and mobile platform stakeholders battle to woo app developers.
In addition to operating as a telephone, smartphones allow users to send and receive emails, access Facebook and Twitter accounts, download movies, music and books and perform multiple other functions while on the go.
It is believed that by 2015, three in five phones sold in the region will be smartphones, an increase from one in five in 2010.
In the face of the smartphones attack, feature phones or devices that perform the basic functions still held their ground.
Sales of feature phones grew 17% in 2010, driven by low-end brands priced below $100 from China, India and other countries.
Asia Pacific Telecom aims for 3 mn users (Taiwan)
Asia Pacific Telecom has announced that it aims to boost its subscriber base to 3 million by the end of April.
The operator hopes to achieve this goal via increasing the number of smartphone users and the launch of its new EVDO network.
Asia Pacific Telecom’s customer base stood at 2.88 million last year.
Plans to increase customer numbers include the launch of its own app store named ‘A+mart’, in a bid to increase the number of smartphone users on its network and value-added data plans.
According to the company, it sold 1.1 million phones last year, with smartphones accounting for 11% of the total number of handsets sold.
According to Asia Pacific Telecom Chief Executive Vincent Chih, the company intends to spend up to $169.9 million on smartphone purchases this year, so smartphones could comprise between 20% – 25% of total handset numbers.
Tablets from manufacturers Samsung and Coolpad are also being planned for retail by the operator.
Asia Pacific Telecom is also aiming to launch its EVDO network in the second half of this year, in cooperation with China Telecom.
Smartphone owners more likely to text while driving
Distracted driving is an issue for many smartphone owners in the US and Western Europe, as they report widespread use of texting while driving. A research report has shown that 38% of the US smartphone owners and 40% of smartphone owners in Western Europe compose text messages while driving on a daily basis; while 40% in US and 42% in Western Europe read at least one text message while driving each day.
These numbers are nearly double the rate for owners of basic and feature phones.
In the USA, mobile email is also a source of driver distraction, as 25% of smartphone owners read emails daily while driving and 40% admit to writing emails each day behind the wheel.
Research shows that tasks that take the driver’s eyes off the road for as little as 2 seconds increase crash risk. Legislation banning texting is not likely to eliminate the behavior, so consumers need safer alternatives in the vehicle.
Speech recognition, when designed optimally, has been shown to mitigate effects of driver distraction. Vehicles which provide email and SMS functionality by voice can make drivers safer on the roads.
