Nokia passes Lumias to MVPs, ignores past promises to own developers

Development No Responses »
May 172012

When Nokia first announced intent to switch over to Windows Phone 7, they offered their Symbian developers a free Nokia E7 and promised to follow it up with a free Lumia when WP7 would be “on the road”.

Sadly, it looks like the Symbian developers have done their due, and are now no longer useful – we are still waiting for our Lumias. Thus, the letter below (via wmpoweruser) is likely to annoy more than one developer – a selection of MVPs somehow related to mobile will receive free Lumias:
free lumia mvp Nokia passes Lumias to MVPs, ignores past promises to own developers

Given that Nokia is already loosing developer goodwill at a high speed, it is questionable if this is significant at this stage – nevertheless, it shows the deprofessionalization in a clear, black-on-white fashion.

Posted by Tam Hanna at 10:40 am

Bridgestone to give up on e-paper production

News No Responses »
May 172012

2a Bridgestone to give up on e paper productionThe (usually monochrome) e-paper technology is used commonly in all kinds of e-readers due to the ultra-low power usage.

Bridgestone, one of the largest makers of these screens, now gives up on them:

Tokyo (May, 15 2012) — Bridgestone Corporation today announced plans to withdraw from electronic paper business.

The company has made this decision after careful consideration of its options and in accordance with its management principal of “selection and concentration” which Bridgestone is implementing to put an increased focus on its core businesses to provide maximum value to its customers and shareholders. Due to increasing competition and rapidly declining prices in the liquid crystal panel business, the company decided that the best course of action for its overall business is to exit the electronic paper market.

Exact timing for the withdrawal is still being determined but the company expects to conclude its production of electronic paper by the end of October 2012.

Even though thus sounds quite a bit strange at first glance, it does make sense – according to optometricists, the backlit OLED screens are more comfortable (read: more ergonomically) to read when looking at textual information. In addition to that, e-paper is unusable when it comes to creating smart tablets which are to run operating systems like Android – let’s see what this will lead us to…

Posted by Tam Hanna at 4:00 am

Robbie Bach: Zune hardware was a mistake

News No Responses »
May 162012

It is a time-old tradition in the tech world: some time after an employee has left his former employer, he proceeds to washing his employer’s dirty laundry in public.

This has now happened with Robbie Bach, a former manager in Microsoft’s music division. He stated the following during an interview:

… would skip portable media players completely. We would go to what, at the time, was the Windows Mobile team and say we’re going to produce the coolest music service for your phones ever. The portable music market is gone and it was already leaving when we started. We just weren’t brave enough, honestly, and we ended up chasing Apple with a product that actually wasn’t a bad product, …

Not much to add – the history of both Zune and Kin clearly shows that he is right…

Posted by Tam Hanna at 10:22 pm

Kantar: light growth of WP7 marketshare in Europe

Metrics Maid, News No Responses »
May 162012

Traditionally, one expects a new version of a product to achieve a larger market share than its predecessor. Sadly, this was not at all the case in the area of Windows Mobile – Windows Phone had a significantly lower share.

Reuters now brings us the following bit of info from a market research company named Kantar:

Microsoft’s Windows Phone began to show some signs of growth thanks to Nokia’s decision to swap its legacy Symbian platform for Windows.

Windows’ share in Germany more than doubled to 6 percent over the past year, and climbed to 3-4 percent in Britain, France, Italy and the United States.

Given that Windows Phone 7 succeeds not only Windows Mobile, but also the tremendously successful Symbian, this can only be considered a colossal failure – what do you guys think?

Posted by Tam Hanna at 6:16 pm

IDC: HTML5 “planned” by almost 80% of developers

Metrics Maid No Responses »
May 162012

When it comes to mobile development, religious wars can be fought about the question of web 2.0 vs native.

Mobile Business Briefing now brings us the following nugget:

Research house IDC said that 79 percent of surveyed mobile app developers plan to integrate HTML5 into products they launch this year.

The company said that by 2015, more than 80 percent of all mobile apps will be either wholly or in-part based on the web technology.

…

Even though I still believe that native apps are the way to go, this sounds interesting – stay tuned for updates as we get them!

Posted by Tam Hanna at 3:40 pm

Telefonica: 2 € = 25MB, EU-wide

News No Responses »
May 152012

Roaming in the EU is quite a topic – given that Hutchison has used the communality across its network for great advantage, I have frequently predicted that it would be but a question of time when other carriers react.

According to Mobile Business Briefing, Telefonica has just done so:

Telefonica has launched a pan-European data roaming tariff offering smartphone subscribers to its European networks 25MB of data usage for EUR2 a day.

…

The Pan-European tariff launched in Germany in May and will be available this summer to Telefonica’s O2 and Movistar customers in Spain, UK, Ireland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. It will be applicable for roaming across all 27 EU member states.

Let’s see how this one plays out…

Posted by Tam Hanna at 7:44 am

Microsoft Advertising gets prepaid option and new name

Development No Responses »
May 132012

When it comes to advertising on the Windows Phone 7 platform, Microsoft’s adCenter is a pretty popular and simple-to-use option. However, a few small changes are now incoming.

First of all, it looks as if a prepaid option will soon become available for advertisers:

This is just a quick heads up that your Microsoft Advertising adCenter Terms and Conditions have been updated with the goal of enhancing our service to provide greater payment flexibility. An adCenter prepay option will be available –no word, yet, on exactly when but pilots will begin in some of the smaller markets this summer. . When prepay payment is available in your billing country, the updated Terms and Conditions will apply. So, its business as usual until that option becomes available in your billing country. Check back here from time to time on updates related to this new feature.

In addition to that, the advertising system will soon be renamed:

Also, while we have you here, you may have noticed our new look both here on the blog, over on the Microsoft Advertising site and in all of our customer communications as we move from Microsoft Advertising to Bing.

Find out more at the URL below:
http://community.microsoftadvertising.com/en/small-business/adcenter/b/advertiser/archive/2012/05/10/microsoft-adcenter-terms-and-conditions-2012-update.aspx

Posted by Tam Hanna at 1:42 pm

EU reduces roaming fees further

News No Responses »
May 132012

450px La2 euro EU reduces roaming fees furtherThe EU intends to be a “super state” – in a super state, however, citizens can expect to pay no roaming fees when traveling from one substate to another (similar to the USA).

Sadly, the EU currently has not yet achieved this state. However, it remains work in progress. The Independent now repors the following:

Mobile phone roaming charges will fall again from July following a European Parliament vote today.

…

The cuts involve reducing the cost of making a mobile call from another EU country from about 30p a minute to 24p, while the cost of sending a text drops to just 7p. Overall, roaming costs have fallen by up to 75% since the campaign began in 2007, said the commission.

Stay tuned for further info as we get it!

Image: Wikimedia Commons / Lars Aronsson

Posted by Tam Hanna at 8:57 am

Attention: closed beta of BB10 tools for Visual Studio closing

Development No Responses »
May 132012

Even though Visual Studio is traditionally used for the development of applications for Windows Mobile / Windows Phone, the IDE is very well-known and thus has a large user base.

Should anyone of you be interested in using this IDE for creating stuff for the new BlackBerry OS, then the Tweet below could be highly interesting:
visual studio for blackberry Attention: closed beta of BB10 tools for Visual Studio closing

Given that this is a closed beta, we can’t say much more – good fun!

Posted by Tam Hanna at 4:14 am

HP to resume tablet production – with Windows 8

News No Responses »
May 122012

HP has stopped the production of webOS tablets some time ago – sadly, the OS has now no manufacturers left. However, the firm originally planned to resume the manufacturing of webOS tablets in 2013 – which now seems to have changed slightly.


Bangkok Post reports the following:

: Hewlett-Packard (HP) has announced it will resume production of consumer tablets but says it will run them on Microsoft’s new Windows 8 operating system.

The world’s largest technology firm suspended its touchPad WebOS tablet production line last year on poor sales.

Restarting production is a strategic move aimed at capitalising on the extraordinary growth in tablet sales …

…

Not much to add here…

Posted by Tam Hanna at 10:21 pm

Lumia 900 might get Tango – ROM pops up

News No Responses »
May 122012

Very few topics are as sensitive as the question of Windows Phone 7 OS upgrades – Microsoft’s initial announcement of a standardized platform seems to do them more bad than good.

WPCentral.com now reports the following:

Having said all of that the Finish Tango ROM (8773 with firmware 12140) popped up on Navifirm this morning and yes, can be downloaded. Does that mean it can be flashed to your AT&T Lumia 900? We wouldn’t recommend it as down-grading the ROM to the proper one is not guaranteed.

Of course, this should not be taken as confirmation that an update will be pushed out – it is entirely possible that Microsoft uses the 900 as test bed for platform development!

Posted by Tam Hanna at 1:13 am

Krusell: top-sellers for April 2012

Metrics Maid No Responses »
May 112012

When it comes to data, Krusell’s once-monthly sales report are the staple food of our Metrics Maid section. In fact, we even have some explanation on our coverage as to why we are not breaking data down at OS levels anymore.

Krusell has now sent us the latest update:

1. (1) Apple iPhone 4/4S
2. (8) Sony Xperia S
3. (2) Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II
4. (-) Sony Xperia U
5. (7) Samsung Galaxy Note
6. (4) Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc/Arc S
7. (3) Samsung Galaxy Nexus
8. (-) Nokia E52
9. (10) HTC Sensation
10. (9) HTC Sensation XL
() = Last month’s position.

In April Sony’s new models Xperia S and U has made a significant race on the Top seller list from Krusell. It’s been a while since we had three phones from Sony, or previous Sony Ericsson, on our list, says Ulf Sandberg CEO at Krusell. In April it’s only Samsung who matches Sony in number of devices on the list, even if iPhone is still number one.

The Swedish manufacturer of carrying cases for portable electronics, Krusell, releases its “Top 10″-list for April 2012. The list is based on the number of pieces of custom made mobile- and smartphone cases ordered from Krusell during April 2012. Krusell’s list is unique due to the fact that it reflects the sales of phones on six continents and in more than 70 countries around the globe.

Not much to add here…

Posted by Tam Hanna at 4:36 pm

Windows Phone 7 network stack – unpopular@OSNews

Development No Responses »
May 082012

When it comes to Windows Phone 7, networking never was too much of a priority item in the OS’ses design – developers had to wait until Mango came in order to get some kind of Socket support.

At osnews.com, the network stack has now been criticised for three interesting issues:

The first one is actually the most annoying one. Windows Phone 7′s policy is to turn off wifi after the device has been sleeping for 30 seconds. After pressing the lock button, wifi is turned off after 30 seconds. This wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the fact that it takes WP7 really, really long to reconnect after waking from sleep.

…

The second issue is also quite annoying. I’m not sure if this is an issue with the applications, or with the networking stack itself, but pulling data from the web is often painfully slow, and often will just fail entirely – no matter the wifi network or 3G connection.

…

Third – what’s up with live tiles taking ages to update? Do they have some sort of update policy we’re not privy to?

Do you see similar issues on your WP7?

Posted by Tam Hanna at 10:17 pm

Nokia-”exclusive” apps for Windows Phone 7

Funny stuff, News No Responses »
May 082012

We have frequently reported that Microsoft can not favor Nokia too much lest its other licensees get angry – due to that, it never ceases to amuse when Nokia tries to push out “exclusive” stuff for the Lumia line.

Their latest blurb takes the form of a three-page press release, which announces a bunch of new apps for all Windows Phones, a few (insignificant ones) of which will be exclusive for the Lumia.

But, see for yourself – one really wonders where Microsoft starts and where Nokia ends:

New Orleans, US – Nokia announced a number of new and exclusive application partnerships at CTIA Wireless 2012, continuing its focus on delivering differentiated and original app experiences to Nokia Lumia consumers around the world.

“We are focused on delivering great, locally relevant apps, and importantly, those which offer unique, exclusive and original experiences,” said Marco Argenti, SVP, Nokia Developer Experience. “With Nokia Lumia smartphones now available in 48 markets, developers are rapidly recognizing the business opportunities and creating their best work for our consumers.”

With more than 80,000 apps now available in Windows Phone Marketplace, search and discovery features such as ‘App Highlights’ and ‘Nokia Collection’ curate the best, most relevant apps for Nokia Lumia consumers.

“Nokia has achieved much in a short space of time when it comes to key brands and partners creating apps for Nokia Lumia customers. We believe developers are now moving away from simply porting, to create new innovative and high-design apps that fully leverage the Windows Phone Metro UI and features such as live tiles. With new and exclusive apps launching on a regular basis, and Nokia Lumia rapidly expanding into new markets, Nokia and Microsoft are demonstrating meaningful differentiation for consumers, developers, operators and retailers,” said Crawford Del Prete, EVP, Chief Research Officer, IDC.

New partnerships and app updates across key consumer verticals include:

SPORT:

The PGA Tour app – exclusive to Nokia Lumia for 12 months from launch
The PGA TOUR is pleased to announce the launch of a new mobile app to provide fans with live, enhanced coverage of PGA TOUR events on the Windows Mobile platform. Developed with Nokia, the app will be available exclusively on Nokia Lumia smartphones beginning in late June 2012. The new app provides fans with a groundbreaking way to follow PGA TOUR tournaments. In addition to live tournament scoring, highlights and player information, the app provides interactive, augmented coverage of select events and holes, showing each player’s exact position and scoring information. This allows fans to “get inside the ropes” and follow all players competing on the PGA TOUR.

“We are excited to work with Nokia to provide this app for the PGA TOUR,” said Scott Gutterman, Executive Producer, PGA TOUR Digital. “We are committed to providing the highest level of live PGA TOUR coverage, and this app will better inform and entertain PGA TOUR fans.”

The Nokia app adds to the PGA TOUR’s portfolio of mobile products. The PGA TOUR averages over 1 million monthly mobile users across all platforms.

ESPN – exclusive to Nokia Lumia until May 2013
The exclusive ESPN Hub will deliver a number of key updates in coming months, including sports scores on Live Tiles, team-level panoramas, personalization of scores, leagues and teams, and additional sports coverage such as Tennis, NASCAR and the 2012 Olympics. Additionally, a Windows Phone version of the ESPN Fantasy Football app will launch exclusively on Nokia Lumia smartphones this coming Fall.

GAMES:

Rovio – titles starting with Angry Birds Space join the original Angry Birds game in coming to Nokia Lumia and Windows Phone consumers
Rovio is building a dedicated design and development team to create games for Nokia Lumia smartphones and the wider Windows Phone ecosystem, with the goal of developing and publishing all future Rovio titles as soon as possible. Nokia and Rovio will partner to develop innovative new consumer products and content exclusively for Nokia Lumia smartphones, alongside cross platform multi-channel integrated marketing initiatives.

“Nokia is one of our longest-standing partners, and Windows Phone and Lumia are of strategic importance to Rovio. We are very committed to bring our games to Lumia devices, and are looking forward to delighting our fans on the Windows Phone platform,” said Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio.

EA – bringing leading game titles to Nokia Lumia and Windows Phone consumers
Electronic Arts (EA) will continue to deliver leading game titles to Nokia Lumia and Windows Phone consumers, including FIFA, Madden NFL, NBA Jam, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR®, Mirror’s Edge and Yahtzee. These games join titles such as Need for Speed(TM) Undercover, Need for Speed(TM) Hot Pursuit, The Sims(TM) 3, Spider Jack, and MONOPOLY which are already available in Windows Phone Marketplace.

LIFESTYLE:

Groupon – Exclusive to Nokia Lumia for 6 months from launch
Launching during Summer 2012, Groupon is currently working on an extensive upgrade of its Windows Phone app. The app will include a newly developed augmented reality deal discovery function to combine map and Points-of-Interest (POI) data with what is seen via the camera’s viewfinder, enabling users to see virtual Groupon deals, in real-time, nearby. The app will be exclusive to Nokia Lumia customers for 6 months.

Mihir Shah, VP of Mobile, Groupon, said: “Our new and exclusive Groupon app for Nokia Lumia customers combines the intuitive Windows Phone Metro UI with location-based data to deliver deals which are both personalized and location-relevant for users. We look forward to continuing to partner with Nokia to evolve and innovate our app experience further.”

Tripdots – Exclusive to Windows Phone customers for 3 months from launch
Tripdots helps vehicle owners optimize their driving behaviors while connecting with other vehicle owners and sharing driving efficiency achievements via social networks. The app lets users monitor the operation of their vehicles to enable cost savings through better understanding fuel economy. Everyone can participate in the MPG Leader Board game, and information is only sent to drivers after their trip is complete.

“Consumers are increasingly paying more attention to the eco friendliness and costs of operating their vehicles,” said David Fleck, President of Left Lane Network, Inc. “Tripdots provides a wealth of easy to understand information that helps users monitor the health of their vehicles while having fun. The Nokia Lumia Windows phones provide best in class experience with Tripdots and we are very happy to be working with Nokia to deliver the service worldwide.”

FINANCE:

PayPal app for Windows Phone
PayPal and Nokia will work together to bring PayPal’s secure, fast and easy payments capabilities to the Windows Phone platform and Nokia Lumia smartphones, globally. PayPal will leverage the power of Windows Phone Live Tiles to create a compelling user experience that provides users with the flexibility to pay on-the-go.

“We’re excited to work with Nokia and Microsoft to bring PayPal to Nokia users across the globe, and to continue to innovate the way our consumers shop and pay anytime, anywhere and in anyway,” said Hill Ferguson, Vice President of Mobile, PayPal.

ENTERTAINMENT:

AOL Entertainment Hub – exclusive to Nokia Lumia for 6 months
Available exclusively to Nokia Lumia users at launch, AOL is set to introduce the AOL Entertainment Hub, bringing together the best of AOL’s content to deliver an immersive and inter-connected experience on Windows Phone. Whether you want to listen to one of 55,000 radio stations via SHOUTcast, stream free music albums with AOL’s Listening Party or view Trailers and Movie listings, the AOL Entertainment Hub delivers everything you need.

“The live tiles on Nokia Lumia helped us create an awesome app that makes it easy to stay in the know on what’s happening in Film, TV, Radio, Concerts and Music right from your home screen,” said Sol Lipman, Director of Mobile First products at AOL.

NEWS:

Time Magazine app for Windows Phone
Bringing the world’s largest weekly circulation to mobile, TIME.com announces the forthcoming availability of TIME for Windows Phone. Utilizing the stunning Windows Phone UI, the app will enable users to view TIME.com content, receive breaking news alerts, watch rich media content including video and share stories via the Windows Phone People Hub, while delivering the latest news and stories to users first via Live Tiles.

Newsweek – The Daily Beast app for Windows Phone
For a smart, speedy take on the news from around the world, combined with the depth and investigative power of Newsweek magazine, we are pleased to announce the availability of Newsweek’s digital partner The Daily Beast on Windows Phone. The Daily Beast app delivers the latest content through Live Tiles and combines the unique style of The Daily Beast with the Windows Phone UI to deliver a stunning experience. For users who only have minutes to digest the latest news, the app also delivers The Cheat Sheet – your one stop must have reads from across the world – uniquely designed for Windows Phone.

“We’re thrilled with how The Daily Beast app looks and works on the new Nokia Lumia smartphones and excited to be partnering with them as part of our robust mobile strategy,” said Daniel Blackman, Chief Digital Officer, Newsweek & The Daily Beast

PRODUCTIVITY:

Box app for Windows Phone
The new Windows Phone app from Box, the company focused on providing workers with simple, secure sharing from anywhere, will be available to Nokia Lumia consumers this Summer. With support for nine languages, Box for Windows Phone will enable users across the globe to browse, search and share files from their account.

“We’re committed to powering secure collaboration and content sharing for today’s workers across all platforms and devices,” said Matthew Self, VP of Platform Engineering at Box. “We believe that Windows Phone will play a meaningful role in enhancing mobile productivity across businesses of all sizes, and we’re excited to work with Nokia to bring an unparalleled experience for both users and IT to its Lumia smartphones.”

Posted by Tam Hanna at 7:04 pm

Microsoft MVP on Nokia-Microsoft relationship

Editorials No Responses »
May 072012

First of all: I am fully aware that Microsoft’s MVPs are not entitled to speak on behalf of the company. However, tradition tells us that MVPs tend to stay in line with corporate, as they do want to be re-nominated to keep getting the (significant material) benefits.

A German MVP in the XNA segment has now aired some interesting statements on his German blog (here). Given that we have an abundance of German speakers on team, here is the most interesting stuff he had to say.

He starts out by analyzing the financial situation of Nokia, which, well, is not too good – the firm has lost 1.34 billion Euros in 2011. This, however, already includes a payment from Nokia.

Here, the German text first:

Davon sind in 2011 bereits 0.180 Milliarden Euro geflossen (für 1 Million verkaufte Nokia Lumia 800).

In this number, a payoff from Microsoft is already included. MS paid Nokia 0.18 billion Euros for the one million Lumia devices sold.

He then goes on to explain why Android would be a less sensible choice:

Sollte Nokia es 2012 schaffen 10 Millionen Windows Phones umzusetzen, was durchaus schaffbar sein sollte, dann bekommen sie von Microsoft die Restzahlung von 1.8 Milliarden Euro und sparen auch noch mal 100 Millionen an Lizenzgebühren für einen entsprechenden Android-Absatz ein

Should Microsoft be able to sell 10 million WP7 devices in 2012, they would get an additional 1.8 billion Euros from Nokia. In addition to that, they would also save 100 million USD of license fees Android licensees must pay to Microsoft.

He has a nice extra bit of financials which we cannot quote here as we would be over the legal limit for quote lengths – find out more here:
http://mitohnehaare.de/2012/04/30/android-lumia-nokias-rettung/
===>Translated by Google Translate

Posted by Tam Hanna at 2:49 am
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