Xperia Z3+ comes with free £275 Hi-Res Audio bundle in the UK
Sony has kicked off its launch campaign for its new Xperia Z3+ smartphone by offering customers a free Hi-Res Audio bundle worth £275 with purchases of its new flagship smartphone. The bundle includes the premium MDR-10RC headphones, 6 Hi-Res Audio albums through Xperia Lounge and a 3 month subscription to TIDAL, the Jay-Z backed music streaming service that claims to pay the highest royalties to artists and musicians.
The Hi-Res Audio feature on the Xperia Z3+ promises to deliver music as the artist intended with DSEE HX – a partnership with Harman Kardon – offering upscaled music for an improved listening experience while Digital Noise Cancellation technology promises your jam session won’t be interrupted by external disturbances and unwanted noise. The three month subscription to Tidal allows you to choose from over 25 million tracks to listen or 75,000 music videos to watch and also discover new and upcoming stars in different genres.
Sony Xperia in video:
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The Xperia Z3+ is Sony’s latest Android smartphone and offers similar specs to the Xperia Z3 from last year, save for a few petite differences. Almost identical to the Xperia Z4 for Japan, the Xperia Z3+ brings the updated Snapdragon 810 processor and an extra GB of RAM. There’s also a slightly smaller build (at 6.9mm thick) which has led to a slightly smaller battery (2900mAh vs 3100mAh) and a redesign of the charging port to the bottom of the handset.
Like its predecessors, the Xperia Z3+ is dust and water resistant, allowing you to use the handset for up to 1.5 metres underwater for up to 30 minutes at a time. The rear camera is still the 20.7MP sensor from the Xperia Z3 but the front camera has been bumped up to 5MP, in line with other current flagship smartphones.
The Xperia Z3+ runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop and will be familiar to any Sony user who has upgraded their phone to the latest software version. The lack of real upgrades in the Xperia Z3+ means this handset doesn’t stray too much from past Xperia handsets; quintessentially a Sony smartphone, the Z3+ is nothing more than an iterative upgrade to past Sony smartphones, rather than the revolutionary upgrade Sony’s product strategy desperately needs.
The Hi-Res Audio bundle offer is available when buying your Xperia Z3+ on pay monthly contracts through Carphone Warehouse, Vodafone or O2.
Samsung realizes big power savings with its 14nm Exynos 7420 SoC
Samsung’s Galaxy S6 flagship has been topping the performance benchmarks since its release, thanks to the company’s in house Exynos 7420 system-on-a-chip. The chip is built on the industry’s smallest 14nm manufacturing process, allowing for greater processing performance in a more energy efficient package.
The clever folks over at AnandTech have put together a comprehensive deep-dive into the inner workings of Samsung’s cutting edge 14nm processor. Be sure to check out the full article for a major geeky breakdown of the ins-and-outs, we are going to take a closer look at perhaps the most important aspect for us consumers – the power savings.
For a quick recap, Samsung built the Exynos 7420 SoC on its latest 14nm FinFET fabrication process, besting TSMC’s 28nm and 20nm processes used for Qualcomm and MediaTek chips. Essentially, smaller manufacturing process helps to reduce silicon area, and improve performance and energy efficiency due to the smaller distances between components.
FinFET transistor design on the right.
In terms of space savings against the similarly specced Samsung Exynos 5433, Samsung’s 14nm process has seen a huge area reduction of 70 percent for the clusters of Cortex-A57 and A53 CPU cores. The GPU cluster saw its size shrink by an impressive 41 percent also, but remember that the 14nm Exynos 7420 uses eight shader cores in its designed, compared with six for the 20nm Exynos 5433.
On a per core basis, Samsung looks to have made a similar 76 percent size reduction in the GPU department. The total die size for the Exynos 7420 comes in at just 78mm2, compared with 133mm2 for the last generation Exynos 5433, a total shrink of around 44 percent.
Samsung had produced a healthy power saving in both big.LITTLE clusters, approaching 50 percent when the A57 is clocked at higher frequencies
Samsung has been able to make major savings on area and this translates into a direct power saving in the CPU and GPU core clusters. Overall, the Exynos 7420 caps out at around 1W when fully loading up 4 threads in the Cortex-A53 cluster. Maximum power consumption of the A57 cores comes in at a much higher 5.49W, but this is improved over the Exynos 5433’s 7.39W peak draw. We certainly don’t expect all four A57 cores to be running at such high speeds for very long, and our real world Global Task Scheduling (GTS) tests showed this to be the case.
The improvements can be best seen by directly comparing the average per core power consumption of the Exynos 5433 with the 7420, minus any non-CPU consumption such as cluster, interconnect and memory overheads.
We can clearly see a healthy power saving in both the big and LITTLE clusters, with a particularly noticeable cap approaching 50 percent when the Cortex-A57 is clocked at higher frequencies. The A53s see a roughly 30 to 40 percent power reduction between 20nm and 14nm. Overall, this will result in low power consumption for the same workloads.
Also, note the drastic difference in power consumption between the A57 and A53 cores for the same clock frequency. We’re looking at around a quarter of power consumption of a 1 GHz A57 with a similarly clocked A53, which is an important point to appreciate with the big.LITTLE architecture.
There’s more to CPU efficiency than just raw power consumption though, Samsung has been working on improving GTS with its latest Exynos chip. As we have already seen from our look at the Galaxy S6’s big.LITTLE workloads, the handset’s power management system appears better than previous generation Exynos processors. By power mangagement and GTS we mean dynamic allocation of loads between the low power A53 and high performance A57 CPU cores.
Looking at the way the Exynos 5433 and 7420 are setup, it’s clear that Samsung now has a much better handle on how to eke out better efficiency from its new design. Ideally, the cores should switch over at near identical performance per Watt points. This would allow for a full ramp up through performance levels with a mostly consistent increase in power consumption.
Our testing already showed big.LITTLE GTS in action and Samsung has made improvements to ensure more efficient switching between core clusters this time around.
Testing found a notable gap with the 5433 implementation, which results in a big jump in performance and power consumption between the big and LITTLE clusters. Samsung has managed to get much closer to the ideal implementation with the 7420 and the move to 14nm has certainly helped with this.
Things are quite a bit simpler on the GPU side, with the power saving from the move to 14nm being put towards an additional 2 shader cores. Heavy GPU loads push power consumption up to around 4.9W in Samsung’s latest chip, which is lower than the higher peak power draw of 5.8W for the Snapdragon 810’s Adreno 430 GPU and 6.1W for the Exynos 5433’s Mali-T760 MP6 configuration.
Heavy GPU loads push power consumption up to around 4.9W in Samsung’s latest chip.
However, AnandTech noted that throttling eventually takes place to keep the chip in a more reasonable 3-4W range, which limits the GPU to 350-420MHz states, rather than its peak at 772MHz. This isn’t a phenomenon limited to Samsung’s design, most SoC designers are pushing the limits of GPU TDP for mobile, possibly to ensure healthy looking scores in short term benchmark tests.
All of the above said, there’s a lot more going on in a handset than just the SoC and the display still remains one of the largest power hungry components. The Galaxy S6 draws 358mW with minimal draw from the display, which is less than the Note 4’s 452mW and the Huawei P8’s 500mW. However, it falls behind the 258mW power consumption of the Galaxy S5, most likely because of the increased power demands of a QHD display.
Samsung’s latest SoC is clearly a major step forwards for power efficiency. But in the end, the company opted to push for more performance and energy hungry display components, rather than setting these saving aside for a major boost in battery life. The Exynos 7420 is going to be the target to beat when Qualcomm rolls out its next generation mobile SoCs built on an equivalent manufacturing process.
Alleged benchmarks spill online for Verizon’s Droid ‘Kinzie’
A future Droid smartphone from Verizon will feature a 5.5-inch 1440 x 2560 display when it arrives, according to an alleged set of new benchmarks. Reportedly, the Motorola phone will also pack an octa-core 1.9GHz Snapdragon 820 processor with 3GBM.
Other specifications tipped in the benchmark sighting include an Adreno 430 GPU and 32GB internal storage. Powered by Android 5.1.1, the ‘Kinzie” could pack a 20-megapixel rear/5-megapixel front-facing camera combo.
The Kinzie is one of two recent Droid rumors to surface in the last few weeks. The other model said to be in the works is a 5.2-inch Droid “Clark“. As a reminder, “Droid” is Verizon’s exclusive line of Android smartphones; Motorola is now the sole provider of handsets in this line.
We’ll soon be at the point where the current Droid models will celebrate their respective anniversaries. In other words, we should expect a refresh or new model or two to touch down at Verizon.
It’s worth reminding readers that the Kinzie and Clark are code names and will likely grab much more attractive names when launched. Also, specifications are not official and are subject to change.
The post Alleged benchmarks spill online for Verizon’s Droid ‘Kinzie’ appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Camera MX: A great camera app for a great price (review)
When it comes to camera apps, I really haven’t been the adventurous type. I generally stick with the stock camera app that comes on the device I am using. Why? Well, most of the camera apps I’ve tried in the past didn’t really have much to offer beyond what the stock camera app had. I would use it and then realize that I didn’t care enough about sepia tones to keep the app installed on my phone.
Enter Camera MX. As I start to look over the app description on Google Play, I notice something that intrigues me. They have a new feature called “shoot the past”. For the first time in years I am intrigued to try out a camera app. Shoot the past essentially creates a buffer of images that allows you to go back a few seconds before the shot to find the “perfect” photo. Color me interested. So, I download the app and the feature lives up to my expectations.
Of course that ‘s not the only feature that Camera MX offers. They actually have a pretty slick option that renders effects in real time with both still shots and video. I do have to say that it’s pretty impressive, but it’s more of a feature that I would use to show off what my phone can do. I prefer my photos to look real and just wouldn’t use it in my every day phone pics. In this review, I’ll be looking at all the main features that the app offers.
Shoot the past:
I don’t want to diminish the other features, but for me, this feature is the only reason that I keep this app on my phone. I absolutely love this feature. The feature technically works in any light condition and with the flash. However; only the main photograph will have the benefit of the flash’s burst of light. The “shoot the past” photos will be in the lower light conditions, so to fully take advantage of this feature, it’s best to take your photographs in well-lit areas. If you like to play with the effects you will be happy to learn that you won’t have to sacrifice the “shoot the past” feature. it works just as well with the real time effects enabled. You can also save multiple photos from the “shoot the past” buffer. If you have kids, this is the best feature of any camera app that you will find for android.
Camera MX Effects:
Even though I’m not a big fan of effects on a practical basis, I’m not going to lie. The effects are pretty cool. There are 19 preset effects that have various levels of adjustments for each one. So you can sepia up your pictures and share them to Instagram or add any other effects that you like and add share them with whatever service you like. One of the best parts is that you can preview the effects real time as your taking the photo or video. If you prefer you can add the effects later. The nice thing is, that you can add the effects to anything on your phone. This includes all photos, videos, and even full-length movies (non-DRM’d). As with the camera portion, you can preview the effects in real time without committing to them, even with movies. As I said earlier, these are cool effects to show your friends and maybe share on facebook once and awhile, but for me they are more of a novelty than a practicality. The one practical feature here, at least for me, is that you can also trim the length of your videos. Unfortunately, you can not splice video’s together at this point, but with all the improvements that are made to the app over time, I can see them adding that feature in the future.
Other Camera MX notable features:
- Scene modes
- Supports 16:9 recordings – even if the standard camera doesn’t
- Tablet compatible – can even be used without a camera
- 500MB Online Album – Magix
- Send photos as postcards – using Pryynt paid service
- One shot shortcut on home screen
Areas of improvement:
There is not much to add here. The only feature that I would like to see Camera MX add is, the ability to use your volume buttons to control the shutter. The stock camera app on my Padfone X has it and I’d like to see the developer Appic Labs add this feature in the future.
Overall:
Camera MX is a great app that I would enthusiastically recommend to anyone. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely, but this by far one of, if not, the best camera app for Android. The best part is that it’s 100% free.
The post Camera MX: A great camera app for a great price (review) appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Apple Released the iPhone Eight Years Ago Today [iOS Blog]
Eight years ago today, the smartphone market changed forever. On June 29, 2007, Apple released the original iPhone with a sleek form factor and revolutionary multi-touch screen and significantly disrupted an industry then dominated by companies such as Nokia, BlackBerry, Sony and Motorola.
The original iPhone was exclusive to AT&T in the United States before launching in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Portugal, Ireland and Austria in November 2007. The 8GB model initially cost $599 on a two-year contract until Apple dropped the price to $399 in September 2007, far more expensive than today’s starting price of $199.
The eighth anniversary of the original iPhone’s release takes place just one day before the worldwide debut of Apple Music, another launch that could prove both historic as Apple attempts to enter the crowded streaming music market alongside Spotify, Pandora, Google Play Music, YouTube and other players. Fittingly, many people will try Apple Music for the first time using an iPhone.
Apple has since sold hundreds of millions of iPhones around the world and launched ten models in eight years, ranging from the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Google Maps to include every US railroad crossing
US Railway crossing accidents are up sharply over last year, but the Federal Railway Administration (FRA) is about to get some high-tech help. Google’s Maps will soon include the locations of every public and private highway rail crossing location in the nation. The app will also give drivers navigating with Maps audio and visual alerts when they approach those spots. The FRA said that 270 people were killed in rail crossing accidents in 2015, 48 more than last year. They speculated that, ironically, the increase may be partly due to inattention caused by increased smartphone use on roads.
That said, the FRA also told the New York Times that “there are many cases where drivers lack situational awareness, because it may be dark or the route is unfamiliar,” particularly at uncontrolled crossings. In those cases, Google’s app could snap drivers back to attention, provided they were using it to navigate. If not, the administration has also asked Apple, MapQuest, TomTom and Garmin to include similar features. In the meantime, it also has its own app.
[Image credit: Getty Images]
Source: New York Times
BBC loses the rights to the Olympics
Think of the Olympics and you’ll likely remember catching some action on the BBC. The Beeb has helped televise the Games since 1948 and delivered more coverage than ever before in 2012, but from 2020, it may no longer be involved. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced today that it has struck a £922 million deal with Discovery for the rights to the 2018-2024 Summer and Winter Games, meaning Eurosport will become the default place for all things Olympics related.
Eurosport currently enjoys a joint agreement with the BBC, which lets them both broadcast on TV and via mobile devices. The UK broadcaster has already secured access to the 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020 Olympic Games, but if it wants to deliver footage of the 2022 Winter Olympics and beyond, then it will have to negotiate with Discovery to sub-license some of the rights. Don’t worry though: as part of its deal with the IOC, Eurosport has guaranteed to provide “extensive free-to-air television coverage in all territories.”
It’s another blow for the BBC, which has seen a number of high-profile sporting events, including golf’s British Open Championship and a large share of Formula 1 coverage, stolen away in recent years. For decades, it’s marketed itself as the UK home of the Olympics, but in the coming years it won’t be able to do that. For Discovery, it signals its intent to deliver more of the world’s biggest sporting events. After acquiring Eurosport in May 2014, the company sought to enter the bidding for Premier League TV rights, but ended up leaving Sky and BT to spend a record £5.14 billion to deliver live coverage from now until the 2018/19 season.
[Image credit: IOC, Flickr]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: IOC
Editor’s Picks: 11 apps we think you should try right now
One of our favorite things to do here at AndroidGuys is to help Android users get the most from their devices. Whether in the form of app reviews, news and rumors, or something else, we aim to please.
Our Editor’s Picks column is designed to help existing Android owners discover apps and games. What you’ll find below are some of the apps that we at AndroidGuys enjoy using ourselves. Some of what follows are new titles while a few are classics we can’t let go of. We understand that we won’t get every single app that crosses our path but we hope to filter things a bit and pass them along to you. Whatever the case we’re certain you will find something fun to play with this week. Let’s get to it!
Nova Launcher
Nova Launcher is one of the few apps that needs no introduction. From changing your stock looking boring icons to fine tuning the system animations, Nova Launcher is best in its category for doing that. Nova Launcher comes in two flavors: free and Prime. The free version does more than enough for basic users but the paid version includes gestures, unread counts, drawer folders and much more. We definitely recommend you try out this launcher.
reddit is fun
With so many different Reddit clients available on the Play Store, reddit is fun, is our go to client of choice. It looks the closest to the actual web version and is extremely easy to navigate through to get to different sub-reddits. If you’re looking for a Reddit client, be sure to check out reddit is fun. There’s also a beta that you can join, so you can be a part of the cutting edge of updates for the application.
Tapet
Tapet is a wallpaper aggregator (static, not live), but only of Material Design styled wallpapers. It is a first of its kind app that automatically generates high-quality wallpapers. You can either select a random wallpaper or let the app generate one for you hourly or daily. You cycle through the variety of wallpapers with a swipe, you can give them and thumbs up or down and it will tune the suggestions to your liking. The images are of high quality, they look great on my QHD screen. You can even download your favorites.
Notific Lockscrn Notifications
Notific is a lockscreen notification app that displays your notification in an intuitive manner when you need it. It will automatically turn the screen on and display your notification in one of the three themes along with quick action buttons if expansion is enabled. If the phone is in pocket, don’t worry. Notific is intelligent enough to understand that and will not turn on the screen. But if you take out the phone from your pocket within 10secs (customizable) it will turn on the screen for you. Notific comes in free and paid version. The paid version includes Blacklist/Whitelist feature.
Next Lock Screen
Next Lock Screen, a Microsoft Garage project, is a time-saving lock screen for busy professionals. Looking for a way to lock your phone but still have quick access to your apps? Next Lock Screen shows you important notifications at a glance and gives you app shortcuts right on your screen, all while keeping your Android lock screen beautiful and organized your way. Overall, this a great replacement for your Stock Android lockscreen.
Polycon – Icon Pack (Beta)
If you are looking for an Materialised icon pack but don’t want to try Moonshine. We introduce you to Polycon icon pack. This new icon pack offers vibrant and creative icons for your device. Polycon uses the Material Design colour palette as well as the Flat Design colour palette, this is why the colours of all the icons blend in so well with one another. The icon pack is still in beta and lot of icons are not available yet. Overall, this is great icon pack even it is still in beta and we definitely recommend you to try out this app.
NextSong – Music Notifications
Want to know what song just started? Want to skip to the next song, but without leaving your current screen? NextSong Pro notifies you via a heads-up notification when you are listening to music and a new song starts playing on your device. You can see the song and artist name, as well as the album art on the notification. You can skip to next or previous songs, and pause and play music. You can also pin the notification, so it becomes a floating music widget!. The free version only notifies you which song is playing at the moment but the pro version will also give you music controls. We highly recommend you to try this neat little handy app.
Bird Climb
If you were ever caught up in the hype that was Flappy Bird then you’ll know just how addictive and maddening games can become. This one, from BoomBit Games, is right in the same wheelhouse. You’re in charge of a bird that continuously flies left and right. It is up to you to tap the screen to give said bird elevation. Be careful, though, there are obstacles on the walls that you need to avoid. As you fly up the board you’ll be able to pick up gems which can be used to purchase additional birds. Go it alone or connect with friends to see who can get the highest marks. Don’t have any friends? Challenge a random opponent.
Shadow Fight 2
Shadow fight 2 is an amazing fighting game having a great storyline and good gameplay. It involves two players fighting in a one on one battle style game. It has several upgrades and power ups and a hoard of weapons and equipment to choose from. Shadow fight 2 contains in app purchases for all the items as well if you feel you need to advance a bit more faster. Overall, it’s one hell of a game which will keep you fixated for hours!
One More Dash
One More Dash is another casual time waster game that worth’s definitely a try. You just have to touch the screen in order to move the dash “ring” from one circle to other. Nice and straightforward, right? It’s not as simple as it sounds. There is time limit for dash ring to stay in the circle, so you have to jump continuously from one circle to another. There are more than 2,000 mission available to complete and there’s plenty you can customize for a more personal touch.
Pot Farm – Grass Roots
Have you ever wanted to grow your own weed(marijuana) farm? The answer is most likely a definite NO, but that doesn’t mean you cannot find hours of entertainment in the game app Pot Farm – Grass Roots. Pot Farm is definitely a time killer app where you can play the game for any amount of time and put it down if something comes to steal your attention. Similar to other farming games, this one is easily just as addictive as you plant seeds, cultivate, harvest and then sell either to other gamers from around the world. This game won’t get you high but it will offer you a ton of fun as Pot Farm already has surpassed over 1 million downloads in the Google Play Store.
The post Editor’s Picks: 11 apps we think you should try right now appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Facebook Lite launches in India and the Philippines
Facebook is one of the largest social media applications on Android and is known to consume a lot of data and while this is acceptable in developed markets, it has hampered users of the social network in developing markets. To solve this, Facebook announced the 2G-friendly Facebook Lite, which is designed specifically for 2G networks and areas with intermittent connectivity.
Facebook Lite has now launched in India and the Philippines and is set to launch in more markets over the coming weeks. While the full Facebook app weighs in at a whopping 250MB in size, Facebook Lite is just 430KB in stature thanks to the social network rolling back the experience to focus on four key services:
- News Feed
- Status Updates
- Push Notifications
- Messages
Ironically, the four services are the core of Facebook’s offering and why many began using the social network before the influx of game requests and Facebook apps. Also included in the new app is access to your photos, pages and groups and you can also use Facebook’s full search feature. The app offers a similar user experience to the full Facebook app but loads faster on 2G networks thanks to Facebook optimising the content on its servers and Facebook have also confirmed that it will support video in the near future.
The best Apps:
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Vijay Shankar, Product Manager for Facebook Lite, said:
“We will get to video soon… In India over 80% of the users are on 2G network. We have worked on improving the apps performance even on spotty connections and across devices from entry-spec devices to high-end ones.
Shankar then went on to add that development of the app has taken over a year and the development team tested the app across Asia and Africa to ensure it worked properly.
“During the development phase, the team behind the app spent a lot of time on the ground traveling across India to test and check performance of the app.”
One of the reasons that rival social network Twitter grew in popularity was that it launched at a time when Facebook introduced apps and games, which resulted in the news feed becoming cluttered and the service consuming significantly more data. Facebook Lite will mean its now possible for users in developing countries to use the app without having to worry about poor connectivity and low allowances.
You can download it from Google Play (if you’re in India or the Philippines) or alternatively, there are APKs available to download from APKMirror.
Has the mobile ship sailed for Microsoft?
Microsoft’s problem: getting people to try Windows Phone
Microsoft‘s failure to tackle Android and iOS in the smartphone scene has confounded a lot of analysts. How can a company so firmly entrenched in computing, with plenty of cash, talented developers, and strong brands, consistently fail to make gains in mobile? Microsoft’s lack of success in mobile has plenty of causes, and they aren’t much to do with the actual OS.
According to IDC, Windows Phone managed a 2.7% share in the first quarter of 2015, compared to 78% for Android, and 18.3% for iOS. It’s an unimpressive figure that hasn’t shifted that much over the last few years. In Q1 2012 the share was 2%, it reached 3.2% in Q1 2013, but momentum wasn’t sustained, and it was back at 2.5% in Q1 2014.
If you’ve used Windows Phone, then you’ll know that it’s not bad software. It’s broadly similar to Android and iOS in terms of features and functionality. So, why isn’t it doing better, and is it too late for Microsoft now?
Failure to capitalize
struggling to make a dent
If we rewind to pre-Android days, we find that Microsoft’s Windows Mobile platform had a 12% share of the smartphone market in 2007, ahead of RIM, and second only to Symbian, according to Gartner. By 2008 the rise of the BlackBerry left Microsoft in third, and the decline of Symbian was well underway, but Microsoft still had 11.8% of the market, though it was a comparatively tiny market back then.
By the end of 2010, Microsoft had rebooted its mobile strategy with Windows Phone 7, and both Android and iOS had leapfrogged it in the market share charts. Gartner’s figures in the final quarter of 2011 gave Microsoft just 1.9% of worldwide smartphone sales. It has been struggling to make a dent ever since.
Why has Windows failed to take off on smartphones?
Microsoft was slow to reinvent itself on mobile. It had initially found itself on smartphones via the PDA route, and the shift to a touchscreen-friendly platform, designed specifically for the new devices proved tricky. Even Google had doubts about a future without physical keyboards. Microsoft did catch on before RIM, but it has continued to make serious blunders. There are lots of reasons why Windows Phone hasn’t taken off, from the hardware, to the repeated reboots, to the poor marketing, to the lack of apps.
Android’s strength has been its diversity. A wide range of different manufacturers making all kinds of devices for the platform is sure to attract a broad audience. The marketing effort has been joint, with Android manufacturers and Google all doing their bit. Apple has been the polar opposite, tightly controlling an experience that it can ensure is positive.
Microsoft has flip-flopped around
Microsoft has flip-flopped around. Taking the negatives from each approach with few of the positives. It has failed to attract a broad partnership of hardware partners. It dictated hardware specs, but didn’t build its own smartphones (until it acquired Nokia). It has failed to woo app developers. It hasn’t offered any consistency with marketing messages. It never figured out a way to benefit from the Xbox brand in gaming and tie that into its mobile offering.
Stephen Elop is now out at Microsoft, leaving Satya Nadella to figure a way out of the mobile mess inherited from Nokia
When it rebooted WP7 and revealed that WP8 wouldn’t work on WP7 hardware, and that the apps would not be backwards compatible, it effectively betrayed the adopters it did have and immediately killed WP7 device sales. Microsoft has run into exactly the same update problems with carriers as Google has. It has already said that WP8 and up devices will be eligible for Windows 10 upgrades, but the carriers will decide whether and when those devices get them.
Another puzzling aspect of Microsoft’s mobile strategy has been the strict adherence to the budget and mid-range end of the market. Maybe that was determined to be the easiest way in, but in the face of wave after wave of budget Android devices, it looks to have been a poor decision. Where’s the smartphone for power users and high spec lovers on Windows Phone? What can it offer up in the face of the latest iPhone or Galaxy S?
Falling further behind
As Android and iOS mature as platforms they’re looking to expand their reach beyond smartphones and tablets. Look at Chevrolet’s plans for Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, or Sony’s Android TVs, for example. Then there are payment solutions, streaming music services, and the app gap. Developers create apps and games for Android and iOS, many don’t see the value in porting to Windows Phone, and, even when they do, the experience is often lacking by comparison.
All of these things boost the perceived value of Android and iOS. The more cross-compatibility or and choice there is of hardware and software, the more Windows looks like a bad bet for consumers.
Nokia toyed with Android before Microsoft took over and killed the project
Will Windows 10 be different?
It doesn’t really look like Windows 10 is going to be very much different from Windows Phone 8 in terms of functionality. There are a few improvements and new features, but the headline is probably Microsoft’s jewel in the crown – a full-featured version of Microsoft Office. Is that going to sell smartphones? Probably not.
The slim hope that Windows 10 represents is the idea of a unified experience across devices. Your smartphone can act as a PC. You can potentially run the same software on your smartphone, your tablet, your PC, and your Xbox. But you’ll need to buy Windows versions of all your devices to experience that unification. There are definitely attractions to this idea, but there are pitfalls too.
Software that’s tailor-made for the device it’s running on tends to offer a better user experience. How many people actually want their smartphone to be able to act as a PC? It’s just not clear that this is the magic bullet Microsoft thinks it is.
One app that runs on any device. The concept is promising, but will it take off?
Microsoft’s position
There’s no question of Microsoft disappearing any time soon. Just to give the doom and gloom in the mobile market some perspective, let’s jump back to Gartner for some more numbers. It predicts worldwide shipments of traditional PCs to be 259 million this year, falling to 248 million next year, that’s 321 million and 333 million respectively, if we include other PC device types and most of them will run Windows.
Missing out on mobile could prove to be the most expensive mistake Microsoft ever made
It sounds like a lot, but that compares to 233 million tablets, and 1.906 million smartphones this year, predicted to rise to 259 million tablets and 1.969 million smartphones next year. Missing out on mobile could prove to be the most expensive mistake Microsoft ever made.
Sales in mobile have been going up for Microsoft, but, even in a growing market, share has been dwindling. Windows 10 has an awful lot of ground to make up, and as Microsoft falls further behind in mobile, the danger is that it gets stuck in a negative feedback loop – fewer customers means fewer developers and manufacturers, which means fewer customers. Maybe it’s already there.
AIVAnet 