Smartphones: Who Shovers The Market

The premier global market intelligence firm IDC issued its latest report on the mobile market shares, and hot talks “what the best smartphone gadget ever is” and “where the mobile development crowd is heading to”are on the rise again. The reality is as follows: Samsung, Apple, Nokia, HTC and RIM are still in the Top 5 of 2012, while in the last quarter results Huawei and ZTE elbowed their less successful competitors from the upper positions and settled there quite comfortably together with Samsung and Apple. There’s, in fact, nothing to be surprised about as both companies operate at the low-cost devices segment and are mainly focused on China, which is a market quite hard to saturate.

The data provided by the respectful IT research agency, however, gives way to a number of rather interesting observations. Firstly, in general, the sales volume is on the rise these days. However, previous IDC’s predictions used to be a bit more optimistic relying severely on the Holiday Fever at the end of the year. The figures show, though, that most people decided to choose a cheaper feature phone rather than a branded smartphone, which is quite unsurprising in the hard times of the crisis. So, despite the fact that a smartphone is the best present ever, some people prefer to keep their money in their pockets.

Secondly, although there has been much said about Blackberry’s inability to return to the Big Smartphone Game and its complete failure in the competition battle, smartphone users are still fond of the company’s gadget and keep its sales high. That’s quite a sign for mobile application development companies, and Blackberry developers in particular. The latter should think twice before giving up this market especially taking into account the re-invented and re-engineered BlackBerry Experience.

Thirdly, even though iPhone and Android app development specialists can sleep soundly as Apple’s share of the smartphone pie is solid and stable and Samsung’s one is increasing there emerges a rather worrying tendency: low-cost gadgets from ZTE and Huawei are coming in just terrifying volumes. It’s no use arguing the very concept of the free market: “where there is demand there will be supply”. However, isn’t that spoiling the very idea of what the gadget should look like, propelled by the late Mr. Jobs, and supported by millions of Apple fans and iPhone app developers community all over the world just several years ago?

Web App: Android Application Development Tool

At present the range of IT development services has expanded a lot: from simple web applications to video mobile apps. There are several tools for including video into Android applications: Native App, Web App, and AIR video player compiled in the Flash App. Now, let’s talk a bit about the Web App.

Web App is a special way of developing and deploying Android applications. The main idea of this method is in creating the application cover reflecting specially prepared web content. The Web App is a special browser based on the WebView element, the logic of the browser performance and its layout are defined by mobile application development.

The possibility of introducing HTML5 and Flash video player into the user’s interface is an important peculiarity of Android video application development. If you already have a video player already used on the website, you can easily adapt it according to the screen size of the Android device. Although, one shouldn’t forget about the adaptation of the control tools to the capabilities of various devices – smartphone and tablet user’s apply fingers for managing the device and not the mouse.

Using web applications is a very effective way of supporting all the range of new platforms (smartphones, tablets and even TV). One should mention one difficulty – the necessity of time-consuming optimization of web applications for more convenient usage of the application by users in case of slow Internet connection (dynamic content upload).

Advantages:
•    Speed and simplicity of development
•    Using existing web development experience
•    Application interface flexibility – server HTML makeup
•    Continuity of video player design
•    Effective usage of the existing video library
•    Additional cross-platform character of HTML

Disadvantages:
•    Peculiarities of Flash Player performance under Android OS
•    A user may not have Flash Player
•    Limitation of the supported video formats

BlueStacks App Player: Launching Mobile Android Apps on Windows Devices

BlueStacks Systems has presented a free alpha-version of its new solution for convenient launching mobile applications, originally intended for Android mobile devices, on the computers with the Windows operating system. The alpha-version of BlueStacks App Player allows launching Android applications on any Windows machines including personal computers, laptops, netbooks and tablets. In fact, using BlueStacks App Player users can launch Android apps without any additional efforts and modifications.
Apart from the direct benefit for Android app developers, end-users and corporate customers will also benefit from using BlueStacks App Player. The potential field of application of this technology covers practically all spheres of activity – from educational application development for children to corporate mobile applications at any available computer.

According to the representatives of the company BlueStacks, the openness of the Android platform gives an impulse for innovations – this openness has helped to create the solution for launching these apps on ‘non-native’ platform. To some extent, such openness removes the inequality between the people from developed countries and the Third World countries – now even those who can’t afford a smartphone in the nearest future will be able to get acquainted with mobile applications.

Apart from the BlueStacks App Player, the company BlueStacks has presented the Cloud Connect Technology – a special service that lets a Windows device become the continuation of the mobile device. Using the Cloud Connect Technology, the Android application can be moved on the screen of the Windows device in three simple steps: choose, click and synchronize.

The alpha-version of the BlueStacks App Player can be downloaded for free from the site of the producer.

PittPatt: Face Recognition System

Google has acquired a small company from Pittsburg, called PittPatt, which is developing the software for recognizing people’s faces. The PittPatt technologies are able not only to recognize faces in the frame but also define them in real time while taking photos or videos. According to software developers, their innovations will be used for the simplest tasks (image processing and sorting) as well as in the complicated applications on video-display processing. They will also be used in the cutting edge Android mobile applications.

It is expected that in the next Android version (Ice Cream Sandwich) the face recognition system will allow applications which use video recording to focus automatically on a person who is talking at the moment. These possibilities were supposed to be used for searching in Google Goggles but later this innovation was rejected due to some privacy problems aroused.

The PittPatt developments are most likely to be used in the new social network Google+, but in this case the user himself will be able to adjust and choose the privacy level– either automatically or only for the photos and videos added by the selected users.
Let’s wait and see what will happen after the implementation of this technology. Maybe it will lead to numerous lawsuits and claims? Or the range of software development services will be expanded on another service?

iPad: Gadget For Fun or Business

A modern tablet is something having sight, senses, feelings, able to orient itself in the environment and time and that can be controlled with just one button. iPad is widely used in many spheres of our life: for example, by travel agencies (for presenting possible routes and buying trips by one click) as well as by insurance agents and lawyers as iPad gives many possibilities for making and storing document forms and their own signatures and print-outs. The gadget is also useful for doctors for keeping and having at hand a great number of medical history sheets.

Moreover, iPad is likely to change the media industry and our opinion on educational services. Now many software development companies already create about thirds of all mobile apps for various educational purposes. Of course, experts agree that iPad won’t replace a common netbook. But it has a great potential.  iPad doesn’t support Adobe Flash and thus users can’t watch videos but if they try iPad once, they’ll never leave it.

A user is online all the time and it gives unlimited possibilities for mobile application developers, marketers and other businessmen if they manage to make a profit on this.

But there are skeptics who think that iPad is only suitable for entertaining content and is not suitable for solving business tasks. They consider other mobile devices such as based on Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7 and Android are more perspective.

Magic from Apple

Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ive and other famous people from Apple often call their products ‘magic’ and in some respects they are right. In many cases Apple is ahead of the market for years, it manages to create really incredible devices that change the world — isn’t it magic?

Do you need examples? Here you are. Let’s remember iPad — What’s this? What for? Who needs this ‘iPod on steroids’? And it turned out we need it! Step by step this strange toy is being transformed into an extremely convenient and user friendly tool for professionals and can be a gaming console, an internet tablet, an e-book and many other things as well.  The fantasy of iPad app developers is not limited and it means that iPads opportunities also. Isn’t it magic?

Or let’s take, for example, iPhone. Look at the market of smartphones today: Android, webOS, Windows Phone, many various sensor devices, Nokia smartphones based on Microsoft OS — they are the result of releasing the first Apple phone in 2007. Without it today the market of would be completely different. Isn’t it magic?

Last year Apple presented MacBook Air of the second generation and this year Intel has introduced the concept of ultrabooks which are Windows analogues of that very ‘air’ macbook. Plagiarism? Piracy? No, that’s the natural development of the market when consumers win and the Apple magic was the impulse for this development.

Thus, every software development company tries to conquer this magic and design and develop something new, exciting and magical.

Electronic mobile wallets: from myth to reality

The idea to transform mobile devices into electronic personal wallets is being actively put into practice. Mobile app development companies take advantage of NFC capabilities to give mobile users the chance to use their gadgets as a payment means. The NFC technology has already been used in Japan, South Korea and Malaysia to carry out money transactions, while it is only on its way to be widely adopted by the USA, the UK and other European countries.
The coming upgrades of Apple’s products iPhone5 and iPad2 will support the NFC technology, while Android-powered Nexus S devices already come bundled with NFC capabilities. The ever growing popularity of iPhones, iPads and Androids provides a foundation to promote and introduce mobile wallet technology into everyday use. Though, at the moment for this technology to become ubiquitous retailers should be willing to install hardware that will scan mobile wallets and carry out money transactions.
The UK mobile carrier Orange is about to introduce a new service, allowing its customers to use their mobiles as wallets. Mobile wallets will save many people from extra headache connected with carrying cash and credit cards – people will get everything in their handhelds.
If mobile money payment system will catch on it will outline for software development companies a new trend in mobile app development services.

Android OS for Motorola tablets is about to be rolled out

Soon after the announcement of Android 2.3. release Andy Rubin showcased a new version of Android for tablet PCs. Honeycomb beta version was demonstrated on a Motorola tablet in early December, while the full-fledged version is to be launched in February 2011.
Nevertheless, the tech community and mobile developers are still unable to figure out whether Android’s Honeycomb will become just an upgrade to Android 2.4 and will be regarded as a simple successor of its fellow Gingerbread version or mobile world and software companies will see the Android’s February launch as a new generation of Android OS (Android 3.0).
Andy Rubin highlighted some of new features of Honeycomb OS. First of all, Google has made some improvements to make it more user-friendly and customize it for tablet PCs – Honeycomb OS allows to make use of touch screen functionality to the full extent. As it was demonstrated on a dual-core 3D NVIDIA processor of a prototype Motorola device menu bar pops up on the device screen, thus, excluding the necessity of having physical buttons. Furthermore, Honeycomb supports 3D version Google maps, a new version of Gmail app, which ensures better user experiences for tablet PC users, and some other features. However, most of the new treats for Android users, Google keeps up its sleeve and will reveal them in early 2011.

Rising popularity of Android OS

The distribution of Android OS is going on with a frightening speed. Already at the beginning of August, according to the general director of Google Erick Schmidt, the number of daily activations in the world was about 20,000. Since that time, the popularity of Android among the users of mobile devices has increased by 50%. According to the recent data, published in Twitter by the vice-president of Google Andy Rubin, now in the world about 300,000 Android smartphones are activated. This tendency can also be followed in the Android market where mobile application developers place their apps and the number of them is really high.

In comparison with this, every day 157,000 iPhones find their owners. Apple reported that the October sales of the company’s gadgets including iPhone smartphones, iPads and iPod Touch were 230,000.

Thus, Google has overtaken Apple mobile devices all together.

If the Android based smartphones are sold with the same speed, in a month the sales will reach 9 mln smartphones. Annual sales will be equal to 108 mln gadgets.

By 2012 Google platform is likely to become the dominating platform in the world.

‘Buy Full Version’ Button

According to the news from the YouNTC company, Google is planning to simplify the procedure of purchasing mobile applications for its users. First of all, it is going to change the order of purchasing full versions of applications.  At present mobile application developers work hard to produce more and more Android apps, the Android Market has a large amount of version of one and the same application and very often users have difficulties while searching and purchasing the desired full version.

Now it is announced that all the applications that are distributed on the commercial basis will have a special button ‘Buy Full Version’, which in its turn will exclude the necessity for the repeated searches in the Market Store and will save user’s time.

Google is planning to introduce this function in the nearest future and it is likely to appear simultaneously with Android 3.0.