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by Published on July 16th, 2012 20:16- Categories:
- Android News
Kantar data shows that Android took 57.2 per cent of the smartphone market in the UK during a 12 week sampling period.
The latest data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech shows that Android's share ranges from 49.6 per cent to 84.1 per cent in various countries around the world.
Android beat iOS, RIM and all other smartphone Operating Systems in every country that featured in the sampling period, which spanned 12 weeks ending on June 10th 2012. it took at least half of smartphone sales in Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, US and Australia.
Android saw an increase in market share in every country, apart from the US, compared to the same period in 2011. Although there was a decrease, Android still beat Apple's iOS to the top spot with 50.2 per cent of the market.
Dominic Sunnebo, consumer insight director, explains: “We are seeing much of the Android sales growth being driven by consumers trading up from feature phones to smartphones. Android handsets currently offer an easier platform to enable these consumers to upgrade, as many first time smartphone consumers state ‘price of handset’ and ‘multimedia capabilities’ as their main reason for choosing an Android device.
"Our data shows that Android has a higher share of those consumers spending under £50 on buying their handset across the vast majority of countries we cover.”
The time of the sampling period meant that the report captured some of the Samsung Galaxy S3 surge along with the Samsung Galaxy Ace and Y, both of which are aimed at first-time smartphone owners.
Although iOS was second in every country, Android's figures dwarfed Apple's OS market share.
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...st-time/028693 ...by Published on July 16th, 2012 20:13- Categories:
- Android News
Google-powered device owners now able to make calls and play audio via Bluetooth when driving.
Traditionally, in-car entertainment (ICE) manufacturers power their services with Linux or Windows.
But that's all change, as UK-based product innovator Plextek integrates the Android OS into its series of head-units.
This is set to offer seamless connectivity with those running on Google-based smartphones and tablets, allowing wireless calls, data access and audio playback while driving.
However, Plextek found the 30 second plus load time of an Android device posed a threat to the drain of a vehicle's battery, which was overcome by re-ordering loading tasks, and minimising standby times.
Nicholas Hill, project manager, Plextek, said: "Android is the most popular mobile OS in the world, and with so much talk about the ‘connected car’ many of its features are ideally suited for automotive applications.
http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/...t-units/018638 ...by Published on July 16th, 2012 18:49- Categories:
- Android News
While Apple is content to keep the price of its iPad range reasonably high, the open nature of Google's Android operating system has resulted in a deluge of low-cost slates from the technological sweat shops of the Far East. It would be easy to dismiss such devices as cheap and nasty, but with many selling for less than your average pay-as-you-go mobile phone, this is surely a sector of the market which demands further investigation. Three weeks ago, pricing reached a new all-time low: a capacitive screen tablet, running Android 4.0, was available for just £50 - and we just had to find out what kind of experience you got for the money.Shopping in this area is a minefield, largely due to the anonymous nature of the products themselves; it's not uncommon to find the exact same tablet branded with several different monikers and retailed by multiple distributors - just like the Scroll Extreme slate we reviewed back in April. However, in general, most of the 7-inch variants tend to share a common bond in the fact that they utilise the ARM-based "AllWinner" chipset, a low-cost alternative to the more expensive offerings from the likes of NVIDIA and Qualcomm. Our test model was no different.Our tablet is known as the NATPC M009S RTB - although it comes in generic box with generic instructions, and features no branding whatsoever - and it's available from Amazon supplier Wendy Lou, who supplied us with a review unit. Other variants - each with slightly different specifications - exist at higher RRPs, and it may pay to shop around. The review unit that actually turned up is closer to the £70 model. This is identical to what was then the £50 offering, with the additional bonus of a 25 per cent larger battery, more RAM and HDMI output. However, the CPU runs with lower clocks.Clearly the market value of these tablets is influenced by the ebb and flow of production, with specs seemingly changing with the tides. The price of the base model has risen since we received our review unit, but keep a look out on the bargain forums and they'll be sure to drop again....
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/df...oid-experienceby Published on July 15th, 2012 18:01- Categories:
- Android News
The creator of the Pandora explains why the Ouya could fall on its face
As the Ouya Kickstarter passes $4.2 million, people are beginning to express doubts about how revolutionary the console will truly be. Pandora co-founder Craig Rothwell has dealt with a launch when his team released their portable in 2010, four years after the initial announcement. Rothwell casts doubt on whether Ouya's creators can hit their ambitious targets.
"You simply cannot make a quality console and controller for $99, no matter how low you go in China," Rothwell told PocketGamer UK. "Even a Chinese semi-slave production line won't hit $99 at that spec, as the big name parts they are talking about are a set cost. "
"My feelings are that at that price - and remember you have to take off the Kickstarter fees, which brings the console and touchpad-equipped controller in at less than $99 - they will be making a loss on each unit sold."
The Pandora ran into a ton of delays before finally launching and Rothwell believes the same could happen to the Ouya if their numbers aren't solid.
"We worked out all costs and had quotes which we went public with, and even then everything which could go wrong did go wrong. We survived by the skin of our teeth and via some very, very kind customers and developers," said Rothwell.
"Now we have been though that baptism of fire, and know everything that is involved, it's clear that a race to the lowest possible price isn't how you succeed. That's generally how things can go majorly wrong; when trying to come to market with a rock bottom price, one error, one contractor messing up, and it's curtains," he added.
"Because Ouya is already being sold at that rock bottom price before going to production, there is no way for them to adjust for error. I hope they have a big secret pile of cash they can call on if they need it."
Rothwell expects the Ouya team to turn to alternate methods other than console sales to pull in revenue. He also wonders if developers will want to create games for another fork of Android with a small userbase.
"My guess is that you will have to pay some kind of subscription to use the console, and that is where they plan to claw back some money," he began. "What's the point in doing all that work for their comparatively tiny audience when you can get a better deal releasing on iOS or 'normal' Android via Google's popular Play Store?"
"When all the hype dies down, this machine could well be DOA, and Ouya could be looking at a giant black hole of losses."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...hole-of-losses
...by Published on July 15th, 2012 17:53- Categories:
- Android News
Verizon and Exent add an all-you-can-play subscription for certain Android games
Verizon Wireless has launched Exent's GameTanium, an exclusive subscription service for Android-powered devices on Verizon's network. The service will provide 100 smartphone titles and 50 tablet-enabled games, including Fruit Ninja and World of Goo, for a $5.99 fee per month.
"GameTanium provides our Android customers with unlimited access to more than 100 games at a great value," said Kristi Crum, executive director of marketing, Verizon Wireless. "Working with Exent has enabled us to immerse customers into the mobile gaming frontier and ultimately bring high-quality gaming options powered by 4G LTE."
"We are excited to bring the launch of the GameTanium smartphone and tablet service to Verizon Wireless' customer base," says Zvi Levgoren, founder and chief executive officer, Exent. "The speed and power of Verizon Wireless' network allows for a rich mobile gaming experience for Verizon Wireless customers to enjoy."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ndroid-devices
...by Published on July 15th, 2012 17:52- Categories:
- Android News
Few projects have seized the Kickstarter zeitgeist as effectively as Ouya - but it's destined to disappoint
This time last week, nobody had heard of Ouya; we might have guessed that it was an approximation of the sound of a polite grandmother dropping a hammer on her toe, or the carnal grunt of an Old Etonian. Seven days later, it's soared past its funding target on Kickstarter and has become one of the hottest topics in the industry. Yet it's been fascinating to speak to a variety of different people about the proposed console and gauge the reasons for their support, because doing so has revealed vast fractures in terms of what people actually expect from this console.
For most - especially those at the lower end of the pledging scale, I expect - their support is a reflection of pent-up demand for a smart TV device. An all-digital console with the same development philosophy as mobile and tablet games is seen as filling the gap which has been created, conspicuously, by years of talking about a Google, Apple or even Valve led Smart TV revolution which has thus far failed to materialise. Ouya hitches a lift on a variety of related trends in a pretty overt way - the rise of indie (and of the superstar indie developer - witness the quotes from the likes of Mojang and Jenova Chen on the Kickstarter page), the rise of crowdfunding, the sense of inevitability about mobile and tablet gaming making an impact on the TV screen.
"Ouya hitches a lift on a variety of related trends - the rise of indie, the rise of crowdfunding, the sense of inevitability about mobile and tablets making an impact on the TV screen"
Then there's the controller - a conventional joypad. No touch screen, no movement controls. Among the traditional gamers who have voiced hatred of such things for years, not a dry eye in the house. Could it be? Could this be the device that's going to reclaim these brave new worlds of gaming - F2P, mobile, tablet, digital - from the hordes of arm-waving, song-singing, touchscreen-molesting not-proper-gamers who have infested them? Shut up and take my money!
If you're detecting a hint of cynicism here - well, I think that's natural. Here we have a device which clambers atop a rickety tower of trends and waves its arms for attention. Think about it - it's an open platform, for indie developers, crowdfunded, all-digital, "disruptive" (maybe), hacker-friendly, free-to-play... It's painfully hip, like a console built after a brainstorming session consisting exclusively of words cut out from the headlines of Boing Boing posts. This console wears heavy non-prescription glasses and patterned cardigans, has a dreadful beard, drinks chai lattes outside pop-up cafes in Shoreditch and listens to the latest unreleased music demos on an old tape walkman "ironically". It couldn't have been more guaranteed the Kickstarter success it has ultimately achieved.
I don't begrudge it that. It has played to a crowd beautifully - perhaps even unconsciously - and indeed, it's a thing of beauty in many ways. Like the trends which have birthed it, the Ouya is a lovely idea. Cheap, open, hackable, filled with content from talented indie developers. It's a beautiful idea and in fact, it has the potential to become a beautiful little community - a creative incubator filled with new ideas being tested and trialled, welcoming fledgling developers to dip in and show what they can do, while giving more established developers a platform on which to trial new ideas. (Of course, PC advocates might point out that Windows and indeed OSX have been doing exactly that for years, but while there's substance to that argument, the point remains that console gaming and hence console development is intrinsically more attractive for some players, so there is theoretically room for an "open console" of sorts.)
The real problem is one of expectation. Ouya's creators asked for $950,000 and at the time that I'm writing this, they're hovering around the $4 million mark. Exceeding their target by such a margin has created immense excitement around the platform, and that's led to a lot of the fractures in terms of expectation that I alluded to earlier. Some people (outspoken Android advocates, mostly, which can't be an easy position to take and thus deserves our sympathy) view this as a final piece of the puzzle for Android, completing a platform comprising mobile, tablet and now console offerings and thus ushering in an era of dominance for their chosen OS. Others, more sanely but equally questionably, view it as a full-scale introduction of F2P mechanisms to the console space which will prove disruptive to the console business at large.
"What we've seen so far is a sliver of a fraction of a niche, not a workable market and not an indication of guaranteed success"
Those two are marginal viewpoints, certainly - but they can be found easily enough within many discussions around Ouya this week. Much more common is the viewpoint that this has just become a major battleground between "open" and "closed". Consoles are, unquestionably, "closed" ...by Published on July 15th, 2012 17:51- Categories:
- Android News
Veteran journalist Chris Morris tackles the major reasons why Ouya could be a revolution or a mere footnote
Any time a start-up makes $4.5 million in four days through crowdsourcing, it's bound to raise a few eyebrows. And Ouya has certainly done that.
Enthusiasts are dreaming of a dark horse console that will bring gaming back to its roots, ending the cycle of sequel-itis and injecting some fresh new game mechanics into the industry. Skeptics, meanwhile, say those Kickstarter supporters could be throwing their money away on a product that will never find a significant audience.
Ironically, they could both be right.
Ouya will be a case study in marketing and PR in the years to come. The campaign has been orchestrated to perfection, with opinion maker- and mass media coverage of the system hitting the day the Kickstarter launched. It preached to the choir on Reddit. And it had a number of respected industry names lending their support (though some a bit less enthusiastically than it initially appeared).
It's a system that currently straddles the lines of potential greatness and historical footnote. And which way it will go is anyone's guess. Here are a few arguments for both sides:
Why Ouya could work
Magical price point: Price matters - especially when it comes to gaming systems. (Don't believe me? Ask Nintendo to tell you the story of the 3DS.) And when it comes to the sweet spot with consumers, you can't do much better than $99.
"Wii U hasn't energized the base yet... Ouya's plans to launch in the first quarter of 2013 give it a pretty clear field for at least six months"
Sub-$100 is a level where the mainstream is willing to take a chance, even if a system is unproven. If Ouya can hit its goal of a $99 console - especially one with a robust series of offerings (including the standard Netflix, Hulu, etc. applications), it could rope in people from the mainstream world, which would go a long way to achieving sustainability.
Indie love: Independent game makers rarely seek the spotlight, but that doesn't mean they don't want their work to be recognized. Ouya might be a perfect showcase for their games - and there's a growing contingent of gamers who are eager to check those titles out.
Indie games are typically niche products - and would never stand a chance when pitted against major franchises. There have, of course, been exceptions (and Ouya's eager to get them on board), but you don't have to look too far beyond Xbox Live sales numbers to see that most smaller games don't make a mint.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...e-next-phantom
...by Published on July 14th, 2012 21:58- Categories:
- Android News
So you need to debug a circuit and you don’t have an oscilloscope. That’s not a problem thanks to [retronics] $0 Android oscilloscope, made with parts he just happened to have lying around.
The heart of every modern oscilloscope is the ADC – the chip that takes analog input and outputs a digital signal. Every Android device has one of these converters connected to the microphone port. All [retronics] needed to do was solder up a 3mm headphone jack, wire in a few resistors, and attach a pair of alligator clips. After installing an oscilloscope app, [retronics] had a half decent ‘scope.
Yes, this is truly a poor man’s oscilloscope, and [retronics] probably won’t be debugging high frequency RF circuits with his Android microphone jack anytime soon. Low frequency stuff such as audio is where this ‘scope really excels; even more so if a small preamp is thrown into the mix.
You can check out [retronics]‘ build after the break. Sure, it’s not something for precise and calibrated measurement, but sometimes you only need a tool that will do the job.
http://hackaday.com/2012/07/14/andro...laying-around/ ...by Published on July 14th, 2012 21:52- Categories:
- Apple News,
- Android News,
- Apple iPad
walterbyrd writes with news that Apple has been sending out letters to carriers and retailers who sell the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy Nexus, informing them of a court-mandated ban on sales and warning them against continuing to market the devices. The court order for the patent case on the Galaxy Tab says Samsung and "those acting in concert" with them are enjoined from selling the devices, and Apple has used the letters to point this out. Samsung, of course, disagrees: "Apple’s menacing letters greatly overreach, incorrectly claiming that third-party retailers are subject to the prohibitions of the preliminary injunction, which they clearly are not."
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/0...amsung-devices
...by Published on July 14th, 2012 21:49- Categories:
- Android News
New submitter TheUni writes with news that XBMC has been announced for Android. Quoting:"Not a remote, not a thin client; the real deal. No root or jailbreak required. XBMC can be launched as an application on your set-top-box, tablet, phone, or wherever else Android may be found. The feature-set on Android is the same that you have come to expect from XBMC, no different from its cousin on the desktop. Running your favorite media-center software on small, cheap, embedded hardware is about to become a hassle-free reality. And as Android-based set-top-boxes are becoming more and more ubiquitous, it couldn't be a better time. ... We will begin releasing apks for interested beta testers in the coming weeks. But for those who are up to the task, as you would expect from XBMC, the source code is available. We have decided not to push to Google Play until we are satisfied that users with all kinds of devices get the same great XBMC experience."
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/07...ted-to-android ...- Search DCEmu
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