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To watch Alisher Usmanov (Алишер Усманов)

March 22, 2014 3:19 pm / Leave a comment

Alisher Usmanov (Алишер Усманов)? WTF, you may ask. Especially in the context of ‘Experiencing the Cloud’. Those wikipedia articles will hardly explain that. So here are the reasons why I am doing such a recommendation now:

We are witnessing the biggest geopolitical play of the XXI. century between the winning Western world of the last century and the reinvigorated Russian state of the new century under the latest doctrine by Zbigniew Brzezinski publicly declared in his Balancing the East, Upgrading the West – U.S. Grand Strategy in an Age of Upheaval [Foreign Affairs, JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2012 ISSUE] article 2 years ago as:

The United States’ central challenge over the next several decades is to revitalize itself, while promoting a larger West and buttressing a complex balance in the East that can accommodate China’s rising global status. A successful U.S. effort to enlarge the West, making it the world’s most stable and democratic zone, would seek to combine power with principle. A cooperative larger West – extending from North America and Europe through Eurasia (by eventually embracing Russia and Turkey), all the way to Japan and South Korea – would enhance the appeal of the West’s core principles for other cultures, thus encouraging the gradual emergence of a universal democratic political culture.
Given the very first round of this aggressive move—happening before our own eyes in Ukraine—to capture the vast space extending from Ukraine through whole of Russia to Vladivostok, the other biggest play of XXI. century, what is best called as Mobile Cloud Computing, will unfold in a dramatically different way. China as The Upcoming Mobile Internet Superpower is getting Russia now, as a much closer ally against the fading Western high-tech power. This will even effect the world financial system as well, since the side who is getting the upper hand in the global social networking and related e-commerce race is also getting a dominant position in the global financial system.
Russia has already built some very close strategic ties with strategic businesses of China in this respect, especially via the activities of its most clever businessman, Alisher Usmanov. In the following I will provide a quick summary of his activities so far, as well as the current situation fast evolving because of the so called sanctions looming over the whole Russian economy (because of the “2014 Crimean crisis”).
In 2013 there was a new (maybe final before an IPO) round of Xiaomi financing which was said to be disclosed also on Sept 5. The amount was rumored as being not less than $2B and “from Chinese internet and mobile services firm Tencent (0700.HK), with Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies (DST) acting as an intermediary”. DST already invested $90 million into Xiaomi in Dec 2011, and another $216 million in Dec 2012.
Then, DST is controlled by Russia’s richest man Alisher Usmanov with $18.6B of private wealth (beginning of March 2014, “pre-sanctions against Russia”) and an additional $11.1B wealth of its two business partners also controlled by Usmanov via 100% voting rights in his USM Holdings empire. USM Holdings has three groups of assets in its portfolio: Internet (with DST and a complete Mail.Ru Goup), Telecoms (with Megafon, Russia’s second largest mobile operator in terms of revenue and subscribers and the market leader in the mobile data segment, as well as Yota, the leader of the mobile broadband sector in Russia), Media and Steel & Mining.
Tencent is controlled by Naspers (33.9%) which is also heavily invested into the Mail.Ru Group earlier (29%), and might have some minority share of DST itself, indirectly via Tencent definitely (getting not less than 10.26% of DST with a $300M investment into it in April, 2010). AlthoughNaspers’s CEO, Koos Bekker has a personal fortune of ‘only’ $580M (mid’12, so now closer to $1B probably) but has been the unquestioned leader and decision maker of the company, which has a market capitalisation of about $57B (mid’12, now much higher). Also Tencent’s own market capitalisation is not less than $88.6B (Aug 15, 2013).
Also, Venture Capital Dispatch reported in January 2013 that:

“DST Global counts Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and online retailer JingdongMall [pre April 2013 360buy] as part of its Asian portfolio. DST, alongside other private equity firms like Silver Lake agreed to buy shares in Alibaba at a tender offer of $1.6 billion in 2011. That same year, DST Global also participated in a $1.5 billion third round of funding in Jingdong [pre April 2013 360buy], with media reports stating that DST bought a 5% share in the online retailer for $500 million. … DST Global spent around $1.5 billion on both of those deals, said [DST partner John] Lindfors [responsible for the Chinese market].”
More importantly, and very recently Billionaire Usmanov Aims at China After Selling Apple, Facebook [Bloomberg, March 17, 2014]:

“Chinese companies account for about 70 percent to 80 percent of the portfolio of our foreign Internet investments,” Ivan Streshinskiy, head of Usmanov’s asset-management company USM Advisors LLC, said in an interview on March 14 in Moscow. Most of the investment is in “Alibaba, JD.com and some other companies with great potential,” Streshinskiy said.
…
“We hope that our investments in China’s Internet companies may show the same and even better returns as we had with the American companies,” Streshinskiy said. China is Russia’s largest trading partner.

Alibaba’s estimated valuation rose to an average of $153 billion last month after the Chinese e-commerce company reported surging sales. The Hangzhou-based company is starting the process for what may be the biggest U.S. initial public offering in two years. Chinese online retailer JD.com may start an IPO next quarter and be valued at more than $20 billion, according to co-owner Tencent Holdings Ltd.
…
“We are concerned with the possible sanctions against Russia but don’t see any dramatic repercussions for our business,” Streshinskiy said. “China is unlikely to impose any sanctions. So, we will be trading in rubles, yuan, Hong Kong or Singapore dollars.”

And additionally Usmanov Tightens Grip Over Russian Social Network VKontakte (1) [Businessweek, March 18, 2014]:

Mail.ru, an Internet company controlled by Usmanov, agreed to buy a 12 percent stake in VKontakte from Russian executive Ivan Tavrin, according to a statement from Moscow-based Mail.ru today. No price was disclosed. Mail.ru won’t change VKontakte’s operational control or consolidate it into its accounts.

VKontakte may be valued at $2 billion to $4 billion, said Ksenia Arutyunova, an analyst at Rye Man & Gor Securities in Moscow. The company is trying to fend off rivals including Facebook Inc. (FB:US) in Russia and leads the market with Odnoklassniki, another social network controlled by Mail.ru.

“Even though Mail.ru won’t get operational control in VKontakte, this deal is good as it’s a move in the company’s strategy of consolidating social networks in Russia,” said Konstantin Belov, an analyst at UralSib Capital in Moscow.

Mail.ru, which also has assets such as online gaming sites, jumped as much as 6.6 percent, the biggest gain in 11 months. It rose 4.2 percent to $34.58 at 9:45 a.m. in London.

VKontakte had 95 million users in December, including 61 million in Russia, researcher ComScore estimated. Facebook had 13 million Russian users and Odnoklassniki 54 million.

The stake increase also gives Mail.ru an edge over United Capital Partners, a Russian investor who holds the remaining 48 percent of VKontakte. The two shareholders have been at odds over the social network’s management, with UCP calling for the dismissal of co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Pavel Durov, whom Usmanov has supported.

Usmanov is also willing to buy UCP’s stake in VKontakte at a “reasonable price,” Ivan Streshinskiy, head of Usmanov’s asset-management company USM Advisors LLC, said in an interview in Moscow last week. UCP and Usmanov’s representatives each have two of VKontakte’s four board seats.

UCP has claimed that Durov breached his fiduciary duty by developing his own project, the Telegram messenger, separately from VKontakte. Streshinskiy said that Usmanov has been supportive of Durov as his presence in the company ensures success of the social network.

Now with sanctions looming over the whole Russian economy (because of the “2014 Crimean crisis”) the possible changes could be much more dramatic. According to Russian banks offered to go to the Chinese payment systems [Russian news and facts, March 21, 2014]:

Russian banks are affected by international sanctions because of the annexation of Crimea, could restore job by clicking on the Chinese payment system. This RDA told the deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Financial Markets Anatoly Aksakov.

So, he said, “customers will be moved to the side of the Chinese UnionPay».

Autumn 2013 Central Bank registered LLC “YunionPey” as the operator of the payment system. It became a clearinghouse “Bank of China (ELOS).” The system was founded in 2002 as an association of banks in China. It operates in more than 140 countries.

Another popular Chinese system – Alipay, a member of the Alibaba Group – the largest company online commerce. She, in particular, belong to well-known online retailers AliExpress site and Taobao. Alipay was founded in 2004. System used by more than 460,000 companies.

~~Recently~~ [it’s started much earlier, in 2011, as you could see in [4] above] Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has invested in shares of Alibaba Group, getting rid of securities Facebook and Apple.

My insert here: Leaning East: Russia moves towards China as West pushes sanctions [RT (Russia Today), March 20, 2014]

Amid the possibility of further sanctions from Brussels and Washington over Crimea – Vladimir Putin is set to address the annual session of Russia’s Union of Industrials and Entrepreneurs. Live now to RT’s Katie Pilbeam. Well the West may be threatening sanctions – but Russia’s eastern relations are unaffected. Moscow’s trade with China is on the rise – the turnover reaching 89 billion dollars last year. Most of that is made up of oil supplies being sent to Beijing, which is the world’s fastest growing energy market. Let’s get some analysis from Thorsten Pattberg, a writer and author of the book “The East-West Dichotomy”.

Now the Russian register of operators of payment systems includes 29 products including Visa and Master Card, and the revocation of the license Migom.

Earlier it was reported that the Visa and Master Card cards stopped servicing a number of Russian banks, which fell under the EU sanctions and the U.S. due to merger Crimea to Russia. President Vladimir Putin has promised that the government will help companies and their customers.

And indeed Visa explained stop service cards in Russian banks [Russian news and facts, March 21, 2014]:

In accordance with U.S. law, Visa payment system was required to suspend access to the network for organizations that came under sanctions because of Washington’s annexation of the Crimea. This writes the “Interfax” referring to the company’s statement.

The list includes the bank “Russia” and related “Sobinbank”, “SMP Bank” and “InvestCapitalBank.” Earlier it was reported that the Visa and Master Card cards stopped servicing these credit institutions.

According to the director of the Department of the Central Bank of the national payment system Batyreva Timur, because of the actions of Visa and Master Card functionality lost several hundred thousand cards issued by the three banks. … also having problems with credit organizations, which affected banks were sponsors. In this chain of “stuck” seven organizations, he said.

President Vladimir Putin said that the state will help victims of the sanctions to companies and their customers, and ordered to transfer their salary to the bank “Russia”. His example was followed by the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. Just Sanctions list were more than 50 Russian and Ukrainian officials and businessmen.

In a longer term changes could well be even more dramatic as Putin: Russian companies should have transparent property structure [ITAR-TASS, March 20, 2014]

MOSCOW, March 20. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian companies should be registered on the territory of Russia and should have a transparent property structure, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Thursday.

At the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Russian president said that business people should realize their responsibility. “Russian companies should be registered on the territory of our country and should have a transparent property structure,” he noted.

Therefore, Putin stated that he had set a task to decrease the number of offshore companies in domestic economy. “Required amendments in legislative base are being drafted,” he noted.

Or as has been reported in a wider context of UPDATE 2-Putin tells Russian businessmen to bring their assets back home [Reuters, March 20, 2014]:

* Putin presses home his argument for bringing business home
* Businessmen fear widening EU, U.S. sanctions
* In case of crisis, government cannot help this time round (Adds more Putin comments, Usmanov, Potanin, background)

President Vladimir Putin told company bosses on Thursday to bring their assets home and clean up their businesses to help Russia survive Western sanctions over Crimea and an economic downturn.

Facing a possible widening of Western sanctions that may target businessmen close to Putin, some of Russia’s oligarchs are increasingly nervous about their companies’ prospects.

Some of Russia’s largest companies are registered abroad where they may benefit from lower tax rates but also may enjoy some distance from the Kremlin and feel beyond its reach.

Without referring to Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region or to slowing economic growth, Putin said it would also be in the bosses’ interests to support the Russian economy.

“Russian companies should be registered on the territory of our nation, in our country and have a transparent ownership structure,” Putin told heads of Russia’s largest companies.

“I am certain that this is also in your interests,” he said, pressing home a patriotic message at a conference full of businessmen, including a front row of top oligarchs such as media mogul Alisher Usmanov and metals magnate Vladimir Potanin.

Putin waged war on the oligarchs who amassed political influence as well as vast riches under former president Boris Yeltsin, driving some out of Russia and forcing those who remained to stay out of politics.

Since then several businessmen with ties to Putin have come to dominate the corporate landscape and are now among Russia’s richest men.

His words may have made some oligarchs nervous. Usmanov’s Internet holding group Mail.Ru is registered in the British Virgin Islands, while X5 Retail Group, owned by Mikhail Fridman, who was not at the conference, is registered in Amsterdam.

Returning to the Kremlin in May 2012 for a third presidential term, Putin has urged politicians and businessmen to return from the “offshore shadows” and stop spiriting cash out of the country, a move some critics say was a move by a weakened president to ensure loyalty among Russia’s elite.

But with sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union on officials, his demands are carrying more weight, ensuring there will be little public sympathy for oligarchs who may be stung by widening punitive measures.

“Our task is not only to limit the possibilities of offshore schemes,” Putin said.

“We understand perfectly well that little can be achieved through prohibitions. The main direction of our work is in something else: it is necessary to increase the attractiveness of the Russian jurisdiction, improve the business climate, and strengthen legal guarantees and the protection of property.”

My insert here: Putin mocks US sanctions, vows not to strike back [RT (Russia Today), March 21, 2014]

Vladimir Putin has mocked US sanctions imposed on Russia, saying he will open an account at US-sanctioned Rossiya Bank. During a meeting with the country’s senior security officials he added that he won’t introduce a visa regime with Ukraine – READ MORE http://on.rt.com/x16ya5

FEAR OF SANCTIONS TO COME

The conference, days after Putin signed a treaty on bringing Ukraine’s Crimea region into Russia, was surprisingly upbeat despite the threat of deeper sanctions by the United States and European Union, Russia’s top trading partner.

Many Russians have been swept up in nationalist fervour since Moscow annexed Crimea. But bubbling under the surface, there were some doubts as to what lay ahead.

Putin’s moves in Ukraine have wiped $50 billion off Russia’s stock market this month, sent the rouble down 9 percent since the beginning of the year and further weakened Russia’s poor investment climate.

The economy grew 0.7 percent in January, a slowdown from 1.0 percent the previous month and analysts expect it to slow further as the impact of the crisis in Ukraine is felt.

“The integration of the global economy has reached such an extent that any split in economic ties cannot happen without consequences,” said Usmanov, a close ally of the Kremlin.

“Therefore we do not need sanctions.”

My insert here: Усманов: Санкции будут контрпродуктивными для обеих сторон (i.e. Usmanov: “Sanctions would be counterproductive for both sides”) [RT Russian YouTube channel, March 21, 2014]

Бизнесмен Алишер Усманов выразил свое скептическое отношение к перспективе введения санкций против России. По мнению миллиардера, такой шаг был бы контрпродуктивным для обеих сторон.

Potanin, who owns a stake in the world’s largest nickel and palladium producer Norilsk Nickel, said he had worked out a contingency plan, just in case. “Sanctions are a double-edged sword, it’s not clear who will be more hurt,” he said.

Most business owners know that this time the government will not prop them up, as it did during the 2008/2009 global financial crisis when Russia burnt through billions of dollars from its reserves to support its largest companies.

“We will watch how the situation develops, in what direction both our economy and the situation in the financial sector go,” Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told the same conference.

Siluanov said the government would, if necessary, support Russia’s most important companies and institutions, but it did not have the resources to offer help the majority of companies.

“We do not want to be helping company owners all the time,” he said.

Putin was clear that Russia’s economy would develop on its own terms, and would do his best to reward loyal companies.

He said Russia should find ways to help Russian companies win contracts with state companies while holding competitive auctions with foreign companies to please what he called the more liberal economists in this room.

And while he knew business would like more flexibility in reducing the workforce, he would always consider the “social aspects” of these “difficult problems” – a clear reference to Russia’s monocities which are dependent on certain industries.

“We will do this,” he said. “I hope you understand me correctly.”

Or as has been reported in a wider context of Олигархи поговорили с Путиным «как после ареста Ходорковского» [РБК daily, March 21, 2014]

Открытая часть вчерашнего съезда РСПП [i.e. Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs] прошла без единого упоминания Крыма и международных санкций в отношении России. Слушавшие министров предприниматели ждали приезда Владимира Путина. Разговор с ним длился два часа — члены РСПП получили гарантии сохранности инвестиций в новый регион и пообещали обеспечить этим летом загрузку крымских отелей. Но со встречи они вышли «загруженными».

My insert here: Владимир Путин принимает участие в съезде РСПП [RT Russian YouTube channel, March 21, 2014]

Прямая трансляция. Президент России Владимир Путин принимает участие в работе съезда Российского союза промышленников и предпринимателей.

От министров экономического блока правительства бизнесмены ждали программных заявлений о том, как власти собираются поддерживать экономику под угрозой санкций со стороны Запада. Но глава Минэкономразвития Алексей Улюкаев ограничился признанием, что в правительстве плохо понимают, что происходит в экономике: февраль оказался неожиданно позитивным. Спад инвестиций в основной капитал замедлился с 7% в январе до 3,5% в феврале. «У нас выросли промпроизводство, потребительский спрос», — отметил он. Министр финансов Антон Силуанов отметил, что инфляция, хоть и может ускориться во втором квартале из-за ослабления рубля, во втором полугодии замедлится и по итогам года уложится в диапазон 5—6%.

Приехавший на съезд Путин отказал бизнесменам на просьбу разрешить им в одностороннем порядке переводить работников на сокращенную рабочую неделю или на смежные специальности, но поддержал идею преференций отечественному бизнесу при размещении госзаказа. По нынешнему законодательству российская продукция может быть максимум на 15% дороже импортного аналога, чтобы поставщик победил в конкурсе. «Я бы еще больше увеличил, но есть любимые вами и нами либеральные экономисты… Они говорят: а где же конкуренция, не пострадает ли качество? И это тоже правильно»,— сказал Путин.

На закрытой встрече с президентом остались члены бюро [правления] РСПП, а также глава Банка России Эльвира Набиуллина, первый вице-премьер Игорь Шувалов, советник президента Андрей Белоусов и глава администрации президента Сергей Иванов. Президент РСПП Александр Шохин рассказал РБК, что президент начал беседу с шутки. Шохин представил ему состав бюро РСПП, на что Путин ответил: «Как-то у вас хромает демократия и представительство других слоев бизнеса».

«Это был абсолютно неформальный разговор по вопросам, представляющим взаимный интерес, без заранее подготовленных докладов», — говорит Шохин. По его словам, на встрече обсуждалась ситуация, связанная с санкциями против России, «вопросы, связанные с Крымом как новым субъектом страны и возможностями инвестирования в него». «Повестка закрытой встречи была абсолютно свободной, — подтверждает пресс-секретарь президента Дмитрий Песков. — Предприниматели рассказали о своих проблемах законодательного характера, интересовались событиями на Украине, Крымом. Путин дал подробные разъяснения».

«Разговор шел два часа. Нам очень подробно рассказали хронологию украинских событий, историю про приезд в Россию Виктора Януковича. Как развивалась ситуация по Крыму. Рефреном была мысль о том, как все плохо на Украине сегодня и как плохо будет дальше», — рассказал РБК источник, знакомый с ходом встречи. По его словам, по стилистике разговор скорее походил на монолог, чем диалог. «Изначально думали поговорить и про деофшоризацию. Но предпринимателям был дан ответ в стиле «решение принято, есть законопроект — он исполняется», — говорит он. Атмосфера беседы напомнила ему общение олигархов с президентом, состоявшееся после ареста Ходорковского.

Бизнес интересовался гарантиями своих инвестиций в Крым, говорит другой участник совещания. «Спрашивали, насколько скоро российские правоохранительные органы будут полностью контролировать обстановку на полуострове, чтобы не было риска захвата российских активов радикалами», — добавил он. На вопросы про Крым отвечал помощник главы государства Андрей Белоусов. Предпринимателей не призывали срочно вкладываться в экономику полуострова, но попросили по возможности отправить работников их компаний в крымские здравницы — власти опасаются, что из-за последних событий поток туристов в Крым будет незначительным.

My insert here: Предприниматель: Через несколько месяцев все забудут о санкциях [RT Russian YouTube channel, March 21, 2014]

Российский предприниматель, председатель совета директоров корпорации «Биоэнергия» Давид Якобашвили уверен, что в скором времени ситуация с санкциями США и ЕС в отношении российских чиновников и банков успокоится. Бизнесмен уверен, что западные компании, работающие на российском рынке, смогут убедить свои правительства в недальновидности подобных решений.

«Со встречи члены РСПП выходили «загруженными». Крым — не повод для оптимизма», — говорит источник, знакомый с ходом встречи. Вице-президент РСПП Давид Якобашвили, напротив, говорит, что ему понравились и тон президента, и его настроение. «Он хочет мирного решения всех вопросов. Для нас это очень важно. Хорошо бы, чтобы никто не начинал военные действия. У меня осталось самое положительное впечатление и уверенность, что с нашей стороны не предполагается никаких агрессивных шагов. Надеемся, что не будет провокаций и с другой стороны», — поделился он с РБК впечатлениями от закрытой встречи.

My insert here:

Бюро Правления [РСПП i.e. Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs]

Бюро Правления Российского союза осуществляет оперативное руководство деятельностью Российского союза. Бюро Правления избирается Правлением на срок полномочий Правления и информирует Правление о своей деятельности. Правление вправе переизбирать членов Бюро Правления.

СОСТАВ БЮРО ПРАВЛЕНИЯ РОССИЙСКОГО СОЮЗА ПРОМЫШЛЕННИКОВ И ПРЕДПРИНИМАТЕЛЕЙ

Шохин Александр Николаевич	Президент Российского союза промышленников и предпринимателей
Абрамов Александр Григорьевич	Председатель совета директоров «ЕвразГрупп С.А.»
Алекперов Вагит Юсуфович	Президент открытого акционерного общества «Лукойл», Председатель Комитета по энергетической политике и энергоэффективности
Березкин Григорий Викторович	Председатель совета директоров Группы компаний ЕСН, Председатель Комиссии по электроэнергетике, сопредседатель Комитета по корпоративным отношениям
Бокарев Андрей Рэмович	Председатель Совета директоров ОАО «Угольная компания Кузбассразрезуголь», председательРегионального объединения работодателей «Кузбасский союз работодателей», ПредседательКомиссии по машиностроению
Вексельберг Виктор Феликсович	Председатель Совета директоров Группы компаний «Ренова», Президент Фонда развития Центра разработки и коммерциализации новых технологий «Сколково», Председатель Комитета по международному сотрудничеству
Галицкий Сергей Николаевич	Генеральный директор Розничной сети «Магнит», Председатель Комиссии по торговле и потребительскому рынку
Генералов Сергей Владимирович	Президент Группы компаний «Промышленные инвесторы», Председатель Комитета по развитию конкуренции
Дерипаска Олег Владимирович	Председатель Наблюдательного Совета общества с ограниченной ответственностью «Компания «Базовый Элемент», Председатель Комитета по экологии и природопользованию
Дмитриев Владимир Александрович	Председатель Государственной корпорации «Банк развития и внешнеэкономической деятельности (Внешэкономбанк)», Председатель Комитета по государственно-частному партнерству и инвестиционной политике и инвестиционной политике
Евтушенков Владимир Петрович	Председатель совета директоров открытого акционерного общества «Акционерная финансовая корпорация «Система», Председатель Комитета по промышленной политике
Зюзин Игорь Владимирович	Председатель Совета директоров ОАО «Мечел», Председатель Комитета по рынку труда и социальному партнерству
Казинец Леонид Александрович	Председатель Совета директоров Корпорации «Баркли»
Карачинский Анатолий Михайлович	Президент Группы компаний «Информационные бизнес системы» (IBS), Председатель Комитета по профессиональному обучению и профессиональным квалификациям
Костин Андрей Леонидович	Президент – председатель правления открытого акционерного общества Банк ВТБ
Лисин Владимир Сергеевич	Председатель совета директоров открытого акционерного общества «Новолипецкий металлургический комбинат», председатель Регионального объединения работодателей «Союз промышленников и предпринимателей Липецкой области», Председатель Комитета по налоговой политике
Мельниченко Андрей Игоревич	Председатель Совета директоров ОАО «МХК «ЕвроХим»
Мордашов Алексей Александрович	Генеральный директор открытого акционерного общества «Северсталь», Председатель Комитета по интеграции, торгово-таможенной политике и ВТО
Потанин Владимир Олегович	Генеральный директор ОАО «ГМК «Норильский никель», Председатель Комитета по корпоративным отношениям
Пумпянский Дмитрий Александрович	Председатель совета директоров открытого акционерного общества «Трубная металлургическая компания», Президент Регионального объединения работодателей «Свердловский областной союз промышленников и предпринимателей», Председатель Комитета по техническому регулированию, стандартизации и оценке соответствия
Рашников Виктор Филиппович	Председатель совета директоров ОАО «Магнитогорский металлургический комбинат», председательЧелябинского регионального объединения работодателей «Союз промышленников и предпринимателей»
Смушкин Захар Давидович	Председатель Совета директоров открытого акционерного общества «Группа «Илим», ПредседательКомиссии по лесному хозяйству и лесопромышленному комплексу
Усманов Алишер Бурханович	Генеральный директор общества с ограниченной ответственностью «Газпром инвестхолдинг», Председатель Комитета по совершенствованию контрольно-надзорной деятельности и устранению административных барьеров, Сопредседатель Российско-Канадского Делового Совета
Фридман Михаил Маратович	Член Совета директоров ОАО «Альфа Банк», Председатель Комитета по собственности
Чубайс Анатолий Борисович	Председатель Правления ОАО «РОСНАНО», Председатель Комитета по инновационной политике и инновационному предпринимательству
Якобашвили Давид Михайлович	Председатель совета директоров Корпорации «Биоэнергия», Председатель Объединенной комиссии по корпоративной этике при РСПП, Председатель Комитета по корпоративной социальной ответственности и демографической политике
Якунин Владимир Иванович	Президент ОАО «РЖД», Председатель Комиссии по транспорту и транспортной инфраструктуре

(AND THE FACTS DO NOT END HERE BUT ARE GOING TO EVEN HIGHER ECHELONS OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM. GOLDMANN SACHS AND LARRY SUMMERS ARE THE MOST NOTABLE EXAMPLES. BUT DO NOT FORGET J.P. MORGAN EITHER WHICH IS HAVING A 5% OWNERSHIP OF TENCENT AS WELL. So read The Upcoming Mobile Internet Superpower post completely.)

Mobile Cloud Computing: proven questions and statements about the current and future state-of-the-market

March 21, 2014 8:59 pm / Leave a comment

Is Android Becoming the New Windows?
Tablets to Outsell PCs Worldwide by 2015
Android Blows Past iOS in Global Tablet Market
Android To Retain Big Lead In Maturing Smartphone Market
The Price Gap Between iOS and Android Is Widening
In Just 2 Years, Google And Facebook Have Come To Control 75% Of All Mobile Advertising

Note: In addition keep in mind at least the fact that Bloomberg (Businessweek) legitimizes Allwinner and Rockchip as challengers to Intel and Qualcomm via the tablet space, as well as Spreadtrum in the smartphone space [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, March 18, 2014]. More facts of such kind:
– Alibaba gets Tango for its push into the U.S. and the whole Western world [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, March 20, 2014]
– Chinese smartphone brands to conquer the global market? [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, March 18, 2014]
– MediaTek is repositioning itself with the new MT6732 and MT6752 SoCs for the “super-mid market” just being born, plus new wearable technologies for wPANs and IoT are added for the new premium MT6595 SoC [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, March 4, 2014]
– To watch Alisher Usmanov (Алишер Усманов) [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, March 22, 2014]
– Device businesses should have a China-based independent headquarter at least for Asia/Pacific if they want to succeed [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Jan 28, 2014]
– 2014 will be the last year of making sufficient changes for Microsoft’s smartphone and tablet strategies, and those changes should be radical if the company wants to succeed with its devices and services strategy [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Jan 17, 2014]
– The tablet market in Q1-Q3’13: It was mainly shaped by white-box vendors while Samsung was quite successfully attacking both Apple and the white-box vendors with triple digit growth both worldwide and in Mainland China [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Nov 14, 2013]
– Leading PC vendors of the past: Go enterprise or die! [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Nov 7, 2013]
– The question mark over Wintel’s future will hang in the air for two more years [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Sept 15, 2013]

Is Android Becoming the New Windows?
Tablets to Outsell PCs Worldwide by 2015
Android Blows Past iOS in Global Tablet Market
Android To Retain Big Lead In Maturing Smartphone Market
The Price Gap Between iOS and Android Is Widening
In Just 2 Years, Google And Facebook Have Come To Control 75% Of All Mobile Advertising

All supported by facts and well researched forecasts by IDC, Gartner and eMarketer.

Source: Is Android Becoming the New Windows? [Statista, Jan 9, 2014]

Source: Tablets to Outsell PCs Worldwide by 2015 [Statista, Mach 1, 2014]

Source: Android Blows Past iOS in Global Tablet Market [Statista, Mach 3, 2014]

Source: Android To Retain Big Lead In Maturing Smartphone Market [Statista, Mach 4, 2014]

Source: The Price Gap Between iOS and Android Is Widening [Statista, Feb 14, 2014]

Source: In Just 2 Years, Google And Facebook Have Come To Control 75% Of All Mobile Advertising [Business Insider India, March 21, 2014]

In the last two years, Facebook and Google have gone from a position of merely being two big, fast-growing players in mobile advertising to dominating it completely. Combined, they have cornered 75.2% of the entire mobile market in 2013, according to new data by eMarketer.

In 2014, Google alone is expected to be roughly as big as all other companies combined, as this chart of mobile ad revenues from Statista shows.

“new data by eMarketer”:
Driven by Facebook and Google, Mobile Ad Market Soars 105% in 2013 [eMarketer, March 19, 2014]

Mobile ad spending on pace to reach $31.45 billion this year

Last year, global mobile ad spending increased 105.0% to total $17.96 billion, according to new figures from eMarketer. In 2014, mobile is on pace to rise another 75.1% to $31.45 billion, accounting for nearly one-quarter of total digital ad spending worldwide.

Facebook and Google accounted for a majority of mobile ad market growth worldwide last year. Combined, the two companies saw net mobile ad revenues increase by $6.92 billion, claiming 75.2% of the additional $9.2 billion that went toward mobile in 2013. The two companies are consolidating their places at the top of the market, accounting for more than two-thirds of mobile ad spending last year—a figure that will increase slightly this year, according to eMarketer.

Facebook in particular is gaining significant market share. In 2012, the social network accounted for just 5.4% of the global advertising market. In 2013, that share increased to 17.5%, and eMarketer predicts it will rise again this year to 21.7%. Google still owns a plurality of the mobile advertising market worldwide, taking a portion of nearly 50% in 2013, but the rapid growth of Facebook will cause the search giant’s share to drop to 46.8% in 2014, eMarketer estimates.

The rapid pace at which mobile has taken over the company’s ad revenue share indicates Facebook’s mobile future. In 2012, only 11% of Facebook’s net ad revenues worldwide came from mobile, and last year, that figure jumped to 45.1%. In 2014, eMarketer estimates that mobile will account for 63.4% of Facebook’s net digital ad revenues. Mobile accounted for 23.1% of Google’s net ad revenues worldwide in 2013, and eMarketer estimates this share will increase to 33.8% this year.

Micromax is in a strategic alliance with operator Aircel and SoC vendor MediaTek for delivery of bundled complete solution offers almost equivalent to cost of the device and providing innovative user experience

March 21, 2014 11:06 am / Leave a comment

Micromax, the No. 1 among local smartphone brands in India, has announced its partnership with MediaTek and Aircel, India’s fifth largest operator, aimed to come up with best mobile experience for the Indian users. The offers initially will be available across 4 Micromax devices – MMX 377G data card, Funbook Mini 410i Android tablet, A090 and X070 smartphones. The smartphones will be available across the retail outlets across India from April, 2014.

This strategic alliance is also aimed at the development of a local version of MediaTek’s new “super-mid market” approach as descibed in my earlier MediaTek is repositioning itself with the new MT6732 and MT6752 SoCs for the “super-mid market” just being born, plus new wearable technologies for wPANs and IoT are added for the new premium MT6595 SoC [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, March 4, 2014] post. Here is the illustration of what is the envisaged future state-of-the-market:

versus the current one:

With more than $1 billion of revenue for its latest fiscal year ending March 31 and almost 8 million smartphones delivered in 2013 (18% of the market) Micromax is the company to watch how MediaTek’s new approach will work on this fast growing smartphone market. Look at the following chart to grasp the immense growth potential:

As per IDC producing the above chart:

The overall phone market stood at close to 257 million units in CY 2013 – an 18% increase from 218 million units in CY2012.

CY2013 also witnessed a remarkable migration of the user base from feature phones to smartphones primarily due to the narrowing price gaps between these product categories.

As per another Smartphone Prices Race to the Bottom as Emerging Markets Outside of China Come into the Spotlight for Future Growth, According to IDC [press release, Feb 24, 2014]:

India will be key to future smartphone growth as it represents more than a quarter of the global feature phone market. “Growth in the India market doesn’t rely on high-end devices like the iPhone, but in low-cost Android phones. Nearly half of the smartphones shipped in India in 2013 cost less than US$120,” said Kiranjeet Kaur, Senior Market Analyst for mobile phones at IDC Asia/Pacific.

Details:

Micromax somewhat underperformed on its home market last year according to this chart:

A detailed analysis of that situation could be found in 2013 Review: Micromax loses market share in Q2 and Q3 [daily.bhaskar.com, March 20, 2014] from which the most important details are:

In 2012 Micromax launched the Canvas 2 A110. This was a hot-seller when the young generation around colleges, in buses and in metros were actually talking about the handset. The Canvas HD A116 followed in early 2013 with 9000 pieces in the initial phase. Less than 24 hours and this Rs. 13990 [$229] phone was gone! Though Micromax was criticized for getting less number of pieces into the market and keeping customers wait, we have to admit this was a best-seller. People did wait for 2 months to get their piece of Canvas HD.

After this Micromax went ahead with costly flagships. It launched Canvas 4 and Canvas Turbo last year apart from other budget launches (that silently made way to stores) throughout the year. It took to premium smartphones with prices like Rs. 17999 [$296] and Rs. 19999 $327. Though these handsets got good reviews but they could not create the craze like the earlier Canvas 2 and Canvas HD. We definitely missed the ‘dus hazaar mein aur kya chahiye yaar?’ last year. (What more do you want in a Rs. 10000 [$167] phone about the Canvas 2?) We have seen people talking about Micromax Canvas 2 or HD outside phone stores being out of stock and in demand. Too bad on our part, but that’s the recall value associated with these two phones.

Competitors has their best budget phones launching during the year 2013. In the first part of the year 2013 Samsung launched Galaxy Grand series of large display screen phones, Sony and HTC went down for launch of budget phones and so did Nokia with its new Lumia phones. Competition was no doubt increased by the end of 2013.

… The market shares dropped from 22% in Q2 2013 to 17.1% in Q3, 2013. This was the time when Samsung gained from 26% in Q2 2013 to 32.9% in Q3 2013. The launch of Galaxy Grand Quattro and Galaxy Mega happened in May at a price of Rs. 16990. The Canvas HD that was launched in mid of February in 2013 was getting delivered till June in the year after its on-and-off appearance in stores.

Note that Canvas HD launched in Q1 2013 started shipping and available in stores by the Q2 2013. The low cost Canvas Viva 5-incher also saw a launch in Q2 2013 and was popular. There were more than two dozen of budget launches from the company in 2013. See 12 top Micromax launches in 2013. …

This analysis has even found that Micromax’s Q1’14 move went wrong:

Micromax has just launched its new phone in the market, the Canvas Knight with cutting edge specs and a beautiful body that can compete with the most premium handsets in the market. The new Canvas knight A350 has been placed at a higher price point of Rs. 20K (Precisely Rs. 19999 [$327]).

According to the ex-regular and (most of the time) an authentic leakster Micromax got only 830 pieces for sale initially. The handset was expected to be a best-seller for Micromax and ideally should go out of the stock very soon (we expected it to be out of stock in less than 12 hours). But this did not happen with the Canvas Knight. Even after 24 hours of Day 1 of launch the phone was still in stock. On Day 3 morning when we checked the status it finally showed a waiting period of at least 7-10 days. That is some 40-48 hours to sell 830 number of phones.

so this analysis concludes:

The trend has been towards…

According to the research firm IDC, markets like China and India are quickly moving toward a point where sub-$150 smartphones are the majority of shipments, bringing a solid computing experience to the hands of many.

Competitors tried to fit themselves in less than Rs. 15000 [$245.5] price bracket. Nokia, Sony. HTC, now Blackberry are planning their smart moves in this direction. Check out our other speculations for the year – Top 10 trends for Indian smartphone market for year 2014

…

For 2014 the competition will be more tough with Nokia X series, low-cost Moto phones and other budget smartphones. Micromax probably needs to launch low-cost flagship (as one of its flagship phones in a year) that can make it a talk of streets again! We are waiting for Q1 2014 results to know if the Canvas Knight could become the next Canvas HD for the company?

Instead of such expectation Micromax decided to innovate via another route in Q2’13 by providing bundled Aircel offers, i.e. operator based offerings, to which it invited MediaTek innovation in the user experience space, all aimed at a range of complete solution offers for the consumers which will be almost equivalent to cost of the device when sold unbundled:

Micromax to hit $1 billion revenue this fiscal
[PTI [Press Trust of India] via The Economic Times … BGR India, March 20, 2014]

Helped by growing sales of its affordable and entry-level smartphones, homegrown handset maker Micromax expects to hit $1 billion (over Rs 6,100 crore) in revenues this fiscal, ending March 31.

The New Delhi-headquartered company’s revenues were Rs 3,168 crore [$518 million] for the financial year 2012-13.

Micromax, which is the second largest smartphone player in India, held about 16 percent market share in Q4 2013. Some of the top selling models were the entry level smartphones like A35 Bolt and A67, IDC data showed.

The Canvas range of devices has also done well in terms of volume contribution owing to the marketing campaigns launched around them.

“We have seen huge growth in business, especially in the smartphone category (mid and entry-level). We expect to close this fiscal will a billion in revenues,” Micromax co-founder Vikas Jain told PTI.

The firm will continue to launch innovative and affordable products for the market across platforms, he added.

“We will introduce a product based on Android Kitkat with in the next 60 days,” Jain said.

Asked if the company would introduce a device with Windows Phone OS, he said the company is in discussions with Microsoft on bringing out “products relevant to the Indian market”.

Micromax today announced a strategic partnership with chipset maker MediaTek and telecom services provider Aircel.

“This is aimed at offering the best out-of-the-box experiences for the Indian users and the partnership will see a unique amalgamation of the expertise of the three companies,” Jain said.

While, Aircel will offer one stop solutions to address the increasing data demands, MediaTek along-with Micromax’s expertise in product design and performance will redefine the user experience creating a win-win ecosystem for the Indian users, he added.

Under this alliance, Aircel will team up with Micromax to introduce a range of offers for the consumers which will be almost equivalent to cost of the device.

Powered by MediaTek chipsets, the devices promise to deliver a seamless and a powerful user experience, while the bundled Aircel offers will drive data growth in the country.

The offers initially will be available across 4 Micromax devices – MMX 377G, Funbook Mini 410i, A090 and X070 – to be available next month.

The co-developed smart devices by the three pioneers will deliver seamless experience for consumers, driving enhanced performance and data experience for customers across the country.

Micromax, MediaTek & Aircel Partner For The Best Mobile Experience For The Indian Consumers On The Go! [joint press release via … Gizbot … EFYTimes …, March 20, 2014]

In pursuit to strengthen the mobile eco-system in India, Micromax, India’s 2nd largest smartphone manufacturer, today announced a strategic partnership with MediaTek, one of the leading chipset manufacturers and Aircel. Aimed at offering the best out of the box experiences for the Indian users, the partnership will see a unique amalgamation of the expertise of the three companies. While Aircel will offer one stop solutions to address the increasing data demands, MediaTek along-with Micromax’s expertise in product design and performance will redefine the user experience creating a win-win ecosystem for the Indian users.

Under this alliance, Aircel will team up with Micromax to introduce a range of offers for the consumers which will be almost equivalent to cost of the device. Powered by MediaTek chipsets, the devices promise to deliver a seamless and a powerful user experience, while the bundled Aircel offers will drive data growth in the country. The offers initially will be available across 4 Micromax devices – MMX 377G, Funbook Mini 410i, A090 and X070. The co-developed smart devices by the three pioneers will deliver seamless experience for the consumers, driving enhanced performance and data experience for customers across the country.

The products will be available across the retail outlets across the country from April, 2014. Aircel has launched bundled offers with Micromax devices which will give customers exciting benefits worth more than Rs. 10,000 [$164]:

Device

Benefits

Micromax Dongle – MMX 377G

(Benefits for 6 months)

Aircel customers can get exciting data benefits for 6 months at Rs. 141 [$2.31]

For the first 3 months, customers will get 2GB/month data

For the next 3 months – customers will get double data value for every recharge

Smartphones and Tablets (Benefits for 3 months)

1GB data per month

1.2P/2 sec Local Calling

1.2P/ sec STD Calling

WAP content worth Rs. 10,000 [$164]

Popkorn TV App Free

Data Enabled Feature Phones (Benefits for 3 months)

500MB data per month

1.2P/2 sec Local Calling

Local. 1.2P/sec STD Calling

WAP content worth Rs. 10,000 [$164]

Commenting on the partnership, Vikas Jain, Co-founder, Micromax, said, “At Micromax, we have constantly strived to democratize technologies for the masses by bringing alive unique and customized products and offerings for our consumers. Entering a new phase, our focus is now to provide seamless solutions to the consumers using their smart devices, thereby concentrating a large chunk of our efforts on coming up with products and services which act as solutions to the needs of the fast-evolving consumers. This partnership exemplifies the same endeavor, and we are very delighted to pioneer with MediaTek and Aircel, two pioneers in their own respective domains. While MediaTek supports us with the hardware, Aircel offers customized offerings for consumers to get a complete, affordable and seamless data experience across the country“

My insert here Exclusive: Micromax will Launch its Hexa Core smartphone in April 2014 in India [GadgetsToUse.Com, March 20, 2014]

In an Interview with GadgetsToUse.Com, Micromax Co-founder Vikas Jain confirmed that Micromax has completed internal testing of its up-coming Hexa Core smartphone based on MT6591 chipset and this new phone will be launched by the end of April 2014. Micromax also confirmed that its LapTab will indeed launch and that to in the same time frame.
…
Interview with Micromax, Co Founder Vikas Jain About Laptop India Launch, Hexa Core Phone [GadgetsToUse YouTube channel, March 20, 2014]

[ As per Micromax Canvas LapTab confirmed to arrive in April 2014 in India [GadgetsToUse.Com, March 20, 2014] LapTab is an 1.46GHz Intel Celeron processor based device, with a 10.1 inch IPS LCD display, 2 GB RAM and 32 GB storage. Despite of the fact that neither Microsoft nor Google are keen on supporting dual boot devices, the LapTab enjoy the productivity of Windows 8.1 Platform and richness of Android 4.2 jelly bean on a single device, but the transition won’t be seamless. You will have to reboot the device to switch between two operating systems. It is expected to be priced between Rs. 25,000 [$409] and Rs. 30,000 [$490] . ]

Sharing his thoughts on the partnership, Anupam Vasudev, Chief Marketing Officer, Aircel, said, “Aircel has positioned itself well as a data leader by constantly innovating products and services aimed at redefining user experience, which essentially is the youth. While there are many factors driving internet adoption in India; one key factor is the evolution of devices such as smart phones and tablets. Today’s youth are well informed on the data consumption patterns and therefore smart devices becomes an integrated tool to propel consumption of videos, social TV, HD gaming, content on demand etc. Keeping in line with consumer’s needs and demands, Aircel is bullish on device tie ups. We are delighted to continue our successful partnership with Micromax to offer exciting bundled benefits of their newly launched smart devices.” He further added, “According to a study, the number of telecom subscribers in India accessing the internet through mobile devices is increasing and will reach 350 million by 2015. This clearly indicates that mobile devices and data connectivity is undoubtedly the future of mobile telephony.”

Speaking at the occasion, Dr. Finbarr Moynihan, General Manager – Business Development at MediaTek, said, “For the first time, this unique tri-partnership between MediaTek, Micromax and Aircel provides the end-consumers both unparalleled benefits as well as unparalleled choice. Buyers do not only get benefits equivalent to the value of device they buy, but also a seamless and bundled value-add for data, voice and messaging across the entire product segmentation that includes dual-core smart phones, feature phones, 3G Tablets and 3G data card dongles. Hailing the beginning of the post-PC era, our MT6572, MT6260, MT8377 and MT6280 chipsets offer harmonized platforms to empower fast, powerful, smart and inclusive devices that cater to the emerging ‘super-mid’ market.”

Interview with Mediatek, General Manager Dr Finbarr About 4G Chipset, India Prices, Hexa MT6591, … [GadgetsToUse YouTube channel, March 20, 2014]

Visit http://www.gadgetstouse.com – to read more detailed reviews, hands on and overview of smartphones

Further details about MediaTek’s new “super-mid market” approach you can find in my earlier MediaTek is repositioning itself with the new MT6732 and MT6752 SoCs for the “super-mid market” just being born, plus new wearable technologies for wPANs and IoT are added for the new premium MT6595 SoC [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, March 4, 2014] post.

Alibaba gets Tango for its push into the U.S. and the whole Western world

March 20, 2014 12:17 pm / Leave a comment

It is a further proof point that in 2014: Jack Ma (Alibaba) going against Jeff Bezos (Amazon) et al. [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Jan 8, 2014]. It is also a critical investment as Alibaba needs to have a market leading messaging and social networking app of its own to compete with the Facebook+WhatsApp combo. The aim of Tango after the huge $215M investment from Alibaba (which is giving them 21.5% majority stake) is no less than:

… to build the WeChat of the Western world. We have all the WeChat features but each one of them is Westernized.

as was declared by Uri Raz, co-founder and CEO of Tango, in an interview to the Wall Sreet Journal. Quite an undertaking considering WhatsApp’s MAU (Monthly Active Users) of 450M and WeChat’s MAU of 355M versus that of the 70M+ MAU for Tango. Considering the details behind this announcement it is—nevertheless—quite feasible:

Tango Announcement [TangoME YouTube channel, March 19, 2014]

Tango announces a $280M round of funding led by Alibaba. Tango is a free mobile messaging service with 200M+ members. Through communication, social features and a compelling content platform, Tango members discover engaging ways to connect, get social and have fun. Download for FREE at http://www.tango.me on iOS, Android, Blackberry, Kindle Fire, and PC.

From TANGO AT-A-GLANCE [company fact sheet, March 19, 2014]

Funding

 Total funding to date: $367M

Series A – $5M (June 2010). Investors:
 MXB Holdings
 WR Hambrecht
 Long Sea Limited

Series B – $42M (June 2011). Investors: 4
 DFJ
 SPA Special Investment Fund

Series C – $40M (March 2012). Investors:
 AI SMS
 Qualcomm
 DFJ
 Long Sea Limited

Series D – $280M (March 2014). Investors:
 Alibaba [$215M from Alibaba according to Wall Street Journal, which is giving a 21.5% majority stake as the company was valued at the time of Series D founding at $1B]
 DFJ
 Qualcomm Ventures
 Access Industries
 Translink Capital
 Toms Capital
 Jerry Yang
 Bill Tai
 Alex Zubillaga

Tango’s Latest News: A Vision of The Future and a $280M Funding Round [by Uri and Eric in Tango Me Blog, March 19, 2014], note that my inserts below are from TANGO AT-A-GLANCE [company fact sheet, March 19, 2014] and the TangoME YouTube channel

We launched Tango in September 2009 out of the personal need to stay connected to our own families. It helped tremendously that both of us came from deep video technology backgrounds and had strong entrepreneurial spirits. But it was the emotional connection with family living in other parts of the world that inspired our mission here at Tango. Back then we felt that free online communication through texts, voice and video calls would remove barriers and change the world. The world agreed: we signed up our first million members in the first 10 days after launch.

Since then, we have been on quite a journey. The sheer power of free communication has changed the way we connect with others. Today, the amount of texting from over-the-top messaging apps surpasses carrier SMS. We’re proud that Tango has become a part of this industry disruption and even more excited that Tango has become a preferred place for our members to communicate and share with friends and family.

According to China’s Alibaba Invests $215 Million in Startup Tango [The Wall Street Journal, March 20, 2014]

Last summer, Alibaba began blocking merchants on Taobao and Tmall from using WeChat to send promotional messages to shoppers. Tencent, meanwhile, added mobile payments last year and has been offering more services and shopping options on WeChat.

There are no immediate plans to connect the Tango app with the company’s various e-commerce services, though that could come over time, said a person familiar with the plans. Tango will operate separately from Laiwang.

Tango also expands Alibaba’s portfolio of fast-growing U.S. startups as the Chinese company tries to gain a foothold here. It led investments last year in app search-engine Quixey Inc. and two-day shipping provider ShopRunner Inc.
…
Alibaba’s cash will help Tango, based in Mountain View, Calif., to double its workforce to more than 300 this year and open up its service to more outside developers, Chief Executive Uri Raz said.
…
Mr. Raz said he began adding other services, such as games and photo sharing, after seeing the success of Asian texting apps such as WeChat, Kakao and Line. “We were looking at what happened in Japan and China,” Mr. Raz said. “It was the first time since 1999 that I saw the speed of innovation happening faster over there than here.”

From TANGO AT-A-GLANCE [company fact sheet, March 19, 2014]

What is Tango
Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif.
Tango is consistently in the top 25 on Google Play and top 100 in the iTunes App Store.

Tango is available in 14 languages and has subscribers in more than 224 countries with nearly one third of its members in the U.S.

Basic Stats
Year founded: 2009
Number of users: 200M+ (if Tango were a country it would be the 5th largest in the world)
Daily user base growth: 325K (average)
Monthly active users [MAU]: 70M+
[note that WhatsApp bought by Facebook has MAU of 450M and Alibaba’s major competitor Tencent’s WeChat MAU of 355M]

Global breakdown based on DAU
 27% U.S. (North America 31%)
 20% Asia
 12% Europe
 29% Middle East
 8% Other

Platform user base demographics:
 Gender neutral
 Over half between the ages 25-44
Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7, PC
Coverage: 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi
Number of iPhone/iPad users: 40% (whole user base)
Number of Android users: 60% (whole user base)
App store ranking:
 4.3 stars on Google Play
 4.5 stars on iTunes
Number of patents: 30 (4 approved – 26 pending)
Awards:
 Appy Awards: Best Communication App 2013
 About.com: Reader’s Choice 2013
 Webby nomination 2013
 Verizon’s Must Have Apps list 2013
Number of employees: 160
Total funding to date: $367M
Partners: 40+ game partners, 10+ Direct advertising partners, and Spotify on Music Messaging

While we’ve made progress on our mission to enable people to communicate, share and feel more connected, we are just beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible. The opportunity for Tango goes well beyond just providing a messaging app for free communications. We see an even bigger opportunity – one where people can have access to free communication, social networking features and enjoyable content – all within a single platform.

Over the past eight months, Tango has evolved.

We’ve introduced a content platform that is now home to more than 30 games.

My inserts here:
– Connect & Play with Tango [TangoME YouTube channel, June 18, 2013]

Tango is partnering with Gameloft, Bubble Gum Interactive, and other world-class developers to bring great games to their messaging app.

– Games developed for Tango: 35+ games live
– Game developers for Tango: 50+ developers signed

We’ve introduced new social networking features that allow members to share updates or photos and to find new friends.

My insert here:
– Find Friends Nearby with Tango [TangoME YouTube channel, July 18, 2013]

And we’ve introduced social music sharing through integration with Spotify, which means members can now send each other songs.

My inserts here:
– Tango powered by Spotify video [TangoME YouTube channel, Nov 11, 2013]

Search, listen and share songs with your friends.

– Tango music video featuring recording artist Riz – the first of its kind to be recorded using Google Glass [RizVEVO YouTube channel, Nov 11, 2013]

This is the FIRST ever music video shot entirely using Google Glass.

– Total Music Played: hundreds of millions

According to China’s Alibaba Invests $215 Million in Startup Tango [The Wall Street Journal, March 20, 2014]

Tango joined with outside developers, such as game maker Gameloft Inc. and music-streaming service Spotify AB, to offer users a range of virtual activities inside the app. For example, Tango users can share 30-second clips of their favorite songs from Spotify or compete with their friends for the high score in the Gameloft title “Candy Block Breaker.” The company shares the revenue from purchases made inside the apps with the developers.

By the end of this year, Tango plans to open its software code to allow any outside developer to build games and other services for its users, Mr. Raz said.

The startup is also bolstering its revenue through mobile advertising. Last December, it began working with Twitter Inc.’s MoPub unit to sell ads within users’ news feeds and message inboxes, promoting apps made by Zynga Inc. and others.

Quite honestly, the results have blown us away. We’re excited by the 2x increase in daily engagement since last July. And we love it that our members are huge fans of music and love to send hundreds of millions of songs to their friends through Tango. These changes are reflected in huge growth in registered users: over the last year we’ve doubled to more than 200 million.

The way we see it, this is just the beginning for Tango. We believe that messaging apps will fundamentally change the way content and services are distributed. We are very excited to continue to build upon our foundation of free communications, while extending into new growth areas in social networking and content. We know that we can’t do it on our own, and for that reason, we couldn’t be more excited to announce our newest investor, Alibaba Group.

According to China’s Alibaba Invests $215 Million in Startup Tango [The Wall Street Journal, March 20, 2014]

While the company has an office in Beijing and has seen rising usage in Thailand and Hong Kong, Asia isn’t currently a main area of focus for the company, Mr. Raz said.

Mr. Setton says the alliance with Alibaba will give Tango market insights that will help it beat rivals to new trends.

Rather than take on WeChat in China, Mr. Raz said he’s more focused on perfecting the model for U.S. users.

“We want to build the WeChat of the Western world,” Mr. Raz said. “We have all the WeChat features but each one of them is Westernized.”

Together with some of our prior investors, Alibaba has lead a $280 million Series D funding round. [$215M from Alibaba according to Wall Street Journal, which is giving a 21.5% majority stake as the company was valued at the time of Series D founding at $1B.] As part of this financing, Michael Zeisser from Alibaba will join our Board of Directors. We welcome Alibaba’s investment in Tango. We know that we will be able to benefit from Alibaba’s expertise.

More on Tango as it is:

Tango – Connect, Get Social, Have Fun! [TangoME YouTube channel, March 12, 2014]

Tango is a free mobile messaging service with 200 million members. Through communication, social features and a compelling content platform, Tango members discover engaging ways to connect, get social and have fun. Tango is available on iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, Blackberry, Kindle Fire and PC and works across platforms and networks. Download the app at http://www.tango.me.

Let’s Play – Tango [TangoME YouTube channel, Feb 21, 2014]

The award-winning messaging app now powers games around the world. Connect & Play with hundreds of millions of people around the world! Play with Tango!

Tango Free Voice, Video, and Text [TangoME YouTube channel, Sept 10, 2012]

Now you can send pictures with all of your Tango friends, or try playing out new game during a video call!

and its first year anniversary was proudly celebrated with the following achievements: Tango Turns One! [TangoME YouTube channel, Sept 30, 2011]

Check out the many milestones Tango achieved it’s first year out to market!

Tango’s market position as per Since Facebook Owns WhatsApp, Here Are 5 Alternative Messaging Services [ReadWrite, Feb 25, 2014]

You shouldn’t feel forced to relinquish your messaging data to Facebook.

Facebook stunned the tech world last week when it scooped up the messaging application WhatsApp for $19 billion.

The deal was largely heralded as a win for both sides: Facebook gained a much-needed service it hasn’t yet delivered on, and the small startup cashed in big time. But the downside of the acquisition fell heavily on the shoulders of users—those 450 million people [MAU – monthly active users] whose private data is now in the hands of Facebook.

If you’re a WhatsApp user who wants to break up with Facebook, or someone looking for a great new messaging application, we’ve put together a list of mobile messaging apps you should try.

Telegram

Almost five million people signed up for Telegram after Facebook bought WhatsApp. As a messaging service, it is sleek and easy to use.

Telegram, which is built by a Berlin-based nonprofit, is cloud-based and heavily encrypted so users can use several devices to access their messages and documents including both mobile and desktop. The company also claims Telegram is a free service that will remain so in the future, meaning no advertisements or subscription fees will ever be levied on customers.

Telegram is available on iOS and Android. Developers can access and implement the app’s API through Telegram’s open source code.

Wickr

Snapchat’s sophisticated competitor Wickr brings government-strength security and encryption to your messages. Wickr lets you send self-destructing messages, documents, photos, videos and voice calls that disappear after a select amount of time.

Wickr is entirely anonymous, as the application doesn’t ask for any of your personal information. Wickr is also exceeds top secret and HIPAA compliance, so people in medical, law enforcement, and journalism fields can feel confident using Wickr for secure messaging knowing it can’t be traced or reproduced.

Wickr is available on iOS and Android.

Line

Line is one of the most popular messaging services on the market for free voice and video calling.

The app is massively popular internationally, especially in Asia, and it finally entered the U.S. market earlier this year. Line is more than just a simple messaging application—it has branched out to offer in-app games and a variety of standalone apps like Line Camera and Line Tools. While the app is free, additional services like stickers and games provide revenue for the company. In the first quarter of 2013, Line made $17 million off sticker sales alone.

Line is available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry.

Kik

Kik is the world’s first messaging application with a built-in browser. The application boasts over 100 million users, a majority coming from North America and Western Europe.

Kik has over 30 HTML5 experiences built into the application for sharing pictures, videos and gaming, according to the company, and recently launched the in-app browser. Kik has also created open source tools to help developers build and optimize their websites for mobile.

Kik is available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry.

Tango

Tango, like Line, offers an all-inclusive social app with games, music, video, and voice and text messaging. The San Francisco-based company says the app has ~~150~~ million [200 million as of March 19, 2014] users.

Because of the additional features that extend beyond voice calling and messaging, users of more traditional messaging services like WhatsApp may find the interface a bit confusing, but users can personalize their profiles to find and make friends or discover people you may know nearby.

Tango is available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone [was on WP7 back in 2011, but it is not on WP8].

Breaking Up Is Hard

It’s inconvenient to switch to an entirely new messaging service, especially if all your friends are dedicated to one app. But you shouldn’t feel forced to turn over your data to Facebook either. All these applications provide messaging services that rival WhatsApp, without the commitment to Facebook services, meaning you’re not turning over your mobile phone book and payment information to the social network in exchange for an efficient messaging service.

OneNote is available now on every platform (+free!!) and supported by cloud services API for application and device builders

March 18, 2014 12:07 pm / 1 Comment on OneNote is available now on every platform (+free!!) and supported by cloud services API for application and device builders

This is preparing the ground for launching new overall business positioning as well as new cross-platform Microsoft strategy(IMHO) with Microsoft’s CEO may unveil Office for iPad on March 27: source [Reuters, March 17, 2014]

Investors for years have urged Microsoft to adapt Office for mobile devices from Apple and Google Inc, rather than shackling it to Windows as PC sales decline. But the Redmond, Washington-based software giant has been reluctant to undermine its other lucrative franchise, its PC operating software.

Microsoft gives up some $2.5 billion a year in revenue by keeping Office off the iPad, which has now sold almost 200 million units, analysts estimate.

Tech blog Re/code first reported news of Nadella’s event. Microsoft said in an invitation to reporters that Nadella will discuss “news related to the intersection of cloud and mobile“ but declined to comment on the specifics of the CEO’s appearance.

Microsoft has had iPad and iPhone versions of Office primed for several months now, sources told Reuters, but the company has dallied on their release due to internal divisions, among other things.

Although Nadella is expected to discuss his thinking in depth next week, the company has already signaled that it will adopt a more liberal attitude toward putting its software on different platforms.

Microsoft said earlier on Monday that it would make OneNote, its note-taking software, available on Mac, a move interpreted by observers as a shot against Evernote, the popular note-taking application that has both Mac and Android compatibility.

Aside from Evernote, Microsoft also faces budding challenges from startups that have released mobile-friendly alternatives to Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

The Evernote related action is already making the central Microsoft message really powerful: “Office 365 and OneNote has made me so much more efficient that I’m able to do a lot more”: Making Faster, Better Decisions (Extended Version) [officevideos YouTube channel, March 17, 2014]

Meet Devin. Dedicated to helping others, Devin is working on faster, better ways to deliver medical treatments to people around the world. The information that he works with is complex, dense and endless, but he uses OnetNote to keep track of it all—and when all the pieces fit together, the result can be magical. See how he uses OneNote to make it happen.

OneNote now on Mac, free everywhere, and service powered [Office Blogs, March 17, 2014]

– David Rasmussen, Partner Group Program Manager (on behalf of the whole OneNote team who worked hard to bring you this)

When we started OneNote we set out to revolutionize the way people capture, annotate, and recall all the ideas, thoughts, snippets and plans in their life. As many of you have attested, OneNote is the ultimate extension for your brain, but it’s not complete if it’s not instantly available everywhere. We’ve already made a lot of progress in that direction with our mobile, tablet and online web experiences. But there was still a gap. People frequently asked us for OneNote on Mac, and for more ways to capture content.

[Check out the new OneNote for iPad, iPhone and Android [July 1, 2013]]

[iPhone: OneNote for iPhone Version 2.1.5: since Dec 10, 2013]

[iPad: OneNote for iPad Version 2.1.5: since Dec 10, 2013]

[Android: OneNote in Google play since Jan 8, 2014 as described in OneNote for Android update: Do more in less time [Dec 30, 2013]]

[Web: OneNote Online [on One Drive] since January 28, 2014 as per Use OneNote anywhere with the OneNote Web App]

Today we’re excited to complete that story with three major developments:

OneNote for Mac is available for the first time and for free. With this, OneNote is now available on all the platforms you care about: PC, Mac, Windows tablets, Windows Phone, iPad, iPhone, Android and the Web. And they’re always in sync.
OneNote is now free everywhere including the Windows PC desktop and Mac version because we want everyone to be able to use it. Premium features are available to paid customers.
The OneNote service now provides a cloud API enabling any application to connect to it. This makes it easier than ever to capture ideas, information and inspirations from more applications and more places straight into OneNote, including:

OneNote Clipper for saving web pages to OneNote
me@onenote.com for emailing notes to OneNote
Office Lens for capturing documents and whiteboards with your Windows Phone
Sending blog and news articles [from the web] to OneNote from Feedly, News360 and Weave
Easy document scanning to OneNote with Brother, Doxie Go, Epson, and Neat [scanners]
Writing notes with pen and paper and sending them to OneNote with Livescribe
Mobile document scanning to OneNote with Genius Scan and JotNot [smartphone apps]
Having your physical notebooks scanned into OneNote with Mod Notebooks
Connecting your world to OneNote with IFTTT

Go to www.onenote.com to get OneNote for free for your Mac, PC or other devices, and try out the new OneNote service connected experiences.

OneNote: No Limits [officevideos YouTube channel, March 17, 2014]

OneNote is the ultimate extension for your brain. It’s now available everywhere and for free. Go to http://www.onenote.com to get OneNote for free on all your devices and try out the new OneNote service connected experiences.

Mac users have made it loud and clear that you want the first class note-taking experience of OneNote on your Macs. Actually… really, really clear. We got LOTS of direct mails, forum posts, and tweets like these:

“Now, @msonenote needs to release the OS X version of OneNote and my life will be complete :)”
“Dear Microsoft – the new web OneNote is nice. A native Mac version would be better. By this afternoon please, I have work to do.”
“I own a Mac and I LOVE OneNote so for me having OneNote on my Mac would just rock my world.”
“I desperately want OneNote on my new Mac… I use OneNote on VMware Fusion… There is nothing remotely like it for Mac… I have just spent a week looking for anything that comes close.”

Okay, we got the message. Rocking worlds and making lives complete is a pretty high bar, and we’re sorry we missed your afternoon deadline, but we’ve been working away, and we’re excited to bring it to you today. And if you’re a Mac user who didn’t already know about OneNote, check out Introducing OneNote for Mac or just get started now by downloadingOneNote for Mac from the Mac App Store to see what your fellow Mac users are so excited about.

People love OneNote 2013 on Windows. We want this awesome experience to be available to anybody, so we’ve created a free version! It’s designed for personal and school use, it’s totally ad-free and there’s no limit on how long you can use it because it’s not just a trial. For Office 365 and Office 2013 customers, we have premium features like SharePoint support, version history, Outlook integration and so on, but all the core OneNote application capabilities are available in the free version.

Everything you create in the free PC and Mac clients are synced to OneDrive, so you can access them from your phone and tablet too. Your Microsoft Account gives you 7GB of free storage with no monthly upload limit, so there’s plenty of room for everything you want to remember.

If you have an older version of OneNote or haven’t yet had a chance to use OneNote on your PC, get OneNote 2013 today at www.onenote.com.

OneNote service: Bringing OneNote to the apps you care about

OneNote is more than just syncing your content across all your devices. It’s now a hub for the applications and experiences you care about. By making it easy to send anything from any application to OneNote, it’s one more step towards becoming your digital memory. We’ve built some new experiences for this and we’ve worked with a bunch of partners to integrate it with their applications as well.

OneNote Clipper: The new OneNote Clipper lets you capture any web page in one click. The page is automatically put in your OneNote Quick Notes. It is available for Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Mac Safari.

Send email to OneNote: Send a mail to me@onenote.com and we’ll save it into your OneNote Quick Notes. Forward a receipt from your inbox or send a web link from your phone to me@onenote.com.

Office Lens: Office Lens is a Windows Phone app that’s like having a scanner in your pocket. Take a picture of a whiteboard, document, business card, or anything. Office Lens will enhance the image and put it into your OneNote Quick Notes. We’ll recognize the text so you can search for your scans.

Partner apps and devices: We want to make it easy to remember things from anywhere, not just Microsoft apps. So we’ve been working with several key partners to let you do that. You can use these great apps and devices to get anything into OneNote today: Brother, Doxie Go, Epson, Feedly, Genius Scan, IFTTT, JotNot, Livescribe, Mod Notebook, News360 and Weave. Check them all out at www.onenote.com/apps

We also have several more exciting partner experiences coming soon including Neat. If you’d like to make your app, device or service work with OneNote, visit our developer portal at http://dev.onenote.com or check out the OneNote Dev Blog.

Learn more, ask questions

Along with these exciting releases we have some great free events this week.

OneNote for Mac 15-minute Webinar: Join Doug Thomas online to learn why OneNote rocks, how to use OneNote for Mac and have some fun. There will be Q&A with the team as well. You can join us for the OneNote for Mac Webinar on March 18 at 9:00am PST or you can watch the recording afterwards.
OneNote Twitter Q&A with Joe Block: We will be asking Joe Block, play-by-play broadcaster for the Milwaukee Brewers, about the upcoming baseball season, March Madness, and how he uses OneNote to track it all. To join us on Twitter follow@msonenote or @joe_block. The Q&A will start on March 18 at 9:30am PST.
OneNote reddit IAMA: If you still have questions for the OneNote team about OneNote, today’s announcements, our favorite color or anything at all – this is for you. Head on over to reddit on March 19 at 9:00am PST and ask the OneNote team anything!

It’s going to just keep getting better

Today is a huge step forward for OneNote. We’ve made it easier to use OneNote no matter what platform you’re on, and easier than ever to send anything into OneNote. But we’re not stopping here. We’re continually improving OneNote across our applications and service, and working with partners so you can take note of anything and keep it in your digital memory.

Go to www.onenote.com to get OneNote on all your devices and let us know what you think.

Introducing OneNote for Mac [by OneNote Team on Office Blogs, March 17, 2014]

Today we announced three major OneNote developments, including the first version of OneNote for Mac. We are very excited and proud to deliver this to you today.

We’ve seen the countless requests for a Mac client of OneNote, and we’ve been hard at work to deliver it. We’ve been counting the days to finally share with you that OneNote for Mac is now available and you can download it from the App Store for free today!

While you’re downloading the app, check out this video of OneNote for Mac.

Introducing OneNote for Mac [officevideos YouTube channel, March 17, 2014]

Learn about OneNote for Mac, one place for all your digital notes. Learn more at: http://www.onenote.com

OneNote is your place to jot down your ideas, capture your collection of web clippings and research, plan your trips and events, check your to-dos and shopping lists and share your notes with friends and co-workers. It’s a single place to collect your thoughts and ideas, as well as an easy and fun way to stay organized.

Here are some of the main highlights of why we think you are going to love OneNote for Mac.

Create your notes as you wish

Similar to other Office for Mac applications, OneNote for Mac has the Ribbon user interface with a variety of options for formatting and styling your notes. Your notes can be styled however you like. You can choose that special font and color you like to use for your notes, or emphasize important content with bold, underline or highlights.

Sometimes notes contain lists. Whether it’s an invitees list for a party, or the checklist you use for traveling, you can manage your lists using multiple levels of bullets and numbering, and with quick shortcut keys you can re-order, strikethrough, format and more. In addition, if you want to remember, flag or track specific items, you can choose from over 20 styles of tags, such as a To Do tag to check off completed items.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so we make it easy for you to insert pictures in your notes and place them anywhere on your page. And when your notes are best organized in a table, you can easily do so with a variety of table formatting options, such as cell shading colors.

One of the unique characteristics of a page in OneNote is that it’s an infinite canvas where you can lay out different note containers with different content types anywhere you like on the page.

Familiar notebook experience

Your notes are structured in each OneNote notebook with sections and pages similar to paper notebooks. You can create a separate notebook for each of the different projects or aspects of your life, such as work, family, school and travel notebooks.

For instance, you can set up a travel notebook with a section for each of your upcoming trips. Each section can contain multiple pages for itinerary information, such as hotel research, flight options, sights to see and places to eat.

To help you easily find your notes and stay organized, you can re-arrange your notebook as you like, including dragging the pages and sections to change their order or location. And you can apply a color theme to sections to identify them at a glance.

Rest assured, you don’t have to remember where you placed each note. You can very quickly find any text, page, section or notebook by using search options.

Share your notes with others

Whether you’re working on a school project or planning an event with friends, OneNote for Mac enables you to collaborate with others on the same notebook. It syncs changes to and from OneDrive seamlessly and fast so that you can see everyone else’s edits and they can see yours. We make it easy for you to identify the changes made in your shared notebook by displaying the names of the different authors next to their edits.

Or, if you want to just share a specific page in your notebook you can simply email that page to others.

Your notes on all your favorite devices

We know how important it is for you to access your notes on all of your devices and for your notes to look exactly the same as you created them. Add a recipe to OneNote on your Mac, and you can view it on your iPhone in the grocery store. Research and plan a trip on your Mac at home and then easily access those same notes on your iPad during your trip.

All those notes you create on OneNote for Mac are synced to OneDrive and available to you on all your other OneNote clients, including OneNote for Windows desktop, Windows Store, Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad, Android and OneNote Online.

These are only some of the highlights of OneNote for Mac—there’s so much more included in this version that we think you’ll enjoy. OneNote for Mac is compatible with Mac OS X 10.9 and above and you can download it for free from the App Store today. You can also visithttp://www.onenote.com to access all the different OneNote apps including a few exciting OneNote services available today that will enhance your web capturing experience on OneNote for Mac.

And this is just the beginning. We hope you enjoy this first version of OneNote for Mac and encourage you to keep the comments, ratings and feedback coming to help us make future OneNote updates even better.

OneNote Clipper: Clip the web, right to OneNote [by OneNote Team on Office Blogs, March 17, 2014]

Today we announced three major OneNote developments, including the OneNote Clipper, the easiest way to save anything on the web to OneNote with just one click. Think of it as your camera for the web, snapshotting any webpage you see directly into OneNote.

Researching for a big trip? Gathering recipes for an upcoming party? Collecting inspiration for a home makeover? The OneNote Clipper can help you do all of this quickly and easily. Watch the video below to see it in action.

OneNote Clipper: clip the web, right to OneNote [officevideos YouTube channel, March 17, 2014]

Learn how to use the OneNote Clipper — the easiest way, to save anything you see on the web to OneNote, in just one click. Learn more at: http://www.onenote.com/clipper

Try out the OneNote Clipper now

To get started, use any major browser to visit www.onenote.com/clipper and follow the instructions to add the purple Clip to OneNote button to your Favorites bar. Congratulations, now you’re all set to start clipping the web to OneNote!

To clip, just browse to any webpage and click the Clip to OneNote button.

Once signed in, you’ll see the actual OneNote Clipper. The Clipper will let you know that it’s sending the page to OneNote, and when it’s finished, you can click the OneNote logo to immediately view your clip in OneNote Online.

All of your clips are saved to the Quick Notes section of your default notebook on OneDrive — automatically accessible and fully searchable on all your devices.

We hope you enjoy the OneNote Clipper. Please let us know in the comments if you have any feedback, we would love to hear from you. Happy clipping!

Email your notes into OneNote with me@onenote.com [by OneNote Team on Office Blogs, March 17, 2014]

Today we announced three major OneNote developments, including me@onenote.com.

One of our goals is to make it easy to get content into OneNote, no matter where you are or what app you’re using. me@onenote.com is a big step towards that goal. Now, you can use any ‘Email this’ button to send content to OneNote.

Email to OneNote is a great way to forward receipts, travel itineraries or documents that you want to keep track of from your mailbox. If you’re on the run and want to send yourself a quick to do, it’s hard to get faster than writing up a quick mail. Or, if you’re in an app, and want to remember what you’re seeing, you can do so quickly by sharing via email.

me@onenote.com: email anything to OneNote [officevideos YouTube channel, March 17, 2014]

Learn how to use me@onenote.com to get anything into OneNote. Learn more at: http://www.onenote.com

Try it out now

To get set up just visit the email settings page and select the addresses from which you would like OneNote to accept emailed content. You can also add any email addresses that are not already associated with your Microsoft account by using the link at the bottom of the settings page. If you don’t remember any of that, just send an email to me@onenote.com and we will email back with instructions.

Now you’re ready to email content to OneNote quickly and easily! Please let us know in the comments if you have any feedback, we would love to hear from you.

Office Lens: A OneNote scanner for your pocket[by OneNote Team on Office Blogs, March 17, 2014]

Today we announced three major OneNote developments, including Office Lens, a neat new app in the Windows Phone Store.

Office Lens is an app that’s like having a scanner in your pocket. You can use it to take pictures of things like business cards, restaurant menus, notes on whiteboards or blackboards — anything you want to keep on hand. But unlike loose sticky notes, business cards or sketches on lunch napkins, you won’t lose track of your ideas when you capture them with Office Lens. Even things like children’s artwork is fair game. Snap a picture of that one-of-a-kind card your child made and it’ll be at your fingertips whenever you’d like to see it.

Office Lens trims, enhances and makes pictures readable. Weird angles are straightened, shadows are cleaned up and the images are automatically synced to OneNote, so you can get to them on all your devices.

When your picture includes printed text, such as a poster or business card, OneNote on a PC can recognize the text with optical character recognition (OCR) so you can search for words in the image — and you can edit the text, or copy and paste it into apps like email and documents.

Office Lens has three modes, or settings, that help make your captures look their best:

With Whiteboard mode, glare and shadows disappear.
With Document mode, text is clear and easy to read.
With Photo mode, you can take pictures of people and scenery.

Office Lens: Before and after

If you already have pictures on your phone, you can edit them in Office Lens and clean them up too. See how it works in the video below.

Office Lens: a OneNote scanner for your pocket [officevideos YouTube channel, March 17, 2014]

Learn how to use Office Lens, a Windows Phone App, that is like having a OneNote scanner in your pocket. Learn more at: http://www.onenote.com\apps

Office Lens is free in the Windows Phone Store. Install it and try it out today.

Try Office Lens Now!

Please let us know in the comments or in the app store if you have any feedback. We would love to hear from you.

OneNote Featured Apps [OneNote site by Microsoft, March 17, 2014]

Get more out of OneNote with these apps and devices.

Brother [scanner] + OneNote: Better Together [officevideos YouTube channel, March 17, 2014]

Learn how Brother scanners can help get content sent directly into OneNote. Learn more at http://www.onenote.com.

Doxie [scanner] + OneNote: Better Together [officevideos YouTube channel, March 17, 2014]

Learn how Doxie can help get physical documents into OneNote. Learn more at http://www.onenote.com.

Brother Web Connection

Your Brother machine (MFP/Document scanner) can scan images and upload them to OneNote and OneDrive directly without going through a PC.

Get Started

Doxie Mobile Scanners

Doxie is a new kind of paper scanner that’s rechargeable, so you can scan documents anywhere – no computer required. Just charge it up and turn it on, wherever you are – insert your paper, receipts, and photos to scan, archive, and share. Doxie scans anywhere, then syncs to OneNote for access to all your scanned documents, on all your devices

Get Started

Email to OneNote

Capture the things that are important to you while you are on the go by emailing them directly to your notebook! Send documents, notes, itineraries, and so much more to me@onenote.com and we will put them into your OneNote notebook, where you can access them from all of your devices.

Get Started

Epson Document Capture Pro

Document Capture Pro allows you to easily scan documents, edit pages, save files, and transfer data to the applications scanned with Epson scanners such as the Workforce® DS-560 and others. What’s more, users can scan to OneNote with one touch, to easily access documents from multiple devices or share with others.

Workforce® DS-560

Feedly

Feedly focuses on making reading the web a little faster, better. The Feedly OneNote integration makes it easy for people to save great articles they found in their Feedly reader into their OneNote notebook.

Web

Genius Scan

Genius Scan is a scanner in your pocket. It enables you digitize paper documents, create PDF files and immediately store them in OneNote.

iOS     Android

IFTTT

IFTTT lets you create powerful connections with one simple statement – if this then that. Use the OneNote Channel on IFTTT to create and share recipes that automatically create pages, sync content, and connect over 80 other products and services.

iOS Web

JotNot Scanner

JotNot converts your iPhone into a portable multipage scanner. You can use JotNot to scan documents, receipts, whiteboards, business cards and notes into an electronic format.?JotNot now offers direct integration with Microsoft’s OneNote platform, so you can quickly and easily backup and organize your scans using your OneNote account.

iOS

Livescribe 3 Smartpen

With the Livescribe 3 smartpen and Livescribe+ app, simply write on paper and watch everything appear instantly on your mobile device, where you can tag, search and convert your notes to text. You can send everything to OneNote so your handwritten notes and sketches are integrated with the rest of your important information.

iOS

Mod Notebooks

Mod notebooks are physical notebooks that are scanned, digitized and backed up to the cloud once completed. Each page of completed notebooks can be synced to OneNote and saved forever.?

Get Started

NeatConnect

NeatConnect transforms paper piles into digital documents and sends them straight to OneNote – without a computer. From any room in your house, or any spot in the office, NeatConnect’s Wi-Fi compatibility and touchscreen interface make scanning to OneNote fast and easy so you can save time, taking organization and productivity to whole new levels.

Coming soon!

News360

News360 is a free personalized news app that learns what you like and gets smarter the more you use it. With more than 100,000+ sources, there is always something interesting to read, and you can save your favorite stories directly to OneNote with a tap of a button.

Android   iOS   Windows   Windows Phone

Office Lens

Office Lens is like having a scanner in your pocket. Never miss notes on a whiteboard or blackboard, and never look for misplaced documents or business cards, missing receipts or stray sticky notes again! Office Lens makes your pictures magically readable and re-useable. Capture content right into OneNote with automatic trimming and clean up.

Windows Phone

OneNote Clipper

The OneNote Clipper lets you save webpages from your browser into your OneNote notebooks. In just one click, it helps you capture things quickly and remember more in your life.

Web

Weave News Reader

Your news, personalized. Get the free Weave News Reader app for Windows 8 and start saving your favorite news articles to OneNote today!

Windows   Windows Phone

Feedly + OneNote: Better Together [officevideos YouTube channel, March 17, 2014]

Learn how feedly can pull your favorite content into OneNote. Learn more at http://www.onenote.com

Genius Scan + OneNote: Better Together [officevideos YouTube channel, March 17, 2014]

Learn how Genius Scan can help get beautifully cleaned up images into OneNote. Learn more at http://www.onenote.com.

Livescribe [smart pen] + OneNote: Better Together [officevideos YouTube channel, March 17, 2014]

Learn how Livescribe can help blend the physical and digital world by pushing physical ink into OneNote. Learn more at http://www.onenote.com.

Weave + OneNote: Better Together [officevideos YouTube channel, March 17, 2014]

Learn how Weave can improve your reading experience by saving articles into OneNote. Learn more at http://www.onenote.com.

Bloomberg (Businessweek) legitimizes Allwinner and Rockchip as challengers to Intel and Qualcomm via the tablet space, as well as Spreadtrum in the smartphone space

March 18, 2014 8:11 am / 1 Comment on Bloomberg (Businessweek) legitimizes Allwinner and Rockchip as challengers to Intel and Qualcomm via the tablet space, as well as Spreadtrum in the smartphone space

Although the title is just:

Qualcomm, Intel Threatened as Allwinner Nabs Tablet Share [Bloomberg, March 17, 2014]
Qualcomm, Intel Threatened as Allwinner Gains Tablet Share: Tech [BloombergBusinessweek, March 17, 2014]

Note that for me there is nothing new about those titles as I introduced a whole new blog to the “Allwinner phenomenon” as evidenced with a specially designed banner on the right here:

And the first post of mine, “Hello world! Here is the Allwinner SoC and the ecosystem built around it”, was created 16 months ago, on November 26, 2012. For very well founded reasons which were explained in quite a detail in that post. Please read them as you will learn much more about the Allwinner case than from the whole Bloomberg (Businessweek) articles. Your interest will be more satisfied with quite a number of additional posts in January 2014, October 2013, September 2013, June 2013, April 2013, March 2013, January 2013 and December 2012.

Allwinner’s success is explained now in the Bloomberg (Businessweek) articles by the following quote:

Local chipmakers benefit from their proximity to the device manufacturers because it bolsters their ability to anticipate and react to new features that are in demand, said Ben El-Baz, head of U.S. marketing for Allwinner.

“Shenzhen is really the electronics hub for the world,” El-Baz said in a phone interview. “We are so close to the market that we’re able to come out with new solutions faster than our competitors. We can do it at lower cost.”

as well as the fact that:

The surge in cheaper devices hasn’t gone unnoticed by more established computer makers. Hewlett-Packard this year began selling the HP 8, a $170 tablet that runs on an Allwinner quad-core processor.

In [1], however, the internal text contains reference to Rockchip as well:

Note that this same blog of mine started to recognize Rockchip 2 years ago with MWC 2012: Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics post which was followed 10 months later with another one claiming no less than China’s HW engineering lead: The Rockchip RK292 series (RK2928 and RK2926) example. Under the Rockchip tag you could find even more recent ones.

Intel Corp. (INTC) and Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM), the two largest U.S. chipmakers, are under threat in the fastest-growing part of the tablet market from a band of upstarts with names like Allwinner Technology Co. and Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Co. that are little known outside southern China.

Allwinner, based in Zhuhai near the manufacturing center of Shenzhen, became the No. 2 tablet-processor maker behind Apple Inc. in 2012 as demand for cheaper tablets stoked sales of its low-cost chips, according to IDC. Qualcomm ranks third, while Intel comes in at No. 6, following Rockchip.

…

Success at Allwinner, which was founded in 2007, and Rockchip, established in 2001, is being driven by increasing demand for inexpensive tablets in their home market, where some devices sell for as little as $50, and in other developing economies. Sales of tablets that retail for less than $150 and don’t carry a brand name will rise 36 percent this year, IDC estimates, driving a 22 percent increase in total tablet shipments. The market for tablet processors grew 32 percent in 2013 to $3.6 billion, according to Strategy Analytics.

…

Allwinner accounted for 18.2 million of the 88.3 million tablet processors shipped in the fourth quarter of 2013, IDC said. That was more than three times what Santa Clara, California-based Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, shipped in the same period. Rockchip sold 9 million.

…

Rockchip representatives didn’t return messages for comment.

…

Update: China’s Parallel Universe [EE Times, March 26, 2014]

SHENZHEN, China — When I’m in China, I often feel as though I’ve dropped into a parallel universe. But worse, once I get back to the good old US of A, I feel even more lost.

This is because I run smack-dab into Western-centric preconceived views on market trends, design requirements, and market leaders that don’t often apply to China.

…

When I recently sat down with Eva Wu, marketing manager of Allwinner Technology in Zhuhai, she set the record straight. “Yes,” she told me, “there were 10 apps processor vendors in China, all competing for the tablet market in 2012. But by early 2014, those dominating the tablet market are now pretty much down to only three companies — Allwinner, RockChip, and MediaTek.”

I have always felt that a winnowing-down among China’s apps processor vendors was necessary and would happen sooner or later. But I didn’t expect such a drastic change so quickly.

The following table, compiled by Chinese industry sources, is a snapshot of China’s tablet apps processor market. The 2014 market forecast shows a clear upward trend for Taiwan’s MediaTek, doubling shipments and holding its own in China.

Tablet Application Processor Vendors for Chinese Tablets
Source: Compilations of China’s industry data

It’s easy for the Western players to dismiss what’s happening in China, on the presumption that “those guys are playing only in the Tier 2 market.”

Know your tier 2 players
Maybe so, but I find that knowing your Tier 2 players (the guy below you on the ladder) is vitally important. Some of those players are very ambitious and climbing fast. They have no intention to remain Tier 2 forever.

Allwinner’s Wu proudly told me that Allwinner was the first AP vendor to achieve the Android 4.4 Google Mobile Service certification. Noting that the certification tells the world the stability of Allwinner’s apps processor, Wu said, “You have to pass the certification test in order to play in the US market. US retailers like Walmart or BestBuy wouldn’t accept the products without it.”

Wu noted that Allwinner’s apps processors are getting designed into Tier 1 tablets — such as Sony’s tablet projectors and Samsung’s tablet designed for printers.

Parallel universe for STB SoCs
Meanwhile, the same parallel universe characterizes the set-top box world. Over here in China, the so-called over-the-top (OTT) market has exploded as Internet companies like Alibaba have gone whole-hog with video services over the Internet. This dates back to the third quarter last year.

The OTT market is growing fast, according to Wu, with as many as 2 million OTT boxes sold in a month at its peak.

For Chinese consumers, there are three ways to receive digital video services. They’re available on smart TVs, which cost around 10,000 RMB (US$1,630). Another route is OTT boxes, priced between 200 and 300 RMB ($33 to $49). The last option is an Android USB stick that you can plug into a TV, selling for between 100 and 200 RMB ($16 to $33).

To Chinese vendors comparing tablet SoCs with IP set-top SoCs, it’s clear that key subsystems — including CPU and GPU — are already common. Allwinner is among many Chinese vendors leveraging their tablet SoCs to enter the exploding OTT market.

Of course, back in the USA, leading cable set-top chip vendors like Broadcom have a very different view of the set-top box market. When I chatted with Stephen Palm, senior technical director at Broadband Technology Group, this week, he pointed out that requirements in today’s set-tops in the West are nothing like what current mobile SoCs are capable of handling.

…

End of update

while both articles contain a whole paragraph devoted to Spreadtrum as well:

Note that this same blog of mine started to recognize Spreadtrum 27 months ago with World’s lowest cost, US$40-50 Android smartphones — sub-$100 retail — are enabled by Spreadtrum post which was followed 7 months later with another one claiming no less than Lowest H2’12 device cost SoCs from Spreadtrum will redefine the entry level smartphone and feature phone markets. Under the Spreadtrum tag you could find even more recent ones.

Spreadtrum’s Relationships

Like MediaTek, Shanghai-based Spreadtrum Communications Inc. is building on its relationship with handset makers serving the China market and exporting from there. The company, founded in 2001, supplies both processors and modems for smartphones that can retail for as little as $25, said Diana Jovin, a U.S.- based vice president at Spreadtrum.

Her company, which is owned by the Chinese government, has learned that quickly providing adaptable solutions is needed to succeed in a rapidly changing market, she said.

“A significant part of the mobile-handset ecosystem is centered in China,” Jovin said. “We’re the only vendor located in China serving those customers. We’ve expanded our portfolio quite rapidly and have the breadth and depth to compete effectively on a global basis.”

Spreadtrum, which has supplied chips used in Samsung’s Galaxy Star model and HTC Corp.’s Desire, is looking to build on its China base just as Qualcomm, the largest maker of semiconductors used in phones, is trying replicate its worldwide market dominance in that country, the biggest global mobile-phone market.

Regarding the question how the western chipmakers could meet these challenges:

Intel Priority

Intel Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich — who has made catching up in mobile computing a priority since taking over the company in May — said he’s aiming to quadruple tablet-chip sales to 40 million this year and processors from his company will make their way into devices costing less than $100. To speed adoption, Intel will provide tablet makers with subsidies — what it calls “contra revenue” — to make the cost of its chips competitive. That will cut into profitability this year.

Kathy Gill, a spokeswoman for Intel, said the company is “absolutely accelerating” its roadmap for its Atom line of low-power, low-cost processors for phones, tablets and budget laptops.

…

New Chips

Qualcomm has already responded to the demand for lower-cost devices made in China with new chips, said Cristiano Amon, the head of the company’s chip division.

The adoption of a faster wireless-data technology called long-term evolution, or LTE, particularly by No. 1 wireless carrier China Mobile Ltd., will open the door for Qualcomm, the San Diego-based company says. While other companies including Intel, MediaTek and Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) have announced LTE-capable chips, Qualcomm has been in the market for more than two years and has 100 percent market share in devices that have integrated modems, according to IDC.

Qualcomm’s Edge

Qualcomm’s advantage in LTE modem chips will be tough to beat. Unlike for stand-alone processors, there’s no source of off-the-shelf modem designs [there is, however, highly advanced semiconductor IP on the market with CEVA as the lead vendor in that space which is dating back to CEVA Introduces Low Power, Multi-Mode LTE-Advanced Reference Architecture for the New CEVA-XC4000 DSP Architecture Framework [press release, Feb 21, 2012] – you can find more about that in The future of the semiconductor IP ecosystem post of mine], and building one takes years of experience, testing and qualification work with phone-service providers, according to Will Strauss, an analyst at Mesa, Arizona-based Forward Concepts Co.

In processors, “everybody can get in, thanks to ARM and the ease of implementing your own applications processor. They’ve lowered the bar,” Strauss said. At the same time, “the barrier for entry for LTE modems is still very, very high.”

The articles end, however, with a kind of gloomy outlook for the leadiong Western chipmakers:

I would be much more sceptical about the Western SoC vendors’ capabilities to withstand the onslaught of Chinese SoC vendors (including MediaTek). Even the “lack of modem technology” argument given above applies only to a limited degree as:

See more in: Chinese smartphone brands to conquer the global market? [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, March 18, 2014]

Still, Chinese companies have created an obstacle that their more established rivals may struggle to overcome, said Jim McGregor, an analyst at Tirias Research. While the volumes are huge in China and emerging markets, the devices’ low prices leave little room for profits — particularly for companies like Qualcomm and Intel that have shareholders who are accustomed to wide margins, he said.

“We are not just talking about a billion here, but several billion units,” McGregor said. “It’s foolish to avoid that kind of market. The problem is with a publicly traded company, it’s against their instincts to go for it.”

Chinese smartphone brands to conquer the global market?

March 18, 2014 6:43 am / 1 Comment on Chinese smartphone brands to conquer the global market?

The smartphone market in China became saturated between Q3’12 and Q4’13 as per the below chart from Analysys International (EnfoDesk):

Note that this chart corresponds to Chinese writing traditions, i.e. in Q2’11 16.81 million smartphones and 51.01 million feature phones were sold, while in Q4’13 97.63 million smartphones and 9.2 million feature phones. Source: 易观分析：2013年第4季度中国手机销量增速放缓，智能手机市场呈现饱和态势 (Analysys analysis: China mobile phone sales growth slowed in the fourth quarter of 2013, the smart phone market is saturated) [EnfoDesk, March 11, 2014]

Chinese Handset Vendors Will Account for Over 50% of Mobile Handset Sales in 2015 [ABI Research press release, March 10, 2014]

ABI Research reports that Chinese handset vendors will account for over 50% of mobile handsets in 2015. Chinese vendors already accounted for 38% of mobile handset shipments in 2013 and the ongoing shift in growth to low cost handsets, especially smartphones, will increase their market share.

Greater China has long dominated the mobile handset manufacturing supply chain, but now its OEMs are beginning to dominate sales at the expense of the traditional handset OEMs, including even Samsung.

Many of the Chinese OEMs have focused almost exclusively on the huge Chinese market, with little activity beyond its borders, but this is set to change. Huawei (6th in worldwide market share for 2013) and ZTE (5th) have already made an impact on the world stage, but other Chinese handset OEMs like Lenovo—the Motorola acquisition is a clear statement of intent—and Xiaomi are set to join them.

“Chinese vendors already take up five of the top ten places in terms of worldwide market share, despite three of them only really shipping into China. The Chinese vendors highlight the changing shape of the mobile handset market, as the Chinese manufacturing ecosystem, specifically reference designs, enable the next wave of smartphone growth in low cost emerging markets and amongst price conscious consumers everywhere,” said Nick Spencer, senior practice director, mobile devices.

“South East Asia has already experienced this trend, but ABI Research expects to see the impact of these Chinese vendors increasing in all emerging markets and even advanced markets, especially on prepay,” added Spencer.

The New Phone Giants: Indian And Chinese Manufacturers’ Fast Rise To Threaten Apple And Samsung [Business Insider India, March 15, 2014]

The top Indian and Chinese smartphone manufacturers are classically disruptive. They produce products that are “good enough,” at a fraction of the cost of comparable models from premium brands. These ultra low-cost devices are the key to nudging consumers in massively untapped markets like India and Indonesia onto smartphones.

And these companies are starting to aim higher – producing 4G LTE smartphones that have the same processing power as Samsung and Apple premium devices.

They’re also far more innovative than they’re given credit for in terms of their strategy, supply chain management, and hardware.

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we explain why global consumer Internet and mobile companies will increasingly need to work with companies like Xiaomi and Micromax – not to mention Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, Coolpad, Karbonn, and others – if they don’t want to miss out on mobile’s next growth phase in emerging markets

Major local manufacturers now account for two-fifths of China’s smartphone market, and one-fourth of India’s. Xiaomi already sells four of the top 10 best-selling Android devices in China, and operates one of the top five app stores.
Combined, the top five manufacturers in China and the top two in India – the “Local 7” in the chart above – are now shipping about 65 million smartphones every quarter, more than Apple, and coming close to drawing even with Samsung.
These local manufacturers wield influence in various ways. They run their own successful app stores, mobile operating systems, and mobile services. They also hold the keys to which apps are preloaded on their phones. When BlackBerry wanted to take its BBM messaging service for Android into India, it signed a deal with Micromax.
The local manufacturers are not provincial outfits producing knock-offs, as some might be inclined to assume. But their main competitive tool, for now, remains price. Local manufacturers in China and India match the features of more expensive devices and manage to produce comparable hardware at a fraction of the price. A Micromax handset comparable to Apple’s iPhone 5C costs less than one-fourth as much.
Xiaomi has used a four-point strategy in its three-year rise to produce four of the most popular phone models in China. We discuss all four aspects, including tight inventory management and crowdsourcing product development feedback.
These manufacturers will continue to expand overseas, in search of new growth opportunities. Micromax is in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Xiaomi has its eyes on Malaysia and Brazil. Huawei is already in the U.S. For example, it sells a 4G LTE handset on MetroPCS.

Smartphone Prices Race to the Bottom as Emerging Markets Outside of China Come into the Spotlight for Future Growth, According to IDC [press release, Feb 24, 2014]

Singapore and London, February 24, 2014 – Emerging markets have become the center of attention when talking about present and future smartphone growth. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, in 2013 the worldwide smartphone market surpassed 1 billion units shipped, up from 752 million in 2012. This boom has been mainly powered by the China market, which has tripled in size over the last three years. China accounted for one out of every three smartphones shipped around the world in 2013, equaling 351 million units.

Recently the surge in growth has started to slow as smartphones already account for over 80% of China’s total phone sales. The next half billion new smartphone customers will increasingly come mainly from poorer emerging markets, notably India and in Africa.

“The China boom is now slowing,” said Melissa Chau, Senior Research Manager for mobile devices at IDC Asia/Pacific. “China is becoming like more mature markets in North America and Western Europe, where smartphone sales growth is slackening off.”

Emerging markets in Asia/Pacific outside of China, together with the Middle East and Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America, account for four fifths of the global feature phone market, according to IDC data. “This is a very big market opportunity,” said Simon Baker, Program Manager for mobile phones at IDC CEMA. “Some 660 million feature phones were shipped last year, which could add two thirds to the size of the current global smartphone market.”

India will be key to future smartphone growth as it represents more than a quarter of the global feature phone market. “Growth in the India market doesn’t rely on high-end devices like the iPhone, but in low-cost Android phones. Nearly half of the smartphones shipped in India in 2013 cost less than US$120,” said Kiranjeet Kaur, Senior Market Analyst for mobile phones at IDC Asia/Pacific.

“Converting feature phone sales to smartphone sales implies a relentless push towards low cost,” added Baker. IDC research shows nearly half the mobile handsets sold across the world have retail prices of less than US$100 without sales tax. Two thirds of those have prices of less than US$50.

“The opportunity gets larger the lower the price falls,” continued Baker. “If you take retail prices without sales tax, in 2013 nearly three quarters of the US$100-125 price tier was already accounted for by smartphones. Within US$75-100 the proportion was down to just over half, and between $50-75 it was not much more than a third.”

Many smartphone vendors have begun gearing up for this next wave of cost pressure. Samsung is increasingly switching production to Vietnam, where manufacturing costs currently undercut mainland China. Even Hon Hai, one of the largest contract manufacturers for handsets in China, has announced plans for a plant in Indonesia to furnish a lower production cost base.

In addition to the table below, an interactive graphic showing worldwide sub-$100 feature phone shipments by region is available here. The chart is intended for public use in online news articles and social media. Instructions on how to embed this graphic can be found by viewing this press release on IDC.com.

Worldwide Sub-$100 Feature Phone Shipments by Region, 2013

Region

Shipments (M Units)

India

212.3

Middle East & Africa

150.0

Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan, China, and India)

140.7

Latin America

76.4

PRC

68.1

Central & Eastern Europe

43.6

Western Europe

39.8

North America

13.9

Total

744.9

Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, February 24, 2014

Analysys International: Xiaomi Ranked Among Top Five in Q4, 2013 [March 11, 2014]

The statistics from EnfoDesk, the Survey of China Mobile Terminals Market in Q4, 2013, newly released by Analysys International, shows that the market share of Samsung, Lenovo, Huawei, Coolpad and Xiaomi ranked the top five of China smartphone in Q4, 2013. The market share of Samsung shrink slightly over the previous quarter, but it still accounted for 15.07 percent of smartphone market and maintain the leading position.

The release of Apple‘s new product has brought efficiency in Q4, and its market share slightly rebounded. Owning to the release of MI3 (Xiaomi), the market share of Xiaomi up 3.85 percentage points compared to the previous quarter. MI3 still should be bought from booking and the booking is relatively frequent. Meanwhile, the purchase restriction of MI2(Xiaomi) and Red MI(Xiaomi) has been relaxed, coupled with the strategic cooperation between Xiaomi and mobile operators, making it easier to buy custom models as well as contributing to the enlargement of Xiaomi’s market share. It can be expected that Xiaomi will put more energy into the complement of its retail capabilities and continue to increase their market share.

From: UMENG Insight Report – China Mobile Internet 2013 Overview [UMENG, March 12, 2014]

– The number of active smart devices in China exceeded 700 Million by the end of 2013.

– The five fastest growing mobile apps categories (excluding games) are : news, health & fitness, social networking, business, and navigation. These areas will bring new opportunities for developers in 2014.

– Socializing your apps is the key to success for developers. Currently among the top 1,000 apps (apps and games) in the Chinese market, 55% of them provide links to Chinese social networking services (e.g. Sina Weibo, Wechat, QQ, Renren) The amount of app content sharing to social network platforms per mobile Internet user per day has tripled in the last 6 months.

– Social network sharing in game has become incredibly popular on all social networking platforms, 48% of in app sharing traffic to social networks are from games.

– High-end devices (pricing above 500US$) have a significant market share in China, contributing 27% of total devices. These users have dynamic needs on mobile apps . The users of below 150US$ phones prefer casual games for their entertainment requirements.

– The year of 2013 became known as the first year Chinese developers took IP seriously with many developers licensing IP from rights holders. By the end of 2013, among the Top 100 games, 20% license 3rd party IP.

– Over the course of 2013 the percentage of iOS jailbroken devices in the Chinese Mainland fell by 17% to 13% of all devices. Domestic users are becoming more hesitant to jailbreak their devices.

…

700 Million active smart devices in China

By the end of 2013, the number of active smart devices in China had exceeded 700,000,000, including smart phones and tablets.

In the 4th quarter 59% of new devices were bought by smartphone users upgrading their existing hardware. The remaining new devices where bought by users buying their ﬁrst smartphone. As smartphone use becomes more commonplace in China new sales are increasingly driven by existing users upgrading, rather than from users purchasing their ﬁrst smartphone.

…

The market for budget Android phones is strong in China with 57% of devices under 330 USD price range. However over a quarter of users are using high-end smart phones costing over 500USD, 80% of these are iPhones.

…

Fragmented Android device market

In the 4th quarter of 2013, Samsung and XiaoMi (a local brand) prove to be the most popular Android brands as between them they manufacture all of the top 10 active Android devices.

However the Android market is still highly fragmented with hundreds of different handsets on the market. Samsung who manufacture many devices in all price ranges control 24% of the device market, while the domestic manufactures are battling it out with the international brands to extend their market share.

…

In 2013, changes to device connectivity saw a large growth in WiFi connectivity, from 38% at the beginning of the year to 52% at year end. Mobile Internet infrastructure has become better in China. However Chinese users are still price sensitive to mobile data tariﬀ.

…

Glossary:
Active Device: active device refers to device which has activated at least one app covered by Umeng platform in the stipulated time frame. All the “devices” in the report refers to “active devices”, not the actual shipment.

…

Data Source:
Analysis data in the report is based on over 210,000 Android and iOS apps from the Umeng platform. All data was collected from January to December 2013.

From: More than 247 million mobile handsets shipped in India during CY 2013, a Y-o-Y growth of 11.6%; over 70 million mobile handsets shipped in 4Q 2013 alone [CyberMedia Research press release, Feb 26, 2014]

According to CMR’s India Monthly Mobile Handsets Market Review, CY 2013, February 2014 release, India recorded 247.2 million mobile handset shipments for CY (January-December) 2013. During the same period, 41.1 million smartphones were shipped in the country.

…

India Smartphones Market

The India smartphones market during 2H 2013 saw a rise in shipments by 60.3% over 1H 2013, taking the overall contribution of smartphones to 16.6% for the full year. Further, 65.8% of the total smartphones shipped in the country were 3G smartphones during CY 2013.

Commenting on these results, Tarun Pathak, Lead Analyst, Devices, CMR Telecoms Practicesaid, “CY 2013 was primarily the year of smartphones for the India market, particularly for local handset vendors. A first for the India market was a marginal decline in featurephone shipments on a year-on-year basis. This trend is likely to continue with more vendors focusing on entry level smartphone offerings aimed at the consumer segment.”

“Nearly 70 vendors operated in the highly competitive India smartphones market in CY 2013, with ‘Tier One’ brands like Apple, Samsung, Nokia, Sony, HTC, LG and Blackberry capturing close to 53% of the total smartphones market, followed by India brands capturing close to 43% of total smartphone shipments. The remaining market of roughly 4% smartphone shipments was captured by China OEM brands, where we expect a few more players to enter the India market directly, instead of continuing as ODM partners to Indian brands”, Tarun added.

Rapid Growth In Smartphones Offset The Slump Witnessed In Feature Phone Sales In 4Q13, Says IDC [press release, Feb 26, 2014]

India was one of the fastest growing countries worldwide in terms of smartphone adoption in 2013. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) in 2013 the smartphone market surpassed 44 million units shipped, up from 16.2 million in 2012. This surge has been mainly powered by home grown vendors which have shown a tremendous and consistent growth over the past 4 quarters of 2013.

The overall phone market stood at close to 257 million units in CY 2013 – an 18% increase from 218 million units in CY2012.

CY2013 also witnessed a remarkable migration of the user base from feature phones to smartphones primarily due to the narrowing price gaps between these product categories.

Q413 Perspective:

The India smartphone market grew by 181% year over year (YoY) in the fourth quarter of 2013 (4Q13). According to International Data Corporation’s (IDC) APEJ Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped a total of 15.06 million smartphones in 4Q13 compared to 5.35 million units in the same period of 2012. 4Q13 grew by almost 18% Quarter-on-Quarter.

The shipment contribution of 5.0inch-6.99inch screen size smartphones (phablets) in 4Q2013 was noted to be around 20% in the overall market. The category grew by 6% in 4Q13 in terms of sheer volume over 3Q13.

The overall mobile phone market (Feature Phones and Smartphones) stood at 67.83 million units, a 16% growth YoY and a meager 2% growth quarter over quarter (QoQ).The share of feature phones slid further to make 78% of the total market in 4Q13, with the market showing a decline of 2% in 4Q13 over 3Q13.

The fourth quarter of 2013 witnessed a spike in the smartphone shipments by smaller homegrown vendors like LAVA, Intex which have shown tremendous growth in the past couple of quarters.

“The growth in the smartphone market is being propelled by the launch of low-end, cost competitive devices by international and local vendors which are further narrowing the price gaps that exist between feature phones and smartphones”, said Manasi Yadav, Senior Market Analyst with IDC India.

“The international vendors have understood the importance of creating a diverse portfolio of devices at varied price points and are striving to launch cost competitive devices that cater to every segment in the target audience ” comments Kiran Kumar, Research Manager with IDC India.

Top Five Smartphone Vendor Highlights

Samsung: Samsung maintained its leadership spot with about 38% in terms of market share. Its smartphone shipments grew by close to 37% from 3Q 2013 to 4Q2013. The fourth quarter saw quite a few new launches across price points by Samsung – however the low-end Galaxy portfolio in smartphones contribute to 50% in terms of shipment volumes

Micromax: Micromax held on to its second spot with about 16% in terms of market share in 4Q2013. Some of the top selling models were the entry level smartphones like A35 Bolt and A67. The Canvas range of devices has also done well in terms of volume contribution owing to the marketing campaigns launched around them.

Karbonn: The market share for Karbonn in 4Q2013 was close to 10%, some of the top selling models for this brand were A1+ and A51.

Sony: Sony managed to make a comeback in the top-5 smartphone vendor list in 4Q13 and garnered a market share of 5%. The top selling models included Xperia M Dual and Xperia C handsets, which are targeted at mid-tier price range.

Lava : Lava managed to hold onto the number 5 spot in the top-5 smartphone vendor list. The continued traction around the XOLO and IRIS range of devices helped the vendor garner a market share of 4.7% in 4Q13. Some of the top selling models include the newly launched XOLO A500 S and the existing models like IRIS 402 and IRIS 349.

IDC India Forecast:

IDC anticipates the growth in Smartphone segment to outpace the overall handset market growth for the foreseeable future. The end-user shift towards mid-to-high screen size products will be amplified by the declining prices and availability of feature-rich localized product offerings. Vendors who are able to differentiate their offerings at affordable prices will maintain a competitive edge and secure a strong position in the mobile phone market in CY 2014.

From: Gartner Says Annual Smartphone Sales Surpassed Sales of Feature Phones for the First Time in 2013 [press release, Feb 13, 2014]

…

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2013 (Thousands of Units)

Company

2013

Units

2013 Market Share (%)

2012

Units

2012 Market Share (%)

Samsung

299,794.9

31.0

205,767.1

30.3

Apple

150,785.9

15.6

130,133.2

19.1

Huawei

46,609.4

4.8

27,168.7

4.0

LG Electronics

46,431.8

4.8

25,814.1

3.8

Lenovo

43,904.5

4.5

21,698.5

3.2

Others

380,249.3

39.3

269,526.6

39.6

Total

967,775.8

100.0

680,108.2

100.0

Source: Gartner (February 2014)

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 4Q13 (Thousands of Units)

Company

4Q13

Units

4Q13 Market Share (%)

4Q12

Units

4Q12 Market Share (%)

Samsung

83,317.2

29.5

64,496.3

31.1

Apple

50,224.4

17.8

43,457.4

20.9

Huawei

16,057.1

5.7

8,666.4

4.2

Lenovo

12,892.2

4.6

7,904.2

3.8

LG Electronics

12,822.9

4.5

8,038.8

3.9

Others

106,937.9

37.9

75,099.3

36.2

Total

282,251.7

100.0

207,662.4

100.0

Source: Gartner (February 2014)

Top Smartphone Vendor Analysis

Samsung: While Samsung’s smartphone share was up in 2013 it slightly fell by 1.6 percentage points in the fourth quarter of 2013. This was mainly due to a saturated high-end smartphone market in developed regions. It remains critical for Samsung to continue to build on its technology leadership at the high end. Samsung will also need to build a clearer value proposition around its midrange smartphones, defining simpler user interfaces, pushing the right features as well as seizing the opportunity of bringing innovations to stand out beyond price in this growing segment.

Apple: Strong sales of the iPhone 5s and continued strong demand for the 4s in emerging markets helped Apple see record sales of 50.2 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2013.

“However, Apple’s share in smartphone declined both in the fourth quarter of 2013 and in 2013, but growth in sales helped to raise share in the overall mobile phone market,” said Mr. Gupta. “With Apple adding NTT DOCOMO in Japan for the first time in September 2013 and signing a deal with China Mobile during the quarter, we are already seeing an increased growth in the Japanese market and we should see the impact of the last deal in the first quarter of 2014.”

Huawei: Huawei smartphone sales grew 85.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 to maintain the No. 3 spot year over year. Huawei has moved quickly to align its organization to focus on the global market. Huawei’s overseas expansion delivered strong results in the fourth quarter of 2013, with growth in the Middle East and Africa, Asia/Pacific, Latin America and Europe.

Lenovo: Lenovo saw smartphone sales in 2013 increase by 102.3 percent and by 63.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. Lenovo’s Motorola acquisition from Google will give Lenovo an opportunity to expand within the Americas.

“The acquisition will also provide Lenovo with patent protection and allow it to expand rapidly across the global market,” said Mr. Gupta. “We believe this deal is not just about entering into the U.S., but more about stepping out of China.”

Gartner expects smartphones to continue to drive overall sales in 2014 and an increasing number of manufacturers will realign their portfolios to focus on the low-cost smartphone sector. Sales of high-end smartphones will slow as increasing sales of low- and mid-price smartphones in high-growth emerging markets will shift the product mix to lower-end devices. This will lead to a decline in average selling price and a slowdown in revenue growth.

In the smartphone OS market, Android’s share grew 12 percentage points to reach 78.4 percent in 2013 (see below). The Android platform will continue to benefit from this, with sales of Android phones in 2014 approaching the billion mark.

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2013 (Thousands of Units)

Operating System

2013 Units

2013 Market Share (%)

2012 Units

2012 Market Share (%)

Android

758,719.9

78.4

451,621.0

66.4

iOS

150,785.9

15.6

130,133.2

19.1

Microsoft

30,842.9

3.2

16,940.7

2.5

BlackBerry

18,605.9

1.9

34,210.3

5.0

Other OS

8,821.2

0.9

47,203.0

6.9

Total

967,775.8

100.0

680,108.2

100.0

Source: Gartner (February 2014)

…

MediaTek is repositioning itself with the new MT6732 and MT6752 SoCs for the “super-mid market” just being born, plus new wearable technologies for wPANs and IoT are added for the new premium MT6595 SoC

March 4, 2014 3:16 pm / Leave a comment

wPAN = wireless Personal Area Network
In case of MediaTek a wPAN is organised around the smartphone. Take special note of the new ANT/ANT+ wearable link, Bluetooth 4.1 or Bluetooth Low Energy as called otherwise, as well as the 802.11ac Wi-Fi and multi-system GNSS technologies, all described in this post as new ones with roles in wPANs/IoT.
IoT = Internet of Things

Update: Shipment ratio of 8-core smartphone solutions to be lower in 2014 [DIGITIMES, March 13, 2014]

The shipment ratio of 8-core processors to total smartphone solution shipments will not be higher in 2014 as brand and white-box handset vendors in China will still prefer to use quad-core models in order to build their share in the entry-level to mid-range segment, according to industry sources.

While Samsung Electronics has been more upbeat about sales of 8-core smartphones, it remains unknown whether shipments of the Galaxy S5 will be as brisk as expected, said the sources.

Although a number of handset vendors in China have voiced their support for MediaTek’s 8-core CPUs, few of them have completed the design-in process for 8-core models, which will limit shipments of 8-core processors in 2014, revealed the sources.

Additionally, MediaTek has maintained a price gap between quad-core and 8-core CPUs in order to continue ramping up shipments of its quad-core solutions, said the sources, adding that MediaTek is also unlikely to adopt an aggressive price strategy to promote 8-core CPUs for the time being.

Since suppliers of 8-core chips are limited and demand for the top-end 8-core smartphones is getting lower, shipments of 8-core solutions are unlikely to ramp up until 2015, the sources commented.

First let’s look at the current standing of MediaTek on the market, and then at their strategy and products in Mediatek@MWC 2014: Jeffrey Ju, Head of Smartphones, Pre-MWC Presentation [mediateklab YouTube channel, March 5, 2014]:

Jeffrey Ju, Mediatek Head of Smartphones, talks about new product announcements at an exclusive invitation-only event for press and analysts ahead of Mobile World Congress.

Note that at this MWC event for the press and
analysts Ju’s presentation was the 2nd one, following a repositioning/rebranding presentation by Johan Lodenius, CMO of MediaTek which will be embedded here later on.

Note: As the MT6595 was announced earlier it has been presented with all related details in the earlier ARM Cortex-A17, MediaTek MT6595 (devices: H2’CY14), 50 billion ARM powered chips [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Feb 18, 2014] post of mine.

Just 4 slides from that presentation in order to show here what kind of giant MediaTek is:

Then Mediatek@MWC 2014: Words from the media at the Fabrica Moritz Launch Event [mediateklab YouTube channel, March 3, 2014]

Mediatek hosted an exclusive invitation-only event for press and analysts ahead of Mobile World Congress to unveil the new Everyday Genius campaign and its forthcoming product announcements. Find out what the media thought about the new direction and products announced by Mediatek.

from PDF, also available as MediaTek to focus more on western markets as it targets Qualcomm
Watch also: Interview – CFO, MediaTek [Mobile World Live, March 3, 2014]

Targeting Qualcomm with products announced at MWC 2013 for the “super-mid market” just being born:
– 64-bit quad-core LTE SoC MT6732 [MediaTek press release, Feb 24, 2014]

MediaTek wants to make the world a more inclusive place, where the best user experiences and fully connected does not mean expensive,” said Johan Lodenius, Chief Marketing Officer for MediaTek. “We are committed to power devices that accelerate the global demographic and cultural transformation. Inclusiveness is such an important part of MediaTek’s vision, which is why we strive to put technology in the hands of everyone, to enable everyone to be an everyday genius.

Following the launch of the world’s first 4G LTE Octa-core smartphone SOC – MT6595 – earlier this month*, we are quickly expanding our LTE offering across a range of performance points to meet the growing demand for smartphone devices across all markets. The MT6732 provides excellent performance and a very comprehensive feature set.

…added Jeffrey Ju, General Manager of the MediaTek Smartphone Business Unit.

* The 32-bit octa-core LTE SoC MT6595 is to be commercially available by the first half of 2014, with devices expected in the second half of the year. See the details in the roadmap slide following the MT6732/MT6752 spacifications (the table below), as well as in the press release included in the end of this post.

– Update: MT6732—64-bit LTE SOC with ARM Cortex-A53 CPU cluster and Mali-T760 GPU [product page, March 13, 2014]

Overview

MediaTek MT6732 targets the rising ‘super-mid ‘market with LTE and a next-generation coherent 64-bit ARM® Cortex®-A53 cluster and Mali™-T760 GPU.

Features

64-bit Mobile Computing System

Quad-core 1.5GHz ARM Cortex-A53 processor
ARM Mali-T760 GPU with Open GL ES 3.0 and Open CL 1.2 support

Advanced Multimedia Features

Low-power 1080p video playback at 30sps
H.265 and H.264 and 1080p, 30fps H.264 video recording
13MP camera image signal processor with PIP (Picture-in-Picture), VIV (Video in Video) and Video Face Beautifier
MediaTek ClearMotion™ technology eliminates motion jitter and ensures smooth video playback at 60fps on mobile devices
MediaTek MiraVision™ technology for DTV-grade picture quality

Integrated Multi-mode 4G LTE Modem

Rel. 9, Category 4 FDD and TDD LTE (150 Mb/s downlink, 50 Mb/s uplink)
3GPP Rel. 8, DC-HSPA+ (42Mbit/s downlink, 11Mbit/s uplink), TD-SCDMA and EDGE for legacy 2G/3G networks

Integrated Connectivity Solutions

Dual-band Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 4.0 for low-power connections to fitness gadgets, wearables and other wireless accessories

– 64-bit octa-core LTE SoC MT6752 [MediaTek press release, Feb 25, 2014]

“The MT6752 is part of our commitment to provide high performance yet cost effective solutions, accelerating the global demographic and cultural transformation for the Super-mid market. We continue to democratize technology as previously seen in the TV and DVD industries. We launched world’s first true octa-core solution in November 2013 and now we continue to extend our lead to deliver on our vision to make the world a more inclusive place,” said Jeffrey Ju, General Manager of the MediaTek Smartphone Business Unit.

This is how the latest SoCs fit into the traditional roadmap (leaked in China) structure from which the new “super-mid market” is going to be born (according to MediaTek):

See the MT6595 details in the press release included in the end of this post. Alternatively all details are provided in the earlier ARM Cortex-A17, MediaTek MT6595 (devices: H2’CY14), 50 billion ARM powered chips [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Feb 18, 2014] post of mine.

The essence of this repositioning: Mediatek – Everyday Genius [mediateklab YouTube channel, Feb 23, 2014]

We’re Mediatek. We make the technology that’s at the heart of the things you use every day, from smartphones and tablets to smart TVs and wearable devices. Technology solves problems and makes exciting new things possible. It makes us smarter in ways we don’t always expect, enabling us to do more — and enjoy more. At Mediatek, we believe technology can fulfill the potential that’s inside all of us and that’s why we’re making the world a more inclusive place. We want technology to be accessible to everybody. We want everyone to be an Everyday Genius.

From Everyday Genius [MediaTek campaign page, Feb 22, 2014]

Introducing Everyday Genius

The world is becoming a more connected place and MediaTek is making it happen. Our technology not only powers the smartphones and tablets helping people around the world get online for the first time, but also the Smart TVs and wearable technology that offer completely new ways to communicate. We’re even working hard to bring the Internet of Things to life, where everything and everyone can talk to each other using the internet. MediaTek makes life easier and more enjoyable, often in ways we couldn’t even imagine a few years ago. Our technology expands horizons and creates new opportunities to discover more about the world. We’re giving rise to a new generation of coders, unlocking new creative talent and inventing new ways of doing business — and we want to do it for everyone. With the right help, we believe anyone can achieve something amazing, even if it’s just in a small way. And we believe they can do it every single day. We call this idea Everyday Genius and everything we do is dedicated to making it happen.

What we do — and why we do it

MediaTek is a fabless semiconductor company, which is another way of saying we design chips for electronic devices that our partners manufacture. Our expertise is in shrinking multiple components into a chip no larger than your fingernail. So where anything from a DVD player to a smartphone used to require a complex array of chips to perform their many sophisticated tasks, they can now do the same thing with just one or two. This tight integration of components makes all kinds of technology much more efficient and the more efficient something is, the more it can do with even less resources. More importantly, it makes technology affordable to all. Making technology more affordable and more accessible is something MediaTek is deeply committed to — and something that’s at the very heart of Everyday Genius.

The repositioning/rebranding presentation which was actually the 1st one at the event for the press and analysts: MWC 2014 Cocktail Party – [MediaTek] CMO Johan Lodenius Presentation [mediateklab YouTube channel, March 3, 2014]

We have been on a fast moving journey since 1997.
Now we are taking our game to the next level with our products, business models and marketing.
The new branding is the foundation and this is the kick-off, but it’s just the beginning!

There is a huge transformation going on in the marketplace.
Emerging markets are disappearing and the general view in the west of the developing world is being challenged. This means a lot more opportunity for everyone, wherever you are.

Everyday Genius is the great outcome of the new all-inclusive connected mobile world.
For the first time it’s a level playing field, we can all be an Everyday Genius in this day and age.
– Whoever we are, wherever we are;
– Whatever our interests and desires are.

“Subsidies are being to be replaced by new buy-back and trade-in incentive programs. … Average prices will have to be adjusted to more normal, commoditized market levels”

“Android is now in over eighty percent of the world’s smartphones. That’s my own calculation because it was seventy-nine percent according to Strategy Analysis at the end of 2013. Android works the same way in all devices across phones and tablets creating a uniformed user experience. There’s more differentiation in the apps than in the OS itself. This means that Android is a great user experience leveller cross price tiers as the world is flattening.”

“All this gives strong reasons to believe that the current market structure is going to change, radically:”

“The super-mid market is born, fueled by global middle-class growth and the key industry changes we just talked about. We characterize super-mid as eighty percent in the middle with two dotted lines as boundaries at the opposite ends. The low boundary is set at 79 dollars, and the high boundary at 399 dollars. … This means that at the top of the range performance products are being pushed down into the super-mid, and price levels are getting adjusted.”

…

Mediatek@MWC 2014: Everyone can be an Everyday Genius [mediateklab YouTube channel, March 3, 2014]

Mediatek introduced its new Everyday Genius campaign at Mobile World Congress 2014. Johan Lodenius, Chief Marketing Officer, explains the rationale behind the concept and how it addresses the needs of the new super-mid market segment that has emerged.

Mediatek@MWC 2014: Internet of Things, Wearable Technology, Wireless Charging and more. [mediateklab YouTube channel, March 5, 2014]

In addition to a new brand identity, Mediatek introduced a number of new products at Mobile World Congress 2014. Johan Lodenius, Chief Marketing Officer, talks about resonance wireless charging, wearable technology, the Internet of Things, the new high powered MT6595 mobile chip and the company’s ambitions.
Note that the MT6595 was announced earlier, and also has been presented in the earlier ARM Cortex-A17, MediaTek MT6595 (devices: H2’CY14), 50 billion ARM powered chips [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Feb 18, 2014] post of mine.

resonance wireless charging: MediaTek MT3188 Multi-Mode Wireless Charging ASIC Supports Inductive and Resonant Modes [press release, Feb 25, 2014]

MediaTek today announced MT3188, the world’s first multi-mode wireless charging ASIC that supports multiple competing standards. MediaTek MT3188 is a tightly-integrated solution that supports resonant charging technology and is fully compatible with current inductive chargers certified by the Power Matters Alliance (PMA) and the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC).

Key features

Compatible with existing PMA and WPC inductive standards as well as emerging resonant wireless standard A4WP
Ultra-compact design for smartphones, tablets and other consumer devices
Highly integrated, with an optimized bill of materials that requires no external active components
Supports out-of band communications in resonant mode (A4WP)
Provides the option of in-band communications in resonant mode for applications where a Bluetooth transceiver is not available
Operates stand alone or with Mediatek MT6595, MT6732 or other systems on a chip
Sampling now, with first commercial devices expected in Q3 2014

“With resonant charging, MediaTek makes consumer lives better. The devices can be placed in any position on a resonant charging mat and one mat can simultaneously charge multiple devices with different power needs at their optimum rates,” said Mark Estabrook, Senior Director of Strategic Marketing at MediaTek. “Resonant charging also works through non-metallic materials, so there’s no need to remove a smartphone case before charging and the chargers can be built easily into furniture and vehicles.”

MediaTek’s in-band communication technology for power control provides a simple and reliable way to add resonant wireless charging support to a whole host of consumer devices where Bluetooth transceivers may not be available for out-of-band communication, such as ebook readers, noise-cancelling headphones and even spare batteries.

MediaTek MT3188 requires no external active components and its highly-optimized bill of materials (BOM) is comparable to best-in-class WPC inductive solutions. The solution can be mounted on a mobile device’s main PCB or battery cover, and provides a programmable output voltage from 1.5V to 5V at 1.4A (7.0W maximum). MT3188 is powered wholly by the charger and works even with a completely discharged battery.

MediaTek is an active contributor to the wireless charging standards community, and is co-vice chair for resonant technology at PMA and a member of WPC. Mediatek is also a member of the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) — a not-for-profit organisation that supports Rezence™ resonant charging technology.

MediaTek MT3188 is sampling now and expected to feature in commercial devices within Q3 2014.

More information: The convenience of wireless charging: It’s just physics [MediaTek whitepaper by Mark Estabrook, Jan 10, 2014]

wearable technology: MediaTek to Showcase Multiple New Products and Technologies at CES 2014 [press release, Jan 3, 2014]

MediaTek presents the all-in-one solution for wearables, Aster. It is not only the smallest SOC with high integration, but provides also a comprehensive Application Framework, MRE (MediaTek Run-time Environment) that allows users to install and upgrade APPs.

Internet of Things
Cloud applications, video over Wi-Fi (VoW), indoor positioning and smart home automation

MediaTek Going Wearable, Chinese & Cheap [EE Times, Jan 31, 2014]

MediaTek is quietly going after the emerging market of under-$50 wearable devices.

The company’s new “all-in-one” SoC, called Aster, is sampling now only to a select group of customers. The chip is not officially announced yet, with no datasheets or block diagrams publicly available.

Aster integrates ARM7 ESJ, Bluetooth 4.0/Bluetooth Low Energy, power management IC, and memory (4 Mbytes of flash and 4 Mbytes of SRAM). Housed in a 5.4 x 6 mm package, MediaTek describes Aster as the “smallest SoC” with “highest integration” for wearable devices.

Aster also comes with a comprehensive Application Framework. Its Run-Time Environment will make it easy for users to install and upgrade apps and run them on wearable devices, according to MediaTek.

With an ear close to the ground in China, Taiwan’s consumer chip behemoth MediaTek appears to know about something not readily evident to most system vendors and chip companies in the West: a surge in Chinese consumer demand for new gizmos designed to leverage the power of smartphones.

“Innovation can come up very quickly in China compared to Western society,” Cliff Lin, senior director of MediaTek’s US corporate marketing, told EE Times.

Let a thousand flowers bloom
MediaTek’s Aster, together with the company’s wearable “turnkey solutions,” is designed to let a thousand flowers bloom in a number of new consumer devices, ranging from a Bluetooth dialer to a smartwatch. These devices are meant to be wirelessly connected to a smartphone, a device already ubiquitous.

It’s important to note that these wearable devices MediaTek has in mind are not positioned to replace smartphones — an idea sharply divergent from the hopeful thinking, more popular in the West, that wearable devices will supplant phones.

A Bluetooth dialer, for example, is, technically, not a phone. But the sleek, convenient device helps a user dial or receive a call without forcing her to haul a bulky tablet or phablet out of her bag.

Some in the industry, especially in the West, might argue that calling such a device — whose function appears to be simply a remote-control unit inside an already available smartphone — “wearable” is an overstatement.

After all, today’s wearable devices, if loosely defined, are all over the map — ranging from wristwatches, shoes, and glasses to headbands, clothing, and home healthcare devices — with no killer wearable form factor on the horizon, at least not yet.

Different wearable devices demand a different set of sensors. They also come in different shapes and sizes, as they will be worn on different parts of the body. Their evolutionary trajectory suggests that they will be far more diverse and complex than mere remote-control units in smartphones.

And the fact is, many smartwatches on the market today are designed for just that purpose. Besides email, voice mail, and social network message notifications, a smartwatch can control various functions of a smartphone remotely.

MediaTek’s Lin added that its Aster is even capable of offering a “viewfinder function” on a wearable device, when wirelessly connected to a smartphone’s camera. By reducing the image size, the picture can be transferred via Bluetooth from a camera in the smartphone to a small display of the new smartwatch. It allows a user to remotely frame a picture right on a smartwatch display, instead of awkwardly tilting a bulky phablet in the air.

Although MediaTek displayed Aster at its suite during the International CES earlier this month, the company is not giving out any more details of the SoC. When asked about its price, Lin noted that Aster is “suitably priced for end-products ranging from $20 to $50.” The SoC’s mass production is slated for the third quarter of 2014.

Internet of Things: MediaTek and ANT Create New Opportunities for Connected Lifestyle, Health and Home Management [ANT Wireless press release, Feb 26, 2014

New chip links mobile platform innovators to millions of available ANT+ wearables and devices

ANT Wireless, proven innovator in ultra low power (ULP) short range wireless technology and ANT+ interoperability, and MediaTek Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor company of wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions, today announce native support for the ANT wireless protocol in MediaTek’s new MT6630 5-in-1 combo connectivity chip. Targeted for premium smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices aligned with the super-mid category of chips, the single chip MT6630 allows integrators to link end users to the millions of leading ANT+ wearables and products for sport, fitness and health as well as smart home and location based service devices.

The feature-rich MT6630 combines the latest connectivity options in a low power, small footprint chip including 802.11ac Wi-Fi, ANT, Bluetooth 4.1, multi-system GNSS, [Global Navigation Satellite System may also refer to GLONASS], and FM. Delivering full concurrent operation of all five systems, the MT6630 offers the advanced capabilities of ANT+ interoperability and connection to the vast array of certified ANT+ devices including monitors and software that track activity, heart rate, blood pressure, muscle oxygen, running, cycling, swimming, hiking, weight, etc.. ANT wireless communication will also facilitate the expanding connected use cases in home and industrial environments.

“MediaTek is committed to bringing an optimal experience to the digital home and mobile applications. ANT complements our unique leadership position,” said SR Tsai, General Manager of MediaTek’s Connectivity Business Unit. “ANT will continue to be a driver of wireless and wearable solutions for the Internet of Things. MediaTek’s inclusion of this established protocol gives manufacturers and their consumers simple and direct access to these innovative ANT+ products.”

“Our collaboration with MediaTek greatly expands access to more ANT+ enabled phones and ANT+ sensors, in more markets and regions, which is fantastic for everyone: mobile OEMs, ANT+ product manufacturers, and consumers,” added Rod Morris, Vice President, ANT Wireless. “The result will be a great range of offerings and best-in-class lifestyle products worldwide.”

MediaTek will be demonstrating ANT+ in combination with the MT6630 solution at Mobile World Congress, Feb 24-27, Hall 6, Stand 6E11. The MT6630 is sampling now and the first commercially available devices to use MT6630 IC’s are expected in the second half of 2014. ANT Wireless is also exhibiting at Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona, Spain, February 24 – 27, Hall 7, Stand 7M49.

Celebrating over ten years in ultra low power wireless technology, ANT also offers its expanded suite of ANT+ Plugins for Android applications to app developers and manufacturers selecting the MT6630. ANT+ Plugins eliminate the need for ANT+ profile development and technical expertise and facilitate the path to seamless ANT+ connectivity.

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About MediaTek
MediaTek is a pioneering fabless semiconductor company, and a market leader in cutting-edge systems on a chip for wireless communications, HDTV, DVD and Blu-ray. MediaTek created the world’s first octa-core smartphone platform with LTE and its CorePilotTM technology released the full power of multi-core mobile processors. MediaTek [TSE:2454] is headquartered in Taiwan and has offices worldwide. Please visit www.Mediatek.com for more information. Press Office: PR@Mediatek.com +1 650 283 2781

About ANT / ANT+ (www.thisisant.com**)
ANT is a proven protocol and silicon solution for ultra low power (ULP) practical wireless networking applications. ANT+ is the pervasive ULP wireless technology facilitating the capture of critical market share in the exploding mobile sensor sector. With over 100 million devices in the market, ANT+ facilitates interoperability between ANT+ devices and the collection, automatic transfer and tracking of sensor data. This standardized communication platform enables quick-to-market solutions for application developers, sensor manufacturers and cell phone makers. ANT+ has amassed an ecosystem of world-class technology vendors in the ANT+ Alliance, an open special interest group of companies who have adopted the ANT+ promise of interoperability. These industry leaders offer readily-available brand name products for sport, wellness management and home health monitoring.

** Note that the web pages of www.thisisant.com describe ANT as:

ANT is a Wireless Personal Network [otherwise wPAN] protocol, by Dynastream Innovations Inc., with small size, reasonable cost and Very Low Power requirements.

My insert here: ANT+, from technology to the ecosystem [ANTAlliance YouTube channel, Oct 13, 2010], read also on Wikipedia:
– ANT (a proprietary open access multicast wireless sensor network technology)
– ANT+ (an interoperability function that can be added to the base ANT protocol)

ANT+ business development manager, Dallin Doney, walks you through ANT technology to many branded ANT+ products in sports, fitness and wellness. Products showcased are from Adidas, A&D, Digifit, Garmin, Star Trac, Tanita, Timex and Wahoofitness

The company behind ANT Wireless is Dynastream Innovations Inc. (www.dynastream.com). Dynastream was established in 1998 and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Garmin Ltd. in December 2006. Dynastream is based in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada, and is a world innovator in the research and development of inertial and wireless technology.

ANT+ Product Directory (www.thisisant.com/directory)
The ANT+ Product Directory is a complete inventory of all ANT+ certified or verified products. It is a tool designed specifically to help consumers source hundreds of industry-leading devices and all compatible products within the vast ANT+ ecosystem. Devices may be searched by product name, brand, activity or product category, allowing the consumer to create a monitoring system that meets their specific needs.

To get some idea watch these ANT-related videos
(see more in http://www.thisisant.com/news/video-gallery/):
– for lifestyle: Technology in Fitness – Enhancing the User Experience! [ANTAlliance YouTube channel, Nov 11, 2013]

FIT-C President, Bryan O’Rourke, and ANT Wireless Sales Manager, Paul Lockington, discuss technology in fitness, the opportunities, and the need to enhance the user experience through data monitoring and wearable technologies. http://www.thisisant.com http://www.bryankorourke.com

– for health: 4iiii Innovation’s Cliiiimb System Demo [ANTAlliance YouTube channel, Nov 11, 2013]

4iiii’s Product Manager, Alana Baxter, demonstrates the new Cliiiimb system – an ANT+ enabled KOM experience powered by Strava that combines Sportiiiis heads-up audio visual display, Viiiiva heart rate monitor with iPhone connectivity. http://www.thisisant.com. http://www.4iiii.com.

– for home management: ANT Lighting Control Demo [ANTAlliance YouTube channel, July 31, 2013]

ANT Wireless Global Sales Manager, Mike Paradis, demonstrates the features of an ANT enabled lighting control system and explains the benefits of ANT/ANT+ home and industrial automation. For more information visit http://www.thisisant.com.

Mediatek Announces MT6630, World’s First Five-in-One Combo Wireless Connectivity SOC for Mobile Devices [press release, Feb 25, 2014]

Mediatek today announced MT6630, the world’s first five-in-one combo wireless system-on-a-chip (SOC) to support full featured smartphones, tablets and other premium mobile devices.

The MT6630 dramatically reduces the component count and eBOM while improving ease-of-design for manufacturers by eliminating external low noise amplifiers (LNAs) and integrating the Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz power amplifiers (PAs), Bluetooth PA, and transmit-receive (T/R) switch into a PCBA footprint less than 65 mm².

Key features

Dual-band single-stream 802.11a/b/g/n/ac with 20/40/80MHz channel bandwidth
802.11v time of flight protocol support and management engines to enable higher accuracy of indoor positioning via Wi-Fi
Advanced support for Wi-Fi Direct Services and Miracast™ optimization for easier pairing, increased robustness, advanced use-cases and lower power
Bluetooth 4.1 with Classic, High-Speed and Low-Energy support, and ANT+ for compatibility with the latest fitness tracking, health monitoring and point of information devices and applications
Concurrent tri-band reception of GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo and QZSS with industry leading sensitivity, low power, positioning accuracy, and the longest prediction engine
FM transceiver with RDS/RBDS
Integrated engines and algorithms for full concurrent operation and co-existence, including industry-leading throughput during LTE transmission

MT6630 delivers full concurrent operation of all 5 systems operating at maximum compute intensity with no degradation compared to single-system operation while offloading the mobile device CPU for design ease and extended battery life.

As a focus on low power and digital home convergence, the MT6630 uses a configurable PA architecture to save current at commonly used power levels, including those used for Miracast™ Wi-Fi Direct services. MT6630 implements advanced co-existence techniques, including for LTE to deliver industry-leading throughputs. MT6630 also supports Wi-Fi diversity for premium smartphones and tablets to improve antenna angle sensitivity and handheld scenarios.

“MT6630 makes it simple for manufacturers to bring mobile devices to market with sophisticated wireless features, lower power and uncompromised performance,” said SR Tsai, General Manager of MediaTek’s Connectivity Business Unit. “MT6630 furthers MediaTek’s focus to deliver the best experiences across the digital home and mobile applications by using its unique leadership position in digital TV host processors, smartphone platforms, and connectivity.”

The small-footprint design is available in 5 x 5mm WLCSP (Wafer Level Chip Scale Package) or a 7 x 7mm QFN (Quad Flat No-Leads) and requires only 44 components, which is around half that of other integrated wireless solutions.

Mediatek MT6630 is sampling now and complements the recently announced MT6595 octa-core SOC with LTE for premium mobile devices. The first commercially available devices to use MT6630 are expected in the second half of 2014.

new high powered MT6595: MediaTek Announces MT6595, World’s First 4G LTE Octa-Core Smartphone SOC with ARM Cortex-A17 and Ultra HD H.265 Codec Support [press release, Feb 11, 2014]

Note: As the MT6595 was announced earlier it has been presented with all related details in the earlier ARM Cortex-A17, MediaTek MT6595 (devices: H2’CY14), 50 billion ARM powered chips [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Feb 18, 2014] post of mine.

MediaTek CorePilot™ Heterogeneous Multi-Processing Technology enables outstanding performance with leading energy efficiency

MediaTek today announces the MT6595, a premium mobile solution with the world’s first 4G LTE octa-core smartphone SOC powered by the latest Cortex-A17™ CPUs from ARM®.

The MT6595 employs ARM’s big.LITTLE™ architecture with MediaTek’s CorePilot™ technology to deliver a Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP) platform that unlocks the full power of all eight cores. An advanced scheduler algorithm with adaptive thermal and interactive power management delivers superior multi-tasking performance and excellent sustained performance-per-watt for a premium mobile experience.

Excellent Performance-Per-Watt
• Four ARM Cortex-A17™, each with significant performance improvement over previous-generation processors, plus four Cortex-A7™ CPUs
• ARM big.LITTLE™ architecture with full-system coherency performs sophisticated tasks efficiently
• Integrated Imagination Technologies PowerVR™ Series6 GPU for high-performance graphics

Integrated 4G LTE Multi-Mode Modem
• Rel. 9, Category 4 FDD and TDD LTE with data rates up to 150Mbits/s downlink and 50Mbits/s uplink
• DC-HSPA+ (42Mbits/s), TD-SCDMA and EDGE for legacy 2G/3G networks
• 30+ 3GPP RF bands support to meet operator needs worldwide

World-Class Multimedia Subsystems
• World’s first mobile SOC with integrated, low-power hardware support for the new H.265 Ultra HD (4K2K) video record & playback, in addition to Ultra HD video playback support for H.264 & VP9
• Supports 24-bit 192 kHz Hi-Fi quality audio codec with high performance digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) to head phone >110dB SNR
• 20MP camera capability and a high-definition WQXGA (2560 x 1600) display controller
• MediaTek ClearMotion™ technology eliminates motion jitter and ensures smooth video playback at 60fps on mobile devices
• MediaTek MiraVision™ technology for DTV-grade picture quality

First MediaTek Mobile Platform Supporting 802.11ac
• Comprehensive complementary connectivity solution that supports 802.11ac
• Multi-GNSS positioning systems including GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo and QZSS
• Bluetooth LE and ANT+ for ultra-low power connectivity with fitness tracking devices

World’s First Multimode Wireless Charging Receiver IC
• Multi-standard inductive and resonant wireless charging functionality available
• Supported by MediaTek’s companion multimode wireless power receiver IC

“MediaTek is focused on delivering a full-range of 4G LTE platforms and the MT6595 will enable our customers to deliver premium products with advanced features to a growing market,” said Jeffrey Ju, General Manager of the MediaTek Smartphone Business Unit.

“Congratulations to MediaTek on being in a leading position to implement the new ARM Cortex-A17 processor in mobile device”, said Noel Hurley, Vice President and Deputy General Manager, ARM Product Division. “MediaTek has a keen understanding of the smartphone market and continues to identify innovative ways to bring a premium mobile experience to the masses.”

The MT6595 platform will be commercially available by the first half of 2014, with devices expected in the second half of the year.

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MediaTek Drives Global LTE Adoption with New ALCATEL ONETOUCH POP S7 [press release, Feb 25, 2014]

Powered by MediaTek’s 4G LTE Platform, ALCATEL ONETOUCH POP S7 will be available in Q2 delivering high-speed data performance to consumers worldwide

TAIWAN, Hsinchu – 23 February, 2014 – MediaTek and ALCATEL ONETOUCH today announce the LTE-enabled ALCATEL ONETOUCH POP S7, powered by MediaTek’s 4G LTE quad-core platform. Available in Q2 this year, the POP S7 launch will bring 4G LTE to the mass market at an affordable price point, and will further extend the product range for both ALCATEL ONETOUCH and MediaTek across their respective global portfolio of LTE devices.

The POP S7 features MediaTek’s 1.3GHz quad-core processor and multi-mode 4G LTE modem MT6290. By combining fast 4G connectivity with a sharp and bright 5” IPS display, users can enjoy a truly immersive mobile experience with the POP S7 such as streaming high-definition video content.

The MT6290 multimode 4G LTE modem embedded within POP S7 supports LTE Release 9 CAT 4, enabling data rates as high as 150Mbit/s downlink. The MT6290 modem is also compatible with FDD and TDD modes, as well as HSPA+, W-CDMA, TD-SCDMA, EDGE and GSM/GPRS radio technologies.

“MediaTek is proud to again be selected to power the latest ALCATEL ONETOUCH smartphone. The new ALCATEL ONETOUCH POP S7, designed for the mass market and featuring our multimode 4G LTE modem, is the exciting first step for MediaTek to demonstrate its global capability in the fast growing LTE market.” said, Jeffrey Ju, General Manager of Smartphone Business Unit, MediaTek. “Our aim is to unleash the potential of everyone for the creation of a better world by maximizing the capacity of technology innovation,” Jeffrey added.

Dan Dery, CMO of ALCATEL ONETOUCH added, “The POP S7 is the first entry-level LTE-enabled smartphone powered by MediaTek’s innovative technology, and we’re rolling out across EMEA, APAC and other regions. We foresee a huge increase in LTE adoption worldwide in 2014, and we are pleased to working in close collaboration with MediaTek to meet the market demand at the right time.”

Upcoming FireFox OS powered $25 smartphones with Spreadtrum SC6821 EDGE SoC having 128MB on chip RAM used via zRAM swap by the OS

March 3, 2014 1:56 am / 1 Comment on Upcoming FireFox OS powered $25 smartphones with Spreadtrum SC6821 EDGE SoC having 128MB on chip RAM used via zRAM swap by the OS

Hands on with the $25 Smartphone running Firefox OS at MWC 2014 [TrustedReviews YouTube channel, Feb 24, 2014]

We got hands on with the proposed $25 Smartphone which sees Firefox partner with Chinese chip designer Spreadtrum Communications.

[0:15] “This is the newest … set that is running on ultra low-end memory which is 128MB RAM and 256MB ROM. So that’s why we call it the lowest [price] smartphone you probably can get on the market” [0:30]

From With Firefox OS, Mozilla begins the $25 smartphone push [CNET, Feb 23, 2014]

Mozilla doubled down on its bet that low-end smartphones will give Firefox OS a place in the crowded mobile market, announcing partnerships Sunday that will bring $25 smartphones to the large number of people who can’t afford high-end models like Apple’s iPhone 5S and Samsung’s Galaxy S5 that cost hundreds of dollars.

At the Mobile World Congress here, Mozilla announced a deal with Chinese chip designer Spreadtrum Communications that will mean Firefox OS smartphones will arrive in extremely cost-sensitive markets like India and Indonesia where people often buy phones from a bin in a store.

“We’re working with them to break through the ~~$50~~ $25 barrier [should be corrected, obviously], which is hard,” Mozilla Chief Technology Officer Brendan Eich told CNET. “This is going to be for a set of [sales] channels in Asia that do not involve operators,” the carriers that in other parts of the world dominate distribution.

One company that plans to make and promote the phones is Indonesia-based Polytron. And Indonesian carriers Telkomsel and Indosat plan to sell the devices. Hands-on testing shows the cheap Firefox OS phones to be workable. “This is a price point currently out of the reach of Google and even the lowest-cost Android handset vendors. It pushes Firefox OS into feature-phone territory, potentially signaling the beginning of the end for the category,” said Ovum analyst Nick Dillon in a statement.
…
Mozilla has found a small niche in the mobile OS market by pursuing its low-end strategy, with the first phones debuting in countries such as Hungary, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, and Greece. Mozilla, a non-profit organization, hopes to use the browser-based operating system to lower the barriers that today keep people locked into ecosystems linking hardware, OS, app store, services, content, and apps.
…
Firefox OS takes on challenges
Today, Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android dominate the market for smartphones and tablets. Challengers like Microsoft’s Windows Phone, Ubuntu Touch, WebOS, BlackBerry OS, and Samsung’s Tizen have struggled to push these aside: it’s hard to compete against an incumbent that’s got millions of users, hundreds of thousands of apps, and few signs of the complacency that can open a door for challengers.

Firefox OS won’t have an easy time of it. There’s not as much money to be squeezed from low-end markets, so developers aren’t as likely to pursue it as avidly. The Spreadtrum chipset will support only 2.5G Edge mobile networks that, while common in poorer parts of the world, are too slow for a lot of modern apps. And Google is pushing toward lower-end phones, with Android 4.4 memory-saving techniques [“zRAM swap can increase the amount of memory available in the system by compressing memory pages and putting them in a dynamically allocated swap area of memory.”] that fit KitKat into phones with 512MB of RAM.

At the same time, though, Firefox is pushing, too. It uses the same ZRAM memory compression technique to halve its memory requirement to 128MB of memory, Eich said.

Getting down to $25 phones means Firefox OS will provide an alternative for people who’d otherwise buy a feature phone — a model with a few built-in apps but not much more.

So Firefox has a chance there. But in the long run, to succeed, Firefox OS will need to push up-market, and it’s not clear how Mozilla will succeed there with much stronger competition.

Think Big at #MWC14: Mozilla leadership discuss innovation and digital literacy [ThinkBigEurope YouTube channel, Feb 25, 2014]

During the world’s largest mobile exhibition, Think Big roaming reporters from across Europe cover the smart phone that will give access to the web for millions and the need for increased digital literacy.

Note: Think Big is a Telefonica initiative targeting young people in six European countries: Ireland, UK, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia (countries where Telefonica operates in Europe)

How good is the $25 smartphone from Mozilla – BBC News [BBC News YouTube channel, Feb 24, 2014]

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Mozilla Corp has unveiled a prototype model of what it hopes will become a $25 smartphone. The BBC’s LJ Rich tried it out. #MWC14

Mozilla plans ‘$25 smartphone’ for emerging markets [BBC News, Feb 23, 2014]

Mozilla has shown off a prototype for a $25 (£15) smartphone that is aimed at the developing world.

The company, which is famed mostly for its Firefox browser, has partnered with Chinese low-cost chip maker Spreadtrum.

While not as powerful as more expensive models, the device will run apps and make use of mobile internet.

It would appeal to the sorts of people who currently buy cheap “feature” phones, analysts said.

Feature phones are highly popular in the developing world as a halfway point between “dumb” phones – just voice calls and other basic functions – and fully-fledged smartphones.

Mozilla hopes that it will capture an early lead in a market that is now being targeted by mobile device manufacturers who see the developing world as the remaining area for massive growth.

It will face stern competition from bigger, more established brands, however – with more announcements of this kind expected over the course of the next couple of days at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

“These solutions expand the global accessibility of open web smartphones to first-time and entry-level smartphone buyers by reducing the time and cost required for handset makers to bring these devices to market,” said Spreadtrum in a press statement.

Mozilla said the phone “redefines” the entry-level phone market.

The concept of a cheap smartphone may seem likely to appeal to consumers in developed countries, particularly those who locked into long contracts in order to subsidise the cost of the likes of the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy range.

But analyst Carolina Milanesi, from Kantar Worldpanel, said it should not be seen as a competitor.

“You’re not really talking about smartphone experience.

“You’re talking about a clumsy smartphone that’s a little bit better than a feature phone – still primarily for voice and text.”

The phone runs Mozilla’s own mobile operating system – something that could cause problems as competition in the cheap smartphone market steps up, Ms Milanesi added.

Mozilla also announced new high-end smartphones

In addition to the $25 smartphone, Mozilla also launched several high-end models, including devices from Huawei and ZTE.

Mozilla press conference about Firefox OS at MWC 2014 [firefoxchannel YouTube channel, Feb 23, 2014]

Mozilla demonstrated the breadth and growth of its Firefox OS open mobile ecosystem at a press event on the eve of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Sunday, February 23, 2014. To learn more about Firefox OS please visit: http://mzl.la/1dPqt71.

The $25 smartphone announcement comes at [15:30] with the following slides (note the 1Gb, i.e. 128MB LPDDR1 Embedded in the SoC!!):

From Firefox OS Unleashes the Future of Mobile [Mozilla Press Center, Feb 23, 2014]

Spreadtrum has announced WCDMA and EDGE turnkey reference designs for Firefox OS as well as the industry’s first chipset for US$25 smartphones, the SC6821, that redefines the entry level for smartphones in key growth markets. These solutions are already creating a stir, with global operators such as Telenor, Telkomsel and Indosat, and ecosystem partners such as Polytron, T2Mobile and Thundersoft expressing interest.

$25 Firefox Smartphone (MWC 2014) [ARMflix YouTube channel, Feb 25, 2014]

Mozilla introduced their $25 Firefox smartphone based on 1 GHz Single Core Spreadtrum ARM processor. http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/os/

[0:33] “The key thing about this device is that this is only powered by 128MB of RAM. So this is only one half or one quarter of the existing entry level devices that we are seeing on the market.” [0:47]

Warning: This article does not take into account the SC6821 characteristics, especially its 128MB on chip RAM used via zRAM swap by the OS, as well as its EDGE only networking!
Is a US$25 smartphone possible? [DIGITIMES, Feb 25, 2014]

Mobile World Congress (MWC) kicked off with a bang, with Mozilla announcing a US$25 smartphone built around a turnkey solution that features silicon from China-based Spreadtrum and software from Firefox.

According to a Mozilla press release, Spreadtrum and Mozilla have now completed the integration of Firefox OS with several of Spreadtrum’s WCDMA and EDGE smartphone chipsets, including the SC6821, unveiled by Spreadtrum as the industry’s first chipset for a US$25 smartphone.

So the key to the solution is the SC6821, which Spreadtrum stated is “designed with a unique low memory configuration and high level of integration that dramatically reduces the total bill of materials required to develop low-end smartphones.” Mozilla added that with this chipset, handset makers will be able to bring to market smartphones with 3.5-inch HVGA [eg. 480×320] touchscreens, integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM and camera functions, the advanced phone and browser features of Firefox OS, and access to an ecosystem of web and HTML5 applications.

With a clearer picture of the specs Mozilla envisions for a US$25 smartphone, I approached Digitimes Research Analyst Luke Lin to ask if he thought it was possible to deliver such a product to the market at this time. According to Lin, the simple answer is that it would be “impossible” to see a US$25 Firefox phone hit the shelves this year, unless operators are willing to provide subsidies.

Lin explained that currently, the absolute lowest smartphone BOM in China is estimated to be around US$22 (and most are significantly more than that) and that manufacturing costs are highly unlikely to go below US$20 this year, which would be the cost needed to deliver a US$25 smartphone to end users. The cost would need to get to US$15-20 FOB in order to get a selling price of US$25, Lin said.

In terms of Spreadtrum‘s claims it has produced a level of integration and memory requirements that can reduce the BOM cost significantly, Digitimes Research Analyst Anthony Chen commented that Spreadtrum’s solution is no more integrated than any other integrated solution on the market so there is no clear advantage there. And as for memory, the cheapest and smallest memory modules (ROM and mobile DRAM) for smartphones in China run about US$5 for a configuration of 256MB ROM and 256MB of mobile DRAM, and Chen highly doubts the Mozilla solution could run with a lesser configuration than that.

One other argument being offered as to why Spreadtrum could offer lower pricing than competitors is that the China government has a stake in the company. The logic is that an edge in pricing could help Spreadtrum better compete with Taiwan-based MediaTek and US-based Qualcomm.

Chen responded to the suggestion by pointing out that such a statement is not really an argument. It’s merely speculation. Moreover, Chen noted that Spreadtrum’s cheapest products currently sell in the US$3-4 range, and he doesn’t see much chance for the price to be reduced significantly, with subsidies or without.

While it is true that BOM costs are always falling, Lin and Chen agreed that component makers are much more likely to be squeezed in the higher-end segments, where they have margins. At the bottom of the market, the component makers are not really making any money. As a long term strategy for the low-end of the market, they would much prefer to provide improved specs at the same price rather than cut prices, Lin explained, while adding that it is unlikely that the BOM would drop much further at the bottom end of the market, as it is already close to US$20. Therefore, while prices may drop a little, Digitimes Research does not expect prices to drop all that much in the near future.

Another perspective was offered by Digitimes Research Analyst Jason Yang, who stated that if there is any component that could influence the low-end smartphone BOM at this point, it was the touch panel, not the application processor. Yang indicated that currently the touch panel module, with LCD display, accounts for the largest portion of the BOM, at around US$7-8 for the cheapest modules. Yang did state that he believes the price may drop this year, but not enough to bring the overall BOM cost of the cheapest phones to below US$20.

So, if ultimately the announcement was all about Mozilla driving the launch of a US$25 smartphone, Lin doubts that this will happen this year or anytime soon. Based on the current cost structure, Lin believes Firefox models priced in the US$60-80 are more likely to appear in 2014. Of course, users may be able to find spectacular deals and price cuts, but such a situation would more likely be inventory clearance or something similar, not a mainstream price point.

However, if this announcement is not about Mozilla driving the market to low-cost smartphones and is more about a trend where emerging markets will become flooded with cheap smartphones, then it should be noted that this is a process that is already underway.

Currently in China, entry-level smartphones – mostly white-box but even some brands – are already selling in the US$50 range. And these smartphones are not just being shipped to the domestic market. China vendors exported about 30% of their smartphones in 2013 and that proportion is forecast to rise in 2014. According to Digitimes Research data tracking smartphone shipments by vendor and the related market breakdown, the non top-10 segment (which is dominated by Greater China vendors and white-box players) accounted for 12% of global smartphone shipments in 2012, 21% of the global market in 2013, and Digitimes Research forecasts the share will rise to 25.6% in 2014.

So the flow of cheap smartphones from China going to emerging markets has already started and the shipments are steadily increasing, it’s just that the devices cost a bit more than US$25 and almost all of them feature Android as the OS.

Spreadtrum and Mozilla Take Aim at Global Smartphone Accessibility with Turnkey Solution for US$25 Smartphones [press release, BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 23, 2014]

– Integration of Spreadtrum’s entry-level smartphone chipsets with turnkey reference designs for Firefox OS aims to bring Open Web Devices to an underserved audience of entry-level smartphone buyers around the world

– Spreadtrum unveils the SC6821, the industry’s first chipset for US$25 smartphones (retail), on Firefox OS

Today at Mobile World Congress, Spreadtrum Communications, Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor company in China with advanced technology in 2G, 3G and 4G wireless communications standards, and Mozilla, the mission-based organization dedicated to keeping the power of the Web in people’s hands, announced that they have teamed up to deliver turnkey Firefox OS reference designs with Spreadtrum’s entry-level smartphone chipsets. These solutions expand the global accessibility of open Web smartphones to first-time and entry-level smartphone buyers by reducing the time and cost required for handset makers to bring these devices to market. Spreadtrum and Mozilla have now completed the integration of Firefox OS with several of Spreadtrum’s WCDMA and EDGE smartphone chipsets, including the SC6821, unveiled today by Spreadtrum as the industry’s first chipset for US$25 smartphones. These smartphones are available for demos at Mozilla’s booth (3C30) at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona.

“The combination of Firefox OS with Spreadtrum’s entry-level smartphone platforms has the potential to dramatically extend the reach of smartphones and the Web globally,” said Dr. Li Gong, Mozilla Senior Vice President of Mobile Devices and President of Asia Operations. “Firefox OS delivers a customized, fun and intuitive experience for first-time smartphone buyers and our collaboration with Spreadtrum enables the industry to offer customers an extremely affordable way to get a smartphone and connect with Web apps.”

At Mobile World Congress, Spreadtrum unveiled the SC6821, its new smartphone chipset that redefines the entry level of the global smartphone market. The chipset is designed with a unique low memory configuration and high level of integration that dramatically reduces the total bill of materials required to develop low-end smartphones. With this chipset, handset makers will be able to bring to market smartphones with 3.5″ HVGA [e.g. 480×320] touchscreens, integrated WiFi, Bluetooth, FM and camera functions, the advanced phone and browser features of Firefox OS, and access to a rich ecosystem of web and HTML5 applications, at prices similar to much more minimally featured budget feature phones.

Spreadtrum’s turnkey reference design brings together this highly cost-effective chipset platform with the intuitive, easy-to-use experience and Web/HTML5 application ecosystem of Firefox OS. “Turnkey solutions benefit the vast majority of small handset makers by reducing the time and cost involved in bringing new devices to market,” said Stuart Robinson, analyst at Strategy Analytics. “This joint effort between Spreadtrum and Mozilla will help make Firefox OS more readily available to handset makers that focus on the needs of entry level smartphone buyers in emerging markets.”

Firefox OS smartphones are the first devices powered completely by Web technologies to deliver the performance, personalization and price users want in a smartphone with a beautiful, intuitive and easy-to-use experience that is unmatched by other phones. Firefox OS has all the things users need from a smartphone as well as the things they want like built-in social integration with Facebook and Twitter, HERE Maps with offline capabilities, much-loved features like the Firefox Web browser, the Firefox Marketplace for apps and more. Firefox OS features a brand new concept for smartphones – an adaptive app search that literally transforms the phone to meet a user’s needs and interests at any moment.
Firefox OS offers Mozilla-pioneered WebAPIs that unlock the power of the Web and enable developers to build fun and rich app experiences that were previously only available to proprietary native apps, which are fragmented by platform and not portable.

Xiaomao Xiao, Spreadtrum’s vice president of software development added, “By integrating Firefox OS support with our smartphone platforms, we are providing our customers with flexibility and choice in how they develop and design their smartphones as well as access to the increasingly rich base of HTML5 applications that are available on this platform. We are pleased to work with Mozilla to expand Firefox OS support to all of our smartphone platforms to provide the benefits of open web technologies to consumers around the world.”

Spreadtrum and Mozilla have completed the integration of Firefox OS with Spreadtrum’s SC6821 and SC7710 WCDMA smartphone chipsets, and expect to complete a turnkey reference design for the SC7715, Spreadtrum’s single-core WCDMA smartphone chipset with integrated connectivity, next month. Spreadtrum and Mozilla’s collaboration will extend across Spreadtrum’s full chipset portfolio.

About Spreadtrum Communications, Inc.
Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company that develops mobile chipset platforms for smartphones, feature phones and other consumer electronics products, supporting 2G, 3G and 4G wireless communications standards. Spreadtrum’s solutions combine its highly integrated, power-efficient chipsets with customizable software and reference designs in a complete turnkey platform, enabling customers to achieve faster design cycles with a lower development cost. Spreadtrum’s customers include global and China-based manufacturers developing mobile products for consumers in China and emerging markets around the world. Spreadtrum is a privately held company headquartered in Shanghai and an affiliate of Tsinghua Unigroup, Ltd. For more information, visit www.spreadtrum.com.

About Mozilla
Mozilla has been a pioneer and advocate for the Web for more than 15 years. We create and promote open standards that enable innovation and advance the Web as a platform for all. Today, half a billion people worldwide use Mozilla Firefox to discover, experience and connect to the Web on computers, tablets and mobile phones. For more information please visit https://www.mozilla.org/.

Firefox OS Expands to Higher-Performance Devices and Pushes the Boundaries of Entry-Level Smartphones [Mozilla Press Center, Feb 23, 2014]

Mozilla, the mission-based organization dedicated to keeping the power of the Web in people’s hands, today previewed the future of Firefox OS to show how the flexibility, scalability and powerful customization will empower users, developers and industry partners to create the exact mobile experience they want with relevant and innovative features, localized services and more.

Expanding Ecosystem
Today, device partners ALCATEL ONETOUCH, Huawei, LG and ZTE are all using Firefox OS on a broad range of smartphones that are tailored for different types of consumers. The Firefox OS devices unveiled today showcase dual-core processors for better performance, higher screen resolution and more. The newest Firefox OS devices to join the family include the ZTE Open C and Open II, Alcatel ONETOUCH Fire C, Fire E, Fire S and Fire 7 tablet, all using Snapdragon™ processors from Qualcomm Technologies Inc., a leader in mobile communications.

In the few months since initial launch, Firefox OS smartphones are now available in 15 markets, with new operators and new markets around the globe announced today. Mozilla is working to create a level playing field with the openness of the Web. The ecosystem is catching fire and resulting in development of new form factors beyond the smartphone. For example, Panasonic announced they will make SmartTVs powered by Firefox OS, Foxconn and Via are making Firefox OS tablets, and Mozilla is working with suppliers to enable devices for all target user groups.

Significant growth is also happening with apps and content on Firefox OS, proving the Web has the potential to be the world’s largest marketplace. Firefox OS offers two ways to discover and utilize apps and content – the Firefox Marketplace and an adaptive app search that enables discovery and access to apps that users can instantly use once or download to keep. This innovative approach helps maximize data and storage usage.

The Firefox Marketplace has seen thousands of developers submitting apps and millions of downloads of popular global and relevant local apps. Top global apps include Cut the Rope, Disney’s Where’s My Water?, Facebook, EverNav, HERE, Line, Pinterest, SoundCloud, The Weather Channel, TimeOut, Twitter, Yelp and YouTube.

The ZTE Open C will offer the latest version of Firefox OS
in Venezuela and Uruguay in Q2 of 2014

The Firefox Marketplace makes it possible to create local and niche apps with relevant regional content by allowing developers to build on basic Web technologies, without gatekeepers. The top new local apps in the Firefox Marketplace include Despegar.com travel booking, Capp World Cup highlights, Captain Rogers game, Manana reading app, Napster, SurfTime and more.

Future of Firefox OS
At Mobile World Congress, Mozilla is showing off a preview of what to expect from Firefox OS in the coming year and what’s possible when the Web is the platform.

Firefox OS is made to change with each individual and adapt to his or her interests and needs with features like adaptive app search, offline use and cost control. New content can be enjoyed instantly with a simple search, making downloads virtually a thing of the past. Firefox OS offers deep levels of customization that are unmatched by any platform or device. This is possible because Firefox OS is built on the flexible technologies of the Web and the user interface is made of a modular architecture of building blocks that make it easy for anyone to customize.

Upcoming versions of Firefox OS will offer users fun and innovative new features and services including new and intuitive navigation, a powerful universal search feature, support for LTE networks and dual SIM cards, easy ways to share content, ability to create custom ringtones, replaceable home screens and Firefox Accounts.

New versions of Firefox OS have many performance improvements that dramatically improve the user experience including speedier launch times, smoother scrolling and improved keyboard accuracy.

Here are highlights on a few of the features coming next for Firefox OS:

Deep customization options for operators and manufacturers, developers and users. This includes the ability to create custom ringtones and replaceable home screens, which were direct requests from Firefox OS users.
A new universal search that will revolutionize how users discover content on their phones. The feature is available on any screen – simply swipe down from the top to find new apps, content or navigate to anything on the phone or the Web.
New navigation features to make multitasking intuitive, fluid and smart, much like how users interact with the Web. Users can easily swipe from the left and right edges to seamlessly move between pages, content and apps in a fun way that saves time.
Easy and direct sharing of content (and even software updates) in a secure way with NFC support, without the need for data or Wifi.
LTE support to make the mobile experience even faster.
Firefox OS will introduce Firefox Accounts and services. Firefox Accounts is a safe and easy way for users to create an account that enables them to sign in and take Firefox everywhere. With Firefox Accounts, Mozilla can better integrate services including Firefox Marketplace, Firefox Sync, backup, storage, or even a service to help locate, message or wipe a phone if it were lost or stolen.

As the platform evolves, Firefox OS will enable new technologies for the mobile industry. Mozilla is already leading the way in areas like gaming, privacy and security, WebRTC and other services. Firefox OS is a great platform for which partners can build additional services that meet the needs of their customers regionally and individually.

Early examples:

Telefonica offers a very helpful cost control app for customers to manage their usage and top off their account.
Deutsche Telekom just announced they are utilizing the deep levels of customization Firefox OS offers to develop new privacy features for the Future of Mobile Privacy project, a joint effort with Mozilla to create effective, user-driven privacy functionality for mobile devices.
WebRTC is an open, standards-based technology that enables operators to offer services like real time chat, image and file sharing. With WebRTC, operators can let users make calls to any desktop or mobile device, regardless of platform or service provider.

“We’re pleased to see the Firefox OS ecosystem grow so quickly as users, developers and partners come together to experience and build the future of mobile experiences,” said Andreas Gal, Mozilla Vice President of Mobile. “Firefox OS will continue to evolve and add more features to offer choice and customization that is unmatched by any other smartphone. We’re excited to see what other features and services will result from an open platform being contributed to by developers, partners and community around the world.”

About Mozilla
Mozilla has been a pioneer and advocate for the Web for more than 15 years. We create and promote open standards that enable innovation and advance the Web as a platform for all. Today, half a billion people worldwide use Mozilla Firefox to experience the Web on computers, tablets and mobile devices. With Firefox OS and
Firefox Marketplace, Mozilla is driving a mobile ecosystem built entirely on open Web standards, freeing mobile providers, manufacturers, developers and consumers from the limitations and restrictions imposed by proprietary platforms. For more information, visit http://www.mozilla.org.

For More information: https://blog.mozilla.org/press/kits/firefox-os/

New Developer Hardware and Tools Show Firefox OS Ecosystem Momentum [Mozilla Press Center, Feb 23, 2014]

Mozilla, the mission-based organization dedicated to keeping the power of the Web in people’s hands, today announced new developer reference hardware and tools that will continue to accelerate momentum around the Firefox OS ecosystem, making it cheaper, faster and easier for developers, operators and OEMs to deploy innovative Web apps and create personalized Firefox OS experiences.

Mozilla announced a 4.5” dual-core reference phone, enabling developers to test new Firefox OS features and apps against different memory configurations. It also expanded the Mozilla tablet program that helps developers test their apps and build out Firefox OS for tablets.

New Firefox OS developer tools and hardware demonstrate ecosystem momentum

New Firefox OS PhoneGap integration was also announced, allowing hundreds of thousands of PhoneGap developers to port their existing apps to Firefox OS in a matter of hours, while new WebAPIs will continue to narrow the gap between native and Web apps. At Mobile World Congress, Mozilla also launched developer tools that will allow OEMs and operators to easily customize Firefox OS for a variety of customer segments.

Developers have always been the key to driving innovation around the Web, and continue to enable it as a platform for app development and distribution. With these new reference devices, tools, and WebAPIs, Mozilla is catalyzing the growth of Web apps and continuing to break down the barriers and restrictions inflicted by other app ecosystems. The Web not only simplifies app development and reduces fragmentation, but allows developers to own the direct customer relationship with the option to host their own apps and or sell them through the Firefox Marketplace.

Vision Mobile recently published a report showing that developer interest for Firefox OS continues to grow, capturing 7% of developer mindshare in just six months. The report also highlighted that during Q1 2014, 52% of developers were already using HTML5 for mobile websites or Web apps with an additional 16% indicating their intention to join them.

A recent survey by Strategy Analytics found that the number of mobile app developers building for Firefox OS is expected to triple this year, showing the biggest rise in developer interest of any mobile platform.

This industry momentum is fueled by the fact that there are already millions of Web developers programming in HTML5 who are eager to target mobile without having to learn a new programming language, or pay engineers to target specific mobile platforms.

The following expanded reference hardware, tools, and WebAPIs, will continue to drive growth of the Firefox OS ecosystem and help prove why the Web is a powerful platform for app development and distribution:

New Reference Phone

At Mobile World Congress, Mozilla is showcasing its new developer reference phone, the Firefox OS Flame, enabling developers to test the capabilities of Firefox OS in a real environment with a mobile network and true hardware characteristics like the accelerometer, NFC and camera. Like the commercially available Firefox OS phones, the Flame developer reference phone is powered by a Qualcomm processor, in this instance a high powered 1.2GH dual core processor, so developers can test their more processor-intensive games and apps with ease. Developers looking to target their apps for specific Firefox OS phones with lower memory footprints also have the option to alter the RAM capacity of the Flame, from 1GB to 256MB, to see how their apps would perform on lower specked phones. The Flame also provides developers and early adopters with access to the latest Firefox OS builds to test nightly releases and contribute to the overall development platform.
Firefox OS Flame Specs (Reference device):

Qualcomm MSM8210 Snapdragon, 1.2GHZ Dual core [Cortex-A7 with Qualcomm Adreno 302 GPU] processor

4.5” screen (FWVGA 854×480 pixels)

Cameras: Rear: 5MP / Front: 2MP

3G UMTS quad-band (850/900/1900/2100)

8GB memory

256MB -1GB RAM (adjustable by developer)

A-GPS, NFC

Dual SIM support

Battery capacity: 1,800 mAh

WiFi: 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, Micro USB

Hundreds of Thousands of PhoneGap Users Can Now Target Firefox OS

Firefox OS will be supported in the next release of PhoneGap, the leading developer tool for building apps across platforms. This builds on the recently announced Firefox OS integration with Cordova, a popular Apache Foundation open source project that allows HTML5 applications to be packaged as native apps.

PhoneGap is a mobile application development framework used by hundreds of thousands of developers. It is based upon the open source Apache Cordova project and allows developers to write an app with HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and then deploy it to a wide range of mobile devices with the same capabilities as native apps. With the Firefox OS integration, developers can now port their existing PhoneGap apps to Firefox OS in a matter of hours, with minimal work. For more information, please see this Hacks post.

App Manager Simplifies App Development with Live Prototyping and Debugging

App Manager brings the Firefox Web developer tools to mobile app developers. It shows how the power of the Web helps developers test, deploy and debug Web apps on Firefox OS phones directly from their desktop. The Firefox Web developer tools are already used by millions of Web developers for creating Web pages, and now the App Manager extends these capabilities to mobile app creation, with the same familiar workflow. There is no SDK to download, developers simply use the App Manager as part of the integrated developer tools in the Firefox browser.

Because the App Manager and Firefox OS both use open Web technologies, debugging, live editing and prototyping is straightforward. For example, an operator or OEM may want to prototype different branded homescreen themes for different audiences. Using the App Manager, they can code this on their desktop and in real-time see the changes appear on their connected Firefox OS phone, eliminating lengthy build times. To see how this is done, please see this MDN article.

New WebAPIs and Industry Adoption

There are now more than 30 Mozilla-pioneered WebAPIs with at least eight new APIs introduced in the last year, including WebNFC and Data Store API. These new APIs build more functionality and features into the Web for app development. There is increasing industry adoption as these APIs move towards standardization. Samsung added the Vibration API and Battery Status API to WebKit, while tools like Apache Cordova and Adobe’s PhoneGap now integrate six of the most popular WebAPIs into their products.

Foxconn and VIA Join Tablet Contribution Program

Mozilla recently introduced a tablet contribution program aimed at accelerating the build of Firefox OS for tablets and its supporting ecosystem, with Foxconn as the first hardware partner.

As part of the Firefox OS tablet contribution program, VIA is offering a 7” Vixen reference tablet for developers around the world to help the Mozilla community complete the build of Firefox OS for tablets. Developers can now apply to be a part of this program from this Mozilla Hacks post.

Developer Reference Tablet Specifications:

VIA Vixen:

7’’ 1024×600 HD LCD screen
1.2 GHz Dual Core Cortex-A9 processor
ARM Mali-400 Dual-Processor GPU
8GB storage
1GB RAM
Cameras: Front 0.3 MP, Back 2.0 MP
Wifi: 802.11 b/g/n

Foxconn InFocus:

10” screen (1280 x 800 pixels, 24-bit color)
[Allwinner] A31 (ARM Cortex A7) Quad-Core 1.0GHz w/ PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU
16GB storage
2GB RAM
Cameras: Rear 5MP/ Front 2MP
A-GPS
Battery capacity: 7,000 mAh
WiFi: 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, Micro USB

“It’s clear that more and more developers are choosing the Web as their preferred development platform for mobile apps, as the technical gap between native and Web apps narrows,” said Brendan Eich, Mozilla CTO and SVP Engineering. “We listen to what developers are asking for to make the Web their primary development platform and think Mozilla and its partners have made significant progress with these new hardware, tools, and WebAPIs. It’ll be exciting to see what new mobile innovations come in 2014.”

Firefox OS Unleashes the Future of Mobile [Mozilla Press Center, Feb 23, 2014]

Mozilla, the mission-based organization dedicated to keeping the power of the Web in people’s hands, demonstrated the breadth and growth of its Firefox OS open mobile ecosystem at a press event on the eve of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The event introduced seven new commercial Firefox OS devices and highlighted advancements and partnerships that will enable the platform to scale up in 2014.

In the year since MWC 2013, Firefox OS devices have gone on sale in 15 markets with four global operators and handsets from three manufacturers. Firefox OS will be expanding into important new markets in 2014. Telefónica will build on the list of countries where it’s selling Firefox OS phones, with eight more launching this year: Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama. Deutsche Telekom will also add four new markets: Croatia, the Czech Republic, Macedonia and Montenegro.

Operator support for Firefox OS also continues to expand, as Telkomsel and Indosat have joined the list of 21 key operators across the globe that support the open Web device initiative. That list also includes partners announced last year : América Móvil, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Hutchison Three Group, KDDI, KT, MegaFon, Qtel, SingTel, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia Group, Telefónica, Telenor, Telstra, TMN and VimpelCom.

A new smartphone entry level
Spreadtrum has announced WCDMA and EDGE turnkey reference designs for Firefox OS as well as the industry’s first chipset for US$25 smartphones, the SC6821, that redefines the entry level for smartphones in key growth markets. These solutions are already creating a stir, with global operators such as Telenor, Telkomsel and Indosat, and ecosystem partners such as Polytron, T2Mobile and Thundersoft expressing interest.

“In six short months, Firefox OS has more than established itself in the very markets it aimed to address,” said John Jackson, VP of Mobility Research, IDC. “Today’s announcements underscore the platform’s rapid maturation and growing ecosystem benefits. New products, tools, categories, partners, features, and extraordinarily compelling price points will reinforce Firefox OS’s momentum into 2014. IDC expects year-on-year Firefox OS volumes will grow by a factor of six times in the smartphone category alone.”

Flexibility and customization
Firefox OS devices are the first devices built entirely to open Web standards, with every feature developed as an HTML5 application. Mozilla previewed the future of Firefox OS at its press event, demonstrating how its flexibility, scalability and powerful customization empower users, developers and industry partners to create the exact mobile experience they want. Carriers can easily and deeply customize the interface and develop localized services that match the unique needs of their customer base.

Deutsche Telekom is utilizing this customization to develop new Firefox OS features for the Future of Mobile Privacy project, a joint effort with Mozilla to bring data privacy closer to customers. The organizations’ privacy offices have been collaborating over the past year to conceptualize and develop new privacy features that are currently being tested for consideration in future Firefox OS releases.

Firefox OS is also expanding to additional form factors, as partners and contributors work to optimize the software for TVs, tablets and other devices. In January, Panasonic announced a partnership with Mozilla to release next-generation smart TVs powered by Firefox OS.

“Firefox OS is off to an amazing start. We launched our first smartphones in July, and have since expanded into fifteen markets,” said Jay Sullivan, chief operating officer of Mozilla. “People in Latin America and Eastern Europe have eagerly upgraded from their feature phones to Firefox OS smartphones and now have rich access to the Web and apps. Sales have far exceeded our targets. But 2013 was just the beginning. In 2014, we are differentiating our user experience and our partners are growing the portfolio of devices. We are also enabling a whole new category of smartphone, priced around $25, that will bring even more people around the world online.”

Streamlining the support process
Mozilla has received significant interest from mobile manufacturers looking to differentiate themselves by producing Firefox OS phones and tablets. To help service this demand and facilitate the next wave of device growth, Mozilla launched a new self – service partner portal to fast track manufacturers and streamline bringing devices to market. Manufacturers get all the resources and branding required to launch a Firefox OS device in one place.

In order to promote the success of this ecosystem, the Open Web Device Compliance Review Board (CRB) was formed by Mozilla and major global partners in late 2013. The CRB’s aim is to define and evolve the process of encouraging API compatibility and competitive performance for open Web devices.

Partner quotes
Marieta Rivero, Global Chief Marketing Officer at Telefónica, said: “We started marketing Firefox OS less than eight months ago, commencing with Spain and expanding to several Latin American countries. In a number of these countries, Firefox OS has been a market leader in smartphone sales from the very start. We’re transforming the market, and will continue focusing our efforts on open environments that give clients more freedom, and prices that are better suited to their possibilities. 2014 will undoubtedly be a key year for all of this.”

“The continuing rollout across our European markets is tangible proof of our drive to push Firefox OS, together with Mozilla and bring an open operating system to all of our customers,” said Thomas Kiessling, Chief Product & Innovation Officer at Deutsche Telekom. “The introduction of an even more affordable handset on the one hand and a higher-end model on the other also show we are reaching more market segments.”

“Telenor and our operating businesses have seen great consumer satisfaction and a continued appetite in the market for quality, low-cost products based on Firefox OS,” said Holger Hussmann, VP Device and OS at Telenor. “We are supportive and welcoming of the efforts of enabling vendors and device partners focused on serving this great, underserved market opportunity.”

Alistair Johnston, Director of Marketing for Telkomsel, said: “Telkomsel will support Mozilla with its Spreadtrum turnkey solution and device partner as an attempt to bring the smartphone to the palm of every Indonesian and to perform Telkomsel strategy to speed up and enrich the DNA (Device – Network – Application) ecosystem in Indonesia.”

President Director & CEO of Indosat, Alexander Rusli, said: “Indosat as the leading communications provider in Indonesia is ready for Firefox OS smartphones based on the Spreadtrum solution. This is in line with our strategy in 2014 to provide the best experience to our customers and become the customer’s preferred choice for smartphones and smart device users.”

“Polytron is announcing the intention of supporting the manufacturing, distribution, and promotion of Firefox OS smartphones based on Spreadtrum’s latest solution,” said Mr. Hariono, CEO of Polytron, Indonesia’s leading mobile device brand. “T2Mobile specializes in offering our customers the ability to rapidly address the needs of its customers in every segment of the wireless ecosystem,” said Aaron Zhang, CEO, T2Mobile, a leading ODM specializing in Firefox OS-based mobile solutions. “The creation of new Firefox OS and open Web devices will be further accelerated by these solutions and we are pleased to support these new offerings.”

“We are excited by the new and highly affordable possibilities enabled by Firefox OS,” said Hongfei Zhao, CEO, Thundersoft, a leading global technology and solutions provider that helps OEMs’ accelerate high quality product development and achieve fast time to market. “We have expanded our services in new areas including support for Firefox OS, enabling new and unique offerings in the mobile Internet device industry and ecosystem.”

More information
Opening remarks by Mitchell Baker, Executive Chair and Jay Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer

Please visit Mozilla and experience Firefox OS at stand 3C30 in Hall 3, at the Fira Gran Via, Barcelona from February 24-27, 2014.

For additional resources, such as high-resolution Firefox OS images and b-roll video, visit: https://blog.mozilla.org/press.

Device	Benefits
Micromax Dongle – MMX 377G (Benefits for 6 months)	Aircel customers can get exciting data benefits for 6 months at Rs. 141 [$2.31] For the first 3 months, customers will get 2GB/month data For the next 3 months – customers will get double data value for every recharge
Smartphones and Tablets (Benefits for 3 months)	1GB data per month 1.2P/2 sec Local Calling 1.2P/ sec STD Calling WAP content worth Rs. 10,000 [$164] Popkorn TV App Free
Data Enabled Feature Phones (Benefits for 3 months)	500MB data per month 1.2P/2 sec Local Calling Local. 1.2P/sec STD Calling WAP content worth Rs. 10,000 [$164]

Region	Shipments (M Units)
India	212.3
Middle East & Africa	150.0
Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan, China, and India)	140.7
Latin America	76.4
PRC	68.1
Central & Eastern Europe	43.6
Western Europe	39.8
North America	13.9
Total	744.9

Company	2013 Units	2013 Market Share (%)	2012 Units	2012 Market Share (%)
Samsung	299,794.9	31.0	205,767.1	30.3
Apple	150,785.9	15.6	130,133.2	19.1
Huawei	46,609.4	4.8	27,168.7	4.0
LG Electronics	46,431.8	4.8	25,814.1	3.8
Lenovo	43,904.5	4.5	21,698.5	3.2
Others	380,249.3	39.3	269,526.6	39.6
Total	967,775.8	100.0	680,108.2	100.0

Company	4Q13 Units	4Q13 Market Share (%)	4Q12 Units	4Q12 Market Share (%)
Samsung	83,317.2	29.5	64,496.3	31.1
Apple	50,224.4	17.8	43,457.4	20.9
Huawei	16,057.1	5.7	8,666.4	4.2
Lenovo	12,892.2	4.6	7,904.2	3.8
LG Electronics	12,822.9	4.5	8,038.8	3.9
Others	106,937.9	37.9	75,099.3	36.2
Total	282,251.7	100.0	207,662.4	100.0

Operating System	2013 Units	2013 Market Share (%)	2012 Units	2012 Market Share (%)
Android	758,719.9	78.4	451,621.0	66.4
iOS	150,785.9	15.6	130,133.2	19.1
Microsoft	30,842.9	3.2	16,940.7	2.5
BlackBerry	18,605.9	1.9	34,210.3	5.0
Other OS	8,821.2	0.9	47,203.0	6.9
Total	967,775.8	100.0	680,108.2	100.0

Monthly Archives: March 2014

Mobile ad spending on pace to reach $31.45 billion this year

Details:

Tango’s Latest News: A Vision of The Future and a $280M Funding Round [by Uri and Eric in Tango Me Blog, March 19, 2014], note that my inserts below are from TANGO AT-A-GLANCE [company fact sheet, March 19, 2014] and the TangoME YouTube channel

More on Tango as it is:

Telegram

Wickr

Line

Kik

Tango

Breaking Up Is Hard

Your Brother machine (MFP/Document scanner) can scan images and upload them to OneNote and OneDrive directly without going through a PC.

Capture the things that are important to you while you are on the go by emailing them directly to your notebook! Send documents, notes, itineraries, and so much more to me@onenote.com and we will put them into your OneNote notebook, where you can access them from all of your devices.

Feedly focuses on making reading the web a little faster, better. The Feedly OneNote integration makes it easy for people to save great articles they found in their Feedly reader into their OneNote notebook.

Genius Scan is a scanner in your pocket. It enables you digitize paper documents, create PDF files and immediately store them in OneNote.

IFTTT lets you create powerful connections with one simple statement – if this then that. Use the OneNote Channel on IFTTT to create and share recipes that automatically create pages, sync content, and connect over 80 other products and services.

Mod notebooks are physical notebooks that are scanned, digitized and backed up to the cloud once completed. Each page of completed notebooks can be synced to OneNote and saved forever.?

Coming soon!

News360 is a free personalized news app that learns what you like and gets smarter the more you use it. With more than 100,000+ sources, there is always something interesting to read, and you can save your favorite stories directly to OneNote with a tap of a button.

The OneNote Clipper lets you save webpages from your browser into your OneNote notebooks. In just one click, it helps you capture things quickly and remember more in your life.

Your news, personalized. Get the free Weave News Reader app for Windows 8 and start saving your favorite news articles to OneNote today!

Tablet Application Processor Vendors for Chinese TabletsSource: Compilations of China’s industry data

Spreadtrum’s Relationships

Intel Priority

New Chips

Qualcomm’s Edge

– The number of active smart devices in China exceeded 700 Million by the end of 2013.

– The five fastest growing mobile apps categories (excluding games) are : news, health & fitness, social networking, business, and navigation. These areas will bring new opportunities for developers in 2014.

– Social network sharing in game has become incredibly popular on all social networking platforms, 48% of in app sharing traffic to social networks are from games.

– High-end devices (pricing above 500US$) have a significant market share in China, contributing 27% of total devices. These users have dynamic needs on mobile apps . The users of below 150US$ phones prefer casual games for their entertainment requirements.

– The year of 2013 became known as the first year Chinese developers took IP seriously with many developers licensing IP from rights holders. By the end of 2013, among the Top 100 games, 20% license 3rd party IP.

– Over the course of 2013 the percentage of iOS jailbroken devices in the Chinese Mainland fell by 17% to 13% of all devices. Domestic users are becoming more hesitant to jailbreak their devices.

…

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2013 (Thousands of Units)

Company

2013

Units

2013 Market Share (%)

2012

Units

2012 Market Share (%)

Samsung

299,794.9

31.0

205,767.1

30.3

Apple

150,785.9

15.6

130,133.2

19.1

Huawei

46,609.4

4.8

27,168.7

4.0

LG Electronics

46,431.8

4.8

25,814.1

3.8

Lenovo

43,904.5

4.5

21,698.5

3.2

Others

380,249.3

39.3

269,526.6

39.6

Total

967,775.8

100.0

680,108.2

100.0

Source: Gartner (February 2014)

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 4Q13 (Thousands of Units)

Company

4Q13

Tablet Application Processor Vendors for Chinese Tablets
Source: Compilations of China’s industry data