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Intel CTE initiative: Bay Trail-Entry V0 (Z3735E and Z3735D) SoCs are shipping next week in $129 Onda (昂达) V819i Android tablets—Bay Trail-Entry V2.1 (Z3735G and Z3735F) SoCs might ship in $60+ Windows 8.1 tablets from Emdoor Digital (亿道) in the 3d quarter
Update: At 19:40 on April 14 from the 昂达微博 Onda microblogging
[Detailed background information on Onda you can can can find on the ONDA page of my other, ‘USD 99 Allwinner’ blog. Note as well the neostra ODM/OEM brand which is owned by Onda as it’s manufacturing base.]
# Onda Tablet PC & Intel 64 # [notice] April 21, Onda first Intel 64 Bay Trail-T quad-core tablet quad-core # # Onda V975i , 1099 yuan [$177] / 32GB! 50 can be stored in advance and are now starting to use arrived 100 yuan purchase! 9.7 inches iPad Air retina screen, 64 1.83GHz quad-core CPU, the strongest 64-bit tablet bunker! Starting snapped → Onda V975i “special” double 50 yuan deposit payment in exchange for 100 yuan photographed determine coupon @ Intel China @ Intel Core Collection of
Details about the Onda V975i shipping from April 21st see after the Onda V819i (shipping from April 14th) details given much below! End of update
Existing local tablet brands working with Intel were BYD, Ramos and Teclast so far. With CTE (China Technical Ecosystem) initiative now they have 14 partners, not only local brands but local IDHs (Independent Design Houses) and OEMs/ODMs as well, as will be presented very soon below (other subjects following that correspond to the other terms that you find in title of the post):
From 英特尔的中国白牌平板之路 (Chinese white-box tablet roadmap by Intel) [中国经济网深圳频道 (China Economic Net Shenzhen Channel), April 3, 2014]
…
Intel and low-cost Android [and Windows] tablet reference design roadmap (Source Intel)
- Clover Trail+, Dual Core, Android: Z2580 2GHz, Z2520 1.2GHz, LPDDR2, 8L1 HDI2
(Note that Intel was pressed to use the Clover Trail+ for tablets instead of smartphones as it was originally envisaged. See in Saving Intel: next-gen Intel ultrabooks for enterprise and professional markets from $500; next-gen Intel notebooks, other value devices and tablets for entry level computing and consumer markets from $300 [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, April 17, 2013].) - BayTrail-T, Quad Core, Windows: Z3745D 1.83 GHz, 19×12 LCD, DDR3L, 8L1 HDI2
(3d party AM? Dual Boot solution available) - BayTrail-Entry V0, Quad Core, Android:
Z3735D (1.83GHz, <=2GB, <=19×12 LCD),
Z3735E (1.83GHz, 1GB, <=12×8)
DDR3L, 8L1 HDI2 - BayTrail-Entry V2.1, Quad Core, Android:
Z3735F (1.83GHz, <=2GB, <=19×12 LCD),
Z3735G (1.83GHz, 1GB, <=12×8)
DDR3L, 6L1 type 3 PCB - BayTrail-Entry V2.1, Quad Core, Windows
[note that the Windows-based SoC version started sampling in beginning of April vs. the Android based one in mid February]:
Z3735F (1.83GHz, <=2GB, <=19×12 LCD),
Z3735G (1.83GHz, 1GB, <=12×8)
DDR3L, 6L1 type 3 PCB
1 8L PCB = 8-layer PCB; 6L PCB = 6-layer PCB
2 HDI—High Density Interconnects (aka Type 4) PCBs are defined as PCBs utilizing blind, buried or microvia technologies. A blind via is drilled from the surface layer with an end target on an internal layer while a buried via is only drilled on internal layers and does not exist on the surface layers. A microvia is commonly referred to as a via with a hole diameter of 0.005’ or less. (Source: PCB Stack-up Overview for Intel® Architecture Platforms Layout and Signal Integrity Considerations, Intel Thainland, December 2008)
In 2013 Intel launched the CTE program, where “the CTE acronym stands for China
TechniqueTechnical Ecosystem, which can be understood as Chinese technology ecosystem environment and Chinese white-box industry chain”, an alliance of fourteen local tablet manufacturers in Shenzhen including 比亚迪-BYD (Build Your Dreams), 实义德-THD (Thread Technology Co. Ltd.), 创智成-CZC, 汉普-Hampoo, 亿道-Emdoor [Digital] (Emdoor Digital Technology Co. Ltd.), 德天-Techvision (德天信息技术有限公司-Techvision Information Technology Co., Ltd.), 蓝魔–Ramos, 台电–Teclast (Teclast Electronics Co, Ltd), 广和通–Fibocom (Fibocom Wireless Inc.), 微步–Wibtek3 (Weibu) (Weibu Electronics Co., Ltd), 天智伟业–Wisky (Shenzhen Wisky Technology Co Ltd), 炜疆–Range (炜疆信息技术有限公司-Range Information Technology Co., Ltd.), and so on.
3 Wibtek (Weibu) is a Top 1 design house, dedicated in DIY solution products over 13 years with 10 million units MB shipment per year.
– Founded: 2001
– Group Employees: over 1000
– HQ: Shenzhen China
– R&D Force: 500+ engineers
Because of a global brand need, Wibtek is established by TAIWANESE people who were working for A BRAND in the past. Wibtek is currently producing All In One, Mini PC and Motherboards at this moment. As because our profession is motherboard design we easily can claim that Wibtek: “AIO by ITX professionals”.
The below table (taken from Z3600 and Z3700 Series Datasheet as of April 2014 when Type 3 SoC related information was added) is giving the rest of the specific information:
In Brian M. Krzanich IDF14 Shenzhen keynote
[April 2, 2014]
- Demonstrates Intel SoFIA for the first time just months after adding the new family of integrated Intel® Atom™-based mobile SoCs for entry and value smartphones and tablets to its roadmap.
From Intel CEO Outlines New Computing Opportunities, Investments and Collaborations with Burgeoning China Technology Ecosystem [press release, April 2, 2014]
As 4G LTE service expands in China, Intel is well-positioned to provide a growing share of LTE chipsets. Intel’s 2014 LTE platform, the Intel® XMM™ 7260, meets the five-mode requirement of China Mobile* today, including support for TD-LTE, and TD-SCDMA protocols required in China.
Intel is actively engaged in China for certification of the Intel XMM 7260, paving the way for commercial availability in the second half of 2014 for performance and mainstream device market segments. Krzanich demonstrated the Intel XMM 7260 by conducting the first public, live call using China Mobile’s TD-LTE network, and spoke to strong ecosystem demand for a competitive LTE alternative.
Intel is also developing its SoFIA family of integrated mobile SoCs for entry and value smartphones and tablets. Krzanich demonstrated the family’s first silicon, booting up the new integrated Intel® Atom™ platform just months after adding the product to its ultra-mobile roadmap. He also noted the strategic opportunity these market segments present for Intel and the China technology ecosystems. Intel’s SoFIA 3G platform is on track to ship to OEMs in the fourth-quarter of 2014.
Krzanich also said that Intel is on track to ship 40 million tablets this year, and showcased a variety of innovative designs developed in China by OEMs and ODMs.
From Mobile Innovation With Intel Inside by Hermann Eul [IDF14 Shenzhen, April 3, 2014]
The general tablet roadmap was presemted as follows:
Intel reportedly places 28nm chip orders with TSMC, Globalfoundries and UMC [DIGITIMES, Jan 9, 2014]
Intel has contracted Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to manufacture its forthcoming Atom mobile processor series codenamed SoFIA, and also placed orders for entry-level baseband chips with Globalfoundries and United Microelectronics (UMC), according to industry sources.
The contract chipmakers declined to comment on customer orders.
Intel’s SoFIA SoCs designed for entry-level smartphones and tablets will be built using TSMC’s 28nm HKMG process technology, said the sources. As for the other series of Atom SoCs codenamed Broxton, Intel will use its 14nm FinFET process to make the chips targeting high-end mobile devices.
Intel has also placed orders for entry-level baseband chips with Globalfoundries and UMC, using their respective 28nm PolySiON process nodes, the sources indicated. Initial shipments required by Intel are estimated at 7,000-8,000 wafers monthly.
Globalfoundries will first be the primary contract chipmaker for Intel’s 28nm baseband chips, the sources noted. Nevertheless, Intel is likely to release more orders to UMC later in 2014 when the Taiwan foundry improves its 28nm production yield rates, the sources said.
More information:
– IDF14 Shenzhen: Intel is levelling the Wintel playing field with Android-ARM by introducing new competitive Windows tablet price points from $99 – $129 [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, April 4, 2014]
– The long awaited Windows 8.1 breakthrough opportunity with the new Intel “Bay Trail-T”, “Bay Trail-M” and “Bay Trail-D” SoCs? [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Sept 14, 2013]
– Form Factor and Average Power Innovations for Ultrabooks™
[April 10, 2013 presentation by Intel at the IDF Beijing] with the following abstract:
Intended Audience: OEMs and ODMs – Motherboard Layout Designers, Power Delivery, and Power Management Architects
In this session we propose methods to improve, form factor, battery capacity, and power consumption for Ultrabook™ devices. We show how High Density Interconnects (HDI) Printed Circuit Boards could free up considerable space for more battery and other features, especially in thinner Ultrabooks. We show current practices with HDI and propose better ways to achieve higher mother board area reduction to close the cost gap between type 3 and type 4 (HDI) designs. For power consumption, we also show design methods to reduce average power, especially by reducing platform idle power.
and agenda:
- What is HDI?
- Benefits of HDI in Form Factor Constrained Systems
- Reducing the Cost of HDI
- Reducing Platform Power
- Thermal management an Power Configurability
From Designing Entry and Value Tablets Based on the Intel Platform, Bay Trail – Entry [IDF14 TABS002 session, April 3, 2014] downloadable presentation (PDF)
- Stella Huang – Product Marketing Manager, Intel Corporation
- James Sheng – Planning Manager for Component Catalog, Intel Corporation
- Danny Zhang – Senior Engineering Manager, Intel Corporation
This session includes an in-depth review of the status and plans for the Intel® platform, Bay Trail – Entry, Intel’s first platform focused entirely on Entry and Value Tablets.
Topics include:
- Master Reference Design, component catalog and hardware and software differentiation
- Development and manufacturing tools
- Schedule and Original Device Manufacturers (ODMs) support model
1 MRD7 and MRD8/10 are Android* only. Windows is for selected ODMs with committed volume.
Imperatives for Master Reference Design (MRD) Development and Scaling
- Master reference design for simultaneous scaling @ multiple ODMs with fast time to market
- Tailor-made to enable flexible and fast changes with CTE friendly component catalogue
- Enable differentiation to drive value beyond low cost
- Manufacturing tools to ensure easy mass production process
Intel Platform, Bay Trail–Entry Component Catalogue Goal
- Strengthen Intel Architecture partnership with CTE hardware ecosystem
- Improve platform competitiveness, demonstrate performance and flexibility
- Shorten time to market and enable product variety
- Reduce project and supply chain risk
- Enable partners to support customer design directly
Intel software ecosystem enabling efforts
< from slide #22 to slide #36>
Intel tools for development and manufacturing
< from slide #38 to slide #41>
今天 17:59 Today [2014-04–11] 17:59
昂达微博 Onda microblogging
[Detailed background information on Onda you can can can find on the ONDA page of my other, ‘USD 99 Allwinner’ blog. Note as well the neostra ODM/OEM brand which is owned by Onda as it’s manufacturing base.]
# 64 Onda first Android tablet # [first] New Intel Bay Trail-T’s first quad-core tablet # # Onda V819i quad-core will soon at @ Jingdong
@ Jingdong computer digital sale! 16GB is only 799 yuan [$129]! 8.0-inch 1280 × 800 IPS screen ultra-clear, 64 of Bay Trail-T 22nm quad-core CPU, PC-class 7th generation GPU, 64-Bit Flat Panel “core” era! Starting snapped → http://t.cn/8sCvvnD @ Intel China
@ Intel Core Collection of
Onda V819i Intel Bay Trail-T 8 Inch IPS Screen Quad Core Android Tablet PC
[Onda Tablet – Buy Products, April 4, 2014]
SKU:820026
Regular Price:$189.90
Special Price: $159.90Quick Overview
Onda V819i Intel Tablet pre-installed with Quad Core 64-bit 22nm Bay Trail-T 1.83GHz Processor [3735E Bay Trail-Entry V0], with 1280*800 IPS Screen, Dual Camera.
…
Qty: … Pre-order
Shipping within 1-2 Weeks
…
From Boris at 4/2/14 11:44 AM
- Can I be notified when Onda V819i will be in stock?
Thanks.- Onda Tablet:
Thank you for your mail.
Onda V819i Intel Tablet will be in stock at the end of April.…
Details
Onda V819i Intel Tablet pre-installed with Quad Core 64-bit 22nm Bay Trail-T 1.83GHz Processor [3735E Bay Trail-Entry V0], with
1024*7681280*800 IPS Screen, Dual Camera.
Onda V819i Quad Core features Intel Bay Trail-T Z3735 processor, 1.83GHz.
DDR3 L RAM, eMMC up to 150MB/s
8.0 Inch HD IPS Gorilla Glass Touch Screen
189PPI IPS Screen with 1280*800 resolution
Onda ROM
Onda V819i Intel Tablet Features:
OS: Android 4.2
CPU: Intel 3735E [Bay Trail-Entry V0] Quad Core 64-bit Bay Trail-T, 22nm, 1.86GHz, support Burst Technology 2.0
GPU: Intel HD Graphics for BayTrail
RAM 1GB 64bit DDR3L
Storage 16GB eMMC
Bluetooth: Support
Shell Material Metal
Screen: Capacitive Touchscreen, 1280*800 High-resolution Screen
Size: 8 inch
Resolution: 1280*800 Pixels (16:10)
Display: IPS Screen
Dual Camera: 2.0MP Front + 5.0MP Back with AutoFocus (OV Camera)Onda V819i Intel Tablet Details:
Speakers: Dual AAC Speaker
TF Card: Support up to 128GB
Video: 4K HD Videp Play with formats of MP4/3GP/3G2/RM/RMVB/ASF/FLAC/APE/MOV etc.
Gravity Sensor Yes
Skype Yes
Multi-Touch Yes, 10 points touch
OTG: Yes
HDMI: Yes, Mini HDMI
Play Store: Yes, built in
Extend Card Support TF card up to 128GB extended
Email and Browser: Yes, built in
WIFI: Yes, 802.11 b/g/n
Earphone Interface 3.5mm
Video 1080P, AVI/MOV/MP4/RMVB/FLV/MKV…
Music MP3/WMA/WAV/APE/AAC/FLAC/OGG
Ebook UMD, TXT, PDF, HTML, RTF, FB2…
Battery : Li-ion 4200mAHOnda V819i Intel Tablet contain:
1 x Onda V819i Intel Tablet
1 x USB cable
1 x ChargerOnda V819i Intel Tablet Weight: 354g
Onda V819i Intel Tablet Size: 207*122.5*8.5mm
Update: At 19:40 on April 14 from the 昂达微博 Onda microblogging
# Onda Tablet PC & Intel 64 # [notice] April 21, Onda first Intel 64 Bay Trail-T quad-core tablet quad-core # # Onda V975i , 1099 yuan [$177] / 32GB! 50 can be stored in advance and are now starting to use arrived 100 yuan purchase! 9.7 inches iPad Air retina screen, 64 1.83GHz quad-core CPU, the strongest 64-bit tablet bunker! Starting snapped → Onda V975i “special” double 50 yuan deposit payment in exchange for 100 yuan photographed determine coupon @ Intel China @ Intel Core Collection of
Onda V975i Quad Core Intel Bay Trail-T 9.7 Inch Retina Screen RAM 2GB Tablet PC [Onda Tablet – Buy Products, April 14, 2014]
SKU:820027
Regular Price:$219.90
Special Price: $209.90Quick Overview
Onda V975i Quad Core pre-installed with Intel Bay Trail-T 61-bit Processor [3735D Bay Trail-Entry V0], with 22nm and 1.83GHz, 2GB RAM DDR3L and 32GB eMMC ROM,9.7 Inch Retina Screen 2048*1536 resolution 264 Screen PPI. Onda V975i come with Front 2.0M and Back 5.0M Dual Camera.
…
Qty: … Pre-orderShipping within 1-2 Weeks
…Details
Onda V975i Quad Core pre-installed with Intel Bay Trail-T 61-bit Processor [3735D Bay Trail-Entry V0], with 22nm and 1.83GHz, 2GB RAM DDR3L and 32GB eMMC ROM, 9.7 Inch Retina Screen 2048*1536 resolution 264 Screen PPI.Onda V975i come with Front 2.0M and Back 5.0M Dual Camera.
Intel Z3735 Quad Core 64 bit 1.83GHz
8.5mm Ultra-thin
9.7 Inch Retina Screen Android Tablet with 495g
HD OV Camera with Auto Focus
Front 2.0M and Back 5.0M HD Camera
Top 9.7 Inch Retina Screen
9.7 Inch iPad Air Retina Screen with 267 Screen PPi, Gorilla Glass Touch Screen
Onda V975i Quad Core Tablet Features:
OS: Android 4.2
CPU: 64-bit Bay Trail-T Z3735D [Bay Trail-Entry V0], 22nm,1.83GHz, support Burst Technology 2.0
GPU: Gen7,support DirectX 11
RAM 2GB DDR3L
Storage 32GB eMMC
Bluetooth: Support
Shell Material Metal
Screen: Capacitive Touchscreen, 2048*1536 High-resolution Screen
Size: 9.7 inch
Resolution: 2048*1536 Pixels
Visible Angle: 178°
Screen PPI: 264
Display: Retina IPS Screen
Daul Camera: Front 2.0 Megapixels, Back 5.0 Megapixels Auto FoucusOnda V975i Quad Core Tablet Details:
Speakers: Dual AAC Speaker
Video: hd Video Play with formats of MP4/3GP/3G2/RM/RMVB/ASF/FLAC/APE/MOV etc.
Gravity Sensor Yes
Skype Yes
Multi-Touch Yes, 10 points touch
OTG: Yes
Play Store: Yes, built in
Extend Card Support TF card up to 32GB extended
Email and Browser: Yes, built in
WIFI: Yes, 802.11 b/g/n
Earphone Interface 3.5mm
Video 1080P, AVI/MOV/MP4/RMVB/FLV/MKV…
Music MP3/WMA/WAV/APE/AAC/FLAC/OGG
Ebook UMD, TXT, PDF, HTML, RTF, FB2…
Battery : 7800 mAhOnda V975i Quad Core Tablet contain:
1 x Onda V975i Quad Core Intel Tablet
1 x USB cable
1 x ChargerOnda V975i Quad Core Weight: 495g
Onda V975i Quad Core Size: 241*169*8.5mm
End of update
From 亿道将推低于399元的Windows平板 (Emdoor will be pushing Windows tablet down to 399 yuan [$60]) [平板新闻 (PadNews), April 8, 2014] one can see the following roadmap from the company for 2014:
Currently its three 8-inch Windows 8.1 based tablets: EM-I8080-A, EM-I8080-C, EM-I8180 are already in mass production. And now Microsoft Windows system with tablets of 9-inch and less size has started free, which makes its three 8-inch Windows tablets more competitive.
In addition Emdoor will launch in the second quarter of this year a 10.1-inch Windows Tablet program supporting 3G/4G network, and a 10.1 inch 3G/4G tablet based on BayTrail-T CR [Cost Reduced] V0 version. In the second quarter it will also launch an 8-inch BayTrail-T CR V0 quad-core 3G tablet, the whole[sale] price will be around $ 139. In the end of the second quarter it will launch an 8-inch BayTrail-T CR V2 3G quad-core tablet, when prices will be further reduced to between $ 99-119. More awesome is that in the third quarter Emdoor will launch a 7 -inch BayTrail-T CR V2 quad-core 3G tablet, and the price will be lower than $99. Obviously in the WiFi-only version of the above scenario the price will be lower.
The current 50K shipment of Emdoor isn’t much, but for the company it is simply a starting point. At the launch party Emdoor also announced this year’s goal: 1KK, namely the 2014 Intel tablet shipments program to reach 1 million units, becoming the market leading Intel tablet IDH. Obviously, this is not small, in order to achieve it is really difficult. How Emdoor will be achieving this?
Emdoor’s approach can be summarized in three points: 1, constantly updated product technology and creating more product forms; 2, the establishment of a sound quality system, providing customers with better product quality; 3, for the continuous optimization of product cost it will introduce a $60 tablet this year. Here the US $60 tablet PC should be referring to that of Emdoor launching in the third quarter a 7-inch BayTrail-T CR V2 quad-core tablet, as the 3G version priced at only $99, then the price of the WiFi only version should be at around $ 60. Here we must add that BayTrail-T CR supports Windows System.
The $60 Tablet PC means that for less than 399 yuan you can buy a Windows tablet, the price really is a little scary. If it really can do at this price, then it will be able completely compete with an ARM-based Android tablet head-on. And an Android tablet does not have the advantage of full compatibility with PC programs. Plus the Intel and Microsoft brands, I believe, will attract a large number of consumers. And with this it will probably be possible to change the current ARM tablet market, a dominant pattern. But before the product is actually listed it’s hard to say, because the outcome will also depend on the specific market feedback.
Intel pre-CTE background in China:
As of 2013
From China tablet/smartphone chain: Leaders emerge but plenty to play for [Supply Chain Research by Credit Suisse, Oct 15, 2013]
… The China tablet market is also seeing Intel engage more on building reference designs with local players, with several solution houses and local brands rolling out Windows+Android 7-10” tablets for $150-250 factory price for tablets and $300-$350 for tablet + keyboard Win8 + Android models. …
…
Intel engaging local tablet suppliers more closely. Intel is putting more energy on penetrating the low-cost tablet market and now has reference models from design houses such as Emdoor and smaller branded companies including Ramos and Vido. The company is offering a thin and light reference design based on Clover Trail now with Bay Trail rolling out in the next 3 months. Factory price for 10” with keyboard ranges from $250-300 for Android and $300-$350 for Android + Wintel. 7.85” tablets are from Intel are now appearing at US$150 factory price, the high-end of the US$50-135 range for tablets based on Mediatek or the Chinese chipset suppliers. We are seeing more effort from Intel to penetrate several of these design houses on tablets, though presence is still very limited at the local smartphone suppliers.
Emdoor Digital background:
As of 2013
Emdoor Digital participates China Sourcing Fair in Hong Kong with multi-platform solutions [press release, Oct 12, 2013]
Emdoor Digital participated China Sourcing Fair in Hong Kong on October 12-15, 2013 with multi-platform solutions. Emdoor Digital unveiled the latest Intel X86 architecture -based tablet solution, ARM Rockchips 3026 and 3168 -based architecture solution. There is also more mature amlogic tablet solution which is already in high-volume production, Marvell 3G call tablet solution, more tablet solutions targeted at different industries, Miracast, TV boxes, TV stick and other products.
《Scene photos I》
《Scene photos II》
Intel Dual System Tablet solution is undoubtedly the major popular model during this exhibition, X86-based Intel Baytrail-T quad-core tablet solution, 1.8GHz, support windows8.1 & android4.2.2 dual system, 10.1 inch, 8 inch two models, this is the world’s first prototype based on Intel Baytrail-T, the mature sampling will be available in the end of October and Mass production in November.
《Intel tablet solution》[based on Z3740D]
Intel leaders from different regions and countries visit and guide at Emdoor Digital Booth.
《 Intel Leaders’visit》ARM architecture-based RK3026 is the latest models target at lower-end market, RK3168 for higher-end market, both are undoubtedly the models lead the dual-core market.
《EM-R3170&EM-R6270》For the higher end market, Emdoor Digital has RK3188, M802, large size, thinner and lighter is the characteristics of these models.
《8”、9.7”、 10.1”》For Mass production and most stable performance, Emdoor Digital has full-size models of amlogic AML8726-MXS/MXL chip solution; all 7 inch, 8 inch, 9 inch, 10.1-inch types pass the GMS certification.
《 Amlogic series models》For 3G and calling market, Emdoor Digital has Marvell PXA986 dual-core, PXA1088 quad-core tablet solutions, Phablet, narrow flat border is a major highlight which is also the future market trends.
《3G Phablet》We can see some special tablets customized for different industries on Emdoor Digital booth, POS machines has intelligent cash system, supports NFC, mobile phone , bank card and magnetic card payments manner. And other industrial applications tablets of RFID, Zigbee / Z-wave, etc.
《Industry Solution》There are also TV box, TV dongle , Miracast, etc.
《 Other products》During this Hong Kong exhibition, Emdoor Digital presents multi-platform solutions with numerous product forms, which is undoubtedly one of the booths with rich content, different products for different markets, which is attraction for all buyers on site.
About Emdoor Digital:
Emdoor Digital is in charge of R&D of Emdoor. Officially founded in 2010, Emdoor Digital symbolizes the important start for Emdoor to increase research investment and focus on consumer product development and standard operation. Emdoor Digital is one of the earliest teams engaging in tablet PC research, which targets at consumer digital product and solution research and production. At present, it is one of the largest tablet PC main board and ODM/OEM suppliers in Shenzhen.
MID solution of Emdoor Digital uses international famous chip processor and intel X86 architecture, the latest ARM architecture with strong CPU function.
– The latest Android system is adopted, support powerful third-party software.
– It employs full-touch screen design with resolution covering 800*480 to 1280*800 capacitive multi-touch screen.
– Built-in WIFI and 3G module (WCDMA/EVDO/TDSCDMA) and GPS module are available.
– Browsing websites, checking email, QQ/MSN/SKYPK online chatting, online games, online TV, stocks, funds and futures, real-time stock market monitoring, real-time transaction and so on.
– It is supportive to more office software such as WORD, EXCEL, PPT, PDF, TXT etc.
– It is supportive to various mainstream audio, video, picture, Flash plug-ins and multiple game clusters.
– It supports 48 languages and 3G parameters from 28 countries.
– All solutions adopt ultra-low power consumption but strong power management design, which have stable performance, high yield, fast delivery and good service.
About Emdoor Group:
One of the top 10 embedded system enterprises of the top 100 IOT enterprises in China in 2010;
One of the top 10 embedded system enterprises in China in 2010;
One of the earliest companies in the world that are engaged in research, development and design of MID tablet PCs;
Member of IOT Expert Committee of Chinese Institute of Electronics;
Golden partner of Microsoft
Partner of ARM chip design tool, development tool, ATC training and education
Domestic agent of ARM for development tools and chip-level development board.
Designated supplier of ARM hardware platform for 2006 National Undergraduate Electronic Design Contest; won “Special Contribution Award” of Ministry of Education and Ministry of Information
Its software/hardware co-design system of R&D management system EmTeam won “EDN China” innovation award for 2010;
Emdoor possesses three subsidiaries: Emdoor Electronics, Emdoor Digital and Emdoor Information, which engage in R&D tool, tablet PC and industrial terminal R&D and sales respectively. Emdoor has attached great importance to R&D management, embedment, mobile Internet and Internet of Things for a long time and been devoted to embedment industrial chain in China, providing professional and individualized service and support to customers in chip development tool, EDA development tool, embedment development tool, embedded platform and solution, embedded software test tool, ODM/OEM, embedment training and so on, thus helping customers and global partners to achieve success.
Emdoor has increased investment in independent R&D though making great achievement in independent tablet PC R&D. With the great support of Fudan Technology Venture Park, Emdoor has established Internet of Things R&D Center, Android System R&D Center (Relocated to Shenzhen with a new name Shenzhen Emdoor Information Technology Co., Ltd.) in Shanghai by the end of 2010.
Emdoor Shanghai Internet of Things R&D Center is the new development of Emdoor’s 5-year research in Internet of Things, making wireless sensor networking technology and practical new sensor technology commercialized.
Relying on mature tablet PC R&D platform of Emdoor Digital, Shenzhen Emdoor Information Technology Co., Ltd. has furthered developed a series of industrial tablet solution, such as Zigbee tablet, NFC tablet, RFID tablet, Z-Wave tablet, one dimensional barcode, two dimensional barcode, Infrared Spectroscopy, custom-made industrial tablet, and multiple Internet of Things solutions. It realizes standardized module production based on mature product architecture, enabling itself to create custom-made functions with simple module configuration according to the demand of the project.
As of 2012
http://www.emdoor.com/ Emdoor Electronics 亿道电子
Emdoor Zigbee Z Wave Tablet Introduction [qing shi YouTube channel, Sept 5, 2012]
Emdoor NFC Tablet Peer To Peer Introduction [qing shi YouTube channel, Sept 5, 2012]
Emdoor shows $140 9.7″ and $85 7″ Telechips 8803 ARM Cortex-A8 ICS Tablets [Charbax YouTube channel, Jan 13, 2012]
Emdoor Digital Company Brief: [as of August 2012]
Emdoor Digital subordinate to Emdoor Group is responsible for R&D of Emdoor Group. Emdoor Digital was established in 2010, which symbolized the start that Emdoor Group increased the investment in R&D and its long-term devotion to R&D and standardized operation of the consumer goods. It is positioned for the R&D and production of the digital consumer goods and solutions, with the aim to becoming one of the largest tablet personal computer mainboard and ODM/OEM suppliers in Shenzhen.
Emdoor Digital takes up the R&D team and quintessence of tablet personal computer since 2004, particularly since 2008, having had a specialized R&D team with perfect technology and rich experience since its very start. During the past six years, this team has designed the high-speed ARM embedded processors of Intel/Marvell Xscale PXA255/PXA270/PXA272/PXA310/PXA320 series based on high-speed ARM processors, and it is the largest third-party design team in China for the previous Intel embedded processor with Xscale ARM architecture, good at the substrate design of the software such as Linux, Android, WinCE5.0/6.0 and Windows Mobile operating systems, and having completed the design of multiple customized product solutions.
It is noteworthy that since 2004, Emdoor all the time supported Intel University Program covering the laboratories in Category-A schools of higher education, such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, Xidian University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Tongji University, Fudan University, Zhejiang University, Nankai University, Nanjing University and South China University of Technology, till Intel sold this business to Marvell in 2006. During nearly 8 years from 2003 till 2011, Emdoor education platform and teaching scheme has been purchased by National-level Electrotechnic and Electronic Experiment Demonstration Center of Xidian University, and the embedded laboratories or electrotechnic and electronic experiment centers in almost all schools of higher education (including higher vocational and training colleges).
Emdoor Digital MID Solution Brief:
- The Emdoor Digital MID Solution mainly uses Amlogic AML8726-MX, AML8726-M3 processor, with the core of Cortex-A9, clocked at 1.5G and featuring strong capacity.
- The latest Android 4.1 system is adopted, able to support Flash11 and powerful third-party software.
- All-touch design is adopted, with all levels of resolution covering 800*480-1280*800.
- Built-in WIFI wireless network can support 3G modules (Optional), WCDMA / EVDO / TDSCDMA, as well as optional built-in GPS modules.
- It can support web surfing, e-mail sending and receiving, QQ / MSN / SKYPK online chat, online games, Internet TV, stock + funds + futures, real-time pricing, real-time transactions and more other office software, as well as browsing and editing of WORD, EXCEL, PPT, PDF, TXT and other document formats.
- Able to support all major audio, video, photos, FLASH plug-ins and a number of game sets, as well as 38 countries’ languages and 28 countries’ 3G parameters, all programs use ultra-low power consumption and robust power management design, boasting stable performance, high productivity, fast delivery and excellent service.
Products Development:
- Feb. 2008 Tablet R &D team was under preparation.
- Dec. 2008 1st tablet solution which was based on Marvell PXA303 was developed successfully.
- Mar. 2009 Selected as the key cooperative Design House of Marvell in Great China.
- Apr. 2009 Tablet with 4.3” touch screen and based on Android 1.1 was 1st published in China.
- Jun. 2009 Series of Android Netbook were released.
- Sep. 2009 Tablet with 7” touch screen and based on Android1.5 was 1st published in the industry.
- Jan. 2010 Tablets with 7” touch screen and built-in WCDMA based on Android forayed into Japanese market.
- Mar. 2010 7” Tablets with built-in WCDMA based on Android forayed into Germany Vodafone Telecom.
- Apr. 2010 Changed the chips solution supplier from Marvell to Telechips.
- Oct. 2010 Mass production started, the PCBA sales volume in Q4 was over 250,000 pieces.
- Jan. 2011 Tablet solutions based on Android2.3, Telechips 8803, Cortex, 1.2GHz was 1st published in the industry.
- Apr. 2011 Tablet solutions from 5” to 10” based on Android 2.3.3, Telechips8803 were keeping steady mass production.
- Jul. 2011 Be the supplier of well known educational enterprises in China for teaching platforms.
- Sep. 2011 Successively released diversified new tablet solutions such as EM76, EM78, EM89, EM101 and EM102.
- Oct. 2011 Emdoor Digital was participated in the China Sourcing Fair (Electronics & Components), which was hosted by Global Sources in Asia World-Expo, Hong Kong.
- Dec. 2011 Tablet solutions from 7” to10” based on Android 4.0, Telechips 8923, Cortex new generation (Cortex-A5) were developed successfully.
- Jan. 2012 Emdoor Digital was participated in the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in L.V.
- Feb. 2012 Tablet solutions from 7” to10” based on Android 4.0.3, Amlogic 8726, Cortex-A9 were developed successfully.
- Mar. 2012 Emdoor Digital was participated in the International CeBIT in Hannover Germany.
- Apr. 2012 Emdoor tablet solutions based on Amlogic AML8726-MX Dual Cortex-A9 were first appeared in China Sourcing Fair (Electronics & Components) in Hong Kong.
- May. 2012 Emdoor published mass production solution of Dual-core Tablet PC which based on Amlogic AML8726-MX Dual Cortex-A9 in new products release conference.
- Aug. 2012 Tablet solutions based on Android 4.0.4, Amlogic 8726-MX, Dual core Cortex-A9 appeared successfully at the first China Sourcing Fair-Sao Paulo in Brazil.
Enhanced cloud-based content delivery services to anyone, on any device – from Microsoft (Microsoft Azure Media Services) and its solution partners
Microsoft Azure Media Services – MAMS
(pre April 2, 2014: Windows Azure Media Services – WAMS)
A general introduction (when it was still called WAMS, corrected below):
TV Connect 2014: Martin Wahl, Principal Program Manager, Windows Microsoft Azure Media Services [IPTVWorldSeries YouTube channel, March 26, 2014]
Microsoft Azure Media Services Announces Enhanced Capabilities & New Partnerships at 2014 NAB [by Vibhor_Kapoor on Windows Azure MSDN Blog, April 7, 2014]
Our customers and partners have been building solutions with Microsoft Azure Media Services since its general availability in January 2013, leveraging cloud capabilities in media processing and delivery. Today, we are pleased to announce exciting new partnerships, customers, and capabilities at the 2014 NAB Show in Las Vegas that further support our vision to deliver any media on virtually any device, anywhere.
New Capabilities: We are excited to announce the following capabilities in a limited public preview that will further enrich the end-to-end, ready-to-use video workflow for encoding, packaging and distribution of live and on-demand content.
- Live Streaming: Building on the success of live streaming the 2014 Winter Olympics to millions of customers in 22 countries, we will soon be opening up the underlying technology that made this possible in preview to our customers. Media Services customers will have access to the tools and services needed to handle everything from ingest to processing, and distribution of on-demand video content or streaming live events at Olympic scale, to nearly any device.
- Secure Delivery Service: Media Services is also pleased to announce the preview of a secure delivery service that enables customers to protect their content during upload, while at rest in storage, and during playback, using either Microsoft PlayReady Digital Rights Management (DRM) or AES encryption.
- Office 365 Video Portal: We’re also very excited about a new Office 365 video experience for enterprise customers that we announced at the SharePoint Conference 2014. The Office 365 Video experience offers secure, cloud-based video upload, storage and optimized playback for businesses, all powered by Azure Media Services. To learn more about it, clickhere.
New Customer & Partner Wins: The integration of third party technologies, breadth of Microsoft’s partner ecosystem and customer momentum makes Media Services a strong choice for organizations looking to move to the cloud for processing anddistribution of media content. We are pleased to announce the following partnerships and customers:
- Ooyala Partnership: We’re very excited about our recently announced strategic relationship with Ooyala, a leading online video platform. Combining Microsoft’s strengths in video infrastructure, encoding, packaging and streaming with Ooyala’s SaaS-based content management, analytics and monetization gives customers the ability to solve for the challenges of multi-screen services efficiently and reliably. Learn more about the partnership in Ooyala’s press release.
- iStreamPlanet Partnership: We’re proud to offer the same live streaming platform that delivered the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi by introducing live video services from iStreamPlanet, powered by Aventus, in the Azure Store. Customers will be able to choose from packages tailored for recurring live events, ad hoc live events, and live linear streaming channels with fast, high quality, and reliable live ingest and transcoding. The offering will be available in Q2 2014.
- blinkbox Customer Win: blinkbox, a leading UK movie and TV Streaming Service, is taking advantage of Microsoft Azure to expand its business and deliver more content to more customers, with outstanding reliability and quality. Learn more about it here.
- FansChoice.tv Customer Win: Fans Choice.tv, a video content site from the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) Pro, International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) Pro and NASCAR gives race fans anywhere access to premium race video content via the web, tablets, smartphones and PCs. Using Microsoft Azure Media Services, the website live streams various events across several different racing series not covered by broadcast television. Learn more about it here.
To learn more about these announcements and for additional details on several other exciting updates, please visit John Deutscher’s blog.
To learn how you can leverage Media Services for your video-on-demand, live streaming, and enterprise video projects, please contact us at mediaservicespreview@microsoft.com and visit www.azure.com/media
I would briefly characterize here the new Ooyala relationship as it is quite exemplary:
Ooyala today announced a strategic relationship with Microsoft Corp. to help develop, promote and accelerate the deployment of next-generation IP video services utilizing Microsoft Azure Media Services (Media Services) in conjunction with Ooyala’s SaaS-based video distribution, analytics and monetization technology. Ooyala also formed a global sales and marketing alliance with Microsoft, which is designed to drive standardization of new personalized TV services for broadcasters and operators around the world.
Through this partnership, Ooyala becomes a preferred online video provider for Microsoft and Microsoft becomes Ooyala’s preferred public cloud provider.
From Ooyala and Microsoft Announce Partnership for IP Video Services [Streaming Media Magazine, March 31, 2014]
especially because its long-time Ooyala on AWS – Customer Success Story [Amazon Web Services YouTube channel, Aug 15, 2013]
as well as its value proposition as presented in Ooyala Brand Essence Video [Magnet Media, Inc. YouTube channel, Dec 17, 2013]
also as a year ago Ooyala already explained why live video is killing online (also need to know: 25% of the world’s online video traffic is analyzed by Ooyala) Sean Knapp Interview, NAB 2013, StreamingMedia.com [Streaming Media YouTube channel, May 6, 2013]
plus they were one of leading companies discussing on a UK panel what distribution models exist for professional content creators, and how best to leverage them:
Reinventing Distribution: Ooyala, Viki & Base79 – MIPCube 2013 [mipmarkets YouTube channel, April 10, 2013]
there is an introduction of their companies by each of the panelists in the following order:
1. Ooyala, USA (… was started by some “refugees” from Google:
watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF7XibwA1Z4)
2. Base79, UK (distribute content primarily on YouTube platform:
read http://www.base79.com/about-us/ or watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Tra5nBbms)
3. Viki, USA (distributing video shows worldwide by bringing down language barriers, for 156 different languages: read http://www.viki.com/about or watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVH–bLiVZ8)
till [13:30], and then comes the discussion part.
Details of the Microsoft NAB 2014 announcement
NAB 2014 Announcements from Media Services [‘The (unofficial) Guide to Azure Media’, April 7, 2014]
By John Deutscher, Principal Program Manager Lead, @johndeu
We are unveiling several exciting updates to Microsoft Azure Media Services at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention today, all consistent with Media Service’s broader vision of helping media developers build end-to-end media workflows and reduce the costs associated with integrating multiple products and providers. This includes key new services like Live, Content Protection and Key Delivery, and enhancements to our encoder’s capabilities and support for popular streaming formats. We are also working on improving the integration of CMS’s with Media Services by offering low-cost open source solutions along with more complex integrations with industry leading OTT providers.
Here are some of the highlights of what our team has been working on for NAB this year:
Live Streaming Preview
Building on the success of live streaming the 2014 Winter Olympics to millions of customers in 22 countries, we will soon be opening up the underlying technology that made this possible in preview to our customers.
All Media Services customers will have access to the tools and services needed to handle everything from ingest to processing, and distribution of on-demand video content or streaming live events at Olympic scale, to nearly any device.
If you’re interested in previewing our live services contact us at: mediaservicespreview@microsoft.com.
On-Demand Encoding and Streaming
Secure Delivery Service Preview
We are introducing a new secure delivery service that enables customers to protect their content during upload, while at rest in storage, and during playback, using either Microsoft PlayReady Digital Rights Management (DRM) or AES 128 encryption. This feature allows you to serve both encrypted HLS and Smooth Streaming to your client devices. In addition, we are announcing the preview release of our PlayReady License delivery service. Using this new service you can configure and deliver PlayReady licenses to your client applications directly from a Microsoft Azure platform service.
For more details on the new PlayReady service and AES dynamic encryption with Azure Media Services, please read Mingfei Yan’s latest blog post here.
If you’re interested in previewing our secure delivery services contact us at: mediaservicespreview@microsoft.com.
Office 365 Video Portal
Just a few weeks back at the SharePoint conference we introduced a new Office 365 video experience for enterprise customers – offering secure, cloud-based video upload, storage and optimized playback all powered by Media Services. This new service leverages the power of Azure Media Services encoding, streaming, and security services to provide an enterprise grade solution with the power of Office 365 in the cloud and on client devices. Learn more about how this awesome new solution can work for your organization here.
From that:
Office 365 Video Portal. Today, Microsoft previewed the new Office 365 Video Portal to support upload, storage and discovery of videos in a secure manner. Businesses will be able to categorize videos into channels for specific business needs and stream them on mobile devices, with all of the video compression, optimization and rendering work done by Office 365.
Two New Data Centers in Japan
Our platform team opened two new data centers for Media Services last month for our Japanese customers: Japan-West and Japan-East. We are all very excited about this new region and are looking forward to working with our new customers in Japan.
MPEG-DASH for On-Demand Streaming is now GA
Our streaming server team continues to invest in MPEG-DASH across both On-Demand and Live scenarios. Last year we launched our On-Demand DASH preview and contributed reference streams to the DASH-IF site — these enable player development across the ecosystem. We are actively working with contributors (including Microsoft Open Technologies) to the DASH-IF JavaScript player to ensure interoperability of Live streams produced in Media Services with the DASH.js player framework.
We are happy to announce that our MPEG-DASH support for on-demand streaming through our streaming origin services is now GA. It is included in the cost of an Origin reserved unit. Live streaming with MPEG-DASH is still in private preview and available only to Live preview customers at this time.
Contact us if you are interested in testing MPEG-DASH live streaming at: mediaservicespreview@microsoft.com.
Grass Valley® HQ/HQX Digital Intermediate File Support
The encoder team added built-in support for sourcing from Grass Valley’s HQ Codec/HQX Codec. This opens up a new door for high-quality digital intermediate ingest into Media Services. The higher quality source files from Grass Valley’s HQ and HQX codecs provides the ability to encode without significant quality loss at high-speed and with low CPU usage.
The HQX format supports compression ranges from 25:1 to 2:1 and bitrates from 45 Mb/s down to 7.8Mb/s. In addition, the codec supports 10 bit color depth and 4:2:2 YCbCr chroma. Grass Valley Edius users can now upload and encode AVI files with the codec for encoding and stream them for multi-device distribution via HLS, MPEG-DASH, and Smooth Streaming.
To read more details about the benefits of the Grass Valley HQ/HQX digital intermediate format download the application note here.
Apple HLS version 3 Support for Improved Backwards Compatibility
Responding to customer demand, our streaming server team added support for the older HLS version 3 draft specification to our Dynamic Packaging feature. Previously we only supported the newer un-muxed HLS version 4 specification. Multi-language support was the primary motivation behind choosing HLS v4 two years ago for our service. At that time, Android was seeing a lot of active development and with its largely international customer base, it was assumed that Android would adopt HLS v4 for these multi-lingual markets. Unfortunately that is not what happened.
We listened to customer feedback that a lot of older devices had not moved to the newer Apple drafts including some Smart TV’s, JWPlayer, and Android. This feature of the streaming origin server now provides backward compatibility to older Android devices, version 4.2.2 to present, as well as the ability to reach older connected TVs and set-top boxes. In addition, we have added the ability to select audio languages when streaming HLS v3 using Azure Media Services — despite limitations in the original specification. To use HLS v3 in production today, simply modify and add a “–v3″ to the end of your streaming manifest URL for HLS:
*.ism/manifest(format=m3u8-aapl-v3)
This will mux the default audio language into the video. For more details on how to handle multi-language muxing with HLSv3, read the MSDN forum post with details from Nick Drouin here.
New Content Management Integration with Orchard CMS
Microsoft Open Technologies is announcing a new module for the open source Orchard content management system (CMS) which provides a convenient user interface for managing Azure Media Services content. Now users can store, encode, manage and view videos using Media Services natively in Orchard. Multiple input and output formats are supported including adaptive bitrate streams. The included custom video player framework, can automatically select the ideal playback option including Flash, DASH.js and Silverlight, allowing users to preview their content. The integration of Azure Media Services and Orchard makes it easy to build powerful and scalable video content management solution on Microsoft Azure. Features of the new module include:
- Uploading a single video and automatically encoding in multiple formats
- Support for dynamic bitrate output formats (Apple HLS and MPEG-DASH)
- Comprehensive access policies
- Scheduled publication of video assets
- Built-in player that automatically selects the optimal playback client
Getting Started with Orchard and Media Services
There are several ways to set up a site based off of Orchard CMS ranging from the very simple (Azure Web Sites Gallery) to the more complex, but very flexible, building from source code. The modules user guide describes five different ways of enabling these features. The user guide also clearly documents how to configure the module to use your Media Services subscription (if you don’t have a subscription yet you can try things out with a free $200 credit trial subscription) This module is part of the official Orchard project, if you have feature requests, bug reports or better yet documentation and/or code contributions please head on over to the Orchard project.
To get more details on the new module for Media Services, check out the Open Tech project here.
Dolby® Digital Plus Encoding Now Available
Our encoder team is also excited to announce that the Azure Media Encoder is now certified for Dolby® Digital Plus encoding. With the proliferation of devices that consume media, there is an increasing need for customers to offer superior audio quality to their users and deliver premium content with 5.1 surround sound. Using Media Services, HD programming with high quality multi-channel surround sound is now possible across different platforms, including Windows 8, Xbox, mobile devices and more.
Dolby® Digital Plus, or Enhanced AC-3 (E-AC-3), is an advanced surround sound audio codec designed for high quality audio. Dolby Digital Plus is based on core Dolby Digital technologies, an established standard for cinema, broadcast, and home theater surround sound. Start delivering a first-class media experience to your users today.
For more details on using Dolby Digital Plus encoding with Microsoft Azure Media Services, check out this article.
Dolby® Professional Loudness Metering Support
The Azure Media Encoder team is also announcing support for Dolby® Professional Loudness Metering. Viewers adjust the volume control based on the loudness of dialogue, and do not adjust again for typical variations in programs, such as quiet sections without dialogue or brief high-loudness scenes like explosions. Their biggest complaint is when the dialogue level changes drastically from one video to another. Broadcasters and content producers use Dolby® Professional Loudness solutions to help ensure consistent audio loudness levels.
The Dolby® Professional Loudness Metering solution combines the use of standards-based loudness estimation algorithms with Dolby® Dialogue Intelligence™ technology. Supported algorithms are those most prominently in use worldwide: Leq(A), ITU-R BS.1770-1, ITU-R BS.1770-2, and EBU R 128.
With the integration of this technology in Azure Media Encoder, you can now ensure that your Dolby® Digital Plus encodes have the correct setting for Dialog Normalization, and ensure a consistent playback experience for your customers. Start delivering a first-class media experience to your users today. For more details on using Dolby® Professional Loudness Metering with Azure Media Services, check out this article.
Clients
OSMF Player Beta with MPEG-DASH Support
The Media Services client team is announcing a beta version of a Flash based OSMF plugin with MPEG-DASH support. Using the OSMF plugin, you can add both Smooth Streaming and on-demand MPEG-DASH (beta) content playback capabilities to existing OSMF and Strobe Media Playback players and furthermore build rich media experiences for Adobe Flash Player endpoints using Media Services. The player does not yet support live streaming of DASH content, but we are working on that too. Download the new player plugin here.
Smooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows Phone 8.1
Our client team also updated the Smooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows Phone 8.1 to align with the announcement of Windows Phone 8.1 at the //Build/ conference. This release includes the same feature set as the Smooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows 8/8.1 and also uses the same API which will help unifying development efforts across Windows, Windows Phone and XBOX ONE applications For more details check out Cenk Dingiloglu’s blog post here.
Microsoft Smooth Streaming Client SDK 2.5 with MPEG-DASH Support
The PlayReady team, working in conjunction with the Media Services team announced the availability of the Microsoft Smooth Streaming Client 2.5 with MPEG DASH support. This release adds the ability to parse and play MPEG DASH manifests in the Smooth Streaming Media Engine (SSME) to provide a Windows7/Windows8 and MacOS solution using MPEG DASH for on-demand streaming scenarios. Developers that wish to move content libraries to MPEG-DASH now have the option of using DASH in places where Silverlight is supported.
The existing SSME object model forms the basis of DASH support in the SSME. For example, DASH concepts like Adaptation Sets and Representations have been mapped to their logical counterpart in the SSME. Also, Adaptation Sets are exposed as Smooth Streams and Representations are exposed as Smooth Tracks. Existing Track selection and restriction APIs can be expected to function identically for Smooth and DASH content. In most other respects, DASH support is transparent to the user and a programmer who has worked with the SSME APIs can expect the same developer experience when working with DASH content. Download the new player SDK here. For more details check out Cenk Dingiloglu’s blog posthere.
That’s all of the updates from the engineering team for NAB. The business team also has a lot of exciting partnership announcements and customer case studies to talk about as well. I’ll be updating the blog after NAB with announcements and links to more details.
Announcing PlayReady as a service and AES dynamic encryption with Azure Media Services [Mingfei Yan site, April 6, 2014]
Azure Media Services is getting a big update this week in NABShow 2014. Now you have more options to secure your media delivery – by using AES clear key dynamic encryption or Microsoft PlayReady Digital Rights Management (DRM). This feature allows you to serve both encrypted HLS and Smooth Streaming to your client devices.
AES Clear Key Dynamic Encryption Feature explained
Now Azure Media Services allow you to deliver Http-Live-Streaming (HLS) and Smooth Streams encrypted with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) (using 128-bit encryption keys). Media Services also provides the key delivery service that delivers encryption keys to authorized users. The diagram below demonstrate how this feature works.
Firstly of all, similar to dynamic packaging, you bring in multi-bitrate Mp4 or Smooth Streaming video file. If you want for Media Services to encrypt an asset, you need to associate an encryption key with an asset and also configure authorization policies for the key, After that, Media Services origin server will dynamically encrypt HLS or Smooth Streaming stream with AES encryption algorithm. When a stream is requested by a “player”, Media Services uses the specified key to dynamically encrypt your content using AES encryption. To decrypt the stream, the “player” will request the key from the key delivery service. To decide whether or not the user is authorized to get the key, the service evaluates the authorization policies that you specified for the key. We provides three options: Token-based authentication, IP-based authentication and open. If you choose Token-based authentication, usually you will integrate the token issue progress into your own authentication system. Therefore, only authorized player could obtain a valid token from your Authentication system, and our key service will validate the token and issue AES key for the player to decrypt the stream.
Which client platform and devices support AES decryption?
AES decryption is a open algorithm that everyone could implement after downloading the stream. We have implement AES decryptor as plugin into the following Platform:
- Flash OSMF plugin to decrypt AES encrypted smooth streaming
- Windows 8 cache plugin to decrypt AES encrypted smooth streaming
For iOS, it natively supports AES encrypted HLS stream decryption. We will provide sample code for handling the Key request.
Who should use AES dynamic encryption?
AES dynamic encrypts on-the-wire communication using the widely-known symmetric AES encryption algorithm. Therefore, this would prevent man-in-the-middle attack, if someone eavesdrops the communication, he won’t get any useful information. However, the AES key considers in the “clear” on client devices. Therefore, it requires you to trust your client. For instance, enterprise videos could be a good use case. Usually employees are bounded by employee agreement of not to distribute their training videos. Hence, enterprise just needs to prevent outsider grabbing the video through traffic. Last month, Office 365 launched a video portal based on SharePoint for enterprise to share knowledge. All videos are using AES dynamic encryption and streamed out through Azure Media Services.
PlayReady as a Service feature explained
Azure Media Services provides a Microsoft PlayReady license delivery service. PlayReady is a full-featured content access protection technology developed my Microsoft that uses Digital Rights Management (DRM). It protects a content media stream during playback by using a license server that provides the decryption key needed to decrypt the media stream. For more information, see Microsoft PlayReady. This diagram below shows how this works in details:
Firstly, you need to pre-encrypt Smooth Streaming file with PlayReady License, by providing us License Acquisition URL, Key ID and Content Key. You could follow this MSDN article to use Azure Media Encryptor to encrypt the Smooth Streaming file. As a output, you could further package the encrypted Smooth Streaming into HLS and DASH (See how here). You could also define how the license could be authorized to your user. Similar to AES dynamic encryption, we enable Token/IP/Open authentication service.
When a user tries to watch PlayReady protected content, the client player application requests the content from Azure Media Services. Azure Media Services then redirects the client to an Azure Media Services PlayReady licensing server that authenticates and authorizes the user’s access to the content. The client can then download and decrypt the content. Azure Media Services enables content providers to configure license delivery policy for each client.
Which platform/devices that PlayReady SDK covers?
Azure Media Services can be used to encode, download, or stream Smooth Streaming or MPEG DASH content encrypted with PlayReady. For consuming PlayReady encrypted content, client SDKs and the PlayReady Porting Kit are available under commercial licensing terms. (PlayReady clients for Windows 8.1 Store Apps can be built using the free SDK located HERE). These client-side SDKs are not part of this preview.
Who should use PlayReady content protection?
Both PlayReady and AES encrypts the stream over the wire, so it prevents man-in-the-middle attack. However, on the device side, when you use PlayReady, the decryption of the stream happens in a secure DRM environment, which is in a lower stack of the operating system. Therefore, neither the key nor the content would be exposed in clear. If you have primium content and you need to prevent piracy, Digital Right Management(DRM) such as PlayReady is definitely the way to go. Plus, PlayReady allows you to define a comprehensive licensing agreement, such as how many times user get to watch the content, how long the content is available to the user and etc.
How do I get access to these services?
Currently, we are running both AES dynamic encryption and PlayReady service as private preview. We are working on get the services out of the door for preview soon. If you are interested in trying the service out, please email mediaservicespreview@microsoft.com and copy me yanmf@microsoft.com.
FansChoice.tv and Ooyala choose Microsoft to help them deliver content to anyone, on any device [The Official Microsoft Blog, April 7, 2014]
The following post is from Susan Hauser, Corporate Vice President, Enterprise and Partner Group, Microsoft.
On Monday at the 2014 NAB Show exhibition, Microsoft is showing the latest technology innovations for the broadcast media industry. We are also sharing how customers and partners like FansChoice.tvand Ooyala are reaching thousands of viewers with Microsoft technology. Monday’s announcements are part of our ongoing commitment to enable a wide variety of broadcasters to reach more customers using technologies that are secure, easy to use and cost-effective. You will also see us announce the new Microsoft Azure Media Services capabilities and Skype’s new integrated solution for broadcasters “Skype TX”.
Microsoft Azure Media Services
With Microsoft Azure Media Services, broadcasters can focus on content and leave the delivery to us.
FansChoice.tv, a collaboration between American Motorcyclist Association Pro, International Motor Sports Association and NASCAR, turned to Microsoft Azure to quickly build and launch a new live stream-capable website featuring the ability to stream live races and offer access to a library of exciting on-demand racing content. This provided fans at home access to an array of content not covered by broadcast television, via the Web, tablets, smartphones and PCs.
Ooyala also announced a new strategic relationship with Microsoft to develop, promote and accelerate the deployment of next-generation IP video services utilizing Media Services in conjunction with Ooyala’s Web-based video distribution, analytics and monetization technology. Combining Microsoft’s investments in video infrastructure, encoding, packaging and streaming with Ooyala’s strengths in content management, analytics and monetization provides customers with all the elements they need for online video development.
As broadcasters look to the cloud to accelerate the delivery of premium content, security is a key consideration. Microsoft is deeply committed to security and, in support of those efforts, is offering a new license delivery service that allows customers to apply Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) or PlayReady encryption to help protect and secure their video content.
Media Services was built to meet the demands of every broadcaster, so organizations of any size, from NBC Sports to United Kingdom-based blinkbox, have access to a powerful and scalable cloud platform that grows with their business. A recent example is the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, which were delivered to audiences in 22 countries across four continents by broadcasters using Media Services to provide high definition live coverage of every event.
On Monday, we are announcing a new solution available in the coming year for broadcasters, Skype TX, which can make any location in the world a professional studio. Skype TX is studio-grade software that delivers high-quality audio and video output to improve broadcast and media programming to people around the world. Skype TX includes call handling management for multiple, simultaneous Skype calls on one management interface, is free of audio and visual distractions such as call notifications and ads, and maintains HD-SDI Video output and input essential for broadcasters. This improved offering is a result of the recent Skype acquisition of long-time broadcast partner Cat and Mouse. We encourage you to visit www.skypeinmedia.com for more information on how Skype TX can enrich your broadcast and media programming.
My insert here: StudioTech NAB 2014 – 9: Skype TX (the first interview given at NAB!) [StudioTech TV YouTube channel, April 7, 2014]
End of the insert
Providing the Platform for the New Media Model
Over the past decade, cloud computing changed the media landscape immeasurably, offering nearly any media company new delivery options to extend their content to more people.
Consumers’ options have multiplied as well; the convergence of online, digital content and the myriad of new form factors have created new expectations. Customers can watch what they want, when they want, where they want on screen sizes from 3 inches to 80 inches and everywhere in between. Broadcasters need a solution that delivers on all fronts.
With Microsoft’s cloud-based offerings, media companies can grow advertising and paid subscription revenues by extending the reach of their digital distribution capabilities and their brand, as well as launching new channels and services more quickly. They also have control over broadcast quality and the customer experience to create an offering that is consistent with their brand.
With products like Skype TX, Microsoft also empowers content development collaboration between journalists and creative staff. In short, Microsoft is providing the tools that help broadcasters achieve their multi-screen broadcasting goals in a profitable, efficient and timely way. We’re grateful for the opportunity to partner with these organizations to help them reimagine their business and to be a part of this year’s event.
Microsoft and media companies bring content to the masses at the National Association of Broadcasters Show [press alert, April 7, 2014]
Microsoft will showcase its latest broadcast technology solutions that help deliver a connected experience that is secured, seamless and differentiated at industry-leading event.
Where: National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show
Las Vegas Convention Center
3150 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89109
When: April 7–10, 2014
What: Microsoft Corp. will showcase the latest devices and services that help media companies bring their content and business into the cloud with robust security and deliver quality content to their customers from virtually anywhere. Microsoft Azure will announce new customer wins and Media Services’ capabilities, while Skype will introduce a new studio-grade hardware and software solution for broadcasters, expected to be available early next year. At the Microsoft booth, #SL 5110, attendants will demonstrate how the Microsoft platform, along with its partner ecosystem, is serving media customers through the cloud, tools and devices. Some of the many partners that will be in the booth include:
Axinom – Cross-platform media solutions. Axinom is a leading digital solutions provider serving the world’s major brands in the media and entertainment industry. Axinom’s OTT portfolio features content management (CMS), digital rights management (DRM) and pre-built reference applications for on-demand, live event and live linear content. The company provides customers with an out-of-the-box solution for the entire workflow, from video acquisition right down to delivery to various devices. Axinom OTT is tightly interoperable with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Azure Media Services, offering the flexibility, scalability and reliability of a cloud-based solution. It utilizes Microsoft PlayReady DRM, HTML5 and native technologies, and supports HLS, Smooth Streaming and MPEG-DASH streaming. At the NAB Show, the Axinom team will be presenting a new video streaming showcase running on HTML5, iOS, Android, Windows 8, Windows Phone, Xbox One, set-top box (STB) and smart TV. While demonstrating the whole end-to-end video workflow in real time, Axinom will give an insight into the next generation of OTT video, ensuring impressive results and short time to market.
Decentrix Inc. – BIAnalytix™ Media Business Intelligence (MBI™), maximizing ad sales revenue. Decentrix helps media, entertainment, telecommunications and ad agencies aggregate key audience, inventory and revenue information to support, secure and enhance new evolving advertising sales models. Decentrix provides powerful analytics to allow business users to become data-driven decision-makers. Attendees are encouraged to visit the Decentrix kiosk at the Microsoft booth to see demos of Decentrix’s core BIAnalytix and MobileMBI solutions that allow clients the ability to fast track their enterprise data strategies.
deltatre – Diva, the world’s greatest player. Diva is the ultimate live and on-demand sports video player that creates a unique and immersive viewing experience for fans — while it also helps content owners monetize their properties across platforms. Diva combines live video with sports data, social and editorial content in a single graphic interface, giving end users the best of engagement and transforming them into active viewers. Content owners can maximize the value of their digital rights with a concrete return on investment. At the Microsoft booth, deltatre will re-create the drama that captivated the audiences during Sochi 2014 with Diva and live demos from the Winter Games.
KORE Software – KORE MediaPitch™, extending Microsoft Dynamics CRM for media and entertainment. KORE is the market leader in business management software for the media, entertainment and sports industries. KORE MediaPitch is an additive to Microsoft Dynamics CRM and transforms it into a CRM-based media and sponsorship sales, analysis and proposal tool, which consolidates all existing inventory into one view (traditional media, digital, sponsorship, hospitality, etc.) across multiple sales divisions to drive sales, streamline operations and increase profits. Benefits for media companies include margin optimization, inventory visibility and management, proposal generation, forecasting, dynamic rate cards, and increased productivity. Leading global media, entertainment and sports organizations utilize KORE. A presentation and demo of KORE MediaPitch will be available in the Microsoft booth.
Other News:
Microsoft engineer Jonathan Tanner will lead an education session April 10 at 11:30 a.m., Room S227: “Encoding and Protecting Content in the Windows Environment, From Clients to the Cloud.”
FansChoice.tv, a video content site from the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) Pro, International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) Pro and NASCAR, is supported by Microsoft Azure: Three Developers, Two Weeks, One Ground-breaking Motorsports Online Experience
Ooyala Inc. is announcing that Microsoft is now its preferred public cloud provider:Microsoft and Ooyala Team to Deliver Best-of-Breed Multi-Screen Digital TV Services forBroadcasters and Operators.
For more details on other Microsoft activities at NAB, please visit The Official Microsoft Blog: FansChoice.tv and Ooyala choose Microsoft to help them deliver content to anyone, on any device
Who:
(Available for interviews)
Bob De Haven, General Manager, Worldwide Communications & Media at Microsoft
Tony Emerson, Managing Director, Worldwide Media & Cable at Microsoft
More Details: More information is available athttp://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/industry/communications-and-media/media-and-cable/events/nabshow/default.aspx#fbid=95r9qrqPb9F.
For the latest NAB news, links and photos, follow @MSFTenterprise, @MSFT4Work, @Azure and@Skype on Twitter.
Microsoft BUILD 2014 Day 1: new and exciting stuff for MS developers
Here is the first feedback on Day 1, direct from the most competent source in Microsoft:
Build 2014 San Francisco Robert Green, Channel 9 [evangelist] Interview [DeveloperExpress YouTube channel, April 3, 2014]
Seth Juarez: Analytics Program Manager; Technical Evangelist (2 years, till June 2012)
Robert Green: Technical Evangelist in the Developer & Platform Evangelism (DPE) group (since January 2011) for the Visual Studio Toolbox weekly show on Channel 9 (since May’11) and the LightSwitch product (till Aug’12)
- Universal Apps (till [4:09])
- Cortana and related stuff (till [6:00])
- Windows 8.1 Update 1 (till [7:04])
- Start Menu preview (till [7:54])
- general openness, roadmap etc. (till [8:25])
See also Build 2014-Day One Observations [Seth Juarez on DevExpress Data Blog, April 3, 2014]
| My own, “not only for developers” feedbacks you can read in the following posts: – Microsoft BUILD 2014 Day 1: consistency and superiority accross the whole Windows family extended now to TVs and IoT devices as well—$0 royalty licensing program for OEM and ODM partners in sub 9” phone and tablet space [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, April 2, 2014] OR Microsoft is going against Android and Apple with a vastly updated Windows/Windows Phone 8.1 for $0 royalty fee on smartphones and tablets with screens under 9”, integrated Windows desktop experience (upcoming in the next update), capability of creating Universal Windows apps accross the whole Windows family (demonstrated with the Modern version of the Office upcoming later), an open-source cross-platform WinJS framework, the first true digital assistant for phones (Cortana), showing that for TVs, as well as planning for IoT devices. – IDF14 Shenzhen: Intel is levelling the Wintel playing field with Android-ARM by introducing new competitive Windows tablet price points from $99 – $129[‘Experiencing the Cloud’, April 4, 2014] |
- Morten Nielsen’s (MVP) feedback: Behind the scenes of “Universal Apps” [SharpGIS, April 3, 2014]
- Peter Torr’s (Microsoft) own feedback: //Build talk “From 4 to 40 inches” (with sample LayoutRules code) [Peter Torr’s MSDN Blog, April 3, 2014]
- Laurent Bugnion’s (GalaSoft) feedback:
– Building a Universal Application for Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1 with MVVM Light [April 2, 2014]
– About Windows Phone 8.1 and universal apps [April 2, 2014]
So if we recapitulate:
- You can create new Windows Phone 8.1 apps which run WinPRT [WinRT for Win8 Phone], very similar to Windows RT used for Windows 8.1.
- You can create Windows 8.1 apps which use WinRT.
- You can create universal apps, which are really just a Windows 8.1 and a Windows Phone 8.1 apps with shared files.
- Or you can create Windows Phone Silverlight 8.1 apps, which is similar to the phone apps we did until now, but with new APIs (like Windows Phone 8++).
Some important feedbacks on Day 1 from Jonathan Allen, InfoQ:
-
Introducing Common XAML UI – In today’s Build Keynote we heard that Microsoft is finally starting the reconciliation process with the introduction of Common XAML UI. Based on the WinRT API, the Common XAML UI framework will allow the same UI code to be shared on phones, tablets, desktop computers, and eventually Xbox One. … Common XAML and Universal Apps are available in all versions Visual Studio 2013 Update 2. Apr 02, 2014
-
A WPF Q&A – A panel of 9 Microsoft desktop developers were available during a lunch time Q&A. This session was not filmed, but we were able to record some of the WPF questions and Microsoft’s answers. … Microsoft is looking into offering the same kind of functionality for XAML that we currently see in web sites via Browser Link. Partial functionality is available via Snoop or XAML Spy. Touch and desktop applications came up. And again, the panel mentioned the possibility to offer Common XAML for the desktop. … Apr 03, 2014
-
A Q&A with the XAML Performance Leadership Team – This panel discussion mostly covers XAML, but there are still some thoughts on its relationship to WPF and the desktop in general. … Microsoft intends to continue copying features form WPF into XAML, but in a measured fashion. The features they choose to move are based largely on developer feedback, especially in terms of pain points. Apr 03, 2014
-
Changes to the Silverlight Runtime for Windows Phone – Until now we’ve been focusing on Common XAML, but now our attention turns to Silverlight for Windows Phone. Though Common XAML (i.e. Universal Apps) is meant to eventually replace it, the Silverlight framework is still a viable option for Windows Phone developers. Apr 03, 2014
Which Framework to Use
– New Apps: Silverlight 8.x or XAML
– Existing Windows Store App: XAML
– Lock Screen App: Silverlight 8.x
– Camera Based App, VOIP: Silverlight 8.x
– Music App: Silverlight 8.0 or XAML
– Existing Silverlight Phone Apps: Silverlight 8.x or XAMLFor more information see the What’s New with Windows Phone Silverlight Apps video on Channel 9.
-
Future-Proofing Desktop Applications for Hardware Enhancements – Though CPUs aren’t getting any faster, other hardware capabilities are rapidly increasing. This is most evident in high DPI displays and the way they shrink legacy applications to the point of illegibility. So for perhaps the first time since the 90’s, future proofing for better monitors is becoming vital. With Windows 8, scaling was available up to 150%. Windows 8.1 bumped that up to 200% and the soon to be released Win 8.1 Update will further push that to 250%. But that’s only for high-end machines, mainstream machines are only expected to need 150% scaling in 2015. … Microsoft’s plan to work around this is to leverage Remote Desktop. By setting the scaling at values from 100% to 500%, developers can see how their application behaves without a high DPI monitor. It isn’t an ideal experience, as the screen is zoomed in to potentially absurd levels. A whitepaper on how to enable this will be published sometime next month. … We mentioned that Kinect might need to be supported. How that support will happen for common applications is not yet known. They may eventually include it into the pointer API, but as it stands you have to use the Kinect Windows SDK directly. Apr 02, 2014
Other Day 1 feedbacks from Jeff Martin, InfoQ:
-
Highlights from Microsoft’s Build 2014 Opening Keynote – The opening keynote for Build 2014 kicked off with several big announcements. Today marked the formal announcement of Windows Phone 8.1 and the soon to be released Windows 8.1 Update. Apr 02, 2014
-
Microsoft Opens Windows to the Universal App: One App for All Platforms – Microsoft has formally introduced Windows universal apps, allowing developers to write a single app that will run on all Windows-based devices: phones, tablets, and PCs. This move unifies the platform in a significant way. Apr 02, 2014
-
Features of the New Windows Phone App Model – Windows Phone 8.1 has several features that developers can utilize to improve their apps and provide a better user experience. At Build 2014 Andrew Clinick gave a presentation titled, “The New Windows Phone App Model”, in which he described the new features of this model that is coming with Windows Phone 8.1. Apr 03, 2014
Then here is a summarized feedback from the most competent MS insider on all Web and related Visual Studio stuff in Build 2014 San Francisco Scott Hunter Azure Development Team Interview [DeveloperExpress YouTube channel, April 3, 2014]
Mehul Harry: Web Program Manager (since November 2006)
Scott Hunter: now Principal Program Manager Lead on the Azure Application and Platform Team focusing on .NET development on the server, this includes working on ASP.NET, MVC, Web API, Web Pages, SignalR, Entity Framework, Visual Studio Web Tooling, Nuget and Azure SDK’s; previously was Senior Program Manager Lead on the ASP.NET team (for 7 years)
See also:
– Announcing new web features in Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 RC [‘.NET Web Development and Tools Blog’, April 2, 2014]
– Announcing new Web Features in Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 CTP2 [‘.NET Web Development and Tools Blog’, Feb 25, 2014]
– Browser Link feature in Visual Studio Preview 2013 [‘.NET Web Development and Tools Blog’, Nov 18, 2013]
– What is new in Browser Link with Visual Studio 2013 RC? [‘.NET Web Development and Tools Blog’, Sept 10, 2013]
– Building Browser Link extension in Visual Studio 2013 [‘.NET Web Development and Tools Blog’, June 28, 2013]
Wintel rebirth amid the stock market turning negative about the Wintel future
Despite of the Intel video of a year ago getting totally new meaning this week:
with:
- Microsoft BUILD 2014 Day 1: consistency and superiority accross the whole Windows family extended now to TVs and IoT devices as well—$0 royalty licensing program for OEM and ODM partners in sub 9” phone and tablet space [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, April 2, 2014]
- IDF14 Shenzhen: Intel is levelling the Wintel playing field with Android-ARM by introducing new competitive Windows tablet price points from $99 – $129 [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, April 4, 2014]
the stock market has just turned negative about the future of both companies:
source: http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/INTC
source: http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/MSFT?s=msft
An explanation for that:
Why I Sold All Of My Intel Shares This Week [a “casual investor” by nickname Quoth the Raven on ‘Seeking Alpha’, April 3, 2014]
Summary
- Intel was upgraded by a Piper Jaffray analyst, who cited a slowing PC market decline.
- The PC market, sans Mac, has been on a decline that hasn’t ended, despite people like myself predicting it would have bottomed by now.
- I sold my Intel shares for the time being and am grazing greener pastures.
By now, we all know some of the questionable points about Intel’s (INTC) business. In the past, I’ve written about the company being a little slow on the uptake when it came to mobile and tablet sales. Most recently I’ve questioned the company’s vision for jumping into cloud computing with a major investment and abandoning their in-house Hadoop project, ultimately leading to a major waste of money and resources.
First things first; I sold out of my Intel long position the other day, not necessarily discounting the company to be a long-term hold again at some point in the future. I needed the capital for other purposes, evaluated the many positions in my portfolio, and found the most unease about Intel – so, I sold – for now.
And, sure enough, right after I sold, Seeking Alpha came out and reported that Piper Jaffray came out and upgraded the stock:
- As part of a change of coverage for chip stocks, Piper is upgrading Intel to Overweight, and downgrading Broadcom (BRCM) to Neutral.
- The firm thinks Intel will benefit from stabilizing PC sales, and is worried about Broadcom’s mobile customer concentration (presumably with Apple and Samsung).
- IDC still expects PC shipments to fall another 6% in 2014. But Y/Y decline rates have been narrowing in recent quarters.
- OTR Global recently reported Broadcom’s 3G baseband chip sales to Samsung have fallen sharply. Samsung has also taken steps to increase its use of in-house Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips, though that hasn’t stopped Broadcom from continuing to secure combo chip design wins.
- Apple bought Bluetooth chipmaker Passif Semi last year (possibly for iWatch R&D), but hasn’t yet done anything to suggest it’s working on Wi-Fi chips.
When I dug a little deeper into the reasoning behind the upgrade, one thing perked my ears up. Piper is coming out and assuming that the PC market is going to continue to slow and then eventually bottom. I thought this very same thing six months ago. Since then, I’ve continued to watch the PC market decline – albeit slower now – but it has yet to hit a bottom.
Again, Intel’s biggest friend here has been Mac, which has been able to buck the overall trend of the PC market and continue to sell well. Intel leveraging its relationship with Apple (AAPL) at this point remains a key factor in their success.
As the main constituency of Intel products travel through the sales of PCs, this continues to remain a point of unease for Intel. Additionally, Piper is seemingly betting on a flawless execution and growth of Intel’s Quark chipset which certainly is possible, but remains to be seen at this point.
Gartner’s numbers, shown below, continue to show a decrease in PCs for 2015, and an increase in both tablets and mobile – where Intel still does not have a steady foothold.
(click to enlarge – source)
Further, the headlines surrounding the market that even I predicted would have stabilized by now, continue to look ugly. cnet reported:
PC sales will continue to nosedive this year as more consumers scoop up mobile devices, says a new report from Gartner.
Global shipments of personal computers will total 276.7 million in 2014, Gartner forecast on Thursday, a 6.6 percent drop from last year. On the flip side, tablet shipments will jump by 38.6 percent thanks in part to greater demand in regions outside North America.
But the number of people replacing their aging PCs with tablets is actually expected to decline.
But what about globally, you ask? I asked the very same thing – same uneasy headlines, different countries. We continue to see reports, like this one out of Taiwan, claiming that PC sales are poised to decline:
Total PC sales in Taiwan are poised to decline for the fourth consecutive year, as consumers continue to favor mobile devices that are less expensive than, but as productive as, their pricier counterparts, International Data Corp [IDC] forecast yesterday.
National PC sales are expected to fall by 5.1 percent to 2.55 million units this year, following a 15.6 percent fall last year, the market research firm said in a report.
Desktop computers are projected to account for 60 percent of total PC sales this year, with notebook computers making up the remaining 40 percent, the report said.
Last year, desktop and notebook sales in Taiwan reached 1.68 million and 1.01 million units respectively, it added.
But when are we going to hit the coveted bottom that we continue to talk about? It is coming, possibly, but it sure isn’t here yet. And, as long as these sales continue to decline, Intel remains at a vulnerable point as a company. Especially with the questionable vision they have shown of late.
Again, this data [dated March 5] from IDC is once again suggesting that PC sales are going to decline more than we expected this year:
Shipments of new personal computers, most of them equipped with Microsoft Windows (MSFT), will decline more in 2014 than thought a few months ago, researcher IDC said Tuesday.
IDC said that PC shipments will drop by 6% from the year before to approximately 296 million, a smaller number than it forecast three months ago, when it said global shipments would decline 4% in 2014.
Last year, shipments contracted by 10% compared to 2012, dropping to about 315 million new PCs.
IDC revises its numbers quarterly, said Rajani Singh, an analyst with IDC, who pointed out that as the market changes, the company modifies its forecasts, sometimes up, sometimes down.
Even though I thought their new incentive-based pay program was a good idea, there were many that disagreed with me and thought it was bad for business. You could say the same, again, about the company’s recent foray into cloud computing. People ask, “Is it too little, too late?” Why does it seem like Intel is just throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks?
(click to enlarge)
Do I think Intel is an absolutely horrible stock to be in for the long-term? Of course I don’t. It pays a dividend, has a good balance sheet, and is going to be around for many years to come. Do I think Intel is ripe for a short to mid-term trade? Absolutely not. I think there’s still work that needs to be done at this point before we see Intel push up towards $30/share and, thusly, I made my decision to sell my Intel shares for the time being and enter an Intel holding pattern.
Best of luck to all investors.
IDF14 Shenzhen: Intel is levelling the Wintel playing field with Android-ARM by introducing new competitive Windows tablet price points from $99 – $129
As Microsoft is going against Android and Apple with a vastly updated Windows/Windows Phone 8.1 for $0 royalty fee on smartphones and tablets with screens under 9”, integrated Windows desktop experience (upcoming in the next update), capability of creating Universal Windows apps accross the whole Windows family, see Microsoft BUILD 2014 Day 1: consistency and superiority accross the whole Windows family e.t.c … [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, April 2, 2014]
Update: Intel aggressively promoting tablet CPUs in China [DIGITIMES, April 14, 2014]
Intel has resorted to an aggressive pricing strategy to promote sales of its tablet-use processors, particularly in China, a move which apparently will take on Qualcomm and MediaTek, while ramping up its market share, according to industry sources.
Prices of Intel’s mainstream quad-core tablet CPUs have dropped to below US$5, which are almost on par with those offered by China-based chipset suppliers such as Rockchip Electronics and Allwinner Technology and even below those available from Nvidia, Qualcomm and MediaTek, said the sources.
Consequently, the number of Intel-based tablets is likely to expand in a great proportion as more and more China-based brand and white-box tablet vendors are expected to use Intel’s tablet CPUs to develop new products, the sources revealed.
Intel’s new policy also focuses on deepening its relationship with the supply chain in China, highlighting by its recent announcement of establishing an Intel Smart Device Innovation Center in Shenzhen and a US$100 million Intel Capital China Smart Device Innovation Fund, commented the sources.
To encourage China-based tablet makers to use Intel’s CPUs, the chipset vendor is offering assistance in terms of design, technology and marketing, the sources indicated.
Intel’s offerings will be particularly attractive to white-box tablet makers as they can optimize low-priced chipsets and advanced technologies to roll out competitive models for the entry-level segment, added the sources.
Intel aims to ship 40 million tablet CPUs in 2014, including entry-level Bay Trail family and SoFIA 3G platform products, the sources noted.
Intel is announcing the Bay Trail-Entry SoCs for that: Atom Z3735G and Z3735F
(As far as the original announcement is concerned read the The long awaited Windows 8.1 breakthrough opportunity with the new Intel “Bay Trail-T”, “Bay Trail-M” and “Bay Trail-D” SoCs? [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Sept 14, 2013] post of mine. Note also that by Microsoft the new Bay Trail-Entry SoCs were called “Bay Trail Cost Reduced options”.)
Z3735G/F Bay Trail-Entry Designed Specifically for CTE (China Technical Ecosystem) ODMs an Supply Chain:
– Type 3 packaging of AP and PMIC
>>> Enabling cost effective and broadly
available 6-layer PCBs
– Reduced Component Count
>>> New PMIC with higher level of Integration
>>> Intel Platforms, Bay Trail-Entry 478
vs. Clover Trail+ 496 vs. Bay Trail-v0 700
– CTE-friendly Components
>>> Components selected based on cost and availability in China, after direct ODM & Sales feeback
– Component Catalog
>>> Pre-validated key components to allow reference design variations with fast time to market
Source: TABS002 – Designing Entry and Value Tablets Based on the Intel® Platform, Bay Trail – Entry
(Warning: The slides of that presentation still reflect the case before the $0 Windows royalty fee announcement for tablets with screens under 9” by Microsoft, which occured a few hours before Intel’s Bay Trail-Entry announcement!)
From Bay Trail-v0 to Bay Trail-Entry in terms of tablet circuit boards:
And the effect would be even more dramatic than you would first think: Low cost Windows tablets and Docking Demo [Steve Paine YouTube channel, April 4, 2014]
From Delivering Innovation across Mobile Devices, PCs, Software and Services [Intel Fact Sheet, April 3, 2014] + “Mobile Innovation With Intel Inside” – Hermann Eul Webcast [IDF14 Shenzhen, April 3, 2014] + Intel Developer Forum 2014 Keynote – Hermann Eul (English Slides) (PDF 3.7MB)
(Additional information: Intel Developer Forum – Shenzhen 2014 or IDF14 Shenzhen)
Accelerated Mobile Roadmap
Eul, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Mobile and Communications Group, demonstrated how Intel is accelerating innovation across its mobile platforms, from Intel® Atom™ to LTE, to scale at all prices and designs. The company continues to partner with emerging ODMs and OEMs in China and Taiwan to innovate and drive costs down to deliver compelling mobile devices to consumers around the globe. The China technology ecosystem is key to Intel’s goal of increasing sales of Intel-based tablets this year, and the company has an established program to help these ODMs and OEMs develop, market and sell Intel-based mobile devices at scale.
To further fuel the availability of low-cost, Intel-based tablets, Eul outlined how the company is expanding its Intel® Atom™ Z3700 series (“Bay Trail”) processor lineup to include several new products. New entry SKUs deliver 64-bit-ready, quad-core performance at a much lower cost based on engineering changes to the board design and other third-party components. Eul said these entry “Bay Trail” SKUs are currently in production and Intel anticipates OEMs to launch both Windows* and Android* devices this summer, with some starting at prices as low as US$99.
[Bay Trail 2GHz quad-core SoC has a roughly 2x performance gain vs. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 2.2GHz quad-core SoC in video encoding as it was demonstrated at IDF14 Shenzhen during Hermann Eul’s keynote.]
[ CPU Size reduction: Intel Baytrail for low-cost tablets (IDF14) [Steve Paine YouTube channel, April 3, 2014] ]
[ Intel’s $99 Windows Tablet Prospect. IDF14 [Steve Paine YouTube channel, April 3, 2014] ]
Intel is also introducing two tablet master reference designs that will be available this summer. The reference designs help ODMs deliver low-cost, high-quality Intel-based tablets faster.
Global Marketing Campaigns Begin
Reaching Consumer Globally
Help Consumer Choose
Intel Based Tablets
Reaching IT Decision Makers Globally
With tools to pick the best
tablets for the Enterprise
Marketing Local Innovation
Sell Through Campaigns
Eul also disclosed more details about Intel’s future SoFIA 3G product, a dual-chip, fully integrated SoC that will begin shipping in the fourth quarter this year. SoFIA builds on Intel’s proven communications platforms by adding powerful Intel Atom cores, and it will be targeted at entry and value smartphones and tablets.
Eul said LTE is a priority and opportunity for Intel. The company’s 2014 LTE platform (Intel® XMM™ 7260) features five-mode support, including support for TD-LTE, and TD-SCDMA, which expands its addressable market to include China. Eul said the company is already actively engaged with China operators for certification and field trials are underway.
For overall background about IDF14 Shenzhen watch this report: IDF Shenzhen 2014 Highlights & Analysis [Mobilegeeks.de YouTube channel, April 4, 2014]
Amazon joined the OTT TV, gaming console and entertainment race with its Fire TV
Gary Busey Meets Amazon Fire TV [amazon YouTube channel, April 2, 2014]
Amazon unveils the FireTV [CNETTV YouTube channel, April 2, 2014]
with no big stock market enthusiasm (I would say “business as usual” reaction):
Analyst commentary: Amazon Unveils Video-Streaming Device ‘Fire TV’ [WSJDigitalNetwork YouTube channel, April 2, 2014]
Introducing Amazon Fire TV: The Easiest Way to Watch Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, and More on Your Big-Screen TV [Amazon press release, April 2, 2014]
Powerful performance with 3x the processing power, 4x the memory, dedicated GPU, and dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi
Say it, watch it—use voice search to instantly find movies, TV shows, and more
New ASAP feature predicts which movies and TV episodes you’ll want to watch and prepares them for playback before you even hit play
Huge, open ecosystem of entertainment—choose from over 200,000 movies and TV episodes
Plus, Fire TV comes with access to games from EA, Disney, Gameloft, Mojang, 2K, Amazon Game Studios, and more
My insert here: Amazon announces Fire TV, its own set top box: 90 Seconds on The Verge [The Verge YouTube channel, April 2, 2014]
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Apr. 2, 2014– (NASDAQ:AMZN)—Kindle revolutionized reading by making it possible to think of a book and be reading it in less than 60 seconds. Kindle Fire put the world’s largest selection of movies, TV shows, songs, apps, games, books, audiobooks, and magazines in the palm of your hand. In each case, Amazonintegrates the hardware, software, and the content into an easy-to-use, seamless, end-to-end service for customers. Today, Amazon is excited to unveil its newest innovation—Fire TV, a tiny box that plugs into your HDTV for easy and instant access to Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, SHOWTIME, low-cost video rentals, and much more. Fire TV also brings photos, music, and games to the living room. Meet Amazon Fire TV at www.amazon.com/FireTV.
“Tiny box, huge specs, tons of content, incredible price—people are going to love Fire TV,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “Voice search that actually works means no more typing on an alphabet grid. Our exclusive new ASAP feature predicts the shows you’ll want to watch and gets them ready to stream instantly. And our open approach gives you not just Amazon Instant Video and Prime Instant Video, but also Netflix, Hulu Plus, and more. On Fire TV you can watch Alpha House and House of Cards.”
Related information:
Prime (+Netflix comparison): Amazon may hike Prime cost as earnings disappoint and further challenges lay ahead of the company for which it needs to adjust its business model and expand its operations [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Jan 31, 2014]
1. Cable and satellite video market (U.S. only)
2. Pay-TV market (cable and satellite, IPTV, terrestrial)
3. The overall TV market (home video, on demand video, linear TV)
4. IPTV—AT&T U-verse TV and Verizon FiOS video in particular
5. OTT (Over-the-top content)
within the Microsoft’s integrated solution for streaming video and Live TV providers on all devices, plus the upcoming live-action and “shared experience” TV of its own on Xbox [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Feb 3, 2014] which also contains:
6. Microsoft’s live TV solution on Xbox
7. Preliminary information on the upcoming products from Xbox Entertainment Studios
8. Xbox Music and Xbox Video services for other devices
Amazon’s move into overall leadership: Kindle Fire HDX with Snapdragon 800, “revolutionary on-device tech support” (Mayday), enterprise and productivity capable Fire OS 3.0 forked from Android 4.2.2 etc. PLUS a significantly enhanced, new Kindle Fire HD for a much lower, $139 price [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Sept 27, 2013]
My insert here: Hands On with Amazon Fire TV [TechCrunch YouTube channel, April 2, 2014]
Amazon Fire TV features:
- Voice search that actually works—simply speak the name of a movie, TV show, actor, director, or genre into the remote, and you’re done. No more hunting and pecking in an alphabet grid.
- All the content—instant access to Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, YouTube, and more, plus the largest selection of videos for rent and purchase—over 200,000 movies and TV episodes from Amazon Instant Video. Plus, listen to music with Amazon MP3, Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and more.
- Powerful performance in a tiny form factor—quad-core processor with over 3x the processing power of Apple TV, Chromecast, or Roku 3, a dedicated GPU, plus 4x the memory of Apple TV, Chromecast, or Roku 3 for exceptional speed and fluidity. Delivers stunning 1080p HD video and immersive Dolby Digital Plus surround sound. All of this comes in an incredibly small package—Fire TV is 0.7” thin and comes with a simple and sleek remote control with a built-in microphone.
- Simple and easy to use—arrives pre-registered so you can start watching immediately out of the box.
- An exclusive new feature called ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction) predicts which movies and TV episodes you’ll want to watch and buffers them for playback before you even hit play—instant start.
- High-quality, low-cost gaming—games like Minecraft, Monsters University, The Game of Life, The Walking Dead, NBA2K14, Asphalt 8, Riptide GP2, Despicable Me: Minion Rush, and more. The average price of paid games on Fire TV is $1.85. Play using your Fire TV remote, the Fire TV app for smartphones and tablets, or the optional Fire game controller.
- Amazon FreeTime revolutionizes parental controls—parents can choose what their kids see and set time limits for types of content and times of day—no more negotiating for one more show before bedtime. Customers who subscribe to FreeTime Unlimited—Amazon’s all-you-can-eat content subscription designed for kids ages 3 to 8—will get unlimited access to thousands of movies and TV shows.
- X-Ray for movies, TV shows, and music—see information about cast and crew, trivia, goofs, and synchronized lyrics.
- See all of your photos and personal videos come alive on your big-screen TV—seamless integration with Amazon’s Cloud Drive.
Simple and Easy to Use, with Powerful Performance
Powerful Quad-Core Processor and Graphics Engine
Fire TV features a world-class quad-core processor with 3x the processing power of Apple TV, Chromecast, or Roku 3, and a dedicated Adreno 320 graphics engine that processes 57 billion floating point instructions per second, for lightning-fast graphics and excellent fluidity. Fire TV comes with 2GB of memory, 4x the memory of Apple TV, Chromecast, or Roku 3, so content loads faster and games run smoother.
New Amazon Fire TV powered by Snapdragon 600 processor [Qualcomm Snapdragon Blog, April 2, 2014]
Amongst popcorn aromas and home-theatre decor, today, Amazon announced Fire TV: a streaming set top box that aims to deliver just about every video streaming service in a compact, powerful package.
Addressing the media at today’s announcement in New York, Amazon.com’s Peter Larsen, Vice President of Kindle, identified three problems with today’s internet-enabled set-top boxes—search, performance, and a closed ecosystem—and detailed how Fire TV solves them.
Granted, search and content ecosystems are well within the purview of Amazon. But performance? That’s where Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ processors come in.
Sporting a Snapdragon 600 processor with quad-core CPU, the Fire TV has all the base capabilities you expect from a device that lives in your living room: Full HD 1080p streaming video, 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus surround sound, and a lighting-fast, ultra-stable dual-antenna Wi-Fi connection.
With three times the processing power of other set-top boxes, the Fire TV features silky-smooth menu navigation and content browsing. And utilizing the additional performance on tap, Amazon have introduced ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction), which automatically predicts, buffers, and stores the shows you want to watch—all you need to do is hit play, and they instantly start.
But this is Amazon, the everything store. And the Fire TV is the everything box.
Foremost of which is the new voice search. Just press a button on your remote, and the Fire TV can find John Malkovich’s entire body of work at the utterance of his name, or get Team Umizoomi up and streaming almost as fast as you children can yell “Umizoomi.”
In addition to the massive library of movies and TV shows available through just about every video streaming service on the planet; the dedicated Qualcomm Adreno GPU opens up the Fire TV to the gaming world. Available today are staples such Minecraft, The Walking Dead, NBA2K14 and more than 100 other games. In addition, the GPU will power Amazon’s first foray into video games: Sev Zero.
Additionally there’s Second Screen—allowing users to mirror music, movies, and photos from their Kindle Fire HDX (also powered by Snapdragon processors) to their TV. And unlike the set-top boxes that came before, Fire TV will feature X-Ray: A second screen experience, powered by IMDb, that provides viewers with relevant information—such as cast and crew bios, soundtrack credits, trivia, character backstories, and more—as their movie or show plays. Currently, X-Ray is available for Kindle Fire HDX users, with support for iPhone and iPad later this year.
Amazon’s Fire TV is available now for $99.
Streams in High Definition 1080p with Dolby Digital Plus Surround Sound
With dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi, Fire TV streams in up to full-HD 1080p and supports HDMI and optical audio-out, enabling up to 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus surround sound.
Simple and Easy to Use
Fire TV comes automatically pre-registered so you can immediately get started. No complicated set-up, no hassle—just plug it in and start watching. All of your previously purchased movies and TV shows from Amazon, as well as personalized recommendations and your Watchlist, will be there waiting for you when you turn on Fire TV.
Designed to Disappear
Fire TV is designed to disappear. It is 0.7” thin, so it is easy to hide, and is silent even when running the most demanding applications.
Fire TV Remote
Fire TV’s remote is small, simple, and intuitive, with familiar controls. Search, browse, play, pause, and add titles to your Watchlist with ease. The Fire TV remote uses Bluetooth so there is no “line of sight” required, which means no reaching or struggling to aim your signal at a tiny target—store your Fire TV in a cabinet or behind the TV.
Voice Search that Actually Works
Gone are the days of searching for a movie or TV show by left-left-down-right-ing through an on-screen alphabet grid using your remote. Simply speak the name of a movie, TV show, actor, director, genre, app, or game into the remote, and the results will appear instantly. Voice search leverages the search data and expertise of Amazon.com and IMDb, and is optimized to understand Amazon’s video, app, and game catalog.
The Best Video Experience
Movies and TV Shows from Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, and More
Fire TV comes with instant access to all of the most popular subscription video services, including Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, VEVO, SHOWTIME, Crackle, YouTube, and more, with additional services like WWE Network, MLB.TV, WATCH Disney Channel, WATCH ABC, and Twitch coming soon.
Prime Instant Video, with Exclusives and Original Shows
Fire TV is seamlessly integrated with Prime Instant Video, Amazon’s subscription streaming service. With tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes, Prime Instant Video is the exclusive premium subscription streaming home for thousands of hours of video, including shows like Downton Abbey, The Americans, Workaholics, Justified, 24, Hannibal, Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob, and more. Prime Instant Video also includes shows from Amazon Studios, the original TV production arm of Amazon, such as Alpha House from Pulitzer-Prize winner Garry Trudeau and starring John Goodman, which debuted last year and quickly became the most watched show on Amazon since its release. Alpha House is now in production for its second season, and Amazon recently greenlighted six new shows, including The After, Bosch, Mozart in the Jungle, and Transparent, which will be available starting later this year.
The Largest Selection of Videos for Rent or Purchase
Rent or purchase over 200,000 movies and TV episodes from Amazon Instant Video, which has the world’s largest selection of videos to rent or buy, including new releases and blockbusters. Amazon is the only nationwide video service that offers rental and purchase, as well as a subscription streaming service, so you can find everything you want in one place—catch up on past seasons of popular TV shows with Prime Instant Video before purchasing the most recent episode of the show as it’s released.
Find the Lowest Price—Even if it’s Not from Amazon
Just like on Amazon.com, Fire TV integrates viewing options on a single page so you can always choose the lowest price. This is available starting with Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, and Prime Instant Video, and will expand to other content providers so you’ll see all of your options in one place.
ASAP
You shouldn’t have to wait 10 seconds for a video to buffer after you press “Play”—it should start immediately. Based on your Watchlist and recommendations, the new ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction) feature predicts which movies and TV episodes you’ll want to watch and prepares them for playback before you even hit play. This feature is smart—it is personalized based on your viewing habits and adapts as those habits change. The caching predictions get better over time, so ASAP will continuously improve as you use Fire TV.
Fling TV Shows and Movies with Second Screen
Fling Amazon TV shows and movies from your phone or tablet to your Fire TV using Second Screen. This turns your TV into the primary screen and frees up your phone or tablet to provide playback controls, a customized display for X-Ray, or simply a place to email, browse the web, and more, while you watch a movie. Second Screen is available on Kindle Fire HDX and will be available later this year from your iPhone or iPad. You can also wirelessly mirror your tablet display to your Fire TV with Kindle Fire, as well as other Miracast-enabled phones or tablets starting later this year. Fire TV supports standards like DIAL, so app developers can enable multi-screen experiences based on open technologies.
X-Ray for Movies and TV Shows, Powered by IMDb
Using Second Screen on your Fire HDX and later this year on your iPhone or iPad, you can see X-Ray information as your movie or TV show plays on Fire TV. With X-Ray you can see information about cast and crew, the names of songs as they play, as well as a list of all music in the movie or TV show, trivia items in context with the action on the screen, and character backstories so you can easily remind yourself of the character’s history. X-Ray is exclusive to Amazon and is powered by IMDb.
Amazon FreeTime—Revolutionary Parental Controls
Now you don’t have to worry about what your kids are watching on the TV—with FreeTime, a parent creates profiles for each child and selects the content they can see. Parents can create time limits based on type of content or time of day. When in FreeTime, the background color and fonts change to a kid-friendly design. Kids only see titles that have been selected by their parents for them, and those who can’t yet read can navigate visually to content based on favorite characters or topics—for example “Dora the Explorer,” “Princesses,” or “Thomas and Friends.” Parents who have already set up profiles and approved content on Kindle Fire tablets will find the settings are automatically synchronized on Fire TV, making it simple and seamless to get started.
Customers who subscribe to FreeTime Unlimited—Amazon’s all-you-can-eat content subscription designed just for kids ages 3 to 8—will get unlimited access to thousands of movies and TV shows. FreeTime Unlimited is available for Prime members to enjoy for a monthly price of $2.99 per child or $6.99 per family. Customers who are not yet Prime members can subscribe to FreeTime Unlimited for a monthly price of $4.99 per child or$9.99 per family. Amazon FreeTime and FreeTime Unlimited will be available on Fire TV starting next month.
Your Photos on the Big Screen
Fire TV makes it easy to view your photos and personal videos on your TV. You can set up and play slide shows, find specific photos, and choose your favorite album for the screen-saver on Fire TV. Photos or videos you take on your phone or tablet can be automatically uploaded to Amazon Cloud Drive, so they appear on your Fire TV within seconds.
Music in Your Living Room
Music from Pandora, Amazon MP3, iHeartRadio, and More
With Fire TV, you can listen to music from popular streaming services like Pandora, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn, and watch music videos from VEVO. Starting next month, you can also listen to your full collection of music through Amazon Cloud Player. Simply upload your music or purchase from Amazon and it will be stored automatically in your Cloud Player and available on Fire TV as well as on your phone or tablet.
X-Ray for Music
Lyrics display and scroll line-by-line automatically as the song plays, so you can follow along with songs. X-Ray for Music will be available starting next month.
Bonus—Great Games at Low Prices
Games from Top Developers
Amazon worked with game developers like EA, Disney, Gameloft, Ubisoft, Telltale, Mojang, 2K, and Sega to bring their games to Fire TV. Games available starting today include customer favorites like Minecraft, Monsters University, The Game of Life, The Walking Dead, NBA2K14, Asphalt 8, Riptide GP2, Despicable Me: Minion Rush, and more. Over 100 games are available starting today and optimized for Fire TV, with thousands of additional games coming next month with the Fire TV app, which brings controls for touch-enabled games. These are great games for such a small box and at such surprisingly low prices—the average price of paid games is $1.85.
Fire TV also comes with access to Sev Zero, a new game built exclusively for Fire TV by Amazon Game Studios. Sev Zero is $6.99 and is available for free when you purchase the Fire game controller. Learn more: www.amazon.com/pr/SevZero.
Fire TV runs the latest version of Fire OS “Mojito,” which is based on Android, so it’s simple for developers to port their services and games over to Fire TV.
Choose How to Play—Remote, Game Controller, or App
In addition to using the Fire TV remote and the Fire TV app available starting next month, you can also choose the Amazon Fire game controller, which enables more high-intensity and complex gaming with dual analog sticks and a complete assortment of controls. Simple and comfortable to use for hours, the Fire game controller pairs with Fire TV via Bluetooth. The Fire game controller also intelligently manages power by automatically going to sleep when not in use, and waking at a touch of a button, so you get up to 55 hours of gaming on a pair of AA batteries. You can pair multiple game controllers with a Fire TV so the whole family can play together in the same room. The integrated GameCircle button gives you instant access to leaderboards, achievements and friends with a simple touch of a button from any GameCircle enabled game. The Fire game controller can also be used as a remote, with fast forward, rewind, play and pause, so you can control all your movies and music on Fire TV. The Fire game controller is available today for $39.99, and comes with a free copy of Sev Zero and 1,000 Amazon Coins (a $10 value) for purchasing games.
The Features You Expect from Amazon
Fire TV is not a gadget—it’s a seamlessly integrated service that brings together the features customers expect from Amazon, including:
- Whispersync—Amazon’s Whispersync technology saves and synchronizes your video and music library across all of your devices. Start watching a movie on your Kindle Fire or iPhone, and when you get home, pick up where you left off on your Fire TV. For games that support Whispersync, your place in the game will also sync across devices so you can always pick up where you left off.
- Watch on over 300 devices—When you buy a movie or TV show on Amazon, you can watch it on over 300 devices.
- Worry-Free Archive—Automatically backs up your Amazon digital content in the cloud so you never need to worry about losing your collection.
- Top-Rated, World-Class Customer Service—When a customer shops on Amazon, buys a Fire TV, or buys digital content from Amazon, they know that they are also getting Amazon’s world class customer service. Customers with a Kindle Fire HDX can also use the Mayday button to receive free, live, on-device tech support.
- Free Month of Amazon Prime—Amazon continues to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to bring Prime members new movies, TV shows, and books to enjoy at no additional cost. Prime members enjoy unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes with Prime Instant Video. Eligible customers get a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime when they purchase Fire TV.
Pricing & Availability
Fire TV is available starting today for just $99—order at www.amazon.com/FireTV.
Eligible customers get a free 30-day trial of Netflix and Amazon Prime when they purchase Fire TV.
Images of Fire TV are available at www.amazon.com/pr/devicesandcontent.
Snapdragon 600 processor specs [Qualcomm product page, March 25, 2014]
CPU
28nm LP quad core Krait 300 CPU at up to 1.9GHz per core
LP-DDR3 memory for high performance and low latency
GPU
Speed enhanced Adreno 320 GPU delivers over 300% increase in graphics processing performance1
Support for advanced graphic and compute APIs, including OpenGL ES 3.0, DirectX, OpenCL, Renderscript Compute and FlexRender™2
Power Management
Energy efficient LP process and dynamic GPU clock and voltage scaling
Asynchronous Multi-Processing (aSMP) dynamic CPU power control for power-optimized performance
Qualcomm Quick Charge 1.0 integrated for up to 40% faster battery charging
DSP
Hexagon, QDSP6
Hexagon DSP enables ultra-low power operation for a variety of applications like music playback, enhanced audio effects, computer vision processing and still and video image enhancements
USB
USB 2.0
Bluetooth
BT4.0 + Integrated digital core
Display
Enjoy your photos, videos and games on large, high-resolution display devices (up to 2048×1536) and even on 1080p external displays
WiFi
802.11ac3 Wi-Fi for peak Wi-Fi performance + Integrated digital core3
Publicly demonstrated to 280 Mbps UDP
GPS
IZAT™ location technology features GNSS for accurate auto and pedestrian navigation and Indoor Location capabilities for advanced location-based services
Video/Audio
Capture and playback video at 1080p HD
HD multichannel sound with DTS-HD and Dolby Digital Plus
Camera
Up to 21 Megapixel, stereoscopic 3D
Take high-resolution, 3D photos with 21 Megapixel stereoscopic camera support
Process Technology
28nm LP
1 Compared to its predecessor, Adreno 305
2 FlexRender is designed to help the Adreno GPU boost speed and save power by dynamically switching between drawing pixels in direct or deferred rendering mode
3 Available only in select processors
Snapdragon 600 processors include the following part numbers: 8064T, 8064M
Microsoft BUILD 2014 Day 1: consistency and superiority accross the whole Windows family extended now to TVs and IoT devices as well—$0 royalty licensing program for OEM and ODM partners in sub 9” phone and tablet space
OR Microsoft is going against Android and Apple with a vastly updated Windows/Windows Phone 8.1 for $0 royalty fee on smartphones and tablets with screens under 9”, integrated Windows desktop experience (upcoming in the next update), capability of creating Universal Windows apps accross the whole Windows family (demonstrated with the Modern version of the Office upcoming later), an open-source cross-platform WinJS framework, the first true digital assistant for phones (Cortana), showing that for TVs, as well as planning for IoT devices.
Update: the expectation was somewhat higher: 
although was met when looking back to Nadella’s March 27 Office for iPad announcement:
|
Microsoft showcases latest updates to Windows, opportunities for developers April 02, 2014 SAN FRANCISCO — April 2, 2014 — Wednesday at Build 2014, Microsoft Corp.’s developer conference, the company announced several advances to Windows including Windows Phone 8.1, the availability of Windows 8.1 Update, a converged developer platform, and a $0 royalty licensing program for OEM and ODM partners developing smartphones and tablets with screens under nine inches.Microsoft detailed new developer opportunities on the Windows platform with a common platform across devices, a single toolset, a common infrastructure across the Windows and Windows Phone stores, and a clear commitment to interoperability. The announcements highlight Microsoft’s continued commitment to its partners and the developer community by maximizing opportunities across the broadest range of devices and services.Also as a part of the conference, Nokia announced three new Lumia smartphones for Windows Phone 8.1, including the flagship Lumia 930, the affordable Lumia 635 and the first dual-SIM Lumia 630.“The news today shines a light on continued Windows innovation in ways that benefit our customers, partners and developers alike. Our commitment is to make Windows more personal and accessible to individuals, and to ensure a vibrant ecosystem through closer collaboration with our industry partners,” said Terry Myerson, executive vice president, OS Group at Microsoft.… <more is inserted in the below keynote report> |
The essence of the Day 1 keynote:
Microsoft Build 2014 keynote in seven minutes [The Verge YouTube channel, April 2, 2014]
The Full Day 1 Keynote record on Channel 9: 2 hours, 59 minutes, 13 seconds or a YouTube copy of that from MicrosoftEurope:
Terry Myerson: Executive Vice President, Operating Sy stems group
- Making your creativity come to life
- Using public translation APIs to translate everything said here
Joe Belfiore (~ 1 hour): Corporate Vice President, Operating Systems group
==> Full transcript
- Running PC, tablet and phone within the Operating Systems group
Windows Phone is the world’s most personal phone
- 2 additional partners: Micromax and Prestigio (working with Qualcomm and Longcheer)
- Windows Phone 8.1: ==> Made more personal
– new Action Center
– new lock screen APIs
– option to choose a high density tile layout with custom background as well … even on a small screen
Microsoft Build 2014 8.1 Update Personalized Digital Assistant named CORTANA
Cortana Microsoft Build 2014 8.1 Update Personalized Digital Assistant named Cortana Microsoft VP Joe Belfiore unveils 2 new phones with hardware partners Micromax and Prestigio using Windows Phone 8.1
Windows Phone gets even more personal
Microsoft unveiled Windows Phone 8.1 and introduced Cortana, the world’s first truly personal digital assistant with a persona inspired by a much-loved “Halo” character. Powered by Bing, Cortana gets to know you and gets better over time by asking questions based on your behavior and checking in with you before she assumes you’re interested in something. She detects and monitors the stuff you care about, looks out for you throughout the day, and helps filter out the noise so you can focus on what matters to you.
Other new features that make Windows Phone 8.1 smartphones even more personal include Action Center, which complements Live Tiles by showing new activities and notifications at a glance; and Senses, a suite of features that takes the work out of managing data use, storage space and battery life. Windows Phone 8.1 also makes it easier for IT professionals to manage devices and for professionals to connect to essential business apps and services with features such as simplified device enrollment, a built-in mobile device management client, S/MIME for encrypted mail and VPN support.
Windows Phone 8.1 will start rolling out to current Windows Phone 8 users over the coming months. It will also come pre-installed on new phones starting this month. Cortana will launch shortly in the U.S. as a beta, in the U.K. and China in the second half of 2014, and in other countries in 2015. Registered developers can update their phones to Windows Phone 8.1 as part of the developer program later this month.
– working long for one a half year on (video): Cortana (launching as a Beta, in order to learn with linguistic & search things) – a digital assistance for Windows Phone; powered by Bing (knows the whole Internet); learns about you …; also replaces the search function for you …; can be extended via 3d party apps; giving Cortana a notebook in order to put the user in contact with Cortana; about the people matter most to you; about the places you use to frequent; has permission to read all e-mail on the phone in order to prompt pro-actively the owner on …; good with the calendar too; … example queries via voice …; works with typing as well; reminders; only Cortana can do: people reminders …; new version of Skype; starting apps for you via Cortana (like Hulu, even yommunicating with like for Facebook);
==> The first true digital assistant for phones
==> The Ultimate Assistant: Halo’s Cortana Coming to Windows Phone==> Searching for something more personal
==> Bing at Build 2014: More Helpful, Personal and Intelligent/
==> Introducing the New Skype for Windows Phone 8.1 and Improved Skype for Windows 8.1
- Consumers can choose for their device:
– VPN, S/MIME support, MDM capabilities, … many, many more hosted capabilities
==> The right choice for business
==> Building the Mobile Workplace with Windows and Windows Phone- Apps from the Store: … store experience more engaged for you …, new version of Calendar … with other views
- Improved basic performance: … WiFi Sense to connect to automatically when sensed … even securely share with friends automatically (no need to tell the WiFi password); … from ordinary phone call to a video call, even for RCS apps as well; Word Flow [Keyboard] typing … world’s fastest typing on the smartphone (the previous record was Samsung Galaxy …); focus on settings; IE11 with a bunch of new features
- to consumers rolling out in next few months
- on very new phones late April
Windows 8.1 Update
- boot straight to the desktop
- going automatically to enterprise mode
- mouse and keyboard experience of Windows, e.g. enhanced taskbar to work with Windows Store apps: no different swithching mode for Modern apps and desktop apps; PC settings tile on Start Screen; right click context menu …; power user … on Start Screen; pre-pinning the Windows Store to the taskbar to make it mouse and kleyboard friendly; new apps pin to the Start Screen or the taskbar …
- starting April 8
- [The update also enables Microsoft’s hardware partners to deliver low-cost machines that require only 1 GB of RAM and 16GB HDD. On Intel’s Bay Trail Cost Reduced options.]
Windows 8.1 Update: easier to use, runs great on more devices
Continuing its commitment to deliver improvements through regular updates, Microsoft also announced Windows 8.1 Update, which includes improvements that provide more of what people love about Windows across more devices: quicker access to what’s important, a more familiar and consistent experience across touch and non-touch devices, and more ways to discover great apps.
Key features of the update include user interface improvements for mouse and keyboard users, the ability to access the taskbar from any screen and pin Windows Store apps to the taskbar alongside desktop apps and favorite websites, and performance and compatibility enhancements to Internet Explorer 11. These improvements provide faster, more direct access to the things customers care most about, so activities such as powering down, searching the Web and switching between apps are easier than ever. Navigating with the mouse and keyboard will feel more familiar and intuitive because there’s more consistency with where controls are and how they work. Specific to the enterprise, Windows 8.1 Update offers improved Internet Explorer 8 compatibility on Internet Explorer 11, extends mobile device management functionality, and eases deployment with increased predictability for new operating systems and line-of-business apps by leveraging familiar management tools.
Current Windows 8.1 customers will receive the Windows 8.1 Update for free through Windows Update, while Windows 8 customers will receive the update free through the Windows Store, beginning April 8, 2014.*
David Treadwell: Corporate Vice President, Operating Systems group
==> Full transcript
- about things for developers
Microsoft’s Universal Windows App Allows Devs To Create For Any Platform [Pureinfotech, published on April 3, 2014]
Microsoft announces universal Windows apps, which simply means that apps created for the Windows platform will now run on all platforms including PCs, tablets, phones, and Xbox One.
Universal Windows apps:
==> Windows Runtime comes to phones
…
…
- Update for Visual Studio 2013 for universal Windows apps: demo
==> Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 RC: Windows Phone 8.1 Tools, Shared Projects and Universal Windows Apps- Streamline the Windows Store experience across …
- Modern (touch-first) version of Office: demo … also showing the same binary working on the phone
- hundreds of new features added for Windows Phone 8.1 based on developers’ and customers’ requests
Windows developer platform: easily build innovative apps, reach more people
Microsoft also announced enhancements in the way developers can build applications that target the full range of Windows devices using Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 Release Candidate. Among other new capabilities, with the introduction of universal projects, developers are able to create apps that can be easily optimized to take full advantage of Windows devices. Developers of all types can draw upon their existing skills to deliver shared experiences for Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Update. Universal projects allow developers to use approximately 90 percent of the same code, a single packaging system, and a common user interface to target apps for phones, tablets and PCs.
To improve the developer experience on Windows, Microsoft announced updates to Windows Store to improve app discoverability and monetization, as well as easier shopping for end users with improved search, more personal recommendations and better merchandising. In addition, later this week, Microsoft will release the next version of Windows App Studio, a Web-based tool for non-developers that enables the creation of universal Windows apps in a single project.
To help developers build innovative apps for Windows using a natural user interface, Microsoft detailed plans for Kinect for Windows v2, coming this summer, with a new sensor and SDK that will enable developers to create Windows Store apps, with the Kinect sensor, for the first time. The Kinect for Windows v2 sensor offers more precision, responsiveness and intuitive capabilities. Developers and partner companies, such as Reflexion Health and Freak’n Genius, are already doing great things through the Kinect for Windows v2 developer preview program.
- DEMO of the above
Windows enabling cross-platform apps:
frameworks, libraries, tools and services for Universal Windows apps
– Web GL
– Cutting Edge video playback etc.
– announcing: making WinJS cross-platform
– open-source via GitHub
==> MS Open Tech Open Sources WinJS, Part of the Windows App Platform
- DEMO My
==> Announcing New Microsoft Advertising SDKs, Tools to Help Devs Do More and Earn More with Apps
Terry Myerson:
==> Full transcript
- Now about the TV … no better television than Xbox
- going to enable Universal Windows apps running on Xbox
- DEMO
My insert here: Satya Nadella email to employees on tuning our organization [Microsoft, March 31, 2014]
Today marks the start of another big week for Microsoft as we gear up for the Build conference in San Francisco. We continue to push on the momentum from last week’s news about how we will thrive and grow in a mobile-first, cloud-first world, as shown by the great Office apps for iOS, rich new APIs for developers and our new Enterprise Mobility Suite.In advance of Build, I want to highlight three announcements about how we’re continuing to evolve and tune our organization for maximum focus and impact.…Next, I have asked Phil Spencer to take on a new role leading Xbox, combining the Xbox and Xbox Live development teams with the Microsoft Studios team. Phil will report to Terry Myerson, allowing us to keep gaming close to the group developing operating systems across devices. In this new job, Phil will lead the Xbox, Xbox Live, Xbox Music and Xbox Video teams, and Microsoft Studios. Combining all our software, gaming and content assets across the Xbox team under a single leader and aligning with the OSG team will help ensure we continue to do great work across the Xbox business, and bring more of the magic of Xbox to all form factors, including tablets, PCs and phones. Phil will continue his close partnership with Yusuf Mehdi, who leads business strategy and marketing for Xbox, George Peckham, who heads up third-party partnerships and Mike Angiulo, who will continue leading Xbox hardware. Over the years, Phil’s team at Microsoft Studios has helped build a community of more than 80 million Xbox owners and 48 million Xbox Live members through blockbuster game franchises such as “Halo,” “Gears of War,” “Kinect Sports,” “Fable,” “Forza Motorsport” and many others. He’s helped drive the development of brand-new entertainment offerings like the partnership with the NFL and the formation of Xbox Entertainment Studios [Nancy Tellem]. I love the way the Xbox team is focused on great games and gaming experiences (go, “Titanfall”!), connects with its fans, pushes the boundary of entertainment and has embraced the power of the cloud in such interesting and impactful ways. Phil is the right person to lead Xbox forward.… |
- bringing Kinect to PC ==> Kinect 2.0 for Windows with greatly improved SDK, not just for games
- non-gaming Kinect apps: video
- Kinect: this is the future
==> Windows Store app development is coming to Kinect for Windows - Graphics: on Xbox One phenomenal ==> Xbox graphics platform to make available for everyone ==> bringing into DirectX 12
- DEMO
Internet of Things (IoT):
- Windows ported to ARM
- Now Intel Quark (i.e. x86 for IoT)
- Windows for IoT will be available for $0
Windows desktop:
- Universal Windows apps to run in a window
- New Start Menu: live tiles combined
- what is shown here is just for start to improve the Windows desktop
- (upcoming in the next update of Windows)
Pricing:
Making Windows devices more affordable
Microsoft is evolving its Windows business model to enable partners to offer lower-cost devices in the highly competitive smartphone, tablet and PC categories. Microsoft will offer to hardware partners $0 Windows with services including a one-year subscription to Office 365.
With Windows 8.1 Update hardware partners can also more easily build lower-cost machines — such as devices with 1 GB of RAM and a 16GB hard disk drive — without sacrificing the experience customers expect. The combination of new efficiencies and innovations from Microsoft hardware partners means customers will be able to choose from a wider range of Windows devices, particularly budget-friendly notebooks and tablets.
Additional information from Terry Myerson’s Thoughts on Day 1 of Build 2014 [Blogging Windows, April 2, 2014] post:
I wanted to use this post to share some thoughts from what I said in the keynote:
1. We believe in our ecosystem of device manufacturers and devs (developers, developers, developers!), and that their creativity has incredible potential to change the world – and we want to help them do that.
2. We believe in the Internet of Things, and that as the devices get smaller, the cloud gets bigger.
3. We believe in natural user interfaces, and the power of things like voice and gesture to transform how users will interact with their devices and apps in the coming years.
…
Today we announced that the Windows 8.1 Update will support Intel’s Bay Trail Cost Reduced options, along with 1GB RAM and 16 GB storage configurations which are popular on entry level tablets and notebooks. We’re also working with Intel on enablement programs that make it easy for their partners to onboard new Windows devices quickly, much as we are with Qualcomm.
…
We showed Windows running on an Intel Quark chip. It’s a processor the size of a pencil eraser that is running a full version of Windows, enabling developers to use all their Windows knowledge and skills to create new and exciting devices and experiences. When we are ready to ship Windows for the Internet of Things, we will make that available for zero dollars to encourage creation of these new devices and experiences in this new and exciting category.
…
Finally, I previewed some work we are doing for the next iteration of Windows, which builds on the journey we began with Windows 8 just over a year ago as well as the releases we’ve done since then. In particular, I showed some early thinking on how the user experience in Windows will evolve in a way that will help developers’ apps make their way to users across devices and form factors.
We set out to do this is a thoughtful way – one where we could enable more productivity for customers working in desktop mode, while building smart bridges to the new modern user experience and ensuring customers can get access to all your great apps in the Windows Store no matter where they are in the experience, or which device type they’re on.
As I said today, these are glimpses of our roadmap, with a particular focus on the parts of our roadmap that are most relevant to our developer partners. We’ll continue to invest in these and many other areas to build a great platform and experiences for developers, customers and partners and you’ll hear more from us when this work is closer to being ready to ship out to the world.
Stephen Elop (still Nokia, but soon Microsoft):
==> Full transcript
- Lumia 520 the best selling smartphone in the world: will have WP 8.1
- WP 8.1 for all other existing Lumias
- The next-generation of Lumia devices:
– Lumia 930: flagship for WP 8.1, with unprecendented images and video, Creative Studio app grealy updated, new/updated Living Images app, fantastic cinema video experiences (4 microphones included), all MS services well integrated, 2.2 GHz Snapdragon 800 SoC, from June starting in Europe, with more more than 100 operators
– Lumia 630: 4.5” ClearBlack display, 3G dual-SIM as well (different tiles for each SIM), designed for hyper-social people, Cortana is also available, SensoreCore introduced for health and fitness apps … Lumia services (HERE maps, etc.), 1.5GHz Snapdragon 400 quadcore, from May starting in Asia, $159 single SIM
– Lumia 635: 4.5” ClearBlack display, 4G LTE, …, 1.5GHz Snapdragon 400 quadcore, from May starting in Asia
- Two new SDKs:
– Imaging SDK 1.2
– new SensoreCore SDK to create motion based apps
Satya Nadella: CEO
==> Full transcript
- developer roots of Microsoft
- Q&A via the DPE collection made before the conference
- Why build for Windows if one develops for Android? –> innovating in every dimension … you will see a progress in a rapid pace … pretty unique pieces, e.g. bring end-users, IT profs and devs together … create a developer opportunity accross the Windows family expanding … we are betting on this platform ourselves
- Plans for easy development accross platforms? –> David Treadwell part … the only platform with APIs on every platform amd native, managed and the web … working w/ PhoneGap, Unity e.t.c. …
- What MS is doing to compete against Apple and Google in the tablet space? –> tablets accross all prices ranges … innovate with Surface to make the most productive table … what is the role of a tablet in the device family … consistency of user experience
- Approach to UX design now and in 5 years with Microsoft? –> we have fantastic people for UX … see inspiration for other platforms … Cortana … modern apps to mouse and … Bill Buxton about natural UI … the broadest range of input modes today
- How to design for the cloud, and how MS is supporting that? –> Scott Guthrie tomorrow … data-tier built for scale-out and other consideration long taken into account, Service Bus etc. … lot of focus on tools, samples that truely take advantage of the cloud
- Different APIs released for different products? –> Windows Universal apps is the first step in the direction of bring great consistency for developers … consistency of semantics for these APIs
- What’s the plan with latency as we are moving and more apps to the cloud? –> build robustness … data center build-up throughout the world … great effort to enable apps to run in a true distributed way
- How MS can better support start-ups? –> BizSpark program with 70K start-ups … seed fundings and accellerators throughout the world
- The vision for Microsoft going forward? –> Drive in this world of mobile first, cloud first … interactions of differnt kinds getting digitized … create platforms .. build the best experiences
- Plans to becoma a Master CEO? –> … 2514 … watch Scott Guthrie keynote tomorrow
Cortana (yes!) and Many, Many Other Great Features coming in Windows Phone 8.1 [by Joe Belfiore on Windows Phone Blog, April 2, 2014]
Whew, what a day! What a week! I’ve just gotten off the stage at Build in front of 5,000 of our beloved developers talking about the future of the Windows platform. And now I’m here to tell YOU about the stuff we’ve been working on to delight all our Windows Phone users and fans!
During my time on stage, I went over what’s next for Windows PCs, tablets, and phones with two major updates: Windows Phone 8.1 and the Windows 8.1 Update. Both releases bring a lot of new features for consumers and businesses alike, built from the feedback we’ve heard from customers along the way. We’ve also continued to invest in our partners, enabling lots of great new phones, tablets, laptops and PCs for you to choose from in the months ahead.
Windows 8.1 Update: Focused on Mouse/Keyboard
For PCs and tablets, we’ve made improvements in Windows 8.1 that will noticeably improve the experience when you’re using a PC without a touch-screen. We’ve made commands easier to find with mouse/keyboard, we’ve made switching between apps—especially Windows Store apps—much easier with mouse/keyboard… and we’ve made it easier to find new apps to install.
To learn more about the update to Windows 8.1 for your PC and tablets, head on over to the Windows Experience Blog and read Brandon’s post. What I really want to cover in detail here is…
Windows Phone 8.1: More Personal, Smarter, and even a “World Record Holder”!
If you’re a Windows Phone user, you already know that we set out to create an experience that puts you and the things you care about most front and center. As a result, we believe Windows Phone is the world’s most personal smartphone… and with Windows Phone 8.1, we’ve added a BUNCH of new features that make your smartphone even more a reflection of your personality and desires.
Want to experience it all in one giant demo? Then watch this marathon 15-minute video. Else… read on!
The world’s most personal smartphone just got more personal. Watch the innovations of Windows Phone 8.1 come alive.Start screen: Make the Live Tiles Yours
We want your Windows Phone Start screen to genuinely reflect your personality and the people and things you care about—so we are making it even more customizable!
In 2013, we added a third column on devices for 5-inch screen or larger devices, like the Lumia 1520, to enable more stuff to show up on the screen. People really liked this so we are enabling this on all screen sizes in Windows Phone 8.1. Pin away! We’ve also added the ability to customize your Start background with a favorite picture or one of the options we’ve provided, which will make many of the tiles on your Start screen become clear so you can see the background you selected as you scroll up and down.
Lock screen: Lots of new “themes” to choose from!
The Lock screen is the very first thing you – or your friends—see when you grab your phone, and in Windows Phone 8.1 we’re providing a new app that lets you set a wide range of interesting “Lock Screen Themes” which show all kinds of different visuals and animations. Make it yours…
Cortana: Your PERSONAL Digital Assistant
Of everything we’re announcing today, I’m most excited to introduce you to the world’s first truly personal digital assistant, now on Windows Phone. We were inspired by the popular character from Halo who served as a brilliant AI and a deeply personal digital assistant to Master Chief… so we called her Cortana.
Powered by Bing, Cortana is the only digital assistant that gets to know you, builds a relationship that you can trust, and gets better over time by asking questions based on your behavior and checking in with you before she assumes you’re interested in something. She detects and monitors the stuff you care about, looks out for you throughout the day, and helps filter out the noise so you can focus on what matters to you. Cortana will launch shortly here in the U.S. first as a “beta,” and then will launch in the US, the U.K. and China in the second half of 2014 with other countries to follow afterwards into 2015.
In Windows Phone 8.1, you get to Cortana by either a Live Tile on your Start screen or by pressing the search button on your device. This will take you to Cortana Home. To interact with Cortana, you can either speak or type—if you’re in a meeting, just type and Cortana won’t talk out loud. But if you ask her a spoken question, she’ll answer verbally and even carry on a natural conversation.
When you interact with Cortana for the VERY first time, she will start learning things about you… like your name, how to pronounce it, and ask for some personal interests.
Once she’s learned a bit about you, Cortana’s home populates with information that is curated just for you. You’ll see things like flight information she’s found from your email confirmations, weather, the latest news, and even traffic information once she learns your commute routine, such as from work and home.
To develop Cortana, we talked to a number of real personal assistants. One technique these assistants spoke about was keeping track of the interests and preferences of their bosses in a notebook. We thought… what a great idea! So all the stuff Cortana curates for you is stored in Cortana’s Notebook. This information enables Cortana to be proactive and helpful throughout the day. For example, she’ll let me know if my upcoming flight back to Seattle is on time and, if I choose, will even pop-up to recommend what time I should leave for the airport based on traffic. Cortana can also manage your phone when you don’t want to be disturbed by setting quiet hours where she will silence any notifications, in-coming calls, and texts. Cortana understands the “inner circle” of people-closest-to-you, and she can let them break through at any time during quiet hours. And Cortana is the only digital assistant that lets you setup people reminders. You can have Cortana remind you that your buddy owes you $20 the next time you talk to him. And ALL of these interests and preferences are under YOUR CONTROL via Cortana’s notebook.
What’s more, because Cortana is powered by Bing, some of the interests in Cortana’s Notebook will light up on Bing.comwhen you sign in on the web. Bing.com will give you access to the things Cortana tracks for you, like your weather, stocks, news, and flights.
We’ve also designed Cortana to be able to interact with 3rd Party Appsinstalled on your phone. You can ask Cortana to help you make a video call in Skype, watch a TV show in Hulu Plus, look up a news feed on Facebook or send a tweet using the Twitter app – all of which we demoed during this morning’s keynote.
And finally, Cortana isn’t just a dry computer returning search results. Just as she has in the game Halo, Windows Phone’s Cortana has a bit of personality. But you’ll have to talk to her yourself to see what I mean by that. Or… I bet you’ll be able to find some videos on the web pretty soon to see what I mean.
We think you’re going to really love having Cortana as your personal assistant!
A Whole Slew of New Delighters
Action Center: Live Tiles are a great way to “glance and go,” and now we’ve added Action Center to enable you to see notifications from ANY app – pinned or not—and to give you a customizable way to quickly access the settings you care about most, like Wi-Fi, Flight Mode, Bluetooth and Rotation Lock.
Word Flow Keyboard: The keyboard in Windows Phone is smart enough to learn your writing style and even knows the names of people in your contacts for faster typing. Best of all, our new Word Flow Keyboard lets you glide your fingers over the keys to type INCREDIBLY quickly… a kid was able to BREAK THE OFFICIAL WORLD RECORD previously held by the Swype keyboard on a Samsung Galaxy S4 using Word Flow by 8 seconds!
Skype:The new Skype app for Windows Phone 8.1 brings the best of Skype on a smartphone. It’s integrated with the Phone dialer, so if you’re on a call you can quickly and easily “upgrade” your ordinary phone call to a Skype video call at the tap of a button! And… the new Skype app is designed to work seamlessly with Cortana so you can use Cortana to setup your calls within Skype.
Calendar:The new Calendar has been redesigned to add a new week view which lots of people have been asking for and it has many nice touches—like panning right to get to the next day or week or month! What’s more, it looks a lot like Outlook on your Windows PC… e.g., the weather is integrated at the top – just like in Outlook.
Music, Video, Podcasts: We’ve made a ton of improvements to these experiences, which are now split out as separate apps and all of which can be updated via the Store. In Music, you can edit your playlists and manage your cloud collection really easily and effectively. Video makes it possible to buy or rent videos from Xbox Music, and Podcasts now lets you subscribe to any RSS feed AND provides a Bing-powered podcast search for every country where Windows Phone is available. Oh… and we’ve improved the phone volume control by including separate sliders for your ringer/notifications and for your apps and media. Just the way you asked for it!
People Hub, Email and Accounts: The People Hub has higher-fidelity feeds for your social network content (large photos!) and it connects directly to 3rd-party social networking apps so that you can have easy access to all the full functionality of the 3rd party apps once they are installed. Email now supports S/MIME secure email, and we’ve broadened our support for different account types, now including iCloud.
Photos & Camera: The Photos experience now jumps directly to your most recent photos and shows as collections automatically organized, in a view grouped by date and location. Online photo albums are now supported via app-extensibility, so 3rd parties can plug in their services. In the Camera, we’ve updated the UI and added “burst mode” photography that lets you capture exactly the perfect moment—just like on Windows 8.1.
Data Sense, Wi-Fi Sense, Storage Sense, and Battery Saver:We’ve added a number of features in Windows Phone 8.1 that are designed to help you get the most out of your data allowance, battery life and storage.
Data Sense lets you track how much data usage you use in a given month and will give you a breakdown of usage by app so you can see which app is using the most of your data. As you near your data limit, Data Sense will more aggressively offload data to Wi-Fi and limit cellular usage… and in 8.1 there’s a new “high savings” mode that cranks up the compression of images as you browse the web so you can browse even farther using less data than WP8.
Wi-Fi Sense will automatically connect you to free public hotspots it finds to help you save cellular data. And, if you’d like, you can opt-in to automatically and securely enable your friends and contacts to auto-connect to your home Wi-Fi, so they can use the internet connection at your house without hassling you for the password and typing it in manually. If you turn off Wi-Fi in Wi-Fi Sense, you can have Cortana automatically turn it back on when you reach one of your favorite places as identified in Cortana.
We’re introducing Storage Sense to help you get the most out of the memory and storage on your phone. It will help you manage content you have on an SD memory card if your device supports those. You can also move content – like apps, music, photos – between the storage built in to your device and an SD memory card.
And Battery Saver gives you a clear breakdown of how apps are using your battery so you can make more informed usage decisions. With “automatic mode” enabled, it can dramatically extend your battery life.
Windows and Windows Phone Together
Your Microsoft Accountallows Windows and Windows Phone to work together in amazing ways. Windows Phone 8.1 furthers the integration between phone and PC. If you change your theme color, that change will sync across all your Windows devices. If you buy an in-app purchase in some of the newer apps written for Windows Phone and Windows 8.1, the purchase works on your phone AND your PC. And other settings like your home Wi-Fi password will also sync.
Ever wanted to project your phone screen onto a PC, TV set or projector? We’ve added support for that as well—connect your Windows Phone to a compatible PC using a USB cable and you can run an application on the PC to show the phone screen. Some of the forthcoming new phones will also support wireless Miracast display to compatible TVs and other devices.
And finally with Internet Explorer 11 for Windows Phone, you will be able to see all the open tabs you have on all your Windows devices and all your Favorites too. Plus the new Internet Explorer gives you InPrivate browsing, password caching, and a super-handy reading mode.
Great for Business Users and IT Managers
Windows has long been the choice for the enterprise and professionals. Windows Phone fits easily and seamlessly into a corporate ecosystem making it easier to work when you are on the go. Last year, PC Magazine’s readers selected Nokia Lumia/Windows Phones as the Business Choice Award for smartphonesby scoring them the highest in end-user satisfaction.
With Windows Phone 8.1, we’re making it even easier for IT professionals to manage devices and for professionals to connect to essential business apps and services with features such as customizable MDM enrollment, support for loads more MDM policies, LOB application & certificate management, S/MIME and VPN support. Stay tuned for a detailed blog post later today on the Windows for your Business Blog that covers all the key features for businesses.
Sounds Great! When Can I Get It? And on which phones?
Windows Phone 8.1 will start rolling out to existing Windows Phone 8 users and will come pre-installed on new phones, including the Lumia 630 and 635 and Lumia 930announced by Nokia today, in the coming months. If you want to try out Windows Phone 8.1 and you are a registered developer, you can update your phone as part of the Developer Preview Program in the first part of April.
We are very proud of the progress we are making with Windows Phone. Industry analyst IDC proclaimed Windows Phone the fastest growing smartphone platform in 2013, and we think the future is even brighter. At Mobile World Congress, we announced our commitment to growing the number of device partners making Windows Phones, and were proud to welcome nine new partners to the Windows Phone ecosystem. Today we announced two more partners – Prestigio in Europe and Micromax in India – to further ensure that individuals around the world will have access to the amazing experience that only Windows Phone delivers consistently across all price points.
We know we have lots more to do – for developers, for business customers, and for consumers. Today’s announcements at Build were all about taking the next steps – making it easier than ever to build great devices and write great apps for Windows, and enabling a new generation of cool experiences for customers that show the power of designing around people, delivering truly personal computing, and helping us all to get more out of the technology in our lives.
Tags: Windows phone, Build 2014, Word Flow Keyboard, Battery Saver, Start screen, Email, camera roll, Windows Phone 8.1, Xbox Video,Enterprise, Announcement, inprivate, Action Center, Photos, Windows 8.1, Business, Devices, VPN, Cortana, Platform, skype, Xbox Music,Lock Screen, Windows 8.1 Update, podcasts, People Hub, calendar, Microsoft Accounbt, Windows, Live Tiles, Internet Explorer 11, Nokia, Wi-Fi Sense, Data Sense, Storage Sense
Windows 8.1 Update – important refinements to the Windows experience [ by Brandon LeBlanc on Windows Experience Blog, April 2, 2014]
As Joe mentioned here, today we’re announcing two important updates to the Windows platform: Windows Phone 8.1 andWindows 8.1 Update. With these updates, we continue to refine and improve Windows based on feedback from customers to deliver ongoing value to all their Windows devices. Joe’s post goes into detail on all the awesomeness that’s in Windows Phone 8.1(Cortana is rad – trust me!) but also gives some great context around our new engineering culture in the Operating Systems Group now that we’re in this mobile-first, cloud-first world. It also underscores how we are moving more quickly to improve the Windows experience for customers. In this post, I wanted to share a little bit more about the update for Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1.
With the current generation of Windows, we made a pretty big bet on touch and mobility. Along with building on top of the strong foundation in Windows 7, we also introduced a brand new approach to the Windows user experience that brought touch to the forefront. Since the original introduction of Window 8 in 2012, we have been continuously refining the experience, and we are making steady progress. More than 40 percent of Windows PCs at big box retailers, like Windows Stores Only at Best Buy, this past holiday season were touch-enabled – up from only 4 percent a year ago. As Joe recently said at Mobile World Congress, customer satisfaction for a device running Windows 8 with touch is actually higher than it was for a PC running Windows 7 without touch. We believe deeply in the notion that delivering a compelling personal and modern experience across all the devices that matter in your life should not mean sacrificing familiarity. Windows 8 and 8.1 were first steps, and we continue to make refinements based on customer and partner feedback.
Last fall, less than a year after we shipped Windows 8, we released Windows 8.1– bringing a large set of customer-driven improvements including the return of the Start button, tutorials, more personalization options, the ability to boot to desktop, improvements to multi-tasking, and more. Today marks the next step as we release a new update for your Windows experience.
The Windows 8.1 Update delivers a collection of refinements designed to give people a more familiar and convenient experience across touch, keyboard and mouse inputs. It also brings improvements for business customers, really accelerates opportunity for developers, and enables device makers to offer lower cost devices.
See what’s new with Windows 8.1 in the latest update, including easier mouse and keyboard functions, a new taskbar, and Bing’s improved Smart Search!
Easier access to your favorite apps and key controls:
On the Start screen, on select devices you will now find Power and Search buttons at the upper-right corner next to your account picture. You can now more quickly shut down your PC if you need to and do a search right from the Start screen.
If you like using the desktop, you will be happy to know that select devices will now boot to desktop as the default setting. And on your taskbar, you can now pin both desktop apps and apps from the Windows Store as well as your favorite websites. You can now pin any app you want to the taskbar so you can open or switch between apps right from the desktop. I’ve got some of my favorite apps like Xbox Music, Skype, Facebook, Flipboard, and Mint pinned to my taskbar. You can also access the taskbar from anywhere when you’re using a mouse; you can see the taskbar on any screen by moving your mouse to the bottom edge of your screen. Just click on any of the apps pinned to your taskbar to open or switch to them.
More familiar mouse and keyboard options:
We’ve made it so your mouse works more consistently anywhere in Windows. If you move your mouse to the top of the screen when using a Windows Store app, you will see the familiar Close and Minimize buttons. And as I mentioned above, when you move your mouse to the bottom of the screen in a Windows Store app, the taskbar comes up.
On the Start screen, if you right-click on an app tile, you will get a context menu next to the app tile that shows you what you can do with the tile, like unpin from Start, pin to the taskbar, change the tile size or even uninstall the app. Right-clicking on an app tile on the Start screen works just like right-clicking on something on the desktop.
Simpler way to find new apps:
After installing the update, you’ll find the Windows Store is now pinned to the taskbar by default so you can easily discover new apps (yes, you can unpin it if you don’t want it there).
And after installing new apps, you’ll notice a message at the lower-left corner of the Start screen that points you to the Apps view so you can see what you recently just installed.
Seamless browsing on all devices:
With today’s update, Internet Explorer 11 adapts your browsing experience by detecting your Windows device and input type – whether an 8-inch touch tablet in portrait mode or a 24-inch desktop with mouse and keyboard. The web is still front-and-center but new design enhancements make your browsing experience feel like it was made just for your device – like the number of tabs on-screen, the size of the fonts and menus. You can also now control when the browser remains on-screen or hides away for full-screen browsing. Check out 22tracksto see these updates in action.
Improvements for business customers: We are introducing several key improvements for businesses such as Enterprise Mode Internet Explorer (EMIE) and extended Mobile Device Management (MDM). EMIE enables Internet Explorer 8 compatibility on Internet Explorer 11 so companies can run existing web-based apps seamlessly on Windows 8.1 devices. And with extended MDM, we are introducing additional policy settings that can be managed with whatever MDM solution an enterprise chooses including whitelisting or blacklisting Windows Store apps and websites. Look for a blog post later today on the Windows for your Business Blog that discusses these in greater detail and a post on the Springboard Series Blogon deployment guidance for the Windows 8.1 Update.
New low cost devices:With the Windows 8.1 Update, we have enabled our hardware partners to build lower cost devices for Windows such as devices with only 1GB RAM and 16GB of storage that provide customers with the experience they expect from a Windows device without sacrificing performance.
We have made the Windows 8.1 Update available today for MSDN subscribers, and will begin to roll it out for free to Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 customers via Windows Update next Tuesday April 8th. For the majority of folks, they will receive the update automatically. If you are still on Windows 8, you can get the Windows 8.1 Update via the Windows Store on April 8th as well.
NOTE: The Windows 8.1 Update will be KB2919355 for those of you interested.
We’re really excited to get this update out to everyone! Moving forward, we’ll continue to deliver improvements through regular updates like this one to Windows, allowing us to respond more quickly to customer feedback as your needs change.
Tags: Windows 8, Keyboard, Start screen, Windows Store, Windows 8.1, search, Apps, Windows 8.1 Update, Windows, Update, Pinning,Taskbar, Mouse
Extending platform commonality through universal Windows apps [by Kevin Gallo on Building Apps for Windows, April 2, 2014]
Today during our BUILD conference in San Francisco we unveiled the latest Windows software for phones, tablets, and PCs. Windows Phone 8.1 further establishes Windows Phone as the world’s most personal smartphone, with an even more engaging Start screen, the fastest keyboard on the market, thanks to Word Flow, and of course Cortana – the only personal digital assistant built around you. We also shared Windows 8.1 Update features such as UI improvements for mouse and keyboard users, the ability to pin Windows Store apps to the taskbar, and Internet Explorer compatibility enhancements. These OS features, and a new wave of devices that consumers will love, open up new opportunities for developers.
With this release of the Windows developer platform we set out to accomplish three major goals: 1) Reach customers across phones, tablets, and PCs; 2) Deliver innovation that supports developer investments; 3) Make cross-platform technology easier and more capable.
Reaching customers across phones, tablets, and PCs
Windows Phone 8 brought the same core set of operating system components used by Windows 8 to the modern UI of Windows Phone. Today we’re taking an even bigger step with Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Update by empowering developers to create universal Windows apps for a common Windows runtime.
Since universal Windows apps run on the same Windows runtime, developers have a common way of building and architecting apps for phones, tablets and PCs; from how they handle suspend and resume and do background processing, to the way they manage in-app security.
To help developers create universal Windows apps for Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1, we’ve announced the release of Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 RC. In addition to enhanced productivity and collaboration features, Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 RC includes Shared Projects that allow developers to create an app that is easily tailored to render a contextually appropriate experience across Windows phones, tablets and PCs. Get the tools now!
Innovation that supports developer investments
We’ve designed Windows for the long term, to address developers’ needs today, while respecting prior investments. We do this with one familiar toolset based on Visual Studio 2013, with support for C#, C++, JavaScript, XAML, DirectX, and HTML. The tools and technology stacks already used by hundreds of thousands of developers extend app development across Windows devices. Developers who have built apps for Windows 8.1 will find it fairly easy to reuse their work and bring tailored experiences to Windows Phone 8.1. Windows Phone 8 developers can use the same code, and also access new features, when they develop for Windows Phone 8.1.
Windows now also offers an expansive set of common APIs for everything from displaying notification toasts to accessing the file system and device capabilities. With Windows Phone 8.1, we are adding a wide array of new features including support for Bluetooth LE to connect to devices, Action Center extensibility to more effectively connect with users, triggers to ensure battery-friendly multitasking, VPN so end users can connect to their workplace, and many more.
Even Cortana delivers developer extensibility. Cortana brings a significant evolution of the speech technology developed by Windows and Bing, which first appeared in Windows Phone 8. In Windows Phone 8.1 we expose new enhancements to the Speech API that developers can use to integrate their apps with the Cortana family of services. Developers can now leverage speech recognition and voice commands to denote a series of actions triggered by heuristically derived scenarios that are surfaced through the Cortana speech recognition service. Fewer steps and more types of natural verbal exchanges open more apps. All of this is delivered through a simple API so developers who use Windows Phone 8 speech features today can plug into Cortana with little additional effort.
Developers are interacting with tablets and Windows computers in new ways as well. Kinect for Windows v2 will be released this summer. Soon developers can start building Kinect apps for Windows Store and publish or commercially deploy Kinect apps and solutions.
We’re also improving the way people find and use apps, as well as increasing monetization options and providing a more consistent Store experience across devices and markets. Developers can choose to link apps among phones, tablets and PCs so when a user downloads an app on one device they can install it on all of their Windows devices, increasing usage and engagement. Windows 8.1 Update brings the Store icon and pinned apps to the taskbar on the desktop. Developers are also getting more ways to market and monetize apps, such as common price tiers that bring the popular $0.99 and $1.29 price point to PCs, and updated advertising SDKs that support more rich media standards for better fill rates.
Also, by popular demand, we’ll soon be piloting a program through which developers can directly respond to app reviews to address potential confusion or other issues that may be hurting their ratings. These are just a few of the new Windows Store features being detailed this week during BUILD. Todd Brix will share much more detail about what’s new in Windows Store later today.
Make cross-platform technology easier and more capable
We’ve also been working for developers who may not already be on the Windows platform by supporting a mix of languages, runtimes, frameworks, and protocols that run across devices. Middleware partners like Unity have helped developers bring thousands of titles to the Windows Store. In a newly released beta version, Unity is delivering support for Windows Phone 8.1, including universal Windows apps.
Microsoft Open Technologies also works with various open source communities to contribute code to popular C++ frameworks and optimize them for Windows devices. For example, Windows Store supports Cocos2D-X, openFrameworks, OpenCV, Cinder, and Ogre3D apps. Box2D and Bullet also have joined the Windows Store. jQuery now fully supports Windows Runtime, so web developers can build Windows 8 apps reusing their existing code and skills. Developers who use HTML5 to build cross-platform apps for iOS and Android with tools like Apache Cordova will find it easy to port their apps to Windows.
In fact, we’re taking a much more pragmatic approach to the web in general. We know that HTML is a critical cross-platform technology. Windows Phone 8.1 brings the same powerful hardware-accelerated IE11 HTML engine in Windows 8.1 to the phone. We’ve made great strides in extending IE to developers by focusing on open standards. Now we want to focus even more on interoperability. We already support WebGL and other technologies, such as media streaming extensions for adaptive streaming scenarios.
Today we’re also announcing that Microsoft Open Technologies has brought the Windows Library for JavaScript (WinJS) cross-platform apps and is open sourcing it under the Apache 2.0 license. Find the source code on GitHub. Use this powerful Windows development framework to build high-quality web apps across a variety of browsers and devices beyond Windows, including Chrome, Firefox, Android, and iOS.
Where we go from here
We’re enabling universal Windows apps for a common Windows runtime today, and we know we have more work to do, including expanding the range of devices running universal Windows apps so developers can reach more customers in more places, from Xbox One and the Internet of Things scenarios, to millions more desktop Windows users. We also continue to strive to make the app development, submission, and management process faster and easier. In the coming weeks and months, you’ll see additional updates to the Windows platform – including tools and Store – all designed to deliver even better experiences and enable greater opportunity for our developer community.
Tags: phone, PC, Tablet
An upcoming new era: personalised, pro-active search and discovery experiences for Office 365 (Oslo)
A great companion to the incredible Power BI experiences! Now it is already part of the Office 365 pre-release TAP (Technology Adoption Program) program, for general public will be available by the end of this year:
Code-Name Oslo – Next Generation Discovery and Search [OfficeGarageSeries YouTube channel, March 10, 2014]
More information: Introducing codename Oslo and the Office Graph [Office Blogs from Microsoft, March 11, 2014] by Ashok Kuppusamy is a group program manager in the FAST engineering team based in Norway.
The goal for Oslo was not just to reimagine search, but to help people get their work done in a quicker, more The goal for Oslo was not just to reimagine search, but to help people get their work done in a quicker, more informed, and even delightful manner. After all, your job isn’t just to “search.” You use search as a tool to get your actual job done. This more ambitious goal drove us to ask how we could remove the information silos that exist across applications, better support information discovery, and enable teams to work together as a network. The result is not just a search solution, but a new way of working – proactive, transformational, and delightful. Oslo is the first in a new breed of intelligent and social work experiences.
Rather than list an exhaustive set of features, let’s see how Oslo transforms the world of work.
…With Oslo, you can find anything you need by just remembering a person. It’s way easier for us humans to remember names of people than document names or keywords. This change, connecting to content through people, hints at something truly transformative: a new way to staying “in the know” about what’s around you. It’s the difference between working in an office with a closed door that gives you little exposure to what is going on around you, and working in an open office where you are exposed to information dynamically.
This transformation happens even in small teams. Here at Microsoft, when a team is “on Oslo,” we see fewer meetings. We send fewer status reports. We cut down “talking about the work.” Instead we all just do our work and see the latest work from each other through Oslo. We can reuse information from across our organization more effectively. We provide feedback on the work right away instead of waiting for meetings. The pace of work speeds up, yet we still feel “in the know.” It’s like our entire team is sitting in an open-space room where we’re aware of what’s going on but not being constantly interrupted. We call it “working like a network” because Oslo makes connecting with others, building relationships, and sharing information easier than ever before. Oslo is also founded on the openness and transparency that drives new levels of productivity.
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Enterprise Social: Work like a network. [YammerInc YouTube channel, March 3, 2014]
Work like a network! Enterprise social and the future of work [Office Blogs from Microsoft, March 3, 2014]
Jared Spataro is the General Manager of Enterprise Social at Microsoft.
My insert here: Jared Spataro speaks at SharePoint Conference 2014 #SPC14 [ToolboxY2K YouTube channel, published on March 10, 2010]
As customers gather this week for the SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas and Convergence in Atlanta, I want to update you on our enterprise social vision and road map—including several new announcements.
The world has become a giant network
Over the last few years, the world has become a giant network, and social media has rewired the way we connect with people and information. Today we build relationships with family and friends on Facebook, get breaking news from the other side of the world on Twitter, and find our next big break on LinkedIn. Indeed, the old saying still holds: It’s not just what you know but also who you know that matters. And in 2014, technology makes connecting with others, building relationships, and sharing information easier than ever before.
But the great apps and services that have changed our personal lives haven’t yet found their way into the office (at least, not in a consistent way). So we’re excited to introduce an integrated set of social, collaboration, and communication technologies that enable companies to work like a network—using the concepts that have changed our personal lives to transform the way we work. By tapping into the human networks that make a business tick, companies can listen to the conversations that matter most, adapt to an increasingly volatile market, and grow in ways never before possible.
Today, more than 400,000 companies worldwide are already using Yammer to work in this way, and in the remainder of this post I’ll explain how we’re extending this network effect to users of Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics, and virtually any other app, service, or line-of-business applications that matter to your company.
Laying the foundation
We’ve always believed that enterprise social should be woven into the way people already work, so that the power of human networks (from inside and outside a company) is available to help people get their jobs done—anywhere and on any device. Over the past two years, we’ve been busy laying the foundation for this approach with a number of strategic investments:
- In February 2013, we integrated Yammer into Microsoft Dynamics CRM, allowing users to participate in social conversations, share important data, and follow updates without ever leaving the CRM application. In the spring 2014 release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, we’ll further enhance our customer-facing enterprise social capabilities by delivering a comprehensive set of new social listening, marketing, and service desk capabilities.
- In November 2013, we announced the inclusion of Yammer Enterprise with all Office 365 Enterprise plans. This spring, Yammer Enterprise will also be included with the Office 365 Academic and Office 365 Midsize Business plans.
- Last month, we released simplified login to Yammer from Office 365, in which Office 365 users are mapped to Yammer accounts. Now, when you click on Yammer from your Office 365 global navigation bar, there is no need to re-authenticate. This summer, we’ll surface the Office 365 navigation bar in Yammer, enabling unified navigation across Office 365.
- Last week, we released SharePoint 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1), which makes it easy to connect an on-premises SharePoint deployment with an in-the-cloud Yammer network.
Enterprise social and the future of work
But a foundation is good only if you build something interesting on top of it. And today we’re announcing three new social experiences designed to help companies work like a network.
Creating the Office Graph. First, we’re extending Yammer’s concept of the Enterprise Graph across Office 365 to create something we’re calling the Office Graph. When we acquired Yammer, one of the things we loved about the technology was how it mapped the relationships between people and information by simply recording likes, posts, replies, shares, and uploads. In what I think is a game-changing move, we’re extending this idea to Office broadly, using signals from email, social conversations, documents, sites, instant messages, meetings, and more to map the relationships between the people and things that make your business go. Just as consumer social networks connect you to people and information you’d otherwise never be able to keep up with, the Office Graph will plug you into the very fabric that makes your organization work.
The Office Graph maps the relationships among people and information.Oslo (the codename for a brand new app) is the first application to help people put the Office Graph to work, delivering personalized insights and connecting the dots to help people get their jobs done. By tapping into the Office Graph, Oslo provides a natural way for users to navigate, discover, and search people and information across an organization.
Office Graph insights surface through Oslo.
Learn more about your colleagues and their content.Extending the Groups Experience. Next, we’re extending one of Yammer’s most powerful user experiences to the rest of Office 365. Broad posts are a fine way to make announcements or solicit feedback from across your company, but over the years Yammer found that the value of enterprise social goes up exponentially when people organize themselves into smaller groups focused on a specific process or deliverable. This simple Groups Experience is so powerful, in fact, that we’re making it a cross-Office 365 concept that will unify people, profiles, conversations, email, calendars, and files across the entire set of Office 365 applications. Creating a group anywhere in Office 365 will automatically provision a corresponding inbox, social feed, calendar, and document library that group members can use to get the job done. The group’s Yammer feed and inbox will both display the same conversation, so users who are more comfortable in Yammer can participate in the group through the feed, and users who prefer email can participate in the group through the inbox. And, just like in Yammer, groups are open by default to enhance discoverability and sharing. But to be clear, groups can be made private as necessary. Transparency and openness can be incredibly powerful, but we recognize that privacy and access control haven’t entirely gone out of style.
Group social feed in Yammer
Group inbox in Outlook Web App
Group calendar (green) viewed alongside personal calendar
Group document libraryCreating Inline Social Experiences. Finally, we’re weaving social into the apps that matter most by creating Inline Social Experiences in Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics, and any other app, service, or line-of-business system that is important to your business. We’re adding Yammer conversations to documents in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business; we’re making it easy to post updates, documents, and emails to Yammer from SharePoint Online and Outlook; and we’re continuing to enhance the integrated social capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In the future, we’ll integrate Yammer with Lync and Skype to enable a full spectrum of social interactions, from asynchronous posts to audio and video. We’re committed to helping you put your networks to work naturally—with integrated experiences that put people and information at your fingertips, anywhere and on any device.
You can now see Yammer conversations side by side with PowerPoint Online presentations and other documents.So, what should I do now?
Over the last 18 months, I’ve had a chance to talk with a lot of customers and partners about our enterprise social strategy, and my discussions have generally focused on two big action-oriented questions: (1) What about SharePoint social? and (2) What should I do now? So to close out this post, I want to respond to both questions and tie our announcements today to next steps.
What about SharePoint social? We shipped basic social features with SharePoint Server 2013, and over the last year and a half I’ve had many people ask me whether they should implement SharePoint social or Yammer. My guidance has been clear and consistent: Go Yammer! While we’re committed to another on-premises release of SharePoint Server—and we’ll maintain its social capabilities—we don’t plan on adding new social features. Our investments in social will be focused on Yammer and Office 365, so that we can innovate quickly and take advantage of the viral user adoption that is so important to the natural network effect that makes social so powerful. We recognize that many of our SharePoint customers will continue to have large on-premises deployments for many years, but we’re investing to help customers easily manage hybrid environments so that they can connect their on-premises farms to their in-the-cloud social network.
What should I do now? A lot of people have assumed that our enterprise social strategy was simply to “add Yammer feeds to SharePoint” or “unify identity and profiles for Yammer and SharePoint.” While we’re absolutely doing these things (and many more like them), I’m pleased that our enterprise social strategy—as articulated above—is much more than just a collection of the obvious. We have lofty ambitions and are aiming to literally change the way people get things done at work. And to do that, we’ve taken a step back and tried to capture the essence of how social has rewired the world—how it has reshaped the way we connect with the people and information that make the world go ‘round. These new innovations—the Office Graph, Office 365 Groups, and Inline Social Experiences—are important steps in realizing our vision. So what should you do now? That’s easy! Start working like a network today by joining Yammer—and then add additional social capabilities, from Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics, as they become available throughout 2014 and as you and your organization solidify your own enterprise social strategy.
So there you have it. The world has become a giant network. And now is the time for you and your company to start working like one. Looking forward to the journey together!
–Jared Spataro, #worklikeanetwork
SharePoint Social And Other Platforms [Michael Gannotti YouTube channel, March 14, 2014]
Microsoft Office showcases future of work [press release, March 3, 2014]
From all-new Office 365 social and personalized experiences to new opportunities for developers, Microsoft emphasizes cloud scenarios that change the way people get things done.
LAS VEGAS — March 3, 2014 — Microsoft Corp. kicked off its SharePoint Conference 2014, highlighting new ways Microsoft Office 365 will enable people to accomplish more with new experiences for users, developers and IT pros. In a keynote speech to approximately 10,000 customers and partners, Microsoft Corporate Vice President Jeff Teper showcased innovation that brings together the power of the cloud, enterprise social, big data, machine learning and mobile capabilities into an experience made personal for every Office 365 user. These new technologies will enable a networked way of working together in teams, in groups and across organizations that can result in better customer responsiveness, collaboration, information sharing, discoverability and more.
“Today, the world has become a giant network where connections make information more relevant and people more productive. Most companies, however, are not working like a network, which we believe is vital for their ability to improve collaboration and respond to customers, competition and market changes,” Teper said. “The new Office 365 experiences powered by cloud, social, mobile and big data technologies enable people and teams to find the right connections and most relevant insights to get more done.”
Delivering on this vision, Microsoft showcased new innovations for end users, developers and IT pros coming to Office 365 in the near future, with an emphasis on the trusted platform fundamentals of security, privacy and industry compliance.
For end users, Microsoft demonstrated new personalized experiences that integrate social capabilities throughout Office 365, to help people spend less time trying to find information or looking for people working on similar projects and more time getting things done. Powering these new user experiences is the Office Graph, a new Office 365 intelligence fabric that remains unseen to the user but is constantly analyzing content, interactions and activity streams and mapping the relationships using machine learning to intelligently connect and surface the most relevant content to each user. These new experiences include the following:
“Oslo” (code name). A new application powered by the Office Graph and code-named “Oslo” was previewed onstage. It uses personal interactions and machine learning to surface a view of the most relevant, timely information for each individual using Office 365 across SharePoint, Exchange, Lync, Yammer and Office.
Groups. Groups is a new feature unifying people, conversations, calendars, emails and files across the Office 365 suite, enabling a seamless collaboration experience across applications. Creating a Group anywhere in Office 365 will automatically provision a corresponding Yammer conversation feed, calendar, document library and inbox where members can collaborate and work as a team. Just like in Yammer, Groups are open by default but can be made private if necessary, enhancing discoverability and sharing.
Inline Social. Microsoft is bringing the power of social collaboration and conversations to everyone by offering Inline Social experiences throughout Office 365. The first experience planned for introduction is the ability to have social conversations inside documents stored in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business.
Office 365 Video Portal. Today, Microsoft previewed the new Office 365 Video Portal to support upload, storage and discovery of videos in a secure manner. Businesses will be able to categorize videos into channels for specific business needs and stream them on mobile devices, with all of the video compression, optimization and rendering work done by Office 365.
“Many organizations struggle with bringing together their content creation, collaboration and core business applications,” said Alan Lepofsky, vice president and principal analyst, Constellation Research. “Today’s Office Graph and ‘Oslo’ announcements describe an integrated future that could greatly improve the way Microsoft Office 365 users will get their work done, with easily discoverable insights about important activity across their organizations that personally affect or may be interesting to them.”
With more than 3.4 million Office and SharePoint developers and counting, Microsoft also announced investments that open more doors for customers and partners to build contextual productivity solutions across browsers, PCs and mobile devices. On the Office 365 platform, developers can build integrated solutions and mobile apps to reach today’s leading businesses.
Exciting mobile possibilities. Today, the release of Office 365 SDKs for Windows 8 and Android will help developers build mobile productivity solutions powered by Office 365. Windows and Android developers can now connect to Office 365 data and services, including files, calendars, contacts, tasks and email.
Seamless Office 365 integration. Enhancements to Office 365 APIs for PowerPoint and Outlook give developers the control to build new, sophisticated solutions. PowerPoint presentations can be extended to surface poll or survey data directly within a deck, and Outlook Compose apps offer helpful insight alongside an email as it is written.
Robust APIs. In a continuation of Office 365 API growth, new APIs for files, people, email, calendar and tasks bring new light to the service with an intuitive, open- standards approach. The APIs also feature popularly requested enhancements, including self-service site provisioning and support for OneDrive for Business file actions.
Sharing power. Office 365 documents that include app information can now be more seamlessly activated by recipients. PowerPoint apps travel into the PowerPoint Online experience, allowing customers to share their favorite apps in a more viral way. Later this year, Office Online will bring similar capabilities to Excel.
For IT pros, Microsoft announced new capabilities that enhance Office 365 security and privacy, giving IT pros the tools they need to help protect their organizations. In addition, with the Office 2013 and SharePoint Server 2013 Service Pack 1 release, it is now easier than ever for organizations to take advantage of Office 365, whether that means making a comprehensive move to the cloud, adopting a hybrid deployment, or making a gradual transition through easy on-ramps such as OneDrive for Business and Yammer.
Data-loss prevention. Microsoft demonstrated new data-loss prevention capabilities for Office content, enabling organizations to manage, track and audit content, while not getting in the way of user productivity.
OneDrive for Business. In April, businesses can purchase OneDrive for Business (formerly SkyDrive Pro) as a stand-alone SKU providing secured file, sync and share in the cloud with all the benefits of integration with Office. Also, with SharePoint Server 2013 Service Pack 1, Microsoft introduced new admin controls to “turn on” OneDrive for Business in the cloud directly from the SharePoint Server 2013 admin console. This enables customers to keep their on-premises infrastructure intact, while still getting the benefit of cloud-based file storage and sharing.
Easy SharePoint social transition to Yammer. In Service Pack 1 Microsoft is making it easy for IT pros to replace the out-of-the-box SharePoint Server 2013 social experience with Yammer. Through simple controls in SharePoint Server 2013 central administration, IT can choose to activate Yammer, redirecting users to the organization’s Yammer network.
More information about today’s news can be found on the Microsoft Office blog.
The SharePoint Conference 2014 is the largest Microsoft SharePoint event in the world, offering developers, IT professionals and executives a range of presentations, workshops, Q&A sessions and networking events. More information on the news at the event can be found at the Microsoft Office virtual pressroom.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.
Read More: Office 365, Developers, SharePoint Online, SharePoint Server, Cloud Computing, Office 365 Customers, Developers, Lync, Yammer, Outlook, Jeff Teper, Enterprise Social
- Microsoft expands cloud services for mobile scenarios March 27, 2014
- Microsoft takes a stand on student privacy with best-in-class education solutions March 12, 2014
- Microsoft, Intel and the Kenya Private School Alliance announce 4Afrika Youth Device Program March 03, 2014
- Los Angeles Unified School District selects Office 365 for faculty and staff Feb. 27, 2014
Dux Quax at SharePoint Conference 2014: Jared Spataro and Adam Pisoni [avepointjc YouTube channel, March 5, 2014]
Technology is enabling new ways of working [Office Blogs from Microsoft, March 3, 2014]
Jeff Teper is the Corporate Vice President of Office Service and Servers group.
It’s an exhilarating time for our industry, our company, and for Office. At the last SharePoint Conference we talked about technology megatrends that are changing the way people work: cloud, social, mobile, and big data. These trends are still alive and well today, and they are active change agents in markets, industries, and companies across the world.
But this year, we want to do more than just talk about technology trends. This year, we want to show you what we’re doing with them and how we’re harnessing these powerful forces to transform work. The innovation you’ll see from us here today—and in fact over the next few years—is based on four core beliefs:
- First, we believe the future of work is all about working like a network. It’s about how we build relationships, share information, and respond to ever-changing conditions. And it’s founded on an openness and transparency that will drive a new level of productivity.
- Second, we believe personalized and proactive insights are required to cut through the noise. As humans, we have an incredible ability to achieve—but only if we can focus. And we need technology to help us, so that we can focus our energies on accomplishing big things.
- Third, we believe in the power of an open development platform and a robust ecosystem. We recognize that one size doesn’t fit all, and that companies need customized solutions that can be developed in weeks, not years.
- And finally, we believe that enabling this future of work is possible only if people are empowered to work anywhere and on any device, and if businesses have the tools they need to responsibly manage security and compliance.
We couldn’t be more excited to partner with you to transform work and dramatically change the way people get things done.
Empowering people and organizations
Today, the world is a giant network with people hyper-connected to information and each other. We talk to our friends and family using Facebook, brands can be made or broken with a simple Tweet, and we find our next job through contacts in LinkedIn. Information and knowledge move faster, and we’re able to accomplish more together because we are so connected. Meanwhile, many organizations continue to work the way they always have: they operate in hierarchies, with information coming from the top down or held up in unconnected systems and broken communication channels.
To be more responsive, we need to evolve. We need to flatten the information flow so that we can work better together and serve customers better, using a network of highly informed and highly connected people.
Today we’re showing examples of innovation in the cloud that I’m really excited about, that serve unmet needs in most organizations today, and that allow organizations to work more like a network. By leveraging insights from Office 365 and mapping the relationships between people, groups, files and conversations through machine learning, we can intelligently connect and surface the most relevant content using the Office Graph. This is the power of social, cloud, big data, and machine learning coming together. Office Graph will power many new personalized and contextual experiences for people using Office 365. One of the first experiences to leverage the Office Graph is code-named Oslo. Oslo serves up in a single user interface personalized insights based on meetings, people, conversations, documents and more. The Oslo application surfaces what might be most relevant for each individual based on what they’re already doing in Exchange, Outlook, SharePoint, Office, Lync, and Yammer. We believe this is the start of something game-changing—building digital memory across applications to create a highly personalized experience that helps people get more done. You can learn more about Office Graph and Oslo here.
By helping people work more openly, we believe organizations will work more like a network and become more responsive (and successful). We’ve spent a lot of time studying trends, talking with customers, and thinking about how we can connect experiences in Yammer, Lync, Outlook, and Exchange with a social fabric that permeates Office, is intuitive, and helps organizations gain the benefits of network effects—just by people doing their natural work in Office. To that end, today we’re also showing Groups—building on the loved concept of Groups in Yammer—which will apply to all Office 365 applications. Groups will unify people, email, conversations, calendars and files together across Office 365 services in a common construct to ensure that people can collaborate similarly in the experience they love most. This makes the overall experience of Office 365 social and connected. You can read more about Groups here.
We know that not everything is best expressed in documents or conversations. Many organizations have created dynamic portals, web sites, and mobile apps to surface what matters most to employees. Here we’re also working on some bold new approaches. We believe next-generation portals should be simple to create and customize in the cloud, have high engagement via social interactions, deliver more relevant information, leverage multi-media, and—most importantly—be accessible anywhere and on any device. We have of lot of work going on in this area that will show up this year, but today we’re showing a new social video portal built on SharePoint, Yammer, the Office Graph in Office 365, and Azure Media Services, as a ready-made solution.
Office 365 for developers
There are already more than 3.4 million developers—nearly half of whom are SharePoint developers—building on the Office platform and Office 365, our fastest-growing product in history. We have two objectives in our development platform. First, we want to give customers maximum agility to adapt our products to specific business needs, whether you build or buy these solutions. Second, we want to bring partners a great opportunity to grow their business. You can find more information about today’s announcements for developers here. It’s been very exciting in the last few weeks to have partners ranging from GoDaddy to DocuSign building solutions and services around Office 365 that will help them grow, and that will also help our customers see more value by having direct access within Office 365 to the things they want to do every day. We see more of this great opportunity ahead for our developer partners.
A trusted platform
Beyond base reliability, we know security, privacy, and compliance are paramount, and we’re committed to delivering best-in-class enterprise cloud services. We’re doing this through a massive investment in physical data centers and application-level security, lights-out operations, architecting for zero customer data access, intelligent monitoring, and more. With the Microsoft Cloud and Office 365, you own and control your data. We don’t see or use your data for anything other than delivering the service to you. We know independent certifications for all of this are critical, and we’ve published our processes and met industry standards and regulations such as ISO, EU Model Clauses, HIPAA, FISMA, and CJIS for the largest and most demanding customers, such as the states of California and Texas. You can find out more about our trusted platform at the Office 365 Trust Center.
Partnering with you
We’re making adoption of Office 365 faster and easier than ever with our FastTrack deployment approach. But we understand that not every customer is ready to move their investments to the cloud all at once and so we’re committed to working closely with all of you and lower the friction for you to get started. And, we will ship new server releases of SharePoint and Exchange in 2015. We’ll also continue to support hybrid deployments spanning both cloud and on premises technologies including expanded search and line-of business access. Our server releases will include some, but not all, of the experience you saw today due to the computational power and integrated aspects that only come with Office 365.
I want to be very clear — we know we can deliver more value to you via the cloud – as you saw today in these great new experiences. I also want to be clear that we’re committed to helping you get there in the configuration and pace that works for you.
To help you make the transition at your own pace, we’ve made it easier to get started in the cloud with Social and Files. With SharePoint Server 2013 Service Pack 1, you can connect your on-premises SharePoint 2013 servers to the cloud and to turn on OneDrive for Business or Yammer as the first workloads in the cloud and run those alongside existing SharePoint investments.
But we wanted to go one step farther. So today, we are introducing a new very attractive priced OneDrive for Business Standalone offer. If you aren’t already using OneDrive for Business – now is the time to take your first step to embracing the cloud.
Technology is transforming the world and we’re using it to transform Office to help your organization be more responsive and agile—all while protecting your valuable information. This is just the start!
–Jeff Teper
To watch Alisher Usmanov (Алишер Усманов)
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:
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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.
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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.
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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”).
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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].”
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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.
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“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. -
And additionally Usmanov Tightens Grip Over Russian Social Network VKontakte (1) [Businessweek, March 18, 2014]:
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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.
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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.
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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]
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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]:
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Or as has been reported in a wider context of Олигархи поговорили с Путиным «как после ареста Ходорковского» [РБК daily, March 21, 2014]
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.”
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.
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”.
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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.
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.
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.
* 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
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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.
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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.”
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.
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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
(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
- 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.
