Month: August 2012

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Android iPad iPhone mobile news usability

Technology in Higher Education 2012

First a Stanford University professor opened his computer-science course up to anyone who wanted to join in online. Soon some of the world’s best-known universities tried similar experiments. It’s a mix of self-service learning and crowd-sourced teaching.

The following statistics were highlighted in the article:

55% of students owned smartphones in 2011, but many admitted lacking some basic technology skills.

42.6% of university presidents was already using iPads in 2011, the year after they were introduced.

1% of course-materials revenue came from e-books in 2011-12.

50.6% was Blackboard’s share of the learning-management-systems market in 2011, down from 57.1 percent in 2010.

Almanac 2012: Technology – Almanac of Higher Education 2012 – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Categories
Android iOS mobile news

Apps Dominate Mobile Time Spent on Travel in U.S.

Nielsen looked at the usage of travel-related mobile apps and websites during June 2012. Findings showed that U.S. Android and iOS users spent 95 percent of their time accessing travel information from travel apps, versus only 5 percent from the mobile Web. This discrepancy was largely driven by Google Maps—the top Travel category app and mobile website during June—which accounted for 78 percent of all mobile time spent on Travel.

The Cruise Lines category was exclusively accessed through the mobile Web, while 98 percent of time spent browsing map/navigation information was through an app. The Travel Destinations/Theme Parks category seemed to have the most balanced usage among smartphone owners, as 54 percent of time spent was through an app and 46 percent via mobile Web.

 

Apps Dominate Mobile Time Spent Accessing Travel in U.S. | Nielsen Wire.

Categories
Android mobile development mobile news

Samsung Upsizes Handheld Android Experience with 5.8-inch Galaxy Player

Samsung has recently refused to leave the 5.8 inch smart phone market untouched although it has ignored it in the past. It has introduced the largest Galaxy Player yet and it sports a 960 x 540 resolution screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio. The mobile device has top as well as bottom speakers and it runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich topped with Touchwiz.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/samsung_upsizes_handheld_android_experience_58-inch_galaxy_player

Categories
iPhone mobile development mobile news

Sharp’s Apple iPhone Displays Behind Schedule

Japanese electronics company Sharp is behind schedule on the production of screens for Apple’s next generation iPhone, according to a report by Reuters, citing sources “familiar with Sharp’s production operations.”

Sharp is behind schedule in their production of the new iPhone screen which could potentially delay the release date of the new iPhone rumored to be announced mid-September. Sharp is not the only manufacturer of screens, but the production schedules for other companies are unknown.

Categories
mobile development mobile news

Pandora Surges 21%: All Eyes On Mobile

Mobile revenue growth was 86% y/y and total listening hours grew 80% y/y, implying that monetization has essentially caught up with listener growth. Mobile revenue in 2Q13 represented 58% of P’s total revenue. Mobile listening hours hit more than 75% of total listening hours, up from 70% last quarter.

 

Pandora is increasing its ability to create revenue and investors are taking notice.

Categories
mobile development mobile news

Samsung Announces First Windows 8 Phone

Although Samsung recently lost a billion dollar verdict to rival Apple, it surprised everyone recently by announcing the Ativ S, the first Windows 8 smart phone. Thus edging out Nokia and every other Microsoft partner planning to launch Windows 8 devices of their own.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/surprise_samsung_announces_first_windows_8_phone_ativ_s

Categories
mobile news

Will Apple Attack Google Directly in Anti-Android Campaign?

 …Apple’s former CEO Steve Jobs wanted to destroy Google’s Android operating system…

Via Will Apple Attack Google Directly in Anti-Android Campaign? | Law.com

 

Patent based lawsuits by Apple have targeted phone and tablet makers, not Google directly. The reason being Google brings in revenue from advertising not through the sales of Android related software. It would be tough to legally calculate any monetary damages based on infringements made directly by Google.

 

 

Categories
Android disruptive technology mobile development mobile news usability

Android phone makers consider other platform options

 …as the mobile market matures and more patent cases look likely, some makers are looking at the alternatives.

Via Android phone makers back platform, but consider other options | Mercury News

 

Phonemakers might have to reconsider the use of Android platforms. Recent lawsuits could be too big for smaller phonemakers to survive financially and could disrupt business. Two thirds of smartphones use Android platforms, but Apple patent cases are causing the phonemakers to reconsider the continued use of Android.

Categories
mobile development mobile news usability

Recommendations For Building Smartphone-Optimized Websites

Mobile device increased usage has changed the way companies do online marketing.  Consumers are often accessing websites from their mobile devices. Tablets are getting more popular and more affordable; then there are the tablet/phone hybrids that are now on the market made popular by Samsung and Google Galaxy.  Now days, web developers have to keep in mind all these facts and build websites that are accessible to users via smartphones and they should follow Google’s recommendations on how to produce smartphone-optimized content.

Via: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/06/recommendations-for-building-smartphone.html

Categories
disruptive technology mobile news

Savvy Shoppers Use Smartphone Apps

As smartphones became the majority in the U.S. in 2012, nearly half of American smartphone owners (47%) used shopping apps in June 2012, according to Nielsen.  Overall, 45 million smartphone owners used apps in the Shopping/Commerce category, accessing shopping apps 17 times on average during June 2012.

via Which Smartphone Apps do Savvy Shoppers Use Most? | Nielsen Wire.

Categories
mobile news

The Future of Storytelling (As told by Early Adopters.)

A new consumer technology report by Latitude has interviewed 158 early adopters to complete the first phase of its The Future of Storytelling project. Multi-platform, intuitive story telling tools (like the BBC’s Perceptive Media Experiment) seem to be was future content consumers are going to expect. A lot of what the participants imagined involved mobile immersive tools that would be used to bring the reader into the story and personalize each experience.  As a librarian and journalist, I am always excited to see new ways in which original content can be repurposed and re-imagined. Needless to say, I found the results of this study invigorating.

Categories
mobile news

Mobile Tech on Wheels: New Tech Incubator Focuses on Car-Based Apps

Smart phones have already enabled Internet enhanced driving; Jim Disanto from Transportation Technology Ventures wants to make this the standard for the automotive industry. The industry is still in the “seed stage”, but this very well seems to be the next logical step in immersive technology. It will be interesting to see how the stakeholders –US Department of Transportation, Automotive Industry and the National Transportation Safety Board – will work together to make this happen.

Categories
Android disruptive technology iOS mobile news usability

Send Links From Chrome Desktop to Chrome Mobile

Google has long offered an awesome way for Android users to share links from the desktop to a mobile device. Just recently iOS has been given the same privileged.

With this new Google offering, both Android and iOS users will be able to send web pages from Chrome on their computer to Chrome on their Android phone or tablet, iPhone or iPad.  

You’ll find the extension in Chrome under a new name… Chrome to Mobile.

Send Links From Chrome Desktop to Chrome Mobile (iOS and Android).

Categories
Android iPhone mobile news

Tokyo court gives win to Samsung in patent war with Apple

A court in Tokyo has ruled that Samsung Electronics did not infringe on patents held by Apple, a victory for the South Korean company.

Shortly after losing a key patent case in the US and being ordered to pay more than $1 Billion in damages, Samsung is found innocent of charges that it infringed on patents held by Apple in Japan.

 

BBC News – Tokyo court gives win to Samsung after US loss.

Categories
Android disruptive technology mobile news

Two Thirds of New Mobile Users Buy Smartphones

Android continues to lead the smartphone market in the U.S., with a majority of smartphone owners (51.8%) using an Android OS handset. Over a third (34.3%) of smartphone owners use an Apple iPhone, and Blackberry owners represented another 8.1 percent of the smartphone market.

via Two Thirds of New Mobile Buyers Now Opting For Smartphones | Nielsen Wire.

Categories
disruptive technology mobile development usability

Forget the desktop—smartphone and tablet sites should come first.

For all these reasons, Web companies should focus on building a unified experience that can work across every gadget. In an ideal world, the mobile site wouldn’t be an offshoot of the desktop site—the desktop site would be the same as the mobile site, a clean, quick-loading page that looked good on every gadget.

Forget the desktop—smartphone and tablet sites should come first.

Categories
disruptive technology mobile news

VC investment in mobile consumer apps tops $1Billion

Consumer apps across the mobile sector raised $3.9 billion in venture financing during the first six months of 2012.

via VC investment in mobile consumer apps tops $1B during H1 2012 – FierceMobileContent.

Categories
disruptive technology mobile news

Mobile Devices may be used to pay for brick and mortar purchases.

A group of big retailers, including 7-Eleven, Best Buy, CVS and Wal-Mart, said on Wednesday that they were forming a company that would offer a way for customers to pay for purchases with their smartphones.

via Major Retailers Plan Mobile Payments Effort – NYTimes.com.

Categories
disruptive technology mobile news usability

Women taking the lead when it comes to mobile

Mobile plays perfectly into the hands of women who are looking for simpler, more convenient ways to buy online.

Categories
Android disruptive technology

Google’s New Nexus 7 Tablet Gives Android an Instant Boost

About 1 million Android devices are activated across the globe daily. The vast majority of even those new devices are not running the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system. In fact, most Android devices are still running Android 2.3 Gingerbread, released at the end of 2010. The latest numbers from Google pin Gingerbread at 60.6% of all Android devices.

via Google’s New Nexus 7 Tablet Gives Android an Instant Boost.

Categories
disruptive technology mobile news

Android leads, iOS follows, Windows Phone shows surprising growth

Android leads, iOS follows, Windows Phone shows surprising growth.

Android, Google’s smartphone operating system, shipped in 107.8 million devices in Q2 2012, a 100.10 percent increase over Q2 2011 when Android smartphone shipments reached 51.2 million units. Shipments have more than doubled year over year, and at the same time the share in shipments increased as well. In Q2 2011, Android shipments accounted for 47.6 percent of the smartphone market, and in Q2 2012 they have grown to 68.1 percent which is a 43.06 percent increase over the same period last year.