Showing posts with label Apple iPhone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apple iPhone. Show all posts
Friday, June 15, 2012
Motorola launches second Android phone
Motorola Inc. introduced its second phone based on Google Inc.’s Android software, fighting for a bigger share of the growing market for Web-equipped phones to reverse more than a year of sales declines.
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The phone, called the Droid, features a larger screen than Apple Inc.’s top-selling iPhone and has higher resolution.
The phone, called the Droid, features a larger screen than Apple Inc.’s top-selling iPhone and has higher resolution, said co-chief executive Sanjay Jha. It will be available Nov. 6 on the Verizon Wireless website and in retail stores, Motorola said. The price will be US$199.99 with a two-year agreement after a US$100 mail-in rebate.
Motorola is rebuilding its mobile-phone division around the Android operating system to entice consumers who abandoned its handsets in favour of the iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry. Motorola’s share of the phone market dropped by almost half in the second quarter from 10% a year earlier, according to Gartner Inc.
“We’ve been missing from the market,” Mr. Jha, 46, said in an interview. The Droid “absolutely does” get Motorola back into the game with a better operating system and a faster Internet browser, he said.
Based on Android 2.0, a newer version of the Google operating system, the device allows users to run multiple applications at once, features voice-driven Web searches, and has one of the “fastest Web browsers available today,” Mr. Jha said.
T-Mobile USA Inc. will begin selling the Schaumburg, Ill.-based company’s first Android phone, the Cliq, on Nov. 2 for US$199.99 with a two-year contract.
“Droid boasts impressive specs and reviews from the blog community have been very favourable thus far,” said Matt Thornton, an analyst with Avian Securities LLC in Boston. “This should give some indication as to how the device will be received by the consumer, the press and the investor community.” Thornton has a “positive” rating on the stock.
Motorola plans more Android devices. At least one of those will be sold through a third carrier, Mr. Jha said. The Droid will be available through multiple carriers outside the U.S. later this year, he said.
Mr. Jha declined to comment on how Android phones will affect earnings. The company will report third-quarter results tomorrow. Analysts predict profit of less than 1 cent a share, excluding some items, the average of estimates in a Bloomberg survey.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Microsoft Launches iPhone Competitor
Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest global software company, has propelled itself into the mobile market with its Kin smartphone.
Teaming up with HTC Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Sharp, and other mobile makers, Microsoft unveiled a line of mobile phones geared toward teens and young adults, attempting to capture market share with its social-networking focus.
Microsoft is trying to mark its territory in the mobile phone market, as well as diversifying its product line-up into an explosive market. Historically, Microsoft has been a software provider in the wireless industry to different handset makers, however, it has been losing ground with the launch of Apple’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android platform.
“Kin is an interesting attempt to target the 15 to 25 market,” said Ross Rubin, consumer electronics and wireless industry analyst at market research firm NPD Group in an interview with Reuters.
Rubin believes that the success of the software giant’s phones will hinge on the pricing of its data plans, which is yet to be announced. Microsoft spokeswoman Melissa Havel has opted not to comment or release details about the pricing of the phones.
The phones have been branded as Kin One and Kin Two, produced by Japan’s Sharp Corp. and sold by Verizon Wireless, based in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and U.K.-based Vodafone Group Plc.
Microsoft President Robbie Bach, who leads the mobile-phone division, launched the phones on April 12 at an event in San Francisco.
“We said, ‘Look, there’s a segment here that we can really go after deeply,” Bach said on Monday in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “And once you decide to go deep, you can’t go part way and say we’ll do the software and then we’ll hand it off to somebody else. You have to really be involved in the whole process.”
The new phones will be sold in May in the United States, and subsequently Europe in the last quarter of the year—on Vodafone’s European network.
According to the vice president of Microsoft’s mobile communications marketing group, there are possibilities of it developing hardware for other parts of the market in the future. However, Bach has reiterated that the company prefers to work with handset producers that create their own hardware.
“This isn’t a Microsoft product,” said Robbie Bach. “Sharp is not just the manufacturer, they sell the phones to Vodafone, not Microsoft. This is a very traditional model, it’s just that we were more involved in the design and the hardware with Sharp.”
Sales of data plans at Verizon Wireless rose 46 percent in the fourth quarter, contributing almost a third of the company’s wireless-service revenues.
The target demographic is clearly focused on those who are savvy with social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.
The camera, touch screen, and slide out keyboard interface is designed to move seamlessly between videos, photos, text messages, and Web sites and to simultaneously share content with others.
Read more »
Teaming up with HTC Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Sharp, and other mobile makers, Microsoft unveiled a line of mobile phones geared toward teens and young adults, attempting to capture market share with its social-networking focus.
Microsoft is trying to mark its territory in the mobile phone market, as well as diversifying its product line-up into an explosive market. Historically, Microsoft has been a software provider in the wireless industry to different handset makers, however, it has been losing ground with the launch of Apple’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android platform.
“Kin is an interesting attempt to target the 15 to 25 market,” said Ross Rubin, consumer electronics and wireless industry analyst at market research firm NPD Group in an interview with Reuters.
Rubin believes that the success of the software giant’s phones will hinge on the pricing of its data plans, which is yet to be announced. Microsoft spokeswoman Melissa Havel has opted not to comment or release details about the pricing of the phones.
The phones have been branded as Kin One and Kin Two, produced by Japan’s Sharp Corp. and sold by Verizon Wireless, based in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and U.K.-based Vodafone Group Plc.
Microsoft President Robbie Bach, who leads the mobile-phone division, launched the phones on April 12 at an event in San Francisco.
“We said, ‘Look, there’s a segment here that we can really go after deeply,” Bach said on Monday in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “And once you decide to go deep, you can’t go part way and say we’ll do the software and then we’ll hand it off to somebody else. You have to really be involved in the whole process.”
The new phones will be sold in May in the United States, and subsequently Europe in the last quarter of the year—on Vodafone’s European network.
According to the vice president of Microsoft’s mobile communications marketing group, there are possibilities of it developing hardware for other parts of the market in the future. However, Bach has reiterated that the company prefers to work with handset producers that create their own hardware.
“This isn’t a Microsoft product,” said Robbie Bach. “Sharp is not just the manufacturer, they sell the phones to Vodafone, not Microsoft. This is a very traditional model, it’s just that we were more involved in the design and the hardware with Sharp.”
Sales of data plans at Verizon Wireless rose 46 percent in the fourth quarter, contributing almost a third of the company’s wireless-service revenues.
The target demographic is clearly focused on those who are savvy with social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.
The camera, touch screen, and slide out keyboard interface is designed to move seamlessly between videos, photos, text messages, and Web sites and to simultaneously share content with others.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Microsoft outsmarted Windows Phone OS rings in the new
The oft-renamed Windows mobile phone platform has never matched the glitz of the iPhone or BlackBerry. But is that about to change?
Among smartphone users, Windows Phone – the handset operating system formerly known as Windows Mobile – tends to not to provoke excitement. This is a space dominated by flashy handsets such as the iPhone, now in its third incarnation – with its OS X operating system also at 3.0 after just two years – and by buzz about new operating systems such as Google's Android and the Palm Pre's WebOS.
Worse, Microsoft has had to play catchup to Apple, Google, Palm and even RIM, introducing an "app store" for Windows Phone after its rivals had done so – and after insisting that nobody was making much money from Apple's iPhone App Store. In January 2007, its chief executive, Steve Ballmer, dismissed the iPhone as "the most expensive phone in the world, and it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good email machine". In fiscal 2008/9, the iPhone sold 20.4m units – compared with an estimated 18m Windows Phone licences. (Microsoft has not given numbers for the year, but has not said they were any higher than 2007-08.)
Call for more style
In short, Windows Phone has an image problem – which has not been altered by rebranding it.
Besides the endless name changes (from PocketPC to Windows Mobile to Phone), the Windows phone platform has been regarded as a dull tool for corporations instead of a strong player in the consumer market, and its user interface has never been much to write home about. Third-party vendors have gone so far as to build their own front ends to hide its perceived ugliness, though offerings such as HTC's Touch-Flo haven't always been an entirely good thing, placing a further burden on the phone's CPU.
Yet Windows Phone is the determined tortoise of the smartphone world, having been around since 1996. Microsoft hopes that its next version – snappily named 6.5 – will end its reputation as a plodding also-ran and spur it to catch up with flashier hares such as the iPhone and HTC Hero.
But is it enough? Roberta Cozza, principal analyst with Gartner, says no. "It's too little, too late. WinMo has been struggling in the consumer market. 6.5 is a small improvement in the look and feel, but it's not comparable with efforts from other vendors."
The irony is that what had seemed like a sure thing – aiming a mobile form of Windows squarely at the business users who had it on their desktops – has turned out to be a mistake.
At its core, the OS offers enterprise solutions such as Office apps and support for Exchange, Microsoft's email and collaboration application. This has made it popular with corporate IT departments; consumers, however, have been less impressed. And the BlackBerry was already there to grab market share.
All this is changing, says James McCarthy, Microsoft's business manager for mobile communications. The next release, probably in September, "pays real attention to the consumer". Certainly, the new look places it much more firmly in the arena with the iPhone and LG Viewty.
The whole interface has had a makeover, aimed at making it much more intuitive and finger-friendly. Until now, using Windows Mobile has tended to require a stylus – fiddly, easy to break and to lose – because the screens on the devices have been small and packed with information.
A lot of care has been taken with the home screen. There's no need to drill down to an application: if it tells you you have an email, you can launch it right away.
Microsoft will also launch a series of related products, from an app store to MyPhone, an online backup service that already works well in beta.
Perhaps the most important thing for any smartphone is the ecosystem that grows up around it. Apple's App Store for the iPhone registered 1.5bn downloads in its first year, and rivals quickly followed: RIM, which makes the BlackBerry, has its App World, Nokia its oddly named Ovi World, and there's the Android Market for handsets running Google's Android. "It's a battle of the ecosystems," says Cozza. "Microsoft needs to come up with a strategy around an application marketplace."
Microsoft had left the apps business to partners such as Handango, but now would argue that it's doing precisely that. With its app store Windows Marketplace for Mobile (it's rubbish at names), it understands that it must offer at least some apps when it launches 6.5. There will be 20,000 available, and McCarthy says "We're busy making sure that they work with the handsets – there's a ton of work going into that."
Consumer challenge
The key question is whether Microsoft can be a big player in the consumer space. The figures suggest it has some catching up to do. According to Gartner, Windows Mobile has a steady 10% or so of the OS market – competing against proprietary Sony Ericsson and Samsung systems, as well as Symbian, which runs on Nokia and some other phones, and the offerings on the BlackBerry, the iPhone, Android and Palm. Its share of the smartphone market has fallen as the iPhone has wormed its way into corporations, by licensing Microsoft Exchange so that it can handle ActiveSync push notifications and calendaring.
However, says US-based analyst Michael Gartenberg, "of course it's not late to the party". He reckons that the new version of Windows Mobile will "have a lot of appeal to consumers" and that it "builds on a solid foundation". Gartenberg, vice-president of strategy and analysis at Interpret, argues that other smartphone manufacturers still cannot match Windows Mobile as a business offering.
With a Windows Mobile phone, he says, you can not only take pictures and keep up with Facebook and Twitter, you can also edit a Microsoft Word document or an Excel spreadsheet and then email it to your colleagues – which you can't (yet) do with an iPhone. Business people who need that are also consumers who want to keep up with their social networks, he notes, adding that Windows Mobile offers the best of both worlds.
Cozza concedes that Windows Mobile is "a strong platform for enterprise", but adds that for a smartphone to succeed, it needs to blur the dividing line between business and consumer users. RIM, with the BlackBerry, has done that smartly, she says.
But, counters Gartenberg, Windows Mobile already does that. What Microsoft needs to do now is to tell the story of its latest version of the system. "There's a lot of negative perception about WinMo," he says, adding that there's everything to play for.
"Six platforms can't survive," he says. "The battle is hardly over yet. "Cozza is more cautious: "We will have to wait and see," she says.
Read more »
Among smartphone users, Windows Phone – the handset operating system formerly known as Windows Mobile – tends to not to provoke excitement. This is a space dominated by flashy handsets such as the iPhone, now in its third incarnation – with its OS X operating system also at 3.0 after just two years – and by buzz about new operating systems such as Google's Android and the Palm Pre's WebOS.
Worse, Microsoft has had to play catchup to Apple, Google, Palm and even RIM, introducing an "app store" for Windows Phone after its rivals had done so – and after insisting that nobody was making much money from Apple's iPhone App Store. In January 2007, its chief executive, Steve Ballmer, dismissed the iPhone as "the most expensive phone in the world, and it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good email machine". In fiscal 2008/9, the iPhone sold 20.4m units – compared with an estimated 18m Windows Phone licences. (Microsoft has not given numbers for the year, but has not said they were any higher than 2007-08.)
Call for more style
In short, Windows Phone has an image problem – which has not been altered by rebranding it.
Besides the endless name changes (from PocketPC to Windows Mobile to Phone), the Windows phone platform has been regarded as a dull tool for corporations instead of a strong player in the consumer market, and its user interface has never been much to write home about. Third-party vendors have gone so far as to build their own front ends to hide its perceived ugliness, though offerings such as HTC's Touch-Flo haven't always been an entirely good thing, placing a further burden on the phone's CPU.
Yet Windows Phone is the determined tortoise of the smartphone world, having been around since 1996. Microsoft hopes that its next version – snappily named 6.5 – will end its reputation as a plodding also-ran and spur it to catch up with flashier hares such as the iPhone and HTC Hero.
But is it enough? Roberta Cozza, principal analyst with Gartner, says no. "It's too little, too late. WinMo has been struggling in the consumer market. 6.5 is a small improvement in the look and feel, but it's not comparable with efforts from other vendors."
The irony is that what had seemed like a sure thing – aiming a mobile form of Windows squarely at the business users who had it on their desktops – has turned out to be a mistake.
At its core, the OS offers enterprise solutions such as Office apps and support for Exchange, Microsoft's email and collaboration application. This has made it popular with corporate IT departments; consumers, however, have been less impressed. And the BlackBerry was already there to grab market share.
All this is changing, says James McCarthy, Microsoft's business manager for mobile communications. The next release, probably in September, "pays real attention to the consumer". Certainly, the new look places it much more firmly in the arena with the iPhone and LG Viewty.
The whole interface has had a makeover, aimed at making it much more intuitive and finger-friendly. Until now, using Windows Mobile has tended to require a stylus – fiddly, easy to break and to lose – because the screens on the devices have been small and packed with information.
A lot of care has been taken with the home screen. There's no need to drill down to an application: if it tells you you have an email, you can launch it right away.
Microsoft will also launch a series of related products, from an app store to MyPhone, an online backup service that already works well in beta.
Perhaps the most important thing for any smartphone is the ecosystem that grows up around it. Apple's App Store for the iPhone registered 1.5bn downloads in its first year, and rivals quickly followed: RIM, which makes the BlackBerry, has its App World, Nokia its oddly named Ovi World, and there's the Android Market for handsets running Google's Android. "It's a battle of the ecosystems," says Cozza. "Microsoft needs to come up with a strategy around an application marketplace."
Microsoft had left the apps business to partners such as Handango, but now would argue that it's doing precisely that. With its app store Windows Marketplace for Mobile (it's rubbish at names), it understands that it must offer at least some apps when it launches 6.5. There will be 20,000 available, and McCarthy says "We're busy making sure that they work with the handsets – there's a ton of work going into that."
Consumer challenge
The key question is whether Microsoft can be a big player in the consumer space. The figures suggest it has some catching up to do. According to Gartner, Windows Mobile has a steady 10% or so of the OS market – competing against proprietary Sony Ericsson and Samsung systems, as well as Symbian, which runs on Nokia and some other phones, and the offerings on the BlackBerry, the iPhone, Android and Palm. Its share of the smartphone market has fallen as the iPhone has wormed its way into corporations, by licensing Microsoft Exchange so that it can handle ActiveSync push notifications and calendaring.
However, says US-based analyst Michael Gartenberg, "of course it's not late to the party". He reckons that the new version of Windows Mobile will "have a lot of appeal to consumers" and that it "builds on a solid foundation". Gartenberg, vice-president of strategy and analysis at Interpret, argues that other smartphone manufacturers still cannot match Windows Mobile as a business offering.
With a Windows Mobile phone, he says, you can not only take pictures and keep up with Facebook and Twitter, you can also edit a Microsoft Word document or an Excel spreadsheet and then email it to your colleagues – which you can't (yet) do with an iPhone. Business people who need that are also consumers who want to keep up with their social networks, he notes, adding that Windows Mobile offers the best of both worlds.
Cozza concedes that Windows Mobile is "a strong platform for enterprise", but adds that for a smartphone to succeed, it needs to blur the dividing line between business and consumer users. RIM, with the BlackBerry, has done that smartly, she says.
But, counters Gartenberg, Windows Mobile already does that. What Microsoft needs to do now is to tell the story of its latest version of the system. "There's a lot of negative perception about WinMo," he says, adding that there's everything to play for.
"Six platforms can't survive," he says. "The battle is hardly over yet. "Cozza is more cautious: "We will have to wait and see," she says.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
iPhone Theme Mobile Commerce for the Masses?
Magento Commerce, an open source ecommerce platform, has introduced an Apple iPhone specific theme that is potentially the first step toward leveling the playing field for small online retailers who want to compete in the lucrative and booming mobile e-commerce market.
Mobile eCommerce Has Massive Potential
Mobile ecommerce (often call m-commerce) is coming; 9 million Americans have already made a purchase from a mobile device, and perhaps half of the United States' 250 million odd mobile handset users are willing to make a purchase in the near future, according to a recent study from The Nielsen Company, New York, N.Y. All of those U.S. users plus the billions of consumers in Asia, Africa, and India, where a mobile handset may serve as phone, mobile TV, and primary point of Internet access, make m-commerce very attractive to e-retailers large and small.
But mobile browsing experiences can be frustrating for customers, and developing ecommerce websites that are functional, legible, and compelling for mobile device users has been the realm of moneyed and massive e-retailers like Amazon.com.
The Apple iPhone actually does an excellent job of rendering websites already, but there are still problems. Most online stores are designed to look good on a modern, flat-panel monitor which may be 19 inches in diagonal. While these sites are rendered properly on the iPhone, they take on diminutive dimensions, requiring an iPhone owner to zoom in, zoom out, and scroll in all directions. Bandwidth can also be a problem. iPhones use WiFi connections (802.11n standard), Bluetooth (radio), fast 3G cellular networks, or older and slower cellular networks depending on what sort of connection is available at a given time. Browsing on WiFi or a speedy 3G network might be no problem, but uploading an online store over older cellular networks can be painfully slow.
To address this, Magento developed a special theme or combination of layout, template, and presentation files that are optimized for an iPhone's browser. This theme still offers great looking graphics, full functionality, and the same payment gateways, but in proportions and layouts that make a store attractive and easy to use on an iPhone's palm-sized LCD screen.
Equalizing m-Commerce
Magento's new iPhone theme is an important (if small) step, giving independent e-retailers an easy way to tap m-commerce's amazing potential. Varien, a Los Angeles, Calif.-based ecommerce developer and consultancy, created Magento Commerce and then unleashed the platform, turning it over to a vibrant community of perhaps 400,000 users (store owners and developers), while staying intimately involved in the platform's development and expansion. The new theme makes it easier for iPhone users to browse and shop Magento-powered sites with ease. Basically, Magento utilizes "the iPhone's inherent navigation methods and offer[s] quick catalog browsing, global site search, customer accounts, and a shopping cart with a complete checkout process," Varien said, "The iPhone extension delivers a user experience that supports the iPhone's touch-screen functionality, taking users on a clearly defined path from browsing to purchasing."
The iPhone is Just a Drop in the Bucket
Unfortunately, as awesome, cool, and fantastic as the iPhone may or may not be, it represents a very tiny percentage of the total mobile handset universe. By some estimates, leading mobile phone makers Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony-Ericsson, BlackBerry, and the like, build between 700 million and 1 billion new mobile handsets each year. While something like 8 million to 10 million iPhones have sold worldwide based on Steve Jobs 2008 MacWorld keynote speech and estimates for the iPhone 3G. So the new Magento iPhone theme only scratches the m-commerce surface. On the other hand, what e-retailer wouldn't want to reach as many as 10 million or so potential customers all of whom represent the iPhone's decidedly upscale user base.
Using the iPhone Theme to Gain a Competitive Advantage.
m-Commerce is here to stay, and retailers who implement a mobile solution like Magento's iPhone extension will gain a competitive advantage over other ecommerce sites that are slower to adopt a mobile-specific platform. And there is still hope that Varien or other ecommerce developers will address the mobile mass market soon.
“We are looking to expand the capabilities of Magento to target additional mobile browsers in the future, but the iPhone, with its smart usability, market share and passionate audience was a natural place to start,” said Chris Marshall, a Varien spokesman.
Read more »
Mobile eCommerce Has Massive Potential
Mobile ecommerce (often call m-commerce) is coming; 9 million Americans have already made a purchase from a mobile device, and perhaps half of the United States' 250 million odd mobile handset users are willing to make a purchase in the near future, according to a recent study from The Nielsen Company, New York, N.Y. All of those U.S. users plus the billions of consumers in Asia, Africa, and India, where a mobile handset may serve as phone, mobile TV, and primary point of Internet access, make m-commerce very attractive to e-retailers large and small.
But mobile browsing experiences can be frustrating for customers, and developing ecommerce websites that are functional, legible, and compelling for mobile device users has been the realm of moneyed and massive e-retailers like Amazon.com.
The Apple iPhone actually does an excellent job of rendering websites already, but there are still problems. Most online stores are designed to look good on a modern, flat-panel monitor which may be 19 inches in diagonal. While these sites are rendered properly on the iPhone, they take on diminutive dimensions, requiring an iPhone owner to zoom in, zoom out, and scroll in all directions. Bandwidth can also be a problem. iPhones use WiFi connections (802.11n standard), Bluetooth (radio), fast 3G cellular networks, or older and slower cellular networks depending on what sort of connection is available at a given time. Browsing on WiFi or a speedy 3G network might be no problem, but uploading an online store over older cellular networks can be painfully slow.
To address this, Magento developed a special theme or combination of layout, template, and presentation files that are optimized for an iPhone's browser. This theme still offers great looking graphics, full functionality, and the same payment gateways, but in proportions and layouts that make a store attractive and easy to use on an iPhone's palm-sized LCD screen.
Equalizing m-Commerce
Magento's new iPhone theme is an important (if small) step, giving independent e-retailers an easy way to tap m-commerce's amazing potential. Varien, a Los Angeles, Calif.-based ecommerce developer and consultancy, created Magento Commerce and then unleashed the platform, turning it over to a vibrant community of perhaps 400,000 users (store owners and developers), while staying intimately involved in the platform's development and expansion. The new theme makes it easier for iPhone users to browse and shop Magento-powered sites with ease. Basically, Magento utilizes "the iPhone's inherent navigation methods and offer[s] quick catalog browsing, global site search, customer accounts, and a shopping cart with a complete checkout process," Varien said, "The iPhone extension delivers a user experience that supports the iPhone's touch-screen functionality, taking users on a clearly defined path from browsing to purchasing."
The iPhone is Just a Drop in the Bucket
Unfortunately, as awesome, cool, and fantastic as the iPhone may or may not be, it represents a very tiny percentage of the total mobile handset universe. By some estimates, leading mobile phone makers Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony-Ericsson, BlackBerry, and the like, build between 700 million and 1 billion new mobile handsets each year. While something like 8 million to 10 million iPhones have sold worldwide based on Steve Jobs 2008 MacWorld keynote speech and estimates for the iPhone 3G. So the new Magento iPhone theme only scratches the m-commerce surface. On the other hand, what e-retailer wouldn't want to reach as many as 10 million or so potential customers all of whom represent the iPhone's decidedly upscale user base.
Using the iPhone Theme to Gain a Competitive Advantage.
m-Commerce is here to stay, and retailers who implement a mobile solution like Magento's iPhone extension will gain a competitive advantage over other ecommerce sites that are slower to adopt a mobile-specific platform. And there is still hope that Varien or other ecommerce developers will address the mobile mass market soon.
“We are looking to expand the capabilities of Magento to target additional mobile browsers in the future, but the iPhone, with its smart usability, market share and passionate audience was a natural place to start,” said Chris Marshall, a Varien spokesman.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Bharti Airtel, Aircel To Launch iPhone 4 In India Soon
Two telecommunication service providers said that they will launch Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhone 4 smartphones in India in coming months as mobile telecom companies start rolling out third-generation services.
Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Aircel Ltd. separately announced their plans to launch the phone, but both declined to say when would they launch the most-recent iPhone version and at what price.
Apple didn't offer any immediate comment.
Sales of smartphones like iPhone, which is popular for its high-speed Internet and mobile software capabilities, are expected to get a boost in India as telecom companies are rolling out 3G services that offer high-speed data transfer capabilities.
With more than 790 million subscribers, India is the second-largest market after China for telecom services. It is also the fastest-growing market.
India's mobile handsets market is expected to grow 25% to 210 million units in 2011, according to market research firm CyberMedia Research, which expects smartphones to account for 5.7% of the total handset sales in 2011 compared with 3.6% last year.
Bharti, which already sells earlier models of iPhone, has so far added 2 million users to its 3G mobile telephone network, which it launched in January.
The company, India's largest mobile phone operator by subscribers, has bandwidth to offer 3G services in 13 of the country's 22 telecom service areas.
Aircel, which has more than 50 million subscribers on its second-generation network, started providing 3G services in February. It also has bandwidth to offer 3G telecom services in 13 areas.
Malaysia's Maxis Communications Bhd. holds a 74% stake in Aircel, while India's Apollo Hospitals group owns the rest.
Apple's iPhone 4 was first released in the U.S. and four other countries in June last year, with a starting price of $199.
Last June, Vodafone Essar Ltd., the Indian unit of the U.K.'s Vodafone Group PLC, had said would launch iPhone 4 in India, but didn't say by when.
Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Aircel Ltd. separately announced their plans to launch the phone, but both declined to say when would they launch the most-recent iPhone version and at what price.
Apple didn't offer any immediate comment.
Sales of smartphones like iPhone, which is popular for its high-speed Internet and mobile software capabilities, are expected to get a boost in India as telecom companies are rolling out 3G services that offer high-speed data transfer capabilities.
With more than 790 million subscribers, India is the second-largest market after China for telecom services. It is also the fastest-growing market.
India's mobile handsets market is expected to grow 25% to 210 million units in 2011, according to market research firm CyberMedia Research, which expects smartphones to account for 5.7% of the total handset sales in 2011 compared with 3.6% last year.
Bharti, which already sells earlier models of iPhone, has so far added 2 million users to its 3G mobile telephone network, which it launched in January.
The company, India's largest mobile phone operator by subscribers, has bandwidth to offer 3G services in 13 of the country's 22 telecom service areas.
Aircel, which has more than 50 million subscribers on its second-generation network, started providing 3G services in February. It also has bandwidth to offer 3G telecom services in 13 areas.
Malaysia's Maxis Communications Bhd. holds a 74% stake in Aircel, while India's Apollo Hospitals group owns the rest.
Apple's iPhone 4 was first released in the U.S. and four other countries in June last year, with a starting price of $199.
Last June, Vodafone Essar Ltd., the Indian unit of the U.K.'s Vodafone Group PLC, had said would launch iPhone 4 in India, but didn't say by when.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Apple’s iPhone 4 launched in India
Apple released its iPhone 4 in India on 27th May. Two major Indian telecom firms launched the iPhone 4 by means of a pricing plan that allows consumers to pick up the charge of the smart phone in monthly credits in two-year time. Indian cellular phone group Aircel charges 34,500 rupees ($764) for the iPhone 4 with a capacity of 16 GB and 32 GB version costs 40,900 rupees. Whereas, the telecom giant Bharti Airtel that previously sells previous models of the iPhone, have a comparable plan for the iPhone 4, that boast a superior quality screen and better battery life than former versions.
Though many companies have tried to redraft the feature and application of the iPhone 4, Airtel CEO (West Bengal and Orissa) PD Sharma had claimed, "iPhone 4 will stand out for its original applications and cater to the middle segment as well, with attractive pricing which will not create a pinch both in the long and short term".
With the news making reverberations in the contours of the market, large number of tech savvy groups were seen gazing at the seamless beauty of iPhone 4, despite of its high end prices for Rs 34,500 for the 16GB model and Rs 40,900 for the 32GB model.
In order to take benefit from the hoopla surrounding iPhone 4, Airtel and Aircel are offering lucrative schemes to the customers. Confirming the strategic approach adopted by telecom companies in India to beat the neck to neck competition, P. D. Sharma explained the reverse subsidy schemes, in which cost of the phone can be recovered by customer through discounts in mobile bills over a period of two years, which has already impacted Chinese market.
The Apple iPhone 4 is the fourth model of Apple's iPhone and the direct successor of the iPhone 3G. The iPhone 4 is the first iPhone model actually differs from the original iPhone in 2007, both in features and design. The iPhone 4 with a thickness of only 9.3 mm thinner than any previous iPhone models and is made of steel and glass and the unit is available in black and is probably later in white. One of the main innovations concerned the new IOS-4 operating system. IOS-4 also offers a file manager which you can divide applications into folders, which benefit statement. In addition, improved e-mail functions and support for Apple's new iAd mobile advertising platform.
iPhone 4 comes with the large 3.5-inch touchscreen display. For this display is used the Retina technology, which is four times more pixels per square inch can be placed. This technique has the multi-touch screen of the iPhone 4 a resolution of up to 960 x 640 pixels.
The iPhone 4 has a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus and the ability to capture video in HD quality (720p) to be included. Thanks to the integrated 3-axis gyroscope (which moves very precisely observed) is Wll-like motion sensing gaming possible. In combination with the traditional motion sensor offers 3-axis gyroscope a 6-axis motion sensing capability, which means your games can drive the device moving from top to bottom, left to right, front to back and shaking .
The iPhone4 features the same processor as the Apple iPad A4 and has a standby time of about 300 hours. By supporting multitasking just easier and faster between applications, what the battery life benefits. The iPhone 4 can be used as an e-reader app using the new iBooks, that gives you access to the Apple iBookstore. iBook users can also directly read PDF files or save iBooks. Naturally, the iPhone 4 excellent connectivity with support for WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G/HSDPA, GPS and push e-mail to quickly to use the internet or navigate. Also find a comprehensive media player again. The new iMovie app (you have to buy separately) you can edit videos on your device and dynamically maintained transitions and add music to the movies. FM radio is still missing and always, like the iPad, the device is equipped with a less regular MicroSim card slot. 4 The Apple iPhone is available with 16GB or 32GB storage memory.
The dimensions of the phone are 11.50 x 5.90 x 0.90 inches. Speaking time (under ideal conditions) 420 minutes. The standby time is 300 hours under these conditions. The Apple iPhone is available in four colors white and black.
The Apple iPhone 4 supports GSM 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz networks. The iPhone 4 can fast mobile internet with UMTS and HSDPA support. The speed of HSDPA will mean the difference between home and move on. The Apple iPhone 4 can include text (SMS) and multimedia (MMS) messages sent and received. Thanks to the support email you can simply read your own emails. Vibrating alert and polyphonic and MP3 ringtones are of course standard equipment.
The Apple iPhone 4 has 16 GB of internal memory (Flash). You can transfer data via USB to your PC. The iPhone 4 also has Bluetooth (for wireless communication with other Bluetooth devices such as headsets) and WiFi (for wireless communication with home or small office network).
Though many companies have tried to redraft the feature and application of the iPhone 4, Airtel CEO (West Bengal and Orissa) PD Sharma had claimed, "iPhone 4 will stand out for its original applications and cater to the middle segment as well, with attractive pricing which will not create a pinch both in the long and short term".
With the news making reverberations in the contours of the market, large number of tech savvy groups were seen gazing at the seamless beauty of iPhone 4, despite of its high end prices for Rs 34,500 for the 16GB model and Rs 40,900 for the 32GB model.
In order to take benefit from the hoopla surrounding iPhone 4, Airtel and Aircel are offering lucrative schemes to the customers. Confirming the strategic approach adopted by telecom companies in India to beat the neck to neck competition, P. D. Sharma explained the reverse subsidy schemes, in which cost of the phone can be recovered by customer through discounts in mobile bills over a period of two years, which has already impacted Chinese market.
The Apple iPhone 4 is the fourth model of Apple's iPhone and the direct successor of the iPhone 3G. The iPhone 4 is the first iPhone model actually differs from the original iPhone in 2007, both in features and design. The iPhone 4 with a thickness of only 9.3 mm thinner than any previous iPhone models and is made of steel and glass and the unit is available in black and is probably later in white. One of the main innovations concerned the new IOS-4 operating system. IOS-4 also offers a file manager which you can divide applications into folders, which benefit statement. In addition, improved e-mail functions and support for Apple's new iAd mobile advertising platform.
iPhone 4 comes with the large 3.5-inch touchscreen display. For this display is used the Retina technology, which is four times more pixels per square inch can be placed. This technique has the multi-touch screen of the iPhone 4 a resolution of up to 960 x 640 pixels.
The iPhone 4 has a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus and the ability to capture video in HD quality (720p) to be included. Thanks to the integrated 3-axis gyroscope (which moves very precisely observed) is Wll-like motion sensing gaming possible. In combination with the traditional motion sensor offers 3-axis gyroscope a 6-axis motion sensing capability, which means your games can drive the device moving from top to bottom, left to right, front to back and shaking .
The iPhone4 features the same processor as the Apple iPad A4 and has a standby time of about 300 hours. By supporting multitasking just easier and faster between applications, what the battery life benefits. The iPhone 4 can be used as an e-reader app using the new iBooks, that gives you access to the Apple iBookstore. iBook users can also directly read PDF files or save iBooks. Naturally, the iPhone 4 excellent connectivity with support for WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G/HSDPA, GPS and push e-mail to quickly to use the internet or navigate. Also find a comprehensive media player again. The new iMovie app (you have to buy separately) you can edit videos on your device and dynamically maintained transitions and add music to the movies. FM radio is still missing and always, like the iPad, the device is equipped with a less regular MicroSim card slot. 4 The Apple iPhone is available with 16GB or 32GB storage memory.
The dimensions of the phone are 11.50 x 5.90 x 0.90 inches. Speaking time (under ideal conditions) 420 minutes. The standby time is 300 hours under these conditions. The Apple iPhone is available in four colors white and black.
The Apple iPhone 4 supports GSM 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz networks. The iPhone 4 can fast mobile internet with UMTS and HSDPA support. The speed of HSDPA will mean the difference between home and move on. The Apple iPhone 4 can include text (SMS) and multimedia (MMS) messages sent and received. Thanks to the support email you can simply read your own emails. Vibrating alert and polyphonic and MP3 ringtones are of course standard equipment.
The Apple iPhone 4 has 16 GB of internal memory (Flash). You can transfer data via USB to your PC. The iPhone 4 also has Bluetooth (for wireless communication with other Bluetooth devices such as headsets) and WiFi (for wireless communication with home or small office network).
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