And Windows Phone could jump into second place quicker than you think.

While they’re not Android or iOS-style numbers, Windows Phone sold 7 million units in the first quarter of 2013 for 3.2 percent market share, according to the latest IDC report. Meanwhile, BlackBerry sold 6.3 million units, down a third from the previous year, for 2.9 percent market share — less than half of its share just a year ago. Market leader Android took its customary massive 75 percent of the market, and Apple’s iPhone slipped from 23 percent global market share in 2012 to 17.3 percent share.

“Windows Phone claiming the third spot is a first and helps validate the direction taken by Microsoft and key partner Nokia,” the IDC’s Kevin Restivo said in a statement. “Given the relatively low volume generated, the Windows Phone camp will need to show further gains to solidify its status as an alterative to Android or iOS.”

Those further gains are possible over the next year or two as Microsoft’s primary phone parter, Nokia, transitions to an all-smartphone lineup.

Part of Apple’s quarterly weakness was the company’s lack of any new hardware or significant new announcements. That made Apple slip to its lowest global smartphone market share in years, now less than a quarter of Android’s size, with only 37.4 million iPhones sold to Android’s 162.1 million. But systemically, Apple is falling out of the race for smartphone supremacy. And that puts Apple at risk of being in Microsoft’s sights for the number two position in the global smartphone market share battle.

How?

Nokia is going all in on Windows Phone — mostly by necessity — and now accounts for 79 percent of all Windows Phone sales. The Finnish company has sold over 20 million Windows Phones to date, which is not bad, considering the challenges of Android, iOS, and Microsoft’s stutter-stepping from Windows Phone 7 to Windows Phone 8.

Source: IDC

Global smartphone market share, Q1 2013

But the real opportunity for both Microsoft and Nokia will come as Nokia continues its transition from feature phone sales over to Windows Phone. The company still sold something like 55 million feature phones in the first quarter of 2013, and while those cheap phones are going largely to developing nations, they will transition at some point to Windows Phone.

Those feature phones sales are decreasing, and the transition from cheap feature phone to somewhat more expensive Windows-based smartphones will decrease them still more, but they will be higher-value sales.

And, they might just be high enough, depending on what Apple does in the region of a cheaper iPhone, to catapult Microsoft to number two.

Image credit: Microsoft

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Google has asked Microsoft to remove its homebrew YouTube app from the Windows Store immediately, and the search giant requested that it delete the app from Windows Phone users who have already downloaded it.

Essentially, Microsoft built a YouTube app for Windows Phone because Google refused to permit Windows Phone users to connect to YouTube. As Microsoft’s Dave Heiner posted, “Google blocked Microsoft’s new Windows Phones from operating properly with YouTube … Google has refused to allow Microsoft’s new Windows Phones to access this YouTube metadata in the same way that Android phones and iPhones do.”

In response, Microsoft created its own YouTube app.

The problems with that, according to Google, are three: the app enables users to download YouTube videos, prevents ads from being shown, and plays videos whose owners have set to only play on certain platforms. Microsoft’s app, Google says, violates the YouTube terms of service, and uses the YouTube logo in a way that contravenes the company’s branding guidelines.

Source: Microsoft

The YouTube app, by Microsoft

This is an ongoing battle that has been slowly heating up since well before January of this year.

The solution would seem to be fairly clear: Google should make a compelling YouTube app for Windows Phone, just as it already does for another smartphone competitor, Apple’s iOS mobile operating system. Why it chooses not to is not exactly clear, although it may just have something to do with the fact that, via patent licensing agreements with Samsung, LG, Acer, and others, Microsoft makes perhaps $5 per Android device sold. And it can’t help that Microsoft has hit Google where it hurts on Android and privacy, which, up until a couple of weeks ago, truly sucked.

Microsoft has since released an official statement, basically saying they’d be happy to work with Google to resolve any issues, as long as Google will reciprocate.

“YouTube is consistently one of the top apps downloaded by smartphone users on all platforms, but Google has refused to work with us to develop an app on par with other platforms. Since we updated the YouTube app to ensure our mutual customers a similar YouTube experience, ratings and feedback have been overwhelmingly positive.  We’d be more than happy to include advertising but need Google to provide us access to the necessary APIs. In light of Larry Page’s comments today calling for more interoperability and less negativity, we look forward to solving this matter together for our mutual customers.”

Surely, we can all get along here?

Google is in no danger of losing its mobile operating system hegemony … as the company announced today, it recently hit 900 million Android device activations.

Chances are you already own a smartphone, and maybe you have a tablet as well. It’s possible that one is an Android and the other is an iOS device or Windows Phone. Having access to multiple mobile operating systems has its benefits, but it can get frustrating when you have to start repurchasing apps and games.

That’s exactly the issue that Spair Mobile plans to address. The developer is hoping to offer an app on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone that enables individuals to purchase an app once that can then stream to any device running Spair. This means you pay once for a game that works on an iPhone and Windows Phone. Not only that, but the games run exactly the same, and developers only have to build the it once. With Spair’s cloud-gaming functionality, players can also save their progress in the cloud and pick up a game where they left it off on another handset.

Now, Spair is entering an early alpha-testing phase. The company is looking for developers, and signups are open now on its website.

“We see a great desire to change things from developers,” Spair founder Tim Abdullaev told GamesBeat. “It proves that we are doing everything right.”

Abdullaev, who is 16 years old, says his company is working with more than 10 developers and around 30 games for these tests. He also says that the company wants to target anyone who has played Angry Birds with its final product.

“As far as I know, that’s more than a billion people,” said Abdullaev.

The young entrepreneur says his software can eliminate situations where people download games that don’t work on their less-powerful smartphones. It also could enable developers to code a game once and quickly distribute the same title on iOS, Windows Phone, and Android.

One question that is still in the air, however, is pricing for the individual apps.

“We are actively discussing the pricing issue,” said Abdullaev. “But pricing will be in full accordance with the average price in the competing markets.”

Finally, Spair is essentially a competing game market. That’s something that Google, Apple, and Microsoft all forbid in their app stores. That means Spair will face an uphill battle in acquiring users even if it does get it’s technology fully working.

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July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Nokia continued its befuddling marketing roll-out for the Lumia 928 today — even though we’ve seen ads for it already, as well as a Nokia-produced camera comparison — by announcing that it will hit Verizon Wireless next week on May 16.

Nokia is also holding a large press event in London next week, which the entire tech world assumed would be centered on the Lumia 928. The company could still use the event to further show off the Lumia 928 (or surprise everyone by showing off something completely new, like a Windows 8 tablet).

In a blog post today, Nokia confirmed that the Lumia 928 sports most of the features of its predecessor, the Lumia 920, while packing in a slightly redesigned case and xenon camera flash. The 928 features a 4.5-inch screen, as well as support for wireless charging accessories. I’m just hoping its lighter than the Lumia 920 — as intriguing as that phone was, it felt like a brick compared to other modern smartphones.

While it’s a slightly minor upgrade, the Lumia 928 is significant because it’s Verizon’s first high-end Lumia smartphone. Up until now, Nokia has focused on AT&T for debuting its top-end Lumias, while Verizon has had slim pickings with mid-range devices like last year’s Lumia 820.

Now Nokia can target an even bigger audience for its most desirable devices (although this marketing campaign probably won’t do much to woo people away from the iPhone 5 or Galaxy S4).

The Lumia 928 will cost $100 on Verizon (after a $50 mail-in rebate) and comes with a $25 credit for the Windows Phone app store.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

While most of our attention in the mobile world is focused on smartphones, there’s a massive opportunity for any company that can take over so-called developing markets, i.e. places where people are still mostly using relatively simple ”feature phones.”

Taking another stab at that space is Nokia, which is unveiling the colorful Asha 501, a Asha-running touchscreen phone that comes with the features of a smartphone but the $99 price of a feature phone. The device isn’t particularly flashy: Nokia’s only given it a three-inch 320 x 240 display, 2G (!) radio, and a camera without a flash —  so this is by no means a particularly high-end device.

The other, plausibly more important thing, about the Asha 501 is that it’s not running Windows Phone, which is potentially bad for Microsoft for two reasons. One, it makes it very clear that Nokia is still hesitant to invest all its resources in Windows Phone, and, two, it shows that Nokia still can’t create a cheap phone that also matches the minimum hardware requirements for Windows Phone. (Phones running Windows Phone 7 need to have displays with a resolution of at least 480 x 320, for example.)

Neither reality is great for Microsoft, because while the high-end smartphone market is cutthroat and brutal, the market for low-end smartphones in developing markets is wide open, at least for now. While Mozilla and Nokia are making some big moves in this area, Microsoft is still being left out of it.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

OK, we get it, Nokia. Your Lumia cameras are pretty darned great for low-light shooting.

Nokia has just released a video showing just how well the camera on its new Lumia 928 Windows Phone performs at night compared to the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III (I guess even Nokia is waiting in line for a Galaxy S4).

Not surprisingly, the Lumia 928′s 8.7 megapixel PureView shooter smokes the competition with sharper images, better colors, and less blur (the Lumia’s optical stabilization is a big help with that). It’s based on technology from Nokia’s 808 PureView phone, which was notable for its astounding 41 MP camera. Unfortunately, we still don’t know how much different the 928′s camera is from the Lumia 920, which had an 8MP PureView camera.

Nokia seems to have learned its lesson from its controversial faked Lumia 920 promotional video, which ended up overshadowing much of that phone’s great camera tech. It looks like the company shot this latest video right on the Lumia 928 at the Adventureland theme park in New York.

Nokia will officially unveil the Lumia 928 next week in London. Judging from a premature print ad, it’ll eventually land on Verizon Wireless in the U.S.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone team has something to celebrate today: Another top-tier app has hit their platform.

Hulu has released the Windows Phone 8 version of its app, and it’s a good-looking one.

“Our team has been focused on creating a beautiful and comprehensive Hulu Plus experience that is optimized for Windows Phone 8,” somebody from Hulu’s marketing department wrote on the company’s blog. “The app leverages Windows design principles that lend themselves elegantly to the rich content catalog and features on Hulu Plus.”

And indeed, the provided screenshots make it clear that Hulu on Windows Phone promises to be a clean, easy-to-use experience, with no chrome or skeuomorphic nonsense coming between you and the videos you want to watch.

It integrates nicely with your Hulu account, so, Hulu suggests, if you fell asleep watching Community last night in bed, you can catch up on the bus ride to work.

I’d test it out, but I no longer have a Windows Phone. If you want to try it yourself, the new Windows Phone Hulu app is free, but you will need a Hulu Plus subscription, which costs $8 per month.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

After missing out on Nokia’s Lumia Windows Phones for the past few years, Verizon could finally be getting one soon, according to the latest rumor.

Nokia’s next big smartphone, the Lumia 928, will reportedly land at Verizon Wireless next month, Bloomberg reports. If true, it would be the first Lumia Windows Phone to arrive on Verizon — so far Nokia has focused on AT&T and T-Mobile for the Lumia line.

Judging from the current batch of rumors, the Lumia 928 will likely sport most of the Lumia 920′s specs — a 4.5-inch screen, 1GB of RAM, and a 1.5 gigahertz dual-core processor. I’m hoping there’s some sort of internal upgrade, as those specs feel slightly outdated compared to current quad-core Android phones.

The big upgrade for the Lumia 928 will likely be its case. Bloomberg notes (and past rumors also support) that it could have an aluminum case. Meanwhile, the Verge reports that it could just have a thinner polycarbonate case like the current Lumia 920.

Whatever it’s actually made of, I’m hoping Nokia has figured out a way to make the Lumia 928 thinner and lighter than its predecessor. (Seriously, the Lumia 920 feels heavy enough to be used as a weapon.)

For the most part, the Lumia 928 seems like it mainly exists to tempt Verizon customers to Windows Phone 8. The company certainly could use all the help it can get to drive up its U.S. sales. Nokia is likely working on more dramatic Lumia upgrades for the end of the year.

Photo: Lumia 920 by Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

That’s an 11 percent increase in downloads from the end of 2012, according to Canalys’s latest App Interrogator Report, and a 9 percent jump in revenues. Which makes sense, given that we spend 80 percent of our time on mobile phones in apps. And while North America is seeing fairly healthy growth, with an 8 percent increase in downloads and an 6 percent increase in revenue, it’s not the most happening place for mobile.

“Some of the strongest growth was seen in emerging markets, such as South Africa, Brazil and Indonesia, helped not least by the growing base of smart device users in those countries,” the company said in a statement.

Asia, of course, is a mobile powerhouse, with China purchasing more new smartphones than the U.S., but Indonesia has a fast-growing population of 250 million and is seeing increasing smartphone penetration.

So what about non-Google and non-Apple apps markets?

‘The Apple-Google duopoly creates certain challenges for app publishers, carriers, investors, and device vendors, so there is intense interest in the possible emergence of a third ecosystem,’ said Adam Daum, Canalys’s chief analyst in a very tactfully worded statement.

BlackBerry has now hit 100,000 apps for its latest operating system, and Windows Phone has made good progress as well, Canalys says. But both are still challenged by a relative lack of market penetration that will drive the kind of developer interesting that has resulted in “there’s an app for that” being true on both Android and iOS.

“Apple’s App Store and Google Play remain the heavyweights in the app store world. In comparison, BlackBerry World and the Windows Phone Store remain distant challengers today, though they still should not be ignored,” said Tim Shepherd, Canalys Senior Analyst.

photo credit: Rick McCharles via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Whenever you install an app on your Android phone from Google Play, the app developer gets your name, email address, and neighborhood. Microsoft thinks that’s an egregious breach of consumer privacy, and it published a new video today on Scroogled that hits Google hard.

“Most app makers are trustworthy,” the ad says. “However, in the wrong hands, who knows what they’ll do with your info?”

The question is a valid one, and Microsoft is quick to mention that downloading and installing apps on Windows Phone does not result in personal information being shared. Apple’s app store handles purchases and downloads the same way, with purchasers’ names, email addresses, and detailed locations remaining private.

The difference appears to be that Google views its Play store as a marketplace rather than a store, in which you are purchasing from the developer, not specifically from Google. In other words, it’s eBay, not Amazon. I’ve asked Google for additional comment.

There’s no question that Microsoft’s attack is a little over the top, paired with a big scary question: “If you can’t trust Google’s app store, how can you trust them for anything?”

But there’s also no question that this is a privacy concern Google should address.

I’ve downloaded many apps from Google Play, and I’ve never once seen or noticed any notification that my personal information would be passed along to the app developers (which could entirely be due to my own lack of attention, or general click-through warnings behavior).

Consumer Watchdog has complained to the FTC about Google’s practice, saying:

“To no one’s surprise … Google has violated the Buzz Order yet again – and this time in a most substantive and egregious manner, by giving personal and closely held information from tens (if not hundreds) of millions of Android users to independent and unrestrained application developers, in contravention of Google’s own stated privacy policy … This represents the fifth significant misuse of confidential user data by Google in the last three years (previously, the “Wi-Spy” scandal, the Google Buzz fiasco, Google’s improper combining and use of personal data, and the Safari Hacking episode).”

I’ll update with Google’s response as I receive it.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Facebook describes its new Android app suite, Facebook Home, as “a new way to organize the information on your phone.”

That’s what Facebook product director Adam Mosseri told VentureBeat earlier this week. He’s right, to a point: The interface is novel.

But the idea of putting the information you care about most (pictures from your friends, Facebook updates, chat bubbles) right on your phone’s home screen and lock screen? Well, that isn’t new. Its most immediate antecedent is Windows Phone 8, which added a customizable lock screen, including the ability to show photos from your Facebook feed, in October, 2012.

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft’s Kin One and Kin Two were a commercial disaster, but showed the way for Windows Phone and Facebook Home.

In fact, Windows Phone has been organized around this principle since version 7, its modern overhaul. And before that, it was preceded by social-centric experiments Microsoft conducted with its ill-fated Kin phones, which were a commercial and critical disaster, but prefigured the company’s interest in putting social media front and center.

Android and iOS are centered on small app icons, with optional small “badges” that show a tidbit of information about the app, such as the number of unread email message. By contrast, Windows Phone 7 and 8 are organized around app tiles, which give more room to the app’s content. Instead of an icon showing a skeuomorphic picture of a desk calendar, Windows Phone’s calendar appear appears as a big rectangle, with most of the real estate given to showing the details of your next upcoming appointment.

That user-centric orientation made Windows Phone remarkably fun to use, in my experience. (At least until I got fed up with Nokia’s dysfunctional hardware and AT&T’s miserable policies.) Pulling out my phone and turning it on was no longer an exercise in getting some specific task done. It was a mini-surprise every time: Each time I took the phone out there was some new tidbit of information from my life or photo from the people I cared about.

I don’t want to overstate the significance of this change. It’s really only a tap or two from the home screen icon to the full Facebook feed in your Facebook app, no matter what phone OS you’re using. So it’s not going to make an enormous difference to the experience of using Facebook: It’s likely to be more or less the same on Android, iOS, Windows Phone, or Facebook Home phones.

But I suspect it will make the experience of using the phone subtly different, making it more and more into your primary hub for experiencing your social network. On Windows Phone, that could mean Skype, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. In the case of Facebook Home, that means Facebook, full stop.

If this is the future of phone OS design, and I think it is, then Facebook has just made an early and smart move. It has staked out a user-centric POV and associated it closely with its own network and brand.

Either that or it has just made its own version of the Microsoft Kin.

Facebook Home screenshot via Facebook.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Trying to steal a bit of attention away from Facebook’s big Home event, Microsoft has just announced a new program to get Windows Phone apps more attention called “Red Stripe Deals.”

Apple and Google both offer ways to see featured applications and games in their respective app stores, but they aren’t regularly pointing out which apps are for sale. (However, there are several third-party apps that show you what is for sale.)

Now, every Thursday, Microsoft will offer up a new collection of Windows Phone apps and games that are discounted.

“Each week the Store’s Red Stripe Deals Collection will feature three popular apps and games — typically one Xbox game, one indie game, and one top-rated app — for at least 50% off the original price,” Microsoft writer Michael Stroh wrote in a blog post.

The first apps and games available under the Red Stripe Deals banner are Runtastic PRO, Assassin’s Creed: Altairs Chronicles HD, and King Oddball. All of them cost $0.99 each.

Man pushing sale buttons via ra2studio/Shutterstock

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

The mobile operating system market share numbers are in for Kantar Worldpanel’s last quarter, and the numbers are shocking.

Not the Android and iOS numbers: Steady but unspectacular growth for Android and gradual but not catastrophic drops for Apple are pretty much in line with expectations.

But the BlackBerry and Windows Phone numbers are dramatic changes from the same quarter a year ago. Windows Phone looks to be finally taking off, with 52 percent growth in December, January, and February of this year compared to the same three months in 2012. And BlackBerry is falling of a sales cliff, with an 81 percent plunge in sales.

Source: Kantar WorldPanel

Smartphone sales by operating system – U.S.

The big kahuna, of course, is Android.

Google’s Android now owns more than half of U.S. smartphone sales, with 51.2 percent market share. That’s up from 45.4 percent in the quarter a year ago. Meanwhile, iOS is holding fairly steady at number two, with 43.5 percent, down slightly from last year’s 47 percent.

What’s interesting about the Windows numbers, even though they are on a much smaller installed base, is that Windows Phone is currently the fastest-growing mobile phone platform. At 4.1 percent of mobile operating system market share, Microsoft still has a very long ways to go, and growth rates could start to slow as it piles up share. But the numbers have to be encouraging for Redmond as it is finally gaining traction in a market that it once appeared to have completely lost.

And the international numbers contain pockets of even more good news, such as Italy, where Windows Phone now makes up 13.1 percent of new phone sales.

Apple’s mobile offerings are strongest with the two largest U.S. carriers, AT&T and Verizon. Both sell a majority of iOS smartphones, with AT&T selling 68.4 percent iOS versus 20.8 percent Android, and Verizon selling 55.1 percent iOS versus 43.4 percent Android.

Meanwhile, Samsung is continuing to expand its Android leadership, taking away market share from competitors LG and HTC:

“Of those who changed their phone over the last year to a Samsung smartphone, 19 percent had previously owned a Samsung feature phone, 15 percent owned a HTC smartphone, 14 percent owned an LG feature phone, 10 percent owned a Samsung smartphone, and 9 percent owned a BlackBerry,” said Kantar Worldpanel analyst Mary-Ann Parlato. “It’s apparent that Samsung is successful at capturing users from across the competitor set and not just gaining from their own loyalists.”

Kantar Worldpanel is the largest continuous consumer research mobile phone panel in the world, and conducts more than 240,000 interviews per year in the U.S. alone to determine what consumers are buying and using.

Smoked by Windows is Microsoft’s fun, social, and viral YouTube campaign targeting iPhone and Android users. But now it’s moving offline and going to network TV — ESPN and CBS — just in time for March Madness.

And Microsoft is taking specific aim at Samsung:

The ads feature Microsoft’s top Windows Phone marketing manager, Ben Rudolph, who told us that he has the best job in Microsoft when we chatted a couple of months ago. It’s his job as director of Windows Phone evangelism to convince hundreds of millions of Android and iPhone users to switch to Windows phone … and he’s pretty persuasive.

But this particular tactic won’t work for long — the new Samsung Galaxy S IV sports a 13-megapixel camera which is bound to be better than the S III’s eight megapixel effort. And likely to best the Nokia 920′s 8.7 megapixel camera too, in spite of the built-in image stabilization that does give the 920 great night-time photos.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

The global app economy will reach $25 billion this year, according to new data from ABI Research. Thirty-five percent of that, or $8.8 billion, will be tablet apps, and 65 percent, or 16.4 billion, will be smartphone apps.

And Apple will have a combined 65 percent share.

The overall trend in the app economy is that tablet app monetization is outpacing smartphone apps, ABI said. By 2018, the company said, tablet apps should surpass smartphone apps in revenue. At that point, total global app revenue will reach $92 billion.

“The larger screen makes apps and content look and feel better, so there are more lucrative opportunities,” analyst Aapo Markkanen said in a statement. “One might think that the bigger installed base of smartphones would compensate for the disparity, but that notion fails to take into account the arrival of low-cost tablets, which hasn’t even started yet [in] earnest. The smartphones paved the way for them, but in the end we believe that it’s the tablets that will prove the more transformative device segment of the two.”

For 2013, ABI expects Apple to take 65 percent of global app revenues, followed by Google’s Android with 27 percent. The remaining eight percent will be fought over by the other mobile ecosystems, primarily Windows Phone and BlackBerry.

ABI didn’t comment on Apple versus Android share in later years, but you have to assume that the 65 percent share will not last. According to one measure, Android’s overall global market share hit almost 70 percent in 2012, and ABI has previously predicted that by December 2013, there will be 800 million Android smartphones to 300 million iPhones in active use.

But Apple’s market share will stay very strong for many years to come, Markkanen believes.

“Apple’s share is obviously declining as Android grows,” Markkanen told me on the phone. “By 2018 in terms of tablets it will still be 57 percent, and in terms of tablets plus smartphones, it will still be above 50 percent … around 52 percent.”

That 52 percent of the 2018 app market will be worth about $48 billion, a third of which is almost pure profit.

photo credit: waferbaby via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Nokia didn’t have any new high-end devices to show at Mobile World Congress today, but it unveiled a slew of new low-end and mid-range devices that could help it reclaim international markets.

The company introduced the mid-range Lumia 720 Windows Phone (above) and the low-end Lumia 520 (right), which will sell for around $329 and $183 respectively before any carrier discounts. Nokia has dabbled in cheaper Lumias before, with the 620 and 820, but the 520′s sub-$200 off-contract price is the lowest we’ve seen yet for Windows Phone.

Given Nokia’s struggle to push its high-end Lumia phones, it makes sense for the company to continue its efforts on cheaper devices. Unfortunately for Nokia, the profit margins on low-end devices aren’t nearly as high as they are on more expensive phones.

The Lumia 720 features a 4.3-inch screen with an 800 by 480 pixel display (that’s a surprisingly low resolution these days, but I suppose expected for a mid-range device), and it’s powered by a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor. It only carries 512 megabytes of RAM and 8 gigabytes of built-in storage (expandable with micro-SD cards up to 64GB). There’s also a 6.7-megapixel rear camera that incorporates some of Nokia’s advanced camera technology, as well as a 1.3 MP front shooter.

The 720 won’t win any specification contests, but at least it’s thinner and lighter than the chunky Lumia 920. It’ll be available in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Vietnam in the first quarter, and will expand to other countries throughout the year. There’s no word on a U.S. launch yet.

The cheaper Lumia 520 features much of the same hardware as the 720, except for its smaller 4-inch screen and 5 MP camera. Both phones are 3G-only. T-Mobile will offer the 520 in the U.S. in the second quarter (there’s no official pricing yet, but I suspect it’ll be available for free with a two-year contract).

Nokia is also making its navigation apps, including Drive+ Beta, Maps, Transit, and City Lens, available to other Windows Phone devices under a new “Here” branding. Additionally, the company introduced two new feature phones for emerging markets, the Nokia 105 and 310. Neither phone will make much of a dent in the U.S., but it’s nice to see a range of updated feature phones from Nokia.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Nokia is being attacked at both ends. Its Lumia phones are key to taking on the iPhone and high-end Android smartphones, but it’s also losing out on the low-end market it used to dominate from Chinese phone makers Huawei and ZTE.

After spending the past two years focused on its Lumia devices, Nokia could be gearing up to debut a new range of cheaper devices at Mobile World Congress next week, Reuters reports. The company is said to be working on extremely cheap smartphones to take on Chinese manufacturers, as well as new low-cost Lumia models.

Naturally, Nokia isn’t commenting on the news, but it makes sense for it to announce new cheap phones next week. Last year at MWC Nokia announced a new range of Asha feature phones, as well as its cheapest Windows Phone devices at the time, the Lumia 610 (pictured above). Given its European setting, Mobile World Congress is a good platform for Nokia to reveal devices that will appeal more to international consumers.

After several quarters of significant losses, Nokia finally reported a profit in the fourth quarter, mostly due to reducing costs and improved Lumia sales. Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia Windows Phones during the quarter, and overall it sold 6.6 million smartphones. It sold 9.3 million units of its low-end Asha phones.

We don’t know much else about Nokia’s new low-end devices, but given the consistently lower costs for mobile hardware, I expect them to be far more capable than last year’s models. While many smartphones makers are focused on cramming the fastest processor and biggest screen into their high-end devices, there’s still a significant market out there for low-end and mid-range devices.

And for Nokia, which has lost the mantle as the biggest mobile manufacturer in the world, it can’t afford to let major markets slip away.

Even better, your apps share about 90 percent of their code, making cross-platform development simpler and quicker.

Today Xamarin is launching Xamarin 2.o, a bundle of products including Xamarin Studio, a new IDE, Xamarin.iOS for Visual Studio, a plugin for Visual Studio that enables cross-platform mobile development, and the Xamarin Component Store, an “app store for code,” where you buy and sell components of apps to speed your development and make some cash.

“Xamarin enables us to deliver high performance, native apps that, until Xamarin, were only possible with Objective-C and Java,” says Matt Crocker, director of client engineering at Rdio, which has been using the new software. “Sharing over 50,000 lines of code across platforms gives us more time to spend on great user experiences. Xamarin 2.0 will help us build even better apps, faster.”

With the massive rise in mobile devices and apps, cross platform development tools are enjoying a golden age. PhoneGap allows developers to build for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone in HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Corona created its own simple language, Lua, to enable cross-platform development in a single language. Appcelerator’s Titanium developer platform — which the company claims is the widest-used in the world — also uses Javascript as the foundation programming language.

Xamarin’s approach?

There are eight million C# developers in the world, the company says. So why not let them build mobile apps in a language they know? The Xamarin studio, which also allows developers to build Mac apps, lets C# developers leverage their existing skills, “essentially transforming existing teams into mobile developers virtually overnight.”

Launched two years ago, Xamarin says it already has 230,000 mobile developers using its software development tools, growing its developer community 300 percent in the last year alone, and adding 12,000 new customers — companies like Clear Channel, Rdio, and the Portland Trailblazers.

“In the very near future, every business process and customer transaction will happen on a mobile device,” Nat Friedman, Xamarin’s CEO and cofounder said in a statement. “Xamarin’s unique approach … has already helped thousands of businesses to successfully deliver on their mobile strategy.”

photo credit: kk+ via photopin cc

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July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Bill Gates made some surprisingly candid statements this morning about the company he used to run, telling CBS that Microsoft hasn’t been innovative enough and that it had misstepped in the mobile arena.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform hasn’t gained significant traction in its efforts to catch up to iOS and Android since its launch in October 2010, but it does control three percent of the OS market now. The company has several serious mobile priorities for 2013, but its initial mobile strategy was flawed, Gates said.

“We didn’t miss cell phones, but the way that we went about it didn’t allow us to get the leadership,” Gates said in the interview. “So it’s clearly a mistake.”

While he admits the mistake, Gates still believes CEO Steve Ballmer has done a relatively good job with the company, especially in the last year.

“Well, [Steve Ballmer] and I are two of the most self-critical people — you can imagine,” Gates said. “And here were a lot of amazing things that Steve’s leadership got done with the company in the last year. Windows 8 is key to the future, the Surface computer. Bing, people are seeing as a better search product, Xbox. … But is — is it enough? No, he and I are not satisfied that in terms of, you know, breakthrough things, that we’re doing everything possible.”

Watch the interview with Gates below.

Top photo via Microsoft/YouTube

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

There are over 1 billion people in Africa. And Microsoft wants to sell them all Windows Phones.

Teaming up with Huawei, Microsoft is introducing the Huawei 4Afrika, a $150 device that will enter a mobile phone market largely dominated by crummy feature phones.

A tweaked version of the Huawei Ascend, the phone has a four-inch screen, 4GB storage, and a dual-core processor. It also comes in four colors –  blue, red, black, and white.

The phone’s introduction is a part of Microsoft’s larger Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative, which essentially is about making more Africans daily Internet users. A big part of that effort is the smartphone, which more Africans can use to get online without the need for established wired infrastructure.

The move also has a business angle, of course. By expanding the Windows Phone footprint in Africa, Microsoft and its hardware partners will have more people to sell their devices and software to.

“We believe there has never been a better time to invest in Africa and that access to technology — particularly cloud services and smart devices — can and will serve as a great accelerator for African competitiveness,” Microsoft International president Jean-Philippe Courtois said in a statement today.

The Huawei 4Afrika should hit Angola, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa by the end of this month.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Apple may be winning the smartphone battle Stateside, but Android is winning the global smartphone war being fought everywhere else.

Smartphone sales grew 38 percent last quarter to reach 217 million units worldwide, and over 700 million units for the entire year, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics. Of those 700 million-plus smartphones, 68.4% smartphones ran Android as the operating system, while only 19.4 percent ran iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system.

“Almost half-a-billion Android smartphones were shipped in total worldwide during 2012,” the firm’s executive director Neil Mawston said in a statement. “Android is clearly the undisputed volume leader of the smartphone industry at the present time.”

In terms of manufacturing, the global smartphone industry is basically two companies: Apple and Samsung. Apple shipped 135.8 phones last year, all smartphones, of course, while Samsung shipped 396.5 million phones, most of them smartphones. Phone shipments in general reached 1.6 billion in 2012, meaning that smartphones still made up slightly less than half of all phones sold. Nokia still ships a lot of units — 335.6 million in 2012 – but most of them are not modern smartphones.

“Apple grew 29 percent annually and shipped 47.8 million smartphones worldwide for 22 percent marketshare in Q4 2012, dipping slightly from 24 percent a year earlier,” Scott Bicheno, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics, added. “Combined together, Apple and Android accounted for a record 92 percent share of all smartphones shipped globally in the fourth quarter of 2012.”

The massive numbers obscure that growth, while still torrid, is slowing. While 2011 saw 64 percent in smartphone shipments, 2012′s growth rate was a slightly more moderate 43 percent.

But it’s clear that the market has become a tale of two mobile operating systems: Android and iOS.

The challenge in 2013 for Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and even smaller upstart phone operating systems is simple to grow enough to matter.

photo credit: CanPatsFan via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Those of you holding out for a Nokia Android phone may be waiting for quite some time, as Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop voiced his disapproval of Google’s recent handling of its platform.

Speaking during Nokia’s earnings call today, Elop said:

The situation that Android is facing, where the amount of fragmentation that you’re seeing is increasing as people take it in different directions, is offset by Google’s efforts to turn an open ecosystem into something that’s quite a bit more closed — as we’ve seen quite recently.

He seems more than a little annoyed by Google’s recent choice to drop Exchange ActiveSync support, which is how Windows Phone devices previously delivered push Gmail messages. Elop also sounded confident in Nokia’s Asha and Windows Phone line to handle low-cost devices, which doesn’t leave much room for Android in Nokia’s lineup.

“We’re not in a situation where we’re considering something other than Windows Phone combined with what we’re doing with Asha,” Elop said during the call.

Google doesn’t yet offer any native apps for Windows Phone, even though it’s put plenty of resources behind official iOS aps like Gmail and Google Maps. As Windows Phone sales begin to pick up, Google will need a better reason than low market share to avoid Microsoft’s platform.

Photo: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

For the first time in a long while, Nokia is no longer reporting a massive operating loss in its quarterly earnings. The former phone giant reported fourth quarter revenues of $10.7 billion with a $585 million operating profit — mostly due to slightly stronger Windows Phone sales, as well as a variety of layoffs and cost-cutting measures.

It’s not much, but it’s a significant step beyond Nokia’s last quarterly operating loss of $754 million. The company reported earnings per share of 8 cents, slightly beating analyst expectations of 6 cents.

Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia Windows Phones, a notable bump from last quarter’s 2.9 million Lumias. Overall, Nokia sold 6.6 million smartphones, down 66 percent from last year’s 19.6 million smartphones. Smartphones sales look a bit better if you include the company’s low-end Asha devices, which sold 9.3 million units during the quarter. The Lumia is definitely at the core of Nokia’s future, but Asha will remain a significant component as well.

The company also confirmed today that the 808 PureView, its crazy 42-megapixel camera phone, will be the last official Symbian device. Nokia only sold 2.2 million Symbian smartphones during the quarter. The PureView’s revolutionary camera technology is rumored to make its way to Lumia phones this year, after first debuting at Mobile World Congress a year ago.

Nokia has also aggressively cut costs over the past year, including laying off 10,000 workers, selling off (and leasing back) its headquarters, and dumping its ridiculous Vertu luxury phone brand.

Today’s Nokia looks far different from the titan that ruled the cellphone market for years — a good example of how quickly fates can change in the technology world. Nokia must certainly be humbled from being so royally beaten by iPhone and Android, but as we’re seeing from continued Lumia advancements and intriguing technology like the PureView camera, it’s not going down quietly.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Half of Americans planning to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days are planning to buy iPhones, according to a new survey from 451 Research.

But while that’s down from the 71 percent who wanted iPhones in September 2012′s survey, buying intent for Samsung smartphones has jumped from 13 percent to 21 percent, meaning that Samsung has made its mark as the premier Android smartphone manufacturer in the American consumer psyche.

Samsung is benefitting from a massive surge in demand not just for its flagship Galaxy S III, but also for its “phablets,” those unfortunate offspring of mixed marriages between tablets and smartphones, with screens greater than 5″.

In 451′s research, a full 27 percent of people who are interested in buying a smartphone wanted a screen size of 5″ or larger. And while almost 70 percent of people who were planning on purchasing a Samsung device wanted the Galaxy S III, 23 percent wanted the Galaxy Note II, Samsung’s stylus-carrying 5.5″-screen, 6.5-ounce pocket monster.

Perhaps even more interesting, and potentially indicative of Windows Phone market share opportunities in 2013, is the fact that while Apple reigns the customer satisfaction sweepstakes, with a stellar 71 percent rating, Windows Phone has pulled ahead of both Android and BlackBerry. Windows Phones clocked a 53 percent “very satisfied” rating, compared to Android’s 48 percent and BlackBerry’s 26 percent.

That’s helping Nokia jump up the manufacturer standings to a 56 percent “very satisfied” rating, while Samsung is basically neck-and-neck at 55 percent.

The slowdown in number of people who are planning to purchase Apple devices is not a shock. Of the 71 percent who had that intent last month, some have undoubtedly already bought, and others may have gotten lucky on Christmas Day. Apple’s U.S. market share late last year soared over 50 percent — a historic high — and while the intent-to-buy stats are down a little, iPhone 5 still ranks as the most-desired device.

451′s survey questioned 4,061 people, 88 percent of whom are U.S.-based.

photo credit: LoKan Sardari via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Ben Rudolph might have the toughest job in technology.

Not only is he fighting two massive market leaders that together control the mobile market, he’s also fighting public perception. Android and the iPhone currently own 95 percent of the U.S. market for smartphones. Windows Phone is the almost-invisible little line in circle graph, with 2.7 percent. At least it’s now in third place, as RIM’s BlackBerry continues to fade.

Rudolph relishes the challenge, and he’s thrown himself fully into the fight, talking to literally thousands of iPhone and Android users in campaigns like Microsoft’s Meet Your Match viral videos, where he meets ordinary people and shows them how Windows Phone meets — and maybe exceeds — what their current phones do.

It’s odd to see Microsoft as the underdog, but that’s the reality in mobile. And according to Rudolph, that’s what makes it fun.

I chatted with Rudolph during his long Seattle commute home. Here’s the interview:

VentureBeat: Give us the 30 seconds on what you do…

Ben Rudolph: My official title is very long. It’s director of Windows Phone evangelism. Effectively, I spend my time helping people to find the perfect device. I oversee a lot of the experiential marketing stuff and all the smoked-by-Windows, which was the competitive ad campaign we started about a year ago.

I do a lot of stuff for social, Twitter, Microsoft’s and Windows Phones’ Facebook pages. I talk to a lot of people.

VentureBeat: So in other words, you have a pretty fun job.

Rudolph: I think I have arguably the best job in the company — I play with all the new toys before they come out and awesome stuff just randomly appears in my office for me to fiddle with. It’s like Disneyland for me.

VentureBeat: Let’s talk about Windows Phone. What are some of the most surprising features of Windows Phone when people see it for the first time?

Rudolph: The single biggest surprise is how different it looks and feels. I mean, it’s not a hidden feature, but it’s really that Start screen with the tiles. If you’re used to an iPhone or an Android phone, or even a BlackBerry, you’re used to the same sort of U.I. where you have all these little apps, and you go into an app and you do something, and you close the app, and you go into another little app, and you do something else.

So having a screen of tiles, when people see, they’re like, wow, there’s a lot of stuff going on. And then you put it in their hand, and you show them how their stuff comes alive on it, how their favorite people can be pinned to the Start screen, how their restaurants or movies can be on the Start screen, how everything’s flipping over with real information … all of a sudden when it’s in their hands it makes sense to them.

It comes alive, and it feels like the most fun jigsaw puzzle you’re ever going to put together. Because it’s the pieces of your life, it’s the stuff you care about: Your favorite sports teams, the news sites you go to. Your favorite people. Your favorite color. All that stuff comes together on that Start screen.

So it’s a very different way to do a smartphone. But when people see it, they dig it.

VentureBeat: One of the most interesting things about Windows Phone, and maybe the new Windows 8, too — I’m not a Windows guy; I use an iPhone and have an Android as well — is that it’s a differentiated operating system with a kind of different … ethos. That’s what makes Windows Phone interesting to me, actually.

Rudolph: I think you’re right. It was a completely different way of looking at how to build a smartphone. Not this app-centric model. Apps are great. They’re important. We’ve got lots of them — like 125,000 or something like that — but to be able to put it together in a way that makes sense around the experiences and the stuff you actually do, rather than just the apps you want to use — it’s just really cool.

And I love the fact that now with Windows 8 and Xbox, we’ve got this consistent look and feel across the whole company.

Now you pick something up — you pick up a Windows 8 PC — and it looks like the phone. You pick up the phone, and it looks like your Xbox dashboard. You play the Xbox, and it looks like your desktop. It’s all coming together, and it’s a really neat thing.

VentureBeat: So a phone is probably the most personal device, right, of all the electronics that you’ve got. Is it hard to get people to switch to a new type of phone?

Rudolph: I don’t think it’s hard to switch. Like anything else, when you try something new, you got to learn it, explore it, find all the settings. But what’s interesting, I find, is that people who are switching, or even getting a smartphone for the first time … because it’s built around the stuff that you want to do and the stuff you care about, it’s very intuitive.

I don’t need all of Facebook all the time; I just want to be able to see what my wife and my best friends are up to. So I pin my wife to my Start screen. I pin a group of my best friends, and I just get those chunks of Facebook.

So once you break out of that paradigm model of using apps for absolutely everything, once you understand that that’s not the only way you have to do something, the tile starts to make a lot of sense, and you start pinning and unpinning, and you’re off and running.

VentureBeat: So who’s the most resistant? Is it someone who’s maybe a feature phone owner or an iPhone owner who’s been an Apple user their entire life, or is it an Android owner?

Rudolph: It’s funny. Feature phone users are actually very receptive. If they’re ready to buy a smartphone, they’re ready to buy our smartphone.

There are a lot of people who have a very heavy emotional attachment to their phones, but it’s not specifically to the phone, it’s what the phone does, and the things that you accomplish with it.

So I’ll use iPhone as an example, because there are people who bought iPhones when they first came out and bought every iteration since then, and they’re like “I love my iPhone. I’d never leave my iPhone.” And then I ask why, and they show me all these apps and pages and pages of games, and all these little icons on their screen, and then I stop and I say “OK, you love all those things,” and they go “Oh, yeah, I love them all. It’s really important to me.”

Then I ask, “What do you do on your phone. What do you actually do?” And they say, well, “I e-mail. I talk to my mom. I use Facebook. I take pictures of my kids.” And then I say — what if I could show you a phone that can do all those things, but easier and better?

And generally speaking they’re like “I don’t know … I’m kinda used to this.” And then you show them something like the camera button on the Windows phone. You just hold the button and the camera turns on. Or you show them that you just want to look for a restaurant, you just hit the local scout button, and it pulls all that stuff up. You don’t have to learn anything or do anything — you just tap a button and then go — that’s pretty cool.

And the camera on the Lumia 920 is a perfect example.

You show someone the quality on that and they go, well, I want that one. I took this great picture of my son, next to his jack-o-lantern. It’s basically dark outside, but you can see his pajamas, and the funny face he’s making, and you show people that and they say: I want to be able to take pictures like that on my phone.

VentureBeat: So this is kind of a new challenge for Microsoft, isn’t it? For so many years, even decades, Microsoft has been in the dominant position — still is, in the desktop world — but now its an underdog. That’s a different challenge for Microsoft. How’s that work? How does that feel, to come in as the newcomer, the challenger?

Rudolph: It’s actually a lot of fun, primarily because the product is so good.

What we’re realizing is that a lot of people haven’t seen Windows Phone yet. And if they’ve seen it or heard about it, they haven’t touched it. So it’s a really interesting challenge where we’ve got this tremendously good product that gets amazing reviews — the experts get how good the operating system is and we get awesome reviews — but for ordinary people, it’s an interesting awareness challenge: How do we get more people to understand that that there is a Windows phone, that the Windows phone is different, and that when they try it they’re going to love it?

So for me it’s all about getting phones into people’s hands, because from personal experience — and I’ve personally interacted with thousands of Android and iPhone users — they’re all skeptical when they first walk up, and they all leave going: that sounds pretty cool.

So it’s a big challenge, but that’s what makes it fun.

VentureBeat: So on a device level there’s a lot to like. What about the ecosystem level, where Apple and Google and maybe even Amazon have these amazing rich ecosystems — what’s the view like from the Microsoft side on ecosystems?

Rudolph: We built our business by building a great ecosystem. That’s one of the reasons that Windows continues to be the dominant force in the PC market; we work with developers really really well, and developers like working with us, with over 125,000 apps now.

And we’re building a consistent experience across all the devices.

Office is on our phone, and it can be on your PC, and can get it as a service. SkyDrive works across everything now, Xbox music … so we’re building an ecosystem that’s very tightly integrated where you can get your stuff anywhere you are but still retains the soul of Microsoft, which is that we built this amazing platform, and you can build amazing things on top of it.

There are lots of people building really, really cool stuff, just for Windows Phone.

VentureBeat: Anything else?

Rudolph: Not really, but do you have a device to play one, a Windows Phone?

VentureBeat: No, I don’t.

Rudolph: Well, then we need get one to you. Because once you touch it, once you play with it, and get to know it, then I think it’ll make a lot more sense to you.

photo credits: mbiebusch via photopin cc, mbiebusch via photopin cc, Nicola since 1972 via photopin cc, mbiebusch via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

If Steve Ballmer’s cameo during Qualcomm’s CES keynote didn’t make it clear enough, the chip company has an intimate relationship with Microsoft.

Today during a small Q&A session with press at CES, Qualcomm chief executive Paul Jacobs elaborated on his thoughts on Windows Phone. Qualcomm’s chips power Windows Phone devices, and it’s also making inroads into Windows RT with Samsung’s ATIV tablet.

When asked how he thinks Microsoft’s mobile platform will be able to compete against the iPhone and Android, Jacobs said:

It’s too early to call the game one way or another. I never count out Microsoft out because they’re willing to put a lot of effort into things, they play the long game, they’ve got a lot of resources, they have a lot of benefits in the sense of tie-ins to enterprise software and Xbox … I think there’s definitely a great opportunity there [in Windows Phone]. We’re investing heavily in that technology.

While his comments were certainly self-serving, Jacobs’ faith in Windows Phone seemed genuine. Qualcomm is already the leading Android smartphone CPU provider, so it’s not like the company is hurting for business. Qualcomm has the luxury of being able to sit and wait until Windows Phone actually takes off — and it seems like it isn’t letting the platform’s slow initial sales scare it off.

Photo: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

AT&T took a moment to toot its own horn this morning, announcing that it sold more than 10 million smartphones in the last quarter.

And while the company didn’t announce a product-level breakdown, thanks to Kantar Worldpanel data released last week we can guesstimate that this translates to 7.2 million iPhones, 2.2 million Android phones, and some small number of BlackBerry and Windows phones. Those numbers are interesting, as Apple’s Q1 2013 financials are coming in just a couple of weeks, with estimates as high as 55 million iPhones sold.

“During the quarter, we averaged more than 110,000 smartphone sales a day as customers flocked to our leading portfolio of the latest Android, Apple, and Windows devices,” AT&T President and CEO Ralph de la Vega said in a statement.

Significantly, de la Vega did not mention BlackBerry in his statement. Windows Phone has become the third contender in the U.S. mobile market — because, according to that same Kantar data, Microsoft surged into third place with 2.7 percent of the U.S market, while RIM free-fell from seven percent the previous quarter to just 1.4 percent in the Christmas quarter.

The numbers are big, there’s no question.

AT&T’s huge quarter undoubtedly helped Apple push above 50 percent market share for the first time ever in the U.S. market, as the massive mobile carrier was, of course, the first (and for years the only) iPhone-carrying telecom, giving it an advantage in high-end wireless customers that continues to this day. And, perhaps, something of a bias toward iPhone.

Humility is, of course, a key AT&T virtue, which explains the next part of de la Vega’s statement:

“Combine that with the nation’s largest 4G network and lightning-fast LTE network that now reaches more than 170 million people and you’ll understand why customers continue to choose AT&T in record numbers.”

AT&T’s full financial results for the quarter will be released the same day as Apple’s: January 24.

photo credit: GlennFleishman via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Watch out Apple and Google: Two-thirds of smartphone and tablet owners don’t have strong brand loyalty to any one particular operating system, according to a new study by Accenture.

In fact, 24 percent would switch just to see what else is on the market, 23 percent would change for a better user experience, and another 23 percent would ditch their current mobile operating system to “get access to more innovative services and applications.”

Source: Accenture

Why switch mobile operating systems?

On the face of it, that’s bad news for current mobile leaders Apple and Google and potentially good news for outside-looking-in mobile wannabe Microsoft.

“Overall, our survey found there is not widespread loyalty among consumers about operating systems used on their smartphones, tablets and PCs,” Kumu Puri, a managing director at Accenture told me via email. “They are willing to try different operating systems and are not, generally, locked into using any one single platform.”

That’s somewhat astonishing, given that strength of ecosystem is one of the key factors that mobile device manufacturers see as a core strength. After all, if you’ve got an iOS device and have purchased apps, music, movies, and books, moving away from Apple means leaving all your expensive content behind.

The same applies, increasingly, with Google Play.

Reasons for switching include simple curiosity — what’s on the other side of the fence — as well as lower costs, less hassle, higher security, and better syncing with an in-car system. It’s tempting to say that lower costs would come on the Android side, less hassle on the Apple side, and better in-car syncing with a Microsoft solution, but the survey did not go into that depth of detail.

Surprisingly, people that Accenture defined as “strong users” who have at least two devices running a single mobile operating system were not significantly different. Seventeen percent of the total sample thought it was “extremely important” to have all or almost all of their devices on a single platform, and only another five percent of strong users agreed with them.

“In fact, about one-fifth of this group actually seems to be strong users by coincidence,” the study says. “They say they don’t have a preferred OS or don’t care what operating system they have.”

That’s something for Google, Apple, and Microsoft to keep in mind as they build their ecosystems, who will have to reseduce customers every time they bring out new devices.

Source: Accenture

Purchase intent features

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Microsoft has released some illuminating stats regarding its Windows Phone Store’s performance in 2012: 75,000 apps published and 300,000 app updates.

On its Windows Phone Developer Blog, Windows Phone Store leader Todd Brix said people have downloaded 54 apps each on average, showing that they are hungry for apps and new experiences with their phones.

Brix writes:

Our big goal this year was to establish a new, scalable platform on the phone and in the cloud upon which we can better achieve our mission: to provide a confident, convenient, and customized app experience for our customers across the world and enable developers to rapidly innovate and realize opportunity.

We literally set a new foundation this year with the deployment of all-new infrastructure – new client platform, new developer toolset, new Dev Center, new catalog infrastructure, and all-new global service. I know transitions can be frustrating, but it is now complete and customers and developers are already beginning to reap the benefits with a better app and store experience, faster performance and more robust tools.

As a direct result of our investments, Windows Phone customers now download, buy, and use more apps than at any time since we first launched Windows Phone 7 two years ago. On average Windows Phone users have downloaded 54 apps each to personalize their phone experience around the people and information they care about most.

While the Windows Phone platform has steadily improved and has stronger smartphone and app options, sales appear to be relatively slow thus far. The big question is if consumers in the U.S. and around the world will try out Windows Phones when iPhone and Android devices own the majority of market share and mind share. You could also ask the same question about RIM’s BlackBerry 10 OS, which will show up in devices hitting in the first quarter of 2013.

Do you think the Windows Phone platform will have a good 2013?

Steve Ballmer screenshot via VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Say hello to the new, potentially life-saving low-end of Nokia’s Lumia lineup: the Lumia 620.

Aimed at entry-level customers, the 620 features some fairly bare-bones specifications. Its 3.8-inch screen comes with an uninspiring 800 by 480 resolution, and its cameras only take 5-megapixel shots.

But the appeal here isn’t in those numbers but rather the device’s price: The Lumia 620 retails for $249 before carrier subsidies, meaning that, in many cases, buyers could get the thing for free. And that’s not a bad value proposition for such a solid device.

The Lumia 620′s other big pull is that it comes in a variety of shades, which you can mix with interchangeable shells to create an array of vaguely radioactive colors. (The video below explains it better.)

Alongside the 620, Nokia also announced the Lumia 920T, a high-end device aimed at China, the world’s largest smartphone market. Equipped with a 4.5-inch 1280 by 768 display and 8.7 megapixel camera, the 920T is different from the Lumia 620 — at least from a features perspective

But from the business perspective, the two are almost identical. Both the low-end and Chinese markets represent huge sources of potential customers for Nokia — and it’s smart enough to go after them. After all, these untapped markets may end up being Nokia’s lifeblood if it continues to flounder in markets where Android and iOS continue to reign.