Tam Hanna

When it comes to Qt on Mobile, the focus of developers should be shifting away from Nokia and on to Research in Motion.

In order to accelerate developer uptick, the company now plans to hold a group of free-to-attend events. In particular, the following events are planned:

North America
June 5 — Austin, TX, USA
June 7 — Santa Clara, CA, USA
June 19 — New York City, NY, USA
June 21 — Toronto, ON, Canada

Europe
May 29 — Milan, Italy
May 31 — Barcelona, Spain
June 12 — Paris, France
June 14 — London, UK
June 26 — Moscow, Russia
June 28 — Berlin, Germany
July 3 — Warsaw, Poland

Asia
July 4 — Delhi, India
July 6 — Beijing, China
July 9 — Singapore, Singapore
July 10 — Jakarta, Indonesia
July 12 — Sydney, Australia

Latin America
August — Buenos Aires, Argentina
August — Mexico City, Mexico

Find out more via the URL below:
http://www.blackberryjamworldtour.com/

When Nokia first announced intent to switch over to Windows Phone 7, they offered their Symbian developers a free Nokia E7 and promised to follow it up with a free Lumia when WP7 would be “on the road”.

Sadly, it looks like the Symbian developers have done their due, and are now no longer useful – we are still waiting for our Lumias. Thus, the letter below (via wmpoweruser) is likely to annoy more than one developer – a selection of MVPs somehow related to mobile will receive free Lumias:
free lumia mvp Nokia passes Lumias to MVPs, ignores past promises to own developers

Given that Nokia is already loosing developer goodwill at a high speed, it is questionable if this is significant at this stage – nevertheless, it shows the deprofessionalization in a clear, black-on-white fashion.

2a Bridgestone to give up on e paper productionThe (usually monochrome) e-paper technology is used commonly in all kinds of e-readers due to the ultra-low power usage.

Bridgestone, one of the largest makers of these screens, now gives up on them:

Tokyo (May, 15 2012) — Bridgestone Corporation today announced plans to withdraw from electronic paper business.

The company has made this decision after careful consideration of its options and in accordance with its management principal of “selection and concentration” which Bridgestone is implementing to put an increased focus on its core businesses to provide maximum value to its customers and shareholders. Due to increasing competition and rapidly declining prices in the liquid crystal panel business, the company decided that the best course of action for its overall business is to exit the electronic paper market.

Exact timing for the withdrawal is still being determined but the company expects to conclude its production of electronic paper by the end of October 2012.

Even though thus sounds quite a bit strange at first glance, it does make sense – according to optometricists, the backlit OLED screens are more comfortable (read: more ergonomically) to read when looking at textual information. In addition to that, e-paper is unusable when it comes to creating smart tablets which are to run operating systems like Android – let’s see what this will lead us to…

Traditionally, one expects a new version of a product to achieve a larger market share than its predecessor. Sadly, this was not at all the case in the area of Windows Mobile – Windows Phone had a significantly lower share.

Reuters now brings us the following bit of info from a market research company named Kantar:

Microsoft’s Windows Phone began to show some signs of growth thanks to Nokia’s decision to swap its legacy Symbian platform for Windows.

Windows’ share in Germany more than doubled to 6 percent over the past year, and climbed to 3-4 percent in Britain, France, Italy and the United States.

Given that Windows Phone 7 succeeds not only Windows Mobile, but also the tremendously successful Symbian, this can only be considered a colossal failure – what do you guys think?

Roaming in the EU is quite a topic – given that Hutchison has used the communality across its network for great advantage, I have frequently predicted that it would be but a question of time when other carriers react.

According to Mobile Business Briefing, Telefonica has just done so:

Telefonica has launched a pan-European data roaming tariff offering smartphone subscribers to its European networks 25MB of data usage for EUR2 a day.

The Pan-European tariff launched in Germany in May and will be available this summer to Telefonica’s O2 and Movistar customers in Spain, UK, Ireland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. It will be applicable for roaming across all 27 EU member states.

Let’s see how this one plays out…

450px La2 euro EU reduces roaming fees furtherThe EU intends to be a “super state” – in a super state, however, citizens can expect to pay no roaming fees when traveling from one substate to another (similar to the USA).

Sadly, the EU currently has not yet achieved this state. However, it remains work in progress. The Independent now repors the following:

Mobile phone roaming charges will fall again from July following a European Parliament vote today.

The cuts involve reducing the cost of making a mobile call from another EU country from about 30p a minute to 24p, while the cost of sending a text drops to just 7p. Overall, roaming costs have fallen by up to 75% since the campaign began in 2007, said the commission.

Stay tuned for further info as we get it!

Image: Wikimedia Commons / Lars Aronsson

Long-term followers of this blog will likely remember Anssi Vanjoki – he is a charismatic former employee who has done a lot for the firm, but did not get the CEO post because of our common friend Elop.
 Anssi Vanjoki: N9 is best!


MyNokiaBlog
paraphrases the interview as following:

he’s still extremely happy with the N9, calling it the best he’s used. He also talks about open source and believes this is the best way forward.

He says he has no doubts Microsoft will get something done because they have deep pockets. I’m paraphrasing as the translation didn’t make that much sense.

Given that the interview is in Finnish, there is little more we can do – but it is nice to see an old hand still keeping an eye on the firm!

Nokia and the USA are a bad combination – so far, the company has largely failed when it comes to penetrating the market. It thus was unsurprising to see Nokia refuse to ship the N800 and N9 to the USA.

However, it now looks like they have changed their planning. PhoneNews reports the following re the N9:

Unfortunately, the N9 now exists in a bastardized environment. Nokia is only continuing to support the device for two reasons. One, it made a commitment to customers “for years” of support. And two, Nokia appears to be using the MeeGo Harmattan platform to fuel its “next billion” initiative for smartphones in the developing world.

And, at $599 sticker price at Fry’s Electronics, it’s not clear how many people will sign on. A refurbished iPhone 4S can be found (at times) for hundreds less on daily deal sites.

In addition to that, Engadget reports the following re the N808:

Speaking with PC Mag, Nokia executive Chris Weber explained that the company aims to offer its current imaging- / Symbian Belle flagship-handset, the 41-megapixel Pureview 808, north of Mexico in the “next couple of months” —

Not much to add here…

Very few topics are as sensitive as the question of Windows Phone 7 OS upgrades – Microsoft’s initial announcement of a standardized platform seems to do them more bad than good.

WPCentral.com now reports the following:

Having said all of that the Finish Tango ROM (8773 with firmware 12140) popped up on Navifirm this morning and yes, can be downloaded. Does that mean it can be flashed to your AT&T Lumia 900? We wouldn’t recommend it as down-grading the ROM to the proper one is not guaranteed.

Of course, this should not be taken as confirmation that an update will be pushed out – it is entirely possible that Microsoft uses the 900 as test bed for platform development!

When it comes to data, Krusell’s once-monthly sales report are the staple food of our Metrics Maid section. In fact, we even have some explanation on our coverage as to why we are not breaking data down at OS levels anymore.

Krusell has now sent us the latest update:

1. (1) Apple iPhone 4/4S
2. (8) Sony Xperia S
3. (2) Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II
4. (-) Sony Xperia U
5. (7) Samsung Galaxy Note
6. (4) Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc/Arc S
7. (3) Samsung Galaxy Nexus
8. (-) Nokia E52
9. (10) HTC Sensation
10. (9) HTC Sensation XL
() = Last month’s position.

In April Sony’s new models Xperia S and U has made a significant race on the Top seller list from Krusell. It’s been a while since we had three phones from Sony, or previous Sony Ericsson, on our list, says Ulf Sandberg CEO at Krusell. In April it’s only Samsung who matches Sony in number of devices on the list, even if iPhone is still number one.

The Swedish manufacturer of carrying cases for portable electronics, Krusell, releases its “Top 10″-list for April 2012. The list is based on the number of pieces of custom made mobile- and smartphone cases ordered from Krusell during April 2012. Krusell’s list is unique due to the fact that it reflects the sales of phones on six continents and in more than 70 countries around the globe.

Not much to add here…

We have frequently reported that Microsoft can not favor Nokia too much lest its other licensees get angry – due to that, it never ceases to amuse when Nokia tries to push out “exclusive” stuff for the Lumia line.

Their latest blurb takes the form of a three-page press release, which announces a bunch of new apps for all Windows Phones, a few (insignificant ones) of which will be exclusive for the Lumia.

But, see for yourself – one really wonders where Microsoft starts and where Nokia ends:

New Orleans, US – Nokia announced a number of new and exclusive application partnerships at CTIA Wireless 2012, continuing its focus on delivering differentiated and original app experiences to Nokia Lumia consumers around the world.

“We are focused on delivering great, locally relevant apps, and importantly, those which offer unique, exclusive and original experiences,” said Marco Argenti, SVP, Nokia Developer Experience. “With Nokia Lumia smartphones now available in 48 markets, developers are rapidly recognizing the business opportunities and creating their best work for our consumers.”

With more than 80,000 apps now available in Windows Phone Marketplace, search and discovery features such as ‘App Highlights’ and ‘Nokia Collection’ curate the best, most relevant apps for Nokia Lumia consumers.

“Nokia has achieved much in a short space of time when it comes to key brands and partners creating apps for Nokia Lumia customers. We believe developers are now moving away from simply porting, to create new innovative and high-design apps that fully leverage the Windows Phone Metro UI and features such as live tiles. With new and exclusive apps launching on a regular basis, and Nokia Lumia rapidly expanding into new markets, Nokia and Microsoft are demonstrating meaningful differentiation for consumers, developers, operators and retailers,” said Crawford Del Prete, EVP, Chief Research Officer, IDC.

New partnerships and app updates across key consumer verticals include:

SPORT:

The PGA Tour app – exclusive to Nokia Lumia for 12 months from launch
The PGA TOUR is pleased to announce the launch of a new mobile app to provide fans with live, enhanced coverage of PGA TOUR events on the Windows Mobile platform. Developed with Nokia, the app will be available exclusively on Nokia Lumia smartphones beginning in late June 2012. The new app provides fans with a groundbreaking way to follow PGA TOUR tournaments. In addition to live tournament scoring, highlights and player information, the app provides interactive, augmented coverage of select events and holes, showing each player’s exact position and scoring information. This allows fans to “get inside the ropes” and follow all players competing on the PGA TOUR.

“We are excited to work with Nokia to provide this app for the PGA TOUR,” said Scott Gutterman, Executive Producer, PGA TOUR Digital. “We are committed to providing the highest level of live PGA TOUR coverage, and this app will better inform and entertain PGA TOUR fans.”

The Nokia app adds to the PGA TOUR’s portfolio of mobile products. The PGA TOUR averages over 1 million monthly mobile users across all platforms.

ESPN – exclusive to Nokia Lumia until May 2013
The exclusive ESPN Hub will deliver a number of key updates in coming months, including sports scores on Live Tiles, team-level panoramas, personalization of scores, leagues and teams, and additional sports coverage such as Tennis, NASCAR and the 2012 Olympics. Additionally, a Windows Phone version of the ESPN Fantasy Football app will launch exclusively on Nokia Lumia smartphones this coming Fall.

GAMES:

Rovio – titles starting with Angry Birds Space join the original Angry Birds game in coming to Nokia Lumia and Windows Phone consumers
Rovio is building a dedicated design and development team to create games for Nokia Lumia smartphones and the wider Windows Phone ecosystem, with the goal of developing and publishing all future Rovio titles as soon as possible. Nokia and Rovio will partner to develop innovative new consumer products and content exclusively for Nokia Lumia smartphones, alongside cross platform multi-channel integrated marketing initiatives.

“Nokia is one of our longest-standing partners, and Windows Phone and Lumia are of strategic importance to Rovio. We are very committed to bring our games to Lumia devices, and are looking forward to delighting our fans on the Windows Phone platform,” said Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio.

EA – bringing leading game titles to Nokia Lumia and Windows Phone consumers
Electronic Arts (EA) will continue to deliver leading game titles to Nokia Lumia and Windows Phone consumers, including FIFA, Madden NFL, NBA Jam, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR®, Mirror’s Edge and Yahtzee. These games join titles such as Need for Speed(TM) Undercover, Need for Speed(TM) Hot Pursuit, The Sims(TM) 3, Spider Jack, and MONOPOLY which are already available in Windows Phone Marketplace.

LIFESTYLE:

Groupon – Exclusive to Nokia Lumia for 6 months from launch
Launching during Summer 2012, Groupon is currently working on an extensive upgrade of its Windows Phone app. The app will include a newly developed augmented reality deal discovery function to combine map and Points-of-Interest (POI) data with what is seen via the camera’s viewfinder, enabling users to see virtual Groupon deals, in real-time, nearby. The app will be exclusive to Nokia Lumia customers for 6 months.

Mihir Shah, VP of Mobile, Groupon, said: “Our new and exclusive Groupon app for Nokia Lumia customers combines the intuitive Windows Phone Metro UI with location-based data to deliver deals which are both personalized and location-relevant for users. We look forward to continuing to partner with Nokia to evolve and innovate our app experience further.”

Tripdots – Exclusive to Windows Phone customers for 3 months from launch
Tripdots helps vehicle owners optimize their driving behaviors while connecting with other vehicle owners and sharing driving efficiency achievements via social networks. The app lets users monitor the operation of their vehicles to enable cost savings through better understanding fuel economy. Everyone can participate in the MPG Leader Board game, and information is only sent to drivers after their trip is complete.

“Consumers are increasingly paying more attention to the eco friendliness and costs of operating their vehicles,” said David Fleck, President of Left Lane Network, Inc. “Tripdots provides a wealth of easy to understand information that helps users monitor the health of their vehicles while having fun. The Nokia Lumia Windows phones provide best in class experience with Tripdots and we are very happy to be working with Nokia to deliver the service worldwide.”

FINANCE:

PayPal app for Windows Phone
PayPal and Nokia will work together to bring PayPal’s secure, fast and easy payments capabilities to the Windows Phone platform and Nokia Lumia smartphones, globally. PayPal will leverage the power of Windows Phone Live Tiles to create a compelling user experience that provides users with the flexibility to pay on-the-go.

“We’re excited to work with Nokia and Microsoft to bring PayPal to Nokia users across the globe, and to continue to innovate the way our consumers shop and pay anytime, anywhere and in anyway,” said Hill Ferguson, Vice President of Mobile, PayPal.

ENTERTAINMENT:

AOL Entertainment Hub – exclusive to Nokia Lumia for 6 months
Available exclusively to Nokia Lumia users at launch, AOL is set to introduce the AOL Entertainment Hub, bringing together the best of AOL’s content to deliver an immersive and inter-connected experience on Windows Phone. Whether you want to listen to one of 55,000 radio stations via SHOUTcast, stream free music albums with AOL’s Listening Party or view Trailers and Movie listings, the AOL Entertainment Hub delivers everything you need.

“The live tiles on Nokia Lumia helped us create an awesome app that makes it easy to stay in the know on what’s happening in Film, TV, Radio, Concerts and Music right from your home screen,” said Sol Lipman, Director of Mobile First products at AOL.

NEWS:

Time Magazine app for Windows Phone
Bringing the world’s largest weekly circulation to mobile, TIME.com announces the forthcoming availability of TIME for Windows Phone. Utilizing the stunning Windows Phone UI, the app will enable users to view TIME.com content, receive breaking news alerts, watch rich media content including video and share stories via the Windows Phone People Hub, while delivering the latest news and stories to users first via Live Tiles.

Newsweek – The Daily Beast app for Windows Phone
For a smart, speedy take on the news from around the world, combined with the depth and investigative power of Newsweek magazine, we are pleased to announce the availability of Newsweek’s digital partner The Daily Beast on Windows Phone. The Daily Beast app delivers the latest content through Live Tiles and combines the unique style of The Daily Beast with the Windows Phone UI to deliver a stunning experience. For users who only have minutes to digest the latest news, the app also delivers The Cheat Sheet – your one stop must have reads from across the world – uniquely designed for Windows Phone.

“We’re thrilled with how The Daily Beast app looks and works on the new Nokia Lumia smartphones and excited to be partnering with them as part of our robust mobile strategy,” said Daniel Blackman, Chief Digital Officer, Newsweek & The Daily Beast

PRODUCTIVITY:

Box app for Windows Phone
The new Windows Phone app from Box, the company focused on providing workers with simple, secure sharing from anywhere, will be available to Nokia Lumia consumers this Summer. With support for nine languages, Box for Windows Phone will enable users across the globe to browse, search and share files from their account.

“We’re committed to powering secure collaboration and content sharing for today’s workers across all platforms and devices,” said Matthew Self, VP of Platform Engineering at Box. “We believe that Windows Phone will play a meaningful role in enhancing mobile productivity across businesses of all sizes, and we’re excited to work with Nokia to bring an unparalleled experience for both users and IT to its Lumia smartphones.”

First of all: I am fully aware that Microsoft’s MVPs are not entitled to speak on behalf of the company. However, tradition tells us that MVPs tend to stay in line with corporate, as they do want to be re-nominated to keep getting the (significant material) benefits.

A German MVP in the XNA segment has now aired some interesting statements on his German blog (here). Given that we have an abundance of German speakers on team, here is the most interesting stuff he had to say.

He starts out by analyzing the financial situation of Nokia, which, well, is not too good – the firm has lost 1.34 billion Euros in 2011. This, however, already includes a payment from Nokia.

Here, the German text first:

Davon sind in 2011 bereits 0.180 Milliarden Euro geflossen (für 1 Million verkaufte Nokia Lumia 800).

In this number, a payoff from Microsoft is already included. MS paid Nokia 0.18 billion Euros for the one million Lumia devices sold.

He then goes on to explain why Android would be a less sensible choice:

Sollte Nokia es 2012 schaffen 10 Millionen Windows Phones umzusetzen, was durchaus schaffbar sein sollte, dann bekommen sie von Microsoft die Restzahlung von 1.8 Milliarden Euro und sparen auch noch mal 100 Millionen an Lizenzgebühren für einen entsprechenden Android-Absatz ein

Should Microsoft be able to sell 10 million WP7 devices in 2012, they would get an additional 1.8 billion Euros from Nokia. In addition to that, they would also save 100 million USD of license fees Android licensees must pay to Microsoft.

He has a nice extra bit of financials which we cannot quote here as we would be over the legal limit for quote lengths – find out more here:
http://mitohnehaare.de/2012/04/30/android-lumia-nokias-rettung/
===>Translated by Google Translate

It is difficult not to notice the raise of smartphone games – what started with a few 8bit sprites, now endangers classic mobile gaming consoles.

ComScore has now sent out the following table – in some countries, more than 50% of all smartphone users use games at least once a month:

Frequency of Smartphone Users Playing Games on their Devices
3 Month Average Ending February 2012
Total EU5 (FR, DE, IT, ES and UK), Age 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens
  Penetration (%) of Smartphone Users Playing Games
EU5 France Germany Italy Spain UK
Almost every day 11.5% 7.4% 11.8% 10.0% 10.4% 16.4%
At least once each week 14.3% 9.7% 14.2% 13.8% 13.5% 18.8%
Once to three times throughout the month 15.9% 10.1% 16.2% 17.9% 17.8% 17.2%
Ever in month 41.7% 27.2% 42.1% 41.8% 41.6% 52.4%

In addition to that, we were also provided some data on the use of social features integrated into the games:

Smartphone Social Gaming Activities*
3 Month Average Ending February 2012
Total EU5 (DE, ES, FR, IT and UK) Smartphone Gaming Audience Age 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens
Penetration (%) of Smartphone Gamers
EU5 France Germany Italy Spain UK
Logged in via Email or Facebook 13.2% 13.1% 11.7% 15.5% 10.8% 14.2%
Played with other people 9.1% 8.6% 7.5% 9.4% 11.0% 9.1%
Invited friend to play 6.7% 5.6% 7.3% 8.2% 7.3% 5.4%
Shared score on leaderboard 7.6% 9.9% 9.3% 9.0% 7.0% 5.1%
Used chat 3.0% 2.8% 2.5% 3.2% 3.9% 2.7%
Sent/received gift 2.2% 1.9% 2.5% 2.7% 2.1% 1.7%

In addition to that, we also get the now-usual “usage metrics”:

Mobile Benchmark Data for the European Market
3 Month Avg. Ending February 2012
Total EU5 (DE, ES, FR, IT and UK), Age 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens
Penetration (%) of Mobile Subscribers
EU5 France Germany Italy Spain UK
Used Smartphone 46.9% 43.3% 40.1% 45.4% 53.9% 54.7%
Used Application (excl. pre-installed) 40.8% 36.6% 36.2% 35.4% 45.8% 52.0%
Used browser 40.5% 39.0% 33.8% 35.5% 43.7% 52.6%
Played games 29.1% 17.4% 27.0% 32.7% 32.3% 37.0%
Sent text message 84.3% 86.9% 80.0% 81.5% 80.9% 92.1%
Listened to music 28.1% 24.7% 27.8% 25.5% 36.5% 28.3%
Accessed Social Networking Site or Blog 27.6% 24.3% 21.3% 24.3% 30.3% 39.3%

Not much to add here…

When it comes to press releases in the mobile space, the trigger events tend to be pretty clear: release, update and one million downloads. However, it can also make perfect sense to tie in with real-world events.

A company called BuddyCalc has now sent out the following release, mocking a recent US Government scandal:

Hookergate is obviously not an ‘event’ we would necessarily want to link to our Apple iPhone/iPad app ‘BuddyCalc’, but in this case it could have been a smart move to use BuddyCalc PRO in order to avoid any discussions afterwards over who paid what and who owes whom how much! BuddyCalc PRO handles cost sharing events, keeps track of expenses and makes dividing up costs between your friends easy. You can even allocate cost items to individuals if you do not want to share these specific expenses.

Brussels, Belgium – BuddyCalc PRO, released in January 2012 and last updated on 21 March, handles cost sharing events, keeps track of expenses and makes complex calculations among friends a thing of the past. Its little sister App, BuddyCalc Free with a 5 star rating in the App Store, can be used for simple cost-sharing calculations among friends and handles one event at the time.

Even though such a release is unlikely to ever run on a mobile computing news site, it has a realistic potential to be picked up by larger news media.

So, why not take a stab next time?

From the days of the Palm, one rule was very clear for mobile developers: speak badly about the OS vendor, and bleed. Due to this, comparative information on marketplaces is difficult to come by – for example, Tamoggemon had to stop its monthly Ovi reports at Nokia’s request.

TinyCo, the developer of a mobile game, has now provided the following diagram comparing the average revenue per user across Android and iPhone:
tinyvillage infographic Amazon vs Google Play vs iTunes   the ARPU battle

In addition to that, the following statement came along:

A chart-topping game on all three app stores, Tiny Village on Google Play has an Average Revenue per User (ARPU) of 65% of Tiny Village on iTunes, a number which increases to 82% when only smartphone users are compared. When comparing iTunes to Amazon, Tiny Village’s Amazon Appstore ARPU is 80% higher that of iTunes, and examining just tablets, the Kindle ARPU is 43% higher than the iPad. Contrary to popular belief, TinyCo has shown that social mobile games for the Android platform can have ARPU amounts that match and sometimes exceed the same title on iOS.

Additional notes: iTunes and Google Play show a similar Average Revenue per Paying User (ARPPU) for the game – the differentiating factor between the two stores is the percentage of people who pay. However, this percentage is predicted to shrink as more users enter their credit card information. Moreover, the title’s Amazon ARPU will further increase as IAP packages greater than $20 are introduced to the game.

Of course, this is but an individual developer – but it nevertheless is very interesting to read…

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