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Windows Phone Store: If you love it, express it!!!

Jun 122012

We believe it and so does the Windows Phone Gear store.

Microsoft has launched the brand new concept of “Wearing your heart out” for the madly-in-love Windows Phone users. With the launch of the official Windows Phone Gear store on CaféPress, now you can buy online goodies to express your love for the Windows Phone.

Let the world know your love the Microsoft way. From waving off your device and “Smoked by Windows phone” videos earlier to smoking the non- Windows user, by showing off some great Windows Phone gears.

The coffee mug, T-shirts, water bottle, thermos, drinking glass, magnets, stickers, tote bag with the “ I Heart Windows Phone” is all for grabs in the Windows Phone Gear Store.

Despite the limited selection of items, the most popular goodies already are the T-shirts (Available in all sizes for men, women and infants) and Coffee mugs. Microsoft will be adding more items to the list. You can order the gear from : http://www.cafepress.com/windowsphone

LG shuts the doors for Windows Phone Platform, keeps a window open for future

News No Responses »

May 012012

LG, not surprising to us, has decided to shut it’s doors for Windows Phone platform. The reason behind this is a less than respectable number of Windows Phone (and Windows Mobile) devices sold. The company, though, has sold a handsome number of Android powered devices, and hence has decided to focus more on Android, with Windows Phone being a research platform only.

The blogosphere is buzzing with reports that Steve Ballmer (The guy in the fist pic), will be visiting Korea sometime in the third week of may to remind LG of it’s pact and negotiate.

In 2009, at the GSMA MWC, LG and Microsoft had made a pact wherein LG would bring 26 Windows Phones to market in 2012 alone.

And it kept a small part of it’s promise by introducing several Windows Mobile handsets.

And Making a pomp about their dedication to the Windows Platform

But LG is known as an organization with a hedging strategy. They license every OS which attracts their attention. But at the same time, they are pretty quick to kill any OS that they can not milk.

Hence, as we mentioned in the beginning of the article, we are not surprised…!!!

Indiagames becomes the first developer to hit 100M downloads via Nokia Store, plans to spread out to Windows Phone ecosystem

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May 012012

Indiagames, a part of the Walt Disney Company, has become the first developer to hit the 100 million download mark in the Nokia Store.

Founder, and CEO, Vishal Gondal noted the success on the lower end devices which are transforming from featurephones into smarterphones

These phones are getting smarter and smarter, and you can’t really call them feature phones anymore.

He points at the complexities of a diverse market like India,

These are new users, and they are spread out across India in smaller cities and towns, and they’re responsible for 1/5 of a million downloads a day of games like Ra.One and Cricket.

While Indiagames is happy about being the numero uno, they look forward to repeat this success story on the Windows Phone Platform.

Windows Phone is a mature platform for developers. It offers a very different experience for users, and that’s why although we’re adapting some of our existing games, we’re also developing new games from the ground up.

Their new target – a billion downloads. We congratulate the developer on achieving this milestone.

S&P lowers Nokia’s credit rating

News No Responses »

May 012012

Adding more to the trouble of Nokia, Standard and Poor’s had lowered the credit ratings of the Finnish handset maker. It is the third agency to do so following Moody’s and Fitch Ratings. The credit ratings have been lowered to BBB- from BB+ for long term, and to B from A-3 for short term.

S&P thinks that

…the action reflects a downward revision of our expectations for revenues from Nokia’s Devices and Services division in 2012 and a subsequent revision of our profitability and cash flow assumptions.

While S&P was broadly positive about revenue growth from Nokia’s Lumia smartphone line, the growth of this is not offsetting the decline of its Symbian OS business.

It suggested that

..smartphone revenues in absolute terms could start rising by the end of 2012, contributing to a stabilization of revenues in the Devices and Services division toward the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013.

Another key factor to this downgrade is the position of Nokia in the low end devices market

We understand that Nokia intends to launch new devices to close the gap in this segment but we expect competition from manufacturers of low-price devices to intensify and we have slightly revised our volumes and price assumptions for the mobile phone operations.

Nokia responded to this by saying that they are in the process of implementation of transformation plan to stronghold it’s position in future. It is trying to accomplish lowering the company’s costs, improving cash flow and maintaining a strong financial position, while bringing attractive new products to market.

Though Nokia failed to mention if this strategy is a short term one or otherwise.

Bad luck Nokia, seems the ghost of Symbian has not ceased haunting you..!!

Windows Phone Tango, in brief

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Feb 292012

The much promised and similarly awaited Windows Phone Tango has been unveiled by Microsoft at the MWC.

Microsoft has lowered the hardware specs for Tango to smoothly run. The Windows Phone 7.5 now runs on Qualcomm 7×27 processors and 256MB of RAM, thus ushering a new era, ahem, for low end smartphones.

But this comes alonwwith some sacrifices at core level. SkyDrive automatic uploads and Bing Local Scout have both been removed from devices with 256MB of RAM. The reason behind this is that they stored a large amount of data in RAM, which is plainly not feasible on low RAM devices. Though 95 percent of existing applications will work fine on these devices, apps that use a lot of memory (aka badly programmed apps) will be slow and clunky on the updated platform. The multitasking feature is also to go down the gutter except for background audio.

But there is a silver lining to all this..!! The perk comes as an improved MMS which can now handle video and multiple images as well as a new voice notes feature to record one minute audio snippets.

you can get a hands on demo of the ZTE orbit running the Tango HERE.

Stay tuned for more..!!

Microsoft: Ready to tango with 120 languages

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Jan 312012

Microsoft has been localizing Windows and expanding its base since ages. A big leap to the effect is the Windows Phone Tango, made to support 120 languages. With it, Microsoft will be able to leapfrog the competition in this area.

According to a report from an Indian Developer: iOS supports 34 languages, Mango supports 35, Android supports 55 and Tango surpasses all with record crashing number: 120. A confirmation was made at the Windows Phone dev camp suggests that “the next version” will support native code; not sure Tango/ Apollo.

Tango and Nokia plan to conquer and rule the hearts in numerous markets that have not been served. The added benefit being the wider language coverage. Now all we have to do is: count the increasing number of distribution and sales.

Windows Phone advertising networks: A comparison

Development, Metrics Maid No Responses »

Jan 102012

Xeno bits, the developer for Windows Phone, took a look at in-app advertising on the platform. The comparison between Pubcenter, Inneractive and Smaato was made for the revenue from advertisement loaded within their app.

“Google’s AdMo received no attention and stood last among them due to issue with SDK”
“Smaato is best in terms of analytics with good SDK. Although it does not let you earn much”
“Inneractive tools are easy to use and solve issues through their technical support”
“The Pubcenter SDK is the best. Although the limited availability is as issue for many developers”

What’s interesting to note is how low eCPM is on the smaller networks.

Smaato reported just $0.075,
Inneractive at $0.2, while
Microsoft was at a reasonable $0.56

Although there have been several points of comparison. Yet, only you can decide the best for you.

Good luck!

Microsoft reassures WP7 users regarding updates

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Jan 102012

Microsoft had earlier stated that the updates for Windows Phones will depend on the carrier requests rather than user need for bug fixes, security and features. This created a ruckus among the Windows Phone 7 users. Mary Jo Foley denied the statement and assured the worried folks.

Greg Sullivan, Senior Product Manager on Windows Phone maintained that:

“Nothing has changed in regard to how we work with carriers to deliver Windows Phone updates to our customers”.

He confirmed to Mary Jo Foley that if a carrier skips an update the next one will still include the fixes from the first. Mary was quick to note no change in the Microsoft policies and procedures to update and deliver to carriers and customers. She also pointed out the mysterious removal of “Where is my phone update” page.

But the bigger question was: If nothing has changed, why there is confusion due to poor communication by Microsoft before their major CES Nokia announcement?

Windows Phone interface beats iPhone interface, hailed as New world order

Editorials No Responses »

Nov 292011

When CNET got their hands on Windows Phone (Nokia Lumia 800 to be precise), they were simply awestruck by the balance the platform had to offer. The UI was, well, slick, but was a lot less clunky, as per CNET.

According to the article:

The king is dead

Until not so long ago, that meant Apple. But something insane has happened. Something that we simply wouldn’t have countenanced just three short years ago.

One company makes a beautiful, intuitive, elegant interface, and the other makes a dated, clunky interface. But now it’s Microsoft showing off the thing of beauty, and Apple that’s behind the times. Microsoft is the underdog and Apple is the monolithic, restrictive monopoly. Has the world gone mad?

Sure, the iPhone and iPad interface is still slick and simple. But the shine is gone — iOS 5 looks almost exactly the same as iOS 4. Android showed what you can do when you can truly customise the look and feel of your phone, with its flexible home screens, handy widgets placing information right at your fingertips, and the capacity to alter any feature you like.

I seem to recall an old story, when the only smartphone OS of the time, Symbian, was bashed by everyone. People wanted behemoths of phones. They worshipped a large screen and a powerful processor, only to realise that the duo would eat battery faster. They demanded an app store like no other, only to trial a few apps and then delete them and move on to the next.

Nokia was undeniably the game setter, Apple was the game changer, Android was the turmoil that uprooted everyone, and yet RIM et al were wondering what just happened. This proves the age old proverb – The only thing which is constant is change.

Source

Apple still leads when it comes to mobile loyalty, followed by Android and RIM

Metrics Maid No Responses »

Nov 262011

Apple surely has a brand loyalty that every CEO yearns for. According to a research published by GfK,

Some 84 percent of iPhone users said they would pick iPhone also when they replace their cellphone, while 60 percent of consumers who use smartphones running Google’s Android said they would stick with phones using the same software.

Only 48 percent of people using Research In Motion’s cellphones said they would stay loyal to their BlackBerrys, the study showed.

While Apple is the leader at present, the current development on Android, RIM’s BBX and Windows Phones from Nokia are all set to give Apple a tough challenge, according to the report.

The scope for brands to lure customers from rivals has diminished and the richest rewards will go to those providers that can create the most harmonious user experience and develop this brand loyalty

What is noteworthy here that 70 percent of consumers said they would stick with their phones due to their seamless integration of features and access to content. The present and future undoubtedly belongs to the Apps and Internet.

Though the firm interviewed around 4500 people in various countries, it never mentions anything about Symbian or Windows Phones. This is quite surprising as a certain percentage of these 4500 people must be carrying Symbian and Windows phones, which the report fails to mention.

Source

Nokia applies to delist from Frankfurt bourse

News 1 Response »

Nov 242011

Nokia has applied to delist itself from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The reason it has given is quite laughable – decreased sales volumes of stock as people loose interest in selling the stock. Elop and the Microsoft gang are singing songs about the success of the new Window Phones. But if that was the case, why does Nokia think itself as vulnerable in Germany?

Anyways, this delisting is the fourth time Nokia has delisted from a European Stock exchange, earlier being London (2003), Paris (2004) and Stockholm (2007).

According to the press release by Nokia

Nokia Corporation
Stock exchange release
November 24, 2011 at 09.00 (CET+1)

Espoo, Finland – Nokia has decided to apply for the delisting of Nokia’s shares from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange due to the decreased trading volumes of Nokia shares at the exchange. The application for the delisting will be made to the Management Board of Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Subject to approval, the final day of trading of Nokia shares on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is estimated to be during the first half of 2012.

Nokia’s trading volumes on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange have decreased during the years and currently represent only a small percentage of the total global trading volumes of the Nokia share. In 2003, 2004 and 2007 Nokia delisted from the stock exchanges in London, Paris and Stockholm respectively. Nokia shares will continue to be traded within the Eurozone on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Stock Exchange and in the United States in the form of American Depositary Shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

We must not forget that the stock value of Nokia has halved since Nokia decided to kill Symbian in favor of Windows Phones.

Nokia Lumia gets a mild start, tablets announcement might be imminent

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Nov 182011

Nokia’s flagship phone, the Lumia, has received a mild start. With pre-orders in the EU falling a lot short of the iPhone, and even the high end Android phones, Nokia has failed to gain a head start it had expected from it’s first bath of Windows Phone powered smartphones.

According to Financial Times, Orange said it was the most successful Nokia launch ever and had been popular in pre-orders.

In an interview, Stephen Elop said

We are interested first and foremost about volume. Our highest priority is to help Windows Phones to compete with Android. This is the first showcase product.

…You see us pricing the devices so that that we can get what we think will be a good volume…

What a nice strategy Stephen, rather than eyeing for the top spot, you want to be content with the second position.

Also, there are reports about Nokia launching tablets running Windows 8 in June next year. Despite having the most powerful platform named MeeGo out there, Nokia decided to drop it for an untested Windows8 (coincidentally, I tried the developer preview and it is not that great).

Elop said that

It is clearly a very interesting opportunity

We need no proof of Elop handling “interesting opportunities” well, a historically factual example quoted above.

We have to see if Windows Phones made by Nokia bring up the mojo or will they be recorded in the annals of history as the biggest failure in the history of Finland. Only time will tell

Nokia Maps hacked and made available for all Windows Phones

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Nov 092011

XDA Developers, the same guys who bring out great hacks and mods to the smartphone world have done it again. They have made a small XAP file available for download which, purportedly, enables all Windows Phone users (with hacked phones) to sideload and enjoy the Maps application.

According to the post at XDA developers , member bobzero writes

Nokia_Maps_v0.8.0.0.xap

http://www.multiupload.com/DUG195PME3

help out nokia and join the feedback program when it asks you the first time it starts up.

cheers

Like a good hacker, bobzero ha urged people to be part of the feedback program. Though the Maps application would be officially available for all Windows Phones at the Marketplace soon, this application is for those who can not wait.

We still don’t know if this app comes with the Nokia Drive (which was meant for Nokia Windows Phones only) or not.

Stay tuned…!!

All Windows Phones to get Nokia Maps, only Nokia phones will get Voice Navigation

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Nov 032011

Windows phone users rejoice. You will soon be getting a free app in the Windows Marketplace, known as Nokia Maps.

The maps will come as agreed terms where Nokia would be giving some of it’s goodies to non Nokia Windows Phone users.

According to ZDNet

This version of Nokia Maps will NOT support offline maps or voice guided navigation, but does have the following features:

Local POI details (provides you location, phone number, reviews, and photos of up to 25 locations in your vicinity)

Deep link support (you can pin destinations to the Start screen)

Detailed maps in satellite, 2D, and 3D views

So the voice guided navigation would be exclusive to Nokia Phones, but the universally acclaimed Nokia Maps can be downloaded and used by any Windows Phone user, irrespective of the device on which the maps are being installed.

ST-Ericsson’s chips will power Nokia’s Windows Phone devices, Qualcomm’s monopoly towards an end

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Nov 022011

Well, it’s official. Nokia has chosen ST-Ericsson as the Dual core processor supplier for its Windows Phones. The monopolistic Qualcomm will now not be the only supplier of chips, and ST-Ericsson’s ARM-based U9500, U8500, and U5500 dual-core CPUs, built on the NovaThor platform, will power future Nokia Windows Phones.

According to a press release by Nokia

NOKIA SELECTS ST-ERICSSON AS SUPPLIER FOR FUTURE WINDOWS PHONE DEVICES

November 02, 2011

NovaThor™ platform to enable Nokia to extend Windows Phone devices to new price points and geographies

Geneva, Switzerland, November 2, 2011 – Nokia has selected ST-Ericsson as a supplier for future devices it plans to introduce based on the Windows Phone mobile platform.

"We are pleased to have been selected by Nokia as a key partner for Windows smartphones, in line with our goal to be present in all segments and major operating systems," said Gilles Delfassy, president and CEO of ST-Ericsson. "Our NovaThor platforms continue to gain traction as they enable customers to bring great smartphones to the market."

That makes it pretty straight, now since competition is there, we will definitely see some pretty beefy chips coming up in the near future.

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