There are a lot of blogs and articles making a big deal about the screen sizes of new phones. There is a continuous trend of screen sizes getting bigger because generally it is a case of bigger is better. The only problem is with how the phone fits into smaller hands. But is 4.8" all that much larger? Many people are wrongly comparing it to 4.3" screens. 4.3" screens are mostly aligned with Android 2.3 and silk-screened buttons. Phones designed for Android 4.0 have screens that extend into where the silk-screened buttons used to be. This was first seen with the Galaxy Nexus (4.65") which is not all that different in size from an older device with a 4.3" screen.
So a 4.8" screen should really be compared to a 4.65" screen (which maintained the same general size as the older 4.3" screens + silk screened area). The 4.8" screen is just a little bit larger than the 4.65" screen. It's not drastic.
At present, Europe leads the world in terms of the number of smart meters deployed (ABI Research estimates that almost 46 million units had been deployed across the region by the end of 2011). However, the vast potential of the market is still nowhere near close to being fully exploited. In fact, if you take Italy and the Scandinavian countries out of the equation, the combined installed base of the remainder of the continent is only around 5 million units. That said, activity is beginning to ramp up in some of the major markets such as Spain and the UK.Let's take a quick look at how UK-based utilities are shaping up to meet the government’s ambitious plans to have all business and residential electricity and gas meters converted to smart meters by 2020.
At last week’s M2M World Congress in London,itemerged that British Gas has so far installed around 400,000 smart meters across the UK.Around half of these were located at its small and medium-sized enterprise sites, with the other half located in customer's homes. By the end of 2012,the companyaims tohaveincreasedthe total number of smart meters deployed to around 2 million.Deployment partners include: Vodafone, which is providing GPRS connectivity to metersthat log readings on a half-hourly basis and transmit information back to the utility every 24 hours;Trilliant, which has developed the communications hub and management software for the solution; as well as Landis+Gyr and Elster – both of whom have been selected as preferred providers of smart meters.
E.ON UKis another utility that ismoving past the pilot phase and starting to deploy smart meters in larger numbers. The company recently announced that it will roll out up to 100,000 units in 2012, followed by a further 200,000 in 2013 on top of the 100,000 it already has in the field. By 2014, it plans to have installed 1 million smart meters nationwide. Like British Gas,E.ON has chosen Elster asthe provider of its smart meters.
Late Sunday The Financial Times ran a story headlined “Google Warns Over Mobile Payments” http://on.ft.com/JaMG1D . The lead paragraph reads “Google and PayPal have sounded the alarm in Brussels over a proposed joint venture between Britain’s biggest mobile phone operators, warning it could choke the fast-developing mobile payments market.” The media will be sure to make a big stink over this apparent aggression.
On April 26th the National Retail Federation told the Federal Trade Commission to stay out of mobile payments http://bit.ly/JxG0uv . They gave several lucid reasons for doing so:
The hotly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S3 will be launched on May 3 at Earls Court (exhibition center) in London. The new smartphone has generated quite a stir in the mobile industry after the great success of Samsung's last model, the Galaxy S2. Many people believe the S3 will only have a few minor adjustments and upgrades from S2; however, opinions differ greatly. In this ABI Insight, let's looks at some of the news and rumors about this new smartphone.
- The screen size is anticipated to increase from the SII's 4.3-inch screen to between 4.6 and 4.8 inches and using HD in 1080p. Additionally, the screen's pixel density is projected to increase from the S2's 217 pixels per inch (PPI) to 312 PPI.
- People in the 4.6 inch-screen camp believe that the overall device size may not increase. Instead, they assume that Samsung will introduce an "edgeless" design.
- The new smartphone will have a ceramic or metal case (possibly a brushed blue metal) instead of a plastic case.
- It's generally anticipated the primary camera will increase from 8 megapixels to 12 or 16 megapixels. Not so clear is whether the front facing camera will increase from 1.3 megapixels to 2 megapixels.
- Speculation about wireless charging and a stylus for sketching and handwriting similar to the one on the Samsung Galaxy Note has been bounced around, but I am unsure on these features. I think Samsung may want to try and keep some differentiating features between the Note and the latest Galaxy.
- Delving into the hardware specifications, speculation is that the new smartphone will contain a quad-core processor. The HTC One X, LG Optimus 4X HD, and Huawei Ascend D1 all have quad-core processors and Samsung will receive significant criticism if its new S3 doesn't have the same processing performance.
- Afrequently mentioned feature is contactless payment technology (NFC). The Samsung Galaxy S3 will be the official London Olympic phone and the company will be making phones for the Olympics. Visa, another partner for the London games, has been seriously pushing contactless payment on consumers. Could this also be an opportunity to highlight NFC's ability to link and log into locations and tags?
HTC’s total revenues for Q1 2012 were $2.3 billion (67.8 billion New Taiwan Dollars), dropping by 33.2% from the previous quarter, and declining 34.9% from Q1 2011. The Taiwanese company’s gross margin was 25.03% and operating margin 7.53%; again, both financial ratios declined from the previous quarters by 2.09% and 5.18%, respectively. Additionally, HTC’s market share in the US has suffered greatly at the hands of Apple’s iPhone 4S and HTC’s CEO, Peter Chou, believes it will be impossible for HTC to dominate the US market in the near-term future.
HTC have stated several reasons for its revenue declines. First, the company is transitioning between different product cycles. Second, it has changed its strategy focus from Q1 2011 due to the rapidly changing competitive environment and this has also affected it operations and thus revenues. Chou also mentioned a number of errors in HTC’s strategic leadership, however, he declined to clarify during the Q1 2012 financial quarter call, where and who were making these mistakes. A major concern for HTC is its profit margins, although revenues fell by 35% from last year’s previous quarter, the company’s net income after tax dropped by 70%. HTC is projecting to generate $3.5 billion (105 billion New Taiwan Dollars) in the next quarter and its gross margin and operating margin should be approximately 27% and 11%, respectively.
HTC released its new One series in February atMobile World Congress, and so far, the new smartphone has received a number of positive reviews. The new model follows on from the HTC Sensation services. The HTC One X has a 4.7 inch touch screen display and contains quite a lot of impressive kit, including a 1.5 GHz quad processor. ABI Research recently included it in a recent reporton hybrid smartphones/tablets and super smartphones. The HTC One series will be released in China this week and the firm also released the HTC J in Japan via the Japanese network carrier, KDDI.
Interestingly, HTC declared, during its financial Q1 2012 call, that it would still place equal focus and effort on Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system. Peter Chou believes HTC has had a long and special relationship with Microsoft and the new Windows Phone 8 is going to present a very good opportunity for HTC. This may sound very strange considering the increasing popularity of Google’s mobile operating systems globally; however, I suppose these are the types of statements CEOs need to make to keep both firms happy.
I’ve been a happy user of a Samsung Galaxy S phone since 10/19/12 (or so T-Mobile tells me). I’m a heavy and regular user of productivity apps, including Gmail, Outlook, Google Reader, the web browser, and Google Maps. I’ve had my share of fun with some games, including Angry Birds, Doodle Jump, Plants vs. Zombies and even Drag Racing (why, I don’t know). My kids (3 & 5) love to pry it from my hands to watch the Cat in the Hat, color with Zebra Paint, do puzzles, play Chuzzle, etc. As a TV & Video analyst, I’ve tested and/or used a number of video applications on my phone, including Netflix, HBO Go (far and away the best UI and experience), Cox Connect to program my mom’s DVR (ugh! In so many ways) as well as sideloaded some movies from DVD and/or Digital Copy onto it – not to mention watching the pre-installed Avatar on it while stuck in the car for too long.
Now, there is absolutely nothing I need about Ice Cream Sandwich. Sure, some of the improved UI might take a few less keystrokes to do some common things. But all in all, the biggest thing I’d want out of a new phone is a faster processor (my phone gets laggy in processing keypresses if I’ve been doing too much on it and/or haven’t rebooted it in a few days) as well as 4G speeds (for tethering and responsiveness when loading up the news). So -- T-Mobile tells me that I’ll soon (4 months) be eligible for the “lowest upgrade price” on new phones – having had my phone for 22 months. The only thing more frustrating that a 2 year wait for a new phone with all the whiz-bang features is waiting for a refresh on your Cable DVR – that’s totally out of your control!
Datawind, popularly known for its association with the Indian government’s Aakash project, unveiled two new tablets Ubislate7+ and Ubislate7C in New Delhi yesterday for open market sale, competing against several other low cost tablets available in the Indian market. These tablets are upgraded versions of the previously offered “Aakash” (Ubislate 7) tablet. The two new tablets have almost similar specifications and differ only in terms of display type and internal storage capacity. Key specifications include 7” display, Android 2.3 Operating system, Cortex A8 800 MHz processor, 256 MB RAM, Wi-Fi and GPRS connectivity, micro-SD card slot and USB port. The 3200 mAh battery is a big improvement from the 2100 mAh battery in its earlier offering. The devices also support voice calls and 3G connectivity can be supported via external dongles.
Ubislate7+ comes with a resistive display and 2GB internal storage, expandable to 32 GB and has been priced at INR 2999 ($60), whereas Ubislate7C has a capacitive screen and 4GB internal storage and is priced at INR 3999($80). With under $80 price point for these tablets, Datawind has maintained its differentiating factor of being one of the lowest priced tablets in the market. For internet access, Datawind has partnered with Aircel to offer a GPRS based internet plan, priced at INR 98($2) per month for 2GB. Currently, only Ubislate7+ is available for pre-order with Ubislate7C being available towards May-end.
The previous version of Ubislate (Aakash) was reported to have performance and quality related issues, so it remains to be seen if Datawind has been able to tackle those successfully in this version. Also, given the unprecedented pre-orders (about3 million as per Datawind) for these tablets and Datawind’s on-going issues with its supplier, it would be a challenge to fulfil these orders within the stipulated time and there might be unwanted delays before the devices get into the hands of consumers.
As part of their new "One Series" line of smartphones, the HTC One X is getting a lot of publicity since its recent launch. The latest release in this series, the HTC One S should gain much more attention for what's under the hood. The One X has components we have seen in prior phones but the One S sports the very first 28nm S4 chipset from Qualcomm, the MSM8260A. The MSM8260A comes in33% smaller than its older sibling, the MSM8260, but it contains more power in that smaller size. The One X will not be forgotten though. ABI Research expects that when it hits the USA shortly, it will also contain a 28nm chip from Qualcomm. This chip has the same application processor capability but adds LTE compatibility to the modem.
See an initial photo of the new chip – taken direct from our teardown – below. Clients can access some information on the myABI client site now, with additional information expected in the next day or so.
