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Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Tablet Sales Forecast Upgraded for Faster Growth

June 18, 2012 by 1 Comment

Judge reverses course in Apple/Motorola Patent battle
Just a week after saying that he planned to dismissed the case Judge Richard Posner has ordered an injunction hearing in one of the patent lawsuits that Apple has against Motorola Mobility. The hearing is scheduled for this Wednesday and will enable both sides to argue why he should issue an order barring the other from using their respective patents.

IDC predicts strong tablet demand-Apple to benefit
Market research company IDC has said that it expects that demand for tablets will increase over the second half of this year and has upgraded its forecast from 106.1 million units sold worldwide to 107.4 million, eweek reported.

For 2013 IDC predicted that 142.8 million will be sold, up from its previous forecast of 137.4 and by 2016 it expects that 221.6 million will be sold. Apple’s iPad is expected to own 62.5% of the market this year, up from 58.2% last year. Android is expected to drop from last years’ 38.7% to 36.5% this year.

Facebook points finger at NASDAQ
After the calamitous IPO day and the resulting rash of lawsuits by traders that had issues with buying and selling at the opening of the market, Facebook has responded to the suits by seeking to consolidate them into a single case and by placing the blame on NASDAQ, Mashable reports.

The 30 minute delay in trading due to a software glitch at the opening of the market has been the source of much talk, and legal action. Facebook has requested that six class action lawsuits be combined and heard in the Southern District of New York to streamline proceedings. In addition it said that the 30 minute delay was due entirely to a flaw in the software used by NASDAQ.

US teams with private partners to build ultrafast broadband network
A new public/private effort that will combine corporation, higher education, non-profits and the US government is seeking to develop very high speed broadband networks that will be situated in a number of communities around the country.

The goal of the program, which is called US Ignite, is to enable developer to have a test bed to create new technologies and applications for use in these newer, faster networks that can achieve speeds of 1 gigabit per second.

The program combines the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Science Foundation, and the GENI Program Office, seeks to roll out the networks in 35 cities within the next six years.

YouTube-Your next cable channel?
We have already reported that YouTube is seeking to create a range of premium video channels, including some sports focused ones, and now it looks as if the site is seeking to expand further into the entertainment business.

The company said last week that it is investigating the possibility of working with cable companies and charging for content that the providers might be seeking to broadcast via other methods in an effort to grow their viewership. YouTube noted that noting is finalized at this time.

Apple patent hints at future iPhone features.
A patent that has been filed by Apple, as noted by PCMag and others shows a smartphone that has a swappable camera lens. The phone would have a replaceable back panel that could be swapped out for one with a different lens allowing for increased options for photographers.

Ebook sales roar past hardcover
Net sales for ebooks has surpassed that of traditionally printed books for the first time, according to a report released by the Association of American Publishers and noted in Mashable. The report covered the first quarter of this year and excluded children’s books.

Ebooks accounted for $282.3 million in that time frame while hardcover books reached a total of $229.6 million. More notably was that ebook sales increased 28.4% over the same period last year while hard cover increased only 2.7%.

Sony gets Ice Cream Sandwich for its Tablet P
Sony has finally upgraded its clamshell Sony Tablet P platform, a device that features a screen that can be used as a single or dual screen display. The software upgrade to the latest available for Android devices has been expected for some time.

ARM preps low cost tablet chip
While Android tablets sales have not met with expectations and continue to lose share to Apple’s iPad, chip developer ARM is preparing a new front in the battle with the development of its Mali platform that is expected to enable the development of lower cost tablets.

ARM does not sell its chips directly to tablet OEMs but rather to developers’ such as Broadcom and others that then create the final processors that go into the tablets, as well as a range of other products including smartphones.

According to Computerworld the Mali-450 family will include the ability to develop eight cores and have double the processing power of the Mali-400 line. The dirt products using the technology are expected in the first half of 2013.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, Facebook, iPhone, Lawsuit, Mashable, Microsoft, Motorola, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

Intel Predicts a Wave of Windows 8 Tablets with Intel Inside

June 7, 2012 by 2 Comments

Intel started talking about a potential major move in the tablet space at January’s Consumer Electronics Show when CEO Paul Otellini took the stage for his keynote, but most of the hype that day was centered around its ultrabook slim form notebooks.

Now fast forward several months and a half a world away and the company is making some bold pronouncements in the tablet space at the Computex show in Taipei and the center of attention is on tablets, specifically ones powered by Intel’s Atom Z2760 chips that were formerly code-named Clover Trail.

According to IDG, Intel said that its OEM partners have a total of 20 tablets in the labs and in various stages of completion that are based on its processor. The big beneficiary of this, aside from Intel of course, appears to be Microsoft and its forthcoming Windows 8 operating systems that is expected sometime in the fall. Intel has had other offerings in this space but they have been a non-factor so far.

Acceptance of these tablets will be important for Intel because Windows 8 will also be designed to run on ARM-based processors and these chips now dominate the non-Apple side of the tablet market. There is expected to be compatibility issues with older Windows apps on ARM, however.

Next week we will deliver a wrap up of the tablets that were unveiled at the show this week and it looks like there are some interesting ones including hybrids, ones for Android and some of the first Windows 8 offerings.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, Intel, Microsoft, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: , ,

Fujitsu updates its Stylistic Tablet lineup

May 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Fujitsu will be delivering its latest tablet sometime in the next few weeks, called the Stylistic M532, and it is not targeting the consumer but rather the mobile professional with the lightweight 10-inch device, a move that to a degree sets it apart from most of its rivals.

When you look at the company’s page touting the device the business approach screams out at you. Rather than a full deck of speeds and feeds, which are present, it talks about the tablets ability to support a company’s Virtual Desktop Infrastructure for secure access to apps. It points out how corporate apps such as exchange mail, calendar and contacts can be used safely while remaining behind corporate firewalls.

This is a refreshing approach and it should be helped by the fact that this is not a repositioning of an older machine, it uses Android’s 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) operating system and is powered by an Nvidia quad-core 1.4GHz Tegra 3.

It features a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 display and has a 2 megapixel front camera as well as a 8 MP backward facing camera. It has 1GB of memory as well as a 32GB flash internal storage drive and supports one MicroSD slot

Many of the players in the tablet space appear to be making headway into the corporate and government space simply via a semi stealth approach. Employees bring in their own devices (BYOD) and rather than set limits or demand uniformity in platforms the BYOD approach appears to be working.

Cisco was one of the first to take a different approach, trying to position its Cius tablet as a business product and selling directly to professionals through its business channel partners. This approach, and possibly its high price point, failed to catch on and now the company is ramping down the product.

According to a piece on ZDNet, Fujitsu is positioning its slightly older Stylistic Q550 offering, a tablet that runs Windows 7, at the BYOD space, enabling it to approach this market from a personal and corporate position at the same time. In addition it looks to have a new lineup in the fall when Microsoft releases Windows 8.

While we do not focus on the corporate segments of the tablet market this strategy is an interesting one since it seems that rather than an all-in-one approach that Apple takes or the specific niche market that the eReaders are developing, Fujitsu is building slightly different products for multiple segments and it will be enlightening to see how they are all accepted or what factors are inhibiting sales.

The benefit for consumers is that if they are looking for a tablet this might be the selling point to get work to pony up the cash and buy it for you, or at least get approval to being it in the office as work approved device.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Barnes & Noble, Cisco, Fujitsu, iPad, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Astrodome doomed, Apple Exec Knighted

May 25, 2012 by 2 Comments

Remember Michelle Wie, the precocious teen golfer that continually tried to crack the PGA, all without winning on the LPGA? (Well she actually did win her first title in 2009 but still…) Well she has now achieved something that is quite praiseworthy; she has graduated from Stanford University with an undergraduate degree in communications.

Hopefully she will go on and her career mirrors that other famous Stanford Golfer, Tiger Woods, at least with his success on the links.

Google rapidly makes changes at Motorola Mobility
Days after China finally gave its blessing to the $12.5 billion union between Google and Motorola Mobility changes have already started. Motorola’s chief executive officer Sanjay Jha is stepping down from that position and is being replaced by Dennis Woodside, according to a blog post from Google’s CEO Larry Page.

Woodside is a long-time Google executive and has held a number of positions at Google and his current title was Senior Vice President. There are now rumors that there will be layoffs at Motorola but so far Google has been mum on the topic.

Facebook Rage
There was an odd amount of glee when Facebook’s huge IPO did not experience a solid bump on its first day of trading, but now as it slowly sinks all week people are coming out of the woodwork with some solid complaints against the company and its underwriters.

I am sure that you have seen the growing anger as investors discover that the underwriters had reevaluated Facebook’s quarterly and yearly revenues downward, and had not filled in everybody involved. Or did they? Morgan Stanley said it has done nothing wrong but already at least one class action lawsuit has been filed and the SEC is looking into the issue.

The 8th Wonder of the World to go under Wrecking Ball
When the Houston Astrodome opened to glowing reviews in 1965 it was touted as the ‘8th Wonder of the World” but it is now an obsolete building slowly rotting away. Other hi-tech stadiums have outpaced it and simply having a dome over a field now has no cachet.

The city spends millions on upkeep for a building who’s tenants have fled and the cost of destruction has been pegged at $128 million, while renovation would cost between $400 million and $600 million In a city that already has two new stadiums, one for football and one for baseball it is hard to see how it can justify spending that much on the facility.

Apple exec is knighted
Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of industrial design is now Sir Jonathan Ive after having been made a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE). He was presented the honor by the Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace earlier this week. The award was in honor of his services in the area of design and enterprise.

After the ceremony Ive said that the current group of products that are currently under way at Apple will be the best yet that the company has released. Ive, who has a reputation for secrecy, did not elaborate.

No Expansion of replay for now in MLB
MLB commissioner Bud Selig, speaking at a sports and society conference at St. Norbert College said that he does not believe that baseball needs to expand video review of umpires’ calls, at least right now, according to ESPN.

Selig said that there has been very little pressure to do ao and that since adding additional areas to the existing replay would require approval from both the players and the umpires will not be considered until at least next year, with trapped balls and balls hit down the line will likely be the primary focus. I for one cannot remember when the last trapped ball controversy occurred-anybody recall one?

Google wins at Oracle trial
Any dreams Oracle may have had for a huge payday based on its claims in its patent and copyright trial with Google has not come to pass and the jury sided with Google that it did not infringe on Oracle’s patents.

According to a brief note in the San Francisco Chronicle the jury decision means that Oracle can only collect a maximum of $150,000 in damages. I wonder if that even covers the cost of the case for the company. I doubt it.

No new apps for Windows Phone 7.0
Microsoft Windows Phone users that have not upgraded their operating system from 7.0 to Windows 7.5 are not blocked from adding or upgrading apps on their phone using its Marketplace site. The company released 7.5 last fall.

Google’s Larry Page wears half a glass. Is he an optimist?
Google’s CEO Larry Page wore a pair of glasses (with only one lens) made to support the company’s Project Glass development in a video that was shared on a company web page. He talked about the glasses and did a demonstration with them.

He used the glasses to snap a photo which required using a physical button on the glasses but he was able to share it with a head gesture and a tap of the glasses. It will be interesting to see what features appear in the final project when it finally arrives, and how fast people will seek to ban their use when driving etc…

AMD prepares for tablet space
Digi Times is reporting that when Microsoft releases Windows 8 later this year the AMD plans to insert itself into the mix with a low powered processor that it has designed for this space. The company will have its Hondo processors available and will quickly refresh the lineup in 2013 with a new architecture in its Tamesh line.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Athlete to Follow, Facebook, Golf, Google, Lawsuit, Microsoft, Motorola, Tablets Tagged With: , , , ,

Will Nvidia’s Kai lead to Less Expensive Tablets?

May 24, 2012 by 1 Comment

At its annual shareholder meeting Nvidia showed a prototype Android tablet platform that it has code named Kai and that it is positioning as the basis, with its processors, for lower cost family of tablets.

The heart of the Kai tablet would be Nvidia’s Tegra-3 processor that the company seeks to leverage as the heart of a new line of Tablets that will have powerful processing and graphics capabilities but will rival Amazon’s Kindle in price rather than butt heads with Apple’s iPad at the high end.

Nvidia already has a head start in the tablet and smartphone space going forward as along with Microsoft it has been actively seeding hardware vendors with laptops that feature the chip in an effort to create an active ecosystem of apps prior to the release of Windows 8 later this year.

This appears to be taking that a step further. Its executives talked about how the processor, along with an ARM-based chip, could enable a generation of less expensive Android tablets and that its years of experience in this space of developing for Windows will serve it in good stead.

Of course so does rival Intel which is seeking to establish its Atom processor as at least part of any Windows Tablet ecosystem and while it can work with Nvidia it is also seeking to supplant ARM as the heart of these systems so how closely Nvidia is integrated with the various ARM chips out there could be an issue.

We at MSR support anything that will help grow the tablet market, and not because we secretly own stock in the companies involved. Currently I use my phone as a secondary screen quite often when watching sports, particularly football. When the price point drops enough I think I might have several, one just dedicated to sitting next to my remote control, unless I use it as a remote control as well.

I can see not only the second screen market but also as portable screens when visiting friends (in some cases) following outdoor sports and a variety of other uses. Since a household is likely to have more than one person it would make sense to have one dedicated for use in the TV room and another for a any other use that might occur.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, iPad, Kindle, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: HP is Back with New Tablets

May 14, 2012 by 4 Comments

Study finds that 74% of smartphone owners use location services
A report from the Princeton Survey Research Associates shows that 74% of smartphone owners use their device to get real time location-based information. The study also found that 18% used a geosocial service to check-in to locations.

With roughly half of all Americans using a smartphone this is very good news for companies that take advantage of the variety of services that provide information about local businesses such as Yelp.

Hewlett-Packard vows return to tablet market this year
PC World is reporting the Hewlett-Packard executives are touting the company’s imminent return to the tablet space, something that they said will occur later this year. It plans to so with models that will support the Windows 8 operating system from Microsoft.

It is expected that HP, along with other Windows 8 tablet developers will focus as much on the business market as the consumer space .The company famously left and then reentered the hardware market and the tablet space over the last year, highlighted by the failure of its TouchPad tablet with HP’s own operating system.

I suspect that we will start seeing a great deal more –preannounced intentions to use Windows 8 as the launch date gets closer and it could make for an interesting dog fight in the tablet space. Will Windows 8 be accepted, will it erode Android and Apple’s iOS appear? Or maybe just make inroads in one of the two rivals space? It is too early to tell but it will make for an interesting end of the year.


Do people share too much info on-line? Intel study says yes.
A recent study conducted by Ipsos Observer and sponsored by Intel on the dual topics of “Mobile Etiquette” and “Digital Sharing,” reaffirmed what I believe many feel intuitively, that 90% of Americans adults believe that online users are sharing too much information.

This is the third such survey conducted by Intel and had some interesting results including a total of 85% said that they share information online while one-third surveyed said they are more comfortable sharing information online than in person and half said that without mobile information they would not know what was happening with friends and family.

Slow Internet Connection top issue for mobile users
In a mobile survey conducted by Prosper Mobile Insights focused on smartphone and tablet users the top issue that is a cause for concern is slow Internet connections with 36.9% listing it as the top service provider issue. Others that rated highly in the complaint list were cost of data plan at 32% (that low?) and dropped calls at 24.1%. Head over and see where your pet peeves were ranked.

Facebook’s Instagram purchase could be delayed
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has started a competition probe into Facebook’s $1bn purchase of Instagram, a move that could push the deal beyond the second quarter and so cause some heartburn at Facebook. The probe was expected as it is usual for deals of this size; the issue is that t could take as long as 12 months and Facebook has been telling people at its IPO road show that it would close in the second quarter.

Microsoft gets delay in German court
Microsoft, already on the end of a major losing patent battle with Motorola Mobility had its current case delayed by a German court. This trial has to do with a different patent that Motorola claims that Microsoft has infringed on, in this case one that deals with two way communications devices.

Facebook updates data use rules
Facebook has update its data use policies about what it gathers from users of its popular social site and how it uses that information. The move was motivated by an audit performed last year by Irish data protection authorities, Facebook said.

New charge in Oracle vs Google
Oracle has managed to get back on the winning track last week in its copyright and patent infringement case against Google over use of the Java technology. Oracle’s request for a judgment as a matter of law regarding an additional eight files copies directly into Android’s code base was granted, giving Oracle an additional copyright infringement win against Google. However as with its first win it still needs the matter of ‘fair use’ to be resolved.

Le Pan now Matsunichi-New Tablets due
Matsunichi has eliminated the Le Pan named that it was using earlier this year and has self labeled its tablet offerings as it enters into the cost effective tablet market. The company now has the MarquisPad MP977, a 9.7-inch table that is powered by a dual core 1.2GHz processor from Texas Instruments.
The $249 device features a 1024 x 768 display and will use the Android 4.0 operating system. There is 4GB of storage if you include the microSD card, or 2GB internal without the card. It has a front facing VGA camera.

The company has an additional tablet in the works, the MarquisPad MP979 that will have a more powerful dual core 1.5GHz processor with 8GB of storage as well as an additional 2GB MicroSD card, and it supports up to 32GB. The 9.7-inch device will also have 1024 x 768 resolution.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Facebook, FTC, Google, iPad, iPhone, Lawsuit, Mashable, Microsoft, Motorola, Oracle, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , , ,
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