Amazon is reportedly developing a smartphone aimed at competing with Apple’s iPhone and Android devices.
Sources say Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Foxconn will work with Amazon. Additionally, Amazon is acquiring wireless technology patents. The sources do not mention what operating system Amazon plans to use to run the device.
“A smartphone would give Amazon a wider range of low-priced hardware devices that bolster its strategy of making money from digital books, songs and movies,” suggests Bloomberg.
“It would help Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos — who made a foray into tablets with the Kindle Fire — carve out a slice of the market for advanced wireless handsets,” notes the article.
In a related Bloomberg TV video interview, analyst Victor Anthony suggests the move is not necessarily about competing with leaders such as Samsung and Apple, but rather to provide a thin-margin device like the Kindle Fire.
“I do think it’s the next logical step for Amazon to follow,” he says. “I think what they want to do is really come out with a device that will allow them to increase the number of Amazon Store touch points whereas consumers could actually buy digital media content, they could buy physical goods. I think that’s the focus for Amazon launching a smartphone.”
According to IDC, manufacturers shipped 398.4 million smartphones and other mobile devices worldwide in Q1 2012.
Japanese camera maker Olympus has announced yet another prototype for a glasses-mounted heads-up display. The company has been working on prototypes in this space since 2005 and has shown several augmented reality concept devices in the past, none of which made it to market.
“Dubbed MEG4.0, the display features Bluetooth connectivity for interfacing with smartphones and uses Olympus’ own ‘proprietary optical technology’ to maximize the visibility of the outside world,” reports The Verge. “Unlike Project Glass, however, Olympus’ device doesn’t appear to include a camera — an odd choice for a company built on imaging products.”
Features include: QVGA 320×240 display, up to eight hours of battery life, and built-in accelerometer. The small wearable display is designed to fit on most glasses.
“The HMD (Head Mounted Display) renders information using Olympus’ proprietary Pupil Division Optical System, which, according to Olympus, is bright enough to be seen outdoors without sacrificing battery life,” notes Wired in a related post.
For those interested in the development of augmented reality glasses, Wired published an overview in April describing six glasses with integrated displays currently available. The report — which details the Vuzix Star 1200, Recon Mod Live Alpine Goggles, Brother AiRScouter, Epson Moverio BT-100, Sony HMZ T1 and Silicon Micro Display ST1080 — includes images and videos.
In addition to a range of consumer-based products and services demonstrated at the recent Google I/O conference, the company announced some compelling solutions intended for enterprise customers.
“At the top of the list was the launch of Google Compute Engine, an infrastructure-as-a-service product that lets developers run their applications on Google’s high-performance servers,” reports CNNMoney.
“This is an area which is core to us, and we are making a deep, long investment here,” says Sundar Pichai, senior VP for Chrome and Apps. “We think for the long haul.”
“The company also unveiled a few business-friendly upgrades to Google Apps, like the ability to edit documents offline, and the availability of the Chrome browser on Apple iPhones and iPads,” notes the article.
Google now has an enterprise sales and marketing team that is focusing on an evolving market and the crossover of consumer and business.
The company says its Android operating system is showing signs of acceptance in the workplace and the majority of its Gmail customers are now small businesses (five million in the U.S.).
Google and the UK’s PRS for Music have released a new study entitled “The six business models for copyright infringement.”
The research, conducted by BAE Systems Detica, finds that live television is the fastest-growing segment of copyright infringement. “Global page views of live TV sites were up 61 percent for the year ending May 2012,” notes paidContent.
The other business models featured in the report include P2P Community, Subscription Community, Music Transaction, Rewarded Freemium and Embedded Streaming.
“This study provides data-driven insight into how copyright infringement operates as a business across a range of business models,” explains the executive summary. “It shows that websites are most commonly funded in part or in combination by either advertising or payments.”
“For each segment, this study helps to identify which are the significant economic drivers. This data is likely to prove useful and insightful to industry and policymakers who seek to tackle infringement by ‘following the money.'”
The report notes that live TV sites link to a mixture of illegal streams and paid television, with a third based in the U.S. Two-thirds of these Live TV Gateway sites are funded by advertisers. Additionally, they are more likely than the other business models mentioned above to have mobile sites and a significant social network presence.
“Our research shows there are many different business models for online infringement which can be tackled if we work together,” said Theo Bertram, Google’s UK policy manager. “The evidence suggests that one of the most effective ways to do this is to follow the money, targeting the advertisers who choose to make money from these sites and working with payment providers to ensure they know where their services are being used.”
The article includes a graphic from the study that offers an excellent overview of the different categories. The full report is available for download from PRS for Music.
Amazon’s Kindle Fire has been the strongest competitor to Apple’s iPad and Google’s slew of Android devices. Amazon may now take on Apple and Google in the area of 3D mapping with its purchase of UpNext.
Amazon purchased the New York-based 3D map developer for an undisclosed sum. “UpNext offers interactive, detailed three-dimensional maps of cities and venues,” according to GigaOM.
“Currently, Kindle Fire owners must use third-party apps or access Google Maps (or another service) through the Web browser,” reports VentureBeat. “We could see UpNext’s mapping platform show up on Amazon.com or see it integrated with Amazon’s mobile apps.”
The purchase will allow Amazon to move away from its reliance on Google Maps for its new line of Kindle Fire tablets. “The Kindle Fire doesn’t currently include a GPS radio but the UpNext acquisition, which would help Amazon offer native mapping capabilities, potentially points to a more robust Kindle Fire in the future, as well as an Amazon smartphone,” notes GigaOM.
The VentureBeat post features two videos demonstrating UpNext’s 3D maps on the iPhone and iPad.
Reports indicate that an issue with Apple’s App Store was causing problems for its users this week. According to CNET, “Marco Arment, the creator of Instapaper, reported…that he was ‘deluged’ earlier this week by users who had downloaded Instapaper 4.2.3 and found that upon opening it, the application ‘crashed immediately.'”
The issue continued to plague users even after uninstalling and reinstalling the app. Arment also suggested that he’d heard of other app developers having similar issues.
“Arment found that the problem was due to what he said was a corrupt update Apple distributed through its App Store. According to Arment, the update he sent over worked just fine, so he quickly complained to Apple about the issue. Within a couple of hours, a new, reliable update was distributed and the problem was addressed,” reports CNET.
“I haven’t yet received a response from App Review, so I don’t know whether the fix was because I made noise, or simply because time passed, which may, for instance, expire a cache with the bad data,” Arment wrote in a blog post. “The only fix for people with bad copies, once good copies are being served again by the App Store, is to delete and reinstall the app.”
TechCrunch reports that Apple is aware of the problem and has been working to resolve it. “The short of it is that corrupt app store binaries, and possibly some problem related to Apple’s FairPlay DRM, is at the root of these mysterious crashes,” notes the post.
Apple issued an update late last night: “We had a temporary issue that began yesterday with a server that generated DRM code for some apps being downloaded. The issue has been rectified and we don’t expect it to occur again.”
In a related report from International Business Times, Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab has reported an app named “Find and Call,” which it suggests is the first case of malware to enter Apple’s App Store. Reportedly also found in the Android Google Play store, the malware “steals your phonebook details and sends spam SMS messages to all your contacts, claiming to be from you,” explains the article.
Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) announced this week it would purchase cloud-streaming game provider Gaikai Inc. for approximately $380 million.
“Through the acquisition, SCE will establish a new cloud service, ensuring that it continues to provide users with truly innovative and immersive interactive entertainment experiences,” states the press release.
ReadWriteWeb suggests that the acquisition “could completely reshape the way Sony interacts with the lucrative gaming market.” The Gaikai network could allow users to access games without the need for a dedicated high-end game console.
“Users of the free, ad-supported Gaikai service can play top-of-the-line video games on pretty much any Web-enabled device — including desktop browsers, Internet TVs, tablets and smartphones,” notes the post. “Gaikai promises to deliver a low-latency experience in gameplay even on platforms not necessarily built for gaming.”
While Sony may be looking to expand possibilities in gaming content delivery, implications of the deal go beyond such an endeavor.
“Cloud streaming services such as Gaikai and remote desktop service Splashtop are fast becoming popular ways to deliver digital content across the Internet,” indicates ReadWriteWeb. “Sony’s acquisition of Gaikai clearly validates cloud streaming as a delivery method.”
According to a Facebook post from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, subscribers to the video streaming site viewed more than 1 billion hours of video last month, marking a new record for the company.
“Congrats to Ted Sarandos, and his amazing content licensing team,” wrote Hastings. “Netflix monthly viewing exceeded 1 billion hours for the first time ever in June. When ‘House of Cards’ and ‘Arrested Development’ debut, we’ll blow these records away. Keep going, Ted, we need even more!”
Netflix is still working to repair the damage done last year after splitting off its DVD-by-mail service. This new milestone may be the result of those efforts.
“Netflix ended the first quarter with more than 26 million subscribers worldwide, which was a new high for the company and more than 1.5 million above the number it had in the fourth quarter of last year,” reports TechCrunch. “More importantly, its subscribers are engaged and watching a ton of video on the service.”
After Hastings’ announcement, the company’s stock rose 6.2 percent, its largest gain since May 23, reports Bloomberg. In total, Netflix stock has risen 4 percent in 2012 so far.
Tech journalist Larry Magid comments on the current transition of physical to digital media (notably books, CDs, DVDs) and its potential impact from consumer and cultural perspectives.
He notes that a lack of shelves housing our physical media may take away a viewable history of our hobbies, interests and education.
“The loss of this visible manifestation of who we are may be of little consequence to most people, but it’s a loss worth noting,” he writes, adding that books, CDs and DVDs are becoming endangered species that will eventually become expensive luxury items.
Magid points out that this is not necessarily all bad, citing the multiple conveniences of e-books and digital storage of music and movies.
However, he makes an exception regarding his record collection: “I do have a soft spot for LPs. Some say they have a warmer sound, but what I mostly like about LPs is the covers and the ritual of carefully placing them on the turntable and lovingly returning them to their sleeves. And there is nothing like flipping through those old album covers for a trip down memory lane.”
“I do think there will come a time when we won’t easily be able judge a friend by his book covers, but somehow society will endure,” Magid concludes. “Maybe we’ll have to settle for talking to people to find out what interests them or, perhaps, someone will create ‘an app for that.'”
Sam Biddle offers a compelling commentary via Gizmodo that questions several of the announcements made during the recent Google I/O event, suggesting the company “revealed an unsettling lack of human understanding.”
“We’ve had privacy concerns before, but could it be more? Could it be that Google just doesn’t get real people?” asks Biddle.
The keynote featured some interesting products including the Glass wearable computer, smartphone system Google Now, the Nexus Q social media streamer, and new Google+ parties.
“But underneath each of these feats of technology you could see a hollow, lurching weirdness that makes you wonder: Who will use any of this stuff besides the actors in Google’s promo videos?” he asks.
Google is indeed ambitious and its motives seem genuine in its efforts to make our lives better through technology.
However, Biddle questions whether Google, despite its intentions, is effectively focusing on today’s average consumers: “There isn’t any lack of effort or innovation here, but rather a gaping disconnect between the way data geeks and the rest of us see the world.”
“After attaining unlikely success as an open platform, Twitter is demanding that third-party apps show Twitter’s stream the way the company wants them to,” reports ReadWriteWeb.
“You need to be able to see expanded Tweets,” wrote Michael Sippey, Twitter product manager, explaining that those features make Twitter “more engaging and easier to use… These are the features that make Twitter Twitter.”
However, will the company risk destroying the culture that has grown up around it by squeezing too hard on third-party developers?
“Twitter works because people who love the service have built a culture on top of it,” notes the post. “They use what makes them happy.”
“In the past, people who weren’t happy with Twitter’s native offering were able to build something they liked better. If Twitter breaks that ability, the nature of the relationships built on its network will change. Features aren’t what ‘make Twitter Twitter.’ People are.”
Facebook is branching out to new areas such as e-commerce by exploring its own network for potential acquisitions.
The social network has more than 900 million users, a number that hasn’t escaped developers. Millions of apps such as social game maker Zynga got their start on Facebook.
“But as recent acquisitions of mobile apps Instagram and Karma show, Facebook is considering snapping up companies on its own platform — turning it into a potential competitor for other app developers,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
“How does it take advantage of commercial opportunities in its own ecosystem, without scaring off software developers?” asks the article.
Facebook is particularly interested in new approaches to monetizing its mobile site, although some analysts warn that acquiring companies that build on its platform could be a strategic error.
“I sure hope Facebook stays a platform and allows developers like us to be successful,” explains Hjalmar Windbladh, founder of gift-giving app Wrapp. “If you jeopardize that, your time as a platform has passed.”
“So far this year, Facebook has made 11 acquisitions, shelling out more than $1.5 billion for deals for which it has publicly disclosed terms, up from just $68 million last year,” notes WSJ. “The company has a lot more money to spend after raising $6.8 billion in its IPO in May, giving it about $11 billion in cash plus access to a $5 billion credit line.”
Online marketing firm Monetate reports that for the first time tablets are outpacing smartphones in the amount of traffic they drive to e-commerce sites.
“In the first quarter of 2012, tablet traffic to commerce sites hit 6.52 percent, overtaking smartphones (5.35 percent),” reports GigaOM. “In the last year, tablets’ traffic increased 348 percent while smartphones visits grew by 117 percent over the same period. Almost all of the traffic (95 percent) was from the iPad, said Monetate.”
The increasing popularity of tablets is also impacting the PC, which saw its traffic to e-commerce sites drop four percent in one quarter.
“Tablets are at an inflection point, where its coming into its own as a primary Internet portal,” explains Monetate CMO Kurt Heinemann. “It’s only going to grow at this point.”
“Monetate found that tablets converted visits into purchases at a rate of 3.23 percent, not far behind the PC at 3.51 percent and well ahead of smartphones at 1.39 percent,” notes the post. “Tablet users view an average of 11.07 pages per session, compared to 12.05 page views for PC users and 7.18 pages for smartphone users. And tablet owners add items to their cart at a rate of 9.66 percent, compared to 10.2 percent for PC users and 4.25 percent for smartphone users.”
In a related story from TechCrunch, NPD predicts tablet shipments will grow from 121 million today to 416 million by 2017, “when they will overtake notebooks to become the most popular mobile PC device, driven by a drop in costs and a rise in features. Overall mobile PC shipments will reach 809 million units by 2017, from 347 million today.”
This rise in tablets is also expected to lead to a decline in notebooks. “One takeaway from this: although Apple with its iPad line of tablets has dominated the tablet world in market and mindshare up to now, the space is far from penetrated, and that means that companies like Microsoft, Google and others still have a lot to play for,” suggests TechCrunch.
The era of passive television viewing is about to end as mobile computing continues to dismantle the traditional silos of media consumption.
We are no longer reliant on magazines for articles or the radio for music. “Content can be consumed and interacted with across multiple platforms of varying form,” notes ReadWriteWeb.
The greatest change in this regard is set to take place with TV. “The future is not in the hands of network television conglomerates, reality stars or video-streaming services,” suggests the post. “It is in the hands of the developers.”
Although meaningful change has yet to emerge from attempts to create Internet-connected TVs, this is about to transform as companies develop smarter applications to connect TVs, smartphones and tablets. The article cites Apple and Google as potential game-changers.
“When Google announced the Nexus Q last week at its Google I/O conference, it was with a wink toward the developers in the audience,” suggests the post. “Without directly saying so, Google expects developers to hack the device. They might turn the Q into a device that automates home utilities, or creates dynamic media experiences that connect smartphones and tablets to the television.”
Additionally, Brightcove recently released updates to its App Cloud platform that will help developers create dual-screen iOS apps that connect to Apple TV through AirPlay.
This solution “enables media publishers to develop rich content apps for the iPhone and iPad that simultaneously control content, data and information presented on an HDTV while displaying synchronized content on the iPad or iPhone,” according to the company’s announcement.
Mozilla’s open mobile project known as “Boot to Gecko” has been officially named Firefox OS.
According to Engadget, “Firefox OS will be positioned as a low-priced, entry-level alternative to leading mobile operating systems.”
“Industry support is growing behind Mozilla’s plans to launch a new fully open mobile ecosystem based on HTML5,” notes the company press release. “The operating system, which Mozilla today confirmed will use its Firefox brand, will power the launch of smartphones built entirely to open Web standards, where all of the device’s capabilities can be developed as HTML5 applications.”
Firefox OS continues to win over carriers “including Deutsche Telekom, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica and Telenor,” reports Engadget. ZTE and TCL Communication Technology have already signed on to make phones based on the HTML5-powered operating system.
“The first Firefox OS powered devices are expected to launch commercially in Brazil in early 2013 through Telefonica’s commercial brand, Vivo,” explains the press release.
“The push toward HTML5 as a broader mobile platform comes at a time when some early advocates seem to be moving away from mobile Web applications out of frustration with their performance,” adds AllThingsD in a related article. “But Mozilla is doubling down on the Web. The named reference to Mozilla’s biggest brand is purposeful. Much as the Firefox browser targeted Internet Explorer, so Firefox OS is a major project meant to disrupt the existing smartphone leaders.”
Amazon is reportedly developing a smartphone aimed at competing with Apple’s iPhone and Android devices.
