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Android Expected To Dominate Global Market Till 2016, Despite Saturation

June 20, 2012 by Raj Agrawal 3 Comments

According to the recent figures, Android is dominating the smartphone OS market worldwide, holding a market share of 59% of the 152.3 million smartphones shipped in the first quarter of 2012 (1Q12). This is expected to peak at 61% this year and steadily decline to 53% by 2016. It is still expected be the market leader considering its massive market presence. This staggering hold is a reflection of the major players sailing on Google’s mega-ship (OHA).

android domination — Image credit: TalkAndroid.com

Mass Market Approach

Device manufacturers viz. Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG, Sony have enabled Google to convert Android OS into a mass-market offering. The search engine giant teamed up with these manufacturers, has successfully covered a wide array of mobile market segments by offering handsets varying in price, specification & design. This strategy is one of the vital reasons for such astounding success though Google’s Open Source Approach (AOSP) cannot be discredited.

Challenges faced by Developers

So we have the software & hardware side of the table satiated, but the main spinner falls on the ultimate growth & sustainability determining side of the smartphone industry platter – developers side. Though open source gives developers more freedom and flexibility to experiment with their creations, it has its disadvantages.

The open nature coupled with the wide range of devices (from Rs. 3,300 – Rs. 39,000) each having its own hardware capabilities transforms the fun-loving app development task into a rather tedious one. This variability has fragmented the market to an extent that writing and testing apps for Android has become cumbersome. Each app must be tested on devices differing in aspects from screen resolution to processing power and the list of those devices can’t be counted on fingers.

Consequences of the open-source approach

The outcome of this is reflected on the statistics, stating that developers build two iOS apps for every Android app. Also the revenue developers generate from an iPhone app is four times more than they generate from an Android – the counter-effect of the open source approach.

Apple’s Move

Furthermore Apple’s move to replace Google Maps with its own mapping application will cost Google about half of its map traffic that comes from iPhones and iPads. The loss here is in terms of valuable location data generated from mapping apps that helps improve the service and provide utility based features (traffic updates, nearby locations etc.) which creates brand recall and builds strong brand association, serving best as a future investment.

Current Situation

On the basis of the current situation only 7% of the total Android devices in the world are running ICS which include just the high-end devices like the Galaxy Nexus, Note, HTC One X, Galaxy SII & SIII. So a large number of device users who form a major chunk of market are left with outdated OS versions, which is one of the reasons why the growth is peaking. Sadly, most devices aren’t configured to run the likes of ICS but a lighter versions of upgrades can possibly help satisfy the majority and also help sustain the growth.

An Era Of Cloud Gaming Technology Is Booting Up

June 17, 2012 by Raj Agrawal Leave a Comment

UPCOMING TECHNOLOGY – Speaking of new games released in the era of The Witcher 2, Tomb Raider, Watch Dogs, Star Wars 1313 and the likes, you no longer have to worry about upgrading your PC configuration or owning the latest consoles, ever. All you need is a display screen – be it a TV or desktop monitor and an internet connection with at-least 3 Mbits/s bandwidth; most importantly the internet connection must not be limited by download or upload caps.

What I’m talking about is the Cloud Gaming Technology – NVIDIA GeForce Grid is a service launched on the 25th May 2012 by NVIDIA and Gaikai (one of the premier cloud gaming companies) as a collaborated effort. It offers a high fidelity and immersive console/PC gaming experience on any device such as a TV, tablet, PC, laptop or your mobile irrespective of the underlying configuration. Streaming Xbox 360 Games, PS3 or PC with the exact visual and audio experience on any screen, without the need of expensive hardware is now possible. The game is first processed at the server side and then streamed at the user’s end. Cloud Gaming has been termed as a hardware and a software solution, this can potentially aid in making gaming the #1 form of entertainment in the world.

Cloud gaming isn’t a new phenomenon. It has existed in the market for a while now with OnLive providing the service since March 2010 (Check OnLive vs. Gaikai see below). Though both the aforementioned companies have NVIDIA technology as the underlying basis, how it has aided them to provide a next-gen cloud gaming experience is commendable. They have successfully aided both the cloud gaming companies in overcoming the hindering barriers which marred the previous cloud gaming experience. The latency (delay) over broadband networks, the quality of the video images and the high cost per user are now a thing of the past. So imagine playing a game, that you could never run on the most ambitious ‘ULTRA high settings’, on your average PC with gaming experience beyond your machine’s capabilities and performance smoother than imagined.

NVIDIA has its GeForce Grid running on Gaikai’s 24 data centers worldwide and Gaikai is already offering its global cloud streaming network as a service. It’s live in 88 countries, serving 400 million monthly unique users on hundreds of gaming sites and with retail partners that include Walmart, BestBuy, YouTube, the Electronics Arts’ Origin store, Ubisoft’s UBIShop, Capcom, and Eurogamer.net.

The Face-Off – OnLive Vs. Gaikai

OnLive launched its cloud gaming service on March 10,2010 and almost a year later Gaikai joined in. The two competitors, though offering identical services, are targeting different markets. Gaikai provides more flexibility to game developers and its technology partners by allowing them to provide a collection of customizable offerings (not restricted to games) and allowing them to brand their offerings, whereas OnLive focuses more on providing an end-user experience for gamers through their game systems and playPack subscriptions.

The partnership with LG and Samsung

OnLive has partnered with LG and has been in the market for almost a year more than Gaikai, who on the other hand has allied with Samsung. OnLive will be utilizing the Google TV as a platform built into LG TV’s. They also have tapped into browser based gaming and released an Android app last year, which allows players to use their portable devices as gaming consoles streaming games over Wi-Fi or cellular networks.They also are likely to launch their service on iPad.

What about mobile devices?

Gaikai hasn’t yet ventured into the mobile scenario but is soon going to launch a 3D-ready gaming tablet with physical controls, which is in collaboration with WikiPad. Both companies are relying on NVIDIA’s graphics processing units to provide the best experience possible. AMD has not entered the cloud gaming market yet, so NVIDIA has no competition for now. But the major competition here is more between the hardware manufacturers (Samsung & LG) than the service providers as the number of devices a brand sells would reflect the number of customers a service provider can garner.

The Future

Cloud Gaming Technology is still in its infancy. There are vast prospective markets which are yet to be penetrated with today’s high-consoles and PCs , so for such markets cloud gaming might just be a pipe dream. There lies another obstacle that hinders the ability to experience cloud gaming, it is nothing but the core pillar – networking infrastructure. So the true potential of cloud gaming can only be realized once this connectivity medium has reached the desired level. With that potential realized, one can say that cloud gaming possesses the ability to replace consoles as well as PC gaming entirely.

The New Galaxy – A Major Collapse At First Sight

May 7, 2012 by Raj Agrawal Leave a Comment

Though it started off as a small venture by an ex-employee of Apple Inc. and later on acquired by Google, Android has now become a tool that device manufacturers heavily rely on and software developers capitalize on. Android has succeeded the existence of several entities in the mobile phone ecosystem. Starting off from its incubation and following the alphabetical desserts/sweet treats – Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo (frozen yogurt), Gingerbread, Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich, there has been a steady growth in its market presence. The current success can obviously be attributed to Google’s smart move of creating the OHA(Open Handset Alliance) and the Open Source Approach(AOSP).

Samsung Galaxy S3 Camera Shot. Courtesy: Engadget

Apart from what’s mentioned above, there have been certain eccentric major ground breaking innovations that has helped Android stand out from other participants (or be the only participant) in the smartphone’s reality show. Samsung, a vital member of the OHA, despite of creating mass market offerings varying on price points, handsets, OS’s have been successful in creating a few top notch premium category devices that has captivated the audiences worldwide (S1,S2). Though a major part of the credit goes to the Google’s mobile OS market leader Android, a major part also goes to Samsung for its technological finesse.

Even though there were several device manufacturers offering several options to choose from, there existed a revolutionary device that changed today’s smartphone scenario, one that took the smartphone standards to the next level and outmatched customers expectation. When we thought of a device that’s fast, powerful & vivid, most of us would agree that it was none other than the Samsung Galaxy S2. Unarguably (the most successful Android phone since the existence of Android and risen from a successful predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S), it stimulated not only Androids but also Samsung’s market presence. Packed under the hood a super fast dual core processor, massive 1GB RAM, huge and lavish Super AMOLED Plus display, astonishing 8 megapixel camera coupled with an amazing 2 megapixel front camera, huge phone memory (16GB built-in plus 32GB ext) and a amazingly slim and light design.

The S2, not only made us think over replacing our current device but had us keenly awaited for the immediate successor to this game changing player. A year passed while the New Galaxy was in the works. On the 3rd of May 2012, the day several Samsung users worldwide eagerly awaited while competitors feared. Press conferences were held, curtains dropped, users hooked onto their PCs, eager to get a peek into what will next occupy their pocket space.

On the first look there were shouts of disappointment (seeing quite an ordinary design for a phone of that caliber), but the whole inspired by nature act which seemed laughable at the first look, was believable post the presentation videos of the amazing fast and fluid display, interface and functions preloaded into the device, some tweaked and some never seen before.

As we know, like every successful device, the Galaxy S3 has its pros and cons.

Where it meets our expectations

4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED with Gorilla Glass 2
1.4 GHz Exynos 4 Quad Processor (Quad-core)
Rear 8-megapixel Camera(AF+HDR) + Front 1.9 Megapixel Camera
133-gram in weight with 8.6mm thickness
2,100mAh battery
1080p playback
NFC technology with Wi-Fi Direct
Android Beam – It allows an NFC enabled device to push an NDEF message by tapping the two devices together. Basically, it enables the convenience of tossing multimedia between phone just by just tapping each other.
Smart Stay – Should we claim this one genius add-on? When the phone screen turns off with the pre-set timer, this phone will actually read your eye movements (with the front camera) and turn the screen on to avoid annoyances. Now that’s a step up!
S Voice – A Siri like feature from Samsung
Android 4.0 ICS
The owners of Samsung Galaxy S3 get 50GB of free Dropbox storage

Where it falters

The design could have been more contemporary.
Too much power which is yet not harnessed completely by most apps out there, while the need has not been yet established. Or has it?

Whether it will live up to match the achievements of its predecessor is yet to be seen. What is your opinion?