Aldo Panessidi

Gavin Kim, Vice President of Samsung, announced his departure to head up Microsoft’s Windows phone product management team. As of September, Microsoft’s market share in the cell phone industry dropped to 5.6%. Luring Gavin Kim may be part of Microsoft’s plan to attempt to boost its market share in this competitive industry.

On Monday, November 7, 2011, Microsoft hosted a smart phone party in Manhattan. A six-story replica of a Windows Phone was erected in one of the most congested intersections in the world. Along with bands and dancers, Microsoft was determined to make a statement that the Windows Phone and mobile accessories are here to stay.

According to an exclusive interview with BGR, Gavin Kim, outgoing Samsung cell phone executive, indicated his primary responsibility is to build consumer confidence in the Windows Phone platform, and to win over cell phone, developers, manufactures, and carriers. Considering the Windows Phone market share dropped from 5.8% to 5.6%, Gavin Kim has much work to do.

The Windows Phone is available through a few popular carriers. In addition, a handful of unlocked cell phones are available along with a host of cell phone accessories. However, consumers have not warmed up to the Windows Phone platform. This may be due to an unwillingness to change platforms or consumers may simply not like the Windows Phone platform.

Convincing consumers to switch to a Windows Phone may be one of the toughest challenges Gavin Kim will face in his new role at Microsoft. While Microsoft refuses to accept defeat with its smart phone platform, only time will tell if Gavin Kim can successfully revitalize the Windows Phone.

Currently Microsoft has collaborated with T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. In the next several months, marketing efforts will increase as Microsoft announces new carrier partnerships and new cell phones. Gavin Kim will need to roll up his sleeves and get to work on what seems an insurmountable task.

Pure Mobile has an accessory solution for every lifestyle – and is a preferred provider of Samsung phone accessories

In the world of smart phones we are seeing more and more importance being put on this suite of software included with the release of smart phones. The manufacturers are in many ways emulating each other to come up with a standard set of features that a consumer can come to expect no matter what phone or platform they decide to go with. In this case, the Samsung ChatON messaging service has been released worldwide and is available on all of their SIM Free phones such as SIM Free Samsung Infuse 4G no matter what platform is used as the operating system.

The best way to easily describe the service is to put it in comparison with some of the more well-known services similar to this one. In this case think of the Samsung ChatON messaging service as being their version of Blackberry BBM or the Apple iMessage service. The unique thing about the Samsung service is that it is independent of the operating system meaning you can download it from the Samsung app marketplace or Android app store.

The Samsung On messaging service is currently available now and you can easily download it for your phone and get going right away. In the future this service will be installed automatically across all SIM Free Samsung phones such as SIM Free Samsung Nexus S. As of the press release Samsung has stated that the service will be installed on the Samsung Bada smart phones.

We said it before and this release further confirms the realities of the industry. Everyone from manufacturers to software developers will be creating like services that more or less provide the same functionality for consumers no matter what smart phones they are carrying. Consider this encouraging news and get excited over the next 6 to 12 months as we will continue to see innovation push the envelope of features and provide us with an enjoyable experience our cell phones.

Over the past few years Google has been making several attempts to capture market share within the social networking industry. They released a handful of applications designed to try and gain some traction against the mighty Facebook. Tough task considering the sheer size of Facebook, but nonetheless important as the ability to do so clearly will provide an environment to push Google products.

On Friday, Google announced that it will be shutting down its Google Buzz service to focus exclusively on their new Google+ service. For those of you that don’t know, Google+ is an environment that allows you to create circles of friends in a private environment to share information similar to Facebook.

Initial reports of the recent launch have shown that Google has perhaps figured out the magic formula to creating an effective social networking environment. This release solidifies that as they now want to focus majority of their efforts on the Google+ platform.

Google Buzz was their attempt to try and merge e-mail, twitter, and Facebook like features into one simple environment. The problem was that the execution was poor and the service was more of a headache as opposed to a value added feature to the average user. Many of the key complaints were that Google Buzz automatically was added to Gmail accounts taking up valuable space and the attention span from users who only wanted to do e-mail. The implementation was taken straight out of the Facebook playbook and that they try to impose a new service without the consent of the user.

It will be interesting to see how the Google plus service further grows to become a legitimate competitor to Facebook. Many industry experts think it is too late, but anyone can do it is most probably Google as they are one of the few companies that have an existing user base to build a platform on.

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In the news over the past few weeks has been word that Microsoft is getting out of the music hardware business with the announcement that they will no longer the creating hardware for the Microsoft Zune. Shortly thereafter, we were told that the information posted on their website was false and that there are no plans on getting out of the business anytime soon.

Fast-forward a couple of weeks, and Microsoft once again has put up a notice that they will be discontinuing the hardware for the Microsoft Zune. This time however it appears that it’s official and effective immediately.

We are not surprised by this decision as there has been a very clear line drawn in the sand between the hardware and software aspects of the music industry. The major players are defined on the hardware side where Apple and Android have captured the space and are leading the way in terms of technology and features for mobile phones such as SIM Free Samsung Infuse 4G.

On the software side of things it is still a relatively wide open market. With the launch of Microsoft Windows Phone, they are set to try to make a significant dent in the operating system space. As a result, they are focusing all of their efforts on the software side of their business in an attempt to get major distribution across its own platform as well as the other majors. Since all platforms support third-party applications, you can be reasonably sure that we will see the Microsoft Zune service available on all the major platforms including iTunes for SIM Free iPhone 4 and Android marketplace.

Microsoft has enjoyed quite a good run with the Microsoft Zune and we are quite shocked on how long they have been able to effectively stay in the hardware side of the business. This announcement was inevitable and we have to applaud Microsoft for making this decision at a time where it’s important to focus and scale in the areas of their strengths.

Apple this week has released a MicroUSB to 30 pin adapter in their UK online store. It is believed that Apple released the adapter to conform to the laws and regulations imposed by the UK government that mandates all cell phones  such as SIM free iPhone 4 to be charged via MicroUSB interface.

This raises the question of why Apple continues to release devices requiring a special adapter in order to charge or interface with a computer. With so much change going on in the industry, the one thing we should come to expect is that all devices are both powered and charged by a universal device which in this case is MicroUSB.

The answer to this question goes way back to the days of the Macintosh versus PC battle. Back then, Apple wanted to keep control of the hardware and software used for their computers. This made way for what is now known as the PC which is nothing more than a universal set of hardware that can be used by any software company.

Can Apple run into the same problem again for something as small as their adapters? Probably not, but it gives us good insight into how they fundamentally think about their products and the amount of control they want to have all the way through. This issue is also prevalent when speaking about iTunes and the way in which they distribute music and media content. Everything has to go through them but they’ve done a good job at keeping third-party developers and hardware partners happy. Not that this is a big deal but we hope Apple takes the plunge and joins the universal standards when it comes to charging your mobile phone such as SIM free Samsung Nexus S and interfacing with your computer. Personally, we are tired of carrying around multiple cables for the multiple devices we own, standardize already!

With everything in the news of late being about Apple, we wanted to mix it up a little bit and present to you a new device from Samsung. The Samsung Nexus Prime is the latest from the manufacturer that is set to be the flagship product Google will support and promote. The phone is set to be launched during the upcoming Samsung press conference but we managed to get a sneak peek of the phone and some of its specifications.

Specs of the Samsung Nexus Prime have not been 100% confirmed. Based on what’s available online, it appears that the screen is going to be 4.6 inches and use super AMOLED HD resolution that results in 720p quality. This equates to a pixel density of 320 PPI which is more than enough for the human eye.

The hardware on the phone seems to have undergone some radical changes as well. There are virtually no buttons on the face of the phone as all navigation will be managed by the software and the touch screen capabilities of the Samsung Nexus Prime. This design is based on the fact that Android Ice Cream operating system uses the honeycomb as the base for its functionality. As a result, very little navigation is needed using the physical hardware buttons typically found on phones.

This is yet another case of why Apple needed to release something significant into the marketplace. It is clear that competitors are catching up as we are seeing more and more apple-like devices being launched by several manufacturers. If this phone is anything like the SIM Free Samsung Galaxy S II, you can be sure that it will receive rave reviews and possibly become Samsungs most popular phone given that it will be launched during the holidays.

Internet music subscription giant Rhapsody appears to be set to acquire the Notorious Napster. In case you don’t remember, Napster was one of the first companies to challenge the traditional music industry and how music was consumed over the Internet. Once a peer-to-peer music sharing network, Napster has evolved to be a full fledged music subscription service owned and operated by Best Buy. Details of the agreement are not finalized but it is reported that Rhapsody with acquire all of Napsters’ subscribers as well as some other assets. In exchange Best Buy will become a minority stakeholder in Rhapsody.

Completion of the deal will bring together two of the largest online music subscriptions services and put them under one umbrella virtually making them one of the biggest companies in the industry for music subscriptions. Consider this deal a must if they want to compete with the other giants in the industry such as iTunes for SIM Free iPhone 4, Android marketplace, Amazon, and others. It will allow them to offer more value to their existing clients and increase their chances of getting new ones. The clear cut winner has yet to be defined in the space and this is a step in the right direction if they want to keep pace with the others.

Expect the deal to officially happen by the end of the year with November 30th, 2001 being their target date. We’ve seen these types of deals fall through in the past. With others hearing about the possible merger, they may try and get in on the action and buy Napster as well. This may end up being a classic bidding war situation where the winner will surely be Best Buy who owns Napster. This is actually standard when two industry giants attempt to do a merger of subscribers and services.

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For many years unique phones have been exclusive to Japan. Since many of the phones are made there they are often exclusive in that country. Well it appears that this is about to change with the recent news that Orange out of France will be getting the Sharp 3D Android based phones such as SIM Free Samsung Galaxy Mini. The largest Carrier in Japan NTT Docomo is said to have signed a deal with them to provide the 3D phone.

The model to be released is the Sharp AQUOS PHONE SH80F which has been available in Japan since May. It comes with two 8 mega pixel cameras, a 4.2 inch 3D display and is based on the Android 2.3 operating system. Of all the features included in the Japanese version, it is expected that the infrared feature will not be available in the European version. We should also not expect to have the digital TV tuner or the e-wallet feature as they are specific to Japan.

Sharp 3D Android Phone

The launch date for the Sharp AQUOS PHONE SH80F is going to be October 6th, 20011 in France with the rest of the 200 million subscribers in Asia and Europe thereafter. Sharp has good market share in Japan at just about 25%.and is now looking to get there phones out to other countries. Will be interesting to see how these phones perform outside of Japan. If successful, it could be the start of a wave of 3D phone hitting markets not traditionally supporting 3D technology. The 3D itself can be viewed with the naked eye, if TV’s are any indication it will be a while until 3D technology is fully supported and adopted but North American and European cell phone users such as SIM Free Sony Ericsson Xperia pro. Only time will tell and by then a few more generations of 3D phones will have launched and been improved upon.

There has been a pattern that we are seeing over and over in the technology space. That is manufacturers entering into new markets of opportunity. The all-in-one computer is best known by Apple and their desktop Mac. Over the past few years we’ve been PC manufactures come out with their versions of the all-in-one. Add to the marketplace the Samsung Series 7 All-in-one and their take on the all inclusive desktop computer.

Visually, the unit is nice and the design seems to be well thought out. It is compact and includes all the standard hardware that you would expect in an all-in-one desktop computer. Samsung has launched 2 versions with the differences being the computer speed and memory which is common. Standard in both configurations is a 23 inch screen with 1080p resolution and the support for 2 finger gestures. They also both include 4 USB ports, a 1TB hard drive, and support for Bluetooth 3.0, and a 1.3 megapixel camera.

The differences in the two models available are the CPU speed and amount of memory included. The specifications we received are a 2.6GHz Intel Core i3 CPU and 6GB of RAM or a 2.7GHz Intel Core i5 processor with 8GB. Depending on what you plan to use the computer for, one of these configurations should do the trick. If you are one of the gamer types, you should be aware that both of these options come with an integrated video card meaning the memory of the graphics card is shared with the rest of the computer. Not a big deal for most but hardcore gamer should consider this fact prior to making a purchase. Pricing for the models are $999 and $1199 respectively. The way we see it is that much of the cost is going into the design of the computer and the fact that it is an all-in-one solution.

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Now Xobni has rebranded them, even though their last name was pretty clever and was actually the word inbox spelled out words. However, it may have been a little too smart for many people to understand, so they have decided to rebrand themselves. The new name of the company is going to be picking up is going to be Smatr, which will allow for users to utilize their contact manager for both Android and for Gmail. A number of products that they have been looking to release has been in a private beta over the course of the last few months, and have performed exceptionally well.

Their current Gmail add-on currently allows users to share certain contextual information about whoever is sending you an e-mail from your social networks including Facebook, twitter, and even professional network such as LinkedIn. Included are also going to be the company databases.

The rebranding is an interesting one since their original name it are even able to garner such a following, but the new name is a good one that definitely describes their service as it does make your e-mail arrangements smarter. It will be interesting to see what kind of features they watch at some point in the near future. This release is one of the few that the company has had planned and will definitely provide a great addition to the services that they have already offered users. Xobni may now be known as Smartr, but that does not mean that their services have changed significantly. They have been able to put together an excellent application that is able to help you to connect your e-mail to your social networking services, which is something that many companies have not been able to do effectively. This open-ended connection will make it easier for you to recognize your contacts on other services as well.

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