The War of Next Big thing Between Apple and Samsung

As per this article on WSJ.. nothing extra ordinary.. WSJ Author/reviewer in-fact urges customers to check out HTC-one instead defaulting to S4!!! That is biggest slap in a way for S4.. especially from my perspective.. couple of months back I had written off HTC as a company all-together.. Now.. it seems that HTC is emerging back.. So far I have heard great reviews about HTC One.. yet to read any single bad or below average review about HTC One..

In fact HTC was one of the first good, cheap smartphone manufacturer.. even before the launch of iPhone.. iPhone really spoiled their market.. But it seems that they are going back to their roots and building great phones and capturing some market back from both Samsung and Apple. I think even their alliance with FB is also helping them.. I am definitely going to test it.. one of my very good friend has bought HTC One recently and I would definitely borrow it for few hours... I am sure many of my friends will also get S4 as well :-)

Good news is that, this smartphone market pie is so big that there is room for many players at the same time and they can satisfy different type of customers with varied needs.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323735604578440824138699526.html

However, USA Today's review seems to be much more favorable.. Author/reviewer liked in particular Dual Action camera mode.. Capturing your own reaction for the event happening and also some drama mode where you can focus and follow one particular person..

Seems that they have fixed Display issue.Apparently, S3 had little bit dimmer screen.. This time S4's display has all the great reviews..

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2013/04/24/samsung-galaxy-s4-review/2104959/

Both the authors complain that S4 has lot of features and it seems overly complex and confusing. I think in a race to compete with iPhone, Samsung is injecting all kinds of features into their flagship phone.. Which may be true and applicable to many customers.. especially in Asia.. which is still solid stronghold of Samsung. They have really made it big screen and I would love to use it more as iPad mini kind of.. If I go with S4 or its equivalent, my primary reason would be screen size which I can use it as my iPad mini replacement.. So far I am okay..

However, in race to prove themselves better than iPhone.. they miss the whole point of iPhone's popularity.. it is simple and whatever feature they put in there.. it works and it works beautifully.. and most of the customers (including your truly!!) love it.. I am sure there must be many other customers who like all kinds of features offered by Samsung and HTC.

So far, I am still iPhone fan and have no plans to go back to Samsung or Android for that matter. However, I am really happy to see great phones from iPhone's competitors.. as it definitely raises bar for iPhone 5S and I hope to see super great iPhone 5S in near future..

Yet Another Tablet!!! from Googlleeee

It was expected.. so here comes Google with another Android Tablet in sub-iPad  market. Prices point and size makes it clear that they don't want to go head on with Apple. So we will have to wait for couple of years more to see real good competitor for iPad.

I don't think that these $199 tablets are going to dent iPad market any time soon. These tablets are going to be second or third optional device or may be entry point tablets for kids.. I don't know.. but they are not going to be choice for any serious user with good valet. Let us see.

Unless these tablets have something magical which will be really different than iPad..

In my view, even if they go for these 7 inch tablets, Google and Amazon should not keep them really low end. Gone are the times when you can launch product in iPhone/iPad style of initially launching bare-bone device and keep on adding features slowly into it. That was then, when there was no iPad to refer to. Bar for Amazon and Google is already set really high by Apple. They need to accept it.. In the mean time they can launch these dinky tablets as an experiment and if users buy them good.. otherwise there is always next version..

However, Nexus 7 has front end camera which was not there in Amzon's tablet and they are also throwing $25 on Google Play store.. Screen resolution looks okay.. also, with original Android on it, hope that it will be much more open than Amzon fire. but then, Amazon should be coming up with next beefier version any time soon.. which I am sure should be better in terms of feature than Galaxy 7. Good news is that due to competition, they can't even dream of charging more to their next versions..

Good Luck with this Nexus thingy!!! I don't see myself buying it anytime soon unless.. unless.. I hear from you all something magical about it..

S.F. SOFTWARE CONFERENCE

Google takes full step into selling own product line

Search giant unveils its first tablet and a home entertainment console

By Brandon Bailey

bbailey@mercurynews.com 

SAN FRANCISCO — Pushing further into the consumer electronics business, Google announced Wednesday that it will sell a new digital home entertainment console and a 7-inch tablet computer aimed at bolstering its competition with Apple, Amazon and other rivals.

The giant Internet search company also showed off a host of new products and features for its Android mobile operating system, including new TV, film and magazine offerings in Google’s online store, and a voice-enabled search function that is Google’s answer to Apple’s vaunted digital assistant Siri.

While those seem far removed from Google’s core business of Internet search advertising, analysts say the new products are part of a strategy aimed at preserving Google’s dominance in that lucrative business. To do that, it hopes to deliver a broad range of digital media — books, music, films and other services — within an ecosystem of Google products at a time when other companies are luring consumers with similar services. 

KARL MONDON/STAFF 

Google unveils its Nexus 7 at the I/O conference Wednesday.

“It’s less about the hardware and more about the experience,” said Richard Shim, a mobile-computing expert with NPD Display-Search. “They are pushing into new services, but at the end of the day it’s an indirect way of highlighting their core business.” 

Google also invoked its freewheeling roots during the kickoff of the company’s annual three-day software conference. At one point, co-founder Sergey Brin bounded on stage at the Moscone Center to show off a pet project, the computer- in-a-headset known as Google Glass. A video screen behind him showed a team of sky divers inside a blimp flying over San Francisco, and the convention center audience cheered as the sky divers — wearing the cyborg-looking Google Glass headsets — leapt from the blimp and landed on the Moscone building’s roof. 

Images from their headsets were streamed over an Internet connection. The device, which also can receive data and messages, is still under development. 

As expected, Google CEO Larry Page did not appear, after the company said last week that he lost his voice under undisclosed circumstances. Brin said Wednesday that he’s “not worried” about Page, but “we didn’t want to stress him out by having him talk a lot.” 

The most anticipated news of the day, however, was the unveiling of Google’s new $199 Nexus 7 tablet, which will be manufactured by Asus according to Google’s design, and sold by Google through its online Google Play store. Google is using the tablet to showcase the features of its newest Android software, known by the code-name Jelly Bean. Microsoft is following a similar strategy with its own tablet, showing off new Windows software. 

“We wanted to provide the best of the Google experience, the way that Google envisions it,” said Android product director Hugo Barra. The tablet has a high-definition display and enough processing power for fast-paced video games, the company said. But Google Play director Chris Yerga stressed that the tablet is also well-suited to reading magazines and books. That’s a sign that Google is also positioning the Nexus 7 against Amazon’s popular Kindle Fire, which to date is one of the few Android-based tablets that has sold particularly well. 

Android is the world’s most popular operating software for smartphones, but Apple has dominated the tablet market with its iPad, which runs on Apple’s own software. Like Google, Amazon and Apple sell books, videos, music and other digital material over the Internet. 

Google’s new home entertainment console, dubbed Nexus Q, seems aimed at competing with similar streaming devices made by Apple, Sonos, Roku and others. While most consumer electronics devices sold in the United States are made by contractors in Asia, The New York Times reported that the Nexus Q is being assembled at an undisclosed Silicon Valley location. 

The bowling-ball shaped console can be controlled from an Android smartphone or tablet. But analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy said he’s skeptical it will be a hit because its $299 price is higher than competing devices with similar capabilities. 

While Google doesn’t have much practice making and selling its own hardware — other than a Nexus phone that was not a success two years ago — Google has put years of work into developing voice-recognition technology. It already offers voice-enabled translation and navigation services. The new voice-enabled features in Jelly Bean go further by answering spoken questions with a naturalsounding female voice. 

In a demonstration, it appeared to function in a manner similar to Apple’s Siri. Analysts have warned that Siri could be a threat to Google’s core Internet search business if users of Apple devices find it easier to simply talk to their iPhones rather than type in a Google query. “Google has to do something just as good with voice because that may be where search is going for mobile devices,” said Al Hilwa, a software industry analyst with IDC. 

From the demonstration, it wasn’t clear how wide a range of questions can be answered by Google’s voice search service. Executives also showed another new search feature in Jelly Bean, called Google Now, which provides automatic updates on information the user has previously searched for — such as the status of an airline flight or the score of a baseball game. Executives said the service is only available for certain types of queries, although they plan to add more capabilities in the future. 

Follow Brandon Bailey at Twitter.com/brandonbailey. 

 

Is Samsung Galaxy S3 really iPhone Competitor?

S3 is getting great reviews so far and is considered to be most formidable competitor of iPhone 4S. Looking at its feature set it seems to be really great machine. Biggest differentiation seems to be screen size and quad core processor on hardware side and numerous extra features related to touch on software side.

I haven't tried it yet, but I am not big fan of extreme processors. Unless processor power is properly channeled and used all the extra cores are merely nice to have. So it will be really good to see how the marriage between hardware and software is.. that you can figure out only after using it out. all the specs and number are merely marketing gimmicks.

Having said that, I am sure it will put more pressure on Apple to launch bigger screen size iPhone. At least variant with bigger size. For all practical purpose, iPhone is my lifeline and I don't see any problem with screen size as well. But I think there is scope for some extra real estate on phone side. let us see what is in store for iPhone 5. We should be knowing it soon... I guess, June or July?

Coming back to Samsung, it is always good to see great competition in the market. that is what drives innovation. I hope that S3 will turn out to be great phone in market as well. Sad that it is not getting launched in US first.. In my view they should have launched in US as well. They could have taken some advantage of iPhone 5s pending launch and could have gathered lot of iPhone customers who are ready for upgrade cycle, which is typically 20 or 21 months. Assuming, these people upgraded within couple of months of iPhone launch, they would be ready for upgrade and could have opted for S3 instead of waiting for iPhone 5. I am sure Samsung's genius marketing guys must have thought about everything..


Samsung’s latest model emerges as iPhone competitor

Phone will sell in 145 countries, company’s biggest launch so far

By Peter Svensson

Associated Press

NEW YORK — The latest phone in Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy line, which has emerged as the biggest competitor to Apple’s iPhone, will go on sale in Europe on May 29 and in the U.S. this summer, the company said Thursday. The Korean company showed off the phone at an event in London Thursday. It has a high-definition touch screen that’s nearly twice the size of the iPhone’s, but thinner and lighter than Apple’s phone. Samsung said the phone will go on sale in 145 countries with 296 phone companies, making it the company’s biggest launch so far.

In the U.S., Japan and Korea, the phone will use fourthgeneration, or 4G, networks for faster data downloads. Samsung didn’t say which carriers would sell it, but the previous Galaxy model was sold by all four national U.S. wireless carriers: Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.

Like previous Galaxy phones, the new S3 will run Google’s Android software. The processor, or “brains” of the device, will be upgraded to include four computing cores. The iPhone and most other high-end phones are “dual-core,” but there are some quad-core devices on sale already.

The added computing power will be put to use in the S3’s expanded voice-command features. When the phone screen is off, owners will be able to “wake” it up by saying “Hi, Galaxy.” They can then give further spoken commands. When Apple launched the iPhone 4S last year, it also made advances in voice recognition a central selling point.
Samsung doesn’t release phone shipment figures, but most analysts believe its smartphones outsold Apple and its 35.1 million iPhones in the January-to-March period. Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley believes Apple and Samsung together accounted for virtually all the profits in the phone industry in the first quarter, with three-quarters going to Apple by virtue of its singular focus on the high-priced iPhone.

Can Samsung takeover Apple in Smartphone Segment as well?

Samsung is already number one in overall cellphone market share. First time they overtook Nokia in World's largest Cell phone manufacturer. Nokia is trying a comeback and it would be interesting to see in next couple of quarters, how this will shape overall cellphone market. Along with Nokia & Samsung, it is Microsoft as well, whose future is at stake. Cell phones are already accounting for close to 50% of revenues of companies like Samsung and Apple.

As of now, Samsung is clear winner in overall Cellphone market. However, they face uphill battle with Apple's flagship iPhone. It will be difficult to compete with iPhone in terms of overall value and satisfaction. Unless, Apple goof's up big time in coming years, which they can as Steve Job's is not around and I am already feeling that new management is more focussed directly on share prices instead of customer satisfaction, usability and attention to details. We have to accept that nothing is permanent and current iPhone's dominance will go down sooner or later.

At the same time, Samsung is coming up with really great phones with really cool and great features and trying to compete hard with iPhone. However, in my view they need to focus more on some really great selected features and make them really easy and standardize across the board. They also need highlight and focus where Apple restrict's iPhone... and moreover, build some really cool and easy to use ecosystem. Bring some standardization across the devices so accessories can be useful. One feature which I really envy from Android phones is simplicity to play HD videos (1080p) directly to HDTV using HDMI cable.. But still, it has clumsy UI, especially as compared to iPhone. They need to work on reduction in number of clicks needed to accomplish things..

I haven't played too much on Samsung phones except to my stone age Blackjack long time back. Which was really clumsy phone based on Windows CE (or whatever it was called) and voice quality was so bad that I took a vow to never use Samsung phone. Only feature which I used to like was tethering of it which used to give me great internet connectivity to my laptop. However, with iPhone, 99% of time you don't need tethering, you can literally do everything on it, despite its lower screen size. I hope my nephew who works in Samsung is reading this and will soon send me some great samsung phone to try so I can write better review ;-)

Hope to see real good competition in coming days.. which should result in really cool phones for all of us. I hope, Motorola/Google will also churn out great phones in coming days.. so will Nokia with their MS collaboration... future seems to be great!!!


Samsung cellphones beat out Nokia’s

By Andrea Chang

Los Angeles Times

Samsung in the first quarterbecametheworld’s largest cellphone brand for the first time, overtaking longtime market leader Nokia. In the smartphone segment, Samsung remained in second place behind Apple, according to market research firm IHS iSuppli.

The South Korean electronics giant shipped 92 million cellphones worldwide in the first quarter, compared with 83 million for Nokia. While Samsung’s shipments declined by 13 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011, Nokia’s dropped by 27 percent.

In the smartphone segment, Apple shipped 35 million units in the first quarter compared with 32 million for Samsung. Apple’s smartphone shipments declined 5 percent from the fourth quarter, compared with 11 percent for Samsung. First-quarter declines in the shipments of smartphones and cellphones reflect normal seasonal patterns, in which sales decrease after the peak holiday period in the fourthquarter. “With cellphones now accounting for more than 40 percent of Samsung’s overall revenue, it’s clear that the company’s continued investments in smartphone hardware and software R&D are paying off,” said Wayne Lam, senior analyst of wireless communications at IHS. Lam noted that Samsung’s performance was even more impressive because its latest Galaxy S III handset has yet to be launched, with shipments set to start in May. “This indicates Samsung is likely to make further progress in market share in 2012,” he said.

Why is FTC after Google?

I really can't understand logic of FTC going after Google over some silly allegations of search results tempering.. Couple of things... First, Search is Google's bread and butter and I would really doubt if they will tinker it intentionally for minor gains.. Secondly, if they really do something this stupid, there are enough search engines in market where users can go and use them and ditch Google.. Leave it up to users to decide if they like search results or not..

I very strongly feel that such things are responsible for unnecessary increasing cost of  doing business and thus higher costs to end users/customers.. This only creates some dumb excuses for bigger government and hence bigger tax bill for citizens.. Unless, there are some serious monopoly issues, government should let consumers and users of these services decide about which services to use and which ones not to..

Here is the article from San Jose Mercury News:

Antitrust probe of Google is urged

By Jeff Bliss

Bloomberg News

Google’s business practices, including allegations the company favors its own services in Internet searches, raise concerns about squelching competition that need to be reviewed by U.S. regulators, two lawmakers said. The Federal Trade Commission should determine whether Google has violated antitrust law or hurt consumers, said Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., chairman of the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, the panel’s senior Republican, in a letter Monday to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. Earlier this year, the FTC initiated an investigation of Mountain Viewbased Google, owner of the world’s most popular search engine. The FTC is examining whether Google unfairly ranks search results and is using its control of the Android mobile operating system to discourage smartphone makers from using rivals’ applications and services, a person familiar with the matter said in August. Google’s practices “warrant a thorough investigation by the FTC,” the senators wrote in the letter released Monday. “A key question is whether Google is using its market power to steer users to its own Web products or secondary services and discriminating against other websites with which it competes.” The lawmakers’ letter took no position on the legality of Google’s practices.

“We appreciate that the committee reserved judgment as we continue to cooperate with the FTC,” Adam Kovacevich, a Google spokesman, said in an email.