Mobile operating systems World wide

Smartphones are everywhere, probably everyone has one. There are a lot of different manufacturers, whole bunch of different hardware specifications. But only three operating systems that really matter. So how do they stand on the global market.

First one is Android, the absolute king. Leader in all the countries the research was done in and not only that, there market share is increasing. This operating system is getting a lot of criticism lately but according to the statistics it's on almost every phone.

Second on the list is iOS from Apple. There market share is on the opposite trajectory then Android from Google. Platform is loosing ground almost in every country. Some say this is expected, they only have one smartphone per year, they can't hold that much of the market with only that.

And of course third on the list is Windows Phone from Microsoft. This has been a hit and miss quarter for them. In some countries they are improving in some they are falling, globally there just about the same as they where.

Three IT giants battling over the smartphone market, probably the most importante one there is at the moment. Lot of innovations and new devices are coming for all platforms, so it's needless to say that things will remain very interesting in the years to come.

Source kantarworldpanel.

Apple event September 9.

Everything Apple related makes a lot of fuss on the Internet, more rumors than you can fit on one page, so thank you God that they finally announce the date of their event. One rumor less to discuss about is not a bad thing. The event will be held on September 9.

Apple's event is going to be held at Flint Center Cupertino, no surprise there that's their home base. What is strange is that the company is building something, some sort of a new structure at the collage. No one is telling us anything about this project, nobody really knows what it is for. Little mystery before the big day of new projects isa good thing. One thing is sure Apple is nervous about this date and they expect it to be a turning point.

So what will happen at this event. Well that's not an easy question to answer. There are so many rumors and leaks one doesn't even know where to start, let's start with the big dog, the iPhone 6. How many iPhone's we will see on Sept. 9. is still not known, one thing is sure, there will be more then one and in different display sizes. It even looks like they will implement NFC for mobile payment, finally this was a flow that needed to be dealt ed with.

Will there be iPads there or will that be a separate event? Maybe, it is possible that they are looking to push different devices on the same date to create a big euphoria. Tablets from Apple are not doing well as one would expect on the market, some say this is a natural thing, things will get better soon, some say it's because of the Surface Pro lineup. Can we expect a 12.5 inch iPad for business use, probably not on this event but you could see it soon.

And of course what about the elephant in the room, the most anticipated gadget of 2014, the iWatch. Well what about it, it's been rumored for so long with so many different features no one can say for sure anymore what it will look like or what features it will have. Don't get me wrong, definitely hope we see the iWatch at this event, but don't get your hopes up.

Anyway enough with the rumors, on September 9 we will finally see what Apple has been cooking for so long, and then after the event a new round of rumors can begin. Never to soon to start.

Source technobuffalo.

Another smartphone chart

People at statista made a new smartphone chart that contains three IT giants, Apple, Microsoft and Google. This is a chart about smartphones and their prices across different platforms. According to this chart Apple and Google are happy with their results, while Microsoft has something to look forward to in the future.

This chart represents second quarter of 2014, where Android manufacturers have shipped 249.6 million smartphones, majority of those phones are still low-end 58.66%. Apple and their iOS platform have a reason to be happy, considering they don't make low-end iOS devices and have only made one mid-range device so far. Their market share is 84.6% of high-end smartphones, keep in mind that these type of devices bring in the biggest profit.

Microsoft is still struggling, but they could have a bright future for their Windows Phone platform. So far most of their smartphones are low-end devices, Android wasn't any different when it got started. Also Windows Phone is faster and better at using limited hardware then Android is, it still doesn't have as many apps but that could change very soon. Also there are many new manufacturers that are planing or already developing smartphones with this operating system, so thing could get interesting really soon.

Of course these chart looks simple, but it isn't, it only tries to simplify things. Smartphone market is huge, spread all across the globe and has to much variables that it could fit in to one small chart. Almost everyone that takes a look will interpret this data differently and that's OK, because there really isn't any clear winner here. As far as the consumers are concern the more competition the better the products, the more innovation there will be and that is all that matters.

Source statista.

Christian Bale will Play Steve Jobs?

One Bio Film about the life of Steve Jobs was already released, but it wasn't exactly what the fans were hopping for. Ashton Kutcher was actually pretty good as he was playing Steve Jobs, still the movie wasn't that great.

Another Bio Film directed by David Fincher is on it's way. New movie will be based on the biography of Steve Jobs written by Walter Isaacson and the script is written by Aaron Sorkin. They both worked together on The Social Network movie, which turned up pretty good. Seriously if they can make a great movie about Facebook, they can surely make a great movie about Steve jobs and Apple.

David Fincher already has someone in mind to play the tech legend Steve Jobs, none other then Batman himself Christian Bale. Frankly this is great choice, as Christian Bale is  a great actor, just look at his IMDB profile and the roles he played so far. Nothing has been official yet but this is one rumor tech fans are hopping will come true.

Source the wrap.

Apple Record Sales Over the Holidays

Apple has reported their financial results for fiscal Q1 of 2014, and no surprise here the results are better then ever. Their revenue in Q1 is $57.5 billion with $14.5 billion net profit. Just for comparison, last year in Q1 of 2013, Apple had a revenue of $54.5 with a net profit of $13.1.

During this holiday season they have sold a record number of iPhones and iPads. The number of iPhones that were sold is 51 million, no information was given how much of 5s and 5c just the total sale. Apple tablets iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina display reached a number of 26 million units sold, which is also a record for the company.

The interesting part is that the Wall Street is actually disappointed by these results, because by their predictions Apple was supposed to sell even more iPhones and iPads. Guess some people are never happy, even when the sales results are better then ever.

Source engadget.

iOS 7.1 Beta Released for Developers

Apple has finally released iOS 7.1 beta to developers. Beta was available in the beginning of January offering visual changes and now bug fixes and improvements. So this must mean that the consumers will get the update in the coming weeks.

It's still unknown what changes will iOS 7.1 bring to the iPhone and iPad. Let's just hope that the Cupertino based company has figured out what they didn't do right with the iOS 7. There was a lot of unhappy people with the latest operating system, which is something you don't see very often coming from Apple costumers.

Source 9to5mac.

New iPhone With Bigger Screen

One can never have enough rumors from Apple. Cupertino based company has many great and popular products and much is expected from them this year. Will they deliver and change the technology market once again, that remains to be seen.

New rumors are about the iPhone and it's new lineup that's coming later this year, probably named iPhone 6. According to Cantor Fitzgerald they claim that the new iPhone will have two screen sizes. One is 4.7 inch which is bigger then their 4 inch size that they are currently using and another is a 5.5 inch size which is technically a phablet.

One of the few complaints that users and critics have about the iPhone is it's small screen size. Smartphones are getting bigger and looks like Apple is on board with the new trend. Phablets are also a hit among buyers and the rumored 5.5 inch iPhone could become very popular very soon.  Apple probably want rush to get this new smartphones on the market as soon as possible, so we can expect it in late 2014.

Their current model iPhone 5s is having record sales so apart from the screen size you can't expect big changes from Apple. This isn't even the most expected product from Apple this year, iWatch is, but the iPhone brings the most profit so they will pay extra attention to it. It's still early in the year so we can expect many more rumors regarding the new iPhone lineup.

Source Streetinsider.

iWatch in Production Problems

Much has been written abut the upcoming smarwatch from Apple in the past year and it looks like this year want be any different. Probably the most anticipated gadget of 2014 is Apple's iWatch. Another market that the people from Cupertino want to reinvent already has a lot of competition out there and even more coming in the course of this year.

Apple isn't one of the companies that will release a half product to the market, they want to release the device when it's ready and functional. According to the recent rumors iWatch is having some production problems. Display of the smartwatch has become a big issue, it's draining to much battery and for the device that small battery life is the key. No costumer wants to charge their smartwatch more then once a day.

Samsung Galaxy Gear is one of the devices that has this kind of problems. While Pebble smartwatch can go 5 to 7 days without recharging, no wonder Pebble is the number one smartwatch. If Apple wants the iWatch to be a hit product then this is definitely a problem they have to solve.

The iWatch is rumored to have a release date sometime during fourth quarter of 2014, let's just hope this display and battery issues don't delay the iWatch even further.

Source the Verge.

Apple Event October 22

According to sources Apple is holding their next event on October 22. Apple still hasn't send any invitations  for this event so this is still a rumor. What is expected at this event? Well nothing else but the iPad lineup. Introduction of the iPad 5 and iPad Mini 2.

Not much is known about the new iPad's. There have been leaked photos and different rumors about the new elements in the tablets but nothing has been confirmed yet. Apple likes their secrecy. Most interesting things that everyone is expecting is the Retina display on the smaller iPad Mini 2 and the fingerprint scanner on the larger iPad 5 similar to the one on the iPhone 5s. New processor A7 has also been rumored for both tablets.

From other things Apple TV could get an update. That's the small black box you hook up to your TV, not the iTV  that has been rumored for a long time.

Another thing interesting about October 22 is that Nokia is holding their press event on that date. Where they plan to announce 6 devices. One of those devices is Nokia tablet that is running Windows RT. Not enough? Well there is something else. On that date Microsoft is starting sale on the new Surface tablet lineup, Surface 2 and Surface 2 PRO. Apple is always saying that they are mining their own business and not looking at other companies, not very easy to believe is it. Anyway October 22 should be an interesting day.

More on the story right here.

Apple Rummors: iWatch, iTV, iPad

Rumors, rumors everywhere. Nothing new for the IT giant Apple. After the iPhone lineup release the rumors on other products are all over tech websites. Next event is about iPad so there are a lot of rumors about those projects, but there is also a lot of talk about iWatch and iTV, products that are not eve officially announced by Apple.

iWatch

Apple has recently brought Nike FuelBand developer Jay Blahnik on board, so the rumors of iWach being a sport gadget became popular. Also the new smartwatch could have a flexible display. According to the rummors Apple is already testing different screen sizes betwen 1,3 and 1,5 inches. Samsung Galaxy Gear has already been release but people are mostly disappointed by the device, it's not very innovative. Apple will have to bring better user experiance if the iWatch is going to become popular and that's something Apple is very good at.

iTV

Another job opens up at Apple. Company has just hired Cable TV executive Jean François Mulé as an engineering director. Mulé status on Lindekin about his new job was “challenged, inspired and part of something big.” Ofcourse after this the rumors about Apple TV started all over the Internet. Those rumors where even popular before this news broke out. Looks like things are starting to heat up at Cupertino.

iPad 

Next Apple event is about the new iPad lineup. The event should be on October 15 but nothing has been confirmed yet. Much of the focus is on the iPad Mini, the 7 inch tablet. Will it get a retina display like the 10 inch iPad. Well according to the latest rumors and photos leaked, looks like the mini version is not getting a retina display this year. But what it will get is an 8-megapixel camera to be ahead of the competition. Tablet market is more competitive then ever. With the new Nexus 7 and Microsoft Surface 2, the tablet market is full of great products. Good news for anyone buying a tablet.

Microsoft is the Most Inspiring Company in USA

Forbes has released a list of most inspiring companies. Microsoft is on top of the list. After two years of being number one Apple has fallen on 12 place. Microsoft is fallowed by Disney and Walmart. Only two other IT companies in top 10 are Google at number 7 and Amazon at number 8.

Microsoft reclaimed this position because of their philanthropic initiatives and passionate employees. Each employee at Microsoft can donate to charity and the company will match that amount dollar for dollar, up to 12.00 dollars. Truly and impressive gesture from Redmond.


Top 25 Most Inspiring Companies:

1. Microsoft
2. Disney
3. Walmart
4. Chick-fil-A
5. Target
6. McDonald’s
7. Google
8. Amazon
9. Johnson & Johnson
10. Toms Shoes
11. The Coca-Cola Company
12. Apple
13. Starbucks
14. Costco
15. Ford
16. Whole Foods Market
17. Southwest Airlines
18. Wegmans Food Markets
19. Goodwill Industries
20. Pepsi
21. Nike
22. American Express
23. Zappos
24. REI
25. Kohl’s

There is a lot of things that will inspire people. Food, movies, cars and looks like this year IT technology is at number one. All of these 25 companies have very recognisable names and are known worldwide.

More on the story right here.

Apple Most Valuable Brand

According to statistics coming from Interbrand company Apple is the mos valuable brand in 2013. We all know that technology with the brand of a bitten apple is highly valued by customers worldwide and this report just confirmed that. Putting Apple on top of the list. Until now Coca Cola company was number one, for an amazing 13 years. They are now number 3 behind Google who is number two on the list.

“Every so often, a company changes our lives, not just with its products, but with its ethos. This is why, following Coca-Cola’s 13-year run at the top of Best Global Brands, Interbrand has a new No. 1 — Apple,” official Interbrand report.

Apple brand is worth $98.3 billion, which is an increase of 28% from last year. Google's value increased by 34%. Following them in the top 10 are Coca Cola (+2%), IBM (+4%), Microsoft (+3%), General Electric (+7%), McDonald's (+5%), Samsung (+20%), Intel (-5%) i Toyota (+17%).

Biggest reason for this Apple success is the iPhone lineup witch continues to break records in sales and is known worldwide. But there are other Apple products that cant be ignored like iPad, iTunes witch has more than 50 billion downloads and iMac who's sales results are increasing year by year.

The official report at right here.

MicroUSB for EU

The European Union is going to make it mandatory for all mobile devices to be charged with microUSB. Until now EU wanted a voluntary agreement with the companies to make products that are charged with microUSB. While this isn't a problem for most of the companies there are still some that haven't adopted this practice. Looking at you Apple. With this decision EU wants to help consumers who are tired of different cables coming with each different device. Another reason is to reduce down the amount of waste that is coming  from electronic industry.

The ruling still isn't official because the law needs to be voted in the EU Parliament first. But there is a big chance this law is going to be accepted and microUSB is going to be the only charger in the EU for mobile devices.

How will the IT giant Apple react to this decision. They not really known for listening to others, even governments, they like to do things their own way. But hey, EU is a huge market and Apple certainly doesn't want to loose million of costumers. So will they make iPhone with microUSB just for EU or will they include this in iPhones worldwide. Maybe they will do something else, you never know with Apple.

Apple Paid EA to Postpone Plants Vs Zombies 2

Plants Vs Zombies was a big hit on all platforms. In this game you play the role of the Gardner whose house is invaded by zombies and he uses plants to defend the house. You have to use defensive strategies to kill wave after wave of zombies. The game is addicted and fun.

Plants Vs Zombies 2 was announced some time ago and so far it has only launched on iOS. No Android or Windows version of the game yet. Everyone thought that Apple paid EA for this decision but it was never any evidence, until now. The head of EA Frank Gibbeau made a comment saying

“Apple gave us a truckload of money to delay the Android version [of Plants vs Zombies 2].”

In the past EA has done exclusives with Sony and Microsoft, so why should we be surprised they are doing similar things with Apple. EA doesn't have a great reputation as a company, in the United States EA was voted the worst company two years in a row. They even had more votes than the banks, and we all know how much people hate the banks.

The game should be released on Android next month. In China it was already released on Android and it's selling better than the iOS version. Worldwide the game is a big hit on the iOS with more then 25 million downloads.

PopCap refused to comment on this situation saying

“We can’t comment on internal meetings.”

9 Million iPhones in Three Days

Nothing new here, another Apple product successfully launched. People all over the world waiting in line for the new iPhone. In just three days they sold 9 million of them. So far we don't know how many of those were iPhone 5s and haw many of them were the plastic version iPhone 5c. Last year the iPhone 5 sold 5 million in it's opening weekend .

Because off all this demand right now there is a shortage of the new iPhones, but Tim Cook assures us that they are working hard to make more phones for the customers. This isn't the only record for Apple this weekend, there new iOS 7 is already spinning on over 200 million Apple devices.

The competition is stunned by this results from Apple, some rumors say that Samsung even send spies into the lines in front of Apple stores, so they can find out why are they looking to buy the new iPhone. Yeah good luck with that Samsung.

Tim Cook joins Twitter

The CEO of Apple Tim Cook become active on twitter. He wrote his fist tweet on Friday, it was a promotional tweet about the just introduced iPhone 5 lineup.


"Visited Retail Stores in Palo Alto today. Seeing so many happy costumers reminds us why we do what we do"


So far Tim has over 185.00 followers and he is following twenty other users, among those are Bill Clinton and the Catholic Pope. Last week at the Apple event where they introduced the iPhone 5s and the plastic iPhone 5c, Tim Cook said that the iPhone is environmentally friendly because

"It's arsenic free, mercury free and Android free"

If Tim can make tweets like this he is definitely the guy you want to follow on this social network. Doesn't really matter if you are an Apple fan or not.

You can follow Tim Cook at @tim_cook

Apple and Samsung Working Together

Almost everybody knows about rivalry between Samsung and Apple. They been publicly accusing each other of different things, they have been a few law suits and much more.  It's easy to say that these companies are not in best of terms. But what most people don't know is that these two companies are working together.

Apple has been looking for someone to take production of A7 chips away from Samsung but they just can't find anyone at this time. The new iPhone 5s has an A7 chip that is being manufactured by Samsung. So I guess it's gone be some time before Apple finds somebody good enough that can take the manufacturing of their A series chips away from the South Korean company.

However Apple is not totally relying on Samsung to manufacture components for their devices. They had better luck finding someone for the M7 chip that is also in their new iPhone 5s. M7 is being produced NXP semiconductors a company from Netherlands.