Android Fragmentation: 682,000 Different Devices

"Fragmentation" matters to the entire Android community: users, developers, OEMs, brands and networks. Fragmentation is a primary reason why Google is changing the way it issues operating system updates. 


Fragmentation isn't always a "problem." In many ways, it offers users and developers a chance to experience great choice and variety.


The proliferation of devices with their associated screen sizes, internal hardware and custom ROMs creates some difficulties, though, as when a particular app doesn't work at all, or works poorly, on particular devices and operating system versions. 


OpenSignalMaps, for example, has identified 681,900 of discrete Android devices, and looked at models, brands, API levels (the version of Android) and screen sizes. And yes, you could say there is a great deal of fragmentation. 

As Targeted Advertising is Possible, "You" are the Business

Rethinking Personal Data: Strengthening Trust, a new report by the World Economic Forum, illustrates the growing tension between ad-supported apps and business models and end-user privacy. 


The problem, of course, is that for any ad-supported business model, end user data is the business model. "You are the business" is one way of illustrating that fact. More to the point, knowledge about your values, preferences, friends, shopping and behavior is what provides the value for advertisers and marketers. 

Nokia Browser Features Data Compression

Research in Motion long has compressed its data "in the cloud" to improve user experience. The same technique is used by some browsers, including the "Nokia Browser."


In some cases, the advantage simply is better end user experience. In other cases, the objective is to reduce end user device data consumption, which in many cases means lower mobile broadband bills.


That might be especially important in developing regions. 


The Nokia Browser compression means end users consume less data by up to 90 percent, Nokia says. 


"Today's mobile phone users want a quick internet experience but without being held back by high data costs," said Mary T. McDowell, executive vice president, Mobile Phones, Nokia.


source: Yankee Group

Google "Story of Send" Tracks Email Journey

How does an email travel from your computer to your friend’s smartphone across the country or around the world?

The Story of Send a new site that provides a behind-the-scenes look into how an email moves through the "Google" networki.  Along the way, you’ll discover everything from where Google filters for spam and scans for viruses to how Google minimizes  impact on the environment through energy efficiency and renewable power.

  

How Often Do Start-Ups Get a "Billion Dollar Valuation?"

With the impending Facebook initial public offering in the headlines, and an application merger and acquisition market that some would say it at least frothy, if not an actual "bubble," a bit of perspective probably is worth keeping.

Over the history of the institutional venture capital business (the past 40 years) the number of companies started every year that turn out to be worth billions sustainably is in the tens not the hundreds, according to venture capitalist Fred Wilson, of Union Square Ventures.

The phrase one sometimes hears is that many start-ups have "features," not potentially important "companies." Also the odds of great success when a firm is the fourth company in a space is arguably quite small.

It's hard to provide an order of magnitude better user experience or value in any market. It might be almost impossible in a new segment with multiple contestants. But soemthing like an order of magnitude "better" user experience is probably what wild success requires.

Intuit Expects $5.5 Trillion in Retail Mobile Payments Volume by about 2017

According to Intuit, the percentage of people who use mobile payments are expected to grow from 6.8 percent in 2009 to 21.3 percent in 2012. By 2016 or 2017, Intuit believes retail mobile payment volume could rise to about $5.5 trillion.

But it isn't at all clear who the provider "winners" will be. Mobile service providers, banks, payment networks, retailers, application providers and handset manufacturers are among the potential suppliers.


Intuit

Is Text Messaging Revenue About to Fall Off a Cliff?

Over the top messaging alternatives have been a growing concern in most European markets for some time. The issue is whether 2012 might now prove to be a watershed year, when use of text messaging went into a permanent reversal.

Consider that Telefonica's revenue from European operations during the first quarter of 2012 was down 6.6 percent, following a dip of seven percent in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The bright spots came in Telefonica's Latin American operations and mobile data services. But there are indicators of trouble, even there.

Telefonica’s first quarter 2012 report might indicate that even mobile services are not immune from economic troubles, and might also indicate a significant current impact from over the top messaging alternatives,  according to a report in Forbes.

Spain’s economy is contracting sharply, with consumer spending falling by double digits. That seems to be putting pressure on uptake of mobile broadband services and could be leading consumers to abandon carrier-provided text messaging services as well.

WhatsApp Messenger, for example, is the number-one paid app downloaded by consumers in scores of countries. In fact, some might speculate that 2012 will be a watershed year, an inflection point for consumer use of carrier-provided messaging in many countries.

Spanish mobile revenue declined by -10.7 percent year over year. That might be a signal as well. To be sure, the severe and apparently growing economic and financial crisis in Spain arguably is a huge driver of consumer behavior, but the shift in text messaging behavior might be something more.


To be sure, it is a virtual certainty that mobile voice and mobile messaging revenues are products like any other. That is to say, they will have a product life cycle featuring growth, maturity and then decline. 


The only issue is when the decline might begin. In Europe, we might find out soon.