We've said before that Nokia and Microsoft will struggle to get adoption of Windows Phone, what with the miniscule and declining market share of Microsoft smartphone platforms, and what with the huge lead that iPhone and Android have over WP. However, smart pricing and a compelling product might make an impact.
Microsoft's wallet for marketing and advertising certainly won't hurt.
But the information that was leaked on Wednesday about the AT&T Nokia Lumia 900, which will be an exclusive for the U.S No. 2 carrier, said that the Lumia 900 would launch on March 18. That's not a surprise, as it was expected to be released around that time. What is surprising, however, is the pricing.
The info, via a leaked roadmap, says that the Nokia Lumia 900 will sell for $99.99 on contract.
Given the specs, that is very aggressive pricing.
The Nokia Lumia 900 will come in cyan or black, have a curved, 4.3-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display with an 800 x 480 resolution, support LTE, carry an 8MP rear-facing camera with a Carl Zeiss lens and a 1.3MP front-facing camera. It will also have a 1.4GHz single-core (which is unusual these days of dual-core in everything) Qualcomm processor, 512MB of RAM, and 16GB of storage.
It's agressive pricing, but as we've said before, every app downloaded to a smartphone is one more reason to stay with that platform. The relative lack of apps vs. Android and iOS is a big negative.
It will be interesting to see if this low price point will attract any of the crowd of folks moving from feature phones to smartphones. It's still hard to see how it can attract people AWAY from Android or iOS.
We've said before that Nokia and Microsoft will struggle to get adoption of Windows Phone, what with the miniscule and declining market share of Microsoft smartphone platforms, and what with the huge lead that iPhone and Android have over WP. However, smart pricing and a compelling product might make an impact.
Microsoft's wallet for marketing and advertising certainly won't hurt.
But the information that was leaked on Wednesday about the AT&T Nokia Lumia 900, which will be an exclusive for the U.S No. 2 carrier, said that the Lumia 900 would launch on March 18. That's not a surprise, as it was expected to be released around that time. What is surprising, however, is the pricing.
The info, via a leaked roadmap, says that the Nokia Lumia 900 will sell for $99.99 on contract.
Given the specs, that is very aggressive pricing.
The Nokia Lumia 900 will come in cyan or black, have a curved, 4.3-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display with an 800 x 480 resolution, support LTE, carry an 8MP rear-facing camera with a Carl Zeiss lens and a 1.3MP front-facing camera. It will also have a 1.4GHz single-core (which is unusual these days of dual-core in everything) Qualcomm processor, 512MB of RAM, and 16GB of storage.
It's agressive pricing, but as we've said before, every app downloaded to a smartphone is one more reason to stay with that platform. The relative lack of apps vs. Android and iOS is a big negative.
It will be interesting to see if this low price point will attract any of the crowd of folks moving from feature phones to smartphones. It's still hard to see how it can attract people AWAY from Android or iOS.
It made the announcement via its Nokia UK Mobcast, NokNok reports. Though sadly there's still no word on price. Rest assured the Lumia 710 is bound to be cheaper than the 800 though, seeing as it's touted as the budget handset in the Lumia family.
The 710 has a 3.7-inch screen just like the Lumia 800's, although the camera is only 5-megapixel to the 800's 8-megapixel snapper. They both pack the same processor though, a 1.4GHz Qualcomm number, and the 710 has 8GB internal storage to the 800's 16GB. Still not too shabby though, and crucially both handsets run the same Windows Phone 7.5 software, with its slick tile-based UI and great access to Facebook and Twitter. You can download apps from Windows Phone Marketplace, and personalise it by swapping the backplate.
How much would you pay for the Lumia 710? And can Nokia still compete with the likes of Apple and Google's Android? Let us know below, or over on our Facebook page.
Our favorite part of "Star Trek" was the Enterprise herself, but it would be hard to watch the series and movies without noting the ubiquitous tricorder, in both generalized and medical forms. The X-Prize Foundation, which shot itself to fame in 1996 when it offered a $10 million prize for the first commercial space flight, which was eventually won by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which later gave birth to Virgin Galactic.
In conjunction with Qualcomm, we now have the Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize, sponsored by Qualcomm and launched during last week's CES (the competition was announced in May of 2011, and was scheduled for launch at the 2012 CES). The prize will award $10 million to the individual or team that is able to produce a working prototype of a tricorder, specifically a medical tricorder.
Just as with the prior X Prize, there are strict criteria necessary in order to win the Tricorder X Prize. A device must have a screen and weigh less than five pounds to be eligible. It must be able to diagnose a set of 15 diseases. It also must be able to measure basic vital signs, such as pulse and blood pressure, and must be accessible via the internet. The use of external sensors is allowed.
The ultimate goal of this competition isn't a device for Dr. Crusher or Dr. McCoy to use, but rather to develop an affordable device that can be used AT HOME by consumers. The tricorder would diagnose common illnesses and recommend if the patient needs to see a doctor.
According to the Star Trek Wiki at Memory Alpha, the first tricorders were put into service in the 2260s. Ten teams will be chosen from the qualifying round of the competition, which is set for 2014. Those ten will advance to the final round in 2015, meaning a successful tricorder would beat Gene Roddenberry's vision by more than 200 years.
Regulators have turned a more favorable eye toward AT&T's T other wireless deal, the purchase of spectrum from Qualcomm QCOM . Fresh on the heels of dropping its bid for T-Mobile USA in the face of regulatory pressure, AT&T has received approval from the FCC to close the $1.9 billion spectrum purchase. We had expected regulators to sign off on this deal, as the Qualcomm spectrum isn't currently being used and AT&T is in the best position of any carrier to put it to use. The purchase narrows the gap between AT&T and Verizon Wireless in the 700 MHz spectrum band, which is important given that both carriers are using the band to initially roll out LTE network technology.
We wouldn't be surprised to see AT&T strike a deal to acquire additional 700 MHz spectrum from DISH Network DISH . DISH holds the remaining chunk of spectrum within the Qualcomm blocks that AT&T has now acquired. In addition, DISH's wireless efforts are likely to center on the spectrum that it has obtained throughout 2011 rather than its 700 MHz holdings. AT&T could take an interest in that spectrum as well, or, as has been rumored recently, it could make a run at DISH as a whole. A DISH acquisition could make sense for AT&T, but we'd expect the firm to be disciplined on price. Rumors of an AT&T-DISH deal have fueled sharp gains in DISH shares in years' past, likely contributing to AT&T's decision to stay away. DISH's shares look fairly valued to us currently; we'd look to sell the stock if it runs up significantly from here.
Federal Communications Commission has approved a $1.9-billion AT&T purchase of wireless spectrum licenses owned by San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc.
The purchase gives AT&T control over licenses that, according to the FCC, "cover more than 300 million people nationwide, including more than 70 million people in five of the top 15 metropolitan areas (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco)."
The FCC's decision on the spectrum deal was set to be delayed into next year as the regulatory agency was reviewing both AT&T's proposed Qualcomm purchase and the proposed $39-billion takeover of T-Mobile USA together -- that was until AT&T dropped its T-Mobile plans on Monday.
In its approval of the Qualcomm deal, the FCC stated Thursday that AT&T cannot use the spectrum in a way that would negatively impact other carriers using or roaming on nearby wireless airwaves.
The FCC said that, given that AT&T is the largest phone company in the U.S. and the second-largest mobile carrier, concerns of competitive harm were looked at, but any resulting harm wouldn't "outweigh the public interest benefits of this transaction," the FCC said in the order.
In fact, the FCC said it hopes the purchase will prod AT&T and its rivals to use the "underutilized unpaired 700 MHz spectrum" for mobile service, "thereby supporting our goal of expanding mobile broadband deployment throughout the country."
RELATED:
AT&T pulls out of T-Mobile acquisition deal
T-Mobile to gain licenses to AT&T wireless spectrum
FCC to review AT&T deals with T-Mobile and Qualcomm together
The HTC Nexus One, the first of Google's Nexus developer devices, was released on January 5, 2010. It was a grand experiment by Google, to try to sidestep the carrier, but it failed. The device itself wasn't a hot seller, but it was among the first to get Froyo and Gingerbread. It will not, however, get a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich.
The Nexus One originally shipped with Android 2.1. The problem, according to Android Product Management lead Hugo Barra is that the HTC Nexus One lacks the necessary horsepower to run Ice Cream Sandwich.
That's pretty sad, because the device was once considered a superphone. Now, the HTC Nexus One uses the 1GHz Qualcomm QSD 8250 Snapdragon processor. Some later devices, like the HTC Evo 4G and HTC Incredible used a later version, the 1GHz Qualcomm QSD 8650. It's unclear if those devices will be able to be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich.
Some had hoped that the Nexus One would be able to get Ice Cream Sandwich, as it, like the follow-up Nexus S and the upcoming Galaxy Nexus are sans any UI layers like TouchWiz or Sense, making them easier to port new major versions of Android to.
Barra took the time to respond to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s recent attacks on Android. Ballmer had said that users "needed a computer science degree" to use Android. Barra said that "Android, especially this new version 4.0, is an incredibly intuitive platform – the best one we’ve ever built. There are power user features, but there is no need for an instruction manual or a computer science degree.
"The operating system is thought through with the needs of the next three years in mind; it’s a wholesale revamp of the way people interact with the phone. It’s something we’ve designed for the masses; it continues to cater for power users really well but the entry level users will be able to use it really well too and make the phone their own."
It's a little disappointing to see that the Nexus One won't get Android. After all, the iPhone 3GS continues to see iOS updates, and it's over 2 years old. That said, those who might recall the debacle that was the iPhone 3G on iOS 4 will have to admit that it might be better to play it safe.
IHS iSuppli has done its own version of an iPhone 4S teardown (iFixit was first), and included its typical estimates of the bill-of-materials (BOM) costs for the devices.
For each storage tier, the BOM was estimated to be $188, $207 and $245 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models, respectively. iSuppli's estimate for the 16GB iPhone 4, last year, was $187.51, so Apple has managed to keep its BOM nearly identical with last year, despite hardware upgrades.
In doing so, however, Apple made several changes, producing some winners --- and losers. The big loser was German chipmaker Infineon which was acquired by Intel in 2010. The big winner, in its stead, was Qualcomm, Infineon's baseband processor has been replaced by Qualcomm's chipset, although Infineon still produces a small part for the iPhone 4S.
Andrew Rassweiler, an analyst with IHS iSuppli who conducted the teardown, said “Qualcomm is the big winner here. It is selling Apple a whole suite of chips that adds up to about $14 to $15 per iPhone." In terms of Infineon, he said, “It’s almost like Apple threw them a bone with a 50-cent part after they lost a much more high profile chip that cost about $10."
In terms of other parts, the iPhone 4S' dual-core A5 processor costs $15, and is produced by Samsung. The A5 is also the processor in Apple's iPad 2. There was some speculation that Apple migth try to switch its A5 manufacturing to another OEM, due to its legal issues with Samsung, but iSuppli did not find any such evidence.
On the other hand, the flash memory chips, which Apple has been known in the past to acquire mostly from Samsung (Toshiba was another supplier) came from Samsung's rival Hynix Semiconductor.
Other parts are familiar: a compass from AKM, STMicro's gyroscope sensor, TI audio and touchscreen controllers, and Triquint wireless transmitters.
iSuppli said that it could not precisely determine the supplier of the new 8MP camera in the iPhone 4S. Although prior rumors had said that the camera was a Sony component, iSuppli said that the candidates for the camera parts include Largan Precision Co. and Omnivision. Either way, The design is known to carry a Sony sensor. Despite the uncertainty, iSuppli estimated that the camera adds $17.60 to the cost of the iPhone 4S.
Update: Intel only purchased the Wireless Solutions division of Infineon in 2010, which we should have remembered since we covered it.
If you are annoyed by the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend in IT departments, having to mix your personal apps and information with your work apps and information, AT&T has got a deal for you. On Monday, ahead of the CTIA conference in San Diego, the nation's second largest wireless carrier unveiled a service it calls "AT&T Toggle," which allows you to create two separate and distinct profiles on your mobile device.
Chris Hill, vice president of advanced mobility services in AT&T's business services group said, "When it comes to connected devices, one size doesn't fit all. People want to use their own smartphones and tablets for work, but that practice can create major headaches for businesses' IT departments."
Actually, we think of it the other way. Having, as some IT departments require, to share my smartphone with work causes headaches for us. Do we really want to mingle our work contacts with our personal contacts? Not really. We just want my personal contacts on my personal device, and my work contacts on my work advice.
We want our personal calendar events on our personal device, and our work calendar events on our work device.
Of course, companies like it because they no longer have to bear the burden of providing their employees with mobile devices. In other words, its all about money. While it's nice that we're not relegated to using (ugh) BlackBerrys, we still prefer to keep work and personal life separate.
At any rate, AT&T Toggle can make that division for you, at least for Android devices. The service will run on technology developed by Enterproid. Ironically, that company just last week received funding from Google, along with Qualcomm and Comcast.
End users with Toggle will see two separate "personas" on their Android phones. One will include enterprise-grade email, calendar, contacts and messaging apps and a browser, all of which can securely access corporate data. The other is the normal open Android platform, where users can download and use any app they please, even to the point of "sideloading" non-Android Market apps.
AT&T will sell the service to enterprises. It will work on phones running Android 2.2 (Froyo) or later. It requires an application to be installed on the phone, which works in conjunction with a hosted backend system.
Enterproid is developing a client for iPhones, and may add other platforms, such as QNX or Windows Phone. AT&T said its Toggle service will become available before the end of the year.
We knew that Best Buy was planning the slash the price of the Android-based HTC Flyer tablet by $200 (to $299), but who knew they were planning to slash it even further, to the same fire sale price as the HP TouchPad ($99)? No one, not even Best Buy, as it was a simple mistake.
Originally, Best Buy had said they were going to cut the price of the HTC Flyer tablet to $299, starting Oct. 1. The HTC Flyer tablet is a 7-inch Android device with 16GB of storage, a 1.5GHz single-core Qualcomm SnapDragon processor, and Android 2.3 (not the tablet-optimized Honeycomb).
However, a slip, perhaps even a Freudian one, saw the HTC Flyer tablet priced slashed all the way down to $99 on Thursday.
Since HP "gave up" on its TouchPad and brought the price all the way down to $99 for a 16GB model, it wasn't out of the question that Best Buy might do this, but it turned out to be just a mistake. Best Buy has corrected its site and also said that it will not be honoring any of the orders made at the erroneous price.
Best Buy said, "The HTC Flyer (SKU 2390524) was incorrectly priced at $99.99 on Bestbuy.com and in some of our stores. This error has been corrected on Bestbuy.com and our stores have posted a correction notice at their locations. Bestbuy.com orders that were placed at the $99.99 price will be canceled. Best Buy will not be price matching the $99.99 price on the Flyer, nor will the HTC Flyer be available for $99.99.
"Please keep in mind that we reserve the right to correct any pricing errors that we find in our stores. We apologize for the confusion or inconvenience this may have caused."
And no, don't try screaming or whining about it. These sorts of errors do happen, and rarely (if ever) do the problematic prices get honored.
Amazon just launched its Kindle Fire Android tablet, with a low, low price of $199, and the markdowns of other devices such as the HTC Flyer tablet are seen as a response to the new price point.
Although the Kindle Fire is missing some things (no cameras of any sort, for one, and sporting a forked version of Android 2.3), it's clear that Amazon.com is serious about that price. It's losing money on the hardware alone, and only making a slight amount when "app purchases" are included in the estimate.
But Amazon.com has something that no other tablet maker has: a huge Internet retail store that it wants you to buy at, and that's more important than a profit on the Kindle Fire itself. No other vendor can match that, so the Fire might finally make the tablet race a two-horse one against the iPad.
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