Do you think of yourself as a smartphone user that also likes to do real photography? The type of person who thinks of themselves as taking carefully considered "images" rather than a smartphone camera hack who merely takes snapshots to primarily post on Facebook? If you are, you are probably always disappointed by the quality of your smartphone's camera. But things may be about to change. Nokia may be getting itself ready to launch a new flagship smartphone that will bring its fabulous 41 megapixel PureView smartphone camera technology - along with a great Zeiss lens, best in class low light capabilities and state of the art image stabilization technology. Lets hope they do - perhaps as early as July 2013.
Back on Tuesday of this week Verivo software, a vendor that has specialized in enterprise mobile app development since the beginning of the current century, announced Verivo Akula, an entirely new platform for enterprises to build mobile applications. Anyone involved in the fine art of building enterprise mobile apps needs to check Akula out. Why Akula you ask? There is an interesting story behind the name itself, but the flexibility the platform offers enterprise IT is the real reason to scope it out.
It turns out that IBM and AT&T are collaborating with same goal as Verivo - to deliver an easy path to developing mobile applications. In the case of IBM and AT&T, however, the primary goal is to provide enterprises with the ability to conduct comprehensive testing and analysis of their mobile apps. Network and battery usage on mobile devices can also be tested. As optimizations are discovered and potential performance issues are uncovered, changes can quickly be made to applications and those apps can quickly be redeployed.
Here is an interesting thing to note: it turns out that most U.S. Cellular customers believe that mobile devices have made their lives easier. Certainly we would not have expected the opposite to be the case. To uncover this hidden truth the country's fifth largest carrier conducted what it refers to as its Better Moments Online Survey, which, despite the title, uncovered various mobile-related things. Dave Kimball, executive vice president and chief marketing officer with U.S. Cellular, claims the same as we do and says that the survey findings confirm “what we have long known - that for every family member, from grandparents to kids, mobile technology is embedded in our lives.”
Is it any wonder then that IDC's newly released report shows that the shipments of smartphones are going to increase substantially as the year progresses? The new IDC smartphone sales report shows a total increase of 32.7 percent of smartphone shipments over 2012. The total number shipped by the end of this year is expected to surpass 958.8 million, compared to 722.5 million units shipped in 2012. And in addition IDC expects that the total number of smartphones sold will finally exceed the sale of feature phones. Smartphones are anticipated to make up 52.2 percent of the mobile phone market around the world in 2013.
Of course the fact that everyone and their grandparents now finds mobile devices to be such life changers, is it any wonder that the level of global mobile data traffic is on a frantic upward tear? It is no surprise to us to hear that 2012 traffic expanded 69 percent over the previous year. But there is no rest for the weary wireless network - by the end of 2013 traffic will grow another 72 percent over 2012. Imagine this number if you can: 23,000 petabytes. Will the wireless carriers be able to keep up and will they be able to keep delivering?
As you consider 23 petabytes of wireless data, also consider this - Google, which several weeks ago announced its new streaming music service, Play Access All Music, which is currently available online and for Android devices, will soon be releasing the iOS version. While iOS users aren't likely to switch out their iTunes service, they may look to possibly add the Google service as well. No wonder all those petabytes are flying around.
Have a great weekend!
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