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August 31, 2013

Mobility Techzone Week in Review

Here's an interesting thing to ponder. Several carriers that include AT&T and T-Mobile have formally issued vacation blackout dates for their employees for the September 20th to 22nd time period. A vacation blackout means specifically that no employees will be allowed to take any time off on those dates. Now why would that be? Perhaps, just perhaps, it may be because those are very likely going to be the days that the next generation of Apple smartphones will hit the street and officially launch. We'll go out on a limb and say that of course this is exactly what this is about.

Here's another interesting thing to ponder. If we were to ask what country is the one that is most socially engaged via social networks on mobile devices most of us would likely reply that of course it is the United States. Interestingly that reply would be incorrect. In fact, Russia and Brazil, of all places, are the two countries that take top honors when it comes to global subscribers making use of mobility to ensure they are socially engaged. It may have to do with the fact that these countries have more people who only access the Internet and Web via mobile devices, which is due of course to their being behind the times in terms of direct online access. It's an interesting case, we'd say, of leading from behind.

And here is yet another thing worth pondering. Word from the Swedish publication Rapidus has it that Apple has purchased Swedish compression vendor AlgoTrim. Algotrim got its start by creating algorithms for feature phones and then took the natural next step to doing so for smartphones. AlgoTrim develops advanced solutions for mobile devices within the fields of data compression, mobile imaging and video, and computer graphics. The digital imaging work that it is doing could be useful to Apple and our guess would be that Apple has already been working very closely with the company - something Apple usually does just before it makes one of its "small" yearly acquisitions.

OK, enough pondering -- let's ask you straight up a simple question: What color would you choose for your new, lower end iPhone 5C? Blue, yellow, pink, green…the bottom line is that we absolutely expect Apple to deliver on such colors -- very likely keeping to the new iOS 7 color schemes that have already been introduced. Will color prove a differentiator for you? We believe if that you are a teenager or younger -- for whom the iPhone 5C would prove a solid choice for the head of the family to provision their kids with -- the answer is a huge yes.

It has also been confirmed that Apple is, finally, going to begin offering a trade-in program, where owners of iPhone 4S and 4 devices can expect to see trade-in values ranging as high as $200. This will happen not only through Apple but through Best Buy as well. Best Buy will require signing up for a new two year commitment to take advantage of the trade-in dollars. That said, if you happen to come from a family that disdains iPhones there is also good news -- the price of the Nexus 4 has been dropped by over $100.

Everyone knows that HTC, which makes the awesome HTC One, is having financial problems of the significant kind. Where then, is HTC finding the resources to build an entirely new mobile operating system for the Chinese smartphone marketplace? Yes, you heard right, HTC has dedicated a team of engineers to build such a thing. Some of our favorite words -- dumb and dumber -- come to mind here for many reasons.

We'll sign off with those thoughts - enjoy the long weekend!





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