Mobile Broadband Data – Is 4G the game changer?

The higher data speed offered by 4G/LTE services is widely expected to boost mobile data usage. The launch of tiered data plans has given rise to optimism that operators can monetize this data opportunity and substantially drive ARPUs higher. However, we believe the emergence of innovative OTT applications and more ubiquitous WiFi technology could challenge the traditional mobile service provider model and cap the upside on ARPUs.
Industry watchers expect the increase in mobile connection speeds (as we transition from 3G to 4G) and the greater penetration of smartphones to drive exponential growth in mobile data usage. As per the CISCO VNI white paper on Global Mobile Traffic Forecast, global mobile data usage in 2012 reached 885 petabytes/month (or 0.9exabytes/month), up 70% yoy. It also predicts that global mobile data traffic will rise at a 66% CAGR to reach 11.2exabytes/month by 2017.
Globally, telcos are now offering tiered data pricing plans on the LTE platform as opposed to unlimited data usage plans which were in vogue in early 2012. Tiered data plans offer a more optimal use of pricing data usage and the possibility of raising ARPUs as users exceed their data usage bundles or shift to higher usage plans.
Over the last 4-5 years, we have seen an increasing number of wireless devices that are accessing mobile networks – smartphones, laptops, tablets, GPS devices etc. Users could be offered a bundled multi-platform wireless data plan across devices to monetise this opportunity.
The rise in smartphone usage and higher connection speeds have led to the proliferation of OTT services (over the top), which pose a challenge to traditional mobile services like voice and messaging. Applications like Skype, Viber and Whatsapp are a significant challenge to voice calls, IDD, roaming and SMS revenue streams. The larger concern for telco providers globally is being reduced to being a “dumb pipe” and a commoditised service while the user experience and branding are dominated by the OTT service providers.

Original Source : http://3g4g.in/2013/07/31/mobile-broadband-data-is-4g-the-game-changer/

Read More

14 Reasons Why Firefox 14 Is The Best Browser on Android

Mozilla has released a completely refreshed version of Firefox for Android platform. If you have a compatible Android device (ARMv7  & Android 2.2+), install it from Google Play (alternatively,download  .apk file) and give it a try – you will not be disappointed!
Let’s explore 14 super awesome features of Firefox 14 for Android which make it the best browser on Google’s mobile operating system:

1. Support for Flash: Firefox on Android now supports Flash, which means you can watch flash content like YouTube videos right inside the browser.
2. Quick Launch: Firefox 14 has improved startup time. Check the following video to see it in action:



3. Native Support: Earlier versions of Firefox mobile were based on the Mozilla’s XUL framework. This XML-based framework is used in almost all Mozilla products including the Firefox on desktop. But, starting with Firefox 14, Mozilla has moved to Android’s native widgets framework written in Java. Due to this big change, speed and stability of Firefox has increased many times.
4. Speed and Performance: Firefox is now much faster on Android. Fox example, the following graph compares, Canvasrendering operations of different browsers:



5. Sync: Users can set-up synchronization of browsing history, bookmarks and other data across desktop and mobile devices. This integrated feature is easy to setup and doesn’t require any extension or plug-in. Just to remind you here, Chrome also supports data sync across mobile and desktop installations, but it is available only on ICS.
6. SPDY: Firefox 14 on Android supports Google’s SPDY protocolsimilar to its desktop counterpart. SPDY is highly innovative project and proposed to become part of HTTP 2.0 specifications. Many sites, including Twitter.com, have already started using SPDY.
7. Do Not Track: Yes! Firefox on Android is probably the first mobile browser to add support for Do Not TrackHTTP header. It is disabled by default, as it should be, and users can enable it manually.
8. Add-ons: There are many add-ons available for Firefox Mobile which can extend the functionality of the browser easily. You can explore these extensions on AMO here. Dolphin HD is the only other popular browser on Android with support for extensions. Moreover, Opera team is also working on extension support for Opera Mobile browser.
9. Master Password: As Firefox (and almost all other browsers) can save your usernames and passwords, it is quite necessary to protect your browser from unauthorized use. Once a user sets a master password, he/she will be prompted for it whenever Firefox needs to access stored passwords. This feature is also available on Firefox desktop. To learn more about master password, refer this documentation.
10. Awesome Screen: Firefox 14 for Android has been shipped with a super useful start screen which provides quick access to bookmarks, tabs from last browsing session etc.
11. Support for WebGL. It is supported for long which adds interactive 3D graphics without requiring any third-party plug-in like Flash.
12. HTML5 APIs: Firefox for Android supports various HTML5 APIs like Camera APIs and Geolocation APIs. Mozilla is currently working on many other open standard APIs through its WebAPIinitiative.
13. Tab management: Managing opened tabs has become much easier with the latest version of the browser. The top toolbar contains a dedicated button to manage tabs along with the address bar. Tapping on this button opens tab list with page thumbnails and titles – which makes it easier to identify and switch to a particular tab.
14. FREE and developed by Mozilla: This is the biggest advantage. Mozilla is a non-profit organization dedicated to the benefit of open web and users. :-)

Interested users can go one step further and install the pre-release version of Firefox for Android from here to test upcoming features like Reader Mode etc.

Source : http://blog.arpitnext.com/2012/06/firefox14-android-features.html

Read More

10 Minutes and £10 Can Get You Wireless Charging On Your Galaxy Note 2

Back in May when Samsung announced the Galaxy S3, it mentioned that the device supported wireless charging as well. However, to enable wireless charging users needed to buy an official inductive backplate from Samsung, which the Korean giant never released. The Galaxy Note 2, which was unveiled at IFA in late-August, met with the same fate.

Thankfully, an XDA member took things in his own hands and came up with a wireless charging mod for the Note 2 that takes only 10 minutes and costs less than £10. The mod has been confirmed to work on the International Galaxy Note II (N7100), N7105, along with the AT&T and Sprint variants of Note 2. T-Mobile Note 2 owners can also get wireless charging on their device, but that would require some additional steps and mods.
The mod is not for the faint hearted though, as it requires soldering. There is another mod which does not require any kind of soldering and can be found here.

Original Post

Read More

A Farewell to BlackBerry

The greatest irony of the mobile phone industry is that it's the biggest and fastest growing technology market by volumes—with over 1.2 billion units sold each year—while also being the most volatile. Over a dozen companies exited over a decade. Companies such as Motorola, Ericsson, Siemens, NEC and Alcatel becoming defunct or acquired/merged and others like Nokia and LG imploding in sales. There was a time not so long ago when each of these victims were at the top of their markets in terms of share of value, volume or profit.
For each exit there seems to have been some entrant that stormed ahead and quickly took up share from the floundering incumbent. Apple, Sony, Samsung come to mind but we mustn't forget that HTC rose from being an original design engineering company to a global brand (with 80% share in Windows Mobile phones) and that Palm entered from the PDA market (bringing the idea of apps with it) and of course BlackBerry (then known as Research In Motion) started out as a pager company and re-wrote the rules of the industry through compelling services.
I recall how when in 2003 RIM decided to launch a bona fide phone, a RIM executive said that it was easier for them to add phone capability to a BlackBerry Pager than it would be for a phone maker to add reliable email to their products. And he was right. For the next five years the BlackBerry had a near monopoly on mobile email surviving challenges from Microsoft Windows Mobile devices such as Motorola Q and Samsung Blackjack as well as Nokia E series smartphones. Imagine the shock at Microsoft when a small Canadian upstart was able to maintain a lock on corporate mobile email whose accounts were all running Microsoft Exchange.
BlackBerry was winning because it nailed the job to be done of reliable text-based messaging. It did not win because it had some "control point" in the value chain or cozy relationships with all the world's mobile operators. It was not an "insider" in telecom and even had to fight parasitic patent trolls for years.
The tragedy of RIM however was that this extraordinary competence with email was not leveraged into becoming a more general-purpose computer. The resetting of user expectations brought about by the iPhone (notably coming from a computer maker and not a phone company) meant that consumers were willing to tolerate less-than-great email for the benefit of having great browsing, great apps and great media consumption in a handheld. They even tolerated less-than-great phone call quality and battery life and size which was the traditional basis of competition in the phone market in 2007.
It was the trap of suddenly being more than good enough in your core while not being good enough in a new basis of competition which is at the heart of the Innovator's dilemma that condemned RIM. There is a solution to the Dilemma but RIM did not realize they were in a dilemma quickly enough to implement the solution. By the time they did act it was too late.

As the graph above shows, the decline began one year after the iPhone launched but it was foreseeable much earlier. The question since then has always been about execution. It was about whether management could pull off a recovery. The odds were always against it and this week we saw another shoe fall.
As the company put itself officially for sale, one of the original innovators and most beloved smartphone acompany has become a victim of the market it created.

Source :http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130816120721-19021-a-farewell-to-blackberry

Read More