Author: elegant

The Apple iPhone 5 went on sale with much fan fair. The best thing that came with it is the high speed 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution). LTE will allow smartphones to stream high-definition movies; enable video chat, and store files and photos on clouds. The 4G can handle twice the size of 3G networks, smartphones, tablets, video streaming, cloud computing services and host of other functions. It is estimated that smartphones alone will increase mobile data by eightfold by 2016.

The Apple iPhone 5 expect to sell 50 million units by the end of the year. Major providers of 4G, including AT&T and Verizon Wireless are prepared to handle the glut of demand for service from smartphones and other devices such as iPads. The industry has spent over $6.75 billion securing spectrum rights to provide 4G services to its customers.

The 4G carriers need to navigate carefully. If they charge too much for the service, customers may stay with current 3G services or look for free Wi-Fi available at many coffee shops. If the price is too low, it may overwhelm the system. Some are already offering shared data options as a protection against accidental overage charges. Sprint and T-Mobile offer unlimited data plans.

The appeal of desktop computer is in the history and computer makers are working hard to fight the popularity of the iPad. PC makers are increasingly improving ultrabooks, a thinner laptop to gain back the market share as well as to combat Apple’s sleek MacBook Pro. They are light weight, weighting only 2.87 pounds on average; has a longer battery life averaging around seven plus hours (five minimum); storage capacity has been increased tremendously; 18 to 21 mm thick; wake up from sleep mode within seven seconds; and has much faster processors like Intel 1.7 GHz.

Ultrabooks came into the market in late 2011 and accounted for about five percent of all laptops sold. Ultrabooks generally market between $650 and $1,600. A much lower price compared to Apple’s MacBook Air. Ultrabooks sales are improving much slower than anticipated due to the relentless competition from tablets and smartphones and the dull global economy. The price point of ultrabooks is not helping either. Twenty five percent of the manufacturing cost goes to chips, especially Intel’s Ultraprocessor chips. One other contributing factor is much anticipated launch of Microsoft’s Windows 8. People are holding back purchases of computers of any kind until the release of Widows 8.

The Chinese smartphone maker Huawei Technologies has beaten one time favorites of Nokia, Research in Motion, Sony and LG Electronics to become the world’s No. 3 behind Apple and Samsung Electronics. The world’s No. 1 and 2 together accounts for 54 percent of the global market share in smartphones. Huawei reportedly make $23 billion sales a year and growing at 3.5 percent per year.

Huawei Technologies was started in 1987 and made telecom gear for phone companies. Only in 2000 that the company start to make cell phones. They entered the smartphone production in 2009. Within short few years they became world’s No. 3 due to competitive pricing and good products. They were able to cut cost by putting Android operating system in their phones rather than trying to invent their own operating system. Their products are capturing the market share in China, Middle East and Africa. They expect to manufacture 60 million smartphones in 2012. They supply phones to Metro PCS and recently signed a contract with AT&T.

The company’s sudden explosion has some governments worried. The Australian government banned them from bidding on a national broadband project. The U.S. Congress is evaluating the security risk they pose to the nation and its ties to Iran.

On June 18, 2012, in Los Angeles, California the Microsoft announced that it is introducing a tablet, the Surface. It will be arriving in October 2012. Software and hardware for the Surface will be made by Microsoft. This is a new dimension for the long standing software company. Now it will compete with its business partners such as Dell, Acer, and Hewlett-Packard, and challenge Apple who is dominating the field.

Until the new Surface, only hardware that Microsoft owned was Xbox, keyboards, and mice. The Surface will weigh 1.5 pounds, 9mm thick, and will run on low-power ARM chips. It will have a built in kick stand and body made of light weight material called vapor-deposited magnesium. The inside of the cover will house a full size keyboard. Few months later a slightly bigger Surface that runs on more powerful Intel chip will follow the first release. This version will support yet to be released Windows 8 and other earlier Windows applications. According to Microsoft pricing will be comparable to similar units available in the market.

Critics say the announcement indicates hardships that Microsoft is facing. Until Surface it has not announced any plans beyond Windows 8 which is due later this year.

For most part Intel is absent from the mobile app world until now. The industry leader in making chips for wireless devices including mobile smartphones and other mobile devices is ARM Holdings. The success of ARM Holding is their high-powered chip architecture that is based on low-power use.

Intel is the world’s biggest chipmaker and the power house for manufacturing chips for PCs. However, until now it failed to adopt its PC architecture to the needs of the low-power mobile devices. But over the next few months, Intel will release its Atom line of low-power chips for tablets and smartphones in the U.S., U.K., France, China, and India. Intel spent over $5 billion to develop fabrication plants to manufacture Atom chips.

Mobile smartphones are going through an explosion worldwide. It is estimated that a billion units will be in use by 2015. Smartphone sales will generate about $150 billion in 2014.

In April, first mobile phones with Intel inside rolled out in India by Lava International. Intel smartphone made by Lenovo and ZTE will be rolled out in China shortly. The France Telecom wireless carrier, Orange, will roll out Intel powered Santa Clara line in France, U.K. and the rest of Europe.