Apple iAnywhere, a possible MAC OS – iOS convergence. A terrible name for a good stuff (update)

Mark Moskowitz, a JP Morgan’s analyst says that the new “next thing” from Apple would be an integration of MAC OS X Operating System with iOS.
The Analyst reports that “While not a new idea, our global tech research team believes Apple could be on the cusp of introducing a new category with iAnywhere, a converged MacOS-iOS operating system that allows an iPhone or iPad to dock into a specially configured display to run as a computer”.
This is for sure not a new idea, considering already existing devices as the Samsung Ativ Q and the Asus Transformer Book Duet even if with a slight different approach, but is absolutely a good piece of news.
The OS convergence anyway is also a quite old idea in Apple if we consider e.g. that the Mac OS X Lion delivered two years ago was thought considering a possible approach to iOS philosophy. Also Microsoft seems in line with such integration for its Windows 9 and also for Windows Phone 8.1 with Windows RT.
Personally speaking I would be interested in unified OS with some customizable features capable to modify their behaviour and functionality depending if used in tablet/smartphone or desktop mode.

We’ll see if the JP Morgan’s guy is well informed, and in the meantime I would hope that the name will be not iAnywhere as Mark said : )

Update: macrumors.com reports the following important note: “..during a recent interview with Macworld, Apple executives Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi explicitly said that convergence between iOS and OS X was an “absolute non-goal” for the company.” this even if some common sense of aesthetics and design principles between the two OS anyway is pursued. I would still hope that a sort of convergence anyway will be realised in order to have mobile devices more business oriented and easy to switch between entertainment and office stuff.

Nokia Android not only for Low End Devices?

Rumors about the possibility to see a forked Android not only in the “famous” Normandy phones but also in high end devices.

Andorid@Nokia as from @evleaks on 8th January 2014

Gforgames mentioning an article from Chinese tech.qq.com reports that “inside sources” from Artesyn Technologies, claiming that Nokia will release multiple Android devices in the foreseeable future. Such rumors is quite strange after Microsoft acquisition and I have some perplexity but remembering that Artesyn is a world leader in design, manufacture and sale of embedded board solutions and power conversion for networking, wireless and telecommunication systems with Nokia among its customers, I would give a chance to such news.
With Normandy (aka Nokia X) only a possible hypothesis is the Windows Phone OS used in high-mid range of devices and the forked Android in low-end devices replacing current Asha OS, but after such rumor, if the multiple devices include also high-end I could image a market segmentation in this way:

1. Geographical segmentation , meaning WP focused in Europe and probably North-America and Australia, Andorid for Asia and rest of the world.
2. End-user focused segmentation, i.e. WP focused on business and probably camera segment, Android for the rest.
3. A certain mix of previous two points.
We’ll see if in the near future new rumors will be available on such strange story.

Is it worth for Sony selling Vaio brand? And for Lenovo buying it? (update)

Rumors about the sales of PC sector by Sony are crowding internet in the last days. The brand owned by Japanese Company, the well known Vaio, is one of the most respected and appreciated in the World but recently it has been afflicted by the general weakness of PC Market.

As already analysed, the PC market is in transformation more than in decline and this transformation means that more of the common tasks done on a PC (e-mail, browsing, …) are now done in the device part of Mobile sectors (tablets, phablets and also smartphones). Sony is also present in Mobile Market with its brand Xperia that, contrary to PCs sector, is growing in the last time after buying the remaining part of what was Sony-Ericsson.

Market trends from Gartners Data elaboration

Vaio series already presented some tablet (or tablet-like) alternatives as Sony Vaio Duo, that really are well done devices, but it also has some tablet and phablets from Xperia brand.

Up to now, the approach that seems taken by Sony is to focusing the Xperia brand on Android OS and the Vaio on Windows OS. This approach in principle could be good also in case of announce of Windows Phone Smartphones, as some rumors. But is it worth having two main brands, meaning marketing, R&D effort,…? Probably not, especially when you can still sell Vaio brand for about 500 Million USD. Of course this will mean to refocus Xperia brand also on Windows Phone, but this is more feasible than having two brands partially overlapped.

Is it worth for Lenovo buying Sony Vaio? At a first glance, I would say no. Lenovo already have a well known brand in laptop business sector (probably the most known), the famous ThinkPad (formerly IBM) and recently it bought also the IBM server sector. The consumer PCs is taken with IdeaPad and Yoga series and even if not, at least in Europe, known as Vaio, it has a good success in the last year. Of course Vaio brand could add value and market share to Lenovo, but typically in such acquisition 1+1 < 2, so I expect that Lenovo simply buy the brand for avoiding a competitor and use the brand itself for some kind of rebranding of products without spend too much in R&D.

Anyway we’ll see soon, and in the meantime Sony shares this morning saw a god +4.58% also for such rumors.

Update: Reuters reports: ” Sony Corp is in talks with investment fund Japan Industrial Partners to sell its loss-making Vaio personal computer division, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

A new company would be set up by Japan Industrial Partners to take over the Vaio brand’s operations in Japan, according to the plan under consideration, the source said. Financial details and stakeholdings in the new entity were still being discussed.”

Sony shares, 5th Feb 2014

Android takes the Throne of Smarthones, is Lenovo capable to exploit it?

Interesting Data from Canalys about the Market situation in Smarphone and Mobile World that I suggest to see.
Canalys’ guys give us a useful lot of information that can help us to think what could be the future evolution of Market distribution about Manufacturers and OS.
In this post I start from the Smartphones shipped  Worldwide in 2012 and 2013 and we see the following picture:

Smart phones, Worldwide, units by platform, 2012 and 2013- source Canalys – http://www.canalys.com

 

In the figure above we can see some aspects:

1. The number of Smartphone units is quite 1 Billion that is, really, an important milestone.
2. Android confirms its first position and also increase its market share from 2012, in my calculation from 68% to 79%.
3. iOS don’t exploit the Market increment and even if the number of iPhones is augmented, the share is decreased from about 20% to 15%.
4. Windows Phone increase the shipment of about 90% but the market share in the 50 countries considered by Canalys is still 3.22% in 2013 and if we see other analysis we can see that the European countries are the places that appreciate such operating system.

Another bunch of data is the analysis of smartphones shipped by Lenovo vs the ones shipped by Motorola and Google (Nexus), and we can see that Lenovo already increased its volume from 23 million to 45 million, ehi guys: +90% (increasing the market share vs total from 3.4 to 4.5), Motorola -54% and Google Nexus quite stable.

Smart phones, Worldwide, units by vendor Lenovo/Motorola/google, 2012 and 2013 – data from Canalys

Lenovo at the moment Lenovo+Motorola bases its numbers in a value of 52Million of smartphones with a percentage of 5.22% and from this value we start to follow the Company in order to see if the Motorola adventure will be a good game for the Chinese Company.

 

 

 

Intel tries to break into Mobile World but with also some false steps

Some days ago I commented Gartner data about the decline in “classic” PC world saying that more a decline is a moving of HW market. This because most of the stuff made for the majority of people, i.e. browsing, email, some word processor sheet or some few calculation using a spreadsheet now can be easily done using a Tablet and in a more limited way also by a smartphone.

PC market evolution considering tablets and ultramobiles

What isn’t good for Intel, at the moment, is the fact that almost all the tablets and smartphones are based on ARM processor or with many similarities (see e.g. Scorpion Snapdragon with ARM Cortex A8 ARM v7 instruction set based or the Snapdragon Krait with ARM Cortex-A159 and the x86 related Intel solution named Atom instead has a less diffusion in the mobile market.

arm cortex a15

One of the common statements quite true until now – even if the latest processors show less differences – are that the mentioned x86 Atom are more powerful than related ARM (or Snapdragon solution) but in some way less power saving, and this fact has been one of the main reason, I suppose, of x86 introduction in tablet/smartphones market.

Intel Atom logo

Now Intel seems interested to make a sort of turnaround with two main actions.

• One, following what James Niccolai says on Computerworld, is that “Intel will pay tablet makers to cover the additional component costs of using its Bay Trail chips instead of ARM-based processors, and it will also help cover the engineering costs of designing an Intel tablet.”, and, note, this will be valid in Intel idea for a volume of about 40 million tablets. This approach is someway similar to what Microsoft is making with its Windows Phone in OS environment (of course both the approach are not yet confirmed). Also the target Companies seem the same, i.e. the big players as Samsung.
• The second approach, unfortunately too much used when you want immediate results without seeing a medium/long term approach, is to reduce global workforce by 5%. Really Intel, through its spokesman Chris Kraeuter, says that these are not fired people, and this is commendable, because they says that The job reductions may include retirements, voluntary programs and other options and such percentage is some way is in line with Intel’s typical annual attrition worldwide is about 4%, anyway the fact that such reduction has been highlighted, it doesn’t sounds good for the Company because with such approach it risk to loose some competence.

Anyway what is clear is that Intel in 2014 wants to push its mobile processors in a hardest way hoping to compete against the ARM or ARM-like world.

What is quite funny is that Intel in the past had a good and well known ARM division, especially for the PXA family , that was active until ARM architecture v5, producing the Xscale processors. unfortunately (for Intel I would say) the PXA family was sold to  Marvell Technology, Group in June 2006  for an estimated $600 million in cash and the assumption of unspecified liabilities, allowing Marvell to extend the line including processors with other microarchitectures, like ARM’s Cortex.

We’ll see if this year will be the year of Intel in Mobile world, but this will be not so easy and… Intel’s first steps are not so good if what PCMAG reports will be confirmed, i.e. the wereables objects shown by Intel in CES were ARM based…..

Intel Jarvis Headset

Again on Nokia Normandy and rumors about Microsoft Money NOT for NOTHING.

An update regarding yesterday post.
@evleaks again on Normandy twitting new possible UI screenshots with a description saying “Two ways to interact with Normandy”; such sentence seems related to the fact that Normandy UI has one interaction mode similar to the one that you can experience with Lumia and the other similar to the one you can have with Asha Fastlane.

Possible Nokia Normandy UI from @evleaks

What for sure is strange, remembering that such Nokia Normandy will be anyway a Microsoft product, is the twitter from the Mobile-Review.com editor-in-chief Analyst Eldar Murtazin typically well informed especially on Samsung and Nokia stuff that claims the possibility of money “support” from MS to relevant manufacturers, i.e.:

Samsung         1.2 Bln USD
Sony                0.5 Bln USD
Huawei            0.6 Bln USD
others              0.3 Bln USD

Eldar Murtazin’s tweets

If such rumors are correct, it could mean that MS will play on two tables at least, in one betting on an Android device with MS store, and in the other betting on WP high-end phones made not only by Nokia (… opss… Microsoft) but also by Samsung, Sony,…

Whatever you see the above story, what is real is that the future market will be dominated by Mobile, as highlighted by Gartner.

Will the Android Nokia Normandy invade the Asha Mobile Phone Market?

A rumor some time ago said that one of the reason that speeded up the Nokia Mobile Phone acquisition by Microsoft was a sort of “plan B” for the Finnish Company that included  the use of Android OS in its smartphones. The interest of Nokia on Android was in some way confirmed by a Nokia N9 running Android 2.3 rumors leaked in 2011 and especially by the fact that Stephen Elop said that Nokia tried Android in the past among other OSs. But… after MS acquisition the common sense was that possibility to see an Android Nokia was quite near to zero.

Nevertheless the rumors about such device are still continuing and the recent multiple image leaks including the use of recent Android version KitKat 4.4.1 shows that the project probably could be still ongoing.

As said,  from December several leaks have bounced in the network, in fact on December 2013 @evleaks shows some pictures of a device without capacitive buttons and LED flash.

possible Nokia Android phone leaked on December 2013

and after the above picture, the same @evleaks on 8th of Jan shows pictures with a Skype customized version, in which, the dual SIM, the lack of LED flash lead to the fact that it seems a low end device and to targeted in Asha market Sector, and see also the fact that as Asha devices the back button is designed using a “less-than” symbol “<“.

Android@Nokia as from @evleaks on 8th January 2014

Again also some AnTuTu benchmarks shows a Nokia device (codename A110) using Android 4.4.1 and showing also a 5MPx camera.

AnTuTu benchmark on a Nokia A110 using Android 4.4.1

Recently the always informed @evleaks showed even also an unofficial press picture

Possible unofficial Normandy press picture

The rendering above is interesting because shows a sort of common UI between the high and mid-range WP Lumia’s and such supposed Android low-end Asha. The leaked UI leads also to think about a huge Android Customization with a dedicated fork as made by Amazon for its Kindle Fire and this fact that as we’ll see later it could have some business interest. The multicolored cases are also in line with other Nokia products and following the trend that also Apple have now with its “low-end” iPhone 5C.

Another important aspect that could be seen is that following the approach taken for other smartphones press renders, it seems that the name will be 1045 (from the time indication depicted in the render) and the date depicted could be related to the fact that the announce date for the device will be the 25th of March, even if not in line with other rumors that foresee the announcement during the MWC in Barcelona (24th – 27th  of February). It is remarkable that also Tom Warren from The Verge claims that <<Nokia employees working on Normandy were informed the device is planned as a 2014 release, and one insider described the Normandy effort as “full steam ahead”>>.

During this night I saw also on my twitter an  @evleaks retweet from @vizileaks with a significant “and the waiting game begin”. What is different anyway in this latest picture is the presence of a LED flash (it seems so) showing the possibility of an improvement of the previous prototype or another device.

@vizileaks retweed by @evleaks

Now let’s see what could be the interest of Nokia and MS on an Android device. As I said in the beginning it seems quite strange such device after the acquisition of Nokia Phones by MS and if I understand well by the publicized terms of the Microsoft-Nokia contract:

[…] Microsoft has agreed to a 10 year license arrangement with Nokia to use the Nokia brand on current Mobile Phones products. Nokia will continue to own and maintain the Nokia brand.  Under the terms of the transaction, Microsoft has agreed to a 10 year license arrangement with Nokia to use the Nokia brand on current and subsequently developed products based on the Series 30 and Series 40 operating systems.  Upon the closing of the transaction, Nokia would be restricted from licensing the Nokia brand for use in connection with mobile device sales for 30 months and from using the Nokia brand on Nokia’s own mobile devices until December 31, 2015. […]

So, it seems that only after 31th Dec 2015 Nokia can use Nokia brand on Nokia’s own mobile devices, meaning that such Andorid device (if any) will be part of the Microsoft portfolio in some way.

I would say that even I thought that an offer of low end Android device before the acquisition was a good approach for Nokia, I have some perplexity after such acquisition, now from MS point of view. I would try, anyway, to find some possible benefits for Microsoft, that are also present:

1)      the possible, above mentioned, huge customization via a dedicated Android fork could allow to use in some way the WP store and not only Google Market.

2)     the replacement of Asha OS S40 is a step that has to be done first or later, considering that such Operating system, introduced in 1999 with Nokia 7110, has  weakness respect to newest OSs and particularly to Android (already used in low-end devices)

3)     in a “make or buy” choice the adoption of Android as “off the shelf” OS is a “buy choice” with  with a possible reduction in R&D effort.

4)    the introduction of a well know OS even if with a huge customization could allow to replicate and continue the success made by Asha devices and so assuring to Microsoft to continue its presence in such market.

What doesn’t convince me is:

1)   the fact that in such case the Windows Phone OS will be for sure excluded by the low/end device market, in contrast with the success up to now with Lumia 520, and such fact could impact on WP penetration especially in some regional markets as India.

2)  a possible lack of Google Play replaced by WP store could help for sure the Microsoft Store but could have the collateral effect to make less attractive an Android product without it.

Anyway in a world of pros and cons the choice and a final word is not so simple, and if Normandy will see the light we’ll see if Microsoft/Nokia win such bet.

Sony’s Leadership Role in the Next Years Will Depend on its Capability to Innovate and to Differentiate

Some time ago we heard about the possibility of a Sony Windows phone and we said that one of the possible problems was the fact if Sony is ready or not.

Interesting news on the Verge and on Xperiablog begin to answer to this question and put some other aspects useful to understand what Sony was, is and probably will be.

Starting from the fact that Sony was an iconic brand in Consumer Electronics in the 80’s, simply think about Walkman, and the fact that it had some foggy time between the end of XX century and the beginning of XXI, some changes are highlighted and the possible strengths as capability of Sony to innovate as it made for sure in the 80’s seems again present in the Japanese Company that in the last years many times has been overcome by Korean giants as LG and especially Samsung.

Q2FY2013 results by segment

Sales and Revenue Q3 FY 2013 by Segment

Operating Income by Segment

We could start from Mobile sector, that is one of the driver of current Market in IT and CE and, If we see, brand and products named Xperia have part of the recent improvements in financial of Sony Mobile. Recently Kazuo Hirai (Sony CEO) speaking to The Nikkei said that he believes that Sony can double the volumes of smartphones to 80 million units in FY15 (year to March 2016), this challenging vision is helped by the numbers of last Q2 FY2013 report in which we can see a boost in the mobile segment sells to 418.6 Billion Yen from 300.4 confirming a trend began in 2012 even if the increase in Mobile segment was because the consolidation of Sony Mobile Communication AB formerly known as Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB. What is also very important the is the operating income rises from -23.1 to -0.9 Billion Yen and this is a clear improvement respect to the Q2 FY2012 in which the Operating income saw the value of -23.1 Billion Yen coming from -6.1 Billion (remembering  anyway the Sony Mobile Communication AB consolidation).

Xperia Z1 compact

As I said one of the important stuff is to innovate and differentiate to the competitors and we can see how Sony is moving on this way.

Regarding Mobile segment The Xperia Z1 Compact is a good example. In a world of flagship smartphones with ever larger display and with at least 5” (rumors about large screen are also for iPhone) Sony try to launch a smartphone with a display of 4.3 and not as other companies (as Samsung with its mini) nothing has been less than its 5” sibling.

Of course the trend and the news are not ended, as normal for a Mobile Phone manufacturer, and in fact there are rumors about the next flagship codename Sirius and Canopus. The Sirius handset should be a 5.2-inch device with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and LTE  while Canopus should be a 5-inch smartphone with the latest Snapdragon 805 processor even if other sites  describes Canopus as Wi-fi only, we’ll see but a Snapdragon 805 processor device without cellular part is quite strange to me.

Another example of how Sony would differentiate its smartphone respect the others is the IP (Ingress Protection) Rating offered widely in its portfolio, especially flagships and not only for some dedicated and special series.

Z1 Compact is waterproof

What is interesting, again, are the rumors about of Windows Phone on Sony devices.  if it is right what Sony said about its interest to adopt WP only if it has the possibility to adopt it to its phones, a sort of customization Nokia-like, I think that it is a good approach. What that is not clear, at least to me is if MS agrees on this possibility. Before purchasing Nokia Mobile Phone division I would say that MS would agree without problems, but now are we sure that allows a potential and challenging competitor to make products better or at the same level of its production line?

Also cameras with the mirorrless offer shows Sony capability to innovate even if the financial results doesn’t reflect this yet, showing in fact a decrease in Q3 FY2013 of 8.2% in the Sales respect to the previous year same Quarter.

Handycam® FDR-AX100E

Despite the huge Samsung and LG sales in the last years respect to Japanese vendors, on TV segment for  2012 and 2013 Sony TV series, especially flagships, had several good reviews and the TRILUMINOS technology seems in the good way to replicate or at least emulate the success made with the famous TRINITRON in the last decades.

Last year 4K XBR900 series was appreciated as a very good product and this year at CES Sony presents in high end part the X95, X9 and X85 spanning from 49” to 85” all of them with TRILUMINOS and the X9 also with the speaker Magnetic Fluid that allows a quite good (or acceptable for the audiophiles) without huge or complicated audio systems or home theaters. The W-series with 1080p resolution this year is less high-end level than the past years but they could be anyway considered as “premium mainstream”. That 4K is a buzzword of these days it is confirmed also by the 4K Camcorder with 1″ sensor FDR-AX100/B presented in 2014 CES.

4K from Sony

In the last years VAIO brand even if not at the top in the selling of worldwide PC has been a well-recognized and appreciated brand and such brand could be used in the future Windows Phone devices (if any), even if, in my opinion, the Xperia brand for not business customers in my opinion is more attractive.  Probably it is possible that Sony is thinking about two series, one business (Vaio) and the other one more generic (Xperia),but… who knows?

Regarding Games sector, Sony at CES 2014 in Vegas showed good result with 4.2 Million units sold as of December 28th 2013 for its PlayStation 4, huge number compared to also good values of 3 Million units sold in case

So we could say that Sony is on the track regarding innovation and capacity to offer something of different respect to the competitors and for the Manufacture not dedicated only to low end segments is a must (did someone say Apple?). These facts are not probably sufficient for a worldwide success but without them I think that is very difficult to have it.

Is the market ready for a Sony Windows Phone, …. and is Sony ready for Market?

Some sites (www.engadget.com, http://www.wpcentral.com) quoted an article from a former Wall Street journalist Jessica Lessing’s site (theinformation.com) about the possibility from SONY to release in 2014 a Windows Phone Mobile Phone. This will be the first WP from Sony (note that in the former Joint Venture Sony-Ericsson some phones Windows based was released).
See what is the WP market and the possibility for another OEM. Windows Phone market penetration in 2013 shows a significant increase mainly in some European countries –see http://gs.statcounter.com/ – even if figures are still little respect to Android and iOS. At the moment WP market is clearly lead by Nokia as reported by AdDuplex (http://blog.adduplex.com/2013/09/adduplex-windows-phone-statistics.html).

After the Nokia Device segment acquisition by Microsoft (note there some delay because of China position about it) the need for another important WP player could seem less important than in the past and in principle dangerous for MS itself as manufacturer, but I would say that at the current market penetration this new player could, instead, help the WP spread. Sony is an appealing brand with heritage and echo-system in sound and music (simply thinking to Walkman brand) and also the Vaio brand is important and well recognized in PC environment. Another important fact is Sony capability to give added values to its phones with features as IP (Ingress Protection Rating) certification for protection provided against the dust, water, …, well known displays (even if some Xperia weren’t appreciated for them).

So it seems that Sony has all the stuff needed for approaching in a good way this possible Windows Phone adventure and in my opinion the WP share in mobile market is little enough to ask a new boost from another important and determined manufacturer. Sony, again, in this way could try to explore other possibilities apart from Android that at the moment has already a very good market penetration but seems still to dominate by Samsung.
What Sony has to take in consideration if will approach WP is, in my opinion, to use an aggressive marketing campaign. Consumers has to recognize in a clear way the added value that Sony can provide to the phones and could approach also the possibility to consider the WP smartphones as good companion device for its Vaio PCs and (why not?) TVs.