At an event earlier today Motorola, a Google company unveiled its latest ‘budget’ smartphone called “Moto G”. The theme of the entire event and the ideology behind the product was to make premium features available at a non-premium price.

While announcing the new Moto G product Motorola executives mentioned Apple’s iPhone 5s, Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and HTC a few times. Moto G features 4.5 inch high resolution screen with 329 ppi and 720p. The executives were quick to point out that the screen has better quality than Apple’s flagship iPhone 5s. Moto G runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 clocked at 1.2 GHz, 1GB RAM, and offers “all-day” battery life with around 14 hours of talk time on 3G networks. In comparison, iPhone 5s according to Apple offers 10 hours of battery life on 3G.

After unveiling the hardware features and sharing the idea behind creating a budget phone Punit Soni who is responsible for software product management for Moto G took the stage to talk about software. Soni mentioned the three main tenets of their software strategy for Moto G. The first being build on pure foundation of Android, second build experiences that compliment Google services and not compete with them and lastly ensure that the software can give value back to the users.

If you’ve ever seen any Android device in the market manufactured by Samsung, HTC or Sony among many others you will immediately realise that all these companies have two things in common. They add a layer of their own software to the stock OS and bundle services that compete with Google’s software services.

Soni began to elaborate on the three main tenets by saying:

In today’s ecosystem mobile manufactures have a very confused relationship with Android they build on top of it but then they add all of these custom skins which detract from the user experience and hogs resources then they go ahead and put duplicative software on top of it which basically compete with Google services.

He goes on to mention that devices bundled with multiple mail apps, app stores, video players and music players results in “non-intuitive” and “cluttered” user interface.

At the time of purchase of Motorola by Google for a record  $12.5 billion the search giant claimed that they bought the company to secure Android’s position in future by acquiring key patents. Even though Google claims to treat all Android partners equally, at today’s event Soni was sending an indirect yet strong message to ‘other’ Android device manufacturers.

While referencing to the custom skins the slide Soni used had TouchWiz, Sense UI and Xperia UI. Clearly, targeting the top three Android manufacturers to convey that Moto G’s software strategy is superior to other Android partners. So, in essence Motorola a company owned by Google called Samsung, Sony and HTC “confused”.

Soni then goes on to advocate the use of “pure Android” in mobile devices and says:

A device that’s built on pure Android with minor optimisations is gonna have an incredible high performance

Here again Soni is sending out a clear message that any device with custom UI layers may be missing out on high performance as other non-stock apps and skins may hog more resources than required.

This could have a long term effect on customer mindset when they buy Android devices. Users could soon start associating “real” Android experience with Motorola (since Google owns Motorola) and “spinoff” experience with other smartphone manufacturers.

When it comes to smartphones most devices are beginning to look quite similar in terms of hardware so ultimately manufacturers try to differentiate their products with custom skins and other software services. However, at today’s event it appears that Google might have used the announcement of Moto G as an opportunity to convey Google’s stand on device manufacturers trying to add custom layers.

If this wasn’t enough, Motorola went on to compare performance of Moto G in terms of answering calls, making calls, launching browser, returning home and booting to Samsung Galaxy S4 to show how stock Android OS was clearly the winner.

This is the best validation of a strategy which involves disciplined software which focuses on optimisation that creates value for the user

In his attempt to bring attention to stock Android experience Soni suggests that software strategy being followed by other Android device manufacturers is rather indisciplined.

So, in conclusion on one hand Google’s Motorola tried to highlight the features of its new low-priced smartphone but on the other it clearly didn’t fall short of ridiculing Google’s Android partners.

It will be interesting to see how Samsung, HTC and Sony respond to Motorola claiming that their devices are non-intuitive, have cluttered interface and custom skins that hog resources.

Apple has been receiving stiff competition from companies such as Samsung, which quickly moved up in the market following its release of Galaxy S devices and anti-Apple advertising. Now, it seems that another company is gearing up to do the same thing, perhaps, after seeing it become a success with Samsung. A new ad from LG highlights OPtimus G Pro’s Panorama feature just like iPhone 4S and 5 TV ad, and then adds on to it.

By doing this, the ad shows that the company’s Optimus G Pro phone is more advanced and that the panorama feature is more expansive on this device. in Apple’s version of the ad, a person is taking a picture of children and uses the Panorama feature to sweep across the screen while saying an elongated “cheeeeese”.

The LG spot begins nearly identical to Apple’s, with the same classic white background, lineup of children, and use of the panorama feature. The narrator in the ad, also says the same phrase, “cheeeese” (“Kimchiiiiiii”) in Japanese. However, halfway through the ad, the Optimus G Pro begins to move all around the screen while capturing a number of different image points including the ceiling and floor. The children, which are organized horizontally in Apple’s ad, are active and running about in LG’s ad.

Google released the “Photo Sphere” feature with the JellyBean 4.2 update to the Android OS, meaning that users can automatically upload the photo to their other Google services. This isn’t the first time that one of Apple’s ads were skewed to show off a feature on another phone, however, these ads appear to be working in the favor of competitors, particularly Samsung.

{Via AppleInsider}

According to the latest Nielsen report, Android and iPhone make up majority of the U.S smartphone market. Both Android phones and iPhone did not exist or were not popular about 5 years ago, and were introduced into a Nokia and Blackberry dominated market. Since then Google and Apple have become fierce competitors and the data proves that they are in fact, at the top of the smartphone market. According to the report, Android’s increase in market share was a whopping 53% from January to October, up from a solid 42%. Apple’s iOS, although trailing behind Android also experienced an increase, from 21% to 29%.

With Android and Apple leading the pack, Blackberry’s RIM has been seeing a steady decline in shares, holding on to only 11.6 percent of the smartphone market, which is substantially less than both Android and Apple. Other smartphone companies, such as Motorola once held over 36% of the smartphone market but have since dropped to below 1%, as of March 2009. This is due in large part to Apple’s massive success with the iPhone’s adoption, selling more of the device each quarter and the widespread adoption of Android OS in a number of smartphones, including Motorola’s Droid line.

Nielsen’s report also mentioned new smartphone purchases, where 48 percent of users surveyed in February said they purchased an Android phone and 43% said they purchased an iPhone. These are staggering numbers, especially since both of these companies have not faltered with their takeover of the U.S smartphone market and have increased their annual revenue with each passing year.

According to the survey results reported by Fortune, 87% of Android developers view fragmentation as a growing concern for the mobile platform. It’s no secret that iOS developers have played a huge role in making Apple’s platform a huge success. Apple provides its developers a unified, single store experience which allows them to focus on developing great apps while customers know exactly where to go to discover their apps.

Android is considered a “open platform” which gives users and developers lots of options. However, now the same options and alternatives have become a concern for the developers. If you were to find Android app you could look up the Android Market on your phone, search Amazon store or even browse GetJar. So, this may leave the end user thinking that the default Market is not an exhaustive list of apps and force then to look for alternatives. This in turn makes things increasingly difficult for developers as they try to fight ‘app discoverability’ in more and more online stores.

Even though Apple’s App Store has been widely criticized for not being ‘open’ it offers a great experience for both, the end user and the developer.

Google recently also went against the concept of being ‘open’ when they ‘closed’ the source code to its Android 3.0 Honeycomb platform for the tablets to prevent use on smartphones.

Google has been trying to restrict its handset partners from making too many modifications to the Android OS and discouraged them from such practices in an effort to counter the fragmentation issue.

It will be interesting to see how Google tries to keep the developers happy and offer solutions which makes developing for the platform easier.

{Fortune via AppleInsider}

The Motorola tablet certainly looks a nice size (very thin), and seems to perform well from the videos we have seen. And it ran a very cool 3D Vector version of Google maps, which is certainly nifty.

But this device is yet another fragmentation of the Android eco-system and User Interface, for one because it has no physical buttons at all. A minor point, but all this tends to make developers and users lives more difficult when you also factor in the multiple, very different versions of Android on devices, screen sizes, and performance characteristics. All things that Apple with its iOS devices manages to avoid.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab has not really impressed the way that Apple’s iPad has. But it is easy to see now why Apple would want to get their iPad 2 revision out sooner rather than later, so that they can start working towards iPad 3 for the end of 2011 / beginning of 2012. If Android as an OS can be made to behave more at home on tablets, and dual core fire-breathing tablets start hitting stores next year then the iPad might finally get a run for its money.

Do you think Motorola’s tablet could topple the iPad? Or are you expecting something special from Apple and the iPad 2?

{Wired}

If an official declaration of war was necessary, it was presented this week at the Google I/O conference. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) are at war and all of the afternoon coffee breaks between Steve and Eric aren’t going to change that. As the technology world moves from the desktop to the mobile world, the long truce that held between these two rivals dissolved as Microsoft moved to a place of importance but relative irrelevance. So now that the guns are blazing in round two of the Battle of Silicon Valley, who will eventually win the conflict? Will it be Apple with their superior user experience, vertically integrated products, and developed ecosystem? Will it be Google with its clout, emergent systems, and open standards? In fact, neither will be the winner or the loser. The real winner will be you and I, the consumers that use the products and services of both companies.

It is a generally accepted axiom of commercial and economic theory that competition breeds innovation. It is, in fact, the central underpinning of the free market system. When the iPhone and associated operating system came on the scene in 2007 it had no competitor, it had no comparison. It was utterly and truly a new thing, formed entirely to bring a new experience to the cell phone. There was WAP web browsing before the iPhone, there were even limited Java-based applications. The iPhone was born from the realization that consumers would be interested in using a true smart phone as a mini-computer instead of just a phone and limited entertainment device. Apple took that initial lead they grabbed by going in another direction and parlayed it into an environment they slowly iterated to add new features as they became comfortable with them. By the time the iPhone 3G came out in 2008 Apple was firmly astride the mobile market with a dominance and lead no one could question.

But a funny thing happened on the way to world domination, Google showed up. When the Android operating system was announced in 2007 it signaled a move by Google into the mobile space. Google wanted a share of the emergent market Apple had discovered with the iPhone they had announced earlier that year. At the time Android presented little threat to the iPhone OS. It was seen as a configuration heavy, geek friendly operating system while the iPhone OS was geared towards a managed, consumer friendly experience. Between 2007 and 2009 the iPhone OS grabbed a large share of the smart phone market, partially due to its innovative design and partially due to the lack of a viable alternative. When the Motorola Droid was launched in October of 2009 with Android OS 2.0, serious competition for the iPhone finally landed. In the interceding time since then, the innovation and competition coming out of both companies has heated up.

I don’t think it comes as any surprise that I am generally a fan of the iPhone, the iPhone OS, and the whole ecosystem Apple has grown around it. It’s my opinion that it presents the best integrated user experience. I would be the first one to admit however that with the inception of Android 2.0 Google has started to right the ship. As a consumer in the iPhone ecosystem I don’t view this as necessarily a bad thing and neither should you. Good competition breeds innovation and innovation ultimately benefits the consumer. While I wouldn’t advise Apple to start rushing features and services into their products merely to participate in a “me-too” race with Google, I might suggest that taking the competition into consideration might be a good idea. I think they’ve done that already with the inclusion of video conferencing, a front facing camera, and multitasking to the upcoming iPhone 4G / HD. In evaluating the competition and consumer demand, Apple has added features to the product they are comfortable with and that advance the product that much more. Competition spurred the innovation but the innovation wasn’t simply a move to imitate something the competition already had. That’s an important point. As I mentioned yesterday, Google’s Froyo announcement at I/O seemed intent on introducing features that were picked from a shopping list of things the iPhone OS didn’t have. The things Apple is bringing to the table in the new iPhone 4G and iPhone operating system may have been spurred by the competition from Android, but they are not simply extensions of what Android already offers.

The good news is this war will have a winner; you, the consumer. Much like an earlier war between Apple and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) produced improved versions of both Windows and Mac OS, this new conflict will ultimately breed innovations and improvements in the mobile market. I, for one, can’t wait to see what happens.

Do you think this newfound competition in the mobile space will ultimately benefit the consumer? Does either Apple or Google really have the clout to truly beat the other? Leave us your thoughts in the comments section.

What we need to remember with this survey is that Google are in the process of buying AdMob. And that Google are the developers of the Android mobile phone OS. I am not saying I don’t believe their figures. They make sense to me. I certainly plan to produce versions of my apps for any platform that has a decent SDK. And in free or lite versions I will use AdMob where appropriate. Having said that, as soon as Apple have their own advertising system setup within the iPhone SDK I will most likely switch to that for iPhone and iPod applications. I wonder if AdMob asked about that in their survey?

AdMob has provided a Framework or Library which can be integrated into projects being made with the Android SDK, much like we expect Apple to integrate their own solution into the iPhone SDK in future.

The gist of AdMob’s survey is that 70% of current iPhone developers (who were actually surveyed by AdMob) say they will be releasing something on the Android platform in the coming year. This seems a no-brainer to me.

Those figures break down curiously to 31% of mobile developers already doing multi-platform work and 47% saying that they will do so in the next 6 months. Not quite sure how those figures add up to 70%. But I presume the devil is in the details or AdMob’s calculator is out by 8%!

Other figures that AdMob quote are that 58% of their network currently develop mobile websites, and 49% of their total developers have been working on mobile stuff for less than 12 months.

Those of you that are AdMob developers will have noticed frequent updates to the developer web interface since Google announced they were buying the mobile ad firm. In fact today their interface changed again. On a personal level I wish they’d decide on one or other way to report advert figures, and stop changing stuff about!

CEO of Admob, Omar Hamoui, has this to say :

The explosive growth we’re seeing makes it an exciting time to be an important part of the mobile advertising industry. We’ve worked very hard to create innovative ways to help mobile developers achieve their goals and easily manage their business – whether on the iPhone, Android or other emerging platforms.

Can we expect Palm integration soon Omar?

Source : [mobile-ent.biz] ]]> https://touchreviews.net/70-apple-iphone-app-developers-heading-android-admob/feed/ 7