750M Android Devices Activated To Date

Android is the world’s most used mobile platform today,
says Google CEO Larry Page. In a blog post last week, Page quickly shared a few numbers supporting his statement that Android is the current King of the Hill. What do you think about global partnerships with over 60 manufacturers; more than 750 million devices that have been activated globally; and 25 billion apps which have been downloaded from Google Play? Those numbers are pretty impressive, to be sure.



These numbers are
especially
noteworthy if you go
back several months, when Google released numbers for Android activations. In September 2012,
there were supposed to be 500 million activations.
A 250-million increase is not bad at all, is it?

Analysts seem to agree on the idea that Android is the clear leader in the smartphone market. With so many manufacturers opting to run their devices on Android, as opposed to only Apple using iOS, this is really not a bone of contention. Additionally, sales figures from 2012 indicate that Android dominates the smartphone OS market, with 69.7% market share in the last quarter, with iOS having 20.9%. All the rest of the competition are lagging far, far behind.

What may prove to be a trickier thing is the estimates on number of Android activations. In an analysis of the September 2012 announcement (the 500-million figure), Ben Evans raises valid questions.

• How are devices which are activated twice treated/counted? These are the devices that are sold/given second hand, which is obviously a growing market.
• What about the many Android devices in China which do not come installed with Google services (necessary when counting activations)?

In short, we do have an idea of how many Android devices have been activated, but it’s more on the estimate side than on the precise side. Precise or not, the numbers are something to contend with. And how about this prediction?

With the estimated figures at this point in time, the 1-billion mark is not such an impossible target. It does (or doesn’t, depending on which camp you’re from) help that Samsung’s phones are getting more and more interesting.

The World’s Thinnest Watch CST-01

The fundraising site, Kickstarter, has once again made it possible for an innovative product idea to become a reality.  Thanks to those who have backed the project on Kickstarter, “the world’s thinnest watch” will soon become a reality.  The CST-01 is a 0.80 millimeter thin flexible wristwatch.  It has an E ink display that is housed in a single strip of stainless steel. According to a statement on the company’s website, the idea came when one of the founders taped an E ink display around his wrist.  From that inspiration, has come the reality of this flexible, thin, stainless steel watch.

In order to give the watch a minimal aesthetic, there are no buttons or knobs on the watch itself. Instead, the watch is set and charged on a base station, which is included with the purchase of the watch. The watch is powered by a micro energy cell.  The micro energy cell can be recharged 10,000 times and has a life expectancy of 15 years. Incredibly, the watch can charge in only 10 minutes and each charge can last for a month. The assembly process for the CST-01 involves laminating flexible components into a 0.5 millimenter pocket that is etched into a single piece of flexible stainless steel. The company promises that the watches will be assembled in the United States.

The company that designed the watch, Central Standard Timing, set its fundraising goal at $200,000.  Within a week they had raised more than double the initial goal amount. By the end of the campaign they had raised $1,026,292. In an update to backers on the Kickstarter website, the company stated that “Because of the enthusiastic support, we have enough funding to have our pick of the best assembly partners and component suppliers to make the watch as good as it can possibly be.”  If you missed the Kickstarter campaign, you can still pre-order your CST-01 at the company’s website, centralstandardtiming.com.

Google has released figures showing that most Android handsets still run 2.3 Gingerbread but Jelly Bean continue to grow. The distribution of all other versions decreased since last month

iPhone and Windows Phone users tend to highlight the fact that there are still older version of Android available and that this is a problem for Android users. Android fragmentation is a search query that returns 1.940.000 results on Google Search. For most users, this is not a problem. For developers, this could be a problem. For each new version of the operating system, Google has added services that do not exist in older versions. A developer needs to decide if he want to use any of the new API's (services) but then exclude older handsets from running the app.

The Gingerbread version has the largest user group with 44% of the total devices that accessed Google Play within a 14-day period ending in the beginning of March 2013. There has only been a slight change since last month. Older versions such as Froyo 2.2, Eclair 2.0-2.1 and Donut 1.6 has a user base of 9.7%. The share of Gingerbread 2.3 handsets is constantly decreasing. Jelly Bean 4.2 is the only versions with an increased user base since last month. Jelly Bean increased from 13.6% in February to 16.5% in March. Most high-end handsets available today has Ice Cream Sandwich installed. Jelly Bean will soon be the most installed version on high-end and flagship models. Most of the new handsets announced at Mobile World Congress last month will be shipped with Jelly Bean 4.1/4.2. Ice Cream Sandwich is still being installed on most entry-level devices. Keep in mind that these numbers will change when smartphone vendors releases an updated OS version for their smartphones.

Samsung today announced the Galaxy S4. A 5-inch Android smartphone with LTE, 1.9 GHz quad-core CPU or 1.6 GHz octa-core processor.

We all knew that Samsung would unveil the Galaxy S 4 at the Unpacking event taking place this evening. We have read countless rumours, photo leaks and even video reviews of this new flagship model from Samsung.


Most of the specifications we published two weeks ago turned out to be the real thing. The Galaxy S4 will be available in at least two version. One with a quad-core processor clocked at 1.9 GHZ and one version with a octa-core processor clocked at 1.6 GHz. The display is 5-inch Super AMOLED and internal storage is 16, 32 or 64 GB. The Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean powered device has 2 GB of RAM. It will record Full HD 1080p videos. Still photos are captured with the 13 megapixel main camera, or the 2.1 megapixel front camera.



One interesting thing for the business and enterprise uses is the Knox security feature. Knox separates the phone in a personal space and a work space. A company can for example sync all data on the work space and at the same time have no access to the personal space. 

Some of the new features are: Smart pause - video pausing when eyes are move away from the screen. S health - calorie counter. New sensors: temperature and humidity in addition to the older Accelerometer, RGB  light, digital compass, proximity, gyro and barometer. S-translator text-to-speech and speech-to-text from and to over 6 languages. Camera has an eraser function which will remove unwanted objects from a photo. The dual shot will create pictures by adding a thumbnail photo captured by the front camera to the larger photo captured with the main camera.



Samsung Galaxy S 4 highlights

• Size: 136.6 x 69.8 7.9 mm
• Weight: 130 gram
• 5-inch Super AMOLED display with a 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution
• Networks
• GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
• HSPA+ 850/900/1900/2100 MHz
• LTE: up to 6 different bands sets

• 13 megapixel camera, autofocus, flash, zero shutter lag. Dual shot
• 2 megapixel front camera
• 1080p video capture
• Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac
• GPS and GLONASS
• NFC
• IR LED
• MHL
• Bluetooth 4.0
• 2 GB RAM
• 16, 32 or 64 GB internal storage. Expandable with microSD card
• Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• 2600 mAh battery

Sony Mobile has finally released the Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0 update for its flagship smartphone Xperia S

The update for the 2011 Xperia range of smartphones started on April 13th where the first models was the Xperia Arc S, Xperia Neo V and Xperia Ray. Sony Mobile also announced that other models would receive the ICS update within 4-6 weeks after the first release. Today we know that Sony managed to meet the previously set deadline for some of the 2011 Xperia S models.

Xperia S will receive the normal Android 4.0 update functionality such as

• Lock screen with improved functionality
• Resizable widgets (improved personalization)
• Improved control of your mobile data consumption
• Recent Apps button for clear overview of your applications

In addition to those improvements, Sony has improved several features regarding media handling. The Xperia S has now got a new Walkman application with Facebook and Gracenote integration. The Album application is improved by reducing its response time. Lastly, the Movies app will access an online database to fetch information about stored movies.

Just like previously Android updates from Sony, the Ice Cream Sandwich update for Xperia S will be released in batches over the next few weeks.