Shares of Taiwanese mobile phone maker HTC have plunged to a seven-and-a-half year low, as its profit continues to slide amid increased competition.
The firm's shares fell 7% on Monday to $189 Taiwanese dollars. On Friday, it reported an 83% drop in profit for the second quarter from a year earlier.
Net profit stood at NT$1.25bn ($42m; £27m) for the April to June period.
Although the figure was an improvement on the previous quarter, it fell short of analyst and investor expectations.
The firm, which was an early leader in the Android smartphone sector, has lost its market share to rivals such as Samsung and Apple in recent years.
In an attempt to regain some of that share it has launched new phone models in recent months, including the HTC One.
Analysts said that while those devices had helped in boosting profits in the three months to the end of June, the firm may find it hard to fend off competition in the long term.
"HTC may have new products in the third quarter, but competition from Apple and other Chinese brands is fierce," Taipei-based analyst Peter Liao of Nomura Securities said after the firm released its earnings.
"It'll be hard to keep the growth."
However, HTC is not the only firm that has posted weaker-than-expected earnings.
On Friday, profit estimates issued by Samsung - the world's biggest mobile phone maker - also missed analysts' expectations.
That had triggered concerns that that rate of growth the South Korean firm has enjoyed in the smartphone sector, one of the biggest contributors to its overall profits in recent years, may be slowing.
The music was to be delivered through an Android app for several of Samsung's smartphones, but as the album was released, some fans balked at the amount of personal data the app was trying to access.
The app – which has since been removed from the Google Play store by Samsung – was described by the technology site Ars Technica as "positively PRISM-like in its requests for your information", with fans prompted to agree to a number of app permissions before installing it.
Some of those permissions were necessary: for example, to store the downloaded files on fans' handsets.
Others, such as its request to access the device's location and information about other apps running on the phone, and to read the phone's status and identify when it's being used for voice calls, were more questionable.
In the run-up to the music's release, fans were also able to browse lyric sheets for the tracks – but only if they posted a tweet or Facebook status update promoting the fact that they had unlocked each lyric.
Ars Technica wasn't the only site to suggest that Jay-Z's app went too far, given recent news stories involving personal data and privacy.
"I can't be the only one who thinks it's creepy, especially when Edward J. Snowden's revelations have shown the extent of government surveillance of emails and phone records," wrote the New York Times' Jon Pareles.
"If Jay-Z wants to know about my phone calls and email accounts, why doesn't he join the National Security Agency? Nor is it particularly reassuring, to me anyway, that this example of data collection and forced speech was required by corporations – Samsung and Jay-Z's Roc Nation rather than the government."
Samsung reportedly paid Jay-Z $5m (£3.4m) for the rights to give away 1m digital copies of Magna Carta Holy Grail, in a deal hailed at the time as a positive example of brands and musicians working together.
Before the app's removal from Google Play, a significant proportion of reviews from the well over 500,000 people who'd installed it were positive, indicating that for many fans the app permissions weren't a concern.
At least the app was official. Last week, the internet security firm McAfee identified a fake version with Trojan malware embedded in it.
"On the surface, the malware app functions identically to the legit app. But in the background, the malware sends info about the infected device to an external server every time the phone restarts," explained McAfee's Irfan Asrar in a blog post.
"The malware then attempts to download and install additional packages … To paraphrase lyrics from Jay-Z, it seems Android malware has 99 problems and Android/AntiObscan just became another."
Some fans eschewed both apps in favour of turning to BitTorrent to download Magna Carta Holy Grail for nothing. The technology site TorrentFreak claims that the album was downloaded through torrent sites more than 200,000 times in a single day after its release within the app.
It's too early to tell what effect the app promotion and piracy will have on sales and streams of the new album, which was released on Monday in most of the world, and comes out on Tuesday in the US.
Apple's iTunes is selling the album digitally in the UK, while Spotify appears to have secured an exclusive – for this week at least – on the streaming version of Magna Carta Holy Grail.
Just a few days before its expected launch on Thursday in New York, images from Nokia's 41-megapixel PureView Windows Phone smartphone have leaked — and they're phenomenal. Furthermore, after a slew of case and chassis leaks, and some speculation about the phone's name, the same leak confirms that the 41-megapixel phone will be called the Nokia Lumia 1020.
This information stems from the Flickr account of Joe Belfiore, the manager of Microsoft's Windows Phone division. Hidden amongst hundreds of photos shot with a Sony DSC-RX100, there are two photos taken by a Lumia 1020 — the photo above (view larger), and the photo below (click it to zoom in). Take a moment to appreciate just how awesome the quality of the first photo is. Prior to Belfiore's uploads, it wasn't clear if the phone — code named the Lumia EOS — would be called the Lumia 909 or 1020. It's possible that Belfiore has pulled the wool over our eyes by altering the photo's EXIF data before uploading to Flickr, but highly unlikely.
Ever since the release of the 808 PureView, a stillborn Symbian-powered smartphone that produced stunning photos (below), Nokia has teased us with the eventual release of a Windows Phone with the same 41MP sensor. While the Lumia 1020 will be equipped with a 41-megapixel sensor, it will capture photos using just 31MP when shooting 16:9 photos (7728×4354), or 38MP at 4:3 (7152×5368). Realistically, though, due to prohibitive file sizes, you won't use either of these resolutions: Instead, the Lumia 1020 will come with the option of shooting oversampled images. With oversampling, clusters of pixels are averaged/combined to create a high-fidelity, but lower-resolution (~5MP) images. In the two photos above, their resolutions are only 4- and 5-megapixels respectively — but as you can see, the image quality is far superior to a normal 5MP smartphone camera sensor. For more details on how the Lumia 1020 will oversample, read our original 808 PureView story.
Oversampling is only part of the story, of course — as you can see from the rather sizable bulge in the back of the leaked Lumia 1020 chassis, the sensor itself, and the accompanying Carl Zeiss lens, are big. When it comes to sensors, the size of the individual photosites really does matter. There is a reason that digital cameras with APS-C sensors, such as Canon and Nikon DSLRs, are capable of shooting such high-quality and low-noise photos — and why 35mm (full-frame) DSLRs are even better than that.
There's no word on pricing, but we'd expect the Lumia 1020 to be similar to the Lumia 920 — perhaps with a slightly lower-spec screen or SoC, to keep profit margins high. Alternatively, the 1020 could become Nokia's new flagship, and be priced accordingly — but considering how fat and heavy this thing is likely to be, that's unlikely. The Lumia 1020 will almost certainly come with the same Amber software update that shipped with the Lumia 925 — and using all of those awesome Smart Camera features with a 41-megapixel sensor sounds very exciting indeed.
Microsoft will send the finished version of Windows 8.1 to PC manufacturers before fall, the company announced Monday. Tami Reller, Microsoft's chief marketing officer for Windows, announced at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference that Windows 8.1 RTM (release to manufacturing) is at the end of August.
Windows 8.1 is the first major update to Windows 8, and Microsoft had previously announced it would be available as a free download to Windows 8 customers in time for the 2013 holiday season.
Reller also said new customers are upgrading to Windows 8 at a "consistent pace," according to a blog post about the news. However, Microsoft isn't providing any new numbers, instead reiterating that it has sold about 100 million Windows 8 licenses. That number does not necessarily represent actual usage.
The RTM stage is an important one for major software updates. Once manufacturers have Windows 8.1 RTM, they can begin finalizing their products that are tailored specifically for the new version of Windows and its many new features.
In addition to revealing the date for Windows 8.1 RTM, Reller also said Microsoft would launch something called User Experience Design Competency. As described, the program is intended to outline the best ways to train software designers to create the best apps for Windows 8 and get recognized for their work.
Microsoft is also launching another program called TouchWins, a commercial channel created to provide incentives to retailers to sell touch-enabled PCs that best showcase the Windows 8 Pro experience.
Windows 8, New & Improved
Windows 8.1, which will be available to customers in the fall, includes many new features as well as refinements to the user interface. One of the updates lets you use the same background for the desktop and the modern UI.
New Live Tiles
There are two new sizes of live tile in Windows 8.1: tiny and extra-large.
Snap on Steroids
Snap -- where you have two different-size windows on the screen -- gets a big upgrade in Windows 8.1. You can split the screen however you want now, and even use Snap with multiple apps at the same time.
Global Search
Search is enhanced in Windows 8.1, which will create a "search hero" results page full of organized information from both the web and your local machine.
Deeper SkyDrive Integration
You can easily pick which files from SkyDrive get mirrored to your PC. It's also the default place to save documents.
Summary: The HTC One is the best smartphone I have ever used and with this new major update HTC shows they are committed to keeping it that way.
(Image: HTC)
A Google Edition HTC One arrived on Friday morning and I am working on a large gallery comparing it to the carrier Sense version that will go live on Monday. I love my T-Mobile HTC One and after reading Android Central's post on the Android 4.2.2 update rolling out around the world I see little reason to even consider another phone at this time.
The hardware of the HTC One is arguably the best in the world. Read nearly any review of the device and there is little argument that the hardware is fantastic and usually earns a 9 or 10 rating. Software is where people have differing opinions and while I am a fan, there are a few things I need to see fixed. These include accessibility support for my Pebble, notification area tweaks, more Highlight Video themes, and custom BlinkFeed RSS support.
As you can see in the Android Central video below, HTC is fixing most all of these and improving the device in other ways.
The Android 4.2.2 update for the HTC One includes the following improvements and fixes:
Slick right side notification quick control area with many new controls too
Improved Zoe image management
Six new Highlight Video themes. Check out the Android Central post for all of them.
Removal of stupid Power Saver breaking the notification shade
Actionable screenshot notification
Instagram support in HTC BlinkFeed
Removal of black bar, making Home button the menu bar
Swipe up from Home to launch Google Now
New widget support for lock screen
Dock bar moving improvement
Updated wallpaper setup
Improved camera utilities
Daydreams screensaver animations
I was very pleased to see the Zoe management improvement and did not expect HTC to fix that so quickly. It was difficult and space hungry to use the Zoe function and end up with so many unused Zoe stills. You can still use the excellent image edition tools with Zoes to create cool content and capture stills from the Zoes.
The updated Quick Controls area is also awesome to see and again was something I didn't expect. Instagram is a nice addition to BlinkFeed, but I still want custom RSS support too.
This 4.2.2 update gives me more confidence in HTC and their support for their flagship HTC One. An already superb smartphone is made even better and when you see my comparison to the Google Edition One I think you will agree that an HTC One without Sense is not an HTC One.
The virtualisation war is heating up. With Server 2012 Microsoft is at last bringing a viable platform to the table and Server 2012 R2 looks set to eclipse that.
You will get different numbers depending on who you talk to but the general consensus is that Microsoft has managed to grab about one quarter of all new installs.
It is easy to understand why greenfield deployment numbers are keeping VMware execs awake at night, but how difficult is it for Microsoft to crack committed VMware shops?
Peaceful coexistence
The key to breaking into brownfield virtualisation is ease of transition and coexistence. VMware has a powerful grip on the enterprise and the first rule of enterprise IT is that you do not introduce technologies that will disrupt running services.
Downtime is money – almost always far more money than the pricing delta between VMware and Microsoft.
Microsoft has begun to address some of these concerns by giving System Center 2012 the ability to manage multiple hypervisors from a single application. While moving virtual machines between VMware and Hyper-V infrastructures is still something of a pain, a single point of management helps mitigate that.
Running two environments has its upsides. If you embrace heterogeneity you can gain some measure of freedom from vendor lock-in but at the expense of increased complexity, requiring additional staff and training.
The costs can be offset at scale by the bargaining position a heterogeneous environment gives you. If vendors play hardball you can sweat them out without operational impact.
Whether your goal is to operate two environments in tandem or to transition from one to the other, you are going to run across the need to convert virtual machines.
Technically, it is best to reinstall and reconfigure each virtual machine for its new environment. However, that is impractical and unrealistic.
Does Microsoft have what it takes to tackle conversion?
Frequent the library
Microsoft's virtualisation management tool is System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). This will deploy hypervisors to bare metal systems. It will also manage hypervisors, virtual machines and virtual networks, and to an increasing extent virtualised storage. It is also the tool that allows you to manage hypervisors from multiple vendors.
Assuming that you have added your VMware environment to SCVMM then converting a virtual machine residing on a VMware server to Hyper-V is reasonably straightforward.
One part of SCVMM's duties includes keeping a library of virtual machines and it is from here that handling virtual machines in bulk really takes place.
If you have a virtual machine that you want to convert, then you can simply copy the virtual machine files over to the SCVMM library server, place them in the appropriate directory and trigger a rescan. The virtual machines will then show up in the library's list and you can choose "convert virtual machine" at your leisure.
This is available as a standalone application or as a plug-in for the VMware vSphere Client. It is completely scriptable and suitable for datacentre-scale work. A PowerShell Automation Toolkit is available for MVMC as well.
Entirely separate from the MVMC is the Virtual Machine Migration Toolkit (VMMT), also a large-scale conversion tool. Hyper-V.nu has a write-up that is worth a peek if you have a project coming up.
Of course you don't need either the MVMC or the VMMT to do scripted conversions if you have SCVMM. Like all modern Microsoft server technologies, SCVMM is entirely addressable via PowerShell. Microsoft has posted some basic examples.
That is three separate applications that you can use to convert virtual machines with Microsoft's blessing. SCVMM is probably the best for one-off virtual machines. The other two are not worth the time unless you want to start doing things in bulk.
Obstacles in the path
Microsoft has certainly provided a few different routes to get your virtual machines into Hyper-V but they all have the same basic limitations that are inherent to Hyper-V conversions.
In an ideal world I would be able to take a copy of a running virtual machine and convert it
One of the most annoying is the requirement to remove the VMware tools before conversion. This limits how useful the process can really be.
In an ideal world I would be able to take a copy of a running virtual machine and convert it from VMware over to Hyper-V. This would allow me to do testing of how that virtual machine survives the transition without taking it down to do so.
Even if I find the time to take the virtual machines down for conversion, the tools removal requirement means that if I am doing the conversion for testing purposes I will have to remove the tools, shut the virtual machine down, convert it, bring it back up, reinstall the tools and then reboot it again. That's a lot of reboots.
It also means that every virtual machine you have converted to Hyper-V will need to have the Hyper-V Integration Services installed after the conversion is complete to work properly on the Hyper-V infrastructure. The whole process is far from being as smooth as it should be.
The conversion process does not support VMware virtual machines with virtual hard disks connected to a virtual IDE bus. You must ensure that all disks in the virtual machine are SCSI before converting.
In reality this probably does not affect too many of us as VMware defaults to using SCSI disks for everything. Still, it is one more thing to check before attempting that conversion.
Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president of Microsoft, introduces the Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system in San Francisco, California, June 20, 2012.
Of all companies, it seems odd to me that Microsoft is so drastically behind the curve when it comes to apps for Windows 8 and Windows Phone. When you think about it, Microsoft was in the best position to create a better software-buying experience via an app store than anyone. Windows had 97- to 98-percent market share for the bulk of the PC era, and software played a key role in that dominance. Why has Microsoft only prioritized a Windows app store starting at the end of last year? It just makes no sense.
Similarly, Microsoft was in a growing position in smartphones with Windows Mobile. The company had tinkered with software stores, but the experience never really gained significant traction. Companies like Handango helped fill the gap, but again, much of what existed then is gone now.
The most robust third-party mobile developer network I witnessed when I joined Creative Strategies 13 years ago was the Palm developer community. In fact, the Palm developer community — in terms of passion, excitement, and quality of applications being developed — reminds me a lot of today's iOS developer community. Microsoft never fostered the same commitment and passion for its mobile platforms as the Palm community did, even when Microsoft gained share and Palm itself began shipping Windows Mobile devices. Despite its efforts, Microsoft is still today struggling with weak developer interest.
As I think about the situation that Microsoft is in, it reminds me of the situation it was in with Internet Explorer for so long. Microsoft missed the boat on leading the Internet revolution, and now again it has missed the boat on leading the app revolution. All while it was in the best position to lead in both.
I like to point out that Apple beat Microsoft to the App Store the same way Netscape beat Microsoft to the Internet browser.
The Network Effect
In my opinion, Microsoft had the network with Windows throughout its desktop dominance. But when it comes to mobile, iOS and Android are the two platforms benefiting from the network effect.
In economics and business, a network effect (also called network externality or demand-side economies of scale) is the effect that one user of a goods or service has on the value of that product to other people.
The economics, in terms of monetary opportunity for developers — as well as the critical total addressable market achieved by both Palm and then with Apple — created a strong network effect. This is still going strong for Apple today.
Android also has a network effect, but it's a different kind. While it's true Android has the lion's share of the smartphone market, we also know that simply looking at Android's market share does not singularly indicate the strength of a platform or its value to developers or consumers. Engagement is consistently reported as lower on Android than iPhone, and developers are continually facing economic challenges of making money with Android.
Being in Silicon Valley, I get to meet with a lot of software startups. Android to many of these software companies I meet with is treated as a secondary priority. Rarely do I meet with a company creating software for Android first or only. If this platform was doing well for the masses, then I would imagine we would see more exclusive applications and I would see more software startups getting funded for Android-only development. This is simply not the case. Android is benefiting from the network effect of iOS, however, as developers are generally taking their iOS-first apps to Android eventually. Android has achieved a degree of the network effect by default, and on the heels of the iPhone.
This network effect is a key area that is driving both iOS and Android. This network effect has created long-tail applications.
Long-Tail Applications and Developers
Chris Anderson helped popularize the concept of the long tail with his book called The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. The concept, in short, is that there is value in having large quantities of something (apps, in this case) that appeal to smaller groups of people. Another way of describing would be simply to say that having a successful long-tail model means having massive quantities of niche content.
A successful long-tail strategy, the one that I would argue creates the highest degree of loyalty to a platform or service, is one that has all the mass market goods (the popular items) but also has large quantities of goods that appeal to smaller groups of people. When we apply this theory to apps only, iOS and to a degree the Google Play store are in the discussion. Popular apps may be the most profitable, but long-tail apps are often the most discoverable.
Imagine being a Windows Phone or BlackBerry user for a moment. Your friends or family members are all talking about the new apps they're using for things like health and fitness, education, gardening, sports and the like. They all rave about these great apps that they love and that are adding value to their lives. These apps don't exist on your platform and probably won't for a long time, if ever, unless a critical mass is reached. Which, of course, is not going to happen without long-tail apps and long-tail app developers. It's a chicken-and-egg problem.
Or imagine your kid's sports team starts using an application to help manage schedules and parents' assignments, but it only exists on iOS or Android. Your favorite grocery store, magazine, or brand comes out with an app, but it's only available on iOS or Android. Your kids' schools offer mobile apps, but they're only on iOS or Android. The workout video series you just bought has an app, but it's only on iOS or Android. I hope you see my point.
Windows Phone and possibly BlackBerry may get the popular apps from the big developers, but where these platforms really suffer is in the long-tail apps and content, which is the driving strength for the mass-market appeal of iOS and Android. Only iOS and Android are attracting long-tail developers at the moment.
Developing a critical mass of long-tail apps and the developers who will continue to make them is the biggest single hurdle I see for Windows Phone, BlackBerry and any other platform that aspires to enter the market. Without long-tail apps and developers, these alternative mobile operating systems will continue to struggle to find customers for their products until the same long-tail apps make it to their platforms.
That's if they make it to their platforms, of course.
Bajarin is a principal at Creative Strategies Inc., a technology industry analysis and market intelligence firm in Silicon Valley. He contributes to the Big Picture opinion column that appears here every week
