Adobe Upgrades Flash, Aiming to Prove Jobs Wrong

Adobe prepares update for its flagship product, Flash. The new version, Flash 10.1, supports touch screens and is especially aimed to improve performance on mobile devices. The company says that it runs videos more smoothly, uses less battery, thus extends battery life and takes advantage of faster mobile processors. As company has earlier announced, 19 of 20 largest handsets producers plan to offer Flash on their devices. Google's operating system, Android, is used by about dozen smartphone manufacturers, and Flash will be available on Android devices by December.
There is a bad side of this: Flash videos won't run the same way on all handsets. Much depends on mobile processors and graphic chips. Slower chips will result in larger battery consumption.
Apple's ban on Flash causes huge issues, for example for advertising companies, because most of ads are made in Flash and they just don't run on iPhone, iPod or new tablet, iPad. I think that consumers will decide whose strategy is better. Will Apple's stubbornness and consistency in maintaining its devices without Flash for better performance prove better? Or maybe other companies like Google will success with their openness for new untested technologies. 

Source: Businessweek
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Smartphones Drive Handset Sales

Cell phone and particularly smartphone industry is booming and growing very fast - reports Gartner research group. Global sales of mobile phones in first quarter of 2010 went up by 17%. The report says that sales reached 314.7 million handsets and were notably driven by sales of white-box phones (cheap, unbranded devices) in India. New prediction expects sales to rise around 14%. Smartphones had a big part in the overall sales accounting for 17.3% compares to 13.6% last year. Smartphones has also achieved a large rise of 49% (54 million handsets sold worldwide), which is the greatest annual increase since 2006.
The best results had RIM, Apple, and Google at the expense of Nokia. Nokia, the world's largest producer, has maintained its fist place, but lost market share, falling from 36.2% to 35%. While company's middle class phones sold well, Nokia evidently lacks a good high-end phone. Research in Motion, the BlackBerry producer, placed itself in the top five vendors worldwide thanks to good smartphone sales with global market of 3.4%. Apple also did a good job reaching seventh place due to iPhone sales, which have more than doubled. Google again has proved its great strategy and noted fourth place on the global market with an enormous increase from 1.6% to 9.6%.
I think that this report shows that my thesis about the market and smartphones becoming very popular is correct and we will see even better results soon. The video above also proves some of mine statements, for example one concerning AT&T network.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, BBC, Reuters
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Garmin-Asus Garminfone

The connection between a smartphone and a personal navigation device is becoming better and stronger with new device from Garmin and Asus, called Garmifone. The author of the article says that is the best mix of navigation and smartphone ever created. I partly agree with him, because the device is really nice looking and has almost all features of an ordinary smartphone, but it is mostly aimed for navigation. We can see Garmin's (well-known producer of PNDs) influence at a first glance. Although the device is runing on Android, the home screen is different from all Android based phones, because it has three big icons, and two of them are connected with navigation, while one is just for calling. There is also a bar with favorites that can be extended to regular menu by sliding a finger. The phone is equipped with 3 megapixel camera, which offers descent quality pictures.
I think that this smartphone is made for people who travel a lot and either like or have to use navigation frequently. The phone isn't perfect, but it is a step forward in connecting a PND and a smartphone.

Source: Engadget
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Verizon to offer 'up to' five LTE handsets by next May, Android tablets from HTC and friends

I found another news connected with carriers upgrading their networks, but this time Verizon. Verizon plans to launch up to 5 mobile phones compatible with LTE, which is high speed network, considered 4G (4th generation network) by May 2011, which exactly a year from now. It means that the company may release from zero to five phones, because everything depends on phones producers like Motorola, HTC or RIM.
The company is also planning on releasing more than tablet. We have already heard about Verizon supposedly working with Google on Android based tablet. Furthermore, Verizon plans to release tablets from companies like Samsung, LG and Motorola.

I don't think that those devices can compete with iPad, but healthy rivalry is always a good thing. Verizon is also trying to compete with other wireless carriers by their plan to upgrade network to LTE, which is what AT&T is going.

Source: Engadget, Reuters
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AT&T to cover about 250M people with HSPA+ by year's end

While smartphones producers fight over shares in the market and develop their products, wireless carriers aren't sleeping and are adjusting to rising demand for data transfers. AT&T, one of the biggest carriers in the U.S. plans to provide HSPA+, high speed wireless network to 250 million people in the U.S. by the end of 2010. HSPA+ allows transfers between 7.2 and 14.4 Mbps (megabits per second). AT&T decided to take this step before upgrading its network to LTE, which is very high speed network, which is close to 4G.

AT&T has strong competition, because other giants like Verizon or Sprint are upgrading their networks as well. The most important thing is that users hopefully will benefit and that network won't be as overloaded as it used to be.

Source: Engadget
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Adobe targets Apple in ad campaign launched today, publishes open letter from founders

Adobe has launched a campaign to change Apple's mind about Flash. The campaign includes advertisements like the one above, a website promoting the idea with facts about the Web ("truth about Flash"), and an open letter from Adobe's co-founders. The letter doesn't say anything about Apple or Steve Jobs, but it is obviously aimed at the iPhone producer. The campaign is a response to Jobs' criticisms on Flash and the company's refusal to use Flash on its devices. The letter discusses the open market and the freedom of choice for users:
We believe that consumers should be able to freely access their favorite content and applications, regardless of what computer they have, what browser they like, or what device suits their needs. No company - no matter how big or how creative - should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web.
When markets are open, anyone with a great idea has a chance to drive innovation and find new customers. Adobe's business philosophy is based on a premise that, in an open market, the best products will win in the end - and the best way to compete is to create the best technology and innovate faster than your competitors.
We believe that Apple, by taking the opposite approach, has taken a step that could undermine this next chapter of the web - the chapter in which mobile devices outnumber computers, any individual can be a publisher, and content is accessed anywhere and at any time.
In the end, we believe the question is really this: Who controls the World Wide Web? And we believe the answer is: nobody - and everybody, but certainly not a single company.

It is a interesting move from Adobe, but in my opinion it unluckily it won't be successful, because Apple is unlikely to change its mind so easily. Apple probably new all these facts before and knowingly just ignored them. The company is sure that other technologies like HTML 5 will help in the future, but they don't have solution for the present situation. On the other hand, what this campaign is trying to achieve is to turn people against Apple and rise more complains on Jobs' company from users. The results will be visible soon.

Source: CNET, Engadget, Adobe
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The GM Android Car: Coming Soon?

Google is talking with General Motors about connecting Android smartphones and GM's OnStar car service. Although both Google and GM decline to comment, the connection would truly beneficial for both sides. Ford and Microsoft has already created something similar, called MyFord, but it is a little less developed than the planned Android system. Android would allow to control a car to a larger extent, for example it would let user start up or stop engine, unlock the doors and adjust other in-vehicle settings. The OnStar navigation system would also benefit, because the current one shows only turn-by-turn direction and Android could use its own GPS maps. 

It sounds really impressive and would be profitable for both companies, and what's more important for users as well. It would increase safety on roads, because as it is in MyFord the user will be probably able to control the phone by voice, and the car would for instance read text messages. Unluckily, the confirmation from either companies will come not sooner than 2011.

Source: Motor Trend, PC World
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