Huawei to take the form of touch-less, gesture-based interfaces for smartphones.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Huawei to take the form of touch-less, gesture-based interfaces for smartphones.

Various manufacturers are looking at different UIs and experiences beyond touch, and Huawei has announced that it is heavily investing in research and development to come with the next disruptive technology, which may take the form of touch-less, gesture-based interfaces.

In 2011, Huawei had invested $3.75 billion in R&D and the company had hired 11,000 new employees. Part of that research will be to create new gesture-based applications for its mobile products. This year, Huawei is expected to expand its investment by 20% to about $4.5 billion.

The end-result of all this spending? Three-dimensional UIs and interactions. According to John Rose, general manager for Huawei’s North America R&D, “So imagine instead of touching a smartphone, you can actually have a three-dimensional interaction with it.”

Huawei says that these gestures and capabilities would be slowly introduced and over time, we’ll have more complex UIs and interactions. For now, tablets are targeted first.

How this Technology works?

Though current touchscreen technology–like those made by Synaptics–allow for up to ten points of input meaning that the screen can recognize up to ten fingers at a time, today’s phones and tablets only allow for a limited number of fingers to be used through gestures. Part of this limitation is due to the size of the device and the size of the display, despite the growing trend for smartphones to adopt increasing display sizes. Removing the screen from the equation would mean that UIs would not longer have to be confined to the screen. Users can draw and gesture what they want to do in the air in front of the device, and their interactions would be captured by the phone’s front-facing camera.

This means that users have more ‘surface area’ to make their commands and gestures, and new commands and gestures can open up on new devices. Pinch, zoom, rotate, shift, draw, doodle–all that can now be captured with the phone’s camera, and users are only limited by the camera’s field of view.

Touch-less gestures would require a camera or some sort of sensor at its most basic form of input with the phone, and we’ve seen some early incarnation of gesture-based applications. Microsoft’s Kinect, which allows users to control their home Xbox 360 gaming experience through a camera accessory, is one such example. On the mobile side, we’ve heard Sony announcing that the Xperia Sola will allow users to use some primitive form of touch-less interactions and Pantech has the Vega Android smartphone on the market that allows for gestures. Additionally, in a recent patent application, Sony wants to place a camera behind the phone’s display to more easily and accurately capture gestures.

Ubuntu tablets, smartphones coming in 2013. In talks with OEMs. HP is in.?

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Ubuntu tablets, smartphones coming in 2013. In talks with OEMs. HP is in.?

Canonical, the company behind Linux-based open source operating system (OS) Ubuntu, is reportedly in talks with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to manufacture Ubuntu-based tablet and smartphone devices. These products are expected to be available in the market by next year.

Quoting Canonical's China chief representative, Yu Liqaing, tech.sina.com.cn reported that many OEMs--which were still undecided if they should support Microsoft Windows 8 OS--had expressed interest in increasing the number of tablets pre-loaded with Ubuntu.

Dan Han, market development manager at Canonical China, which distributes Ubuntu Linux, added that the company expanded its network of retail stores selling Ubuntu-based desktops and laptops to 200 shops in China. Hewlett-Packard will also be launching desktops and laptops running on Ubuntu, Dan added.

Our question is, if HP will go with Ubuntu , what will happen with webOS open source. There is an inconsistency here. Don´t you think?

Last year, Canonical founder, Mark Shuttleworth, had expressed interest in the smartphone and tablet market.

Source: ZDNetAsia.

2012: Huawei and ZTE to ship nearly 100 million smartphones for 15% global share target.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

2012: Huawei and  ZTE to ship nearly 100 million smartphones for 15% global share target.

Huawei Device and ZTE, two China-based vendors, will together ship 95-100 million smartphones for a combined global market share of 15% in 2012, according to Taiwan-based makers of handset components.

Huawei shipped 16 million smartphones to rank globally 9th and ZTE 11 million for 10th place in 2011, the sources cited Gartner statistics as indicating. Huawei and ZTE have set internal shipment targets of 60 million and 35-40 million smartphones respectively for 2012.

Huawei and ZTE have produced Android handsets for own-brand sale and on a customization basis through cooperation with mobile telecom carriers in the recent two years.

 The two vendors initially lunched smartphones for sale at low to medium prices and began to make a foray into market segments of medium- to high-level smartphones in the second half of 2011.

 In 2012, Huawei and ZTE will launch smartphones equipped with quad-core processors, LTE (Long Term Evolution) functionality and large screens of over 4.5 inches as well as Windows Phone-based models.

China-based hqew.com forecasts that Huawei and ZTE will ship 57 million smartphones and 37 million ones respectively in 2012, while China-based vendors TCL Communication Technology, GiONEE, Coolpad and Lenovo will each ship more than 10 million units.

MWC 2012: Intel Announces Smartphone Device Engagements.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

 Lava and Orange intel inside smartphones.

 Orange

Lava XOLO smartphone.

Lightning fast processor

Finally your smartphone can keep up with you. The advanced Intel® processor inside these smartphones enables fast web browsing, super-responsive apps, and effortless multi-tasking so that enjoying the things you love to do has never been easier.

Stunning 8MP camera¹

Now you can snap as many pictures as you want as fast as you want—up to10 pictures a second to be exact. The advanced HD camera also delivers stunning 1080p image and video quality in all kinds of conditions. And the advanced imaging software gives you more accurate facial recognition, zero shutter lag, low-light enhancement, and high dynamic resolution capabilities.

Vivid HD video¹

Your fun and entertainment needs have been brought to your smartphone, all in brilliant 1080p. It’s easy to create and share superb HD-quality video. And playback is super smooth so your phone becomes a personal theater you can take with you anywhere.

Jaw dropping graphics

Let the jaw dropping graphics of the smartphone with Intel Inside® take you away.  Get sucked in by the incredibly crisp visuals for games and videos. Smartphones with Intel Inside® can also bring you 3D video for a rich, immersive online experience. 

A powerful phone meets a powerful OS

Smartphones with Intel Inside® run on the Android* OS, giving you access to hundreds of thousands of apps available to download in the Android Market.

Announces Smartphone Device Engagements with Orange*, Lava*, ZTE* and Visa*

Discloses Range of New Smartphone SoCs and Communications Products

MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 27, 2012 – Intel Corporation President and CEO Paul Otellini today detailed a number of announcements and plans aimed at expanding the company's smartphone product portfolio and customer ecosystem, including strategic new engagements with Orange*, Lava International Ltd.*, ZTE*, and Visa*.

"We are very pleased to add new, important customers and capabilities to our phone offerings today. We remain focused on delivering exciting new features and outstanding performance to smartphone customers around the world." said Otellini.

Otellini made the announcements during an Intel news conference at Mobile World Congress. He also highlighted the company's plans to expand its smartphone SoC and communications product roadmaps for the performance and value smartphone market segments.

New Smartphone Customer Engagements

Building on strategic engagements with Motorola Mobility Inc.* and Lenovo*, Intel detailed new device relationships with Orange, Lava International Ltd. and ZTE.

Yves Maitre, Orange senior vice president of Mobile Multimedia and Devices, joined Otellini to discuss a new Orange smartphone based on the Intel® Atom™ processor Z2460 reference design. Housed in a sleek body, the design enables rich entertainment experiences and Orange services, including Orange TV, Daily Motion, Deezer, Orange Wednesdays and Orange Gestures. The Orange smartphone will be available in the United Kingdom and France later this summer.

Intel also announced plans to enter the high-growth market for smartphones in India through an alliance with Lava International Ltd., one of the fastest-growing Indian mobile handset companies.Vishal Sehgal, Lava co-founder and board director, announced the launch of XOLO Smartphone by Lava. The XOLO X900 is based on Intel's smartphone reference design and will be the first Intel technology-based smartphone in the India market. The device will be available from top retail outlets early in the second quarter of 2012 and will support major Indian cellular networks.

Similar to its previously announced partnership with Motorola Mobility, Intel also announced a multi-year mobile device collaboration across smartphones and tablets with global handset maker ZTE. Mr. He Shiyou, executive vice president and head of the Terminal Division of ZTE, discussed how his company's alliance with Intel will enable ZTE to move faster and create unique and differentiated products for wireless operators. He also announced that ZTE's first Intel-powered mobile device is scheduled to debut in the second half of 2012.

Expanding Smartphone SoC and Communications Roadmaps

Building on its ecosystem engagements, Intel announced plans for three new smartphone SoC products that expand the company's portfolio from the performance-to-value market segments.

Extending the leading performance and energy efficiency of the Intel™ Atom® processor Z2460, formerly codenamed "Medfield," Intel announced that the platform will now support speeds up to 2GHz.

Intel also announced the Atom™ Z2580 processor that doubles the performance of the Atom processor Z2460, and features an advanced multimode LTE/3G/2G solution. Intel will sample the Z2580 in the second half of the year with customer products scheduled in the first half of 2013.

Addressing the growing handset opportunity in emerging markets where consumers look for more value at lower prices, Intel disclosed plans for the Intel® Atom™ processor Z2000.

The Z2000 is aimed squarely at the value smartphone market segment, which industry sources predict could reach up to 500 million units by 2015¹.The platform includes a 1.0 GHz Atom CPU offering great graphics and video performance, and the ability to access the Web and play Google Android* games. It also supports the Intel® XMM 6265 3G HSPA+ modem with Dual-SIM 2G/3G, offering flexibility on data/voice calling plans to save on costs. Intel will sample the Z2000 in mid-2012 with customer products scheduled by early 2013.

Building on these 32nm announcements, Otellini discussed how the Atom™ processor will outpace Moore's Lawand announced that Intel will ship 22nm SoCs for carrier certification next year, and is already in development on 14nm SoC technology.

In 2011, Intel shipped in more than 400 million cellular platforms. Building on this market segment position, Intel announced the XMM 7160, an advanced multimode LTE/3G/2G platform with support for 100Mbps downlink and 50Mbps uplink, and support for HSPA+ 42Mbps. Intel will sample the product in the second quarter with customer designs scheduled to launch by the end of 2012.

Intel also announced that it is sampling the XMM 6360 platform( link ), a new slim modem 3G HSPA+ solution supporting 42Mbps downlink and 11.5Mbps uplink for small form factors.

Building Better Experiences on Intel Architecture

Intel's strategy is to create and enable engaging, consistent, aware and secure user experiences across a range of mobile devices.

An emerging trend is the use of mobile devices to enable secure online and retail commerce. Otellini welcomed John Partridge, President, Visa Inc., who announced a strategic multi-year alliance to develop mobile commerce solutions tailored to consumers in developed and developing countries.

The effort includes collaboration across a range of Visa mobile services and Intel® Atom™-based smartphones and tablets to deliver compelling and secure user services. As a first step, Partridge announced that Intel's smartphone reference design is now certified for Visa payWave* mobile financial transactions. This means that customer products based on Intel's smartphone reference design will have time-to-market support of Visa mobile services.

Building on its collaboration with Google, Intel continues to work closely with ISVs to help ensure the majority of Android apps run on Intel Atom processor-based devices. Otellini discussed how Intel has all the right tools and expertise to support the robust mobile application developer ecosystem.

About Intel

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com andblogs.intel.com.

Intel, Atom and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.  * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

1 Strategy Analytics

The Latest Hits in Mobile Marketing

The mobile market is exploding. Cell phone penetration has been surpassing cable TVs and home PCs in many countries. Mobile marketing expenditures are expected to exceed $2 billion in 2010. Thirty-eight percent of youth already claim that mobile is more important to them than their wallet! Click-through rates on mobile ads are even higher than online. Mobile advertising is beginning to show a track record of results, both on click-through and in leading to purchase.

So marketers surely see the potential of mobile marketing. But what are the latest hits and take-aways for them to get on the current market? Here come four highlighted trends to think of

1. Smartphone market's growth

Smartphone ownership increased to 17% of mobile users in 2009, according to Comscore. Smartphone penetration is estimated to reach 50% of the market by the middle of 2011

• Smartphones change mobile users behaviours, leading to more entertaining usage (music, games) and mobile web activities (internet, email). As a result, mobile web will reach more people and mobile sites will be significantly invested in the upcoming years. 


• Smartphone owners continue to be predominantly male, most likely between the ages of 25 and 34


• Mobile platforms for smartphones are enhanced with social media apps, such as Twitter and Facebook, which just announced a 54% increase in mobile use in the past six months. 

2. Change in SMS campaign tactics

There is a lot of potential with SMS campaigns and a number of companies have shown real success with them. 

• Previous SMS campaigns shown that the key to success is to integrate the SMS campaign into the rest of the marketing campaign; highlight the shortcode across other forms of advertising. SMS is highly measurable, so the results should be tracked and campaigns should be modified over time


• SMS campaigns are now built not simply based on one-way messaging but consumer-created content and active participation. 


• CRM databases tend to be linked into mobile marketing. Retailers can apply this into their SMS campaigns.


• Mobile coupons through SMS become popular

3. Increasing mobile apps

Mobile apps differ from standard WAP banner ads, location-based text ads and mobile video by engaging consumers and immersing them into a branded environment in which users will be more receptive to brand messages in a far more interactive and viral platform. Mobile app downloads across all handsets are estimated to climb from over 7 billion downloads in 2009 to almost 50 billion in 2012. Advertising contributed almost 12% of the overall apps revenue in 2009 and is expected to more than double to over 28%. Games are most downloaded apps, coming next Entertainment and Social Networking

• Supply will exceed demand in mobile apps. Discovery of apps is now an issue with the massive increasing number of apps. Launching a new app becomes a challenge and requires more innovations and investment. Apps markets are evolving differently worldwide, indicating a need for creating different apps business models instead of a "one size fits all" approach.


• The battle of the app stores becomes more intense. In 2009 the number of app stores leapt from 8 to 38 and is expected to further increase in 2010. It signifies a battle for survival of the fittest among app stores worldwide, with app revenue and growth opportunities growing significantly.


• Apple still dominates the app market. Though Blackberry has a huge number of handsets,  low awareness of the app store and complicated app installation are a pain for them. 


• Most of the current mobile marketing campaigns request a mobile app development.

4. Geographic and behavioral targeting

Targeting people based on location and using behaviours is the biggest opportunity for marketers in mobile. Location and behaviour data will begin to be mined as a rich new source of insights that marketers can harness to improve the effectiveness of their efforts. By knowing the location of the phone, SMS campaigns can be directly targeted. 

• Foursquare, a geo-social network, allowing people to share location with friend, is capturing marketer’s attention. 


• Geo-fence, a virtual field around any location that is used to trigger a mobile marketing message to a user when they enter or exit the area, is forecasted to become part of marketers' vocabulary.


• Retailers and businesses are offering coupons, promotions and sales for consumers checking in through location-triggered application on their mobile phones.


• The evolution of search is also moving to mobile platforms with more emphasis on the local and social, as well as behavioral targeting. Mobile search will continue to grow in 2010 and beyond. More localization and businesses will be expected to relate to mobile search. 

All in all, three key drivers of mobile marketing in 2010 and perhaps in upcoming years have been predicted as Location, Relevancy and Immediacy. Advertisers will be increasingly drawn to mobile's unique opportunity to reach and engage consumers with immediate and location-specific content at the most relevant content to different consumer groups. And privacy is another critical issue for advertisers to consider in order to protect personal identification information.