Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 15 Jan 2013 03:49

Raja Bose wrote: The ToIlet article about the 920 is a bit clueless though. The 920 has 2 problems - no as big a selection of apps and its too big (as in 4.5 inches big).

Why should 4.5 inches be a problem hain jee?. Sammy's GS2 and 3 were 4.5 and 4.8 inches and both sold like hot cakes. Nexus 4 is 4.7 inches. The number of apps thing I can understand, but that will be a problem with any Win8 phone.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 15 Jan 2013 03:51

The big part is my personal peeve, not public's.

Apparently the part in question which got volume reduction is the iphunwa5 display....worrying.....

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 15 Jan 2013 07:19

The world has caught up. Is there any feature on iphone5 that the flagship phones of samsung, moto, htc and nokia do not have now?
With mahdi dead, people of weak faith and forcible converts are reverting back to dharmic faiths like the four indic ones....

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 15 Jan 2013 07:22

^^^Antenna on the outside with touch-sensitive disconnect feature.

manish · Post by **manish** » 15 Jan 2013 07:41

Raja Bose wrote:The big part is my personal peeve, not public's.

Apparently the part in question which got volume reduction is the iphunwa5 display....worrying.....

Well, WSJ says it is display and other components as well:

manish wrote:Apple Cuts Orders for iPhone Parts

The Cupertino, Calif., company has also cut orders for components other than screens, according to one of the people.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 15 Jan 2013 07:44

With win8 and android4 taking the revered butter smoothness usp off the table, and android having a decent collection of apps...all major ones are there and most people dont use or need more than 100 probably...the game shifts to specs and there apple has been lagging a while.

They need to respond not with execuses and rationalization but with a 4.5" monster phone with a unheard of battery life and screen specs.

Go big or go home.

Let us take a poll of who will hold on to their appl stocks and who will sell. Who will stand true to the faith and who will cash out?

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 15 Jan 2013 07:45

manish wrote:
Raja Bose wrote:The big part is my personal peeve, not public's.

Apparently the part in question which got volume reduction is the iphunwa5 display....worrying.....
Well, WSJ says it is display and other components as well:
manish wrote:Apple Cuts Orders for iPhone Parts

The Cupertino, Calif., company has also cut orders for components other than screens, according to one of the people.

^^Display volume reduction is more worrisome in terms of outlook for Fruit Co. sales performance, becoz:
1) That part is not used by older iPhone versions but likely to be used by the next version (and ofcourse current versions).
2) Displays are in short supply hence, a volume reduction will only happen if very solid estimates indicate a lack of demand in the short and mid-term.
3) Fruit Co. is known to hoard such in-demand components (Bawarchi's master-stroke many moons ago) so they wont take such a step without good reason. And it cannot be a cash issue since they have ~$50-60 billion in the bank.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 15 Jan 2013 08:08

Not sure if there is substance to the parts reduction story, might be a plant for stock pumping reasons. We will know for sure after earning report.

Fruitco might be moving to other dimensions, they would probably revamp the UI quite a bit (now that scott forstall is gone). Maybe the phunwa they have in mind has a different display dimension? I personally didnt expect the F-ugly Note to do so well. But maybe users want a big screen phone.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 15 Jan 2013 08:18

Yes, it may be a plant. Though UI work will take a while to steer in another direction - they have way too much legacy there.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 15 Jan 2013 08:22

It could also be a reduction in demand. Bawarchi went to cheen recently, to place nice with their biggest mobile carrier. And in typical cheen business fashion also visited the chicom to pay his obeisance. Released an interview saying he expects China to be fruitco's biggest market.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 15 Jan 2013 08:26

Fruit Co's original look-China policy had been mainly architected by Bawarchi when Mahdi was at the helm. Fruit Co. has very close business ties with chipanda leaderaan. China generally follows massa in terms of buying trends for CE, autos ityadi except at a much larger volume.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 15 Jan 2013 09:12

this thread has gone reactive, trying to solve problems and giving opinions on current events.

anyone care to guess what the next and next+1 gens of phones from the big players will look like in terms of
- screen
- processors
- new UI capabilities
- new interfaces
- styling and weights
- is the 15k price point to get onboard the 1GHZ + 4" IPS bandwagon fixed or going to decline (Lumia 520 @ 4" and 10K, galaxy duos @ 4" but non-IPS and 15k are the least priced of the big names at that size)

habal · Post by **habal** » 15 Jan 2013 09:59

there's no point in buying a low-cost phone like lava, karbonn if they come kitted with 512 mb RAMs which in android ICS terms means that 300 odd RAM just goes to maintain OS and full-time apps. What is left then ?

Once 2 GB DDR-3 Samsung memories go online, along with quad-core processors, even the cheapest phone/tablet will be VFM. Already some VFM tablets already started pre-sales with the above configuration which means the 2 GB memories will go onstream big time sometime middle of this year.

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 15 Jan 2013 16:21

habal wrote:there's no point in buying a low-cost phone like lava, karbonn if they come kitted with 512 mb RAMs which in android ICS terms means that 300 odd RAM just goes to maintain OS and full-time apps. What is left then ?

Once 2 GB DDR-3 Samsung memories go online, along with quad-core processors, even the cheapest phone/tablet will be VFM. Already some VFM tablets already started pre-sales with the above configuration which means the 2 GB memories will go onstream big time sometime middle of this year.

But does a normal user really need more than 512 MB of ram? I have a ICS tablet with 1 GM of RAM, I use it extensively and have even connected it to my tv full time through HDMI port mainly to play HD videos and logged into all social apps (some 8 to 10 of them) all the time. I have observed my RAM usage and it has never gone above 450 MB, my micromax a110 phone has 512 MB and I use it extensively but not as multi tasked as my tablet, but it still has never lagged, I play temple run, chess and angry birds on it all the time.

I think for a moderate user 512 MB of ram is more than sufficient. My friends who have s2 and s3 galaxy all complain of lack of memory in spite of their 1 GB phones, maybe its based on the custom ROM?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 15 Jan 2013 17:02

good thing about these pandas is they will soak up sales in developing countries that would otherwise go to samsung / LG / htc. collectively these are huge nos. so the biggies will not be able to sustain a 10K price gap and might be forced to drop prices to retain volume....hopefully to just a 30% premium rather than the 100% they are milking now.

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 15 Jan 2013 17:12

I initially thought of going for note 2 but here was this canvas 2 phone at 9.5k with same screen size good touch and decent features. Was never really a big fan of all slimness anyway. With a 3 year old son at home the expiry date of this phone looms around just like the next purist attack in tsp. Use it for 8-10 months and then go for another one heard next model of same series is quad core with 1 gb ram.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 15 Jan 2013 19:18

tech is moving so fast in that segment, the obsolete lifetime is 18 months max even for latest n greatest.
and if you buy big 20-30k hard to step down mentally. so u get locked into costly and frequent upg cycles like the apple munnas.

its like DVD players in the 1995-2000 timeframe. now its stable and a commodity. at some point smartphones will also stabilize...I am expecting prices to crash 50% in around 2 yrs time down to 15k for what is todays flagship galaxy S3 tech.....ofcourse the galaxy S6 will by then raise the bar but beyond a point its hard to notice any difference...

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 15 Jan 2013 20:09

^^^I don't know.

The limiting factor is going to be battery life. Expect components that use less voltage and current to come about such as the CPU/GPU, radios, and OLED type displays. There has to be a significant improvement in battery technology with perhaps carbon nano-tubes that will allow the maximum surface area within a volume to store a charge. If RB isn't pulling our leg about 30 day batteries in mobile devices, expect continued improvement for hand held computing.

In the future, 5 years from now, I only see Apple, Samsung, Motorola, and maybe Nokia w/ MSFT surviving. BB, LG, HTC and Sony will be gone from the portable electronic devices market.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 15 Jan 2013 20:46

er, even if we have a 30day battery (heavy internet, heavy gaming) who would be so isolated that he cannot plug in his phone every couple days and get a charge. wireless contact chargers will be common so no wires either.

khan/foreign legion special forces might appreciate such batteries though - extra batteries for comms and imagers is one of their big problems on long patrols.

James B · Post by **James B** » 15 Jan 2013 21:40

Nexus 5 and Nexus 7.7 specs leak online, may debut at Google I/O event

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 15 Jan 2013 22:12

Wireless chargers still need wires.

To survive patent wars you need a big patent portfolio and a big chest of money....Mickey has both, Fruit Co. has both, Chacha has the latter and is trying to buy the former, Sammy has both. Nobody else can even compete.

Marten wrote: A good bet would be that a new OS will rise and claim the Universe, within the next 4/5 years. The time is ripe for a new mobile OS that can merge into the Desktop/Tablet realm, and much as I'd like MSFT to do well in this space, it will likely be whoever can survive these stupid patent wars.

That's true in general for the mobile industry anyway - aap to bade sadak chaap jyotishi nikle!

The whole convergence thing has been part of Mickey's strat-e-jee but its hard to pull off regardless. Till date only Fruit Co. and Mickey have all the consumer facing assets to make that happen and even then Mickey has a slight edge becoz it has XBox and Fruit Co's AppleTV has still not take off.

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 15 Jan 2013 22:30

HTC: If needed, any one of "family companies" can bail this one out. Family that owns HTC, is like Ambanis..
Sony: May be Seinfeld or Spiderman money will save this one

... joke aside, they have like USD 100+ Billion in reserves. *facepalm*
LG: I thought they were already making some profits.
Nokia: Microsoft takes money from every other handset maker and gives nokia $86 for every lumia.

. They are safe.
RIM: Canada would not allow it to go bankrupt.
Motorola: Google already have "Nexus" brand, do they need Motorola ?

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 15 Jan 2013 23:02

Some day Nikolai Teslas concept of providing power directly to device might come true. So we can have small batteries which are directly recharged no matter where you might be. We could have service providers for this.

And when this happens I foresee a mobile recharging license scam.......

shaardula · Post by **shaardula** » 15 Jan 2013 23:06

imho, windows phone has a stolen a march over the much hyped iphone. in terms of innovation, design, style elegance etc., things that often are attributed to apple, WP is the real game changer.

the seemless transition from peoples list to social media, people centric broad view + source centric views, aesthetics, built in functionality with voice (this voice thingie actually works too), search etc, the iphone is no where is even close. while iphone was fooling around with size and dimensions and colours of the box, it looks like WP rode the wake of market leaders and came up with something really cool. i'm dont have the chops to do a list by list comparison, but for me first time experience with WP-Mango was an aha moment, even when I had fooled around with 4S before.

and about the apps. which are these apps that are there in the apple platform that are not there in WP? most of what i need my phone to do, mango supports natively. Word and sheets are native to mango. you need an app for that elsewhere.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 15 Jan 2013 23:10

Marten mullah, patent trolls want money onlee and the big boys have cash, so they settle pretty quick regardless of validity of claims of infringement. That in fact is standard policy at pretty much all the big boys.

While it would be nice to see Ubuntu or WebOS become successful commercially while remaining truly open, the truth is that open and commercial success don't mix.

anmol mian, Nexus brand is not enuff. Chacha needs Motor Oil though they still don't allow Silicon Valley Motor Oil employees into the free cafeterias by themselves, I heard.

shaardula · Post by **shaardula** » 15 Jan 2013 23:11

meanwhile, in the US cell phone service and cable is a rip off. contrary to popular belief in the land of freedom, liberty and free market capitalism with its much touted competetion brings efficiency gospel, bulk of the population is a captive market to telephone and cable cartels.

shaardula · Post by **shaardula** » 15 Jan 2013 23:19

mine is a limited view:
i think the problem with open is that there is no equivalent for it in the marketing and sales world. scientific computation has for most parts migrated out of licence raj. Companies like SAS only survive because there is a mandate from FDA/NIH etc., otherwise work in even those areas would have migrated.

the quality of open source/free dist software available these days is mind boggling.

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 15 Jan 2013 23:20

shaardula wrote:imho, windows phone has a stolen a march over the much hyped iphone. in terms of innovation, design, style elegance etc., things that often are attributed to apple, WP is the real game changer.

the seemless transition from peoples list to social media, people centric broad view + source centric views, aesthetics, built in functionality with voice (this voice thingie actually works too), search etc, the iphone is no where is even close. while iphone was fooling around with size and dimensions and colours of the box, it looks like WP rode the wake of market leaders and came up with something really cool. i'm dont have the chops to do a list by list comparison, but for me first time experience with WP-Mango was an aha moment, even when I had fooled around with 4S before.

and about the apps. which are these apps that are there in the apple platform that are not there in WP? most of what i need my phone to do, mango supports natively. Word and sheets are native to mango. you need an app for that elsewhere.

Instagram... I keep hearing that they have 45 of top 50 apps that most people use.

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 15 Jan 2013 23:25

Raja Bose wrote:Marten mullah, patent trolls want money onlee and the big boys have cash, so they settle pretty quick regardless of validity of claims of infringement. That in fact is standard policy at pretty much all the big boys.

While it would be nice to see Ubuntu or WebOS become successful commercially while remaining truly open, the truth is that open and commercial success don't mix.

anmol mian, Nexus brand is not enuff. Chacha needs Motor Oil though they still don't allow Silicon Valley Motor Oil employees into the free cafeterias by themselves, I heard.

But Android is opensauce

. Also (may be you said it a while back), for _any_ OS to succeed it needs billions in marketing dollars. And obviously there are no more Nokias are around.

shaardula · Post by **shaardula** » 15 Jan 2013 23:30

instagram? what about it? take a pic, proc it, broadcast it? all thats native to mango. you can broadcast it to any subset of people you want. you dont need an app for that.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 15 Jan 2013 23:47

Actually I think photo effects (what Instagram does) is native to WP now or available through that GB Lenses app.

Making money thru competitive advantage at its base level requires denying your competitors the secret sauce and leverage you use. So that part will never be open regardless, whether it be the OS, your search algo, how you achieve your buttery smooth UX, how do you jam more stuff into your chip, you name it. Otherwise Mickey would make its OS open, Chacha would make its search algo open, ChipZ would make its designs and processes open....ityadi.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 15 Jan 2013 23:52

Bought a Wacom Bamboo Capture tablet recently. That darn thing is too addictive even with such a small drawing surface that I don't miss ink and paper. Now I am misusing it to draw a cartoon strip featuring GHQ and her real world encounters.

shaardula · Post by **shaardula** » 15 Jan 2013 23:54

in real terms all the big cos have comparable IP generation skills. most of them stumble upon the same solutions to the same problems almost simultaneously. bulk of the IPs are often treaded. cos dont sue each other for that.

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 16 Jan 2013 00:23

shaardula wrote:instagram? what about it? take a pic, proc it, broadcast it? all thats native to mango. you can broadcast it to any subset of people you want. you dont need an app for that.

Not having it is a deal breaker for some. But I think WP is getting it soon. M$ is working on with 46 of the top 50 app makers, so they will all be there sooner or later with WP.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 16 Jan 2013 00:29

Raja Bose wrote:Bought a Wacom Bamboo Capture tablet recently. That darn thing is too addictive even with such a small drawing surface that I don't miss ink and paper. Now I am misusing it to draw a cartoon strip featuring GHQ and her real world encounters.

For your sake I hope they are FM or FMF encounters and not MFM or worse yet FF ones.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 16 Jan 2013 00:32

No worries on the latter two possibilities happening.

Anyways I am not the sandwich type.

-----

FaceBook announces search partnership with Bing

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 16 Jan 2013 03:21

okay, pooching again.. which device that would suite me to hold say an att or verizon line on the gsm device, with a dual sim card that i can slam an indic airtel-world-sim card?

single device, two service points is what I am aiming at. any thoughts?

shaardula · Post by **shaardula** » 16 Jan 2013 03:58

Only ATT has GSM. VZ is CDMA.

archan · Post by **archan** » 16 Jan 2013 06:26

SaiK wrote:okay, pooching again.. which device that would suite me to hold say an att or verizon line on the gsm device, with a dual sim card that i can slam an indic airtel-world-sim card?

single device, two service points is what I am aiming at. any thoughts?

Wouldn't any half decent dual sim GSM "world" phone do that (AT&T/Airtel combo)? I suppose its only a matter of supporting frequencies?

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 16 Jan 2013 07:05

The latest search offering from facekitab is quite interesting. True to their form, they have chosen to go after a user experience that is emotionally appealing. They truly understand what users emotionally connect to!

They have opted to go for a list of things that can be solved by friends.

Presumably one could query things like "Friends who work for fruit co" to get a list of friends who work for fruitco to finagle a discount on appil products. Or if you are traveling to Costa rica, you could type "friends who have been to costa rica". Maybe then look at the photus or message those friends to ask them what they did. It even generalizes to things like "TV shows liked by doctors" or "movies liked by engineers". Or for restaurants you could presumably ask "Restaurants in San Francisco liked by people in San Francisco" or "Restaurants in Costa Rica my friends liked"

In a related news, Yelp tanked 7%

Yelp had this tendency to stand on building tops and complain loudly about chacha. Their CEO even gave interviews like "disintermediating search through apps on mobile" (MBA speak for "instead of people coming to yelp from google search, somehow make them come to yelp directly).

Their real threat is from social networks like facekitab. It is natural to ask friends "So where do you like to eat" rather than ask the internet "restaurants". Yelp was probably were protecting their front (because people search on Chacha to come to yelp rather than search yelp directly, yelp cannot sell search ads), but were attacked from the rear. Now facekitab will sell search ads for restaurants *and* not send people to yelp.

Whether GUBO ensues is left to be seen.