Recent News Headlines - Industry
Rafe's SEE 2009 walkabout (part 1)
SEE 2009 (Symbian Exchange and Exposium) is Symbian's annual big show. In the video below you can join me on a walkabout around the show floor at SEE 2009. I share my impressions and analysis in an unscripted, one-take, walk and talk. As well as covering many of the Symbian related consultancy and developer tool companies there's also a quick look at the Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung stands.
Q3 Smartphone Sales figures now out
Canalys' Q3 worldwide smartphone sales figures have been published. Headline figures are that the entire smartphone market grew by 4% year on year, with Nokia's S60 smartphone sales growing by 6% year on year and with their world market share now also up to 40%. RIM are in second place worldwide, with 21% (and impressive 40% year on year sales growth) and Apple are in third place with their iPhone with 18% (6.7% year on year sales growth). Down in marketshare are HTC and 'others'. However HTC's figures hides an increase in Android shipment and a decrease in Windows Mobile shipments.
Symbian UI concept video from SEE 2009
At last week's Symbian Exchange and Exposition, Lee Williams (Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation) showed, during the keynote, a concept video of what a future Symbian UI might look like. The video shows a typical use case: accepting an invite to a party via Facebook and, the next day, attending the party. There's a glimpse of a new look homescreen, complete with social web integration, navigation and mapping features enhanced by augmented reality functionality. Read on to view the video and my comments.
Nokia's Savander on Ovi and the USA
There's a great and interesting interview here with Nokia's Niklas Savander by the USA's 'CNET', talking about Ovi, app stores and Nokia's lack of penetration in the USA market. Well worth a read and helps understand where Nokia is coming from.
Q3 global phone marketshare figures out
As expected, the global phone market has continued to contract, year on year, in the current economic climate, according to BusinessWire and Strategy Analytics, though Q3 did show a shorter term rise. There's no breakdown in smartphone numbers as yet, though these are due any day now. Highlight stats from this data are that Nokia's overall market share is down a smidgen, while Samsung's is on the rise. It's still worth noting that Nokia out sold the next three manufacturers in the table though, combined.
Farewell N-Gage - Nokia to shutter gaming service
In a low key announcement, via the N-Gage blog, comes the news that Nokia plans to shutter its N-Gage gaming service. Nokia say they will 'no longer publish new games for the N-Gage platform'; instead games will be provided via its Ovi Store service. Current N-Gage games can be purchased until September 2010 and the N-Gage website and Arena service (online elements) will be available throughout 2010.
AAS Podcast #155: Live from SEE 2009
At the SEE 2009 show, Ewan chats to representatives from Qt (the cross-platform runtime destined to become the default environment for Symbian^4 and beyond), Navteq (the mapping data guys now owned by Nokia) and Opera (makers of the popular Opera Mini proxy browser). It's all in AAS Podcast 155.
Fujitsu appointed to the Symbian Foundation board of directors
Fujitsu has been appointed to the board of directors of the Symbian Foundation. As a result, Fujitsu will, as an OEM Board Member, contribute to the funding of the Symbian Foundation and take an active role in all four Symbian Foundation councils (features and roadmap, architecture, user interface and release). Fujitsu have more than 8 years of Symbian experience and have released more than 20 Symbian handsets, second only to Nokia, including the first videophone.
QuIC joins Symbian Foundation, appointed to board of directors
Qualcomm Innovation Center (QuIC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, has joined the Symbian Foundation and been appointed to the Symbian Foundation board of directors. By joining the board of directors, QuIC will be taking an active role in the governance of the Symbian Foundation and will likely join a number of the Symbian Foundation councils. The announcement represents a very significant endorsement of the Symbian Foundation by a key player in the mobile space.
Communication, conversation and collaboration: Lee Williams SEE09 Keynote
Taking to the stage in an open necked shirt and faded blue jeans, Lee Williams, Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation, opened this year's Symbian focussed show, the Symbian Exchange and Exposition. With a nod to British sensibilities, he did throw on a casual sports jacket, but Williams was in an animated mood.
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