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Thursday 31 March 2011

Some Win Phone 7 Stats For You [ 31-03-2011 19:47 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin Source: Windows Phone Dev Blog Translation by: Paul Smith

Some statistics have been released by the Windows Phone Developer Blog and they make for interesting reading! For starters the WP7 Developer Tools package has been downloaded 1.5 million times, which is no small number for a relatively new platform. In addition some 36,000 people have become fully paid up members of the Windows Phone developer community, again a sizeable number.

Turning to the apps themselves there are now apparently 11,500 available to Windows Phone users and those are said to be full on apps, not lite versions, etc. On this point the WPDB managed to get in a shot at the competition:

We recognise the importance of getting great apps on our platform and not artifically inflating the number of actual apps available to customers by listing 'wallpapers' as a category, or perhaps allowing competitor's apps to run on the platform to increase tonnage. Finally, we don't double and triple count apps which are submitted in multiple languages.

On the one hand you might say that of course Microsoft would say all that given how far behind Android and iOS Windows Phone is in terms of the app count. However, they do make a very good point, which is that when we hear a platform boast about the number of apps it has we don't really have any way to put that in context because it is essentially just a large number designed to impress. What is happening here though is an attempt at showing how many of those apps are actually apps and thus how much development time has been spent on the platform. It may seem a minor point to some, but it would be great to see all the platforms do this for a more accurate comparison between them.

The 11,500 app figure is made up of 7,500 paid apps and 1,100 are generating revenues for the developers behind them through Microsoft's Advertising Ad Control. 60% of registered devs haven't yet submitted an app so the numbers here will probably grow.

All in all an interesting look at the state of Windows Phone 7 and it shows promise from these figures. Developers do seem to be enagged and some apps are making money. It's also nice to see Microsoft setting some sort of context for all this so that progress can be better monitored.

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Google Seeks More Control Over Android [ 31-03-2011 19:25 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin Source: Bloomberg Translation by: Paul Smith

Arguably the single biggest issue that has dogged Android over the years has been fragmentation. It's been a problem that some thought might retard the growth of the platform, but that at least hasn't panned out as Android has continued to march steadily ahead of the competition. Nevertheless fragmentation is still an issue and an issue that Google is seemingly becoming more concerned about. So much so that Google are apparently trying to gain control over customisations.

Now to those familiar with the likes of iOS or Windows Phone that probably doesn't sound like news, but remember that one of Android's selling points has been the fact that it was open, not only for customers, but for manufacturers and networks to modify too. Andy Rubin, Android's big chief, is seemingly looking to have final say on how those manufacturers and networks alter the platform. If that is so then it would certainly mark a major change in Android's strategy.

There are already some signs of the battle ahead with some who work with Android code saying that Google wants advance notice of forthcoming changes. For example, a couple of unnamed sources working on Facebook's Android efforts say that such advance notification isn't going down too well. Of course Google and Facebook are rivals so advance warning of what Facebook is up to would suit Google nicely. Similarly there have apparently been complaints made to the American government about Google trying to hold back Android handsets bound for Verizon, which have Microsoft's Bing installed. Again Google and Bing are rivals.

What it all boils down to is Google seeking to gain more control. Android is growing at a breackneck pace and with that success comes power, power for Google if it has more control over the platform. It seems therefore that despite its open origins Android may be headed for a closed future, or at least a future that isn't quite as open.

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HTC Pyramid Spotted Once Again [ 31-03-2011 18:35 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin Source: XDA Developers Translation by: Paul Smith

The HTC Pyramid isn't the sort of phone that keeps its drawers on as evidenced by the fact that more pictures of it have appeared, this time over at XDA Developers. Now before we get to the handset's looks let's start with something good and take a look at those juicy specs again ...

For starters there's a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon under the hood with 768 MB of RAM to back it up. The display weighs in at 4.3 inches with a resolution of 960x540. Imaging is taken care of by an 8 MP camera with support for 1080p HD video recording and there's even a forward facing camera for video calling. It will be running the latest Gingerbread version of Android at 2.3.2 and of course HTC's Sense UI will be there too.

Ok so now that we have the drool worthy specs out of the way let me start on the looks. Yes that sounds shallow, but unless you have scrolled further down you will only have seen the picture of the front of the handset above. Now from the front it doesn't look too bad, nothing remarkable it has to be said, but not awful either. When we turn the handset around, however ...

... the first two words that came to mind when I saw the back were 'cheap' and 'tacky'. The 'go faster' stripe just looks stupid in my humble opinion, almost like a toy or some throwback to consumer products of the 70s and 80s. I can almost envision HTC releasing a matching set of lycra srunning shorts. At any rate the handset itself sounds solid and who knows, maybe that stripe really will make it go faster?

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Apple Looks To New iPad 2 Display Manufacturer, Pays 400%Premium For The Privilege [ 31-03-2011 18:01 ]

Author: Irina Turina Source: Taiwan Economic Times Translation by: Paul Smith

Taiwan Economic News is reporting that Apple have placed a fresh order for 30 million display panels per annum with manufacturer AU Optronic. The report goes on to say that Apple coughed up a hefty 300-400% premium to confirm the order. AU Optronics would produce around 100,000 iPad 2 display each day and the overall order would be worth about half the global market for tablets.

Previously Apple had used the likes of Samsung and LGD to produce its iPad 2 displays and some of the work took place in Japan. In the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami some manufacturing of components has been disrupted so it might be that this move was designed to shore up Apple's supply in the wake of that. Then again it might also be that Apple aren't happy with their current displays, which have come in for criticism by some as having a light leakage issue

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