I had an opportunity to sit down with Bill Scott, V.P. Sales & Business Development of GetJar.com at last years Mobilize event in San Francisco to discuss mobile apps. Today, GetJar, the premiere independent mobile app store with more than 60,000 mobile apps on hand for major mobile platforms: Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile, put out a study that predicts a gold rush in the number of mobile apps and the increase in size of the mobile app marketplace.
According to the study, performed by Chetan Sharma Consulting, mobile app downloads should jump from 7 billion in 2009 to almost 50 billion in 2012. The market is estimated to be worth approximately 17 billion dollars. GetJar CEO Ilja Laurs makes another statement, echoing the one from a Google executive. “It is easy to see how mobile apps will eclipse the traditional desktop Internet. It makes perfect sense that mobile devices will kill the desktop,” he said. Mr. Laurs backs up this claim with more data from the study, citing that 17% of GetJar users spend more time on internet-linked smartphones than they do on desktops.
Surely in this day and age, companies (the phone operators in this case) no when they’re going to be releasing a product? They have meetings and set targets and probably drink tea and eat biscuits whilst doing so.
So why do they persist in annoying their loyal customers by not telling us things?
I am of course talking about the release date of the HTC Desire. There has been a lot of crap going round the Internet about Vodafone having exclusive rights to the phone, T-Mobile releasing the phone next week and so on but why is everyone else being so quiet?
On my way to buy a second hand iPhone (for a colleague at work – believe me) I decided to take some of this paid time to go around the other mobile phone shops and ask some questions. Get to the bottom of what is happening with regards to release dates for the Desire.
My first stop: The 3 Store.
After waiting 10 minutes for the fat man in front of me to give up trying to make the sales assistant copy his phonebook across to his new phone, I managed to ask the question: “Any idea when you’ll be getting the HTC Desire in stock?”. Admittedly, he was polite in his answer but it was of no help to me: “We’ve been told somewhere between the end of March and beginning of April”. Great, thanks for nothing.
So, next stop was Carphonewarehouse. Surely these guys would know a thing or two. I probably should have walked back out when I saw the geek behind the counter playing with his iPhone but I decided to persist and try and get the truth. Again, I ask: “Any idea when you’ll be getting the HTC Desire in?”. After a lecture on how Vodafone will have it exclusively first blah blah blah he then said “normally the other operators follow up shortly afterwards”. Even less helpful and I had just wasted 5 minutes of my life which I shall never be able to reclaim.
Next up was T-Mobile. I’d heard that someone somewhere had managed to have a play on a Desire in a T-Mobile store (probably in London) so I thought I’d give it a go. After looking round their stands of ancient and crappy looking phones I decided to ask the spotty man behind the counter. “Any idea when you’ll be getting the HTC Desire in?” . . . . *Pause* . . . . “Sorry, I’m not sure if we’ll be getting that in or not, I haven’t heard of it yet”. Me: “WHAT?! What the hell is wrong with you man?! Have you been under a rock for the past month?!!” Well that’s what I’d liked to have said but instead I decided to cut my losses there and then and just thank him and walk out.
So, my mission was a failure. I am still none the wiser as to when I’ll get my Desire
HTC hasn’t filed its official reply to Apple’s patent lawsuit in court yet, but the company just gave us an updated and expanded statement on the case, saying that while it “strongly advocates intellectual property protection,” it disagrees with Apple’s actions and will “fully defend itself.” Natch. HTC obviously wasn’t eager to divulge whether or not that means it’s going to countersue Apple with its own patents, but we’re sort of expecting it — we’ll find out more when lawyers do their thing in a few weeks. Oh, and we also asked HTC if and when Google would get involved, but didn’t get an answer — we’ll let you know if we hear anything. Full statement after the break.
Press Release
HTC Disagrees with Apple’s Actions
Seattle – March 17, 2010 – HTC Corporation today outlined its disagreement with Apple’s legal actions and reiterated its commitment to creating a portfolio of innovative smartphones that gives consumers a variety of choices. Founded in 1997 with a passion for innovation and a vision for how smartphones would change people’s lives, HTC has continually driven this vision by consistently introducing award-winning smartphones with U.S. mobile operators.
“HTC disagrees with Apple’s actions and will fully defend itself. HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible,” said Peter Chou, chief executive officer, HTC Corporation. “From day one, HTC has focused on creating cutting-edge innovations that deliver unique value for people looking for a smartphone. In 1999 we started designing the XDA and T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition, our first touch-screen smartphones, and they both shipped in 2002 with more than 50 additional HTC smartphone models shipping since then.”
The industry has recognized HTC’s contributions through a variety of awards including Fast Company’s 2010 Top 50 Most Innovative Companies and MIT Technology Review’s 2010 50 Most Innovative Companies. The GSMA also recently awarded the HTC Hero as the “Best Phone of 2009.” Some of HTC’s technology firsts include:
First Windows PDA (1998)
First Windows Phone (June 2002)
First 3G CDMA EVDO smartphone (October 2005)
First gesture-based smartphone (June 2007)
First Google Android smartphone (October 2008)
First 4G WIMAX smartphone (November 2008)
In 2009, HTC launched its branded user experience, HTC Sense. HTC Sense is focused on putting people at the center by making phones work in a more simple and natural way. This experience was fundamentally based on listening and observing how people live and communicate.
“HTC has always taken a partnership-oriented, collaborative approach to business. This has led to long-standing strategic partnerships with the top software, Internet and wireless technology companies in the industry as well as the top U.S., European and Asian mobile operators,” said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of HTC America. “It is through these relationships that we have been able to deliver the world’s most diverse series of smartphones to an even more diverse group of people around the world, recognizing that customers have very different needs.”
For more information on HTC’s history of innovation, please visit: www.htc.com/history.
If you haven’t already seen it, AndroidCentral.com have reviewed HTC’s Sense User Interface. It’s quite a detailed one with plenty of screenshots so if you’re like me and have never had the pleasure of “Sense” then be sure to check it out.
There have been many posts about which carriers offer the lowest prices on single line plans for Smartphones. Basically, for this comparison, we use two models (minimum minutes with text and data & unlimited minutes with text and data) to see which carrier comes out ahead. Now, keep in mind, the best thing to do is go to the closest store to you and check coverage BEFORE you look at pricing. Great prices are fine and dandy, but without coverage where you need it, it won’t matter a bit.
Minimum Minute Plan
1st Place: Sprint – $69.99 for 450 minutes, unlimited text and unlimited data.
2nd Place: T-Mobile – $79.99 for 500 minutes, unlimited text and unlimited data.
3rd Place: AT&T and Verizon – $89.99 for 450 minutes, unlimited text and unlimited data.
Using Sprint over T-Mobile saves you $240 over a 2 year contract. Using Sprint over AT&T or Verizon saves you $480 over a 2 year contract.
Unlimited Voice / Text / Data
1st Place: Sprint & T-Mobile – $99.99
3rd Place: AT&T and Verizon – $119.99
Using Sprint or T-Mobile over AT&T or Verizon saves you $480 over the life of your 2 year contract.
Sprint may have the best pricing, and they offer a few extras like the Sprint Navigator and Sprint TV services, but keep in mind Sprint has the utmost lousy selection of hardware available on any major carrier. The Palm Pre was supposed to be a savior, but really the HTC Hero and Samsung Moment have been the device that most Sprint users have chosen. They also are still riding the BlackBerry wave with the new Curve and the Tour. Sprint’s lineup should become a bit more attractive later this year when the coveted HTC Supersonic launches.
T-Mobile has a slightly better hardware selection, but it is still far from strong. The nice part about T-Mobile’s GSM network is that you can purchase an unlocked phone off Ebay or from a 3rd party retailer and use it on their network. T-Mobile’s masterful marketing of the HTC My Touch 3G and landing the Touch Pro 2 before anyone has given them a great start. The are also due to launch the prized HTC HD2 soon.
AT&T is premium pricing and due to the iPhone destroying it’s bandwidth, is suffering from some major lag. The iPhone is the standard to which all other smartphones today are being judged. So, while AT&T continues to move 15+ million iPhones a year, the rest of their line up is rather lackluster at best. As a matter of fact, they recently launched their first Android device. AT&T is riding that iPhone as far as they can while giving users the option to add phones like the HTC Tilt and the BlackBerry Bold to their arsenal as well.
Verizon Wireless had the reputation of being so far behind the curve in hardware that most people think they can still by a Moto Q or a Razr from them. In the fall of 2009, beginning with the BlackBerry Storm, VZW has pulled off major upsets in acquiring hardware as fast as anyone out there. Their current lineup features some amazing HTC devices (Imagio, Droid Eris, Touch Pro 2), the Motorola Droid, the Samsung Omnia 2, and the soon to come HTC made Google Nexus One.
Overall, the carriers seem to balance their hardware and plans very well. There’s no clear winner in the price vs. performance category since it is so area dependent. As we said above, make sure you check the coverage in your area before you commit to what your friends say are the best deals. And don’t forget to ask about discounts for the companies you work for – they can save you up to 25+% on your monthly bill.
Question: tell me how to properly connect to my wifi network, and start browsing, but say it simple enough for me being an idiot to understand
Answer: Go settings, then to wireless controls then activate WIFI by hitting it.. it will give u list of wifi networks available. select u want to connect to.. if its secured one it will ask for key which u need to enter to browse internet.. if its not secured it will connect and u can then browse internet.
Source(s):
my own experience.
Fast Company Magazine have just published their survey of the most innovative companies and, somewhat deservedly, HTC have done very well.
There were 3 categories in which HTC made the Fast Company list; ‘Consumer Electronics’, ‘Mobile Phones’ and ‘Most Innovative Companies’.
Consumer Electronics:
1) Apple, 2) HTC, 3) Samsung 4) Palm 5) Nokia 6) Vizio 7) Amazon, Asus 9) Olympus, 10) LG
In the Mobile Phone Category, HTC was 4th (behind Google, Apple and Amazon) and 31st in the ‘Most Innovative Companies’ Category, finishing above the likes of Samsung and Microsoft, quite an achievement for the Taiwanese manufacturer!
Fast Company described HTC as ‘arguably the most creative electronics firms implementing Android’.
HTC are about to inject a fresh dose of innovation into the Smartphone market, with the release of the HTC Legend on March 23rd, as well as the release of the HD mini and the HTC Desire on 7th April. To view the latest HTC Smartphones Click Here.
Stuff.tv have posted their definitive list of the things you NEED to know about the HTC Desire. Okay so you probably already know them already but it’s always nice to read up and make yourself even more excited about the phone’s April release.
I think my favourite from their list is the following:
Everyone wants in
When we got hands on with the Desire at MWC in February, HTC told us that all key retailers and networks have taken on the handset, meaning there’ll be no pesky exclusivity deals when it launches.
Ich habe lange nach einem Smartphone gesucht und bereits verschiedene Modelle ausprobiert. Schließlich habe ich das Touch 3G gefunden und bin begeistert.
Vor allem das Gewicht war mir wichtig. Es ist sehr leicht und flach und vor allem nicht zu groß und fällt damit in der Tasche nicht auf. Nach langer Prüfung war mir sowohl das Apple IPhone als auch das HTC Touch HD zu groß. Das große Display habe ich noch nicht vermisst.
Die Handhabung ist angenehm einfach und für meine Zwecke als Nichtprofianwender reichen die Oberflächen völlig aus. Auf Windows Mobile muss ich nur selten zurückgreifen, dann wird es allerdings gewohnt unkomfortabel. Letztlich musste ich mich für ein Windows Mobil Gerät entscheiden, da eine Synchronisierung mit unserem Firmenserver nur darüber zulässig war.
Der Prozessor ist ausreichend schnell und alle Infos werden ausreichend schnell dargestellt. Verzögerungen stelle ich nur selten fest. Ich besaß vorher das HTC 4350 (mit Schiebetastatur) und bin über den Geschwindigkeitszuwachs begeistert. M. E. reagiert das Touch auch schneller als das Touch HD.
Auf die Tastatur kann ich verzichten, da die Eingabemöglichkeiten, insbesondere mit der Handytastatur für mich völlig ausreicht. Die weitere T9 Eingabe ist sehr hilfreich.
Ich nutze das Gerät als Telefon und entsprechend als PDA geschätzt ca. 1 Stunde, mal mehr mal weniger. Nach meiner Erfahrung muss ich es dann jeden Tag ans Netz zum Laden hängen. Die Akkuleistung ist insofern ausreichend.
Ich gebe trotzdem nur 4 Sterne, weil ich die Kamera nicht gut finde. Die Bilder sind von der Qualität nicht angemessen und wirklich enttäuschend. Außerdem finde ich die Platzierung des Resetknopfes schlecht. Da mir Windows Mobile doch Gelegentlich abschmiert, muss ich schon mal den Resetknopf drücken. Dazu muss jedoch die Abdeckung der Rückseite abgenommen werden. Diese rastet jedoch nur ein, da besteht die Gefahr, dass die Abdeckung irgendwann nicht mehr so schön bündig sitzt.
Für meine Zwecke trotzdem ein tolles Gerät. In der Hand hat es durch die Verarbeitung und Form/Gewicht Handschmeichlerqualität.
Der Nachfolger eines Originals, das eine neue Geräteklasse schuf … das HTC TouchTM 3G sorgt für einenoch intensivere Touch-Erfahrung so machen Sprach- und Textkommunikation, Internetsurfen undMedienwiedergabe noch mehr Spaß. Bedienen Sie das HTC Touch 3G dank TouchFLOTM Steuerung derneuesten Generation. Browsen Sie in der Vollbildansicht mit Breitbandgeschwindigkeit durch Webseiten, dieauf dem großen, hochauflösenden Display angezeigt werden. Mit einer perfekten Kombination aus technischerInnovation und einem Design, das Blicke auf sich zieht, ist das Aussehen des HTC Touch 3G genauso auffälligwie seine Internetfunktionen. Das Gerät ist in einer Auswahl attraktiver Farben erhältlich, die seine moderne,schlanke Form unterstreichen.Highlights:- 2,8-Touchscreen- Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional- TouchFLOTM-Benutzeroberfläche der nächsten Generation, die beim Navigieren durch Kontakte undWebseiten sowie Ausführen von Medieninhalten perfekt auf Ihre Fingerbewegungen reagiert- Kompaktes, schlankes Design, in einer Auswahl leuchtender Farben erhältlich- HSDPA-Internetverbindung ermöglicht Surfen und Herunterladen mit Breitbandgeschwindigkeit- 3,2-Megapixel-Kamera für hochwertige Bilder und Videos, microSDTM-Steckplatz für mehr Speicher
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I used to think that patent lawsuits and such were not in my area. For Lawyers, inventors and innovators and maybe even engineers. Absolutely! Marketers like me? Absolutely not. That is until now.
An article just appeared in Wired entitled, Apple Fires at HTC, But the Target is Google http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/03/apple-fires-at-htc that got me me thinking about smartphones, iPhone and the recent launch of the Google Nexus One smartphone manufactured by HTC.
I remember seeing that Google’s groudbreaking strategy of selling this next generation, unlocked and carrier-agnostic smartphone direct to customers had run into a few bumps early on.
Some customers were having trouble trying to sign up or get their phones activated. It appeared that others who couldn’t figure out where to get activation and other issues resolved, found themselves in customer service “purgatory,” getting an endless runaround between Google or T-mobile, the charter carrier for this landmark product with limited success. And then some folks, who got sick of the whole thing and attempted to end their new service apparently were hit with a $350 early termination fee from their old friends at, no not the carrierT-Mobile, but Google itself.
These issues I think could be attributed to a new product and in fact whole new paradigm and distribution eco-system that is no longer under carrier control. My initial thought was, so what, there are a whole lot of customers out there hungrily waiting for this great device that will buy it anyway.
If you read my last posting, you may remember my response to Nexus One and the very real threat it posed to Apple’s iPhone franchise, the leader in its space. And what I perceived (and still do) as a very real threat capable of exploiting Apple’s weakness inherent with it’s excusive ATT relationship. Because of this, a strong Nexus One product has the ability to render the current leader iPhone to niche status.
Then it hit me. Add up the launch glitches with this new wrinkle, and any uncertainty before has now been amplified many times over.
And what does that mean?
It means that mainstream, early majority/mainstream buyers who may be very interested in this product, especially on say a Verizon or other non-ATT platform… are now forced by their very nature to hold off any such purchase and wait, wait until these issues have been resolved… a process that I bet may take years to sort out if Apple has its way!
This is NOT good news for Google!
How is this so? Geoffrey Moore in his great book that I still use in my Principles of Marketing class entitled Crossing the Chasm defines “early majority” buyers as conservative and pragmatic.
They don’t gamble on horse races… they buy from already established winners. They also adopt when peers adopt, and peers don’t adopt until leadership has been established. This paradox gets to the core of the Chasm.
And of course, once things are hashed out and leadership established, customers buy often moving all at once as a herd creating a lucrative Stampede, Tornado or Tipping Point that we have all heard so much about.
The key underlying risk and now major impediment to market domination comes down to, “What happens to my $500 investment in Nexus One if this suit is won by Apple?” In this case, this is a $ billion question!
I will bet that this very lucrative and key mainstream segment will most likely do what they always do when faced with such uncertainty… they stay with the status quo, perhaps begrudgingly, and wait until things get sorted out.
This makes this patent lawsuit a classic market-buster, at least for now.
Google/HTC had an opportunity to grab a significant market share of smartphone buyers who if nothing else, had an interest in a product of this class outside of ATT from a trusted brand and innovator.
But now this prize is out of reach, at least for now with this very clever, marketing move by Apple. The market will wait. And I will bet Apple is in no rush to settle either.
Google still has another prong to its strategy, which is to evangelize its Android operating system as far and as wide as possible, but the lucrative profits from its own handset will elude them, at least for now.
I will leave you with this thought. I still don’t think lawsuits like this should be considered savvy marketing strategy or tactics, except perhaps under unusual circumstances.
One criteria which makes this a marketing move is the fact that the Plaintiff in this case (Apple) is the established leader in this category, and under attack by the Defendant newcomer (Google/HTC). Conquest of the top-dog, especially a leader such as Apple, which is marketing at a consistent, radical and best practice level, is very, very hard, even if you are Google.
Secondly, Apple’s claim of patent infringement is credible even to us lay folks. It does not appear frivolous. Just look at the phones side by side. If it did, we probably wouldn’t care.
Are there others? I would love to know what you see and think.
Question: just wanted you guys know the phone will be the HTC Touch Pro 2 i plan on getting the 450 minute plan (because ppl call me a lot more than i call them) 250 text & 50 pic text (because i use y msg alot to talk to my gf on my cpu) and the price a month comes out to be 74.95 which sounds pretty damn good for a smartphone lol. So does the phone Yahoo messenger use up my text count pls comment only if you've done this or used it on your phone and have seen that your text doesnt get affected.
Answer: No Yahoo IM would be considered Data.
Answer: there might be an update to WM7 in the future...but currently there is no update. Chaces are that if they update to WM7 it wont be untill next year or so.
Source(s):
smartphone addict and member of http://www.everythingwm.com and http://www.ppcgeeks.com
Answer: After using the HTC Hero i think this is best phone in market and Samsung Moment is good phone but problem is battery life which is not good.I can only get about 4 to 5 hours of battery life. This is basically just on standby with the moment.
But i fInd HTC Hero has got quad band GSM as well as dual band 3G supports. The handset consists of numerous applications such as 3.2” TFT screen with touch sensitiveness, 2592 x 1944 pixels camera of size 5 MP & micro SD memory card. The operating system found on the unit is Android v1.5. The inbuilt memory size of the device are 288 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM. The class 12 GPRS of the handset is capable of proving internet speed of 32-48 kbps. The class 10 EDGE provides internet connectivity speed of 236.8 kbps. HTC Hero comes with Li-ion 1350 mAh battery, which has standby time of 750 hours and talk time of 420 minutes in the 3G HSDPA network. Other key applications on the device are GPS with A-GPS support, digital compass, voice memo, 528 MHz. Processor, micro USB etc. The handset has weight of 135 grams and its has got dimension size of 112 x 56.2 x 14.4 mm.
It depends on you which mobile phone you want to chose.
Source(s):
http://www.bestcontractmobilephonedeals.co.uk/phone_deal_contract.asp?Ph=HTC--Hero
As reported previously, the HTC Desire will support DivX playback shortly after its release with a small Android update.
Also reported previously was that the HTC Desire will record in 720p (high definition).
DivX support coming natively to the Desire
What I didn’t do was put 2 + 2 together as a report from LeakDroid.com has pointed out; the Desire will actually record its 720p videos with the DivX codec.
It’ll be interesting to see how the videos come out when the phone is finally released.
Cites 20 cases of alleged infringements on iPhone patents
HTC's G1: The first Android phone. Photo: HTC
Apple (AAPL) announced Tuesday that it had filed a lawsuit against HTC, the Taiwanese maker of smartphones, for allegedly infringing on 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware.
“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs in a statement prepared for release. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”
Apple COO Tim Cook had made similar statements last year when asked about Google (GOOG)’s Android operating system, which bears a close resemblance to the iPhone’s.
Google wasn’t mentioned in Apple’s press release, but could very well be implicated. Although HTC originally made smartphones that ran Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Mobile operating system, it began switching to Google’s Android in 2009. HTC was the first to market an Android smartphone. It now makes more than half a dozen.
The lawsuit was filed concurrently with the U.S. International Trade Commission and in U.S. District Court in Delaware.
O2 have announced their contract with HTC to bring the HTC Smart to the UK exclusively through their network.
This is good news for us Desire lovers as it means more freedom to stay on the network we want to.
O2 saw some huge profits when they managed to get exclusivity on the Apple iPhone a few years back but now other networks have their chance to sell Apple’s Jesus phone.
So, if you were hoping to snatch up the Desire’s cheaper sister then don’t fret, you may have to swap networks or just get an unlocked one from Expansys. Failing that, the Desire is just a whole lot better
There have been many posts about which carriers offer the lowest prices on single line plans for Smartphones. Basically, for this comparison, we use two models (minimum minutes with text and data & unlimited minutes with text and data) to see which carrier comes out ahead. Now, keep in mind, the best thing to do is go to the closest store to you and check coverage BEFORE you look at pricing. Great prices are fine and dandy, but without coverage where you need it, it won’t matter a bit.
Fast Company Magazine have just published their survey of the most innovative companies and, somewhat deservedly, HTC have done very well.
Asus 9) Olympus, 10) LG
