Mobile App Testing

Since this was the last hoorah for Microsoft at CES, we’re not completely surprised that they decided to start some controversy. With a little help from Nokia, it looks like a new mobile war is underway. Make of this what you will (via Wired):

Nokia declared all-out war on the mobile industry on Monday, publicly unveiling its flagship U.S. device at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The new device, the Nokia Lumia 900, is the first Nokia-made phone to run on AT&T’s 4G LTE network, the high-speed wireless mobile network slowly expanding across the States.

The Lumia 900 runs the Windows Phone operating system, and in showing off the device, Nokia president and CEO Stephen Elop re-emphasized Nokia’s dedication to Microsoft’s mobile platform. Nokia is the only major mobile device manufacturer to bet the house completely on Microsoft’s platform alone (other Windows Phone manufacturers like HTC and Samsung also make Android phones).

“We believe that the industry has shifted from a battle of devices, to a war of ecosystems,” Elop said at a press conference on Monday. “With Lumia, our intent is to establish a series of beachheads…it started in Europe, now in the U.S., and more in the coming year.”

Elop wasn’t alone. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer joined Elop, his former Microsoft lieutenant, at the press conference on stage, a clear signal that the companies are betting big on one another. Towering above Elop and the rest of the crowd on stage, Ballmer delivered the rallying cry for his company’s small-but-rapidly developing platform at the event.

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Here in the U.S. it sure seems like everyone and their mother has a smartphone these days. But when you take a global snapshot of the cellphone market it turns out that only 27% of cell owners are sporting a smartphone, according to a recent study by VisionMobile. TechCrunch does a nice job of summarizing the report and including some great infographics:

With all the talk of iPhone vs. Android these days, it’s easy to forget how the majority of the world’s mobile users still make calls and access data: via feature phones. A recently released report (download) from mobile strategy firm VisionMobile takes a look at today’s mobile marketplace finding that, despite the sharp rise in smartphone shipments over 2010 and 2011, global smartphone penetration (by OS) is at just 27%.

Smartphone adoption varies wildly by region, the report finds. Not surprisingly, those markets where 3G coverage is extensive and subscription plans are “post-paid” (as opposed to pre-paid) see the highest smartphone adoption rates. Meanwhile, in markets dominated by pre-paid subscriptions, the real battle is price. Here, Nokia’s mid-tier Symbian platforms and BlackBerry consumer-targeted models are still holding onto significant market share. However, both platforms are now facing threats from low-cost Android phones, thanks to the latter’s pricing versatility. Android devices today sell for anywhere from $100 to $750 (USD), allowing the phones to compete both on the high-end and the low-end of the pricing spectrum.

In the North American and European markets, smartphone penetration is the highest, with 63% and 51% market share, respectively. In the Asia-Pacific region (19%), Africa/Middle East region (18%) and Latin America (17%), it’s much lower.

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There’s no question that Apple’s iPad dominates the tablet market. But what if the iPad didn’t exist? What would the market look like then? The NDP Group wanted to find out and this is what they came up with in a recent study of U.S. Tablet Sales:

U.S. tablet sales, excluding iPad sales, soared to more than 1.2 million units sold from January through October and brought in $415 million in revenue at retail, according to leading market research company The NPD Group’s monthly Connected Handhelds Report.Total tablet industry sales, for both hardware and accessories, brought in nearly $700 million. …

“If you look at the tablet market without Apple there are a number of high-profile brands vying for that number two spot,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. “According to NPD’s Consumer Tracking Service, 76 percent of consumers who purchased a non-Apple tablet didn’t even consider the iPad, an indication that a large group of consumers are looking for alternatives, and an opportunity for the rest of the market to grow their business.”

PC manufacturers are dominant in the tablet space, as four of the top five tablet brands already have a strong U.S. consumer PC presence.

 Top 5 U.S. Tablet Brands (excluding Apple)
Retail Sales Jan-Oct 2011

Check out the study >>>

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Oh Black Friday – that joyous occasion when sleep-deprived, turkey-charged shoppers do battle at unholy hours of the morning. Smartphones and tablets are again at the top of many holiday wish lists and Black Friday is the day that promises excellent discounts on these pricey items. But before you wrap that new purchase (or lose the receipt) take a quick look at this list of “Dirty Dozen Smartphones” to make sure you’re not getting a bad deal:

• Samsung Galaxy Mini
• HTC Desire
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
• HTC Wildfire
• Samsung Epic 4G
• LG Optimus S
• Samsung Galaxy S
• Motorola Droid X
• LG Optimus One
• Motorola Droid 2
• HTC Evo 4G

Those 12 phones pose the highest security and privacy risks for users, according to Bit9, a company focused on software end-point protection. Interestingly, all 12 poor performers are Androids. Harry Sverdlove, Bit9 CTO, told PCWorld that the reason Android poses more of a risk than iOS is because of the wide-spread nature of Android over manufactures, models and carriers. Here’s what Harry had to say to PCWorld about how the study was done and why the results are what they are:

In compiling the list, Bit9 researchers looked at three things: the market share of the smartphone, what out-of-date and insecure software the model had running on it and how long it took for the phone to receive updates.

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Some tips from a beginner (Update: in case the author is reading this, you can now search within a webpage in iOS 4.2. Here’s the link):

Since I just bought an iPhone, I am learning – and will be posting – some tricks and shortcuts for making it more useful.

The iPhone G3 is a great smart phone and mobile computing device. However, it has some real blind spots. For example, you cannot do a basic search within a web page for words or phrases.

Here is the hack/workaround:

1) Open up your Safari web browser

2) Bookmark a page (by tapping the button)

3) Go into bookmarks (by tapping the button)

4) Click “Edit”

5) Select your new bookmark

6) Change the name to “Search” or “Find”

7) Delete the address

8) Copy and paste the following into the address box [just double-click anywhere within the javascript code, copy and then paste]:

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With all the attention that Apple and Android get these days, its easy to forget about Windows Phone 7. That is, until the company announces that the latest version (Mango version 7.1) has 500 – count ‘em, 500 – new features.

We’ll discuss the implications of this new device in terms of mobile apps (and how they will be tested) in the coming days. But first, let’s take a look at some of the details of this new product (via TechCrunch mobile):

Another communication upgrade is an adjustment to call history, which integrates voicemail, missed calls, text messages, and any calendar events with regards to that particular contact. Speech-to-text will also offer a completely hands-free experience for texting, which was definitely impressive in the demo.

Mango also upgrades all the different Windows Phone Hubs, most significantly Pictures, Office, and Xbox Live. Mango offers what Microsoft has dubbed people-centric pictures, which employs facial recognition software to quickly tag and share with friends straight from the Pictures app.

The Office experience has also undergone a bit of a revamp. Mango will support Office 365 along with SkyDrive (which offers users 25GB of free storage). Office in Mango brings just about identical functionality to mobile, allowing users to highlight and arrange Excel cells or make changes to a Word document and save without worrying about any garbled information. Xbox Live Hub basically brings all of your gaming app experiences into one place in Mango, offering the friends scores, integrating a cute little avatar, and offering a quick-resume experience during multitasking.

Finally, Mango will include and use Internet Explorer 9, which uses hardware acceleration and supports HTML5 to deliver a quick experience. When tested against the iPhone 4, the BlackBerry Torch, and the Samsung Droid Charge, the Windows Phone running Mango blew the other browsers out of the water, delivering 27 frames per second compared to BlackBerry’s 4 fps and Android’s 10 fps. The iPhone 4 couldn’t get started.

Mango will hit users in the Fall, according to Mr. Lees, but developers can get their hands on the SDK now.

What do you think? Any Mango enthusiasts lurking? Chime in with your thoughts.

Here’s a quick look at the soon-to-be-released Kyocera Echo, most known for its dual-screen display. Pretty cool.

For more, go to pcworld.com >>>

The Miami Herald reports:

South Floridians will have the fastest downloads if they go with Verizon, but will have the most reliable data transfers with AT&T, according to wireless carrier rankings by RootMetrics.

Washington-based RootMetrics, which measures mobile carrier performance, released it’s first test results for the greater Miami area this week. It gave Verizon the best ranking for Miami, primarily for its 4G LTE network connection speeds, which were found to be four times as fast as T-Mobile’s HSPA+ 4G, and almost seven times faster than Sprint’s WiMAX 4G.

For call performance, Sprint customers were three times more likely to drop a call than with the other three major carriers.

Every carrier but AT&T scored poorly in a performance test for sending and receiving data. The report said T-Mobile had a data failure of 18 percent, followed by Sprint failing at 17 percent and Verizon at 9 percent. AT&T had a two percent failure rate.

The fastest text messages were sent on the AT&T and T-Mobile networks, both taking less than 30 seconds to deliver. Sprint and Verizon both took more than 30 seconds.

The test results were based on information gathered from thousands of calls, texts and data transfers over seven days in April. RootMetrics also collects data from anyone who wants to assist in tests using the RootMetrics Cell Phone Coverage Map app, available through the Apple and Android app stores.