Microsoft to release three Surface Phone models in 2017

Towards the latter stages of last year, it was rumored that Microsoft was working on the so-called 'Surface Phone'. Though murmurings of such a device can be traced back as far as 2012, the more recent reports suggested the elusive handset would arrive early this year. Soon thereafter, reports were touting a late-2016 arrival Surface Phone -- one perhaps packing Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor. Given that Redmond's head is not in the game as far as mobile is concerned, it should come as little surprise that the Surface Phone has been pushed back once more; apparently on ice until some point next year.


The pre-existing Surface range has been a great success for Microsoft, with the higher-end Pro models considered the gold standard for professional tablet hybrids. It would make sense, then, for a range of smartphones to utilize the popular Surface branding and help the Windows maker stake a more substantial claim to the mobile industry.

According to Windows Central, there could be three different configurations of Surface Phone upon launch in 2017. Though nothing sounds too concrete for now, it would seem that Microsoft plans to divert attention away from the Lumia branding, which it inherited when it purchased Nokia's Devices and Services division back in 2013.

Of the three purported editions, one will allegedly be focused toward the general consumer, one for 'prosumers' or enthusiasts (read: geeks), and a third model aimed at enterprise. One or all of the Surface Phone models may include Microsoft Pen technology, though as you can imagine, details are pretty scarce at present

By pushing things back, it is thought that Microsoft will have time to concentrate on strengthening Windows 10 Mobile, whilst also allowing OEM partners to come through with new devices. Armed with a probable trio of new Surface Phones, a bunch of new handsets from its manufacturing allies and a better mobile platform, the company will then hope to tackle the market with a little more gusto than it has over the last couple of years.

BlackBerry Passport With Android Rumored For 2016

BlackBerry is having a hard time competing in the smartphone market that’s dominated by iOS and Android, many have suggested that the company should give up its platform and start making Android smartphones. The company’s next smartphone does appear to run Android, a heavily modified version of it from what we’ve seen up till now, and now there’s a rumor that a new variant of the BlackBerry Passport will be released in 2016 which will be powered by Android.
The BlackBerry Passport was released late last year, it features a rather unique square design and some innovative new features, it’s powered by BB10 OS. The handset hasn’t done much to improve BlackBerry’s fortunes.

Previous rumors have suggested that an Android powered Passport might be in the pipeline, new images have surfaced online which show the new BlackBerry Passport Silver Edition running Android.
According to the rumor this handset will be called BlackBerry Passport 2 and will only be released in 2016 if the BlackBerry Venice does well in the market.
Venice is the company’s upcoming slider handset first teased by BB at MWC earlier this year, it’s appears to be running an iteration of Android which heavy customization as well as BlackBerry’s own software. This handset is likely to be launched in November.
BlackBerry has not officially commented on this rumor.

Steamy Windows

First post for a little while – but been away on my summer holls, with a coWP_20150812_21_24_57_Prouple of super weeks in Orlando – great time had by all, thanks for asking! Then two weeks of catching up on things that piled up while I was away!!!

But back now and never fear I have a few posts in the pipeline –

I thought as a first bit of post holiday blogging some Windows 10 attention was in order. As I opened up my BLOG editor I noticed on twitter Microsoft wishing a Happy 20th Birthday to Windows windows 95 2095, discussing how far Windows had come – and of course it has, it’s had to, because the world it operates in is so very different to the one Windows 95 found.

Windows 10 has already had lots of coverage and I’ve no intention of covering many of those things again, there’s plenty of excellent posts already talking about some of the user experience and consumer enhancements, everything from the start button, to continuum and universal Apps. As important as I think those things are, getting the user experience across multiple devices will be key to Windows10 success, those things aren’t really my area so I wanted to focus elsewhere and look at some of the enterprise enhancements and capabilities that you will find tucked away inside this shiny new operating system and its ecosystem.

So what Windows 10 questions are the enterprise asking?
Things like; If 10 really is the last “release” of Windows and all subsequent releases will be automated transformations of this base release – do you want your secure corporate desktop just updating? What about all my mobile users, how do I make their experience better and my life easier? And of course, once the enterprise has decided the time is right, the enterprise IT guys biggest problem is, how on earth do i get this out there?

Last week I got the chance to learn the answers to many of these questions, thanks to the good people at QA training who put me in a room with Ed Baker from Microsoft (check Ed out at his BLOG) for more…

So what where some of the key enterprise takeaways I picked up ?

Let’s contradict myself and start with a couple of “look and feel” type things first;

BROAD DEVICE RANGE ON A SINGLE PLATFORM
Windows 10 is designed as a single operating systems that can run across any form factor, from an enterprise point of view this is really valuable, one operating system from PC down to IOT devices, means one OS to manage, one set of rules and policies across all of your devices, now that’s powerful.

FAMILIAR EXPERIENCE
Familiar experience is key in an enterprise role out, the last thing youwindows 10 desktop want after rolling that OS across all of your devices is endless phone calls about how do I do this an that – the return of a familiar start button and a desktop experience means easier transition for users.

Alongside those things, the ability to deploy, manage and control your desktop estate is critical for an organisation and here it looks like Windows 10 is delivering some smart stuff.

I think firstly Microsoft have grasped the idea that the end user device world has changed greatly, i thought this graphic summed it up…

Nokia 5G pickup could begin as early as 2017

The next wave of wireless is coming, quick.
Mobile equipment maker Nokia sees the shift to the next generation of 5G wireless networks kicking off well ahead of 2020, the year when many in the industry consider mass-market upgrades will begin, its chief executive said on Sunday.

Chief Executive Rajeev Suri said the company plans to pick up investment in 5G technology in 2016 and that sales of 5G-ready equipment capable of future upgrades could begin as early as 2017.

“5G will happen faster than expected. This may surprise some of you,” Suri declared to an audience including investors ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.

Suri said that in contrast to past “big bang” rollouts of older mobile equipment cycles, 5G will require plenty of equipment upgrades to occur before some of the key 5G standards are expected to be formalised in 2018 and 2019.

“2020 is probably where we see global volume deployments,” Suri said, but added: “We will start to see a lot of action ahead of 2020 – in 2017, 2018, 2019.”

Demand for current 4G equipment peaked in 2015 after massive rollouts were completed in China, the world’s biggest mobile market, and some analysts are concerned Nokia could suffer years of flat or declining sales until 5G picks up later this decade.

Unlike the previous 2G, 3G and 4G cycles which delivered mobile voice calling, text, pictures and video to phones and computers, 5G will also hook up cars, cities, manufacturing plants and agriculture, or the so-called “Internet of Things”.

Earlier this month, Nokia  NOK -0.19%  warned investors to expect “flattish” capital spending from network operators in 2016 and to brace for a possible decline in its mobile network business.

Nokia, which closed its 15.6 billion euro acquisition of Alcatel Lucent in January, is looking to stronger growth in fixed line equipment from the recently acquired business, as well as 900 million euros in cost savings through 2018 to help it shore up profits in the near- to medium-term.

The company has said it will not provide an outlook for 2016 for the newly combined companies until May.

During his speech, Suri highlighted SK Telecom’s ambition to have 5G-ready networks running in time for the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo’s similarly aggressive timeframes for moving to 5G.

Another unnamed customer will use 5G to solve its “last mile” problem of reaching local customers without making further investments in broadband cabling, he said.

“5G will happen faster than expected because these customers are already running fast,” Suri said.

Pre-standard “5G-ready” gear using software defined network (SDN) technology will allow network operators and enterprise customers to move to upgrade to full 5G once radio airwaves are allocated and they acquire licences to operate there, he said.

Samsung Electronics Trains Russian National Team for WorldSkills Competition 2017

Samsung Electronics, the world’s leading manufacturer of consumer electronics and mobile devices, and WorldSkills Russia, the agency of development for professional communities and skilled workers, announced that they signed an agreement of mutual understanding for their cooperation on educating and training the Russian National Team members at the Samsung Skills Training Center in Suwon, Korea, in preparation for the young professionals’ WorldSkills Competition 2017 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.



Samsung Skills is a subdivision of Samsung, created with the purpose of supporting young professionals’ dreams by promoting skills excellence. The training sessions will be held from March 2016 to August 2017. During that time, intensive training sessions will be organized with the participation of WorldSkills Champions from Samsung Skills and other guest experts.



Members of the national team were chosen from the WorldSkills national competitions in 2015. Two members for “Mobile Robotics” competency, Pavel Fadeev and Andrey Dybanov, both fourth-year students at Kazan’s College for Information Technologies and Communications, were chosen at the  WorldSkills Hi-Tech-2015, the second national championship for working professions that took place in October, 2015 in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Another participant, Albert Mineev, a second-year student at the Kazan National Research University, was invited to join the team at the First Inter-University WorldSkills championship on Mechanical Engineering Design-CAD that took place in December 2015 at the Moscow University of Mechanical Engineering.



“We highly appreciate the cooperation from organizations that provide trainings for modern, highly skilled workers. We have something to learn, and at the same time, we have educational institutions that already provide the highest level of trainings to prepare highly skilled specialists. We are confident that this mutually beneficial partnership will benefit both the Russian Federation and the countries with which we cooperate,” said Alexander Klimov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.



“We thank Samsung Electronics for the opportunity to develop skills such as ‘Mobile Robotics’ and ’CAD’ within Samsung Skills. Thanks to Samsung’s technologies, we can use our championship and training systems as a driver for the Russian economic system in the context of trainings for skilled workers,” said Robert Urazov, General Director of WorldSkills Russia.



“Today’s agreement is an example of how we should learn from the best. We recognize Samsung Skills, which internally produces effective training programs. We are pleased to collaborate with our colleagues and learn from their best,” said Dmitry Peskov, Director of “Young Professionals” Direction at the Agency of Strategic Initiatives.



“We are very pleased that today, Samsung, which already has a successful partnership with the Republic of Tatarstan, is entering a new phase of partnership to prepare our experts for participation in the upcoming WorldSkills championships in 2017 and 2019. I am sure, with Samsung’s help, the participants will obtain good results,” said Vasil Shaykhraziev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia.



“In the framework of the new agreement, we will continue fulfilling our commitment of providing education for the championship participants in order to create a competitive national team using all the experience we have gained from participating in previous WorldSkills Competitions. Supporting gifted young people is our strategic priority. Today, on behalf of Samsung Electronics, I am glad to officially announce our commitment to educate and train Russian participants for the WorldSkills Competition in 2017,” said  Uitack Kim, President  & CEO of Samsung Electronics CIS .



“We are entrusted with the great responsibility and honor of educating Russian specialists in the lead-up to the WorldSkills Kazan in 2019. We will do our best to meet the championships’ high expectations. We believe that our long-term experience and innovative approach will allow us to educate the competition participants at an appropriate level and help increase the prestige of technical professions among young people,” stated Dong Seob Jang, Secretary General of Samsung Skills and Vice President of Samsung Electronics.



This is not the first time that Samsung Electronics has offered training sessions for the WorldSkills Competitions. In 2014, Vietnamese participants took part in similar sessions and won the first medal for their home country at the WorldSkills Competition Sao Paulo in 2015. Such initiatives will help Russia to gain global experience in the technical professions realm, which corresponds with the goals of the WorldSkills Russia Union: to study the best world practices in the area and increase the number of Russian participants in international competitions in accordance with WorldSkills standards.



Samsung Electronics has supported the WorldSkills movement as a Global Partner and a top-level sponsor of WorldSkills Competitions since 2007. Samsung has also been an official provider for the WorldSkills Russia Union since May 2015, offering long-term support for WorldSkills in Russia.

Airtel, China Mobile to work on LTE ecosystem

Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal and China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua today announced their plan to work for growing the LTE ecosystem and evolving mobile technology standards.

Catch the live action at Mobile World Congress (MWC 2015)

Airtel and China Mobile will also work towards shaping up a joint strategy for procurement of devices that include Mifi, smart phones, data cards, LTE CPEs and USIM.

China Mobile and Airtel are also among the founding members of the Global TD-LTE initiative.

China Mobile and Airtel plan to share relevant network as well as product knowledge specifically for new technologies like 4G, best practices and technical learnings to enable delivery of affordable services to customers. Airtel and China Mobile will also work together for development of relevant technical standards and inter-operability testing.

Airtel and China Mobile will cooperate on standards and products development, and promoting a robust ecosystem to accelerate the commercialization of TD-LTE and 4.5G/ 5G technologies.

“India and China account for nearly third of all the mobile subscribers globally and this partnership will provide a major platform for development and deployment of 4G and future mobile technology standards as both countries enter a phase of explosive data led growth,” said Sunil Mittal.

China Mobile and Airtel will also aim to bring in cost efficiencies by driving synergies in their procurement strategies.

Mobile driving games revenue to $100B by 2017 and $5.6B M&A in 2013

Commenting on the Review, Digi-Capital Managing Director Tim Merel said,

“Mobile games could drive total games software industry revenue to ~$100B by 2017. The mobile and online games sectors combined could grow to ~$60B revenue (23.6% CAGR 11-17F), and take 60% games software market share by 2017. Competition for growth is intensifying, as the new kids on the block harness the energy in the cycle to take them to the summit. However this is an elite marathon not a sprint, so long term engagement performance is just as important as short term success.

Mobile and Asia drove games M&A to a historic record $5.6B in 2013 ($7.9B including the $2.3B management led portion of Activision-Blizzard/Vivendi excluded from the total). M&A value grew by 29% from 2012, with average M&A deal size growing 23% from 2012 to $63.8M. Mobile dominated M&A by transaction value (67%) and volume (36%), with clear valuation trends emerging. While many deals were focused on growth, there was considerable consolidation for pivot and turnaround strategies.

Asia is becoming the biggest growth driver of economic value in mobile/online games, with the best games companies’ revenue growth and profit margins being the envy of foreign competitors. Asia and Europe combined could take >80% global revenue share for mobile and online games. 9 of the top 10 games M&As of 2013 had Asian buyers, continuing the trend from 8 out of 10 in 2012. Global and pan-regional M&A deals were significant in 2013, and pan-regional relationships and profile remain critical for entrepreneurs selling via trade exits and for major corporates buying games companies. 13 out of 15 games IPOs in 2011-2013 were by Chinese, Japanese or South Korean companies, although there are also attractive IPO prospects in Western markets. Everyone is searching for the next Unicorn.

Facebook is bringing live video streaming to Android

Facebook will bring its live video streaming service to Android phones within the next week, the company announced today. The Android rollout will begin with users in the US, before expanding to other countries. The Facebook Live feature, which allows users to broadcast live video through the company's flagship mobile app, initially launched on iOS in the US. As of today, it's available in more than 30 countries, and Facebook says it plans to bring it to new markets "within the coming weeks."

Live video has been a point of focus for Facebook in recent months, as it looks to broaden its News Feed to include more real-time content. In a post announcing the Android rollout today, Facebook said the average time its users spend watching live video is three times longer than when the video is not live. Of those watching live content through Facebook Live, more than 50 percent are Android users.

Apple iPhone: Wireless charging iPhone 7 in the works by 2017

Apple is rumoured to be rolling out a wireless-charging version of iPhone as early as 2017, with the development of a new wireless charging technology. Unidentified sources revealed that Apple is working on creating technologies that would allow both the iPhones and iPads to be charged using the new wireless technology.

According to the reports, iPhone 7 will be rolled out without the 3.5mm headphone jack and iPhone 7s will no longer require a power charging cord. As per the rumours, the wireless technology will not be dependant on a charging pad or mat.