Mobile Forward

Monday Assorted Links

1. Microsoft to launch Surface Pro 4 and new phones at October 6th event Looking forward to this.

2. Microsoft Cortana May Come to Cyanogen

[Cyanogen CEO] McMaster revealed that Cyanogen is working with Microsoft to deeply integrate Cortana into the next version of Cyanogen OS. This is key to catapulting Cyanogen into the mass market, he asserts […].

3. Xiaomi teases upcoming news or products which will “Solve the most important problem in Life”

In the comments for that post, many users are guessing that Xiaomi might be launching “Xiaomi Loans”.

4. Obstacles Xiaomi Needs to Overcome Decent list.

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Market Scan: 2015-05-03

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Industry

  • Nest CEO Tony Fadell on the Future of the Internet (WSJ)
  • Google Now becomes a more robust platform with 70 new partner apps (ZDNet)
  • iPhone trade-ins eroding Chinese Android sales: Report (ZDNet)
  • Cyanogen looking to work with Chinese vendors to load its software on more smartphones (Android Central)

Smartphones

  • Apple: Future iPhones may sport both telephoto and wide angle cameras, patent application suggests (AppleInsider)
  • Apple: iPhone’s New Growth Engine Illustrated: China’s Middle Class (Mobile Forward)
  • More than Half of Apple’s China Levers are Unique to Apple (Mobile Forward)
  • Samsung Pay scheduled to launch in the second half of 2015 (GSMArena)
  • Xiaomi tries to end waiting period for phone buyers, amid complaints (PC World)

[Read more…]

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Market Scan Highlights

Peruse the whole thing here (it’s easy). Some highlights, with my comments.

1. Microsoft will bundle its apps on Cyanogen’s Android OS (The Verge)

  • Raises Cyanogen’s credibility, visibility, and viability. Seems like low risk for Microsoft… no?

2. Apple Acquires Array Camera Developer LinX (Image Sensors World)

  • Neat improvement in quality (see link). Looks like Samsung and LG couldn’t afford the price. Apple doing more and more with Israeli co’s. Amazing high tech density.

3. Apple Invents a Simple Voice Command to unlock your iPhone (Patently Apple)

  • Yes, it’s just a patent. But more and more dots point toward “always on voice” coming to Apple products. At least that’s what Amazon Echo tells me.

4. Apple to equip next iPhone with Force Touch technology (DigiTimes)

  • You’d heard that, I know. But the article mentions other vendors using the technology, in 2016.

5. Samsung “will focus its efforts on flexible smartphone units” in 2015 (DigiTimes)

  • Just good to watch this topic.

6. Xiaomi Finds Themselves On The Receiving End Of Counterfeit Products (Ubergizmo)

  • Oh, the irony.

[Read more…]

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Microsoft will Bundle its Apps on Cyanogen’s Android OS

The Verge reports:

Cyanogen says it’s partnering with Microsoft to integrate the software giant’s consumer apps and services into the Cyanogen OS. Bing, Skype, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, and Microsoft Office will all be bundled later this year. As part of the partnership, Microsoft has committed to creating “native integrations” on Cyanogen OS.

This *is* certainly curious. What are the odds that someone running Cyanogen is interested in, say, OneNote? Or Outlook? Low. But at a higher level, Cyanogen is counting on this deal to improve their credibility and visibility. Both would differentiate them from other forked Android competitors. For Microsoft, the amount of extra R&D is probably small, since it’s already doing this for Android. So it’s a low-risk experiment.

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