cio.com - More than half of employees admit to storing, sharing and working on corporate documents on their personal devices-and this number is growing. You might want to re-read that statement. It's a doozy.
If you think your BYOD policy telling employees that they can't put sensitive data on their personal smartphones, laptops and tablets is keeping your company safe, think again. Few office workers are actually aware of their company's BYOD policy.
These are the alarming findings from a recent survey of 4,000 office workers in the United States and United Kingdom, conducted by market researcher Ipsos Mori and commissioned by cloud collaboration platform provider Huddle.
If you're not in the BYOD game, you've still got problems. The survey found that 73 percent of respondents in the United States are downloading personal software and apps onto corporate-owned tablets. These might be productivity-killing apps, cloud-storage apps or worse. But you knew that, right?
Millennials to IT: Who Cares?
Now for the kicker: The security problem is only going to get worse as millennials flood the workplace. That's because millennials, especially on the younger side of the generation, don't really care about security or the stress it causes the IT department; they just want BYOD without restrictions.
The survey calls 18- to 24-year-olds the "gourmet chefs of security breach," because they play loose with corporate documents. That's not good, given that millennials will make up the majority of your workforce by 2015, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

usatoday.com - We've seen some (what we believed to be) somewhat frivolous trademark disputes and lawsuits in the past, but this one has to take the cake, or rather the coloring book. T-Mobile has sued little-known AT&T prepaid brand Aio Wireless over the color magenta, AllThingsD reported on Wednesday.
Here's what the filing says, in part:
In early 2013, T-Mobile publicly disclosed plans to compete against the incumbent telecommunications providers in a new way: by offering telecommunications services without the need for consumers to enter into a two-year or annual service contract.
The dominant telecommunications provider, AT&T, responded by setting up a wholly owned subsidiary, Aio, which -- out of all of the colors in the universe -- chose magenta to begin promoting no-contract wireless communications services in direct competition with T-Mobile.
AT&T's subsidiary's use of magenta to attract T-Mobile customers is likely to dilute T-Mobile's famous magenta color trademark, and to create initial interest confusion as to the source or affiliation of AT&T's subsidiary's business.
T-Mobile is referring to its Un-carrier plans, which remove the carrier subsidy typically seen and replaces it wit a down payment and monthly device payments. T-Mobile makes up for the difference with lower cost service plans, which often add up to savings for customers.
Customer confusion is at the heart of many of these filings. In an email, T-Mobile continued:
When consumers see magenta in the wireless world, they think T-Mobile. But AT&T, through its subsidiary Aio Wireless, has been trying to get a free ride from T-Mobile's success as America's Un-carrier by using magenta in its marketing. We filed this lawsuit to stop them, and to protect T-Mobile's powerful magenta trademark.
Aio is owned by AT&T, but has its own, separate stores in the following markets: Houston, Atlanta and the Florida cities of Orlando, Tampa, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Fort Myers, Naples, Miami, West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.
On Wednesday, T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere took to Twitter to take a swipe at AT&T. The tweet was met with some acerbic replies.
You be the judge of just how close Aio's magenta comes to T-Mobile's (above). Notably, T-Mobile does have a trademark for a magenta square, although it it still an open question if the company owns a trademark on the color, period.

talkandroid.com - HTC has certainly been unpredictable for basically the past year, with troubling sales figures, angry executives who ditched the manufacturer, rumors of a sale of the company, and more- now we're seeing some really odd phone accessories.
Today, the HTC Mini+ showed up on HTC's website, which is essentially a phone accessory that provides added functionality to your device- a "sidekick," if you will. The Mini+, which comes with built-in NFC capabilities, a laser pointer, and an IR blaster, serves as a Bluetooth handset/remote control for your smartphone meant for taking calls and showing instant notifications for things such as emails, texts, events, etc.
The product is certainly aimed at a small niche market and is only compatible with select HTC devices including the One Mini, Butterfly S, Desire 200, Desire 500, and will eventually work with the international HTC One. Who knows, something like this may eventually catch on, especially with phones becoming bigger and bigger, and with multitasking becoming even more prominent than ever before. We'll just have to wait and see...
Pricing and release date is still unknown for the HTC Mini+ in the US, but we'll be sure to let you know as soon as we find out.

businessinsider.com - Pinterest seems to be on its way to becoming the first tablet-first social network. That isn't a bad place to be considering that tablet penetration still has room to increase while the smartphone market is getting saturated in the most developed economies.
Pinterest's mobile dependence is easy to glean from comScore's recent multi-platform audience data.
Let's first look at total mobile audiences - visitors who access the site on smartphones or tablets but may also do so on desktop and laptop computers.
In February 2013, Pinterest had 23 million mobile unique visitors or UVs. In the next four months, Pinterest grew that audience 10% to 25.3 million for June 2013, the last month for which data was available.
So, mobile visitors now account for 55% of Pinterest's audience.
Now let's look at mobile-only visitors- users who accessed the platform only via a mobile device.
Pinterest had 18.2 million mobile-only UVs in June 2013, 28% more than it had in February; mobile-only now represents 35% of Pinterest's audience.
(For comparison, mobile-only represents just 21% of Facebook's audience.)
ComScore does not break down its mobile data between tablets and smartphones, but according to a recent ShareThis study, Pinterest accounts for 48.2% of all social network-sharing on iPads, more than any other service, including Facebook. It's clear that tablet usage is driving a robust portion of Pinterest audience activity.
At BI Intelligence, Business Insider's paid subscription service, we recently analyzed over 15 datasets culled from a variety of sources to probe the viability of tablet-heavy Pinterest and other social media as commerce and retail-drivers. We published our insights in a recent report, "The New Art Of Social Commerce: How Brands And Retailers Are Converting Tweets, Pins, And Likes Into Sales." We also publish regular coverage and in-depth reports on tablet commerce and Pinterest.
Subscribers also gain access to our library of over 100 in-depth reports and hundreds of charts and datasets on mobile, social, and their impact across industries, including retail.

businessinsider.com - Perhaps the greatest potential for popular smartphone or tablet software and services is not in household appliances like TVs and refrigerators, or in wearable devices like wrist watches, but in cars.
To state the obvious: Cars are inherently mobile. Additionally, many of the activities people do in their cars - listen to music, look up directions - mesh nicely with popular app-mediated activities on mobile gadgets. Americans spend an average of 1.2 hours a day traveling between locations and American commuters spend an average of 38 hours a year stuck in traffic. If mobile apps and Internet-based services can shoehorn their way into the in-car environment, that means a great opportunity to expand their ability to engage consumers, absorb their attention, and gather data.
In a new report from BI Intelligence, we examine how Silicon Valley and Detroit are waging a war over consumer technology in the car. We explore the technical underpinnings and leading initiatives for bringing mobile into the car, analyze the three main ways to bring mobile products and services into cars, explore whether app usage in the car will be centered on the phone or in computing systems and connectivity embedded into the car, look at whether car companies will bring the war between Android and iOS into the car or if they will build their own Web-ready platforms, and detail what apps and services might stand to gain the most from in-car usage.

infoworld.com - Samsung Electronics claims that Ericsson demanded billions more for patent licenses after their license agreement expired in 2007.
The company made its claim in a document filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on Monday.
[ Simon Phipps tells it like it is: Why software patents are evil. | For a quick, smart take on the news you'll be talking about, check out InfoWorld Tech Brief -- subscribe today. | Read Bill Snyder's Tech's Bottom Line blog for what the key business trends mean to you. ]
Ericsson wants the ITC to ban the import of Samsung's Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note, and Galaxy Tab 7.7, as well as other Samsung products including TVs. Ericsson alleged that the products infringe on its patents in a complaint filed with the ITC in December, shortly after it has filed two lawsuits against Samsung in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Technologies at issue relate to electronic devices for wireless communications and data transfer including radio frequency technology and standardized communication protocols including GSM, GPRS, EDGE, W-CDMA, LTE, and 802.11 Wi-Fi.
Ericsson started the litigation because it wants Samsung to pay licensing fees for patents it has declared essential to implementations of industry standards. Standards bodies usually require that such standards-essential patents (SEPs) be licensed on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. Companies however often disagree about what is a fair and reasonable price for licensing such patents.
In this case, Ericsson decided to start litigation on several fronts in the U.S. because the companies failed to reach a license agreement after two years of negotiations.
According to Ericsson, Samsung was asked to pay the same rate as its competitors, but Samsung refused. Samsung on the other hand said Ericsson demanded significantly higher royalty rates for the same patent portfolio.
"At trial, Samsung is prepared to show Ericsson's offers to license its SEPs after the expiration of the parties 2007 license agreement are unreasonably high -- seeking billions more than the previous license agreements -- and that these offers are inconsistent with FRAND," said Samsung in a document filed with the ITC.
In the same filing, Samsung also notes that the negotiations about the companies' patent portfolios have occurred all over the world and are still ongoing. The dispute is about the appropriate royalty for the parties' respective 2G, 3G, 4G and 802.11 standard essential patent portfolios, Samsung said, adding that it has made cross-license offers based on lump sum royalties and balancing payments.
"In those negotiations, Samsung has made multiple offers to Ericsson. While those offers apparently do not include enough money for Ericsson, they do reflect a vast and principled increase in licensing revenue from Samsung to Ericsson over the prior two licenses combined," Samsung said, adding that this could not be characterized as a "refusal to negotiate."

mobileworldlive.com - Amazon has reportedly tested a wireless network as it looks to become an infrastructure player alongside its e-commerce and device businesses. Sources told Bloomberg that the network has been tested in Cupertino, California, using spectrum belonging to Globalstar, a satellite communications firm. Amazon's Lab126 research operations, which designed the company's Kindle e-reader and tablet devices, are based in Cupertino. By becoming more involved with technology for people to connect to the internet, Amazon could provide a more comprehensive user experience, encompassing how consumers get online, what device they use and what they do once online. As well as its Kindle devices that are capable of wireless connectivity there have been rumours that Amazon is working on a smartphone. It already has the Amazon Appstore for Android apps. And with Amazon becoming a bigger player in video, investing in connectivity could make sense, analyst Chetan Sharma told Bloomberg. Globalstar has applied to convert about 80 per cent of its satellite spectrum for use with Wi-Fi. A decision is expected in the next few months, with sources saying the company is considering whether to lease the spectrum. Another online player looking at infrastructure is Google, which secured spectrum in the US and built high-speed fibre-based networks in 17 cities. It also has a Wi-Fi network in Mountain View, California, where it has its headquarters, and recently agreed to provide Starbucks coffee shops with wireless connectivity.

mobileworldlive.com - Less than half of Latin American countries (excluding the Caribbean) have been allocated additional spectrum in order to launch 4G-LTE, according to GSMA Intelligence research. This trend shows the underlying need for additional spectrum capacity in the region to enable operators to launch LTE services and partly explains why Latin America is lagging behind the rest of the world in terms of LTE deployments.
More importantly, while LTE can be deployed in a variety of frequency bands in the region, there is a clear consensus towards the allocation of the AWS band (1700-2100 MHz), the APT700 band (700 MHz) and the IMT-extension band (2500-2600 MHz) to achieve regional LTE spectrum harmonisation.

business2community.com - It's multi-tasking. It's the millenials. It's empowerment. It's efficient and productive. It's security.
It's all the reasons an enterprise should consider supporting a mobile workforce and should do it the right way.
In today's connected world, workers are used to doing more than one thing at a time and using technology to help them perform at their optimal levels. At any given time, an employee could be using their computer while having their smartphones and tablets within reach, and switching between the technologies based on their task at hand.
In general, employees expect to be able to access the files and information they need when working remotely, and with the growing company trend of bring your own device (BYOD), employees want everything to be as convenient as possible and without technical glitches. Because employees want these capabilities and most have access to a mobile device (albeit on any given platform) enterprises may want to quickly adopt technology to support the initiative. It makes sense to empower employees to work in a way that will make them efficient and accessible, but if a mobility strategy is implemented too quickly and without proper strategic thought, it could result in many regrets as problems surface and troubleshooting becomes the norm.
Don't let that happen. Learn to mobilize for success.
Instead of diving head first into transforming into a mobile workplace, there are a few things to consider straight away. There are basic preliminary steps that can foster a systematic approach and deployment that will lead to a more successful initiative that will protect employees, the enterprise, and the security of all information involved.
While it won't be easy, to do this successfully, consider four main steps that could make the process a little more organized and mitigate some of the potential risks and pitfalls. The steps include: choosing a partner, building a strategy, creating use-case scenarios, and building a roadmap for deployment.

techrepublic.com - With their high proportion of mobile workers, a Small to Medium Business (SMB) is going to best served by instilling some mobile collaboration best practices. I spoke to some collaboration industry leaders to get their insights about mobile collaboration for SMBs.
Mobile collaboration begins with planning and business cases
"Make sure the technology you choose actually fits the needs of your mobile users. It's easier said than done, but spending the extra time to plan and build business cases for your technology spend pays off down the line," advises Barry Jinks, CEO of Colligo, the makers of Colligo Briefcase Pro.
Don't distinguish between mobile and non-mobile collaboration
Alastair Mitchell, CEO of Huddle, sees the collaboration lines blurring, "You shouldn't distinguish by mobile collaboration and non-mobile collaboration. Most people working in small businesses today will be working on many different devices."
"So the first piece of advice is not to think about it as mobile collaboration per se," Mitchell recommends. "It's really about how we do we give access to the content, information, and the customers that the people in the small business need to work with and on from wherever they might be. That might be on a tablet, a smartphone, or even a laptop -- but on the go."
"I think that the whole thing we are seeing in the mobile space is that it's not just mobile anymore. It's on the go. It's people accessing information from anywhere at anytime." According to Mitchell, we should stop thinking of it as mobile collaboration.

ciol.com - Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global Mobile Device Management Enterprise Software Market 2012-2016" report to its offering.
The analysts forecast the Global Mobile Device Management Enterprise Software market to grow at a CAGR of 21.3 percent over the period 2012-2016. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the need to enhance customer experience.
The Global Mobile Device Management Enterprise Software market has also been witnessing an increasing demand from small and medium-sized enterprises. However, the emerging threat from open-source mobile device management solutions could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.
The key vendors dominating this space include Airwatch LLC, Fiberlink Communications Corp., Good Technology Inc., and Mobilelron Inc. The other vendors mentioned in the report are BoxTone Inc., IBM Corp., SAP AG, Sophos Inc., SOTI Inc., Symantec Corp., and Zenprise Inc.
Commenting on the report, an analyst from the team, said: "SMEs require regular feedback on their services, as they find themselves catering to large number of customer segments and this requires constant innovation on the part of service and product offerings. It has been witnessed that large organizations are more concerned about the number of mobile devices entering and exiting their company on a daily basis in order to safeguard their data. Therefore, BYOD policy has not been implemented on large scale in large enterprises while several SMEs are deploying BYOD in order to reduce infrastructure and operational costs.
"Increased BYOD deployment in SMEs further increases the demand for MDM solutions. In addition, high adoption of Internet-enabled wireless gadgets such as personal digital assistant, smartphones, and tablets among employees of SMEs, MDM solutions has been adopted by SMEs as a growing trend, which in turn bring down the desktop and laptop usage to a considerable extent."
According to the report, one of the major drivers is the need to enhance customer experience. A large number of organizations are using mobile devices to improve the customer experience and to increase efficiency. Therefore, MDM solutions have become almost necessary for organizations to manage customer experience effectively and ensure that they reach the maximum level of customer satisfaction, as it is critical to sustain in the competitive environment.

business2community.com - The numbers show marketers are rushing into mobile. The numbers also indicate they are leaping before they look. So, if you want to know what's better for your business: Mobile App or Mobile Website? Forget the tactics, buzzwords and lingo; focus on the needs of your business.
96% of marketers currently use or are planning to incorporate mobile marketing into their marketing mix (Source: ANA (Association National Advertisers))
85% report an intent to raise their mobile budgets in the near future (ANA)
84% use mobile websites; 78% mobile search; 76% mobile apps and 75% mobile display ads (ANA)
59% of mobile websites are launched without testing or optimization (Source: Marketing Sherpa)
Only 16% of marketers have a mobile strategy (Source: CMO Council)
Only 14% are satisfied with the way their brands are accessing and leveraging mobile (CMO Council)
What's better for your business? Mobile App or Mobile Website? Here are 14 business decision makers.
MOBILE WEBSITES
REACH PEOPLE FROM SEARCH: If you want your business to be found through a mobile search query, a mobile website is the way to go. Google has seen 400% increase in the number of mobile searches within a year (Source: Icebreaker Consulting). For Apps, you're found on the Android or Apple App Stores, not mobile search
BENEFIT FROM LOCAL SEARCH: While we're on the subject of search, if your business has a local client base, local searches on mobile device is fast outpacing desktop. Of the estimated 30 billion annual mobile searches, about 12 billion are local searches. Local mobile searches (85.9 billion) are projected to exceed desktop searches (84 billion) for the fist time in 2015 (Source: Search Engine Land).
SIMPLE CROSS PLATFORM SCALABILTY: Mobile websites work across all platforms, while apps are device-specific (i.e. iPhone, Android), requiring a business to develop an app for each platform. Mobile websites are generally easier to manage from a development standpoint.
LOW DEVELOPMENT COST: Since a mobile website is essentially a different front end for a website, the development is generally less involved than an App.
LESS RED TAPE: For an app, you need to request permission and go through an approval process with Google and Apple. The approval process with Apple can take up to a month. For a mobile website, there is no approval process.
NO DOWNLOADING REQUIRED: Mobile website don't have to be downloaded to use. On the internet, every extra step is a reason why a customer drop offs.
ANALYTICS FRIENDLY: Tracking clicks and behavior is as simple (and insightful) on a mobile site as it is on an old-fashioned webpage. Almost a third of website traffic now comes from mobile devices, +73% from a year ago, according to the Walker Sands Quarterly Mobile Traffic Report.
MOBILE SITE VS. RESPONSIVE DESIGN: Responsive Web Design (RWD) as it is commonly referred to, implies the formatting of Website design in a way that it most optimal for viewing and navigation across a wide range of devices, including traditional PCs, smartphones and tablet devices. While it is more expensive due to development time, Google thinks this is the better solution for avoiding any complicated redirects and simplifying the sharing of web addresses.
MOBILE APPS
BETTER USER EXPERIENCE: Written in "native code," the technical language of a particular platform; such as the Rim Blackberry OS, iPhone OS, Windows Mobile, Android, or MeeGo, the use of native code allows the app to run with high performance, quality and speed.
FASTER, MORE INTERACTIVE: Site loading speed counts, especially on mobile. And loading speed for apps is almost 2x as fast as mobile websites. Plus, apps supports action-packed 3D games and resource-hungry applications that rely heavily on touch.
GREATER INVOLVEMENT: A primary advantage of mobile apps is people spend more time on them, almost +4X more time and growing. However, 1 in 4 people who download an app never use them again.
Mobile App vs Mobile Website? What's Better For You? 14 Decision Makers image 6a00d8341c59be53ef0167684a47eb970b 500wi 300x271
OFFLINE AS WELL AS ONLINE ACCESS: If your business has customers who may not always have access to the internet, an app is the solution. Let's farmer needs to access crop data from a remote field? Done. Or, if you're in real estate, and your client wants to house hunt during his/her morning subway commute? It's no problem with an app.
DEVICE INTEGRATION: Apps can integrate a camera and geo-location service for a fuller experience for both the user. If your business is built around a customer log-in, apps take the experience to a more more personalized place than a mobile website.
LOYALTY AND RETENTION: Just as search is a major advantage for mobile websites,a better user experience that secures greater retention and loyalty is a major reason and advantage to consider a mobile app.

socialbarrel.com - When most of us think about "mobile marketing," the image that comes to mind is reaching out to mobile devices to try to sell our organizations' goods or services. Yet there is another, less talked-about, application of mobile marketing that can be just as critical to an organization's long-term health: marketing its use of mobile technologies and "mobile-friendliness" to attract top talent.
The fact is the expectations of employees when it comes to mobility and the technologies that enable it have changed. Especially among the newest members of the workforce who can be considered "digital natives." Raised as a digital generation, they have particularly high expectations in terms of what their mobile devices should enable them to do - and will judge prospective employers on their ability to fulfill those expectations. As I've stated previously, for this generation, "going to work" is not a physical destination. It's a state of mind that can happen anywhere and often at any time.
In years past, mobility meant the ability to log in to the office via a company laptop, or call in to an audio conference and access email on a company-supplied phone. Now, employees want to use their own devices to do everything they would normally do at the office wherever they are, whenever they need to do it.
But mobility is about more than simply having access. Employees are increasingly attentive to the experience associated with using their mobile devices. They recognize that their performance and success revolve around their ability to engage and collaborate with others virtually. Users are relying on their devices for sophisticated and expansive access to rich data of all kinds (including video). And rather than relying on IT to supply them with a limited set of options, they now have an extraordinary choice of apps to support them.
It's not enough to have these options, though. You also need to make sure the talent you want to attract knows you have it. In other words, you have to make it part of your talent acquisition marketing effort.
Time Shifting
Technology has given us more control over our lives than we've ever had. The concept of time shifting started with the video cassette recorder. Instead of having to plan our lives around TV programs we wanted to watch, the VCR allowed us to record shows we were interested in, and for the first time, watch them when they were convenient for us. It made it possible for us essentially to be in two places at once during our leisure time.
For better or worse, the same thing has now happened with mobility. We no longer live in a "nine to five" world. Boundaries and barriers that were once relatively clear are now far less so in this age of mobile technology. Consider the recent finding that Americans spend 88 hours a week on average monitoring their mobile devices in relation to work.
Clearly, work/life boundaries are blurring. For some, that's a negative - they long for a time when leaving the office or going on vacation meant leaving your work completely behind you. Most people these days, however, welcome the flexibility this trend represents.
Time shifting enables them to make more Little League or soccer games, dance recitals, school field trips, birthday gatherings and other personal events without feeling they're letting a team member down. It allows many to enjoy their vacation time more because they don't have to worry about losing a big opportunity or something important slipping through the cracks while they're gone because they're not there to manage it. They can time shift and monitor what's happening at the office or in the plant or on the jobsite, helping them to relax the rest of the time.
It's critical to pay close attention to such issues if you want to attract and retain the best people in your industry and in their respective fields. You want to provide a work environment that's supportive of both their career ambitions and their personal/family goals. Mobile technologies help each individual find the work/life balance that's right for them instead of having to conform to a "one-size-fits-all" policy.

mspmentor.net - I last wrote asking, "What's a Next-Generation MSP"? And I suggested 5 key steps to transforming your MSP. Now, let's take that a step further to magnify one of my favorite topics: Mobile. I'm going to show you how to make money in 3 steps.
Deeper Details
Let's first discuss a few facts about the marketplace. Most companies, especially in the midmarket, don't have many IT resources. In fact, the average midmarket firm has eight to 15 IT staff members, according to a study of Midmarket clients by the SMB Group. The study also found that 47 percent of midmarket companies say security is a top concern when deploying mobile and 90 percent of firms will support BYOD by 2014. What does this tell you? There's an expanding pie and there's plenty of client demand for mobile device management to address application, network, and device security.
So how do you make money? First step: get a Mobile Device Management tool to manage mobile devices like tablets, smartphones and laptops. Look for a solution with one User Interface to manage across all endpoints, from servers to smartphones.
A suggestion is to download the free trial of IBM Endpoint Manager for Mobile Devices. This powerful software, part of our IBM MobileFirst portfolio, will allow you to use one tool to manage key MSP capabilities like patch management, security & compliance, and of course mobile devices to address BYOD. We have a software licensing option called Application Specific Licensing (ASL) that allows MSP's to maximize profits and your branding on what you sell into your end-clients. And right now we have some great ASL incentives.
The second step is start marketing your BYOD mobile capabilities. Pursue your existing customers where you're managing their server, network, or storage already. They will want to know how they can accommodate their employee's demands for BYOD, enabling simple functions like email and calendaring. Use this as a point of differentiation and upsell them to achieve more margins from your existing customers.
Now, step three, expand your footprint. You'll soon be asked for apps like secure file sharing or access to your client's ERP/CRM. You can use third-party apps or build your own, and you'll probably want to setup a secure company app store for your customer's employees. You can do this, as this MSPmentor article suggests, by creating a service line offering a mobile PaaS to develop mobile apps using a Mobile Application Development Platform or just find a partner to do it for you. Just be sure your technology partner has not only a broad mobile and infrastructure portfolio, but also a strong MSP program with pricing and finance options that cater to an MSP business model.

blogs.computerworld.com - Does your management team have what it takes to lead and manage a mobile workforce? With all the talk about the mobile workforce, the conversation often revolves around employee requirements, productivity, and IT infrastructure needed to securely support remote workers. What isn't discussed often enough, and should be, is how leaders' management skills need to evolve to fit into our mobile-enabled world.
When I'm looking to hire new people for my company the questions haven't changed much over the years. I want people who are driven and who see an opportunity that they'd regret having said no to. If anything, the mobile workforce evolution has made my hiring processes more rigorous. However, the way that I manage people has had to evolve, because the way that people work has changed significantly over the past few years.
In the US, workers have increased their productivity by 25 percent over the past decade, largely due to mobile devices. This means my employees can sit down and crank out code, or come up with a new marketing campaign when the thought occurs to them, and send it off to the rest of the team without being in the office. Encouraging employees to work how they want, when they want, is boosting businesses bottom line while creating happy employees, a win-win for any manager.
Distraction
However, there is a darker side to mobile technology. Over the past decade I've seen my teams become more scatterbrained, because they're multitasking. While having a mobile device constantly providing updates may increase worker productivity, it can also detract from the quality of a worker's output, since they're trying to do eight things at once.
In today's mobile workforce my busiest team members are not necessarily the ones getting the most done, which is not a good thing for any organization. Mobile-friendly managers need to advise their team members to cut the cord to their mobile device when working on an intensive project, but embrace it when they need to work from the field. Finding that balance is key.
Delegation
Another issue that managers need to be aware of is the detrimental effect that mobile devices have had on delegation. In a mobile world it's easy to always be on hand to make a final decision, but by doing so you're not only decreasing your own productivity, you're also not empowering your employees to make decisions.
Mastering the art of delegation in a mobile workforce is essential. In our age of total accessibility, delegation must be more deliberate, so that employees learn that just because they can contact their manager 24/7 doesn't mean they should. People are going to make mistakes, but they'll then learn from them, and become better employees.

eweek.com - Federal employees are unplugging from their desktops and using mobile devices to connect to work, but technological hurdles impede forward progress.
Federal agencies and taxpayers benefit from a mobile federal workforce, but outdated infrastructure hinders mobile potential and productivity gains, according to the results of a survey by MeriTalk, a public-private partnership focused on improving the outcomes of government IT.
The study, underwritten by data and storage networking solutions specialist Brocade, indicated federal employees are taking advantage of the flexibility mobility offers, with 81 percent of federal employees surveyed connecting to work remotely at least once a week, while 54 percent connect at least once a day, and 45 percent connect several times a day.
"Federal employees are increasingly unplugging from their desktops and using mobile devices to connect to work," Anthony Robbins, vice president of Brocade's federal division, said in a statement. "Not only is mobile connectivity what federal workers want, it can provide substantial productivity gains to federal agencies. Just as large commercial companies have been doing for years, agencies should enable mobile connectivity. They need to embrace the growth in the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend by investing in and deploying modern infrastructure improvements that deliver seamless connectivity, improved access and increased speed of service."
As a result of mobile access, 45 percent of federal workers say they work more efficiently, 34 percent say they feel more available to their team, 28 percent say they feel more tuned in, and 28 percent say they collaborate with colleagues more frequently.
Federal workers estimate they would gain an average of seven hours of additional productivity per week by having seamless remote connectivity and mobile access to their agency. The report said this equates to 364 additional hours of productivity or nearly $14,000 in productivity gains per federal employee per year.
To become more efficient, 54 percent of federal workers recommend seamless connectivity to work regardless of location, 51 percent recommend improved network access, and 51 percent recommend fast service. Survey results indicated mobile connectivity is important to federal workers, with more than half saying they would be willing to trade their desktop computer, happy hour or dessert for seamless remote connectivity and mobile access.
However, achieving these additional productivity gains is not without challenges as outpaced infrastructure is limiting federal workers' mobility and connection options. It's not just limited to technological hurdles--although just 56 percent of federal workers say they feel most productive while physically at a desk, 82 percent spend the bulk of their day there.
Four out of five feds (82 percent) said they are frustrated with their agency's current connectivity and mobile access offerings. The top frustrations include slow connection (65 percent), cumbersome security procedures (57 percent) and limited network access (43 percent). Additionally, limited infrastructure is hindering federal workers, with 70 percent saying they cannot access all the information they need remotely.

banktech.com - Only a few years ago, financial institutions were looking at the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) movement with trepidation because of concerns that their carefully constructed information security infrastructure would come tumbling down as loan officers and other employees tapped their way to needed data. Today, many banking organizations are not only tolerating employee use of smartphones and tablets but embracing it.
The shift in attitudes spans institutions of every size. Examples of adoptees include the National Banks of Central Texas, which has rolled out a mix of iPhones, iPads and Android devices to its 10 branch offices, and UK-based banking giant Barclays, which last November purchased 8,500 iPads to facilitate face-to-face customer interaction beginning with a new app enabling fast market-wide searches for mortgage loans.
Today, financial services organizations represents the highest mobile device adoption of any industry sector, accounting for 24% of all enterprise mobile device deployments and 30% of iPad activations.
The challenge is to manage both bank-owned and employee-owned mobile devices with the robust device, data and application security controls required to address the stringent governance, compliance and asset protection needs of the banking environment. Also critical is the ability to save money on recurring mobile expenses by monitoring device usage for voice, data or text overages.
Achieving these objectives requires admins to set mobile device policies as well as utilize tools like mobile device management (MDM) services to enforce them. Here are seven building blocks that banks can use as a foundation of a secure and cost-effective mobile program.

mobileworldlive.com - Bank SinoPac has launched mobile phone-based credit and debit cards in Taiwan, making it the first lender in the country to enter the mobile payments market, according to the Taipei Times.
The new service is initially limited to 1,000 customers and enables them to purchase goods and services using their smartphones and tablets.
However the service is unlikely to be a key earnings driver in the short term due to a number of factors, including regulatory constraints on pricing, said the bank's president Tina Chiang in a media briefing.
At present the Financial Supervisory Commission, a financial regulator, puts a cap on credit card usage via mobile devices at NT$50,000 ($1,665). The cap on using debit cards via mobile devices is NT$10,000.
The regulator also imposes a limit at present of 1,000 customers for banks offering mobile payments services.
However, Bank Sinopac says its research showed nearly two thirds (62 per cent) of its customers are interested in the new service because they might get faster and more convenient banking.
Of note, 38 per cent of respondents expressed concerns over security and 32 per cent worried about overly complicated processes.
The bank's rivals will not be far behind. Six other local banks are expected to follow suit. Chunghwa Telecom, the country's largest mobile operator, is partnering with a number of the banks.

businessinsider.com - Microsoft has another iPad-bashing Windows 8 commercial out today.
This one, like several other recent spots, demonstrates how Windows 8 hybrid devices (the ones that are part tablet, part laptop) can do several things the iPad can't do like multitask or use a built-in keyboard.
Whether or not your believe Microsoft's assertion is irrelevant though. The market clearly hasn't been too hot on Windows 8 devices. Specifically, PC sales continue to implode. Microsoft had to take a $900 million writedown on its Surface RT tablet business. And Microsoft only generated $853 million in revenue from its Surface business, while Apple took in about $25 billion in iPad revenue for the same period.

businessinsider.com - Depending on whom you ask, messaging is either the most important mobile phone feature or the second-most - after regular-old phone calls. Messaging, led by SMS texts, has grown to become a huge global industry and a revenue windfall for the world's mobile carriers: $140 billion annually over the next three years.
However, a new batch of companies are providing over-the-top (OTT) messaging services - services that send instant messages over the Internet and don't depend on wireless cell networks.
The OTT services are already causing big changes in the mobile industry. From Facebook's Messenger service to Santa Clara, Calif.-based startup WhatsApp - which boasts 300 million monthly active users, more than than Twitter, and Korea's LINE, these players are some of the biggest crowd-draws in mobile. It's not just carriers that are threatened, but legacy social media too.
In a new report from BI Intelligence, we profile some of the most important OTT players in mobile messaging, and detail the monetization opportunity for OTT messaging. We also identify what competitors must do - and some have already started doing - to guard against the OTT threat.

mobileworldlive.com - US operator AT&T is seeing a rapid build-up in M2M momentum. "Opportunities have tripled over each month and quarter," said Sean Horan, director of M2M Business Development at AT&T Business Solutions, in a recent interview with Mobile World Live.
Horan pointed to multiple growth drivers. They include the shift of legacy M2M applications from fixed to wireless connections, remote monitoring, and enterprises looking more closely at the potential of M2M to streamline business processes and even create new revenue streams.
By end-March 2013, AT&T reported 14.7 million connected devices and 431,000 net additions through the first quarter. Net additions during Q1 2012 were nearly half that number, at 230,000.
Horan added, however, that lack of standardisation and a fragmented market (with numerous industry verticals), threatens to hold back M2M expansion.

ciol.com - Despite an 8 percent year on year decline in 2012, annual sales of mobile cellular broadband modems and embedded cellular PCs will rebound and grow to 250 million units by 2018, with LTE increasing by 187 million units between from 2012 and 2018, according to a new Strategy Analytics Mobile Workforce Strategies report, "LTE and Cellular Routers Will Stimulate Mobile Broadband Device Rebound: 5 Year Forecast and Analysis."
According to Strategy Analytics, the mobile broadband device recovery will begin in 2013, driven by the widespread emergence of LTE, cellular routers for USB modem replacements (for connecting multiple CE devices) and strong emerging market demand.
"The mobile broadband modem market struggled in 2012, with a decline in vendor shipments overall, as market leaders Huawei and ZTE were unable to maintain the continued growth of previous years as overall spending on modems decreased during the recession as users became more cautious over spending on data plans for modems. Discretionary spending tended to favor smartphones and bolt-on plans for tethering in a number of cases, or spending was withheld altogether," commented Andrew Brown, Executive Director of Enterprise Research at Strategy Analytics and author of the report.
"Nevertheless, the increasing dependence on persistent and ubiquitous connectivity, coupled with the widespread emergence of high-speed LTE networks, the multi-purpose nature of cellular hotspot routers that can connect up to 8 consumer electronics devices via Wi-Fi and the opportunities in developed and emerging market means there is plenty of life left in the mobile broadband devices market," Brown added.

fourthsource.com - Since data became available on mobile devices, personal communication, entertainment, and information consumption has been ever changing and mobile devices have become a necessity in our daily lives. In fact, mobile devices have become so essential that 2013 is set to be the year where the number of mobile Internet devices will even outnumber humans (CISCO: 2013).
Jumping on an emerging opportunity
Of the world's six billion mobile phones, more than three quarters are located in the developing world. Analyst firm Ovum expects that there will be 1.6 billion new mobile connections across the world by 2017 - with Africa identified as the fastest growing region. Additionally, according to the GSMA, sub-Saharan Africa is expected to add 175 million new mobile users just in the coming three years.
These predictions make the emerging markets all the more appealing for mobile players of all shapes and sizes, including operators, handset manufacturers and mobile content and service providers.
Additionally, the companies that define our current age and the next generation, including Apple, Google, Samsung and Facebook, are looking to emerging markets for precisely this reason. While each has enjoyed massive success in building over a billion users' worldwide, each company is now reaching a point of saturation - particularly within the developed markets where they enjoyed their initial success.
A point of convergence for all of the big players is that emerging markets hold the key to unlocking a new mass of customers, and it will be via mobile devices that they can connect with them. Essentially mobility will be the key to unlocking this customer base.
First foot forward
The first major finding from the research is that the popularity of Apple in the West is lost on consumers in emerging markets.The burgeoning opportunity in emerging markets mean that race to the next billion is already well underway. Apple is rumoured to offer a cheaper version of its iPhone, dropping its premium prices, in order to offer its iconic device to the masses. Similarly, Facebook has developed a 'text-only' version of the social network via Facebook Zero - which is free for users to use and access via their devices - while Nokia recently launched its 207 and 208 devices specifically targeting emerging market users.
However, while the competition heats up, bets on who will be most successfully in these regions should not be hedged on the current 'winners' in the West.
Earlier this year we conducted some research with YouGov and Vanson Bourne looking at the mobile attitudes of emerging market consumers in Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, polling their views on their favourite brands, types of content and openness to mobile advertising.
The results revealed in the Upstream Emerging Markets Mobile Attitudes Report, highlights the significant differences between the West and emerging markets consumers and what the recipe for success looks like in these new markets. Ultimately, the brands that have achieved major success in the West, such as Apple, will not necessarily reign supreme globally.
The winning formula
The first major finding from the research is that the popularity of Apple in the West is lost on consumers in emerging markets. In fact, on the wish list of handsets consumers would like to own in emerging markets, those developed by Apple (21 per cent) are typically the third most sought after.
The research uncovers Samsung as victorious in these regions, a brand favoured by almost a third of consumers (32 per cent). Nokia secures second place (22 per cent), which in part can be attributed to the investment it has made in emerging markets and lower cost handsets.
A widespread consensus exists that in order to successfully penetrate these regions and monetise the masses, brand must be able to market devices that are priced at $100 or less - thereby taking into account the purchasing power of emerging market consumers.
While a customer base exists for high-end devices, after the research uncovers that just over a third of consumers (34 per cent) would purchase a device from their favourite brand, regardless of price, to say that the majority of consumers would be prepared to pay the same would be misleading. It's vital to remember that for consumers it's not just the cost of the device that's important - but the total cost of ownership - which includes call and data charges and possibly a lengthy contract.
Data demands
This year the GSMA predicted that data revenues are expected to overtake revenues from voice calls in both developed and emerging markets by 2018 as smartphones and tablets, especially budget models, become more dominant. Our research also found that consumers have a high propensity to purchase content and spend on applications. According to the findings, consumer monthly spend on mobile content and services in emerging markets reaches almost $1 billion.
Although there is a clear demand for data, the results show that consumers are prepared to spend money on all manner of products and services such as mobile banking, educational materials and health and agricultural information services that they can use in their daily lives. Apps related to education are of interest to over half of respondents (52 per cent), followed by business (47 per cent), then health (41 per cent), and almost one in five who would use their mobile to access political services (19 per cent).
According to the findings, consumer monthly spend on mobile content and services in emerging markets reaches almost $1 billion.
While there is a clear opportunity to provide content to this data driven audience, it is important to note the predominant App Store model simply doesn't fit with emerging market expectations. Where only half of adults in the developing world hold a bank account and under one in ten own a credit card, numerous consumers in these regions cannot readily access the content and services on offer via an App Store model.
In fact, the majority of consumers polled (42 per cent) expressed an interest instead in being billed for content and apps by their Mobile Network Operator (MNO). Instead, the majority of users (31 per cent) would like to avoid long contracts and simply pay for data services through their mobile phone provider as part of a pre-paid or 'pay as you go' format.
First to the finishing line
Where others will fall at the various hurdles in the race to the new markets, MNOs are a step ahead with a unique advantage. Not only have consumers expressed a preference for paying for data services through their MNO, network operators actually own the most pervasive marketing channel in those markets to drive adoption for apps - the mobile phone itself.
As the research has shown, many consumers want to pay for data services in a pay as you go format - something that Apple's app model does not complement. Where Apple and others will have to review its model to secure its next billion customers in emerging markets, the door lies open to MNOs to work with other handset manufacturers to build a more appropriate and effective model.

fiercemobileit.com - A new Gartner study shows business leaders are ready to spend more money on mobile technology--specifically mobile devices and workforce applications. Even so, analysts predict " a modest compound annual growth rate of 1.3 percent for IT spending in the government and education sectors through to the end of 2017" and "75 percent of government CIO budgets flat or increasing in 2013."
The results were released following a survey of over 1,950 CIOs in both private and public sectors. It revealed that alongside increased spending on mobile technology, implementing mobile solutions is among the top 10 priorities for today's CIOs.
Gartner's figures line up with CIO Magazine's research earlier this year which showed that "IT leaders are seeing increased budgets over the next year, with an overall increase of 4.9 percent, and that mobile/wireless, outsourced IT services (including cloud) and hardware investments are on the rise."
On the surface, it appears that an expected increase in spending is based on the clear importance of mobile technology in the workplace. In reality, it might be based on something far less sexy: Mobile tech is expensive and budgets must be raised to meet the challenge.
Analysts with management consulting firm McKinsey & Company break down some of the figures for us. "The costs of the actual devices and connectivity vary but are typically between $600 and $700 annually for an iPad or comparable tablet. Included in this are infrastructure costs that include technical components such as mobile-device management, expanded e-mail capacity, and help-desk support. These costs typically total $150 to $250 annually per device. Application costs will vary greatly, depending on the number and type of applications and the way they are enabled for mobile."
When you consider that those figures are just for initial device deployment and don't include things like specialized application development or virtual desktop integration, it's easy to see how budgets need to be adjusted upward to accommodate the workforce's rapidly-changing mobile environment.

capitalfm.co.ke - Mobile phone manufacturers are petitioning the President not to assent to the Value Added Tax Bill as currently constituted because it will increase the cost of mobile phones by 16 percent.
Samsung, Intel, Nokia, Huawei, Microsoft and iHub want the President not to sign the Bill into law arguing that it will drag down Kenya's economic momentum by dealing a blow to the digital economy, driven by young Kenyans.
They argued that the 2009 VAT exemption on mobile devices increased subscriber penetration and drove down the cost of ownership so that more Kenyans could benefit from mobile technology.
"Since the exemption, Kenya has experienced a 25 percent increase in mobile penetration and the correlation between growing mobile subscribers and economic growth is well established by the World Bank, McKinsey, GSMA and others," argued the manufacturers.
"As a general rule, increasing mobile penetration by 10pc yields an estimated 1.2pc growth in GDP across the economy."
The organisations also told the government not to focus on generating revenue from taxing productivity inputs responsible for Kenya's innovations on the mobile platform.
They insisted that the best source of government revenue would come from a highly skilled and productive workforce and asked the government to find alternative sources of revenue.
The group also observed that the proposed amendment to the Tax Bill would have a negative impact on Kenya's emergence as a hub for world class innovation.
"Kenyan developers are broadly recognised among some of the most innovative thinkers, tackling some of Africa's biggest challenges through technology. We should empower and support these young people, not undermine their creativity with a tax," they insisted.

arstechnica.com - Is the end of the cubicle upon us?
For most people, the answer is "not today," but the mobile worker-rarely in the office, getting most work done on a smartphone, tablet, or laptop-is becoming an increasingly large presence in corporate America.
Take Chad Burton, an attorney who founded Burton Law in Ohio. The members of his eight-lawyer team all work remotely. Burton himself almost never uses what most people think of as a "computer."
"My three main work tools are my iPhone, iPad, and the Moleskine [a paper notebook that integrates with Evernote's iOS app]," Burton said in a phone interview. These devices-along with cloud services and apps for file management, document creation, and other tasks-help Burton "create the same workflow regardless of where I am."
"I'm an early riser. I get those out at four in the morning, get to work, and I can carry that on to the rest of the day," he said. "When we hang up here, I'll crank out some more work before heading to a meeting, and then I'll pick up those three things and head out the door."
Burton's case is a little bit extreme now, but in a few years it may not be. Forrester Research has been tracking the rise of mobile workers, saying in its 2013 Mobile Workforce Adoption Trends report, "Gone are the days when employees wielded a simple set of tools to get work done. In today's world of anytime, anywhere work, employees use whatever device is most convenient: desktop at home, laptop at work, tablet in a client meeting, or smartphone everywhere."
While people can now work pretty much anywhere, they haven't been able to completely give up more traditional devices. Forrester's survey of 9,766 information workers in 17 countries found that 84 percent of respondents use a desktop computer for work at least once a week, and 63 percent use a laptop every week. Nearly half, 48 percent, of workers use smartphones for business each week and 21 percent do the same with tablets.

arstechnica.com - NEW ANALYSIS: According to GSMA Intelligence research, MVNO and M2M services are playing an important role in boosting US mobile operators' quarterly connection gains, often offsetting slowing growth in traditional mobile services.
Mobile operators in the US typically define wholesale connections as MVNO connections that they often group with M2M connections in their reporting. These metrics have historically been reported by six US operators - namely AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, US Cellular, Clearwire and Verizon Wireless - and in this analysis, M2M has been grouped within wholesale connection totals.
Our estimates show that the sum of MVNO and M2M connections for these six operators has increased by almost 30 million between Q2 2010 and Q2 2013 to reach a total of close to 70 million. While combined total connections among them has grown by 20% over the last two years, when excluding their respective MVNO and M2M bases the level of total connections growth is approximately halved at around 12%. Over the past two years, MVNO connections have contributed just over half of the joint MVNO and M2M connections aggregated among those six operators, and we expect MVNOs to continue their positive growth in the near term.
On average across AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile US, MVNO connections represented just over half (51%) of wholesale connections (including M2M) in Q2 2013. The share of MVNO within wholesale connections has decreased by three percentage points at AT&T between Q2 2012 and Q2 2013 to 49%, compared to a twelve percentage point decrease at Sprint to 50% and one percentage point increase at T-Mobile US (59%).
The sharp quarterly decline in Sprint's wholesale connections in Q2 2013 was the result of a move to eliminate inactive connections from its MVNO base. Joseph Euteneuer, Sprint's CFO, explained that "as expected our wholesale and affiliate business had net customer losses of 228,000 in the second quarter primarily due to a targeted effort by our wholesale MVNOs to eliminate inactive accounts in their base, and Lifeline recertification".
In Q2 2013, T-Mobile reported an annual connections growth rate of 33% on the back of the acquisition of MetroPCS acquisition and its 8.9 million prepaid customers, but also thanks to organic growth due to improved branded contract churn and higher branded contract gross additions. T-Mobile recently noted that "the increase in wholesale net customer additions was due to the continued popularity of government-subsidised Lifeline programmes offered by our MVNO partners and higher MVNO gross customer additions, partially resulting from new MVNO partnerships entered into during the second half of 2012".
In parallel with MVNO growth, M2M services are also positively impacting mobile operators' total connections. As highlighted in our recent report, Mobile operators' global M2M footprint, emerging M2M services are becoming an important source of growth for mobile operators. This sentiment was recently voiced by Verizon Wireless' SVP, Michael T. Stefanski who stated that "we're gaining a lot of momentum around machine-to-machine and that is driving incremental revenue, albeit very low individual unit per subscriber type revenues. But, again, as we start to gain momentum and sell hundreds and hundreds of thousands of these types of devices, that's going to contribute to those revenues and contribute to the overall growth of Wireless".
In Q2 2013, M2M represented around half of wholesale connections (MVNO and M2M) on average for AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile US - growing by four percentage points year-on-year. The share of M2M within total connections for these three operators increased by just over one percentage point between Q2 2012 and Q2 2013 to reach around 10% on average (excluding the effect of the aquisition of MetroPCS on T-Mobile's connection base).
M2M and connected devices1 are a key growth opportunity for AT&T, with the operator's President and CEO, Ralph de La Vega, recently explaining that "gains in connected devices more than offset losses in the reseller segment", adding that AT&T plans to further monetise M2M through applications within segments such as home security, automation and connected cars. AT&T has been particularly active in the automotive segment. In February 2013, the operator signed an agreement with General Motors (GM) to provide wireless connectivity for all GM vehicles in the U.S. market beginning in 2014. More recently, AT&T announced an agreement with Sirius XM Satellite Radio to provide mobile connectivity supporting a suite of security features and services for Nissan in North America, and an agreement with Audiovox to provide network connectivity, telematics and location-based service systems.

engadget.com - Don't look now, but Lenovo just became an industry bellwether. While reporting strong first quarter results that include a record $8.8 billion in revenue and $170 million in profit, the tech giant revealed that its combined smartphone and tablet sales have overtaken those of its PCs. Yes, you read that correctly -- the world's largest PC vendor is now a mobile-first company, unlike previous title holders such as HP. It's not hard to explain the shift, however. About 42 percent of Lenovo's total sales come from its native China, where the company's predominantly Android-based phones and tablets fare very well. The firm's Windows PCs and tablets are also performing above industry averages, but CEO Yang Yuanqing makes it clear that Lenovo is quickly becoming a "PC Plus" brand -- IdeaPads and ThinkPads are just parts of a larger puzzle.

businessinsider.com - Apple CEO Tim Cook likes to make fun of Android tablets.
He says that despite all the Android-based tablets that are flooding the market, services that measure web-usage show no one is really using Android tablets.
On the company's most recent earnings call, Cook said the latest data shows the iPad has 84% of web browser usage in North America.
He added, "I don't know what [Android tablets] are being used for because that's a pretty, the basic function is web browser."
In the past he's said, "I don't know what these other tablets are doing. They must be in warehouses, or on store shelves, or maybe in somebody's bottom drawer!"
It's a funny line, and it's an interesting point. Android reportedly has 63% of the tablet market, but only 16% of the web traffic. What gives? And will it last?
Sameer Singh took a look at the state of web usage for Android around the world. He used Statcounter, which tracks 3 million websites. He found that the iPad is dominating Android around the world.
He wanted to see if Android tablets are just off to a slow start. He compared web traffic share on Android tablets 18 months after the iPad launched to web traffic on Android smartphones 18 months after the iPhone launched.
With the exception of Asia, Android tablets are lagging behind Android smartphones in terms of share. We don't know what this means for the future, but it looks like Android isn't getting a massive traffic spike in tablets like it did with smartphones.

cbc.ca - Both Industry Minister James Moore and Quebecor chairman Pierre Karl Peladeau have challenged the big three mobile carriers on claims they've made over the prospect of competing with Verizon.
In separate, open letters both men suggest BCE, Rogers and Telus are misleading the public with their joint "Fair for Canada" campaign, which alleges Ottawa is giving "preferential treatment" to foreign companies such as Verizon.
Verizon, one of the biggest cellphone carriers in the world, has said it is considering entering the Canadian mobile market by purchasing struggling upstarts Wind Mobile or Mobilicity.
If it does that, Verizon would be able to bid in an upcoming auction of mobile spectrum, with two of the four blocks on offer set aside for new entrants to the market.
That would not be fair, according to Canada's big three carriers, because under the current rules the big Canadian firms are barred from buying the smaller carriers and would be blocked from bidding on the spectrum set aside for new entrants.
They also say Verizon should not be allowed to piggyback its service on their towers and infrastructure.

businessinsider.com - Apple's newest operating system for iPhones and iPads called iOS 7 is currently going through an intensive testing process.
Today we've learned via BGR an almost exact timeframe of when we can expect iOS 7 to reach the masses. BGR says:
After iOS 7 beta 6, Apple will be seeding a GM (gold master) version for its employees and partners to test starting around September 5th. This will mostly likely be the software that is released to the public later on in the month of September, barring any major bugs or problems that might be discovered.
Developers use this testing period to iron out kinks and make sure their apps are compatible with the new operating system. The "gold master" that BGR refers to is the final version of iOS 7 that will be pushed to everyone's device soon.
Apple is widely expected to announce its latest iPhone along with an official release date for iOS 7 on Sept. 10. If Apple follows its pattern, iOS 7 should be available as a free download within a week of that announcement.

itnews.com.au - ...and haven't seen yet.
Australian IT managers are less than impressed with the enterprise mobility solutions currently on the market, seeking a tool that allows them to manage and provision applications to all user devices, whether fixed or mobile.
Over half of the end-user respondents to an iTnews survey said they were 'less than satisfied' or 'definitely not satisfied' with the enterprise mobility solutions currently available.
"We want one pane of glass to rule them all," said one survey respondent, with others calling for a solution that merges the scope of Microsoft's System Center Configuration Manager and Blackberry's Enterprise Server - with the ability to build application stores and for administrators to deploy and remove applications from client PCs, tablets and smartphones.
Pursuing BYOD
Three in four respondents said they were eyeing off a BYOD policy in their workplace.
But most respondents said they would seek to limit the number of mobile device platforms to support, which would suggest a preference for 'Choose your own device' over 'Bring your own device'.
As for the number of platforms to support, the sweet spot appears to be three - 46 percent of respondents intend to support three mobile platforms, 27 percent said "more than three", 15 percent would limit choice to two smartphones and only 11.5 percent would stick to the traditional fleet model (provisioning a single, company-wide device).

fiercemobileit.com - BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) released its BlackBerry 10.2 device simulator, introducing support for applications running Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android 4.2.2, a.k.a. Jelly Bean.
The simulator enables mobile software developers to trial and troubleshoot their applications against the fledgling BlackBerry 10.2 operating system, expected to reach consumers sometime later this year. "Android developers can now use Jelly Bean in the simulator," said BlackBerry Manager of Development Tools Daryl Martin. "Like most things in the simulator, Jelly Bean is Hardware Accelerated so you can enjoy the 60FPS goodness for your applications! This did require us to update our version of Mesa to 9.1.2, so there have been numerous improvements in our OpenGL support along the way."
In addition to Jelly Bean, the BlackBerry 10.2 simulator boasts support for Bluetooth pairing, introduces 3D views of a BlackBerry smartphone when simulating orientation in the controller, and incorporates the camera application, letting developers either take pictures of custom images injected into the viewfinder or use the default scrolling bars. "We are working on adding more camera features, such as injecting QR codes via the controller, so keep an eye out for future releases," Martin noted.
The BlackBerry 10 software development kit, released late last year, introduced the BlackBerry Runtime for Android, an emulation engine enabling developers to repackage apps originally written for the Google OS in the span of about five minutes. Roughly 20 percent of all apps available for download from the BlackBerry World storefront are Android ports.
BlackBerry has nevertheless urged developers to build native applications optimized for BlackBerry 10, warning that consumers aggressively dislike BB10 apps and games ported over from Android. While most of the ports work on BlackBerry 10 smartphones, they can't access all core device features, and BlackBerry Development Head Alec Saunders recently told CNet that consumers are keenly aware of the difference. "From a commercial perspective, users hate them," Saunders said. "Our partners who have ported apps get dinged for them."
BlackBerry 10, launched commercially earlier this year, has struggled to connect with consumers. BlackBerry smartphone sales slipped from 8 million in the second quarter of 2012 to 6.2 million in the most recent quarter, and its market share plummeted from 5.2 percent a year ago to just 2.7 percent, according to data from research firm Gartner. Earlier this week, BlackBerry announced its board of directors has formed a special committee to explore strategic alternatives, including a possible sale.

digitaljournal.com - More humanitarian organizations will be using Canadian software and mobile technology to improve aid efficiency, effectiveness and accountability, thanks to a $900,000 grant from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD). The funding will support the development of Last Mile Mobile Solutions (LMMS), a home-grown technology which lets aid workers collect and use data in real time at the "last mile" - the critical stage where relief supplies reach people most affected by disasters. World Vision developed LMMS in collaboration with the IT industry to:
Register and track aid recipients efficiently. LMMS stores data such as individual health issues, family size and pregnancies. This information helps aid workers prioritize people with the greatest needs.
Calculate rations and supplies quickly to reduce long wait times. With LMMS, a single aid worker can verify the identity of an aid recipient and the items they need in less than 30 seconds. This means 1,000 disaster-affected families can be verified to receive aid in a single working day compared to what would normally take four working days.
Generate detailed electronic reports at the distribution site within minutes. Previously this took several days using paper-based systems. As a reporting tool, LMMS also minimizes operational issues such as fraud and inventory distribution errors.
To date, LMMS has been deployed in 16 countries, including the Haiti earthquake response in 2010. The new DFATD funding will help scale up LMMS and allow it to be deployed by a growing number of aid agencies including Oxfam, Second Harvest Asia, Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children (Niger) and Medair.

venturebeat.com - It's been about two years since Nielsen noted that smartphone sales overtook feature phone sales in the U.S. - now, it seems we've hit that milestone on the global level.
Smartphone sales to consumers worldwide during the second quarter grew 46.5 percent to reach 225 million, while feature phone sales fell 21 percent from last year to hit 210 million units, according to the latest figures from the research firm Gartner. Overall, smartphone sales accounted for 51.8 percent of all mobile phone sales in the quarter.
The news is a clear sign that the smartphone revolution has extended beyond the U.S., Western Europe, and technology-heavy Asian countries. Gartner notes that smartphone growth was highest in Asia/Pacific (up 74.1 percent), Latina America (up 55.7 percent), and Eastern Europe (up 31.6), on top of continued growth in other regions. It all comes down to smartphones getting cheaper across the board, not to mention that the amount of feature phone options are dwindling in many countries.
Feature phone sales are likely still centered in developing countries, where battery life is precious and cellular networks are measured by their reliability, not just their raw speed. It'll be really interesting to see how low-end smartphone options, like Nokia's Asha line and Samsung's Bada phones, are adopted in developing markets.
Gartner also confirmed the trend other research firms are seeing: Android continues to climb in marketshare, while iOS continues to fall. Android now accounts for 79 percent of the global smartphone market (up from 64.2 percent last year), while Apple has fallen around 4 points to reach 14.2 percent.
Similarly, in terms of hardware manufacturers, Samsung remained the leader as its market share rose slightly from 29.7 percent to 31.7 percent. Apple still holds the No. 2 position, but its market share also fell 4 points to hit 14.2 percent.

t3.com - This morning Samsung officially announced the Hennessy, a dual-screen flip phone.
Images of the phone was leaked earlier this month.
According to Samsung, the phone is headed to the Chinese market.
The company currently does not have plans to launch the new smartphone in the UK or US.
The Hennessy features two 3.3-inch 320x480 touchscreen displays. It also comes with three capacitive buttons on the front of the handset.
It is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM. The Samsung Hennessy also comes with a microSD card slot, five megapixel rear camera, 1500mAh battery, USB 2.0, Bluetooth, GPS and WLAN.
The smartphone runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and will come with TouchWiz pre-installed. Samsung has also included its instant messaging app ChatON.

blogs.cio.com - With 62 percent of companies planning to implement BYOD policies this year, IT's new reality is unavoidably to manage desktops on a wide range of devices. Add to that the fact that business priorities are ever more focused on minimizing cost and maximizing growth, and it's no surprise that IT leaders are looking to fully integrated, highly efficient mobility solution, like VMware Horizon Suite (which brings together Horizon View, Mirage, and Workspace).
The Horizon View virtualized platform has been shown to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) by up to 50 percent over traditional desktops, while also allowing the expansion of VDI to new use cases, accelerating time-to-value.
Through application layering and virtualization, Horizon Mirage allows for centralized, zero-touch physical desktop management. By allowing IT to store complete copies of PCs in the datacenter, synchronizing user data, applications, and updates becomes seamless with reduced application conflict. Read more about Horizon Mirage here.
Horizon Workspace provides policy-controlled workspace for applications and data, making it easy to give users the freedom they demand while also reducing costs.
The full Horizon Suite is greater than the sum of its parts, allowing IT to easily provide end-users with a trouble-free, consistently great experience, wherever and however they work.

business2community.com - Pick your favorite mobile carrier and check their coverage map. While over time cellular coverage Enterprise Mobile Apps: Location and Accessibility image 272203 l srgb s gl 300x199provided by Verizon, Sprint, ATT, and others, has improved, there are still significant gaps where cellular or WiFi coverage is spotty or non-existent. Why should this concern you or your IT department's Enterprise mobile app strategy?
The answer is simple: accessibility.
As discussed in previous entries, the audience and their location for your app's usage may dictate how to prioritize software development. Perhaps more importantly though, is how accessible does your app need to be to function properly?
Generally, there are two common approaches for mobile business apps: real-time and store-and-forward.

cbronline.com - The growth of BYOD and mobile consumerisation is expected to boost enterprise mobility management (EMM) applications until 2017, according to a report from Strategy Analytics.
According to the report, personal-liable user model is being accepted by enterprises and the volume of BYOD devices is expected to increase in the coming days.
With growing trends of the multi-device OS enterprise and associated challenges, the report anticipates that it will give a boost to the enterprise mobility management applications.
Strategy Analytics mobile enterprise strategies senior analyst and author of the report Gina Luk said that the vendors from a range of IT security and services backgrounds are now converging on the MDM space with the aim of taking a significant share of this market.
"It is no longer purely the domain of specialist enterprise mobility vendors who are strongly positioned in terms of core technical capabilities," Luk said.
Strategy Analytics Enterprise Research executive director Andrew Brown said, "There is room for the MDM market to grow further, but even with its phenomenal growth, there are too many vendors for the market to sustain them all, and we expect to see considerable consolidation during the next 12 to 24 months."

networkcomputing.com - If you don't see a business need for mobile app development, you're missing out. Companies like Starbucks are reaping tremendous benefits by investing in mobile technology.
InformationWeek recently completed its second annual mobile application development survey and the results were surprising. The reported level of custom mobile app development didn't change, with the share already having deployed native mobile apps up a mere two points, while those with browser apps optimized for mobile platforms actually dropped by two points. When asked why they aren't building mobile apps, 48% of the almost 700 survey participants cited a lack of business need, up 14 points from last year's poll.
The response is a head scratcher given the almost daily barrage of news about how mobile devices and apps are upsetting established business models, transforming or destroying old firms, creating new ones, and fundamentally changing the way people communicate, shop, bank, get news and information and entertain themselves.
Of course, organizations shouldn't be stampeded into mobile, reacting to headlines about competitors or responding to vendor hype, but there are plenty of good reasons why "mobilizing" your developer corps makes competitive business sense. Since it's often easier to teach by example, we'll share some notable cases of how going mobile has rapidly produced significant benefits and boosted the bottom line for companies, both large and small.

networkcomputing.com - Telefonica is sticking to its guns over its offer for KPN's German unit, following America Movil's bid for the 70 per cent of the Dutch operator it does not already own.
The Spanish operator is holding its position over the E-Plus offer, although the context has changed with its global rival's bid for the remaining shares in KPN.
"Telefonica confirms that it maintains its offer to buy E-Plus under the terms already announced and considers it definitive," a company spokeswoman told Reuters.
Under the current deal, KPN would receive 5 billion euros and 18 per cent in the enlarged entity formed by E-Plus and Telefonica's mobile unit in Germany.
However the move by America Movil has been interpreted by some analysts as Carlos Slim (pictured) attempting to force Telefonica to improve its offer for KPN's E-Plus.
America Movil has noticeably held back from approving the Telefonica-E-Plus deal. It says it is still deciding its view on the proposal.
Approval for the E-Plus deal will occur through a shareholders' EGM, which will likely take place in October.
Telekom Austria, another America Movil investment, is also attracting some attention, following America Movil's move. The Mexican group owns 23.7 percent of the Austrian incumbent, making it the second-biggest shareholder after the Austrian government. It bought into Telekom Austria as part of the same spree last year that saw it net its KPN stake. In addition, the Slim family controls a separate 3.1 percent stake in Telekom Austria.
Analysts expressed doubts whether America Movil's KPN bid is a sign of things to come for Telekom Austria, not least because of the practical aspects of launching two such bids simultaneously. Also, the bid for KPN was motivated by the specific circumstance of the Telefoncia-E-Plus deal, they said.
This did not stop the head of Telekom Austria's workers council pressing the country's government to make its intention for its own stake in the telecoms operator.

talkandroid.com - ComScore released their newest U.S. smartphone market numbers for the quarter ended June 2013 showing Apple continuing to slowly grow their share while Android held firm in the number one position. Google's Android saw a slight dip earlier this year when U.S. market share fell from 52.3% to only 52.0%, but held firm at that same 52.0% through the second quarter.
Meanwhile, Apple's iOS platform inched up a little bit more, up to 39.9% of the U.S. smartphone market. According to ComScore, that was a 0.9% gain during the quarter. That growth appears to have been at the expense of Blackberry, which slid from 5.2% of the market to only 4.4% of the market. That decline may explain why Blackberry is now looking at going private despite the release of their new flagship devices during the quarter. Microsoft continues to hover around three percent, picking up a tenth of a point to 3.1% for the quarter ending June 2013. Meanwhile, Symbian declined to only 0.3% of the market.
As far as manufacturers go, Apple continues to reign supreme at 39.9% of the market, a gain of 0.9%. However, that growth was not able to match Samsung, capitalizing on sales of the new Samsung Galaxy S 4, which picked up 2.0% to 23.7% of the market. Meanwhile, HTC, Motorola and LG all saw market share declines during the quarter with Motorola taking the biggest hit at 1.3%.

mobilecommercepress.com - Whether your company has an official policy on bringing your own device or not, employees are increasingly doing work on their own tablets, smartphones, laptops and personal computers. CIOs reported 28 percent of their employees were working on their own devices at least part of the time, According to a recent global survey reported by PWC. Gartner predicts that this number will rise up to 70 percent by 2018.
Security issues, data integrity, MDM (mobile device management) logistical problems, and compliance difficulties all arise from bring your own device. BYOD policies benefit from reducing technology overhead and learning curves, as well as increasing employee satisfaction since they're using a device they prefer personally. The education sector in particular has been heavily promoting bring your own device, for both students and faculty. According to Ed Tech Magazine, 85 percent allow some form of BYOD. This allows the schools to expand the way students learn, although it does open up major security issues. One way to mitigate a number of the issues that come with this concept is through sandboxing.
WHAT IS SANDBOXING?
A sandbox, in this context, refers to creating an isolated virtual environment on the smartphone. It doesn't interact with the operating system, apps or data on the personal device. It limits access to system files and other device resources, making it harder for viruses and other malware to gain a foothold, according to TechHive. One of the leading forms of sandboxing in the mobile environment is Blackberry's Enterprise Service, which handles mobile device management.
BLACKBERRY ENTERPRISE SERVICEMobile Commerce Sandboxing in the workplace
Blackberry has always had a reputation for solid, enterprise level mobile technology that puts security concerns as the top priority. Blackberry Enterprise Service 10 is a powerful tool for a system administrator who is tired of pulling his hair out over unsecured personal smartphones connecting to company network resources. It supports Blackberry 10, Android and iOS platforms, so you can integrate pretty much anyone's device who wants to use it on the network.
HOW IT WORKS
All of the devices are managed through a central control panel, making the IT administrator's job much easier, as the application is also capable of being run on a single server. The main feature of Blackberry Enterprise Service is the Secure Work Space. This is a sandboxed environment that can be controlled by the administrator to meet any government compliance policies and regulations. It also includes a firewalled connection, so you don't have to put out any additional funds for a virtual private network to connect your mobile devices with. The Blackberry phone already has a sandboxing feature built in called Blackberry balance. It creates two distinct work spaces, one personal and one business. The work space side of the app is completely encrypted and secured to mitigate potential security issues.
If you're going to allow or promote bring your own device policies in your workplace, you need to have mobile device management in place ahead of time. Otherwise, you're going to come into work one way with everyone shouting about a massive customer data breach that's tanked your stock numbers.
Have you used a form of sandboxing in your workplace before?

fortune.com - BlackBerry may soon learn that you can't always get what you want.
FORTUNE - Smartphone maker BlackBerry Inc. BBRY 9.65% is "open" to going private, according to Reuters. How delightful. In related news, my toddler is "open" to getting a pony for her next birthday.
On paper, a BlackBerry leveraged buyout does make sense. The company could be viewed as a bargain, given that its $4.8 billion market cap is a perverse rearrangement of the $84 billion it was valued at back in 2008 (and 19% lower than where it began the year). More importantly, it still has decent cash-flow ($630 million last quarter) and absolutely no debt.
Moreover, there is unlikely to be competition from strategic bidders. It's hard to imagine Silver Lake and Michael Dell would spend another $5 billion or so after having just been forced to stretch for Dell Inc. DELL , while an Icahn-owned Dell would be more seller than buyer. China's Lenovo LNVGY 1.67% or HTTC are always rumored to have interest, but it's hard to imagine such a deal flying with Canadian regulators (let alone what would happen to vendor agreements with U.S. government departments). There are arguments that companies like Apple AAPL -0.35% , Google GOOG 0.28% or Microsoft MSFT -0.34% may want select piece of BlackBerry - such as its secured network assets or patents - but being amenable to a take-private buyout is much different than enabling a strip sale. And even at today's depressed valuation, BlackBerry's parts may be too rich for strategic interest.
So back to the buyout talk. Or lack thereof, since companies only leak such "openness" if no one is actively beating down their door.
The flip side of a bargain is a falling knife, and it's hard to imagine too many private equity firms wanting to put out their hands for a company that is descending at such terrifying velocity. Revenue is down a whopping 30% year-over-year, while the once-profitable company is now hundreds of millions of dollars in the red.
Today's BlackBerry is to companies like Apple and Samsung what Palm used to be to BlackBerry. That is to say it has become passé among consumers, seemingly regardless of product quality. Private equity firms are good at changing up management, massaging finances and growing sales of already-popular products. But not really at massive brand resuscitations.
Moreover, the universe of large private equity firms with deep tech expertise is fairly limited (just think of how few firms took a serious look at Dell).
So I'm sorry Emma, but no pony come November. But you won't be the only one not to get what you want...

techcrunch.com - it's Smartphone Platform Market Share Day, meaning that your local nerds are atwitter about the latest figures: Android's continuing massive growth, the slowing of iOS's year-over-year unit volume expansion, and curiously, today, if Windows Phone's numbers matter.
You see, Windows Phone posted the highest year-over-year unit volume increase, according to IDC, clocking in with a second quarter of 2012 to second quarter of 2013 gain of 77.6 percent. The simple kicker to that growth rate is that Windows Phone as a platform is exceptionally small compared to Android, which posted a 73.5 percent unit volume gain in the same period.
Windows Phone fans are quick to grab onto good news that their platform of choice earns, and that's perfectly reasonable. Android fans, of course, are having a field day as iOS's market share as a percentage of the worldwide market share is down to 13.2 percent. Android itself surged to 79.3 percent in the quarter.
Keep in mind that it's far easier for Windows Phone to put large percentage growth on the board than Android due to the fact that Android has to sell a mountain more units than Windows Phone to lock down each percentage point of unit volume increase.
However, it's doing a simply exceptional job. According to IDC's figures, Android's second quarter 2013 unit figure of 187.4 million was larger than the entire second quarter 2012 smartphone market, in which 156.2 units were shipped. That's all but insane.
Another stat to help cloud your head: Despite its 77.6 percent growth in units for the year, Windows Phone only expanded its market share from 3.1 percent to 3.7 percent in the same period. That's due to the fact that the larger smartphone market grew in the past year, up 51.3 percent year over year in the second quarter.
Well then. What can we actually make of all this damn data? There are two separate narratives here that we should not confuse or conflate, because if we do we'll end up nowhere at all. The simplest way to view the smartphone market is that it is two separate wars: iOS v. Android, and Windows Phone v. Everyone Else.
The old joke fits well: Two men are being chased by a tiger. One takes a pair of running shoes out of his backpack, and begins to lace up. What are you doing, his friend shouts, they are coming! And you can't outrun a tiger! No, says the friend with his shoes now firmly on. I only have to outrun you.
That's Windows Phone at the moment, as it faces down BlackBerry, and every other increasingly fringe smartphone platform. iOS and Android ship units on a scale that simply places them in a separate class; Windows Phone must convince developers that it is the firm third mobile platform, and that it can ship enough units to be relevant to their platform considerations.
I'd say that the most recent mobile market share figures affirm both points: Windows Phone is growing, shipped the third most units, and all other platforms that have less unit volume than it saw their numbers decrease.
So a simple way of viewing the smartphone market is that Android is consistently adding friction to Apple's products, which are seeing their market share fall as the market itself expands more quickly than they ship. And that Windows Phone, while still a distant third place player, has managed to functionally cement itself as a player in mobile.
That fact will be more gut-checkable once more than 10 million Windows Phone handsets ship in a quarter. However, barring a dramatic market reversal, that figure should be reached inside of calendar 2013.
I'm no expert when it comes to Apple, so I'll leave analysis of its current - though it's hard to resist the temptation to add "difficult" - position inside of the smartphone wars to those who write about such things. However, given what IDC revealed today, we can essentially view the market as a three-way war, but not one in which Windows Phone has even begun to challenge the incumbents.
A perhaps better title for this post was suggested by the excellent @marypcbuk: "Growth, Share and other Irrational Numbers."

mobileworldlive.com - LG Electronics officially announced its latest flagship smartphone, G2, which it said is "the first smartphone introduced under LG's new "G" Series for premium devices, exemplifying LG's aim to bring forth more customer-centric innovations".
Perhaps the most unusual feature is that all of the buttons are on the rear of the device, "making this the first smartphone to be completely devoid of all side buttons". The vendor said that this is because "the larger the phone became, the more difficult it was to properly access the side keys".
In hardware terms, the device is as impressive as would be expected: it has a 5.2-inch full HD screen, 13MP camera, and is powered by a quadcore 2.26GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. It is available in 32GB and 16GB versions.
The company said the screen is "the largest display designed for one-handed operation in today's popular 2.7-inch width smartphone category". It also uses "Graphic RAM" technology which reduces the energy consumption of the display by up to 26 per cent on still frames, and increases overall battery life by around 10 per cent.
The 13MP camera is also accompanied by Optical Image Stabiliser (OIS) technology to prevent blurring, a feature it says is generally used for cameras offering resolutions of 4MP to 8MP - although it is also available on some of Nokia's Lumia devices. It said "the G2 is unique in that it offers 13MP and OIS technology in a slim design without a protruding lens".
And LG said the G2 is "the first smartphone on the market today to feature 24 bit/192kHz Hi-Fi playback that reproduces studio-like quality sound, far superior to a CD".
The device will be rolled out across more than 130 operators in the next eight weeks, starting in South Korea followed by North America, Europe, and "other key markets".

mediapost.com - According to the Adobe Digital Index, with the meteoric rise of mobile devices and tablets, mobile is a way of life and is here to stay. In 2012, there were 121 million smartphone users and 94 million tablet users in the United States alone, representing a 31% and 180% increase over 2011, respectively. Mobile devices have changed the way consumers interact with businesses, and today's digital marketers must understand how consumers use different devices to be able to build and optimize mobile marketing strategies.
In addition, 2013 marked a significant shift in how mobile users are accessing websites. Global websites are now getting more traffic from tablets than smartphones, with 8% and 7% of monthly page views respectively. Given that tablet visitors spend more per online purchase with U.S. retailers than visitors using smartphones, tablet traffic is proving to be more valuable in terms of e-commerce and engagement and represents significant implications for the development and optimization of mobile strategies.
Results from the Mobile Consumer Survey show that consumers are using their smartphones and tablet devices to connect with brands in a variety of ways, and they are increasingly moving back and forth between different devices and form factors. Mobile is a unique channel, with different requirements for smartphones and tablets, and this channel must be integrated into the overall marketing mix. It is imperative that businesses understand who their mobile consumers are, how they access sites or apps, which devices they use, and what their expectations are for a positive experience.
In March 2013, Adobe surveyed more than 3,075 mobile users in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, and Germany to learn which mobile devices they use, how they interact with websites and applications, and what they want most out of their mobile experiences. Participants provided valuable insight into their mobile activities across several categories, including media and entertainment, travel services, financial services, and shopping for consumer products and electronics.
The survey, administered by Survey Sampling International, categorized preferences based on device type, gender, and age. The participants were split nearly equally between gender and age. Age groups were split into young (18-29), middle-aged (30-49), and older (50-64) .
Results show that Android devices lead the way in overall popularity, with 55% of people reporting Android as their primary mobile device of choice, while iOS devices were reported at 31%.
Although the Android operating system gained in popularity across the board as compared to 2012, the middle-aged segment is now the largest adopter of Android smartphones. Android smartphones are the most popular as a primary mobile device by ownership across all age groups and regions, with 52% for the young segment, 54% for the middle-aged segment, and 49% for the older segment, which significantly increased from 38% in 2012. Overall, 52% of people report that Android phones are their primary device, with 27% reporting iPhones as their primary device.
While Android devices are steadily gaining in popularity, iOS has reemerged as the operating system of choice for browsing. iOS users tend to be more engaged and spend more time with apps and websites, and they tend to be loyal, having both iPhones and iPads to stay connected anytime, anywhere. These are the perpetually connected consumers, as termed by Forrester, where "almost four out of five have a tablet in addition to their smartphones or phones. They connect from anywhere, frequently, and use nearly every possible type of app."
For consumers who own both a smartphone and tablet, the primary device is still the smartphone (77%), but tablets are making strong headway as a primary device, up from 12% in 2012 to 23% in 2013. And, tablets are now generating more website traffic than smartphones.
While smartphones still lead market share in the overall mobile device market, tablets are quickly gaining ground because of consumer preference to interact with websites and engage with content on the larger screen size. According to a recent Adobe Digital Index analysis of website visit activity, mobile users on average view 70% more pages per visit when browsing with a tablet compared to a smartphone. Designing for the tablet experience, as well as responsive design that optimizes experiences for every device, are key tactics for businesses that want to maximize engagement and increase consumer satisfaction.
And, tablet users are more likely to be home-based (80%), while 14% use tablets on the go and 6.5% use tablets at work. Consumers devote a significant amount of time to their tablets, with 26% using them daily between 1 to 4 hours, and 7% reporting more than 5 hours per day of usage.
Tablet users continue to be the more valuable mobile consumer segment when it comes to website visits. 71% of iPad users (62% in 2012) and 65% of Android tablet users (56% in 2012) reported spending more than $250 on consumer products via their devices over the past 12 months, compared to 59% of iPhone users (58% in 2012) and 53% (53% in 2012) of Android smartphone users. Overall, the spending reported by smartphone users was relatively flat compared to 2012, but spending at the upper levels by tablet users has jumped. 9% more tablet users (iOS and Android) report spending over $250 in the past 12 month compared to those reporting spending at that level last year.
On average, people appear to rate their experiences on apps and websites equally. A 60% average satisfaction rate for both websites and apps indicates a strong opportunity to improve experiences for mobile audiences, because 40% are neutral or not satisfied. However, within categories and in stating preferences for what consumers prefer, there are important differences. For example, when asked which method they would prefer to use for shopping, most consumers preferred websites to apps. 58% percent reported preferring mobile-optimized or regular websites, while 42% preferred applications, indicating that consumers might not be willing to download, install, and continually upgrade applications. In turn, businesses should provide both engaging mobile web experiences and mobile apps to address their total audience.

t-systems.com - Mobile employees are more flexible and more productive. That means companies are faced with the challenge of securely managing both private and company smartphones and tablets. "Productivity and, ultimately, the success of the company improve as a result," says Peter Burghardt, Managing Director of techconsult. Field staff need to be able to access current information and the company's customer relationship management (CRM) system when they are on the go. Service employees benefit, too, from being able to place orders outside the office using the enterprise resource planning (ERP) app. This can be done via mobile online access or with the help of an app. BYOD: Complexity on the riseThat makes mobility a fundamental feature of the job description at many companies and in many sectors and industries. This means increased complexity in terms of IT. After all, the idea is to be able to manage a variety of different devices throughout the entire company and to make sure they are used in compliance with security policies. These aspects are particularly a concern, because an increasing number of employees want to be able to use their private devices and apps for work as well. The concept of "bring your own device" (BYOD) is becoming a central topic in the recruitment of new talent, or the "war for talent." An end-to-end solution like mobile device management (MDM) can help, because it offers a wide selection of tools for administrative activities dealing with smartphones and tablets. Works with any end-device or operating systemA business-grade MDM solution manages all key operating systems, regardless of the manufacturer (Android, Symbian, iOS, Windows, Blackberry, etc.) for mobile end-devices. It can also integrate any number of end-devices, even BYOD devices. This requires a security concept under which the company defines specific rules and then implements them using the MDM solution. The most important features include controls for non-compliant devices, lost devices and devices that have been altered. Lost devices can be remotely deactivated or the content can be deleted using the "remote wipe" feature, in order to prevent potential attacks on the corporate network. Security policies and access rightsNot all employees need the same applications and access rights. A MDM solution supports different access scenarios in which the company specifies different user roles and access policies. Companies also want to control the use of apps in order to protect the corporate network from potentially harmful applications. This can be achieved with policies that monitor app installation and block unauthorized installations. Another approach is to use an enterprise app store, the company-internal answer to manufacturer-run, public app stores.

mobileworldlive.com - Panasonic is reported to have told Japanese operator NTT Docomo it will not supply any new smartphones, a move which would effectively end its presence in the mobile phone market.
According to reports originating from news service Kyodo, Panasonic's decision has been driven by Docomo's strategy of promoting smartphones from vendors such as Samsung and Sony, rather than its domestic partners.
And the move follows shortly after a similar decision from NEC, which is also ending its smartphone development activities.
For many years, the Japanese market was dominated by vendors including Sharp, Sanyo, Sony, Fujitsu, Casio, Mitsubishi, NEC and Panasonic, who created products closely tailored to the market.
Indeed, during this time, international vendors struggled to gain a foothold in the market, with products offered overseas not supporting the features and services expected by Japanese consumers.
But as the market has shifted to smartphones, vendors such as Apple, HTC, Samsung and LG Electronics have been able to gain a foothold in the Asian country, at the expense of the domestic competitors.
Conversely, and despite numerous efforts over the years, the majority of Japan's device makers have been unable to gain traction in overseas markets, leaving them with dwindling market share and shipment volumes.
Faced with the option of operating loss-making, sub-scale device businesses, vendors have instead opted not to continue competing.
Panasonic identified its Mobile Communications unit as an "unprofitable business" in its Q1 2014 results, with an operating loss of JPY5.4 billion on sales of JPY15.3 billion. This compared with a loss for Q1 2013 of JPY3.7 billion, on sales of JPY17.7 billion.
Last year, Panasonic made an effort to build its smartphone business outside of Japan, although with little success.

wired.com - When enterprise mobility first came to the fore several years ago, mobile device management (MDM) was the recommended approach to mobile management. But taking a command-and-control approach to managing mobile devices that are typically owned by employees has turned out to be a misguided strategy.
In fact, most organizations have recognized the impracticality of trying to manage mobile devices that are owned by employees. And ultimately, decision-makers are more concerned with protecting sensitive enterprise apps and data and not individual devices. Indeed, leading think-tanks such as Gartner recognize that MDM has become commoditized.
In reality, it's the use of data and apps that are truly driving business forward. Because of this, company leaders are discovering that mobile application management (MAM) is a better way for employees to easily locate and download the apps they want to use in their roles while enabling IT to manage, monitor, and secure apps throughout the full mobile lifecycle without intruding on employees' personal apps and data.
Looking ahead, enterprise mobility is evolving with a focus on business process re-engineering. The behavior of enterprise apps will change based on how employees use them, taking into consideration their workflows and their collaboration with colleagues on different types of projects. Rules and security measures will be devised and incorporated into mobile apps based on an employee's role within the enterprise, where they are located at a given point in time, and how the app is being used. As employees become increasingly mobile and their work styles and collaboration with colleagues across multiple time zones progress, provisioning and security settings will continue to mature in mobile application management.
To help manage, monitor, and secure the next-generation of enterprise mobile apps, IT will need to incorporate dynamic policy rules that change instantly based on the behaviors of the applications. Fortunately, mobile application management solutions are now available with this kind of flexibility baked in, alleviating IT of the need to continually monitor employee app usage themselves as updates and alerts are sent to them dynamically.
Providing employees with a safe and simple means to access business data on their own devices will help heighten the adoption of enterprise mobile apps, fuel business innovation, and unleash productivity by enabling employees to become more entrepreneurial in their roles.

businessinsider.com - Responsive design, a technology that stretches or shrinks Web pages to fit differently sized screens, has emerged as the most-often recommended manner of optimizing content for mobile devices. This dominance was cemented in mid-2012 when Google recommended responsive design as the best strategy for smartphone-optimized websites.
As the iPhone, Android phones, and iPad became bestselling consumer gadgets, businesses realized their Web presence needed to translate to those smaller screens. Otherwise, their websites would bear tell-tale signs of a business clueless to mobile: tiny text, tinier links, and a jumbled layout. They risked lost traffic and sales.
These days, responsive design is recommended as the gold standard. But as with most technologies in a multi-device world, it has disadvantages, and it's not right for every business, or every application.
In a new report from BI Intelligence, we describe what responsive design is and compare it to other mobile optimization tools, analyze responsive designs pros and cons, examine data and statistics that track responsive design adoption and performance across mobile, and evaluate whether dedicated mobile websites have their place, and detail the ramifications for HTML5 development.

businessinsider.com - BlackBerry Ltd is warming up to the possibility of going private, as the smartphone maker battles to revive its fortunes, several sources familiar with the situation said.
Chief Executive Thorsten Heins and the company's board is increasingly coming around to the idea that taking BlackBerry private would give them breathing room to fix its problems out of the public eye, the sources said.
"There is a change of tone on the board," one of the sources said on Thursday.
No deal is imminent, however, and BlackBerry has not launched any kind of a sale process, the sources said. Even if it tried, BlackBerry could find it hard to come up with a buyer and the funding to go private. With the company still posting losses and bleeding subscribers, private equity firms and other buyers may not want to step up.
The company's shares have fallen more than 19 percent this year. Its market value has fallen to $4.8 billion, from $84 billion at its peak in 2008.
BlackBerry, which had been pinning its hopes for a turnaround on its new line of BlackBerry 10 devices, declined to comment. The sources declined to be named because these discussions are private.
BlackBerry's openness to consider a deal marks a radical shift in thinking at the once high-flying smartphone maker. Until recently, BlackBerry, formerly known as Research in Motion and a pioneer in providing secured emails on handheld devices, had been bent on staying independent, betting its turnaround on its latest smartphones.
Last month, Heins said the company was on the right track and just needed more time to fix its problems. He said the company will unveil more devices that run on the BlackBerry 10 operating system over the next eight months.
The company has also been looking at options such as licensing its BlackBerry 10 software and other partnerships.
Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry has recently had discussions with private equity firm Silver Lake Partners about potential collaboration in enterprise computing, one of the sources said.
Silver Lake is caught in a bruising $25 billion battle to take Dell Inc private. Should it succeed in the Dell buyout, one possibility could be for it to collaborate with BlackBerry in mobile computing, where the PC maker has struggled to gain traction, the source said.
The talks with Silver Lake did not involve any buyout or other transaction-related discussions, the source said.
Silver Lake declined to comment.
Pressure is only increasing on the smartphone maker. BlackBerry 10 sales have come in well below some analysts' expectations, raising questions about whether the company can quickly win back market share from Apple Inc's iPhone as well as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy devices and other phones powered by Google Inc's Android operating system.
Some investors say the company must now look at all of its options, from a sale of the whole company to a sale of parts. Its valuable patent portfolio and high-margin services business could draw interest from technology companies.
But private equity firms have circled the company for more than two years and have tried without success so far to figure out ways to structure a deal.
Moreover, Ottawa reviews any big takeover of a Canadian company for competitive and national security reasons. Government officials have often said they want BlackBerry to succeed as a Canadian company, but concede they do not know how things will play out.

talkandroid.com - Last month, HTC announced that its mid-range Desire 500 device would be exclusively headed to Taiwan, but that has changed, as the phone will soon be available in the UK as well. The phone features a 4.3-inch screen powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor running at 1.2 GHz, has 1GB RAM, and only 4GB of internal storage, which is of course expandable up to 64GB via microSD. The phone comes with an 8MP shooter which can take 720p video, and HTC has loaded up their Sense UI as well as BlinkFeed.
As for data speeds, you'll max out at 7.2Mbps HSDPA- this means there's no 4G LTE, or even HSPA+. The phone will come in two colors, including "Lacquer Black" and "Glacier Blue," and HTC says a dual-SIM version with NFC support will also be offered later on.
It's certainly nothing to write home about, but it does provide a good option for those not looking to spend that much on an Android device. Check out the press release after the break.

informationweek.in - The first two things the IT & Legal function think of when they consider allowing employee owned devices into the enterprise (BYOD) are security and compliance. After taking a decision, they start looking at tools to protect the information and the network. Most people think of MDM (Mobile Device Management) as the first and the only step. People are still unaware on the limitations of MDM in providing a 360-degree security and compliance needs of a mobile enterprise. You need a Mobile Network Access Control to provide security offerings at the network layer to complement the security offerings of MDM at the device level. The mobile device management tools mainly come from the perspective of managing your device, its integrity and also the data protection at the device level. Their most requested features include enforcement of a complex passcode on the device, remote wipe-out of the content on the device (when an employee loses the device or when employment is terminated). Without exception (including those who claim to do this on the cloud), most firms install an agent on your device to implement these controls. Today's corporate world works in a very dynamic environment with a growing number of different kinds of mobile devices, and different set of people with different set of devices - employees, outside contractors, vendors, partners and visitors that all will need access at different levels. Not just different set of people but also different set of groups asking for different access rules based on device, be it HR or Legal or even different Lines of Business (LoBs) and even different branch offices depending on their function and location. Not just "allow" or "not allow" as done by MDMs, but a very granular access based on attributes of the device OS (like say, the iPhone can access only e-mails or iPads can access e-mails and CRM but not legal documents). For security reasons, you need Mobile Network Access Controls. Today, an average employee is much smarter and knows how to bypass traditional controls. No wonder Gartner said "Enterprise clients are freaking out about the use of unauthorized mobile devices. Employees are getting really good at getting around whatever the company policy is". Mobile Network Access Controls can address these issues easily but MDMs will monitor only the managed devices. One popular survey by Aberdeen group said that only 27 percent devices are authorized and rest are not even noticed by the IT and there are many other surveys pointing out this gap between what are managed versus what IT has no clue. Not just that, you can't provide a device based differential access into corporate assets. Today, malware has become so complex and intelligent that your end point solutions cannot even detect them. You can detect them only via their behavior (anomaly detection) and not by their presence (detection by signature).

blog.bytesofknowledge.com - As the business world transitions from a desktop-only infrastructure to a BYOD (bring your own device) generation of employees, more and more companies are using "cloud" services to store valuable data. But how do you maintain security in an IT system that blends personal digital devices and cloud-based data? And does this mean that network-based security is irrelevant?
We've seen a steady increase in clients moving towards endpoint security design ("endpoints" refer to mobile devices like phones, tablets, laptops) while also maintaining their network-based security system. Like all technology solutions, your security needs depend entirely on your unique business model and what's most important to its success.
If your company primarily relies on desktop computers in the office, than a heightened network security plan will suffice and may be all you need. However, if you're like our office, you have many people coming and going with personal and company-owned laptops, tablets and phones that are used to both conduct business and manage personal affairs. This is where the lack of security gets scary for business owners.
To compare apples to apples, traditional network-based security includes a layered approach of firewalls, antivirus, anti-spam, email security and more to protect the information coming in and going out from each device that is allowed access to a company's IT network. The variety and level of security will vary by person and device, but will include such protections as reputation-enabled defenses, application controls, active directory authentication and other elements to keep your company's data protected.
Endpoint security, which is necessary when using "cloud" services, helps safeguard the endpoints since traditional network-based security is not compatible. Endpoint security efforts differ in that they take a more a proactive approach rather than a preventative one. Since information coming in or going out can't be secured as effectively, measures are taken to protect data on the devices if they are stolen or damaged.
To find out if your company should consider endpoint security, ask yourself the following questions:
What happens to company data when an employee's laptop is stolen?
What happens when an employee quits and takes with him or her a personal device that has company information on it?
If these scenarios could occur, you'll want to look into endpoint security protection options, such as data encryption, online data backup, employee monitoring (for keywords, phrases, type of number strings like SSN, CC info, etc.), Internet-based antivirus/antispam, mobile device monitoring systems for tablets/phones, find my device services, geolocation of device (within 300m) and the ability to wipe a device remotely or lock the hard drive to prevent unauthorized access.
To find out what level of endpoint security your company needs, talk with your technical support team. Consider the sensitivity of your data as well as compliance issues. Once you have a security plan down, you will want to consider an office-wide policy for remote use of company data and hardware. For example, if employees use personal devices, is it policy that when they leave that the company may wipe the device free of company data? Does this policy also apply if a personal device is stolen?
To find out how to use the new remote workplace with less risk, begin by researching your cloud providers. Know who is responsible for what, if they have support and who manages the security when your business is in "the cloud". Also, consult with your technical support team for further advice. It never hurts to have both ends of the spectrum secured.

businessinsider.com - Many emerging markets are already mobile-first economies where mobile phones are more ubiquitous than either land-line telephones, PCs, or fixed Internet connections.
Mobile statistics are specifically impressive in the BRICs - Brazil, Russia, India, China. China is poised to overtake the United States as the world's largest smartphone market, and new Chinese app data suggest it has already done so.
In a recent report, BI Intelligence interviews a half-dozen mobile industry leaders and entrepreneurs on opportunities in the BRICs, breaks down how mobile-focused companies can pursue those opportunities, analyzes key mobile statistics (smartphones, app downloads, app revenue) from the BRIC countries, isolates and analyzes the four lessons that are essential to any mobile project in these markets, and looks at a case study of a successful music streaming service focused on Indian and Bollywood music.

businessinsider.com - Generally speaking, doctors stopped making house calls around the 1970s.
But mobile devices are helping doctors attend to patients remotely, and manage their case loads with greater efficiency and cost-savings.
From the moment Apple demonstrated iPhone-connected blood pressure and glucose monitors in 2009, hopes have grown around the future of mobile medicine, or mHealth.
As venture capitalist and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla has said: "The fundamental change in health care is the transfer of power to the consumers, and helping them become the CEO of their own health."
In our newest report, BI Intelligence explores this already sizable market, $20 billion or more by 2018, and the enormous potential in mobile health.

myprintresource.co - As work environments for organizations that rely heavily on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications become more collaborative, the need to share, view and print large format documents in the field is growing. An increasingly mobile workforce must be armed with the ability to access, share and print GIS documents using a broad range of mobile devices.
Canon Solutions America, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon U.S.A, explains how GIS users can leverage advanced large format print systems, mobile printing capabilities and the cloud to adapt to the changing work environment.
A Collaborative Approach: Leverage the Cloud
Cloud computing is an ideal approach for the mobile and highly collaborative work environments of GIS professionals, which frequently entail the communication and analysis of detailed information - often in the field. High volumes of documents including GIS maps, satellite photos, spreadsheets and PDFs can be stored online or "in the cloud", where they can be easily downloaded, edited and uploaded. This allows project teams to share critical information over the duration of a project.
Data can be easily shared in this collaborative work environment through two methods: scan to FTP or desktop publish to the cloud via an online storage service. The scan via FTP method enables a more flexible onramp to the cloud, as documents can be shared and accessed across multiple stakeholders and users are not locked into a single storage service provider. Once documents are stored in the cloud, they can be accessed by project team members using a variety of mobile devices for collaborative viewing and printing purposes.
A New Workflow: Mobile and Flexible
Using the Wi-Fi configuration on their mobile device, project members can retrieve large format GIS maps and satellite imagery from the cloud and send a print requested to a supported large format printing device. Combining advanced large format print systems with mobile print capabilities gives GIS professionals the flexibility to print high-quality GIS documents in the field, without disrupting their workflow.
Employees no longer have to worry about having all the GIS documents they may need stored on a jump drive or printed as hard copies before they go into the field. They can trust that all the critical documents they need are stored securely in the cloud and can be accessed and sent to any large format printing system within their existing network environment enabled with the mobile printing software. Mobile access and printing of documents can lead to reduced downtime and costs as employees need not put a job on hold while they leave the site to retrieve critical maps or data.
Fast, easy access to GIS documents in the field can help geospatial professionals further leverage the improve communication and decision making, reduce mistakes and speed up project completion.

advanced-television.com - Customers prefer consuming media and entertainment websites and apps via mobile devices over personal computers, according to new research from customer experience analytics firm ForeSee.
User satisfaction with mobile media and entertainment sites and apps scores 77 on the study's 100-point scale. Satisfaction with media and entertainment websites via PC scored 67 in a similar study conducted in April, 2013. ForeSee's Mobile Satisfaction Index: Media and Entertainment Edition highlights 22 top streaming video, sports and news companies.
ForeSee produced the Mobile Satisfaction Index for retail (78), travel (77), and financial services (77), in addition to the media and entertainment edition. No industry has demonstrated exceptional customer experience in the mobile environment, though each industry has its stronger performers.
"With the fast pace of consumer adoption of smartphones and tablets, companies need to recognise the mobile platform is at least as important as the desktop web environment," said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee. "These mobile benchmark scores suggest there is much work to be done. Companies see the opportunity and they are trying to move fast, but they must be sure to do things the right way to meet the expectations of customers or risk turning them away to competitors."
Streaming media is growing, and the streaming TV and movies category is the best scoring category at 78. Apple's iTunes scores the highest of any measured company in the study, using a slightly different model than its streaming counterparts to secure a score of 80. iTunes customers download content before viewing, setting the service apart from its true streaming competitors.
Netflix, which has been transforming itself from a DVD delivery company to a streaming media and content development powerhouse, ties HBO GO at 79 and has nearly as many subscribers as HBO. Amazon's streaming service isn't as successful as its online retail operation. Amazon Instant Video registers 78, while Hulu Plus and Crackle lag further behind at 75.
"Netflix may be the most disruptive and innovative company in the space. It is making major infrastructure investments so it can deliver high quality video to any customer, anywhere, on any device. The company knows that it's only as good as the content it can deliver, so Netflix goes a step further and into HBO's turf to develop quality original content worthy of Emmy nominations," said Eric Feinberg, Senior Director of Mobile, Media and Entertainment. "Amazon is dipping its toes into the water by offering Instant Video to its Prime members. Amazon is what Netflix used to be."
While premium content is a significant factor in customer satisfaction, performance is the key. Users want fast page loads and are dissatisfied when error messages or playback issues occur. iTunes' position on top makes sense, given that it bypasses these performance issues. The study finds that performance is the main driver of satisfaction for streaming websites and apps. Consumers are most satisfied when accessing content with their home Wi-Fi connection (78), and least satisfied when using streaming media on public Wi-Fi (73).
Sports mobile sites and apps score 77 in aggregate, with scores as low as 74 and as high as 79. Though ESPN is often considered the leader in sports coverage, it is in a three-way tie for second with Sports Illustrated and Bleacher Report, scoring 77. Fox Sports leads the category at 79.
"ESPN is the 800-pound gorilla of sports coverage, but customers complain that there are too many mobile choices in where to connect, too many mobile sites and apps. Fox Sports, on the other hand, has plenty of marketing muscle especially with the impending launch of Fox Sports 1, and a more unified mobile strategy, offering a more focused app strategy," said Feinberg.
The most satisfied group in the sports category is comprised of customers who reported to frequently view ads, registering 81 in satisfaction. Twenty-three percent of sports mobile sites and apps users surveyed fall into this group, the highest among the three media and entertainment categories.
Satisfaction with the mobile sites and apps for news organizations scores 77 to match the aggregate score for Media and Entertainment. Fox News and NBC News tie for first at 79, followed by four news entities at 78. Satisfaction with mobile news sites represents the largest spread of scores of all three categories measured in the study, with CBS News scoring the lowest at 73. Trust seems to be a factor when it comes to user satisfaction. According to the study, only 20 per cent of those surveyed strongly agree they could trust the content on the news mobile site or app they visited.

advanced-television.com - Although to some it may seem to be a frivolous investment of funds, supplying mobile devices to workers in your SMB can provide a huge boost in efficiency, productivity, collaboration and overall work satisfaction. Forrester Research's 2013 Mobile Workforce Adoption Trends study says that the number of workers who use three or more mobile devices from different locations has risen from 23 percent in 2011 to 29 percent in 2012-and that trend is just getting started.
With most companies now dealing with a more global workplace, it's also no surprise that 82 percent of respondents to a FierceGovernmentIT poll feel that their mobile devices are critical to their jobs. For these employees, going mobile means accessing more than just email anytime and from almost anywhere.

mobileworldlive.com - Ericsson and STMicroelectronics, after declaring on 18 March they were winding down ST-Ericsson (their loss-making wireless chip joint venture), have now announced the completion of the process.
ST-Ericsson transferred around 1,800 employees and contractors to Ericsson on 2 August. The bulk of that number are based in Sweden, Germany, India and China, working in design, development and sales of LTE multimode thin modem products (including 2G, 3G and 4G interoperability).
"We welcome the team of about 1,800 modem-experts that join Ericsson," said Douglas Gilstrup, senior vice president and chief strategist at the Swedish manufacturer. "Ericsson continues to see great value in the LTE multimode thin modems as they are an important part of our vision of 50 billion connected devices in a networked society."
On the same day, ST-Ericsson transferred about 1,000 employees to ST, primarily based in France and Italy. Their skills are focused on embedded processing, RF, analog and power technologies, software and system integration. The extra workforce will help fuel growth of existing ST businesses said a company statement.
In addition, ST-Ericsson has closed transactions with third parties, including the sale of its Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) assets, the transfers of a Linux software team based in Lund, Sweden, and of a Wireless LAN team based in Noida, India.
Carlo Ferro, appointed on 1 April as ST-Ericsson's chief executive, said: "Over 3,000 ST-Ericsson's employees have now found new homes with leading players of the industry, where they will contribute with their outstanding competences."
He added that the transition had been completed on time and with lower costs than anticipated.

mobileworldlive.com - It's still tough to think of Google as a hardware company.
But in the last year and change, it's been surprising everyone with a string of great products. There's the Nexus 4 smartphone. The Chromebook Pixel laptop. The Chromecast video streaming dongle for your TV.
And now there's an update to its well-reviewed 7-inch tablet, the Nexus 7.
The new Nexus 7, which is built by Asus, improves on the original in every conceivable way while still keeping the price low at a very reasonable $229. If you're looking for an affordable, smaller tablet, the Nexus 7 is the first device you should look at.
The Best Tiny Tablet
Simply put, the Nexus 7 is a better overall tablet than Apple's iPad Mini.
It has a sharper screen, it plays full HD video, and it has better speakers that play in stereo.
And you get all that for $100 less than the iPad Mini. Even if you want to double the Nexus 7's storage to 32 GB, you only have to pay an extra $40, not the $100 Apple charges you. That's an incredible value.
Design-wise, the Nexus 7 has been slimmed down from last year's version. It's a bit lighter and has thinner side bezels, all wrapped in a nice-feeling rubbery case. My only problem with the design is the abnormally-large top and bottom bezels around the screen. They make the Nexus 7 look slightly out of proportion. Overall, the Nexus 7 isn't as eye-catching as the iPad Mini, but it's definitely not ugly either.
The Nexus 7 is the perfect size too. It's small enough to hold in one hand, but the 7-inch screen is large enough to enjoy videos, books, and games more than you can on a tiny ~4-inch smartphone screen.
The screen really is the best feature. It's amazing how much of a difference it makes to have a super-sharp display on a tiny tablet. Text is crisp, photos are sharp, and app icons don't look at all blurry or pixelated like they can on the iPad Mini's screen. Perhaps I'm a bit spoiled after using so many smartphones with sharp displays, but it's nearly impossible for me to use any device these days that doesn't have one.
On the software side, the Nexus 7 runs a brand new version of Android called 4.3 Jelly Bean. This version is nearly identical to the last one, with most of the improvements under the hood. I won't waste too much time going over all the wonky technical improvements, so just know it's a very solid operating system for tablets.
However, there is one really useful new feature in Android 4.3, especially for those who share their tablets with family members. You now have the option to create separate "restricted" profiles for certain users, which is good if you have kids and want to stop them from looking at naughty things online or using certain apps. It's a feature many iPad users have been desperate for.
A Few Caveats
As good as the hardware is, the Nexus 7 suffers from the same major software problem as every other Android tablet out there. Most Android apps are designed for smartphones, not tablets with 7-inch+ screens. Most Android apps look awkward when blown up on a bigger screen.
Compare that to the iPad, which has tens of thousands of tablet-ready apps. There couldn't be more than a few hundred tablet apps for Android at most. Most of those aren't very good or useful, either. Other apps like HBO GO aren't compatible with the new Nexus 7 yet.
The good news: you'll still be able to do pretty much everything you'd expect to be able to do on a tiny tablet like the Nexus 7. Gmail, calendar, Netflix, magazines, Kindle books, etc. are all there and ready to go.
Next, there's the battery life. Google claims the Nexus 7 can get about 10 hours of battery life, but it sort of fudged the way it tested the battery by switching off the WiFi and keeping the screen's brightness very low. Under normal conditions, with the screen brightness at a higher level and the WiFi turned on, I found that the Nexus 7 only lasted about six or seven hours. I imagine most of the drain comes from the tablet's high-res screen.
Still, I think seven hours is more than enough battery life for most people. It may not be as good as the iPad Mini's 10-hour battery life, but it's still better than most smartphones and laptops. I doubt most people will have a problem with the Nexus 7's battery life.
So, there are a few tradeoffs you have to consider: Is having less battery life and fewer tablet apps worth the $100 in savings? For most people, the answer is probably yes.
Conclusion
The new Nexus 7 isn't just a great tablet for the price. It's a great tablet, period. Unless you're completely hooked on Apple products, you're better off with the Nexus 7 instead of the iPad Mini. It's an incredible value at $229, and it will suit most people's needs perfectly.

talkandroid.com - If you thought Android's strong performance in the tablet market was impressive, check out these quarterly results for smartphone shipments. According to Strategy Analytics, Android devices account for an incredible 79.50% of devices shipped in Q2 of 2013. Four out of every 5 devices shipped ran some version of Android. That's beyond impressive. It's a growth of exactly 10% from 69.50% last year in Q2, and most of the growth came at the expense of 3% of Apple's marketshare and 7% of the remaining "Other" category.
However, Apple still managed to ship about 5 million more devices than last Q2; Android OEMs just happened to ship almost 80 million more devices, which made for a significantly stronger marketshare grab. Other smartphone types dropped by about 10 million units year over year, so if you were holding out hope that BlackBerry might gain some traction and give you an alternative OS to jump to, these figures are all but a nail in the coffin.
Over, smartphones experienced a 46.70% growth year-over-year, which is 5% more than last year. Eventually, it seems like this market has to peak, but there's really no telling when that will be.

cnet.com - At the Google press breakfast where the company unveiled the new Nexus 7 -- Google's first product franchise with "the new" Apple-esque branding -- the company made sure to highlight the many benefits of the 2013 product compared with its earlier foray into the tablet space .
The successor is faster, lighter, thinner, narrower, and runs a more up-to-date version of Android. But despite being a follow-up to a successful product in a white-hot category, its thunder was stolen by the Chromecast -- the small and cheap one-trick pony trying to solve the problem of streaming video and other media. It was as if Apple TV had grabbed the spotlight at the launch of a new iPad.
When the first Nexus 7 was introduced last year, it represented a powerful device in a compact form factor at a price that challenged similarly sized tablets from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Unlike those e-readers, though, it offered full access to the Google Play store.

cnet.com - At the Google press breakfast where the company unveiled the new Nexus 7 -- Google's first product franchise with "the new" Apple-esque branding -- the company made sure to highlight the many benefits of the 2013 product compared with its earlier foray into the tablet space .
The successor is faster, lighter, thinner, narrower, and runs a more up-to-date version of Android. But despite being a follow-up to a successful product in a white-hot category, its thunder was stolen by the Chromecast -- the small and cheap one-trick pony trying to solve the problem of streaming video and other media. It was as if Apple TV had grabbed the spotlight at the launch of a new iPad.
When the first Nexus 7 was introduced last year, it represented a powerful device in a compact form factor at a price that challenged similarly sized tablets from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Unlike those e-readers, though, it offered full access to the Google Play store.

forbes.com - Only 30% of employees trust their employers to keep personal data private while 80% are using personal phones and tablets at work.
This wide gap in trust needs to be bridged quickly if enterprises are going to get the most business value from their mobility investments and strategies. These findings and are from the MobileIron Trust Gap Survey completed in June of this year. The survey methodology is based on surveys of 3,000 consumers across Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States and is described at the bottom of the infographic. The following infographic presents the highlights of the survey:

nltimes.nl - In the recent years, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), also called bring your own technology (BYOT), has become a trend and common practice in the business and education market. Almost 80% of Dutch companies have a mobile business plan to date, according to Telecompaper. BYOD is a policy that permits employees to use their own mobile devices such as smartphones, personal computers, tablets and laptops to work and access data in their companies.
Roughly eight in ten companies have one mobile business plan. In companies with over 100 staff, an average 38 percent of employees have mobile business plans. The BYOD trend is apparent at more than 30 percent of Dutch corporations. Employees are either provided with a Sim or reimbursed for the use of their own mobile devices.
88 percent of the largest companies still provide phones to their personnel. On the other hand, 73 percent of companies with 100 staff give one employee with a company mobile phone.
Last year, Cisco organized a Cisco Plus Virtual conference in Amsterdam. Part of the program concentrated on the latest big trend: Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). Cisco and partners discussed the significance of this trend and the cautious planning and preparation it entails within the enterprise.
Shell announced their plan to move 135,000 employees to BYOD earlier this year, . The company will take on a huge bring your own device (BYOD) scheme, supporting 135,000 devices individually chosen by users.
Dutch companies such as mITE and The Livingstone Group offer mobile work options and BYOD.
As an alternative scheme, BYOD has been implemented in offices so employees can bring their personal devices in the consumerization of IT (CoIT). CoIT is the combination of personal and business use of hi-tech tools and applications.
In addition to the staff's preference of using their own devices, the Social media business has a huge effect on BYOD. Every now and then, employees can check their network. Both personal and business technology considerably affects corporate IT departments. These departments conventionally provide and manage the technology that employees use to do work.
There are many advantages to the BYOD approach for businesses including reduced capital expenses. Users will have to pay for their voice and data plans and they can take care of their selected up-to-date devices.
Companies will not be required to buy large quantities of computers or tablets that can easily become obsolete and outdated in the near future.
With the BYOD policies, employees are allowed to use their preferred technology with ease as opposed to what the company requires or dictates. They can also upgrade their devices regularly with the latest features, which some companies cannot afford.
Employee-owned hardware and software have some disadvantages and may have a big impact on corporate security models.
BYOD may put in more costs to the business including investment in hardware, software and policy adjustments. The IT department must also support loads of various devices and operating systems.
Personal hardware and software carry security risks to the company if they access corporate data and are linked to the corporate network. Without proper BYOD implementation, users can download and move business information such as emails and reports. Companies cannot fully manage the different types of applications set on the devices, which makes it tricky to impose security.
Making BYOD Safer for Enterprises
A lot of companies apply a BYOD security policy that emphasizes its place and governance policy to assist IT departments in improving control over employee-owned devices and guarantee network security.
BYOD security can be managed through comprehensive security requirements provided by IT for all personal devices that have connections to the company network. IT may require passwords for the devices and ban some applications from being installed on the device. Information on the device can also be encrypted.
Further BYOD security policy schemes may include restricting specific activities on the devices like setting email control by allowing only corporate email accounts. Recurrent IT audits can also be done to make certain that the device is in fulfillment with the corresponding BYOD security policy.

mobileworldlive.com - The global tablet market saw growth of 43 per cent year-on-year to reach 51.7 million units in the second quarter of 2013, with the Android platform securing a "robust" 67 per cent share of the market, according to research from Strategy Analytics. Android gained market share at the expense of Apple's iOS and, compared to the prior sequential quarter, Windows. It was noted that in the second quarter of 2012, Apple saw its share of the market boosted by the launch of the first retina display iPads, while in this quarter there were no new launches. However, in the interim Apple has also launched the iPad Mini, which was "expected to take the figure higher". The company said that branded tablet shipments grew 47 per cent year-on-year to reach 36.2 million units. This sector has had "a rest period as very few new products came to market", Strategy Analytics said. It also noted that unbranded ("white box") tablets are still performing well, "despite the fact that branded OEMs are lowering price-points and putting pressure on the white-box manufacturers". The research firm also mooted that Microsoft may see an "uptick" in its market share, from a "niche 4.5 per cent", following "savage price cuts" by Microsoft and its partner. While "they are still not cheap", the pricing is now more competitive, although "the shortage of apps continues to be a problem, with seemingly little incentive for developers to work on the platform".

mobileworldlive.com - The US government has overturned an International Trade Commission (ITC) ruling banning the sale of some iPhone and iPad models for infringing a patent belonging to Samsung.
The ITC ruled in June that the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G and iPad 2 3G distributed by AT&T infringed the patent and should be banned from sale in the US. Although the Apple devices targeted by the ban are older models, several remain strong sellers, Reuters said.
However, Michael Froman, a US trade representative, vetoed the ban, partly due to its "effect on competitive conditions in the US economy and the effect on US consumers". He said Samsung could pursue the case through the courts.
The ITC ruling was subject to a 60-day Presidential Review period in which the White House could veto the decision.
In a letter to the ITC, Froman added that the organisation should thoroughly examine the public interest impact of its rulings related to standard essential patents.
Samsung said in a statement that it was disappointed about the ban being lifted as the ITC decision "correctly recognised that Samsung has been negotiating in good faith and that Apple remains unwilling to take a licence".
Apple on the other hand praised the administration for "standing up for innovation", adding in a statement to Reuters that Samsung "was wrong to abuse the patent system in this way".
The ITC ban is based on a Samsung standards essential patent for technology that allows devices to transmit multiple services simultaneously via 3G technology.
Newer iPhones and iPads were not included in the sales ban as they use Qualcomm baseband chips which do not infringe the patent.
According to Reuters, the Obama administration is pushing for monetary fines rather than sales bans for infringements of standard essential patents.
The patent war between Apple and Samsung has seen legal battles in numerous countries, including the US, Germany, Netherlands, Japan and Australia, since 2010.
Apple filed another case against Samsung with the ITC, in which it accused the South Korean company of copying its iPhone and iPad. An ITC judge ruled that Samsung violated four out of the six patents and a final decision is due to be made this month.

mobileworldlive.com - Spain's largest mobile operator Telefonica has signed an agreement that will enable it to use the LTE network of its smallest rival Yoigo to offer services.
The same agreement also enables Yoigo to bundle its larger rival's fixed voice and broadband with its own mobile services.
The two partners have also extended an existing national roaming deal whereby Yoigo has access to Telefonica's 2G and 3G network.
However, at least one rival is not happy about the deal. Orange has asked Spain's competition authorities to look into the deal, according to Reuters.
Telefonica is the only operator in Spain not so-far offering LTE services. This agreement will enable it to launch a service using Yoigo's 1800 MHz frequencies.
The two companies say "they hope to start implementing this preliminary agreement in the final quarter of 2013".
Telefonica says it is still intent on building its own 4G network once frequencies in the 800 MHz it was awarded in 2011 become available.
Yoigo is building out its LTE network using 2 x 10 MHz in 1800 MHz with a target of 48 per cent population coverage by the end of the year.
To achieve this goal, the operator will use Telefonica's transport network and has contracted to take new transmission capabilities from its larger rival.
Finally, the two operators have signed an agreement with Albertis whereby the latter will acquire 4,227 pieces of passive infrastructure from them for 385 million, and then dismantling those "can be optimised".

talkandroid.com - Motorola finally made official one of the most buzz generating phones of the summer months, the Moto X. Built in the US, the Moto X will be available in the U.S. through AT&T, Sprint, US Cellular, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and major retailers like Best Buy with a suggested retail price of $199 with a new two-year agreement.
One of the benefits of the Moto X that many have been looking forward to are the customization options. According to Motorola, there will be more than 2,000 possible combinations available to buyers who use the online Moto Maker studio to choose colors, accents, memory, and wallpapers. The Moto X will come equipped with Touchless Control so you can access certain functions via voice and notifications will just appear on the screen as opposed to blinking a light to prompt users for further action.

inferse.com - After one and half months of the iPhone version, Microsoft has finally announced the availability of Office Mobile for Android. Users with Office 365 subscription can now view and edit Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations on their Android devices. Unfortunately, tablet users will have to rely on the Office Web Apps as Office Mobile is optimized for smaller screens only.
Office Mobile for Android is available for free as on Windows Phone, and the productivity suite includes all the features that have already been seen on the Apple platform. Just like the iPhone version, Office Mobile for Android doesn't include the option to purchase a subscription to Office 365.
The suite features three sections: First tab, You will see the most recent documents, spreadsheets and presentations on the start page when you sign in with Microsoft account. You need to be connected to the network to work on a document that is stored online. You can view or edit recently used documents even while you are offline. The app automatically synchronize the documents when your device reconnects to the network.
Second tab, which allows you to access connected cloud storage locations and add additional locations, such as SkyDrive, SkyDrive Pro or SharePoint site.
Third tab that lets you to create a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet while PowerPoint presentations are only available for editing the text and notes as it is quite complex to create a slide from scratch using only your fingers. You can also open and edit files attached to emails.
The resume reading feature allows you to open a Word document in the exact spot where it was interrupted on PC. The menu bar disappears a few seconds after that allows you to focus on the content. Word allows various formatting features including font color and background color, font size, bold, italic and underlined. The documents can be saved to SkyDrive or shared via email as well.
Excel provides features like AutoSum, search and filtering the data. To create a chart quickly, simply select the data cells, while the formatting options include currency and percentage formats for numbers. PowerPoint displays a Slide Navigator to browse the presentation and jump from one slide to another quickly. You can review, edit speaker's notes and edit texts of slides directly from your phone. The setting page allows you to add your identity for comments and resetting the app to the initial state. You can also delete all your documents and cloud storage locations from the phone.
While Office Mobile for Android may provide a value for some users, the reality is that most Microsoft Office users can't take benefits from this app until they have Office 365 subscription.

businessnewsdaily.com - Personal devices are making their way into the office more and more, new research has found.
Overall, 41 percent of people from around the globe say they use their smartphone for work-related tasks. Thirty-seven percent of respondents say they use personal tablets for work tasks.
Respondents say they are using those devices for a number of reasons. Chief among them is checking email. More than 90 percent of people say they use personal devices to read work email. Additionally, nearly 70 percent of respondents say they also use personal devices to download and use mobile apps.
The researchers also found that tablets were growing in popularity as a primary computer. Forty-three percent of respondents in the Middle East and Africa say their tablet is their primary computer, while 30 percent of respondents from Asia say tablets are their primary computer. Just 19 percent of respondents in North America say they use their tablets as their primary computer.
"These findings should remove some of the doubt over the impact of mobile ads and the hesitancy to spend more on mobile marketing," said Matthew Yorke, CEO at IDG Global Solutions, which conducted the research. "Markets outside the United States should not be ignored for both the fast adoption of mobile and as trendsetters for other countries."
Mobile devices have also become a popular shopping tool for users as well. Overall, 56 percent of smartphone users and 73 percent of tablet users say they make personal purchases on their devices. Those numbers are even higher in North America where 75 percent of smartphone users and 84 percent of tablet users use devices to make purchases.
Those users are not only making purchases, though. The researchers found that mobile users are also more likely to click and interact with mobile advertisements on their devices.
"Mobile and tablet are becoming the preferred media consumption devices and are relied upon as users move from research to purchase," said Christina Carstensen, director of mobile strategy at IDG Global Solutions. "Users expect an experience tailored for a mobile screen when they access content on the go, so mobile optimization will be important for both marketers and media companies."
The research was based on 25,601 responses.

business2community.com - Modern healthcare has seen incredible technological innovation in the last century. Looking to the near future, mobile technology in healthcare promises to keep that innovation going. So what will this mobile future look like? What will the impact be on consumers, healthcare professionals and the industry as a whole? By taking a look at some mobile solutions currently shaking up the market, we can form a better picture of what the future of mobile technology in healthcare holds.
There's no denying it: smartphones have changed the way we live. Having instant access to the Internet and countless applications in the palm of your hand has driven innovation in many industries, including healthcare.
Capitalizing on the mobile nature and computing power of smartphones, AliveCor has recently developed a heart monitor accessory that wraps snugly around, and cooperates with, the iPhone 5. When the user presses his fingers against the two electrodes on the back of the device, the companion app generates an ECG (electrocardiogram).
This technology makes it possible for healthcare providers to collect important data from patients without the hassle of an office visit. Doctors could distribute these relatively inexpensive devices to patients and have the results automatically emailed to their inbox for further inspection and diagnosis. Add video conferencing to the mix, and patients could have a comprehensive checkup from the comfort of their own home. Such mobile freedom saves time and money for both healthcare provider and patient.
Dedicated mobile technology
While smartphone and tablet accessories can bring health care out of hospitals and into homes, there are plenty of ways to use these innovations inside our medical facilities. From record keeping to diagnosing, mobile devices can provide an accurate and timely alternative to the bulky, expensive and complicated machinery of recent history.
New mobile technology like General Electric's Vscan is hoping to make such unwieldy machines a thing of the past. This pocket-sized ultrasound device helps doctors gain a deeper understanding of their patients, without the need of a hand cart or an external monitor. Although most exam tools are still waiting to be miniaturized, this hardware breakthrough gives us an idea of what may be possible in the future.
Imagine having the mobility to perform diagnostic procedures such as CT scans or MRIs from a handheld device rather than an entire room's worth of machinery. This technology would give every room in a healthcare facility the same diagnosing capabilities and therefore offer a more flexible, efficient and cost-effective overall operation.
Mobile apps pave the way for fewer hospital visits
We've seen how hardware innovations are making mobile technology in healthcare commonplace, but what about the software side? According to leaders at the 2013 HealthBeat conference, mobile apps could have an equally significant impact on medical industry.
Apps like Asthmapolis are giving doctors and researchers important information about individual, regional and global health trends thanks to our mobile connectivity. The key to this technology is providing users with targeted metrics, ranging from personal health information - helping them avoid triggers - to local pollen counts.
As simple as it sounds, the results are impressive. Mark Gehring, president of Asthmapolis, says users of its app see a 70% drop in hospitalization, along with another 70% decrease in length of stay if they do go to a hospital. By equipping the general population with this mobile technology, we'll see fewer hospital visits and a generally healthier population.
Mobile apps can also help healthcare facilities report on real-time data such as current bed status, length of stay and even charge/cost ratios. With the convenience of a constant data stream always at hand, hospitals can operate in a safer, more efficient environment. This also helps avoid costly mistakes in all areas of healthcare, which leads to an improved bottom line and a better public image.
With the combined innovation of smartphone accessories, dedicated mobile devices and highly informative mobile apps, we can all look forward to a healthier tomorrow in a world with fewer waiting rooms, less expensive consultations and easier diagnoses. Now that's a future worth waiting for.

madmobilenews.com - Shipments of personal computers have plummeted to stunning new lows. A recent report from Gartner shows that worldwide PC shipments dropped to just 76 million units in the second quarter of 2013. That's a 10.9 percent drop from this time last year and marks the worst sales drop in the market's history.
Meanwhile, a different Garner report shows tablet shipments are projected to increase 67.9 percent this quarter - proving that while PCs are struggling, sales of mobile devices are on the rise.
This news may be no surprise, given that tablets have gradually replaced PCs as customers' preliminary preference, but the rate of PC decline confirms that mobile devices are here to stay.
Multi-Market Changes
According to Garner, the sharp decline in PC sales is the result of a change in consumer wants and needs, as well as the changing landscape of mobile device markets and the increased penetration of mobile devices across multiple markets.
In developed markets, PCs have taken a back seat as smartphone owners use their devices to surf the Internet and send emails on the go. In emerging markets, mobile devices have become the top choice for first-time users.
Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, said in a statement that the decrease in PC shipments is clearly linked to the trend of economical tablets displacing lower-end PCs in both mature and developed markets.
Smartphones and tablets may be outselling PCs and outpacing PC shipments, but that doesn't mean they don't face challenges themselves, given their increasingly longer life spans. However, given this new data, it appears that mobile devices will continute to displace PCs across all markets.

mobileworldlive.com - Alcatel-Lucent announced a partnership with Qualcomm to work on small-cell technologies, as the troubled infrastructure vendor also reported an increased loss for the second quarter of 2013.
The companies will work together to develop small cell base stations "that enhance 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi networks" in enterprise and residential settings.
In a statement, it was said that this will be delivered through joint investment in a strategic R&D programme, with the spend "shared between Alcatel-Lucent and Qualcomm."
The Financial Times reported that Qualcomm is to "acquire a small stake" in Alcatel-Lucent, although this will take place slowly and remain below the 5 per cent disclosure threshold - indicating more of a symbolic move rather than a strategic or financial one.
According to Bloomberg, the infrastructure vendor is seeking "three to five" partners to make similar investments, with an ownership stake of less than 5 per cent combined.
Separately, Alcatel-Lucent reported a loss for the second quarter of 885 million, compared with a prior year loss of 396 million, on revenue of 3.61 billion, up 1.9 per cent.
According to Bloomberg, analysts had been expecting a drop in sales.
Sales in its Wireless unit of 1.01 billion were down 1.1 per cent year-on-year from 1.02 billion.
The company said that trends from the first quarter continued into the second, where strong growth in sectors such as LTE were offset by a decline in 2G/3G technologies.
Its CDMA revenue now represents "approximately 20 per cent" of total wireless revenue, and for the first time was surpassed by LTE revenue, as the US continues to drive growth in 4G.
Alcatel-Lucent said that its net loss included 194 million of restructuring charges, an impairment charge of 552 million related to a review of its assets in line with 'The Shift Plan', and 180 million of financial losses.
The company also set that its net debt had increased to 794 million from 358 million at the end of the prior quarter, which was attributed to a number of factors including working capital requirements, restructuring charges, and interest paid.
Michel Combes, CEO of the company, said: "We are at the beginning of our journey towards 2015 and cash remains a challenge. Looking ahead, our clear focus will be maintaining a strict and disciplined approach to implementing 'The Shift Plan' across all of its industrial, operational and financial dimensions."

informationweek.com - Mobile app adoption in the enterprise is growing like wildfire. In a 2013 study of 348 organizations, Aberdeen Group found that 62% of top-performing organizations already have a formalized mobile software initiative in place -- 35% more than all other respondents combined.
Although many companies are developing apps to remain competitive and improve their business processes, most are not fully prepared to meet the many challenges of mobile app development and deployment. Many think of mobile apps primarily as a way of unchaining workers from their desks. Apps can of course do that, but they can also provide much greater business value. They can transform an organization's processes and streamline its workflows by improving communication and breaking down information silos.

informationweek.com - Crowdsourced cell phone signal startup OpenSignal has crunched data on 682,000 devices using its app to produce a visualisation of the diversity of the Android ecosystem. And despite showing growing device diversity - and/or fragmentation, if you prefer to think of it that way - the above graphic really drives home how dominant Samsung continues to be in the Android space.
The Korean mobile maker accounts for almost half (47.5 percent) of the Android devices using OpenSignal's app. Compare that massive green square to HTC's small purple one, and the size of the task facing the Taiwanese mobile maker is instantly apparent (although it's worth noting that HTC's portion has actually been split up into different regional variants, so its share is not quite so tiny vis-a-vis Samsung).
The graphic also underlines the power of certain U.S. carriers - with Verizon devices cutting a ZTE-sized chunk of the pie. Google also manages a decent showing for its Nexus-branded Androids, roughly equal to Motorola/Moto's share - although it's possible there are some natural synergies between savvy users of OpenSignal and in-the-know Android fans who buy direct from Google.
OpenSignal's data ranks the now-defunct Sony-Ericsson joint venture brand in second place, as the most popular brand after Samsung, with a 6.5 percent market share. That's a poor and doubtless dwindling second place, with less than a sixth of Samsung's huge slice, which you'd expect now that Sony is going it alone in mobile (so also carves out its own, for now smaller, portion of the pie).
Despite Samsung's dominance, OpenSignal's data indicates device diversity in the Android ecosystem is on the rise. This isn't exactly surprising, given Samsung's strategy of maintaining a growing portfolio of handsets and slates itself, before you start factoring in all the other Android OEMs keeping the platform's global market share (circa 75 percent ) growing, buoyed by rising smartphone ownership in developing countries.
OpenSignal records a tripling of device diversity vs. the data it grabbed in July last year, with 11,868 distinct Android devices spotted this year vs. 3,997 last year.

idgknowledgehub.com - An IDG Global Solutions (IGS) survey found a growing overlap between home and work use among participants in 43 countries. An IDG Global Solutions (IGS) survey found a growing overlap between home and work use among participants in 43 countries. Forty one percent use their private smartphone for business while almost as many use a tablet (37%). The private/business tablet use ran as high as 59% in Asia Pacific and Latin America to 36% in North America and 29% in Western Europe. As for smartphones supported by a organization's IT department, Asia Pacific and Latin America led the way followed by Eastern Europe and North America.

venturebeat.com - Just when it looked like the hype around NFC mobile payments was finally beginning to die out, Isis has announced it's rolling out its service across the U.S. by the end of the year.
The NFC mobile payment joint effort from AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon was announced almost three years ago, but suffered delays before it eventually hit its test markets of Austin, Texas and Salt Lake City last fall. Isis allows you to pay for things simply by tapping your phone to a near-field communications terminal. To use the service, you'll need an "Isis Ready" phone with NFC and secure SIM capabilities.
"Over the past nine months, we have proven the power of an open platform, creating an ecosystem of literally hundreds of partners dedicated to making mobile commerce a reality," Michael Abbott, Isis' chief executive, said in a statement today.
Indeed it's been a long road for Isis, and for Abbott in particular. At Mobile World Congress early last year, we had a lengthy discussion about the state of mobile wallets and why he didn't feel the need to rush Isis out the door. He didn't think there was much competition among mobile wallets, so he didn't feel too threatened by Google Wallet and other competitors. Abbott believes Isis is building the infrastructure for a payment platform that will last the next decade.
"We're solving for a four-sided market," he told me at the time, pointing to the fact that Isis needs to make sure consumers, merchants, payment companies, and its parent carriers are happy with its product.
I still have my doubts about the future of NFC-based mobile payments, especially as simpler options like Square and PayPal make inroads in local businesses. But during its pilot program, Isis managed to see some interesting results: Isis users tapped more than 10 times a month, two thirds of users chose to receive offers from brands, and more than 80 percent of payments occurred at locations like gas stations, convenience stores, and coffee shops.
Isis says more than 4,000 businesses now accept Isis mobile payments in Austin and Salt Lake City, and it counts nearly 20 million smartphones in the wild that support NFC. (Though I wonder how many of those smartphone owners know how to use it.)