iOS 6 - Google Out Facebook In

At WWDC - 2012 , the major 'Software' Announcement was iOS 6 ,which according to Apple is 'The World's Most Advanced Mobile Operating System' . And despite the fact that OS X Mountain was also updated iOS 6's announcement was much more anticipated as Apple has a large user base of iOS followers viz. iPod Touch, iPhone and the iPad (as compared to Mac's), . And from what was announced , it seems like Apple had a mantra during iOS 6's development ' if it ain't broke, don't fix it' . Being an Apple fan , I can count upto hundreds of new features , that the Cupertino Giant added in the new Mobile Platform . But does all of those 'additions' really matter to the masses or at-least to me ?
Lets' have a look..

According to Apple, iOS 6 has more than 200 new features.

First of all Google Maps, as speculated are officially out from iOS . And taking its place is Apple's own Mapping Services build from scratch . And from what I could tell watching the keynote and a few demo, Apple Maps looks awfully similar to what Google announced a few days back.
Both offers a flyover feature and while Google calls its as Tour Guide,  Apple chose the name 3D Flyover (not iFlyover). We hope Apple's is better, because if not then there is no point in kicking Google Maps out of iOS.
One additional feature Apple has in its mapping services is the Siri integration.

iPhone 4S's virtual assistant, Siri got upgraded. Siri can now tell you Game Scores, Restaurants - can even book a table for you via OpenTable, Movies in multiplexes and finally Siri can also launch apps.
One more update about Siri is that now it is not only exclusive to iPhone4S. 'The new iPad' will now boast the virtual assistant too.

iOS 6, like Twitter, got Facebook integration too (*cough* Windows Phone *cough*).

During an incoming call, you can now slide up the call alert screen, and either reply with a custom message or you can choose 'Remind Me Later' option. You'll then be promoted to choose when to remind you . One excellent feature is 'Remind Me, when I leave . Choose it and you'll be reminded by the iOS device when you leave your location.

Another Similar feature, Do Not Disturb, Check it and no Pop Up Notification will alert you.

Next up is Safari, it got iClouds Tab feature - with it you can explore the same tabs on your desktop/Mac's Safari and your iOS device. Safari can now save web pages for offline reading too. In landscape mode, safari turns fullscreen.

There's another feature called 'Smart App Banners' .

There is 'Passbook' - An app which can scan and then combine all of your passes in one place using the QR Code.

Then there is improvement in Guided Access - Accessibility options.


This is what the new iOS has got recently.
Apple did what they do best. Make a good product, in this case iOS 6, and market it well.
iOS 6 is good update but not great. Some excellent features are(according to me) iCloud Tab feature, Offline saving of webpages and the new incoming call alert. But others fail to impress. Well, that's my impression . Let us wait till fall and see for ourselves.

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Android - Everything You Need To Know

"Android is probably the Most widely known and used Linux based Operating System." Only for mobile devices like Smartphones and Tablets, the OS has made a huge impact on the smartphone market which was previously dominated by Apple's iPhone, Nokia's Symbian and RIM's Blackberry OS . It didn't even stop there and is now giving a fierce competition to low and mid end feature phones whilst dominating the High end market.

Android was initially developed by Android Inc. However Google acquired 'Android Inc.' in August 2005 and made further developments with the Android Inc. team.
Android was first unveiled on November 5, 2007 by the Open Handset Alliance, an association of companies like Google, Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung and a few more, as a platform for mobile devices based on Linux Kernel.

Android consists of forked Linux kernel , is based on ARM Architecture with the APIs written in C language and GUI in Java and XML. It is developed by Google under the project  'Android Open Source Project' which means anybody can download the source code and use it on their devices and the Best Part about it is that you won't have to pay anything to Google to use their OS.

Apps for Google's OS are compiled to produce Dalvik dex-code which runs in Dalvik Virtual Machine . Apps are written in Java, and dx tool converts .class files to .dex which can be executed on Android using Dalvik Virtual Machine. The reason Android used .dex executables but .class is the limited hardware capabilities of the mobile devices like processing power and memory as compared to standalone PCs and Laptop etc.(which use JVM).

The first Android powered mobile device was HTC Dream launched in October,2008 and ran Android v1.0 out of the box. However it gained popularity in mid 2009 when Google introduced Android v1.5 a.k.a Cupcake and along with it there new naming convention , where each updated version was to be named after a dessert in alphabetical order. However, the first Android phone I remember that actually made some news was Sony Ericsson(it was Ericsson then) Xperia X10 back in November 2009. It was 2010 when Android actually gained popularity, with Samsung, the largest smartphone vendor now, releasing their Android flagship Galaxy S in March, 2010. The phone didn't sell just well but quite well. As of 2011 Samsung has sold more than 10 Million Galaxy S. The phone was succeeded by another best seller Galaxy S-II in 2011 which , the recently launched Galaxy S-III will succeed .

Companies like HTC,Samsung,Sony,Motorola and few more local ones use Android as their primary Smartphone OS. Reasons are -

It is supported by Google, one of the largest Software Giants.
Second Largest and soon to be 'The Largest' Apps Store.
They don't have to pay anything to Google to use their OS.
Being Open Source, they can alter the UI and other functionalities to differentiate themselves from other Manufacturers.   

However being OpenSource has its disadvantages too. One of them is Fragmentation, that'll be discussed in other posts. As of Quarter1 of 2012, Android is leading the Smartphone market with a share of 59% with iOS being 2nd   at a market share of 23%.

Android ,despite its disadvantages, is leading the Smartphone Market and will do so for at least a few years to come. 

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Nokia,Microsoft - The Story So Far

 Ever Since Nokia and Microsoft entered into a strategic alliance with Nokia using Windows Phone 7.5 a.k.a Mango as their Primary Smartphone OS in favour of their own Symbian and Meego (a project with Intel Corp.)  rumours have it that Microsoft will buy Nokia . But it hasn't happened yet and we hope it never does.
The questions is "Has this partnership helped Nokia or Microsoft ?"

The Answer is a Yes and a No .

The partnership has helped Microsoft for sure . Windows Phone, ever since its release in October 2010 has been appreciated for its Minimalistic Design , Buttery Smooth UI and Hardware Optimizations. However it never got the enough 'hype' it needed to be a successful smartphone platform . With The Software Giant teaming up with Nokia , it has now access to those Global Markets where Nokia is still a brand of trust n has large market share (like India and Other Asian Countries).

In china , WindowsPhone market share has passed iOS leading 7% to 6% in just about 3 Months.

The partnership has also helped Microsoft as now Bing Maps will use Nokia's sat-nav services.

With its partnership with Nokia , Microsoft has benefited  for sure. They got the 'hype' WindowsPhone needed and with Nokia's hardware designs n their Global Reach Microsoft knows they have the best opportunity to be the third Ecosytem.

For Nokia, the partnership is a Mixed bag as of now. Nokia may have jumped from the 'burning platform' but tough times are still not over. Since their partnership on 10 Feb,2011 - Nokia was quick to launch 2 windowsphone powered Smartphones viz. Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710 . Although Nokia has the rights to alter the UI and other functionalities on any windowsphone device they make , the CEO Stephen Elop said they won't do it , at least for now. Reason - Any alteration would mean delayed updates. Rather they differentiated from other windowsphone users by adding apps like Nokia Maps,Nokia Music and Nokia Drive.
Nokia recently signed a special contract with companies like ESPN,Rovio and a few more to bring their apps to the windowsphone Marketplace , most of them are/will be exclusive to Lumia range for a few time.
They even expanded their portfolio with apps like Nokia Reading and Nokia Transport .

With Lumia 710, Nokia paved their way to North American Market , where Symbian never appealed to customers or carriers. The handset was made available at a contract of $50 for two years with T-Mobile and it did quite well for its competition.

At CES 2012, Nokia launched their flagship device Nokia Lumia 900 which was made available in US with a 2 year exclusive contract with AT&T at $100. The handset managed to outdo many Android phones in similar price range and has been selling like hotcakes. Even AT&T staff were happy to see its sales with their Chairman seen promoting it instead of the iPhone. So, as far as US is concerned , Nokia did quite well.

As for the Emerging Markets like India, Nokia still has a long way to go. Android is getting most of the Symbian shares as Symbian is declared dead by Nokia and windowsphone has many limitations for customers in these markets. Take Bluetooth File Transfer,File Manager,Ability to install apps outside from Marketplace as example. WindowsPhone supports none of these ,as of now at least and Symbian customers are moving to Android because of these limitations.

With WindowsPhone 8 a.k.a. Apollo arriving this Q4, we can expect some multi-core phones and tablets at Nokia World 2012 with some amazing 'Pureview' technology and perhaps 'waterproof' devices.
I hope they do well and regain their lost market share.

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