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Mobile users in the United States are spending more time using mobile apps on their smartphones and tablet devices than ever. Yup, even more time than they do on desktop computers. And with industry watchers predicting that the number of smartphone users in the next half decade will balloon to almost four billion in total, it can no longer be denied that we now live a mobile world driven by apps.
According to a preliminary report published by market research firm IDC, mobile manufacturers around the world shipped a whopping 1.43 billion units of smartphones last year. This is a new record for the worldwide smartphone industry, representing an improvement of more than 10 percent compared to the previous record holder, the year 2014.
It appears that Snapchat is currently testing features such as video and audio calling, as well as stickers within the its chat service environment (view the screenshots here, courtesy of XDA). To date, Snapchat works only with text or images accessed from the camera roll.
Apparently so, according to a Bloomberg report. Ever wonder how Google the creator of the Android mobile operating system, rival to Apple’s own iOS, manages to have its search engine inside iPhone and iPad devices? Well, it turns out that Google has paid Apple a whopping one billion dollars just to have it search engine included in the iOS environment.
According to the latest forecast by research firm Gartner, it appears that this year, consumers will be buying less hardware products such as personal computers, smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Yes, Gartner’s numbers indicate that the volume of end user sales will increase to 2.4 billion units this year, but the growth rate will be painfully slow -- only 1.9 percent compared to last year’s numbers.
Here is some rather unpleasant news for certain mobile users -- PlatinumTel (PTel) has decided to end its mobile service operations effective on January 30th of this year. As a direct result of the wireless carrier shutting down, its mobile brand, Giv Mobile, will also cease offering wireless services by January 31st of this year.
But wait -- these banned devices are not actually available in the market anymore -- well, mostly. United States District Judge Lucy Koh has decided that Samsung will not be allowed to sell specific models of its smartphones in the US. These handsets were found to be infringing on patents owned by rival phone maker Apple, who had filed for a motion for permanent injunction against a certain number of Samsung smartphones.
You may have felt bombarded with permissions and other privacy management concerns almost all the time. Permission to access contacts list. Permission to access photo library. Permission to use location information. Permission to use email login information. Quite frankly, you may be feeling kind of overwhelmed already.
The Federal Communications Commission is planning to conduct an auction of previously TV owned airwaves, to be bid upon by various wireless carriers looking to enhance their mobile network coverage. But due to recent slow growth in the wireless industry, as well as the ongoing price wars, some carrier bidders are rather cash strapped at the moment. This could mean that the money generated from the upcoming auction could fail to meet the expected yield.
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