"smartphones" articles
Two major events occurred in September affecting the mobile payments ecosystem—Apple’s recent iPhone 5S and 5C reveal, and Google’s expansion of its Wallet app to non-NFC smartphone users. Both of these events appeared to move the vision of a mobile payments future based on NFC further from reality. Did they?
Is Google Abandoning NFC?
Google launched an NFC-based payment app, Google Wallet, back in September 2011. Even after two years on market, however, Parks...
Apple’s upcoming annual iPhone event has consumers wondering what new product will be unveiled.
One speculation is the creation of a high-end and a low-end iPhone. Typically, when a new iPhone is introduced to the market, the current models move down the scale towards a free-on-contract phone. If Apple introduces an iPhone 5S in September, then the 4S will become the lowest model, and also the only phone in their line up with the old 30-pin port. Therefore, it is believed that...
Parks Associates and Dolby have released a complimentary whitepaper by the name of, " Audio Quality's Growing Value for Mobile Entertainment ."
The whitepaper will examine the value of audio quality as an emerging differentiator in mobile devices, and it will feature analysis on current market conditions and primary consumer data.
Some of the topics covered in this whitepaper include: trends in consumer adoption and usage in mobile entertainment, importance of...
AT&T announced its intentions to open two "innovation centers" as part of the company's desire to expand their reach beyond smartphones and tablets.
This announcement comes as part of AT&T's plan to remake the company's image into a more up-to-date organization that is capable of jumping on new trends. The new facilities will serve as feeders for new ideas both from within the company and from regional start-ups.
In Atlanta, AT&T plans to...
Samsung Electronics introduced its first tablet that can run both Microsoft's Windows 8 and applications based on Google's Android software.
The device will allow users to share files between Windows 8 and Android applications, and its hinge design has a keyboard that allows it to operate like a laptop.
The tablet market as a whole is set to grow by 45 percent this year to 332.4 million devices shipped per year. Samsung is the Number 2 in the tablet...
Time Warner Cable’s home automation and security system, IntelligentHome , will appear in the cable operator’s Ohio and Wisconsin service areas this month and then New York City the next couple of months.
After these launches, IntelligentHome will be deployed across all of the major markets in Time Warner Cable’s footprint. The company’s executives have said on earnings calls this year that the company planned on having IntelligentHome launches wrapped up by the end of...
By Kurt Scherf, Contributor
Although there was much derisive press focused on the “smart fork” (the HAPIfork that can tell you if you’re eating too fast), there were many health and fitness applications that received very popular attention at the show.
Companies such as AliveCor , FitBit , and iHealth continued the theme of how smartphones are impacting all facets of the digital lifestyle, as they showcased monitoring and tracking solutions for heart health,...
By Kurt Scherf, Contributor
CES is not the main venue where smartphone manufacturers make their most-significant announcements; they wait until the Mobile World Congress in late February. However, the influence of mobile devices was everywhere at CES, and as I’ll talk about shortly they are in fact a major driver for the expected growth in both health and fitness and home control solutions. Two great articles published in Wired (“In the Coming Age of the Connected Home,...
