Battle of Android Flagships Revived

 
Android mobile phones have evolved on features, specs and pricing over the last year and one must admit that this platform has enabled adoption of smartphones amongst masses due to availability of huge variety of phones at multiple price points. When it comes to Flagship phone category, this section has witnessed the biggest upsurge in India over the last 2 years, earlier we had Samsung leading this pack followed by HTC, Motorola, Sony and LG. Indian companies like Micromax, Lava and Karbonn had started getting a stronghold on budget Android smartphone market.

Android flagship phones had begun to get saturated in terms of features and pricing was going beyond Rs 50,000 in some cases which did not always justify the product offering, Samsung started milking Galaxy line up in worst possible way by churning out phone after phone using the same body mold and design across their Note Phablet, Galaxy ‘S’ flagship, Grand series and others to follow, even with criticism mounting on sluggish Touch Wiz UI and bloatware they showed no signs of bringing in change when it was needed the most.

After using Galaxy S4 I realized that Samsung was no longer a company that was listening to customers as if its sole target was to target Apple in sales and revenue numbers and in that madness they started overpricing their phones packaged like some premium plastic device, fact was that MRP of so called premium Samsung phones used to drop by 10-15% in retail market within 3-4 months of launch.

Another weak area for Samsung was keeping up with latest Android OS releases where they faltered regularly by delaying timely update to flagship phone owners and prioritizing new Android OS to be first offered on the next Galaxy ‘S’ upgrade. By the time you decide to sell off your 1 or 1.5 years old phone you would hardly get 60-50% of the original value on second hand sale.

Post 2013 vendors like Gionee, Oppo, Xiaomi, Asus, One Plus, Lenovo, Panasonic etc. started redefining the midrange Android segment as their mobile phones had impressive build and hardware specs, few came with good battery backup though most of these phones were average on screen quality yet their major USP was pricing strategy. As more Indian consumers embraced online shopping trends like flash sale and invite based sale started making headlines. This new generation of consumers were not worried about the after-sales network or the brand itself as e-commerce brands with deep pockets were in the process of overturning smartphone sales model in India.

Samsung is still leading in smartphone sales as per this report and its latest offering – Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge faces a tough competition in Motorola Turbo, Xiaomi MI4, One plus One and another phone in waiting Asus Zenfone 2. When you pitch these Samsung phones against other midrange phone offerings you would actually start valuing your money for what you get.

Bloatware
I read some articles indicating that Samsung has had a change of heart now and it would probably allow users to uninstall pre-loaded apps if they wish too, which is not the case (read here) and they are bragging on all metal body for S6 and S6 edge with a side screen for notifications, surprisingly there is low focus on software gimmicks this time.

Display
Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge have a 5.1 inch Super AMOLED QHD display which would definitely look stunning however a screen resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels with a pixel density of 577 pixels per inch how do you justify this with a battery backup lesser than 2800mAh as offered on Galaxy S5? Galaxy S6 has 2550mAh capacity battery and Galaxy S6 Edge has 2600mAh capacity battery.

Processor
Both phones come with an Exynos 7420 SoC processor built on 14-nanometer architecture featuring an octa-core 64-bit (4 x 2.1GHz cores and 4 x 1.5GHz cores) along with a Mali-T760 GPU coupled with 3GB of RAM, some part of improved processing capability may save battery life however Android Lollipop OS is not exactly battery friendly. I am not sure if Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge would have Android 5.1 out of the box and a lot depends on how TouchWiz UI interacts with the Lollipop OS during regular usage.

Initial benchmark scores predict a lag free and smooth Android experience which cannot be matched by any other Android phone today, however the actual performance would again depend on your day to day usage and how much multi-tasking power you need.

Battery and Storage Expansion Slot
In a bid to make their phones slimmer and adopt a ‘unibody’ design, Samsung has done away with removable battery feature and killed the storage expansion slot, this was something that worked for them as a major differentiators against competition and it remains to be seen how market would react to this change after sales numbers start trickling in.

Midrange Phone Competition

Motorola Turbo which was recently launched in India is a rugged beast for a flagship device and the only exception to the Midrange phone category as this phone is priced just above Rs 40,000. In spite of underwhelming looks and phone design it offers high durability and performance. Xiaomi MI4 and One Plus One are still going strong in terms of a steady consumer demand, Xiaomi has decided to move away from flash sale and marking an entry in offline retail market while One plus One would be available for open sale on Amazon shifting from its invite only strategy.

MI4 and One Plus One offer impressive specs with good display resolution and pixel density, 3G RAM, 2.5 GHz quad core Snapdragon 801 processor matched with equally good image processing capabilities. Xiaomi has a very good 8MP front facing camera too. One Plus One comes with CyanogenMod Android OS that offers advanced users enough flexibility to tweak handset operating system to their needs.

I am particularly looking forward to Asus Zenfone 2 and bid my Nexus 5 goodbye, I always wanted a high end Android smartphone with dual sim capability to do away with carrying two phones (personal & office), Asus Zenfone 2 has dual sim capability that supports 4G connectivity on both sim’s and 64-bit quad core Intel Atom processor bundled with 4GB RAM would be apt upgrade for my usage.

I have had hands on experience of ZEN UI on Zenfone 5 which provides a seamless integration with Android OS offering best of stock OS experience and enough customization features to organize stuff on your phone that do not require you to install an additional launcher. The most important factor is better price to specification ratio as even the Nexus range from Google has started going beyond Rs 40,000 price point to shed the tag of economically priced phone.

Smartphone manufacturers are struggling to keep their stock moving in a very competitive market and until the next big leap in mobile technology takes place (fold able, virtual screen based phones) supported by stable demand for wearables, Midrange segment would continue to pressurize margins of big players in mobile manufacturing business.

I have moved on from being a Smartphone consumer who used to get excited by a flagship phone announcement from a certain brand touted to be that sexy eye catcher phone or the next best device that would be stuffed with the latest CPU, high end RAM, bumped up on resolution and pixels etc. etc. It is more about practical use and innovation in UI that appeals to me and I surely want a phone which offers value for money with decent quality also offering a good resale value until my next upgrade.

Samsung Galaxy Grand 2

Dual-SIM phones have been extremely popular in India. At the same time, the smartphone revolution has resulted in most people owning one. The only people missing out were the dual-SIM crowd. Samsung has released some models that aim to correct that, but they’re reserved the best for now. We finally got our hands on the Galaxy Grand 2 – the latest offering that caters to two SIM cards from Samsung and boy, we’re pleased with what we’ve seen. 

Design:

The phone’s dimensions are 146.8 mm x 75.3 mm x 8.9 mm. The screen is 5.2 inches and the bezels around it are quite slim. What this translates to is a phone that’s comfortable to hold in the hand. The faux leather covering adds a touch of class not seen in a phone in this segment.

 Display:

The first thing to notice about the display is that it’s great in every way. The 5.2 inch screen offers great clarity and viewing angles. The resolution of 1280 x 720 pixel means that Samsung has taken care to ensure that the display is compromised in no way. The colours are vivid and the images sharp. 

Camera:

The 8MP camera takes high resolution photos and videos at 720p. We found the camera to be superb for a mid-range device and the responsiveness and focus of the lens to be nothing short of stunning. It does a great job of capturing the colours and lighting. Also, the noise levels were low and distortion was the least of the phones we’ve found in phones in this range.

The front camera is 1.9MP and does an effective job in fulfilling its functions as a front facing camera. It takes decent photos and shoots some good quality video.

The Technical Stuff:

The device has 1.5GB of RAM running the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean operating system straight out of the box, and this version of the smartphone offers dual SIM support. There is 8GB of onboard storage that is expandable up to 64GB via microSD card. Connectivity comes in the form of Wi-Fi, GPS/A-GPS, 3G, micro USB, and Bluetooth. 

Performance:

Like all Samsung devices these days, the phone seems to have everything well in place. The architecture of the interface and the usability of the phone is nothing to complain about. For people who’d use two SIM cards, Samsung has made sure that you can receive data on both simultaneously. The ease of use is great and we found no problem multitasking and running all of our favorite apps. 

Battle of Tech Giants: Is it Over?

A court room dispute that remained on top of the technology news marquee for few weeks now has finally come to an end with the verdict landing in favour of Apple, indicating that Samsung indeed was found breaching some patent rights, a sea of opinions and views have flowed in after this news came out.

Apple saw this judgement as an acknowledgement to the fight they have put up against not just Samsung but also with Android as an OS. Samsung commented on this verdict echoing a sympathetic sentiment indicating this was going to be a loss to consumers in the long run.

When I brought Apple iPad 2 on it's launching day in India last year, I was still stuck with Symbian OS on my Nokia N8 phone, my tryst with android had not begun yet. I felt there could be nothing better than this product in tablets for few years at least even if other manufacturers kept playing the catch up game, iPad is still ruling the tablet market, when I got my Samsung Galaxy SII, my experience with android began on sour note as I was still getting used to common pitfalls of switching to android like draining battery, phone heating up etc., however using an android phone made me realise that apple's iOS ecosystem was not suitable to my needs.

I am a heavy user of social media tools, curating web content on the go, blogging and a taste for sharing stuff around art and design because of which I view my mobile as an extension to my computing experience and I expect a portable device like a tablet to meet some of these requirements if not all, I started experiencing suffocation in Apple's walled garden, it feels good to stroll there for a while but very soon you realise that you are missing a bout of fresh air and I took the exit route as my iPad started gathering dust and I was hooked on to my Galaxy SII.

I agree to some extent on Apple's theory to limit data transfer options on their devices, allowing app downloads only via iTunes and other limitations put in place to minimize malicious content damaging portable computing devices. Google's play store is well known for housing malicious apps which raises data security risks. I missed some of the key features in iOS which I found useful on android like customization of home screen, ability to connect wireless/bluetooth mouse, ease of working with data/file transfer, some limited use of eye candy options like live wallpapers. Managing content curation was limited to few social apps in iOS, luckily by the time I started using my Galaxy Note after moving on from SII, app exclusivity started diminishing and we saw some famous apps like Instagram and Flipboard getting ported on Android this year.

In my opinion Apple started a revolution in mobile technology beginning with simplification and took a big leap forward on mobile OS interface and hardware design, while most mobile manufacturers were busy sticking to Symbian and Java based OS's banking heavily on the megapixel mania, producing Walkman phones etc. Apple actually brought smartphones to the right track when everyone else realized the need of the hour was to work on producing useful apps, It made some companies re-think their strategies from the scratch, a lot of them simply started copying Apple's approach towards mobile phone and tablet market growth.

At this stage of the lawsuit verdict coming out, I feel in the past 2 years Apple is still stuck to the guns it has being blazing all along, while Samsung has being riding high on the Android bazooka gnawing away significant share of the USA mobile OS segment, profitability still does not look good in comparison to what Apple is earning, probably Apple may be working hard in the background to maintain the momentum it has gained in all these years with no visible threat to iPad supremacy yet, It had to ensure other manufacturers did not dent their market share further because Google has being providing the right ammunition to mobile companies at all price segments, thus legal swords were just waiting to come out in the open.

Latest news on this feud is that Apple is going to demand ban on sales of Galaxy Note and Galaxy SIII in US, which indicates the so called 'Thermonuclear' battle against Android is not over yet.

Samsung and Google with other Android manufacturer's would definitely have to play safer with OS interface design, product features and hardware design, however I am still baffled on the logic of patents being awarded to Apple which kill competition threat up front and promote monopolistic advantage for a company, take a look at this clip from Matrix Revolutions and imagine Neo to be either Samsung or any other Android vendor and Agent Smith playing Apple, Google as the Deus Ex Machina. Maybe Samsung would have to wait for it's "it is done" moment. I thought of making this as a video meme, however it is best left to your imaginations!

A Challenger in making for Ultrabooks and Netbooks

Intel has being throwing weight behind ultrabook promotions off late and netbook manufacturers are still battling with tablets to survive in the race of portable computing, Asus came up with Transformer Prime to set a new trend in tablet computing.

There are many companies which thrive on iPad accessory market manufacturing portable computing cases one such company CalmCase has come up with an innovative concept of giving you ClamBook which is a laptop dock that would be powered by your Android or iPhone, you get a MacBook Air style device which is made of Aluminum. Their website does not mention about the exact screen size, however it has a 16:9 aspect screen with cinematic sound, ClamBook supports keypad gestures and shortcut keys for Android phone and sweetens the deal further for Motorola based phones that would support Motorola's webtop app.

Your phone is connected with a MHL cable that would allow ClamBook to draw processing power from the phone without draining battery of your handset and charging it parallelly,with Microsoft planning to launch MS Office for Android and iOS by the end of this year, this gadget looks to be a good proposition for computing on the go, with basic apps, browser and increasing muscle power of smartphone processors, ClamBook would work seamlessly with smartphones without the need of worrying anymore about finding a solution for meeting your basic computing  requirements, Portable gaming from your phone would also be an interesting possibility to explore on ClamBook because the quality of games for mobile phones is also evolving faster that we could have though.

ClamBook is not available to buy right now, expected to be launched towards this year end, I would be looking forward to this one, do you think this could be a breakthrough device to challenge the rise of Ultrabooks and future of Netbooks.

Samsung : A Bright galaxy of smartphone stars?

Samsung is basking under the emphatic glory of it's Galaxy smartphone series sales that has touched a figure of close to 60 million phones now, which comprises last year's runaway success phone Galaxy S2 leading with 28 million units sold, Original Galaxy S phone launched in 2010 with 24 million units and another breakthrough "Phablet" device Galaxy Note selling 7 million units after it's October 2011 launch that goes to prove this phone sold close to 1 million units every month after it's launch.

This stellar achievement is something Samsung would not miss to brag about, and it has a potential winner on hand with Galaxy S3 getting rave reviews from critics and smartphone enthusiasts, London Olympics would prove the right vehicle for promoting Galaxy S3, since Galaxy S3 is on the way to shattering records touching a figure of 9 million in pre-orders. Samsung has already warned of shipping delays as fans have started queuing up to buy S3. This feat would surpass Apple's previous record of selling 4 million units of iPhone 4S within 3 days of it's launch, even Galaxy S2 took 6 months to sell 10 million units.

Another surprise hit that came out of Samsung's smartphone stable was in Galaxy Note which got criticized for it's awful screen size just when the "God Phone" set standards of an ideal screen size to 3.5"display, a prankster like Samsung seems switched these display numbers around and poked it's way out with Note sporting 5.3" display that brought the stylus back from the tech dump grave. The last phone 2 phones I used with a stylus were Sony Ericsson W950i and Moto Rokr music addiction phone, back then smart apps were non existent on these so-called "smartphones" which eventually rendered stylus worthless. Samsung has being thoughtful to tailor apps for Galaxy Note which would allow both the creative and professional types to best utilize the stylus on this phone, they even launched a special app challenge contest for the S-Pen (stylus branding for Galaxy Note)

Steve Jobs had ridiculed the idea of using stylus for the iPhone however Apple is now learned to have patented Advanced Stylus design, Samsung also knew it had to come up with an efficient and less clunky solution if it had to prove stylus to be a useful accessory for Galaxy Note. I am making it a habit to carry my note with me for meetings and skip my laptop or notepad for taking notes in office, until now I can say the experience has being good. Though Galaxy note would not be a phone that suit's the taste of every smartphone users, a research report from ABI predicts "Phablet" devices touching a sales figure of 208 million units by 2015 which feels pretty exaggerated right now, however according to their report the key factor of "two in one device" would be the driving force in order to fuel sales of "Phablet" devices. If you thought screen size was a deterrent check this body to screen ratio comparison made by a Reddit user Thare who crowned Galaxy Note to be the best in this category, LG has also launched a a 5 inch Optimus -VU phone to enter this segment. Dell could have taken the lead in the "Phablet" segment because it had Android OS on their Streak phone series, however they failed to position these devices properly in the market and fell behind in porting Android OS updates on time which caused them to pull the plug on their tablet phone offering.

Samsung is not resting on it's laurels with these high end smartphone range, it has come up with a 2.6" display Galaxy Pocket Android phone which costs approx INR 6900 that goes to show a company that is on a roll in production and marketing which is making other mobile companies shuffle their plans as well. On a closing note, read this humorous feature article on how smartphones and "Phablets" could probably change the Gentlemen's dressing in order to adapt to the next level of gadget evolution.

Leave your comments and reply if you feel Samsung's dominance in smartphone segment is going to be short lived or does this company now have a right profile of products growing without the fear to innovate and experiment.

Rise of Android OS

Mobile handset and software market has undergone a major transition from the past year and the not so well known OS Android now captures 50% of the smart phone market globally, Nokia is pinning all it's hopes on windows OS to revive it's crumbling market share which still stands strong on top position in BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China. Samsung has good potential to rush ahead if Nokia provided it adapts to aggressive marketing and sales strategies in emerging markets.

Apple has grown from a market share of 14.2% to 19% with iOS it enjoys a stable growth in the US market and it does not see any immediate threat from Android considering the hype around iPhone 5 which is peaking amongst consumers eager to find out what Apple is going to come up with, Nokia is placed third falling from a lions share it had of around 41% of market share with Symbian which Nokia is now bidding farewell to and embracing Windows OS ahead seeking a new lease of life. RIM also is struggling to Android OS and iOS onslaught in American market which is visible by its market share falling from 18% to 12% from last yearThis situation was not the same last year in August 2010 which is reflecting from the graph below an article(via www.seekingalpha.com)



Google has woken up to a bitter reality of going easy on aquiring patents that are essential to safegaurd growth of Android OS, Apple is flexing it's muscles going hard after Android tablets and phones alleging manufacturers like HTC and Samsung of lifting designs meant for Apple phones and tablets. Luckily google also realised that it needs to act swift on unifying different versions of Android OS into one version touted to be named as Ice-cream Sandwich that makes it easier for developers to focus on developing apps for Android.

Indian Smartphone market would provide Nokia enough time to get their act straight with Symbian OS and its dream to build an ecosystem akin to Apple with Ovi services has not met desired success. Sony Ericsson once had the potential to come close to Nokia's market share in India lost the path midway with a series of mediocre phone launches which gave Samsung good chance to rise further with BADA OS and it started offering value for money products in different price segments. Samsung has also discussed options with google for developing desi version of Android OS in Indian market.

Android Smartphones capture 39% of marketshare in US

A recent survey stats by Nielsen group has revealed that Android phones now have a share of 39% of the US Smartphone market, coming out as a top OS amongst various Android phone manufacturers like HTC, Motorola and Samsung, However no company can come close yet in dethroning Apple as a top phone manufacturer in US market with it's iOS software platform which comes second after Android now.

Another interesting stats that have emerged about Android OS based phones was from a survey conducted by ChangeWave Research which found close to 50% Android phone users were very satisfied with their Android Smartphones, still the green robot has a lot of catching up to do against Apple's iOS platform which is leading consumer satisfaction with a clear lead of 70% users satisfied with the iOS platform using their iPhones, what Android OS needs is a serious line up of apps/games with dedicated support from not just Google but other big names from telecom industry as well that would help this OS mature and drive software/ hardware sales numbers for companies pitching in to support this platform.

Read more about Nielsen survey result here and stats from ChangeWave Research here