Early reports indicate that the Nokia Microsoft is paying dividends, with nearly half of all second-generation Windows Phone 7 handsets sold being by the Finnish handset manufacturer.

Unpacking the WP7 marketshare

The report comes courtesy of WMPoweruser, who used data gleaned from OccasionalGamer’s game collection. On Nokia, they write: ‘Even at this early stage the company already has 45 percent of the second generation handset market, with most of that being the Nokia Lumia 800 and some the more recently introduced Nokia Lumia 710.’ Next in line? HTC with 40 percent market share, but that is down quite drastically from the 55 percent market share the company had prior to Nokia’s arrival.’

How much is the base growing?

The fact that Nokia has managed to race to almost half of all sales of the second-generation handsets so quickly is notable, but there are a few important qualifiers to consider. If that growth is at the expense of other WP7 handset vendors, as opposed to growing the whole sales base of WP7 handsets, than this is not an ideal situation for the Nokia Microsoft partnership.

Why? Well, Microsoft wants to compete with Android and iOS, and for that to happen, the company’s mobile OS has to grow in volume. What each vendor has of a non- or slow-growing base of WP7 handsets is, for all intents, immaterial. Nokia, on the other hand, wants to compete with the likes of Apple, Samsung and HTC, and for that to happen, need consumer acceptance of Windows Phone 7 and overall sales of that mobile OS platform to explode.

What will follow?

Windows Phone 7 say that they ‘suspect if market acceptance for Windows Phone 7 increases it may be because it becomes strongly associated with Nokia, which may mean this percentage could easily increase to 60-70% or more,’ while some users comment that the market will grow because of Nokia, but other OEMs will become attracted to WP7 as a result. Whichever it is, the Nokia Microsoft partnership has very quickly become mission critical – as many suspected it would – if WP7 is to succeed in the long run.

The long-rumoured – and frequently leaked – Sony Xperia S was finally revealed at CES 2012. In addition to finally being confirmed by Sony, the Android smartphone now has an official UK release date, as well as pricing guidance.

Release date

The Xperia S will be available from 5 March onwards, and is priced at £429.99 Sim-free, reports TechRadar. The handset will be available from O2, Three, T-Mobile and Orange, while Phones4U will also exclusively retail the white version of the otherwise black handset. Vodafone seems to have given the phone a pass for the time being.

Why you should care

The handset has a notable design, with the thick bottom bezel piece with XPERIA engraved across it, separated by a thin silver strip where the Android buttons rest. This gives the phone a unique, immediately recognisable look.
The Sony Xperia S is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor so performance should not be an issue. The handset has an LCD HD display that spans 4.3-inches, which is fast becoming the ‘new’ smartphone display size standard. It has a high-resolution 12-megapixel camera that sports an Exmor R lens. It can also record 720p video, which can be played on a television directly from the phone through the built-in micro-HDMI port on the handset.

The handset has been built around Google’s Android Gingerbread mobile OS, with Sony committing to update it to Ice Cream Sandwich after release.

Is it enough?

I like the Sony Xperia S, especially its design, which is saying a lot considering the general homogeneity of most contemporary smartphones. With the impressive camera, mobile photography fans would do well to consider it for their next purchase, too, as would any other users looking to purchase an Android device. With Mobile World Congress at the end of February, Sony runs the risk of having some of its thunder stolen by what other manufacturers release there.

CES 2012 is finally under way, and one of the biggest surprises of the event thus far comes courtesy of Victorinox, the guys behind the Swiss Army Knife. The company unveiled a pair of Swiss Army Knife-styled storage drives, one of which holds a capacity of 1TB.

What was unveiled

The company unveiled the Victorinox Slim 3.0 drive, a USB 3.0 drive which reads and writes faster than the now universal USB 2.0 drives. These drives can hold a maximum storage capacity of 128GB.
The highlight, however, was the Victorinox SSD drive, which houses a slim SSD drive in a Swiss Army Knife encasing. It is available in two flavours – one with the usual SAK implements like blades, scissors and a screwdriver – as well as a flight-safe knife. The big deal? It holds a maximum capacity of 1TB.

Big deal

In case that is lost in translation, that is one terabyte of data stored in your pocket and on your person at all times. Contrast that with the large stand-alone terabyte drives from just a year or two ago, and it puts in perspective just how much progress has been made in the storage industry.

Features

Other features include a world’s first Bi-stable graphics display allowing users to label content directly on the knife/drive, as well as a single connector that fits into USB 2.0, USB 3.0, eSata II and eSata III ports.

The company claims that the Victorinox SSD has the smallest high-capacity SSD in the world and on the market to date, further driving home just how much miniaturisation was needed to make the drive possible.

Pricing and release date

The Swiss Army Knife maker revealed that the Victorinox SSD and USB drives will be available in April 2012. The company, however, omitted what the respective drives will be priced at. We have a sneaky suspicion that the 1TB SSD will be quite pricey, given what the company has achieved with making it possible in the first place.

Fast growing audio sharing platform SoundCloud has reportedly closed a large round of venture capital funding, raising $50 million. This is a major victory for European startups, with the Series C round was reportedly led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield Buyers, one of the biggest names in all of venture financing.

What to do with all that money

Mike Butcher at TechCrunch Europe broke the story, writing the funding: ‘would give the company a $200 million pre-money valuation. GGV Capital also participated in this round.’ He continued, saying: ‘The social sound platform which has seen high growth in the past year will use the funding to expand more rapidly, especially in the US,’ and that Mary Meeker, who is a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and a board member at Square, would take a board seat at the audio hosting platform, too.

Becoming the YouTube of audio platforms

SoundCloud has quickly emerged as the pre-eminent leader in the audio hosting, streaming and sharing space, much like how YouTube has cornered the market in video. The Berlin-based startup has become a hit with musicians, too – upcoming and established ones alike – since it makes it so easy to host and share music.

Much like YouTube, a SoundCloud file can easily be embedded and streamed on other websites. Unlike YouTube, however, the service gives content owners simple tools for permitting users to download files, too. Many artists have begun using it to upload entire albums/mixtapes to it and hosting it there, instead of other frequently used file sharing services like Hulkshare.

A victory for Europe

Like Spotify, the Berlin-based SoundCloud is fast shaping into another major audio startup from Europe. Watching how the audio hosting and streaming platform scales its service over the next few years will be extremely interesting, considering how valuable the space is shaping up to be, and the amount of money the company has raised to date.

Christmas has just past, and a look at many wish lists, recommended gifts lists, and Twitter revealed which were the hottest Christmas gifts in 2011. Our list is paired down to consumer gadgets and electronics.

Amazon Kindle Fire

Unsurprisingly, the Amazon Kindle Fire was one of the hottest Christmas gifts this year, proving a massive hit in North America. While Amazon has yet to – and may never actually – reveal sales numbers, it’s thought that the company may have sold 3-5 million Kindle Fire tablet PCs in the fourth quarter, with sales spike around Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s suspected that the Kindle e-readers are also selling very well, too.

iPhone and iPad

Apple’s mobile devices have sold incredibly well, and, at various points throughout Christmas, the iPhone was a trending topic. The iPhone 4S is on course to be the highest selling smartphone (if not mobile phone) of all time, and the iPad is still leading the pace for tablet devices, even though the Kindle has made it slightly less comfortable. Not to be outdone, though, sales of Android smartphones were also incredibly strong throughout the holiday season, with Android chief Andy Rubin reporting that activations of Android devices had crossed 700,000 units daily.

Video games

Video game consoles are traditionally strong sellers over this period, but it’s been a mixed bag in Christmas 2011. In Japan, the Playstation Vita got off to a so-so start, selling 321,000 units, with the device being marred by usage problems, too.

The Nintendo 3DS, on the other hand, also did well in Japan and other parts of the world, with the console crossing the 4 million units sold mark, off the back of a record high of 510,629 units in a week. While the sales are still not at a level Nintendo would want they are indicative that handheld consoles have life in them still. It appears reports of smartphones killing handhelds are exaggerated, but it is undeniable that they have eaten into their market share.

In addition to strong sales of handheld consoles over Christmas 2011, it would be unsurprising to see consoles post strong sales figures, too, for this period when the NPD Group reports sales figures for the period.

Rovio plans to IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2013, according to Finish weekly Tekniika&Talous. The IPO would be a big business landmark for the makers of the popular iPhone game turned cultural phenomenon Angry Birds.

Disney big

Peter Vesterbacka, who is Rovio’s marketing chief, reiterated what he has said on previous occasions on his company’s ambitions of becoming a media and merchandising giant Disney style, as opposed to becoming just another video game developer.

He said (via Reuters): ‘That is the target. There is no reason why we should not be able to build a company of that size.’ At present, Disney has a market capitalisation of $65.3 billion. The early momentum for Rovio is promising, however, with Vesterbacka saying revenue in 2011 would be $100 million, a massive leap over the $10 million Rovio made in 2010.

Knocking over sales goals

Rovio goes into 2012 with the world of momentum. Angry Birds, which has been perched in and around the top of Apple’s App Store chart since its release in 2009, has spread to multiple gaming platforms, including Windows Phone 7, Android, and even a browser-based version is available for Google Chrome. It’s been downloaded an amazing 600 million times across platforms – both paid and free versions.

Moreover, Rovio’s first experiment to treat the property as merchandise through sales of an Angry Birds plush toy was a rousing success – the company sold out of their first run of plush toys almost as soon as they were released.

Beyond Angry Birds

The major difference between Disney and Rovio is Disney has managed to successfully extend its property beyond its initial cash cow – Mickey Mouse. Whether Rovio can add more characters to its lineup, and more properties with success comparable to that of Disney’s remains to be seen.

Iconic Mario developer Shigeru Miyamoto, widely considered the greatest game designer of all time, is stepping down from his current position in Nintendo to take on smaller projects. This means the days of seeing a Miyamoto-helmed Super Mario title may be numbered.

Working with the young

Wired, who recently interviewed Miyamoto, had the scoop on his role switching. He’s reportedly been telling his team that he is going to ‘retire’, not from video game development in general, but from his current position, to take on new challenges.

‘What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself,’ Miyamoto told Chris Kohler through an interpreter. He continued, saying: ‘Probably working on a smaller project with even younger developers. Or I might be interested in making something that I can make myself, by myself. Something really small.’

Back to basics

The last time Miyamoto worked on a video game by himself (mostly) was the original Super Mario Bros, which he designed along with Takashi Tezuka. Considering Mario is still one of the most recognisable characters in all of video gaming, and the original Super Mario Bros still holds up well, this is a very promising move on Miyamoto’s part.

More than getting back to basics, though, Shigeru Miyamoto’s decision to invest his time in smaller projects, or projects with younger teams speaks a lot to trends in video gaming at present. Where the majority of gaming time was spent on consoles, smartphones and casual games on platforms like Facebook have gained greater ‘time share’. These titles, characterized by brief bite-size bursts of fun, are iconic Miyamoto – the only difference being his more expansive titles have bite-size fun spurts built into dozens, if not hundreds of mechanics, over the course of a title. I’m curious to see what the Mario developer brings to the table.

Sterne Agee Analyst Shaw Wu says that Research in Motion has been blindsided by the aggressive pricing of the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet. The Fire, which shares much of its hardware and build style with RIM’s Playbook, costs a fraction of what the BlackBerry tablet PC costs, and is selling at a much quicker rate, too.

Response

RIM recently slashed the price of the Playbook by $200 (£130), and then $300 (£195), with Analyst Shaw Wu saying that the move us likely a response to the Kindle Fire, and that it made the Playbook a loss-making device. ‘Our understanding is that RIM was blindsided by Amazon pricing its Kindle Fire aggressively at $199,’ says analyst Shaw Wu [via AllThingsD]. He continued, saying: ‘We estimate that the company is losing $50-$75 per PlayBook sold.’

Wu says even with the massive $485 million write-down RIM has taken with the Playbook, the company will need to pour more money into promoting the BlackBerry tablet PC if they are to sell the units still on hand, thereby increasing the loss made per unit sold.

2007 redux

For Research in Motion, being caught unawares by the launch of a big-deal mobile device is not a first. In 2007, when Apple unveiled the iPhone, the company was adamant that a phone with a screen that large was impossible to make without it being a heavy drain on battery. At the time, we wrote: ‘According to a former RIM employee and a commenter on a Shacknews post, supposedly the Apple smartphone “couldn’t do what [Apple was] demonstrating without an insanely power hungry processor, it must have terrible battery life”.’

The iPhone turned out to be mostly battery with a tiny logic board strapped to it, as confirmed by iFixit’s teardown of the device.

Back against the wall

2011 has been unkind to Research In Motion who has seen sales of BlackBerry smartpones spiral downwards, suffered a major outage of the BIS service and have watched their BlackBerry tablet PC struggle to make an impression on the market. There are doubts about how long the Canadian mobile devices giant can carry on like this for. Maybe 2012 is the year the BlackBerry maker returns to form.

HTC is re-evaluating its plans to acquire S3 Graphics off the heels of the graphics company lawsuit against Apple being thrown out this week. Though it seems bizarre to acquire a company solely on a litigious basis, HTC has gotten cold feet.

Disappointed with the outcome

A statement was issued to paidContent regarding the future of the acquisition. It’s startlingly frank about the HTC S3 acquisition being solely about, well, suing Apple. ‘HTC is disappointed at the outcome of the recent ITC ruling that stated Apple did not infringe S3 Graphics’ patents. S3 Graphics will continue to appeal,’ reads the statement.

Convinced Apple would lose

The Taiwanese company admits that it has been getting ready to challenge Apple in court through this acquisition, saying: ‘HTC has made significant effort in preparing for these complicated legal proceedings, including a complete legal investigation and comprehensive report on patent and price evaluations. HTC had decided to acquire S3 Graphics based on the strong belief that evidences of patent infringement from Apple were clear and ITC ruled in its initial determination that Apple had infringed two patents from S3.’

Rethinking acquisition

The likelihood of an HTC S3 acquisition has cooled, though, with news that the Apple S3 lawsuit has been thrown out. The statement continues with: ‘However in light of recent development, HTC will work closely in good faith with VIA Technologies and WTI Investment International to conduct [a] holistic re-evaluation of the S3 Graphics acquisition.’

Strange acquisition practices

Wow. Patent litigation and lawsuits in the smartphone world have become so significant that whole acquisitions are negotiated and cancelled on the outcome or potential outcome of a suit. It seems crazy, at surface level. 9to5Mac also points out that HTC and VIA, the current owners of S3 Graphics, belong to the same parent company, making this ‘acquisition’ less than straightforward.

eBay is acquiring online recommendation engine Hunch. The online retail giant says it will use the ‘taste graph’ to better recommend purchases to people who use the platform.

What does Hunch do?

For those unfamiliar with Hunch, the service is a tool that gives users customised recommendation based on their individual tastes. It’s gone through various iterations since, but upon signup you are served with a detailed questionnaire about your tastes and preferences. Then, over time, based on how you interact with other services that have Hunch installed, the service can build a detailed ‘taste graph’ to recommend relevant products and services based on your previous habits and tastes.

How eBay plans to use Hunch

In the press release, eBay talks up the technology, which uses a combination of data mining, machine learning and predictive modeling, saying it could help merchants and buyers alike in that ‘eBay buyers are expected to benefit from Hunch’s predictive ability to generate meaningful, yet often non-obvious, recommendations for items available on eBay based on their specific tastes.’

Speaking on the deal, eBay Chief Technology Officer Mark Carges said: ‘We are engaging consumers in innovative ways and attracting top technologists to shape the future of commerce.’ He explained that ‘With Hunch, we’re adding new capabilities to personalizing the shopping experience on eBay to the individual relevant tastes and interests of our customers. We expect Hunch’s technologies to benefit eBay shoppers as they browse and buy, and to bring sellers on eBay new ways to connect the right products with the right customers.’

Going on a Hunch

At surface level, this is a smart acquisition by eBay. The company is notable for turning one of its other acquisitions – PayPal – into one of the biggest components of its business, and a major contributor of growth to eBay in general. It will be interesting to see if the online recommendation engine is implemented in a significant, visible way.