TechInAsia: Line Corporation popular messaging app, Line, has launched Line Manga yesterday. Line Manga is an extended service and a separate app from Line messaging app which allows users to read manga while on the move available both on iOS and Android. The launch brings 30,000 comics to Line’s 120 million users with popular titles […]
April 2013
Huawei, MediaTek, and the Lower Right
Stefan Constantinescu: Huawei is a Chinese network infrastructure vendor that once made cheap phones for operators, but then they decided to pull an HTC and promote their own brand. The company has had a lot of success, no one is denying that, but they’re not growing as fast as they’d like. Huawei repeatedly said they […]
Mobile’s Hierarchy of Needs
Three seemingly disparate news items – Facebook Home, Google’s alleged (and denied) bid for WhatsApp, and Apple’s removal of AppGratis from the App Store – together give convincing evidence that we are moving up the mobile hierarchy of needs. And that’s a concern for Apple in particular. One of the more famous theory’s in psychology […]
Samsung’s Press Page
Last week I created this chart to demonstrate how very different Apple and Samsung’s mobile strategies are: The evidence can be seen on Samsung’s Press Release page. March 14: Samsung GALAXY S 4 April 3: Samsung GALAXY Star April 3: Samsung Pocket Neo April 8: Samsung GALAXY Win BONUS! The Samsung Galaxy Trend II & […]
The Death of HTC in Seven Bullet Points, Revisited
Bloomberg: HTC Corp., Taiwan’s largest smartphone maker, posted its lowest quarterly profit on record after the delay of its newest flagship phone caused revenue to miss the company’s target. First-quarter net income plunged 98 percent to NT$85 million ($2.8 million), the sixth straight decline, according to data released by the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company yesterday. The […]
Apps, People, and Jobs to Be Done
I read two great interviews tonight, and its the combination of the two that really captures why I’m skeptical about Facebook Home.1 First off was Mark Suster interviewing Clayton Christensen. The interview – as is the case with most things Christensen related – is fascinating and instructive, and well worth a read. However, I want […]
The Week in Review — March 30-April 5, 2013
Facebook Home launched this week, both as an app for top-of-the-line Android devices, and preinstalled on a mid-range HTC phone called the First. It’s an interesting move on multiple levels, particularly the fact that it is not a fork but more of a services layer. Moreover, it’s a services layer that still has access to […]
Home Turf
Matt Drance: You’ve built an enormous business around a desktop website. Unfortunately, people around the world are spending more and more time on mobile devices. The vast majority of these devices run software from only two companies. One of these companies is actively competing with you. You cannot put your future in a competitor’s hands. […]
Facebook’s ‘Phone’ Is Another Triumph of Mediocrity
Mat Honan perfectly captures why I’m hesitant to cast ultimate judgement on Facebook Home: Over the past few days, lots of pundits have been asking who this is for. Facebook gave us an answer today: It’s for people who don’t care about a rich, full experience on the Internet, yet love Facebook. People who want […]
China Losing the Global Propaganda War to Apple
The Financial Times: There was another important lesson that came out of the skirmish between the iPad maker and the propaganda apparatus. On the internet, which the party can corral with the “Great Firewall” but cannot really control, and particularly on Twitter-like Weibo, the backlash against the state and the cheering for Apple was devastating. […]