Identifying the Right Mobile Application Developer

Why Would Apple Bring Maps & Siri to OS X?

The recent report of 9to5Mac on Apple developers testing OS X 10.9 has left everyone guessing about the newest inclusions in the next version of OSX. It has not been long since Mountain Lion was released and Apple is again testing OS X10.9, which has features like Siri and Apple's own Maps app.

Predictions are around and the tech world is presuming things. 9to5Mac writes, "With this MapKit framework, as developers refer to it for iOS, in OS X 10.9, it is also possible that Apple will extend its own work on mapping on the Mac besides integration for developers. It is possible that Apple will want its own full-fledged Maps app on the Mac, but we have not been able to confirm that as of yet".

 

Speculations are in the air that Siri would be an upgrade from the Dictation application, currently running on Macs. Apple is planning to release the updated version next summer and there are chances of a major overhaul during this time period.

 

The 2011 OS X upgrade consisted of many features of iOS including Reminders, Notes, iMessage, Game Center, AirPlay mirroring etc, therefore, chances are high that new version will come with Siri & Maps.

 

Cloud computing is the latest buzz in the tech arena. Be it Microsoft, Google, or Apple, everybody is trying to offer a secure & reliable central storage repository to customers. The recent growth trend of Apple is not too enthusiastic, so Apple might be using iCloud as a strategy to hold its customers. If all the Apple devices come with similar features, it will get easier for users to access content from anywhere & this could be the reason behind Apple developers investing time introducing some massive enhancements in the OS X10.9.

Switzerland Federal Railways Compensated by Apple

Switzerland’s Federal Railways was compensated with $21 million, winning a case of licensed intellectual property against Apple. It was sometime during the middle of September this year that Apple was accused by the Swiss Federal Railways of copying the design of a clock the former used in its iOS 6 update. The clock icon used by Apple is reportedly an auspicious symbol for Switzerland and its Federal Railways since it was designed during the 1940s by Hans Hilfiker.

 

The report published in the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper of Switzerland says that Apple used the famous clock design without permission from the Swiss Federal Railways authorities. The latter held trademark & copyright over the clock and therefore Apple had to pay a price for its act of appropriation. The licensed agreement between the two parties allows Apple to continue using the design in its clock app coming with the updated version of iPad tablet.

 

Market analysts have put forward their views that a sum of $21 million is inconsequential for a cash rich company like Apple. But it clearly shows that technology giant Apple makes an effort to work quickly when matters of license & intellectual property are involved. Daniele Pallechi, a spokesperson for the Swiss Federal Railways had earlier made it clear in his statement to the media that the owners of the clock design were rather unhappy with the unprofessional attitude shown by Apple. He said in a statement to the media that though the Swiss felt proud to see the iconic clock being used by Apple, shock as to why permission had not been duly taken was clearly there. The fact that the Swiss Federal Railways authorities did not sue Apple on infringement issues has left the latter’s reputation & revenue unharmed.

 

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Windows RT Falls Short of Expectations

Reports claim that the latest Window based OS platform Windows RT has failed to impress. Windows RT was Microsoft’s attempt to come up with an operating system for tablets. The Windows legacy in the world of desktop devices is undeniable; but with Windows RT, Microsoft tried to explore the world of tablets & ARM based devices too.  If the initial reports are to be taken into consideration, Windows RT has failed in the highly competitive mobile market.

 

Opposed to slim & power efficient hardware used by Microsoft’s competitors Google and Apple, the former has consistently used its x86 hardware. One positive aspect of Windows RT that has been highlighted by analysts is its embracement of the ARM system on chips and removal of the previous hardware. The Microsoft Office app comprising Student 2013 & Microsoft Home that comes with Windows RT has introduced touch optimized versions of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote in order to address the productivity & consumption needs of a user. However, it is the very same attempt made by Microsoft to span both needs that has failed to please individual customers who are inclined either towards productivity or towards consumption. The fact that apps such as iTunes, Adobe Photoshop, & Google Chrome are not running on Windows RT, has discouraged most users to avoid using this operating system. The biggest challenge that Windows RT has had to face is attracting the attention of the business class in the society, which has completely refrained from deploying this operating system.

 

The verdict is out; Windows RT is definitely not a well integrated OS platform for modern mobile devices.

 

This news comes from Copper Mobile, an enterise app development company offering windows apps development services. 

Samsung Galaxy Note II Records 3X Faster Sales Rate than Original Galaxy Note in a Month's Time

It seems consumers like Samsung's latest Galaxy Note II in their oversized pockets. The smartphone cum tablet has outnumbered the Galaxy Note sales by 3 times in just 37 days. More than 3 million devices have already been sold, since Note II was released in September.

Samsung has shipped around one million Galaxy Note in the first month of the device’s launch and made a market for enormous phablets, worldwide.

 

And since the Apple Samsung war is still high, we are ought to compare the products sales of both the manufacturers. Apple has sold more than 5 million iPhone 5 in the first weekend sales, which again is a huge number. Though, the new iPhone 5 doesn't fall into the category of huge screen devices, it has a bigger screen than previous Apple phones.

 

The screen size of Samsung Note II or even Galaxy S3 has helped the Korean manufacturer in having a strong market hold, but astonishing sales numbers of iPhone 5 is an alarming factor too. Consumers still love their iPhone, irrespective of the screen size and Samsung has to keep on innovating technology to keep a hold on the market.

iPad's Market Share Sees a Drop in Third Quarter of 2012

IDC's third quarter report has come out with some astonishing numbers. The market share of Apple iPad has dropped to 50.4%, which was 59.7% in the same period last year.

Apple is still number one in the tablet market followed by Samsung, which has jumped from 6.5% to 18.4% in that same period. The third place is acquired by Amazon with 9%, Asus comes forth with 8.6%, and Lenovo is the last in top 5 with 1.4%.

IDC has revealed that 5.1 million Samsung tablets were shipped in third quarter of 2012, which is 115% and 325% more than second quarter of 2012 and third quarter of 2011, respectively.

Vendor	3Q12 Shipments	3Q12 Market Share	3Q11 Shipments	3Q11 Market Share	3Q12/3Q11 Growth
Apple	14.0	50.4%	11.1	59.7%	26.1%
Samsung	5.1	18.4%	1.2	6.5%	325.0%
Amazon	2.5	9.0%	NA	NA	NA
Asus	2.4	8.6%	0.7	3.8%	242.9%
Lenovo	0.4	1.4%	0.2	1.1%	100.0%
Others	3.3	12.2%	5.4	28.9%	-38.9%
All Vendors	27.8	100%	18.6	100%	49.5%

Amazon has done a brilliant job in the third quarter and Kindle Fire line-up is one of the factors that helped it in doubling the market share quarter-over-quarter.

Apple iPad mini has just entered the market, so it is difficult for us to come-up with future predictions at present.

Urban Airship & Microsoft Get Together to Offer Push Messaging Solutions for the New Windows 8

Just after the launch of Windows 8, Urban Airship has announced of its agreement with Microsoft to become the preferred provider of push messaging services on new platform. The agreement is presented as an "Alliance" between the two firms instead of a "Partnership".

 

Both the companies who worked together before the launch of Windows 8 will now be taking the things forward. And there are chances of Urban Airship increasing its involvement in the future training & developer activities to be conducted by Microsoft.

 

Urban Airship will be offering a single codebase client library to Windows developers. This library will work for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 applications. Urban Airship also offers backend-as-a-service to Android, BlackBerry, and iOS, which will enable the developers to target messages & broadcast notification for increasing the engagement of users, enhancing the application's core offering, and maximizing the customer retention.

 

At present, the solution offered by Urban Airship is in beta phase and will be only supporting push notifications. But, the firm is planning to roll out the complete feature set for developers by 2013. Developers will soon get access to more features and tools like rich push messages, analytics & reporting, geo-fencing, and more. These features will convince developers to choose third party service over the base level functionalities that Windows platform is offering.

Amazon Launches the Kindle App for Windows 8

Amazon.com has introduced a new Kindle application, especially made for Windows 8. It features Whispersync technology that automatically synchronizes bookmarks, notes, and customer's last pages read across all the kindles and kindle apps.

The VP, Amazon Kindle, Dorothy Nicholls said that Kindle has ensured to offer massive products at lowest prices. We are excited to offer best selected content and benefits of Kindle ecosystem together in the application for Windows 8. It is a great pleasure that leading manufactures have chosen Kindle ecosystem for pre-load on the new Windows 8 devices".

 

The application is available globally in different languages including English, German, Italian, Portuguese, French, and Spanish. Kindle for Windows 8 includes more than 200,000 exclusive titles and have an instant to more than 1.5 million books. Over 650,000 books on the store are priced at $4.99 or less and more than 1.2 million cost $9.99 or less.

 

The Kindle app will use new features of Windows 8 and enable the customers to pin their books and get instant access to favorite titles. They can also search the library and Kindle store with the Search charm, Share charm for sharing favorite passages, and also recommend books to others. Users will get ll this without leaving the Kindle experience.

Google Launches Updated iOS Search App

The Google Search iOS app, that was originally supposed to have been released in the month of August, is finally ready for unveiling. So all you search aficionados, dabble with this enhanced search tool to get answers to your questions. According to reports published in TechCrunch, the voice search functionality of the new app is strikingly similar to that of Google Now. All the user needs to do to access this app is to hit the button, ask the question, and wait a few seconds for the app to answer.
 

So what is new about the iOS Search app? Once a user asks a question, the app will display the responses by tapping into the Google Knowledge Graph. For instance, if you want to know the weather of the location you are in, the Google iOS Search app will not only speak out the hourly forecast but also display all standard search results related to the same question. The graphical touches in the responses are to be looked forward to, say analysts.

 

As the app is yet to be released in the market, consumers are excited about its new prospects. However, not being entirely different from Google Now, and owing to the fact that important changes are to be made to improve Google Now, the iOS Search app will not only face stiff competition but also be heavily compared. Will it be a hit or a miss? We are still waiting for the verdict.

Are Microsoft Tablets Targeting the Enterprises?

Microsoft marked its entry in the tablet market with Surface RT and Surface Pro. Though, not much information is disclosed about the new entrants but they are expected to be targeting at different consumer profiles.

 

Difference Between the Two

 

One of the prominent differences between surface tablets is the different processors they come with. While Surface for Windows RT tablet comes with ARM, Surface Pro is powered by Intel Core i5 CPU. So, we can clearly make out that ARM processor tablet will be focusing more on generic consumer base and Pro will be used for higher activities that demand for more power.

 

Surface RT version has 10.6 inch display, weighs 1.5 pounds, and the base model has 32GB storage. It is expected to have a battery life of 8 hours.

 

Surface Pro on the other hand runs full Windows 8 Pro. It is 4mm thicker than the Surface RT and weighs 2 pounds. The screen size of both the tablets is same but resolution of the high-end model is higher. The storage capacity of base model is 64GB and it also features a pen input.

 

There are certain restrictions with Surface RT like the inability to run legacy applications used in businesses. It can only run applications available on Windows Store, which means you cannot use Chrome web browser.

 

The Surface Pro however is capable of running any application that a regular Windows 8 Ultrabook can run. It can run all the applications designed for the Windows desktop and the ones for Windows Store. For enterprises with laptop culture, Surface Pro is the best replacement because it is easy to carry and of course, light weight.

 

Are Surface Tablets Targeting the Enterprises?

 

Be it the features or pricing of Surface tablet, all pointing out at one thing "Microsoft is targeting enterprises with its newly revealed tablets".

 

While Surface RT will be a threat to iPads, Surface Pro is being considered as alternatives to laptops because of their light weight and amazing features.

 

Many enterprises have already incorporated iPads in their work culture however; some are still exploring the market. Android as a mobile platform is doing exceptionally good in smartphones but doesn't have a strong hold on the tablet market. Apple iPads are dominating the market and Microsoft has intelligently priced the Surface tablet so that it falls into premium tablets category, posing a threat to iPad.

 

Android tablets have suffered from platform fragmentation but Microsoft has a rich & mature environment for the third party developers, which will always favor its tablet devices.

 

We know that Windows still remains the enterprise favorite platform and Microsoft shares a reputation with businesses. Therefore, chances are high that Surface tablets will get an overwhelming market response, provided they meet and even exceed the expectations set by Apple iPad.

 

This article is posted by Copper Mobile which is known as one of the top apps developer. With Company Headquarters in Dallas, Copper Mobile has its offices in various other locations. The company has created its niche in the field of enterprise app development and is an eminent iphone Developer in Austin and App development company in Delhi NCR.