FriendCaller Blog

When it comes to Information Technology, vendors all over the world are trying to get ahead offering newest equipment with cheap affordable rates, India has cut back most of them when it comes to price. In New Delhi this Wednesday a substantially cheap tablet computer namely, Aakash, also known as Ubislate 7, was introduced with the purpose of enlightening the rural areas with modern technology. The price of what has been hailed as the world’s cheapest computer should fall to $35 and could even be knock down as low as $10.  Datawind, the Canada based manufacturer, said that it can make about 100,000 units a month at this point in time.

The computer possesses a 7” touchscreen, a multimedia player, Wi–Fi internet connection and about 180 minutes of battery power. Because of its narrow Random Access Memory i.e. 256 MB, experts are doubtful that this tablet might not live up to the expectations of people. Around 650 tablets were distributed to students of New Delhi who attended the launch ceremony.

“Our goal was to break the price barrier for computing and Internet access” says Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of Data Wind. A good thought!

Wake up Vendors! Even HTC is cutting the price of its 7 inch Android tablet, the HTC Flyer, to $299 in response to the $199 Amazon Kindle Fire.

First Amazon introduced its Fire Tablet and then Blackberry announced an enormous price slash on its 7″ Playbook. It is pretty obvious that both the Blackberry and HTC are dropping prices straightaway due to Amazon’s access into the tablet marketplace, now DataWind also following in the footsteps of the former vendors. Previously Microsoft jumped up to the rescue for WebOS, right after HP abandoned, by offering free phones and developer tools.

Well, whoever the manufacturer is, with over 594 supported Android phones, our FriendCaller for Android application will definitely be supported on their devices. Once our Video Calling feature passes the BETA testing phase, its going to be a big Hit for all old and upcoming Android devices.

According to a testimony, US have finally declared that Nokia will pay developers so that they can create Windows Phone 7 Mango applications.

The information  is thought to be extracted from a popular news channel CNN which averts that, ‘Nokia is attempting to woo app developers with such incentives as pre-installing their software on the forthcoming phone, prominent promotion for their products and funding development of an app, according to three people involved in the negotiations.’

Microsoft’s remark  on the claim is yet to come.However if the company’s track record is taken into consideration, then its more likely that the report CNN broke out is definitely true.

Evidently nothing is wrong with incentivising app growth for one of your platforms, infact it’s a great way to take the initiative.But one thing that will be a question mark for everyone is, What made Nokia do this? I mean there are numerous applications already serving the Windows Marketplace. As a matter of fact, it is propagating even faster than the Google’s Android Market for now.

When CNN encountered with one of spokeswoman from Nokia, this is what she had to say:

‘the company offers app developers a variety of incentives, some in partnership with Microsoft, which include coding assistance and marketing.’

She added more by saying: ‘We do not disclose these arrangements, as each is different.’

One of the presumptions could be that Nokia is trying to get its Symbian developers to swap over to Windows Phone 7, making the deal less pungent. Now that surely makes some sense since, its a matter of time when Symbian would be amongst least favourites.

Nokia’s very first batch of Windows Phone 7 Mango handsets are thought to emerge in Q4 of 2011. Rumors are buzzing around that the very first handset, significantly the Sea Ray, could be arriving as early as next week.

As mentioned in one of our previous blogs, Microsoft is offering free phones, developer tools and training to all those stranded developers who have been affected by WebOS burial by HP? Pretty generous isn’t it?

Similarly Nokia is following on the same lines but in a different way. So let’s have our fingers crossed and wait what this brings for Nokia in future.

Though Nokia do have to declare a verified release date but as ZTE, HTC and Samsung have announced their respective handsets publicly, we look forward as to when Nokia would soon join in with them.

Intel join hands with Google! Exciting isn’t it? On Tuesday, Intel Corp announced a joint development venture with Google to create and optimize future versions of Android smartphones for Intel’s ‘Atom’ processors. The two technology giants will team up to work on different Android platforms and are all set to release the first Intel-powered Android smartphones in the first half of 2012.

These days, a large number of smartphones and tablets use ARM architectural-based processors built by companies like Texas instruments and Samsung instead of Intel, mainly because of the power efficiency factor. Intel teaming itself with Google at this stage when the sales of PCs are slowing down is a smart move. With Android dominating the smartphones’ market, taking the lead from Apple iOS, Microsoft and RIM, Intel would definitely get the long-term benefit out of this mobile partnership.

Now, who will be the manufacturer of these devices? None of the companies mentioned it but Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola Mobility hardware definitely leaves a big hint here. Whatever the case maybe, this partnership offers a great opportunity for Intel in order to make a much-needed breakthrough entry into the booming smartphones’ market.

Earlier versions of Android such as Android 2.2 (Froyo) are already been ported to Intel. Now, with this recent collaboration of the two companies to improvise all the future Android versions, Intel and Google are certainly taking their relationship to the next level, providing developers a wide range of opportunities to expand their expertise.

Developers are delighted everywhere, why? In my featured blog post of Thursday where I mentioned the recent dumping of WebOS by HP, I gave a suggestion that would console developers after this shocker. Glad to see that Microsoft took a note out of it after the news went haywire. Here’s what Brandon Watson, the Director of Developer Experience for Windows Phone, wrote on Twitter a day after the news came out.

 So, microsoft is offering free phones, developer tools and training to all those stranded developers who have been affected by WebOS burial by HP? Pretty generous isn’t it?

Microsoft leapt at the opportunity right after HP’s announcement to abandon WebOS for good. Consoling the WebOS developers by providing them complete assistance, Microsoft surely has taken the lead here once again.

Whether developers will embrace this good will gesture by Microsoft or not? Time will tell that but experts are giving mixed reviews here. Not many developers are interested in WebOS applications anymore. When HP TouchPad was launched, out of 62,000 total webOS apps, only 300 were optimized for the tablet. Why would any apps lover go for it then? In comparison, almost 425,000 iOS apps are available on App Store.

That’s just one side of the story though. A lucrative proposal like this will not go astray just like that. Lots of developers have already taken up the offer. Watson has instructed the interested developers to simply send out an email to him. Rest will be taken care of by a Windows team member at Microsoft.

Wondering what’s in it for Microsoft? Well, the company has been trying to develop a Windows 7 platform as a possible alternative to Apple iOS and Google’s Android and is all set to release a major OS update this year. So, this offer will bring many brilliant minds together to create exciting new apps and ideas for the company. However, the question remains; Will it save the sinking ship of WebOS future?

There goes the Web OS. Another defeat for the ‘other’ category as HP abandons WebOS.

Is it shocking for me? Certainly not! Having spent most of my summers in our Sunnyvale Office at PlugAndPlay Tech Center, I have seen full page WebOS Touchpad ads popping up literally in newspapers, on billboards and on 101 covering the whole nine yards. Surprised? Well, that’s true.

So, what’s the history? Let’s take a recap. It all started when HP bought Palm for 1.2 billion and then gave WebOS the status of a ‘building block’ as a part of their strategy. Moreover, HP spent a whopping 50 million dollars or more or less near to that on introducing the new range of WebOS devices.

But when the HP Touchpad finally came out; you could get practically close to none apps for it. Disappointing isn’t it? And who bothered buying a Touchpad anyways? Yes, Nobody. Guess who was left all surprised? Hmm, well maybe HP top management. Wondering what these guys were thinking seriously? What made them believe that somebody will go for a mobile device, even as nice as HP Touchpad but without loaded with any cool apps?

My advice for the next technology giant whoever wants to push its ‘other’ mobile platform (Microsoft, are you still there?) is to take a note from this dumping of WebOS by HP. From a developer’s point of view, it’s pretty difficult to make a decent living just from creating different apps. Even though FriendCaller was the Top grossing Social App and iTunes last year, we still struggle for every dollar. So, I guess it’s better if we don’t talk about the TOP 20 guy’s takings as it is all pro bono.

Here’s the solution. Simply offer every TOP 25 iTunes developer 10,000 USD to get the app ported to WebOS. iTunes consists of 20 app categories, so it would make about 5 million USD. Then, provide every developer with free advertising of USD 10,000 value. Make sure there is an inbuilt app payment mechanism installed.

Still thinking why the developers won’t come? They will. Rest in Peace WebOS. You will not be missed by us. We never developed an app for you and had a solid reason for that!