Android phones to capture 80 percent of Indian market by 2015

The news that Android phones are the dominant force in the phone market today comes as no surprise, and this is only going to get better, as Android smartphones are going to dominate the phone market in India, China and Africa. It's a different situation in the U.S. as those service providers who didn't tie up with Apple for their iPhone, chose Android as the alternative. The success of Android in the American market is by the high-end, expensive smartphones. The low-end, more affordable devices are more popular in emerging economies, such as ours. In-Stat claims that by 2015, Android will take up close to 80 percent of the phone market in these countries. Most of these Android devices would be ones running on the slightly older builds - 2.2, 2.3, and so on. They would have a single-core 600MHz processor and the typical price would be $150 or lower - roughly Rs.7,500 or lower. The 'gray market' would be a popular place to buy these phones and manufacturers, such as Huawei, Micromax, Motorola, Samsung, Spice and ZTE are likely to take centrestage. It's not just going to be Android - companies such as Nokia and Samsung will compete for this price bracket as well. The Samsung Bada operating system and Nokia's upcoming Meltemi operating system should replace the outdated Symbian S40 operating system. Phone manufacturers look to gain by selling hardware, whereas Google hopes to gain by making money off advertising. Microsoft also hopes to reduce prices of their Windows Phone platform to try and approach a similar price that can woo prospective customers. Some 340 million low-cost Android smartphones are expected to ship in 2015. These large numbers will force the Android platform as a whole to be scattered even more. The new ICS platform requires more processing power and memory requirements, thus making it difficult to port back to older devices, which means the older 2.2 (FroYo) and 2.3 (Gingerbread) Android operating systems will be king for some more time.

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Megaupload faces more copyright, wire fraud charges

US added more charges against file-sharing website Megaupload and its executives, and also accused them of taking copyrighted content from sites such as YouTube for its own service, according to a new indictment released on Friday. The founder, Kim Dotcom, and six others employed by the site were charged with eight additional counts of copyright infringement and wire fraud. They were originally charged with five counts of conspiracy and copyright infringement. Dotcom and four of his co-workers have been arrested and are awaiting extradition proceedings in New Zealand and the Netherlands. Two suspects remain at large. They have been charged in a federal court in Virginia with a making millions of dollars from peddling copyrighted materials, including popular television shows, movies and music to millions of users around the world. The superseding indictment said the Megaupload site had 66.6 million registered users as of January 2012 and just under 10 percent had ever uploaded a single file, suggesting most people used the site only to download infringed material, according to the Justice Department. The indictment also accused the group of taking copyrighted material from sites such as Google's YouTube video service for use on Megaupload websites. The Megaupload service has been shut down.

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Apple unveils Mac OS X Mountain Lion for developers

Apple has released details of Mac OS X Mountain Lion, its next generation operating system for Mac computers. Mountain Lion has been released to developers today and should be available for consumers soon. The new OS incorporates a number of features that jive nicely with iOS, including iCloud sign up and a Messages app that takes the place of iChat, allowing you to continue conversations started on Mac on any iOS device. As well as the iOS-style messaging app, Mountain Lion includes reminders, notifications and Twitter apps that bring the desktop system more in line with mobile products. Perhaps the most exciting element of the upgrade is AirPlay Mirroring – you'll be able to mirror your computer screen on another TV wirelessly with 720p HD support and supposedly amazing realtime response rates for gamers using the mirroring app. Security-wise, there's a new feature called Gatekeeper that allows for personalised security settings, working as a kind of safety net for less confident users by offering a setting that allows the Mac to accept only software downloaded from the Mac App Store.

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Sony Ericsson is now Sony Mobile Communications

Last year in October, Sony Corp. set out to buy the complete control of the Sony Ericsson mobile phone venture, from its Swedish partner, in order to boost its offerings and catch up with competitors, like Apple and Samsung. Sony now completes the buyout of Ericsson's 50 percent stake. The Sony Ericsson company is now completely owned by Sony, and it will now be called Sony Mobile Communications. With this move Sony plans to integrate its mobile phone and gaming console portfolios. Sony decided on the buyout to give a seamless single interface by integrating its portfolios, just like how it is offered by the iOS platform. After completion of the deal, Sony can now own specific handset patents, which are held by Ericsson and can integrate it into its own range of products and online content. Sony's tablets, games and other consumer electronics devices have been kept separate, and do not mingle with the mobile phones sold under the Sony Ericsson brand. The buyout by Sony was in talks for sometime before the company actually took the plunge. No sooner than the deal became public, we saw Ericsson bag a major role with Airtel of managing its network in India. Ericsson manages about 70 percent of Airtel's network in India. Now, with the completion of the buyout we should expect some innovations waiting to hop out of Sony's kitty. Probably Sony plans to deliver an interconnected and seamless approach by keeping its devices interconnected. Sony smartphones may come with a dash of gaming and better digital abilities. Lets wait and watch, what's in store for consumers from Sony Mobile Communications.

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Android 5.0 may be released on Q2 2012

Jelly Bean or Android 5.0 coming in the second quarter of 2012. Currently, Android 4.0 hasn't exactly gained a lot of mileage and though devices are getting updated, the transition has been extremely slow, which according to the site, hasn't met the expectations that Google had from it. Also, with Microsoft planning to announce Windows 8 in the third quarter of 2012, chances are rife that Jelly Bean will come in Q2 and Google will try getting dual booting to tablet PCs. Yes, that means Android 5.0 and Windows 8 in the same device. Android 5.0 will further try to bridge the gap between phones and tablets and will have some good optimization with tablets. Along with that, Google is planning to get Chrome system functions as well. So, manufacturers will get a choice to choose between, either of Android 5.0 or Windows 8 or have both Jelly Bean as well as Windows 8 on their tablets. We've seen the problem with multiple operating systems on Windows, at least. Firstly, not all that stable and secondly, you can't boot into the second operating system without restarting. However, this problem is going to be addressed as well and there's a possibility that the device will be able to switch between the operating systems without requiring a restart. It seems like Google is trying to push it's operating system, not only to phones and tablets, but also to upcoming notebooks and netbooks. That only seems logical considering the mass rollover Windows is planning with Windows 8. Dual operating systems definitely look like a win-win situation for both manufacturers and end users.

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