Posts Tagged ‘BlackBerry’

United Arab Emirates switches off Blackberry services

Monday, August 9th, 2010

On October 11, 2010 the UAE authorities will suspend the usage of some services in Blackberry phones. This decision was taken in the context of national security, informs Reuters. The thing is that the government can’t control the information transferred via these devices as the UAE doesn’t have the corresponding code.

This action is expected to touch about 500,000 users. The limitation will be valid till Blackberry doesn’t work out ‘the good-enough solution’, admitted the General Director of the Telecommunication Department Mohammed Al-Ghanim. According to the official, only Blackberry services will be put under a ban. Al-Ghanim says smartphones Nokia and iPhone won’t be touched by this limitation so iphone application developers can relax.

The negotiations between the Department and the manufacturer of smartphones Research In Motion have been carried since 2007. The UAE authorities inform that the compromise in using Blackberry Messenger, e-mail 2and Internet access services hasn’t been reached.

Earlier the dissatisfaction of data coding in Blackberry Messenger has been expressed in other countries as well. Thus, last week the government of India informed that such data could be used for conducting acts of terrorism. Despite this news, BlackBerry apps developers continue creating products for this device which is considered the most popular one in the market at present.

More than half of mobile applications at Android Market are free

Friday, July 9th, 2010

android-marketAndroid’s market share of free applications stands out against the competitors’ one: about 57% of applications at the Android Market can be obtained for free. At the App Store the number of such applications is 28%, at the BlackBerry Apps World – 26%. But the users of Windows Mobile devices have to pay more often than others – only 22% of available applications at the Windows Marketplace are free.
According to the research done by Distimo, more than 50% of applications in any existing store cost no more than $2. Besides, the biggest part of applications at the App Store is less than $1. It may be one of the reasons for such stunning sales, according to Apple; so far applications have been downloaded more than 5 bln times.
The big part of free soft at the Android Market is a positive moment for the users of smartphones based on the open platform. However, from the point of view of monetization, placing applications at the App Store is more profitable for mobile apps developers. The additional benefit is the Apple iAd platform which allows Apple apps developers to place advertising modules into their products and earn additionally at demonstration.

BlackBerry OS 6.0: What do we know about it?

Friday, April 30th, 2010

BlackBerry-OS-6We have prepared some information for BlackBerry application developers. We hope that it will be interesting for them to read about the upcoming OS version from Blackberry.

Research In Motion wanted to stimulate our interest at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES), that took place this week in Orlando, Florida. It’s a pity that the company, as usual, kept its mouth shut last week when all BlackBerry mobile apps developers asked about new photos and details in the Net about this very OS.

So, RIM demonstrated the next generation of its OS at this symposium, which begun on Thursday. RIM has confirmed nothing of the rumors about the BlackBerry OS, in addition, it announced its debut at the next quarter.

So, we will expect better integration with sensory devices, trackpad and QWERTY-keyboard support, especially for devices that have been already released, such as Storm, Bold, and the Tour. Unlike Microsoft, which has no plans to adapt the coming OS Windows Phone 7 Series for the previous phones, RIM will make the back-compatible OS. In other words, the updates will be available for the previous smartphone models.

Windows Mobile and iPhone OS: results of the year 2009

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Summing up results of the year 2009, it will be quite reasonable to choose the best operating system for successful mobile apps development. So, what operating systems did we have at the turn of the year? Of course, there were Windows Mobile, iPhone OS, Symbian OS, Symbian UIQ, Linux Mobile, Palm OS and BlackBerry OS. Let’s try to investigate which of them has all chances to be called the best one.

Windows Mobile

Ah, this “old woman” still holds the largest market share. It has relatively out-of-date interface, nevertheless Microsoft delays the release of Windows Mobile 7 with touch-screen interface (as they promise) and complete compatibility with older apps versions. Though this OS has undoubted plus (a large number of good and stable mobile applications with rich functionality that was accumulated over the years), it’s not a permanent advantage. It can be lost soon as new operating systems are constantly adding new applications, offering new features and up-to-date interface. In general, if the next version of Microsoft Windows Mobile does not have any pleasant surprises for its users, the company will lose its market share under pressure of other mobile operating systems.

Windows_Mobile

iPhone OS

Yes, it’s beautiful, yes, it’s quite functional and it has already accumulated a lot of good features and high-quality applications. Due to the fact that iPhone has taken a considerable market share its application are relatively cheap (it’s an important bonus for those who choose a platform for a mobile device). But it has the main drawback: only Apple can produce hardware and iPhone source code is closed for mobile development companies. Nevertheless it’s not an obstacle for numerous Apple fans, Mac + MacOS + iPod + iPhone can be considered as a modern religion, it’s a way of live, no doubt.

iPhone_OS

The year 2010 will be the year of Android

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Not so long ago smartphones and communicators were niche products that simple users didn’t even pay attention to. But the operating systems has been developing and at present such phones offer a wide range of options for business–users as well as for usual users who prefer exchange SMS or visit social networks.

According to the research company In-Stat, the competition in the OS market is shifting from software basic capabilities to functionality and ‘user’s experience’ which the phone can provide.  Smartphones and communicators will develop not only at the programming level but also at the hardware level – sensor screens with high resolution, high-quality cameras, communication tools.

In-Stat supposes that the next year will pass under the Android sign. According to the research statistics, in 2014 more than 400 mln smartphones will be sold in the world and more than 300 mln of them will have a built-in MACEK accelerometer. Today about 52% of the device production costs go to a touch screen, a processor, software, license fees and communication modules (2G, 3G).

The present leader in the market of smartphone platforms Symbian will lose its position taking the pressure from the side of Maemoplatforms, Android apps, BlackBerry application developmetn and iPhone mobile development.

Professionals from EleganceIT have more than ten years of experience in the sphere of Android, BlackBerry and iPhone software development. If you want your project to be done in due time, within the agreed budget and of high quality, you have to trust it to EleganceIT mobile application programming company.

Android outruns iPhone OS and Windows Mobile in 2012

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Gartner analysts consulted their crystal ball and found that Android will be the second most popular mobile platform in the world in the year 2012. The company will present its full report with forecasts for smartphone market only at the end of October, but Ken Dulaney from Gartner has already shared some basic information with ComputerWorld reporters.

Google Android’s popularity is growing wildly. According to the analysts, it is caused by many different factors. One of the key factors is a number of additional functions and related mobile applications from Google.

Also Android as a platform has advantages over other operating systems. For example, Android is an Open Source project in contrast to iPhone OS.

In addition, smartphone interfaces usually differ from each other by two approaches: iPhone OS is based on applications, devices using Windows Mobile and Symbian are based on communicational functions. Android, according to Dulaney, wisely combines both approaches. In particular, its interface allows running high-usage tasks without having to return to the main menu.

Finally, although the first AndroPhone appeared only a year ago and did not gain big popularity (it had serious hardware limitations), in recent months the major mobile phone manufacturers have introduced several new smartphones based on Android. Moreover about 40 new Android models will appear in the next year, said Dulaney, as well as a new OS version (its code-name is Donut).

Gartner experts managed to write all these factors in mathematical expressions and get a new model of mobile market in 2012. There are their projections:

1. Symbian OS – 203 million devices, 39%
2. Android – 76 million devices, 14.5%
3. iPhone – 71.5 million devices, 13.7%
4. Windows Mobile – 66.8 million devices, 12.8%
5. BlackBerry – 65.25 million devices, 12.5%
6. Linux – 28 million devices, 5.4%
7. Palm (webOS) – 11 million devices, 2.1%

Show your location using Google Latitude!

Monday, August 31st, 2009

Now you can show your location to the best friends via Google Latitude! The service Google Mobile Maps introduced a new feature called Google Latitude. It gives the opportunity to indicate user’s location and show it to selected contacts via mobile phone (using the GPS). You may be know this flashing blue dot on the map, which shows your location, wherever you are. In other words Google Latitude gives you the opportunity to “share” this blue dot with anyone you want.

Google Latitude is a mobile application (supporting such platforms as Windows Mobile, iPhone, Android and BlackBerry). You can install it by downloading via mobile browser at google.com/latitude. Using it, you will always know where your friends and family are, also you can call them directly from this application, send instant messages or emails. Each contact added in your profile will be marked as an icon or avatar on the map; it will have the same look in the contact list (like in Twitter).

Do not want to shine your location? So you can “hide” from unwanted contacts (choose “hide from this friend” in properties of each contact). You can even enter your fake location. So it’s so easily to control the degree of your privacy.

Google Latitude is available for users of Blackberry, Windows Mobile Smartphones, iPhones, Android-devices and Nokia S60 in 27 countries.