Large-screen smartphones — often called phablets — have been getting a lot of attention lately. But so far, the devices make up only a tiny portion of the global mobile market, according to a new study.

Flurry, a mobile analytics company, found that of the 200 most popular device models used worldwide in February, 2 percent had screens of 5 inches to 6.9 inches, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Note. The vast majority of mobile users — 69 percent — opted for models with 3.5-inch to 4.9-inch screens, such as Apple’s iPhone, the company said.

Does that mean phablets, which blur the lines between phones and tablets, are a fad?

“This kind of category is in its infancy, and we are seeing success in Samsung,” Teri Daley, vice president of public relations for Samsung Telecommunications America, said in an interview. “Our sales numbers give us confidence in the category.”

Original post is Are Phablets a Fad? Flurry Report Looks at Screen Size by Tech Blog.

Samsung made itself the brand to beat in the crowded smartphone space by backing Google’s Android software –- 96 percent of the South Korean company’s shipments ran on the platform. Now, it’s planning a high-end smartphone powered by Intel-backed open-source platform Tizen.

The new phone, out as soon as August, is good news for those geeks and independent-minded consumers of the tech zone who are crying out for open-source gadgets. Maybe less so for Apple and Google, who face another challenger in the battle to dominate the platform for global mobile communications.

But Samsung had best beware. Growing competition from Samsung as a maker of high-end smartphones has already turned Apple from its most-valuable customer to an increasingly bitter rival. Does Google’s move into handsets after last year’s acquisition of Motorola put the writing on the wall for that relationship too?

Samsung’s efforts to lessen its reliance on Android by designing its own software Bada – “the sea” in Korean – haven’t yet produced a credible alternative. Nor have phones powered by Microsoft’s OS. Enter Tizen.

“This is just sort of a safety net,” said Doh Hyun Woo, an analyst for Seoul-based Mirae Asset Securities. “But if Google dominates the market just like Microsoft did in the PC market with more than 90 percent share, it may prove the total opposite,” with Google possibly holding this over Samsung’s head.

The big question for Samsung and Google – and Apple, too – is whether consumers learn to live with multiple operating systems, or whether one comes to dominate and the rest are left to wither (who remembers Betamax?).

Watch this space for developing open-source news.

Original post is Samsung Braces for Next Battleground With Google by Tech Blog.

Courtesy HeartMath

The Inner Balance app coaches you through breathing exercises designed to reduce stress.

In a classic “Seinfeld” episode, George’s father adopts what’s supposed to be a stress-reduction technique. Except that, instead of reciting it softly to himself, he bellows to the rafters: “Serenity now!”

The Inner Balance Trainer is a $99 device from a company called HeartMath that’s supposed to help achieve the same goal without the bellowing.

After you download the free Inner Balance app, you clip the sensor to your earlobe and connect it to the dock connector of your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. (IPhone 5 and fourth-generation iPad users will need an adapter to use it with Apple’s new Lightning connector.)

The app then coaches you through breathing exercises designed to reduce stress, while recording data from the sensor on how you’re doing.

One screen features a brightly colored circle that pulses at the pace you’re supposed to breathe. Another has a soothing photo of a waterfall that you can replace with one of your own. You can also select music from your collection to accompany your sessions. I decided on the Beatles’ “Across the Universe,” which seemed appropriately New Age-y.

It turns out that, according to the Inner Balance, I’m sort of a whiz at “coherence” — the synchronization of heart, brain and nervous system that’s the centerpiece of HeartMath’s stress-reduction approach. Or at least, I’m a whiz at “Quick Coherence,” at the lowest level.

As you progress with your training — sessions can be as brief as three minutes, though five to 10 minutes somehow seemed more appropriate — you can ratchet up the level of difficulty. At the end of each session, you get a report on how you did, including an overall score as measured in “coherence points.”

You can even post the results of your training to Twitter and Facebook, so you can have coherence contests with your friends. Sort of like competing to see who can yell “Serenity now!” the loudest.

Original post is Inner Balance Promises Stress Relief for IPhoners: Rich Jaroslovsky by Tech Blog.

Photograph by Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who died today, championed a mobile phone called the Vergatario.

Hugo Chavez, who died today, will be remembered as the socialist who transformed Venezuelan politics and helped mobilize his country with anti-American rhetoric. However, his bizarre misadventures in the mobile-phone industry will probably not make it into the history books.

In 2009, President Chavez held a news conference to announce the Vergatario, the first mobile phone assembled in Venezuela. The device had a camera, FM radio and digital-music player costing 30 Bolivar (about $15 at the time). During the unveiling, Chavez used the phone to call his mom.

The handset resembled the candy-bar-shaped devices popularized by Nokia about a decade earlier, and certainly didn’t look cutting edge next to the iPhone, which predated the Vergatario by two years. But Venezuela hoped to boost mobile adoption in the country and other parts of Latin America by offering a low-cost product.

The Vergatario, like many Chavez initiatives, was controversial from the start. Some people took offense to the name, which sounds similar to a Spanish slang word for a certain part of the male anatomy, the Guardian reported then. Chavez didn’t help his case by snickering each time he said Vergatario during the news conference.

Chavez quickly addressed the controversy in a televised speech. He cited the Real Academia Espanola dictionary, which defines vergatario as quality. He also called the UK newspaper that ignited the controversy “ignorant.”

The Vergatario was assembled by Vtelca (Venezolana de Telecomunicaciones), a state-owned handset maker in partnership with China’s ZTE. Customers snapped up the 5,000 units made available on the device’s launch day in 2009, the Associated Press reported.

By 2010, Vtelca still hadn’t gotten all the hardware kinks figured out. The company managed to only assemble about one-quarter of its annual target, the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal reported. In 2011, the government said Vtelca produced more than 1 million phones.

The Vergatario II hit the market in August 2011. About 45,000 were purchased on the day it came out,  Nestor Gonzalez, a vice president at Movilnet, the mobile operator that carries the phone, told Radio Nacional de Venezuela.

“Within a couple years, we’ll be exporting a good-quality phone at a low cost,” Chavez said in 2009.

The late Chavez did not live to see his Vergatario challenge the iPhone.

Original post is Hugo Chavez: Known for Mobilizing Country, But Not His Mobile Phone by Tech Blog.

Photograph by David Ramos/Bloomberg

Barcelona, which just hosted the Mobile World Congress, wants to become a major technology hub.

For Barcelona, four days isn’t enough. Spain’s second biggest city, which just hosted the nearly weeklong Mobile World Congress, wants to be a center of technology year-round. And it’s easy to see why.

Faced with a worsening recession, a 26 percent unemployment rate and both local and central governments undertaking spending cuts, cities such as Barcelona are looking for the next bright spot.

If the Mobile World Congress is any indication, that bright spot could come from turning Barcelona into Europe’s next big tech hub. This year’s event drew more than 72,000 attendees, a record, and brought in more than 320 million euros ($416 million), a gain of 6 percent, according to GSMA, the organization that puts on the event. As many as 6,500 temporary jobs were created,  said Barcelona Mayor Xavier Trias.

“The impact is very significant,” Trias said in an interview this week.

Determined to build on the attention the event brings, the city, stamped as a capital for mobile through the foundation Mobile World Capital Barcelona, is in talks to attract investments from technology companies, including Cisco Systems and Huawei Technologies, Trias said.

“There are many companies, and some very enthusiastic ones, interested in setting up offices, facilities or research labs in Barcelona,” he said. “We want to make it easier for companies to invest here.”

But he cautioned: “We still need to see if those intentions finally come into fruition.”

Unlike other major cities across Spain, Barcelona still has some bandwidth to invest in infrastructure, according to Trias, who boasts about a track record of paying suppliers on time. That stability could make companies more confident about coming to the Spanish Mediterranean city, he said.

Still, Barcelona faces the challenge of boosting its image as a financially solvent city, and one that wants to expand beyond its more traditional focus on automobiles, textiles, agri-food and pharmaceuticals.

NXP Semiconductors, Europe’s third-largest chipmaker, is already growing here. The Eindhoven, Netherlands-based company has built a team of eight people that will expand to 12 in the next few weeks, said Pedro Martinez, business development manager at NXP.

“We believe and share that idea and decided to create a center to support this initiative,” said Martinez, whose company is focusing on near field communication technology.

To encourage more mobile innovation in Barcelona and eventually in the rest of the world, the city has also set up a center in its famous Plaza Catalunya square to show off the latest technologies. And in June, the city plans to create a facility for technology startups willing to work on mobile apps, Trias said. Then in September, Barcelona wants to host a mobile music festival. It’s already looking into which bands could participate, including The Rolling Stones.

This year’s big mobile show may be over, but clearly, Barcelona doesn’t want tech’s spotlight on the city to turn off.

 –With assistance from Marie Mawad

Original post is Show’s Over, But Barcelona Wants Mobile Spotlight to Keep Shining by Tech Blog.

Photograph by Bobi/Getty Images

Motion sensors allow users to control the screen of a device without having to touch it.

It’s the latest in mobile technology, inspired by an invention nearly a hundred years ago.

At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona,  chipmaker STMicroelectronics is showcasing screen technology that works by just hovering your hand a few inches away from the surface. Thanks to motion sensors, users don’t have to touch a screen to flip through an e-book or surf the Web. No more finger smudges.

Little do tech addicts know that a similar hovering gesture was invented about a century ago in Russia. In fact, that is what inspired STMicro’s device, said Benedetto Vigna, the Geneva-based company’s head of MEMS and sensor products.

“There was a nice instrument invented in 1919 by a Russian guy called Theremin,” Vigna said in an interview. “You could play music with your hands by hovering above it, without even touching the device. That’s how we came up with the idea.”

Leon Theremin, also known as Lev Termen, invented what he called the termenvox, an electronic musical instrument built around two antennas. Also known as a theremin, the device has been used to create those eerie sounds found in old sci-fi movies.

STMicro’s hover screen technology will be used later this year in a multimedia tablet, said Vigna, who declined to say which manufacturer will make the device. The company’s clients include Samsung, Apple, Nokia and Blackberry.

Those who can’t wait for the hover-screen devices can try their hand now on the theremin.

Original post is How an Old Russian Invention Inspired STMicro’s Hover Screen by Tech Blog.

Photograph by Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Gary Kovacs, CEO of Mozilla, with the Firefox logo during a news conference at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

While many European technology companies have pared back their presence at this week’s Mobile World Congress, Silicon Valley’s Mozilla is leaving a noticeably bigger footprint.

The maker of the popular Firefox web browser sent about a hundred employees — which is a sixth of its staff and a 50 percent increase from last year — and prepared a much larger stand to help it showcase its new open mobile operating system.

The hope? That by letting loose its fox in the smartphone world, it can steal some of the spotlight from Google’s Android, which dominates the market.

“We have made a more significant investment this year because we have more to say and show,” Peter Scanlon, senior director of global branding at Mozilla, said Sunday in an interview in Barcelona.

Mozilla’s new marketing message, “blaze your own path,” shows the fox from its logo unleashed and following people as they move around to explain how they can access the Internet regardless of where they are.

The question remains whether that campaign, which included a lavish presentation in front of hundreds at the luxurious Hotel Arts Barcelona, was convincing. Mozilla’s mobile software, first discussed a year ago, has been a long time coming. Phone buyers looking for a bargain may be tempted to see whether a new generation of feature phones — such as Nokia’s 105 — may do the trick and be available faster.

Mozilla does have some big names in its corner. As I wrote about yesterday, more than a dozen wireless carriers including billionaire Carlos Slim’s America Movil are supporting Mozilla’s open mobile operating system to make a range of cheaper smartphones. Firefox-based devices may arrive as early as the second quarter, Mozilla said.

We’ll see how fast and far this fox can run.

–With assistance from Cornelius Rahn.

Original post is Mozilla’s Fox Tries to Steal Spotlight and Outrun Google’s Android by Tech Blog.

But what happens if you forget to charge it?

“At least now, if I don’t charge my phone, I can still go home,” Vittorio Colao, chief executive officer of Vodafone Group Plc, told reporters in Barcelona today at the Mobile World Congress, where attendees were encouraged to use their NFC devices to get into seminars and pay for snacks.

Battery life isn’t the only challenge. The technology has been constrained as carriers, handset makers, retailers, credit card companies and banks try to come to an agreement on the best platform to market the technology.

On that front, Visa Inc., the world’s largest electronic payments network, said today it has teamed up with handset maker Samsung Electronics Co. to provide a financial program to enable handsets to be used like a credit or debit card. Visa’s PayWave application will be a standard feature on Samsung’s NFC-equipped devices.

“The Visa-Samsung global alliance is a first of its kind between a leading NFC handset manufacturer and payment network that is paving the way for the implementation of large-scale mobile payment programs,” the companies said in a statement.

No doubt, features and applications will help pave the way for broad adoption of the digital wallet. But if the charging issue isn’t resolved, users of the technology may find themselves stranded at the wrong end of their subway line or without money to pay for lunch.

Until that’s addressed, consumers may want to carry around both wallets for now.

Original post is Paying With Your Digital Wallet? Don’t Forget to Charge Your Device by Tech Blog.

Photograph by Noah Berger/Bloomberg

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed optimism about mobile, but the numbers aren’t there yet.

Mark Zuckerberg described Facebook today as a “mobile company,” but he has a long way to go to prove that mobile is a viable business.

Zuckerberg’s opening statements on Facebook’s earnings call lasted about seven and a half minutes, and the chief executive officer spent more than half of that time talking about mobile. He touted the effectiveness of advertisements on mobile phones, and how more users are checking the social network each day from their phones than from a computer.

“More people are starting to understand that mobile is a great opportunity for us,” Zuckerberg said. “Today, there is no argument. Facebook is a mobile company.”

Investors seem to be arguing about whether that is a good thing. The stock is down 3.5 percent in after-hours trading. Facebook executives had a lot of promising numbers to back up the bet on mobile, but the ones that matter — revenue and market share — aren’t there yet.

Mobile accounted for 23 percent of Facebook’s total ad revenue last quarter, the company said. Considering it was 14 percent in the third quarter, growth is going in the right direction. But mobile revenue still significantly lags actual usage as 680 million people, or 64.2 percent of Facebook users, are browsing the service on their phones.

Competition will also be tough. In the U.S. mobile ad market, Facebook is estimated to have a 12 percent share this year, which would be dwarfed by Google’s 57 percent, according to EMarketer.

None of these signs should cause investors to unfriend Facebook in droves, but the top executives shouldn’t necessarily be jumping up and down over the results.

“We were hoping for a little bit more,” Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, said in an interview on Bloomberg West. “The mobile business is in tact. So I think that that’s a good part.”

There is, of course, plenty of room for Facebook to grow. Zuckerberg expressed optimism about refining the mobile ads that appear in the News Feed and making those more personalized based on usage.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, talked about measuring how the network’s ads convert into purchases in stores, which, if proven, could allow the company to charge more. She was unusually cagey about discussing a mobile version of Facebook Exchange, the ad-bidding tool that was successfully rolled out for the website last year. (One thing Facebook isn’t doing: “We’re not going to build a phone,” Zuckerberg said.)

The question about whether the great shift to mobile computing would unravel Facebook’s business has dogged the company ever since its initial public offering last year. Despite the intense optimism from its executives, who all mentioned the inroads being made in mobile advertising, Facebook’s performance last quarter doesn’t put those concerns to bed. Facebook acknowledged as much in today’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which lists the familiar risk factor: “our ability to monetize our mobile products.”

Original post is Facebook Is a ‘Mobile Company,’ But Is That a Good Business? by Tech Blog.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

An air hockey app is demonstrated on Lenovo’s Horizon touchscreen PC at CES in Las Vegas.

Turns out, there’s a reason why Lenovo released its hit-or-miss tabletop PC, the Horizon.

According to CEO Yang Yuanqing, family patriarchs are increasingly frustrated with their kids constantly playing on their smartphones and tablets at the dinner table. Individual devices are making individual kids increasingly, well, individual.

Horizon, according to Yang, will put the “family” back into “family dinner.” Of course, he’s not suggesting you eat dinner off Lenovo’s new $1,700 27-inch flat-bed touchscreen PC. But he does think it can reunite the family.

Showing off the air hockey app at Lenovo’s showcase inside the Venetian at Las Vegas, Yang’s enthusiasm is palpable. His own kids, of which he has three, love the electronic keyboard app. His mother is also a fan, and the family even sits around for a game of poker (not the kids, he says).

Of course, there may be a convenient upside to the new Horizon. It may end up being the one new device dad buys that the kids don’t want to borrow.

Original post is Lenovo to Kids: Stop Texting at the Dinner Table by Tech Blog.