Android Number One in China: 90% of Chinese Market Now Using Android Devices

Outside of North America and Europe, China represents the next frontier for profits where smartphones are concerned. The competition is fierce and just like here in the West, it seems to be an all-out slug fest.

The two biggest players are of course Android and Apple’s iOS but the clear winner so far—and by a wide margin—is Android. A new report into mobile OS composition in China has shed some light on just how fast Google has managed to embed Android into the smartphone-consciousness of the Chinese. In 2011 Google had just 58.2% of the Chinese smartphone market—by the 3^rd quarter of 2012 that figure had jumped to 83% of the market.

Now, according to data released by Analysys International, Android’s total share of the Chinese mobile market is now a staggering 90.1%–an almost complete lockout of anyone else.

Android winning the zero sum game

If Android has 90.1% of the market then it means companies like Apple are fighting over a meager 9.9% market share. The data showed that iOS saw a slight drop in its share from 6% to 4.2%. Nokia had the biggest decline, falling from 6% to a very paltry 2.4% of the overall market share. Analysts have lamented Nokia position especially given that just a few years ago, the Chinese mobile market was dominated by Nokia. But such is the changing tide and right now, companies like Nokia and Apple can only watch as the little green robot charms its way into the hearts and minds of people in China.

A lot of people might be wondering why Android is so dominant but the quick and easy answer is that its dominance is tied to its ubiquity on a broader range of devices. Anyone in China who wants to own an iOS powered device can only go to Apple; Android enthusiast can chose between HTC, Samsung—even knockoff phones, which by many accounts are all powered by Android. But it’s not just smartphones that give Android the edge, the OS is also present on tablet and this has largely helped to push use of Android devices in the last 6 months in China.

When Apple does get the iPhone 5 to go on sale over there, it might have some success in clawing back market share but it won’t be by much. If many people in the U.S. and Europe are struggling to buy the iPhone 5, then the struggle will be an even greater one in China.

For now Google is winning—even if its services are heavily filtered by the Chinese government, its hardware is still the platform upon which local mobile device sales are built. Could this a leverage point for Google in getting more access to China? Quite possibly, but so far the search giant has been reluctant to try its luck in this regard.

One thing is certain and that is the fact that at this rate of growth, Google’s Android will be the only player in the Chinese marketplace in the coming couple of years.

Source: http://www.sitetrail.com/2012/11/16/android-number-one-in-china-90-of-chinese-market-now-using-android-devices/

Apple iOS 6 Causing Massive Overages: Downloading Content Multiple Times

Oh boy, Apple is having problems again. Fresh off its recovery from iOS 6 failing terribly with its native maps application, there are reports surfacing that users are experiencing overages due to a glitch in iOS 6 and its management of downloads and content streaming.

The report which was released by Public Radio Exchange labs, cites the frequent re-firing of download and streaming sessions for a number of apps including iTunes Match, various podcasts and other apps that use some sort of streaming capability.

According to some users, each download develops a perpetual loop in which content is downloaded over and over again. This of course is terrible for people who are concerned about maxing their data limits. So far Apple hasn’t come forward to either confirm or deny the claims made by Public Radio Exchange but various patches to iOS 6 have been released—one of which was sent out just last week. But it’s not just iOS 6 users who are having problem; one report suggests that those running iOS 5 may also be affected.

Public Radio Exchange explained one instance in which an iOS 5 user experienced overages: “Because the ranges of these requests seem to overlap and the requests themselves each carry some overhead, this causes a single download of an MP3 to use significantly more bandwidth than in iOS 5. In one case, the playback of a single 30MB episode caused the transfer of over 100MB of data.”

Could this spell further stock troubles?

Apple’s stock fell to a 5-month low recently, and although that decline was based largely on sales of the iPad mini, this latest fiasco could send the stock tumbling folder. The bug seems to be eating way at iOS 6 and this of course is the latest operating system powering the iPhone 5. Considering that the iPhone 5 has been dogged with assembly and delivery problems, the last thing Apple can afford to happen is for customers to end up paying more than they should for data they use. To say that this needs to be fixed ASAP is perhaps an understatement.

In the meantime, Public Radio Exchange and some users in Apple forums have been reporting success by updating to the very latest version of iOS 6 which is 6.0.1. Not doing so with the continued streaming of podcasts could result in overages headaches.

Some users have also reported success with contacting their carriers and requesting adjustments to their data use; presumably if you can show that the overage is directly connected with the bug, carriers will honor such requests.

Apple’s silence on the matter is of course very conspicuous, not least because right now customers aren’t happy across a range of its products. The recent high profile dismal of one of its executives also does not augur well for the company growing forward. The Christmas shopping season has been taking shape in the last few weeks and Apple can ill-afford to not be ready for hungry buyers.

Do you think Apple is finally feeling the effects of losing Steve Jobs? Share your thoughts below.

Source: http://www.sitetrail.com/2012/11/16/apple-ios-6-causing-massive-overages-downloading-content-multiple-times/

Publishers CTR: More clicks from Opera and Safari Users

Your browsing habits say so much about you, but the browser that you use also gives some powerful insights into who you are a person. Firefox users for instance, are heavy customizers and like to make things their own; Internet Explorer users are very parochial and stuck in their ways; Chrome users are lovers of simplicity—I could go on but I am sure you get the point.

Advertisers tap into these idiosyncrasies in order to make money and the latest findings into how much the different browser user clicks on ads will some fuel to the debate over browser CTR and ad-efficiency. Online advertising network, Chitika compiled some handy which gave some surmising insights into which browser gives advertisers the most clicks for their buck when targeting both mobile and regular users.

The big surprise

If you had to guess which browser was most efficient at delivering clicks, you’d probably go with Internet Explorer or Google Chrome on the strength of their tremendous market share. But you’d be wrong—very wrong. According to the data compiled by Chitika, the most efficient browser for delivering ad-clicks is Opera.

According to Chitika, hundreds of millions of impressions were looked at for US and Canadian users and from every perspective, Opera led the field with a 2.12% CTR. It was followed closely by Safari mobile with a CTR of 1.54%. Third was Internet Explorer (1.14%); followed by Android browser in fourth place with 0.81%. Safari figured twice in the compilation and showed up again in fifth position with a CTR of 0.80%. Perhaps the biggest surprises on the list were Firefox and Chrome which took 6^th and 7^th position respectively with CTRs of 0.68% and 0.54%.

Safari browser users have a penchant for the complex

I say ‘complex’ because Chitika also took a look at the average query length—i.e. the number of keywords that made up a search. On average Safari users typed in 5.08 words per query WPQ); this number went up even further for Safari mobile with an average query length of 5.17. Safari’s closest competitor in this regard was Firefox with an average query length of 5.05 WPQ; it was followed closely by Chrome on iOS with a query length of 4.84.

The larger question here I suppose is why despite having such a small share of the browser market, does Opera have such high CTRs? The answer is not straightforward or scientific, but one suggestion is that the fact that Opera has fewer integrated ad-blockers, more and more advertising is able to get through. One other possible explanation being bandied about is screen size; some people believe that users are more likely to ‘accidentally’ click on a banner or text ad on their smartphone as opposed to their desktop computer.

Whatever the explanation, the Chitika study will almost certainly anchor the efforts of advertisers and web developers. Opera and Safari are in a way, niche browsers but more and more they are becoming mainstream. Developers and advertisers therefore will ride the wave of use until they become too cluttered and inefficient—much like the large mainstream browsers.

Do you click on ads depending on the browser you are using at the time? Share your thoughts on the Chitika findings using the comments below.

http://www.sitetrail.com/2012/11/12/chitika-more-clicks-opera-safari-ctr-publisher/

Twitter hacked? Prevent twitter, facebook, gmail accounts being hacked

The hacking of accounts, whether it be Paypal, Twitter, Gmail, Hotmail, Pinterest or practically any online application, is nothing new. Today it is thought that Twitter may have been hacked. Big names like TechCrunch and several other users who were possibly hacked would have received the following message from the company:

“Twitter believes that your account may have been compromised by a website or service not associated with Twitter. We’ve reset your password to prevent others from accessing your account,”

Why hackers consider Twitter worthy of their attention?

In the Obama campaign, Google plus has had less support than Romney in the election, now that is pretty low percentage wise! So Twitter is “the in thing” and has enjoyed tremendous publicity. People charge money, known as “pay per tweet” in order to send messages to followers – hence when hackers control popular accounts even for as little as 2 hours, they can profit by using it as a marketing tool, without the permission of it’s lawful owner.

How to avoid getting hacked on Twitter:

1. Change of passwords: Consider changing your password after logging in from a public computer or any device that is not your own. People can run key loggers in the background, meaning that every character being typed, is effectively recorded and stored, without the user realising it, this is how passwords are captured.
2. Hackers have other methods of accessing your computer via the internet and can also record keywords – hence it is a good idea in principle to change passwords frequently even if using the same device.
3. Big companies like Twitter, Google, Microsoft for example may have excellent security measures in place, however they are not infallible: That is what hackers do – they find ways of breaching internet security and can target the best of the best.
4. It is advisable to always make sure that the correct site is on display in the title bar when entering passwords. Hackers are smart, they may create domains which appear to be very similar to that of the target. If the target is “twitter.com” they would create a domain, for example, called “twiter.com” or “twitters1.com” or in the case of “gmail.com” they could use names such as “gma1l.com”. They would effectively create something rather similar to the target – and when user fatigue set’s in, amongst frequent users – they can collect the details of our passwords.

The same principles that are used to hack Twitter and others, can also be used to gather credit card details. The popularity of Twitter will be a great publicity stunt for governments who’d like to accelerate global governance and a new world order: They will not insist on it – it will be us, the people, who’d cry out for the protection of the governments and they will conveniently “save us” with an enhanced ID solution, watch this space!

4 Million Windows 8 Licenses Sold in 3 Days – Could Steve Ballmer Be Right?

Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer has made a bold prediction about the sales projections for Windows 8: “400 million Windows 8 installations by the end of 2013”.

The thing is, before you reach 400 million, you at least have to pass 4 million and by the looks of things, Windows 8 might just meet Ballmer’s perdition. So far the numbers look healthy. Speaking at Microsoft’s BUILD 2012 conference, the spirited CEO revealed that in the first 3 days alone, the company has sold more than 4 million licenses of Windows 8.

Three day metrics very important

Selling 4 million copies in 3 days is significant because if Ballmer’s prediction is to hold up, Microsoft will need to keep shifting licenses at the same daily rate. With just 2 months left in 2012 and a full complement in 2013, Microsoft can easily meets its 400 million target if things stay at the same rate.

Microsoft of course is competing with Apple who released OS X Mountain Lion back in July. During its early launch Apple sold only 3 million in 4 days—those numbers weren’t as strong as Microsoft but Apple still reported healthy projections. By that standard then, Microsoft is certainly on the right track.

Analysts believe that Microsoft overall base being larger than Apple’s, puts the company in good stead to at least ramp up sales in the coming weeks.

OEM will give Windows 8 a push

Microsoft naturally cannot rely on just upgrades alone if it is to meet its target–new computers will have to do some of the heavy lifting. In this regard Ballmer was happy to reveal that so far “tens of millions” of the new operating system has 

been snapped up by the company’s OEM partners. Big-name PC makers like Dell and HP have already unveiled their new line of windows 8 computers. With the holiday shopping season almost here, both manufactures (and others) should see strong sales of new PCs. “We are excited about what we are seeing from initial sales and it looks to be good,” said John Solomon, senior VP of HP’s Printing and Personal Systems.

The one thing that might irk would-be buyers of machines with Windows 8 installed is the fact that new laptops which take full advantage of Windows 8’s touch features will be pricey. HP plans to sell a range of devices and its offerings have been reported to start at $700. Considering that the average laptop buyer operates at the low end price points, OEMs might struggle to shift many licenses built into these systems. And that of course will present a pricing dilemma.

Windows 8 and its quirks

Microsoft has over 600 million people running Windows 7 and a large chunk of the 4 million licenses sold would have been people taking advantage of their $39.99 and $14.99 offer. That’s a lot of people and pretty soon the feedback on the operating system will be gathering momentum. Already there is talk among some users that Windows 8 is not suited for a desktop environment and many people are struggling to get to grips with it. On top of that many of their old programs don’t work. All these quirks means that Microsoft had better hope that the feedback doesn’t dent future sales.

It’s early days and perhaps too soon to predict whether Ballmer is wrong about the sales of Windows 8. Perhaps in another few weeks the projected numbers can take on better clarity.

Have you tried the new Windows? Let us know how you are fining the new metro interface by using the comments below.

Source: http://www.sitetrail.com/2012/11/01/4-million-windows-8-licenses-sold-in-3-days-%E2%80%93-could-steve-ballmer-be-right/

Google Kills Off Adsense For Feeds And Other Services

The last few weeks have been very irritating for people who use Feedburner to handle the distribution of their RSS feeds. Google took note and it looks like the search giant is using the Feedburner-troubles to clean house.

In an announcement on the company’s blog, the impending demise of several services brought the sort of news Google product users have grown accustomed to in the last couple of years.

Top of Google’s kill list is AdsSense for Feeds, a service which allowed publishers to make money from their RSS feeds. Since Feedburner has become buggy, many believe this prompted the retirement of this service. Publishers will still be able to sue Feedburner URLs powered by Google but the writing is on the wall—soon these will be dead too.

As of October 16, the Classic Plus feature which allowed users to customize their Google.com background will go into early retirement. Google plans to turn off the service for good come November. Users who take advantage of free storage across Picasa and Google Drive will suffer when the two platforms are merged. Google Places Directory Android app has been removed from Google Play (the app store) and the site will be taken down later this year.

As usual there’s isn’t much by way of an explanation for many of the discontinued services. Users have become accustomed to the capricious nature of Google and its products and since many of the announced kill-offs aren’t hugely popular, I don’t expect to see much uproar.

Will you be losing any of your favorite Google products in the latest round of house-cleaning? Let us know below.