Good morning folks,
Yesterday’s light news cycle ended up filling up today’s blogs. Here are the top stories.
Enjoy!
Joshua
– If you were intrigued by LG’s first curved OLED TV at CES this year, you will be excited to hear that they have dropped the price. Previously set at $15,000, you can now get your very own model for as low as $7,000!!! (or rather $8,000 with a $1,000 rebate). Time to go shopping! (link)
– ABI Research’s latest study suggests 40% of consumers will watch video on mobile devices (tablets and smartphones) by 2018. Currently, global mobile video views represent more than 20% of total online video consumption. Pay-TV services will continue to serve as the primary entertainment solution for most customers, with overall time spent watching online video expected to pass 21 hours per month by 2019, up from 12. 7 in 2013. (link)
– RUMOR: HTC is reportedly working on a Nexus 10 tablet for Google, which was not refreshed last year as expected. HTC previously produced the Nexus One smartphone for Google, but had turned down the Nexus 7 back in 2012, causing Google to team up with ASUS for both the first and second-generation tablet. (link)
– In other HTC news, the company plans to focus on mid- and low-range smartphones in order to boost the company financials, which had a poor showing last year, causing the company’s stock to drop 53%. According to co-founder and Chairwoman Cher Wang “the problem with us last year was we only concentrated on our flagship (HTC One). We missed a huge chunk of the mid-tier market.” The company plans to sell phones in the $150 to $300 retail range. (link)
– RUMOR: The WSJ is reporting that Nokia will unveil it’s first Android-powered smartphone (codenamed: Normandy) at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The timing is interesting as Nokia plans to close its deal with Microsoft for the cell phone division this quarter, making it a bit ironic for Microsoft to have an Android phone in its lineup. (link)
– BlackBerry Messenger’s lead, Andrew Brocking, has left the company despite the recent uptick in popularity of the service thanks to the new Android and iOS apps. John Sims, head of global solution, will now manage the team. (link)
– Antitrust officials expressed strong sentiment against the Sprint acquisition of T-Mobile, causing Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son and Chief Executive Dan Hesse to reconsider their offer. For the deal to continue, Sprint will need to find answers for the regulatory arguments that will stand in their way, as officials have a general wariness toward wireless consolidation. (link)
– Budget carrier FreedomPop announced a $4.58 plan with unlimited voice minutes and text messages. This is on top of a free version that includes 500MB of data, 500 text messages and 200 minutes. FreedomPop runs on the Sprint network, so there is limited availability and you will need to use old Sprint-compatibile phones or purchase older devices directly from FreedomPop. (link)
– Apple has launched its iTunes Radio service in Australia, marking the first country outside of the US to take advantage of the streaming music service. The service is free and ad-supported, but iTunes Match subscribers will have the ads stripped out and you will be able to listen uninterrupted. Rumors are that Apple will expand the service to the UK, Canada, and New Zealand in the early part of this year. (link)
– Finally, Virgin Atlantic is conducting a pilot program at Heathrow, whereby VA staff will be wearing Google Glass or a Sony SmartWatch 2, allowing them to assist business class passengers with their check-in process. Now they can update passengers on flight information, weather, translate foreign languages and more. What I love about this is it opens up the possibility for so many other similar services. Imagine a world where you can walk into the store, the iBeacon at the door recognizes your phone, bringing up your customer history at a store, whereby the person can greet you by name and have a contextual discussion with you about your personal preferences. Or having the the Starbucks person have your coffee ready for you when you get to the counter and all they have to do is just look at your phone whereby Glass reads your barcode and deducts the money from your Starbucks account. The possibilities are endless! (link)
Tech News Condensed 