According to Strategy Analytics, a global research and consulting firm headquartered in Boston, USA, China has overshot the United States in Q3 2011, to become the world’s largest smartphone market by volume.

This sudden growth in smartphone sales dates back to the previous quarter when the market share in China grew by 58 percent with sales touching 24 million. The US market however fell by seven percent, with just over 23 million handsets sold in the same quarter.

Although the rapid growth trend in China may seem impressive at one glance, studies carried out by Strategy Analytics indicate a few underlying factors that have caused this explosion in sales.

China is flooded with a variety of low-end phones like ZTE smartphones. The infamous Shanzhai brand of smartphones, for example, is an exact replica of well known mobile brands with names such as “Blockberry’ and “Nckia” that are sold to low-end users at cheaper rates.  These heavily subsidized models along with the promotion of 3G data plans by operators have added to the rapid increase in smartphone sales in China.

According to Tom Kang, Director at Strategy Analytics, the growth in market is driven by  factors such as:

1. Increased availability of smartphones in retail channels
2. Aggressive subsidizing by operators of high-end models like the Apple iPhones
3. An emerging wave of low-cost Android models from local Chinese brands such as ZTE

Even though companies like Apple report good growth in China, it’s not their performance alone that has helped China become the world’s largest smartphone market. As can be seen in the table below, Nokia rules the smartphone market in China with an unbeaten 28 percent, with Samsung claiming second place at 17.6 percent. All other brands including Apple, fall under the remaining 54 percent.

HTC on the other hand, heads the US market with a 24 percent market share, as can be seen in the table below. Apple comes second with a 20.6 percent share in the market i.e., a shipped quantity of 4.8 million units in Q3 2011.

According to Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, the United States still remains the world’s largest smartphone market by revenue with China overtaking them only in terms of volume of sales. China is now at the forefront of the worldwide mobile computing boom with a growing smartphone market that no hardware vendor, component maker or content developer can afford to ignore.

Recently, Microsoft released the preview of their newest operating system called Windows 8, to compete with iPad and Android based tablets. This operating system is being developed for both Desktop and Tablet PC customers. The Windows 8 tablets will have a marvellous new interface that looks rather like Windows Phone 7, called Metro. The Windows 8 Metro interface is well-suited for tablets with the UI designed and optimized for touch.

Windows 8 introduces a number of features in its tablet and PC versions.

Windows Store:- Windows 8 comes with Windows Store that is similar to Apple Store and Android Market. Application developers will be able to upload their applications to Windows Store.

Support for NFC:- Windows 8 also introduces APIs to support Near Field Communication (NFC) on Windows 8 devices, allowing functionality like launching URLs/applications and sharing of information between NFC supported devices just by touching the devices.

USB 3.0 Support:- In addition to USB 2.0 support, Windows 8 will have USB 3.0 support for higher data transfer.

Windows Live ID Integration:- Customers will be able to link their Windows Live ID with their Windows 8 operating system. This can be used to synchronise their settings and files across multiple computers running on Windows 8 operating system.

Windows To Go:- This feature allows Windows 8 to boot from a USB device. Windows To Go works both on USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 connections.

Protogon Filesystem:- News update states that Windows 8 will support a new file system called Protogon. However, the Microsoft team hasn’t released any more information about this file system or its features.

ARM Processor Support:- Windows 8 will will support ARM based processors in addition to AMD and Intel processors. There will be separate editions of Windows 8 for ARM based processors and x86 based processors such as AMD and Intel. ARM based processors consume less energy and this will be a plus for Windows 8 based tablets.

Windows 8 based tablets are expected to be released in the mid of 2012. The preview build released recently is getting the attention of the mobile and tablet application developers because of the wide array of supporting features and its fresh GUI.

QBurst, is eagerly awaiting the release of Windows 8 to see how it competes with iPhone and Android markets in the coming years. If you would like to hear more about apps development on various tablet platforms, just shoot us an email or contact us today.

The story began with Apple’s acquisition of mobile ad platform, Quattro Wireless, back in Jan 2010. Soon after in April, the company announced iAd, a new interactive ad network for iOS devices. The network went live just last month. Interestingly, there have already been reports of the iAd platform generating as much as $1400 in a single day.

“The emotion of TV, the interactivity of the web, the power of mobility” – this is how Apple defines the iAd. iAds can delivers interactive and video content ads without taking viewers out of the application they are currently using. The Toy Story 3 and other demo ads built by Apple beautifully illustrate the variety of interactive options possible.

Having said that, let’s look at the major ‘takeaways’ for the different segments.

For the average iPhone user:

• Mobile ads can be more enjoyable and less frustrating. Unlike in browser-ads, the user is not taken to a different web page; he can always get back to his current app. easily and quickly.
• An iAd ad. opens up in a app-like environment and taps into all major OS features of the ‘ phone. Users can therefore buy iTunes content from within the ad., share branded content across social networks or save branded images as wallpaper.

For the app. developer:

• With 60% of the advertising revenue coming to them, developers might find it an interesting way to monetize their apps. while keeping them free.
• Moreover, developers can purchase iAd advertising to promote their own apps. to millions of users across the iAd Network. iAd JS and supporting documentation available through the iPhone Dev Center will aid developers in designing and creating high-impact, motion-rich ads.

For the advertiser:

• iAd holds immense marketing potential with its reach of over millions of iPhone and iPod touch users around the world.
• The kind of integrated experience the iAd promises could result in significantly enhanced viewer-ship and more effective advertising.
• Standard targeting options like demographics, movie and television genre interests, location, application preferences, etc., could mean the ad. is delivered to consumers most likely to be motivated by the message.

And finally for Apple:

• As the company that hosts and sells this new kind of ads., it is definitely a source of revenue.
• It is also a novel approach to providing incentives for App. store development.

However, the biggest truth of all is that iAd is a subtle attack on Flash and a more direct strike at Google’s AdSense from the house of iOS devices.

Finally Google has arrived at the ‘Micro-blogging’ platform with a real ‘buzz’. On 9th February 2010, Google introduced ‘Buzz’, the new social networking application to embark on its battle to limit the popularity of Twitter. So, now there are lot of competitions going on in the Internet space. Google Vs Microsoft (Operating System & Enterprise Application Suits), Orkut (Owned by Google) Vs Facebook (Social Networking) Google vs Apple (Smart phone market). Before acquiring YouTube, they fought against them with Google Videos. So what we understand from all these competitions is that Google is not just targeting a niche or industry, rather it want to rule the entire IT Business.

At the first look, we may feel that Google Buzz is an integration of Facebook and Twitter, but it is beyond that. First and foremost advantage is that you don’t have to go to another web page to see the ‘buzz’, it’s there right below the inbox in  the Gmail. The conversation will go like an email thread which is the fascinating aspect of Buzz. You can post in the Buzz, which can be held as private or public. Also, you can connect your profiles in Flickr, Piccasa, Google Reader and Twitter to Buzz. That means you aren’t missing any of your friends and by start ‘Buzzing’, you are increasing your friend and professional network. See this wondeful Video of Buzz, to get more insights.

Now we can perhaps clearly say that it is now ‘Google Vs. Rest of the World’. Apple and Microsoft are companies that are worth more than  $ 100 billion each, Facebook and Twitter are the champs of their respective niche, though they are not monetizing it well. There is no doubt that the internet and enterprise software market will come under the reign of Google, which is not far away.