TiesMorskate.nl

I have already discussed the battle of operating systems that is going on in the  phone industry, but there is also a battle for market share going on between brands. IMS Research, who track quarterly phone sales, report that the total amount of smartphones sold will reach 420 mln phones in 2011 which accounts for 28% of the total market share. And will continue to grow to 1 bln phones by 2016.

The situation in this battle is actually quite similar to the one of operating systems:

“Clearly one of the key dynamics of the mobile handset competitive environment in recent years has been the inability of many traditional market leaders to recognize and adjust to the growing smartphone tier,” adds Builta, “The reasons for these failures vary and include everything from poorly designed and manufactured devices, unsatisfactory user interfaces, and portfolios that don’t offer products with a differentiating feature. These lapses have created opportunities for newer entrants to the market, which they have aggressively pursued.”

Read the full article discussing the report on BGR.com

VentureBeat has written an interesting article about the press conferences on the first day of the E3:

Microsoft had some great announcements, but most of them leaked out. The highlight of the day was that Microsoft announced that it will launch Halo 4 in 2012 and will launch a remake of the classic Halo Combat Evolved game from 2001 later this year. The Halo 4 game picks up where Halo 3 left off and includes Master Chief and Cortana. It will be part of a new trilogy. Microsoft also leaked a Disney Adventures Kinect game and Star Wars Kinect the night before. With so many leaks, it was hard to say we learned anything new at the Microsoft event.

Read the full article here.

A couple of years ago, the Nintendo Wii was leading the pack in terms of units sold and innovation. This year, Microsoft managed to take the lead by going all out with its motion-sensing Kinect. You thought the Wii was succesful? A 6 year old console is still growing 42%, MS’s entertainment and devices division was up by $300 million AND it lets Microsoft postpone the introduction of their eighth generation console which I mentioned about a year ago. With 30 million Xbox Live members, the online service is also going strong. Beat that, Sony and Nintendo!

A great read, explaining the success of Minecraft and the very clear signal this should be to the blockbuster developers out there!

Read the full article on Techcrunch

Gartner recently published a Q3 report on mobile phone sales, focusing on both brand and operating system to determine market share. Emerce published an article saying Nokia has no way of turning the tide and this is Microsoft’s last chance. Luckily I think differently. Allow me to explain; (more…)

Microsoft will continue its partnership with AMD in providing the processing power inside the Xbox console for its new upcoming console released in 2012. A post on Fudzilla also speculates on a 2012 release, even though I noted earlier that Activision’s CEO believes we will have to wait longer. (more…)

Last week I mentioned the Wii Sales going down, now, in an interview with the Financial Times, Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada is saying he expects a new Nintendo console in 2011. This console will be more like the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 in terms of functionality and might just have a new controller as well. The new Sony and Microsoft controllers will only have a relatively small impact on sales figures due to them being an extension to the gaming functionality of the consoles. (more…)