Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Google/Motorola Developing Flagship Phone to Compete with Apple and Samsung
Google, via its newly acquired Motorola Mobility unit, is developing a "stand apart" phone to compete with the iPhone, reports the Wall Street Journal. The phone, which the company aims to release next year, is designed to compete more strongly with the iPhone, and Samsung's Galaxy line, than Motorola's current lineup.
This new "X Phone" project is being led by former Google product manager Lior Ron. Possible features seemed to be ambitious with exploration of bendable screens, ceramics, image and gesture-recognition software.
The company is running into development issues, however. Google is having problems with supply-chain management, a speciality of Apple CEO Tim Cook.
But while Google is known for swift execution on the Web, its new hardware unit has run into obstacles associated with manufacturing and supply-chain management that have caused the company to rethink some initial plans for the X phone, these people added. Meanwhile, Google must manage complex relationships with smartphone makers that use its Android mobile-device software—particularly with Samsung Electronics Co., a Motorola rival that has become the No. 1 smartphone maker with Google's help.Google does have ample amounts of cash to invest in the phone project, which the WSJ says the company will follow up with a tablet based on the same platform.
Google's acquisition of Motorola was controversial as it puts Google in direct competition with their Android licensees. Apple and Samsung, however, have captured the lion's share of smartphone profits, and Google is reportedly concerned that Samsung could "fork" Android and preventing Google's applications from being installed by default. This could have a large impact on Google's mobile reach if it doesn't develop its own handset.
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84 months ago
This ****'s about to get interesting.
Given Android is very much on a stable, non-fragmented heading now (the latest Android builds have come on leaps and bounds), this could actually be a heck of a lot more successful than the previous attempts.
Apple needs to up their game - Android is now the better OS, undeniably with the likes of the S3 and Note.
It's only a recent change however, but certainly a worrying one for Apple.
Given Android is very much on a stable, non-fragmented heading now (the latest Android builds have come on leaps and bounds), this could actually be a heck of a lot more successful than the previous attempts.
Apple needs to up their game - Android is now the better OS, undeniably with the likes of the S3 and Note.
It's only a recent change however, but certainly a worrying one for Apple.
84 months ago
Android fragmentation keeps heading in the worse direction. Companies WILL fork Android, its only a question of time.
Forks can go either direction, for the good or for the bad. I have been on both sides of it, I have had my projects forked and I have forked other projects.
In the end, you always get a different product that is rarely compatible with each other.
Actually I think Android is moving in the opposite direction with a lot less fragmentation. And fragmentation barely (if ever) affects most customers. The big/most popular apps will always make themselves compatible (being more of an issue for developers) and many "regular joes" don't even care about which version of the OS they are running as long as their phone works the way they want to.
Hey, and while you're at it, how about an OS that works and isn't a POS? That'd be great. Since I've owned my iPhone I have not had the urge to throw it against a wall once, I have not had to apologize to people for losing a call or poor quality or reception, I have not had to restart it or wait for an app to load. So while you're making all those great things to compete with it, try making an OS that works as well as iOS. Yea, good luck with that.
Bias much? Have you used Jelly Bean? It's hardly a POS. I own both and iPhone and Android phone - they are BOTH great devices with a lot of postives and few negatives. Both phones have had to be rebooted, dropped calls, etc. No phone is immune.
But feel free to keep hating. From the tone of your rant - I can just imagine how much "quality" time you've spend using anything other than iOS.
84 months ago
Hey, and while you're at it, how about an OS that works and isn't a POS? That'd be great. Since I've owned my iPhone I have not had the urge to throw it against a wall once, I have not had to apologize to people for losing a call or poor quality or reception, I have not had to restart it or wait for an app to load. So while you're making all those great things to compete with it, try making an OS that works as well as iOS. Yea, good luck with that.
Clearly you've not used Android 4.
Whilst Android 1, 2 and 3 (to a lesser degree) had a lot of issues (which were mostly down to UI inconsistencies and incompatibilities caused by crap hardware), 4 is a heck of a lot better. The S3 is a very, VERY popular phone, and actually performs a fair bit better than the iPhone 5.
84 months ago
To compete with the iPhone...and every other smartphone. I'm pretty sure it's not "just" the iPhone. IE - they are competing against the Galaxy line from Samsung as well..
http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/21/motorola-x-phone-x-tablet-rumor-android-smartphone/
ETA: The wording of the article is accurate. But it's also flamebait for this thread. Like I said above - they are creating a phone to compete in the marketplace.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/21/motorola-x-phone-x-tablet-rumor-android-smartphone/
ETA: The wording of the article is accurate. But it's also flamebait for this thread. Like I said above - they are creating a phone to compete in the marketplace.
84 months ago
Cant wait to see what it is.
Android is already superior to iOS and if they make the hardware better along with some few things, I could defiantly see myself moving to Android.
Android is already superior to iOS and if they make the hardware better along with some few things, I could defiantly see myself moving to Android.
84 months ago
Android fragmentation keeps heading in the worse direction. Companies WILL fork Android, its only a question of time.
Forks can go either direction, for the good or for the bad. I have been on both sides of it, I have had my projects forked and I have forked other projects.
In the end, you always get a different product that is rarely compatible with each other.
Could you be any more wrong?
Try using the latest Android builds for more than 5 minutes, and on a device that isnt a $100 POS.
Fragmentation has been solved pretty damn well with Android 4.
84 months ago
Didn't Google already do this? I was called Nexus, and it was a huge failure!
Now they try again, and again, and again......
84 months ago
Love to see what they come up with. I just purchased my first Android phone after being fed up with the stale os that iOS provides and the small "huge" 4" screen that was suppose to impress me and others. I bought a Galaxy Note 2 and love it. It's fast and responsive and the Samsung touch wiz offers gestures make the phone much more impressive than the standard phone. 4.1 so far in the almost 2 weeks since I have bough it has been fast, stable and bug free. The only way I would go back to iOS if if Apple released a phablet of their own. I am tempted to sell my iPad but will keep it for iOS exclusives like Infinity Blade Dungeons. Apple needs to reinvent it's OS for phones as people are going to get tired of the same old OS.
I laugh every time when I see someone with a Note put that brick up to their head to take a call. It's like we've gone back in time to people using the original Motorola brick. WTF
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