The future of mobile technology will be driven by software rather than hardware, the Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所) said at a media briefing yesterday, as evidenced by the focus on open ecosystems at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona last month.
Google Inc, Apple Inc and Nokia Oyj have all jumped on the open source bandwagon but to different degrees, said Joyce Chen (陳釧瑤), a mobile communications analyst at MIC.
For instance, Google’s Android operating system (OS) has an open platform and open source code, while Nokia’s Symbian OS has an open platform, with plans to follow Google’s footsteps and open up its source code next year.
“Contrary to popular belief, the Apple iPhone’s OS and BlackBerry’s OS both have closed platforms and closed source codes, which means developers need approval from the companies to obtain SDK codes to write software,” Chen said.
“Mobile platforms are like brick-and-mortar stores, and Apple and BlackBerry shops are simply not there for anyone to come and mess around,” Chen said.
Microsoft Corp remains the oddest of the open-concept participants, Chen said, as it opens up its platform by taking licensing fees but it isn’t really open to engineers writing softwares on its system.
As readers wonder what the benefit there is for geeks to write application softwares, Chen said the typical profit breakdown for each application or service download is typically 70 percent for the developer and 30 percent for the platform provider.
But Google has again broken the rules. Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰), general manager of Google Taiwan, told Taipei Times last Friday that all profits go to the developers, while Android only takes a minor listing fee.
The latest MIC figures showed that the Apple store had more than 15,000 software applications. However, recent reports also showed that Apple’s iTunes Store was being increasingly challenged by unauthorized alternative online markets for iPhone applications.
Chen added that the Android market currently has more than 1,000 applications.
“But then again, Google’s revolutionary approach of truly embracing an open source network and making it free will rapidly develop a wide ecosystem and allow fast adoption on smartphones and netbooks worldwide,” he said.
At the MWC, international brands such as Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd, Samsung Electronics Co, LG Electronics Inc, Motorola Inc all announced their intention to launch Android smartphones in the second half of this year.
MIC said some computer vendors had confirmed plans to produce Android-based netbooks.
As the global economic recession deepens, “the open ecosystem will certainly open up rich opportunities in mobile innovation infrastructure, application stores and services, as well as devices,” Chen said.
This week’s undoing of the TerraUSD algorithmic stablecoin and its sister token, Luna, has ramifications for all of crypto. First, there is the immediate impact: The rapid collapse of a once-popular pair of cryptocurrencies sent a ripple effect across the industry, contributing to plummeting coin prices that wiped hundreds of billions of market value from the digital-asset market and stoked worries over the potential fragility of digital-asset ventures. Then there are the knock-on effects. In addition to delivering punishing losses to individual users and investment firms, the spectacular failure of a market darling like Terra threatens to have a cooling effect
China’s biggest chipmaker has cut its outlook for the second quarter, joining a growing list of manufacturers warning about the fallout from lockdowns aimed at containing the country’s worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co (SMIC, 中芯) estimates a month-long lockdown in Shanghai could spur component shortages and logistics tangles, and erase about 5 percent of its output in the second quarter. “We are trying our best to mitigate the impact on product delivery,” SMIC Chairman Gao Yonggang (高永崗) told analysts on a call yesterday morning. “We are still assessing the actual impact as many suppliers restart their
DISRUPTIONS: The war in Ukraine, China’s lockdown measures, rising interest rates and inflation have thrown a wrench into business plans made years in advance Samsung Electronics Co is talking with foundry clients about charging as much as 20 percent more for making semiconductors this year, joining an industry-wide push to hike prices to cover rising costs of materials and logistics. Contract-based chip prices are likely to rise around 15 percent to 20 percent, depending upon the level of sophistication, people familiar with the matter said. Chips produced on legacy nodes would face bigger price hikes, while new pricing would be applied from the second half of this year, they said, adding that Samsung has finished negotiating with some clients and is in discussions with others. Samsung’s decision
material SHORTAGE: Even as workers are about to return, Quanta lacks operating supplies, while Pegatron reported its lowest revenues in 11 quarters, the companies said Taiwan’s major Apple Inc supplier cut its outlook for the second quarter, joining a growing list of manufacturers warning about the fallout from lockdowns aimed at containing China’s worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years. Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), which assembles MacBooks, expects a 20 percent quarterly fall in notebook shipments and a squeeze on margins this quarter due to the lockdown, a company representative said on Friday during an earnings call. The impact from supply chain disruptions could last until the end of the year, she said. The company’s Shanghai factory has been operating under tight restrictions since the middle of last month,