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How The Tablet Market Evolved In 2012 (TNW)
The biggest year for tablets so far was undoubtedly 2012. Amazon and Google stepped up their games, Apple responded accordingly, Samsung flexed its muscles and even Microsoft showed up to the party. Tablet buyers will almost definitely end up supporting the Apple iOS ecosystem, some form of the Android ecosystem, or Microsoft’s Windows 8 ecosystem. In fact, 2012 showed us that many people will end up with more than just one tablet for themselves, and thus likely multiple in their household.
- Apple: Apple announced the third-generation iPad, only to supersede it in October with the fourth-generation iPad. Yet that announcement was overshadowed by the unveiling of the iPad mini.
- Google: Google has been watching its Android partners being pummeled by Apple in tablets and in 2012 decided that enough was enough. In June, the company announced the Nexus 7. It fared fairly well and in October, Google refreshed the device with the release of the Nexus 7 3G as well as the Nexus 10.
- Samsung: Samsung has likely been watching Google’s moves wearily. In February, Samsung announced the Galaxy Tab 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. The latest quarterly numbers showed Samsung in second place by tablet shipments.
- Amazon: This year the company showed it’s going to push harder than ever to make sure it has an offering for everyone. Yet it has become increasingly more apparent this year that the company needs international content if it’s going to keep up with the rest.
- Microsoft: In June, Microsoft announced the Microsoft Surface, in Windows RT and Windows 8 flavors. It was a big move for the company. Microsoft showed it isn’t interested in just tablets used for consumption; the company also wants to ensure they can be used for productivity.
The most important difference among all the tablets in 2012, outside of price, was the ecosystem. Each of the big five had its own offering and accompanying services, which only continued to expand as the battling powers try to differentiate their screen slabs. But with five lumbering giants throwing their weight around, someone is bound to get hurt. When that happens, it won’t be pretty. Check out the BI Intelligence report, How Tablets Will End The PC's Dominance.
Where To Invest Your Tech Budget (Inc.)
When it comes to keeping your finger on the pulse of what's happening in technology, sometimes it's worth trying to look at those trends from a less than obvious angle. Like following the freelancers. Where are the hot jobs for independent contractors in the technology industry? That's likely where your competitors are investing. This is no crystal ball, of course, but it does provide a window into where other companies are investing their tech budgets.
- Mobile
- HTML5
- In-Demand Skills: HTML, PHP, graphic design and WordPress
Before you decide how to spend your tech dollars, check out where other companies are investing.
Mastering The Mobile Web: Content, Design, Email, and Sales (Income Diary)
If you have a website and you’re not thinking about mobile, then you’re missing out on the biggest thing to happen to the Internet since broadband. There are now more than 1.2 billion mobile Web users worldwide and 25 percent of U.S. Internet users are mobile only. Mobile searches have quadrupled in the last year and this phenomenon is not going away any time soon. But what makes mobile users different?
- Compact Interface
- Objective Oriented Browsing
- Slower Connection Speed
- Multi-Tasking Mobile
- Location-Specific Searches
So how do you master the mobile Web?
- Make Mobile Content Easy-to-Digest
- Responsive & Mobile Web Design
- Email Marketing and Mobile
- Writing Sales Copy for a Mobile Audience
The devices are small, but the mobile Web is big… and only getting bigger. The sooner you start running your website with a mobile audience in mind, the soon you’ll be able to benefit from this fast-growing demographic.
Mobile Email Templates Need To Disappear (VentureBeat)
For the past year, digital marketers have been trying to come to grips with the fact that 35 percent of all emails are viewed on mobile devices and tablets. Marketers are asking questions such as:
- How do I create an email template that looks great on an iPhone or Android device?
- How do I know when a user is opening my email on a smartphone so I can send an email with the proper design?
- How do I create design templates for each type of device?
At the crux of these questions is an ambitious goal: ensuring customers have the best possible user experience any time they open your email, on any device. Many digital marketers are under the impression that they need to create email templates specifically optimized for laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. The reality is that the marketers I speak with don’t have the design resources to create different versions of each email for multiple devices, and they have even less time to manage this process. Relying on a device-specific email strategy is simply untenable.
10 Development Trends And Skills For Developers In 2013 (Smashing Hub)
As a software developer, you cannot afford being left behind on the latest trends in the technology world. In order to reach the heights and stay ahead, you must be aware and be ready for the skills and trends expected to rule the year 2013.
- Mastering Mobile Technology
- Agile Methodologies
- Unit Testing
- Cloud Computing
- HTML5
- Python or Ruby
- CSS3
- Responsive Pages
- JavaScript and jQuery
- Location-Based Computing
The above mentioned are only a few skills and trends that are expected to be very popular and in-demand in 2013.
Developer Says HTML5 Performance Is ‘Horrible’ (TabTimes)
Well, nothing like a bit of contradiction. Here's the voice of experience to put a damper on a highly-touted technology. Just ask tech blogger and developer Tristan Louis who said his firm "wasted about a year of our time, going down the HTML5 path." Speaking at a recent conference in New York, Louis, founder of Keepskor, said "HTML5 is great on paper and has a lot of potential -- in the future." What’s missing? What has to happen to improve HTML5? Why are native apps better today? Check out this video clip from the conference to hear more.
A China Mobile Update (TechCrunch)
Statistics released by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) show that as of the end of November 2012, there were 1.104 billion mobile phone users in that country, an increase of nearly 118 million people during the first eleven months of 2012. This means that about 82 percent of China’s population currently uses a mobile phone. The number of 3G phone users reached 220 million, or about 20 percent of mobile phone users. Broadband Internet service users increased by 24.03 million in the first 11 months of the year, while the number of mobile Internet users increased by 111 million to 750 million. From January to November 2012, mobile communications revenue in China totaled 724.53 billion yuan (or about $116.26 billion US dollars), an increase of 11 percent over the same period last year.
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