windows « Funlimited

30Apr

LG To Pull Away From Windows Phone’s Loving Embrace, Refocus On Android

Sure, Windows Phone is still but a baby alongside Android and iOS, but the platform shows promise. Woz likes it. And the fact that it’s backed by hardware partners like Samsung and Nokia says good things, as well.

But it would seem that LG, coming off of a few quarters in the red, has decided to back away from the platform.

LG reportedly told the Korea Herald that the company would be focusing on Android handsets going forward, since “the total unit of Windows Phone sold in the global market is not a meaningful figure.”

Of course, the platform is way late to the game and shouldn’t necessarily be expected to come in and change the mobile landscape overnight. Yet, the fact that Nokia has put so much of its weight behind the OS should say something about the potential of the platform, as well as the huge differences between the companies.

Both LG and Nokia have had a rough past year. Nokia saw its lowest market share in 14 years, in fact, but despite the fact that change is scary and risky, it’s better to take a chance on something new when you’re down and out than to repeat the same formula.

The Nokia Lumia 900 doesn’t really compete very well on paper, but Windows Phone is its saving grace. The OS is engaging and different, and that can go a long way in a world where iOS and Android have been dominating for so long.

LG, on the other hand, has decided to go back to its original plan, even though a fresh new OS on a few solid pieces of hardware could be the beginning of a refreshed LG.

It’s too early to tell if Windows Phone will be the third mobile ecosystem, but Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam has faith in it, and so do I.

[via WP Central]

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23Apr

Windows Phone Exec Gavin Kim Left Microsoft For Security-Focused NQ Mobile

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Gavin Kim certainly knows how to keep things interesting. After spending years at Samsung and winding up as the company’s VP of Content and Services, Kim jumped ship to take point on Microsoft’s Windows Phone marketing efforts only to resign his post after five months.

So what greener pastures has tempted Kim this time? As it turns out, he has found himself a new home at NQ Mobile (formerly known as NetQin), a provider of mobile security services and applications where he will fill the newly created Chief Product Officer post.

Interestingly enough, Kim is the latest in a line of high ranking former Samsungers to make the switch to NQ Mobile. Ex-Samsung VP of Strategy Omar Khan was was tapped just a few months ago to become the company’s co-CEO alongside company co-founder Henry Lin, and one-time Samsung PR head Kim Titus recently joined up as NQ’s director of communications.

It may seem like something of step down — going from the likes of Samsung and Microsoft to a mobile security firm without much of a presence here in the United States. NQ Mobile pegs their mobile security application as being the most widely-used in the world (thanks in part to their huge presence in China), and with these recent staff additions in place it looks like NQ Mobile is gearing up to tackle that problem head on.

A representative for the company tells me that part of that strategy going forward is to take a page of the company’s Asia-focused playbook and build upon “OEM and carrier relationships” in the States. Considering that Kim has had experience working with major hardware manufacturers as well as wireless carriers, he seems like a strong choice to push NQ forward, though only time will tell if they pick up the traction they need to compete. The mobile security place is one occupied by plenty of big brands, and Lookout in particular looks like a savvy competitor — they’ve already locked down partnerships with carriers like T-Mobile USA and Deutsche Telekom.

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09Apr

Windows Phone Has A Nasty Porn Addiction

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Windows Phone has a widely known downside: It lacks 3rd party apps. Sure, the major ones are there in Facebook, Twitter, Angry Birds and even Spotify, Rdio and Reddit browsers. But besides apps from big-name developers, the rest of the apps are ironically reminiscent of Windows 95-era shareware. And then there’s the smut.

The lack of high quality apps has seemingly made more room for dirty apps. The categories in Windows Phone’s Marketplace are filled with them. These dirty apps are the top hits in Entertainment, Music + Video, Lifestyle, and Health + Fitness. Microsoft should be embarrassed. This isn’t about sheltering youngsters from boobs — rather, Microsoft has failed to give developers freedom and a chance to succeed while at the same time keeping potentially offensive material from sitting so close to the surface.

This has long been a problem with Windows Phone. It’s a byproduct of lack of quality apps. Android had a good deal of explicit material in the beginning as well. Google effectively countered the lewd material with a smarter storefront. For better or worse, sexually explicit material has always been absent from Apple’s App Store. But Windows Phone doesn’t have the luxury of massive demand. Microsoft’s mobile platform needs all the apps it can get including the dirty ones.

Nokia attempts to side-step Windows Phone’s Marketplace entirely with a home page tile called App Highlights that’s a fine collection of Windows Phone apps minus any of the off-color apps. It’s actually a better curated list of top apps than Microsoft’s and shows there are actually quality apps available for these phones.

Keep the porn. I’m not attempting to persuade Microsoft to take Apple’s PG-rated stance. As far as I can tell there’s no way to filter the raunchy material from the platforms. Windows Phone is being marketed as a low-cost smartphone, perfect for the younger crowd and first time smartphone owners. I for one would pause recommending the hot Lumia 900 along with other Windows Phones for younger kids because of the amount of sleazy apps.

However, porn has a place in a mobile platform. If there’s a market for T&A apps (there is), then it would behoove Microsoft and developers to include them. After all, as the age-old saying states, sex sells. But don’t let them sit on top. Make 14- and 40-year old boys at least work a bit to find the steamy material.

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06Apr

Microsoft Still Fighting For Windows Phone Developer Love (And Buying It When Needed)

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Microsoft is pushing their Windows Phone platform like crazy these days — it recently debuted in China, and the flagship Nokia Windows Phone is due to hit U.S. shelves soon with a huge marketing blitz in tow — but the company still has a little app problem to deal with.

More than a few developers don’t see developing Windows Phone apps as a priority, and the New York Times reported yesterday that Microsoft is doing what they have to in order to change those minds. Among other things on their list of tactics, Microsoft has offered to fund process of bringing big-name apps to Windows Phone “where it makes sense.”

Among the parties who have taken up Microsoft on their generous offer is Ben Huh of Cheezburger Network fame (not to mention soon-to-be reality TV star), who told the Times that Microsoft “took care of everything” when it came to developing a lolcat-touting Windows Phone app. Foursquare jumped on the wagon too, with bizdev head Holger Luedorf mentioning that a Windows Phone app was low on their list of priorities until Microsoft offered to underwrite its development.

Microsoft is no stranger to this sort of thing — they’ve offered plenty of free Windows Phones to developers in the past in an effort to spark some interest in their still-growing platform.

Despite Microsoft’s paradoxically small presence in the mobile space they’ve got a decent-sized checkbook to play with. I can’t blame Microsoft for trying to buy love from developers — right now, they’re just fighting to keep up with major releases that have already found their way to other platforms. If they want to stand any chance at gaining traction in this market, they’ve got to give their customers the impression that they’re not missing out on anything by taking a chance on Windows Phone.

Take the Angry Birds kerfuffle for example — Rovio CMO/Mighty Eagle Peter Vesterbacka ruffled more than a few feathers when he remarked that Angry Birds Space wouldn’t find a home on Windows Phone. Rovio followed up the next day with news that the franchise’s latest game would indeed make the WP transition, but writers and pundits had plenty of fun with the news while it lasted.

That’s exactly the sort of thing Microsoft needs to avoid, and it seems as though they’ll grease the palms they need to to keep it from becoming an issue. While those highly popular, big-name apps may keep consumers from regretting their choice of smartphone, Microsoft still has another issue to contend with: many of the apps to be found are awful.

You see, the news comes just a few days after the number of apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace tip-toed over 80,000 (that includes region-specific apps, your mileage may vary). It seems like it would be quite an achievement, and it gets them that much closer to the milestone, but sifting through the junk can be a hell of a thing. My former colleague (and my favorite Belgian) Robin Wauters has a great piece on The Next Web about how the Windows Phone app store is populated by questionable, derivative crap.

Make no mistake, Microsoft knows about these cr-apps. Last year, they had to cut down on the number of apps a developer would be able to submit to the Marketplace in a single day, from 20 down to 10. It was all in an effort to stem the hordes of spammy app submissions that would flood the Marketplace’s New section, which meant that actual good apps from honest developers may not get the shot they deserved. It’s an environment that doesn’t always seem very conducive to developers on the up-and-up.

And there will be plenty of those developers, if Microsoft has anything to say about it. The Wall Street Journal notes that Microsoft has put plenty of time and money into sponsoring over 850 developer sessions across the globe in 2011, which the Journal says is triple the number they held the year before.

Now, it’s awfully easy to rag on Microsoft and Windows Phone for its app troubles, but they’ve got a great opportunity here. The Windows Phone platform is the youngest of the major smartphone OS competitors, and while it isn’t as pervasive or as popular as iOS or Android, this sort of hands-on approach may end up paying off big time. It’s a fight that must be fought on multiple fronts — Microsoft should ideally be more stringent with submissions but keep the process smooth for well-reputed and promising developers, as well as making sure those big-name apps keep pouring in. Whether or not Microsoft’s machinations will make for a real three horse race remains to be seen, but you can bet that won’t keep the folks in Redmond from trying anyway.

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05Apr

FLUD 2.0 Rolls Out To Android & Windows Phone, As Startup Readies Its Series A

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FLUD, the scrappy news reader backed by $1 million in seed funding, is today introducing FLUD 2.0 for Android and Windows Phone. FLUD 2.0, for those who don’t recall, was the big redesign that turned FLUD from being just another news reader into a true social news experience.

Although participating in a crowded space, where it goes up against better-known brands like Flipboard, Zite, and Pulse, FLUD founder Bobby Ghoshal believes his company has what it takes to stand out from the crowd. Not only is the startup building its own social network – as opposed to one built on top of Facebook or Twitter – it’s now also doing so cross-platform.

“If you look at the news space, there are about 600 applications that do RSS reading, but a lot of them become cookie-cutter, just bad experiences,” says Ghoshal, who also happens to be FLUD’s designer.

In developing the new apps for Windows Phone and Android, the idea was to customize the experiences to showcase the features of their respective platforms, while adhering to the design guidelines of each.

For example, the Android app takes advantage of the contextual controls option at the top. And, in the Windows Phone app – the way it uses tiles, the panorama view, the big blown-up logo at the top – all the features were meant to make it feel like a native experience. “It looks like the application came pre-packaged with the phone,” says Ghoshal. “Ultimately, that’s the goal. If you’re building for an OS, you need to go all in on the OS,” he says.

Ghoshal also talked about how FLUD does social in a way that sets them apart from some of their competition. For example, Pulse.

“You can use Pulse today and they’re a completely non-social experience,” says Ghoshal. “You can share content to Twitter and Facebook, but is that really social? Any application in the world today shares to Facebook and Twitter, so by definition is every application social? The answer is ‘no’.”

FLUD, like other social networks based around content (as with Spotify for music, Instagram for photos, etc.), uses the friend/follower model. When you follow people on FLUD, you’ll be able to track the news they find interesting. This feature, however, still needs some work. It’s not as easy as it could be to find your friends, or even the newsmakers whose opinions you respect. For the latter, the delay to implement, at least, was intentional.

Says Ghoshal, the company wanted to wait until they went cross-platform before they began to highlight any sort of featured users on the system. However, the feature has been in development for a month and half now, so it’s sure to arrive soon. After all, if they could roll out two new apps in the time between the December launch of FLUD 2.0 (which introduced social on iOS) and today, they must be pretty speedy over there.

Another thing the company has in the works is a mobile web version of the service that will work on any mobile browser. That’s something that the company believes will help it expand internationally to markets in Asia, India and China, specifically, as well as into Africa, which Ghoshal sees a big opportunity given the mobile penetration there. (More phones than desktops!, he says).

The company has come this far – 3 platforms, and a major update – on its $1 million in seed funding, and now it’s raising a Series A round of $5 to $8 million to internationalize the service and to build out the team accordingly.

The new mobile apps are available for download here.