iPhone 5s vs Nexus 5: The best iOS vs the best Android

Monday, Dec 2, 2013, 11:39 IST | Agency: DNA

Nimish Dubey 

The battle between iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android users is a bitter one and if there are two devices that symbolise supremacy for each side, it is the iPhone for the iOS and the Nexus series of phones for the Android. So you can imagine the levels to which the debate has risen (or descended, depending on how you look at it) when the latest flagships on both platforms - the iPhone 5s and the Nexus 5 were released in the Indian market within weeks of each other.

And seldom have there been such contrary devices. One costs in excess of Rs 50,000, while the other has surprised many by staying in the sub-Rs 30,000 category. One exudes class, the other prides itself on being a performer. Both claim to be the flagships of their respective platforms. But which actually works better? We decided to pit the Nexus 5 against the iPhone 5s and find out which flagship sailed better, notwithstanding the massive price gap between the two devices, which we are keeping aside for the most part.

Beauty and the Beast: Who’s got the look?
In terms of appearance, the iPhone 5s literally larrups the Nexus 5. Apple’s phones have always been strong on design and the 5s continues the tradition, even while sticking to the design of the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5s is like its predecessor a mix of metal and glass and is just 7.6 mm thick and weighs a mere 112 grammes.  The Nexus 5 is not an eyesore, but  unlike the nexus 4, which came with a classy (if scratch-prone) glass back, seems more run of the mill with its plastic back. It is definitely on the thin side at 8.5mm and is not heavy at 130 grammes. It does not look bad at all, but unlike the iPhone 5s, there is little chance of its turning heads when you plonk it on the table. Both devices, incidentally, are very solidly built.
The winner: iPhone 5s by a mile.

Between the covers: The hardware question
Beauty, however prized, is skin-deep, and this is true of handsets as well as humans. Fortunately, both the Nexus 5 and the iPhone 5s come packed with some very good hardware. While the Nexus 5 comes with a full HD 4.95 inch display with a 2.26 GhZ Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad core processor, the iPhone 5s comes with an A7 chip with 64-bit processing architecture and a 4.0-inch retina display that is nowhere near HD territory, and yet looks brilliant. Both phones come packed with connectivity options and sensors - the Nexus 5 edges out the iPhone 5s by having NFC, the iPhone 5s however compensates by actually having a chip that handles motion-based activities and a fingerprint scanner for security. When it comes to the camera, however, the iPhone 5s pulls away - its 8.0-megapixel shooter is far superior to the one on the Nexus 5, which comes in the good rather than the great category. Neither device has expandable memory.
The winner: We would call this a tie. Both devices come with very powerful hardware - geeks will love the quad core muscle and full HD display of the Nexus 5 while more mainstream users will love the camera of the 5s and the smooth operation powered by the 64-bit chip.

Soft touch: The interface
Be it the iPhone or the iPad, Apple’s iOS devices have always come with a reputation of being intuitive and easy to use, with just one home button below the display, and very few menus. The iPhone 5s continues this trend, even though with iOS 7, the OS has got a bit more complicated than in the past. We in particular love the way in which the fingerprint scanner has been implemented, ensuring security with minimum fuss. There are no themes to worry about and all apps are a scroll or button press away. Multi-tasking too has improved significantly. The Nexus 5 on the other hand, remains a device better suited for geeks. Yes, it runs Android Kit-Kat, which is a huge improvement over the previous version and comes with icons that are very easy on the eye, and offers far more flexibility in terms of customisation and appearance - you can change themes, fiddle with icons, have live wallpapers that change according to the time of the day, and so on - but is a bit more complicated to handle than iOS. However, if you have small hands, you will love the compact frame of the iPhone 5s more than the longer Nexus 5, which is not always easy to operate with one hand.
Winner: Another tie in our book. The iPhone 5s is indeed easier to handle, but the Nexus 5  provides far more flexibility to those willing to invest time in it.

Pursuit of Appiness: Who wins?
The best interface and the greatest hardware in the world is of little use if not backed up with a good app treasury, as the likes of Microsoft and BlackBerry are discovering. This is because apps allow you to do more with a device -be it editing MS Office documents, editing video or just identifying a song playing in a cafe. While iOS and Android might seem to be running each other close in this regard when it comes to the sheer quantity of apps in their app stores, we think the iPhone 5s has a clear edge in this regard when it comes to quality and security. There are simply too many bookmarks disguised as apps and extremely risque apps floating around in Google Play (the Android app market). iPhone 5s users will also have the advantage of having more apps that try to make the most of the phone’s hardware as compared to those using the Nexus 5, who might feel that they are driving a Ferrari on a village road!
Winner: The iPhone 5s.

Get in the ring: A matter of performance
Which brings us to the matter of performance, which in our book is how the two devices work across different tasks. When it comes to stuff like browsing, social networks and gaming, the two devices are almost on an even keel, delivering excellent performance. However, when multimedia comes into the picture, the iPhone 5s pulls away, courtesy its better audio quality and camera. When it comes to battery life too, the 5s is markedly superior to the Nexus 5, which honestly struggles in this department - you will get through a day on a single charge easily on an iPhone 5s but with a Nexus 5, you will be hard pressed to get through a day without at least one recharge.
Winner: The iPhone 5s

Bottom line blues: When on a tight budget...
We finally bring price into the equation. And the Nexus 5 totally takes out the iPhone 5s in this regard. As the previous parameters show, the iPhone 5s delivers a good dollop for the dollar it charges, but at Rs 53,500, it is definitely one of the most expensive handsets in the country. In contrast, the Nexus 5 is available for Rs 28,999, which is a staggering proposition, when you consider that it more than matches most Android flagships in most departments (multimedia are battery life are Achilles Heels, we concede). It is not as if the iPhone 5s is not a great performer - I would go out on a limb and call it the best smartphone I have ever used - it is just that if one’s budget is on the tighter side (blame the recession and inflation!), the Nexus 5 is perhaps the best high-performing smartphone one can get today in terms of sheer value for money.
Winner: The Nexus 5. Easily.

In conclusion: Who’s the smartphone champ?
All of which brings us to the conclusion of this battle of smartphone flagships - which of the two phones actually is the better one. Put price aside, and the 5s seems a comfortable winner, scoring heavily over the Nexus 5 in terms of apps, ease of use and multimedia. But why on earth would one keep price aside, especially in a market that is as budget-conscious as India? And that is where the Nexus will score heavily - it is a very very good proposition for anyone looking for a phone that performs on par with some of the best devices in the world and still costs less than Rs 30, 000. Yes, we would have liked a better camera and much better battery life on the Nexus 5, but it matches all its Android counterparts on other parameters (gaming, browsing, mail, social networks, navigation, et al) and comes with the added advantage of getting updates to the OS on time - a facility most Android devices do not have. The geek crowd will also scream that Android is more flexible and open than iOS, but we think that that is a bit of a double-edged sword as it lets a lot of sub-standard apps into the Android market - iOS still remains more secure and reliable, if restrictive, in terms of app quality. Still, if you are the type that likes to keep changing the look and feel of your device or cannot do without the latest Android edition on your phone, the Nexus 5 is as good as it gets.

In the end, it is, as with so many things in life, all about the money, if one has no strong loyalties. If you are in the market for a high quality smartphone and money is not an issue, go buy the iPhone 5s. If you cannot go beyond Rs 30,000, grab the Nexus 5. You are unlikely to be disappointed in either case.

Apple, Inc. valuation passes $500 billion, half the market cap imagined last year

By Daniel Eran Dilger

Despite reaching a new peak share price for 2013 that pushed Apple's market capitalization above $500 billion, the company's valuation remains where it was in the spring of 2012, at a time when analysts were predicting Apple's market cap would soon double.

In April 2012, analysts Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray and Brian White of Topkea Capital Markets had both set price targets envisioning Apple reaching $1000 per share within the year, a price that would have pushed the company very close to a one trillion dollar valuation.

Apple surpassed analysts' estimates for iPhone sales in that spring quarter, beginning an upward stock trajectory for 2012 that peaked in September 2012 at around $700.

2012 AAPL peak not irrational

In August, White described Apple's rise as particularly worthy of note because other companies that had reached such a high valuation, including Microsoft, Cisco and Intel, had only done so after achieving dominance in their respective markets.

Unlike Microsoft's 90 percent market share among PCs at its market cap peak, or the 80 percent share Intel held in PC CPUs, or the 70 percent share of networking products Cisco held, Apple's share of PCs remained at just 4.7 percent, and the company's share of smartphones was figured to be at 64.4 percent, according to numbers from IDC. That indicated plenty of room for future growth.

White also contrasted other companies that had reached $500 billion valuations, including General Electric, Exxon-Mobile, Cisco, Intel and Microsoft, as having fat price-to-earning ratios of over 60 times, compared to Apple's ratio of just 10.7 times its estimated 2013 earnings.

However, just one month later Apple shares began crashing to earth, dropping over 20 percent to lose $142 per share by the end of the year. Despite continued record sales and the wildly successful launch of both iPhone 5 and the new iPad mini, Apple's shares remained weak as pundits drew attention to new competition from Android led by Samsung.

Analysts and investors quickly changed direction in their outlook for Apple, guiding the company's valuation sharply downward throughout 2013, reaching lows in April and June below $400 that paved the way for a huge buyback program.

The AAPL iPhone crash of 2008

Apple's stock whiplash of 2013 was not nearly as dramatic as its bipolar meltdown in 2008. At the beginning of that year, Steve Jobs admonished employees to "hang in there," writing, "our stock is being buffeted around by factors a lot larger than ourselves."

Jobs added, "I continue to believe that our fundamentals - our remarkable people, our clear and focused strategy, our new product pipeline, our 200+ retail stores, our $18 billion of cash in the bank with no debt, etc., will serve us well in the coming months and years."

Over the winter of 2007, the first holiday season of iPhone, the company's shares had plummeted from highs near $200 to a low of $119 within two months. Shares then recovered by the end of May only to crash back to $82 by November. The insanity of Apple's 2008 valuation roller coaster is particularly noteworthy in hindsight, given the uniqueness of the iPhone as an unquestionably innovative and profitable product with tremendous growth potential.

Throughout 2013, it was new concerns about innovation, growth and sustained profitability that dogged the company's valuation. Apple's shares haven't dropped as dramatically this year as in 2008, but wild shifts have involved far larger swings in dollar scale.

Between its January high point of $549 to the recent close at $556, Apple shares have lost and regained over $150 billion in market valuation, more than Apple's entire peak valuation in 2008 and nearly twice as large as investors had priced the company as being worth by the end of 2008.

AAPL vs GOOG

When Apple reached $700 last year, it coincided with Google's stock reaching the same share price (although Google has far fewer shares outstanding, resulting in a lower total market capitalization). Since then, while Apple plunged below $400 and has since recovered to $550, Google's shares have reached above $1060.

Apple's market cap is still much higher than Google's (just above $500 billion compared to $354 billion). However, if Apple had tracked a similar share price trajectory as Google over the past year, its market cap would now be over $950 billion, right where analysts had been predicting Apple would go.

Apple's poor performance relative to Google over the past year is only observable when constraining the view to 2013, a year that so far has only registered a flat chart for the world's most valuable and by far the most profitable computer and phone vendor. Backed out to five years, Apple has performed nearly twice as well as Google.

After punishing Apple with wild swings and a tremendous net loss of valuation (twice!) in 2008, the market more than doubled the company's valuation in 2009, setting a upward trend that, ignoring the surge of 2012 and its slump in 2013, points straight forward toward a short term destination of $600.

The other difference between Apple and Google is that Apple has bought back billions of dollars worth of its outstanding shares over the past summer, dropping the company's share count from a high of 940 million shares last September to just under 900 million shares today.

Rather than buying back shares, Google has been issuing new ones, growing from around 328 million shares last September to today's peak of over 334 million. At a share price of $1060, Google's extra 5.5 million shares have invented over $5.8 billion out of thin air, at the expense of the dilution of value of its shareholders.

And of course, Apple has also paid out over $10 per share in dividends over the past year, while Google has no dividend.

Overall, this seems to indicate that the confidence analysts placed in Apple's fundamentals at the beginning of 2012 was correct, and its impact on the company's actual share price was simply delayed by a misinformed, year long ripple of irrational trading behavior, as was clearly the case in 2008.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) And Samsung’s ‘Profit Trap’

by Sheeraz RazaDecember 2, 2013

In my post on Apple & Samsung’s Profit Trap, I had explained how profit share was a flawed metric for gauging the long-term health of a company or platform. I had also detailed the perils of relying on a premium hardware strategy. While this post generated a lot of discussion, the mechanics of the “profit trap” still seem to be poorly understood. The goal of this post is to identify the primary customer segments and regions that could signal a shift in the basis of competition.
For the purpose of this discussion, let’s restrict our analysis to the premium smartphone market, specifically Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930)’s flagship Galaxy devices.

Identity vs. Utility: The Difference between Most and Least Profitable Customers

 

Before we begin, we need a clear understanding of the characteristics of Apple and Samsung’s most and least profitable (or valuable) customers. Their most profitable customers — (1) are extremely brand loyal, (2) buy the highest priced device SKUs/variants, and (3) upgrade frequently (possibly with every product refresh) and own multiple devices from the brand across product categories. These customers are also likely to be more engaged with the ecosystem, but this is a secondary benefit because of the limited size of this population. In other words, these customers are more identity-focused and than utility-focused. Unfortunately, most analysis on the premium smartphone market begins and ends with this segment.
Their least profitable customers (or potential customers) — (1) are not particularly brand loyal, (2) buy lower priced device SKU/variants, and (3) do not upgrade frequently and are just looking for a “good enough” device. In other words, these customers are more utility-focused than identity-focused. The remaining (mainstream) customers would be distributed across this identity-utility continuum. The least profitable, utility-focused customers are also the harbingers for a permanent shift in the basis of competition. Since their (limited) needs are met first, they are the first group of customers to begin valuing other attributes (price, flexibility of choice, etc.).
The proportion of least profitable customers in a market depends on price parity between brands, i.e. if an iPhone/Galaxy is priced at roughly the same level as other smartphones, then it would draw a higher proportion of less profitable customers as compared to other markets. Therefore, the distribution of most and least profitable customers is highly region-specific. Most readers are already aware of the differences in pricing between the US and European smartphone markets, for example. Based on this pattern and on Ben Thompson’s characterization of three iPhone markets, I’ve divided the premium smartphone market into three regional tiers.

Tier-1 Markets (US, Canada, Japan): Subsidized, Concealed Pricing

In these markets, the true price of a premium smartphone is concealed from customers. Postpaid customers pay the same monthly contract price irrespective of their device choice, most of which are priced from $0-$199. Unsurprisingly, these are the strongest markets for premium devices. This also means that these markets have the highest proportion of less profitable customers. However, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) & Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) aren’t at immediate risk in these markets because of the nature of pricing.

The biggest risk faced by premium OEMs in these markets is probably T-Mobile’s pricing model:

T-Mobile recently ended smartphone subsidies and began offering devices on payment plans instead. As a result, device prices were no longer concealed and less profitable customers bought mid-range devices instead. Of course, this risk will only become significant if other carriers follow T-Mobile’s example or if the pre-paid model gains popularity. Therefore, the risk in tier-1 markets is not immediate.

Tier-2 Markets (Europe, Australia, etc.): Subsidized, Proportional Pricing

In these markets, the price of a device is subsidized by carriers but the price of the contract varies based on the device purchased. Therefore, the proportion of less profitable customers is lower in these markets (compared to Tier-1), but still quite high on an absolute basis.

Since pricing is proportional to actual device cost, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) run the risk of losing customers to “good enough” rivals starting with their least profitable, utility-focused customers. Unsurprisingly, Apple’s YoY revenue growth in Europe has already slipped into flat/negative territory (we don’t have region-specific revenue data for Samsung).

Tier-3 Markets (Asia, Latin America, etc.): Upfront Pricing

In these markets, customers need to pay the full price of the device upfront and carrier subsidies (if any) kick in later in the form of refunds (as in China). These markets have the smallest proportion of least profitable customers. This is because any customer who buys a high-end device is specifically looking to spend up on a device of their choice.

Since pricing is completely transparent, Apple and Samsung face the highest risk of losing less profitable customers to “good enough” rivals. Of course, the population of these utility-focused customers is much smaller than it is in other markets. Here, again, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s YoY revenue growth has already slipped into flat/negative territory.

Identifying the Shift in Basis of Competition

Given these regional patterns, it is obvious that success in Tier-1 markets like the US and Japan is to be expected and is not very helpful in predicting long-term trends. Analysts should track Tier-2 markets closely (specifically, Europe) to watch for a shift in the basis of competition.
Once this shift occurs, premium OEMs could face the most pressure in these Tier-2 markets where the absolute size of their less profitable segments is larger. Given the smaller population of less profitable customers in Tier-3 regions, any sizable decline there would signify that the basis of competition is beginning to shift among Apple/Samsung’s mainstream customer base as well — an even more worrying sign.
This post originally appeared on Tech-Thoughts.

Akamai to Buy Cybersecurity Firm Prolexic for $370 Million

Prolexic's Business is in Technology That Thwarts Distributed Denial of Service Attacks

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Deal will help Akamai provide a fuller portfolio of security services to protect customers from attacks on every level of the Internet.

By Ben Fox Rubin, Drew FitzGerald

Akamai Technologies Inc. agreed to buy Prolexic Technologies Inc. for about $370 million in cash, expanding its cybersecurity offerings.
Prolexic specializes in technology that guards data centers against distributed denial of service attacks, an increasingly common threat that can shut down a website by flooding its address with fake information requests. Akamai Chief Executive Tom Leighton said such attacks often overwhelm otherwise strong technology because the onslaughts are becoming bigger and less predictable.
“Scale has really been a killer for the traditional ways of defending a website,” Mr. Leighton said in an interview. “You need to stop the attack traffic close to where it’s coming from before it even gets to the data center.”
Rising demand for online content continues to drive revenue growth at Akamai, which runs a network of servers and other equipment that speed delivery of Internet content. Akamai has reported double-digit sales growth in recent years, and results in recent quarters often beat its own expectations as well as Wall Street estimates.
The company said the new Prolexic deal will help it provide a fuller portfolio of security services that can protect customers from attacks on every level of the Internet. The deal is expected to close in the first half of next year, so Akamai’s current fourth-quarter guidance remains unchanged. The acquisition is expected to be slightly dilutive to Akamai’s adjusted per-share income in the first full year after the deal is completed in the range of six cents to eight cents.
Akamai’s shares are up 8.1% so far this year.

U.S. Department of Justice gives Microsoft-Nokia deal the OK

Summary: The U.S. DOJ has given its approval to Microsoft's planned $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia's devices and services business.

By Mary Jo Foley for All About Microsoft | December 2, 2013 -- 17:22 GMT (09:22 PST)

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has given its approval to Microsoft's pending acquisition of Nokia's mobile devices and services business.

The transaction got the DOJ nod on November 29, according to the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition notification on December 2.
"We look forward to the date when our partners at Nokia will become members of the Microsoft family, and are pleased that the Department of Justice has cleared the deal unconditionally," said a Microsoft spokesperson in a prepared statement.
Last month, Nokia shareholders gave their approval to the deal during an extraordinary general meeting in Helsinki. Indian authorities gave their approval to the Microsoft-Nokia deal earlier this fall.
The next hurdle for the deal will be the European Union. Antitrust regulators there are on tap to decide whether or not Microsoft's bid breaches the EU's competition rules. Reuters reported in October that the European Commission would decide by December 4 whether or not to clear the acquisition. (It can extend the review by an additional 10 business days if needed to weigh possible concessions by Microsoft if there are any concerns.)
Microsoft went public with plans to buy Nokia's devices and services business, plus license a number of its patents, for $7.2 billion in September. Microsoft officials have said they expect the transaction to be completed around the first quarter of 2014.

Topics: Mobility, Legal, Microsoft, Nokia

About Mary Jo Foley

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for 30 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

Microsoft codename 'Threshold': The next major Windows wave takes shape

Summary: Microsoft's wave of spring 2015 updates to its various Windows-based platforms has a codename: Threshold.

By Mary Jo Foley for All About Microsoft | December 2, 2013 -- 14:23 GMT (06:23 PST)

When I blogged recently about Microsoft's plans on the operating-systems front following Windows 8.1, I mentioned a couple of "spring 2015" releases.

It turns out the Microsoft codename for that wave of deliverables is "Threshold."
A couple of my contacts have confirmed that Microsoft Executive Vice President Terry Myerson recently mentioned the Threshold codename in an internal email about plans for his unified operating-system engineering group.
If all goes according to early plans, Threshold will include updates to all three OS platforms (Xbox One, Windows and Windows Phone) that will advance them in a way to share even more common elements.
(The codename Threshold, for those wondering, derives from the planet around which the first halo ring orbited in the original Halo game launched back in 2001. Threshold joins "Cortana," Microsoft's answer to Siri, as yet another codename with its origins in the Xbox franchise.)
From what I've heard, Threshold doesn't refer to a single Windows OS -- not even the expected, converged hybrid comprised of the Windows Phone OS and Windows RT. Instead, the codename refers to the wave of operating systems across Windows-based phones, devices and gaming consoles.
The Xbox One OS, Windows 8.x OS and Windows Phone 8 OS already share a common Windows NT core. As we've heard before, Microsoft is working to deliver a single app store across its myriad Windows platforms. Company officials also are laboring to make the developer toolset for all three of these platforms more similar.
But Threshold will add another level of commonality across Microsoft's various Windows-based platforms, sources said. With the Threshold wave, Microsoft plans to support the same core set of "high value activities" across platforms. These high-value activities include expression/documents (Office, and the coming "Remix" digital storytelling app, I'd think); decision making/task completion (Bing, I'd assume); IT management (Intune and Workplace Join, perhaps?) and "serious fun."
CEO Steve Ballmer mentioned this concept of high-value activities at back in July when he announced Microsoft's cross-company reorg to make the company more focused around its new "One Microsoft" mission.
Before Microsoft gets to Threshold, the company is on track to deliver an update to Windows 8.1 (known as Windows 8.1 Update 1) around the same time that it delivers Windows Phone "Blue" (Windows Phone 8.1). That's supposedly happening in the spring 2014/Q2 2014 timeframe, from what my sources have said.
I've asked Microsoft officials if they'd confirm any of this information about Threshold. No word back so far.

Topics: Windows 8, Microsoft, Mobility, Tablets, PCs, Windows Phone

iPhone 5S outsold iPhone 5c three to one in the UK

Summary: Windows Phone continues to rise as well as consumers grab the cheaper Nokia Lumia models.

By Liam Tung | December 2, 2013 -- 13:44 GMT (05:44 PST)

Apple's iPhone 5s is proving to be a hit with UK consumers, at least compared to the cheaper iPhone 5c, but Apple's overall share of sales in the country is still less than it was a year ago.
That's according to new figures based on Kantar World Panel ComTech's consumer survey data for sales during the three months to the end of October.
Britain is a bright spot for Apple's iPhone 5s/5c release in otherwise tough conditions in Europe for Apple.

Read this

Apple iPhone 5S vs. Nokia Lumia 1020: How they compare

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Despite record launch sales reaching nine million for the two models this September, Apple's share of quarterly smartphone sales continues to slide in Europe's big five — Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. A year ago iOS made up 20 percent of sales, which has fallen to 15.8 percent today, according to Kantar, leaving Windows Phone a bigger seller in Italy and about to overtake iOS in France and Spain.
Apple's falling share contrasts to gains over the year by Android and Windows Phone, which are up around five percentage points each to 70.9 percent and 10.2 percent respectively across Europe's big five.
Even in the UK, where Apple has its largest retail store count in Europe, the iOS share of sales has declined from 32.7 percent a year ago to 28.7 percent today.
While iPhone 5s sales outstrip 5c in the UK, Kantar consumer insights director Dominic Sunnebo noted that the iPhone 5c is helping draw new consumers in the US from other brands.
"Almost half of iPhone 5c owners switched from competitor brands, particularly Samsung and LG, compared with 80 percent of 5s owners who upgraded from a previous iPhone model," Sunnebo wrote.
In the case of the Nokia Lumia-dominated sales of Windows Phone devices it's the cheaper devices such as Nokia's Lumia 520 and 620 driving the platform's rise over the past year.
"In Britain, almost three quarters of Nokia Lumia sales in the latest period were low-end devices such as the Lumia 520 and 620 – a pattern that is similar across other EU markets," Sunnebo noted.
Windows Phone made up 11.9 percent of smartphone sales in the UK, up from 4.6 percent a year ago, according to Kantar. In France, Windows Phone 12.5 percent share of sales is only a whisker off iOS, which accounted for 15.9 percent of sales (down from 19.5 percent a year ago), while in Italy, Windows Phone's 16.1 percent share has already eclipsed the iOS share of 10.1 percent.  
The issue that may be helping Windows Phone and hurting Apple in Europe are the lower carrier subsidies available to consumers, particularly Germany and Italy, according to Sunnebo.

 Further reading

• Kantar says iPhone 5s, 5c release not as successful as iPhone 5
• Apple iPhone 5s review: The best gets better
• Time to upgrade: iPhone 5s or Android?

Topics: iOS, Android, Apple, iPhone, Nokia, Windows Phone

About Liam Tung

Liam Tung is an Australian business technology journalist living a few too many Swedish miles north of Stockholm for his liking. He gained a bachelors degree in economics and arts (cultural studies) at Sydney's Macquarie University, but hacked (without Norse or malicious code for that matter) his way into a career as an enterprise tech, security and telecommunications journalist with ZDNet Australia. These days Liam is a full time freelance technology journalist who writes for several publications.

Apple iPads Beat Early Holiday Expectations

iPads were the top-selling item at Apple, Target, and Walmart over the weekend. iPhones also sold well to holiday shoppers.

10 Best Tablets Of 2013

(click image for larger view)

If there was one product Black Friday shoppers coveted, it was the Apple iPad. A handful of data points from analysts and other sources suggest Apple's tablets were a big hit. The iPhone didn't do poorly, either.
Apple analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray took to the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., over the weekend to scout out activity at the Apple Store. According to his data, traffic at the store was up 9% compared to last year, and interest in the iPad Mini with Retina Display was "better than expected." Based on Munster's observations, he believes Apple may move as many as 24.5 million tablets during the holiday quarter.
Trip Chowdry from Global Equities Research was also impressed with Apple's Black Friday performance. He visited nine different Apple stores as well as five Target stores over the weekend and claims to have spoken to at least 300 people about their holiday purchases. According to Chowdry, the 128-GB variants of both the iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina Display were the most popular devices at Apple stores. Prices for those tablets are $799 and $699, respectively. Not cheap.
[Watch out, Apple: Low Smartphone Prices Drive Sales Growth.]
The reason for picking up the higher-capacity models: People are storing more HD movies on their tablets. The WiFi-only versions were outselling the carrier versions at a ratio of three-to-one. This is probably because the carrier versions cost $130 more than their WiFi counterparts. Everyone Chowdry interviewed who bought an iPad also bought an Apple Smart Cover for their tablet.

Apple iPad Mini.

Chowdry further determined that sales of the iPhone 5s closely followed those of the iPad. AT&T's 5s outsold all the other carrier versions, followed by Verizon's, the unlocked version, and Sprint's version.
InfoScout didn't rely on direct observations to determine Apple's Black Friday success. Instead, it analyzed some 90,000 receipts from retailers, including Target and Walmart. Its data suggests that Target shoppers were a bit more frugal than those at Apple Stores. The 16-GB iPad Air, 16-GB iPad Mini, and the 32-GB iPad Air were the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 top sellers at Target stores. Together, these iPads totaled 18.1% of Target's in-store sales on Black Friday. Given the wide range of products sold by Target, that's a high number.
The 16-GB iPad Mini was Walmart's best-selling device on Black Friday, InfoScout said. Walmart claims it sold 1.4 million tablets between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving evening, and it doubled up on tablet orders for the season. The remaining top five selling items at Walmart stores were Android tablets, two TV models, and laptops, demonstrating once again shoppers' interest in discounts on electronics.

China: Filmmaker Zhang Yimou flouted 'one-child' rules

AP 11:37 a.m. EST December 2, 2013

(Photo: Markus Schreiber, AP)

Story Highlights

• Film director and his wife have three children
• Official family planning bureau investigated family after rumors Zhang fathered seven children
• If found in violation, Zhang could face $26 million fine

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BEIJING (AP) — Famed film director Zhang Yimou and his wife violated China's strict family planning rules by having three children without approval and before they were married, local authorities said Monday.
Zhang, the director of The Flowers of War starring Christian Bale, had on Sunday admitted flouting the rules by having three children with his wife but refuted reports that he had fathered seven children.
Zhang's 25-year career has made him one of Chinese cinema's top names, Many of his films portray gritty rural life. Zhang also designed the opulent opening and closing ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
A family planning bureau in Wuxi city in eastern Jiangsu province said on its microblog that its investigation had found that Zhang and Chen Ting flouted family planning policies and that the case was being handled according to laws and regulations.
Reports had circulated online since May that Zhang, 62, had fathered seven children from two marriages and relationships with two other women. The People's Daily newspaper, the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece, had reported that Zhang could face a fine of up to $26 million. People caught breaking China's family planning policy must pay a "social compensation fee" based on their annual income.
In his first response to the reports, Zhang's office issued an open letter through its verified microblog account on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo site late Sunday denying that the director had seven children but admitting that he and his wife have two sons and a daughter in violation of China's one-child limits.
Zhang and his wife "expressed their sincere apology to the public for the negative social impact that this has created," the letter said.
The letter said Zhang and his wife were willing to be investigated by the family planning committee in Chen's hometown, the eastern city of Wuxi, and would accept whatever penalty the couple might incur. It did not provide details on how the couple had been able to evade family planning authorities thus far.
The family planning office of Wuxi's Binhu district said in their online statement that the couple had had three children — in 2001, 2004 and 2006 in Beijing — without first seeking approval from family planning authorities, and out of wedlock. They obtained a marriage certificate in 2011, the statement said.
Family planning policies and the fines for breaking them vary from city to city. Some consider unmarried childbearing illegal.
The statement quoted an unnamed spokesman as saying the office hoped Zhang and Chen would continue to cooperate with family planning authorities and truthfully report their income at the time.
Zhang's office rejected reports that he had fathered more children. It said unidentified individuals with "ulterior motives" had sent people to follow Zhang's children and photograph them and that Zhang's office reserved the right to take legal action.
Known to many as China's one-child policy, the rules limit most urban couples to one child and allow two children for rural families if their firstborn is a girl. The government introduced the policy in 1979 as a temporary measure to curb a surging population, but it is still in place despite being reviled by many citizens.
Last month, the party announced that it would allow couples to have two children if one of the parents is a single child, the first substantial easing of the one-child policy in nearly three decades.
___
AP writer Louise Watt contributed to this report.

NTSB analyzing data recorders to determine cause of deadly NYC train derailment

Published December 02, 2013

FoxNews.com

• • 

    NTSB recovers data recorder from NYC train...

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    Speed focus of investigation in deadly train...

NEW YORK –  The National Transportation Safety Board says it is analyzing data recorders taken from a commuter train that derailed in New York City Sunday morning to determine whether excessive speed, mechanical problems or human error played a role in the deadly accident.
The derailment, near the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx on Metro-North's Hudson Line, caused the train's locomotive and some of its seven cars to topple over and left the lead car inches from the water. Four people died and at least 60 others were injured, according to authorities. The station is located at a sharp bend where the Hudson and Harlem rivers meet.
Earl Weener, an NTSB member, said Monday morning that a second event recorder was found in the train's front car and has been sent to Washington for analysis. The other event recorder was found earlier in the rear locomotive.
Weener said investigators hope to download information from the memory cards from that recorder on Monday. They hope it can provide information on the speed of the train, how the brakes were applied and the throttle setting.
He told The Associated Press they've already had some success in retrieving data. But the information has to be validated before it's made public. The NTSB has said it could take as many as 10 days to investigate the accident.
Investigators plan to conduct interviews Monday or Tuesday with the engineer and conductor, Weener said. He also said clues could be found from a signaling system operated by dispatchers at a central location.
New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday on NBC's "Today" show that he thinks speed will turn out to be a factor.
"It was actually much worse than it looked," Cuomo said. "As the cars were skidding across the ground, they were actually picking up a lot of debris, a lot of dirt and stones and tree limbs were going through the cars so it actually looked worse up close," he said, calling it "your worst nightmare."
The New York Post identified the operator of the train as William Rockefeller, of Rockland County, N.Y. Citing law enforcement sources, the paper reported that Rockefeller insisted to investigators that he had tried to hit the brakes going into the Spuyten Duyvil bend, but they didn't work. The sources also described Rockefeller as a 20-year veteran of the MTA with a clean disciplinary record.
One of Rockefeller's neighbors, 52-year-old Tracy Pool, said Rockefeller was an avid motorcyclist who liked to "live on the edge."
“I wouldn’t say he’s such a speed demon," Pool said. "But he always stayed within the speed limit with his trains.”
The speed limit on the curve is 30 mph, compared with 70 mph in the area approaching it, Weener said.
One passenger, Frank Tatulli, told WABC-TV that the train appeared to be going "a lot faster" than usual as it approached the sharp curve near the Spuyten Duyvil station.
New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which oversees Metro-North, warned commuters to expect crowded and delayed trains on Monday. It said that Hudson Line service would operate on a limited basis between Poughkeepsie and Yonkers, and shuttle buses would take commuters heading farther south to the 242nd St. subway station. Northbound travelers were told to take the subway to 242nd St., where the shuttle bus would take them to Yonkers. Passengers were urged to take the Harlem and New Haven lines into Grand Central Station, as the MTA said that Hudson line tickets would be honored on those lines.
Aaron Donovan, a Metro-North spokesman, said no major delays were reported during the early part of the rush hour.
"We'd like to get service up toward the end of the week," Cuomo said.
The MTA Police Department identified the deceased Sunday as Ahn Kisook, 35, of Queens, N.Y.; Donna L. Smith, 54, of Newburgh, N.Y.; James G. Lovell, 58, of Cold Spring, N.Y. and James M. Ferrari, 59, of Montrose, N.Y. Three of the dead were found outside the train, and one was found inside, authorities said. Autopsies were scheduled for Monday, the New York City medical examiner's office said.
Lovell, an audio technician for NBC's "Today" program, was traveling from his Cold Spring home to midtown Manhattan to work on the famed Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, said longtime friend Janet Barton. The tree-lighting ceremony is Wednesday night.
Eleven others were believed to be critically injured and six more were seriously injured, according to the Fire Department of New York. However, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said after visiting an area hospital Sunday evening that none of the 11 appeared to have life-threatening injuries.
In their efforts to find passengers, rescuers shattered windows, searched nearby woods and waters and used pneumatic jacks and air bags to peer under wreckage.
Passengers were removed from the wreck by authorities, with dozens bloodied and scratched, holding ice packs to their heads.
"I was asleep and I woke up when the car started rolling several times,” said a bloodied Joel Zaritsky, who was on his way to New York City for a dental convention.
“Then I saw the gravel coming at me, and I heard people screaming. There was smoke everywhere and debris. People were thrown to the other side of the train."
About 150 people were on board when the train derailed, and Donovan said the railroad believed everyone aboard has been accounted for.
The derailment occurred near the Harlem River, and authorities say two cars were left lying on their sides, although none of the cars went into the nearby waterway.
“One approached the water and came close, but did not go in,” Donovan told FoxNews.com. He said a locomotive was pushing the train from behind, although the operating engineer who controlled the train was stationed in the front of the first passenger car.
Workers have started the arduous task of righting the toppled rail cars. Five passenger cars and the locomotive were back on the tracks by around 9:30 a.m.
New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said there were initial concerns that people may have been ejected from the train after the crash and landed in the water. The NYPD dispatched its dive team, helicopters and canine squad and nothing was found, Kelly said.
“It’s going to be a long time before this is cleared up,” MTA spokeswoman Marjorie Anders told Fox News. “It was not a hugely crowded train,” she added.
In a statement Monday afternoon, a representative of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital said the hospital received 18 patients due to the derailment.
"The four patients received at NewYork-Presbyterian/The Allen Hospital were evaluated, treated and released on Sunday, December 1, 2013," the statement said. "NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia received 14 patients of which seven were evaluated, treated and released on Sunday, December 1, 2013 and seven have been admitted for further treatment. Two of the seven patients admitted remain in critical condition."
Dr. Ernest Patti, of St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, told Fox News that 12 passengers were taken to St. Barnabas -- 2 were in critical condition and 10 were in stable condition.
The patients, Patti said, suffered mostly broken bones, including compound fractures where bone pierces the skin. Some suffered broken ribs, the doctor said.
Donovan said the train was an express and was not due to stop in the Spuyten Duyvil station. Sunday’s incident occurred just south of where a train ferrying garbage derailed in mid-July.
The accident was the latest mishap in a troubled year for Metro-North, which had never before experienced a passenger death during an accident in its 31-year history.
It came six months after an eastbound train derailed in Bridgeport, Conn., and was struck by a westbound train. That crash injured 73 passengers, two engineers and a conductor.
For decades, the NTSB has been urging railroads to install technology that can stop derailing caused by excessive speed, along with other problems.
A rail-safety law passed by Congress in 2008 gave commuter and freight railroads until the end of 2015 to install the systems, known as positive train control. PTC is aimed at preventing human error — the cause of about 40 percent of train accidents. But the systems are expensive and complicated. Railroads are trying to push back the installation deadline another five to seven years.
Metro-North is in the process of installing the technology. It now has what's called an "automatic train control" signal system, which automatically applies the brakes if an engineer fails to respond to an alert that indicates excessive speed.
Such systems can slow trains in some circumstances but not bring them to a halt, said Grady Cothen, a former Federal Railroad Administration safety official.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Paul Walker: A fan's admiration, then a journalist's

Fans pay tribute to actor Paul Walker at the site in Valencia where he died in a car accident. (David Buchan / Getty Images)

• Photos: Paul Walker: 1973-2013
• Photos: Paul Walker dies: Celebrities react on Twitter
• Paul Walker's sudden death leaves Hollywood scrambling
• Paul Walker dies: Five memorable 'Fast and Furious' scenes

By Amy Kaufman

December 2, 2013, 9:44 a.m.

In high school, my bedroom wall served mainly as a canvas for displaying '90s teen heartthrobs. And somewhere between Devon Sawa and Ryan Phillippe, Paul Walker had his place.

He was certainly more than deserving of a spot with those periwinkle eyes, that chiseled jaw and just the vaguest suggestion of facial hair. He was the epitome of a California surfer bro -- a specimen not easily found in the Massachusetts suburb where I grew up.

But I still had his poster -- a 1999 Teen magazine cover, to be precise, boasting “He’s All That (AND MORE!)" -- and his movies. In his early roles in “She’s All That” and “Varsity Blues,” Walker played an unfeeling jock -- the kind of unattainable cool guy the nerdy girl pines after despite knowing better. My friends and I often spent sleepovers daydreaming about someone like Walker, thinking, “If only a guy like that really existed.”

When our paths ended up crossing over a decade later, I realized Walker was indeed a rare breed -- just not the type I’d envisioned.

PHOTOS: Paul Walker, 1973 - 2013

It was summer 2011, and “Fast Five” had just scored the biggest box office opening of the year. I started work on a story examining how the “Fast and Furious” franchise had become such a phenomenon and put in an interview request with Walker’s publicist. He agreed, and his representative passed along his cellphone number -- a rarity in a town where most actors demand their handlers make and monitor important calls.

Still, I wasn’t expecting much from the phoner. It’s typically difficult to glean anything significant from a conversation with an actor when you’re not face-to-face with them. They’re calling from a seemingly endless press day, they’re in the car, they’re making dinner. They have little interest in sharing meaningful insight with a stranger over the telephone.

When Walker answered his cell, I feared I was right: He wasn’t in the mood to chat. It was 8:45 a.m., and it sounded as if my call had served as his alarm clock.
“I’m really groggy, so I may not make sense for a bit,” he cautioned, his voice raspy.

We started to talk about his career -- one, he readily acknowledged, he probably wouldn’t have were it not for the success of the “Fast” franchise. Raised in San Clemente, he started acting when he was young but was never intensely passionate about it. He recalled signing on to a movie filming in Utah because he’d be able to snowboard in Park City. He liked the outdoors and studied marine biology at college, thinking he’d end up as a naturalist or a park ranger.

But when the producers of “The Fast and the Furious” approached him about playing undercover cop Brian O’Conner, he was excited. Growing up, he’d admired “cool guys” like Harrison Ford, Clint Eastwood and Bruce Willis -- real action heroes -- and O’Conner seemed to have a similar edge.

PHOTOS: Celebrities react to the death of Paul Walker

Plus, Walker was badly in need of a paycheck.

“I was 24 years old and had just recently had a child out of wedlock,” he recalled. “I wanted to have fun and needed to put a roof over my baby’s head.”

The filmmakers behind the movie knew he was “apprehensive about being ‘the guy’” -- meaning a leading man -- so they told him “to just show up and have fun, and that alleviated some of the pressure.”

He had no idea, of course, that the franchise would spawn seven films. (Walker would star in five of them and had been in the middle of shooting his sixth when he died.) And so he didn’t do a fantastic job negotiating his salary early on, unlike costar Vin Diesel.

“I’m not the businessman that Vin is,” he said, explaining that Diesel went on to make twice as much from the “Fast” movies as he did.

“But without him,” he countered quickly, “the material wouldn’t be elevated. And without me, there’s not as much harmony.”

Despite his comparatively low paycheck, Walker genuinely seemed to love working on the “Fast” films. When he wasn’t acting, he sought out adventure, spending time racing cars with his buddies. So why not do that in movies too?

“One day, I’m going to be an old man, but in the meantime -- I love this [stuff],” he said, using more colorful language. “That’s what I’m built for.”

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-paul-walker-death-fast-furious-20131201,0,4586870.story#ixzz2mLGrNXK2

He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression.-Job 36:15

Attn Sir/Madam,

Dear in Him and through Him.

Compliments of the day.

It is our divine motivated desire to write and tell you of our plan to expand Zion Intl University built for the poor and physically challenged structurally.

As a matter of fact, we have acquired acres of land very close to our original site and we are appealing for funding and donation to you to enable us continue with the developmental projects in the site.

A lot of money running in hundreds of  thousands of dollar is required and this is why we are appealing to you give us financial donation to enable us continue with the charity work.

I am officially pleading to you to come to our financial assistance by donating to us so we can be able to build as expected to the benefits of the children from poor parentage.

There is blessings in giving to the poor and more especially to the orphans and the physically challenged. 

Remember the Bible admonitions below, 

If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poorbrother:-Deuteronomy 15:7

If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:-Deuteronomy 15:7

The first phase of the project is costing us about $19,000,000. This is capable of building over 30 school hostels and lecture halls which is targeted to provide accomodation to over 5000 students.

The second phase of the project will cost us $31,000,000. This will be channeled toward raising the best lecturers for the University and setting up a formidable administrative structures required for the daily running of the school affairs.

There are some other developmental structures at hand right now but we are financially down town to uphold the continuation. This is why we decided to write and solicit for your partnership by donating to us for the benefits of the poor and the less privileged.

We promise lasting partnership benefits to you if you can come to our assistance by donating to us.

I will be giving annual financial reports to all that desire to partner with us in order for us to achieve this noble project.

PLEASE REMEMBER THIS BIBLE PROMISES CONCERNING GIVING TO THE POOR SO YOUR GIFT AND DONATION WILL COME OUT OF YOUR HEART AND IT WILL QUALIFY YOU FOR TOTAL DIVINE BENEFITS.

And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God.-Leviticus 19:10
And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God.-Leviticus 23:22

He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them.-1 Samuel 2:8

I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and theright of the poor.-Psalm 140:12

Job 36:15

He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression.

Please contact us through any of the links available below to indicate the areas you which to donate to us to the glory of the Almighty.  Send us your donations with whatsoever kind of problems you are facing so that our Prayer Team Network can be be praying for you. Healing of all manners of sickness is accompanying our organization.

Brgds,

Bishop Uchenna C. Okonkwor

Vice Chancellor

Direct Mobile: +22968635421

Email: zionagency@yahoo.com

g8zionagenciesltd@yahoo.com

COTONOU - REPUBLIC OF BENIN.