An Ignoble Experiment

2. Kantar: Android tops U.S. smartphone sales in Q2, but Apple slashes lead

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) will terminate support for its Google Shopper price comparison application on Aug. 30.

Google Shopper--a standalone app for Android and Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS launched in 2010--recognizes products by cover art, barcode, voice and text search, offering consumers information on millions of products. The app also offers access to local and online prices, reviews, specifications, videos and other purchase influencers. Consumers may additionally build shopping lists and share finds with friends.

Google is shutting down the Shopper app to focus on its mobile Shopping and Search services. "Going forward, you can search directly on Google (or use the Google Search app on mobile devices) or visit google.com/shopping in any browser," said Google Shopping Vice President Sameer Samat. "Our best features are there: You can compare prices, shop on the go, find a product in stock locally, check out product photos, read reviews or find product details. You'll find more than a billion products, from over 100,000 sellers--including 10,000 new merchants and marketplaces in the past three months."

Tens of millions of mobile users access Google Shopping and Search on their mobile phones each week, generating hundreds of millions of searches, Samat said. Seventy-six percent of mobile shoppers use the Web to research purchases and 57 percent rely on mobile devices to help them shop smarter, he noted, adding "We look forward to sharing some great things we have coming on mobile for the holidays."

Google also is dumping its Google+ Local for iOS search and discovery app on Aug. 7. The company announced the decision in an email sent to Google+ Local users late last week. The move is not surprising given that Google recently baked Local features into its revamped Google Maps for iOS. "Any reviews and ratings that you created will be available on your Google+ profile and in the Google Maps iOS app," the email states.

Google Shopper and Google+ Local for iOS are the latest in a flurry of Google apps on the chopping block. The company recently announced it will dump its Latitude location sharing service on Aug. 9, shifting core functions to its Google+ applications for Android and iOS. Earlier this month, Google also halted support for its Alfred local recommendations app.

For more:
- read this Google Commerce blog post
- read this 9to5Mac article

Read more about: Google
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By Jason Ankeny

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3. Rumor Mill: Apple building Siri speech tech to end reliance on Nuance

Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android mobile operating system powered 51.5 percent of all smartphones sold in the United States during the second quarter of 2013, down from 52.6 percent in the year-ago period, research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech reports.

Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS represented 42.5 percent of U.S. smartphone sales during the three-month period ending in June, increasing from 39.2 percent a year earlier--the largest gains posted by any mobile OS during the period in question. Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone follows at 4.0 percent, increasing from 2.9 percent in the year-ago quarter, while BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) plummeted from 4.0 percent to just 1.1 percent, indicating that its overhauled BlackBerry 10 OS is doing little to revive consumer enthusiasm for the platform.

Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) remains in the overall U.S. smartphone sales lead at 36.9 percent, up from 35 percent in the year-earlier period, trailed by AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) at 26.5 percent, down from 28.4 percent. Sprint (NYSE:S) accounted for 13.8 percent of nationwide smartphone sales between April 1 and June 30, down from 15.1 percent a year ago.

T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS) fell from 12.4 percent to 10 percent during the second quarter. The carrier began selling Apple's iPhone in mid-April and accounted for 8 percent of total U.S. iOS device sales during the period, behind Verizon Wireless at 40 percent, AT&T at 39 percent and Sprint at 10 percent. Verizon also contributed 35 percent of Android device sales in the second quarter, far ahead of Sprint (17 percent), AT&T (16 percent) and T-Mobile (13 percent). Verizon posted similar numbers on Windows Phone sales, Kantar adds.

"Verizon continues to lead in this second quarter of 2013, driven by its ability to provide a range of highly demanded brands and models, which has ultimately led to the carrier capturing the most sales from all three top OS brands," said Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Global Consumer Insight Director Dominic Sunnebo.

Kantar credited 57 percent of Verizon's second-quarter smartphone sales to female subscribers, compared to 50 percent on AT&T. Verizon also experienced a boost as feature phone users upgraded to smartphones, with 25 percent of first-time smartphone buyers opting for the iPhone, compared to 21 percent on AT&T. At the same time, 29 percent of first-time AT&T smartphone buyers migrated to Android, compared to 18 percent on Verizon.

For more:
- read this release

Read more about: Verizon Wireless, BlackBerry
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By Jason Ankeny

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4. Starbucks mobile payments eclipse 10% of U.S. store transactions

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is building speech recognition services to power its Siri virtual assistant for iOS, a move to end the company's dependence on voice and natural language technologies provider Nuance Communications, Xconomy reports.

Sources said Apple has set up shop near Nuance's Boston-area headquarters, assembling a team of voice technology specialists led by former executives at VoiceSignal Technologies, which Nuance acquired for $293 million in 2007. The team includes onetime Nuance employee Gunnar Evermann, who joined Apple in 2011 and whose LinkedIn profile calls him "manager, Siri Speech," as well as Larry Gillick whose title is "Chief Speech Scientist, Siri" and Don McAllaster, another ex-Nuance employee whose Apple title is simply "Senior Research Scientist."

Details on Apple's Boston office, first reported by The Boston Globe in January, are scarce. "They won't tell us what they're doing," Jim Glass, who heads MIT's Spoken Language Systems Group, told Xconomy. "We can only guess." Neither Apple nor Nuance responded to requests for comment.

Apple has rarely relied on third-party companies for core software and services across its iOS and Mac platforms. Nuance's contributions to Siri are one notable exception: The company only confirmed its role as a Siri partner this spring. Apple also has a history of severing ties with partners after developing competing technologies in-house--e.g., last year the company ended its longtime reliance on Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Maps, rolling out its rival Apple Maps platform.

Siri, introduced in late 2011 in tandem with the iPhone 4S, enables users to employ natural spoken language to access and perform device tasks like mobile search, messaging and contacts. Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, has described Siri as an "intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking."

Apple's iOS 7 update, expected this fall, will bring a new female Siri voice and a male voice option, as well as integration with Twitter, Wikipedia and Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing search engine.

For more:
- read this Xconomy article
- read this Next Web article

Read more about: Apple, Mobile Search
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By Jason Ankeny

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5. Google exec Barra: Android tablet apps catching up to Apple's iPad

More than 10 percent of Starbucks' in-store transactions in the United States are made via mobile phone, the coffeehouse chain announced.

"Mobile devices have become increasingly important part of the customer experience at Starbucks as the fastest and easiest way to pay in our stores, and we will continue to bring more innovation to this space," Starbucks Chief Digital Officer Adam Brotman said during the company's fiscal third-quarter earnings call, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.

"[The mobile platform] is growing at rates that are just unbelievable and put us in a position where we've more transactions on mobile than any other retailer in the world," added Starbucks Chairman, President and CEO Howard Schultz. "[It] is also creating speed of service and efficiency and also satisfying our customers in ways that they have not been satisfied before."

The Starbucks Card Mobile App connects iPhone, Android and BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) devices to prepaid Starbucks Card accounts to enable barcode-based checkouts. "In our third quarter, we saw 3 percent year-over-year growth in total dollars loaded on Starbucks cards in retail North America and nearly 100 percent year-over-year growth in dollars loaded on our cards via Starbucks mobile apps and Web properties," Brotman said.

Starbucks recently expanded mobile payment solutions to iOS and Android device owners in the Hong Kong market. "We're already seeing strong response from that," Brotman said. "In fact, these iOS and Android apps became the number one free applications in the Hong Kong app stores within less than a day of having launched."

With mobile activity increasing, Starbucks also announced a partnership with battery and smart power systems manufacturer Duracell to trial wireless device charging systems at select Starbucks stores in Silicon Valley. "The installation of multiple wireless charging tarmac surfaces in our stores will allow our customers to recharge their smartphones quickly and effortlessly," Brotman said. "This is the kind of improvement to the digital experience that our customers expect from Starbucks and the kind that we will deliver at scale moving forward."

Speaking with analysts in January, Schultz said Starbucks will increase its menu of mobile commerce services this year, with mobile tipping as well as new ordering and personalization tools slated to launch in the months ahead. Starbucks is also exploring new opportunities to exploit partner Square's mobile payment technologies, which rolled out across 7,000 U.S. stores late last year.

Starbucks' net revenues increased 13 percent in its most recent quarter to $3.7 billion. The company opened 341 net new stores during the period and now operates 19,209 stores globally.

For more:
- read this Seeking Alpha transcript
- read this TechCrunch article

Special Report: Wireless in the second quarter of 2013

Read more about: M-Commerce, Starbucks
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By Jason Ankeny

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SPOTLIGHT ON... Nokia urges Microsoft to accelerate Windows Phone development

While a significant number of popular applications optimized for Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad have yet to migrate to tablets running Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android mobile operating system, the disparity between the two ecosystems is shrinking, contends Hugo Barra, Google's vice president of Android product management.

"The absolute position that we're in is one where well over 60 percent of the apps that you'd expect in a given category are already available with a decent tablet UI," Barra told The Verge, noting that the situation has made significant gains over the last 12 months. Barra credited the improvements to Google's Tablet App Quality Checklist, an online resource focusing on developmental challenges like optimizing software layouts for larger screens, maximizing the additional screen real estate and using icons and related assets designed for the tablet form factor, as well as a section of the Google Play storefront devoted to spotlighting tablet apps.

Barra said Google is also taking steps to increase the number of games available for Android tablets. Last week, the company released Android version 4.3, which includes Open GL ES 3.0 support for enhanced graphics rendering, alongside the Google Play Games app, which will act as a hub for Android users' gaming experiences.

Barra believes tablet game developers are responding to Google's improvements. "If you look at the top 20 highest grossing game developers on iOS and Android, 19 of them are on Android with the majority of, if not all of, their titles," he said.

Barra nevertheless admitted to frustration with the pace of Android tablet evolution. "I really do think that the Android ecosystem hasn't yet put its best foot forward, when it comes to tablets," he said, arguing that manufacturers must step up their hardware efforts. "If you look at the execution that HTC did on [the One smartphone], it's pristine," he said. "Why hasn't someone done that on the tablet? Or on like ten tablets?"

Barra blames pricing for the schism. "I think we are perhaps coming close to [HTC One] quality, but this is a $200 device," he said. "If you were to price it at $300 or $400 you could do something a little bit more in that territory in terms of polish and finish and materials and so on. Why hasn't that happened yet?"

Google released a new version of its Nexus 7 Android tablet last week. The revamp features a slimmer design than the original, and includes "true 1080p" HD resolution with 1920 x 1200 pixels as well as a quad-core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 2 GB of RAM, a 5-megapxiel camera, 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera and dual stereo speakers with Fraunhofer virtual surround sound. Wi-Fi-only versions of the new Nexus 7 will be available for $229 for the 16 GB model and $269 for the 32 GB model, starting July 30. A 32 GB LTE model will be available for $349 in the coming weeks.

Google Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai, who oversees Android as well as the company's Chrome efforts, said last week that Android tablet activations totaled around 10 million at the end of 2012 but have ballooned to 70 million in recent months. Pichai added that the original Nexus 7 has accounted for more than 10 percent of all Android tablet sales and that Android now makes up around half of total global tablet sales, behind the iPad.

For more:
- read this Verge article

Read more about: Google, Android
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Nokia (NYSE:NOK) is calling on Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to accelerate development of its Windows Phone operating system to more effectively compete in the fast-moving mobile marketplace.

"We are trying to evolve the cultural thinking [at Microsoft] to say 'Time is of the essence,'" Nokia Vice President of App Development Bryan Biniak told the International Business Times. "Waiting until the end of your fiscal year when you need to close your targets doesn't do us any good when I have phones to sell today."

Biniak stressed the importance of nurturing a Windows Phone application ecosystem on par with Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS and Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android. "People rely on applications for their day-to-day life and if you don't have something which I use in my day-to-day life I'm not going to switch [operating systems] because I don't want to compromise the way I live my life just to switch to a phone," Biniak said. "It's not just about the hardware--it's about the tools that are on the hardware. You can't sell a phone without the apps. You just can't." Article

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