Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft’s outlined its reasoning behind why it’s gone deep into smartphones in a lengthy presentation file. Alongside cheering Windows Phone’s current growth (No.3!), it’s reaffirmed that it’ll bring its products and services to rival mobile OSes, still involving itself with “iPhone and Android/Galaxy phones.” However, it tempers this point, adding that the Redmond company can’t risk “having Google or Apple foreclose app innovation, integration, distribution or economics.” Given the strength of the top two, Microsoft is telling it straight, adding that it needs a “first-rate Microsoft phone experience for users” to compete, suggesting that its portfolio of devices isn’t quite there yet. The slides also outline the purchase of Nokia’s patent collection, one which Microsoft believes is one of the most valuable in the tech sector. MS also thinks that the acquisition will speed up innovation within Windows Phone and protect its future. So, some high hopes for the purchase.

Update: According to slides in the source, Microsoft also has more concrete goals for its Nokia devices acquisition. It’d like to boost its smartphone share to 15 percent by 2018, around four times what it has now, depending on which numbers you believe. Redmond also revealed that it makes less than $10 per handset in its current arrangement with Nokia, and thinks it can make over $40 going forward, while saving $600 million in costs. With all that, Microsoft is projecting $45 billion extra in revenue by 2018, with profits in the $2.3-4.5 billion range. High hopes indeed.

Steve Dent contributed to this report.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia

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Source: Microsoft (PDF)

Whoa. Big news from the middle of the night. According to Nokia, Microsoft will purchase “substantially” all of Nokia’s device and service arms as well as licensing the phone maker’s patents and mapping know-how. The Redmond company will pay Nokia a cool 3.79 billion euros ($4.99 billion) for the business, and 1.65 billion euros ($2.18 billion) for its patent armory.

Microsoft hopes that allying with its biggest Windows Phone manufacturer will speed up growth (and improve its smartphone market share) — the company is already promising “increased synergies.” CEO Steve Ballmer added: “It’s a bold step into the future – a win-win for employees, shareholders and consumers of both companies. Bringing these great teams together will accelerate Microsoft’s share and profits in phones, and strengthen the overall opportunities for both Microsoft and our partners across our entire family of devices and services.”

According to the companies’ press releases, 32,000 people will transfer across Microsoft, including 4,700 people in Finland and 18,300 employees directly involved in product manufacture. If you thought it was only the Windows Phone component of the phone business, you’d be wrong: Microsoft will also take into ownership Nokia’s Asha range of feature phones. Patent-wise, Microsoft gets 10-year non-exclusive license to its Finnish partner’s library of ideas and “reciprocal rights” to use Microsoft patents within its HERE mapping services. While Microsoft will be able to use the Nokia branding on its products, the Finnish company will now focus on its mapping, infrastructure and advanced tech arms.

Update: In Microsoft’s presentation on the rationale of the acquisition, the two parties state that “we are confident about our prospects for approval by early 2014.” Just a few more months to go!

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia

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Source: Nokia

Ok, so here’s the deal: WIMM Labs was one of the earliest entrants into the smartwatch space, way back in 2011. While the Android-based WIMM One failed to set the consumer market on fire, it apparently caught Google’s eye. In the summer of 2012, the company put a simple message up on its site declaring that it had entered an exclusive partnership with an unnamed entity for its technology and would thus be ending sales of its devices. Now it appears that partner was Google — a Mountain View spokesperson just confirmed the acquisition to us.

The company’s immediate plans for WIMM are not yet public but, according to GigaOM, most of the staff stayed on board and are now working with the Android team. The obvious use would be in developing Google’s own rumored smartwatch product, which would likely incorporate many of WIMM Lab’s SDKs and existing platform tools. However, it’s worth noting that the company doesn’t consider itself merely a maker of app-running timepieces, but a manufacturer of wearables in general. We wouldn’t be shocked if some of WIMM’s tech and experience was put to good use in Glass.

Filed under: Wearables, Mobile, Google

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Via: GigaOM

The team behind Apple’s acquisitions appear to have picked up another company this week, here with the brand AlgoTrim – a company that makes a mission of compressing data for mobile devices – and perhaps for iOS sooner than later. While the company has been mainly working in Android device software codec for the past […]

Flickr is a killer resource for photographers of all stripes, but navigating through its massive photo catalog is far from elegant. Hopefully, Yahoo’s purchase of IQ Engines can change that. According to the image recognition startup’s website, IQ will be applying its skills to improving photo organization and search functionality to the online photo repository. Maybe its first order of business will be arranging all of Yahoo’s new logos.

Filed under: Internet

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: IQ Engines