Mobile Network Comparison

Insiders are reporting that Apple has slashed its orders for new iPhone 5 screens prompting rumours that they are scaling down production in preparation for the launch of the iPhone 6. It seems unlikely but it’s an increasingly-popular explanation for Apple cutting down its component orders.

Sources said to be familiar with Apple’s component purchases have told the Wall Street Journal that in the first quarter of 2013 wholesale orders for iPhone 5 screens are down by about 50%. And it’s not just screens – they are saying that Apple has recently cut its orders from component suppliers producing all sorts of iPhone parts.

Analysts were initially worried that this information indicated a lack of confidence in Apple’s flagship smartphone. After all, iPhone 5 sales seem to have been slowing over the last few months. The Wall Street Journal’s correspondent Juro Osawa reports that the cuts were made about a month ago and this could indicate that the demand for the new iPhone could have been overestimated. Apple may have overproduced phones in the run up to Christmas and now is slowing down new production while existing inventory is sold.

The existing rumours about a newer cut-price iPhone may be causing consumers to wait instead of buying an expensive iPhone 5, again causing demand to fall. However, the most likely explanation is the continuing changes and evolutions of the smartphone market and greater competition across all price points. Following the breathtaking results from in smartphone sales over the last year, experts predict that smartphone sales are growing but that premium products like the iPhone 5 are likely to take a smaller proportion of all sales. This could result in the production cuts we’re seeing at the beginning of this year. However, as we have not heard about similar figures from competition manufacturers such as Samsung so it’s hard to be sure about the cause of the scale down.

Another explanation is unrelated to waning demand for the iPhone 5. Apple may merely be reducing production in anticipation of a new smartphone launch. Whether it’s a full update and brand spanking new iPhone 6 or a smaller upgrade (perhaps an iPhone 5S) remains to be seen. Given the iPhone 5 is still quite new and by extrapolating from typical Apple release schedules, we’d have to admit a brand new phone is unlikely. The iPhone 5 was only just released back in September and one of the main changes from previous models was the new taller, four inch screen.

Regardless, a new Apple smartphone of some sort may be a good explanation for the information we’re getting about iPhone component orders. In the meantime, the suppliers may be struggling following this news. Many have very specialised factories to make production for Apple as efficient as possible but this means it is much hard for them to switch to other non-Apple products. Such a significant decrease in orders is going to make it very hard for them to fill the left over production capacity.

What do you think? Is Apple struggling to sell the iPhone 5 or is it more likely that a new phone is coming? And if there will be a new iPhone, what do you think it will be called and when will it be released? Let us know…

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Google has just released the latest Android OS platform versions details. These data show what proportion of Android devices are running which version of Android. The results are quite promising for Google – over 10% of users have the latest version of Android (Jelly Bean version 4.1 or 4.2) on their phone or tablet.

The methodology used by Google was to collect data from Google Play users over the busy Christmas period between 21 December 2012 and 3 January 2013. From this information, they aim to help develops get a better idea of which versions their apps need to support.

We’ve included the data below so you can see for yourself. Each column is sortable by clicking on the arrows in the header.

It’s easy to see that Gingerbread leads the way comfortably with almost 50% of devices using Android version 2.3.3-2.3.7. Next closest is Ice Cream Sandwich with a total of almost 30% of devices. Fragmentation of Android is not as bad as some would claim as early versions of Android such as the pre-Gingerbread Donut, Eclair and Froyo only just make up 10% between them.

Historical distribution and graphics

The follow graph (credit Google, edited for sensible date format) shows how quickly each subsequent version of Android has been adopted.

The graph is promising for Google as it shows that adoption of the new Jelly Bean version of Android is currently faster than what the previous version, Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) managed when it was released. Although it has only been out for about half a year, Jelly Bean has already managed to get almost 10% of users. In comparison, Ice Cream Sandwich was only on about 7% after a longer period of time.

However, drawing conclusions is not quite as simple as raw statistics. It’s also important to consider how big a change each new version is – vastly different versions of software are often adopted slower as the task for manufacturers to port them to their hardware becomes more complex. The solid progress of Jelly bean might merely be attributed to the fact it consists only of relatively minor updates so more devices are viable and introducing the upgrade is relatively painless.

Furthermore, the progress hasn’t been so good everywhere. In the UK, TechCrunch are reporting that thousands of EE customers have still to get a Jelly bean update on the fantastic Samsung Galaxy SIII. This phone is more than capable of running the latest versions of Android so that’s not an issue at all and all the other networks have already rolled out Android 4.1.1 onto the Galaxy SIII. In fact, O₂ and Three Mobile were very quick of the mark to push out the update. It’s not exactly clear why Orange and T-Mobile are dragging their heels but forums are filled with frustrated messages threatening to leave over the farcical delay. Still, overall amongst the majority of networks, Jelly Bean is being adopted very quickly.

Google also provide information about the most popular screen sizes for Android devices. Although this data is somewhat out of date due to being collected in October last year, in general, big screens haven’t caught on in a big way yet. The vast majority of screens are, as Google defines them, “normal”. Barely 6% of devices have large screen and less than 5% boast xlarge screens – in total this is barely 10% of devices with almost all of the remainder on normal-sized screens.

Pixel density has also been measured by Google. They report that over half of all devices now have high pixel density which almost 30% now are running extra high pixel density. Small screens with low pixel density now make up just only less than 2% of Android devices.

On graphical performance, Google also report than nowadays almost all smartphones have support for OpenGL ES 2.0. Over 90% of devices have it meaning that less than a tenth of Android users are stuck with just support for OpenGL ES version 1.1.

What do you think of these stats? Are you on Android Jelly Bean yet? If so, what do you think of it and how quickly were you upgraded? And can anyone guess what the next version of Android is going to be codenamed?

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Serial entrepreneur Dan Lane has sadly announced that his project Impossible Telecom has effectively been put been on indefinite hold. There’s been a bit of a hiatus in updates leading many to assume that he’d run into some stumbling blocks and unfortunately that seems to be the case. He has announced that he’s no longer working full time on the company.

Dan just blogged earlier this week explaining that he has been working hard on the start-up over the last year putting his telecoms expertise to use. However, although the network was due to launch about six months ago, the reason it was never able to get off the ground is because the parents networks that would be providing the infrastructure and selling on their airtime and network capabilities didn’t want to play ball.

Dan Lane doesn’t go into great detail but the implication is that either his idea for Impossible Telecom was too novel or that the existing networks deemed it too great a threat. We think it’s a real shame. Some of the ideas that were going to form the backbone of Impossible Telecom were really exciting and came from proper blue skies thinking.

We first took a detailed look at Impossible Telecom back in April 2012. One of the exciting ideas put forward was the ability to have two accounts or phone numbers on one SIM card. So that you don’t need to carry around multiple devices to have a separate number for work and for personal use. Even better, Impossible Telecom was going to let you use your same mobile number on different phones and in different places. And to let you share your call, text and data bundles across all your devices.

We need people like Dan Lane to push forward the evolution of technologies that so often stay stagnant. Can we really trust by-the-book companies like Vodafone and O₂ to invest in real innovation? When the UK’s networks drag their feet on basic stuff like the introduction of 4G, progressive and affordable data plans or even simple apps like real-time itemised billing how can we expect them to produce mobile services for the future. Things fit for the 21st century? There’s far too much corporate close-mindedness, playing catch-up and chasing after profits.

Sadly, it’s looking like Impossible Telecom won’t be happening any time soon but the good news is that we might see some of the technology that went into it appearing as standalone products in the coming years.

What do you think? Are you surprised that Impossible Telecom didn’t work in the end? What was your most anticipated feature? If you were designing a mobile network, what innovations would you introduce? And do you agree with our analysis of the existing mainstream networks?

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