Opera Software has signed an agreement with Microsoft to become the default mobile app store on the Nokia Symbian feature phones and Nokia X platform devices. From the first quarter of next year, the Nokia Store app will redirect to the Opera Mobile Store for the Nokia Series 40, Series 60, Symbian, Asha, and Nokia X.

With the agreement, Opera will be the third largest mobile app store in the world after Google Play and the App Store. Over 40,000 developers contribute to the Opera mobile store ecosystem, which has close to 300,000 apps and sees about 70 million downloads every month. Opera recently surpassed 50 millions users in India and has become the third most downloaded app in the country.

Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera Software, told Tech in Asia: “We are the third biggest independent mobile advertising company after Facebook and Google. With our strong user base, the mobile app developers can advertise their apps to a larger audience and also make the best of our billing integration which lets users buy apps even without a credit card.”

Nokia Symbian, Asha, and Nokia X device owners will get to use the web-based Opera mobile store to browse, discover, and download apps. However, users on the Nokia X platform, which is based on the Android Open Source Project, will have a slightly different experience. The tweak is needed in order to deliver a typical Android smartphone experience to these users.

The migration of the Nokia app store to Opera is expected to finish by the first half of 2015. The Nokia store will no longer be accessible following the move.

techinasia

As Microsoft continues sloughing off the Nokia brand name on phones, the Nokia Store for feature phones will cease to exist.

Having already dropped the Nokia branding for its latest smartphone -- the Microsoft Lumia 535 -- Microsoft is set to shut down the Nokia Store in the first half of 2015.

The Nokia Store enables owners of Nokia feature phones, such as the Asha series, and Symbian and Nokia X phones to download apps to their devices. Based on the last statistics released two years ago, the store was serving up to 15 million downloads daily.

Users will, however, still be able to get access to apps via a deal with Opera Software. Starting in the first quarter of 2015, users will be redirected to the Opera Mobile Store, which currently has close to 300,000 apps.

The migration of users to the Opera Mobile Store is expected to be complete in the first half of 2015, when the Nokia Store shuts down.

Both Microsoft and Opera are "looking into methods to help developers move their content over, and this will be communicated to developers ahead of the migration," Opera said in statement.

As for phone owners who have paid for apps from the Nokia Store, Opera said the "the company will work closely with developers to find out the best solution for consumers."

Opera added that consumers should not delete a previously purchased app once the transition takes place, or they will need to buy it again.

This isn't the first time that Opera and Microsoft have collaborated. In August, both companies struck a deal to use the Opera Mini browser as the default browser for Microsoft's feature and Asha handsets.

cnet

Samsung will stop producing so many models of smartphones and focus on a core set of devices in the new year, the company said Tuesday.

Speaking to investors in New York, Samsung's head of investor relations, Robert Yi, said his company plans to cut the number of smartphone models it produces in 2015 by 25 percent to 30 percent, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Though Samsung is still a juggernaut in the mobile business, the company has watched its smartphone business start to falter in key markets, such as China. In China specifically, chief competitor Xiaomi has been able to increase smartphone shipments and get consumers excited about its products by delivering higher-end devices at budget-conscious prices.

Meanwhile, Apple, with its new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, has moved to offer smartphones with larger screens, which had been a key point of distinction for Samsung.

The South Korean company's latest quarterly returns put the situation in stark relief. At the end of October, Samsung said that third-quarter income in its mobile business tumbled 74 percent from the previous year and that its operating profits were the lowest they'd been since the middle of 2011. It also warned that smartphone competition would be fierce toward the end of the year.
Samsung is also dealing with increasingly strained margins as its marketing costs have risen considerably. In the third quarter, the company generated just 7 percent margins on smartphones, down from 15 percent in previous years, the Journal reported.

Prompted by the shifts, Samsung had already said that it plans to "fundamentally reform" its product lineup.

Here's how overwhelming Samsung's array of products has become: In just its flagship Galaxy S line, Samsung offers five models beyond the namesake Galaxy S5: the knockabout Galaxy S5 Active and Galaxy S5 Sport; the more modest Galaxy S5 Mini; the Galaxy K Zoom with a higher-end camera; and the Galaxy S5 LTE-Advanced for higher Internet speeds.

There's also the Note phablet line, the new, metal-clad Galaxy Alpha devices and a long list of other Android and Windows Phones devices.

The idea behind streamlining its offerings is simple: the company will be able to cut its overall costs and find ways to improve efficiency in production. Marketing dollars will also be spread across fewer products. Samsung is also planning to use the same components in multiple products to help cut costs.

Yi didn't say how many smartphones the company will ship next year. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

CNET

OnePlus has sold just over 500,000 phones since the new Chinese brand hit the market in 16 countries in May. Carl Pei, OnePlus’ co-founder, revealed the number to Forbes and said that the plan is to sell one million by the end of the year.

Pei explained to Tech in Asia via email that half of those phones sold are in China.

OnePlus makes only one gadget at the moment, the Android-based OnePlus One, which has received largely positive reviews from around the world for being a solid yet powerful phone for just US$300.

While one million would be a solid tally for OnePlus’ first eight months in business, it seems clear that the new brand, which is a spin-off from Oppo, is not seeing the same traction as Xiaomi. The disruptive Xiaomi, which first started making affordable smartphones in late 2011, sold 7.2 million phones in 2012, its first full year in business. Xiaomi plans to sell 60 million this year.

Pei also explained to Forbes that – following the lead of Xiaomi again – OnePlus is looking into making a variety of gadget accessories in order to boost its revenues. “We’ve made a really social brand that people are fans of. If we make lifestyle products or specialized accessories, I think those will do really well,” he added.

The need to make money from other channels is imperative because, as Pei reveals, OnePlus makes a mere “single-figure dollar amount on each phone” that it sells. It’s already running a trimmed-down business that only sells online and has minimal inventory. But that makes it tough to ramp up production. Pei replied to our question about manufacturing constraints by explaining: “Manufacturing capacity has never been the issue, but rather planning. A key component [of the phone] has a three-month order lead time, and due to us not having large margins, we can’t afford to manufacture more than we’re sure to sell.”


TechInAsia

A recent study monitoring the behavior of mobile phone owners shows that the average smartphone owner picks up his device a staggering 1,500 times in a week and spends more than three hours a day staring into its screen.

The numbers come from a survey of 2,000 smartphone owners, conducted by the Tecmark marketing agency and reported by the Daily Mail.

The subjects first reached for their phones at 7:30 in the morning, on average, and many admitted to finding themselves using their phones “without realizing they’re doing so.” Two-thirds even said they manage to log in and browse Facebook without thinking about it, and four in 10 said the same about checking email.

Tecmark says its findings show that there are, on average, 140 tasks in a typical day that people now turn to smartphones for, cutting into time that used to be spent at desktops or laptops.

That last part seems to match recent Web surfing numbers. Earlier this year, mobile Web traffic actually overtook that of desktop computers for the first time in history. The decline in Web hits from PCs also somewhat coincides with an overall drop in computer sales in the past five years.

Could we soon be shifting to another screen? Some analysts are predicting the rise of a new, smaller display that could steal glances from smartphones: the smartwatch.

Google’s new Android Wear watches and Apple’s upcoming Apple Watch connect wirelessly to the handset in your pocket (or on your nightstand) and provide access to texts, emails, directions, and search information right from your wrist.

Though we’re not ready to crown these gizmos as smartphone killers just yet, we’ll certainly be watching their impact over the next year or so.

In the meantime, try looking up once in a while. OK?

(AP) - Apple filled a gaping hole in its product lineup with new iPhones boasting larger screens like Samsung's flagship Galaxy smartphones. Now, Samsung is coming out with a smaller phone that looks and feels more like an iPhone.

The new iPhones measure 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches diagonally, up from 4 inches before. Still, that's smaller than the 5.1 inches on the Galaxy S5 and the 5.7 inches on the Galaxy Note 3 and 4 phones.

But even Samsung is stepping back from its recent practice of releasing ever-bigger phones. The new Galaxy Alpha matches the 4.7 inches on the iPhone 6 and has a metal frame like the new iPhones, reflecting Samsung's attempt to mirror Apple's emphasis on design.

Unfortunately, the Alpha falls short in a few ways, including the resolution of its display. Other shortcomings will become apparent as I go through the various features.

The Alpha will be available in the U.S. starting Friday through AT&T. It will cost $200 with a two-year service contract, or $613 without one. The $613 price, which can be paid in installments, is less than the $650 starting price for the Galaxy S5 and the iPhone 6. You also get double the storage with the Alpha, but it's still a high price to pay for technology that isn't top of the line.

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- THE BUILD:

The Alpha's metal frame represents a departure from previous Samsung Galaxy phones, which primarily consisted of polycarbonate plastics.

However, the Alpha still has a plastic back, albeit one that feels smoother and nicer than what's on the S5. You can swap in a spare battery, but can't add a memory card.

What struck me most was how the Alpha feels much like last year's iPhone 5s. The sides are smooth and straight, and the edges are at right angles, like the box for a deck of cards. The corners, though, are curved.

By contrast, the new iPhones feature curved edges, so they feel thinner, lighter and less boxy. But the Alpha is actually smaller, thinner and lighter than the iPhone 6 - by a tad. Compared with both, the S5 feels giant.

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- THE SCREEN:

Size isn't all that matters. The screens on the iPhone 6 and the S5 are both sharper than the Alpha's. The Alpha's screen is decent for reading text and viewing images, but it's about the same resolution as what Samsung built into the Galaxy S III phone back in 2012.

Like other Samsung phones, the Alpha uses a screen technology called AMOLED, for active-matrix organic light-emitting diodes. This is designed to produce richer colors than iPhones, but sometimes the technology goes overboard. For instance, some people complain that AMOLED technology distorts color, so human skin looks too orange, for instance. There was a hint of that when viewing photos and video, but not enough to bother me.

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- THE CAMERA:

The Alpha's camera is 12 megapixels, less than the 16 megapixels on the S5. Although the Alpha's megapixel count is still higher than the iPhone's 8 megapixels, Apple has squeezed many other technological touches into iPhones to deliver consistently good images.

I took dozens of photos with all three phones and found the megapixel count mattered only in a handful. In good light, street signs and posters on a store window across the street came out slightly better on both Samsung phones.

However, the iPhone 6 was typically better at getting the focus right, particularly for low-light and close-up shots. The iPhone 6 quickly captures text on a bottle of contact lens solution, while it took a few tries with the Samsung phones to get the focusing right.

On some evening shots of the New York skyline, I could make out the rectangular windows of apartment buildings when using the iPhone, thanks to anti-shake stabilization technology. With both Samsung phones, the lights from the windows were bleeding into one another.

In my test shots, the iPhone 6 also had better white balance to offset the yellowish coloring of indoor lighting. That said, the Alpha produced the richest colors in a few of my shots.

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- THE REMAINING HARDWARE:

Like the S5, the Alpha has a heart-rate monitor for fitness apps and a fingerprint sensor to unlock the phone. But the Alpha lacks the S5's waterproof coverings. The new iPhones have only the fingerprint sensor. The Alpha and the iPhone 6 have comparable battery life in my tests.

The Alpha's storage stands out. It offers 32 gigabytes for about the same price as a 16-gigabyte phone from most rivals. With the new iPhones, Apple has doubled the storage in the pricier models, but the base models are still at 16 gigabytes. Most phones cost $100 more for a 32-gigabyte version.

Even with the added storage, the Alpha just seems too expensive for what you get. Given that memory costs have been coming down, more storage ought to be as routine as faster processors in each generation of phones.

The Alpha's design is impressive, but the rest of the phone is only adequate. HTC and Apple, for instance, have both been able to produce stunning designs while squeezing in the latest technologies.

Apple has made design central to its iPhones since its first model in 2007. Samsung seems to embracing the importance of design with the Alpha. Along the same lines, the upcoming Galaxy Note 4 phone will have a similar metal frame as Samsung attempts to ratchet up its rivalry with Apple. With better hardware, that phone will have a better chance than the Alpha at challenging the new iPhones.