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.

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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.”


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