Mobile/ProductPlanning/Notes-2014-02-11

Hot items

• Erin

Feature discussions?

• Is there any particular feature work we need to talk through? Snippets, Product Announcements, Hub, ??
• Erin needs to follow up on Product Announcements.

Marketing

• Jesse

Insights

• Kev & Bill

• Sony Selling Vaio Division to Focus on Mobile
• In last minute move before finalized sale to Microsoft, Nokia launches Android phone - The graphic in this article is making the rounds currently, with people expressing surprise at Android's dominance. It's important to remember that this chart represents shipments of all Android devices, from the $27 devices through the $600+. Apple targets a very specific, and very lucrative, demographic, and its apparent declining market share should be viewed with that in mind (it's a threat, but Apple continues to be very, very profitable). Related, the Guardian called on Microsoft to kill Windows Phone and fork Android. Ars has a pretty solid overview on why that's not a great idea.
• Android becomes most popular OS in Africa
• Jolla open-sources its Sailfish browser - The Sailfish browser is available on GitHub now. Of note is the quote from Stefano Mosconi expressing a desire to get support from Mozilla. (Have there been any discussions?)
• Google rumored to start attacking fragmentation from a licensing perspective. This is a rumor, but an interesting one. The long and short of it is that Google's app licensing program may be about to impose a requirement for licensors to provide end-users with up-to-date versions of Android. This is a way they could do it with mid and higher-end devices from it's major manufacturers, and may also be part of the agreement struck with Samsung. Possibly opens some more opportunities, but not in the short term.
• The percentage of Android devices that don't ship Google apps? 33 according to this report from ABI research.
• Geeksphone announces its Revolution, a dual-boot Firefox OS/Android device.

Feedback

• Tyler & Robert

Feature walkthrough

• [Erin] FxAccounts and Sync <==mostly just accounts; I need someone to talk me through how to actually sync

Roundtable

• Anything else?