MWC 2013 reveals Firefox OS & Tizen OS launching Second & Third Quarter 2013 respectively - Samsung's Despicable Me 2 & Mozilla practices The ABC's of Death

Remember the list in my blog article entitled “Samsung's Tizen OS, Mozilla Foundation's Firefox OS and Canonical's Ubuntu OS to launch by Fourth Quarter of 2013 - David Guetta's Titanium Pacific RIM Robots to Battle Google Android” existing the various OS out there in the smartphone world?

Shorten that list thus by removing the established smartphone OS and leave behind those that are truly Open Source and support HTML5:

1.      Tizen OS

2.      Firefox OS

3.      Ubuntu OS

4.      Web OS

Below are screenshots of the top Three (3) mobile phone OS Contenders:

MWC (Mobile World Conference), the week-long get together for Telecom Providers and Telecom Equiptment Makers and their latest gear that started Monday February 25^th 2013 as stated in “What mattered as MWC begins”, published February 25, 2013 12:50 AM PST by Katie Collins, CNET News was mainly about those mobile OS above. Google took a decidedly low key approach, being a most Handset providers were already partner with Google and sporting Android.

Apparently, the Alliance with Google’s Android Empire is falling apart. Google, acutely aware of the shifting tide of power, was careful not to ruffle feathers among the Telecom Providers. This time around they’re keeping their presence low keys after two (2) years of extravagant booths as noted in “Google's ninja approach to Mobile World Congress”, published February 27, 2013 9:37 AM PST by Roger Cheng, CNET News.

The Telecom Providers, albeit benefitting from the increase in Data Usage, are effectively reduced to “dumb pipes” carrying Data Services. Data Services are not as spectrally efficient as Voice Services i.e. requires More Bandwidth for lower APRU (Average Revenue per User).

This along with the cost, is part of the reason for the reluctance among Telcos in Europe to build out LTE (Long Term Evolution) Networks as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “LIME, Digicel and FLOW – Leading the Global 4G Adoption Curve”.

Even worse is the sentiment among Telecom Handset makers, who aren’t making anything after the one off sales of Handsets; Apple and Google make additional revenue from their various App Stores as noted in my blog article entitled “Samsung's Tizen, Firefox OS and Ubuntu OS to unseat Google Android by 2015 - How Linux and HTML 5 are Oz the Great and Powerful for Open Source”. Double that revenue for Apple; they own both the handset and iOS.

Thus Telecom Handset makers have more than enough reason to want to have their OWN OS, with the Telecom Providers getting a slice of the action by hosting their own App Store on their own Servers. Laziness to develop either, amusingly and ironically, may have been at the root of their earlier acceptance of Google’s offer of Android back in 2009.

Guess they never saw this current situation, where the App Stores and Web Search would allow Apple and Google to continue making money ad infinitum until the consumer got tired of their mobile phone. They only saw the short term gain of Increased Data Plan adoption and more smartphone sales.

Thus the following announcements indicate that the plans to move away from Google Android are well advanced. Samsung is especially serious about getting a slice of the App Economy as Mobile Computing is hot right now as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “Samsung’s Tizen OS launched to partake in Apple and Google’s App Economy”.

This thirst for faster Data for Mobile Computing is a herald for the next big thing; Wearable Computing as prognosticated in my Geezam blog article entitled “Augmented Reality Contact Lens development will shrink smartphones to Feature Phone size”.

Samsung has announced handsets with Tizen OS coming out in July 2013, basically the Third Quarter of 2013 as noted in “Samsung to launch first Tizen smartphone as early as July”, published February 24, 2013 1:22 PM PST by Roger Cheng, CNET News.

Samsung also has a product launch for the Samsung Galaxy S4 on Thursday March 14^th 2013 “Samsung confirms Galaxy S4 to launch March 14”, published February 24, 2013 9:00 PM PST by Roger Cheng, CNET News, with handsets going on sales as early as July 2013, also in the Third Quarter of 2013.

If I’m reading the Tea Leaves right, this may be the last time you’ll see Android on a Samsung Device, as they may expropriate Tizen OS to Tablets and even their line of Television Sets by the Fourth Quarter of 2013.

They have the manufacturing base, marketing savvy and distribution networks to literally become like Apple and beat Apple at their own game, the ultimate revenge for their Copyright Case loss last year as reported in my blog article entitled “Apple wins US$1.05 billion in Patent Infringement Case against Samsung - Jurors in a Premium Rush to Limit Innovation in Product Design”.

As for Mozilla Corporation’s Firefox OS, what they lack in having a strong manufacturing base, marketing savvy and distribution networks they make up for in partnerships with BOTH Telecom Handset Makers and Telecom Providers:

Telecom Handset Maker Partnerships

1.      Alcatel

2.      ZTE

3.      LG Electronics

4.      Huawei

5.      Chipmaker Qualcomm, who’s backing this platform

Telecom Providers Partnerships

1.      America Movil for Latin America

2.      China Unicom for China

3.      Deutsche Telekom in Europe

4.      Etisalat

5.      Hutchison Three Group

6.      KDDI in Japan

7.      KT

8.      MegaFon

9.      Qtel

10.  SingTel

11.  Smart

12.  Sprint

13.  Telecom Italia Group

14.  Telefonica

15.  Telenor

16.  Telstra

17.  TMN

18.  VimpelCom

They also have the element of surprise, with plans well advanced for Firefox OS to go live in the Second Quarter of 2013 as noted in “Global allies give Mozilla's Firefox OS a mobile foothold”, published February 24, 2013 9:05 AM PST by Stephen Shankland, CNET Reviews. Their strategy makes sense too: smartphones for Developing World markets still clinging to Feature phones that are cheaper with Telecom Providers wanting to go LTE but unable to source low-cost smartphones.

Nielsen Stats provide insight into the true uptake of smartphones globally, indicating it’s really a Developed and First World Trend, with the Developing World barely interested as noted in “Feature phones are tops in countries where the smartphone networks still need time to expand”, says Nielsen, published February 25, 2013 9:46 AM PST by Lance Whitney, CNET News.

The Nielsen Stats read as thus:

1.      67% in South Korea (home of Samsung and LG)

2.      66% in China

3.      61% in the U.K (surprise; mostly Blackberry’s though!)

4.      53% in the U.S (like duh-uh?!)

5.      37% in Russia

6.      36% in Brazil (America Movil and Vodafone get the Credit here!)

7.      19% in Turkey

8.      10% in India

Clearly the Developing World, which starts at Russia in this list, is far behind. Jamaica is getting in on the smartphone hype as noted in my blog article entitled “Blackberry popularity wanes as Jamaicans go smartphones - Android and Apple's Smartphone Revolution”. Jamaica is very far down on this list, as this is still Blackberry country as surmised in my Geezam blog article entitled “Apple iPhone boosts Jamaican smartphone usage as BB goes Chapter 11 Bankruptcy”, mainly due to the cost of owning a smartphone and Data Plans. 

Millennials (ages 18 to 28), whether in the Developed or Developing World, are still the driving force behind Data Plan my blog article entitled “OUR Telecom Provider Stats indicate JA$14 billion profit for Second Quarter of 2011AD - Telecom Providers Stacking up all Faces on the Argo Video Calling and VoIP on smartphones”. and thus smartphone adoptions as noted in “Teens grab up smartphones faster than other age groups”, published September 10, 2012 7:09 PM PDT by Dara Kerr, CNET News.

So Mozilla’s upped the ante with Firefox OS and is putting its money where its mouth is by finally developing what’s obviously a winning Strategy for Mobile Computing as had been hoped in my Geezam blog article entitled “Chrome 16 beats Firefox and IE8 –Mozilla going Mobile and Cloud OS on Smartphones, Tablets and UltraBoooks”.

And they better hurry. Apple apparently is still toying with the idea of a cheaper, unlocked plastic World Phone version of its expensive and very profitable Apple iPhone to attack this very same market as suggested in the article “Bigger, thicker, cheaper, plastic iPhone coming next year (rumor)”, published February 28, 2013 3:40 PM PST by Josh Lowensohn, CNET News and “A Pop Phone For The Kids: Japanese Blog Says $330 Plastic iPhone Is In The Works”, published 2/28/2013 @ 11:56PM by Anthony Wing Kosner, Contributor, Forbes.

This sounds a lot like rumours that spouted by the Wall Street Journal  and Bloomberg and echoed by Digital Trends some two years ago about this time, February 2011 of a cheaper Apple iPhone made of Plastic as per the articles “WSJ: New smaller iPhone real, MobileMe may become free, iTunes music streaming coming soon”, published February 13, 2011 by Andrew Couts, DigitalTrends and “Apple is said to work on Cheaper, smaller iPhones”, published February 11, 2011 10:04 AM ET by Peter Burrows and Gregory Bensinger, BloomBerg.

I did an article on the Geezam blog entitled “Towards a cheaper Apple iPhone – Batteries Not Included” as well as on my personal blog entitled “Apple iPhone 5 and its Design - Of Gods, Critics, Lemmings, Sheep and Men”. That, of course, was the year the Apple iPhone 4S came out, followed by the Apple iPhone 5 in 2012.

So if anything, Samsung has something serious to worry about this Summer of 2013 as  their very actions of accelerating the launch of Tizen OS and its carte blanch replacement of Google Android on all their smartphones may indicate that they’re anticipating Apple to make such a “Pop” Apple iPhone.

Hopefully too, Samsung’s Tizen and the other OS Makers will join Forces so as to improve their chances of ousting Google Android from the smartphone OS world. This by going after the still untapped Developing World where Feature phones are still holding on strong as Samsung's Despicable Me 2 (2013) & Mozilla practices The ABC's of Death (2013).