Android Tablets: 62 Pct. Of Sales But Only 23 Pct. Of Traffic

Gartner released new estimates of 2013 tablet sales on a global basis. The firm said that Android saw its market share go from 46 percent in 2012 to 62 percent last year. Apple’s share fell from 53 percent to 36 percent accordingly.

As with the smartphone market in the US and selected other markets, Apple remains the single largest individual vendor.

Yet again, very strangely, Android shipments and alleged market share don’t line up with actual internet traffic figures.

Below are data from StatCounter that reflect global internet traffic from tablets. Unless the StatCounter data are skewed or otherwise inaccurate, Apple drives 72 percent of tablet-based internet traffic while Android is responsible for 24 percent. All others generate 4 percent.

In the US market the iPad generates 77 percent of tablet traffic.

Google to strategically invest in Android, Chrome

Pumped up by robust demand for content, apps and devices across its platform, search giant Google is set to make “strategic” investments in Android, Chrome, YouTube and Enterprise, among others, to further shore up revenue.

The company, headquartered in Mountain View, California, said last week that consolidated revenue rose 17% to $16.86 billion in the October-December quarter, helped by strong demand for content, apps and devices. Net income climbed 17% to $3.37 billion.

Google said it will continue to invest in three major areas. These include core ads (search and display advertising) and businesses that demonstrate high consumer success, such as YouTube, Android/Play and Chrome.

It will also invest in new businesses towards driving adoption and innovation like social, commerce and enterprise.

Speaking to analysts last week, Google chief financial officer, Patrick Pichette said the firm will continue to invest for the long term and its infrastructure continues to be a key strategic area.

“Our free cash flow, in consequence of all this, was $3 billion. So there you have it, strong results and an optimism that provides us the confidence to fund strategic growth opportunities, including Android, Chrome, YouTube, Enterprise, just to name a few,” he told analysts.

In the fourth quarter of 2013, capital expenditure was $2.26 billion, a majority of which was used for production equipment, data-center construction and real estate purchases.

As of December 31, the company had cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $58.72 billion.

Amazon GameCircle now open for Android devices

Amazon Game Circle which was established a year back for only Kindle is now readily available for Android devices as well as announced in a blog post.

It is generally provides game developers very easy to be implement achievements, leaderboards to be compare scores and also saved game syncing, across kindly device as well as any other Android devices.

Whispersync technology in Game Circle is an expert solution to be automatically resolved conflicts and also a queue update if a user is playing out the game offline. It generally supports JNI, Unity3D and Java.

To be get started out with the game circle, a developer needs to have to be Download the Amazon Mobile App SDK, which is consists of the Game Circle APIs, and also then generate a developer account.

Google has also released a very similar feature set with Google Play games service. It also permits game progress keeping track, leaderboards and also achievements to be stored in the synced and cloud between devices, plus helps real-time multiplayer gaming.

On the other hand, while Amazon’s platform remains till Android, Google’s game service also works on the web and is in addition to be Android.

Game Circle’s early adopters which consist of Spry Fox (Triple Town), GameHouse ( Doodle jump, Collapse) and Imangi Studios (Temple Run).

Education are built on Google App: Google Play For Education

Tablets with Google Play for Education give teachers access to approved tools and content that help them meet the individual needs of today’s students. With simple set up and instant app-deployment, a world of resources is at your fingertips.

Google Play for Education has officially launched. It’s an extension of Google Play that’s designed for schools, simplifying discovery of educational apps and enabling developers and content providers to reach K-12 educators in the U.S. It offers bulk purchasing with purchase orders and instant distribution of educational apps, videos and other educational content to students’ Android Tablets via the cloud. Google Play for Education helps your apps gain visibility with the right audiences, without having to knock on school doors.

Google first announced plans for Google Play for Education at its I/O developer conference in May, and has been testing the new educational offering in beta for the past several months with thousands of students and more than 50 schools.

Discover, purchase, and share educational apps, books, and videos easily with Google Play for Education – a new online destination just for schools.

• Browse content by grade, subject, or standard including Common Core
• Purchase via PO with no credit card required
• Distribute apps instantly via the cloud

Google Play for Education is an extension of Google Play designed for schools. Here educators can discover apps approved by teachers for teachers, as well as educational videos and a collection of classic books for their classroom. Teachers can search for approved apps by grade, subject and standard, including Common Core, pay using a purchase order, and deploy the content to students instantly.

Schools can choose from three classroom ready tablet options: Nexus 7 (a 7” tablet) available today, and the ASUS Transformer Pad (a 10” tablet) or the HP Slate 8 Pro (an 8” tablet), both available early next year. Schools can set up a classroom of tablets in minutes with a few simple taps. Just hold the administrator tablet together with the student tablet to set up each device quickly. Tablets with Google Play for Education are built on Google Apps for Education so students use their Google accounts to log in seamlessly. Tablet pricing starts at $229 and management is $30 per tablet.

“With more than 30 million people using Google Apps for Education already, tablets with Google Play for Education easily plug into many schools’ existing technology. This is an affordable, 1:1 solution that puts greater power in the hands of teachers to find the best tools and content for their classrooms. We’re continuing to evolve the Google in Education offering and are happy to bring even more choice in devices and content” Said by, Rick Borovoy, Product Manager for Google Play for Education

Kindle Fire HDX By Amazon

Online retail Giant Amazon announced the release of Fire OS 3.1 on Monday, a software update for the Kindle Fire HD and HDX tablets.

Fire OS 3.1 brings some new bits and bobs to Amazon’s latest tablet lineup, the Kindle Fire HD and the 7in and 8.9in kindle fire HDX tablets.

Key Features: 7-inch IPS screen, 1,920 x 1,200 pixel resolution;

Quad-core 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 with 2GB RAM;

Custom Amazon UI Fire 3.1, Android Jelly Bean; 4,550mAh battery; 720p front-facing camera

Manufacturer: Amazon

As part of the latest Kindle Fire platform update, Amazon has rolled out features that will make the tablets fit better into a work environment. These features alone will not elevate the Kindle Fire HDX to a serious business tool, but they do mean you can now use the device for more than just catching up on your reading and playing Angry Birds at home.

The big news is that the Kindle Fire HDX now has a native VPN client app. While you could download a VPN client, the integration makes things simpler. And that’s what Kindle Fire is all about. Like everything Amazon does with its Kindle HDX series, setting up a VPN is simple. For each profile, you’ll enter a name for the profile, choose from a selection of VPN security protocols, and select whether you want PPP encryption.

Regular customers of Amazon will appreciate that integration. A row of tabs at the top of the screen offers quick access to various Amazon services, including e-books, music, videos and audiobooks, the latter from the Audible business that Amazon bought in 2008. Another tab gets you Amazon’s shopping site, where you can buy television sets, vacuum cleaners and tennis rackets. The Kindle is already tied to your Amazon account, so it’s easy – perhaps too easy – to just click and buy.

The Fires are built really nicely. A mix of glass, soft-touch plastic and glossy piano-black plastic combine with well-engineered fine lines to make the tablets comfortable to hold and use. Extremely light — 303g for the 7-inch and 374g for the 8.9-inch — and well balanced, both devices are easy to hold while watching a long movie or reading a few hundred pages of a novel. Being very thin and very light makes quite a bit of difference, and both models are suitable for one-hand holding.

Features:

Amazon’s re-skinned version of Android is still at the heart of the Kindle Fire HDX, so there’s no customizable home screens or widgets to be found here. Running on the Custom Amazon UI Fire 3.0 over Android Jelly Bean, it’s once again all about driving you through Amazon’s various content portals whether it’s the Amazon app store, Kindle eBooks or making use of Amazon’s various cloud supported services.

The heavy re-skinning of Android is not going to be to everyone’s tastes, but it runs much smoother than it does on the Amazon Kindle Fire HD even if it takes some time to get to grips with some features like swiping away from the bezel to get back to the home screen.

Crucially, Amazon has improved the Kindle Fire HD X’s innards adding a quad-core 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 with 2GB of RAM. In theory, it should make it faster than the Nexus 7 2 and it’s clear things definitely run quicker.

Elsewhere, the Kindle Fire HDX includes a 720p HD front-facing camera, is available in 16/32/64GB models and has a promised battery life of up to 11 hours thanks to the 4,500mAh nestled inside its slimmer body.

Amazon Kindle VP Peter Larsen said, “The response to our new family of Kindle Fire tablets has been fantastic, and we’re excited to add new features we think our customers will love.”