Nokia Turnaround Gathers Pace, Shares Rise

The flat (white) OSS/BSS economy James_B_Crawshaw   Thursday April 27, 2017 8:47:50 AM User Rank Blogger

Flat sales is the new growth in OSS/BSS. Ericsson, which has rejigged its reporting structure once again (now lumping OSS/BSS n with Cloud, NFV/SDN, Telecom core, and IP routing) posted March quarter IT & Cloud revenue down 3% year on year (down 7% at constant currency) with 7% growth in services offset by a 14% decline in products. This compares with a 7% revenue decline for the division in 2016 with services revenue up 1% and products down 16%.

In comparison, Nokia's Applications & Analytics unit posted flat sales in the March quarter, a marked improvement from the 13% decline in 2016. Nokia said the unit showed "significant, even if early, signs of improvement" with robust new orders, particularly in BSS driven by demand for new charging models. However, Nokia notes Applications & Analytics' profitability has room for improvement.

Source: Nokia Turnaround Gathers Pace, Shares Rise

Microsoft’s 10Q SEC filing confirms that Windows Phone is dead

Finally, Microsoft confirms that we already know. Microsoft's 10Q SEC filing confirms investment in Windows Phone has ended.

Earlier this week we've heard that the Windows Windows Phone retrenchment to end in June of 2017. And now Microsoft has removed Windows Phone from the official 10Q SEC filling document. You can check the document below.

As you can see in the image above in the section about risks, and specifically about the return on investment, it is notable that Windows Phone is missing from the list of investments Microsoft is making. Windows Phone already have very low market share and recently Microsoft itself has proved it by rolling out the Windows 10 Creators Update for only 13 eligible devices.

Here take a note that, they mentioned Windows Phone not "Lumia", that means they are not talking about the hardware business, but they are talking about the OS it self. In fact, recently Microsoft started selling the Android device in their store, which is pretty strange move. And now removing the Windows Phone from the SEC filling surely lead us to the demise of the Windows Phone.

But in other hand, Microsoft continuously rolling out the Insider Preview builds for the Insider in the fast ring, which is questionable. We still don't know what's going on inside the Redmond building. Are you still using Windows Phone as your primary device? Let us in the comments below.

Source: Microsoft's 10Q SEC filing confirms that Windows Phone is dead

Kubuntu 17.04 Zesty Zaphod - Kawabuntu!

Updated: April 29, 2017

Let us continue with the spring season distro testing. Next on the menu: Kubuntu. After many years of offering bland, emotionless releases, we had a cautiously reasonable Yakkety Yak edition, so me hopes are high for today.

And for today, we will examine the latest Kubuntu, which officially bears the name of Zesty Zapus, but once again, like my recent Ubuntu review, my version of the distro's name is totally better. So allow me to ask thee, what is the answer to Linux, multiverse and constant forking?

Linux Mutant Plasma Hurdles

Booted fine and without any errors. The desktop comes with the classic Plasma looks, a now familiar wallpaper plus the Breeze theme. But look! The widgets button has been moved to the top right corner. And the menu! It has a lot of useful programs in the favorites, not just one or two like in the past. And it can be activated with the Super key. You can add icons to the panel as widgets with a simple, elegant right-click. No more drag and drop. Easy. Blimey, immediate improvements all over the place.

But there's more! The widget button is smarter, and offers more relevant actions right away. You also get copy progress indicator in Dolphin, similar to what Windows gives you, kind of a green-blue fill moving from left to right. Goodness after goodness.

I would like to hope and believe that some of these changes have been instigated, inspired, prompted, and caused by my rather in-depth review of the Plasma desktop, dubbed The State of Plasma - if you like discussions and whatnot, then please check out the comments-rich version of this article on Netrunner Mag, too. But it may just be a happy if awesome coincidence. We shall see as we progress in our testing.

Gnome, observe!

Network connectivity

Wireless - very good, smooth and stable. I've written about this in my Ubuntu Zapus review, kernel 4.10 seems to fully and completely resolve the Realtek card problems, and for the first time, I can use my G50 laptop like a human being. Furthermore, Samba sharing works, but you still get the stupid timestamp bug. It's not preserved when you copy files over to the Windows box. Needs to be fixed, because it's annoying. No Samba printing, however my network device (named Bob) was identified, and the system even auto-suggested the right drivers for it. The only thing that remains is to have a tiny Samba package added to the live session so that Kubuntu behaves like a normal thing, and offers people with Windows printers immediate connectivity. I guess it comes down to electrocuting the developers some more.

Still two prompts for password in the live session.

Bluetooth, sweet tooth!

I've decided to create a whole complete section dedicated to this particular test, because, once again, for the first time evar, I had a 100% seamless Bluetooth sharing experience in Linux. Various distros did this all right, but not to this extent.

I actually used my Nokia Lumia 520, a Windows Phone for this particular test, because my Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Phone does not have a fully developed file management stack, so it cannot actually send or receive files. Nor is this ever going to happen. Oh well.

Recent Lumia rendezvous and dates - including the BMW M4 stint.

Back to Bluetooth testing, I was able to pair the Lumia without any problems. Sharing files, again sweet, both ways. I did have to make the phone device trusted on the laptop before this worked, but worked it did.

In the spirit of the article's title.

Better yet, I was able to stream music from the phone, and control the audio volume. We're talking MP3 songs, for which Kubuntu does not have the right codecs in the live session, but it was using the phone for playback, so this is really neat. The connection was also sturdy and stable, and for more than one hour, I had lovely classical music to entertain me while I continued testing. Splendid!

And then, when you think about it, if only the different projects worked together. Some distros do Bluetooth better, some desktop environments do Samba and remote better, others have an exceptional media stack, and so forth. Eliminate the fragmentation, and get the best from Gnome, KDE and Xfce under a single mighty umbrella. If only. That was just a dream, just a dream, dream.

Smartphone connectivity

Again, no issues, Well, almost. To begin, Ubuntu Phone and Windows Phone were correctly identified and mounted. The former comes with full read/write, but the latter struggled with this a little. I was not able to copy files onto it - or off it - using MTP, only via Bluetooth. I did eventually resolve this, but it's not a default setting. I also hooked Lumia 950, and it was fine, too.

One thing that bugs me - there's no unmount option in Dolphin. There should be a feature to allow users to safely and gracefully disconnect their phones and/or tablets. So there's still room for improvement. But until recently, KDE wouldn't even see any external devices, let alone mount them.

Multimedia playback

No MP3 stuff in the live session - except the Bluetooth thingie. HD video was okay. No remote playback - without tricks. If anything, software will cache locally and only then display. In this area, KDE still lags heavily behind Gnome, and this is such a simple and trivial and expected thing.

Installation

Again, this whole thing worked fine. The Wireless configuration step was auto-skipped, and the partition detection was faster than stock Ubuntu. The wizard did not lag in getting to the user & locale configuration, but the overall installation process was longer than stock Zesty. All in all, it took about an hour to commit Kubuntu to the disk, but then, the whole multi-boot setup worked without any problems.

I also understood the whole encryption option - it's available with LVM only, but the way Ubuntu presents it is not clear, whereas the Plasma wizard is more straightforward. Or if I may be extra corny, Zaphod plays it safe. Mwuahahahaha.

Beeblebroxing about

Kubuntu booted without any issues - and so did all the chained distros, no probs. Well, let us explore some of the deeper facets of this Plasma distro. So far, 17.04 Zapus was behaving like a good sport, and my energy was high.

Why is the trash thingie called wastebin? How many different names are there for one simple thing?

Package management & updates

Cautious improvements, we discover. Ha! Still not the package manager we need, but the package manager we get, insert cliche Batman reference. You can view software sources but not edit them just yet, my clicks were in vain. It did find Steam, but not Skype as this requires the Partner source, which ain't enabled by default, and you cannot toggle it on through the GUI. But it did execute a round of updates fine. CLI for the win, still, though.

Toggling this doesn't do anything; still ugly.

Applications

A fine, balanced assortment of Plasma wines, some odd choices and a handful of popular programs, with Firefox, LibreOffice, Dragon, Okular, GwenView, KMail, and alike. Beef this up with Steam, Skype, VLC and GIMP, and you get a new stew. The defaults sure can be more excited, but it ain't bad.

Multimedia again

MP3, no issues this time. Alless Klarr Herr Plasma Star. Not only did I have the right playback, the system area context menu also works just fine both for VLC and Amarok, the play button artifact has been fixed, and Amarok was even able to mount and play songs from the Lumia phone. Blimey O'Timey!

Other important observations

The screenshots still come with a shadow, but at least it's now symmetric right and bottom. Small steps for humanity. Maybe we will get off the cancerous path that software development has embarked on in the past decade and move on into a world of bliss and cooperation and quality. As far as Kubuntu is concerned, I'm already seeing a lot of goodies. And it does not take much to make big progress.

Video playback is very smooth. We're talking media players as well as browsers. I'm comparing to how Fedora 25 handles online HD streaming and such, in both Firefox and Chrome, and the results are staggering. No tearing, no artifacts. Clear, sharp. The best yet of any distro on this box. Hint, check the hardware section below.

Fonts are also better than ever before. This has always been a big issue - and I ranted on this significantly. Whatever the changes are, and they be subtle, I found it easier to run Kubuntu 17.04 without my eyes going wonky. Prolonged use, hours of staring at the screen, and yet, there was no fatigue, no headache. It's all sharper, cleaner, better contrast. Some of the fonts remain unchanged (name wise), but there might have been improvements in how they render on the screen. Either way, I'm mighty pleased.

And in general, good stuff everywhere. Everywhere!

Holiday, Celebrate, it will be all right.

Small problems

Closing Dolphin with multiple tabs open, you can select not to be asked again, I was asked, twice. Like Michelle from the Resistance in 'Allo 'Allo says: Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once.

One time, while I was fiddling with icon sets, the bottom panel froze, and I had to HUP a few important processes to get back to a responsive desktop. There were NO Kwin crashes or errors per se, though, so apart from this little niggle, it was smooth sailing. Firefox also restored after this so-called incidence without a blink. As if nothing has happened, and all my tabs were there.

Also on the icon front, Plasma did live-update some of the icons, and for others, you need to log out and log back in to see the effect. Choosing new decorations and themes using the built-in tools is still largely a hit-and-miss game. Samba did not work with name resolution initially, only IP addresses, but this got fixed on its own, and it did not come back after system updates.

And the fact there aren't that many issues is why I'm reporting this section first. Because I want you have all the good energy to focus on what comes next, because so far, Kubuntu Zesty was behaving very nicely, and my optimism was growing by the minute.

Stability, performance, resource usage

Rock solid, really cool. I'm surprised. I guess it goes hand in hand with the vast improvements in the Plasma framework, so I should revisit KDE neon as a consumer distro and not just a testbed soon. But it all goes back to my recent tests, and the State of Plasma. Very neat. I just hope we do not get KDE6 any time soon, because then we will have to start from scratch, and it would be a pointless exercise in re-engineering. Gods of the Internet, make my desktop true.

Performance is also great - faster and more responsive than Ubuntu Zapus. The figures also align with only about 500 MB memory usage, less than half of its spiritual brother, and the CPU idles at about 1%. The swap partition has been correctly identified and used.

Hardware support, suspend & resume

Unlike Ubuntu, this Plasma beastling did not use Intel's microcode firmware out of the box, but the driver utility did pop and offer its service. You can configure the drivers without a reboot. Moreover, Zesty Zaphod is slow to sleep, fast to wake. It takes about three or four seconds for the distro to suspend itself, but then it resumes instantly. No problems with Wireless, lock screen, or anything. Fn buttons, no problems. Very intelligent power management. Beautifully precise and sharp.

Battery life

About 3 hours, with brightness set to max, mind. This is about 30 min more than Ubuntu offers, so if we take into account that the battery has deteriorated to about 80% its max charge, and we set the brightness to about 50%, we can probably match the 4h figure without any great effort. Reasonable. Quite reasonable. Similar to MX-16. Nice.

Pretty pictures

You deserve some, so here they are:

Even the aquatic mammals are pretty!

A message to the world

Completely unrelated to Kubuntu per se, but I do want to give you this shameless plug. Inspired by my recent Zesty testing. Get it? Zesty, testing. Anyway, we can see that Gnome does remote sharing in a superior way to KDE. Plasma offers better performance, Bluetooth and consistency. Fonts, too - except Ubuntu itself. On the other hand, Gnome wins when it comes to printing and customization. And so forth.

Why I'm trying to say - get your sh ... act together. Work together. Collaborate and listen. Because a true cooperation will accentuate the good parts each one of these two major desktop environments has, allowing for a converged and superior desktop product. Now that Ubuntu has delivered its first clout of humility in de-fragmenting the Linux eco-space, perhaps it is time to object-orient the efforts among different projects in a more cooperative way. Utopia rant finished, let us conclude.

Conclusion

Listen very carefully, I will type this only once. There have been some decent Plasma distros recently. Very good ones, in fact. Maui is a great example. But Kubuntu 17.04 is the first KDE system in a LOOOONG time that I actually want to use, day to day! No silly fanboyism. Just simple delights of discovering high-quality software products, a rare thing these days.

Let's see. Better than its predecessors by a long stride, with improvements all over the place, notably performance, stability, video playback, fonts, tons of papercuts, phone and network connectivity, resource usage, battery life. Great hardware support and a semi-pro feel for the first time. Small issue linger, with package management, playback from remote devices and a few visual glitches chief amongst them. All in all, Kubuntu 17.04 Zesty Zaphod, and admit it, it sounds better than Zapus, is a darn good release. I am really surprised. But maybe, just maybe, 2017 could be the Year of, if not Linux, then KDE! Anyway, you should test this. Right now. 9.5/10. Go, go, go!

Cheers.

Source: Kubuntu 17.04 Zesty Zaphod - Kawabuntu!

Windows Phone Is Dead and Surface Sales are Slipping

Microsoft announced its quarterly results last night, and the figures were generally good, with revenue of $23.6 billion (up 6%), increased operating income, and higher earnings per share. The one ugly spot was More Personal Computing — the business segment that includes Windows 10, Bing, Surface devices, Windows Phone, and the Xbox business.

Here's how Microsoft's CFO, Amy Hood, described the situation:

[R]evenue was $8.8 billion, declining 7 percent, as Phone and Surface results offset healthy growth in Windows, search, and gaming. Our OEM business grew 5% this quarter. OEM Pro revenue grew 10%, ahead of the commercial PC market, mainly due to a higher mix of premium SKUs…

Devices revenue declined 51 percent. We had no material Phone revenue this quarter. Our Surface business declined 26 percent and 25 percent in constant currency, as heightened price competition and product end-of-lifecycle dynamics resulted in lower than expected Surface Pro unit volumes…

[W]e expect revenue to decline with negligible revenue from Phone. With Surface, we expect a more moderate rate of decline given the prior-year comparable and current market dynamics.

Nothing in those paragraphs is great for Microsoft's hardware business. The device revenue fall-off presumably includes Xbox One sales, though these may not have slumped as far as other product categories. Elsewhere in the call, Hood refers to the gaming business growing by 4 percent as Xbox Live growth offset a decline in Xbox One sales. Xbox Live monthly active users also grew by 13 percent measured across Windows 10, Xbox Live, and mobile platforms. Microsoft doesn't disclose whether its active user count includes users who have Xbox Live and Windows 10 installed on multiple systems as a single user.

PC / Xbox streaming is a major feature MS is pushing these days.

But the potentially seasonal decline in Xbox One sales is dwarfed by falling Surface and Windows 10 Mobile revenue. "We had no material Phone revenue this quarter" is execu-speak for "Windows 10 Mobile is dead."

Investors don't seem to care much, given that none of them asked questions about the mobile, gaming, or hardware markets. But this isn't good news for anyone who actually liked Microsoft's Surface line-up or wants to use Windows 10 Mobile. First, it's increasingly difficult to see why Microsoft is even bothering with updating the operating system. It has no declared hardware platform and no partners aggressively trying to drive it into the smartphone or tablet market. Enthusiasts like to talk about the much-rumored Surface Phone as if it were a market reality, but Google Trends confirms we've been hearing these rumors for a long time.

That initial spike happened the day Ballmer announced the Surface product family. Interest in such a device has bubbled along ever since, but Microsoft has said nothing about any such product. Obviously I'm not omniscient, but it seems exceptionally unlikely that the company will try to revive its failing platform with a custom-built niche product like the mainstream Surface lineup.

As for the Surface revenue declines, Microsoft is showing troubling signs of writing off these businesses as well. When Surface launched, Microsoft made it clear these cutting-edge tablets were designed to showcase the best the PC industry had to offer. Along with ultrabooks, Microsoft wanted to give OEMs an example of what tablets could be and do. In a lot of ways, the company succeeded. I've never been happy about some of the persistent issues that have dogged Microsoft's hardware business, like the way Surface Pro 3 owners with dodgy batteries were bait-and-switched (MS did eventually make good on this issue), but Surface has definitely done a good job of demonstrating a no-compromise experience. Devices like the Surface Book and Surface Studio have even arguably moved the ball forward, even if they remain niche products with extremely high price points.

But looming over those accomplishments is the simple fact that these hardware designs are rather dated. The Surface Pro 4 is 18 months old, and the Surface Book only received a minor GPU bump in its latest iteration. They collectively lack USB-C, Thunderbolt 3, modern Nvidia GPUs, and Intel's 7th generation Kaby Lake processors. If Microsoft wants us to view Surface as a genuine business, as opposed to a hobby or a one-time project, it needs to spend some time talking about its plans for this segment. And if I'm wrong and some mythical Surface Phone is being forged deep in the skunkworks of Redmond, it's time to start talking about it. Right now, there are way too many shades of Nokia in this situation for it to feel comfortable.

Now read: Windows 10: The Best Hidden Features, Tips, and Tricks

Source: Windows Phone Is Dead and Surface Sales are Slipping

Smartphone Experts Oversized Vertical Holster for LG K4 (2017) / Lumia 950 XL / Nokia Lumia 1520

Other Windows Phone accessories by Smartphone Experts

The Smartphone Experts Oversized Vertical Pouch is a heavy duty rugged nylon canvas with a metal belt clip. The oversized design allows you to carry your LG K4 (2017), Lumia 950 XL, or Nokia Lumia 1520 with most cases on it.

Quality construction makes the Smartphone Experts Oversized Vertical Pouch durable and easily maintained. The inside of the case is made of a material that will not scratch your LG K4 (2017), Lumia 950 XL, or Nokia Lumia 1520! The sleek, durable material with soft velveteen inner lining helps protect your LG K4 (2017), Lumia 950 XL, or Nokia Lumia 1520 from nicks and scrapes.

You can use the metal clip or belt loop to keep it on your side, in your purse, or in your car.

Case dimensions: 6.5" tall x 3.5" wide x 3/4" deep

Fits most phones with a standard case on.

Please Note: Product images, including color, may differ from actual product appearance.This is designed to fit a phone with a case on it. It will be to large to fit a naked phone.

Works with: LG K4 (2017) / Lumia 950 XL / Nokia Lumia 1520

Source: Smartphone Experts Oversized Vertical Holster for LG K4 (2017) / Lumia 950 XL / Nokia Lumia 1520

What does the 'death of Windows Phone' mean for Windows Central? An editor's response

Anxiety is in the air as Microsoft's mobile ambitions wane. Here is why if Windows phones are dead it won't matter to this site.

Earlier this week we highlighted a fascinating question posed in our famously large and passionate forums: what, if anything, does the decline and Windows on the phone mean for the site?

hamphlet

04-23-2017 05:54 AM

"

I only ask because a quick look at the comments statistics on articles reveals that they go through the roof on most Windows Mobile subjects but sometimes barely raise an eyebrow on other more general Microsoft matters. It shouldn't be forgotten that up until a couple of years ago this website was essentially devoted to Windows Phone and only started diversifying when they saw the writing on the...

Reply

I wanted to take a few minutes try an answer from the vantage point of the editors of Windows Central.

As I've been a forum member going back to 2007 and part of the initial launch of the front page "blog" in 2009, I have a vested and tangible history with the mobile community.

There is little doubt that in Spring 2017 the "death" of Windows on the phone feels more real than ever. Sure, Microsoft is continuing to work on Windows 10 Mobile, but even there, its future gets murky.

Most of this concern is the fault of Microsoft, of course, who have not done the things they said they would e.g. create phones if their partners are not, or even have a plan for tackling smartphones going into 2018.

I've argued they should talk about this at BUILD next month, but I have little confidence that they will.

Planning for the future (in 2014)

A few years ago many of us who run this site began to see a significant downshift in the Windows Phone market. Luckily, at the same time, Microsoft was launching Windows 10. We took that opportunity to do an overhaul both in our name and goals for the site.

No longer were just focusing on phones, but expanding to PCs, laptops, Surface, more on Xbox, and even HoloLens.

Come October it will have been three years since we shifted from Windows Phone Central to Windows Central. Interestingly, many in the community still refer to and think of us as the former, but even for the last year, our daily coverage is 90 percent non-phone news.

Not only did we change because of the tenuous situation in mobile, but also because there was much more on Windows 10 and the growing Microsoft ecosystem we were leaving on the table. It became increasingly hard to not talk about Surface regularly, or what OneCore means for all of Windows.

In that sense, it was a liberating experience for the staff to go beyond just phones, which, to be honest, were becoming a bit stale as a category.

It's never been better (for us)

All that preamble brings to my main point. Nothing will change to this site even if Microsoft came out and canceled Windows on the phone tomorrow.

Windows Central Podcast featured on Xbox.

The fact is, Windows Central is doing very well regardless of the situation in mobile. Here are just a few examples:

The site has double-digit year-over-year growth and is doing fantastic regarding search traffic, our YouTube channel, and general mindshare.

Our site now has excellent relationships with the companies we cover including HP, Lenovo, Dell, Razer, Alcatel, and even crowd-sourced startups like the Eve V. We're invited to all the major (and even minor) press events, embargos, and product reviews.

We've brought on all-stars like Jez Corden and Zac Bowden who are doing what we hired them to do: crush Xbox and Windows news, scoops, and analysis.

We have a fantastic staff like Mauro Huculak, Cale Hunt, Richard Devine, and Rich Edmonds focusing daily on popular how-to guides, best-of advice, and more.

George Ponder, who has been with the site as long as I, still publishes daily reviews and deals on apps and games especially for phone users

Our forums have over two million posts from nearly 400,000 members globally, making us one of the largest Windows and Microsoft communities in the world.

Microsoft works with us now on many levels for press for all their products, announcements, and releases giving more access than ever.

We have successfully shifted from quickly re-published news and uninformative app update articles to more in-depth editorials, analysis, and guides.

The site now has a full-time managing editor with Al Sacco, who ensures the trains are running on time, to the right location, and to the quality that we and you expect.

Thanks to Dan Thorpe-Lancaster we have still have our regular stream of daily news and critical updates that you expect.

We successfully re-launched the Windows Central Podcast with Zac Bowden and me after a multi-year hiatus; it's now the top community-focused Microsoft podcast with more than 60k listeners a month.

As far as articles focusing on the phone getting more comments than others, this is not a good measurement of anything. On almost any day our most-viewed and top-searched articles are often the "help and how to" ones.

While the hardcore fans come for the nitty-gritty news bits or OS update news, regular people just want to know how to get the most out of their new PC.

So, readers and fans of the site (and Microsoft), do not worry at all about Windows Central. We are on track to have our best year ever with or without Windows 10 Mobile. We have a lot of smart people working behind the scenes, and our goal is to keep getting better for years to come.

And despite the continued decline of Windows on phone, Windows Central will still cover it as long as there is something to report on. This is what we do, it's what we love. You have our promise.

Source: What does the 'death of Windows Phone' mean for Windows Central? An editor's response