Cellcom: December 2013

Tuesday 31 December 2013

2013 was a phenomenal year for Android. The phablet space absolutely exploded. LG and Samsung continue to battle head to head in the 5-inch display (and larger) arena. Google Glass progressed to the point that basically anyone with an extra $1500 can get in on the Explorer program. Android also is running on smartwatches and is powering several gaming platforms. Those trends will continue on the same path, but what can we really expect from Google and Android in 2014? Let’s take a look.

Starting with the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, we’ll begin to see 2014 Android devices pop up. There will be a whole slew of new Android tablets and smartwatches running Android. There are several phones rumored to be announced around CES and Mobile World Congress in February, too. Smartphone manufacturers have moved to announcing big new phones at their own events. By skipping the noise of CES and MWC, manufacturers hope to keep all of the attention of a big announcement for themselves. This will undoubtedly continue in 2014, although we may see changes from Google themselves in how and where they announce new products and services. Almost all major device announcements will happen at OEM specific events throughout 2014.

Google I/O

Google I/O was the venue Google chose to announce the first Nexus 7 tablet, alongside the Nexus Q. Nexus device announcements have generally been scattered throughout the year, with Nexus smartphone announcements coming in the fall. I/O has usually been the place that Google chooses to announce new Android OS versions, although they rolled out Android 4.4 KitKat unceremoniously in October of 2013. I/O 2013 was not really about Android, but focused mainly on Chrome and Chrome OS. I expect that Google gets back to basics at I/O in 2014 and announces the next version of Android there. We’ll continue to see Android fragmentation decrease as Google moves more of Android’s core apps to the Play Store. Android OS updates will continue to be incremental, like the KitKat update. Android is reaching mature platform status and doesn’t need major overhauls like it did in its early days. What I hope to see is more convergence between Chrome, Chrome OS, and Android. Even products like Chromecast and Google TV would be more compelling to consumers if one were rolled into the other. We’ve been promised Chromecast support for the Google TV platform already, but it hasn’t officially happened yet.

Google Play Edition Devices

2013 brought with it the unveiling of a new category of Android devices: Google Play Edition smartphones and tablets. GPE phones from Samsung (S4) and HTC (One) were released earlier this year, and then surprise GPE devices in the form of the Sony Xperia Z Ultra and the LG G Pad 8.3 were dropped on the Play Store earlier this month. What this tells us is that Google and their OEM partners are listening to what consumers want. There is a small but loud contingent of Android users that want hardware options, but don’t want to deal with manufacturer skins. We want stock Android, and we are going to get it. These GPE variants of popular OEM handsets means that we can get the high-end hardware we want, running the flavor of Android we want. These GPE devices get updated more quickly than carrier branded devices, but the trade-off is higher up-front costs. In 2014, expect to see even more Google Play edition smartphones and tablets. Most flagship OEM devices will also be available with a GPE variant.

We’ll also see new Nexus smartphones and tablets, but the Nexus line will take on an even more developer-oriented focus. Google will offload more of its consumer-focused devices and features to Motorola, and steer the Nexus line more towards developers. The Nexus line basically seems like a way for Google to get OEMs to make devices for its employees, and the rest of us just happen to benefit. Regular consumers want ease-of-use, good battery life, and good cameras on their smartphones. The Moto X offers two of those three things. I think Google will finally figure out how to put an excellent camera on an Android smartphone this year. The Nexus 5 traded an excellent camera and really great battery life for lower cost. I expect that this year’s Nexus devices will continue the trend.

Beyond Smartphones And Tablets

The focus on wearables has definitely increased this year, and Android will be at the forefront of this in 2014. Samsung will build a better watch than the Galaxy Gear. Sony will iterate on their current offerings, as will Motorola. HTC and LG are expected to jump into the smartwatch game, too, all with Android-based options. Smartwatches are still working through some growing pains. 2014 should bring with it several really compelling watch options, instead of the limited, half-working watches available today. We will also see more NFC bracelets and rings that work as notification devices. A majority of these will pop up on Kickstarter, so be on the lookout if you’re in the market for one of those.

Google Glass is edging ever closer to a public release, but consumers are still wary of Glass. Lawmakers will struggle to figure out how to address the problem of wearing Glass while driving, and address privacy concerns as well.

Android-based cameras like the Samsung Galaxy Camera will fade into oblivion as smartphone cameras improve. We don’t want to carry multiple devices. OEMs, and Google, need to address the issue of sub-par camera experiences on their smartphones. The stock Android Camera app needs an overhaul as well, but Google may just leave this area to manufacturers and to its own Motorola division.

Mobile gaming on Android will improve, although stand-alone devices like the Ouya console will continue to struggle. Mobile gaming has had to adjust for touch screens and the lack of physical buttons. Most mobile games don’t lend themselves well to physical controllers. Handheld devices like the Nvidia Shield and Moga controllers will remain viable options for hardcore Android gamers, and will only get better as companies figure things out.

Android is even being built into cars.

Cost Factor

Overall, we’re going to see a continuing decrease in the cost of Android devices in 2014. Consumers are becoming wise to the tricks of major wireless carriers when it comes to device subsidies and contracts. No one wants to sign two years (or more) of their life away for a phone that will be out of date in 12-18 months. As Google continues to offer Nexus devices for less than $400, and Motorola reaches into new territories with the inexpensive Moto G, device costs will plummet. $400-500 for a high-end device will become the norm. Wireless carriers will buy into this because it means they won’t have to front the cost of phones for consumers anymore. There will still be options to purchase $199 Android smartphones with two-year contracts, but this will simply be one of several options instead of the only real choice. It’salready happening. Expect that trend to continue in 2014 as well.

Overall improvements to hardware with chipset optimizations and battery life improvements will continue, as we expect they would. Those aren’t necessarily specific to Android but the platform will certainly benefit. With a focus on decreasing costs to consumers, emerging markets, and wearable technology like Glass and smartwatches, 2014 is shaping up to be a big year for Android. What are you most excited about for Android in 2014?

Home » AH Primetime: What We Expect From Google and Android in 2014

Category: Android News, Special Features

Samsung develops 8GB RAM chip in time for Galaxy S5 Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/samsung-develops-8gb-ram-chip-in-time-for-galaxy-s5#YCtDfMdGpQ5xSrft.99

Samsung has announced the development of an 8GB RAM chip for mobile devices, which could lead to its appearance in the Samsung Galaxy S5 in 2014.

The South Korean tech giant is calling the new chip "the industry’s first eight gigabit (Gb), low power double data rate 4 (LPDDR4), mobile DRAM."

Thanks to a super-small 20nm fabrication process, Samsung has managed to squeeze a full 1GB into a single die. This makes for the largest density in the DRAM component yet - hence the massive 8GB potential.

Having said that, smartphones exploiting this new standard will likely 'only' offer 4GB of RAM.

This new component has implications for performance as well as capacity. Samsung claims that it’s 50 percent faster than its previous solution, the LPDDR3 currently found in the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4.

The LPDDR4 will also consume around 40 percent less power than the previous standard, which should do wonders for battery life. Far more likely, though, is that it will help power even higher resolution mobile displays, and battery life will remain at its current underwhelming level.

Before we get accused of cynicism, check out Samsung’s comments on the application of its new RAM standard:

"With the new chip, Samsung will focus on the premium mobile market including large screen UHD smartphones, tablets and ultra-slim notebooks that offer four times the resolution of full-HD."

It’s looking like 2014 could be the year of the first 4K smartphone - and it could well feature Samsung technology at its core.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/samsung-develops-8gb-ram-chip-in-time-for-galaxy-s5#YCtDfMdGpQ5xSrft.99

Monday 30 December 2013

Google to compete with Apple over smart dashboards

Google and Apple are both working on competing technologies that would bring apps, navigation and music together into smart dashboards for cars based on their own mobile operating systems

Future Audis may come with smart dashboards created by Google

Google and Apple are both working on competing technologies that would bring apps, navigation and music together into smart dashboards based on their own mobile operating systems.

Audi and Google are planning to unveil a new collaboration based on the Android operating system next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, reports the Wall Street Journal. The system will bring apps and in-car entertainment to a dashboard-mounted device.

Apple has already shown its hand in this market and announced deals with BMW, Daimler, Mercedes and Honda to produce smart dashboards featuring iOS, the same operating system used by iPads and iPhones.

This ties-in with its Siri application which can dictate emails or text messages and carry out commands via voice control, a feature which could prove very useful for drivers.

Apple has taken an approach which sees the iPhone as the brains of the system, which then connects with speakers, microphones and screen inside the car. Google is reportedly taking a different approach and embedding electronics into the car which will run Android natively. It already has some experience in the automotive sector as it has supplied its Maps technology to car makers such as Tesla, Audi and Toyota.

Thilo Koslowski, an analyst at Gartner, told the Wall Street Journal: "The car is becoming the ultimate mobile device. Apple and Google see that and are trying to line up allies to bring their technology into the vehicle."

Car electronics are becoming increasingly sophisticated and well-connected. GM’s chief executive recently announced that all models from 2015 onwards with 4G chips to provide constant internet connections without the need for a smartphone.

Samsung launches 110-inch U-HD TV for $150,000 in South Korea

Samsung said a 110-inch TV that has four times the resolution of standard high-definition TVs is going on sale for about $150,000 in South Korea.

The launch Monday of the giant television set reflects global TV makers’ move toward ultra HD TVs, as manufacturing bigger TVs using OLED proves too costly.

Last year, Samsung and rival LG Electronics, the world’s top two TV makers, touted OLED as the future of TV. OLED screens are ultrathin and can display images with enhanced clarity and deeper colour saturation.

But Samsung and LG failed to make OLED TVs a mainstream that would replace the LCD television sets and still struggling to mass produce larger and affordable TVs with OLED. Meanwhile, Japanese media reported last week that Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. decided to end their OLED partnership.

Demand for U-HD TVs is expected to rise despite dearth of content while its price will likely come down faster than that of the OLED TVs. Much of the growth is forecast to come from China, a major market for the South Korean TV makers. Chinese TV makers have been making a push into the U-HD TV market as well.

According to NPD DisplaySearch, global sales of ultra-HD TV sets will surge from 1.3 million this year to 23 million in 2017. More than half of the shipments will be taken by Chinese companies between 2013 and 2017, according to NPD.

While Chinese TV makers have been seeking to boost sales of U-HD TVs with a lower price and a smaller size, Samsung’s strategy is to go bigger with a higher price tag. Samsung’s 110-inch U-HD TV measures 2.6 metres by 1.8 metres. It will be available in China, the Middle East and Europe. In South Korea, the TV is priced at 160 million won ($152,000) while prices in other countries vary.

Samsung said it received 10 orders for the latest premium TVs from the Middle East. Previously, the largest U-HD TV made by Samsung was 85-inch measured diagonally.

The ultra-HD TVs are also known as “4K” because they contain four times more pixels than an HD TV.

Saturday 28 December 2013

Korean Press Shocked at Samsung's Galaxy S4 Sales Disaster

Yesterday we posted a report titled "Apple's iPhone Success Points to a Bad Q4 for Samsung," wherein we stated that Apple's iPhone scored a hat trick of key online retail sales victories in December that likely contributed to the estimates for Samsung Electronics' fourth quarter operating profit being revised downward by more than a billion dollars US. Today we learn that the Samsung's Galaxy S4 is one of the key burdens dragging Samsung's financials down. In fact, the Korean press describes it as shocking at just how bad the numbers are likely to be for Q4. Yet the news shouldn't really surprise anyone.

According to a new report, Samsung Group's electronics affiliates are engulfed in a shock ignited by the Galaxy S4. Many forecast that Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung Display, and Samsung SDI are expected to report disappointing fourth-quarter performances, which would be even lower than their lower-than-expected third-quarter performances.

2. The Galaxy S4 a burden on Sales in Q4 2013

Key factors behind their sluggish financial performances include the sluggish sales of Galaxy S4 which was expected to be sold more than 7 million units a month but its monthly sales fell to 3-4 million units in the fourth quarter.

The future outlook is uncertain since the demand for premium smartphones will likely to stagnate further next year, states the report.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics, for example, is forecast to post an operating profit of 50 billion won ($47 million US) for the fourth quarter of this year, far lower than 144.9 billion ($137.5 million US) won a year ago and 164.3 billion won ($155 million US) a quarter ago.

Yet it's understandable why the Galaxy S4 failed to win consumer dollars in Q4. Firstly, Samsung miserably failed to deliver a fingerprint ID solution to beat Apple's Touch ID to market that had been rumored for months. It was a huge letdown. Consumers wanting this feature know that Samsung will likely deliver it in upcoming models either in the form of a fingerprint or retina scanner. So they held off a purchase.

Secondly, Samsung's extremely poor handling of a battery problem that plagued the Galaxy S4 was being swept under the carpet until the problem was exposed in the press in Korea and by us in North America.

Once the problem hit a TV report in China, Samsung scrambled to look like a concerned company, but the damage had already set in. Who wants to buy any product for the holiday season that has such negative baggage attached to it?

Samsung then scrambled to rush the Galaxy Round to market in the hopes of improving their image but it backfired into yet another mega-failure in the press if not the laughing stock of the tech press globally. The failures of it were then repeated in the Korean press in December which didn't help Samsung's image of being a loser in desperation mode at the peak of holiday sales.

And lastly, Samsung refused to provide their "premium" smartphone with any classy detailing whatsoever. In fact the cheap plastic feel of their smartphone made one think that they were purchasing a bargain basement device. Consumers also noted that the software gimmickery of waving their hands to answer a phone call or to tap phones together to share photos wasn't real innovation at all. In fact, it was more like something you'd expect to see at a magic show at a five year old's birthday party.

In the end, the Korean press expressing "shock" over the collapse of Galaxy S4 sales this quarter is understandable to a certain degree. Yet perhaps they were sticking their heads in the sand to a certain extent because the signs of trouble had been brewing for months.

King of PCs, Lenovo sets smartphone ambitions

In the United States, Lenovo is still best known as the Chinese company that bought IBM's PC business in 2005.

In China, it is better known as the world's new No. 1 PC maker, a force to be reckoned with in smartphones and a bellwether for the nation's economic and technological might.

The laptop maker is already the second-largest smartphone brand in China, after Samsung Electronics. Lenovo, which has never had modest plans, wants to build on that success and begin pushing into the United States and other wealthy markets in 2014.

"I'll be very clear: Our aspiration is someday to be No. 1 in the mobile space," said JD Howard, a Lenovo vice president who is in charge of developing the company's smartphone business outside China. "I know it sounds crazy, but even five years ago, if I had said we'd be No. 1 in PCs, people would have said we were crazy."

The company must balance - some would say blend - American and Chinese cultures. It has dual headquarters, in Beijing and Morrisville, N.C. Eighteen nationalities are represented among the top 100 managers. While it has had success worldwide in PCs and with its new smartphones in China, its good fortune in developed markets, dominated by entrenched Apple and Samsung, is anything but assured.

But the company constantly surprises. Lenovo was founded in 1984 by Liu Chuanzhi, a computer scientist, and a group of other engineers with financing from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a government-linked research institute that still holds an indirect stake in Lenovo.

Liu, who had been sent to a rice farm to work as a laborer during the Cultural Revolution, startled the world when Lenovo bought IBM's PC business. The IBM deal gave the upstart instant credibility and cachet because he secured the right to use the ThinkPad name, a popular brand among companies around the world. Lenovo then made other deals that gave it a presence in major markets like Germany, Brazil and Japan.

By September of this year, Lenovo had cemented its position atop the PC industry. It sold more PCs than two major American companies, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, as well as the fading Taiwan-based rivals Acer and Asus. Lenovo had secured a 16.7 percent share of global PC shipments, according to the two market research firms that track them, Gartner and IDC.

The company's strength has always been in building very durable laptops, but recently it has expanded into tablets. In January 2012, it introduced a new device under the Yoga brand that blends the features of a laptop and a tablet, including a flippable touch screen. It sells for less than $300 in the United States.

Moreover, the tablet runs on Android, the Google-made operating system that has been so important to the success of Samsung's smartphones and tablets. It showed the kind of flexibility that most PC makers, wedded to Microsoft's operating system software, lack.

"The PC is not going to go away tomorrow," said Peter Hortensius, president of the company's Think Business Group, which serves corporate customers. "$200 billion is a big pie, and we think we can get a bigger piece of it," he said, referring to the approximate annual sales in the global PC market.

IDC forecasts that sales of PCs will decline almost 14 percent to 314 million units this year from 364 million two years ago. Some analysts say there is pent-up demand among corporate customers who have held off buying new desktops because of a weak economy. But the longer-term trend seems clear: PCs are a mature business.

"Lenovo is feeling the pressure, but it may be better prepared to weather the storm," said Jeff Orr, an analyst at ABI Research.

One reason is smartphones.

In 2008, its chief executive at the time, William J. Amelio, sold the company's fledgling mobile business to an investor group for about $100 million. He was seeking to focus the company's efforts on PCs as it wrestled with the effects of the global financial crisis. The decision proved to be shortsighted. A year earlier, Apple had introduced the iPhone, setting the stage for the mobile Internet revolution.

In 2009, Lenovo corrected the error by ousting Amelio. The new chief executive, Yang Yuanqing, bought back the mobile unit - at twice the price - and went to work regaining ground.

By the third quarter of this year, the company secured 13 percent of the Chinese smartphone market. Samsung Electronics, which had been at it longer, is doing better with 21 percent, according to Canalys, a research firm. But it is enough that worldwide, Lenovo is in third place after Samsung and Apple. By this summer, Lenovo was selling more smartphones and tablets, combined, than its PCs, even though PCs still account for 85 percent of its revenue.

Lenovo has been helped by its leading position in PCs and its close relationships with retailers and mobile operators in China, the world's largest smartphone market.

"They know the China market better than any of the foreign brands, and they have the distribution network," said Jenny Lai, an analyst at HSBC.

Although more than 90 percent of the company's mobile phone sales are still in China, there are signs of promise elsewhere. In Indonesia, another enormous market, Lenovo's market share is already in double digits. Last year, Lenovo began its smartphone export push by moving into India, Vietnam, the Philippines and Russia.

Analysts say much of the growth in smartphone sales will occur in developing countries, but Lenovo does not plan to stop there. But given the strength of Samsung and Apple in the United States and Europe, a newcomer may find it difficult.

"I just can't imagine that Lenovo could come into the U.S. smartphone market and build market share quickly," said Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst at Gartner.

While Apple and Samsung are ranked among the world's 10 most valuable brands by Interbrand, a marketing firm, Lenovo is not among the top 100. Lenovo has a high profile among corporate purchasing managers, who are responsible for many PC buying decisions, but its brand name is less widely known among consumers. Even Lenovo executives acknowledge that to challenge Apple or Samsung in smartphones, Lenovo will have to burnish its image. To do so, the company has enlisted Ashton Kutcher and Kobe Bryant as pitchmen.

Lenovo is not the only Chinese smartphone maker itching to expand internationally. Others, like Huawei, Xiaomi and ZTE, have also begun pushing outside the domestic market. Lenovo executives say they are in a better position than Chinese rivals because of the company's strength in PCs. By adding tablets and smartphones, they say, Lenovo will be able to integrate devices and cloud computing services into the devices.

They say consumers are looking for alternatives to Apple or Samsung.

"I've talked to a lot of people in the industry, and there is a hunger for alternatives to the big two," Lenovo's Howard said. "It's just the nature of things that power corrupts."

Friday 27 December 2013

Apple Inc renews request for U.S. sales ban on older Samsung products

Apple Inc. is again seeking to ban sales in the U.S. of Samsung Electronics Co. products that were at issue in the companies’ first patent trial in California and are now no longer on the market.

The iPhone-maker yesterday asked U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, to bar sales of more than 20 smartphones and tablets, such as the Galaxy S 4G and Galaxy Tab 10.1, that a jury last year found to infringe Apple’s patents. While Koh rejected Apple’s bid for a sales ban on the infringing Samsung devices after the 2012 verdict, a federal appeals court on Nov. 18 cleared the way for the iPhone maker to pursue an injunction targeting some of its rival’s products.

“Samsung’s claim that it has discontinued selling the particular models found to infringe or design around Apple’s patents in no way diminishes Apple’s need for injunctive relief,” Apple argued in yesterday’s filing. “Because Samsung frequently brings new products to market, an injunction is important to providing Apple the relief it needs to combat any future infringement by Samsung through products not more than colorably different from those already found to infringe.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington said that Apple could tailor its request to focus on infringement of patents covering smartphone features, such as multitouch technology, that were at issue in the 2012 trial. The company can’t block Samsung products for infringing patented designs, according to the opinion.

The world’s top two smartphone makers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees on claims of copying each other’s features in a global battle to dominate the market. Apple, which initiated the legal fight in 2011, had 13 percent market share in the third quarter of this year, while Samsung had 31 percent, according to IDC, a research firm based in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Adam Yates, a spokesman for Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on Apple’s request.

Last month, Apple won more than US$290 million from Samsung in a do-over damages trial stemming from the same case in which Apple is seeking its sales ban request. A jury restored most of the US$410.5 million Koh cut from the US$1.05 billion 2012 verdict after finding it was flawed because jurors in the first trial miscalculated the period that the infringement occurred. Total damages owed by Samsung now stand at $930 million.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has another case against Samsung going to trial in March over newer models, including Samsung’s Galaxy S III. Should Koh, who is presiding over the case, impose a ban on the older models, Apple could argue that newer phones are the same products up with new names.

The lower court case is Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., 11-cv-01846, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose). The appeals court case is Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., 13-1129, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Washington).

Apple asks US court to ban Samsung phones, tablets

Apple has asked a federal judge to bar US sales of Samsung smartphones and tablet computers in the blockbuster patent case involving the two electronics giants.

In a court filing in California, Apple said the smartphones and tablets were found to have violated patents in a jury trial held last year.

Apple renewed its bid for a permanent injunction on sales of a number of Samsung products after an appeals court decision last month cleared the way for a new hearing on the matter.

In the latest filing dated Thursday, Apple's attorneys wrote that the court "previously concluded that Samsung's sale of infringing products has irreparably harmed Apple."

The document added that the appeals court decision "makes clear that the record evidence... collectively demonstrates a sufficient 'causal nexus' between Samsung's infringement and the irreparable harm to Apple."

Apple added that "money damages are not an adequate remedy for Samsung's infringement of these patents."

The US firm is seeking a ban on Samsung's smartphone models Captivate, Continuum, Droid Charge, Epic 4G, Exhibit 4G, Fascinate, Galaxy Ace, Galaxy Prevail, Galaxy S, Galaxy S 4G, Gem, Indulge, Infuse, Mesmerize, Nexus S 4G, Replenish, Vibrant,Transform and three versions of the Galaxy S II.

Bans are also being sought on the Galaxy Tab and Tab 10.1 tablets.

The request does not affect the newest Samsung devices, which were not at issue in the trial because of the fast product cycles in the industry.

The South Korean firm, the world's biggest maker of smartphones, has been ordered to pay Apple more than $900 million after a retrial on some of the issues in the case.

But the case, one of several being played out in courts and administrative agencies around the world, has not dented sales of Samsung, which has vaulted ahead of Apple in many markets around the world.

Thursday 26 December 2013

HP may soon launch two large-screen smartphones

HP making its foray in the smartphone segment again, preps cheap large screen phablets, may launch 6-7 inch tablets by the end of this year.

HP's is reportedly planning to return to the smartphone market again. According to reports, the company may unveil two new smartphones in the emerging markets like India, China, and the Philippines, and will be sold off contract for between $200 and $250. These large screen phablets will have six- and seven-inch display sizes.

These devices were in development for quite a while now, back in June. Senior executive with HP stated that the former ‘world’s largest PC maker’ has plans to launch a new smartphone. HP’s Yam Su Yin told PTI that although the company couldn’t share details about an exact launch date, the smartphone was definitely being developed. Su Yin also underscored the importance that smartphones held today by saying that it would be “silly” if HP did not have a presence in the smartphone segment.

HP’s last two smartphone efforts flopped, first with its “iPaq” devices and more recently with phones made by Palm.

Best Apps for Smartphones and Tablets

This Christmas, there’s a good chance that you received a new smartphone and/or a tablet, and you might be wondering what are some of the best apps available to download for your new devices. Last year, an estimated 328 million apps were downloaded on Christmas, and this year, many sources predict the number of apps downloaded will easily surpass that figure. Here are a few of them for you to choose from, some of them just for fun, some that — who knows — might improve your life in one way or the other.

What are the best apps for you? It really depends on your interests, your budget, and how much time you have on your hands to use the apps you want to download.

If you’d like to download a game or two (or more), the the best apps choices for you might be the Angry Birds trilogy of the original Angry Birds, the Jedi Knight-inspired Angry Birds Star Wars, to the most recent incarnation, Angry Birds Go. You can download them for 99 cents on Windows Phones and iOS, and they’re available free to download for Android owners. Other popular game apps are the extremely addictive Dots, which is similar in ways to Candy Crush, but it’s better, and it’s free. Then, there’s the Pitfall-like game app, Temple Run (free), and Cut the Rope ($2.99 on iOS, free on Android, 99 cents on Windows Phones), a puzzle game in which you cut ropes to feed candy to a little green monster.

Then there’s a fun game called Ridiculous Fishing for smartphones, but the app will set you back $3. Still, it deserves to be included on the list of best apps.

Waze is a great free navigation app that allows you to find the fastest available routes, avoid traffic, accidents, and roads under construction that might cause you delays from getting tp where you are wanting to go.

Another free app you might want to download is Yelp, which will help direct you to new restaurants and bars to try and places to shop. Yelp will give you full menus, useful reviews, and information about stores like their operating hours.

If you want to download an app that will allow you to listen to the type of music you like the most and create your own radio stations, you will probably want to give the free app Pandora a try.

You might like the free app SoundCloud even better. It will allow you to follow your favorite musical artists or labels, and whenever they upload new music, it will wind up in your own personal music stream.

Is watching videos more your thing? If so, you should consider downloading the free YouTubeapp. YouTube, owned by Google, has been called the Internet’s video library.

If you’re into social media and social networking, you might want to download apps forFacebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, and Snapchat — they’re free apps available for all smartphones. With Vine, you can create your own six second-or-less cinematic mini-masterpieces, and with Snapchat, you can send people photos and short videos that disappear after you view them for a few seconds.

Do you desire to use your time productively? If so, Google Drive might be the perfect app for you. With it, you can create and then save documents, spreadsheets, and slide presentations from your smartphones to your computers. With the Google Drive app, what’s more, you can also access any info you might have saved in the Cloud. The price for this app is right, too — it’s free.

With the totally free Dropbox app, just for signing up, you receive 2 gigabytes of free Cloud storage space. You can earn more free storage space by connecting up your Dropbox account to other apps. You can use Dropbox for purposes like backing up your photos — you can have your smartphone photos automatically sent to Dropbox.

A great free app you will possibly want to download if you’re into taking photos is VSCO cam. This app allows you to take, edit, organize, and share your photos with others.

Want to message your friends? a couple of free apps you might want to download, then, areFacebook Messenger and Google Hangouts. You can even use Facebook Messenger to make video calls, but unless you don’t care that they will count against your data caps, you should use Wi-Fi, where they won’t.

WhatsApp is a great free app, and it’s extremely popular around the world. That’s because it allows you to send unlimited text and multimedia messages anywhere in the world. It’s free the first year and just costs $0.99 per year after the first one.

For fans of reading, the free Pocket app will allow you to save and read articles, video, etc. in places that lack Wi-Fi and read them later on when you have more time. Also, the free Amazon Kindle app will allow you to download and read e-books, many of which are also free, or are available for a low cost.

If you like to express your artistic side using your iPad, the free app Paper might well be one you will find to be essential. You can use it to sketch, paint, and draw pictures.

The iA Writer app for the iPad costs $5, but it’s a decent word processor that will aid you in unleashing the Inner Author within you, and writing the next Great American (or European, or whatever country you happen to be from) Novel.

A great game app for the iPad that will set you back $2 is the fantasy game Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP. If you enjoy playing games full of Sword & Sorcery adventure, this game app might be a Must Have for you.

A recent Harris Interactive Survey said that at least 30 percent of the people who get new smartphones or tablets will download one or more apps on Christmas. It’s the biggest app download day of the entire year. 35 percent of the men surveyed and 24 percent of the women said that they planned to download a new app on Christmas.

Christmas is the season to be with your loved ones, to give and receive gifts, to contemplate the reason for the season if you’re a Christian (the birth of Jesus Christ), and — increasingly — it’s also become the season to download apps.