On Monday Kantar released its latest set of Worldpanel data about smartphone market share in the EU5 (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain), the US, Australia, Brazil and Mexico. The year-on-year figures showed mixed fortunes for Windows Phones with increased share in Europe (3.8% to 5%), but a fall in the US (3.5% to 2.7%). Brazil is another bright spot with market share increasing from 3.8% to 12.2%, Mexico, by contrast, show a small fall from 2.9% to 2.7%.
Nokia Reading, an eBook and news reading app, has received a major update to version 1.4.86.978. The key new feature is News Stream, which provides a friendly and visually rich user experience for consuming RSS (news) feeds from newspapers, blogs, and other websites. In addition, DRM-free eBooks (PDF and ePUB formats) can now be imported from SkyDrive, complementing the built in eBook store.
An update to Nokia Maps, version 2.5, is now available from the Nokia collection in Windows Phone Marketplace. The new version improves the ability to plan and edit routes, adds support for Groupon offers integration (currently US only), and, in select areas, will show live traffic data on the map.
The Windows Phone 7.5 Refresh update is now widely available for the Nokia Lumia 800 and Lumia 710. The software update includes both the generic "Tango" platform updates (MMS updates, SIM contacts) and a number of Nokia specific updates (Internet tethering, flip to silent). In most cases a three stage update process will be required, which takes around an hour to complete.
Nokia has published the third major release of its car satellite navigation app, Nokia Drive, to the Windows Phone Marketplace. The headline update is the new "My Commute" feature, which learns about your driving preferences and helps you make decisions about which routes to take. Other updates include automatic day/night mode, support for favourite places, and the ability to pin destinations to the Start Screen.
Nokia has released its Q2 2012 results, reporting an operating loss of €826 million, with net sales of €9.275 billion (down 19% YoY). Nokia's Devices and Services division's losses were €471 million. Margins in devices and services were -11.8% (down from -4% in Q2 2011 and down from -5.2% in Q1 2012). Total smartphone device sales were 10.2 million (4 million Lumia), compared with 16.7 million units in Q2 2011 (down 39% YoY) and 11.9 million units in Q1 2011 (down 14%, QoQ).
As part of the Windows Phone Summit today, Nokia's Senior Vice President, Kevin Shields, announced a string of additions (Counters, Contact Share, PlayTo, Camera Extras) and updates (Nokia Music 3.0, Nokia Drive 3.0) to the company's exclusive app collection for its Lumia devices. Microsoft also credited Nokia with arranging a deal with games company, Zynga, for bringing Words with Friends and Draw Something to Windows Phone, with a two month exclusivity period for Nokia Lumia devices.
At an event in San Francisco today, Microsoft offered a first look at the key platform features of the next version of Windows Phone. Windows Phone 8 will have a common core with Windows 8, sharing the same kernel, file system, device drivers and security model, closely aligning the two operating systems.
The second update to the AAWP (All About Windows Phone) app, version 1.3, is now available from the Windows Phone Marketplace. The latest update adds a font-size option and support for landscape orientation when viewing stories. It also improves the app's handling of images and offline usage scenarios.
Xbox SmartGlass, which Microsoft announced at E3 this week, is a combination app and service that enables mobile devices (e.g. a Windows Phone device or a Windows 8 tablet) to act as companion "second screens" for Microsoft's Xbox console. In Windows Phone terms Xbox SmartGlass is the next generation of the existing Xbox companion app. The key aim of SmartGlass is to make "entertainment smarter, more interactive and more fun" by providing a more immersive user experience.
