Taking a look back at seven days of news across the Android world, this week’s Android Circuit includes the force-touch enabled Galaxy 7 display, Samsung’s new hero handset for 2016, Microsoft’s Android app store, leaked images of the HTC One X9, fitness tools in Pebble’s latest smartwatch update, Fairphone profiled by the BBC, secrets of the Nexus 6P and 5X, and Google’s Android-powered lightsaber.
Android Circuit is here to remind you of a few of the many things that have happened around Android in the last week .
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (image: Ewan Spence)
Samsung Follows Apple For Force Sensitive Display
If you believe some reports, we could be seeing the Galaxy S7 in a little over a month’s time, with a potential launch just after CES. Most people think the traditional pre-MWC slot in late February is more likely, but information on Samsung’s Galaxy S7 handset is already coming out. One interesting leak points to a new technological addition to the screen.
So how will this pan out? Obviously the WSJ’s source will need to be on the money, but assuming the paper is correct (and it has a great track record in recent years) Samsung is likely to point to similar technology developed by Qualcomm as a defence. In fact using Qualcomm’s technology may well be the strategy, though it is impossible to imagine a world where Tim Cook isn’t furious and Apple’s legal team aren’t unleashed to start a new series of lawsuits that tie up the courts for years to come.
So what would Samsung get out of it? The fact that the lawsuits take years to be settled, nearly always for far less than the company makes from the tech in the intervening period, and that it gets a potentially major differentiator from Android rivals while keeping pace with Apple’s tentpole feature.
There’s one other Samsung device of note that was revealed this week, and that’s the Galaxy A9. This is a mid-range device, sporting a SnapDragon 620 processor, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. Those are really good specs, and I’m expecting this mid-range device to be a popular seller. Given Samsung’s failure in 2015 to grow the sales of the flagship Galaxy S devices and a reliance on volume sales in the mid-range devices to keep its mobile revenues up, the A9 is arguably Samsung’s hero device for 2016.
As the flagship sales fall away, Samsung’s mobile division is becoming more reliant on these mid-range devices. These devices sell in large quantities, but at a lower cost. A manufacturer relying on mid-range devices to drive a division’s revenue is going to need to have high-specification devices at attractive price points, the ability to invest in marketing, and an efficient distribution network that keeps costs low.
…It may not be slick or sexy, but it will be competent, reliable, and functional. It will offer vendors a competitive flagship from a manufacturer that they all have a solid relationship with. No high-street sales assistant is going to be fired for selling a Samsung.
And One [Microsoft] App To Rule Them All
Microsoft continues to expand its portfolio of Android apps, and is now at the point where many of your day-to-day tasks on your Android smartphone can be achieved exclusively with Microsoft apps. Curiously the one area you’ll leave Redmond’s reach is browsing the web. Microsoft’s latest app is a simplistic work of genius… an app that lists all of Microsoft’s apps. TechCrunch’s Alex Wilhelm:
There are two parts to this development. The first is that Microsoft’s cross-platform work continues, and that the company has yet to let up an inch on its work to bring its software and services to users on every rival operating system. And, the second point is that Microsoft has created an effective Android app store — catalog? — inside of the actual Android app store.
It might seem a bit pointless, but one of the biggest problems in the App Store is visibility. If a user cannot find your apps, they will never get installed. Microsoft now has a single point of focus that it can promote in its apps and externally to hook a user into its Android ecosystem. It’s like a little app store… inside the Google Play app store.
Microsoft Slide (images: Microsoft App Store Listing)
Early Images Of The HTC One X9 Leak Out
Cam Bunton reports on HTC’s next smartphone, the One X9. Another mid-range device, fighting for the same market space as the Galaxy A9, the One X9 sports a look that could be considered ‘iPhone-like’ and while it might not be flagship-levels, the construction has many advantages:
Although it may not seem it, I think the most important detail here is the panel surrounding the camera module on the back. As you can see from the images below, it’s clearly a different material from the rest of the housing. That, along with the antenna bands on the edges, clearly indicates that the One X9 will be made primarily from metal. While it will gain the One-series moniker, it’s clear to me that this phone is a replacement for (or upgrade to) the HTC Desire range. It’s a mid-ranger with decent specs, but made from metal instead of plastic.
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