Every week we hear a great deal of chatter concerning market share for iOS and Android, and how on or the other is gaining or losing a bit of it depending on who is reporting and when reports are released. In any case there is one sure thing in all of this - both mobile operating systems taken together drive a great deal of need for Android and iOS developers. And the truth of the matter is that being an Android or iOS developer puts you in a great spot for ensuring you are well paid and always have a place of employment. At least in the United States this is the reality - it's a great job market out there! Interestingly senior Android developers are able to pull in about $10,000 more per year than their iOS counterparts. But iOS drives many more actual jobs.
It doesn't hurt for developers to get some training in on using fingerprint scans for security and for fingerprint analysis. Clearly the technology is finding its way into the mainstream and will soon find its way into every conceivable device out there - and here we don't mean only mobile devices. Synaptics, a long time player in the touchpad and gesture capture space has seen the light as well - this week it agreed to shell out a goodly number of dollars to acquire fingerprint scanning specialist Validity. In fact fingerprint tech is so hot at the moment it even spawned a fake press release on Friday that Samsung was about to acquire such a company.
Last week we covered a story concerning Samsung and the willingness of high level management members of its licensing team to go outside the rule of law and to engage in nefarious behavior to use highly confidential Nokia-Apple licensing information in order to strong arm Nokia into a licensing deal highly favorable to Samsung. We certainly claimed foul on that. This week, President Obama happened to overrule a Samsung request to veto a patent remedy granted to Apple over Samsung's patent infringements of its design copyrights. It is absolutely the right thing for Obama to have done.
The week also brought us its share of some interesting Apple news. First, there were several reports circulating about early this week that the iPhone 5s has been exhibiting signs that its sensors may be improperly calibrated. We have yet to figure out if this is a widespread issue, an anomaly related only to a few early shipping devices or a problem requiring a heavy duty fix either to the hardware, its firmware and/or to iOS 7. Interestingly we have heard nothing else about the problem since it first appeared but it is an issue that bears watching.
Early next week we will be tackling some interesting Apple possibilities. Certain types of information are becoming available that suggest Apple's larger screen devices are indeed in the works. And there is speculation that perhaps Apple's iWatch may be a lot more than "just a smartwatch." This week we have some speculation from a financial analyst - Jeffries analyst Peter Misek - who has suddenly had a major change of heart about Apple. Misek, who is considered an "Apple insider," relative to what he is supposedly able to discern about Apple has suddenly changed his now former $425 target price on Apple to…$600 per share. If that doesn't inspire confidence, what will? He also believes there is a 4.8 iPhone coming. We're glad he's at least finally with the program.
We are beginning to approach that time of the year we like to refer to as the "time of the prognosticator." It's sort of like an extended witching hour when analysts begin to pull together their hallowed tech predictions for 2014. And we're glad to note that the season is starting right on schedule. This week PwC (Price Waterhouse Coopers to the elders amongst us) has released a new report that highlights the nine key disruptive forces that CEOs need to think about heading into next year. It's an interesting read, but only - in our opinion - to confirm what we already know. If any of it is new to you then you are guaranteed a doubly interesting read. PwC also released a report on the state of information security in the telecom industry - a good read for sure.
Meanwhile, Gartner just held its recent annual Symposium, in which it traditionally releases its major IT predictions for the next year. Gartner certainly did not disappoint, delivering right on schedule. Among its most insightful predictions we can anticipate that 3D Printing and "smart machines" are on tap to be major 2014 IT disruptors. We certainly don't disagree that these technologies will gain a lot of mindshare next year.
Have a great and perhaps unpredictable weekend!
