Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Apple & Blackberry falling, Android & Windows Phone rising.  Windows Phone still only a single digit percentage marketshare but rising and squarely in 3rd place.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. February 12, 2014 – The smartphone market passed an important milestone in 2013 when worldwide shipments surpassed the 1 billion mark for the first time, driven by continued momentum from Android and iOS. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android and iOS accounted for 95.7% of all smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter of 2013 (4Q13), and for 93.8% of all smartphone shipments for the year. This marked a 4.5-point increase from the 91.2% share that the two platforms shared in 4Q12, and a 6.1-point increase from the 87.7% share they had in 2012.

"Clearly, there was strong end-user demand for both Android and iOS products during the quarter and the year," says Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC’s Mobile Phone team. "What stands out are the different routes Android and Apple took to meet this demand. Android relied on its long list of OEM partners, a broad and deep collection of devices, and price points that appealed to nearly every market segment. Apple’s iOS, on the other hand, relied on nearly the opposite approach: a limited selection of Apple-only devices, whose prices trended higher than most. Despite these differences, both platforms found a warm reception to their respective user experiences and selection of mobile applications."

While smartphone market growth remained strong in 2013, it should be noted that the era of double-digit annual growth has only a few years remaining. In the meantime, handset vendors are doing all they can to capture demand while it is still present. Worldwide smartphone marketing campaigns continue to stay focused on flagship devices like the iPhone 5S, Galaxy Note 3, and the HTC One, yet research shows that consumer buying is rapidly shifting toward products with significantly lower price points.

"In 2013 we saw the sub-$200 smartphone market grow to 42.6% of global volume, or 430 million units," said Ryan Reith, Program Director with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. "While the market moves downstream to cheaper products it makes sense for Samsung and others to continue their marketing investments geared toward high-end products. These efforts build crucial brand perception while having less expensive alternatives that closely relate to these top products helps to close the deal. Samsung has done exactly this with the ‘Galaxy’ line. The family name is associated with Samsung’s high-end products, yet there are ‘Galaxy’ variants offered by Samsung at much lower price points than the Note 3 and S4. This has been an important factor in how Samsung has sustained its market lead."

Operating System Highlights

Android finished the year where it began: as the clear leader in the smartphone operating system race. Samsung led all Android vendors with a commanding 39.5% share of shipments for the year. Worth watching is a crowded list of vendors jockeying for position in 2014, including Huawei, LG, Lenovo, Coolpad, and Sony. Should Lenovo’s bid to acquire Motorola Mobility be realized, the new company will leap ahead of Huawei, which was the number 2 Android vendor in 2013.

iOS posted the lowest positive growth for both the quarter (6.7%) and for the year (12.9%), underperforming the overall market in both instances. Although it remains wildly popular in the smartphone market, Apple has been criticized for not offering a new low-cost iPhone nor a large screen iPhone in 2013 to compete with other OEMs. IDC believes the company will release a large-screen version in 2014, but will not altogether abandon the smaller 4" screen version of previous models.

Windows Phone posted the largest increase for both the quarter (46.7%) and the year (90.9%), with each nearly doubling the growth of the overall market. Nokia easily led all vendors with 89.3% market share, a testament to its expanding portfolio that addressed entry-level all the way up to large-screen smartphones. What remains to be seen in 2014 is how Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s smart devices will propel volumes higher.

BlackBerry was the only operating system to realize negative year-over-year change both for the quarter (-77.0%) and for the year (-40.9%). Moreover, its legacy BB7 outpaced BB10 towards the end of the year, definitely not the results that the company had hoped for when it released BB10 in January. With new leadership, management, and a tighter focus on the enterprise market, BlackBerry may in a better position, but still finds itself having to evangelize the new platform to its user base.

…

Read more here:

• Source: http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS24676414

Are you ready for the biggest title yet on Xbox One?  From the original creators of Call of Duty… it’s TITANFALL. (http://www.titanfall.com/)

Titanfall is the first next-gen shooter that combines pure adrenaline, wall-running, double-jumping action with powerful, fast-paced titan warfare to set the new bar for online multiplayer gameplay. The Beta will have two maps and three Titanfall modes, including the newly announced mode "Last Titan Standing".

Stand by for Titanfall and pre-order your copy today for Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC here: http://www.titanfall.com/buy

Titanfall for Xbox One and PC will be available March 11, 2014 in North America and beginning March 13, 2014 in Europe. Titanfall for Xbox 360 will be available on March 25, 2014 in North America and beginning March 28, 2014 in Europe.

Winner of over 75 Awards:

• PAX Prime 2013 GamesRadar “Best of Show”
• Game Critics E3 “Best in Show”
• TGS “Future Game of Show”
• Eurogamer Expo “Game of Show”

Launch Party in Century City
The Titanfall launch party takes place March 10 at 10:00PM at the Microsoft Store in Century City.  Participate in the launch with:

• Prerelease game play
• $1000 in prizes
• Raffle swag, pizza, drinks
• …and the first 50 people in line will receive an exclusive Titanfall t-shirt

Pre-orders get $10 Microsoft Store Gift Cards
If you pre-order Titanfall now at the Microsoft Store, you will get a $10 gift card when you come to pick up your game at the launch or any time after.

Microsoft Store Los Angeles
(Westfield Century City)
10250 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90067
Phone: (310) 228-3550

Attention Surface Owners!  There’s a new case coming, optimized for Surface RT/2 or Surface Pro/2.  If you own a Surface of any type, you may want to consider getting in on this Kickstarter opportunity. This is a case that is designed for the Surface from the ground up.

It’s called FreedomCase and it’s designed for Surface exclusively.

Why back the FreedomCase on Kickstarter?

We feel that Microsoft Surface owners deserve something much better than what’s currently available. The FreedomCase endeavors to bring a high level of design and innovation to a relatively stagnant range of accessories.

We’ve put more than seven months of time into prototyping and researching the best way to design this case. We’ve listened to you, the members of the Surface community, on the features and functionality that you’d like to see. By incorporating your feedback, the FreedomCase is truly a representation of “ask and ye shall receive”. Together, we can make this product a reality.

Sign up for the Kickstarter here:

• FreedomCase for Surface RT/2 or Pro/2
  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrisleung/freedomcase-adjustable-stand-and-case-for-microsof

Learn about the advanced features of Windows 8.1 from this Power User Guide. This package allows you to produce your own hard copies of the Windows 8.1 Power User for Business and give it away as training assets to end-users.

This zip file includes the content in PDF, PowerPoint, and Adobe InDesign formats that you can use as-is or customize to match the requirements of your organization.

• DOWNLOAD: Windows 8.1 Power User Guide for Business
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=41667

The Lync Meeting Update Tool helps you update your Lync meetings. When your account switches servers, your Lync Meeting links need to be updated so others can join your meeting. This tool finds your meetings with outdated links and automatically sends updated meeting invitations to participants.

• When a user account switches servers, the Lync Meeting links will be updated. You can update the meeting links by running this tool.
• If you are an admin for your boss and wants to update meeting links when your boss account switches servers, run this tool to update your boss’s meetings.

Yeah, this seems mildly important for Lync environments.

Download the tools here:

• Lync Meeting Update Tool (64 bit)
• Lync Meeting Update Tool (32 bit)

To help business leaders understand the importance of data classification, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing has just released two new papers outlining the process and its benefits.

• “Data Classification for Cloud Readiness” outlines the risks and issues that can be mitigated to ensure a smoother transition to a cloud service. The paper also considers technologies such as encryption, rights management, and data loss prevention solutions and how their implementation has evolved in the cloud era.
• “CISO Perspectives on Data Classification” provides insight from the chief information security officers (CISOs) of three organizations about key data classification issues and challenges, as well as how they have implemented data classification.

Both papers can also be downloaded from www.microsoft.com/trustedcloud, where you will also find a variety of additional cloud security resources, including the CSRT – a survey-based tool based on the Cloud Security Alliance’s Cloud Controls Matrix. The CSRT helps organizations assess their current IT state and whether cloud adoption will meet their business needs.

Read more at:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/trustworthycomputing/archive/2014/01/28/two-new-papers-help-show-the-value-of-data-classification.aspx

These resources – brochures, flyers, videos, and posters — provide an insight into how employees can protect their devices and documents. Also included is a quiz for testing a person’s internet security understanding, a white paper on Consumerization of IT@Microsoft, a list of helpful web sites and additional resources, and several educational videos that are ideal for team and company meetings.

Several of the flyers and posters are provided as PowerPoint so they can be customized with company logo and contacts. The flyers can be turned into a single documents, and used for employee training.

Complementing these security resources is a:

• “Be Safe Online Security Kit”
• “Be Safe on Social Networks Security Kit”
• “Microsoft Security Approach”

Download these resources at:

• Protect your Devices & Documents Security Kit
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=41663

UPDATE 12/7/15:
I believe we took this document down several months ago.  The original content in TechNet was updated back in April 2015 from the original content back in March 2014.  Visit TechNet for the most recent publishing.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=41671

——————
ORIGINAL POST:
Full-volume encryption using BitLocker Drive Encryption is vital for protecting data and system integrity on devices running the Windows 8.1, Windows 8, or Windows 7 operating system. It is equally important to protect the BitLocker encryption key.

This guide provides detailed information that will help you understand the circumstances under which the use of pre-boot authentication is recommended and when it can be safely omitted from the configuration of a device that is running on Windows 8.1, Windows 8, or Windows 7 operating systems.

• WHITEPAPER: Protecting BitLocker from Pre-Boot Attacks (675KB, 24pgs)
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=41671

The Yammer App for SharePoint lets you add a real-time social layer to your SharePoint site, and now an updated version of the app takes advantage of SharePoint security enhancements to improve sign-in reliability, writes Christophe Fiessinger on the Office Blogs.

“If you’re a SharePoint site owner and you’re using the Yammer App for SharePoint on your SharePoint Online or SharePoint on-premises team site, upgrade to the latest version now,” Fiessinger writes.

To upgrade the app to the latest version, on the SharePoint site with a Yammer App for SharePoint, click the Settings icon at the top of the page, and then click Site contents. The Site contents page shows you all of the apps available for that particular site. If your Yammer app needs an update, a link to update it appears under the name.

When you use Yammer and SharePoint together, you can “encourage team and company-wide conversations, facilitate collaboration around files and projects, and make it easier for people to connect,” Fiessinger writes. “This helps make collaborating a more social, mobile, and engaging experience.”

Read more about the update here:
http://blogs.office.com/2014/02/11/update-to-the-latest-yammer-app-for-sharepoint/

To add the Yammer app for SharePoint, go to:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-foundation-help/set-up-the-yammer-app-for-sharepoint-HA104079146.aspx

The Microsoft Rights Management (RMS) connector lets you quickly enable existing on-premises servers, such as Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, or file servers running Windows Server to use their Information Rights Management (IRM) functionality with the cloud-based Microsoft Rights Management services. With this functionality, IT and users can easily protect documents and pictures both inside your organization and outside, without having to install additional infrastructure or establish trust relationships with other organizations.

The RMS connector is a small-footprint service that you install on-premises on servers that run Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, or Windows Server 2008 R2. After you install and configure the connector, it acts as a communications interface between the on-premises IRM-enabled servers and the cloud service.

Download the RMS connector at:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40839

Learn more about the RMS connector at:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn375964.aspx.