Nokia launched a $20 phone to shore up its position in the basic handset market, where it has lost share while it focused on developing expensive smartphones. Today’s graphic shows the worldwide mobile device sales over the last four years.

Bob Schukai, Global Head of Mobile Technology at Thomson Reuters, talks about how mobile is important to Thomson Reuters Legal’s transformation into a solutions business, as well as trends in how legal professionals are using mobile.

[UPDATE: We updated the graphic to include the official specifications on the new Blackberry phone]

30 Jan 2013Thomson Reuters

The new BlackBerry 10 (which is being unveiled today) has created buzz among those in the industry and those monitoring the company. RIM stock has almost tripled over the past four months on hopes the devices can restore the company to sustained prosperity. Today’s graphic compares some of the most popular smartphones on the market including the projected specifications for the new Blackberry.

I haven’t written much lately on new applications that I’ve been testing, but this time you’re getting this blog post that was put together using the Web Speech API Demonstrator from Google. It’s in the latest Chrome beta release. I love using speech as a natural language interface in products. When I get an idea, I can just start talking out loud and look to edit it into something more coherent later. Google has a number of languages that are available for the web Speech API demonstrator, including several variations of English. This is quite nice, as we know from some of the challenges Apple has had with its Siri product. (Wow it even recognizes Siri when I mentioned it!)  Maybe it’s just me, but it feels like a natural inclusion for some of our market segments: a simple way for a lawyer to dictate notes and thoughts or perhaps a financial services professional who chatted with a colleague or read or saw something in the investment space.

16 Jan 2013Bob Schukai

One of the Kickstarter applications I funded last year was a product called 1 Second Everyday. I really love this app. The idea is that you can create a montage of the year by capturing one second worth of video content every single day, which can then be strung together into a single video stream. The developer is from Brooklyn and recently his idea was even featured on the BBC. I’ve been using it every day so far, since the product came out, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens when I put together my clips from 2013. It is something I think you could actually do over the course in many years as way of going back and remembering cool things that happened in your life. The app is currently available on iOS and it will be out on Android very soon. Check it out and let me know what you think.

So now that you’ve heard what I’ve been using, what apps have piqued your interest lately?

It isn’t a song from the 80s, but I realized that I’ve pretty much avoided my usual pop culture references lately, so I figured my opportunity to take part in our recent Onesource User Conference in London was a great opportunity to bring it back. I had been asked earlier this year by Tina Allen who is the public relations manager for Tax & Accounting if I could present a session on mobile technology as well as finish off the day on a panel focused on some of the implications of policy and technology on the tax professional of the future. It was also a great chance for me to get to spend some time as well at dinner with Brian Peccarelli, the president of our Tax & Accounting business.

31 Oct 2012Bob Schukai

I will be the first to admit that I am not an expert at all on tax and accounting issues. In fact, when the panel introduced themselves, they were all standout representatives of this part of the business, including our own Charlotte Rushton. As my fellow panelists introduced themselves and their backgrounds, this was the best I could come up with for myself: “I’m Bob Schukai, and I’m the Global Head of Mobile Technology at Thomson Reuters. And I pay tax!”  OK, I’ll admit I’m a little better than that, but I truly was impressed at the many people I met during the day both from within the company as well as partners and customers such as Deloitte and Shell. I do want to tell you about one of the coolest areas that I think we have in our Tax & Accounting group, and it came through an acquisition of a company called Manatron. (more…)

18 Oct 2012Thomson Reuters

Here’s a quick check-in with our friends over at Westlaw Insider to see what’s been going on in the legal world this past week: (more…)

After a Q2 2012 earnings miss, Leap Wireless International is taking steps to improve its free cash flow for 2013.  In particular, the company plans on outsourcing some of its internal operations and reducing its handset subsidies.  If these cost reductions do actually improve the profitability of the firm, mutual funds holdings LEAP-O should benefit.  The below chart analyzes LEAP-O mutual fund holders by investor style.

Check out other reports by Thomson Reuters Ownership Intelligence and follow @ownershipintel on Twitter.

As Google Inc continues to compete with Facebook in the mobile social media space, photo editing has become more and more important.  In order to compete with Facebook’s Instagram, Google purchased Nik Software, which makes the photo editing application Snapseed.  If Google’s investment pays off, its top shareholders should reap benefits.

Check out other reports by Thomson Reuters Ownership Intelligence and follow @ownershipintel on Twitter.

28 Aug 2012Dan Bennett

I’ve been dedicated to the mobile space for 2 1/2 years now. In that time, the most common question I hear, by far, is: “what OS should we be building our app for?” Sadly, it’s the hardest question to answer! I’m not going to try and answer the question here – as it’s all but impossible on a generalized basis. However, hopefully I can give you a couple of data points and considerations to help you answer for your product yourself.

Before that, though, a quick shout out for the mobile web. There’s a reason we like it so much! You can, to a large extent, dodge the question of platform choice and you’re not subject to the vagaries of your OS/app store vendor.

Putting that aside, here are the main considerations: (more…)

Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy Note 2 tablet in the US yesterday, in its latest attempt to wrestle market share from Apple. Today’s graphic compares the new tablet to its direct competitors from Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft.

Click to enlarge