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Following news of intense mobile unit layoffs and more than underwhelming 2014 results, rumors began spreading that Sony Mobile had plans to essentially shutter its smartphone business. These were proven false for the time being when the company launched its Xperia Z4 handset (and the subsequent Xperia Z4v for Verizon stateside), but now Sony Mobile CEO Hiroki Totoki has come out (via Arabian Business) to further reiterate that it has no plans to leave the smartphone business…
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For many of us, email is a necessary evil. Necessary because most of the business world still uses email to communicate important information, evil because it can end up controlling your life. When someone emails you with a question, or a request, or whatever else, they’re putting you on the offensive – giving you tasks to accomplish and things to do. But there’s one selfish act you can take to make the experience a little better for yourself – scheduling.

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After releasing its earnings guidance earlier this month, Samsung has just posed its official Q1 2015 earnings. The company reports an operating profit of $5.63 billion off of revenues of $44 billion. These numbers represent a drop in operating profits year-over-year, down from $7.8 billion in Q1 2014.

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Samsung released its earnings guidance for Q1 2015 earlier this evening, and now HTC has done the same. Reuters reports that HTC expects a net profit of $11.6 million for the first quarter of 2015 off of revenue of $1.3 billion. While these numbers are down slightly when compared to Q4 of 2014, they are up significantly from the year ago quarter.

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During its F8 Developer Conference today, Facebook announced a new Facebook Messenger Platform that will allow third-party apps to integrate with its popular Messenger app.
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Today during its latest Un-carrier event, T-Mobile announced new initiatives including brand new plans and pricing for businesses and a promise to all of its customers that it won’t increase prices. It’s also paying off bills for those locked into leasing plans on other carriers if they switch to T-Mobile. 

That “Un-contract” guarantee that prices won’t increase goes for all of its Simple Choice plans (including Simple Choice promotional plans) as long as you remain a T-Mobile customer with a qualifying plan. However, the carrier will only offer the guarantee to those with unlimited 4G LTE data for two years. The guarantee will automatically start for all existing customers on March 22nd.
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Google is testing an interesting new feature in search, as spotted by one Matt Gibstein on Twitter. As you can see in the above screenshot, there’s a small “Chat” icon next to the phone number of a business called “Dizengoff” in Philadelphia—and it looks like clicking it will launch you into a chat session directly with that business via Hangouts. 
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Samsung tonight has issued its earnings guidance for the fourth quarter of 2014. The company says that it expects to, yet again, report a decline in operating profit and sales. Samsung estimates that its operating profit for Q4 2014 as 5.2 trillion won, or $4.5 billion. That’s a decrease of roughly 37 percent when compared to the $8.3 billion reported in Q4 2013. The number does, however, beat analyst expectations of 4.8 trillion won.

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One of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s favorite terms to throw around during earnings calls and keynote presentations is “Customer Sat,” but the latest from the American Customer Satisfaction Index has Apple down compared to last year while Samsung continues to rise despite declining sales.
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUsLPPuJhZc]

Lightbox – the scalable multimedia ads that Google first introduced to the desktop back in 2012 and finally brought to mobile devices in September of this year – are now available to all AdWords advertisers globally.

The Lightbox format allows advertisers to quickly and easily combine existing video, images and maps in an HTML5 ad that will scale correctly for all standard ad sizes and devices. Hovering over the ad expands them to full-size no matter what the device … 
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Google is giving Ol’ St. Nicholas a run for his money this holiday season because it ALSO knows what people want for the holidays. Rather than getting mail in the North Pole however, Google gets its data via its popular search engine. In data from its Trends platform, it has determined the top trending toys, devices and apparel searches on Google Shopping. An overview from the Commerce blog:

• Game consoles and tablets continue to be the top gifts trending on Google Shopping, but wearable technology such as the “fitbit” is also on the rise this month.
• Certain retro toys are making a comeback this season. Thanks to the new movie “Ouija,” searches for “Ouija boards” are up 300% since October. And queries for “Barbie Dream House” and “My Little Pony” are up as well compared to last month. ⁶
• Cold-weather staples, such as “Hunter boots” and “Canada Goose jackets,” are among the most popular apparel searches, up 46% and 140%, respectively, since October. But “jogger pants” are the newcomer gift this season, up 39% from October. ⁷

But the most important data they pulled, especially if you are a clueless father like myself, is the top 10 Kids’ gifts list. Without further ado, in order:

1. American Girl

2. My Little Pony

3. Paw Patrol

4. Lego Friends

5. Ouija Board

6. Peppa Pig

7. Shopkins

8. Nerf Guns

9. Barbie Dream House

10. Zoomer Dino

Any of this hitting home?
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Uber has already disrupted taxi service in metropolitan areas like San Francisco, New York and Chicago with its affordable and convenient ride-sharing service, and now the multibillion dollar startup could be planning to use its massive fleet of vehicles and drivers to take on delivery services like Amazon Prime, Google Express, FedEx and UPS.
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The latest enterprise market share data from Good Technology shows that Android gained five points from iOS, hitting almost a third of the market at 32 percent while iOS fell from 72 to 67 percent. Windows Phone remains flat (and irrelevant) at just 1 percent. (BlackBerry data is not included as the company uses its own servers and activations are invisible to Good Technology.)

What’s particularly impressive about the numbers is that Good’s technology mostly connects mobile devices to Exchange servers and organizations that use Google services for enterprise, which are more likely to Android, aren’t being counted here…

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Sprint and Google announced a partnership today that will see the carrier sell Apps for Business, Google’s productivity suite of products for enterprise, while offering deployment and support as a complete solution. Sprint is essentially becoming a reseller as part of the Google Apps Partner Program.

“Google Apps helps businesses work better together with familiar tools they can trust,” said Murali Sitaram, director of strategic partnerships for Google Enterprise. “Our partners are critical in this effort, providing valuable cloud and mobility solutions to customers of all sizes and across diverse industries. We are pleased to welcome Sprint to the Google Apps Partner Program, where they will provide Google Apps and added services to help customers work the way they live.”

In its press release, Sprint said its offering of Google Apps for Business will include “24/7 support and online training included at no charge … all with a mobile-centric approach that enables the use of Google Apps on mobile devices.”

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Google has published its annual Economic Impact Report (PDF) that reveals some interesting statistics about how the web and its tools are helping American businesses. Last year, the report claims that Google tools helped generate $111 billion of economic activity for 1.5 million businesses, web-based publishers and non-profit organizations across the United States. 
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HTC, which started losing money last October, has kept its promise to return to the black in Q2 this year according to unaudited figures revealed in a brief statement.

Unaudited quarterly revenue was NT$65.06 billion and net profit before tax was NT$2.76 billion. Operating profit was NT$2.43 billion, and net profit after tax was NT$2.26 billion

The company said in February that it planned to follow Samsung’s lead in making handsets across all price-points, stating that it had “missed a huge chunk of the mid-tier market.” Revealing further losses in April, the company said that it expected to return to profit in Q2 thanks to both new mid-range phones like the Desire 816 and its well-regarded flagship One M8 … 
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Google Glass may not have the best reputation in the workplace, but Mountain View is trying to change that. Today, the company announced its first wave of Glass at Work Certified Partners. This daring new brood looking to push Google’s wearable computer into the enterprise market include partners like APX Labs, Augmedix, CrowdOptic, GuidiGO and Wearable Intelligence.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LCzri4tXuF0

Google, in a post on its “Google and Your Business” blog, has just unveiled a new service for small business. Dubbed Google My Business, the service is essentially a central location for small business owners to control how their businesses appear in Google search results, Maps, and more.

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The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is purchasing Divide, a company that builds mobile device management software for enterprise customers. Divide confirmed the deal in an announcement on its website saying it will be joining the Android team and that existing customers will continue to be able to access the service (above).

Divide provides a cloud-based service that lets companies and large organizations oversee and manage mobile devices used by employees on their networks. The software can create separate work environments on personal devices used by employees, offers a number of security features, and also supports both Android and iOS:
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Google announced today on its Enterprise blog that it’s introducing a new Google apps referral program that will see the company payout $15 for each new customer referred through the program.

Many of the millions of Google Apps customers learned about tools like Hangouts, Drive and Gmail for business from their customers, friends and networks. To help continue the momentum, we’re launching the Google Apps Referral Program. The referral program makes it easy to share Google Apps with your network and show them how they too can use these tools at work. To show our appreciation, we’re offering a $15 referral bonus for each new Google Apps user you refer.

Those interested in joining the referral program will need a valid taxpayer ID number and bank account for direct deposits. Google also says it will provide email and website templates that can be used to send a unique referral link to potential customers.Google Apps users in the US and Canada that are interested in joining the referral program can do so here.

Update: We had a quick Q&A with Google pasted below:

• Are you phasing out the $5/user/year you guys give to IT service providers or is that staying? This program does not impact the amount provided to Google Apps Resellers.
• Is it an affilaite program?   After joining the program, members will receive $15 for every user that signs up from their recommendations. In order to receive the incentive, referrals must be Google Apps customers for at least 4 months. Then we’ll make a direct deposit to the referee’s bank account every month for the amount they’ve earned. 
• How long do people have to stay in the program for a payout? I’m assuming the $15 comes with a year program signup. In order to receive the incentive, referrals must be Google Apps customers for at least 4 months. Then we’ll make a direct deposit to the referee’s bank account every month for the amount they’ve earned. 
• Will Google be expanding this to include $ on apps or Android apps or hardware/Nexus products? (Hope so!) We’re excited about today’s launch of the Google Apps Referral Program, but have nothing else to announce.

The fine print from Google is below:
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