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Today’s topics include why Android devices run on old versions of the mobile operating system, Twitter’s announcement of an 8 percent staff cut, HP partners with F5 on a network-functions virtualization proof-of concept, and TAG Heuer’s plans to roll out its newest luxury smartwatch.
Just because Google keeps periodically releasing new versions of its Android mobile operating system does not mean that device vendors and users are keeping pace. In fact, the vast majority of Android devices in use globally run versions of the operating system that are at least two years old or older.
Google’s most recent dashboard on the relative number of devices running a given version of Android shows that nearly 40 percent of installed mobile devices run Android 4.4 KitKat, which the company released more than two years ago.
Twitter’s new CEO, co-founder and Chairman of the Board Jack Dorsey had to make his first hard decision yesterday. He revealed Twitter will lay off 336 employees, which is equal to about 8 percent of its current staff.
Dorsey said that the layoff is aimed at getting new services—mostly advertising and marketing initiatives—up and running faster for clients.
Hewlett-Packard and F5 Networks are part of a multivendor effort to create a network-functions virtualization proof-of-concept for communications service providers.
The proof-of-concept—also developed with Nuage Networks and Telstra, the top telecommunications company in Australia—is built atop of HP’s OpenNFV Platform, a collection of software and services launched by the tech vendor in 2014 that is designed to enable service providers to virtualize much of their core networking environment.
Luxury Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer will launch its first smartwatch Nov. 9 in New York as the company jumps into the global smartwatch fray against established competitors Apple, Pebble, Huawei, Sony, Samsung and others. The company announced the debut of the Android Wear-powered TAG Heuer watch on Oct. 12 in a post on Instagram.
According to a report by CNBC, the smartwatch will sell for $1,800, which is an increase of $400 from the initial price that was revealed back in May.