This week's Technology Observatory brings you the following stories:

●       Skype Translator intends to prevent language from being a barrier for speaking long distance

●       Honor T1, the first tablet of the new European brand of Huawei is here

●       Smartphones: Samsung continues to rule while Xiaomi devours LG

●       Telefónica remains partnerless in the United Kingdom, BT will only negotiate with Orange and Deutsche Telekom

●       BlackBerry wants us to use BBM in iOS and includes new and interesting functions

●       Movistar Cloud offers unlimited storage in the cloud for €5 per month

●       Lowi, the MVNO by Vodafone that will permit users to accumulate unused megas

●       The phone with Tizen by Samsung regains protagonism (now as Z1)

Some time ago, we saw how Microsoft was working to offer instant translations using videoconference. It was merely a matter of time until that demo would end up integrated within its messaging services, and the people at Redmond have made it official: its name is Skype Translator and we can start using it right now. This new mode allows for translating text and voice messages instantly to facilitate communications across people who speak different languages. For the time being, this service works only in English and Spanish for audio, and in over forty languages for text. If you signed up for the program when Skype launched it for testing, you can already download and install the application. The only requirement is that you must have Windows 8.1 as the operating system. Microsoft has a goal of narrowing its relationship with the world of education and the best proof of this is the testing it has performed with students in the United States and Mexico through several in-class videoconferences to connect both classrooms with the translator producing fluid conversations. If you haven't yet signed up for Skype Translator, you can still do so through the following website. In any case, it is still necessary to have Windows 8.1. Currently it does not yet work in the remaining desktop platforms or mobiles. Neither is there a release date for the public at large, nor is there any information on when more languages will be supported.

Honor is the new brand that the Chinese company Huawei has presented for bringing to Europe a major part of its catalog of devices which to date had been limited to the Asian markets. Our country has seen the Honor 6 and Honor 3C, and though we have already seen leaks of the hypothetical Honor 4X, the truth is that the next device to arrive will be a tablet: the Honor T1. In reality the new tablet is not so new, and its attractiveness is more based on its price, given that with the Honor T1 we have a very inexpensive device, accessible by all pockets and which will surely become the star gift this Christmas. The tablet works using Android 4.3 Jelly Bean masked with Emotion UI 2.0, a firmware that is no doubt obsolete that we can use with an 8-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Its hardware platform uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 chipset, with a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, RAM of 1 GB and another 8 GB of internal storage, expandable with microSD cards. The Honor T1 has WiFi 802.11 b/g/n connectivity, Bluetooth, USB, and two cameras - the main one of 5 megapixels and the frontal one with VGA resolution. The considerably classic design, with a thickness of just 7.9 millimeters does not penalize a good autonomy, thanks to its 4.00 mAh battery. The total dimensions of the Honor T1 are 210.6 x 127.7 x 7.9 millimeters and it weighs 360 grams. The Honor T1 will be available in Europe very soon, the third device by the young brand "powered by Huawei". It is a very inexpensive device, will be available in white and with a metallic rear finish priced at just €129.99.

Gartner has made public its figures referring to Q3 of 2014 and the results are quite interesting. First of all, we are aware that the sale of smartphones has increased by 20% (301 million units sold), proving that the market for this segment does not stop growing. In fact, 66% of all phones in the market are smartphones, and one analyst estimates that 9 out of every 10 phones will be smartphones in 2018. Furthermore, this growth has been accompanied by a very appealing dance of sellers in the top 5. It is still true that Samsung continues to be the king of the party (despite the 8% drop of its sales), however LG has dropped out of the elite group due to the introduction of the all-terrain Xiaomi. This way, the Chinese company positions itself 4th as global seller, moving 15,772 million units. This means that its market share has grown from 1.5% in the same period in 2013 to 5.2% this quarter, surpassing Lenovo (which ranks 5th with 5%).

 

Apple remains second (its share has grown compared with last year by 0.6%, and is now 12.7%) and Huawei ranks third with a market share of 5.3% (an increase from its 4.7% last year). If you notice, the club of the top 5 is now comprised of three Chinese companies which wage against the American fruit harvester and the Korean fighter.

With regards to operating systems for smartphones, Android continues to be strong and slightly gains market share by 1.1%. iOS, on another hand, grows from 12.1% to 12.7% (the same growth of its devices, obviously) while Windows Phone drops in market share of 3.6% in 2013 to 3% now for the same quarter of 2014. Did you expect these figures for the smartphone segment, especially given the strong impression made by Xiaomi?

If recently we spoke of the possibility of British Telecom and Telefónica joining forces through an agreement to purchase O2, subsidiary of the Spanish company in England, BT discarded the idea, as the possibility that Jazztel would purchase Yoigo has also disappeared here. After speculations about the possibility of BT recovering its previous mobile phone section, finally the British operator has announced its decision to purchase Everything Everywhere, the operator created through the joined forces of Orange and Deutsche Telekom, which has the best 4G network across the islands. Goodbye to Telefónica's dream of becoming Europe's giant. The Spanish operator apparently sought a significant alliance with its British equivalent that would serve not only for its expansion, but also to protect it from a possible assault of the old continent by larger American operators, but the dream has vanished. British Telecom has opted to follow its own path, choosing to negotiate the purchase of Everything Everywhere instead of O2, its old mobile telephone subsidiary which after being traded on the stock market ended up in the hands of Telefónica. Though negotiations with German and French owners of EE are apparently quite advanced, and the purchase is valued at €15,700 million, loose ends still remain untied, which will probably stretch out over a few more weeks. British Telecom urgently needs to purchase a mobile phone operator with its own network, given its lack of one. As occurs in Spain, but at a slower rhythm, convergence is leading this market, wherefore in order to compete as regards rates, an own mobile network is necessary. This is the reason for its hurry in acquiring EE, which has the best 4G network in its country, to complement its broad landline network.

Do you recall BBM? Yes, the BlackBerry instant messaging service which took a very long time to become available for other platforms other than those of the Canadian company, which in the beginning caused quite an uproar and got a lot of downloads, but that over time has cooled off and, at least in my case, I know of just a couple of people who still use it. Well, BlackBerry doesn't give up and wants its messaging service to regain that relevance it had years ago, and has therefore not yet abandoned its development and continues to update the service with features that many current messaging services offer. BBM for iOS arrives in the version 2.6 and integrates support for iOS 8 and the new sizes of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, has undergone a facelift with a flatter, cleaner interface and with the transparencies of iOS. The previous update added the ephemeral messaging option, imitating Snapchat, only that here it's done using a clock and while the clock is ticking the message or photo sent can be seen, but now the time can be adjusted up to 60 seconds, compared with the 15 seconds set by default. Now BBM also follows the fashion of using stickers, the same as those we use in group or individual chats; these will cost €0.89 each, but with the release a package that includes all of them can be purchased for those same €0.89. Furthermore, another option is available for sending high-resolution images, an element that very few services offer. Last of all, the option of delete sent messages is added, in case we have mistaken the recipient, enabling us to delete the message remotely from the receiving terminal. And, of course, the functions for voice calls between BBM users improve, as well as the application's social elements, such as BlackBerry Channels. The update is already available in the App Store with the new features at no cost, given that the optimization for new screens will be available this week. It is worth mentioning that some of the functions are only available for premium users, but as of this update and until December 31st, they will be enabled for all users.

Over recent months, or practically over the last two years, Movistar has demonstrated a clear strategy for attracting new clients and retaining existing ones: services. Services and more services, both external (agreements with Spotify, Evernote, etc.) as well as internal (Movistar Series for Movistar TV clients, Nubico, etc.). Now it adds another one: unlimited storage in the cloud for €5 per month with Movistar Cloud for the company's clients. In any case, it is not the only available option. Other alternatives exist for those who need limited and reduced capacities:

●      20 GB for €1 euro per month (VAT included).

●      100 GB for €2 euro per month (VAT included).

●      unlimited for €5 euro per month (VAT included).

This cloud permits any file type, and the service itself allows for sharing these through social networks or email. Aside from files, contacts and calendars may be synchronized, using both Outlook and Gmail. The idea is to have a double backup in case something fails. Movistar Cloud has applications for Android, iOS and Windows Phone. Also, the web may be accessed using a Mac or a PC (no more "only for Internet Explorer and Windows XP!").

Just when we thought the market had enough operators, or that the big players had already covered all market segments with different ranges of rates or brands, another option comes onto the scene. Thursday the 18th marks the arrival of Lowi, MVNO by Vodafone with a device that functions completely independently from its host, as occurs with other MVNO such as Eroski or Hits Mobile. Lowi will be for Vodafone something like Simyo was for Orange. The Lowi strategy is so simple that it will only offer a single contract rate, the "Yourself". Those who choose it will have 1 GB at maximum sped for €6 per month and calls at €0.00 per minute, but the difference compared with other options is the possibility of accumulating unused megas from one month to another within the contract period, similar to how Vodafone itself already does it with its prepaid "You" rates. In a market already saturated by all types of operators, Lowi intends to differentiate itself by its way of managing data contracts. Its strategy is that unused megas of a month do not expire so that these may be used the following month, with the limitation that only megas for two consecutive months are cumulative. In addition, Lowi will offer a lower speed once the full Gigabyte is consumed, specifically 32 kbps, but will offer an interesting extra bonus of 200 megas for €1, likewise cumulative to a maximum of 3 GB per month, counting the initial Gigabyte, the accumulated megas and the extra bonuses. Calls, as we already mentioned, will cost €0.00 per minute with the corresponding call set-up fee of €0.18, and messages will cost €0.10/SMS. Lowi will be available as of this Thursday the 19th over the web, but curiously will reach physical establishments, only Media Markt, where it will be available as of December 29th. What will not be offered is a series of subsidized devices or devices payable in installments, though a small selection of same-priced terminals will be available. Of course, coverage will be provided by Vodafone, though for the time being not using 4G.

The history of Samsung and its first phone with Tizen will repeat itself. The device with the Korean operating system will again become news thanks to an image leaked by Tizen Korea, showing a phone named Z1 and which statically could be identical to the rumored (and cancelled) Samsung Z. The images also show the system's interface, with a design similar to the TouchWiz and which is in line with everything seen until now. At first this phone will target markets like India, the place where its launch was scheduled for last December 10th, though it was finally delayed (again the story begins to ring a bell). Internally it counts with a 4-inch screen, dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, Mali-400 graphics, RAM of 512 MB, 3.2 megapixel camera, double SIM, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and microUSB.