Tech Updates Daily

Microsoft’s end of support for the venerable XP operating system on 8 April 2014 could have unfortunate consequences for most UK organisations, which still lack a plan for migrating XP legacy apps. According to new research, 52 per cent of UK IT departments have yet to put in place a strategy for dealing with applications that currently run under XP, first released to manufacturers in August 2001. However the study, from Accenture- and Microsoft-owned software consultancy Avanade, suggests that IT leaders are aware of the scale of the problem they could be facing in 14 months. Eight out of 10 of the CIOs and IT directors surveyed say large volumes of unsupported apps represent a concern to them. XP continues to account for 43 percent of enterprise desktop infrastructures in the UK, according to Avanade figures. The reason for the inertia in preparing for the end of support for the OS is attributed to a lack of a business case, which was cited as the key barrier b...

Nokia scored a minor coup by beating Apple to a deal with China Mobile thanks to the Lumia 920T,  but it looks as if the Finnish company won't get to capitalise on the will most important shopping period in China thanks to shortages of the Windows Phone device. China Mobile, China's largest carrier, ordered 90,000 Nokia Lumia 920Ts, but Nokia has only been able to deliver 30,000 through January, a China Mobile spokesperson told Bloomberg . The shortage means most of China Mobile's outlets will not be carrying the 4599-RMB device ($738) ahead of China's retail equivalent to Christmas: Chinese New Year, which begins on 10 February. At Chinese New Year, unmarried youths across the nation will deliver the cheeky statement "hong bao na lai" to elders, which translates to "give me the red packet" — a packet that is, at least for the well-heeled, filled with a wad of cash. If it's not saved, the money will likely end up being...

Mobile analytic firm comScore released smartphone figures covering through December of 2012 and the strength of Samsung stands out in the crowded Android field. Apple is still the number one smartphone maker in the U.S. and Samsung is firmly number two while dominating the Android world.  subscriber numbers for Apple iPhones and Samsung phones increased in the last quarter of 2012 by similar amounts, giving Apple a solid 36.3 percent and Samsung 21 percent. That puts Samsung close to 11 percent more than the next nearest competitor, HTC. That's significant because Samsung is selling mostly Android phones while HTC is heavily pushing Windows Phones in addition to Android handsets. While Samsung's share grew 2.3 percent HTC's dropped 1.8 percent. You could almost say Samsung grew share at HTC's expense in spite of Windows Phone 8 launching during that quarter. Motorola had a modest 0.7 percent drop in share over the same quarter but given HTC...