‘Feedback suggests that the Yota platinum phone will be very popular’
Tell us something about your partnership with Yota Devices.
STC has been selected as the strategic software partner of Yota Devices for the dual screen phone and as such we are helping them with the core android architectural modifications, development and testing of the Yota platinum phone. Yota went through an extensive selection process reviewing ODMs and software service providers, seeking a best in class partner. STC started working with Yota during mid-2012 and completed a number of consulting projects, including some early work on the platinum phone architecture, where we were able to demonstrate our expertise and quality. This combined with our overall track record in delivering complex android development projects for global OEMs, our experience in supporting device vendors to develop their ecosystem (on multiple OS platforms) and our global footprint with a strong local presence in Russia were major reasons for Yota Devices to select STC. We were very delighted to be selected for this technically challenging, innovative and complex project.
How optimistic are you about the acceptance of dual screen phones? What would be the pricing?
This is a very unique innovation and the feedback to date suggests that the Yota platinum phone will be very popular. When it comes to ecosystem adoption, STC believes that there will be both business and consumer benefits from the e-Ink display and that over time, developers will find new ways of taking advantage of this cool innovation via the APIs that will be exposed to them. We have seen over the last few years that developers are always keen to exploit the latest innovations as a way to differentiate their applications and services and thus, we believe that the Yota platinum phone will provide them with a great platform to do exactly this. In terms of pricing, this will be determined by Yota as the device vendor.
What are the technical challenges posed by the dual screen phone?
There are many challenges in such an innovation. Some aspects that arose in the development process for the dual screen phone included the integration of the e-Ink display to the android platform, creating a mechanism for sharing information between the displays, modifying the SurfaceFlinger framework to be aware of the presence of a second physical display, optimiYing the platform to ensure real-time performance when switching between displays, enabling existing android applications to exploit this innovation without breaking any of the android compatibility guidelines to just name a few. Developing such a device requires in-depth knowledge of android as mobile operating systems as well as on all android device compatibility, maintenance and application ecosystem related aspects.
malinin@cybermedia.co.in