It will be so good they won’t do it again
By Rob Coppinger
ANDROID LOVERS can cheer because from 20 December they can hold in their hands a Google Nexus S running the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system that they can pre-order from today.
Care of Carphone Warehouse you can be the proud owner of a product Google’s CEO Read the rest of this entry »
Research firm Gartner is reporting that global cell phone sales for the second quarter of 2010 totalled 325.6 million units, an increase of 13.8 percent when compared with the second quarter of 2009. Smartphones accounted for 19 percent of phones shipped, which is a 50.5 percent increase over last year, according to the company.
Gartner also published its worldwide cell phone market share rankings for Q2, 2010. The most interesting change is the addition of smartphone maker HTC to the list, where it debuts at position number 8 after posting growth of 139.1 percent in volume over Q2, 2009.
Nokia maintains the number one position with 34.2 percent share. Samsung is number 2 with 20.1 percent share, followed by LG (9.0 percent), RIM (2.3 percent), Sony Ericsson (3.4 percent), Motorola (2.8 percent), Apple (2.7 percent), HTC (1.8 percent), ZTE (1.7 percent), and G’Five (1.6 percent).
Of the top ten manufacturers, only Samsung, RIM, HTC, and ZTE showed growth in market share compared with the second quarter of last year.
In terms of smartphone OS market share, Symbian still holds the top spot with 41.2 percent (25.4 million devices). BlackBerry OS holds 18.2 percent share, Android 17.2 percent, Apple iOS 14.2 percent, and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile slides to 5 percent from the 9.3 percent it held this time last year.
While it still maintains the top spot, Symbian’s market share fell a significant 10 percentage points, even though it sold over 4.5 million more devices this quarter than in Q2, 2009. BlackBerry OS dropped slightly from last year, while Android’s share grew 9.5 times over the the 1.8 percent it held last year. Apple’s iOS gained slightly.
INTERNET RUMOURS have it that Sony Ericsson is working on a Playstation smartphone that will run the Android 3.0 operating system codenamed “Gingerbread”.
Engadget has spoken with trusted sources who said Sony Ericsson is working on Google’s open source OS to develop a hybrid smartphone with handheld console graphics.
The device is described as a cross between a PSP Go and a Samsung Captivate. Apparently it will have a landscape slider with gaming controls instead of a QWERTY board. The mock up has a similar button layout to Sony’s PSP with a four-way navi-pad and the Playstation’s traditional triangle, circle, cross and square buttons. While there isn’t a joystick, there is a “long touch pad” instead, so we’ll probably get games designed for touchscreen playability.
The leak even has a list of alleged specifications. The screen will be 3.7 or 4.1-inches with WVGA resolution or higher. The smartphone will also be powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor.
It makes perfect sense. The Android OS has hardly been the place to go for portable gaming and Apple has somehow created a name for itself as a gaming provider with its Iphones. Sony needs to take back some of that space from Apple and Google wants Android to be taken seriously as an OS that can deliver any mobile scenario. Especially portable gaming which could coin lots of cash from punters downloading online games and apps.
We reported in May that Sony was beavering away on boosting its online games infrastructure and wanted to charge for premium services.
Sure enough, at E3 Sony announced the PSN Plus premium subscription service. The company needs new hardware to attract users into its extended gaming network and a Playstation phone might be just the ticket.
Source : theinquirer.net
Judging by recent leaks and tips, the next Android phone for AT&T could be the Motorola Sage. First spotted in the FCC last week, the quad-band device appears to support AT&T’s 850 and 1900MHz bands in addition to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Assisted-GPS, and EDGE. Over the next few days, a handful of images emerged showing the Sage and its sliding QWERTY form factor, looking much like the T-Mobile Cliq.
If you are familiar with Motorola’s Android handsets so far, you’ll likely recognize shades of T-Mobile’s Cliq XT and the keyboard on AT&T’s Backflip. Aside from the touch pad on the bottom front, the pictures show that the phone also features a Micro-USB port, 3.5mm headphone jack, a microSD card expansion slot, and a dedicated camera button. According to an Engadget source, the device has Android 2.1 with the new, less-obtrusive MotoBlur interface.
Without knowing the processor and memory for the Sage, I would imagine the handset will carry a $99-$149 price tag. Historically, Motorola has released high-end Droid devices for Verizon and entry-level consumer phones for everyone else. Looking at what we’re given so far, I see another low-tier AT&T model in the future.
Google has published an updated breakdown of the number of active devices running a given version of its Android mobile operating system platform. According to the Platform Versions device dashboard on the Android Developer portal, nearly 60% of all Android devices in circulation are now running version 2.1 of the OS – up almost 10% compared to mid-June (50%). Android 1.5 and 1.6 devices now make up 15.3% and 20.3% of devices respectively, while only 0.2% of devices are running obsolete versions, including version 1.1, 2.0 and 2.0.1.
Originally announced at this year’s Google I/O developer conference and Read the rest of this entry »
Every major carrier is getting a version of Samsung’s new Galaxy S Android phones.
The T-Mobile version is called the Vibrant.
While it almost identical on the inside with the ATT&T version - called the Captivate - the Vibrant is less squared-off on the outside. The other difference is that T-Mobile’s 3G network runs on different frequencies than AT&T’s (or anyone else’s for that matter).
Vibrant’s more rounded exterior reminds some of the original Apple iPhone design - down to the 4 software buttons on the bottom of the screen. It’s not an iPhone though. It’s an Android device – running version 2.1 of the operating system.
This Galaxy S design also has Samsung’s new Read the rest of this entry »
Sprint is launching the Samsung Intercept QWERTY smartphone,they are adding it to thier portfolio. Some of its features are :
Samsung S3C6410 processor
Qualcomm’s QSC6075 CDMA chip for EVDO Rev.0 support
A 3-inch 240×400 touchscreen display
A slide-out QWERTY keyboard
A 3.2 Megapixel camera with video recording
Bluetooth, WiFi 802.11b/g
A microSD card slot
It is GPS-enabled and offers turn-by-turn directions
The phone runs Android 2.1 and offers access to Google’s mobile services.
They Will offer the phone for $99.99 after a $100 mail-in-rebate with a two-year contract
Source : itechnews
Looks like SmartDevices has a new Phone coming out and we have the pics to prove it!
Its was running Linux, but now the all new Smartq T7-3G is being released in china with Android.
Some Details we expect are :
Full HD 1080 video playback capability
Support for wide range of media formats
SmartDevices will also release the 3G-less T7 model as well.
Source : itechnews
While the iPhone 4 is going to get most of the attention this week, I wanted to circle back to the Sprint HTC Evo 4G, arguably the most advanced phone you can currently buy, with its 4.3-inch display, front-facing camera for video calls, hot-spot features, and support for 4G networks. I’ve been using it for the past several weeks, and found a lot I really like but a lot that just doesn’t work quite as well as I’d want it to.
PCMag has a full review of the Sprint Evo, so I’m mostly going to focus on my impressions. The first thing you notice about the Evo is the size of the device, and particularly, the screen. The 4.3-inch 480 by 800 display is great. It’s bright and clear, and the additional resolution compared with most phones makes text easy to read. The downside is that the phone is a bit larger, though it’s about the same thickness as an iPhone. I found it fit just fine in my pocket, so in general, I thought the size was an improvement. Read the rest of this entry »
Google Stock Price and Android Phone Releases. It’s worthwhile to watch the Google Stock price during the coming weeks, as the Motorola Droid X phone is soon to be released. Since Google is the maker Read the rest of this entry »
