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A recent report from ComScore indicates that as of July 2011 82 million Americans own smartphones, with Android running on 41.8% of those devices, iOS on 27%, BlackBerry OS on 21.7%, Windows Phone on 5.7%, and Symbian on 1.9%.
Samsung has taken a dramatic step today towards world domination and the death of SMS by announcing an intriguing mobile cross-platform instant messaging service called ChatON. Similar to RIM's BlackBerry Messenger and Apple's iMessage, ChatON will be Samsung's foray into the global mobile communications service connecting all major smartphones and feature phone platforms. There will even be a web client to facilitate conversations between mobile devices and PCs. Furthermore, according to the press release, ChatON will allow users to share text, images, hand-written notes and videos. Feature phones will have a basic app that will enable users to share text, pictures, calendar, contacts, and emotions. In contrast, smartphone users will have advanced features including the ability to view how often buddies communicate with each other and the ability to post comments on their friends' profiles. Users with the smartphone app can also create animated messages with handwritten notes and audio files.
Looks like today is going to be a bad day for Samsung, as a Dutch court has just granted Apple's request for a preliminary injunction banning the sale and importation of the Samsung Galaxy S, Galaxy S II, and Ace smartphones from the European Union. This decision follows Apple's earlier victory in Germany where distribution of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 was banned everywhere in the EU, save for the Netherlands.
Samsung Announces Alphabet Soup Of Galaxy Smartphones
Samsung Announces Alphabet Soup Of Galaxy Smartphones
Samsung announced today that it will be launching four new Galaxy smartphones together with a completely revamped naming strategy for these and future devices.
The "Walkman" brand name, originally created by Sony over 30 years ago, lives on in Sony Ericsson's newest Android device, the "Live with Walkman". This diminutive smartphone, announced in a press release earlier today, will be a music playing device first and foremost with a dedicated music discovery button and "deep Facebook integration," which means it will most likely carry something similar to (or exactly like) Sony's "Facebook inside Xperia" interface.
Google has just announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. The search giant will be paying $40 per share, a premium of 63% from the closing price of Motorola's shares from last Friday. The actual acquisition is expected to take place in late 2011 or early 2012 pending regulatory approvals.
The price of the Acer Iconia A500 has been steadily declining over the past few months and it looks like Target is offering their best deal yet for this Android 3.0 tablet. Starting from August 14th you can pick up the Iconia A500 for $399 and get a $100 Target Gift Card free, effectively making the price $299.
There is good news for Motorola Atrix users with a penchant for rooting and modding as the CyanogenMod Atrix Developers Team has just released a pre-beta of CM7.
Unveiled at CTIA earlier this year, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 was slated for a “summer” launch in the US. However, if the Amazon UK pre-order page is the real deal it looks like our English cousins will be the first to get their hands on this device when it launches on August 12th in the UK (the original “in stock date” was reported as August 11th by Engadget, however this appears to have changed).
Earlier this month HTC released details about their roll-out plans for its bootloader unlock process and the devices that would be supported. Today, in answer to some of the questions posed by HTC’s Facebook fans, HTC released an update on how the bootloader unlocking process will actually work and why HTC’s newest phones are still shipping with a locked bootloader.
Analytics firm Canalys is reporting that global smartphone market share for Google’s Android OS platform is at a colossal 48%, with an overall lead in 35 out of the 56 countries tracked by Canalys. According to the report, the total global smartphone market has grown by 73% year-on-year with a total of 107.7 million devices shipped in Q2 2011. Android-based devices are the main culprit behind this astounding growth with an increase in shipments of 379% from over a year ago totalling 51.9 million units shipped in Q2 2011. Android sales in the Asia-Pacific region are particularly impressive, especially in South Korea and Taiwan where Android holds 85% and 71% market share, respectively.
Last week we got our hands on the Sprint Playbook which indicated that the Kyocera Echo would be receiving a firmware update to Android 2.3. Accordingly, a page has now gone live on the official Kyocera Echo webpage confirming that an update to Android 2.3.4 is imminent. By the looks of the Echo webpage this update will bring some major features and enhancements to this unique device.
There are plenty of network-attached storage ("NAS") solutions available, however if you are a fan of Western Digital, you may be the owner of their My Book Live line of devices (available much cheaper on Amazon). Although reviews indicate that it is a solid product, it lacks a convenient method of remotely accessing the data, especially considering its MioNet solution is "nearly useless." Owners of this NAS will be pleased to hear that WD has launched the WD 2go Android app that helps bridge the remote access gap by providing an alternative method of viewing the content on your NAS.
Just a few days ago Sony Ericsson confirmed an early off-contract August launch for the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc. And now, on the eve of August, the official Sony Ericsson Online store launched a page allowing customers to pre-order the Android 2.3 device for $599.99 with an expected shipping date of 2 August. It is also possible to obtain an 18-month extended warranty for an additional $99.99.
If you were not in one of the lucky cities to get 4G coverage from Verizon's extensive LTE rollout earlier this month, fear not as more cities are being added to the list as we speak. In fact the rollout and expansion have become so extensive we had to hunt through two pages of Verizon's press-releases to compile the list of new and expanded markets.
Latest data from Nielsen indicates that Google's Android's OS claims the largest share of the U.S. smartphone market with a total of 39%. However, this market share is split between HTC (14%), Motorola (11%), Samsung (8%) and other Android hardware manufacturers (6%).
Over the past few weeks and months the price of the Acer Iconia A500 has been steadily dropping. It is now clear that it was to make way for the 4G version of the tablet from AT&T.