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May

Samsung The King Of Android With 45.4% Of All Global Shipments In Q1 2012

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, News, Samsung

IDC's report for the first quarter of 2012 indicates that Google's Android continues to grow its market share to 59%, while Apple's iOS lags in second at 23%. Unsurprisingly Samsung has given the biggest boost to Android, accounting for a whopping 45.4% of all Android smartphone shipments worldwide.

In total 152.3 million smartphones were shipped in the first quarter of 2012, of which 89.9 million were Android-based smartphones (59%), 35.1 million were iOS devices (23%), 10.4 million were Symbian-based phones (6.8)%, followed by BlackBerry, Linux, and Windows Phone 7/Windows Mobile devices.

Compared to the same quarter last year, Android's market share has increased dramatically by 145%, followed by iOS's modest increase of 88.7%.

Apr

Editorial: Does The Ability To Sideload Apps Create A Piracy Problem For Android? RIM Seems To Think So

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials, News

Oh, RIM. You're hemorrhaging customers, executives, and share value. It's painfully obvious you're on track for a disaster of Palm-proportions. And still, your upper-level management fling zingers at the competition that would make anyone but the die-hardest of BlackBerry fans skip the facepalm and go straight to a facedesk. It's almost like watching a Shakespearean tragedy unfold.

If you've not been keeping up with the cutting edge of all things RIM, allow me to give you a quick run-down. RIM's Alec Saunders (VP of Developer Relations) announced recently that future BlackBerry PlayBook tablet updates would no longer allow the sideloading of apps (sideloading is the ability to install applications from outside of the official BlackBerry App World).

Jan

Blackberry's Playbook OS 2.0 Will Support Android Apps After February 6th, RIM Provides Helpful Tips On Assuring Acceptance To App World

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Applications, Development, News, RIM

RIM, in the official BlackBerry developer's blog, announced today that Blackberry Playbook's OS update to version 2.0 will bring compatibility with Android applications. RIM's post has several helpful tips for developers looking to bring their creations to the Playbook, offering some recommendations for ensuring your approval into BlackBerry App World:

Before submitting your Android application to BlackBerry App World, please make sure to remove all mention of the word “Android” from your application. Both in the application description and the application itself.

Please remove all links to Android Market from within your application.

When submitting your Android application to BlackBerry App World, please make sure to select a minimum BlackBerry PlayBook OS of 2.0.

Jan

RIM's New CEO Says Android Devices Are "All The Same," We Beg To Differ - With Giant Comparison Pictures

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials

Let's be frank: RIM's BlackBerry products are unilaterally, shall we say, unexciting. And RIM's new theme song should probably be this. And by "unexciting," I mean ugly, hopelessly dated, and so boring that a story about them spontaneously bursting into flames might actually give the company some much-needed edginess in their marketing campaigns. Maybe that's a bridge too far.

Anyway, when I read this morning that RIM's new CEO Thorsten Heins, speaking to CrackBerry, said Android devices are "all the same," I couldn't help but go slack-jawed in a combination of muted laughter and near disbelief at the irony.

Jan

Editorial: How Android Can Save The BlackBerry (Hint: It's Not With Some Half-Baked App Player)

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials, News

Now, we're an Android blog and all, but we aren't exactly deaf to the seemingly never-ending corporate death-curdle that is Research in Motion. As we speak, the tech world is watching (halfway out of actual interest, half for sheer entertainment value) as the once seemingly immovable enterprise titan rolls, like a god on high fallen from Olympus, to the bottom of a mountain called Relevancy.

The story of that tumble can be told, foot by foot, from the day of the iPhone launch. Then, from the rise of Android (particularly, the Motorola DROID). And from that point forward, by the so-long-it's-getting-kind-of-funny list of poor (even foolish) decisions made by RIM's management.

Jan

[Update: Rumor Denied] Is Samsung Thinking About Buying Research In Motion?

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Rumors, Samsung

Update: This was just an unsubstantiated rumor according to a Samsung spokesman: "We haven't considered acquiring the firm and are not interested in (buying RIM)" - Reuters.

It's no secret that RIM (Research in Motion) has seen better days; in fact, its stock dropped a whopping 75 percent last year alone. Considering the downward spiral, the company's CEOs are looking for a way out, be it a sale or licensing its Blackberry software.

The latest word on the street is that RIM has a potential buyer: Samsung. According to BGR, RIM is "going hard after Samsung," but Sammy isn't biting just yet because the price is too [damn] high.

Jan

[Sale Fail] RIM Throws In The Towel And Starts PlayBook Fire Sale, Fails To Make Them Cheap Enough

Posted by David Ruddock in Editorials, News, Off-Topic, Tablets

When the tech world first heard of the BlackBerry tablet, it was greeted with a fair amount of optimism. It was thought that the very daring (for RIM) device could be just what the company needed to get out of its unabashed slump in popularity, particularly in the United States. In addition, rumblings that the device would be able to run Android Market apps (and actually can now) had Android and RIM fans alike excited for the possibilities of cross-platform development.

Image Credit: Liliputing

Unfortunately, consumers never really went after the PlayBook in droves, and sales went from less-than-great to absolutely terrible by Q3 of 2011, at just 150,000 units sold for that 3 month period.

Dec

[Updated x2] Blackberry Playbook Now 'Root-able', Allows For Full Android Market Access

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, RIM

Last Updated: December 7th, 2011

Update #1: Well, that was much faster than anyone expected - RIM has already released the patch for this exploit. The good news is that the patch isn't yet available in the 2.0 Beta, but you can bet that it will be rolled into the update before it hits the masses in its final form. If you happened to accept the update on the current version and still want to give this exploit a try, then you can always downgrade the OS.

Update #2: Aaand the patch has now been circumvented yet again, less than 24 hours after it was issued by RIM.

Sep

Editorial: Was Google's Purchase Of Motorola More About Damage Control Than Patent Woes?

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials, Motorola

If you head over to FOSSPatents this morning, you'll find a rather lengthy article about Google's acquisition of Motorola that ends with the following conclusion:

Google bought MMI to prevent the worst for Google's strategy, not to make things better for everyone else.

In a way, the $12.5 billion price represents protection money. But not in the way most people seem to think.

FOSSPatents

This statement is obviously contrary to the heaps of coverage the Motorola-Google deal received from major news outlets, blogs, and Android enthusiasts. Us included. This deal was to protect Android from the evils of Apple and Microsoft, with patents.

Aug

Over Two-Thirds Of Smartphones In The US Run Android Or iOS

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in News

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%.

The survey clearly indicates that significant gains have been made by Google and Apple at the expense of RIM, Microsoft, and Nokia.

Additionally, the survey also looked at the market share of hardware manufacturers and interestingly Samsung was well ahead of the rest with 25.5% market share. I nearly choked when I first saw this figure as just a month ago Samsung's market share in the US was at a measly 8%.