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Apr

Business Insider Wants To Know Why Anyone Would Ever Buy An Android Phone; Let's Show Them.

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Off-Topic

Silicon Alley Insider - the Tech section of Business Insider - posted a survey this weekend under the headline "WHY WOULD ANYONE EVER BUY AN ANDROID PHONE? Take Our Smartphone Survey And Tell Us!" Eye-catching, to say the least. The survey is 12 questions, and asks what phone (OS) you use, what your next one will use, and so on... it's all fairly standard.

The results of the survey aren't immediately available, but the site promises to publish them in a few days. SAI is generally pretty (*ahem*) Apple-friendly, but then again, they do give Android the credit it's due, so who knows what the results will show.

Mar

Only 0.3% Of The Global Population Owns A Tablet - But There Are Over 5 Billion Mobile Subscribers

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, News, Off-Topic

RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky has run the numbers on tablets and lined them up for comparison against a bevy of other figures. Surprisingly, there are 5.113 billion mobile subscribers in the world (out of 6.898bn global population), but only 394 million smartphone and tablet users.

Abramsky's calculations show that there will be more than 400m tablet users by 2014. Equally as impressive is that he thinks 185m tablets will be sold in 2014 - or 47% of the number of smartphones and tablet owners today.

It's a bit surprising that the number of smartphone and tablet users is so low, but then again, that just speaks to the massive upside potential of the market.

Feb

Sony Ericsson Announces PlayStation Certified Xperia Play - Coming To Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile UK This Spring

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in News, Sony Ericsson, Verizon Wireless, Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

It's hardly a surprise, but it's welcome news nonetheless: Sony Ericsson just announced the Xperia Play, also known as the PlayStation Phone. We're still waiting for the full specs on this PlayStation certified device, so be sure to check back here soon for all the official details!

Update: The Play will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread at launch, and will be compatible with 50 games, including such titles as Assassin's Creed, Guitar Hero, Dead Space, and Reckless Racing. Compatibility with PSOne games - presumably via the PlayStation Suite - is also in the pipelines.

Update 2: It's official: This spring, Verizon will become the first US carrier to offer the Xperia Play!

Feb

LG Optimus 2X Review Roundup: Fantastic Hardware, Questionable Execution

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in LG, Optimus 2X (Star, p990), Phone Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Ah yes, dual-core smartphones are no longer just a sweet, geeky dream; the LG Optimus 2X, the world's first Tegra 2-powered handset, is finally here. And with an amazingly thin design, an 8MP camera capable of 1080p video recording, and HDMI mirroring, the device has a lot going for it.

But does it live up to these high expectations? The early reviewers seem to be split - some of them found that the device went above and beyond their expectations, while others were slightly disappointed by its performance. Read on for four different opinions of the device.

Engadget

I was a bit surprised to see that Engadget gave the Optimus 2X a rating of 6/10 - after all, they freely admit to being "unabashed spec junkies." However, their complaints certainly make sense - the software is, apparently, quite buggy, and the Tegra 2 CPU hasn't been used to its full potential (at least not yet).

Jan

Android Takes The Top Spot From Symbian Following Strong Sales In Q4 2010

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, News

Just a few weeks after Android became the number one smartphone platform in the US, Canalys is reporting that strong sales of Android devices in Q4 2010 has helped it overtake Nokia's Symbian OS to became the world's best selling mobile platform.

33.3 million Android-based devices were sold globally in Q4 2010, compared with 31.0 million Symbian-based phones and 16.2 million iPhones.

Android's growth is astonishing. In Q4 2009 it sold a mere 4.7 million units, a year later shipments have jumped by over 600%. In the same time-frame Symbian has grown by a mere 30%, while Apple's iOS platform has jumped by 85.9% (this is just limited to smart phones and would not include iPad sales).

Jan

CES 2011: Quick Hands-On With Verizon’s Samsung i510 – 4G LTE, 4.3″ Super AMOLED Plus Display, And More [Video]

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Charge (i510), News, Samsung, Verizon Wireless, Videos

Not impressed with the HTC Thunderbolt, the LG Revolution, or the Droid Bionic? Samsung might just have the perfect device for you.

Though we have yet to discover the device's name, we do have its model number - i510 - and (some of) its specs:

4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display
Android 2.2 (Froyo) with Samsung's TouchWiz UI
1 GHz Hummingbird processor
8MP rear camera
1.3MP front-facing camera
2GB internal storage
32GB microSD card slot out of the box

Artem also managed to get hands-on with the device at CES - check it out in the video below:

Press release:

Verizon Wireless And Samsung Mobile Announce Samsung’s First 4G LTE-Enabled Smartphone

Features Android 2.2 platform, Super AMOLED™ Plus Display, 1GHz Application Processor and Rear and Front-Facing Cameras

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — From the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Verizon Wireless and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) today announced that the Samsung 4G LTE smartphone will be available on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Mobile Broadband network.

Dec

Analyst Says 80% Of Verizon Smartphones Sold Run Android, Coincides With Fall In Blackberry Sales

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, News

ITG Investment Research analyst Matthew Goodmam has come out with some figures for smartphone sales on Verizon. Perhaps most shocking is seeing just how far Research In Motion (RIM) has fallen - BlackBerry's share has fallen from over 90% of smartphone sales in late 2009 to less than 20% today. Before you get carried away with that drop, though, there are a few factors to consider that may make the numbers just a little less spectacular.

The first consideration is that smartphone sales are increasing hand-over-fist as a percentage of sales - people are switching from their dumbphones to smartphone in spades.

Oct

NPD: 28% Of Smartphones Sold In Q1 2010 Were Android

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, News

Finally, some empirical evidence that illustrates what we've known for some time now: Android is growing like gangbusters. In fact, 28% of smartphones sold in Q1 2010 were Android, compared to 21% for iOS. RIM still holds the top spot with 36%, but that's a drop of roughly 12% in the past year - while iOS has fallen approximately 10% itself. In the same period, Android increased over 20%.

In fact, it seems like Android grew at the expense of just about everyone else - excluding a minor 1-2% increase in "other". And as Android continues to expand across the line of devices - from smartphones to ultra-cheap featurephones - it's likely that the overall number of Android devices will continue to grow.

Jul

Story Claiming Only 20% Of Android Users Would Buy Another Android Phone Is False: CNN Money Just Can’t Read

Posted by David Ruddock in News

Last week, CNN Money published an article claiming Android had an 80% customer turnover rate based on a survey by Yankee Group. Despite the fact that this number would mean Android users are more dissatisfied than users of any other smartphone OS, the story made the rounds.

CNN Money later came out and admitted they had made a rather large mistake. The statistic they quoted was the percentage of smartphone users who said “Android” in response to the question, “What operating system will your next smartphone run?” Clearly this 20% goes from being abominable to rather positive for Android, which is currently estimated to control 13% of the smartphone operating system market.