Canalys Marketing Analysis: Android Now Makes Up 48% of World Smartphones

Canalys released their newest marketing analysis, and it further solidifies 'Andy' as the King of smartphones wold-wide. According to their report, phones using the Android OS now account for 48% of all global smartphones. Furthermore, Android, was the number one platform by shipments since Q4 2010. It was the reason for the strongest growth this quarter. In a total market that grew 73% year over year, Android-based smart phone shipments were up 379% during that same time. Additionally there were particularly strong performances from Android devices in South Korea, where Android holds an 85% platform share, and Taiwan, where it has 71%.

Digging deeper into the report we find that most of the growth came at the expense of Nokia. Also, interestingly, it turns out that although Samsung has done very well during this time as one of the biggest Android phone manufacturers, including shipping 421% more handsets than it did a year ago, Canalys still believes that they could have done better. They indicated that Samsung didn't fully capitalize on Nokia's "weakened state around the world", by using its global scale and channel reach to push Samsung products aggressively into emerging markets fast enough. You can read the full press release below for more details.

Android takes almost 50% share of worldwide smart phone market

iOS becomes second largest smart phone platform

Palo Alto, Singapore and Reading (UK) – Monday, 1 August 2011

Canalys today published its final worldwide country-level Q2 2011 smart phone market estimates, showing substantial market growth in all regions. Globally, the market grew 73% year-on-year, with in excess of 107.7 million units shipping in the second quarter of 2011. Of the 56 countries Canalys tracks around the world, Android led in 35 of them and achieved a global market share of 48%. Asia Pacific (APAC) remained the largest regional market, with 39.8 million units shipping there, compared with 35.0 million in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and 32.9 million in the Americas.

Android, the number one platform by shipments since Q4 2010, was also the strongest growth driver this quarter, with Android-based smart phone shipments up 379% over a year ago to 51.9 million units. Growth was bolstered by strong Android product performances from a number of vendors, including Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, ZTE and Huawei. The final country-level data delivered to clients today shows there were particularly strong performances from Android devices in APAC countries, such as South Korea, where Android holds an 85% platform share, and Taiwan, where it has 71%.

With shipments of 20.3 million iPhones and a market share of 19%, iOS overtook Nokia's Symbian platform during the quarter to take second place worldwide. In doing so, Apple also became the world's leading individual smart phone vendor, stripping Nokia of its long-held leadership position.

'The iPhone has been a phenomenal success story for Apple and a watershed product for the market,' said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst Chris Jones. 'It's an impressive success story, given that Apple has only been in the smart phone market for four years. With the next-generation iPhone anticipated in Q3, it's likely that Apple's position will

Pandigital's Nova Android Tablet Comes to Best Buy for Only $170

This appears to be a decent deal for an Android 2.3 powered, 7-inch tablet. You can get Pandigital's Nova Android tablet at Best Buy for only $170 bucks. Here's a recap of its specs, which seem none to shabby for this inexpensive little device:

• 800MHz processor,
• 4GB of internal storage
• ActiveTouch display with 800x600 resolution
• Connects directly to the Barnes and Noble bookstore
• Front and rear-facing cameras
• 802.11 b/g/n wireless capabilities
• Built-in microSD card slot and a micro HDMI port
• Packed within a frame that's half-an-inch thick

This seems like a worthy addition to the lower-end Android market segment. What do you guys think?

[Editorial] Intellectual Property Wars; "The No-Win Scenario"

An interesting phenomenon in the world of computing has been developing over the past decade. Furthermore, it seems to have accelerated even further during the era of smartphones. What I am referring to is Intellectual Property Wars, or 'IP Wars'. IP Wars are these ongoing legal battles between different technology companies, in which one tries to gain the upper hand over the other by using the legal system instead of competing with each other legitimately in the marketplace by innovating and evolving.

It's important to differentiate between 'IP Wars' and the legitimate defense of a a trademark, copyright or patent. The original purpose of any Patent Office, or Copyright/Trademark Office is to help protect individuals or companies from having their ideas stolen. This is a laudable and important goal, and should be preserved. Unfortunately, the system could use some refining, because the way it exists now practically invites abuse, but also, we need a paradigm shift in the way the world's tech companies look at these legal matters. The current perspective encourages this abuse, which results in the IP Wars that I am referring to, and in the long-run, these IP Wars will end up being a "no-win scenario" for everyone, including the companies involved, the consumers, and the taxpayers.

The easiest current examples are the several different legal battles started by Apple against competitors, although there are several examples throughout the last few years of other companies besides just Apple. For now, we will take just a few of Apple's lawsuits as examples. The first lawsuit example from Apple seems to be a purely 'anti-competitive' move rather than an actual bid to defend their IP. This is their lawsuit against Amazon for use of the phrase "Appstore" to describe their app store. Apple previously trademarked the words "App Store", and wanted to sue/block Amazon from using the phrase (which itself leads one to question if the Trademark office was thinking clearly - since these two words are so general and generic it invites accidental abuse). I have yet to talk to anyone, even Apple fans, that think this makes any sense whatsoever. In fact, Microsoft is still in the process of fighting Apple to reverse the trademark altogether. This is obviously a case where Apple has decided to spend some of its $76 Billion dollars in reserves just to see if they can throw out a lawsuit that will stick. This is an abuse of the system, which costs taxpayer dollars and forces Amazon to spend some of its reserves just to fight off this legal "pot shot". This is tremendously wasteful, and there should be some legal repercussions built in to the system to deter this type of frivolous lawsuit, so that companies will think twice before they fling their lawyers at each other.

The second example is actually fairly debatable on several levels. This is Apple's lawsuits against HTC and Samsung, for violating technology patents, and for "the look and feel" of its products. I can fully understand if a company wants to protect its interests, and it should be allowed to do so. Also, if these two companies really did use some of Apple's patents without permission, then there should be some recompense. However, the way that Apple has gone about this, really makes you wonder if their intention was really to protect their interests, or if it was simply just to stifle HTC and Samsung (and by proxy

Sprint Galaxy S II To Be Called Epic Touch 4G; Coming September

Waiting for the Galaxy S II to be launched on one of the major 4 US carriers has been hell. The lack of information along with rumors of the device not being wanted has left us losing hope and moving on, but the latest rumor from BGR is giving Sprint users a little break. BGR reported earlier today that the Sprint variant of the super slim Samsung device will be called the Epic 4G touch. This name is going along with last year’s Epic 4G, which was Sprint’s custom version of the Galaxy S I, and did pretty well on the network. Like the other brother, this new device will run on Android, Gingerbread of course, and will have a Sprint WiMax radio.
The rumor didn’t end there. BGR’s source says this new device can be expected to launch on American’s #3 network sometime in September. They didn’t provide a hard date, but that’s the ball-parking month we should expect this device to full into.

Nexus S (T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint) Going for Free Tomorrow At BestBuy

The Nexus S, since being launched last year, hasn’t been very successful. The sales aren’t amazing, but BestBuy is offering a deal tomorrow that’s hard to turn down. If you want a Nexus S for AT&T, Sprint, or maybe T-Mobile tomorrow; they will be offering Nexus S’s for free to whoever wants to start a new contract with the specific carrier. Upgrading users are also welcome to enjoy this great deal-- which is usually not the case.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Still Coming To Australia

Yesterday’s headlines were all about how Apple was successful in blocking the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from being sold in Australia. That news is yesterday’s news; the latest report from The World Street Journal says the device is still coming to the southern hemispheric continent.
According to their report; Apple was successful in blocking a variant of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from being sold in Australia. This variant is one that Samsung says they weren’t planning on selling in that market. This means you can still expect Samsung’s answer to the iPad 2 to be released “in the near future.”

Bye Tegra II; Google Selects TI OMAP4 As Preferred Ice Cream Sandwich Processor

NVIDA’s Tegra 2 processor has been running the streets since being released on the Motorola Xoom. Google made the processor the preferred Honeycomb chipset, and other smartphones followed the trend by upgrading to the dual core power it offered. Times have changed and Google is now moving on to another major chipset company for the next generation of their software.

Texas Instruments is being selected to offer their OMAP dual core processor as the go to chipset for devices that’ll run Google’s next generation Android 4.0 Aka Ice Cream Sandwich.

“What we do is pick our partners, a semiconductor partner, an operator, and an OEM and then combine them all together. This is the device that engineers have on their desk when they come in the morning.”

This is great news because TI makes incredible processors and so hopefully we’ll see some improvements in our next round of super-phones. This is sad news for NVIDA though, because Google’s sponsorship brought them a lot of costumers and attention, with that gone, they might not be as relevant in the mobile space anymore.
What are your thoughts on this chipset switch? Can you hear that? NVIDA’s stocks dropping.

Google+ iPhone app out now!

When Google launched its Google+ service at the tail end of last month, it promised that an iOS app would be making its way to the App Store soon, and today that's exactly what happened. The official Google+ app for the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4 (iOS 3.1 or later required) is now available for download, and it looks fairly similar to the app that's been available to Android users since G+'s introduction. You can find a couple more screenshots of the app below, and if you're ready and raring to download, the iPhone Google+ app can be found right here (iTunes link). There's no word on when or if iPod touch and iPad users will get access to the Google+ app, but we'll let you 
know more when we do.

New Android Trojan Malware Infection Can Record Phone Calls

There is a new bit of malware malfeasance attacking 'Andy'. This new Trojan does something that we haven't seen before; it is able to record phone calls while also recording your data. This Trojan stores its .AMR files locally on your phone's external storage. An additional configuration file installed by the infection gives remote server access to the creators of the app. This allows them to retrieve the recordings from your phone’s microSD card. 

The easiest way to spot the infection is that it requests an excessive number of permissions, including the ability to record phone calls. This should obviously send up a "red flag" alert in your mind, but we need to warn all of our less tech-savvy friends and family members. The ZDNet article sums up nicely how we can educate others,

Samsung Galaxy R Announced

The Samsung Galaxy S II is one of the most hyped Android phones to date, with millions of copies sold; Samsung just announced a cheaper priced spin-off for those that aren’t swimming in money. This mid-range device was originally rumored under the name Samsung Galaxy Z, but today’s announcement by Samsung indicates it is going to be released with the name Galaxy R. The notable changes are all downgrades to hardware components.

The screen was downgraded from a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED Plus to a 4.2 inch Super Clear LCD. The camera isn’t as stunning anymore, stepping down from the 8MP to a 5MP. Samsung may also be changing the processor from their Exynos dual core processor found in the Galaxy S II, to the popular NVIDA made Tegra 2 chipset. The last notable change is with the storage memory; according to the announcement it will be downgraded to 8 GB rather than 16 GB the Galaxy S is currently offering.

This is certainly a less powerful device than the current "King Kong" of the Android world. The specs have made this fall in-line with the mid-range crowd, rather than stand out like the Galaxy S II does. Hopefully the release date and price will make this a great deal in comparison to the rest of the competition. 

Sprint Getting LG Black And Samsung M930

The LG Black is one of the best devices that came from LG this year. The device has a very sexy, and simple design all in a thinner form than the iPhone 4. The leaked document above has the LG Black going under the name LG LS855, and indicates it will be coming to Sprint’s network sometime in October. 

The other device worth nothing is the Samsung M930, which people are speculating is a replacement to the Samsung Transformer that has been getting some decent sales on Sprint. Engadget, along with other blogs, have said this device will have many similarities to the Verizon 4G Droid Charge device, so if that's true, Sprint has another great looking device coming along with the LG Black.

HTC Desire Gingerbread Update Ready?

Many HTC Desire users have been patiently waiting for their promised update to Gingerbread. This update has been pushed back countless times, but one XDA member seems to have received some information that might help calm the impatient. According to an HTC rep that he spoke to, a few unbranded HTC Desires in Europe, (not all), should be getting the update as we speak. 


This update would bring your device to Android 2.3 world, but you’d lose some functionality before getting there. For the people doing the update, you would lose Sense UI, a few apps, and other system files you most likely never needed. This was done to make the update small enough to fit on the phones smaller storage. Nevertheless, if you’re an HTC Desire user, it wouldn’t hurt to check for the update.