T-Mobile Loses 50,000 Customers in Quarter 2, Revenues Down Slightly

T-Mobile just released their quarterly earnings, and at first glance the numbers look bleak, but in reality are actually a slight improvement over last quarter. They dropped/lost 50,000 customers during this quarter; however, that is about half of the 99,000 they lost during the previous quarter. Additionally, their revenues were slightly down this quarter, from $5.2 billion in the previous quarter, to $5.1 billion. President and CEO Philipp Humm tried to downplay the bad news by pointing to the improvements they have made with expanded 4G coverage. Above is chart outlining some of the details.

ASUS May Sell Upwards of 2 Million Tablets Before the Year is Out

The hottest selling Android tablet this year has been none other than Asustek's Eee Pad Transformer, and a recent report from Taiwan Economic News indicates that Asus may soon raise it's estimated sales figures for the whole of this year to 2 Million units. These sales propelled Asus to be come the Number 2 tablet vendor in Taiwan last quarter. 

Keep in mind, that these sales estimates factor in all tablets that ASUS sells or may sell. It is unlikely they will sell that many of just the Transformer. These estimates include future projections for several projects, including their new Eee Pad Slider, and maybe even the Transformer 2 that is rumored to come out later this year with NVIDIA's "Kal-El" quad-core processor. Another product that ASUS just unveiled was the Padfone, a hybrid device combining a 10.1-inch tablet with a standalone 4.3-inch Android smartphone.

It will be interesting to see if ASUS can actually hit these numbers, especially if the rumored Amazon Android tablets come out in the later half of this year. Still, it appears that ASUS is getting into the Android Tablet market in a big way, so it is possible. Regardless, the increased competition may slow down ASUS' sales figures, but ultimately will be a boon for the entire tablet industry, and could bolster them in the long run as it increases the popularity of Android tablets in general.

Samsung Event News: TouchWiz UX for Galaxy Tab 10.1 Rolls Out Aug5; New Accessories

There are several interesting tidbits of news coming from the the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 NYC media event that we thought we would roll into one article for you. First, Samsung announced that Touchwiz UX, their newest version, will be rolling out with a public release on August 5th. They also shared dome of the details of the new UI:

• Samsung Kies 2.0 support for PC and Mac
• Live Panel = a magazine-like widget view for immediate access to weather, social updates, email, and news on the home pane
• Mini Mode Tray = providing one-touch access to commonly used apps
• Clipboard = advanced version of copy and paste
• Photo Editor
• Indicator Quick Panel = enables users to toggle on / off WiFi, notifications, sound, brightness and settings in lower right hand corner of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 display
• Amazon's Music Cloud Player
• The Kindle app and 'Words with Friends'
• Full support for Exchange ActiveSync version 14, on-device encryption and Compatibility with Cisco's VPN / Sybase MDM / WebEx
• Wireless printing to any "compatible" printer
• Improved Swype app that enables resizing of the keyboard and movement of the keys to any position on the panel
• Adobe's Flash Player 10.3,
• Redesigned Samsung Media Hub service

For more info and to prep for the OTA update, hit the Samsung source link below to setup an account.

The next bit of news from the event, is that Samsung will be offering a slew of new accessories for the Galaxy Tab 10.1. While most of these have been hinted at in previous news, pricing details were shared on them this time. Here's a breakdown of them:

• $50 Multimedia Dock, that props the device up in landscape mode, charges it and gives it an HDMI out
• $80 Ultra Productivity Tool that also charges the device and includes a full-sized keyboard with Android shortcut keys
• $150 Premium Protective case that basically transforms the tablet into a pseudo-notebook with a full-size Bluetooth keyboard and a hinge that lets you adjust the tab's viewing angle
• $40 HDTV adapter gives the tablet full 1080p HDMI output
• $60 Premium Book Cover which is basically a fancy case for the device and allows you to prop it up for typing or viewing movies
• $20 stylus with an aluminum body and a silicon tip

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,