In the new Android handsets accounted for 28 per cent of the market, beating Apple’s 21 per cent but still below market leader Research in Motion (RIM), which holds 36 per cent. NPD attributes the increase to the number of vendors using the operating system, marketing campaigns and new investment in the sector.

“Recent previews of BlackBerry 6, the recently announced acquisition of Palm by HP, and the pending release of Windows Phone 7 demonstrates the industry’s willingness to make investments to address consumer demand for smartphones and other mobile devices,” said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD.

“Carriers continue to offer attractive pricing for devices, but will need to present other data-plan options to attract more customers in the future.”

Of the major carriers AT&T had the largest slice of the smartphone market, with almost a third of its customers using advanced handsets. Verizon’s share stands at 30 per cent, with T-Mobile and Sprint at 17 and 15 per cent respectively.

Android may have problems in the future however. Apple is widely expected to unveil a new generation of iPhone next month and, if the leaks are accurate, it could well prove to be a huge hit.

Resource:
http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2262773/android-handsets-outsell-iphone

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Developers will have their revenue split decreased by 10 per cent, matching Apple’s structure for applications and games sold on iTunes.

Free apps debuted on App World Australia in December and local developers have been waiting with bated breath for the paid version.

But since then RIM executives have consistently said the paid offering would be unveiled “soon”, without revealing further details.

BlackBerry users in 13 countries have been able to buy applications since April 2009 while 42 countries are with the free-only version.

PayPal was the sole payment method but the paid store will also accept credit cards and carrier billing.

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With carrier billing, purchases would appear on the buyer’s telco bill.

Telstra, Optus and other local telcos are in talks with RIM to provide carrier billing services, said Tyler Lessard, RIM global alliances and developer relations vice-president.

“We’re talking to all our carrier partners in Australia for paid apps,” Mr Lessard said during RIM’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) in Orlando, Florida.

He refused to say more when pressed for a specific month or quarter, but said paid apps would be available “later this year”.

RIM would still proceed to launch with PayPal and credit card billing if telcos don’t come to the party in time, he said.

The current revenue split of 80:20 will change to 70:30 later this year.

The move will help RIM expand App World’s payment options and enter new markets.

“This changed about a week ago and we’ve briefed our developers,” Mr Lessard said.

BigTinCan CEO David Keane welcomed the move despite the 10 per cent cut.

“It takes the headache out of billing for developers … this is a pretty fair move,” Mr Keane said.

The Sydney-based mobile application development firm already has several apps for sale on the US App World site such as BuzzMe.

Resource:
http://www.itwire.com/it-industry-news/strategy/38635-google-growls-at-groggle

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The new OS will be launched in the next calendar quarter. Some existing devices can also upgrade to 6.0 although the exact details are not yet known. Blackberry 6.0 also has a new web browser, which is capable of multiple sessions and tabbed browsing, and is based on the open source WebKit engine, which is used in iPhone, Android, and Symbian handsets.

The WebKit engine is capable of rendering HTML5, and CSS, and can be used to create applications and widgets for BlackBerry handsets.

Blackberry Bold 9650 and Blackberry pearl 3G

RIM announced two new handsets on Tuesday — the BlackBerry Bold 9650 and the BlackBerry Pearl 3G. RIM doesn’t like to play the spec-to-spec game against Android and iPhone offerings, which have higher resolution screens and faster processors. Compared to the iPhone 4G, whose specs have been leaked by Gizmodo, the difference is quite marked.

The Bold 9650 is the first Bold series handset for CDMA networks. It has a 3.2 MP camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth, an integrated optical trackpad, QWERTY keyboard, and a 480W360 resolution display. The Pearl 3G is an update of the Pearl series, and touted as the smallest BlackBerry yet. The new Pearl series supports 802.11n, and is the first handset to incorporate it.

Sleek, small and fast, RIM considers it to be the sports car of BlackBerry smartphones. The phone will be available in two keyboard versions — the Pearl 9100 which has a 20-key condensed QWERTY keypad and the 9105 one with a traditional phone keyboard with 14 keys.

Superapps

BlackBerry App World, RIM’s app marketplace for BlackBerry smartphones, was launched in March last year. It currently has 6,500 applications, and is available in six languages in 52 countries.

“We’re looking at a high level of integration and sophistication. Instead of hundreds of apps that you use once, we’re looking at creating ten applications you can’t live without,” said Mike Kirkup, director of Developer Relations, RIM, in an interview with ET.

While Blackberry’s App World is a channel for apps, it’s not the only channel. “There are non-RIM BlackBerry stores, and many ways to get in beside BlackBerry’s App World. This is a big benefit for developers,” said Mike. For example, BlackBerry apps can be downloaded from GetJar.com, which now has a solution for Reliance Communications.”

Updated mobile voice system

Blackberry also announced an update to the BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (MVS), which provides business users the ability to use their regular desk phone number and extension from their BlackBerry smartphone over cellular networks.

Expected to be available later this year, MVS version 5 will let employees make and receive enterprise calls on their BlackBerry smartphone over a Wi-Fi connection. “The interest for this solution has been incredible.

We’ve started taking steps to test MVS with a particular company in India,” said Frenny Bawa, vice-president, India, RIM.

Resource:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/hardware/RIMs-evolutionary-OS-Phone-Update/articleshow/5870374.cms

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ORLANDO, Fla.—Research In Motion President and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis met analysts’ expectations April 27 by unveiling the BlackBerry 6 operating system and a new Web browser fueled by WebKit, the same open-source platform on which Google’s Android OS is based.

The executive, speaking at RIM’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium here, also said there are more than 41 million BlackBerry users, and vowed to double that number and eventually reach 100 million. The company plans to make this happen partially through the new user experience afforded by BlackBerry 6 and the new browser.

Calling BlackBerry 6 the “biggest step forward for the BlackBerry experience in our history,” Lazaridis told the packed crowd that the user experience will feel fresh but familiar.

In other words, BlackBerry 6 offers some of the functionality popularized by Apple’s iPhone, which was in turn imitated by smartphones running Android.

Multitouch functionality such as pinch-to-zoom browsing is one of the features users can expect when BlackBerry 6 appears between July and September. It is not yet clear what devices the new operating system will run on, but RIM confirmed that it will run on some existing BlackBerry models.

During the demo, which users can watch on YouTube here, Lazaridis showed off a media-intensive user experience, highlighted by crisp graphics and easy, pan-and-zoom scrolling from screen to screen. Applications highlighted included Twitter, YouTube and several other social media, instant messaging and e-mail tools.

The OS will allow users to access more than one Web page at a time. Users will be able to search right from the homescreen and see bookmarks and other info in different views. All of the core applications have been redesigned, such as messaging, calendar and contacts. BlackBerry 0S 6 adds a new application for managing social networking tools and RSS feeds.

The new browser appeared to load Websites such as that of The New York Times quite quickly and sported a bigger font size for better reading. This is a testament to the new rendering engine, developed by programmers who joined RIM in the company’s August 2009 purchase of Torch Mobile.

Sensitive about the criticism that RIM’s BlackBerry App World store only has 6,500 applications (compared with almost 200,000 in the iPhone App Store and 50,000 in Android Market), Lazaridis claimed: “Success in wireless will depend on who has the best apps, not the most apps.”

As evidence of quality, he said BlackBerry App World has 20 million users and logs 1 million downloads each day.

In case anyone missed the fact that RIM was trying to make the BlackBerry, traditionally a device designed for corporate road warriors with major e-mail requirements, look cool, Lazaridis turned the stage over to Will.i.am, frontman for the Black Eyed Peas hip hop collective. Will.i.am professed his love of using the BlackBerry for both work and play.

“If I make music, I shouldn’t send it to someone that’s going to take it to a pressing plant, I should just send it from my BlackBerry to all of the millions of fans that the Black Eyed Peas have,” Will.i.am said.

Such street cred gives BlackBerry a boost, but the proof will come later this summer when the OS appears on smartphones.

Broadpoint AmTech analyst Mark McKechnie predicted in an April 27 research note that BlackBerry 6 will close the gap between BlackBerry and other operating systems, including the iPhone OS, Android and Palm OS, albeit with the advantage of three to five times the bandwidth efficiency.

“We think the UI [user interface] will improve access to the BlackBerry apps store,” McKechnie wrote. “The new OS will come with a browser that includes multitouch, kinetic scrolling and pinch to zoom. Further checks suggest the OS and browser will be ported to recently shipping models, including the Bold 2, pending technical hurdles.”

Resource:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/RIM-Expects-to-Top-100M-Users-With-Blackberry-6-OS-WebKit-Browser-798207/

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The company also unveiled the new BlackBerry Pearl 3G, its smallest smartphone yet.

“The new BlackBerry Bold 9650 is an extraordinary smartphone that we think customers will love,” said RIM president and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis. “Whether at work or at play, the new BlackBerry Bold 9650 offers a truly impressive communications, multimedia and connectivity experience,” he said at the launch of the latest smartphones.

About the new BlackBerry Pearl 3G, he said, “The BlackBerry Pearl 3G is unlike any other smartphone in the world and we expect a broad range of new and existing customers will be drawn to its powerful features and compact design.”

Beside a keyboard, optical trackpad and built-in Wi-Fi, the new smartphone also allows users to talk on the phone while browsing the web or sending and receiving email.

Loaded with 512 MB Flash memory and an expandable memory card slot that supports up to 32 GB microSDHC cards, the BlackBerry Bold 9650 smartphone supports 3G networks.

Built in stylish design with glossy black finish and chrome highlights, the new device features large high-resolution display which allows pictures, videos and web pages with great contrast and detail, the RIM statement said.

Apart from a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, zoom, image stabilization, autofocus and video recording, the new BlackBerry Bold also features advanced media player for videos, pictures and music, a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack and support for Bluetooth.

The new BlackBerry Pearl 3G measures less than two inches wide and weighs only 93g. It also features an optical trackpad for smooth navigation, a 3.2 MP camera with flash for quality pictures, and support for up to 32 GB of personal content.

Both the new devices will support mobile applications built by third parties for RIM and carry built-in GPS with support for geo-tagging, BlackBerry Maps and other mapping applications.

“The BlackBerry Bold 9650 fuses form and function in a striking design and, in addition to providing premium phone and multimedia features, it of course delivers the industry’s leading mobile solution for email, messaging (IM, SMS, MMS) and social networking,” the company said in its statement.

Resource:
http://beta.thehindu.com/sci-tech/gadgets/article411227.ece

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The Sync in-car communications and infotainment system is currently standard on all 2010 Lincoln models and available on select 2010 Ford and Mercury models. The service allows drivers to operate most MP3 players, Bluetooth-enabled phones and USB drives using voice commands–additional features include turn-by-turn navigation, realtime traffic updates and business search tools

Resource:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/android-blackberry-apps-drive-fords-sync-applink/2010-04-20

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Google has rolled out a Google Maps for Mobile update for BlackBerry handsets. Though this is the first update of the year for BlackBerry users, the wait for Version 4.0 may have been worth it as it includes, among another features, a Search by Voice option.

“Simply press and hold the green ‘call’ button, speak your search and see your results quickly appear without typing a single letter,” Software Engineer Ole CaveLie explained in an April 7 post on the Google Mobile Blog.

Users can speak the name of a specific business—”La Pergola in Los Angeles”—or request a more general search, such as, “Italian restaurants.”

CaveLie also said, “Currently supported languages include multiple English accents and Mandarin Chinese.” (Surely the phrase “multiple English accents” is enough to warrant a download.)

Care to forego voice searching for some tried-and-true typing? A time-saving personalized search function—already enjoyed by Android handset users, CaveLie said—begins pulling up terms that a user has already searched for, using the first letters typed.

Still other new features enable BlackBerry owners to:

“Use Labs to try experimental features like the Scale Bar or Terrain layer (great for hiking enthusiasts!)

See nearby businesses at an address or location by selecting a point from the map.

Report a problem with the map data or a business listing.”

BlackBerry owners can now download Google Maps 4.0 for BlackBerry “by going to m.google.com/maps in your BlackBerry Internet Browser. The update for BlackBerry Enterprise Server administrators and users, including support for BlackBerry OS 5.0 phones, is available here.

RIM’s BlackBerry fan base continues to grow, and in 2009, RIM was second only to Nokia in worldwide smartphone market share, shipping 34.5 million handsets. On March 31, RIM announced revenue of $14.95 million for fiscal year 2010, up 35 percent from a year earlier.

However, according to AdMob, the fastest-growing smartphone operating system in the United States is Google’s Android.

Google’s Nexus One smartphone, as Google reminds visitors to its Google Maps for Mobile page, comes with Google Maps preinstalled.

Resource:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Google-Maps-for-BlackBerry-40-Now-Available-Includes-Voice-Search-670557/

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LinkedIn for BlackBerry v1.0 was launched on Tuesday and lets professionals access the social networking site on the go.

Sales professional Matt Bush said the application was easy to use, although he added it offers a different experience to accessing the social network from a computer.

“When I access LinkedIn on my Blackberry, the home screen is network updates, a bit like Twitter,” said Bush. “Normally, I’m used to seeing my inbox first when I login.”

“I think the application will be useful if I’m out and about and I quickly need to access information on someone that I’m going to see. I also like it how it allows you to email your LinkedIn contacts easily. I actually find it easier to find a contact through the application than I do from my phone.”

Bush said he would use the LinkedIn application more than he does the Facebook application for Blackberry.

“It’s difficult to update Facebook from my Blackberry and difficult to find things,” he said.

However, Bush said he would not be using the application as much as he does the Twitter application for Blackberry. “The Twitter application is the best. I even access Twitter from by Blackberry while I’m at the office.”

Comments left on the LinkedIn blog in response to the announcement have been generally positive, but a few users have asked when the application will be available for the Blackberry Storm.

At the moment the free application is available immediately for owners of BlackBerry Tour, Curve and Bold series smartphones, and operates on devices running BlackBerry OS 4.3 or later.

“I’ve downloaded the app, spent some time on it, and think that it’s definitely a solid first addition. It’s easy to navigate, it’s easy on the eyes and it’s fairly fast — which is nice,” said a poster by the name of BlinkedIn.

Resource:
http://labs.v3.co.uk/2010/04/linkedin-app-ge.html

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Sprint last week announced the HTC Evo 4G. It’s the first phone to run on Sprint’s next-generation 4G high-speed mobile broadband network. Sprint offers 4G service in 27 markets with plans to roll it out to more markets (including the Bay Area) later this year. The phone is expected to be available this summer.

One thing interesting about this phone is that it has two cameras. Like most smartphones, there’s one on the back that the user controls from the front of the camera to take pictures or video of others. The back-facing camera on the Evo has an exceptionally high-resolution 8 megapixels and the ability to capture high definition video.

But the phone also has a 1.3-megapixel camera on its front, so it can easily take a picture or video of the phone’s user. Aside from being able to take vanity pictures of yourself, that feature — when combined with the phone’s high-speed network — allows live video conferencing. You could also use the camera in the back to broadcast whatever is around you.

I have a feeling that this phone is going to appeal to kids who love to interact with their friends via photos and video. Like other camera phones, it raises some privacy and safety issues. I hope Sprint provides kids and parents with some basic education on the safe use of this very cool technology.

The phone will ship with the same Android 2.1 operating system and 1 GHz Snapdragon processor as Google’s Nexus One. It, of course, will have the usual Android features, including GPS, Bluetooth and the ability to connect via Wi-Fi.

The phone will also enable users to create their own Wi-Fi hotspot. For example, commuters who carpool could share the signal to connect laptops or other devices for up to eight passengers. The phone will have an HDMI output for sending high-definition (720p) video and photos to a TV set.

But you don’t have to wait until summer to check out an HTC phone with the physical look and feel of the Evo 4G. The HTC HD2, which runs the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, hit T-Mobile stores last week. It has the same 4.3 inch screen as the Evo and uses the same fast processor. It doesn’t have the front camera but it does have a 5-megapixel camera on the back, which is pretty much the standard for new high-end smartphones.

The HD2 is all about entertainment and comes pre-loaded with two movies: “Transformers” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” These are not my favorite flicks but they do demonstrate the quality of the screen and the fact that viewing movies on a smartphone can be a reasonably OK experience, thanks in part to that 4.3-inch high-resolution screen, which T-Mobile says is the largest of any smartphone sold in the United States. A mobile version of the “Guitar Hero” game is also pre-loaded. And the phone comes with a GPS and turn-by-turn navigation from Telenav.

To its credit, HTC layered its “Sense” user interface over Windows Mobile 6.5, which makes it more user-friendly than most Windows mobile phones. Also, the faster processor makes up for the otherwise sluggish performance I’ve experienced on other Windows phones. However, Windows did raise its ugly head twice during my test of the phone.

When I tried to rent a movie from Blockbuster, I got a long error message that ended with, “make sure the clocks are synchronized or use the timeTolerenceInSeconds element in the microsoft.web.services3.”

Because I couldn’t watch a movie, I figured I’d read a book. But when I tried using Barnes & Nobel’s book reader, I got the message “Error opening the shortcut or locating the target filename.” Fortunately, I was able to use the phone to make calls.

Microsoft last month unveiled an entirely new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 Series, which was rewritten from the ground up. The new Windows mobile won’t run existing applications, so anyone who buys a Windows phone today is buying into a dying ecosphere.

Windows Phone 7 won’t be available until late this year. But even then, it won’t be possible to upgrade the HD2 to the new operating system.

If I were buying a smartphone today, I’d stick with Blackberry, iPhone or a phone running Google’s Android operating system.

Resource:
http://www.mercurynews.com/business-headlines/ci_14759703

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When the 3.0 version of the iPhone operating system came out, it added background notification, but through a server-based push mechanism that only gives developers a few capabilities for sending notifications to phones. It’s not true background processing like you have on a computer or on other smartphones.

An advantage to the Apple scheme, though, is that a rogue background app can’t keep the phone powered-up constantly, draining battery life, or opening security holes.

Power can be a big problem with poorly written background apps on Android in particular, where apps that keep the GPS system powered up can reduce battery life on a phone to unacceptable levels.

But these three products at Demo show that it’s time for Apple to get off the stick and figure out the background problems like power management and security. Developers will continue to build cool apps on other platforms, and pull users to them, until it does.

Phone Halo is a service that keeps you from losing your keys or money clip by monitoring when its Bluetooth fobs go out of range. The only way it can work is for a background process on the phone to be monitoring the Bluetooth system. It works on the Blackberry and Android OS, but not on the iPhone.

Ambit Control is a monitoring system for smartphones (or spyware, if you wish) that parents install on their kids’ devices.

It tells you what the kids are doing on the phone: who they’re calling and texting, what apps they’re installing and running, and so on. Again, it’s an Android app. You can’t do anything like this on an iPhone.

Motoriety is an automotive-monitoring product that collects data from a Bluetooth sensor in the car as well as usage and location data from the phone itself to keep you driving safely and keep you up-to-date on your car’s health.

It could, theoretically, work fine as a foreground process, but the concept falls apart if you can’t use your phone for anything else (like making phone calls) when the app is running.

So it needs a background process. It’s being released first for Windows phones. Android will follow. iPhone is off the map until it gets background capabilities.

I’m convinced that if the iPhone let developers create apps that run in the background, the above apps would be on that platform first instead of competitive platforms, which have fewer app-buying users (except possibly Motoriety, which is partly funded by Microsoft).

And there would be more developers making more interesting and useful apps that work for us all the time, even when they’re not in our faces.

Resource:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-20001008-250.html

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