After months of companies, like Motorola and HTC, pushing their Android phones in sales and marketing, Android has finally passed Apple’s iPhone in US market share, according to the NPD group. The results were determined by a survey of smartphone owners, which put Android’s 28% share behind RIM’s BlackBerry with a high, but falling, 36% market share. Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD, said, “As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share. In order to compete with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer beyond RIM devices to now include all of their smartphones.”
Android’s leap forward wasn’t the only thing mentioned in the report. The results showed that AT&T barely beat Verizon, 32% to 30%, for the largest American cellular network and T-Mobile edging out Sprint for the number three spot at 17% and 15% respectively.
After much rumor and speculation that Google would bring its popular (and free) turn-by-turn GPS to the iPhone, Google shot down the rumor today by saying that they have no current plans to bring the application to the iPhone – at least for now. Google, however, did say that they would bring the app to other platforms. Click the jump for the full statement by a Google spokeperson to PCWorld. Read the rest of this entry →
There’s no denying that the number of complaints about the Nexus One’s 3G have been numerous. Now, after several updates, Google says “we are no longer investigating further engineering improvements”. Google feels that the patch they supplied took care of most of the problems, and you’re stuck with whatever bug you have now. In short: Google isn’t fixing your Nexus One connectivity problems anymore.
I’ve seen some recent speculation on this thread about an OTA to improve 3G connectivity and I want to give you an update on the situation. While we are continuing to monitor user feedback regarding the 3G performance on the Nexus One, we are no longer investigating further engineering improvements at this time.
If you are still experiencing 3G issues, we recommend that you try changing your location or even the orientation of your phone, as this may help in areas with weaker coverage.
Original iPhone adopters may have felt left out when Apple confirmed that there will be no more support for their model, including no iPhone OS 4, but those very same users can rejoice knowing that Android in all its goodness has come to the original iPhone. Using OpeniBoot, it allows users choose to load between the standard iPhone OS or Android. It’s not perfect, but kinks will soon get flattened out and there’s also hope that it will soon be implemented in the iPhone 3G and 3GS.
In a quick chat with Eric Schmidt recently at the Atmosphere Cloud Computing Summit, the Google CEO revealed that more about Chrome OS’s hardware, including the fact that the hardware will be “completely disposable”. Users can simply toss their device down the trash once they are tired with it, although we couldn’t imagine why. Schmidt also revealed that most devices running the Google operating system will be priced similar to what a netbook is now – roughly $300 to $400, which is something most companies can pay for disposable. Schmidt also discussed the potential of subsidized devices, saying “sure” but then stating that although Google itself won’t sell any Chrome OS devices on contract, but others are free to do so. Click past the break for the full 41 minute discussion with Schmidt, questions begin at 13 minutes into the talk.
Google has just finished up the heat situation in China by choosing to abandon the entire market come April 10, but that doesn’t mean they have more “enemies” to worry about. This little seagull in the UK was a little too fond of the Google Street View truck and decided to hang out with the little camera. Camera not pleased.
At the Abu Dhabi Media Summit, Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, said that the company was ready to completely pull out of China if tensions between the country and the company remained tight. Things have not changed between the two, and word comes from a Chinese Google employee that Google is preparing to leave China on April 10 and potentially announce its exit strategy in four days. Google has not confirmed the validity of the report and declines to comment on anything related to pulling out of China. The Mountain View company has had conflicts with the Chinese government after it decided to unfilter its search results, against the dictation of the government.
With Google preparing to pulling out of the Chinese search engine market, the surface of the market has changed completely. Since the January 12 announcement, Badiu’s shares have climbed 46% while Google’s fell 4%. Baidu is Google’s major competition in Asian countries such as China.
Let’s face it, the Nexus One is a beautiful phone we would all like to use. The phone is already out for AT&T and T-Mobile networks and coming soon to Verizon, but it has no word for Sprint. That’s about to change. Just a little past a day after the announcement that the phone would work over AT&T’s 3G bands comes word from Sprint that they will be carrying the phone, and that a release date would be announced “soon”. Verizon still has to get their CDMA version of the Nexus One, but now we known that every major US carrier will sport the phone (probably at the same price) sometime this year.
It seems as if Google is keeping it’s promise of rolling out Chrome OS later this year. CEO Eric Schmidt confirmed at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit that the operating system is on schedule for being rolled out later this year. Keeping in mind that although no official release date has been announced, it is likely that you can probably snag up a Chrome OS netbook by the holidays. Until then, you can keep on worrying about your iPad, Chatroulette, and internet memes, as we can expect the Google OS to slip under the radar for a while now.
Another unknown HTC phone cleared the FCC today, supposedly headed to Verizon with CDMA bands and a model number PB99100. While no one has any proof that this is the Nexus One, the fact that the Nexus One with GSM bands had a model number of PB99300 might mean you can pick up this phone at a Verzion store near you come springtime, but there’s been no word or official confirmation from the guys at Google, HTC, or Verizon.
Update: Neowin reports that a Google employee has told them that Google will host a press conference during the first day of the CTIA wireless conference (March 23), where they will introduce the CDMA Nexus One.
After months of companies, like Motorola and HTC, pushing their Android phones in sales and marketing, Android has finally passed Apple’s iPhone in US market share, according to the NPD group. The results were determined by a survey of smartphone owners, which put Android’s 28% share behind RIM’s BlackBerry with a high, but falling, 36% market share. Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD, said, “As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share. In order to compete with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer beyond RIM devices to now include all of their smartphones.”
