At the iPhone 4S launch last week Apple CEO Tim Cook projected a slide that showed Apple dominating Android in terms of mobile Internet usage. Upon seeing that slide, people tweeted remarks like: “Where is he getting his numbers?” Indeed, they seemed made up given Android’s surge over the past six months. Android Has Larger […]
Beyond some of the processing and other technical upgrades in the new iPhone 4S, the standout feature of the new device is the Siri “Assistant.” It’s an expanded and enhanced version of what’s behind the existing Siri iPhone app, which is being shut down on October 15. And while Siri is not a “voice search […]
Korean trustbusters raid Google offices from CNet News reports the Korean Fair Trade Commission raided Google’s Seoul, South Korea offices yesterday. The raid was reportedly part of an investigation around Android. The Korean Fair Trade Commission was investigating if the Android platform unfairly made it hard for rival search engines to be found and used […]
Today comScore released its latest mobile market share figures. Once again the smartphone story is the same: Android showed strong quarterly growth while the iPhone saw modest growth and all others saw declines, especially RIM. Among handset OEMs (all mobile devices), Samsung leads the pack with 25 percent of the US market. Motorola, which Google […]
What a way to start the week. The company that once said it would never build its own mobile phones, Google, wants to buy mobile phone maker Motorola Mobility. The technosphere has gone into 5G coverage over the news. Here’s what I’ve been finding interesting and some thoughts. Patent Protection A big part of this […]
According to the latest comScore data, Android handset penetration grew almost 6 points since last quarter and now amounts to 40 percent of the US smartphone market. Number two Apple gained modestly, and RIM, Windows and Nokia were all in negative territory. Samsung, the largest Android handset maker, also had the greatest overall share of mobile […]
Google had a huge Q2, with revenues of $9.03 billion — a new record. This represents growth of 32% over 2010. Net income was $2.5 billion vs. $1.84 billion during the same period last year. Here are some more highlights from the release: Revenues – Google reported revenues of $9.03 billion in the second quarter […]
This morning Microsoft officially unveiled “Mango,” its anticipated Windows Phone update with a dizzying array of upgrades and new features and developer tools. Microsoft emphasized the speed of its mobile browser, a range of new local search capabilities, Bing Vision (visual search like Google Goggles), “a smarter approach to apps” and new group messaging and […]
The Q1 smartphone sales figures that were released yesterday by Gartner show that Android has surged and now leading all other smartphone operating systems. These numbers are Q1 sales figures and not reflective of overall market share but the show the direction the overall market is going. Gartner said “Windows Phone saw only modest sales […]
Are you ready! We’ve got Google Music coming! Maybe. Certainly some Android or Chrome announcements to come, here at the first day of the Google I/O developers conference. The keynote begins at 9am PT. So does my live blogging. Seriously, there is some expectation that Google Music 3.0, a cloud-based music system, will get aired […]
According to a tweet from Michael Gartenberg Bing is going to be the default search engine on RIM BlackBerry devices. Apparently Steve Ballmer took the stage at BlackBerry World 2011 and announced that Bing and Bing Maps would be “integrated at the OS level” on BlackBerry handsets coming later this year. Bing for Mobile offers […]
NHN Corp. and Daum Communications have filed antitrust complaints with the South Korean equivalent of the US Fair Trade Commission. The complaints assert that Google is blocking them from putting their search applications on Android phones in South Korea. Leading Engines Claim They’re Blocked NHN and Daum run the two largest web portals in the […]
Google had a strong Q1 with $8.58 billion in gross revenue. Net revenue was $6.54 billion. Both figures were somewhat better than some expected, although many are calling them “mixed.” Growth was 27 percent year over year. Expenses and costs were higher and some investors are expressing disappointment; Google shares are down almost 5 percent […]
Today comScore released US mobile subscriber and market share data for February. The data are based on a survey of 30,000 US users over age 13. The metrics firm said the Verizon iPhone was “the most acquired handset in the month of February.” According to comScore 69.5 million people have smartphones, representing 29 percent of […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google’s Android To Dominate Globally In 2011: Report Tech consulting firm IDC has predicted that Google’s mobile operating system will become the dominant mobile platform this year, achieving a global market […]
Google said that it’s not going to release its tablet version of Android, Honeycomb, to the broader market for several months yet. This comes despite the fact that an onslaught of Android tablets using the software have been announced, some of which are now hitting the shelves (e.g., Xoom) Big mobile hardware makers and close […]
We don’t know yet whether the much-discussed deal between Nokia and Microsoft will yield the hoped-for results for both companies. But one thing is clear: it has already helped create a perception that there are now three mobile platforms that matter and Windows is one of them. The other two are of course Apple’s iOS […]
comScore has released “The 2010 Mobile Year in Review,” which compiles data the company has mostly already released in various forms from the previous year. However it’s nice to have it all in one place. The report covers the US, EU and Japanese markets at a high level. It largely depicts the growth of smartphones […]
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Today, as widely expected, Nokia adopted Windows as its smartphone software. Its other mobile operating systems, Symbian and MeeGo, will not entirely disappear but Nokia will be building and distributing Windows Phones as its primary competitive offering to go head-to-head with the iPhone and Android. That could […]
A number of reports out underscore how strategic mobile is now for Google’s business. The first, from IDC, says that there were more smartphones shipped in Q4 than PCs. Think about that. And earlier analyst reports found that tablets (read: iPad) have cut into PC sales. The PC era is now officially over. PCs will […]
The latest mobile data from comScore are out, showing Android handsets continuing to outpace others in the market. These new figures obviously pre-date the release of the Verizon iPhone, which is coming this weekend. More interesting will be seeing what these figures look like in March. Reportedly Apple has prepared two million CDMA iPhones for […]
According to new data released by Canalys, Android shipments in Q4 passed Nokia to put it in the top spot among smartphone operating systems. This does not mean that Android currently has the greatest smartphone market share globally or in the US. What it means is that more Android handsets were shipped in Q4 than […]
Welcome back, Larry! When you were last CEO of Google in 2001, the company was a much loved scrappy underdog with a bright future. Ten years later, you’re coming back to the helm. Things have changed. You’re soon to be steering a massive battleship that’s taking on water from a number of hits over the […]
Over the past few months, I’ve been testing various Android phones. Overall, the platform has continued to improve, to the degree that I can easily swap an Android phone for my iPhone 4 and not feel a loss. But unlike the one-size-fits-all iPhone, each Android phone has its own individual characteristics. Below, a look at […]
Android “fragmentation” is back in the news this week, thanks to the Angry Birds game needing to release two different versions for Android. But I have a better one: Google itself needing to make two different versions of the Google Search app. Where’s Google Search? For about three months, I’ve been using the Motorola Droid […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Foursquare’s Crowley Can Feel Foursquare Fatique, Has Plans To Fix It Feeling Foursquare fatigue and perhaps wondering what’s the point of checking in at times? Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley sometimes feels […]
Yesterday afternoon during the Apple earnings call we heard a lot of what might be called, on the basketball court (and elsewhere), “trash talk” from Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Jobs was “on fire” and took on various Apple competitors but especially Android and why he thought that Apple’s “integrated” approach was better and ultimately would […]
Get in, get out. That’s the idea behind the new Windows Phones: get access to content quickly and “get back to your life.” Personalization and simplicity are also key themes of the new Microsoft mobile experience, which officially launched this morning with speeches from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la […]
Google rolled out a new Google Phone Gallery today, a handy way to see the amazingly huge number of Google-backed Android phones out there. But if you’re looking for what Google CEO Eric Schmidt called the best rival to the iPhone, the Samsung Galaxy, it’s missing for Verizon. Why? Verizon’s Galaxy phone uses Bing as […]
One of the disturbing things about the Skyhook Wireless lawsuit against Google is the allegation that Google made Motorola drop Skyhook as a location provider, especially when Google CEO Eric Schmidt said last week that such restrictions would be “violating the principle of open source.” Schmidt’s comment came during a press lunch at the Google […]
Google added the ocean layer to Google Earth back in February 2009. In August, Google added the layer to Google Maps for Android and now it is available on iOS, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPads. With this update you can now scan the ocean using an Android of iOS device to learn more about the […]
Over the weekend there were two much-discussed mobile-related rumors, both coming out of TechCrunch. The first — still a very hot topic on Techmeme this morning — is that Facebook is building a branded phone or mobile operating system. The original rumor yesterday was that Facebook was working on a mobile OS with a hardware […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Instant And The Power Of Suggestion It’s going to be a long time (weeks or months) until anyone has a complete understanding of how Google Instant will change search and […]
Pardon the baseball metaphor but it seemed appropriate: the impending debut of Windows Phones (Windows Mobile 7) is a very high stakes moment for Microsoft, especially in the wake of Kin’s recent failure. Redmond is now poised to spend a great deal of money to promote the new mobile OS in a highly competitive environment […]
In his iPhone OS 4 preview keynote last Thursday Apple CEO Steve Jobs made the following provocative (some would argue inflammatory) statement about search on mobile phones: On the desktop search is where it’s at; that’s where the money is. But on a mobile device search hasn’t happened. Search is not where it’s at, people […]
ComScore’s quarterly look at the U.S. mobile platform is out and it includes good news for Google. The numbers show that Google’s Android platform has grown by 236% between November 2009 and February 2010, from 3.8% market share to 9%. The comScore report measures current mobile subscribers in the U.S. that are 13-years-old and older. […]
Over the weekend the New York Times ran an article that summarized and largely substantiated all the rumor and innuendo about the increasingly contentious relationship between Apple and Google. A hot topic on Techmeme over the weekend, the following excerpt captures the essence of the piece: While the discord between Apple and Google is in […]
This morning in Barcelona, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer delivered a keynote address at the GSM Mobile World Congress trade show. I’m not there (regrettably) but I watched most of the keynote live online. Nobody’s really used the new Windows Mobile 7 OS yet though it appears to be a significant upgrade from the disappointing 6.5. […]
Yahoo has decided to discontinue its “Go” mobile app. Go was originally part of a larger “three screen” strategy that included TV and mobile delivery of Yahoo content. The Go app was intended as a way to have a richer, self-contained experience on mobile devices. But that strategy has given way to a “Yahoo for […]
Microsoft announced quarterly revenues of $12.9 billion, a decline of just over 14 percent from the same period a year ago. Adjusted revenue, which accounts for $1.5 billion in deferred Windows 7 receipts put the quarter at $14.4 billion, just 4 percent down vs. a year ago. Profits were also down. Online services (where Bing […]